When Good Food Goes Bad

I feel dirty. I succumbed to the urge to create villains... A bunch of villains. When Curt & Vicki told me they and Jim were putting together a food-themed villain group, I had to test my creativity. Granted, I'll probably almost never play these things, but they were a hoot to make up. So far in the group, the others had made villains such as Shishka Bob, Mocha Jawa, Cereal Kill, and Salsa Verde. To this, I add:
-Bananas Flam'be: Fire/Kinetic Corruptor (ie, Blaster). I just wanted a character whose name was "Bananas."
-Baby Back: Necromancy/Poison Mastermind. He summons zombies. (He has spare ribs. "Spare ribs!" Get it?? HA!!)
-Spam-Thing: Fire/DarkArmor Brute (ie, Tanker). My attempt to produce Man-Thing made out of tastey proccessed meat product. I have to admit, he's kind of my favorite so far. ("Whatever knows indigestion burns at the Spam-Thing's touch!" ....yeah, it's a comic geek moment.)
-Salad Shooter: PlantControl/ThornyAssault Dominator (ie, Comtroller). Not real happy with how he ended up looking. Interesting to play though.
-Macho Cheese: Gun-totin', orange-wearin' Mexican hombre! AssaultRifle/ThermalRadiation Corruptor. He shoots guns.... I bore easily.
-Canned Ham: SuperStrength/EnergyAura Brute. He's a pig man in armor. He hits things.... and boy don't that get old quick.
-Psi ala'Mode: IceControl/PsionicAssault Dominator. Freeze stuff; shoot it. Lather, rinse, repeat.

That's all I've made thus far. I'm sure I'll squirt out a few more before I tire of the silliness. And then it's back to playing a serious character...... like Poultrygeist.

The Beginning of the End?

A no-win situation is barrelling my way. I was asked last night if I would take over leading my supergroup. Our current leader, and honestly, the glue that binds the group together, has answered the siren's call of World of Warcraft. He says he's not going to be around as much. While I think (in all modesty) that I'm good for a team, I'm not a good team leader. I also can't fight and type at the same time.

I really like this group... It's made me sad-slash-annoyed that they've become unfocused. I'm wondering if it wouldn't be better for everyone involved in the group if we just disbanded rather than slowly starve to death. Sure, I'd be sad. But I need a regular group to team with who I like. Whether it's this group or not, I'm going to need to find one soon.

Stop me before I Build Again!

To fill the void created by my supergroup-mates finding other things to do, I've begun making new heroes....... LOTS of new heroes. The creative proccess is still enjoyable for me, and I think I'm exploring different archtypes and power sets to see if anything jumps out at me as fun to solo. In the past week I've made:

-Ampierre (on 2 different servers): an electricity-weilding frenchman.
-Ampere: A straight electrical/power manipulating blaster.
-Houn'gan: A cool looking voodoo priest. Illusion/kinetic controller.... Seemed very voodoo-ish. I was up til 5:00am trying to come up with a better name.
-The Atomic Kennedy: Reborn on the Virtue server. And his nemesis....
-The Atomic Lenin: Mind Control/Icey Assault dominator, and only the 2nd villain I've ever made. (Still don't much enjoy playing them, but the Kennedy needed a nemesis.)
...and today...
-Poultrygeist!: Chicken-spirit from beyond the grave! A weird gravity/Storm controller who I did my best to make look like an undead chicken. It's ripe for puns and roleplaying. I'm going to have to make some binds.

More Costume Complaints

Uh oh. I'm bored. You know what that means.... Designing new characters and costumes. Every time I use the costume designer it seems to come up short of what I really want. And some of these don't really make any sense.... They just seem to be oversights.

-Tank tops and t-shirts are only available in solid colors in Paragon City. What's up with that? No patterns? No stripes? Disappointing.
-Guys with any kind of hat or mask aren't allowed to have glowing eyes. It must be some kind of union thing.
-Patterns ("flames," "lightning," etc.) can't be applied to masks.
-The "lightning" chest pattern is nicely designed. The lightning pants, glove, and boot pattern is not. They don't even match.
-There are no bandanas. Spiked collars, sure, but no bandanas.

