Ammon

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  1. Quote:
    Originally Posted by FloatingFatMan View Post
    Ammon, quit being a jerk and telling people how they play their characters. If you don't like how they're interpreting Incarnate, DON'T RP WITH THEM.

    It's none of your business how people do things, so take your unwelcome god modding elsewhere.
    LOL

    Okay, to paraphrase, Fatty, its none of your business how people do things, so take your unwelcome telling me what to do and what I may discuss elsewhere.

    Quit telling me what I may suggest. If you don't like what I'm suggesting, don't do it, and don't debate with me. God knows I didn't ask you to.

    And please, while Ellie exists, never call other people god-modders.
  2. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha View Post
    And I call utter BS on that one. 'You has to have the Magic Swordchucks of +3 to do this' excuse it the worst excuse for anything in the world ever.
    Now that is one hell of a twist of what was never said.

    All along I've said define for yourself what your equivalent of the Well is. Define for yourself your 'outside influence' that lets you surpass the cap of what mortals can attain.

    No comparison then to saying it must be some very precise and exact device.

    Just don't make it something naff and incredulous that shatters reality for others.

    Your 'Well' may be a team off-screen, finding some fancy unknown technology that you can backwards engineer, a super-intelligence contacting you, a whole load of new resources made available, orwhatever you like that takes you beyond what one mortal hero/villain can be. Whatever works and doesn't screw others.


    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha View Post
    Ok, so your a level 50 Hero? I'll bring a really big plasma rifle, then. Oh, and six other robots, carrying even bigger guns and missiles racks.
    Whats that? Your an Incarnate now? With more powers and more resilence?
    Fine. I'll bring an even BIGGER gun! And so will my minions! And some more high tech counter-measures as backup.
    So, you're level 50, going on a mission such as the Lady Grey TF, and are taking the biggest possible guns. Cool. As a level 50, you may even be so darn awesome that your martial arts moves are more deadly than the biggest plasma gun around.

    Now explain how you go beyond that biggest gun possible to carry (orbital gun is fine, as said). Or how you carry more armour than was possible to you as a level 50 (unseen drones with field projectors? Sure). Or explain how your bigger gun makes someone more dead than a pinpoint accurate shot, through the eye and into the brain, with a needle-gun.

    Heck, even don't explain at all and let each observer make up their own mythos for it. That's cool too.

    The point is that in game lore, Level 50 is as high as you can get without that something (whatever you make it) that is beyond yourself. Its the point at which you have the biggest gun, the deadliest aim, the most defence possible for anyone but someone on the road to an Incarnate (whatever that may be, in your mind and others).

    Sure, people can fudge with that, just be careful. And don't whinge if it goes wrong. And if it does go wrong, remember that it impacts other players who pay their subs too.

    If your character is Desperate Dan, and he goes 'Incarnate' by discovering a recipe for cow-pie, created by great-grandma, and thought lost decades ago, well, that works in a Desperate Dan world. It may be fun and brilliant. Just don't intrude that character forcefully on people in a CoX world without their consent.
  3. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dr_Mechano View Post
    That's just it though, the Alpha slot is basically the same game equivilent as an SO applied to all your powers (33%) in the long run the Alpha slot is the easiest to handwave away as having nothing to do with being an Incarnate becuase it is nothing obvious, there is no real obvious indication EVEN IN COMBAT that you are an Incarnate.
    Mechano, this is precisely my point. This is NOT level 51. There is a serious reason that the Devs didn't just raise the level cap by 10 levels and have it unlock special powers and slots and not regular powers and slots. Right now, none of us may know what that reason is, but it has been stated. There is no raising of the level cap, only a special source to new Incarnate powers. Treating Incarnate levels as just another level is going to cause a clash between your reality and consensual reality.

    The game lore is that level 50 is as super powered as anyone can get without some outside effect, called The Well of The Furies. Level 50 is where you can get to with super-scopes, training etc.

    Sure, we can (and certainly will) fudge ways around this. And pray to heck that the next slot doesn't contradict our fudge, forcing not only us to a complete retcon for the character concerned, but also everyone that character convinced. Substitute the Well of the Furies for whatever external source of godlike powers works for you. Just make sure that your explanation will explain god-like powers.

    Does anyone seriously imagine that future content won't be discovering more about what the Well actually is? Important too, because right now the game doesn't actually tell us what the Well is. Only that there is apparently some kind of intelligence to it.

    The less far we stretch our 'bending' of the game cannon, the less chance of breaking. But that level 50 is as high as a hero can go without extradimensional, paranormal, supernatural, or whatever outside influence is Canon.

    Some people will break that Canon, just as people always will, and for me, those will be the persons who are Incarnate without knowing it. Prevents me having to retcon for someone else's wish to be a special snowflake.

    I'm all for people applying creativity. I'm really looking forward to some of the explanations people find for precisely where these new levels of power are coming from.

    Techbot's answer is brilliant. His 'outside influence' is an offscreen army of high tech, scientists, computers, satelites, etc. Love it. It works perfectly, because we already know that groups of people can gang up on Incarnates to take them down even when the individuals are not incarnates. Tech is giving himself an off-screen team, pumping him with resources.

