The City Scoop! ~ Front Page ~ April 25, 2008
By
Ex_Libris,
Posted on: 2008-04-25 16:14 in Announcements
A note from Lighthouse:It has come to our attention that some users on the forum have been posting links that will perform an unintended operation on the message forums, such as: logging a user out of the forums or placing someone on ignore when the link is clicked. These types of links are a form of malicious behavior and as such are not tolerated on these forums. Please don't do that! Should anyone come across such a link by other posters, please make use of the Notify Moderator button located in the lower left of each post to report them to us. Also, feel free to send a private message with the details to myself or anyone on the Community Team so we can best address it. Thank you! [/color] | Dear Athy, | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Right Is Not Always RightIt doesn't make the character look busty. It doesn't even make them look like they've had some work done. The chest slider when pushed all the way to the right simply looks fake. No gravity change would shape a woman's chest that way. It is just too far beyond perky to be taken seriously. Warning! A large chest is not recommended or certified to be a life saving flotation device. They are not a replacement for air bags. Using the largest chest setting may cause instability, backache, headaches, and high chiropractic bills, as well as eyestrain to other heroes/villains. It may result in pointing, laughing, slobber, unwanted attention from creepy people, and the assumption that not unlike your chest, your head is also full of air. Use with extreme caution and at your own risk. The chest slider when pushed all the way to the right makes females look like they cut a football in half and glued it to their ribcage. The image below has been created to demonstrate this point.
Footballs can't possibly be legitimate implants, can they? Talk about uncomfortable. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fan Fiction SpotlightThe Strange Saga of Steampunk Charlie by Steampunk Charlie Frietag looked thoughtful for a moment. If this guy's story checked out with the eggheads over at Portal Corp, then he had a longer trip "back to his workshop" than he thought. "Tell me this, Charlie..." Frietag was enjoying calling the man by this diminutive... "What year is it, again?" The man on the bed stared at Officer Frietag as if he had grown a second head "Why, it is the year of our Lord, Eighteen Hundred and Eighty Three. Are you daft, man? I am starting to suspect that you aren't an officer of the law at all, and that I have accidentally been taken to a madhouse! 'What year' indeed!" Before Frietag could respond, a young man wearing a lab coat and carrying a clipboard leaned through the doorway of the room. "Officer? I need to speak with you for a moment. We got the results back that you asked for." Frietag stepped out into the hall after telling Professor Winthrop to "Stay put, or else," and asked the technician, "So is this guy a nutcase, or what?" "Unfortunately we can't use Portal Corp's 'dimensional watcher' technology to confirm a person's sanity, Officer, but we did find out that the gentleman in that hospital bed is telling the truth." the technician said. "What?? You mean this guy really is from 1883?" Frietag exclaimed. This story would have been another victim of aforementioned Forum Purges were it not for the foresight of the author, Steampunk Charlie. As such, the link above leads not to another section of these forums, but to the Defenders of Time website, which is currently Charlie's archive. The story is a long one, detailing the Professor's struggle to learn the truth of what happened to him to wind up in our world in our year, and his attempts to find his true love. All the while, there are subplots and wrenches that are getting in his way. The result is a peculiarly entertaining and fascinating tale, one that may cause you to find yourself in the wee hours of morning, wondering wistfully what had happened to the time.
