Ultimo

Well, I tried him as a Peacebringer (I had one already at around L19), but it just didn't feel right. Manhunter is more physical, and a Peacebringer is very blasty. This led me to reconsider some of the other options. I think he needs to be some kind of melee class, but with some psychic leaning... perhaps a Brute or Tanker?

So, I'm back at it, trying to adapt a version of a DC character to the game. Martian Manhunter, with his MANY various abilities, is going to be really hard to do... so I'm hoping for some inspiration from the gallery. Some of his abilities I feel can be "simulated" using some of the pools (eg. invisibility, flight, and psychic stuff). His shapeshifting though, is probably not possible to do except with alternate costumes... and that doesn't need to relate to his AT or powers. Manhunter is known more for his durability and physical strength. Much of the time, these are his baseline powers... but I didn't want to just go blandly with invulnerability and super strength. Also, in recent years, he's become known for his psychic abilities, so perhaps I can simulate his strength with pools like Fighting. So... what do you all think? How would you suggest building a character to resemble the Martian Manhunter?

I can sympathize. I went almost 3 years unemployed (despite sending out THOUSANDS of resumes), and was actually kind of disappointed to have to go back to work. I even enjoyed the shutdown, because I could just lounge around, relax, read a book, etc... Well, that's it. As soon as I win the lottery, I'm quitting my job!

After evaluating a few builds in Mids, I've decided to make him a Tanker. Super Reflexes/Street Justice+Super Speed+Teleport (for Combat Teleport)+Power Mastery (I'm defining the Energy Torrent as a shockwave of air or perhaps a sonic boom, or some such).

Oh, I can rationalize almost anything, but I was hoping to make him behave more like the Flash, Quicksilver or other "traditional" speedsters. Too bad there's not a "Driveby" attack power in Super Speed, where you do damage in an area around yourself while moving, relative to your speed (that is, an AOE around the character, in a short line running behind him that would do damage relative to his movement speed).

I had thought about doing Kinetic Melee, but the animations are so SLOW... not a speedster set, if you ask me. I ended up doing Street Justice, its animations are fairly quick, and he throws lots of combos, which suits the speedster style. Super Reflexes as his secondary. However, I'd been considering the other option, SR primary, SJ secondary tanker. I just wasn't sure how well it fit the type.

So I'm creating a speedster character, insipred by the Flash or Quicksilver. My initial instinct is to make him a Scrapper... but I've been reconsidering. Upon reading some of the comics featuring such characters, I find that they don't spend their time doing damage to enemies very much, but instead distracting and hindering them. That might suggest the CONTROLLER class, but I was wondering about making him a Tanker. Any thoughts? What class would you make a pure speedster?

I actually have ALL of the Sorcery set (and I'm planning on Fire for my Ancillary pool). The question I'm wrestling with is whether to swap out Spirit Ward for Frostwork. I don't expect to get much use from it solo, but I wanted it for those times I'm in a group. I'm just not sure which is of more use.

So, I've created an Illusion/Frost Controller (Loki), and I'm at the point where I'm deciding whether to use Frostwork or Spirit Ward. Most of my time is spent solo, so neither one is going to be much use to ME, but I'd like to be able to use one as an "Oh CRAP" power, to save an ass in a pinch. Which one would you all suggest is a better choice?

Still hoping for some feedback...

I still say I'd like to see them revamp the naming system. There's an awful lot of names that are encumbered with weird characters and letters, punctuation and so on... evidence that people couldn't make a name they liked without trying to work around the current system. As I said before, linking the character's name to the @handle would do the trick, and has done so in other games. (ie. My character named Ultimo would appear as Ultimo in the game, but the server would identify him as Ultimo@Ultimo1... allowing other players to have a character named Ultimo, where the server would identify them as Ultimo@handle.)

Has anyone tried it? I've had no feedback here or in game...

When I created my Green Lantern homage, I made him a Controller, Electric Affinity and Force Fields. The idea was that the electric controls were ring constructs. However, I found playing that combo was just painfully slow and unbelievably hard on endurance, so I gave up on him. I tried him as a Defender and Corruptor with Electric Blasts and Force Fields, but again I found that pretty tough to play and enjoy... he's just SO squishy and heavy on endurance. So I recreated him as a Peacebringer, but didn't care for the visuals, and found him WAY too squishy. So I recreated him as a Sentinel with Electric Blasts and Energy Aura. He's fairly effective, but I miss his Force Fields, so I keep going back and forth whether to go back to the Defender.

Ok! So, I've finished all the missions up, and revamped the dialogs. I swapped the map in the first mission, I'd like to hear opinions from those who played the original map... which do you prefer? The current one, through the pass, or the old one, the castle? As usual, all comments and suggestions are welcome and appreciated.

Fourth mission is up, but I'm debating switching the map. One issue is the ally I included. His presence makes the fight with the boss far too easy, so I'm pondering how to include him. Anyway, it's there if anyone wants to give it a try. Also, all the ratings were reset, I couldn't republish the arc after editing it locally... so any ratings or reviews are welcome.

Much appreciation for the feedback. I realize the soldiers are all pretty easy, I kind of wanted that to allow the heroes to feel like Captain America beating up the hordes of bad guys... until they meet the actual superhumans, who are MUCH sturdier stuff. Most of the superhumans are Bosses, though, so I wouldn't want to upgrade the Officers to that level. I might make them Lieutenants, though. I should also say, much of the text is going to be overhauled, so don't worry too much about that side of it. The only thing I'm not sure of is how to change the size/colour of the text (such as in the title, and perhaps in the chat bubbles of certain bosses). The next mission is set to be during the attack on Berlin. The heroes will be called upon to attack the hideout of one of the more powerful of the German supers while the conventional troops are engaging the normal troops in Berlin proper.

