Organica

My other project that I wanted to finish by the end of the month was to fill all my Virtue slots on this account with characters and stick them in one of my SGs. Little extra prestige, you know. ^_^ (I am not placing any of them in Dilithium's SG though -- that is for now a solo SG, as in 1 character only).

But for what it's worth, here's what I've created so far. I try to come up with names that I like, that aren't just random garbage, but not anything so incredibly clever that I'd regret locking it away behind a premium account. Sadly most of these characters are destined to never be played:



Blackberry Crush (Strawberry Crush was taken. Raspberry Crush is still free though).



Carmelcorn (Popcorn was taken)



Cupcake Overdrive



Jalia Jamb (a name I used in Toontown years ago, a combo of my old EQ shaman Jalia McMarrin, and Jellia Jamb, the maid in the Emerald City palace).



Master Wannabe (some friends in global chat were forming a master run and trying to find people for it... they didn't want any "wannabe's").



Hero Mero (friend typed this when he was trying to type "hero merit")



Nyaanko (literally can be read as "cat girl", nyaa being "meow" to Japanese and -ko which I believe literally means child, but is a very frequent ending for a girl's name. Nyaanko is a side character in one of my favorite manga Genshiken -- I think it's a nickname rather than her real name).



Snackrifice, who is a zombie master mind and therefore certainly won't be played after the account turns premium.


I have 4 slots left to fill.

Well it's good to mention it of course. I'm very careful so I don't think I would have forgotten. ^_^

Day 21 -- July 21, 2012

I ran a Numina Task Force this morning. That earned me my Task Force Commander badge and got me halfway to 41.



Other than that, I sold a Defender ATO. I'm not raking in tons of money on my coverted ATOs, but I am making money.

I also ran a Freakshow Wars arc via Ouro this morning for extra merits. Along the way I earned another converter, and decided to try my luck again with my purple IO. When that didn't achieve the desired result, I spent 10 merits on another converter... and then another....





Third time was the charm! (Technically my fifth time with this IO). Got an Apoc proc. There were surprisingly a lot of these for sale (60), but the going price seems to be around 250 million so if I can sell for that I'm more than 100 million ahead of where I started. ^_^ My hope is a large number of those 60 for sale are priced above 250 mil.



Then, just to prove a point, I slaughtered a few grey mobs in Talos. Yep -- got another converter.



My current costume for Dilithium Flower -- fifth costume slot.

Current Goals

At this point I have 11 days left for my experiment, and I still need to reach 50. Saturday (today) will be tricky for me too because I'm busy with friends in the evening, so I can't grind levels. I also want to see a few more things sell so that I'll feel more confident about putting in bids for some of the bigger-ticket items that I need for my build -- Cytoskeletons and a Glad Armor +3% defense, for example. Those are things that I'll want to bid and wait for several days in order to get them at a good price. I may even pull down my Absolute Amazement bids and do that this weekend.

