Escher

One cannot simply swim into Mordor...

Nor can you swim from Talos to PI, and when you DO swim from PI to Talos, you wind up appearing no where near one of the walls... O.o

Having met her in real life, I can say that Avatea is a great person and I'm sorry to have missed out on teaming with her.

Those two are the cute(tm).

One of my fellow teachers has a black lab that we've gotten to watch grow up. She is also the cute.

Bug huggles the doggies.

That first mission is one of the most brilliant / fun / exciting missions I've done ever.

That second mission and those unresistable blue stars of death can go DIE IN A FIRE!

Belated Birthday Bug Hugs to my Belltown Bud.

Belated Birthday Bug Hugs to my favorite Cow Girl.

HI Pew Pew ers! Happy Turkey day!

-Da Bug

Obviously, I'll alpha out the big bug himself - Onus Vox. I'll probably also do the other version of Onus Vox. Beyond that... wait a minute spellcheck... VOX IS SO A WORD!!! Look it up you ignorant piece of software trash!

Sorry where was I again?

-Esch

Des, you've been given such good advice already, but I would be remiss in my duty as both your friend and an educator if I didn't throw in my own suggestion.

I think MP and T have the right ideas - here is a suggestion that would build on for the "Let's get the family a gift that they can enjoy".

A board game. We are so locked into our own little worlds with computers and other electronics that sometimes we just need to unplug and reconnect with our families. But, what kind of board game could possibly appeal to all three of those ages and simultaneously not bore the heck out of the adults? It's a tall order, but I do have a suggestion:

Make n' Break - You have a set of ten wooden blocks, a timer, and a deck of cards showing various configurations of the blocks in stacks. You set the timer, draw a card, start the timer, and continue to draw cards and make the structures on them until time runs out. Fun at three? Probably, as it won't be too complicated to stack the blocks - plus it will help develop dexterity and reasoning skills. Fun at six? Nine? Forty? Heck, I fell in love with this game at age 41, and I've actually played it with kids as young as six. I'd even send you my copy, but it's far too well loved. You can get it from amazon I'm sure.

Anyway, there's my suggestion.

-Robert Escher

And we need this why exactly? Personalized wikis really don't serve any purpose except to give insecure folks a reason to think they are important. We've got this section of the CoH boards. That should be enough for any server... and yes, I'm looking at YOU Virtue :/

I can answer a couple of these. The Quarry has the same resistance to confuse / hold / sleep, etc. as any Giant Monster. If you can overcome it's resistance, then you ought to be able to confuse it. Since I've always just dropped the ****** down a hole, I don't know for sure if it can be done.

Things I know for sure: The Lichens will continue to spawn until you kill the colonies. Yes, they do have a ranged attack.

O.o !

Big Bug Hugs Viv... I'm glad that no one was hurt and that the damage was not too extensive. Take care over there.

Meh, I can always join those TFs after I've out-leveled them... and I can do the Fautline content through flashbacks. I've just done all the 1-20 stuff too much to really care about running it again. Heck, the only reason I came back to the game was to do the new Praetoria stuff and try out side switching.

I'd pay money if they'd implement the "Teleport to Friend" function that Wizard101 has...

I'm not going to get into an argument about what types are still underpowered / overpowered / easy / hard to level. You like what you like, and if you don't like what you're playing, then don't play it.

What I will say is that having played the game as long as I have, I see no reason to start a character red / blue anymore. There is no new content at the lower levels that is not Gold side, so that's where I start my new characters. And as soon as they produce gold side content higher than level 20, that is where I will keep my characters - until they run out of Gold side stuff to do, then I'll come over to wherever I choose.

I appreciate the gray classes - few of the "heroes" I have made would be considered "heroes" in real life - they would be considered vigilantes at best. Despite what the game allows due to its own limitations - Onus Vox, were he and Paragon City real - would spend every waking second in the Rikti War Zone killing as many Rikti as he could until he himself was killed. And if Statesman and the rest of the "heroes" of Paragon City didn't help him, he'd probably try to find a way to kill them as well. I even wrote a short piece of long since trashed fan fic where Onus captures Positron, takes him into the Rikti Crash Site, and tears open his armor just on the hope that the resultant explosion would destroy the ship there. Never did finish it though, as fanfic is self serving at its best and really really CRAP on average.

My goodness, takes me back to the halcyon days that does...

I must say, it takes a coordinated effort to fail at PvP on both the forums and in game. In that measure at least, BLT was pretty dang successful...

Thank goodness there is no PvP anymore

I haven't a clue how to put an image into a reply...

I've got a picture of Onus done by Londerwust. I've also got a picture of Gaia Vox done by Alicyn.

Awww... Twenty-however many big bug hugs™ to the Birthday Girl!

When I got my first gaming rig back in '96, we had weekly LAN parties at a local gaming club. During one of our many Quake sessions, I found a secret location on one of the maps that allowed me to sneak up behind folks and blow them away. One of my friends said "Who are you MC Escher? You keep appearing behind me out of nowhere!" Being a huge fan of Escher's work, the name struck a chord with me and has been my online handle ever since.

When I was working for Battlebots as their "pre-TV" announcer, I was known as "Emcee Escher".

-Robert

(as for the "26" that often appears after my name, that was the number I wore when I played club Hockey in College.)

Onus Vox has always been a Vigilante - at least in his attitude towards humans and such. I've always assumed that he pretty much cares not a bit for humans, unless they have proven themselves worthy of his respect. But as an alien warrior, he'd pretty much not care by what means his ends were achieved - as long as the general good was served. This is why I have two "Onus Vox" characters. One of them is a villain, but is in fact, simply the first one with a different set of powers - it's the same character though. My intention is to make both of them Vigilantes and leave them there.

Electron Vox started as a Hero Katana / Regen scrapper that I cheerfully deleted at level 50 once it no longer became remotely fun to play regen... (they went from GOD like to pond scum... you'd have thunk they could have found middle ground... sigh). So, I remade him as a villain stalker... and since Stalkers were garbage to play solo, remade him again as an electric / electric brute. He will redeem himself into a hero - eventually.

I don't have any specific plans for the rest of my bugs... probably all but Gaia will become Vigilantes. Gaia would, but she's too cute and innocent to be anything but a true hero.

Just a big bug thank you to the Ocho, EMpulse, Positron, the two producers whos' names I'm forgetting, my fellow coaster enthusiast War Witch, Avatea and anyone I missed for a wonderful Meet and Greet at the Elephant and Castle (who really needs to come up here for one of these sometime).

Food was great, the Devs could not have been nicer and the only minor complaint is that we love them so much that we were a bit cramped in the space provided. Seriously - if you ever get a chance to meet up with the folks who make this game in person - take advantage of it. They are all top class folks.

Big Bug Hugs to all, and have a safe flight tomorrow!

-Robert Escher
Onus Vox, the big Bug™

Guild Wars 2 doesn't have Lightsabers. Your argument is invalid.

Well, I am not attending PAX, but I"ll certainly come out for the M&G, I only live a few blocks away...

See you soon.

-Escher