    Of course, when some other RPer detects and destroys his satelite (Superman vs killsat is always going to end badly for the Satelite) and demands he unslot the power for at least a month while he builds a new Death Star, there may be tears, but it also adds exciting new RP opportunities.

    Mind you, some may wonder exactly how NASA reacts to this orbiting killsat, which no matter what sort of cloaking it has is going to become visible the first time it fires by schoolboy telemetry... Well, that's up to Tech to find a reasonable explanation, and I trust he'll manage it.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dr_Mechano View Post
    They don't really give enough details as to be clear just how the damn thing works plus I'd rather not have my character linked to some rather stupid 'mystical power of the multiverse'
    The reason for the lack of details is because its a plot. Duh! What is the Well? That's what I'm sure we'll be discovering? Why is it acting as it is? That too, impatient grasshopper. Who say's it is mystical beyond the part of mystical that is related to the word mysterious: unknown.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dr_Mechano View Post
    why they couldn't have simply left it as a 'congradulations you've done something awesome, you've unlocked the Incarnate slot' like it was in GR Beta I don't know
    Because they can spell 'congratulations'? No seriously, I'll tell you, along with Zortel in reply to:
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Zortel View Post
    You know what? I kind of wish that the Alpha Slot was in it's i18 version now, where you unlocked it by either doing a high end task force, paying with reward merits, paying with an alignment merit, or paying with vanguard merits.
    In case you missed it, there was never, ever, ever, any plan not to have a story behind the Well and Incarnate powers.

    The Alpha Slot was unlocked by alternate means as a pure fudge for the BETA of i18 so that it would not spoil the plot. It was never, ever intended to go live unlocked by buying it. They were simply eager to let us play with it and see what we thought of the possibilities.

    It was this divourcing of the slot from its content that the devs apologised for and admitted was a mistake, and thus held back until the plot was ready and had been adjusted for existing feedback.

    Read the dev posts and see for yourself what is actually said.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha View Post
    Because last time I checked, *I* was the one paying my damn sub, not anyone else.
    *Applauds*
    And I pay mine. Don't break my reality if it can be avoided and we all get along. That's all I'm saying.

    Be creative. (And creativity is usually at its finest when constrained by a medium or set of rules rather than totally free and uncontrolled)

    Find whatever works for you.

    Make sure you take reasonable care that it doesn't screw everyone else who might actually follow canon.

    Be prepared for IC reactions to the explanation you choose if it is ... lets say incredulous.

    Be prepared for possible OOC reactions, even to /ignore if it does break immersion for others.

    Simples!
  4. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dante View Post
    The only thing we need to be aware of is that the Well is now entering current game lore and so people will talk about it, just as conversations turned to Praetoria when Going Rogue launched. Whether people seek the Well IC or just find new ways to explore their powers (as I've already said I will be) is entirely up to them. Whether they're Incarnate or not is about as important as what the Origin above their head says.
    This.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Shadowe View Post
    Every single argument, on both sides of the divide, can be boiled down to one simple (hah!) factor:

    Cause and Effect.

    As Roleplayers, we constantly strive for individuality in our toons, and we effectively demand the right to define our own "Cause". The "Effect" is best written as "whatever the game mechanics say happens".

    This happens with Origins, which are sufficiently broad that we can usually fudge one of the five "Causes" into the "Effect" of our powers.

    The discussion here is essentially "do all characters that take advantage of the Incarnate System have to be empowered by The Well in character?"

    The answer to that question, in the interests of the freedom of expression that RPers strive for, has to be a resounding "NO".
    Utterly agree. But the effect that your cause must apply to is still the whole point. You've become more than the greatest non-Incarnates have ever been able to become. Pick any cause you like, but if you tell me you are still a 'street level hero', or as Mechano suggests, managed to get all the way to level 50, the supreme super-hero without learning that gun-sights exist, frankly it is reality breaking, and you aren't going to fit in other people's game realities at all well.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Wolfram View Post
    Upgrading your character is fine and you can explain it however you like, but if you're going to make a character who can solo Rularuu and want to acknowledge that IC, you have to be able to say how and why. And as the Incarnate system progresses, I have a feeling we'll end up facing challenges that only an Incarnate can handle.
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Shadowe View Post
    The means by which an individual character is (or is not) empowered by The Well is very much up to the individual player. The only thing that I think is required is that every player accepts what the Lore regarding Incarnates now says. This does not mean that every character must believe it, of course, but players need to agree that if someone says "I am an Incarnate", then that someone is receiving some form of empowerment from an as-yet poorly defined intelligence known as The Well of the Furies.

