BlueBattler

Here are a few of mine:

Terra. I even wrote a MA Arc about her because I thought that one thing we should be able to do in the game is restore her to normal ... at the very least, I thought that there's a certain one-time only Hero who appears in a DE-Themed Villain Arc who I would have replaced with Terra if I were in charge. (Think how cool it'd be if Terra regained her human individuality and wound up fighting Hamidon for leadership of the DE!)

Night Fox. We never see him in costume, and his "Fox Den" is nothing more than a generic cave map, but this guy has the potential to fill in the role of a "Batman Dark Knight Returns" type hero ... (makes mental note for possible MA arc).

The Heroes and Villains you meet during the Safeguard/Mayhem missions. Some of them are pretty darn generic, but a few are kind of interesting, and I'd like to see more of them. (I really feel sorry for poor Doc Quantum!)

How about you?

This isn't quite the same thing as you're talking about, but I have a Rad/Rad Corruptor named Human Reactor. He's based on a character I made in high school some twenty plus years ago who gained his powers after being accidentally bombarded by a special kind of radiation that gave him the ability to generate tremendous amounts of energy, but also left him unable to exist in the outside world without wearing a special protective suit that cut him off from all physical contact.

To make him a villain and to fit into COX Lore, I made him a former Crey Employee who went a little bonkers when he found out that his "accident" was no such thing. Imprisoned for his crimes, he went bad in spite of the fact that he originally risked his life to save other people by voluntarily entering the irradiated control room to shut down the reactor before it could destroy the city.

About a year or so after I made this guy, I found myself thinking, "Oh crud. This sounds a lot like Positron's origin!"

Nowadays, he doesn't wear his containment suit very often. Since he went evil, he's not as concerned with dosing innocent people with radiation.

One thing that struck me recently was one of Positron's tweets where he stated that everyone he met at PAX was a plus four year veteran.

That's not a bad thing, but it is indicative to me that the people playing now are the Diehards who are going to be here till they close the servers.

I don't know if Going Rogue is really going to bring in new players. I'd hope so, but I won't be too surprised if it doesn't. Even with shiny new graphics it's going to be hard to attract more players.

I have run a number of Statesmen TFs on different servers as a Stone/Stone Tank, a Rad/Rad Defender, an Empath/PSI Defender, and a couple of Illusion/Kin Trollers. (I dual boxed once with my Cold/Ice Defender, but only because we were one person short for the TF and couldn't get another warm body.)

My Rad/Rad is designed to run TFs, and there has only been one failure with him on a TF, and that was because we had about 5 tanks, 2 scrappers, and me, and we just couldn't take down Ghost Widow.

Ghost Widow and Mako tend to be the roadblocks to doing the Statesman TF. Your team may blow through everything else, but those two can stop a lot of teams that aren't prepared for them. (Mako is specifically why my Rad/Rad has Leadership.)

Having been on TFs that have spent better than an hour trying to take down Ghost Widow in the past, I can well understand the frustration that arises from not being able to finish.

And for the most part, I love all three of the level 50 TFs (Lady Gray, ITF, SF), but I do have to admit that sometimes I feel sort of boxed in terms of the toons that I can play on it. I may want to get the badge for one of my Scrappers, but if I've just spent the better part of an hour asking strangers to do the TF, then I feel obligated to make sure that the people who agreed right away can get their badge for sticking with me for the time it took to build a team, so I may wind up running my Rad/RAd if there's no other debuffer on the team.

But to be honest, my frustration with such things tends to stem more from a lack of consistent teammates than anything else.

Hm. You know that might make for an interesting challenge. What's the gimpiest team that can complete the Statesman TF?

I think I've been on teams that did it without debuffers or Shivans, Warburg Nukes, or someone with the Leadership path, but I can't remember if I've ever been on one that lacked ALL of those things.

Gregor Richardson doesn’t seem to see the image in the painting, so Dalton does not tell him what he sees. He does not tell him about the voice in his head, or the chill hand that seems to touch him just when he starts to relax. It is not the voice that tells him not to do this; it is some inner instinct.

And in a sense, Gregor himself.

“Look, mate. I am not your friend. I am not your bloody Yoda. I got you out of a bad spot because the Craft required it.”

“Thanks a lot.” Dalton does not try to hide his anger.

“Your welcome.” Gregor shrugs. “For what it’s worth, here’s a bit of advice: don’t go home.”

“What?”

“You can’t go back to your old life. You can’t see your family or friends again. That’s where they’ll be looking for you.”

“’They’?”

“The Circle of Thorns. The Banished Pantheon. They’ll want you just to add your magic to their own. The Legacy Chain’ll hunt you down just because they find your magic evil. Go home, and you die—or wish you’re dead.”

“But I didn’t do anything! I didn’t want this! I didn’t ask for this!”

Martin moans suddenly.

“Your friend there didn’t ask to die, mate. That’s life. We don’t always get what we want. You play the cards you’re dealt with or you lie down and die.”

“So what am I supposed to do?”

“Get out of my house tonight, for one thing.”

Dalton clenches his fists.

“All right, all right. Don’t look at me like that, mate. Why couldn’t Azuria have wound up having to deal with you?” Gregor rubs his forehead with both hands and looks to heaven as though searching for some answer. “All right. Mercedes.”

“What?”

“Mercedes Sheldon. A Brit. Bit of a stuck up rhymes with itch, if you wanna know the truth. She joined the Midnight Club not too long ago.”

“Midnight Club?”

“A bunch of magicians and sorcerers. They’re no friends of the BP or the COTs, and they’re not as lily white as the Legacy Chain. Mercedes’ supposed to be on the side of the angels, but she’s got a thing for bad boys and black magic.” Gregor’s smiles knowingly. “She’s probably the best chance you’re going to have of finding someone who knows something about necromancy—that won’t plan on feeding you to some kind of demon or dark godling. I’ll call her and arrange a meeting for you.”

“Thanks.”

“Just disappear and never darken my door again and I’ll be thanked enough.” Gregor makes a face. “I’m going to have to fumigate this place to get the zombie stink out of it.”

Martin groans and something like a scowl passes his normally blank features.

“Kid. One other thing.”

“Yes?”

“You’re a necromancer who hasn’t studied the art. That’s dangerous.”

“Dangerous?”

“Yeah. Normally someone has to spend years of study before he can raise his first zombie. You did it without thinking, without being able to control it. Offhand, I can think of only two ways that’s possible.”

“I’m listening.”

“The first one is that you’re a reincarnation of someone who was a necromancer in a past life. You don’t know how you know it, but you do. When your life was threatened, instinct brought the power back.”

“And what’s the other way?”

“Someone gave you the knowledge. I’ve heard that some sorcerers try to encode their magic genetically into their family line.”

“Why would they do that?”

“If it was something other than necromancy I might suggest some kind of altruistic motive, but people who raise the dead aren’t known for their benevolence.” Gregor stares at him with hard, cold eyes. “If someone wants you to be a necromancer, I would expect that’s because they want you to raise them from the dead …”

Just had a thought.

Anyone else kind of wish that Going Rogue could involve Task Forces where Player Heroes REDEEM Desdemona and Player Villains CORRUPT Maelstrom?

Thanks, guys. Glad you're enjoying it.

I've said in the past I'd love to have my Phantom Army and Phantasms look like my Illusion Controllers (also wanted the same thing for my Thugs MM).

Though if you had Dops casting their own Dops casting their own Dops ...

Gregor flatly refuses to let Martin get into his car. “Don’t worry, mate. You can’t lose him if you try. When we get where we’re going, he’ll be there.”

“Why are you helping me?”

“That’s a good question, mate. See, MAGI—if they knew about you—would want your butt hauled off to the Zig so fast it’d make your head spin.”

“Why? I haven’t done anything!”

“It’s what you are, mate. It’s what you are. Ever seen a heroic Necromancer? Zombies are filthy, disgusting things—and most blokes are going to see you as being no better than poor old Matthew.”

“Martin! His name is Martin!”

“Was Martin, mate. Now he’s just your pet zombie.”

“He’s not my pet! He’s my friend!”

“No, no he isn’t. That’s not your friend anymore mate. That’s what’s left. The meat. Everything that made your friend who he was—his mind, his soul—it’s all gone. He’s just a big rotting meat puppet now. The sooner you accept that, the better off you’ll be.”

“So why are you helping me? Why do you care? I thought you worked for MAGI.”

“I work with MAGI. Not for them. And you want to know why I’m helping you? I’ll show you.” Gregor pulled the car into a garage and turned off the engine.

Martin came crawling out of the ground as soon as the car came to a stop.

“What—how did he--?”

“He’s bound to you, mate. He’ll follow you no matter where you go. If you go faster than he can move, he’ll come right out of the grave to be with you. Touching, really—in a creepy sort of way.”

Martin stands swaying as though he’s about to fall over. There isn’t much left of the man he had been left in that gaunt frame. It was only because Dalton had known him so long that he recognized anything in him now…

“Come with me to my studio.”

“Your studio?”

“I’m an artist, mate. I paint. It’s my passion. My avocation. Magic is just what I do to earn m’bread and cheese.”

With Martin stumbling behind them, they go into the spacious art studio of Gregor Richardson. There’s countless paintings on the walls, and a few on easels that are half completed. Most of the paintings are of Paragon City’s greatest heroes—Statesman, Maiden Justice, Manticore …

“Why are there so many paintings of that woman?” Dalton thinks that he’s seen pictures of her in the papers and in television interviews.

“Azuria? Never you mind about that.” Gregor seems rather testy about the subject. “I painted all these pictures. All but this one. It paints itself.” He pulls back a black cloth …

And Dalton sees himself in the alley. Martin is rising from the dead behind the Skulls that killed him.

“It told me that I had to go after you.”

But as Dalton watches, he sees something else form in the painting. Something behind him.

A large dark figure in robes. It has a hand on Dalton’s shoulder in the painting, and its head is thrown back in a laugh.

I am with you, Dalton Grimm, the voice whispers into his mind. I will be with you always, and we will do great things together …

And Dalton feels a cold touch upon his shoulder …

Boy I hope a DEV reads and answers this ...

Both Positron and War Witch state they would prefer to concentrate resources on making new zones rather than revamping old ones because it's easier to do so.

I'd like to know why it's actually easier to make a new zone than it is to revamp an old one? What does a revamp involve that making a new zone doesn't?

Blue Battler wears armor forged by his mother to fight against the Rikti. (I wanted a male character whose powers stemmed from something his mother did because you don't see that in comics very often.)

Bedrock Blue is a former Outcast Lead Brick who was too smart to stay working for Frostfire, and left after getting the cash he needed to go to college to become an accountant ... and then his office was attacked by the Devouring Earth. His mutation prevented him from being taken over by the DE, but he gained the ability to transform into a Granite-like creature.

I have a few others, but those are the ones who leap to mind.