Discussion: Valentines Day Event & Spring Fling!

Wish I could have been there myself but Im stuck working EMS (Emergancy Medical Service) tonight so I missed the "fun"

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Wish I could have been there myself but Im stuck working EMS (Emergancy Medical Service) tonight so I missed the "fun"

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There was no way everyone could've seen it. There'll be several videos and a comic book recap of it according to LH's announcement. Plus there's loads and loads of pics already posted both in the Screenshot section and General.

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You should charge more for the wedding pack. If you can manage to get suckers to pay 10 dollars for a couple of costumes, surely you could have gotten them to pay 20.

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i did pay 20, 10 for the pack n 10 to use my friends creditcard :P costume hunters! UNITE!

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I hope Statesman enjoyed the Melt Armor and Heat Exhaustion debuffs I nailed him with. I managed to heal a couple fellow villains before Citadel decided enough was enough and personally waffle-stomped my butt right into the pavement.

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Nice. States had it in for me when I went in. He stomped on me about 4 times before the boot.Maybe it was because I sent my Assault bot to him.

And as for the wedding pack, I can't seem to find any of the costumes! I got the emotes, but that's it.

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I have one thing too say. This hasn't been memorable so far.
Sure the clue info was funny, but thier arent any new badges or temp powers. Thats my 2 cents.

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You do realize that if they HAD given a new badge to a limited time event, that would have only served to just ticked off a portion of the badge [censored] again.

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Limited time as in the entire V-day event? It's a warehouse mission that takes 15 minutes or less solo. Anyone that has a current account can do it - why would badge collectors get mad?

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"...freedom isn't a commodity to compromise." -- Captain America, New Avengers #21

Guide to Base Teleporters

They should make it a Flashback mission and replace all the people not on your team with random NPCs used for Safeguards/Mayhem missions!

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Hmmm . . . the next time around, would it be possible to set things up such that you can use the arena kiosk to view the event in much the same fashion as you would an arena match? What's more, could it be set up such that somebody on a live server could also view the event (that is, somehow run a connection from the Training room to all the Live servers)? What would the logistics be like to do this? If server strain were a concern (due to all the invisible camera points), perhaps have a dedicated "camera man" server-side?

Anybody got any clues or comments?

-Kirov

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I know that SamuraiKo and some of the dev team ware recording it during testing, so you should see at least 2 videos with little to no chat spam Not as good as being an arena observer, but close (as a voyeur )

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I have one thing too say. This hasn't been memorable so far.
Sure the clue info was funny, but thier arent any new badges or temp powers. Thats my 2 cents.

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I'm never going to forget the beautiful sincerity of the words written for the wedding.

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(QR) Stepped out of the live event to leave room for others, but I'm a little disappointed in the community expectations on this one.

LIVE EVENTS are always a challenge on MMO's. You rarely, if ever, can afford to make it reach even a fraction of the community. Many games make their start/end totally random events (so the crowds don't compete for lines) and are very short-term (so by the time the message gets out that it's going on and the crowds get too big, it's all over). They even use lower wage actors... not the actual developers... to minimize costs.

Those events reach even fewer people. They give an "allure" to the game- the chance that you MIGHT encounter one, but few ever have... yet people love them.


This one:
<ul type="square">[*]...was announced specifically to maximize availability.[*] ...included extra activities to try to make other fun options for those that couldn't get in. [*] ...included the actual game developers in their signature roles. Heck, some of the vows came right from Manticore's real wedding.[/list]
It might not have been perfect, folks, but it's a whole lot more than most MMO live events.

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Thanks Chase,

It is difficult and I have been involved in all types of MMO themed Live Events. For all the chaos it is worth the fun, and ultimately the negative sides to doing things like this.

For those of you that don't know Sean Fish, Manticore, has been a major influence for the City of Heroes &amp; Villains stories. He explained to me recently that he and his wife Jen, Sister Psyche, have found a new way each year to renew their vows.

This year we were able to help them attain this romantic tradition in a virtual space.

Was there chaos? Yes
Were there disconnects? Yes
Did everyone get to see the event? No
Did everyone have fun???

