Evangel_NA
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Posts
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Joined
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Having the same issue as well, and I must admit it is also becoming a bit ridiculous that this has not been fixed...
I'm not even trying to use any parts I purchased - I'm using costume pieces that are all openly available to ALL players, so a bug related to the store wouldn't even make sense for a justification, it's just a flat out bug.
If you're going to re-organize the costume pieces, that's fine, but come on use some common sense and check that it works with the various venues in game that use that system. Bad bug, bad testing, bad implementation. Please spend the next 6 hour downtime of maintenance you do addressing this issue... -
Quote:Originally Posted by Carnifax_NA
Come on folks, you gotta expect this sort of thing in an open beta
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This is it right here. Hitting the nail right on the head. Don't let the "VIP Head Start" and following exclamation points fool you - us loyal veterans and paying customers are nothing more than guinea pigs to test all of this out on before the new dollar signs show up. Gotta polish this up nice and neat like so that it looks all impressive when launch comes.
For our paying loyalty we get extended downtime, bugs, game crashes, and endless glitches. But we should be happy because we got a "head start".
*Heads over to thesaurus.com to add "head start" to the list of synonyms for "beta"* -
Quote:Originally Posted by UberGuy
It's not only new characters, and it's not as simple as them being fully exposed or fully uncovered.
What seems to be happening is I am getting someone else's fog of war. I am getting partial exposure that clearly looks like the movement of characters, with extensions into darkness to places where there are stores or badges. However, I know for a rock solid fact that what I am seeing does not match my characters' own explorations.
For example, I have a seven-year-old hero that is showing only the core area of Talos Island uncovered. I have a character who had never been to First Ward showing most of the zone uncovered, specifically including badge locations.
Moreover, I seem to be getting the same maps on all my characters, even when I change accounts. Given that FoW masks are per-character, the idea that I can be seeing what is almost certainly the same mask on different characters on different masks is really confusing.
Actually for me it is that simple. That's what the OP is trying to point out, the bug seems totally random. I have none of the problems you are having. The only problem I am having is on new toons, and it is full uncovered or nothing. -
Update on my end at least, seems like Atlas Park on Infinity took a dump. Working again now, but all of my toons parked in AP were the ones getting the login rejection.
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Yep, none of my Atlas toons would log in, but now they do.
I blame it on the horrible redesign of City Hall. It's too tall for its width. The zone shut itself down in the name of bad architecture. -
Quote:For me the entire zone becomes re-fogged. But again it's only on new characters.Originally Posted by Turgenev
The last time this busted, there was a weird tearing effect to the fog for how it would break with some players... are you finding the zone resets clean, or that some areas are hidden/revealed in weird patterns?
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I was on a character fine, but then when I logged back to login screen to change characters - when I clicked on a character and hit "next" the game froze and came back with a "Lost connection to DBserver" error. Tried restarting the game, restarting the computer, and then gave up and decided it was yet another bug the devs missed before rushing this issue to live.
Here's hoping we have ANOTHER day of four-or-more hour maintenance... -
I've only seen this happening on new characters created since the release of i21.
I took my main lvl 50 into First Ward, cleared the map with Reveal, came back later and it was still cleared. Yet every time I log in my new time manip defender, Atlas Park is re-fogged. On existing characters I see no bug, on new characters it doesn't remember any of the revealed maps. -
Quote:Yep, both in the Microsoft knowledge base and from personal experience. I, too, manage a large number of PC platforms for side work (back when SP3 first came out, and again recently). It's true, if you update the computers via HD cloning or network push you can do an upgrade to SP3 with not a single problem in most cases. But when manually upgrading a single computer through Windows Update the bug rate and/or fail rate is usually about 50% (that number I am estimating from personal experience - so don't get your panties in a twist about its accuracy, realistically it's probably a lower percentage to some degree). The reason for this is that the problem originates usually in the download corrupting, which then requires a manual deletion of the download files because Windows Update only verifies the quantity of the files downloaded, not the quality, so if your download corrupts Windows still considers it a "working" package and Update will not give you the option to re-download or verify until the package contents are removed from the system.Originally Posted by FloatingFatMan
I've never read such a load of tosh in my entire life... You got proof of those numbers?
