Dusty Longshot

In the past I've used Titan Icon to create group shots of my alts like these: It's still available for download, but I'm not sure if it works with the current HC client data.

For years I did not know what I would do with a 3D printer, if and when I would buy one....you have just given me a reason to buy one. These look awesome!

This looks awesome and I like the origin story of her, and the costume. Maybe you've mentioned this earlier and I've missed it, but on what server do you play? I'd like to meet Omega Girl for real and run some missions with her, if that's okay.

Mystophelees [Grav/Time Controller], clearly inspired by Doctor Strange from MCU.

Lumitia [Illu/Rad Controller], Alien Princess in battle costume, I really like how I managed to give it a "royal" look. She also has a dress costume with a long skirt and high-collar cape.

Chief Silent Eagle [Ar/WP Sentinel], don't expect him to respond to you if you see him. He's not rude, he just can't speak.

Emberflair [Fire/Kin Controller] in her red magic costume

Brilliant strategy, made me chuckle. This reminded me of the first time I encountered Malta, in The Hollows, as a level 16, exiting a mission, within the first month of playing the game. I did a broadcast that there were level 50 Malta hanging around in The Hollows, someone replied asking for the location, within minutes a couple of level 50's showed up and handled the Malta's with ease. That was the moment I realized I wanted to be that powerful and it became a motivational point in my career in CoH. To have a level 50 and be able to help lower level heroes with random encounters like that.

I never gave any attention to the absence of the game in the bio's of my characters. When HC came online I started creating my characters as if they never left and nothing happened. Their bio's are nearly similar to what they were in 2012. Only minor changes to refine details or shorten them. I do like the idea of a "blink", like Thanos snapped his fingers and all of Paragon City/Rogue Isles vanished for 7 years.

I agree (to a point) that this is the case with all the options the HC Dev's offer us to "power-level" a character. Think of 2XP, AE Farm's offered by others, DFB runs, +4/x8 PI teams, TF/SF's. I'm guilty of PL'ing a few characters from 1 to 20 using 2XP and PI teams. So getting to 50 and getting Incarnates would be a breeze if I stick to that formula and hang out with those teams for about 12-16 hours (rough guess, not based on any facts). But that's my choice. I choose to take the "easy" route to 50. Just like it is my choice to not take that route for other characters and stick with 1XP solo'ing every mission I get. Learning how my characters' powers work and fine-tuning the attack chain so I can handle 3-4 yellow/orange mobs with my level 9 Fire/Kin controller. It's not so much that the game itself, or the process of becoming that powerful is easy. It is the conscious choice of the player to take an easy route or challenging route to become powerful.

All my characters have backstories...some small, some too large to put on the I.D. But there is not a single characters that I create "just for fun". There has to be a reason for this hero (or villain) to exist. Over the years these backstories have developed and little details have changed, but the overall story stays the same. My main for example, Star Jewel (Energy/Energy Blaster), she was born with her powers but they only started manifesting around the age of 4. And it wasn't until she was halfway through 16 when she actually (yet accidentally) used her powers. Which forced her to leave school and move to Paragon City. (No, she wasn't born there). She wasn't even registered as a hero a few years after moving there and being trained. Her sister, Mystfury (Storm/Elec Defender), wasn't born with powers. She didn't even choose to have powers, they were forced on her by the Circle of Thorns when she got kidnapped by them while visiting her sister in Paragon City. Her backstory is dark and terrifying. Then there are Emberflair (Fire/Psi Dominator) and Omegamax (SJ/EA Brute), both in their teens when they got their powers from magic space stones. Think Power Rangers meets Avengers Infinity War. There are 6 stones made of some exotic magic substance, each having a specific set of powers. Some big bad creature wants all 6 stones. Some old wizard from another planet tries to protect them. He loses 3 and brings the others to Earth. Emberflair and Omegamax find the wizard and the 3 stones. They merge with 2 and gain powers. Their I.D.'s show nearly similar stories with only minor differences as they are told from their perspective. Miss Unity (SS/WP Brute), similar to Captain America's origin, was created around WWII using science and tech. But she's not from the U.S., she is Europe's Super-Soldier. Working for the resistance during WWII she was nearly killed during a transport mission. Rescued by fellow resistance fighters and brought to a lab where she would become a super soldier voluntarily. Lumitia (Ill/Rad Controller), alien princess, not of Earth, daughter of an emperor. Wanted to secretly study life on Earth but crashed instead. Earth's atmosphere changed her cell structure giving her the ability to manipulate light. She's an Illusion controller. Also, she's being "hunted" by the emperor's guards who need to take her home. Novaspark (Peacebringer), daughter of Star Jewel and (unknown male), she inherited part of her mother's powers. Dawnshade (Dark/Dark Dominator), orphan who was experimented on by a mad scientist. And I could go on for a while, but this reply is already a whole lot longer than I planned. But you get the idea.

AFAIK it has not been adapted for HC. Although I believe their client could work for any CoH Server. I think it works by reading memory addresses used by CoH, then parsing the data from those addresses and sending it to a separate database server. The website then uses the data from the database to show you what you see. I've tried to run the client several times but I get some sort of error that it can't connect to a server. Yet I believe that if the database server would be offline the website wouldn't work correctly either. And you can still add/edit/delete characters manually I believe. So that's not the case. I've been trying to build a similar website for months since HC went online, but time and knowledge prevent me from finishing it. The one thing I can't wrap my head around is how they managed to read data from the game. And my coding skillz are limited to PHP, so I can't build a client to read CoH data and send it to a server.

Is it because by nature I have always tried to be a good person? Helping people in any way possible? Is it because of the environment? It's so dark and somber. Is it because of the leveling curve? Although I'm not sure if it's any different from Blue Side. I've been trying to figure out why I'm not able to play Red Side for more than a few missions. Seriously, most villains I make won't go beyond level 4 before getting deleted. So, I'm asking you, the community,... What makes you play Red Side? What keeps you engaged to play "just one more mission" before realizing it's 5 o'clock in the morning and you have to go to work in 2 hours? Tell me what Red Side offers you to keep playing, and perhaps it will help me play Red Side longer and find the fun in being a villain.