Mekkanos

I seem to recall this being the case as well. Last I recall, the Praetoria content was mainly intended to be a new low-game experience that allowed the characters created THERE to choose whether they became a hero or villain through their own actions, while the stuff that existing characters would use to switch sides would be entirely out of Praetoria (through some system that the Devs are understandably keeping quiet about). If Praetoria is involved in changing the alignment of existing characters, I haven't heard as much from any source.

EDIT: Oh, and to bring this back to the original topic, I definitely like the morally gray aspects of this version of Calvin Scott. He wants to take down Emperor Cole, which seems well and good, but he seems to be willing to do anything to do so as long as it gets him his wife back. I'd certainly be uncomfortable working under someone like that, even if he is the best chance for the Resistance.

Hey! Random destruction of my robots is not an appropriate substitute when it's too late to jump out of the cake! At least they can repair themselves...

*The robot (Durandal, probably) begins pulling himself back together and says "I have no idea how she got in there, honest!"*

Yup, I got it the day it came out and absolutely loved it. As Tal said, it really isn't much of an exaggeration to say that you are Batman in the game. Whether you're swooping down from the shadows to knock out unsuspecting thugs or beating down an entire group of enemies in one fluid combo, the definite feeling of being Batman is there. Batman fans should definitely love it and even those with at least a passing interest in him will almost certainly enjoy it. I'm eagerly awaiting the sequel, not just because it'll almost certainly be fun but because I want to see which members of Batman's rogue's gallery we'll be seeing next. I want to see Mr. Freeze!

Also, Tal, (Spoilers if you haven't gotten to the second Scarecrow fight yet) I'm not certain what part of the Scarecrow fight you're on but if you're at the point where he's giant and you have to avoid him, simply watch where the beams from his eyes go. He follows a pattern and you can exploit that to tell when he won't be looking at your path. Generally, right after his gaze starts moving away from where you're hiding, that's the best time to go. Remember to take down any skeletons that show up as you run around because if you don't, his gaze will continue to block your path. Generally, the skeletons will appear when he leans in for a closer look so keep that in mind. Hope that helps!

EDIT: I just looked at a video of the second Scarecrow encounter to refresh my memory. If you're stuck early in the fight, there's a point early on where you need to use the batclaw to drag some boxes down to use as cover. As for the rest of it, the best advice I can give is to stay in cover and watch him. He doesn't watch your path forever.

Actually, it's not fanfic. Here's the exact same information on the CoH site itself.

http://www.cityofheroes.com/game_inf...et_skulls.html

All you have to do is go to the Skulls' bio under "Know your adversary" and scroll down to the Top Secret folder to find this.

Other than this, and their brief appearance in Bonefire where their status as the founders of the Skulls isn't even mentioned, they aren't really mentioned anywhere in the game, so that's the extent of what we know.

Hehe, it's not obvious from the picture but I was about to fall over from carrying and balancing all the stuff I had. The box containing the speakers is extremely bulky and I had to balance the headset and mouse on top of that. Meg wasn't helping matters by putting that plush chicken (Which we used to indicate that we had an answer to a question and got to keep in the end) on my head, so I had to balance that as well.

Anyway, thanks everyone! Although I didn't win any Architect awards this year, this certainly made up for it. I was quite nervous during the trivia contest, so I'm glad I managed to keep my head on long enough to actually win the contest. Considering who I was going up against on both the trivia and Architect fronts, I was definitely lucky to win one of them!

Hehe, should be interesting to see.

By the way, check your PMs, Manoa. I sent you some of the information I think you'll need if you're still willing to drive me to the Con.

Good point. I think I have some room to introduce him in the send-off dialogue, so I may just have her tell you to seek him out (Why she'd ask you to help out a Rikti hater, though, is a bit more of a problem).

I hadn't actually thought of doing that with the scientist. Very nice suggestion! I'm a little wary of doing it, though, for two reasons. For one thing, the guards can still get blown away by the turrets and Vanguard Also, it essentially means you have two very similar objectives in the same mission (Rescue Rhodes and "rescue" the scientist). Considering how the two objectives have considerably different feels to them, though, I'll definitely take this into consideration.

