Double Experience Weekend

[Llava]

The 21st through the 23rd will see a weekend event in which all characters receive double experience from all experience granting things (defeating enemies, completing missions, whatever).  Additionally, influence and prestige rewards are also doubled.

Emails are going out on Monday, but it was announced on mmorpg.com and confirmed by CuppaJo on the official boards.


(Who's going to be first to say "Great, now they just need to make it permanent"?  I honestly don't know.)

[Rodent]

Theese type of deals are always nice, an easy way to get alts to level 14.

[schild]

Theese type of deals are always nice, an easy way to get alts to level 14.

Heh. If that was a joke, it was damn funny.

[Lantyssa]

It's not a very good incentive for me since I spent enough time in debt trying to not out-level my contacts.

[Llava]

It's not a very good incentive for me since I spent enough time in debt trying to not out-level my contacts.

Shhh.  People like you don't exist.  The grind is too long.

[shiznitz]

Double exp weekends are great for existing players but they are a terrible tool to try and re-attract cancelled subs. Yes, it might work in the short run as there are always MMOGers looking to take a break from their current game, but double exp periods end and when they do, it makes the grind even more painful.

The very fact that the devs think people will enjoy double exp only shows that it should be double exp all the time.

[Trippy]

It's not a very good incentive for me since I spent enough time in debt trying to not out-level my contacts.

Shhh.  People like you don't exist.  The grind is too long.

That doesn't mean the grind isn't too long -- it just means the developers are fricking retarded for allowing you to outlevel contacts in game that was built from the ground up to support scalable encounters.

[Llava]

It's not a very good incentive for me since I spent enough time in debt trying to not out-level my contacts.

Shhh.  People like you don't exist.  The grind is too long.

That doesn't mean the grind isn't too long -- it just means the developers are fricking retarded for allowing you to outlevel contacts in game that was built from the ground up to support scalable encounters.

We don't have an assigned color for snarkiness.

And shiznitz wins.

[Llava]

Here's the official announcement.

Heroes and Villains,

Many of you have heard about it, and now it is quickly approaching.

All players get a chance to earn Double XP (including double Prestige and Inf/Inf) just for playing the game THIS weekend.

Here are the times:

Start: Friday, July 21st at 9am PST / 12pm EST
Finish: Sunday, July 23rd, 8:59pm PST / 11:59pm EST

Why are we doing this? Why, I'm glad you asked! This is a special thank you, because we really do appreciate you all-through the thick and thin.

You get to decide how you want to take advantage of this. Perhaps you want to work on your alts, or get that one character up to level 50. It is simply all up to you.

So what is the catch? No catches. It's just that easy

So let that XP just pour in...and HAVE FUN!

[Shrike]

My first thought was to use the 2x xp weekend to get my elect/elect brute past the late teen doldrums (staminaaaaaa!). However, after a conversation with a fellow EM/EA brute last night, I"m going to attempt to "leverage" myself past 40. Finally.

And, yes, I've exhausted my contacts in St. Martial and the broker in Grandville refuses to acknowledge my existance. That many fewer newspaper missions until 40 will be a godsend.

[shiznitz]

They really should do double exp through Labor Day weekend and see what happens to sub numbers. Is the exp curve really that sacred it can only handle 3 days of 2x?

[eldaec]

It's not a very good incentive for me since I spent enough time in debt trying to not out-level my contacts.

Shhh.  People like you don't exist.  The grind is too long.

That doesn't mean the grind isn't too long -- it just means the developers are fricking retarded for allowing you to outlevel contacts in game that was built from the ground up to support scalable encounters.

btw, you can't outlevel a contact's story arc once you've started it.

(bugs permitting)

[Lantyssa]

btw, you can't outlevel a contact's story arc once you've started it.

No, but a lot of the 'minor' missions aren't arcs but have stories I like to follow, badges, or have something unique about them.  I actually find some arcs are more tedious than those one-off stories.  And anything besides that out-leveled arc is lost.

[Llava]

Each supergroup member is being granted 20,000 prestige in addition to all the experience.

Which really means that each supergroup gets 20,000 prestige for each member it has.

[Llava]

Well, so far the event seems to be a success.  I haven't seen any servers below medium capacity since it started, and seen several at  high capacity.  The bonus is very noticable, it really takes very little time to gain a level unless you're over 40, in which case it should only take a couple hours if you stick to it.

[Trippy]

Well, so far the event seems to be a success.  I haven't seen any servers below medium capacity since it started, and seen several at  high capacity.  The bonus is very noticable, it really takes very little time to gain a level unless you're over 40, in which case it should only take a couple hours if you stick to it.

Your eyes must be deceiving you -- there is no grind in the game.

[gimpyone]

I'm so tempted to give CoX another shot but then I remember I stalled at 23 and got ground to a halt.  I played a healing mind controller or whatever it is called.  Couldn't solo and my SG wasn't that active.

[Llava]

Well, so far the event seems to be a success.  I haven't seen any servers below medium capacity since it started, and seen several at  high capacity.  The bonus is very noticable, it really takes very little time to gain a level unless you're over 40, in which case it should only take a couple hours if you stick to it.

Your eyes must be deceiving you -- there is no grind in the game.

Har.

You'll notice in just about all my posts I say that the grind should be reduced.

I just don't think it's quite as bad as everyone here claims.

[Shrike]

It's better in CoV than CoH. This weekend was nice to actually be able to crank out a few levels on high-30s/40s characters without taking a week. Was almost like the days in Mercy Island or Port Oakes.

Also, plenty of folks dropped by to check things out. Virtue went red in the afternoon (can't remember the last time I saw that) and the login server crashed in the evening. Fun stuff.  :-D

[Mitrediabolo]

Im pretty burnt out on this game. So i spent my weekend getting a ice/energy dom to 17.

