Fernandes

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The real problem for me is I can not find anyone to really rp with....that and the few I do tend to find tend to be flat.

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That is exactly the current problem with Virtue right now. It needs a gathering area for the RP community with characters who are not affiliated with any groups. Sadly, the only place is Pocket D and we already stated what's wrong with it.

I tried to create another RP spot. So did many others. But it never got enough motivation from the RP community. So I just gave up. *shrug*

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The problem with Pocket D isn't that cyberers are there. The problem is that RPers aren't there, or at least that people think they aren't there. When the D first got patched in I remember pretty clearly posting here that the only way the D is going to be an awesome place to RP is if RPers go there, RP there, and don't just let the cyber crowd have it. And for a while, RPers did go there and it was awesome. Then they didn't, and it wasn't. You can say whatever you want about how horribly offensive it is to know that someone in the same zone as you is swapping the dirty talk, but when it comes down to it if RPers were there, it would be the place to be, no matter what the cyber crowd does or says. The RP community, such as it is, just doesn't want a central RP spot badly enough to make it happen. And honestly, I'm not sure what's so wrong with that.

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Well RPers do in fact go to P-D. They generally hang out blueside upstairs. However, the public RP there is generally rather flat with people RPing ordering their favorite drink, RPing flirting with others, and RPing making small talk. In short RPing all the same stuff you can find in absolutely any bar in the world IRL which always seemed kinda pointless to me.

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Hence the out I left myself, "or people think they aren't there". I haven't spent a lot of time there since coming back to the game, but the complaints about it are the same old stuff. Some things never change, I guess.

Your point about being bored with the RP that goes on there, though, interests me. I wonder, what exactly do people who want a public RP space think that they want to do there? What exactly is supposed to go on? My character going out for a couple drinks or just to hang out at a club is something I can relate to, it's something a real person would do. Bars and clubs are natural social gathering points. The idea of a whole bunch of supers arbitrarily converging on a random rooftop or on Gemini Park for no particular reason and having all sorts of crazy story stuff happen there has always struck me as awfully difficult to swallow even in a setting where people fly and have eye lasers. Personally I don't tend to say to myself "Hey, I think I'll go to a place where there's nothing to do so I can hang around with a bunch of people I don't know and may or may not have anything at all in common with", and I don't think anyone I know tends to think like that either. I don't see how something like that is more satisfying than a location where there's actually things to do, that's commonly recognized by normal people as a social gathering spot, and where a real person put into this situation would very likely at least consider popping into now and again.

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QFMT!

I am very sorry to hear of the loss of your friend.

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.... Bow down in the direction facing the nearest NCSoft office, for the text bug disallowing line breaks in bio-sheets has been fixed THANK YOU DEVELOPERS!!!!!!1111eleventy-one111!!!!

*goes to lovingly fix every last broken bio-sheet*

And I dont care what those naysayers say, those new faces rock... I had two new people waiting on those faces, and while I don't love all of them, they sure are welcome additions.

Now back to happy-dancing about my bio-pages.

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Wow! I really had literaly given up on this ever being fixed. Every once in a while, it is so very nice to be wrong.

Too bad. I always thought that was a nice twist.

Dont count on it, Shecky. Gold farming is like cocaine or prostitution in that so long as demand is high enough someone will supply it. Maybe they won't be from China anymore, but so long as there are gamers with more money and virtual ambition than time and work ethic the gold farmers aren't going anywhere.

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Whats worse is this is a "T" rated game which means one of them could be 30 years old, and the other one could be 13.

Really people... THINK before you ERP!

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Not to support ERP. But...

"Online Interactions Not Rated by the ESRB."

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Way to miss the point.

This is a "T" rated game, which means it's reasonable to assume many people who play it might just be teens.

i.e. If you don't find something wrong with the idea that, if you're a 30 year old man and you're having cybersex with someone who, for all you know, *could* be a 13 year old kid, then there's something seriously screwed up about you in the head.

Seriously.

ERP with someone whom you do not know IRL is irresponsible. At best. Squicky pseudo-pederasty at worst.

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I didn't say it's okay for a 30 year old man to ERP with a 13 year old kid.

What I said was:

If a person is mature enough to buy a video game without requiring permission from their parents, then they should also be mature enough to accept that online interactions are not covered by the ERSB rating and that by buying this game, they are exposing themselves to such scenarios. I also do hope that they are mature enough to understand what ERP is and decide if they want to avoid it or not.

