Memphis_Bill

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Banned accounts SHOULD get wiped because no-one has any access to them any more.

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As far as the RMTers... whether it's them or the mods, all the "empties" = deleted names. Admittedly, it probably doesn't help much, since the spam tends to come from lkasdjrfoiweur and friends...

Well, you know the standard answers about PVP, time of day, don't advertise, go in with a group, etc. so I won't go there.

If there were a PVE way to get these, I'd expect (a) you'd end up with the minions, or the LT at best, and (b) like the warwolf whistle, it'd be non-repeatable outside of Ouro.

Well, her own deadline passed.

For those who might be wondering, the person listed is Miserie.. Just noted her and asked to close the whole thing.

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have an answer for the problem of pissed customers that can't or won't pay for special access. He ignores that point completely

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Wouldn't want to leave you out, although I've addressed this already: you don't refuse to fly, or go to ball games, or concerts just because some people have better access to those events. The argument that a significant number of people will quit because others have better access is specious.

The argument to "play on another server" is just as weak: If you live in Boston and are an avid fan, and you could go watch a world series game between, say the Yankees and the Red Sox, but access was limited and you would have to pay more, would you go watch the Royals play the Indians in Kansas City instead? After all, its all baseball, right? Same game, there's really no difference, right?

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This argument is weaker.

Double XP is not limited to Freedom. It is not on Freedom one weekend, and another server another, like a baseball team that exists only in one city at a time.

Your complaint is that you want to go to a certain restaraunt. Well, the one on fourth and main is going to be full one weekend, but the exact same restaraunt serving the exact same food with the exact same specials two blocks away is going to have room - yet you refuse to go, because you ALWAYS go to the one on fourth and main, so they should kick some people out because you're willing to pay $10 for a burger instead of 8 (but not, of course, drive two blocks away. That would be unthinkable!)

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As long as you avoid cliche and boring names, like naming your Fire/Dark "Burning Shadow," it's easy to get names.

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One man's "cliche and boring" is another man's "classic and simple."

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I figured someone would bring that up. After all, some of our most well-known heroes are named things like... Spiderman. My point is, those names are already all taken.

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While we're at it, some are named things like.... names. Nick Fury leaps to mind right away. James Bond (ok, "spy not superhero," but still.) Adam Strange. If we want to touch on villainside, who doesn't know Lex Luthor? You could put Hippolyta and hercules in there, as well, since those *are* their names.

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I think you are vastly overestimating the number of names that would be freed up by any sort of name purge. There's a reason the devs made the cut-off level 6 on the second go-round and why they haven't done it again since.

Most of the common names are locked up by active players. A purge would make very little difference.

Just think of another name. It's really not that hard.

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Calling [censored] on that one. The level 6 name purge freed up names like Blackguard, Roman, Earth, Wind, Fire, Anubis, Gilgamesh, Gatekeeper... I can't even begin to list the rest of them, there were dozens that I saw open up instantly and start popping up. That's level 6, done ONCE.

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And do you know why it's been level 6, done once?

Because they did level 35 and below the time before, and the names released were... level 6 and below, primarily.

At most, if they did any sort of increase to the level, I'd put it at "Trial accounts that have been non-converted to live within 90/180 days (whichever feels most dead) of expiration."

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OP doesn't know what he's talking about, otherwise he would have an answer for the problem of pissed customers that can't or won't pay for special access. He ignores that point completely.

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Oh, no, he "answered" *cough* that point with "Mah wallet haz da monies, too bad peasants."

He ignores the lowered capacity for everyone else, sure.
He also hasn't answered the "X many slots, X+n people paying for them and trying to get in."

Both of which, frankly, ARE answered by NCSoft's "no guarantee that you will be able to use the service" clause... which answers the OP's original complaint anyway.

10 other servers, lots of room, and if he's bringing wife and friends, no issue about "I can't find anyone to play with" (which is BS anyway, especially on 2xp weekends.)

