Zortel

There's one place I think that sells comics near to where I live, but I'm not sure on that. The only comic book store I go to with any regularity is Mega City Comics in Camden Town, London. Forbidden Planet have a few stores about last I heard, but... well, if their comics are anything as expensive as their anime, it's a real hole-burner in the wallet.

I'll let it be said that yes, I'm glad we do have communication on this issue, unlike the period of chaos when the layoffs were announced at NCSoft Europe.

I know some people might think we're whiners, or paranoid, or needy, but:

We already know NC Soft will shut down titles/branches that don't perform well. (Auto Assault, Tabula Rasa, Dungeon Runners, City of Hero (KR)).

We also know that NC Soft company policy seems to be toe the line and say everything is fine, it's not going to close down, and then close it down. After a swathe of new improvements too. (Tabula Rasa.)

We already have differences in services offered by the game. GM's restoring Deleted Characters (funny story there), different protocols for testing, server community acknowledgement (Gemini Park badge in GC for the Virtue meets), and a greater con presence due to logistics and proximity, but nothing made of getting the EU community a form of meet.

I suggested when they announced the meet and greet dates that while yes, it is hard to organize something in another country, they could easily arrange a virtual meet and greet on the EU test servers.

As for that funny story? Way back, way, way back this must have been Issue 4's launch time, I had a little level 18 blaster that I messed the build up, being still quite new to the game. I'd heard that we may be getting a freespec with issue 4, but Statesman himself made a post saying that there'd be no freespec with Issue 4. Now, I'm a glacial slow leveller at the best of times, so I thought 'Dang, I'll just have to remake.'

Few days later, Issue 4 hits, along with a freespec. For the 1st year anniversary. No chance of getting the character undeleted, and even if I could, I bet I'd have not gotten that freespec anyway. Told it wasn't possible. When some time later I heard of character recovery over on the US side? Well, yeah, that was a little annoying.

Anyway, that remade blaster is now level 40, 5 years later. Glaaacial.

Over the years my stance has shifted from being anti-server merge, to pro-server list merge, and I think around this point I'd even be pro server merge. I even thought it'd be one of the things coming with Going Rogue. Wouldn't mind that much having to have an EU by my name, or sticking a . at the end of my character names so I could get the ones I built the concept around.

And coming from a roleplayer? That dot means a lot.

I call 'not viable'.

We had the US > EU Transfer, why not add four servers to the US side, and EU > US? I mean, the tech was there for the US > EU transfer, but it's not possible to use that to do the opposite?

Look at it this way, we've had our EU offices closed, our EU con presence made nil, no shop presence, no marketing presence, we've had cases in the past of American players getting preferential treatment from GM's (US players having deleted characters restored, EU players being denied that), and now this. And I'm sure I've left some things out too. And what with the forum merger, the mods and so forth are now about mostly out of EU player hours, there's no community mod presence for us like there once was... I'm just glad I'm not a French or German server player. I'd hate to see what it's like there.

5 Damage/Recharge DO's with special minor procs isn't ground breaking, but it's the little things that add up.

I've bought pretty much everything CoH related when it hit the stores. Super Boosters, Wedding Pack, Mac Pack, GVE, character slots. I spent hundreds of pounds going to conventions, at conventions. At Bristol Comic Expo 2008, I asked Stephen 'Rockjaw' Reed for a box of GVE Trial CD's and I walked around that convention, handing them out to people. And I just worry that the time will come to pull the plug on the 'not viable EU servers' and my only recourse will be "here's a free US account, start over, rebuy things, oh, no vet badges, sorry, basic character slot amount. Rebuy those too. And all your old characters? Remake them! Start over!"

Tabula Rasa players got something along those lines when that Triple A title was shut down. After NC Soft said it wouldn't.

So the general EU worries about such things are kind of understandable. One day it could be 'No plans to shut down the EU servers' and then a few weeks later, blam.

I'd be the creepy little Mutation SO vendor from Founders Falls, Penny Preston.



