OminousVoice

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Stating that negative effect actions can be taken in Pocket D conflicts with ingame canon. Though I've seen it 'happen' time and again.

I guess if both parties agree, then player canon can override ingame canon during circumstances. Just makes stuff like that annoying for outsiders that reject that player canon.

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I have to agree there. I've seen countless 'fights' in Pocket D. It is a little irritating. Especially since the suppression field is supposed to be capable of nullifying even deitic powers. Personally I quite like the idea the DJ Zero is far more powerful than he lets on.

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Bending canon slightly is alright. For example, Blitz and the Unbroken Column (which I am a part of too) isnt really official canon, but its there, and fun.
I think the general thing that can be applied is 'if its god-moding, its bad'. For example, vampires that are suddenly immune to absolutely everything. I ran into TWO in Pocket D in one night, and a couple more dimensional/demonic undead beasties. My priest, who is a human, armed with a gun, lots of holy ammunition and basic skills with holy flame, basically got bounced off the walls, as 'Oh look we're immune to holy light too and holy bullets dont work either.'

/rant. Anyways, with canon as with most other things. Make it fairly sensible, dont drop one on other people and try to make it realistic.

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Hold on a tick. I was one those vampires and at no point did either of us state we were immune to everything, nor did we god-mode.
I think what happened there was a conflict of preconceptions. My 'canon' on vampires appears to be different to yours. However I've constructed my canon to allow for many different interpretations. I simply used the bloodline idea, in that bloodlines are founded and posses varying traits, thereby not stepping on anyone elses toes. My character is of a bloodline which is unaffected by religious iconograhpy or holy relics. Of course my character has his weaknesses, but any denial of such is merely IC bluster.

I'd like to throw the Primogen in there. He's an ancient vampire who whilst he doesn't use magic, knows a lot about it. He's currently tied up in the LoRDs plot but I'm sure something can be worked out.

The way I like to do things is use official canon as a basis for any player canon I construct. Basically all the elements that the game holds true, so do I. It's in the gaps (and there are a lot of them) where I find areas to build and create stuff that suits my own needs but also gels with game canon. In fact a lot of game canon itself I've found to be absolutely perfect for my needs anyway. I suppose I adapt my canon to suit official canon, this also allows my canon to fit better with others.

For me official canon is a kind of universal constant. It's something everyone ought to be able to agree on in order to minimise conflicts. The tricky part is when player canons conflict. In such cases a degree of compromise must be reached between the RPers.

In cases where player canon conflicts with official canon, official canon wins every time. The game is the reality in which your characters exist. The only legitimate way of denying that reality is if your toon is a conspiracy nut or mentally ill.

I'm up for it. Knightmare is already in the Handbook.

Righty, I haven't been updating my various profiles as much as I should. So I made a start. The most notable change is that of my main villain. He's been renamed from 'The Eternal Knightmare' to 'The Knightmare Revenant'. I did this largely because I was fed up of people calling him 'Eternal' in both PvE and RP. He now has a new profile to reflect this.
http://union.virtueverse.com/index.p...tmare_Revenant

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12. Eternal Knights is an otherworldly entity who views and interacts with the universe out of curiosity.


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A little clarification. My character, the Knightmare, dose indeed do what he does out of curiosity. He manipulate peoples fears. His greater self is quite literally fear itself. It exists as instinct and operates as such. The Knightmare is a nexus of consciousness and is able to actively manipulate the fears of others. The trouble is that the Knightmare's influence doesn't extend far enough. He simply isn't powerful enough to control an entire planet... yet.

So the Knightmare will feed upon the ambient fear, gathering strength enough to eventually cause the whole planets population to tremble in fear at a whim. Until then however, he will play puppet master, directing people and events through fear.

As for working him into a plot, I can see him being a pain in the backside for other world dominators as he would invariably throw a spanner in the works of others plans.

My main villain sees the Unionverse as a curiosity, an insect in a jar. Being an abstract pan dimensional uber-being, his physical presence on Earth is merely a speck of his true self that suffers from the limitations of corporeality. Whilst there's little malice in his actions, the citizens of world aren't likely to see it that way.

Ah well, there goes my 2nd Creative Genius award. ;D

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I admire what you're trying to do and I respect what you've done.
That's why I'm not going to sugar coat my reply.

I cannot hide my disappointment regarding the lack of said animation. You know, squash/stretch, movement, secondary action, pivotal axes of bodies, etc...
It all seems very flat and stiff. A bit like southpark animation but even they use all the aforementioned animation techniques.

