Syra

Nearly one-hundred views and not a single response?

Come on guys, even a "you suck!" would placate my need for attention.

This was sort of triggered by another thread, so I thought I'd post it here:

If anyone's DM'ed/ST'ed before - be it DnD, WoD, Amber, whatever - how did you approach the game? Did you develop a world and the dungeons/scenarios with the skills of the party in mind, or did you create a world in spite of what the PCs would have available to them?

Just intrigued to see what sort of styles people have.

When I used to DM - primarily DnD - I normally worked with the party. Saw what they had with them, and tried to work things in such a way they'd each get a chance to shine; this felt "best" to me as it didn't feel like I was roadblocking them simply because, say, a Rogue wasn't there.

Conversely, I've also seen some games that were challenging, without being fatal, that didn't really give a damn the party had nobody they could take a hit or two.

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See your Head of Vecna, and raise you a Deck of Many Things , let the party kill itself.

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Best. Item. Ever.

Except when the party benefits and trumps the DM's carefully plotted dungeon, dammit.

Pft, sod Kobolds; all you need is a ballsy Orc Barbarian and an impressional Wild Mage (Yeah, the DM loved them in Baldur's Gate; converted the class to 3.0).

"But the Orc said it's eyeball was tasty."

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Amber, Mage : The Ascenscion...

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Being incredibly powerful and god-moding are different things, Silver.

Although, that said, it does get a bit silly when nothing is a challenge. One reason I love Vampire; when all's said and done, you can still have the snot beaten out of you by a mere human playing his cards right.

Very well. Point made, Word; it's nothing against you personally, just this thread brought back a few snarky memories.

Word, as I said to Zortel above, I wasn't defending the OP's actions; I was pointing out the hypocrisy in saying he was coming across as superior and insulting, when a great deal of posters have carried that attitude towards him, even after he apologised.

I haven't "turned" on anyone; I'm just calling things as I'm seeing them in this thread. Disagreeing is hardly grounds to call betrayal.

Zortel, I'm not defending his way of posting, I'm just saying that it doesn't do people any good to come across as deliberately insulting - rather than misuse of certain words, for example - when someone isn't listening.

It gets even worse when the guy apologises and people still leap on him. Hence my "clamping jaws" comment.

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we was referring to both, guys.

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Right, in that case I'll be siding with Wordmaker (Sans the folks who felt it neccesary to call the OP an "idiot" and so forth).

Well then, if he's only been reffering to CoV without any major references to CoH and GG, I think it's relatively safe to assume he's speaking about CoV for the most part.

Listen, after a number of encounters with supposedly respectable members of GG my overall view of the group has been shot, but leaping on the guy and clamping your metaphorical jaw down on a few mistakes - that nobody here can claim to be innocent of - without letting go doesn't really give the moral highground, especially when it comes to saying the OP think's he's "superior" and so on.

A little bit of rational posting goes a long way, especially if it's just to get information, as you say.

Funny thing Word, because under your own admission you admit he was largely addressing the CoV community, which doesn't have an established community just yet.

Really, in the attempt to point out how apparently ill-informed the OP is, a number of you have come across as very hypocritical.

Basically, how do you /EA Stalkers slot this thing? At the moment I'm thinking three +def and three +recharge enhancements, but given it's excessive recharge time and fairly situational use, I wonder if it's worth bothering with when it comes to slots.

Anyone out there have advice on the matter?

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I have always thought of Godmoding as one player making choices and actions on behalf of another players character, thus forcing the other player to do what you want rather than what they want. Kind of like Zortels second example only I thought I would spell it out

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Swipes Aeronaut's wallet, leaving him as a wailing, crying shell of a man.

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Never said that at all but like someone said there shouldnt be weak power sets. In any case I fail to see what possible constructive comments you have made.

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Hmm? I don't think you should be talking about constructive comments here, my dear.

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Does anyone play a toon because they like the concept anymore?

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Pot. Kettle. Black.

Anyway.

EM is, in my experience, a very powerful powerset; some of the Assassin Strike's I've made have torn the hell out of Purple Boss mobs, and there's still significant power when you're forced to scrap. The disorient is a nifty little side-effect, but you need to watch out when using Energy Transfer.

I'm still faceplanting because I don't watch my HP when using it.

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Does anyone play a toon because they like the concept anymore?

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Concept character doesn't mean you have to take weak powersets, you know.

I haven't set anything in stone yet, but is anyone up for the first respec sometime over the weekend or next week?

My Stalker just hit level 27, and I'm pretty eager to optimise her build before continuing.

Just leave your details here; we can arrange a time and the like if enough interest is built.

...is it possible to make a Tanker that focuses on offense?

It's just an idle question more than anything - for the life of me, I can't get into Heroes - but would be interesting to hear if anyone's successfully made an axe-wielding madman or the like.

This has been an idea I've had for a while; an "epilogue" of sorts for CoV. My interpretation of what would happen when the game had ended. It's written in a "memoir" style, so hopefully it's come out reasonably well. I must stress, however, that I never write in this style without deliberately leaving certain things out at the start. It will all come together, so early discrepancies will be covered.

It should be noted that I have taken a few liberties with the source material - such as the Snakes' victims reverting to their "old" form on death - but I would much prefer people judge it based on the writing and content, rather than how accurate it is to the game.

So far I've only produced a write-up for Mercy Isle. Depending on the reception it recieves, I may or may not continue; I have a fair few ideas knocking around, and I could probably churn out a Port Oakes "conclusion" in a short period of time.