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.959
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Dilithium Flower: Level 50 Magic Dominator
Primary Power Set: Plant Control
Secondary Power Set: Fiery Assault
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Strangler -- BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(A), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(3), BasGaze-Acc/Hold(3), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(5)
Level 1: Flares -- Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(A), Decim-Dmg/Rchg(5), Decim-Dmg/EndRdx(7), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(7), Decim-Acc/Dmg(9)
Level 2: Incinerate -- KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(A), KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(9), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(11), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(11)
Level 4: Roots -- Enf'dOp-Acc/Immob(A), Enf'dOp-Acc/EndRdx(13), Enf'dOp-EndRdx/Immob(13), Enf'dOp-Immob/Rng(15), Enf'dOp-Acc/Immob/Rchg(15), Enf'dOp-Acc/Rchg(17)
Level 6: Fire Breath -- Posi-Dmg/Rng(A), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(17), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(19), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(19), Posi-Acc/Dmg(21)
Level 8: Seeds of Confusion -- AotDominator-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear(A), AotDominator-Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear/Rchg(34), AotDominator-EndRdx/Rchg(34), AotDominator-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear/EndRdx(34), AotDominator-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear/EndRdx/Rchg(36), AotDominator-Rchg/+Dmg%(37)
Level 10: Fire Blast -- Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(A), Decim-Dmg/Rchg(23), Decim-Dmg/EndRdx(25), Decim-Acc/Dmg(27), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(27)
Level 12: Spirit Tree -- Dct'dW-Rchg(A), Dct'dW-Heal(29), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(29), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(31), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(33)
Level 14: Fly -- Frbd-Stlth(A)
Level 16: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(21), HO:Cyto(23)
Level 18: Vines -- BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(A), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(37), BasGaze-Acc/Hold(37), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(39)
Level 20: Embrace of Fire -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 22: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(50)
Level 24: Hover -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(25)
Level 26: Carrion Creepers -- Ragnrk-Dmg(A), Ragnrk-Dmg/EndRdx(39), Ragnrk-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), Ragnrk-Acc/Rchg(40), Ragnrk-Dmg/Rchg(40), Posi-Dam%(50)
Level 28: Boxing -- Dmg-I(A)
Level 30: Tough -- S'fstPrt-ResKB(A), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(31), GA-3defTpProc(31)
Level 32: Fly Trap -- C'Arms-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(A), C'Arms-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(40), C'Arms-Acc/Dmg(42), C'Arms-Dmg/EndRdx(43)
Level 35: Scorpion Shield -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(36), HO:Cyto(36)
Level 38: Blaze -- Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(43), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(43), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(45), Thundr-Acc/Dmg(45), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(50)
Level 41: Weave -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(42), HO:Cyto(42)
Level 44: Disruptor Blast -- OvForce-Acc/Dmg/End/Rech(A), OvForce-Dmg/End/Rech(45), OvForce-Acc/Dmg/End(46), OvForce-Acc/Dmg(46), OvForce-End/Rech(46)
Level 47: Summon Tarantula -- C'Arms-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(A), C'Arms-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(48), C'Arms-Dmg/EndRdx(48), C'Arms-Acc/Dmg(48)
Level 49: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Domination
Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(33)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-End%(33)
------------

I reworked my build slightly -- I can show my Overwhelming Forces now, and I reslotted Carrion Creepers for damage. A set of Ragnarok plus a proc gives me ED-capped damage and 89.93% recharge, while giving me the set bonuses that I want -- 4% endurance recovery, 15% accuracy, 10% global recharge. But this is still the last thing on my list of what to accomplish by the end of the month, if I can get everything else and I'm in position with at least bids on the Ragnaroks, I'll be more than satisfied.

In order to complete my build I will need to go villain. A round trip takes 8 days, but my only goal is to have the right powers before the 31st, so I don't need to have made the full trip back by then. Fridays are when I'm doing my SSA1 runs, and it would be a shame to miss out on the hero merit, so my current plan is to run 10 vigilante tips next Wednesday and Thursday, and then run the SSA1 Friday, after which I can run my vigilante morality mission and immediately run 5 villain tips. By Saturday I will be able to run 5 more villain tips, turn villain, and do the patron arc.

Day 20 -- July 20, 2012

Last year I had AE Baby to level 50 on day 20, and about 750 million infamy earned. This year Dilithium Flower managed to hit 40 on day 20, so I'm clearly behind the curve on my leveling, but I believe I'm ahead of the game on earning influence, though it's a bit hard to tell at the moment with all the money I have tied up in bids and things listed for sale. I also think I'm further along in filling out my build, but again, hard to know for sure.

But clearly a few ITFs are in order.

Anyway! Converters have been burning a hole in my pocket. After a couple of days of trying to buy something to convert and adjusting my approach, I finally struck paydirt yesterday.



I've had lowball bids in on several Absolute Amazement recipes, and a stack of 10 of one of the cheapest ATOs I could find. This morning I purchased two Dominion of Arachnos quads for 4.2 million each -- a bit more than I'd originally bid, but I got impatient waiting.





I immediately used two of my 11 converters for out of set conversions. I got a Scrapper and a Dom ATO in return. Hmm... Scrapper should sell okay, not as certain about the Dom one. I was really hoping for a blaster or brute ATO, but in a pinch I think Corr, Tank, Scrapper, and Troller ATOs sell pretty well too, so my chances seem good of getting at least a few nice things to sell.



In any case by evening I'd bought several more things -- including the last Decimation I thought I needed for my third set, which I probably don't need now.

But I also had five more ATOs to play with! Fun!



