Sciuridae

I received excellent, detailed feedback from FredrikSvanberg. He caught a few typos and errors involving acceptance texts. Unfortunately, he also found a pretty big problem involving mixed-up mission texts. He found a bunch of the mission briefings and debriefings were swapped.

This is both serious, and easily fixable.

Unfortunately, I couldn't reproduce the error.

I'd be much obliged if anyone who reads this and runs the arc will take the time to check that the briefings and debriefings are in order. The first sentence of each should go as follows:

Mission 1 intro: Thank you for choosing Infomercs, Ltd. for your information needs.
Mission 1 send off: Excellent.
Mission 1 return (success): Congratulations on a successful heist.
Mission 1 return (failure): I am sorry to hear that the heist was less successful than expected, but I'm afraid that company policy forbids me from offering a refund.

Mission 2 intro: You scored quite a coup with those security records, $name.
Mission 2 send off: This should be pretty straight-forward.
Mission 2 return: Look, $name, we run a professional operation here.

Mission 3 intro: Infomercs, Ltd. is pleased to report that your hostage is cooperating.
Mission 3 send off: A few years ago, the<color #ffa500> Scrapyarders</color> borrowed money from Scoundrels Bank. Since then, they have made the minimum payment each month
Mission 3 return: Excellent work!

Mission 4 intro: Welcome back.
Mission 4 send off: The bank president had to explain this to me twice, so pay attention.
Mission 4 return: Great work!

Mission 5 intro: I am pleased to report that your current endeavour with Infomercs, Ltd., is quickly approaching a satisfying and mutually rewarding conclusion.
Mission 5 send off: As you know, banks do NOT keep enough money in their vaults to cover their deposits.
Mission 5 return: Congratulations!

Thanks in advance!

Arc ID: 453342

Arc name: The banking system

I wanted to see if I could put together an arc that, while being fun and story-based, also taught some parts of first-year university macroeconomics.

'The banking system' is my first attempt. My hope is that it will bring understanding of fractional reserve banking, open market operations and bank runs, all the while being a fun villainous romp.

I would love some feedback from folk who've played it, hopefully letting me know where things can be made clearer, or what should be changed to make it more playable, fun or educational.

If all goes well, once I've polished this arc, I'll start on another one that will deal with comparative advantage and trade.

Thanks in advance!

[QR] Thanks for the replies. This is not my first plant dom - I've taken a Plant/Ice and a Plant/Thorn to 50 previously. Also, my first villain 50 was a Mind/Thorn dom, and my first hero was an Ill/Storm troller, so I'm rather familiar with Confuse.

You're absolutely right about there being no need for defence when everything's locked down, and it's pretty easy to keep everything locked down in most situations with an AoE confuse plus the rest of the usual controls.

Given that, I still want to build up THIS dom's melee def for fits and giggles, and not necessarily for effectiveness. Taking that desire as a given constraint or limitation, I was curious if anyone could help me with my slotting. Think of it in the vein of other restrictions/challenges, such as 'Given that I'm not taking any pets on my mastermind, what powers should I pick?' or 'Given that I want to be strong and pretty as a War Mace/EA brute, what pools should I take?'.

While not exactly what I was looking for this time, your build was interesting to look at, and had a few neat ideas I'll consider for other characters. Thanks for sharing it.

My melee-centric Plant/Earth is now level 36, and I'm very happy with how she performs. She's satisfyingly powerful, plays well on teams and already has decent melee defence from set bonuses.

As she makes her way to 50, I'd like to raise her melee defence to as near the soft cap as possible, for as little inf as possible.

Unfortunately, this leaves me with some harrowing decisions to make regarding enhancement slots. There just aren't enough to go around.

At the moment, I have Roots one-slotted (I know, I know...), and the last three powers from the Psionic Mastery ancillary are budgeted only two slots each.

Can the experts here help me make the build more effective? I'm not asking for ultimate dominator perfection, just a build that'll perform reasonably well while sticking to the melee-centric/build for melee def approach.

I'm willing to replace spore burst and change ancillary pool, if needed. Many of the sets in the build are already slotted, such as the Obliteration, Neuronic Shutdown and Touches of Death.

Thanks in advance!

