Arctic_Princess

I shan't go into details. Needless to say I'd quite like to use the button but can't find it.

Any help will be appreciated.

Manny arrived at the scene on her 'bike, her goggles on to prevent bugs flying into her eyes. The old thing puttered and belched a cloud of smoke as she idled by the boardwalk.

She got off the contraption, waving away smoke and trying to disentangle the goggles which had caught up in her long, pepperpot hair.

Then the wave of psychic energy washed over her and she fell back, pinned to the floor in an awkward position for several minutes. She heard the glass from the goggles break and, when she was able to move finally, she noticed the cuts on her hand.

The World was swimming, she was hurt and she hadn't even reached the source of the disturbance. I'm getting far too old for this.

Manny made her way unsteadily to the beach, her vision still blurry and she groped for a handrail as she descended the steps to the sand.

Hmmm...something's definitely out of kilter here. Although her outward senses were distorted she could still feel something in the fabric of nature deep within her bones. It was an ancient kind of magic and one which she had come to cherish, despite the problems it had brought her over the years.

Manny reached the beach proper and looked at the assembled costumed individuals who were doing their best to protect the civilians caught up in the event. She didn't recognise any of them but this was becoming a much more frequent occurrence nowadays.

Well now... I may as well make myself known to everyone. And if there's a psychic involved it won't matter much in the manner that I do it.

Manny concentrated, finally pulling her shocked nerves into focus and the wind speed increased around her, spiralling outwards. It wasn't a particularly strong wind and it didn't need to be. She spoke into the wind and her voice carried out across the beach:

"Hello. Whirling Dervish here. Who needs assistance?"

It's big in an interdimensional/whole continent on the intertnet way, afaik.

And now some practicalities from previous suggestions:

The Diet Coke on Tap (DCoT) is welcome. However we will need two very large toilet facilities adjacent to said lounge, to counteract the sweeteners.

The chocolate fountain is also well received. However as a result (of some of the EU forum members ) I fear we'll need a method of keeping the fountain clean. And mess free. Therefore I propose the following: A giant kitchen roll dispenser; a big plastic glove dispenser; hospital-grade hand soap; showers.

And to counteract the lazy-boy chair, snacks and chocolate fountain a device or devices for burning fat. Treadmills and/or flamethrowers are my suggestion...

In the well-ventilated (if a little dusty) library in Steel Canyon's University, Manny Azeerah sat at her desk reading an old copy of Moby Dic k. Her reading would occasionally be interrupted by a student wishing to take out a book or ask for directions to the toilets. Being a librarian was a genteel job but it wasn't her only vocation.

Recently she had taken to leaving her Police Radio, cunningly hidden under a pile of papers on abstraction in art, switched on. The volume was very low but, every now and then, she would concentrate to the point of meditation and tune in to the broadcasts.

"We have a 10-80! All units to report to Talos Island. Spanky's Boardwalk is under siege from unidentified invader. Advise caution. Weather patterns changed. Psychic units req..."

Oh dear, Manny thought to herself, No one to cover for this one.

Then a somewhat roguish thought came to her...

Moments later the students in the library were forced to evacuate as the fire alarms blared.

Manny, despite her age, managed to skip impishly away from the building and hopped onto her trusty motorbike (with sidecar) and sped down the streets towards Talos.

Bonjour!

Nice to see that the US people are equally insane.

Of course, we may be able to share somewhat in the RP experience across the pond with the help of the MA.

Now where did I put my lovely picture of Cate Blanchett?!

Phew, was getting a bit worried there JD.

OT, I'm not entirely sure what 'new' sets could be introduced. I know there are always plenty in the Suggestions thread but, tbh, a lot of them could be explained by the sets we already have.

Power Proliferation seems to be the way to go on the majority of powers and with the ability to switch sides, it's arguable that we players would need to have absolutely everything available for all sides on all ATs.

I'm looking forward to the nature of the content as opposed to the quantity. If previously hinted at content types such as branching dialogue and the moral compass work then great. If we get given the new factions (Prateorians, possibly Freedom Fighters) but then nothing is updated as, apparently, the MA should be all we need, then not so great (from me).

So... when do we get more hints? We needs more to speculate on!

