PerfectStorm

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If I hunt in my level zone I may leave the spawn. if I present hunt in a lower level zone I clean up my spawns. my main is at a level where he is at the low end of PI, so its not uncommon for me to spawn purples that I can't take care of. However in Talos or kings row it takes me a second to clean up so I do. I remember my first winter event, running from one left spawn, jumping a fence to find an even higher level left spawn, so I try not to do that.

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If I cannot handle what I spawn, I get a safe distance away and then broadcast a warning and request for assistance. I'll even check my global friends list to see if anyone is about that can help, if a broadcast doesn't do it. It does take a bit for the frostlings to de-spawn, giving plenty of time for some poor present-hunter to run into my leavings if they are not cleaned up. I try not to screw up other people's fun.

Storm

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To the CoH/CoV staff:

I've been playing MMORPG's for close to 10 years now, and this Winter Event is the most fun I've ever had in a game. I loved it last year, and it's still loads of fun this year. The atmosphere puts a big smile on my face every time that I log in (especially hearing the polka music & yodeling), and there's a nice number of options to enjoy gifts and prizes all around. Thank you for a job well done.

To everyone else:
I know some badge hunters are going to be frustrated about the lack of instant gratification from the ski run, but some of the rest of us appreciate the challenge. Don't fret, folks -- the advice on the forums here does the job handily. I got all 3 badges just using sprint and the zero-G pack that anyone can get doing the King's Row safeguard/mayhem, if you don't have jump powers available otherwise. The jingle-jet is a LOT easier to get this year, and all the badges & powers of winters past are accessible. That's not a bad deal.

Happy holidays to all!

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I have to take issue with the phrase "instant gratification" in relation to this badge - nobody is asking to be handed these badges. The people who are reporting frustration have tried repeatedly and have failed due to many reasons outside of their own control. Leave the "instant gratification" phrase in the threads where people whine because they have to do anything to get a reward - don't apply it to people who have spent literally hours trying to what they are supposed to do to receive these badges.

I'm not even skiing this year. The fun has been taken out of it for me - there are griefers all over the slopes, and the lag for me is terrible - even when there were only 17 characters showing in a search of the zone. I thought that the racing would be fun but it's not fun for me because I simply cannot do it. <shrug> Talking about frustration and lag isn't the same as asking for instant gratification.

Storm

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Lighthouse, please pass this along to all the Developers and QA staff:

If the mini game's time requires a special power to achieve success, then that power should have been introduced as a power you can purchase. They introduced the Candy Keeper, and a temp jump power could have been made available. Unfortunately thanks to lag, the amount of people in the zone, and people's computer limitations, at this point the ski run seems to need some sort of jump ability to get the gold. Thanks to the speed cap Flight, even with level 50 IOs and the empowerment buffs, the fastest time down the slopes is 32-33 seconds.

If the goal of the developers was something everyone could do, then I would humbly suggest that the developers simulate their test bed at around 10 FPS, using only unslotted sprint and change the times accordingly. As it is lag and a few other issues are causing far more frustration than is needed.

As it is, the people with Jump powers have a distinct advantage, followed by the Super Speedsters, while those with Flight are limited to silver, and the people with Teleport or no travel powers need not apply.

Perhaps in the future, there would be alternate speed "runs" like a Floating obstacle course that needed flight, a different course for Teleporters, and a ground course for people with super speed. Have the same medals for all "events" and that way people would have a choice as to what course they would like without stress. Isn't it the point of playing the game to relieve stress? Especially at this time of year?

While the staff probably has spent weeks "practicing" going down the slopes, most people will probably get under 24 hours of playtime throughout the event.

Overall the ski run mini game still needs work. Please fix for next year.

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It may well be something that not everyone is going to get by just going there and doing it. Gold is designed to be a challenge. If you aren't interested in working at it, then you won't get it. Not all badges are for everyone, sorry.

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Normally, I don't argue with rednames, but this response seems quite flippant and completely ignores the point made by the post it responds to. This has nothing to do with challenge - or even how hard someone is trying, this has to do with a goal that simply cannot be met under certain circumstances, and suggestions about how, perhaps, it could be made more "fair" across the board.

I made a bunch of runs with a character with fly, and with the lag I was getting on the slopes, the best time I could make was 50 seconds... the poster to whom you replied made some suggestions, and you completely ignored them.

I'm very disappointed in this response.

Storm

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Second, the event is [u]supposed[u] to be [u]fun[u]. Well, from reading these forums, it seems like the developers have missed the mark when it comes to the ski badges.

