Samuel_Tow

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If your SG is having issues with being in SG mode then they probably arent worth having in the SG anyways. Especially as they can have all their normal costume colors AND they don't have to wear the chest logo if they opt not too and they still remain in SG-mode. There is no excuse for SG members not to be in SG mode now other than they dont want to be a part of the SG.

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Ah, but there is an excuse - they don't get influence past 35. Big deal? Yes, it is a big deal to some. Specifically - it is a big deal to me.

OK, I see a few things that could sound a little better (in my oppinion), and since you said proof-read, I'll copy the whole text and bold what I've changed. Keep in mind those are only suggestions in an attampt to to give it a little more impact (or so it would seem to me). Here goes:

Lara Meadows grew up knowing one thing in her life - that everyone was better than her. As a child, she struggled to be unique and special, at least in her own mind, but pretty soon the real world crushed those hopes and dreams. Reality has a way of making you understand your place in this world. By the time she was 18 she knew what hers was - that of a nobody.

Growing up, Lara had very few friends, and the ones she did have were little more than polite strangers, there to "hang out" when she called, but otherwise distant and impersonal. While she finished high school with little problem, she could not continue on to college. Her aunt, the only family she had ever had, grew very ill. The only thing Lara knew of her mother was that she died giving birth to her and of her father she knew next to nothing. Right after high school, she took a dead-end job to help pay the bills. What few acquaintances she had moved on better things. Her "friends" had left her all alone. Her ambition has turned to desperation.

Over the next few years she watched as her aunt died, slowly but surely. And with each passing day Lara died on the inside just a little bit more. She simply could not handle what life was dealing to her. She had nothing left, yet life took still more away. After her aunt died, Lara could not take it anymore. She knew had to do something or her fate would overwhelm her. As a final, desperate move, Lara moved to Paragon City. That was the biggest mistake she had ever made in her young life.

If only for a moment she had believe she would be happier there, she was wrong. This majestic city simply overwhelmed and consumed her like it did so many others. The black hole that some call a soul was growing every day. Lara lived in her car, fighting off bums and beggars, just barely resisting the urge to join their uprising. At some point, she just lost all hope.

A thought kept ringing in her head as she climbed one of the support towers of Valor Bridge“No one will even know I’m gone”. The tears that rolled down her face were tears of despair. She had lost all faith, all hope, everything that makes one human. Maybe it was the tears in her eyes that made her miss the "Danger" signs atop the bridge tower or maybe she didn’t care. Either way, as she clombed she grabbed onto a 13,300 volt powerline.

Raw energy surged through her body, yet she didn’t feel any pain, only relief that it was all over. In this state of relief and serenity, only one thought remained that seemed to stretch into eternity: “Finally”. And then it all went black.

Maybe that day was a blessing, maybe it was a curse, but Lara only knew of it as her new beginning. When she awoke hours, days, maybe even weeks later, she found herself washed up on the beach in Independence Port. She couldn’t remember who she was or how she had ended up ther. The only clue she had to her past was a Partial name tag on a tattered and burned shirt. “Lara” was etched with blurry letters onto the charred and buckled plastic.

Lara picked herself up and began to walk in a random direction, trying to gather her thoughts. She was confused and only looking for help. What she found was just the opposite.

A strange group of people caught her eye as she walked through Independence Port. They were covered in bits and pieces of metal all over some even had high-voltage equipement strapped to their backs. Something seemed wrong but she didn’t know what. Lara tried to avoid them but it was too late. She had been spotted and she would soon become another one of their victims. Or so they thought...

They chased her for many miles. She ran incredibly quickly but so did this band of freaks. She ran faster and faster, not missing a step and she thought she had left them behind. Then she turned a wrong corner and ran straight into a dead end-alleyway where twelve of these perversions of nature cornerred her. She begged for mercy, but they showed her none. The least human villain seemed to lead the charge in the attack. Lara cringed and covered her face with her hands when she saw them raise their hands, electricity flowing from their fingers. A bolt it her , yet she felt no pain. She just felt stronger. Bolt after bolt of violent energy struck her, and still the only pain she felt was caused by the unbelievably bright lights. Then the attacks stopped. Lara opened her eyes and she saw the look of confusion on the faces of her would-be killers. Her face relaxed and stood up, probably taller than ever before in her life.

