Johnny_Taxibot

(updating the roster)
Freedom Phalanx is entrusting us with some of the most serious tasks imaginable. In her whispered warnings, Numina suggests that dire peril is afoot, though she is unable to elaborate. Her sidekick, Infernal, might be able to point us in the correct direction.

Saturday June 20th 1:00pm EST (12 noon CST) (10:00am PST)
Meet at Numina in Founders' Falls
The range requirement is 35-40, with those above exemplared down to 40 automatically

Team One (Invincible):

1. Johnny Taxibot (team lead) - lvl 50 Elec/Energy blaster

2. Scheol >> High Contrast (lvl 35 kin/rad def)

3. Ad_Astra >> Maurya (lvl 50 Energy/Elec/Elec Blaster) or Isotope 165 (lvl 41 Rad/Dark/Power Defender) or Brighid Frost (Fire/Ice Blaster, approaching lvl 35) (might be running late, so just go ahead without)

4. hilker >> Brother Glacier (lvl 40 Cold/Ice defender)

5. NightWarrior >> Summer Serenade (lvl 36 Sonic/Fire blaster)

6. Ullikummis >> Yeti Prince (lvl 36 ice/em blaster)

7. Mareal >> Al Dedillo (lvl 35 cold/ice defender)

8. Tshober >> Taxislab Homer (lvl 50 Stone/SS tanker) (possible schedule problem)


Team Two (Invincible):

1. Taxi Dermy (team lead) - lvl 35 warshade

2. mscats >> Delilah Hazard (lvl 35 assault/device blaster)

3. Ironblade >> Ironshield (lvl 38 shield/axe tanker)

4. Eagle_Star >> GoldArrow Star (lvl 35 Emp/Archery Defender)

5. Doctor_A_Science >> Doctor A Science III (lvl 50 energy/devices blaster)

6. Thessalia >> Corrupted Mind (lvl 35 fire/rad controller) (intense headache)

7. Cthulhu_Thom >> DoctorWhatshisname (lvl 44 Sonic/Mental/Electric blaster)

8. Mystery_Inc >> Kheldian Rose (lvl 50 Peacebringer)


Overflow/Team Three:

1. (team lead) - If there are enough people
2. Princess Lee - lvl 50 Scrapper
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.


Notes:

1. This is a task force challenge series, where both teams will seek a reasonably high difficulty level, depending upon the team composition.
   
2. We do not generally speed run these adventures, though we do seek to make good time and enjoy being in the story.
   
3. When doing a higher level challenge, the team lead needs to be in the zone before anyone enters the mission. Otherwise, the mission difficulty will default back to Heroic.
   
4. For team composition, the suggestion is to have 1-2 tankers, and 2-3 blasters for AoE crowd control. However, we will not blindly attempt a difficulty that is beyond the team makeup. When unsure, we begin at Tenacious and gradually increase the difficulty.
   
5. For Teams Two and Three, it is asked that there be a tanker for each team to provide good aggro management.

Protect the Scientists in Warburg

Tuesday June 23rd 8:30pm EST (7:30pm CST) (5:30pm PST)
Meet in King's Row at the Warburg chopper
The minimum level is 30, with everyone at an effective level of 38 automatically (i.e., 30-38)
Team Lead is Taxibot Icy ( @MsCats )

For anyone that wants the temporary power for launching a missile, Taxibot Icy is going to lead a team into Warburg. If you normally have difficulty making progress in Warburg, or even if you don't know what Warburg is about, then please come out. We'll give you a good intro and help you learn on the fly. Seasoned heroes are welcome too. With a large team, the activity should take a couple hours.

Make sure you arrive early because we are leaving at the designated time. If you post your toon name in this thread, then we'll know you're coming and be able to locate you quickly.

In addition to the exploration badges, there is a badge for "launching the rocket" ten times.

-Johnny

[ QUOTE ]
Samuel_Tow: I don't want nights to last any longer. I have my gamma jacked up significantly and I still can't see my hand in front of my face CoV-side. Maybe if we had actual LIGHT in the game, instead of these neanderthal light maps and if we had a way to carry light with us, I might reconsider, but as it stands, dark simply means I can't see. And I like to see.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sounds like the monitor is gradually failing (either flyback or something on the deflection board). That would cause the overall brightness to imperceptibly decrease over a period of time.

This happened years ago when I was playing Tomb Raider 2. The game was *great* fun from the outset, and I advanced to perhaps the third chapter that involved exploring a condemned Italian opera house (i.e., dark and shadowy interiors).

