Stateswoman

There is also a growing roleplay community on Champion server. If you don't find what you're looking for on Virtue server, please feel free to check out our forums at http://www.freedomphalanx.com We're always happy to include new folks into the mix.

LOL

I've been wondering something similar. He'd indicated for game purposes that it might be in the Steel Canyon area and that there was even a picture of the Whitmoore available in the main thread. I've skimmed through all of the posts and was unable to find it though. It was hundreds of posts in a very long 'view all', so I certainly could have easily missed it.

If anyone finds the picture or has it saved somewhere, mind reposting it perchance? I'd love to see it.

Happy holidays to everyone, and once again to Slipshod, thank you so much for creating such a wonderful roleplay setting.

Heya, great to hear from you Mesono. Why don't you check our forums out at http://www.freedomphalanx.com for more information about our groups? Feel free to send me a private message here or on those forums as well.

For a general 'What's next?', I would say the next thing to do would be to check out our forums, poke your head in and maybe say hello and a little about your character if you like in the 'Join the Freedom Phalanx!' topic, and then add Stateswoman, Patriot One, and John Atoms to your friends list ingame so you can send us a tell when you're on. Also, sending an ingame email (or private mesage or post on the forums) to one or all of us with an in-character message will help us keep an eye out for you as well.

Once we're in further contact, we'll get together for a bit to make sure we're all on the same page and get you signed up and meeting the rest of the community.

Hope to hear from you soon, and welcome back to City of Heroes!

Elaborating on what Halorin said:

The Alliance of Champions is a growing community of roleplayers and roleplaying supergroups. Currently made up of five themed supergroups.

The Freedom Phalanx - led by the Stateswoman, Patriot One, and John Atoms
The Storm Knights (Local 23) - led by Baron Rufus and Malcalypse
The Prelude to Justice - led by Halorin
The Liberty Force - led by the Super Patriot
Hero Corps (Freelancers) - led by Miss Wolf

I'll let Baron Rufus and Halorin elaborate on the natures of their groups and just share more details on the three below.

The Freedom Phalanx group is a division of the next generation of the world's premiere superheroic organization based in Paragon City. They follow all the same policies set in place by the more famous and epic elder members of the group, such as welcoming any would-be hero into their ranks and maintaining a policy of openness about such things as indentity and similar.

The Liberty Force is a government funded and directed supergroup made up of American citizens/patriots. More military influenced, more focused on threats to America and American interests than the rest of the world necessarily, and does not keep an open information policy about its membership or activities.

The Hero Corps group is really a loosely linked group of freelancers who share a working relationship with a insider contact within the company, Miss Wolf.

[ QUOTE ]
Wow...

I got one starred...

Why?

[/ QUOTE ]

Don't sweat the single star. You've officially been accosted by one of the CoH community's ineffectual mental midgets. It's like you're part of the family now, it happens to all of us with two wits to rub together eventually. Only thing to do is leave them to their petulant giggling inside their cozy little basement beneath mommy and daddy's house and move on.

If you're unable to find the group of roleplayers you're looking for on your current server, please know there's a community forming on Champion server that will welcome you. Check out our forums at http://www.freedomphalanx.com and/or feel free to contact myself, Baron Rufus, Halorin, or any of the rest of us for more information.

OOC:

This is just a reminder that the first of two 'meet-n-greet' gatherings will be held tonight on Champion server in Eastgate Park (part of the area now known as the Hollows, just beyond the Skyway City gate) at 7pm EST.

A preliminary gathering spot for tonight will be at 6pm EST near the statue of Galaxy Girl in Galaxy City. Around a quarter to seven, we'll be offering mentoring to the heroes above or at security level 4 that want to come along but are concerned about trouble traveling the route through Skyway City to the gate into the Hollows.

The goal of these gatherings (the second gathering will be held on Sunday evening at the same time as tonight's) is to support and bring together more of the roleplaying community of Champion server. The Alliance of Champions is a union of roleplaying supergroups hoping to support the growth of that community, either through inviting solo roleplayers into their ranks or through inviting additional like-minded roleplaying supergroups into the alliance. For more information about who we are and what we're all about, please check out our forums at http://www.freedomphalanx.com .

