Midnight_Panther

There are times where even the most humble community members feel that they need to share their experiences with others. Not just out of growing pains but of joy as well. Now I have been playing on the Virtue sever for well over five years strong. There is something about this sever that I love to call it "home" for all my main characters I ever create on City of Heroes. At first I thought it was the population, and yet when I tried Freedom server it did not have that same jive that I get from the Virtue server. Then I thought it was perhaps the role playing aspects. While it's all fun and games, it's not that which drives me back to Virtue. It wasn't until recently that I found out why I love Virtue: for its people just wanting to have fun.

My epiphany didn't happen until recently. What started out today, as I thought, was a simple finish off a Halloween Event Costume Badge solo, just to relax, turned out to be more eventful and unplanned, unorthodox, chaotic, posse of heroes Trick-or-Treating in Peregrine Island that is best to describe it as one massive monster mash party.

As I was Trick-or-Treating in Peregrine Island, I do take a mental note of the players in the vicinity and those whom are shouting what on the B-Chat (Broadcast). Mainly I try to be courteous to others when I am solo (i.e. not to kill steal from others, or train mobs nearby others just to get them killed. ), but I also listen in for opportunities. Well one opportunity that I saw seemed to approach me personally. Another player was shouting for a ToT team, naturally as I was solo, I passed it off for someone else's bait. Moments later I got a tell from the same player, wanting to know if they could team up. As we all know typing and fighting don't mix, so as I was finishing off my mobs I contemplated my response. I agreed to let them tag-a-long and even let them know I was just in this for the costume badge. They seem thrilled just to be ToT'ing with a buddy and acknowledge my sentiments.

As fate seems to have it, another player, whom I just met hours earlier, wanted to join in as well with another possible Eochai help on the side. Okay, so I had a little fun with Eochai earlier and dragged him halfway across Talos map to the infamous hill near Talos Tram and help him get that badge, as well as for several other players as well. Needless to say, I knew I had an admirer and denial wasn't a good option. So I invited him along, but shortly after he arrived to Peregrine Island, with some of our directions, I got another tell to join up to ToT... That's when I mentally threw up my hands in the air and confess a mental defeat that I will not solo my badges... I'll get my badges when I get them. So after I have invited my fourth party member I went from being a social recluse to a party animal. I didn't have a specific goal anymore, I just wanted to have fun. So again I turned to the B-Chat and listen to those whom are NOW looking for a ToT Team. Being in Peregrine Island it's not hard to fill up.

As my team got bigger, I lead them to more opportune places to ToT at. One such place was the "Motel" by the Arena. One team was already there when we arrived, no big deal, we can take the other side and watch for add-ons. Yet within a minute from arriving their leader contacted me into forming up a league. Sounds chaotic, but fun... I'm in! After he invited me, we sent a few tells which results in him to pass me the "Big Star" and lead the league while he logs off for the day... I wish he could have stayed. We had so much fun.

Naturally, I find it very easy to lead others about, even in Leagues, and I trust my own leadership over many others. However I do have three mental rules: Keep the team busy, keep an open mind and listen to my teammates... and to keep friends together on the same team if possible... those rules has served me well to this day. Especially today. Eight hours or more is how long I lead that league, and we got as big as 40 people (max is 48) in our league. I was in full earnest to make sure that people were having fun. So many levels were achieved, so many shards were collected. Yet no one was complaining. Jokes were told, debates were made, we even took a few breaks to run two successful Banner events, one Zombie Apocalypse, and killed Jack in Irons and Eochai.

Near the end we experimented, with my group being the first team, running the Halloween tip mission to see if only my team can do it, the League, or if we get kick while we try to run it. Turns out to be, the League stays while one of the League's team can run the Halloween tip missions. So during all this chaos of picking up new people, listen in on B-Chat for new opportunities, forming the tip team, and maintaining balance for the rest of ToT team, I was still participating in the ToT fights, knocking on the doors and answering tells while trying to be playful and encouraging to my teammates and League-mates.

Attitude shows. Virtue has plenty of ecstatic people, and yet Virtue has its sour apples as well, but most of all they ALL have Spirit. These are the people that I get enthusiastic to play with. While I appreciate people we complimenting me for my leadership, saying they had a blast, I feel it was them whom made it worthwhile.

Are you using Ninjas as your henchmen?

I am asking because they are the most notorious henchmen for chasing runners, or other mobs, the most out of all the other henchmen sets due to their innate speed buff coupe up with the knock-backs they do. It feels you might as well summon them, buff them, and then walk up to a big group of enemies and play the Benny Hill Theme Song after they start attacking.

