31 Mar, 2009
Screenshot of the Day 3/31
I love this costume -- I've seen several characters go for a "Sister" look lately.
30 Mar, 2009
Screenshot of the Day 3/30
Costume Contest -- again
29 Mar, 2009
Screenshot of the Day 3/29
Costume Contest - a daily event (and then some) on Virtue.
28 Mar, 2009
The Architect system
I spent some time today looking at this system, from the creation standpoint. I've played through several existing scenarios. I must say seeing new content, which INCLUDES new enemies other than the standards is VERY welcome. I'm afraid that after 5 years of play, I've become conditioned on all the low level stuff, and usually know what to expect on the high level stuff. The custom opponents are QUITE welcome.
28 Mar, 2009
Screenshot of the Day 3/28
Pocket D -- With villains galore. You'll never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. To coin a phrase...
27 Mar, 2009
Screenshot of the Day 3/27
Every once and a while either the Cheerleaders or the schoolgirl groups pop up...
27 Mar, 2009
Real life - *sigh*
Just FYI --Real life. I go into the hospital today for Outpatient surgery today. Wish me luck.
26 Mar, 2009
Screenshot of the Day 3/26
Mud Dauber versus Babbage -- another angle
25 Mar, 2009
Screenshot of the Day 3/25
Nice use of rewarded costume pieces. The shows and toga are not standard equipment.
24 Mar, 2009
Screenshot of the Day 3/24
American Archeress (FLAG) shown with some others. Notice the Football player toon -- A nice use of assorted pieces to achieve the look. I've seen Baseball players and even basketball players, but never a Football player.
23 Mar, 2009
Hero Dawn - Jailhouse Rock Party - Saturday
FYI everyone...
Sponsored by The Cape Radio
WHEN: MARCH 28, 2009
LOCATION: Virtue Server, Hero Dawn Base, Zag Prison
TIME: 8PM - 11PM, EST
8:00pm - 8:30pm
Trivia Questions: 4
Prize: $1,000,000 influence paid per correct answer.
8:30 - 9:00pm
Prisoner’s Costume Contest
1st prize - $20,000,000
2nd prize - $10,000,000
3rd prize - $5,000,000
Honorable Mentions: 3 spots @ $500,000 influence each
9:00pm - 9:45pm
Lock Up Your Fellow Heroes
Bid influence to lock up your fellow heroes inside a Zag prison cell for a short while. All influence collected from the bidders will be placed into a pot and a lotto drawing will be held to choose a lucky winner. In the event of a tie, the influence will be split evenly among the winners.
9:45pm - 10:30pm
Famous Criminals Trivia
Prize: $1,000,000 influence paid per correct answer.
10:30pm - 11:00pm
Law Enforcement Costume Contest
1st prize - $40,000,000 + PPD Hard Suit Code
2nd prize - $20,000,000
3rd prize - $10,000,000
Honorable Mentions: 3 spots @ $500,000 influence each
23 Mar, 2009
Screenshot of the Day 3/23
22 Mar, 2009
Screenshot of the Day 3/22
Ever look a a tech salvage bin CLOSELY? I never noticed the City of Heroes comic book seen here in the center of the shot.
21 Mar, 2009
Screenshot of the Day 3/21
I've seen a lot of the TAXIBOTS showing up in Paragon lately -- here seen in Steel Canyon.
20 Mar, 2009
Screenshot of the Day 3/20
One of a couple shots from Mud Dauber's Task Force Vortex taking on Babbage.
20 Mar, 2009
The Art of Base Construction - Part VII
More Youtube videos found... This one is of a Villian base, which has several features I'm not familiar with, spending most of the time on the Blue side.
Villain LotD Base.
COH Underground Secret Lair
19 Mar, 2009
Screenshot of the Day 3/19
Another Zombie raid in Atlas Park. These seem to go on FOREVER any more. But they do usually mean 1 to 4 easy badges...
19 Mar, 2009
The Art of Base Construction - Part VI
Continuing with video coverage -- Hero Dawn has posted their design on youtube, some of which has already been covered. But you can see a lot of the stacking technique used.
Fireblade base
Troublemaker's base -- Triumph server --
Wings over Paragon Base -- Note the stacked torch chandelier at the beginning.
F.U.S.I.O.N. VG base
18 Mar, 2009
Screenshot of the Day 3/18
Sorry for the washout colors -- it was a night shot. These two FLAG members are played by the same person. THAT's a feat I've not tried.
18 Mar, 2009
The Art of Base Construction - Part V
Taking a different tack for this installment. Looking at the FLAG base. When this was taken, this new group had only 6 rooms. But through the use of high ceilings and EXTENSIVE stacking, the base looks FAR more elaborate. To show it I've take a video via XFIRE, and pasted the link above. Sorry for the remote storage.
Note:
- Counters used as beds -- with large floor plates as bedspreads.
- Lamps used to mimic a shower stall
- Multiple bookshelves encompassing the base of transparent barriers.
- Embeded transparrent barriers as walls for walkways
- Enclosed entrance way
- Partially hidden Combo control unit.
- Use of multiple vents to make a "door" for the Longbow flyer
17 Mar, 2009
Screenshot of the Day 3/17
I've seen this level 50 character around a lot. Notice the SG name.
17 Mar, 2009
The Art of Base Construction - Part IV
A mission center? Or mega-meeting room? Multilevel Stadium seeting, Desks and chairs, each with thier own screen. The seating in this room is LARGE.
A reverse view on the same room.
Another fancy wall -- floor pieces have been eembedded into the wall. Transparent panels imbedded in the structure give the illusion of windows looking at other items. I tend to wonder if such construction could make bases un-raidable, with key items hidden behind areas no one could get to. Save a teleporter.
Here's a use of both air vents and FIRE EXTINGUISHERS to do base signage. Some bases really need this as they designs are HYPER elaborate
Another banner logo -- I suppose you can guess which base THIS is.
Here the ENTRANCE of a base is very elaborate. Transparent panels encompass the base entry portal. Notice that the ceiling is low -- because it its tech storage items.
This is a meeting room with a statement. We have a round tech table circled by two sets of pillars. The outer fringe of the room is also surrounded by the clear panels AND the wall banners. The room is lit by torches.
16 Mar, 2009
Screenshot of the Day 3/16
Somone is doing their Statesman impression... hmmm? :)
16 Mar, 2009
The Art of Base Construction - Part III
Still in the 3-level room. Looking away from the podium/scanning rig. Notice the ceiling nodules -- which essentially are the floor safe "feet" showing. We actually have two safe fronts showing in the corner.
A view of the second level here -- Notice the safe ceiling. You can just see the stairway to the right by the bookshelf Keep in mind the "floor" here is ALL the tops of floor-safes.
And the Third level
Another Auditorium design. This one used several white panels that I've yet to identify for a Screen. Believe it or not, the wall behind the view here actually had a screen and gear used to make a projection room, as if there was a movie screen in play. Its a pity that we can't feed in some screenshots to be used here for the "movie".
An arcane area here. Notice that obelisks have been overlayed with arcane stone benches AND floor torches. Benches form pews in this HIDDEN altar room found in one base.
More use of split level design here. Counters form the floor as well as the walls in this area.
15 Mar, 2009
Screenshot of the Day
15 Mar, 2009
The Art of Base Construction - Part II
Above is the Adventure Brigade base again. In the same room as before you see their library stack. THREE levels the same place, giving them lots of books displayed, several areas to sit, and gossip. It shows you how much you can cram into a small area. Notice the use of stairs
Here is something I've seen larger bases use -- floor lamps (off), used as a kind of railing. It serves no purpose, other than for looks. But keep in mind -- each lamp costs 100 influence. So the railing in this room alone ran thousands.
Notice the far wall. Multiple counter pieces have been stacked floor to ceiling, and used to form and elaborate overhang
Another trick if someone wants to do signs in a base is to use penants, rather than for emblems or characters, but for the letters themselves. Here they used Medium Wall banners for HERO and smaller Floor banners for AREA.
An elaborate splitlevel design. What you are seeing is Wall safes, carefully oriented so you can't see the front of the safe. The window is an overlayed transparent panel piece -- which probably means it is intersecting 2 or 3 safes. You can see the stairway going up, and the safes that comprise the roof of the second level. THREE levels are in play here.
Elaborate stacking in deed. This is part of the above 3 level design. A podium, facing away from the entering the lower room is surrounded by counters. Notice several items are overlayed in each level for screens, and to give the appearance of a unique medical scanning rig of some kind.
14 Mar, 2009
Screenshot of the Day
GOTGA Golden age gala
14 Mar, 2009
The Art of Base Construction - Part I
This has been an ongoing evolvment, as supergroups grew and got more prestige. Now with lowered base costs bases are getting bigger and more elaborte. Some already have been. But people are getting VERY tricky, very bold, and very creative with their bases. For large groups this means bases that are an experience in themselves.
Base design has changed a lot -- When raiding was expected and common, bases constructed for that were mazes -- With destroyable targets hidden behind dense greenry and hanging lamps that made navigating the base a royal pain. The base raiding issue has never really took off, except with a few groups. Likewise the Cathedral of pain needs were dropped from many bases when that never really bore fruit.
Lately however peope are using items for other than their intended purposes. They are also taking advantage of stacking of key items to do bizarre multiple level bases. Items are allowed to overlay each other on some bases with suprprising effects. Sometimes this is done to design rooms that really must be seen to be believed. This blog post is the first of several where I'll show a few interesting base tricks, and try and figure out how they are doing them, showing a few choice images from a variety of bases.
Bases cost prestige still -- but after getting the initial items up and running, bases start expanding. And room after room can be added, for a variety of purposes.
Above this looks fairly simple -- but they've used extensive wood cabinets and wall wood pieces to segment off this two level floor. Shrubs are put through out the center to give it a custom appearance. The purpose? Perhaps a memorial to fallen heroes? Tribute to the founders? It could be either.
Here we see a small cubbyhoole of a room, what I suspect is a telepad room. But rather than putting a telepad, they put up all the Beacon pictures, making a wall of location views that could comprise a Paragon City Mission bay.
Above is a VERY impressive use of object stacking. Done in such a way that they can put 4 or 5 rows of chairs, with stairways leading up. On the far wall LARGE penants are used as a curtain. Even more impressive is that a first glance the room is closed off. But if you go up to the curtain, you find that you can go beyond it and their are several rooms beyond.
Here we have the Adventure Brigade base. A very SMALL base, but elaborte use of stacking belay that image completely. Seen in the center is a podium stage. White counter pieces are surounded by wooden ones to make it. Also note the penant use. Keep in mind that to place each one, the supergroup logo and colors had to be temporarily changed, then returned to normal after the pennant was placed. For this group, each penant refers to another member. Note also that coffee tables are used as benches.
14 Mar, 2009
Bizarre Weekend
The first weekend of March was busy -- and has had its share of odd stuff.
I've still been toying with Tanker ideas, without much success. But I've also been running into some odd groups. One such was the Sixth Column that has recently opened up a group on Virtue. I joined with a Assault Rifle Device Blaster called Nacht Scharfschütze (Which would translate to Night Shaprshooter). I've already got him up to level 12. The base they have is extensive, with heavy stacking used in its construction. The auditorium was magnificently done and very impressive.
Furiona got into a Synapse taskforce, even though she max-leveled amost immediately into it. It did take several hours to complete, but was highly profitable. Not only did we get the badges for Babbage and the King, but got a huge amount of merit rewards. I'm still not use to this change in the reward system for Task forces, having only done a handful lately. In addition, one of the recipe salvages turned out to be something she couldn't use so I went to Wentworths. This one turned out to be valuable with prices going from 10 to 30 million. I put a price on it of 20 million. Doing so left me with only 3 million. I went to Atlas and was looking around, noting Supergroups. One hero came up and essentially declared me the winner of a costume contest and handed over 4 million influence, saying he loved the look and bio. SHORTLY after that, the recipe sold for 23 million plus -- letting her jump to 30 million influence. That easily makes her the richest toon I have on the server. The next time I played her ANOTHER recipe was discovered and sold, this time for another 13 million. I don't know what is going on with her and salvage -- but I like it. She's now part of Grey Enterprises.
Mud-Dauber was recreated and ran up as well, joining the Bug Club, making another go at an insect theme supergroup. He also got into a synapse task force, but it ran long. WAY long. And after entering the final mission the ISP dropped connection and he ended up getting shorted the TF completion bonus. He did get the badge - just not the completion reward of merits. However the mission did take him from 16 to nearly 21. I've been trying to do base building and recruiting with him, without much luck.
13 Mar, 2009
Screenshot of the Day
Wider shot of DJ Torch salute
12 Mar, 2009
Screenshot of the Day
Tribute to DJ before the 4th annual Golden Age Festival
12 Mar, 2009
Architect system...
I'm kind of wondering about this. This could breathe so much new life into the game. Everybody loathes starting new characters if they have to rehash low level content they've done dozens of times before. Allowing such missions to be done could really allow for a flood of interest.
I suspect we'll see several themes pop up.
- MY HERO - As I understand it you can add custom characters to the missions. That means much like the Faultline zone Fusionette missions, you could add a NPC hero to the mission. If that turns out to be true, I could see many vets take their favorite level 50 character, especially if they are unique characters, turn them into NPCs for several plots.
- SG THEME - A series or set of related missions where the founders of "famous" supergroups are NPCs that work with you. I can just see you work with Liberty League members, maybe one or two each mission. Once ONE of these hits, I could see several.
- INSIDE JOKES - We've seen the radio missions that hint at movies and book concepts. I could see several player ones that do the same OR poke fun at the City games themselves. Rescue members from Icon's? Wentworths? Rescue 5 missing plumbers from the sewers may be too obvious, but rescuing 5 Dry Cleaners from the sewers and hinting that they have played a part with having the heroes get sent into the sewers? I can see it! How about something to explain why/how Frostfire gets LOOSE so often?
I'm anxious to see it action
11 Mar, 2009
Clones -- Why OH why?
Most people never read the EULA -- but have to agree to it everytime they log into the City games. And yet they frequently use the character creaation systme to make clones. Its sad really. It is possible to do homage characters without doing blatant rip-offs. And some of these people can get all the way to 50 before "caught", and they get their name changed to GENERIC ### ###, and usually their costumes get reset to norm. EVERY time there is a superhero movie release there follows a bout of short-lived COH copycats. At a costume contest I saw the following group of Rorshack, Ozymandias, Brown Owl (?), Silk Spectre, John Manhattan, and The Comedian. All level 1 characters. And their presence did start a debate on the global channel that seemed to insult those who thought it wrong that such characters were made!
Some players are VERY blatant, including copyrighted items in their background as seen below. This just BEGS to be genericed.
So far this month I've seen Multiple Owls and Silk Spectres, One Greatest American Hero, Someone doing a Punisher Smurf combo (Smurfs have popped up several times...), A human Torch, The Doctor (As from Doctor Who, Seen above), an X-men Sentinel, DC's Hawkman, Marvel's Speedball, Megaman (video game), Daniel Jackson (Stargate SG1), and Lt. John Sheppard (Stargate Atlantis). Everyone of which is a EULA violation. The one thing is that every clone I see? I never see again. I suspect that they got Genericed or renamed. And I've seen a couple people complaining on the Broadcast or Help channels about their genericed characters. Sorry people --- I've NO sympathy what so ever.
This is wrong. The game has already been sued once BECAUSE of this. I can see some people trying to see IF they can get the character creation to DO a character, but not to actually be played. Doing so is a EULA violation -- as such you can get reported at anytime by anyone in the game. And LOTS of VETS make a habit of reporting clones. Why invest the time in playing a character only to have the rug pulled out from under you? Be safe. Be creative. Be yourself.
11 Mar, 2009
Screenshot of the Day
Odd trio? Seen waiting for a bank safeguard mission
10 Mar, 2009
Screenshot of the Day
Furiona - my fire Controller, takes on a Zombie Raid in Steel Canyon
09 Mar, 2009
Screenshot of the Day
Fire Imps from at least 4 Fire Controllers invade Atlas Park
08 Mar, 2009
Screenshot of the Day
I've been seeing a lot of armored characters lately -- and not Iron Man clones... PPD groups account for a lot of them
07 Mar, 2009
Screenshot of the Day
Nice look, but then I'm fond of Green/Black costumes...
06 Mar, 2009
Screenshot of the Day
Falcon Crush -- obviously having a fondess for Nintendo's F-Zero game...
05 Mar, 2009
Screenshot of the Day
A PPD officer -- nice use of the samarui helmet touches on a half helm. Old Bob is next to him --*sigh*
04 Mar, 2009
Rikti Raid - Finally
I've been hearing about these for ages, and finally Sunday night I stumbled into them. First Sir Britainic, then Flagborn, and finally Fast Neutrino participated in sequential Rikti Raids. This was more than enough to get both Talsorian Sword and Shield for Sir, almost all of the Vanguard armor for Flagborn, and a few more pieces of it for Fast Neutrino. Hosted by DJ Posthaste of the Cape Radio, this apparently is a monthly event held on the First Sunday of the month.
Earlier that weekend, I had successfully earned Talsorian swords for Crusading Cavalier. Doing it by Raid was far faster. Flagborn earned around 600 Vanguard Merits. The others only got a few hundred. I'm not sure if level played a part in that.
Flagborn also participated in a Respec TF. And I got a new Tanker going. Geo Lad is a stone tanker (my umpteenth attempt at one). But he's had a good start -- at level 3 he won 2 million influence in a CC. I'm tempted to get him into the All Star Teen Sentinels, although several have suggested the Young Gods.
