Author Topic: Paragon Chat FAAAQ  (Read 312463 times)

Codewalker

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Paragon Chat FAAAQ
« on: June 24, 2015, 09:21:19 PM »
Paragon Chat FAAAQ
(Frequently Asked and Anticipated Questions)

NOTE: This is a living document. As questions are asked, I will respond to them in the thread as well as update this post with the most pertinent ones. If a new 'anticipated' question is added, I'll also post below so people following the thread will see it without having to re-read the whole list.

What is Paragon Chat?

Paragon Chat is a software program that turns your City of Heroes client into an interactive chat and socialization platform. It allows you to design costumes, see and meet with other players in a shared virtual space, communicate through text chat as well as animated emotes, and manage a list of friends that you frequently interact with and wish to be able to see your online status.

What is Paragon Chat not?

It is not a game. It does not feature combat, power mechanics, accumulation of experience, leveling, inventory, auctions, etc.

Do I need to have City of Heroes already installed?

Yes. You'll need the Issue 24 Beta client. As the game was Free-to-Play before closure and beta access was not consistently a VIP perk, anyone who downloaded it in 2012 should have a legal copy.

What is this "XMPP" thing I keep hearing about?

eXtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol. It's an Internet standard for instant messaging, presence notification, and other real-time communication. You may have also heard of Jabber, that's the IM platform that grew into XMPP.

I downloaded Paragon Chat! How do I log in?

Verify that your Titan Network username is acceptable for Paragon Chat by visiting the account management page. If it's acceptable, login with username@chat.cohtitan.com and your Titan Network password. If your Titan Network username has a space in it, replace with an underscore. Additionally, XMPP utilizes lowercase for usernames, even if you use case sensitivity while logging in. (Bob Dole becomes Bob_Dole to log in, and is listed as bob dole once in-game.)

Are characters that I create in Paragon Chat saved?

Yes, they are saved on your local computer in a SQLite database file that you can back up if you wish. They are not tied to the XMPP account you log into, so you can switch between servers and use your same characters.

I logged in to the server, now I'm getting the game's login screen. Why do I have to log in twice?

The second login is only to allow you to have more than one list of characters. As the game client is hardcoded to handle at most 48 characters per account, the username that you type at the login screen allows you to select between multiple lists of up to 48.

Simply put, at the COH login screen, type a name that is meaningful to you, and any password you want. The password on this screen is completely ignored other than having to type at least 1 letter for the login button to work. The list of characters you get will be the ones you have created with that same account name.

OMG, it takes forever to get anywhere!

Heh, welcome to launch day, Issue 0!

You can ease your pain with the /mapmove command to jump to a desired zone. There is a wiki page listing the numbers for each zone. We've tried to locate the exit coordinates at places in close proximity to where people want to go.

Travel powers (or rather, a close enough approximation to fake them) are on the radar for the 1.1 version and will be one of the first things we work on after release.

Until then, try to enjoy the little details that you might have been skipping over and missing all those years of superspeeding past. We'll get you flying, superspeeding, superjumping, and maybe even teleporting again soon.

Are you going to add combat, street sweeping, missions, AI?

In this project probably not. At most there might be some limited powers support, and minigame aspects.

However, it does share DNA with some other projects that are working along those lines. Improvements to Paragon Chat represent improvements to the overall state of things.

Are store-bought costume parts available? What about Icon's NPC mode?

Short version: Yes and no. All Paragon Point and VIP reward costumes should be available. Incarnate (astral/empyrean merit) unlocks and badge-restricted parts are not selectable, but it's something we're working on. NPC-only parts are not available.

Long version: Enterprising hackers will discover that the costume parts in the database closely resemble costume files and demorecords. No validation is done when loading from the database, so you can create "invalid" or NPC costumes directly in the database and they will be visible to other players. If we see a lot of abuse of this to grief people (creating monstrosities that block out the screen or crash clients), we will be forced to add validation of incoming costumes, so please don't make us do that.

