Zortel

Dreamweaver's inputs aren't bad, she's just coded that way.

Rushmore (Stone/Stone Tanker): Level 23 > Level 40
Fusebox (Electric/Electric Blaster): Level 35 > Level 40
Number Nine (Gravity/Kinetics/Primal Controller): Level 35 > Level 41
Arrow Azure (Trick Arrow/Archery Defender): Level 24 > Level 40

I did it for the costumes, and because I dislike the 30's.

So, when's the next one?

And for a little history of RP on Union (Having been there for the Alpha, and knowing me, will probably still be there for the Omega):

Unionverse: A brief history of time.

During the City of Heroes Europe Beta, a poll was run by Rockjaw on the Beta forums to determine which would be the unofficial RP server. Union was selected as this server.

In the begining of retail, there were two main supergroups with roleplaying at the core. The Society of the Phoenix was lead by Shadowplay, while the Real Heroes Union was lead by Templar. There were also unaffiliated heroes and some smaller groups. The wider diversity of RP supergroups came later on.

Towards the end of Febuary, I got drafted into the Society of the Phoenix on Zortel, my main. There had been arguments amongst the RP community players, including between members of the main two supergroups. Alongside this, a player from the Real Heroes Union, Prize, suggested a meet up of RP heroes in response to the uprising of the Council.

The chosen location?

Galaxy Girl Statue.

A wide range of heroes turned up, and after delivering a speach, The Prize roused heroes including War Crow, Fury, Shadowplay and others to head to Stirga Island to fight the Council in the Wolf's Throat.

Being Roleplayers, some were a bit too low level to fight in there, and some, such as myself, not even being able to enter the hazard zone.

The next night, another, more social gathering of roleplayers turned up. And the night after. And after that. The seeds had been set, and the player of War Crow (Ravenswing) created the first 9pm Under Galaxy Girl's Skirt thread.

From here, the roleplaying started to bloom, with more supergroups (including the Rooftop Generation, a group of mutants that liked to hang around and chat on a Kings Row rooftop eating Up and Away burgers), to bigger plots involving evil swords, industry, aliens, growing up angst and magic. The meetings originally lasted for an hour or two, and started to creep on into the night more.

Firsts for the RP community included the first collaborative writing project involving the death of Fusebox, where seven to eight players including myself contributed writing to the death of the teenage mutant. Of course, like any comic book universe, she soon got over death.

Groups were forged and broken up as 2005 pressed on. Every month there would be a Friday night party at the original Paragon Dance Party. Relationships were forged, intimacies were acted upon and rivalries and hatred surged.

2006 brought some calls to move the group elsewhere as the numbers surged, making chat difficult to follow at times, disagreements between players, as well as friendships and new groups. November 2005 brought a small group of the roleplayers together in real life for the first time at the Brighton Comic Con. Bristol Comic Expo 2006 brought a larger group together. Other comic events have been opportunities for the roleplayers to meet outside, as well as supergroup specific meet ups.

2006 also brought the first overarcing plot for the Unionverse, when a series of events lead to an alternate version of Requiem waging war on the Multiverse. Time intensive and stressful, it lead to both excellent roleplaying and some breakdowns between players, though the IC after effects have been lessened due to new influxes of players, players leaving and the permament game world.

In late 2006 a side project called Ultimate Galaxy Girl started, a forum based attempt at a reworking of the Paragon City universe. Active for a few months before he administration took its toll on the GM's, it had a small contingent of players, and some of the ideas and characters crossed back into the main universe.

We also got a new roleplaying thread. The old one reached about 11-12k posts of updates, banter, arguments and sillyness.

2007 and 2008 continued with the ebb and flow of roleplayers, the statue becoming insanely busy at times and less so at others, in a cyclical fashion. The newly arrived Pocket D drew in the opportunity for heroes and villains to mingle, and the Ski Lodge at Christmas Time tends to provide a gathering point for seasonal RP.

(As a note, a similar gathering like Galaxy Girl was attempted on Villains side, at the Clock Tower in Mercy Island, but Villains aren't as prone to meeting up to chew the fat in such a way.)

Wars were fought IC between hero and villain groups, as super groups teamed up to tackle threats and sometimes with sad consequences. The mad scientist Doctor Mechano let loose a new version of Superadine on the city, which rallied the heroes into action, and the Rikti war surged into life once more, bringing heroes and villains together to face a common foe, right into the heart of the war zone as major players from the big groups struck a blow right at the heart of the Rikti operations.

