medic57

I feel like a broken record.

1) As stated, I do not know the country demographics of the game. If CoH has 3 players in another country, CoH has a DxP weekend that awards them extra experiece. How does this hurt them? As I said, Britain may have more players than the US (I keep saying Britain, because the CoH T-Shirt I bought is being sent from England) and it might make a more positive impact. Shocking <gasp> that an American would concede that their is other countries on the planet.

2) I said that 3 holidays, namely Christmas, Thanksgiving and New Years Day, are not weekends at all. That, with my advanced math skills is 7-3 = 4. If the current formula for CoH weekends is 2, then 4 - 2 = 2. We are talking 2 weekends a year added.

3) I have played more than 1 mmorpg with holidays as a standard xp bonus weekend. In a word, it works.

To summarize. I don't see how bonus xp hurts anyone if it isn't too often and is scheduled to allow more people to enjoy it (or at least know when they are scheduled).

Gob, Thank you for you input. Please read on.

If you reread my post, I say if 7 weekends are too much, just do the holidays. The reason why is at the end of this post. I listed all the holidays, but in fact not ALL are weekends. Christmas, Thanksgiving and New Years comes to mind.

As far as the site being a ghost town, this weekend my wife has been playing EQ2. She has been in full teams 17 hours a day (with a few breaks for meals) and has been in 4-24 toon raids. Its true she took the actual holiday off today, to pick up her family from the airport and to take a break from the computer which she was playing pretty much nonstop. By the way, EQ2 has been doing DxP weekends on holidays as long as I can remember...about 3 years with my brain being half dead from a stroke.

As a personal note, my bride does play CoH with me as much as she can. The graphics of this game makes her physically sick to the point of vomiting. I am the one who asks her not to play because it tears me up to see her this way.

I can tell you that working 90% of all holidays in the Navy 20 years has given me perspective. I used to take my shipmates duty days on holidays (until I got married) because a vast majority of businesses (my focus was food) were closed. I bring this up to illustrate that many folks who may miss bonus weekends normally, MAY have a day off to play. The time off issue is my response to your majority viewpoint concerning holidays. If a player can't play due to holiday issues, why penalize those who can play?

Thats why I contend the holiday weekend is still best. It allows "the majority" to play, but still have the holiday. The "minority" may miss a regular DxP weekend, but have the choice to play if they have the time off.

This is true. If you look up the post tree, I mention that I do not know the country demographics of the game. If the majority of players reside in Britain, for example, US holidays might not be the best choice. Side note: Being an American my life is centered around things American. As far as I know, the last DxP weekend WAS on a major UK holiday.

Regarding the multiple posts regarding server failures due to load, I am not convinced. True, I wasn't here for the "greyed out" periods. I was here for the extended (ok way extended) maintenance period the other day. I (like most of you I'm sure, attempted to log in all day). I have this illusion that NCSoft is beefing up the load aspects of their servers to handle "the rush" when Freedom comes out. If they don't, I fear we will all see servers crashing left and right. Bonus weekends will be the least of everyone's worry.

As far as folks having to work the holidays, I guess thats anyone's guess. I do not know, and you don't either unless you work for NCSoft, what their personnel schedules are. I do know, at least in my "perfect" world, that servers should handle peak load periods. Noticing last night at least 2 servers were "maxed". Also, the last DxP weekend we had 3 weeks ago, the servers seemed just fine.

I guess it all comes down to money, as usual. I assume a game population drives the hardware, software, tech support, and ultimately the future of a game. Since they are changing the pay format, this solidifies my beliefs. Again, I state that bonus weekends will be the least of our issues if the servers can't handle the load.

Again, I retreat into my past experience that bonus holiday weekends are a "positive" for a mmo. I share folks concerns for server downtime, but feel that NCSoft is being "proactive" on this issue. I feel they do a good job. This game crashes way less, have fewer bugs, has more stable servers by far than the last game I left after 11 yrs of playing and "gritting my teeth". A server down a day on CoH is bad, can you imagine what a month down on the "other" game just a few months ago felt like?

A major difference in the support teams I've noticed between my "old" game and CoH. The only folks who got tech support reply within 2 days were ones with multiple accounts. If you were a loyal player, submitted several tickets for the same issue, you "may" receive tech support. If you were a casual player...forget it. We are talking about major (can't log in, lost toons, cleared items out of inventory/banks, etc) issues.

I degress. Holiday bonus weekends? yes or no and why.

Thank you so much for the replies. Things are learned with every post.

Thank you Nihilii. You bring up good points.

Back to the question. Holiday bonus play, yes or no, and why?

Ok. Your missing the point. The point being that if they had it on major holiday weekends people would know AND would possibly have time off to play.

As stated, I was here for the last bonus weekend.

Also, folks keep bringing up the fact that its too often. So, to answer my own question. Federal holidays with weekends (per a federal website)Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Years Day. I count 7. Does 7 days per a 365 day calander year seem too much? No sarcasm intended. If you wish, take out the weekend part to "save" days. And yes, people may want to do something else their holiday, but you can't please everyone...right?

