Shadowe

Sam looked at the inspector, an expression of relief on her face.

"We have a number of hostiles inside, threat to civilian life, and an unknown number of meta-humans present, not even counting those in there with a big bag of gadgets. Show's being run by a guy calling himself 'The Spoiler', but he's got henchmen and allegedly bombs. I'm keeping the people out right now with a psychic aversion field, but there's nothing I can do to help those inside without risking being noticed."

Julie stood at Sam's side, fidgeting nervously in the presence of so many police, but said nothing as the psychic continued.

"I'm waiting on a download from an inside source so that I can get a good image of the interior, but there was a pulse of energy in there a little while ago, and it played merry hell with transmissions. And I sure as hell didn't want to go in blind."

It took Richard several moments to recover from the shockpulse, during which time he was effectively blind - his battle-suit's software underwent a reboot, but the crashing wave of energy had resonated through his skull, temporarily overwhelming his mind, driving him to his knees.

When he came to, things had shifted. Almost every hero around him was tense, ready for anything, and he smiled tightly to himself as he noted Melissa and Marie had activated their stealth fields, but were waiting patiently, several booths away. Good news.

Casually pressing a panel on the wrist of his suit, he waited for the instant in which it teleported back to the containment chamber in the basement of Huntington Manor, then leaned casually back on nothingess.

Sammy? We have a situation.

* * * * *

Outside, Richard's thought rode through Sam's mind, along with flickering images of the inside of the auditorium. Shock drover her expression from smiling enjoyment to serious concern in an instant.

"Julie? Battle stations," she snapped, not even waiting for the other woman to acknowledge before activating her comm unit.

"Helena? Situation at Capecon - villainous activity. Scan through Richard, send the feed to PPD control, route a copy to my secondary storage, and call in backup! Civilian lives are at risk, we have heroes inside... lots of heroes inside."

Sam made a point of never reading minds without permission. There was only one exception to that rule, and that was only because she couldn't stop sensing Richard's thoughts. That restraint didn't prevent her from doing other things, though, and she rapidly created an aversion pulse, centred on the convention hall, designed to make people want to avoid going inside, where she knew they would be trapped along with everyone else.

As she finished the complex, stationary mental suggestion, Helena's voice crackled across her comm net.

"Alert activated. PPD inbound, all available heroes inbound. Potential cross-link - BODICIA is active and on-site. Shifting to support status."

Nodding curtly, Sam strode purposefully toward the hall, Julie at her heels.

"What are we going to do, Sam?" she asked, as she scurried to keep pace with the red-haired psychic.

Coming to a halt a short distance from the doors, Sam glanced at her.

"We wait."

* * * * *

Richard listened with half an ear to what Helena was saying, and nodded curtly to himself. Ultimately he was safe, he knew, but the number of innocents meant he couldn't take action until or unless the opportunity presented itself. And, thankfully, his battle-suit was just for show - he lost none of his powers while not wearing it, and revelled as he allowed a sub-lethal buildup of energy to filter through his body.

With a casual smile, he looked around.

"Well, this is certainly entertaining, isn't it?"

Only vaguely related, and if a moderator feels it necessary to delete this post, I'll be reporting it myself, so I'm happy with that, but a friend of mine had his credit card blocked by his credit company after attempting to purchase the Going Rogue pre-order. On contacting his card company, he was informed that (apparently) NCSoft is a "hotbed of fraud" right now, and some banks are automatically stopping transactions made (this is WAY beyond the NCSoft store's daily usage limit per card) through the NC Store.

Now, this is in the UK, and I will say that despite many purchases over the years, I have never had any problems, personally, with purchases made, neither has my wife, and I am not aware of anyone actually losing their card details through using the NC Store, or having their card used for fraudulent purposes subsequent to a purchase on it. However, I do feel that this is worth bringing to the attention of players (and, as usual, a simple call to the credit card provider should clear it all up quite handily), and the usual advice with credit cards is worth restating: Keep an eye on your purchases.

We all have a responsibility to take care with our money and purchases, and (as I said) I am not aware that there are any actual leaks from the NC Store, but it never hurts to be vigilant.

Richard nodded silently in greeting to Steven. "Well, it seems that I've forgotten to bring along my autograph book, so for the time being I'm going to have to forego the pleasure."