Yes, I am aware all pets tend to wig out as if they are all souped up on a quadruple shot expresso from the local Starbucks when you are attacked in Bodyguard mode. However Zombie are more stupid in reaction timing... sometimes too stupid that you have to tell them to attack... and when they do react, almost all of them give chase. Mercs and Robots tend to be ranged while at least 2 random henchmen give chase... even those protector bots and the medic merc. Thugs will have at least the Bruiser and Arsonist give chase 80% of the time and the rest just unload their payload near you. Demons are more balance of what they do overall.

Personally I think the AI has improved a little bit since CoV was launched. At least the pets don't "freak out" any more when some other MM's henchmen in another room or the mission's ally get's attacked. However it is still annoying when you have pets that wont attack due to stuff like Oil Arrow igniting and they all run away as far as they can from it and just stand there.

Now I don't know your play style but I, myself, find that Binds are incredibly useful on Masterminds to control their henchmen more fully. Sandolphan made an incredible guide on how to make mastermind binds over here, in which I still use that guide to this day. I find that binds do help alleviate some aggravating AI aspects about the henchmen by using more direct control in a micro scale mannerism, and binds do seem to activate faster then macros. Yet, that also means we have to pay more attention to our henchmen.

Unfortunately there is no sure way to fix the buggy AI problems on our end, nor set these henchmen into a specific attacking stance. Yet, I like to point out that the "Follow" command does override the attack behavior up to a point; if you called them back to your side while you or any of them were attacked in the process of reaching you... Once they reach you they will go back to attacking; even pursue those that they once were chasing again. If they are at your avatar and you were attacked within the last 10 seconds, or if any of them were attacked in the last 10 seconds near your avatar... they all will go back to attacking immediately after the follow command was initiated.

Best method to retract them all is to put them on passive and follow / goto until the majority have reach the destination or the situation deems to be a critical one and then go back into defensive mode. That way the henchmen won't give chase and won't attack until you give them the signal to at the cost of the bodyguard mode. Which should be no more then 3 seconds at max.

Until we get an AI fix, I empathize with the henchmen AI suffering pains.

For the Original Poster:

A well written guideline for those whom are seeking out help on creating a bio for their (newish) characters. While all this advice isn't complicated in informing us on how to grab other people's attention, will there be any addendum or amendments on other advance options on how to write a better bio so it can stand out better? I am not asking for English 101, but other examples of what you see in a good bio and an explanation of why it stood out for you in that example would do just fine.

Here's a tip: Instead of fighting against the new extravaganza; use it to your favor.

We're only 4 days in from the new issue, so of course there the population from 45 and lower will be greatly reduced due to the fact that this issue is catering to level 50+ content. I am sure if you ask all those whom are veterans, they've got a lot of 50's they are dusting off to play this and future coming issues. So, it doesn't matter which server you go to, since the same problems will carry over with more extremes in some cases, but how you can create opportunities out of difficult situations.

So how can you use this to your advantage?

Since you are so close to 35 (at the time you posted the starting thread) go to the Rikti War Zone and jump in on the mother ship raids. Sure you won't get merits but that can be solved in a level.

Once you are 35, you got 2 options now: Go to Cimerora and jump in on the ITF's that are starting every 5-15 minutes. One run can guarantee a few levels, plus unlocking the roman armor set. OR... Continue with the mother ship raids and collect vanguard merits.

At 45, this is where you can join any TF available (minus the incarnate TF's), but most notably run Maria Jenkins' arc on hero side, or finish "Operation Destiny" on villain side.

These suggestions are a guarantee way to get teams and levels, however due to the grinding of this nature or if you want to do your own level content you may want to try this:

- Form or join any of the many available TF's
- Form or join tip missions. There was a ton newly made tips that were released.
- Use and abuse the Ourbouros: The Clavin Scott TF made a return in there, plus there's a new hero and villain mission arc that you can flashback to.
- Try and seek out a Cathedral of Pain trial since those are still rare to find to the open public.

For the real odd way to get exp... Badge hunt the new exploring badges.

The real answer why Virtue is in the red but no one is around: Instance Missions being the number one culprit, and people are just where they've congregated to... Peregrine Island, Grandville, Rikti War Zone, Cimerora, Ourbouros, Zone events in Praetoria and of course Pocket D.

So, in short, go to where people congregate (with the exception of Pocket D) and listen to, and use, the Broadcast channel for openings in any teams.

Good luck on your future endeavors.

I'll give this art jam a shot:



I blame on too much "Trick-or-Treating" those past 9 days. Too bad "hide" doesn't work on them in the game... but running works wonders.

If you are having fun and you don't want it, then don't take taunt. This shouldn't be about us, but about you and your moment of glee.

