The Immortal Game: The Last City of Heroes Story
By
Agonist_NA,
Posted on: 2012-10-11 18:03 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
Quote:
Someone is going to drop a bomb on something, I can guarantee that much.
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Originally Posted by Angry_Citizen
Let me get this straight. Nemesis wants to drop a Lanaru-bomb on the Battalion?
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I haven't been this impressed with a non-traditional story since marblehornets.
Doom.
Yep.
This is really doom.
Wow, that latest part.
This is good stuff.
Thank you for providing this grand tale to us all, friend.
Save City of Heroes!
Quote:
I'm glad you are enjoying it. I'm a fan of melodrama, and big ideas, and I'm an especially big fan of trying to make connections across a large story landscape. Its the sort of thing that would be difficult to sustain in something like a novel without something else to glue it together, but I think it works well as episodic short stories in this kind of context.|
Originally Posted by Arachnion
Wow, that latest part.
This is good stuff. Thank you for providing this grand tale to us all, friend. |
Perhaps this is a "grass is always greener" thing, but while I enjoyed greatly working with the devs that operated on the data and engine side of the fence, I have to admit I was envious of Sean McCann most of all. He got to write for the game (as did a few other notable players). And while I complained about many of the decisions the writers made, heck, most of them really, I still believe the City of Heroes universe is an incredibly fertile space for stories.
This is my way of trying to show it.
Also, this is going to sound corny, but from the moment I conceived of this story, that image of RulaCole (which is actually RulaWade - you work with what you have) is something I've been *dying* to post since I first put pen to paper for part one of the story. Because jaded eight year veteran insider player that I am, I think that's just cool. I spent a half hour getting the sky and the perspective and the power flares just right.
I love this game.
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Quote:
And we love you. |
Originally Posted by Arcanaville
I love this game.
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@Rien
I am Lord Omi. Now and forever. They can take our City, but they can't take me.
Quote:
This.
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Originally Posted by GreatRock
And we love you.
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Save City of Heroes!
Quote:
...and there's our theme song for the end of the world.
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Someone is going to drop a bomb on something, I can guarantee that much.
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The Alt Alphabet ~ OPC: Other People's Characters ~ Terrific Screenshots of Cool ~ Superhero Fiction
Quik question for the people not in any Beta channel, I understand we should meet in RWZ?
@Arda
Arc "Save the TV, Save the World!"
Poster
Cheerleaders, ninjas, vampires, zombies, ETs, time travellers, Spartans... all is here!
ID - 79690
Because I'm busy setting up the last details, I'm not going to make this all pretty. But here's a basic guide to the event scheduled for Today, Wednesday, November 28th 2012 at 6PM Pacific.
1. The event is being held in the RWZ. There will be announcements in the zone as to what's happening and when, mostly in-character.
2. So people know what to expect, here's what's going to happen in brief.
- RulaCole is going to be in the zone attempting to transform the Battalion Barrier into a Dreamspace shield to protect Primal Earth from the Coming Storm
- Prometheus will also be in the zone, calling the defenders of Earth to rally to the defense of the zone. Prometheus has a special surprise for primal earth defenders: to face this ultimate threat to Primal Earth he has agreed to unlock all incarnate potential in all who have such potential. Anyone, whether they are an already Incarnate hero or just a beginning security level 1 villain will be empowered by Prometheus to their full potential. Prometheus will be in the Rikti War Zone about an hour before the event begins to give defenders of Primal Earth some time to adjust to their new empowerment.
[Note: that is exactly what it sounds like. Prometheus is going to grant everyone who enters RWZ full incarnate status with all the incarnate slots and powers. If you are not level 50 Prometheus will buff you to 50. But you will still have to train to 50 to actually use Incarnate powers, and you will still need to actually slot incarnate powers before using them.]
- While RulaCole is busy with his task, the players will have to take out the Rikti Mothership, which contains the Rikti homeworld portal generators. This time, its for keeps. If we have enough players, we will conduct a raid on the mothership as a warm up activity. Don't worry about it taking a long time: the Rikti Mothership Shield is no match for the power of RulaCole. Meaning: players will not have to run around destroying portals. Someone in the zone will be organizing a league to do this.
- If there are not enough players to form a reasonable raid on the mothership, RulaCole will expend some of his vast power to destroy the mothership.
- Either way, we're not going to be just blowing up a few grates and taking out a few Rikti. When the players finish off the Rikti defenders, someone will set the mothership's reactor to overload, permanently destroying the portal to the Rikti homeworld. Its unclear what happens when a Rikti Mothership reactor overloads. Might be interesting to see.
[Note: i.e. I'm not sure what we've planned will work, but if it does hopefully it will be memorable]
- Neutralizing the mothership and destroying the Rikti homeworld portal will alert the Battalion that humanity is up to something. They will push their advance team to secure a beachhead on Earth and accelerate their invasion of the planet. Expect to see Shivan assault squads attack. They will focus their attention on RulaCole, so players should seek to engage those forces at that location. RulaCole will be in near the heart of the crater and not hard to spot. Rularuu is usually not easy to miss.
