Thalomarre

Which letter? Mind providing a link?

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and that is the problem....no one has more right to use an aspect of the game as anyone else.

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I think the devs disagree with you on this point.

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Even if it was all "farms" like you said. Who is to say your story is more important than theirs? They have just as much right to use their story slots as they want as you do.

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That's just putting words in my mouth. I never once said one was more important than another. It was just an observation.

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Well, I'll say it.

The story arcs that I lovingly and painstakingly craft, spending hours if not days trying to perfect every custom character, every mission goal, every bit of textual minutiae in order to make the story I want to tell just that much more real, are immeasurably more important than what someone slapped together just so they could exploit the system.

The Cimerorans are unlockable, and the Cimeroran caves, but I don't believe there are any Cimeroran outdoor maps available in the Architect.

Obligatory word of warning warning: While you might be able to get away with a similar story on the grounds that it's based on real historical events, the arc is likely to get yanked if it comes too close to the movie or original comic book.

I had suspected something similar about the file thing. But then why does IGOR work at all?

As for Serafina specifically, I seem to recall someone saying that she technically IS in the Legacy Chain group, but she's not showing up because she falls outside the Legacy Chain's established level range (level ranges, for that matter, are another source of frustration for me, but that's another thread).

This began as an expression of my frustration at having to compromise so much in my missions just to get below the maximum file size, but I decided it might be more constructive to post it here, as there are several ways my troubles could be averted that I think are fully within the devs' power.

I've been lovingly crafting an arc for a while now, and I'm just about finished with it at 98.96% of the maximum file size. For all intents and purposes, the arc is playable from beginning to end with a coherent and (I think) somewhat interesting story. But so much remains missing. I haven't written a souvenir, custom NPC descriptions are sparse if present, and I've already had to sacrifice several non-essential mission details just to keep from going over.

There are two things that I think could be done fairly easily to help solve this.

First, to have the in-game editor compose our files more efficiently. At the very least, the files could be compressed as far as IGOR does, removing unnecessary spaces and other characters. But they could also do away with cumbersome string values like "CompassDescriptionSingular", replacing them with something more along the lines of "CDS." If they did that with all such headers, it would make the text file itself a little more cryptic, but free up a considerable amount of space.

To illustrate my second suggestion: my arc contains two custom characters that shouldn't be custom characters; namely Percy Winkley and Serafina. We know that both characters have models within the game but, as of right now, neither one is accessible in the Mission Architect except as a contact. If we only had access to them, and all other such in-game characters, that would free up a good 13% of my available disk space.

As I said before, my arc is comprehensive enough to be playable in its current state. The problem is that I've had to sacrifice so much detail, in text, mission objectives, and custom NPCs, that the story I'm telling is feels woefully bland in comparison with the story I want to tell; it's almost like the difference between the Imperious Task Force and a radio mission. And that I know it would be possible, with a little help from the devs, to get everything (or at least most of what) I want at or under that 100KB limit.

Even if one doesn't intend to us AV level "Heroes" as allies, let's not forget that not all arcs are designed with the good guys as the protagonists. There's no reason we shouldn't be able to create enemy NPCs with the label of "Hero" as well.

Ah, thanks. I knew she had to be in there somewhere. I really hope we get her and other such characters as a "built-in" option later on. I hate spending my precious space on yet another custom character, but it's just so appropriate that she gets a cameo in the arc I'm working on.

I'm thinking about putting the hero Serafina into one of my arcs, but I can't seem to find her anywhere. So, a couple quick questions:

Is she available anywhere in the MA as a non-contact NPC and, if so, where?
If she's not available, how might I best approximate her powers as a custom character? I remember fighting her in Scirocco's arc, and I believe she was Psi Blast/Storm, but I can't quite recall. ParagonWiki doesn't seem to be any help either. Does anyone know exactly what powers she has?

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Vanity Arcs - We know you have a Villain or a Hero. That's nice. So do we.


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One of the biggest attractions of this system is to be able to run your character's origin stories in actuality rather than just in your head. That's not exactly a vanity story.

Unless you mean specifically those stories that over the top "look at my character and how awesome they are".

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I've so far published one and am working on a couple other arcs that happen to involve some of my characters. I don't think this is a bad thing in and of itself. I don't include my characters because they're my characters. I include my characters because I think they either have, or can contribute to, a story worth telling. I don't consider that vanity any more than I consider it vanity for any other author to write a story about characters he created.

That said, I do take pains not to let any of my characters overshadow the player. The player is the protagonist after all, even if I'm using the arc as a means to convey my character's story. I'm not too proud to let my creations play second fiddle to--or get beaten up by--the player (though, as with any good comic book hero or villain, it can generally be expected that they'll live to fight another day).