Groups such as the Silent Tempest continued to bring more global plots to the table, and into 2009 the cycle of Roleplay on the servers has begun again as old players come back, new players arrive and the groups begin to pick up once more.

All in all, GG and the Union server as a whole for roleplaying have had a lot of ups, downs, and darn strange events.

If I left anything out, please add some in. I'm only one person (With many alts) and this is just from one viewpoint, though I have tried to include things that I know about but didn't experience.

I am also not plotting to launch an attack of hopefully funny, fluffy, sweet, bittersweet, lighthearted and generally nice stories upon the board. Or the dreaded alternate universe where Marcus Cole and Stephan Richter discovered the Well of Furries. Even if Stoatsman is a frightfully bad pun.

(One of those is a lie.)

Alright, so we've just moved in together, lots of clutter and boxes and so forth all over the place too, mainly in the Sticky section. I think, and I may not be alone here, that some housekeeping is in order in tidying up the stuck posts.

Do people have any suggestions?

From what I can see, we have the Roleplaying Supergroup thread. This could probably be deleted and remade with new information, seeing as some of the information in it is already fairly outdated.

We have the Official stickies, like the Write for the Paragon Times in the Comic Book one. Seeing as there is no more comic book, that can go.

The Doctor Brainstorm News Dossier? Fanzine? Fan Art and Stories? Some could be consolodated.

Not sure what to do with my rather hastily put together tips and tricks for new roleplayers post, I really should get to work on a version two at some point. Unionverse thread... not sure about that. Probably doesn't need to be stickied.

Could the character descriptions and roleplayer list be merged somehow? Or do away with the RP'er list and have the character one?

Plenty of room for tidying and getting rid of the accumilated clutter! So, thoughts?

I've actuallly had some quite fun experiences this week. DXP has helped me push some characters out of the 30's into the 40's. Especially ones that are fairly tough to Solo. Today, looking to get my TA/Archery Defender up some levels, along with others. There's been a few incidents of people speaking with their rear instead of their brain, but other than that, things have been nice.

Anything on the Troll Tunnel Map. Getting caught between three mobs in an eight man group is painful to say the least. Also, the new Midnight Contact's arcs. The designer sure does loooooove ambushes. For those who love getting ground between two groups of enemies.

You folk from the other side of the game servers may be crazy, but we have our own unique blend of the crazies. It's working out better than I thought here, but the rate at which topics appear and get posted in is a little... hard to keep track of!

I don't know what to say, so I shall let the great Perry Cox say it for me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrjwaqZfjIY

Crisis of Dual Servers! Statesboy Prime decides to punch reality and kill people to death!

I think the only true time we'll get a proper meeting of them is if we get a shared server architecture, so all the servers, EU and US on one list.

((Daaaaang, Papa L's scary D: A great story, CA. Maybe you should re-bring the Crimson Archer ones over too? I know they're about somewhere in the murk of the new boards...))

Mount Rushmore, South Dakota. 1st August 2009

A summer camp outing had come to see the famous, four-headed mountain on a sunny August day. The Custer City Campers had a bit of a different sight though as they peered out through the windows on their bus.

"I don't know why you've come back here yet again, Rushmore, and frankly I cannot be bothered to find out!" Captain Apathy sighed dramatically, waving his hand in a dismissive fashion. Captain Apathy was dressed in a rather ill-fitting purple costume, with metal bracers and boots plus a ridiculous piece of headgear. His black beard was neatly trimmed and there was a somewat bored look to his eyes.

"You know, Cap Ap?" Rushmore sighed, standing in front of his long time foe. "I'm sick and tired of this." His blue and white starred costume gleamed in the sun, and the red and white armour plates of his boots, gloves and shoulders were pristine and polished.

"That's the whole point of... Captain Apathy!" The Captain laughed, striking a fairly good mad villain laughing pose. The manic chuckling needed work though.

"No, not your powers... which by the way, are some of the lamest out there." Rushmore said, brushing some of his blonde hair from his face. "Look, I'm just back in this state to do something and say hi to my family. Can't you cut me a break? Go take your wife out to that seafood resturaunt she goes on about, or take your kids to the park?"

"No! You're my arch nemesis! And whatever you're up to here, you just can't be bothered to do it! Procrastinate under the power of APATHY!" Captain shouted, holding out his hands as a wave of psychic force rippled outwards.

Tensing up, Rushmore recoiled as the first wave of doubt and tiredness rolled over him, starting to press forwards against it. "Don't... waste... your... time, Captain!"

"No no, don't waste yours! Go home and slump in front of the TV you star-spangled slacker!"

