Greycat

Blood of the Black Stream Origin: Likely magic, or magic/tech. Side: Unknown, though almost all traces in game are redside. Restrictions: Unknown, probably origin. Specialty: More shapeshifting. Sean Fish (Manticore) kept pushing for this EAT to be finished and introduced into the game, and I really wish he would have succeeded.There are several interesting “hooks” for them in game as it is. Group history: The Blood of the Black Stream stretch back to Ancient Egypt. They were a group of mages who attempted to overthrow the Pharaoh and seize power by means of bribery of his followers. They were defeated by an enchanted statue sent after the Pharaoh prayed to Ra for an unshakably loyal protector. (COH website, “You are the hero” card - Ahnek Rah-Zul.) We don’t know what they’ve been doing for the intervening time, only that Gadzul Oil, an oil concern based in Egypt, is their “modern day face.” They still work to control and corrupt people in positions of power, as well as run a (“leaky”) oil refinery off the Rogue Isles. The oil is apparently more than it seems, as they try to build “the circuit.” Traces in game: Mr. Bocor, “Retrieve the journal off Padre Henry,” mentions them - the book he’s interested in, “The Journal of Padre Gerard Henri,” was a gift to “old man” Marcone they’re trying to pass to Emil Marcone now. It’s a book with the history of the island - which Gadzul Oil is also cursed in a way that allows the owner to be controlled via “the right kind of magics.” Port Oakes, Oil Spill, [785.3 227.5 1450.8] - the oil spilling from the Gadzul Oil tanker forms an Eye of Horus. Other traces - With the City of Heroes CCG, a card builder was created on the COHCCG website and a contest, “You are the hero” was run. This was won on Sept 25, 2005, by Ahnek Rak-Zul, a Tanker from the Protector server. Sean Fish tweaked the description slightly to link them directly to the Blood of the Black Stream. Other than these, we really don’t know much about them other than that they would also have been a shapeshifting AT with ancient Egyptian roots. Would we have *gone* to Egypt, ancient or otherwise? Doubtful, barring some special mission map, but I’ll admit to being interested in them since I first heard of them.

"Almost made it!" These are EATs that have some traces or other information in game, that were (or were *likely* worked on or at least seem to be solidly sketched out, but didn’t make it into the game. Nictus Side: Villain Origin: Science We don’t know what all would have happened with the Nictus. Would they have had different forms? (More “Life stealing” forms are mentioned roughly in the Kheldian backstory guide from 2004.) Been more about control? Possibly been more like masterminds? What we know or can deduce is basically from what we have in the Kheldians on hero side - we’d have likely seen the other side of the Kheldian war. How you would have interacted with Arachnos, Requiem or Arakhn is intriguing. And we know they were being worked on because of the quote from Matt Miller about wanting to work on the Incarnate EAT after finishing Nictus. These were put on the back burner - essentially scrapped - in favor of the Soldiers of Arachnos / Widows that we got. Which to me is too bad, I'd have loved to see that side of the war, and with side switching I'd think the story line would still have been viable (and/or would have been able to remove the side starting restriction from Khelds.)

Coralax AT: Coralax. (More likely “Coralax Hybrid,” Perhaps Virtea, but these would more likely be NPCs. Side: Perhaps villainside, unknown. Origin: Likely magic and/or mutation Restrictions: Unknown Likely Special: (Speculation) Possibly introducing an underwater zone, given the “pond” discovered in Grandville. The Coralax exist in game as an NPC enemy faction, mostly in City of Villains, though they do make some appearances on blue side. All non-Shapers we see are Coralax Hybrids - including Barracuda, Captain Mako’s lieutenant. The Coralax are creations of the goddess Merulina, who fell to Earth millions of years ago (COH) and made her followers from the coral of the sea. (This is the basis for the “possibly Magic origin.”) Merulina created the Shapers, the high priests and leaders of Coralax civilization, who are psychically connected to Merulina - and are confused by her recent silence. So what are Virtea? These were a peaceful aquatic race who were dominated by the Coralax by various means and serve as a slave species. (“Dominated through a combination of charm, intimidation and mental strength, the Virtea serve the will of the Coralax.”) “Pure” Coralax bodies are actually coral (“As the pollution began to degrade the very coral from which their bodies were made…” (COH) ) For an idea of what the player’s abilities might have been? Simply look at Barracuda - who was captured and changed by the Shapers. (This is where I think they *might* have been considered “mutation,” though given the change was initiated by the Shapers’ magic, I lean more towards that.) There’s at least one other trace of the Coralax from early in the game’s history - at least indirectly (after all, they were planned in 2004.) In Striga Isle, during Stephanie Peebles’ arc, you rescue some scientists that “found something” in the ocean - some sort of creature. That something was one of the Virtea. (Why the Council is interested? Not explained, but given the Nictus….) Not much else is known or easily deduced about the Coralax, sadly. I could not find many other quotes or much other information about them. Still, with them being in game as an NPC group, I feel comfortable putting them in the “Sorta in game” category. Next, the “Almosts.”

