Bountytaker

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Hey guys,

I wanted to take a couple minutes to let you know that we aware of this issue. We want people to at least know where the PvP zones are and how to get to them. We don’t want players to feel forced into PvP combat. To address this issue we are going to take several steps. Players will be sent to liaisons that will be outside the PvP zones. They will explain that there is mission content available from a contact within the zone but will not, I repeat will not, force you to that contact. If the player wishes to go in the zone and find the contact they are free to do so. Just like a Task/Strike Force contact, PVP contacts don’t need to be introduced. As soon as a player clicks on them, they will offer mission content.

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After reading a lot of the "Warburg" threads, it was apparent there were a couple of things that needed to be adjusted. This was one of them, so kudos to the devs for getting it done....

If I may suggest two more things that might help:

1) Make the pvp warning of Warburg different than the pvp warning of Bloody Bay/Siren's Call, since the FFA status makes it different than those other too. People are surprised that they can be attacked by heroes in Warburg, and it's hurting their experience of the zone.

2) Integrate the FFA status of the zone into the story of the zone better. Again, it's a major complaint that the h v. h situation in the zone feels "wrong". Yet, people were okay with Bloody Bay's FFA, because the story of the zone made sense. Just insert something small to satisfy the RP conscience some of us have, that's all. The zone will be better for it.

I think with those two changes added to the big one you listed, and the introduction of more villains, the zone should lose a lot of it's bad rep.

I would love a City of Pulp, or Pulp City, expansion....

The Phantom, the Shadow, heck even Indiana Jones....great story telling stuff there.....and heroic, in a slightly different way.

Just wanted to give kudos on this article, and it's companions from CoV. They really are helping to bring the players into the story. Reminds me of the old pre-Halloween 04 articles, which were some of the best.

Nice job Arctic and others. Keep em coming


Oh, and the picture in the Paragon Times induced quite a few chuckles. Good choice

Not to brag or anything, but......I totally nailed the name of this issue a while back...


Now if I could only find the thread.....

Congrats on the job, welcome aboard, and good luck....


Now, tomorrow's Wednesday, and we expect a nice big article....say 1000 words....so get cracking....

I've played for almost 17 months...and I don't have a 50

Of course, we have no idea what the 50's spread is among servers. I assume that the high pop. servers have more 50's, which are then more visible....I don't see a lot of 50's on my low pop server, although I know we have plenty.....

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40-50: Peregrine

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Don't forget RCS and the Shadow Shard....which are pretty empty though....

Gil,
I've loved some of your articles, and some not so much. But, out of everything you've written, this has to be the worst....not because of it's style, but because of it's content. I am shocked, and saddened, to see you go.

The articles have been one of the crowning achievements, IMO, of this game. Their ability to let the players know more about their game, and get them more involved in the story without even having to play, has been a boon to this games design. And much of that benefit can be contributed to you.

I still remember the great streak you had where every article, most about transportation in the city, was better than the last. Wednesday's were truly fun back then.

And, I will not forget the added anticipation the articles brought to the great Halloween event. Simply superb.

I'm going long here, so I'll wrap up. As was already said, you will be sorely missed. Here's hoping that your next endeavor brings you many rewards, financially, emotionally, and reputation-wise. Please let the forums know what your are working on, as many of us will be happy customers of yours.
Oh, and once in a while, how about a quick article in the comic

Good luck, and best wishes.

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ummmm actually from what i've seen most of the art is recycled from the comic.

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Quite a few of the card designs shown at Wizard World Boston were originals, and not lifted from the comics. Nakayama even said he had concepts for some of the cards hinself, then got Xanatos to create characters with the costume creator so he could have a visual to work with.

Saw some of the upcoming cards when I met David Nakayama....they will improve....and, I hear Xanatos helped

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I say we form a rescue party for ol' Turner. It's the only heroic thing to do.

*gets a flashlight and puts on his cape*


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I'd be happy to help. All I need are some detective skills....

so, sometime around I8 I'll be ready...I'm sure he can hang on till then

According to the winner, the CCG developers added Blood of the Black Stream to his entry.

*bubble officially burst*

Although I understand the issue, Posi, I still think this isn't good. Why are we losing souveniers again? Why have the TF's in if you couldn't get the reward?

Ah well, I'm just lucky I didn't do any of the long ones in the SS yet.


Still this plan is both weak and lame.....it's wame!

Can we get a confirm from a dev on this vehicle situation? Or did I already miss one?

