DKellis

Speaking of the badly-edited CoH opening trailer way back when, we've actually seen Spark Blade there.

Flying through the sky during the Rikti assault
Winding up for the pitch
You know this is going to look good
ZAP
And off it goes...
... to a Rikti drone...
... which barely stops it...
... but explodes anyway

Later, with Rose Star

EDIT: Incidentally, if you're wondering who was in Spark Blade's place in the original US version, he's the guy in blue with a headband standing behind Spark Blade in the pic with Rose Star, with what looks like energy blaster powers. He's in the same position in that shot in the US version as well, while Spark Blade and Rose Star are actually one large guy wearing red and crossed ammo belts.

... that's probably way too much information.

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OK. But we saw videos with Afterthought..eh, Foreshadow shortly after the anime costumes hit with I4, was it?

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Foreshadow first appeared in the CoV base raid trailer. Then he got spliced in (badly) with the CoH opening cinematic trailer thingie that caused a lot of discussion back then.

((OOC: Thanks for the welcome. And don't worry about characterization, you did fine.))

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Ayura sped through the air, heading in the direction of the hospital. Supertaster had decided to delay the... well, she supposed it should be called Uberjaegerpanzer or something. Humans seemed so fond of their catchy labels.

That thing was huge, though. Ayura remembered Carmina's somewhat disjointed account of that large robot that some secret conspiracy had sent against one of her teammates... the Titan? No, it had some other code name. Ayura resolved to ask the half-elven woman when she next got the chance.

Assuming any of them got out of this alive.

Why would Nemesis attack the Steel Canyon hospital? Ayura supposed that it would delay the return of wounded heroes to the fight, but the tunnel gate to Independence Port was near enough, as was the Yellow Line. If nothing else, the rapid response teams would be able to set up a temporary medical tent and reroute the emergency teleportation system there.

Wheels within wheels. That's what Nemesis's plans always were, from the histories she had consulted when researching the significance of this holiday. Nemesis never did anything without thinking it through, sometimes decades in advance...

First, though, there was that giant Jaeger to deal with. Even if it were only a diversion, it could still cause massive damage.

She could see the hospital staff being evacuated. The resident gangs in the city were strangely absent; self-preservation instinct, perhaps.

She needed something to slow down that Jaeger, something that would reduce it to junk if need be...

Junk?

Cloaking herself with the practiced ease of a celestial among mortals, Ayura landed on a rooftop near the hospital. She could only do this one at a time, but she couldn't think of any other way.

Carefully, she reached out with her mind. As usual, instead of encountering dead metal and circuitry, she found herself manipulating a living, powerful mind, something akin to a hive, and yet not.

You seek spare parts, she projected. Rusty heads and glowing, sparking eyes turned to face the steam-powered Nemesis monstrosity. You seek spare parts, and here is a good source for your needs.

Of course, their leader would probably not be happy about Ayura usurping his soldiers, but their leader was, well, somewhere else, not here.

A nearby hero caught Ayura's intent, and he grinned widely, as he bent his own considerable mental powers to the task at hand. Other heroes soon joined in.

Clanking and whirring, the Clockwork of Steel Canyon advanced upon the army of Nemesis.

"And call for help!" Supertaster 4.0 yelled after the swiftly retreating figure, hoping that she heard him. Carmina had the highest security level among the group by far, but she was rather less than useful in an emergency. Supertaster turned, and glared at the shorter half of the Enzeru sisters. "That goes for you, too."

Carla crossed her arms defiantly. "I'm not budging. I can help out here, you know that."

"No, you cannot." A firm hand clamped down on Carla's shoulder. Despite the owner of the hand's petite size, Carla could not struggle out of the grip. "You have been given a command, Warshade, and you shall follow it."

Carla grimaced. "Seisha..."

"I shall take her away," Seisha informed Supertaster. "I do hope that she does not resist." Pause. "For her sake."

"Er... yeah. You do that."

"Uptight officious violent Peacebringer bi-" Carla began, but wilted under a warning glance.

"Was that a common human custom?" a voice enquired, after the two left.

Supertaster found a sword of flame in his hand before he realized who had spoken. He looked down. "Angel, what have I told you about sneaking up behind me?"

Ayura considered this. "Don't?" she answered brightly.

"Right. Besides, they're not really humans, anyway."