    It becomes important as we move forward and characters who have unlocked Incarnatedom become more and more powerful - the levels of power that Incarnates are able to achieve are supposed to exceed those that any non-Incarnate is capable of, in the Paragon Universe. So someone with a toon who has Omega Incarnate powers slotted up to the gills will either have an incredibly good explanation for their utterly non-Incarnate character (and I have to admit, it would have to be a doozy, OOC), or they will admit to being an Incarnate, or they will be an incarnate but the character might not know it.
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Wolfram View Post
    Everything we know (ok, everything I know :P) tells us that Incarnates are a step above everyone else, as much IC and OOC. A non-Incarnate character equalling or bettering Incarnates... I'm not going to say it's impossible, but we're talking an extreme level of power. At that point, I'd be inclined to go with Ammon and say the character has become Incarnate unwittingly.
    The Well does exist, and in the reality in which any character in the CoX universe exists, all around them are going to be people using it. Just like I was saying earlier about the adoption of the Internet.

    I'm not quite sure why so many of you have characters that when the Internet was made available to all would refuse to use it and then seek to invent some other weird path to being able to look up information and send emails. Performing long-mind-melds because they are a naturalist who dislike's technology perhaps, or using arcane scrying spells and crystal balls to get the exact same effect as browsing the internet (including misinformation) without having to use that nasty technology stuff. Just seems a bit ... unnecessary and weird.

    What I'm saying is that we are playing characters in a world with certain realities in the daily lives of our characters. That magic exists and is potent is so blatantly obvious that it can't have been ignored. It is as much a fact of life as the existence Satelite Television is to us. Why then are your character not equally accepting and blase about it?

    Teleporters completely disassemble your body, turn it into some kind of broadcastable EMR, zap it off around the universe, and completely reassemble it, all in an instant... but your characters worry about touching magic?

    You may be called upon to battle the Rikti, Behemoth Overlords, Adamastor, and eventually Rularu, but you have trouble accepting greater otherworldly entities?

    Its just ... odd.

    Now, if you were the player of a tech-based villain, saying that you refuse to accept the Well as some mythic magical god, but instead, you believe it to be some connection to your own far-future god-like self, Where your technology has become so advanced that you are indeed god-like, well now, that fits, works and is a pretty neat and tidy explanation.

    The Well is a connection to some entity (whether you use the Well or not). Game fact. But what your character believes that entity to be ... Rularu's really nice cuddly but more powerful big brother, an ultra-advanced alien race, Skynet of the far future where a single AI has encompassed all recorded and recordable knowledge ... That all works fine. As does picking up items that allow you to compete with Incarnates.

    Quote:
    Incarnatedom is undetectable IC.
    Yes, because that is the Cause part of the power - the game mechanic. But what your character then does is the Effect part. And going toe to toe and keeping pace with an Incarnate would be notable. Whether those Incarnates are foes or allies.

    What is notable, is detectable, obviously. So if IC you are not an Incarnate, then you are going to need a really good Cause/Reason for being able to compete head to head with those who are. Orbital space stations and an off-screen army of robots and personell? Yeah, fine. You just worked out what a gun sight is? No way. Seriously, Mechano?!? To have gotten to level 50 you are super-human, and can aim as accurately without a sight as with one. Unless it is a new advanced sight linked to ultra-technology so advanced that it might as well be powered by the Well.

    Of course, there is an easy way to avoid even the ultimate Incarnate level powers from being detectable or noticeable:

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by I, myself;
    Of course, those who are happy to solo, and are not going to boast of doing whatever mission or task can only be done by Incarnates will be fine. Whatever doesn't break reality for others is always fine.
  5. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dr_Mechano View Post
    That's the thing though...one of the Incarnate Alpha slot powers boosts accuracy, if you are determined to keep that natural human who uses guns involved in atleast the Alpha slot Incarnate the bonus can easily be explained away as the addition of a scope on a non-scoped gun or you tweaked the iron sights you only just noticed were slightly off, improving the rifiling on the barrel or a couple of other things.
    Unwittingly having used a material to make the scope that is in some manner connected to the Well, or is a shard, etc.


    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dr_Mechano View Post
    More damage could just mean that you are now using better, more powerful, rounds in your gun or you've added a Diamond/Impervium edge to your sword.
    Or have unwittingly somehow added the influence of the Well of Furies to the weapon. Or even that the character thinks its the mods to the weapon doing it, but in actuality, the power of the Well has reached out and given them godlike accuracy to hit more vital spots consistently.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dr_Mechano View Post
    Just because the Incarnate slot screams 'Magical god power' doesn't mean it HAS to be taken as that.
    I think that shows an innate tendancy to equate God with Magic. But nowhere has God ever declared to mankind that he is a wizard. God may be technology based just as easily, especially what with him being Omniscient and all-knowing. Sure sounds like a super scientist or technologist as it would have been described by our superstitious ancestors. But then again, God simply is, therefore God is a Natural Origin - what he is is entirely Natural for God to be.

    We do know, in Cannon, that certain greater beings exist. Greater than Statesman and Recluse. Hequat. Ermeeth. Lughbu. These were always written in cannon as god-like spirits. Able to create races of people, and to crush continents if that is what Atlantis was, (and at least very large Islands if not).

