Dr_MechanoEU

"man this place looks like a warzone..."

"Tell me about it, feel sorry for the guys we had out here on patrol.."

"So what's actually happened, we've got an unconscious cape in the hospital..."

"Yeah poor Override..."

"...the bank robbed, a jewelry store robbed, a bar set fire too, looking at over a hundred counts of GBH on PPD officers, Longbow and any witless goon that stumbled into the area, vandlism, the destruction of every single motorized vehicle within the area along with all the bus stops, fire hydrants and the like...plus the break out of a known villain called Shock treatment and the PPD precient generally trashed..."

"I've got one of the witness..says they saw who did it.."

"hmm go ahead what's the description..."

"Elderly gent, grey skin, accompanied by a small team of robots of varying size, a very large Caucasian male, dressed mostly in black and a small Caucasian female dressed in a skirt and vest top..."

"Hmm best feed this to the capes and HQ, judging from the few that arrived they look mighty angry, especially with regards Override..."

Conversation between two PPD officers on Talos Island.

((I.E. Myself, Big Lunk and Pica really went on a massive rampage in a mayhem mission and cleared the entire map of anything hostile or blowupable and did all the side missions...man it was great fun, only time i've finished a mayhem mission wit more time than i started))

The other major problem was the fact the Ritiki war screwed a whole lot of stuff up and technically world is still in the rebuilding phase. Perhaps the president is still using his 'emergency powers' to stay in office, we don't know, the devs don't give us a whole lot of non-super power related background as you said, it's all very much about the heroics/villainy.

Unfortunately for CoH the world is very much black and white when taken at the value the Devs give it, 'you're a hero, you do good things, people love you'. This problem is shared with CoV where everything is very much the dark side of things and it doesn't give a lot of room for misunderstood heroes who fell on the wrong side of the law, it's very much a 'you're bad, you do bad things, people fear you' the devs really don't like the option for ambiguity in either side of the game to occur naturally, it is we, the RPer, that force this ambiguity into the game.

It's odd you simply just don't get punisher style heroes in CoH if you take it at face value, you don't kill, you arrest/defeat (i mean defeat...come on, i'm a villain for heavens sake...of course i've mercilessly butchered the underlings. I defeat Heroes, I kill minions...atleast that's how i see it).

So go ambiguity and heroes and villains which tred the line, go...be free...

It would help a lot more if they introduced the 'going rogue/reformed' option where you could switch sides but as i've said the devs don't like ambiguity and also it was too hard to balance...(i.e. they cba).

All the major intelligence and government agencies are there. CIA, FBI etc. and i'd assume they're still doing the covert operations and the like, just using superheroes for their 'black ops' instead of soldiers.

While there isn't a Guantanamo Bay but the is the Ziggursky Prison which is a prison for those who have super-powers, i've seen the inside of it, it's dark, dank and reminded me of the prison colony planet from Alien 3. Though admittedly at the time i was escaping from said prison IC wise anyway i imagine the rest of it is a lot more secure than that 1 section you see in the villain side tutorial. The place still looks pretty inhumane for a prison though even if it is holding the world biggest 'potential evils'.

Well there's one man incharge Isles side and that's Lord Recluse...so that's a lot easier to figure out.

However Paragon side i'm not sure who is president of the USA, though i'm sure someone can drag it up and link it for us. Every time the president is mentioned ingame it's just as that 'The President' i believe.

As for Big Al's using sweatshops, my villain would say that was a good thing, it keeps the prices down after all. Also Big Al's only exist villain side...so you'd find they're probably using WORSE tactics than just sweatshops, there's something for your group to aim at.

As for a politically charge SG, i don't see anything wrong with it. Often you mind most RP SG's are a real mish-mash of people with various beliefs, life-style choices and a common goal, to stamp out crime with as bigger and heftier boot as possible. Villain side most aren't organised behind a common goal of 'ruling the world' as most hero side seem to believe.

EVIL is a bunch of mercenaries for hire out to the highest bidder and as such is quite a large mix of personalities and expertises. The TLF is out to cause the chaos and destruction through which mankind will struggle and thus become stronger though it means levelling pretty much any form of establishment. The Court of the Blood countess is a gathering of those of a gothic nature. The New mafia is organised crime syndicate.

The thing is there is also one major enemy group who would be the target of anarchist heroes...Crey, they are the corporation that does inhuman genetic experiments, blows up competitors, gives government backhanders, secretly funds gangs so the need for the Crey Protectors in certain areas comes in and thus they can up their fee.