Maybe it was anger over being brutally attacked for no reason whatsoever, mybe it was repressed memories from her other life, or maybe she had just decided to stand up for herself and fight for a change. She would never really know why she did it, but Lara raised her hands high above her head, clinching her fist until they bled. She pulled every molecule of raw energy from everything around her and her bloody hands began to glow with blue radient energy. The hunters were about to become the hunted.

Lara threw her hand forward, toward the now terrified freaks of nature, unleashing a bolt of electricity so strong the sound alone broke every window for 3 square miles. The thunderous blast was so powerful, that when it hit, it liquefied all organic tissue in the metal skeletons. When the dust settled and the smoke cleared, nothing was left of her victims , except twist metal statues thrown hundreds of yards out of the alleyway. Lara fell to one knee, drained. Not only had she used the energy in her surroundings, but all her own energy as well. She was left exhausted. This is the beginning of the story of Lara Bolt.

Commentary: While it may appear in some places that there's more bolded than normal text, and while it may look like I've changed just about everything, I have to say I didn't do much. Most of the bolded text is just a re-wording of what was already said, with a few minor corrections. That's really my attempt to make it sound a little better (and sound better to me, personally), so I hope you like it.

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For one I like the Prestige idea. This will make more sg's visible in the game. The only thing that concerns me is say an sg decides to farm Prestige full time, strictly 8-man sg teams as much as they can, I think the greater populace will get alittle xenophobic. Will these sgs wanna pick up the random person as a team filler? Or will they be worried about their prestige intake going down?

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That's actually hitting what's bugging me squarely on the head. I couldn't quite put it, but I think I can now. It's responsibility. We all know that having a responsibility is not a cool thing. We are given responsibilities when we go to work or school or university, and those responsibilities make us tired. We sometimes choose to take on responsibilities, because we respect or like or love the people who we become responsible for. That tires us, but the result is worth it.

I believe that if prestige becomes what keeps a SG inside their base, then a responsibility will be lumped on all our shoulders - to play and pay the rent. Sure, a base isn't a vital necessity. Sure, our SG might not actively enforce it. But it's an unspoken responsibility nonetheless. When your whole SG pulls together to pay the rent, will you feel well to be slacking or offline or playing an alt? When your SG-mates look at you like you're a lazy man, they don't need to say it. It's s obvious by their attitude. When you're put in a position of having to do something for the common good, can you lighteartedly say that it really doesn't matter?

An unspoken responsibility weighs heavier than any decided or forced one. It is not a responsibility you chose to take, or were forced to take, it's a responsibility you feel you have. And that is tiring. Very, very tiring. And I don't mean being sleepy or beat, I mean mentally tired, when you don't want to do anything but sit and look at one point in space.

This is a game. We shouldn't be given constantly-looming responsibilities. This goes beyond the passive "not fun" and goes into the aggressive "stressing out".

I could be wrong, I hope I'm wrong, but it does not seem so.

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If this is true, and I think it is not, I just wish they would stop implemeting policies and procedures that force the players to play the game how Statesman wants them to play. I feel like we are continually being told "You will play the game how I want you to play the game, or I will implement rules and restrictions that force you too. And if you figure out a more efficient way to play than what I want, I will slap you down with my nerf bat." This would just be another step in that direction.

Actually, even is SG mode you can set your hero to look exactly as they do normally...except for the chest logo. So you could run in SG mode literally ALL the time and still look the same. So we could ALL get one hell of a base. We would just have to put up with a SG emblem on our chest at all times but look as we normally do otherwise.

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Somebody once said that if you want more people to use a certain piece of content more, make an effort to make that piece more fun, rather than trying to force people into using it.

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If that's the case you don't need to be in a supergroup then. If the leader tells you all to jump, then jump. If he says take the hit, take the hit. If he tells you what to wear, then you wear it. If you don't like it the Quit button is right there. You'll only find yourself hearing the same thing if you join another if this SG prestige is the way to buy bases.

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Which goes against the idea that a SG would be a group of friends. Putting these pathetic restrictions only serves to overrule any social aspects a SG may have had with forced aspects. And let me tell you, my SG may not be very active, but it's active enough. And yet, wehn we team together, we never wear SG costumes. Why? Because that's just how we like to play. We're not in the military, where everyone needs to conform or face punishment. We're in a group of friends and allies, where we accept each other for what we are and for what we represent. We respect each other's differences and allow each other to express ourselves in whatever way we see fit. But I suppose that concept is going out the door. It's uniforms for everyone, or no superbase.

Just horrible!

That's horrible!

Yes, I know.

I was talking about myself

See, you didn't notice

Well, if anything, some of us got a few more posts toward our beloved post count out of this and no-one noticed

This thread is amusing.

