Discussion: Aug. 23rd Game Update
By
Akuma_Mishima,
Posted on: 2007-08-23 13:51 in Developers' Corner
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I really like that they changed the default channel for Rikti Invasion broadcast messages to System instead of Admin. It's much easier on the eyes now and still not hard to notice if you are paying attention at all.
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Ummm....yeah.....except that I DO pay attention and still I miss most the Alerts now because the green does not stand out enough from everything else. I much preferred the bold red color. I, personally, was not bothered by it before because for me it was easy to glance at it then give it a couple seconds to scroll out of my window but I understand it was a problem for many. I would have to /sign my wish that they would take an underused channel and use that.
See, everybody whined and cried about the red alerts being annoying, now the new alerts are damn near invisible. Personally I didnt mind the old alerts and wish they back the way they used to be.
Whiners once again win . . . a sad trend indeed. 
High Beam - 50 Blaster Energy/Ice - 1228 Badges
Munitions Mistress - 50 Mercs/Traps
Many Other 50's, Too Many Alts, All On Freedom
Just Because You Can, Doesn't Mean You Should!
Personally I love the fact that you can choose what tab the Rikti alerts do and do not show up in. If only there was a way to keep them as System and turn them back to the red color.
I also think that using the Friends channel would be a great change. Highly underused channel in a very noticeable color.
Red Admin Aleters - too dang spammy
Green System Alerts - very easy to miss
How about a happy medium? RED Alerts in the System Tab? I agree the Red alerts were WAY too much but now in the same green of regular system messages its quite easy to miss. This aint rocket science. Make them ALERTS that we won't lose in the regular system messages. Possibly a nice orange or at least another color than the regular system green?
Also, very pleased to see that badge bugs are SUCH a high priority!
[/sarcasm off]
Vanguard Alerts:
ADMIN Channel - No way to block it, too many whiners about it, whiners win.
SYSTEM Channel - Blends in, lots of players had this totally removed from tab already so they could read the chat that (see above referenced whiners complaining about being spammed out) they wanted to. Now everyone who wants to go to invasions has to put SYSTEM up and be constantly spammed by SYSTEM messages. All the messages, all the time so we can spot that End-of-LGTF invasion.
New solution - Hijacking the FRIENDS channel sounds like a good idea. Does anyone still use this?
For now, I have to change the chatboxes on every character I have, on 3 servers to watch SYSTEM messages.
It was already hard to keep track of all of what I wanted, even after pulling out all the COMBAT and HEALS to its own separate tab, REWARDS to a tab, and NPC to a tab. I only actively watch "talk" in my chat boxes and that is already too much. At least I could see ADMIN channel red invasion messages.
Together we entered a city of strangers, we made it a city of friends, and we leave it a City of Heroes. - Sweet_Sarah
BOYCOTT NCSoft (on Facebook)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/517513781597443/
Governments have fallen to the power of social media. Gaming companies can too.
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See, everybody whined and cried about the red alerts being annoying, now the new alerts are damn near invisible. Personally I didnt mind the old alerts and wish they back the way they used to be.
Whiners once again win . . . a sad trend indeed.
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Indeed, it seems that no matter what the Devs do people give them nothing but grief and they rarely get the credit they deserve for doing the best they can trying to please most of the people most of the time. Now I wonder how many would complain if they moved it to the Friends channel and/or put it in all caps or a different color?
I also hate the new change to the alert systems. I specificlly logged on to a particular alt to work on the badge, and pretty much missed them. They need to be a different color at least, and not read either. That would blend with the combat messages to easily. And not yellow, green, or blue. It should be unique. Maybe purple?
At least I'll know what to look for sunday.
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Costume pieces awarded during the 2007 Valentines event are once again available to players that have earned them.
I dont think I ever looked at what those pieces were I earned. So they werent available this whole time? Anyone have pics?
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Check out this link, midways down. It's the Heart pattern that is at issue.
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Okay Im not wearing that! 
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But a heart surrounding your skull would just be soooooo cute!
*ducks*
Anyways, as a badger does anyone know the name of the badges that will be specifically revoked?
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Flings smelly rubber chicken at Jan.......... 
View the story of W.A.R.F.A.C.E. and Septimus Bane here: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6785073/1/Meus_Profiteor#
my email chrismfears99@yahoo.com
I also hate the change to the Invasion Alerts. Being in System, they're just too easy to miss. Unless you're just standing there, doing nothing at all to trigger any other System messages. Otherwise it gets lost in all the "You have defeated..." messages, etc.
