Zortel

Madame Midknight wishes to check Jessica's body, and possibly Hannah's pendant as well. Fairly skilled in necromancy, with first hand experience of death and the world beyond, she wishes to try and track down Jessica's spirit. If she died with regrets, Jane thinks she -should- be able to find her somehow.

While your passing on feedback, could you also add the ability to buy things from the PlayNC store as gift purchases, and give other people the codes so they can apply them to their accounts?

Well, as I recall it, like NaNoWriMo, depends. You can do all CoH, you might do a mix! It's a fun bag really!

Not quite.

50 sketches each. If a picture tells a thousand words, fifty of them tell fifty thousand. That's roughly 1.2 Pictures a day

I brought slots last month. This month I try to buy them, I get the error along the lines of "You cannot purchase as you have no Credit Card on File" even when I did. So I can't purchase things from the in game store. It seems a little odd though, as some people's recurring billing stopped a while ago, while mine only just stopped this month.

I might inflict bad drawing on people. Who knows?

Ideas for that:

Broadsword: Smacking someone with the hilt or flat of your blade to stun them.

Claws: A Gouge attack to lower enemy accuracy and give a disorient chance.

Dark Melee: Perhaps something to debuff an enemy and buff yourself, like a -Def/+Def Or even Regen/Recov or something.

Dual Blades: Something comparable to Parry/Divine Avalanche, perhaps including a new combo that uses Power Slice and Vengeful Strike to give you a further buff?

Firey Melee: Combustion, for more PBAoE goodness?

Katana: Maybe a 10 second buff that adds a DoT component to all of your attacks? Tiger Fangs? If that's even possible in the engine.

Martial Arts: Lord knows maybe a punch which isn't Cobra Strike? Or if you're feeling lazy, maybe steal one of Foreshadow's Chi Blasts, its not like Spines doesn't have ranged attacks.

Spines: Spine Barrage, like Thorny Assault's Thorn Barrage? Thornatrops?

Get rid of Confront for something more fun in the Scrapper Primaries. I hardly know of anyone who's taken it, and it's easily replaced by a power pool power.

Unity Tower, Sunday Evening

Zorielle was tired... she'd been up for three days now and without adiquate preparation, sleep was begining to catch up to her. She had one thing left to do though, one hard thing before she could finally return home and rest. The decision hadn't come easy, but with Ellie's mind forced into a state of emotional disattachment, protecting herself subconciously from the wave of loss and grief, she'd openly speak about Jessica as being dead.

Leaning back into her office chair, she took a moment to compose herself and check her make up, concealing most of the tiredness from her face. Never show weakness in public, never expose yourself as vunerable.

Over the UV comms screens, commslinks and internal HUD comms implants, her image and/or voice appeared.

"Good evening to everyone in the Unity Vigil and New Vigilants.

It is with great regret that I must notify all members of an event that occured on Friday morning. A dear friend of the group and its members, and a teacher for the New Vigilants, passed away.

Jessica Stoneberg, better known as Grav Mistress, was involved in a magical accident while on a trip away from the city. Though there is some slight hope that what fate befell her is not terminal, in accordance to proceedure and mitigating factors, I sadly must inform you all of her untimely death.

As a close family friend, a valued teacher and a steadfast collegue, she will be sorely missed, and a memorial will take place on Monday for her in the Hall of Honours in Unity Tower. A private ceremony, to be attended by close friends and family, will take place on Rolando Island on Wednesday morning.

Thank you for your time, and I hope you will all join me in sending regards to Jessica's family and loved ones."

With that, Zorielle's image and voice flickered from the comms channels, letting BODICIA relay it to all pertinent outside members. Shortly after, an encrypted message was sent to all the recepients from the OverAI.

"This is OverAI BODICIA of the Unity Vigil. As an addendum to the earlier message, the following information has been classed as Priority One by the Unity Vigil Medical Board. Currently, Ellie Stoneberg, the partner of the deceased Jessica Stoneberg, is currently in a state of emotional amnesia. Investigations are still being done, but we believe this is a mental defence to protect her from realisation of her loss.

Please be considerate and mindful in all interactions with Ellie Stoneberg. Any persons found inflicting undue mental stress to her by ignoring this will be dealt with personally by Zorielle Rolando.

I must make a point to remind you that she is not in the best of moods. Do you -really- want to incur her wrath? BODICIA out."