They should make the double xp permanent.

[Llava]

Im pretty burnt out on this game. So i spent my weekend getting a ice/energy dom to 17.

Those two sentences make no sense when positioned next to each other like that.

[geldonyetich]

And so it is that Double Experience Weekend ended in the same way pre-purple nerf CoH did: prematurely.

[Glazius]

And so it is that Double Experience Weekend ended in the same way pre-purple nerf CoH did: prematurely.

You do know that "pre-purple nerf" those purples were equivalent XP to reds, right?

--GF

[eldaec]

Actually somewhere between yellows and reds, thanks to the enemy-faction-specific-xp-modifier added to encourage the hunting of the tougher villian groups.      

[geldonyetich]

I know there is an individual kill experience cap in place, but it applied after the group split, so you could potentially make more experience from purples than reds in a good sized group.

Really though, we've got Blasters who hung around the deep sewers spamming immobilization and droppable AOE attacks (caltrops and flamethrower) then hiding behind the walls while the mobs died to thank for the purple nerf.  Nothing like people getting level 50 a week after the game's release to get the developers all jumpy.

[Morfiend]

If CoX doubled or even tripled EXP gain, I would resub in a heartbeat. CoX should be the perfict game for people like me with altitus, but the grind makes it not so.

[Strazos]

I havea trial to CoV at the moment. I have a Ninja/Ninja stalker at the moment...the only thing I don't like is how long it takes to go into "hidden" mode.

[Glazius]

In what has to be some cosmic act of irony, after the weekend came and went I am currently working my way up to level 2 Base Architect. The final 12-square workshop is proving to be absolutely brutal, even after I debuffed it down to 10. My SGmates don't seem in a helpful mood at the moment and I'm going to try to tackle it again later tonight.

It's grindy in the sense that I can suddenly look up, 4 hours are gone, and I haven't accomplished ANYTHING.

--GF

(so much stuff. so much stuff to pile on top of other stuff. so much space to fill with stuff.)

[Llava]

Wait.

You can put things on top of other things?

Like I have a pile of books, and I have a desk.  I could put the pile of books on top of the desk?

How do I do that?  And if that is the case, do you know how much time you just cost me?

[Glazius]

Wait.

You can put things on top of other things?

Like I have a pile of books, and I have a desk.  I could put the pile of books on top of the desk?

How do I do that?  And if that is the case, do you know how much time you just cost me?

Like so many things, the stacking behavior is poorly documented, but it's there. You need an object with a "stackable surface" - most of these are found under "desks" but the half tables under "other furniture" also have stackable surfaces. The white and cherry-wood counters from "cabinets" look like you could put stuff on them, but you can't.

Anyway, the main stackable surfaces are the variations on the "counter" theme under "desks" (gray, white, rustic, wooden) and the various empty desks, also under "desks".

Putting stuff on top of other stuff is pretty easy. Just select the object from the placement menu or pick it up with the cursor:



and drag until the blue rectangle sits on top of the stackable surface (a high camera angle will help with this):



and presto, you've put stuff on top of other stuff.



You can stack anything on a stackable surface, provided its bounding box doesn't overhang the edge of the surface. Note that (in my experience) all objects with stackable surfaces don't fill their bounding box, so you can't generally stack things very high:



But now you should be able to use pretty much the entire last two-thirds of the "room details" in a somewhat logical fashion, so that counts for something, right?

I joke "I'm playing SuperSims!" but really, what else can I call it?

--GF

[eldaec]

I know there is an individual kill experience cap in place, but it applied after the group split, so you could potentially make more experience from purples than reds in a good sized group.

I think Glazius was refering to the fact that the devs increased dramatically the xp everything gave starting at level 20 with the purple patch.

[Glazius]

Other miscellaneous base tips, because nobody asked for them:

Recessed Fluorescent 2 makes a great "fake skylight", especially with a recessed ceiling.

You generally can't tell that placed lighting effects are working if you have your room lighting set more than 2 or 3 "luminances" to the right of pure black on the lighting tab. Turn that down and they behave much better.

You can get good subdued lighting by selecting what looks like pure gray on the bottom two rows of colors in the lighting tab. It's not gray, just very, very unsaturated color.

Floor trim and ceiling trim don't pass through doorways. You can get "trim continuity" by indenting the doorway ceiling and floor so the trim wraps around the top and bottom of the doorway.

When you're picking the style of your walls/ceiling/et cetera, the description window changes to a color palette, which lets you pick primary and secondary colors for whatever style band you're currently looking at. All tiles have some existing color, but tinting can still make a pretty big difference in appearance. You can tint your entire room or base with one pattern if you want - otherwise the tint just applies to that style object in that room.

If you have an indented/recessed ceiling or floor, the gap between indentations doesn't pick up from your high/low walls. It has its own pattern setting - "short floor walls" and "short ceiling walls" fill the gap from low to mid floors, and mid to high ceilings. "floor walls" and "ceiling walls" fill the gap from high to mid/low floors and low to mid/high ceilings.

--GF

Tune in next time, when I show you how to make an attractive centerpiece from the physics particles your Singularity brought back from that last outdoor mission! All for under 50 bucks!

[Glazius]

Because the edit time has probably already expired:

The flattop desks under "desks" have a stackable surface exactly as big as the top of their bounding box, so they can be infinitely stacked.

Somewhere, someone has made a Great Pyramid out of the rustic model.

--GF

[Llava]

My base looks much spiffier now.

Thanks Glazius.

Turns out, I'd picked the one desk that doesn't allow stacking.