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Damaged and vacant (except for various villain groups) since the Rikti invasion of 2002, the famed Paragon Times Building is scheduled to be re-opened soon. A Paragon City icon for more than 60 years, its rebirth is being hailed as a major step towards the city’s renewal. To read the full article, please visit our Paragon Times page.

Attention Heroes -

Just a heads up on some of the Hamidon Griefing issues floating around the boards.

If a group of "Heroes" are using tactics to collect large numbers of Hamidon Enhancements and thus keeping others who should rightfully be receiving the enhancements from doing so - this is considered griefing. Griefing is a violation of the EULA and is punishable as such via warnings and/or suspensions.

NCsoft, Cryptic Studios and Top Cow Productions have announced a new CoH comic book series, featuring the celebrated writer Mark Waid (X-Men, Kingdom Come, JLA, etc.,) and artist David Nakayama (Proximity Effect). The new series will launch in May and CoH players will continue to receive the new book as part of their subscription. Under Top Cow, the comic book will focus on the signature heroes from the game, featuring the Freedom Phalanx with Statesman, Manticore, Positron, Sister Psyche and Synapse. For complete details on the new series, please visit our press release page.

Congratulations to our Paragon City Film Festival Contest winners from last September, Brian Shapiro ("Director") and Mike D’Anna ("The Weevil"), whose heroes finally make an appearance in Issue 10 of the CoH comic book this month as part of their original 'prize package' for winning!

Freed from their 5th Column prison cell by Apex and War Witch, they soon find themselves teaming up to confront Nosferatu and his minions. With snappy dialog and furious action, Director and The Weevil prove that they’re equal to the task of smacking down villains with the best of them!

If you haven’t already seen their award-wining films, check out Brian Shapiro’s "Sometimes the Hero" and Mike D’Anna’s "Liberty League in the Doom of Doctor Death" on our movie page (you'll have to scroll down). Congrats again to our film makers—we hope the wait for your comic book debut was worth it!

Thanks to Justice Radio for the show - I had a great time and hope to do the show again in the future.

Thanks also to everyone who tuned in and asked questions.

Do you want to test yourself against other defenders of Paragon City and gain the recognition of your peers as the best of the best? Do you have the heart, the skill, and the determination it takes to achieve the status of ultimate hero?

To hone these skills, the Paragon City Building Commission proudly brings you a forum months in the making: Arena. For a preview of this upcoming Expansion Issue 4 feature, please visit our Features Update page.

Thanks for the invite Justice Radio!

I will be on TeamSpeak for the broadcast and hope everyone can tune in.

We will be conducting maintenance on the PlayNC site Thursday, February 17, from 9:30 – 11:30AM CST. Customers will not be able to access their accounts during this maintenance period. We apologize for any inconvenience

Sometimes a Super Group just isn’t enough. You’re out-gunned, out-numbered and over-powered by the greatest villains to threaten Paragon City…what to do? Who do you call? How about another Super Group? How about 2 or 3 or 10 more Super Groups? Team up and create an unbeatable force through coalitions! Strength in numbers is what coalitions are all about. And to help you coordinate and communicate with your new alliances, we’re rolling out Coalition Chat. Easy to setup and use, it’ll help even the odds against the biggest, meanest foes CoH has to offer. You can find more info on our Coalition Chat page.

Didn't get your Valentines Day email?

We have a solution for you!

You can use the following link:

https://secure.plaync.com/cgi-bin/plaync_promo.pl

to login to your account and get the buddy serial code tied to your account.

You can then email that code to one buddy along with this link:

http://www.coh.com/newsletter/0502/

This link is an HTML version of the email sent out. It has all the information on downloading the client and the terms of the program. It also has information on the CoV beta contest for you to read.

We hope this helps!

As of 11:30 pm CST this issue should be resolved. Thanks!

We are having intermittent network issues at this time. This may cause disconnects or unavailable servers. There is no current ETA. We are sorry for the problems.

Attention all Heroes of Paragon City!

So Valentine's Day is just around the corner...what to do? What does a super-powered hero give to his or her special friend-especially the one who
has not yet experienced the excitement, adventure and danger of Paragon City?

How about the gift of City of Heroes?

Check your email box for more details. Please insure that your email service is configured to accept mail from us (see your firewall/spam filter settings).

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Wizard is hosting its 12th annual Fan Awards and City of Heroes is up for Favorite Video Game. Head on over to Wizard and show those folks that there’s simply no competition–CoH rules!

And now! HTML version under documentation off the main CoH site!

Click Here!

The guide is now available in the support section of the website (not-PDF).

Click Here!

[ QUOTE ]
Also, I just verified that the test server IS included in global chat (by joining the Kill Skuls channel from Test)- so if you are on Test you can chat with your friends on live. Woot!

[/ QUOTE ]

FYI - I just found out that this will be removed. We need to keep test global chat separate from live global chat so that we can test updates over there. Sorry about that!

I will look into getting the PDF in HTML format and/or added to the support documentation.

CJ

Note to the Winter Lord: “If you can’t stand the heat, don’t mess with the heroes of Paragon City.” It was a diabolical plan to bring the Big Freeze to our beloved city--beaten back and ultimately thawed by the courageous efforts of our city’s finest. Read the current Paragon Times article for all the chilling details.