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Hero Dawns Party Night! I regret to inform you all that the evaluation of this event was not good. No, it was not good, but it was, in fact, perfect. I would like to think of myself as a unbiased judge, and I like to treat my events with equal amounts of coverage and review, but I must tell you that the five and a half hours I spent at the Hero Dawns Bash Party in the Arena in Galaxy City on the Virtue Server were some of the most fun hours I have ever spent in Paragon City. If any aspiring event makers want to host an event that blows everything else out of the water, I suggest you use this event as a blueprint of what to do. The contests themselves were enough to make this event great, and the people hosting it were enough to make it phenomenal, but those things combined with the great people of the Virtue server made this event beyond words. There were enough contests to fill up four events, but somehow Hero Dawn fit them all into a single event. The night started out with the pre-party. The pre-party was a way for heroes to gather and dance and just converse with each other. Music for the pre-party (and for the whole event) was once again provided by The Cape radio. Not only was The Cape used for music and entertainment, but the Hero Dawn also used it in a more creative way, by having the DJs give out clues and tips for upcoming events. The pre-party though, as stated in the name, was only the beginning. The next contest was the Hide-and-Seek Contest. This heroic version of hide-and-seek had heroes patrolling various zones on a fictional story arc to find witnesses, moles, and even maniacs. This contest took place all over Paragon City, sending the heroes to areas like Galaxy City, Faultline, Steel Canyon, and Kings Row. This contest was not only a fun way for heroes of all levels to make money, but it also gave them the feeling that they were actually saving someone While doing so. Once all the evil doers were found, the heroes needed a rest. What better way to relax than to have a good old Costume Contest? This was no ordinary Costume Contest, though. This Costume Contest had some unique events. The first contest was my favorite. It was a best lookalike contest for your favorite member of the Freedom Phalanx. The second contest was the grooviest. It was a contest for the most "retro" looking hero. The third contest was interesting, to say the least. It was your favorite NPC costume contest. Heroes dressed up as Freakshow, Trolls, and even Council to show which villainous group they supported. The winners are as follows: Best Lookalike: Kage Kusabana for her Sister Psyche costume (Back) Best Retro Look: Doom Kitten (Back) Best NPC: Black Mobius for his Galaxy look (Back)  Congrats to them all!! The next event was a rock paper scissors tournament. Every time you won you received three hundred thousand influence, and for an hour the endless battles continued. Many people won, and many people lost, but everyone definitely had fun. Once again at this event I lucked out and came out of it with close to a million influence! Anyone want to challenge me? You know where to find me! | The next event was an arena PvP Free For All. The winner of each round received five million influence and a piece of rare magic salvage. The winners were also given a chance to go double or nothing against Agent Goat, one of the Hero Dawn leaders. There were three rounds that went on in the arena - the level 12-13 free-for-all, the level 28-31 brawl, and the all level bash! The Winners were: Level 12-13 free-for-all: Winters Flight (Back) Level 28-31 brawl: Swift Slicer (Back) All level bash: Doom Therapy (Back) After everyone was done hitting each other, it was cool down time. The party was over but the fun wasnt as people relaxed at the post-party. This was just like the pre-party, where people once again danced and talked about what a fun time they had. This was also a good time for me to sneak in and get an interview with the hosts of the evening, the supergroup Hero Dawn. I sat down with the supergroup leaders Agent Goat, Fire Lance, and Doom Therapy, as well as other members of the supergroup. Hello Hero Dawn, and thank you for having me! My first question is always the same: Why? Why make this event? Well this group has been around for 4 years now and we had our ups and downs, so we all finally got together and rebuilt the supergroup with goals to reach the top, and this event is to celebrate our new rank as number 7 on the supergroup roster. Well, why have such a HUGE event? Why not just have a few small events with only one contest each? Our idea was to have them all together so that everyone could be happy. From our experience at other events we know that not everyone likes certain things, so we decided to add them all together so that if someone didnt like one event, they would like the rest. How much did event this cost? About 300 million influence. What did you think about the turnout? I only thought a few people would show up, but to have this many is amazing. Im extremely happy! The big turnout today was proof that all the hard work we put into preparing the event--was worth all the effort. We really