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Agreed on this. The ski run misses the mark of fun so much its not even funny.

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And yet the players who do find it fun and are happy with the way it is now...?

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I don't find it fun. And since I've seen so many others who are able to get the badges, it IS frustrating to me that I can't seem to do it. Most badges in the game aren't so adversely affected by lag and general computer processing speed. The ski badges are affected by such. Last night for me the ski slopes cause such lag and jumpiness that it was impossible for me to hit all the gates.

If there is a significant part of the player base that finds something supremely unpleasant, I don't think it's necessarily a problem for the devs to consider something a little bit different in the future. Personally, I think the competition should be initiated by clicking on the trainer or something and the timer started by going through the gates immediately afterward. I enjoyed skiing last year because I got to just do it, but this year, it is immediately apparent that I am really awful at it. Considering that part of the reason I love this game is because it doesn't depend so much on physical coordination, this particular event kinda bats me in the head with it again, and makes it very frustrating. Give me a choice whether to participate in the generation of stats or not - without limiting me to the "bunny slope"... I get enough of that in real life.

Storm

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Whoo hoo!!! Now I'll be able to afford the first rent payment on my new bigger and better base!!! Yippeee!!!!

Thanks for the extras, devs!!!

Storm

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I note receipt (on Triumph) of the Prestige Bonus, however, no debt wipe as yet.

Storm

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Knowing that the wipe is coming, why not try to experiment with dangerous stuff: Soloing AVs, playing at the highest difficulty level, see how many bosses you can herd. With the debt wipe coming, there'll be no lasting penalty. Go crazy.

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Time to solo the Hamidon --- CHAAAAAARRRRGGGGE!!!!!!!!!

WHAT?!

Storm

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...
I dont want CoX to be on the way out. I dont want NCSoft to TREAT it like its on the way out. Id have been just fine with this announcement if it HADNT included gifts to valued customers.

But it did include gifts, and those gifts are aimed at just about everyone else who plays CoX. And then I go back and look at my Auto Assault gifts, and my Tabula Rasa gifts, and I shudder.

In the end, I really dont want gifts from NCSoft on a game I love. It just doesnt bode well.

Im happy to be proven wrong.

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We'll be happy to prove you wrong. I'd like to reiterate the statement, found in a couple places in the announcements: "We are now in a position to make a major reinvestment in the City of Heroes product line.

We're aren't staffing up to sit around and do nothing

Everyone here is very excited with the prospects and plans for the future!

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Me too.

Storm

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Earlier in the thread either Ex or Lighthouse stated that the Mountain View job listings are all for the newly established NorCal CoH/V studio. Also earlier in the thread it was clearly stated that only one person out of the entire Cryptic team assigned to CoH/V had accepted the NCSoft offer and will be moving to the new studio with the game.

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Read it again. Only one person hasn't accepted. The popular speculation is that that person is Jack Emmert, but we haven't seen anything explicitly stating this AFAIK. It's possible that Jack wasn't offered a job for one reason or another and someone else said no.

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Oops... typo. That's exactly what I meant to say - and, if you read the rest of my post carefully you will see that the tone of it supports that. I'll go back and fix it.

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CoH 45% ???
CoV 20% ???
CoX 25% ???


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You think the split is like that? Really, I'd have thought at least 80-90% would have both games. This is a minor thing which allows them to know that everyone has both games - which they already know if anyone buys them at retail now.

Personally, I love this news. Bodes very well for the future, I think.

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Somewhere in an earlier post, Ex (I believe) stated that this particular "freebie" will affect far fewer people than we might think. I'd go with 80% plus already owning both games. I am one of those who owns both but rarely plays redside.

Storm

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Does this mean that there will be a bigger development team working on COX or a smaller one? The presants are cool and all but are we losing anything in this deal?

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Everything Ex and LH have said lead me to believe that they're planning to expand the team. It looks like NCSoft is renewing it's commitment to this game, and planning to nurture it's further growth.

Edit: Plus, just look at NCsoft's job page, and how many programming openings they have at the Mountain View location. (CoX's new home) Definately a good sign, as far as I'm concerned.

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That is them either expanding the team or filling the positions of the people who do not want to move to NorCal?!?! Unless their current studio is already around that area...

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Ex said (somewhere) that the new studio's only a few miles from the old one. There's definately evidence, both in the job postings and the press releases, that NCSoft wants to expand the dev team for the game.

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Earlier in the thread either Ex or Lighthouse stated that the Mountain View job listings are all for the newly established NorCal CoH/V studio. Also earlier in the thread it was clearly stated that only one person out of the entire Cryptic team assigned to CoH/V hadn't [edited for typo] accepted the NCSoft offer and will be moving to the new studio with the game.

