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Would you mind terribly checking all the other rare monster spawns as well? Some of them like Kraaken, Paladin, and Jurrasik for instance seem to be exceptionally rare as well.
Since you're in the spawn time checkin mood that is...
Great news, btw. 
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Jurassik, he doesn't really exist does he? I mean, if he did, there would be almost no way that I could log in and out of Crey's Folly's everytime I am on and *never* see him. That in all my collective hours on, I have never heard one Freedom Badge report of him being up....
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Jurassik does spawn however unlike monsters like Kraken or Babbage he has at least six confirmed spawn points in Crey's Folly. It's almost as easy to miss him as it is Kraken -- that thing has amazing camoflauge when standing near the tree line.
However I am wondering about the Paladin Construction Site Event. THAT one is disgustingly rare. Perhaps a quick gander at the spawn rates for it is in order?
-Skull
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Ok, we screwed up.
We knew that Sally was going to be rare. We knew that with 1 HP she was going to dive under the water before most people ever saw her. This was going to lead to her being "mythical" and rarely seen on a server. We had a spawn rate in mind when we designed everything, including the lowering the requirements down to 2 Sally Defeats for the Believer badge.
Then I noticed someone asking that the spawn rate be "lowered to 2 1/2 to 3 hours". I said to myself, "Self, that doesn't sound right, she should already be spawning at a better rate than that." So me and one of the programmers went in and looked at the spawn rate.
Yikes.
A minimum of 10 hours between spawns was NEVER our intention. This means Sally would spawn once or twice a DAY. Defeating her twice at this crazy rate is a task I would never wish upon CoH players.
We have fixed it today (I don't know when it will make it to the Training Room server) so there is a maximum of 1 hour between spawns. This still makes her "rare", but it's now within the realm of possibility that casual players will get to defeat her twice within their time in Croatoa, and thus earn the badge.
Again, we are very sorry about this.
(Nip in the bud time: The spawn was set up in a way that we intended to have her spawn at a much faster rate than she was, but the fact that the spawn was ALSO set up to make sure that only 1 Sally was active at a time prevented her from being spawned at the faster rate. This was not obvious until we investigated claims that it was taking over 4 hours for her to Spawn. In our original thinking, it was just "someone else got to her before you did", but comments from you guys had me go in and investigate it further).
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I guess when this fix goes live it'll be time to bring out the old camping gear again. I sure do miss spending time with all the non-man-faced witches. 
Leader of The Twilight Crusaders
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Positron, you can make it up to us by putting this patch live, asap.
YOU ALL CALLED ME CRAZY!!!
I -SAID- HER SPAWN RATE WAS FUBARED!!!
But NOOOO You all had to give me [censored].
I was RIGHT! BWAHAHAHA o_O
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Ok, we screwed up.
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Four words that make me respect you all the more. Thank you.
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Cerrtainly don't agree with everything the devs do, but I give full credit to Positron for being informative, honest and upfront about this. Very classy. As Homer would say, eight thumbs up!
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Gotta agree with people there, after coming from WoW this kind of openess and honesty from a dev is as unbelievable as, well as a giant prehistoric lake monster I guess 
I am SO glad I changed games
Paladin rare? I see him up quite a bit. You guys must just be passing through the zone at the wrong times, much like it took me months to get my Devilfish badge. Jurassik I just got lucky with, was hunting out there when somebody spotted him.
Adamastor, HIM I'm not sure about. I'm in Dark Astoria all the time, checking all the spawn points, and nothing.
Anyways, thanks a lot Positron. Looks like I'll have to wait a little longer yet to get my Believer badge, but I've still got a bunch of other Croatoa badges to work on in the meanwhile.
Arc #41077 - The Men of State
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Thank you! Good work. 
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It's great that you fixed that, Positron.
But can you check to make sure the spawn rates of all the other zone monsters are in line with what they should be too? It's darned near impossible to get the badges for these monsters that show up only once a in blue moon and will only award their badges to the team that did the most damage when they do.
And if the spawn rates are what they should be, can you tell us what they are?