What I find most head-shakingly amusing is that the OP started off insisting they increase capacity on Freedom... and is now insisting they REDUCE capacity (since they're not going to raise the population cap) to accomodate his wallet. And doesn't have an answer to "And when those extra-speshul slots you've paid more for are filled up, then what?"

Edit: I can almost *guarantee* those slots would be filled, sure... by people with 2-3 accounts who decide to make extra INF farming and PLing people over the 2xp weekend, meaning he'd be paying more to STILL not get on.

*goes to decide who to play on the other ten servers I have characters on that I'm almost guaranteed, short of hardware/network failure, of getting onto over 2xp weekend.... at no extra charge.*

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I just tried to make a new character to team up with a new character of my fiances and in short I couldn't find an available name. Literally.

We just spent more then an hour looking for names and logged off out of shear annoyance.

At some point something is going to need to be done to free up some names and doubly so if we want new people to be able to come to the game because the situation as it stands is absurd.

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I'm not sure why you were annoyed at cutting implements because you couldn't get a name... but an hour? Really?

I don't think I've ever spent that much time (across 170-some alts and at least half again that many deletions) trying to come up with a name.

As for "They should do something," well, they have. Several things, in fact.

1. They set names on characters 35 and below to "available" if the account had been inactive for 90 days. (Manually run script.)

2. The second time they ran that, they set it to below level 6... because that's where most of the names were freed.

3. They increased the number of characters you could have in a name, which frees up many more possibilities.

So - ask yourself these questions:

1. Is the name a powerset name? (Something healer, something nurse, Dr. something, Radiation Man, pretty much Dark-anything, Ebon-anything, Anything-of-darkness, Fire-something, Ice-something) - good chance that in *five years* it's been taken.

2. Is the name *blazingly* obvious or blindingly superhero-y? Again - good chance it's been taken.

3. Myths everyone knows? I'd be surprised if you could get Bast, Isis, etc - even if they're not related to trademarked comics. See point 2 about "blindingly obvious."

4. Is it trademarked? Sorry, you can't be Dr. Doom, Doctor Doom, or Wolverine. Even if you manage to be, expect *not* to be as soon as someone recognizes it.

So what can you do?

- As mentioned, thesaurus, dictionary, foreign dictionary, spaces, numbers, titles. The titles can be made up, for that matter - one of my first scrappers goes only by his designation, Seeker 209. Comes from a culture where "authority" is part cop, part soldier, part bounty hunter. Can't be Dr. Radman? See if you can be Dr. Radman PhD. VEATs gave us plenty of seers, arbiters, etc. running around.

- Give your character a hint of a backstory. For instance, in Left4Dead, it seems that everyone knows "Chicago Ted," though he's nothing but a scrawl on the wall. (For another example... well, my forum handle and the name of a few of my tanks and brutes.) Be the Lost Aviator. (As in "went missing," not "can't find his way from the front of the plane to the back." Or... the other way around.)

- Alter the obvious words. Give them a gender-based ending, cut them off where they sound good, give them honorifics.

- Have a sense of humor. Latest blaster to 50 was a cop from another dimension... and part cat. Name, Hot Purrsuit. (Or my first villain 50, Feliney Assault.)

- Just give them a *name.* Or a name -and- something. You do know Ash from Housewares, right?

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yes, handel is a global issue.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJq2MwI9IPg

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Thanks. Just the thing for after work. Something much nicer to listen to than customers and computers.

<-- Started on Pinnacle, most characters are there or Victory, with others among the other servers.

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And this thread just proves how many of you hate Freedom server. Many of you admit it openly. If you were in favor of what is good for the game and its owners, you would want them to make as much money as possible.

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I dislike that it's crowded.

I dislike the attitude shown there - which is also, honestly, shown by you with the "Screw everyone else, me me me, don't give me other suggestions just serve me!" shown here.

I have rarely had a "good" team, either in play, competence, or enjoyability there, unless I knew the people from elsewhere. My characters there are among my least played.

