Dante

I’m glad I read this thread because I must admit, I’m having a bit of a love/hate relationship with it too.

On the plus side, the zone is utterly amazing. The art team have truly surpassed themselves creating a bleak yet varied zone with different environments and enemies. Extra credit definitely goes to the sound design for the noise that the Seed makes as it floats around. I’ve been happily travelling or talking to a contact when that noise rises across my speakers and I feel a chill knowing that it’s coming. Wonderfully creepy. I normally despair over the sound design in CoX but in this, they really have excelled. Also, the stories are good and I don’t feel like a complete twit all the time like I have done with some of the newer story arcs that have come out. I also like some of the challenges, such as capturing the Apparitions while still in their hosts. Makes you appreciate Brawl.

On the downside, the story to First Ward is actually quite simple and yet it seems to take forever to get to the meat of it: what are the Apparitions? What is to be done about them? I went through three, maybe four contacts fighting these foes before those questions got answered. The contacts are terribly verbose and I do believe that a good story editor could have cut down the waffle tremendously. I like a good story, I love the CoX world but I can’t help but think sometimes the writers need to trim some of the fluff. First target would be Papa Smurf in Ouroboros though for that.

Not sure about hard on squishies, I’ve been soloing my Kinetics/Sonic Defender through it with no real issues and as it is, I like a challenge every now and then. Too many parts of the game are a cakewalk these days.

However, I did not know that /sea was bugged. I was expecting the place to be crawling with teams but I haven’t seen one since I’ve been there. That puts paid to that mystery. I’d love to have a bash at fighting the Seed but like others, I’ve seen no-one fighting it or even rounding up teams. Perhaps the difficulty in getting a team in FW is the problem here.

To all current Militia Personnel and others of an interested nature:

Following the recent attack on Galaxy City by a Shivan strike force, the Militia Oversight Committee has met to discuss the implications of this tragedy and how we should respond appropriately to it. The Committee believes this to be a crisis of national scale and sends its condolences to all those affected by the event.

In the past year, we have seen an increase in potential threats from beyond our borders, be they our dimensional borders or those outside of our own atmosphere. These threats have had a devastating affect on the city from the decimation of parts of Skyway and Kings Row to the total destruction of Galaxy City. With this increase of high risk threats, we believe that it is time for the Militia to meet these new threats head on. The Militia has an excellent track record for dealing with street crime but has proven time and again that it is capable of operating beyond these boundaries.

Therefore, the Committee has petitioned the Militia Trust to approve funding for a dedicated team of heroes to meet and neutralise these threats to our peace and the peace of all on Earth. The Trust has agreed to meet these costs and therefore we are pleased to commission the team dubbed Militia Prime.

We will be accepting applications from heroes no lower than Security Level 45 for this team shortly to join those already being considered for a role.

Likewise, we are aware of the tremendous efforts that have been made by not only our current team but also other heroes and ‘would be’ heroes in the efforts to rescue citizens from Galaxy and secure the zone. The temporary offices of Hero Corps and the registration desk at City Hall has been overflowing with citizens eager to do their part and assist with the aid effort. The FSBA has requested that existing hero teams do what they can to assist in training and utilising these peoples’ unique talents.

Therefore, we have also requested additional funding from the Militia Trust to run another class of the highly successful Militia Academy program. This program has already seen many graduating members become full time, nationally acclaimed heroes. These heroes, who already provide a sterling service to the city may choose to assist in the training of the new class. The new recruits will, just as our previous classes, come from many walks of life and will need help in achieving their full potential and it is the Committee’s belief that the Militia is up to the challenge of achieving this. We have no doubts that the expert training and accepting environment of the Militia will enable our recruits to grow as heroes and overcome any challenges presented to them by their former lives.

Our press office will be happy to accept any enquiries regarding this announcement.





((This announcement is now pinned to the notice board in The Hub, complete with some of Saffron’s annoyed scribbles over it, clearly expressing her frustration before pinning it up:

• In the margin next to the Militia Prime applications, she has written, “Yeah, I wonder who that might be!”
• Where current hero teams are being asked to help with requests, a hastily written “Thanks pal!” is scrawled next to it.
• A large, red ring circles the part that says ‘challenges presented to them by the former lives’ with a comment that asks “What the hell does that mean!?”

Obviously copies sent to anyone interested won’t have Saff’s annoyances scrawled over it.))

The Militia has been a running supergroup on Union since 2006 and since the demise of the general Union Roleplayer’s recap thread, we’ve been without a place to update on the forums. So therefore, here is a recap thread for the stories, plots and roleplay relating to the supergroups under our banner: The Militia, The Cadre and The Knights of Albion (our Virtue SG). All the juicy stuff happens over at www.themilitia.org.uk for full details of all our plots and goings on.


The Militia – 12 October 2011

Following the devastating attack on Galaxy City, the Militia was summoned by Longbow Captain Hallard to assist in the rescue operation. Assigned to trouble-shooting duties, the Militia were teamed with a number of other heroes who had shown up looking to assist the aid effort. Split into two teams under The Amber Banshee and Estoque, they dove headlong into the disaster zone.

