AreEss

This information is irrelevant and pointless. If it were any of these things, I would A) not have a CLIENT crash which popped up crash dump, B) it would affect ALL characters, whereas it does not. Only MOST characters.

This is a server-side problem. I have opened a support request. Support has now gone through FIVE different people, who have all confirmed that there is NOTHING wrong with my system, but have refused to examine submitted crash reports which contain the ticket identifier, have NOT properly escalated the ticket as evidenced by it bouncing between pointless canned answers like "disable all your startup programs including antivirus" - bad advice any way you slice it - and "try safe mode."

This is clearly a server side issue, specific to the affected characters. This is clearly something that needs to be addressed by somebody at NCsoft who comprehends troubleshooting and doesn't think that means "cut and paste." Somebody who is going to actually do their job. Frankly, if developers have time to hang around in Pocket D as a seagull, they certainly have time to look at crash reports that should've been forwarded to them.

Well, this is new as of about an hour ago. Been sending and receiving tells fine all night. Now all of a sudden, after the last quit to select ONCE AGAIN dumped me to login instead, the second I send a tell on any character, I get to enjoy a crash.
Correction: on ALMOST all of my characters. So far I've found two that don't crash. Of course, it's loads of fun to test when 9 out of 10 times "Character Select" takes me to Login. And doesn't change the fact that most of them are insta-crash thus making them unplayable.

Yes. The game crashes. When I send a tell.

Besides the fact that this obviously is absolutely ridiculous, that's the long and short of it. Repair tool? Nothing wrong. Firewall? Well I might agree if, you know, I wasn't able to log in or it was globals or it was local/broadcast/etc. But it's not. It is, to wit, send a tell, receive a crash. Period. Added bonus, I'm not logging anything, so it's not some hung file handle. Bad enough this insultingly awful NCsoft "Launcher" is continually chucking bad parameters at cityofheroes.exe AND I can't launch it directly for no legitimate reason other than to make us suffer. But how the hell am I supposed to play when I can't send a tell to anyone?

Support is FINALLY acknowledging that there is an actual problem with the login server. Their instructions were to "keep trying" and "restart the game or your computer."

Unprofessional, incompetent, and insulting. And this update delivered to you by a player who opened a support ticket, instead of any redname. Just like every other problem any more.

This is very obviously a problem on Paragon's end. Three systems here now affected, three different routers, three different DNS configurations, and flushdns does absolutely nothing.

So, missing emails and auctions, globals/mail/auctions/AE down for four hours yesterday, and now this. 12 hours supposedly dedicated to fixing issues, and instead we get this? Incompetence doesn't begin to cover it.

Talos goes down again today. So now we have two zones crashed in two days.
Meanwhile, Positron is posting pictures of himself playing board games at BayCon.
After the entire company wasted a good chunk of Friday chilling around a barbecue.

So, uh, when exactly are the Powers That Be(TM) actually going to make an attempt to work on this problem instead of just pretending and making excuses?

Yeah. You shouldn't be twittering left right and center about how all of the devs and management stopped doing any actual work on Wednesday so they could go to BayCon.

So I'd like to take a moment here to remind the Developers, specifically _Castle_, of a promise that has been made time and time again.

No TF or SF will ever require a specific AT, because having to spend an hour or two just to find that one specific person just so you can do the TF makes the game not fun.

I've honestly lost track of how many times that's been said. And here we are, being told that now, requiring Controllers/Dominators in at least 2 slots to complete a TF is fun.

Yeah. Nice try. I'm not going to waste time on fluff.
You screwed up. Big. Admit you made a mistake. Quit making excuses. Fix it now.
I17's numerous continuing issues have already burned up most of your good will; making excuses like this is not refilling the tanks.

First one for me would be Halloween 2006 on Virtue. Yes, that title in my signature? It's the truth. A bit of unintended hilarity. Several devs showed up to a halloween party in Salamanca, Manticore being one of them. I don't think anyone knew that they would be coming, much less Manticore. Redwinged being my Archery/Fire/Fire Blaster, going as Manticore was kind of a gimme. So I spent ... I don't know how many hours getting the costume just right. There were three or four other Manticores there as well, but somehow I got first place - despite being the wrong gender.

And I gotta share the second, because I know one of you out there is going to remember what event it was - I can't for the life of me. Anyway. There was an unbelievably massive crowd in Pocket D, everyone screaming out for yellow titles. It was chaos, and Manticore brought order to it by having everyone line up on the ramp to the southwest portal. Even that was fairly chaotic, and they asked for volunteers to help maintain some order. Well, for better or worse (I'd like to think better) I raised my hand and got picked to help maintain some semblance of sanity. Manticore wasn't feeling well and Arctic Sun took over dispensing titles, going well, well past the scheduled stop time. I think the Devs were there till about 1AM Pacific. Just a fantastic event.

