Omnium

Hearing that they were going to shutter City of Heroes both stunned and saddened me. I suppose it shouldn’t be a surprise; all things end. But it’s always sad to lose a community; packing up and leaving friends, family, and neighbors behind and moving away. Some you keep in contact with, others you eventually lose track of, but the scenery and the cast of your life have been changed. And you can’t go home, even if you can go back. Such is the way of all things mortal.

/em is melancholy.

CoH was my first MMO (I know, there’s a lot of that going around), though I had plenty of experience RPing on various MUSHes in college. My best friend was in the CoH beta, and so I created my first character on his beta account to try it out. When the game started up, he reserved that character’s name for me and I set about scraping together a computer to run it. Took me a few months, but I was soon in game. We never had any doubts about what server to be on.

For something like 6-7 years, CoH was my main recreation. I’d come home from work, hop on for an hour or two of play, read the latest page or two of the forums, and then grab some sleep. Though eventually other activities (and other MMOs) would draw some of my time away, COH was always there and, at least until the past nine months, I could be relied upon to pop on at least a couple times a week. While other MMOs did draw me away, I never encountered there the RP family which I found here, on Virtue. There have been good times, there have been bad times, there has been drama of both flavors… but I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Some memories that come back to me now, as we near the curtain call:
• Lurking about the fringes of the “RP Community”, all the way back to the Gemini Park days. I was only peripherally part of it (at least as I perceived it), but I shared teams and moments with a number of the “big names”, and I had a ball doing so.
• The IC Positron Task Force run by Major Disorder on a three-man team, with the strictly-baseline journalist Calvin Meeks along with us and never using anything more potent than sprint and brawl. Back in the days when you couldn’t do a TF if you had outleveled it. And dropping connection would drop you from the TF. We slogged away at that thing for over 6 hours. And we won. Finally. And then Calvin Meeks wrote a newspaper article about it.
• The random street sweeping team in Perez Park that encountered my 5-year-old hero Spooky Child trying to be helpful. And kindly escorted her out of the zone and back to Atlas Park because none of them in good conscience could let her run around in such a dangerous place, no matter what her hero license said.
• The Spooky Taskforces that sort of became a tradition whenever I had a holiday from work. Always fun doing all-IC taskforces with friends.
• Wandering by a pay phone while The Ascendant was standing next to it. I had to clean off more keyboards due to him…
• The week-long RP operation where Joint Task Force Hero, the Shinsengumi, and allies took down every single Council archvillain in the game. Felt like a great accomplishment.

Things I never got to do:
• Any of the Shadow Shard TFs
• Get a villain all the way to 50
• Get to know, interact, and play with more than a small fraction of the great people that passed through here over the years.

Thanks to the many characters, players, and Supergroups who made my stay great. Those that I remember… and those whom I can’t bring to mind right now but were no less an important:

The members of Joint Task Force Hero, the Shinsengumi, the Paragon City Police Force, Aurorae, S.C.O.R.P.I.O., The Peacekeeper Initiative, the New Porter Institute, the Campus Alliance of Preternatural and Exemplary Students, and the Templars of the Abbey.

Adamilia, Albino Knife, Arctic Wolf, Ascendant, Beacon, C. Nightshade, Captain Adept, Captain Galacto, Capt. Starfall, Captain Valor, Caya, Celara, Cog Sprocket, Comrade Smersh, Cyber Yojimbo, Day-Star, Diamond., DipSet, Dr. Neutrino, Dragonberry, Galacto Girl, Galen Mentalis, IV, Kadekawa, Kestrel, Kid Valor, Korrick, Lt Frank Warner, Lucianna, Lux, Mazin Wystan, Moggie, PFC Idaho, Prototype Eve, Psylum, Questing Eagle, Rayvn, Sazanka Hikari, Scape Kid, Serge Ta’Null, Sgt. SmallUnit, Shinsektor, Skilla, Supreme Soldier, The Killer Whale, Train Wreck, Twilight Thorn, Vagabond Mage, Vandellia, Vesperi, Veteran X, War Cat, and many, many others.

Goodbye and good luck to you all from:

Major Disorder, Captain Artemis, Armor Corps, Clandestine Ops, Overpressure, Psych Ops, Spooky Child, Bacchanal, IvanTheMountain, MacHeath, NUDET, Mr. Malles, Et Damnatio Memoriae

A.K.A. @Omnium

A.K.A. Chris

(I’ll be there, in one form or another, when they pull the plugs, so if you see one of me, say hi!)

I and mine always stand ready to battle all enemies, foreign and domestic. And Interstellar. And interdimentional.

You get the picture.

Star Strider Forces Registry
Name: Major Disorder
Global Contact: @Omnium
Level of Classification: 50 NRG/NRG Blaster
Origin: Mutation
Super Rank & Super Group: Command Staff, Joint Task Force Hero

Name: Captain Artemis
Global Contact: @Omnium
Level of Classification: 45 Kin/Psi Defender
Origin: Mutation
Super Rank & Super Group: Staff Officer, Joint Task Force Hero

Name: Armor Corps
Global Contact: @Omnium
Level of Classification: 41 Inv/NRG Tanker
Origin: Technology
Super Rank & Super Group: Strike Team Leader, Joint Task Force Hero

Name: Clandestine Ops
Global Contact: @Omnium
Level of Classification: 28 MA/SR Scrapper
Origin: Natural
Super Rank & Super Group: Classified

Name: Overpressure
Global Contact: @Omnium
Level of Classification: 25 Peacebringer
Origin: Natural
Super Rank & Super Group: Staff Officer, Joint Task Force Hero

[u]Name[u]: Joint Task Force Hero

[u]Currently Recruiting[u]: We are currently recruiting new personnel.

