JusticeFalcon

Yeah I know. Better late than never I guess. I know we wanted to have one closer to the actual event and that just never happened for whatever reason. So I guess it's more of just a whoever-wants-to-hang-out after-party.

The day is finally here! Players' Event Team Costume Contest is tonight!

Looking for a great turnout tonight in Atlas. We will be announcing in-game periodically throughout the day, and the first event will begin on the front steps of City Hall in Atlas at 9pm ET.

As a reminder, we will be handing out 1 BILLION inf throughout the night, with 100 Million inf in prize money per event, distributed 50/30/20 for 1st/2nd/3rd place in each category. Categories are listed above in the first post, in case you missed them.

Special prize also includes one of Layla Rei's custom Eye of the Beholder dolls!

And lastly, following the last costume event we will be having a cast party for the "Protector Day of Vigilance" event, but anyone who wants to join us and hang out is welcome.
Meet up under Atlas after the last event to get directions to join the after-party!

See you tonight!

EtherFalcon

Yes, one entry per person, each entry will be judged independently (except for the couples category).

Judging from what's in the Halloween costume pack, I'm looking forward to seeing all the great costumes coming out for this event!

Of course! As well as some organized TF runs...

More info and surprises to be announced soon!

Happy Halloween, Protector!

It's that time of year again, and to celebrate that special spooky time of year, the Protector Players Event Team is throwing our 2nd annual Halloween Costume Contest on Saturday October 29th at 9pm ET!

The evening will include 1 Billion Inf in prize money distributed among 10 costume events at a number of cool locations that will showcase the new Atlas Park, starting at the front steps of City Hall at 9pm ET.

Each category's winners will receive 50M inf for first place, 30M inf for second, and 20M inf for 3rd.

Costume contest categories are as follows:

1. Classic Movie Monsters (the guy with the neck bolts, the dude that sleeps in the coffin, the big monkey that climbs buildings, etc)

2. "That Old Black Magic" (Wizards, Witches, Warlocks, Charlie Sheen, etc)

3. In the Jungle (Lions, Tigers, Bears, etc)

4. Toy Soldiers (WWI, WWII, Uniforms galore)

5. Make em Laugh (Clowns, Jugglers, Cartoon Characters etc)

6. It Came from Outer Space (Sci Fi characters, mad scientists, etc)

7. Mysts of Avalon (Knights, Dragons, Kings, Queens etc)

8. Through the Looking Glass (Fantasy, Elves, Orcs, Dwarves, Fairies, etc)

9. Arena Warriors (Gladiators, Vakyrie, Barbarians)

10. Beauty and the Beast (couples of any sort)


The event will also feature an after-party in PSF's "Boom Boom" Room that will double as a "cast party" for the Protector Day of Vigilance staff, but anyone and everyone is welcome to join us!

Stay tuned to this thread for updates of additional prizes and participants as we roll out the orange & black carpet for all hallow's eve!

-EtherFalcon

Happy (belated) Birthday. I'll save you the agony of any exotically encrypted data packages with emotionally painful references in the key, and simply send a belated cake.

Chocolate/white marble cake to match that new outfit of yours.

And I'm using my new FREEM cannon to light the candles.


Happy Birthday.

So I'm a little late to this afterparty but I figured I'd add my 2c to the mix. I agree with pretty much everything that's been said about +1 and -1, so rather than rehash that, I'll tell you what I was personally hoping to see achieved with this event, and how well we did with that.

First off, the storyline. The storyline idea was an attempt to do a few things for the event:
1) Generate early interest and a "mystique" to the event in the 2months prior to the actual event
2) Generate some interest in a light RP aspect of the game without going all "virtueverse" on everyone, and get some name recognition out there for the organizers and contributors' events
3) Provide a backdrop for the PVP part of the game, and try to get people to renew their interest in PVP

I think overall there was interest generated with those who read the forums but I'm not sure what people thought of the actual story, so if you liked it or didn't like it please let me know, either in this forum or PM. I realize the vanity aspect for a few notable main characters, and we tried to get a lot of cameos for others but with limited success. The story ended up being the length of a small novel which is an achievement but also potentially a hindrance to people having to read and keep up with so much plot. Maybe consider this approach for future events but with a shortened story as plot device.

