Sharpe

Impresario, picked up the phone to make another cold call. But, he wasn't the Impresario yet, he was plain old Joe Green. Joe was named for his grandfather Josef Gruenwald, but that name was too big a mouthful for the the immigrations officials at Ellis Island, the family name hadn't changed since.

Joe was tired. While slightly tired of bilking old ladies out of their life savings, mainly he was tired of giving most of the profits of his sales to his boss, Al "Fat Al" Goldberg. He was dreading asking Al for a meager raise. When would things change? Joe's silver tongue was the bringing in 98% of the cash at the Boiler Room, "Goldberg and Associates". God knows where Joe dug up his the other losers and slackers who worked there.

At least this beat running razzle shows at the Carnie. He shuddered to think of how things had ended at the last one. He patted his shoulder, as if smoothing away the memory of the smouldering and ashes that accompanied his swift exit.

He knew he was destined for bigger things. He had created all of the grifts and cons they were running at the moment. Yet Fat Al didn't seem to see it.

He was on a roll today however, and had a sense that things might change as he strolled into Fat Al's office, and gently nudged the door shut.

"Hello Al, if I might have a word?"

"Yeah!" Al snarled looking over a greasy pastrami sandwich, whiping the fat with a filthy sleave, Oh, it's you, what can I do for ya?" Al mellowed slightly; heseemed positively relaxed, for Al, which wasn't saying much.

"Al, I have produced a report of our last months figures. I thought it might be a good idea if we could see how well we did over the last month."

"Yeah? Sounds good, lemme see it."

"Yes you see there, how everyone's performed." Joe flipped thru charts, spreadhsheets and graphs.

"Wow you did good! 50 thousand last month, impressive!"

"Yes Al, and I hate to remind you put my commission was barely $500 dollars, for the entire month. Why Eddie the Shill, brought in far less than I did and he received only slightly less. How do you plan to motivate the staff when the compensation is so.. so inequitable! I can barely pay my rent."

"Huh?" Al squinted like a large toad, with a flashlight in it's face, clearly uncomprehending.

"Let's try this again. We all got paid the same but I brought in most of the business. It's not fair." Joe could feel his temper starting to flare, something was happening. He fought to control it.

Fat Al glowered threateningly, "Look I have expenses, I have to meet. If you don't like it you can lump it. See here pal, I own you."

"Frankly, then I will tender my resignation, at the end of the week. If you cannot compensate me, I am sure I can bring in money somewhere else."

Al chewed on the last words but then stopped and seemed to reconsider. "Look meet me at Rosie's Clam Bar at 6pm and we can discuss your raise. Meet me in the alley around back, OK?" , Fat Al smiled wanly.

Joe blinked, "OK, 6 pm it is." He took in the information and left.

Fat Al wasn't that hard to read. Joe sensed Al was planning either going to have Joe beaten, perhaps even killed. Same old damn Carnie show all over again. Joe patted his shoulder again this time a puff of smoke appeared. "I'll be there."

As he left the office Eddie the Shill, looked up from his weather beaten desk, stoop shouldered, "sumthin' burin'?"

Joe flashed a lit cigarette out of thin air. "Just heading out for a smoke."

Eddie glared at him through grimy glasses and coughed, "My lungs, can't take that sh...." but the door was banging shut, and Joe paced quickly down the hall.

Joe was in the back alley behind Rosie's early. The place had a bad reputaton for mob business. Fat Al had never discussed having mob associates before. Joe has changed his suit for a black clothing and concealed himself behind a dumpster.

"Hey Joe, who do you want us to do anyway?" came a loud voice as the back door opened, and light steamed into the dark alley.

"Just some lame punk," snarled Al, "I just want to teach him a lesson, nobody leaves my place on their own feet, or gets uppity. Teach him not to take my money! I don't CARE!!"

"His money! His Money!" was the last thought that flashed through Joe's mind as the Fury overcame him.

"Hey Boss, look the dumpsters on fire!"

