Interface

I can't say for certain, but the NPC chatter "This is the third time my mission 'Statesman's Furry Adventure' was rejected for violating the terms of service." may have been inspired by a post of mine.

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?p=1004634

Some other random confessions: When starting out in '04, I picked servers mostly at random. On Triumph, I made an nrg/nrg blaster named Tesla, which I thought was a pretty cool name. I got to 12, hit perma-debt, and abandoned the character. I soon settled on Champion as a home server and never went back to Triumph. Every year or so I'd remember Tesla out of nowhere, consider deleting him to free up the name, but be too lazy to. My apologies to Triumph for denying someone a cool name.

Likewise, when I saw that "Super Best Friends" was free as an SG name I grabbed it for myself, even though I never intended to make it a 'real' SG. I apologize to any South Park fans on Champion.

Also, I'm a hoarder. None of my mains have less than four freespecs. All of them have tons of temp powers with charges, and vaults filled with rare salvage.

I only regret not using the Beta name-reserve to take "Mary Sue". The possibilities would have been endless...

I have an incurable habit of giving stupid answers to questions asked on broadcast/help.

SOMEONE: Where is Pandora's Box?
ME: Between Pandora's Legs.

DUDE: Help, I can't find my mission. I'm at where it says on the map but the arrow is below the ground!
ME: You need the Shovel temp power. You can get it by farming the CoT digging in Potter's Field.

GUY: When I click on Kara the Scorpion, it says "You cannot enter."
ME: Try buying her dinner first.

Back during I2 or I3, before IOs, soloing half a dozen AV/GMs with my Dark/Regen scrap, Shadow Kitty, including Countess Crey and the Kronos Titan. This was during the Emmert days of "A Boss is more than a match for one hero." Another time, still around I3 when the power level of the players was pretty low, the same scrap was doing Citadel. A pull went bad and we were swarmed with 5th Column. The entire team went down, except for the Kitty. I just kept punching and punching until they were all gone.

Beating an 8x4 Arachnos paper mission with my Widow, before Incarnates.

Also, I'm still pretty proud of the Architect missions I made. Anyone looking for some light-hearted fun, search for @Interface and try any of the three.

GONE TO THE AMERICANS!!!!!!!1

Sorry, but literally everything you said was provably wrong, stupid, or both. For example,

1.First, here's a question I asked way back on the beta forums. I love how no one is ever 'killed', just 'defeated', it really fits in with the four-color setting. However, is there an in-canon reason that an assault rifle or fire blaster doesn't actually kill people?

2. Battalion/Coming Storm.

3. Pandora's box.

4. Remaing Incarnate powers.

5. It was stated that supers exist all over the world, but Paragon City has the highest concentration by far. Yet, the streets of Paragon City are swarming with criminals. Now, obviously the real reason they exist is to give players something to pound on, but is there an in-canon reason why so many criminals choose to operate in the city with the most superheroes?

6. Was there any particular reason that Paragon City was in Rhode Island?

7. Did Statesman's death mean "$#@* you, Emmert!"

8. Was there any reason why Statesman couldn't be resurrected? It happened in one of the comics.

9. Was there anything BIG planned that didn't happen?

10. Did you have any plans to tweak the Architect System? It seems like a waste of potential. Offhand I'd say maybe a hundred people use the architect for cool stories, the rest farm it or ignore it.

11. PvP, any plans?

12. IoPs and Base raiding. Why didn't this happen? I know there was an exploit in the CoP trial, but that shouldn't have taken too long to fix.

Finally, echoing a suggestion that was made by a previous poster. Let's say that the Powers That Be decide to keep the game running for exactly one more year. How do you wind up the storyline?

I remember that video from back when it came out, along with "Hellions" and "Learning to Fly". Nice going

That would be a very flavorful idea. Give all mobs 100x the hitpoints, and make all mobs equal to the player's level, like GMs. When a mob is defeated, they don't respawn. When all the streets of Paragon City are clear, archvillains begin spawning in, with 10x hitpoints. When they are defeated, the game ends, with Paragon City forever free of crime.

Unfortunately, anything involving code changes can't happen.

When I reinstalled the client about a year ago, I noticed that the download came in three stages. First the character builder downloads, allowing you to create a character while the rest of the client downloads. Then the tutorial, then the rest of the game. (yet another clever idea from the minds of Paragon.)

So, in theory at least, all you need to do is...

1) Get a computer without CoH on it. Or, trick your system into thinking that CoH isn't installed by renaming the install directory and/or commenting out the registry entries.

2) Download the installer and run it. Once Phase 1 is complete, pull the plug on your internet connection.

3) Permanently deny this version of the game internet access. Many firewalls will allow you pick and choose which programs get access, including the one I use, ZoneAlarm.