Anyone finding them too easy? Too difficult? I've been debating upgrading all the actual villains to Elite Bosses, with certain ones to Arch Villain. Any thoughts?

Ok, it's up to three missions now, a little rough around the edges, but the basic stuff is there. First mission is in North Africa Second mission is in Southern Italy Third mission is in Europe Fourth mission is planned for Berlin Fifth will take us to the Pacific, Guadalcanal Any thoughts or feedback would be great.

Ok, I've published it as The World at War. Right now, there's two missions. I'd welcome any feedback. The first one is set in North Africa, using a Cimerora map. The second one is intended to be the THIRD in the series, but there is no #2 yet. That one will be in Sicily once I decide on a mission. Of note, I'm trying to decide what to do with the various superhuman enemies and allies you meet. I feel like they're just to easy as Boss level enemies, but I'm not sure about making them Elite Bosses, as there are occasions where there will be several wandering together as a patrol. What do you think, is it unreasonable to make them Elite Bosses?

Ya, I did consider doing separate arcs for each warzone... but I dislike doing that, I prefer my stories to be all in one arc (though, that does tend to make them rather long). I'll look over the Cimerora maps again, though.

So, I've been tinkering for a while now, trying to make a series of missions set during World War 2. I've made one mission now, it would actually be later in the series, being set in Europe after D-Day, but I'm struggling with some of the other theatres. I'd intended to have a mission from each significant area (North Africa, Sicily, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Berlin and the Pacific), but I don't know how many missions I can include in the arc, and I can't decide on maps. The difficult ones are North Africa and Sicily. I can use the St. Martial and Mercy Island maps for Europe, even Berlin, and Croatoa can stand in for parts of Eastern Europe and the Pacific. Anyone have any suggestions for maps I might use? Anyone know how many missions I can include?

Many times now, I've heard reference to issue this or issue that... and I am made to wonder, is there an actual STORY arc going on in this game? I've never really noticed one, just going from random one-off mission to mission. Many (even most) MMOs have some kind of story as a main plot, with numerous isolated stories scattered about that don't or only peripherally affect the main plot. Is that what we have here? If so, where does the main story begin? What missions are part of it, and in what order should they be played?

They might call it "Momentum."

I've often suggested that Rage be reworked (along with the rest of the Super Strength set). My thought was that it be a toggle, that increases damage output, but at greater endurance cost and reduced accuracy. The idea there would be that the character is usually holding back, and by turning on the toggle, they're "taking off the gloves," so to speak. I don't like that the power set is so dependent on one or two powers (ie. Rage and KO Blow), and that it lacks any real sense of STRENGTH. I mean, the defining thing about strength is that it allows you to lift and move heavy objects. Watch the fight between Superman and Captain Marvel in the JLA animated series (Clash), and you'll see what I'm on about. They do a lot of throwing things around, tons of collateral damage, they knock each other flying all the time. In this game, there's none of that. We can punch things, but LOTS of sets do that. We don't even knock things around reliably. I realize the engine doesn't support interacting with the environment in a meaningful way, but I feel like they could do some things to make the set feel like the character has STRENGTH. I would like to see some cosmetic collateral damage in the form of cracks on surrounding terrain, and debris being tossed around (where appropriate). I'd love to see more knockback, but a lot of people find that undesirable. I'd slot knockback enhancers for my own enjoyment, but then I'd lose the ability to slot other, more necessary things (like damage). So, I'd like to see them make knockback more desirable, perhaps by making it do some extra damage, relative to the distance knocked (this would even allow non-damaging powers like Force Bolt or Hand Clap to do some damage). Finally, I would love to see more AOE attacks. Martial artists like Batman or Captain America attack lots of foes by attacking quickly, one target at a time. Super strong characters hit lots of foes at once by attacking with sweeping attacks or hitting them with large objects (like the big rock in Hurl). Speaking of Hurl, I think it should come MUCH sooner in the set, as it's the only power in there that allows the character to lift a heavy object. The object in question should be even larger if Rage is active, and in either case should be an AOE. But, I don't want to derail things too much, so I'll stop here.

So, I started a Mastermind character based on the Red Skull. My original thinking was to make him Mercs/Poison, and supplement him with the Experimentation pool. However, I found Poison to be almost entirely useless (at least at lower levels). The debuffs don't seem to DO anything, and there's no way to protect MYSELF in combat. So, I changed over to Radiation. However, I'm finding Radiation rather underwhelming too. The debuffs again don't seem to do much of anything, and while he CAN heal himself, the heal is pretty weak. On top of all that, the Experimentation pool is striking me as really weak too. Toxic Dart recycles pretty quickly, but does almost no damage. Corrosive Vial is an AOE, but again does almost nothing and has a ridiculously long cooldown. Experimental Injection... does what, exactly? It seems to do almost nothing as well, and has an even LONGER cooldown. In short, I'm having a tough time figuring out how to build this character so he's in concept, so I thought I'd see what you all think. Am I out to lunch on these power sets? Are Poison and Radiation actually better sets than I'm seeing? The basis of the character is still Red Skull, but the one from the comics, not the movies. That means he's a normal guy in a mask, a brilliant scientist and leader. The plan was to give him the Field Master pool at the end to reference his control of the Cosmic Cube (probably his most iconic story arc). So, what do you all think, how would you build a Red Skull themed character?