Bubbawheat

I used to see several pet projects in sigs, most commonly - getting every AT to level 50, and I don't as much anymore. I was wondering what pet projects aka in game goals everyone has. Whether it's common or uncommon.

I've got a few, though some have drifted a little by the wayside.

My Burnt Matchstick Project (in sig) is my goal to have a fire/fire (or similar, such as thermal or the upcoming demon summoning) of each AT to level 50. They all have the same name and a similar costume, and I've gotten them on most every server.

My Time Shifter Project, which has fallen by the wayside was my project to level 1-50 entirely by playing time-travel oriented arcs, mostly MA, but also any canon arc that would grant the "Entrusted with the Secret" badge.

My Aeon's Challenge Project, this one isn't exactly limited to one character, but I plan on playing and reviewing every AE arc submitted to the Aeon's Challenges.

Hey, if this keeps up, I might actually get a couple votes this month.

One of my favorite songs by a fairly unknown band: Apartment 26 - Give Me More

So my foray into this year's Fan Art competition has gotten me interested in art a bit more. I don't have a whole lot of skill, or any helpful tools such as a nice editing program - currently using Paint.net - a scanner, or tablet - just a plain ol' mouse and keyboard, so that's limiting me to adding colors on some nice sketches I've had done for me. But I'm enjoying it for the most part. I would like to hear any advice or tips on how I can improve. And I'm open to any criticism and critiques on the coloring I'm doing - the lines are not mine, there's no way I could do that kind of sketch work with a mouse alone.

This is what I'm currently working on:

Original Pencils by TechnicDragon.


Colors added by me:




References:

Ooh, no winner yet? Go away for a few days and all hell breaks loose, let's see how well my luck runs again in these random number contests.

52

My idea was to stylize a screenshot into a suicide king card pic. The first one looks pretty good, I'll have to see what I can do with it.

If I am a winner, I permit NC Interactive, Inc. and NCsoft Europe Limited to use my name, likeness, photograph, hometown, and any comments that I may make about myself or this contest that I provide for advertising and promotional activities. I also certify that I am at least 13 years of age and am eligible to participate in this contest.



Arrgh! I told ye the rum was behind the Gogh, the poison was behind the Monet, ugh!

A couple ideas I had rattling around in my head that I don't think I'll ever make into arcs:

Inspired by Aeon's Second Challenge - An elderly hero has lost his powers, not through some devious mechanations, but merely through old age. He's looking for someone to pass the torch to as well as finally defeating his old nemesis who seems to be hatching a quite new plot. The torch could be passed to the player or to an ally that you happen upon during the arc.

Shades of Grey - This is a story told many times in modern fantasy shows, most often in vampire/demon hunter tales. When the vampire/demon hunter finds the vamp that doesn't feed on humans and is just trying to eke out a relatively normal life. In CoX, this would be a contact that sends you on missions going after a suspected supervillain, but through the course of the arc, you realize that the supervillain is not actually a supervillain at all and you end up defying your contacts wishes. Not sure what a good climax would be though - joining together to fight a common foe? Or just have a quiet anti-climactic ending?

Saw this on dA and thought I'd share it here since it fits the theme. By ImagesByAlex.

re: Sister Twelve - any and all discussion about the Aeon Challenges is fine, just looking to liven up the thread a little. Continuing my hot streak, I played Zaphir's

To Dream of Nothing #374644 by @Celestial Nemesis

Today Positron is talking to me because all the high level heroes have lost their powers. Us lowbies seem to be the only ones unaffected since we only recently came into our powers. And slowly, through these four missions, I and two other lowbies - Sunstorm and Heavy Metal - find out about a scientist infected with a Nictus combining who's a wannabe Dr. Brainstorm and tapped into the combined power net to grant themselves power while robbing everyone else of it.

The Supers Lose Their Power: In this arc, everyone with any sort of stronger powers completely lose them, whether they are natural, technological, or any other origin. The only ones who retain their powers are those who have only minor power. The entire arc is set up as sort of a mystery where you discover who is behind this anomaly and eventually stop them.

