Hi everyone.
We announced that on May 27th, 2011, for a few hours (4-7 PM Pacific), you can log in to the Freedom server and get a badge that will apply to every character on your entire account.
We understand that not everyone can be there that night, but we have a very serious goal to test some server improvements; so here's what we are doing:
We have a goal of exceeding our highest ever peak concurrent users on a single server, which is 3500 players. But we might not be able to make that, so we will at least settle for 2500. If we get 2500 concurrent players on the Freedom server on May 27th between the hours of 4PM and 7PM Pacific, we will leave the badge on for the rest of the holiday weekend (May 27th through May 30th) on *ALL* European and North American servers.
We timed this event to coincide with the greatest typical number of concurrent players worldwide to give the most people possible the chance to get the badge. If you don't have a character on Freedom, you can simply create one and log in to get the badge.
If you can't make it on the 27th or over the Memorial weekend, we will absolutely give you another opportunity to get the badge in a few months. If you DO get the badge this weekend, youll have some measure of exclusivity for a few months, maybe enough exclusivity to get you to log in real quick before you hit the hay or hit the clubs. And we want to ensure that this badge is prestigious, so the next opportunity will be a limited-time window as well, though longer than three hours to be sure.
When we run this event, we will be able to open the server queue wider than we have ever been able in the past (maybe even turn it off) and we think we can get a ridiculous number of you on Freedom all at the same time, more than we have ever been able to support. We've made some server optimizations that will make it possible to run our servers more efficiently for the future and hold *way* more players on any piece of hardware; this improvement will help us continue to support City of Heroes efficiently for the future. One of the smartest guys I've ever had the pleasure to know has been working insanely hard on this for months, and we want to ensure that he can go back to actually getting sleep at night, comfortable that his hard work has paid off.
You don't even have to stick around and fight off the Praetorian invasion: logging in during the window will grant the badge, and you can log out and go back to your home server. But maybe if you stick around and get into a group, you'll help reach the goal and have some fun at the same time. Imagine seeing more versions of Atlas Park than you have ever been seen before!
If you really want to knuckle down and kick some Praetorian butt, we are running events on all of the servers over the next few weeks to let you get your favorite characters in on the action, but the finale will be on Freedom to help us get this tested, as well as give a nice apocalyptic feel to the event. We can run all the simulations we want, but nothing will really help like real concurrency.
A few key points of info:
First, we have been running this version of the server software since Issue 20 went live, so it's not like this is a fresh build that hasn't been tested. Weve had some other bugs since I20 went live, but these changes havent been at the heart of those bugs, which is why we feel comfortable running this event.
Second, before the rumor mill starts churning, this isn't about a server merge or going server-less, either -- the server communities are genuinely important to you and to us. We have good, old-fashioned business reasons to be more efficient with the servers. If you could make your car get a couple miles more to the gallon every day, you'd probably do it, too. Now imagine you can make your car *twice* as efficient. This is kinda like that.
Third, if this somehow goes unexpectedly awry and no one can get onto the server, we won't leave it so only a few hundred lucky people got the badge before something went boom; we will reward you for at least trying, so we'll figure something else out to award the badge if it doesn't work out, and we will be proactive about the communication.
Fourth, the Praetorian enemies used in the Surge are event critters1, as well, so they scale to your level like all our other event critters. There are plenty of 50s on Freedom: you should be able to get a group, and I'm guessing leagues will form as well, but a dozen level 1s can still take out an event critter, easy. If you do stick around, you should have a good opportunity to lend a hand.
This badge is special to us, it represents a big technical milestone for City of Heroes. And now it is special to everyone, as well, because it will be a symbol of the community working together for a common goal.
Further confirmation of an imminent Praetorian invasion has been secured from our team of scientists and mages lead by Dr. Keyes.
Heroes of Paragon City, Villains of the Rogue Isles, it is time to set aside your differences and unite against a perilous threat for the common good of humanity. We can't stress enough that, should Emperor Cole and his troops succeed in subjugating our planet and its inhabitants, the foundations of our society and liberty will not only be at stake, they are likely to collapse and plunge us into an era of darkness and fear.
The times when the dimensional barriers are at their most vulnerable have now been identified. Those times are when intrusions into our dimension are most likely to happen. Be watching for announcements in Paragon City and the Rogue Isles at the following dates and times!
Please note that as a gesture of appreciation and recognition, a special account wide badge will be given out to everybody taking part in the Freedom Protection effort on Friday, May 27th!
And if we manage to get more than 2500 heroes and villains to koin in our effort that day, this badge of valour will be extended to citizens of all other European and North American servers who will log in to their home server between May 28th through May 30th! For more information on this, please read Second Measure's post below!
Wednesday, May 11th, 2011
Time: 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. British Time
Server: Union
Time: 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time (6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Central Time)
Server: Virtue
Thursday, May 12th, 2011
Time: 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. British Time
Server: Defiant
Time: 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time (6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Central Time)
Server: Justice
Friday, May 13th, 2011
Time: 19:00 - 22:00 Central European Time
Server: Vigilance
Time: 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time (6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Central Time)
Server: Liberty
Monday, May 16th, 2011
Time: 19:00 - 22:00 Central European Time
Server: Zukunft
Time: 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time (6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Central Time)
Server: Champion
Tuesday, May 17th, 2011
Time: 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time (6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Central Time)
Server: Triumph
Wednesday, May 18th, 2011
Time: 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time (6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Central Time)
Server: Guardian
Thursday, May 19th, 2011
Time: 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time (6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Central Time)
Server: Infinity
Monday, May 23rd, 2011
Time: 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time (6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Central Time)
Server: Protector
Tuesday, May 24th, 2011
Time: 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time (6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Central Time)
Server: Victory
Thursday, May 26th, 2011
Time: 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time (6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Central Time)
Server: Pinnacle
Friday, May 27th, 2011
Time: 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time (6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Central Time)
Server: Freedom
For the future of Primal Earth!
Join in the Community Discussion now!
Support Centre for our English European players
Support Centre for our North American players
Plateforme d'assistance pour les francophones
Support-Center f�r deutschsprachige Spieler