Chad Gulzow-Man

The recently-added ability to transmute enhancements was huge.

I didn't use it a ton myself, but it made enhancing powers a lot easier for everyone in the game--casual players could convert unneeded drops into needed ones, plus it upped supply and drove down the cost of those enhancements in the market.

And of course, before that were Reward Merits, which allowed you to save up and by 95% of the enhancements (all but the absolutely most rare) without interacting in the player market at all... and later, those were followed by Incarnate (Astral & Empyrean) Merits, which allowed those participating in the endgame to purchase literally any enhancement in the game.

Probably not a ton of space, compared to the client installation. Art assets (models, textures, audio, etc) are what takes up most of the client, whereas the server software would be almost entirely code.



Of course, Arcanaville will probably pop in here to remind me of something I've completely overlooked, and I will have to wipe the egg off my face.

I guess that makes sense, now that you mention it. My only personal experience with virtual servers was at my last job, where I was able to assist a bit with the transition from "a box for every department" to a single server cabinet virtualizing everything.

If it weren't 4 AM here, I'd have probably realized a bit more quickly that a game with thousands of concurrent connections would have different usage requirements than a company with only 70-ish employees.

I think the vast amount of customization possible was a big part of what lured people in and kept them passionate.

You could make your character look like virtually anything you could think of, and do pretty much anything.

You could build a character to play the way you wanted it to play--case in point, I recently had a discussion with someone about Grav/Kin Controllers. He played his as a damage crazed AoE monster. I played mine as a team-focused buff/debuffer with the ability to lock down foes. And both were completely valid play style choices.

There is so much to like about City of Heroes that the only times I ever really got down on the devs were for adding passive Day Jobs (I still don't get the idea behind rewarding people for not playing a specific character) and for recently giving females all the previously male-only costume parts (note that I wasn't upset about females getting those pieces specifically; I was upset that males didn't get anything in return).

Plain text version:

Oh hell YES. I LOVE PUZZLES.

<3<3<3

You're the best, MP.

My favorite character is Chad Gulzow-Man. He's kind of terrible at being a hero, but he just keeps getting up and trying again. He's been a character I've used in stories and RPGs since 1997/98.

And in case anyone's missed it in the other threads I've posted in, yes, that is my real name with "-Man" tacked on the end. He perpetually wears the clothes I was wearing the first time I ever drew him: blue jeans, tennis shoes and a grey teeshirt. The red S was added as an inside joke between my highschool friends. It stands for "Stuff." I'm also fairly confident that Chad Gulzow-Man is the only hero in the entire game who is supposed to have a rattail [hairstyle].


I drew the one on the left in mid 2008. (Wow, time flies.) Had a friend from my SG color it for me, though. The one on the right was probably 2005/06.

If I can find it, I actually have a drawing I did in MS Paint of Chad Gulzow-Man in 1998. Craziness!

Oh, and here's the original in-game representation of the four main Gulzow-Man characters (prior to Null's inception as a Praetorian):

Chad's got the swagged-out Pocket D Jeans on now, though.

I'm far from the only one who talked about it, but I'm sure the Paragon Rewards program that evolved from Veteran Rewards was at least somewhat inspired by discussions I took part in.

There are a few things that were oddly timed that I never posted directly about here but was basically "fanfic" on my super group message board. Shortly after Issue 11 was released, I made up an faux announcement for Issue 12, in which Doctor Brainstorm's experiments caused players to be able to respec their power sets and to choose sets that weren't initially available to them (I REALLY wanted Energy Melee for Scrappers, by the way). A few weeks later, BAM... Issue 12 is announced, Doctor Brainstorm's experiments result in Power Set Proliferation.

(I also wrote a Doctor Brainstorm co-op TF/Trial, intended to be launched from Pocket D, which I condensed down into the MA arc in my sig.)

Around that time, I also wrote up some basic design docs for a few power sets, including Dual Pistols (again, far from the first one to request that). Though it took 7 more issues, the version of Dual Pistols we got was very much in the spirit of what I'd written. For instance, I wrote about a power called "Modify Clips" that was supposed to replace the standard Aim/Build Up that was expected in ranged attack sets; of course, the premise of mine was that your next few shots would fire explosive ammunition, and that all your Dual Pistol attacks would recharge 20% faster for the duration. There was also a power called "Execution" that replaced the standard snipe as the most damaging power, with the suggestion that it do more damage the closer you were to the target.
(EDIT: Sorry, that power was actually called "Assassination." I managed to find the write-up I did a little bit ago.)


Other stuff that never got implemented in any shape or form were my suggested Tech Control (control power set), Failed Experiments--aka "Abomination Summoning"--(Mastermind power set), and I think I wrote up something for Gun + Blade Assault (pistol in one hand, sword in the other). I think those could have been pretty popular.

And of course, they flat out said "no" to Power Set Respecs a little while later...

Who was that douchenozzle that used to hang out in RV with a Mind/Ice Dom that used to herd and confuse Longbow on heroes so they'd kill you and give you debt?

I remember consistently beating the **** out of that guy when he'd try to grief me. And I suck at PVP.

I can't even begin to phrase all the questions I have for the lore behind City of Heroes, but there's one thing that's always bugged me:

What's the deal with Primal Infernal and Praetorian Infernal?

We know that they both come from a different dimension (though not necessarily the same dimension), which is where summoned demons are supposed to originate. We know that Primal Infernal's real name is K'Varr D'Shall, and that he was tossed out of his dimension when his best friend/rival T'Keron, who had gone mad with power, botched a summoning spell and fused with its target, the demon Valmaz. Infernal was stranded on Primal Earth, where he assisted the Vindicators as he searched for his friend.

Praetorian Infernal, on the other hand, does not have a listed name, had no qualms about using his demon binding abilities and was encouraged by Diabolique to continue to subjugate demons until he went mad with power.

I have long suspected that Praetorian Infernal was actually T'Keron, sent to a slightly different dimension than K'Varr. Was this in fact the case?

And regardless of the above, what would have been next for Praetorian Infernal, as the only one of the bunch not seen during Going Rogue/Incarnate content?