ChaosRed

SS take over the world?

Most nights, they can't even take over the dinner table. The squabbling over which vegetables to serve alone, can require a two hour meeting.

<ducks>

I think this is a great idea...sort of a "role call" channel, where you can answer casting calls for NPCs and background chracters.

I hope it works, sounds like a good idea to me.

Fun stuff...had a very interesting time...some of the groups out there have tremendous websites, just really beautiful work.


Well done...all of you.

Alpha Squad is small, but our base has most of the basic necessities (teleporters, benches etc). However, if you group is an RP group and would like some more RP-based coalitions, please add us!

We'd like to expand who we work with in RP, particularly anything AE-related.

My global is @Ravyna.

I am lousy at names, mostly because I like generic, silver-age names most, but some ideas...

Doctor Ankh
Doctor Dynasty
Nile Queen
Doctor Thebes

...to focus on her powers more...

Lady Quantum
Auric
Anomaly Girl (or Woman)
Doctor Photon
Doctor Nuclei
Cosmic Wave

...trying to combine Egypt with science maybe?

Cosmic Pharaoh
Astral Ankh
Photon Pharaoh

This Wiki link, leads to all kinds of scientific terms and other Wiki articles that might help you find the right nomenclature:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subatomic_particle

Forgive me, I know my names sounds more like a bad radio-play, that sells sugar cereals during the commercial breaks...but those are the kinds of names I tend to gravitate to...

...some of these names may not be available, I was unable to check for their availability.

I would like to try and be there for Alpha Squad.

I got a couple million influence I can throw into the Costume Contest, if that helps. Not much, I know, but I'd like to support this kind of thing anyway I can, even I may not be able to attend due to a busy schedule in RL.

It is things like this that make Virtue a real gem of a server. Well done, my thanks to the organizers.

Huzzah!

Finally, it is over. It was a fun event, that took over 2-hours to complete, with 5 of us on the team, with several obtaining a new level during the adventure. I am sorry our schedule was a little scattered for this. Here's an RP recap of Sunday's mission:

ISSUE 20: Earth-Delta Resistance

Doctor Zar configures the Transit Beam obtained in Issue 19 to send Alpha Squad directly to an underground Rikti Hive on Earth-Delta.

There, Alpha Squad begins to liberate several key members of the Simian Resistance movement, including their Resistance Leader: Grundle. Alpha Squad also destroys the central Security Computer and defeats the Steward of Earth-Delta: Lord K.

The mission is a massive success, due largely to the hard work of: Doctor Zar, Vor Bodil, Alastrina Psyche, Nora Culrive, Ragnaut and Nebula Man.

Doctor Zar agrees to stay behind on Earth-Delta to help strengthen the Resistance Movement and continue the war against the Rikti from his home planet. The rest of Alpha Squad returns to base, triumphant and victorious.

Yet their glory will be fleeting, for little do Alpha Squad know that new trouble is brewing on the horizon…

My apologies for the discordant post, but if there was a petition to stop all programming/resources on holiday based events/themes and dedicate them instead to "Going Rogue" and other new permanent additions to this game I'd sign it.

This Trick or Treat/Beat the Flagpole stuff doesn't impress me much. I don't need to be "festive" when playing a video game. I have actual family, friends and actual festive occasions and traditions for that.

What I'd like is new, permanent content - new exciting places to explore. I think my lament with this "event" is that it took resources away from other tasks and improvements.

I think essentially, this "event" boils down to squandered resources. Resources that can be better spent on more permanent, more careful and more intelligent creation than this.

My apologies this opinion, goes against the grain of many others on this thread, but that is how I feel.

A couple of things:

I love the concept I-N!

Some of you added me to your global friends, while I was overseas on business, so I was late in approving the add. That should be taken care of, as I logged into the game yesterday for the first time in a week.

Secondly, our AE-RP "event" will finally take place on Sunday evening. I will try and send the interested parties here a global tell to remind you, if you are interested. I also added some more color and splash (I hope) to our Alpha Squad page if you are interested. The image below is a link to the page:



The real purpose of our group, is to provide a place for alts and players that can't play every day but would like a little RP and some missions on weekends.

Thanks for your patience,

I love VV!

I reworked the Alpha Squad page, tried to give it some more color and splash, comments welcome. The image below will take you to the page by just clicking it:



Also, the signature below points directly to my user page on VV if you click it:

It makes me smile to see a new roleplayer discover the game and get adopted into the community. Glad to see that both the game and the community were pleasant enough that you've decided to stick around.

