Arctique

The thing about shortcuts existing, is nobody's forced to take them. The option of taking a bullet train across town doesn't take away the option of taking a scenic walk to your destination instead. These different styles of play can co-exist, worst we're going to ever see is a vocal minority from one side complain about the other, but we're not going to see some mass exodus of players like you seem to be insisting will happen with so much certainty. We might all have different ways we prefer to play the game, but we're all here for the same reason. Because we all love this game. You know what would fracture the community and cause a large chunk of the playerbase to leave? Alienating anyone who enjoys a certain playstyle by making a whole separate server and telling them they should play there instead. Which is what's being suggested here.

Commander Average! Lt. Middle of the Road! General 5 out of 10!

A key component is definitely always communication between the person playing DM for a big roleplay storyline and the other RPers along for the ride. If for the sake of the story being told the party needs to get defeated, I'll say something going into it like "Hey, there's going to be a boss fight with the big bad coming up but it's one where they're going to get away/be too powerful for us to beat until the party learns their weakness." At least in the circles I've roleplayed in here on Everlasting, that simple bit of communication always goes a long way in avoiding those scenarios of somebody always thinking "I gotta win". Though of course, even in those situations the rule of "a good roleplayer will take hits" still should apply to whoever's DMing the event as well. Unwinnable boss fight doesn't mean that big bad needs to be invincible. Set the party up to know they're not going to win, but still let them get some good shots in on the baddy as well. Nobody likes to walk away from a roleplay feeling like they accomplished nothing, win or lose.

Personally I never have any expectation for anyone playing along on a story to go as far as killing their character off, or at least I'd never force anyone to kill off their character for the sake of the story. If they commit to something that extreme with their characters to advance a plot I definitely respect the cajones it takes as a roleplayer to do that, but it's a decision ultimately in the hands of that character's player. At the very least though, I think a good roleplayer knows to let themselves take some hits and lose some fights. Unless you're Saitama, a story where the protagonist never struggles is bound to be a boring one.

I guess I should add more to the topic than a single snarky comment. My biggest pet peeve in roleplay is people with the mindset of it being some sort of competition. Their character always has to be the best and they can't bear the thought of them not coming out on top of a given situation. To me, roleplay is just one big collaborative narrative (at least in the case of something like CoH), and I try to focus more on what will make for a fun and exciting story for myself and others. A lot of the time though, somebody with that more competitive mindset can really undermine that story you're trying to tell. For instance, say you and your friends have an RP storyline you're building and you've established some imposing big bad waiting at the end of it. Some galactic emperor getting ready to invade Earth, or some powerful archdemon king that's causing all sorts of trouble, or maybe even some horrible lovecraftian elder god that is trying to be summoned. Some large scale threat that, within its own story at least, is nothing to sneeze at, and the people already on board with the story have agreed to treat it as such. You and said friends are talking about some recent plot development and Mr. Competitive in earshot just goes: "Pfft, that emperor/archdemon/elder god would be no match for me. I eat chumps like that for breakfast." Now granted, they're not part of you and your friends' story and haven't agreed to treat its antagonist as a credible threat, they're just some random bystander overhearing you talking about it. It's entirely possible the character themself is just supposed to be egotistical and make comments like that as part of their personality, which hey more power to you if it's just a character's personality flaw. The pet peeve for me is just how disrespectful to others' RP that sort of thing can be. When it's clear that it's only being said to make their own character look better than anyone else's. What it comes across as is just "your characters aren't as cool as mine". Sure you don't have to treat somebody else's RP plotline as a big deal if you're not involved in it and don't care to be involved in it, but then in that case it's best to just leave it be and let others have their fun instead of using it as some opportunity to make your character sound "badass". It always falls flat anyway. Then even worse can be if somebody with that mindset does actually get involved in whatever storyline you're trying to tell. God forbid you try to roleplay some kind of climatic boss fight while Mr. Competitive is in the party. A text-fight can make it really easy to fall into that mindset of having to "win" because, well a fight is a competition right? But unless there's something like dice rolls agreed upon as a way to decide the action, I always feel it should still be treated as a purely narrative thing. Choosing actions based more on what will tell a more engaging story through the fight. Being willing to take hits and even lose the fight when it's dramatically appropriate. Mr. Competitive doesn't believe in that, and will instead use the creative freedom of a purely text based encounter to just dodge and no-sell every attack thrown their way, constantly trying to one-up everyone else's actions or just constantly putting the enemy into situations where the only way out is some god-modey ass pull of their own and nobody wants to get into that sort of back and forth. Tl;dr: Roleplay is just playing pretend to tell exciting stories, it's not a competition on whose character is the best and coolest. Don't let a competitive mindset ruin somebody else's creative vision. All that said though? I haven't encountered this kind of player much if at all on Everlasting. People I've met here have been in most cases super open to playing along with each other's roleplay plotlines and treating their stories with respect. This is more of a pet peeve regarding a type of player I've encountered a lot in the past back on the old servers, other MMOs, and other roleplay settings in general. Plus I don't think people who approach roleplay that way are bad people or worse roleplayers, I used to be that kind of player way back when I first started RPing. It's just when a competitive mindset towards roleplay clashes with a creative mindset that it makes me feel hairs turning grey.

