TheStarscreamer

Starscreamer my greatest and 1st char is and has always been like his patron lord - Ghost Widow.

Smart, sexy, cold, soul-less, signature dom - see she's just like Starscreamer

This is to the more than 50 villains (I suspect a substantial amount more were there but I was to busy being a psycho) in Grandville this morning from countless teams and SGs to list. Thank you for probably one of the most fun moments in my time playing CoV. Seeing everyone band together to fight the zombie hordes en masse by Recluse was more epic than any Rikti Raid could've hoped to ever be. Seeing the sheer number of people and teams all work in unison like that was bloody amazing

Big up to Envoy of the End too for shouting out to the masses to gather and between us gathering everyone we could find anywhere to work as one epic gigantic team. Then at the end watching everyone hit self destruct was truly one of the most awesome fireworks celebration to any victory EVER. All my screenshots will be made available soon!

AND then everyone going to the Aeon Corps doors and kicking em down for even more Halloween-horde madness which went on for many many hours!!!

I know many shouted that it was one of the most fun things they'd done and its all the wonderful bad-[censored] of our community that made it possible. Everyone who was there well flipping done!

And as my bane Starskalor was shouting - LET THE BODIES HIT THE FLOOR!

Heres to seeing if we can get another one going in the coming week! Although the amazing vibes and sheer spur of the moment-ness of it turned it into something I will rate in my top 5 CoX experiences ever.

Tis rather sad news to hear ya leaving mate when you are one of those I've known a very long time in this game. A great shame indeed. I tip Starscreamer's amazing top hat to you mate for the many crazy times including one of the most fun crystal keeper runs I ever did and helping me out when I was a total pvp newbie in the arena.

I'll do my very best to catch you in game, but I think I'll just say this here and now - take care my good man and remember theres always friends here.

Farewell and may the gods smile upon where you may end up.

Take it easy.

Ooooops my brain was on fire that day lol I opened a bunch of tabs and copied wrong link - pls delete my prior stupid post as I can't reedit.

Now my brain is less stupid atm heres the right damned linky: http://uk.boards.cityofheroes.com/showfl...e=2#Post1189897

Thanks for the kind words mate, but I can't imagine what made turning to page 11 so funny..... Although "paragon's little ones" may find it more impressive than when Aurora Borealis took stage in the Darkbow series. And oh yeah ya didn't think that the events with Black Scorpion from that series were finished did you? Should know by now it all intersects and goes crazy all over the place.

A personal fave of mine though was page 20, but that just had to happen alas. Besides it has far bigger ramifications...

I will actually let you in on some secrets here. About 60% of the shots used since the very first solo story "Sea of Stars" were not scripted - they just came from mishes and TFs - in that ones case the Sky Pirate TF. However, certain additional shots since have been more scripted to allow certain scenes to have the very specific expressive shots combined with this games great flowing combat shots.

None of this would be possible without the wonderful assistance and support of my SG Ultimate Darkness as they continually help me get shots I need and put up with my pushy direction. I've also always given everyone with a char featured a say in how they want them portrayed. Naturally I still have creative license but I like people to see a bit of how they imagine their char within this comic. A lot of the dialogue is largely based on daft convo while teaming. In particular note the mental rubbish The Wreckers come out with errr constantly lol

The lettering customisations themselves were actually something I did because of a random comment about the first comic. Someone said she didn't read comics because she found it hard to tell who was talking so that got me thinking. Ingame you can change ya chat colours so why not in my own comic? So thats where that spawned from. I then try to make it similar to that chars colours, chat colours, powers, personality etc. Plus I'm actually an IT tech so have a vast amount of fonts at my disposal. All of this is done using a wonderful little comic app I got for free with my laptop that I then upgraded to the Pro version (and am going to side-grade soon to the even newer one).

And now that rants over I'll refer to ya download comments. When I started I was originally doing them as PDFs but what I had at the time made the file size too huge and the quality lower than I wanted. I then started distributing in a number of ways but my file hosting isn't huge. The problem is I actually publish them as a high quality comic. I could put less on each page, cut down the dialogue and make it larger and render lower, but I actually hated how that looked when testing. Sadly I'm a perfectionist and think the quote "Art is never finished, it is merely abandoned" is highly apt (think Picasso said it can't remember). But, then after upgrading the software it gave the rendering options in PNGs an awful lot better and pushed file size right down so was a balance of quality vs size. I've recently relooked into redistributing in other formats but alas as it stands this is the single best way to prevent the text being made less readable as PNGs make it the crisp lettering it should be.

