Arctic_Princess

*tries to imagine the scenario*

Superflamemacguffin versus The Hellions!

SFMG and his plucky sidekick, Catgrrlerper, are busting a Hellion hideout

SFMG: Gadzooks! These Hellions are playing havoc with us, Cat!

Cat: We just need to believe in ourselves, sir!

SFMG immolates a Hellion lieutenant and suddenly becomes more powerful (i.e. 'dings to the next level')

SFMG: I feel so inspired! So much strength coursing through my veins! I feel I could escape from any restraint, my insight into our dire situation is uncanny, the righteous rage I'm feeling will surely win the day!

Cat: Well you've always been phenomenally lucky, sir. And robust to boot. Now that you've got your second wind we can push through with a resurgence to stop the Hellions and their plot to--

SFMG whips out a slightly-charred cellphone and dials a number

Cat: Sir, what are you DOING?! The Hellions! They're about to finish summoning the hell-spawned BOSS_NAME!

SFMG waves a hand dismissively at his scantily-clad-for-no-good-reason sidekick. He finishes the call then gives the woman a thumbs up

SFMG: Good news, I just called my trainer and now I can [Jump Kick] those Hellions into the next life!

Cat faceplams

End Scene

___

The trainers are not particularly far from most places. Yes, zones like Indy port can be annoying.

But I'd be up for more trainers in large zones (and hopefully a good reason as to why they're there - zone revamps anyone?) than having the option to 'call' a trainer to magically receive a new power.

Oh but do give those pesky villain brokers and detectives a cell, ja?

Why not add a lower-level Crey with Paragon Protectors as a 'hero group'?

A couple of new Hero Groups within the Rogue Isles (perhaps some 'reformed' Crusaders and Destroyer-types) wouldn't go amiss.

I thought this was going to be a thread about Warwolves and their various incarnations prior to being Warwolves suddenly becoming super-speeders every time a slow is used on them.

There are some powers which slow attack rate AND movement speed - Snow Storm is one of them, I think...

I would go with slotting a -recharge proc too, however. And isn't -recharge far more useful in PvP anyway?

Apparently, there's been something said (i.e. as far as I know it's rumour but I hope someone will pop in to this thread and provide a link to it) about a city zone that doesn't come up often on the boards being revamped.

Steel Canyon and Talos Island would fit this. And I have also envisaged Steel Canyon becoming a more neon, consumer zone than its current incarnation.

Talos Island - not sure about the Greco-Roman revamp. I get that with the heavy Warrior and Tsoo presence, it would make some sense for the place to have a more classical feel, but Talos is a hub zone and, for me at least, I'd say it was more of a beach-front zone. It's where the young, rich, and vacuous would go to hang out at the weekends and during Spring Break. Beach houses, a lower skyline with only a small number of skyscrapers towards the Skyway City exit would make sense to me in a 'real city'.

It is now in close proximity to 2 mystical zones (First Ward and Dark Astoria) and so I figure there must be some 'bleed', if not from First Ward then definitely from Dark Astoria. There already is in terms of the Banished Pantheon mask mobs appearing at night. Maybe add in some older-style abandoned houses approaching the entrance to Dark Astoria?

The place also has the Ghost Ship and now the occasional Seed of Hamidon event. For me this reiterates the need for a lower skyline. To have the ship passing overhead, as opposed to through a ton of geometry, would be much more impressive.

And finally, Talos Island is where Praetorians who become Heroes are dumped. The visual style needs to be different to that of Praetoria but certainly glossier than its current incarnation. With Atlas Park now looking like a 'park', why not add palm trees to Talos. The odd plaza is welcome but perhaps not swathes of marble with outdoor seating. Otherwise a Praetorian would think they're still in Praetoria when in fact they're on a distinctly different Primal Earth.

Oh and I just remembered - it would be a good place for a SAM (not surface to air missile...) building considering Adair and Nance are here. In fact the presence of three of the 'newer' contacts in Talos (the third being Roy Cooling) leads me to believe that it will be Talos that receives an update. Eventually.

A big con for me, in terms of using something like an AE-style medium to create an Arch Enemy, is that players in general cannot be trusted to not create an enemy that is very weak versus their character. Fire Farms and all the other types of farming exploit have shown us this.

So I think an Arch Enemy system would have to provide no extra benefit to a character other than flavour. And so, for that, you may as well just use the AE and at least get some reward for it.

I can never remember who gives out the mission (It might be Maxwell Christopher) but there's a higher-level mission to investigate the Family or somesuch nonsense.

The 'investigation' involves clicking around 40 glowies, all of which are required for mission complete.

It was clearly 'filler' content and nothing more. It's stuff like that that needs a drastic overhaul.