    Rularu is also certainly indicated to be stronger than Recluse or Statesman, and somewhat godlike. His followers don't use magic. Instead we see natural powers (presuming the powesrs of the giant floating eyes to be natural to giant floating eyes, of course). Psionics, and extreme natural forms. Mutants maybe, or perhaps Rularu is actually a science type, having mutated his races to serve through applied science.

    Anyone seeing the Well as magical may need to realise that that is possibly their own inner bias and misconception. The Well itself might be any origin, or none, or all.
  6. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Wolfram View Post
    ... both players decide they want to use the incarnate system. But whereas Billy is becoming an incarnate IC, Jimmy isn't; he's just training more intensely. At the end of the day, the two characters are still equal... even though Billy is now empowered by the Well of the Furies and Jimmy is just better-trained.

    Is it then fair to demand that Billy's player find a way to make Billy more powerful than Jimmy, to justify the Billy's status as a true Incarnate? Or in this case, is Jimmy's player at fault for "misusing" the incarnate system? Or, are we going to establish that the much-vaunted power of the Incarnates is nothing more than can be achieved through extra training or a technology upgrade?
    I'm planning to go with a third option.

    Remember what I was saying before about for me, the Well is simply one channel or link to something else, a greater power, quite literally? Basically a god-like entity that can imbue others with god-like powers.

    For me, Billy would be making direct efforts to contact and use the power of this greater entity, turning himself Incarnate. Jimmy would be getting it bestowed upon him without his knowledge. A double-edged gift from a god-like entity that he may not even notice or recognize as anything beyond his own training.

    I think this setles comfortably into the mechanics without breaking anything for anyone. I don't even need Jimmy's player to agree with me, because it can all be without his knowing.

    There is still going to be a need to choose at some point, though. Incarnate powers are pretty certain to offer some powers that are not possible in the game outside of being Incarnate. The level boost thingy for one very simple and immediate example. Someone who is adamant that their character is not an Incarnate, not even as an unasked for Gift they had no choice over, is probably going to have to steer clear of some boosts and abilities, or be in absolute argument with cannon. You can be absolutely certain that some of the new Incarnate content is going to make absolutely clear that only one with God-like powers can attain this.

    Of course, those who are happy to solo, and are not going to boast of doing whatever mission or task can only be done by Incarnates will be fine. Whatever doesn't break reality for others is always fine.
  7. Quote:
    Originally Posted by CactusBrawler View Post
    Maybe it's odd of me but I expect people who claim IC to ***** slap Recluse, or one hit take down a giant monster to be able to prove it. Of course they so often can't.
    I'm in agreement with yourself and Dante on this. Okay, not necessarily in the Arena, but it should be a power-level they can reflect in-game.

    However, Dante and I along with other members of The Militia do rather enjoy a good IC Arena session when we can find the time and reason. Sometimes as IC Training sessions, occassionally as set-piece face-offs that conclude an in-game or forum-based RP plot. Overpowered characters just would not fit with that activity at all. A thing sadly proven a time or two.

    Oddly enough, (or perhaps predictably), it is so often the uber-powered characters that are the ones who continually faceplant on TFs and the like, completely ruining any suspension of disbelief about their claimed power as the far more modestly powered characters actually carry the day while continually saving the supposedly powerful character.

    Of course, there are characters who are incredibly powerful who have good reason why this doesn't reflect in the Arena or in Missions.

    My ancient mage, Powerstone, for example can do a lot more magics than the game allow, and that the realities of a combat situation would allow. In missions and in fights, he cannot use Ritual Magic and Ceremonial Magic, of course, as he doesn't have the luxury of days of time to chant, craft materials, and perform complex alchemy. Dante's most powerful character is similarly a Mage, and has similar limitations.

    I would say that much of the same limitation would apply to tech-based characters, who in the luxury of their own labs and workshops could create all sorts of marvels that could not possibly be carried into missions.

    The things that one can do under pressure, with little equipment, are not a sign of what one can actually do given time and resources. The world's greatest Engineer is not able to manufacture a large steel bridge to hit an opponent with in the jostle of an unexpected bar-fight. But he could certainly build one under reasonable working conditions, given access to the tools and materials needed.

    I guess it comes simply down to choosing ones powers and abilities beyond the engine in a way that will naturally reflect the powerlevels you will have within it. Being immortal is fine, as the game engine works that way. Being invulnerable at all times really isn't, as the game is also built to do damage your character. Being able to tear through any metal like it was paper is also perhaps silly, if other players are going to have to help you take down vault doors, or break out of cell doors.
  8. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Omega_Chief View Post
    It's just that all this incarnate stuff is rubbing me a bit the wrong way, it comes out and all of a sudden everyones characer are going on simultanious uests or whatever to gain power.

    Whats wrong with the IC power level we had before? I just don't get why everyones suddenly decided to make all thier characters that much more powerful...
    When a path opens, pioneers and adventurers rush to take it. That's what marks them as pioneers and adventurers. In most cases, especially if the new path proves worthwhile, everyone else will follow.

    Humanity has survived untold millennia without needing the Internet. Why did almost everyone suddenly decide, over the course of just one generation, to make their entertainment, drive for knowledge, or ability to communicate so much more powerful? Because they suddenly could.