They're quite evil...

[ QUOTE ]
if all "real-world" references are removed - well, then it becomes almost impossible to actually discuss stuff in-game. Seen the latest Bruce Willis? Sorry, no Bruce Willis in CoX. Do you like President Bush? Sorry, no such animal. The game becomes, empty, flat, two-dimensional - as all forms of actual communication or discussion becomes impossible. Conversations descend into platitudes and politically correct "weathertalk". I find a world where one can at least make references to pop culture - and history - much more satisfying...))

[/ QUOTE ]

Ah the thing is...this world has it's own references. Yes you can slip in movie references those are fine. The game has a history all unto it's own completely seperate from 'our' world. There's an official timeline somewhere on the main site (would post a linky but not sure where to find it) which fills in a lot of story. Everything pre-1900's is pretty much the same though. Check out Paragon Wiki for background details to quite a few of the enemy groups (Paragon Wiki>table of contents>enemies and then choose a group).

Warning: What follows is a personal view, please do not take it as criticism or having a go at you personally.

You have to understand this world isn't ours but with superheroes and supervillains, it's a completely different dimension if you will with it's own timeline, brands etc. (for example heroes often use up-and-away Cola or my villain does his weekly shopping at Big Al's supermart both of which exist ingame).

There is superhero merchandise however, it's been made note that there are action figures of the surviving 8 and others, dvd's such as 'greatest battles of the statesman' i can assume would exist, Halloween costume parts of Statesman, Lord Recluse, Back Alley Brawler and even a Hamidon costume are all ingame. I can easily imagine there's a Hero Corp cartoon on TV as well.

So comic books would exist but they'd be more a stylised retelling of heroes greatest battles or 'further adventures' where the writer has been given permission to do fictional stories based on the popular heroes.

Superman = Statesman ingame, he can fly, has super strength, is pretty much invulnerable to all but the heaviest of super villain attacks (it takes 8 very powerful supervillains to bring him down, that's pretty hardcore) basically he has all the abilities of superman just he isn't copyrighted to a source outside cryptic, he's very much a four colour hero as are most of the surviving 8.

so in short.
Movies and actors: Fine, reference away, after all a 'normal man' defeating hundreds of bad guys would be uplifting to the masses or a black and white movie about a crazed scientist resurrecting the dead is also good.
politics: it's pretty iffy, i don't think Bush is President in CoX world.
Comics or our world: very iffy, most of them don't exist due to that it would break copyright laws (and Cryptic already suffered enough of that with the Marvel lawsuit) but using characters already in the game as comic book characters i imagine nobody would argue with you that there wasn't a Freedom Phalanx or Hero Corp comic book.

It's hard to judge what is and what isn't going over the boundry of what would be in the game. Do what you feel like what i've said above is just a personal view on things, others will have vastly differing views, that's the beauty of life.

Ah i was refering to the Monkey fight club villains side, not PD's, it's not marked on the map like the PD's entrance is now and was once considered an Easter Egg.

Yes the Monkey Fight Club existed as a seperate entity to PD's and still does villain side. Since it was in a higher level zone (20-30 Sharkshead Isle) than the first available PD entrance it's ended up being deserted for the most part which is why it was moved to PD's.

There's an entrance to it located in Sharkshead isle, not too far from the PD entrance.

Why would most low levels struggle to get to the MFC when they could more easily get to the PD entrance in Port oakes.

you mean they put in bases...simply for base raids...and didn't think that people would use them to RP in...

...oh dear, man i love the devs for bringing us this game but they REALLY need to strip that blindfold off their eyes, yes we've got an RP section in the forum, do love the way it's the last thing before the class sections though, seemingly added as an after-thought.

If i remember correctly weren't people actually crying out for apartments for their own characters and not bases? Is it just me or does EVERYTHING have to have a function in this game beyond just being there and used for fun. The devs can't seem to bring themselves to add something that isn't just for fun and RPers to use, it HAS to be used for something else as well.

Isn't it odd that the main things people use to RP all have reasons for them besides RP:
GG statue: 1 'learn history' mission for low level heroes.
PD's = hero/villain teaming missions for special events and salvage storage.
Bases = base raids.
They just can't let something have no use besides being fun (people are STILL crying out for apartments for their own characters which is what everyone hoped bases were apparently).