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
We're hosting a 'meet-n-greet' on Champion for all interested roleplayers this weekend on Saturday and Sunday evenings at 7 eastern. I think the meeting spot will be the pavillion area just inside the Hollows entrance near the Skyway City gate. Drop on by if you're up to it!

[/ QUOTE ]

Sounds great, Stateswoman, but ... talk about a Catch-22. Night Raven asked for brand spankin' new characters, and you are meeting in a spot they can't get to. And I wanted to meet and talk to you both!

Any chance of meeting in Atlas or Galaxy? Oh well, I'll send you a tell around 7pm ...

[/ QUOTE ]

I'll be around a bit earlier and plan to be near the statue of Galaxy Girl in Galaxy City by 6pm EST. We'll still be moving to Eastgate Park about a quarter to seven, but any heroes of security level four or higher will be invited to partake in a little mentoring with a more experienced hero on the trip over through Skyway City.

[ QUOTE ]
Virtue or Champion!

[/ QUOTE ]

I vote for Champion! Hee hee.

In all seriousness, maybe our alliance of roleplayers could be that immersive and believeable background backdrop to what you're doing with your close knit roleplaying team here.

We're hosting a 'meet-n-greet' on Champion for all interested roleplayers this weekend on Saturday and Sunday evenings at 7 eastern. I think the meeting spot will be the pavillion area just inside the Hollows entrance near the Skyway City gate. Drop on by if you're up to it!

At the risk of spamming, we're working at establishing a roleplaying community on Champion server as well. I've posted a couple of other times tonight on this, so won't ramble here. The website link is in my signature and the forums can be accessed from there.

Chiming in late here, I know, but...

...we're establishing a roleplaying community (or trying to bring together the various roleplayers and roleplaying supergroups that are already there, but don't necessarily interact much yet) on Champion server.

Check out our website at http://www.freedomphalanx.com and click on the 'Forums' link to get some more insight into what we're up to. We've got four somewhat themed roleplaying teams already established, each happy to invite new members, and are welcoming any other roleplaying supergroups of a similar bent into the fold.

Heya!

Have you all already picked a server? I know you're putting together a pretty tight knit group here, but I'd love to have the chance to collaborate with you all at some point in the future if you don't have a preference and don't mind basing yourselves on Champion server.

We've been laying the ground work for a sort of alliance of roleplaying supergroups for the last couple of months and have the beginnings of a website and forums established. Check it out if you get a moment (http://www.freedomphalanx.com then click on the 'Forums' link). Either way, sounds like you all are doing something great! I'll lurk on your website to follow the story as it goes if you plan on relating it there (and if you don't mind ).

OOC:

Heya all!

Just following up on what Baron Rufus had to say. We'd love to see and meet as many fellow roleplayers on Champion as we can. Check out our forums at http://www.freedomphalanx.com for a closer look at what we're all about.

The 'Alliance of Champions' is currently made up of four themed supergroups. Everyone involved in each of the groups is a roleplayer (that means, in part, we stay in-character at all times while playing the game and preface anything we need to say not in-character with 'OOC:' or put it in parentheses - basically, we try to play our characters in the fashion we'd expect them to appear within the pages of an actual comic book).

If you're a roleplayer looking for fellow roleplayers on Champion, we'd love to have you on board. If you're a roleplaying supergroup and would be interested in 'joining the alliance' and linking up with a growing community of roleplayers, we'd love to hear from you and meet you at the gatherings this weekend as well.

Hope to see you all this weekend! Please don't be shy about poking your head in on our forums at the website, and feel free to send me a private message here, or a tell or email ingame as well.

[ QUOTE ]
Two more quick examples: The Rularuu "invasion" and the Holloween Event

Did y'all notice how when the Ru invaded, none of the contacts seemed to notice? Worse still, none of the pedestrians did either. I guess they were too busy worrying about Skulls & Hellions stealing their purses to notice GIANT FLYING EYEBALLS swatting heroes like flies. Near as I can figure, we're the only ones who were scared of them

Same thing with the Holloween event. Giant Pumpkin Heads running around town, and my low level contact wants me to go out and stop the Skulls rampage.

Given that these were limited time events, and seeing how much work went into the models, animations, etc. Would it have been too much to ask that our contacts at least acknowledged these other more immediate concerns? A temporary suspension of "business as usual" to focus on the immediate threat would done wonders for the feeling of immersion.

