Zortel

Hello, hello, hello! A week later, and a new story. Blood on the Bough continues the story of Fear Trigger, as the pistol packing psychic takes on her next target, the Vano Family's club under the Olive Bough Restaurant. This one has more of the same, what with violence, gunplay, blood and references to organized crime, and so is hosted in handy PDF form again.

Next week probably won't be as combat oriented as we deal with the girl behind the mask as she preps for her next target.

Big thanks go to Ravenswing, who is an utter star with proof reading and editorial work. Also? I'd love to see/write/collaborate on a Fear Trigger/Nitoichi crossover.

Anyway, with warnings and thanks out of the way, it's time for...

Fear Trigger - Blood on the Bough

How about, for those of us in the EU game territories, a virtual meet and greet instead on the Test Server? We've had you over here before, most recently being for the 6th year game aniversaries, it'd give us a chance to provide feedback, talk about what we like and so forth, without the expensive of flying out to the states/flying back.

Yes, it's not meatspace, and there probably wouldn't be any goodies on offer (Unless you count costume codes), but it'd suit me fine. I and from the crowd in the Training server, many others just enjoyed yakking in a non-forum based manner.

Indeed, I'm finding my Stone/Stone tanker to be a bit of a hassle at the moment. Crippling endurance issues mean going without stamina isn't much of an option, unless I decided to get a second account and a friendly kinetic. Rooted means I pretty much have to take Swift or be reduced to a crawl, and I hate using Granite Armour.

These ideas are certainly interesting, and I do hope the dev's take notice and give Stone some love.

To me, the Arachnos Soldier set is a bit more 'Assault Rifle' than Assault Rifle.

Burst, yes, that's AR'ish to me. Slug? Not so much. Buckshot? Not so much. M30 Grenade, yes, Beanbag... sort of. Sniper Rifle? Sort of... Flamethrower? No. Ignite? No. Full Auto, yes. Especially now we're not constrained to the Frankengun. I think the whole set could do with a rework. I'm certainly planning to delete my AR/Dev, AR's just... not that fun, same goes for Dev. I mean, Time Bomb? Seriously?

Anyway, I'd rather see something more like:

Single Shot (Ranged, Single Target)
Burst (Ranged, Several Tick Single Target)
Heavy Burst (Cone, Several Tick)
M30 Grenade (Ranged AoE)
Beanbag -OR- Tracer Fire (Ranged, Single Target, -Def -Stealth)
Sniper Shot -OR- D.U. Rounds (Ranged, Single Target, -Res, -ToHit)
Covering Fire (Ranged AoE, Minor Damage, +Ranged Defense)
Tracer Fire -OR- Flashbang Grenade (Ranged AoE, Stun, -ToHit)
Full Auto (Cone, several tick, crit chance.)

That's just me though.

Frost, the Tier 3 Cone AoE from the Tanker's Ice Melee pool, has a sweet little animation where you raise your hands and project a cone of cold energy from it to damage your foes.

Breath of Fire/Frost Breath have animations where your hands freeze/burn as you spew out a cone of your respective element.

Needless to say, that animation bugs me a little on my Ice and Fire blasters. Frost's on the other hand, does not. Having a Frost-esque alternate animation, with timings adjusted if necessary, would make me more willing to pick up the powers than current (Where the idea of Cindersnap taking a moment in combat to breathe out fire is jarring, same goes for Quickfrost).

Interesting, interesting indeed, you jammy wordsmith.

I'm pretty much in agreement with Samuel_Tow here, there are rooms out there that would turn into hell if combat activated nearby groups of opponents. There's only a few ways to deal with that as is, so if you don't have someone with a mass control power, or one which doesn't recharge fast enough to defeat them in the time it takes for it to wear off, you are going to be in a lot of trouble, and it will simply not be fun in my opinion.

Now, item interaction with NPC's would sound good to me. For example, a Rulaaru assault on a Fire Base, some of your heroes have to hold the fort against waves of attack while you work on getting the base's defenses online. Completing repair task activates turrets, shield generators and so forth.

Hey, I took those orphans to all the places they wanted to go, bought them toys, and even got one ice cream. I think I'm perfectly entitled to eat cakes and such in front of them and abandon them by using my Hearthstone for the sake of achievements.

Conga Rats, Tango Mice and other Celebratory Rodents!

