cranebump

Fridays just happens to be when on. Forgot to add that to my info, above.

Is there anybody else out there that runs in the morning? Specifically Eastern standard time, US? I’m usually on early in the morning here for a few hours. I’d be nice to have a regular crew for that (although I know it’s unlikely.)

Greetings out there, Riders! If anybody happens to be a “day runner” I plan to be online Friday morning, per usual. Always up for missions. I’ll likely be on Thursday evening too so if you’re out there hit me up!

You had lips? Wouldn’t THAT be Great. 🙂

You had a notebook? We had to bind our pages together with other pages. And the paper was sharper back then, so we cut ALL our fingers. And the paper was dipped in alcohol, so it burned to bind the papers to the papers. But we did it. And we were THANKFUL for it.:-)

Well...we know what THIS means. (Securing my place in the bunker as we speak...):-)

+1,000.

EVILLLLL BAT (continued) Day Grrrrrrr…(‘cause I’m:) EEEEEEEEEEEVIL…(cough) illll…illl…illl…i…{aheam} Our juant to the dark side turns sojournish, as the ol’ Bat ponders his next move. After making dozens of belts out of the Snakes (Why not salvage body parts? I’m EEEEVIL.), I ditch the silly helmet and red Vigilante togs for something more apropos: Yeah…see what happens when you f*** with Nicky Santoro? You get…Hm? Nicky Santoro got beat to death and thrown in a hole then buried alive?...I see…Okay, then: see what happens when you are Nicky Santoro and I’m..those other guys?...Yeah, I THOUGHT so. You’ll notice I got the helmet off. Managed to find this high tech solution called Vaz-o-leen or something. Slid right off. Yeah, my hair is a bit slick right now, but, eh, whaddaya gonna do? (Me? Wait for it to dry..it’s been 6 and a half days…we’re getting there.) Speaking of getting there, the architecture here is something else. Some highlights on my hop, skip and lurk to Mr. Flashbacks: Yeah, so uh, this Gozer the Gozerian, he a nice guy or what? By the way, things are SUPER cheap over here? Ever wonder why? Who knew? Soooo..what shall we do? Hmmm…I’m looking for someone TRULY villainish. Like, the inside of the villain pie. Not the crust, because all villains are crusty as hell. No. Someone with substance. Like maybe… This pissed off dude… I love how certain Redside is. They’re WRONG (no wonder they get punched a lot). OFF WE GO! FOR EEEEEEVIL (a small dose-not enough to sway me forever). We head to the ironically-named Mercy Island, seeking to boot the ‘Bow out their base. And such. As long as the alliteration announces all our, er…aaantentions (egad…I’m a blithering blatherskite now). As I head to Merk, by way of Cap and Ferry, I buzz by the local suppliers, who work out of trucks, rather than those stupid WW domes (ahhhh…the smell of diesel…it…sucks, actually). We peruse their wares, and I’m thinking villains have to be prepared for all SORTS of strange eventualities: Hmm..I’ll take…1 ancient urn…2 Clockwork torsos…And how about you toss me some of those 40-watt speakers there? Oh -- and half a barrel of radioactive waste, please. Thanks…Got any donuts? More irony in irony land: Yeah, I’m coming to kick your a**, using one of YOUR jetpacks...Okay, it’s ALMOST your jetpack…It’s red & white, okay? So, after diving in, I’m thinking, my employers are REALLY bringing me along slow: Wow...one punch…I feel this may not be an adequate test of my abilities. Further, if I may ask: How about we talk to these guys? I can glare them into coughing up info! No? Okay then how about… …THESE guys? I mean, we already have them. Further, couldn’t we: -just send in all THESE guys? I mean, they’re not doing anything. And these Longbow guys seem to be REAL pussycats, so…(sigh) Ooookay. The usual way