Eisenzahn

These last couple days... any parties, events, RP groups, last-ditch runs on more difficult content?

Life circumstances took me from the game for most of the time since the shutdown was announced, but I've cleared my schedule and no force on earth will keep Lunaticia from fighting to the very last minute.

Her name is Lunaticia, and she is an Elec/Elec/Mu Brute. She was my first 50. She is my only heavy investment into IOs (and siphoned all my other alts money into her ridiculous Purples and HOs +Recharge/Regen/HP build). She's my only Incarnate to get T4 in all 6 open slots (indeed, she has more than one T4 available in each). She is my Badge Hunter, with 1,386 badges, and only six to go that I could obtain without time travel. Her build is unorthodox, but surprisingly effective. While she's not the sturdiest Brute in the world, she has Lightning Rod on a 28 second recharge, and Power Sink cycling so fast that she often fights with Super Speed or Ninja Run active without remembering or noticing any endurance problems.

She is the last Mu Cataphract, the only survivor of the second generation of soldiers trained in that deadly art. She is a Loyal Arachnos Troop... even though Scirocco wishes she would defect and stop being his problem. She's been on semi-permanent loan to Vanguard and Lady Grey since the Rikti Invasion, and her good work there has earned her some goodwill in Paragon despite her company loyalty (Rogue alignment and proud of it). She is the president, founder and only member of the Captain Mako Appreciation Society and Scrapbooking Club. She has put in paperwork for transfer to Mako's command several times, received Scirocco's blessing each time, and always been turned down by Mako's lackeys, who don't trust that her motives are pure. She is recognized by Arachnos as among the Elite of the Elite, one of the strongest metahumans ever to rise in the ranks, and they thank their good fortune every day her personal obsessions continue to keep her docile and obedient.

Right now, she is preparing a portal corps assisted mass-evacuation for the citizens of her home in Sharkhead Island, as the Primal dimension becomes unstable. Her Arachnos superiors disagree with her plan (and appropriation of tech and manpower), but haven't been able to stop her. It seems, here at the end of the world, that she may have been hiding a Hero inside all along.

Part of me wants to go on a crazy Internet Vendetta, track down every person on my Ignore list whose reason for being there I can still remember, and give them a hot dose of Screaming Incoherent Forum Freakout. There are a lot of them, and it would be pretty cathartic. But you guys have always been classy, even when I have often been a butthead, so I'm trying to keep it under control. Thanks for being a righteous dude, Zwill.

I have created a Twitter account just so I can follow you. That is how much I care about where you go from here, that I've broken down my irrational loathing of social media... for you. I'm now officially your stalker. But in a friendly way, that sends money to your future employers in exchange for your creative endeavors, rather than the traditional way... that sends the police messages cut out of newspaper letters wrapped around unsourced body parts.

Crap dude, it's time to let this train of thought derail.

Keep on rockin'!

SithRose just messaged me in GW2. She ran Agent Storm and a few others, and the Technocratic Union SG. She's not a VIP right now, and has no way of becoming one obviously, so she can't post directly here. She's playing on the "Sanctum of Rall" Sever, but would love to Guest on Tarnished Coast for RP. Her in-game handle is Sithrose5168, and she's SithRose on Steam. Her husband, @tenaveran is also there as Tenaveran.9364.

SithRose just messaged me in GW2. She ran Agent Storm and a few others, and the Technocratic Union SG. She's not a VIP right now, and has no way of becoming one obviously, so she can't post directly here. She's playing on the "Sanctum of Rall" Sever, but would love to Guest on Tarnished Coast for RP. Her in-game handle is Sithrose5168, and she's SithRose on Steam. Her husband, @tenaveran is also there as Tenaveran.9364.

So I've come to a decision. I had already invested in Guild Wars 2, but had no plans to let my City of Heroes account fade. I was using GW2 as my weekday "when I have a minute to log in" MMO, and CoH as my weekend "I'm going to play for a couple hours" MMO. This has been my play pattern for years, with various other games cycling through the first spot, while CoH maintained its grip on the second spot.

Here's the thing. I know some of the folks at ArenaNet, and they're good people. I can't blame them for this, even if the timing suggests that the launch of their game may have influenced NCSoft's decision. I'm not going to close down my account there, and I'm not going to try to scare people away from it. The fact is, it's a fantastic game, and ArenaNet clearly learned a ton of lessons from City of Heroes, and then took them a step further.

