_Synchrotron_

Thanks for organizing this - it was fun to see all the creative things folks have done.

I can show the Pillars base, but I didn't have anything to do with making it, so I can't explain how any of it was done

Global Name: @Synch
SG/VG Name: New Valkyries
SG or VG?: SG
Availability: June 23rd
Base Description: Medium arcane base, with a couple of tech rooms.

I'm not planning on going anywhere - I'll be sad to see the folks who head off to the VIP-only server depart, and hope you have fun with the others who feel that way about the influx of new folks.

Personally, I hope that some of the people who left because they didn't play enough to justify a continuing subscription come back, and I can team with them again.

There are several powers (some of the prestige sprints, temporary invulnerability, world of confusion, I'm sure there are others) which would make nifty auras - any possibility of adding any of them?

I used "C:\Games\City Of Heroes\CohUpdater.exe" -ps 64.25.34.144

I got the address from the "nslookup cohupdate.coh.com" command referenced in the post.

Check the "version.ini" file in your City of Heroes folder. When I couldn't log in, it read "Version=1900.201011102104.24"

By forcing the updater to use a different IP address (see the "Slow Updating section in the post http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...657#post803657 )

I managed to get the version to be "Version=1900.201011102104.27", and was able to log in.

My conclusion is that one (or more) of the update servers has the wrong patch - likely it didn't get the weekend update, and if your updater chooses that one, you get reverted to the older client, and are locked out.

Forcing the updater to connect to a different update server fixes things. The ipconfig /flushdns forces your computer to re-route the connection to the update server, which might get you a good one, but might not, as would rebooting - which explains why sometimes those work, and sometimes they don't. You should probably delete the .checksum file every time you change the update server IP too.

Hopefully they'll straighten this out soon, but in the meantime, this worked - for me, anyway...

I'd be up for a Mad Midnight Bomber run - I've got nukes, Shivan, HVAS, and enervating field. As a Tick fan, I need this badge

After initial play-testing, the developers reluctantly scrap plans for the Giant Monster mastermind set...

"If I am a winner, I permit NC Interactive, Inc. and NCsoft Europe Limited to use my name, likeness, photograph, hometown, and any comments that I may make about myself or this contest that I provide for advertising and promotional activities. I also certify that I am at least 13 years of age and am eligible to participate in this contest."

For what it's worth, the "sound loop bug" is frequently unrelated to sounds. Anytime the game stops updating the sound card with new data, it will just loop the last data it had over and over.

So while it might be sound-related, odds are that the app just crashed, the sound card survived the impact, and is still playing the last thing it was told to.

Win7 uses your 3D graphics card for Aero. CoH is using it for the game. If there aren't enough resources left over from CoH for Aero, Win7 will fall back to less pretty UI.

So your mileage may vary based on driver, video board memory, screen resolution, and ultra mode settings. But this is expected behavior by Windows.

XP wouldn't have this issue, since it didn't use your 3D board for the UI. Vista did, but in a different (and less efficient manner) so it might experience the same behavior.

I wouldn't have any objection to a client-side change - if I want Fireblast to be Dimensional Flames on my screen and nobody else's, well, I don't see what that would harm.

I do think there's lots of things they could spend their time on that I'd enjoy more, however (Pool/Epic power customization, I'm glancing in your general direction...)

Well, now that I've been warned, I'll... um... be careful? I dunno. But I'll certainly take that into account

losing pets just sucks. Don't do anything rash to make it worse, however...

Another request to remove the images from signatures - they're just too distracting when what I want to do is read the contents of the thread. An alternative would be to let us turn off images in signatures separately from those in posts.

At the moment, I'm just shutting off signatures entirely, which is a shame, as there was sometimes useful information in them - mission arcs and the like. But as-is, the inclusion of images makes them more trouble than they're worth.

I'd also like the "show all" option back. It was something I used often.

On another note, I'd really like to be able limit the boards to English in my options - things like Quick Links "today's posts" are a lot less useful when they're filled with messages I can't read, and am therefore uninterested in...

Here's some pics I got - it was a blast to see them being zapped instead of doing the zapping...

Thanks to the organizers, and everyone who hung around while the Rikti gathered up the courage to face us.

From behind
Missing Something?
Going down
From ahead
Under attack

I've got... Um... Too many level 50 heroes? Sixteen right now, with one 49 closing fast.

By Archetype, they're seven defenders (the 49 will make eight), five blasters, two controllers, a scrapper and a peacebringer.

It's really neat to see them drawn as they might exist in their own comic book - and fun to have something tangible for all the time spent playing them.

I'm currently having the wonderful Brandon McKinney do covers for them (no, not all at once) Hopefully I run out of heroes before he gets tired of doing the covers... Three so far, and a fourth in progress.

