Olantern

Further suggestions:

- Whenever someone posts that the devs, including writers, are incompetent, lazy, or bad at their jobs, take a drink.
* Take an additional drink if the poster claims to be able to do the job in question better.
* Take an additional drink if a criticism of the writing is "supported" by a link to tvtropes or similar source.
* Take an additional drink every time someone expresses moral outrage over the writing (referee's discretion).

- Whenever anything is blamed on "marketing" or a developer associated with marketing, take a drink.
* Take an additional drink if the poster uses the term "suits" to refer to the people being criticized.
* Take an additional drink if the thing in question has nothing whatsoever to do with the marketing of the game (e.g., a technical or powers change).

- Whenever a poster suggests that a game feature, such as the aggro cap, should be rolled back, take a drink for every issue that the feature has been gone. Thus, if someone suggests rolling back the i13 PvP changes, take ten drinks. If someone suggests rolling back ED (i6), take seventeen drinks. If someone wants to be able to herd entire zones (i4), take nineteen drinks. If someone goes on about how wonderful the i1 Malta arcs are and how more content should be like them, take twenty two drinks. (This rule is optional, since it may result in huge numbers of drinks per individual post.)

I'm rarely in the camp that believes a remake is always a terrible idea. But in the case of the Rocketeer, I'm not sure what a new production could do that the original didn't. I find it hard to believe that they could recruit a stronger cast, for example, or write a script that handles the material better. Even the visual effects from the original (presumably the thing that can be updated most impressively) still hold up well.

Edit: Any new version had danged well better include all the words to "Begin the Beguine," as the original does.

In addition to everything everyone else mentioned, I recall your being interested in stalkers in the past. That archetype just recently got a number of performance boosts that you may want to check out.

Significant content updates since August 2009 include:

-Three "basic" Praetorian zones- a new 1-20 game. Praetoria has been reworked into an alternate world where all the superhumans either work for a utopian-yet-totalitarian government or join a movement to overthrow it.

-First Ward and Night Ward- a continuation of the Praetorian zones but open to non-Praetorian characters.

- Atlas Park and Mercy Island- Starting content up to level 10 has been completely revamped (and Galaxy City destroyed). Atlas Park also received a complete makeover, while only the missions and spawns in Mercy changed.

- Incarnate system- an endgame system for making level 50 characters more powerful. The mechanics are too complex to include here; see Paragonwiki or other threads on the subject. Most of the story content for the system consists of multi-team Trials that continue the story from the lower level Praetorian content.

- Dark Astoria revamped. Dark Astoria is now a co-op, incarnate-level zone where characters try to prevent the rise of a Banished Pantheon god-thing. Particularly excellent stories, in my opinion.

- Alignment system. Change from hero (sympathetic crimefighter) to vigilante (unsympathetic crimefighter) to villain (unsympathetic criminal) to rogue (sympathetic criminal) by doing Tips, a type of mission that you receive by defeating enemies once you and they are both 20 or over. The system also includes additional benefits for not changing your alignment, if you go that route.

- Many new powersets, some free to subscribers, other that must be purchased: Beam Rifle, Street Justice, Beast Mastery, Staff Fighting, Dark Control, Dark Blast for blasters, Water Blast, Time Manipulation, Nature Affinity (new this week), and more ...

- Many new costume sets. Go back through the "post your best costume designs" thread for examples of the new pieces in action.

- Lots of new story arcs and Task Forces throughout the game. Find new contacts who give out those arcs with the handy "Find Contact" button.

- "Signature" story arcs that take place as a series of "episodes" over a few months and may impact the game's overall story. The first arc dealt with the deaths of several signature characters; the second is in progress now.

That's about all I can think of off the top of my head. As always, consult paragonwiki and specific subforums for more information on things specifically of interest to you. Welcome back.

This has been my favorite contest since my time with CoH began, and that includes all player and official contests. The submissions were all excellent, and I really enjoyed seeing not just redesigns but player comments on why they made the choices they did. I wish I could have participated myself; maybe next time! Good luck to everyone, and thanks to P.E.R.C. for putting this on.

I was hoping we'd get an Iron Mallard cameo. Maybe the Angry Space Duck will show up later, too.

Personally, I'm still hoping for the Hat Melee set, to go with Hat Armor (tier 1 power: Wear a Hat). Zwillinger could be rendered as a signature character to promote it.

I believe the Woodsman also has Earth Control powers. Or is he exclusively Plant Control?

Interesting.

