Grazel

I believe there were no options on the characters back then for friends list (but some of the others were there but did nothing). Since you hadn't logged in in so long it would have been exempted from the display anyway (being over 90 days since last login with that character). I suspect this may be the issue some at least are running into. They probably pushed the default settings out to characters that were 'eligigible' to show up in the City Vault only to cut down on database access.

I've not heard anything about that, and not sure there will be. Of course I'm of the opinion that it's not needed anymore since it would take a lot of datamining and more whining for them to do something since everyone right now has both sides and they'd have to figure out just what each account purchased (some of us have multiple copies of each side plus gve). Please also keep in mind that there were a fair number of people who played CoH since beta who never picked up CoV, they are 'loyal' customers just like those of us who bought all sides. Also someone could have bought GvE a day before the unlock, does that constitute a 'loyal customer' by your reasoning? I'm not trying to degrade anyone's right to the game, just trying to point out the headaches and types of decisions to make about how to determine a reward and who's 'more deserving'. I feel they took the best, simplest, and most effective method of helping the community as a whole by just unlocking both sides for everyone. It had nothing to do with rewarding one group over another, it was meant to help every player, just like the new feature to get some bonus free time if you can get an inactive (more than 90 days) player to reactivate.

Friends list defaults to hidden, it's the only on of them reversed from the others by default, at least when I looked at my options. If not they should force it to off at first just in case (but then any who had enabled it would have to do so again).

At the meet & greet they previewed City Vault (the part of the website for these features) and it was very well done from what I could see. Of course it was still beta so things could still change before it goes live. I'm hoping we do see a feature either ingame or on the City Vault site that allows for a 'apply to all characters on account' setting.

Swords have two colors where you can apply color (a couple of the weapons don't take tints). The swords the blade is the primary (left) color and the hilt is the secondary (right) color.

There isn't one. You have to be level 25 and have been exposed to time travel. The open beta boards have a list of the badges and souveniers that will trigger the portal power (if you've got them before 25 when you hit 25 you'll get it, otherwise you'll get it as soon as you acquire one of them). If you are 25 or over and don't have the portal yet (its tied to the Keeper of the Secret badge) you can hop thrugh someone elses, go to the top of hte citadel and get the exploration badge there to get the badge/portal power. You then go through a tutorial of sorts to unlock the flashback system and some new TFs.

I was close, I knew there was flower of some kind involved

I doubt he sends her back, since as I recall you get sent into the building to back her up by Coyote so originally she was already there before you arrived and fighting the infected. Take her out and they aren't in check before you get there. Whether intentional by Silos or not it would make sense that half of the problems you're fixing isn't some 'mysteriou person messing with the timestream' but Silos' own messing with the timestream (and the others there that he's recruited).

I'm not convinced Silos is Nemesis, he seems more like Dr. Aeon, whom we already know time travels and has dealings with and some possible connection to the appearance/arrival of the Shivans which from what I've gathered so far are part of the Battallion or related to them in some way.

Also as for the tampering as I've not seen anyone else mention it:

For heros at least Fire Lotus (or whatever her name is, the NPC you rescue in Outbreak) is at Ouroboros and is apparently one of the 'great minds' that Silos gathers to fight the coming storm. What is one of the first things the heros have to do? Go back to Outbreak and clear out the infected who've taken over the whole area and that NPC is nowhere to be found this time around. Seems Silos attempts at stopping the destruction in his future is wreaking havoc with the timeline and possibly causing the event to begin with (a pretty standard time-travel theory, that you can't alter the past and anything you do actually just guarantees the major events of the present still occur).

I believe they're holding off on the respec to give people time to try out the new powersets and still benefit from the free respec since it only gets awarded to characters that exist at the time its handed out.

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I can't get any of it to load or play. I'm going to keep trying, but there's an error with the mwv, and I only load halfway through the quicktime.

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Might be your connection timing out. I downloaded it thn played it rather than try to play it while it downloaded. It was buggy in VCL but the wmv ran fine in Media Player 10.

