Zwillinger

Apologies for the delay in an update everyone. Issue 20 has been taking up the bulk of our time lately.

We understand that these solutions are not ideal for everyone. We understand that the European Community in some cases may feel slighted by our decisions of how to handle these inevitable collisions. We do sincerely apologize to anyone who has negative feelings regarding these changes and ask for you to give us the opportunity to show you why Global Server Access is worth the inconvenience.

Our number one concern in regards to these changes is the safety and integrity of your character data and the overall integrity of the game services provided by these interwoven systems. None of these decisions were easy to make and all were made with the absolute best interests of the Community at heart.

To review and update some questions being asked in this thread:

• We've identified a method that should resolve the issue of trial accounts causing collision for full accounts Global Names. More information will be coming soon.
  
• The method for dealing with Global Name Collisions has not changed. If there is a collision with another active, non trial account, your global name will still be changed to the last character you logged out of. We've spent a lot of time investigating alternative solutions and still came to the conclusion that this was the safest (in regards to data) and most easily understandable method. Our apologies to anyone who may lose a Global name that they've had for an extended period of time, however in this case we have to make the decision that has the lowest level of risk attached to it.
  
• There's been a lot of questions regarding Global Channels and collisions. The solution we've devised is similar in effect to the solution for account name collisions. All EU server Global channels with collisions will be pre-pended with the prefix EU, so a channel would be renamed to being "EU <channel name>". You will not need to rejoin these channels as the renaming process should be a seamless transition. The original solution was to simply drop these channels, which we felt would be much more jarring and would do far more damage to the community than the now agreed upon solution.

We'll be sharing much more information about the "when" and "how" in the coming days. Global Server Access is coming and we're looking forward to the Community building opportunities that it will bring!

Just a gentle reminder to please keep the discussion civil, avoid poking at each other and please be respectful in your responses.

Both servers should be back online, however we'll continue to monitor the situation.

Apologies for the afternoon interruptions!

Both servers should be back online. We'll continue to monitor the situation!

Sorry for the interruption of your normally scheduled playtime!

This explains why Sister Psyche is so far the most popular Freedom Phalanx member on our Facebook poll.

You all should be ashamed.

So technically, here in California, it's still Friday (granted it's not the work day anymore, but who has time to type things during the work day anymore?).

So it's been a crazy, wacky, weird and wild week. Issue 20 Launched on Tuesday (yay!) and some issues followed (boo!). To give everyone a quick run down:

• Mac Black Screen issues with players using ATI Radeon GX Cards is still being investigated.
• Issues with players character slots, both purchased and veteran rewarded, have been resolved. If there are any lingering issues with this, please be sure to file a support ticket ASAP.
• Issues with players being removed from Incarnate Trials inadvertently has been potentially resolved. We're still monitoring the situation, so if it happens to you following today's maintenance, be sure to report it here.
• We should have a fix very soon for players losing their Incarnate Bonus after dying during an Incarnate Trial.
• We've been having a great time during our impromptu server downtime UStream chats, although we discovered that some artists have a thing for moonrocks evidently... o.0
• A great way to know if and when we're starting a UStream cast is to follow us on Twitter or to "Like" the official City of Heroes Facebook page. Actually it's great to follow both of those options to keep up on everything CoH as it happens!
• The Community Team will be keeping an eye on things over the weekend, and should we have any updates on fixes we're working on, we'll be sure to share them with you ASAP!

So everyone have a great weekend, stay safe and enjoy Issue 20!

- Z

We have identified and potentially addressed an issue which was causing leagues to be disbanded and prematurely removed from Incarnate Trials. We will be monitoring this solution over the weekend, however if you still are encountering this issue please be sure to file a bug report using the "/bug" command on live servers and posting on this feedback thread here.

Please note that we want to know if your leagues experience this issue following today's unplanned maintenance (anytime after 5:30 PM PDT/8:30 PM EDT).

Thanks!

So obviously this week has been a bit irregular with all of the unplanned maintenance. First off, we do sincerely apologize. We know that a lot of people come home and just want to log into CoH and spend some time with their friends.

Please know, if we're bringing servers offline in an unplanned way, we're only doing so because to leave them online without a fix could potentially be worse. We take these unplanned maintenances very seriously and do not bring them down on a whim.

Thanks for you patience everyone and should there be any updates based on the work we'll be doing this weekend I'll be sure to communicate them ASAP.

-Z

You're absolutely right...

Multi-group content is not "the" way.

Neither is solo content "the" way.

Nor are TF's/SF's "the" way.

One thing I've always respected about the team here at Paragon Studios is their ability to cater to many different playstyles and still maintain a game that is, at it's core, just damned fun. There's no one thing that I can put my finger on about CoH and call it "the one thing" that makes it fun; it's a combination of many features and options presented as a whole.

With the Incarnate Trials we've added to the variety and have given more people more options. The Incarnate abilities don't change existing content, nor are they in any way a requirement for current content, even for the new Trials and not having them doesn't make you enjoy something any less. As is the case with most things in CoH, you're only competing with one person...you! (Heck, even the levels shifts don't practically apply outside of the Trials).

Are all of the aspects of the Incarnate Trials going to be perfect out of the gate? Of course not. Just as is the case with most if not all game design, things get better with iteration and you learn from past experiences.

Wise man once say, "Variety is the spice of life." Loud CM once say, "Options are good!"

We're going to be restarting the Liberty server very shortly. Estimated downtime is around 10 minutes.

Thanks!