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Locsmith

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Posts posted by Locsmith

  1. So many good memories listed here, really takes me back!  I'll toss in two more:
    Grendel - Matt Wagner (the first two volumes - after those it kind of went off a bit) - I have a wearable full head Grendel mask somewhere around here

    GrimJack - Jon Ostrander et al (the whole run and the special edition Demon Knight) - I actually have a silver demon star a friend found for me at Ren-Fair

     

    (Yes, I bought a lot of weird stuff in the 80's)😁

    • Like 1
  2. On 10/8/2020 at 7:08 PM, SeraphimKensai said:

    Now if only we could have an area to sit in the blimp and not fall to the ground. Could be very scenic.

    😀
    I have been begging for this since I got 'hover' on my very first character and took all that time to fly up there!  Sooooo disappointed when I just slid off!

  3. On 10/8/2020 at 5:21 PM, Troo said:

    Dr. Fate

    who wouldn't want super strength, is immortal, can both fly and phase, is invulnerable and has telepathic abilities

    Wonder Man from Marvel had those powers in the 80's and 90' (except for phase).  With his later energy form i think he could phase as well.  Because of that Wonder Man (90's version) is my answer.

  4. I cancelled my annual DC Universe subscription because they moved the originals to HBO Max.  I have no interest in the other HBO offerings and felt kind of cheated since they did not lower the subscription amount.

     

    I will have to say, I was never fond of the comic side of DC Universe.  Full disclosure, I have been a Marvel Unlimited sub for years.  DC missed one major feature that Marvel has, sort by original publish date.  One series added to a list was fine, but if I started adding more titles (like all the Legion titles in the 90's) to one list, I had to alternate adding one issue in one series then the other to read in proper order.  It just seemed too cumbersome when a simple sort would solve that.

  5. To the OP, use the browse function by publish date (range) and set it to a few months around when you stopped reading.  Add everything to your library and then set the library to sort by publish date (oldest first).  This will group everything in order it was originally released and you can start reading.  When you finish a comic, remove it from your library and just add the next comic in the series to your library and the new once will get automatically moved to the bottom in the proper order.  This way you get every thing regardless of canon or not (you will also pick up all the excellent suggestions above).

     

    You will want to check a few date ranges a year as you go to pick up limited series.

     

    Also, while you are catching up, be sure to add all the new stuff they post on the home page each week.  Eventually you will catch up and it will be nice to have those already in your library.  As long as you continue to sort by original publish date, the new ones will stay at the bottom out of your way until you are ready for them.  And don't worry about volume, i have had over 1000 in my library more than once.

     

    I have tagged this thread so let me know if you have any questions.

  6. I have a Merc MM and his guys are named Sword, Dagger and Shield (low level), Battle Axe and War Hammer (mid level) and Claymore (high level).

     

    I have a Necro MM and his are Bopper, Richie, Buddy, then John and George and finally Elvis.

     

    But the best one I every came across in game was a Ninja MM named ‘The Chairman’ and all his ninjas were named after Iron Chefs (Morimoto was the heavy, naturally!).

  7. Most of my characters are ‘reality’ based.  They use swords or some kind of gun.  I decided to go the opposite way and built a Psi/Fire blaster.  I went with a female form and gave her a red an orange costume and red hair.  Called her Mind-Fire.  Was so proud of myself!

    Spent about three minutes in Atlas Park before some one chatted me “Nice Phoenix clone.”

    ...

    Damn.  It.

    • Haha 4
  8. On 12/12/2019 at 9:20 AM, Fista said:

    Comics? Pssh. Read the novels. Web of Arachnos and Freedom Phalanx.

    So my original gaming rig had such slow load times I was able to read Web of Arachnos while waiting to enter missions or change zones!  I could get about a page done during each load screen.😁

    • Like 1
  9. On 12/9/2019 at 6:36 PM, srmalloy said:

    It's not relevant to the game per se, but this reminds me of a comment made by a blimp pilot: "I don't care how long you've been flying; you'll never see an airplane stop just to take a better look at the sharks." With SS or SJ or TP, you have to end somewhere; SS leaves you down in the streets, and you have to plan with SJ or TP to stop on an empty rooftop. But with Fly, you just zip straight up and stop, and aside from a few specific mob types you can go idle for a drink, or to answer the door, or to the bathroom, secure in the knowledge that you're out of range of interruptions. And it gives you enormously more leisure to frame screenshots of a scene you find particularly noteworthy.

     

    Or Echo:Faultline. Even the revamped Faultline can still be ugly.

    This is why I take fly on most of my characters.  There are just enough zones to make SS complicated.  I've used SS on some so I've learned most of the paths but just being able to soar above the clutter is enough incentive to keep using FLY.