Synchrotron Rad/Rad Defender
Bow of Artemis Trick Arrow/Bow Defender
Project Liberty Elec/Elec Blaster

Brandon's usual great work, featuring my WW II heroine.

Project Liberty cover

Liberty is an electric blaster formed as part of a static team of WW II heroes brought forward in time, one way or another. We had to make origins for them, and I went a little overboard... Here's Project Liberty's story:

Project Liberty: A 50 year retrospective

July 4th, 1995, Paragon City

By Allen Smithee

Project Liberty. While many of you may recall that name as a heroine from World War II, very few of you know the history behind the name - how Abigail "Abbey" Carter became Project Liberty, and what became of her. Hidden behind wartime secrecy regulations, only now can the story be told.

Project Liberty began as an attempt by the US Government to create "super-soldiers". The project was conceived in the dark days after Pearl Harbor. OSI agents brought out evidence from Berlin that the 3rd Reich was having success in it's efforts to create "umber-mench" of their own - the infamous "Storm Korps." The President, reluctantly, gave the go-ahead.

While unwilling to use the methods of the 3rd Reich, US scientists felt it was possible to succeed. Eschewing the endless inhumane experimentation, they began their work. While several avenues looked promising, the declassified reports state that “a high-intensity, extremely short-duration burst of Omega Radiation to a subject immersed in a chemical bath” seemed the most promising.

Many series of experiments were run on tissue cultures, and the most promising were then run on chimpanzees. While several of the chimps that survived displayed promising abilities, most died within hours, all within days. The consensus amongst project scientists was that they simply did not have the mathematical tools to simulate what was happening, and their technology was too crude to properly control the burst of radiation. While in theory they could produce a meta-human, in practice they would simply kill any living thing in the chamber. The consensus amongst the scientists was to end the project.

Then fate - or something else - played its hand. Even freedom-of-information act requests have areas censored, so we don't know everything that happened on March 21st, 1942 - but we know enough. A saboteur had altered the timing controls on the test-chamber. It would fire two hours early. The chemical formula - "Formula 97" whatever that means - had also been tampered with. And Doctor William Randall left his notebook in the test chamber.

While the interaction of the tampered chemical bath and the overload of Omega Radiation destroyed the facility, without that last detail we might never have heard of Project Liberty. For when Doctor Randall realized he had left his notebook in the chamber, he asked his assistant, Abigail Carter, to retrieve it for him. And she did.

Or she tried to. Miss Carter walked into the test chamber, picked up the notebook, and the chamber sealed itself.

"I couldn't believe it!" she said, years later. "I mean, I thought it was a gag - you know, the other computers always gave me trouble, me being a girl and all, and better than them at math - but it wasn't." No, it wasn't a gag. The chamber sealed, and began to fill with Formula 97. "I knew then I was in trouble - probably dead. I mean, none of the chimps had made it, and this was a mistake - what were the odds? But there was no point in panic - I wasn't about to spend my last moments on earth in a fit. I, um.. well, the subjects weren't supposed to be wearing anything... anyway, I put myself on the platform, closed my eyes, and breathed deeply..." I don't know about you, but I don't think many 22 year olds of either gender faced with their imminent death would have reacted so calmly - but Abigail Carter was to prove no ordinary individual.

The staff tried to abort the procedure, of course, but once the chamber was flooded, it was too late - the Formula was toxic, and the energy buildup in the Omega Wave Chamber had to go somewhere. And so it did. The unknown saboteur had done more than alter the timing - the burst was much more powerful than designed, burning out the Omega Reactor, and leaving the test chamber dangerously radioactive.

Protected by leaded suits, staff entered the chamber to remove what they presumed to be Abigail's remains - if any were to be found. To their surprise, she was apparently unharmed, if unconscious. "It must have been quite a sight - there I was, lying on a metal slab inside the burned-out chamber, sparks flying, practically glowing with radiation. I'm just as glad I didn't see that - and that the radiation fogged the film - can you imagine the pictures? Yikes!"

While apparently and miraculously alive, she remained unconscious for three months. Her medical records are still sealed, but several reports mention "major anomalies" in her vital signs and internal organs. "Heck, the docs have no idea why I'm not dead." she told one interviewer in 1943. "They don't like to admit that, of course. First one to try and take a blood sample used a metal needle - I evidently gave him quite a shock..." For while alive, she was no longer the same. Project Liberty had it's one, and only, success.

The amount of electrical power she could generate was never precisely known. It was considerable however - enough to power a submarine for over sixteen hours after it's batteries died on one operation. Enough to melt the armor of a Panzer, or bring down a Zero in flight. And when Hughes Aviation finished her distinctive armored suit, enough to soar through the air. "I love to fly - I'll always be grateful to Howard for that." she said in an April, 1945 Life interview. "He called me 'the ideal aviation power source' - light, compact, and powerful. I think it annoyed him that there wasn't a way to have a whole unit of flying soldiers. He did love that suit. I just loved to fly in it. Some other special stuff in there too - let me play some fancy games with the electricity in me." It was to be her last interview.

