Dante

I think all your questions have already been answered so I'll settle with saying "Welcome!" and that I hope you and your partner enjoy yourselves here.

Around the perimeter of the convention hall, the Shocktroopers began to fan out, their gleaming white armour blending in seamlessly with the many other fans in various hero, villain and sci-fi based costumes. A convention attendee, dressed in a poor home made cosutme of Lord Recluse, replete with spider legs made of cardboard tubes, didn't look where he was going and bumped into one of the Shocktroopers. It was like hitting a brick wall.

"Hey man, sorry, didn't see you there," he muttered in a thick Texan accent.

The Shocktrooper barely even moved. It seemed to pause for a second before turning its attention to the fan, as if it was listening to instructions.

"No problem! Say, we're handing out free gifts for some of the best costumes. Let me get you one." It reached into a holdall and retrieved a plain brown box to hand to the young man.

"Really? Oh wow, thanks!"

Saffron had been seeing off a young man who seemed oddly obsessed with her freckles. His offer to 'play join the dots' would normally have earned him a loud ringing in the ears and the loss of his hearing for a few minutes but not today. So she was grateful for the distraction by the young lady.

"Certainly," she replied, taking the proffered pen and pad, hoping the man would drift off in the meantime. "Are you having a good time at the convention?"

Brian took a moment to a moment to escape from the gaggle of women admiring his form. The whole charade just irritated him. He wondered for a moment what his wife would have said if she had of been alive to see him now.

"Imogen says a lot of things," he replied. "Not all of them true. But then she's our publicist so most of the things tend to be in our favour. This one... I'm less certain on. At least I don't have to suffer action figures."

On stage a dance routine was starting. Brian positioned himself to see and instantly regretted it. A troupe of five ardent fans were performing a dance to "Holding Out For A Hero" while dressed as the Freedom Phalanx.

"I guess we both seem to be suffering the same problem which while flattering, makes me wish for a good long chat about genetics with a pretty girl who could stop drooling. I didn't exactly ask for this physique. You um... been able to see any of our friends here yet?"

Behind him, the dance troupe started their individual solos, the Positron clone moving into a terrible 'robot dance'.

The building soon began to fill. All of the tables were besieged by various crowds of people, either seeking to get an autograph, a photograph or just contact with some of the city's defenders. Of course, there were problem customers, as there always were.

The cosplayers were always an issue, either from the man who kept on hovering around table 38A in his home-made power armour trying to impress his idols or it was the pair of fans around the Unity Vigil's table wearing their own version of the team's costume, despite almost bursting from the overloaded seams.

And of course then there were the conspiracy nuts who descended upon the Vanguard stand like a plague, full of questions and theories about how they'd proved that their next door neighbour was a Rikti spy due to how loudly he played his music through the wall.

Brian Mackenzie, doing his best to maintain his stoic composure as Karnac was already struggling.

"No, I've never tried to stop a train, not yet," he replied to a trio of middle-aged ladies who couldn't stop staring at his massive arms. "I'm not sure if I really would want to... not unless it was necessary..." He hastily scribbled his signature on some of the photographs and handed them out, hoping that they would go away. No such luck. He glanced over at his daughter for help but she was busy trying to show someone who was tone-deaf how to sing better. He suppressed a sigh but the atmosphere was still light and friendly and it was nice to be off duty for a while.

Like a mass stampede, the attendees began to file in. Amongst the hordes, it was easy to spot the casual fans, the autograph hunters, the bargain seekers and those just out for a fun time. There were plenty of people who had chosen to come in costume as well, their home-made outfits enough to put some special effects houses to shame. Shocktroopers, Space Trek officers, cyborgs, women squeezed into very tight Princess Layla metal bikinis or Laura Croft costumes... this year they'd outdone themselves.

Lloyd and Shaun distanced themselves from everyone else pretty quickly.

"Okay, so we attack this place in a criss cross fashion," said Lloyd. "No-one else I know does conventions that way. We can get to the queue for Captain Flash's autograph quickly, watch the ten o'clock showing of Hero Weightlifting on the stage and then maybe go and get a picture taken with The Hammer."

"The Hammer is lame," replied Shaun. "He lost direction when he changed his costume in 2007 and started getting philosophical. They all go that way eventually."

"Whatever," replied Lloyd.

Behind them an entourage of Shocktroopers entered, surrounding a black robed figure who's face was shrouded by his hood, clearly a take on the Overlord.

Karnac sat at table 43B next to his daughter feeling like an idiot.

“I feel like an idiot,” he muttered.

The Amber Banshee looked up from checking her watch. It was 8:55, just five minutes before the early birders could enter. Five minutes before both of them had to face every inane question ever thought of by fans and convention attendees.

“You’ll be fine,” she replied. “Just smile, sign the photographs and tell them what they want to hear. You’re a natural dad.”