Gee I wonder how much Silos had to do with the coming storm heh, with comments like "my unparalleled intellect" I suspect a high amount of arrogance and blindness to effects of experimentation that caused the catastrophe and now he's trying to fix his mistake without admitting he made it ("the less you know the better").

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if this is going to be something that reflects our stats on the website, I am against something like this as it just gives the RMT spammers something to work with especially if it is a friends list. I would feel horrible to subject friends to that spamming because I didnt click an option. If it strictly an in game thing then make the friends list non-viewable by default.

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We don't believe this will make it any easier for spammers to reach you.

Additionally, we are aware of the situation with in-game email spam and working to address the problem in a future version of the game.

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As much as I hate to say it, really the best way to do so is to do what EQII and World of Warcraft have done. Don't allow tells or emails to people that do not have you on their friend list. While I can from my trial on EQII say it's annoying as hell if you don't know anyone, having been on both sides, I can say I'd prefer to not have tells/email on my trial than have to deal with the RMT crap on my paid account.

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The tell limit in EQ2 must be tied to the trial accounts. I get tells and can send tells to people not on my friends/their friends list. One thing EQ2 also has done withi the past few months is split the mail up to have a spam tab to filter out possible spam but still let you check it along with a 'report spam' button for stuff that gets through the filter.

There's also the people who will want to check out the members of an SG/VG before they join it, the people who maybe saw someone cool looking at some point and want to see more about that character without pestering them in-game, people who just want to browse through certain ATs, servers, or just random chars to see what other people have thought up/done with the game. There'll be people who aren't playing CoH/CoV yet who might want to check out existing characters to get an idea of what can be done with the game. There's more than just the people who want access to their own/their friends characters. Just because someone themselves doesn't care about the site doesn't mean there's not others out there who might find that person's characters interesting enough to check out.

After reading all the posts here there seems to be a pretty even divide between those who think the default should be on or off (and pretty much everyone agrees friends lists should be off by default, and for many others that want all off by default the big concern seems to be with the friends list).

I won't restate all my views since I already put one very long post in here with details of how I wish the site and options worked and their default settings.

What I wonder at this point though is if there would be this much discussion and concern about the web feature if it was in at launch. As someone pointed out there was a similiar discussion on the WoW forums when they added the armory. I don't recall hearing about anything similar with EQ2players, which was in at or shortly after game launch (I wasn't there at launch but came in shortly after) but do seem to recall it was planned as part of the game experience from the start (and was very buggy at first but lately has gotten better).

The biggest concern at this point seems to be with the friends list and exactly what will show on the site. I'm suspecting they may put up a preview of the site before it goes live so people can see what it will be like and make any changes to settings they want before it goes fully live. I also suspect they did this announcement well in advance of the feature to give people time to make changes to their settings and to provide feedback about concerns and feature suggestions.

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Every character should have a page (RMT spamming isn't a real concern sorry guys. I've always displayed my info in EQ2 and get maybe a single RMT spam a month at most between all my characters).

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For you.

I have a character getting several of them every week in the wee hours of the morning because that stupid "company" got the character's name once.

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I'm not saying it doesn't happen. I'm just pointing out that just by having the char names up on a website doesn't mean that you're guaranteed to get more/any RMT spam. My Vanguard account with no activity and no info on a website got the most RMT spam I've gotten anywhere. Others milage may vary but there's enough evidence to show that putting character names up on a site does not increase the per-character spam received, especially if the site requires a login to browse/search.

I'm glad to see these options finally getting put to use though the way they are now I think creates confusion and a sense of lack of control. LH already mentioned clearing up the wording to make things clearer but below find my suggestion for this. My views are based on using eq2players.com to show off my characters for as long as I've played eq2, using CoX tracking sites, and other games/services that do similar things.

