Samuel_Tow

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Combining ideas to explain stuff is not arrogant, and is only slightly redundant. I welcome this post and would love to see it slightly condensed into one of the bind guides.

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Thank you for understanding

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The safest way to rebind keys that have multiple commands associated with them is done using Bindfiles. I highly recommend adapting the numpad guides to suit your needs.

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I have an inherent hatred of bind files and all things out-of-game that I need to edit manually. It's not that I can't use them, I just don't find it appropriate. Hence why my Mastermind binds are just a series of really, really long binds

Actally, I did adapt the Numpad Guide to the way I like to write binds all the way back in Beta. I basically took everything it did and crammed it into a single text bind, rather than a series of bind files. However, by switching from bind files to direct binds, I robbed myself of the ability to use more complex binds.

Just to illustrate, here is a bind I use to set up 6 buttons to command only my Soldiers on a Mercenaries/Traps Mastermind. All buttons used are as I use them:

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/bind alt+q "bind t petcom_name sol attack$$bind g petcom_name sol follow$$bind b petcom_name sol goto$$bind y petcom_name sol aggressive$$bind h petco_name sol defensive$$bind n petcom_name sol passive

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What that does is, when I press Alt+Q, it binds T, G, B, Y, H and N to issue the orders of Attack, Follow, Go To, Aggressive, Defensive and Passive, respectively, to only my Soldiers henchmen. I have similar binds on Alt+W and Alt+E, to command my Spec-Ops and Commando, as well as a bind for all and a bind for just the one I have selected bound to Alt+A and Alt+S, respectively.

What that allows me to do is command my henchmen at a very basic level, as well as to command them in parts as I see fit. I gotta tell ya, it's pretty funny to see people's reactions when a Mastermind sets up a Poison gas trap, arranges their henchmen behind a corner, then pulls with a (1)Spec-Ops who fires and immediately runs around the corner It's pretty easy for a Traps Mastermind to just stand in one place and constantly command their hencmen. They don't have a lot else to actually do in a battle.

But with the Advent of Serum and the arrival of the Commando, it is becoming necessery for me to pull out both the Soldiers and Spec-Ops and leave only the commando, buffed up on a Serum, to hold up that big boss or some such. To that event, I felt I needed a bind to control both the Soldiers and Spec-Ops. Without a consistent Go To command, I don't think it is feasible, and I'll just have to micromanage them in part.

I have come up with a couple of ideas, however. One was to put numerical identifiers on all my henchmen's names. So my soldeirs would have "12" in their name, my henchmen "23" and the Commando a "13." That should, in theory, allow me to use /petcom_name 1 to command, say, the Soldiers and Commando. The sheer ugliness of those numbers, however, has prevented me from trying it.

The other thing I have considered is using Macros instead of bind files. A bind CAN activate a macro by using the /powexec_tray command and specifying the slot. That way, I can stick a bunch of Macros on tray 10 and use those in place of bind files. Unlike bind files, Macros are accessible and changible from in-game, plus they seem more "fair" to the engine. However, I've not tried that on a larger scale, either, as it would take a lot of planning and STILL wouldn't solve my "goto" command.

I suppose micromanagement is, at present, my most acceptable course of action. I still wish I could be able to streamline it a bit, though.

Oh, and:

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Have you tried City Binder? He last updated it July '06, and the Mastermind section is quite comprehensive. Download Here.
Someday I'll learn to use the UltraBinds section to create new Mastermind Controls, amongst others.

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I tried using that, but it doesn't seem to have what I want. It has a lot of looping and conditional binds, but what I want just isn't doable under the current engine. It also seems to cater to people who like more versitile controls over their characters, whereas I'm the kind of person who wants to have the basic controls. With them, I can micromanage any combination that I might be faced with.

I'm mostly looking for an easier way to redefine keys on demand, more so than having keys themselves do different things based on different conditions. Still, though, that program makes binds I couldn't even dream of I'll have fun reverse-engeneering some of them to find out what makes them tick.

*edit* Turns out Code does not have word wrapping, so I broke the forum for a second there

And the question I have is Mastermind-related. Apologies for the double post, but I wanted to keep things seperate.

I've developed my own set of binds identical in operation to some the whole-code Mastermind Numpad Binds file. I came up with them back in Beta and had a lot of help from the Nupad guide author to get them to work.

I have run against a serious problem, however, in that I cannot seem to make a bind that makes two types of henchmen do... Anything. Even if I string two /comsay_pow commands, they are still executed in successions, not simultaniously. This is most telling with the /petsay goto command, as it will only play the last "goto" command and issue it for the last-mentioned henchman type in the bind.

The binds I usea are very simple in concept, merely a bind a set of binds that rebind the same set of 6 buttons - 3 for stances and 3 for commands. So I can use the same combination of keys to command different henchmen depending on my current "setting." It's easy to make one for each type, one for "all" and one for a single henchman. However, if I want, say, my Minion and Lieutenant class henchmen to do something together, that won't work.

The most serious problem I'm running against is what I like to call the "layers of quotes." If I make a bind that issues several commands in succession, those commands HAVE to be simple. If I make them longer, I need to use "quotes within quotes, and that is compiled incorrectly. So if I make a bind that rebinds a few keys, I can only rebind those keys to a single command.

Is there any way to get around this, be it using bind files or macros? I've discovered that a bind file can activate a macro pretty easily, simply by using /powexec_tray, and that a bind can create, even replace a macro if need be (though only in the first tray), and I think that may help, I'm just not sure how.

I have a question and an observation. First, I'd like to start wit the observation, and I'll probably repeat something someone else has said.

Powers appear to execute from right to left, but I know bind syntax is executed left to right. Why powers seem to work the other way around is because they interrupt each other. When you activate a power, there is a slight delay between when it queues and when it activates. This time is too short for anything to happen, but it is longer than the time it takes the engine to exectue the next command in the bind.

Effectively, you queue the first power, then queue the second, then queue the third and so on until you either reach the end of the bind or the rest of the bind is commands that don't interrupt power activation. Text strings, emotes, movement (for non-interruptable powers) and so on will not interrupt a power before it is activated.

Activating a toggle IS activating a power, so it takes a fraction of a second. Deactivating a toggle is different, in that it takes NO time and is executed immediately. So a bind that toggles, activates or toggles off a series of active toggles will be able to toggle them all off in one go, as toggling off cannot be interrupted.

What that means is that a bind that toggles, when applied to a series of powers, some of which are on and some of which off, will go through the paces, deactivating ON powers and trying to queue OFF powers for activation. Because activation is interruptable, it will only activate the last inactive power. Because deactivation is uniterruptable, and does not interrupt activation, to boot, the bind will deactivate ALL active toggles.

In appearance, and certainly empirically, power-related binds seem to work from right to left. In actual fact, they work from left to right, except each new step cancels the previous one, effectively working only with the last step. Because of the way powers turn on and off, this seems to work its way to the left.

And the way powers activate and deactivate is pretty easy to visualise. You can only activate a power or toggle, even when it doesn't actually have a root or an animation (Combat Jumping, Build Up, etc) when your character is in no way engaged. If you try to activate those powers when animating another power, they are queued, to be activated when time presents itself. And even if time is present when they are queued, it still takes some time for them to move into activation.

By contrast, you can deactivate a toggle power at absolutely any point in time, regardless of what you're doing. I have the habbit of running it, firing off a big attack and the toggling off Sprint as it's animating. You can toggle spring OFF in the middle of, say, a Total Focus, but you cannot turn it back on until said Total Focus finishes.

I hope I do not come off as redundant or arrogant. This is mererly my observation on how binds and code strings in general seem to work.

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Is there any way to specify the team mate in position 1, for example?

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I believe the slash command for that is

/team_select #

Where # is a number between 1 and 8, corresponding to the team-mate you're trying to select. Those are bound to Shfit+1 to Shift+8 by default and may be re-bindable through the options menu, though I'm not sure.

Many people find themselves lost in Grandville, or fall victim to its many dangers. Many others don't feel like exploring grandville is worth it, and many more still find the zone to lag too bad for them to explore it. Some quite simply don't care.
If you find yourself unwilling or incapable of exploring Grandville, this guide is for you. If you do want to explore Grandville, but would like to know what to expect, where to find things or just make sure you're not missing anything, this guide is for you, as well.

I will be listing each seperate are of Grandville and further dividing those that are complicated in some way or another. I will go from top to bottom, as most Grandville areas overlap with each other laterally.