Which zones are available at launch?

All Paragon City, Rogue Isles, and Praetorian city zones. All Paragon City and Rogue Isles hazard zones. All Praetorian underground zones.

Trial zones such as the Abandoned Sewer Network, The Hive, The Abyss, RWZ, and the Shadow Shard.

All PVP zones.

Miscellaneous zones: Pocket D, Paragon Dance Party, Breakout, Outbreak, Destroyed Galaxy City Tutorial, Precinct Five.

Bonus zones: Echo: Dark Astoria, Echo: Faultline (original Faultline), Echo: Rikti Crash Site.

What about mission maps and other places that are not traditional zones?

Short version: We plan to address this in a future version by allowing you to create a private custom "space" using a map of your choice and invite others to it.

Long version: It's technically possible to do this by modifying zone.cfg and adding new maps in. However, it will only work if everyone who wants to meet up there makes identical edits to the file.

How about Supergroup bases?

The good news is this is something we very much want to do, and should be possible. The bad news is it may take some time to get it all working.

Can I import my Sentinel+ XML files?

For the moment you can use the Senticon converter to create costume files from them to load in the character creator. An integrated importer is planned.

Why did you make this? Just standing around chatting is dumb.

*shrug* That's one opinion. Other people enjoy the opportunity for social interaction. Nobody is forcing anyone to use Paragon Chat or get excited about it, it's just there for those who want to. Some ideas of fun things to do:

  • Costume contests!
  • Supergroup reunion / meeting
  • Roleplay sessions
  • Pen and paper style gaming sessions
  • Getting a refreshing bite at Old Fashioned Donuts or Loyal Tea & Coffee

Is this going to be an Open Source project?

Not yet. In the future potentially.

There are two main reasons, the first is that this requires your login information, and there is currently a lot of attention surrounding it. If source were available it would be that much easier to create a trojan version to take advantage of that.

The second is that there are parts of it under heavy development and are shared with other projects which are still in the early phases.

We do use several BSD or MIT-licensed open-source libraries. Namely zlib, Expat, SQLite, OpenSSL, and libstrophe. We have contributed several bugfixes and feature enhancements made for this project back to libstrophe.

What about extensibility?

A scripting interface is on the development roadmap as a medium-priority feature. This should allow community contributed enhancements to be added.

Can I run my own server?

Absolutely. We're launching with the Titan server as the default to make it easier for people to jump right in, but you can use any standards compliant XMPP server instead, public or private.

The extensions that we use are:
XEP-0045: Multi-User Chat. This is required for the ability to see other players in a zone to work, as well as global channels. Without it, all you can do is send tells.
XEP-0033: Extended Stanza Addressing (aka Multicast). Support for this feature is optional, but is recommended as it makes local chat much more efficient.
XEP-0016: Privacy Lists. This is needed for the /ignore functionality to work. It is strongly recommended to use a server that supports this feature unless it is a tightly-controlled private server.

We recommend Openfire as it has good MUC support, Multicast support, Privacy List support, and is what we did the majority of development and testing with. It is also quite easy to set up and configure.

Is this a Nemesis Plot?

No, absolutely not! *bzzzt-click*
« Last Edit: July 09, 2015, 08:15:15 PM by Aggelakis »

Rotten Luck

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Question about Paragon Chat "Soon"
« Reply #1 on: June 25, 2015, 01:10:16 PM »
Well I was thinking about us Roleplayers and what the chat system can do.  That got me wondering.

Can the chat system do dice rolls example.  /roll 2 dice 6 sides.  Or some other form of slash command for dice rolling.
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Codewalker

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Re: Question about Paragon Chat "Soon"
« Reply #2 on: June 25, 2015, 01:12:36 PM »
Not yet, but it's something that has been suggested and I'm going to try to slip in before release, as it's fairly easy to do.