Naturally if anyone can think of a better idea and apps to use (Windows XP or Mac OSX it don't matter which) I'm open to explore and test them.

Again thanks for the feedback mate any and all always appreciated and if ya like it as much as ya have said now and previously feel free to make anyone ya know that may like it to look.

Well I've been a hardcore vill for a couple of years now so dunno what'd be rare hero side but a short lit of rarities from the red side:

Brutes - elec/invun, elec/dark (I rolled one of these recently because I've never seen one and its actually real fun lol)
Corrs - sonic/dark, AR/ice
Stalkers - anything with elec primary or secondary
MMs - mercs/poison, necro/FF

And lastly doms get a special mention. My first char and first lvl 50 was Starscreamer himself a gravity/thorns dom. In 2 years I've seen 3 other gravity/thorns doms - 2 of those were my mates making them to test the build out like my main. And they both deleted them lmao

I don't know what some people have told you but on my doms I couldn't live without my aoe holds. Although I am a dom fanatic Once slotted up with some IOs and maybe a couple of HOs when the cash is drummed up, you can use your hold very often. Remember that you can alternate your aoe controls, on my gravity I use wormhole as my main aoe control and use my aoe hold when it isn't up or when its more use - aggroing 2 mobs, ok worm 1, aoe hold the 2nd - room stops doing much

Plus, global rech and hasten make a huge difference. imo take the aoe hold and you'll be happy once slotted up more.

Heya and welcome back to CoX, a few are off playing Spore as thats just come out. But it really goes in ebs and flows, however one of the things I always say is if you can't get in on a team take a couple of people 2-3 lvls lower and maybe an lk ontop and just run your mishes slightly lower Weirdly I've been doing this a lot lately and have had some of the best teams in a while.

That said the late 30s is a little empty the last couple of weeks (my 38 plant/elec has had some pains getting teams). Bare with it mate and weather the storm - and if ya need some help can always fire me up @Starscreamer.

I'd like to nominate LeighB for his short stories located here: http://uk.boards.cityofheroes.com/showfl...e=4#Post1157399

They are original, well thought and potray a bit more of the day-to-day of living in the CoX universe.

I think it's a tremendous shame when anyone loses their jobs via redundancy as its like being sacked but for no real reason. I myself was laid off by an employer a few years back and I can honestly say it was one of the most negative experiences of my life. The shock, fear and anxiety is truly awful. Unfortunately this is something I kinda wondered about a long while when NC announced a 42% net fall in income and that was announced back in August. Sadly NC it seems have had to do what they need to as an organisation. Personally, my heart goes out to all the families affected by this directly.

I joined this game 2 years ago and I myself was in the deepest state of depression I'd ever had after breaking up with my partner of 6 years. Its the glorious people in this game that actually said some of the most heart felt things I've ever been told. I never thought that a series of strangers distributed widely all over europe would be the ones to help me more than even my family could. The sheer possibility of these people reducing me to tears with their kindness is a testament. At my worst I had trouble even getting up in the morning let alone smiling. Its the people and players that have made this game, backed by the people who brought the game to us.

Without the assorted people who are now facing redundancy all over the world I would not have got back to being me. The real me, not that bastardised shell I was when I bought the game. 2 years later and I've made some truly great friends for life from this community, hence the sheer volume of PMs, offline global tells, emails, forum posts and even phone calls from the community when I recently was taken into hospital and almost died was staggering. The sheer strength of this games collective community has had a profound affect on me directly and I love that this level of spirit can exist in an environment such as this.

None of this would even be remotely possible without the staff of NC.

My thoughts and hopes are with you all and I sincerely hope there is some silver in this otherwise dark cloud. Blessed be.

Personally I think that'd be a great childrens story but I have a warped sense of the world anyway lol

A nice alternate to the birth of Recluse and a great mental image of the spiders invading his room to freak out any arachno(s)phobes out there

"The sun shall fall and scatter... into Ultimate Darkness..."

Well it's been a very longtime coming but it is here at last. Usurper 3 continues the story of the birth of Ultimate Darkness and cranks it into 5th gear! With some debuts, an apocalyptic prophecy, violence on 3 time lines and some of the most vile acts featured so far this really is an issue to not miss!

