Coulomb2

September 28th

Well, I did it. I purchased the 3 month for $10 a month (for as long as I continue to allow it to renew) subscription for Champions. I don’t like it as much as I like CoH, but there are a lot of games where that statement is true for me. And you know what? I have found it to be fun … at least so far. I’m sure there’s enough “play” in it for me to make up for the fact I probably won’t be spending much time on it for these first two months (meaning also that I plan to stay subscribed until I’m ready to move on, which like most games that *aren’t* CoH will probably be in about a year or so). If only NC Soft knew how many truly lifetime customers they were losing. Well, actually, they probably do, and just don’t care.

But the point is, I’ve got something to go to once CoH is down.

Assuming, of course, it isn’t saved. ‘Cause if it is, I’ve just wasted my money. I wouldn’t be happier about that…

Note: I deliberately waited for today. That makes my “renewal” day the same as it was for CoH. Kind of a neat symmetry, yes?

Excerpts from Perturbation’s Notes:

The first task Dr. Graves had for me – a prerequisite for a face to face meeting with my benefactor - did not surprise me in the least: I needed to wipe out my fellow ‘contestants.’ Erase evidence the “game” had ever happened.

Zephyr – the wind being I mentioned earlier – was first. From a fateweaver I determined the method most useful for dispersing him semi-permanently, but Sirocco ordered me to stay my hand, believing that have Zephyr on our side would be beneficial. (I have face Sirocco in combat before, and defeated him – and I have fought side by side with him too. He’s strong, but I’m stronger. I must remind myself, though, that I’m playing the part of a relatively inexperience villain when he dares to give me orders.)

Next was the arrogant technophile Omnicore. I tracked her to her new lair, but Sirocco made it clear she was to be ‘convinced’ to join our side, and not killed.
The mass-murderer Cross-Cut was next. Sirocco didn’t direct me to save him per se, but I kind of like the guy’s style. Considering that he’s no real threat to me, I figured I’d spare his life at the last minute and then recruit him to my side. Worked like a charm.

Dollface – the mind-controlling child – was next. Only she wasn’t. Sirocco was pretty sure Graves was about to skip town, and I needed to take him on right then and there. I *really* didn’t want to blow my cover by pointing out I had the resources to track Graves no matter where he tried to flee, so I had little choice but to just play along. So I did.

It took almost no effort to defeat Graves, in spite of the double-double cross he was trying to engineer against me. And he was all too eager to reveal the truth behind everything that had been going on to me…

Well, it turned out that my ‘benefactor’ *WAS* Dollface. Evidently she was an ancient being capable of possession, and had been directing things from the beginning. The contest was just a ruse to determine who among Graves’ group was most worthy of being her next host body. It was me (no shocker there).

Mental Note: Never again play this mission with bosses on, if at all possible. It’s not that they could hurt me – they couldn’t. But they all ‘turn blue’ before you defeat them, which sucks because you get no XP for them. Same for the fully AV-status Dollface at the end.

Given that Graves was going to send me against Dollface before I turned on him, the creature was expecting me to just walk up to her mansion anyway. My … “allies” … were more than willing to help me take her down – even the ones that had double-crossed me. So that’s exactly what we did.

And just after her defeat is when Sirocco made another personal appearance, with a bunch of his Mu goons, to take Dollface into custody. Her ‘functional’ similarities to the object of his obsession, Ghost Widow, had made her of great interest.


”Oh, oh my *heavens*. It’s a good thing Arachnos came in here to save me, you dear, handsome Sirocco. I don’t ever know what I would have done if you hadn’t been here to save me from this … creature. ‘Cause I’m just a weak, somewhat helpless neophyte villain with no real power. Yes, Sirocco, just keep looking away, so that you can’t possibly see through my *expert* disguise – which mostly consists of a suit of armor, glasses … okay, fine, a visor … and a jawpiece.

…Eh. I was just doing this for fun. I walked out and let Sirocco keep his prize. At least he never did figure out who I really was. And I did manage to “recuit” some useful lackies in the process: needless to say, once Zephyr, Omnicore, Graves, and Crosscut learned who I *really* was they were more than willing to “play ball.”

…except for Omnicore, who I don’t quite think understood my ‘reveal.’ She just tried to attack in a rage. The good news for the cleaning crews is they won’t need much more of a thimble to hold what remains of her.

Hrm. I’m going to need something else to keep me occupied until the Coming Storm gets here.

Yes. (Gut instinct: server emulator.)

Excerpts from Perturbation’s Notes (September 27th):

Ah. Apparently masquerading as some neophyte villain worked better than I had expected. I’ve been contacted by some idiot named Dr. Graves putting together ‘the Hearts of Darkness’ from other wanna-be supervillains. He wants me to participate. This could be rather amusing.

So it’s some sort of contest. Vying for the attention of some sort of VIP? As I said, this could be amusing. My ‘contestants’ are some sort of narcissistic armored moron, a flippant wind-being, a child with delusions of mind control, and – arguably the only one that may be a valuable addition to my Villain Group – some sort of mass murderer who is quite good at what he does.

It is a challenge to put forth the necessary amount of ‘bluster’ without, well, laughing. I need to act as though I’m *perhaps* a bit intimidated, while not actually looking intimidated, and still hiding the fact that if I revealed my true identity, I could almost instantly crush them all like bloody grapes. It makes for an interesting diversion…

In all, the tasks and contests are rather purile, if somewhat amusing. Divert Arachnos attention. Get to the end of a warehouse before everyone else. Hatch a plan to cause mayhem and destruction. Nothing I haven’t done a million times before…

I’m not interested in putting a lot of thought into my ‘master plan’ to win the contest; as banal as it is, ‘blowing up a Longbow base’ is at least *more* impressive than what the others have cooked up. Oddly, I seem to be getting help from some outside agency… Has someone seen through my ‘cover’ (as it were)? No, of course not. If they knew who I really was, they’d also know I don’t actually need any aid.

