ImpulseKing

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OK, but this is anecdotal stuff. I've never found one in my VGs, you've never been in one without it. Do you play on freedom? Maybe all the bases on Freedom suck?

I don't think it changes the argument too much either way, and don't really think the devs should be trying to restrict what limited dev created content exists to organized SG/VGs, though.

[/ QUOTE ]Perhaps I can provide some context, although I may not change your mind. The Silver Mantis SF came out with the rest of CoV. No surprises there. If you recall, this is also the same time we got SG bases. The Devs tried to encourage checking out all the new aspects of CoV and one of the ways they did this was linking this SF and the Cathedral of Pain to the mission computer.

So that's the why as far as I can tell. Personally I like this SF and have run it multiple times, including a PUG run.

The Devs try new things all the time (for which I am thankful). Sometimes they hit it out of the park like with character creation. Other times the results are less spectacular. Them's the breaks, but I'm glad they try.

Yes we do have a large GLBT population on Vic. Both red and blue. Virtue does give us a run for our money however. Here's a fun trivia fact, the game's first Gay/Gay-friendly SG Prism located itself on our beloved server. While it didn't survive for long as an Sg on live, about a year or so, it had been active on the CoH forums well before beta. I happened to be the first straight member, but not the last!

Anyone that might want to learn more about Victory's, or the game's, GLBT population is encouraged to join the Pride global channel. It's a public channel, so typing "/chan_join Pride" ingame and you're in! We're a helpful bunch regardless of orientation.

Another trivia fact. At HeroCon's dinner event, there were 2 tables for Victory. 1 of them was filled with Pride members.

Now as to why Victory in particular might be known for our GLBT community? My guess would be events like the Rainbow Prom and National Coming Out Day celebrations garnered good press for the game itself. Which the NCNC community folks highlighted on the forums.

I hope that provides some of the answers the OP may have been looking for.

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I'm just curious if a SG/VG prestige rank matters to the playerbase anymore.

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To the playerbase? In my opinion yes. Mind you there are VASTLY more folks ingame than here on the forums. And many of them less experienced and/or jaded, so to them, yeah it can matter.

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I know when bases first came out there were prestige wars and if you were #1 in rank for prestige it was a matter of pride.

But that was then. Does anyone still feel the same way?

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By and large, prestige is much less important now. BUT there is important context to understand with that statement.

Ya see, the Devs have, over the years, made some VERY significant changes to the ways in which we spend prestige. Back in the early days of bases your rent was a % of all the prestige the SG had EVER earned minus rent [If I'm off, someone will correct me.]. I have seen base rents approaching and passing 1 million! Plus if you wanted to try out that baseraid stuff you had seen on your CoV box, well at that point the top 100 was basically the list of those that even had the OPTION to explore it. (Okay, that was my experience on Victory.) Those were some good reasons to care back then.

Nowadays bases have a MUCH easier time of it! In a nutshell players can now make more prestige for the same enemies AND stuff costs much less.

Here's another twist to consider... what if Mender Silos is the Preatorian Nemisis instead of "ours"? This also provides intriguing insights into who might be writing letters.

On a more practical note concerning the "Prepare for assault" remark, I think it means another invasion type event. There's even an obvious trigger in someone switching sides.

Ok Logan, I sent you a PM on the topic of lectures and kept a copy so I can forward it to anyone else that might express an interest. I'm not shy about sharing this idea, so I'd like to add that in addition to the obvious larger groups like Victory United and P.E.R.C., lectures are also good activities for SGs and coalitions as well.

Sounds like you are taking the right steps and attitude to me Logan. And at some point, I'll be able to attend an event or 2. (My worktimes make it hard though.)

Speaking of events, I'd like to toss out a couple of event ideas I've used in the past. These can be used by Victory United, P.E.R.C., or anyone else interested in doing something a little different.

1. Lecture night.
The basic idea here is to share your knowledge on a topic with an audience. The lecture nights would be regularly scheduled, but speakers can rotate as desired. (I recall P.E.R.C.'s own Scootertwo giving a lecture on Binds and Macros a few years ago in his VG base. Loved it by the way!)

2. Lowbie zone buffing hour.
The idea here is to help speed folks through the lower levels by encouraging them to street sweep in relative safety. And buff, debuff, or control that does no damage can work. Tanks/Brutes in Granite Armor taunting mobs to them, many AOE holds, anchor debuffs,.. the list goes on. Just be sure to let folks that don't want in on say, speed boost, tell you and respect it and it should go well.

Use these ideas freely or not as you desire.

Well bleep. Ok guess I have some gift material handy then, and I gotta buy the GF a timecard as she had the same situation.
Thanks muchly for the answer.

