Shadowe

Hear, hear.

Best of luck, Alex.

Keep in touch.

I'm Shadowe, and I am not going to be leaving the game soon™. I might stop paying for my second account, though, since I tend to only log onto it to move toons between Day Job locations at the moment.

Shadowe/Chemlak's opinions of I15. Contains strong language and frank opinions.

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Shadowe~ I was told that there was an advantage to having all those farmers in Atlas Park

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By who?

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Did you even READ the post I originally replied to? Because if not, then you really should.

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Shadowe~Please tell me how having a huge number of people spamming Broadcast for farm teams helps me search?

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I didn't say that it did, i said if you are finding it hard to get a lowbie team use /Search, also set your search comment to PuG teams please.

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Hasn't helped so far.

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Shadowe~ I'm not pushy, I don't stand in a zone screaming on Broadcast asking for people to fill my team, I don't blind invite people, I don't pressure anyone into doing anything they don't actively want to do, and I expect the same courtesy from others.

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Once again this is a Spam complaint, not a farm complaint... please be clear as to what it is that you are getting frustrated over.

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Again, I have nothing against farmers. More power to them. But they're damaging the experience that new players get from the game by spamming in Atlas Park. Remove the farmers, the spam ends. Problem solved. So, while this is not directed at farming directly it is farmers who are causing the problem.

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Shadowe~ Obviously, since you don't find story fun. You're seriously missing out.

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That is what they call an opinion. I'm not saying you have to, just that in my experience you are missing out if you don't. YMMV.

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Also Shadowe~ Don't attempt to enforce your idea of what a fun game makes on me

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Pot / Kettle ?

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Not in the slightest. If I was trying to enforce my ideas of a fun game on people, I would insist that they do nothing but run through story arcs, ekeing out every last vestige of story from the game.

As it is, all I want is for new players to have a chance to not be inundated with farming spam, and for them to have a chance experience the rest of the game, too.

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The fact that there are people in Atlas Park means pretty much naff-all,
So use /search and pick those who say PuG team in comment box

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I was told that there was an advantage to having all those farmers in Atlas Park. Please tell me how having a huge number of people spamming Broadcast for farm teams helps me search?

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since the vast majority of them are farmers or PLers, and they have no interest in me as a team member,I have every interest if you will benefit my farm, if you are an emp with perma Ab i'm not going to say no, it's not a farm the 1st time round the map you know

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So... you want me to join your team, run round the map, complete all objectives, then quit the team because I've finished that part of the story? How does that help either of us? Oh, and I'm a level 50 Eng/Eng blaster, happy to exemp all the way down if it means I get a fun team.

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because I'm all about the story. How does having all of these farmers/PLers in the zone advantage me? The story doesn't change after the 1st time you do it, tbh i hate pve, why do you want to run around a small map looking for a glowie that no one can find the way to for a miniscule amount of xp.

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Don't attempt to enforce your idea of what a fun game makes on me, or indeed on anyone else. I'm not pushy, I don't stand in a zone screaming on Broadcast asking for people to fill my team, I don't blind invite people, I don't pressure anyone into doing anything they don't actively want to do, and I expect the same courtesy from others.

I'm happy reading the plots - whether those of the original game, or those that people have created in MA - and the killing of endless boring mobs to squeeze a miniscule amount more XP out of them is, to me a complete and utter waste of the rich and varied storylines that have been written for this game. Each to their own.

This thread is not and never really has been anti-farming. I'm against PLing newbies and I'm against giving newbies the impression that this game is all about farming.

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or am i missing something else ?

[/ QUOTE ] Obviously, since you don't find story fun. You're seriously missing out.

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None of you gets inconvenienced by other people farming, so why the heck should you care about it? Because people are asking for teams in Atlas? Whoop-de-doo. How HORRIBLE that must be for you guys. Instead of a mostly empty zone, there are actually PPL there! Oh noes!

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Simply put: I don't want to farm. I think it's dull. If I wanted to farm, I'd buy a tractor. The insane prevalence of farm teams in Atlas Park right now means that it is damn near impossible to get a mishing team of lowbies together.

The fact that there are people in Atlas Park means pretty much naff-all, since the vast majority of them are farmers or PLers, and they have no interest in me as a team member, because I'm all about the story. How does having all of these farmers/PLers in the zone advantage me?

And, as has been said before, it gives a truly awful first impression of the game to new players.