I'm not sure I had a point with all that. But if I did, I guess it's that while vanity arcs most certainly exist, the presence of a character the author actually plays doesn't make something a vanity arc. I'm not sure if anyone was suggesting it did. But I figured it was worth saying anyway.

There have been several occasions when I've wanted to put a particular character or mob in one of my arcs (as an enemy, ally, captive, or what-have-you) but was unable to find him or her anywhere in the system. I've skimmed the threads in this forum and found a few "Where is X?" posts, but nothing addressing the issue on a broad level, so I thought it might not be a bad idea to make a semi-official threads on characters or mob types from within the game canon we'd like to see available in our missions.

A few that I've been unable to find so far:


[Midnight Squad]
Kadabra Kill
Percy Winkley
Sigil

[Control Set Pets]
Animated Stone
Fire Imp
Fly Trap
Jack Frost
Phantasm
Singularity


Anyone else have characters they'd particularly like to see?

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Is there a way to set a custom boss to be an EB during solo play, but an Archvillain during Team or Max Difficulty play? Does it automatically scale it down?

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Archvillains normally scale down to elite boss when playing on less than the highest difficulty rating solo.

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So on the lowest Diff they would still be an EB and not a boss?

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Correct. FYI, in my experience, everything above the level of a Lieutenant is demoted a rank regardless of the size of the team when playing an MA arc at the lowest difficulty setting; Bosses become Lieutenants, EBs become bosses, and AVs become EBs.

I agree. I suspect that even for many non-RPers (actually, I don't think role-playing even figures into it one way or the other), it's somewhat jarring to have a supposed hero identified as an "Archvillain"; discrepancies like that leave the story looking unpolished and poorly implemented.

When speaking to a contact, your character presumably doesn't doesn't see a written transcript of what's being said, but that doesn't mean it's okay to misspell every other word. How the material is presented to the player is very important.

There's a "Betrays on Arrival" option in escort objectives that's supposed to make them turn on you when you get to the exit. I've never used it myself, so I can't say how well it works.

That's the only way of going about it as far as I know.

AE System
--------
Welcome to Architect Entertainment -- Neutral
Death for Dollars! -- Neutral
Bare Knuckles of Rage (9304)
*

Character/Supergroup Origins
--------
Birth of a Fossil -- Heroic
Secret Origins(Tech) The Snake Women of Epsilon V (42221) - Heroic
Noah Reborn -- Heroic (2370)
Jumping in Feet First - Heroic - 1345
*

Classic Super-Hero/Super-Villain
--------
THE BOMBER --- Heroic --- 16607
In The Shadow of Statesman --Neutral--1160
A Show to Die For! --- Heroic --- 30645

Comedy
--------
The Extadine Lab -- Heroic
MacGuffin Delivery Service (1567) -- Villainous
ParaCon -- Heroic
The new and improved Lord Recluse Strike Force -- Villainous (though I wouldn't recommend against a hero )
The Fire Bunnies - Neutral, They are only bunnies after all...
You Say It's Your Birthday! (3630) - Neutral
Trademark Infringement -- Heroic (2220)
Hail to the King Neutral (34640)
Walk On the Wild Side - Neutral - 3580
Shirley You Jest (25474) -- Neutral
The Invasion of the Bikini Clad Samurai Vampiresses from Outer Space! - Heroic - 61013
Gnomish Madness (30204) - Heroic
Doctor Nadir and the Hellion Heist (49661) - Heroic
*

Comedy/Drama
--------
A Super Team is Born -- Heroic
Cause of How Some Silly Stealed My Wings #1481 -- Neutral
How to Survive a Robot Uprising -- Heroic (12669)
Dr. Duplicate's Dastardly Dare -- Neutral
It's a Nice Day for a White Wedding (9059) -- Neutral
TURG FICTION: Ghost in the Machine, Act I - Heroic (althoughs romantic villains could try this too )
Rum Runners of Bloody Bay (3691) - Heroic
Have a Blap, Blap, Blappy Day Kids! (2019)
The Toypocalypse! (49280) - Heroic
*

Crime/Gangs
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The Bravuran Jobs -- Villainous (16809)
The Monstrous Regiment of Lesbian Hellions -- Heroic (27178)
Win the 2009 Freak-Lympics (2150) - Villainous
Ninja Crimewave! (2142) - Heroic
Whitehawks (Arc 49364) -- Heroic
The Internet is for Crime (53385) - Villains
Plastic Pistol Peril (1135) - Heroic*