I know it's not a decent substitute, but I'm going to try anyway. I have a little Guild that's just me and a handful of friends. I think there are six of us right now. Some of them are Roleplayers, some of them aren't. I've talked it over with them though, and I'm going to throw the doors open.

The Black Sheep is an international mercenary company based out of Lion's Arch. Its commander, Melchior Caradoc, is a young nobleman who used to be an officer in the Krytan Ministry Guard before an explosive falling out with Commander Serentine. Much of the Black Sheep's work is pro bono, and actually bankrolled by Melchior personally. He has deep pockets and makes sure the company is always well compensated, but every so often has to take a "real" job to keep things afloat. Currently, the Black Sheep have general peacekeeping contracts with all six major cities, and keeps steady work clearing monsters out of farmer's fields, rounding up bandits, and other simple work that local law enforcement is too overwhelmed to keep up with.

The name is a two-part reference. Originally, I liked the sound of Delita's Nanten Black Sheep in Final Fantasy Tactics. But the Guild in its oldest form started as a RP group on Final Fantasy XI, full of exiles and outcasts whose decisions had put them at odds with their native governments. Those Black Sheep were determined to do what was right for the whole world, even if it negatively impacted their homelands. The modern Black Sheep will have less of an overt theme of betrayal for the greater good, but still seems like a good place for an exodus from City of Heroes.

As for the guild itself, the concept should be pretty friendly to most "standard adventurers", but if you've got something that breaks the mold we can talk it out. The Black Sheep are politically and socially well-connected, and could count as members or allies people from very diverse walks of life.

One thing to note... I'm trying to keep the Guild relatively family friendly. No Erotic RP in guild (what you do in private is your business, of course), keep Profanity to a PG-13 maximum, no OOC discussion of controversial topics like Politics and Religion. Before I decided to open this thing to CoH exiles, I was going to make it an "Old People Guild" for those of us who are a little fed up with teenage internet culture. If you've built your whole online persona around being edgy and offensive, dancing the razor's edge of social boundaries, you won't be a good fit here. Your character is allowed to be a jackass, but I want players who know how to play nice with each other OOC.

Server: Tarnished Coast. It's the primary unofficial North American Roleplaying Server.
Guild Officers: Currently Melchior.2135 (me, Leader) and a couple others I'll list here as soon as I get clearance to put their global names up.

I'm working on a more detailed recruitment page, and I'll update this thread when it's ready. For now, check out http://www.guildwars2roleplayers.com/ for more information about the RP community that's building up there. Even if my group doesn't sound like your style, I'm sure you can find something!

Oh yeah... Lunaticia and Eisenzahn are both being reincarnated there. I'm not sure how the story works out, but I intend those characters to be clear continuations of their counterparts here.

I've been with this game since shortly after City of Villains launched. I believe in real life that most human beings at least try to be decent folks, and this is why the Villainous deviations from that pattern were more interesting to me than Heroic characters, who I felt could reasonably spring from any normal schmoe in the right situation. I'm one of a tiny handful of players who never bought CoH, but got it for free when it was formally merged with CoV.

I've always fancied myself a Roleplayer, but skirted the edges of the community. The exceptions early on, I'm not going to lie, tended to be ERP. I wouldd become mighty social when I was in the mood. Eventually I became frustrated by the fact that none of the RP "contacts" I was making in private arena matches wanted to do any storylines that didn't involve sex, or that even incorporated the sex as just one feature of a larger narrative. I had a falling out with the largest group of players involved, and went almost 100% solo for the next several years. I'd make huge elaborate AE story arcs just for myself, spend hours crafting my Solo VG base into an insanely detailed hideout that no one else would ever see, and pretty much only teamed to complete Strike Forces, steamrolling in silent efficiency unless called on to dispense basic tactical information. I had my windows filled with active global channels in which I would only very rarely speak, but absorbed everything everyone else was saying and thought I was "part of the community" as a result.

I became far more socially active on the Forums for a while, but mostly to start fights with people when it became really clear that CoV development was never going to be more than an afterthought again. Sometimes popular threads would consist 80% or more of people on my ignore list. Eventually I decided to back out of the Forums entirely, and that decision is probably what kept my subscription alive.