Every character should have a page (RMT spamming isn't a real concern sorry guys. I've always displayed my info in EQ2 and get maybe a single RMT spam a month at most between all my characters). Here's a list of what the page can show

Page Information:
- Name (always shows)
- Paperdoll (either blacked out, no image placeholder or default image by default). Let the players use a screenshot feature to create/update the paperdoll they display so they can show off powers in effect/pose, etc. 1 paperdoll per character.
- Server (always show since diffefrent players may have the same character name on different servers)
- Side (always show)
- Archetype (always show since even in PvP you can see this info just by mousing over)
- Origin (always show, see AT)
- Level (toggable, default to off)
- Powers (toggable, default to on, only in PvP areas is this not viewable and that doesn't stop someone from tracking you down with a toon on the other side, sure this makes it easier but isn't a big deal really)
- Ehancements (toggable, default to off, this is a touchy enough area in PvP as some IOs can be a deciding tactic)
- Badges (toggable, default to on, probably the most used feature of this and fan sites)
- Bio (toggable, default to on, people who don't care about bios usually just have a blank one anyway)
- Souveniers (toggable, default to on, they're like the poor redheaded stepchildren to badgs)
- SG/VG (toggable, default to on)
- Influence/Infamy/Prestige (not shown, there's no reason this should show up on the website or anywhere else for anyone but the player to see)
- Friends List (multiple settings, default to 'player only' - you have to be logged in to see it and only on your own characters, possibly with online/offline status like in-game. Available settings: Off, Player only, Friends only, SG only, Friends/SG, all. The list should only show online/offline status for the player though, nobody else.).
- Global Friends List (viewable by player only and should show the global channels they are in as well)
- Online Statu (toggable, default to off. For privacy sake do not show if the character is logged in at the time by default).
- Show in search (toggable, default to on. For privacy, let the player opt out of having the character be searchable through the site so only if they give a direct link to the characters page can you see it)
- Show alts (toggable, default to off. Some peopl don't mind people knowing their different characters so have the option of turning this on so when someone looks at a character they can see the other characters the player has).

Possible future enhancements:
- Badge progress/checklist (for players looking at their own characters only)
- Access to global chat channels from website if logged in
- Access to SG chat channel from website if logged in (would have to specificy which character to chat as and can only chat to the SG, not coallition, the character belongs to).
- Gallery spot (allow other paperdoll uploads for those who want to show off multiple costumes besides the one paperdoll they get for the character. Can have settings for who can see it: All, Friends, SG, Friends/SG)
- Abilty/option to generate a sig for the forums based on one character or a selection of characters using templates (with possible room for a catchphrase)

Settings:
- Instead of the current set of options it should be a set of checkboxes or dropdowns with Yes/No for each of the toggables and a dropdown with all the possible options for those with more than just a Yes/No selection.
- Ability to manage these settings via the webpage after logging in, either per-character or per-account (make a global change).
- Give the chance on first character log-in after feature goes live (or in a patch before it goes live) to set global defaults for all characters on the account. This saves people having to log in to all alts and they only get this option once via the game (but could make global changes via the site later if they wish). Have these options stored on the account as the default so all new characters created take these settings. If they 'opt out' of this one time global setting then they get the system default settings. This popup/form could also be a good place to explain the features and what it means, avoiing people being able to say they weren't aware of the option.

Now I know part of this, especially in how to set/manage the options is fairly ambitious and as much as I love the feature I'd be more than willing to wait to have it come out after these could be done so that it gets done right and does a decent job of addressing peoples concerns and QoL while still making the feature useful, utilized, and usable.

Of course this doesn't cover some of the more general site side of things like its search capabilities, browsing by side, AT, origin, server, level range, powerset, power, etc.

EDIT: Also would like to add the abiltity to browse should be limited unless the viewer is logged in with an active account (like posting here on the forums). Searching should be limited as well in the same way. Direct links to character pages of course would not requir a login (so people could share with non-playing friends, put in sigs on various forums and sites, etc). This would also cut off some of the concerns with RMT spammers datamining the site (though honestly all they'd need to do is have an active account, log in, and go happy but then its easier to track such behavior to an account and flag it for potential spamming activity).

I don't mind the debt wipe even if it does slow down getting the badges, but seeing as how easy debt is I'm not too worried about it. I have 2 heroes that both SHOULD get debt by their RP. Their whole backstory involves being reborn from a death and further 'deaths' only make them stronger. Besides debt isn't from dying, that's why we wake up in the hospital (or an SG medbay), the citie's teleport grid pulls us to safety when our vitals get below a threshold so we don't die. There's even ingame stories behind people who did die because something interefered.

