23 Jul, 2008

Its been a wild ride.  I've not posted in a while for several reasons -- part procrastination, part illness.   The latter took hard turn over the weekend and kept me from most of the double XP weekend.  I suppose it was just as well.  Lately I've been focusing on Virtue characters again.  And getting into Virtue on Sunday was a pain -- the server load was almost always near full.  So you literally had to try repeatedly to get a chance to come in.   You only see load like that on Virtue and Freedom, and only during special events.  The price of playing on those servers I suppose.

I got my 51 month tried and true badge, but I think it may have problems.  Unlike other costume options Veteran awards have opened up previously, this one is opening up AFTER character creation.  The advertised MU helmet,  the one other than the Crab helm I really liked, is unavailable.   I did have a pre order villain helm, but it was the traditional Red Mystic Helm -- available only in red.  I can't help but wonder if the pre order you ALREADY had might affect what is given -- as opposed to what was advertised.    That being said I'm in a minority getting that badge, so I'll wait and see.  It didn't stop me from making a Villain on Virtue with a tech wired outfit, and a crab helm.  It looks great.

I've another Patriotic character on Virtue as well. 


The Bellringer has been getting noticed.  Its fun to play one of those again.  This one is a EB/Mental blaster, and the combination is surprisingly well, since it is mostly ranged abilities.  Knockback can be a problem, which flight can help mitigate if you attack directly from above - turning the knockback into knockdown.  People don't mind that as much.  I've even placed in a few costume contests with him.  He's 21 now, with 3 costumes.   I need to get back to Futura and Cavalier though.   Too many alts, not enough time.

Catch you soon -- I promise.    Keep an eye on my shared Google newsfeeds -- There has been a lot of buzz over DC Universe and Champions Online games.  I can't help but wonder how these will affect City, so I keep an eye on them.   Will console involvement draw new crowds?  Will hardware requirements keep the PC numbers down? Will City add some features to compete directly with them?  The games are both looking rather far in development, but whether they will see the light of day is up in the air.   Its going to take a LOT for me to leave City .  And even more to try a Sony game.   Whatever happens, they are going to make the next few years interesting to say the least.

19 Jun, 2008

Today's the last day for the invasion.  I've a couple characters close -- BOMBS seem the hardest to get.  The Rikti Heavies have been more readily present this time around.   Don't wait till tomorrow if you need to finish of the 3 badges for the accolade.  It HAS to be tonight.

A patch was installed yesterday that affects several things in game.  I heard a few odd complaints.  One was saying something about the Energy melee animations being changed.  Don't know about that.  Someone else was complaining about a skirt bug, that had all the women's skirts rotated or shifted somehow.  I've not see exactly what they are talking about there either.

I had been having a bad problem for the last couple weeks.   I first noticed it going through old alts to make sure they had the 4th anniversary badge.  On a Justice Villain alt, I found a dozen or so emails all spam.  So I used the new SPAM IGNORE button.  And got mapservered.  I came back and tried again. And got mapservered.  I think I was on the 4th or 5th time before I gave up and just deleted them.  As I logged off I heard complaints about the mapserver.  But it still didn't really dawn on me what was happening.

A later mission with a different character on a different server I got sidekicked into some Peregrine Portal missions.  While waiting for the team, I got a spam tell.  So I did what I always do.  Ignored the spammer.  And got mapservered.  When I came back the WHOLE team had been bumped, AND several users outside were complaining on broadcast.  I began to wonder -- Did I cause the event.   We still had people taking time getting to the Portal to do the mission so I repeated the command and walla -- everyone crashed again including me.

A couple days after that I found it wasn't only spam ignores, but others as well.  I did a global ignore during a costume contest when a player was being VERY loud, repetitive and annoying -- you know the type.  The ones that find out what binds can do and then make a bunch and HAVE to show them off.  Again and again and again.  One global ingore later and MAPSERVERED.  And when I got back you could see directly that 80% of the costume contest had left as well and was filtering back.

I reported it during the incidents stated above once I realized there was a problem.  But I never really got any feedback they were aware, understood and were going to do something.  But yesterday's patch DID cure the effect.  I did not like playing having to catch myself from doing ignores.  I run into a lot of players and spammers that just BEG to be ignored.   You don't know how much you get used to it until you can't any longer.

Enough soapbox time -- Catch you soon -- I should have some more of the weird and wacky picks to show.

13 Jun, 2008

Time to hit the streets of Paragon City again --- Certain sources report the Rikti are expected to begin mass invasions of Paragon City and the Rogue Isles commencing today thru next Thursday. Be on the look out for invading Rikti ships, falling Rikti bombs, and large numbers of Rikti troops in the streets.

