The City Scoop! ~ Front Page ~ October31, 2008
By
Ex_Libris,
Posted on: 2008-10-31 13:45 in Announcements
Get Your Freak OnThird set of winners of the City Scoop Freakshow Costume | |
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Alf-Hassed HalloweenIf you're reading this, chances are it's Halloween. Or you're on my computer. Shoo. But my point is that you SHOULD be out in fanciful costumes, trick or treating or basically flirting with people who you assume to be the opposite sex. In my defense, a man or woman can wear a gorilla mask. But the problem with Halloween is that some people either don't care or are too lazy to think of their own dang costume. So with a loving tribute to HexGirl, here's Hostile V's Guide To Last Minute Halloween Costumes For Cheap/Rushed/Unimaginative People. Your experiences may vary. If you are a cat-girl: Wear a grammatically incorrect sign around your neck and look cute in human situations. If you are a cat-man: Wear some damn clothes. If you are male and have sonic powers: Rick Astley costume, Sonic female: Fran Drescher. If you are missing an arm: Slot machine. If you are psychic: Claim to be the guy from Scanners. If you are a Stalker: Adam or Eve, depending on gender. Chances are people will ignore you, so just go buck naked. If you have stone armor: Giant, living piece of.....coal. You'll need a lot of spray paint. If you have bird wings: Apollo from the Led Zepplin albums, men only. Bat wings: Study biker tattoos for ideas. If you have an assault rifle: Take off your shirt. People will assume you are some action hero. Smile and nod. If you are a ninja: Why do you need a costume? The WORLD is your costume! If you are a Crab Spider: Use paper-mache, go as a Hydra. Female Crab Spider: Clingy ex-girlfriend (with the extra arms, amirite?) Bane Spider: Angry Combine Security Guard. If you are a ghost: Ghost of Christmas Present. Just bluff it. If you have no powers and are completely normal: Nemesis robot. If you look like you have half a football taped on your chest symmetrically: Uh.....anything. Expect lots of compliments. |
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Fan Fiction Spotlight
This is a lot like a Grimm fairy tale (curse you, Slick, you beat me to saying it!), only with the source material being taken from the game world and heavily manipulated. Here, Megan's mother tells a story involving Stefan Richter and spiders. It's a bit crazy at the end, and I'm sure it'll give you readers a smile. | The Top TenWays to add a little CoX to your Halloween.Ah All Hallow's Eve. I remember when it was it's own holiday, and not the pre-game show for the guy in red. But enough about me yammering on like Grampafari-Man. Tonight is a night where you can add a little CoX flavor to your festivites, and probably alienate your friends in the process. But hey, if they don't appreciate a little CoX humor, then how great of friends can they be? Number 10 - Bring along one of Mistress Norie's tasty dishes! Number 9 - Don't call em Jellybeans, call em Inspirations! (Grape = Luck, Lemon = Insight etc etc) Number 8 - Smash the biggest pumpkin you find, then demand your badge. Number 7 - Just stay home and host a costume contest. Number 6 - If you see a person dressed as a person from some "other" MMO, laugh at thier lack of customization. Number 5- Ask folks in ugly costumes if they are a result of the random button. Number 4 - While out Trick or Treating, ask every house why no zombies or werewolves are coming out. Number 3 - Report all copyright infringing costumes to the party hosts. Number 2 - Dress up like a police officer and run like a sissyboy anytime someone looks even remotely threating. And finally, The Number one Thing you can do to add a little COX to your Halloween is...Eat as much candy as possible and give your self a nice sugar induced Speed Boost!