How about adding some short action scenes or even the 2 main characters jumping from building top to building top? They could be running at each other for a brief moment before the pouncing. That would heighten the tension...

On the other hand the composition and direction of the shots are pretty spot on. You direct the viewer's eye directly at what you want him to see. Kudos for that.

Don't get me wrong. I like it.
But animation follow rules of timing and gravity that I cannot see in this clip.

No offense, I hope, because none intended...

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Um..wow. I wasn't expecting that. But perhaps I should have. Those are fair criticisms.
It should be noted that this is the first animation I produced using After Effects (rather than my preferred medium of Flash) and thus am not yet proficient. Also the first draft of this animation was used as a submission for a university module a few months ago, and I did rush it somewhat.

I'm not going to add to it. It was a struggle keeping track of the motion keyframes for even the simple movements. To add even more complex scenes would require time and effort I cannot afford.

That being said, I do agree with you when you said it didn't follow the rules of timing and gravity. Though I think thats down to my inexperience with the software. I was unable to achieve what I had visualised.

A few months ago I said that I was producing an animation based around CoH. Well, I've finally got around to finishing it. Enjoy.

City of Heroes: Hero Rising

Union watched the two behemoths duke it out. He too saw the effect the electricity had on the creature. A smile curled across his lips. He unclipped the communicator from his belt.

"Alex? Come in Alex!" He said. The communicator buzzed for a second. Then a voice came through.

"Alex here. Is that you Stan?" said the voice.

"Yeah. Look, we've got a situation here. We need your help. Head to Kings Row right now." said Union.

"Aww, does little brother need my help?" said the voice mockingly.

"Alex I don't have time for this. Please, get to Kings Row."

"Hehe, on my way."

With that, the transmission cut. Union headed towards the congregation of heroes. He found Amber Banshee.

"I've called in someone who might be able to help." He said to her. He looked up as a bolt of lightning cut through the sky. "He he is now."

Alex Sage a.k.a. Anbarus, the living lightning storm, peered down upon the commotion. Rolling his eyes at the state of things before diving striking the ground like thunder. He rose to his feet. The arcs of electricity flowed around him like neon snakes, jumping off to touch anything conductive. He was a sight to behold.

"That was quick." said Union.

"Yeah I know." Anbarus replied with a grin. "So...what have we got here?"

The air rippled as Union collided with the beast. The monster stumbled and staggered about. Union fell to the ground dazed. The creature still remained on its feet, though a large portion of the orange glows flickered as they had with the clones. They faultered, but did not extinguish.

Union clambered to his feet. He shook off the dizziness and composed himself. He was just about to take off for another go, when he spotted the huge copper coloured hulk that was the Paladin stomp around the corner.

"You have got to be kidding me!"

He watched Helena vanish, satisfied she was safe. Union thought he heard words coming from Helena, but she hadn't spoken. Something about the orange glows. He rose to his feet and turned to the ensuing battle.

The monster was swatting heroes out of the air like flies, and it shook the ground with each step it took. The thing was was being hit with every type of blast imaginable, and shrugging them off as the monster lumbered on. If it could just be knocked off its feet, it would buy a little time for the rest the heroes to act.

Union leapt into the sky and began circling. He needed to build up speed. Once more he forced his power into his flight, gathering velocity. He was approaching 400mph. It would have to be enough. He turned and fired himself straight toward the monster, aiming directly at the orange core. The irresistible force collided with the immovable object.

Union clambered to his feet after the shockwave had knocked him off them. He quickly surveyed the area. Other heroes had joined Bill in attacking the vast creature, their efforts looked hopelessly futile. Unions first concern was the safety of others. Behind him he saw that Annie was still unconscious, but reasonably safe in the shadow of the broken pod. Further out onto the battle field he spotted the motionless Helena lying next to a spilled trash can. He worried that any effort he made would be too late, but he had to try.

Union darted toward Helena. The vast viscous creature was busy with the other heroes and appeared to ignore him. He reached her and carefully checked for a pulse. After a few seconds he found one. It was very faint, but she was still alive. He let out a quiet sigh of relief. Gently, he rolled her into the recovery position. There was nothing much he could do except activate her mediport. He checked to see if she still had it on her.

The vast pillar of ooze rose high. It's orange core glowed vibrantly. The irritating noise slowly returned. Union's ears withstood it, but it was still unpleasant.
He glanced briefly at Amber Banshee and the towering Brian as they watched the pillar of alien slime. A hypothesis formed.

