Halloween Issues & Zombie Apocalypse Frequency
By
7thCynic,
Posted on: 2008-10-22 10:51 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs
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Let me put it to you this way, what do you want for nothing?
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What are you even talking about?
I would like the same reward that wasn't out of bounds last year, namely the Tier 3's.
Of course, they only wait till the event is Live before stating that they want the Tier 3's to remain "special" (read: rare and out of the hands of most of the playerbase).
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You mean farms. If you can get enemy spawn rates and XP/min like this in regular missions, more power to you!
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The only one I "farm" with is my lvl50 for influence for Popular/Leader.
Believe it or not, some people don't WANT massive xp/min, since ya know, that leads to outlevelling content.
Edit - XP by itself is available pretty much anywhere. But then, you're trying to move the goalposts aren't you?
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So, because the salvage isn't useful to YOU, who've already been through the event a time or two before, it's not useful or a "nice to have" for ANYONE? Or at least anyone who doen't want to go drop a couple hundred K on the market?
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Straw man.
To some people, myself included, the Tier 3s were the only worthwhile reward for ToT'ing.
<QR>
Hm... this seems like a bad topic to post to. Considering it's supposed to be technical issues and not flame wars.
But that's OK. I'll just ignore the flamewar going on and post a bit of illumination.
So, yea. First off, Buster badge. The spawn rate for Spirits is bugged, I agree, but that does not make the badge itself bugged. It still works. Just slower. (If this irks you... my apologies. Large teams still get decent-ish rates of spawn, so I might suggest that. At this time, it seems a workaround is the only real option available.)
Second, Jack in Irons. I apparently am one of the few lucky ones, in that I've gotten 3 spawns (blueside) in approximately 4 hours. My advice is to form a GM hunting team and give it a go. (And to avoid Peregrine and Grandville, since those two have been dual-instancing a lot, and since a kill in one can cause the next spawn to be in the other.) It's unfortunate that it's a low chance of respawning to Jack instead of Eochai, but if you focus on killing Eochai every time he pops, it's gonna happen. Sorry I can't offer a better workaround, but it *does* work.
Third, Zombie Apocalypse. It's easy to do at higher levels, and the badges award quick. Personally, I don't see too much problem with it, aside from the fact that, after you get the badges, it just feels like another Rikti invasion. Which is fine for some, tiresome for me. To each their own, in my opinion. (Although what I saw earlier in this thread, about the Apocalypse screwing around with spawns needed for TFs, is annoying a bit. I can imagine how it'd be to be doing a TF, need some outdoor zone kills, and suddenly find out that you can't get them for... oh, say, 30 minutes.)
Fourth, the statements about rewards. I hate to parrot such a well-used line, but it's the only thing that seems to fit: "This was introduced as an optional feature and is not mandatory." There's a good chance you still have at least one contact with missions unless your character's been around a while. Even if you've run most of those out, there's still Borea's repeatable missions, or doing scanners/papers, or doing (occasional, unfortunately) mission teams. There's other ways to earn XP, to farm inf, to build up prest, and to earn those purple recipes you're drooling over. If the Halloween event isn't your cup of tea this year, or if you're burned out on it already (I admit, I suffer from that as well), then find something else to do.
The search is over! I know where all of the spirits are! They're in my Blood Ruby radio mish. All spirit, all the time.
See? No bug. I just need to let them out of this office building...
Chill.
============
50's: Jennifer Halloween, DM/DA Scrapper; Black Peet, 50 DM/WP Brute; Siansha, Soldier; Miss Terie, Elec/Dark Corrupter
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Edit - XP by itself is available pretty much anywhere. But then, you're trying to move the goalposts aren't you?
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Who moved the goalposts? Here's the statement YOU quoted and responded to (bold added for emphasis).
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I dunno. I think the crazy pace of Inf/XP accumulation, the fun of working within a decent team, as well as the resulting salvage, enhancement and recipie drops would be an incentive too.
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Want to come at that again?
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To some people, myself included, the Tier 3s were the only worthwhile reward for ToT'ing.
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But that wasn't what you initially said. Now who's trying to move the goalposts?
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As to the costume salvage, I already have 25 full sets from last year. On both my solo SG and solo VG. And that's after selling off about 20 full sets each side.
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That's all you said (or have edited it so that's all you said at this point).
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Darn you Please_Eddie!
Just for that, I'm locking you in the cells in Orenbaga, surrounding you with +20 enemies and removing your ability to log off!
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yet another voice against the "click and run" tactics - especially the aggro code. I've given up ToT'ing on my level 42 blaster because of the 50's doing the superspeeder door-to-door dash.
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Also, try different places. I found a nice place in the south area of the RWZ, a number of doors reasonably close to each other, and only once did I run into other people there. At 42, you've got Cimerora and the RWZ, and if heroside the FBZ.
My arcs are constantly shifting, just search for GadgetDon for the latest.
The world beware! I've started a blog
GadgetMania Under Attack: The Digg Lockout
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Want to come at that again?
