Vis_Viva

Do you look like your toon? Do you WISH you looked like your toon? Do you not look at all like your toon but think you and your toon would make a lovely couple? For those willing to post pics of yourself on the web, post some pics of you next to your toon so we can all compare, laugh, and/or be very disturbed.

I’ll start. Here are some pics of me next to my toon Vis Viva. They include a “street clothes” pic of Vis Viva and a costume pic. Though there are no pics of me in a costume, the one from above WAS taken at work, the other take at a work related picnic.

Me and my toon .


--- Ollie

P.S. I put myself in the WISH I looked like my toon category. As far as the “couple thing” goes though, follow the link below to see Caterina. That’s the toon my wife made…rrorw!

P.P.S Don’t tell her I said that.

You inspired me (and the poor guy needed the money) so I created one for Vis Viva. Tell me what you think.
Vis Viva's endorsement deal

--- Ollie

Thank you, sir, your 10% cut for the endorsement is in the mail.

--- Ollie


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Got a new one for ya, after reading the characters bio, it just clicked.

The Magnificent Caterina

I know, it's a little simplistic, but in some cases, less is more

so tell me what ya think!

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I believe the term is "synergy". You should start a service by which you match up Superheroes with the best product for them to promote. You could make a (fake) fortune! Below is a link to the toons I have on Infinity (though being a good alt-aholic I have toons on all servers). Feel free to suggest a product for any of my toons (though Vis Viva is of course the primary) and I will cut you in for 10% of whatever they make on endorsements.

--- Ollie

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Not to introduce religious overtones, but in situations like this, I like to ask myself, "What would Superman do?" Would Superman just beat him and fly away. No, Superman would do EVERYTHING in his power to redeem him. He tried with the Toyman (with mixed results). He tried with Major Disaster (also with mixed results but slightly better). I loved the issue of Superman in which he offers redemption to 3 or 4 different villains, and only Major Disaster took him up on it. Regarding Frosfire, Batman would just beat him, Superman would try to redeem him. To be fair to Batman though, after Superman inspired him to change Frostfire would probably get help from and/or get involved w/ a Wayne foundation funded charity. Heck Bruce would probably give the guy a job once he was on the straight and narrow.

Perhaps the Devs should set up a mission in which slightly higher-level characters could attempt to somehow redeem Frostfire! It should somehow involve saving his loved ones, then somehow get him out of trouble with higher up criminals? Heroes don't just beat up the bad guys. Pro wrestlers do that. Heroes do good.


--- Ollie

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I agree that attempting to redeem is the heroic thing to do, disagree with your assessment of Batman though (well, ok movie batman is all about killing the bad guy) but the comics are full of his attempts to redeem villians Catwoman (ok she's a love interest so unpure motive there) but Two-face (even in the dark knight returns he wants to believe harvey is redeemed) even the Joker (Which went from a homicidal looney to a somewhat sympathetic villian in the "Killing Joke"). He even saved the joker from the death penalty because the Joker didn't commit the homicide he was going to get fried for

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I'm not saying Batman would kill. He's just very focused on stopping the bad guy. In the end, he too will often go for redemption. His attitude towards Hal Jordan is a perfect example of this. My favorite Batman stories, however, are the ones in which he rises above being just a Vigilante, and behaves as a true hero. He rises above the “angry vigilante” type time and time again, and I think it’s important to show him as MORE then just a hurt little boy who wants to get the bad man who hurt his parents. As far as Supes goes, inspiration is his #1 gig. If he can save people but inspire nobody else to do so, he feels useless. Bat's really plays into this in IC when he wants to insult Supes and tells him "You haven't inspired anyone since you died." Talk about knowing what buttons to push.

Either way, it would be very Superman-like (and maybe Batman-like on a good day) if there was a Redeem Frostfire mission.

-- Ollie

My favorite thing about the Malta: Ignore the giant heavily armed robot-thing and go for the little guy with the backpack.

