Incredible Cosmic Power... Itty-bitty living space.

Firstly, you seem to assume I have something against Pious. I don't. I merely used his character as an example of the sort of thing I was referring to, mainly because he's the best example of a special snowflake character I could think of. There have been plenty of others in the 5 years I've been RPing in CoH, and without exception, they've ALL been "bad" characters.

As to what Pious may or may not have done in RP; there's plenty of posts in the forums (some now deleted), try reading them. I'm not saying anything as people will just assume it's a personal attack.

Well, that didn't take long.

There are four versions of Nitoichi, though two of them have never been roleplayed. The two are on Defiant, an AR blaster and a Thugs MM.

The second one was created in yet another attempt to get somewhere villain-side and she's a DB/Willpower Brute, essentially identical to her original Scrapper model. With the coming of GR, despite her being my highest level villain, she'll be deleted as obsolete, Nitoichi herself can make her way to the Isles and do her stuff, at level 50.

Originally, Gunwitch was going to be a Praetorian DB/Will Brute. I liked the idea of Nitoichi's Praetorian counterpart harnessing her anger for good. Then I got seduced by Dual Pistols, so that went by the wayside. Since I'm rather liking the conceptual version I've put together thus far, I'm happy with the seduction. You could say that this is the same character remade, but since she's not... yah boo sucks.

In terms of Cosmic Power levels, I think I mainly just have the one, which is Sara. Her invulnerability... lets just say it has pretty much fluctuated as plot demanded, but she's still harder than anybody really has a right to be. Attack power wise, she's not insane, but for the most part, stripped of the various bits that crept in due to overenthusiastic plot and background hole-filling, her main godlevel power is her inability to be killed by pretty much most forces available that wouldn't also take out several important things (like most of the surrounding countryside.) Maybe paint her in with the Jason Caine thing. You can knock her down, but killing her permenantly is a lot lot harder.

As for how she wound up that way... it wasn't intended, she just kept getting extended as plot demanded. I had a long conversation with Birdy at one point about how she'd wound up much harder than she strictly needed to be, and I think that's still true. We create these ideas, go "wouldn't it be cool if..." and before you know it, your nice little mobile fortress is surviving the pheriphery of nuke blasts. It's a slippery slope.

The others were designed to be much more street level. Damia, I just have to keep a lid on since she has the potential for godcreep.

I'm glad we're finally talking about this and getting it all out there. Priest has recently become a focus issue, discussed either conceptually, theoretically or personally and I don't mind. I like constructive criticism and in a creative environment like RP, we could use more of it and less childish attacks. As TA or Bunny might agree, I'm one to hear people out and eventually learn from any mistake. Arguments, when held properly, are supposed to bring people to a common understanding and hopefully come out better off and I think that's what’s happening here, which is great. I'm positively surprised to read some of the arguments in my support because clearly there are people out there who do actually understand my character Pious and the strict ways in which I try to play him.

Now FFM hinted at past forum RP situations where I may have badly portrayed Pious's ability to switch powers or change weapons. Like wall-phasing, powershifting is a fragile ability to pull off right and I think I'm only still getting better at it. In my opinion, what's important is that I always try to play it as realistic as possible so as not to break plots or metagame over other characters who are probably just as or more capable than the Priest.

Misportrayal of Pious's powershifting wouldn't happen in-game. I often use the Iron Man approach, which is basically to analyse a mission or enemies beforehand and go in with the appropriate counter-weapon. It's all a learning process, for him as well as me, and you never quite know what to expect so it doesn't always work. In fact it hardly ever works. Kahn's the best example of this epic fail. After the character called him out to fight, Pious spent time researching the man's skills and weaknesses in the short time he had, the best he could and (probably incorrectly) concluded that trying to match Kahn's brutal strength is his best hope of winning the fight and thusly sending a message against the upcoming Arachnos.