Now the only reason I absolutely have to take taunt on my tankers is because I LOVE to herd. I am the crazy tanker that rushes ahead and continuously grabs 3-5 rooms worth of foes and brings them all back for the Big Ol' Smackdown. I am the type of tanker that wants all 4 AV's on my sorry butt near the end of STF, just to see how long I can last. I am the type of tanker that feels gratifying to steal aggro from all other other visible tankers from the fighting GM. Taunt only helps me accomplish my goal better, and faster.

This tactic isn't for everyone but the feeling of withstanding 30+ foes and your whole party lives to tell about it is enthralling for me. Despite the aggro cap limit, yes, I feel I still handle 30-50 mobs well with little to zero deaths just because of mixing my taunt, my aura, and gauntlet to manage my aggro. Also, I don't consider myself a taunt bot; I feel far from it cause how active I get when I herd.

I am the tanker that relies on tanks / scrankers (and scrappers) like you without taunt for when I get too crazy, and it does happen much like others' blind fury rage on villains. They are there to help me keep the mobs centralized for the AoE's. They are the ones that get secondary aggro before the squishes. They are usually the tankers with higher damage and / or great AoE. You're not just a backup tank, you're my best teammate. For this I thank you for making your tanks.

I'll reiterate what people have been saying: Taunt is only a tool. Use it if it'll improve your play style, otherwise leave it alone and have fun.

- Nuku Nuku Dance
- Bombshell Kitty
- Neko Twist
- Sapphic Rose
- Neko Judgment
- Neko Whisper
- Silent Trigger
- Whisper Night
- Angel Burst Kitty
- Kiss Goodnight
- Tactical Neko

Interesting resolution you've made here. From a quick read I've done, it seems like inspirations can come from anywhere, so I bid you good luck on your quest.

Let me apologize to you for what our community is giving to you as a bad taste of what CoH / CoV can have. I feel many people here get into what they coin as "Scrapper Lock" or "Fury Mode" and they have a tendency to forget that not everyone enjoys the same pleasures as they do. Especially to someone new and coming from a different game with a whole new outlook.

After reading some bits, I would have suggested NOT to start your first character as a empathy defender. Mostly due to the aggravating situations you have mentioned and some you haven't come across yet. Before I9 (issue 9), Emp defenders were more sought out far more and almost as high in priority as a kinetic def / controller, even in 'end game content'. I feel people forget those past days and are currently focusing on the min / max aspects of today. Since the introduction of Invention Origin enhancements, we have the ability to tweek our character into astonishing levels of performance that they have created a nasty side effect: rendering empathy defenders "near useless" beyond level 20 in terms of regenerating health.

Has you may have noted; all people want to do is rush into the fray and kill as many minions as possible and as fast as possible. This shows quite a bit beyond level 35 when your characters are near its peak performance. Many people rush in working on cruse control, mashing buttons, and killing the mobs 10-20 at a time without caring for the rest of the team... perhaps its the adrenaline rush of beating the odds, perhaps its the feel of being super, perhaps they went tunnel vision... whatever the reasons maybe, people start to act as an individual within the team instead of working together.

So what does that leave you? People in overdrive need to slowdown to 'recover'... but they don't want to wait, thus people use emp and kins for their recovery powers. Instead of focusing on the tank, as if you were made into the 'holy trinity' team, focus on the blasters, and scrappers, and if plausible Khealdians. Those who do higher DPS will tend to die more often in higher levels. Of course you do get the occasional 'one man army' player who loves to rush in without thinking, despite their archetype and build. Let us also not forget Fortitude (buffs damage and to-hit accuracy) and Clear Mind (grants mez protection and increases perception) powers in the Empathy set. True they are not heals, but they are a core buff in that set.

Besides focusing on buffing your allies, in later levels I would suggest to start adding more attacks into your set, OR, even better yet, take some power pools to help buff your allies even more like the Leadership Power Pool. While one can do the damage of many, I would rather be the support for twenty.

New Sketch:

Freakshow



I want the image of him to be hanging off a building or climbing up but I didn't put in the effort to add a background. Highly inspired by the 1980's TMNT cartoon characters Rocksteady & Beebop. My original 'Freakshow'.

New Topic:
Dark Astoria

Ghost of Scrapyard is an actual Giant Monster in Sharkhead Isle. Usually has a swarm of protesters / rioters, oddly enough under the faction: Scrapyard, following him. This is more of a zone event than just a GM fight due to the oncoming swarm of mobs ( no matter how many of them you kill ) to help Mr. Ghost of Scrapyard, and the NPC commentary dialog that goes along with it (before, during and after the event/fight). I was thinking about the whole zone event rather than just the GM itself.

