Hellguard

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well, I've gotten salvage from one, and I could have sworn I remembered someone else in one of my hunts mentioning a recipe, but you may be correct. I think you're confusing the guaranteed drop with the random chance drop. I know GMs don't have a guaranteed drop like AVs, to prevent farming, however I don't think their random drop is nerfed.

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Doctor Brainstorm says :

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Giant Monsters don't drop recipes so they are not farmed for recipes, causing camping issues we are actively trying to avoid. As for reasons to fight Giant Monsters... well the Hive and the Abyss now contain very good reasons to defeat these guys.


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Unless this has changed since the Doc posted that? (Obviously, the story arc recipe drop was done away with, so other stuff from that post may be obsolete now too.)

Just out of curiosity... if anyone was in a situation to know... for the time(s) when you're in the Fab in Grandville, does it require turning off geometry buffers on an ATI 9200 series video card to avoid the prismatic light show you get in the "real" Grandville if you don't turn them off?

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My big question is by "8 pages" do you mean a cover and 7 pages of content or an 8 pages of content which would make the book technicly 9 pages.

Inquireing minds gots ta know.

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It says in the rules that you can have a cover in addition to 8 pages of actual comic, for a total of 9 submitted pages.

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There is another option. You can drop the mission from the contact that sent you to Wincott. You get the XP as if you ran from KR all the way to The Hollows and back, but you don't get Wincott added to your contact list.

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You don't get XP from the "mission" that sends you to meet Wincott, whether you actually do it or drop it.

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To be fair, this is Bridger's actual quote (emphasis mine):

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I don't actually know how many US players are involved - as I said, the bulk of the testers are Cryptic and NCsoft staff, and some of their friends and family (which would probably account for some, if not all, of the players).

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He (she?) was responding to disgruntled EUers who thought American players were in the closed test while they weren't. I can't believe that Cryptic didn't put some ringers in there like Iakona and Arcanaville. Unless they have friends and relatives who are insanely into the game, they won't get the quality of feedback they would from hardcore CoX-heads.

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The way I read it, I think Bridger is saying that of course *some* US players were invited, since surely *some* people who would be "friends or family" of Cryptic/NCSoft would already be players. That's a far cry from having representatives of the real playerbase involved, though.

And I think the only way people like Iakona or Arcanaville could have gotten in this thing is if they were related to or personal friends with Cryptic or NCSoft employees. They wouldn't have gotten in just based on their knowledge and number-crunching skills.

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If you're right, that's bad news.

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Well, it's not all that terrible really. There will be at least a few weeks of open testing where people like Arcanaville, Iakona, EvilGeko, and others can shine.

The worst part about the way they're going about the closed i9 testing isn't the closed testing itself; it's the way they handled telling us about it. Which wouldn't be the first time that statement would be true about stuff in this game...

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To be fair, this is Bridger's actual quote (emphasis mine):

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I don't actually know how many US players are involved - as I said, the bulk of the testers are Cryptic and NCsoft staff, and some of their friends and family (which would probably account for some, if not all, of the players).

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He (she?) was responding to disgruntled EUers who thought American players were in the closed test while they weren't. I can't believe that Cryptic didn't put some ringers in there like Iakona and Arcanaville. Unless they have friends and relatives who are insanely into the game, they won't get the quality of feedback they would from hardcore CoX-heads.

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The way I read it, I think Bridger is saying that of course *some* US players were invited, since surely *some* people who would be "friends or family" of Cryptic/NCSoft would already be players. That's a far cry from having representatives of the real playerbase involved, though.

And I think the only way people like Iakona or Arcanaville could have gotten in this thing is if they were related to or personal friends with Cryptic or NCSoft employees. They wouldn't have gotten in just based on their knowledge and number-crunching skills.

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friends and family of employees eh? well thats not going to be remotely bias feedback in anyway is it? Nosireebob

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Eh, I don't even mind that, to be honest. I even understand why they chose to do it that way, although I question the quality of information they're actually going to get out of it.

What I mind is that we weren't told that in the first place, that we were in fact told that they wouldn't be revealing how they chose the testing group, and that we have to get that info from the UK community mod.

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Plus, I have faith in the elite group of testers they have on Beta now

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This made me LOL.

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Yeah. heh.

You know what I'm going to stop arguing/whining about this.

Clearly when I9 comes out we'll see who is proven right/wrong.

For me, I'll just stand back, stick to trading with my friends, and watch the fun.

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Well, the fact that Posi posted as recently as yesterday about an obviously flawed "consignment house" system tells me the group on Test right now (however they were picked) either isn't doing a fabulous testing job (and I don't think anyone would be surprised by that) or maybe they're just not focusing on the mechanics of the selling system yet.