Just as I’m about to blow the base, I come face to face with my helper. Scirocco?! I’m not afraid, might you, just concerned. After having worked so closely with him in Dark Astoria, I’m positive he’ll recognize me even through all the powered armor. Fortunately for me he seems … distracted. He charges me with the task of identifying whomever the mysterious ‘patron’ of these Hearts of Darkness is, thinking I’m just one more low threat villain parading around Mercy Island. I’ll play along, for now…


Apparently my rather hastily considered disguise is more effective than I’d first assumed…

Dr. Graves’ next task, in service of our mysterious patron, is for each of the contestants to capture, torture for information, and even kill a hero. There’s a twist – as the current frontrunner, I get the ‘honor’ of playing that hero.

Hmm… that’ll work quite well for me, actually. I need to keep up appearances that ‘heroic’ Perturbation is tracking down his Praetorian counterpart here in the Isles. While I can’t make a “personal” appearance, I can masquerade as a hero making a show of working with Perturbation undercover here in the Isles – and still easily defeat whatever idiotic plans my rivals have for me…

My rival’s plans are not terribly interesting, but I will admit they probably would have been at least somewhat effective against a being less powerful than I. In any case, obviously I survived their “onslaughts” with little effort – and even received covert help from Sirocco (who, as far as I know, still hasn’t determined my true identity).

The final “test” is to travel to Galaxy City and disrupt both an Arachnos retrieval operation there, and also to defeat any and all heroes come to stop them.

Sirocco set things up to ensure I would be the winner of the final “test” – at long last the stage was set for me to meet whomever the mysterious patron of the Hearts of Darkness was…

September 26th:

Big day today – Perturbation is going to become a villain again, and I’m actually going to get to enjoy the new villain side content for the first time since I tested some of it back when Freedom was in beta…

Excerpt from Perturbation’s Notes:

It’s done. I’ve followed the necessary leads, and proven my villain “cred” to any who would doubt in my Super Group. The fools back in Paragon think it is my Praetorian “double” responsible for all of the havoc in the Isles, and that *I* am hot on his trail. But my true allies know the truth.


Awww…. Man!


A return to villainy! And three badges, bringing my total to exactly 1200! Makes me happy…

I’ve also shown the full measure of my power. All but Operative Wolf have abandoned Lord Galvanic. He, Wolf, and a small contingent of other Arachnos operatives have holed up nearby. I will confront Galvanic and TAKE what is mine by right.

Madame Havoc actually offered to accompany me and provide fire support. I refused – if my power is to be truly unquestioned, then I move prove I need no help to take down Lord Galvanic.


Yes, yes. I actually *did* create a MA mission specifically to do what I claimed I was doing…


All this to ‘justify’ switching Overlord status from Lord Galvanic to me…

With that business out of the way, and my Villain Group reclaimed, it is time to survey the current happenings here in the Rogue Isles.

Ah … a Longbow invasion of Mercy? That could prove inconvenient for my plans down the way. But it is a problem easily solved. I have some prototype heavy armor that would do well as an alternate ‘costume’ so that Longbow believes it is some neophyte villain driving them off… (It will be useful to ensure this alternate costume covers my face. A pity. I prefer my victims to see who is dispatching them…)


It’s actually just an excuse to see what the Mecha Armor looks like. (And yes, I’m aware I could just look it up in the wiki, but at least this way I get to enjoy having it…)

It does require no small amount of work, but it isn’t HARD. By the end of the day, Longbow has been cast out of Fort Darwin, and I can move on to bigger and better … diversions.

(Hmm ... I do think it's a little strange that my 'borders' are still hero blue rather than villain red...)

EDIT: And why the heck are the images not cropped?! Well, last time that issue did eventually resolve itself...

September 25th:

Cripes! I just checked – the Shadow Shard zones have exploration badges, and once I’m a full villain, I won’t have access to them. *Sigh* Okay, lets pick those up too… on the up side, I get one last view of a really neat (if empty feeling) zone.

Not surprisingly, much of my available time went to that task. But today was a pleasant surprise. The fourth episode of Pandora’s Box is “unlocked” now on live. Time to give it a try!

(I’d imagine I’ll actually revert to Rogue status at some point after the final installment comes out just to play the hero-side version with this character.)

All things considered, the arc was sort of a “delaying action” – technically the story would have progressed more or less as well if it was just one mission long (the final mission, obviously). That said, I still like the fact there is at least one *little* bit of new still appearing in the game.

And, without spoiling anything, it seems … fitting … that the last “new” content for CoH goes out on this note. You’ll see what I mean.

(Assuming the game isn’t rescued of course – I like being optimistic, and still hold out home).

Now tomorrow *for real* I’m going to return Perturbation to villain status…

Excerpt from Perturbation’s Notes (September 24th):

Things are not proceeding quite as quickly as I’d planned. As my supposedly loyal minions make sure things are in order for my return, I scour the City for reconnaissance information that will be useful when I will need to make surgical strikes against important targets in the near future. It isn’t exciting work, but it will prove useful.

Fortunately, as near as I can tell, my hero-side “allies” suspect nothing. In fact, they’re too busy preparing for the arrival of Battalion to be paying attention to my actions, and I’ve been keeping a low profile as per my original plan.

I literally spent hours gathering significant amounts of recon data on Peregrine Island, Independence Port, Perez Park, the Hollows, Dark Astoria, The Sewer Network, the Abandoned Sewer Network (both a very useful potential staging ground should I need to sneak back into the city unnoticed), Striga Island, Crey’s Folly, and more.