As far as farming and PLing are concerned, I'm willing to live and let live, but not at the expense of a new player learning the game and learning to love the game.

While I am certain that there is no problem with fighting 4 AVs on one spot, since there was no issue with the tank handling it last night, and you did a fine job of keeping him tanking, but here's the question:

Would it have been easier if we'd taken them one or two at a time? Would you have had more time to heal up anyone who accidentally strayed into range at an inopportune moment?

My point is that I am not disputing if it is possible. I'm sure it is. I'm 100% positive that it is. But it is a risk. It increases the risk of someone making a poor tactical decision, because communication from the empath is reduced to effectively nil while he works to keep the tank active. I believe that the increased risk is not worth the time-saving that taking on all 4 AVs represents. And that's all it is - the time taken to pull. Because while focussing on a single AV, the others are not being significantly harmed. There is effectively zero improvement in efficiency on taking them down, except that you are saving anything from 30 seconds up to 3 minutes per AV after the first. I would rather we had taken 9 minutes more and succeeded than failing as we did last night. I would rather have taken an hour more.

So, the important question is this: If we had not had all 4 AVs at once, do you think we would have succeeded, given that it would have represented less pressure on the tank and the Empath, and therefore the death that occured may have been avoided because the Empath would have had more leeway on healing the damaged player?

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just remove the fecking building from 'Lowbies Land'.

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Yes after all it's not like the lowbies go to PI or anything. Unless you want to block access based on level (really bad idea in my opinion) It doesn't matter were the building is.

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Actually it really does. Moving the broadcast spam to another zone at least means new people don't see it, but vets will know that if they want to PL themselves out of the low levels they can go elsewhere.

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^This.

A new player to the game doesn't need to be assaulted by a huge quantity of spam that appears to indicate that "everybody farms", because they'll rush to 50, and then wonder what there is to do.

Experienced players already know, and if they want to PL, I have no issue with that, but I believe that it is detrimental to the game for new players to be hit with such a poor perception.

Hadpy Birpthay CoH!

You've been a good friend over the years. We've had some good times, some rough times, plenty of laughter and a whole lot of fun.

See you on the other side, and don't forget to send me that cake you owe me!

Hadpy Birpthay, Damsel!

Hope you have a good one.

Now...

Where's the cake?

I'm unlikely to be available this Sunday due to an existing commitment as well as a house full of people. Which is a shame, because I'm really seriously up for this - having seen how well we did last night, I know it is an achievable goal, even with such a disparate team.

I have to admit that on last night's attempt, the spot where it fell down was when we had all 4 AVs in one spot. No issue with the tank, who did an absolutely bang-up job, but for something like MoSTF, where the aim is not to rush through it, but instead to ensure success, needlessly taking on all 4 AVs simultaneously with what amounted to a PuG TF team was what spelled disaster for us.

I'm sure it can be done, but if it doesn't need to be done, I see no reason to do it.

Welcome to the game and the forum, nottheboss.

Here's a few questions for you, then, to answer yours (which would better read "why do you all hate Powerlevelling so much?")

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What level are you, currently?

Which story arcs have you enjoyed in the game so far?

What are you going to do with your first level 50 (bearing in mind that unlike WoW (to use a common example) CoH is all about the journey, not the destination, and there's very little to do with a 50 once you have one)?

Describe your character to us, in terms of his powers. Which are most useful for soloing? Teaming with a mad group of blasters? Teaming without a tank? Teaming without a 'troller? Teaming without a 'fender?

What role do you take in TFs?

Describe the best tactics for use against each of the Giant Monsters in the game, to defeat them with a team of no more than 6 characters.

What order (assuming you bother) are you going to get Accolades in?

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The reason I ask all those questions is because if you're PLd up on your first toon, you've missed what many of us see as the point of the game. It's not to get to 50 as quickly as possible, but to experience the wide variety of content that exists on the way to 50.

This is also a feature of the main game engine - Any Lost spawning above L29 will generate Rikti instead. I believe that this is WAI.

((Oh, and in answer to your question, Infi (yes, I did read it when you first posted, but I have a terrible memory) - Andrew Martin went on to become the Super Villain Psychonova, who is Shadowe's nemesis. I hate him. Hate him, hate him, HATE HIM with so much passion it's indescribable, but... that's the point. He's a bad guy.))

((Thanks for the comments, folks. And since they were so nice, I figured I'd reproduce and tidy up an old story from way back in the day, since it fits the thread's theme. Standard 3rd person prose for this one - I don't really like 1st person style except when I'm trying to put across a single character's feelings.))