  10. I have the complete set in my collection as well.  That was one of the coolest 'perks' to the original game subscription.  Getting the Blue King issues were my favorite.  The artist and writer used powers and costume parts right from the game!😀

  11. 8 hours ago, Broken_Prey said:

    I hate that Mish too, I skip it if I can. I also hate the Mish in Croatoa Mish Stop the takeover of Salamanca because you have to wait 15 minutes to finished it

    And during that time you get small ambushes, I've only solo this arch. It feels like an eternity. 

    Agree on this. Any of the purple cave maps really to small and groups spread out to make the maps any fun. 

    Both of those mission are much easier with a 'slow' power.  My character had caltrops and me and an SG-mate was able to handle them with very few issues.  Just keep the caltrops dropped and be patient. :)

  12. But there is still a catch in that "almost."  Elite bosses are very rare, but won't get nerfed by the difficulty system, and Archvillains won't get nerfed below Elite Boss levels.  So some archetype and power combinations may have no choice but to seek help if they want to complete that particular mission.  But the good news is that unless you're the type that just can't skip the occasional paragraph of story, you can simply auto-complete or drop that mission and do something else for a while without any real penalties.  (Auto-complete is a feature that allows you to complete a mission that you otherwise can't or don't want to do properly once every few days.)

     

    I just want to clarify the comment ‘do something else for a while’.  Missions will not level with your character.  So if you get you backside kicked by an elite boss at the end of a story arc, don’t abandon or complete the mission.  Run other missions or street sweep for a level or two and then go back an you should be able to handle him.

     

    For example, if at level 14 you can’t beat the final boss, leave him until you get to level 15 or 16 (or more).  Then when you go back he is still level 14 and you should be able to beat him.  I solo a lot and use this trick often.  Obviously it won't work at level 50.  ;D

     

  13. I’m going to post a brilliant idea I read over on the donations page.  The person suggested taking the $15 you would pay for a monthly subscription and trying to donate when the donation window opens.  If you are not successful, put that $15 in a savings account.  Next month do the same but if you miss the donation window put that $15 in the same savings account.  Now you have $30.  Keep that up every month.  Now if/when the donations slow down, and you finally get an opportunity to donate, you can take all the funds from the saving account for your donation.  Depending on how long it takes, it could be hundreds!

  14. As far as I can tell, you can only have three tips at a time. Once you have investigated them and turned them into missions, you can get three more.

     

    I’ve been pretty lucky.  I usually get a new TIP mission while doing a TIP mission.  I normally have three banked until I change alignments and they get erased.

  15. I was flying back from a door mission in those islands in the north part of Talos Island when I flew over a construction site.  Then I remembered that was the site of the arena.  It occurred to me that I had not noticed any arena since playing on the homecoming servers.  Am I just not paying close enough attention or are we missing those?

     

    I did see one in Port Oakes (red side) when I was playing there but I didn’t enter it (just hit the training and moved on).  They were the only place we could buy inspirations when on a task/strik force so they were handy even if you didn't PvP.

     

    I looked for any mention in the forums but didn't see anything.

     

  16. Just to put a little finer point on this.  The original CO was built to be a Marvel based MMO.  If you squint and tilt your head just right, you can still see the Marvel influences poking through:

    Dr. Destroyer is very like Dr. Doom in looks.

    Grond is the Hulk – big, green, radioactive, lives in the desert.

    The aliens in the tutorial always reminded me of the Badoon.

    The super smart Gorilla is very like the Beast.

     

    Tabletop Champions player & GM from way back -- my real name is listed as a playtester in the 4th Edition big blue book.  I had the good fortune to be friends with Rob Bell. None of that gives me any credibility regarding the computer game, which I never played, except to note that Dr. Destroyer and Grond waaaaay predate the computer game.  They might have been Marvel homages at creation, but their presence more than a decade later in Champions Online doesn't imply any Marvel involvement.

     

    Understood, but I was thinking the influence went the other way.  I pulled this from the CO Wiki page:

    +++++

    The game's announcement followed the cancellation of Cryptic's Marvel Universe Online as well as the sale of their Intellectual Properties City of Heroes and City of Villains to developer and publisher NCsoft in November 2007

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champions_Online

    +++++

     

    I always got the impression that they had built an MMO with the Hulk and then had to look for a Champions equivalent.  That they had Dr. Doom and looked for a Champions equivalent and so on.  I won’t speculate on whether or not the Champions RPG characters were (or were not) inspired by the Marvel comics (how meta would that be).  Comic tropes are comics tropes so there will always be some overlap in character design and power sets.

     

    But my overall point is that that Cryptic had the start of a Marvel MMO but when that went away (instead of starting over from scratch) they grabbed the Champions IP and kind of stretched it over the existing framework.  And that goes back to the original question of why I think CoH/V is better than CO.  It just seems more complete and thought out.

