Squez

Liking the inclusion of Scorn and Protea's work, and the overall expansion of material.

Also, in keeping with a typical fanzine, it's nice to see the artwork throughout (done in a variety of styles).

Curious, too, if Behind the Mask is totally gesphinkto, replaced now with the more RP-oriented Encounters.

But if you lay issue 1 down next to this issue I think the improvement is there for all to see. (But don't let them lay too close to each other...)

And nice job on the submission guidelines. The second bullet especially was well-constructed.

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Where is the art section?

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The person in charge of the Art section had obligations of a personal matter that detained them from submitting their work. Hopefully, the Art section will be restored next week.

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Is it possible to incorporate that kind of notice directly into the City Scoop, since other sections will probably run into the same situation down the road?

Sorta kinda. Most of all, I want the entire world to cater to my tastes, because, y'know, it should. (The brute one was good, though...)

Seriously, though, simply ripping off The Onion probably wouldn't do since it's been done (and they're probably ripping off someone else). But they have kept doing theirs every single week for years, even though everyone knows the gag. I also used to watch Bugs Bunny every week knowing full well what would happen. I enjoy predictable comedy.

Should the horoscope _be_ comedy? That sounds like an editorial decision, much like target audience, publication schedule, etc. I just left feedback since this (IIRC) is the 2nd time Lady_Athyna was wondering about it.

Ultimately, I prefer that City Scoop exists, and find the fanzine approach preferable to something like Paragon Times.

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It's ok, but you get lawls for it. Before this thread, there wasn't really anyone lawls for the horoscope which left me wondering if anyone did like it. I mean, why bother if no one likes it, right?

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For someone like myself, there is only one horoscope worth reading and that's this one. I usually find it to be a lawl and a half.

I do usually peek at yours since your name is on it, but seeing it's being played "straight," I usually move on.

It does seem, though, that much like there is a large number of CoX subscribers and only a small percentage of them visit the forums, so too there might be a large number of City Scoop readers and only a few post feedback. So ultimately it might be tough to guage the feedback from the audience for that one particular feature.

Any fanzine has a multitude of articles in it, though. That you are part of that multitude is better than not having you part of that multitude, if that makes sense. If you do eventually get sick of the horoscope, please try another column concept. As far as traditional fanzines go, we're still missing reviews, how-to's, personal essays, doodles, and fanfic, so there's still stuff to do.

Can someone please explain this email I got?

-----------------------

FROM: CLICCCZ!
TO: SQUEZ
RE: Caps Lock Is Cruise Control for Cool Zociety

WE'RE IN UR PUZZLEZ, KILLIN' UR EYESITEZ!!!

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Nice issue as usual, but I'd like to see the CLICCCZ folks pwned or something.

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FREEBIRD!

Note: Set aside ten minutes to watch this

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So that's the short version?

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- joust Peeps in the microwave


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Sadako, I can't help but ask what this means, even though I'm certain the answer will frighten me.

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I don't know where I first heard about this practice, but it just shows that people luv microwaves

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Umm... now that the devs have broken silence on the dev silence regarding their silence... where does that leave us?

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Why, with this translation just delivered from the old home office in Wahoo, NE:

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Reasons why devs might be silent on an issue:

1) We didn't see the issue. There are a lot of threads out there.

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We are all spawn camping the pop machine which is currently out of Dew. That and we crank call the City of Hero staff in Korea from time to time. They love that.

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2) We are in the middle of looking at an issue, and saying anything at the time might be invalidated. Even something like "we are looking into it" can be read as "we are going to change it" if we look at it and find it to be fine, we would get blasted for not changing it when we said we would.

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The Stroller EAT is almost ready to be debuted.

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3) The answer is already being given by a lot of players already

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Player Questions will be folded down into the PWNZ board in I10.

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4) The answer is obvious (and thus will eventually be given out by a lot of players, see #3).

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>.>
<.<

*Positron radiation laugh*

Yeah, I know, if we didn't have trolls, know-it-alls, drama kings/queens, and shameless post padders we could probably run the forums on a 300 baud modem and a program written in Logo.

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5) It involves talking about stuff we can't/shouldn't be talking about.

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We surf YouTube and the Forums at work, too. Don't tell States.

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6) The question is a "when" question. We rarely answer these, because even when we put disclaimers on it, our answer becomes taken as gospel, and if we fail to deliver, we look bad.

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I10 is coming out in the fall for sure. We're just not going to announce which time measurement system we're using.