Over the period of 1942-1945 we have records of over 72 missions by Abigail Carter as "Project Liberty". She is credited with saving the lives of thousands of GIs and thwarting several plots to assassinate or kidnap key figures in the Allied military and political hierarchies. It was an attempt to kidnap Princess Elizabeth (future Queen Elizabeth II) on VE day that history tells us cost her her life, however.

A 5th column cell had been assigned the mission, and OSI had intercepted the go-order. Project Liberty was the only asset they had who could intervene (she was in London for the celebration) so she went in, just like she had dozens of times before. But this time, the 5th column knew she was coming.

We know (now) that while kidnapping Princess Elizabeth was one objective, killing Project Liberty was another - and perhaps the primary objective. The princess had been allowed to wander anonymously amongst the crowds, and participate in the celebration. When their Wolfpack Robots burst from cover to grab the Princess, Liberty was there, striking them down while a startled British security force snatched the princess to safety.

Then the trap was sprung. A net of cables trapped the heroine and strange, purplish energies coruscated around her. Massive bolts of electricity sprang from her, arcing to everything conductive in sight. Between the 5th Column's eldritch energies, and the vast electrical outpouring, few eyewitness remained. Those at a distance described a huge dome of purple lightning, a vast clap of thunder, and then nothing.

When medical teams arrived on the scene, they found the molten remains of several odd machines, a large crater, and the shattered body of Project Liberty at the bottom. Not dead, not quite. Not quite... After she was flown back to the states, the best medical minds in the world concurred. Only constant intervention was keeping her alive now. Saddened, the world mourned a hero, and Abigail Carter was interred with full honors in Arlington National Cemetery. Statesman himself gave the eulogy.

So History records. And so we have believed for 50 years. But histories are not always accurate - wartime histories most of all. However, no secret lives forever. And this secret will now finally see the light of day. The close of Statesman's eulogy "I hope, someday, to tell you how much it meant that there were others who cherished the dream of Liberty - that given the chance, other ordinary people would rise up to do extraordinary things for those freedoms we hold so dear. Godspeed Project Liberty, and God bless." had always struck some as odd - but we assumed it an allegorical reference to a meeting in the afterlife. But as usual, Statesman said exactly what he meant. We all just assumed.

Project Liberty is not buried in Arlington. She is not, in fact, buried at all in the usual sense. The following was gleaned from almost a decade of research, and I finally believe I have the documentation to irrefutably back it.

After Project Liberty was returned to the US, and conventional medical techniques showed no hope of saving her, extraordinary means were used. She was subjected to an experimental suspended animation process, pioneered by Dr. Mnemonic. While he was able to guarantee that she would remain alive indefinitely, he was unable to provide assurances that she could be safely awakened, nor that medical science would ever be able to heal her.

So placed within the capsule, the young woman who had already survived one fantastic experiment was subjected to another. The capsule was sealed, and placed... somewhere. We don't know where. As far as I can tell, nobody alive does. For Nemesis' attack occurred just after she was placed into suspended animation. And to the best of the Government's knowledge, everyone who knew where she was placed, and all records of her location were lost in the attack.

So, in all likelihood, she is out there, somewhere still. A 20th century sleeping beauty if you will, Waiting not for a Prince Charming, but a medical miracle. It seems possible that 50 years of medical research can heal the wounds the 5th column inflicted. If not, perhaps in another decade? Science marches on. Why reveal this? Why not let her memory lay buried in Arlington in silent honor?

Because this country owes her - and while the debt is half a century old now, it still exists. And if nobody is looking, then she'll likely never be found. And she deserves to be found, for we can always use a hero - and Abigail Carter was - no; is - unquestionably a hero. I hope she is found someday, and that Statesman has the chance to give her his message in person.


2005: Somewhere beneath Paragon City:

.....
System fault. Enable fallbac...
System fault. Enable fallbac...
System fault. Enable fallbac...

Seismic shocks detected.
Perimeter breach.
Intruder countermeasures enabled.
System Fault. Emergency fallbacks online.

Fallback bootstrapping.
Fallback running.

Good Morning, Dr. Mnemonic.

Intruders detected.
Countermeasures activated.
**Warning - energy levels low**
Intruders eliminated.
**Warning - energy levels low**

Diagnostics indicate primary monitor system failure.
Monitor System in failure state for:
47 years, 6 months, 14 days, 3 hours, 21 minutes 15.112 seconds.
System Diagnostic History intact for:
11 years, 8 months, 21 days, 2 hours, 0 minutes 57.910 seconds.