Well, the idea is that because the embryos were modified to become Meta-Rikti while still in this state, they don't really count as human anymore. In other words, they've already started the mutation. Remember that the original experiment that led to the Meta-Rikti (The creation of Tk'Lankah) was intended to skip the human part of the process altogether and although it went in a completely different direction eventually, it seemed to have partially succeeded by making Tk'Lankah into something that is mostly a Rikti, albeit super-powered. I'm not sure I can find room to say that she's been like that since birth, though... Also, give yourself some credit! You're more perceptive than you think you are, since you could see the point of the box as a plot device.

I was originally going to have Rhodes explain what he was going to do in the letter, but I ran out of room (Curse you, 1000 character limit!). Instead, I had him make references to doing something drastic and focused on his offer. Perhaps I could have him say something along the lines of "You'll find out what it is I'm going to do soon enough. Decide from there."

Funny. I never noticed this before (And no one ever brought it to my attention) and now it really bothers me. I'll have to change it. Thanks for telling me!

I don't think I want to make him an EB because there's always the chance that when he decides to run, players may not be able to damage him enough to finish him off and end up failing the mission when they wanted to succeed. In other words, we'd end up with the exact opposite of the problem you're having. The downgrade to boss feature DOES make it tempting, though...

I may just have something in the opening pop-up mentioning that it might be a good idea to get rid of the Restructurists so they can't get to him.

Anyway, great review and thank you for taking the time to run it! I'll contact you via PM regarding the box soonish. Maybe we can work something out.

Awesome that you're coming, Manoa! It just wouldn't be the same without you. Are we going to see the Crazy Old Cat Lady again or do you not feel like going for a repeat performance this time? I loved the claws last time, as you might remember, although the mask disturbed me.

This may also help me out with my transportation issue. Maybe you can help out this fellow California resident by giving me a ride, since you said you have room. I should be in my apartment in San Jose at that time, so you shouldn't have to go out of your way to pick me up, either! It should be easier for someone who knows their way around the area to pick me up, after all.

I've done what I can to put things in favor of the Rikti on the second map, but the way the map is set up makes it extraordinarily difficult for that to happen. There's a number of Vanguard and turrets that appear on the map without the use of battles and the like. For some reason, these Vanguard and turrets tend to spawn as bosses while the Rikti spawn normally. This, paired with the fact that Vanguard are already stupidly powerful, makes it difficult to shift the battle in favor of the Rikti. I'd honestly like a different map, but the other Vanguard base map has worse issues (The objectives spawn too close or too far to the base, leading to the mission being completed immediately or forcing the player to search). I think if they ever make the main Vanguard base map usable, I might switch it to that.
I think I get what you're saying here and I did want to touch on some of this stuff in the arc itself, but I ran out of room. There's very little space left and I don't really have anywhere to put it anyway. Basically, the assumption I made here is that something in the Riktification process makes it difficult for super human powers to develop, since we have never heard of any "Meta-Rikti" beforehand and the only Rikti with real superpowers that we've seen are humans that have been relatively recently converted (Dra'Gon and the Honoree, for instance) and apparently retained whatever powers they used to have, sort of like the Devoured Pyriss. Basically, the point of the project is indeed to regain control over their abilities, but the freakish appearances of the Meta-Rikti (Who look like they're in between a Rikti and human state) are sort of a side effect that came from studying Tk'Lankah's genetic makeup that they are trying to overcome. It's implied in one of the clues in the fourth mission that they eventually intend on finding a way to give super powers to their regular troops without any of these side effects. As you can imagine, the Rikti's impressive technology paired with super powered beings would probably result in big trouble for our Earth if the Restructurists succeed.
The problem is that I don't really have anywhere to logically put him. I suppose he could be in the third mission, but then it would seem weird for him to have beaten you to the embryos to the fourth mission if he was just with you. MAYBE the first mission could have him, as well, if Vanguard decided to trace the Heretic there. Unfortunately, my arc is at 99% capacity at the moment, so I don't think I can put another detail there. If we ever get more space, I'll think about increasing his presence a little bit. At the moment, though, I kind of like his "Chekov's Gun" status. You're given a hint that he may do something drastic and given just enough time to forget about him before he appears again and "fires" as it were.

Anyway, thanks again! Good luck getting the rest of the way to 50!

EDIT: MowDownJoe, have you tried making a custom group made exclusively of the Dwarf and Nova bosses and naming the group "Nictus"? That may make things a little too difficult, but you could also include Council Galaxy Lts. and minions to even things out, I suppose. Lanaru Elementals might work as well, if you're looking for the puffball look that the Unbound Nictus have.