While I scoured the City, I received troubling news from the Isles – it would appear that the villain I appointed to act in my stead during my time as a “hero”, Lord Galvanic, has failed to maintain our group’s base … and soon I determined why. Predictably, Galvanic intended to make a play for power. He claimed my time as a hero had made me “soft,” and that he should be the true leader of Natural Disaster.

The fool has split my group into two factions – his followers, and those who have remained loyal to me (led by Madame Havoc). Both have fled our original base, fearing that the other faction’s knowledge of its layout and defenses will prove too much of a liability. I will deal with this irritation in two steps – first, I will need to prove I am NOT soft. Perhaps following a few tips in the Isles will prove effective. Some of Galvanic’s following will likely see I am not to be trifled with, and switch sides. That will be fewer “allies” that I will need to beat senseless to assert my authority.

Then, I will deal with Galvanic and whomever still follows him personally.

September 20th:

Today is playtest number two for Champions – the plan is to spend about 1.5 hours at it, then enjoy some City of Heroes. It’s a lot easier to figure out what I’m doing this time around, and I’m a lot more comfortable with the controls. I’m suspecting that I’ll end up liking the game enough to be willing to subscribe to it, but we’ll give it one or two more sessions. I don’t think it’ll be any great surprise that my preferences still firmly fall toward City of Heroes.

Today, we’ll start with Perturbation and SSA#1, episode 6. I’m not a big fan of the hero version of the mission simply because of all the “busywork” involved in playing the missions (the villain, version, however, is very easy to speed through).


After having to lead your useless *** though this entire HUGE map, I find myself not sad over what’s about to happen to you…

The true payoff is that wonderful cutscene at the end – it still gives me chills watching it. The music is such a perfect match to the scene. As I hinted at earlier, I actually like speeding through the arc villain side *just* to see that cutscene.

Add yet another thing to my long list of things that I’m really going to miss about this game.

The rest of today’s session doesn’t involve switching to Tidelock. Instead, I stay on with Perturbation and start collecting exploration badges for the zones I have yet to complete.

In the end, I’ve acquired the badges for Founder’s Falls, Eden, the Hive, Brickstown, and Crey’s Folly. Not too bad. The list of zones that remain are getting noticeably smaller…


Ah, Heart of the Hamidon. I remember back when Hamidon was almost always here, and if you were soloing, you had to hope your dead corpse happened to land on this badge…

…and that’s probably it for me for the rest of the week. Got more D&D writing to do tomorrow, so if I’m able to log on, it won’t be for very long at all.

I’ve said it many times before – but even with the “impending doom” playing the game is still lots of fun. In a way, it’s kind of therapeutic – it really does feel like a three-month long goodbye to my favorite characters. If and when the lights go out, I can be sure I won’t regret the time I spent in the game these last few months.

September 19th:

Started the day with a try out of Champions. I’m not finding it terrible, but I’m also just not familiar enough with how it plays to decide whether or not I like it; basically, I’m reserving judgment until I have more experience playing it.

It does irk me a bit to be taking time away from CoH, but I really do want to get a feel for whether or not I’ll like the game enough to make a subscription worthwhile while their “deal” is active.

Of course, CoH feels like a breath of fresh air when I log on – in this case, though, it is simply the familiarity. I know the controls of this game like the back of my hand. I opt to focus today’s CoH time on Tidelock, rather than Perturbation.

It isn’t a terribly long game session (I’ve got other commitments I do need to focus on today) – I only have time to play through most of the rest of Vanessa’s arc (with a break in the middle to level up and change out enhancers).

The session, as usual, does serve to drive home the point: this is a great, fun game, and I’m going to miss it if and when it goes away. Shutting it down is just … stupid.

September 18th:

Well, today I did it. I started downloading Champions Online. And intend to give it an honest try.

It actually has to do with the 3 months for $30 deal. I didn’t realize the deal continues indefinitely once you’ve signed up for it. While I seriously doubt that even if I like it, I will stick with it for years the way I did with CoH, if I do end up liking it, the deal saves money long term (since if I did end up subscribing, it would probably be for six months to a year). But I need to know if I’m going to like it enough to actually want to subscribe; no point in getting a subscription to a game that I don’t enjoy enough to actually play regularly.

But back to City of Heroes. We begin with Perturbation’s play through of SSA #1 (since I believe enough time has passed so that at least the bonus reward merits are active again).

It’s kind of poignant today, since it is episode 5 of the SSA. Afterwords, I improve my mood a bit by collecting the exploration and history badges in Croatoa. In fact, I suspect my badge hunting in Paragon City will actually delay my full transition back to villain-hood.


Rularuu’s defeat sure does put on a satisfying light show…

In any case, I round out the remainder of the session with Tide Lock. I’m able to finish up Cerulean’s arc, play through Master Midnight’s arc, and start Vanessa DeVore’s arc before it’s time to call it quits.

Oh, and my previous assertion I’d hit 30 about the time I’m done with First Ward was way off base. I don’t know where I got that idea from at all – I’m nearly level 27 and I’m in the last arc of the Ward. I’ll need to think about what to do once I finish … either become a hero to get some more content available, or do the repeatable arcs here until I’m high enough level for Night Ward. I’m leaning toward the latter simply because I kind of want to keep Tide Lock praetorian for as long as possible … but we’ll see.

September 17th:

I ended up spending Friday exclusively writing for a Saturday game for my D&D group, and didn’t get a chance to play. As usual, weekends are not good play-time wise, so I’m really looking forward to today’s session.