Yes I play both sides and lately more red then blue. >.<;

I choose "Trick-or-Treating" as a separate entity due to today being the holiday: Halloween, we can do it in game, and I can't get the picture of a duel wielding pistol blaster holding up unknown resident for 'tricking' them one too many times and not enough candy passing about. Yet, I thought it was also open enough for people to assume most of the other Halloween event items and such.

"Costume Contest" I see more as a opposite entity rather than including it in a Halloween event due to people purposely focus on putting on their best capes & masks to prove they are the best of the best. Not just to have fun and share a little entertainment; more competitive per se. Plus "CC's" are more centralized, such as you can find them in Atlas under the statue, or in Cap Au Diable under Aeon's Globe, and they happen year round, not just on a particular event / time. Plus it'll make a good follow-up picture after an "Icon" picture.

Thank you very much for all the warm welcoming.

Yeah ^.^; I am in a need to get back into my art groove, hence I thought to participate in this project. Soooo... Soon™ I'll post more artsy stuff. While I do have some art site accounts, like DA, I haven't uploaded anything CoH / Comic Book theme related yet.

Thank you for the tips ChristopherRobin. Yeah I kinda had another tab open to the list at #127, it's been helping me pick one at random, but it doesn't have who offered what, thus kinda hard to quote like was initially stated in the broken rules. ^.^; Also, naw I thought it was one theme per post but I don't need to... ok... maybe I got too many ideas...

(( P.S. Why does your name and avatar reminds me of 'Whiny the Pooh' and 'Pirates of the Caribbean' mixed together? >.<; ))

------

Anywho I finished another one before work, but I ran out of time to upload it... So here it is:

Perez Park




New theme(s):
Trick-or-Treating
Costume Contest

I wish I saw this sooner, I have been itching to draw something CoH related but overloaded on ideas... That and I just re-found the art section.

Also, I am sorry if I am breaking the rules... since they were broken already but trying to find the most updated list and who said what was kinda hard after 6 pages. So, I'll post the themes in bold

Clockwork



I pictured this guy singing more then whistling to the song "If I only had a brain" from the movie "Wizard of Oz", but I thought that was too evil and left those words out.


Catgirls




I've based her off of one of my Villains; short and voluptuous to the boot... unfortunately my mind's perspectives and proportions are arguing (and still are) when I was setting up her pose. So I feel the legs are a tad too short despite she is suppose to be leaning against a wall.

I'll keep on gleaning this thread for more themes and post more later.

Oh! new theme... Umm...

Ghost of Scrapyard

I must commend the writers to invigorate the subplots that we, the main characters of the story in this game, over look. So many plot holes, and yet unanswered questions on when, how, and why would be answered. Last issue they finally gave us hard evidence that Nemesis was a key role in the Rikti War, despite they threw us into a loop before the final missions from Dark Watcher, in hopes that we mistake it the Paetrons that caused the Rikti Wars. And how the Rikti did know of them is a question yet to be answered too… Anywho, those that did follow the many story lines prior knew Nemesis had his hands in the Rikti Dimension, but we did not know what he was doing, aside being a key role in the Rikti War. These same writers seemed to throw us a few bones in the Striga Isle’s arcs before CoV came into play and it’s Arachnos’ minions, hence they were called SPIDER then. So these writers are excelling at subliminal subplots that seem to have nothing to do with “our” future until we see it coming…

** May contain Spoilers both CoV and CoH end contents **






So we got the picture that we are not a part of this time line, or dimension, I’ll assume the prior since the dimensions are overly abundance in later CoH arcs, however we don’t know the source or why, aside a possibility of Dr Aeon, Nemesis, Crey, Circle of Thorns, the 5th, and even the Malta. Some hopes of Nemesis, yet the more I read, the more seems not his style. Nemesis is a hero in his own mind, and wants the people to worship him, not just his automations. If Nemesis were to wipe us out, wouldn’t he wipe out his “rivals” too? Such as Arachnos, the whole Freedom Phalanx, Crey, etc. How I see it, if it were Nemesis, it’ll be built like a Nemesis empire, and not having so many freelance thinkers running about. I see his timeline more of a robot utopia, similar to ‘I Robot’ from Issac Asimov.

Now the 5th… Intriguing group with more loop holes then a colander has holes to drain noodles with. I may not have fought the 5th, but I do read the lore a lot, so to a point where in one mission you, the hero, has to stop their time-traveling experiments. As we know the heroes saves the day, so we feel. For all we know we could have missed them, prior to our intrusion, and they could have one successful test. And even this timeline sounds like the Counsel never did succeed in ousting the 5th. Yet, no hard evidence yet to prove it, just feels that way. Somehow, I feel there are bigger fish then the 5th that is pulling the strings.