Rushmore gritted his teeth, walking into the relentless rage of restfulness. As much as he hated to admit it, the Captain's lame super power was quite effective. Police would walk away from him and crack open a soda in their car, and by the time they realised what had happened, Apathy was gone with the stolen goods.

"Why do you want to work? It's the weekend Rushmore, you could be doing thousands of better things! You don't care about me, just go back to your Paragon City and eat ice cream in the park!" The wave of apathy increased, and Rushmore started to turn around. He was right, what was he doing here? Why bother to fly all the way back home, when he could be down the beach with his girlfriend-

"I miss him, Jamie..." Joanna said, cuddled up to the alter-ego of Rushmore on his sofa.

"Your brother?" Jamie replied, stroking the dyed purple hair from her face. Her Peacebringer brother had gone missing, and all attempts to find him had come for naught so far.

"I know Josh is still out there. Just... not even Susan or Juan or any of the other psychics in the Unity Vigil have had luck." The Warshade closed her eyes, looking quite sad until Jamie kissed her on the forehead.

"... I'll find him, Joanna. I've got an idea."

"Really?"

Jamie grinned. "Of course. I'm your hero, after all."

Rushmore's stance straightened as his inspiration and mission pushed through to the front of his mind. He was going to ask the Spirit of America, who made her home in Mount Rushmore, to help him find Enlightened Falcon. To ensure that his girlfriend, Penumbral Paradox, had the only member of her family who would talk to her back again.

To be a big damn hero.

"No, Apathy." Rushmore said, turning back to face him. The power of the landmark surged through him as several stones broke away from the ground, spinning round him with a glimmering lighty surrounding them.

"What?! You must! Why waste your time here? Why bother? WHY BOTHER WITH ANYTHING, HERO?"

"Because I'm a hero!" Rushmore shouted, bringing his foot down. The ground cracked under him as the faultline spiked across the rock, erupting under Captain Apathy and sending him to his knees... well, his rear.

"I bother because I care. I care about this country, I care about its people, I care about its ideals. Sure it's hard work, sure it's demanding and tough and dangerous, but someone has to!" Around him, a small flare of light began to shine behind him.

"Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. And I can do this." Bending down, Rushmore's hands slid smoothly into the earth, before drawing out a chunk of rock. Oddly, it left the ground under him unscathed. "Truth, justice, and CaptainApathyabouttogetstonedsayswhat?"

"... What?" The Captain asked, his expression baffled.

Rushmore flew towards him, raising the rock above his head. "Land of Sweet Liberty." Rushmore grinned brightly, before lightly bringing the rock down to pin the Captain in the crator.

"Curses, foiled again!"

"Yeah, about that... one moment." Rushmore said, his feet touching back down on the ground before walking over to the bus, smiling and waving.

"Hello Children! Welcome to Mount Rushmore. Finished in 1941, it was dedicated to the first 150 years of the U.S of A. Now, do any of you have any foil?"

A young boy ducked his head down, and after a moment showed Rushmore the foil-wrapped sandwiches his mom had packed.

"That's good, thanks, any more? I know it seems odd, but I need the foil to stop the villain over there from using his powers."

The flood of foil clad consumables was more than enough.

"Thanks kids, now, if you go and ask nicely at the tourist center, I'm sure they'll give you a special reward for helping me, Rushmore, do battle with this villain to protect one of the nations treasures." He said, before nodding in thanks as one of the adults came out of the bus with the foil.

Heading back, he sat down besides Apathy and started wrapping the foil around his head. "What is your wife going to say about this, Harold?" Rushmore sighed.

"The usual, she's all fine when I get her free lunches or jewels, but whenever YOU put me away, it's nag nag nag."

"And your kids? How do you think they feel at school, knowing their dad's a sup... a villain?"

"... Cool?"

"No, not cool."

"This smells of baloney... and cream cheese! I hate cream cheese!" The Captain pulled a face, sticking his tongue out.

"I know. Maybe next time the threat of sandwich filling smells will stop you from trying to ruin my weekend."

"I'll be out next time you come back to South Dakota, Rushmore, and when I'm out, I'll bore the hell out of you!"

Rushmore stood up and grinned. "You already do, Harold. Say hi to the police department for me. I have a job to do."

"I'm shaking my fist at you from under this boulder!"

Rushmore walked away, his cape billowing in the breeze rather dramatically as he headed for the base of the mountain. "You keep doing that." He said out loud, before looking to the stone, his voice dropping. "It's me again, and... I need some help, America."

His hands began to sink into the rock as the song of the country began to fill his ears. "Welcome, young Jamie Matthews... you have helped America often, so America will help you..."

