Scarlet Shocker

THIS!!! This is excellent! I hadn't even thought of that, but it does have the disadvantage that you're not changing the single most identifying characteristic which is the name of course. I've moved Vitric to Reunion as a Blaster and I've recreated her on Everlasting as an Ice/Cold crupper. And of course I've found Vitric's theme tune too - it's kind of old, even Snarky might remember it

I'm not entirely certain where you're going with that other than a name change? Are you suggesting she should somehow be turned into glass by an external force?

Ice Control/Thorny Assault... Stealth, Teleport and Ice Mastery as my EPP I think we might have cracked it guys. So... I've got Vitric Vixen at 2osomething but I'm quite enjoying the notion of an Ice/Cold crupper --> Ice/Thorn Dom

I don't mind trying it on Excelsior. As you say, may be more interest. Then let's make it so. Let's meet in Atlas by the AH - close enough to get attention but not so close we don't know who's in the gang so to speak. I figure we can form a league once we have a few folks with us?

OOOOOOOOOOOH!!!! "Good" power sets don't bother me as such. I play for fun, and often I find being less than amazing = lots more fun. I have limited experience of Dominators but I've been playing one recently who rocks, a Mind/Rad so I couldn't play another Mind/ so soon but what about..... (gotta fire up the gaming rig to check Mids) something like Sonic/Thorns for that "cut glass shattering shriek" thing and the shard look? Guys I've really enjoyed your input into my crazy stream of consciousness. Thanks again. I've yet to make up my mind completely because new ideas keep coming in all the time but we're getting somewhere! Keep 'em coming!

(for the record I agree)

throwing this out here informed by the above but - Ice/Bio Sentinel. It works thus: Vixen gets defeated, Glass Fox takes over and becomes more resilient. I'd probably take stealth. I don't enjoy my limited experience with Sentinels - and I'm sure I would not enjoy this but it kinda fits with concept but is also possibly a bit close to Hyde/Hulk

Shall we go on Monday at 8pm GMT/12 PST/3EST? Any GMs want to get involved? We might enjoy some of your magical powers and company too

Wow this is evolving fast. Thanks for your input. Of course one hero I didn't reference and should have maybe is the Sentry where their alter-ego is the Void a dark aspect. I don't see her as that fractured but essentially what I'm trying to do here is play two ATs as one character almost simultaneously. That's a point I think I didn't make well enough in my OP - the AT is almost secondary to that aspect and the mechanics of making it happen are challenging and escaping me. On the other hand Glass Fox does have a theme tune (please forgive the disgusting intro) As to your suggestions: On live I had Snowfreak, who was a complete monster - an Ice/Energy blaster who just shredded things and this was pre-Invention stuff. For those of you who have long memories and played on Defiant I even beat Kung Fu Steve in PVP on her and he was considered to be on of the very best back in the day. I could remake Vitric Vixen and I do like the thought of an Ice/Cold crupper. But whenever anyone mentions Ice/Cold I think of Alex and John Mills worshipping that pint! (reference for the truly old) @Akisan, I like your thought process but I generally dislike melee toons. The only melee toon who's ever given me much joy was Invincible Woman, my Elec/Kin tank. But... and I'm thinking out loud as I type. I do like the kind of "tricksy thiefsy" character you mention. (As an aside one of my all-time favourite game series was Thief) so that would fit well in my comfort zone but that character doesn't really exist in our game. I'm presuming you're referencing maybe Catwoman, Black Cat... I'd got half a mind to reference Fox from Wanted (the comic not the awful movie.) The closest to a thief I can think of in our game is a Stalker and Ice/Ice Stalker doesn't... it has the glass aspect down but it doesn't get my juices going. I'm trying to figure out how this character works - Vixen is the hero, bright, white hat, all of that but maybe when shit hits the fan her Glass Fox alter-ego comes out who is mean, vicious, cunning (as per the proverbial fox) and probably a damned sight harder and more dangerous than Vixen. Perhaps when that happens, her survival mechanisms kick in and her charm takes over so although she's got the glass stuff going on her charisma entices civilians and innocent bystanders to rush to her aid (Thugs/Cold MM)

you may be misremembering. No servers were merged but around I19(from memory) when Freedom arrived, both NA and EU servers were conjoined. No servers were lost - in fact a new shard was created as the player bases were joined up.

