cranebump

I’ve often gone with Tech Origin just because the Tech shop in Talos is close to the tram/ouro/WW and I plan to slot SOs there at lvl25:-)

i was going to mention this as well.

True, but the ability to use the weapon, if honed through training, makes the character’s abilities natural. The average person isn’t going to pick up any of those things and use them well. That said, I’m fine with using technology as an origin, as well. It’s really up to the player to provide the interpretation. For example, from my own stable: Acrobattle is a highly trained covert operative, with a military background. He has a collapsible staff made from a special alloy, and wears a “nanosuit” that provides speed, armor, and regenerative qualities. His origin is tech, due to this augmentation. It could be natural, though, since his suit and staff are tools. Gym Beam found a crashed alien ship on his ranch. In the wreckage was an intact, alien rifle. When he touched it, it emitted energies that melded with his own body chemistry, enhancing his physical abilities, and halting his aging. I went with mutation, but this could have been science, or tech. The King’s Row Angel is a vigilante who uses her fists to bring justice to The Row, and other underserved locations. Her origin is natural. True, this one is pretty straightforward, but I could’ve easily decided that she was “infused with the spirit of the Jade Dragon” and deemed her powers magical.

You can also “Teleport to contact” for some of these arcs (Eagle Eye, for example). I think Laura Lockhart may be one of these?

Same. Multiple edits and what do I find? Typos! Just today I found "give" spelled "gvie." ARRRRRG! It's a rough beast, especially if you've formatted everything and don't have character space to easily correct.

Speaking of AE, I just completed the first working draft of this: My latest entry (which still needs some tweaks): The Omnibus Project (ID: 31128) After the fall of Section-41,* Manticore calls in his markers, putting you on the case involving "Omnibus," a mysterious new player on the Paragon scene. Alignment: Heroic Lvl: 25-30 Custom enemies. AUTHOR'S NOTE: This arc ultimately reveals the reason for the missing 7-year "gap" between the live shutdown and the restoration on Homecoming. *as detailed in "Friends & Lovers," and "Data Games."

My latest entry (which still needs some tweaks): The Omnibus Project (ID: 31128) After the fall of Section-41,* Manticore calls in his markers, putting you on the case involving "Omnibus," a mysterious new player on the Paragon scene. Alignment: Heroic Lvl: 25-30 Custom enemies. AUTHOR'S NOTE: This arc ultimately reveals the reason for the missing 7-year "gap" between the live shutdown and the restoration on Homecoming. *as detailed in "Friends & Lovers," and "Data Games."

My latest entry: The Omnibus Project (ID: 31128) After the fall of Section-41,* Manticore calls in his markers, putting you on the case involving "Omnibus," an organization that seems to have hacked everyone’s security systems. Alignment: Heroic Lvl: 25-30 Custom enemies. AUTHOR'S NOTE: This arc ultimately reveals the reason for the missing 7-year "gap" between the live shutdown and the restoration on Homecoming. *as detailed in "Friends & Lovers," and "Data Games."

For titles, you can tinker with the sliders, using the preview box while you do it.

The issues with AE aren’t with AE as much as they are people issues. If there’s an exploit, it will be exploited. That said, baking in a partition between story and farm arcs would be a nice start. There’s a lot of actual care and work put into some of the story arcs, and it would be nice to easily find them. I suppose someone might want to throw a farm under story, though, for the life of me, I can’t understand why.

I base costumes on concept. Always have. For example, my "street level" characters, like Acrobattle (Staff/Ninj scrapper) are typically capeless, and use the leather-y costume pieces. The King's Row Devil totes an assault rifle so he's got bands of ammo around his chest, a tech-belt, a quiver on his back. King's Row Angel is clad in a leather jacket and wears combat boots. Pretty much it. On the other hand, Major Viktory (a silver age, SJ/WP Scrapper) is red, white and blue, with the Police helmet. Skorpios (Arachnos Soldier), a sort of bronze age character, has a red cape as something of a legacy item pointing to his Arachnos origin [though not arachnos symbols). I tend to place capes on characters with fly. I also like my capes to pop against the rest of the costume (which means I tend to use a bright red). I use colors to accentuate origin. For example, Mighty Mike the Mighty Mite plays up the whole "dust mite" BG through murky, brown colors (via Dark Armor). The only thing that's sorta changed on colors is that I more readily use "minimal FX." When we first got control of color options, I went a little crazy at first.:-)

“That’s no moon! It’s a potato in front of a desk lamp!”

Bane Spider Ruben, for sure. I’d also run the signature story arcs on the redside, at least once. Mr. G arc is pretty good, but hold on to your butt if you decide to betray him.

Ah, but what kind of cookies? (Waaaaaiiit for it...)

Champions has the chain attacks.

One of my favorite melee secondaries. Allows for a wide range of capabilities, including a nice movement buff that works perfectly with Ninja Run/sprint. I wouldn’t change it at all.

D'oh!

I inadvertently ran right into the cape mish villain side recently. Ran the thing anyway, even though the character costume was meant to be capeless. I was like, “Oh yeah...I remember sometimes teaming up with folks to run these.”

It’s also a whole other country because we have a special kind of crazy down there, which you may have seen exhibited by some of our politicians. Of course, I say “we” as a former resident (albeit of 50 years). Don’t miss anything down there, except breakfast tacos. No one seems to know what that is anywhere else.

Surely made them lose their minds, didn’t it?:-)

Today I rolled up Mighty Mike the Mighty Mite. Or was it Mike the Mighty Mite? Mighty Mikey Mite? Mitey Might? (Actually went with Mighty Mike as name, but info screen has him introducing himself as the first one—I just couldn’t find any combo of Mite available, so I basically made an annoying little claws/dark armor scrapper.)

Yeah, my autocorrect on the Pad did all that. Didn't bother to check after I posted.

Forgot about Striga That would fit with sorta going back to those old runs. I should probably work Croatoa in, as well. I tend to skip that one, as I don’t care for the theme. But, it’s been awhile, so...

Put together a team that ran Frostfire today (after I ran Wincott and most of Flux solo). Afterward, we went all the way through Julius the Troll and Talshak the Mystic. I know that’s the first time I’ve run the major Hollows arcs since return. I was actually surprised how easy it was to maintain a full team all the way through. Had a few that wer there the whole time (it was a great group of mostly support characters). I guess there’s more interest in those old story arcs than I thought. And since I’m not running 2XP on that character, I should be able to run through some Sky or Steel contacts, maybe Faultline. Anyway, it was a nice run. Made me rethink my typical mission paths these days.

I’m originally from the San Antonio area, and spent my last 10 years in the state near Austin. Finally cut ties and moved. I do not miss all that stupid heat (nor the perpetual wearing of flip-flops by everybody. They’re not for goin’ out on the town, y’all).