Still slowly looking around, he smiled beneath his helmet. "And since I know that Marie and Melissa want to have a look around, I think it would be only fair to let them go and..."

He hadn't even finished speaking before the two women dashed away with a wave and matching grins.

Shrugging, a gesture that seemed out of place on the power-armoured figure that he was, he turned back to the gathering.

"And besides, I don't want to queue-jump, so I'll let the worthy citizens who got here before me go first."

As he spoke, it was all he could do to restrain himself from hurling a bolt of energy at the figure behind BODICIA, but he knew that the attractive gynoid was more than capable of dealing with such behaviour on her own, so he merely watched, half his attention on her, the other half keeping trying to keep track of the multitude of people moving around nearby.

With a quiet sigh, he gave up. This wasn't a combat theatre, and he had no need to assess threats, no matter how instinctive it was while wearing the suit, and there were just too damn many people around.

When Annette stepped away to change into her own costume, he spent an idle moment or two watching the smooth way she moved, before wrenching his attention back to Steven.

"Don't know if you saw, but Luminescence is around, somewhere. Probably still outside dazzling her adoring fans. I expect she'll come in soon, though."

Richard, Melissa and Marie cheerfully strode through the gaps in the crowd, and if a few people seemed to bump into nothingness, there were enough people with powers around to make it seem almost commonplace.

Even so, minutes later, the sight of a gathering cascade of energy in front of the Unity Vigil tables drew any number of eyes, as well as murmured whispers of uncertainty, that lasted until the three of them suddenly appeared, the armoured man flanked by two body-suit clad women in combat poses.

Inscrutably, Shadowe cast his gaze around, ignoring the gasps of surprise, the claps, the wolf-whistles directed at the women beside him. One young lad was whispering animatedly to a friend - Helena thoughtfully amplified the volume on that conversation enough for him to hear it clearly.

"... and those are two of the women he has living with him - he's got hundreds of girls hanging around him all the time, and Mom says she'd like five minutes alone with him... and then she blushes lots and goes quiet..."

The battle-suit was great for attracting attention, as well as hiding the grin on his face as he tried not to laugh.

"So," he rumbled, his voice distorted by the suit's audio equipment, as he turned to look at the handful of figures manning the Unity Vigil stand. "Where do we queue for autographs?"

Outside the convention hall, a jet black Aston Martin rumbled to a halt. The driver's door opened, and a man climbed out. Standing just shy of six foot in height, immaculately tailored in a bespoke suit purchased at great expense on Saville Row, London, blue eyes swept across the gathered horde.

On the far side of the car, a woman, several inches shorter, dressed in an outfit that the generous might call 'revealing', also stepped out into the morning air, a broad grin plastered across her face.

"Oh, come on, Dicky! Surely this is better than a stuffy old physics conference. And I know that it's more fun than a meeting with the board of directors."

Richard Huntington threw an exasperated grimace at his younger sister, even while he ruefully admited - even if only to himself - that she was right.

Stepping smartly round his car, Richard offered an arm to Samantha, took a deep breath, and braced himself.

The onslaught was everything he feared.

Sammy was in her element, smiling, shaking hands with innumerable admirers - as far as Richard could tell, they were mostly spotty teenaged boys (and their fathers), but there were a few young women scattered in the mix. Sam always managed to catch a lot of attention, and he was extremely grateful that he had so far been unmolested . . .

"That's Shadowe, isn't it? Whaddya mean 'who's Shadowe?' Him!"

"Ohmygod, like, wow, there he is! He's gorgeous!"

"Huh. Shadowe? Yeah, I know about him. I heard as how he's cheatin' on his missus."

"Shadowe! Shadowe! C'n I have yer autograph?!"

A veritable wave of bodies surged towards him, and he fondly imagined for a moment that he would be able to get away with becoming invisible and flying overhead.

An instant before the nearest person reached him, though, there was a flicker of almost-movement before his eyes, and suddenly three lithe women in the black-and-green combat gear of Knives of Artemis faded into view in front of him.

It took every ounce of self-control on his part not to react with surprise at their sudden appearance, but Richard was a past master at hiding his feelings from the general public, so he smiled and leaned forward.

"Well, hello, ladies. Wasn't expecting to see you here."

Melissa Montrose, leader of the troupe, turned to look at him through her visor.