    Looked at another way, most of my characters will remain at the same (relative) level of power - the highest possible. The furthermost development the game allows me to reach.
  9. The first character I'll be taking to Incarnate levels actually could use the arc exactly as is. But of course, that may be because he sees the Well as being more than a stone shaft around a borehole that you draw water from. For him (and me too as a player for the moment) there is a Sentient power beyond our dimension, outside of our world. A source of power that has created 'Gods' in the past, and may do so again.

    The Well may perhaps be described as the reality beyond our reality. It may turn out to be the true Creator of all, but is more likely just a step closer to that Creator than anything in our reality ever comes. The Well is simply one method to contact and channel power from a powerful, otherworldly entity.

    The first Character who I'll be making Incarnate IC is my ancient mage, Powerstone. Already well aware of forces and entities beyond the strictly mortal realm, and incredibly familiar with the realities (of game cannon) that all Magic origin heroes were supposed to be descendants of Mu, fragments of leftovers from a war between godlike entities.

    His personal mission has always been to attempt to prevent too much of this sort of 'Gods using our world as a chessboard' thing. Knowing that he cannot do a thing directly (since man versus God really doesn't go well, even when the man is a master of the Arcane arts), his mission has always been to deflect, to keep interference minimal, and allow no single side to triumph to the stage of 'owning' our realm completely and unchallenged.

    The Well is a source of power that potentially allows mankind to evolve into greater power. Potentially, to become more than mortal, and able to challenge those meddling ancient spirits that play with our world as though all of us were but toys in a game. The Well is a telephone cable. It can be used directly to transfer power, to communicate, or it can be used subtly and carefully, tapping the line and learning the secrets of the reality beyond reality.
  10. Pious has been attempting to negotiate a peace, or at least a cessation of hostlities for weeks and weeks. That his efforts continue is hardly therefore a major twist in the plot.

    Pious had doubts that the Countess was responsible for the St. John's massacre, and made his way to Castle Bathory to try once again to extend a hand in peace. He got a rough reception, but nontheless was received and heard.

    That he and his companion lived to walk away from the Castle was largely as a token of good faith to show that the Countess was not responsible for St. John's, but also because the ongoing war was not to the benefit of either side. All that "Open Season" was really acheiving was to weaken both sides, divert their attentions from their true goals, and allowing little upstarts to profit at the expense of both sides.

    In the end, a cease-fire, not a peace, was agreed. The cease-fire officially began at 9am the following morning (leaving many hours for word to be spread that all bounties were cancelled). Whever PCs may have heard of the bounties, they will certainly hear fast that they are now off. Word travels fast, and especially when it is momentous and threatening.

    Before that 9am official cease-fire deadline, word will have been thoroughly circulated that 'Open Season' is suspended and that no forther bounties will be paid. Furthermore, anyone attempting to continue or rekindle hostilities will be treated as an enemy of both sides.
  11. Sheeeeeesh!

    Guys, its a game.

    It is a game designed so that someone starting a level 1 character today can experience all the plots and stories available. The mysteries they will solve have never before been solved by them, the villains they are sent to defeat haven't just been defeated by 35 other teams already that day from their perspective.

    Conversely, someone who has been playing for years and has personally uncovered who and what the Rikti are, has personally defeated the Riktified Hero 1, and has done all the other major arcs is kind of in a different timeline. Those things have happened in the past if those things have happened in that character's past.

    The whole game is an instanced narrative. There's no rocket science to that.

    As to roleplay, where one character who is 'new' to the content is meeting another that is old and it has all happened, well, you sort it out between yourselves as RPers. There is no right and wrong, only the agreement you come to over which timeline you use - the high character's where all the plots have been uncovered, or the newer character's where they haven't.

    If you can't reach an agreement, then its a moot point because the fictional pretendy fun-time game characters don't exist in the same timeline. Perhaps Pocket D touches upon more dimensions than you'd assumed?
  12. Quote:
    Originally Posted by synthozoic View Post
    I'm cool with that. I'm really just search for an excuse to explain why such a group with those entrance requirements would form. If you kind folks could think of some good ones, I'll go with your ideas instead. I'm totally open to suggestions.

    This is a brainstorming thread.
    Maintenance costs.

    Even the classic multi-millionaire hero struggles to fund the kind of regular maintenance in extremely exotic (if not utterly custom built) materials and components required.

    Considering what it costs police departments in the real world just to keep one helicopter running, even though helicopters are common, mass-produced, and miles behind of the 'bleeding edge' of technology, you have to estimate that the ultra-tech of super-robots, cyborgs, etc must run into the millions of dollars per day.

    Just obtaining impervium, the rarest and strongest metal known, must be almost impossible, never mind the expense. The costs to work it are probably even higher. And that's probably the cheapest and easiest part of any robot or cyborg. Neuro-circuitry, nano-tech, positronic brain matrices, must run into billions to develop, and are not something you are going to find spares for in Radio Shack. Everything custom made to incredible specifications.

    A lone cyborg is going to be scraping along watching parts failing and in need of incredibly expensive specialist maintenance unless they have a dedicated team of technicians, engineers, and suppliers.