I think the general takeaway that there is a relatively low number of people who actively participate/view the forums vs the server population (while not surprising) bears some examination. Maybe we need to generate some interesting ideas on how to encourage new players or old players who never have used the forums to take a more active stance. I have some ideas for that which fall under some of my "secret projects"...

Also, in terms of the PVP, we had great participation in both Rasta's Warburg Bounty Hunt and the RV finale, and it was great to see so many heroes and villains duking it out. By my count we had approximately 30 people or more between the two sides in RV, which is a pretty good accomplishment but I was actually hoping for more. I know some comments have been thrown out that this reinforced why people don't PVP which is they feel they can't compete, and the purpose of this was just to have fun and show people it can be fun to PVP. I would like to further explore ways to continue the success with both these events, maybe more future scheduled world-pvp events. Others' ideas for such events would be very welcome.

Secondly, the final themed CC event - Ferria and I wanted to do it up big with lots of categories around the central theme of "Golden Age Heroes/Villains".

This was, I would say, a pretty big success with some obvious flaws.

The success is that we saw some really AWESOME costumes and bios from the participants, and had an outstanding turnout in pocket D, especially considering it was the last of 3 CCs within 2days. I really can't emphasize enough all the great costumes for each of the categories, all the participants did a phenomenal job.

The flaw was the amount of time to do that many categories, and as has already been said, there was some scrambling for everyone to change costumes and alt between categories. In all, we took 2.5 hours for the whole thing, which comes out to 150min for 15 categories, 10 minutes per category, or what ended up being 6min judging/awarding and 4 minutes to alt/change categories. We really crunched this and people rose to the occasion, but we just should have planned more time for everything, and started earlier. That was a takeaway for the whole day, actually, was that we needed buffer time between events so that if one ran a little over, it wasn't bleeding into another event. I'll take the responsibility for that, since the time for the CC was my decision. Another good lesson for next time.

Finally, I wanted to see this be a collaborative effort on the part of a number of the server vets to have a big event built by many hands go off successfully, and unite people for future collaborations like this.

I think it goes without saying, but I will say it anyways, that as a collaboration, I felt this was a huge success. That there were no catfights, dogfights, namecalling, or any disagreements really of any kind, that so many people threw their ideas into the pot to build off the theme, and that so many people could be involved in something this massive on such a tight timeframe, and that it succeeded without any big problems, is a major accomplishment. I really hope that this is the first of what will be many future collaborations for the good of the people who call Protector their home.

So on that note, I'll say one last THANK YOU to anyone who contributed ideas, resources, money, INF, time, networking, writing, coordination, or any of the many many things that went into making this event work. I had a blast, I hope you did too, and I hope we can work together on more cool things in the future.

Cheers!

EtherFalcon

Big thanks to all who came out for the Players Event Costume Contest last night in Pocket D! We had a phenomenal turnout, and lots of really great costumes - everyone did an awesome job with the category themes!

Here are the winners for each category. Prizes were 100M for 1st, 60M for 2nd, 40M for 3rd and 20M for a few honorable mentions:

True Patriot
1. Alizarine Flame
2. Dutch Legacy
3. Captain Constitution

World's Finest
1. StormVyxen
2. Ionaut
3. Mercury Marvel
HM - Twainiac

Avenging Angel
1. Hit N Run
2. Zantedeschia
3. Pale Agony

Dark Lord
1.Ti Malice
2. Shardonyx
3. Arden Viles

Heart of Gold
1. Fellraven
2. Mionas
3. Pyrolator

Mild-Mannered
1. Zantedeschia
2. Monk Brawlin
3. Elven Magic

Seemed so Normal
1. Mr Phisto
2. Mionas
3. Operative Carmine

Boy/Girl Wonder
1. Superb Sonja
2. Amperagia
3. Super Gadget Scout

Second Fiddle
1. Obfuscatia
2. Izanami Dragonet
3. Mionas

Dynamic Duo
1. Patriot & Laika the First
2. Tarantula Hawk & Tam Blackthorn
3. Electrostatics & Salvoltage(s)