The Arc as an Arc: I really enjoyed this arc, the only thing that suffered somewhat, and this will vary from person to person, but there was just too much text. I will say that it was all quite good reading, there was just a lot of it, so much that if I forgot to check one of the longer mission end clues, I would be a little confused about some of the things talked about for the next mission. I'm not saying to get rid of it all, but I think you should look at condensing things here and there, as well as making sure you're not leaving out any important info in just the contact dialogs.

Appropriate for the Level Range?: I had absolutely no problems with the difficulty. Starting with mission 2 nets you two helpful allies, one more damage oriented, and one more support oriented. But I think even without them I wouldn't have had many problems, and with them I didn't have any. I think I died once total, but I could even be wrong on that count.

Edit: my twitter notes below in order.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA To Dream of Nothing # 374644 by @ Celestial Nemesis aka Zaphir, entry in Aeon's Second Challenge.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: A global outbreak is robbing superheroes and villains alike of their powers. News at 11:00.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Very interesting busy text. Alternatively, someone's life story in mission begin clue.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: The life story was of Alfred Patrick, fan of Dr. Brainstorm and person I'm looking for. Guessing he did it by mistake, or not.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Council is here placing explosives. Uh oh.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Some interesting set-up clues. Doesn't tell me much yet, but is piquing my interest. Must continue later though.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA Continuing To Dream of Nothing. M2: chasing after a rogue Council agent suspected to have absconded with the scientist from M1.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Another great busy text, must remember to check them all.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: This anomaly is called N-3, reminds me of Purification by Coulomb2.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: There's lots of text everywhere in this arc. Reminds me of a Glazius arc. Mostly interesting, but just a lot of it.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Hello family! Also, I must have stopped on the way to stop some Hellions - that's why my allies aren't waiting at the door.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Nice, all 4 glowies are in the same room.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: One of the glowies lost the Nictus it was holding. It's identifier? N-3. Nice build up of the mystery so far.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Heh, Family boss defeat text - I get it, the word of the day was 'humiliation'.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Positron does a little sum up of the story so far, and I'm after the weakened Nictus. Also seems to set up a cluster** of groups.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Another very interesting busy text - Positron theorizing about the so called "Null Effect" and noting a flickering of its effects
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Walk in to the safehouse and hear Council soldiers and smell burning flesh. That's never a good sign.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: wow, lots of optional stuff lying around here - 12 memoirs, 3 students, and an optional boss. Only need the rogue council agent.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: I keep getting a little confused about how the next mission comes about based on contact text, until I see the mission end clue.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: The students I'm finding are charred bodies, work of the Nictus.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Found an enthralled brawler, <Thralls of Nihil>, recolored 5th column, bio says he's "unarmed except for a pistol." that's armed.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Found the rogue agent. He's all sickly looking and lying on the ground with other council looking down at him.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Trying to decide if I want to try and find all the optional glowies now that I lost my countdown or just exit.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: just grabbed four that were nearby, some interesting optional info and a couple non-infos.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Stop the Nictus, save the world.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: The animation that worked so well in Storming Citadel is a little annoying on this arc.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Aww, can't talk to Posi while speedboating to the cargo ship. Still 3 interesting busy texts are better than 0.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: found a nictus boss named Blackshift, clue says there's a couple more before destroying the crystal to lure Nihil out.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Whoops, let one of my allies die.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: objective completion texts have nice little notes about where I should look for the next task.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: I was worried with the small orange warning, but Nihil is just a boss. Whew.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Defeat text describes destroying a null engine that's not actually there. Could be a player objective?
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: And everyone has their powers back, and a very long souvenir summing up the whole arc. Great arc.

This may seem like it's just a review thread, but I'd like to see a little discussion in here too:

How many Challenge arcs did you play? Which ones were your personal favorites? Did you prefer one challenge over the other? Is there any from the first challenge that I missed and should check out?