The Web

Easily one of the least-explored and most hated zones of Grandville because of its difficulty of navigations, level of enemies and difficulty of getting to it in the firtst place, the Web is also one of Grandville's most visually impressive areas. It is a huge collection of platforms, catwalks and terraces, either suspended off the big web covering the city or secured to the sides of buildings high, high above Spider City below.

Caution needs to be taken when manoeuvring about the Web, as it's pretty easy to fall off the platforms. The catwalks outside the platforms are also pretty thin, so runners need to proceed with caution. Jumpers, fliers and teleporters, however, can easily travel between any two platforms in the area without expressely needing to use the catwalks.

The enemies in the area are solely represented by Arachnos soldiers levels 46 and 47. Mostly Bane Spiders and Tarantulas. Unless you are of sufficient level or have some sort of Stealth or other means to avoid confrontation, avoid going there. The tight quarters of the platforms and the abundance of enemies makes it all but impossible to move around enemies without starting a fight. Super Jump does a so-so job and Flight does pretty well for that.

Actually getting up to the web can be very difficult and annoying if you don't know how. Unless you fly, climbing up to it is a pain and takes time. However, there is a very convenient lift located right outside of the Grandville Tower to the right, next to Dr. Forrester and Aeon Corp. It's pretty easy to find once you know where to look for it and it takes you up to a safe spot on the Web. To the best of my knowlege, this is the ONLY lift that goes up to the Web.

Additionally, there are two more lifts in the Web that go further up. Taking them will deliver you to platfroms built over the metal web that covers Grandville, like that tunnel in Highlander 2. This gives you access to the main support cables, and so a way up to the roof of the Grandville tower. That's very convenient if you need the Master of the Airwaves badge but can't get to it. It's located on one of the ledges around the roof of the tower and unlocks the Television contact.

Do NOT fall off the Web. It will hurt even the jumpers among you and you have no idea what you're landing into. If you're higher in level than the area below, you're relatively safe, but lower-level characters should prepare for a bad situation should they fall.

The Web is also home to Abyss and Viridian, who stand together near a broken down TV screen. Efficiency Expert Pyther can be found due West of the lift that takes you up there.

Spider City

Spider City is Grandville's "ground level." It's where the baseline of the city where most troops are stationed and and most buildings have their foundations. I would divide it into four parts.

The City Grounds

This area spans the dock with the Ferry and the landing pad for the Black Helicopter. It extens through customs and the entrance ramp and encompasses the Lord Recluse statue plaza, the Arachnos Tower grounds and most of the relatively level ground around those landmarks. If you find yourself boarding lifts, climbing or descending long ramps, entering tunnels or dropping off high ledges, you've probably left the City Grounds.

Enemies in the City Grounds are levels 40 and 41, comprised of all kinds of Arachnos from Crab Spiders up. This includes Crab Spiders, Bane Spiders, Tarantulas, Fortunas and Mu Mystics. Advanced Arachnobot Spiderlings are not uncommon, as well, but at levels 40 and 41, rarely more than a nuisance. Large groups of enemies (outside of Spiderlings) are rare, but bosses are very common, so be very careful what you engage. Groups of two bosses and a lieutenant can cause quite a bit of harm even if they're lower level than you.

Because of the enemy levels and because most missions spawn here, the City Grounds are a good place for newcomers to Grandville to hunt and do missions. Be mindful of what you are fighting and be prepared to run if need be. But generally, that's the easiest place in all of Grandville.

Contacts you can find there are Dr. Forrester and Tavis bell, in front of Aeon Corp and the Crey building, respectively. Regent Korol can be found to the East of the tower under a tangle of pipes. Number 204, an unlockable contact can be found on a platform directly South of the Crey building.

The Tunnels

Right below the streets of the City Grounds lies a network of tunnels, some right below the surface and some deeper down. Look at the ground and look for metal grates instead of solid metal plates. Wherever you find these metal grates, tunnels lie below.

The tunnles are mostly safe, populated only by level 40 and 41 Arachnobots. There are a few select areas where Bane Spiders are doing repairs, but they are pretty clearly defined. There isn't much to actually do in the there, as there are barely any enemies to fight and no missions ever spawn there.

Visually, the tunnels are just a confusing network of corridors that split from each other and meat back up, eventually ending back to the surface, usually in holes or ponds or frim under platforms. Other than these official "entrances," entering the tunnels can be done through any breag in the grate that covers the tunnels. Just find a grate and follow it. It will lead you to a hole you can jump down pretty fast. Those are very common. However, keep in mind that you can't get back out of those holes unless you can jump or fly, so you'll need to find an exit.

A few areas of the tunnels are, as I said, remarkable, though mostly visually. They resemble hot, cramped and quite impressive "engine rooms," red with heat and filled with Crab Spiders welding and doing repairs. There is also an entrance to the tunnel leading to the Fab, off to the North of Grandville. Because this is remarkable, I'll explain where you can find it.

Start at the plaza in front of the Grandville tower and look for a grate in near Dr. Forrester and the Web lift. There should be a split in the grate nearby. Drop down and proceed to the North-West, then go straight on the T intersection. Keep going until the corridor slopes down and you end up before a room behind a red glass/shield pane. In it, you should see Crey soldiers levels 40-41. They are guarding a tunnel that goes down. This leads to the underwater tunnel. More on that later.

The Ramparts

This is the collection of towers and catwalks overlooking the Gutter, lining the wall and providing an anchor point for the various support cables that hold up the metal web above Grandville. They are a bit tricky to navigate if you don't have some kind of vertical travel power, and falling off them usually lands you among nasty Arachnoids down in the Gutter.

Enemies there start from 43 and have a tendency to spawn up to 45 and 46, usually higher than you are by at least a couple of levels. Enemy types again include everyhing Arachnos above Crab Spiders and groups there are sometimes big.

There isn't much to be said about the Ramparts. You don't really need to go there, ourside of Regent Korol's mission to patrol "her" web, or if you're passing through and need a stepping stone to get over the the turret wall. Uneven terrain, tight quarters and high-level enemies with Web Grenades make this place dangerous, so take care when traversin it on your way out of or into Grandville from the Beach.coro

The Arachnos Tower

Easilt the most important places in Grandville, the Arachnos Tower holds more contacts and important locations than ANY other place in the city. It is where your Partons reside and where passage to Recluse's Victory can be obtained. It also houses the zone's hospital.

In front of the tower stands Arbiter Rein, who gives you a mission to select your Patron. Right inside the Tower, in the the Tower lobby, you can find Arbiter Daos, as well as statues of the four Patrons with plaques listing the powers they would give you as patrons and their stathistics. Right of the reception desk you can find Abassador Khur'rekt, an unlockable contact. Right of the Ambassador is the door to the hospital, but you cannot enter it. You can only leave through it when you are defeated.

On the left of the reception desk is an open door, leading to a T intersection. Left on that intersection leads to the Recluse's Victory room. You will come to a large map of Recluse's Victory, and an operative that will explain how it works. The Recluse's Victory portal is ahead, behind the map, NOT to the right. To the right is a mission portal and both Operative Grillo and Vernon Von Grun.

Back at the T intersection, taking the right brings you to a lift room. Taking the lifts brings you up to Lord Recluse's conference room, the four patrons and Lord Recluse, himself reside. If you look out the window, you will find Shadow Spider and Mage-Killer Zakhura.

To reach them, you need to exit the tower and move towards its rear. On the North side of the towere, there will be a tube lift that will take you up to the two contacts' terrace.

There are no enemies in the Arachnos tower or on its terraces, but Mu Mystics of pretty high level can be found flying around higher up the tower on the outside. Level 47 or such.

The Gutter

The gutter is Grandville's ghetto, as well as what remains of the old city that Grandville was built over. Old, decrepid and often damaged buildings litter the Gutter and the place is infested with monsters. The civilians of Grandville live down in the Gutter in mysery, poverty and constant mortal danger. The gutter also encompases the beach area for some reason, that has its own, unique set of problems.

I will divide this area into 5 parts - four for the Gutter and one for the Beach.

South Ward

This is perhaps the most significant portion of the Gutter, as well as the smallest and most isolated. It does not have a beach access hatch anywhere, but it has a lift leading up. The lift is located on the East side of the entrance ramp to Spider City.

Most of the area is located underneath Grandville's solid platforms and comprises of old buildings crammed together and streets polluted with some kind of disgusting sluge. The area East of the entrance ramp is mostly populated by bedraggled civilians and is home to Westin Phipps'es Heaven House, while the area West of the ramp is overrun with Arachnos soldiers and Arachnoids, levels 44 and 45. Lower level enemies can be found, but are rare. Enemies there are pretty easy to avoid, but gain a few levels before you try to get into fights with them, as the groups are kind of big.

