RikOz

In Brickstown: Juicer Freak: If all else fails we could just blow stuff up. I'm okay with that. In Grandville: Crab Spider Slicer: Safety, soldier! Safety! Safety! Safety! Use it! Peter Stemitz in FF: How is it with you, fellow righter of wrongs? Seen any babes today? In the ToT mission that sends you to Praetoria: Nerva Spectral Daemon: They said Praetoria was shades of gray. This looks awfully blue to me. Earth Thorn Caster: I'm going to let them kill you.

Ha! I have an elec/elec scrapper named "Heartbeat of America". He's a cardiologist, and his mutant gene was activated by a bizarre defibrillator accident.

The name reminds me of one of my alts, Khan O'Copenhagen :D

Villainous elec/elec stalker, Zack Tapp!

Stuff like that practically jumps out and pokes me in the nose!

Heh - "...deadly assualt weapon"

"Rescue the magicians from the Circle of Thorns" This is that mission that requires you to rescue 21 magicians from the CoT. On multiple occasions, I've had to autocomplete this mission, because I simply can't find that last hostage anywhere. I think I've found the problem. 20 of the hostages are like typical hostages - being guarded by two minions in a corner somewhere. The 21st hostage, however, is being used in a ritual. And that hostage in the ritual isn't being counted when you rescue them. I happened to notice it this time because I was down to only 2 hostages remaining. I rescued the hostage from the ritual at this point, and noticed that the counter remained at "2". I rescued the last hostage, and the counter changed to "Rescue the last magician", but there were no more to be found. This particular instance of the mission didn't use a particularly complex map, so there weren't many places to hide, and I didn't find any more hostages or enemies after going over the map again.

I've wondered the same thing. I'm absolutely positive I got an ambush the first couple of times - they came over the wall between the Icon and the building to its left/West. And on at least one occasion, I got ambushed as I arrived at the tram station after getting tired of waiting outside of Icon. But otherwise, nada (and I have 39 characters who are of a level to have gotten the mission). I kinda wonder if they're spawning and then getting lost/stuck on their way to me. Kind of the way the panicking civilians in some missions tend to get trapped in certain rooms.

Asa Castrelli (DB/WP brute) Asa Castrelli's father, Marco, was a mid-level figure in The Family. When he was murdered by rivals within the organization, Asa swore to herself to get revenge, and cripple all organized crime while she was at it. I had her start out as a hero, but then decided to take her redside as a rogue. DTF Dany (Ice Blast/Atomic Manipulation blaster) Dany is Determined To Freeze crime! (What did you think it meant, you pervert?!) The really fun thing about playing Dany is the fact that she has a grand total of five holds available. Freeze Ray and Bitter Freeze Ray from Ice Blast, Positron Cell and Radioactive Cloud from Atomic Manipulation, and the Chance for Hold proc from Devastation IO set (though that set is being replaced by Apocalypse now that she's 50). So she just runs in (she's my only non-weapons ranged character without Hover), locks everybody down, then takes them all out.

My understanding is that, in the early days of MMOs, there was some concern that players would just sit there for days playing the game, and that would be unhealthy. "Rested XP" (or "Patrol XP" as we call it here) was originally meant as an incentive for players to turn off the game and "go outside and play". Rested XP would be a reward for taking a break. Alas, while well-intentioned, it appears that early MMO developers didn't foresee the idea of "alts".

I've been working on some minor "projects". One project, started earlier this year, is to stop flitting from one alt to the next, playing whichever strikes my fancy on a particular day. Given that I have over 100 alts, that meant that, after four years, I only had ten level 50s and then 100+ alts in various stages of leveling. It also meant that alts with certain power sets that I find less appealing (*ahem* Dual Pistols *cough* Beam Rifle) were getting clustered together, languishing in the same level ranges where I more or less lost interest. I've consistently made a habit of keeping all of my alts sorted by level, moving each one up in the list as it leveled up. I stopped hopping from one alt to the next, and instead, once I had my first page of the character select screen all at level 50, I just moved to the second page and worked on getting the next ten to 50, whichever characters those happened to be. Currently I'm working on my third page, nearly finished with that one (seven 50s, one 49, two 48s). Another "project" is to roll more redside alts. The majority of my current roster is blueside, by a large margin. So I'm trying to narrow that gap a bit. Part of my reason for this is, what with getting all of these alts to 50, I'm starting to get a bit burned out on the Brickstown/Founders'/Peregrine circuit. (In fact I might, instead of starting on the next "page" of alts when I finish leveling the current page, I may bounce down to a page of alts in the 10-30 range. Been quite a while since I've tangled with the Sky Raiders...) My final "project" is striking more balance in my ATs. I play entirely solo, so I focus on "damage" ATs: blasters, brutes, scrappers, sentinels, and stalkers, and among those, the last two are under-represented compared to the first three. Particularly stalkers. So I'm reminding myself to roll more sentinels and stalkers. (A "sub-project" of this balance-seeking involves rolling more male alts, since my female alts quite outnumber the males.) So here's my latest male, redside, sentinel alt (I can't stop having new ideas, after all, and I need to roll these alts before I forget the name idea): Noise Ordnance (Sonic/Bio) (He's Tech origin - his sonic blasts come from the device on his back, rather than his mouth.)

Since I'm old, I thought I'd try to get hep with the kids' lingo for some character names ;P So here's a pair of villains: 6'8" Swoleo (SS/WP brute), and his little brother/partner in crime, 4'10" Smoleo (MA/SR scrapper): Get it? One's "swole" and the other is "smol". Hard to tell in these shots, but they do have different faces.

Also true, though not typically an issue for me, as my playstyle is "one arc at a time".

For movement, instead of W-A-S-D, I use Q-W-E-S. W=forward, S=back, as usual, but Q & E for turn left/right. So then A&D become strafe left/right. I swear this was the default arrangement for CoH on live, and I ended up liking it so much that, after the shutdown, I adopted it in WoW when I went back to that game. I rarely use the keyboard for turn left/right, though, since I do most of that with the mouse. Top number row, 1-0, for most common attacks that are part of my normal attack chain. Exception being my blaster snipes. Perhaps it's an odd power tray arrangement, but all of my characters' trays are set up following the same rules: Tray #1: Attack powers. For melee characters, these are typically arranged in the order I train them, with a couple exceptions for certain specific PS's. Usually the same thing for my sentinels. For my blasters, my most-frequently-used primary PS ranged attacks are on 2-5. Basic melee attacks from the secondary PS are placed on 1 & 6. 7 is always a ranged AoE, like Rain of Fire or Ice Storm. 8 gets a lesser-used ranged attack, or possibly a secondary PS melee attack if I find it useful. 9 gets my T9 nuke. 0 is my main travel power Tray #2: Toggles & Utility Pretty self-explanatory. All of my toggles go here. If there is room left, I'll stick things like Hold and Immobilizes in there, to the right of my toggles. Rest power goes in slot 0. Tray #3: Utility+ Slot 1 is always Aim/Build-up. If a blaster, 1=Aim, 2=Buildup, 3=Snipe. 4=Self-heal if character has one. 5=Taunt if character has one, or Placate if a stalker. 6-9 hold whatever I feel like. 0=Secondary travel power, if I have one. While my travel powers are assigned to slots, I don't actual use a keypress or click for them. Instead, I use mouse buttons 4&5 (side thumb buttons on my mouse) mouse4=primary travel, mouse5=secondary travel. They still get power tray slots because I haven't figured out yet how to bind a power to a keystroke/mouse button without having it on a tray somewhere. Hover, as a secondary power, is reserved for my ranged characters. I never use it on melee toons, simply because I think hovering melee attacks look ridiculous. And for ranged toons, I eschew Hover for Assault Rifle, Dual Pistols, and Beam Rifle. Just because I feel like the feet should be planted properly when firing weapons like that.

One problem with the book icon appearing is that, once it appears, you can't get the damned contact off your contact list without completing the arc. There are some story arcs I either don't care for, or I feel a particular character is not well-suited to, so I don't want to do that arc. But I forgot that a particular contact offered that particular arc, so I did their non-story intro mission, and now I've got that book icon, and the contact cluttering my contact list forever. Bad enough that First Ward contacts are auto-introduced and never go away unless you do the First Ward/Night Ward stories.

Anja Nilsdotter (Fire Blast/Ice Manipulation Blaster) Anja is the only child of Nils Thorsen, better known as the Swedish national hero, Livgardet. A mutant like her father, she inherited his powers over fire and ice. After her father died defending Stockholm from a Nemesis attack, Anja elected to become a hero herself. For her costume, she chose her father's colors, orange and white, in memory of him. (( I had a "level 50" costume already designed for her, which I made way back when. But, now that she's 50, I'm not too hot on it. I actually like her "level 40" costume better, along with her brand-new costume in the slot unlocked by doing the FF Icon mission. ))

Parabella (AR/Devices blaster) is one of my resurrections from live, though back then she only made it to level 11. She's level 50 now :)

*yawn* Two more level 50s, #24 & #25: Savior Machine Titan Weapons/Energy Aura 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. (( This character was inspired by one of my favorite metal bands, Iron Savior. I was going to call it "Iron Savior", but it appears another fan beat me to it. The band's albums tell on ongoing science fiction story about the "Iron Savior", a sentient spacecraft built to protect mankind. I went with "giant robot" because I obviously can't build a sentient spacecraft in the game. Unable to call it "Iron Savior", I took inspiration from one of the songs, "Titans of Our Time", which refers to the Iron Savior as, "Savior machine, creation of mine"; the song's title also inspired the primary powerset, Titan Weapons. )) Libertarian Man Kinetic Melee/Bio Armor Brute Libertarian Man is powered by the free market, unencumbered by government interference. Libertarian Man opposes the occupational licensing required by the FBSA, but nevertheless respects the laws of the nation. Libertarian Man fights crime, because crime violates the individual rights of its victims.

Triple-N (The Nearly Naked Ninja) becomes my 23rd 50, and my first stalker to 50 (Ninja Blade/Ninjitsu). Her "working" costumes are all variations on having her wear as little as possible. Here's how she looks at 50: Her "civilian" garb is a bit more modest: Wish she could have the tats with all of her costumes!

Yeah, boots are always the hardest thing for me. In this particular case, that "Metal" set doesn't have matching boots, and I think a sharp line dividing the boots and those "pants" looks awkward. So I look for boots that sort of overlap the bottom of the "pants", but, unfortunately, most of the "overlapping" boots are either too complex/robotic, or have designs on them that I don't feel fit with the rest of the costume, or else they just look too big and clunky on a female character. Still, I may eventually change them.

Susannah Reid is an electrical engineer. When an experimental power transformer went haywire, her body became a living electric battery. The accident damaged her spine, paralyzing her, but a specially-designed, artificial, external spine returned her motion, and also allowed her to pull ambient static electricity from the air and store it within her body until she unleashes it in powerful blasts. Fuseweld (Elec/Elec blaster) has become my 21st level 50! Used the Metal pieces to suggest copper wiring.

In Sharkhead Isle: [NPC] Cage Consortium Guard: Look, I'm not taking your shift. I don't care if you have a date. Do I have the words 'abuse me' written on my forehead?

In the final mission of the "Operation: World-wide Red" arc (where you have to defeat the second Kronos Titan, on the outdoor forest map), there are some ambushes that usually consist of a Sapper and an Operation Engineer. Often, an ambush will spawn immediately upon zoning into the mission. Several times, I have noticed that I zone in, and almost immediately start getting hit with automatic weapon fire. I look around to find where it's coming from, and there is nothing in sight at first. But then I eventually see the ambushers running at me, usually at the maximum draw distance at which enemies can be seen. It appears that these ambushes are actually spawning halfway across the zone. And yet, somehow, the Operation Engineer's Auto Turret is accurately firing on me from an absolutely ridiculous distance, long before I can even see the thing. I know this is not normal Auto Turret behavior, as under normal circumstances I can run (if I choose) far enough away that the Auto Turret will stop firing and move to close the distance before firing again. It would appear that the Auto Turrets are unintentionally taking advantage of the fact that ambushers automatically target a character's location, and are opening fire even though they're technically well out of range. On one occasion, I was killed seconds after zoning into the mission. Two ambushes spawned simultaneously: one right at the zone-in location, and the other far far away. So I was fighting the nearby ambushers, not realizing that I was being shot at by the second group that was out of visual range. I was surprised that I died, because I absolutely should not have been taken out by a single ambush. I only realized what had happened when the second group finally rolled up a moment after I was killed.

"The Iron Sociopath"

I was responding to something somebody else said in General, and I was in exactly the right place at the right time for the perfect NPC line.