Some 35-39 content updates would be nice. And some 40-44, and 45-50. I sometimes just cannot face heading into the RWZ because I want to avoid the excessive travelling and 20 missions in an arc of fighting nothing but Devouring Earth Sentries (instead of hordes of Rikti...). And Cimeroran 'content' involves me travelling between Primal and the Past anyway.

I'm certainly for a redrawing of the lines as far as AE is concerned.

A 'Like' button (NOT a 'Dislike') for an optional reward for the author if you really enjoyed the arc. The Like button gives out the tickets from an 'old' 5-star.

There is no 'Dislike'.

The author gets a small (E.g. 10, for a totally arbitrary number) amount of tickets for each play through, not each play-through by a different Global. So If someone likes that arc as part of their level up, every time they play it the author gets a small bonus, but only if the arc is Completed.

That should satisfy both writers and farmers.

Now I would suggest that ratings are reset. No one loses current tickets, just that ratings are reset.

I have a DC arc so I'll let those that think I think I'm amazing have a snipe, but keep the DCs thanks very much. Dr Aeon thought my arc was good. And other people liked it too.

Tabs

• Developer's Choice Tab - for DC arcs
• Guest Author Tab - for Guest Author arcs
• Supergroup Story Tab - for SG/VG-related arcs
• Origin Story Tab - for Origin Story arcs (might appeal to those who want to write about their own Heroes/Villains, for example)
• Grind Tab (i.e. Farming Tab, but don't call it farming)
• Roleplay Tab - I'd like to think for Roleplay Arcs that they wouldn't be griefed, but some folks seem to like griefing RPers - Often to the detriment of their own play-time. People can be weird.
• 'Regular' Tab (no jokes about Diet and Regular thanks ) - for those stories that don;t quite fit into the above for whatever reason

Remove Hall of Fame as a concept. It doesn't seem to serve a purpose, apart from being a focus for griefing.

Simplify the Dialog Buttons used by an author to describe an arc (the colours denote mutually-exclusive dialog buttons):

• Intended for Solo play
• Intended for Team play
• Canon-Related
• Non Canon-Related
• T for Teen
• Universal Age Rating
• Adult Themes
• Time Challenge
• Combat Challenge

Keep the Search facilities.

That would be my ideal. The folks who want to create farm maps can. It may also highlight exploits more without necessarily coming down on farmers - i.e. all the farms are in one place - if you base any additions or developments on what those farmers can come up with in terms of exploiting the risk/reward ratio and lessening the impact, then surely that's a good thing?

People who write stories for their SG/VG can easily locate the arcs. But similarly if they've created a farm for members then chuck it in the 'Grind' tab.

With tabs, it might be easier to keep the place clean and tidy. I'm not so naive to think that resources would be made available to do that, and the idea of player-led moderation brings me out in a cold sweat.

Never implement Architect Entertainment.

Or at least limit it to a named boss encounter with regular enemies.

And if it had to be implemented again, ensure a resource for 'policing' it and a more bureaucratic way of loading arcs to the system.

History has shown us that people, as a mass group, aren't morally responsible for holding back on the 'fast levelling, drops etc etc for little or no threat '.

I hope CoH2 doesn't come to pass. It would just be CO or DCUO then. We got history right here.

I'm starting to notice the lack of Ms Bianco as a story and dialogue writer as things progress.

Remember the SAM ninjas and the outcry? And that was a year or so ago.

One of my favourite zones is Croatoa - story's good and gameplay is sensible (yes, even the Fir Bolg mission...) and my favourite writing is always Villains. For some reason it's better. Perhaps it's just a case of the devil getting the best tunes?

However, in terms of old content, go and play The Clockwork Captive or The Bonefire Plot and tell me it's a delight of story-telling and gameplay!

I joined an SG a while back and I'd like to propose maintaining the 'No XP, Double Influence' option and adding 'No Influence, Double* Prestige', and perhaps even 'No XP, No Influence, Triple* Prestige'.

* Double and Triple - I have no idea how 'overpowered' this would become. I just figured that as Bases are getting no love (that we know of) anytime soon, why not give us an option to make 'em pretty for those that want to? It would be a boon for a 'Solo' SG too.

I'd be behind this: It makes sense.

Of course Crey are old news (!) - the current 'new shiny is the only way' philosophy might preclude PPs and more of a build up to 'Hey, suddenly Crey are acting all suspicious, let's go beat em up and suffer the slings of an outrageous lawsuit' might be the sort of thing that would be written as an update in the future.

If there's ever an update to the Manticore TF, the Revenant Hero Project arc, Black Scorpion's arc, and the countless other arcs featuring everyone's favourite Evil Conglomerate, then I will do the happy dance.

Even if we could see the PPs fighting Shivans in the background (Mortal Kombat Bridge over The Pit-style) but weren't able to right-click and read all about 'em, I think that would be a neat touch.

