Innigo

Thanks for the kind words everyone.

Within the story I don't want to come right out and say what AT N00b is or what powers he has it, but should become apparent over time.
N00b will face his first battle in part 4 which I'll start writing today.

I don't see any real practical problems with 1 v 1 in a PvP zones. The numbers of people there are so small that it should be easy enough to find a quiet couple of blocks in which to have your duel.

As a further precaution against interruption put out a broadcast that you're about to start duelling. Put it in a bind on local chat so if someones starts sniffing about you can remind them of your broadcast with the minimum amount of interruption to your duel.

Failing that, just go to Warburg. No one will bother you

Looks like this is going to be a 10 part seriel. Will try to get them out as fast as possible. But, to anyone who's planning on following N00b's adventures, be warned; I'm a lazy, lazy man
As before, all comments and criticisms are welcomed.

<<Part 2>>

Country boys, on their first visit, are often astounded by the alien landscape of a city. The gentle sounds of birds and animals going about their business were replaced by the more harsh and impatient sounds of traffic. Rolling fields and forests and the sense of openness were gone and in their place were crowded streets and towering buildings. The hallmark of the countryside – the ever-present smell of manure was at least present in some areas of the city and N00b had taken some comfort in that as he hid and waited for his pursuers to give up.

Culture shock was to be expected and N00b’s mother had taken steps to minimise the trauma by taking him on regular trips to Weatherington, the local town - an urban sprawl of 20,000 souls. He’d grown up thinking of it as a vast metropolis but Atlas Park alone could have swallowed it whole and still managed three of the surrounding villages for dessert.

It was a nice, middle-American town that N00b had felt at home in and looked forward to the weekly trip with Mother and was as far removed from Paragon as Ohio is from Neptune. But N00b had something other can culture shock on his mind.

Having finally found a spot where he had some degree of freedom N00b watched three separate groups of youths with wary interest. They were blatantly up to no good and yet managed it with seeming impunity. N00b spotted several cops fleeing in blind panic from the groups who made no move to follow. Twice he’d even caught sight of heros running past the groups with both hero and villains ignoring each other.

The first time he’d seen this he’d been tricked into thinking that perhaps this group wasn’t as violent as the last and came out of hiding. A hail of high-speed lead and a pursuit across two blocks had informed him otherwise. He’d got away – he was getting good at getting away and had been oddly lucky, not just in surviving the flight for his life. He’d caught a glimpse of the giant globe of the Atlas statue before diving into a dumpster for refuge and now after an hour of moving through the streets cautiously was getting close. Just these three groups to get past and he’d be in the park that phalanxed the statue and city hall.

He was debating just making a run from it when another hero ran into view. He hit the nearest group with a fiery ball that exploded and for a moment the three were shrouded in flames. N00b expected them to turn and run from the approaching hero whom N00b could see was preparing his next attack, but instead they stood their ground, drew their guns and returned fire. He glanced at the two nearby groups who he now expected to assist but they continued on as if oblivious to the battle.

The hero, haze a light blue seemed to dance through the gunfire as he sent a smaller fireball into the chest of one of the thugs then a vibrant swarm of flares immediately followed. The thug dropped his gun and collapsed to the pavement.

Finally some of the thug’s lead found its mark and the hero was knocked from his feet but he was up again a moment later and undaunted. Another huge ball of flames erupted around the two remaining thugs and when if dissipated only one remained standing.

The last thug glanced around to his two fallen comrades and then back to the hero. The odds had shifted badly against him and he knew it. He hesitated only a moment before taking to his heels and straight toward N00b. The hero watched him impassively and allowed him to get across the street, to within yards of N00b who was preparing to run yet again, before loosing off another of the small fireballs. It struck the thug between the shoulder blades and he was sent sprawling forward to land before N00b’s feet.

N00b debated whether to run just in case all the fight hadn’t been knocked entirely out of the thug and his hesitation gave the hero enough time to come over.

‘Hi,’ said the hero grinning.

‘Uh, hi,’ N00b replied. This was the first hero battle he’d seen and found himself more than a little in awe of the blue clad man before him.

‘Thanks for not kill stealing.’

‘Sorry, what?’

The hero cocked his head and regarded N00b for a long moment.

‘Are you new in town?’ asked the hero finally.

‘Just arrived, uh, an hour ago. I’m on my way to register.’

‘Oh, ok. Just thought you’d quell a bit of crime before doing it officially?’

N00b looked at him blankly.

