Austara

@Angryellow: Thank you for the praise and constructive criticism! I do want to add a lot more content--just have to write it first! I like to write informative articles from my own personal experience, so as I level up and do more within the game, I will write more articles for enriching gameplay.

As a girl player with six different female characters (5 heroic, 1 villainous), I generally design each costume with generous consideration of what each character's philosophy of battle is and their general personality types. For instance, my WP/Dual Blades Tank is all about an unexpected power, a set of blades gracefully wielded; thus, all her costumes are skirts and shirts with Strappy heels. (I've had people comment that with the Dual Blades powers on she looks like a "housewife gone mad," which highly amuses me. ) But this look fits her because of her fairly "normal" backstory.

In general, I take a lot of time to flesh out my characters' origin stories because it really seems to help me design my costumes. Guess that's the English major surfacing again! But I do admit to making and dressing each character to be various representatives of "real women's" bodies--no HUGE boobs with teeny-tiny Barbie-sized waist and hips, for instance, and no legs that look like they've been stretched on a medieval rack. XD

But that's just my take on the whole costume debate. It's all a matter of personal taste, I think--however much "skin" you're willing to design for in a costume is part of what you find socially appropriate, attractive, or even simply fitting for each character...no pun intended. ^_^

@armylife1124: YAY! I'm very glad you like the site!

@Ecliptix: Thank you for the explanation of Active Chat! Now I understand it a lot better. I'll put a link to your post on the Chatbox page and credit you--I would have never phrased that so well!

Thank you for the replies so far! I'm excited to see what people think so far and how the site can grow from here.

@The_Player: YAY for purty colors

@magikwand: Aww, but bright and hero-y can be fun too! :P I did think of making this site about both CoH and CoV at first, but then I realized that it would be WAY too big. Plus, I need to play on the villainous side a little more before I can write more confidently about how to play the different archetypes redside. It can be done!

@Archiviste: "Snake Tunnels under Mercy?" Hmm...but how to get a cool underground screencap for the graphics? *goes to explore redside*

Skies over Atlas

The link above is the CoH site I've been building since I began playing in February. I wanted a different kind of CoH site, since many people have already done a wonderful job of summarizing the game's technical details, such as damage stats on powers, etc. Thus, I decided to focus on the social/human aspect of playing the game, answering questions like "how do you interact with other characters effectively?" and "How do you play well on teams?"

I also provide quick-reference powerset guides in Excel format. Nothing so awesome in its detailing as RedTomax's guide, but it's nice to have a single file you can look at to remind yourself of all the different power sets available to each archetype.

I also give information about the game that I learned either from experience or from watching others play--stuff that new heroes might not know right away. In essence, this is a site for people new to the game as well as people looking for a deeper interactive experience in their slice of CoH.

Let me know what you think--I'm always glad to add and edit as needed to make things clearer and better.

And thus, on "Respec Day," I find a quiet building-top in Atlas Park and go to work.

[newb question] What all can you change with a respec, anyhow? [/newb question]

Thank you! Thinking about doing a humorous poem next, since plenty of funny stuff happens during missions (and outside them too!)

Since I love writing poetry and love playing CoH, it was kind of inevitable that the two would eventually find some way to blend. I was inspired one evening to write a poem using CoH as my metaphor, and this somber yet thought-provoking piece of art emerged. It has a special personal meaning for me, but I think all of us wonder where our waypoints are sometimes!

Waypoint

I thought I had a waypoint for a long time,
thought I could see that yellow arrow striking merrily against the horizon,
calling to me, calling "Here! Here is where you belong!"
calling "Here! Here is where you will serve best!"

But on the way there, I was beset by thugs,
beset by worries, tasks, failures, and annoyances that shot at me as I ran past,
and though I am a Tank, I could not pretend
that their weapons had not shot true

All too soon I was in an area far above my level,
with thugs armed to the teeth, names gleaming a murderous shade of violet;
I was already weakened, and was easily defeated

and when I was defeated, I chose to turn tail and run like the coward I am,
choosing to send my broken self back to the base and lick my wounds
I was ashamed of my defeat, but knew that I could not go back there

But there is only so much to do in a base
before one's mind begins to roam beyond its bounds
before one begins to wonder if there is indeed another waypoint out there waiting

Sadly, I have poked my head out its doors several times,
only to grimace at the lack of bright yellow markers on any horizon
no signs point me to a mission I could fulfill

Where is my waypoint, now that I have been defeated, and have rested?
my heart, not to mention my Experience Bar, cries out for something to do,
something to fulfill me, to level me up, so that I know
that it hasn't all been horrifically bungled attempts

Where is my waypoint, now that I have failed mission after mission,
now that I am finished with mourning failure and ready to try again?
I need a goal, need to run towards something, need to know
that there is something left on this map for me to do.