4) Assuming that the costume creator is in fact 100% client-side, you can now play dress-up dolly forever. Enjoy!

Here's my first post on these forums, back in '04. Interesting how much has changed, but some of it still holds true.

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...1421#post21421

Ironically, although my memory is fading in my old age, I still recall my first post on the Beta forums. It was basically, "I love how enemies are 'defeated', not 'killed': it adds to the Golden/Silver Age flavor of the game, and makes it more family-friendly. But, how do you intend to reconcile this with powers like fire blast and assault rifle?"

I never got an answer...

During a BAF last night, one guy had Instant Snowstorm going as the trial started, and it continued into the cutscene...

I played the arc hero-side, and most of the bugs were fixed. The signature bosses correctly had "boss" as their class instead of "hero", the nav text in the 2nd mission was correct, and the evidence glowies all dropped clues, which told me about Wade's plans, and instructed me to go to the temple to stop him. Overall, I guess this isn't bad writing so much as not making those few passes to pick up on bugs.

I just finished running the redside version of Who Will Die #5, and I have to say, the quality of the series is slipping fast.

The intro said it contains EBs, so I jump in with my 50 Spider. The contact tells me that Back Alley Brawler is causing trouble here in Port Oakes. His dialog is well written at least. Into the basement of that oddly constructed bar, where I run into BaB... who despite being 'Hero' class, has the hitpoints of an Lt. and dies in 5 seconds. Back to the bar for a drink, but four heroes including Ms. Liberty and Infernal (the good version) are having a chat with Barracuda and some other signature villains. When they fail to decide on how to split the check, a fight breaks out. I leap in expecting a wild free-for-all, but again they all have Lt. health and it's over before it's begun.

A trip across a deserted Port Oakes for a map, then I'm in Wade's lair, where I run into Posi, Crimson and Indigo confronting Viridian and Shadow Spider. Not only is the fight another non-event, the nav text text tells me to "Defeat Positron, Indigo and Viridian." I mop up a few Rularuu and click three 'evidence' glowies with no text or clue.

With this done, I go to a boat, which puts me in a cave, where a message pops up that I can't enter the temple. Huh? I spank more Rularularuuu and finally get to watch the CBS after-school special, followed by a fight against Rolo the Chunky, or something. He has EB hitpoints but still poses no challenge.

I hate to be critical, but I've played countless Mission Architect missions that were better written, more involving, and most importantly, more polished. I can't help but picture an NCSoft executive's 16 year old nephew writing this, or an intern fresh out of Full Sail.

A big thanks to everyone who tried "Cat: It's What's For Dinner". I think the biggest mistake I made is in not actually pointing out that it's a parody of the Lord Recluse Strike Force. I thought most people would pick up on the "Steal Orestes Rifle, defeat Statesman" bit, but maybe I was too subtle.

The map in Mission 1 is the one from the Strike Force. My apologies to those who didn't know it was an outdoor/indoor map, I was kinda assuming that everyone else runs the LRSF 3 times a week as well. I put the Titan in just to fit in with the plot, hoping most people wouldn't think they had to beat it to progress. If you read the titan's description it tells you so.

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...9-15-34-44.jpg

(btw, I once soloed the Kronos Titan with a scrapper before IOs came out. Just putting that out there...)

A lot of the humor is from the Lolcats genre. ("I can haz cheezburger?") Again, my apologies to those who don't get it.

"Kawaii" is a Japanese word that roughly translates to "cute". Both online and off, catgirls are apparently required to shout it at least 12 times per hour.

'Asparagus' is a nod to Venture.

All three arcs use Lord Recluse as the mission contact. Since it's impossible to create a custom character using that model, I don't think there's any way to have description text there. (or is there?)

To those who have also done "Two Chicks at Once", all you need to do now is complete "Curiouser and Curiouser" to complete the Trilogy Of Moderate Evil and take home a fantastic prize!!*






*disclaimer: there is no prize.

Kill or Cure #459581 by @Samuraiko

This starts out promisingly, the player tasked with defending SERAPH against an attack by Lesbian Hellions. Granted, they look just like Knives of Artemis, but I could tell they were really Lesbian Hellions because half a dozen patrols all said "Ok ladies, put it in and get it over with." Or something. I entered the building, took out the boss and rescued hostages, all with well written dialog clues. Players who aren't familiar with this particular map might get stuck figuring out which door they need to go in.

Clues from this lead to more Severe Pummeling, which leads us to a plot to genocide the Rikti, which we have to stop, because... um, because genocide is bad, I guess, even if it's Rikti. A Vigilante might see it differently, but oh well. The story is well written, with a cool ending. An incorrect event trigger in the final mission made one thing happen out of sequence, but I told the author about it, so no doubt it's fixed by now. Worth checking out.


