BlueBattler

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Where are the gas stations in Paragon?

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Whoa I can't believe I have never thought about that before...lol

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Got one better where is the schools and children?

Everyone in the city Teens and adults did the Rikti use some Bio weapon to stop human reproduction?

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My Beta Reserve character is "School Bus", he is Part Time Wrestler - Part Time School Bus Driver. His question was - "Since Baumton was leveled not one child has been seen since."

Rikti want humans so I can't see why they want to stop reproduction as it is a direct opposite of their agenda.

Gas stations ..refineries .... not one instalation of them . . .

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There is one child in Paragon City.

Penny the Mutant Store contact in Founder's Falls. (Though I have to admit that given that its been 5 years since the game started you'd think she'd be growing up by now ...)

And that leads me to a new question:

Question: Why do we have a major NPC named Penny (Faultline Penny) and a Store Contact named Penny? (Founder's)?

Does someone have an old flame named Penny?

I actually like group energy flight. Granted, I didn't get to use it for much, but its kind of fun to give your teamates glowy eyes from time to time.

Maybe I'll just call it "Peacebringer" since Drake's the main character ...

Though I do like your "Kheldians: The War of Light and Dark" too. 8-)

*Scene of young man with glasses and a suitcase standing in front of a building named PARAGON University.*

"Drake Griffin knew his life would change when he came to Paragon, but he had no idea just how MUCH it would change!"

*Flash of Peacebringer light and we see Drake coming across a nightime fight between a White Dwarf and a squadron of Council soldiers. The Dwarf seems to be kicking butt but he's suddenly struck down by a Quantum and returns to human form.*

Fallen Peacebringer: "The light must NOT fail! The fate of the world is in your hands. Take up the burden-- take up the power!"

*Drake in the Peacebringer self-rez animation.*

"Now Drake finds himself possessed of powers he does not understand ..."

*Drake hovering in mid-air with Peacebringer glowing eyes*

"Fighting in a war he cannot comprehend..."

*Drake blasting Council soldiers, shifting into squid mode ...*

"With uncertain allies ..."

Sunstorm *dressed in civvies with a police badge pinned to his jacket*: "You have become a soldier in a war that was ancient before humans came down from the trees ..."

Drake: "I'm not a fighter! I want to be a doctor! I didn't sign up for this!"

Shadowstar: *wearing sunglasses and standing in front of a college blackboard* "The Nictus will devour this world, feeding on everything that lives and leave a dead husk behind them. I know. *Raises her glasses to reveal the Warshade glow* "I used to be one of them."

"And terrible enemies ..."

Arakhn: *a stunning redhead in her thirties* The young Peacebringer does not realize the secrets that he posseses. We must destroy him before he can find the key that will destroy the Council!"

Requiem and Nosferatu: *little more than threatening shadows* "The Key will be ours-- and the boy will die!"

"Searching for the secret deep inside him that will save the world ..."

Drake: *standing in a thick fog that obscures almost everything, looking at a glowing ball of light* "What is it they want?! Why won't you tell me?!"

Lillian Issan: *her arms wrapped around Drake in a lover's embrace* It's not just energy, Drake- it's a living being that loves and hates just like we do! You can't FORCE it to talk to you-- you have to earn its trust!"

Drake: "How the hell am I supposed to make friends with something that won't even COMMUNICATE with me?!"

Lillian: "You HAVE to, Drake-- if you don't, NEITHER of you will survive!"

"Drake Griffin thought that coming to Paragon would be the adventure of a life time."

*Drake entering his dorm room, his clothing torn and disheveled from combat. Skipper LaGrange is sitting on a bed with a can of soda in his hands.*

Skipper: "Dude, what happened to you? You look like hell!"

Drake: *turns to look at Skipper with glowing eyes* "You have NO idea, Skipper ..."

"He had no idea how RIGHT he was!"


*Final scene Drake standing in the middle of the screen with Lillian on one side, Skipper on the other, Shadowstar and Sunstorm beside the kids, and a giant Arakhn-shaped Nictus-eyed shadow forming the backdrop behind them.*

"(Insert Title here) coming this fall!"

I like the idea of the conflict being between Fred and the other driver.

And perhaps the family that Fred agrees to give a ride to could be the driver of the vehicle he threatened to shove out of the way.

Hi, guys.

For the last year or so, I've had an idea kicking in my head for a fanfiction based on the Kheldian Arcs.

The twist would be that it would be an Alternate Universe where Khelds and Council are the only super beings. (The reason I'm doing that is that I'm picturing this fanfiction as sort of a "television show" with a "budget" that wouldn't really allow for a full translation of the COX Verse.)

So, that being said, I'm having trouble coming up with a title that sounds "TV" enough.

Here are my ideas so far:


Khelds-- the Series! (Rather lame, I admit)

Light and Shadow


or simply: Paragon! (ala Smallville).

Can anyone suggest something else?

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Personally, I like the look of the Lost more than the Rikti. There's more variety. I would be happy to see level 50 Lost who have decided not to make the jump into becoming full fledged Rikti.

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They're being converted against their will (see "Curing the Lost"). Thus, there won't be any decision point for any Lost to make.

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Um, no.

Not ALL Lost are being converted against their will.

See the Angus McQueen arc, among others.

Now there are SOME Lost who were converted against their will, but there are many who volunteered to become Lost.

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Something tells me that Manticore and Hero 1 were really not expecting a) this many questions, and b) the types of questions we're asking.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

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Maybe not, but I'm hoping that they love the discussion as much as we do.

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Just a quick question: How old is the Clockwork King?

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I asked Hero 1 that question a year or two ago, and he stated that the Clockwork King was in his early 20s while Penelope Yin was 18 and just entering college.

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Does your PB or WS have a family? A spouse? Children? How do they feel about the Kheldian arc where you find out that some Kheldians have died due to a Terran scientist's research?

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The background for my 3D was that he was bonded to a Nictus. Unlike a regular Warshade, though, this Nictus was not reformed, so his progress through the game was a story of the character coming to terms with his bonding, learning how to use the Nictus' power, then reforming it so they could finally stop warring for the same body. The move to Paragon City was an attempt to capitalize on the country's greatest concentration of knowledge regarding "weird stuff" to find a cure for his problem. This was not my first 50 hero, but because of the concept, I did not create my first WS until after I got the 3D to 50. I didn't put anything about family in the background; I believed that the early struggle between Nictus and human would have destroyed all existing personal contacts. Now that he's completed the bonding and stabilized their relationship, he can start making those kind of connections again. I haven't progressed far enough to reach that part of the Kheldian arc, so have no ideas about your last question.

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The Kheldian Arc is one of the best parts of the early writing of COH, so I do urge you to complete the whole thing. One of the things in it actually does kind of hint at something you find out about the future of Khelds in Ouroboros.

So, do you think your Warshade had a human family and friends he would want to get to know again now that he's managed to work out his bond?

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If they are long lived, how do they feel about the role of women and minorities in today's society? (That's going to be Tom's issue.)

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I see it as being a point of time scale. For someone of Tom's age, it'll be a big issue as he tries to adjust to this rather recent and sizeable change in society. For someone who's even older, I think it'll be taken more easily. There's someone in my crew whose character has been alive since the days of the Roman Republic. I think someone that old would have either adapted to the notion that civilizations and their values will change or gone insane. Also, it may be an issue of life experience as well. Someone who's travelled extensively and lived in other cultures may be more willing to accept today's views to women and minorities than one who hasn't.

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Oh, I agree. I think if you live more than 100 years, then you're going to have to accept that the world will change. (Of course, we like to think that all change is positive, but that isn't necessarily so.)

Tom's situation is that he's still working that out ... and in his very first incarnation, the fact that the world had changed so much DID drive him insane ....