"Sorry, Doctor. We... wanted to get out of the house, and this was... well, too good to pass up."

With a quiet chuckle, Richard shook his head. "Quite alright, my dear." He had to speak quite loudly to be heard over the sound of the crowd, but he was confident that nobody would catch everything he said.

Looking at the three young women, he thought frantically for a moment or two, then nodded decisively.

"Julie, stay with Sam, please. Melissa, Marie, if you'll come with me, we can head inside."

Julie Slater, the one of the three that actually disliked Richard, simply nodded, though there was no doubt in his mind that she was relieved not to be spending any more time in his presence than strictly necessary. Sam would make sure she enjoyed herself, too.

He took two steps toward the main doors of the convention hall, then paused - Melissa Montrose and Marie Hawkins carried on for a moment or two longer before they realised he was no longer keeping pace with them, and turned to look at him.

A mischevious smile crossed his lips, and he cast his eyes around at the crowd that was now giving him something of a wide berth - many of them couldn't figure out if the girls were really assassins, or if this was all some elabourate act, and they didn't want to press too close if the former were true.

"Let's do this right," he grinned, and twisted the dial on his wristwatch.

In the depths of the basement beneath Huntington Manor, a signal triggered by the watch activated a complex set of authorisation protocols. A manequin inside a sealed chamber created a pulse of energy, piggybacked on the city's teleportation network.

To everyone watching Richard, it seemed as though he faded from sight for an instant, then...

Towering six inches over six feet, the bulky suit of black and grey power armour flashed into existence. An impassive reflective visor turned slowly, looking at the crowd for a long moment, and then the man inside grinned to himself, before walking forward.

"Come. We should be going inside. Luminescence can find us later."

Thus flanked by two deadly young women, for whom the phrase 'armed to the teeth' wasn't necessarily hyperbole, Shadowe swept his cape dramatically and stalked into the hall.

* * * * *

The wall of sound when they arrived inside made Richard flinch in the instant before the suit compensated. Normally, given his own choice in the matter, Richard would have snuck off to one side, strolled around the outskirts of the room, and wormed his way through the crowd. But he wasn't here as a fan - since he'd never really understood hero-worship - he was here as a presence. Something of a surprise addition to the convention's guest-list. Mostly because he hadn't wanted to be stuck behind a desk signing autographs, photographs, copies of his Doctoral thesis that he knew even the most ardent nerd couldn't understand a tenth of.

The two young women accompanying him, though, were another matter entirely. Marie had always been a bit of a geek, and the biometric scan data on his heads-up display showed an elevated pulse and breathing rate that he had learned to associate with cautious delight. Melissa, though... the woman was actually grinning, rather than looking around with her usual calm, passionless expression!

"I'm sorry, Doctor," she half-shouted, correctly guessing why his helmet had been aimed in her direction for several long seconds. "I'm going to abandon you at some point today, to have a look around!"

Richard almost laughed aloud, which wouldn't match the normal severe behaviour of Shadowe. "Of course. Later, though. For now... head to the Unity Vigil stand, see who's around."

With an overdramatic gesture that would have made Samantha collapse in gales of laughter, he clenched his fist...

And all three of them vanished from sight in the blink of an eye.

One has. Lots of deletions.

Just going to post a few thoughts of my own, here.

I've been playing CoH since September 2005, on the EU servers. It is my first (and currently only) MMO, and I picked it up one Saturday after a haircut when I hopped into my Friendly Local Gaming Store to browse a little. I've always liked the superhero genre, and thought "Well, what's the worst that could happen? I get a free month of play, and if I get bored, I just don't subscribe. It costs the same as pretty much any other game that's been out a little while, so I'm not really losing anything, am I? Ah... go on then. Give it a shot."

I now have two accounts (both running almost non-stop for the last 4 1/2 years - my first account subscription has never stopped), have purchased most of the boosters for both of them, my wife has an account, and we're not intending to stop any time soon. I attended a number of NCSoft events, when the EU offices were still open and doing things with their own community team. I've made friends, many of whom I've met in person. I have, quite literally, spent hundreds and hundreds of pounds on this game.

THAT is what shelf presence can do.

That is what the majority of people posting in this thread are saying - without shelf presence, there is effectively zero chance of another "me" coming along and joining the game.