couldn't ask for a better event. Any future events you may host? Probably not for a while, but if we do have another event it probably wont be this big. Id be happy just on the sidelines helping other people out, but anything is possible. Any advice for people trying to start there own event? The most important things for anyone wanting to host an event is this: Give yourself plenty of time to prepare for the event. Several weeks and up to a month of preparation is essential for a good turnout. Also, once the event is live be prepared for snags. Have an alternate plan should you need to change midstream. Keep an open line of communication with all of your staff. Include the Cape Radio DJs...and delegate the authority before the event so there is someone in charge to make last minute decisions. Any closing comments? A quote: Im a leaf in the wind, watch me soar. We want to thank The Cape radio for their awesome entertainment, and The City Scoop and YOU for covering the event and making the event live on paper. Also want to thank everyone that showed up and made it worth the effort, the entire Virtue server, and all the people that helped make this possible. In closing, I would like to take my hat off to the supergroup Hero Dawn. You have not only given me a great night of partying and fun, but you have also set the bar for all the future events out there. Thank you once again for such an amazing night. Thank you all for reading. ~W.G. |
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The View on BlueIn my last column, I shared a useful tip for brand new heroes. This week I'd like to discuss an issue which is only interesting to multimillionaires: cross-server influence transfers. It has always been possible to move influence between characters on the same server. You could log in two accounts at once, or have a friend help out, or even ask a complete stranger. Moving influence between servers was much more difficult. You needed to find someone who had a rich character on the server where you wanted money, who was interested in receiving money on the server where your influence was. Because Wentworth's is cross-server, it provides a new mechanism for moving influence between characters on different servers. Before we get started, I want to give you two warnings. First, this is not an officially supported use of the market. If things go badly, there is no recourse. You cannot expect help from the GMs if you lose all of the money you were trying to transfer. Second, things will go badly sometimes. Between market lags, the occasional bug, and just plain bad luck, no cross-server market transfer can ever be 100% secure. There are even people who deliberately intercept influence transfers. In this column, I will give you some advice on how to make the transfer as safe as possible, and explain some of the likely problems, but I do not guarantee that you will succeed. The fundamentals of an influence transfer are straightforward. Your poor character lists an item for sale. Your rich character buys the item. Your poor character collects the money, minus the 10% fee. Sounds simple, right? The problem is that the market is anonymous. When you go to buy that item, you have no way of knowing whether you are buying it from your own character or from some stranger. You need to be careful. To research this article, I sloshed a fair bit of influence back and forth between a few of my characters. Here are the steps I followed. 1) Choose a safe token for your poor character to sell. Look for something that can't be bought in stores, and can't be acquired too easily. Avoid anything that was recently sold for an astronomical amount. For my most recent transfer, I picked the level 13 endurance/fear recipe from the Horror set. 2) Choose a quiet time so you are less likely to be disturbed. Most people are in the U.S. and play in the evening or at night, especially on the weekends. I did my testing rather early on a Wednesday morning. 3) Pick a magic number for security purposes. Any random 4 digit number will do. I went with 1,789 last time. You will sell the token for this amount. 4) Buy up excess supply with one of your characters. Remember to let your poor character get at least one of them, or even a few. Buy everything listed at or below your magic number. There were 16 of those end/fear recipes for sale when I started. I bought all 16 for 1500 influence each.
| 5) Write down the last five amounts and times. This is important! Be sure to write down the exact times, which you can see if you click on the "more" button. 6) List your token for the magic amount. I suggest listing three items, if you have them, all for the same amount. It doesn't matter which of the three you buy from yourself. The point is to improve the odds of a successful transfer in the unlikely event that someone lists the same item for the same amount at the same time that you do. 7) Switch to your rich character. Don't dilly dally! We're almost done. 8) Put in some protective bids for one less than your magic number. I placed a bid for ten recipes at 1,788 influence each. If anyone put that item up for sale for an amount lower than my magic number, I would instantly buy their item for 1,788.
