Zombie Man

I am now off my kick to clean up the background. Thanks to AdBlock add-on in Firefox, I can do that myself.

Here's what a 'clean' version of the website looks like.

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http://www.cityofheroes.com/media_an...allpapers.html

ooooooo

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My dear new concept artists...

You bettah work!

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It looks like the update was to bring CoH's website in line with that of Tabula Rasa -- one company, one look. To me, the main differences are largely cosmetic -- TR's site has little flags in the top right for the international sites, CoH's doesn't (probably an oversight -- there should be a link to the EU stuff up there); CoH's middle column is wider and right side column is skinner than TR's; TR's site has a search field in the left column.

But the two sites look /very/ similar now.

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Ah, I'm glad you posted that. That's a much more readable site and an example of putting text on a solid background.

Speaking of the width of the bars, I wish they would expand to fill my screen. They should be coded to be 95% of the user's screen width rather than a fixed width.

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It's cool. When you named all the contacts in the zones you missed the Arachon's contact. for Mercy Island.

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You mean the Soldiers of Arachnos contact.

The site in general is missing H/Veat information except buried in the Issue Update information which is listed under "Game Updates".

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Love the new website. Can the forums get the same makeover?

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New forum software is currently being tested in the Closed Beta. We'll be moving to vBulletin. What sort of skins the Mods will make available to us or whether they'll allow us to customize them (which is an option in vBulletin) is unknown except to Closed Beta Testers.

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Are you shrinking the text or using Firefox's zoom functionality?

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Ah, good catch.



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This falls under the principle: If you make it difficult to read, than it's not good for design. It's annoying and more difficult to read text that's superimposed over a city background. Text should be on a solid background for readability. Currently, I'm trying to read text superimposed over building rooftops

[/ QUOTE ]There is far more than enough contrast that the background should be a non-issue.

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The center bar over which the text is superimposed is a darkish blue that blends into a bright-whitish blue on the sides of the bar. This dramatic change in the brightness background makes reading the text over it difficult and annoying. Text should be on a solid background for readability.

[/ QUOTE ]The text isn't over the lighter area so that should be a non-issue as well.

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I didn't say I *can't* read it. *I* find it distracting and annoying, and *I* find it makes the text more difficult to read than it should be. Plain solid background is *always* easier for readability, even if it's just the degree of readability.

The computer's ability to allow 'graphic designers' to overlay text on top of graphic designs and backgrounds with changing shadings and colors will be the downfall of civilization. Mark my words!!!

Suggestions:

<ul type="square">[*]Patch notes: While the way the new site segments information into smaller easier-to-bite chunks is nice, this does a disservice to patch notes because I often find myself searching the page that had the patch notes for the whole year for the info I'm looking for. Now, all that info is divided into separate pages. Could you please put up a link to page that has a year's worth of patch notes?
[*]Under description of Archetypes, the H/Veats are not mentioned.
[*]The large City of Heroes Banner, plus the large section banners (e.g., Game Info Rewards), plus a graphic at the beginning of the section push the beginning of the text of that section off the window. It's not good design where so many pages start their text off screen and it has to be paged to.
[*]Under fan sites, the Paragon Wiki needs to point to its new site: http://wiki.cohtitan.com
[*]Calendar Wallpaper is buried too deep in the site. The calendar of events should be more prominent.[/list]

My feedback, and sorry it's not positive...

Text over graphic backgrounds is bad design.

This falls under the principle: If you make it difficult to read, than it's not good for design. It's annoying and more difficult to read text that's superimposed over a city background. Text should be on a solid background for readability. Currently, I'm trying to read text superimposed over building rooftops.




Text over extreme shading changes in the backgrounds is bad design.

The center bar over which the text is superimposed is a darkish blue that blends into a bright-whitish blue on the sides of the bar. This dramatic change in the brightness background makes reading the text over it difficult and annoying. Text should be on a solid background for readability.




Rapidly changing graphic images is bad design.

Just look at most of the avatars here for that.

The sidebar graphics square for a trial account has rapidly changing graphic images. I found it so annoying that after hitting Escape to stop it several times, I just used AdBlock to remove it... which then removed the link for trial account altogether. Just make it a different and random non-changing graphic on each reload of the page.




Flash for "Pick a Side and Join the Fight" doesn't play well with Flashblock add-on in Firefox

Flashblock pauses any Flash from playing but allows the user to play it by clicking on it. However, the Flash in question on the site won't play through Flashblock, it just keeps 'pausing' and doesn't play. I haven't had that problem with other Flash on the web before.




Background banner too wide.

