_Avo_

I've always kept a low profile on the server and an even lower one on the forums, but I just wanted to say thanks to everyone I've met during my time in City of Heroes. Unfortunately I've decided to move on from the game and the whole MMO scene in general for a bit.

I actually made my mind up a few weeks ago as neither the game nor any of the upcoming issues have anything that holds my interest anymore, so it's time for a clean break. I've made it to the 2 year mark before my account runs out in a few weeks, so that seems like a nice round number to end the patrol on.

So while Avo Prime will disappear into the ether of the server and not return, I just want to say thanks to the citizens of Union Chat and Sal's Badgehunters. Been some good times there.

Where am I going now? Well, nowhere as it happens, as I've decided to wait for Star Trek Online as my next MMO, so perhaps I'll see you again in the future.

Cheerio all!

The other big news from NCsoft is that Richard Garriott is leaving the company for new interests - so it'll be interesting to see what happens to Tabula Rasa in the coming months.

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tabula merged their 3 EU servers into 1, now if you come on the server as new player its nice active again, active chat and lots to do.


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Where did the other 2 come from? As far as I can remember there's only ever been 1 EU server for Tabula Rasa, Centaurus, which has been there since launch. The other 3 are based in the US.

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Another thought occured to me, do you have to be lvl 30 and done the aura mission to have access to these auras?

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I believe so yes - there's no option to apply them to a new character and my PB who I never bothered doing the aura mission on can't access them either.

Bad form, bad form indeed from NCsoft - things are not looking too good for the future now. For those caught up in it, sorry to hear what's happened and I hope you guys find a new job soon.

With the rumours that Tabula Rasa might be next on the chopping block (a pity if true as it has improved somewhat) it's certainly going to raise questions about the entire product line. If Brighton wasn't safe, how long until someone high up decides our EU servers aren't worth it and we're all shipped off stateside?

I'm far more concerned about what's going to happen to the staff rather than us mind.

It seems to be the season for this sort of thing alas, as Microsoft announced they're shutting Ensemble Studios (Halo Wars) next year too.

Personally I'm still holding out hope for Super Strength being made available to scrappers at some point soon. Always wanted one of them.

Posting this one separately from the others I had yesterday just to highlight it as I suspect everyone has seen the previous thread about MMO Art. Originally when they went dark I thought, like some other folks did, that would be it, but when they re-appeared I got in touch with Kindred and he's come through with the finished piece this morning.

Really pleased with how it turned out as there's a lot of nice touches on it.

And so, here it is:

Avo Prime

I've recently taken out a few commissions to get pieces of my characters done and the first 2 are completed so it's time to put them on display.

So we'll start with Avo Prime who is my Katana/Regen scrapper.

This piece was done by an artist who goes by the nick of Juggertha on the US CoH forums and you'll find more of his work on his DeviantArt site here.

This is a digital paint piece and the character doesn't have the white face mask like they usually do. There's also 2 easter eggs in this piece, one of which I had to have pointed out by the artist. The other one was staring me in the face but I didn't put 2 and 2 together straight away.


And here's piece number 2 in the form of Ultrawave who is my Energy/Energy blaster.

It's by Doug Sturk aka SturkWurk and you'll find him and his gallery also at DA here. (He doesn't mind tackling slightly more mature stuff either so a handful of his pieces follow that approach.) This piece was done as a rendered work.

There's 2 other pieces with different artits still to come, but as they're not finished yet, I'll post them separately at a later date.

Well, at least it's a sign of a life as there's a lot of rather angry costumers out there.

I've dug about a bit in regards to something someone mentioned earlier and does indeed appear that the UK and Europe Maestro cards are different.

The UK ones are still essentially a switch card and are processed using the same system, which can lead to non-UK cards being declined here.

HSBC, First Direct, NatWest, the Royal Bank of Scotland and a few others issue Maestro, whereas Barclays, Lloyds TSB, Abbey, Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) and a number of the smaller banks like Abbey all withdrew from the system and swapped to Visa debit instead, which uses the same payment clearing system as the credit card Visa.

I worked on card referals for about a year and generally the Switch ones tended to be more akward than the Visa ones. Especially a perticular type of card issued in Scotland that was an utter pain to process.