Unholy Alliance
1. White Tiger Spider, Psyryn, Operative Rivera, Widow ALanna, Guildenstern, Operative Carmine
2. Cannibalis & Dark Lord Baphomet
3. Bounty Killer & Ruin Reaver

Chosen One
1. Iron General
2. Doc Syphon
3. Mage Black

Fall From Grace
1. Mercurial Wing
2. Pyrolator
3. Rosetta Black

Born of Darkness
1. Soul Mind
2. Energy Freeze
3. Geistermaschine
HM - Dark's Embrace

Road to Redemption
1. Umbrielle
2. Astral Prism
3. Patriotic Pugilist

Protector Day of Vigilance Official Storyline

Epilogue

Victory. Defeat. Such arbitrary words used to describe a complex outcome. This most recent skirmish in the war between heroes and villains and everything in-between was not that simple, despite what they would print in the papers. In truth, the war was never that simple. Most often, it simply was what it was.

It was a victory, in the sense that Atlas and Grandville are still standing. In the end, despite the massive number of FREEM catalysts put in play by Golden Ace, the heroes managed to destroy enough of them to restrain their full desired effect. Golden Ace’s scheme was not without some victory, though. The cumulative Fracas Effect was significant enough to have a major impact on our true reality. As control of the pillboxes shifted throughout the battle, the zone vacillated between hero and villain control like the rising and setting of a thousand suns. As some of the more recognized heroes and villains of the alternate-future entered the fray, they became targets of opportunity, and their defeats registered with impact felt by their earth-prime counterparts. Lord Recluse and Ghost Widow in particular became instant targets and were overwhelmed with the number of heroes that answered the call to battle. With the real-world Recluse and Widow weakened from the defeats of their alternate-future counterparts, it would open the opportunity for further destabilization of Recluse’s power base and further improve Ace’s chances of one day usurping or wiping out the only significant villain force standing in the way of a new super-villain rising to power. This was undoubtedly one of their secret objectives from the beginning, and answered the question of why Hidden Demise would get involved. Being number two to Ghost Widow, whether working for Ace or Recluse, was never going to be enough for her.

It was a defeat, in the sense that there were new dark forces rising against Paragon which, even when their plans failed, threatened to destabilize the balance of power between the traditional hero and villain structures. The fact that Ace and Demise were able to fund and control such a massive operation, nearly completely clandestinely, and came so close to what would have been unhindered global dominion, was a terrible harbinger of things to come. Even though their plan failed, it was successful enough to inspire them to bolder and more insidious future plots, and it would be a catalyst for armies of accomplices and copycats trying to get in on the action. Ace and Demise had elevated themselves to a level of infamy previously reserved for the truly evil overlords of the world, and that would inspire other villains to rise to the occasion or join their ranks to ride their coattails on the next scheme.

And what it was for me was a massive headache that radiated down my spine and throughout my beaten body, a throbbing reminder that despite all my training, the hours spent honing myself into a weapon, the billions of dollars spent on enhancements for what was already unattainable levels of skill and ability for 99.9% of mortal humans, it would never be enough. I was a man walking among gods. That fact alone justified the cultivation of what had become a vast network of informants, snitches, double agents and usurpers. I could never be faster or stronger, so there was no other choice but to be smarter, more well-informed, and better prepared. As I trudged wearily into the PSF War Room, my eyes relaxing under the room’s red lighting, I was about to do just that with my last few remaining chess pieces…

“War Room, open all data logs for previous 24 hours.” Not only did the integrated superprocessor in my cowl provide a linked stream of information with the War Room, it also recorded every observation and aspect of the environment, including the entire map of Golden Ace’s underground RV bunker, the fight with Demise, and the battle for Recluse’s Victory. These were the building blocks of the plan.

“I want combat analytics saved to file ‘Hidden Demise’. Build predictive modeling and upload to PSF Danger Room simulator.” I would run through that one later, recreating the fight with Demise in both real-time and sped-time. I could learn something from the beating I’d taken, and hopefully be better for the next encounter.