"Ah, yes! The merging of the non-Terran life form known as a Kheldian to-"

"Yes, yes, well done. What've you got for me?"

"It is a very messy situation, think I," Ayura reported solemnly. "Nemesis troops and automatons have infiltrated a great number of office buildings, and snipers are picking off heroes with impunity."

"Fantastic."

"It is?"

"That was sarcasm, angel." Supertaster pointed to the center of Blyde Square. "We've got to get to Positron and Valkyrie, get to the statue and Cooke's, hold a defensive perimeter. Did you see them anywhere? No? Damn. Go see if you can find them."

Ayura saluted, and faded from view.

Supertaster concentrated, and jumped, soaring over the melee. With any luck, he could gather a group of other heroes, fight back, clear out a street or two...

Something slammed into his back, knocking the wind out of him. Supertaster, off-balance, plowed into the ground, incidentally observing that the impact hurt a lot more than it should. His mutant toughness must be slipping, or something.

Standing groggily, he found himself face to chestplate with Nemesis.

Or at least, a Nemesis.

"Real, or fake?" Supertaster wondered.

The giant steam-powered battle armour brandished its staff. "For Lord Nemesis!" it roared.

"Fake," Supertaster decided. He glanced around; help did not seem to be available from any quarter. "Well," he said, as his hands were wreathed in flames, "who wants to live forever anyway..."

The Fake Nemesis tossed a large bubble of energy at him. It collided into Supertaster's gut, knocking him back several paces. "Ow! You know, I actually felt that." The Fake Nemesis lumbered towards the fallen hero, and Supertaster thrust his hands forward. The fire left two hand-shaped scorch marks on the battle armour, but with no other result.

The Fake Nemesis responded by casually smacking the hero into a small group of automatons.

"This is bad, very bad," Supertaster muttered, dodging a bayonet stab. He grabbed the weapon, pulled its wielder into his elbow, and then swung the rifle like a club, mowing down two more automatons. He then heated the metal cherry-red, and threw the result at the Fake Nemesis.

The explosion staggered the robot, and Supertaster took this opportunity to hack a gash in its leg armour with a blade of flame. The Fake Nemesis emitted a prodigious amount of steam, as it crashed to the ground with the screech of tortured metal.

Supertaster dropped to one knee, panting. That fight had taken a lot out of him, unused as he was to fighting Nemesis troops, and he was hurting in many places that he hadn't known could hurt. Just a short while to catch his breath, that's all he needed, but from the way the Fake Nemesis was getting back to its feet, it didn't look as though he would have that while...

... until a Warhulk charged into the scene, leaking steam and a strange green gas, gibbering unintelligibly. It collided with the Fake Nemesis, and blew up.

Supertaster blinked, then broke into a large grin as Ayura faded back into view.

"I do hope those isotopes decayed quickly enough to be safe for the general population," Ayura said worriedly. "The Boss is not going to be happy if I... come to think of it, I am not sure if this mortal vessel is capable of contracting cancer..."

"It's fine, angel, it's all fine," Supertaster laughed. "You're a gorram sight for sore eyes. Did you find Positron and Valkyrie yet?"

Ayura shook her head. "Too chaotic. The Nemesis troops are fairly evenly matched with the heroes, think I. And for every new hero, reinforcements arrive from unknown vectors."

"Frell. Say, you've got more experience dealing with these guys than I have; mind showing me a trick or two?"

"Sure! It is just a matter of practice, say I!"

Supertaster looked at the mayhem around him.

"Yeah, I'd say we're going to have lots of practice today," he said.

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((OOC: ... you try describing Invuln tanker Invincibility.))

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I saw this guy his hands tied behind his back and his feet stuck in a bucket jumping all over the dock.

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THAT'S my favorite one as well. We had a good time fighting the other guys as we watched him try to jump away to safety in his bucket. Golden...

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When I ran across this guy, he fell off the ledge into the water and continued to hop around.

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That's kind of defeating the purpose of the cement bucket in the first place, isn't it?

First time I encountered these guys was in Nerva. After I saved the civilian NPC from the Family, I set him on /follow and protected him from any other enemies while he hopped his way to freedom.

After he hopped into deep purple territory, though, he was on his own.

Habits die hard.
Hamming it up for the cameras.