--ollie

Not to introduce religious overtones, but in situations like this, I like to ask myself, "What would Superman do?" Would Superman just beat him and fly away. No, Superman would do EVERYTHING in his power to redeem him. He tried with the Toyman (with mixed results). He tried with Major Disaster (also with mixed results but slightly better). I loved the issue of Superman in which he offers redemption to 3 or 4 different villains, and only Major Disaster took him up on it. Regarding Frosfire, Batman would just beat him, Superman would try to redeem him. To be fair to Batman though, after Superman inspired him to change Frostfire would probably get help from and/or get involved w/ a Wayne foundation funded charity. Heck Bruce would probably give the guy a job once he was on the straight and narrow.

Perhaps the Devs should set up a mission in which slightly higher-level characters could attempt to somehow redeem Frostfire! It should somehow involve saving his loved ones, then somehow get him out of trouble with higher up criminals? Heroes don't just beat up the bad guys. Pro wrestlers do that. Heroes do good.


--- Ollie

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Well, the first thing is to not get caught up in trying to make a comic book directly equal to a video game, especially an MMO. Alot of things do not simply translate well when you take overall balance into consideration.

However your desire to solo an AV is quite possible with the mission difficulty slider. Many build types can now solo an AV downgraded to an EB at the high end game. The few that I am certain that cannot (on the CoH side)are certain Controller builds (which is because of the triangle mez protection).

I would imagine it would be most difficult for Ice melee and War Mace to accomplish this as well (insufficient damage vs EB regen rate). Although, this is more of an AT powerset balance issue and not with the game design as a whole.

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Two points really:

1) It does seem that most arguments (are at least arguers) can be broken into two groups.

To group one, it’s all about gameplay dynamics.. To them CoX is just another MMORPG with a superhero face slapped on it. It’s how you can have fun playing by a certain set of rules that matters. Some sets of rules lead to fun gameplay some do not. These people escape into the
gameplay

To group two, it’s about the universe that is created. For CoX it’s about the comic book universe. I was attracted to the game because of this, this is my first MMPORPG, I’ve enjoyed it A LOT (besides my family this is my primary outlet for fun) but I seriously doubt I’d ever play another MMPORPG (elves and dwarves don’t really excite me much). I play to be a superhero. I want it to FEEL like that. Since I’ve been around for two years, trust me, to some extent they’ve pulled it off, no matter how difficult getting a comic book into a game might be. These people (myself included) escape into the
game.


Almost every change, however, seems to be pulling away from group two and toward group one. As a group two-er this hasn’t become annoying enough to make me leave, but it keeps creeping there slowly. So far the only things that have been added which improved the game, are capes, additional costume slots (/icons) and epic powers). As an added problem (to me at least) most people level faster then me. I’m a bit of an alt-aholic, but have my favorites. As a slow leveler, my primary is a very different character now at level 47 then when he was level 17. To people who do this in a weekend this much is not so true, so having to play as a changed character isn’t such a big deal (I fought Council on Wednesday and Malta on Saturday vs. I fought Council last year and Malta this year).

2) You do a VERY good job pointing out importance of a slider. On a low or moderate setting I should be able to beat an AV or Elite Boss. That is akin to the Flash taking on one of HIS more serious rogues alone. He can do it, but when he knows the threat is really high, he gets friends. I should add the slider to one of the few changes the Devs have made that has, for me, improved the game.


--- Ollie

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The problem is that this isn't a comic. This is an MMOG based on the comic book genre.

Trivial content (no matter what you title it) is boring in the long term.

And you would enjoy Burning 3 minions (for the poster above) if those 3 minions presented a challenge (tough fight) and reward (XP) equivelant for that challenge.

Or did you just want to spend a year or so annhilating 50 minions at a clip at L50? Because these guys want to keep you in this game for a year or more if possible.

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Crap krunch. when I hit 50 I'm retiring my guy and re-rolling a new toonl. they don't need to slow me to a crawl to keep me interested. In fact it's having the opposite effect. Why bother going through the grind again only to find our I'm no more effective at 40 than I was at 20?

Waste of freaking time.

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Here Here! By 40 you've "earned" something more then just a larger arsenal of powers. Yes, I want challenge, but I want the challenges a high level superhero would face, not exactly the same ones a new superhero would face. Give us kick-butt AV's and bosses at the end of a story arc with twists and turns. Plowing through a large number of minions (whom pose no real threat) to GET to that real challenge is the kind of fun a high level character should face.