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Nevertheless, they are all available through regular missions.
Edit - In particular, the ITF is pretty good for getting "crazy xp/inf" due to the large numbers of spawns, ambushes, and whatnot.
Farms, while not exactly "good" in the sense that people like them, are also available year-round.
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But that wasn't what you initially said. Now who's trying to move the goalposts?
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Ya, it pretty much is, disregarding responses to Clouded's attacks.
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In essence, to those who have gotten the badges the last couple times around, the Tier 3's were the only "adequate" reward for the time spent, especially given that the Trick/Treat ratio is skewed towards Tricks. Otherwise, there isn't really an incentive for those people to participate.
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That's all you said (or have edited it so that's all you said at this point).
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In response to what?
Would you like to address the "edit", namely the fact that for the cost of defeating 1 yellow con, lvl50 lieutenent, I can buy 133 of these non-Awaken insp rewards?
Folks, the back and forth isn't helping.
Clearly, there was a bug that made the Buster badge far harder to get than intended. Whether the badge was bugged is a semantic issue, but the process of earning the badge was. They say they can't do it. We can believe them or not, but it's not going to change.
My arcs are constantly shifting, just search for GadgetDon for the latest.
The world beware! I've started a blog
GadgetMania Under Attack: The Digg Lockout
The badge itself is fine. Same amount of kills as always, its the spawn rate of spirits. Some newer toons of mine managed to get it, but I won't bother with any other alts going for it this year. No biggie.
Low Spirit Spawn: In reading through feedback and playing the event we've seen comments about the relatively low spawn rate of Spirit NPCs during Trick or Treating. In investigating this, it looks to be a bug with how those NPCs are being spawned. Unfortunately, we won't be able to correct the issue before the event is over, so at this time we can only make you aware of the issue and apologize for any inconvenience caused.
What I find upsetting is that Zombie_Man said he bugged the lack of spirit spawn when it was on test. Why was the bug report set aside or not done anything about til it wasnt possible to do anything about it
When I good I am very good, when I am bad I am better
Sure! Bring the voice of reason into this why don't ya!
*Grumble*
I've had my say on this. And as much as I love flagellating deceased equine lifeforms, in this case, it's really not serving any purpose.
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Idea suggestion for another Zombie Apocalypse Event: copy the way the Miners Strike Event works. Make the zombies spawn at various points in a city, preferably at graveyards or seashores. Then make them walk slowly and converging at the city. Then make this huge mob of level-less Zombies roam the streets, hungry for flesh and kill all the other NPCs.
Really, if you want to convey a proper "zombie apocalypse", you will need to show a roaming huge pack of zombies on the streets.
To add to that, once the mob has been "cleared" or enough has been defeated, then the Invasion system can kick in, at the spot the mob was defeated, where the higher level zombies will spawn.
Not that the current event isn't fun, but it lacks the iconic Zombie Apocalypse moments like seeing a huge mob roaming the streets.
^ This
Or better yet, this:
The beginning of Thriller starts... All the heroes/villains (herein 'heroes') will automagically be dressed in either Michael Jackson or Ola Ray costumes. Zombies show up. Everyone, heroes and zombies alike will move towards the gathering location... until a massive group teleport takes place, and everyone is all gathered up. The Thriller main theme theme (DA Daaaaa! Da da daaaa!) hits, everyone faces the same direction, starts dancing uncontrollably for 1 whole minute. The music stops, the zombies are autokilled, everyone gets XP, Vincent Price caclkes, and can go about their buisiness.
That would rawk. I'd so totally pay to take part in this in the game.... once. Afterwards, you get the 'Dancing Machine' badge on that character and you can just be a bystander and watch all the others have to be tortu... I mean, take part.
/No, really, I'd pay for it.
//I know, I know... I'm odd.
August 31, 2012. A Day that will Live in Infamy. Or Information. Possibly Influence. Well, Inf, anyway. Thank you, Paragon Studios, for what you did, and the enjoyment and camaraderie you brought.
This is houtex, aka Mike, signing off the forums. G'night all. - 10/26/2012
Well... perhaps I was premature about that whole 'signing off' thing... - 11-9-2012
No! No GOD! ANYTHING but that! PLEASE!
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What about the horrendous lag?
I mean you guys have got to do something about the degradation of your servers during these LONG events. We should not have to suffer the type of lag we are because of these events.
You need to find a way of having events that don't lag the servers, stop having the events or return the pro-rata portion of subs fees for the time the servers are going to be lagging to the point of not being playable.
Im sorry this is just not acceptable, IMHO. 
The development team and this community deserved better than this from NC Soft. Best wishes on your search.
OK, we've petitioned...
We've waited 3 and a half hours on Liberty -- again -- and have not seen a sign of a zombie attack.
We have yet to see one this week on Liberty. I know they've been there, but we've waited two and three hours several times this week and seen nothing.
I'm about to give up on the event. I got to see one raid on Pinnacle, and it was fun, but our main characters are Libside, and it's really discouraging.