Liked it the way it was before. And I second hijacking the Friends channel and using it. No one uses it anyway!
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See, everybody whined and cried about the red alerts being annoying, now the new alerts are damn near invisible. Personally I didnt mind the old alerts and wish they back the way they used to be.
Whiners once again win . . . a sad trend indeed.
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/agreed
Since the 8/23 patch, I'm seeing less lag in invasion events. But I did notice one weird thing about them. Every time the blinking light on top of an unexploded bomb changes color, the bomb despawns for a couple of seconds and respawns, breaking my target lock.
I also noticed an undocumented change: the server selection screen is now sorted in ascending order of number of current logins, not descending like it was before.
Another effect of the Invasion change - not enough people know it's happening since they miss the messages, too few people fighting to spawn heavies. No badges for that. No accolade either.
Together we entered a city of strangers, we made it a city of friends, and we leave it a City of Heroes. - Sweet_Sarah
BOYCOTT NCSoft (on Facebook)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/517513781597443/
Governments have fallen to the power of social media. Gaming companies can too.
Just want to voice my opinion on change from system message from Admin. I do not see the new alerts so please go back to the old way.
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I was in-game for a bit this afternoon and noticed that they are now so unobtrusive that if someone doesn't know what to look for or what channels to include in their chat windows, they will miss the announcements.
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Yup, I have to say that the new "alerts" are so unnoticible now that as far as I know, unless I'm in the zone the invasion is happening in, I don't know they ARE happening.
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I have to agree that the invasion notices aren't noticable now. I flew into Talos early today to a green sky and drop ships. I went back through my combat / global / chat tabs and saw NOTHING about the attack. I stayed in Talos an fought the Rikti. And finally as the sky turned blue I saw a green message about the invasion is over. Green, like a team message.
This really sucks.
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See, everybody whined and cried about the red alerts being annoying, now the new alerts are damn near invisible. Personally I didnt mind the old alerts and wish they back the way they used to be.
Whiners once again win . . . a sad trend indeed.
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/agreed
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Add me to the agreement list as well.
An invasion event is supposed to be a potential "your world is ending" event. So it's posted in green? The same green as the "Now entering the Gish" messages we've all trained ourselves to not bothering to look at?
Please put them back to red.
-Bux
"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." -- Dr. Seuss
i love how those who didn't like the red admin spam, are whiners. its always nice to know, that people like to throw around labels. i think the notices, were the one glaringly bad thing about this issue, that they needed to work out, before going live. but, hey, just because i run with friends, doing missions, means i should be told, in bright red letters, that the rikti are attackin sharkhead/mercy/grandville, even tho i'm running a mission in talos.yeah, i shouldn't have complain about that at all.
*rollseyes*
Yes, whiners. For an event that was advertised as for a limited time only (the large multi zone versions) that would then only light off in one zone when someone completed the LGTF, these Red Alerts were a minor annoyance at best. Now, as green alerts that will only occasionally ever be seen because of the end of mass zone invasions, people will miss them and wonder, what happened to the zone event.
It was foolish catering to short sighted individuals.
High Beam - 50 Blaster Energy/Ice - 1228 Badges
Munitions Mistress - 50 Mercs/Traps
Many Other 50's, Too Many Alts, All On Freedom
Just Because You Can, Doesn't Mean You Should!
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Another effect of the Invasion change - not enough people know it's happening since they miss the messages, too few people fighting to spawn heavies. No badges for that. No accolade either.
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Orrrrrr- people just don't care anymore- I'm in this boat. I hear the War Walls go and I zone somewhere else without the Rikti.
"I'm not scared of anyone or anything Angie. Isn't that the way life should be?"
Jack Hawksmoor, The Authority.
Okay... this change to the badges... Does this mean as a hero i cannot get the "Reformed" badge by killing- pardon, "Arresting"- Longbow from Gaussian's Red and Black arc missions four and five? I'm getting credit for it..... So does that mean that the moment I get it I'm going to totally lose it and all progress I had from it?
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How about simply making the alerts all caps, perhaps framed in asterisks or crosshatches to stand out. Like :
** VANGUARD : ALERT : RIKTI SHIPS APPROACHING GRANDVILLE **
That would be somewhat better.
Or drop the Request channel and make that the Vanguard/special announcements channel. It's barely used.
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The Request channel is used regularly for raid management by folks who raid.
The Friends channel could totally go, IMO. In asking around lately I can't find anyone who has used it since globals were implemented.
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA