RikOz

Oh god, I haven't had to face them redside, but I've had to fight them a couple times blueside (in a vigilante arc, and fighting rogue cops in a Talos Island arc) and I totally agree, the glue guns suck.

I regularly do the XP farm, "Bads in Space", more for tickets than XP, and I have noticed that if I change my Notoriety to anything higher than the default +0/X1, I stop getting tickets.

Any zone, really. This is actually something I recall noticing back on live, not long after I started playing. So many functional doors, yet I seemed to keep getting sent to the same ones over and over. I found it puzzling, particularly for randomized missions like radio missions. For most missions, the only actual requirement is selecting the appropriate map type for the mission, and when the mission calls for an office or warehouse map, there are so many available, appropriate buildings that it just gets weird when all the rhubarb seems to happen in the same handful of buildings.

Hmm, was gonna say I beat her without too much difficulty on my fire/fire blaster (amusingly, named "Flaminatrix"), but then I re-read and saw the AV bit. I was only set at +0/X1/no AV, so I guess she was an EB to me.

Welcome back!

I was exploring Echo: Galaxy City yesterday, picking up badges, when I read the text of the "Land Locked" badge: "This lock holds back the waters of Eastgate Bay, and has been the target of many super criminals bent on flooding Galaxy City." This was extremely odd, because Eastgate Bay is way over on the other side of The Hollows. You know, three zones away from Galaxy City. According to the full city map, Perez Park is on the other side of that lock. Then Atlas Park, and finally The Hollows (aka "Eastgate"). Eastgate Bay is a few miles away from Galaxy City. Can somebody explain this?

Unfortunately, it's not a feature of the Fiery Aura melee secondary 😞

I don't know when it was introduced, as I only discovered the game about a year before shutdown, but the color-changing powers were there when I played on Live.

I use a specific, odd number for the last three digits of all of my bids (my birthday, to be specific), and after that first purchase, that number keeps showing up in the "recent bids" box for nearly every subsequent item I look at. That has to be a glitch. Anyway, when it comes to putting recipes on the AH, I frequently find myself torn over the simple fact that, for the overwhelming majority of uncommon and rare recipes, I'll get more inf by vendoring them. That's completely backwards from WoW and the few other MMOs I've tried. So when I look at the going price for a particular recipe, and see that people are bidding around 1,000 inf, but I can vendor it for 5,000 ... do I take the better price from the vendor, or do I be a nice guy and help propagate the recipe into the community? I think part of the problem is also people taking advantage of the way the AH awards winning bids - giving the highest bid to the seller with the lowest asking price. People like me who know about this start posting things for 1 inf, and eventually, buyers who also know the system start making stupid low bids. I've posted a lot of recipes for 1 inf, and they end up selling for 1 inf. The amusing thing about this is the minimum 5 inf auction fee: I post for 1 inf, a buyer gets it for 1 inf, and then I get charged the 5 inf fee, so I'm basically paying 4 inf to get rid of it.

I should have also mentioned that I wasn't trying to make Hotstepper look like the singer of that song. Until I went and watched the video after I made the character, I had no idea what the guy looked like. I heard the song on a stream at work a couple days ago, and it gave me the character idea. Anyway, he's a Fire/Fiery Aura scrapper (I already had a fire/fire blaster and a fire/fire brute... I like fire 😄 )

Here come de Hotstepper. He's a lyrical gangster. Word 'em up.

Well technically, they're not transparent....

One of my supergroups, The Extracurriculars: Dorotea Dagger (Dual Blades/Super Reflexes stalker) from Mexico: Dorotea Solana Cortez was a homeless child on the streets of Mexico City, getting by as a petty thief as part of a small-time gang. Despite numerous run-ins with the police, she always managed to escape mysteriously. And she had an edge: a nearly superhuman skill with a blade. A tourist from Paragon City heard rumors about her and managed to track her down, and convinced her to return to Paragon, where she paid her tuition at the Galaxy City School for Superpowered Girls. In the aftermath of the Galaxy City disaster and the mysterious disappearance of Headmistress Dahlia Ventura, Dorotea now leads The Extracurriculars, a team comprised of several of her fellow former students. Beatriz Brasil (Staff Fighting/Bio Armor scrapper) from Brazil: Beatriz Pinheiro was an orphan growing up in the slums of Rio de Janeiro. Though Beatriz is unaware of the fact, her mother was a practitioner of magic who blessed her infant daughter with protective wards shortly before her own death. As the girl grew, her own innate magical attunement strengthened and improved those wards, but this was unconscious, as she still remained unaware of her natural gifts. These wards helped her to survive on the streets, but she also helped herself by always carrying a discarded broomstick with which to defend herself. When she was 10 years old, she was taken in by a martial arts instructor, who raised her alongside his own children. He replaced her broomstick with a proper fighting staff and trained her in its use. At 14, her benefactor sent her to the USA and enrolled her in the Galaxy City School for Superpowered Girls. When the school was destroyed a few years later in the Shivan attack, Beatriz and fellow students formed The Extracurriculars super group. Betty Beatdown (War Mace/Invulnerability brute) from England: Elizabeth Downing grew up poor in London, UK, with a physically abusive stepfather. One day, when she was 13, her drunken stepfather hit her ... and his blow had no effect. Her mutant powers had manifested as invulnerability. When the next blow proved similarly futile, Betty picked up the first object at hand - a cricket bat - and gave her stepfather a taste of his own medicine, along with a promise of more to come should he ever hurt her or her mother again. Before long, Betty found herself recruited by the Galaxy City School for Superpowered Girls, and relocated to Paragon City. After the disaster in Galaxy City destroyed the school, Betty teamed up with several of her fellow students to form The Extracurriculars. Energy Ellie (Energy Blast/Mental Manipulation blaster) from USA: Born into a magically-gifted family, it was no surprise when Ellie Sturgeon began to display magical abilities of her own at a young age. Growing up in Paragon City, it made sense to her parents to enroll her in the Galaxy City School for Superpowered Girls as soon as she was old enough, in order to direct her powers in the right direction. When the school was destroyed in Shivan disaster, Ellie and several of her fellow students banded together to form The Extracurriculars. Kinetic Keisha (Kinetic Melee/Regeneration scrapper) from USA: Keisha Franklin was a high school student in Miami, until an explosion in her science class wounded her and doused her in chemicals. Amazingly, her wounds healed unnaturally rapidly, and she later discovered new kinetic abilities. Not long after she transferred to the Galaxy City School for Superpowered Girls, the Shivan disaster destroyed the school. Now, Keisha has teamed up with several fellow students to form The Extracurriculars. Mental Miyuki (Psychic Blast/Mental Manipulation blaster) from Japan: The youngest member of The Extracurriculars, Miyuki Oshima is nevertheless one of the most powerful. Born and raised in Saitama, Japan, her mutant psychic and telekinetic abilities manifested when she was just 12 years old. Soon after, her family emigrated and relocated to Paragon City so that Miyuki could receive training at the Galaxy City School for Superpowered Girls. When the school was destroyed in the Shivan meteor disaster less than three years later, Miyuki was among the now-former students who banded together as The Extracurriculars. ((I didn't intend for two blasters in the group to have the same secondary, but Miyuki started out as a Mind Control/Psionic Assault dominator (or corrupter, can't remember for sure) and just wasn't working for me for solo play, so I rerolled her as a blaster and picked the two powersets that I felt fit the "mental" theme.)) Rayusha Razor (Claws/Willpower brute) from Ukraine: Rayusha Ustyyanovych was born and raised in Luhansk, Ukraine. Questionable, experimental, medical treatments she received as a child made her more aggressive than a normal child, while bestowing a mental mindset that lets her shrug off pain and injury and allows her to maintain focus regardless of difficult circumstances. However, Rayusha gained, from her parents, a strong sense of justice and cannot stand by while the weak are mistreated. When it was revealed that her childhood medical treatments were part of a secret government program to raise up a corps of assassins, the family fled to the USA and settled in Paragon City. As one of the older students at the Galaxy City School for Superpowered Girls, Rayusha helps to lead The Extracurriculars team in the aftermath of the Shivan meteor tragedy. ((I may tweak this a bit - it's a little too "Wolverine-ish")) Tabitha Target (Archery/Darkness Manipulation blaster) from Scotland: Tabitha McKinley bears a magic bow, a family heirloom that has been passed down for generations. The bow has a connection to the realm of shadows, and it grants its bearer the ability to draw upon shadow powers. It also grants the ability to fly so long as the bearer carries it. The bow grants no special archery skills or powers, though - that's all Tabitha. In fact, the one condition for using the bow's powers is that the owner must use the bow for its mundane purpose with great regularity. Failure to practice, or otherwise utilize archery skills will result in the shadow powers diminishing. Tabitha was a student at the Galaxy City School for Superpowered Girls when the meteor attack destroyed the school. Now she works with several of her fellow former students, fighting crime as The Extracurriculars. ((Because her powers come from the bow, she'll keep the same bow with every costume, even though it might appear out of place with more modern armor. She uses that wooden longbow with the arcane runes on it.)) Tonya Toronto (Ice Blast/Ice Armor sentinel), from Canada: ((No bio yet - I haven't decided on her real last name, because she's Canadian "First Nations" and I've had some trouble trying to find how surnames work for them. I plan to consult with some Canadian friends for suggestions. I mainly don't want to inadvertently give her a name that sounds stereotypical or mocking.)) And finally, the Extracurriculars' former teacher and future nemesis ... Dahlia Danger (Dual Pistols/Traps corruptor) from USA: Dahlia Ventura established the Galaxy City School for Superpowered Girls, acting as the school's headmistress and primary instructor. In reality, she is an Arachnos agent, and the school was a front intended to identify superpowered young women and indoctrinate them into Arachnos' philosophy, with the intent of turning them to Arachnos' purposes. Unfortunately for Arachnos' plans, the Shivan meteor attack interrupted and derailed their plan, and when the school was destroyed Dahlia had little choice but to flee back to the Rogue Isles with the Arachnos agents who responded to the attack. Dahlia's former students, who went on to form the superhero group known as The Extracurriculars, remain unaware of her true nature. They presume that she perished in the attack, and remember her fondly. Dahlia lets them believe she's dead ... for now. ((Heh - no, she didn't dress like this when she was "teaching" 😄 )) EDIT: The costumes depicted above are the girls' "level 20" costumes. Their starting costumes weren't really "costumes" - they were whatever they happened to be wearing when the meteors struck. So, a mix of school uniform parts and some personal items. By level 10 they were able to create basic, spandex costumes, with the non-USA members choosing to create costumes in their own national colors. By level 20, they had enough resources to design and create more suitable suits that offered more protection. And just for fun, here's a wallpaper I made of the group back when I first created them on live: The girl in the blue beret was Flavie Faker, an Illusion/FF controller from France. I deleted her because she was just terrible for solo play (which is what I mostly do). Flavie was replaced by Tonya Toronto, and Beatriz Brasil is a new character created for HC.

And NPCs attack like knights 😄 It's very consistent - a lone enemy will run a straight line about 10 degrees to my right (as I'm facing them), and then at the last second make a hook toward me. I actually first noticed this when fighting Pumicites in The Hollows. It was very obvious due to the speed those guys move at, and it looked like they were purposely programmed to try to run around behind me. But then I started noticing it in other missions with different mobs.

I forgot to add my main reason for asking: The indirect paths make it rather challenging to manage my knockback. I try to align myself with the mob so that, if one of my powers procs its "chance for KB", it's not going to knock the mob off the 3rd-level catwalk in an office map, or knock him into a crowd of other mobs. I mean, it's easy enough to avoid that kind of thing if I have a specific power that KBs enemies, because then I can use it strategically when necessary. It's these powersets (like Energy, both ranged and melee) where you just get these random, unpredictable KBs when you least want it. This is one reason I've started avoiding rescuing Overdrive in alignment missions - she's always knocking my targets all over the place, which is really annoying when I'm melee and the guy I'm punching goes flying away from me. And knocking enemies off of balconies in office maps is extremely aggravating when it's one of the mobs guarding the hostage I'm trying to rescue. It's either fly down there and try to find him (difficult if the KBd mob isn't the one I had targeted), or stand around twiddling my thumbs waiting for them to find their way back to me.

In WoW, where player models and enemy models can indeed overlap, a group of mobs would run straight at you, overlapping each other, and then spread out around you once they got there.

I've started noticing something: when enemies run up to you, they never run straight at you. They run to the right or left and then make a little hook and attack you from the side. Wondering if this is deliberate, and if so, what was the rationale behind it? I mean, if it's a full three-man spawn coming at me at the same time, sure, it doesn't surprise me when they take different paths, since they can't all occupy the same space. But it also happens when it's just a lone mob. Not really important, just curious.

Same here - owned multiple rulebooks and read a crapton of the novels (some really good ones in there), but never got to play it because none of the tabletop gamers I knew were playing it, or were interested. Loved the setting. I recall there was an utterly terrible SNES Shadowrun game ... If somebody was able to make a good MMO based on Tad Williams' "Otherland" series, I'd be all over that. I guess there was something in the works a few years ago, but nothing ever came of it. As far as a game that lets you move back and forth between fantasy and sci-fi realms ... Piers Anthony had a series of books based around that idea (The Apprentice Adept series, I think it was).

I had to make him - I'm a professional cook IRL 😄

Well, I haven't written any long bios yet, but I have at least a paragraph or two for most of my characters. All Heroes, unless otherwise noted. Here are a couple of teenaged friends who both became heroes as a result of attempted muggings by Hellions. Both are rerolls from live. "Stabby Steffi" (Dual Blades/Super Reflexes scraper): That Hellion didn't realize that Steffi was on her way home from her fencing class when he decided to mug her. He soon discovered his error. Now Steffi fights crime alongside her best friend, Mandy Clark, aka "Mandy Manslapper". "Mandy Manslapper" (Martial Arts/Ninjitsu scrapper), bio based entirely upon the common expressions of gratitude you get when you save a mugging victim in Atlas Park: Every week somebody was trying to steal Mandy's purse! Finally, she decided she'd had enough, and she beat the tar out of the next mugger who tried. It was the most exciting thing that ever happened to her! Perhaps not coincidentally, several years ago Mandy's mother was rescued from a mugger by a hero, and told the hero, "I hope my kid grows up to be just like you!" Now Mandy fights crime alongside her best friend, Steffi McAllister, aka "Stabby Steffi". One of my first new character ideas for Homecoming, "Roentgen Bull" (originally "Rad Bull", changed servers and that name was taken, so he became "Red Beef", which I was never happy with, and finally his current name). Travel power is Super Leap. (SS/Rad brute): Everybody warned Angus Hereford that it wasn't smart to chug so many energy drinks. He didn't listen, and now he's a superhero. Who's the smart guy now? NOTE: Angus' IQ is 43 now. White Orchid and Bruised Violet are sisters, but they are Hero and Villain, respectively: "White Orchid" (Energy/Energy brute): Joselin Beltre and her younger sister, Carmen, grew up as orphans on the streets of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. As teenagers, they were abducted by a magic-wielding madman who called himself "El Demonio", who kept them captive for several months and subjected them to horrific magical experiments. As a result, both of them manifested magic-based powers, and soon after they were able to use those powers to overcome El Demonio and escape. The two sisters fled to the United States, finding a home in Paragon City. Using their newfound abilities, the sisters took up crimefighting, under the names White Orchid & Blue Violet, and Joselin was always a bit concerned that Carmen was too brutal when subduing criminals. During the Galaxy City disaster, the two got separated, and in the aftermath Carmen disappeared. Unbeknownst to Joselin, Carmen took up Arachnos' offer of assistance, and now lives as a villain in the Rogue Isles, where she is known as "Bruised Violet". "Bruised Violet" (Dark/Dark brute): Carmen Beltre and her older sister, Joselin, grew up as orphans on the streets of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. As teenagers, they were abducted by a magic-wielding madman who called himself "El Demonio", who kept them captive for several months and subjected them to horrific magical experiments. As a result, both of them manifested magic-based powers, and soon after they were able to use those powers to overcome El Demonio and escape. The two sisters came away from the experience with very different outlooks. Joselin came to believe that those with power had a responsibility to protect those without power, and calling herself White Orchid she took up the mantle of the Hero when she and Carmen arrived in Paragon City. Carmen, though, took the opposite viewpoint, swearing that she would become powerful enough that nobody could ever hurt her again. She now lives as a villain in the Rogue Isles where she is known as Bruised Violet. "Goldbar" (Kin/Inv scrapper): Richard Zanders is a reformed and rehabilitated former member of the Gold Brickers criminal gang. After serving his prison term for his youthful criminal activities Zanders used his razor sharp scientific and financial skills to grant himself superpowers and become fabulously wealthy (through legitimate means). Now he fights on the side of right as the superhero "Goldbar". I'm a fan of the German metal band, Iron Savior, who tell a high-concept science-fiction story over the course of their albums. I wanted to make a tribute character, but "Iron Savior" was already taken, so I went with an alternate name used in some of the band's songs. "Savior Machine" (TW/Energy brute): This sophisticated A.I. / war machine was created by an ancient, but advanced, human civilization with one purpose in mind: Protect humanity. It was lost in deep space for millennia, but has finally found its way home to a world that has changed much since it last saw it. But its purpose remains. "Angry Mama Bear" (Street Justice/Shield brute): After losing her teenaged son to superadine addiction, Sharon Hetre swore she wouldn't lose another. She's mad as hell, and she ain't gonna take it no more! Drug dealers beware the Angry Mama Bear! "Heartbeat of America" (Elec/Elec scrapper): Dr. Henry Ferguson M.D., D.O., M.B.B.S., was a cardiologist, until a bizarre accident involving a defibrillator triggered his latent mutant gene. Now, in addition to his medical practice, he fights crime in hands-on fashion, using his electrical powers to subdue wrongdoers! "Recipe for Disaster: (Rad/Poison corruptor, Villain): Borden Jamsey is an unsuccessful chef. So unsuccessful, in fact, that he has turned bad food into an art form. He refuses to follow food safety rules, and he cooks everything in the microwave. Basically, he's going to give you food poisoning, even if you don't eat his food. "Soul Candle" (Dark/WP sentinel): Soul Candle is a mystery, even to herself. Even she cannot recall her name. Examinations by magical experts have been inconclusive; she seems to be both alive and dead. One theory, is that she was a victim of a ritual sacrifice performed by the Circle of Thorns (suggested by the fact that she wears pieces of the CoT "uniform"), and she has somehow been returned to near-life. There have been indications that the dark powers she wields are drawn from the souls of other unavenged victims, as she has felt compelled to seek out those who prey upon the innocent and punish them for their crimes. "Pyrestone" (Stone Melee/Fiery Aura brute): Pyrestone is an elemental spirit, accidentally summoned by an inexperienced Circle of Thorns initiate who was reading aloud from a book of magic. The explosive summoning killed the unfortunate novice. Upon encountering other members of the CoT, Pyrestone recognized their evil and decided that, as long as he was here in the mortal realm, he would seek out and destroy evil wherever he found it. "Cobalt Claw" (Claws/Inv scrapper): Cobalt Claw can't remember her real name, but she knows her code name. She also cannot recall when or how she got her powers. She has vague memories of a previous existence, but that existence was in a somewhat different world. It has been suggested that she is some sort of dimensional echo. ((Back on live she started out as a Praetorian rebel before crossing over to Paragon City, but for Homecoming I decided to skip Praetoria.)) "Nano-Ninja" (Katana/Bio Armor scrapper), 4 feet tall: Nano-Ninja is a strange, experimental android. Its clockwork body is augmented with biological components that enhance its defensive capabilities. Nobody knows who built it. "Frossen" (Ice Melee/Regen scrapper): Frossen moved to Paragon City from Denmark, with her family, after the Danish government decided to impose a tax on superpowers to fund free healthcare for struggling EDM artists. "Major Marinara" (Water Blast/Fiery Aura sentinel): Major Enrico Ravioli was an officer in the Italian army. In his spare time he practiced the science of cooking, and after retiring from the army he dedicated himself to perfecting his marinara recipe. He was ultimately so successful that his sauce attained near-sentience and formed a rudimentary mental bond with Maj. Ravioli. Enrico soon discovered he could telepathically control his sauce, and his military background made him realize his sauce could be weaponized. Now he works to rehabilitate criminals by exposing them to the joy of cooking! No, Major Marinara is not a Pastafarian. He's a Raguan Catholic.

I think the Metallic 2 pieces (which are just chest and legs) are taken from the Gold Brickers NPCs. They're all male.

When my main hit level 50 and I switched her into the costume I had all ready for her, I unexpectedly discovered that her legs were noticeably longer in that costume than in her others. I went to the tailor to shorten her legs to where they should be, and discovered it was going to cost me 1,000,010 inf just to move the slider 25% to the left. Yikes!

Cool! I've seen all of those in-game except for the City of Gyros Grinder ad and the PCN ad. I always get a kick out of the "Clanket" 😄

It was installed to my SSD (E: drive). Recently moved it to my C drive. But as I mentioned in my last post, the screenshot issue has been fixed; at least it's no longer giving me any issues.

Today I spotted this in Brickstown, and I don't recall ever seeing this particular "ad" before.