First and foremost, check out this “Save City of Heroes” link: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=297365

Let’s face it. Composing and sending an e-mail is not terribly difficult. I’ve already sent my (respectful and logical) ones. While I do understand the tendency to want to be angry – and the call to boycott NC Soft, I am very good at controlling my emotions, and I flat out refuse to participate in boycotts. That said, I still have no intention of investing time and money in any other NC Soft game ever (and I was looking at Wildstar and Guild Wars 2 with interest). But that isn’t driven by a desire to boycott, or for revenge. It is all about consumer confidence. Because it had been around for eight years, and because it was successful, it at least seemed reasonable to me to expect that City of Heroes would be supported in some form or another as long as it remained successful – and was therefore safe to invest my time and money into. This action means that I can never again trust NC Soft to provide support to successful products. And I cannot risk investing time and money into products that even success can’t guarantee continued support.

In any case, as I still await Perturbation’s vigilante badges, I am happy to focus on my water blaster, and continue to play through First Ward. It may not be the fastest route to level 50, but the arcs are very high quality, and I’m content to experience them one last time. I expect breaking out the techniques to quickly level remaining characters to 50 can wait for a few more weeks.
Hrm … I can confirm what at least one other poster mentioned earlier. Double XP is turned back off. Ah well. At least my patrol XP is more useful now…

Today’s session is a nice one. Using Tidelock, I finish out Katie Douglas’ arc, followed by Blind Mwaka, and then start on Cerulean’s arc.

As the character gains levels, I also have a chance to finish slotting in the rest of my Blaster ATIO set, along with the set I got from the summer blockbuster. In planning for the future, I’ve also thought of something to spend my remaining Paragon Points on (well, at least some of them). Thunderstrike is a nice ranged set, and, since it is only uncommon, it is (relatively) cheap on the market.

Not to mention it’ll be reasonably cheap to use my hordes of reward merits from super packs to buy non-attuned versions when the time comes. Furthermore, I have a rather large number of unslotters that’ll be useful for moving some of these enhancements between characters later on.

By the end of the session, it looks very much like I’m on track to move on to Night Ward right after First Ward is done – in other words, I should be hitting 30 pretty close to the end of the First Ward arcs.

Until tomorrow…

That's bad...

No, it's definitely on. I verified it with multiple characters on two servers. Double XP is active, and all of the normal things that "go with it" are too (e.g. Patrol experience isn't being used, except to pay off debt).

September 13th, 2012

So I log on with Perturbation today to a rather large, unannounced surprise … everything seems to be giving triple rewards! Perturbation’s stint today is going to be pretty short – he’s playing through arc #4 of SSA1 while he waits for the vigilante “gold” badge.

I wonder if triple rewards is just going to be a “long weekend” thing, or if it’s going to go until the servers shut down. That’ll sure make it easier to get some more characters to 50 before the end…

In any case, Friday and Monday I plan to badge collect with Perturbation. I start back up the SSA1 arcs starting on Tuesday (which “resets” the rewards I can still get), and that’ll put the transition to villain (and the next “in character” post) on Wednesday and Thursday.

So with Perturbation done, I log off and rejoin Tide Lock in the First Ward. Of course, with triple XP on, I doubt I’ll be done with the First Ward arcs before I outlevel them … these are strange times, and, depending on how permanent the reward boost is, I might need to go ahead and switch to hero-side to pick up an Oro portal and go back to finish up the arcs that way. I like rapid advancement, but I’d also like the story on a character to have at least some continuity…

…Okay, that’s strange. Tide Lock’s experience is totally consistent with double XP instead of triple. I’m *sure* Perturbation’s awards are triple normal (i.e. the influence per defeated enemy and the mission end bonus is 3 times normal). Let me check another lower level character on Triumph to see…

Yep, the lower level character is getting exactly the expected XP from double XP … I also verified that (like any other double XP weekend) patrol experience isn’t being used.

BUT for some reason, my level 50 is getting triple the normal influence (I logged in with him real quick again just to verify). Just to be clear: I mean I add a mob’s normal experience value to its normal influence value (which would be it’s normal reward in influence, and to match what I’m actually getting, I have to triple the reward, not double it).

Cool either way.

Excerpt from Perturbation’s Notes (September 12th, 2012):

True confession time. Two years ago it occurred to me that if just about every other powered individual here has some sort of “dark mirror” counterpart in Praetoria, I probably did too. Of course, in my case, that would probably make my double some sort of do-gooder.

I got to checking, and sure enough, I intercepted a FBSA coded message indication “I” was working with Keith Nance – so I got myself smuggled into Paragon, found my double, and killed him on the spot. Ever wonder where I got the idea for my “hero costume”? Simple; it wasn’t my idea. I just pried it off the dead body of my double. Fit perfectly.

Course, I thought about just assuming Praetorian “me’s” identity – claiming I’d managed to kill Primal Perturbation when he tried to attack me. But that had all kinds of problems. Any idiot doing a bit of checking could easily figure out that my supposed threat level far exceeded the Praetorian’s. Plus, if any enterprising Portal Corp types decided to do a thorough enough scan of me (just for kicks), then they’d find I had the dimensional signature indicating Primal origin, not Praetorian. What’s worse, my cronies back in the Isles who were “in” on the master plan would think I was dead – I wouldn’t be able to call on them when the time came.

So I kept it a secret. Now, the evacuation of Praetoria has given me the perfect opportunity. Time for me to do some “unseemly” things – and then swear up and down to the press and my hero “allies” that my Praetorian double made it out in the evacuation, and is now causing trouble (what with him being evil since I’m so good, right)? Heck, when the time comes, I’ll even “chase” him back to the Isles and hunt him down (could take a while).

(Some time later)


The first step in getting back to my roots. I’d have loved to stay in Paragon a while longer (I’ve gotten kind of used to this character being hero-side – it’s been a year), but impending doom seems to have sped up my timetable.


I’m watching myself on the evening news – a masterful performance considering how tempted I am to laugh at their idiocy.