it is! ([sigh] Recluse has hired like, 10 thousand Bebops and Rocksteadies, man) Okey-doke, so: Kuzmin is sending me after some stupid, frilly hero named Golden Palm, who's known for staying in the bathroom a REALLY LONG TIME (or maybe not, but, really - GOLDEN palm?...dude…Don't you know me? You're just asking me to go there). In keeping with the upbeat atmosphere here, my appropriately-named mish is: That’s nice. But really, granny - how many times have I asked you to stop naming my msissions? (thanks for the cookies, btw) Off we go to question prisoners. Evidently the ones I laid out like Sunday school clothes on the bed earlier. Or…something like that. I notice that, when negotiating while Redside, we don’t just ease into it: Nothing about offering cake or bacon. (Do these guys know ANYTHING about human nature?) After I describe in painful detail how I’ll be enjoying bacon and he won’t, Mr. Law-and-Order-and-Semi-Justice coughs up the info: Actually, it’s the info and a plan I can follow. I feel like they didn’t screen very well when hiring this dude… I stealthily make my way to the Technician’s Streetfood Convention (seriously…they’re everywhere). I know that, as a villain, I should avoid witnesses, so I very carefully… NO WITNESSES! STRIKE!...er, NO MORE THAN 4 WITNESSES! STRIKE! Now to set some bombs! Once again: NO WITNESSES! er…VERY FEW WITNESSES! (What are you staring at, mister? Nothing to see here. No, these aren’t detanators they’re…old Sega controllers…yeah…) So, I set the bombs, and…well.. Evidently I had some issues with the timers. Yessiree Kuz. It won’t be a problem ANY more. Neither will the Vasoline in my hair. Yeah, it’s...all on fire…I…no longer have hair…or a face…Fine, thanks for asking… Thankfully, Ms. Facemaker remakes my face. I’m as handsome as ever (which…is not that much, so…refund?) I call in to Kuzmin, thinking, SUCCESS, BRO! But, no: You’ve got to be kidding…I gave up my hair for the WRONG BASE? (sigh) Turns out that was just A base. This is THE base: Doesn’t ANYBODY care what happened to my hair? Fine! You’ll pay for that! We’re mixing it up, and Longbow maître d' is like “CHECK THE LIST!” (What, do I need an invitation?) FYI: while you fight the reception team to get their togs, the desk phone rings the whole time (*it really does…nice touch). Soooo: Yeah, this is Bat..senson. Batsenson…I’m new…A Villain? Um, yeah,there WAS one here, but…they’re on the list? (click)...oops… FYI: Longbow seems a bit disorganized: Guys…really…if you want to stop someone, maybe, I dunno, cover the whole door frame? Hey, there! Nuthin’ to see here. Just lookin’ for ol’ Golden Palm…He in the bathroom maybe? I play the sneaky snake, walk right past GP and his LB buddy, where I cleverly set my plan into motion… Gently...gently… Wow…That was quite the explosion. Ooh! Guns! I’ll play! Ambush breatup, then we run into this guy on the way out: You know…I kinda want to leave you to die. That color scheme is freakin’ hideous man. Yeah, yeah, I save him. I mean, this villain thing? It’s only temporary. (That’s what YOU think, Devil bat…) What? Who’s that? (Me.) Who? (Me! As in you! [sigh] I’m your inner dark voice.) Yeah? Well…whaddayou want? Kuzmin’s waiting on me. (I want…YOUR SOUL!...and a breath mint) Um…I’ll see what I can do. (Good! And make it Andes candies, please. Yorks are too harsh). Eh…will do… (Thank you. We'll meet again! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA {KAFF!} HA!) **POOF!** ...Okay, Hell with that. He’ll eat what I give him. I check in with my boss. He’s giddy! (or maybe sullenly gleeful?) Oh, are you? I can answer where I’m going right now, brutha: SUMMER’S NOT OVER! I KNOW IT ISN’T! (Pst...Devil Bat. It IS.) Shut up! I'm not crying, you're crying! (sniff)

