Discussion: Valentines Day Event & Spring Fling!

I guess I only have 2 suggestions for future "limited entry" events.

1.) Place the contact (in this case, the Usher) in a location where people are forced to line up, with the appropriate no powers, no jumping fields and a GM bouncer to kick people who try to cut the line. When Lighthouse and Ex Libris were in Pocket D trying to give out titles they were completely swarmed by people, and despite asking numerous times for those who got their titles to kindly move away so others could get theirs, no one budged.

I then sent a tell to both Lighthouse and Ex, reminding them of the last time someone gave out titles they did it at the top of one of the ramps in Pocket D, which forced people to line up and made it very difficult to cut the line. Lighthouse then hopped up to the top of the ramp, and it was smooth sailing from there (score 1 for the Poobah!)

This technique should be used in the future for any other kind of "ushers". No matter how politely you ask people to stand in line, Force Bubble them, and use Power Word: Death on them, they're not gonna do it unless there is a well-marked, pre-defined line area with no way of cutting, whether it be a ramp, or a velvet-roped corridor (with invisible walls that won't let you jump the rope).

2.) If you're gonna have an all-out PvP brawl, try to make sure it's in a zone with a hospital unit!!! And if that can't be done, maybe you can create some kind of auto-rez ability (you die, and are automatically hospital-style rezzed in a few seconds). The battle portion was fairly short, and if you got knocked out early it was pretty much over for you (Statesman one-shotted my Brute at the very beginning of the fight, right after I got my toggles up -- I guess he was peeved when I mentioned "hm, I always figured he'd be taller..." Using an awaken just meant you were gonna die again before the stun wore off, and clicking hospital took you out of the zone with no way to get back.

Otherwise I had a blast. It was quite fun. I would have liked to have seen more stuff going on in Pocket D (like maybe a giant "monitor" screen simulcasting the wedding!!!), but in any case it was a nice 1-day event.

Now as to the Valentine's Day event as a whole, I gotta agree with others on a big giant "meh". I understand the need to provide the same event as in previous years, especially where badges are concerned, and I don't have a problem with that. But it would be nice to add something substantive on top of that for those old geezers who already did last year's event and have no desire to do it again for rewards I already have. One single warehouse mission with no badge, no temp powers, or other special reward (like a nice cut scene with Manticore and Sister Psyche thanking you for retrieving their gifts, or something equally appropriate on the villain side) was a big let down.

Hell, it could have been as easy as reviving the candy cane idea, but this time make it hearts that you can collect and turn in to some Cupid-like cherub in Pocket D for similar rewards. Something for cryin' out loud!!

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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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Anyone can run the present recovery mission. How about a simple badge for that?

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"OK, first of all... Shut Up." - My 13-Year-Old Daughter

29973 "The Running of the Bulls" [SFMA] - WINNER of the Mighty Big Story Arc Contest !
- The Stellar Wind Orbital Space Platform

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...included extra activities to try to make other fun options for those that couldn't get in.

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I couldn't log in until just as the last round was beginning (due to real life stuff) and I obviously wasn't going to get in to the event, so I wandered around to see what else was going on. I found the wedding planner contact, and got the mission to find the stolen wedding presents... as the wedding was starting! I zipped across Atlas and charged into the mission as the dialog from the wedding came piping across global chat.

I guess I had left my difficulty on invincible, because the mission was full of orange, red, and purple Arachnos. I normally have a hard time with those guys, but I wasn't going to let them ruin the wedding! I smashed my way through several spawns and retrieved half the presents, but they were already starting the vows. The heat was on! I started superspeeding through the mission, grabbing gifts wherever I could find them. I got to the last one as Sister Psyche was starting her vows. Rather than fight my way to it, I popped a couple of purples so no one could interrupt me while I clicked on the box. I completed the mission just before they kissed!

Even though I missed the event itself, I had fun. Live events are just crazy hard to do well. Either no one gets to see them, or everyone does and the lag is insane, or the event team tries to spread things out over a dozen instances in a dozen zones in a dozen servers and it takes them forever just to spend five minutes in each spot.

All in all, I think it went as well as could reasonably be expected.

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Avatar: "Cheeky Jack O Lantern" by dimarie

The new Wedding Gift mission is a bit of a let-down - I know others have mentioned this as well.

The mission itself is fine if basic...here are my thoughts on making it more interesting:

Badge: would be nice, but not necessary - maybe Wedding Invitation or Wedding Crasher

Temp Power: Nothing major, but since the mission involves gifts, perhaps something similar to the Christmas Present Mystery Gifts would be appropriate (with a valentine or wedding theme)

Temp Emote: You want people to purchase the overpriced Wedding Pack - maybe a sampling of the emotes will get more people to buy.

Mission Contact ending text: I was very unimpressed when I returned to the contact & basically all that was said was something like, "OK thanks."