Terrance Dobbs can be found right by the lift to Spider City, and Westin Phipps can be found in front of his heaven house. Berware of hunt missions from Terrance Dobbs, as they can have you hunting Arachnoids at level 40 or 41, when most of them don't spawn below 43 and often 44 and 45.

As with all Gutter ghettos, the South Ward has checkpoints leading to the East Ward and the West Ward, both guarded by level 45-46 Arachnos soldiers, always accompanied by a boss. Checkpoints can easily be jumped or flown over, however, or gotten around through Spider City.

The West Ward

The West Ward is the industrial section of the old city. It's comprised mainly of warehouses, factories, silos and other inustrial buildings. It has a layer of catwalks above.

Enemies in the zone include Arachnos, the occasional Arachnoids and Crey, all levels 44-45. Knives of Artemis can be found on a few rooftops, as well, in the same level range.

There is a Beach Access Hatch wich allows you to go through the wall and get to the beach without having to jump over the wall be shot at by the turrets. It's very hard for me to explain where it is. I would suggest you find the North Hatch in my guide for the Beach below, take it and then try to remember where it leads. The North Ward checkpoint is at the very North of the area, and the lift leading up to Spider City (or down from there) can be found a bit South of the checkpoint.

There is little else that can be said about the West Ward. It's a bit confusing with all the tall, similar-looking buildings, and it's a pretty dangerous place to be because of its snipers. A lot of newpaper missions take place there, however, so learn to get around there early.

The North Ward

The North Ward is the Gutter's most devastated area. It's comprised of exploded, torched or otherwise demolished buildings that have sunk into the wet mud encompassing the area. It's basically a gigantic marsh with broken houses sinking in. The main presence there is large, boss-heavy groups of level 45 Arachnoids, as well as similar packs of Arachnos soldiers, mostly Bane Spiders. The North Ward is the Gutter's most dangerous part.

There are a couple of lifts that lead up to the Ramparts of Spider City, but because the terrain in the North Ward is mostly flat, they are pretty easy to find. Just look for them on the columns of the wall. A Beach Access Hatch can be found towards the North-East of the area. The East Ward checkpoint can be found by going clockwise through the area.

The East Ward

The East Ward is the "city zone" part of the Gutter. It's comprised of a relatively intact, but still quite crammed-together town. It has tall residential buildings built close together, forming narrow alleyways, but it has its share of broad streets. It also has a few gutter areas and a plaza.

The area is populated much the same as the South Ward - level 43-35 Arachnoids and Arachnos Soldiers hunting them down. Some alleys have caccons and Arachnoids hanging up from webs a few storeys high, so be mindful of Arachnoids you didn't see dropping in on you unexpectedly.

There is a lift up to Spider City DRIRECTLY South of the North Ward checkpoint in the area, as well as one to the right of the North Ward checkpoint right as you come from the North Ward. There are also two Beach Access hatches, one right by the South Ward checkpoint and one South-East of the North Ward checkpoint.

You get sent to Arachnoid holes here occasionally, but beyond that there isn't much to do, outside of hunting.

The Bech

For some reason, the Beach is considered to be part of the Gutter. Oh, well.

The beach covers all the area outside of the Grandville fortress, and it is comprised mostly of open beach littered with trash, rocks and hostiles of just about every kind.

The South part of the Beach is more or less uninhabbited. To the North, on both the East side and the West side of Grandville, you begin to see more and more enemies, mostly levels 45-46, but comprised of a great many enemy groups. You can find all manner of Arachnos, Circle of Thorns, Crey, Longbow and even Nemesis Army soldiers.

At the very North end of the Beach, you fan find a special landmark - a landing pad and dock, which houses the helicopter you take to go on Grandville Mayhem Missions. Enemies around the dock site are different. They are comprised of Arachnos Bane Spiders and Crey Tanks and Protectors, levels 48 and up. Near the Helicopter, you can find a sloping platform that goes to a narrow entrance, guarded by two level 49-50 Bane Spiders. This entrance leads to the underwater tunnel that in turn leads to the Fab. If you go to the dock and look toward the North, you should be able to see the Fab island in the distance.

On the beach, there are four Beach Access hatches that go to three of the Wards. I'll list all four with relative explanations. Those can be recognised by the big sign saying "Whatever Ward" above the entrance, where "Whatever" is the name of the Ward.

The hatch to the West Ward can be found at a dock side South-West of Grandville. Just go counter-clockwise from the Ferry and follow the beach. The dock is pretty obvious. The North Ward hatch can be found East by South-East of the Mayhem dock and helipad. It's in a corner of the wall, under an overhanging platform above. One East Ward hatch can be found South of the Eastern-most bulge of the Grandville wall. It's in a corner of the wall under a platform that jots out a bit. The other Eastern Ward hatch can be found East of the Ferry. Just go clockwise from the Ferry and follow the Grandville wall. You can't miss it.

Newspaper mission can smetimes send you to the Beach, as do a few contact missions. You also go to all of your contact missions there. If you're of level, there are large packs of enemies to hunt, should that be your fancy. Movement around the Beach is pretty easy, courtesy of the vast expanses of space it offers.

The Underwater Tunnel

That is not listed as a seperate zone, but I will list it as one. I will also assume that you're taking it to go to the Fab, not taking it from the Fab to go back to the mainland.

The Underwater Corridor is just a simple, but twisting and VERT long corridor that goes down into the earth and crosses the expanse of water between Grandville Island and the Fab to the North. It's one of two ways to get there, and by far the cooler one,specifically if it is the first time you've been to the Fab.

To get to the Underwater Corridor, you can take two routs. I explained both of them above, so if you forgot, go back and read them again. One is through the Tunnels secrion of Spider City. It's well hidden, but easy to locate if you know where it is. The other is through the Mayhem dock and helipad in the North of the Beach, and that one is pretty obvious. However, it is also guarded by much higher-level enemies.

If you take the Spider City entrance, you will come to a T intersection. The way forward will say Beach Access, and that will take you to the Mayhem dock and helipad. You don't want that. You want the one saying "Fabrication. That will take you to the Fab... Eventually. If you take the Beach rout, you will come to the same T intersection, but from the Beach Access side. It will say City Core when you pass through it. going forward will bring you into the Spider City Tunnels. You want to go to the Left, where it says Fabrication. That will take you to the Fab.

A word of caution - while the Underwater Tunnel does not appear to hold any hostiles, level 47 and maybe up Spiderlings will be clinging to the walls. They are untargettable and hard to see until they activate when you come too close. Once they do, they will aggro on you and attack you. This can be pretty bad for lower-level character. They use standard aggro rules, so usning Stealth will keep them from aggroing.

An annoying detail - thre Underwater Tunnel is no an uninterrupted corridor. In many places, it appears to have side tunnels, but when you stop to look, they are blocked by a grate or a fence. There are NO side tunnels in the Underwater Tunnel, so don't feel obligated to check out each apparent intersection, outside the one I explained above.

That's all there is to know about the Underwater Tunnel. It's just a cool way to travel and not a whole lot else. It may seem like it will go on and on and on forever, don't worry. It's just very long.

The Fab

The Fab is a very serious, large-scale engeneering operation. It consists of a collosal chamber cut into the heart of a small island. Inside, Arachnos and Crey soldiers by the dozen are working hard, welding, moving and building a lot of "something." Perhaps more metal "stuff" to expand Grandville, perhaps some secret project of some sort. I will divie the Fab into two parts.

The Inside

The Inside of the cavern that is the Fab is breathtaking. It's a hole plrobably a quarter of a mile deep, criss-crossed with a spagetti of crane tracks, pipes, catwalks and terraces. Gigantic pillars streetch the full height of the cavern and hold up an enormous canopy.

The inside has been dug to several levels, each of which literally crawling with level 50 Arachnos and Crey soldiers and littered with heavy construction pieces and honest to God buildinds. Buildings underground.

Supposing you came from the Underwater Tunnel, you will find yourself in a small room with two Bane Spiders, which then exist into a loading room. Proceeding forward takes you up a very long, sloping road up to the Surface of the island. Going to the right takes you into the heart of the Fab. Leaving the underground installation can be done by several routs. Either back through the Underwater Tunnel, up the ramp I just mentioned, or up through the canopy of the complex, where a few slabs from the greed are missing here and there.

The Surface

The surface of the Fab is no less impressive than the Inside. The top part of the Canopy sees the supporting pillars stretch up into the air, housing level 50 Turrets, and forming a forest of steel columns. Vertical walls have been erected between some of the columns, some of the slabs of the "floor" are missing, and some are a grate instead of a solid plate. The top of the canopy is situaited inside a hole in the ground below the ground level of the island still.