{Constellation Row, Galaxy City, September 24, 2005, Approx. 10.40pm}

Blind terror gripped her. They were all around her, clutching, clawing, grasping. She tried to run, to hide in the fog that filled the back alleys, but they were always there. There must be hundreds of them.

She'd just been walking home from an evening shift at the local Up n' Away burger parlour. A journey she'd taken a hundred times. She'd had another... discussion with Diego Juarez, the man who managed the establishment. He was a creep, and she still didn't know why she put up with him, or the job, or the pittance of a wage packet or any of a thousand other things that made her wish she could escape from her own life. They'd cornered her as she took a shortcut, skirting around the Arena and cutting behind some shops. That's where they'd found her, demanded her purse, and now she was running.

She had lost her handbag long since. They obviously weren't after money, now. Maybe kneeing the leader in the groin had been the wrong thing to do. No time to think about that. She stumbled further, and ducked down yet another narrow passage between buildings into... a dead end.

She cast her eyes about, seeing the trash trolleys, the cardboard boxes, the cat running up a drainpipe... There would be a fire escape. There was always a fire escape. Her heart leapt as she realised what it would mean. A way to escape. Freedom.

Looking up she saw it. Fifteen feet above her head. Tears of frustration poured down her cheeks, and she whimpered in terror, her imagination painting a picture of the coming horror that she could not divert. One of her pursuers ran into the alley, saw her, and called to his companions.

Stumbling backwards she tried in vain to escape, as more and more of them blocked the way out. She tripped on a discarded carrier bag, and they laughed as she landed in a puddle, the stale water soaking her trousers. She was amazed when the first thought in her mind was that the dry-cleaning bill would be more than she could afford right now, and these were her favourite pair.

"Here, love, you might want to take those off before you catch your death of cold," one of the gang crowed, to the vast amusement of the others. A last hint of defiance flickered within her, as her tear-streaked face twisted in anguish.

"Leave me alone!" Her scream was met with derisive laughs, and one of them, one of the dozens of them, stepped forward, a knife in his hand.

"Oh, we will, sweet thing, when we're finished." Diffuse light glinted off the knife as she watched it, mesmerised, terror once more gripping her. But she couldn't run. There was nowhere to run. No way to escape. Oh, dear Lord in heaven she was going to die.

"I think the lady wants to be left alone." The strong, cultured, very English voice sounded deafening. She looked around, frantic, but could see nothing. The gang did the same, and as one they took a step back. Hope blossomed within her. A hero! The one thing that could keep this nightmare from becoming real, and hope bloomed within her, to be replaced by a quiet wariness when her frantically seeking eyes couldn't see him. Where was he? Why wasn't he here, hitting them, or something?

The leader of the gang put on a show of bravado. "Leave now, cape, or the lady gets it!" He was the one with the knife. He lunged for her, but she scrabbled backwards out of reach, grazing her hands on the rough concrete floor of the alley.

"Thank you, Miss." Suddenly, in the midst of the gang, she could see a dark silhouette appear. A low rumble could be heard, and an instant later the alley filled with a brilliant light, dazzling her. She heard several thumping noises nearby, and as she blinked to clear her vision, she could see the fog slowly flowing back, and the bodies of the gang lay scattered around her. A lone figure stood there, his face hidden in the shadows. He staggered towards her, obviously winded.

"Are... you... all... right,... miss?" He struggled for breath between each word, and appeared ready to collapse. He stretched out a hand to her, which she grasped and used to pull herself to her feet. She could see his eyes, and the line of his jaw, and a shock of brown hair, and he looked kind of familiar, and there were tears on his face, like tracks of despair, and he was kind of handsome, and...

He seemed to have recovered. That was quick. Well, he was a hero, even if he did seem to have forgotten his spandex. "Wh-Who are you?" she asked, tentatively.

"I'm Ri... Ahem," he spoke, and as she watched he faded from view, melting into the darkness. "I'm just a friend." A whistling of air and he was gone, leaving her alone with several utterly unconscious gang members. She saw her handbag lying next to one of them, dashed over and pulled out her cell phone.

"Hello? Police? I'd like to report an... umm... assault... kind of. I need an officer here. Galaxy City. An alley off Constellation Row. Just look out for the bodies. No, they're not dead. But they do need arresting."