    A good robot/cyborg is probably a little like a F1 car - needs an entire team behind it, tracking the telemetry and performances, squeezing the utmost from every component to the extent that anything could be far beyond its safe tolerances, and liable to blow, break, or wear out without much notice.

    Grouping together, such robots and cyborgs could share the costs of specialist parts production, possibly even 'standardising' a few parts among themselves bringing the costs to each massively down. Sharing resources, including the topmost robotics specialists, would be a major reason for such a group to form.
  13. Seems to have been down all day and most of last night for sure.
  14. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Big_Game_EU View Post
    I really love the way you've focused on details from Big Game's earlier adventures, and turned them into plot hooks. You're one evil [Insert Expletive Here]!
    I looked up all I could, then used the ones that seemed most likely to have entered public record somewhere. The children's home connection was brought to light by that pink-costumed freakazoid Game once mutilated with an axe there, and almost everyone knows how Game loves his boat.

    Drew has tried very hard to let Game know that it is not all some freak coincidence - like leaving one former girlfriend's body in a tiger's cage at the zoo as a reference to Game's famous pants.
  15. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Kallandra View Post
    Ammon, all I can say is... Wow...
    Far too kind, but thank you.

    Writing RP fiction is a lot more fun than writing marketing blurbs.
  16. Drew sat upon a rug on the floor of the tiny apartment she used, her young brows creased in concentrated thought. She contemplated the upcoming mission with great care and finally reached her conclusion. The black catsuit was more suitable than the purple. She tossed the purple garment aside and placed the sleek black suit upon her bed, remembering.

    *****

    A younger Drew, perhaps ten years old, but possibly younger with her waif-like build, sits lotus-position upon a mat of woven reeds. She does not look directly at the man who speaks, keeping her gaze respectfully lowered. The man paces slowly as he speaks, his footfalls as silent as a stalking cat and just as effortless.
    "The assassin should rarely wear black. Despite the common foolishness, black is a stark shade - too easily picked out against anything but complete darkness. The moment you must cross the smallest patch of moonlight, or be sihouetted against a grey stone wall, you are as starkly visible as the shadow cast by a searchlight."

    *****

    It was barely 15 minutes later that a stark shadow moved the short distance from a high window of an apartment block to its dark tiled roof and was lost. The heavy industrial smog in the sky meant that not only was clear moonlight rare, but that even the stars could scarely be seen. Drew was a black shadow against dark clouds in a moonless night. There would be rain later, a while before the dawn, Drew knew.

    Slim shadow in the darkness, running silently and with perfectly trained grace, from rooftop to shaded balcony to leeside of chimney and back out to rooftop. No stray moonlight caught the silent shadow, nor gleamed from the claw-blades attached to her hands, nor the deadly needle-guns attached to her wrists. Tonight, black was the perfect choice for the assassin.

    She sprinted as though her feet barely touched any surface, a rolling motion of the foot absorbing all sound and impact smoothly. She ran to the edge of the roof and leapt, without pause or concern, falling, diving, and cutting the cold waters more cleanly than a knife. Sleek black shape in the cold black waters.

    The mercenary she sought to torture had very few friends as such. Many aquaintances, but few he actually cared about. Even killing a dozen of his past sexual partners had seemed to have no effect. Not even the one who she'd left to be mauled in death in the tiger's cage of the zoo. It seemed that Game didn't keep any interest or contact with his conquests once conquered.

    Drew wondered if he had yet heard about the death of the retired Mother Superior who'd once worked at St. Joseph’s Children’s Home, Brooklyn. Game had made better efforts to stay in touch with the orphanage as far as she could tell, and finding the retired former Mother Superior crucified on their steeple certainly should attact attention.

    Tonight's target seemed far less likely to hurt Game in any meaningful sense than any of the others, but she was sure it would all have effect eventually. If only by demonstrating how wide the net was. That noone he had ever known was entirely safe...

    *****

    Little Pete hummed to himself as he steered the boat from the small cove. His cargo was in a half-dozen large wooden crates loaded at night on a quiet little dock in a small secluded cove. A brisk breeze blew across the ink-black waters, and might have been considered 'fresh' if it were not laden with industrial smog.

    Pete had done this run three times before, quietly and without fuss. His boat, the Wifes’s Envy, had been a good smuggling vessel for Little Pete's father, Salty Pete, until that run smuggling mutants. Shipping the crates of guns to Striga from the Council facility in Sharkshead was much safer. The Spiders didn't care, and The Council controlled the landing zone at the other end completely.

    As he reached the point at which the shoreline and cliffs hid all sight to and from the cove, Little Pete glanced about, although who he expected to see was as unknown to him as it would be to any observer. Checking that nothing was in sight, he cracked open one of the crates with the jemmy he kept in the boat's toolbox. It never hurt to be sure of what you were carrying. Might be bombs or anything with those Council loons.