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I agree. Consider it from the casual gamer's perspective - would you want to wait around an hour to try and find such rare beasts? Of course, I understand that Zone Events should be relatively rare - that's what makes them special, after all! However, I'm sure most players aren't keen on waiting around to catch the rare spawns of these things. I, for one, have never seen Jurassik spawn in Crey's Folly. As much as I'd love to fight it, I don't want to sit there for a half-hour (much less an hour or more) jumping around, doing nothing else - especially when I have no guarantee that it'll even show up. And with the current setup, even if it does show up, there's no guarantee I'll get a badge for helping to fight it, if someone else is there as well.
Is it possible for there to be a maximum timer set for rare spawns? That is, if the event has not happened in X amount of time, it is automatically triggered? After all, if (for example) the Babbage is supposed to patrol Boomtown, shouldn't it be there most of the time? Granted, I'm sure the Clockwork King pulls him away to run an errand from time to time, but lore-wise, it makes sense for the Babbage to be one of the reasons Boomtown hasn't been reclaimed... . Likewise with the other events - it'd be nice for them to be rare, but not that rare.
Another note on zone events - some are more noticeable than others. For example, the ghost ship is pretty obvious if you're anywhere near it, as is Lusca. But something like the Kraken in Perez Park or Jurassik in Crey's Folly (with the mass of pipes & gantries all over the place) are much harder to find, particularly for people who don't know the area it's supposed to spawn. Obviously, it's important that the spawn-points make sense (eg, the Kraken near the sewer entrances in Perez), but also consider some sort of zone-wide broadcast when such beasts are active. For example, perhaps the massive whirring gears and thudding metallic steps of the Babbage in Boomtown would clue heroes in that there's something big out there. This gives players the knowledge of the event, and lets them choose whether or not to pursue it.
Summary:
1) Keep the casual gamer in mind - no-one likes waiting forever for rare zone events.
2) Consider a maximum timer for zone events - if it hasn't spawned within X amount of time, initiate the spawn.
3) Announce zone events in the zone. Some zone events are harder to notice than others, and a zone-wide announcement would at least alert players to the event.
/e praise
For all the things that anger Forum users, this is probably the best, most honest, and most heartfelt Dev response I have ever read.
THIS is customer service. Admitting you were wrong, and showing a dedication to making the game more player-friendly is all that I, as a customer, ask. Thank you, Positron, thank you.
Excellent work. I'm glad these things get noticed and investigated. Nice follow up.
By the way, what is considered to be "rare" in terms of spawn rate, and are there things that are considered or suppose to be "uncommon" in terms of thier spawn rate as well?
Posi while you're at it, Can you un nerf my tank HoOkA on Protector. I swear he never ever ever stepped his foot on a ninja map. And then can you end world hunger find a cure for all nasty disease's and fix me a PbNj sandwhich too please?
Thanks for following up on this
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...but comments from you (mean JERKS! ) guys had me go in and investigate it further)...
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I'm glad Positron's armor is 99.999% Fire Resistant
I'm glad that you looked into it, Posi.
Now how about looking at the respawn rates of the other Giant Monsters? I've heard them all up, but I've never really had a chance to get to some of them. One being the notorious Kraken.
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3) Announce zone events in the zone. Some zone events are harder to notice than others, and a zone-wide announcement would at least alert players to the event.
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Now THAT is a good idea. Something like what you hear when Kronos Class Titan spawns. That one, the screen shakes a few times, you hear this LOUD smashing sound, and there is this...HUGE...robot...glaring at you, and then you see the missiles firing at you.
And for a place that is populated, like Founder's Falls, have Police Drones at various popular sites spouting out information about the location of the spawn.
As for places like Boomtown or Faultline, how about having fewer mob spawns? Or have them running from the spot. Or some similar thing to that.
Best example I can think of for a hazard zone is Adamastor, in Dark Astoria. Have something like what you've got in Croatoa, with that nifty valley. Maybe in this case, a ritual grounds. A dozen or so masks of various sorts. Same number of Totems. Oodles and oodles of minions and lieutenants. (Don't remember what they're called.) Have the lts and the minions doing the worship emote towards the middle of the site, where the totems are focusing themselves to call upon Adamastor. (The fact that they're there means that a spawn is eminent.) Something along that line. (It's fun to come up with some really pain-in-the-butt scheme, but that's what being a player is all about, idn't it?)