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.803
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 50 Magic Dominator
Primary Power Set: Plant Control
Secondary Power Set: Earth Assault
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fitness
Ancillary Pool: Psionic Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Strangler -- NrncSD-Acc/Rchg(A), NrncSD-EndRdx/Hold(3), NrncSD-Acc/EndRdx(3), NrncSD-Hold/Rng(5), NrncSD-Acc/Hold/Rchg(5), NrncSD-Dam%(7)
Level 1: Stone Spears -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(7), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(9), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(9)
Level 2: Stone Mallet -- T'Death-Acc/Dmg(A), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx(11), T'Death-Dmg/Rchg(11), T'Death-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(13), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(13), T'Death-Dam%(15)
Level 4: Tremor -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(15), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(17), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(17), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(19), Oblit-%Dam(19)
Level 6: Spore Burst -- Acc-I(A)
Level 8: Seeds of Confusion -- Pplx-Acc/Rchg(A), Pplx-EndRdx/Conf(21), Pplx-Acc/EndRdx(21), Pplx-Conf/Rng(23), Pplx-Acc/Conf/Rchg(23), Pplx-Rchg/Conf(25)
Level 10: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(40), RechRdx-I(42)
Level 12: Combat Jumping -- Krma-ResKB(A)
Level 14: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 16: Power Boost -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(42), RechRdx-I(42)
Level 18: Health -- Heal-I(A)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(25), EndMod-I(31)
Level 22: Heavy Mallet -- T'Death-Acc/Dmg(A), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx(31), T'Death-Dmg/Rchg(33), T'Death-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(33), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(33), T'Death-Dam%(34)
Level 24: Roots -- Acc-I(A)
Level 26: Carrion Creepers -- Enf'dOp-Acc/Rchg(A), Enf'dOp-EndRdx/Immob(27), Enf'dOp-Acc/EndRdx(27), Enf'dOp-Immob/Rng(29), Enf'dOp-Acc/Immob/Rchg(29), Enf'dOp-Acc/Immob(31)
Level 28: Seismic Smash -- T'Death-Acc/Dmg(A), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx(34), T'Death-Dmg/Rchg(34), T'Death-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(36), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(36), T'Death-Dam%(36)
Level 30: Super Jump -- Jump-I(A)
Level 32: Fly Trap -- BriL'shp-Acc/Dmg(A), LdyGrey-%Dam(37), Achilles-ResDeb%(37), BldM'dt-Acc/Dmg(48), U'Loyal-Acc/Dmg(48), Dmg-I(48)
Level 35: Mud Pots -- TmpRdns-Acc/EndRdx(A), P'ngTtl-Acc/EndRdx(37), Dmg-I(45), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx(46), C'ngBlow-Dmg/EndRdx(46), Sciroc-Dmg/EndRdx(46)
Level 38: Fissure -- Det'tn-Acc/Dmg(A), Det'tn-Dmg/EndRdx(39), Det'tn-Dmg/Rchg(39), Det'tn-Dmg/Rng(39), Det'tn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(40), Det'tn-Dmg/EndRdx/Rng(40)
Level 41: Link Minds -- RedFtn-Def/Rchg(A), LkGmblr-Def/Rchg(43), S'dpty-Def/Rchg(43), Ksmt-Def/Rchg(43), Krma-Def/Rchg(45), GftotA-Def/Rchg(45)
Level 44: World of Confusion -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(50)
Level 47: Mind Over Body -- ResDam-I(A), ResDam-I(50)
Level 49: Indomitable Will -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Domination
Level 1: Ninja Run
------------
Set Bonus Totals:

• 10.5% DamageBuff(Smashing)
• 10.5% DamageBuff(Lethal)
• 10.5% DamageBuff(Fire)
• 10.5% DamageBuff(Cold)
• 10.5% DamageBuff(Energy)
• 10.5% DamageBuff(Negative)
• 10.5% DamageBuff(Toxic)
• 10.5% DamageBuff(Psionic)
• 12.8% Defense(Smashing)
• 12.8% Defense(Lethal)
• 1.88% Defense(Fire)
• 1.88% Defense(Cold)
• 2.5% Defense(Energy)
• 2.5% Defense(Negative)
• 21.9% Defense(Melee)
• 1.25% Defense(Ranged)
• 3.75% Defense(AoE)
• 1.5% Enhancement(Confused)
• 8.75% Enhancement(RechargeTime)
• 2% Enhancement(Held)
• 28% Enhancement(Accuracy)
• 3% Enhancement(Immobilize)
• 61 HP (6%) HitPoints
• Knockback (Mag -4)
• Knockup (Mag -4)
• MezResist(Held) 8.25%
• MezResist(Immobilize) 10.5%
• MezResist(Sleep) 1.65%
• MezResist(Stun) 2.2%
• 2% (0.03 End/sec) Recovery
• 6% (0.25 HP/sec) Regeneration
• 1.88% Resistance(Energy)
• 1.88% Resistance(Negative)
• 2.82% Resistance(Toxic)
• 0.95% Resistance(Psionic)
• 1% XPDebtProtection