Most of the rest of the island is either grass with trees or a rocky beach landscape. It is rather sparsely-populated, but by large groups of level 48-50 Arachnos soldiers fighting with similarly large groups of Longbow Soldiers. To the South-West of the island, there is a dock. Looking to the South, you can see Grandville's Mayhem dock and helipad, as well as the silhouette of Grandville in the distance. This is the mainland, so returning to it is as simple as travelling a small stretch of water.

Conclusion

That's more or less all I know about Grandville. I hope it helps people both looking to explore Grandville and looking to avoid exploring it. I did my best to represent the visuals as well as the locations as best as I could. Any corrections or additions you might be willing to offer are very welcome.

I am afraid that my inspiration has dried up for the moment. I'm currently working on a rather longer story for my latest situation, and even that's coming out badly. In this state, I don't think I can come up with an engaging new situation at this time.

However, this is an opportunity that I hope someone will take. An opportunity for you, my role-playing friends, to make up your own situation and I will try to work with that to the best of my ability. Should that fail, I'll have to wait and look for inspiration. Then when that is found, I will update the thread.

I apologise for what I am doing, but I hope you understand that this is something that I just cannot force.

As I said before, you can quite intentionally grind, shoot, blow up, incinerate, electrocute and crush your friends, as well as throw them off high places or have them eaten by wild animals. Of course, if you do that a lot, they let the bad guys drop you inside a meat grinder at the end, so that's some mitigation

It's just that I kind of draw the line of "cartoony violence" at people getting cut into bloody chunks with a wet, slushing sound. The game has a very dark, cynical and quite serious atmosphere overall, so it's not quite like Tom and Jerry or Buggs Bunny. Not quite mass murderer material, but it definitely has its violence and adult themes.

Are you guys missing the parts where Abe shreds his friends to meaty chunks in meat grinders?

I see a lot of people criticising the "we are what we pretend to be" comment, but I think it has a lot of truth to it. I don't think it applies to the movie as used, but it is true, nonetheless.

We, as people, need to abide by certain social norms. Those don't need to be the norms given by society, but even our own norms of some kind of social existence are still norms. You don't go around the street calling people "jackasses" then kicking them and running away. You don't shout at your friends, because you know they wouldn't like it. And so on and so forth.

The thing is, sometimes we have to abide by social rules against our will. Be that to keep a job, to keep a relationship, to fit in an environment or whatever along those lines. We can do that only for other people and still keep our own habbits and views, but sooner or later who we pretend to be begins to influence who we actually are. We begin to follow those rules subconsciously, and our personality changes, often slightly but very lastingly.

We, as humans, are creatures of habbit. The more we do something, the more we get used to doing it and incorporate it into our own character. Even when we know full well that we don't want to be doing it, we get used to it if we do it long enough. It's the same reason why making a compromise with something you know you shouldn't only makes it easier to compromise again and again and again, until that rule no longer stands and the compromise has become the new rule.

Environment and how it forces us to behave can warp even the strongest of personalities. I have the benefit of hindsight over my own life (which, surprisingly, few people seem to have) so I can see what I have gone through, how I have changed and why. I can see the same in my friends and my family. Oftentimes I can see th same in strangers. We adapt to the life we live, and sooner or later grow accustomed to it.

Now, where that breaks is that it makes us feel like what we pretend to be in a game. The problem is that a game is never as realistic as real life. Even if you pretend to be something in a game, that does not carry over in real life. The sensations and habbits you got accustomed to in a game simply do not have their counterparts in real life. At most, if you get used to be a mass murdere in one game, you'll carry that over to the next game you play, and then you start complaining that you can't kill civilians in CoV. But you don't start killing civilians in real life just for kicks.

You are who you pretend to be, but only in the environment in which you pretend.

Sorry I took so long to respond, espceially since I read your story earlier in the other thread

I will start off by saying that your storytelling is pretty good. It takes almost a first person perspective and describes things as the character sees them, and it does so very well. I will admit the twist ending really surprised me, but your explanation does make sense. I suppose in the absance of any knowlege of your character (as I'm not very familiar with anyone's ongoing stories), it's only fair that we wouldn't understand, but again, it makes sense.

What I should also commend is your use of dynamic action in detail. I've attempted this, and it usually ends up too describtive and still ambiguous, so I am impressed. Even more so with your incorporation of speach into action - namely the main character talking to herself. Certainly that's an idea I need to exploit.

One thing I believe you need to put a little more detail to, however, is describtions in general. Through your narrative, I managed to piece together a few parts of your character's appearance, but overall I couldn't get a clear idea. For lack of a better referrence (on my part), I pictured her as wearing a Knives of Artemis outfit.

A few more enviromnetal describtions could have helped a bit, as well. Most strikingly so when she is hiding from a camera and looking for a key card. I hope this doesn't come off the wrong way, but I got completely lost as to what is where, what the corridor looks like and where the guards are in it.

I know describtions slow down the action most of the time, but I've found that if you lump them together inbetween (and often just before) action scenes, it acts more as panoramic shot (visually) and doesn't so much detract from the action as it paints a picture of the surroundings so that once the action takes place, you don't lose orientation as to how it moves.

Overall, though, it was a very good story, especially considering the limitations you had to work with. My oppinion most likely has a lot to do with the style of writing I, myself, have adopted, so take that with a grain of salt. My preferrences are usually mostly just markers as to what I consider may be worth looking into. You don't need to agree with me, just think about it

To play devil's advocate, the Abe games allowed you to wantonly grind the little critters to yummy chunks of meat, blow them up with bombs, shoot them full of holes, drop them off high places, fry them with electricity or otherwise kill them cruely.

Of course, doing that got you dropped into a meat grinder at the end, because they didn't want to save you for being cruel to them, but I'm not sure how much that mitigates things

Yeah, I tend to speak my mind up front and then let moderators, forum censors or more subtle posters to clean up Mind you, I might do that subtly, but I have to say what I feel should be said.

Then again, better that I say it, because that way I get to keep the responsibility for it should wrath from above moderate the thread

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try working in a bingo hall and you will find all those urges... and a greatly diminished faith in humanity... True as true Aged_Ice.. true as true

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From what I've gathered, working in Customer Support or as a retailer tends to make people want to chainsaw customers in half. Or so I've heard

Well, since the man himself has spoken, I think we can all agree that at the very least the inclusion of City of Heroes and the Statesman in particular in these "violent games that corrupt our children" is uncalled for.

States, I'm really sorry you feel like that, but I look at it this way - it's a sign you've done something right. Your character has become famous enough for people to bother to try and discredit them. In my eyes, the people making this movie have no credibility. Their "evidence" is laughable, their conclusions based on alarmist gossip and their approach offensive for people who can actually think. I wouldn't concern myself with them discrediting one of my own characters. Simply, their actions will not work with the people that you have targetted your game at.

So consider it a compliment that you've made a character famous enough for him to fall under the attack of sensation seekers and alarmist propaganda. All famous people and characters usually are.

Thank you, Shrike. I had a sneaking suspicion that's how it would work. It takes a very, VERY specialised simulator to supply sensations even remotely similar to the real thing, be it driving, flying or what have you (let's stick to flying an aircraft for now), and even then it's just simply not the same. There's always more to real flying than there is to any simulator. And even if all the sensations and hardware could be simulated (which is not always possible), your mind and body will always, ALWAYS regard the real thing very differently. Simply because it's real.

Oh, one thing I'd like to comment on:

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And yes, I have seen a guy walk into flight school and proclaim he was an expert Microsoft Flight Sim pilot and therefore would be an expert pilot...here, first learn how to steer with your feet and then we'll talk. Keep it on the centerline, babe!

[/ QUOTE ]

I just had to laugh at that

It never even occurs to me that operating most machines requires more than pressing buttons up until I sit at the controls. Then it dawns on me just how different the real thing is from a video game. Heck, if I tried to fire a gun, it'd probably shoot right out of my hands and smack me in the face

It's about the intent, more so than the content of the message. I'm not sure who the director or the speakers are, but the movied carries an overbearing sense of intent. It WANTS you to be concerned and scared. It was made with that purpuse in mind, and it shows.

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The thing is: Even if this is framing a debate, it's doing so in a way that would make the people who should see it figure that they don't have to. They 'know' the content and message just from the soundbites of the trailer.
By presenting a documentary in this way, the sensationalism will actually hurt the issue.

