Cricket_NA

What lies ahead for the "City of" universe? Our fearless lead designer Positron sits down and answers some questions for Gamespot. PvP, new zone content, and a whole lot more is discussed. Check it out here!

Global re-name tokens are now on the live servers Yippie!

Global handle re-names are now available on the Training Room! Please, make sure you go check it out.

For those who have used their original global re-name option: this global re-name token gives you the ability to change your global handle *one additional time*

If you have never used your original re-name option: remember that these re-name options do not stack. This means you still have one chance to select a new global handle.

This will reach the live servers on a later date - once it is good and ready. Enjoy!

The patron respec fix for Training Room has been postponed further. It will not reach test on today's date, but we'll certainly provide additional information as it comes in.

Update: The patron respec fix will not be published this week, but we'll certainly get it on test once it is ready. Thank you for your patience.

Global Chat has now been restored to its pre-publish status. Any changes that have been made since today's server maintenance have not been saved. Additional information on the global handle rename system will arrive as soon as it is available.

For those who completed the patron storyarc and did not receive a respec:

This afternoon/evening we'll have a fix on the Training Room. This fix will hit the live servers in the near future. Hoorah!

Update: Time was originally 5PM for Training Room, but this has been pushed back a little. We'll keep you updated.

The global chat server will remain down while an issue is being investigated.

We are also receiving reports that some have lost rename token - we're looking into this.

I'm leaving for Gen Con now, so I'm turning my PMs off while I am gone. I will be back next week.

Your mother hen Cuppa will be around, so be good!

And I hope to see you guys there

Hey everyone,

It looks like we got screenies of all of them! Thank you all very much. The contest is now closed.

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The Cathedral of Pain is expected to be released prior to Issue 8, and it will be a little different than originally planned. It will be PvE oriented and the trial will remain active for 7 days.

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Cricket, can you clarify this please? The CoP trial was already entirely PvE in all its previous incarnations, so in what sense will it be PvE oriented?

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You are correct. The trial itself was (and will be) all PvE. But there was PvP in the Cathedral of Pain process: it is the next step in the cycle (raiding) where the PvP came into play. That isn't part of the trial run itself, but there is a connection. If you walked away from the trial with an Item of Power it meant that you should probably expect to be raided by another supergroup.

Here is something all you base designers may want to keep in mind:

The Cathedral of Pain is expected to be released prior to Issue 8, and it will be a little different than originally planned. It will be PvE oriented and the trial will remain active for 7 days. During this time you can earn one or more Items of Power for your Supergroup base. Then it will be off for 21 days, after which you will lose the Items of Power and this cycle repeats. Previously, it was scheduled to run only every 5 days, with 25 days off. Scheduled Base Raids are currently non-functional, but we wanted you to at least participate in the Cathedral of Pain and Item of Power portions while we address the Raid functionality internally.

Giant Monsters: we all love to hate them. Well, maybe not Sally!

Sometimes these Giant Monsters they find us without warning. But finding them isn’t always easy; the task can be difficult for even the greatest of hunters. Do you ever catch a glimpse of one? Well, if you do, we want to see some proof!

We need screenshots of the following Giant Monsters:

City of Heroes:

Kraken (Perez Park)
Babbage (Boomtown)
Adamastor (Dark Astoria)
Jurassik (Crey's Folley)
Eochai (Croatoa)
Jack-in-Irons (Croatoa)
Sally (Croatoa)
Paladin (Kings Row)
Ghost Ship (Talos Island and Independence Port)
Lusca (Independence Port)

City of Villains:

Deathsurge (Cap au Diable)
Ghost of Scrapyard (Sharkhead Isle)
Caleb (Nerva Archipelago)
Ballista (St. Martial)


The Nitty Gritty

Notice that the zone location of each Giant Monster is mentioned in parenthesis. Only the “zone mobs” count for this project and screenshots of any other version will not be accepted. For example: the Task Force Babbage is a mission mob, not a zone mob. The only Babbage that counts is the one that spawns in Boomtown.

Ballista and Ghost Ships are not technically Giant Monsters…but hey…they are special, and they are on this list!

Only the Giant Monster can be in the photo – no player characters. Photos that contain player characters will not be considered. Background imagery is fine, but it cannot take the focus off the Giant Monster. Only one picture can be submitted per person, please.

The style of the image is up to you. The Giant Monster can be in action, orperhaps you took a secret snapshot without ever causing a stir. The more interesting it is, the better! It does have to be a clear, easily recognizable image that can be used for easy identification purposes.

DO take a crisp, clean, high-res image.

DO NOT photoshop the picture (minor cropping is ok).

DO NOT include the UI.

DO NOT manipulate the picture.

Timeline:


Submissions can be made by emailing your screenshots (details below) from FRIDAY JULY 21st until 12:00 AM (CST) FRIDAY JULY 28th.