[ QUOTE ]
The writer of a paper mission shouldn't be getting the same recognition as the writer of an ITF.

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Agreed. Unfortunately, it's not the ITF writers getting most of the recognition.

I have observed a strong tendency to rate arcs either 1 if you dont' like it, or 4 or 5, if you thought it was okay or better.

Assume for the sake of argument that my observations are typical. The rating system is then already thumbs up or thumbs down. The only difference is that it allows for 'mistakes' (ratings of 2 or 3 stars), and for thumbs-up that can actually hurt your chances of high recognition (a high number of 4s dragging you below a 4.5 average).

In this case, switching to a binary vote system would only simplify manners and prevent harmful thumbs-up.

I agree there are more beneficial ways of tweaking the rating system.

I'd like to see reward for having an arc rated 3 or better, with a certain number of votes. This would hopefully dampen mark inflation for positive votes, bringing in more 3s and 4s and restricting 5s to exceptional content (or a friend/sg-mate's arc; that's bound to happen no matter what).

That's one big problem I see with the rating system right now: people know that the author won't have a chance at an extra arc slot unless they rate them 4 or 5.

It'd be really nice if the reward for an arc that was 'decent fun' were a new arc slot, or a fraction of one. Say, for every three arcs with a 3.0 or higher rating by X amount of people, a new arc slot would open up.

I'm tossing these ideas out merely for discussion's sake, and am not particularly attached to any one of them. I'm hoping to see some interesting discussion of how to fix a rating system that appears to be failing at its function of highlighting worthwhile content and separating it from not-as-great stuff.

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One improvement I'd like to see is getting rid of the 1-5 stars system and replacing it with the ability to either vote an arc up or do nothing (important: no option to vote an arc down).

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Yes, please. The way the rating system and its attendant rewards are currently set up, anything below 4 stars harms an arc writer. Since the current system boils down to thumbs up or thumbs down, it may as well be formalized as such.

With a five-star system, you'd think a decent arc would get three stars, with more for a good arc and less for a lousy one. I suspect very few people actually three-star average arcs...

My arc, Revenant Rampage , is a short level 14-15 arc using often-ignored mobs, such as the Midnight Squad, Igneous, Legacy Chain, Minions of Bat'Zul and so on.

It's ONLY levels 14-15, because those are the only levels where the ranges for the enemy groups in each mission intersect.

The arc is villainous, and tries to be a quasi-sequel to Veluta Lunata's spectral Arachnos unlockable arc.

You start off by investigating a Midnight Squad raid on a ship where the ghosts of the Rogue Isles have gathered for a night of gambling...

[ QUOTE ]
Perhaps you were not aware of the [tags] system story arc authors have come up with

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Well, that's exactly the point, isn't it?

It's not an official, dev-implemented system, so average new MA users searching for arcs will NOT be aware of it.

Heck, average non-forum-going CoX veterans won't be aware of it.

As a five-star-ranked story-based mission arc author who has trouble attracting players, I'm all for a formal tag system... but this informal one is a band-aid on a ruptured artery. If that.

Arc Name: Revenant Rampage
Arc ID: 51485

Faction: Midnight Squad, plus a few cameos.

Creator Global/Forum Name: @Contrary/Sciuridae

Difficulty Level: Easy to Medium, depending on optional objectives completed.

Synopsis: Who busts the spirit busters? In this two-mission arc, you help Arachnos Official Veluta Lunata take care of over-enthusiastic ghost hunters from the Midnight Squad.

Very light-hearted, with more than a few nods to a certain 'chartbuster' movie from the 80s.

For extra fun (and some added difficulty), click on non-essential glowies.

