LightSide

Hunh. I said: "I don't think that I specifically have been running around yelling doom, and I certainly have not meant to come across that way. If I have, I apologize for the miscommunication."

and you said:

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*sings the doom song*

Doom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoom

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...not sure how to have a value added, content focused, conversation with you. But I guess if your song makes you happy, that's a good thing.

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since when did a possibility become a certainty?

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Since when did "I foresee..." or "I suspect..." become "It's a certainty that..." ?

Sometimes people just mean what they type.

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<QR>

Lighthouse is only warning us of the possibility. With the server upgrade, they just don't know what it's going to be like.

Forewarned is forearmed, drop the doom.

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Actually, to me, Lighthouse is telling us about new functionality, or at best functionality which has never been used before.

I really did used to laugh at the concept of getting in line to be able to log on to the server on which you wanted to play and I really did used to think that CoH was different in many respects, a prime example of which was no-wait servers. Previous to this, I have never heard of CoH server that was up but to which you could not log in.

I don't think that I specifically have been running around yelling doom, and I certainly have not meant to come across that way. If I have, I apologize for the miscommunication. To me there are two non-doom but interesting things going on that I think are worth comment:

1) We were told that the servers were being upgraded and that there was a hardware "reinvestment" going on. And shortly after that we were told that servers would cap out and not allow people to log in when they reach some level of logged on players. When I heard about the server upgrades, server lock downs were probably the last thing that I would have guessed would have resulted from that. Hence an observation of cognitive dissonance from myself.

2) An expression of concern that I will not be able to play on the two servers that I consider my 'main' servers and into which I have put my scarcest resource (time) in developing bases and the heroes I am currently playing. Concern is not doom. It is a fact that I don't know if I will be able to play on them or not this weekend and it is also a fact that I will be disappointed if I cannot.

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situations like this are why i have alts on just about every server.

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I've got alts on different servers, but my current two projects that I'm enthused about are:

1) getting a Elec/Nrg blaster high enough to have Short Circuit & Power Boost so I can see what it's like to drain mobs of endurance and,

2) getting a AR/Ice blaster high enough so I can see what it's like to use Ignite in conjunction with Ice Patch.

Both blasters need about 4 more levels each to get there. That's not a special plan in light of 2x exp, it's what I have been doing for the last two weeks and would like to continue with this weekend. Both blasters are on Freedom.

It's hard to muster enthusiasm for playing an alt on Triumph or Justice - alts that I haven't focused on in years, old 50's or powersets that don't peak my interest at the moment - simply because I can't log on to the server which hosts my two blasters.

If I was told I couldn't play those blasters, and if I was going to let what I played be dictated by the double xp then my next focus would be:

a) Earn prestige for my SG on Freedom

b) Earn prestige for my SG on Virtue

c) Get my level 49 tank (on Freedom) to level 50

Hmm, not going to have much luck there. And of course, my SG bases on Freedom and Virtue are the ones with all the zone teleporters and amenities; the bases on Triumph and Justice are shells. And I don't think it's terribly fun to put a weekend into developing a base on Triumph or Justice that I will never use. Can I have 6 million bonus prestige for them to get started? Or a free server transfer off of Freedom for the weekend (and one back afterwards, natch)?

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we want to let you know that it may become necessary for us to lock servers should they reach player counts that result in a degradation in performance. We will be watching the servers closely throughout the weekend and if gameplay starts to suffer because of load, we will lock them from additional players logging onto them.

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Wow, that makes me sad. I have been on Freedom and other servers during the double xp weekends and while the lag has been very bad in areas like Atlas Park, other areas and instanced missions did not lag horribly for me.

Coming from that perspective, in conjunction with having recently heard that the sever hardware was upgraded, to read an announcement that servers will potentially be locked during this event is very disappointing. It's nice to have the heads-up in advance, but this is the complete opposite of what I was expecting.

Did upgrading the severs mean installing functionality that allowed them to be locked when busy? If so, that's as fine a bit of corporate double-speak as I have ever heard.

This really makes me feel like the great game I chose to play is much more similar to the big crappy game than I ever imagined. And to think that I used to laugh at the concept of server-lines and queuing up to wait in order to be able to play a game. Oh wait - we won't even be able to queue, will we? Just start at gray dots and wonder if they will turn red, yellow, or green.