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Officer Rachel Harris looked over the scene. Four ambulances stood nearby, and paramedics were clustered around the still-unconscious gang. None were seriously injured - a few bruises was about all - but they had been thrown about like dolls. That meant only one thing. A super. A super running around without a license. She shook her head. This was the last thing she needed on a Monday after a long shift.

The woman was clearly shaken up, but her story supported the evidence. The only problem being that these goons now could not be held - due process had not been observed, damn it!

Well, she might be able to get the attempted assault charge to stick - they were all carrying weapons of one sort or another, but the defence counsel would probably get them to walk on the... unusual nature of their arrest.

Shaking her head, she pulled her radio to her mouth and spoke to Control. "This is Papa Sierra Three-Eight. I need to report a 256 violation. Yes, a 256 violation. Say again, Control? WHAT?"


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"That's correct, Papa Sierra Three-Eight. That's the fourth tonight. Same MO. Criminals engaged in nefarious activity, some chap with an English accent that no one can see, boom - criminals knocked out for about an hour. We have a vigilante."

And there it was. Lieutenant Mills grimaced. A damn vigilante. A damn super vigilante. Now officially declared as such. And Paragon Police Department would go all out to catch him. And probably would never find him, given his apparent ability to dissappear at will. This was not shaping up to be a good night.


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Richard Huntington hugged himself against a breeze he didn't really feel. It was so easy. So simple. This super-power thing was phenomenal. The sensations, the rush of exhilaration, the satisfaction as wrongdoers felt his wrath...

The price wasn't worth it, he knew that. The powers were amazing, but he had to atone. Had to pay for the deaths he had caused. His bank account hadn't really twitched when the company paid out the compensation to the families of the deceased. He was still wealthy, the company was still stable, and he was not being held responsible. But he was. He'd killed them as surely as if he'd slit their throats. When he'd discovered how much he had been changed, it had scared him at first. Heck, how many people in the world wake up in the night floating four feet above their bed? Or can fire a pulse of energy hundreds of feet away? Or can sense the entire electromagnetic spectrum? That last one scared him more than anything else. Sure, it took concentration. Sure, about the only easy things to figure out were the infra-red signatures of living people, with the rest being a constant barrage of white noise. But why? And why did it feel like the rays were just passing through his skin? So many questions that needed to be answered. But he'd found a use for these powers. He could save lives. He could work to make up for the deaths he'd caused.

His grief almost overwhelmed him, but he forced himself to concentrate. That last one had been risky. The woman had come too close to seeing him. He needed to hide himself. He needed a disguise. He snorted to himself as he realised what he was thinking. He needed a costume.


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{Huntington Manor, September 30, 2005, 6.08pm}

"Reports of the new super-powered vigilante are becoming more frequent. A police spokesman today said that they are creating a task force for the purpose of detaining this man, whomever he may be. Popular opinion polls, however, continue to hold him in high regard, as he persistently preys on the criminal element that infests the streets in many areas of the city. It is not clear if the police will actually charge him with anything, or if they just want him to register proper..." <Click>

Samantha Huntington turned to face her brother, a look of fury on her otherwise attractive face. Her brown hair cascaded over her shoulders and she actually shook with rage. "You damned idiot! What the hell do you think you're doing? If you want to act the hero, why not just bloody register? Then you've got a right to go out there and catch crooks!"

Richard watched her, trying to keep any expression from his face. He couldn't explain it to her. It had gone too far for that. She must be giving the doctors hell. Two weeks laid up in bed had wound her up so tightly that anything he said would only irritate her more. He waited while her rant ran its course.

"Sis, I've got to do it. I need to do it. Please don't try to stop me. I'd like your support in this, but I'll settle for you not doing anything. I've thought long and hard, and I'm creating an identity. One I'm going to register. The vigilante will vanish into obscurity, and I'll become just another hero, fighting the good fight."

Samantha huffed for a while, but calmed down quickly. For a while they chatted about the business, what was happening in the rebuilding work, and other trivialities. Then Richard stood up.

"Listen, Sam, I've got to go. I have a date tonight, and want to spend some time getting ready, okay?"

A familiar glint formed in her eyes as she considered this. "A date, hmm? Who's the unlucky lady?" He smiled at her response. It was so typical of her.

"You might remember her. She was one of the police officers after the... accident. Rachel Harris. She likes Italian food, so I'm taking her to that new place in Founder's Falls."