One of the seasonal events over on WoW is Children's Week, where you lend a hand at the various orphanages in Azeroth and Outland. Quests to do, and achievements to complete as well, such as [Bad Example] (Where you have to eat a range of sweets in front of your Orphan) and [Hail to the King, Baby!] (Where you need to defeat a boss in a dungeon, King Ymiron, with your orphan summoned.). Completing the achievements grants you the meta achievement for the event, granting you the Matron/Patron title, and if you get all the meta achievements for the seasonal events, you get [What a Long, Strange Trip it's Been], which rewards you with a Violet Proto-Drake that has 310% flying speed, 30% more than most standard epic flying mounts.

/moves-away-from-the-mic-to-breathe

I've been slacking on doing the events having gotten back into playing City of Heroes.

Wish we had some of the more varied events in the city, rather than a snaffleload of Snaptooth. Where's Independence Day? Veteran's Day? Thanksgiving?

I think the highest I had recently was 42 on my blaster Fusebox, gone down to 37 after some costume revamps. 60 month vet here, so I have a bunch unclaimed on other characters too.

*Grumble* *Grumble* *Grumble*

There I am, all psyched to load up the game and take one of my characters to the tailors for a revamp. New uniform, beefing up old uniform, a change to civvie clothes and all. Then I was thinking of doing some old arcs on him. I check my auctions, arrive at Pocket D to battle with that terrible tailor, and...

[ADMIN] The server will be going down in 10 minutes for the daily maintenance, 2 hour window, so on, so forth.

Khaaaaaaaaaaan!

Now I don't have an excuse to not do my Children's Week achievements over on WoW for a while.

So, has the chimes of maintenance ever kicked in and put a dampener on your plans and activities in game?

Seeing as I seem to be in the writing mood, I got some prep writing done for my Dual Pistols/Mental Manipulation blaster, Fear Trigger. Currently in game at the moment, she'll be going Vigilante once Going Rogue gets here. This piece gets some of her methods and abilities down, and is a start in fleshing out the character for RP.

Pistols, Vigilante, Organized Crime? Them's a combination for a story with a few adult concepts, but nothing that gratuitous, so reader discretion is advised and thus it's linked in a PDF. Need a good PDF reader? I recommend Foxit Reader.

Anyway, with that bit out of the way, here we go for her first outing:

Sour Deal

Damn you, Birdy. Both very good pieces, I loved the slight repetition of events in 'Suicide Takes Ages', a very effective story mechanic. I'd have to say it was my favourite out of the pair, though that's by a small margin. Didn't notice any typos or such, but then, I never do :P

It depends on the type of enemies you're facing though. Some that would prove challenging for higher levels are an utter masochism-fest for the lower level groups of heroes, due to powers/abilities/slots gained rather than combat level alone.

Trillian Astra does IRC pretty well, it's what I'm using at the moment. Linux side there's also the quite excellent Konversation.

The doors of Unity Tower opened up as BODICIA redeployed the Vigilants from an earlier recall. Some had to get thrown produce cleaned off them, which annoyed the AI greatly. What a waste. The main part though, was replacing their UV standard issue multi-munition rifles with something a little more... protester friendly. Stun Capacitor gloves, energy shields and 'D-Sticks' that delivered a pulse of energy designed to disorient on contact.

All external Vigilants have had armaments changed to NLCC mode, extra vigilants have been deployed to the garage doors and side entrances. All internal Vigilants have had their Multi-Muni's set to NL rounds.

Zorielle Rolando, leader of the Unity Vigil, looked up from her notes and nodded. "Good. Advise all members that open carry to switch to concealed carry, and to teleport in to the tower. Same goes for our magically-inclined members."

Already done, Zorielle, I am a genius, after all.

Getting out of her chair, the dark haired woman headed to the window to look down at the crowds. "Outfit two of the Vigilants with force field generators and have them meet me down there, I am going to try and diffuse the situation."

You expect them to listen? They are a pack of animals, baying for blood. No logic, reason. They kill their own in vain attempts to overwhelm areas like surging insects, whipped up into a frenzy by numbers and rousing chants and little placards.

"Of course they do, BODICIA. They are human. Bring down some chairs and tables as well, and some refreshments."

-----------------------------------

With the chairs set up around a table, a couple of water heaters and some bottles of water and squash atop it, plus some small cakes and snacks, Zorielle coughed to clear her throat, plus to activate her vocal boosters. Standing either side of the table were the two Vigilants, their force fields repelling any thrown items.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the crowd, may I have your attention. That involves silence. If you wish to protest, that is fine, but I would rather we do things civilized. I am sure there are those among you who serve as figureheads for the protests, voices that stand above the others to provide direction and to court the press coverage of these gatherings. I would ask those of you who class yourselves as this to step forwards. Join me at the table. Be rational, be reasonable, voice your concerns to me on behalf of your groups, and I shall be rational and reasonable in kind."