“HUD playback, timestamp 2050 to 2150.” I watched the playback of Golden Ace’s monologue with Alexis Alexander, and clipped the part where he spelled out his plan to blackmail and topple Lord Recluse. “Save as file ‘For Your Viewing Enjoyment’. Encrypt and send to ‘Spider Bite’.” Spider Bite was the codename of one of my mid level informants in Arachnos. He would ensure that his boss’s boss saw exactly what had been hatched against him by Golden Ace, and probably get a handy promotion in the process. With that little email gift, I would ensure a very difficult road for Golden Ace in the coming days as Recluse was sure to put out a bounty on his head. To further complicate it, I would use one of Golden Ace’s own encryption models, and start a few rumors in the Isles that it came from within his own organization. With any luck he would think Hidden Demise had sold him out herself since I had removed anything related to her out of the clip. Those questions eating at his mind, added to being chased by Arachnos agents, would create enough paranoia about who he could trust that he would have to fully rebuild his organization from scratch.

“War Room, update map ‘Recluse’s Victory’ with most recent HUD environmental scan.” I hadn’t been through Golden Ace’s entire base, but I’d been deep enough for the War Room to build a near complete schematic of the layout from the areas I had been through. After the dust settled a bit, I would make a more thorough expedition through the hideout. Ultimately what I needed to do was sweep through it, seal up the old entrances and build some new ones and set it up for my own use as a secondary forward operating post in RV. One never knew when something like that could come in handy.

Walking over to the workstation area, I glanced over to one of the high tech worktables scattered throughout the War Room, my eyes locked on the last intact FREEM catalyst device that sat atop the scanner. The hero teams had taken great care to be sure all of the surface units from Recluse’s Victory had been destroyed; this one I had removed directly from the underground bunker prior to the start of the battle. The worktable’s scanners cycled through their algorithms, still analyzing and attempting to decode both the device and the physics behind how it worked. The technology may only be a weapon in the hands of a few for now, but better to begin the process of discovering an anti-FREEM technology before it became a mass-marketed weapon.

Turning my gaze to a different workstation, I saw the still semi-unassembled ‘present’ I was preparing. A smile involuntarily crept across my lips as I thought about the gift and it’s soon-to-be recipient. Ah, but that’s a story for someone else to finish.

Contemplating the circumstances and outcomes of the past few weeks, it was apparent that the words victory and defeat had very little meaning. This would not be the last plot that had to be put down, it wouldn’t be the worst threat we would face in defending Paragon.

In truth, there was no victory; there was no defeat.

There was only vigilance.

[Protector Day of Vigilance: Official Storyline]

Final Entreatment

This message comes across the PPD scanner...

Heroes of Protector... this is a dire time for our world. Forces of darkness have aligned themselves against us, covertly marshalling their armies and weapons with the intent to destroy the reality that we know today.

We have amassed a substantial roster of activities and prizes for a purpose. We hope that everyone will enjoy the activities of the day, have some fun with familiar and new friends and teammates, but do not forget that July 9 2011 will be a day of war, with Heroes drawing battle lines against Villains. We will need every possible hand to crush Golden Ace and Hidden Demise and their sinister plan.

So enjoy the day, participate, win some prizes, but do not forget that the final battle starts at 9pm EDT with Rasta's Warburg Bounty Hunt and culminates at 10pm EDT in Recluse's Victory for the Finale as the forces of good fight to keep the forces of villainy from taking over our world. Everyone who comes to fight will be rewarded handsomely.

Arm yourselves to the teeth and come ready to fight.

-EtherFalcon-

Hey everyone, in the interest of preparation for July 9, if anyone has any questions already in their mind related to PVP for the panel discussion on the 9th, go ahead and use this thread to post them. That will give us some time to think about it before the day of. Thanks!

NB: To pursue the storyline and participate in the rescue of Alexis Alexander, it is strongly suggested you play the AE Arc #504550: "Protector: Day of Vigilance"

Be aware that this arc contains custom AVs and heavy bosses, and can be a challenging arc for some archetypes or teams. This is intentional.

[Protector: Day of Vigilance (Official Storyline)]

Gambit


Those two words. “Hidden Demise”. They were a foreshadowing as much as they were a name.