Some time was spent (ICly and OOCly) attuning the dimensional placements caused by his powershifting, into the inside of Warburg's Longbow boat-clinic. So when his regeneration was foiled, he escaped to this hospital clinic and shifted (re-logged) to another melee skill, which inevitably got foiled even worse. It wasn't until later that Stryke expressed his disapproval of 'not being told' about this tactic OOCly beforehand because he was confused about the constant re-logging. I had to apologise and attributed the lack of fore-discussion to the very short notice of the subplot. Either way, I've learnt from that, and it’s a mistake I won't be repeating. Like I said, powershifting is a fragile ability to pull off and should be played with caution, but we shouldn't rule against it just because of that.

At least I'm not a god-modder who's exclusively abusing the Priest character. Or is it the other way around? Am I a decent guy with an overpowered character? Is the Priest potentially a plot-breaker because he has access to any and all counter-measures? I don't think so. Kahn's fist was the ultimate counter-counter-measure to Priest's counter-measure wasn't it? So basically, even though he's got 54 guns, they're not very big. And in this genre (CoH at least), size matters.

He has to rely on friends, or use brains over brawns, and I have to keep it that way always. Mainly because (unlike Stryke) I neither understand IO's nor like them, and thus don't have the means to back up a really big gun character. It’s a shame that SO's are increasingly becoming redundant. It means Pious will always be beneath his IO-powered adversaries, like Kahn or even Bathory, who both can probably tank out Statesman or Recluse. But I like it that way. Like I said earlier, Pious is good at relying on teamwork and an 8-man TF win is better than soloing GM's. In my opinion.

Lastly, about the resurrection of Pious; there was confusion about how he died or who caused it. Admittedly, that subplot was badly handled on my part and I've learnt from that too. But it was pre-decided that since he was now broken and hospitalised, Memphis (then allied with the Corp) would force Pistol to wield a specialised arcane weapon that would counter Pious's regenerative skills and poison him to dead. Some people have said in passing that he should have stayed dead and I guess that’s a fair comment. The same can probably be said for many comicbook heroes who've returned from the Abyss. But hey, get over it. Like media slander (yes, I now bite my tongue), resurrection is an acceptable norm in this genre and since deciding to return to the game, I chose to use it as a plot-tool to have Pious brought back to the living and to fully embrace his angelic nature.

I've been doing research into Angels of mythic lore now and it’s something I'm enjoying. There’s promise of upcoming character plots set about and around the heavenly realms which I look forward to sharing on these forums. That’s what this whole RP thing is about right? Exploring deeper fantasies and all that.

I have one character that's on the cosmic level. Possibly two.


My first RP character is a mage and one that developed along the "wouldn't it be cool" line that Gideon mentioned. Also, I'll be the first to admit her power is part of my ego tripping.
It's in human nature to want to be better at something than someone else. It's stronger in some than in others, but it's there.

I have her pegged as "one of the most powerful mages in the city", it's part of how her backstory developed. So here we have a mage that can do just about anything she sets her mind to... why doesn't she? Simple reason, I can't be bothered. IC reason: part of it is the time and effort not weighing up to the result, an other is that she believes in people as a whole to carry the responsibility of the whole. That means striking a balance, the good counteracting the bad, but not individuals imposing their will on the masses just because they can. (not to mention the competition if everyone who thought they could were to try it at the same time).

Now here's what -I- do to not break plots: I stay away from them, or stay on the outskirts.
On the other hand, I do plot-monkey sometimes. In those cases I'll discuss my character's role in things and my estimation of the time/effort required. Sometimes I've been asked to make it faster, sometimes I'm asked to make it slower, so I do and keep the plot owner happy.
An other way that I keep out of trouble is by not being competative, I'm not in it 'to win', though I'm still learning to loose.

This same character has a fair few ingame representations. I've counted 7 in my head, but I could have overlooked one or two. What I use as a reason for why only a certain set is used? Well, beyond stating that Kheldian energy and control over magical energy are mutually incompatible (not exclussive), I just don't mention it. And if RP requires a power that's on an other alt, I just emote it anyway.



So to sum it all up, here are my tips:
Keep it simple, but above all, do not seek confrontation.

Just a thought, it might be intriguing to have an IC plot specifically based on our cosmic/uber/overpowered characters. For example each is plucked from whatever they're doing and placed in a sort of cosmic therapy session overseen by some other even greater cosmic entity. They have their interactions then when they leave they're placed exactly where and when they were taken from.
I dunno, it might be of some small amusement.

