TheMightyLux

June 30th keeps looking like a good date for this. Anyone else want in the "bet"?

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Tuesday June 30th 2009.

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That would be an awesome and only slightly belated birthday present, but I hope I don't have to wait that long.

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Well, my reason for guessing that (and of course, it is just a guess <@_@&gt is that -

A) Today they cleared the characters on Training Room II and copied the Freedom database over there for some kind of internal test that's supposed to be a pre-beta type thing. That obviously leads me to thinking that we'll see beta start before too far into June (possibly even next week).

B) The issue itself is light enough that they're skipping closed beta. I suspect this means that we're anticipating very few problems; though obviously things could always be set back.

So I'm figuring roughly a month to Beta it, and beta starting either next week or the week after.

>.> It's a guess though, so it could come way sooner, or way later, depending.

Oh and the 30th is a Tuesday, which means it's not a Friday nor a Monday >.> both of which if I recall are 'no we don't launch then' dates due to past experience - though it's been long enough I've forgotten for sure.
















So yeah really I'm just guessing <,<

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After some quick research on Paragon Wiki, more than 50% of the issues have been released on a Tuesday. The other release dates were either Wednesday or Thursday. And I guessed June 30th because I am hoping they let us play it over the July 4th weekend.

The challenge: guess the exact date that Issue 15 will be released.

The prize: the pride and admiration one can only achieve by being proven right on an internet messageboard.

Here is my entry: Tuesday, June 30th.

I did not think about it that way but I definitely think it be interpreted like that. Either way, I love that we are now analyzing the subtext of video game preview trailer. Just further proof that there is a great deal of devotion to CoH.

Here is what I am hoping we see in the future:

- A personal nemesis system. A tailor made bad guy that levels alongside you would be such a great fit in the game that has a reputation as the most customizable MMOG out there.

- Go beyond Paragon to other locations. I always loved when the Justice League went to a foreign country and had to deal with the foreign bad guys (and good guys usually too). I think this would be a great expansion. You could use it to incorporate new cities (an Asian themed city would be great) as well as a Moon zone and an Underwater zone. I think NCSoft even has a good name for it already...

- Vehicles. Some classic superheroes have vehicles as an essential part of their identity. Batman would not be complete without the Batmobile.

- Apartments/personal superbases. Bases are so underused as it is, lets give everyone the opportunity to make a base regardless of the size of the SG they are in.

- Growth/shrinking - this is such a classic comic book power. I know it would be difficult but it just seems so essential in a comic book game.
- Elasticity - this is another classic superhero power. I would imagine that this would be the hardest to get into the game from a programming perspective. If I had to choose, I would go with Growth/Shrinking over this.
- Power Absorption/Mimicry - this was always a personal favorite of mine in comics. I would think that this would be the easiest to code from an animation standpoint. Everything is already in game.
- Superspeed - as a powerset, not just a travel power. The Flash is so much more than a guy who runs really fast. It would be great to capture some of the cool usages of his powers over the years as a powerset.
- Something to do with water or underwater powers. I think this could be accomplished more by taking existing powersets, tweaking them and making them work better underwater. Superspeed swimming and superstrength underwater for example.
Pistols - there's a flood of Cowboy heroes waiting for this I am sure.
- Street Fighting - seems like a great way to get a punching set for melee other than Super Strength.
- Staff (Bo Staff) - this seems to be the only basic weapon type not represented. We have just about everything else.
- New Mastermind powersets, that AT just seems limitless (Beastmaster being an obvious choice)

We really need to have a City of Heroes Fan Fest in Rhode Island. We can make Providence "Paragon City for a Day!".

These issues just keep on getting better. 2007 might be the best year for CoX since the release of the game back in 2004.

I really hope we get fencing blades as an option!

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I think it's quite possible, considering the cryptic message concerning dark watcher, and the group is listed as enemies, and the 6 new boss types are lsited as Arch-Villains as well. The Vanguard could of totally gone whacko.

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I think the Vanguard could be written as being kind of like Iron Man & friends in Civil War. They want everyone to register with FBSA and they want control over the Earth's non-Human population. In game lore, isn't the Vanguard an arm of the United Nations?

I doubt the Devs would do it, but writing in the Vanguard like that would be a great way to introduce a "secret identity" toggle. Heroes who have their secret identity toggle set to "On" are considered to be enemies by the Vanguard and heroes that have the secret identity toggle set to "Off" would be considered allies. I was always disappointed that one of my favorite elements of superhero comics, the secret identity, was not included in CoH.