9) Check the time stamps that you wrote down before you switched characters. You did write them down, right? If any transactions have happened since then, bail. If the number of items for sale has changed, if the number of outstanding bids has changed, if any of your protective bids have filled, then bail. Try again in a few hours. If someone else is in the middle of buying and selling your token, then this is no time to make a big influence transfer. If you are getting really bad lag, then try a less populated market, like Kings Row, or try again when there are fewer players online. 10) Put in the big bid. If nothing in step 9 dissuaded you, then go for it. Have your rich character buy the token for however many millions you want. When you switch back to your poor character, you should find the money waiting for you, minus the 10% fee. By the way, you don't get a volume discount on the 10% sales fee. If you transfer 1,000,000 influence a hundred times, you'll pay 10,000,000 influence in fees. If you transfer 100,000,000 influence all in one fell swoop, you pay the exact same 10,000,000 influence in fees. It's a nuisance to do multiple transfers, but it might be better for your blood pressure to divide the transfer into a few pieces. I'd like to give credit to Leortha for originating the basic cross-server influence transfer method. Sister Leortha wrote the guide on ParagonWiki before the markets even went live. I'd also like to thank Gnomercy_ for calling attention to the risks of careless influence transfers, and to the people who posted helpful suggestions in the thread he started, before it was locked. Once again, I'd like to remind you that influence transfers are not guaranteed to be safe, and that the GMs will not have the slightest bit of sympathy if it doesn't work out. As far as they are concerned, you got what you paid for. If you chose to overpay, that's your problem. Besides, are you sure you need to transfer influence? It's not that hard to pick up a nice chunk of change with a new character. Just go, hunt, kill Helions! | ||
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Legionnaires | |
Who is your base designer and who are your supergroup leaders? At the moment, The Leader is @Lumos, with some help from @Dark Ignis. @Lumos does the editing. Which server is your base on, and is it a Hero or Villain SG/VG? Infinity Heroes, but we may be developing a villain side eventually. When was your supergroup established? Waaaay way waaay back when. I don't know the exact date but we have gone through generations almost back into the beta. How many players are in your supergroup? Well, we've had the cap and we've had single digits. Right now, I'd say about 50. What is the approximate value of your base? About 32 million prestige. How much time do you spend working on your base? How much time have you invested so far? Way too much. It's over half of my game playing time. I'd say about 500-600ish hours. What is your favorite base item? Least favorite? Favorite is the magic desk- it can make anything awesome. Least favorite is the "counter" sets. It's a counter - it should stack! What is your favorite thing about base editing? Least favorite? My favorite thing is seeing what people can come up with, with so few options. Least favorite? Having so few options. What is the highest thing on your wish-list for new base items? Barstools. as far as items go. Tool-wise, an altitude control would make the magic desk trick a thing of the past! If you could give just one piece of advice to a new base editor, what would it be? The "apply to all" buttons are your worst enemy. | Anything else you'd like to add about your SG, your base or the base system in general? Well, the Legionnaires are all about heroes with a theme or a story behind them. The base is just our "mansion" that I try to make fit that theme. If you want a group of comic-style heroes with some thought behind them and a mature group of friends, just send me a tell in game to @Lumos. |
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Stews
Thats all I have for this week folks, See you next week! ~MistressNoire | ||||||||
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Do you have an event coming up? Are you going to attend an upcoming event? Do you want to see or even write an article for The City Scoop? Drop a line to LadyK a week in advance, and you too could be a guest writer for The City Scoop. Want to be part of the VEAT Army? Yes, we are an offshoot branch of the FUSION empire in the Protector dimension loyal only to Ghost Widow. We are destined for greatness. Ghost Widow has ordered my organization to form a new sect in support of special operations. I will recruit within our ranks as well as go outside of our known coalition. These chosen members will go to an academy for training as various Arachnos soldiers. While I do not like to be told how to run FUSION, Widow assures me that I will be rewarded for forming this group. My first order of business is to choose villains among my organization that display some of the following qualities: Mind control, knowledge of poisons, stealth, acrobatics, weapons fighting, and most importantly, do not display fear and that would die if I ordered them to do such. I have at least 20 in mind from my 150 Villain organization that fit this criteria. Over the next few weeks I will begin listing them in preparation for training. This training will consist of a series of trials and strike forces ordered by Ghost Widow. More to follow soon. Want to know more? Please come to the Veat Army Project Need to sell something? Post it in The City Scoop Classifieds. Send PM to LadyK.
| War Phoenix: LVL 28 TANK LFT Help Wanted: Writers for The City Scoop. Please contact Snow_Globe, Pants_Stealer, or Marcian_Tobay for submission details. Rats for sale. Contact Richard Ellsworth Gosh Darn it, Ellsworth is still out there. TAKE HIM OUT ALREADY!!!!!!!!! WANTED: Fan Artist to draw my character. I cannot offer much compensation other than any of the wares I would otherwise sell on the Auction House. If you are interested, please contact Hakuro de Killer on the Virtue Server Lost: One Apex. If found, please return to the Ghost of War Witch. Lost: Hub of the Wheel of Destruction. If found, please contact Azuria. P.S. Please do not use to construct deadly wheel of Destruction. Thanks. -Azuria All you can eat taco night at El Super Mexicano. Tuesday at the Atlas Park store. Hiram Giovanni's Deli and Pizzeria Food, Fence and Forgery "Everything's Kosher" Lost: Paradigm Shift Device. Contact Demented Cynic at Portal Corp. by Friday. Remember to bring Hawaiian shirt. o_o *poke* Buh! - Pepsiman | |
Edition 45 of "The City Scoop a publication for Supers by Supers!