How to Submit:


*You may only enter 1 screenshot. If we see multiple entries from you, all entries will be disqualified.

* You may not manipulate or edit the screenshot in any way (although basic cropping certainly allowed and encouraged).

*You may not manipulate or edit the shot in any way (although basic cropping is certainly allowed and encouraged for dramatic effect).

*Screenshots MUST be JPG format, at LEAST 640 x 480 pixels (72 dpi) and MAXIMUM 1024 x 768. Converting sizes (eg from 1600x1200 to 800x600) is fine.

*We reserve the right to re-crop or otherwise modify any pictures.


* EMAIL submissions to: cohsubmissions@plaync.com

* Your submission MUST include:
- Your real name
- Age
- Address
- PlayNC Master Account name
- Game account name
- Character & server name

Winners:


* Finalists will be selected with an eye towards clear identification and mob placement.
* If you aren’t selected, it’s likely that it’s because the number of submissions is so high. Please remember that some mobs may have more screenshot submissions than others.
* One winner will be selected for each Giant Monster. Winning screenshots will be used in an upcoming online feature.
* Winners will be identified on the page with first name, last initial, and city, and State (or country if from outside the US).
* Screenshots that are too dark, too small, or otherwise unclear will be disqualified.

*****NOTE: If it is a good shot, but simply too dark, we *will* adjust the horizontal and the vertical (and the gamma, the brightness, the contrast, etc.) on our end.

For full submission guidelines & legal notice, please click here.

*****PROBLEMS TAKING SCREENSHOTS?***

If you have problems taking screenshots, check out the Knowledge Base article here.

Surprise!

To make our Double XP Weekend even more extra-special, we have granted each Supergroup member 20,000 Prestige! This was automatically done during this morning's maintenance, so enjoy!

Heroes and Villains,

Many of you have heard about it, and now it is quickly approaching.

All players get a chance to earn Double XP (including double Prestige and Inf/Inf) just for playing the game THIS weekend.

Here are the times:

Start: Friday, July 21st at 9am PST / 12pm EST
Finish: Sunday, July 23rd, 8:59pm PST / 11:59pm EST

Why are we doing this? Why, I'm glad you asked! This is a special thank you, because we really do appreciate you all-through the thick and thin.

You get to decide how you want to take advantage of this. Perhaps you want to work on your alts, or get that one character up to level 50. It is simply all up to you.

So what is the catch? No catches. It's just that easy

So let that XP just pour in...and HAVE FUN!

Everyone on Triumph who previously did not receive their tailoring sessions should now have them. Many on Triumph did not receive these on June 28th as intended for all servers. This was completed with this morning's maintenance.

The petition system is now currently working correctly. Previous petitions were never lost and they are now going to their proper destinations.

Currently there is a problem with receiving petitions. These petitions are being logged; however, they may not be properly getting through to the GMs at this time.

This technical problem is being looked at, and any previous petitions that were sent are expected to go through once this matter has been resolved. Therefore, duplicate petitions are not necessary, but please note there may some additional delays regarding in-game assistance.

It has now been confirmed that we are unable to revert the global chat system. We understand that this affects a large percentage of our players, and for several days great efforts have been put forth to restore the global chat system to its original state.

The investigation is still ongoing, and additional measures are being put in place. Once this is complete, the global chat system is going to be backed up every 20 minutes.

We understand that this affects a large number of our players, and we apologize to those who were affected. Please note that there will be compensation for this issue. As previously stated, additional information will be posted about the global chat status as soon as it comes in. Although a revert is not possible, new information is expected to arrive in the future.

We are aware that global chat problems are still occurring, and we consider this problem to be high priority. Currently, the global chat system is being thoroughly checked. This process is taking some time to complete, and at this time we do not have any further updates. We'll be sure any updates along once they come in.

Upon the completion of this morning's live server maintenance, each costume slot has now been granted a free tailoring session.

The 6/27/06 patch brought a lot of new costume changes. (Yay, Jay!) Because of this, we are going to be giving out a free tailoring session.

This tailoring session is expected to reach the Training Room shortly. The *estimated* arrival time is tomorrow for all other servers. I will post any updates as they come in.

For those of you who may be experiencing problems with auto-charges, I highly advise that you wait until the tokens are distributed before you make any costume changes. Please note that In-game support is unable to reimburse for any tailoring charges.

This has now been completed on the live servers.

The test server was restored at approximately 5:10 PM CST.

Everyone (both on test and live) should now have full access to their base storage devices.

At approximately 4:30 PM CST today the Training Room will be brought down for approximately 30 minutes to remove all temporary character titles.

NOTE: This will remove all special titles that were designed to be temporary. There was an error where the system was not removing these correctly. Any special title that was not intended to be temporary will be restored to the proper character once this fix reaches the live servers. There is currently no ETA on the live server fix.