Fallbacks will remain on-line.
Power: 17.21%
***Warning; minimum power level for optimal facility operation: 17.13%***

Arctic sleep monitors on-line.
Patient condition: stable.
Readings nominal.

Patient vital signs:
87.3% improved over last readings.
Anomaly:
Patient status not projected to improve.

Request Manual Input: **Input timeout: 72 hours**
Request Manual Input: **Input timeout: 72 hours**
Manual Input not available.

Checking emergency protocols...........
Match Found:
Protocol 107 of 112: Low Power Emergency Protocol (patient status non-critical)

Engaging Protocol 107: Low Power Emergency Protocol (patient status non-critical)
-Purge Nitrogen atmosphere..........complete.
-Unlock suit storage...complete.
-Update wire-service precis (1945-present)...........................
.................................................. ..................
.................................................. ..................
.................................................. ..................
.........................error.
-Print memo from Dr. Mnemonic.....error.
-Deactivate Arctic Sleep chamber..........complete.
-Clear Rotunda alcove 3 for chamber deployment.....complete.
-Deploy chamber to surface, City Hall rotunda, alcove 3.....complete.

Welcome back, Project Liberty.
End Program.
Power: 0.31%
System shutdown.


SERAPH interview transcript excerpts, May 2-12, 2005:

"My name? Abigail Carter - "Project Liberty" might be more familiar. I've been, well, ill. SSN ***********. No, no I'm not joking. No, it wasn't my mother, it's me I mean, I'm not married... in any case, Mom wasn't... No, I don't mind if you take my fingerprints."

"See. I told you. Criminy. Like a gal would lie about that..."

"It's when? 2005? You're kidding me, right? I mean, that machine printed out something about 59 years, but it was all fubared. It just can't be 2005..."

"What was the first thing I felt? It was cold. Really cold - I mean, I've been cold in my life, but this took the cake. Worse than the Ardennes. But I was awake, which was an improvement, I suppose - when those darn 5th col sprung their trap, I figured I'd bought the farm. But I didn't know if I was in a 5th col cell, or in a Brit hospital, or back at Walter Reid again. But it wasn't any of those places after all."

"You mean they're not going to arrest them for indecent exposure? Wearin just that? In public? Yikes. Well that wouldn't have flown in '45..."

"Yeah, I seem to have this habit of surviving things I shouldn't. But I have to tell you, I don't feel so good. Like somebody just ran me over with a truck. I dunno if I can power a flashlight right now, truth to tell you."

"OK, ok. So I was what? Asleep for almost 60 years?? Good grief. I mean, I don't feel 83. Well, at the moment I do feel a lot like 83. But I don't look 83. Do I? Good grief. 60 years?"

"Yeah, that's mine. Seems to have held up better than me. Howard always did build well. Probably obsolete now, though. Did they ever get those jet airliners he kept dreaming about? Know anybody who might be able to bring this monkey-suit up-to-date?"

"Elizabeth is still the Queen? Really? Wow. Glad I saved her."

"This TV has how many channels? Huh. And I still can't find a thing to watch on it. Go figure."

"Alien invasion? There was an alien invasion? Hero One died? They're still here? And now there are other aliens wandering around possessing people, and we're OK with that?? And Nemesis is still here? Didn't he go away in WW I? He did what after the war?? And the 5th Col is still here, but they're called the Council now? Criminy. No wonder you need heroes. The ones you already got must be working double shifts..."

"Statesman? States is still around? Jeepers. Doesn't look a day older. You're sure it's 2005?"

"I'm buried where? Arlington.... wow. I'm not sure I deserve... Who gave the eulogy? Wow. Boy, this is gonna cause a mess, isn't it?"

"No, no - I'm feeling a lot better now. Just needed some time, I guess. Thanks for the ID Card - wouldn't want to get arrested for taking down a 5th co... er.. Council is it? cell. Just need to stretch my legs and volts a bit. Won't get back into fighting trim lazing about."

"A 'cell phone'? it's cute, but where's the cord? Really? Anywhere? Almost anywhere. Well, nice to see that advertising hasn't changed. Darn spiffy though. Bet I can charge it myself..."

"So I guess I'm gonna need a job, and a place to live... I've got a what? My pension? But if I was dead.. Oh. So since I'm not, I get how much? You're kidding. Well, OK, so I can afford a place to live - right?"

The second cover Brandon's done for me - and it turned out great, especially considering the vague description he had to go on.

Bow was sent to Paragon city by Artemis, who's not thrilled with the Knives claiming her name. Note - don't mess with Olympian deities, they don't play nice...

Bow of Artemis cover

Here's her comic cover - the only problem with it, is now I want the whole comic...
Synchrotron Cover

Another splendid piece of work by Mr. McKinney. Hopefully he won't get tired of doing these for me...