I am, actually, in favor of what's good for the game and its owners, and want them to make as much money as possible - preferrably with as much long term benefit as possible. Wasting money on more server hardware for *one* shard for one or two weekends a month is not on that list. Neither is implementing plans that would do nothing but irritate even more people by kicking them off for a few others (and being a complete and utter waste on *every other server.*)

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Seriously - you want to pay for "priority access," even *disconnecting* other players who don't play, but you won't use that same money to move to a server where you just *won't* have that problem... or even NOT pay and just roll an alt?

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Yep. Play on another server, you are making a low level alt you will never play again when the congestion clears up. Your SG gets no prestige. Its a waste.


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... except, of course, that you *can* play that. And start a new SG. And make new friends who don't particularly care to play on Freedom. And set up events and such to bring even more people in to the SG. And of course, the *very next event* that Freedom is borked with, or their server hardware goes down for a while, or there's a network glitch between you and them... gee, guess what, you have an alternate place to play!

Sorry, but the "never play again" line is BS.

Of course, I said all that - all of which is perfectly legitimate - in the original cut and paste.

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I'm all for fairness in you personal life, but in business, if you are a bigger client you get more perks. Pay more, get more. I can't believe the game owners haven't already done this.

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I'm not. Because if they'd been pulling BS like that... they'd have fewer people to pull it ON.

Besides, as mentioned, there's no queue. You want a queue, play WoW. We have a mob. You get in as you get in. Sometimes first try, sometimes it takes a few.

Of course I, as much as I *avoid* Freedom... never have that problem. At all. So your solution, *again* is only for one server - yet requires more work on the devs part.

$10.
Server transfer to a less busy server.


You're welcome.

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Maybe you even bump off those who don't pay for priority access.


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... absoeffinglutely NOT.

Seriously - you want to pay for "priority access," even *disconnecting* other players who don't play, but you won't use that same money to move to a server where you just *won't* have that problem... or even NOT pay and just roll an alt? Why is it so much more acceptable to you to *kick other people off* just so YOU have access?

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whenever I try to do TFs allI get are "sorry doing AE".... then when I can't get like lets say a brute on the team... people get pissed off and leave the TF/SF and we can't do it, just becuase people don't wana get off their butts and do something other than AE...

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*points down to "Servers" section*

Post an "I15 Task force" thread, stating when you want to do it (make sure to specify time zone) and sign people up. Make sure you state if you're going for speed, or actually going through and reading dialog and such. (While I'm not sitting in AE, I don't tend to find speed runs all that fun.)

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Ever sence AE has come out, no one does regular missions, or TFs/SFs anymore,

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Really?

What am I doing in this mission then? Unless they moved AE to a cave and didn't tell me...

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Thanks Memphis BIll for your cut and paste reply.
And yes I understand you point wasnt to flame or insult anyone and I greatly apprecaite it.

However. I am aware of the search fuction, I am also aware of Necroposting for the sake of bringing up an old topic and starting flame wars.

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Note that's just part of the general reply.
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Here I try to open the conversation back up after who knows how long it has beenfor the sake of discussion. Like Color Customization for example. Now its happening.

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However, there's a difference.

Color customization was a "Probably won't happen" for a very specific reason - not "It couldn't be done," but "We have a staff of 15 people. The colors as they sit are 'baked into' the powers - redoing them would be so time intensive you'd have a long stretch with absolutely nothing new."

They've hired more people. It was never said it would not be done, or that the devs were against it, just that it was impractical with the people they had at the time.

They've hired more. And with the larger staff, it's now practical - and thus being introduced with I16.

AT/Powerset respecs, however, they have said they would not consider - that those are so integral to a character they would not allow a respec.

It's the difference, in a way, between "I don't have money to replace the car right now, so I'll drive it a while longer" and "No, I am NOT going to gut the family sedan and turn it into a drag racer." One's based on a situation that could change ("Hey, I got a great bonus from work and can afford that car now!") The other's a stated position that's frankly not up for discusison by the person who said it.

As for my personal belief - no, I don't think they'd be a good idea. The AT/pri/sec are a core of the character. Colors are not. Jumping versus running (power pools) are not. I just don't think it'd be a wise idea.

no.