"Looks like it could be a gestalt entity." he said. "A fusion of all the cloned heroes, complete with cloned powers and abilities." He gave another glance at all the heroes present before returning his gaze to the ever growing pillar of ooze.

"If so, then yeah. We're in it up to our eyeballs."

Union hopped down form the meteor and joined Brian and Banshee. They watched as stream of orange glows flowed along the surface. Unions brow furrowed in curiosity. The concern began to rise from the pit of his gut as he too spotted Helena. He answered Brian's question.

"Yeah. I did."

The noxious fog had almost completely dissipated and beams of sunlight began to bathe the area in a warm glow. Union watched Steve as he walked away, the Shivans gelatinous membrane glistening in the sunlight. The sight of a 9 foot Shivan carrying bags full of shopping caused an amused smirk to slip across his lips.

The smirk dropped when he caught sight of the corpse of the man killed by his clone. His eyes fixed upon the dead man. His heart sank once more. The sunlight shining down upon the lifeless body seemed less of a warm embrace than the revealer of painful truth.

"We won." said Union solemnly. "But the price was too high."

Commander Union's felt the shell of the pod buckle as he forced it. It split open. The combined assault of radiation, gravimetric pressure and psychic shock must've weakened it considerably. The tentacle fell limp. Union looked up to see the clones collapsing. He spotted the two remaining Union clones as they fell to their knees, slowly liquefying.

He turned to Steve who was still firing out deadly radiation and put a hand on his shoulder.

"I think you can stop now." he said quietly.

Union looked out across the battlefield as the noxious fog slowly drifted away. He peered out over the strange ocean of slime, the little orange glows floating across its surface like lifeboats. He felt an overwhelming sense of pity wash over him. He slumped down on the the now lifeless pod, quietly contemplating these events.

((Edited to include Annie's efforts))

The pain stopped. Unions head began to clear. He shook off the last remaining pain and leapt to his feet. He quickly rushed forward, grabbed his brow mantle and put it on. He turned to the meteor. The clones were coming in fast now. Their actions seemed desperate. Union headed quickly to the meteor. Annie was still wounded, the zombie, Bill was hacking away at the sphincters and Steve was still pumping radiation into the pods fissure.

Union had an idea. He leapt up on top of the pod, next to Steve. He looked down into the heart of the pod. The strange eerie glowing captivated him for a brief moment, but he soon snapped out of it. He put his plan into action. He wedged his foot against the edge of one side of the fissure and his hands gripped the other. He took a deep breath and heaved with all his might. He was going to rip this thing open.

The pain was searing. Unions mind screamed in agony. It felt like a thousand white hot needles penetrating his skull. It throbbed and stung and all things in between. All his mind knew what to do was hurt.

His mantle. He had to get to his brow mantle. He had taken it off in a foolish display of bravado when battling his clones. He needed to get to it. That mantle would provide at least a modicum of protection against this psychic assault.

He began to crawl back the way he came. The pain was so intense his concentration was faltering. The clones ignored him as he slowly crawled through the murk. For all intents and purposes Union was out of action. He opened his eyes painfully and spotted a blue glint in the dirt a few dozen feet ahead of him. He dragged himself forward, fighting the pain every step of the way.

High above, the Union clone was only feet away from Union when it began to change direction. However, Union had factored for this, he had suspected the clone might become aware of his tactic and try to counter it. He caught the clones leg as it tried to move away. He used the momentum to swing clone around and hurled it towards the ground. He chased the clone as it fell, gravity accelerating their fall. The clone crashed to the ground, the impact enough to clear a patch of the fog away. Union increased his speed at the last second. Moments after the collision, Union collided with the clone. His impact was even greater. A large cloud of dust burst from the impact. The dust began to clear, Union emerged from the small crater he and his clone had created. He flicked something from his hand, a green goo. Two down.

Union looked around for the remaining clones. He saw the robot VGX-3 firing in the direction of the crashed alien pod. Union followed the trajectory of the robots shots and saw his clone heading deeper into the mist. Other clones were following suit. They all seemed to to be heading towards the pod. Whatever was going on, it was happening there.

Union rushed deeper into the murk. When arrived at the epicenter, he found several heroes gathered round the pod. Steve the Shivan stood astride the alien meteor, firing intense blasts of radiation at its core. Bill appeared to be gunning for the strange sphincter like protuberances that were pumping out this noxious murk. Union also saw another, a giant of a man, Brian, heading towards the pod. Then Union spotted the angelic Annie collapsed on the ground. He rushed to her side. Gently, he cradled her head in his hand.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

It was at that moment he saw that the bulbous tenticle had re-emerged from the pod.

