The City Scoop! ~ Front Page ~ May 29, 2009
By
Niviene,
Posted on: 2009-05-29 13:32 in Announcements
Continued from page 1Below is a list of Architect badges that will remain:
Now, as a player myself after reading this I would have a ton of questions: What does this mean for pre-I14 badges? What about future badges? Why did the Dev Choice and Hall of Famer badges go away? I'd like to answer those questions now: Q: What about non-Mission Architect badges? A: We have no current plans to revisit old badges at this time, and I don't foresee us doing this really. All badges unrelated to the Mission Architect will remain unaffected by the changes outlined above. Q: If I've already earned the Architect badges, will I get to keep them? A: No. Only the badges listed above in the "badges that will remain" section will be kept. Q: What can you tell me about future badges? A: As I quickly mentioned above, our plans for future badges excludes many types of "count" badges. This means we will try to avoid badges that require repetitious tasks, aberrant play styles and give the illusion of "grindiness." There may be "count" badges in the future, but they won't be based on something you can grind at to achieve. An example would be a count badge for the number of badges you collect. That's all I can really say right now as I don't want to spoil any of the exciting badges that will go into future issues at this time. Q: Why did the Dev Choice and Hall of Famer badges get removed? A: We realize that a lot of players worked really hard for these badges and to create content worthy of these prestigious awards. However, we want badges to be something that everyone can obtain. We also want badges to be completely within a player's grasp, so no outside influence should affect earning these badges. The Hall of Famer badge and the Builder line of badges are a perfect example of why these badges are being removed. We saw a lot of griefing done by certain players against players who had highly rated missions that would prevent them from ever getting into Hall of Fame and earning this badge. We wanted having missions flagged Dev Choice or Hall of Fame to be coveted by authors, not by badgers. Thus these badges are also being removed. Q: What can you tell me about the badges that remain? A: These badges have all been modified so that they are granted for a first time accomplishment. For example: The first time you rescue a kidnapped NPC you'll earn the Extractor badge. The same goes for the other badges that will remain in Issue 15. They're much easier to earn, but they require a player to try every aspect of Mission Architect to earn them all. Q: What about the Mission Engineer Accolade badge? A: This badge had its required badges changed to the following:
This means that this accolade will be significantly easier to get now, which means that a lot of players-that published and played Architect missions--will find themselves earning this accolade and find themselves with the really cool ability to edit and publish architect content from anywhere, including your Supergroup base by simply clicking a power icon. Q: If I have some or all of the badges listed as badges that will remain, will I get to keep them? A: Absolutely. You should not have to earn the remaining badges again. I'd like to close by saying that to some of you this might appear be an extreme decision, but we want you to know that this was done to make the Mission Architect fulfill its designed purpose: to be a place where content creators could write to their hearts' content or for players who want to explore the endless content created by other players. We feel that these changes are a step closer to this goal. Also, don't be surprised if you see Architect badges in future issues as well as we make this feature even more robust than was available at launch. Thanks for reading, Synapse Architect Badge ChangesThoughts and reasoning. I wanted to chime in here with some thoughts and reasoning behind the decision to remove badges that we originally put into the game: Players feeling like they have to farm for badges has always been an issue with me. When we created the badge system, we wanted some "top tier" badges that players could eventually earn over a long period of time through normal play. | One of the mistakes we made, way back when, was we didn't realize that there would be a "gotta have 'em all, and gotta have 'em now!" attitude. We figured it would be the former, but not the latter. Live and learn. So players went and did everything they could to get the "long period of time" badges as quickly as possible. So we upped the numbers. THIS was a mistake as it only exasperated the problem instead of fixing it. Now players just farmed longer, and more specifically. (I am looking at you, Epic Tier Badges). /sigh Admittedly "count" badges are the easiest to design. You figure out what you want to count, then design a series of badges around progressively higher numbers of those counts. This is why we never abandoned them in the past, when we probably should have. As we rolled into Mission Architect we all sat in a room and discussed what kinds of badges we wanted to include. Since we wanted to encourage playing MA more than a couple times, count badges related to MA were included in the original design. We specifically set out to prevent some types of farming that MA could allow. This is why we don't allow non-MA badge progress to be earned while in MA. It would make some badges trivial (or even possible in some cross-faction cases) to get.  