You don't need to single out any individual players to make the population as whole feel like it is a part of the "story" being played out, but as it is, we are locked into this "eternal now" where each issue the back-story of the game is updated, and the clock moved forward, but where the events within the game have no consequence.
Personally, I think having ephemeral content, that reflects the current state of the "story" and changes (or goes away) as the story evolves and new content was introduced, would keep me interested and excited far more than all the badges, Epic ATs, and Auxilliary Power Pools put together.

I know this was a thread about updates and casual players, but as a casual player (highest char is 36 after 7 months) , what I'd most like to see is the overall story of CoH reflected in the game I'm currently playing, not integrated or retconned into the back-story. If the Devs focused on this, game balance and bug fixes from update to update, I would gladly forgo just about every other new feature.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is such a cool idea.

I hope some Dev is reading this and takes a few notes on how to really bring home these invasion type scenarios in this game.

How friggin cool would it have been to be solving the mystery of the Halloween event or the Rularuu event through missions?

Heck, even if you finished it out with a Positron like, 'Thanks for the hard work, the Freedom Phalanx rode in and saved the dam thanks to you!'.

That would just be too cool.

Yeah, my understanding is that all souvenirs won from previous story arcs with the 5th Column will remain the same. So we get to keep our letters from Requiem (perhaps the coolest souvenir of all that I've seen from reports from players who have gone through them all) if we already got them.

I was really happy to hear that the above would be the case too. I can probably learn to live with the Council stuff, or at least ignore it. The history plaques were something else though, glad they were an oversight.

I've been trying to decide whether to attempt to rush from level 32 to level 36 to finish out the rest of the 5th Column story before Issue 3 arrives to vaporize it. Lack of time and the buzzkill of powergaming kind of nixes that though, I think.

Oops, walked away at work and forgot whatever else it was I intended to say. So I'll leave it as it is.

[ QUOTE ]
*sigh*
People just can't accept it, can they?

[/ QUOTE ]

People just can't accept what, exactly?

I find the 5th Column-to-Council repackaging to be disappointing and unnecessary, regardless of why it happened or how long it has been planned or whatever, and that's just my opinion.

Did I complain at all when the Rularuu and the Shadow Shard were introduced? Not even a little bit, and I thoroughly enjoyed the invasion and roleplayed along with it. It was all NEW, new missions, some new bad guys, new content.

The Council just isn't. It is a repackaging of existing content, mobs and storyline and all. Renamed, a few details changed, etc. Striga Isle is new, but Striga Isle could just as easily been a 5th Column base of power.

The important thing here was the revelation that the Nictus were taking over. That could just as easily been accomplished by keeping the 5th Column, removing 90% of them from the streets, keeping the token battles between 5th and Council, changing the existing 5th Column mission lineup slightly to show them having serious trouble with the Council (giving enhanced reasons for the attempts to reach Axis Amerika for reinforcements, Ubelman trying to get back to the past to stop the Nictus and change history, etc.), and then put in the extra hard development work of introducing the Council and their base of power in Striga Isle.

Of course, as noted, that would have required creation of all new missions and story arcs for the Council instead of just repackaging the 5th Column content as Council content.

I think I've just been put off by the whole thing because it has been such a departure from the usual level of development we've grown accustomed to from Cryptic. Up until now, every new Issue has included new stuff, new content. Regardless of the reasoning for the whole change, it just seems a little weak and ill-wrought compared to what they've been able to accomplish thus far.

I'd still absolutely love to hear the opinions of those folks who have been enjoying the heck out of the Council and updated missions and story arcs, think they're an improvement over the 5th Column and how immersive they were, and think this has been a really cool change for CoH.

[ QUOTE ]
Hasn't this been disproven about six times by now?

The Council are no less Nazi-like than the 5th. How does replacing once neo-Nazi group with another make the game sell better in Germany?

Addendum: The 5th aren't gone, either. You can still see them in PI (and reportedly IP).

[/ QUOTE ]

Did the Ubelman the Unknown story arc on the Test Server get changed back to a Nazi hero of old trying to come to the future to change history, or is it still about the Civil War and 'the Center's grandmother?

Is Axis Amerika back, or is it still changed to Council America?