Ten pages of information and awesome roll out in todays press, weve got: Bases, articles, reviews, fashion, fliers, flavor, fun, and fanaticism all rolled into one rag.
Put your hands together for an amazing Super Scoop team!
If you have concerns regarding the content of the Scoop please direct your comments via PM to Lighthouse or Ex Libris.
If you would like to do a feature article, have an event covered, or join "The City Scoop" team please PMSnow_Globe or Pants_Stealer
If you or someone you know should be considered for Behind the Mask Teldon or Encounters please contact MrsAlphaOne
If you need some Advice contact Lady_Athyna or would like to Ask The X contact LiquidX
Finally if you have a Classified Ad you would like included please contact: LadyK
Discussion on the latest edition of "The City Scoop" is located here.
The City Scoop
HAVE VIDEO CAMERA, WILL
TRAVEL
By
Dark_Respite
Hi. I'm Johanna Sinclair. You might have seen me around Paragon City, or heard
me over the channels. As I've come to be known, I'm "that chick who makes
videos."
It's been almost eighteen months since I took on this Paragon City gig. Just
take a look around, I thought. Get a feel for what's going on, I thought. A
couple of quick videos for 'flavor,' I thought.
It's obvious I had no idea what on earth I was thinking.
It wasn't too bad when it was just the simple stuff - filming heroes as they
were modeling Icon's latest creations or stopping normal thugs (apart from
having certain Hellions trying to barbecue me... I didn't know a video camera
made me a target of choice over the hero who was pummeling that Damned into
oblivion). All I had to do was stand in the background and shoot footage. In a
few enterprising circumstances, I borrowed one of those targeting device things
from a guy on my team and put the camera on that, so I could join in the
occasional scrap. (I look good, too! Then again, it's hard to go wrong with a
black trenchcoat, fingerless gloves, black jeans and a t-shirt.)
It wasn't even too bad when I was filming in places like Skyway City, and every
Clockwork within a hundred yards was following me around trying to swipe my
video camera. Talk about surreal - I looked like some weird Pied Piper with a
string of Clockwork behind me.
I even managed to survive filming in Faultline, where you've got Longbow AND
Arachnos AND Sky Raiders AND Vahzilok AND Clockwork AND Lost AND Freakshow all
getting in each other's way. (Note to self: the next time I'm doing a
documentary for Doc Delilah and she gets the attention of every thug within
fifty feet, I'm leaving that )(@$&)(*&!@$ to her own devices.)
But as the word continued to spread, and heroes wanted me to document some of
their more intense battles, things started getting pretty hairy. Honestly, some
heroes have no idea how hard it is to really capture their efforts in an
appropriately dramatic and cinematic way, especially when I have some
eighty-foot-tall squid with a Godzilla complex spraying who-knows-what in my
face while trying to slap me into next week with a tentacle big enough to keep
every sushi restaurant in Paragon City stocked for a year.
And it seems some of this hero gig is starting to rub off on me. See, it takes a
certain mindset to be a hero, certain qualities. Courage. Honor. And a complete
lack of common-sense-self-preservation. How else could I possibly explain
coming up with an idea to document a Rikti incursion by FLYING ALONGSIDE A
RIKTI DROP SHIP?! To this day, I swear that I could see, inside the windows,
two Rikti looking at me like they couldn't believe what they were seeing. At
least, that's what I saw right before the ship blasted me with some green
lightning bolt-looking thing and I took a one-hundred-foot swan dive face first
into Silver Lake.