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Which is percisely the way this whole thing is being handled, it would seem. It's not being handled on an intelligent, logical level. It's not being presented as a scientific study that may have implications. It's presented like the latest, greatest problem of society. Frankly, I find it a bit insulting that we are being scared by all of these "facts" and that the whole point of this movie is to concenr and scare the audience into believing something, rather than actually presenting convincing evidence.

"People can learn to fly jets in a state-of-the-art aircraft simulator, so any kid can learn to shoot people in the head off a PSX." That's utter nonsence, but boy is it scary! Our children could be learning how to become mass murderers under our very noses! Let's just ignore the fact that flight school is more than just a simple simulator, and there's a worl of difference between flying a plane and shooting real-life people with a face. It's the scare tactics that matter.

I consider myself an intelligent person, so when someone is trying to feed me scary stories in an attempt to get me to make a rash, illogical decision driven by fear and superstition, then I find that insulting. Movies like this try to approach me in a way as though I'm not smart enough to think for myself and evaluate any evidence, that I need to be fed the conclusions directly.

There is a marked difference between someone telling you a fact and someone trying to convince you of a fact. This movie falls squarely in the latter category.

What I have found the most ludicrous about these "moral crusades" is that the connection between fantasy and reality... Just isn't there. You see images on the screen and you go "ZOMG THAT IS SO REALISTIC!!!" Well, it's not. Real life is more than sound and visuals. Real life is perceived much more completely by your mind and body. For example, in a game it's just as easy to commit to jump over a pot hole as it is over a botmless chasm. In real life, not so much.

My own personal experience has been much to that effect. Long before I earned my driver's license, as well as long after I did, I played racing simulators and otherwise car-based games, such as Carmageddon. Sure, they're intense and sure, they're sometimes scary when you crash really bad. But when I sit behind the wheel, it very quickly sinks in that this time, it's my life on the line. If I flip over, I don't just hit Backspace a few times - I die. If I hit someone else, I don't score point - they die and I get in a whole lot of trouble.

And even if I don't really think about it, in the back of my mind there's feeling constantly reminding me. The same one that scares me to death when I see someone do something stupid on the road. I saw an idiot try to overtake a large truck and was this close to having his car sliced in half by another speeding truck in the next lane over. I didn't think "That was so cool!" I thought "Oh, my God! That guy could have died just like that!"

I will go out on a limb and say that most people can feel the world of difference between what goes on on a screen and what happens to you when you actually go out and do something. I'll also say that if people find themselves unable to tell that difference, then they have a problem bigger than what they see on the screen. So if it's not video games, it will be TV. If not, it will be a book, a newspaper, a magazine, a comic book. It might be a story they heard, or a person they saw do something stupid. Or they might just end up continually imagining doing something stupid.

It's pretty silly to compare video games to flight simulators. I wish we could hear from an actual pilot that has trained on a flight simulator, but even then I'll bet my piggy bank that it wasn't just like the real thing and they did have to do some adjusting and adaptation to the real thing. An that's the US Army's simulator that has your seat rolling all over the place, not an office chair and a 17'' flatscreen.

((I have studied your responses to my latest situation, both your feedback and the stories you have written, and I have conclided that you're abosolutely right! The situation I made was far, FAR too complicated. It was not at all what I had in mind when I first started the thread, and the results it produced were much different from what I had in mind. I will endevour to make the next one just as ingaging and much more free at the same time. Admittedly, it may be easier, as well.

Here is your new situation: Escaping an ambush.

You have been led to believe by sources you trust that something you want can be found within an old, abandoned building. That is not the case. In fact, you have been mislead and you find yourself in an ambush.

Now, weather you are able to figure it out before the trap is sprung or not is up to you. Weather you actually the trap to actually be sprung is also up to you. But the chief limitation here is that you walked sufficiently deep inside the buiding for reasons of your own choosing.

Once the situation has initiated, your first objective will be to find out who set you up and why. Even if you are able to sense the ambush, you will not be able to fully understand the ambush until you intorrogate the leader of the attackers. He can be found within the same building.

Your second objective is to make your way ouf of the building. Your exit is your own to choose, but abide by the limitation that it is not readily available. You have to MAKE or FIND your own way out.

Outside, you find yourself in an abandoned neighbourhood now crawling with enemy soldiers. You can make up a reason for that, or you can assume they're there in case the ambush fails. Your next objective is to leave the area alive. It is surrounded by impassible terrain in all directions (police barricades, War Walls, collapsed buildings, enemy spells, your choice) and you can only exit through one of a handful of heavily-guarded checkpoints.

Throughout the environment, you can find the following assets that you can make use of however you wish, or not make use of at all:

*Overall commander - he can be found wherever you wish, but he will always be heavily guarded. What significance he has is your choice.

*A normal person who has important information - This is a person who has information that can potentially help you in some way. It is useful, but not so much so as to completely negate any one obstacle. That person may be hostile or firendly, whatever you wish.

*An outpost of a rival organisation - this is an organisation, rival to the one setting the ambush. They have only a small outpost there with not a lot of fighting power. Their reasons for being there are not defined. Keep in mind that this won't necesseraly be an organisation that is friendly with you, so it may complicate matters more than it helps. Their involvement is up to you.

Let me just remind you that you don't have to use ANY of the above. They are simply there for you if you wish to use them. Feel free to stick to the main objectives and ignore the assets completely or make use of all of them. The choice is yours.

To summerise: You are ambushed inside a building. You may or may not have anticipated the ambush. You need to find the ambush leader located in the building, escape the building, and then escape the zone under the limitations given above. Outside of those, you may make use of the optional assets on your way.

I should mention once again that I will appreciate feedback on the way I am setting up the encounters. It helps me greatly in finding and later fixing mistakes and shortcomings in my describtion and setup of the situations. If you could be so kind as to give me an OOC comment about my presentation before you begin, it would go a long way towards bringing you more interesting encounters in the future.

As usual, if anyone else would like to set up a situation, just announce it in a small post before you make it so that I'll know not to write a new one. I will update this one some time tomorrow, when I have the opportunity.

Err...))

An ominous night forshadoed events of great power. A black, starless, clouded sky hung over Malta's stronghold complex. A storm was coming, in more ways than one. As a slight breeze swept the streets, a trio stood in a shadowy alley, looking at the imposing building.

-Does everybody know their mission? - Ezikiel Bane asked his companions.

-Yes, sir! - both Xandra Jay and Mek Majik replied together.

-Good. - Zik said as he faced the building - Then go in there and bring me the man who stole the plans for my crystallic fusion generator. No, no. - Ezikiel laughed to himself - The man you let steal the palns for my crystallic fusion generator.

-YOUR crystallic fusion generator? - Majik asked with irritation.

-But Zik, it wasn't my fault! - Xandra interrupted.

-It would appear you two don't quite grasp just how displeased I am with you. Should I have to demonstrate? Hm? - he looked at his silent followers - No, I shouldn't have to. And I trust you don't even want to imagine just how displeased I will be if the Malta get my plans from the man you let escape?

As if on que, Xandra's communicator gave out a loud beep.

-Saved by the bell - Zik said sternly - Time to move out.

Without a word, Xandra clenched her fists and concentrated. Without a sound, red energy enveloped her body and melded with her skin, making it transparent. Within a second, her figure barely refracted any light, transforming her into little more than a walking shadow in the night.

As the two man watched, she walked accross the street towards the Malta stronhold, completely invisible to the men watching the front security cameras. She approached the wall of the front courtyard and effortlessly lept over the 10 feet tall obstruction as though it weren't there. The courtyard was well lit, but there was enough darkness between the fixed lights and searchlights for Xandra to move about freely. Transparent as she was, the darnkess made her completely invisible to those around her, and by applying small ammounts of energy, she was able to move completely silently.

She calmly walked up to the generator providing power to the courtyard's deadly sentry guns. It was well guarded, but around its perimeter. There were no guards at the device, itself. She put her palm on it and a slow but steady current of pure energy seaped into the generator's electronics - a terminal dose.

Having finished there, she made her way towards the retinal scanner on one of the three main entrances. She knew which of the guards was authorised for the scanner, so she simply waited until he came around. The guard walked up to the door, turned around and put his back against the wall. That was her cue.

Xandra tapped her communicator and sent a message to her lord. As Ezikiel's communicator beeped, he turned to Majik.

-It is time. Go introduce yourself to them, Majik.

The power-armour-clad figure nodded. He threw his hands in the air and powerful electricity enveloped his body. It arched all over his suit and increased in intensity until he resembled a creature of electricity. Then his figure durst into small archs of electricity that shot into the ground and all the surrounding buildings. A second later, a massive bolt of lightning struck the centre of the courtyard to the dismay of all the guards therein. As the beam of light dispersed and its electricity sunk into the ground an armoured figure of a man was left standing.