Oh yes… the photographs. The man mountain looked down at the publicity photographs that he’d allowed to be taken before the event. Before he’d been taken and changed by the Devouring Earth, he’d been a 5’ 8” weakling. Now, three years later and to all intents and purposes ‘cured’ of their influence, he was now over 9 feet tall and 400lbs heavier. But posing for photographs while lifting cars and flexing his muscles pressed all of his insecurity buttons. He winced every time anyone admired his physique.

“Hopefully you’ll get all the questions,” he said. “You’re looking good… commander.” As one of the figureheads of The Militia, his daughter did her best to keep the team under control. The slender redhead blushed slightly then poked him in the ribs.

“Maybe. I don’t always follow Imogen’s suggestions, but at least this is a chance to meet the public face to face.”

She glanced over at the doors, seeing the burly security guards open them wide. Behind them stretched a long queue of people, some in costume, some clutching backpacks ready to be filled with merchandise.

“Oh boy…” muttered the half fey songstress, “here we go…”

((Every type of activity has a convention associated with it, Paragon City as the epicentre for heroes is no different. Here fans can meet their heroes, get autographs, pose for photographs and ask those awkward, difficult questions that only fans can do! Typical convention behaviour will be rife, fanbois, cosplayers and merchandising galore (both legitimate and not!) can be seen on every stall.

The event is strictly heroes only and people are more than welcome to bring heroes to sit at stalls, take part in events, meet the fans and mingle with other protectors of justice. But beware! Everything is not as it seems...

(Apologies for the late posting, I had intended to get this up a few days ago. Dates are not, therefore, restrictive. People can PM me for further info if needed, there'll be a wiki post soon.)

EDIT: This event is 'Open' so feel free to participate. I'll have to get the title edited.))

Personally, I always liked Mother's Love's contributions. Such a shame that NCSoft never let him go ahead and produce them.

Links to some of his finest efforts here:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...ght=mother%27s

My Stone/SS does the majority of his tanking with Rock Armour, Mud Pots and Rooted running with the occasional dose of Minerals if facing psychic foes. I've had very few problems tanking for full teams at reasonably high levels without having to use Granite. I do use Granite occasionally if the team I end up on likes to chase purple mobs or if the brown stuff hits the swirly thing but on the whole I find the Stone set out of Granite perfectly capable of tanking most things in game.

I wouldn't drop any of the armours I already have as that'd mean losing several of my Gift of the Ancients Run Speed bonuses. And that would make me sad. (And slow.)

If this meant I could use the Tech Wings as an advanced hanglider...

/signed! Very much so!

Very well said Damz. A good summary of how things appear to be in the EU at the moment and something that I hope somebody takes notice of given our plight...

*ahem*

Apologies. I was in danger of whining and playing the victim there. I guess I'll just kick back and accept things as they are instead of voicing an opinion...

While not considering this a doom thread (not yet, but it's getting there) I've been away and thought a bit more about what this news could possibly mean.

I've been looking forward to GR a lot. Not just because of all the good things included in it, but because I tire of our quiet servers too and have been looking forward to seeing some new players to come on board and join in the fun. But does the lack of a box in game stores also mean that there will be very little (if any) marketing for the game in Europe? I for one will be keeping an eye out for any advertising in the print media in the UK but I must admit, I do not expect to see any.

I'm not the slightest bit surprised by the news, but obviously disappointed. I reckon that some time ago, someone high up the chain of command in NCSoft decided that it wasn't worth maintaining a base in Europe, gutted the UK office and left the servers to dwindle. If there's not enough players in the EU then it can be argued that it's not cost effective to either merge the server lists or work on the tech needed to allow EU players to transfer characters to the US. When I feel very cynical, I could easily believe that we may end up getting the same treatment as the Korean players. Namely, a "We're closing the servers now, thanks for playing, here's a bit of free time on the US servers" response.

I still enjoy the game, I have made very good friends with many people and I still play regularly. But I do feel that the moment that the EU servers become too costly to maintain, we'll feel the sharp end of the stick. I think that we would all be very relieved to hear something reassuring from someone in the know but as I've not seen anything relating to the EU (aside from the previous comment on marketing) since the boards merged, I'm not holding out much hope. It wouldn't take much effort to let us know we're still valued. And in the spirit of remaining positive, I hope that we may be offered that soon.

Tomorrow, I'll pop next door and find out. Last time I looked there was some chap tending a hamster that ran the servers.

Thanks for the info Beber. I guess that, put in laymans' terms, that means:

"Don't bother marketing to Europe as the cost of distributing boxed sets to stores will be more than the return you'll get from people subscribing."

I have three friends who are avid online gamers and have never heard of CoX. And as already stated, I see other NCSoft products in stores regularly but haven't seen anything City related in years.