"I WILL TEACH YOU MANNERS, YOU FOOLS!"

In a berserk fury, Joe and his minions were tossed around the alley like so many billiard balls. More of them poured out of Rosie's Clam Bar, apparently a number of bosses and capos met their to conduct their shady dealings. All of them were attracted by the noise. Joe dealt with them all soundly, knocking most of them silly. He gave them all a choice, swear allegiance, or meet a certain end in a fiery doom.

Strangely it seemed, they bowed to his will and complied. All except Fat Al, who apparently had lost his wits entirely. Gibbering piteously, he was collected by the whitecoats from Mercy Asylum, where his skeltal form still remains. Joe, now Impresarion, made sure Doctor Noh and his whitecoats remained very well paid.

Thus began the great gang wars of Mercy Island. The police did not seem to mind. The mob gangs were out of control anyway. Who cared if they fought each other. Impresario, as Joe now called himself, was always three steps ahead of them and began to organize his own Show, the Flying Circus.

Not yet, I have the 3 rooms needed now and about 50K to spare, if I sell all my furniture. So it's gonna take awhile.

I went with SS/Fire ... I played DM/EA in Beta and DM/Fire in the event.

I picked SS because I believe its best at getting Fury, and I do think that's correct. Also KO Blow is a great attack and does a ton of damage.

I got kind of frustrated with DM and my fury bar not building fast enough. Adding Boxing or Air Sup would have helped I'm sure.

I took that right away although min max fury builders might want to take Haymaker.

There aren't any bad primaries. I think DM is the most solo friendly, with Siphon Life and Touch of Fear you can solo red bosses easily.

I'm thinking that I will have to take Boxing/Tough though.

I'm not convinced FA gives better defense than EA, might be about the same.

Humor is the deadliest weapon!

The Flying Circus has made a discovery of Secret documents in an Islington flat pretaining to the little known practice of Joke warfare used by the British against the Nazis in WWII. If humor was good enough for MI-5 it's good enough for us! This practice of Joke warfare has become disused and as of late there is no known defense against it.

The Flying Circus will be a Circus themed Super Villain Group with Pythoneque overtones.

I've made a website with a forum (did he say there's a forum?) but there's nothing there yet. Don't laugh please ... well there's a site anyway ... (groans)

I picturing a Super Group of mature (and silly) players who desire a family friendly environment (ie. no swearing please), who like to have fun, and want personify a Circus themed character, a Python themed character, or something that is at the very least funny and menacing at the same time.

Or, if you are unable to be funny well then at least be incredibly stupid, because incredibly stupid people are, well, funny. Ahem...

I am looking for good Roleplayers who can appreciate the funnier aspects of villians. But I despise RP nazis who tell everyone what to do.

Villains who take themselves toooo seriously are ... boring.

So there it is. Hope to see you around.

Thanks!!
Flying Circus

This pretty much wrecks my Fire/Stone tanker since I was just using Stone Fists, Burn was how I was doing damage.

I don't have Stone Mallets as it didn't fit my concept for the build.

I took Fault as I thought it would be like Ice Patch, but it's not, since it only lasts for one attack. With Burn working the way it does Live Fault not doing much is not a problem. But on Test it's a wasted power.

Is there a chance that Fault could either do damage or have a duration so that it would knockdown targets for a few seconds vs. the way works now?

Fault currently does no damage.

I don't like the idea of Halving the defense buff at all. Makes Stealth pretty much worthless. You are halving it once in I5 to 3.5 % and halving it again when you get hit to 1.25.

Then you can't use it for aggro control, since everyone can now see you.

So how is it not a completely worthless power?



[ QUOTE ]

Basic Stealth Powers (Pools, temp powers, and Powers not in a Defense set like Blaster Cloaking Device, Controller Illusion Invisibilities):

Toggles:
If you Attack, or are Hit - Critters see you. You loose half your defense buff (and your PvP stealth) for 10 seconds. Your translucency is reduced to indicate this change.