(Its your chance to get the 3 badges, or any you are missing to get the accolade, Watchmen, that gives you the bonus psychic resistance power. There isn't another invasion scheduled for a while, and since Lady Grey task force induced invasions are rare now a days with everyone enjoying the new TF against the Romans, it may be your ONLY chance for a while. GOOD LUCK all!)

09 Jun, 2008

An amusing video I thought I'd share....

06 Jun, 2008

Truth be told, I've been under the weather off and on for over a week. If I've not been on, or haven't been that active, my spirit hasn't been in it lately. I've spent some of that time getting various alts to key levels or goals, logging in old characters before the June 2nd deadline for the 4th anniversary badge, and trying out a few new looks and power sets new to this issue. Blogging here has lagged some as well. I do what I can.

I've got a handful of stuff to show off today. I did get on Crusading Cavalier and get him up to level 30. It meant I could run him thru several things, including aura and third costume mission and the Origin of Power Midnight Squad mission. Getting him up there I went thru the Freakalympic missions ... something I've not done in AGES. I must bypass them somehow. I remember doing them years ago -- for American Yankee. So this was something of a hoot - for nostalgia sake. It was worth a few covers.





I played a little of everything. Voltavya saw some action -- including this poor Council who was bounced of a wall and end up like this...




Anyone notice the odd behavior of the Ghost Ship of late. Several times I've seen it stuck. Twice it was stuck with the bow below water as if it is sinking... again. I've got a screenshot of it going Titanic here......



I've seen a lot of Roman costumes on line lately, but not too many using the new chest detail elements. I wonder why. Many heroes seem to be going casual for some reason.



Is it just me? I've seen LOTS of weird SG names of late. It seems like almost anything can be a supergroup these days...



More later....

28 May, 2008

I did promise some screenshots of this event -- and its taken me a month to get them up here... *sigh*. Between Beta and Go-Live of Issue 12, I've been more than distracted. Here goes

It started off -- gathering a crowd quickly.  This was on April 26th, and they'd been advertising about it lots!  Word spread and it quickly got crowded, even 20 minutes before hand.

By the time it rolled around to actually start the contest, we were bumping each other off the edges.  Eventually they were forced to move it outside the pools to give everyone elbow room.  Of course pets and powers were making thing lag.  About this time the first reports of Atlas Park 2 being formed came out, which easily meant a 100 characters in the zone -- MOST of which had to be under the globe.


They had several judges, and it took them forever to narrow it down.  With this lot -- it would.

It was the LARGEST turnout I've ever seen for a costume contest in years -- possibly double the largest I've seen before.  There were lots of characters around, and lots of good costumes.

25 May, 2008

There IS a Hospital in the hollows now.  Truth be told its a gurney in a sandbag alley by the entrance from Atlas Park.  Much like the safeguard missions do for a hospital.  WHICH changes the functionality of The Hollows CONSIDERABLY.

I noticed a couple binds that I had set up to do screenshots on one character were now PRESET on a new character.  Still not sure how or why that is, but I think that one of the bind save features must be at fault.

HIDE features have been enhanced -- you can control what lists you show up on, searches, globals, server lists, global channels, etc.  VERY neat when you are focusing on something, or are only on briefly and have one objective and don't want to be bothered with random tells-for-teams.

I noticed the global chat channels can be colored now.  Never noticed that, but I tried it a couple times and after zoning, the colors would revert.  Don't know If I'm setting it on the channel for everybody and it just gets reset, or what.  I did report it.  Don't forget they've increased the number of Chat channels -- great if you had to drop a Radio station for that new SG.

I love the fact that missions are marked by the level you took them at.  REALLY helpful when you level fast.

THIS weekend is a free activation weekend.  So if you were a past player of CoX, you can join in and take a look around.  I think you'll like what you see.

I've been trying for the last couple days a Psychic /Mental Blaster -- one of the new combos.   Its on Guardian, goes by the name Psirex.  I used to have a Virtue character, very similiar in name and origin, though he was an Illusion Controller.  Psirex is in the Earthclan Elite SG and I'm having fun with the build.  Of course seed influence from the SG helped.  And he won the Wentworth lottery with a dropped recipe that sold for 13.5 Million.  That REALLY helps.  He just made 16, and he's a great difference from other blasters I've tried.  And A great relief to run from my Controllers and scrappers.  He's gone through the first Midnighter arc.  It seems you need to be 35+ to go through the rest, so Doctor Futura or Manadroid might get some playtime soon on that point.

I love all the touches that have been made to the game.  SO many "Ohhhh they did THAT! NEAT!" moments.

More later...