Zortel

In any case, this 'trix is definitely not for kids.

(Sorry, I had to make that pun. The universe demanded it.)

I'm just curious and all, between the pages and page of news on such amazing updates like Champions devs talk about Blood Moon, Blood Moon Trailer, Screenshots of Champions, Champions gives out free respec...

Yet where's the HeroCon news? F2P games get more coverage than CoH/V lately, it seems. It took them 3-4 days to even announce that Issue 16 was live after the event.

Did the company and website have some falling out? Is this part of an insideous plot by some other games developer to shunt out the news, or do they simply not care?

Thanks for the info, I'm certainly excited seeing the stuff come out of the keynote, may get me back into playing again!

Also, be sure to ask for more RP stuff!

Spambots don't know about my banhammer. I heard they like being banned, so I put a banning in their ban so they can be banned while they're banned. Yo, spambots, Imma let you finish but banning is the best feeling of all time.

Ahem. The bots have been IP Blocked.

Take a leaf from the Blue King Comics. Apex and War Witch.

Or the Freedom Phalanx novel.

I had a lovely reply lined up, regarding what the impact would be if all of a sudden everyone was peaceful, and about all that, and accidently hit the close button on my tab. ><

So, the cliff notes:

Good never outweighs bad, whatever your definition of those two points are. Bad in my eyes is oppresive and devouring, while good is enduring and perssting. Bad is killing someone who tries to rob you. Good is standing up, stopping them and getting them to repent and reform for their cries. Harder, riskier, more time and money intensive, but the 'right' thing.

This is a pretty high cliff, so:

Tax is something we all have to pay, and while it goes to good things, we generally don't feel good about paying it. Willingly donating to charity, spur of the moment, appriciation for the cause, every little helps on the other hand does. It puts a spring in the step, and makes you feel you've done something to help.

If we all had to be 'good' and donate to charity, no choice, it'd just feel like tax. A burden we have to do or bad things happen. There's no joy or feeling of good in it. It's an expense.

Also, changing the mind through chemicals, surgery, psychology, pain and brainwashing have all had their failures, their bad sides, their side effects, their casualties. The human mind can adapt and defend itself to an extent, but either it'll fail or break in some. And as someone else mentioned, what happens when the guy dies, or a new child is born?

And finally- *thud*

Gal here, my first hero to 50 is a female character, but I currently have more male characters than female, and roleplay all my characters.

Been struggling with some of it, but just for you Fans, here's ADAOS's interview, part one.

ADAOS

I had to laugh as it came in. Holding it in was out of the question. Earned me an elbow to the ribs from Skorly, but...

This ADAOS. Around Eight foot, almost as wide as one of those Asian compacts in the shoulders. Shiny was one word you could use for it. White and black plating, head as smooth as a bowling ball, with some wrap around visor with lenses on. Big old jaw, and feet that wouldn't look out of place on a machine in a car factory.

That wasn't the amusing part.

This thing? Dressed in a suit. Black pants and jacket with a white shirt. Feet clomping along, head looking like a bust from one of those nerd places, and big robotic hands.

"You look ridiculous." I said. Best to start off with the right impression. I winced. There was Skorly's elbow again.

"I will take your view on my apperance onboard for a later date." It replied, its lenses twirling slightly to focus on me. Voice had no heart to it, no emotion. Monotone and droning. Not like one of those fancy, if illegal, sex bots that get made. And sometimes go berserk. This one was formidable though.

"Good. Skorly, get the basics out of the way while I nurse this coffee till the bitter end." She rolled her eyes at me, even as I started to sip once more at the insipid concouction, before looking to our first for the day.

"So, you're ADAOS?"

"That is correct."

"Acronym?" I interjected. Anything to busy my tongue form the torture I was inflicting on it.

"That is correct. Automaton for Defensive And Offensive Situations." All laid out, cold blooded. The fact its jaw didn't move put me off it even more.

"Alright, an-"

"But I prefer Adrian, please." The robot cut her off. That surprised me. Used please too. Not impressed though. Dogs walk on their hind legs and shake paws, only thing that's good for is those stupid home video shows.

"Alright, Adrian. And how old are you?" Skorly asked like a pro. Must be all that training from standing on street corners with questionaires. Always with the 'public relations' skills.

"I have just passed two years of operation."

"Active service heroing during that time?"

"That is mostly correct. I have been off patrol for upgrades and repairs for numerous occasions."