Hidden Demise, one of the deadliest fortunatas in the history of the Arachnos organization. No one really knows where she came from, only that she was a protégé of Ghost Widow, groomed to replace her one day.

She has been a plague to Paragon over the years, leading increasingly ruthless assassinations and bold harassment operations in the free fire zones. Longbow’s file on her eventually went classified because reports began surfacing claiming she was singularly responsible for killing off entire detachments sent to capture her.

Mention of her name alone invoked such utter humiliation and demoralization for the Corps that eventually Longbow just stopped sending troops after her. At least a dozen major SuperGroups have a kill order out on her but nobody who’s ever gone up against her in open battle has ever brought her down.

In fact, none of the hired assassins sent to take her out, even Wyvern’s best operatives, had ever been seen again.

I myself had a few run-ins with her over the years. It was only by the grace of paranoid preparedness, the ELUDE technology I’d built into the bio-weave of my armor, and not a small amount of luck that I’d come away from the encounters alive. It was necessary, in all dealings with this red-head assassin, for one to control the environment at all times. A straight fight was not only unadvisable; it was suicide.

And I just sent a civilian reporter to scout her operation.

Over the years of studying her, I had tested a number of hypotheses about her demeanor, her motivations, her psyche. She was first and foremost, above all else, a warrior. And warriors operate under a code.

Hers was particularly difficult to assess, given her penchant for some of the most brutal acts of horror imaginable committed against her foes. Yet in every assassination, every harassment operation, every black op she ran was clean as a whistle. She did unspeakable things to her marks, to the soldiers sent to interdict her operations, and yet she went out of her way to avoid civilian casualties.

If my highest paid informants were right, there were even a few cases where operations had been completely scrapped on her orders because a civilian had entered the equation. This was more than just keeping an operation “black”. This was the art of war against other warrior combatants, flawlessly engaged, with no exceptions.

At least, that was the theory I was gambling heavily on tonight.

Perched atop the Freedom Corps building in Recluse’s Victory, prone and in full stealth mode, I monitored the situation through the long range scanner in my HUD.

I checked the tracking devices’ signal to make sure they were still online. Nanotech, what a wonderful invention. Highly reliable, undetectable, and they could make them into any delivery package. Even a breath mint.

I watched as my biker-jacket-clad bait, that juicy morsel I had been marinating since the first article appeared in the Sentinel, had finally brought the wolf out of her lair.

I watched as the wolf snatched up that precious little lamb, and carried it off into the night.

That’s a good little wolfie. Lead me to that den of yours.

Precision never goes out of style.

PS double nerd jinx for posting at the same time, Stale.

Just updated with the new official poster - check it out in my opening post to this thread!

In the interest of speeding up the story progression a bit, this will be a threefer weekend. The next 3 portions of the official story thread will be posted (on that thread, obviously) over the next 48 hours, starting with "Provocation", which I just posted.

Enjoy!

[Protector: Day of Vigilance - Official Storyline]

Provocation


How do you bring back one of the greatest heroes of our generation, back from a personal quest of self destruction, back from the path we all want to take from time to time, back from the road that they had every right to travel?

Simple, you goad them.

Thinking about the circumstances of his departure, the base emotions veiled behind a wall of anger, it would not be hard to do. At least that’s what I hoped.

The first communication was ignored, a sign I hoped meant I had struck a deep nerve. That’s good. I would need to cut deep to extract what I hoped was still there, buried beneath layers of inconsolable rage. Forgotten but not lost.

I would need to send a stronger message. I would need something tangible to pull those memories to the surface, bring that rage back around full circle to righteous anger.

I would need… an emissary. Some might say a pawn, but I prefer to think of them as accomplices. Carrying out the mission without understanding the true value of their role.

I would need just the right homage. It would have to be perfect to get the desired effect just right.

So you got screwed, manipulated, your company taken over by thieves and the most precious things in your life stolen by unwarranted violence, all in one day?


Cry me a river.

Time to get over it, Stephen. Your city needs you.



.

"Protector: Day of Vigilance" Official Storyline



Prelude


The soft glow of the monitor belied the damage it had done to my weary eyes. I’ve been up too late too many nights in a row looking at these numbers.


Numbers… that bore under them a more insidious intent.