--- Ollie

There is alot of talk about the size and (+/-) difficulty level of a mob. I wonder, though, about AV's and Bosses. The Justice Leauge doesn't always band together to fight a single AV. Sometimes the Flash does an AV alone. Sure, he knows when he needs help, but he's got plenty of AV's at his level that he knows he can solo. I shouldn't expect to be able to solo ANY AV at lvl 15. Level 45 is, however, different. At higher levels, you toon has supposedly earned a bit of a rep. He should be able to do things at 45 that he could not at 15. You cannot just replace Council with Malta, and say see you could do 3 white council minions, now you can do three while Malta minions. Balance is fine, but there should be something else to being high level. Basically YOU should have moved up to " Boss " status. I never want the game to be too easy, but by some point in a toon's career he SHOULD be able to go after an equal level named boss (including at least a few guards) by himself. No I'm not saying huge mob, just a named boss and a few minions of equal level. As usual, there is a nugget of truth to the dev's claims, but it looks like they might take that too far.

So please, let's take into account this suggestion. At low levels, your toon basically is a minion. At some point (maybe via DO's) your toon should be like a lieutenant. And finally in his later days you should be a Boss (and after Hami you're an AH dude!).


--- Ollie

yeah, I figured that out They're not SKed in other places just the PvP zone.

Perhaps my search-fu is weak, but, but in the few pages I’ve checked I did not see an answer as to how people already are above (several levels above) level 40? I created a Robot MM when I got home from work. At the time heroes were winning a lot. When villains stated to win I decided to create a hero (I'm funny that way). From then on it was a matter of much higher stalkers taking me out every step I took. That’s no big deal, I’ve PvP’ed before, and all it made me miss my 45 Tank. I was a bit confused as to how people lvled so far. Are there contacts available outside PvP for missions? If not, seriously, did you guys get from 40 to 50 by hunting in other zones? If you did..... well, wow.... seriously....... wow.

Anyway, I hope that when this zone goes live, it isn't a 50's only club. As a slow lvler 45 1/2 is the highest I've got. If it's anything like the test, I don't think I need to bother showing up until he's lvl 50.

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Congratulations on the promotion Positron!!!

I can't wait for the Coh/v expansion! W00T!

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Oh yeah, for got to ask. For those of us who are SLOW levelers, will our existing toons work, or will we need to....gulp......start from scratch.


--- Ollie

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2 years and I still don't have a level 50 character, lol. Thank you alt-iholism!

Oh yeah, and Happy 2-years!

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Dont' feel bad, you are not alone. I've got ~30 or so toons (that doesn’t include one’s I’ve deleted or re-rolled). My Infinity slots are filled up (see link in my sig). So far I've only gotten one up to 44, and I've been playing since the release. Now that I'm spending ~80% of my CoH time on him, however, I expect I'll get eventually get Vis Viva to 50. Having played since the release, the talk about I8 sounds like it will be fun. Let the villains have I7, I’ll be looking forward to I8.



--- Ollie

It seems to me small teams work well though.

First off, let me introduce myself. I run an lvl 38 Inv/EM tank (hopefully lvl 39 by tomorrow afternoon). I solo missions on the 2nd difficulty level rather easily (thinking of taking it up 1 notch). I've never gotten Stamina but now am missing it. I've previously slotted almost everything for end reduction, but that seems to be making less of a difference lately (even though all my end slots are still up to date) so my plan is to respec this weekend. I'll drop Unstoppable (kills much more often then helps) and TP foe (helped me solo when I was lower lvl, had less defense powers, with less SO enhancements).

Back to the main topic. Duos, however, work exceedingly well. A decent Controller, or Def and I can wade through almost anything a very good speed. The other person need NOT be a Emp Def either. Yes, a controller with healing as a secondary, or perhaps a Rad Def with a Rad Aura healing is nice, but healing doesn't need to be the main thing of the other player. Some good buffing is often all I need. When there's just 2 of us, even at a decent difficulty level, there usually aren't THAT many spawns, so I can keep Agro off my teammate very well. They on the other hand, either pump me up enough, or take down the enemy enough to make me a true "damage dealer". I expect a good Controller/Blaster or Controller/Scrapper team are similar. They might even go a bit faster. Controller(or Def)/Tanker teams reduce the danger to the non-Tank to nearly zero though. The bad guy WILL get held either through control or agro. Anyway, I'm liking a good due these days better then large teams. If only I could get my wife to play CoH :-) I'd be in heaven.