No blaster or brute ATOs, but I wound up with two Scrapper, one Defender, one Stalker, and one Controller ATO. Seems like a decent haul to me, I can probably make money off of these -- the Scrapper and Controller ATOs certainly.

After this I started running my nightly tip missions, but some friends were forming a Citadel, so I joined that. Finally! I'm only missing Citadel and Numina for Task Force Commander, after this I only needed Numina.



By the time the Citadel was over I'd bought the last of my 10 SoA ATOs, so more fun awaited me.



This time around I wasn't so lucky -- one more Scrapper ATO, but also two Kheldian ATOs, which are hardly an upgrade from the Arachnos ones.

I'd used 10 of 11 converters at this point, so I decided to use the last one to convert one of the Kheldian ATOs. I probably could have predicted the results:



/em sighs.

Anyway I finished my tip missions, ran the morality for a hero merit, then since it was Friday I ran SSA1 twice for the hero merit and 20 regular merits. This gave me 89 regular merits, and I converted 50 to another hero merit, for a total of three. I bought a level 30 Luck of the Gambler Defense IO, which is only 1 merit. I need 2 or 3 more of those too, so that's my current spending goal. I'm finally reaching the point where I'm starting to add slots to Manuevers, Weave, etc and can actually slot these too.



By this point I'd earned another converter, so I went for a third conversion on my wayward SoA ATO. A controller ATO, much better!



Also by this point I'd sold one of the Scrapper ATOs. Not for a lot of money, but at least I sold something for a profit.



And a little later I was able to convert my other Kheldian ATO to a Stalker ATO. Which... is better... I think.

Late at night I ran a Summer event, which netted me an Overwhelming Force acc/dam/end (at last, one of the two I didn't have -- now I just need the quad). It also put me a hair's breadth from level 40. A few sniper kills in Founder's Falls solved that problem, and then I ran my costume mission, for which I hunted grey-conning Nemesis in Eden.

Can someone tell me why I seem to get so many converters hunting grey-con mobs? Is it just because I kill more faster, or is it because they can't drop anything else so that my chances of a converter drop are higher? I get a lot of them while hunting grey-cons in Talos for tips, and here I got another while running my costume mission.



Which was good, because one of my other purchases filled. An Absolute Amazement! Finally, a chance to try conversion on a purple IO!



The results were less than stellar. I don't consider a Soulbound Allegiance an upgrade over any other purple IO.

But I thought, "Hey, I can kill some grey mobs in Talos and I will certainly get another converter!" And you know what? This worked.



And... the results were slightly better, I suppose, but what I'm shooting for is one of the damage sets -- Ragnarok, Apocalypse, Hectacomb, or Armageddon.

Anyway that was my evening of converter experiments!

This one just doesn't work as well, but NPR did an interview with Elton John this week and I haven't been able to get this out of my head, so here it is (apologies to Elton John/Bernie Taupin):

I will be leaving tonight on a train
I can see the golden timegate heading for another plane
Oh and I can see Silos with spikey hair
God he looks like Nemesis, must be the stormclouds in my eyes

Silos the Mender, you are older than dirt
Do you still play a game of a million twining plots
You're outside time, but you see future crime
Silos you're a guy in a place in the sky

Day 19 -- 2012

I'm nearly 2/3rds through the month-long project, and I think I'm lagging behind in levels compared to how I did last year (I haven't checked to confirm that). Money-wise I'm probably doing pretty good, but I haven't joined many teams or task forces in the last week and thus have been leveling slowly.



Market-wise, I accomplished very little today. I had placed a level 30 Devastation proc for sale yesterday on the theory that anything blaster-related might sell well, and it did, for 21 million. That was pretty much it for the day, none of my lowball bids on cheap ATOs or cheap purple sets netted me anything. I'm up to 11 converters now, I want something to try and convert!

On the other hand, I did much better in the leveling department. I ran 5 tips, then a Summer event (got one of the Overwhelming Force that I already have, again) and then I joined a Sutter Task Force. Several of my friends were complaining that they didn't like Sutter and didn't want to join, but it went well. The conclusion was that Sutter is a perfectly okay Task Force on a good team, but can become a real pain with a poor team.

Oh, by the way, my Summer event via the LFG tool paired me up with someone that I had 5-starred. As it turned out, he was not one of my regular friends though -- instead it was Zombie Man. Dunno if he recognized my toon though.

