Favorite CoX Memory Contest! Now until July 1st!

[GM Miss]

Hey everyone! Thank you so much for spending the last year with us. Our anniversary was a blast and it made us nostalgic!  We have decided to run a contest that will last from now until July 1st where you will post your favorite CoX memory. Your memory can be from Homecoming or CoX live!  

 

Where can I submit my memory?

• For Discord: Submit your memory to the #Fav-memory-contest.
• For the forums: Submit your memory to the thread located here.

 
When do I need to submit it by?

• July 1st 12:00am UTC

 

Rules:

• 250 words or less
• One Entry
• PG-13 Please

 

Prizes:

• First Prize: 1000 Merits
• Runner-Ups: 500 Merits (There will be at least two runner-ups if not more!)

 

Good luck everyone, I can’t wait to read your submissions!

Edited June 13, 2020 by GM Miss

[ImpousVileTerror]

er . . . um . . . how, uh, "steamy" can these submissions be?

Got a lot of great memories with this game!   . . . nooooot so sure about the appropriateness of sharing some of the best ones, though.

[GM Miss]

3 minutes ago, ImpousVileTerror said:

er . . . um . . . how, uh, "steamy" can these submissions be?

Got a lot of great memories with this game!   . . . nooooot so sure about the appropriateness of sharing some of the best ones, though.

Like all things here- PG13.

Edited June 13, 2020 by GM Miss

[ImpousVileTerror]

My country uses a different system for rating films' appropriateness, but I'm guessing the PG-13 you describe is based on the u.s. model?

 

Would this be accurate?

"A PG-13 rating is a sterner warning by the Rating Board to parents to determine whether their children under age 13 should view the motion picture, as some material might not be suited for them. A PG-13 motion picture may go beyond the PG rating in theme, violence, nudity, sensuality, language, adult activities or other elements, but does not reach the restricted R category. The theme of the motion picture by itself will not result in a rating greater than PG-13, although depictions of activities related to a mature theme may result in a restricted rating for the motion picture. Any drug use will initially require at least a PG-13 rating. More than brief nudity will require at least a PG-13 rating, but such nudity in a PG-13 rated motion picture generally will not be sexually oriented. There may be depictions of violence in a PG-13 movie, but generally not both realistic and extreme or persistent violence. A motion picture’s single use of one of the harsher sexually-derived words, though only as an expletive, initially requires at least a PG-13 rating. More than one such expletive requires an R rating, as must even one of those words used in a sexual context. The Rating Board nevertheless may rate such a motion picture PG-13 if, based on a special vote by a two-thirds majority, the Raters feel that most American parents would believe that a PG-13 rating is appropriate because of the context or manner in which the words are used or because the use of those words in the motion picture is inconspicuous."

 

sourced from:  https://www.marshallcinema.com/mpaa

[GM Miss]

That seems about right.

[Greycat]

There are ... many. Assuming multiple entries can be made, within reason? (As in "I can't decide between 2-3," versus "I have 150 submissions." 🙂 )

Edit: Also, do they have to be "in game" ("I remember running a Positron task force in issue 4 that took three weeks to finish") or can they also be "game related" ("I met my wife through this game?")

Edited June 13, 2020 by Greycat

[Yoru-hime]

Hmm... My favorite memory. There are a lot to choose from, but if I'm picking one:

 

This was after Safeguard missions had just come out and the community was still trying to guess how they worked. I hopped on a Safeguard mission with Aya of the Snow, my little level 12 or so Ice Blaster. The team was, to put it kindly, unprepared. We wipe in the bank and start to devolve into confusion. Go back to the bank? Regroup at start? While the argument hit full swing, I see the little marker for the getaway destination on the map though, and race over there to see if maybe that's where we belong.

 

The answer is both "yes" and "no". "Yes" because this is how we save the mission. "No" because I've got a good-sized crowd barreling toward me at speed, money in their hands and murder on their minds.

 

I plant myself in front of the manhole, munch every inspiration in my tray and cut loose. I assume it's a lost cause, but may as well go down fighting. I have no idea how I managed to keep any of them from getting by, much less not getting creamed, but the spawn started to melt away. I kept hitting Inspirations, kept freezing enemies and just kept blasting.

 

The Mission Complete notice silenced my quarreling teammates. I like to imagine them finding Aya sitting on a street corner, surrounded by unconscious Skulls and happily playing with her new Jump Pack, not sure what they've been fussing about. She had the situation under control the whole time.

