Soul Train

Arc Name: Heroism Is Good Business
Arc ID: 3361
Faction: Crey
Creator Global/Forum Name: @SoulTrain
Difficulty Level: Medium (soloable)
Synopsis: The world of high-tech is cut-throat in Paragon. Sometimes literally. When you're called in to lend a hand with a burglary of a startup research firm, it leads to takeover maneuvers of a hostile nature. (Based on "Heroism Is Good Business", an RP thread/story posted to the Roleplay forums in 2006 and 2007.)
Estimated Time to Play: 1-2 hours
Link to More Details or Feedback: soultrain0217@gmail.com - critiques welcomed

Lights... Camera... MAYHEM was insanely funny and very fun to play.

I'll have to attempt the others.

Send me a link, I'll check it out.

To fight piracy, try the following:

Don't post the entire work.

Don't post full size or allow downloads.

Enable the watermark feature.

VERY cool.

Hard to tell with just the linework, but is she topless? if so, you might need to hide that behind a 'detail' shot or other method to get it to conform with the Two-Click Rule (all NSFW materials have to be at least two clicks away from the forums.)

whoa, forgot I wrote all that up.

Sadly, can't do half the stuff I want in the MA just yet...

Would love to get folk's take on ARC 3361 "Heroism is Good Business"...

... and yes, I've the same problem with the Crey that was already noted.

Actually, that's an RC check. I find all sorts of good stuff that way.

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Go go Captain Science! Powered by belligerence and champion of the closed minded!

As for the current links, they only link to DA and you can't see mature content there unless you've already agreed to it and are signed in, thusly they are covered by the two click rule.

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he'd have a heart-attack if he looked at my stuff, lol

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Or mine for that matter. Thus the 'handoff' link below.

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I got all confused by "Russ Platt" and "SFW" together.

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this, especially when posted by Soul lol

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Hey, now. Gotta keep you folks on your toes.

... OK Cien, what's the catch?

Yes. This has happened.

And you know what? I wrote the story anyway.

It's like Robin Williams in "One Hour Photo"... you don't WANT to see the dark side, yet you have to.

most of the time is actually grabbing the screens and uploading to DA... but... yeah.

Workflow is workflow, you use whatever process you like, really. I'm just not all that good at demo editing.

Uh... less work?

I just created gradients (blue to light cyan, red to light salmon) to use as character screens, loaded them with Splasher... and now with that set up, I can take 3 or 4 screenies in the tailor screen, paste to Paint.NET, crop, and paste into a collage. I can create a ref image in 10-20 minutes.

You... haven't heard of this guy yet?

OMG.

Get on his mailing list. NAO. When he opens up commission slots they tend to be spoken for within minutes, not days.

That's what it comes down to, really.

"A favor for a favor."

Do you have something of value to the artist? If so, then use that to barter with. However, in-game currency (having no real-world value at all, despite the efforts of the gold farmers) is often not something I'd regard as valuable.

Helping me fix my bike? Yeah, that'd be VERY valuable.... if I were a sought-after artist. But you get the idea, yeah?

My latest character, Bacchantia, as drawn by Russ Platt.

Bacchantia Portrait (SFW)

Mods: 2-click rule has been followed.

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So just put together a bunch of Photos, sounds like a plan, I guess I'll do it that way and see about sending off for a commission. :3

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Well, be picky about them. They should be clear - shut off all your powers so the artist can see the costume, for instance. Keep a shot *with* them if it's important. Make sure they have the details you want. If the face, for instance, isn't "quite" there but they look, to you, like such-and-such a person, note that.

Look at it and think, "without knowing this character, do I 'get' them and could I, as an artist, portray them correctly?"

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I actually have one one step further. I take screenshots from the Tailor screens, and then crop and stitch them together in Paint.NET. I've also used COH Splasher to swap out the 'character entry' screens for simple gradients, to make the character details easier to see.

I tend to set up a reference collage, along with a short description, and post it to my DA scraps.

I then have a reference 'page' as a stickified journal entry. It has thumbnails to all the costume references.

.... wow.

*is amazed*


And yes... face is in third place for the attention...

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Perhaps you would like to put up a list of art themes, you'd like us to draw... say for future issues? Oh and welcome...

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I remember trying that approach for Issue 12 (roman theme) and getting no usable art... I did appreciate the one from Soul_Train (who acknowledged that it would be out of bounds for the Scoop) that could not be used though.

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What's funny about that piece is, it was commissioned LONG before Issue 12 was even an idea in a dev's mind. I think it was the costume pieces from the very first Spring Fling that inspired it... that and having a Greek-themed character as part of the duo.

OK. Now that's COOL. Thanks Price. Mind writing up a blurb on how to do that, and include it in the Wiki itself, as part of the Tips and Tricks page?


In other news... we've seen a few page vandals stroll through. Thanks to those folks who have reverted vandalized articles. Recent Changes patrols are very much appreciated.

If you see a vandalized page, review the History to find the account responsible, and then let one of the Sysops know, so that the account can be blocked. Multiple similar accounts usually mean someone's trying to circumvent a ban, and this needs immediate sysop attention.

Thanks for all your help, folks.

Oooooohhh!!

This is gonna be GOOD.

And yes, it does look a bit ... slender.. for a Rikti. But then again, we're all used to mages that *cough* seem to bare more skin than they cover.

"Self: don; robe and hat: wizard."

heeeee!!!

I'm sure they already thought of that.

(if they haven't, they sure have now.)

Also, unless things have radically changed, the MA missions are meant to be 'simulations', which means you aren't fighting real enemies.

Thus, no salvage drops, no enhancement drops, no recipe drops... you'll get full XP for published content (see two pages back) and tickets to exchange for the 'stuff' that you normally would see dropping.

Unpublished content? Zero, zip, nada.

Happy birthday, Emmi! *huggglesses!*