[/ QUOTE ]

This whole nerf*me*baby*1*more*time thing has me so bummed about CoH in general, so I've been playing WoW again.

It pretty much takes away all a Fire Tankers offensive capability.

I didn't feel that Burn was so over powered, and then the new Fear affect in Burn makes it pretty much unusable.

So adding this on top ... eh .. wha???

I4 is a pretty fun version of the game, and I was having fun playing my fire tanker, but with this looming over my head I've almost lost interest in this game.

I am Wesley Sharpe . I was raised in Spain by mother Doòa Dolores Maria Diego de Compuesta. I did not know who my father was until my mother told me upon her deathbed. He was an English Army officer named Richard Sharpe.

My father Sharpe had a distiguished military career serving under Lord Wellington in Spain during the Napoleonic wars. He has also fought at Waterloo and served with Wellington in India. He personally saved Wellington during the battle of Assaye and this won him a battlefield commision.

My mother had never revealed this to me, but she had not left me unprepared, either. Coming from a relatively well connected, if not prospersous Spanish family with a long heritage, she secured some education for me and also had me trained to be fluent in English. She also taught me to ride exceedingly well.

I suppose my father's unknown influence drove me to seek a military comission, but my mother was also quite helpful in this regard, using her connections in the Spanish nobility.

I was offered a post as a military liason at the Spanish Embassy in England. Not just one time, I met my father, briefly, as he made his rounds as a Special Diplomatic Agent for Her Majesty Queen Victoria. A certain intensity passed between us, but I could not say what it was at the time.

Then I received news, my mother was dying. I returned to Spain and she revealed to me, after I pressed her, who my father was.

Returning to England I confronted my father, who finally received me, but only after the utmost exhortations upon my part.

At last reconciled, he secured for me a post as a lieutenant in the Queen's own Hussars.

Shortly, Britain declared war upon Russia and our regiment was shipped out to the Crimea in 1851.

There is little doubt that I should be relating this to you at all had not a strange incident not occured at the Battle of Balaclava.

We were ordered as a part of the Light Brigade to assault the Russian guns on the heights. As we came within range I passed into a mist of gunpowder haze. I could feel the weight of shot and shell coming at me, ahead of the sound. Time seemed to stop.

Without thinking I grasped an amulet that my father had given me. He said that should I have great need to clasp it and call upon the goddess Kali! At the time I was most scornful of this strange request, but I did wear the amulet in honor of my father's wishes and also because undeniably I felt an unnatural attraction to it!

Bracing my self for the shock, I rode thru the growing mist and found myself, falling in thin air! Then I found myself amidst another kind of battle, with those strange insect-like Rikti creatures.

What is this place? I asked "Welcome Hero! This is Paragon City!"

I suppose the people mistook my British officer uniform for some sort of costume!

I've since attempted to "carve out" a life for myself here, by protecting the innocent.

most impressive!

thanks for the nods to Harlon Ellison and the fabled Lost Colony.

I'm looking at CoV as a expansion to CoH you would pay for ?!?! If they wanted to charge $30-40 for it ... fine!

But to ask me to pay $15 a month for an expansion ... sorry not interested. Especially since it's on my same account?! Wha?

Must be a mere rumor tho...

If they increase the difficulty ... I hope they will just make the higher level missions tougher, by increasing the level range,

... that would be cool.

All they would have to do is add +3/5 mob levels at 40. (except in Shadow Shard Rularoo missions)

If you solo Shadow Shard missions like I have, it's a bit tougher fighting Rularuu at current levels. (though not particularly challenging) unless you fight those dang bosses. They are really hard.

Griefing is basically any form of computer related sociopathic behavior.

ie. abuse, harassment, persistant and deliberate annoyance, entrapment, destroying or stealing assets (items/characters)

LordRecluse really put it in succinct well defined terms.

Then you get the people who try to RP it, (like that somehow makes it ok) now that is Griefing to a power of 10.

I did my 34-43 respec and took Provoke, does that mean I have to wait til 44 to respec? Do we get a free respec in that case?