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City FictionThe RedeemersThey didnt catch him. He had to dive into the filth of the sewers and get lost in all the twisty passages there to escape them, and he himself got lost. It wasnt until a week later, after fighting through Lost, Vahzilok zombies and Hellions that he found his way out of the sewers and back into the streets of Skyway City. Reeking of sludge and filth, he made his way first to one of the rivers. A set of Trolls watched him like he was insane, but they didnt do anything to stop him. The filth washed easily from the surface of Redshadows uniform and he was glad the smell went with it. Once hed finished rinsing the outfit as best he could, he turned to his own body. After a week of rolling in waste, it felt good to have reasonably cleaner water to rinse off with. ----- Okay, Synapse, Ill see you tomorrow, Mynx called as the last of the days training wrapped up, Those guys you had investigating the Clockwork show up yet? Nah, the super speed hero replied, They were pretty green Id have thought a veteran would have shown up to help them or something Maybe I should go check up on them. Maybe Mynx started heading for the Yellow Line. She had a party to go to in the club, Pocket D, and she didnt feel like taking the long way to either the Founders Falls Entrance or the Talos Island entrance. She was just debating whether or not she would go to Overbrook to avoid having to go to Kings Row when she saw him. It was a Paragon Protector with a broken visor. He was standing on the walkway between her and the railway station. I know who sent you! she shouted as her claws popped out from her fingertips, Im not going back to Crey today! Wait! was all Thomas could get out before she dove into him. At the base of the bridge, just under the station, Mynx looked to see shed stabbed into the Protectors abdomen. As she tensed to have to fight more, however, he simply grunted and tried to push her off. There was something strange about how he did it, though. It was too gentle for a fight. Help he said weakly, and she recoiled in shock. Thomas looked at the girl and had a passing memory. It was something about getting bowled over and she was standing over him afterward, but it was all foggy. Help Me Mynx seemed to notice there was either something different about him, too. Wait she said as she pulled her claws out of him, Just Just hang on, let me get some help The catgirl bounded off of him and started dialing into her communicator, calling for any heroes with healing magic, technology or medical training who could help. Most were already involved with teams fighting crime or had to get their equipment ready before they could arrive, others were simply dismissive. A lot of heroes didnt care if a Paragon Protector died, anyway. Come on, come on! she shouted into her communicator, then started turning back to Redshadow, Youre that guy we saw a week ago, right? That one with the swords I I should have known something was up But when she looked to where shed left the broken Protector, he was gone. ----- | Alright, boys, listen up! Garm shouted as he called the meeting to order, Morts busy with research over at the Midnight Squad, so Ive got the helm tonight. You sure? Johnny Slag asked, his voice issuing mechanically from his throat, I thought you were on suspension. Suspensions up, Garm grunted, Only lasted a week. Even after that stunt you pulled? the former Freak Swiper asked. Yep. Now Weve got some business coming down the pipe Theres an A.P.B. out for a Paragon Protector Creys trying to tell us that its their responsibility to bring this dangerous rogue in, which, for any of you with experience with the Protectors, means hes not a bad guy like the others are. This got a chuckle from the crews gathered in the meeting hall. Still, we dont know how cool or uncool this guy is, so if you see a Paragon Protector in a disheveled uniform and a broken helmet, approach with extreme caution, alright? Thats the only heads-up Ive got out of Freedom Corps Doug smacked his forehead suddenly and Garm turned to him. The ogre looked agitated with himself and when asked what was bothering him, he explained. I saw him. I saw him earlier today. I was trying to get some information on the Familys shipments when we saw this guy crawl into the river under us. Alright, Garm nodded, Thats not bad, Doug. Well patrol the area, see if he comes back The rest of you, youve got your assigned patrols. Get to it. The other former rogues nodded or grunted their compliance and started shuffling out. Garms crew got together, and the Caliban stopped his head count when he noticed a particular member wasnt around. Wheres Briggs? ----- The squat green man was used to people staring at him. It came with being a Troll. However, he wasnt used to people thinking he was just like everybody else. This is why it was such a surprise that these idiots in ski masks went through with their plan to rob the convenience store he was shopping in. I told you, the leader of the group shouted, Down on the floor! Get that gun out of my face, Briggs growled, And get the Hell out of here before I make you regret this! The thug squeezed the trigger and the stores patrons screamed. The thugs shouted for everybody to calm down, but the one who shot the Troll was feeling particularly smug about what hed done. At least, until he turned back to examine the body. Briggs was digging some of the buckshot out of his eye. Thats gonna be stuck in there, he grunted as he squeezed the eye shut and glared at the man with his good one, Probably for a few days. Youre gonna pay for that, bucko.
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The View on BlueWhich Bid Wins?