Too much traffic for those components. Too much for it to be simple market manipulation, although the buyers had done a good job obscuring themselves using irregular quantity transactions funneled through innumerable clearinghouses. Too much alignment of material and salvage quantities in the right combinations that all added up together to produce the final product.


By my calculations the exchanges over the last 2 weeks were enough to produce 5,000 base units of FREEM tech.

And the buys were getting bigger.



The good news was that the assembly process for FREEM, despite suspiciously rapid advancements by Crey since the first Rikti invasion, was still highly unstable in the hands of even the best industry scientists and production experts. To produce the finished product was an artisan task; it required both expert knowledge and the skilled surgical hand of an experienced genius-level inventor. There were maybe 3 people on the planet with both the intellect and experience to manufacture the quantities being discussed here. One could be discounted immediately; Ray Keyes wouldn’t do black market transactions, period. The other 2… were more problematic. One in particular, especially given a certain upcoming infamous anniversary for that individual.


I suppose I could hope it was coincidence, but I don’t believe in coincidence and hope is not a strategy.



Sitting back in my chair, there was no more time to wait. It was time to act.


.

Big thanks to everyone who came out to support and participate in the Valentine's Event this weekend! We ended up paying out around 2 Billion influence/infamy in total as part of the prizes for the costume contests, trivia, and PVP events!

In addition, the "Be My Valentine" auction yielded a net of around 1.6 Billion Inf that will be banked for future events.

Stay tuned to the Protector forums for more information and previews of future events from the Protector Players' Event Team!

Details for the "Be My Valentine" Auction Event:

Auction will start in Pocket D immediately at 8:30pm ET on Feb 12. Other events including CC will start immediately following the auction.

"Be My Valentine" event is an auction of level 50 toons that represent a cross section of ATs and players on Protector Server. You are bidding on game play time with the auctioned level 50 player (all toons being auctioned are level 50s). Auctionee is committed to 2-3 hours of play with their bid winner, on the character that was auctioned. Suggested uses of this time would include getting help leveling, help with missions, advice on character builds, gameplay tips, running task forces, etc. Bidding will start at 10,000 inf for all auctionees.

Auctionee list includes:

Stalemate, Ephah, Honey Ryder, EtherFalcon, Ferria, Imperious Zorin, Spunky Taco, Layla Rei, Hot 'n Salty, Origiona1, Quick Feet, Office Temp Guy, Zeus Lightning, and possibly more.
(If you are interested in being auctioned, please contact @westworld prior to the start of the event).


Terms and Conditions:

Auctionee player is not committed to perform or participate in any action that violates NCSoft terms of service for City of Heroes, including but not limited to engaging in any form of sexual/violent/hate dialogue or content, or any other action that is either implicitly or explicitly prohibited by NCSoft which could result in a ban from City Of Heroes/Villains/Going Rogue. The Auctionee will do whatever the buyer asks, except the terms stated prior.


Bids from the 50's auction will be used to fund prize money for portions of this event and other future Protector Players sponsored events.

Announcing the Protector Players' Valentine's Event!


We're at it again, folks! The same people who threw the costume contest on Halloween are throwing one on February 12, 8:30 P.M. Eastern Time at Pocket D. The prize is currently 1.5 billion inf!

There are 10 costume contests, as follows:

1&2. King and Queen of Spades (evil).
3&4. King and Queen of Clubs (Warriors).
5&6. King and Queen of Diamonds (elegance and class).
7&8. King and Queen of Hearts (romance and fantasy).
9. Famous couples' costume contest.
10. Valentine's King and Queen event costume contest.

There will also be trivia on the history of Valentine's Day, and an auction of level 50's. The highest bidders get to play with the favorite level 50 for 2 to 3 hours. Will have more details on the terms and conditions, as well as who is up for bids in the auction, available soon.

Stay tuned and mark your calendars for Feb 12!

Post to @westworld if you have any questions.

Paragon's Super Friends is going to be hosting a big CC tonight under Atlas, followed by an ITF and STF run. 200M total purse to be paid out.

8:30pm ET/7:30C/6:30M/5:30P, under atlas.


See you there!

EtherFalcon