“I cannot condone the actions of my Praetorian double! His decision to sacrifice thousands of innocent lives does not match the gain of bringing a few supervillains to justice – no matter how vile they may be! I pledge to my fellow citizens of Paragon, and the world, and to my heroic allies, that, as long as my double is free, I will make it my one goal – no matter the risk – to bring him to justice.

“As I stated earlier, I believe that once he realized the law wasn’t just going to turn a blind eye to his deeds, he fled to the Rogue Isles to hide. So there I will follow. For the time being, I leave Paragon City in the hands of a phalanx of very capable heroes – men and women that I’d trust with my own life. I hope to not be gone long…”

The applause, and cheering, is delicious in its absurdity.

Time to notify my cronies to expect my return. My base better be in good order when I get back…

---

And no, I’m under no delusion this is good writing or good storytelling (or even good roleplaying). I’m just having fun!

A nice, good stint with my water blaster should round out the day, and then, tomorrow. He’ll be my main focus for the next week (save for some badge hunting in the streets of Paragon and that slow, on-per-day replay of SSA1), while the timer counts down on my Vigilante power (and the associated badge).

September 11th

We’ll be having a moment of silence in my classes later today to show respect for the men and women who died in the terror attacks eleven years ago. In that vein, I absolutely don’t think an “in-character” post of a heartless, power-hungry villain is in any way appropriate. So I’m just going to stick with a short journal entry of today’s activities.

And it’s a pretty short entry … Perturbation played through Episode 2 of SSA 1, which was very useful for getting some tips. I actually spent some time reading the tips and paying attention to what was going on in the missions – this is the first time I’ve ever done Vigilante missions in the 40-50 range, so it certainly counts as “new content” I’m interested in enjoying.

Once that was done with, I had just enough time to log in quickly with my water blaster and play a mission in First Ward.
It was certainly a short, but sweet playing session – I’m enjoying playing the game quite a bit, and (as I’ve said many times before) I plan on sticking around til the end (even though I still hold out hope it doesn’t come). But I do get a feeling of wistful sadness as I play too. A kind of “soon, all of this wonderful, if imaginary, stuff will be gone” feeling.

...Probably, but I can't really say for 100% sure.

It's just a gut reaction, but I'd imagine that'd be the difference between me staying to play for *years* to come, versus "a few more months."

...

...

Aw, who am I kidding. Yeah, I'd be back.

September 10th:

For the time being, I suspect my entries will be written more like a journal than a (poor and cheesy) attempt to write in character.

Didn’t I say I was going to take Perturbation back to villain (and start playing other characters while waiting for a few Vigilante badges)? Well, I had a slight change of mind… I noticed the other day that he has about 5 points of progress toward reaffirming hero status (and getting another Hero merit). I also remembered that I wanted to play that relatively new Tsoo arc and opt to “mercy kill” the Tsoo master at the end (for the other badge and temporary power offered by that arc). So my journey to Vigilante will have to wait for one more day.

(I also thought it a good time to take my souvenir screenshots of the List of Arcs in Oroborus, with the little gold stars beside every single hero arc on the list. Oh, what a great thing the flashback system is!)

With the flashback complete, I got a little glimmer of happiness for today’s playing session: the Deadly Combatant badge was also by 1000th badge on this character!

Next up with Perturbation is a rush play through of the Tip missions; I always like to head to Atlas Park for those (it’s nice and small, and easy to get around).

One of the Tip missions is the one where you stop the Rikti raid. I found myself reminiscing about random things as I play the game – things that I probably wouldn’t really think about if I didn’t know the end was coming. As I was fighting the Rikti, I found myself remembering way back in the day, when they were basically “naked.” And here’s one for the long-timers – remember back when the Greater Rikti Sword was broken, and a Rikti boss could basically one-shot you? Ah, the memories…

As I was fighting through another Tip mission involving the Carnival of Shadow, I also found myself wondering why the Carnie bosses were never worth bonus XP – if there were any mobs in the 40-50 range that just seemed to scream “we’re pretty nasty; we should be worth extra XP” it was Carnie bosses. And Malta Sappers. I’ve always wondered why the developers were so reluctant to make them worth extra…

Oh! More random memories! Remember back when Malta was bugged, and didn’t ever spawn in lieutenants… (and wasn’t there actually a time when the bug grew, and no group was spawning them) I also remember before they changed it so that Malta spawns only had one Sapper. Multiple sappers in each mob: now *there’s* something I don’t miss…

With the Tip missions complete, I make a quick stop by Fort Trident, spend some Hero Merits, and then a detour to Skyway city. As anyone following this probably knows, I can be very sentimental and nostalgic, and I would like to play through all of SSA1 as a hero/vigilante one last time before I switch sides again. I figure one episode a day will do…

After finishing with Perturbation, I have enough time for a few short missions with my water blaster, Tidelock (who is staying Praetorian as he works through First Ward and Night Ward). And then it’s time to call it a day. At least until tomorrow (I hope)!

(I might add a screenshot to this post tomorrow, but I don't really have time to mess with that today...)

September 7th:

First things first … a BIG, extremely grateful THANK YOU to TonyV, Guy Perfect, and the CoH Titan team for the Sentinel! extractor! It is my sincerest hope that (1) CoH doesn’t shut down completely after all (i.e. it gets sold to another publisher, or NCSoft opts to keep at least one or two of the servers going), but failing that (2) the game gets revived on a private server. But even if neither happens, simply having an archive of my main characters that is detailed enough that they *could* (in theory) be restored at some point after the servers go dark is very comforting. It means a lot to know that their stats and info now won’t go completely *poof.*

If you haven’t gotten yet: http://cit.cohtitan.com/sentinelplus/

Checked my first level 50 villain (Lord Galvanic) today for play time: 436 hours. (And, of course, archived him!)