You can ask a GM for more. I have, and they've been kind enough to say yes every time.

…so…this IS an actual question…okay…

Be advised. It's L10-14. Depending on your AT/powersets, you may want to pack some insps. No notes this time. It's not a complex arc at all. Thanks in advance, Crane

I can wait on the posting. Was just trying to make sure I wasn't losing my mind. Even more so. 🙂

(1) You can build your own base, and invite your other characters to share it by using /altinvite. Great for passing along multiple items without having to send 1 attachment per email. (2) At L1, BEFORE DFBing or even running a mish: get the explore badges from AP every single time (you WILL need the free jump back from the P2W vendor to get 3 of them). Then either save them, or exchange for enhancement converters to sell for new toon seed money (if you need it). Do the same thing in Echo: Galaxy, once you get an Ouro portal. That's 10 merits that, if converted, will give you at least 1.5M when sold (usually more). Purchase the empowerment buffs from P2W vendor, 8 hours for each one. At L1, they're cheap. Not so much after a few levels. (3) Finally (and maybe a little reluctantly?)...I don't normally crap on anyone, but, since we're talking about new players, and since I've had unpleasant experiences with this same person at least 3 different times a word or two of advice: Avoid any team with a leader whose toon name alludes to reading (like "Reading is Fundamental," or "Why not read?" etc, {They also use other names that dis the whole "fast play" experience, but the reading aspect seems most common). These belong to a player who, while they run default content (which is greatly appreciated, and why I joined them more than once) they manage to ruin the experience by bossing the entire team around, to the point where they'll PM you "advice" you haven't asked for (didn't happen to me; a second player attested to this, after we both quit the same team mid-run and compared notes). Honestly, they've got the worst social skills I've ever seen in this game (they're so bad, I thought maybe I was dealing with a person with a diagnosis, so I tried to cut some slack - now I think they're just a congenital, mannerless douche bag who was intially on some quest to prop up old school play, but, in actuality thinks there is such a thing as badwrongfun/one way to play). Now, why did it take me, like, 3 run-ins with them to finally get their global, so I could avoid them altogether? 'Cause Jesus says turn the other cheek. And I'm an idiot. You, however, will not be. (Hint: You'll know it's them if anyone enters the mish before they do [which is followed closely by a sincerely flabbergasted "Why are people inside the mission?"]). [Seriously-they'll ruin the experience for you. RUN! RUN AWAY!...why aren't you running...]

That may be the niche then.

I always take a travel power. My preferences in play are to stay ground-based. So I'll often disregard Hover when I take Flight (not a mechanically wise choice, but there you are). I'll take it a bit further, and get IO sets that grant +Run Speed, so I can speed along quickly, naturally. Again...not optimal, but, meh...whaddaya gonna do when you wanna be this guy:

Half the AT is ranged damage. The other half is defense/damage mitigation. I think it's functioning exactly how it's supposed to - somewhat blasty, somewhat tanky.:-) That said, they probably would've had more team utility back before the game turned to a kitfest. Now, you can build decent survivability on a blaster using ancillary pools. Assuming you'd need much survivability after laying waste to everything. (This is off topic, but, if you consider players who build thematically, the Sentinel might be choice #1. We had that Cyclops emulation discussion in another thread, where at least one of the suggestions to build from the get-go was Sent, with RadBlast/WP, taking just the eye beams, then build attacks from the fighting pool. I'm planning on test-driving the idea soon, via a solo run [even though the idea isn't mine, and I really don't like Cyclops]. Speaking of emulation: wouldn't Iron Man be a Sentinel? Just curious about that. IM was my favorite back in the day [and I mean WAY back in the day], yet, I've never done an homage build of any type.)

Yes they are. You get enough of them all kitted out, all running on the same team, it's just a snoozefest. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! (my turn again?) BOOM! (Hey--someone wanna snipe that runner the...thanks...)

Thank you. I did look him up before I posted. I also found some sort of really old reddit with this guy in it, dated from 10 years ago (iirc). Truly, he is unknown.:-)

Yep. That is exactly what happened.:-)

There go the heroes with their capes like always, The same old Task Force set to run. Every Hydra Head in place. Gonna punch them in the face. Then do it twice again for just the funnnnn....

I'd like to say he's unknown, but that would be too obvious.:-) I've run across him a few times. This time while running in old school "semi-default" mode (all the AP story mishes I can get, set at default level, but making use of P2W freebies, like Athletic Run, Jump Pack and SoMu. He seems to have a thing for the hospital. Wiki gives his full dialogue track and coordinates, but nothing about whether it's a player tribute or anything. (It's weird, but kinda wish we had more of these randos running around...not that you catch 'em unless you're lingering in an area for more than a short while.)

Not sure of the first 2 issues (seems like a glitch or a map problem), but you can use the attached Clues screen to have rescues “talk.” I usually color code the text yellow to indicate speech. You’re limited to 300 characters though. Bosses have a significant amount of dialogue text, so you could make a friendly boss and use some of that. But the player doesn’t get a notification as they do with Clues, so they d need to be paying attention to NPC chatter. I’d use the clues screen, then have the new “mission” objective chained to the rescue. It would then appear in the Nav text (i.e. “Find Nemo!”

So, my friend sleep is only mostly dead?

Heh. Noted (and been there done this).:-) I think a reminder of the efficacy of Sleep powers is useful. I have a plant Troller who makes use of it in certain situations. It's definitely helpful on teams running against huge, packed groups, where maybe you don't have the tankiness to pull in more than 1 mob.

Um...what about this, from Plant? Are you referring to Total Domination?