I discover all of this while trying to make an electricity-weilding frenchman. I'll leave it to you to figure out what his name is.

Told you I was bored.

Leadership is Exhausting

Here's a radical notion... and partly because it flies against the well-entrenched system of how things work in CoH. It's never made sense to me that abilities from the Leadership pool cost Endurance. Where's the physical exertion in guiding your teammates? Still, I acknowledge that it shouldn't come free. But what does "leadership," as a concept, really cost the "leader"? My answer: Time and attention. So, how 'bout this.... Abilities from the Leadership set stop dipping into the Endurance pool. Instead, When a character with a Leadership power activates it, it slows him. His attention is split, so he he doesn't act as quickly as if he were alone. And here's a further idea that'll rub people even wronger (Bad grammar! I don't care! HA!)... Leadership slows the character the same amount no matter how many powers from the pool are activated. Leadership is leadership no matter how well you do it (ie, how many of the pool's powers you activate). By this, a couple (and especially one) power won't seem worth the "cost." But once the character crosses over to 3 Leadership powers, it begins to feel economical. ...at 4, it feels downright cheap. Yes, this encourages taking Leadership as an entire pool. Tragic, huh?

oooOOOooo! New Power Sets!

I give you the first new complete power sets that have come to mind so far. Light Blast (primary) and Light Manipulation (secondary) are sets for the Blaster archetype. They're only roughly game balanced, since I'm not sure I have enough "inside knowledge" to fine tune the properly. I'm quite pleased with them, as they seem relatively do-able and many of the powers feel fairly original. Drool appropriately.

LIGHT BLAST (primary set)

-Laser Flash: fast, low dam. blast w/ small chance of blinding.
-Concentrated Beam: medium dam. + burst into flames (additional minor dam. + continuing burning damage).
-Laser Bolt: heavy dam. slow recharge.
-Laser Beam: typical snipe.
-Magnify: (build up)
-Increase Visibility: (Aim)
-Reflect: a non-smashing source of damage is reflected back on the attacker. Attacker must be targeted for his attack to be reflected. Any other power activated by the hero before the target attacks cancels the reflection. (standard accuracy rules apply.)
-Focus the Sun: AoE. No initial damage but continuing burning damage that continually increases as long as targets are in area (until end of time duration).
-Channel the Sun: Hero projects a continuous bolt of constantly damaging laser light. Damage is continuous and extreme, but hero is incapable of performing any other actions. In addition, the hero is vulnerable to being hit and to damage (as he is when he's Resting).


LIGHT MANIPULATION (secondary set)

-Illuminate: Increases perception for heroes within AoE, and graphically illuminates the area (vs. Dark Astoria, darkened mission maps, etc)
-Bedazzle: blind foe, hold + defense debuff.
-Dancing Lights: Causes foes in AoE to stop attacking for a time.
-Sparkling Field: Causes hero to glow with blinding light. AoE around hero. Blind foes, hold + defense debuff.
-Absorb Light: Absorbs all light from the area around the hero. Most foes will wander disoriented in the darkness, some will leave the area, what few continue to attack do so at penalty.
-Double Take: Creates an illusionary duplicate of the hero. Foes will attack the duplicate half the time.
-Mirage: Creates duplicates of hero and his team. Foes will attack the duplicates half the time.
-Laser Transmission: Removes "line of sight" restrictions, allowing hero to use powers at maximum range.
-Blindness: Renders all foes in AoE incapable of attacking and unable to defend themselves.

Geek Alert!

OK, so I got bored one night... didn't feel like beatin shit up... didn't feel like running around healing a bunch of ingrates.... So I decided to see how closely I could make characters who looked like real comic book characters. Yes, I know it's against the rules to play copyrighted characters from Marvel and DC, but I just made em, took their pictures, and logged em back off again. No harm there, is there? Artistic exploration and all that? So, here's what I ended up with before I got tired of it. Some look really accurate; some.... not quite as much.








Not sure what order Blogger's going to put them in, but what you've got here is The Leader (with head as tall as I could make it), Phoenix, She-Hulk, the Thing, Captain Marvel, Daredevil, and Deathlok. Phoenix, Deathlok, and Capt. Marvel turned out particularly well.