Imagine her dull, lifeless eyes, staring at you at ever proclamation I posted.

Very interesting, especially considering you did swing Tina by the statue. The pacing felt a little frantic at one point at the end when I read it, but I think that was more the quickly changing scenes, and not a writing issue as such. And what a way to close the story on.

This one's a bit later than planned, blame the heat for sapping my creativity. This one focuses on Olivia, the girl behind Fear Trigger, as we get a glimpse into some of her background. No violence, just some shooting at the range and some terminology.

Unload - Fear Trigger

As the topic says, I had Tai gloves with skin on my huge character, went to modify a costume, and they're gone. Still there for male body types.

Is it me, or do huge chunks of MondoCool's posts go missing? Or does my apparent Scrubvision render me unable to see their hardcore, perfect build, awesome musings?

I just tend to think 'how many lives could be saved if from an early age people were taught how to do first aid, how to respond to disaster situations, natural and man-made, and have the skills to defend themselves and others.'

There are plenty of martial arts that'd be perfect for the job. Systema and Krav Maga come to mind. Then again, we could probably do with classes that teach teenagers thinks like banking, taxes, home skills that aren't taught by some parents.

Anyway, that's my rant off.

A-frickin-men to Techbot Alpha's post.

But then I'm a nut who thinks that first aid, disaster preparation and self defence training should be mandatory from an early age.

Mid 20's for me. I recently deleted a level 24 AR/Dev Blaster as I just didn't like the powers, even with SO's, not enough ST damage. I'm pondering about giving my Willpower/War Mace tank the boot too, she's 22 I believe.

Steel Canyon:

Turn Blyde Square into the Picadilly Circus/Times Square of Paragon City. Big billboards on the buildings around it, big tower blocks becoming department/office/media centres. Maybe a strip of road with theatres, the Broadway/West End of Paragon City. Chuck the lakes/parks some vendor carts. Maybe people relaxing there during the day.

Galaxy City: Give some of the warehouse premesis in Nebula District names, so instead of it being acres of generic warehouse, there's some company presence. Maybe a Crey Warehouse with guards patrolling, taking care of threats and not heroes. (Seriously, Crey just come out of nowhere and start wailing on you for no good reason.) You could chuck this into the Argosy Industrial Park in Atlas Park too. Orion's Belt could get some more unique shops, and Equinox could be apartment's for the future of Paragon City. Expand Freedom Court for a bit, make it more... Freedom-y. See some NPC heroes in there, interesting background chatter. Give Gemini Park some of the above mentioned things regarding lakes/parks.

Talos Island: Give it an Asian district. The Hmong Tsoo presence is noticable, so why not have a vibrant street market? Maybe have a Little Italy too, or save it for IP where the Family like to play.

Those sorts of ideas basically. I've talked about them before in more detail in the suggestion's forum a while ago:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=183268

Basically, make Paragon City look like the City of Tomorrow, with the charm and quaintness and tourist spots of an old city, and the high tech fandangle of a new city, and give us some more places to loiter.

Very cute. Just full of d'aww!

Maybe, MondoCool, not everyone's playing in a team all the time, not everyone's on a hero who has a relatively endurance efficient powerset (TA/Archery I'm doing fine on without Stamina. Ice/Ice Blaster on the other hand is a little more end heavy.) Also, it was never said to make fitness inherent, it was all about rest, so don't know where you got that from.

Saying Fitness is purely optional and you can get along without it is like saying... I don't know, entertainment is purely optional and you can get along without it. True, you can, but time will pass slower and it won't be as enjoyable, and you'd get fairly bored too.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy after all.

I'll go back and sign myself on 0s Recharge Rest.

Shows what happens when I got caught up in writing, I'm sure I put 0 Recharge there somewhere, but I think I then rewrote something and forgot to put it back.

Yes, 0 Recharge rest is also good. Tuck yourself out of the way, hit it, boost up, get back to the fight.

On an unrelated yet related note:

Let's just get the first thing out of the way of.

I hate the Fitness Pool.