Sam chuckled. Richard had standing reservations at most of the posh eateries in town, and he was taking the girl to a Pizzeria. Okay, a posh one, but still...

Shaking her head, she smiled at him. "All right, off with you, Dicky. Enjoy yourself, you hear?" He grinned, kissed her on the cheek and left.

When he was gone, she slumped back onto her pillows, and started to glow. It was a strain to keep it in, sometimes, but she didn't want anyone to know yet.


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{Talos Island, October 1, 2005, Very early morning}

Well, that had been a nice date. But she wasn't interested. You could be rich, witty, charming and clever, but if the girl didn't want to know, she didn't want to know. Maybe she was intimidated. Maybe they just didn't have enough in common. Ah, well. It had been fun. She'd laughed at his jokes, smiled and nodded at his stories, and had some great tales of her own, but they just hadn't connected.

He'd walked her home, and was now strolling through the streets toward the Talos Island maglev station. He skirted some areas widely - he didn't want to attract too much attention tonight, and a battle with Freaks in the street at two in the morning was not a good way to remain inconspicuous.

The situation was decided for him when a long black limousine pulled up next to him, and the window wound down smoothly. He peered inside, and grinned. "Brian! What on Earth are you doing out at this time?"

The burly chauffeur smiled back, and mumbled something about Sam wanting to make sure he got home safely. Chuckling quietly, Richard clambered into the back and poured himself a beer. "Thanks, Brian. I owe you one."

They drove swiftly through the almost silent streets, and passed through the tunnel that connected Talos to Skyway City. As they pulled into the zone, Richard slapped his hand on the partition.

"Stop the car, Brian! I'll walk from here, thanks!" Richard didn't wait for a reply, just scrambled out of the passenger compartment and dashed to a nearby building. Once he was safely hidden from view, he wrapped light around himself, effectively becoming invisible, and concentrated for the instant it required for the black cloth costume that was Shadowe to wrap itself around him.

He leapt into the air, narrowly avoiding a pigeon, and flew closely over the building. It always churned his stomach to see the ground vanishing below him. In seconds he spotted what had grabbed his attention - a group of trolls beating up a car with its terrified owner still inside.

He was about to let loose when a cloaked figure swooped down out of the sky and proceeded to hurl them about by the simple expedient of holding a finger to his temple. Some sort of mental power. Telekinesis? Could be. Ah, well. Not being prepared to step on another hero's toes, and especially not wanting to attract super-powered attention in this outfit, Richard snuck away.

Feeling slightly disheartened, he shifted into his normal clothes and walked into the darkness. Date goes wrong. Attempt to be a hero goes wrong. What else can go wrong tonight?


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{Behind the Freedom Corps Building, Galaxy City, 16 May, 2006, approx 9.15pm}

Richard watched nervously. There were so many of them. He tugged his tie a little straighter, and stared down the steps. There were three clusters of them, all busily engaged. He was a stranger here. An unknown. For the last seven months he had been rebuilding his life. He had made a name for himself. He had learned a lot about people in that time. But what he hadn't learned was about himself. He still ached. He still cried himself to sleep sometimes. He had been involved in half-a-dozen extremely short relationships. Was he wasting his life? Should he carry on? What good was he really doing?

There was nothing for it. He needed to know. He needed to find out the truth.

It was time to walk down these steps, stroll up to the base of the statue, and talk to other heroes for the first time.

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We're not going to ruin the surprise...but suffice it to say that all CHAOS is going to break loose in-game on our anniversary date and you're not going to want to miss it! From 11am EDT on April 28th to 12am EDT on April 29th, get ready to re-experience some of the things that have made City of Heroes® the great game that it is over the past five years!

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Wow, rikti and zombie invasions. Can't wait.

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Have rikti and zombie invasions actually been mentioned anywhere or is it just a assumption on the player bases part?

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It's an assumption. Given that Positron has said that we're going to see the return of previous events, it seems quite likely, though.

Since GR has asked us to not post about the current "chat bug" in a thread about the previous chat bug, I figure this is a good place for us to gather our findings.

This bug has struck me the grand total of once.

I was in the Galaxy City AE building (not the busiest place in the world), I use the afk chat bind on my character.

The bug appears to pull recent keypresses and enter them at the beginning of a newly created message being entered into the chat box.

That's all I've got for details - the more info we provide the devs, the better the likelihood of it being fixed, so please can everyone provide as much factual data as possible.