Also, as mentioned above, but un-related to my statement, many choose not to upgrade because after 3 years there are still a host of programs that have no support for SP3. Sure, you can blame those companies for that, but the fact remains you have the choice of upgrading to something and losing program control or not upgrading. It's a bit annoying that - of all things - it's a video game that comes along and requires you to upgrade to something that hinders your productivity and potentially your system. -
Quote:Originally Posted by The_Spad_EU
How on earth are so many people still running XP SP2?
SP3 has been available for 3 years now and SP2 hasn't been supported (i.e. no security updates) since July 2010.
Running software that out of date on a primary device is reckless at best.
To this day, SP3 bugs on install roughly 50% of the time. An issue that Microsoft is well aware of but has largely ignored. Many people have avoided SP3 for the very reason that half the time installing it bugs Windows to a point where either rollback or complete system re-install is required.
Updating anything that has the Microsoft logo on it is reckless at best. -
Yep, it always has a hiccup - and the memory usage spikes while it's loading. I always figured this was due to my missions being long, but it even happens on short one-objective missions lately. And now I'm getting mapservered and hard crashing. Been ok today, but it seems to bounce back and forth from working fine to being impossible to access.
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Over the past three days about 1 out of every 3 times I click the "Edit" button to edit a story in MA my game hard crashes. Have sent multiple reports to the devs but was wondering if this is happening to anyone else?
I've verified files and have even tested it with making new arcs with just one mission and one objective. And as time passes the crashing is becoming more and more frequent. Am I the only one? This is seriously becoming annoying, I can't even edit my stories. -
Quote:Oh I know that, I was just replying to the typical "mac hater response" with the fact that, yet again, Mac does something better than Windows.Originally Posted by Ice_Wall
I think the joke was that people who run macs are SoL in general, he was insinuating that being SoL and having a Mac had nothing to do with CoH.
Also the statement he was joking about, had to do with the launcher not being available for mac, not CoHs performance on the mac in general.
And to state the fact that despite it performing better on mac, the devs still seem to all-but ignore that there is a mac version when it comes to things like this launcher issue. -
Quote:CoH actually runs smoother on a Mac - particularly in ultra mode. OS X allocates memory (both physical and video) better than Windows, and CoH is a memory hog.Originally Posted by Premonitions
Yeah, but what does that have to do with City of Heroes?
The only annoyance of CoH on mac is that it's essentially the same program wrapped in a clumsy mac-compatible shell which causes a few annoying bugs. And things like this where development seems to ignore that the game is "multi-platform". -
Ultra Mode claims another video card's soul.
Mua ha ha ha ha!! -
I know this is a dumb question, but were you terrified and/or without endurance?
You still need to have end to be able to attack and particularly with the LGTF (and that dirty filthy wh*re, Famine) it's possible you were mezzed but also low or out of end. Also I've noticed defiance doesn't always break through terror even though it is technically a mezz.
Just a thought. -
Quote:Originally Posted by Veritech
not to really defend some of the decisions made here, but to be honest, Executive Producers don't really have any power when it comes to the creative process in movies, tv, etc. They're figureheads and generally not the ones who make the big decisions. i need to dig up the articles, but there were more than a few times Quesada and the folks who represent Marvel at these films wished they actually had input when making them.
What I was trying to point out is if you look at the Production credits for pre-"Marvel" movies and post-"Marvel" movies you see the production staff represented by Marvel barely changes. The studios are still largely in charge of creative decisions and a crew of producers is assembled by the studio.