Edited June 14, 2020 by Yoru-hime
Didn't notice the word count restriction

[FrauleinMental]

Pre-ESC (Existential Shutdown Crisis):  Confusing Ghost Widow during the Statesman TF (back when it was STF and not Ms. Liberty).  (If I have to choose one, this is it because it's the one I remember best.)

Post-ESC:  Solo-mezzing enough Council troops in a cave mission of the Citadel TF for a wiped team to return to the mission before I fell.

[GM Miss]

50 minutes ago, Greycat said:

There are ... many. Assuming multiple entries can be made, within reason? (As in "I can't decide between 2-3," versus "I have 150 submissions." 🙂 )

Edit: Also, do they have to be "in game" ("I remember running a Positron task force in issue 4 that took three weeks to finish") or can they also be "game related" ("I met my wife through this game?")

One entry please ❤️

[Chuckers]

I had been playing CoH since just after it went live in stores. It was a little more than 2 years and I still hadn't gotten a "50." The joke in my SG was that when I hit 50, I wanted a parade and fireworks. We were playing at night of the 4th of July. Capt. Colorblind, my main - an Energy/Fire blaster, hit 50 in a cave mission - while face-planted, no less. As I was cheering and being "grats-ed", I heard the park down the street from my apartment lighting off their 4th Fireworks. So, while I didn't get a parade, I got my fireworks!

[ImpousVileTerror]

One final question:
How strict is the "250 or fewer words" rule?   Is someone with 275 words going to want to get in there and find a way to parse down to avoid being disqualified?

[jaguargamma]

I was on an ITF with my main, a Level 50 Robotics/Pain Domination Mastermind. Our tank for that run was having a lot of trouble staying upright. My bots, meanwhile, were holding their own and wrecking face just fine, so I decided to flex into Defender mode and pocket the tank, pausing every so often to toss a heal to the bots when needed. Suddenly, he wasn't faceplanting anymore! Imagine that!

 

It wasn't until the end of the TF that he noticed who his medic was. Apparently, this guy thought that Masterminds were only ever good to/for their pets, and just assumed it was one of the team's Defenders healing him. So seeing the Mastermind playing his Medic and managing her pets at the same time must have just blown his little mind.

 

"Wait, the Mastermind can HEAL??!"

[Kai Moon]

I was in Siren's Call on my storm/dark defender, flying rooftop to rooftop for winter event presents. The zone seemed empty, except for my bounty, who hadn't left the Arachnos base. Flight was uncommon in pvp, so I thought I'd be left alone.

 

After a while, my bounty's marker started to follow me. I flew higher, circled a few buildings, and saw no villain. Still, the marker was airborne too, getting closer and closer.

 

So a stalker had a jetpack, and me as his bounty. Stalkers ruled pvp. I wasn't even built for it. Time to retreat to Steel Canyon, right?

 

Well, maybe I can scare him off, I thought. Make myself a hard target, not worth the jetpack fuel.

 

So I laid a trap. I landed on a wide open rooftop. Walked up to the present. Clicked it. Counted. One. Two.

 

Three. I canceled my click, and dropped Freezing Rain on myself instead. The rain revealed not one, but two stalkers next to me. One stalker jumped away. The other stalker, my bounty, lacked knock protection, and flopped helplessly on the rooftop.

 

I was weak, but I blasted the best I could. Freezing Rain let up, and the second stalker jumped away. At the last second, I charged Moonbeam. It stalked him slowly through the air. Moments later, he plummeted to the streets below.

 

Both stalkers left Siren's Call. I returned to collecting presents, but collecting that bounty was the most memorable present of all.

[Troo]

Siren's Call:

Villainous Glory

Figuring out how to teleport into the hero base/hospital to take vengeance upon those who would camp the zone in perceived safety.

[VileTerror]

SUBMISSION:

       I've been playing this game for so many years, and it has had such a profound effect on my life, that I didn't know if there was a single experience I could summarize and express in under 250 Words.
       But then this happened just now in Outbreak.