Perturbation’s main goal for today is to play through A Hero’s Epic (again) – I won’t bore anyone reading this with a detailed play by play; I figure a brief summary and perhaps a screenshot or two will suffice.
First, though, it’s time to start spending those Hero merits; after ‘Epic’ is finished it’ll be time to return to villainy, and I don’t want to lose them!

Heh, I noticed that I still have a superpack left. May as well use it too! (Couple of revives … some merits, a Blaster ATIO and a catalyst – some if that’ll be useful when I’m working to level up some of my favorite non-50s).

---

Sometimes all of this Time Travel dreck I’ve had to do as part of the ‘Master Plan’ really creates some strange issues. On the up side, this whole idiot city is now convinced that I’ve been here in the streets facing off against some of the worst criminals in recent history, *then* got “framed” for a crime I didn’t commit right before Arachnos broke me out of the Zig. I rose through the ranks of Arachnos, did some pretty vile things, and ultimately faced down Lord Recluse himself – putting a big dent in Operation: Destiny in the process. And *that* was just a ploy to put a stop to what was then Recluse’s “big project.” Once the “villainous façade” was out of the way, I come back to the welcome arms of Paragon City, and save the world a few more times.

Yeah, that’s just a bunch of bunk. Maybe one day I’ll tell you the real story, but suffice it to say that virtually everything that I “did” before the Operation: Destiny breakout was just thanks to Oroborous.
Well, one of the very first things I did when I “repented of my villainous ways” (that’s what I had to play at before all that time travel turned “repented of villainy” into “triumphant return from Arachnos infiltration”) was save Statesman from Tyrant, who had directed the building of a robotic duplicate to replace him and bring down the War Walls for a Praetorian invasion.
Problem is, Statesman had been kidnapped by Tyrant a bit before that, and rescued by some other loser hero. He’d actually been a prisoner for quite some time – it just took Maria Jenkins quite some time to piece it all together. I did some research, and figured out Statesman had originally vanished pretty much right after Portal Corp discovered Praetoria, years back. Well I decided that to really cement the whole “I’ve been saving Paragon all along” persona, I’d travel back in time to right after Statesman had been kidnapped – before anyone had really figured out he was missing – and rescue him. Steal the credit, as it were.
Yeah, bad mistake. Turns out originally Darrin Wade made his bid to become one with Rularuu before Statesman had been rescued that first time (so it was Sister Psyche and Ms. Liberty that had died, and Wade’s plan didn’t even come close to working). Well, I make sure Statesman is out on the street fighting crime when Wade makes his move, and *bam* - now it was Statesman (and Psyche) who died. Which wouldn’t have been that big a deal, except that it meant that Statesman never got kidnapped that second time by Tyrant, and I never saved him that second time – erm, first time – and that’s what had really gotten the Phalanx to trust my “good intentions.”

So *now* I have to go back and make sure *I’m* the one who saved Positron (who ends up being the one who gets captured) so that they still trust me implicitly.

I’ll make a long story short. Pretty much everything happens just like before.


When the world’s going to end, why not summon every ghost you’ve got under your power?


You probably don’t want to look behind you…

…And the Phalanx still thinks I’m their savior, and a valued ally.

Perfect.

---

It’s been fun *and* it’s only been a week. There are still a whole bunch more until the end, and that makes me feel better.

The weekend might permit some playtime, but if not, see you all on Monday…

I was looking through one of the XML files to see what is captured, and I don't see anything pertaining to a character's souvenirs (as opposed to badges). Am I just missing where they are? Or does the exporter not save which souvenirs you've got?

Thank you so much for this! Even knowing the character is archived, and the information isn't just "vapor" is a lot of peace of mind. You guys are amazing!

A quick question: I assume that this tool doesn't in any way "capture" items held in e-mail or on the market, correct? So things like enhancements would need to be claimed on the exported characters to "preserve" them, right?

September 6th:

Thanks dugfromearth! I’m actually having a blast in-game, and, based on the chats online, I’m not the only one making the most of the time we’ve got left. (Although there are also plenty that can’t bring themselves to play the game and are just on to take some screenshots.) I feel fortunate that I can still find the game fun

Didn’t actually have time to log on with another character, and I intend to focus today on Perturbation again – my focus will probably shift while I wait the week to get the vigilante badge, and then again after he goes back to villain side and finishes up the new content there. But first, let’s check another characters online time. Let’s try Lethal Guardian… 1194 hours! I also need to start claiming “store” enhancements on appropriate characters: for one, that’ll help de-clutter my inbox and make it easier to see the consumable items (inspies and various boosters that will especially be useful for getting other characters up to level 50). I figure Lethal’s a good enough choice for any Tanker AT enhancements, and I’m actually pleasantly surprised to find out I’ve got 4 of them in e-mail. Well, there at least is 4 lines of clutter I can get rid of. Getting him a 5th and sixth will be a future “project” – and is probably a good use of the hordes of reward merits I’ve still got.

So now back to Perturbation…

Heh. Her “quote” when I call her up is “This is a difficult time for us all.” How very ironic…

Maria’s next sponsored Praetorian beat-down is Nightstar in her Black Shroud dimension. Nothing special, just find her and take her out. And that’s exactly what I do. (She really was actually up on a roof. Plus, I thought she was bigger than that…)


Shortly after this, my Blood Widow went on a tour of the pavement…

Haha! The part where she blew my Blood Widow pet off the roof was quite entertaining. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again many times I’m sure: I’m really gone to miss this game when it’s gone. Here’s hoping that the efforts to save it bear fruit.

Next up is Marauder. Wait, WHAT?! Didn’t I *JUST* put him back in jail?! *Sigh*

(As a note, it *is* pretty much the same mission as before, only this time it’s a kill all, and it’s using Marauder’s “old style” minions.)