If a person is NOT mature enough to buy a video game without requiring permission from their parents, then the parents are the ones who should be mature enough to read the labels on the box and understand the consequences of letting their child play an online video game.

I'm merely saying that unless the 30 year-old person in question KNOWS they are 'ERPing' with a 13 year-old, then they have done nothing wrong as far as the rules go, and it's mostly either the child's fault, or their parents for letting them be there in the first place.

Then, there is also the topic of difference between "Cyber" and "ERP"...two completely different things that a lot of people don't seem to grasp the difference between them. Just like people who confuse MRP with ERP. I'm not criticizing anyone. I'm merely sharing my opinions. :P

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Bit of a tangent, but when the peope who actually do it stop calling cybersex "mature roleplaying" thats when I will too.

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Whats worse is this is a "T" rated game which means one of them could be 30 years old, and the other one could be 13.

Really people... THINK before you ERP!

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Not to support ERP. But...

"Online Interactions Not Rated by the ESRB."

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Way to miss the point.

This is a "T" rated game, which means it's reasonable to assume many people who play it might just be teens.

i.e. If you don't find something wrong with the idea that, if you're a 30 year old man and you're having cybersex with someone who, for all you know, *could* be a 13 year old kid, then there's something seriously screwed up about you in the head.

Seriously.

ERP with someone whom you do not know IRL is irresponsible. At best. Squicky pseudo-pederasty at worst.

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I am sorry, Smurhc, but that thought doesn't bother me at all. I don't do cybersex, here or anywhere else, but not because I'm afraid a teanager might be involved. The best efforts of certain groups to claim otherwise not withstanding, cybersex is not sex. Cybersex involves typing about things you fantasize about doing to people who don't exist. Sex involves, well... actual sex. they are not moral equivalents.

And just for the record, I feel fairly confident that teangers will have fantasies (and masturbate about them) without the benefit of my (amditedly, inspired) input.

Also, there is no way to be certain that any cybersex you have anywhere on the internet will be with an adult. You could go to a chatroom or website devoted to that explicit purpose which is theoretically for adults only, but their rigorous background check system, I gaurantee you, will consist of asking anyone who visits to click a button saying "I am 18 years old" (or possibly select their age from a pulldown menu). And the reason for that isn't because those sites want to hurt children either - its because there's no practical alternative. Unless you're charging for the service, and demand a credit card (which will likely not work too well since there are many free ways to set up chatrooms) there is simply no practical way to check if someone on the itnernet is really as old as they say they are. The point being, that "taking it outside", as it were - not doing it in a video-game as opposed to some more ostensibly appropriate venue, is a completly inefecual way to protect minors from exposure to horrors of explicit sexual description.

Because, you know, its not like they would have figured out what their parts were for if no one told them.

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The server appears to have become very fragmented. There is not so much a "rp community" anymore like there once was a couple of years back.

Me & a couple of friends are going to be running some rp / story events through the summer. So watch this space I suppose.

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Very true. Though its not necesarilly a horrible thing since playing to a smaller crowd, as it were, grants you a freedom you might not otherwise have, and also an intimacy that allows many people to participate who re inimidated or feel out of place in the larger crowds.

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I have to ask though - what is the Rookery all about? And why does it need a daily thread? I've tried reading them but I still don't get it.

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Mutual social masturbation, and occasional ego stroking, much like every other fluff thread you're familiar with.

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Wouldn't it just work like the "betrayal" function when an NPC ally stabs you in the back?

It would be a great toggle. If your end runs out, your little Manchurian Candidate snaps out of it and attacks you!

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Win!

Also mind is a better sooloer than plant, with its wider aray of both single-target control,a nd single-target damage. Its also a better PvP set. But on a team, in PvE, you're right, there is no question at all: you are better off with a plant controller than a mind controller of equivalent build expense and skill.

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Not wanting to rain on your parade, but...

This idea has cropped up quite a few times over the years. It's an interesting one, but runs into a few key sticking points.

* The confused pet would have to suddenly adopt a pet-like AI so it could follow you around. I can't see the dev's wanting to code all that for one power, since it raises lots of fun questions like 'what happens to the AI when it wears off?'