I recall Statesman mentioning something about vehicles being used to get to a space zone, but I don't recall a statement saying "no other vehicles".

Man, I was really looking foward to the vehicle expansion, especially for all my "natural" heroes...


Thanks to the GenCon attendees for bringing this one up. It's big news for me at least. Well done.

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We won't be able to ride in/on vehicles ever, due to the way the map is, but States seemed to like the idea of being able to throw the cars around...


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Really....so are vehicles off the list now? Or will they act like the train, click on it, get a list of places to go, then appear in the place you chose?

If they're off the list, that would suck.....

Not to be a nudge or anything, but it has been a week.....any word on whether we'll get the questions/answers today or Mon.?

It would help me curb my compulsive checking of the boards every ten minutes

Great, great article. Really top notch. It had the feel of a real news report, raised my interest for the event, and even had a little foreshadowing to think about. Reminded me of the I2 and original zone event articles. Best news article in months! Five stars for Gil and company.


Wish we could see the editorial section of the next days paper, though. I'm sure a lot of citizens are going to comment on the lack of fire department funds even though there was plenty of money to build new arenas!

Didn't read them all, so these may be repeats:

1) Are there any plans to implement more live events, run by a Live Events Team, ala Matrix Online?

2) What plans are there for getting the playerbase more involved in the storyline?

3) Are there story events planned that do not involve killing a giant monster over and over again?

4) What comic book-story element do you think this game is still missing?

5) I was dissappointed that the Arenas didn't come with a story line. Will some be added later?

And finally......

6) There was a suggestion on the boards for the developers to hold a story arc/tf/mission writing contest. Is that something that could happen?

In the consolidated thread for mission customization, someone mentioned that they had the Dr. Vahz mission, and that it now had a "cut scene" at the beginning. Can anyone else confirm this? Is it only the Dr. Vahz mission, or do others have cut scenes as well?

I was under the impression we wouldn't see these until after CoV, so if we're getting them earlier, I'm psyched. Plus, I don't want to do a mission on live now that will have a cut scene when I5 comes out

Hey States, if you really need to make some sort of change to enhancements, though, I got a quick and simple one for ya:

Make special enhancements, the ones from the Hydra, Crystal, Titan, etc.. automatically drop! That way, i'm not clearing out my tray in the middle of one of the major battles of my heroes career.

Other than that, or a plain old enh filter, I'm cool.

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You know what? Scrap the Hellion dealie--for the Steel Canyon zone event we should have to contain Positron, running around in his skivvies and flailing his arms like one of Paragon's finest.

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Badge: You caught Positron in his underwear! How you got in his underwear, though, we'll never know...."

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You.....DO realize that if he takes off that suit, antimatter will mix with matter, and there'll be a huge explosion. Right?

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Still funny when put to the Benny Hill theme music.....

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The changes didn't bother me that much, but this does beg the question: Why not just balance the endgame content without considering HOs and let HOs be a plus? If someone isn't having "fun" being so powerful, then they had the easy option of erasing those HOs. Since CoH depends so strongly on instancing, contested encounters is much less of a problem. And since Hamidon Enhancers are the only form of "loot" and even then, not a contested form of loot (anyone at a raid can get one) there is no competition among players.


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If I had to guess, I'd say that most of the "endgame" they're developing is more cooperative raids, which means Hami full and Hami empty 50's working together. And that's probably where the balance issue comes.

If they added three more 50+ raids, with rewards, and Hami full players can do them more quickly and more easily than non-Hami 50's, the disparity is going to get worse.

But, that's just a guess......


Here's my question: What happened that the cycle of Hami getting harder got broken? There were at least 3, if not 4 times, where, when a strategy was found, a patch would make him hard again. How come that seemed to stop?

Are our players just that good

CuppaJo, I believe, just recently confirmed the inclusion of the witches from the Halloween event in the zone. They were members of the Coven. So, you could add them to the villains list, although I guess it's possible they have been changed to be part of one of the other two.

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Not right away. A lot of the art has to be redone to take advantage of the new features, and we only have so many monkeys here. I mean artists!

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Does this include:

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We saw one villain attempt to steal a valuable crown from a bank. Once he enters the mission zone, a cool cutscene shows off some of the key objects in the level. This helps to draw attention to the things the player will have to interact with. After defeating the guards, our vile villain blows the doors of the vault, highlighting some of the destructible objects in the new game.

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I've never been a fan of cut-scenes, but this made it sound cool. Damaging objects too, after CoV, or before?