SingStar

Personally I see three major problems:

1. People naming the "villain" or "hero" in the mission as a way to ridicule or bully another player. I mean, you HAVE to name the villains/heroes and it's highly unlikely you can come up with a completely non-offending name, and it's - for that reason - as likely you could explain any name to GM's when it's being petitioned.
2. The maps are getting REALLY boring. While I understand the problem of introducing a map maker, this will need to be adressed rather soon'ish. Being able to piece together different parts could help, at least if some more pieces are introduced, but I'd really like to see some more "special" maps.
3. We could REALLY do with more variety in the missions. I've previously suggested several ways of making the city zones more alive and a mission generator could help with that as well. Doesn't look like that's gonna happen, but there are ways of making instanced missions more fun as well.

Ideas:
Dialogue with hostages and people you save and other choises, offering optional secondary goals. Might happen if I understand things right.
Puzzles - I do hate getting stuck myself, but I guess it might make some people happy.
One mission branshing out, you get to choose mission and that choise affects the outcome of the story arc.
and... aaah, can't be bothered...

Ugh, posting on heroes, on a direct request from London... sigh!

Gratz Maddy! ,)

Some clarification might be in order:
- Personally I never attack anyone unless attack in RV, or if it's clear it's full pvp going on.
- As I said, I'm pretty ok with anything, but loads of people whine about loads of stuff, so I thought I'd mention a few of'em

The only thing I have a problem with, is when it gets personal, when someone hunts down a new lvl 40 PVPer repeatedly and scares them off the whole pvp thing, just pecause they can. While it's clearly not against the policy at the moment, there's a thin, but clear line when that moves beyond pvp and unto harassment. I think it might even actually, when on an extreme scale, be against the law in my country.

I guess it's individual though. I don't mind it personally, but it does sadden me to see people stop PVPing and even leaving the game.

Since I saw that behaviour from two heroes against a new lvl 40 that had never been in RV before, I go to great lengths doing what I can to ruin their experience as well, at any cost, because I think such - repeated - behaviour deserves a(nother) perma ban. It's ruining the game for everyone.

While that makes me a bad person (well, I AM a villain after all, even if NC is making it hard, with all those coop zones) it's now one of those rare things that brings me great joy in-game!

While I don't enjoy pvp much, I've spent some time in RV lately on different alts (Defiant) and witnessed different more or less funny behaviour. I know this discussion has been up before, but where's the limit? When is it worth petitioning a behaviour (aside from foul language)

- Being Tp'd out of base entrance and killed, while clearly AFK?
- Being killed, then hunted down repeatedly by the same person when you're a first timer in the zone?
- After being droned once?
- After being droned repeatedly?
- When someone is clearly using a 3rd party macro program?
- When one side uses a spy on the other side to hunt down someone?
- When one side confuses that spy to take down the other sides second account buffer that's hidden in the base?

Personally I have a very high tolerance, and even if I despise some of the people using this and other techniques, I defend their rights to be (cencored cencored).

I'd like to hear what you think is ok/not ok, and also what's really, actually not officially ok. True, I haven't really bothered to look, but are there any clear rules about what's NOT allowed? Have you seen any other behaviour that you think should be "dealt with"?

So, what say you?

Oh, goooooood....
I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I dread the day I see fallen heroes. I like the distinction, the difference between the two games, and just simply HATE the idea.

Even with 10 new enhancement slots on my character ("sneaky" way of "not" adding more levels and still doing it, another bad idea) this might finally convince me to leave this game for another MMO.

It's just such a baaaaaad idea.

Slickery little (cencored)... Sneaked past me without me noticing it...

Proper job, deah ol' chap!

Big gratz to Constant-Motion for his new level 50, Constant-Reflex.

More quality stuff from the smurfs!

Rofl Fosca, good one!
Gave me a much needed laugh!

Petitioning times have gone down drastically since NC bought all the rights IMHO, and I've actually been impressed with the response and response times of lately (RSF bugged hossie anyone?) so I didn't even think of checking my email for 1½ hour (Played Guitar Hero instead, rofl).

Getting an email when you ARE offline is fine with me, but when you are online it's a complete waste of time for everyone. I'm just hoping it was an honest mistake, and the routine nowadays actually IS to respond online.

..and thanks again LeighB for checking it out, I was actually beginning to question my ability to read and understand english, but as we now know, the mission truly IS(was?) bugged. Rather weird bug too.

Since GR has responded to this thread in private to me, I see no point to continue this thread.