Condused soldiers opened fire on the invader, only to have him burst into lightning and rupt somewhere else. Majik did as he was ordered - he kept the soldiers busy, zapping all over the courtyard and electrocuting any soldiers that stood in his path. But he wasn't attacking. All he was doing was keeping them busy.

The sentry guns that the Malta soldiers were relying on so much never activated. The controls of the generator that powered them had been fried beyond repair, and it stood dead and silent. Unprotected, the courtyard was now Majik's playground, the perfect opportunity for him to fieldtest all of his brand new gadgets. Bane had counted on that, and hoped that his enthusiasm would keep his enemies busy long enough for his plan to succeed.

And as Majik provided a distraction, an invisible Xandra grabbed the guard authorised for the optical scanner, dragged him to the device and smashed his face into the visor. The machine scanned him and opened the door without rising any more alarms. As the man bled from his injured face, he received a tap on his back that shot a massive jolt of energy into his body, paralising and killing him instantly.

Xandra walked through the unlocked door and found herself inside a lobby with a frantic security guard shouting in a dozen microphones and listening to a cacophony of incoherent shouts from the courtyard outside. The dark, barren lobby was equipped with laser sensors, unaffected by Xandra's transparent figure and survailance cameras no-one watched, all survailance being redirected to the outside.

The security guard was easy pray, too busy to be mindful of intruders he didn't even expect. A single touch to the back of the head caused his eyes to roll back into their sockets as the man fall back in his chair, dead. Xandra scanned his control console until she found a glowing green light with a switch below it labled "External Survailance." Flipping the switch made the light turn red and switched off all the cameras on the outside of the building.

Having memorised the building's plans, Xandra knew where to find her next objective. She walked slowly down a few twisting corridors until she came to a locked, but not secured door. A light punch at the door handle sent red energy coarsing though the door, and a moment lated a large chunk of the door shattered inwards.

The door led to a slmall room filled with pipes holding cables, control consoles and electircal flow gages. Looking through the cable pipes, Xandra found the one she was looking for. She grabbed the pipe and squeezed. Red energy shot from her hand and coursed along the pipe, destroying the cables within. In a heartbeat, all elevators in the building died.

Xandra tapped her communicator again. Again, Ezikiel, now standing at the side of the building facing the street, received the message. Tapping his communicator, he sent a message to Majik.

-Playtime is over. Eliminate them.

As he said that, Ezikiel lifted off the ground as though gravity no longer affected him.

Back in the courtyard, Majik received the message. He had just getting close to the optimal calibrations for his suit, but he knew better than to displease his Lord. Failing him in an operation of this importance would be a most deadly mistake. Following orders, he stopped running around and fought.

He appeared in one spot and this time did not disappear. Instead, he simply stood there. All of the soldiers in the courtyard were firing at him, but their bullets wer being incinerated by arcs of incredibly powerful electricity as they approached Majik's body. Having charged up his suit, he released a tremendous bolt of electricity that arched between the soldiers in his line of sight, instantly electrocuting in small groups. And so, group by group he moved between them, taking them out and chasing them around the courtyard where necessery.

That elevated the situation to a major threat. The base commander's elite commandos were dispatched, rushing straight for the expresse elevator. Sadly, that was out of order, courtesy of sabotage. So they took the stairs, which would take them forever. As they descended down one staircase, Xandra ascended up another. On the outside, Ezikiel had just flown all the way up to the top floor office where the base commander was trying to get a handle on the situation.

Quietly the wall behind him cracked, the collapsed into dust at Ezikiel's will. The commander eventually sensed this and backed away, looking for the person responsible. In a few moments, the perpetrator introduced himself. Ezikiel's floating figure landed in the centre of the room, a could of fine, yellow sand swirling around him.

The base commander, Ocelot-2-12, was no pushover. He had expert training, scientifically-induced superhuman powers and high-tech equipement that had cost more than some countries' entire military budget. Ezikiel was well aware of that. As Ocelot reached for his guns, a vortex of sand exploded in the room. Ocelot resisted being knocked down, but it still pushed him back. Just as he was about to get a shot through, the vortex receeded around Ezikiel. The sound compacted around his body and melded tother into a thick, hard layer of stone.

A large, hulking giant of stone now stood before Ocelot. His guns were unable to penetrate Ezikie's stone shell, but the barrage of their kinetic slugs was preventing him from advancing. For every step Ezikiel took forward, he was pushed another step back.

Ezikiel worked his bag of tricks. He levitated chunks of the surrounding room and hirling at Ocelot, but he was able to shoot them to pieces as they flew. He caused the ground below Ocelot to crack and explode, but he was quick on his feet and avoided it every time. He caused all manner of rock formations to shoot from every which way, but Ocelot always avoided them.

The battle looked like a stalemate. It was meant to be one. It had gone on for a few minutes when the door behind Ocelot opened quietly. A transparent figure walked silently into the room and stopped behind the commander as he was furiously shooting at his enemy. He never suspected a thing until he heard the faint squeal of energy as it focused on Xandra's hand behind him. Just as the thought to turn around crossed his mind, a powerful punch struck his back and transfered a colossal charge of pure energy into his body. The sudden surge pierced through his armour and friend his body from the inside.

As the commander slumped to the floor dead, Xandra leaned over and took a card from his pocket. The giant monster of stone exploded into a cloud of fine, yellow sand and from inside, Ezikiel stepped forward.

-Now, for the switch. - Ezikiel said as he activated his communicator - Majik, proceed to the final phase.

Back down into the courtyard, the elite commandos had already engaged Majik in a fight he could not win. He had eliminated all other soldiers on the ground and was now doing his best just to avoid the commandos' high-powered weapons, unable to penetrate their grounded armour. As soon as he received his Lord's message, he stopped. Just as he was about to get shot, a bolt of lightning stuck his body. When the lightning dissipated, Majik was gone. Just then, the commandos received an alarm - their commander's heart had stopped. Immediately they rushed back into the building and up the stairs to the top floor.

In the meantime, Ezikiel and a now-visible Xandra had climbed down another stairwell to the 30th floor. Lacking the stealth of Xandra's original infiltration, Ezikiel was forced to simply crush all of the guards and soldiers that stood in his way. In a building made of concrete - an earth material - the very environment was his weapon. Guards found themselves crushed by walls, impaled by spikes shoopting out of the archetecture or just smashed to pieces by the granite fists of a walking pile of impenetrable stone.

Unfortunately, they made slow progress because of their many encounters. Eventually, they reached the cell of the thief and unlocked it. Inside stood a ragged, beaten old man, just barely hanging on.

-Why fancy meeting you here - Ezikiel said as he pulled the man out of the cell by his collar.

-No, please! Don't hurt me! - The man cried.

-You took something that belongs to me. Let's go something a little more quite where calk about where you hid it.

-We should go. - Xandra urged, looking nervously around.

Without saying a word, Ezikiel turned towards the stairs, dragging the man by the collar. The two went down even more slowly, encountering soldiers who were rushing up to secure the building. Fighting their way in a fierce, but largely easy battle, Ezikiel and Xandra made it out of the building. No sooner had they set foot outside that an angry shout came from behind them.

-You will not leave this compound alive! - A winded commando shouted as his comrades in arms descended down the stairs to join him.

-Take him. - Ezikiel said to Xandra as he literally tossed the old man to her.

-I'm gonna' enjoy takin' you down! - A commando said as he slammed a clip into his machinegun.

-Big words for a little man - Ezikiel said calmly as a slight but very noticable tremor shot through the ground. - But can you back them up?

As Ezikiel said that, the ground shuddered frightningly and large boulders tore themselves from off the pavement and levitated into the ground. With a simple gesture, Bane sent the boulders hurtling towards the surprised commandos. Some were crushed by the boulders, but many dove for cover and opened fire. Again vortex of sand shot up from the ground and formed itself into a suit of stone armour. And while the commando's bullets bounced off, each one still chipped a little off.

As the battle went on, Zik gestured like a conductor. At the wave of his hand, pillars of stone rose from the ground throwing the commandoes away, sinkholes collapsed downward, sucking and burrying them and and a constant barrage of flying debris battered them unrelentingly. But even so, they held out.

Just then, a flash caught everyone's attention, as a bolt of lightning hit the generator that provided the sentry guns with power. It was Majik's final contribution. He had reprogrammed the turrets while the action went on elsewhere and now through his pure electricity, he provided them with power enough to last a few minutes.