Arad is still an exec producer on all, Feige is still involved as a producer on most, and Marvel can have some say in who the studio chooses and has more approval weight but in the end production is still done primarily by the studio and Marvel exec produces it (adding in two associate directors roughly per film from a marvel studios department). The "Marvel" branding is mostly for rights management. Marvel likes to pretend that it makes better movies now because "they're in charge" but that is largely self-hype.
The whole argument aside, let's be honest, Marvel's own track record is 1.5 out of 3, at best.
Iron Man was awesome.
Incredible Hulk was lame.
Iron Man 2 was meh. -
Quote:Hate to tell you but Marvel has been Executive producing everything since it started. I'm not defending Fox but even on the productions where the rights were sold to the studio, Marvel still produces it - i.e. they still make a large portion of the decisions. Executive producers make or break movies more than people realize and Marvel has dropped the ball on ensemble movies.Originally Posted by Furio
Marvel hasn't made any ensemble cast movies. They've only made Iron Man 1 &2, Incredible Hulk, (all basically good) and Cap and Thor (looking good, but we shall see). All the other movies with Marvel characters were licensed out to other studios. Including this nonsensical mismash of characters.
The new "Marvel"-run movies are still produced by the studios it's just that Marvel now maintains the rights under their own studio as a partnership and has deciding control of production. You'll notice Columbia, Fox, etc still are the production studios behind the new "Marvel"-made movies, the new agreements are for rights management more than anything. -
The only thing this has going for it is visual appeal and the trailer confirms that. You can tell they're pushing visual effects and sexy girls. The trailer is almost a full two minutes long and yet JFK has the most lines...
I think the acting and dialog is going to make this movie painful. And it's not just Fox, outside of X1, Marvel has a hard time with making good ensemble cast movies that are anything more than gimmicky action flicks. That's my biggest worry about Avengers...but that's another discussion lol.
My 2 cents at least... -
Quote:Ha, well that's why I came here to see if there was any interest in collaborating. I've already done some of what you've said, and in fact you wouldn't need sets as much as characters. In fact I took a junk 3d human model, animated him to do a little dance, then filmed a demorecord of the "set" background in game, composited and boom, set with character. Need tweaking and of course models need made but it's not nearly as rainy as you try to make it sound. Like I said I've been fooling around for fun for a year or two, if others want to fool around as well, great, more the merrier.Originally Posted by warden_de_dios
Good luck moving this project beyond the pipe dream stage if you're planing on someone showing up with the time and skill to animated this in 3D. To go 3D you would need someone to create each art asset needed for this movie. You want to put Statesman in your video, someone needs to build that model. Is a scene going to take place in Paragon City? Someone going to have to build that city scene out of art assets they already own, build whats needed or purchase something from the web. Are you suppling cash to help this part of the project move forward? If you need me to rain on your parade more I will, but you need to reexamine this whole project and figure out how to fit it into demorecord since all the game's art assets and locations are available for use for free.
In the end I think you're taking my question too literally as though I'm here begging for people to work for me. I'm simply asking if there's interest, if people would want to shoot some ideas around, and see.
I'll kindly remember you're not interested in that, lol. Feel free to keep raining.
Evangel -
Quote:Originally Posted by Gehnen
I only have one real gripe, and that you said this is "by fans, for fans". The amount of cursing might not jive with the "T" rating of the game, and a lot of fans. It is possible to limit the cursing without removing the movie's teeth.
For the record, I'm not offended by it...and I'm fairly sure you're aware of this potential "limitation". The cursing likely matches your vision of the film since you did write the script.
Thanks! Yep, the cursing was something I go back and forth on, I wrote the movie in a PG-13 mindset, so I let some "damns" and "hells" in and an occasional "sh*t". It's something I'm flexible on in some ways as long as it's not a lot of grown men running around saying "oh darn!"
But on that note has anyone else noticed more contacts cursing in game lately? Quite a few have a line or two that includes "damn" or "hell" used in the cursing sense.A T rating pretty much relates to PG-13 which allows minor cursing, it appears the devs are finally taking advantage of that.
