PoetLaureate

Lallendos said:[ QUOTE ]
PLUS retail game costs($200 in my case, as an early adopter of both games, 2 accts)...

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I bought the DVD edition of CoH when it first came out, because I wanted the prestige travel power (turns it it's the exact same as the regular sprint power, just with a fancy graphic) and the cape. I paid under $30, including tax, as I got a great deal, from Walmart, I think, although it might have been CompUSA, I don't really remember as it was years ago. Anyway, even if you paid full price it would have been under $50 for a single account. The funny thing was, wherever I saw the game being sold, the DVD edition was being sold for the same price as the regular edition, it's just that the DVD edition was advertised as a limited time thing. If you really were an "early adopter" and you really did pay $200 for two accounts, you were seriously ripped off. But you know what they say about a fool and his money.

Lallendos said:[ QUOTE ]
Someone else PLEASE punch me in the face, so I can make it to 38 on my claws/DA, without losing interest.

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Hi, I'll volunteer. I'd be happy to do it, I'm always ready to help a fellow out. Look, I got tired of the game too. You know what I did? I left. For two years. Well, I came back maybe three or four times for a few hours each, during the free holidays. It was kind of fun, but, my scrapper had been gimped and the new character that I was starting, although fun, you know, it's that crappy low level time when you can't do diddely squat. So, things have changed, I'm having fun again -- it's like the game is new. Except, I'm totally lost with this invention system.

Ok, to seque into where the discussion has gone since then...
I don't have a clue how this invention thing works and I really don't want to spend thousands of influence and hours and hours of grinding parts just to be a tester and figure it out. I play these games to have fun. That being said, as a math major, I like crunching numbers. The absence of any numbers is, in my opinion, a bad thing. I came to the forums expecting to find some sort of guide, something like, oh, about any other game has, something that would at least explain how these things work. Sure, I have the Inventor guide. So I can memorize some powers? Which ones? How? What are the recipes that I have to memorize for a badge? Where do they come from? I have a whole stack of questions that the "tutorial" in the university didn't even touch on. And don't get me started on the classes. Each time I had to look up something new in the bookcase or on the computer, it pretty much just parroted back what the person just said. Why make me read it twice when there wasn't really any useful information to begin with? Take a look at how Anarchy Online at least makes a few sticky threads explaining things for its expansions.

Then there are the (in my opinion) crazy people who talk about having to make a choice between an up-to-date guide or an "official" guide. They point to the official Prima guide that Statesman helped put together and how it was out of date when it was published. Why in the world must an official guide be printed on paper? If you want it to be on paper, print the thing out yourself. I'm sure some idiot will whine, "But it's too expensive to print out a whole guide myself." Darn straight, that's why the company isn't printing it out and stockpiling them in a wharehouse. Then the idiot will whine, "But you could print in bulk, etc." And *that's* when you have him make a choice between something up to date and something that he can hold in his hands. Look, all the powers in the game, they have numbers in them, right? The code uses some kind of variables to track things, right? You don't have a human switchboard operating pushing the "5" key every time a "AoE#24" request comes in. So, choose what numbers you want to publish and push them into a database. Start with these new invention thingymabobs. I'm not saying that it's easy, I'm not saying that it would be quick to set up. But this is the computer age, for crying out loud. Whining about how difficult it is to update numbers with a computer is like a company whining about how it needs two weeks after your first two weeks working for them to process a paycheck when you know they have Quickbooks and you know that those things that used to actually take two weeks back in the 40's now take a few mouse clicks.

I'm proud to admit, I'm out of rehab now. I've been clean for almost three months now and have no more plans to return to eating radiated pizza. It's good, but it's . . . too good. It made me feel alive, it made me feel . . . whole, like I could take on the world. Well, I feel that way now but the only thing I'm high on is life!

Pizza Joe is back!

Well, I don't bother hiding my powers. I can't really, not with green glowing eyes. Smoked glasses go a good ways towards hiding that from a casual observer, but not from someone that I'm interacting closely with. I don't "leak" radiation --near as any Gieger counters can tell, I don't need some sort of protective armor. The Department of Health is worried that I might, though, which is why my food handler's license was pulled.