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Welcome to the forum. You have posted one of the oft repeated suggestions, "Give us a full respec."

Disclaimer

Yes. This is a cut and paste reply that I keep handy, as well as a quick bit of instruction on how to search. Neither are meant to cause fights or to be insulting. The search instructions are in, not just because forum rules say flat out to search, but to help you and anyone else reading this use the search tool effectively.

The body of the cut and paste reply is the way it is because we've seen these arguments numerous times before. They're a summary of the salient points that come up each time. They are not here to insult you, make you feel stupid or otherwise "bring you down a peg." Instead, they are meant as instruction and information. Please read through the points and the explanation behind them to see the issues that are commonly brought up in response. They may not always match your suggestion 100% - in fact, you may have explained around one or two of them - but they're there for consideration and refinement of your idea.

Yes, I do look forward to the time, with some of these suggestions, that someone not only addresses all the points, but does so exceptionally well. It'll probably be added to the end of the cut/paste reply, with credit. For now, though, read and consider the points. They really are just there to help you, and move discussion along to help ideas evolve.

If you're going to see this and say an "evil forum vet is just shooting down your idea," or "You think you're the last word because of your post count," you're wrong. Heck, if you say the second, you've just worried more about my post count than I have in the last four plus years.

TL,DR reply

No. It breaks things too badly.

Searching tips

1. Click on "Search" up at the top of the forum.
2. On the left, under "Forum(s) to search," select "Suggestions and ideas."
3. On the right, Keyword Search Terms. This is probably where your problem was if you did search. Try the following, exactly as typed:

+respec -"re: "

This will search for anything with the string "Respec" in the title, including Full Respec, I don't get any respect, and Respec Trial. .The -re: portion of it removes replies, so you'll see the root of every thread that comes up, letting you see just how many threads there are on this. (The last helps for other subjects, as well.)

Be sure to put the space between the colon and last quote.

4. Click the "In subject" radio button. This is a search, not a cute blonde in a bikini. Here, you want to ignore the body.

5. Leave Username Search blank.

6. Date range, Newer Than, change the 1 to a 3, and the time to Months.

7. Result format doesn't matter. Click on "Submit."

Now, on to the topic at hand....

Why a full respec is not a good idea for COH.

So, you've played your Apathy/Dual Wet Noodle Tank to 50 and decided you don't like him. You've come to the forums and said "Why not let me completely respec the character!"

Well, people consider a "full respec" to be different things. I'm going to cover a complete and total character respec. If some of them don't apply, well, this comes up enough for this to be a copy and paste reply.

There are four things that define your character:
1. Archetype
2. Origin
3. Primary powerset
4. Secondary powerset

When people talk about a full respec, they're either talking about the powersets or the whole enchilada.

A Respec is short for respecification - altering what your character can do. This can be through reordering the levels you took powers, reassigning slots, and/or changing power pools. You'll note that none of this touches on changing the four listed items. The reason being that if any of those change, it's not the same character. A respec is not recreation or reimagining. It's tweaking your character a bit.

Now, let's go through some of these "full respecs."

Primary/Secondary

You're sure to hear this repeated a good bit - Just because you've played one set, doesn't mean you know how to play them all.

For instance, my namesake tank is a Fire/Superstrength tank. I know how he plays. The most similar powerset to him at the time of writing is Dark Armor. It's resistance based, it has no knockback protection, it has a damage aura, a self heal that does damage - it even has a self rez as its tier9.

They don't play anything alike. (I can say this, because I also have a version that's DA/SS.) Fire has no Psi protection. It has no stealth. Burn has a far different effect than Oppressive Gloom, and nothing similar to Cloak of Fear. It calls for a thoroughly different style of play. With Fire, I can leave my toggles on and go to town. With Dark Armor, I have to be selective, or the times I have to herd stragglers (for instance) won't work exceptionally well. Dark Armor also does not have anything like Consume to help out with Endurance - that's in Dark Melee.