FFM: Aye, I mean, my Maestro card is working fine with that Other MMORPG. The one everyone knows about. It's not so much the non-reccuring billing which is the annoying issue here, but the fact that I'm being penalized for not using a different card which I don't have.

Please. Really, please. Maestro's policy changes have screwed me over for recurring billing, and now I can't even upgrade my account with extra slots or any of the other in game store purchasable items because of it.

I want to get extra slots on my account. Please, let me buy them. Let other people upgrade their accounts through the PlayNC store.

No, I'm not saying servers. Honest!

Supergroups. We have coalitions already, but what with the increase in SG member size now, it'd be kind of nice if you were able to have the leaders of 2 SG's or so merge their group together to under one name. Members, prestige and badges getting transfered to just one group name.

Say SG A has around 2 million prestige, 5 SG badges and half the beacons, and 50 members.

SG B has around 1 and a half million prestige, 7 SG badges, three quaters of the beacons and 50 members.

After the Merger, the two become either SG A or SG B, with 3 and a half million prestige, 100 members, nearly all of the beacon and 7 SG badges.

What with the base price changes coming soon, I'd love to be able to merge the Unity Vigil and New Vigilants into one group to pool resources more effectively to expand a base.

Failing that, how about the option to link with an SG and share prestige?

(Also, while talking about SG's... promotions and demotions while the character is offline, please?)

[u]A Day to Remember, Part 1.[u]
Thursday 2nd October, 7am

Ryan Andrews, the young man known as the hero Cindersnap, awoke with some consternation. Too many late nights and too many early mornings had been plaguing the leader of the New Vigilants. The past few days he had been rushing about to deal with new students and all the work that involved in getting them set up and set in, running classes, working out what to teach next for his students, reviewing other-

To cut it short, he had a -lot- of duties. At seventeen years old, it was a lot of responsibility to take on, but he was the kind of man who always stepped up to a challenge. Today though, he was eighteen. Maybe that would make some kind of magical big difference.

'Fat chance' Ryan grumbled to himself, stumbling out of bed and shedding his shorts and t-shirt mid route to his shower, letting the first blast of cold water shock him into some state resembling being awake. His teeth chattered a little as he stood under the frigid spray, rubbing water into his face. Soon, the water began to warm up, and he reached for the bottle of rather pricey bodywash he used.

”Good morning and happy birthday, Ryan. You know, we would not begrudge you a lie-in on this auspicious day, but being the busy man you are, what with the cadre of friends and fans, I can understand you wishing to fit as much basking in their culminative adoration in as possible.” A female voice came from inside his head, the cybernetic retinal implants that his boss got for him displaying the picture of BODICIA, an oft-snarky AI that looked after things behind the scenes for the Unity Vigil and New Vigilants.

“Love you too, B.” Ryan laughed, lathering his chest up. “I'm taking tomorrow and the weekend off, so plenty of time to catch up on my sleep.”

”That still does not explain why you have such a packed schedule today. And the party? Living to the excesses of the hero lifestyle with soda pop and cheetos I see.” BODICIA replied. Ribbing and mocking was one of the ways she displayed affection to people, and from the day plan she uploaded to his HUD, it appeared she'd moved and delegated some of his chores to free up his schedule.

“I'll give you the same answer I gave Zorielle. With the Rikti attacks recently, the students need something to keep their mind of things. Birthday parties are traditional at the Tower, and mine's no exception. I'd rather curl up on the sofa with some friends and some good food, but things can't go -all- my way today, can they?” Ryan replied. He could internalize the communications, but it was his home and his shower, so he could do what he felt like. Wiping the mirror in the somewhat spacious cubicle down, he soaped up his face before taking the razor to his cheeks, chin and neck. “And anyway, just because it's my birthday doesn't mean I can skip out on all my other work.”

”Great, the Rolando brand of leadership appears to be infectious. Get out while you can, before you end up sprouting formulaic and thought out speech all the time.” BODICIA's avatar display rolled her eyes. ”You have the strength of will and stubbornness down -just- right though. Your order is ready to pick up, see you in the tower for Nine, if not earlier.”

Peering up, Ryan carefully let his razor glide down his neck, removing the downy blond hair and slight stubble that accumulated overnight. “Alright BODI, take care.” He smiled. As her avatar faded from the screen, a quick few eye movements brought up his in-built media player, and the sound of Queen's 'I Want to Break Free' came over his audio implants. Bopping from the shower to the bedroom, he quickly dressed into the tight fitting amber and black uniform he wore to work, before stopping off in the kitchen for something to eat.