Enjoy Virtue, it's a great community here.

I've been posting this a lot lately, so apologies to others who have seen this same post from me in other threads.

I have a super-science group, that role plays each weekend. We have a basic base, with all the core functions (teleporters, work benches).

However, we're really small (only five active players), and we are also work-nuts, so we tend to only play on weekends.

So, you'll probably find better groups out there. Still, I can at least help you along in finding a place to settle in and RP. My global is @Ravyna, feel free to add it to your global list and I'll gladly help you as much as I can with RP.

More info on the actual group here (click it):

He sounds like a perfect fit! I am excited to meet him. Great concept.

The mission is at level 30 (one of the mobs is only level 30, so the mission normalizes to it). If you could just get to 20+ you'll be fine. Before 20, you'll *probably* be okay, (we have good healing), but you might find you have endurance issues because of the lack of stamina.

But post-30, the mission will actually kick you down to 30. Two of the characters locked in are level 50 (a healer and a blaster), that play nerfed to 30.

Even if you can't make it, an image or two of your character would be interesting to see.

ransim's advice is spot-on. Using the brackets (( )) or [[ ]] is a great signal you are a role player and should help you meet other players.

Also VirtueVerse is an excellent tool to scout characters/groups that might interest you, as ransim suggests. Using the "Recent Edits" link there can help you focus on newly updated content, so you know the player is still active.

My group is small, and we're not online frequently, but feel free to add me to your global friends list: @Ravyna. I am always happy to help others role play or get acquainted.

Well the sequel to the "Save Earth-Delta" story will *not* take place tonight. It won't take place until Hallow'een weekend, probably Sunday November 1.

This will be a single mission on a large map, with a lot of objectives, so will probably take 2 to 2.5 hours to complete. There is an Elite Boss, but no AV.

I'll post here again as we get closer to petition others who might want to enjoy helping a collective of intelligent apes win back their freedom from the Rikti. We have four locked in right now, but we could always use a solid tank, or high-surviving scrapper.

This link here gets you up to speed with the NPC that ignites the story...

Doctor Zar & Earth-Delta

After this Doctor Zar goes away for a while, so we can revisit other stories.

Our RP varies, usually some heavy melo-drama to set up the mission, winding down to witty banter during the actual mission. Sometimes a denouement after the mission ends, with some RP and recap.

I wish Paragon would ante-up on some new environments in general.

I guess, because they involve so much design-work (which is probably pretty expensive), they've avoided this. I am pretty sure, as good as GR will be - that any new zone/maps will just get more rehashed urban-zones.

I'll still buy GR, because the RP potential of crossing factions is too good to pass up.

Has anyone noticed how much role players are catered to in this game in subtle ways? Can we thank them somehow for this? Can we each chip in 5-bucks and buy them all a really cool cake? Maybe with a stripper inside?

I am heading overseas this weekend for a conference, so no AE-RP this weekend for us.

However, there is a small chance we do a little something on Thursday night. If this happens I will post here in case there is interest.

The issue of "courtesy" comes up from time to time with these games. I feel, in the end, these kinds of discussions really end up boiling down to: what can you live with?

I would be miffed, if I had parked a name for a while for future use; then someone nagged me to release it, only to see them use it for a few days and then throw it away without the courtesy of asking if I'd like it back.

This probably doesn't describe the situation mentioned here, but I would always ask the person who originally gave it if they wanted it back. As in...

1: Are you gonna eat that cake?
2: Later maybe not right now.
1: Can I have it? I really want it.
2: Sure.
1: (looks at cake, then throws it away)

To me, courtesy would suggest 1 would simply ask if 2 would like it back, after they decide not to eat it. But that's just for me, and really these things are subjective, there are no "rules" for this kind of thing.

On this note though: And in any case, most MMO's terms of conduct specify that anything you create on their servers belongs to them, so when you make up a character you're giving over all rights to said character to them.

It would appear that way, but not so fast. The idea video game companies own everything you type into their client/server software has never been defended in court. So Paragon can say all they like, but it does not make it legal - not yet anyway. This has never been challenged as to its true legality, Paragon writing it into their user agreement, doesn't *necessarily* mean it is legal.