A couple of weeks ago, I decided to tackle a question which has been puzzling marketeers for countless generations. When there are multiple bids for the same item at the same price, which bid is resolved first when an item is listed? If the bids are for different amounts, then the highest bid should always get the item, but when the bids are for the exact same amount, no one really knows what happens. There are two dominant theories. The first is the FIFO theory: First In, First Out. According to this theory, the first person to place a bid will get an item before the second person who places a bid. The last person to place a bid will be the last person to win an item. The other theory is that the bids are resolved in random order. According to this theory, there is no way to know which person is going to receive the item when the bid amounts are the same. Some random roll of the dice on the server makes that determination. In order to put these two theories to the test, I gathered up a few stacks of unpopular recipes: Level 11 and 14 Fear/Range recipes in the Horror set. I asked for volunteers from the Market section of the forums and the global channel TheMarket. I asked each of the volunteers to place a bid for exactly 89 influence on the level 14 recipe. Nine people offered to help. I carefully recorded the order in which they placed their bids. 0th Power placed a bid first, then Miuramir, Macskull, Anti-Gravity Man, Lili, AC Bolt, Blazing Stone, Ironblade1, and finally Grandpa Squeak. Once all nine bids were in place, all for the same item, all for the same amount, I listed one recipe for sale at 1 influence. The recipe sold instantly to... (drumroll please) ... 0th Power. I listed another recipe. It sold to Miuramir. So far, it was looking like the FIFO theory might be correct. I listed the third recipe and leaned forward into the monitor, waiting to see who had bought it. Would it be Macskull? No! It was AC Bolt! The sixth person to place a bid was the third person to get an item. The next recipe went to Grandpa Squeak, the last person who had placed a bid! FIFO was out the window! The remaining recipes went to Ironblade1, Lili, Macskull, Anti-Gravity Man, and Blazing Stone. First in was definitely not first out. We could have stopped there, and just assumed that the random theory must be the correct one. After all, the results looked pretty random after the first couple of names. That wasn't good enough! We decided to run the exact same experiment over again: the same people placing the same bids in the same order on the same recipe. If the purchase order was determined randomly, then we would see a new and different mix-up of names. That's not what happened. I listed the first recipe, and once again it went to 0th Power. I listed the second recipe, and once again it went to Miuramir. Who would get the third recipe? Would it be AC Bolt again? Yes! Yes it was. The exact same people received the recipes in the exact same order. The random theory was sporting a black eye! Now we were eager to learn more. We tried the same experiment with level 11 recipes instead of level 14. It didn't make the slightest difference. The buy order seemed to be fixed in stone. What magical power gave 0th Power a lock on first place? What dark curse kept Blazing Stone stuck in last place? It didn't look alphabetical by global name or character name. We tried comparing the levels of the characters, and the number of vet badges. Nothing made any sense. What about other badges? Market only badges? Influence on hand? Server? Age of the character? Time zone? People were throwing out information and data points as fast as they could type, and I was trying to compare everything. Suddenly, I noticed one point of correlation: origin. The first two characters to get buys were both Natural origin. Next was the one Magical character, then all three Science characters, followed by the lone Mutant. Did the market favor Natural characters and punish Mutants? I double checked my notes, and realized that one origin was missing. For the correlation to be perfect, Grandpa Squeak needed to be either Science or Magic. I typed out the question, and waited for a response. Grandpa Squeak's character was... a Mutant. The series was broken. Humans are very good at spotting patterns. Our brains are wired for it. Sometimes we're so good that we spot patterns which aren't even there. I decided the partial correlation could be chalked up to coincidence. We still didn't know what factor determined the buy order, and we had an endless stream of possibilities. Luckily, our next experiment pointed us in the right direction and away from the vast swamp of character details. We ran the same experiment as the first time, except we reversed the order in which people placed their bids. Would 0th Power still come out on top, even when he was the last person to put in a bid? Would Blazing Stone still come in last, even when he put in the third bid? Nope. Grandpa Squeak put in the first bid, and Grandpa Squeak got the first item. Ironblade1 put in the second bid, and got the second item. Blazing Stone put in the third bid, and the third item went to... Anti-Gravity Man, who had put in the sixth bid. Even though we had changed the people around, the bids were still resolving in the same order relative to when they were placed. The last person to put in a bid became the fourth person to receive an item, just like last time. Which person actually placed each bid didn't matter! Once more unto the breeches! For the next round, I assigned a random order, starting with Grandpa Squeak and ending with Miuramir. It made no difference who placed which bid. The first two bids always received the first