Now, I was aware that absurdly high numbers give the feeling of needing to farm. I was even OK with this for Test Missions as that wasn't a mission that would be seen by the general population in the Mission Architect list. I did sit down and several times went over the numbers on the published MA badges and lowered and lowered and lowered them until I thought we were at a level that was so low that everyone could get these through normal play and rather quickly too. I admit, I was wrong. Farms for some MA badges quickly appeared, and those farms sat alongside the other farms (XP and ticket) in the Story Arc list for MA. The search feature we had implemented for the MA quickly became clogged with a large number of missions expressly for farming, obscuring the stories that players had worked hard to polish and present to the community. So I re-looked at badges, the system as a whole, for really the first time since they were implemented. While implementing them, I've always been focused on the Issue at hand, not at the system as a whole. With Synapse now in charge of the actual implementation I had a chance to look back and see the big picture. I realized that we could still have badges for doing interesting things, for doing difficult things, and for reaching certain milestones. What was bad were badges that encouraged gaming the system to achieve them. So we looked at the list of badges in Mission Architect, and cut anything that encouraged the establishing of a farm to achieve them. This included the count badges which was nearly 4/5ths of the list of badges. Now this was not a decision that was made lightly. We knew that this would make a lot of people angry, the people who legitimately earned those badges through hard work, but these were our choices: (A) Leave everything alone. (B) Stop giving out the badges, but let the people who earned them keep them. (C) Remove the badges. A) doesn't do anything to remedy the situation. Mission Architect would continue to be farmed for badges from now to end of time, and eventually it loses its appeal as a story telling device and just becomes a place where someone goes to get their badges. B) Creates a "haves" and "have nots" situation. Were you able to get the badges before I15? If not, then no badge for you, ever. If so, congrats! You will now forever have dozens of badges that are no longer attainable in the game. This situation is very unfair, and we did not feel that it would be the right thing to do to the community. Maybe I had all the badges this time, but what about next time something like this happens? Why does Awesome Man get to keep badges that no one else can even get, doing the exact same things? The only badges that should act this way are the Anniversary ones. Now, I am going to talk to Synapse about making these "account wide" if possible, so new characters on your account can get them as well. It might not be possible, so I am not promising anything. C) Really was the best option. It levels the playing field. Yes it is not going to be the most popular decision, we are literally removing content from the game. Yes, people are losing hard work in attaining some badges. In the long run I believe that this decision is the best for Mission Architect and the best for City of Heroes as a whole going forward. So there you have it. If you guys want to be mad at someone, be mad at me. In my efforts to make the game fun and exciting in the long term. I sometimes have to make decisions that make players unhappy, and for that I apologize. We are working hard to avoid these kinds of situations in the future, and will work hard to avoid the kinds of situations that lead to badge removal in future releases. I also want to assure you that we will not be going back and removing badges introduced previous to I14. Some of those badges are truly an accomplishment to get, and we will not take away from those that have accomplished such a task nor will we remove the ability for future players to aspire to those same heights. |