Ironically I had no special plans for extended play. I just want to be able to log in for an hour or two in the evening like I usually do. I'd imagine that will be prime time. Hope there's a server for me to log on to....

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Challenges
Being able to switch builds and turn the PVP flag on and off isn't enough though. That only addresses the issues with specific encounters in the most tangential way. Once the PVP flag is on you could still be teleported into a kill box while dueling or end up facing a monstrosity loaded up with Purple IOs purchased from Gag-me-with-a-wonton.com (what does "Shock the Christmas" mean anyway??). A further way to manage encounters, relative power levels, and minimize interference is needed. For this a method of being able to "invite" an opponent to a fight is needed.

Upon being invited to a challenge and accepting, both members would switch to a flagging scheme such that they could only attack one another. No one else could attack them and they could not attack anyone else. (I do not know if this is possible with existing tech.) If the challenger or challenged is a team leader, then all of their team would enter the challenge on their side.

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Wow, you have evidently put a lot of time, thought, and effort into this. I wouldn't have a problem with what you suggest but for some reason I don't think the Devs will go to a challenge-only style of play.

Maybe a challenge could not be refused but would start a count down timer. So if you were being griefed you'd have time to leave and if you wanted to PvP you'd accept. So of goes against their 'free-for-all-dive-right-in-and-start-fighting' philosophy they have in the PvP zones. But OTOH that's not exactly meeting with universal love either.....

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who am I


Captain Jack Sparrow....

had to

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You kinda went downhill after your first movie....

Yikes, big thread grow fast. If you want to know I am, give me a ring.


867-5309

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The main point was to provide some constructive criticism, and some suggestions to improve the event game(s) for next year.

Bullet points of the above quoted post:
* Understand not everyone has a top of the line computer.
* Provide a purchasable superjump temp power.
And/Or:
* Make alternate speed runs for different powers. This way no one would have to choose to respec their character to get the badges.

Finally, in setting challenges, learn from other games mistakes and make sure that debugging doesn't set the challenge level beyond what is intended.

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I think the "purchasable" travel powers is a great idea.

After all, you can rent skis at just about any ski resort.

For me I'd like to see both SS & SJ as a purchasable since (for me) I can get all the way to gold with my heroes that SS but not those that Fly.

I do like getting Speed Boosted when I team in normal missions but in this Winter Event, after doing a few runs without SB, I find it really disorienting to have SB applied. My times will actually get worse for a run or two and then, when they start getting better, then the SB'er moves on. Same for IR... my first few jumps with IR applied are "whoa, wtf?" then, as I get used to it and start getting better times, it wears off.

A purchasable power that lasted for 10 or 15 minutes - one that you could re-purchase and one that you could control when you use it and when you don't - would be hugely preferable in my opinion.

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I got speed demon on my fifth try yesterday (not to brag too much), and thus my dad employed me to get it for him. Nice guy, Tidbit. Very quiet with people he doesn't know.

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lol, I just came from the CoH & CoV General Discussions forum where he wrote that he had to beg you to get him the badge!

Thanks for the tips and pointers - I've made it as far as Silver, but am still working on Gold.

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To clarify, information could include such things as: statistics found on the in game kiosks, your different costumes, friends lists, powers and what enhancements are slotted into them and badges obtained.

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Seems unusual that your friends lists would be part of the information that gets publically displayed on the web. I'm not actually objecting to it, it just seems a bit wierd.

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The *entire crew* of the dev team ARE WORKING on this game still. The only differences include "more money", "more people to work for them" and "new office space".

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I think I pinned down where my feeling of dread comes from: EA.

Anyone remember Origin Studios? We Create Worlds? They were bought out by EA, and the only difference was goign to be more money, more resources, better abilities to make great games.

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As I understand it, NCSoft has owned 50% of CoH from the beginning. That would make it quite a bit different from the Origin / EA deal.

You could actually consider this as NCSoft expanding their pre-existing ownership instead of Cryptic selling out.

PUSH!!

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Why?

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He was one of the co-founders, the reasoning should be obvious, its sad to lose one of the founding fathers.

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Sad it may be, but why "not cool"? He got the baby launched and all grown up and is moving on full force to his next project MUO. It's not like he is abandoning it or he was kicked out.

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He already has moved on. A while back. Jack has been MUO focused for quite some time.