The only exception i can think of is the Monkey fight club, which was stuck in an area most level 1-11's (you get fly/teleport/superjump/superspeed at 12) couldn't get to without getting killed repeatedly or making a 100 metre dash from the PD entrance to the MFC entrance...that was clever going Cryptic...very clever...perhaps if you put it in say mercy/port oakes then it wouldn't be this deserted place randomly stuck in Sharkshead. /golfclap.

Sorry it's just it seems the RP crowd is begining to get rather peeved at the current state of the game for them and thanks to being a minority, Cryptic don't want to/don't care enough to help us out.../sigh.

What is it with the sudden mass griefing of RPers no matter where we are?

Both the PD crowd and the GG crowd have now complained about people actively trying to ruin RP.

Problems:
1) Free trials: The main reason i believe griefing has gotten worse in recently. Yes they encourage new players to the game but the fact is that it seems a good 70%-80% of griefers are using the free trials since they don't give a [censored] about getting petitioned/banned and there's so many being handed out even if they did, they'd just open up another account. So the free trials are a double edged sword for RPers, encouraging new RPers into the fold but giving those who just want to grief RP and in general some sort of immunity to any kind of rebuttle...

It's a harsh thing to say but i'll be happy when they stop giving out free trials...i know it will cut down on the influx of new players but it'll also cut down on the number of griefers by a large amount IMO.

2) Cryptic/NCsoft lack of support for RP: Yes they acknowledge that people do RP on CoH but we're in the same minority as PVP (less so) and often it seems like they really couldn't give a hoot about the RP crowd. Although we RPers are in the low numbers on virtually ever MMO/MMORPG atleast WoW has it so that if you break the RP rules on their RP servers it has hasher consequences than just a few /petitions which may get investigate and occasionally lead to warnings/bans but otherwise appear inaffective both for reason stated above (the free trials) and others.

Unfortunately we're in the low numbers so that RP doesn't warrant a seperate server and even if one did open up you can't transfer characters from server to server so that'd mean all the hard work people put into their characters on Union would be wasted.

It's the fact that while it is used for RP, PD's wasn't created for that purpose, it was done to create villain/hero teaming missions and just so happens to be a place where people want to RP. If they did support the RP crowd then all powers would be unable to use in PD's by now so there would be no power spamming and the like (mind you i think it's just me being bitter). I get the distinct feeling you RP INSPITE of the game, not because of it at times.

3) the faceless factor: we all know that since there is no real world consequences of being a jerk on an online community (bar being banned) then it encourages people who wouldn't normall be so jerkish to act out so, usually it's something about feeling physical inability about themselves or SWS as it gets called. Most casual gamers are not jerks, we all know this but it does breed a kind of xenophobia among RPers against non-Rpers (we only have to look at the Merc Ball incident so see that the worst is often expected even if it's just hearsay and rumor)

You're going to get jerks in every community and minority, those that seek to ruin the enjoyment of others, even RP i'd imagine. Just seems that jerks really are on the rise and since the RP community is the easiest target, we're getting the sharp end of the stick, just wish Cryptic would realise this, especially for EU side of the game (not sure what it's like state-side, anyone able to find out the RP situation stateside for us and see if it is indeed the same pattern?).

We may make up a minority but people are starting to get annoyed and upset about this Cryptic, you WILL lose players in the long run i suspect so please give us a little help on the current situation. Mind you we're such a minority, i doubt they'd care for the numbers of players lost compared to the new ones joining.

Most of this comes from me seeing the increase in griefers and after about 8 pints so i'm a little lubricated and a little vocal (well typal...vocal in the typing sense).

Probably shouldn't be posting in such a state but i just felt like i had to vent at some point...

/rant off

peace out ya'll

Edit: This post has been edited due to a cup of coffee and the slow sobering effect because of it. What i said about normal gamer age probably wasn't clever and slightly incoherent so i removed it. Blessed be large mugs of coffee to clear my intoxicated mind..

heh wasn't even thinking of doing that but good you warned me just incase. Was literally going to stick to my above accent alterations to typing, always thought if anything See would become Zee (Zee zat zing over zere..) hmm too many Z's for my liking but it does work...ish.

and just realised it starts to slip into the indiana jones Movies german style accent...hmmm, and wondered...why replace S with C...This becoming Thic...doesn't work, is to ic..no good there either...odd people and the weird ways i mean really..S to C...

ooohh Commissar...little help?

heh i like it...mind if i yoink that idea?

hmm also need to work on my russian accent typing.

hmm..

wh normally translates into v (vot? ven? vere?)
th normally translates into z (zat, ze)
-ing normally translates into ink or inq, usually with a - in the middle to represent the pause in pronounciation (do-ink go-ink).

atleast hopefully that's how it works...hmmm...

hmm now to figure out his personality and a proper backstory...i don't want to use the whole 'powered by alcohol' story...perhaps he was trained to wrestles bears from an early age, starting with small baby bear and working up to big daddy bear...still silly but hey...i don't want him too serious.