Well - just my thoughts.

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Mr E-Man ~ Mr E-Villain
XBL GamerTag: il Radd

I'd like to thank all the devs who invested their time into the Live Event regardless. I think it speaks volumes that the company cares deeply about their playerbase that they would attempt to do a storyline event "live."

Could it have been better planned / designed? Certainly. Having only one access point in one zone, and a random lottery reliant on clicking, would naturally lead to much pushing and shoving to try and get the all-important 'blue hand' cursor on the usher.

AP1 was an interesting study into human nature. (Well, I had to amuse myself with something since I actually got up at 4am and waited till my time 7am for the event to start. ) While the line that formed spoke volumes about the general civility of most CoX players, any pragmatic player would have shortly realized the futility since there were plenty around the usher pushing and shoving already, and the line wasn't moving at all.

I tried it both ways. First round, cooperate nicely, stand in line, and observe zero movement of line. Second round, jump about in the force bubble and try for random clicks on the usher - the design of the event was such that one would stand a better chance grabbing those random clicks anyhow.

Then I got lucky. I gave up and was about to head off - RL work, y'know - when I decided to poke my head into the other APs. AP3 was a model of civility. About 20-30 people, all sitting around the usher so that everyone could click with ease. Got in on the third try.

I think the lesson here is that future live event designs need a better entry mechanism. Be it a /slash command to type so that the first 100 get selected, or wedding tickets as prizes at a Pocket D celebration, whatever. Or even some kind of competition prize, depending on if we want to be as equitable as a random lottery or reward certain behaviors.

For the wedding event itself, I enjoyed it thoroughly. Brought back a lot of nostalgic memories of live MUD events, and I thought it was very cool for the devs themselves to be offering up precious time to be spent with their players.

I think a bit more information could have been made available regarding what would actually happen, so that players could participate with informed consent. Nevermind if it spoils the surprise slightly.

An automated NPC mission might also have made the story experience more shared by all, and might be preferred by some - with tickets to the "Live Event" as a bonus privilege.

Some players might not have bothered if they knew in advance it was just going to be a bit of emoting and speech and 'roleplay' binds and a bit of a pvp scrimmage at the end, with no special bonuses like badges or titles or what-have-you. That would have thinned out the crowd some.

Me, I had a blast with both things. I like the Paragon City storyline and being a participant in that story as a wedding guest and listening to those vows was fun. And I was standing at the edge and could react fast enough to slam a fire sword into some poor Bane Executioner Scout's face, and then 'dare' Ghost Widow to hold me by thumping her with the other fire sword. Sexy hold photo op for the win.

So thank you again for having the guts to hold the event in the first place.

(So all the best laid plans crumbled in the face of a flood of players. Mistakes happen. Insufficient time to prepare/organize is always a real life bugaboo. Can't be helped.)

Could have been better. But I liked it still. And appreciate the work and time and effort by various parties that went into it.

Thank you for the wedding!

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Invictus Est Level 50 Invul/Fire Tank
Malentis Level 50 Ice/Energy/Leviathan Dom (Freedom)
Black Jeremiah Level 50 Fire/Fire/Mu Dom
Sejanna Level 50 Dark/Dark/Elec Def (Virtue)
Arc #119664 - The MiniMech Cometh - Hess TF Mini-Sequel

QR

I thought the ceremony was beautiful. And with live events, you have to expect chaos and pissy players.

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Global: @Pandemonia

We're sorry. Due to the lack of adequate marketing, user patience has died 90+ days ago. Please try again sans "Soon."

02-14-2008 [Admin] NCsoft_Lighthouse: Hi everyone, they are wrapping up this current run of the Wedding Event. So, we will be letting the next group in shortly.
[Broadcast]Neil Fracas: let us know who caught the bouquet
[Broadcast]NCsoft_Lighthouse: Lord Recluse
[Broadcast]Kurien: Lol
[Broadcast]Neil Fracas: he will make a lovely bride for someone
[Broadcast]Neil Fracas: though we do not need to EVER see the honeymoon video

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(Virtue/Champion) Neil Fracas: Inv/SS
(Virtue) Gideon Fontaine: MA/SR (Sc), Generic Hero 114: Ice/Cold, Marcus Tyler AR/En, Project F: Spines/DA (S)
(Champion) Jenna Sidal BS/SD, Generic Hero 114: En/En (Bl), Loganne Claws/WP (Sc)

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And with live events, you have to expect chaos and pissy players.

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Meh. Not necessairly.

Pretty simple, really. The "Recover the wedding presents" mission has a small chance of dropping a special temp power upon completion. It's called "Wedding Invitation." It's a single-use temp teleport power that works exactly like a Wentworth's teleport power.

Set it up a few days in advance and give people the chance to sell the invitations at WW's too. That way those who really want to attend can pony up the scratch needed.

