City of Heroes is back. This is a PC game that has taken up an exuberant amount of my time. It is the place I go to relax and play out parts of my imagination that haunt me during the day. Creating characters and setting up my key-binds just feels like home to me. The controls and response times have been unmatched from any other MMO I have ever played on PC. I remember all the tabs, targeting shortcuts, power tray setups, missions, stories, and chat etiquette.
I want to talk about that last one. I played on two different servers when the game was live. Both servers used the same abbreviations and chat channels for the same things and in the same way. It was a code that we all learned together. Some of it came from players of other MMOs and some of it started right there on CoH. It was understood and it worked.
Sometime, late game, a few new features were added to allow for cooperative play between Hero side and Villain side. Some of the zones went through changes as well as new zones being added. Even an alignment changing system was added that introduced Vigilantly and Rogue alignments. People who changed to these middle grounds could jump back and forth from Hero side to Villain side any time they wanted. I'm trying to establish the means of cross communication.
If you were a Hero, in Atlas Park "the starting zone", and you were level 1-9, you would use the Broadcast chat to request a team to all people in Atlas Park. Broadcast can only be seen by people on the same map/zone as you. You didn't want to get an invite from someone in Independence Port. You wanted to find a team in Atlas Park. This was either to team with people the same level as you or to team with people doing the same missions as you. Let's face it, for those who play the game, you were looking for a Sewers Team.
There were other channels before co-op zones. Each channel was used and understood the same way by all players. Help, Local, Team, Super Group, Friends and Request that no one used, Coalition, and one last one that shared the name of whatever chat tab you had selected. Though most don't need explaining, the Local channel is proximity based, meaning that only people close enough to you on the same map can see it. You could also create your own channels.
Then came the co-op zones and the introduction to two new channels that let you talk to people on any map and of any alignment or to a group you formed larger than the standard team of 8. They were called the Looking for Group channel and the League channel. Group implies a mixed alignment or League. I'm not going to go into what all these terms are about. My focus is on what the channels are for.
I don't know why more alumni are not using the channels the same way we did in the past and instead opted to use them the way they're being used today. I don't even know who started using them this new way and why it took off so fast. People are not happy with how they're being used. Yet, every time I try to tell them of a better way, a way tried, tested, and found true, with not as many commas, I'm called out as a troll.
All day, people are posting in the Looking for Group channel, asking for teams. Not just any team. They want Zone specific, Alignment specific, Mission specific, Goal specific, Task Forces, Strike Forces, and all sorts of stuff that wasn't the reason for the channel's creation. Someone on Villain side will be trying to form a team by posting in LFG and they'll get Tells "private messages" from people on Hero side asking to join. Then when they're told to change alignment and move to a Red side map, they complain and refuse. Not always but it happens. The same thing happens for the other side. All because "You can't invite an enemy to your team".
One big solution is to be either a Vigilante or Rogue all the time. There's hardly a reason to NOT be one of these alignments anymore. You can sit in a co-op zone like Pocket D or a Super Group base and look for a team on either side. The best solution is to use the channels provided to you for the reason they are there. If you're looking to form a team with people in the same zone as you, use Broadcast. If you're looking for regular members to play with, join a Super Group and use their chat. Super Groups can even form Coalitions and use a chat that all those members can see.
All this being said. There is one feature that was added that solves just about all this. The Find Member button. If you're not on a team, go ahead and open that team tab. There you'll find a drop down menu that lets you label yourself as "Looking for ________". Be it missions, patrol, TF/SF, Trial, Arena, ANYTHING or NOTHING, you can select what fits you best and leave a short message for anyone that presses the Find Member button. You can tell them that you don't accept blind invites, prompting them to send you a Tell first. You can even tell them what alignment your are and what zones you're willing to travel to.