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There's a secret 7th reason that I am not going to give you because of reason #7.

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I'm a dev, but I don't mind having a bit of fun. (And I would really like to turn cell phones on in PvP zones again.)*

*this message brought to you by People Who Want Cell Phones on in PvP Zones Again.

*throws list card at fake window*

*glass breaking sound fx*

You beat me to it!

*shakes fist*

Edit: So dismayed, I'm posting a dev comment about dev silence.

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It's hard to argue with yourself.

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Apparently you've never heard me working on computers. Or soloing certain CoX missions. Or cooking...

Still laughing at Torroes_Prime's "The GMs are here to fix problems, not people." I guess I need the latter kind...

Attack

semprini

Feedback: Not all that enjoyable for a couple reasons:

1) Winter event was so much better. The chalet setting was better, the exp was better, the chalet setting was better, the soloability was better, no hordes of ambushers, skiing around the chalet was better, and did I mention the chalet?

2) The stalling on the 2nd missions. I have a gazillion alts. I actually ran most of them through the winter stuff. But the Valentine stuff, it's just prohibitive to do so. You crash and burn waiting to get both of the part 2s done to move on to the DJ.

The only enjoyability I found were the couple times I worked on different strategies for dealing with the mega ambushes when solo. Also, I frequently bop through the Pocket to get where I need to go, and a couple times I helped a broadcaster out with a 2nd mission--that was ok as a nice travel diversion.

For my money, make other events in the Pocket more like Winter, less like Valentine's. And for any devs reading, please consider the suggestion floating around the event comment threads to change the Team Search function to display both factions when in Pocket D.

Ah, Whiteseeker and EvilRat--you two rock for necroposting this. I couldn't remember where it was, because...well, you know.

A couple others I remembered:

...if you remember when a college buddy drove you out to some far away computer store to show you this latest Apple Mac that was just released and you marveled at the salesguy demoing the paint program.

...you rejoiced last year when this FINALLY came out on DVD so you could verify you remembered all the songs correctly.

...and more rejoicing, since long before a heavily armored recreational vehicle could be used for picking up chicks in Minsk, one could also be used to save the future

My kids were truly horrified by both DVDs.

* taps mic *

* tap *

* looks around nervously *

Is this thing on?

* HORRIBLE FEEDBACK *

Hi, everyone.

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Don't count on it. There might be something from the veteran rewards tho.

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You are my new favorite forum poster.

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To sig or not to sig, that is the question.

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Question? In CCGs I believe we'd refer to this as a "must do."

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Sometimes it's just simple economics. If you don't have a lot of cash, you can respec at 22, 27, and 32 to pull out your old enhancements and sell them at full value (or 27, 32, 37--whatever 3 spots along the chain you like).

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That's a pretty short-sighted way of using them.

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And that's a very non-charitable assessment of my statement.

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It doesn't make any sense in the long run to use up what are finite or very limited resources in order to acquire something you'll be able to get eventually anyway.

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A resource that remains in your possession unused ceases to be a resource. This type of behavior I reserve for Inspirations.

But as I mentioned above, if you're short on cash (and on every server, odds are you will be short on cash from lvl 1-32 at least once), it makes perfect sense to plan to use the respecs to conserve resources.

True, one will eventually get to 32. Given that I don't have a limitless amount of time in which to do so, choosing and planning to make getting there as smooth as possible is in no way short-sighted.

Please note, too, that I do not maintain that SO-pulling is the best thing to do with a respec. It is simply one other thing to do with them. It does happen to be the predominant thing that I've personally done with them, since most of my characters were unaffected by I5 (not high enough to feel the full nerf effect), and my feel for slotting was much better by the time I6 hit and rapid leveling commenced.

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I don't get it. How do people burn through three earned Respecs and all their free ones?

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FOTM. Min/max. Arena. PvP.

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Sometimes it's just simple economics. If you don't have a lot of cash, you can respec at 22, 27, and 32 to pull out your old enhancements and sell them at full value (or 27, 32, 37--whatever 3 spots along the chain you like).

I've had to do that on servers where I don't have a lot of cash. Thankfully, I've had a freespec I can use first so I've only had to run the trial once for those handful of characters that have needed it.

Now boneheads like me will run and sell their tray full of enhs, go to respec, and then realize they shouldn't have sold anything. This is not an issue the devs can help me with.

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As for players who think they will just be albe to drop every mission they get to PL off a contact... think again; we're crazy. Not that crazy.