So with all that, we still did the event for even the small amount of people we could accommodate, knowing that we would have to respond to all the above where the answers should have been opposite or equal.

We are passionate about this game, we play the game, we have fun, and we can only hope that you can say the same.

Thanks again to all the Community members that helped out today, I know I'll miss folks so I won't try to name y'all because there were between 15-20 people that came forward and jumped in to help keep things running smoothly on the sidelines. Lighthouse has a motto, and it is one that I fully support, he always says, "Let's keep the party rolling!" So we'll continue to do what we can, but sometimes we are going to need help from y'all to give it a little push.

Happy Valentines Day, now I have to see about a girl!

Ex

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I have a possible solution for you in the future with this type of thing.

Sell Raffle tickets on the AH - 1,000,000 inf per ticket and each account can buy only 1.

Have the RNG pick out the lucky 100 winners per instance that will be played out.

Set up the training room so that only the accounts that won the raffles can enter (just like it is set up for closed betas) and send an email to let them know.

Have the NCNC staff demo-record the event and post it later here on the forums for those of us that couldn't get in or didn't wish to get involved in the "virtual stampede"

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-Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein.
-I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. - Galileo Galilei
-When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty. - Thomas Jefferson

Awesome Event!! Was fun standing around the Usher and eatin' meh cookies!

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The Test server "live" Event was great fun! I enjoyed it. I wish I could have stayed longer but I wanted to help get, and get a few badges here and there on the Justice Server.

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I got in on my hero on the 2nd to last run. Before that run I got on in my villy (per Ex's suggestion to try villyside, lol I didn't think it would work but it did). Had a blast both times and met some nice people in the hero line (can't say the same about villys because there was NO line on that side). In the long hero line, I was reminded of that southpark episode where the kids stood in line, got to the end of the line and the guy says "Did you enjoy the line ride"?

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Thanks, NC Soft, for closing my favorite game ever without warning and with plenty of life still left in it, and thus relieving me of the burden of EVER wanting to buy, try or even hear about another game from your company. Will my decision make a dent, or persuade them in anyway, shape or form? Nope, obviously not. Don't care. NC Soft is dead to me. ~ PsyFox

&lt;QR&gt;

I got dressed up earlier, went to Atlas where I parked and logged off. I logged in at 5:45 eastern, and appeared near the usher where I was immediately killed. (WTF?) I used a wakie since I thought going to the hospital may not be the wisest idea seeing as how big the crowd was. I was then perma-stunned, which made it so I couldn't jump away from the people crowded around me.

Castle was getting angry since we were not following instructions. (It was then that I even realized he was there) Can't blame him, but I had no idea what had just happened, or why. Then I was force bubbled to the edge of the plaza. I was really confused, but I figured it had something to do with Castle trying to control the crowd.

He then mentioned we should form a line. Alrighty, no problem. I wasn't quite able to move due to lag, the force bubble still being on, no travel powers, and being pushed around. At this point I was starting to get really frustrated. I was just trying to do what was instructed.

Eventually, something vaguely similar to a queue was forming. I was somewhere near the back of the line. Not sure how I ended up that far back, but at least I was in line, waiting my turn.

Posi announced in Admin that they were running a little late. The crowd freaked. Next thing I know there is a huge blob of people that jumped up in front, and one guy was even threating to kill Castle in Warburg. He said he wasn't joking and kept issuing the challenge.

Anyway, next announcement I see is that they had reached max. occupancy in the event. I didn't even know they had started, and the line never even moved. I waited for the next run, and the same thing happened, blob of people jumped up front, it was announced full, and the line never moved.

I logged and went back to live server.

I'm not complaining, I'm just detailing my experience. I'm glad the event was fun, and I didn't expect to get in, even though I would have liked to. What I didn't care for was the way we had to try and get in. Maybe the next event will run smoother.

Anyway, it's cool that the Devs put an event on for us like this, and I know you can't please everyone. I'm looking forward to the videos and the comic book.