- The initial Shivan assault will be reinforced by Kheldian slaves, and then the Battalion themselves. An unknown number of Battalion soldiers will be there commanding the advance forces. Unlike the Shivans and Kheldians, they are immensely powerful Incarnate-class foes with exotic powers. Players should try to team up to take them on.
- Whether the players defeat the invasion force and the Battalion or not, RulaCole will continue his task to render Primal Earth shielded from the Battalion. When he succeeds, the Battalion on Earth will be cut off from much of their power. They will then be much easier to defeat.
[Note: perfect balance is difficult under these circumstances, so the players may be able to beat the Battalion we have cooked up, or they may not. Either way, there's a specific cutout designed into the story to make it easier for the players to take them down at the appropriate time.]
- Mender Silos also has one last trick up his sleeve. He's made a deal with Hamidon to assist in the defense of Earth. However, Hamidon no longer trusts humanity. Hamidon will come to Earth and attack the Battalion, but will not be friendly to humanity either. Players can decide whether to engage Hamidon, or leave him alone.
- Once RulaCole completes his task, he will vanish, returning to the Shadow Shard. This will conclude the event.
- Of course, players may choose to continue on past that point if they wish.
Lastly, this is all happening without a lot of practice or testing due to technical and time limitations. Please be patient if we have technical difficulties or if we have to change things at the last minute. We will do our best to make this as smooth as possible given what's actually possible.
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In one little corner of the universe, there's nothing more irritating than a misfile...
(Please support the best webcomic about a cosmic universal realignment by impaired angelic interference resulting in identity crisis angst. Or I release the pigmy water thieves.)
Sooo looking forward to this.
Here's to hoping my laptop doesn't crap out from so many people in one zone.
Wishing you as much success as possible, given the constraints and realities and all.
And I will be there!
Thank you for taking the initiative on this and doing this work to give us a fitting send off.
It's no leap to say that Arcanaville is a great representative of this community's character, passion and abilities.
Queen of Maths, Queen of our hearts.
*bows*
@Zethustra
"Now at midnight all the agents and the superhuman crew come out
and round up everyone that knows more than they do"-Dylan
and round up everyone that knows more than they do"-Dylan
I do hope that you get to run this a second time before lights out. I'll be at work for it.
It sounds AMAZING though, so at the very least I hope that Samuraiko is there filming it all.
@Quantum Evil Rad/Rad Corruptor
Making the world safe for maleficent particles since 2004.
I hope dark_respite/Samuraiko makes this entire event into a video.
Doom.
Yep.
This is really doom.
Quote:
What. How!? Oh my god I'msoexcitedIcan'tbelieveit
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
- RulaCole is going to be in the zone attempting to transform the Battalion Barrier into a Dreamspace shield to protect Primal Earth from the Coming Storm
- Prometheus will also be in the zone, calling the defenders of Earth to rally to the defense of the zone. Prometheus has a special surprise for primal earth defenders: to face this ultimate threat to Primal Earth he has agreed to unlock all incarnate potential in all who have such potential. Anyone, whether they are an already Incarnate hero or just a beginning security level 1 villain will be empowered by Prometheus to their full potential. Prometheus will be in the Rikti War Zone about an hour before the event begins to give defenders of Primal Earth some time to adjust to their new empowerment. [Note: that is exactly what it sounds like. Prometheus is going to grant everyone who enters RWZ full incarnate status with all the incarnate slots and powers. If you are not level 50 Prometheus will buff you to 50. But you will still have to train to 50 to actually use Incarnate powers, and you will still need to actually slot incarnate powers before using them.] - If there are not enough players to form a reasonable raid on the mothership, RulaCole will expend some of his vast power to destroy the mothership. - Either way, we're not going to be just blowing up a few grates and taking out a few Rikti. When the players finish off the Rikti defenders, someone will set the mothership's reactor to overload, permanently destroying the portal to the Rikti homeworld. Its unclear what happens when a Rikti Mothership reactor overloads. Might be interesting to see. [Note: i.e. I'm not sure what we've planned will work, but if it does hopefully it will be memorable] - Neutralizing the mothership and destroying the Rikti homeworld portal will alert the Battalion that humanity is up to something. They will push their advance team to secure a beachhead on Earth and accelerate their invasion of the planet. Expect to see Shivan assault squads attack. They will focus their attention on RulaCole, so players should seek to engage those forces at that location. RulaCole will be in near the heart of the crater and not hard to spot. Rularuu is usually not easy to miss. - The initial Shivan assault will be reinforced by Kheldian slaves, and then the Battalion themselves. An unknown number of Battalion soldiers will be there commanding the advance forces. Unlike the Shivans and Kheldians, they are immensely powerful Incarnate-class foes with exotic powers. Players should try to team up to take them on. - Whether the players defeat the invasion force and the Battalion or not, RulaCole will continue his task to render Primal Earth shielded from the Battalion. When he succeeds, the Battalion on Earth will be cut off from much of their power. They will then be much easier to defeat. [Note: perfect balance is difficult under these circumstances, so the players may be able to beat the Battalion we have cooked up, or they may not. Either way, there's a specific cutout designed into the story to make it easier for the players to take them down at the appropriate time.] - Mender Silos also has one last trick up his sleeve. He's made a deal with Hamidon to assist in the defense of Earth. However, Hamidon no longer trusts humanity. Hamidon will come to Earth and attack the Battalion, but will not be friendly to humanity either. Players can decide whether to engage Hamidon, or leave him alone. |
Darn, my wife and I got on right after work, and the RWZ is already full. 
