Lord Rahvin

Yay, a little Fusioneer!

One of my biggest disappointments when I came to City of Heroes is that I couldn't create my favorite comic book heroes and play out their adventures. As a new player looking to get into a superhero game, this is one of the first things I had wanted to do.

When playing Freedom Force, I tend to make characters that are an exact copy of existing comic book characters. Not only is this a challenge and an artistic tribute, but its fun. I'm familiar with their powers and enjoy seeing them play out, just as I enjoyed reading about them in comics and watching them in cartoons. I was raised on some of these characters and enjoy seeing them in fantastical new situations. Plus, their powers and abilities are well-known to me and I enjoy finding ways to apply them and mix them.

I understand its an MMO and we can't have fourteen wolverines running around while some "professor X" toon is trying to boss them around. I understand the licensing issues. I understand the terms of service, and I play along. But it would be nice if me and my supergroup could play on our own private server and create adventures for the legendary heroes we were raised on... the characters that tend to define 'superhero' for each of us.

I'm not saying we would "only" use existing characters -- as I like the idea of making whole new characters and whole new teams. Personally, I'd like a game that was less about "creating a superhero" and more about "creating a superhero comic", choosing enemies, allies, secret identities, etc. City of Heroes is close and at least has some of those trappings, so I enjoy it a lot for now.

But I still find it so limiting that I can't make an Iron Man or a War Machine in this game. Or that I had to wait so long to unlock Angel wings despite that "Angel" is an iconic superhero character in my mind.

Just created "West Coast Heroes" channel for Triumph-server heroes in the Pacific time zone.

One idea I've been having lately is that a lot of the "conviniences" of the direct interface (such as a "level up" button on the corner of your screen) should come with the advantages of a superbase.

A superbase, in theory, exists to make tasks more accessible and convinient. I think this should carry over to your general interface.

Have a teleporter to Founder's Falls in your base? You should always have the ability to teleport to Founder's Falls directly from wherever you are. Have a field training unit in your base? Yous should be able to train remotely. Etc. Etc. Things like "cooldown timers" could even be installed for things like buying inspirations or getting healed, so that better components could be installed in the base that allow you to access these features more often.

The conviniences of superbases are reduced dramaticlaly by the fact that you have to return to the superbase to use those conviniences, which pretty much amounts to the same thing as travelling around or visiting other zones. It's time intensive, boring, distracting, and sometimes forces teammates to sit around and wait for you.

A superbase should be able to help you circumvent the need to travel around for your regular maintenance -- you've got field support now. This would reduce redundant pointless travel, reduce downtime when teaming, and encourage superbase construction.

All of which are worthwhile goals, in my opinion.

As for travel -- I agree that there should be more reason to travel around the city. I just don't think training is the way it should be. I'd like it more if general city travel worked a lot like the Safeguard Missions, where random bad stuff periodically happens and if you're around to stop it in time then you get some little reward or recognition.

As it is, I lot of people use Ouro portals to get around or to meet up or even to leave an area. In my opinion, a superbase should be much more useful than an Ouro portal and allow you to teleport back and forth at will (but perhaps only if you've made the appropriate construction in the base).

Hello Triumphers,

Awhile ago, a friend and I considered starting up a supergroup specifically for heroes in the Pacific time zone. I registered the supergroup, started constructing a small base, and established some forums off-site.

We were calling this the Civil Society West Coast. It was themed for "classic superheroes" who play between 9pm-12pm Pacific Time. The name is a homage to both the Justice League and the Avengers West Coast. The supergroup only has 2 unqiue members at the moment, and we're both heavily involved in our much larger primary supergroup.

Since our brand new supergroup doesn't have much to offer, and we don't really want to ask people to leave supergroups that they are already established with, we have decided to instead incorporate our "superhero social club" as a Global Channel instead of a supergroup. Hopefully this will allow more of us to get together and get to know each other.

Members can use the Global Channel to coordinate, find Pacific Coast players to setup teams and just generally chat with. If some of those people decide to join Civil Society that would be great. If not, that's fine too.

The Global Channel is "West Coast Heroes".

It will also be the official global channel of the Civil Society if that ever really takes off. For now, I am asking any players in the Pacific time zone with "classic superhero themes" to consider adding into this Global Channel and using it to socialize and find teams, especially if you're online in the evening or night.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to post here.

Welcome to West Coast Heroes, sponsored by the Civil Society.

Billionaire playboy and part-time daredevil acrobat seeks outgoing, flexible partner for nighttime rooftop activities. Latex optional. Bring your own whip. Interested partners should light a signal into the sky tonight at midnight. No reporters, please.



Character Name: The Rooftop Wonder
Character Alter Ego: Lucas Price
Character Archetype: Stalker (martial arts / ninjitsu)
Character Alignment: Praetorian, but will become a hero
Character Level: 1 (I just created him and will start playing tonight)

Player Times: 8-12pm, Pacific Time
Player Global Name: @Altus Vir
Player Roleplaying Preference: Intrested in trying it out / learning about it
Player PvP Preference: A little interested, but mostly from an RP perspective

I prefer playing low-level co-op missions because I like trying out different characters.

I prefer smaller teams, mostly because I like to stop and chat or comment every once in awhile, or strategize or whatever.

I'd especially like to meet people on the west coast who are relatively new to the game.

I'm open to joining a supergroup, especially those with a forum, though I am already an active member of Fusion Force on Triumph. A small aspiring supergroup would also appeal to me, however.

I'm really big into themes and story-hooks. I spend a lot of time coming up with my characters, and I tend to enjoy coming up with new character ideas even more than I do actually playing them out.

I tend to ignore people who don't write descriptions for their characters, especially if they are higher level. It's not (entirely) a snobbery thing, it's just the first indicator that we may be into completely different playing styles.

I make a mean macoroni salad.

Paragon Xpress
January 5, 2011

Billionaire playboy and part-time daredevil acrobat seeks outgoing, flexible partner for nighttime rooftop activites. Latex optional. Bring your own whip. Interested partners should light a signal into the sky tonight at midnight. No reporters, please.

I'm new. I joined up when the Winter Event started. My favorite part about the Winter Event is the presents lying around the city. For one thing, they add a decent "exploration" mechanic into the game. There's actually a reason to run around the city. Of if you're a flier type, occasionally you'll notice something that entices you to land.

Second, sometimes those snowmen are tough. It's nice when I see other heroes surrounded by some tough enemies they weren't expecting. Gives me a reason to come to their aid, even if they aren't on my team. Other Triumph-heroes are usually pretty grateful for the assistance.

I just don't see these sorts of things happening on a regular basis without all the little presents scattered throughout the cities. But we'll see.