More to the point, I loathe Stamina.

Think of it this way, we get 24 power picks over the course of leveling, and if you want/need Stamina, 3 out of those 24 power picks will be... for want of a better word, boring. Swift or Hurdle, Swift, Hurdle or Health, and Stamina.
These aren't really fun powers, they aren't really interesting powers, they're just there, and for some builds, a stepping stone to not fighting like a wheezing, overloading engine struggling to keep up with the pace of things. In fact, I'd quite happily pay £10, even £20, to get the Fitness Pool inherent and out of my life forever so I can concentrate on more fun powers.
Of course, Ninja Run was bad enough for the 'They're paying for an ingame advantage' crowd, so Paid for Fitness would never go down. On the plus side, it means I have £10/£20 more pounds in my wallet to spend on torturing my bookcase.
On the negative side? 1/8th of my power picks on my Stone/Stone/Earth Tanker are going to be boring. Well, except for Swift, because daaaaaaaayum, Granite and/Or Rooted are slow as all heck.

So, no Fitness changes here. We're going to leave that simpering pain of a pool to smugly sit in the power selection of many like a smug git.
Instead, today I am going to look at Rest, the adorable little fellow. Hey, Rest! Tell us about yourself!

"Hi! I'm Rest! Activate me to heal Hit Points and recover Endurance! Though be careful, because when you do, you can't attack! And uh oh, not only that, but you're super vulnerable to damage and lose a lot of defense! Plus it takes me a few seconds to get active! I recharge in 180 seconds, give you -100000% Defense, -10000% Damage Resistance, 1900% Regeneration and 425% Recovery!"

Thanks Rest, you adorable little scamp.

Anyway, 180 seconds. That's 3 minutes, which in the fast paced combat of City of Heroes is a lot of fights.

So, there's one possible solution. Reduce the time Rest takes to recharge. 60 seconds? 30?

Pros:

• Ability to recover quickly out of combat.
• Not viable to use in combat due to lack of attacking/penalty to defence/resistance.
• Up sooner, so less waiting around for your natural recovery to boost you up.
• Encourages Green/Blue Inspirations to be used in combat.

Cons:

• Start up time could prove annoying.

So there's one option. Rest at 60 or 30 seconds Recharge.

What about a toggle though, similar to a travel power? Say, it lets you run about still at baseline speeds, but you'd still have the attack issue, and the defence/resist penalties. The pros are similar, the con having been removed, and it'll teach you to be careful where you move to if for instance you run into a patrol. Call it being startled while resting up.

But what about if you don't like pressing things, or toggling things? Well, you're probably a little odd to be playing this game, but hey!
Let's take a look around for some inspiration. Oh! Hey there, you two Day Job Badge powers, tell me about yourselves!

"Hi, I'm Clubber! When you're out of combat, you get a +Recovery Bonus from me!"
"And Hi! I'm Caregiver, when you're out of combat, you get a +Regeneration Bonus from me."
Interesting, interesting, but what happens in combat?
"We hide. Combat's scary."
"Yuh-uh! But once it's over we come out and give you the bonus again."

Really now? That's nothing to be ashamed of, I'd hide from combat too, but say... you two recognize that a character is in or out of combat, right? What say if you teach my friend Rest this trick?
Now of course, there'd be nothing like the 1900%/425% Regeneration/Recovery bonus from current Rest, as that'd be silly. Likewise, there couldn't be the defence/resist penalty either.
So, that leaves us with a couple of options. The first is a flat rate out of combat. Something meaty, but not too crazy. The second option would be for it to scale with level like how Ninja Run does. The more experienced you are, the quicker you recover. The third... well, he's an interesting one.
We know that some powers increase in Endurance cost when they've been on a while, or at least they did. I really should check up on that. But taking inspiration from Guild Wars, where Health and Energy regen slowly once combat ends, but ramps up to very quickly after a while, what if something similar was done with Auto Rest?
You're in a fight, reduced to baseline levels of health and regen (1.67 Endurance per second, 5.03 hp per second at Level 50). The fight finishes, so your Recovery and Endurance start to increase. At first it's maybe 2/7.56 a second. Goes up some more, then some more, then some more.
So, if you finish a fight, but get ambushed soon after, you won't have had as long to recover, so would start not at full. That makes sense for an ambush after a fight already, but if you don't get ambushed, you get time to rest up and fight again another day.

