Discussion: Double XP Weekend of June 15th

That was beyond fun, hopefully they do it again soon.

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I managed to get a toon from 14 to 16 in 2 hours of solo play time on saturday around 1 oclock. Couldnt connect the rest of the time.

Oh well.

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Well, thanks to double XP weekend, I had to change my signiture.

It used to read: "Definitive Alt-A-Holic: 15+ Mo Vet without a 50."

You guessed it: I got my 50. Went from 41 to 50 in three days of binge playing with my Illusion/Storm Controller.

And yes, I did not have any help from supergroups or RL friends I knew in the game. I just hunted for pickup groups. Assembled my own for most of Saturday. It's not that hard to do, folks. Turn on your LFG flag. Also learn the /search function: Grey name folks are on a team, so ask the ones at your level range if they have room or start recruiting the available players at your level.

I actually had little connection issues on the Virtue server, one of the busier ones. There was that one time it went down for awhile, and I lost connection once or twice (although my cable modem may have been at fault). At its worse, I just had to wait at the login screen for it to eventually pull up my character data. I suspect that having a broadband connection might have given me the edge, but there may have also been some east coast-directionly routing issues, because I did fine on the west coast.

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It was a GREAT double XP weekend.
I'm NOT a part of any SG or group of friends, but I had absolutely NO PROBLEM joining teams. I just set my team button to "Looking for missions" and within minutes I was in a team.

Playing only infrequently over the weekend, I was able to get my main toon from lvl 39 to just shy of lvl 42 and got over 6 million influence and several badges. Played on Guardian server with no lag, no hiccups and no disconnects. Used my laptop AMD64 4000+, 1.5GB ram and ATI X600 video card with high settings.

No problems just lots and lots of fun.

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The double XP was fun, especially if you had characters that you wanted to get "over the hump" (eg. travel power or stamina)!

Unfortunately, I could not get on to Freedom for most of the time and had play issues when I did. Therefore some of my main character did not feel the 2XP love...oh well. Still fun.

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Biggest disappointment yet. Cryptic, please if you are going to have a huge event be prepared to handle the load. The servers were not playable enough to even gain from the double xp. I gained less xp than I normally do because of the wasted time waiting on trying to even log in. After 30 minutes of failed attempts I gave up. 2 Thumbs down for not being prepared.

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Everyone I know worked just fine. This poster has no idea what he's spouting about.

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Biggest disappointment yet. Cryptic, please if you are going to have a huge event be prepared to handle the load. The servers were not playable enough to even gain from the double xp. I gained less xp than I normally do because of the wasted time waiting on trying to even log in. After 30 minutes of failed attempts I gave up. 2 Thumbs down for not being prepared.

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Everyone I know worked just fine. This poster has no idea what he's spouting about.

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Actually the poster has a very good idea what he is talking about. While I am sure your experience may have been diffeent I had a very similar experience this weekend. Extremley long load times constant disconnects. There were times during the day in which I could not play at all. I appreciate the double XP weekend however it was kind of a bittersweet event.

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It was nice to find so many teams!

Excellent weekend. Truly awesome.

Ex

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Ex.

Part-Troll, who used to be Excession777, now playing pantomime with people's mindlets.
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I'm glad that these are becoming a semi-regular thing. It really helps those of us who don't get to play as much due to family or work obligations.

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Pros: Double XP was awesome. Teams were plentiful. People were focused on time/xp management...little time sitting around.

Cons: Logging in...if the server you happened to have your toons on (Freedom and Virtue) was a 'red' server, then you may or may not have had issues even logging into the game. 'Disconnected from DB server' or some kind of message like that. 3 or 4 times I tried to log in took me 12 - 15 attempts to even log in. Once I did, I clicked the server and it hung up for like 3 minutes before the character screen. Then to switch from one character to another on that screen, it would hang up for another two minutes. Once it was in the game it worked just fine.

I agree that it was a great event once again. However, I do feel that they could upgrade their hardware for better performance on events like this. It wouldn't hurt to have for every day improvements too.

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I had a great time this 2xp weekend turn out was significantly better then the last. Couple friends brought over there comps and we only
crashed once really bad in a sky way mish on freedom server. wouldn't let us log back in just said you toon is already logged. after 20 minutes things were fine. got 1-32. no problem filling in the 4 free rotating spots. All in all awesome fun weekend. but i can wait 6 months for it again

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I did not do as well I expected because at times it was impossible to log in to the FREEDOM Server. This meant I had to play alts on other servers, which is fine but it would have been nice to get those levels on the character I wanted to level.

I bet they issued more free codes or reinvited people who had let their accounts lapse. If so, I have to ask why they do these things during events that are supposed to benefit the players? There is no benefit gained when you can't play.

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I agree that the Father's Day timing of the event definitely limited my time on. It could have been worse though -- the event might have been scheduled on Mother's Day! My suggestion for future events -- long holiday weekends that don't typically involve getting the family together. Memorial Day, July 4 weekend, Labor Day, Veterans Day weekend, etc all come to mind.