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Re: Paragon Chat FAAAQ
« Reply #3 on: June 25, 2015, 01:19:58 PM »
Woohoo, answers pretty much all the questions I've had bouncing around since the announcement, thanks CW!

Auroxis

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Re: Paragon Chat FAAAQ
« Reply #4 on: June 25, 2015, 01:42:42 PM »
How would identical character names be handled?

Will we have multiple costume slots per character?

nicoliy

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Re: Paragon Chat FAAAQ
« Reply #5 on: June 25, 2015, 01:45:47 PM »
This is fantastic. Thank you to everyone involved.

Codewalker

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Re: Paragon Chat FAAAQ
« Reply #6 on: June 25, 2015, 01:46:20 PM »
How would identical character names be handled?

Excellent question!

Unlike COH, identical character names in a zone are allowed. If you use a character name in a command, such as a tell, it will go to the last person with that name that you interacted with or were near to. For that reason, I recommend always using global names where possible, as those are unique. You can right-click on somebody and get their global name from the info window.

Incoming tells always show the global name as the source, so there can be no confusion about who is sending you a message.

Will we have multiple costume slots per character?

All 10 costume slots are unlocked and can be modified individually at the tailor.

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Re: Paragon Chat FAAAQ
« Reply #7 on: June 25, 2015, 01:50:08 PM »
Will we have access to all the zones, both Paragon City and the Rogue Isles?  (For those of us with Villains)  :-)

Codewalker

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Re: Paragon Chat FAAAQ
« Reply #8 on: June 25, 2015, 01:53:23 PM »
Will we have access to all the zones, both Paragon City and the Rogue Isles?  (For those of us with Villains)  :-)

Yes, all of the Paragon City, Rogue Isles, and Praetorian zones are accessible.

The single-destination transit points also do function, so you can run from Talos Island to Pocket D to St. Martial.  Or take the submarine directly from Independence Port to Sharkhead.

There are no alignment restrictions (the main character I've been doing most of my testing with is actually a villain), so you can even transit through PVP zones if you want. Or just /mapmove to where you want to go. :)

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Re: Paragon Chat FAAAQ
« Reply #9 on: June 25, 2015, 01:55:58 PM »
Can you see who is in a zone with the search function?

Codewalker

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Re: Paragon Chat FAAAQ
« Reply #10 on: June 25, 2015, 02:00:33 PM »
Not yet, but it's on the list to look at implementing. Worst case we'll add a /whoall command to print out a list.

Even if search does work, XMPP has no way to search for players globally, so it would be limited to the current zone only.

We are setting it up so that new characters automatically join a "Paragon Chat" global channel in order to facilitate finding people. It only does that at character creation, so you can leave the channel if you want to hide.

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Re: Paragon Chat FAAAQ
« Reply #11 on: June 25, 2015, 02:14:45 PM »
First: Thank you for setting this up! I'm looking forward to the release  8) .

Then my question. It's more one for the future. There is talk of "flying" being added at some point.
What about the other (basic) travelpowers like Superjump (my personal favorite), Superspeed and Teleportation?
Is there a possibility that they can be added too?
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nicoliy

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Re: Paragon Chat FAAAQ
« Reply #12 on: June 25, 2015, 02:15:28 PM »
Have a few questions (hope they are not repeats I overlooked)

Will we be able to do pop menus for zones and emotes (like Icon I guess)?

Can we save bind load files, if I got the name right? I could be fuzzy here, but I seem to remember doing these for RP things like costume change emotes with sayings and such.

I saw you mention single point travel working, does that mean Trams are not running?

Thanks

nicoliy

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Re: Paragon Chat FAAAQ
« Reply #13 on: June 25, 2015, 02:16:53 PM »
First: Thank you for setting this up! I'm looking forward to the release  8) .

Then my question. It's more one for the future. There is talk of "flying" being added at some point.
What about the other (basic) travelpowers like Superjump (my personal favorite), Superspeed and Teleportation?
Is there a possibility that they can be added too?