In fact, anything written in an agreement you click "okay" to, or sign, doesn't *necessarily* make it legally binding. It means you read the terms and agreed, but it does not mean that COH can now claim they own every creation ever made in their game, forever. That could be challenged, and the person challenging could win; in fact I'd say depending on circumstance they you'd have a good chance of winning, especially if it was just a name.

Just like, if someone sends you a cease-and-desist letter, doesn't necessarily mean the lawyer sending you the letter has more legal claim to something than you do. Sometimes it just amounts to bullying. If you own URLs, this happens all the time. Lawyers call you, threaten they have rights to the URL and even send you letters saying they do. Unless, I know they have a claim (hasn't happened yet), I throw them in the waste-paper basket. It's just scare tactics to get me to release a valuable URL.

The letter is sent merely to register that you were informed of one party's legal interpretation of their ownership or rights. It can be used in court against you, but it doesn't necessarily make their claim compliant with the law. You can challenge them anytime you like - and even win.

Same thing with the old "no wrongful termination" clauses your HR department makes you sign. They are, for the most part, largely meaningless. It's meant to seduce you into this false notion, that you've just waived your rights. You have not. If you were wrongfully terminated, and believe you can prove it, the paper you signed means nothing - you can still take them to court and win. In fact, that HR tactic is a text-book case of a company trying to make you believe something is legal, merely because you signed a piece of paper.

Contracts often contain things you can challenge, even after you signed them. They can certainly make your case a lot weaker, (lawyers will use the fact against you, that you were aware of the contract and signed it), but they don't prove legal rights or authority. The actual law supercedes any language in a private contract, which is what those software agreements amount to. Again, the HR example applies, people sue companies all the time for wrongful termination, despite signing those awful "we can terminate you for any reason" contracts.

Wizards claims they have a patent on "tapping" cards for example. This is why, Yugioh has to pay Wizards a small piece of their profit and report their earnings; any card that uses a "tapping" mechanic will get the same call from Wizards and arrangement. However, nobody has actually legally challenged whether the patent is legally binding. You can test it, and win, its just that the risk of doing so outweighs the cost/benefit. You might lose, and if you do, it would likley solidify Wizards patent so that it may never be challenged again.

I believe some elements of boiler-plate MMO agreements, can't stick. I await the day when someone challenges them. Now, if someone's business usurped obvious references, images and property of City of Heroes, that's another matter. You can't steal someone's IP like that.

However, one day, someone will write a novel, and some video game company will claim one of the characters in the novel was initially created by the author in their video game and sue. I believe unless the novel usurped many other elements of that game, that the author would win. I don't know for sure of course, because no legal predence exists for this (to my knowledge).

The opposite can happen, some dumb video game company could use some player's character or game-content/avatar without their permission and make money on it. And I believe the player could have a case they were owed some money, and win. I don't know this has never been challenged before, but I believe a smart lawyer could make a case and win.

Don't be fooled by what you agree to with "contracts". It means you were informed of the other party's position on a matter, but it does not mean that party's position can be legally enforced. Think of it this way: if you sign a contract saying you are my slave and owe me all your wages, it doesn't matter that you signed this agreement, it is not legally binding. This is an extreme example, but it illustrates the point.

And this is useful knowledge, if you ever made one of those awful pacts with Asmodeus as a teenager.

Forgot to mention that recurring villains and nemesis are another great aspect of AE. This is one area I hope to focus on more. Developing cool recurring villains for our SG, that are strictly NPCs.

Also I often add allies liberally, (usually basic "shock troops"). It makes the final battle against the EB or AV all the more epic.

I also recommend setting up battles just for atmosphere. They can be hard to balance, but when I had a mission that was meant to simulate a small invasion on a beach head by Arachnos, I just spread all kinds of battles everywhere between Alpha Squad's drones and Arachnos - and it really made it seem you were fighting in the middle of an invasion.

It's little immersion tricks like this, that I find make AE a real joy.

More outdoor maps would be great, just random forests and random wilderness to start. I find I use the parks/graveyards far too often when I want an outdoor setting.

- Tailor/facemaker
-Blackmarket/Wentworth's terminal
- AE terminal

These three suggestions posted earlier are my favorite. I would love to have all three.

I try to go out of my way in the mission description that the mission I am publishing is almost useless to anyone but those in our group/circle. I want to avoid having people stumble into my arcs and feel lost or slighted by what they find. They are playable missions of course, but without the context, I am sure the story seems jagged and at times, incomprehensible.

