bjooks

That's one of my biggest complaints. The OP was worded poorly and caused quite a bit of confusion.

Nice to hear. Communication is great, and lack of it is a big reason this event was so frustrating.

But honestly, the only way to make it up to us is to release the Animal pack today, instead.


What? Too obvious?


Okay. On a more serious note, for feedback purposes, let me give you my personal impression of the evening. My boyfriend and I mostly play on 4 main servers -- Triumph (my main), Freedom, Victory, and Virtue (my b-friend's main), and we attended events on three of those. For the most part, the evening felt like a lot of "hurry up and wait." The way the event worked, the party was over within minutes of the devs showing up. Given how so many of us built costumes specifically for this event, it felt like getting all dressed up for a party which ended the moment the host arrived and served drinks.

Freedom: We attended the Freedom event first, and it was mega-crowded, but the atmosphere was exciting enough. I apparently was in PD3. Saw the general message about the giveaway right on schedule, everything server-wide looked good. Didn't get a code, but it was interesting watching the catgirls and cows interact. I did note that the Dev confirmed PD4 would only get one code (she said she was saving one for them). But overall, I didn't have any problems.

Triumph: After Freedom, I went over to Triumph almost 30 minutes early to get a spot in PD1. It got crowded quicker than I expected, and instead of the witty banter I noticed in Freedom, here there was almost an adversarial tone to broadcast, as a few Freedom-ites "graced us" with their presense and insisted on telling us all how horrible Triumph is compared to Freedom. As the time for the event to start came and went, the crowd got more restless, and the anti-Triumph insults came faster, along with several rumors that Triumph had been skipped due to so many codes being given away on Freedom. The official message finally came, and Av (or Bea) quickly came and went, and before you knew it, I realized I'd been standing in the D for almost an hour, just huddled around DJ Zero, doing nothing but waiting and getting frustrated at other players. Going to the second party was where it stopped being fun, and once I realized that I logged from the game completely, planning to skip them the rest of the night.

Virtue: As luck (?) would have it, I found myself free almost exactly when the Virtue event was starting. I logged on and grabbed a toon that already had a safari costume (at the time, I thought that mattered) and headed to the D. There was a huge crowd outside the Kings Row door to the D. I ended up in the the 5th or so instance, and was told when I arrived that all the codes had been given away upstream. I personally wasn't as frustrated this time as I hadn't been waiting for hours, but I heard several other folks who had dedicated the entire evening to this event. Glad I didn't do that.

Overall, each event I attended seemed to come with greater and greater levels of frustration from the crowd. The general announcements came later and later, and rumors took over in lieu of any official dev communication. The event almost entirely depended on player-driven communications to figure out where the Devs were and how the event would be run. More communication, including a more clearly worded original post, as well as more clear in-game communication, would have made a big difference. It would also help to get the players events committees involved so there's more to do, to make the parties more exciting than "wait around for Av or Bea, then leave."

Given what I know now, I don't think I'll come to another event like this. I found the waiting for almost no chance at a code much more frustrating than fun. Hopefully, however, there won't be another event like this; hopefully, they will learn from this so the Steampunk booster giveaway goes much more smoothly.

But back to my first point -- a great way to say "we're sorry," would be to release the Animal pack two days early. Right?

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My boyfriend experienced a very similar scenario last night, approximately 7:30pm (central time). He had been on a toon on Virtue, went to switch to someone else on Virtue, but instead he got the "Upgrade to GR" button and all Praetorians were grayed out. He closed the program and logged in from my laptop, where it worked fine. Worked fine on his computer next time he tried, as well.

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I see no nerd rage here. Wolvie's history with Japan (and its women) is long established. This movie already sounds like a better Wolverine film than the first one.

Since the "X-Men: Origins: Wolverine" DVD special features mention that Silver Samurai would be in this movie, I'm guessing the love interest to be the SS's sister, Mariko.

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^^^This.

JKCarrier said everything I wanted, but with much less sarcasm than I would have used (which is probably for the best).

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According to the newly released producer's letter, it should drop in the next few weeks. Some other interesting news there, as well. My fave -- double XP weekend this month!

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That kinda makes sense. It also makes sense why I'd never noticed this as I never published my one finished arc, and I play arcs not based on star ratings but based on search words and critter descriptions.

Thanks,
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Or alternatively, the option to show missions that only use custom enemies.

I understand why the devs added the warnings about ambushes, AVs/EBs, and whatnot, but those terms can/do scare me off if I see too many of them, especially since I play arcs that are already difficult because I like custom critters. But if these terms are being as broadly applied as some here claim, then perhaps I should be a little more daring in trying those missions. It hadn't occured to me that something as simple as a helper might be what's triggering those warnings.

This isn't directed at Ashcraft or Geko specifically, but they articulated something I'd seen from several posts here and elsewhere -- that a 4 star rating in AE is at best meaningless, and at worst a failure. As a teacher, that reminds me of the grade inflation that makes my students fly into a panic if they make anything less than an "A," even after I explain that a "B" is still is a fine achievement, and that in turn is better than the perfectly average but acceptable "C."