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I just would like to, when some contact thinks I'd like to wander to some forsaken place to talk to a Security Chef to hunt X, I can finally just accept it, delete it, no exp, and move onto a better mission.

Seriously. I can have 5 hungry contacts that want to send me to the same Chef. No PL desired; I'd just like to move on to the instanced stuff. Please.

Now if these guys gave cool minigame outdoor missions like the Warburg nukes or the Shivan shard, I'd never try to skip another one again...

Mostly I wanted to add what I could where I could. You did a lot of work on the write-up, and I also liked your use of the word "minigame" to describe the other activities (Shenmue player here).

Many, many people are skilled PvPers and spend a lot of time doing it and doing it well; and then there's me. (And so I spend a lot of time doing the other stuff in the zones.)

The Warburg nuke run is the one I play the most, and I've done it with a variety of ATs. I jumped in with a description from the forums I can't find anymore, but yours is just as good (with the edit). Only other thing I might add for a first timer is that the 3 Web exits are clearly marked; if you're running for your life to get out, those exit signs can be life savers.

And I don't know if you've seen Robotech_Master's guide to the Shivan Shard minigame. My first couple times soloing it were a disaster, and I found RM's method very helpful.

Keep up the good work, ColJasmine.

I think they stop at 30. Just tested a 31 (my other 2 in the 30s are 33s). Agent says he has no more work for me.

Personally I thought the Siren guy tells me to talk to the hand at 30. I can help verify tonight with my 30 or 31 blaster if ColJasmine doesn't get to it first.

I only have a couple 30s; I'd like to do a "clean" test with one that hasn't been to Warburg yet, but I don't think I can do that--getting the WB contact ph # is one of the first things I do at 30.

Going to support the good Colonel on that one.

This is a guide written with some personality. I think you have to give her that. She is also wading into several minefields, among them "don't gank me when I'm badge hunting," "stalkers are too powerful," "don't gank me while I'm watching fight club," and several others.

That should be evident reading this very informative, pretty neutral, yet lightly-humorous guide. She does take sides (see section 2.3), but you have to be able to draw her conclusions yourself.

Notice that your comment...

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it's 100% fair to be attacked by a Stalker, even if you plead villains on Broadcast not to attack you

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....is not disputed in the guide (see again section 2.3).

But I'll even agree with her. I've seen stalkers do things like that--and some other things--because they think it's funny and they can pull it off. And I'm usually right there laughing.

But I say keep the statement since in context it should be taken to mean "stalkers will take the opportunity to AS heroes who are...watching the battle."

Nice work.

One fix, section 3.3.2. Temp Power Minigame: Launch the Warburg Rocket.

Step 5 should read something like "5. Once you have 3 codes you go to 1 of 3 blinking computers in the Web to arm the rocket with the desired payload." (You may want to add the warning about stealth suppressing when you click one since they are for all intents and purposes like a mission blinkie.)

Step 6 should be to head to the rocket launcher outside the Web/near the rocket/whatever.

Step 7 is the old number 6.

You may also want to add that launching a rocket 10 times results in a badge.

You might even further add that if you play on Triumph server, you MUST go get the Triumphant badge on top of the globe. (Hey, it's not my fault the Devs threw Triumph a bone )

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I find the PvP solo missions to be very good in exp.

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I think you wanted to replace "very" with "insanely." I can solo these with any character in about 10 minutes, defender on up. Heroic for the sake of speed most of the time, but for those of my characters that can handle it I'll go up to Unyielding. As long as it's a steady pace and not insanely long on a boss (an incorrect setting for me can force that boss battle to take 5-10 minutes all by itself), the exp just rolls in and the drops are usually pretty good.

BillZBubba's comment is also quite salient: "Solo there is no waiting. There is only killing."

But then again so is the earlier comment to team with those you are familiar with. I duo a lot, and my duo buddy and I know each other pretty well. No matter what combo, we can fly pretty fast and be running on Rugged for good combo of speed vs. exp.

I do get bored though, and when working on a particular alt, you can't escape the OP --form the team yourself. 4-5 for leveling speed, 6-8 if you like a lot of chaos but not as fast exp gain. The only exception I've seen is when I was invited to an 8-character group that had a whole deck of AV missions ready, most of the team knew each other, and the team was focused on mostly hitting the AV objective with a little bit of clean up. This has, unfortunately, only happened to me once, but was great fun that Saturday morning.