This means that the positions listed on the NCSoft job listings page are additions to the team that's been working on CoH/V at Cryptic. More developers, more programmers, more animation specialists ... That sounds like a committment, at least for now, to the future of the franchise.

And, as an aside to those who are feeling cheated: as some have pointed out, there have been allusions to further "rewards" coming in the near future. I purchased both games at a cost of about $50 or so (I honestly don't remember exactly how much I paid) and then specifically drove 30 miles to the only WalMart anywhere in driving distance to me that had the GvE edition just so I could get a newer boxed version (up through I7, I believe). I got trial time, and either 2 or 3 free months from the deal... <shrug> that's good enough for me... and I really do think that being upset about money you spent in the past is kind of ... silly. I'm betting if many of you looked at some of the things you actually spent money on every month, you'd find places where you might as well have flushed it down the toilet based on what it is you got for it... at least with this game, you had the enjoyment of playing it all *right now*.

Storm

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Hmm... Just an observation, but ... seems like no matter what the devs do to bring something the majority of the player base wants into the game, there is a faction that must cry about how unfair it is because they have to work for it ...

That said, I think it is, for the most part, a fair way for the devs to provide what the players want without upsetting their own vision of the game. I'm a little leery of what the prices of the respec recipes will be, based on my experiences with costume drops in the early days of I9...

And I have to add my voice to those who are wishing for a true respecification... the current respec is really a respecialization, as it enables you to adjust powers you have within the pools you chose - you aren't really changing your "specs", just how you are applying them. A true respecification would be great for my level 26 rubble and bubble controller - I'd love to change one of her power pools without having to re-roll her. My suggestion: Change the result of the Terra Volta reactor trials to be a real mutation of the heroes' powers (not familiar with the villain respec trial, so I can't speak to how well this would work with that one), and allow a change to either the primary or secondary power pools. It would bring the trials into favor again, and limit the number of times such a true respecification could be accomplished in a hero's career.

Idle thoughts: Wouldn't it be amusing if one were running a respec trial and got a respec recipe? Oh, the irony!

Storm

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-Glad the ToT villains list as "mystical" so that the invention salvage drops are the more valuable ones like Hamidon goo, Pangean soil, Prophecy, etc. While door-farming isn't terribly dynamic, at this point, I'd rather do that than run X number of mystic villain missions in PI for the same drops (actually got two Prophecy drops in one hour last night just door hunting).

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This was not my experience at all (on Triumph) in 4-5 hours of ToT in PI (until the lag of over 135 heroes in zone started to cause my powers to fire a good 3-5 seconds after hitting them) and then in FBZ (where there were only 30 or so heroes)... not only did the door spawns drop exclusively tech salvage, I got tech enhancement drops also.

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-Like the higher end inspirations as always.

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I do, too - but they seem oddly disporportionate - I frequently received 3 high end insps per treat. It appeared that I received 2 large insps with each npc costume temp power drop and at least one insp with each costume salvage drop.

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-costume power drops are quick. I spent about 4 hours total yesterday in FBZ (PI was a nightmare) and got 30 of the 33 costumes and all 3 badges.

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I got about the same - 28 or more, and all the badges. I think this is a good thing, considering that they will only last for 2 weeks - this gives us a little bit of a chance to play with them some

On the downside:

LAG LAG LAG!!! Next year, we need more level 45-50 zones to ToT (once again, PI was HORRIBLE last night).

AND, count on an event to bring out the greedy, selfish worst in some players... Door thieving (i.e., superspeeding in to click a door I was clearly standing directly and closely in front of), spawn leaving, deliberate griefing ... only a few players that I encountered, but aggravating nonetheless. Shame on them...

And, I am with Catwhoorg and others who suggest tying in some storyline or missions with the event next time. I think event contacts placed in a few zones encompassing appropriate level ranges with a short arc would be fun (NOT missions like kill Snaptooth three times... ugh - enough with Snappy already... but real door missions).

I LOVE the npc costumes - and I'm actually quite mystified as to why they need to be so temporary... unless there is a technical/programmatic reason for them to not be around for long? Do they somehow add to the lag, perhaps? I mean, I could see if you could put on your Hellion Thug costume and go and hang with Hellions at your level or above without aggroing them, but ... it doesn't work like that, so - what's the big deal? Not a whine, just a question..