And then I teamed with Zombie Fryer on the Sutter TF... two Zombehs in a row, hehe. But the Sutter was all friends and five-starred people pretty much.



I hit 38 on the Sutter and got close to 39, and I was also close to 50 merits, so late at night I decided to run a Freakshow Wars arc via Ouro. I set it for 2 hours for the easy badge (it normally takes me less than an hour to run), and then after the first mission I realized that I still didn't have a stealth IO. I decided to rectify that immediately, and I wound up spending more than an hour at Wentworth's, and subsequently missed my 2 hour target window for the badge by 1 minute 27 seconds. But what I did: bought and crafted a fly stealth IO and four Decimation IOs (I now had my tier 9 fire attack to slot). The best part of this is that I've had a bid on level 30 or level 31 Decimation acc/end/rech recipes for over a week now without buying one, and my current bid was for over 15 million a piece for level 30's, and then I found a level 32 for sale and bought it for 7.1 million. Can't argue with that!

After I was done with the TF I converted 50 merits and bought a Positron's Blast triple, then found a level 30 acc/dam for sale. Again, lucky to find it, it hadn't been there an hour earlier.

But filling out my Positron's Blast set made me realize something. I have 3 Decimation sets in my build, and two Call to Arms, and one Positron's Blast. That's 6 sets with a 6.25% recharge bonus. Uh... rule of five. Doh! So I downloaded the new MIDs, and reworked my build a bit -- needed to do that anyway -- and now I'm going to have to swap out one set of Decimation for Thunderstrikes. Which means I can sell the Decimations, most likely.

Anyway I hit 39 on my Ouro arc... so mission accomplished.

What Hopeling said. Three-slotting Numina in several locations adds a great deal to Willpower's strengths. Of course, that's one of the most expensive heal sets... but you'll notice the difference, I think. ^_^

Cheers Sailboat, quite awesome! ^_^

We seem to have a bunch of different answers here, so I thought I'd consolidate:

1. The printscreen button should send a screenshot to your City of Heroes/Screeshots folder. (This works fine for me).

2. If it doesn't, /screenshot works as a typed command.

3. If it doesn't, you may want to check keybinds under options to see if the printscreen button is assigned properly.

4. If it doesn't, you might have a conflict between where City of Heroes used to install @C:/Program Files/City of Heroes, and where it currently installs under /NCSoft. (see Zombie's post).

5. if it doesn't, it might be that you're the character selection screen, or the costume alteration screen, or a few other screens in the game (such as the powers/slotting screen) which do not send a screenshot anywhere when you hit printscreen (or type /screenshot either I assume). To get around these you need to printscreen and then paste into another program. (I use Irfanview). It might help if you are in windowed mode or have alt-tabbed so that the game is being treated as another window.

Did I miss anything?

1. Because of converters, it's easy to convert a crafted PvP IO into the one that you want... IE a Glad Armor 3% def IO.

2. You can't convert recipes.

3. People are generally stupid.

4. Thus, recipes still sell for a billion, against all real logic.

Day 18 -- July 18, 2012

It seems like in the last 24-48 hours, sales on Blaster ATOs have passed a tipping point. Sort of a "point of no return", except that, of course, things will return to normal eventually.

What I mean is, just yesterday I bought three acc/dam/rech ATOs for 26,300,000 each. I had bids in for some dam/rech ATOs too, but my initial bid was under 22,000,000 and someone else bid just over that. I did see several sales at close to what I'd bid, and I rebid at a higher price in hopes of snagging a few to resell. I also had bids in for more of the acc/dam/rech.

As of tonight I had bought nothing more. There were few for sale, and things were consistently selling for a lot of influence. I decided things were at a price tipping point, and I put two of my acc/dam/rech ATOs up for sale for 61 million each. They seemed to be selling really well, and there were only 10 for sale, but I wondered if I was being a little greedy.



They sold within an hour, for 65 and 80 million, as you can see.



I listed the last one for 66 million, feeling more bold. It sold for 77 million inside a minute.

I really wish I'd bought more of these things. Right now there are 2 dam/rech listed for sale, and the going price is about 100 million. Several of the other Blaster ATOs have 10 or 15 for sale at most. And I'm kind of stuck trying to figure out what I should be bidding on instead, because right now you can't really get Blaster ATOs at reasonable prices...