EventsMay 29Friday Flights of Fancy Server: Guardian Date: Friday, May 29, 2009 Time: 10 pm Eastern / 7 pm Pacific Host: Textilian Details: Tour story arcs! All levels welcome, currently departing from the RWZ for co-op teaming. May 30PvPEC Feature: Through the Ages Server: Virtue Date: Saturday, May 30, 2009 Time: 9:00 pm Eastern / 6:00 pm Pacific Host: Arkyaeon Details: Levels 5, 13, 26, 40 and 50. In Pocket D. See post for more details. . PvPEC Feature : Through The Ages Server: Justice Date: Saturday, May 30, 2009 Time:, 6:00 pm Eastern / 3:00 pm Pacific Host: JustJoan Details: Levels 5, 13, 26, 40 and 50. In Pocket D. See post for more details. . PvPEC Feature : Through The Ages Server: Protector Date: Saturday, May 30, 2009 Time: 9:00 pm Eastern / 6:00 pm Pacific Host: Vorac Details: Levels 5, 13, 26, 40 and 50. In Pocket D. See post for more details. . PvPEC Feature: Through The Ages Server: Pinnacle Date: Saturday, May 30, 2009 Time: 10:00 pm Eastern / 7:00 pm Pacific Host: NinjaVampyre Details: Levels 5, 13, 26, 40 and 50. In Pocket D. See post for more details. | June 5Friday Flights of Fancy Server: Guardian Date: Friday, June 5, 2009 Time: 10 pm Eastern / 7 pm Pacific Host: Textilian Details: Tour story arcs! All levels welcome, currently departing from the RWZ for co-op teaming. June 6The SECOND SuperGroup Recruiting Fair of 2009 Server: Virtue Date: Saturday, June 6, 2009 Time: TBA Host: ShadowWings Details: See thread for ongoing detail announcements. .  |
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City Scoop 2 year Anniversary!May 18th, 2009Another year, this now makes two, That we have brought the Scoop to you, And to our readers we have to say, We have not regretted a single day, Staff have left and staff have stayed, As faithful readers, you did never stray. . A good article doesn't just happen, They come from our readers and staff. . So here's to the past -- And issues we've shared. . Here's to the present -- We are glad to be here . And here's to the future -- May we always have articles to submit for you. . | Aus der Küche von BarronGrilled n' Stuffed Chicken BreastIngredients: 1 family-pack Bone-in, skin-on, split chicken breasts (usually comes 6 to a pack) 1 Red Bell Pepper 1 Green Bell Pepper 1 Yellow Bell Pepper 1 Vidalia Onion Chef Paul Prudhomee's Poultry Magic (You can use your choice of poultry seasoning, but I highly recommend Chef Paul's) Go start your grill (I prefer charcoal grills, but it's up to you). Next, rinse your chicken under cool water to clean off any unwanted bone dust, extra fat, etc. After you have rinsed the chicken, VERY CAREFULLY use a sharp knife to cut a pocket in between the bone and the meat. Be careful not to open any of the other sides while doing this. After you have finished with that, slice your bell peppers and onions very thin. You do not need to use these types of vegetables; other types of your choice will substitute just as well. Once those are prepped, gently stuff them into the pocket you made in the chicken, making sure not to over fill. After stuffing your pockets, gently peel back the skin and generously season the meat, then place the skin back in its original position. When you have all of your food ready to go, put your chicken on the grill, and crack open a cold one. This is always the best time to sit back with some friends, and laugh at each other's lies. :P Make sure you don't burn the chicken! Keep a spray bottle of water or beer handy to keep the meat moist. Mind you, these will take some time, so the low and slow method definitely applies today. This goes excellent with some grilled zucchini or some of the stuffed baked potatoes that I've mentioned in the past. Happy Scarfin! |
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Part 1, IntroductionTime for a new series of articles on fighting AVs. Why? Because I haven't written anything recently. Also because they're some of the hardest mobs in the game. They have a HUGE number of Hit Points, and they deal a HUGE amount of damage. Yet with the right team, or even the right solo build, you can beat them. This includes Hero class mobs for all you villains. I'll even discuss Giant Monsters in later articles. The general focus of this series is on soloing AVs, but pretty much everything will apply to teams as well. If AVs are too much for you, most of this applies to Elite Bosses as well. So, if you're bored of defeating 3 even con Minions, read on.  