* It'd come at the expense of something Mind already has, which would mean making significant changes to people's already-existing characters.

* Mind has done fine without a pet for years now.

The concensus usually comes out as 'it's nice having a set that doesn't have a pet, if you want a pet for a controller pick any one of the other sets'

Illusion works very well for the psychic-types who want a pet.

I think I got the general summary of how these posts usually work out. Let see if this one goes in any different direction.

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Thats all true, but screw it - its still a good idea.

Yes, mind has done well without a pet, but that doesn't meen it wouldn't do better with one.

Yes, the thing would be hard to code, but far from impossible. ANd yes you would have to be careful with when it wore off, but there's nothing wrong with that - requiring players to think is a good thing.

The bigget sticking point is what powers you would remove. As others have surely pointed out (I havent read most of the thread), Mind is rare, and blessed, in that it doesn't really have any "if you take this power, you are an idiot" options, or redundant powers, that could be easily eliminated to make room for something cool and loose little in the equation. I tend to think Telekinesis is the obvious choice (MH would be a second place idea, but the doms running the LRSF would muder us in our sleep). Its useful, but only situationaly useful, and it requires a lot of practice to use decently. Ironically the current tier 9, Mass Confusion, would be terrible to remove and replace wiht this, since cycling MC and TD is the only way a mind controller can achieve the every-battle hard control that most Controllers and Dominators take for granted with their stuns.

Tights.

Specificly the tights option for bottoms (above the boots and below the waste) that is teh default setting under "bottoms" in the pulldown menu. The thing any newly created character has in the slot by default before you start working on their costume.

I have sort of a soft spot in my heart for Nemesis ever since playing through that heroic arc in the 35-39 range. I forget the details, but essenitally you go to take down nemesis' organization and it only requires a single mission to apparently dismantle his operation. The obvious thinking is "that was way to easy", but the arc cleverly plays of the savy gamer's metagame thinking, since I (and eveyrone else I know) just assumed that the game develoeprs decided not to force you to play through six-trillion identicle kill-everyone missions, and that the plot hole was best ignored. It turns out fo course, that it WAS too easy - Nemesis was cleverly tricking you.

There are a lot of arcs in the game that try to decieve the player, but for whatever reason (cynical elitist that I am, I sometimes get the impression taht in trying to make sure that everyone, no matter who they are, can get in on the joke they make it painfully obvious to anyone with a modicum of intellect and an even basic knowledge of the game's lore... but I digress), they all tend to fail miserably, and end up feeling asinine as you are forced by the static narative to play through missions as if your character is stupid, while you, the player, know that it is actually a bad idea, and what the real score is.

This arc is the only one that actually succeeds (and indeed, its one of only 2 or 3 times Ive been fooled by any video-game plot), and I found it really went a long way towards proving Nemesis' reputation as genius, and master of manipulation, rather then just talking about it ad-nauseum.

There is another Nemesis arc in which you try and stop him from becoming immortal, but fail when he switches the "real" him with a cloned duplicate (and indeed, his access to that technology6 and bases across multiple dimensions would make it difficult to ever be certain you had killed the last copy of him in the multi-verse). This time the deception si obvious from about a mile away, but the arc is still notable in that it is, to the best of my limited recolection, the ONLY hero arc to date where you fail accomplish your objective, once again helping to make him actually FEEL like a credible threat who you shoudl care about, rather than just another sack of hit-points with lame dialogue.

BUMP! Too fun a topic to let it die.

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Seriously.

Right now I'm on the forums instead of playing because my severe altitis and desire to play high level toons is conflicting. I really appreciate the variety of content we have for the journey from 1-50, but it's sucking the fun out of the game for me that in order to get a new toon to the point where it's as fun to play as my high level toons I have to invest 2-20 hours of gameplay. It really sucks.

I really enjoy being able to spend time with a character learning the ins and outs of powers and their interactions. However, linear level progression only feels like it's adding time to the process without much benefit. Every character I play at 50 eventually develops into an entirely different being than it was at 49. Intuitively it'd seem that adding powers one by one would teach me to use them effectively, but once I finally have the full tool box it's like starting the learning process all over.

I can't really explain it right now (trust me, I tried but none of the anecdotes I typed got the point across), but the point I want to make is that when you're missing tools from your tool box it's hard to improve as a player. Leveling just feels like a tutorial that introduces you to your powers slowly and it sucks.