Well, I just assumed that the deep shadows were part of the game challenge, and I would use a flare (out of a modest supply) to get through tricky area. However, I progressed to a particularly dark area and ran out of flares, thereby halting my progress.

I figured that perhaps I was expected to hoard flares from the game's outset, so I restarted. To my surprise, the opening exterior shots around the Great Wall of China were much darker than I remembered them. Prior to that point, I simply hadn't realized that the monitor was failing.

-Johnny

It would be interesting to have a villain team working on pillboxes because that would introduce more strategy in terms of "winning the zone." Not only would the teams need to coordinate well; there would be a need to adjust their overall strategy according to the other team's progress (i.e., which pillbox is the most vulnerable, can we slow the other team down, where is the other team likely to go next, and so on...).

-Johnny

Boy, two things becoming intermittent around the same time. Those sorts of hardware problems can be especially frustrating. No wonder you sounded like you were pulling your hair out.

-Johnny

Considered putting you on Team One for an excessive amount of firepower there, though perhaps you're needed more on Team Two.

Cheers,

Johnny

[ QUOTE ]
Ironblade: That's almost like throwing yourself at the ground and missing.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually, that's what Arthur Dent accidentally did in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series (I believe it was the third book, "Life, the Universe and Everything").

Dent was on an alien world being chased by some threat or other, when he tripped and began to fall towards some rather rough terrain. However, at that very moment, he noticed that nearby a set of his matching luggage, which had gone missing at Heathrow Airport years ago. So astonished was he to suddenly discover his missing luggage on another world whilst being chased by terrors in hot pursuit, that he completely put the fact out of his mind that he was falling. In so doing, he missed the ground completely and found that he could continue to fly, provided that he was able to continue a certain nonchalant attitude towards the ground below.

-Johnny

Thanks everyone that participated! Looks like we had a lot of people having fun, with heroes and villains of varying skill levels. We even had Slax come in and attempt to self destruct, which was kind of funny.

We recruited two teams, with Belle and I coordinating. As it turns out, Vixen couldn't make it because she became engaged over the weekend. That sort of rearranged her schedule, so to speak.

I need to check with Icy and Vixen what they want to do next Tuesday. There was a suggestion of a Giant Monster hunt. I'll make a post when we know for sure.

-Johnny

When I choose to create a toon, I exercise great care in creating an origin, selecting powers, slotting invention sets, and so on. In effect, I craft a toon that I expect to play a great deal. Having a single toon always seemed the way to go because managing a number of toons simply felt more like work than play. As I've said before, I want to focus on being a hero, not hero management.

My first toon was Johnny B. Quantum (Grav/FF controller), the techno/mystical hero from Galaxy Five set 1,000 aeons into humanity's future. That was a satisfying experience learning the game on my way to level 50.

Along the way, the GF took an interest that caused me to create my first ALT in the form of Golden Man (Inv/SS tanker), a scientist that had been researching subspace harmonics before accidently being infused with an entire civilization of subspace lifeforms, which among other things gave his skin a golden hue. However, the GF had to go cold-turkey after getting painfully addicted to the game, which was a shame. Still, she understood why I continued to play.

By this time, I'd teamed with Taxibot Belle on some regular Saturday Task forces that Gata had been organizing, and it was making sense to build Johnny Taxibot (Elec/Energy blaster). The development of a Taxibot meshed because Johnny B. Quantum could effectively combine ancient Oranbegan arts with that of hyper-futuristic technologies to create a "bot" that was, in effect, a new class of lifeform.

So I'm enjoying myself tremendously as Johnny Taxibot, and I don't see a need to create another ALT because he's effective in a variety of capacities, such as team support, crowd control, melee, range and so forth. And recently I slotted out a "covert ops" dual build that has been optimized for PvP activities (and proven quite dandy so far).

Long story short, I don't need many ALTs, and I have an earnest fondness for each of them. And I suppose that since I focus on just a handful of toons, I've been able to outfit them with about 90M to 120M worth of invention sets per build without much effort aside from regular play (missions and tasks forces for the most part).

-Johnny

(updating the roster)
Freedom Phalanx is entrusting us with some of the most serious tasks imaginable. In her whispered warnings, Numina suggests that dire peril is afoot, though she is unable to elaborate. Her sidekick, Infernal, might be able to point us in the correct direction.