But I think the biggest thing is probably the fact that I came back to CoX. I've played a number of MMOs; UO, EQ, WoW (yeahyeah,) the list goes on. I've quit all of them, including CoX. But CoX was the only one I ever came back to again, and the only one that ever felt like a home.

Thanks for 6 years folks. Sure, I missed 2 of 'em, but I'll find some way to make up for lost time.

Quick reminder to folks:

Do not use Virtue TFs any more. For all your TF/SF needs, you should join Virtue TFs 2010 instead. Guaranteed to contain 100% more awesome*.

* (Not guaranteed outside of Praetoria.)

Generic Rant.

I could use 'Cuda on my 50 Dom, and STF on my 50 Blaster. I'm available to help out with any of 'em if needbe, just let me know what's needed.

Alienware is not worth your time. It's overpriced for what you get.

I very strongly and highly recommend the Hewlett-Packard HDX 16t and HDX 18t. These two are without question the best value on the market by leaps and bounds right now, and both come very nicely configured for under $2000. Both are hundreds of dollars cheaper than the Dell with equal or better specifications.

The HDX 16t "Recommended" configuration at $1300 is perfect for CoX, though you will need to be absolutely certain to select the Free upgrade to the 1920x1080p when customizing (it's not selected by default, but is a free upgrade currently,) and remove the Norton garbage software (-$49.00) - Microsoft has a better product for absolutely free now, that doesn't turn your system into a sloth.
I'd also recommend upgrading the battery to the 12 cell (+$49.00) and considering an extended warranty with accidental damage, but those are definitely personal choices.

Gradius 3.

If you've ever played it, you know EXACTLY what's up there.

I'm throwing the person beneath me a party, and inviting SCP-682.

*floats in on FBBCOD(TM), wobbling greatly*

Is it obvious I've been sleeping like crap? Bleh.

*grabs a dozen plush kittehs to turn the FBBCOD(TM) into a mobile nap-post*

I tried it for a while.

It became immediately clear that the game was still nowhere near ready for release, even after delaying the release multiple times. It wasn't just a "lack of polish" - it was glaring bugs and problems everywhere, some dating back to closed beta still without resolution. Simple bugs - like too low spawn rates for mobs - were acknowledged and not fixed. Major bugs, like quests that couldn't be completed, left to sit and rot. Claiming it's an MMO and "they'll patch it" isn't an excuse for releasing something with that many glaring bugs. It never has been and never will be.

They shot themselves in the foot again with the repeated bait and switch from closed to open and through release. Plus a complete and total lack of focus or organization with the developers. I met a good number of closed beta people who said that open beta "wasn't what they tested." I rolled two characters to test; one could take hits from +5's with impunity, while the other was a glass cannon that could one-shot just about anything near the end of the tutorial. Then they started playing games with the XP, less than a day before effectively eliminating XP testing. (I had the luxury of chatting with several developers and CMs, who stated in no uncertain terms that they had no notice or idea that change was coming.) I also know that despite the ridiculously heavy nerf they delivered with release, both are pretty much still able to do the same as before. Other people with similar/same builds who play have told me as much.

Though I suppose ultimately their attitude toward players is what really sealed the deal. They still haven't said how to get a full retcon, other than "when we decide it's warranted." (Which we've already seen, is only when a large number of players scream about a wholesale change. And then they strictly limit it to a relatively small number.) And thousands of customers are finding out too late that the only way to get their 30 days "free" is to either have already bought a time card, or to let Cryptic put their credit card on file and sign up for a subscription and cancel it before first billing. To say nothing of the lifetime fiasco. Forget reaching anyone in billing support - they've been understaffed and backed up for days since before launch.

It's blatantly apparent that certain people at Atari and Cryptic think their playerbase is a bunch of idiots. And I'm just not interested in paying $15/mo to be jerked around while playing something I wouldn't dare call release if it had my name on it. It's just not anywhere near ready, and the people working on it seem to have no plan to actually make it a release quality game.

Oooh, kittehs. *uses cuddly kittehs to weight down the high side of the FBBCOD(TM)* Much betta!

Wait. Wait.

*drops an entire star of Kit Foxes behind Tech*

NOW my day is complete.

*floats in on the FBBCOD(TM) at a 45 degree angle*

Morning, Rookery. My day is missing something... can't figure out what, though.

*floats in on the FBBCOD(TM). Upside down*

Eeffoc. Gninorm.

*floats in on the FBBCOD(TM), which is currently carpet-bombing a mini-Tokyo with paintballs*

Good morning, Rookery. Should I get my gas mask, or have we not gotten to play with the neat toys yet?

Today's landscape is oddly appropo, with the results of the soft launch of that other game. The carnage resembled this.
*points at the mini-Tokyo which is currently drenched in pink paint*

Mothership Mondays.

I run mine randomly, early evenings Eastern. When it's not face-meltingly hot preventing me from thinking straight.