Jeb_Zero

[ QUOTE ]
So where do you pay this? Well, go see the NPC who you would go to to create a Base, and if you're high enough in rank, you can pay the Base's rent!

[/ QUOTE ]Where might one find this NPC? My SG has created a base, and I have a rank of Leader, and frankly, the notices stating "rent is due" have me a little worried. I'd like to run in and pay this off, if I can figure out where to do so.

Jonyu didn't specify, but I'd wager that the Brute's single-target taunt isn't even auto-hit, in much the same way that the Kheldian taunt is not auto-hit. (even if the Kheldian variety is AoE) I'd say that gives an edge to the Tanker, since their Guantlet ability is auto-hit. Besides, no one can really match Tanker resistances without buff assistance.

I did some testing, and it appears that Defiance was of some use to my lvl 5 archery/devices blaster. Due to the lower damage output of enemies at that level, he could remain "in the game" for longer and make use of the higher damage output of Defiance.

Much less so for my lvl 34 ice/ice blaster. With this character, most hits did too much damage for me to "maintain" my health level at the <40% level; it just wasn't practical, and resulted in multiple trips to the hospital. I was able to enter into one controlled situation where a Crey mob specialist followed me around and beat my health bar down to a sliver. Unfortunately, Defiance still only seemed to grow a tiny sliver, despite the fact that I had to be at something like 10 or 15% health.

It's also not 100% clear when Defiance is working. Unless I missed it because I was staring maniacally at my health and Defiance bars, but I didn't see any visual cues that I had extra damage, and it seemed like the bar itself was drastically reduced in length every time I got a tick of health back.

Lastly, how is the scale of Defiance intended to work? The bar goes from 0 - 1.0. If the damage scales as high as 500%, are we supposed to assume that 0 is nothing, 0.5 is 250% and 1 is 500%? If so, I would lobby for some other numbering system. Perhaps it could be 0-10, or have some "label" like:

0-100% damage output: "Angered"
100-200% damage output: "Enraged"
...
400-500% damage output: "Defiant"

That way, you'd have a better idea of how much benefit you're enjoying. As it is, I cannot tell precisely what sort of benefit the inherent power is providing.

[ QUOTE ]
The only thing is, I still suffer from chronic Endurance loss and having to tone back my attacks in a long (more than 10 minutes) battle

[/ QUOTE ]
This is a problem I think most Inv/SS tankers suffer from. When I first re-spec'd, I made sure to take Stamina as early as possible and dump every spare enhancement slot into it. That wasn't quite enough, though, so on the advice of MisterMichael, I took the extra step and actually threw an endurance reduction enhancement into Haymaker and Knockout Blow. This really helps a lot! If you respec, consider the following:

Stamina with 6 slots endurance recovery
KO Blow with 5 slots damage, 1 slot endurance reduction
Haymaker with 5 slots damage, 1 slot endurance reduction

You lose a little bit of damage, and don't have the luxury of an accuracy enhancement, but I feel both of these are made up for by taking Rage and throwing a pair of recharge reduction enhancements in it. If you time it right, it's always up and you shouldn't have to worry about the "hangover" effect.

And although I know it's hotly debated, I will vote for the non-Hasten presidential candidate. Since you're already burning through endurance at an Olympic rate, I don't think it's necessary to fire off your attacks even more quickly. A good attack chain should keep you attacking--and hopefully knocking up--bad guys without any significant delays.

Otherwise, this guide is a great place to go for advice. The wealth of knowledge contained here can make a tank uber-powerful. Here's hoping it takes a long time for the developers to notice and make their dreaded nerf.

[ QUOTE ]
Yes, like how many Back Alley Brawlers there are. See pic (if it'll show)

[/ QUOTE ]
Heh - I love that picture. For those that don't know, the Brawler on the left is an actual, in-game model. I have my theories about the differences, as noted in this thread .

Ya, that's a good point. Maybe it's a bit like the Kheldians, where they have a wider range of powers to choose from, including those normally reserved for other archetypes. Or it's their "signature power" as hinted at by Manticore. I don't think the comic book will go too much into what powers each hero has, except from a visual standpoint, but the novel, if well written, should have more room to discuss powers and how they differ from one another.