Quick follow-up post.

Yes - we had issues with the message board name pull we did yesterday and some people did not get their reserved names. However, we just fixed it so your name should be what your forum name was at 11 am yesterday.

That is why GC went down and handles and channels were lost - we reverted it and applied the correct reserved name list. This is not something that can happen with a random crash.

Yes, its still beta. When you have a system that crosses all servers, the best way to beta test it is across all servers. That is why it is still beta and still something you have to turn on with the /chatbeta switch. If you don't want to play with the beta version, you do not have to. When it is out of beta it will be on all the time.

Also, I just verified that the test server IS included in global chat (by joining the Kill Skuls channel from Test)- so if you are on Test you can chat with your friends on live. Woot!

Keep reporting bugs! Thanks!

We are aware that GC is down on some servers and are working to resolve the issue.

Please post here about Global Chat Beta on the Live Servers. (Bugs/Comments)

This is NOT Coalition Chat - That will come later so save your comments about that for a future thread.

Keep the feedback constructive and no flaming/Trolling please.

Heroes of Paragon City! Global Chat Beta is live! Now you can chat and keep in touch with your super-powered friends across servers. To get you up and running as quickly and painlessly as possible, we’ve created a FAQ and PDF that gives you all the details and instructions. The FAQ is listed below and the link to the PDF is here.

What’s Global Chat?

Global Chat is an in-game cross server chat system and friends list.

How do I enter the Global Chat Beta?

Use the command /chatbeta 1 to turn on Global Chat, and /chatbeta 0 to turn it off. You must turn global chat on every time you login to the game until this feature is out of Beta. Once beta is over, this feature will always be on.

What is a Global Chat Handle?

Every player selects a name which they are universally known by; this "handle" is what they can be referred to regardless of what character they happen to be playing at the moment or what server they are on.

How do I choose my global chat handle?

Default is your character name (if possible). You may then change your handle one time (via the main menu’s "Handle" option).

How do I send a private message to someone’s chat handle?

Prefix the "@" symbol before the player’s handle and then use the /tell command as usual:

/tell @<handle>, hello

Can I send a message to an offline player?

Yes. Your message will be stored and sent to the player when they next login.

Can just anyone add me to their friends list without my permission?

No, when someone tries to global friend you, a dialog box will appear asking if you want this person as a global friend. You can decline.

What if I don’t want anyone to know I am playing?

Use the hide button or /ghide command to appear offline.

What is a Channel?

Players can create their own personal chat channels. This is a channel that other players can join so that players can chat with each other in a group, similar to team chat or supergroup chat.

What is the difference between a Public and a Private channel?

Anyone may join a public channel (so long as it is not at maximum member capacity). Private channels require an invitation to join.

How do I invite someone to a chat channel?

Use the “invite” button to invite a single player, your global friends list, your supergroup, or your team to a global chat channel.

What is the Channel Window?

Found in the main Menu, it displays a list of channel members and allows channel administration.

What is a channel Operator?

Channel administrator. A channel administrator can invite players to a private channel, change channel settings, and change channel user settings.

How do I make a channel?

To create a Chat Channel, a player needs either to enter the command /chancreate OR click on "Tab" on the top, bottom or numerical panes and select the Edit Tab option.

A player enters a name for this channel along the top of the Edit Tab option.

By default, the channel is assigned to the currently selected tab. In other words, it appears in the selected channels column along the right side of the window.

Channel names are limited to 16 characters.

Do I still have my old Friends lists?

Yes. Your old friends list is found under the "Server" tab of the Friends List window. This list behaves identically to the old Friends list, and may only contain friends on your current server. The "Global" tab contains the new Global Friends List functionality.

Are there any known bugs?

Yes, the “Channel Members” window does not have a button to close the window. To close it, you have to go to the main menu and re-select that window.

The House of Commons Stratics Chat transcript with Jack "Statesman" Emmert can be found here.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the chat!

UPDATE: All shards are back online with the exception of Justice and Virtue. These shards will be brought back on line as soon as possible, however we have no ETA at this time.

Maintenance will be extended today, February 9th 2005, until 11am CST. We apologize for the delay.

City of Heroes wins CGW MMORPG of the Year!

CGW 21st Annual Game of the Year Awards

The editors of Computer Gaming World, the number one PC gaming publication in the industry providing two decades of gaming industry editorial leadership, revealed their 21st annual Game of the Year Awards. The 2004 awards expanded this year to include 15 distinct categories, ranging from in-depth role-playing games to real-time strategy and sports games. The winners represent the best PC games and hardware in the industry. The complete list of Computer Gaming World's 2004 Game of the Year winners can be found here.

Quotes from the CGW article:

"City of Heroes flies high above the competition, thanks to its staggering character-customization options, its immersive setting, and hands-down the most creative use of source material we've ever seen in this type of game."

"City of Heroes innovates in ways that no other MMO has ever managed to."

City of Heroes also won a special award for Best Character Creation.

Check out the March edition of Computer Gaming World for all the details.