So he was the gynecologist at the birth of CoH. Ok, good stuff. But the game's grown and moved on. Time for a pediatrician, don't need a gynecologist any more.

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I wonder why Troy hasn't showed up yet when we mentioned him by name. I wonder if the curse that immediately teleports him into any thread that talks about him has been lifted. Let me try something...

Troy Hickman Troy Hickman Troy Hickman!

Did it work?

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All apologies. I've been intently working on my Hickman's Zombie Survival Squad picks, and as such, I've been unable to answer the Hick-Signal.

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Sounds weird. I'm picturing an old pick-up truck, a hound dog and maybe some jug whiskey. Guess they could save the day if the emergency was an ornery possum or something.....

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Statesman is part of the Intellectual Property that NCsoft just purchased.

Jack Emmert played that role while he was working on the project, Jack has since moved on to work on MUO and posts from a different name on the MUO forums.

Ex

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That's totally to be expected, of course, but completely freaky. You acquired his alter ego. IT'S PEOPLE! IT'S PEEEEEEOPLE!!!!

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When we've acquired companies or sold off parts of our business, the memos have always said "bought/sold xxx company/division and its employees" Have always hated that phrasing. You can't buy or sell employees.

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Furthermore, I did note in the piece you quoted that this move is most likely GOOD for the game. Cryptic obviously (an' it shows) didn't put all their effort towards CoH. Things like "it would take too long" and "we'd need to cut other things, then" tell me exactly that. Expanding the development team is what usually solves these problems, so that's good as well.

No, what I said is that I'm surprised that Cryptic in general and Jack in particular would be willing to let go their baby, the game that "made" them, to focus on Lord knows what else. It feels like a mistake and a cop-out on THEIR end, even if it's BETTER for the game.

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That's also the way I feel.

I think that this is good for CoH. NCSoft is (presumably) paying Cryptic a bunch of money for the IP rights. NCSoft is setting up a development house in NorCal. NCSoft is making monetary commitments to CoH and has a vested interest (recover the investment, maintain monthly subscription revenue, etc) in seeing CoH continue to be a success. The last year has been (imho) a good year wrt expansions and that would seem to be continuing trend with the CoH devs moving enmass to NCSoft. Yay for that.

The Cryptic side is more of a puzzler. Give up the hit that put you on the map. Give up the 1st major IP you developed (your baby). Give up monthly income (a cash cow). Get (somewhat) lower monthly operating expenses. Get more time to focus on new development. Bet that those new projects will be hits. But from their perspective, it must have made sense.

Another thing strange about Cryptic - last summer they had a job posting on their web site for a CFO position were the job description had a blurb about taking them public and leading them though an IPO. I looked at their web site recently and their executive team does not include a CFO, nor was there an announcement about a CFO being hired. But the CFO job posting was canceled - it's no longer up. And they sold their current income generator. So did they cancel their plans to go public? A year or so ago I also remember remember Cryptic talked about running their own MMO, getting into publishing, having their own Cryptic servers, etc. Maybe they've decided on a different future for their company; seems like they are moving the opposite way now.

I can see the win for CoH and for NCSoft, but it's harder for me to understand the win for Cryptic. Of course, I have not seen what NCSoft paid for CoH either. Maybe it was a deal that Cryptic just could not refuse. Dunno.... from the outside you don't see nearly all of the things that factor into a company's decision process. It does seem, though, like there's a change of corporate direction at Cryptic.

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One thing that only now just sunk in is that Positron, Matt Miller, is shipping out to NCsoft and leaving Cryptic behind. We've all seen Jack say things about him like "We founded Cryptic together." so that comes off as a bit of a system shock. What IS going on in cryptic that they're willing to sell out their baby and go of one of their founding fathers? I'm not looking for DOOOM!!! here, it just seems like a pretty big thing.

On the flip side, City of Heroes has already lost one lead designer back in a time before release. Going off memory, was his name Peter Duncan? I seem to remember something like that. Anyway, he's the lead developer who left before the AT system was introduced and who was eventually replaced by the Statesman. Just saying - a change in management and leadership has already happened to the game once.

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Cryptic seems to be focused on MUO and their unannounced project. You have to assume they know what they are doing, but to me it's pretty interesting that with the sale of CoX, Cryptic is now betting all on future releases and as a studio they actually have no current releases (ie that means they have no monthly income from completed projects). Wonder when their next project - either the secret one or the MUO - will go live.

