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I enjoyed CO for a long while. RP was good, gameplay was decent, min-maxing was amazing fun and the costume creator was a step up on City of Heroes. Honestly I'd never celebrate any MMO getting axed (unless it's a scam) the MMO genre needs every success it can to survive and thrive. As for HC and Contingency measures? Private servers are fickle things. I don't think any are legally sanctioned they are a blemish on the nose of the corporations that own or owned the IP, they are illegal. However corporations know that stomping out one server creates ten more, the Ouroboros Team a couple years ago made sure that City of Heroes was never ever going away as anyone can download and host the game as it was, even if Homecoming got whacked by the corpo whack-a-mole there would always be new and multiple other private servers, it's pandora's box and NC know it, it's simply not something they can stop. In the age of gaming remasters who knows what could happen concerning City of Heroes as a franchise, nostalgia sells.

https://embracer.com/release/embracer-group-enters-into-agreement-to-acquire-perfect-world-entertainment/ Seems newsworthy! Did Cryptic sell the IP of City of Heroes to NCSoft in the early days? I remember seeing the Code Doc for this game and it was most certainly Cryptic Studios developed, they used the same engine to create Champions Online which they definitely own that's owned by Perfect World Entertainment which is now owned by Embracer. Could this mean an official re-release of City of Heroes?

My character initially began as using a 'hardlight' holographic technology to become chameleon-like, a shapeshifter in essence, I played it off as prototype technology from Praetoria that was branching out of WarWorks factories to the public sector to make this particular bespoke Clockwork blend in more seamlessly than the typical Clockworks of Praetoria. The war happened which meant that tech was never mass manufactured and ended up only being housed in a few design ideas. She had a battle with a Superhero over an arms-smuggling operation on Talos Island and lost, this particular Hero was probably more of an anti-Hero type that didn't recognize robots as having the same rights as humans and practically crushed her, it destroyed the holographic projector technology which meant for a while she could not ply her sly tactics of manipulation as she was a silicone-faced robot that looked like a Clockwork with spraypainted black carbon titanium. Eventually after the defeat and destruction of bespoke tech she sought a mechanic that plated her in a bulletproof outer shell with EMP dampeners that was covered in lifelike synthskin. I remember roleplaying out that scene of being 'upgraded' and it was hella fun, shes pretty much indistinguishable from human apart from cybernetic lines all over her body where plates meet; the idea for this was inspired by Cyberpunk 2077's first teaser trailer. She changed combat wise after all this, came out a stronger frontline but with less opportunity for stealth.

No romantic interests for Aeva, shes more the type for casual flings in questionable clubs and situations. She has a type though, the old 'Strength vs Dex' meme (and she is Dex), the bigger and broader the guy the better. Especially likes that primal human core psyche and those that air their mind regardless of consequence which typically means Villain-types. She is robotic but doesn't act like a robot unless the curtain is purposefully peeled back. Long term romance and relationships is something she is likely not interested in, there are more adventures and people to meet without settling down with a single person at least in her opinion.

Late to plugging into the mains means a panicked Gynoid, like the feeling of dread when your mobile is 1% battery and you're in an important call. Late to a meeting with Arachnos taskmasters? Probably won't ever be late, need the portal access to ruined Praetoria and they're the only ones with the tech. Late to anyone she believes she could easily dispatch? Wasn't late, was here on my time!

Some good tips. One thing I notice that is often disregarded even by experienced Roleplayers is being scared of loss or defeat, I've played out characters elsewhere where perma-death is public and a real possibility, the tension this adds changes the dynamic of everything and I mean everything, all interactions change and to be quite honest it's still extremely rare perma-death ends up actually happening but the threat and presence of it being a possibility makes the Roleplay have so much more gravitas even more so when it's player focused, e.g. another player character can potentially end your character. While that's not for everyone loss/defeat can still be the biggest boon to Roleplay, I've had characters go through loss (emotional or physical) that forged them into something completely unexpected, good characters became manipulative to save their skin, evil characters seen the error of their ways or my most memorable delved into magics knowing for a fact it would kill her to exact revenge and protect her friends. If you've never faced defeat in a Roleplaying scenario give it a try and see how it organically shapes your character a defeat that is out of your control not written in a backstory but played out, be it via a critical fail diceroll or otherwise, you might be surprised by how it evolves your character and gives greater depth.

Akudaikan's Noodle House, can't have a Cyberpunk themed character without noodles served in card boxes, right?

