Wanted: Super Group

I think I'm coming to the end of my grieving period for my super group on Protector. They were the best, and I mean that literally. But, like a carelessly-stacked Jenga tower, once a couple key pieces were removed, the whole thing came tumbling down. From here we went to my forming my own group, which lasted all of 5 minutes, mainly because all our schedules were incompatible. I was psyched about it, but I recognize why it failed.

So here I am back at square one. I'm getting really tired of soloing, and I refuse to lower myself to joining pickup groups (which I consider akin to picking up a hooker in Brazil.... chances are you're going to regret it and you'll be left with some lasting scars that only 15cc's of penicilin are going to wash out of you). I want .....nay, need.... a suitable super group to throw in with. I don't plan to change my play style or schedule and, without sounding like a prima-donna, I don't think I should have to. There's so many groups packed into those 11 servers that surely there's one taylored to my personal wants. So here it is. Let me lay out my ideal super group for you. If anyone out there who stumbles across this knows of the perfect group for me, for the love of God, shoot a flaming arrow my way!

1. I'd like to be a part of a group that I can contribute to but who won't feel a loss if I'm not around for several days. My schedule is spuratic at best. Sometimes I'll put in a couple hours, several nights in a row, and sometimes it's 3 or 4 days between logons. It just depends on my mood and workload. This would mean a fairly large group, many of whom are on at all hours of the day and night and who'd welcome my participation when I can be on.
2. I need a moderately mature, fun loving bunch who aren't a bunch of competative nimrods who're only interested in how fast they can get to the next level (or worse, how fast I can get to the next level).
3. Similarly, I think I'd enjoy some light roleplaying. I don't want to spend my nights pounding out angst-ridden prose while standing under the statue of Atlas instead of going on missions, but it'd be nice to have a group who'd appreciate the character bits, that many of my toons lend themselves to, during missions.
4. I got no intention of saddling any of my current characters with a group "uniform." I spend a lot of time on character concept, and part of that is the look. About all I'm willing to do in that department is shift to some team colors, if possible, whenever I'm running with the group. On the other hand, I might not mind creating a character from scratch to fit in with a group's theme if it's a cool one. There's a lot of themed groups out there.... Some are even pretty cool.
5. I've got characters spread all across City of Heroes. Server is no object.
6. I'm here to play the game, not beat the game. If your first reaction was "what's the difference," move on.

What I bring to the table:Honestly, I think I'm an asset to a group.
• I'm a careful player with good instincts and the wellbeing of my team always foremost in mind. (I think the abreviated form of that sentence is, "I'm not reckless.")
• I have a good sense of humor (as illustrated by most of my character concepts), but I can play seriously even amidst my own personal silliness and merry-making.
• I know my play style and I'm good with my toons. While I'm capable of team-tanking, I'm not particularly good at it. I'm better as a scrapper. Where I perform best is in a supporting role such as with a blaster, controller, or defender. (This is all a little relative though, since I build characters by concept first and foremost, not based on what my role in the team is going to be.)
• I'm an artist and graphic designer by trade. What's that have to do with anything? I'm good at base design and decorating. I've also helped put together group web sites in the past and cranked out pretty sweet graphics for the team. (Logo for my last super group. And for my own ill-fated 1920's themed group.)
• I've been outside the walls of Paragon City and have photographic proof of what's out there.

As the saying goes, "If interested, please send tell."

[yaaawn] ...Fire & Ice...

I finally let something gel in my mind that's kind of been haunting me for quite a while. In all my mass of characters, I really don't have many fire or ice users. I've decided the reason for this is that they're just too easy, conceptually, and hence, too boring. Solar-Man! Captain Frost! ....Please. This leaves me in a bit of a quandary. From the standpoint of player curiosity, I'd like to explore the power sets; but from a character creation standpoint, I can't bring myself to make a boring toon. So I'm faced with trying to come up with something innovative that isn't "just another fire/ice character."

Stay tuned.

MyTunes

I think music in CoH isn't living up to its potential. You drop the boombox and you get a goodly number of musical genres to choose from. The music is in what's called MIDI form (it's all electronically produced), which isn't particularly jam-worthy in a long term sense, and only plays when you're standing around to drop the box. With the hero "radio" looming on the horizon, it would be nice if we could tune in assorted "radio stations" as well as the police band. That way we could have music to fight by. Further, it'd be nice if you could flick a switch in your options window to substitute your own MP3 library on your computer for the chirpy MIDI tunes. No one else would hear the MP3s but you, of course, but it'd sound groovier than the CoH tunes. As a tweak, I'd also suggest the zone music be disabled when the radio's playing.

I'd like to take this suggestion one step further. There's a very old bit of IRC (internet chat) programming that I'd think would be fairly easy to impliment in CoH. It allows you to activate MP3 files on your computer through a command sent to the chat window. The further groovy bit is that if the people you're chatting with have the same MP3 file in their computer library, the command activates it for them as well. ...As close to shared music as you can get on the internet without everyone going to Live365 at the same time.

KA-SMASH!!

Man, what I wouldn't give to smack someone with a car.

With CoH slowly moving into the realm of environment interactivity, this may not be too far down the road, and I couldn't be more thrilled by the idea. With this dream fresh in my mind, I'd like to propose a radical change to the Super Strength power set. A half dozen "powers" which all basically translate to "punch" is incredibly boring. I'd love to see "Improvised Weapon" (ie, grabbin' something and smackin' someone with it) dropped in in place of Knockout Blow or Hand Clap. (No one ever liked Hand Clap anyway.) And "Improvised Projectile" in place of Hurl (and maybe bump it down a little on the "available at level X" hierarchy.... I mean, c'mon guys...).

This way, the hero can now grab some nearby piece of scenery and bash some bozo's brains out with it.... or knock some nitwit out of the air. Sure, it leaves him at the mercy of his environment to provide something to use, but there's almost always something around to grab. I would also strongly encourage some built in variation on damage based on the type of item used. Who knows... it might even lead to using heroes and villains as projectiles.

I Know You're Listening....

I'd like to say hello to my secret friends out there at Cryptic. Once again a feature in an upcoming Issue sounds suspiciously like something I've suggested here. I will, of course, be happy to take full credit for the idea. Stop by any time, guys... I'm just filled with helpful suggestions! (...among other things...)

Flash back to last year, about this time...
Me: "... what if the heroes of Paragon City united to take back these [hazzard zone] neighborhoods? What if they could be reopened to the "public"? That would be a heroic accomplishment." (My full post can be found here.)

Now look at the press release for the upcoming Issue 8...
Them: "Faultline Reborn (Heroes only) Faultline transforms from a hazard zone to a city zone! Paragon City's Measure X has passed, reconstruction of Faultline has begun, and the effort has revealed some major surprises."

Sound similar? Yes. Coincidence? I think not!

Seriously, guys.... I'm unable to move to sunny California, but I'd be happy to work from here. My mailbox is always open.