SJ was always my favorite too. If that returns I may just cry.

Auroxis

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Re: Paragon Chat FAAAQ
« Reply #14 on: June 25, 2015, 02:17:50 PM »
Will there be a "friends" functionality for knowing where your friends are located? And/or an ability to instantly teleport next to them?

Leandro

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Re: Paragon Chat FAAAQ
« Reply #15 on: June 25, 2015, 02:21:05 PM »
Why all the early teasing before the release?

My fault. As you may know I handle the patch manifest for Tequila and Island Rum, where people can download the game client if they don't have it. If this was just released without a "hype period", then everybody would rush to download the game on the same day and absolutely murder the available bandwidth on the servers holding game files.

Can I help with that?

If you have an HTTP server with space to spare, please contact me to mirror the game files in it. Based on the early response we got, we will definitely need them.

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Re: Paragon Chat FAAAQ
« Reply #16 on: June 25, 2015, 02:27:54 PM »
Not yet, but it's on the list to look at implementing. Worst case we'll add a /whoall command to print out a list.

Even if search does work, XMPP has no way to search for players globally, so it would be limited to the current zone only.

We are setting it up so that new characters automatically join a "Paragon Chat" global channel in order to facilitate finding people. It only does that at character creation, so you can leave the channel if you want to hide.

Thanks for the reply and for Paragon Chat, it's going to bring a lot of friends back together, make people extremely happy  :D

I wonder if Posi & Gang have seen this news and what they think, even see them in zone in the future!

When the game does come back, I for one will be voting for a new statue to be placed in a zone for the creators of Paragon Chat  ;)

Codewalker

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Re: Paragon Chat FAAAQ
« Reply #17 on: June 25, 2015, 02:29:03 PM »
Then my question. It's more one for the future. There is talk of "flying" being added at some point.
What about the other (basic) travelpowers like Superjump (my personal favorite), Superspeed and Teleportation?
Is there a possibility that they can be added too?

Yes, yes, yes, and probably. All of the major ones are on the radar at to do once. Teleport was my favorite so I'd like to see it as well, but that one is more complicated than just tweaking some movement variables.

Will we be able to do pop menus for zones and emotes (like Icon I guess)?

Yes, though you'll need to use new ones since the commands in Paragon Chat are different from Icon.

Can we save bind load files, if I got the name right? I could be fuzzy here, but I seem to remember doing these for RP things like costume change emotes with sayings and such.

Yes, that functionality is part of the client and should work fine. There is currently a bug we're trying to get fixed before release where keybinds reset to default every time you zone, but you could work around it by re-loading the file.

I saw you mention single point travel working, does that mean Trams are not running?

Correct, any of them that would pop up a destination menu do not work yet.

Will there be a "friends" functionality for knowing where your friends are located?

Yes, and it's fully integrated into XMPP. So if you log in using Pidgin or a regular chat client, you'll see all if your in-game friends on your Buddy List.

In the global friends list you'll see either what zone they're in if they are logged in using Paragon Chat, or simply "XMPP" if they are using another chat client and have no in-game presence, but can still be reached by text.

And/or an ability to instantly teleport next to them?

No, but that's an interesting idea...

Codewalker

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Re: Paragon Chat FAAAQ
« Reply #18 on: June 25, 2015, 02:31:53 PM »
When the game does come back, I for one will be voting for a new statue to be placed in a zone for the creators of Paragon Chat  ;)

Simply having the full game back for everybody would be enough for me, I don't want anything like that. But I appreciate the thought.

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Re: Paragon Chat FAAAQ
« Reply #19 on: June 25, 2015, 02:55:47 PM »
Can I help with that?

If you have an HTTP server with space to spare, please contact me to mirror the game files in it. Based on the early response we got, we will definitely need them.

No HTTP server, but if you create a torrent, I'm happy to seed.