"Of course. Can't just bolt a new hip on to me, or a plasma cannon." I mentioned. Another nudge in the ribs from Skorly. Her elbow would wind up sorer soon than my rib. Was one of the artificial ones after a Troll went to town on me.

"That is untrue." It chimed in with. "WIth advancing prosphetics, cybernetics, medical technologies and treatments, repairing damage and adding in new technologies is becoming more and more common.

"You a wise guy, then?"

"I do learn from previous mistakes, but in the sense that you are using the term, no. I was simply informing you in an attempt to rectify your mistaken knowledge of medical advances."

"So, you're a wise guy, then." I said, bringing my own elbow into play to block Skorly's.

"If that designation makes you feel more comfortable, yes." It stated. That lack of emotion to its voice just kept setting me on edge.

"You're with the Unity Vigil, I see." Skorly stated. That explains a lot. A lot of technology there. Too much for a private citizen, some thought. I agreed with that.

"How do you find working with the group?"

The robot's lenses turned and whirred to focus on Skorly.

"I find it satisfying."

"Satisfying, that's the word you're going to use?" I chuckled. It was always amusing to try and see these machiens use human terms.

"It is. They provide shelter for me, facilities to repair and upgrade myself, entertainment, and by a large majority, respect."

"That suggests that not all of them respect you." Skorly pressed. Looks like the training of Freedom Corps was good for something.

"That is correct. Some dislike robots, or have an aversion to them. They do seem to tolerate my presence, which is all you can ask of them."

"Is it?" I asked it idly, rubbing my chin. Felt like sandpaper. Five blade hero smooth experience my ***, Cavalier Razors.

"Yes. As long as they keep their opinions to themselves and do not antagonize me, I am fine with that. They are entitled to their views."

"How does that make you feel? I mean, not being accepted by some." Skorly asked, pre-emptively kicking my ankle before I could laugh at asking a droid how it felt.

"As long as they keep their views to themselves, I am fine with it."

"Don't they have a right to say how they feel?" I started to press the issue. "After all, I can't stand robots, myself. Think I want to censo-"

"I know. I determined as such from your responses to me. They have a right to hold their own views. They have a responsibility to not upset me by imposing them."

"Responsibility? Says where? And you, upset? Bet you can't even shed a tear." Another nudge from Skorly. I got told to find out what makes them tick, and by God I'll do it.

"Common courtesy would dictate. While I lack the ability to cry, and to possess emotions such as you do, this does not mean I cannot be disheartened or feel lonely."

"Do you feel that often, Adrian? Lonelyness?" I caught the look in Skorly's eyes, was that some semblance of pity I saw?

"Yes." Was all it replied with. Skorly glanced at me, an eyebrow raised. She just got a shrug in return from me.

"Let's call a break for now. This coffee's gone straight through me." My chair scraped along the floor of the interview room as I pushed it back, ready to go sit on that porcelain throne. Not even sure if it is made of that anymore. The door was closing behind me as I called back. "And someone get me a new cup of coffee. This is going to be a long one."

The slap emotes are bad enough when spammed on you, let alone someone upchucking. Thank the Devs for not including it.

I had a character called Zorielle on Ragnarok Online and Final Fantasy XI. When I tried the EU CoH beta, I decided I liked the Zor- part, so added tel to make it sound more dynamic and techy for my Energy Blaster.

Then I started roleplaying, and Zortel became known as Zorielle Rolando, a hero who had built her suit of powered armour with partner Tessa Lenson, and Zortel became a sort of backronym for the creators of the suit, Zorielle Rolando and Tessa Lenson.

And now it's stuck as my longest lasting handle online. And while I don't get called it much in real life, my friends from CoH tend to refer to me as Z (that's Zee, not Zed, if I was Zed, I'd have a big staff with a Z on and live on the moon.)

Oddly enough, over on WoW, my main character also starts with a Z, Zackary.

Also, my avatar has nothing to do with my characters. It's just the cool Diana 17 from Chōkō Senki Kikaiō/Tech Romancer. Because the world needs more mecha with breasts.

Please, please, please could we be able to promote/demote people who are currently offline? Or at least allow the Super Leader to? I've got a big super group list here that I need to sort out the ranks on, and it'll be slow going to get everyone online and then on to different alts.

The H Files

The name's Wolf. Wolf Maller. I've been with the FBSA since its inception. Getting on in years now. Field work put my back and knee out one too many times, and now?

