AngryRedHerring

Still the most fun I've had with the Super Tailor.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/07.../BigDummie.gif

Thanks for the re-review of Invasion! More specific reply in the arc thread.

Thanks for the review! I'm going to make a couple of tweaks based on your comments, particularly getting the minions to close to melee range more often.

As regards Dr. Pennyweight; he does have a bio that explains who he is (British sci-fi fans are more likely to figure out the reference), and his rants when you find him explain why he is there. The only reason he "comes out of nowhere" is because up until that point you had no reason to encounter him, nor had he any awareness of what you were involved in-- it's all been you and Forrester until that point. He's just a hostage that you free that turns out to be able to help you, and I don't think I'm shattering any comic book formulas there.

However, I guess I should point out that the last time I really put in work on my arcs was before the allowable file size was doubled. Even as only a 4 mission arc, under the old file size constraints I was constantly forced to trim text. I'm really looking forward to fleshing out all those things I always wanted to.

I hadn't messed with this arc in almost a year-- my wife and I bought a house last summer, and I've since had a whole new set of priorities. But just last week I dusted it off and played it through to make sure everything was working, and BAM a couple of days later here you come, giving it its first playthrough and review in a long time. That was nice.

But doggone it, I thought I had ferreted out every last "Subterranean" reference. Haven't had the time to dig around for that yet. *le sigh*

I'll back up all the posters suggesting alt ani's for the weapon attacks in the largely non-weapon sets (fire sword, earth hammer, etc.). It would be great to able to take weapon-less versions of powers on those characters that just don't mesh with large melee weapons in concept.

But my big wish, this one goes back to before PC and custom weapons:

Weapon versions of Energy and Radiation Blast.

I've wanted a Space Ranger-style ZAP pistol for so long I'm starting to dream that I had one as a child. I'm sure that other sets-- that escape me at the moment-- could stand being weaponized, but Energy and Rad would be perfect for weaponized animations. Add to that, I've got a lot of baddies in AE that drool at the thought of an arsenal of energy weapons to replace their antiquated slug throwers!

As far as I'm concerned, the rest of my wants can be put off until I get that doggone pinball machine from Pocket D.

I had someone comment that they wished I hadn't used so much profanity (in "Check... and Mate").

Any place in the arc where I would have used profanity, mainly the hard-boiled police captain, I used @#$%^&!!!.

Beetle Bailey must drive them nuts.

Just a heads-up: as the ally fly bug was fixed some time ago, what was once a seriously neutered arc is robust and frisky once again! Hoorah! (Should have posted on that a long time ago).

Also, somewhere along the last few patches, one of my enemy choices became invalid, and may have prevented folks from playing this arc. I noticed (and fixed) that today.

And finally, after a 3 month hiatus from CoH, I'm back and tweaking things again, and the sequel to Invasion on Earth BX1132 is just about finished. I have some text tweaks to do, making sure all bios are present, etc., but I should have those done in not too long. More details soon!

The reactor is awesome. But I find myself very impressed with what you did here:



...I love that lighting-as-support-column.

You wouldn't believe the lengths I've gone to as far as rearranging rooms to make a clear place for a doorway, only to finally realize that what was blocking me was that tiny little air vent I had placed to get rid of ceiling trim (and promptly forgot about).

Hi guys!

I didn't realize how much that volcano actually burned me out (no pun intended). About a week or so after that, I just stopped playing for a while. It was only this week, in fact, that I started playing again. Since October I'd check in now and then, and log in my SG leaders to maintain leadership, but I never stayed logged in more than a minute or so. So I hadn't played at all in 3 1/2 months, alone tinker with the bases.

A nice thing about that is that one of the last things I did was recolor all my guys' powers, and now I'm coming back to a whole host of stuff I forgot I'd done.

It's also nice to come back to new posts in my villain base thread.

So yeah, power cable bundles placed with cubicles for the jail bars, one set placed open and the rest closed, and Assemble The Team vet reward power to zap them into the cell after they fell for the "hey come check out the new base!" trick.

Smoke on the floor done with bonfires, each bonfire buried under 2 or 3 dirt mounds to mask the sculpted stone and woodpiles.

But looking at some of you guy's bases, it seems y'all already figured that out.

EvulOne, I'd love to see your volcano; my global is @ARH, so throw me a tell in game and I'll try to catch up with you. I'm back to playing at least a couple of times a week at least. But I bet I'll wish I'd have seen yours before I started mine-- probably would have saved me some head-scratching.

GhostSlayer: sorry I wasn't around to answer your Q's, but looking at your base thread, it looks like I wasn't needed that much after all. Amazing work.

Okay, I only thought I knew pain when I made the residential quarters in the Justice R'Us Treehouse of the Mighty. But after the last upgrade to the B.A.D. Inc. base, there was a little voice nagging at me-- with the new lava rooms, there was something that was obviously-- egregiously-- missing. I knew I wanted to add a dungeon, and jazz up some rooms... but there was one mammoth task that just had to be done. More on that later.

First we (that's the royal We) fixed up the magic workshop a bit. Nothing too complicated, but I liked the "Jaws" effect.







Now into the energy room, and a new hallway to the west.













The new dungeon.



Door control and prisoner monitoring.







And it works, too! Assemble the Team Vet Reward is better than RICO.



Another hallway goes behind these three cells...





...to two more.





Turning the corner to a door that's nowhere near as hidden as I'd like... yet.





Ever since Villainsupply.com went down, it's almost impossible to find a hollowed-out volcano lair.





The volcano cone alone was over 1300 pieces. I first noticed the count at around 500, with less than half done-- the small half. But, in for a penny, in for a pound...







I started to worry that I was going to screw up the cone angle working straight down. Also, working up from the bottom meant the thing would get smaller as I worked-- the next level would always be at least a bit less mind-numbingly tedious.





I set up some steps to act as a guide for the remaining levels, to make sure that the two sections linked up at the proper angle.





Still working on little details here and there, but boy am I glad THAT'S over.

...Finally had to open that ninth tray, thanks to Halloween costumes...

I've never messed with the settings for showing the UI in screenshots; what I've always done is grab the shot I want, then alt-tab out to Paint Shop and click Paste. This is only good for one shot at a time, of course (since you're just using the Windows clipboard), but then I'm usually just taking shots of my power trays and enhancement screen prior to a respec so I can remember where I had everything.

Now if you're looking for multiple shots in sequence, this method is probably not what you want. But for quick & dirty, it works.

IIRC, the actual door for that bugged waypoint is across the street, at the next door to the left (if you're standing at the bugged waypoint facing across the street, as though you just stepped outside from the bugged door). I'm not sure exactly how we found this-- I guess we just started trying nearby doors-- but every time since, we get that bugged waypoint and the actual mission door is always in the same place; across the street, to the left.

Over here:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=193175

...folks were noticing it with MMs, and then I noticed it on my Brutes fighting alongside my MMs. These problems were all with allies.

This is beyond issues of just MM's spawning pets, I realize now; I think there's another thread about allies in general not using powers correctly. I was just testing one of my arcs to see how the MMs behaved there, and yes, the pet spawning was erratic or non-existent; but also the Brute allies I have were only using one power in their set, and in one case the Brute was only using throwing knives, despite the fact that his target was grounded.

Sent a bug report in-game on this one, but it boggles me.