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Yep, it sure does! As a consumate fan of high-level, high-powered endgame content in this and every other game, I am right there with you.

Ultima Online has a feature where-by if youve played for a certain minimum amount of time (and therefor have had time to get a character reasonably high level the old-fashioned way and learn how the game works), you can buy (as a micro-transaction) an "advanced character token" that allows you to create your next character with their skills already high (UO is skill based, class-less game, so the heightened skill levels don't translate perfectly, but its about the functional equivalent of starting a CoH character at level 40). I have always thought that this is an absolutely fantastic idea and that more MMOs should copy this example.

Of course, UO has actual end-game content, and good PvP, and a dynamic open world that encourages people to make a lot of their own fun rather than re-play the same content over and over add-nauseum. CoH has none of things (better graphics though), and the developers may be concerned that starting a new character and experiencing new powersets is essentially the only re-play value the game haws. Removing it might hurt player retention. Not that Im aware of any serious data on that subject, but it seems like a reasonable concern.

Anyhoo, in the meantime, while we're waiting for advanced character tokens for our very own, thank the gamer gods instead for the Mission Architect system, which shall taketh thee from 1st levle unto thy high 30s/low 40s in a weekend.

In presentation, Valentyna is the the Crouching Scholar, Hidden Badass, with just a dash of Incorruptable Pure Pureness following the Heel Face Turn and subsequent Redemption Promotion in her early background. Bonus cliché points since she was, prior to being redeemed by the Midnight Squad, a Dark Magical Girl due to being raised by an Abusive (surogate) Parent after her real parents suffered Death By Origin Story. As a perfectly content and well-adjusted undead immortal, she is also a deliberate subversion of Who Wants to Live Forever. Personality-wise, she is The Lady of War - cultured and ladylike, yet strong and decisive. Philisophically and dramaticlay she is The Fettered - pragmatic, relentless and inhumanely single-minded in pursuing her noble objectives, but refusing to harm the innocent and drawing strength from her moral cause. As one would expect from an archmage who's Older Than She Looks, Valentyna is quite versatile in her abilities (so much so that, honeslty, discipline is often required in roleplaying to keep her from becoming The Mary Sue), but more than anything else she is The Master of Illusion.

Guardian Mu'Rahu is a classic Well-Intentioned Extremist (like a sexy magical version of Magneto or Alfred Bester, she cares deaply for "her people" - and no one else). She is also also Wicked Cultured, and with the exception of spilling Mu blood, she is The Unfettered - willing to do absolutely anything in pursuit of her goals. Ability-wise, she is all about Shock and Awe with those pretty crimson lightning bolts (which are, of course, Colour Coded for Your Conveniance)

Both have been the providers of A Wizard Did It at various points in their roleplaying carrears.

Both have ocassioanly been known to play Xanatos Speed Chess.

Both are Combat Pragmatists - as Valentyna puts it, fair fights are for idiots. Outisde of combat, though Valentyna has been known to break out into a Patrick Stewart Speach or Hanibal Lecture/Kirk Sumation in appropriate moments, while Mu'Rahu, will Just Shoot Them even in less direct confrontations, prefering to prove her superiority with victory rather than sophistry.

Finally, both have a good deal of Training From Hell in their backgrounds (and ongoing lives).

Ever since I baught a new computer with Vista pre-loaded, I cant bind anything to my tilde key. It used to be my healing key. Now it just sits there forlorn fealing useless. I feel bad for it. *Nod, nod*

I am Mind/Elec, actually.

As with so many of my questions, the title says it all. Is Surge of Power worth picking up? I need somethign besides Charged armour to get Mu Guardian, and the end boost and resistance maximization sounds like fun, but Im not a huge fan of powers that drain your end to 0 when they finish, and Im skeptical of how useful the resistance boost is really if its not perma-able. I am hoping someone can set me straight: should I bother with this power, or should I take Ball Lightning or Power Sink instead?

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While there are a few annoying enemies to deal with, by and large even the toughest bosses can be brought low by eating your tray. 3 or 4 purples is pretty much total invulnerability. I sometimes get the feeling that emptying the inspiration tray isn't considered an option for some people, or else Ghost Widow and the like wouldn't be such a problem.

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Quoted for Truth!