Also my scrapper died much more often than my blaster (and the scrapper is only 25, the blaster is 50). My stalker has probably had the least amount of deaths so far. All in all, just like the prestige and the other-side unlock, the debt wipe is a small gift that doesn't unbalance anything and some will like, others won't, and the majority are probably unconcerned one way or the other about.

Hmmm guess I could help my tiny (3 person/4toon) VG on Virtue by using those trial codes I have laying around, dual boxing, and inviting a horde of useless alts. Just seems an annoying and akward reward that promotes the wrong type of play (I suspect to hear a lot of recruiting going on and a lot of people after the awarding complaining about being kicked from their SG, not everyone is aware of this upcoming award so may think they're getting legit SG invites).

I think a flat reward regardless of SG size would be more useful. As others have pointed out the small SGs won't get as much of a bonus (between 10 and 24 my villain got 100k prestige for his VG and that's about 75% of the VGs prestige since there's onloy 3 other members) while the big SGs that will get more probably won't notice it as much unless they are mostly inactive accounts or new and went on a recruiting spree.

Of course they could encourage SGs to trim inactive members by making the reward reverse proportional: give 20k prestige for each member LESS than the new cap that the SG has, then even a SG at the old cap would get 1.5mil prestige while a 1 person SG would get just shy of 3mil

Well I'll be there as well. Got a double at the Mariott all for myself mwahahahaha!

Flight gets into to SJC around noon and I fly out about 2:30pm the next day. Couldn't afford an extra night unfortunately since I do plan on being back in San Jose in January.

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Edited to rub it in: Neologisms FTW!

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I love you. Are you married?

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I am, sorry. I believe in polyamory, but my relationship is currently explicitly monogamous. I'll send you a PM if this changes.*


* KIDDING! Please, no flowers, valentines, or chocolates. OK, maybe chocolates*.

* Kidding again. I'm diabetic*.

* Wish I was kidding this time.

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Don't worry, I won't tell if you won't

And I'm talking abou the chocolate not the other things.... honestly!

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you're kidding, right?

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Nope, this is failry standard practice in games actually. The core engine that CoH/V is built on was developed by Cryptic and remains theirs. The IP (which is the content of the game itself) is what NCSoft bought from Cryptic straight out. They likely just have a license agreement that is either a lump sum for use of the engine or a yearly fee. Any changes and enhancments that NCSoft NorCal makes to the engine are theirs alone. They probably also have the option to get updated core engine versions from Cryptic should they choose, though that would only be useful for a new game rather than to put into CoH/V.

Many companies just make and license game engines and never design a game around the engine. Others will put out a single game to showcase their engine in hopes of getting game studios to license their engine rather than have to create their own from scratch. Vanguard runs off the Unreal engine, many games came out based off the Quake and Halflife engines (or variants thereof), and the supposed in the works Firefly MMO is using the Multiverse engine. Other games/systems out there will use base engines that handle some core functionality but don't provide full game functionality, like the Havok phsyics engine that gets used in other engines and systems (like SecondLife which is still using Havok1 but testing for an upgrade to Havok4). In this day and age very few major games code entirely from scratch, most use a variety of software suites/engines as building blocks for their game. This helps in some ways since you don't need a math genius to develop your physics engine just to be able to make a game and can instead hire another level/class/graphcis designer.

A couple notes:

Those getting 'hooked up' with the other side don't get anything else that came with the purchase of hte other sid via retail (GvE goodies, free month play, access prior to today, etc.) It might be a nice gesture by NCSoft to credit in free game time another month or so for those who had one side for a while and just recently (past month at most) added the other side, but its only a nice gesture not a requirement. The EULA and such even states such things about service availability, price changes, content changes, etc. Also fee lucky you're not just getting into EQ2 without checking up on things, the new expansion is going to includeall the prior expansions and adventure packs for one 'low' price. Someone who wanted to play and decided to buy them all seperately before knowing about something coming out in under a month (suppsedly) would be out even more than the 20-30$ paid by someone here (after all EQ2 has 3 previous expansions nad 3 adventure packs, the lowest cost of one of those being 10$).