So far we have been hinted that I10 might contain: - a new zone (to the Moon baby), a new enemy and the first considerable advancement of the game story since CoV came out. Now all we need is a new AT or new powersets and this could be one of the best Issues ever.

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Flash of inspiration!

Scirroco, Ice Mistral, the original Dark Watcher, and I think Foreshadow were all trained by the monks in the Order of the Four Winds.

Both Scirroco and Foreshadow reincarnate back and forth from Hero to Villain.

Ice Mistral started off as a heroine, but wound up becoming a villainess.

And now Dark Watcher leads a group of Human Supremicists...

Hmmm. Methinks there's something fishy about the Order of the Four Winds.

But then, it's all speculation.

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In the first novel, I am pretty sure that the Dark Watcher was just a young man who discovered he had a power. I think his AT would be Mutant.

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Flicking through the fan submissions to see Alex Dai's incredible group shot including some of Virtue's finest was frosting. Immortality, at last!

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If that's the pic I think it is then one of my alts is in it, wearing blue and gold and in the upper right corner, name is Starrhawk! Now I guess I'll have to drive 25 miles to the nearest comic store and hope they have it Could somebody scan the pic and post it? If it's not the same pic then I won't have to get a second mortgage to pay for the gas to go get the comic.

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If you end up buying it, just get it online so you don't have drive all over the Earth looking for it. I am sure that midtowncomics.com has it, because that's where I bought mine.

Just a quick disclaimer that this isn't a "DOOOM" post. I love the game and I don't plan on going anywhere any time soon, but...

Maybe it is just my own perception, but the changes we get in issues have become more subtle in nature. New artwork, new costumes, and new badges are all very fun and do add to my enjoyment, but I often think that they should separate these quality-of-life additions from updates that really add content, such as new or updated zones or missions. Quality of life updates could be added in at a faster pace if they didn't tie them in to things like the new Faultline or new archetypes (doesn't it seem like we have been talking about new archetypes for heroes for years now?). By having one major update a year and three smaller ones that advance the storyline along and give us small incremental changes, I think the game would be better off and people would complain less. If we all new that the "Winter Update" would be the big one every year, the other updates we got, say quarterly, wouldn't be judged on the same scale. Perhaps they could even time these smaller quarterly updates to the release of new Veteran Rewards.

Well, I know what game I wish they were working on: an RTS or turn-based strategy game based on famous large scale battles from the world of CoH. WWII battles and the Rikti War with all of the heroes, villains and aliens duking it out on a huge RTS map version of Paragon City would be so excellent.

A boy can dream can't he?

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Looks like the walmart online product page for CoX Good vs Evil edition is back in stock

Mj

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Walmart has been advertising that Tuesday is "Hot Release Night" or something, so I wouldn't doubt that they will begin stocking GvE starting tomorrow. I got mine and have been playing around with the goodies. The Tiki Room is pretty plush!

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Yay! I just checked my order status and its already been delivered to my house... now the rest of the work day is really going to drag on..

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Same here. Want to have a jump jet race tonight?

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I really have to question the wisdom of this Wal Mart exclusivity deal. Aside from the complete screw up that the release has been, I don't think this was a smart decision. How likely is your average Wal Mart customer to play MMOs? I would submit that they are far, far, less likely to be into MMOs than people who shop in places like EB Games and the like. Just because Wal Mart has a wide reach, I don't think its really going to reach the sort of audience that is interested in MMOs.

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I would imagine it was more of a decision based on reaching the largest number of customers while supplying the smallest number of channels. Walmart fits that to a tee. Aside from the fact that there are no Walmarts in New York City. And aside from the fact that a lot of people hate Walmart. But other than that, it should have been an excellent business decision!

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I think we can sum up our collective feelings and frustrations in two words: "this sucks"

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The people at NCSoft and Cryptic are super nice people with great intentions, but have managed to bumble the execution of pretty much most of the releases with dates, codes, conflicts (raise your hand if you had CoV issues)

My 2 influence, until they slot and buy accuracy SOs for their Operations team, they should stop pre-announcing stuff, including releases, until they are on the shelf or on the test server. They mean well trying to pump us up, but the bigger let down when the bumble, which they historically do, causes a bigger ill will and unhappiness over all.

Come on guys - time to get some Ops people who have some real experience - seriously.

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As much of a fan of the game as I am, this is QFT.