With "similar" sets being that different - try Fire vs Stone. Or Invulnerability. You now have a set at or near 50 (when most people seem to mention wanting this - "I have a 50 that...") that you don't know how to slot effectively (which means you'll be doing *at least* one more respec) and don't know how to play effectively.

That's just changing *one* side of the equation. Now add in, say, going from Stone Melee to Dark Melee. Different effects, with *very* different affects on your survivability. And you won't know how to slot that, either, or how well they synergize.

Similarly, a Stormie plays vastly differently from an Empath, or a Dark, or a Rad. Earth Control is nothing like Illusion. Combo-chasing with Dual Blades won't help you with Martial Arts.

How do I know that this ends up being a mess?

Beta testing. The devs have, on rare occasion, bumped up characters to specific levels. The most notable was when Recluse's Victory came out for testing. Everyone was made level 40 - and it was a *mess.* Sure, people made copies of their own characters, and those worked out. Then there were those (many, many of those) who said "Hey, I've never had a X/Y before, I'll make one of those!"

Like I said, it was a mess. You could very easily tell who had done that versus making copies of characters they knew.

Now, yes, over time you'll learn your powerset - but in the meantime, you're not going to be very effective, or very happy.

Archetype

Now, given what I just said about powersets, imagine a *whole different AT.* Your tank is now an Empath? Really? You know how to survive as a Blaster because you played a Scrapper? And don't even get me started on epics.

If *sets* are that different, Archetype is that times ten.

Impact on enhancements

IOs are a big part of the game right now. Think about IO'ing out your character. You get your KB protection, sets and the like, potentially spending millions (or more) on finishing up these sets, or working on merits or whatnot.

Now, you change your primary - again, we'll take a tank - from a resistance based one to a defense based one.

Guess what is now useless to you. You *may* have a power to stick that resist set in, somewhere, but now you're defense based - and those resist sets dont' work for you any more. That Knockback set isn't taken any more. It's even worse when you say you want to switch AT - what is a Blaster going to do with a resist set? What is a Scrapper going to do with Sting of the Manticore or Malaise's Illusions?

This isn't even touching on the fact that *you could only retain ten enhancements.* That's 1 2/3 six-slotted powers.

And you'd have nobody to blame for all that lost time and INF but yourself...

Origin

Origin holds a strange place in this list. I'm just going to touch on it briefly.

Origin used to matter *vastly,* back in pre-beta. It determined how many powers you could learn and how skilled you could get with them. The system was scrapped, and for a long time it was mostly an RP item, as well as determining which enhancements you could use.

It now has *some* impact in the game with some temp powers - the "helper" power you get at level 1 (throwing knives, taser, mutagen, etc.) as well as some of the vet powers. The main impact, though, would be if you'd equipped with DOs or SOs, with the lost INF. That said, you would be able to get some of it back. Origin's probably the least of the problems with a full respec. Though some would, of course, complain that they no longer get a damage bonus or what have you - and who knows what the devs may do with this in the future.

Gameplay

There are also two other things to consider.

1. The game is designed around alts.

Seriously. If this were Guild Wars, for instance, with severely limited slots, I could see wanting to do a complete respec. But by default, you can make over 100 characters before feeling a pinch - and can purchase up to 24 additional slots per server, if you so choose. Don't like one set, make some others and try them out.

2. It's just not that hard to level.

Seriously... it's not. With half debt inside missions, patrol XP, double XP weekends, XP smoothing, XP adjustments (typically up,) debt reduction everywhere... it just *isnt'* hard to level. And levelling "honestly" means you're learning your powersets, how they work with each other and others and hopefully how to use them best - which will only make you a stronger player.


In closing, let me just say "No. Roll an alt."


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The doors, heroside, for the midnight club *now say which zone they go to.*

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As you head back into the door chamber, it's clockwise from left by increasing zone level. Steel Canyon, Croatoa, and Founder's Falls. What's so hard to remember?

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Nothing, now I didn't go in often enough to bother.