Eh, there'll be plenty of time for the real playerbase to see i9 on Test and cause all sorts of havoc with this system, so maybe we can change it before it goes live.

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Seriously. Makes me wonder who the hell the got testing this stuff. Chimps?


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Actually, Bridger just posted over on the UK forums that it's mostly Cryptic and NCSoft staff and their friends and family. Whether they're chimps or not, I won't weigh in on.










Personal opinion is no, probably not chimps, but YMMV.

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Plus, I have faith in the elite group of testers they have on Beta now

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This made me LOL.

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Yeah. heh.

You know what I'm going to stop arguing/whining about this.

Clearly when I9 comes out we'll see who is proven right/wrong.

For me, I'll just stand back, stick to trading with my friends, and watch the fun.

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Well, the fact that Posi posted as recently as yesterday about an obviously flawed "consignment house" system tells me the group on Test right now (however they were picked) either isn't doing a fabulous testing job (and I don't think anyone would be surprised by that) or maybe they're just not focusing on the mechanics of the selling system yet.

Eh, there'll be plenty of time for the real playerbase to see i9 on Test and cause all sorts of havoc with this system, so maybe we can change it before it goes live.

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Plus, I have faith in the elite group of testers they have on Beta now

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This made me LOL.

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Player A1 puts up a Level 12 TO for 5,000,000 inf.

Player B1 puts up the same Level 12 TO for 1,000 inf.

Player A2 (trying to transfer funds) offers to buy that level 12 TO for 5,000,000 inf.

Since player B1 wants less, and is obviously trying to move his items faster, his "for sale" is processed first, so he ends up with 5,000,000 inf (minus fees).

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but if the auctions are labeled by server/player names, then wouldnt we obviously be able to which one to buy?

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They're NOT labeled; it's all anonymous. You don't know who you're buying from or selling to. To buy something, you make an offer; you don't even see the selling price.

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how would spine burst theoretically work if the spines couldn't come out from under the armor?

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Very messily.

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Please take a look through at least these threads. The "out of sync" thing cropped up a little under a month ago and is incredibly frustrating.

Out of sync thread #1

Out of sync + other issues

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Interesting. I have yet to experience this in CoH/V, but I see it a lot in WoW (or at least something very similar -- specificially constant "out of range" messages when I'm right next to mobs). With WoW, it corrects itself after a short while, and it sounds like it's a bit more extreme here, but I wonder what causes it and if it might be the same in both cases...

Thanks for the list, Posi. Now, if I may hi-jack the thread a bit since I know you'll be reading ( ), may I ask about salvage storage bins... specifically why can't we (at least) view (and maybe even use) salvage that is in a storage bin from worktables in our bases? The patch notes for issue 7 specifically state that you can "see" salvage in the bins from a worktable, but this has never actually been the case in game.

I know it may be a minor issue given crashes, lag, and framerate drops, but it's a fairly big issue for base architects. It would also be nice to hear if there are any plans to change the permissions scheme for base storage to make it a bit more secure and still allow new (read: untrusted) members to take from specific bins without giving them access to everything.

On topic: I really appreciate the work you guys are doing to make the game a better experience. A lot of folks undoubtedly think you're not working fast enough, but I think most of us still have faith in you guys.

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I'm extremely disappointed that an image of Statesman would be used in such a way. I know that we designed City of Heroes to appeal to "children of all ages." My proudest accomplishment with the game is that many parents (including my brother) play with their children...sharing, I hope, the same joy for the comic book world that I've had ever since I was 8. I cannot express the shock that I felt seeing that a character created by Cryptic would be used in the same sentence as Columbine.

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My jaw literally dropped open when I saw States in that trailer, especially right at the moment he was in. Couldn't believe it.

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Heh, I'm just slightly disappointed I have to wait 24 hours to upgrade my second account.

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I hope you have a different card because it would not let me use my card twice for different accounts.

I got on a different system, went through the whole process and got "You Have Exceed The Maximum Number of Codes Allowable For This Card".

Arg...

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Yeah, it appears to allow only 1 code purchase per day per IP address, and 1 code purchase per MONTH per credit card...

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Are people starting to see GvE in stores now? I called all of the Wal-Marts in my area again today and those that didn't leave me on hold for 20 minutes still don't have it yet. The only salesperson that had any clue what I was talking about said to try back tomorrow or Wednesday and maybe possibly they might potentially have it. Or not, he doesn't know.

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I went to the 3 Wal-Mart Supercenters in my area, and none of them had it. The folks working in the electronics section didn't know what it was, but an employee at one of the Wal-Marts didn't know what City of Villains was either, and they had *that* on their shelves.

I work in retail myself, and employees not knowing about a new product before it comes in really isn't that much of a surprise. However, when something is advertised as an exclusive where I work, most of us at least have an idea of what that thing is, and the people working in our electronics area have at least a passing familiarity with the titles we carry.