Incarnates AT: Incarnates Side: Unlikely to have been side-locked Origin: Unknown, unlikely to have been locked - or, potentially its own “origin.” Restrictions: Unknown. Incarnates - even if not known by that name - have existed in the game since its beginning. Statesman, the “central figure” heroside, was an Incarnate of Zeus. Lord Recluse, the leader of Arachnos, the villain group, is an Incarnate of Tartarus. Sstheno, in mythology a gorgon, was the leader/mother/goddess of the snake people on the Rogue Isles, and when Cimerora was introduced, Imperious was also an Incarnate - among others. Silos is mentioned in an AMA as possibly being an “Incarnate of Time.” Incarnates drew their power from, or were granted it by, the Well of the Furies - which itself has undergone some change, from early on being a vague “something” that took in Humanity’s creativity, ambition, dreams and more and occasionally opened to release it and trigger an age of heroes to being a sentient “thing.” Above Incarnates were Ascended - Prometheus, DJ Zero and Ruularu fell in here. They are around the same level as a Well. Above them are Dimensionless. In the storylines roughly sketched out (AMA 2013, 2014) after the Battalion (and True Battalion,) we’d have fought with or against them - and the Wells, then the Dimensionless, Primordials, then protected the First Primordial against the Concepts of Order and Chaos - it got nuts. Wells were supposed to be buffers between their species and the Source. Some notes have them being the Primordeals. Also, as far as wells, in the AMA 2013 discussing the Battalion, it’s mentioned Earth’s well was unique in that it would grant powers to people. (And that Mender Tesseract was a member of the Battalion.) Mechanically, Incarnates went from being an Epic AT to being a new power advancement system - in some ways adding levels without adding levels. Initial stories were based in Praetoria and, later, with the awakening and re-binding of Mot in Dark Astoria. Powers were going to continue to grow in strength, sectioned off with one “tree” growing off another. As it sits, going by “tiers” of powers (starting with the single bottom power on the “tree”), we have or would have had: (Current - see descriptions in game for these.) Set 1: Alpha Judgement/Interface (AOE or PBAOE, as well as added effects) Lore/Destiny (Pets/Buffs) Set 2: Hybrid (in game, toggle with player buffs.) Genesis (next slot, not developed - AOE buff/debuff patches.) Mind, Vitae, Omega (No description) Set 3 - at least the last set we have descriptions for (AMA 2013) Arete: Instant recharge of all powers for a period Majesty: (Confuse foes, who self destruct at the end of the confuse period) Infinity: (Player doppelgangers) Transcendence (Uniiversal immunity, can attack into Phase) Fulfillment (major PBAOE and level shifts.) Apparently the story line would have required this increasingly insane power - and/or the development of COH 2. (AMA 2013) The system was designed to not end, but it did, just like the development of these as an EAT. Whether that’s good or bad is a matter of personal taste. I don't know how the whole concept of "the prior tree would have been trivialized" (and, by extension, the player's own powers) would have been received by the playerbase. I can't imagine it would be embraced wholeheartedly. Even what we have now leads to the occasional complaint of homogenization.

“Once an Epic” - Proposed EATs that got into the game as something else. If you've played (or play) City of Heroes, those names might sound familiar. They existed in the game at shutdown. But they became something very different. One became a system to give players additional power without raising a level cap, the other was introduced as - and stayed as - an NPC villain group. So let’s take a look.