No, I'd prefer not to play two sets the same. I could have one set in common but I'd prefer to play something variable... since I wrote this I've been thinking that The Glass Fox might do something like refract light - so there's an opportunity for multiple colours there but I'm struggling to think off the top of my head what might give that effect? Rad with lots of colour work in the costume creator?

I was inspired (as occasionally happens) with a character concept that (as often happens) begins with a name. In fact two names, interlinked - a character made of glass; Vitric Vixen aka The Glass Fox This then leads down a train of thought - are they two people with similar powers ( but I don't want to play two characters the same ) or are they twins or something? Am I channelling my inner Khonshu and choosing someone with MPD to do my bidding? I have a feeling it's the latter... but not necessarily mental disability more a case of one person with a "refracted" personality, who splits from one persona to another - good/evil, lots of mirrors etc. Vitric Vixen was relatively easy - an Ice/Ice blaster with a few spiky bits with pale blues and I'm pleased with the concept - able to project glass shards at enemies to shred them and bring them to their knees. The Glass Fox (for some reason "THE" definitive seems very important here) - less obvious and I've gone with a placeholder set because I don't want to get bogged down with ice but I'm leaning towards say a glass corruptor and a villainous personality. I've created a character redside for her but there's more work to be done. I'd like them to be the same person but moving in time and space more like Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse 5 than Jake Lockley/Marc Spector/Moon Knight - but able to have similar experiences within the game so they understand what each other sees and that's where I'm struggling to execute my cunning plan. How do I realise these in game? So far I've made two characters, one with a very wooly build and backstory one who is quite solid and sharp, a pleasing character. Lots of metaphors going on here obviously but that's part of the joy of it. So I figured I'd throw the concept open to the community to see what you good folks can come up with and welcome your input. for reference: vitric adjective vit·ric ˈvi‧trik : having the nature or quality of glass : resembling glass —distinguished from ceramic (also why isn't vitric in the HC forum dictionary database?)

I might be misremembering but isn't that where the guy in the lav is struggling?

Usually I begin with a concept and run it through to at least 40. There are caveats, for example really awful power choices that borked it. But I have no issue with playing a character to 50 and deleting it. If the concept/play style/game experience didn't work for me I can be quite brutal in that sense and will rob and delete it. Conversely, I do have characters I've run to 50 on a concept, decided that concept works better on a differnet AT/power set and so renamed it to something akin to "needs a new name" - letting it lie fallow until such time as a name comes to mind while the new concept gets a run out.

oh ok SNAP There, shortened it for you!

Wow some great stuff here thankyou! I'm GMT so I believe currently 7 hours ahead of you (Mountain time always confuses me) but this is deffo a weekend event. For the record, you reposting your video of the Gas Station accessible in PD is one of the things that rekindled this idea 👍 Well remembered thanks!

Oh it needn't be a large group. It could be a small band. Any form of musical ensemble would do I guess 😎 But to be serious for a moment, it is a fun activity that gives people a chance to hang out and do together - and from memory, things like Assemble the Team are useful for getting into difficult to reach places. Maybe we can make a party of it.

that was the bloody joke. Hence the inverted commas

I was just reminded about an event we ran on live many years ago on Defiant server. A whole gang of us got together, including Avatea and some other GMs, and we searched all the great secret locations in game. This was pre-Going Rogue so obviously we didn't cover Praetoria, but from memory we visited about 16 locations in total, red and blue side, including the Hangman's Tree, the Blue Arena, the toilets in the Grandville tunnels, and a few other places besides. It sounds like this would be another fun event and given we're likely to have some players who've never seen those sights, I figured we could run it over the coming weekend or early in the New Year. I'm unable to remember all the places we visited, but I know we didn't cover the Rikti Mothership and Gas Station in Pocket D, so we'd need to do the following things to make this work: 1) List all the places we want to visit (including their locations 2) Pick a server to do this on 4)Decide who wants to come and what time 5)Learn to count numerically I'd suggest a lower pop server, simply because we wouldn't get in the way of others but I'd also advise you to have at least a level 50 character A TRAVEL POWER IS ESSENTIAL from memory there are some very hard to reach places and we will be covering a LOT of distance. I'd suggest New Years Day because it's usually reasonably quiet* but people have time and availability Sign up below with preferred time (EST please) and server Also list places you know of. *we know a song about that, don't we, boys and girls?

grr

Are you sure you're playing City of Heroes or are you in Snarky's "living" room?