I mean to be fair there are probably plenty of multi-millionaires out there that would greet a room full of people like that.

Had one recently come to its end with a small hero SG I lead. They're smaller street level heroes, and one of their first plotlines involved taking down a serial killer who had some history with one of the team's leaders. It turned out the arc's big bad had been captured by the Vahzilok years ago and had twisted experiments run on him, when some rookie heroes showed up to rescue him. Only for those heroes to fail due to inexperience, leaving him stuck suffering their experiments for much longer. He snapped and went insane, blaming inexperienced heroes for his suffering and starting to hunt down and murder newbie heroes in a twisted way of making sure only "strong" heroes exist. His corrupted ideals gave him an interesting dynamic against the SG, acting almost both as an antagonist and a mentor with how he would "test" them and give them advice on how to improve as heroes... While in the middle of trying to kill them all of course. The finale involved the team tracking down his hiding place in the abandoned sewers, at the same underground lab the Vahzilok experimented on him in. During which they learned some of the more nitty gritty details of his history with one of the team's leaders- Or rather his history with who that team leader was impersonating, as it was revealed he wasn't exactly who he said he was. In the end the big bad was defeated with an explosive team attack, a serum to nullify his powers, and the ghost of his first victim showing up to join the fight. It was a really fun RP plot that spawned a ton of character development for various members of the SG, and that's one of the best things you can hope for from any plot. For characters to be changed by it in some way by the end.

Free? That's perfectly within my budget! May as well toss my hat into the ring here if the OP or any other artists are feeling generous enough to tackle either of these characters: Fighting Gold: Lord Dreadnaut: Images in spoilers due to size!

Haven't posted in awhile, but just had to share one of my new favourite creations: Fatso, Shield/Savage Tanker, a guardian spirit haunting various suits of armour... To protect a big litter of kittens that it keeps within the armour at all times.

Glad people are enjoying them so much! Here's another batch of oldies but goodies. Child of Talos, quite literally a descendant of the hero that Talos Island was named after Fun Gal, a hero with the power to control fungus and mold. Gross. Normal, a trio of genetically engineered heroes that all share one consciousness (All one character, just costume swapping as the situation needs!) Devoratrix, a demon representing the sin of Gluttony. She's since been rerolled as Claws instead of Titan Weapons now though. Phanto-Mime, a spooky spectral mime with the power to create invisible objects Two aquatic themed villains, Jaws and Beached. A shark and a whale, respectively. Beached uses the volcano back detail as a blowhole!

I've thought about submitting it to base contests when those pop up, but it's still a very unfinished base despite what's on display here so far. Most of the other buildings are still just big slabs of brick wall without windows yet, and there's a BIG chunk of still completely empty real estate behind the main penthouse building. Just wouldn't feel right entering such a big WiP into a contest.

Next up, directly across the canals: The beaches: Little bit of convenience and a little bit of history: HOT DOGS, GETCHA HOT DOGS:

Heading up into the penthouse itself! Elevator up to the apartment: Hanging out corner! Don't mind the glowing skull: Out by the pool: Fancy decor: Home gym: Living room: Bedroom: Bathroom: Kitchen:

Starting of course, with the penthouse itself: Main entrance: A cafe: Inside the cafe:

This base has been my baby for about a year, and is still nowhere near done but hands down my proudest creation as a base builder. Allow me to introduce the home neighborhood of my main character Fighting Gold, and her Founders Falls Penthouse Screenshots giving a more in depth tour of the base to come soon!

And now here's an assortment of random one-offs that don't see as much play as the above two. The Dwarf Fortress, a steampunk mecha piloted by Dwarves. Rip and Tear, a literal Doomguy knock-off from a fictional DOOM clone game that replaced the demons with Rikti. O Canada, Canadian superhero! Webby, does whatever a spider can! Used Elec Blast tinted pure white to great effect to resemble web blasts! Mermaiden, former swimsuit model finds a trident washed ashore from a sunken city, gains super powers! States Man, a hero who can manipulate the states of matter and doesn't understand why his name confuses people. More to come soon, so I don't clog up the thread too much!

Next up is one of my personal favs: The tyrannical saturday morning cartoon supervillain brought to life, Lord Dreadnaut! Beam/Dark Blaster

Well, after being on the server for over a year now, it's about time I think I finally shared on the forums! Starting here with some costumes of my current main, Fighting Gold! Elec/Nin Stalker (Along with five other variations using different powersets)