Shadowe

A brief description of what happened, in character, by Shadowe:

So, there I was, minding my own business, on my way to see my sister in her flat in Founder's Falls, when a Vanguard broadcast shattered the quiet. The emergency indicated that a massive Rikti invasion force was attempting to establish a beachhead into the War Zone... from inside the Vanguard base! Needless to say, I swiftly activated the micro-teleport unit that summons my battle-armour, and, far faster than I ever would usually, descended on the Vanguard location.

What I found there was... sobering.

At first, all I saw was a handful of Rikti, picking away at a couple of my fellow heroes. With a casual discharge of power, I knocked them into the nearby water, and they were swiftly dealt with.

That was when Helena, my faithful computer, warned me of incoming troops. Not teleporting in. Oh, no, that would be too obvious, and summon too many heroes to effectively counter - this was a massive wave of Gunmen, Soldiers, Mentalists, Priests and those confounding drones, charging down the street on our position.

You often hear people talk about "fighting for their lives", and it's often so much hyperbole. This time... this time it was real. I have no fear for myself, of course, but other heroes nearby weren't as lucky as I am, and our numbers started to dwindle as more and more of us succumbed to the enemy's numbers.

Luckily, people were calling in allies, and it wasn't long before there were, oh, fifty? Sixty? maybe more of us battling the oncoming hordes.

And hordes they were. Mistake me not, there were hundreds, if not thousands, of them attacking us. And these weren't weaklings, either. It would be fair to say that they sent their best against us.

I can't remember who first saw it, but I know that I was one of the first to reach it - the massive hulking brute of a Rikti, clad in the distinctive armour of U'kon Gr'ai. We tore at it for what seemed an eternity, picking off the surrounding masses as we struggled to keep ourselves from falling to the monstrosity.

Little did we know.

With the Master at Arms defeated, we were able to refocus on the massive crowds still swarming toward the Vanguard base. The force mix was devastating - Heavies backed up by Priests, Mentalists and swarms of Defenders, with Drones to fill in and take out any stealthed heroes - like me.

I have no idea how long we fought. All I do know is that after finishing off a handful of those pesky monkeys, I took a little scouting run - at superspeed - up toward the hospital, just to ensure that the way was clear for any heroes returning from there.

That was when I found out that "Master at Arms" isn't a unique title, nor a unique suit of armour. Two of them, standing before my eyes, either one capable of tearing me to shreds, and only the shield of my invisibility protecting me.

Frantically, I broadcast a warning to my fellows, dropping my stealth and unleashing an attack on them, knowing full well that all it would do is distract them for an instant before they squashed the annoying hero bug.

More heroes came away from their last skirmish, and soon the street was filled with the roar of energy, power unimaginable being unleashed on both sides of the battle.

Again and again we threw ourselves at them, and again and again we wore them slowly down. Slowly, until within seconds, both Masters at Arms dropped to the floor and were teleported away by their own medical technology.

We were elated! A fantastic victory!

And yet still the Rikti came, seemingly unperturbed by our success in forcing two Masters at Arms to retreat.

It wasn't long before we found out why.

The battle was moving northward, away from Vanguard's door, and that gave me great hope that we were driving them farther and farther back, that with every defeat we were showing that that Paragon - nay Earth - will not go down quietly. We will fight to the last, for our right to live as we have chosen to live. And even if no other stands in their path, and even though it would kill me, I will stand alone, should I have to.

I was not alone, that day. My brother and sister heroes were beside me and, as I have already said, we were driving the invaders away from the Vanguard location. In hindsight, it was an obvious trick.

They simply strolled across the bridge behind us, as far as I can tell.

This, though, was clearly the main thrust of the battle. The reason they continued fighting when all logic insisted that they should fall back from our defence.

Another pair of Masters at Arms, with their personal entourage of Heavies, Priests, Mentalists, Soldiers, Drones, Monkeys, Defenders, Communications Officers... with another pair right behind them.

My mouth was dry as I saw them, and a corner of my mind insisted that I should flee, run away before they could hurt me... but as long as I am able to stand, I will never retreat just because a fight looks hard.

We gathered behind one chap - I don't know his name - who was gleefully taunting the huge Rikti and rallying us all to fight beside him.

And we did.

My post-battle analysis demonstrates that enough energy was released during that titanic clash to level a large town. As it was, all it did was level an awful lot of Rikti. Including the four Masters at Arms that they had obviously believed would be sufficient to win their cause.

When the last of them fell, and all that was left was to pick off a few stragglers and strays, I wanted to laugh, to dance with relief, to cry.