Ran five tips tonight and the morality mission for a hero merit. I broke down and bought a Decimation dam/end/rech with 2 hero merits, since I can't seem to buy one off of the market.

Didn't do anything else tonight, so I'm only halfway to level 38.

Conquest proved too much for the man,
So he's leavin' the life he's come to know,
He said he's goin' back in time
To save what's left of his world,
The world he tried to conquer
Not so long ago.
He's leaving,
On that midnight train to Ouro,
And he's goin' back
To a place outside of time.
And I'll be with him
On that midnight train to Ouro,
I'd rather live in his world
Than live with fake him's in mine.

Thanks! That was a really good Dorothy too!

It's too bad so much of the trivia was centered on the movie, though hardly surprising. Jane was acing those questions; she said it was her all-time favorite movie, and it showed. But when you get past the movie -- I own about 50 Oz books. Yes, there are that many -- a lot more than that in fact. Baum wrote 14, then the original publisher hired other writers to continue the series, and eventually there were 40 "canonical" books, ie ones published by the official publisher. But people kept writing Oz books, and all of the Baum books are in public domain now, as well as some of the others, and some of the "non-canonical" books are as good or better than some of the canonical ones -- and some of them were actually written by the "canonical" writers too. ^_^

I've also read a couple of books on Baum himself. Heh. But I only got one question in the trivia contest.

Day 17 -- July 17, 2012



My last Decimation sold overnight. And that's the only thing I sold today. I don't have a lot of things left in storage to throw up for sale -- well, things that would earn me a big profit anyway. I have a couple of brute and tanker ATOs, but I already have ones listed for sale that haven't sold yet. And I have a bunch of mid-level set IOs and generic IOs that I can sell but not for a huge profit. So I placed some bids on more things to sell.



By evening I had three Blaster ATOs purchased, but I'm still trying to buy more stuff so at the moment I haven't placed these up for sale. I'm bidding on a couple of cheaper purple recipes that I can hopefully convert and resell for a profit -- I'm back up to 7 converters from random drops, time I used them to make money.

Otherwise I spent money on my build. I bought several of the Decimaion recipes that I need, and one more of the Positron's Blast. I bought the five Doctored Wounds pieces that I needed. I had a bid in for two Call to Arms acc/dam and one of those filled. Here's my build at present:



I'm not doing bad! I have about 57% global recharge now before Hasten kicks in. Domination is up a lot of the time!

I ran five hero tips, and I ran an Ouro badge mission -- the Negotiator badge I think it was -- because I had 48 regular merits left. That gave me 50, which I converted, then bought another Luck of the Gambler +7.5% recharge. I'm kind of in a position where I'm not sure I need to buy anything else for my build with my hero merits, but there are pieces of Positron's Blast and Decimation that I need, and which are hard to come by, but which aren't so expensive that I want to use a-merits on them. I just have to place bids and wait. But I can probably buy stuff with merits just to make money off of now.

Later in the evening I ran SSA 1.3 and earned a hero merit from that. Marshall Blitz was tough -- he killed me twice -- but I managed it in the end. I also ran the Cimemora "meet people" mission, and the talk to Imperious mission, for 2 merits... but no task forces or other stuff tonight, so I have a total of 2 merits and I think 2 hero merits on me right now.

Day 16 -- July 16, 2012



Not much to say about tonight. I ran five tips and the Crossing the Line morality mission, earned a hero merit, converted 50 regular merits into another hero merit, so I had 4 again and spent 2 on a Kinetic Combat dam/end/rech level 30. As you can see, an overnight bid for a dam/end had filled (I took the quick route and bid on a level 35) so that gives me the full Kinetic Combat set in Incinerate. That's one more thing out of the way.





Here's a little study in how marketing works. Yesterday I listed a Decimation acc/dam/rech for about 36.1 million, and it sold for 40 million. But they were selling for as much as 50 million, so I listed the next one for 41 million.

It didn't sell overnight, but since I had free slots after buying the two Kinetic Combat pieces I was missing, I put another one up for sale. This was my last one, and I listed it for 40,000,001.

It sold within the hour for 50 million. (First image).

Mind you, the one I had listed for 41 million still hadn't sold. (Second image). But there were several sales for 45-50 million. This means someone was listing for less than 41 million, but probably more than 40 million, and probably more than the 40 million and 1 influence that I'd listed mine for.