I work with the Ops people at my job quite a bit, and they are always the most organized and "in-touch" people at the company. The team at NCSoft just seems to drop the ball often. Especially for a company that has a fairly limited release schedule in America.

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ok. I went to a few walmarts in the Cleveland Area. nothing. and blank faces from the walmart staff. so I think ok I'll choke it up and order it online.

GVE

OUT OF STOCK

Hmm what?

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I ordered mine when it -was- in stock, and already have the confirmation that it's shipped and will arrive Monday or Tuesday at my house.

I think they ACTUALLY sold out of the copies, and didn't just SAY they're sold out.

Which both impresses and frightens me.

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Yep. I too received an e-mail confirmation from Walmart saying that both my copies of Good Vs. Evil has shipped. Sounds like Walmart actually did sell out of their inventory.

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It's already out of stock online?!? Wow, I am glad I ordered mine in the morning. The confirmation and UPS tracking number says it should get here on Monday. And that was the cheapest shipping rate. I have to think that there was some sort of production snafu for it to be sold out so quickly.

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Well....some of the badges are now fixed and others are bugged.

I just bagged over 100 Fortunata's through missions in BB. No Gladiator

friend didn't have spider smasher, no badge after 20 missions

Also no: Wanted etc badges from the missions being completed.

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Was this for a villain or hero?

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Hero Side


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As far as I know and from what I've heard only Fortunatas and Spider minions inside of missions do count toward these badges. And Spider Smasher is for killing Minions with "Spider" in it's name, not for doing a number of missions.

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I was referring to badges, like Wanted, Vigilante, Agent Provactuer (sp?) that give badges for numbers of PVP missions completed.

However,

we were on hero side. using a lvl 15 character to get missions in bloody bay.

Easily 15 to 20 missions were completed. Which is more than enough with 3 people to attain the Spider Smasher badge for the person that did not have it, due to the large minion count.

Over 100 fortunata's were taken out with no gladiator given.

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I was just doing something similar. I was in Bloody Bay and I was doing a level 15's PVP missions set at Invincible. I did about 14 of the missions. I did get the Disruptor badge, but I did not get any other badges I had expected to get (Spider Smasher, Risk Taker).

The only thing I could think of was the mobs conned gray to me. As I said, I was doing the missions at level 15 but was running them using a level 50 character to get through them quickly. Does it matter that I was so much higher for the badges? Should it?

I am guessing this will be the new version of the guide incorporating the core CoH guide, all content released in Issues and CoV.

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At least it wasn't Xanatos. *grins*

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We totally need to get a t shirt that says that made up.

Great thread! Thanks for setting this up.

There are a couple options from the drop down menus in-game that are missing here, which I would imagine would mean you cannot get them via typing /em. Is this correct?

I was trying to figure out how to bind the "On my mark..." emote to a key, but I guess it's impossible. If anyone has figured out what that emote is, please post it here.

----------Mission Log Date December 5th 2002
----------Mission Code Name Star Engine Salvage
----------Mission Commander Log Start

Lift off was rocky. We had 2% loss in starboard aft hull integrity due to a collision with some debris left in orbit, likely left over from a high altitude fight between one of the capes and the aliens. According to computer modeling, we will be able to reenter Earth’s atmosphere without any additional loss of hull integrity and without posing significant risk to the crew.

The telemetry models prepared for us back at Crey headquarters gave us 90% assurance that we would find the wreckage of the experimental shuttle Crey 000047101 with in the vicinity we are now approaching.

Primary mission objective is to locate the Ununpentium Engine and transport it back to Crey Headquarters. Secondary mission objective is to download any onboard readings or data taken prior to engine malfunction and then destroy all data remaining on the ship. Tertiary mission objective is to recover any remains of test pilot Commander Matthew Montcalm for military burial back home.

Ever since the Rikti invaded, Crey has been given the green light by the United States government to operate independently of its space agencies. It is widely agreed upon by most of the Crey scientists involved with this mission that it was likely some form of pilot error that caused the accident. I can’t blame the guy though. If I had hundreds of thousands of aliens pop out of portals right in front of my unarmed experimental shuttle, I am not sure I might just make what the scientists are calling a “fatal lapse” as well. So when we filed our flight plans with NASA, Crey only accepted NASA’s request to recover Montcalm’s remains reluctantly. In typical Crey fashion, they made the government sign over his body parts if the scientists deem it to be “of scientific interest”.

We are approaching the quadrant now. Time is 1900 hours.