I like the idea of him being slow to anger and quick to laugh, slightly naive as well, clueless to sarcasm and seeing it as a joke rather than a biting comment.

hmm now the problem i've got is do i delete Clockwork Clockette (my lvl6 dark/SR Scrapper...only went dark for shadowmaul since i don't have sands of Mu...and because i was told Flurry was rubbish) and create this guy or do i carry on levelling Clockwork Clockette...

Costume i've decided on actually looks pretty Similar to the one which Lunk shows of the Surgeons cape in brown, brown trenchcoat, small white mohawk (thanks for the suggestion Hates ) white full beard, Red shirt, gold hammer and sickle logo, chain wrapped fist, normal brown pants and normal shoes.

hmm this was the sort of uniform i was thinking of
Kuban Cossacks courtesy of Wiki

This uniform however with the trenchcoat open rather than closed, trouble is you don't really get the kind of effect of a full trenchcoat (like in the picture) with them, it just hangs down at the back.

Think i'll make him an SS tanker and he could call his fists "hammers of the people" instead.

Just realised what they're wearing isn't so much as a trencoat as a 'great coat' which is a more military styled version.

hmmm...

I'm interested in your ideas and would like to subscribe to your newsletter...

Heh i was going to make him more along the lines of a traditional superhero...rather than a drunkard who turns into one but it is indeed a shame about the lack of a cossack dance emote.

Still tempted on Mace though just so i can call it 'the hammer of the people'...very tempting but SS is pretty tempting too...

by general consensus i mean the RP community simply agrees to make a time-line, like i said it would include all events from all groups for example the requiem war entry would read:

Requiem war:
Started:
Ended:
Requiem tried to destroy the whole universe and the combined might of Paragon City's heroes stopped him. The most visible event was a horde of Council troopers attacking Paragon City to the point where about all but Atlas Park and Galaxy City was rendered warzones. Every Hazard Zone was a fierce battleground for a week and there were plenty of deaths.
However this event took place in an alternate dimension some where effected by this event deeply, while others remained completely unaffected and as such cannot often fathom what those heroes affected by it were going on about, because of the duplicity of dimensions, both are correct in their views (time/space can be very messy and very odd).

That sort of thing, everyones events are included but explanations are given as to why some weren't affected by the event and others were from a simple case of ignoring it completely to it only actually affecting certain people.

Well that's my go at it...

I have odd friends, let me just say that now...

My nickname amongst them grew to become the "Iron Cossack" merely for my ability to drink large amounts of vodka and stay relatively sober (give me whiskey and 1 glass makes me violently ill however...just can't drink the stuff).

From that nickname grew a tale of a superhero, one a normal person but the more vodka this person consumed, the drunker they got and thus, when on the verge of passing out, burst into life as the Iron cossack, powered by the strength of the Russian nation (like i said, i have odd friends).

Obviously CoH lacks the atypical fuzzy Cossacks hat.

Yes i know Cossacks were technically "white russians" and this didn't like communisism in the slightest...but a little thing like history shouldn't get in the way <.< >.>

What could i use instead of the cossacks hat. For the rest of the costume i was thinking black trenchcoat, red T-shirt with golden Hammer and Sickle design, black cargo pants and Black motorcycle boots (Trust me if i had the christmas fuzzy gloves and fuzzy boots, i'd be using those). Oh and a full beard as well...just because...

so:
a) what do you guys think on the costume, looking at you Red_Commissar, your the expert on all things russian and communist..or any of the Workers of Eastern Europe...

b) What power sets would suit such a character, thinking either Tanker for the mace (i.e. 'the hammer of the people') or scrapper...just because...

c) What can i use instead of the Cossacks hat?

I await your input

it is true that i think between GG crowd, PD crowd and independant groups we've created a wealth of unofficial backstory for Paragon and the Isles which would rival major comic book arcs.

So far we've had the hero community divided (Heroes for people), Epic struggles (Requiem war), evil underhanded villainy (Tempest Virus and the kings row riots) and just ordinary villainy (Chronodyne).

All stuff you'd see in see in Marvel/DC.