Misa, EM/DA. Concept build, a young girl who sucks the life force/souls of her foes and collects it for her own purpose.

Energy Melee is good enough that I've run through missions with nothing from my secondary running, which is pretty much what I had to do in that block from 15 to Stamina (well, Obsidian Shield for status). Dark Regen fits her concept very well, and I like how she's basically a ball of dark fluff with two disembodied glowing spheres when I toggle on Cloak of Darkness. Still, other than Dark Regen (and the status protection from Obsidian Shield), I haven't really seen a whole lot of difference when I toggle on or off my shields. Maybe once I get fully kitted out with SOs.

Non-RP-wise, I've always wanted to play Energy Melee, but I can't team-tank worth beans (scrapper at heart). And for scrapper(ish) secondaries, having tried an Invuln (okay, but I've deleted in favour of the tanker version), a SR (got bored, deleted), and a Regen (50), I've always wanted to try a Dark Armour something.

That, and I can't easily come up with character concepts that make use of elemental stuff like Stone or Fire. Also, I prefer resistance to defense, largely because I don't like the "will this hit me or not" gamble.

I'd change my avatar to something from Tsukuyomi, but then I realize that underage catgirl vampires may be a bit questionable.

Something that I noticed for prestige vs. influence:

When you finish a story arc, you will get an enhancement reward. Also, you will get experience and influence, if you are in normal mode.

However, if you are in SG mode when you finish the story arc (not finishing the last mission in the arc, but actually talking to the contact and choosing your enhancement reward), you will get experience, but no influence or prestige.

That's right. If you're wearing SG colours when finishing the story arc, you'll be getting an enhancement and experience, and nothing else.

I noticed this on the first day of I6 on Live, but my one character in an SG hasn't had a chance to test this again recently, so I'm not sure if this is a bug (that may or may not have been fixed), or if it is intended.

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B) they all had a power pool called resistance..prolly due to
global defense cut. They left those hero's back to patrol
kings row where it's safer. Notice theres no fire or ice
tanks in the freedom phalanx, too squishy

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Actually, I think Resistance is something along the lines of the Giant Monster code. There was no way my level 8 Brute could consistently hit a level 50, but I managed to land a few blows nevertheless.

I could be wrong, of course.

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The strike will last for 3 hours

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Well, that's something to aim for. I'm not going to be able to make the event at the beginning due to something RL, but I'm hoping I can finish that up in an hour or two.

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And to ask what will it bother if someone is wearing a stupid costume. What will it bother if someone wants to called their hero Streetwalker69 or SatanicSchoolSux? Does it physically impede our gameplay? No. But is it something we want to see in the game? No. Will most people send a petition? Yes. Same thing goes for costumes as it does for names. You are welcomed to make whatever look you want, and the rest of us are still free to ridicule and put our votes in against things like giant skull monsters for heroes.

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I'd actually disagree, and say that no, most people would not send a /petition for "immersion-breaking" names (that aren't in violation of the EULA), largely for the same reason that the devs refuse to designate an "official RP server".

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The general consensus in American comics is:

ugly=evil
fat=evil

Blame society, but that's the case. We want our heroes big and muscular and all ideal. There are obvious exceptions, but they are usually the first to get killed too. (ie Dinah Soar)

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Interestingly enough (and albeit only tangentially related, since there hasn't been a real conclusion to the discussion yet), there's a fascinating thread about this issue over in Suggestions and Ideas about the CoH comic.

Now, personally, I'm of the opinion that "ugly/fat = evil" is no more valid than "Huge bodytype = tanker". And the game does not care what your appearance is with relation to your archetype.

But that's just my opinion, and I cannot claim that the devs share it.

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Anyone that considers Spawn and Punisher to be "good guys" and "heroes" has no reason to be commenting on comic books at all. Unless you definition of good guy is killin people?

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No...obviously if you kill anyone you cannot be a hero. Screw the police and the military. They must be all pure evil since they kill people when they have to! You have opened my eyes! No longer will I think or Police or Military are heroes that keep us safe!

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There's a bit of a difference between killing people because one has to, and killing people because one chooses to.

I'm only marginally familiar with the Punisher and Spawn (in that I know they exist and they sometimes kill people), so I'm not sure where they fall in those categories.

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And if ugliness is heroic.....naw just too easy.lol

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Ugliness does not confer either heroism or villainy.