They cut Rick Dakan loose (didn't he pre-date Jack?) and they also completely changed the AT system from design to go-live, so in the past they've shown that they are willing to make big directional changes. Be interesting to see where they go in the future and how successful they are.

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I personally think Cryptic shot themselves in the foot with this one.

I mean, with CoX 2 possible coming down the pipe, a movie(maybe), and other things planned. Why would I play MUO? The only thing that would push me to play MUO is because they created CoX, breaking that bond was not a good move.

But I am Extremely pleased that CoX2 in on the table.

TA

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Looks like Cryptic decided to move away from getting stable monthly income from subscriptions, grab some money for the CoX rights, and bet that their next products are hits. Working at a company that doesn't have any products which are currently generating revenue is always... interesting (queue burn rate questions).

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You know, I really don't understand this whole "free month" thing. The first month isn't free, it's $49.99. Without being able to play online that disc you bought is just an expensive coaster.

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I recently scored a copy of the Collector's Edition of City of Villains to add to my account. I already had COV (I pre-ordered it, actually) ... I just wanted the CE-only goodies (cape and chest emblem).

The price to me, including S&H? $5.95(US).

Yes, it came with a free month (pushed my billing date back from ctober 4th, to ... the day before yesterday).

So, I essentially got the cape and chest emblem for negative nine dollars. One could, somewhat accurately, say that NCSoft paid me to take the goodies.

So, um ... yeah. There's a free month included; the money you pay for your COH, COV, GVE, or whatever ... is for the CONTENT, not the time.

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Not quite as good a deal - but at Half Priced Books over the weekend I noticed that they have a ton of CoV boxes for $9.

Didn't buy one because I play CoH and have CoV already, but with the access now opened up it might be time to start a second CoH/V account... for negative 6 dollars for the first month.

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Statesman has been involved with MUO since that deal was signed, he has had a great influence on COH/COV and the development decisions in the past but currently and moving forward those decisions have rested on the shoulders of Matt 'Positron' Miller.

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CoH robbed MUO blind on this deal.

It's no coincidence that the current run of SUSTAINED AWESOME has come on Positron's watch.

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Agree 100%

In all honesty, my 1st thought was "oh noes". Then I read that among others, both Positron and _Castle_ were staying. Made me feel a whole lot better about the future of CoX (not that I don't trust NCSoft all be themselves ).

Hey Ex - in celebration of the change, how about switching _Castle_ board name to Castle? Get him pumped up about coming on to NCSoft... the other person who took the forum name never posts anyway.

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Without being overly negative, what possible downsides does this deal have?

* Some staff may be unwilling or unable to move to the new office.
* NC Soft bigwigs may usurp more creative control than is healthy for the long-run of the game.
* A true sequel may be released, making upkeep and new content for the original a lower priority.

Anybody else think of anything? Will my purely hypothetical guesses be debunked?

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Cryptic looses a cash cow and steady income from their share of CoX monthly subscriptions.

That means that they are back to being a studio without a released, revenue generating product.

Cryptic has also reduced their expenses by the amount of their CoX support team, but I would have thought that their share of subscription revenue was >> maintainance & development costs.

So... here's hoping they have a chunk of ongoing funding from M$ / Marvel for MUO and that the game is a hit or that Cryptic's unannounced "secret" product is a home run.

Given some of their comments about CoH - they were surprised by how much of a hit the costume generator was, they were surprised at how many alts people created, they didn't want badges, Posi had to push for them, etc, etc - I will be really interested to see if they can strike gold twice or if the first hit was more of a fluke.

Why "City Life" General Discussion ? Most everyone who posts in the forums calls the two CoX (City of X) or City of...

Is City Life an internal term y'all have like /Gadgets for the Blaster /Devices powers? Or is it just something y'all though sounded nice?

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Sorry guys, just learning to survive with one 19 month old and one two week old! Hard to get free time...

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if you supply the bridge, I'll PL one of your babies up to age 18 =^.^=

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Just say no to PL!

You've got to take it slow and enjoy the journey, even with kids.

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Bleh on Salt Lick. Rudy's ftw.

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My kid likes Rudy's. Sometimes it seems like we eat there > 4 times a week.

Salt Lick is not really for me taste-wise; it's almost... sweet? tasting. Just using it as an easy example of how far I'd drive for some chow.