Hoping to use it as a combination time card and booster pack purchase. I should mention that I ran out and purchased AE when it hit stores and upgraded then. Can I only upgrade once or is this a known bug that my search-fu failed me on?

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I don't see a reason for this. PERC exists, VB and VB09 exist. Maybe I'm just too observant, but I see more events happening on this server than I could possibly attend even if I wanted to attend them all.

Yet another channel for me to have to monitor? No thank you.

Use the forums to organize events - that is what they are there for. I fail to see what creating some mega-alliance of supergroups is going to accomplish except to make the organizers feel important.

This smacks of a solution looking for a problem.

-Escher

[/ QUOTE ]I believe I understand your position. However I see no reason to attempt to dissuade ANYone from helping others enjoy their time on our home server. In my opinion helping others is not a "territory" to be guarded. Rather it's just being a good and decent neighbor. It's my firm belief this should be encouraged, as in the end, it helps us all.

Ok.. so soapboxes tend to sneak up on me. Don't laugh until it happens to you.

I would just like to say that although I was unable to attend, I DO like the spirit in which this is intended! Now some folks have criticized the grammar, so I would like to offer a serviceable solution. If you would PM me in advance with the essence of what you want to say, I can respond with a writeup few will fret over. Clicking my signature will give a good example of my writing ability.

While I wish I could promise to attend events, my RL prevents me from that. I CAN promise to try however.

I am on no committee. My SGs (4 on Vic) aren't doing coalitions. And I lurk a lot more than I used to. However I will offer my aid and support as an individual and hope that others might follow the positive example.

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How will level scaling work? Will every mission automatically scale to your current level (+ difficulty, team size, etc.) or will it be predetermined by the "architect"?

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This is complicated. Every critter has a level range where they are valid. When you make a mission, all of the level ranges must overlap at some point. If you are outside this level range when you go to play the mission you will be brought up or down to the level rang of the mission.

Example, I use critters A (1-54), B (34-45) and C (40-48). The level range of the mission is (40-45).

If I am level 5, I will play mission at level 40.
If I am level 50, I will play mission at level 45.
If I am level 42 I will play at level 42.
If I am level 5, but have set my difficulty to max, I will play at level 38.


Note: I said mission here, not arc, each mission has an independent level range.

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In Soviet Russia, mission's scale YOU!


Sorry, couldn't resist.

Okies, lots of new info comes to us today. And honestly it may take some time to get it all down here. For now, the official links are a good start.

The Issue 14 overview page on the main site was updated. Nice assortment of screenshots at the bottom.

A nice surprise is the Rooster Teeth video starring Captain Dynamic. Almost no actual Architect info in it, but a lot of fun provided you stay away from the awesome button.

Discussion:Issue 14 FAQ is today's golden ticket. Scroll through it and there are several Dev responses, clarifications, and additional info. (Loved the variables!)

However the quickest way to see what the Devs are saying remains the Dev Digest. It's a compilation of the most recent Dev posts and one of my 1st stops on every forum visit.

Last up is this article on Massively.com.

Pretty full plate!

Oh and now on a 2nd edit of this post, Warhammer announces City of Heroes Architect Edition!

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NP. Yeah, you can choose contacts for storyline and RP purposes, but the actual "contacts" and "doors" for missions will always be in the Architect Entertainment buildings.

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Thanks Obsidius, you are correct. It's part of the price we pay for the Architect missions being available to both heroes and villains.

My villains can't get to the Hollows while my Heroes can't get to Monster Island. Such is the limitation of our virtual life.

Hi all. If you haven't heard, i14 closed beta starts today. I do not yet know if I am in it and before I do, I felt the urge to stop in here and be clear about how I, personally, am going forward with keeping this guide updated and complying with any Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) I may find myself agreeing to at the same time.

For those who may not know what all I'm talking about, the next free update or "issue" just started limited testing. One of the perks of attending Herocon was to be an invite to this testing or "beta". There was no guarantee made that I recall of exactly what point in beta Herocon attendees would be admitted.

Here's the obvious rub. Testing the game in beta comes at the price of agreeing to an NDA that says you won't blab about being in beta or what's in it until NCNC says we can.

So IF I'm in beta, I cannot tell you. This makes it pointless to ask at best.

AND... I will choose not to comment here on any information that isn't available from official releases.

I would like offer appreciation for your generous understanding in advance!

Ok back to the guide in progress.

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Very disappointed at the lack of reskinning/changing factions. One thing I really wanted was the freedom to add new and very different groups, to avoid stepping on dev toes and their canon.

Meh.

[/ QUOTE ]An interesting perspective. I might respond that the Devs have VERY thick skin. Tell the stories you want to tell and the Devs will not be offended in the least. (Mandatory disclaimer: This assumes they are within the boundries of TOS and EULA.)