However, Shadowe doesn't act like that. I saluted my fellows, bowed, and left, swiftly, silently, into the dark.

Or, to paraphrase Dante's post: Obvious troll is obvious.

Because the Oxford English Dictionary just can't get words right...

Please note that I make no bones about when this transformation occurred, merely to point out that the meaning of the word, in the English language, currently, as it is widely accepted, is different to its original usage, and that a failure to accept that change in usage has the potential to result in the stagnation of a language that is constantly changing, which would damage its rich diversity and ability to assimilate words and phrases from other languages. English is not a "pure" language by any stretch of the imagination, and it changes. A lot. Those changes are made through alterations in common usage, and are not a bad thing.

Thanks, Thy. That's why I added the qualifier - IDHTBIFOM, and was in a rush to post before I started work, so couldn't check.

That is not true of British English. In British English, it depends on what is being quoted as to whether punctuation goes inside or outside the quotation marks. For anyone interested, I strongly recommend "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" by (I think) Elaine Trass.

Onto my pet peeve that is the so-called "Oxford comma" which is that comma before the "and" in a list of three or more things.

Its use is a style choice, ultimately. There is no direct rule for it, but it can sometimes be added for clarity.

"Rain, snow, thunder and lightning" is a list of things describing the weather. There are either three: Rain; Snow; Thunder and lightning. Or it's four: Rain; Snow; Thunder; Lightning. It is slightly ambiguous, but in this context it doesn't really matter. "Mike and Sue, Bob and Helen, Simon, and Rachel" on the other hand, clearly describes FOUR groups of people - if the Oxford comma were omitted, then it would be easy to presume that Simon and Rachel were a couple, which, in the context of the quote is not true.

I've had a fair amount of luck with nVidia 275 GTX cards in that (rough) price range. Have to admit that I know diddly about ATI cards. The nVidia card should be able to run ultra-mode with most, if not all, ze bells and whistles, from what we've heard so far.

It was me. I was clicking on people and checking global names... and accidentally clicked on the Ourob portal. Had a good chuckle about it at the time (after a bit of cursing).

And for anyone who ever suffers from this exact same problem, my IC comment when I got back was "Sorry I had to vanish so quickly - sudden call of nature."

I say unto this... "Huh?"

Let me explain. Firstly, I do not subscribe to the view that any activity taken in-game is roleplaying. Roleplaying is a specific set of activities that include (but are not strictly limited to) acting and speaking in-character. That's it. When I'm RPing, my Local and emote chat will be things that my character says and does. If I'm not RPing, or I'm saying something on almost any other channel, then it's me talking.

Castle mentioned that there are "unwritten rules" that govern our conduct and behaviour, and one of those unwritten rules is that if you are in a PvP zone you are fair game for PvP. If I am in a PvP zone, and I am RPing, I accept that other characters may attack mine, and that such attacks may have nothing to do with the RP I'm involved in. Hell, that's happened to me. I did not petition the player involved, because my choosing to take my RP into a PvP zone I made the explicit choice to accept that I may be attacked.

However, when I am in a non-PvP zone, engaged in social discourse, I have made an implicit choice to avoid such a circumstance. Now, people who encounter my character may choose to do a number of things.

1) Join in the RP. This would be my favourite choice, as I welcome anyone who wishes to RP with an open mind.

2) Ignore the RP and enter out-of-character discussion with me. I don't mind this. I will usually take it to /tells, to keep my Local chat clear for the ongoing RP conversation.

3) Ignore the RP and not engage me in conversation. This is fine by me. When RPing, I tend to pay no attention to people who are not RPing - their characters are not there, as far as mine are concerned, and I will only acknowledge them in-character if they choose to act in-character. (Please note, this is not me attempting to force any behaviour on anyone - it is simply the yardstick that I use when determining the sort of interaction I will undertake with others.)

4) They may attempt to interupt the roleplaying through out-of-character means. If this is done, I will politely request that they cease their disruptive behaviour, and if they persist, I will petition them for harassment. It takes an active choice on their part, not mine, to behave in such a fashion, and I have no fear of raising it with the appropriate authorities.

Therefore, if I am in a PvP zone, I have made the active choice to be there, and the consequences of that choice are on my head. I cannot and do not blame others for choosing to enter PvP conflict with me, since it was my choice to be in a place where that was possible.

Thus, the choices of someone encountering me in a PvP zone are different (assuming that I am a valid target for PvP).

1) Join in the RP. See above for my feelings on this.