two items. The third bidder was always the seventh buyer. The last bidder was always the fourth buyer. Obviously there were many potential variables which we did not test. What if each person placed two bids? What if they all bid something other than the 89 influence we had used over and over? What if a few bids were placed, then a couple of them were canceled, then a few more placed, then two items were sold, and then another bid came in? Sadly, we only had time for one more test. What if there were only eight bids instead of nine? Quat and Hecktender stepped in to replenish the dwindling ranks of volunteers as we ran our last experiment. Once again, the first bidder got the first sale. Once again, the second bidder got the second sale. The first surprise came when the fourth item sold went to the eighth bidder instead of the ninth. Of course, we only had eight bidders, so it wasn't that big of a surprise. There was a ripple effect, though: the fifth item went to the fifth bidder instead of the eighth, the sixth item went to the third bidder instead of the fifth, the seventh item went to the fourth bidder instead of the third, and the eighth and final item went to the seventh bidder instead of the fourth. The numbers were different, but clearly the same pattern was still present. The conversation quickly dissolved into a complicated analysis of random number generator seeds and number sequences patterns. In the end, we could only resolve to come back and puzzle away at it again on some future date. We certainly accomplished what we set out to do: to thoroughly test the two main theories regarding bid resolution order. The system is clearly not FIFO. The system is also not truly random. The bidders may have been jumbled up a bit, but they were jumbled up in the exact same way every time. There may have been a random sequence generated at some time, but during our testing window we were clearly dealing with a fixed sequence. I will leave you with a few rows of numbers to think about. The first row is the ID of the bidder, from bidder #1 to bidder #9. The second row shows the order in which each bidder received an item. Bidder 1 received item 1, bidder 2 received item 2, bidder 3 received item 7, and so on. The final row shows the order in which the bidders received items during the final experiment, when there were only eight bidders and eight items instead of nine.
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SinnerSaints Lair | ||
| Who is your base designer and who are your supergroup leaders? I am the supergroup leader and designer. What server is your base on? Guardian .wait, you mean there are others? When was your supergroup established? I began the supergroup in November 2007. I was in a very large VG that had hit its member cap (75 at that time), so I made a solo VG for all my alts. Once I did that, I figured well, I may as well do it blue-side as well since thats where I primarily play. How many players are in your supergroup? Well, I started it off as a solo SG (as you could tell by the name), but in March my wife and boys started playing CoH here and there. A few months after that, we got my wifes sister and her boys hooked. So what started as a solo SG became a family-only SG (poorly named now) with seven members. What is the approximate value of your base? At this moment in time, our base is worth over 8 million prestige. How much time do you spend working on your base? How much time have you invested so far? Geeez ..I just upgraded from the 8x8 to the 8x12 last month, so I have spent a SIGNIFICANT amount of time on it. What is your favorite base item? Least favorite? I dont know if I have a very, very favoritist base item; there are quite a few items I really like though. The Mystic Advisor, the Heads, the ceiling spikes are awesome for that arcane feel ..just lots. Just like a favorite, I dont really have a least fave. There are items I never use, I dont dislikeem, per se, just dont useem. I will say one thing though, they NEED to come out with more arcane wall items .if I look at that eyeball one more time .. What is your favorite thing about base editing? Least favorite? My favorite thing about editing ..hmmmmm I guess I really like being able to make magic desks, I really like adding the lofts. I would have to say its also probably my least favorite as well ..my workshop took over 3000 of those things What is the highest thing on your wish-list for new base items? Well, the easy answer is some type of floating tool so I dont have to make more of these desks, but Id like to see a few other things as well. The ability to convert tech base salvage to arcane would be nice. Windows for the walls and ceilings, but not just plain windows, windows with a decent variety of views would be awesome. A variety of entries are kind of needed, how does everyone have the same door to all of their SECRET lairs??? OH!!!! Raid Pathing MUST die!! MUST!!!! If you could give just one piece of advice to a new base editor, what would it be? Have patience, ask questions. The best place I found to ask questions is the in-game global channel, BaseBuildersInc. (yes, the period is part of the name, dont ask me, I didnt form it). |
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HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!This has to be one of 3 fav holiday's of mine! This week I have a couple great recipes to do for halloween party's or just fun snacks! I found it in a Halloween cookbook of mine! Enjoy! Mistress Noire
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Vol. 2, Issue 21
October 31th, 2008
The City Scoop a publication for Supers by Supers! With this issue we have many of our regular features back and moar!