Most people who try to solo AVs do it for the challenge. They consider things like Temporary Powers, Inspirations, and even Empowerment Buffs to be cheating. After all, is it really soloing if you have a Shivan and Vanguard HVAS beating on the AV and doing more damage than you? Personally, I try to avoid all of those things when solo, but I'll certainly use them if that's the only way I can win. If you do Psi damage and you're facing an AV with 75% Psi Resistance, you can give up or use a Shivan. Teams tend to be more diverse, so it's rare that you'll face an AV that significantly resists everything your team is using. Of course, teams don't tend to care about the challenge, so throw everything you can at the AV. In general, you have to be able to deal a lot of damage while under attack from an AV for a long time. When you fight an AV, you're in it for the long haul. You need to be able to take a beating for, say, four minutes at the very least for a great solo build. Teams may do it faster, while a weaker solo build will take longer. You need to put out enough damage to beat the AV's Regeneration, and you need to do that without running out of Endurance. I'll be addressing all of this in later articles. Along with the massive HP and Damage, AVs also have the Purple Triangles of Doom (PToD), a buff that makes status effects mostly worthless against them. Usually, it gives them 50 seconds of very high status protection to Holds, Stuns, and Confusion, followed by 25 seconds of low status protection. If you can survive 50 seconds with an AV beating on you, the 25 seconds that you can hold them won't make much of a difference. The PToD also give AVs very high resistance all the time to most debuffs, including Regeneration, ToHit, and Defense. Every AV has their own unique PToD power, so they can be different. More about this in a later article. The MOST IMPORTANT thing when fighting AVs is to know your enemy. Test it before you try to solo it. Use four Luck Inspirations, attack and be attacked for 20 seconds, then run away. Squishies should bring a Break Free in case the AV lands a lucky mezz. See what attacks the AV uses. Figure out how much damage you should do, then check your combat logs to see if you're actually doing that much. Many AVs are resistant to some types of damage, but vulnerable to others. If you want to cheat (just a little bit), go buy a Recipe for a Temporary Power: Power Analyzer Mk III at Wentworths or the Black Market. After crafting it, you'll have 20 charges where you can look at the Combat Attributes of any mob. Use it to find out if your target has Damage Resistance to your attacks, what their HP and Regeneration are, stuff like that. I bought a stack of those recipes, purely for research purposes. Unfortunately, soloing AVs isn't for everyone. You generally need to have a high-level character. You often need a lot of Influence or Infamy to buy specific Invention Origin sets. Some powersets are simply not suited to soloing AVs, and will even have a hard time with EBs. If things aren't working out, recruit some help. Next week I'll discuss the Hit Points and Regeneration of AVs and similar mobs. You'll see why some powerset combinations will never solo an AV. Till then, you might want to check out my Mission Architect arc "Level 50 AV Challenge," #168611. Currently it has 3 missions containing every level 50 AV available in the MA (including the unlockable ones), about 24 per mission. Use this as a testing ground to see what the AVs can do. Don't worry, you don't have to defeat them all to go from one mission to the next, just click a glowie. Try a few, then see how well you do using the advice in later articles. | Part 2, RegenerationThis is the second article in a series about fighting Arch Villains (AVs) and similar class mobs. These are some of the hardest mobs in the game. They have a HUGE number of Hit Points (HP), which means they regenerate a lot in the middle of combat. In this article I'll discuss why that Regeneration is a serious problem, and how you can deal with it. This includes Hero class mobs for all you villains, and I'll provide Giant Monster stats as well. All of the information here is crucial if you want to try soloing AVs. Mobs regenerate HP over time. AVs and Heroes can regenerate their full HP in 5 minutes, or 300 seconds. The Temporary Power: Power Analyzer Mk III displays this as 0.33%/sec for AVs, though the Regen doesn't actually happen every second. They get 5% of their HP every 15 seconds. All mobs have HP based on their level. AVs and Heroes have 28,271.7 HP at level 50. That means you need to do 28,281.7 HP in 5 minutes just to break even with an AV's natural Regeneration. If you do more than that, you can take down the AV eventually. If you do less, you can't - ever. That works out to 94.24 HP/second. This may be difficult, if not impossible, for some characters solo. Bring up Mid's Hero Planner, or pencil and paper, and see if you can average more than 94.24 damage/second. If you have a way to debuff Regeneration, you generally want to use it. Lingering Radiation is a great Regen debuff. It lasts 30 seconds and recharges in 90, so you'll want a LOT of Recharge Reduction. Here's how it works: Lingering Radiation from a Defender is a 500% Regen Debuff. Most AVs resist debuffs like this, but not completely. The