Blackshear

Let's be honest, though...half of Paragon is literally in ruins. Galaxy City, Crey's Folly, Boomtown, Faultline, the RWZ, the Hollows, etc...literally half of the city zones look like Berlin in May of 1945. The Isles are more rundown than Paragon's nicer neighborhoods, but far less of them are in actual rubble.

Every time I venture into Pocket D lately it's pretty dead, and I'm told people are in this or that player-run club. While the clubs are cute, I don't see much story happening in them...just a bunch of demonesses engaging in foreplay, typically. (I only play male characters so that's not my scene.) So, where are the story-driven RPers getting together these days?

Chocobos. I am reminded of this old quote... "The six-foot bird-steeds known as chocobos are a nice addition to the cuter incarnations of Final Fantasy. However, tradition demands that they be included in every installment, even the angst-suffused grimfests. So you get characters saying things like, 'Who are all of us really? Can you ever know your own soul?' and in the background someone's riding a giant chicken." — Lore Sjoberg

Related topic: Angels Believe it or not, your angel character does not have to be a snotty, uncompromising hyper-moralist who all but spits on humanity and who makes the demons look cool by comparison! Can somebody in this game please create an angel character who does not seem to take all cues from the Hellblazer version of Gabriel? You don't have to use your angel as a punching bag for your personal frustrations with organized religion; instead consider making them an example of what you think goodness should be. Some keywords to ponder: grace, charity, mercy, forbearance, benevolence.

Aw, thank you! That's very kind.

People are gonna play demons, dragons, and gods...learn to live with it. (I even came across one toon, roughly level 4, who was going on about being a half-demon half-dragon who had ascended to godhood. Needless to say she was in Pocket D cruising for lesbian sex.) I do, however, have a few notions I'd like to share on the general presentation of demons...who they are, what their cosmic role is, their relationship with human souls, and so forth. Just some food for thought: Souls Suggestion: Every person's soul is ultimately their own. The notion that a soul can be stolen / eaten / destroyed without the owner's consent ultimately goes against most major religious and spiritual beliefs. It also fits with the consensual nature of RP that your soul cannot be lost or taken unless you, at some level, consent to this occurring. Of course, this could occur by psychologically breaking down a subject until, in their heart, they surrender their soul. Once your soul is surrendered the evil entity can do what it wants to the poor thing. There are canon examples of soul trapping in the game, such as Numina during the Mortimer Kal strike force. Soul traps are definitely on the table in game. However, bear in mind that in the Morty Kal situation Numina had to be weakened enough to be trapped, and when the trap was physically damaged she immediately escaped. What it comes down to is this: if another player states that you can't eat their soul they're not godmoding...you are. Literally. The role of demons In that vein, remember that the general role of demons in Western religion is to either punish the wicked or to tempt and corrupt mortals in order to bring about their damnation. I see a lot of people RPing "slaughter" demons who frenzy and kill mortals by the bushel, but that really makes little sense. Demons killing indiscriminately are not going to be able to claim all those innocent souls, after all. Tragedies such as mass slaughter do not necessarily break mortals down, either...tragedy sometimes makes us band together and can even cause some people to commit themselves to the greater good. Anyway, we don't need demons to slaughter us, not when we do such a good job of that ourselves. A warrior demon that exists to enforce underworld "laws," prop up a demon warlord, or to fight against other supernaturals, though, makes perfect sense. Demons and their freaking high-and-mighty attitudes It makes sense for demons to be contemptuous of mortals. I think that's a reasonable take. If you'd previously spent eleventy-zillion years hanging out with Hitler, Pol Pot, Ted Bundy, and similar dregs you'd be forgiven for thinking all of humanity is the pits. However, the more intelligent demons might realize a few home truths. First, not all mortals are like that. Second, some mortals attain sufficient power to challenge demons (whether the demon is PC controlled or an AV or what have you, I promise there is some "mortal" character out there who can bring it down). Third, mortal souls are just as eternal as demons, and on the cosmic scale are their equals, and perhaps even their betters. Finally, morally speaking a tempter demon is a very low creature. There is no human crime, no matter how despicable, that they are better than. If you want people to damn themselves then you are lending your tacit approval to literally the worst possible behaviors. Bear that in mind before you start thinking demons are sexy. Tempter demons in particular are about as sexy as a drunk slob in a chili-stained tank top beating his family. Actually, morally speaking, they've even lower. Demons as rebels and iconoclasts I think a lot of players play demons because it makes them feel free. Demons don't have to follow the rules! They can do whatever they want, neener neener neener! Well, that's legit, but I think it's important to consider what your demon is rebelling against. One literary conceit regarding the underworld that I enjoy is the notion that even a powerful demon can never really be comfortable there. The notion of the underworld as a cut-throat collection of nasties constantly trying to take each other down definitely has some dramatic merit. Much like the damned, demons may well live in an environment that is constantly changing for the worse. They can spend millennia scrambling up the ranks just to have it all ripped out from under them in an instant. Perhaps the demons in the underworld are, in their way, being punished just as much as the damned. Maybe here and there one of them realizes their whole system is basically a scam and just walks away. There's certainly some room for drama and character arcs in a backstory like that. (And room for demonic enforcer types to show up to try to drag them back home.) On top of that, some demons might be allowed the illusion of progress by more powerful demons, just to have it ripped out from under them purely for the lulz. D&D Demons You cannot expect other roleplayers to accept D&D lore as canon in CoH. Read CoH's native lore on demons, elaborate on it as you will, but don't sit in Pocket D sniffling at people that you're not a DEMON, you're a DEVIL from Baator, etc. etc. etc. Not only is that technically a Code of Conduct violation it's just plain lazy. I mean, I get it, D&D cosmology is fun, but claiming it as your backstory is really no different than saying you're from Krypton or Middle Earth or something. The CoH afterlife is limitless and could cover a whole lot of very different underworld experiences. Go nuts! There's loads of world mythology out there about the underworld critters that plagued a thousand different civilizations. There's a whole lot of rich material out there to draw from that isn't anybody's intellectual property. Or just make up some backstory stuff for your demon that's so cool that other players will want to be part of it!

