Dr_Mechano

From what I've gathered from dev chats etc. is the following.

If you start in Paragon, you can only select the hero ATs, if you start in the Rogue Isles, you can only select the villain ATs but...

If you start in Praetoria you can select any of them and once you hit level 20 you get the chance to make a choice and go to either Paragon City OR the Rogue Isles with that AT.

Now for higher levels you have to do your alignment altering missions, with one step per week (so hero to vigilante one week and then vigilante to villain the next week) as mentioned by Positron on the EU Q&A on test.

Seeing that the fighting had calmed down the Shivan stopped a couple of feet away from the two of them. To Tafari it would be seen that this wasn't just a regular Shivan but had all sorts of seemingly random cybernetic enhancements fitted to its glowing bones.

Steve waved to Edward who begun his approach.

"Betsy, shotgun mode..."

The rifle morphed and shifted until it resembled a rather large double barrelled pump action shotgun.


Hopping down off the Howdah and landing next to Steve.

"So ladies, gentlemen...I assume the fighting has been settled..."

Unfortunately for Edward Elizabeth wasn't the Elizabeth of his time period, her future but one of her past.

Edward sighed.

"Can you lot keep it down, you know how hard it is to make a shot at this distance without you lot yammering on about this and that...just get to safety...I'll keep an eye on this angry 'god' of yours..."

Edward motioned to Steve, "alright I'll cover you, you go and see what that ruckass was all about..."

The Shivan hopped off of the howadah and begun the walks towards Elizabeth and Tafari.

Rather odd art request but actually see my signature.

I was wondering if someone could knock up a 'badge icon' for my forum earned badge, unfortunately I can't seem to make it look very good when I do it myself.

As you can see from the signature, the badge's name is Wing Clipper and the flavoured text reads 'Real Showstopper'. Just wondering if you artsie types could knock up something to go with the name.

Pretty please?

((damnit nobody told me there would be exploration badges! Now I've got to go hunt them all for the accolades...ech...damn badge hunting urges...must...resist...))

Edward was enjoying himself...he was enjoying himself so very much, so far stuff had exploded and a woman had exposed herself on the center stage...today was generally a good day for amusement. This was more fun than any casual villainy any day, heck it was more fun than going to the movies!

However...he was up next, he moved to casually push the struggling Dr Coyote aside with his foot, barely managing to push that fleshy mass out the way.

"Alright my turn I feel...ladies, gentlemen and esteemed judges, behold the latest of my amazing inventions it will astound and amaze you all, behold...the amazing Growthatron!"

He pulled back the sheet revealing a rather bodged together looking utility belt strapped to a manniquinn, it wasn't as impressive as he had made out...but time had been short.

"Watch in wonder as I both grow AND shink using this wonderous belt, you shall all be in awe of it's majesty!"

Unclipping the belt from manniquinn and placing it around his waist.

"Behold as I shrink down to the height of..."

He pressed a button...the shrinking wasn't very impressive, infact it was probably a couple of inches at most, the Doctor being a small man already.

"...the height of five foot five inches and watch as I grow to the height of..."

He pressed another button...yeah he was taller but not THAT tall, infact one could say he was decidely average in height for the super powered people of the Rogue Isles.

"...six foot six inches!"

Edward looked at the audience who...were not amazed...sure it hadn't blown up...yet...but it was hardly a scientific achievement, going to the facemaker could add one mass muscle AND height with ease.

"Never again shall you suffer the tyranny of high shelves or small doors, never again will Supermarkets be the bane of your existence....never again will..."

It begun with a loud whinning noise...followed by an even louder rumble.

"Oh gods...get this thing off me...it's going to blow, the growth matrix is unstable!"

Then, in a zapping, flashing way, the belt and his trousers disappeared, leaving a rather crispy looking Edward, exposed in his tighty whitey underwear. He sighed and held out his hand for a new pair of trousers from Steve as he walked off stage.

"Well...there goes my award..." slipping in to his new pair of trousers with a sigh...