Log end

----------Mission Commander Log End

****

“Sir, this is Crewman Hodges reporting,” Kendall’s console speaker crackled.
“Go ahead, Hodges, what is our situation?”
“Well, sir, we have completed the primary and secondary mission objectives. The Ununpentium Engine is being secured into the crane arm, and will be ready for recovery within the next ten minutes. From the looks of it, the engine would appear to be non-functional. We have also downloaded all data from the onboard computers and have set the remote charges to be blown after we have achieved safe distance.”
“Hmm, the engine is non-functional? Doctor Reece will be disappointed, he was convinced he detected some sort of power source on the craft in the telemetry we received. What about your tertiary mission objective? Is there anything left of Montcalm up there?” Kendall asked, the disappointment of finding the engine to be offline clear in his voice.
‘Well, that’s just it sir. We’ve… managed to find the power source Doctor Reece detected. It’s Montcalm.” Hodges stammered.
“You mean his remains are irradiated? Well your suit will protect you from…”
“No, sir,” Hodges interrupted, “not his remains. I mean Montcalm is up here. He’s not dead… he’s unconscious and he is surrounded by this… well, for lack of a better word, glow.”
“Crewman, is this some kind of joke?”
“No, sir”
“The integrity of the vessel was breached during the invasion. Montcalm would have had to survive for the last seven months in space without oxygen, how could…” Kendall didn’t like it. Not only did the engine end up being offline, but now he would have to be part of the coverup that would inevitably result from finding Montcalm. He had worked for Crey for twelve years, and he knew how they operated. If Montcalm was still alive, after the scientists were done with him back at Crey headquarters, he is going to wish he wasn’t. “We are going to need to bring him aboard, Crewman. When you get Montcalm aboard, I want you to bring him directly to the quarantine facility. This is Kendall out.”

***

I would love a Newsstand forum where we could spotlight our writing. The Seekers messageboard has a similar set up for all of its heroes, where each member gets a Solo Issue forum to continue their stories. I have also seen some great screenshot comic art that may fit in such a forum as well.

Sign me up for this idea!

/OOC I am assuming you are talking about May 23rd 2002, the date the Rikti invaded. If I am mistaken, well than, chalk it up me being a dumbarse...
/OOC

“Physics Department, Doctor George speaking.”
“Edwin, this is Gilbert Kane over in the laboratory. I have… something you need to see.”
“Doctor Kane, now I am sure there is nothing I can help one of the country’s foremost specialist in extradimensional portal technology with at his own laboratory, but I have some lab reports to read before my classes start at noon…”
“I remember the days when Doctor George would jump at the chance to explore something new… nevertheless… it’s kind of an emergency. One that requires your special… umm, talents.”
“I will be over in a little bit…” Doctor George said begrudgingly.
***

“I started getting these readings last night. I have a device called an Extradimensional Receiver. It basically can pick up the energy caused by portal openings up to a week before the portal actually opens,” a clearly sleep deprived and frazzled Doctor Kane stammered.
“How is that possible?” Doctor George wondered looking at all of myriad devices and consoles chaotically arrayed throughout the dark lab. Doctor Kane was looked at as something of a pariah by the science departments at Paragon University. Extradimensional technology had always had a bad connotation in the scientific community, especially after the destruction of Portal Corp twelve years ago.
“Travel between dimensions fundamentally relies on a view of the various realities being connected by a great sea of energy, like an archipelago of islands in a giant sea. However, unlike the water in this analogy, when a portal opens first the wake arrives and then the body making it. By attuning this device to the energy fields created by extradimensional travel, I can receive reading on portals opening up in our dimensional vicinity,” Doctor Kane explained.
“Well it doesn’t seem to be working very well,” Doctor George said smugly, pointing to the inert device that Doctor Kane indicated was the ED Receiver.
“Well it was last night. It was right up until I got the highest energy reading ever recorded by this device. The energy overloaded the device and it short circuited.”
“So what does this mean, Doctor Kane?”
“According to my extrapolations, it means that approximately 10,000 portals will shortly open around our planet…” a clearly frightened Doctor Kane said, “and according to my calculations it will happen on in two days… do you understand what this means, Doctor George?”
Doctor Edwin George understood exactly what his colleague meant and what had to be done, but in two days? Could he possibly be ready? “Well then Doctor, lets start to warn anyone who will believe us that May 23rd could be the beginning of an event that would imperil the Earth itself. I will be in my lab, if you need me. There is something I need to finish.”