 

       I spotted someone standing next to Coyote for over a full minute, suggesting to me that they were reading what was there.  I checked their Global and found it was identical to their character name.  A telltale sign of a new player!  I initiated a trade and offered some Inf.
       Here's what transpired in Local chat:

 

2020-06-14 03:16:06 [Local] {New Player}: is this some cheat that's gonna get me in trouble? lol 
2020-06-14 03:16:35 [Local] {Me}: ((  Nope.   This is just how we roll in City of Heroes.  When we spot a new player, we hand them a wad of Inf.  ))
2020-06-14 03:16:42 [Local] {Me}: ((  Welcome!  ))
2020-06-14 03:16:58 [Local] {New Player}: ((Oh, well thank you :) 
2020-06-14 03:17:00 You traded 10,000,000 influence, for Nothing
2020-06-14 03:17:15 [Local] {Me}: ((  You're welcome.  Just be sure to pay it forward some day when you feel  ready to.  ))
2020-06-14 03:17:23 [Local] {New Player}: ((Of course
2020-06-14 03:17:35 [Local] {Me}: ((  Enjoy yourself out there!  ))
2020-06-14 03:17:46 [Local] {New Player}: ((Will do ^^ thank again!
2020-06-14 03:18:16 [Local] {New Player}: ((pewpew time o/ 

 

       Why do I play?  What does City of Heroes mean to me?
       It's moments like this.

[Slithershot]

My favorite memory in city of heroes is of my empathy defender. Back in the day, people actually did street sweeping. In every zone! Gasp! 

 

Anyway, I think there should be a lot of people out there who remember that street sweeping solo was not only a grind but for many it could be super dangerous. For weeks, I'd been coming across dead or dying people, and no way to really help them aside from give them a rez or kill everything for them before they died.

 

And thus.... The Roaming Medic was born! I specialized my defender to be pretty much pure healing magic with a REALLY fast flight. Then... I literally just flew around various parts of the city, finding near dead or dying people and healing them back to full so they could kill the bad guys! Eventually, I had my fortitude at its lowest cool down I could get it to, and so I started slapping that on people too. 

 

I did all this for free of course, and most of the time I'd try to stay hidden or fly away quickly so they couldn't see who I was. Some people were too smart for me though and checked the combat logs to message me a thanks. I know the other people were happy too, but I like the idea of a heal from the Paragon Gods just coming out to save an outmatched street sweeper just as they're convinced they're going to die. 

[Glacier Peak]

My favorite memory of this game happened at the end of the City of Villains beta. The developers and game masters had spawned in as their signature characters, both heroes and villains, and I participated in the fight that lasted until everyone had been defeated. This event was later added to the in-game lore, much like the end of the City of Heroes beta (which I unfortunately didn't get a chance to participate in). It was such a cool experience seeing the canon heroes and villains like Statesman and Lord Recluse fight each other in the game itself.

 

Before that point, it was either in literature or comics - to top it off, I was a part of it! It was a boon for my desire to play in City of Villains and I jumped in to the 4 day head start with high levels of excitement. The CoV story line really drove home the feeling that I was just a minion/underling at the beginning when I was fighting with them in the beta. Yet, as I leveled throughout the game, it solidified my feeling that my villain was actually pretty bad and eventually, even the mighty Lord Recluse was sending enemies to defeat me.

 

Full circle when I completed my Patron arc (after the level cap was raised passed 40), I stood before these Arch Villains as a peer, even sporting my own Arch Villain title (or badge rather!).

Edited June 23, 2020 by Glacier Peak
grammar!

[Taffer]

Soloing as Operative Rache, my second-ever 50 (a Dual Swords/Willpower Brute), I stumble across Ghost of Scrapyard on Sharkhead Isle. Nobody's around, and I figure hey, debt gives badges... so I start pounding on him. Scrapyarders are all around, throwing dynamite, swarming the whole area. Except, nobody can hurt me enough to make a difference. I'm toe-to-toe with a Giant Monster, and it can't kill me, even with scores of minions, lieutenants, and bosses all around. Wow, I'm super! Unfortunately, I couldn't hurt him faster than his regen could heal him... that's where the awesome CoX community came in. I called for help in Broadcast and on the LiveJournal channels, some additional villains joined me, and Scrapyard goes down yet again.

 

[Giocondi]

I'd have to go with a memory back when the game was live. I was a young man at the time and this was my second MMO ever behind Everquest. My dad took me to best buy to get my first ever dedicated graphics card. I knew nothing about upgrading parts and my dad opened up my rig at the kitchen table and hooked up this probably very mediocre GPU. I remember firing up my PC and logging into my COH account. Behold, before my very own eyes, my character select screen had transformed to a gallery of truly super heroes in the most exquisite, shiny detail. I remember loading into to Talos Island and just running around spamming my abilities with such giddy fascination. This game, even today, just has a special magic about it.