Perhaps the most interesting thing to me is how little predictions about the future, not to mention the attitudes of science ficitional culture, have changed. The details and causes change, but the underlying ideas- fear of economic collapse, fear of environmental catastrophe, fear of social hegemony, belief in and fear of the stupidity of "the masses," and technological advancement as holding the potential for salvation- all continue to characterize the complex of ideas called "the future" for a certain segment of society. Whether that segment is a culture of writers still glowing in the light of the cyberpunk literary movement and the Turkey City lexicon or a larger, electronically formed culture that I call "geekdom," the preoccupations remain the same. Maybe they were only nascent then and have since become more universal, or maybe there simply hasn't been enough time for them to shift.

I wonder if that will continue to hold true over the next twenty five years. Someone make a note to remind me then.

(For an example of how the ideas that make up "the future" sometimes *do* change over time, seek out *Today Then: America's Best Minds Look 100 Years into the Future on the Occasion of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition,* edited by Dave Walter.)

More great designs; keep them coming.

I'll second the Sonic/Devices blaster as an extremely rare, though powerful and interesting, combination.

I've found dark armor/stone melee to be quite a sturdy and fun combination on a tanker, though I couldn't manage it on a brute back in the early days of CoV. For those considering it, be warned that it's one of the few characters where I felt I needed IO's (specifically, recovery and the Theft of Essence proc) in order to operate effectively. But now that the character has them, he is a beast in performance as well as concept.

I don't see many dual blades and fire paired that often (in fact, I don't see Fiery Aura paired with anything other than Fiery Melee, Staff, or Spines that often), but my db/fire scrapper turned out to be an enjoyable character, as well as much stronger than I'd expected. I am seeing this combination more than I used to, and I'm told it's an acknowledged favorite, but I always take statements about "popular" combos with a grain of salt. Every server's culture on this kind of thing is different, the forums are different again, and the AT boards, especially the melee AT boards, are practically a game culture unto themselves.

In a response to my previous post about NPC chest details in a beta thread (reposted here), Techbot Alpha and Roderick pointed out that Longbow and Hero Corps NPC's actually have a two-part "chest detail" (emblem and straps), with the emblem actually being part of their tights patterns. Roderick ultimately suggested the following:

"What I'd like to see for groups like this is three new costume parts:
-Chest Detail of the Logo*
-Chest Detail of the straps/bandolier*
-Tights pattern with the logo and signature pattern baked in.

"*We already have these for Longbow, one via Vet Rewards, the other a standard part."

In the most recent Coffee Talk, Mr. Miller apparently mentioned that Void Sanction and Hammer of Justice emblems, but not a Hero Corp or Wyvern one, would be added to player costume options at some time. This prompted someone in the beta forum to request a (standard) Hero Corp(s) emblem, which prompted someone else to request another one, which prompted me to make this list of possible in-game logos that could become Chest Details.

Here's a list of logos that exist in-game but aren't available to players:

Freedom Corps/Longbow*
Hero Corp(s)*
Ouroboros^
The Warriors^
The Hellions^
The Freakshow (If you don't know this logo, it's at the Pocket D door to Talos Island and on various Freakshow mission maps.)
Crey^
The Syndicate^
Rogue Alignment symbol
Vigilante Alignment symbol
Paragon Transit Authority
Portal Corporation
Wentworth's Fine Consignments
Red Beast Energy Drink

*=logo exists as a "chest detail" costume piece for NPC's

^=logo appears on NPC models, but not as it would appear as a "chest detail" costume piece on a PC rig (i.e., it appears to be an integrated part of a different costume piece, such as a jacket)

(no symbol)=logo appears in the game but not on any character I can recall

That's all I can think of off the top of my head, but I'm sure there are more. I've had a (regular) Hero Corp character for the longest time and would be happy to see that logo in particular.

Edit: Note that plenty of these logos (the alignment symbols come to mind) might require some rejiggering of their color makeup, turning them into two-color images, to work as PC costume parts.

There are tons of great and interesting designs in this thread! I have learned a lot, not only about characters I've "known" for years, but also about what players think about costumes.

It makes me wish I had a machine that could run the game properly available at the moment. If I did, I think I'd do two different lineups: the team as I'd design it given free reign and the team as I'd design it as a dev trying to implement other players' preferences. Maybe I'll do that someday in an art thread, once I get a new system up and running.

Given the negative reactions people have to every new loading screen, perhaps they should give in to forum pressure and just have fans make them from now. At this point, forumites are just hardwired to like each other's work and criticize that of the devs. I'm fairly certain that if a fan had created this loading screen, it'd be hailed as a work of genius and not condemned as unprofessional.

Oh, and I find the fixation on Marauder's smile interesting. Hasn't he always had kind of a manic grin, ever since his revamp for Going Rogue?

Neat thread.