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"OK, first of all... Shut Up." - My 13-Year-Old Daughter

29973 "The Running of the Bulls" [SFMA] - WINNER of the Mighty Big Story Arc Contest !
- The Stellar Wind Orbital Space Platform

I got in on the second to last run, villainside. What amazes me is hearing all the stories of how rude and unruly things were in Atlas Park. In Mercy on my run a large group of us were in a circle around the user with enough space so anyone could just pan their camera a bit and be able to click on the usher. We chatted and were totally civil the whole time. If the hero's of Paragon City behave like I've heard it's no wonder the villains control the city because the villains are obviously more civil, polite, and organized than the rabble that calls themselves heroes.

THe ceremony was great but in my visit the villains got totally owned by the heroes since they forgot to remove the power supression from the villains before they turned on pvp. Oh well my poor little corruptor demonboy bride got smashed by Statesman

At Pocket D afterwards things were good and at some point during it The Runaway Bride was given a nice yellow title above his head that read "Love Devil", so it seems whichever dev put it there took the time to read my bio

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I'm completely underwhelmed by this entire event.

I had a date last night, it was V-day for crying out loud, so I could only get on for the first two runs of the event. Atlas Park was a zoo. Lag was awful and I simply could never get anywhere near the usher so when the gates opened I got left out both times. I'd much rather have run a mish or something with the, not live, wedding as a cut scene at the end.

I did the recover presents mish and the presents were amusing but where's the badge? What's the point of having the mission if we don't have a badge saying we did it? It wasn't a particularly hard or interesting mission other than the clue text.

I just tried to do the Ganymede missions. Forced teaming? Cross faction forced teaming? When I was on there wasn't a single villain in Pocket D and the server badge channel was no help finding a teammate either. I don't mind forced teaming for task forces and trials that are epic content but not just so 3 glowies can be clicked at once. I don't mind voluntary cross faction teaming in RWZ as it is thematic to some degree but forced cross faction teaming for a holiday event? That is just a plain bad idea.

I've been very pleased with things since I returned to the game. New defiance is great, the winter event was fun even if I never got good enough at skiing to get a badge, real numbers is something the game has needed since day one. Keep to those high standards and I'll just write this event off as an abberation although a badge for the present mission would be a very good idea else it become like the Calvin Scott TF which I still don't have any proof I completed even though I did it 2 or 3 times.

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You can keep trying on those missions though. The events in Pocket D at the least are going on until the 28th and if you can get on durin peak hours you should have no problem getting teams since you get costumes after unlocking DJ Zero, and if you run both the second missions from Scratch and Ganymede then you get the handsome/beautiful badge. I did them on 2 toons last night both villains and even did six Snappy runs getting me all the rewards on my main villain and 1 on my new little bride.

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They could have just done this: Make the wedding gift mission matter. Give it a badge and a 24-hour duration temp TP power. Created a special instance zone, maybe a sneak peak at a zone already designed and coming into the game?? Then there wouldn't have been mobs or complaining. Just make an announcement on global stating that event was starting, activate your power to enter. Bam. Done.

Or special salvage drops from the Wedding Gift mission that would be used to access the mission...Or they coulda waited til after the event was over before doing the wedding...

Didn't they learn from the Double Xp/Free weekend chaos that two events at once = bad

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Count me in as another one disappointed in the wedding gift mission. I was hoping that there would actually be some incentive to complete the mission- perhaps unlocking those roman costume parts, a badge, a temp power, something, anything.

Instead I got nothing. I'll run the villain-side mission once on my highest villain just to see what it's like. But there's no reason for me to do it with anyone else. The concept of the mission is interesting, but I wish there was incentive to do it.

Instead of the contact saying "Oh thanks I get to keep my job", it would be cooler if she had said "Sister Psyche and Manticore are extremely grateful to you for getting their wedding gifts back. As a thank you gift, they asked me to give you this- insert name of costume piece, badge, temp power here."

As for the forced cross faction teaming, I wish they would change that. Perhaps a really good buff of some sort for having an opposing faction member on your team, but at least if none are present, the mish would still be do-able.

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A (Golden Gate) Bridge Too Far- arc 299315
Crazy NIMBY's, Railroad robber barons, and kickboxing Engineers, Oh My! Go back in time and join the fight to save a San Francisco icon!

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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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Yes, she was, and while I DIED filming this (including once when an unsuspecting Manticore shot his videographer in the face with a Fistful of Arrows), the video is now available on YouTube!

Cheers,
Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

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Nice video, very well done. I especially liked the fade from Hero-costume to Wedding-garb for Manticore and Psyche.

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Nice video, very well done. I especially liked the fade from Hero-costume to Wedding-garb for Manticore and Psyche.

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Thanks! As always, it's my last minute ideas that turn out really well.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

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Didn't get to attend the event (we were at a real life Valentine's murder mystery dinner.)