Manticore may have cleared up the question of why Back Alley Brawler seems to sport powers from two different archetypes. In a thread about the E3 2K5 CoV Trailer, he says:

[ QUOTE ]
Keep in mind that the Signature Characters all have Signature Powers that may fall outside their normal power sets. The power to call Zeus' Lighning reflected on Statesman's Heroclix figure and Sister Psyche's Mindriding ability (the power to bounce her mind into someone elses body) are good examples of this. You will see these fairly often in our videos, comics and other licensed properties.

[/ QUOTE ]
So, it is likely that the Back Alley Brawler has a power or two that is his signature, perhaps it's Energy Brawl or something, and that he likes to change his look depending upon whether he's on "newbie training" duty or "kicking butt with Statesman and the crew" duty.

Awesome, Manticore - thanks so much for revealing this informaiton! I know a lot of it could be given piecemeal as part of history missions, but it's a lot more fun to learn this stuff outside the game.

Now that we know so much more about the iconic villains and heroes of the CoH universe, how about some info on the second stringers? You know who I'm talking about... Topknot Dude, Bug Guy, and Captain Monocle.

[ QUOTE ]
What I find interesting is Black Scorpion, isn't there a superhero using that name?

[/ QUOTE ]
Heh heh - I'm pretty sure nobody in the Black Scorpion leather camp is going to come after Cryptic for copyright infringement. Unless, of course, they've been emboldened by the Marvel lawsuit. Still and all, I'd rather run into Lady Black Scorpion in a dark alley than Armored Black Scorpion.

All of which draws away from the important questions:

1. What happened to the Back Alley Brawler? Why does he sport two different looks and two alleged powersets? I am totally on board with those who think that his powers in the trailer look just like Energy Melee from the tanker archetype. That goes against the game grain if he's been touted as a scrapper. An exception might be if he is high level and has perhaps opened up an ancillary power pool that looks like or even mimics energy melee. And why not? Many of the current "Mastery" powers from the APPs do things that non-ancillary powers do.

2. Who the crap are Topknot Dude and Bug Guy? Only Captain Monocle has visibilty as high as these two. I like that the girl in fishnets might be a South American heroine, but there's nothing about her that cries out "latin combatant" to me.

Manticore, I'm pretty confident these are just filler models from the rendering library, so why don't you hold a contest where we get to name them, their powers, and their histories? The winner gets, oh I don't know, a slot in the CoV beta. Deal?

[ QUOTE ]
I saw another website which listed her (unofficially probably) as another older patriotic hero, since Miss Liberty is (I'm guessing) comparatively new and young. I can't remember for the life of me what the name was, or what the site was though. Edit: I figured Miss Liberty was a FF Defender, considering Dominatrix is.

[/ QUOTE ]
It is true that Miss Liberty is the original Miss Liberty's granddaughter. I'm thinking that because Statesman clearly has some kind of superhuman longevity (he fought in World War II and battled Lord Recluse in the long ago, as will be revealed in _Web of Arachnos_ by Robert Weinberg) that he and the original Miss Liberty hooked up and conceived the current Miss Liberty. Unable to tell her the truth of her origins, Statesman trained her as his "sidekick", and continues to watch her as she grows.

P.S. - Who the heck is Dominatrix? And where can I meet her?

[ QUOTE ]
"Squirrel Girl" Unknown (Seen in box art)

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not sold that this is the same girl from the cover of the box art. And if it is, I think she's been changed somewhat.

[ QUOTE ]
Other MIA heroes:

Bug Guy (Box front and battle scene)

[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah, he's like the hero nobody gives a rat's whisker about. Weird.

[ QUOTE ]
"Apex Prototype" - has antennae (Box front and battle scene, trailer)

[/ QUOTE ]
Good call! Although I think those are "comms", not antennae.

[ QUOTE ]
"Refridgeron" white ice blaster(?) (Battle scene only)

[/ QUOTE ]
If you're talking about the armored soul hovering between Statesman and Back Alley Brawler, I think that's supposed to be Positron. Or, at least the original concept for the "armored iconic" hero.