‘Well, you’re in costume,’ said the hero, his grin broadening. ‘No point being in costume if you’re not fighting crime, and may I say what a remarkable costume it is. The pink and green, very bold. But I’d rethink the bells. You don’t want the mobs to know you’re coming.’

‘No I suppose not,’ said N00b inspecting his boots.

‘Well, I’d register as soon as possible if I were you, without a license you’re just a vigilante and we can’t have that in Paragon.’ He laughed although if he’d made a joke N00b had missed it by quite a margin.

‘I’ll go straight there,’ said N00b earnestly. He was about to thank the hero for clearing the way but caught himself just in time.

‘Good, well I’ll see you around,’ said the hero and without a backward glance took off down the street.

N00b turned his attention back to his boots. He shuffled his feet slightly and listened to the resulting “ting-a-ling” with mixed feelings. Pride, anger and guilt all clamoured for attention before turning to bite and kick at each other. He stood there looking at his feet for a long moment before a decision solidified. With a decisiveness he’d never known he reached down and tore off the offending bells and tossed them into the gutter.

In the deep recesses of his mind his mother simultaneously wailed at the top of her lungs in anguish and berated him for having the audacity to believe he knew better than she. N00b debated telling them both to shut up but eventually elected just to ignore them, he had other things to concern himself with. The city hall was only a couple hundred yards away and thanks to the blue hero the path was…

Three thugs stood across the street directly in his path, standing on the site of the battle that had taken place only a few minutes earlier. Of the fallen trio there was no sign, even the thug who’d collapsed only a few feet from N00b was gone. Had he recovered, got up and run off? If so, why hadn’t he paused to attempt to give N00b a kicking? The rest of the city’s thugs seemed to special delight in it. But as his gaze drifted back to the new trio another realisation hit him; it was the same three thugs, or at least three very similar looking ones.

His head swam as he struggled to understand but he realised this wasn’t something he could work out for himself. The answers lay beyond the thugs, beyond the narrow park and in the imposing domed building of city hall. He wanted those answers, he needed to understand the city if he was to achieve anything more than earning his running-and-cowering badge. And in a moment of impulsiveness stepped out from his hiding place. There was only three of them and he was a hero after all. It was time to start acting like one. His mother dried her tears and patted N00b gently on the ego, her eyes sparkling with pride. N00b’s chest swelled and he clenched his fists and teeth. It was time.

From down the street to his right someone shouted, ‘It’s a cape!’

N00b had crossed the road, vaulted the fence and was pounding grass before the now familiar shout of ‘Get him,’ sounded.

Thanks for the kind words everyone. It's greatly appreciated. The 1st draft of Part 2 is awaiting editing and should be out tomorrow. Part 3 is halfway through and should come out Sunday. One every two days is MORE than enough for a slacker like myself

Well, not enough has happened to draw any conclusions so I'll stick with critiquing you writing style, which needs work. Specifically around the dialogue. Since its all jammed together it's difficult to follow. Take a new line (actually new parapgraph) everytime a new character speaks.

So that this;

[ QUOTE ]
'You know you gonna get nothing from me so why ya here!', Atta bellowed. Smoking grinned, 'Come on Harry, former drug lord saying no before he know's what someone's offering'. 'What you offering you punk? Colour T.V?', Atta laughed purely at the mess of Smoking behind his shades, and grin. Smoking grinned and replied calmly, 'Oh no Harry. I'm offering something far more interesting than that..'

[/ QUOTE ]

Becomes

'You know you gonna get nothing from me so why ya here!', Atta bellowed.

Smoking grinned, 'Come on Harry, former drug lord saying no before he know's what someone's offering'.

'What you offering you punk? Colour T.V?', Atta laughed purely at the mess of Smoking behind his shades, and grin.

Smoking grinned and replied calmly, 'Oh no Harry. I'm offering something far more interesting than that..'

And much easier for the reader to follow. Also, full stops and commas go inside the quotation marks.

Hope that helps

My style, when I like to flatter myself, is somewhere between the writing talents of Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams, although in reality is probably closer to the talents of their pet fish... after severe head injuries.

[ QUOTE ]
having said that, i would not respect any empathy defender who didnt have ALL the primaries. you can make a decent empath with a selection of them, the only one a good empath doesnt need is rez. (for doesnt, read shouldn't )

[/ QUOTE ]

Bah, there's some people who you can't keep alive regardless of how many heals you spam out there.