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And WoW shares the same server/client/etc/ and yet the Horde and Alliance look different. Go figure.

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They have species variations. It's kind of difficult to mistake a Tauren for a Gnome.

The WoW character creator doesn't provide for a lot of options, since that's not its strength. The CoH character creator is rather more significant.

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Obviously powers and costume options are different, but it is comparable. There should be distinction between the two games just as there should be distinction between the various archetypes. Just because someone wants that distinction doesn't mean they're doing it to personally offend you, just like the people who are in favor of this likely aren't doing it just because they're out to get me.

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The problem is identifying where that distinction lies. Because how heroic/villainous is, say, a scarf? Or a split cape? Or a skull design?

Every costume piece brought up as "not villainous/heroic enough" will have some corresponding example in some comic, whether American or Japanese or whatever. If a division has to be drawn, the line will be arbitrary at best. Players don't really react well to arbitrary decisions. Yes, the devs can issue something akin to "because we say so" ex cathedra, but I'm fairly sure that this will not go well with most of the playerbase.

Asking the two games to look different isn't a bad thing in theory. But how should that be implemented? Which costume pieces say "hero", and which say "villain"? Are we to be indoctrinated by association into thinking of striped scarves as evil by nature?

"Ranged" vs. "melee" isn't such a hard distinction to make, most of the time, as is "offense" vs. "support". But "heroic costumes" and "villainous costumes" are still quite undefined.

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And also, what is AS? I've seen it in other thread when talking about PvP. From what I read, its bad to get ASed.

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From context, Assassin's Strike, a Stalker power. It basically does something like 7x to 10x normal damage, assuming the Stalker is hidden. It's meant to one-shot (or close enough) just about anything.

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Really? So, who was that in the CoH trailer in the WWII-era footage with States and gang?

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Possibly a coincidence. Similar in looks only, and all that.

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Both were spoken of simultaneously when I3 originally launched. And in an early CoV mission, I'm hired to sniff out a Council spy in Arachnos midst. SPIDER comes up, somewhere in the dialogue.

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Iiiiiinteresting.

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However, the name implies the surfacing of the dormant villain group SPIDER (which does in fact still exist in the world of CoV) in Paragon City.

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It does? I thought that SPIDER was retconned into Arachnos for entirely out-of-story reasons.

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I love this thread. It has that great smell of my master! *gives Master Manticore an arrow-shaped cookie*

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I suppose I must be the only one slightly disturbed that you can smell Manticore.

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I do hope that there are new missions that involve Arachnos in Paragon. Maybe even a fifth contact for the level 45-50 heroes? =O_O=

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If they do add one, please, please have that story arc soloable in whole.

I'm not entirely certain that Issue 6 on Live will coincide with CoV launch. Largely because if it does, then that leaves less than two weeks for us to test it.

Cutting it a bit close, I think.

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It isn't even in the vault.

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That's probably why they trust Azuria with that jar.

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If you're mistaken, then so am I...I always assumed "dyne" was just the abbreviation.
I don't remember it ever being mentionned that Rage gives superpowers. I think it's just a drug the Tsoo sell (and that becomes toxic when mixed with superadyne). As for the Counsil's super-soldier program...I don't think we really know what it involves.
For that matter, the Family and some Crey agents seem to be augmented, but we don't know how. I guess it's just not relevant information...

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Rage is basically a Superadine substitute, except that it makes the consumer a lot meaner and stronger until they burn out. And yes, mixing Rage and Superadine is lethal.

The Superadine/Dyne connection is weird. Some references indicate that "Dyne" came before "Superadine", others say that "Dyne" is short for "Superadine" (which is also spelled "Superadyne"), and some mobs call it "Dyne" and others call it "Supes". I'm choosing to interpret it as the writers getting confused, and there is only the one Superadine, and everything else are "street names". (After all, they don't seem to know how to spell "Ubelmann" either...)

Considering Excelsior comes from Crey, I'd say that the Crey enhancing chemicals are also of experimental natures, except that Crey cares not for FDA regulations. And I think Dreck does have an ongoing steady connection with Crey, considering how he managed to get the recipe for Excelsior (and that KhEm-SeT, the Freak supposedly in charge of making more, is a tank with no hands). Somehow, I don't think Crey would just give it to him if they didn't want something really, really big in return.