Maria then sends me back to Praetoria to Citadel’s “factory” where “it would be a good thing” if I smashed up all the WarWorks there, and took Citadel out. Works for me…

The area I’m ‘ported into is quite small, so it takes very little time to clear out most of the WarWorks. My own WarWorks are still offline (read: recharging after the battle with Marauder) and I don’t feel like waiting for them to come back, so I opt to call upon the Ghost of Statesman to help me out instead. (I’m going to need something to spend reward tokens on eventually anyway – and Superpacks just give me more consumables that I’d need to spend.)

(Actually while I was typing this, my WarWorks recharged. What the hey – let’s pull out States anyway.)


Looks like somebody needs a hug!

Wow! Now I’m glad I did have all the help – WarWalker Siege is pretty tough! My word – he’s got a pretty decent heal with a relatively short recharge. I could hurt him well, enough, but without the extra firepower, he would have just kept healing up.

And that appears to be it from Maria. So now I’ve done every single thing my native Peregrine Island contact would have me do. I am hero to the world, and held in extremely high regard by the citizens of Paragon.

The stage is set for my rise to power. But there’s one more item of business to attend to. I’ll need to travel into the recent past and ensure I’m the hero that saves Positron from Tyrant’s clutches. Once the new leader of the Freedom Phalanx trusts me, there will be almost nothing to stand in my way.

(In other words, evidently Maria thinks I’ve done her arc, even though I don’t actually have credit for the “post-Statesman” version of it. But that’ll be tomorrow’s task.)

September 5th:

I’m trying to tally up the total number of hours spent on my main and “almost main” characters. So far I’m checking out about one per day – today it was Coulomb’s turn, with 867 hours of gameplay.

Afterwards, it was time to switch over to Perturbation. It’s suddenly dawned on me that I’m going to need to figure out what to spend his hero merits on before he returns to villain side… I checked and it does look like the market is crashing, so crafting something to sell seems kind of pointless. I’ll probably look to get some recipes that might be useful on some low-level characters (in what will soon be my quest to get whoever I can up to 50 before the end).

-----

It would appear the “end of the world” kooks are selling off all their personal belongings, so I find myself resorting to the much more stable stores (and that trusting idiot Ghost Falcon) to unload the detritus I scrounge off of my fallen foes. Soon, I am again in contact with Maria, who is directing me to head to the wilds of Praetoria and consecrate the bones of Shadowhunter’s victims, so that he can’t be resurrected.

…

…

Seriously, lady? I have a better idea. Why don’t I go to Praetoria and “consecrate” the bones with … oh, I don’t know … urine, and then OFF Shadowhunter when he shows up! Make him wish he’d stayed dead.

Yeah, I like that idea better. The hard part was making sure none of the holy water Maria gave me spilled on my skin. My flesh smoking and burning would have probably been kind of a give away as to my true affiliations. (Yes, yes, I know I’m not undead, or a demon. Just a mutant. What can I say? Apparently the stuff burns me anyway…)

(Fifteen sets of … “watered” … bones later.) Hrmph. Shadowhunter never showed up. Guess it didn’t work. I guess I’ll call Maria and take credit for my “good deed.”

Now Maria wants me to shut down whatever is powering Black Swan. I can do that. You know what shuts down someone’s power? A brutal pulping.

Next up is a raid on a rave in Praetoria where Dominatrix and hanging out. Maria wants me to get my hands on some Fixidine and get it to Dr. Science so it can help his research into curing the trolls.



At first I’m tempted to just hang onto the stuff and slip the Doc some regular old ‘dyne. But, in the end, I figure “Superadine addictions cured, troll mutations reversed! World owes Perturbation its eternal gratitude!” might work better for my ultimate plans.

(As a note, Domi has proven to be one of toughest AVs to take down. Not that she can actually defeat me, but her damage resistance is high enough to practically create a stalemate when I face her. Interestingly, I’ve been making a real effort to use the scads of consumables I have from the Paragon Market, and this’ll be a really good use for them: a bunch of Precise to give me a sustained damage boost…)

After dealing with Duncan, Maria informs me that Praetorian Malaise is antagonizing the Rikti deep down in the Paragon sewers. I don’t see the problem, but she’s convinced that whatever he’s up to will be bad in the long run. Fine. To be honest, I’m not jazzed about the Prats doing anything over here in “world that will one day be mine.” And I really hate mentalist freaks – their mind-control b.s. is one of the few things my energy shields don’t deal with well. So sending him packing *is* probably good for me in the long run.



…

Wow, Maria! I was expecting some sort of “save this person from X” or DireHowl just popped into Atlas and is gnawing on some noobs, can you help? But you actually want me to just portal into Chimera’s training facility and flat-out beat him down. No provocation on his part. No master plan he’s hatching that I need to stop. Nope. He’s just there, and you’d like me to grind him into paste “just because.” Now *this* is a task I’m glad to do! I can’t believe you people actually think of me as a hero for this…



Evidently my rather random attack on Chimera has prompted Mother Mayhem into action. She’s just portaled into Waxahachie Park and is … well, causing Mayhem.

After an appropriately long wait to let her do some real damage and take out a few ill-equipped heroes, I deem it time to sweep in and save the day. I’m getting to be pretty much a nightly news item at this point. “Perturbation saves the day!” “Pert! It’s not just your favorite shampoo anymore!” (that moron had a very unfortunate “accident” shortly after that story was published) “Our Savior!” “Perturbation for President!”



Okay, Maria, who’s next?

Battle Maiden? Not a problem. Just keep the accolades flowing.