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I really have to question the wisdom of this Wal Mart exclusivity deal. Aside from the complete screw up that the release has been, I don't think this was a smart decision. How likely is your average Wal Mart customer to play MMOs? I would submit that they are far, far, less likely to be into MMOs than people who shop in places like EB Games and the like. Just because Wal Mart has a wide reach, I don't think its really going to reach the sort of audience that is interested in MMOs.

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Agreed.

Going with the usual distribution to all retailers (Best Buy, EB, etc.) would likely have gotten the game into a lot more new players' hands. Wal Mart is a big retailer but apart from "soft" titles like The Sims, how much do they sell to the more hardcore MMO player? I've never bought a game there, myself.

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Wal-Mart is where I bought my original CoH...

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Well, uh, good for you I guess. But the point is not that no one ever buys an MMORPG from Walmart, but that people are far more likely to buy MMOs from game stores.

I mean, the Walmart I went into had a game section that was dominated by Barbie and Dora The Explorer games. Somehow, I think they're aiming at a different demographic than EB and the like.

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Oh, absolutely. But I'm not a hardcore MMO'er, and I don't visit game stores very frequently. The first place I personally saw CoH *was* Wal-Mart, although it was a review in some magazine that convinced me to pick it up.

And I would imagine hardcore gamers go to Wal-Mart as often as anyone does, so Wal-Mart's not an inherently *bad* place to sell games. It's just an awful choice to use as an exclusive distributor, for the reasons everyone's noted here.

If Wal-Mart was a reliable distributor for games or software, then it wouldn't have been nearly as bad a decision, simply because there are Wal-Marts in a lot of places where there just aren't game stores. But I think it's such common knowledge that Wal-Mart sucks when it comes to reliability or timeliness that it's hard to imagine anyone with a brain having anything to do with the GvE exclusivity deal.

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I really have to question the wisdom of this Wal Mart exclusivity deal. Aside from the complete screw up that the release has been, I don't think this was a smart decision. How likely is your average Wal Mart customer to play MMOs? I would submit that they are far, far, less likely to be into MMOs than people who shop in places like EB Games and the like. Just because Wal Mart has a wide reach, I don't think its really going to reach the sort of audience that is interested in MMOs.

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Agreed.

Going with the usual distribution to all retailers (Best Buy, EB, etc.) would likely have gotten the game into a lot more new players' hands. Wal Mart is a big retailer but apart from "soft" titles like The Sims, how much do they sell to the more hardcore MMO player? I've never bought a game there, myself.

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Wal-Mart is where I bought my original CoH...

Just out of curiosity, do any of you guys realize that before today, this thread had its last reply in November of 2004?

Not that I care. I enjoy thread necromancy, actually. Just wondering.

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wow... now im really really depressed.

i had to deactivate my account for about 20 months because i was going through a rough time and didnt have enough money to pay for it. Oh well, 12 month veteran reward for me then.

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I'm not sure what you were expecting. I don't think even the people who are confused about Cuppa's statements are expecting time that wasn't paid/subscribed for to be included in the reward calculation...

From what CuppaJo said, and from how CoV Beta invites were treated, it'll be based on how many months your account has been active up to the current date. This will include any free months given by the original CoH purchase, CoV, Hero Gear kits, etc. This will not include future subscription time (like if you pay for 3 years in advance or whatever, they'd only count the subscription time up until the current date).

(The not counting future subscription time thing I'm not absolutely positive about. But based on what we've been told so far -- which is not nearly as confusing as the more worry-prone among us seem intent on making it out to be -- veteran's rewards are not going to be based on the "total paid time" in your account screen, or how many hours you've got logged on your toons, or how much you suck up to the Devs, or anything other than "total subscribed time.")

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I really hope they get this worked out before the rewards go live..

after all.. mine says this..

1 Years, 4 Months
Account Created
Apr 04 2004

Granted a missed about 4 months or so.. but .....

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There's nothing to "get worked out." The calculation they're going to use has nothing to do with the "paid time" showing on your NCSoft account page. It's subscribed time, which includes all the free months that would have come with boxed purchases, as Cuppa has already said.

It would lessen the confusion if they'd put subscribed time on your account page instead of (or at least in addition to) "paid time," but at any rate you can stop worrying. The time you see on your account page is not the one they're using for the vet rewards calculation...

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Consider the amount of mostly intelligent discussion this has generated...I wouldn't say I was entirely batty.

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You weren't batty at all. You just asked a valid question, and until they put "subscribed time" into the account info there will be people worried about it. Granted, the same question has popped up in various other threads over the last couple weeks, but you managed to attract CuppaJo to your thread!

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Is it possible just ONCE to wait till something is released before going completely batty.


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Nope.