I'm sure I'll do more of these in the future... They're an amusing time-waster.

....Rage.....Growing.....!

OK, guys, look..... Teleport Foe is infuriating and needs some tweaking if not outright bug fixing. TpF has always seemed to be a low accuracy power. But there seems to be no rhyme or reason for the apparently random "missed" and "out of range" results. Sure, misses happen... and while they're annoying as hell, them's the breaks. But getting the all too frequent "out of range" message, when the target clearly isn't, makes me want to stick a fork in somebody's eye. Now I have to wait the seemingly-interminably long time for the damn power to recharge before I can try again. And we won't even go into the 2nd or 3rd time in a row it happens! Aside from adjust the entire power, which I don't think would be out of line, a simple solution would be to shorten the recharge time. I see nothing unbalancing in it, and it would make the wait more tolerable. ...or go back to the days when failure aggroed the target. That was much better.

"So, We Meet Again!"

I don't know why I haven't thought of this sooner.. or why it couldn't be done fairly easily in game. Every hero in the comics has a Nemesis. Sure, they're always fighting the regular group of villains, but there's always that one guy ...that Lex Luthor or Green Goblin... who has dedicated himself to ruining the hero. Why couldn't heroes in Paragon City have them too? At any time after hero creation, the player should have the option to create one arch nemesis for him... designing his costume and choosing his archetype and power sets. (He doesn't get to guide the individual power selections, those are handled randomly by the game computer.) The nemesis would gain in level as the hero advances, always staying 1-3 levels ahead of the hero. Name duplication wouldn't be an issue, as no other hero is going to meet your nemesis. Sure, teaming heroes might run into nemeses with the same name as theirs, but who care? Do you think villains care if they've chosen a name for themselves that another villain already has? No! They're villains! They'll do as they please!

The hero's nemesis would show up in random missions and/or could have specific missions designed around their appearance. Probably not too often (although a "frequency of appearance" variable could be set during nemesis creation... who am I to decide how often your nemesis shows up?).

By extension of all this, super groups could also have their own SG nemesis that the group would encounter regularly. They'd just need a number of their members to coordinate their nemeses designs, choosing the same names, costumes, and powers. Further, there might be an additional effect of "supergroup mode" that causes one or more of the SG members' nemeses to "team up" against the heroes (ie, appear in the same mission) during missions where 2 or more members of the SG are teaming.

I'm excited about this idea. Hopefully Cryptic is, in fact, reading my blog.

Disposable Contacts

Couple thoughts on contacts today...

First, the short one... I think some contacts should move around their zone. Could this occasionally be inconvenient? Yes. Is it much more realistic? Oh, yes. Sorry, heroes, these guys have lives. Some should wander at random, some would have regular "hang outs." I wouldn't be surprised to find Virginia Hoffman up the road at the Paragon dance club. And I imagine Willy Starbuck wanders all over the zone, networking with everyone. You wouldn't have to chase these guys around... They'd stop when you got into perception range... but you might need to check the zone map to find out where they are currently. The balance here? Added realism vs. reliability of game play. I think this maintains that balance.

Now, the longer, more insideous one. Just who are all these guys anyway?? We pass bunches of them on the streets every day... Nobody knows all of them! "Oh, that's someone else's contact," we think. What if some of these guys weren't on the up and up? Here's the setup...

With one of the new issue releases, Cryptic introduces several new contacts. Perhaps one-shot contacts, who I'll call "Informants." This is so there's lots of new names floating around and won't look suspicious. Now, one of your regular contacts introduces you to someone new... Nothing unusual there. This contact sends you off on missions to beat up specific gangs and to retrieve assorted items of power and return them to him.... Still quite normal. Then they give you a mission that's incredibly deadly. Or you find you've been sent to an empty warehouse... Expecting more villains, when you enter, you find a short timer running, the doors locked behind you, and several bombs hidden (and I mean hidden) around the warehouse. It's a death trap! You've been set up! (Now, to avoid it being a complete hosing, there's no debt accrued for dying in these missions and the bonus for succeeding, without dying once, is really high.) When you return to your trusted contact to demand an explanation ...or kick his ass... you find he's not there any more! But there is a clue there waiting for you (perhaps some informative item or some stranger comes up to you saying they saw this guy go somewhere... it would vary depending on the situation), which leads you to a location. The big battle ensues, in which we learn the "contact" has actually been duping the hero into doing things for him to further his carreer as a villain.... or that the man the hero's been dealing with has been a doppleganger and the real contact is there, needing rescue. The villain will, of course, be using all the things the hero obtained for him, against him.