*Edited for her pleasure* Bow chicka bow bow

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My blaster and an SG mate stood around and watched the crowd antics on AP1, trying to do what was told. After being caught between mob rule and the bouncer Castle we decided to head to AP4 and we actually made it into the ceremony! (much more civil there). That ceremony and the whole scenario absolutely rocked!!! Could they that make that into a mission on V-day that you can run only once? I also liked the suggestion of having a random teleport of 100 guests in a zone rather than one usher, an unruly mob and a cranky bouncer.

Got some great screen shots as well. For those that were complaining that they couldn't see, you can click and hold on your middle mouse button or wheel and rotate the camera around and zoom out so that you can literally be on stage with them.

The female wedding costumes are great I think. I made a gold and white one with sparklies for Gully the blaster. Why can't they be more creative with the male outfits?

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Casual,

I'm going to be honest with you, that both Lighthouse and I raised our concern flags over this event. The main reason was the limitations of the event. We also knew that it would be a really great time for the people that do get in, and a creative opportunity for some of our various community groups, like video editors, DJ's, role play, etc.

It was a tough decision, and with the wedding pack, server upgrades, double XP, and the list goes on, our window for announcements and planning was narrow.

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I actually have a suggestion relating to that.

A lot of what happened was pretty pre-scripted; it'd be nice if a not-Live-people version were released to the Live servers. I know it's too late this time, but the next time an Event of this nature is planned? Make sure that after the "actual, live people at the controls" version is run, you can pop a "canned / scripted" version onto the Live servers. It won't be the same as saying "hey, I was actually there" ... but it'll be better than nothing.

I have other suggestions ... and complaints ... about the process of GETTING in. But that's for a different post.

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Happy Valentines Day, now I have to see about a girl!

Ex

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Go see a guys movie on Valentines evening and see all the guys that brought their girlfriends. After the movie, those ladies are traditionally single. Et voila!

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@bpphantom
The Defenders of Paragon
KGB Special Section 8

And here's the best "in" for my own post on the selection process.

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I'm a tolerant guy. I understand the nature of waiting in line to get into an event. However, I have to say that I'm not entirely satisfied by the manner the wedding event has been handled.

1) If you wanted us to line up in lines to enter the event then put in controls to direct the people. Rope lines, funnels, any sort of crowd control would be nice. I laughed like most when Castle KO'd people close to the Usher in Atlas. I even got him to laugh when I said it was like "Look! It's the WHO!" [that's an old person joke for all the folks under 30 based on a crowd stampede at a WHO concern years ago ]. You need better crowd control for events like the wedding.

2) The equity of the access to the event was lacking. Making it "whoever can click on the Usher through the effect of the Force Bubble" lacked balance. Why did this happnen? Not thinking through the methodology of accessing the event is why. Plan for orderly entry next time. The shotgun approach is a poor substitute for proper planning.

- B.

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QFT.

I'm standing, right now, on the first stair - where I've been since we were told to "Form a line," what, over an hour ago.

Haven't moved.

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I'll do you one better. I was in Atlas Park, next to the tall green shrubbery just at the top of the stairs. A good, fair place to be, in line - it was a line six to eight abreast to be sure, but, at least I wasn't trying to mob the usher, despite Castle's repeated threats (carried out, no less) to set people's HP to zero if they didn't move back, and then the force-bubble-ing.

I couldn't move, neither forward nor backward nor side to side. I was getting pushed around in random locations, little sudden "whoosh" movements as the server tried to resolve the conflicted /location data for so many characters.

And when I accidentally hit the spacebar, just a little bit? I was shot, LIKE A CANNON, all the way back to the sidewalk ACROSS the street from the stairs. I wasn't about to cut in line - not even to try and get my entirely legitimate place "back" - so I went to the back of the line ... halfway through the park space across the street from those stairs.

After two hours, I was barely back to where I had started. Plenty of people were ignoring the line and just running right up to the usher - and getting into the Event before the people trying to actually cooperate with developer instructions.

As I said in /broadcast multiple times - I wouldn't have used a Force Bubble. I'd've wielded the Ban Hammer. Crossed the line described, prior to being told to step forward? *wham*, four-hour ban, thank you for playing. Cut in line, where I could see you? *wham*, fifteen-minute ban, when you get back, go to the BACK of the line. Did it again? *wham* four-hour ban, thank you for playing.