resistance also varies by level. At level 50, most AVs will resist a Regen debuff by 85%. That will make Lingering Radiation a 75% Regen debuff, but it's still worth it. That means an AV affected by Lingering Radiation only Regens 23.56 HP/second. (They still Regenerate 5% of their HP at a time, but it takes a minute rather than 15 seconds with this debuff.) Even a Defender can put out that much damage. AVs at level 40 and below have 80% or less debuff resistance, so strong Regen debuffs like Lingering Radiation can completely shut down their Regeneration. Of course, you have to hit. The best Regen debuffs that I've found are as follows: Benumb, Drain Psyche, Heat Exhaustion, Lingering Radiation, and Poison Trap. Poison Trap is the best at 1000%, as it will completely stop Regen even on a level 50 AV. Drain Psyche on a Blaster is only a 250% debuff, but that's still worthwhile. Drain Psyche on a Dominator is 500%, as are the other powers listed, so they're all great to use. You generally need to slot these powers with a lot of Recharge Reduction, plus have between 100% and 200% in global recharge reduction to maintain these debuffs constantly on an AV. EM Pulse works as well, but the long Recharge means you can't maintain it on an AV. The Longbow Heavy and Vanguard HVAS temporary pets also have a Plasma Burst with a 30% chance of a 500% Regen debuff, so you can use them if you're desperate.  There are also some lesser Regen debuffs like Transfusion and Twilight Grasp that are only 50%. After resistance, that will only drop an AV's Regen by 7.5% at level 50. They're not really worth using unless you're facing a Giant Monster and need every bit of Regen Debuff that you can get. Speaking of Giant Monsters, a level 50 GM has 70,679.18 HP. They regenerate their full HP in 200 seconds, so the Power Analyzer reports 0.50%/sec. That's 353.40 HP/second. You can understand why Regen Debuffs are so important when fighting a GM. With the right debuffs, it is possible to solo a Giant Monster. Without debuffs, you need a pretty good, big team to generate that much damage. If you want to try fighting some AVs, or even soloing them, try out my "Level 50 AV Challenge" arc #168611 in the Mission Architect. It has every AV available in the MA spread out over three missions, plus a couple of Giant Monsters in the second mission. Some of them will even tell you their Resistance and warn you about their Nukes. Take a lot of Lucks with you and try soloing one with and without Regen debuffs, and see how you do. Next week, I'll discuss surviving without Lucks. |
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Oh sweeties, how long has it been since I gave you a scrap of decency to cling to for your sad little last season lives? Far too long! Your outfits look emaciated, hungry for the accessories and proper matchings that only I, your beloved Arbiter, can give to you. I feel so bad that I have left you all in this pickle, forced to go to Filthy Serge for his dog food when you should be devouring the fashion equivalent of filet mignon with yours truly. I had given a bit of warning about this, did I not? For several months I had been talking about the Cabal inspired trends walking down the catwalks in Paris and Milan, and I was doing my very best to ensure that the cheap knockoffs that Serge was attempting to flood the market with would burn and crumble, to fall away and disappear - much like his hairline. Still, so much has happened. That silly arcade thing opened... and even I have gotten into the swing of things! I did a little retro gaming thing; I'm sure if you look hard enough you can find it. Regardless, I am so very happy to be writing to you all again, with, as you can see, updated graphics! How I love my bowl and Doily spiders, they do oh so much for me! Now let me pay those favors forward and help all of you out, because, I've been around the D, my sweets, and you need it. It's not pretty, trust me. But, still, I do what I can. LETTERS! Dear Arbiter Fabulous, I am in quite the pickle about my fashion sense. I operate in Paragon City under the guise of General Knowledge. Obviously, I have a military theme in my costumes, but I would also like to pay homage to the life I had before my mutation where I was a game show host. Is there some way you, in your sage wisdom of fashion, can help me with this predicament?  