Circle of Thorns do have a means of time travel, hence you reactivating the Nerva portal with Naylor. Yet it seems like the CoT haven’t perfected it yet. Here’s why: From the CoV, Project Destiny, Scirocco Arc


[ QUOTE ]
Diviner Maros

How many times have we met? How many times have I talked to you, oh 'Destined One'? It's hard to keep track, now. In this thread of time, it was on you to steal the gate to the beyond and seal away the forgotten godess, not to hold off the army of Brass nor to steal the great minds. I remember this, as I remember all the other things you might have done. And have we worked together before? I cannot seperate out the history you know from all of what might have been. But I know this moment. You were sent to me by Professor Echo, who told his younger self to send you to me, just as he remembered. It's confusing, yes, but that's the problem with time travel.

Fourteen thousand years ago, we called it The Tower, but really it was a portal. We of Oranbega sought to build a gateway to the heavens to re-awaken our gods in our time of need, we could not have foreseen that it would come to this. When it failed, my mind was opened to every possible moment between then and the future you're racing towards. Soon, you will enter the portal and decide fate itself. Lord Recluse knows this. He's left his notes here, in this chain of events. I'll only learn that you found them too late, of course, and I won't be able to stop you. Not that I want to, but I am eager to see a world where I don't know what's going to happen, and would hate to see you destroy it in a war with Arachnos.

Now where did I later learn you found those notes? Ah, yes. I remember that when I learned about it, I was surprised it was on St. Martial, hidden deep within a secret base beneath the Golden Giza. It would be funny if I didn't already know what's going to happen. I'll show you where I later learned you went.

[/ QUOTE ]

They have tried! But they failed… sounds like the Tower of Babel saga to me in a way… of course Maros is referring to the ‘Project Destiny Portal’ which is a time traveling portal. So this accident made them afraid to try it again it seems, yet if they were, I can see how you, the hero / villain gets removed, by removing the entire Mu’s in the past, hence you can’t be born.

The Crey and Malta seem to be toying with portals, a lot, in fact way too much, but there’s no hard evidence that they can time travel yet. If they can, I seriously doubt this is their time line. For Crey, as we see in one “portal mission” it may end up being all Paragon Protector society, or it could become a communist like world where the economy, no, our entire lives are controlled by the countess herself. This time line didn’t fit the bill. Malta seems to be a military fascist with supreme hate for all meta-humans, excluding those in their ranks for some odd reason. Yet this timeline has too many freelancers Meta just to start, hence a no-go in my opinion. Plus it’s hard to picture their time stream, a semi-utopia with a dictator type governing, anarchy or just a war-torn place…

Now Dr. Aeon, mysterious, and yet too aloof to understand is true goals. Just a mention in the latest article seems to trigger more people in concord that he’s the cause of this ‘timeline’. As one stated...

[ QUOTE ]
Dr. Aeon already has the ability to time travel, he doesn't need help from anyone.

During the final Patron Arc you are diverted temporally and brought before Dr. Aeon from 15 years in the future, one where your villain and Recluse have destroyed the world with your infighting. When you defeat Aeon, he activates a teleporter, mentioning fighting you before you gain power.

Scroll back thirty levels, and we find Dr Echo, and older version of Aeon. Through several missions we track him down, and find him stealing an invention that is used to divert a timer traveler, if his destination is known. When we get to the end, we see Echo talking to someone that looks similar to Aeon. This Aeon is the one from 15 years in the future/ Dr Echo, knowing when he was going to show up, diverts future Aeon, with dire news about his plan, then when your villain shows up he points you to Tarikoss.

When you beat both doctors they both hit temporal teleporters. I'm not sure if you are able to stop Echo or not, it's been a while since I've payed close attention to the arc, but I'm convinced it's future Aeon that is now reported working on the Etoile Isles President 70 years ago.

[/ QUOTE ]

Okay… in a way that kinda went over my head so I’ll back his saying up with more Wiki facts: Marshal Brass: The Aeon Conspiracy.

[ QUOTE ]
A file on Dr. Egon
This file contains Arachnos' records of the notorius mad scientist Dr. Egon. His pursuit, trial and capture are all matters of public record, known to most people living in the Rogue Isles. Where these files disagree is in Dr. Egon's final fate. While he was shown to be executed on live television, these files continue on, detailing his negotiations with Arachnos to work for them in exchange for a new identity. An identity called Dr. Aeon.