It has been almost 2 years since I left working for one of the big banks but at the time they were switching over to the Visa system as a lot of banks started to withdraw from the Maestro/Switch system.

I've no idea how many went on to do it or if it's an ongoing thing today, but barring an oversight that's the only thing I can think of for it disappearing.

Heh, no worries.

I stuck that original post up for anyone that may have stuff outstanding with MMO Art, but this side of the pond doesn't seem to be as badly affected. I've been done up a like kipper as well as my colour piece from last year is sitting now as a detailed pencil and I've given up hope of seeing it finished. And I had to keep prodding him to even get it that far.

I actually contacted one of the other artists that in that thread last week to see if I could get a new piece done from scratch, but they've not replied either so I'm a bit weary of the whole thing now.

I spotted this over at the US forums, it's a new thread regarding the status of said company and it may be of use if anyone here is thinking of using them or has stuff outstanding with them.

US Forums - MMO Art

The jist of it is that all attempts to contact them seem to have failed and many users are sitting with nothing to show for their deposits right now. While all involved hope nothing has happened to the guy Kindred or his family, the impression seems to be that patience is in short supply and concern over money that's changed hands.

While I hope it all gets sorted out, it does seem that the reputation of the company has suffered drastically as a result.

Big grats to those that did it. Big acheivement not only for the groups, but for the server as well to have teams that can pull it off.

My only worry about this badge is if we start seeing a resurge in power setism - as a scrapper, I've a feeling me and my fellow melee cousins will be hard pushed to get on teams for it.

You might get one from Fileplanet as they did a final end stage invite last week to some people or the pre-order codes allow beta access, but you'll not get much of a chance as the beta is coming to a close this Friday with the server wipe following.

The live launch is Friday 2nd November with the pre-order head start on October 30th.

This is a bit overly generalised, but I've always viewed in terms of differences that the Warshade is a cross between a Controller/Defender, whereas the Peacebringer is more of a Blaster/Scrapper role.

I wouldn't be keen on multiple seperate powersets for the Kheldians myself, it just seems to go against what they are to me.

What I would do for alterations (on the Peacebringer front) is remove Photon Seekers completely and push Dawn Strike into that slot, then move Light Form over into the primary tree. To replace the missing slot in the secondary set, I'd give them some sort of mez protection power for human form.

That's a nice one indeed mate.

Seeing the couple of pieces from MMOART prompted me to order one when it opened again - it's a multiple character piece rather than the toon piece you've opted for so it'll not be ready for a few more weeks yet I suspect. I did get the rough draft back last weekend and I was mightly impressed as he got the pose and setting more or less exactly how I saw it in my head in one go.

If anyone's thinking of getting one, just go ahead and order it, you won't regret it.

Aye, the final fight we went through the boss like a blowtorch through butter and it was dropped in no time at all.

Was an excellent team and fun evening, I'd definitely do it again. Thanks again for those who attended and commiserations to Clau for losing out when the TF auto-kicked him during zoning.

7 is fine with me, I'll see you at Lady Grey then. The characters full name is Avo's Tear.

If you still need a pair of hands I can help out if needed, I'm a 50 Katana/Regen Scrapper. I've done the TF before and it took our team roughly 3 hours from forming the group to finish.

The task force was a success and we made excellent time as well. Congrats and thanks to everyone who attended.

1. Avo's Tear - 50 Katana/Regen Scrapper
2. Salacious - Empath or red
3. Clau
4. Gilgameesh
5. Afro Inferno
6. Coldest War
7. Buccaneer Blazer
8.

(one slot staying open for the moment just to see if things get more balanced out, apologies if you don't get picked but everyone will be kept in mind for reserve if people don't show up etc)

Apologies for the late update, just we're still looking for a empath or someone that can assist in -regen, so we should have the list finalised tomorrow morning all being well.

We're putting together another run at Statesman this coming Thursday at 9pm BST, connection issues permitting. If you're interested and can stay the distance, post below with your class and build and we'll get the team confirmed as we move through the week. If you're not confirmed for a slot you will be kept in mind for reserve.

Current team:

1. Avo's Tear - 50 Katana/Regen Scrapper
2. Salacious - 50 Tank
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