Saturday June 20th 1:00pm EST (12 noon CST) (10:00am PST)
Meet at Numina in Founders' Falls
The range requirement is 35-40, with those above exemplared down to 40 automatically

Team One (Invincible):

1. Johnny Taxibot (team lead) - lvl 50 Elec/Energy blaster

2. Scheol >> (toon to be decided)

3. Ad_Astra >> Maurya (lvl 50 Energy/Elec/Elec Blaster) or Isotope 165 (lvl 41 Rad/Dark/Power Defender) or Brighid Frost (Fire/Ice Blaster, approaching lvl 35)

4. hilker >> Brother Glacier (lvl 40 Cold/Ice defender)

5. NightWarrior >> Summer Serenade (lvl 36 Sonic/Fire blaster)

6. Ullikummis >> Yeti Prince (lvl 36 ice/em blaster)

7. Mareal >> Al Dedillo (lvl 35 cold/ice defender)

8. Tshober >> Taxislab Homer (lvl 50 Stone/SS tanker) (possible schedule problem)


Team Two (Invincible):

1. Taxi Dermy (team lead) - lvl 35 warshade

2. mscats >> Delilah Hazard (lvl 35 assault/device blaster)

3. Ironblade >> Ironshield (lvl 38 shield/axe tanker)

4. Eagle_Star >> GoldArrow Star (lvl 35 Emp/Archery Defender)

5. Doctor_A_Science >> Doctor A Science III (lvl 50 energy/devices blaster)

6. Thessalia >> Corrupted Mind (lvl 35 fire/rad controller)

7. Cthulhu_Thom >> DoctorWhatshisname (lvl 44 Sonic/Mental/Electric blaster)

8. Mystery_Inc >> Kheldian Rose (lvl 50 Peacebringer)


Overflow/Team Three:

1. (team lead) - If there are enough people
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.


Notes:

1. This is a task force challenge series, where both teams will seek a reasonably high difficulty level, depending upon the team composition.
   
2. We do not generally speed run these adventures, though we do seek to make good time and enjoy being in the story.
   
3. When doing a higher level challenge, the team lead needs to be in the zone before anyone enters the mission. Otherwise, the mission difficulty will default back to Heroic.
   
4. For team composition, the suggestion is to have 1-2 tankers, and 2-3 blasters for AoE crowd control. However, we will not blindly attempt a difficulty that is beyond the team makeup. When unsure, we begin at Tenacious and gradually increase the difficulty.
   
5. For Teams Two and Three, it is asked that there be a tanker for each team to provide good aggro management.

Sounds like the hard drive is failing. Best to make backups of your precious files as soon as you can. I'm willing to be wrong, but having those backups in place is the way to go.

-Johnny

Freedom Phalanx is entrusting us with some of the most serious tasks imaginable. In her whispered warnings, Numina suggests that dire peril is afoot, though she is unable to elaborate. Her sidekick, Infernal, might be able to point us in the correct direction.

Saturday June 20th 1:00pm EST (12 noon CST) (10:00am PST)
Meet at Numina in Founders' Falls
The range requirement is 35-40, with those above exemplared down to 40 automatically

Team One (Invincible):

1. Johnny Taxibot (team lead) - lvl 50 Elec/Energy blaster

2. Scheol >> (toon to be decided)

3. Ad_Astra >> Maurya (lvl 50 Energy/Elec/Elec Blaster) or Isotope 165 (lvl 41 Rad/Dark/Power Defender) or Brighid Frost (Fire/Ice Blaster, approaching lvl 35)

4.
5.
6.
7.
8.


Team Two (Invincible):

1. Taxi Dermy (team lead) - lvl 35 warshade

2. mscats >> Delilah Hazard (lvl 35 assault/device blaster)

3. Ironblade >> Ironshield (lvl 38 shield/axe tanker)

4. Eagle_Star >> GoldArrow Star (lvl 35 Emp/Archery Defender)

5. Doctor_A_Science >> Doctor A Science III (lvl 50 energy/devices blaster)

6.
7.
8.


Notes:

1. This is a task force challenge series, where both teams will seek a reasonably high difficulty level, depending upon the team composition.
   
2. We do not generally speed run these adventures, though we do seek to make good time and enjoy being in the story.
   
3. When doing a higher level challenge, the team lead needs to be in the zone before anyone enters the mission. Otherwise, the mission difficulty will default back to Heroic.
   
4. For team composition, the suggestion is to have 1-2 tankers, and 2-3 blasters for AoE crowd control. However, we will not blindly attempt a difficulty that is beyond the team makeup. When unsure, we begin at Tenacious and gradually increase the difficulty.
   