Heading into the sewers to curb the influx of Arachnos since the meteors struck, they discovered a nefarious plot by Barracuda to pump refined coral into the Paragon City water supply, using the Shivan invasion as a cover for their operation. After destroying the pumping stations and taking down Barracuda, they were able to free a number of unlikely hostages from The Lost, The Council and The Vahzilok along with a number of citizens hiding from the Shivans.

Emerging from the sewers, Captain Hallard then dispatched them to the ruins of the Cygnus Medical Centre where life signs had been detected. Entering the remains of the hospital, they fought against a number of Shivan entities that had emerged from the city morgue, battling through to free two civilians who had become trapped in the wreckage.

After the foul stench of the sewers and the exploding alien goo of the Shivans, the Militia and their allies were disappointed to be dispatched back to the sewers again where Hydra entities had emerged, rising up out of the depths. Searching for the shut off valves to close off the lower parts of the sewer, they battled against the Hydra creatures alongside an unlikely ally, the Rikti Restructurist Zyn V’dek who had been dispatched to find out why the Hydra was responding to the invasion.

Finally able to get cleaned up, the Militia returned to Captain Hallard only for an emergency announcement to be given to The Amber Banshee. Reading the announcement, she told them that the Militia Oversight Committee had convened to discuss the Shivan invasion and the recent Praetorian incursions. The Committee had decided to sponsor the setting up of two new branches to the Militia. A team to take on the extra-terrestrial and extra-dimensions threats that seemed to have become more common, a high security level team dubbed Militia Prime. Alongside that, the Militia had been commissioned to run another class of their highly successful Academy Program to enable new heroes who had emerged from the Galaxy disaster to find their strengths and train them to be world class heroes.

The full text of the Militia Oversight Committee is included below.

The only one I can think of off the top of my head is Third Degree Byrne who always speaks with the voice of Avery Brooks when I'm writing his speech.

As someone with a Sonic themed character as one of his mains, this interests me. I have a few comments.

Firstly, no Control set has a shield power. Add something like that to a Controller (say with Sonic Resonance) and you could be quite overpowered. Ditto for the fact it debuffs foes Resistance as well.

I completely agree that a pet doesn't work IMHO. I already have a problem with Sonic Resonance with its shields (sound waves dissipate very quickly) so a permanent pet made out of soundwaves just doesn't sit right with me. I think something along the lines of Liquefy might be better, an AoE mezz and debuff with a reasonable recharge, similar to how Mass Confusion is for Mind.

Lastly, the one effect I'd love to see in a set like this is more knockdown/knockback. Sufficiently loud soundwaves can blow things all over the place so a Control set would likely leverage a mechanic like that, perhaps in the same way that Jolting Chain from Electric Control does.

Anyway, those are my thoughs.

I've given it a go in previous years but I've got far too much happening in RL at the moment to dedicate myself to it.

Good luck to anyone who gives it a go, it can be a real challenge.

I gave up on the EU being treated as equal customers during the global name fiasco.

As a business, Paragon and NCSoft have to make decisions that affect the smallest number of customers. Unfortunately, that means that it's always the EU customers who end up being boned.

Does it make financial sense? Yes. Is it good customer service? No.

I think it's high time they pulled their socks up and did something to show EU players that they are valued customers too. But if I'm not going to hold my breath otherwise I'll likely go a very unattractive shade of purple.

This showed up on one of the nerd sites I regularly frequent:

http://www.toplessrobot.com/2011/10/...river_song.php

Not sure where it came from but it sounds like Alex Kingston doing the voiceover so I'd wager it's official. Basically, this tells River's story in a chronological order, picking up all the threads from previous episodes. It's really nicely done and now makes a lot more sense.

Personally, I thought Silence in the Library was a fairly weak episode (two-parter) but seeing this now makes me want to go back and watch it again. That final scene now seems so damned heartbreaking.

My Dark/Kin Corruptor is an energy vampire, leeching power and health from people.

My Illusion/Kinetics Controller can manipulate the flow of time. (I actually think Kinetics does a better job of time control than the new Time Control powerset IMHO).

My Kinetics/Ice Defender is a mutant who's power is 'always on' so she drains batteries, power cables, heat and light when she's around.

My Fire/Kinetics is a solar infused entity who can 'power up' people with energy as well as take it away from his foes.

Of the four, my Kin/Ice is the best at high levels I find, mainly because of being able to turn a team into an absolute powerhouse.

Hope that gives you some ideas.

Tonight I gave it a whirl on my Sonic/En Blaster to add a bit more AoE. It seems.... a bit lacklustre.

The damage was better than what was suggested on Mids but it was the knockdown that I found unreliable. Out of a spawn of six, I knocked down two and found myself in the middle of four rather annoyed Freakshow. Bit of a shame really.

These would definitely make me look at Force Field more.

Well I like it. Catwoman looks slender and simple, pretty much what I'd expect from someone who's meant to be stealthy and subtle. A 'busy' costume wouldn't look right on Catwoman in my opinion.

However, it does seem that Batman's costume is getting more and more complicated with every iteration of the franchise.