Thanks GR, all fixed now!
Apparently it IS bugged and I'm not having one of those "I don't quiite understand english today" days that usually occurs when the summer arrives.

I've got the Gaussian mission "Strike Renegade Safe House"
It says "get 3 glowies, defeat Captain Grool"

Got the three glowies, killed everything on the very short map, and find Captain Grool... He's friendly, can't be killed.

Petitioned and bugreported.

GM response through email (how useless): Read mission description carefully, it may change during the mission.

Well, I'm stumped. Been in the mission for 3 hours now, responded to GM that it IS bugged and I still need help, but apparently they're not gonna help me.

Anyone know of this mission? Have I actually missed something? (even if the map is completely cleared)

Well, seems to be the same mission, but if I need to kill something to "turn" him, there sure is nothing about it in the mission description. I've got all the glowies and killed everything off as well (very short map, so).

The problem is the routine here, I couldn't care less about the actual mission, but just to see what happens, I've been in that mission for more than 3 hours now, without getting any help. I'm gonna stay in there until The Addamms family guy actually helps me, on pure rediculous principle.

Sending an email to someone who is online, in-game, is a stupid, stupid, stupid routine that is in no way helpful.

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Not really. I'm a usual hero player, yet I've been peeking on villains more than usual for now. Teams still seem to be active, yet I do see a decrease.

Frankly, I can see you have a very good point - we keep getting co-op, which is making us feel like the same side, rather than seperate side content that would make the games feel a little different. Because now, every issue seems to bring a new co-op zone. It's just getting lame now, in my opnion. I'm sure fresh ideas would get some more players onto villians. I don't really think too much heroside content is the problem, too much co-op content is.

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Too little villain content then...
I'm all for revamping some of the hero zones, and the clues about Boomtown getting a revamp, doesn't bother me. My point is, if more people where activated on the dark side we might see more people alltogether. NC could really use the villain side in the marketting if there IS a villain side.

Beefing up the villain side might also get the PVP zones to be more interesting even if I doubt it. Inventions where supposed to make it more interesting, instead, anyone with a non-set'ed alt going into a pvp zone to actually pvp will be discouraged very, very fast. Especially since at least on defiant hero makes it a point to hunt them down constantly even if he gets no reward for it, being buffed by 3 other accounts etc, but we all know that story...

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Who, in their right mind, would START playing a four year old game?

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Um WoW... Feb 11 2005 - 3 and a bit years old (from US launch)
Or EVE... 6 may 2003 - 5 years old now or something.

The same people who would start playing other older games...

(Release dates from Wikipedia)

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Do note that WoW is the clear market dominator, it's like MS office sort of. EVE has been HEAVILY upgraded to modern specs, while this game looks MORE than 4 years old IMHO. and honestly I doubt how many new players they draw, even though they've added actual content. (I'll be a bit careful since I've never played either of'em).

Every new big update on EVE has been advertised as if it's (almost) a new game. Banners on even swedish major gaming sites. (well, EVE produceras are from Iceland(?), so maybe that's not too strange?)

With Conan, Champions Online etc I'd never go for this game, especially since it's not even on sale in any store around here. A box in a game store is the most valuable marketting you have.

Graaaaaaatz!

Proper Job Muddy.
Since I've lead quite a few of these raids before, I say that knowing it truly was.

I've never earned that many merits in a single raid before really. Those two runs where well rewarded I'd say. Fortunately the earlier raid that day didn't ruin this well planned event.

Looking forward to the next event!

I have been stuck in a mission for several hours due to a bug. A hostile I'm supposed to kill is actually friendly and can't be killed. I fairly typical BUG situation that a GM could help me with. (Yes, I know I can use the autocomplete but there's still so many bugs it's not enough)

but here's the problem. The routines are stupid. Most of the times a GM will respond by sending you a real email, even if you are in fact on-line. That's just stupid.

In this case I got an email telling me to read the mission description carefully since they sometimes change. That is not the problem, the mission IS bugged. It took me 1½ hour before I noticed a mail, since I'm in-game and don't check my mail every 10 minutes.

There's even an in-game email system, so why oh why would a GM send me an email out of the game? This routine really has to be changed because it's plain stupid.

ok, go ahead... Trash me or praise me!

Proper job old man, proper job!

Did you post on the hero side as well? There's just too few villains for a villain only raid.

And Wee, got about 100 merits last week, so only need about 300 more for the backpack.

Asides from the smurfs taking a vacation (some due to sync problems) and the general public doing the same, I've actually enjoyed meeting some new people.

Most of the regular villains have been gooone for some time, but a lot of my other globals are still there, giving me a reason to find out "who the hell is that guy, that's been on my global for so long".