Intrigue? The unexpected? These are the things that will get players talking... And returning with renewed interest.

Ho! Ho! Ho!!

So, Rob feeds my character addiction by giving me CoV for Christmas, providing me with 4 more character slots per server (as well as access to the SG base, woohoo!)! Two slots already gone, taken up by a "test villain" and a new "public servant" for the Protector server.

Fear... The Crimson Brain!

While trying to come up with a villain to try out the CoV side of things with, the most villainous character that popped into my head first was the Red Skull. Yeah... Nazis. Can't go wrong with Nazis. The Brain is of the "Mastermind" archetype (fitting) whose primary power is henchmen (also fitting). While masterminds have various types of henchmen available to them, the Crimson Brain summons mercenaries to do his dirty work for him. Strangely (to anyone who knows me), playing the villain role online doesn't push my button at all, but I'll probably play the Brain for a change from the usual "defeat all villains" CoH missions that are becoming a grind.


Thank you for taking the Crosstown Express!

I've always thought the "taxibots" on other servers were a cool idea. Sadly, Protector has no taxibot corp, and I didn't want to step on anyone's toes by taking that name on Protector, thus Crosstown was conceived. At times when I'm waiting for the team to log on or when I feel like being in the game but don't feel like beatin' shit up, I'll play Crosstown. He'll be stationed at the Atlas Park gate in the Hollows or at the Green Line station in Steel Canyon and provide teleport service to anyone who wants a quick trip across the zone. If you'd like teleport service, just send a team invite to Crosstown.

I'm sure I'll have the other slots filled in no time. Maybe I'll port Kiln Lord over from Champion server where I've been trying him out. I have to say, when teaming, tanking is my least favorite role. But the earth/fire tankers do kick wild amounts of ass. He is a pleasure to solo. When smashing thugs, the giant stone hammer animation is very satisfying.

A Better Solution (Non-Combat Mission #1)

For a while now I've thought there should be missions (among other CoH activities) where the goal didn't require combat to achieve.... "Non-Combat missions." Not that combat wouldn't be possible or available in abundance, but missions that could be finished without beatin' everything up to achieve the goal. The catch, of course, is that the mission still has to be interesting and exciting. To that end, I present my first non-combat mission. This mission can be part of a longer story arc and would likely have a number of clue-gaining missions leading into it.

Contact: "Based on the information you've gained thus far, it sounds like the Council could activate their world-dominating super computer at any time! But its built-in defenses are so strong, that I'm not sure you could destroy it yourself. My contact in the council, Dr. Obsideon, gave me a copy of the plans he stole from the Council for a new, more powerful Battle Mech. He said everything you would need to build one would be in that same lab. Maybe if you could assemble one of the robots, it would be powerful enough to destroy the computer." Mission: Assemble prototype Mech. Destroy super computer.

The mission map is the typical high tech lab map, filled with Council goons and the "super computer" (an Archvillain). The computer (similar to the amazingly-annoying CoT portals) cranks out Zenith Mechs at regular intervals once it's encroached on, until it's defeated. Once inside the lab, the mission is similar to a "patrol" mission assigned in many outside zones. The location of each Battle Mech component is marked on the map and is situated in locations which would allow the hero to reach the item through stealth or careful movement (ie, no villains are sitting on top of them). Each must be retrieved and returned to a central lab location. Once all parts are collected here, a progress bar appears while the Mech is assembled. Then a big-ass Mech appears and heads off to attack the super computer. The Mech deals out much more damage than the hero (heroes) does. That's not to say that the hero couldn't destroy the computer by himself, but it'll take him much longer than the Mech.