[/ QUOTE ]

Starting off Dr. Aeon is really Dr. Egon. A mad scientist whom was prison in the Zig, for crimes yet not detailed too well, and escaped to the Rouge Isles. He later did an experiment where his whole lab, and is still, dimensional hopping, killing the Marshal of Cap at the time, thus having Dr. Egon ‘executed’ for this crime. Here’s another quote from Marshal Brass’s Arc: Echo Down the Aeons

[ QUOTE ]

Professor Echo: I know the world you came from was destroyed, but it doesn't have to happen again!

Professor Echo: You've got to stop Villain!

Dr Aeon?: Wait...

Dr Aeon?: You're me?

(aggroed)

Dr. Aeon?: Villain? But you're dead! Or maybe that hasn't happened yet...

Professor Echo: Get out of here, Aeon. This is my fight.

Professor Echo: Just remember this moment... When it's your turn.

[/ QUOTE ]

This has to be one of the most perplexing moments in this arc. First you find out Professor Echo is Dr. Aeon’s alias as a hero, but from the future no less. Yet this ‘Aeon’ isn’t from our current timeline or dimension, which brings up another question, how many Aeon’s are there? Yet, how I see it is Professor Echo is grooming the Dr. Aeon from the aftermath of Project Destiny to be Professor Echo we fight here. According to the souvenir, a folded, old drawing of you, you have defeated / captured Professor Echo only, not Dr. Aeon. So we have a reason why Dr. Aeon wants the villains ousted. As for the heroes, it’s all in the Statesman Strike Force. Typical mad scientist doing a monolog just to be outwitted by crummy heroes and proven that he was just a pawn in a grander scheme.

So we fight Dr. Aeon later as villains in our “Project Destiny” arcs, but here’s a quote that adds to the plothole from Scirocco’s arc:

[ QUOTE ]
Dr. Aeon's map of time

This notebook contains Dr. Aeon's attempts to map out all the junctions where he could change history and keep the world from being destroyed. A lot of them are already long past, and there are very few left. However, one looks promising. According to Dr. Aeon's notes, if you were selected as the Destined One, and then you were somehow able to show Recluse that he would lose in a battle against you, he would probably halt his plans. The problem is that if you beat Lord Recluse, then Arachnos might splinter anyway, and lead to the end of the world. However, Dr. Aeon has a plan about how it could be done. If you could use the DESTINY portal to fight Recluse in the near future and defeat him, then you could return to the present with proof that you can beat him without provoking a division within Arachnos in the present. It sounds crazy, but it just might work. Maybe keeping Aeon around really was a good idea, after all.

[/ QUOTE ]

So we got a key interest he wants to stop us, the main villain, from killing all life. Yet the plotholes are what did he do in the past, aside Marshal Brass’s arc, and what did he have left? We may or may not find out.

Aside Dr. Aeon’s role in ‘Project Destiny’s arcs, I find in peculiar, or perhaps a coincidence, that the “Future events to come to past” are now coming to past. From Ghost Widow Patron arc: Project Destiny

[ QUOTE ]

Plaque from the future

You found this hand-carved plaque on a pile of rubble in the strange future Arachnos sent you to. It reads:

'This marks the spot on which the final battle occurred. After the Arachnos war, the second Rikti war, the Council War, the Nemesis War, the Rikti Civil War, and the final Arachnos War, here did the Destined One and Lord Recluse fight their final battle. With their death, the wars ended, but the world had already passed away. All that is left to this world is chaos and we, the isolated scraps of humanity. We have no home, no community, no pleasure, and no peace. As for hope, it exists only in memory.'

The date on the plaque is for 15 years from when you left. And buried beneath the rubble below the plaque, you can see the wrecked form of one of Lord Recluse's armored spider-arms, still clutched in the grasp of your own skeletal hand.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not sure if it’s merely coincidental, but I see the reference that the Arachnos War is “Recluse’s Victory” the PvP zone, and we just started the second Rikti war in Issue 10, perhaps we are onto the Council’s war which sounds like they bring back the 5th. However different Patrons say similar events, but their reference on what happened is different for all. Just a speculation.

**All facts were deprived from paragonwiki.com**

I've been to RV before this event, fun on the down times, and horrendious on the hero peak times. Yet, now, OMG, talk about a blast. Non-stop mayhem and both sides seem to win equally.

I died less times as my thugs / traps MM, Namine, then my electric / electric brute, Marjorie Scyphe. I've also killed more while playing as my MM then my brute. But I tested what I wanna, and yeah electric / electric brutes can sap a player dry if you build it correctly, ( regen scrappers takes a li'l longer, but it's possible, if they don't play the "ADHD, on crack, plus an overdose of sugar high, while downing a quadshot mocha carmilla jumping-bean" game) and, boy oh boy, heroes seem to run when they see I am sapping them ( hence the "I'm Mrs. Bunny Foo-foo" game commencies )... My down fall; I didn't pick up the medicane pool &gt;.&lt;;; , so I can be easily whiped if heroes gangbang on me.