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Then I noticed someone asking that the spawn rate be "lowered to 2 1/2 to 3 hours". I said to myself, "Self, that doesn't sound right, she should already be spawning at a better rate than that." So me and one of the programmers went in and looked at the spawn rate.
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That self is a great guy. He made me lunch today, and went to class AND work for me! I didn't know he fixed Sally too. I think it's time to let him play some CoH.
Heh, thanks. This was posted after me and a team were waiting (we did get some RP in, so all is not lost.) But those poor people sitting in the lake for 15 hours a day! 
The other monsters I've seen, and I'm almost always seeing Adamastor in DA. He glows a lot. I'll always announce it over broadcast. Kraken spawned on my tanker in Perez Park one day, but he has about 5 spawn spots there. Once, he was in a tree and blended in. Babbage is pretty easy to find up in the way north of Boomtown. Paladin has a good spawn rate, as well.
My one beef with the Croatoa ones is the "team with the most damage gets the badge". I wish it were more like Lusca, where just helping gets you the badge. I felt extreme guilt because I have a level 50 energy/energy blaster and whatever team she's on will be the one that does the damage. So far, players have been nice about teaming up and trying to make sure everyone gets to share, but it would be nicer if everyone who was trying managed to at least get the badge.
Competition for spawns does not befit CoH well, especially when the devs have gone out of their way to make KSing affect a player minimally. Leave the competition for the upcoming PvP zones.
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Ok, we screwed up.
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Four words that make me respect you all the more. Thank you.
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Cerrtainly don't agree with everything the devs do, but I give full credit to Positron for being informative, honest and upfront about this. Very classy. As Homer would say, eight thumbs up!
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Gotta agree with people there, after coming from WoW this kind of openess and honesty from a dev is as unbelievable as, well as a giant prehistoric lake monster I guess
I am SO glad I changed games
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hehe, I hope the devs frame your post!
I'm sure they love hearing that.
And although I've never played WOW for more than 5 minutes (was never interested because I'm not a big fan of fantasy and I hate the graphics, but installed the free trial anyway), I have played other games with devs that did not level with their players. Sometimes I get warm fuzzies reading stuff the devs here say, other things...not so much. But still, overall, the best devs I've encountered by far.
I haven't hunted for Sally yet, but on the Justice Badge Channel, JSBAS and JSMAS channels I'm a member of, I have not heard of a single Sally spawn, and have heard quite a few people both inquiring if she's up and saying that she's a myth. So this is a great change for these people
Now, on to other monsters.
I play the game WAAAY too much, and there are a few monsters I've either never heard of spawning, or have heard of them spawning INCREDIBLY rarely.
Here are monster spawns in the order of frequency I've heard them reported on the Justice channels JSMAS, JSBAS, and now their successor Justice Badge (thanks tic toc):
- Ghost Ship and Lusca virtually tied for most frequently reported spawns. Grant it, IP and Talos are places where there are often lots of people around to spot them. But sometimes I'm amazed when I hear that there is yet another Lusca sighting just an hour after the last one. When I hear someone say "luscas up" or "the oc's up" or (erroneously but still fun to say) "squid's up", I don't blink an eye. There's even been an issue since I5 of the ship getting "stuck" somewhere in the middle of Talos on occasion.
- Paladin construction: occurs maybe once a night, at most, usually. Sometimes several days can pass before the next sighting. It is frequent enough for me to never get any sense of surprise when I hear it has spawned. Come to think of it, it kind of goes in waves. Sometimes I hear of it every day or two, but recently, I don't recall hearing of anyone spotting it since I5, but I have been coming on the game a bit later recently. Grant it, many low level players who frequent KR the most don't know about monster and badge reporting channels. I didn't know about them til I was in my mid 20s.
There is a HUGE gap between the spawning of the Paladin construction and any other monster spawns. I'm not totally sure how to order them, because they all happen extremely rarely.
- Krakken: I play maybe 4 hours or more many nights, sometimes every night of the week (I have no life), sometimes even longer on weekends. I've heard of Krakken spawning maybe 4 times in a few months while I've been logged in. Often from like 8 PM to 1 AM Central Time, and have been on the Justice Monster JSMAS and Justice Badge JSBAS (now both being folded into the new Justice Badge channel) for months. Two of those times were within maybe 2 days. And for 3 of the 4 times I heard of him spawning, he was down before I could even set foot in PP. Grant it, Krakken has multiple places where he can spawn, and PP can be a pain to navigate, but enough people know about www.vidiotmaps.com and try to hunt him, so reports of him should be more frequent.