I concur with ransim, that more maps would be ideal. Really designing very simple ones, would be ideal. Most of all, deciding where things are on a map is critical. I am constantly getting burned by the "front, middle, back" locations and randomization. Last Sunday, we had to back up two floors on a map to find a key NPC, when that NPC was tagged to appear at the "back".

I was on a thread, way back about using AE for strictly insular purposes was legitimate. Some people were arguing building missions only for specific groups, was both selfish and elitist. I disagree. I think this is the tool's greatest strength, and it would be foolish not to cater the content to a specific audience. Sure, you can build great generic content as well, but it seems to me you are just adding more logs to an already large wood pile.

As a GM for decades, I can tell you, in my experience the best adventures eventually cater and bend to the will of their players. It gives the players a greater sense of control and a greater sense of immersion. So I think using AE to cater to small groups, is a great use of the tool.

My apologies, unforseen circumstances at work on Friday, scrubbed the planned time.

We *did* manage to cobble together a group of four and perform the first-half of this story on Sunday. It took longer than expected, nearly three-hours and it was a total blast!

Alpha Squad managed to capture a Transit Beam to reliable transport themselves from their dimension to Earth-Delta, the time/space where apes once ruled the Earth. That Earth, is in peril after a massive Rikti invasion, led to the near genocide of the apes that rules the planet.

Doctor Zar is preparing the Transit Beam, to take Alpha Squad to Earth-Delta for next week's episode.

Here are a few of the comic book covers, (cross-overs) tonights mission produced:







Promise not to screw up our next schedule, so hopefully the few that expressed interest last week can join us for the next one.

Don't see the point? Well to each their own.

For me, the point is, the stories can be catered to your exclusive group of friends and characters. The stories can reference them specifically, build of their previous adventures, exploit their known weaknesses, creating episode after episode of stories that build on one another; where each member of your group can take turns in weaving the next chapter.

I do agree, the rewards are a required element of any game, because the provide the what Hitchcock calls the "McGuffin" the thing your character is chasing. For non-roleplayers the McGuffin is just simply XP and badges - for roleplayers it is this and more.

Nobody suggests that the basic instruments of the game aren't necessary; what some of us suggest is, they are merely instruments, and at heart, all roleplaying games are really much more based on narrative and interactive story-telling than most power-gamers realize. XP, tickets, influence and prestige are abstract; in the end they only provide the drive to acquire more. They don't really represent the game's entire premise or appeal.

Most AE missions aren't that badly written, from my perspective. I mean this is comic books, the bar is already quite low. I find stories written by 12-year old kids that are a delight. Are they grammatically perfect, or deeply meaningful? No, but they are a lark, they do demonstrate the wonders of a 12-year old imagination, and at this level, I find they are quite enjoyable indeed.

I think we roleplayers/gamers can be so dreadfully snobby at times. This is comics, this is a video game. We're not trying to perfect the "method", or create the next iteration of Homer's Odyssey. Nobody is lamenting the lack of pathetic fallacy, because you can't control the weather in the video game. Nobody is looking for symbolism in a comic-book super-hero mission.

At the level of what this game is: "biff, bang, pow - I got to save the world now", I think AE is a wonder - and I think a lot of AE content is a great addition to the game.


I could do without the tickets, and I wish COH would consolidate prestige/tickets/influence etc. etc. into a single currency. I wish we had more diverese environments, different planets a space station, and underwater adventure, etc. etc. I have beefs, but overall I find the tool has revitalize my interest in this game.

I finished a 3-hour AE session tonight and it was a ball. Structurally it was no different than any generic PvE mission. The story was cookie-cutter: find a device. We didn't even use custom mobs this time. But because the story was catered for us, with a premise we could RP before the mission - and then conclude by wrapping up the mission with a cliffhanger, it felt so much like we were living out own comic book. We even provided a basic hook for next week's episode. By making it week-to-week, it feels we're in our own radio play. It's wonderful.

I don't think AE can perform much better than regular PvE for mass-appeal. However for a custom experience, catered exclusively to your own taste and group, I think it is a roleplayer's dream.

Can it be improved? Sure it can. Still, it has made RP that much more richer for me and my friends.

Well my work botched up this whole thing. Sorry about that. I'll be around later this weekend, and will work to reschedule this.