They WANT us to have our fun, that's the entire point.

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One question I do have that I'm not sure has been addressed here.

I know that published, public story arcs will be available across all US servers... but will that also include the European ones as well? (I've got a few fans over there that would love to play through my arcs, but I'm here and they're there.)

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

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Yeah that IS a good question! It wasn't directly addressed at Herocon and so it isn't "known", but I'm unwilling to completely snuff out hope based on a detail that WAS mentioned.

The Architect, like the markets, will have their own dedicated servers. So I propose a corallary(sp?) question. Do the same market servers for the US also interact with the European servers? That may offer our best clue.

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here is the question you can add to your list ImpulseKing will we be able to add effects like fog thing DA.

im thinking how creepy some of the open area mission would look with that effect.

the second one will we have open air missions?

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Whether or not we will be able to add fog or other weather effects wasn't addressed at Herocon, so I can't say. My instinct would be not at launch as we have a few fogged maps already.

As M_B pointed out, yes there will be outdoor maps available as all premade maps including unique ones will be in at launch. (Just replayed Tavish Bell's Code Merlin yesterday. Excellent indoor fogged map on the last mish. I highly recommend checking it out sooner over later.)

And thanks for the link JDouble! I had forgotten that particular post. Still not ready to call it known, but I suspect we will get it confirmed one way or the other within a month or so.

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I think Wyll pretty much has that under control, Axe.

Glad to hear more news about Sister Flame, I hope MA stories are cross server so i can get I chance to play hers.

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They are. Click the signature to find out what we know of the Architect as yet.

This thread is also a favorite of mine and one of the 1st things I chose to show my girlfriend when I introduced her to the game. She now has her own account and I thank Wyll and Sister Flame for their help.

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thx ImpulseKing good work had a question oh

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Mission Architect knowledge base

4. So what do I expect from playing one of these missions?

Well to start with, there can actually be up to FIVE missions in a published arc.

8. Publish.

This is where you submit your blood, sweat, and tears for the enjoyment of the masses. Or so we all hope. Here's the kicker though, you can only have three (3) published missions per ACCOUNT. Now you can publish and UNpublish at will, so please lower the DOOM meter and restart your heart. Go on, we'll wait.


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a little confused here
FIVE missions in a published arc.

Here's the kicker though, you can only have three (3) published missions per ACCOUNT.

do you mean 3 published arc im not sure if this has been pointed out yet

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Yeah it's 3 published arcs. Each of which may include 1-5 missions. So far that's turned out to be the detail I made least clear in my guide.

I'm chalking it up to experience that I'll use the next time I write a guide though.

And I'm glad you enjoyed it!

If you haven't checked out the guide in my sig yet, you may well be interested.

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If your can't earn merits from MA story arcs....well, I'll just say that would be a shame.

[/ QUOTE ]So far as it's known, no i13 merits will be awarded through the Architect. However there will be "skee ball tickets" awarded. How these might be redeemed is presently unknown.

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Merits for the Hall of Fame missions might be good...

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I would assume that once a mission is chosen as worthy of Hall of Fame/Devs Choice status, it would give all rewards as normal.

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This is not presently known. And I'm afraid I haven't seen anything to support it. Sorry.

This Architect info was released today. Not really anything new, but I promised in the initial post to keep our known info as up to date as possible.

Paragon Journal on the Architect.

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9. Ability to combine mission types?


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9 could you give more detail on this question?



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I think what is meant here is the ability to combine objectives in your mission.

For example "Find the clue, kill the boss, escort out the prisoner, oh, and you have 12 minutes."

[/ QUOTE ]Thanks! While I don't see why not, it isn't "known" at this time.

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Um. I think it is, actually. I was at the panel, and I remember that very distinctly they said you can have multiple mission objectives.

[/ QUOTE ]True, but we don't yet know what limits multiple objectives have, so I erred on the side of caution. My reasoning being that I'd rather give the Devs wiggle room to impress us than risk overhyping and being disappointed.

Oh and add another gratz for your badge count. (My own MM has something like 458 badges.)

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Disclaimer. I have no particular expectation that Pohsyb or any other Dev will post in this thread as I cannot recall ever seeing a redname post in a player guide. Wouldn't object of course! But I just can't expect it.

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*Looks up from table* Best crow I've ever eaten!

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This guide has been linked to our "New Users" Guide that we are currently designing.

Thank you for your contributions.

Ex

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Ok, what can I say but

WOOOOOT!!!! *Does a happy dance and bounces off the walls.*

Er, umm.. I mean thank you. This news is MOST gratifying.

Also 1st after a redname.)