If we can all get on the same page, we'll have a better time finding, building, and playing teams. All this instead of asking for a new channel that only talks to Hero side or Villain side. Not that that would be a bad idea. I just can't find a team most of the time because I refuse to promote bad behavior that decays the foundations of communication.
Thank You for Your Time.
James D. Gray
I want to talk about that last one. I played on two different servers when the game was live. Both servers used the same abbreviations and chat channels for the same things and in the same way. It was a code that we all learned together. Some of it came from players of other MMOs and some of it started right there on CoH. It was understood and it worked.
Sometime, late game, a few new features were added to allow for cooperative play between Hero side and Villain side. Some of the zones went through changes as well as new zones being added. Even an alignment changing system was added that introduced Vigilantly and Rogue alignments. People who changed to these middle grounds could jump back and forth from Hero side to Villain side any time they wanted. I'm trying to establish the means of cross communication.
If you were a Hero, in Atlas Park "the starting zone", and you were level 1-9, you would use the Broadcast chat to request a team to all people in Atlas Park. Broadcast can only be seen by people on the same map/zone as you. You didn't want to get an invite from someone in Independence Port. You wanted to find a team in Atlas Park. This was either to team with people the same level as you or to team with people doing the same missions as you. Let's face it, for those who play the game, you were looking for a Sewers Team.
There were other channels before co-op zones. Each channel was used and understood the same way by all players. Help, Local, Team, Super Group, Friends and Request that no one used, Coalition, and one last one that shared the name of whatever chat tab you had selected. Though most don't need explaining, the Local channel is proximity based, meaning that only people close enough to you on the same map can see it. You could also create your own channels.
Then came the co-op zones and the introduction to two new channels that let you talk to people on any map and of any alignment or to a group you formed larger than the standard team of 8. They were called the Looking for Group channel and the League channel. Group implies a mixed alignment or League. I'm not going to go into what all these terms are about. My focus is on what the channels are for.
I don't know why more alumni are not using the channels the same way we did in the past and instead opted to use them the way they're being used today. I don't even know who started using them this new way and why it took off so fast. People are not happy with how they're being used. Yet, every time I try to tell them of a better way, a way tried, tested, and found true, with not as many commas, I'm called out as a troll.
All day, people are posting in the Looking for Group channel, asking for teams. Not just any team. They want Zone specific, Alignment specific, Mission specific, Goal specific, Task Forces, Strike Forces, and all sorts of stuff that wasn't the reason for the channel's creation. Someone on Villain side will be trying to form a team by posting in LFG and they'll get Tells "private messages" from people on Hero side asking to join. Then when they're told to change alignment and move to a Red side map, they complain and refuse. Not always but it happens. The same thing happens for the other side. All because "You can't invite an enemy to your team".
One big solution is to be either a Vigilante or Rogue all the time. There's hardly a reason to NOT be one of these alignments anymore. You can sit in a co-op zone like Pocket D or a Super Group base and look for a team on either side. The best solution is to use the channels provided to you for the reason they are there. If you're looking to form a team with people in the same zone as you, use Broadcast. If you're looking for regular members to play with, join a Super Group and use their chat. Super Groups can even form Coalitions and use a chat that all those members can see.
All this being said. There is one feature that was added that solves just about all this. The Find Member button. If you're not on a team, go ahead and open that team tab. There you'll find a drop down menu that lets you label yourself as "Looking for ________". Be it missions, patrol, TF/SF, Trial, Arena, ANYTHING or NOTHING, you can select what fits you best and leave a short message for anyone that presses the Find Member button. You can tell them that you don't accept blind invites, prompting them to send you a Tell first. You can even tell them what alignment your are and what zones you're willing to travel to.
If we can all get on the same page, we'll have a better time finding, building, and playing teams. All this instead of asking for a new channel that only talks to Hero side or Villain side. Not that that would be a bad idea. I just can't find a team most of the time because I refuse to promote bad behavior that decays the foundations of communication.
Thank You for Your Time.
James D. Gray
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