I will make my controller's radiation emision powers blue (preferably indigo, but the game's colour pallet doesn't relaly have anything between dark blue and violate). I might tinker with the colour of my illusion decoys as well to get them too look more spectral and cool, and less like they're wearing pajamas, but I hold out littl ehope of success.

cross dressing and even gender changing may offend you personally, or be things you would not wnat your children exposed to. IM not going to argue about that because I honeslty dont care. But they do not meet the legal definition of content of a sexualy suggestive nature. If a male character turns female and propositions you (or visa versa), that is technically a violation and you can report them for that. You could also report them for the same thing if no gender-bending was involved. But simply changing genders doesn't break any laws involved in defining a "team" rated game.

There are some costume options that are pretty revealing as you've said, but once again they all meat the necessary legal qualifications (they all make sure the naughty bits are covered - though sometime with only milimeters to spare, I admit). If there were a mission where some scantily clad NPC were making sexual innuendo, or involved in a sexual situation, then once again, that would be "mature" content under the law, but no such mission exists (Im sure someone out there has undertaken to make one with the MA, but once again you can report them for that if you come across it).

The bottom line is that you may not like it, but it does NOT violate the rating on the game's label.

Yes, much better for all of us Im sure if the only content allowed to be produced were that which meats with your personal approval. *nod, nod*

And I thought /I/ had an ego problem...

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Just pointing out for anyone who hasn't seen it, there's already the huge How to know you're in a pick-up group.

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God, I'd forgotten that thread! So much humour!

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So I jump on my level 14 Scrapper in The Hollows doing solo missions and just get Frostfire mission. I get a tell asking me to join a team.

I say, "Great timing, I just got Frostfire."

Leader, "We are doing radio and bank mish in KR."

I hadn't done the KR bank mish yet so I agree. Get invited and slog over to KR, fly to radio mish and enter just as they complete mission. Exit and several teammates head to Blue Steel to level. Leader just stands at entrance of mission and waits...and waits....and waits.

New Teammate finally asks what we are doing and leader says bank mish and he finally goes to detective and puts mission up. It is the Kings Row bank mish.

Lowbie Sidekick, "Hurray, I finally get Raptor Pack."

I check and see that he is a level 9 sidekicked to level 13.

Me, "Lowbie Sidekick is not going to be happy."

Lowbie Sidekick, "Why?"

Me, "KR bank mish don't give Raptor Pack, it give Zero-G Pack. Also you have to be level 10 to get anything in KR bank mish."

New Teammate, "No he doesn't, he'll get something. I got Raptor Pack earlier today on this same toon. Maybe he'll get both?"

Leader, "We'll try it and see what happens."

We enter mission, since Lowbie Sidekick has no travel powers, he encounters mobs and gets faceplanted. We finally get to bank and succeed and everyone gets a Zero-G Pack...except Lowbie Sidekick.

Lowbie Sidekick, "I didn't get anything."

Other teammates, I got Zero-G Pack.

While the team moved on to get badge, Lowbie Sidekick exited.

Lowbie Sidekick, "I didn't get anything. @#$$#, mage!"

Lowbie Sidekick, "Waaaaah." (I actually got a chuckle on that one.)

We are busy battling Clockwork at the badge so I answer, "Busy now."

I fully intended to explain the same info I gave before the mission, but Lowbie Sidekick quit before I could say anything.

As soon as I exited the mission (I didn't even try to stay around for the side missions), I quit the team.

It would have been so simple for someone else to get a radio or regular mission and run that so that Lowbie Sidekick could have gotten to level 10. Another possibility is if Lowbie Sidekick had all the radio missions down, he could have gotten his Atlas Park bank mish, set to level 5 Invincibility and we could have done his bank mish to get him a Raptor Pack, he would have leveled to level 10 and then we could have done KR bank mish to get Zero-G Pack.

But no one would listen to me. At least, I didn't say, "I told you so."

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Sorry, Im with your team-mates on this one. They should have been less ignorant, and explained the situation more clearly to him, rather than pretending he would get something that any veteran should know he wouldn't. That having been said, no one forced him to join a team higher than he was - in fact its a pretty safe bet he asked for it specificaly himself. The other team-members don't owe him anything.

I have never seen any point to the in-game email system. But some people seem to like it, and I suppose tis certainly not as if its an unsurmountable obstacle to click "delete as spam" a half-dozen times.