We'll keep trying to get in, but if we can't have fun everyone!
Please try my custom mission arcs!
Legacy of a Rogue (ID 459586, Entry for Dr. Aeon's Third Challenge)
Death for Dollars! (ID 1050)
Dr. Duplicate's Dastardly Dare (ID 1218)
Win the Past, Own the Future (ID 1429)
Quote:
Seriously? Well crap. I was about to get on thinking that I was going to be early.
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Originally Posted by Liquid
Darn, my wife and I got on right after work, and the RWZ is already full.
We'll keep trying to get in, but if we can't have fun everyone! |
Be well, people of CoH.
*Patiently waits for character copy to go through* Why didn't I do this yesterday?
I still play for fun
From Liberty to Freedom
Any team level
This sounds great, and is just another amazing thing Arcanaville has done for us. Thank you, Arcanaville!
I will have to be at work, so some other hero will have to stand in for me. Give 'em hell.
I hope someone can record this, with fraps and/or demorecord so we can all see it later!
I'm such a geek. Some of my heroes have journals.
Quote:
Someone teleported us in! I guess they'll try to teleport anyone in RWZ2 into RWZ1, so come on in!
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Originally Posted by Bill Z Bubba
Seriously? Well crap. I was about to get on thinking that I was going to be early.
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Please try my custom mission arcs!
Legacy of a Rogue (ID 459586, Entry for Dr. Aeon's Third Challenge)
Death for Dollars! (ID 1050)
Dr. Duplicate's Dastardly Dare (ID 1218)
Win the Past, Own the Future (ID 1429)
Quote:
...I skipped work for this. I hope I get one of those teleports.
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Originally Posted by Liquid
Someone teleported us in! I guess they'll try to teleport anyone in RWZ2 into RWZ1, so come on in!
|
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
Crashed. And getting ported back in now.
Be well, people of CoH.
(Trying to log in, now. I don't even know if I have a current character over there...)
There are no words for what this community, and the friends I have made here mean to me. Please know that I care for all of you, yes, even you. If you Twitter, I'm MrThan. If you're Unleashed, I'm dumps. I'll try and get registered on the Titan Forums as well. Peace, and thanks for the best nine years anyone could ever ask for.
Whew!
That was fun.
One of the craziest things to be successfully produced in-game. And did I mention fun?
WAY FUN!
Thank you again so much Arcanaville and Co for hosting this last great hurrah!
PS Thanks for the post-party bash and door prizes. All the shinies are very pretty.
That was a great way to see the game off. Thanks so much Arcanaville and everyone else who was involved.
Please try my custom mission arcs!
Legacy of a Rogue (ID 459586, Entry for Dr. Aeon's Third Challenge)
Death for Dollars! (ID 1050)
Dr. Duplicate's Dastardly Dare (ID 1218)
Win the Past, Own the Future (ID 1429)
Only question - when we talk about Beta, are we talking about "COH Subscriber Beta", which is what appears on my NCSoft start-up screen (along with "City of Heroes" and "City of Heroes Test")? Or are we talking about the basic Test server?
City of Heroes has three "modes" - Live, Test, and Beta. Note that when you use the character copy tool, it explicitly requires you to tell it whether you are transferring to Test or Beta. The NCLauncher has three options for the Live game, the test server, and the beta server.
Its a common error to assume "Beta" is test, because for years the test server hosted the Issue beta tests. That changed with Issue 18, where a special server was set up to conduct testing of the new issues that was completely separate from the normal test server. From Issue 18 to the present day, "Test" has been more or less a copy of live, sometimes with patches to live tested there first. "Beta" has been the home of extended testing of new issues before they hit live.
About a dozen posts from the first post in this thread are instructions for downloading and installing the Beta client, if a player doesn't have it at the moment. Its big, so you'll want to start that soon if your internet feed isn't zippy. And unfortunately, we have no real technical capability to do this event on the live servers (or for that matter the people necessary to run it on every server), which is why its happening on Beta. What's happening on Beta tomorrow can only happen on Beta.
Sometime between now and tomorrow morning I will be posting a sort-of guide to the event that will give people an idea of what to expect. But we're saving some surprises for shock value and because we might screw them up. We're very much in the position of getting into a plane and trying to do aerobatics for you, after spending a month studying what an airplane is by reading comic books.
[Guide to Defense] [Scrapper Secondaries Comparison] [Archetype Popularity Analysis]
In one little corner of the universe, there's nothing more irritating than a misfile...
(Please support the best webcomic about a cosmic universal realignment by impaired angelic interference resulting in identity crisis angst. Or I release the pigmy water thieves.)