I think the time period is Roman, hence Roman armour unlocked by doing the ITF.

As for an In Game date, I don't think there is one. I've always considered Cimerora to be our token 'Ancient' zone.

Hmm Queer Politic would be an awesome name for a toon.

In a similar but not really vein - Black ...

Plenty of existing comic book characters have the Black prefix. But does anyone use it in-game? And has anyone ever either a) had it mistaken for being racist or b) had someone suddenly start spouting KKK propaganda?

Any of the scientists standing around Black Scorpion in Grandville, followed closely by Justin Greene in Independence Port.

Sure he used to get a lot of traffic for the cape mission but he's all the way out there, powerless, in a zone full of high-level Family and Tsoo.

Can you add an Early-Warning DOOM detection system to threads, especially at the weekends?

Aw, no Wasp? I *like* Wasp. Ant Man less so but I guess if she was in it they'd have to include him.

At least Wolv3r1n3 isn't in this one. Or Spider-Man...

They're not, are they?!

Don't forget Faultline (for the Clockwork Pet), Croatoa (for the Sword and Bow temp powers), and LOTS of Safeguards, hoping you'll get the temp power side mission .

Oh and I'd be interested how you get on with the Vahzilok Plague mission if you decide to run it at the appropriate level!

This sounds like a lot of fun. Like seeing tattoos on other people, they look nice but I wouldn't necessarily want one myself. When Freedom hits and I'm tempted to roll more alts, I may venture on to Virtue and check out the toon.

Are there any other 'challenges' apart from Iron Man/Woman / Determinator builds?

Babel's Journal

My head hurts and I am resting in a hospital bed. I managed to ask someone if they would contact my teammates and instruct them to bring the journal here: I could be in for a while.

The cause of my hospitalisation is down to two things: A villain by the name of Scarlett and my own hot-headedness.

I was visiting the Talos PPD precinct near the station when I received a message from a girl calling herself Bex. Odd name and, as it turns out, odd girl: She's a Praetorian, claiming to be Resistance and for all I can tell she;s probably telling the truth. I don't like to broach the subject of mind-reading with those people - they've had enough of it on their homeworld by all accounts.

We met nearby on the hill that overlooks the station and she introduced me to some of her associates - a grim man with a tail and a Vanguard Operative who looked too much like Arachnos for my liking.

As we were talking, we became aware of somebody spying on us - it turned out to be Scarlett.

Now a few weeks ago, Liberty Force went up against her (somewhat indirectly) and Megan has some issues with her as a result. They used to be friends, I believe, or at least colleagues. The details were hazy and I didn't press further.

Scarlett was 'recruiting' innocent people to do her bidding, using some kind of magical mind control or somesuch. We won the day, at some loss to our moral wellbeing, and I believed we wouldn't see the woman responsible for some time. Until today.

Well, I don't know why I acted the way I did but I threw a punch at her, Megan arrived and we were backed up by our new Praetorian friend and her associates. Amidst the confusion, Scarlett hurled some arcane bolt at me and I fell to the ground in agony.

Apparently I screamed for some time and a 'dose' of the dimensional device was required.

And so here I am, in hospital, a veritable sitting duck. Hmm, perhaps I should request a transfer to our medical bay? Assuming there are no future floods planned...

Babel's 'NEW' Journal

Owing to an unfortunate incident whereby our living quarters have been flooded - something which does not make me at ease, considering our location - I have bought a new journal.

I doubt the old records will be salvageable by the time Crash has finished working on some kind of pressure pump. Oh well, perhaps it's for the best.

Much has happened since I've had chance to put pen to paper: My condition is being kept under control by a device fashioned by Sol and Emran. It is, apparently, an adaptation of something called a Dimensional Grounding Ray. At any rate, one touch of the device seems to do the trick whenever I am feeling 'unstable'.

Speaking of which, I managed to speak with Andrew about the whole Dominic incident. He is troubled and is holding something back, from me and the rest of the team. I am keeping a close watch on him.

And we have many new recruits and allies, too numerous to mention here. Perhaps this Crey incident will serve us well, treacherous a thought as that is. Our efforts against the corporation have so far proved fruitless. I am hoping to speak with Councilman Birch, a city councillor we managed to save from Crey's clutches. He could be a good influence on our case.

Steel Canyon could do with a cosmetic buff for sure.

Piccadilly Circus? Times Square? I'm envisaging big LCD screens, a few 'clubs' and some high-class properties in one area with a more commercial/office feel in the centre.

Boomtown and Dark Astoria, naturally, could do with an upgrade. And I agree with Perez too. Especially now Galaxy is 'gone'. An arc or two would be nice. Not sure about what exactly. Maybe the gang wars between the Hellions and Skulls?