- Adamastor: I've heard of him spawning maybe three times in the few months I've been a member of these special channels. Once I was lucky to have been on a team doing a COT mission in a cave actually IN the graveyard, so all I had to do is quit the team, run like a couple minutes, help bring him down, and re-join my team already in progress, still in the same mission. Grant it, it's so darn hard to even see ANYTHING in DA, and I think hardly anyone goes in there unless they have to for the occasional mission. I didn't even want to hunt BP spirit masks there, prefering the area outside DA in Talos, when I could see better, even though they mostly come out at night, mostly. As big and ugly and naked as this monster is, even he's kind of hard to spot because his ashen complexion blends in with the murky fog.
- Babbage: I've heard of him spawning in Boomtown once in the last few months. I'm glad that I was up later than I should have been to hear about him being reported, so I was happy to have been at the Steel greenline stop already, and was the first to join the team. I told some SG mates, who told some friends, but, due to people's excitement about having him spawn, quite a few people could not make it to the zone on time. Grant it, NO ONE goes to Boomtown. I hunted there one night with a herding tank when I was around level 15 or something, and my only time going back was during a TF and while badge hunting (my main is a total badge w#!re). So the rarety of anyone even visiting Boomtown might be a big reason why no one spots him. At least the TF Babbage gives the task force team badges.
- Jurrassik: NEVER EVER a single sighting while I've been on these special channels in the last few months. I should say never any REAL sightings, because some idiot thought it would be funny to spam the monster channel saying that he was spotted. The prankster said Jurrassik was in an area that is not shown to be a spawn point on Vidiotmaps, and when a lot of people raced around Crey's looking for him, no one found him, and everyone who asked where he was spotted ended up getting no answer, and someone announced on the channel to never ever trust the prankster because the [censored] had a reputation for making things up. Crey's is a zone that players 30 and up are sent to on missions all the time. I'm there sometimes nightly for one reason or another, as was the case the last 2 nights. SOMEONE should have spotted him. The TF Jurassik did not give me or anyone on my team a badge, although someone in my SG said he'd gotten the badge when he did the TF months before.
If you can fix the Sally spawn, I, and many others, would appreciate it if you take a look at the other monsters too.
Thanks, Positron. I'll get Bill back into Croatoa now and go for some Sally sightings.
Be well, people of CoH.
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Would you mind terribly checking all the other rare monster spawns as well? Some of them like Kraaken, Paladin, and Jurrasik for instance seem to be exceptionally rare as well.
Since you're in the spawn time checkin mood that is...
Great news, btw.
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Jurassik, he doesn't really exist does he? I mean, if he did, there would be almost no way that I could log in and out of Crey's Folly's everytime I am on and *never* see him. That in all my collective hours on, I have never heard one Freedom Badge report of him being up....
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Because you're in the wrong channel for monster sightings...try Freedom Monster and you should have some better luck.
Also, vidiotmaps does not have all the Jurrasik spawn points...I know of one clear in the back where I've seen him spawn about 3 times in the last few months.
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i only saw her once my whole life playing the game,....no wait...just her tentacles cause some idiot ran up to her, hit her and she died instantly...so you guys screwed up eh? its cool no worries...
go hall monitors..whoo
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YOU ALL CALLED ME CRAZY!!!
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The word was "easy", actually...
Oh, and Pos? Someone may want to talk to QA about this. This morning, I got this response from them:
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Discussion Thread
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Response (Jex) - 09/21/2005 11:27 AM
Hi Andrew,
Thank you for your report. [Sally] is a very rare spawn, but it is working.
Good luck!
Jex
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Would you mind terribly checking all the other rare monster spawns as well? Some of them like Kraaken, Paladin, and Jurrasik for instance seem to be exceptionally rare as well.
Since you're in the spawn time checkin mood that is...
Great news, btw.
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Jurassik, he doesn't really exist does he? I mean, if he did, there would be almost no way that I could log in and out of Crey's Folly's everytime I am on and *never* see him. That in all my collective hours on, I have never heard one Freedom Badge report of him being up....