Then there's Wife Beater, the guy in the blue t-shirt with the robotic arms and headband. Maybe he used to date the mysterious green girl. Don't forget Diamond on His Chest, the masked hero with the white gloves who is scowling menacingly and perhaps preparing to throw a scrapper- or tanker-esque punch. The Fishnet Elf to his right is one of my favorites. It appears she battles criminals by stunning them with her cleavage. Behind those two is Aquaman's Cousin, a blonde-bearded fellow whose lightning-bolt adorned costume hint at some kind of electrical power. On the far right is another forgotten character, Heat Visor. He can only be a radiation defender, unless he somehow discovered the epic power pools before the rest of us and got himself some laser beam eyes. His robot concubine, Stripezilla, is hovering above him. Moving left, you see Belly Flop, a guy who's about a quarter inch high and wears white gloves. And under him--don't blink or you'll miss him--is Half-helm, a man who appears so briefly his costume and purpose in life can scarcely be guessed at. That only leaves the woman in the vest to Bug Guy's right. I'm going to call her Gunhilda and on a flight of fancy assume that her assault rifle is hidden by the heroes in front of her.

As an aside, I don't think I like the look of that cloak on Statesman. In both the newsletter and on the cover of the new Top Cow comic, it just seems too long. Plus, I don't feel like it fits the look of the costume. Sure, it makes him look different from other star spangled heroes, but it doesn't work for me. I did, however, like the suggestion that he went to Icon and got it recently. I can't wait for new in-game events where we can interact more with these iconic heroes and ask them about things like this. I hear this level of interaction makes MMOs like The Matrix Online a lot of fun.

[ QUOTE ]
She looks like the person to the right of Statesman in the loading screen to me, which would make it orange and blue as opposed to red and black.

[/ QUOTE ]
I'm pretty sure the woman to the right of Statesman on the loading screen is actually the Miss Liberty prototype. She's not red, white, and blue, but is otherwise very similar. You don't see this woman anywhere anymore, though. Also, I think the woman in the background of the promotional newsletter has short hair.

[ QUOTE ]
And here I am wondering once again who the rest of those heroes are.

That big guy with the ponytail has been around forever, but never IDed, IIRC.

Now we also have the Blue/Green guy, the Green-adorned lady in the foreground, and the very hard to see girl in very back.

[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah, this has been bugging the heck out of me since the game started. You see these "iconic" heroes around, but it isn't clear who the heck they are. Most specifically, you see them on the banner of the City of Heroes website. I kind of suspect that the artists were asked to make a bunch of "cool looking" hero models that could be used for the game's cinematics and marketing materials. Some of them were designed around developer concepts, ala Statesman, Manticore and Positron while others were just sort of "generic" heroes. I think a bunch of these "generic" models were then taken and developed into heroes you can meet in game, heroes like Back Alley Brawler, who aren't--as far as I can tell--avatars of the developers. The other heroes, however, are just sort of sitting in the model library of the 3D engine used to create the game's cinematics.

If I'm wrong--and I'd like to be--then maybe some of these hereos have histories and known powers. Maybe some of them are just early concept versions of the heroes we know and love. For a fun exercise, let's take a look at a few of these heroes (take these with a grain of salt - iconics can obviously break the rules, so they don't have to perfectly fit existing CoH powersets):

The Redhead in Green & Black: This could very well be the new (old) Sister Psyche, recently awakend from her Rikti-induced coma, although her powers in the cinematics feels inconsistent with how I imagined. Of course, since she has never done more than turn her head in game, I don't have a lot to go on. She has forcefields, so this puts her pretty squarely in the controller category, perhaps mind control/force field, which definitely fits someone with the word "psyche" in their name.

Topknot dude: As stated above, he's been around forever, and is one of the most recognizable iconics, given his unique coiffure(sp?) and tribal tattoos. There's little to go on for powers, though, so I'm going to suggest he's a tanker, most likely invulnerability/super strength because you don't see any visible weapons or power manifestations. Energy fists go away, so he could be /energy melee. Since Statesman's an incarnate and not the tanker many of us expected, that seems to fit.

Guy in red with Bow: This is Manyshot, a boy scout leader whose pack was wiped out during the Rikti invasion. To avenge his fallen Cubs, Wolves, and Bears, he has become a vigilante with the only weapon available to defend himself with at the time of the invasion: an archery set. More about Manyshot and his connection to Topknot Dude will be revealed in the upcoming novel _Web of Arachnos_ by Robert Weinberg. Just kidding! This, of course, is our beloved Manticore, who is finally able to sport his nifty compound bow now that hero powers for an upcoming CoH Issue have been coded to include archery.