I was lucky enough to get into one iteration of the Wedding ... and it was a WONDERFUL, if very brief, Event. Heck, my wee bairn of a 15th level Empathy/Archery defender managed to plug Recluse in the back ... twice. Plus the Empath's typical routine of CMing, healing, and so forth. Great fun!

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Very, VERY poorly planned and handled.

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I agree.

In the future, here's my suggestion for how to handle doling out access to limited-space Live events; I'll put it in terms of the Wedding because it's what's on my mind:
[*] Create a specific form of salvage ("Wedding Invitation") ... or better yet, if you plan on running the Event eight times? Eight special Salvage types ("Wedding Invitation 1", "Wedding Invitation 4", etc). The Ushers give access to anyone who has the right sort of Salvage; if it's the third run-through, you get access if you have "Wedding Invitation 3", and only if you have that.
[*] Create a quick and laughably easy NON-REPEATABLE instanced mission - no enemies, just "go into a room, talk to an NPC, and click the glowie" - that may or may not drop the event-access salvage (with a very LOW chance - say, 5%, if not less). A running total of this salvage given out is kept on the server, and once the limit has been reached ... no more of that is given. For everyone who does NOT get that access-salvage? Something else special and NICE is dropped. Maybe 1 each of Rare Arcane salvage, Rare Tech salvage, and a rare recipe (from the pool(s) least-often dropped). If you have EVER gotten ANY invite ... on ANY character ... you automatically fail to get the "access salvage" (in a manner similar to how they locked people out of repeatedly getting in, last night).

Total aside: for the wedding, the mission could have been written as "drop off your weddign presents", at least for Heroes, and then describe an in-character "lottery", because Manticore and Sister Psyche didn't want a mob of "thousands of heroes" ... those who didn't get lucky and receive a wedding invitation, would get a thank-you gift for expressing their desire to attend.
[*] Create MANY Ushers on each side, scattered in widely-separated places (In Paragon: Atlas, Galaxy, Peregrine, Talos; in the Rogue Isles: Mercy, Cap Au Diable, St. Martial, Grandville; in Pocket D: one upstairs in the MFC, one downstairs in the MFC, two in the main room (on the corners not used by the existing V-Day contacts), one upstairs and one downstairs on each faction's "side room" areas). Give them all a few constant effects - power suppression, NPC-kill (like the Market), -Fly, -Jump, maybe moderate Slow.
[*] Sit back, and let the system do it's job.

This, while noone would have a large chance of attendance, would indisputably be an egalitarian method for controlling access. It would even allow, should they want, to specifically invite particular characters/players to attend the Event - by gifting them a unit of the required Salvage. For maybe, oh, three of four people a year, that sort of thing.

And most importantly, IMO, it would not:

(1) Create mobs/swarms of people rushing the sole point of access;
(2) Reward @ssh@ttery (line-cutting, etc);
(3) Frustrate those trying to comport themselves in a mature, well-behaved manner;
(4) Require constant, heavy-handed Dev oversight.

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I just wish those that logged in would have LOGGED OUT after their view of the event giving others a chance to get in :shrug: I went out with my hubby anyhow
Went to See the Spyderwick Chronicles which is not all that bad.

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And, since I just ranted a bit about the "hwo you get in" non-system, I want to stress and reiterate the fact that, once I did get in? It was a great event. Truly!

I just wish the waiting-in-line part had been less frustrating, that's really the ONLY flaw I saw.

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Some additional feedback after a night's rest:

Wedding entry

There needed to be some more ushers and some more GMs.
While many remarkably followed orders and stayed in line, there was tons of cutting and such which added to general aggravation.

I liked the idea of the piece of salvage that would give you access to the event. THen, click on a contact and enter the event and lose your salvage.

Castle and the community mods did a great job of keeping some sanity. I know when I logged in at 5:30, there were tons of people crowding the usher (including myself) and Castle had to Tar Patch/defeat some of them to make the line grow.