Soldiers of Arachnos / Widows - VEAT (Villain EAT) AT: Soldiers of Arachnos (SOA,) Widows Side: Villain Restrictions: Origin. Must get to 50. First costume slot dedicated to Arachnos uniform costume. Gender (SOA: Male, Widow: Female) Features: Branching mechanic at 24. Leadership equivalent in power pools. When City of Villains was released, player characters were rescued from the Ziggursky penitentiary by Arachnos, one of the primary villain groups run by Lord Recluse, friend-turned-rival to Statesman. This was done due to a prophecy about a Destined One who would aid Arachnos’s goals. But what about the rank-and-file troops, passed over and sacrificed to help these super-powered villains out of prison, just to dump them in their home, the Rogue Isles? The VEAT lets you take on the role of one of them, taking your destiny into your own hands and letting you compete to become a Destined One… or so you think, discovering partway through your journey that your attempts were essentially allowed for the amusement of Lord Recluse. These were given a “branching” mechanic. You would initially start out as a Soldier or Widow at level 1. At level 24, you were put into a forced respec (which was, and still is, very annoying) and had to pick a path. For the Soldiers, you would pick either a Crab Spider - an armored fighter with a backpack from which four mechanical weapons arms emerged - or a Bane Spider, a stealthy melee fighter. Widows would either become Night Widows - vicious melee fighters - or Fortunata, more psychic ranged attackers. The storyline is.. Eh, rather uninspiring, even insulting at times, and I don’t know of many who’ve even mentioned playing it more than once (at least past the level 10 arc which unlocked a costume slot.) VEATs were more (in)famous for double-stacking Leadership. Leadership is a power pool with toggles to provide a buff to the defense, to-hit and damage of you and your team. VEATs got these as part of their native powerset, and the Leadership power pool was not locked out - so if you could stomach the endurance cost to run them all, you could have fairly powerful team buffs, and if you had multiple VEATs doing this… Yes, these were initially locked by gender, for reasons gone into in a story arc by Weston Phipps dealing with how the types were trained. Females went into the Widows, males went into the Bane Spiders - specifically because of the mental link / hive mind the Banes developed. There was also a longstanding bug regarding the Crab Spiders. For their powers, they required a backpack to be permanently attached with four mechanical weapon arms. City of Heroes allowed multiple builds on a character, and VEATs could pick the other path on the other build. If you did so on a SOA, though, and one build was the Crab, the other build could not get rid of the weapon arm backpack costume piece.

The Living EATs These are Epics that actually made it into game as playable, 1-50 Epic ATs, complete with story arcs. If you can pick them at character creation, they’re here. Note that the restrictions I mentioned are those at release - the level and origin restrictions were relaxed later, either on live or on “successor” servers. Kheldians / HEAT ATs: Peacebringer, Warshade Side: Heroic Restrictions: Origin (Peacebringer, Natural. Warshade, Science.) Side: Hero (cannot start villain, though you can side switch.) Originally locked out of Flight and Teleport pools. Features: Form shifting. Custom enemies (Quantum gunners, Void Hunters.) Released in Issue 3 on live (“A Council of War,”) Kheldians are an extragalactic race which can copy and reproduce the form of their hosts. Their hosts get new abilities while the Kheldians can extend their lives. The Kheldians fight a galaxy spanning war against their former rulers, once called Science Lords, now called Nictus, which was sparked after the Kheldians were directed to conquer and enslave an empire only to find it was essentially a cover for the Nictus, who had altered themselves via science, to drain the Kheldians’ life and extend their own. On Earth, the Nictus hiding there formed the Path of the Dark in Ravenna, Italy, and later become leaders in the Council, creating soldiers with powers similar to their own while plotting to conquer and convert the planet. The Peacebringers arrive during the Rikti war to put a stop to them, finding unexpected aid in rebel Nictus who don’t agree with their kin - the Warshades. The Kheldian ATs are known for shape shifting to fill multiple roles on a team, and handle their powers in very different ways tied to the lore. Later revisions on Live and the Homecoming servers first lowered, then removed the level to unlock Kheldians (also purchasable as an unlock with the coming of COH: Freedom, when the game went free to play.) The origin restrictions and power pool restrictions were also unlocked, though (in my opinion) the origin restriction was perfectly appropriate. The starting side is also set, though you bypass the tutorial and can side switch if desired.

Out to EAT - Epic ATs in City of Heroes This is an expansion and update of my EAT at War Witch’s guide from back on live. This is not a “how to build/play” for the Epic ATs we have or even a deep dive into the lore behind them. I’ve simply been fascinated by, and a fan of, the Epic AT concept since running into them way back in Issue 3 on live. What’s the purpose of this guide? Information and my own entertainment, mostly. This is meant to be a look at the concept of Epic ATs and what was proposed. We had some information on them back on live - some were mentioned ages ago and never came to light, or came to light differently - and some were mentioned afterward. Some, we have quite a bit of information on, some just a quick mention in passing. I would not expect Homecoming or any other successor server to come up with a true EAT. Even for the live development team, EATs were a lot of work - coming up with powersets and everything associated with them such as animations, then coming up with storylines from 1-50 specifically for them and, going by what they’d done before, only playable by those characters. For many of these, design was done, as well as some animation, but art and content were not. (Hosun Lee, 2013 AMA.) So what is an Epic AT? An Epic AT is an AT which is tied to some specific aspect of game lore. The “Epic” moniker is meant in the vein of the Epic of Gilgamesh - a story. It’s meant to set these apart so the player knows that there’s going to be story attached, and with it some restrictions and / or something special related to that story. For example, Kheldians (Peacebringer/Warshade,) the first EATs released, were initially locked - you had to get to level 50 to make one. They were restricted in origin, had special enemies, had certain power pools restricted, and can’t be made on the “wrong” side (not that there was a villain side when they were released.) In return, you got an extended power list and a unique shapeshifting AT, a special contact and story arcs running from 1-50. Even though only a scant pair of concepts made it all the way to having an AT in game, there are hints and traces of others throughout. Some were realized in other ways, some have their impact in the game environment, story arcs or clues. Some never had anything player-facing show up at all. Some of what I put in here will be guesses, and I’ll endeavor to be clear about them - if you see “Likely” or “Possibly,” it’s obviously a guess that I think makes sense with what we know about them.