As the powerful guns opened fire on the terrified commandos, Ezikiel simply turned around and walked out the front door. The mission was complete. Xandra waited for him in a black van with the target safely locked away in the back and Majik would be back on his own. Ezikiel had suffered some injuries and exhausted a lot of energy, Majik had suffered serious damage to his armour and Xandra had hurt herself in one of her bigger applications of energy. They all had scars to show, but in the end, those were minor problems, all things considered.

Point well taken, Leogunner, and it's something I was worried about, myself. As I said, I'm really making this stuff up as I go. I'll let it cook for a while and bring you guys a new situation tomorrow. Lessons learned, it will be a lot simpler. It will also involve something other than breaking into a building to retrieve an objective.

Given the circumstances, I would have to say that frontal assault is not so much "impossible" as very dangerous and prone to catastrophic failure. I may have gone a little overboard on the limitations and security, but I wanted something quite a bit more difficult this time. A bit plot-device difficult, I will admit, but I'll think of something much more freeform for next time.

Just... Please don't kill me until tomorrow!

Err... (())

OK, round two of our little game. Here is your new situation.

You need to extract a person from captivity. That person is quite ordinary, and so cannot help in your activity in any way. He is, in essence, a dead weight. That person also has no super mode of transportation, meaning they can't fly or teleport or such. Also, for reasons you will make up on your own, you are incapable of using your own super modes of transportation to transport him. So you can't carry him, can't teleport him, can't make him invisible and so forth.

All that person can do is walk around relatively stealthily. That means he won't be from too far away, but he cannot sneak past a guard on duty. He won't be seen if he's moving behind cover, but he also doesn't have the skill to move between cover when nobody's watching.

The person is located inside a hostile compound, comprised of a very tall, reinforced building and a courtyard filled with guards, soldiers and different security systems, as well as sentry guns that pose a serious danger to your character for reasons that are up to you. Those sentry guns can either be disabled one by one, or the power to them can be cut, but the power source is in a well-secured area of the courtyard.

The courtyard covers two sides of the building, the other two face a public street. However, there are no possible entry points on that side of the building up until at least 10 soteys up. And that's straight up a vertical wall. There is only sparse survailance on those vertical walls.

To gain entry into the building without breaking in, there are three different doors, each guarded by a seperate security system. One requires voice identification, one requires a retinal scan and one requires a key card. A few high-ranking guards around the compound possess those

Once inside the building, your target is held within a prison cell on the 30th floor. To get around the building, you can either use secure elevators, the method of breaking into which I will leave to you, survailance-laiden staircases or a system of rather small ventilation shafts. That, and of course, scaling the building on the outside.

The person you need to rescue is held in a cell that is wired to an alarm system. So if you break it, you will immediately allert the entire complex to your presence.

Two people have keys for the cell. One is the security chief who will be doing the rounds around the building. How to track him down I leave to you, but that will not present a problem however you do it. The other person who holds a universal key that openes any locked door in the complex is the complex commander. He can be found in his quarters at the top floor. Surrounding his quarters is a whole troop of elite, heavily-armed and very dangerous guards, but inside his quarters he is alone.

Alternatively, you can cut the alarm system in two ways. Either locally at the cell or anywhere along its cable connecting it to the security centre. However, doing that will allert security to your actions and they will sound the alarm within 10 minutes. You can disable the alarm system from the command centre if you can get to a terminal. That will buy you 30 minutes before a routine sweep discovers it disabled, crews investigate and sound the alarm.

In general, an alarm can be sounded in several ways. Firstly, this can be done by tripping one of the automatic security systems throughout the building. Secondly, this can be done by guards by using alarm switches distributed around the building. Keep in mind that these can be destroyed or guards prevented from using them. Thirdly, doing substantial structural damage to the building will automatically sound an alarm.

Once an alarm is sounded, several things will happen. Sentry guns in the courtyard will be activated. These are very dangerous to you, so directly opposing them is almost suicide, but you can avoid them if you try. The person you're getting out - not so much. Secondly, the commander's elite soldiers will descend into the building and begin doing sweeps. While not as dangerous as the sentry guns, they are still extremely dangerous. They can be avoided, as well, but again, not so well if you are lugging around your target. Finally, guards in general will be put on high allert and become much more observent, generally making moving around more difficult.

There are ways to deal with these problems. Firstly, as I said, the courtyard sentry guns can be destroyed or sabotaged while they are inactive, or their power source may be destroyed after they have been activated or sabotaged so it doesn't work when they are activated. The commander's elite guards will need to move through the building, so sabotaging stairwells or elevators could slow them down or prevent them from moving around at all.

Your objective is to enter the building by whichever means you choose, extract the target and lead them out of the premesis by whichever means is appropriate, but alive and unharmed. Keep in mind that, once you have freed your target, the enemy will shoot him on sight. You want your target alive.

Now, I have put a lot more regulations on this situation. Do not feel the need to limit yourself to the paths of progress I have painted here. For example, just because there are three entry points does not mean you cannot find or make another entry point, or because there are locks with keys held by certain people that you cannot bypass these locks by other means. Just because there are a few ready-made modes of moving around the building doesn't mean there weren't others you make yourself, or that I simply didn't mention. Those are just how the guards move around. As long as you don't break the rules given (cutting a small hole in a wall is not structural damage, blowing up a door with high explosives is), you are free to append my describtions however you wish.

I would also like to point out that due to the limitations I have given, direct, brute force assault on the compound is impossible. I apologise for that, but I trust you can come up with a way to work around that.

*edit* One thing I neglected to mention is that I'm very open to feedback on the way I'm handling this, or the manner in which I'm setting up the situations. I'm by no means good at this, so if I'm doing something wrong or you feel I should be doing something differently, don't hesitate to say so. If someone believes they have an interesting situation, you are welcome to contribute that, as well. Just let whatever the current one is roll for at least a day before we move on.

((OK, I'll use the double brackets, I suppose I'll write my own take on the situation, then present you guys with the next one))

It was a hot, sunny summer day. It was noon and the scorching sun was beating down on the old warehouse, turning the small alley behind it into an oven. The unfortunate guards there had spent all night and all morning guarding the warehous and were at this point hot, sweaty and tired. Many had unbuttoned their coats and some were even in their tank tops. A gunfight was the farthest thing from their mind. All the wanted to do was get out of the sun, so they huddled under whatever shade was still left as the sun shone directly down. An overhang, a shaded corner, a large container - anything that offered relief from the scorching heat had men huddling bunderneath it.

As the baking asphalt spawned mirages of haze in the scalding air rising from the ground, a figure crouched behind a disgusting trash container. The heat of the day had caused the spoiled garbage inside it to smell indescribably, but the figure - Xandra Jay, Lord Bane's most trusted lieutenant and chief enforcer - had a mission to do. She could not afford to be distracted by anything, be it the heat, the smell or the consequences of failure. The words of her lord still rang in her ears:

-Miss Jay, I am quite disappointed that you lost my infinity crystal. I allowed the Nemesis Army to steal it for a reason, but I had intended for it to be back within my possession a long time ago. Yet it ended up in the hands of the Family. Now, I trust I don't need to remind you that this is entirely your fault, and I honestly don't care how that happened. All I care about is that I have it back within my possession before its power can be used by anyone else. I'm giving you a chance to rectify your mistake, and I expect you to take this assignment seriously. If you fail and my crystal gets sold, I will have to retriev it myself. And I trust you know what implications that will have for you.

Xandra was on a mission that she quite simply could not afford to fail. She had to succeed at any cost. To that effect, she had a working plan. From her Bane's surveilance and building plans, she had deduced the best point of entry into the building - a broken skylight on the roof. It led down to the second floor catwalk, which in turn led to the room where the infinity crystal was being held. To ensure the safety of his prized goods, the mob boss who had it never left the room. She had only an hour before the buyers for the crystal were to arrive, complicating matters tremendously, so getting involved in a fight was not advisable if it could be helped.

Her plan set in her head, Xandra made her move. She closed her eyes and concentrated intensely. As she did, red, glowing energy eminated from her body and enveloped it like a second skin. As the energy contracted and stuck to her body, it rendered her completely transparent. Initially, she resembled a glass sculpture, but as she stood there, concentrating, her refractivity faded away, leaving her resembling a mirage. A walking ripple of air that blended perfectly fine with the hot day's haze.

Even so, negotiating the guards in the alley would be hard, so she schose an easier rout. She turned toward the building next to her and jumped up. Her jump was smooth and effortless as though she had no weight. As her feet met the second storey windwo ledge, she pushed hersef off and toward the buidling accross the alley. Bouncing unnoticed between the buildings, she managed to get to the roof of one.