Nope, unpublished arcs just sit on your hard drive. If you've lost any such content it is definitely a client-side issue. I still have arcs I wrote back on live, because I never uninstalled CoH after sunset, and I moved it from computer to computer with every new rig. Thus all of my content, from AE arcs to .critter files to costumes, was all primed and ready to go when HC launched.

That would be a beautiful thing, but I'm not sure how possible it would be for the game engine. But I would love nothing better than to play some epic wrestling brute and go suplex Lord Nemesis.

Right. I think the basic formula for a three toon team is x1.5 XP per critter, and that is then divided three ways. However, I don't know the numbers behind how mobs spawn based on team size. My gut feeling is my three man team will gain at least a bit more XP total than I got during my solo tests, but I'd like to get a feel for how great the difference would be.

Back on live I put one person on ignore after they went on a lengthy homophobic rant in broadcast in Pocket D. No loss. Haven't ignored anyone in HC as of yet.

I've got a question for the number crunchers: While I've been a COH player since 2007 I have never delved very much into the math behind the game. However, I am working on a short series of related AE's designed to tell an origin story for three brand new toons played by myself and two friends. Solo testing these arcs with a x2 XP modifier active I got a character to about level 8 on +0/+0 diff. The arcs comprise about 11 missions in total, all with small or tiny maps. If I run these same arcs with three characters how much would they level up in comparison to my solo testing, assuming we all have x2 XP mods? Thanks to any who reply!

You could, but it'd be more fun as an actual emote.

This would be an easy one. The posedown emote would simply cycle through flex 1, flex 2, and flex 3, holding each one for about three seconds, before moving onto the next in an infinite loop.

Thanks to everyone for their input! This has given me a lot of meat to chew on.

That's a good point, thank you.