Was a damn good time, a lot of fun. Shame we didn't manage to pull it off, but as has been said - it could have happened to any of us, given where we were standing.

I know we can do it.

All farmers should try THIS site, for all their needs!

{Huntington Technologies, Independence Port, 13 September 2005, Approx 11.00am}

"Good morning, Ladies and Gentlemen. For those of you who don't know me, I am Doctor Richard Huntington III, head of applied research here at Huntington Technologies, and I would like to welcome you, and thank you for accepting your invitation to an historic day." Damn, I was different back then. Anyone who knows me now would think that I've changed a lot - well, I guess I have. Yes, that's me. The slightly nervous, bespectacled geek at the front of the room. I may be rich beyond the dreams of avarice, and I may seem like a self-assured, utterly confident man, but actually I'm still that chap there. I just got very good at hiding myself from the world.

To understand why, you need to know the rest of the story, I suppose. I think I'd better mention that I don't like remembering that day. And I'm not about to give a completely independent, unbiased view. This is what happened to me.

For the best part of two years I'd been working on SEER, the Singularity Energy Extraction Reactor, and it wasn't until some of the technological breakthroughs that occured after the Rikti War - the first one - that I was able to do the job and do it properly. Construction of the containment chamber was completed, all the equipment was in place, and I was ready to run the program.

There were fifteen people present at the time. I was there, obviously. So was my sister, Samantha, as chief programmer of the software governing the process. Andrew Martin, my friend, long-time colleague, and chief engineer, was there, too. The rest were a smattering of other technicians - including Andrew's fiancee - and two members of the press, there for an exclusive, a three-star General from the US Army, his Lieutenant, and Simeon Kechowski from Portal Corp. This was a test run, not the official announcement. That would wait until the following week, when we switched Huntington Technologies off from the City power grid. I was quite looking forward to that day - it would bring with it a nice level of independence, as well as securing some phenomenal purchase orders from Portal Corp.

But today was the first test run. Everyone present had signed the Non-Disclosure Agreement, with my two friends from the local press able to publish the first details.

I winked at Sam, got the thumbs up from a grinning Andrew, and drew a deep breath. "I know it's unusual for a scientist like myself to unleash two brand-new technologies on the world at the same time, but this was unavoidable. SEER is a revolution in power supply - a fully self-sustaining, reactionless energy source, with a projected lifespan in excess of four-thousand years. Great care has been taken to ensure the complete safety of SEER - before anyone worries about what we're doing, making miniature black-holes, I have personally made six, under rigourous laboratory conditions, and, well, we're still alive, so none of them went out of control and ate the planet. SEER is even safer than that, for reasons that are explained in the technical brochures you will all have been provided."

Sam stepped up beside me, patted me on the arm to show that she knew I was starting to babble, and took over. "SEER is controlled by the Huntington Engineering Lifeform Emulation Neural Assembly - or HELENA - which I designed and built with my own two hands." She flashed her perfectly manicured fingernails at the small crowd, drawing a ripple of laughter from them. "HELENA is a revolution in supercomputing, faster than the human brain, capable of complex cognitive reasoning, moral choices, and deduction. While the computer is not a true 'Artificial Intelligence', we foresee the technology being expanded to provide that facility, perhaps as soon as the next 12 months. HELENA's main computer core is stored at a secure, and secret, facility, so in the event of catastrophic failure here - which is highly unlikely - the fully holographic recording that we are making will be retained." Having taken the heat off me for a moment - I had spent the reprieve mopping my brow like a fool - I was again ready to take up the slack. After all, I'm the 'face' of Huntington International. No matter how much I hate to be.

"The premise is fairly simple," I began, warming to my favourite subject. "Stephen Hawking hypothesised that quantum fluctuations close to the Event Horizon of a black hole can result in the hole emitting energy. This energy quite litteraly comes from nothing, with the only side-effect of its production being the gradual erosion of the black hole itself, as it releases its energy to the universe. Devices to capture this radiation, placed close to the Event Horizon, can extract this energy. Thus, the singularity is encased in a semi-permeable 'soft' forcefield.

"Like this."

I hit the switch.