[ QUOTE ]
lol with a regen scrapper ur not gonna get held r u? i think he was talking about squishies who against mentalists pretty much need perma cm

[/ QUOTE ]

Ah, ok, I understand. I've taken CM before fortitude on my Empath. I haven't taken AB yet. The experience Ive had with it being 2nd hand and negative.
A few times I'd teamed with another empath who after using it would quickly run away and leave me healing the group by myself.
Bear in mind I was only around lvl 10 and found myself on teams with less than military precision so healing was almost a full time job.

N00b stepped off the train in Atlas and to his disappointment there was a total lack of fanfare. There he stood, resplendent in his brand new costume that his mother had designed and made for him. She’d spent many long nights slaving over a hot sewing machine to have it ready for his trip to Paragon and none of the locals appeared to be impressed in the slightest. In fact none of them were even bothering with a second glance – although he wasn’t sure he’d thought he’d caught one or two smirking at him.

He looked down at himself and to the costume that almost, but not quite, fit. It was a little baggy across the chest a little tight around the waist and if he attempted anything more strenuous than a sedate walk the crotch would ride up with a dogged determination to ensure that N00b would never be a father.

It was true that, if he’d been asked, he’d have chosen a material other than velour – a material that gave the illusion of comfort and softness without coming close to delivering either.

It was true that he’d had his doubt about the colour scheme. In his own mind pink and lime green were not colours normally associated with a male superhero, at least not a heterosexual one. The boots were also another point of reservation. The toes were far too pointy for his liking and he was at a loss to determine what message his mother had been trying to send by making the points curl up and sewing little bells onto the ends of them.

As he looked at the bells that jingled merrily with even the smallest of movements a rebellious though shouldered its way uninvited into his mind. Guilt was the natural response and the most grievous guilt in N00b’s world as the thought had been to defy his Mother’s wishes.

A brief but ferocious battle was waged in the depths of N00b’s mind. The rebellious thought put up a brave fight, bolstered by the 1000 miles of distance between N00b and his mother and the fact that she’d never find out. It’s opponent was a veteran of many campaigns against similar thoughts and took no prisoners. It launched the nuclear strike of calling forth an image of N00b’s Mother crying pitifully after an incident in his past where rebellion had won out and he’d been caught in the act of defiance. “Is this what you want to do to your own Mother,” it demanded. Victory was declared a moment later and the little bells remained.

Quite used to this kind of thing N00b put the bells out of his mind and set about the immediate set of task. Which were;

1. Register as a superhero.
2. Find somewhere to live and dump his stuff.
3. Fight some crime ideally including some damsel in distress in desperate need of rescuing
4. Find out what sex was like.

He threw his duffel bag over his shoulder and headed out of the station and into the bright light of a typical Paragon afternoon and managed to do a passable job of ignoring the constant jingling from his feet.

He needed directions, most of the locals seemed to absorbed in their own affairs as they bustled past him, furiously going about their own business, but a few yards from the station he spied a small group of young men with a more relaxed demeanour and taking the time to enjoy the glorious afternoon and from their laughter, each other’s company.

N00b headed over.

‘Excuse me,’ he began. The three men turned in unison to face him. ‘I wonder if you could...’

‘It’s a cape!’ exclaimed one.

‘Get him!’ another cried.

The muzzles of several formidable weapons suddenly filled N00b’s view and he did what came naturally to him. He dropped his duffel bag and ran. The stutter of gunfire followed him, bullets overtook him – several found their mark and slammed into his back, fortunately bullets couldn’t penetrate N00b’s flesh but that didn’t stop them from hurting.

N00b winced with pain as he sprinted for everything he was worth, the jingling from his boots took on a manic quality as the crotch of his homemade super-suit attempted to plumb unknown regions. Finally he risked a glance behind him, only one of his attackers was still pursuing. The others were heading back to retrieve his discarded duffel bag.

The bag held almost all of N00b’s worldly possessions and the sudden realisation of what he was handing over to these thugs made him forget his immediate peril. Anger rose within him like a geyser. He was a hero after all, it was his job, his duty to rid the streets of this kind of scum. It was the reason he’d travelled all this way.

A shotgun blast followed by the explosion of bark from a tree trunk a few feet from where he was standing derailed this train of thought and before he’d even fully acknowledged the near miss N00b found his legs pumping for everything they were worth.

He slipped into an alley and followed it around the back of a row of shops. At the next corner he paused, panting, and pushed himself against the corner and risked a glance back down the alley. There was no immediate sign of pursuit. As the second ticked past his panic subsided and was replaced, tentatively with relief as he became more convinced his pursuer had given up.