I'd echo what UltraAlt says, first and foremost - Play the way that works for you! But with that said, crafting can be interesting and fun and allows you to kit out your character to be the best that it can. It may be you're entirely happy with the 50 you have now, but it may also be that you feel the need to make another and that might want an extra boost, in which case crafting a few inventions can help immeasurably. If you feel the need for more Inf, you can craft some sought-after Procs and sell them on the Market Place or place them in Supergroup storage for alts and other SG members. 1000 merits sounds a lot but some of those procs cost a few, so you might find it's not as much as you think. But that's ok, right? Because it encourages you to go out and get some more. Whatever you choose, have fun with it!

The great man would have been 101 today. Excelsior!

The issue with long TFs is usually not their length per se but their lack of engagement. They were created to be a much longer experience which is generally a good thing, but at a time when there was way less content in the game than there is now. So there was a formula: 1) Make the players travel far to take time out of the game (and remember, there were no travel powers before lvl 14 in those days) 2) REALLY large maps and you had to Samuel L Jackson with an AK 47 in all of them. 3) Lack of variety. Some of the early TFs were built to a formula (when XP was far less available - even discounting boosters.) Thus the TFs themselves became boring and dull and frankly if it were not for Weakly Strike Targets that give bonuses for them to be played, some would simply not be done. 4) Lack of empathic significance: Synapse has the potential to be one of the more interesting signature heroes, but has been so poorly crafted and presented he comes across as a whiny snivelling self-pitying shite, who's never stood up to the challenge he's been confronted with and faced it down. Had he been shown differently it would give the player base a very different 5) Your character is locked into the TF for the duration. For me, this is the biggest drawback and can cause big scheduling issues (especially with global communities, times zones and the like) but is not insuperable with a bit of imagination. A lot of the above points can be levelled at other early TFs - especially Shadow Shard. But here's an alternate take: Most people who play the game in my experience spend a good few hours teaming with buddies, running content and generally enjoying the game until they get a) tired b) bored or c) have a reason to go to bed (there can be several) - they tend to play for an evening, time in which you could otherwise watch a couple of movies etc. Many will run a LOT of content in that time, and do other stuff, such as RP, base build, work on their character. So putting those two points together we know that: Players are willing to play the game for an extended period but they are discerning and won't play crap content unless coerced (usually by reward.) I've played for hours on teams where tips or radio missions are run rinse and repeat. It's not about the length. Honest. So the trick is to make the existing content better. Nobody wants it to be shorter - and if you don't believe me ask your wife - they want to be entertained, engaged, excited and given a reason to play the TFs. Paragon on live made a mistake with Posi and Sister Psyche too. Both were basic but ok TFs. Their replacements are ok, but I wouldn't say they were massively better in themselves. But they are shorter. Posi has no real reason to have his TF split in two. Put the two halves together you have something interesting and actually pretty good - a lot better and still shorter than his original TF. I find the fact that his TF is chopped in half to be a hindrance more than a bonus. Similarly Penny Yin's TF is also interesting and valid, it stands its own ground and gives Penny herself an interesting backstory but there was no reason to kill off Sister P's TF (or indeed the character) other than the Devs wanted us to get a shock. They could have handled it very differently and rewritten parts of Sister P's TF to include much more of Aurora's story - which in Primal Earth is sadly lacking in Lore AND content (but bonus time we get Mother Mayhem and her massive mammaries of masturbatory magnificence in her very own ITrial... so that's a bonus for those young enough to remember how such things work I suppose) Ok, this has turned into a bit of a wall of text so congratulations if you made it this far but the tl;dr version: People play for a long time - so long as the content is engaging and they can pick it up as and when they need, it needn't be a short arc. It just needs to be interesting

Yes, but sadly now Ray is nowhere to be seen!