Download at www.udsg.co.uk once downloaded can be extracted using anything to handle ZIP files. If you can't extract them once downloaded you can use a utility such as IZArc which is freely downloadable.

This issue we see more following on from the events of the prior 2 issues and a massive shock after the action in the finale of... ah that'd be telling! Also mucho thankies to Fatal Nova for the screens provided. And many thanks to Usurper's forumite special guest (I won't say who or it'd be spoilerific) for their assistance in reshooting along with the help, patience and support of the whole of UD.

Feedback, comments, cheers and jeers are always welcome!

A) it took just shy of a year for Starscreamer to ding 50 (he was my 1st ever char) and I think I made 6 alts during his run to 50, all of which have been deleted/remade since. The only exception is an ancient defender who I will delete at some stage - just kept cos he has a great look and he's only lvl 19.

B) A few actually. Starscreamer grav/thorns (IO & HO), Starslugslinger energy/rad (IO & HO), Starsixshot nightwidow (IOs) and rapidly working on Starscorponok my crab who's 45 - currently about 80% IO'd.

This may seem like a lot having 3 50s fully done up (not fully purpled or anything though, I find my chars can work better without them), I do everything as cheaply as possible as I find it both irritating and dull waiting months for a single IO lol

Info: http://cityofheroes.wikia.com/wiki/Arbiter

A hero side example is in the Faultline arc - Arbiter Sands.

But thanks, I chose an arbiter specifically for everything they represent and the fact it go off in so many directions. Look forward to seeing where it all heads next and look forward to getting more for whatever I'll add next.

Whilst musing with my morning cuppa I had me a thought - I wrote my bit after yours, but atm wrote it a bit "broad" spectrum to allow people to tweak existing ideas and progress it forward. However, how many characters overall do people think we should incorporate? And maybe listing any specific about the chars used/going to be added like personality traits they have etc for others to carry on.

I tried of a bit of emotional see-sawing and a dark tone for my 1st contribution, but may be an idea to hammer out a smidge. I'm not meaning spend weeks debating it all, I just mean a few pointers to give other writers and myself more of a railed guide than anything set in stone.

With that rant added - whos next in line to add their 8 peneth worth to the story?

Within the bootcamp settings themselves you can set the Function keys to be the normal "F" keys they are or their handy use features (like volume, brightness etc)

Goto BootCamp Control Panel in Windows either via the systray icon or Control Panel, then select Keyboard then theres a tickbox to toggle it either way.

If that don't work theres a chance ya may have one of a dodgy batch of keyboards as a mate of mine got a MacPro recently and his keyboard was dodgy after a while so got Apple to replace.

Rainn crept off into the shadows, knowing the cover of the dark would allow him to leave as he intended - without a trace. Even though this was now partially impossible.

As he began his journey, his mind lamented on the shaman he had just defeated as he moved nimbly. Those eyes were so knowing like staring at the real Rainn, not the crusader he was respected as, but the man inside. This unsettled him no end as his mind continued to replay the events of the last 10 minutes in near slow motion.

That shaman's words had all resonated in him. But why? And how did those partially decayed eyes stare with that air of familiarity? He remembered the moment the hilt of his blades went tense as they pierced through the shaman and impact the tomb behind him. The way he knew he'd defeated this impending evil, but yet he felt oddly cold about it all. It wasn't the first time he'd cut their numbers down, but today, it felt wrong.

Those eyes were so familiar.

He continued his present course and decided to head out for the night. He was in no frame of mind to carry on at that moment and he needed time to reflect.

After Rainn finally dissapeared into the shadows there was a flicker of movement where he'd been only minutes before locked in battle. The soft and dense sound of a pair of boots crashing on the dusty ground. The figure stepped into the light and stared at the mess around him. He smiled from within the polished white helm. The smile of someone with dark intent of the highest order.

The smile of an Arbiter.

Soz for not adding sooner, my bit can be added at any chronological point really Just wanted to add some impending horror/tragedy for others to run with... adding as we speak

EDIT: Ok I promised sinister - now ya got it Decided I wanted to make it have wide scope with a serious chance of doom. I also REALLY hope I ain't screwed up anyone elses ideas with this lol Whats more amazing is I included absoleutely none of my own chars!

Fare thee well soph. I already said what I think and to reitterate you'll be missed by myself and all of UD. We eagerly await your return to us. And to re-reitterare - if ya dont keep in touch or come back we'll [expletive deleted] come get ya!