Aside from a couple old friends who've kept track of me, only in the last two years or so have I really started to make friends and get involved with the community, started to actively Roleplay even with total strangers (and haven't ERPed in game in 4 years or so :-P), started to accumulate Global Friends faster than I filled and had to prune my Global Ignore list. I'm going to miss you guys a lot. I feel like there's been so much wasted time, where I was either hiding from all human contact or focused only on contact that I now feel was bad for me in the long run.

I'm still deciding if I'm going to stick with Guild Wars 2, which I'd planned on playing IN ADDITION to CoH instead of as a replacement. If it turns out this ******** and the GW2 release are at all related, I'll be dropping my account there. Otherwise, I'll be starting a Roleplaying Guild designed specifically for Virtue expatriates. We'll see how that crap goes down... I honestly don't expect to get a straight answer, but maybe there will be a trustworthy leak :-D

Scott "Eisenzahn" Corpany,
A.K.A. Lunaticia, President of the "Captain Mako Appreciation Society and Scrapbooking Club" Villain Group.

Ok, it's letting me back to the character list... no need to panic yet. Looks like it was just a little busy what with everyone swarming in to pay respects.

Just mapservered in the Ski Chalet, and now it won't let me back onto Virtue. And with the whole damn team fired, there's no one left to just reboot it or whatever. I don't think this is them pulling the plug, because I can still get to Justice... but maybe they just haven't reached that side of the server room yet?

Crap in a hat. Thanks NCSoft.

I had started a Guild Wars 2 guild on Tarnished Coast (the North American "unofficial RP server"), but now I'm regretting buying the damn thing. I know the ArenaNet team is blameless here, but it still put money in NCSoft's hands. I'm uncertain if the bad feelings this shutdown have left me with will let me play another NCSoft game... we'll see.

Paladin, you are one of the best players I've ever gamed with. Not just in terms of skill, but your positive attitude, friendliness, patience, and willingness to lead mark you as one of Virtue's most remarkable citizens. I want to rattle my saber and howl for vengeance, or settle personal grudges with other forumites as moderation becomes spotty, but I'm going to try to follow your example and keep it classy. Thanks for rocking so hard all this time! I am sorry I only got acquainted with you through Incarnate trials so late in the game's lifespan.

Scott "Eisenzahn" Corpany,
(Who you more likely know as Lunaticia, president, founder and only member of the Captain Mako Appreciation Society and Scrapbooking Club.)

In as much as you continue to be incapable of contributing anything of value to any conversation, I would prefer that you add me to your ignore list, or at the very least provide me the courtesy of not stalking my posts just to respond dismissively. Thank you.

Looks like the Virtue invasion got rescheduled? I guess nobody wanted to come in and run it on a weekend. The Captain Mako Appreciation Society and Scrapbooking Club, a five year old Virtue Villain Group, is going to have to cancel its scheduled party since our server event got moved from the 18th to a day none of us can attend.

Deleted. Issue resolved.

Went to my FLGS to buy it. Nearly a block down the street, I said to my stepbrother who was picking up a copy with me "Is somebody overcooking meatloaf nearby??"

Turns out, it was Big Sweaty Tex, our least favorite local Comic Shop Denizen, plopped down in the back secreting his ooze over a table full of warhammer stuff and the leash of his twi'lek slave girl. I am not even kidding about this guy's funk. More than a hundred feet away, and we were upwind of the store! I don't know how that even works, unless he walked there the same way and periodically rubbed up against things.

Anyway, just wanted to make it clear the dangers we braved for you. The store didn't have it in, so we'll have to go back... *cue dramatic music* ... NEXT THURSDAY! THE SUSPENSE!!!

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Interesting. As another player with a lot of Mage: the Ascension and Changeling: the Dreaming experience, this is something I've given some thought to with a few of my characters.


Eisenzahn - Having dedicated most of his adult life to cultivating a personal mythos of being the Scariest Man In the World, Eisenzahn has largely abandoned any consistent sense of self, except whatever would work best to terrify a target. An assassin for hire, he hopes some day to achieve a state of such sublime intimidation that the mere suggestion someone may have contacted him for a hit will inspire potential targets to commit suicide in despair. He is already very close to this state of being. More than one target in poor physical health has been pushed into a fatal stroke or heart attack by the well-timed mention of his name.

As such, to those capable of seeing such things, he has no consistent shape. He appears to be whatever each viewer would least like to be confronted with. However, his sensei called him the Centipede Prince as he lay dying in Eisenzahn's arms, and the image of that most abhorrent of creatures magnified to a nightmarishly vast scale is probably a very consistent feature for any who lack a more well-defined personal fear to envision him as.