The question is, how much does my homage nod to the source character. On the one hand, that way he would probably adjust to societal change as he would have had children and the benefit of countless social contacts that would help him develop new attitudes as any normal person would and better adjust to the new world ... while perhaps still dealing with old beliefs and themes.

That would allow him to start out as a hero, perhaps, but rob the initial concept of the thing that's drawing me to it.


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Grog the Big

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Heh, you know, it might have been more appropriate if Mother Mayhem had been named Sister Psycho ... ;-)

*Anxiously awaiting the next response to our questions.*

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Doing Penelope Yin's arc today reminded me of this old problem I've had with the Lost. How the hell is it that they go from huge musclebound gorilla looking things, complete with tusks, to the spindly, mouthless Rikti? Sure, the Rikti are quite tall, but none of them have any real muscle mass, except maybe Hro'Dtohz and U'Kon Grai.

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I've always accounted this to the power armor and muscle density. ie the armor even light armor that rikti wear is powered and enables their altered gravity adjusted frames to function in earths gravity. And/Or their muscles are significantly more powerful (power to size ratio) than a humans. therefore they need less to accomplish the same. Whereas the lost are still using the same desity muscles as humans and require much more to meet the strength requirements. Or they are just mutated and have massive hormone imbalances that result in their appearance.

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Personally, I like the look of the Lost more than the Rikti. There's more variety. I would be happy to see level 50 Lost who have decided not to make the jump into becoming full fledged Rikti.

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How is Nemeses able to utilize Steam Power so effectively. I know he's a genius inventor, but it doesn't seem like steam power could be that effective.

That and what lead him to become the super villain that he is today? Did he have some kind of tragedy behind it all?

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My own theory has always been that Nemesis is actually just like the Clockwork King-- his devices work because he THINKS they will work.

I think they're both Technopaths.

(Though I do think it'd be funny to see a couple of Nemesis soldiers standing in front of a Fake Nemesis tossing coal or wood into an open portal on his chest.)

Actually, this is exactly the sort of thing I wanted to foster in this thread.

One of the things I would REALLY love to have, would be for a chance of those of us who are so deeply interested in the lore of the game to sit down with Hero 1 and Manticore and just ask them a series of questions about the framework of the COX universe.

For instance, by today's standards, Tom Quick would be a rather racist and sexist character-- by the standards of the early 20th Century, he would be considered rather enlightened. (Which is one of the reasons I had thought of him as a villain, originally.)

Now with an immortal character who LIVES through the last century, you do have the opportunity for personal growth and development. On the other hand, values installed in your childhood can be awfully hard to overcome ... the question is, how much is Tom Quick the Centarian different from Tom Quick the 19 year old kid who used to go to Africa and rob temples and kill elephants for ivory?

Admittedly, we don't really know how different the COX Universe is from the real world in such matters.

Elementar, one of the founding members of the original Freedom Phalanx, was an African American. In the 1930s, African Americans couldn't even serve alongside whites in the US Military. How did Elementar and Statesman change things?

(That was one of the things about the original history badges that I wanted to know about. Where was Statesman in the Civil Rights era? Did he speak out against the Might for Right Act? Did he know that Americans were being conscripted by the US Government to fight and die behind the Iron Curtain?)

Seems to be the appropriate forum.

I've had an idea for a Bots/Traps Mastermind that I've been kicking around in the back of my mind. Since I do a lot of soloing and PUGs, I don't get to do a lot of in-game RP but I do put considerable thought into my character's background and how he or she would react in a given situation.

Now the reason I'm making the post:

My mastermind is named Tom Quick. He's a homage character based on Tom Swift's original incarnation.

The original idea that I had was that Tom Quick was a technopath ... like the Clockwork King, his inventions worked because he THOUGHT they should. Like Tom Swift, Tom Quick roamed the world in search of adventure ... unlike Tom Swift, Tom Quick found a rock (meteorite) that he used in an invention that gave him eternal youth.