So I pulled it down and relisted it for 40,001,000. The only reason I didn't list for 40,000,001 was just being rather careless on my part... I just wanted it for somewhere below 41 million. BUT! It did not sell the rest of the evening, so it's very possible that my competitor is listing for between 40,001,000 and 40,000,001.

Anyway other than that, I didn't do much. Another Summer Event run got me to 37, and earned me my fourth Overwhelming Force dam/end/rech (and fourth of a different level). Still looking for the acc/dam/rech and the acc/dam/end/rech.

I spent about an hour at the Hero Dawn Costume Contest. Some of my friends routinely join this weekly contest, but I usually don't know about it far enough ahead of time to plan for anything. But I heard that tonight's theme was "Over the Rainbow" ie Wizard of Oz themed costumes, and I could hardly avoid entering Princess Ozma:



Before the contest I moved her to my oldest solo Virtue Super Group, Guardians of Oz. Really, she should have been in that one all along. And -- I won first prize! Woo!

There were some very good costumes in the contest too... my friend Jane did a great Elpheba (Wicked Witch of the West), and I saw a really good Dorothy, an excellent Cowardly Lion, a munchkin, a winged monkey (two I think actually), and what looked like a pretty good Tik Tok. Really, I was kind of sad that I had to stand still and couldn't go up and down the line looking at the other costumes.

Day 15 - July 15, 2012







I sold a lot of stuff today -- all of the Blaster ATOs, for one. In fact at one point I sold two Blaster ATOs within 5 minutes of listing them, and then sold a Decimation 2 minutes after listing it. The Decimation acc/dam/rech I listed for 36.1 million and it sold for 40 million, but some had sold for 50 million before that and one sold for 50 million right after mine, so I listed the next one (I have two left) at 41 million. And... it hasn't sold yet.

I was listing the Blaster ATO's for 41 million too. That was a good listing price for them this weekend, it seemed.

Other than that, what did I accomplish today? One of the things that being 35 allows me to do is join Vanguard, so I did exactly that. While I was working on that a friend was starting up a ticket farm in RWZ, and on reflection I decided that a little exp and a bunch of tickets would be a good thing. Sadly, my friend's computer kept overheating and shutting down, so I only managed half a level and about 680 tickets... which I promptly spent on 10-14 bronze rolls and came away with literally nothing interesting. I was hoping for a Basilisk's Gaze, or Call to Arms, or Steadfast Protection -- all things I want for my build. But I got a bunch of junk instead.

Much later in the day I convinced my friends to join me for a Synapse Task Force, which was 58 merits and nearly a level of experience, and of course one of the things I need for Task Force Commander. I still need Citadel and Numina.

I finished the evening with 5 tips and then a Summer event run that went pretty rough -- I saw that I was teamed with a brute, a scrapper, and a widow and I thought, "Oh, this will be easy!" And then they all died within the first minute of the Time Gladiator event. The crowd turned against us before we brought the first AV down. Good thing I already have all the badges! Anyway, the Casino Heist went much better, and I finished with the Overwhelming Force that I already have two of. Ah well!





I also converted 50 merits to a hero merit, giving me 4, and promptly spent 2 of them on another Basilisk's Gaze quad. I put bids in for two Basilisk's Gaze acc/dam early in the day (and bought some of the Call to Arms recipes and put in a bid for two of the acc/dam/rech, and I managed to buy one Call to Arms (for 2.1 or 3.1 million I think) and one Basilisk's Gaze for 12 million, so my slotting/build continues to come together.

I'm level 36, nearly level 37, and I have over 900 million influence.

Those are good costumes.

My usual approach to these things is to throw out as many options as possible, since I don't really know that what I like is what you'll like. So forgive me if I toss out a lot of not very good options here to see what might stick.

1. Dr Cryo (no period), Doc Cryogen, Doctor Cryogen, Professor Cryogen, Doctor Nitrogen, Professor Nitrogen, Doc Refrigerant, Cryogentleman, Doc Cryogenic, Doctor Cryogenic, Sir Cryogen, Sir Cryogenic, Professor Cryogenic. All of those are available, some work better than others. A cryogen is a liquid refrigerant such as liquid nitrogen, and cryogenics is the study of the production of low temperatures... I don't think those are very obscure, and you can use the word Cryonics for this as well. Personally of those I found free I like Doctor Cryogen, although I realize that the ideal four-color comicbook name on these lines would probably be Doc Cryo, which is taken.