As for the handover, its not so much a 'buyout' as it is a change in management. CoX already went through this once when States stepped back from active involvement and in the opinions of some the game improved after that. As others have pointed out this isn't a new company taking over the franchise, its one partner buying out the other's interest in the franchise. We've kept the dev team almost 100% intact too which is something that RARELY happens with buyouts, and with mergers usually is just a holdover until the 'old guard' can be phased out. In this case the former-Cryptic were offered jobs with NCSoft and they accepted, something that bodes well for us and them.

As for content, CoX has provided more free content additions than any other MMO I've played which generally relegate free 'content' updates to handfuls of quests, some art, power/combat balances, and teasers for content that you have to pay to fully access. While I11 does borrowon existing content it also adds new content/features: 2 powersets, weapon customization (and if it works may lead to more powersets being customizable), Oroborous TFs/missions (not just flashback of old stuff but some new arcs as well),and purple IO sets. At the basest level none of this is 'new' content as it all builds on exising engines, systems, and content but its more than a pure rehashing of content as it builds upon and expands the existing content and engine.

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okay if you guys are in the carolinas I am so there.

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Sorry, Washington state here, though once I'm done with my software development classes in June, I'm hoping to have a good reason to move to Mountain View.

Here's to hoping this announcement is DOUBLE good news for me. Staffing up GOOD!

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Uh-oh, do I sense a Digipen student? You know its funny I keep finding out about other CoX players around me but have yet to actually meet any of them lol. Heck one even works in the building acros the street from where I live.

But that will only work for the final pool of recipes. Remember that the recipes are broken up into level ranges.

Another possible solution: Police band missions that the detectives give that chain together and can be done only when you've outlevelled that detective. Basically dynamic 'arcs' that can be used to try to get recipes you've missed by outlevelling (or completing the normal arcs without getting all the recipes). Maybe have a limited number of them that can be run to avoid farming recipes. This would take less coding than flashbacks as well as provide even more content for people to play through. There'd be no reason to make the new missions anythong other than grey/no-xp so the only reason to run them is for fun and recipes.

After playing a few safeguards and mayhems I have to say the safeguard missions are much more difficult and much less fun. I have more than once been failed out of a safeguard within 2 minutes. The problem is usually with the villain that spaws. This happens most often on my blaster (doing them from 45-50) because he gets Critical Mass and between the villain and his helpers I usually can't stay alive long enough to do any damage while in the bank. And even outside the knockback and stun attacks usually allow the thief to get away before I can do anything to stop them. If I can get past the bank robbery the rest is usually doable though with jailbreaks I've never succeeded. It seems there's always exploding mobs that will take out my hero causing the side mission to 'fail' even when the mob that explodes is the last one to deal with (especially when dealing with embalmed). Safeguards would be much more worthwhile if they weren't so easily failed due to random villain spawns and the large clusters you get outsie and inside the bank (usually 2 spawns of 'guards' outside, and a spawn or two of guards just inside plus the robbery team spawn, and that's on heroic/solo). I've not had a chance to try the mid-level safeguards yet, just AP, KR, FF, and PI.

Just because its on the 'blue' side of the bar and near the hero portals doesn't mean that's a "heros only" section of the bar. I've often seen villains on that side, PC and NPC. And while you may find issue with watching Rikti Monkeys fight as far as I can tell its a legitimate business run fairly. Its also where you can find the Pocket D arena for heroes and/or villains to fight each other. Not everyone views betting, gambling, or monkey fights as something disreputable, illegal, illicit, or bad. It's not like the club isn't segregated off and clearly not part of the main dance floor or blue side bar. Should they remove the bars from the blue-side as well since if you look they have bottles of alcohol and they don't ID! My 17yo heroes could just as easily get something from the bartender as a 50yo villain. Pocket D is a neutral ground free of the rules of BOTH sides. Sure it has a blue and red side that are themed to go with the zones that connect off those regions but I don't think that any area that can be gotten two by both heroes or villains is classifiable as a 'hero side' or 'villain side' of things. And why should the red-side get both the VIP lounge and the arena?