What I want to see done with the CoT:

The introduction of Thorn lieutenants for all elements, as well as the sword-wielding variety.

The introduction of Mage liutenants to the 20+ game.

The presence of regular Behemoth minins, lieutenants and bosses pre 35 and the presence of regular Behemoth minions and winged Behemoth lieutenants and bosses post 35.

That said, I'm glad the Earth Thorn Casters are being changed. I hope this will at least curtail the "devs don't lisetn anymore" threads some.

I admit, that was a good one And I have to admit I hadb't noticed that.

I would define my creativity as inspiration and enactment. All I need is a start-up idea, something small that manages to get a reaction out of me. Those things usually happen to me when I'm not thinking straight. Either when I'm up at 5 AM reading the forums, or when I haven't eaten in 8 hours after a small breakfast becasue I was too busy to go eat. Being solr of slim and with not a lot of reserve, missing sleep or going hungry can do wierd things to my brain, like make me woozy, unable to concentrate or constantly pop up ideas in my head. If I get one that gets me moved, I'll play it out in my head, and replay it, and replay it until it plays just like I want it to. I've caused myself quit a bit of grief that way, as it's so real it's actually unsettling. And that's exactly why it comes out good. The hard part comes when you have to adjust a character so that it's not yourself you're portraying.

Serious? Yes, there are some things I take seriously. If I don't, then they simply don't work at all.

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He also gave me the impression that players would essentially get locked out of their base if they couldn't make rent, not that the base disappeared and the items get auctioned off.

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Reactionary? Maybe, but that statement in itself turns my stomach. I'm not disgusted at you for saying it, but for the devs for even considering it. This will be something that you have to not only earn but maintain through playing. This automatically moves the game from "casual friendly" into SWG.

In the great words of Coop, uttered when his giant robot got towed: "I save the world every other day, and this is the thanks I get?"

I cannot express how much having to pay upkeep for bases goes against EVERYTHING CoH stands for. It is no longer casual-friendly, because if you don't play often, your base gets repossessed.

As for why I would want to play evil? Why not, it's a game, and one without too much depth in plot. I doubt I could really feel bad when I'm trying to TAKE OVER THE WORLD. I mean, there's no way to say that and not be joking. And besides, I don't think we'll be really evil, like say murderes, child molestors or layers. Can't be that bad. If evil in CoV is as generic as good in CoH, I see no problem

What I find interesting is that the changes to Smoke Grenade generated just that kind of emotional reaction and flood on the forums. Justifiable or not, the game didn't die.

It will help alleviate the Hollows Stress Syndrome so many people seem to be suffering. It won't cure it, but it will delay it to a point that is managable. It never affected me, but I'm thick skinned like that. Others, I'm sure, will like it a lot.

It's very hard to explain how I pronounce "Tsoo". The language I speak has a seperate letter for a sound similar to "ts". However, in English that sound is more of a combination of two different sounds, where as I ponounce it as one. I can't explain it and most of you cannot pronounce it, so it's really pointless to try. Phonetics are not one thing which can be transcribed in any language.

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I'm not objective to the costumes.
I just don't want to see any huge heads with x's for eyes and a massive mouth. And sweat beads.

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And how exactly does that classify as "costumes"?

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Not particularly; I'd be more interested in you getting current known issues (invisible Mole Point meshes, the frelled-up exemplar system, etc) fixed first.

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Different departments, dude.

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*shrug* He asked, I answered.

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In that case, I'm not particularly interested either. I'd rather see a giant floating Pie in Atlas Park.

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Where have all the Red names gone?

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They're all gone to the Americans!

Somebody had to do it.

Oh, and if you check out that nostalgia thread, there's a red name in there from pretty recently.

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I remember running into Behemoths on the rooftops in King's Row.

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And in Perez Park. Yeah, I remember that too. Freaked me out the first time I saw a hoard of them running through the streets. Any idea why they were pushed back by 30 levels?

I remember London. Anyone else remember him?

I remember endless debates about the purple patch, and people leaving over it.

I remember an endless thread about "Capes at 20" of which I was part and do not understand the decission to this day. People left over that.

I remember the beginning of the "CoH has no content" fever and people leaving over it.

I remember the constant requests for crafting.

I remember a time before "I'm leaving" posts were deleted.

But more than that, I remember a time when I made a Katana/SR scrapper, which combined 3 things everyone thought were gimped. That scrapper is now a pixel from 45.