Unfortunately Edwards sense of direction, or complete lack thereof, had kicked in and he'd ended up wandering in the completely wrong direction and towards the arguing super powered people (Elizabeth, Tafari etc.). Looking through the scope of his rifle he could see Lizzy, who was dressed different than her usual fare...rather odd for her...she was a vampiric creature of habit if nothing else. He could also see she appeared to be in trouble of some kind.

"Hmm if Lizbeth is going all out like that, that other fellow dusting himself off could be the cause, I can feel the smug vibes from here...well best make myself known and do Lizbeth a favour at the same time..."

He rested the high powered morphing rifle onto a wooden beam of the Howdah, taking into account the sway of movement from Mr Fluffers and slowing down his own breathing until he had a steady shot on Tafari's noggin.

Then he pulled the trigger and the big dog barked once more.

At Elven Forest
Edward was a tad bored...everyone had rushed off every which way and was doing things.

"Steve, mount up, it's about time I got myself some proper action, I doubt these people need my scientific help..."

He let out a short, sharp whistle as Mr Fluffers moved beside him, hoisting himself into the Howdah, Steve climbing aboard.

Edward sighed as he felt a squelch underneath his feet, the food rations those funny little tricksters had given him had been all but smooshed thanks to Mr Fluffers tree climbing antics. He used the water to clean off the howdah before settling down.

"Alright Mr Fluffers...we head onwards, in search of scientific discovery...and probable death...hmm probably should follow the direction the beating drums came from...I feel in the need to initmidate the primitive locals..."

So began his journey...hopefully in the right direction...but then if there's one thing a scientist doesn't tend to use...it's sense of direction...

Man the Archlord and Age of Camelot - Albion level up ones are pretty damn awesome!

The Pirates of the burning sea one IS awesome but it's also hellalong...

Is anyone else thinking something along these lines...

It would essentially be City of Heroes 2.0 (not City of heroes 2 but a timeline upgrade).

The available to all part of the expansion would be moving the timeline forward.
1) Second Rikti war is essentially won, those who purchase the expansion can go help one of two factions on the Rikti homeworld (the heroic and villainous Rikti already exist so use those) in a civil war. The Rikti EAT is also introduced.

2) Lord Recluse and Statesman are MIA/KIA, the Statesman and Lord Recluse Task/Strike force are completely reworked (still aware the same badges). Villainside gets a massive content upgrade and major rewrites of a lot of stuff (which both myself and Eva have suggested).

The ITF gets a subtle rewrite (they nolonger need just Statesman and Recluse to power the Mecha but ANY incarnate...since there will be many now available). The Statesman's pal badge is reworked/renamed along with those arcs.

The RV hero/villain defeat badges required for the accolade are reworked (the Lord Recluse and Statesman badges are redone) and generally a lot of work goes into reworking or replacing stuff that requires those two.

Yes it's a hell of a lot of work but this is a paid for expansion we're talking about.

3) Ghost Widow gets her body back (finally) and thus anything involving her is dealt with and she is renamed to Belladonna (a good evil name in itself) but retained her dark/dark corruptor like powers.

4) Throw in some new powersets, new costumes and the like.

I'd throw £19.99 at that for sure.

Well it's been mentioned that the general level of invulnerability is set at 'can survive one or two direct hits from a tank at most' level as opposed to superman or Apex complete invulnerability.

During World War 2 lots of heroes died when they went with a frontal assault approach using them enmasse against the Germans. So instead used them as commando units.

Edward looked deeply peeved...

"Who let the Arachnos flunkie in?!"

"This is a Mad Scientist Union convention...Arachnos have no jurastiction here and no, I CERTAINLY wont afford you the one courtesy I afford old spideylegs and that's a tithe of the profits my factory make, I was told there was only to be two judges...highly respected judges at that, I demand to know why these last minute changes have gone into effect..."

"Brothers of science, rally to me, let us turf this interefering Arachnos interloper out on the street!"

Edward aka Dr Mechano, always did have a flair for the dramatic.

Agreed, Broadsword already has the lions share of weapons customisation, would be nice to have seen a new organic Axe, Mace and bow to go with them...