I'd like a much simpler option, seeing as I often browse the forums on a netbook as well, this interface feels quite... chunky? Not really that good for 1024x600 screens.

Also, my favourite forums are now alllll the way at the bottom of the page, which is a little irksome.

The forums went down, and when they came back up, I found myself covered in blood. So much blood... oh jeez, what did I do?

Actually, TV Tropes, webcomics and Twitter. And messing about with Linux installs.

Hello USA, this is London calling.

Okay, it's just me, but greetings to all our US and other parts of the world friends. I am Zortel, and when I have not had my coffee I can be full of snark. When I've had my coffee... okay, the snark is still there, but it's -nice- snark.

Now, time to find a corner of the RP boards to curl up in.

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Giving you all a healthy does of optimistic cynicism:

The EU Roleplay and Creative boards will be decimated in the transfer, possibly along with comics and culture.

More of the US posts will survive than EU posts (as a
percentage)

Any loss of EU posts will be passed off as unrecoverable due to transfer tech error. Likely that they just weren't transfered.

Prepare for the worst, if better comes then be plesantly surprised! Protect and Survive!

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Why would there be an EU roleplaying section at all? Or a Creative. You can start EU specific threads in the relevant new Roleplaying section can't you?

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To Clarify:

EU Boards - Current
US Boards - Current
Global Boards - After Merge

The cynical side of me feels that a large amount of content from the current EU boards won't make it over to the Global Boards, while the US content will.

So our NaNoWriMo/DraMo threads, the various major RP threads and so forth.

Plus, the US RP boards are mostly chock full of Open RP topics.

Giving you all a healthy does of optimistic cynicism:

The EU Roleplay and Creative boards will be decimated in the transfer, possibly along with comics and culture.

More of the US posts will survive than EU posts (as a percentage)

Any loss of EU posts will be passed off as unrecoverable due to transfer tech error. Likely that they just weren't transfered.

Prepare for the worst, if better comes then be plesantly surprised! Protect and Survive!

Talos Island needs a china town. In fact, during RP I make references to it having a china town anyway, because it bloody well needs one! Stick some cool Chinese heroes down there too, maybe have them face off against the Tsoo.

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Kids won't be added I suspect for PC reasons. Don't know if the same will apply to old people or not.

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If the kids can't be attacked, just like pedestrians, I don't see the issue. We have Penny Preston or whatever she's called in Founders Falls after all! Even if she does scare the socks off me.

ML: Not seen Millenium City in any form, it's just logic, really! And yes, the chance of it happening is slimmer than a size zero model to none. Which is a shame, because even WoW has more immersive cities, and that's a -World- of Warcraft. We're a City of Heroes in a bland, tasteless land.

GG: Never! Atlas and Galaxy should keep a Perez Park away from each other.

Good marketing, a good fanbase from the Warcraft games and other Blizzard fans, the snowball effect, a presence in e-sports, merchandise and a large amount of player-based tools and UI Mods all help, plus WoW has been polished till it gleams.

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If you're going to compare CO with CoX then do it with CoX when it was at the same publication age.

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People tend to prefer "We have more features than this game!" over "We have more features that this game had several years ago!"

People don't care about if the game is better than the competitor when it was released in the past. They care about if the game is better than the competitor now, so all comparisons between products will come with that because we aren't playing 2004/5 CoH. We're playing 2009 CoH. And it'll be facing 2009 CO.

Loving the new animations. And Earth Assault at last, so just waiting on Electric Control for Dominators.

Some people say that CoH needs a graphics update, that the city is too bland and lifeless and so forth. While I will not contest the latter, the former... I think that could be worked towards by making the city more alive.

If you look at any real world city, there's always a mix of architecture due to how cities grow over time. Some buildings get knocked down, some get rebuilt, new ones get built. There's distinctive shops, landmarks recreation areas.

I believe that by remodelling some of the zones, not quite in the way that Faultline recieved, more in how the MA/AH/Arena buildings sprang up, that it could put some colour and energy into the world. Put in some enterable shops, lively NPC's and interesting little quirks. Maybe some small statues, plaques, memorial gardens/trees.

Let's take a case in point: Atlas Park.

There are two main distinctive things that come to my head when I think of Atlas Park. The statue of Atlas, and City Hall. The rest of the area is rather forgettable in my opinion. Let's see if we can change that.

[u]Neighbourhoods:[u]

[u]Atlas Plaza[u]

For those who don't go to Galaxy City, Atlas Plaza is the first thing they see when they leave Outbreak. The music is rousing and inspiring, and view shows the massive statue of Atlas and the steps of City Hall.