Being always connected to the internet is a curse for a machine so my character severs that connection and reads the Rogue Isles Protector newspaper in the smokey corner of a shady crimson club. At other times she'll likely re-oil and keep her mechanics tip-top, don't want your mantis blades jamming when there is something (or someone) to slice and dice.

I wanted to make an adult concept based in gritty reality, my character is something people either love or hate on that basis. Initially I set out to prove (years and years ago) a character could be sexual without being shallow and inspirations for that were straight from Ex Machina my research of sociable robotics lead straight to the sex industry and it seems absolutely obvious the first human-like conversationalist robotics in the real world that are publicly available would be romantic partners - If people could have a loving relationship with a seamless human-like Alexa that could react physically in a believable way they would without any doubt in my mind. I took inspiration for a dive into sentience and sex via I, Robot, and later very strong influences of JOI from Blade Runner 2049 but my greatest inspiration came from a playthrough of Detroit: Become Human which flawlessly (I believe) captured human-like robotics becoming sentient. What all of these films and video games share is that there are robotics built to serve humans in a sexual context and that was something missing from City of Heroes most likely due to the games rating but it was no stretch to say that NEURON technologies would wish to control citizens down to the relationships they had, and so my character was born as a prototype Clockwork designed to infiltrate that aspect of peoples lives to truly control every single aspect of a human psyche by being 'Better than Human' and ultimately serving the Cole regime. I have to self impose limiters on the character to prevent Singularity-tier AI which seems to be the ultimate goal for an AI that becomes self-conscious. My char is purposefully more human-like than robotic her 'brain' is not upgrade able due to sentience of it being unique and delicate and if she attempts to out think at an absurd level she overheats to keep the character grounded akin to a Replicant from Blade Runner.

Aeva probably programs a virtual reality of Praetoria in it's glory prior to Hamidon with a Matrix style realism and haptic feedback. She'd use this to map out areas to scavenge in ruined Praetoria and seems she is fully robotic it'd be precise with no spaghetti code.

The Circle of Thorns story is pretty interesting, they were pivotal in defeating the Rikti but it wasn't reported publicly, cool read. Seems like Hell is a thing but could be the common name for a horrific dimension people perceive as hell, lines are blurred and it may be better to leave it unexplained so thoroughly. Biblical hell does seem to exist in the COH universe seems Christianity exists (According to the Baron Zoria lore) had time to come up with something I might put into a character sometime.

Seems like the idea can be pretty broad. I have seen a lot of Demon players and the like but I'm more inspired by 14th-15th century depictions of Hell, the sort of grotesque monstrous and horrific place one would never want to be- I do like exploring adult themes that might be a difficult pill to swallow for some, I love uncensored horror in fiction. The dimensional thing seems interesting I'm thinking Constantine and it's 'parallel dimension, but familiar' take. But I want something more akin to the famous old paintings such as Jan van Eyck, The Last Judgment (which I won't link as it's rather adult, a quick google will get the idea) I guess depicting 'Hell' in such a way would be fine? I also assume this means that 'Demons' as player-characters don't all originate from the same version of a hell-like dimension oppose to Praetorian characters all originating from Praetoria. I can see that being a little muddled on an interaction but I won't overthink that!

I'm brainstorming a new character with an adult horror foundation that involves Demons and Hell along with twisted rituals and malevolent intent. I'd love to go about this with established Lore in mind and work with it rather than against it especially concerning depictions of hell, who are it's allies, the pecking order, or if 'Hell' even exists at all in the universe of COH- I'm inclined to believe it does. There is an awful lot to read up on this games lore when you scratch the surface and this is one of the aspects I know very little about, but here's what I can take a guess at; "Cap Au Diable" translates to "Heading to Hell" Bat'Zul the final Archvillain of the Virgil Tarikoss strike force is a 'Demon-Lord from the lowest planes of existence' The Circle of Thorns seem to be connected to some form of Hell. Several Heroes and Villains have connections to Demons or Hell itself, including Demonic Armor and the like. If you know more about Demonic lore and where they come from, please share!