So my questions: Why do 4-star arcs have the stigma of existing in a "4-star wasteland," or that they "might as well be dead?" Can almost any arc really achieve 4 stars, making the rating meaningless? Or is the feeling that 4-star arcs are failures more because the "goal" is to get to 5 stars due to how it was initial advertised that 5-star arcs would receive praise and accolades and potential in-game recognition? Or am I just misreading things completely?

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The biggest thing that attracts me to an arc is for it to have well designed custom characters, alongside a story that works with what I'm interested in at the time. I really don't care for arcs featuring villains that I'm already fighting in-game unless they're used in a unique way.

I usually search for specific types of missions rather than pay much attention to star ratings, and so I don't feel the system is nearly as broken as other people do. I search for specific terms, such as fairies, elfs, vampires, demons, angels, etc. I like to play arcs that have a City of Warcraft feel to them. I love this game, but don't find enough magic missions for my taste, so I use AE to fill that gap. If I see an arc with standard villain groups, especially tech or paramilitary groups, I skip it completely.

In addition, I look for the shorter arcs. I mostly solo, so if an arc is labeled as long or if the maps are large, then it really has to draw me in with its description of critters/plot. If I find an arc is too hard because of poorly designed custom powers or whatnot, I drop it before the first mission is over and look for another. But I don't worry about that so much because it's usually obvious early on if the powers are poorly balanced.

If an arc is labeled as having an arch-villain/elite boss, I'm a bit more skeptical because of my solo status, but again, that's really not a deal-breaker if it otherwise sounds interesting. If an arc has drawn my attention through a search, that first mission will be the key to whether or not I attempt to finish it.

I tried to design my own arcs, but I got tired of them being made invalid before I'd published thanks to patches/updates. For a while I decided that I'd wait until the system became more stable before I came back and tried again, but I'm not sure that's happened (or honestly, if it will happen). It seems that every patch makes something or another in my arcs invalid, so I've not played around with creating them in some time.

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I picked up the Mac/Valkyrie pack for my account, and the Wedding pack for my boyfriend's account. We now both have all the packs except for the Party Pack, which I don't anticipate getting unless/until it goes on sale sometime.

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Emphasis mine.

Looks like it won't necessarily be all the packs, nor all at 50% off.

We've not got the Wedding pack on one account, nor the Mac/Valkyrie pack on the other. And neither account has the Party pack. If these are among the sale items, and if they're cheap enough (read: if the Party pack is among the 50%-off items), then I'll snag 'em up.

Just curious -- I may be misremembering, but isn't there some weird security thing on the store where you can only buy so many items on any given day/month? If so, will that pose a problem?

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Not quite. It would be more like Gibson's "Les Paul" discussion board banning discussion of the new Gibson "Firebird X." IOW, we're not some generic NCSoft discussion board, but a board dedicated to only one game, CoH.

With that being said...

Like everyone else, I have my own opinions about going F2P, but I don't see much reason to get involved in a discussion where the rules forbid real-life, pertinent examples.

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For this pack? No thanks.

I get why you think it needs more (I don't agree, but I at least understand). But any fixes to the few glaring ommisions from previous packs need to be made part of the original packs those parts should come with. I mean, imagine the outcry if they decided that Organic w/ skin was gonna be in this pack and not the mutant pack? It doesn't make sense. Besides, I believe there's precident for them adding to a pack after the fact. Didn't they go back and add some weapons to one of the earlier packs? (Am I thinking of the Valkyrie swords?)

I'll fully support the idea of fixing some holes in previous packs, but I can't support tying them to this one. It will make future purchases of all packs needlessly confusing.

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Sorry, can't say I agree. At all.

The more I think about it, the more this one is becoming my favorite booster they've done. Fifteen costume pieces -- 5 capes and 10 auras (auras with multiple options) -- makes me a happy camper. I use capes often. I use auras often. If you don't, then your wallet should be excited you don't have to buy this one.

In fact, I'd much rather have more targeted boosters like this, which I can either take or leave, than have hodge-podge boosters which end up maybe having one or two things I like, but are otherwise filled with stuff I'll never use -- like the science booster, which was pretty useless to me except for the super tailor. None of the previous boosters besides Magic have looked as interesting to me as this -- 10 auras I can use from level 1.

I'm not disappointed, not one bit.

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Since Issue 18 (last issue). At the tailor, at the end of each aura's list of various options you'll find all the same choices with the combat mode option.

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I'd figured as much, but nice to have confirmation.

With all the auras having combat mode options available on different body parts, it has really opened up a new side to the power customization we already have. My mage's plant control and weather summoning will soon activate with magical runes, and I could almost giggle with excitement about that.

Ten dollars for 10 fine-looking auras that can be customized to work with my costumes and my powers? I'd have been fine with just that, but there are also five capes, several of which interest me as well? I think that's pretty sweet, to be honest.

We all see value in different things, and I suspect I'm gonna get more value out of this booster than I have from any since the Magic one. That'll make it worth the price for me. YMMV.

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