Drama
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The Conciliators: Simone -- Heroic (4010)
The Fan Club -- Heroic
Matchstick Women -- Heroic -- 3369
Of Mentors and Legacy - Heroic - 1589
*

Global Domination
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Axis and Allies -- Villainous (1379)
*

Heist
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Celebrity Kidnapping -- Villainous (1388)
Easy Money -- Villainous (31490)
*

Historical (Realistic)
--------
*

Historical (CoH Lore)
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The War on Superadine - The Regulators in their 1980's drug war (Heroic) (Arc 7959)
Origins - Volume 1 (57077) -- Heroic
*

Holiday
--------
*

Horror
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Astoria in D Minor (41565) -- Heroic
Dark Dreams (3615)
The Amulet of J'gara (1709) -- Heroic
Project: Perilous - Into the Chthonian Pit (#3586) - Neutral (Unless you happen to be a mad cultist, in which case, go nuts!)
Small Fears -- Heroic
*

Large-Scale Crisis
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A Hero's Halo -- Heroic
This Is War, Part I - the Revenge of Hro'Dtohz -- Neutral
Win the Past, Own the Future - Heroic
A Warrior's Friend - Heroic
The Clockwork War -- Heroic (18672)
Flight of the Valkyries - Precursor (20272) -- Neutral
The Human Hive (#1632) - Neutral
*

Magic
--------
The Magical Miss Fitz (5079) -- Heroic
Chains of Blood (5492) -- Heroic
A Deal with Destiny -- Heroic
*

Military
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Redoubt Operations #1: Fires over Kalago -- Heroic
Red Storm Rising (Arc 4912) -- Heroic
Whitehawks (Arc 49364) -- Heroic
Axis and Allies -- Villainous (1379)

*
Misc. Adventure
--------
The Portal Bandits (3326) -- Heroic
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Mystery
--------
Blowback (18575) -- Heroic
Dream Paper -- Heroic (13030)
Dream Paper 2: Restless Sleep -- Heroic (16797)
Dream Paper 3: Broken Dreams -- Heroic (13064)
*

Mythology
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Atlantis Attacks! -- Neutral (30898) -- Click for Promotional Poster
Anactoria's Descent Into the Underworld -- Villainous
The Seelie War -- Heroic
The Unseelie War -- Villainous
Tales of Cimerora, volume 1 : Of feathers and fur -- Heroic
The Aegis Affair - Heroic
Witches and Warriors (53006)- Heroic
The War of Fate(12220,46722)- Heroic
<a href="/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=13328874" target="_blank">Rites of the Maenads (61159) - Heroic</a>
*

Nemesis Plots
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Brass Reaver: Part 1 -- Neutral
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Player-Chosen Outcome
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Hunting the Dark Dragon -- Heroic
Playing Gods -- Heroic (51106)
*

Sci-Fi
--------
Adventures of the Space Marines -- Neutral
Adventures of the Space Marines 2 -- Neutral
Above Mars - Part 1: The Wellington -- Neutral (13215)
The Final Nemesis
*

Un-themed Survival/AV/Time Challenges
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The Meatgrinder -- Neutral
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Puzzles/Riddles
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Grim Riddles (#1396) - Heroic

Okay, that was creepy as hell.

Seriously, very good job... excellent storytelling and atmosphere throughout the arc! The way you formatted the text in certain places was very effective.

Only one very minor gripe (SPOILERS!)...







I gathered that in the final mission, my character was entirely confused and thought the civilians were monsters or something. But I found that I as a player was pretty confused as well. I was saying to myself, "Wait, are these good guys? Why are they hostile to me? Wait, they're saying I'm attacking them?" (Which admittedly I was...) So, uh.... hmmm. Maybe that sort of dissonance was exactly what you were going for. I have to admit it was rather uncomfortable for me, in that I knew I was doing what I needed to do to complete the mission, but at the same time I knew it was wrong. Fortunately, by the time I got to that mission I had faith enough in the story to just let it carry me forward, rather than just saying "This makes no sense! I'm supposed to be a hero!" and quitting the arc.

So... I don't know. Maybe that's not a gripe after all. You could make it a little more straightforward that the protagonist isn't thinking straight at this point--either with something suggesting as much on the mission entry text or, if you wanted to do something a little more extreme, by making the "enemies" look like zombies (while keeping the dialogue as is).

But it seems like it'd be a tough call to make. Like I said, I was confused, but I'm not sure whether that's a bad thing or not.

Oh, and on a less equivocal note, I caught a typo in Event Horizon's dialogue in the end, where he talks about how the fog "playes" with your mind.