If you'd like, I'll make you a "special" pie. I've found that pizzas cook faster when I consciously radiate them than when I use the oven (2.5 minutes as opposed to 6 minutes in a conventional pizza oven) and when I radiate them they have the added "bonus" of boosting your metabolism for a short period of time. Lots of heroes seem to like that. I like it too, a little too much ... sitting here, all alone in my house, eating slice after slice of radiated pizza just to feel the boost ... luckily the boosted metabolism means that I don't have to worry about putting on weight from all that pizza. It's just so hard to go out and fight criminals, though, knowing that I'll have to spend attention on something other than more pie ...

I have a sort of ... well ... in the hospital, I was in a lot of pain from my injuries. I wanted to heal faster and used my Accelerate Metabolism on myself once a day or so to help myself heal faster. It also made me feel better and, in combination with the pain killers they had me on it helped me fall asleep. I'm off the pain killers now and without them Accelerate Metabolism is a little different, it doesn't put me to sleep anymore. Now that I've left the hospital I've found myself more and more in demand on superhero teams. I try to stop, but it's life and death situations out there and Accelerate Metabolism just seesm to help so much. Everyone seems to want their metabolism accelerated for a time, everyone asks for it and I can't speed them up without also speeding me up.

When my metabolism's accelerated, everything is just so much clearer. I think faster, I react faster. I ... God help me, it's like crack. I don't think I can stop.

Sorry, everyone, I've been in the hospital. See, I learned how to jump really, really high. Something about mirroring the random kinetic movements of the atom on a supermolecular (opposite of submolecular) level. Well, I didn't quite have it under control and I slammed into a building. Really, really hard. That building did what no true villain has ever been able to do -- it took me out. For a long time. But now, I'm back. I've heard that some villains stole these kids Christmas toys. I'm not going to stand to let that happen. I'm tired of laying around in a hospital bed.

You know what really stinks? Remember how I said that my eyes glow? Well, that's technically a non-correctable eyesight deficiancy which disqualifies me from driving. How am I supposed to get around now, walk? Run?

/me shakes his head.

So. Here's my dilemma. I have these ... radioactive auras. You see, I used to be an ordinary guy. I really was an ordinary Joe -- that's my name, Joe. Anyway, I was this pizza delivery guy. Well, one day we got a call from the Terra Volta power plant. Seems that a bunch of Sky Riders, or whatever they call themselves, had taken over the plant. This group of capes came in and was kicking their butts. The capes had a tip that more Riders (or wheatever they're called would be coming soon, but it had been a long time since breakfast and they wanted to know how fast I could get down there with some pies.

"No problem," I told them, little knowing how much the events of that day would change my life forever. We slapped a few pies together and I loaded them up in my car. Seems those capes were thinking too much of the pizza I was bringing and not paying enough attention to what they were doing because no sooner had I walked in the front doors but warning sirens started to go off. I turned and tried to run but the doors had somehow jammed and I couldn't get out. Luckily another group of heroes showed up to stop the reactor from going like Ernie, this guy I used to know who used to work for the postal office. But, in the meantime, I was exposed to lethal doses of radiation. But it didn't kill me. It activated or altered some genes or something like that, I don't really understand what all happened. But I'm radioactive now.

You can see it in my eyes. They glow. I wear sunglasses to cover it up, but I can still see the glow when I look in the mirror. The Department of Health came down on Paragon Pie, said that I was now a health hazard. True, I can throw out auras of radiation that blind villains, clouds that do all sorts of stuff. I can even accelerate the molecules in other people's bodies and make them feel pain (although most of that seems to just be in their head). And my eyes do glow. But am I really a health hazard?

There was that girl who dared me to make her a radioactive pizza and she sort of ended up with powers like mine. But that was on purpose.

I guess what I'm asking is, am I harming people when I accelerate their metabolism or if they get too close to one of my auras? Is it possible that what I do now could fundamentally alter the body of a friend and teammate?

--Pizza Joe

The mission has always had the same layout every time I (or someone in my sg) has done the mission.
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there are a lot of scrappers who don't take confront (taunt's new name) or just don't use it

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Perhaps because most scrappers can't take more than a few hits from +1/+2 guys without dying? Especially regen scrappers. Pulling a group of guys onto yourself, as a scrapper, is a quick fast way of committing suicide.

Taunt is only useful if you have gobs of hitpoints or some great armour or something like that. All of which, scrappers don't really have.

The costume contests all follow this format. Someone announces a costume contest under Atlas. People line up facing away from City Hall. Lots of talk goes on, a person announces that finalists will be invited to a team, people break up and leave.