Now it's desk work for me. Paper-shuffling, pencil-pushing, desk work.

Galling that it's come to this. But that's the hand that fate is dealing with me. And I gotta play it.

It was several days ago that my boss, jumped up little upstart with too much red tape wrapped around the stick in his ***, came up to me and gave me this job.

"Connect with the heroes, find out what makes them tick." He said.

"Help us update our files, get the low-down, put them in the box," And another half dozen corperate buzzwords he spewed out, as per norm.

So here I am, sitting in an interview room. I'm not getting any younger. My hair is greying, my eyes are sagging , and it's taking a whiskey in the evening, a coffee in the morning and a cigarette at whenever I feel like it to help me through the day.

Sitting next to me is some pretty young thing.

"Danielle, Danielle Skorly." She introduces herself, offering a hand. Prim, proper sort. Hair nary out of place, all buisness blouse, jacket and skirt. Brownish-red hair up in a bun. There's a disdainful glance at my hand as I take it. Must be the tobacco stained fingers. Or gnawed away nails.

"Wolf Maller." I replied. "You new at this?" I could hear the grin in my voice. I love newbies.

"Just graduated from Freedom Corps." She replied. She was clearly unimpressed with me.

Couldn't blame her. Some days I was unimpressed with me.

"Well, don't expect any gentle easings into this. It'll be weird, freaky, and you'll walk away with a new view on life. Or not."

"You the latter, then?" She said with a slight smirk. She was tapping away on some dinky little thing. Chinese, probably. Still, the smirk was promising.

"Might be. You going to take notes on that toy?" I asked, reaching for my coffee to take a sip.

... Awful. Just like it should be in Freedom Court.

"Yes. Typing, voice recording. Along with these cameras, should be perfect for the files. Got a problem with that?"

"No. Just in my day, we used typewriters, shorthand and cassette recorders." Setting down the coffee, my hand checked under the desk for the panic button, just in case. The capes can get rowdy at times. Especially if we're 'finding out what makes them tick'.

Ah, there it is.

"In your day, I wasn't even born." There was that smirk again. Acidic. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad.

"So, who are we seeing first?" She asked. There was something in her voice I hadn't heard for years, least from me. Hope, lust for work. Heh.

This job would soon take it from her, I thought, as I started to flick through the pile of papers, notices, warnings and so forth to get to the first case file. She must have noticed the grimace on my face.

"That bad?"

"Worse. It's a robot." Had no time for them. Between Doctor Mechano, Nemesis and who ever else got the bright ideas to make a walking death machine without a pilot, I'd had my fill and over of them.

"Let's hope you're more sociable with it." Skorly replied, reprimanding me with those dark cherry red lips. At least the eye candy in this work is good. And she's not dressed like a candy stripe.

"Might be. Best get this started. Bring ADAOS in."

Everyone loves a bit of Nitoichi! It's good, and the Cimeroran looks rather authentic too!

Female, 23, Roleplayer:

19 Male
11 Female

I used to have more female to male characters, but when a running joke became that men were rare/endangered non-existant in the RP community, I jolted my brain and brought in male characters to make up the balance.

I believe the part about Dev's Choice means that a new slew of missions have been selected and will be marked as such come the launch of Issue 16.

Cauter, my Fire/Fire Scrapper, has this as his battlecry:

"The Burning Sensation has arrived!"

Then while the villains are laughing their ***** off, he goes and arrests them. It works.

It's true, too. You know that reading this is hard for someone with writers block, as it just makes me want to beat my head more for not being able to get words on the page?

But it was very enjoyable, if sad, and shows that even a Mission Accomplished can have a bad end. We need more bad ends.

How can you speak of Jack without mentioning his seer-like 'Vision' that must be adhered to?

As it was, for a long time on the EU RP boards there was hardly any RP threads. It was for stories, discussions, questions and so forth. It's only in the past year or two that it started to happen with more regularity. Compared to visits to the US boards where there was a good chunk of posts marked with ((Open RP)) or ((Closed RP)).

That works for me, Shadowe.

I'd rather have a degree of seperation from the other RP'ers for all sides involved (Such as Virture only RP threads, or so forth) than just an insane clusterbomb of madness and the inevitable fallout. Changing our style and way of RPing on the boards after four and a half years doesn't seem very merge-like to me, more assimiliation-like. Just saying.