The lights in the containment chamber, visible through the toughened window, seemed to dim. Technically, they redshifted. A lot. Six high-powered particle accelerators shunted into overdrive, hurling a stream of matter at the same point in space, precisely timed to collide and produce a singularity. The floor-plates of the containment room were, in fact, a massive anti-grav generator, and I felt the lurch as HELENA brought it online. The singularity grew, not that we could see it, as it was smaller than a single atom, but then the particle cannons de-phased. This was the true heart of SEER. Another reality, unknown to mankind as far as I could tell, a fraction away from our own, in dimensional terms, and barren of all life. The de-phased projectors continued to launch their particles at the singularity, but now their fuel source was an entire other world. Another world that I could exploit. So I did. Mercilessly. The other world has some interesting properties, though. Most notable being that the matter from it regenerates. Quite quickly. If it is damaged, it regrows. The world heals itself. The physics is clear, if a little esoteric, and there are no moral implications in me basically strip-mining the place. I strip-mined the entire planet in about a minute.

The singularity grew rapidly, swelling in size, sucking the light out of the room. There was a low growl as the anti-grav field shifted into overdrive, and I sensed a slight tug toward the window.

"No need to worry, everyone. This is perfectly normal, and completely expected. Things will only stay like this for a whort while."

More odd facts about the other world. The more things that are destroyed, the faster they grow back. So within five minutes I was able to repeat the de-phase and strip the world again.

The singularity inside the containment chamber was now about the size of a golf ball. This is what I'd been waiting for. Nodding to Andrew, I threw another switch and the scene in the chamber shifted again. Macro-field generators - similar to those that project the War Walls protecting the different parts of this fair city - came online, encasing the singularity inside their hyperdense field. The world returned to normal, and I let out a tiny sigh of relief. Turning to face the crowd of nervous-loooking people, I cleared my throat, unclenched my fists and tried to muster a smile. "As you can see, at this stage of the process we now have a contained singularity. We are already beginning to draw power from it, by the process of inverse-field-induction, so... well, in layman's terms, the forcefield projectors are also the power-lines. They do both at once."

I had my back to the containment room, much as I longed to be staring at the technological marvel I'd created. I didn't see the twitch. But I sure as hell felt it. All I remember is feeling sick. A bit queasy, as if I was standing on the deck of a boat being wracked by a horrendous storm on the high seas. I knew what it meant, and trusted HELENA to compensate automatically, as it had been designed to do.

This next part I can't speak of from memory, as I didn't see it. Like I said, my back was turned. But I've seen the recordings, and studied them in detail, and this is what happened.

When the power being extracted by the force-field projectors exceeded the power being used to create the forcefield, there was a half-phase fluctuation that partially shifted two of the projectors into the other world. I should have predicted it, but it didn't show up in any of the simulations. Hindsight lets you see all sorts of things. Well, suffice to say that the remaining projectors simply weren't strong enough to cope on their own. But they didn't fail, and that is the only thing I can think of that saved anybody.

Sam, Andrew and I all dove for the emergency shutdown, which would activate a hideously expensive teleport node and send the entire containment chamber somewhere out past the orbit of Saturn, but it was far, far too late.

The faltering forcefield deformed, slicing through the singularity. I've run the maths, and it's a complete freak event, but it is possible. About a third of the mass split off, and suddenly there were two miniature black holes floating in the containment chamber. HELENA wasn't able to cope, and I tried to scream as the words "Containment Breach" repeated over and over again in a perky female voice.

Spinning objects, free-floating in a micro-gravity environment, act gyroscopically, and were by no means spin-stabilised. They may as well have had missiles strapped to them.

One - the smaller of the two - flew in an arc, punched through the containment chamber window and suddenly everyone in the room was subjected to a burst of intense radiation under massive gravity. Lethal radiation, of the sort usually associated with the heart of a star or a nuclear blast. Samantha was partially shielded by my body, so I caught the full impact and she got a reduced dose, but it's what happened a split second later that changed the course of the world forever. Both singularities had whipped out of the containment chamber. The smaller of them - the one that killed everyone - slammed into Andrew's head. Right between the eyes, as if it had been aimed there. The other one hit me.

I could write a thesis on the impact of planetary-mass singularities on the human body, but the short answer is simple: Dead. As a Dodo. Yes, I killed myself. A rather exotic accidental suicide, I suppose, but the only real survivor that day was Samantha. To one degree or another, everyone else in the room died.

Oddly, though, the singularities didn't continue their flight, didn't escape - they stayed there. One in my head, one in Andrew's. Sam caught a second blast of radiation, and I maintain that it is the only thing that saved her life. It's certainly the one that triggered her telepathic powers. That's why she and I share a low-grade empathic link - her telepathy is intrinsically linked to what was happening in my head at that moment.