Cryonically-Frozen is also available by the way. ^_^ There's not enough letters for "Cryonically-Frozen Brain". Probably not a good name anyway.

2. Serpentine Knight, Serpentine Shadow, Nightfangs, Shadowfangs, Midnight Serpent... eh, I think I'm coming up with worse names as I keep going. I was thinking along the lines of "Fangs of..." something, but I kind of don't like the word fang anyway. I like Serpentine, so the first two are probably my best suggestions. Something on a Moon Knight/Dark Night/The Shadow kind of theme I guess, but the dragon/serpent symbol kind of drew my attention. I like Serpentine Knight best of these options.

I did not attempt any combination of Dragon and Knight however, I knew better than that. ^_^ Also combos with Midnight or Twilight are probably all taken.

3. Shanghai Shark, Shanghai Ace, Shifty Dealer, Ace Shark, Ace Dealer, Shark Ace, Sharkace, Cardshark Ace... eh, not sure I like any of those, maybe Ace Shark (surprising that's not taken) and I should probably explain that Shanghai is a card game my family likes to play, so that's the first thing that popped into my head. I like that name myself, probably wouldn't work if you didn't have that connection in your head though.

Steel Gambler, Blade Gambler, Fortune Gambler, Fortunate Gambler, Chance Ace, Death Ace (why is this name still available?), Ace of Fortune Uh... some pretty good names there that may not work for what you're going for. Realistically, I can find names that work for me for all of these costumes, but you're going for something very specific and iconic and that's really the crux of the "names are easy" vs "names are hard" debate. ^_^ But someone out there on Virtue should be using Death Ace and Ace of Fortune, if you ask me! Probably Shanghai Shark also, though maybe not for a card-themed character. But it's a nice name.

Poker Terms:

Angle Shooter angle is a technically legal, but borderline unethical, play. For example, deliberately miscalling one's own hand to induce a fold, or placing odd amounts of chips in the pot to confuse opponents about whether you mean to call or raise. A player employing such tactics is called an "angle shooter".
Backraise
Blind Stud Stud Poker with all cards facedown
Bottom Dealer he's cheating in other words. ^_^
Boxed Card Card that winds up face up in the deck by accident.
Buy-In
Call the Clock
Cashing Out another name that someone should be using for something...
Cripple the Deck, Deck Crippler, Crippled Deck eh... no.
Dead Blind I like this just as a name... although the card reference may be obscure... "A blind that is not "live", in that the player posting it does not have the option to raise if other players just call."
Donk Bet I just like the sound of this phrase, heh.
Double-Ace Flush, DoubleAce Flush
Drawing Dead
Drawing Thin
Dry Ace
Forced Bet
Free Card
Inside Straight
Misdeal
Negative Freeroll probably not a good character name but a fun word combo anyway ^_^
One-Eyed Royals Sadly "One-Eyed Royal" is already taken. Good name too.
Position Bet
Post Dead
Quads ie four of a kind. (yes, this name is also free).
Qualifier
Rabbit Hunt
Railbird ie spectator at a poker match.
Royal Card probably not a poker term but it's free
Runner-Runner A hand made by hitting two consecutive cards on the turn and river. Also "backdoor". Compare to "bad beat" and "suck out". (probably not a good name but I find some of these terms are just fun anyway).
Scare Card A card dealt face up (either to a player in a game such as stud or to the board in a community card game) that could create a strong hand for someone.
Semi-Bluff
Sevens Rule
Side Game
Smooth Call
Squeeze Play I have no idea why this name is free
Stand Pat I have no idea why this name is free either
Strategy Card
Stud Poker
Stud Card
Suited Connectors
Third Man Walking
Three of a Kind
Thee Pair
Up the Ante Oooh, and free! I like that one quite a bit.

A lot of those terms would work well for a character name... I like Angle Shooter a lot, and Up the Ante quite a bit, but Royal Card could work, and I think Bottom Dealer, Inside Straight, Misdeal, Squeeze Play, and Dry Ace are all pretty good names for someone to be using.