There in lies the problem.

Blueside you could kill off/write out Statesman without too much hastle, remove him from the RV Hero spawn list, bump up one of the other Freedom Phalanx to give you the Statesman Taskforce and do 'something' with Maria Jenkins arc. He's not tied to a huge overall plot that runs through City of Heroes.

Now Recluse and Arachnos are the opposite, they're tied to a huge storyline that runs through all levels of City of Villains, killing off Recluse would involve the following:

1) Major rewrite of quite a large number of arcs due to the fact that Arachnos is nolonger a single unified front (it's only the power of Recluse and the Arbiters that stop it tearing itself apart, this is said a LOT ingame) and would have splintered into individual factions behind each Patron.

2) There's now no reason to stop any of the patrons (apart from Sircocoo who wants to make the world a cartoony shiney happy place with no evil whatsoever) from doing what they plan to do in their patron arcs since there would be no Arbiter Daos to tell you to go stop them 'or else'. All but one of the Patrons goals simply run against Arachnos and Lord Recluse, it's the only reason you stop them ESPECIALLY Ghost Widow.

3) With the factions splintered Grandville would have to be completely redone, that statue of Recluse wouldn't stay standing long and it would be turned into the main warzone between the four Arachnos factions.

4) In the confusion it's rather obvious the power structure of the Isles would shift, the Arachnos war would leave a massive power vacumn and villains like Nemesis or the Council or even good old Dr Aeon himself would try to grab a piece. I imagine Dr Aeon would set himself up as scientific ruler of Cap Au.

Unfortunately by making almost everything in City of Villains tied to Arachnos and therefore Recluse, it makes it hell to remove him from the game.

Since my main hero Amy Zon actually has 'template clones' running around of her I will stick with the purely good/evil rather than show all of them.

Amy Zon and her War World counterpart (not Praetoria but the home dimension of Battle Maiden) Barb Arian.

Edward parked the truck into the parking space that he'd managed to find, "come on...we're going to be late...can't have that..." it seems the one thing in common with all mad scientists was poor time keeping.

Edward had rented the truck..well..not so much rented as stole but you can't make an omelete without breaking a few eggs, he'd return it once he was done.

Steve begun to haul the 'thing' he'd brought with him which was covered by a sheet. Moving into the lab and getting everything setup.

"Wish I'd known about this sooner, was the best I could do on such short notice...lets hope the wiring holds..."

One of his employees had bought him the poster.

Edward was grinning from ear to ear, "it's about time those two Arachnos flunkies got their act together and actually EARNED their Mad Scientist Union cards..."

He turned to Steve, "so...what you would recommend we take as our invention, I can't be taking any of the genetic template stuff, we've already done that and I don't think anything robotic is going to be too special..."

Steve gurgled and blurped...as he usually did.

"Well I can't take you, while yes you are a scientific marvel you're also a one off and we've been friends for quite some time now...you're not a new invention..."

Steve gave what could have been a sigh.

"Look, I'll go through my old inventions that never made it to public usage and I'll see if I can't get the R&D boys to quickly knock something up..."

There was a glare from Steve.

"Alright NOT the washing machine powered death ray, I'll try something else..."

With that Edward felt more inspired to do research than he had been in months, pulling down his goggles with a grin.

"Let's do this!"

He hurried off to find his pile of rejected inventions buried somewhere in the companies archives.

And despite the 'those nutty RPers claiming it doesn't make sense' comments...here..I shall put the RP spin on things!

A big shot hero (someone who has a lot of influence) is going to be more infamous when they turn to the dark side of villainy because they're just that well know, the bigger name the hero has, the more shocking the turncoat actions are to the people of Paragon.

Thus they retain the same overall 'level' but instead of praise and adulation, the fear and terror inspired by the fact one of Paragons finest has decided to ditch their heroic ideals and be out for themselves makes them just as infamous.

Nobody is going to really care if some no-name hero (low influence) gives up on their life of heroics to turn to crime, they haven't even made a name for themselves yet.

See...it makes RP sense too!