After a minute when it became certain he was safe N00b heaved a sigh of relief. He closed his eyes and wondered if he should get on the first train out of here. Perhaps Mother had been wrong, perhaps he didn’t have what it took to be a hero. Visions of his mother wailing with shame filled his mind’s eye and pushed the doubt, if not away, at least down where they could be ignored for the meantime.

Several more minutes passed and N00b felt safe enough to emerge from his hiding place and cautiously made his way down up the alley to the street. He peered out in the direction he’d come but of his pursuer there was no sign and he stepped out onto the pavement.

Then a voice called, ‘It’s a hero!’

‘Get him,’ shouted another.

N00b rounded to find three youths a few yards up the street frantically drawing weapons. N00b reacted instantly and even before the first shot was fired he was almost a hundred yards away.

I have enjoyed, a great deal, some of the works of fiction posted in this forum and as my ambitions lie along the lines of being a writer I thought it high time I contributed something.
I hope to make this a regular thing and any and all support and criticism is welcome.

[ QUOTE ]
Having a PvP leaderboard in ranking though is a good idea..it doesnt show anything about the rest of the players and it gives some initiative to get in there.

[/ QUOTE ]

If it's done the same way as the other leaderboards; i.e. available at the info terminals then you might have a happy medium.
I doubt it'll encourage new players but more likely encourage existing players to play more.

[ QUOTE ]
hmm plausible at least, still at least COH/COV has a built in protection system agaisnt knowing someones rank/rating, when you click on someones info theres certainly a chance of lockup

[/ QUOTE ]

If the info's private, or at least can't be seen by the enemy then I withdraw the objection. If it's a big a55 leaderboard (which was what I was imagining... for some reason) everyone can see all the time then my original point stands.

[ QUOTE ]
uh no?please explain. Cause right now with a ranking system and the creation of RoC i can only see personally advantages except the part of people maybe segregating according to pvp ranking

[/ QUOTE ]

OK, example; you're a less than scrupulous player and decide you want to get your PvP rating up as fast as possible. The zones are next to emply as they usually are but there's two opponents on. You compare their ratings. 1 is the top 5, the other is WAY down the bottom. If you're wanting an easy kill, who are YOU going to go after?

This is not to suggest all or even the majority of regular PvPers would do this, but there are people who WILL use the list to their advantage and perhaps at the expense of the people who're just getting their feet wet in PvP.
If anyone's in any doubt of the existence of these people go see the thread about kill stealing.

I can see a ranking system as a bad idea as its going to give a very graphic representation of whose a regular pvper, whose a casual and whose a beginner (or at least, not very good).
Can we guess how some ppl would use that information to their advantage?

[ QUOTE ]
I assume that you haven't, as yet, fought: High level Rikti, Malta, High level DE, COT earth Mages or carnies then?

You will definitely need CM when fighting these.

[/ QUOTE ]

Do you? What for? I'm not being sarcastic but I've fought them all without recieving CM and came through without too many problems (apart from the DE swarms *shudder*) but my main is a regen scrapper and thanks to Integration I miss a lot of the mobs more subtle powers.

I'll believe it when I see it

[ QUOTE ]
I guess its all down the the skill of the player correct? Also as a scrapper you dont have ranged attacks do you? What if the troller has hover and is well out of your reach, what do you do then?

[/ QUOTE ]

Watch him try to keep up with superjump? Or after I ding fifty and respec; tp him into smashing range? The point was not to diss controllers but highlight that for some of us a lone controller is nothing to worry about. I'm sure there's a lot of tanks out there who feel the same.

[ QUOTE ]
*Rolls on the floor laughing* A controller can easily slaughter anything, spam enough holds and mezzes to overcome protection then just use your powers that do double damage with containment to destroy them.

[/ QUOTE ]

Pffft, you wish. The last controller I fought in Warburg lasted a full 20 seconds against my regen scrapper. That's not to say they don't do well against the villains but thought it worth pointing out there are hero ATs that scoff at the *might* of controllers

[ QUOTE ]
We were arranging duels a few days back between stalkers and one scrapper, both regen. It was agreed that AS wouldnt be used but placate would, which seems fair enough. If anyone's interested the fights went either way with no one really hammering the other, and, as both were regens, they lasted ages.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not trying to be too critical of the scrapper but even WITH A/S a stalker should struggle to bring down a competent regen scrapper, without it I don't see how he could be beaten.