2) Join in the RP, but also add PvP combat to the mix. This spices things up nicely, and is fine by me as a roleplayer, provided that the conflict follows as a natural part of the RP.

3) Not join in the RP and engage me in conversation. See above.

4) Not join in the RP and ignore my presence. See above.

5) Not join in the RP and engage me in PvP combat. This is the price of doing business in the PvP zones, and I will retaliate to the best of my ability. I will cease RPing for the duration of the fight, and the outcome of the fight will have no bearing on the RP in which I was engaged. I will simply pick back up where I left off, after I've returned from the hospital. Attacking someone in a PvP zone is not harassment in and of itself. It may, under certain circumstances, become harassment, for example should the attacker persist in attacking me at the expense of other potential targets, but in that circumstance I still have the choice to remove myself from the PvP zone, which is my preferred course of action under those circumstances.

Ultimately, in a PvE zone, I should be able to undertake any activity that suits me, provided that the activity I choose does not impinge on the enjoyment of others. In a PvP zone I am explicitly opening myself to combat with other players, and it is I who must amend my behaviour to conform to the game-mechanics reality of the zone.

In further rebuttal of the above-quoted post, I do not consider "badging" to be a roleplaying activity, since it does not fit, in and of itself, within the category of activities that I believe constitutes RPing. Now, that is a matter of personal opinion, and if anyone wishes to /petition for harassment against someone in a PvP zone, then feel free. I strongly suspect that the GMs will agree with me and pretty much just laugh at such.

This is a point that seems to be missed somewhere between the EU and the US. I hear "horror stories" about public RP on the US servers quite a bit, really, but I have never witnessed anything like it on Union. If you go into Union Pocket D, odds are you'll find some people around the blue-side bar drinking and chatting. If you go to Galaxy Girl statue after 9.00 UK time, you'll find a some people hanging around, chatting. That's pretty much it, ignoring things like people being Tools and trying to screw things up for everyone else.

Yes, "Adult" RP does happen, but every roleplayer I've encountered on Union has been mature enough to understand that people really don't do that stuff in public, so they take it to SG bases, mission maps and the like. Places where they won't be inflicting the (potentially) graphic nature of the RP on the general public.

Thus, when in public, the general consensus amongst the RPers that I have personally had dealings with (and bearing in mind that I am one myself) is "live and let live". As long as people don't try to spoil our fun, we are happy to let them have theirs. We (yeah, okay, pretty sweeping statement, here) don't intentionally interfere, and we don't break beyond PG13. On at least one public chat channel for RPers I even know there is a moderated "Watershed" before which swearing is not tolerated.

Anyone who has experienced differently is either in locations that are not commonly used for public RP or are on a server that is not Union, and I refuse to be tarred by the same brush as others who have no regard for their fellow players.

Well... I'd have to say that on Union I've never experienced anyone cybering in one of the common public RP locations, whether that's PD, the Galaxy Girl statue or anywhere else in-game. I'd say we're too busy RPing our characters to get involved in that sort of thing.

As for the reason that RPers use local - a lot of RP centres around emotes and emoting, and since local is the channel in which emoted comments appear, that's where the rest of it appears, too. It would be nonsensical if half the conversation was on one channel and the other half in local. Further, local chat is generally considered by RPers to be "within hearing range", so if something happens outside your local range, your character basically hasn't noticed it.

Thus, to be quite honest, Local is used more by RPers than it is by non-RPers, so there's really very little reason for non-RPers to keep the channel on their chat tabs since, for most communication purposes, they tend to use broadcast and team chat.

I'm confused. I think I understand what you're saying. Let's see if I'm right:

The sets BaBs has "fixed" are weapon sets (since they're the only sets that suffer from re-draw). This means that if you are in combat range and use a power that causes the weapon to "sheath" (okay, I know, it just vanishes...), and THEN use a power that uses the weapon, rather than re-drawing the weapon, it will insta-appear and fire the attack.

This means that, for example, if you have a DB/Regen, rather than having to re-draw every time you use one of your secondary powers, you can just keep attacking.

The way I've read your comments, it sounds like you think this change will only affect powers used in the powersets mentioned, so if another power not in those powersets is used, redraw will still occur. This is not the case. The fix is that those powersets will not redraw if you are in range of target. That's it. End of story. Doesn't matter what other powers you have or use, if you fire off one of the weapon powers from those powersets, and you are in range of the target, there is no draw animation.

Yep.

Yep.

Good eye. That is indeed the one, the only, Crimson Archer.

LINKY for anyone interested in DtWT.