Something - I still don't know what, though I have some ideas - allowed a miracle to occur. In the bath of exotic particles, combined with the presence of the singularities in our heads, Andrew and I changed. It's a pity I didn't know about all of this sooner, because everyone believed he had died, and that only Sam and I survived. That would have been a better outcome. Anyway, the complex electrochemical structure that made up what was my mind was somehow transposed into a semi-crystalised energy matrix, in permanent orbit outside the event horizon of the black hole. My mind survived.

If you want a philosophical explanation for what happened after that, go and watch The Matrix - while trying to avoid cringing at Keanu Reeves' bland acting - and listen to the bit about residual self image. The short explanation is that your mind makes you appear the way you do. Well, that's what happened to me. My singularity is constantly absorbing and emitting particles and energy, and my mind converts those into matter that it uses to build a body for me. If you cut me, do I not bleed? Well, no, I don't. The particles and energy tend to decay quite rapidly once they leave my body. Good luck finding any hair samples for use in cloning experiments, because there sure as hell aren't any new ones after that.

I remember waking up in hospital, three days later. I remember seeing Sam in a shielded chamber. I remember being amazed that I was still alive.

"I'm sorry, Doctor Huntington - apart from you and your sister, there were no other survivors."

I can think of more diplomatic ways to tell you that you've killed a lot of people. Those words stayed with me for days, eating at my insides, scaring me, and even after I was medically cleared, I couldn't function. Then the powers started to manifest. I woke up, flying. I destroyed the wall of my bedroom with an uncontrolled blast of energy. I started to research what had happened, and I discovered more about what I now was than I ever wanted to. A freak. Not human. Probably not even alive.

I resolved to do some good with my life. The kind of good that you read about Statesman and the Freedom Phalanx doing. I'd killed a lot of people, and for the sake of my soul, I needed to make amends.

I was a shadow of my former existence, a memory really. But I was a shadow that could act. A shadow that could repair the wrongs of the world. And so Shadowe I became.

That's it. The story of me. How I went from being a wealthy scientist to being a wealthy black hole. The powers are just a side-effect. The rest of the story is for another day.

The only way to do it is to get a redname (Avatea would be your best bet, but remember that she's busy) to update outside the 6 hour edit window.

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks )

(though still dont see in general why in this day and age it cant be immediate for any transaction)

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It's to do with ensuring the security of your card and their banking details, basically.

When you confirm the CVV code, you are basically authorising a particular transaction from your bank account to a business. However, account transfers (BACS, CHAPS, Telegraphic Transfer, Direct Debit), which is what is happening when a refund is done, require a direct instruction to both banks involved, and each and every one of them must be cleared by someone in the business who has the autonomy to do so (Money Laundering prevention requires that they keep an eye out for a large number of transactions reversing quickly, too, so they need to note this is happening, as will their bank AND your bank). Unfortunately, it is not quite as simple as someone clicking the box that says "reverse transaction 2436752", for exactly that reason.

As such, the Customer Service crew at NC will be beavering away like mad things, checking, double-checking, inputting and authorising, then sending whole batches of these things to their bank. Those transactions may take anything from zero time up to 5 working days to clear the funds (depending on the transaction method being used) into your bank account.

Considering the sheer number of these eroneous transactions that happened, I'm not surprised that it's taking a few days to sort out - yes, it shouldn't have happened, but they're working to sort it, so have a little patience.

Edit: If you are particularly frustrated with how long it is taking, contact your bank (quickly!) and ask them to make an Indemnity Claim on the incorrectly taken money. That should take no more than a couple of days.

If you have room for an inveterate L50 Eng/Eng debt-magn... umm... blaster... I'd love to give this a run on my main badger.

Remember Shad, single target attacks, not the AoEs... NOT the AoEs...

I will, absolutely any day of the week have someone on my team with completely red enhancements, SK'd up 20 levels, but has played every single level they earned, over a character PL'd L50.

Any day of the week.

Because I at least know that the guy who's played his toon knows how to play his toon, even if the build is "broken".

Sure, I'd prefer if he's teamed rather than soloed, because the gameplay is different, but there is simply no contest.

While I can think of several things that are decidedly wrong with it, would you be willing to give my arc Psychotrauma (Arc ID 1914) a whirl when you get the chance, Col?

I'm constantly tweaking it, to try and tidy up what I see as the weak points in it (for what it is), but an honest review would be vastly appreciated.