So, thems the proposals then.

1: Reduce Rest to 60/30 Seconds Recharge
-OR-
2: Turn Rest into a Toggle similar to a Travel Power
-OR-
3: Turn Rest into an Auto Power, delivering Out of Combat regen/recovery
-OR-
4: The Above, but have it ramp up over time out of combat.

Now, Fitness would still have a place, for those that want to enhance their in combat regeneration/recovery, or increase their baseline movement speeds.

But maybe, just maybe, it'd take some of the pain out of the situation, and prevent people from taking 3 powers just because they're tired of waiting around to recover.

I've only just noticed this one, when I was looking up some information for villain groups. Now, updates to the game guide on the site can be sporadic, but I remember a period when the US site was getting a fair few updates in the Enemies section, with information on the leader of the Tsoo, Tub Ci. It even had it presented in a 'case file' style, and included screenshots players had taken.

The current EU site does not have this, and thanks to IP redirection, a lot of players won't know to find this information due to the site automatically being selected to the EU version.

The EU site has 8 enemy groups listed, while the US site has 36.

It's not just a numbers issue though, the amount of data presented EU side is minimal, compared to the amount US side. A comparison:

http://eu.cityofheroes.com/en/game_g..._enemy/skulls/

http://www.cityofheroes.com/game_inf...ry/skulls.html

Now, let's have a further look about. The Game Info section US side lists Guest Authors, Bases, Contacts and other such bits. Some contact is shared between the sites, such as on the Mission Architect page, but it just seems a bit shoddy. Even the front pages have a noticeable difference, with the US site having a tabbed flash box containing links to I17 details, Dual Pistols, Going Rogue site, the Mac Special Edition, the latest Super Booster, and the one image we get, the Pick A Side and Join the Fight image.

But hey, at least the Trial Link now works.

I guess I'm just saying that the EU website doesn't seem to see the love that the US one does.

PS. DOOOOOOM
PPS. MERGE THE SERVER LISTS
PPPS. Positron promised me a Nemesis Warhorse.

It's an interesting suggestion, yes, but as I recall the distinction isn't there between powersets to throw grenades and launch grenades, let alone modifying the endurance cost and recharge time depending on powerset unless they made two, one for Rifle sets and one for without.

And I've not tested an AR/*/Munitions Blaster at a high enough level to see if there's redraw between using AR powers and using Munitions Powers.

I like all those suggestions, especially the numbered spawn point interaction. That's something that'd greatly help, as I find all my work in the MA tends to go off a little due to lack of control and having had NPC's that I've wanted at the back appear in the front.

Bombing damages Olive Bough Restauraunt, Massacre Found Inside.
Paragon City Telegraph, Friday 14th May.

The explosions and fire that rocked the Olive Bough restaurant on Talos Island late Wednesday evening has come under investigation of the police, after the bodies of at least forty people were found in the basement floors. Police are appealing for anyone in the area at 2300 hours that may have seen something, and they have reason to believe it may be related to the Dockland Road Port killings last Wednesday, where the bodies of ten known Family affiliates were found shot and then burned, along with a large quantity of Supadyne.

Talos Island Police Precinct have set up a confidential line for information, on 555-7692.

Rushmore, a Stone/Stone/Earth Tanker. Why? Because he's a teenager empowered by the Spirit of America to defend it. That's pretty much asking to be an Incarnate level of power!

He's also been known to have rock offs against demons with the Guitar of Liberty while the Statue of Liberty lights up her torch for real in the background, fight robotic NFL players and almost get deported from Cananda by trying to transform while singing the Team America theme. (His powers only work on US Soil.)