Estimated Time to Play: 10 - 30 minutes

Wrath of the Mome is a Virtue VG with a Wonderland theme. My character there is Lily the Tiger, a dominator patterned after the talking tiger lily in Through the Looking Glass.

I posted her actual costume earlier...

As usual, my painting of her looks nothing like the original.

I STILL owe someone here a Jabberwock... but look! I'm getting closer! Surely Alice's head counts for something.

'Course, if that someone were to create a Jabberwock-themed character and join the VG, that might speed things up...

Lily the Tiger is a plant/thorn dom I put together for a Wonderland-themed VG on Virtue.

She's based on the talking tiger lily in Through the Looking Glass.

How can you tell she's a she? Why, the pistils, of course!

Side note: tiger lilies are extremely poisonous to cats. Finally, a character guaranteed NOT to be munched on by catgirls!

This change is a textbook recipe for inflation and scarcity redside.

In the CoV economy, finished IOs can be thought of as final 'real' production, salvage and recipes as intermediate goods. SOs, TOs and DOs are outside goods that set a baseline reservation value for enhancements.

Inf is the game's currency, and it differs from most real-world currencies in that it may be minted by any player, simply by defeating foes.

Inflation is kept at reasonable levels through money sinks and player retirements. I believe (but grant I may be wrong) that the black market fee is an important money sink.

By making TFs riskier to complete, this change probably lowers real production villainside, at least as far as Pool C is concerned. (I find it unlikely that it would RAISE production, but feel free to point out anything I've missed.)

There is no reason to believe that the change will affect player demand for Pool C IOs. (Though it may affect the demand for IOs NOW as opposed to LATER - see below.)

Lower supply and higher demand leads to higher prices... but how high?

Fewer Pool C IOs villainside may lead to fewer black market transactions villainside, which leads to less money being funneled into the black market tax, which leads to a growth of the inf supply.

Moreover, now that a single person can spawn a four- or eight-person mission, it is easier than ever to farm inf. This change may lead to an increase in inf production. In any case, I doubt it would lead to lower inf production (unless players running SFs were a substantial source of inf prior to the change).

Combining lower supply of Pool C IO recipes with lower inf drain and more inf creation will lead to extremely high prices.

This effect will be made worse by the dev announcements. Consider Posi's statements to the effect that they do NOT intend TFs to be casual-friendly, and that they expect them to be run over several days by a group of RL friends. (I'm typing this quickly, and may have mis-paraphrased. Corrections gratefully accepted.)

Villain players may (rightly) take this statement of dev policy as a hint to expect higher IO prices in the future, since they'll be more difficult to obtain than they have been previously.

If villain sellers expect higher prices in the future, they will either not sell their IOs today (leading to present scarcity) or sell them at a high reservation price (inflation).

If villain buyers expect higher prices in the future, they will do their best to get their IOs ASAP, driving up their prices and bringing about the feared inflation earlier.

Those people who expected inflation will point at the higher prices and think, 'A-ha! I was right!' and expect even higher prices in the future, repeating the cycle.

This change brings together restrictions on real production, increased ease of minting currency, reduced outflows of currency and policy statements leading to inflationary expectations.

The self-same combination has led to hyperinflation in real-world economies, and I see no reason why CoV will be exempt from this consequence.

"Tremere is right the lack of recipes on the market is a matter of villain side player population not the TF/SF change."

Correct, but only barely.

The lack of recipes on the black market IS largely a matter of low population. As this change ages, it will become a matter of a low population AND the increased difficulty of completing TFs.

Low population will account for the lack of most recipes/salvage, but Tier C availability will necessarily be hard hit by the change, if soft loading was a major factor in SF completion (if it wasn't, why introduce the change in the first place?).

Prices will only rise, since a low number of black market transactions also lowers the amount of money funneled from the system by 'consigment fees', leaving villains with a lot of cash and nothing to spend it on.

This is without even considering the inflationary farmapalooza side effect this change has introduced... I intend to make use of it myself, tonight, to farm IO money with my AoE-focused plant dominator.

Is it just me, or does Mouse Police look like Yuumi's long-lost cousin?

Nice sketch. It's very easy on the eyes thanks to the gently flowing lines.

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Wow &lt;@o@&gt; That is officially trippy! I like it though&lt;^_^&gt;

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Thanks!