General Knowledge Sweet Hot-cross-buns of mercy.... All right, so military game show host? I'm assuming you're Japanese; I've seen what they do on their game shows, and boot camp is so much kinder on the body and psyche. Well, I'm unsure if you CAN properly blend those two, but what I can do is mitigate both concepts and find some unifying pieces from both. You have to understand this one thing, poodles. Not everything CAN be properly done, even by the best. Which I am. First off, no Richard Dawson, no Bob Eubanks. Tweed and military go together like muted green power armor and blue piping. I'm looking at you Posi-TRON. I do have to ask, is it true you got into the Freedom Phalanx because at first Statesman thought you were just "A really awesome piece of movie memorabilia?" ((Note from @equation: I will send care baskets to Paragon Studios, Mr. Miller, please don't delete me.)) I have done what little I can for this, but frankly, you need to ask yourself if the concept is something that should be done. Don't take that as I won't try, every fashionista loves a challenge - and this week you all sent me some DOOZIES! Here you are my sweet, I hope it meets your liking. NEXT Ok, here's a questions. When I first started playing villains, I teamed a lot with a cat character. It was fabulous and decided to make a cat character myself. But I can never get it to look right. I move the slider all the way down, take tiger stripes, adjust colors and it always seems too big or not proportioned. Any help would be appreciated. Also, what pattern for a calico would be helpful?  Peterbilt ((I'm going to take this one out of character, as it seemed written as such. No real funny negative comments or snarky positive ones. I came up with what I could consider the best calico, although doing a three-tone character was a bit off. I did like the challenge, but I do want to remind folks to put clothes on your cat people. Also, spay and neuter your cat-folk, the D is getting crowded on Virtue. I hope this meets your liking as a base form, but it's still the costume you put atop this that folks may remember most. Thank you for your letter, @equation)) Before  Hello Arbiter Fabulous. I have an anniversary coming up soon with my beloved wife, and I want to make the evening as special as it can be. I must admit that I've been getting a little worried about our relationship... it seems that she's always looking past me instead of at me, whenever we're together. You seem to be expert in such things, so I was hoping that you could guide me in how to look my best, so I can hold her attention. I hate to admit it, but I'm getting a little desperate. Thank you, - The Invisible Imp After  All right, well my transparent friend, you have upset me a little bit. You see, I found out that clothes don't go invisible so easily... and frankly, I don't appreciate being sent see-through nude photographs! Children read this thing and I have to re-print those.. but as you're invisible, I have NO idea where to blur or add a censor bar... I suppose I can call it modern art and get away, but you've made me a very frustrated Fabulous! AAAAnnyway, it's for your anniversary, which is a lovely thing, so I do recommend a nice suit, crisp and clean with a hint of playfulness, which I'm sure your girlfriend who you will be visiting afterwards will appreciate as well. Oh don't say I'm slandering you - you send naked pictures to a trans-dimensional publication, you think I'm going to assume you're a kind and virtuous sort? Pshaw! Regardless my dear, I have the before and after, Micheal Kors forgive me for what I'm about to show.... |  To Arbiter Fabulous, I have come to a dead-end in fashion. I simply cannot find a good theme to work with, and all my costumes end up as disasters. I am a former member of the Trolls. You know - the big, green, ruffians of Paragon City. I used to hang out with them, but my powers have since evolved way beyond what the Trolls will ever be. Being blessed, or cursed, with Mu blood combined with Superadine has granted me incredible strength, with electric armor. So, I escaped to the Isles. Being a powerful villain is good and all, but what good is it if your costume of evil-doing is horrible? I can't find any theme to work with. All I've got is my old thug clothes, Tank top and baggy pants. So I ask for you to help out a loyal follower of Arachnos, to give some "fashion tips" for a green-skinned, super strong villain. Regards, Sc0rn. Dearest loyal follower, Now I have been WAITING for this! I have to say, you Trolls are completely wasting your potential - I mean ratty t shirts and jeans. You could be amazing, epic, a foundation for which others would have to base their attire, but noooo, you dress like trailer park refugees awaiting a tornado to send them to Oz. ((Note from author: Tornadoes are not fun. I had to ride one, recently.)) You could be proud, strong warriors, baring fangs and weapons in epic battles against the normal humans allied against you.... Wait, didn't they make a movie or three about that, with Rularuu as the bad guy or something? I don't know! But still, your forces would storm forward, laying waste to everyone who stood against you... no, wait a minute, didn't they make some really bad computer game about that, "Land of Chuck Norris jokes" or something, Jenkins