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Memphis_Bill, I really enjoy your posts, and find them helpful. But this is just the "play another server" argument, all dolled up to look prettier than it really is.

My wife and I don't get to play together as much as either of us would like. So when we DO play, we play together. So let's say for the sake of argument, that she successfully logs in, but I'm locked out.

How is that fun for either of us?

There are thousands of friends and family members out there in the same boat. There MUST be a better answer than "Play another server."

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Did you bother to read it?

So giving YOU more options is somehow bad, and you'd prefer they'd spend *even more* money on just one shard for one or two weekends a month?

You have the option of starting elsewhere. Or moving elsewhere. Starting a group elsewhere. Having alts available for when Freedom is (a) greyed out from 2xp weekend for a few minutes, (b) down because of network issues, or (c) has any other issue.

Throwing yet more money and hardware at it for *one weekend* is a waste of resources, to be very blunt about it. Because it's not, after all, just two (or three) days - it's spending money buying or renting the servers, the time ahead of that configuring them, adding them to the cluster, making sure they're not having problems of their OWN - and then, of course, we have dealing with the network issues, related software issues, etc...

For one weekend.

That's, quite simply, throwing money away.

As you say:

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My wife and I don't get to play together as much as either of us would like. So when we DO play, we play together. So let's say for the sake of argument, that she successfully logs in, but I'm locked out.

How is that fun for either of us?


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If I'm taking someone out to eat, and I know that (say) Outback Steakhouse downtown is ALWAYS full with a 2 hour wait Friday night, but the one in the suburbs you can get in almost immediately... I'm going to the one that I can get in almost immediately.

Double XP is the same on every server. You don't get extra-special Freedom XP. There's not a specific Justice event, or Infinity event. And with double XP, heck, it's a GREAT time to start new characters and a new SG elsewhere anyway - (Edit - and VEATs and Khelds are account-wide, not server-wide, too, so even "I have a level 50" awards aren't an argument.)

So why waste your time trying to log in when you're just wanting to have fun? Start alts elsewhere. use the info I posted. Enjoy the weekend.

Devs, I beg you, don't waste more money on "server capacity" for lazy people who don't want any other option, especially on servers that already have more hardware dedicated to them than any other, not to mention special consideration already in the forms of caps in order to attempt to avoid lag and crashing issues.

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How to start on another server - or, Double XP Weekend Can't Bring Me Down!

Yes, another Double XP weekend has come and (almost) gone. Or perhaps there was an event, or a reactivation weekend, that swelled the population across the board. Characters were made, others were levelled, and a good time was had by all!

Well, perhaps not by all. There's a vocal minority, most of whom come from Freedom (by dint of it being the most populated server) who insist the weekend was ruined for them, that they couldn't play, that NCSoft owes them something or other for this.

Let's get the hardnose stuff out of the way here.
I'll get helpful later, but this does need to be said:

If you put all your eggs in one basket, it's your own fault you couldn't play. And as far as NCSoft owing anything? Read your EULA.

NC Interactive cannot guarantee that you will be able to access the Service or your Account whenever you may wish to do so.

NC Interactive shall not be liable for any interruption of the Service, delay or failure to perform resulting from any causes whatsoever.

What does that mean? The servers - ALL of them - can be down, and your option will be to wait 'til they fix it.

But that doesn't help me!

You're right. It doesn't. But the rest of this will.

First, I fully understand being annoyed by not being able to play your favourite character. Really, I do. I fully understand having a main character on a main server. From what other denizens of Freedom tell me though... they can get on with just a few tries. Backing out and going back in lets them in.

Also - this isn't just about double XP weekend. Servers are hardware, software, and all that connects them. They can have problems. They're split to cover two coasts, and we've had half the servers be unavailable due to data center or network issues.

Wouldn't you like to be able to play regardless?

But I dont' want to move to another server!

Let's get a few arguments and misconceptions out of the way here first.

I don't want to spend ten bucks on a transfer!

While you can do this, it isn't what I'm suggesting. You CAN do this as part of the process, but setting up a character on another server costs absolutely nothing more than you pay right now.