5. For Teams Two and Three, it is asked that there be a tanker for each team to provide good aggro management.

When Dermy mentioned the problem, I immediately thought it was related to people still being on an AE team prior to being invited to the task force team. Regardless, that solution you mention is good info Ironblade.

Team One, your team photo has been posted in my Task Force log.

Cheers,

Johnny

[ QUOTE ]
Siolfir I really can't think of anyone that can shield others and not themselves, but a lot of things would have to be changed for balance reasons to allow it.

[/ QUOTE ]

For the given support toon, probably the best workaround would be to slot invention sets that provide (say) the type of defence bonuses that make sense for your toon.

For a speedster, perhaps slotting Sprint and Swift would be a reasonable compromise, since these wouldn't be suppressed.

-Johnny

Suggest that you get Taunt when it becomes available (level 16 thereabouts). That way you can protect your girlfriend (and vice-versa when all those nasties are hammering on you).

-Johnny

Actually, when those original packaging materials were produced, they would have been printed in lots of thousands. The most likely reason you received the same packaging is because they're still using up the old stock (rather than be wasteful by throwing it in the bin). It's a tradeoff, where the realization is that new players wouldn't have encountered that packaging before.

-Johnny

Oh, for those that want to send a Tell to Arch, some of you might not know how to search for a player name. Do this:

1. In the chat window, type /sea
2. This will provide you with a list of players in the current zone
3. Type "arch" in the search field and then click Search

That should help you quickly locate what toon Arch is playing under.

-Johnny

I think this is really thoughtful. Thanks Arch!

Something that occurs to me. For new players, there is a *lot* of info that is thrown at them when installing CoH. Many new players I meet are unaware of these forums, which I believe is simply due to a little thing called cognitive overload.

So for all you people helping new players, just check whether they've gone to our forums at https://boards.cityofheroes.com (i.e., in other words, spell it out for them by pasting the URL).

Cheers,

Johnny

(updating the roster)
Freedom Phalanx is entrusting us with some of the most serious tasks imaginable. With word of our exploits, we have drawn the attention of dire forces that sometimes seek to strike at us through our friends. Word is that our good friends Katie and her sisters are being driven to extreme measures. It might be necessary for us to make a show of force, and then investigate the troubles underlying the Cabal.

Saturday June 13th 1:00pm EST (12 noon CST) (10:00am PST)
Meet at Katie Hannon in Croatoa (Due North of the Green Line, beneath the tree of pixies)
The range requirement is 30-34, with those above exemplared down to 34 automatically

Team One (Invincible):

1. Johnny Taxibot (team lead) - lvl 50 Elec/Energy blaster

2. NightWarrior >> Raka Strongbow (lvl 32 Dark/Elec defender)

3. Eagle_Star >> Eagle Star (lvl 50 Kin/Elec defender)

4. hilker >> Brother Glacier (lvl 39 Cold/Ice defender)

5. Ullikummis >> Deus Ex-Machina (lvl 32 EB/EMP defender)

6. starphoenix >> Infinite Reason (lvl 50 Warshade)

7. Taxikitten Midori - lvl 50 Grav/Emp controller

8. Mareal >> Al Dedillo (lvl 34 cold/ice defender


Team Two (Invincible):

1. Taxi Dermy (team lead) - (lvl 32 warshade)

2. mscats >> (toon to be decided)

3. Ironblade - lvl 50 BS scrapper

4. Thessalia >> Corrupted Mind (lvl 32 fire/rad controller)

5. Gillian_Boardman >> Magik Hellstrom (lvl 39 blaster)

6. Scheol >> High Contrast (lvl 31 kin/rad defender)

7. Aibheil - lvl 39 Invuln/SS tanker

8. Mystery_Inc >> (toon to be decided)


Notes:

1. This is a task force challenge series, where both teams will seek a reasonably high difficulty level, depending upon the team composition.
   
2. We do not generally speed run these adventures, though we do seek to make good time and enjoy being in the story.
   
3. When doing a higher level challenge, the team lead needs to be in the zone before anyone enters the mission. Otherwise, the mission difficulty will default back to Heroic.
   
4. For team composition, the suggestion is to have 1-2 tankers, and 2-3 blasters for AoE crowd control. However, we will not blindly attempt a difficulty that is beyond the team makeup. When unsure, we begin at Tenacious and gradually increase the difficulty.
   