    Little Pete whistled to himself as he looked at the gleaming assault rifles in the crate, then slapped at the mosquito that bit the back of his neck. His vision blurred even before he realised that his neck was too numb to feel the slap, and that the 'mosquito' was actually a tiny sliver of metal. He fell to the deck heavily, while a silent black shadow slipped her arm back from the boat and slid back down into the waters without a splash.

    Drew didn't know how well Game had known Salty Pete's son, but she knew for sure he'd remember the Wife's Envy, the boat he'd so admired when Salty Pete had moored it next to The Jelly Fish Dream for so long. People would think the boat cursed now that both owners had been killed on it. But Game would wonder. Game would suspect. Game would know that he was now the game. Big game indeed!

    As smoothly silent and invisible as ever, the black shadow within the black waters swam undetectably away.
  17. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha View Post
    Can I subscribe to whatever writing newsletter you are lord of?
    That was bleedin' good writing! /awe
    Thanks.

    A lot.

    I can never seem to find the time (and mood) to write nearly as much as I'd like, so its really nice to have some positive feedback on what mad mutterings I do manage.
  18. Just added a new little twist to the general plot that people can adopt or ignore as personally affecting as they wish.

    A powerfully precognitive Arachnos Widow is, for reasons known only to herself and a few others at this time, killing off any known family, friends, or even valuable contacts of any on Elizabeth Bathory's original hit-list that have gone into hiding or otherwise not yet been brought down.

    Even the most invulnerable of heroes are only as invulnerable as the weakest of those they care about.

    Naturally, it is up to players themselves to determine if they are on Bathory's hit-list, and if in addition, Arachnos files would have any data about known family, friends, etc. (If you have a public identity, then family, birthplace, prior marriage, etc would be easily known from public record in the US or most other nations). Then it is up to you whether someone your character knows and loves was assassinated.

    The one exception is Big Game. Sorry mate, but he's too well known, and has too much boasting done about his conquests for several past girlfriends and conquests to not be horribly murdered. The assassin doesn't do this thinking he loves the girls, but believes it will greatly hurt his ego, which is his strongest motivating force.
  19. High on an iron fire escape stairway, a shadow within a shadow, a long breath is slowly exhaled. The slim form of a girl, boyishly lean and with short cropped hair extends herself into stillness and calm. One slender arm, taut muscled as a gymnast's, slowly reaches out, and the wrist-mounted needle gun is brought to bear with patience and grace.

    The pose is held for several heartbeats as the hidden assassin waits for the moment. The perfect moment. The foreseen moment. Then, the wrist-device fires, sending the deadly needle laced with exotic neuro-toxin towards the opposite building some 40 yards away.

    The tiny projectile speeds instantly across the space, seemingly headed for a window, which is opened from within just a bare moment before the impact. The tiny dart passes within, into the kitchen that has been hidden by the light relected from the windows, and straight into the face of the elderly woman who had unexpectedly opened this window into her own death.

    Unexpectedly for her, that is. The assassin had foreseen this moment of perfect vulnerability. Her precognitive powers had been honed through years of training, just as her physical abilities had. The girl stayed motionless, again nothing more than a shadow within a shadow should anyone look. Another full minute passed before she moved with determined stealth and grace that any cat would envy.

    In minutes the girl was 4 blocks away, tucked out of sight and wind in the leeward side of a bulky air-conditioning unit atop an apartment block. She pulled a small electronic data display device from one of the pouches on the belt she wore about the skin-tight costume. Tapping the tiny screen expertly, she updated the device and looked for her next target. Then, with a pause as if listening to something, and a small shake of her head, she skipped further down the list.

    One of the most powerful precognitives, Arachnos had strongly wished to have Drew remain behind the walls of one of the Arachnos bases, making predictions and guiding operations. Drew much preferred field-work though, and had been an assassin for many youthful years before being recruited for training as a Widow.

    Of course, having access to Arachnos data had many advantages. Not least this list of all known relatives, colleagues, informants and friends of certain heroes. She had foreseen the outrage this would cause. The anguish, hatred, and the foolish risks it would provoke. It cut short threads upon the loom of fate that others they had touched would become detatched, weak, and more easily removed.

    To kill so many innocents seemed costly, and inefficient, yet her arts and senses told her this was truly the most efficient and effective way to weaken and destroy several of her targets. The aspect of Lachesis told her the way to remove the threads from the pattern. Now she took on the aspect of Atropos, patron of the Night Widows, cutting the threads. Five such threads so far this day, and several more to go.

    Then Drew could return to the Isles and continue with everyone to whom the life-threads of those Hyenas were connected. It was going to be considerable work if she needed to get them all. The list of Big Game's past lovers alone was several pages long. Some of them were going to have to die quite horribly to have the desired effect.
  20. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dr_Mechano View Post
    Normally it's Tony telling Doc to shut up back when they were roomies, since the good Doc doesn't sleep, ever, he continued his scientific, very noisy, work long into the early hours of the morning.
    To be fair, most of the members of EVIL were far worse put out by Tony's singing...
  21. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Atonement_EU View Post
    I had great times with union, but it's been dying ever since the mission architect. I left and almost never returned after the whole 'level 50 in a day' fiasco. Seems a number of people just never returned.
    Its been in decline since the US decided to close the entire UK marketing/community team down, stop doing the events (which were already on a pitiful scale compared to US budgets and efforts), and generally forget about the UK players. Any community will decline over time, be that virtual or real-world, leisure or professional. Recruitment always has to be ongoing in any group, because people will naturally leave, move, change interests, change circumstances, or otherwise cease to be a part of any group. A lot of UK and EU players still have a very bitter taste in their mouth about the decision at HQ that we just aren't worth bothering about.