However, for the record, I had to speak up on this -- I didn't have any problem with buying the additional pack. And THANK YOU for doing something for the RPers. Any little extra is always good.

~Elizabeth

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Leave the saving of the world to the men? I don't think so! -Elastigirl

The SOLUS Foundation - http://www.solusfoundation.com
A Liberty-based bastion, seven years strong.

OMG OMG thank the lord i did not buy the wedding pack LOL @ u if u did. You have a right to be disapointed.

No badges????
all recycled material!!!


o boy the future of COH?COV is bright all right like my glow in the dark skrinky dinks and their 28 years old

goes back to farming for what i dont know.....

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OMG OMG thank the lord i did not buy the wedding pack LOL @ u if u did. You have a right to be disapointed.

No badges????
all recycled material!!!


o boy the future of COH?COV is bright all right like my glow in the dark skrinky dinks and their 28 years old

goes back to farming for what i dont know.....

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Can we get a refill on this Ritalin perscription please? Stat.

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"OK, first of all... Shut Up." - My 13-Year-Old Daughter

29973 "The Running of the Bulls" [SFMA] - WINNER of the Mighty Big Story Arc Contest !
- The Stellar Wind Orbital Space Platform

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
OMG OMG thank the lord i did not buy the wedding pack LOL @ u if u did. You have a right to be disapointed.

No badges????
all recycled material!!!


o boy the future of COH?COV is bright all right like my glow in the dark skrinky dinks and their 28 years old

goes back to farming for what i dont know.....

[/ QUOTE ]

Can we get a refill on this Ritalin perscription please? Stat.

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Heh.

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QFE.
yes.. who wrote this one? ... come on guys, this one's a stinker. Even on the villain side, you'd think as villains we'd keep the presents?? Right?

I've been playing this game a long time and I'm hard pressed to think of a mission with less pizazz. I'm sure the live event was fab but the "steal/save presents" mission was a stinker. A little retroactive badge would certainly balm the sting.

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Count me in as another one disappointed in the wedding gift mission. I was hoping that there would actually be some incentive to complete the mission- perhaps unlocking those roman costume parts, a badge, a temp power, something, anything.

Instead I got nothing. I'll run the villain-side mission once on my highest villain just to see what it's like. But there's no reason for me to do it with anyone else. The concept of the mission is interesting, but I wish there was incentive to do it.

Instead of the contact saying "Oh thanks I get to keep my job", it would be cooler if she had said "Sister Psyche and Manticore are extremely grateful to you for getting their wedding gifts back. As a thank you gift, they asked me to give you this- insert name of costume piece, badge, temp power here."

As for the forced cross faction teaming, I wish they would change that. Perhaps a really good buff of some sort for having an opposing faction member on your team, but at least if none are present, the mish would still be do-able.

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Yeah, devs. Please, balm the sting of providing us with new content. I'm very unhappy with the whole thing.

I could be placated with a "Skrinky Dink" badge, though.

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I am mainly interested in the unlockable costume options related to the Spring Fling event. i.e., the toga, sandals, laurel, and heart pattern. With that in mind, I have a couple of questions:

1) If I complete the arc and unlock one of the options, say "Toga", does that give me the ability to clothe any and all of my current and future toons in togas, or only the toon who completed the mission?

2) If my toon completes the final mission and gets the toga, does s/he have to start all over and do all three missions again to get the sandals, or can s/he just repeat the third mission immediately to unlock the other options?

Thanks!

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(Sometimes, I wish there could be a Dev thumbs up button for quality posts, because you pretty much nailed it.) -- Ghost Falcon

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I am mainly interested in the unlockable costume options related to the Spring Fling event. i.e., the toga, sandals, laurel, and heart pattern. With that in mind, I have a couple of questions:

1) If I complete the arc and unlock one of the options, say "Toga", does that give me the ability to clothe any and all of my current and future toons in togas, or only the toon who completed the mission?

2) If my toon completes the final mission and gets the toga, does s/he have to start all over and do all three missions again to get the sandals, or can s/he just repeat the third mission immediately to unlock the other options?

Thanks!

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IN reply:

1) No, only the character completing the DJ Zero mission will get the costume piece/badge reward.

2) No you only need to complete the DJ Zero mission and it doesn't have to be yours.

There are five rewards to choose. Three costume slots and two badges. Alo completing the mission five times will get you the badge for taking out Snaptooth 5 times. The first pair of missions you have to run your 2 (teamed with the other side for the second one) plus team with the other side for the 2nd one on their side to get the Handsome/Beautiful badge and unlock DJ Zero as a contact. You can then run the Snaptooth mission roughly 5-10 times before he stops giving it to you.

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1.) Just the one that completed the mission.

2.) Just the third mission. Once DJ Zero is unlocked, he is unlocked.

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

Guide to Base Teleporters