The side events at Pocket D were great and kudos for that. I didn't head there myself because well...the lineups were huge and I didn't want to lose a shot at the event, especially since there were some technical difficulties. It was counterproductive to zone to Kings Row/Port Oakes then zone back at that point.

Wedding

This was all kinds of awesome, the vows were great and Posi in a suit was Thanks to everyone who took the time to do that for us. The ending bit and it sapped a lot of the fun out of it for me personally. I would have preferred if heroes had their instance, villains had their instance, rinse repeat before iterations.

There should have been a hospital in the instance. :P
Actually, come ot think of it...the Ouroboros instance should have capped us all at level 1 or something. WHen people threw down there were purpled out heroes (like myself) and there were some level 1 to 12s with very little in the way of powers. This created a huge imbalance (as did lag). Exemp everyone down to 1 or hell 10, make Recluse and his guys bosses able to be overcome by characters of that level.

It was a good event overall, a little wonky in execution and finish.

THanks again, really, for your patience and hard work.

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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

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So sorry if having a bunch of actual people put on a show just for you wasn't good enough.

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I appreciate their putting on a limited engagement show with limited seating that only a fraction of people who wanted to attend could attend and only after a frustrating experience

As long as it wasn't during office hours I say let them do stuff like this an have fun. If it was during office hours I say don't waste your time on RP shenanigans that only touch a small fragment of the playerbase (small fragment of both RPers an regular folk) and instead get back to work on mah shield set j00s folks!

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So sorry if having a bunch of actual people put on a show just for you wasn't good enough.

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I appreciate their putting on a limited engagement show with limited seating that only a fraction of people who wanted to attend could attend and only after a frustrating experience

As long as it wasn't during office hours I say let them do stuff like this an have fun. If it was during office hours I say don't waste your time on RP shenanigans that only touch a small fragment of the playerbase (small fragment of both RPers an regular folk) and instead get back to work on mah shield set j00s folks!

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During one of the weddings, Manti and Psyche dc'ed, Posi announced they were having connectivity issues from their house.

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Well now that the dust is settling and the hangovers are in full swing, let's recap.

Wedding Entry: So we have a mob mentality, Super Powered Crowd Control, and a lucky ckick here and there. Yeah.

We could debate all of the different ways that the Entry could have been made smoother. Some suggestions, such as an entry fee, special salvages and what not could be countered with "What about the players who don't have Pimped out accounts with billions of inf.?" Or we can take it one step further and say " &lt;Insert any solution&gt;/&lt;insert any counterpoint&gt;" The masses will never be fully satisfied.

All in all, it was luck of the draw and survival of the fittest. I was fortunate enough to have had that "1 lucky click" Was I frustrated by all of the people who were mobbing the ushers and using all kinds of AoEs and auras....yes. Did it inspire my competitive nature to beat the odds...yes.

The Wedding Ceremony: A beautiful ceremony. Well scripted and heart warming to see the commitment of these two treasured members of our Development Team. If their commitment to each other is a barometer of the Development Team's commitment to us, we are truly in good hands.

Lord Recluse and gang showing up for a finale....predicted by me at the posting of the announcement and extremely welcomed. I was so glad I was right about this because it made the event turn into a blast. If it had just been a full on heartstring pull, it may not have been as satisfying.

Overall: Awesome Job!

I would love to see this scripted into an instanced event on the Live Servers as a recurring event. Say an Ourobouros Lvl 50 Arc?

Thanks for putting on a great show!

(Well the Valentine's Event is Live and my alts are screaming for their shinies. I must obey the voices in my head and go feed my Badgers.)

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"What about the players who don't have Pimped out accounts with billions of inf.?"

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I'd make the special-salvage version non-tradable. Like Vanguard Merits. Do the mission once - if you get it, great! If not - sorry, maybe next year!


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I would love to see this scripted into an instanced event on the Live Servers as a recurring event. Say an Ourobouros Lvl 50 Arc?

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.... capital idea! /signed!!

But make it a 45-50 arc, so people don't have to be at the absolute level cap to enjoy it.

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(Well the Valentine's Event is Live and my alts are screaming for their shinies. I must obey the voices in my head and go feed my Badgers.)

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^_^ Likewise, later today, for me.

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