What can be done in this area?
1: A lick of paint for City Hall. It looks quite drab, so some new texturing and whiter paint might do it a bit of good.
2: Tourists. This is one of America's major cities, with a super hero standing outside surrounded by others. Maybe have some tourists, a tour guide NPC, and tourists who don't have that ridiculously archaic camera with them.
3: Protestors. The steps of City Hall are perfect to have some protestors standing outside there, waving their placards at random times. There could be a few PPD officers standing watch to make sure things stay peaceful.
3: NPC heroes. We all love War Witch's dialogue. So why not some brightly coloured heroes passing over city hall on their way to who knows where, or some standing about discussing. Heck, you could even have a writing dialogue contest. I'm sure Ascendant over on the US side would be good for that.

Maybe give inside City Hall a few more rooms, some NPC's chattering away. A portrait of Spanky, that loveable scamp. See bureaucracy in action.

[u]Prometheus Park[u]

This area, to the west of City Hall, is... not that park-like really. Mostly an expanse of lake with a random statue in the middle, a few benches and some trees. Oh, and an overpass.

1: Play equipment. Stick in some swings, a roundabout, a slide and a see saw. Maybe have some NPC mothers, fathers and children there during daylight hours. Could stick some Hellions there at night playing on the equipment or just loitering there.
2: A vendor stall or two. One of those mobile coffee places (Use some Influence to get the Caffinated Buff! +Rec +Speed -Recharge) or an ice cream or hot dog stand.
3: Would some flower beds and less spartan tree coverage kill?
4: Stick some couples on some of the benches at random times chatting away.

[u]Chiron Medical Center[u]

1: For the love of <insert choice of deity here> stick an ambulance bay and some ambulances outside. Maybe have an ambulance chasing lawyer loitering outside the front doors. ("Were you injured in a super-powered event? Sue those responsible and you could win thousands of dollars!")
2: Coffee stand or something outside. And maybe some people smoking/pacing/generally looking worried.
3: Inside, humourous doctor's stories. ("And then he said 'I just tripped and fell onto the death ray gun, and that's how it got there!'")

[u]Argosy Industrial Park[u]

1: Stick some company names and signs up for the factory.

2: Stick some workers inside and outside, maybe loading things onto a truck. Have the Hellions trying to terrorize them, or the Vahz trying to drag a lone worker away. Maybe a worker trying to chase off thieving Clockwork.

3: Isn't this a perfect place to introduce the players to Crey? Maybe some of their security guards chasing down a robber, loading things onto vans, and maybe one of the friendly Paragon Protectors lending one of Paragon's flagship companies a hand in disposing of hazardous waste in a safe fashion, or stopping an eeeevil criminal breaking in.

4: Did someone say protestors? Or striking workers?

[u]The Promenade[u]

1: This place is supposed to be famous for its theatres and music halls. Chuck some in then! At night have NPC's queuing up outside.

2: It's close to Steel Canyon. Put some shops and plazas in there. There's a non-zoned area to the south and to the north of Prometheus Park that'd make a great shopping arcade.

3: The place screams trendy wine bar/resturaunt with al fresco dining.

4: Clockwork trying to steal chairs, lights and even knives and forks? Hellions shaking down drunken people on their way home? PPD doing a breathalyzer test on a couple in a car park?

[u]Hyperion Way[u]

1: Stick in some high rise appartment buildings. Maybe have the odd superhero coming out of a window and flying off to do justice.

2: Stick some local shops on the ground level. Korean bodogas, convinenece stores, some mom and pop places along with the big guns like Mighty Mart. Speaking of, stick some Mighty/Mega Mart trucks on the road and out back of the stores.

3: Community parks with locals in. Old men complaing about not enough/too many heroes.

[u]Downside[u]

1: Boarded up buildings. It is part of a slum, after all. Have some houses with some of the boards broken.

2: Higher concentration of gang crime. Maybe some battles with the Trolls of Skyway City.

3: Some panhandling bums on the street.

4: Maybe a few city officials, pondering on renovations and reclaiming the run down part of Atlas.

Phew, started to lose some steam towards the end, but... well, I consider these to be some simple and attainable ideas to make one part of the city more vibrant, more alive and a darn sight more interesting.

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But doesn't WoW have some sort of buff refusal option? How does that work?

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On WoW, you can right click on a buff icon to remove it from yourself.

Say someone casts Power Word: Fortitude on you. With a simple Right Click on the icon at the top of your screen, the buff disappears.