Sister Psyche and Ghost Widow are key 'assets' to the game (and more popular than States and Recluse) and yet, the graphic background is so wide, that they get cut off on most screens. Also, something weird: in Firefox, shrinking the text shrinks the background graphics, but not in IE. &lt;shrug&gt;

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Luck of the Gambler, a Defense set has a 7.5% buffing unique while Forced Feedback, from the Knockback sets, has a recharge proc that buffs for 100% for 5 seconds.

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LotG is not unique (you can't put more than one in the same power, but you can put more than one in the same character's build). You can slot as many as you want, although, only five will count for global recharge. Also, just FYI: The five 7.5% global recharge buffs from LotG do *not* count against other IO Sets that provide a 7.5% global recharge. For some reason, it's a different kind of 7.5% global recharge.

If the build allows it, you can slot the three sets that provide 7.5% recharge and five LotGs for a total of 8x7.5% recharge.

Update:

There is a bug in the text of the Vet Reward Earned Respecs. When you 'cash one in' by clicking on the claim button under the badge window, you will be told you can use that respec by typing '/respec.' If you've read the above carefully, you'll know why that's a bug: The command '/respec' is used to use free respecs, not earned ones. If you type /respec after claiming a Vet Reward Respec you'll either be using up your free respec, or, if you don't have a free respec, then nothing will happen.

To use the Vet Reward Earned Respec, you'll need to see the contacts Wolfe or Lupin (see above), and *not* by typing '/respec'.

Get the Cyborg Booster Pack.

When you're TP Foe'd, wait until you 'appear' by the one who TP'd you and hit Self Destruct.

That'll teach 'em.

LH, sorry to put you on the spot like this, but, here's another example of a QA failure:

In both Halloween test periods a few months ago, I logged the problem of the shortage of Spirits being spawned (I kept track of each foe spawning and posted the results). Didn't anyone at QA investigate this? Was testing feedback not read or listened to and the Test Event was just opened to see if it 'worked' and no player feedback was taken into account? At the time, no redname responded to my report whether their datamining showed I was incorrect or if it working as intended. It was just ignored. And now that has come home to roost.

In the same way, I and others complained about the Tier 3 change. No response as to whether this was a bug or WAI. Now we find it's WAI and it's too late to suggest a compromise (e.g., let there be a 10% chance for a Tier 3, which would be *decrease* in the rate from last year). And so now, when nothing can be done, we get feedback on it.

Besides these two issues, we have the Jack in Irons problem in that a 10% spawnage is too streaky: Players can kill 30 Eochais before they get one Jack and that's certainly within normal deviation patterns. WAI, but not fun.

We also have grief problems. Every year we ask for door spawns to use the "GM Purple" level normalization code, but that never happens, and I'm guessing, and so I may be wrong, that the Test for the Halloween event has nothing to do with improving the content, like it is with an Issue Test, but just so 'see if it works' with no regard for improving game play and fun.

The Halloween Event really is a fun event, and these things are relatively minor (unless you're a badge junkie or getting killed by a +6 door spawn), but can we have next year a *real* Halloween Testing environment where game play is examined and it's not just turned on for an hour on Test just to see if it starts?

Thanks for listening.

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&lt;QR&gt;

I hadn't seen this thread until today. So many great stories here, and I thought I would share one with you.

My 12 y/o son has been playing Co* with me for over two years now. Over this time, he's learned all about enhancements (TOs, DOs, SOs and IOs). Now he's even starting to figure out sets. He got his first purple drop just the other day. Talk about being excited.

He has severe ADHD, and unfortunately, has to take medicine. He's been six years on the same dosage , but since the beginning of the school year he just can't seem to keep out of trouble: talking in class, disrupting the class, play pushing in the hallway, etc. Silly stuff really, but it's been landing him in detention A LOT. So, his doctor reviewed his medication and decided it was time to up the dose a little.

When I was explaining this to my son, he stared out into space for a moment or two and then said, "So this is like when your enhancments go red and you need to upgrade them."



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Heh. Good story.

And puberty will do things like that. In addition to higher dosage, if you haven't already, consider also more behavioral therapy wherein there is practice in relaxation and focus techniques. If behavioral therapy can do the trick by itself, then it's better than using more meds.

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did the devs listen to any input about griefing? obviously not. Pi was hell on a level 41 and there is no where else to go.

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Tried Founder's?

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cant tot there if you are over 40.

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If you take an Flashback mission that exemps you to 40, you can ToT in Founders (or even Crey's or Bricks) and be at the top level of the zone and not worry about city spawns hurting you nor someone knocking at your door and giving you spawns higher than you can handle.

The only thing that I see that has changed from Test to Live is that Trick Mobs now are set to ambush the clicker (and invisibility doesn't help take away aggro).