Now, there is some hope that with an aggressive online marketing campaign, coupled with the recent Localised IP flagging that's hit the main site, that EU-based players who see something online might decide to buy the game, and they will automatically get pointed at the EU version, rather than the US one. But I was a casual gamer, a consumer who looks in shops, and I bought what I saw on the shelf. I actively ignore online advertising. I don't browse MMO sites. And I am a loyal customer of this game, and the only reason I am, is because in September 2005 there was still shelf presence.

Now, I'm not privy to the marketing details, so I don't know what sort of retention rate there is, but the only real example I have is my own, and I know that the great community, fun gameplay, and brilliant lore can capture the hearts and minds of people, and keep them playing for years.

In my opinion, failure to market effectively in the EU has the potential to be detrimental to the EU population playing the game. But that's only opinion, take it or leave it.

Thanks for noticing this, Avatea - you're certainly the EU's greatest proponent at NC, and we hugely appreciate everything you can do for us to get our concerns addressed by the powers that be.

Unfortunately, I think that it is unlikely to have any impact on their strategy for marketing the game, but we know it's not because the people who are involved in the community aren't listening.

*comes in late to the party*

Hey, Zonk, welcome to the game and the forum!

Yep, them there Vahzilok zombies are nasty as all hell at low levels.

My first (and still main) character was an Energy/Energy Blaster of Science origin, so I know the pain you're in facing them. Everyone has given great advice on your options, and my personal suggestion is to street sweep on your way to the mission door. Basically, anything that's conning Green, Blue, White, Yellow or Orange is probably fair game for you (Red and Purple is pushing it), and the extra XP you'll earn will pay off - I started a scrapper myself, recently, street-swept to the first mission, and levelled up off the first target I defeated inside it. Made the rest of the mission a breeze.

Anyway, please let us know how things have gone since you started - we're generally a friendly bunch, and always willing to lend a hand or advice.

I, too, can confirm successful NCSoft Master Account login.

I will also reiterate - your CoH game account username and password are not necessarily the same as your NCSoft Master Account username and password (unless you consciously chose to do it that way, which is inadvisable).

Important point - do not, under any circumstance, give your password to anyone, not even NCSoft employees. They don't need it for any reason.

The best suggestion I can make is as follows:

1) Find the email you got from NCSoft that confirmed the creation of your NCSoft Master Account (NOT your CoH game account) and double-check the details contained within.

2) Check that NCSoft mails aren't being snagged by a spam filter on your machine.

3) PM Avatea, Niviene or theOcho regarding your experience with customer services, and request - politely - assistance. Ask if it is possible for the details to be PM'd to you here on the forums rather than by email.

Well, if you're on Union, pop along any time after 9.00pm UK time to the big crowd underneath the Galaxy Girl statue in Galaxy city (go to the trainer, face him straight on, then look up - we're under THAT statue) (any day that's not a Wednesday) and say "Shad? You said you'd get me and my friend in a team together".

I'll help you out with that, and might be able to help you hunt out a team from the global channels I'm on.

The simple definition of a vigilante is "one who takes the law into his own hands".

I would, personally, expand on that a bit, though. It is someone who recognises (correctly or not) that the law is unable to provide justice for crimes (whether real or perceived), and chooses to step outside the boundaries of a society's legalities and act.

Not only is the belief that the law will not do the job required, but the will to take the step beyond and take the actions that are necessary to achieve the vigilante's notion of "justice" is also essential.

I am certain that, in-game, the mechanics of vigilantism will be cut and dried, since a computer game can only simulate so much. It will follow a "this action is clearly heroic, while this action is, while still achieving the correct end, unlawful" path. The truth of the matter is that this approach is rather simplistic, and the legal systems of the real world allow for flexibility in the form of precedents in sentencing allow for a much greater "shades-of-grey" view.

It is a rare person who will say that what a vigilante chooses to do is necessarily wrong. It may be illegal, but we all understand that the human animal is not one of black and white perceptions. Almost any discussion involving vigilantism will have the sentence "I understand why he does it, but..." in it somewhere. The only difference between different people is what comes after that.

"But it's against the law, and he must be punished." is a common one. I tend to agree with it, but would like to believe that the judge passing down sentence on the vigilante will show leniency due to mitigating circumstances.