Read the latest publication and then join in on the community discussion!
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 PM Snow_Globe.
If you need some Advice contact Lady_Athyna or would like to Ask The X contact LiquidX.
If you have a base you would like featured, please contact EnnVee.
Finally if you have a Classified Ad or Recipe you would like included please contact: MistressNoire.
The City Scoop
No Need to LFT
By
Lemur_Lad
This article is about my most recent trip to 50. When I came back to the game,
lots of things had changed. Most notably my girlfriend had decided to come back
to the game with me and play this game exclusively for a while. Previously she
was playing this game and World of Warcraft, but lack of time meant she chose
the one I was most interested in at the time. Issue 12 was calling loudly to
me, and the real life family commitments that kept me away were easing. Why I
was gone isn't the point though. What is the point is how we decided to play
together as a couple, and how we made it work, and how it ended up being a
really rewarding experience.
It's great to have a guaranteed teammate most of the time. However it's also a
challenge. In the normal game world, if you're around a teammate that things
aren't working with, then you leave the team, no harm no foul usually. Even
with online friends, you're not often in a situation where you must find a way
to make things work. Part of any relationship is compromise. I respected that
she was playing this game so we could spend time together. Even though we're
together, that doesn't mean we're going to want the same things at the same
time, and we had to work it out, because both of us were going to be there the
next day. It's not the kind of team you can walk away from.
True to my nature, I went for the biggest shiniest aspect of the new issue
first, and rolled up a new VEAT. I had taken a quick look at them in beta, but
only for about an hour of play. My girlfriend puttered through her character
list, and decided she wanted to get to 50 at last. She'd played off and on for
years, but never made it to 50 anytime. She heard me talk about the Epics and
decided she wanted the option to make one. Hero or villain didn't matter much
to her, but she preferred her low 20s Fire/Fire Dominator named Darling
Darkling. It worked out well for my desire to play a VEAT. Over a couple of
weeks, I played my Solder up through the levels while she was taking care of
her real life commitments, and I would play a mid level alt I had with her when
we had time to play together. I could have lackeyed up, or she could have
malefactored down. Why didn't we? Well we didn't want to hold up her
advancement too much since her playtime was limited. For me, I wanted to play
up through the levels and get a real feel for my guy. I'm not big on super fast
leveling, and I like the early levels to get an understanding for the AT.
As we got closer and closer, that became my incentive. The character got more
and more fun to play, and the thought of playing as a duo was appealing. Her
Dominator's controls would help keep enemies in position for my Area Attacks,
and also keep me safe from sustained damage, which is a big deal in the lower
levels for a VEAT. Also the magic level 24 is such a big deal for VEATs and
that pushed me hard too.
Right around level 22, we began playing together consistently. It took several
levels to get the hang of things. Several reasons for that were I had to learn
how to do things on my character, she was still relearning how to do things on
her character, and the biggest of all: We had to learn to communicate what we
were doing and when and how and what things to do to handle fights.
Unfortunately, it's a long distance relationship. We get to see each other
nowhere near often enough. So playing together becomes even more important.
Phone calls are key, but expensive. The game is a convenient and inexpensive
way to spend time together. Unfortunately, my microphone was broken, so for a
couple of months, voice chat wasn't an option, until I gave up on my stubborn
desire to fix it and got a new one. So learning to fight involved a lot of
typing. Teaching the ins and outs of different powers did too.