Storm

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sell them at WW/Black Market, you'd be surprised at some of the prices you can get from tier-2s and tier-3s

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Going to bet that the prices are WAY low at this point - why buy them for high prices if you can hit 20 doors and fill your own inventory?

Storm

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Hey, I didn't see this anywhere else in the thread. Would this be an acceptable solution to allowing various levels of feedback in the suggestion forum.

Make every suggestion thread also a Poll.

If someone would normally respond with a "yes", "/signed", or a "no", they can simply vote in the poll.

If someone wants to critique and add their constructive comments, they can reply to the thread.

If someone isn't getting many replies but a lot of "NO" votes, the OP could reply to the thread asking for someone to elaborate on their disagreeing vote.

Does that sound feasible? Both types of comments get to be left and both positive and negative opinions get to be expressed. No one needs to clutter up the thread with one word (or 367 word) responses that add nothing to the suggestion.

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This was suggested about 3-4 pages back. This forum software does not support polls only on select forums, to the best of my knowlege (I administered a set of forums that used this same software). If polls are turned on, they are turned on for every forum.

But, if a poll is acceptable to people, than yes/no answers should also be acceptable, wouldn't you think?

Storm

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What the mods are saying is "let your sister use your stuff! when you stop her, she complains and we dont want to hear it! We dont care whet she does as long as we dont get bothered!"

If we let the carebears have full control of all forums they wont complain and the mods can get to doing what they wanted without bothersome moderation duties.
Just agree..they wont complain if you just go along with whatever idiot idea they come up with.

Sometimes you just have to say no. Many of the people with a problem with a negative respose dont want reasoning, they want absolute agreement.

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My mom used to make me let my sister borrow my stuff - but somehow, I wasn't ever allowed to borrow hers... my stuff always came back either worn-out or broken - with no compensation for me. I didn't like it then, and I'm not going to like it now.

I had a post all prepared earlier that kind of dovetails with your observation that the mods apparently don't want to have to mod. Seeing as how it is what they get paid to do, or at least part of what they get paid to do, I have a bit of a problem with this. If the inclusion of the I11 close beta forums is going to be that work intensive, then get more help - don't make the forum population suffer an iron-handed partially automated approach to moderation.

I don't intend to be insulting to our Community Leaders or any of the moderators - I've done my share of modding and administering a set of active and highly volatile forums - as a volunteer - and it's not fun in many cases. However, since they get paid to do this work, then a temporary increase in the workload should not dictate a change in how cases are handled. As well, all cases should be handled in the same manner... don't just look at who you have determined to be "problem posters" - look at everybody. Most of us have posted stuff that could be deemed useless fluff, negative or otherwise objectionable to someone. Consider the source when you look at complaints - don't take the complaint at face value anymore than /petitions in game should be taken at face value. Automating CANNOT take all of the variables and the situations into consideration.

Probably not going to be a terribly popular viewpoint, but ... it's mine, and they asked for it when they said "discuss here"...

Storm

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OP: I want the devs to add brightly-colored unicorns to CoH.
Responder 1: /signed
Responder 2: Yes
Responder 3: No

Does Responder 3 really need to go into a detailed explanation of why he or she feels adding brightly-colored unicorns to the game would negatively impact his or her experience? I suppose Responder 3 could have said, "No, because I wouldn't like brightly-colored unicorns in CoH." But isn't that implied by the simple "no"?

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Or they could of said "No. They wouldn't add anything specific to the city, and if we get unicorns, we should have the classics. White, and the rarer black. The developers like to add things with a strong classical base, and colors other than white and black don't have such."

Ever other person who would of gone /no can then quote that guy and /agree

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I suppose "How does it feel to want?" would be considered both a useless AND a rude response?

Storm

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Has the suggestions forum always been in the "for fun" section (since they reordered the forums, I rarely read suggestions anymore - too far down in the list)? /yes and /no answers are acceptable to me on this one

Storm

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Nope, just recentlly got moved there, presumably for infractions of the nature being discussed here.

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So ... doesn't that make the majority of the discussion regarding the /no /unsigned vs /yes /signed answers (and fluff) rather moot? While these types of answers occasionally show up in places besides Player Suggestions, as I said before, the vast majority of those answers, as well as quite a bit of "fluff", will be found in the Player Suggestions forum... which has now been placed at a considerably lower moderation priority by the Community Leadership - or their superiors - at least with regard to the application of the new interpretation of the rules...

Storm

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Ummm ... The suggestions forum, which is where the vast majority of the much-discussed "/no" type posts are made, is not in the section they will be looking closest at.