He kept his apartment in the area between Skyway and Atlas fairly neat, and the kitchen was well stocked and equipped as always. Cooking was a passion, and there was always something nice about bringing friends over to cook for them. Or his boyfriend. Though that was more of a case of used to, and ex-boyfriend now. News aggregators and bulletin updates scrolled down the right hand side of his vision as he did some minor tidying, taking in all latest updates and events.

'Getting to be a routine now... good thing work isn't at times' Ryan chuckled, stopping just before his front door to check himself over in the mirror, running his fingers through his now dyed and gelled blond hair. His blue eyes were somewhat obscured by the orange glow they emitted, but that light came in handy sometimes, and it's not like he couldn't shut it off with his cybernetics. Clipping on his orange-lensed sunglasses, it was out of the front door and down to the street, hands moving at a blur as he grabbed his mail and zipped off into the city.

*

The orange and black streak of light that rushed across the elevated highways in Skyway City was singing along to another track from his playlist. Thankfully, his somewhat amateur at best singing voice was victim to the Doppler effect, and effectively protected the commuting citizens from being subjected to 'I'm traveling at the speed of liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight!'

With built in kinetic dampeners in his suit protecting him from the wind at high speeds, it also helped to protect the bouquet of flowers in his arms as he made a sharp turn off to a junction. If overrunning the actual junction and leaping from the bridge to the highway below could be considered a 'turn'. A Troll just about to lob a brick at a passing school bus blinked in perplexion as said blunt object disappeared from his hands.

He then promptly fell wheezing to the ground as the brick flew back to catch him in the chest.

Ryan's destination was the cemetery just near to Talos Island, paying one of his now less frequent visits. Seeing the wrought iron gates approaching, the young man dropped out of super-speed just enough to slow to a stop by the time he reached the gate. The flowers were thankfully undamaged, a mix of various blooms that he picked out himself, including some of the recipient's favorites. With a nod to the grounds keeper, Ryan slipped past the gates.

Graveyards didn't really unsettle him anymore, he'd visited enough in the past, and he smiled as he came to his destination, glasses being tucked into a pocket just as he kneeled down to lay the flowers by the gravestone.

“Hey Mom, hey Dad.” The young man's fingers flicked out in American sign language. “Eighteen today... yeah, I know. Shooting up -real- fast now. Broken up with Rob, but I know you know that already...” Even though he hadn't needed to sign as much now, it was still ingrained on him as his second language. “You'll also see that I've been doing my best with my students. It's tough work, but... no pain, no gain. And there's a lot of gain to be had... uh, if that makes any sense.”

Kneeling down, Ryan carefully removed some weeds from around the grave, tucking them away for later disposal before starting to sign again. “Only a brief visit this time, got to work even on my birthday. Just like I always had to go to school on mine, Dad.” Ryan grinned. The excuse that it was his birthday was never enough to be able to stay at home. “I miss you both, but I know you're looking out for me still. Keep looking after Tom too, and... I know I say this every time, but sorry again. Guilt doesn't go away, but we can learn to deal with it. That's what Zorielle says.”

Rising to his knees, he planted a kiss on his thumb before touching it to the large grave and stepped sideways to the next one, crouching again. “Yeah, I know you probably oversaw, but your big bro's eighteen. Still making friends, and I know you'd really like one of them. She works in a comic store. Shame you won't get to meet them yet.” Ryan said, smiling gently as he gently brushed some dirt from the engraved name on the stone. “You take care of Mom and Dad, and try not to be too much of a pain in the butt. Later, Thomas.”

Reaching into his jacket, the young man placed a small figurine of popular cartoon hero Betaman on top of his brother's grave, stepping back to wave. “See you next time.” He signed once more, before air rushed into the place he'd been a mere second ago, already a blur of light and color as he made his way back to Unity Plaza.

I'd kind of prefer just having an innate power given at the level you acquire them to switch. Heck, maybe even attatch some activation time to it or something, but no cooldown. Seems a bit easier and more logical than going to a trainer.

But!

Zortel will be getting a Blapper Form, seeing as currently she mostly just uses ranged blasts, and a chance to boost her armour up a bit.