END SPOILERS




Once again, magnificent arc! I could definitely see myself running it again.


EDIT:
I just read the souvenir text. I'd strongly encourage anyone who runs this arc to be sure not to miss what's written there.

I'd like for "archangel" to be removed from the list of banned words as well.

Status Reports
Star Strider Force
Name: Maiden Mars
Global Contact: @Lirene
Reporting on Assignment: Rikti Incursion, Virtue Squadron
Level of Alien Threat: Low

Report Details:
Okay, so maybe I missed the first couple of alerts on my comm while I was rocking out at Pocket D, but hey, the music is loud and you guys still have a lot to learn about clear transdimensional communication, so that's totally not my fault. Anyway, as soon as I realized I'd gotten mission orders, I hightailed it like a Mercurian skreep to Founders' Falls. I mean it's got the university, the canals, Williams Square with all the obelisks (You know you guys stole those from us, don't you?)--that's where all the culture is, right? Anyway, I got there not a moment too soon, because the first thing I find as I come out of the D is that the sky is all green and Rikti warships are cruising around like they own the place.

So like I said, I was a little late to the party, and it looked like they were just dropping their last bombs before they started sending in the troops. I didn't see much damage; they seemed to have pretty much ignored the university and all the sculpture. I guess they're either too civilized to target that stuff or too barbaric to know what it would mean to us if they blew it all up. Or maybe they just thought they could learn something useful if they left it all intact.

Anyway, let me tell you something about the Rikti: they wouldn't know a proper invasion if it came to their homeworld, wiped out half the population, and turned it into a summer home for its war-mongering space tyrant. If it'd been the folks back home at Mars making the attacks... well, let's just say it's lucky for you we more or less grew out of that phase in the 60s (Your 60s, I mean, not ours).

Okay, so they did manage to land a couple bombs that blew up before we could disable them. Fortunately, the only one caught in the blast as far as I know was yours truly, and I bounce back pretty easily. The roads had been pretty much cleared of traffic by that point.

After the bombing, they started beaming down and, as usual, the heroes of Paragon pretty handily sent 'em packing. No tactics on their part, no strategy of any kind as far as I could see; they just kept beaming in hoping to take us down with superior numbers, and we kept dropping them before they had a chance to get their bearings. Amateurs.

Oh, and never at any point did they show interest in any of the cultural or aesthetic landmarks of Founders' Falls, unless you consider that the bulk of their force landed at Williams Square--probably only because that's where most of us had gathered as well and they thought they could catch us by surprise or something.


Analysis of Current Situation:
With regard to Earth's cultural treasures, I don't think Earth has much to worry about from the Rikti. Maybe call the Louvre and suggest they lock some of their really good stuff away just in case but, like I said, these guys just don't seem that interested.

As for the invasion situation in general... well, the Rikti obviously have numbers far superior to our own, and their technology isn't half-bad either. If they got their act together, I could see them easily giving this little blue planet a run for its money. As things are right now, though, I'd say we can keep holding them off without much trouble.

The only problem is, we don't really have any way of hitting them back. It seems all we can do right now is keep fighting them here on Earth and try to keep them from from doing any really serious damage while they're around. And no matter how quickly we keep beating the shplortz out of them, innocent people are gonna keep dying, and the Rikti are gonna keep coming back.


Suggestion of Action:
For the short term, we've gotta keep keeping an eye on the high-density areas, plus the universities, libraries, and what-have-you just in case they do start taking an interest.

But at some point, we've gotta take this thing on the offensive. Build a space ship, a portal, something that'd allow us to take the fight to them. I've tried contacting the Elder Council back on Mars and asking them to lend a hand, but they don't really like you guys very much. And they like me even less, so that's pretty much out. I could lend out my personal saucer for a week or two; maybe your scientists and engineers could learn something that would speed the process along. It's just an old clunker my parents bought me when I was learning to drive, but I bet you guys could learn a few things from it.



Well, that's my report. I dunno if it helps, but I hope it does. After all, this little blue ball is my home too, now. And to be honest, I've gotten kind of attached to it.

-Miraxa Moonblaze, a.k.a. Maiden Mars

Miraxa Moonblaze, alias Maiden Mars, reporting for duty!

Star Strider Forces Registry
Name: Maiden Mars
Global Contact: @Lirene
Level of Classification: Level 50 Gravity/Force Fields Controller
Origin: Natural
Super Rank & Super Group: Guardian, Guardians of the Golden Age

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A second fighting pool of just melee attacks with some fresh animations would be nice.