Lunaticia - Luna's soul has the volume dialed up to 11. She lives her life in ALL CAPS, BOLD PRINT! WOOHOO!! She's probably like ten feet tall and made of living lightning. But still totally hot. If she is making an effort to calm and restrain herself, her self-image would very closely match the reality (a 5'4" hawaiian/japanese girl with the sort of absurdly low body fat and sculpted musculature that only Fitness Magazine covermodels ever manage to achieve, and then only with extensive photoshop support), except that the Azure Dragon tattoos that normally coil down her arms would roam over her body at will, scales flashing crimson with the Mu Runes hidden in the design as her abundant personal energy tried to break free. Also, her hair would be waaay longer, like a friggin' Barbie Doll, or Ghost Widow. She may or may not carry a ginormous warhammer, because that is what an aspiring Thunder God does.


Pandemonika - Lunaticia's Praetorian counterpart received a great deal more discipline during her training. She would appear largely like Lunaticia, but the frequency with which she chooses to restrain herself and the frequency with which she chooses to unleash the full force of her ridiculous titanic might would be more or less inverted. Her spiritual self would have no need for essential weapons or other regalia... but would be much more likely to generate profound environment-distorting weather effects at a larger distance.


Sturmlanzer - A slate-skinned angel with wings like terrible winter stormclouds stretching across the horizon. He is blindfolded with a cloth woven of The Law, and bound in chains forged from Honor and Obligation. His Halo is muted, shrouded in rags, and hangs from his belt. He is unarmed, but his callused hands speak of a lifetime or more holding weapons. His skin is scarred as if by burns, jagged lightning-bolt streaks that the especially perceptive will see detail a litany of his crimes and failures in the First Language of Eden.

But sometimes he's just a man, much as he appears in the flesh. One eye is real, one eye is glass. He carries a spear, two wolves follow at his heels, and two ravens perch on his shoulders, under the shelter of his broad-brimmed hat. There is a rope bruise around his neck, and he bleeds from a wound in his side. It is a terrible thing to be torn between two destinies... and a more terrible thing to be the instrument by which the world may end in either of them.


The Quixotic Paladin - One of those scary sort of people who look exactly to Spirit Sight as they do in the flesh. The unenlightened may assume that this suggests a lack of depth and sophistication. The more insightful would recognize a Buddha-like level of personal tranquility. No matter what sword he carries in the real world (and he has many, mostly gifts from grateful citizens who heard a rumor that he collects them... some ornate,some built to exacting specifications using advanced technology, most salvaged from Pawn Shops, Reniassance Fairs and Late Night Home Shopping Channel viewing, but at least one genuinely enchanted), the weapon he weilds appears... plain. Uninteresting. Totally unornamented. And very very sharp.

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Hmm. This is... interesting. Obviously, the impact on leveling speed will be profound. But I'm not sure how much this will actually change most of my builds. All but a very few of my characters are already pretty slot-starved. Three more power picks is nice, but there's just so little I want to do with those picks that I'd be able to do effectively. Meh, oh well... I'll figure that out when it gets revealed exactly how it's going to work. Anyway, that's my only complaint, is that it will make my build planning just a little bit more complicated... so overall, very good news!

Edit: They mentioned new power pools or expansions to existing pools too, right? I'm pretty sure I heard something like that somewhere. I'll be interested in getting a look at how many of those powers are designed with minimal slotting in mind...

Edited Edit: Ah. New power pool crap being discussed, but not actually worked on yet. Ok.

Wow. I really wish I had a larger amount to drop. I've got exactly one character I've ever cared to throw money at, and she's got all the IOs and HOs that I need, on both builds. I've been dropping money into her Solo Villain Group, hoping to get it up to the largest plot size so I can really go nuts with the base editor... currently up to about 2 million prestige there, and she only has around 100 Million cash on hand. But I'll do it!

Send me a /tell @Eisenzahn. Lunaticia is ready and willing to drop 100% of her available cash into the Captain Mako Appreciation Society and Scrapbooking Club!

Honestly, to show off. Electric Armor's ability to shrug off any attempt to influence their Endurance eliminates one of their nastiest tricks for my main character, and her ability to put up with the rest of the ugliness they dish out just makes me feel awesome.

I usually fight 'em at x8/+1, sometimes +2 if I'm feeling brave. Boses always disabled though, unless I dial them down to x5/-1 or so.