...but yeah, Onion is the pvp server, and with the pityful amount of content I guess that's what's left of the game at the moment, unless you can be (cencored) to grind inf or level up your 123th alt to 50.

The numbers seem to be pretty stable at 150 players on defiant villains. Between issues that's a pretty normal figure, probably even pretty good since the summer has started and this is not the teenagers choise of game (read Conan/Wow/Lotro).

I would rather suggest merging the US/EU serverlist like they did with that not-so-successful car MMO. As it is, we've seen less lag on the american servers than the "european" ones. Spanish-talking people in the US and EU would probably enjoy a spanish server, so that would be a good change as well.

The BIG problem is NCs refusal to treat Villain side as a good way of bringing more people into the game. It's treated as something thrown in. They've rather clearly stated that VEATs only happened because they got some extra funds through the wedding stuff.

That scares me since it means any new villain content will only be shared villain/hero stuff, and if that's the case what's the point having a villain side?

Although I'd like to get my PB to 50 someday, I enjoyed the fire/rad team, and had some fun with scrappers, there's just simply NO WAY I'd go back to hero side, that's to me a four year old boring game with too many kids running around. (whereas villain side seem to have a higher degree of mature players.)

I do miss the stuff the EU staff used to put together. Invasion of Sirens, RSP games etc.

...but put bluntly: The game is 4 years old (since it's not regarded as anything but a wimpy expansion to heroes, byt NC) and it was never a huge sucess. So they're pumping in some new money into the hero side, well I doubt it will help. ...Who, in their right mind, would START playing a four year old game? ...meaning: There will be a continuosly decreasing population even if some people come back for a while.

Like you, shock, I'm basically still playing the game because I like moaning on skype, and a small degree of addiction. I've changed "groups" five times. If the smurfs go, I doubt I'll bother anymore. With no other addictive game out there, I might actually get some!

...and Yes, with the servers down, I was bored!

Well, the latest debt decrease was just too much. I didn't like the original debt, since I soloed a lot back then, meaning it could take weeks for me to get debt free since I played support characters (and soloed, weird, isn't it).

I do understand the change. In other games casual playing is "rewarded" by gaining more xp for a while, so the debt change was probably a response to that.

For experienced players with more than one account it becomes a bit silly when it's possible, even easy to level up to 50 in two weeks. It's actually harder to get the debt badges needed for the accolade.

Of course that is more linked to the new xp curve and Ouroboros really, and with several 50s, many people seem to be eager to get to 50 and start building the character's set collection. The "reward" for exemp/MF just isn't worth it, so once 50 people get bored again due to lack of content, and start grinding another character.

My opinion: Get the "middle" debt setting back, not huge, but still a punishment. Xp curve: give us a +20 button as veteran power so we can skip the first 20 levels and get to the good stuff!

...and way more "end-game" content. I'd love to see a real raid system and 4-team raids, and an EU-scaled hamidon, working CoP (without the base raid [censored]), and way more end-game content, and did I mention, some more lvl 50 content would be nice.

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Aren't you supposed to play CoH with a Nintendo Power-Glove?

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I thought everyone did? Am I the only one then?

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The Wiimote is the only way!
Seriously... 14 pages on this subject! I didn't even care to read more than the first and last page, because once again people are either ranting, or ruining a really good question, probably because deep in our heart we all know the answer:

As long as you (cencored) pay for the game and adhere to the Eula, play the game in whatever way you want. While some teleporting multi-account buffers in RV do annoy me, if they enjoy the game that way, fine. (Even if it's a bit sad they make new PVP'ers stop PVPing fast and ruin the experience for others, as long as the Eula accepts it, I do)

Another reminder is always called for: It is just a game. Yes, It's OUR game, it's a great game etc, but it's still just a game. At least noone (but muddy) will steal your purple recipe. Yes muddy, you KNOW that was really my drop yesterday (Yes that was a joke)

Putting it up on The Smurfite Google Calendar. I'll be there, need the vanguard backpack on a bunch of alts!

I registered The Forum Smurfite adress today by the way. So feel free to go and check it out.

London, I'll see what I can do about it. To be honest I don't have Flash on any "workable" computer at the moment and don't feel much like going back to work to fix it.

...and no, oh no, we don't want you to have a go at it!

And for those that just want the Calendar: Smurfite CoX Calendar

As I said before, help to maintain it would be appreciated!
...and could some moderator PLEASE delete that pinned "What's on Defiant - villains". It's EMBARRASSING!