Dante

*Faints*

Issue 24 may well be the best one yet at this rate...

It's times like this I wish I wasn't on a UK time zone.

Good luck with it though, I love the concept.

I'm fairly burnt out on zombie movies too but this does look quite fun. There's way too many guns for London but the chase scene putting granddad in his zimmer frame against a shuffling zombie is just comedy gold. Especially as it's Richard Briers, a staple of British comedy for almost 50 years.

Ok, not an official pack (trust me, such a license would see me stealing all of my daughter's lego) but this is one very impressive bit of building:

http://io9.com/5931903/seven+foot-lo...go-masterpiece

Seven feet long and over 70,000 pieces, this is an impressive act of nerdery that gets my seal of approval. Plus, the mini-fig crew is just adorable.

*Yawn*

Do something exciting that doesn't involve that PANCAKING universe and I'll be interested.

Oh gods. More emo, soul searching Superman. I think I'll pass thanks.

Barring the usual 'for the greater good' nonsense and the lack of villainy (that irks me no end too), I've always maintained that any future zones should follow the Rikti War Zone format. In that zone alone, you have:

1) Decent non-facepalming story arcs (great for soloists and teams alike),
2) A fun, fast Task Force (great for teams) and
3) The Mother Ship Raid (for leagues).

Also, this zone also introduced Vanguard Merits. Although more or less redundant now, they matched all three paths above in terms of speed so we had the slow, fast and extremely fast methods of obtaining them. I'd say in terms of balance, it's about the most complete package the Devs have ever delivered in a zone. Now if they would follow this way of thinking for all things Incarnate, I wouldn't be so put off the whole system.

As for villains, agreed, we need more stories about being the bad guy and not some hired goon. D-Mac and Leonard again set the standard here. I want to see precisely no more co-op content introduced with some kind of 'heroes and villains must team up to defeat... blah blah blah' kind of baloney. Sick of it to my back teeth by now.

So, there’s been a lot of lore related threads recently. I’ve not really commented although I have read them all and on the whole, agreed with many of the critics of our game’s current lore. However, this is not meant to be another of those threads, no, instead this is an attempt at a more constructive solution.

The game’s lore is complicated. It has twists, turns and unreliable narrators all over the place. This, along with a reluctance to release any more of the lore than necessary (mainly through that arrogant little turnip in Ouroborous) means that lore junkies like myself and others have to speculate on certain plot points and apparent contradictions to previous lore. There was one thing however, that helped to resolve some of the issues in the past and I would like to see it return in all its glory. Namely, bring back Canon Fodder.

It was a brilliant platform for asking lore questions and having some of them answered by the writers. With the somewhat shaky Incarnate and Praetoria plots now dovetailing, this is the perfect time to help the playerbase understand current events before the Battalion arrive. I can imagine that the game’s current writers may feel reluctant to engage with the lore junkies, particularly given how mercilessly some of us criticise the current storyline. But if they are confident in the story that they are telling, I’d love to pose them some questions. They wouldn’t have to answer everything or get drawn into the sometimes pointless bickering but could simply use the previous format of choosing a few questions to answer and posting a select list of answers every month.

So, here’s the challenge to the current writers: resurrect Canon Fodder and help to answer some of the questions the community have about game lore. We promise not to bite unless you ask us to.

And first I was all "Awwwww....!"

And then Forbin posted this:

Just when I thought I could let my sub run out, they pull you back in...

Now, just add some new, non-Praetorian content (preferably villain only) and i24 could be the best in a long time...

The EU server that was generally regarded as most populated is Union. Whether it is now after the server list merge is unknown.

Although we have the one big list now, there are still marked differences depending on when you log into them. Logging into Union at 2:00am in the morning GMT will give you a fairly dead server. But at that kind of time, the US servers are fairly active.

Welcome to the game BrightBlueInk. I hope you find a home here and feel comfortable amongst the RP community. I'm a Union roleplayer myself but I do dip my toes into Virtue every now and then.

My first tip would be to read some of the entries on the main site here:

http://na.cityofheroes.com/en/game_i..._of_heroes.php

I would suggest reading the entries under:

Signature Heroes and Villains
Know Your Adversary
Geography
History
Story

As a good start. It doesn't cover everything but then that's ok. Paragon Wiki will fill in the gaps where you need them.

I'll also point out Zortel's still excellent primer for roleplaying in CoX, linked here:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=164362

Not sure if that's the one you mentioned but it still holds up several years after it was written. A lot of roleplay lore (separate to canon) is held in the Virtueverse and Unionverse Wikis:

http://www.virtueverse.net/wiki/Main_Page
http://union.virtueverse.net/wiki/Main_Page

I will also add this tip: If you're not sure where you are and what you're doing, create a character who is a genuine noob. Maybe they're young, maybe they just arrived here from another country or another dimension. It can help you learn the lore IC if you like, it certainly worked for me.

And finally, don't be afraid to ask questions. Most roleplayers in CoX are friendly, approachable and glad to see another roleplayer around. Send them a tell (type /tell Character Name, [Your message here]) and I'm sure they'll be happy to help. Or bring them to the forum where are legions of lore junkies will be only too happy to assist.

I hope that helps a bit.

Want this. Want this so bad.

/signed over and over again.

One of my 'mains' (if I can call her that given my at times crippling altisis...) is a Sonic/Energy Blaster and I've been running solo and teamed with her for over four years.

Capping range is not hugely important but I have a respectable amount on her and it helps to mitigate alpha strikes. The most important boon I have found is with recharge as it helps to stack the -res debuffs from your Sonic attacks and therefore increase your overall damage. Not hugely noticeable on a crowd but against single targets, it makes a difference.

Best tip I can give for this combo in terms of IOs is to get hold of a +Stealth IO to slot into Sprint (or like me, in Combat Jumping). It means you can get closer to line up Siren's Song on a spawn and provide a little bit more safety before sleeping them all.

My immediate thought was Power Thrust from Energy Manipulation. I know that I used it a hell of a lot when levelling my Sonic/Energy Blaster and it provides excellent mitigation against targets that got too close. But then I'm a sucker for 'get out of my face' powers like Telekinetic Thrust and Crane Kick.

Faith restored in humanity for today.

Excellent story, thank you for sharing.

"Would you like a cup of TEA!!!???"