A more diverse selection of heroes and villains then you could shake a stick at. Communist heroes, Scientist both blindly brilliant and diabloically mad, mercenaries, Robots, Androids/Gynoids, Cyborgs, magic users, female trolls turned to heroics, assassins, thugs, demons, angels and many more.

Oh and don't forget the catgirls...there's always catgirls...

I'd like to see a general consensus between all of us in the RP community to build our own unofficial time-line of all the events, both major and minor, i can easily imagine it would rival that of the Devs themselves for creativity.

I shall add to my own little story.

My character being the 'mad scientist' type had developed a youth formula which turned him young for a limited period of four hours (he's 60 in his natural form as he now calls it) he hit on the brilliant idea that mixing the drug with Superadine (what turns the trolls green and gives them their powers, shorted to just Dyne).

The mixture not only turned people young but they would suffer the side affects of Dyne while young as well.

He struck a deal with the family (merely for the purpose of plot) and begun shipping the drug which he had called Chronodyne, which was abbreviated down to C-dyne or his own classification of C type D (Chrono type Dyne) in his draw of dyne experiments (others include R type D, Rock enhancement type Dyne).

Due to his rather large mouth (hey he is a villain) a large number of heroes stepped up and begun attacking the shipments and arresting the goons with a passion.

After two weeks or so of burning warehouses and large number of arrests of family goons, the family refused to ship the stuff, finally yanking it off the streets (i had decided on a certain length of time and certain number of attacks would result in the family pulling the plug begining of the plot). The Doc himself was untouchable thanks to living and producing the stuff in the Rogue Isles but his drugs trade was smashed and he nolonger produces it. He continues his experiments with altering the chemical makeup of dyne but never again will he be able to ship drugs in such large amounts.

(Though admittedly it's STILL causing him trouble, just check out the Thugz Mansion topic).

The Doc legitimate business, the walking (and talking depending on the model) toaster continues to thrive. They come in a variety of colours and have the option of talking and come in both hero and villain models ("piece of toast a day keeps Lord Recluse/Statesman away!").

Both these plots could of course be opted out of, if people didn't want to take part in the Chronodyne plot, they simply ignored it and it's the same with the walking toaster.

Both the toasters and Chronodyne don't even exist in the game but it was upto each individual player as to whether they achknowledged the existence or not.

So yes, you can do things going beyond the game if people give their consensus (oh and nothing stupid like the whole of paragon blowing up...anything to change the ENVIROMENT of the game since it's static will largely be ignored or laughed at. There's always Family goons hanging around the docs shipping something...just upto the player to decide what it is their shipping and why).

he landed with a splash in the river....his Wrist comm still active and flashing. Heavy metal footsteps dulled in the water as a lumbering hulk came to him and took hold of him, bring him to the surface and out the water with a blast of booster rockets.

Later, He crouched down on the ledge of one of the towering skycrapers in Aeon city....

*his eyes flickered open slowly...a smirk spreading across his lips, "Don't...become...a monster...like...me..." The robots already had bodies which they were no doubt downloading copies of their own intellgience into at this moment.

He looked straight up at her, "there's a monster in everyone it seems," he gave a smile.

The Doc was sent reeling...he hadn't expected the big man to move so fast, he had expected his detention field to hold the brute in place. He sailed through the air and landed on his back...wincing and groaning.

Growls, "heh...R-Type D...Rock enhancement type Dyne...a man of intellgience knows there is more than one way to strike at an organisation than violence...oh...i should have told you..it's highly addictive...just like regular dyne...who know my experimentations would have paid of...oh don't worry Axel, it'll wear off soon enough"

The Doc growled, "open fire," The bots were fairing well enough, blasting away at anything that move, it would have been an interesting fight to watch two people in control of Forcefields...though through different means, the place would have pulsed with energy.

Grins, "oh i'd get mad...which is why i'm saying we settle this once and for all, you have your men, i have my helpers," he looked about the office a moment. A flash burst around his hands as he threw down his Dispertion field, "let's get this over with..."

He smiled, "I'm a monster Pistol but i never meant to hurt your sister...let me go and we'll settle this once and for all ..."

He awaited to see what happened, perhaps she would take him up on this offer, who knows, but it would be interesting finding out.

He gasped for air.

"I'm..only try..ing to hel..p h..er"

He moved his hand down to his wrist and pressed a single button. He may have come into the building unaccompanied but he had not made the trip here alone. His bots smashed through the walls and windows, taking up defensive positions quickly.