This may sound like a dumb question but...

I am (was) trying to get to a quest location that turns out to be 39 yards below ground on an island. There are no caves, tunnels, ravines, etc. Just a whole lot of ground and no way to get to where the arrow points (like the entry fell below the collision plane).

That is one issue, but what seems to be really puzzling is that there is no way to raise anyone's attention. I tried the help channel but there are too many members. I tried the NPC (mentor) channel but no one answers. I tried one called PinnBadges because it had a lot of members (I am on the Pinnacle server) and I am not permitted to submit a post.

The several MMO games I have/do play have a relatively lively stream of chat going on; CoH seems to be strangely quiet and awfully hard to get someone to answer when you have a problem like the one I mentioned. (I had hoped someone ran into the same issue and had a solution). So the dumb question is: how do you get the chat thing to work?

If someone has an idea on the original problem, I am all ears, er eyes. The quest is "Kill Ether and her guards" on Nerva Archipelago.

Which neighborhood of Nerva is it in? The longbow base includes a large underground complex.

Dunno about a neighborhood but it's that big island on the north end of the map and the mark is in the middle. The odd thing is the mobs in the vicinity are all about 3-4 levels above my level. Odd place to put down a marker.

There are some areas of those islands where there are underground caves that lead to doors. Not many, but it's possible that's what you're seeing. The tree canopy also makes it difficult to gauge locations.

If all else fails, /petition for assistance, at the very least to report a bug with the mission if it truly is underground (that's with a /bug command). You DO have the ability to "complete" a mission if the mechanics are stuck and you'd like to get past it as well, so you're not completely hamstrung; but Ether sounds like a stock "hero" boss (checked her name on Paragonwiki.com). Is this a newspaper mission?

If you were on Freedom, I'd be happy to investigate with you, I'm kinda curious. As it stands, I don't think I have a toon on Pinnacle to scope the area with (all my toons are on Freedom), but if you're in dire need I can ask a friend who's got a few seeds on Pinnacle if he could help scope it for you. Lemme know.

@TURGENEV - Freedom Server / IRON / B.A.N.E / HORDE

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Oy, Primeva is a mess to navigate. There's a pretty large temple complex with a few underground mission doors. Could you post a screenshot of the area around where the mission door appears to be? That can help us pinpoint the exact location.

One thing you must realize is that as of your posting time, it is the middle of the day in the US. Some of us are at work (yes even on a Saturday) or may be out running errands, sports events, movies, etc.

A screenshot of the the area would be helpful. You can post it on an image hosting website like Photobucket, the use their IMG tag to post the screenshot here. Our forums do not allow you to upload images directly.

Just to be clear about the "N P C" channel you are talking in, you did join the 'N P C' channel and not the NPC channel right? Though it could be the same reason as I mentioned above for the lack of responses.

If you have access to a base and they have an Empowerment Station, you can craft yourself an Invisibility buff that lasts for an hour. That will give you some safety while wondering around looking for the entrance.

A lot of the chat between players is done on the global channels for each server, which you'll need to join to see it appear in your chat window.

I'm pretty sure it's the door in the cave behind a waterfall.

Go more to the middle of the island and drop down to the lowest level where the base of the pyramids are. And from there try to get to the waypoint.

If your having issues with screen shots,'you can also go as close
To the mission entrance as possible ( if you can fly, hover above) and type /loc into the chat - it will give you a trio of numbers for coordinates. Post those and how far from the marker you were when you /loc'd.

New members to PinnBadges are silenced by default, you will need to send a tell to an op in the channel (denoted by a star next to their name in the member list) requesting that you be unsilenced. While you're there, note the people with white boxes next to their names -- these people are silenced.

As for why things are so silent, two possibilities come to mind: your playtimes coincide with down times for server population, or you're not properly set up for chat and consequently you're not actually sending messages to a global channel, but rather a channel like Local or something. If you want to make sure you're always chatting in your active chat tab, press the "A" above the area where you type. PinnBadges tends to have peaks and valleys of inactivity, but as long as you're not playing during some weird time of the day you should be able to get someone's attention (just keep in mind that idle channel conversation gets a little...weird sometimes).

Well thx for all the advice but I decided to cash it in. While there are a lot of aspect to this game that I find enjoyable two things simply spoil it for me.

The biggest is the poor navigational instructions many of these quests have, this being the latest. If there is a secret tunnel that leads to the door to the quest then at least SAY SO in the quest description. Other quests say you need to wipe out every one, when you don't, yet some would say to kill the boss, but they mean kill the boss and everyone else in the instance.

The fact that I could get no response from the four or so channels I tried (or couldn't join) negates the very reason to have this form of public communication. It was very jarring for me to see such a paucity of chatter in the chat window compared to other MMOs. Apparently that occurs on other channels but not the public ones (e.g. Broadcast). I'm not saying this is bad; but for me it simply doesn't work.

I would surmise that for other ppl who come into this game cold, with no posse to help them navigate the pitfalls that await a noob, this is not a good thing. If the brass who pay attention to subscription rates read this; they might want to take note of this. CoH is a mature game in that the bulk of the player base has been around for a while and already know the ins and outs of just about every aspect except the new stuff. They also have a pretty good support system with their buds who have been at it for a while as well. It's easy therefore to get complacent about quest flows and design.

Of the several MMOs that I have played and discarded over the years this one saddens me the most because I liked the playbility of my characters, the crafting, and the market and on those occasions when the quests were laid out well how well they worked out. There was just too many of these kinds of issues and my blood pressure already requires medication. It's just sad.

I'm sorry it didn't work out for you. Pinnacle is a notoriously unforgiving server for new kids.

As far as the poor navigational instructions: There are very few challenges you can put in an MMO aside from "Beat this thing up". One of the devs said once that if you try to put in a puzzle, there will be a walkthrough up on the net in 15 minutes. One of the only "puzzles" in the game is that it is sometimes tricky to find your mission door. People have been complaining about them for years, while other people complain that there's nothing to do but beat stuff up in a repetitive fashion.

Games are for enjoyment; I hope your next one is more enjoyable for you.

Sorry to see this frustrated new player, but remember how those missions were in Perez Park when we were all noobs? The maze in the woods with plus 4 bosses ready to hold you immediately? Die three times just to make it to a mission door to fight Vahzilok. This player would have loved that! LOL

I'm truly sorry you're deciding to cash it in. I understand frustration. I recall very clearly trying to get to a place called "The Wolf's Throat". I was standing right on the way point, but the bad guys they wanted me to clobber were no where near that point. And, when I found one, the kill total didn't change.

I filed a petition. A GM whose name escapes me asks me if I would like to be teleported to the right location. I said, "Sure." I was then dropped in the midst of several +3 mobs and got summarily defeated in about 2 seconds. This was before patrol xp existed, so I had a nasty brown stain to get rid of on my xp bar. I thought about cashing things in, too. But then I said to myself, "Hey, I've only been playing for about 2 weeks, I still have 2 more weeks to go. I might as well get my moneys worth.
I kept paying and playing.
I'd suggest you try to get your moneys worth. Also try making a toon on a couple of different servers. I've always found Liberty, Infinity and Freedom to be pretty good.
I do know that Liberty will almost always have someone that knows the answer to any in-game question on the most popular server channel, LB.

I hope you give the game another shot.

The end result doesn't suprise me. ssj asked for help over in the Badges section, and then complained about all the answers given.

From what I can tell, they don't want to interact with anyone in-game.

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