The warehouse roof was now 10 storeys below her and about 50 feet away. Without missing a beat, she rushed towards the edge and hurled herself towards the warehouse. Effortlessly her body covered the distance and plumetted towards the roof. But instead of smashing into the concrete below, a cussion of pure kinetic energy stopped her fall. As she fell into it, her fall immediately stopped, landing her gently on the roof with but a ghust of air that may as well have been the wind.

Xandra located the broken skylight quickly and silently descended through it. She found herself on a metal catwalk overlooking a large, open chamber filled with rusty machines and old, rotten crates. Guards did their rounds downstairs, chatting, goofing off and generally being glad to be out of the sun. On the other side, a row of upstairs rooms lined the catwalk. The one at the bottom of the corridor - the safe room - had two guards posted before it.

It was a simple encounter. As the two were casually chatting away, one suddenly received massive jold of energy to his head. His eyes rolled up into their sockets and he collapsed to the ground, dead. The other paniced, rushing check on his friend. He had barely noticed what looked like a mirage moving towards him when he too received a lethal dose of energy and slumped by the door, in turn.

Xandra opened the old rust, rotten door and it gave out a terrifing houl as it squeaked open. That immediately caught the attention of Angello Verdi - the mob boss who had stolen Lord Bane's crystal. He was a clean, stylish man, dressed in an expensive, carefully-pressed clean white suit - a contrast to the dirty, disheveled guards outside.

Angello was not a crime boss because of his with and charm, however. He possessed metahuman powers of his own - superhuman strength and toughness. He wasn't going to go down easy and he knew it. As soon as he saw the door open with no-one there, he grabbed his high-tech sensors glasses off the table and equipped them. Detecting Xandra, he immediately launched to attack her.

Angello fired a barrage of punches, each of them carrying enough power to break a man in half, but Xandra was able to effortlessly block and parry each and every strike with but a small burst of energy from her hands. She kept holding her ground until she saw an opening. Seizing her opportunity, she delivered a crippling blow to the man's chest. It was actually a pretty weak punch, one that didn't look like it could even bruise him. But the energy that punch shot into Angello was unbelievable.

The giant man just slumped to his knees and almost lost consciousness. Xandra calmly walked up to Angello, grabbed him by the back of the head and then with surprising strength slammed his face into the floor. So hard did his head hit the concrete that his face left an imprint. She then grabbed his collar with both hands and lifted him up.

-Open the safe - Xandra said in an even voice and a cold stare.

-Go to hell, woman! - Angello spat back in defiance.

Without skipping a beat, Xandra turned around and tossed his limp body against the wall. His back hit the brick wall so hard it left a almost broke through. As Angello fell on his head, Xandra calmly walked up to him and picked him up by the neck.

-Open the safe. - she asked again.

-I can't! They'll kill me! - Angello pleaded.

Without responding, Xandra grabbed him by the back of the head and turned towards the safe. It quickly became evident that she was going to smash his head into the kevlar-reinforced steel plate on the side of the safe. Angello was well aware that even if that didn't kill him, which it most probably would have, it would still hurt a lot.

-OK! OK! I'll do it! - Angello begged and waved his hands.

Xandra carried him close to the safe, where he punched a few buttons. The electronic lock gave out a series of beeps and the thick metal door slowly and silently slid open. Inside, on a small red pillow stood a large diamond-shaped, jade-green crystal. It hummed a quiet vibration and radiated a dim green light inside the safe.

Her objective had been found and Angello had no further use to her. Still holding him by the back of the neck, Xandra delivered a light punch, flooding his body with a lethal dose of energy. Red, glowing energy shot forth from the contact point and swirled around Angello's body, sparking away from the tips of his hands and feet. As he was screaming in mortal pain, Xandra took the crystal from the safe and put it in a small bag on her belt.

Angello's screams had, however, attracted the attention of the guards inside the warehouse. Soldiers burst into the room and immediately opened fire. Thinking quickly, Xandra waved her hand and produced round shield of pure energy. Red energy swirled rippled as the bullets simply bounced off.

Taking a step back, Xandra struck her fists on the ground and a wave of the same red energy shot forward along the floor. A moment later a ripple in the concrete followed the path of the energy, shattering the concrete and collapsing the floor beneath the guards.

As they fell to their doom to be burried by debris, Xandra turned towards the outer wall of the room. As she struck her palm on the wall, red, glowing energy shot in every direction along the wall, fracturing the bricks that that made it up. A mere moment later the enire wall shattered and blew out in a shower of pieces that raided down on the confused guards in the alley below.

This was her exit point. Xandra concentrated, and a wave of energy left her feet and began building up on the floor underneath. After it had charged a bit, it burst into a shower of light, shooting Xandra out of the window and almost straight up into the air at incredible speed, compressing the concrete below her feet.

As Xandra disappeared into the distance, still sailing from her long jump, she knew that her mission was complete, and a disaster narrowly averted. Both for herself and for her Lord Bane.

((I will have to admit that this did come out longer than I had intended, both for my own story and for the kind I expected to see, but I cannot help that my style of writing is just simply longwinded.))

You are faced with the following situation.

Your objective is to retreive an important item. You decide why it is important to you, but suffice it to say that it is important. It is located inside a locked safe in a warehouse somewhere. For reasons that you may make up on your own, you cannot enter through the front door.

The back door of the warehouse exits into a back alley. The alley is badly-lit and is hidden from the street by the surrounding buildings. It is also filled with armed guards chatting and passing the time. The warehouse itself is sparsely populated and barely guarded, but there are guards present inside as well. The boss of the operation knows the code to the safe and he can be found somewhere inside as well.

You are free to choose the time of day and weather of your operation, but keep in mind that your character has had only a several hours warning before the item will be moved from the warehouse to an inaccessable location. Whatever preparation they have done over their "standard" has to have taken no more than several hours.

You are forced by circumstances to start your mission from a corner of the alley where you cannot be seen and make your approach from there. You need to find a way to get past the guards, enter the warehouse, open the safe and then get away from the location with the item.

Any and all means that are available to your character or party are acceptable. Let me see how you would handle that.

I have an interesting idea, and forgive me if it is inappropriate for this forum. I'd like to initiate a small, uninvolving game of roleplay-lite. It's about putting a character you choose into a situation I, or another person provides and then explaining how your character would acheive the given objective.

The idea came to me from the old D&D tale about the Palading, Mage and Thief, and about how each would handle getting into a chest, locked inside a room guarded by a hoard of zombies. The Paladin would Turn Undead, smash the door and force the lock of the chest. The Mage would shoot a fireball, phase through the door, open the chest magically and then disappear back into his tower. The Thief would sneak past the zombies, unlock the door, pick the lock on the chest, steal the items inside then sneak back out.

The idea here is that I will give you a situation. A very simple, sparsely-described situation. I will then ask you to choose a character of yours (one or more) and then tell me how your character would overcome the obstacles I present and acheive the objective I give them. I will not limit you to characters from any game, nor will I limit you to using a single character. Feel free to bring a whole party along, as long as it makes sense.

I will give limited describtions, but I leave you full creative freedom to describe omitted details of the world however you see fit. Just try not to break the spirit of the challenge. So, if I ask you to get past a locked door, feel free to make up an open upstairs window or a key carefully hidden behind a brick. In the same vein, however, please avoid making up a door 3 feet away that's unlocked and open and leads to the same room. You know what I meant when I asked you to get past a locked door.

Feel free to bring as much or as little narrative as you like. Go into a lot of detail, be it visual or action-related, or just stick to the basics of "kick butt, take names, smash stuff, get job done." The choice is yours, although I would appreciate simpler tales of exploits. My idea here is to form a simple encounter.

My purpuse for making this thread is two-fold. First and foremost, I'm interested to see other people's takes on what will essentially be randomly generated situations. It's just interesting to me to see other people's problem-solving mentality, that I may gain inspiration for my own gains. Of course, I don't intend to steal anyone's ideas wholesale, but I do seek inspiration that can only be found in the spirit of how other people think.

On the other hand, I have found through personal experience that working with your own characters under other people's constraints is actually beneficial towards the overall development of one's character. Too often we take the creative liberty of tailoring situations to our characters, rather than the other way around, so it sometimes helps to stick to an uncontrolled situation and work your character around it.

For starters, I'll go with the classic D&D story on this one. Will detail in a following post. Keep in mind I'm interested for feedback at this point, so I will refrain from giving my own solution.