Has the suggestions forum always been in the "for fun" section (since they reordered the forums, I rarely read suggestions anymore - too far down in the list)? /yes and /no answers are acceptable to me on this one

Storm

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ADDITIONAL IDEAS ABOUT TO SPILL.

I have several things whirling in my head so bare with me. I'll try not to mix them up.

My above post is made on the assumption the poster of the original idea made sure to say WHY they think their idea is so grand. If someone says, "lol nerf stalkers they is overpowared!" then a bunch of people simply say, "/yes" then there is indeed a problem. Why do they think this? The line isn't so clear when an agreement is concerned.

Idea: Enable polls in suggestions.. or make is so every thread is created with a yes/no poll by default. That way everyone gets their short responses and anyone that ACTUALLY feels like contributing something of worth can have a say without the clutter.

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Unfortunately (based on personal experience with another forum using the same software), most of the options in this particular forum software are enabled for all forums or disabled for all forums... no options for individual forums (unless they've added that very recently).

Also, the point made above about /signed or /yes sometimes not being enough is precisely the reason why we cannot automatically treat /unsigned or /no in a different way - sometimes, no simply IS enough. When asking a question like "tell me if you think this idea is a good one" one shouldn't expect anything more than a yes or no response. And, if you want people to participate, but don't want insults, then /no or /unsigned with no further explanation is often the best response from some people.

Storm

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Patch Notes not appearing yet ...

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See Lighthouse's post again
Or just read this quote from it, carefully:

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Detailed notes of the changes included in this update will be found by following the Patch Notes link once the update is complete.

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The update will not take place until tomorrow, so the Patch Notes won't be updated until then.

I learned my lesson today about not reading carefully...

Storm

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Usually if they appear on top of the none option that means it was the last one used on your character. They should be sorted alphabetically though and if not then the option will be near the bottom of the list or at the bottom.

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I think the previous poster meant that the name of the item literally appeared on tip of the word "None" as in typed directly over it, almost obscuring the word "None"... I've had that happen with options that are no longer available or that are not available in the current list without other choices being made in other areas (i.e., patterns that don't show up in the regular list of patterns unless you've chosen a specific style of item).

Storm

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Use this thread to discuss the following announcement:

We updated the game on Thursday, August 23rd to version 15.20070813.1T.

Read the patch notes of the changes here!

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Will there be an in-game notice for non-forum readers about the change to the Rikti Invasion notices? I was in-game for a bit this afternoon and noticed that they are now so unobtrusive that if someone doesn't know what to look for or what channels to include in their chat windows, they will miss the announcements. How about a MOTD including an explanation that they are labeled [Vanguard] and are green text messages now?

I'm not complaining, but I do think some people may completely miss the new announcements completely.

Thanks...

Storm

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I'm so taking catwhoorg from you on multiple servers

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Try it.
Catwhoorg exists everywhere

Heck on at least one server there is already a "Catwhoorg."

Some are level 1, most are in the 5-10 range, obviously 1 is 50

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you'll slip up one of these days cat! you'll let one of your lowbie cat's be left alone for 30 days then *BAM* name gone!

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That would be 90 days... and only if Catwhoorg stopped paying for his account for that long ...

Just trying to forstall any misunderstanding of the policy

Storm

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I actually would have liked no announcements at all, so each invasion event caught us "unaware". Given the way the event unfolds a player not wishing to participate would still have plenty of time to leave the zone before being attacked.

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HA! Not if you logged off under the Atlas statue and you log in DURING an invasion... That happened to me yesterday, and, let me tell you ... I was dead within 30 seconds! It was still fun - I enjoy the invasions.

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Global channels and the like would pass along info on what zones were being invaded for players actively seeking out the events.

But if an announcement must be made, I'd prefer new tech that didn't put it into chat channels at all but rather put it into an unobtrusive icon that would blink when an invasion started. Click the icon and a pop-up alerts you to all unfolding invasion events. Close the pop-up when done. Simple. And if you ignore the icon altogether it automatically stops blinking after a few moments but changes to a different color (not RED) to note it has "unread" messages.

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I like the idea of some kind of clickable item that opens a window telling you where there are invasion events going on.

I disagree with some that it's not important to know what is happening in other zones, even the Rogue Isles when you're in CoH or Paragon City when you're in CoV - this is a CoX-world-wide event. If I played villains (I have a couple - I just prefer the hero side), I might want to switch to a villain character to fight in the Rogue Isles. Badges, accolade anyone?

I agree, however, that the way the announcements are currently being made makes it incredibly difficult to even tell them apart from each other, let alone tell them apart from other, far more important Admin channel messages.

My 2 inf.

Storm