Apologies for the short length; as you can tell, my writing tapers off near the end. I can only write in short bursts without losing momentum.

Thanks in advance for any constructive feedback I recieve.

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I've achieved a great deal in my life; almost none of which I'm proud of. I suppose - in a way - I always saw things coming to a darker end than I intended them to, but I was still young back then. Still naive, still blind.

Looking back at the major events which have been transpired here on the Rogue Isles fills me with a certain degree of amusement. When Statesman fell, I don't think any of us understood just how important that outside threat was to Arachnos' continued existence; with Paragon's Hero population either dead, incarcerated or in hiding, it was only a matter of time before we turned on one another. Nature of the beast, all things considered.

In the following memoirs I hope to detail just what happened to the Rogue Isles during this time. But to do so, I'll have to back to the beginning....

Mercy Island
Anyone who spent the briefest amount of time employed by Arachnos would have spent a day or two lodged atop Fort Darwin, located in - appropriately enough - Darwin's Landing. It wasn't the most dangerous of areas to be for the soldiers, but it was certainly one of the more disheartening; dilapidated buildings, low tides, high mortality rate among civilians and complete isolation from Mercy City by way of an enormous steel wall. All things considered, the rife gang violence was one of the better aspects of the place.

As any "Destined Ones" can attest to, the memories of that place would last a lifetime.

Maybe it's how I can still remember just how badly those Snake dens stunk, or how much blood stained the pavement; it's just impossible to forget when we first arrived there from the Zig, newly freed and let loose on Recluse's property. We dove in eagerly; clearing out the Snakes, clamping down on the street gangs....even breaking each other's necks if the occasion called for it. We cut our teeth there, and moved on. When you go back there - after everything which has happened - you won't be able to find a single damn Snake there, at all. They're all gone. We were slaughtering them faster than they could find new "recruits", and there was nothing stopping a small group of the more enterprising "Destined" from locating the Snakes' temple and wiping it out.

With the link to their Goddess destroyed, most of the survivors just dropped dead in the streets, reverting back to their human form. It was quite sobering for a number of the agents I was acquainted with; counting and identifying the corpses was never going to be pleasant, of course, but I have vivid memories of otherwise hardened soldiers crumpling into sobbing wrecks as family members were named.

Conversely, the Hellions and Skulls we mopped up were given no such sympathy. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time; I've never seen such anger behind the attacks we lead on them. The agents were using them as scapegoats behind the loss of their families; no quarter was given, and the victims ran scared. Gunned down in the streets, flushed out of Mercy City. The survivors fled to Cap au Diable - or even back to Paragon - and that was an idea island "cleansed", or - at least - as much as we wanted it to be. One group remained; the Infected.

As much as they wanted to, Arachnos could never control everything the civilian populace did. The water surrounding Darwin Isle was absolutely putrid with the waste run-offs from Cap au Diable; the homeless, junkies and other desperate folks would inevitably drink the water and just become...something else entirely. Their minds would go, their bodies would deform; the living dead, in a sense, but sometimes - just sometimes - one would drink the water and gain all the benefits, with none of the drawbacks. Infected that could heighten radiation levels, Infected that could withstand bullets and keep coming, Infected that would tear a man apart with their bare hands; they all came in droves, eventually, but it was our fault. We didn't pay enough attention to them when we could.

By the time people had started heeding Doctor Creed's warnings about them, the Infected had already grown significantly in power. They completely over-ran the island; Fort Darwin was destroyed, Mercy City crushed and Fort Hades? Well....needless to say, they had to relocate Ghost Widow.

A few attempts were made to reclaim the island, but it was just abandoned over time. When Arachnos fell, Longbow - or, at least, what remained of them - tried to sterilise the area so it could be re-inhabited, but the Infected had become too resilient by that point; the only thing stopping them from moving elsewhere was the lack of cognitive thought.

Mercy Isle was the first, and only, recorded incident of Longbow deploying nuclear weaponry.

Just more curious than anything else; seems these two powersets are utterly despised when used in conjunction with one another.

Why is this? Post-ED weakness? They don't mesh well? A horrible reminder of the sheer amount of catgirl Heroes which polluted the American servers?

o_O

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I've had Hasten and Build-Up in my planned build since the start, both with 3 Recharge Reducers. I'm guessing the 3xToHit enhs you suggest for build-up is for PvP - I'm going to try and free up slots to do that.

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Trust me, it'll serve you in PvE as well.

Nothing more humilating, and dangerous, than missing your Assassin Strike against a Boss mob. The "eheheh, hi..." feeling just before you get squished is something you want to avoid.

This is the only mission badge, so far, my Stalker has out-levelled. Link.

If anyone has a character currently following this contact, it would be hugely appreciated if they could send a PM and allow me to tag along when this specific mission pops up.

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Heh. This -is- my day job. Sorta. I co-own a theatre company, and I have to write stuff for it all the time. I -do- work part-time at a local retailers....big toy shop.

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Ah, it all clicks into place.

Why not see if you can get some of this stuff involved in a theatre project? Niche audience, sure, but it'd be such a rush to see your work in the limelight, heheh.

Dude, give up your day job.

You could probably make some sort of career out of this.

XD

/EDIT - Never mind, misinterpreted.

Singularity + Grav Dom + Speed Boost = Level 42 AV being completely locked down for an entire battle without being able to attack. At all.

I love my girlfriend's Dominator.