----- Union's finest underachiever -----
Farewell CITY of HEROES
The First, the Last, the One.
Union: @ominousvoice2059

Hmm... putting aside the whole power-switching bit... something else to consider in the whole mechanics-limited vs. plotline-limited argument; the developers themselves frequently toss game mechanics out the window for the demands of story. Let us take (just as an example), Statesman. Who, admittedly... at least while being written by his proud papa, Jack Emmert... was a pretty bad case of Canon Sue. But in whatever case- in the canon backstory, during the First Rikti Invasion, he was flying about crushing Motherships against his forehead like empty beer tins, and the only reason he stopped was because he accidentally dropped one on something important. The in-game version of Statesman couldn't take out a single Dropship by himself; he doesn't have the damage output to overtake the thing's regen (at least, to the best of my knowledge- I'm not sure it's testable :/).

And of course there's the time that he got taken out by a single exploding Circle of Thorns mage in the comic, which wouldn't even inconvenience his game-self.

Bottom line is, this is a game, and narrative coherence is often (rightfully, in my opinion) sacrificed for gameplay. I mean, why should we worry about the Rikti? Their so-called A-Bombs don't even scratch the landscape or the civilians that we're supposed to be so worried about. And speaking of civilians, why should we worry about them? They're vastly more invulnerable than the mightiest of heroes and villains alike.

The point I'm trying to make is that strictly adhering to the game mechanics as the 'rules' for our shared RP world would result in a singularly ludicrous world, and that everyone picks and chooses which rules they're going to follow. Whether you choose to interpret your inability to permanently affect the game world as evidence of low power levels, or simply shrug it off as a necessary game mechanic for an MMO, and safely ignored, is up to you.

But, speaking for myself, at least, I'd be a bit hesitant to tell someone that they're a bad roleplayer and an incompetent character designer because they choose to play a bit looser with the game mechanics than your personal benchmark allows for.

Golden rule, for me anyhow;

So long as it doesn't interupt my enjoyment of RP, and the enjoyment of others, then its probably fine. I might grumble for minor reasons, but if its fun to RP, its fun to RP.

Cross that line? Meh. Your funeral...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

In my opinion, I think the game mechanics should be used as a guideline, rather than any specific rules. After all, there are times when the way the system works makes a toon far too powerful, as well as not powerful enough to fit a concept.

As an example; my scrapper, Neit, is a normal human with (IC) over 15 years of martial arts training. That means he's a good fighter with an impressive level of fitness. According to game mechanics though, he can run at around 45mph, and easily do standing jumps of around 40 feet. Suffice to say, as a character who is supposed to be a baseline human in most respects, I don't want him to be able to actually do that, so IC he can do free running, but anything else is strictly OOC.

On the other side of that, my main, Fea, is a flyer. She is slotted to the flight speed cap of 55ish mph (whatever it is, I don't remember the numbers). Now IC, she has stated that she's never bothered to find out how fast she can fly because she's not interested, she simply enjoys it enough that she doesn't feel the need to worry about that kind of thing. However, I have always personally felt that she can go faster than the limit that the mechanics allow.

My point (and I actually do have one ), is that I think power level and the game world can be fudged within reason. I feel that the success of said fudging is usually down to the player more than anything else. For every person that has a well thought out character concept, with good reasoning for whatever power level they're claiming, there's another who will insist on playing Teh Überman who can pwnz us all.

Thank you Fea for articulating the stance I hold far better then I ever could.

Disclaimer: This is OV's idea and that's just my take on it. If the plot does take off, then thats great, but I've learnt from mistakes made while collaborating with TA and I won't be assuming any GM roles on something like this, that isn't my original idea. I don't have any characters of that level cosmic power anyway so unless mundane heroes get a role to play somehow, I'll stay sat with the other forum spectators cheering on the Unioners, I mean, the good guys.

Terrible idea. Sorry, but with that many cosmic levels chars in one place, the chances of any plot turning into an ePeen waving contest increase exponentially.