Letting that sink in for a moment, she smiled to the crowds. "My stance, is of course, on behalf of those magic wielding heroes in the Unity Vigil, who are responsible and of course, appalled at what has occurred in Gemini Park. It is also on behalf of the technology of the group, that is all documented and accounted for. My final stance is of a group that has taken people in for shelter during the Rikti invasions, who has provided services and support for those in need in the city, projects that do not involve any metahuman abilities. Simply kindness, generosity and good values. As such, there are crates of bottled water being moved to the front of the lines, Please take these and pass them back, hydration is important."

Moving to a seat at once side of the table, Zorielle sat down to face the crowds, dressed in a simple black skirt with her glasses on, a calm smile on her face.

((Up to you on how they take it, Ravenswing! Can just be reported on to save time.))

Colour it a different colour, psychic barrier field. The bookworm part comes from the fact he's a psychology student with a love of book.

Looking forwards to Kinetic Melee. Please, please, someone tell me if Scrappers are going to get Energy Aura as a secondary for this. Why? Because my psychic tai chi practitioner character -needs- this, to be a badass bookworm.

Paragon Star Press, Tuesday 23rd March

Charity Couple Confirmed Courting

Anastasia Kade, model, agent and usually present in the charity scene of Paragon City was seen on the arm last night of property developer and philanthropist Shay Bennet at the exclusive restaurant 'Diamond' in Founders Falls. While rumours have circulated for many months about the pair, from evenings out to working together closely on good causes, our sources say that the pair were kissing and looking very content as Shay, 34, took the blonde beauty Anastasia out for her 30th birthday. Our reporters state that Anastasia, known for her modeling career, was picked up from her apartment building by a limo belonging to Shay, and that the LA born property developer headed up with her after leaving the acclaimed hotspot for Paragon's wealthy elite.

We here at the Paragon Star Press wish the couple all the best, and hope to bring you more news on the donating duo as it comes.

"Look for anyone dressed as either Lord Recluse, or perhaps a Drow Elf. Rushmore, crowd control." BODICIA broadcast to the network of commslinks currently in the area that she linked to the Unity Network. Switching channels, she broadcast a message to Joanna. "Once you're done, let's see about that signal he's broadcasting. I'll grant you access to a core of mine, let's see if we can work it out and get our own signal going."

Cauter passed his coffee cup to the girl he had gone off with. "Listen, I want you to stay here and keep your head down. I need to start searching." With a pat of her arm, the power-suited man began to try and head into the surging crowd.

Flying up into the air, Rushmore drew in a deep breath before shouting out "STOP RUNNING FOR THE EXITS! YOU'RE GOING TO GET SOMEONE, LIKELY A CHILD, TRAMPLED!" Hopefully a floating, stars-and-stripes clad giant of a man might be able to draw some attention. A crowd surge would not be good.

BODICIA was busy explaining to the troopers near her that none of the Vigilants had any external armaments, and the internal ones were currently safety-locked due to convention regulations. That did not stop her from conversing with Josie though.

"Oh, if only more were like you." BODI said admiringly. "In any case, you are right. Could you handle investigating that wireless connection while I perform a signal scan? Perhaps I could shed some light on this situation."

Cauter backed away from one of the Storm Troopers, his hands up. "Sorry, as much as I'd love to co-operate with you, I can't give this suit away." The red and gold-clad hero sighed as the storm trooper waved it's gun towards him in a threatening manner. "Custom Variant Freedom Corps Soter Containment suit. If I take this off, people die. People die, who's going to watch The Spoiler's grand plan in action? Think about it. Won't that get him angry?"

BODICIA's communication protocols made a secure channel for Joanna, several data packet confirmations coming back asking if she'll compile software backends for access to the Unity Network, the protocols and software that bring tactical data to any with the right hardware and clearance.

You are connected, Josie. Welcome to my headspace.

Rushmore stuck a red and white gauntlet clad hand up in the air. "Yo, Question for The Spoiler. Hey." He was smiling brightly after gaining his bearings. "What about those of us who don't have items of power? Should we just chill, or you know... sign autographs or something? Memorabillia?" Looking around, he stretched a little. "I mean, I'm not going to be stupid enough to try something with four nanowhosit bombs around on fans. But should I just chill here and stand?"

As he spoke, BODICIA kept laying on the floor from where she fell after the pulse. Systems flickered back online into life in her and the other Vigilants, and she set to work. Scanning for broadcast blockers/interceptors, before planning her counter attacks. Firstly, a message to the UV members present to co-operate for now and be alert. Next to relay to the police forces and get some hero presence outside, before lastly to begin trying to hack into whatever security equipment she could. This AI needed more eyes.