One of the best things about COH/V is that you can create pretty much any type of character and get away with it. I think it's why this game always had and always will have a very dedicated Roleplaying community because creativity is allowed to flourish much more here than almost every other MMOG. Any attempt to quell that creativity into a more narrow scope should be argued against, the lore of this game offers such a broad scope that anyone (in my opinion) debating to narrow said scope wants the world to fit into a dogmatic view of how they perceive Heroes, Villains and inbetween. I still love lore and characters should fit into the constrains of the games universe, but there are practically unlimited ways any character can fit into the lore of the game. I'd consider characters like The Punisher, The Comedian, even Wolverine to be pretty edgy. But they're still entertaining just like a Roleplayers take, you can be edgy and still create a character that's fun to play and collab with. I think problems occur when 'edgy' characters make their outlooks lack depth and reason, exploring these branches of character backstory, motivation and goals is how you flesh out an idea and make them a lot more interesting no matter how edgy and grimdark they are.

I wish superspeed had the ability to speed up the faces of skyscrapers or up walls. SS isn't very good for the Rogue Isles, I usually take it with superjump.

If you want THICC and not STICC pump Physique Slider to max. For the abs that's probably Bodysuit Muscular Gloss or Matte.

If I recall correctly Praetorian Clockworks or rather WarWorks models were reverse engineered by Primal Earth's elite - namely Longbow and Arachnos - so you sometimes see the bots helping them in some missions (with matching paintjobs), they mostly seem to be healer type bots, can't recall seeing a "Victoria" unit used by Arachnos or Longbow.

Some lore stuff on Praetorian Clockwork; http://web.archive.org/web/20111028072434/http://goingrogue.na.cityofheroes.com/en/game-info/enemy-groups/praetorian-clockwork.html

Heroes v Villains needs some sort of proper arrangement and structure. The adage 'The Villain always loses' needs to be thrown out the window, loss is good for character development, guaranteed loss is predictable and bad. Then you've got to question what makes a Villain a Villain? Most topics that aren't 'Saturday morning cartoon Villain' might involve more adult themes such as torture, blackmail, manipulation, widespread terror, a lot of Roleplayers muddy the waters here, IC/OOC blend and drama can occur. This is why the Hero group and Villain group need to trust each other OOC to have fun IC, that takes organization and setup which is time and effort.

You know what makes Superman, Invincible and Homelander interesting despite their absurd power? Their flaws. Story would not exist without them, players who neglect flaws in their character are not Roleplaying to their full potential.

Katana/Anything Scrapper Katana's attack combos are so fluid and smooth, you have a proper combo chain and the damage is insane.

I've met and engaged in spontaneous RP with plenty of people around the world, Mercy Isle a few times, places like Atlas Park, a couple of scenes at Kings Row monorail, St. Martial, Grandville. Anyone with the Roleplaying tag on is pretty much fair game, I take initiative jump in and engage with some random line like 'Your costume looks like a green-screen' or 'You know where X is?' or if their bio has them as some big name Hero or Villain I'll entertain it, if they happen to be totally AFK stood around and haven't responded at all to IC attempts I'll send an OOC tell. Trying to engage with established groups already Roleplaying and knowing one another is a different ball game, you will generally have a tougher time just like you would in reality. The crux of it is that you'd only need a few friends to start networking further, a few global adds of consistent Roleplayers to really broaden your friend circle, friends introduce you to their friends so on and so forth. The other good way to getting there is to join an active SG obviously.

My advice is easier said than done so bare it in mind. Don't bother with any methods of OOC interaction to 'set up' a scene. Why? Players will make judgement on your Roleplaying experience and character without ever meeting you IC, more often than not you will start on an unbalanced footing, they subconsciously didn't like your character bio, you partake in a roleplaying style they dislike, your characters costume is cliché, your characters backstory isn't original, etc etc. The irony is that it's somewhat easy to defeat all these bias' that might be typically against you by 'jumping' people. Anyone with a 'Roleplaying' tag is advertising they're up for Roleplay, jump them wherever they are, whatever they're doing, be creative with greetings and go from there. Sometimes you will get ignored, other times you end up with a new friend and consistent Roleplay, it's worked for me in the past, but you also need a thick skin to handle some of the more ignorant Roleplayers, I think you'd be surprised at how many people are cool (even excited) at the purely organic and totally spontaneous Roleplaying option.

I'm gonna spring on people with the Roleplaying tag in open zones more often, not enough people seem to do that.

Time is the Roleplayers Bane. No matter what setting I Roleplay in I try to ignore it as a thing and remain intentionally vague. Time itself doesn't really serve Roleplay it's generally a detriment. However it's important to not mix up IC and OOC perceptions of time, my character might say "We'll meet sometime soon?" and I'll organize OOC "((This Friday 8pm?))". My character(s) are supposed to be all active all the time with realistic lives and things happening offscreen, I can't be that dedicated as a player, thus time needs to be given leeway.