was telling me he worked with them briefly before coming to Arachnos.... Regardless, I have been waiting for one of you guys to... now THAT does make me wonder, where is the gender equality in your gang, hmmm? Why don't I see lovely lady trolls bringing inspiration on how best to pair chiffon with olive green skin? I'm tangenting again, aren't I? Oh, here's your new look, and frankly, one of the few that I'm especially proud of! NEXT -before I go on and rant about something else. Before  Dear Arbiter Fabulous, Let me share with you my dilemma, and beg of your aid, I need a makeover desperately! I have only recently arrived here on this planet you call Earth, and my attire is sorely lacking. My seven siblings and I received the greatest training my people had to offer; long hours practicing with our sacred weapon of war, the ban-hammer, and developing my affinity for flames to make me resistant to attack. Of the eight, I was selected to travel the untold light years from my home world to help bring peace and justice to this place, and eventually I have found my calling: Forum Moderator. While the practice of moderation is satisfying, I also wish to strike fear into the hearts of villains! This all black form-fitting suit does indeed keep me warm and comfortable, but it is not the appropriate battle dress for a warrior against evil. Fabulous, help me be the hero that I have always desired to be! Moderator 8 Dear Moderator 8, First off, that name will NEVER do. I mean, so simplistic, but still somehow makes you fall into the background, as if there were 7 more interesting people before you. No, no... you need a name that EXUDES your personal importance. I look to the Latin influences on my newly handmade Peruvian cloak... If only you had one that looked this good, my sweets. Let's see now, how about... The Ocho? Yes I like that. After  Dearest Ocho, I am so glad to receive your letter; it seems that you do have a particular dilemma. You need a look that says, I'm important, without being a crosshairs for various attacks over the forums you work. I hear you have your own brand of trolls there too; perhaps you can put them in contact with Sc0rn about uniting under a banner of looking AMAZING. Still, I do have a look for you: simplistic, and totally different from what you had been given before. I do hope you find it to your liking. Oh... one final note. It seems my dearest "friend" Crime of Fashion took upon the task of finding ME a new look, with the challenge of me finding a new look in return. Well, I don't like messing things up, so I scoured the various realities and found one of your alternate selves to use as a test model. You do seem to like green and black, so that was a happy thing for me to work with. It only took 47 hours of screams, surgery and electric shocks, but I think *THIS* sums up, how I feel you would best look, CoF...  NO ONE, and I repeat, NO ONE redesigns ME. Love, Arbiter Fabululous |
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Q) What is the name of your group and what made you choose it? A) Sinistratus - The hubby and I were trying to think of something that sounded old and combined a few Latin words to create something that vaguely means Layers of Evil, which seemed apt for our villains. Q) What is your base designer(s) name? A) High Priestess Biarmica oversaw construction of the remodeling of her Temple. (global @Tekka1) Q) What server is your base on? A) Virtue Q) When was your villain group established? A) Sometime in 2007, I believe? Q) What is the approximate value of your base? A) Circa 3.5 or 4M Prestige. The prestige grant a few years ago really helped, since we're small. (Me, the hubby, and a few close friends who don't play much.) Q) How much time have you invested in your base since you started building? A) 100+ hours. I totally dismantled the old one to redo the layout to better serve the architectural vision. Q) What is your favorite base item? Least favorite? A) That's a tough call. I'm a huge fan of the arched doorways, the Sacred Pool, the Throne Room... the sarcophagi are absolutely great, but I think my fave part of the base is the entry room. It's the only part of the base that didn't get totally redesigned, it just got massively improved. I really wish I'd taken before/after shots of the whole thing. I'm least partial to the energy room. It doesn't really fit the theme, but I fought with it to make it at least not seem totally out of place. Q) What is your favorite thing about base editing? Least favorite? A)Coming up with creative ways to make things that don't already exist. Some folks have just blown me away with their ability to reproduce common household items and even vehicles. I dislike stacking/intersecting a million desks / blocks to make a second floor, and the flicker effect. I really would like if we could get