Anyway, let me know if you think Tanks are working best on smaller teams these days.

--- Ollie

Also from the Crey Industries "Threat Database":
In 1988 Victor Vincent was already a person of interest to Crey Industries. His theories regarding locating dimensions made primarily of forms of energy that can be siphoned for use in our world was attractive to Crey Industries. As a Portal Corp funded graduate student, however, our interest in his work had to be covert. The accident resulting from his work ended our interest in Victor Vincent. During the following 14 years of his coma he was all but forgotten . Upon his awakening, and manifestation of powers, however, Victor re-appeared our our radar screen. His powers seem to derive from a connection to the alternate dimensional energy that he encountered in the 1988 accident. Those powers have been growing, albeit very slowly. His style seems to lean more towards the "old fashioned" style of super-heroism, shying away from the modern violent hero. He regularly points out that his duty is to arrest criminals, and not kill them. When in a strategically difficult but morally obvious situation, he leans towards the moral option having been quoted as saying "We're superheroes, it's what we do." This can be used against him. This type of hero tends to give the benefit of the doubt to authority. Crey Industries standing in the community can be used to obscure our true intentions where Vis Viva is concerned. Also, still being a scientist at heart, Vis Viva's scientific curiosity might be useful in luring him to assist us in certain endeavors, as long as any moral ambiguity is avoided.


--- ollie

Check out the my Vis Viva family web page for screen shots of my Hero ID w/ detailed Origin story.

Fan Fic through ID's.

It seems not enough people are writing bio's for their ID's these days, especially for villains. I write bio’s for all my toons (probably have 20-30 of them). The ones on the Infinity server can be found at the Vis Viva family webpage . I’ve created a background “family” much in the vein of the Superman or Batman “families”. Much of their stories are on the ID’s. I’m thinking of writing some more background fiction. Primarily I’m thinking of writing more fiction around Little Viva’s origin, one of Vis Viva’s and Caterina’s earliest meetings, and a story about the years Vis Viva was in a Coma, and the nurse who cared for him during that time. Feel free to let me know what you think about the “ID stories” (who doesn’t like feedback on this kind of thing).

--- ollie

I'm Looking to fold my set of Alts into a new SG. since I haven't had much luck getting my SG off the ground (The Valiant, still love that name though) I'm looking to fold most of my infinity alts into a new team. Here are the list of my Infinity toons in the Vis Viva family . On the downside, I have a job and family which take up most of my time. On the upside, I don't really have any other hobbies other than CoH. I'm 36 and have been playing CoH since it came out. I've historically played too many alts, but now I'm trying to focus on a few core Infinity toons. I'm RP-ish without being weirdly hardcore RP. I believe playing a hero like a hero (i.e. acting like a hero not a jerk). I'm not a fan of FFA PvP but don't mind a little Hero v Villain PvP now and again. So if you think my toons would fit in with your SG, or if you think you'd like to help me get the Valiant off the ground by being a team leader, send a message to olliejk42 here, or send a tell to Vis Viva in game.


-- ollie

Do I look fat in this thong?

Women of the Vis Viva Family Vis Vivette

Vis Vivette and in action 1 and in action 2 .

For the full Vis Viva family, visit The Vis Viva Family Webpage .

--- Ollie

I'ts been updated again (The Vis Viva Family) . This time I've included some side by side images of modified characters. Some are the same characters changed & some are complete re-rolls. With the re-rolls I've included new and old ID's. Let me know if you like character changes.

ollie

Here is a drawing by an artist friend of mine. He's a busy guy so he didn't finish the background. Also he either had white gloves on him/or didn't finish the hands, so I colored the hands. He also had a strange shadow on the head that he was still working on so I filled it in w/ normal hair. The screen shot he did it from was from before Vis Viva had a cape. Anyway, here is the Vis Viva fan art . It can also be seen on the Vis Viva Family web page.

Vis Viva Lvl 32 Inv/EM Tanker on Infinity
Look me up, or consider joining The Valiant

--- Ollie

Has anyone noted that TP foe often CLAIMS it worked (via text) when it did not (via the guy not ending up next to you).

--- Ollie