    Frankly the AE system wasn't that big a deal. Not compared to the feeling of retreat and abandonment from the top, and treating the whole of Europe as a very second-class minority. Then with CO and STO and other games making a bit more effort and seeming to be new and shiney ... well, again, people make choices. The EU player seems to pay considerably more for most things when you take the exchange rates into account. We sure don't feel we get more for it.
  22. Hey guys, *waves*, its cool to finally unite the players of CoX all over, isn't it?
  23. I have characters on both English servers, and all my characters are fully RPable (some more enjoyably than others of course). I've found RP on defiant to be kind of sporadic and spontaneous. Not as organised or as easily found as on Union, but all the more shiny sometimes for being serendipitous.
  24. [ QUOTE ]
    However as I've had some people tell me time and again, Paragon City itself would have no use for such a cage as we're all supposed to be shiny happy heroes who would never find anything so barbaric as entertaining. Hence I suppose watching monkeys beat the snot out of each other is okay...or something. While I personally have no objections to it as a friendly-bout sort of thing between people, it might take something more than a "just for grins" background to make it fly.

    [/ QUOTE ]
    Of course, the handy thing about the monkey cage in PD is that it isn't in Paragon at all. Additionally, its audience is not purely heroes, and in fact it has traditionally been mostly the villain groups that have tended to hang around near the cages. Heroes in PD far more often congregate in the clean blue-side bars.

    Established (by players) canon has made significant use of the cage in the past to settle grudges, to train, etc, and traditionally most players accept that there's some sort of damping technomagic to prevent fatalities. I think Pious is the only RPer I've ever met who's ever gone on a different tack there, which once caused just a little confusion when he fought a character who'd always been told that like PD itself, causing real harm was impossible there.

    I think it would e important to matches to establish between participants exactly what damping fields might be in place, and what level of harm and consequences might be at stake.

    Personally, I've always had a lot of fun with PvP matches in the Cage in PD, and would certainly be up for more, (IC reasonings allowing).
  25. (In various versions, this story is featured on most TV networks News programmes, and picked up in most newspapers first editions)

    Say It With Fliers!

    Eleven Longbow fliers were shot out of the skies in a war-zone yesterday evening in a story so bizarre that we at first thought it was a late April Fools prank.

    A currently unidentified villain single-handedly disabled and destroyed eleven of Longbow's state of the art combat aircraft in the late evening. The attack ceased only when the heroine Luminescence appeared and confronted him.

    Bizarrely, none of the pilots were injured, as the daring villain teleported directly to the cockpit of each flier, forcibly ejecting the pilot, and presenting each with a single red rose, and instructions to see the roses delivered to the heroine Luminescence.

    The strange attack happened to aircraft patrolling a Longbow Carrier Command ship off the coast of Warburg. One after another, patrolling combat aircraft were attacked and disabled, their pilots dumped unharmed into the seas close to the Carrier.

    Luminescence was not even on operations in the area, Longbow sources tell us, but only arrived after first reports of the events were broadcast on Channel 7 News.

    By the time she arrived, 11 Airmen had been dragged from their aircraft, and 11 of the extremely valuable craft had been destroyed.

    The events only get stranger as Luminescence arrived in a stunning bridal gown, according to several eye witnesses from the Longbow carrier.

    "She was definitely dressed like she'd been called away from her own wedding to answer this challenge, or whatever it was" said Longbow Sergeant Janine Doyle. "Really lovely dress it was too"

    Luminescence soared into the air from the ship and headed for the bizzare attacker, and no futher aircraft were lost. She pursued the villain around part of the coastline, where no witnesses were able to follow the encounter.

    When a helicopter from Channel 7 News arrived some time later, the crew initially thought they saw the two figures sitting on the beach, but once within clear sight, found the heroine being thrown into the sea by the mysterious villain.

    The villain was filmed in the closing stages of what must have been hours of battle by the helicopter crew, and fled Luminescence's counter attacks from the water. The villain has yet to be formally identified, but there is speculation that it is the radiation wielding villain who attacked a bank a few weeks ago, then too leaving flowers and a message for Luminescence.

    Reporters attempting to question Luminescence as she was brought back abourad the carrier were pushed back by Longbow officers, but she was photographed with a red rose tucked into her wet hair behind her ear and a somewhat dazed expression on her face.

    "There was a strange reaction to our combined radiation powers, and I found myself quite unable to concentrate my mental powers" she said shortly after her return. "Damn, he got me wet" she added, smiling for the cameras before leaving, looking somewhat dazed still from her battle.