"But how," you're probably asking, "do I win a contest?" Well, the #1 thing that you should know about these contests is that they're all fake. None of them are real. Your leg is being pulled. Your chain is being ganked. In all my time, I've never seen actual winners announced. Sometimes, out of about 20 people standing there, I've known 15 of the people there and they all say that they didn't win. The finalists are supposedly "chosen" and people start asking, "Is the contest over?" "Who won?" "Why are we all still standing here?"

Don't waste your time. When a costume contest is announced, just continue on your merry way, secure in the knowledge that you're not going to be made a fool of. Of course, if you're a paranoid twit, you might think I'm trying to get you away to win myself. Rest assured that such is not the case -- however, if you truly desire to waste your time, you won't find me standing in your way.

Yeah -- pretty much *every* game in this cyber cafe can be legally modified -- your own skins, weapons, etc. Only City of Heroes, Anarchy Online and Final Fantasy XI, as far as I can tell, are anal about mods. Anyway, I like playing the tanker, but I'm pretty much done with that character until I can find a fix for the sounds.

Ok, I just started a tanker and this Unyielding is just killing me. I have to put up with this dull throbbing hum and blasts of sandpaper being rubbed. If anyone could point me to a third party site that has a fix for this, I'd greatly appreciate it.

What is thought about the following?
1 Sprint EndRdx(1)
1 Jab Dmg(1)
1 Brawl Acc(1)
1 Temp Invulnerability DmgRes(1)
2 Rest Rechg(2)
2 Punch Dmg(2) Dmg(3) Dmg(3) Dmg(5) Acc(7) Dmg(39)
4 Dull Pain Rechg(4) Rechg(5) Rechg(19) Rechg(19)
6 Hasten Rechg(6) Rechg(7) Rechg(13) Rechg(15) Rechg(17) Rechg(17)
8 Unyielding DmgRes(8) DmgRes(9) DmgRes(9) DmgRes(11) DmgRes(11) DmgRes(13)
10 Taunt Taunt(10)
12 Air Superiority Dmg(12) Dmg(15) Dmg(23) Dmg(39) Dmg(39) Dmg(40)
14 Fly Fly(14) Fly(45) Fly(46)
16 Swift Run(16) Run(46) Run(46)
18 Health Heal(18)
20 Stamina EndRec(20) EndRec(21) EndRec(21) EndRec(23) EndRec(33) EndRec(34)
22 Invincibility TH_Buf(22) TH_Buf(25) DefBuf(25)
24 Resist Elements DmgRes(24) DmgRes(27) DmgRes(31) DmgRes(36) DmgRes(37) DmgRes(40)
26 Resist Energies DmgRes(26) DmgRes(27) DmgRes(31) DmgRes(36) DmgRes(37) DmgRes(43)
28 Haymaker Dmg(28) Dmg(29) Dmg(29) Dmg(31) Dmg(34) Dmg(36)
30 Rage Rechg(30)
32 Knockout Blow Rechg(32) Dmg(33) Dmg(33) Dmg(34) Dmg(37) Dmg(40)
35 Stealth DefBuf(35)
38 Super Speed Run(38)
41 Conserve Power Rechg(41) Rechg(42) Rechg(42) Rechg(42) Rechg(43) Rechg(43)
44 Foot Stomp Dmg(44) Dmg(45) Dmg(45) Dmg(48) Dmg(48) Dmg(50)
47 Laser Beam Eyes Dmg(47) Dmg(48)
49 Resist Physical Damage DmgRes(49) DmgRes(50) DmgRes(50)

This is Superman, he has to be able to fly. I've really wanted taunt; I have these great abilities that can keep me alive and no real way to pull bad guys off my squishier teammates. Although it shouldn't be a problem at higher levels with SO enhancements and multiple slots, endurance is a real problem at lower levels. Thus, Stamina as soon as possible. I think, solely because of the endurance problem, that it might be better to put multiple slots into Jab then respec them out for Punch later on, but I did notice that such went against your guidelines (in that note, I don't really care for/about PvP).

Edit: I guess, with super speed as well as fly, there's no real need for stealth, although I tend to turn super speed off while fighting and I still like to be stealthed. Not very superman-like, though.

That first spot is loc 506.0 -42.0 2789.0 I did it, thank you.