Quote:Originally Posted by Ironik
Okay, that's not a bad writing sample. However, the main problem I see is that it's unfilmable as written. Very little of that action is supported by the game engine. It's a decent enough first draft, but it needs to be completely rewritten in order to make use of demoedit. My biggest recommendation is is to consider what you can do with the game engine and write action sequences designed around that. Look at Michelle's latest film to see what can be done to massage the existing game assets (models, emotes, etc.).
Yep, and that was the big reason I started leaning away from demorecord. I didn't want to "dumb down" an action scene just because of restrictions. I could rewrite it with demorecording in mind but then I'd never ever be happy with the end result. I figured if anyone had demorecord ideas to cheat it, great, but really at this point the action almost requires an extra helping hand - 3D modeling or otherwise.
Cursing is addressed above - but dual dialogue is actually standard and formatting is all according to current screenplay formatting spec. Some writers don't like to do dual dialog, some do, both are standard. The non-dialog text doesn't effect the movie rating - a lot of people use "harsher" language in there because it tends to allow you to explain something in less words. Saying "character A looks at character B - what the f***???" is far shorter to write and easier to convey than "character a looks at character b - and gives a look of wide-eyed confusion". Just a writing preference really. Convey the most amount of message in the clearest and most relatable way with the least amount of wording!Quote:Originally Posted by Ironik
Specific critiques about the writing: lose the f-bombs in the sluglines and text. As Gehnen noted, the game is rated T, so it's best to drop the rest of the profanity as well. I see what you're trying to do with side-by-side dialogue. Unfortunately it doesn't lend urgency but muddies the throughline. Stick with the basic format. There's a reason it's existed largely unchanged for nearly seventy-five years.
And glad to see a lot of people willing to pitch in and maybe make this possible. I know it's a massive undertaking and really just seeing what we can brainstorm or come up with, but the energy is great to see!
Evangel -
Here's a 10 page script sample from the movie. I'm not going to attempt to explain the context of this beyond the fact that it's the first major action scene of the movie. City Hall's roof has just blown up while a city council meeting was taking place inside and the helicopter with the attackers inside is fleeing the scene -- nearby on the plaza, under the statue, the long lost leader (Target-Man) of the dismantled "Guns of Paragon" supergroup has returned and is contemplating using their beacon (a metal shaft that shoots a firework - think bat signal) to re-assemble the team.
A lot of characters and such in this. It's not a heavy dialogue section but it conveys some of the complex action I'm looking to attempt and some of the complexity of dialogue interactions between characters. It happens about 35 minutes into the movie.
Uploaded it as a PDF to a simple file upload site. Please don't repost anywhere and all that.
Guns of Paragon - Script Sample - 47.33 KB
Evangel -
Quote:Originally Posted by Gehnen
The only thing I could provide is voice-over, but I would love to help!Have added both of you to my list of people to contact if I get enough interest to move forward. Thanks for the interest and enthusiasm!Quote:Originally Posted by Marcian Tobay
I'm good for voice acting and assisting with script writing. I'm quite charming!
Ah yes, I've seen your videos before! A prime example of someone far more talented than me at demorecord. You're on the list!Quote:Originally Posted by Dark_Respite
Well, I think I know a bit about demorecording and filming in-game and such. I'd be happy to help.
Good point about the face alteration. And yep, storyboarding is yet another talent that would be really nice. I wanted to be an artist when I was about 5 lol, so I can do some basic storyboarding but it's time consuming and not very clear as drawing is not really my thing anymore, someone with more art talent that can whip it out quicker and more precisely would be amazing.Quote:Originally Posted by warden_de_dios
you can cheat a few emotions with demorecord. In the demorecord you'll see were the face model is being called.
Getting a screenplay together for this project is pretty important but you're going to want to storyboard this project (like they do in comics).
Also, have a script segment and figuring out the best way to post it on here to maintain formatting and everything - should have it up soon for viewing.