some basic building blocks to use to make things quicker and to protect future builders from carpal tunnel syndrome. Q)Did you get your inspiration from anyone specific or was it right from your imagination? A)Our main villains are of ancient Egyptian origin. I wanted the temple to be something that looked real (enough), so I did some architecture Google searches, picked a few examples for inspiration, and then imagined what they would look like if they were sunken underground to hide them, instead of open-air. Q) If you could give just one piece of advice to a new base editor, what would it be and why? A) Oh gosh, just one? Ok, Create intimate spaces. Theme doesn't matter, but try to make each area cohesive to itself (and hopefully the rest of the base), and with larger rooms, subdivide it into smaller, bite-size chunks. You don't have to build individual rooms, just make sure that the eye can easily separate what you're doing so you don't overwhelm your guests. My example would be the Temple throne room. It's a huge trauma centre, and I have the throne elevated above the main floor. Underneath that, though, there's the sarcophagal chambers (for the ones who didn't survive the trip through the res rings *snicker*), and the east and west galleries on the upper level to either side of the throne room for visiting / relaxing. Link to Temple Sinistratus Photobucket To readers: As most builders will tell you, "It looks better in person" --- if you want to tour it, I'd be tickled to show you, just send a /tell to me @Tekka1, and we'll work sommat out  | Some shots: 1. Entry Room  2. The Sacred Pool  3. Portal Cells  4. Control Room  5. Mystical Energy  6. Throne Room  7. Sarcophagi  8. West Gallery  9. Resurrection  10. The Priestess on her Throne  |
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In The ScoopMemorial Day EditionThis section is dedicated to the brave men and women around the world who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms. | |
The Hecktic LifeMay 22nd May 29nd |
Vol. 3, Issue 2
May 29nd, 2009
The City Scoop a publication for Supers by Supers!
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 Niviene.
If you would like to do a feature article, or join "The City Scoop" team please PM Snow_Globe.
If you would like to place a classified ad or have an event covered, contact Cende, EnnVee, or Lemur Lad.
If you need some "Advice" contact Lady_Athyna, would like to "Ask The X" contact LiquidX, or need help with fashion, "Ask Arbiter Fabulous."
If you have a base you would like featured, please contact EnnVee.
Finally if you have a Recipe you would like included please contact Barron_.
The City Scoop
Issue 15 Mission Architect Badge Changes
By Synapse
Official Post
Greetings everyone,
I wanted to fill you all in on our plans for the Mission Architect badges and also our plans for future badges as well. We really didn't want the Mission Architect to be an environment that encourages farming for XP, Rewards or Badges, and we thought long and hard about the current Architect badge situation. Ultimately we'd like it to be a place where you go to play great player created content.
So, going forward-beginning with the Mission Architect badges-we've decided to move away from "count" badges that might encourage farming and/or aberrant game play. Instead, we'd like to encourage players to try all of our content by offering badges for completing 1 time accomplishments and achievements. What this means for the Mission Architect badges is that many of them are going to be removed in Issue 15. This is because they encouraged farming, because they encouraged aberrant behavior by doing one thing over and over again, they were unobtainable by a large portion of our players, or earning them was completely out of a player's hands and in the hands of other players.
I'd like to outline the Architect badge changes to show you precisely what will be happening in Issue 15. Below is a list of badges that are being removed:
Continued on page 2
Vol. 3, Issue 2
May 29nd, 2009
This Issue:
Official Announcements
Badge reasoning.
Issue 15 Testing
.
Community
City Scoop 2nd year
Barron's Kitchen
Events
.
Under the Hood
Introduction
Regeneration
.
Fashion
Because I have to Look at you
.
Arts
Patriotic Art
.
Base Showcase
Sinistratus
.
Comic
Masthead
Issue 15 Testing!
See the patch notes.
From the Editor's Desk
By
Snow_Globe
I would like to apologize for the lack of the Scoop last week. Due to factors beyond our control, we were unable to finalize the layout. The issue has been corrected thanks to the Community Reps and the Web Team.
I would also like to let our readers know that we are going to try changing our publish dates to Mondays. The reasoning behind this change is to ensure that the quality of the Scoop is maintained while giving the layout staff enough time to do so.