Please, PLEASE...can this be fixed this weekend so those of us with limited play time can actually participate in this?
~Elizabeth
Edit: Turned out to be a five hour wait, but we did get one -- all zones all at once. Hopefully this means all fixed? Thanks.
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.
re: Lag..
Just to explain where I'm at: I run on a Core 2 Duo E6750, 4G, Vista Ultimate 32, NVidia Geforce 9600GT 512MB video, onboard Realtek sound, system. I run this through two routers (connected to a wireless, then connected that to a wired... it's a complicated story, but it works) and I run Comcast Cable internet.
I experience no lag during the Zombie events. I have been in them on Pinnacle, Champion and Freedom, both villain and hero sides.
I suspect it's something on your end, perhaps something to do with your computer. You should start a new thread Darth. We can point an lau...I mean, attempt to help you with the lag issue you seem to have. Maybe we can alleviate it that way.
I am NOT saying that my experience is typical... although I think it may be. Otherwise... the servers would be rather dead, and the zombies would win.
Hyperstrike: Use of reverse psychology is an excellent thing. Keep it up, and we'll soon have what I want. Thanks! Everyone else 'complain' too!
August 31, 2012. A Day that will Live in Infamy. Or Information. Possibly Influence. Well, Inf, anyway. Thank you, Paragon Studios, for what you did, and the enjoyment and camaraderie you brought.
This is houtex, aka Mike, signing off the forums. G'night all. - 10/26/2012
Well... perhaps I was premature about that whole 'signing off' thing... - 11-9-2012
Lighthouse,
I was on today for 8 hours on the Infinity server Hero side(can't say about Villains) and FINALLY because I imagine a GM set it off the Zombie Apocalypse happened. I sent petition after 2 hours being online then again at 3, 4, 5 & 6 hours. Gave it a rest at 7th hour and was just about to send one at 8th hour but it popped.
Now being a regular player I have been on all week in the evening and this invasion has occured regularly on Infinity between 7 & 8 pm and again between 10 & 11 pm Eastern. Just seemed to be broken today for some reason.
A GM had answered my first petition about 2 hours or so after I sent it but I don't check email while playing.
HAPPY HOLLOWEEN! Muhahahahahha 
Try out these AE arcs: 58376, 121698 & 143827
Badges? Did someone say badges? Sign me up!
Was on Virtue myself for several hours this evening (8-11 PM EDT). Didn't see any Zombie uprisings until around 10:30 when they popped up in at least a half a dozen zones at once. Felt like someone kicked the servers manually to trigger it.
At least I had a fun time ToTing in IP without much Zombie interference.
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components
Tempus unum hominem manet
You can laugh, suspect and pound sand all you want mate. On Freedom all of us (ie. multiple 8-man teams) were experiencing bad lag. Your help(attempt at humor) was not requested as the post was to Lighthouse.
I fired up Virtue and it had a playable amount of lag. Freedom just has too many people for these events to run smoothly on weekends.
The development team and this community deserved better than this from NC Soft. Best wishes on your search.
Allrighty then. I'm gonna go with laugh.
/PM Lighthouse when you don't want responses.
//And enjoy the lag, I guess.
///Not laughing... rather irked now.
August 31, 2012. A Day that will Live in Infamy. Or Information. Possibly Influence. Well, Inf, anyway. Thank you, Paragon Studios, for what you did, and the enjoyment and camaraderie you brought.
This is houtex, aka Mike, signing off the forums. G'night all. - 10/26/2012
Well... perhaps I was premature about that whole 'signing off' thing... - 11-9-2012
About 16 hours running with no Zombie Attacks on Virtue.
All TOT and no Zombies make meh a dull boy. ;_;
I do know for a fact lag is present with this event, and I do know "For a fact" it is not "My Computer".
It ran just fine till the first day I played the event. But Im not having lag with the zombies whatsoever, just the ToTing part. Horrible lag spikes when I ToT, and no one around me.
Im not sure what is causing this, but I suspect maybe more npcs waiting behind doors could be the culprit.
Either way I do love the event, so I can live with the lag for the lil time we have the event up.
Add in the Vampires to the "Rare Spawns". Not quite as bad as the Spirits, but still far far far too rare. Last year it was Werewolves that were rare, this year its Vamps and Ghosts.
Spent easily an additional hour and a half past getting Shifter/Dead Head/Malleus to get Hunter. It was reminiscent of the scene in European Vacation wherein Clark was stuck in that roundabout all day long. Door after door after door of nothing but Strengs, Zombies, and Witches.
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I can get a Tier 2 for the simple act of clicking on a Kora fruit.
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Let me put it to you this way, what do you want for nothing?
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All of which are available through ordinary means of running missions.
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You mean farms. If you can get enemy spawn rates and XP/min like this in regular missions, more power to you!
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As to the costume salvage, I already have 25 full sets from last year.
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So, because the salvage isn't useful to YOU, who've already been through the event a time or two before, it's not useful or a "nice to have" for ANYONE? Or at least anyone who doen't want to go drop a couple hundred K on the market?
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.