This is the paragraph I get to talk up my girlfriend as a player though. She was
a real champ about really learning how to play. You could just be-bop along and
toss powers and let someone make decisions for you. She wanted to do the best
she could with her stuff and understand why to do different things at the right
times. Learning how to use the market, what to look for, what kind of goals she
could set for her build, and how to slot things for the best. She gets mad at
herself for dying or messing up a situation, but it doesn't happen often, and
it never happens for the same reason twice. It made me proud, but when I try to
tell her that she calls me biased. She thinks I'm some huge expert, but
conveniently forgets I'm the idiot who had to burn two vet respecs on my VEAT
(on top of the mandatory at level 24) because I either was in a rush and didn't
research, or screwed up a power pick. So yeah, there ya go, I'm a noob.
Vol. 2, Issue 21
October 31th, 2008
This Issue:
Get Your Freak ON
Halloween
Community
Fan Fiction Spotlight
The Top Ten
The Redeemers
Market Watch
Base Showcase
Mistress Noire's Kitchen
Classifieds
Comic
Upcoming Events:
November 1st
Freedom
Arachnos
Flier Saturday
Champion
Master
of Statesman TF
November 2nd
Victory
Q
Patrol SpooQy MasQerade
November 8th
Justice
500
Million PVP Event
November 15th
Justice
Saturday
Morning Massacre
So we played through the mid to late 20s that way. It went pretty smoothly but
we did have some minor bumps. It was all about pacing at this stage. When
you're not in the same room and can't hear the other person, it's really hard
to gauge their mood. My pace is pretty quick, and I like to run through several
spawns or even full missions without stopping too often. Sometimes my
girlfriend wants to chat about other things or even just talk about the game
but stop to type between spawns. I think it's safe to say this led to some
friction on some nights. So how do we deal with it? First off, we try to be
clear with each other what we're looking to do and how we're feeling when we
start. Second, sometimes it means I throttle down and we talk a lot about this
and that, and we only get 1 or 2 missions done. Other times she holds her
tongue for a little while and we muddle on and talk between missions. We don't
keep score and we don't argue about it. We just talk and make it work.
By the time we hit 32, things were going smoothly. It was a big night when she
got her Fire Imps. They were the main reason she made the character. She was
happy, and I hit on a way to make her happier. I was in a rush to make my VEAT
and had picked a kind of lame name (Prosimian Agent). I wasn't happy with it
but I really wanted a VEAT ASAP. As we were leveling, she and I had talked
about other duos, and I knew she really wanted two characters that made it
obvious we were a couple. We had other ideas and we've made them and played
them some. But that evening I dropped a spare tens dollars of my monthly Fun
Money on a name change. Darling Darkling now had Operative Darkling as her
partner. I got major Good Boyfriend points that day. As for missions, our kill
speed was faster, and she was more comfortable with playing so it took less
time to get things done and we could talk more comfortably. We were even
looking for more challenges because she felt the Elite Bosses were too easy. It
took a lot of practice, and we used Shivans, but we upgraded ourselves to
Archvillains and Heroes. That was pretty satisfying for both of us. Our next
big step was other people.
My Darling Darkling told me one day that she wanted to start playing in groups
more. Prior to that, I was operating based on what she had told me about not
feeling confident enough to not mess up. I'm not a big team guy, but I don't
mind finding them. We started jumping in on occasional PuGs, and joined some
friends of mine in a small global channel. I even stepped out of my comfort
zone and formed some teams for us at times. I'm not against teams, I'm just a
bit lazy. Also I'm big time into the journey being more important than the
destination. However I had forgotten something. This was her first 50. The
Need-It-Bad Bug came and bit her. She wanted to level faster. As soon as she
told me, I understood. I remembered the single minded way I made the trip on my
first characters. So we reached the last point of friction and compromise. She
put up with me when I wanted to putter a little slower and get some of our
story arcs done, and I jumped in on some teams and we did several ITFs to speed
up our leveling.
That is about it. We both hit 50 on an ITF run after her first LRSF run. It was
her first 50, and my sixth. However for me this one was the most satisfying
since the first. It's definitely the one that inspires the most warm fuzzies.
Here's hoping my story is interesting to some folks, and some couples out there
that play can find something about how to play and have fun together. We're
both looking forward to Issue 13 and the Leveling Pact. As much as she wants to
play her VEAT she's decide we're going to wait until the feature is in so we
can link that way, and we won't have to stress over doing a mission or two when
the other can't play.