Regardless of the timing, I did get some time to play and found it to be fun. More lag than usual in PI, and on more than one occasion I got the DB Server disconnect trying to log into Freedom which seemed to be the most heavily played server. It was nice to see so many people on. Teaming was easy.

Any thought given to the idea that people hit these events so hard because xp grinds too slowly in the regular game? Would more people play and play consistently if xp gain was raised say 50% permanently? I know it's a business decision and a balance between people leveling too quickly, running out of content, and leaving the game vs seeing more character progress and skill development, but I can't help but think leveling a little faster under normal conditions might be a good thing for customer satisfaction.

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We don' need no stinkin' signatures!

My only regret was on Sunday while I was playing with a team on a TF my toon kept getting booted every time we had to hit Talos. so I was either arriving very late to missions or not arriving at all which rightly so causes bad feelings with team mates. So if anyone that teamed with Mista Solo on Sunday, please accept my sincerest apologies. It wasnt due to lack of trying to make it, I just kept getting served.

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WHO DAT!? WHO DER!?

All these complaints about not being to get on Freedom . . . You all chose the most populated server because it has the most people. However, during 2XP weekend, everyone and their brother is on the game, so obviously Freedom will be overbooked. It's just a consequence of the choice you made. If you don't want to be overloaded during 2XP or when a new issue comes out, don't play on Freedom or Virtue.

I have my main characters on Guardian and Pinnacle and had no problems whatsoever all weekend getting on, and rarely had a problem finding teams. Great weekend. Got one character up three tough levels (41-44), had another go up 5 (24-29) and several others go up a level or two. Had some family commitments, or it would have been more.

It was too bad that several of my main gang were out of town on business, or it would have been more. However, I joined up with several good PUGs and led one for a while. Fun times with good folks. Thank you to everyone on Guardian and Pinnacle who joined up with me!

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LOCAL MAN! The most famous hero of all. There are more newspaper stories about me than anyone else. "Local Man wins Medal of Honor." "Local Man opens Animal Shelter." "Local Man Charged with..." (Um, forget about that one.)
Guide Links: Earth/Rad Guide, Illusion/Rad Guide, Electric Control

Busy weekend in RL, not able to play as much as I'd have liked to. Just wish my highest level villain wasn't on Freedom during times like these....

I can just see when the character transfers come in, there's going to be a lot of migrating during these heavy traffic events.

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Actually, this time around seemed to go better for me. Last time I had a lot of the problems mentioned here (couldn't login, serverally lagged, nearly unplayable) but this time around everything went pretty smoothy. Their were a few spikes but that was about it. Weird since last time I haven't changed servers, computers or my ISP. But I did manage to sqeeze out 6 lvls with not that much playtime so I'm happy... For a change.

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Catreena

"Why can't the villains ever hide out in the old abandon catnip factory?"

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All these complaints about not being to get on Freedom . . . You all chose the most populated server because it has the most people. However, during 2XP weekend, everyone and their brother is on the game, so obviously Freedom will be overbooked. It's just a consequence of the choice you made. If you don't want to be overloaded during 2XP or when a new issue comes out, don't play on Freedom or Virtue.

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Well thats a nice thought in all but somewhat over-generalized. I started on Liberty with Hero's and villains a long time ago (36 mo vet badge) I strated a villian on Freedom because it was much easier to find teams as most people did. In all that time, I had seen 3 red dots for server load a number of times... and that is why many of us went there, for more players. It was a good thing.

With that being said, In all these months I have never been "locked out" due to server overload... that was new and it is a bad thing. There were several times with a bit of a wait, but sunday night was the worst. I spent 30 minutes trying to log in over and over and over again. I have never had that problem before and it was anoying.

Am I upset I had the vast majority of my toons on Freedom, no.. it is still a great server.

Do I expect this problem may happen again?... yes

Do people have a right to complain?... sure, since the monthly payment makes it a premium. However, I thing some have been a bit overboard

Do I think you're nutty for telling me it was my mistake for playing on Freedom and I should have expected this sort of thing? Since this sort of thing has never happend before... yes!

If given the opportunity of moving some of my toons to other server, I would on a few just to spred them out a bit for the future.

Overall It was a fun weekend with a few anoying times.

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[color=yellow]Great Mephesto - 50 - Ill/Emp Controller - Liberty Badges 342
Cremospecter - 50 - Fire/Fire Tanker - Liberty Badges 158

[color=orange]All Hollows Eve -50 Dark Mastermind - Freedom Badges 352
[color=orange]Mad Houdini - 39 - Eng/Regen Stalker - Liberty Badges 156

I enjoyed it, although like many others I feel that 2xXP is like ice cream: best as a treat, not a part of one's regular diet!

I didn't do much different from my regular, RP-focused playstyle, really. I'm not at all focused on rapid level advancement (I deliberately slow down late-40's leveling when I can...), so I only maximized XP gain on a couple of characters I wanted to have catch up to higher-level regular teammates.

While I have characters on every server (something like 120 alts at last count...), I mostly play on low population ones, so I had no problem logging on.

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"And in this moment, I will not run.
It is my place to stand.
We few shall carry hope
Within our bloodied hands."