"But he takes it too far." is another one, and also one that I can see the reasoning behind. Anyone saying this is saying "I, too, would feel wronged, but I would not go to that level of extremes".

There are many other "but's" that can be offered, but it is almost unheard of for anyone to say, simply and without qualification "he shouldn't do that".

As such, vigilantism is a perception of society - the limits that a society will allow one of its own to stretch to within the boundaries of the law. The vigilante crosses the boundary between "law abiding citizens" and "criminals". The vigilante is, at least to most people, in neither group, yet has links to both. He breaks the law, so is clearly not in the first group, yet he acts directly against the interests of the second group.

Ultimately, though, a vigilante is someone, in my opinion, who has the courage to stand up for his convictions, to say "the line has been crossed, and I will cross right back". They seek to repair damage done by those breaking the law, and choose to do so by breaking the law themselves. It is often said that two wrongs don't make a right, and while that is true, I also feel that "I understand why he did it, but..."

Yes, wakeys drop in Architect. I had two yesterday. Wakeys seem to have a lower chance to drop than other insps, though (everywhere), so it is just the random number generator hating you.

April 28 2008...

Utterly awesome, Bunny.

Speaking as one of the many Union RPers with an interest in writing (though not journalistic writing), I will happily put my name forward to provide some articles.

Some ideas that spring to mind are that my main might be prepared to discuss his eating habits, which are a bit odd, and a few of my characters would be prepared to be "interviewed" for a piece.

Don't take too much on yourself - this is a huge undertaking, so use the rest of us as much as you can - you won't lack for willing participants, I'm sure.

Okay, let's try to explain this with a few numbers.


Paradigms:
That the rate of inf earning per player is constant.
The rate of player decline is such that the number of players is 75% of the previous month.
All "new inf" is cycled through the market once in the month in which it was created. Old inf is not cycled through the market at all.

Let:

Number of players = X.
Inf per player per month = Y.

Month 1: Number of players = X, influence earned = X*Y. Influence lost = X*Y*0.1. Inf remaining = X*Y*(1-0.1) = X*Y*0.9
Month 2: Number of players = X*0.75. influence earned = X*0.75*Y. Influence lost = X*Y*0.75*0.1 = X*Y*0.075. Influence remaining = X*Y*0.9+X*Y*0.75*(1-0.1) = X*Y*0.9+X*Y*0.625 = X*Y*1.575
Month 3: Number of players = X*0.5625. Influence earned = X*0.5625*Y. Influence lost = X*0.5625*0.1*Y = X*Y*0.05625. Influence remaining = X*Y*1.575+X*Y*0.5625*(1-0.1) = X*Y*1.575+X*Y*0.50625 = X*Y*2.08125.

Three months - player base has almost halved, influence AVAILABLE to the player base has more than doubled. Because the market exists and holds transactions, even players who have now left the game can have transactions that will allow their influence to move toward the active player base (in fact, it almost guarantees that it will), meaning that inactive players does NOT mean their influence is lost to the game. The slower the decline rate of players leaving the game, the faster the amount of influence available to the player base as a whole increases. I for one do not believe that 25% of the existing player base leaves every month, which means that the numbers given above are pessimistic in terms of the amount of available influence, month on month.

Edit: Can someone pull up Posi's "State of the Game" address from a couple of years ago and post up how much influence had been generated in that time? A lot of that inf is still floating around, available for use.

Spotted this two days ago, because the EU site doesn't have a link to the comics, and I was in the mood to read them again, and I got seriously frustrated by not being able to get to the US version of the site. Please, NC, don't IP-tag the websites, it will only frustrate those of us who have a reason to look at both.

Or, better yet, make both websites exactly the same, except for the EU- or US-only notifications.

Edit: I did get the comics again by going directly to the FTP site.

I'd just like to add my thanks to the Community Reps (past and present, really) for:

1) Always being there, always being willing to listen.

2) Caring about how the community feels.

3) Taking the time to answer my occassionally pointless PM's.

4) Taking the time to answer /tells when I sneakily find you in-game, even when you've definitely got other things on your mind.

5) Being patient with us when we're clamouring for <this month's unreasonable demand>.

6) Always coming across as cheerful and enthusiastic.

7) Working in a time-zone that means us in the EU don't often pester you out of office hours.

8) Keeping it fun.

9) Community events.

10) Simply being here.

Thanks, guys.