Evangel -
Cool, glad to hear it sparks some interest and thoughts.
I agree about the limitations of the dialogue and lack of moving mouths - another reason I started leaning toward 3D models but that became too incredibly daunting for one person, particularly one person with no formal 3D modeling experience! But I'm very open to any ideas people have whether it be demorecord or modeling or animation or whatnot.
I'll pull out the script tonight and get a 5 or 10 page section of it up here for viewing. I'll find a spot that isn't too revealing but that shows some of the more complex things I'm going for with the story. Would love to see what people think of it.
Evangel -
OK, I've been debating posting this for a while, and wasn't sure where to post as I don't visit these forums all that much, but thought I'd give it a go just to see what people thought or if anyone responded. Going to preface this by saying this is a long post, and I apologize for that but wanted to see if there was any interest in this or not.
Some Background Information
For the better part of two years I've been working on a fan project of sorts and playing around with the idea of making a movie based on the City of Heroes content. I am a professional video editor in "real life" and an aspiring screenwriter. I used those skills way back in the day to win the action category of the second (and apparently last) annual CoH video contest with my "Evangel" faux movie trailer. After that I started working on the faux movie trailer that I would submit for the third annual contest but when the third annual contest never came I just started developing more and more and eventually turned it into a fan movie project. So I started writingÂ…
The Movie
About a year later I finished a rough draft of a feature-length movie script based on my then-fledging super group The Guns of Paragon. The script is an action-drama story about a broken super group (the Guns of Paragon) that needs to re-form in light of a growing war in Eastgate - a war between the evil factions of Paragon and the Paragon military and heroes. The script explores a lot of the iconic places and people of the game's lore while focusing on a dramatic tale of this shattered super group that now must regroup to end this war.
And over the course of the last few years I've been refining the script and playing around with different ways to easily bring this movie to life in some shape of form as a fan project for City of Heroes. But the demorecord function has always been a pain in my rear. The positioning and cam mathematics become very burdensome when you try to get into more creative scenes, and making a 2 minute movie is one thing - but a 2 hour movie becomes just painful, especially with advanced fight scenes and heavy dialogue. And even the process of editing a demorecord file becomes painful. So I tried my hand at 3D modeling. I have a background in animation but I have next to no experience in modeling and most of my attempts at building 3D replicas of my supergroup mates and other CoH characters fails miserably. So I've bounced back and forth endlessly trying to find a way to make this movie without spending hours banging my head against a wall and/or without spending money to hire a professional.
So I've been thinking - if it's a fan project, why not ask the fans. The few times I've come to this forum I have noticed the amount of talent this community has. Through past contests I've seen people that have a far far better understanding of the demorecord function than I do. And through avatars, signatures, and links in profiles I've seen people here have great talent with 3D modeling and art. Overall there is just so much skill here that I thought I'd see if people would want to collaborate - instead of one man trying to do everything, why not see if people wanted to mess around on this thing for fun together.
Bringing it to the People
I thought it would be neat to maybe follow a pattern similar to Rooster Teeth and their Red Vs. Blue series - instead of trying to make a 2 hour movie just make little 5 minute chunks and release them here in the forums every two or three weeks. A little fan web-series made by the fans for the fans. And that's where I turn this over to anyone reading this to see if there's any type of interest/response/thumbs up/thumbs down or whatever.
With all of the people here that have talent in modeling, animating, voice acting, etc, do any of you have any interest in working together to make a fan project? Whether it be through in-game demorecording, 3D animation, or otherwise? Dedicating a few hours a week to working on something as a side project just for fun? Or am I crazy? I know it's a huge undertaking and something that would be a slow process of just working for fun in our free time and collaborating over the internet. But I think it would be fun if a handful of people were on board for it and if we could combine our separate talents to make a cool fan project for the CoX community to enjoy!
So let me know what you think. Reply here or send me a tell in game @Evangel
Thanks,
Evangel