I enjoyed it, but could not enjoy many aspects, such as Mayhem Missions, due to lag issues, which really put a curb on my enjoyment.

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Ya know, this was something I was just talking about Ingame
Double XP weekends are a Double-Edge Sword. Getting more exp is always nice, but then the downside to it is very disappointing. It's the onlytime outside of some huge event, that the major servers are show in red and every other server in yellow. It really makes you think just how many people Care more about the leveling than the game content itself. It's also ironic how it's those extra people who complain most about wanting more content, whether it be more zones, new enemies, more powers, etc etc etc. it also shows just how many people would play if the rates would stay that way. It's scary to think that I'd be lagged for the rest of my playtime in this game if the rates would stay.

It seems to me that alot of people care about the leveling than anything else, I'd love to blame pvp for everything, but This has existed since before the pvp was issued, people wanting level 50 as bad as a million dollars it's mind boggling.

then you have those who wish they would have it for a week, and I'm like.. do you really want a week of red servers.. when you go to join one, it takes like almost 2 minutes to reach your character roster, than like a minute to select any one.... I really don't but that's what has happened each time XP weekend has surfaced.

It almost makes me want to migrate to the lesser played servers just to have a yellow dot and not a red one.

Someone had said, that double xp was the reason why the devs should up the xp in the first place. Which i replied with, if you have a problem leveling than it isn't the dev's fault.

this game doesn't have a level cap of 100 or even 1000, it's only 50, and I'll be the first to admit, having at least one 50 and a couple of 40+'s, it takes more time to get from level 44 to level 46 than it does going from level 15 to 21.

For me, getting to 22 is fast enough where I can enjoy the missions and the gameoverall without feeling I need to level to keep up with people. Heck for me, if I can't hit 10 in 6 hours total, than I'm doing something wrong. to me the leveling starts to slow down around level 35 and up. before than it's really cake. it truely depends on how one levels.

At anyrate, this isn't a cease-fire on double xp or anything, it's more of an eye-opener if you will, I enjoy double xp, but I wish it wasn't the onlytime when this game seems to see alot of users.

Tourists are nice for an enconomy but when they start jampacking the streets and stores it can be problematic for the residents who live there.

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My Gamer Card

PS3 Trophies

I don't know what, if any, kind of load testing Cryptic must do. Whatever it is either doesn't work, or it works and they don't care that many customers' experience will be miserable at best, unusable at worst. Notice my usage of the word "many" not "all" so someone's testimonial that "I had no problems" does not negate that so many of us did.

And no, no user should be admonished for "that's what you get for choosing a popular server." I don't get to tell my clients "Sorry you couldn't use my online services, it was just very busy. So it's actually your fault for choosing my busy service!" We, the playerbase, should not have such low expectations.

Cryptic, my grade for your performance this weekend is a "D".

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Global = Hedgefund (or some derivation thereof)

If Cryptic had to choose between upgrading their servers for an event that runs twice a year vs. not running the event, I'm pretty sure they'd go with the latter.

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This was an awesome weekend.

I got a majority of my heroes and some villains levelled up in anticipation of whatever those crazy developers have in store for us with Issue 10 (Seems to be high 30s content from the blurbs).

I wouldn't want this all the time though, I'd just level too quickly and lose interest with the game, basically.

Servers were stable and not much lag, so I'll give this an A!

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Questions about the game, either side? /t @Neuronia or @Neuronium, with your queries!
168760: A Death in the Gish. 3 missions, 1-14. Easy to solo.
Infinity Villains
Champion, Pinnacle, Virtue Heroes

Wow, long thread. I'll try to be brief (and fail), because I already complained about the performance in a different thread. I didn't know this one existed.

Without Double XP, I can see the experience bar move when I do normal missions on Heroic, with characters that are in the mid 30s or below. Above the mid 30s, the experience bar just doesn't move much. I documented playing my blaster at 42, doing three missions, and not getting a full bar. And that's without debt.

Without Double XP, I have a couple of choices for changing that speed. The first is that I can join large teams, fighting stuff that is +3 or +4. On the positive side, this increases my opportunity to roleplay, and I can sometimes meet some neat people, which is great. Also on the positive side, this is more in line with the way in which the designers envisioned the game being played. On the down side, I usually don't get to read any of the mission text. Also, I notice game performance degrade when there are lots and lots of powers and effects going off (I think it's more sound related on my system than video related). Also, since many of my friends don't play CoH/CoV anymore, I have to rely on pick-up groups, so sometimes I run into people that aren't so cool. I'm always struck by the irony of being chastised for roleplaying on a roleplaying game.

Another choice is some flavor of "power leveling." I try to avoid this. I don't think I need to go into the reasons for it.

The whole point of this is that, I think a number of people are in the same boat I am with the rate of XP tapering off to the point where it's hard to see without doing something drastic. Double XP was an opportunity for me to have my cake and eat it too. With the talk about making Double XP permanent, I'd say that it might be a good idea at the 35+ range, but a bad idea below 35.

Unfortunately, the performance of the game impacted my enjoyment of it. I would have to give the event a C-.

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