Is there any indication whatsoever throughout the new Council mission line that the Council has any ties of any form to the old idealogy that the 5th Column supported?

The above are honest questions, not whining. If they've been changed back along with all the history plaques that were mistakenly re-written, then you're absolutely right.

If they haven't been changed back, then I completely disagree. The 5th Column are gone for all practical purposes, a scant few token NPC battles aside, have been removed from the game story content (game story content being stories told through missions, mini-arcs, story arcs, and task forces).

This isn't meant as a bash. I just disagree with the idea that the Council is new content, unless a repackaging of old content into something only very slightly different can be considered 'new'.

I have no arguments about why it may or may not have been necessary, or whether this rehashing of the 5th Column into the Council with only cursory changes to the existing 5th Column content has been in the 'story bible' since day one or not.

I mean, if we took the X-Men right now and suddenly retitled the book, the Z-Men, renamed Professor Xavier to Doctor Zenox, and gave him hair and a peg leg, and renamed Cyclops to One-Eye and changed the ruby to sapphire, Marvel Girl to Neato Girl, and Wolverine to Claw Hands, renaming the others accordingly, and maybe changed a few other small details but kept the story content of the whole thing essentially the same, would it be truly new?

What about allowing us to 'hire' and build NPC members of our supergroup that will always stay at the headquarters to defend it?

Have them work in archtype and origin and power choice advancement on a similar scale to PCs, only we advance them through paying influence.

So a powerful supergroup with a lot of extra influence to pool would have a supergroup base defended by high level NPC heroes where a lesser supergroup might only be able to afford general defenses.

It'd be another great innovation on the part of Cryptic, I think. Everyone has been talking about how cool the character customization tool is for CoH since the beginning. This would be another chance to enjoy that, and work toward the dual benefit of defending your supergroup base AND making it feel populated all the time.

There are roleplayers and roleplaying groups on Champion as well. Feel free to look me up if you're on that server and are looking to meet some roleplayers.

Group Name: The Freedom Phalanx

Server: Champion

Contact Info: http://www.elementsunite.com or through private message on CoH forums to 'Stateswoman'

Ingame Contact Info: Stateswoman, Freedom Avenger, Federalist, Silverstreak

Description:

Today the Freedom Phalanx is the world’s premiere independent hero organization. They are one of the most open organizations in existence, allowing any would-be hero to volunteer for service with the esteemed group...

The Freedom Phalanx continues to rebuild and reform from the devestation of the Rikti War even as its selfless membership attempts to aid and support the rest of the world in doing so as well. Keeping with long time policy, young heroes are invited and welcomed to serve with the esteemed organization and its storied heroes throughout the world where ever there is need. In major cities around the globe, junior divisions of the world famous supergroup have formed to continue training under the supervision of senior members of the fellowship.

One such division has recently formed in Paragon City and is already acting under the supervision of the heroes known as 'the Surviving Eight', such as Positron, the Back Alley Brawler, and Numina. Led by Anna Anderson, a young hero from California also known as the Stateswoman, the burgeoning group has scored some impressive victories against the many villains who would do the great city harm.

OOC: The pacing of this group is a lot more casual than most of the larger more fast-moving/leveling supergroups, and was started as a alternate option for members of the Elements organization who are interested in roleplaying and staying in-character while playing along with the story content provided by the Devs. All roleplayers are very welcome to join, feel free to contact me at stateswoman@houston.rr.com and/or at Stateswoman on the official forums with any questions or interest you might have and leave an in-character note in the 'Interested in Joining' thread at the forums at http://www.elementsunite.com on as well!

Doh, posted too soon. Thanks. I probably read the interview transcript and just overlooked that quote.

<---bad memory

Where did you guys read about any indication that there would ever be new body types at all? Your post about it as if it is an eventual certainty.

I'd love to see a link to the info so I can check out any teasers on any other new stuff that might be coming down the pike.

Thanks!

Teen body types? Are you referencing an interview or post somewhere that mentions some of what may be included in Issue 3? Mind providing a link if so? Never heard anything at all about new body types outside of a new winged archtype that might be on the way.

I played most of the evening tonight on Champion and my badges for completing the Positron and Synapse task forces still haven't showed up. Is this an automated thing that will happen over the next few days?

Wow, that is just a totally cool news site!