Precisely. If someone specifically is asking "I want a high damage set/high AOE set/etc," that's another matter and can be answered that way. But the "I like this set but someone told me it sucks, did I make a mistake?" - no, you didn't, and that sort of attitude about "only the high damage stuff is best" is nothing but damaging. No, I don't think @Ghost misread it, because the OP says *exactly that.* They build for concept, but: So, yes, for someone like this? It's fine to say (say) "Earth/FF on a controller is going to be slow, just so you know" or "Plan for a fire/storm controller to be an END hog" or answer about performance for people *asking for damage-above-all* with rankings and whatnot. But when they're being told it sucks *and it directly ends up lowering their enjoyment of the game,* then letting them know that playing for concept is fine and perfectly viable *is* the appropriate answer. No matter if other people don't like that answer or not. Play to your own goals and enjoyment.

"Vengeance is mine!" sayeth the Defender who took Leadership. 😉

Lemming things badgers are revolting, noted... 😉 (I'm actually surprised this wasn't mentioned earlier, though. Even by me...)

Nope.

Merits, yes, salvage, no. Threads can also be used to purchase "super" inspirations in Ouroboros from Luna if you want something else to burn them on.

I like it. >.> While we're at it, how about a "greatest american hero" flail (granted, I think that was mostly when he was trying to land) or one with the character resting on their back, head propped in their hands, not even looking where they're going... >.> (I have plenty of non serious characters - and even a few of the serious ones - who'd use any number of things like this.)

Pistol mullets. And that works.

Not sure I'd join, but something to consider for your costume challenges (on off weeks if someone doesn't have ideas) - For a while there were color palette contests run (well, challenges, not contests, no prizes other than "look at these!") on live. I did them for a bit as well - and finding a good palette can be challenging itself - but just throwing out a 3-4 color palette and giving folks X time to come up with something is surprisingly fun. (Think I used to use Kuler, but the site was either down or paid last time I checked... some time ago. Other sites like colorkit.co exist, though. ) (In other words, doing something like "Match this as best you can and see what you can do with it!" and just giving these colors to work with: )

I keep expecting a suggestion for a new GM with some of the Water based powers from the title. As far as the OP? Yeah, GMs aren't going through gates - they'd get zapped. (I'd had to intentionally do that on live a time or two.) Even if they didn't, I'd ... really rather not have them crossing zones, and *really* not if it were awarding double merits - that'd be exploited to hell and back. (And, personally, I'm not fond of the "announce who did it!" thing, but that's more a me thing.)

No it isn't. There's nothing to the original post but "this NPC has no chill," and nothing to be added with further discussion. There's no "fresh look" to be had. Especially from a post *From 2019.* This is why there should be a lock on posts after some amount of time with no activity.

I'm *suspecting* not. Or that it might not be desirable to the dev team because off the length of some of the old TFs (old Posi vs Posi 1,) or just to avoid confusion. Or, well, game code prevents it. But those are just my guesses.

Nope, it was created after. Some people liked the fast non-snipe and wanted it 24/7. (And yes, I want an IO that does the opposite and prevents fast snipe.)

I've heard this from one or two other folks, but haven't experienced it myself - though I rarely change the color of my windows. Curious about this myself.

There are actually three types of ambush behaviour I've noted: 1. Goes to preset location. Usually if you find something or rescue someone. Avoidable by ... walking slightly to the side and watching them run by, even if not stealthed. 2. Goes to player-location-on-triggering. More noticeable with waves. While they act *much* like #1, they'll end up at different locations - either where you were at a timer, where you were when it triggered, or where you were when the last enemy (apparently) of the last wave defeated or the body vanished. 3. The heat seeker. The ones that hunt you down no matter what, follow through elevators, if a teammate dies and comes back they run to the door JUST to kill them again. Ignores stealth. (I *want* to say there's one that's kind of a mix of 2 and 3, that'll run to a location *then* start hunting, but they're a little hard to determine... they're very easy to miss if they're doing this.)

... worst bowl of Lucky Charms ever.

Mm, yeah, had to double check, Parry gives a Melee/Lethal damage buff, but not Smashing. Edit: Heh. @Rudra, ya jinx... 🙂

Well, I did put in "Def/Res" later. And depending on the set, some *are* fairly drop-dead simple to cap or near-cap. 🙂