Unfortunately, the invention ONLY worked on Tom, so eventually all his family and friends died of old age, leaving him alone. Unable to adjust to the vast societal changes that have occurred over the last century, Tom Quick snapped and went on a rampage that left him impirisoned in the Zig. Freed by Recluse, Tom sets out once more to "save" the world.

Now with the possibility of Going Rogue, I find myself thinking that perhaps Tom might actually come to terms with the world as it is and become a hero once more ...

Still, that did get me thinking about the main subject of this post.


How much thought do you put into how the world shaped your character's background? How do they react to Paragon?

If your character is an ET, does he or she feel uncomfortable working with Vanguard-- I believe you often see a dead Rikti body stretched out on a table in the room you meet the Dark Watcher, and the Midnight Club Arc has Argot standing mere feet away from where his people are being cut open like Christmas presents by Vanguard scientists.

Does your PB or WS have a family? A spouse? Children? How do they feel about the Kheldian arc where you find out that some Kheldians have died due to a Terran scientist's research?

If they are long lived, how do they feel about the role of women and minorities in today's society? (That's going to be Tom's issue.)


So let's talk about that here. What's under the hood of your characters, so to speak?

Question: In the Freedom Phalanx novel and the comics, Synapse is not a scientist. The game itself is rather iffy on the subject. Neuron, on the other hand, is DEFINITELY a scientist on par with Anti-Matter himself.

Is Neuron the Praetorian version of Steve Berry or someone else?


Question: Rick Davies, the technology contact in Atlas Park, was once the hero called Horatio. His battlesuit was used to upgrade Citadel after the latter was injured during the first Rikti War.

Did Rick CREATE Citadel in the first place? If not, who did?

What if we stump the Devs?

I liked it too. Well done.

The smell.

You never forget the smell of a Vahzilok lair.

It’s the stench of rotting, decayed meat. It’s the unmistakable odor of dried blood. It’s the whiff of old fear and human sweat.

This is what death smells like.

The Watcher isn’t with me when I materialize. I’m on my own. Fleetingly, I wonder if this is how the Vanguard is going to keep me quiet—let the good doctor finish what he had started so long ago …

Suddenly, my right hand feels hot in the way it used to right before I called forth a flaming sword to defend myself.

A neat trick, you must admit, considering the fact that my right hand was now nothing more than a piece of cold steel.

It’s not a sewer. It’s not what my mother would have called a laboratory either. At one point, it might have been a basement – perhaps a garage—but now … now it’s a Charnel House.

A hulking figure shambles out of the dim light towards me. It raises a massive hand and gestures at me. “Command: Me: Follow.”

It’s … or at least it had been … a Rikti.

The thing is naked so I can see the crude stitched that join together a human hand to a Rikti wrist. I can see the unsightly budges where cybernetics have been implanted in a torso that belonged to a Rikti much smaller than the one that the head had formerly belonged to. The skull is broken open and I can see the blinking lights of the computer that regulates the dead brain, giving it a semblance of life and motion.

I have no love for the Rikti. They cost me my arm—and the life I had made for myself. Because of a Rikti blade, I had lost my arm and my power—but this …

This is an abomination.

“Command: Me: Follow. Ask Again: I will not.”

But I need it, so I follow the thing deeper into Vahzilok’s lair.

Half-assembled Rikti monkeys weakly try to break free of barbed wire straps. Moaning Rikti—ones that I hope are already dead—lay on bloody tables, awaiting the knife of the good doctor. Hacksaws and power drills lie on a tray next to top of the art surgical instruments.

Human and Lost Cadavers shuffle back and forth with ambulatory Rikti zombies. None of the alien zombies are wholly Rikti—they each have at least one or two pieces of human flesh attached to them.

“A lack of materials or a flaw in your work, doctor?” I say it loud enough that Vahzilok should hear me regardless of where he is in the lab.

“I’m afraid that I am still working out the finer points of Rikti anatomy. You can go now, Igor.”