As my MM, I held a turrent over an hour or so, and wow this was the longest battle I saw for the zone. My fellow villians left me all alone, only checking on the pillbox status time to time, and I felt soooo proud that I can stop waves of heroes all by myself *gleams*... that is until Posi showed up... That's a diffrent story. Now, bodyguard actually saved me more times then I can count when going mono on mono, or even a small group of heroes. However, neutral turrents can shread though me even with bodyguard up... such insane damage for a small pea shooter.

Now heavies, I love them as my MM, but as for my brute, they seem to be only useful for killing the turrents. Heck I barely dent posi as my brute w/heavy. As my MM, aside whiping out my pets and ending my turrent reign of supremacy ... Posi seem to take alot more damage, then again he attacked me so fast I hardly had time to resummon more minions. Such is life, but it was a blast gaurding pillbox Gulf, from the heroic ice / ice ( not sure on secondary ) tanker. He gave his life 3-4 times before Posi helped take over my mini-base *sniff*. I salute you tanker ( I wish I gotten his name dowm &gt;.&lt;; ).

I did notice, I can command a heavy like a MM, which is great for my MM AT. Heck I made keybinds for all pet commands, just on test I forgot a few &gt;.&lt; ... anywho, I did notice, if I manually tell my heavy to attack a X target, or a hero, all my pets, turrents, and my heavy will go all out on that target, not just the heavy.

Also speaking of turents, it seems I can also controll them like MM pet, but they seem to be on defensive all the time, even if I tell them to go aggressive. Yet, I can tell them which target to attack. Just seems odd since they arrgo to the "other side" if no one is in it, and I still need to test this, but they seem to be manual if a player is inside.

Oh well, overall a extreemly fun event. I must play more RV later @.@ ...

Just a warning, I tend to write alot when I post...



First of all, aside the new costumes and such, I literally died and gone to heaven in these mayhem missions. So much to destroy, so li’l time to do it in. Since I got an attention span shorter then a brick, I only scanned what was important.

Anywho, I try these mayhem missions, solo, on a team, low and high level villains. The higher you are the more carnage you can do. This brings out the li’l pyro villain out inside me, and yet, at level 6 destroying stuff, even solo, took a while if the objects are level 10+. While at level 40 all the objects I saw at level 6, are the same levels. Yeah there’s the level 1 stuff, like cardboard, phone booth and such, but I was under the impression, since we are suppose to destroy things, that we bonuses for causing mayhem. So, it seems at the lower levels you’ll need a team to get more time bonuses, or do that one, and only, side mission in Atlas Park (yes I gleaned this map 5 diffrent times and found only one side mission on all 5 Atlas mayhem mission runs), and then pull the heist. So will we see higher level objects to destroy later on, just for a challenge? ‘Cause as my level 40 villain I leveled Brickstown in about 15 minutes. Plus, I like the idea of a swat van, PPD barricade, and such.

As for time bonuses, I did see the :30 sec bonus for evading arrest a lot, ok no biggie. Yet, once I get a bonus for destroying X object, that’s it, for solo that is. However, on a team it seems you get a bonus for each member destroying the same object, one bonus per player that does destroy the X object. Location doesn’t matter, but if you help with the same object it seems you don’t get the multiple time bonuses. As a low level villain, I was leaving with 14 minutes left to spare, doing the only side mission in Atlas, plus the heist, while on a team, even with a few disconnections, we’re leaving with 2 – 4 minutes to spare. To me it seems they design this to have a team (5-8 man team), semi-split up, and cause mayhem. This ideal is what I’d love to test out later.

As a high level villain, I started with 15 minutes on a heist to Brickstown, from Nerva, albeit the broker told me 20 minutes, I racked up over 45 minutes in time, that I decided to waste a few minutes, and I still, with 3 side missions and the heist pulled off, leaving with 30 minutes to spare. So as a high level, time isn’t of an essence, but clarification from the broker will be nice.

With the new AV/GM scaling, I am glad I didn’t try these mayhem missions in relentless. On live now, I can solo longbow bosses that are 1-3 levels above me, but on test, I was getting my butt kicked by a 1+ level longbow officer boss, as in whole 6 minion wipe in 3 seconds flat. I knew that these “heroes” will be harder, and a few posts confirmed this theory.

