synthozoic

Okay, that gives me the information I need. I have a free hand to name this universe I'm creating what I want.

So Portal Corporation has a method of the naming universes they discover. But how do you think this naming system works?

It goes: [Greek letter] [Greek letter] [decimal number]-[decimal number]

Is this merely locational and numbering scheme? For example, the Greek letters and Arabic numbers might something like the method of locating stars with right ascension and declination on the celestial sphere. You just point your portal generator in that direction and tune it a bit until the universe in question locks into view and passage is granted.

Or is it a more complicated scheme like the binomial classification of organisms, where the first part of the name locates the genus and the second part of the name gives the species. Perhaps the first part of the system classifies the universe based on it variation from Paragon Earth's history and the second part is merely a unique number assigned to the universe in question.

Or maybe I'm just overthinking this?

Okay, so this clarifies things. I have some other questions but they are different enough that I'll put them in another thread.

So I've finally played through a few missions involving Portal Corporation, I've read through the notes about the organization over at Paragonwiki and I've read through the history pages on the official site but, I'm still unclear about Portal Corp. legal status.

Is it only a private business? The history seems to suggest that. Ms. Webb, the wife of the deceased Dr. Webb, sued the other major shareholders for controlling interest in the company in 1998

But realistically--which I know is silly to expect in a game about superheroes--this seems very odd to me.

The Rikti, Axis America, Preatorian Earth and others all demonstrate the threat multiversal invasion and immigration poses. You'd figure the Federal Government or the UN would step in and regulate this technology, treating it in a similar manner to aviation, territorial waters and shipping, radio frequencies or space travel.

You'd figure there'd be customs inspectors or military bases or, better still, a dedicated group of supers that do almost nothing else but watch for signs of multiversal invasion. (Although I know this is exactly what the UN's Vanguard group does.)

Is Portal Corporation purely a private business?

Or is really more like a government/private consortium consisting of lots of abstract university research, some military research and some commercial R&D of useful spinoff technologies but mostly a lot of justifiably paranoid governmental or intergovernmental control? And is that just the Vanguard Arm of the UN?

I ask before I'm doing a little research before I try my hands at writing some fiction here.

This one is a very obscure one, and not really the most powerful but I put it out for academic interest: George McWhirter Fotheringay

The movie this HG Wells story was based on is now in the public domain and is worth a look if you like thought provoking, old timey movies. I think it's germane to this subject.

Sorry about that. Fixed it.

"I am a cyborg! I surround myself with nothing but robots!" Man or Astro-man? Cyborg Control

Really, I have to be forced at gunpoint to stop making robots in this game! It's a sickness! So lemme offer a few examples of the robots I've made.

Terror Engine, a robotic answer to the challenges of asymmetric urban warfare:



Palace Guardian, the robot body guard:

Me, I continue to start villains and Praetorians, even if the traffic isn't very high. I guess I just do this out of a perverse urge to be contrary. I'm used to playing solo.

I just avoid the issue entirely. I have a Six String Samurai tribute character but I don't call him "The 6 String Samurai" or anything like that. I just go into the backstory as presented in the movie and then use that to get a name that's not obvious: King Buddy.

It only makes sense in the context of the character's biog. To everyone else, he's just another sword wielding manic with thick glasses, a bolo tie, a monkey suit and wingtips. He could be anyone.

I guess cosplayers know not to face down this guy at conventions, huh? Of course from what I've seen, I think a lot of folks are getting pretty good at this.

I liked it too!