On Test, they saw through Stealth, but not invisibility. And they didn't chase the clicker unless the clicker stuck around to be 'seen.'

The ones on Live chase the door-clicker and are pretty persistent, so, that's good. They ignore other players unless they get aggro'd by an attack power. I was standing next to a whole bunch of +6 spawns and they pretty much ignored me while they were chasing their door-clicker. Now, when I had an ice patch out, and they walked through it, then they noticed me.

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is there any more costume parts like the pumpkin face helmet?

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http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Hallow..._Costume_Piece

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And since this can't be pleaded enough: Bring back the Tier 3 Inspirations, please!

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It is possible that this had something to do with the change to the door timers.
With the increased ToT rate, we would end up being swamped by Tier 3 insps.
(as a side-effect it'd probably also lead to more people leaving ToT spawns behind as they rush from door to door to optimize their drop rate)

Given the choice between Tier 3 insps and the much more enjoyable (to me personally at least) ToT rate this year, I'd go with the increased ToT rate.

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You can click doors 3 times faster this year, but, they could have compensated by making Tier 3 appear 33% of the time.

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How long is the time between door knocks on trick or treating?

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http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Hallow...Trick_or_Treat

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Enjoying the heck out of Zombie Invasions. Crazy slow, but not nearly so bad for me as Rikti Invasions for some reason (I'm assuming it's because none of the zombies buff each other like the Rikti do).

Interesting stuff that "slipped past" the extremely short test period...

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Agreed.



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- Ghosts spawn incredibly rarely, even on full sized teams. I have a character who completed every other ToT badge, including the costume badges, before seeing a single ghost. That could probably stand to be looked at.

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My testing during the Test period confirms this.



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- Massive simultaneous invasions? Yeah. It seems it doesn't rain but it pours, as far as Zombies are concerned. No invasions for an hour or more redside, then one in six of the seven villain zones (well, ten villain zones on Virtue, what with the triple-instances of GV) all starting and ending within a two minute span. I saw the same thing happen several other times, mostly blue side, but with more zones overall it spreads out a little better there.

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The same thing happens for the Rikti invasion. Hopefully, the randomizer kicks in and the zones start getting out of sync with one another. Look for them to re-sync after Monday morning's maintenance.



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- Drop rate for Costume Salvage is really extremely low now. Intentional? Anticipate prices on those things skyrocketing after this event.

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Not according to my testing on Test and in comparison to years' past.


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- Couple places in GV where clicking on one door will make enemies pop out of another door on the same building. I mostly noticed this in houses near Westin Phipps.

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That's odd.



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- Trick to Treat ratio is really skewed a lot this time around. I counted over seventy Tricks in a row on one stretch. About 15:1 most of the rest of the time.

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My testing on Test produced a 2:1 to 3:1 ratio. You must have been very unlucky, or else, they did fiddle with the ratio.



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- I've been noticing a lot of Boss Rank enemies with the same color costume and name as their Lt. Rank counterparts. Most noticable with Coven... haven't seen any Crones, but spotted several Boss Rank Sorceresses.

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That's a new one. What zone were you in? Maybe the bosses are being suppressed at a certain level.




And since this can't be pleaded enough: Bring back the Tier 3 Inspirations, please!

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Having so much fun! Not getting many Unseelie ghosts, or normal ghost spawns though

Can anyone confirm a Halloween Eaochi spawn yet?

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There's one in almost every zone. As soon as you kill it, a new one spawn within 2 minutes. One out of ten time, Jack will spawn instead. All the Unseelie Ghosts will be with Jack or Eochai (unless someone kills them for the badge and leaves the GMs).

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This is why I hate my job. I work rotating 18s til monday night. Then I get in game, but the new shiny is over from the weekend and no one wants to do the event.

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I suspect that there will be people logging in Monday expecting the event to start then.


If the large crowds are making your graphics card cry, find a smaller crowd elsewhere. It should only take about 10 people to get an elite boss to spawn... you don't need 50.

Anyone want to post a pic of their character with the pumpkin head to be used on the wiki?

Edit: NM, got one!

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Now the question is... can you trigger a dual invasion (Rikti and Zombie) by completing the LGTF?

At least with the zombie invasion in PI, the standard mobs didn't retreat from the zombie hoard like what happens with the Rikti raids.

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They're supposed to, but a watched spawn doesn't despawn. NPCs are governed by quantum mechanics in this game.

This is Halloween.

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Badge list please........

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*sigh*

http://cityofheroes.wikia.com/wiki/Halloween_Event_2008

Paragon wiki is your friend

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Update your bookmark, the old wiki won't be updated like the Titan one will:

http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Halloween_Event_2008