However, since I’ve tested on villainous, I also believe that these signature heroes appear only at certain instant maps. So far, port oaks seems to be atlas park, and Nerva seems to be Brickstown, and I need to test which one is founder’s fall, and so on. On the Brickstown map, as I stated prior, I leveled everything. Literally. If I can destroy it, it was in ashes within seconds. But, I didn’t get the signature hero, as someone theorized; instead I got some Lt. conning hero. Mind you I am a level 40, necromancy / dark miasma, mastermind while doing this. Can someone else confirm this?

While I have fun blowing up random junk, I found a few objects, target able, but intangible. Mostly near corners and walls. This is more of an annoyance factor, but plausible since the coding take some time to get it all down.

While everyone else that has a non-mastermind pet stated: that pet’s arggo the wrong objects, civilians, and just plain stupefied AI; I never think twice about that. Since on live pets get in an ADHD + sugar rush mode, even MM pets, time to time, I just adapted to that situation. (heck as my MM I am attacking up to 5 different groups at a time so what the add-on pets does has li’l effect on my tactics / status) However, as an MM I noticed that the additional “pets” will follow MM pet commands to an extent. Such as, I tell my minions to attack a target, distance makes no difference, and the add-on pet will attack the same target, at first, then the add-on pet gets bored after the target dies and goes on a killing spree. Yet, after we all regroup, my minions and the add-on pet, the add-on pet will follow basic MM pet commands again, to an extent. On live they, the add-on pets, are just some fat kid locked up in a candy factory going into ADHD mode while high on chocolate.

Now I read, over and over, how these ambushes are bugged, how they target you over the other minions, pets, etc. Perhaps I am wrong, but it seems to be coded that way. Yet, in these mayhem missions, it seems random on whom they’ll go after. Some times the mission holder, other times the closest villain. For an example: I was in a team, and being 2 levels higher I was killing the PPD for time bonuses while looking to see if there was any more side missions. The other members were pullin’ a heist then, so naturally the “hero” pops when they got the loot. However, instead of going after them as it was initially, it U-turned and decided to go after me. Not like I can’t handle, it but I found that odd.

While doing the Atlas Mayhem mission a few times, I did find out that it has one side mission and it was random. Rescue “insert name here” villain, smash and grab as the time bonus calls it, the kidnap, and random looting. Yet in Brickstown, I got 3/4 from that combo. I need to see if I can get more then 3 side missions in a mayhem cause they add to the fun. Plus the rocketpack from the Atlas mayhem is perfect for any low levels out there. The added HP temp. power ( +10% hp for 24 hours of game play, I believe is what it stated ), from Brickstown, will help in PvP, or in regular missions in general. Assuming that’s what you’ll get every time you complete those maps. I’ll need to do the others to see what they offer and test to see if we can get them back after they expire.

Now, I read in the interviews, and other dev posts, that masterminds will have a hard time on mayhem and hate it. Toying with thugs, and playing as my level 40 MM, I enjoy heists, a lot, and I feel the more attention I attract, the more villainous I am becoming. In fact I purposely attract attention, one for time bonuses, and second, mayhem missions are great EXP missions. In fact, just from reading the RV’s post, heroes can farm there all they want for prestige; I will take a mayhem over a RV, simply ‘cause I can get a lot out of it. If people really think about it, mayhems will also be good to farm prestige later on; they too, also have signature heroes on them. As my level 40 villain, I was getting 1-1.5 bubbles / bars of experience per mayhem mission, not including the temp powers. As my lower level villains I am getting a level – level and a half per mayhem. However, I am speculating now, so I need to test and compare the differences for prestige income and whatnot.

Now civilian abuse was something I wanted to do since they get in the way in the old heist, but now I can shoot, hold, fear, knockdown, or whatever I pleased with them. However I’d love it if I can “kill them” but I am very satisfied just knocking the living daylights out of them. Yet, I do see a semi-problem, I am shooting them from a distance, they’ll bite the bullet and walk off like they are all super powered, and whanot, but the instance I get 2 feet too close to their personal bubble space, they run off like chickens with their heads cut off. In a way, I was expecting them to cower, maimed in some fashion, or run for cover after you shoot them, not pretending to be Statesman in disguise.

While I am a MM while testing this, I never had a problem dieing, killing PPD, or whatnot. In fact, I haven’t gone to jail once, but my teammates have. From my point of view, I feel that they take on more then they can handle, and not utilize their minions appropriately or in general trying to be the “fury”. Then again, this is all about causing mayhem, so, not my debt, not my worry.

While I know we are suppose to test new content, I was under the impression that these mayhem missions are random. However I got them every heist I am able to pull. So, in the future, are we going to choose a bank heist, expect random heist / mayhem missions, or implementing mayhem missions so that they are our heist missions from now on? I am hoping for the last option ‘cause I really love these mayhem missions.

~MP