[u]RP Level[u]: I'm going to go ahead and say RP-Lite, but seeing as I've never seen definitions for the various levels...
You're expected to remain in character as much as possible, but we do occasionally lapse into OOC in team or SG when discussion drifts entirely that way and we get tired of typing those extra parens.

[u]Theme/Concept[u]: Military. Joint Task Force Hero is a US military joint task force, composed of personnel from all the military services, attached personnel from allied nations, and civilian aides. It is charged with battling super-powered threats to the United States around the globe. A detachment is permanently stationed in Paragon City, since it is such a magnet for that sort of thing.

[u]Activity[u]: Currently low, with about a dozen unique members of differing levels of activity. More people will improve things. We have regularly scheduled team nights on Mondays and Fridays, starting around 8:30 PM Eastern and continuing as long as people can stay.

[u]Requirements for Membership[u]: All characters must be either active duty military of the US or an allied nation (allied in the post-Rikti War global political situation, remember), or civilians employed to assist in a specialized capacity. Characters should have one costume appropriate to military operations (be that fatigues, powered armor in subdued colors, etc.). Players should log on and play with the group on a semi-regular basis, rather than joining and then not logging on to the character for four months.

[u]Leadership[u]: Major Disorder, Captain Artemis, Cyber Yojimbo, Sgt. Major Boom

[u]In-Game Contact(s)[u]: @Omnium, @Beacon

[u]Out-of-Game Contact(s)[u]: PMing Omnium on the CoH boards is your best bet.

[u]URL[u]: jtfhero.virtueverse.com

[u]Coalition(s)[u]: Generally (but not exclusively) coalitioned with military or law enforcement groups. Shinsengumi, Aurorae, Meta Forces, The Peacekeeper Initiative to name a few.

[u]Other Details[u]: When membership was more active, we did a SG TF or trial at least once a month. PvP neutral, but not currently very PvP active. We have a fully functioning base and, through our coalitions, have teleporter access to all zones.

I know it's probably been mentioned before, but...

Bring back the Buzzcut hairdo. Used to exist for Male and Huge, at least, but does not anymore.

Would go under Head (Standard) > Hair no doubt.

Also, face patterns are not allowed on the "glowing eyes" face. That's Supernatural Face 11 for Females and Supernatural Face 13 for Males and Huge.

Please?

Crap. And here I'll be on vacation for the launch and the 2-day headstart.

Ah well.

Supergroup Name: Joint Task Force Hero

Website: Inquire at our Public Affairs office

Leader & Recruiting Officers: Major Disorder, Captain Adept, Sgt. SmallUnit

Method of Contact: Forum PM, in-game e-mail, or /tell. I'm reachable at @Omnium most evenings.

Guild Description:
8/17/2004 10:21:03 AM -- AP WorldStream

MACDILL AFB, Fla. (AP): For over 70 years, Paragon City has been a flashpoint for super-powered conflict, and it seems only to escalate. Now it is drawing official military attention. At a press conference this morning General Bishop announced the deployment of a detachment of Joint Task Force Hero to the Paragon City area.

"The Rikti, as well as armed forces dedicated to the violent overthrow of the United States, such as the 5th Column and Nemesis, have begun concentrating forces in Paragon City in even greater numbers. In response, we are redistributing our forces to address these developments. As part of this redeployment, a special detachment of Joint Task Force Hero will be permanently stationed in the city to prosecute operations against these growing threats."

General Bishop revealed that a small strike team has already been operating in the city for several weeks now, and the size of the force will grow as the reposturing continues. When asked about the legal implications of the use of military forces within the US, General Bishop explained that the rules of engagement in place are compliant with federal and state laws.

"While Posse Comitatus does place limitations on our operations beyond the listed threats, there are extant provisions in the Might for Right Act and Citizen Crime Fighting Acts that allow for limited assistance to law enforcement. We recognize the efforts of hero organizations, individual heroes, and the organs of civil order which are combatting chaos on the streets of Paragon City, and will make every effort to assist them outside of our operations, within the legal limitations laid upon us."

Civil libertarian organizations released a joint statement expressing concern about these developments. "When the government begins employing offensive military force against its citizenry, all our liberties are in danger. We will be closely monitoring the actions taken by these forces to ensure they do not drift into this dangerous area."

The governor of Rhode Island could not be reached for comment.

General James J. Lindsay created Joint Task Force Hero in 1988 as part of the reform of special operations forces throughout the US military. It consolidated hero assets of all the services under a single command. Joint Task Force Hero engages in traning and operations throughout the globe, often alongside the super-powered forces of NATO countries and other friendly nations. Most notably they have engaged in the conflict against the Reichsman and Amerika Korps in 1989, and numerous operations during the Rikti War in 2002. Since the war, Joint Task Force Hero has been focusing operations on mopping up pockets of Rikti resistance left behind after the destruction of their portal.

Major General Miles Bishop was appointed Commander, Joint Task Force Hero in 2002 in the wake of the Rikti War. He has been a tireless advocate in rebuilding US military hero strength following the devastating losses suffered during the war.

((We are a small themed supergroup, open to characters of all archetypes, origins, and levels, so long as they have a military association. We like to engage in light RP while running missions, we have no problem with SKing or Exemplaring, and we have a regular teaming night weekly, for those that can make it.

Membership requirements are that all heroes (not necessarily players, just heroes) be active duty members of some branch of the US or other allied military, must invest in one costume that has a military appearance, must behave in a respectful manner towards others, must be able to put up with other SG members tossing military lingo and salutes around , and must log on an play on at least a semi-regular basis.))