[Aaronar]

My favorite memory would have to be when my roommate crashed the game. He played a Kat/SR scrap, with every run speed power he could find. Six slotted them all with run speed enhancements (this was prior to ED) and headed for Independence Port. He really wanted to see how fast he could cross the zone. Sadly he didn't get very far as he moved so fast the entire server crashed. When next he logged on the devs had some, words with him. Not long after speed caps were implemented to the game.

[Glacier Peak]

1 hour ago, Giocondi said:

I'd have to go with a memory back when the game was live. I was a young man at the time and this was my second MMO ever behind Everquest. My dad took me to best buy to get my first ever dedicated graphics card. I knew nothing about upgrading parts and my dad opened up my rig at the kitchen table and hooked up this probably very mediocre GPU. I remember firing up my PC and logging into my COH account. Behold, before my very own eyes, my character select screen had transformed to a gallery of truly super heroes in the most exquisite, shiny detail. I remember loading into to Talos Island and just running around spamming my abilities with such giddy fascination. This game, even today, just has a special magic about it.

This is a great story! Do you remember what GPU it was? I had a similar experience, albeit with increased memory capacity instead of graphical fidelity lol

[Ura Hero]

I guess it would have been when they introduced the "Master of" badges on Live.  The first one that you could get was "Master of Statesman's Task Force".

 

We were all waiting anxiously for the servers to come up so that we could make a stab at being some of the first to get the badge.   The first mission was slow and methodical with everyone being ultra careful.  Soon we were rolling through at a fairly normal clip.  We got to the last mission.  Back at that time, you really tried hard to pull only one of the Signature villains at a time to avoid a team wipe.  We did good with the first pull, Sirocco I think it was.  The second pull, not so much.  We got two and one was Ghost Widow with her dreaded hold that will drop the tanks shields.  I was busy hitting Increase Density as fast as I could while trying to squeeze in Speed Boosts and an occasional heal as I could.  Ghost Widow turned from the tank and hit one of the squishies and dropped their health to a point that the bar wasn't visible.  Luckily I hit a heal a fraction of a second later and saved the badge run.  We had a couple of other semi close calls, but that was the worst one that we had.  We finished the run successfully and got our Master of Statesman's Task Force badge.

 

 

Edited June 15, 2020 by Ura Hero

[Prestidigitator]

Something I shouldn't be proud of, and something that I definitely shouldn't win anything for...

 

Remember Peregrine Island powerlevel beggars?  One had been going for some time and was particularly persistent.  After quite some time I responded that if they wanted the "best PL" they should go to Pocket D, where they'd see groups of PL'ers standing around and ask for "ERP Powerleveling"

 

This was Virtue server and the 'D was where all the RP'ers hung out.

 

I giggled and carried on, not thinking I'd hear any more about it.

 

Cut to 20 minutes later, and on a global channel "WTH, there's this guy in the D who's demanding ERP and will NOT take 'no' for an answer..."

[Marine X]

When I first started playing CoH was a couple months after launch and it was my first MMO. I swear I was the only ( 40 Year old ) newby on Virtue that day.

I couldn't figure anything out. Finally had to ask where Antonio Nash ( I think ) the mutant contact was. This guy kept telling me " He's in City Hall ", I would go in the door, rotate around and then text " he's not in here " back to the player I was chatting with. He replied " He's in the Basement ", at this point I thought I was getting the old 1st day at school prank, " just take the elevator to 3rd floor " , when you asked where something was in a 2 story school. I texted over Global, " Can someone just tell me where Antonio Nash is ?",

It was humbling and hilarious when the player I had been chatting with came inside and led me over to the stairs, I felt about 1" tall, and it always reminds me to help people out when you can, politely and patiently, it's a hero game after all ( no offense to CoV players, it took me way longer to figure out Redside ).

Edited June 15, 2020 by Marine X

[syntaxerror37]

I've been thinking for awhile what my best CoH memory was.  It was the summer of 2009 and I was attending Otakon, in costume as my main AR/Dev blaster Joe Insanity.  I was approached by a pair of people who recognized my frankengun.  They explained to me that a friend of theirs played CoH, and had just been diagnosed with cancer.  They asked if they could record a video of me to send to their friend.  Having a chance to do something good in the real world because of the game makes that my best moment.