Rebel_Scum

Alex hoped M221 wouldn't be offended that she didn't shake its hand. Something about said hand being a good three or four times the size of hers put her off. "One question", she said after introducing herself in return. "Do either of you have problems with radiation?" Why she'd ask such a thing wouldn't be immediately obvious - she wasn't emitting any form of radiation. The corpses of the zombies she'd been blasting, however, very much were. Not much, not even enough to be hazardous to ordinary humans. But enough to prove that her blasts were most likely the source.

(( See, this is why I was reluctant to join this thread. *sigh* ))

(( Totally not hijacking Devious's NPC here - PM me if you mind, I couldn't resist. ))

The elevator opening was hardly a noteworthy occurance, after all it did so several hundred times a day. Nor was the single solitary occupant it dropped on to the upper landing of the Architect building's main floor that unusual by Paragon standards, or so she always insisted at least. Her sole claim to anything resembling unusualness was that she was green. Literally, her skin was a pale green colour and her hair was a slightly more yellowish green. Had she not been, she could've easily been mistaken for just another average citizen. Certainly, her outfit was anything but out of the ordinary. The not quite skintight black t-shirt, khaki cargo pants and brown work boots were far from screaming 'hero'. Nor was her name, she being one of the few metahumans in Paragon not registered under some fanciful pseudonym. In fact had she not been standing in a building full of heroes one could almost have made the mistake of thinking she was another unfortunate superadine addict. But, as any number of people had asked and been most vehemently told, she was not a troll.

Regardless, as the elevator closed again behind her she made her way down the stairs, throwing a cheerful wave to Thomas behind the desk at the bottom of said stairs. "Heya Tom!", she called.

"Alex! How are you?", he greeted her, looking up from where some hero she didn't recognise was busy counting out his tickets.

She shrugged. "Same old. City's mostly saved, for once. Bet it won't stay that way." Awfully cynical, she was. Thomas laughed and let her go on down the stairs. The two of them were good friends, mostly cause of having one thing in common - their surname, as she'd found out to her surprise one day while exchanging tickets for something more useful. Actually she was Alessandra Morrigan, but she usually went by Alex cause it was easier to say. She was registered as both in the hero database though, once as a security level 50 defender-class hero and once as a blaster with a decidedly lower clearance.

Unlike a certain quadruped she was very much familiar with this place, having used it frequently for purposes ranging all kinds of things, but mostly to blow stuff up. Because it was better to do it in the virtual environment when she felt like it, rather than out there and leave pockets of Paragon radioactive for decades to come. Or such was the excuse, anyway.

Today though she didn't much feel like that. She was feeling nostalgic; she missed home, even as messed up as it was. "Something post-apocalyptic", she told the system when it asked, before finding herself in what looked to be Atlas Park, but after the zombie apocalypse rather than before, as it was outside. Not too long after apparently though, as the zombies themselves were very much still present. "Not quite what I meant, but meh", Alex commented to no one in particular, before shrugging and smashing the nearest zombie's head through its chest with an overhead smash from two glowing hands. Absently she wondered what the objective here was, then decided she'd find out on the way and went back to bashing zombies.

(( Same simulation as Kasoh or different one. Your choice, Kas. ))

I could get behind this idea, but only if it wasn't limited to melee sets. (Or at least, melee sets first and everything else later) As a couple of examples off the top of my head - energy blast -> energy rifle? (Though that one might be doable with power customisation as it is now, I dunno) Zelda-style swordbeams, anyone? Lightning rifle ala UT2003?

But yeah, would be absolute hell to balance. To the point that it'd probably have to be a boxed expansion at least to justify the time involved in doing it. Though, if after GR they did announce pretty much this as a boxed expansion, I'd buy it.

Outside the Tonne Hall, if there were any sensors operating capable of detecting an invisible person (as there quite possibly were, given that this was the Isles and that Stalker-class villains were common here), they would undoubtably be beeping, flashing alarms, throwing up message boxes with big red text or whatever their favored method of alerting people to having found something was. For there was indeed just such a person present, specifically flying along at about twice head height. From her path, it was obvious she was heading directly for the Hall.

And so she was, landing neatly in front of the building's main entrance and looking up at it, absently running one hand through what little of her dull orange hair wasn't tied back into two ponytails. As she then moved to go inside, the fact that the two swords strapped to the back of her black leather trenchcoat (that'd lost its sleeves at some point, apparently by force) stayed in their sheaths was possibly a clue to her intentions here. If they'd been violent, surely she would have drawn those blades. Unless they were merely for decoration, and her true method of attack was something entirely different? Hard to tell.