Arc #514570 Terra Mystika: The Nexus by @Lord of Storms

Melinda, a moderately shapely witch with a pointy hat, asks me to to come to the defense of the Fortress, in the middle of the Nexus, in the world of Terra Mysticus. She goes into a fair amount of detail about this world, both in mission briefings and clues obtained. The writing is well done, but still, since this is outside of CoH lore, it's difficult to get emotionally invested in something I never heard about before. Still, I dive in, hoping for the chance to dive into Melinda's short skirt later. I rescue her from some CoT, defeat Zinfandel, and get some foreshadowing clues about how their own portals were used.

The next two missions are much like the first; I defend the Fortress from people who look exactly like Council/5C, but they're from central Europe, which is conveyed by patrol chatter about how much they like cabbage. Or something. The third has Romans, who look like Cimerorans, but with a wide variety of powersets and an even greater fondness for gladiator movies.

In the final mission, Melinda invites me to a party on the slopes of a mountain. I eagerly accept, hoping to find her waiting behind some bushes, but instead I need to determine which of their leaders betrayed them by gathering information from clues from the previous missions. I went with Professor Plum in the vomitorium with a gladius, but all that happened was some hostile pink clouds spawned. Hopefully Melinda gives you third base if you get it right, but even if not, well worth playing.


Arc #29205 PENGUIN by @Tubbius

I'm not going to go into a lot of detail here, just suffice it to say to say that it's told in a innovative manner, and there's a penguin.

Whack a Mole! Incarnate Edition! Lambda Sector

I had played this one a month or so ago, and found it really funny, although I admit I have a weakness for parody arcs. I'm hoping they add the TPN map to the Architect soon . I was actually surprised to find the Lamdba map in AE, although it's just a part of the real one. Of course, that may be a good thing, since even after doing the real Lambda half a dozen times, I still get lost finding nades and acids. Here, I beat it with 3 seconds to spare. Non-Incarnates probably won't be able to succeed, but then, if someone hasn't done Lambda they won't get the jokes anyway.


Black as Midnight: Team Spirit

A well written, atmospheric run through an abandoned building in Dark Astoria, where you have to rescue a bunch of Midnighter allies and whoop some evil looking badguys. The allies appear to be avatars of the author's friends, which could be confusing to the 5-10% of us who don't play on Virtue. All allies and foes are custom mobs with descriptions and good looking costumes. Every single defeat and glowie gave me a clue; to be honest, I found the plot confusing, but maybe that's just my fault for playing at 3AM with only one pot of coffee. The EB at the end is tough, but 2 EB and 2 boss allies push the odds in your favor.


Shadow of Grime Alley

The title immediately made me think of http://batman.wikia.com/wiki/Appointment_In_Crime_Alley, a episode of the superb Batman animated series. I have a special fondness for this episode, because it highlights Batman's more complex side. A shady Gotham developer wants to get rid of Crime Alley to make way for a shopping mall, or maybe a hotdog stand or something, but Batman stands in his way, because he knows that despite the name, the residents of Crime Alley all are good people with hearts of gold. I couldn't help but thinking that if Crime Alley were burnt down, crime bosses would have a harder time finding muscle-bound henchmen in 10-15 years, but maybe Batman doesn't think that far ahead. Anyway, the contact for "Shadow of Grime Alley" is Gordon Stacy, whom I'm assuming was created originally as a nod to Commissioner Gordon.

The plot here does not follow the episode, but instead is a story of betrayal and revenge among the Family. It's well told, with dashes of humor thrown in. The only real complaint, besides a few itty-bitty grammatical errors (missing punctuation, inconsistent nav text) is that the first mission requires you to find two hostages on a BIG outdoor map, which took me a while. Maybe they would have been easier to spot if it were daytime ingame. Nevertheless, this is still worth playing.

Two Chicks at Once: mission arc #83920
Longbow has launched a cunning and titillating operation to undermine Arachnos' influence in the Rogue Isles. It's up to you to beat them at their own game.

Curiouser and Curiouser: mission arc #167567
How can Lord Recluse's latest plot be so secret, even he doesn't know about it? How do Longbow and Malta fit in, and who invited Nemesis?

Cat: It's What's For Dinner: mission arc #530511
Such a simple plan: steal the Orestes Rifle, kidnap Ms. Liberty, defeat Statesman. What could possibly go wrong? Choose from two possible endings.

These are intended for for levels 40-50, although they're not too hard. No defeat-alls or other time wasters. There are EBs, but you will either have allies for them, or you won't have to fight them. The dialog assumes that you're a villain.

Although the three go in chronological order, the plot for each is mostly self-contained. Still, if you only have time for one, please do Cat: It's What's For Dinner. The first two came out two years ago, and were played by people reading my long-abandoned review thread, while this one is brand new. Feedback of any kind is welcome (no plot spoilers please). I'll start other people's arcs right away.