If GR is an expansion that requires CoH/V to play then why would we be paying extra subs? I'm assuming people are implying that the cost of the subs would increase?

E.L.I.T.E. offices, Galaxy City.

24 July 2009

ELITE Employee 1: Did you hear about that Arctic Princess incident over at Kings?

ELITE Employee 2: Yeah, one of the suits has been investigating her over claims that she's been attacking civilians. I remember her when she first arrived here. Never figured her for that kind of person.

E.E. 1: Yeah but she's y'know, not from around these parts. Maybe she really is some kind of sleeper agent...

After a hilarious yet tragic experience last night with some new players who didn't know what they were doing, and who were being exploited by so-called RL friends (who were in their 30s, inviting their friends who were level 5 and 8, to a mission which ran from 1-50 (and so didn't have auto-sk) I have come to a conclusion which has been touted many times and would seem the most obvious way of reducing a part of the powerlevelling missions which continue to clutter the MA: Remove the auto-SK feature.

That, I believe will (in part) reduce the appeal of levelling from 1-50 in the quickest time.

Another move which I strongly believe would 'help' is to promote the forums. The attitude of the people in this ill-fated/hilarious team (bar the poor lv 5 and lv 8 players) was that 1-50 is too slow (!) and that level 50 is the only real level worth having. So that's why they (badly) tried to get there as soon as possible. I think that, on the whole, if more people were on these forums then the playerbase that actually does want to team and experience content and have that all-elusive 'fun' could say hello to the new peeps and, y'know, maybe put forward the argument that actually the game is fun and sometimes getting from 1-50 in a day isn't the most economical way of using your subscription.

The team last night didn't even know how the sidekick system worked, why a level 5 'healer' won't really help out a level 34 tank in terms of recovering lost hit points and when the team wiped (apart from me and another either lucky or sensible person) cried 'We need a better team. This is rubbish.'

And to be honest I just couldn;t bring myself to impart knowledge of these systems to the team because it was all falling on deaf ears. I think I managed a 'low levels, go, create a team, experience the Hollows and Steel Canyon and Kings Row. This game doesn't take place solely in Atlas Park AE' and then left, not sure if I wanted to laugh or cry.

Then I went and did some RP in Galaxy and all was well with the World.

I'm very happy about Assault Rifle for Defenders.
Trick Arrow/Assault Rifle anyone?!

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Removed Mending Mitochondria from Devouring Earth enemy group.

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I'm glad about this. There's no real reason why they'd be available for use in the MA except as another way to create dull, farming/powerlevelling missions.

Hello, just a quick suggestion based on the 5 farms I've been invited to so far this week (despite saying clearly in search that I didn't want a part of it).

I would like to see the removal of all Hamidon-related mobs (i.e. Mitochondria, etc).

I don't see why they're in there.
They serve no purpose.

Family at 40-54 also make no sense to me. Yes there's one mission later on set in 'Family World' but that's it.

That is all.

Hello all.

Yes I'm being highly dramatic and yes, I am aware it ain't ever gonna happen.

I'm just despairing of the game right now and really wish I hadn't paid my subs up until November.

I can honestly say that people 'playing how they want to play, it's their money' is ruining my enjoyment of the game.

I've tried to create teams at varying times and am finding the numbers dwindling each time I do so.

I've put 'no farms/powerlevelling/fills' in my search and still I get invites to MA farms.

I believed there was going to be some kind of crackdown on it but there hasn't been one yet. If there's one thing worse than having to issue a threat, it's not following through on said threat.

***

So, my suggestion!

The MA is moved to Talos Island and above. And not right next to the station but somewhere difficult to get to (perhaps not Circe Island...)

Mobs are 'unlocked' by experiencing the levels at which they appear. So rather than being a level 1 and able to create a Carnie mish, that group should become available at level 30.

I know this doesn't work now that there are quite a number of 50s floating around who managed to do it in a stupidly small amount of time but if the action were actually to be taken (i.e. characters deleted, slots banned etc) then it might go some way to turning the game back to what it was in i13.

i.e. fun

Even if GR comes out and is amazing, I won't be surprised to see more 50s powerlevelled through MA and a distinct lack of teaming spirit (except through the powerlevel farms) becoming the norm.

That is all.

Ahem.

Lovely, thank you Xem.