[ QUOTE ]
I don't think robot butt is NSFW though. Very cool Sciuridae &gt;,&lt;

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It's not the robot's butt that is showing. I might have made it too subtle - the junkyard itself *is* the Junkyard King. The ropes are around his 'waist', and you can see his clavicle very clearly.

You know that chest detail option that has three chains tugging on a wire loop? That's also there, and should help you find the right perspective.

[ QUOTE ]
*grabs leg* DON'T GOOOOOOOOOO! &lt;T.T&gt; I'ma miss youuuu &lt;;_;&gt;

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Already gone. The client's been uninstalled for ages. I just won't unsub until I've posted the location of Hex's pic on the forum.

Here's the pic on my DA page.

Warning - there IS a bum, so it might be NSFW.

Harlequin Hex is next, and after that, I can finally unsubscribe.

(There's a Jabberwock piccie after Hex that's probably technically CoH fanart, but the person I'm doing it for can find me on DA.)

[ QUOTE ]
It's alot more feline than I'm used to seeing her

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That's meant to be a scrap of painted paper, not her real face. I even went back and added paper textures and faint printed words to it.

Her 'actual' face would have to be blurry, like most of the hair is, if I were to maintain the conceit of a reflection. The paper is a narrative device to allow me to legitimately bring in sharper lines, textured fur and more detail.

Not an entirely successful one, gauging by the reactions, but there you have it.

Well, the 'face' is a painted scrap of paper floating on the pond's surface, obscuring the (presumably) true face of whoever is looking at her own pink-haired reflection.

I probably need to find a way of making that clear.

There are also a bunch of colouring errors I'll go back and retouch later this week.

I've finished the first of my gifts. It's up at http://reiraku.deviantart.com/art/Th...-Pond-64132066

Okay, so 'finished' is relative. I'm not happy with the end result, but I'm not sure how to fix it, so I'll sleep on it and hope the answer comes to me.

It's been about a week, so here are my choices...

Yumii, because the player's enthusiasm for the character is contagious - do you happen to have other costumes/reference shots? I seem to remember them from a previous thread.

Junkyard King, because I agree with his player that it's a good match for my style. Plus, it's a player new to the forums, so this might be a nice welcome.

Finally, Harlequin's Hex, because I've been looking for a chance to broaden my palette.

I'll post a notice as soon as I finish any of them.

[ QUOTE ]
Well, since a couple of other people have posted stories, I guess it will be okay to post mine as well.

[/ QUOTE ]

Please do post stories. I'm very much enjoying reading them.

[ QUOTE ]
I just wanted to say that Virtue seems to have a fairly good role playing community.

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All but one of my characters are on Virtue, actually.

Good new and bad news.

Bad news (well, I wish!): I'm unsubscribing from CoX. I came here for the RP and collective storytelling. After a year and a half of trying in all ways I can think of, I've found none of note. Time to cut my losses and go.

Good news: I'll make three paintings as parting gifts, one to a person. I'll keep checking this thread for a week - in the meantime, post pictures, bios, etc. of the character you'd like painted. Anything that you think might make me as excited about your character as you are. At the end of the week, I'll pick the three that most caught my interest. I'll be sure to stay subscribed until I finish the third painting, if only so I can post links in this forum.

Caveats: My style is NOT comic-booky, and may very well not be your cup of tea. See DA page in sig.

Also, there's my standard 'we are orphans ourselves and know how it feels' clause (kudos if you get the reference): I prefer to create art for people who don't have any art of their characters.

If two characters interest me equally, but one has a gallery full of commissions and gift art and the second has nothing, the painting will go to the latter. (I reserve the right to paint for someone with a gazillion existing paintings if the character really grabs me, though.)

Finally.... why three? Well, it's the fairy tale number, of course.

Thanks for the kind words! That being said...

[ QUOTE ]
but it is a very very different vision of Chibi Widow than I've ever had.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is why I could never be a commercial artist. While I'm generally pleased with my work, the finished product is pretty much accidental, and bears little resemblance to the mental (or reference!) image I began with.

Which makes me all the more appreciative of truly talented artists like Scarf, who can put together beautiful lines that actually look like what they're supposed to look like.

But as it stands...

Here's my scrapper, in-game.

Here's my honest-to-goodness attempt to reproduce that costume.

I've been at peace with the fact that my art relies on chaos and accident for years now... but it also means that I lurk on this forum more than I post, despite an eagerness for subjects.

Very nice. I like the proportions.