Either way, she would, barring someone stopping her, proceed inside and have a look around. Eventually she'd end up going down to the basement where the others were. Chances were she wouldn't get anything like that far though, as a cursory search through any number of public villain databases would identify her as one Bladed Mirage, though most of those files would note she rarely used that name herself, instead preferring to go by her real name of Ildela. If they possessed the equipment (or magic, or mutant powers, etc) necessary to detect the odd energy patterns in the air around her, they'd easily be able to confirm her identity as said villain.

(( Let the games begin! ))

Oh look, another powerset respec thread. Anyone got the copy/paste response as to why this is a terrible, terrible idea in any form?

It's a cool idea, and as someone who has multiple versions of the one character I'd love it. However, with no restrictions it'd be hugely gamebreaking.

A few I think would be necessary.
- Not allowed in combat (Perhaps not in missions at all)
- If hero -> villain or villain-> hero, only allowed in co-op zones.
- Take the same 30 second interruptible time as a normal logout.

On a completely random note - I have an alt on victory named Star Crusader.

As for RP, I can but echo what others have already said. Best way to learn is by doing. And/or making a fool of yourself multiple times due to inexperience. Don't worry though, most people are pretty good about that. (If they weren't I'd have been thrown out of here a long time ago)

Incompetent (or perhaps just new) players are indeed everywhere, but defenders and other more complex archetypes tend to make them more obvious. 'target enemy, mash buttons' isn't exactly hard, in the case of blasters and such. Picking between any of the multitude of things some defenders can be doing at any one time is a little harder.

I like. I would play either of these in a heartbeat.

On the topic of switching from support to control to damge or whatever with the pets, perhaps make this the function of the upgrade powers? Rather than just giving new powers like the MM ones do have the pets start out with all their powers or have more powers depending on the level they're summoned at, but I dunno if that's possible. AE critters do something similar I believe. Then have the upgrades function as changing the pet's role - by default it's a damage pet, you give them one upgrade and it becomes a support pet, you give them the other upgrade and it becomes a tank pet. Only drawback would be it'd be permanent unless you resummoned them, though that could add to the tactical aspect of things in that you have to choose the right pets going in.

Haha. Now you've got me thinking about what licenses they'd actually need, heh. Cause I'm sure they don't have them!

Thanks for the encouragement but I think I'll stick to writing for RP threads. Though I do have to wonder what those SPC guys in Guardian Angel would think of some of my characters

So I just went and read the two stories linked in the OP, and now I'm just sort of sitting here all lost for words.

<-- wishes he could write even half that well.

While I would doubt you want to use any of mine, you have full permission to do so should you so desire.

(( Nah, I'm only a heretic if I quit CoH to play it. Which I haven't, and am not going to. ))

(( I had some stuff to do but got sidetracked by university assignments and/or Champions. ))

(( Italic text = hard on the eyes when reading, fyi. Don't need the whole post in italics. Also just a word of advice, that reads oddly like a film script. Which while awesome in its own way, probably won't work once other people's characters become involved as they probably will eventually. Is pretty good for 'in a hurry' though!

But yeah, open is exactly that. You're welcome to join us. Just try not to look too tasty or Devious is likely to eat you. ))

Personally I always thought they should add some form of inverse streakbreaker. For those who don't know, the streakbreaker is how if you miss when you have 95% chance to hit, your next attack is forced to hit with no tohit roll at all. With the number of misses before it forces a hit going up with lower chance to hit, until it cuts off completely at around 20% chance If I remember rightly. The same applies to mobs as well, though it's seen less because mobs don't typically have 95% hit chance.

So what they should do is if the mob has 5% chance to hit and it hits you, its next attack should be a forced miss. With number of hits before a forced miss going up with higher tohit chance in much the same fashion. Could probably use the exact same scaling, actually.

Edit: And I just realised I rezzed a two week old thread. Oops.

Personally I like the idea of having some base number of merits (maybe a half to two thirds of what you get now) that you'll get regardless, plus additionally you get merits based on mobs killed, possibly using some variation of the code for end of mission ticket bonuses in AE.

I might mention that my one posted above and hers and levelpacted together, running together more often than not. So just with the IOs for recharge in the power, one or the other will be up at all times. That and I just hate the glowy fists you get with hasten up, and the -end crash when it wears off is one more drain on an already fairly end-heavy character. (Though the end-heavyness of it might be more my playstyle than the character itself)

Who knows, maybe I'll drop Health and pick up Hasten instead once I get up there.