Heroes are generally weird people, in my opinion. They can handle almost
ANYTHING without batting an eyelash, whether it's a group of circus wannabes
slinging around electrified discs and blowing fire in their faces or a flock?
swarm? mob? whatever of Hydra surging after them through the sewers belching
puke on them. But the minute they see a woman with a video camera (even if it's
not directly pointed at them), it doesn't matter if they're rushing to stop a
bank robbery, put out a fire, or answer a police alert - they almost ALWAYS
stop, back up, look directly at me and my video camera, and say "Hi Mom!" with
a cheerful wave before taking off again.
And what is up with the villains that are plaguing Paragon City? Aren't they all
supposed to have egos the size of that globe Atlas has on his back? You'd think
they'd be glad to have their evildoing ways documented for posterity, but the
second they see me, they drop whatever they're doing (including that standing
around posturing thing, like they're practicing their best "I'm about to start
monologuing" stance) and try to blast me. What is up with THIS?!
However, as my hero-ing career continues, I've discovered a few useful tricks
that make filming a much more entertaining, dramatic, and survivable process.
One - I sometimes get these things called TEMP powers. Some are good, some are
bad, some are downright useless. Or so I thought. Like that snowball thing I
got this past Christmas. As an offensive weapon, it leaves a lot to be desired.
But when I want to get that Arachnos Fortunata to turn around and face me
WITHOUT me having to blow a chunk in her to make her turn around, chucking a
snowball is perfect. Not to mention it throws her so off-guard that I get some
stellar shots of her with the WTF? look on her face.
Two - Combat Invisibility and Hyper Stealth. Forget using these to make your way
into a Council base or sneak up on some unsuspecting fool in Siren's Call.
These are a videographer's best friends. I throw those on, and I can walk right
up to whatever I want and film. (Most of the time, anyway - sometimes they hear
the hum of the video camera and then I'm toast. And it seems that the Kraken
has phenomenal hearing because he was chasing me all over Perez Park. And
against psychic villains, I'm hosed - Mother Mayhem sensed me from across a
room the length of a football field.) But without these powers, NOBODY would
have ever believed that Positron, deep down, likes to mosh. Yours truly,
however, was there... and caught it all on film.
Three - Like so many other things, filming is much more fun with friends along.
There are few things as amusing as being able to PROVE a fellow teammate's
sheer awesomeness (for example, catching that uber-cool moment where a tank
deals the final blow against the Praetorian arch-villain Tyrant) or in other
cases a fellow teammate's sheer stupidity (such as when a defender or
controller forgets that they are not a tank before trying to engage Lord
Nemesis in hand-to-hand combat).
Four - Dying is not so bad. As long as I die in the right place to film. It's
when Eochai is standing on my recently-deceased head that I find it an
unpleasant experience.
Yeah, it's a tough gig, and rough on me, my clothes, and my video camera. But
it's an addicting one. I finish one video, and I can't wait to make the next.
So keep your eyes open, Paragon City... you never know when I'll be filming
again.
And don't forget to smile for the camera.
Vol. 1, Issue 45
April 25th, 2008
This Issue:
A Note From Lighthouse
Dear Athy
Right Is Not Always Right
Fan Fiction Spotlight
Outside the Box
Events
Market Watch
Base Showcase:
Legionnaires
Food & Recipes
Classifieds
Excelsior Messaging
Upcoming Events:
April 26th:
Freedom:
'Knights
of Arachnos' VG Events
Guardian:
Spring
Cleaning!
Infinity:
1
billion influence give away
Lady
Grey TF
Pinnacle:
Battle
Royale Series
Virtue:
Great
Badge Race
Fight
Night 107: Gimmicks Edition
April 27th:
Forums:
A
Guardian Love Story
Freedom:
Shadow
Shard TF Challenge
Guardian:
A
Guardian Love Story
Infinity:
Great
Badge Race
April 29th:
Triumph:
Tuesday
Titan Tango - PvP Kickball
May 3rd:
Guardian:
A
Bachelor Party
Infinity:
Lord
Recluse's SF 5pm PST
May 4th:
Champion:
Calling
all pirates! Rum Run!
May 6th:
Champion:
A
Guardian Love Story
May 9th:
Champion:
The
Honeymoon