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Especially if it meant porting "Boxing" and "Kick" from our current Fighting pool and replacing them with something more useful. I don't think I've ever seen anyone actually use either of those powers, but plenty of people take one or the other as a stepping stone to Tough and Weave.

I'd love it if they separated the fighting pool into two different pools, one for offense, one for defense. The offensive pool would have Boxing and Kick (possibly with some buffs/tweaks to make them more attractive), followed by a couple more impressive powers, maybe a more powerful single target strike and a modest PBAoE. The Defensive pool could then have Tough and Weave, preceded by a couple less impressive but still useful powers. I'm thinking one that grants a small amount (like three points or so) of knockback protection, and maybe an auto power that gives 20% to 30% status resistance.

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What is with you people's twisted desire to beat up, shoot, stab, burn, and electrocute women? Did you never get over your High School sweetie dumping you? Did your father beat you as a child? Did your mother ignore you? Seek some therapy. Seriously.

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What is it with your twisted desire to beat up, shoot, stab, burn, and electrocute men, but not women? Honestly, we're already beating up, shooting, stabbing, burning and electrocuting people. We might as well be even-handed about it. That said, I highly doubt that "beating up women" is really the primary motive of anyone who wants to see more female mobs.

Back on topic:
I'd like to know how robust the player-made mission editor will be, particularly in whether we'll have the option to customize enemies and other NPCs, and the same scripting tools the official mission designers get.

Here are a couple issues that've been bothering me with one particular character. First and foremost, there's some nasty clipping with the "Uniform" jacket on female characters. It doesn't show all the time, but it's very obvious with certain poses. It's particularly noticeable, for example, when my character puts her hands on her hips.

Also, when firing her assault rifle, a small part of her back will clip through around the area of her left shoulder blade.

The second issue I've noticed is that, just like capes and skirts, her lower legs will disappear when submerged in water. While I understand that this may be somewhat unavoidable in the case of skirts and capes, legs hardly fall into the same category. So far I've only noticed it with this particular outfit: that is, with Stilletos and Fishnets.

I'm gonna go against the grain here and say I'd prefer this information to be made available by default. If the default is set to "hide," those who have themselves unhidden will be the exception, rather than the rule, as anyone who doesn't know about or just doesn't care enough to take the time to enable it (but wouldn't especially mind other people seeing their info out of game) would be excluded. In other words, the new feature would likely become very little-used.

I feel that the only ones to be excluded from the system should be those who explicitly decide to be excluded, and I suspect that will be a relatively small segment of the population. I don't see it as an invasion of privacy, even with PvP in the equation, to display a character's bio, power choices, or statistics.

The only reservations I'd have would be local friends lists and global chat handles. Both of these are currently private in the sense that such information is not readily available to most other players (though I know there are ways to figure out someone's global handle without their consent).

I can just see the drama that could unfold from accusations like, "Why aren't I on your friends list? Aren't I your friend?!", or "Why AM I on your friends list? Are you spying on me?!", or, "Why are you friends with this person? He kicked my puppy!"

So, I would prefer either that friends lists and global handles not be published, or that it be possible to hide them while still publishing actual character information. I wouldn't particularly care which setting it defaulted to. I'm a big boy; I can turn it off myself if I need to.

[u]The Cult of the Accursed[u] is seeking like-minded villains to join our cause!

We are a fledgling group of villains who have embraced our status as outcasts in normal society. As servants of the Dark we seek to rise above the mundane dregs, to seize the power that is rightfully ours, and render this world a place of despair for all who would oppose us.

If you are a practitioner of the dark arts, a product of foul sorcery, a sojourning denizen of the underworld, or any other being whose power is of a dark arcane nature, we offer you this opportunity to join us and partake in the generous spoils that will be ours.

Seek out the villainess Tabytha (@Thalomarre), or her servant Blackhound (@Lirene) if you think yourself worthy of our invitation.

(The Cult of the Accursed is an RP villain group. Though we are magic-oriented, a character need not be specifically Magic Origin to apply. We have a small but growing base with a functioning invention worktable, and have teleportation access to all zones via coalition. Feel free to either contact @Thalomarre or @Lirene through global /tell, or Tabytha or Blackhound through local /tell or in-game e-mail.

We also have a web site, currently under construction.)

Very nice; I love the style of these!

I must admit I was actually somewhat floored when I was shuffling through all the issues and saw that I had a cameo as Golden Bast in #22; rather surreal to be admiring someone's artwork and then to suddenly see yourself portrayed there!

Anyway, thanks for the five seconds of fame. Keep up the good work!