Frostdrake,

My viewpoint. People who don't play routinely have no idea when bonus xp weekends are. In addition, folks may work weekends. Most companies shut down for major holidays, and frees the player up for "quality time" with their computers. This, of course assumes, they even have a job in this economy. : )

As far as "normalizing". I again return to my experience from other mmo's who have holiday bonus xp weekends. I have not seen this. Does anyone know the amount of major holiday weekends? (asks the guy to lazy to look at a calander). My "holidays" are everyday, I'm retired. : )

Mavius,

That was funny, as well...heck. But sadly, I see your point. Thats why on my team search tag I have "No AE" now. Quick story. Last week I received a blind invite for a team. It was a AE. We zoned in, touched a box, got the "exit" message. The leader ran to a corner, then 20+ mobs ambushed us 4 "conscripts", we fought valiantly then died and he exited. He then left team, put us on ignore, and thats why I have a new tag on my search team menu.

The major holiday schedule works for EQ2 because folks expect holiday weekends to be bonus xp. Its nice to see a few buddies log-in who have taken a break for rl. I have no idea about server load issues in CoH, but it seemed to handle last bonus xp load fine. I'm not sure if the added stress of a holiday weekend would make a difference. A "techie" input would be nice from NCSoft </holds breath>. Its a good point because the servers crashing is a total bummer.

Bill.

I agree with you totally that some games powerleveling leaves the toon without gear, skills, buffs, etc to survive. I can't comment on endgame content of CoH because I'm not there yet. I guess the only thing I can suggest is that the lack of accolades may reduce or limit a "powerleveled" toon that hasn't earned them. I guess my main observation has been player's skill level.

I disagee with your "storyline" comment however. Is a player's fighting prowness influenced by their knowledge of the storyline? If so, how? I'm curious, and don't claim to know the game.

To the original suggestion. Would bonus xp weekends on holidays help or hurt the game?

Actually, I tought I did make a suggestion at least what I have seen work. My suggestion is to have all major holidays xp bonus weekends.

Thank you project, I didn't know that.

In Everquest II they had xp bonus potions that you could buy, and I would use them on bonus xp weekends. Having said that the level cap was 90, and it took a ton of effort to get to 90. In the grand scheme of things however, I don't see any harm to others if folks max out a toon. If it helps the game survive financially, I'm all for it if folks think they are "getting one over" on NCSoft.

On a same note, I don't see a problem, as far as folks searching for help, in this game with "powerleveling". That's a good thing as far as I'm concerned. Its annoying to group with higher level folks who don't have a clue how to play their toon. Why isn't powerleveling at least visible, or am I just blind?

Well yours truly did, I saw this message "Giant octopus sighted in Independence Port". I then sprinted and engaged the octopus solo. I forget what level I was..umm 30 something? It hit me so hard, I felt it in rl.

Thanks Bill : )

I was back in Praetoria again tonight. Again, I was twarted by the mysterious "lure the boss out" message and failed. I missed your post, but found it on a search, amazed that I was the OP! Thanks again. I'll try it next time I'm cruisin Imp City.

Isn't the whole reason to join or create a supergroup is to help others or at least be able to stow your stuff? It seems to me that having a cache of recipes is a good thing. The economics in this game are bonky anyway, one day a "thing" sells for 10 inf and the next I need a abacus to count all the zeros. Seems the devs might have "missed the mark" on this topic. But what do I know, I'm a newb arn't I.

To clarify, I belive its the exploding avioli not "the fire" that kills. A medical type can correct me if I'm wrong. I was just a EMT before the Navy and not too schooled on the subject. I guess I feel an "instant" death by any means is well...um instant and therefore irrelevant of the cause. But having never been through it, I can't be certain. Having also been a volunteer fireman, my least favorite way to die would be a slow death by fire. So I share this viewpoint with you.

The comic was classic. I sent the link to my PhD (Biology an Environmental Enginnering) friends. One is a profesor, who happens to teach chemistry.

That's a great idea about inspirations. Mind if I "borrow" it?

I guess it boils down to how you like to die. True that your survivability is better on "skimmers", at least before the advent of modern day "split a ship in two" munitions. Having said that, the S&R folks MAY find you if you live. The key word is "if". Floating in the "pond" roasting to death, going nuts from exposure, and watching your friends becoming "screaming chum" from "chew on yas" isn't for me.

Knowing none of us get out of life alive, a quick death is for me. Most people don't know this, Submariners usually don't die from drowning. They die waaay before the water even gets to em from their lungs bursting in flames from compression ignition. I have gone to countless Submarine Birthday Balls and watched sub vets ring the bell for each sub lost. They then announce "all hands lost". This has always driven the point home for me.

Actually, too bad I'm not gay. It would double the chances for relationships ; ).

My dad started with F-4U Corsairs (made famous by tv show ba ba black sheep) and ended up flying the "new fangled" gizmos called jets.

Actually, I rather be submerged in a "ship" DESIGNED to do it than one that isn't. Remember there are 2 types of ships...submarines and targets.

When retrieving flight data recorders (aka "black boxes"), we used to tell the crash investigators "there are more airplanes in the ocean than submarines in the sky".

I agree with all you said.

I would like to add my 2 inf. My suggestion, ask all team members if they have self rez or teammate rez (or both). My mm with pheonix comes to mind. This at the very least can save those sweet "wakies" and might save a quick fingered toon from going to the hospital (and the "run of shame" that follows). These have no "zombie walk", have 90 seconds of death penalty protection, and in some cases even more. I usually state (if it isn't obvious) that I will use these at start of teams.