All my friends/my SG/etc are on Freedom!

So bring them with you. And make new friends at the destination, too!

They should just add more capacity to Freedom!

Freedom already has the most hardware dedicated to it, as well as caps just because of weekends like this. It's just not cost effective for one weekend, when you have the ability to change your experience on your own.

(Server) is a ghost town!

Didn't you just say you had friends and an SG? If they come over with you, you're not starting with a so-called "ghost town," as incorrect as the idea *is.*

My main is on Freedom!

That's fine. This is giving you the ability to play and meet new people if you can't get on freedom. Enjoying the game you're paying a subscription fee to play. To have fun. Isn't that the point?

I don't want to do this for a character that'll be played only three times a year!

That's an assumption - and it's something you can control, anyway. Read on.

Making the move

OK. The important thing - how do you make this move? Here's a bunch of ideas for you.

First, pick a server. Talk it over with your friends and SG mates. Importantly, you want a west coast server. From experience around the country, you won't notice a difference playing - I've played East coast servers from Oregon, and West coast from the midwest and south. You wont' notice a difference.

Freedom is an East Coast server. Why is this important? Well, I mentioned earlier that the servers are split into two data centers. Every once in a while, a center has trouble - so multiple servers are unavailable. If you look at the Wiki, you'll see which servers are where.

What you want to consider is a west coast server. Those are:
Champion
Guardian
Justice
Protector
Virtue

Pick one!

Now, you've picked a server. We'll use Champion for our example. What now?

Well, now you have to create characters and a supergroup. Yes, you're starting over (unless someone pays ten bucks to move a character witha bunch of INF over, or risks market transfers.) Say you've convinced six people to come with you. What do you do to avoid having ignored lowbies?

Create an event!

Redside? How about Mastermind Mania. Every, say, second Sunday, get on your masterminds on Champion and just play for an hour. Team, obviously! And don't forget supergroup mode. You want a base! Or be the Sunday Scourge. Maybe the fourth Saturday you run Blasters, blowing up everything in sight. How about Task or Strike Force Fridays? Or even just farming?

Guess what. Soon... you'll have some decently levelled characters, a supergroup base, and the core of a new group which you can play any time Freedom's not available.

And if you think the folks you came with are only going to play those? Think again. Someone's going to say "Y'know, we could use a corruptor," and roll one, then have it invited to the group. Or a dom. Or a defender.

In addition... *Mention your event!*

You're on the forum RIGHT NOW reading this. If you go down the lsit of forums a ways, you'll see *server forums.* Pop into the server you chose and say "Hey, we've got a new group, and we run X event on this specific day. Come join us - roll a new character, if you want!"

While you're at it - *tell people in game, too!* So you're down to four one week? Broadcast. "The Exiled Freedom group (I don't know if it exists, if it's yours, pardon the borrow) is running Mastermind Madness this week. Want in? We've got Sk spots!" Meet new people and grow your group!

Some folks, if they know you're trying to just start a "backup" group or a new SG, will probably help out in other ways, too. While farming is generally frowned on by the community, farming to get a new SG off the ground *can* be a way to meet new people who are willing to help.

After a while?

You have a new supergroup. A secondary "main," perhaps. New people on the friends list. And next time Freedom's not available, you have a place to invite your friends who are now stuck there, helpign them level up a new character and enjoy the time.

And isn't that what it's all about?


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The doors, heroside, for the midnight club *now say which zone they go to.*

Yeah, I wouldn't argue with that. One of many things I wouldn't mind seeing on the enhancement (and respec) screens.

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Also, you do realize that it is just pretend money... of which you have a limitless supply, right? Yes, it is dumb to make you pay for something you already have, but in the big picture of the game, what does a few thousand Inf really mean?

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... again, it's not the INF, it's the general irritation of having to "fix" something to get it back the way it was, even though you didn't do anything. Yes, if it were costing multiple times the amount it would normally cost, the INF would be more of a "serious complaint."