The Rikti zombie shuffles away and I can see the man stepping out of the shadows behind it.

I’m expecting to see him in his meatsuit, but for a change Vahzilok is just an average-sized man in a doctor’s scrubs … scrubs that may have started out as white, but now are considerably less so. He stinks, of course—personal hygiene has never been his strong suit. “Doctor Vahzilok. We meet again.”

“Mr. Wagner. I’ve been expecting you.”

“You have?”

“The Lady Grey was kind enough to let me know that you were looking for me.” He looks at my metallic arm. “I don’t imagine you’re here to trade up, are you?”

“Not exactly.” I gesture at his half-finished zombies. “I see that you’ve branched out.”

“Yes. The Rikti are a fascinating variant of the human race. They have highly developed minds and tend to be physically far more powerful than the average human being—but they are not built for the kind of sustained combat of a prolonged war. They are literally burning themselves out.”

His tone of voice is animated, enthusiastic … and I’m horrified to admit how much it reminds me of Mom when she’d talk about her work. It sickens me to recognize something of her in him, but I can’t deny that this madman is a genius. A depraved, insane genius, but nevertheless an incredible scientist. “Somehow I doubt that the welfare of the Rikti is on your mind.”

“Oh, no. The Vanguard hopes that I can assemble a force of Rikti Vahzilok that can fight for them. Lady Grey believes that the horror of fighting their own dead will weaken their will to fight.” He smiled thinly. “And failing that, she believes I may be able to develop a virus or pathogen that will destroy the Rikti without posing a threat to the human race.”

“You should try chicken pox,” I mutter, wondering how the Rikti fraction that has made tentative efforts to negotiate a peace treaty with humanity would feel about the good doctor’s work. “But I’m not here to talk to you about this, doctor.”

“Indeed, why are you here? As you may guess, I don’t have many willing visitors.”

“I’m looking for another piece of your handiwork. The one who has my arm. “

“Oh, and what makes you think I know anything about that?”

“The PPD haven’t found all of your lairs. I’m guessing that Patchwork is staying in one of your labs and using your equipment.”

“That is a possibility. And why should I tell you anything?”

That had always been the flaw in my little plan, I have to admit. If I had still been a Hero, I could have simply beaten or threatened the answer out of him. Now … now I was just a man. So what did I have to offer a madman like this?

It was a good question.

Fortunately, I had an answer.

“Let’s make a deal, doctor …”

Wow ...

Hi, guys.

Please check out the live version of my MA Arc, THE TERRA CURE.

ID 193089

Would appreciate feedback.

A few weeks ago I had an idea for a Concept Character ... a Mind/Psi Dominator who was formerly a member of the Lost who wound up "cured" by a Hero during the Midnight Club Arc.

He didn't want to be cured, however, but when he tried to rejoin the Lost he discovered that the Mutagen no longer had the same effect on him. He gained mental powers similar to what he had lost, but he did not physically change and he had forever lost his link to the Rikti Hive Mind ...

As I stated earlier tonight in another thread, I pretty much like for a toon to be able to solo at Level 4.

Could a Mind/Psi do that? One of the reasons I hadn't made one before now is that the high level of Psi Resistance in certain Arachnos soldiers has made me think that may not be a good set to take Redside ...

Or are they?

I am a frequent soloer, so I tend to select ATs that can solo strongly. For me, if I can't solo a Toon at Level 4 post SOs, then it's probably not going to be something that I'm going to enjoy.

Does anyone else have a similar issue? Something that keeps them from playing a Particluar AT or Powerset because it's just not fun to them even though there's nothing wrong with the set?

Then I think that Mr. Squid is right.

This thing needs a revamp.

I'd really like to do that SF, but this doesn't sound something that's easy to do for a PUG, and that's pretty much all I can run a SFs or TFs on...

And I do think that if a successful team HAS to have one particular AT-- whether it's a Dominator or VEAT-- then that should be looked at.