My DM/DA is built to be all things to all people. He steamrollers solo, is bloody handy on a team, but is utterly useless in pvp.

Brutes are damage dealers primarily. I focused on damage output for mine. Dark Armour may be a resistance based set but its certainly not suited to tanking. It has more damage mitigating powers than any other melee set and thus keep me alive longer, but it cannot withstand a sustained pounding.

If I had a quid for every time by brute has been unceremoniously one-shotted by an overpowered AV...

Anyway, brutes can be a versatile AT. Depending on powersets they can tank, scrap, and to small degree control.

Union landed with an almighty thud. The impact sent a gust of wind which blew some of the fog clear. He could see a little more clearly now. Two of his clones were heading straight for him, while the third was being occupied by the robot VGX-3. The robot certainly looked fortified, but Union wasn't sure if even it could withstand a being with a punch capable of breaking a building in half. He hoped so.

He returned his attention to the oncoming pair of Union clones. He'd need to hit their weak spots with the force of nothing less than a cruise missile. Even for Union this was a tall order. But he did it once and could do it again. He would have to try to repeat what he did with the last one.

The clones came at him once more. A smirk crawled across Unions face as he darted forward. He knocked both clones off their feet with with a brutal double clothesline. He swiftly turned and attempted deliver another massive footstomp right on the face of the nearest clone, but the clone rolled out of harms way just in time. Union was caught off guard by a kick to the midsection from the second clone. Union retaliated with an elbow to the jaw. He immediately turned to the first clone, gripped its head tight and slammed his own into it. The headbutt caused the glow to flicker briefly, but not extinguish it. The clone staggered, seemlingly dazed. This gave Union time to turn and deliver a series of titanic blows to the face of the second clone. He saw a chance. He quickly stooped and scooped the clones legs out from under it. He maintained a tight grip as he began to swing the clone round and round. The first clone, now recovered from the headbutt, moved in. Union swung the second clone round like a baseball bat and whacked the first so hard it sent it hurtling deeper into the mist. Then Union began to spin the clone as an Olympic hammer thrower might. Union was gathering momentum at an incredible rate. He let go, sending the clone rocketing skyward. He waited until the clone had reached the zenith of its climb. He watched it regain its composure and dive back down. Union launched himself to meet it.

The blows continued to land. Union felt a hot liquid filling his mouth. He spat it out on the ground. Blood. He hadn't seen his own blood in years. These clones were capable of hurting him. He dreaded to think what they would do to others. A fist collided with the back of his skull. His head snapped forward, catapulting yet more blood from his mouth.

Then a strange sensation passed over him. A feeling of lightness, his body didn't feel so heavy anymore. The punches stopped. He looked up to see Annie. She was manipulating the gravity around him and the clones. The clones were floating away from him. He let out a sigh of relief. As he inhaled, the air he breathed was rich in oxygen. His head began to clear and his mind regained focus. He gave Annie a brief but reassuring smile.

The clones had now counteracted the gravity distortion by hovering, but Union now had breathing space and room to maneuver. With one swift motion Union rose to his feet and delivered an almighty uppercut to the nearest clone. The impact sent the clone launching into the air. The gravity field dissipated and the second and third clones went in for the kill, but Union put his foot down, literally. An earth shaking foot stomp sent out a localised shockwave that knocked the clones off their feet.

He spotted the fourth clone being hit by a barrage of energy blasts. The blasts were coming from a hulking great robot. The assault was slowing the clone down. So long as the robot didn't let the clone get within melee range, he would be ok.

Union turned his attention to the noise of rushing air coming from above. It was the first clone and it was coming in fast. Union leapt into the sky. He was going to meet this clone head on. Once more he forced his power into his flight and his speed increased. The clone was coming at him like a missile. The two got closer and closer. Union had an idea. He reared his fist back, focusing his eyes on the orange glow on his opponents forehead. The two were within feet of eachother. Union drove his fist forward. The impact was colossal, magnified by fist and target colliding at frightening speed. The clone span in the air. Union had to know for sure, he flew toward the spinning clone and grabbed it, ready to hit it again. He watched as the orange glow as it flickered and faultered. It slowly faded until it was extinguished. Union let go. The clones body began to disintegrate as it fell to earth, dissolving into a viscous slime.

He did it. They can be defeated. One down, three more to go. He glared down at the other two clones. He was bound an determined to put an end to these abominations. He inhaled deeply and dived.