5. For Teams Two and Three, it is asked that there be a tanker for each team to provide good aggro management.

Our teams tend to have a mix of those that are familiar with PvP zones, versus those that are (say) aware Recluse's Victory and have never really ventured there. Regardless, even the new people really enjoy the challenge of a team working together.

We generally start off with a rundown of the team priorities, and explain to new people what they can expect, with emphasis that defeats can happen though not to let that be a discouragement.

-Johnny

Good stuff. These zone activities get more interesting when there's a bit of cat-and-mouse activity going on.

I was on a RV pickup team with Mighty Isis last night, and we defeated several AVs despite villains getting involved. At least a couple of people on our team earned the Justiciar badge, and we ended up "winning" the zone for blue-side.

-Johnny

Yes, I noticed the store by Hess just prior to our running his task force a little while ago. I considered that useful because the store serves as a marker for where Hess is.

-Johnny

Restoring Atlas Past!

Tuesday June 16th 8:30pm EST (7:30pm CST) (5:30pm PST)
Meet in Recluse's Victory at the Longbow base
Team Lead is Taxibot Vixen ( @Taxibot Vixen )

This is a Recluse's Victory activity, which pits Good versus Evil for control of a potential future for Primal Earth. This future is determined by the capture and control of several Temporal Anchors, each defended by a pillbox. The Paragon Taxi Service is organizing teams to restore the timeline, and to prevent Arachnos from advancing their war machine. Whether or not you are a taxi, assist us in deterring the Arachnos forces!

<ul type="square">[*]Minimum level is 40, with everyone at an effective level of 50. In addition to getting badges for defeating AVs, we will collect exploration badges whilst we're there.
[*]The entrance to Recluse's Victory is through Atlas Park. If you've never been there before, then rest assured that our teams are organized and we will give you guidance.
[*]Make sure you arrive early because we are starting at the designated time. If you post your toon name in this thread, then we'll know you're coming and be able to locate you quickly (you're effectively reserving your spot).[/list]
-Johnny

<ul type="square">[*]Rulker - the jist of the thread was whether anybody cares at all about which SG/VG is ranked first in overal prestige earned and not what your personal prestige totals are.
[*]Darktyger - Oh, prestige -rank-? I didn't give a flying rat's bum from day 1. Prestige itself, yeah, I care because it is needed to pay the base rent and trick the base out.
[*]NeoSporin - In my personal experience, Top Prestige earners were the worst SGs to join. They were so prestige driven they'd invite anybody who'd join, pressure you into staying in SG mode, and never team with you. Many rarely even talked to you.[/list]
That's what I thought you meant from your OP, Rulker.

Well, the Taxibot experience is that we don't dwell upon Prestige, though we acknowledge that having Prestige helps us maintain decent base facilities. For example, for new taxis we'll mention that being in SG mode is optional (no penalty), though it's encouraged because the Prestige is utilized to expand the base.

As of late, Taxikitten Midori has been renovating our base and it's looking quite nice. The next step is to emulate something we've seen with the League of Extraordinarily Indebted Heroes (Darktyger), where any "Leaguer" that collects 1,000,000 Prestige gets their own room. That's kinda neat because it turns Prestige accumulating into a sub-game that is in addition to one's regular adventures. I haven't looked for a bit, but the Leaguers are something like the top 1-3 ranked teams on Infinity.

(A week ago or so, someone mentioned that there was once an exploit that temporarily allowed supergroups to accumulate massive amounts of Prestige, thereby rocketing them to the top of the rankings. However, that statement was qualified to state that none of the top Infinity teams had partaken of that exploit. I'm inclined to aggree on the basis that the Leaguers are a good, supportive bunch.)


For the Taxibots on Infinity, we're somewhat pleased that we hit the Top-100 a few months back, and have steadily risen to something like #78 at the moment. Still, the ranking is really just a novelty. The main thing we observe is that rising in the rankings means that we have a healthy, active group. This implies that people are having fun, which is mainly what we're looking for in our teams.

It's a shame that you had that experience, NeoSporin. Compounding the problem is likely people who find themselves stretched between too many toons, which can become laborious to maintain fun relationships.

-Johnny

[ QUOTE ]
Ironblade Wow. Did team two break wind or something? Everyone hates us?

[/ QUOTE ]

Jumping the gun there.

Sometimes the rosters don't fill out until as late as Thursday when people are more certain about their availability.


Thessalia and Aibheil, you're both perfectly welcome to join in. It's good to have new faces.

-Johnny