Fusebox will have her Pure Electric Form for concept reasons, and a 'Form that actually has Hasten and Stamina' for more intense leveling. If Power Sink when acquired works well, I'll go for forms prioritizing Ranged/Melee.

Storm Sapphire and Umbral Pulsar with have Human Form Builds and Nova/Dwarf Builds. Nova/Dwarf slot the forms and their powers heavily, and have Hasten/Essence Boost and such slotted for switching on and changing form.

Number Nine will get a Support Build focusing on her /Kin powers, at the moment she's more of a combat monster.

Jan Boa will get a Gun-toting, posion spitting thug mode and a Mastermind mode.

Cindersnap will get Single Target/AoE target. Or possibly a pure Fire concept mode.

Others I have yet to decide on!

I think the end of this coming week is the latest I can find out about, but here's hoping thos who said they may be coming can make it!

I suppose they could add in ones based on other Arachnos players, like Ice Mistral, Silver Mantis and such. But as Ravenswing said, there's a pretty big issue with things like Fire Mastery due to how the Patron system was set up.

Of course, they could always change it so Heroes got some kind of Patrons, Villains got Ancilleries, and the patron powers act as one given for 'free' at 41, 44, 47 and 49.

Here's hoping there'll be more pool synergy options for other power sets, such as Fire Mastery for Scrappers, Psi Mastery for Blasters, so on and so forth.

Good insert-relevant descriptor for period of day, everyone!

I'd cordially like to invite some of you people to a meet-up in that fun, bizzare and sometimes frightening realm that they call meatspace, and where else better to meet up than the fine city of Norwich?

Okay, mostly because Norwich is local to me and such, but it is a pretty great city.

Where is Norwich, I hear you ask? It's located in the heart of North Norfolk, and is accessable by train lines running from Peterborough, Cambridge, Colchester, Chelmsford and London Liverpool Street, and a few other places. Also there's a National Express Bus Depot in the city too.

When, that's an important question! Starting at 10AM on Saturday November 1st, till... uh, around 10PM for me probably, when it gets to the point of the last train back to where I live.

Where is the venue being held? Good point! From 10 till 6, our home shall be Battlenet in Norwich, details here: www.battlenet.co.uk

I've been in contact with the owner, and he's more than willing to load on our favourite game (and not the Cardigans song) to the PC's there, and offer discounts for how many of us are going and for how long. There's a maximum of 16 PC's to use, and I'll need to know numbers pretty sharpish to get the back end arrangements sorted and get a price quoted.

What'll we do at Battlenet? Uh... not a clue, really! We can always spawn some characters and get some low level teaming going, do some PVP, or even... gasp, play some other games. Along with socializing!

After that, there are several fine eateries close by, including Pizza Express, Nando's, Pizza Hut, Wagamama, one who's name always eludes me but they do delicious beefy cooked meat stuff, a couple of Weatherspoons and so forth that people can grab vital nutrients at before heading off at some point.

For those craz- uh, nice enough to commute in, there are several hotels and such with affordablish rates in the city, I don't really have the space at home to put anyone up I'm afraid.

So, to recap, that is:
Battlenet, top of St Stephen's Street (Past Iceland, near St. Stephen's Car Park) Norwich, on Saturday November 1st 2008, 10pm till 6pm for the gaming, then social time afterwards.

Be there, or... be elsewhere doing equally important things.

That's being... sensible though, and logical, Ravenswing. And we all know that isn't allowed on the internet.

Dante:
Captain Crunch... Captain Credit... Credit Crunch...

OCP IS TO BLAME! D:

Yup, WotLK is out on the 13th of November. I... er, already have my pre-order in at Play.com. >.>

No, because in EVE your whole basis of learning skills is that you can learn one at a time, and it'll learn whether you're online, offline or even if your account isn't subbed. In CoH and WoW, it's more a little bonus for if you're offline for a bit at work, school, sleeping, whatever.

((Excellent work, Ravenswing. Excellent work!))

Crey Biotech T-Shirts. And possibly Gunslinger hats.

Though a range of Action Figures would be cool. I'd kill for a Zeus Titan Figure.

Catch you later, Rockjaw! I'll lurk on the blog and Facebook as per norm. Sorry I'm missing the party, but it'll go a blast, I know it.

I'll apologise for the language, I was annoyed due to external factors. I didn't say anything on GGOOC due to leaving it, and I should have sent a tell. 3 and a half years of RP at GG has shortened my temper and tolerance somewhat in regard to these things.