[ QUOTE ]
Okay, I know I'm going to look stupid, but what the hell is a "blapper"? I'm guessing it's the ******* love child of a Blaster and a Scrapper.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's an empaths worst nightmare. All the time it's;
Heal the group
Heal the blapper
Heal the group
Heal the blapper
Heal the group
Rez the blapper

[ QUOTE ]
If you know what u doing then anything is beatable, I need someone to get them off ice patch for me to do anything, fortunately my wingman has TP foe

[/ QUOTE ]

I think he was refering to a 1-to-1 situation. In this case the Ice tanker would be unnaccessible and therefore unbeatable?

2 ppl will more often than not beat a single opponent - assuming he hangs around for long enough.

[ QUOTE ]
Sadly the theory doesnt live up the reality at least not with a decent regen, I spent about 15 mins dancing around SinghMC, ASing, stabbing, impaling and all for nothing, just as I was sending the last crit impale strike Dull pain or IH would kick in and its back to the starting line I did manage to beat him when he forgot Dull Pain but I think he just felt sorry for me that time

[/ QUOTE ]

Hehe, a lot of things have to go the stalkers way and of course it depends on how the regen is slotted. Sadly my build in Siren's is less than optimal - I've got a PvE build which was respecced at 37 and done in such a way that I omitted my travel power until after 30th lvl so I generally have to rely on a raptor pack to get around (less than ideal). But even so a lone stalker is unlikely to bring me down unless I make a mistake.
Even two hitting simultaneously are survivable, thanks to Dull Pain.

Ideally the stalker needs to pounce when the scrapper is involved in another fight.

[ QUOTE ]
Any Stalker that tries to one shot a Scrapper (especially Regen), fails, then sticks around is an idiot.

[/ QUOTE ]

That depends. Given the longish recharge rates of both Dull Pain and IH regen scrappers are vulnerable part of a time. And in these moments they are stalker-fodder. IH (with build up presumably) will knock out over 75% of the scrapper's hit points and if reconstruction is still recharging then the stalker is more than capable of standing toe-to-toe with the scrapper.

In fact, the more I think about it the more I think the stalker could bring down a regen scrapper is he really worked at it. Consider this 1 to 1 scenario
The scrapper is unlikely to be able to see the stalker without 3rd party buffs. IR goggles and 2 yellows don't vut it so the scrapper has to wait for the stalker to come in.
. Stalker goes in - AS hits - followed by recontruction by the scrapper - the stalker withdraws (much to the scrappers annoyance).
2. Stalker goes in again - AS hits and this time sticks around to exchange a few blows. If the scrapper uses Dull pain then the stalker withdraws again.
Now AS isn't as big a threat as it once once - it'll only take half the scrappers hit points so the stalker has to wait for Dull pain to finish.
3. Repeat of step 1
4. Stalker goes in again as soon as AS has recharged and this time stays to trade blows.
Now the scrapper has no dull pain or reconstruction to fall back on and is down to 25% hit points. The stalker will win if he doesn't do anything. Does he fire up IH, if so the stalker's got him and quickly withraws to wait for IH to finish.
5. Repeat of step 1.
6. the final act; Reconstruction is gone, as is dull pain and IH. The stalker has the advantage. If he's a regen stalker then he's got all his heal clickies as his disposal and the combat starts with an AS reducing the scapper to 25% HPs. The stalker will win the exchange.

Obviously all of this is assuming a great number of factors; no inspirations, the scrapper spending a lot of time standing still, no running back to the safe zone etc etc and admittedly it paints a picture of an imbalance between the stalker and scrapper.

The alternative is to wait until the scrapper is down to 70%hps and then one shot him. The flip side of the coin is the scrapper isn't ever going to bring down the stalker unless the latter gives him a chance.
Nominally stalkers and scrappers can't kill each other 1 on 1, but that's not unusual. There's a few builds that can't kill each other 1 on 1.

I think it's a great idea, but I think you should ditch Siren's and hold it in Warburg so hero teams can have a pop as well

[ QUOTE ]
Ah but the use of travel powers is a valid tactic, and if zones prevented them (like to see the IC rationale for that), a lot of us would need free respecs

[/ QUOTE ]

I think the idea was for a NEW zone, so NO respec for you!!

But it is a good idea, when I fight in the arena I usually fight with travel powers off. One person can still get away from another, but a mad chase ensues - unlike in Siren's when SS fires up and the opponent takes off into the distance with no hope of me catching them.