  17. ... am I the only one who remembers SGs from before there were Bases and Prestige ...?  Back when they were purely social things, or for organizing TFs, Hamidon Raids, and similar?  :)

     

    One SG I was in "Young Paragons" (all characters had to be teenagers), had weekly "let's all just get together, form a couple teams, and go smash badguys" lite-RP group.  For the longest time, the meetings were typically by the University in Steel Canyon ... because, again, before bases.  (And also: Paragon City has an astonishing lack of schools for grades K-12 ... like, seriously, there isn't a single one, anywhere ...!)

     

    I do remember those days.  I also recall the SG color schemes that made us all look like a part of the same organization.  I always thought that was cool.  I do recall one SG I was in briefly that had an official uniform.  The sent out the costume pieces and you used one of your slots to build it.  It was kind of cool to see eight team members with different powers all looking exactly alike running missions.

  18. CoH was an original idea.

     

    CO was born out of the idea that a Superhero MMO was commercially viable (the success of CoH), and it was based on a pre-existing IP (PnP Champions had been around since the early 80s). 

     

    Based on those factors, I guess they thought they couldn't lose -- unfortunately, CO was really nothing like CoH, and it was nothing at all like PnP Champions, so right off the bat, you alienated two different potential fanbases.

     

    Just to put a little finer point on this.  The original CO was built to be a Marvel based MMO.  If you squint and tilt your head just right, you can still see the Marvel influences poking through:

    Dr. Destroyer is very like Dr. Doom in looks.

    Grond is the Hulk – big, green, radioactive, lives in the desert.

    The aliens in the tutorial always reminded me of the Badoon.

    The super smart Gorilla is very like the Beast.

     

    I get the impression that when Marvel saw the product in development they pulled out and went with a Diablo clone instead.  It just feels like after Marvel left, the Cryptic guys just threw up their hands and kind of gave up.  To keep thing on track Cryptic scrambled to get the Champions IP and apply it as best they could. 

     

    So, to address the OP, in my opinion, that is the major failing on the part of CO.  It was designed to be one thing and switched to another late in the process and feels like it.

     

    I’m c’mon, Quijybo as a zone boss?  A one line cast off from the first season of the Simpsons?

  19. Now I'm itching to do some old-school Warburg/Shivan/Katie Hannon runs and crash STF with six Blasters or something.  Or none of those things, and five Defenders.

     

    Hah.  I don't know which possibility amuses me more -- gear checks for content runs, or PUG hard way badge runs based on slotting alone.

     

    For the record, my old SG used to have “Single Class Saturday”.  All eight of us would log in with the same class, but very different builds.  So, eight defenders or eight controllers or eight scrappers, etc.  Some of us had good IO sets others just standard DO’s or SO’s.  Regardless, every team was able to do any content including task forces and most important, we had a lot of fun!  The only difference was the time it took to clear a mob.  Scrappers blew through mobs like Kleenex while Controllers took about twice the time. 

     

    Strangely, the only single class team we struggled with was Kheldians.  The lower levels were just way two squishy without any other classes to boost them.

  20. This is a really weird thread.

    These aren't people who are going for crazy and weird concepts knowing what they're getting into.  They're being ineffective out of ignorance and, pretty often, being toxic about it as well.  I've had my Rad/Sonic Defender kicked from a PUG on live because I never used my heal.  I didn't need to since it was a +0 mission team and hardly anyone took damage due to my tohit debuffs.  I've had a FF Defender on live kicked mid-mission because they realized I had no heals, only for me to watch them instantly wipe to the next spawn since they lost my buffs.  I've had teams panic when I brought a Sonic Resonance Defender because I didn't have the heals they were expecting and didn't tell me they wanted.  Hell, my Pain Dom Defender got yelled at for actually using her blasts by one person in recent times, which are Dark and slotted for -tohit, instead of using my heal.  ...when everyone was at full or close enough my toggle would top them off.

     

    I’m glad you mentioned your FF defender.  I have an FF/Rad defender that I play a lot.  It takes a while to convince the team that I don’t need to heal because I a) shield them from most damage and b) decrease the enemy accuracy when I hit.  It’s hard to combat the “heelz pleez” mentality.

     

    But I’m working on it one PUG at a time!

    :D

  21. Also, its getting really hard to solo missions and I've been spamming "LFT" for 40 minutes and nobody invited for anything =[ it looks like nobody do missions, just those power level things.

     

    Its getting really boring playing alone, sadly.

    Don’t get down.  I play on Excelsior and it sometimes takes a while to find a group.

    Also, a quick word regarding powers and power selection – your first character can sometimes be gimped pretty bad.  On my first, I picked powers that sounded or looked cool but didn’t really fit my play style.  Be willing to experiment with new combinations and classes to find what’s most fun for you.  All powerset combinations are effective and having fun is the point!

    I am a proud alt-a-holic! ;D

     

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