Guy in blue & green wearing Techno-monocle: On the website, his face is second in size only to Statesman's, which implies that he truly could be somebody important. The trouble is there is nothing about him that says what his powers might be. The monocle could be some kind of targeting reticle, I guess, putting him in the /devices category of blasters. He does often hold his wrist up as if about to project some energy, so perhaps he's got an energy blast primary. This leaves the burning question of what the heck is up with the white spiral on his chest? Frankly, I think he's an early try at an iconic speedster, before Synapse was fully developed. To support my claim, if you look inside the cover of a City of Heroes box, you'll see him zooming across the left hand side of the screen, right in front of Topknot Dude. (which isn't to say that you can't have a monocle and super-speed)

The green-costumed Brunette in the foreground with headband and star on her chest: This woman may be an amalgamation. If you recall, Miss Liberty appears on the cover of the original City of Heroes box, albeit not in a red, white, and blue costume, and with this brunette's star on her chest. On the same cover, in the upper left-hand corner, you see a blonde with a headband. This is a stretch, but I'm wondering if they upgraded Miss Liberty to full patriot garb when they made her Statesman's sidekick, shifted her cool non-USA accoutrements to headband girl, changed colors and a few costume options, and came up with what we see in this ad. I don't think she's appeared before this. I'd call her a defender, most likely radiation emission/electrical blast or empathy/radiation blast.

Busty Lady in Red & Black lurking in background: Who IS this woman? I thought I recognized most of the iconics, but this Elastigirl lookalike is totally new to me. She doesn't appear in any of the existing material. Perhaps she's always been there and they chose her from the model library to balance the imagery of the promotional piece, but in all other regards, I think this is the first time I've seen her. For variety, I'm going to call her a scrapper, probably martial arts/regeneration.

Since we're already here, I'll wrap this up with a request for feedback on the following:

- Synapse: Is he a developer's avatar? Aside from his obvious super speed, what do you think his powers are?
- Miss Liberty: What do you think her powers are? She flies, obviously.
- Sister Psyche: Is she a developer's avatar?
- Positron: What do you think his powers are?

1. One hand bent into a raised, half-claw while realizing dreams of villainous grandeur and the other hand clasping the hem of his/her cloak.

2. A dismissive, "you are inconsequential" wave, reserved for minions and petty heroes.

My sincerest apologies - I didn't even realize there was a separate thread for StormKnight's COH editor. That's what I get for being a lazy forum angler and not doing a thorough search. Zloth, your work in this arena has been top notch, which is what drew me here first - I hope you'll keep it up in spite of knuckleheads cluttering up your threads!

Got a question for the more tech-savvy among you: I put together demofiles for the film contest, but when I went to make them into AVIs for editing the quality was somewhat lacking. The images were clear, but the action was always slowed down.

I pretty much went through the process using StormKnight's guide, which advocates COHED for demo playback and GameCam as the capture tool of choice. The trouble was, no matter what I did to change the quality levels, things always seemed to suffer a terrible slowdown during capture. I wanted to email StormKnight direct to ask his thoughts, but no email link on his pages. I'm hoping he or some other smarter-than-me folks browse through here.

One odd point: COHED lets you play your demo back in the recommmended 640x480 format of the final product, but City of Heroes cannot run 640x480 in fullscreen mode. This causes it to default to windowed mode, BUT GameCam claims it works poory in windowed mode, creating something of an impasse. As a workaround, I went to 800x600 for both demo playback and capture preference, figuring I could bump it back to 640x480 when I edited in Premiere. The problem was that even fullscreen, the quality issue was crappy. Everything had that "chug-a-chug" stutter quality. You know, when your computer tries to do too much at one time and has to slow everything down? With my specs, though, I don't see how this can be a technical problem. I mean:

PIV 2GHz; 512Mb RAM; 256Mb GeForce FX w/Detonator drivers; 2Gb pagefile

I can play CoH all day at 1024x768 with little to no slowdown at all. So where, I wonder, does my capture problem come in? My biggest regret in all of this is that the technical problem has set me too far back to make the deadline. I wonder if they might consider extending it for late entries?