Nothing particularly horrible has happeneed, I just had a very sad conversation with some people in the Atlas AE. I know it was only a handful of people but their attitude was that it was a shame everything had degenerated to mindless MA missions that make no sense but what could they do about it?

I suggested starting their own teams up and doing regular stuff but this fell on deaf ears a bit.

Anywho, I shall flex my rolling fingers and see where I land.

Hello Deviants.

I know that the MA/AE probably has a strong grip on Defiant too, but I was thinking about starting up on Defiant after some pretty awful encounters on Union.

I have no intention of porting characters across, rather I was hoping to start from scratch.

And I'm looking for a friendly home with a vague promise of some regular teaming!

I will be keeping my Union characters, obviously, as a considerable amount of time and effort went into them.

So, is there a home for me here on Defiant?

When's the next event?

I've just logged out after having a very saddening conversation with some people in Atlas AE.

Pre-MA I was able to organise a decent team for most missions, for the purposes of levelling.

Now 'everyone' seems to be in Atlas, doing ridiculous powerlevelling farms.

So a bit of restoration in the goodness of human nature is needed.

I've got far too many alts to mention here.

My current, most-played char is Infinity Paradox, Rad/Dark defender, level 36.

I'm all for this.

/signed

Reducing the size of the Folly makes more sense (to me), if that were possible.

I only use the place occasionally, mainly as a cheap n cheerful way of obtaining my aura. The odd mission placed almost 2 miles form the door can be a little troublesome.

Halve the area, make one half (nearest RWZ) PvP Zonal and let the smackdown commence!

There are a few elements of existing TFs which I think, after all this time, could be implemented more globally. Although I understand that historically the dev team might have shied away from using these elements to keep those TFs 'fresh', perhaps now is the time to make them more commonplace whilst they dream up alternative ways of making us think during missions.

Anyway, here are my favourite elements (WARNING - gameplay spoliers!):

[u]Terra Volta[u] (respec trial)

The bubbles required to prevent the DoT from the reactor.

The optional glowies that provide a 'heal' for the reactor.

The booby-trapped doors when trying to rescue the scientists.

The timed/random nature of the attacks in the final room.


[u]Thorn Isle[u] (respec trial) (and STF)

The clearing of the Vines in a certain amount of time


[u]Hess[u] (and now, to some extent, the ITF)

The switch that activates the robots - being able to be cut off from each other during a potentially difficult fight.

Pools of lava! And a REALLY big robot with lots of gun turrets dotted about the final chamber.

The 'Self-Destruct' timer at the end of the TF.


[u]Katie Hannon[u]

Ten Times the Victor
A map in complete darkness


Those are my favourite elements of the TFs so far. Lady Grey and the ITF, whilst more enjoyable in terms of pace because they were written later and therefore not designed to be undertaken over a number of days, are still 'hit this, then that, click here' TFs.

The weirdness of the new Reichsman TFs (specifically the Boomtown 'locate the random boss mob and defeat and then wait and defeat another one) doesn't have the same pizzazz as the ones I've mentioned. Sure, the graphics are purdy, but there wasn't really an interesting mechanism for me. Even the temp buffs in the Strike Force felt a bit lame.

***

With regards to regular missions then, there are still some missions of the older variety which have interesting facets to them. Frosty, for example, still has the 'defeat so and so to obtain a key' as do some of the late-20s-mid-30s arcs which, for some reason, pleases me.

Environmental effects (such as Frosty's ice or the Croatoa chillshadow) are also good although people are so used to them now that they know not to run headlong into battle when faced with these.

I'd quite like to see instances where there's a permanent Snow Storm in effect - rendering all travel bar teleportation useless. So, rather than flying and teleporting to the back of the map to defeat the boss that's ALWAYS there, heroes and villains will have to either battle through or find the source of the storm and get rid of it, making the task easier.

Actually, if the space staion idea ever takes off, it'd be nice to have areas where travel powers are rendered null and void and also where effects like knockback are increased. Environmental missions are, to my mind, something that could be a good thing if implemented well.

Anyway, enough random musing from me.

Telekinesis - for removal of unwanted objects/people from my path

Personal Force Field - Like Invulnerability, but without the need to remove bullets afterwards

Flight - because, well, it's just cool.