Step One: Invade BM’s lair, and activate some sort of obelisk that will let the Portal nerds zero in on her *real* home on Warrior Earth.
Step Two: I don’t know yet. Probably invade Warrior Earth and flush away BM. Although I’m not totally clear on why she’s not in what Maria’s calling her “lair.”
Step Three: …
Step Four: Profit.



….

That’s it for me on Perturbation tonight. I want to work some other characters up toward 50 (which will include claiming some market inspirations – I bought ‘em so I may as well use ‘em. After all, if the game doesn’t actually end on Nov 30th, then it’s not like I’m going to be kicking myself for actually *using* them.)

And YAY! Finally got to post #1000.

EDIT: Odd ... the first pic was supposed to be cropped. I'll check it tomorrow and correct it if need be...
EDIT2: Very odd ... the pic *is* cropped in photobucket - I can't figure out *how* it's even showing up as the full-sized version (which, as near as I can tell, doesn't even exist in my album there...) Tried to recopy the IMG link and it didn't work.

September 4th:

Kind of a pity – things are just busy, so I find myself with less time to “get the most out of the time left” than I’d like. Hopefully my schedule will open up a bit tomorrow evening, and Thursday.

I do need to figure out how to do a good demorecord – and if possible I’d like to find a way to make some gameplay videos that have sound too. If anyone can suggest a link or a guide to help out, post it or PM me, please.

Hrm … I also see that the “If the devs had just done what I said, the game wouldn’t be shutting down” crowd is showing up. Who ever said human behavior wasn’t predictable?

More “call to action” links from TonyV’s extremely admirable efforts to save the game; even if you can’t do everything here, do what you can!

http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index....ic,4886.0.html
http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index....ic,4908.0.html

Okay, I think I’ve got time to squeeze in one mission, just for fun…

-----

Just how many times am I going to have to beat that brutish blowhard Marauder down?! According to Maria, he Neuron and Anti-Matter escaped from the Zig, and the latter two managed to gate back to Praetoria (I guess I should be pretending I’ve traveled back in time to before Tyrant’s downfall and the evacuation, eh?) … but Marauder wasn’t sure how to get back, so he’s holed himself up in a warehouse, hoping that after a couple dozen beatdowns by yours truly (not to mention a whole host of other Incarnates who opted to join some of the impromptu “teach Marauder a lesson” days) he’ll come out ahead this time.

At least this’ll be a good way to occupy the next fifteen minutes of my time.

Just because it’s overkill, I time travel my way into Brickstown (quickly return to the “present” – hey, it beats actually hoofing it to the ferry…), and fly to the warehouse.

Marauder apparently didn’t want to keep me waiting – he’s right at the entrance.

I work to convince him that two square meals a day in your own personal, hi security cell is a much better option than hanging out in warehouses where the personal tragedy of sudden, savage, random beating syndrome (SSRBS) can strike at any time…


Like most villains, I fight dirty. Very, very dirty.

On the way to the tram, I talk to Miguel, who informs me I’ve been on patrol for 2,066 hours. (My first step to figuring out how much time I’ve invested in all of my various “main” and “almost main” characters. None, I suspect will be anywhere near this high.)

Cool! That means since I’ve created Perturbation, I’ve spent (on average) just a bit over an hour a day playing him.

September 3rd:

First and foremost, here’s a link to TonyV’s “Halls of Titan” project to save CoH. I definitely plan to follow this… http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index....ic,4877.0.html

I’m got mixed feelings at the moment about writing an e-mail to Valve. I actually think this is a very promising idea (and, if it came through, would be the best thing to happen to the game, IMO), but, conversely, I think they’re aware of what’s going on at this point, and don’t *need* a bunch of e-mails to tell them how loyal CoH’s players are. I think they’ve already got a very good idea about what exactly they’d be getting if they bought CoH, and are probably already at least planning to talk about what, if anything, they intend to do. I hope they make the decision we all hope they will – but, to be honest (just my opinion) making them *aware* of what was going on was the most important thing to do in this case – and that’s probably already mission accomplished.

Also, Voodoo Girl, in a post in my farewell to MA thread, mentioned demorecording our MA missions, and that got me thinking – Rather than trying to preserve as much of my in-game “accomplishments” as possible with screenshots, a few movies of gameplay (and some of the more poignant or interesting moments in the game) would actually be a great addition to my “memories of CoH” folder. And – although boring to anyone but me – a much more efficient way to “chronicle” my nice long list of badges and souvenirs.

I have many more thoughts to share and ponder in the coming weeks and months (even if I’m actually only talking to myself ), so I think this is sufficient for today.

(And I do plan on adding screenies to these posts as I get the time – but the holiday weekend is packed with activities, so I’m just happy to have a few moments to post and play here and there for now.)

And … of course, I did get time for at least one mission!

-----

I have no idea if that blue idiot Promethius let it slip deliberately, or if his hotheaded demeanor just made him that much easier to bait, but it would appear the date of the Coming Storm is November 30th. The wait isn’t as long as I thought – soon my plans will come to fruition. It’s good my preparations are close to complete.

For now, I need to play the hero for just a bit longer… and that will involve seeing what Maria Jenkins would like me to do.

So Maria’s first task is for me to take out Diabolique, who likes to haunt the Magisterium at night. She’s going to portal me directly into the plaza, and I get a half hour to take the slippery little ghost down. (Oddly, I seem to think I’m going into a graveyard rather than the Magisterium Plaza, but given that the Magisterium Plaza is about to *be* a graveyard, I don’t think I’ll quibble…)

(Actually Devs, this was so much better than the original mission with Diabolique actually in the graveyard area of some city map.)


Ghost Girl puts up a good fight, but in the end she only hits me once before me and my overpowered Lore pets take her out (*make no mistake* - I *hate* what’s happening to this game, but, hey, at least I can try to look for a silver lining from time to time … and without Issue 24, my Warworks are still quite overpowered).