Take it easy soph.

Dominator - i'm squishy but scrappy, can be a control freak and often take charge (I swear I have a RL domi bar), and an assortment of reasons that cannot be uttered via this forum

Actually I think I'll go out on a limb here as noone else has so far and throw something into this, I'll contribute a chunk or 2 shortly

I cannot guarantee it will not be strange or sinister ;P

I would at this point love to sy a fond and belated Happy Birthday to Ultimate Darkness celebrating its 2 Year Anniversary!!!

Its been a very long and winding road and we just keep on kicking and bulldozing forward. Its the tireless dedication of our community and members that make this all possible and helps makeup a huge part of what UD is. Thank you all.

Now onto what we're going to do about this...

This weekend is ANNIVERSARY WEEKEND and therefore there will be all sorts of events that are being frenziedly planned. Theres already talk of a costume competition and a RWZ pylon raid with more being penciled in as we all go. Info and times to appear shortly once grav, agent, stretch and I have begun chucking it all together. As last year was 2 days of absoleute insanity I urge any UDers to throw their own ideas in and lets make this the humongous celebration it deserves to be!!!

And who knows... maybe another comic will come out of all this....

Well having countless alts vill side, I've never found the early part of CoV that hard a grind. You can solo and get yourself off mercy very easily. Doms are a slightly difficult AT to start off with due to low HP and taking a while to get all the key powers. Most get annoyed with doms as they expect them to be like blasters and they aren't. Its a long while before you are a more dmg oriented char. But after a certain point, the dom is one of the easiest chars to solo by far. The sheer volume of doms I alone have (let alone the rest of UD) is a testament to that. Starscreamer himself is a gravity/thorns and can solo the RWZ timed mishes from Borea literally in under 10 minutes.

I don't ever farm my chars (bar 2 lvls on my old brute who I retired anyway) and I managed to get one of my doms off mercy in less than an afternoon.

I've found that if ya really can't get a team that early to take Burke as ya 1st contact as all his mishes can be soloed in your sleep, even more so than Kalinda's. Then once level 6 just leave Mercy and goto PO to start papers, get a travel temp and ya 1st proper contact. I always do the vill tutorial as well as it can be done in minutes so theres a free pass to lvl 2.

Theres also a distinct possibility the builds ya chosen are longer haul chars. My main had a hard time early on Mercy himself but by shark he was able to solo more than happily. Whereas my plant/elec dom was very good right from the get go. Same for my corrs - my sonic/ice was a total nightmare to level and still not great solo but yet my energy/rad can solo relent like it aint there and was very comfortable solo from about lvl 8 upwards. All about what ya got, what ya want and the big picture.

Lastly, it may help joining an SG vill side to get into more regular teaming. I myself am always trying new things and have chars across I think every lvl range bar the 20s lol If you ever need help or advice blasting through the huge fun that is the villain side of the world, fire me up @Starscreamer

Odd that I had the bit of paper I worked it all out on for my comic to hand lol

Starscreamer himself lives in penthouse of a building he owns and uses as a front in Nerva. Widely rumoured he does not live alone...

Starsoundwave has a small facility on Nerva used as an outpost for monitoring Longbow operations.

Starslugslinger lives on Sharkhead in a small converted warehouse.

Starsixshot lives in the North East of Cap Au Diable.

Starshockwave is permanently in the UD Misfits base conducting some mad magical experiments.

The rest I have never got round to working out.

Sapphic and FFM have hit the nail on the head there. I've got a whole bunch of my mates trials and only one of them has taken the game up.

It also hasn't stopped the goldfarm ads at all either, instead of having periodic broadcasting or the odd email we now get Local spammed as some char with name like "skdhfj" comes and spams the BM/WW as they now know thats where the majority of people would take it up.

Seriously how do you expect trial users to get a feel for the game if they can't even reply to a player asking to team with them???

And heres a fact for you, of the people I've shown and hollered about trials - only 1 took it up. Guess why. Because he rolled a brute on my account before he got his trial and was able to experience content. No sooner had he crawled on mercy he got a tell asking to trio the whole Kalinda arc! If this had been on a trial account he'd have totally missed out on the experience that made him want the game in the first place.

It would seem the trial accounts are satisfying the existing playerbase bothered more about a few emails than protecting the EULA or reeling a new wave of actual players.

That's my 8 peneth worth rant of the day.