Check the first map in this arc:

One Too Many Lines Crossed ID# 347205 by @Ari

I'm not sure which one it is, but it has a nice outdoor rarely used (that I've seen) slum area, even if it's not specifically Sharkshead.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that you can hop into Architect Entertainment if you want a closer look at the character designs. #380533 for a mad tea party, watch that first step though, sometimes it's a doozy.

Actually, he meant that the timed mission didn't really matter because mission 5 continues on exactly the same whether you pass or fail the mission 4 timer. You do have the different return dialog, but after that it makes no difference. When the last mission is a timed mission, it creates two different ending possibilities.

Hey! If I keep this pace up, I might actually finish before the third Aeon's Challenge! And by the way, after 3 arcs (more like 2 with the super short one, and one unfinished) I'm at level 7. My plan for the rest after I pass up level 10 is to not take any more powers, and not slot any enhancements to help stay true to the level 10 cap (other than turning off XP).

Today I take a trip to City of Heroes in Technicolor! For ArrowRose's arc:

Suppression #374481 by @GypsyRose

My contact today is a young girl with no superpowers of her own named Dorothy. She's from Kansas and she tells me that heroes across Paragon City are losing their powers and then disappearing! And one of the most recent victims is her friend Cerebella. She used to be a near genius hero, and now she's claiming that she has no brain. I think you can see where this is going. It's a fun arc full of Wizard of Oz references, almost all from the classic movie with Judy Garland, the three heroes that you go after, each with their own mission, even hand you a note with a stanza from each of their respective songs. You follow the yellow brick road to find the Master Marvel who reluctantly helps and tells you where the Wicked One is and her Wicked Brew that was suppressing the heroes's powers. It's a simple enough story, but there's a lot of fun and variety in the mobs that you fight.

The Supers Lose Their Powers: In this arc, the problem of supers losing their powers is rampant, but you only really focus on three: Cerebella (Scarecrow), Valentina (Tin Man), and Captain Courageous (Lion). Master Marvel (The Wizard) tells you that they've had their powers all along, but just lost their confidence. The last mission has you finding tokens of their confidence, defeating the Wicked One (The Wicked Witch of the West), and destroying her brew that caused this whole mess. I don't remember if there was one, but it would have been nice to have a little more mention at the end about the rest of the heroes. Also, I don't think it's ever really explained what happened to all the other heroes that disappeared. Did they die? Were they kidnapped and then released at the end? We end up just being worried about the three allies. Which would be perfectly fine if they were the ones being focused on, and all the "other heroes" aspect was dropped altogether.

Appropriate for the Level Range?: When I played this arc, it has been bumped slightly up to 5-15 fyi. I was worried after the last arc about the character I chose to play through these arcs, but this arc eased my worries completely. I had almost no difficulties at all in this arc. The CoT Soul Mages gave me a little bit of difficulty with their suicidal explosions, and just plain bad luck at getting multiple spawns close together, but nothing frustrating or anything that took more than one trip to the hospital.

The Arc as an Arc: Along with Alice in Wonderland, I also really love the Wizard of Oz and really enjoyed all the references. The first three missions are nearly identical in structure though - finding the hero hostage and finding a clue, with the occasional optional bit of interest thrown in. It could use a little more diversity in that department. The mobs however, were diverse in a great way. Lots of lesser used but not overly challenging (besides CoT, but they're forgivable) groups, as well as a custom standard group <The Brood> which used a large mix of unusual enemies, and a green Wolf Spider, I even got to the final mission still seeing new mobs in that group that I hadn't seen yet.

Edit: As usual, tweets below, mostly just humorous comments about The Wizard of Oz.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA Suppression # 374481 by @ Gypsy Rose aka ArrowRose, entry in 2nd Aeon's Challenge
Bubbawheat #CoHMA Hello Dorothy, I thought it was Alice that just came out in theaters.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Heroes have been losing their powers and then disappearing. One of them - Cerebella just disappeared recently, and I'll find her?
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Popup says I'm not in Kansas anymore, but Croatoa actually looks quite a bit like Kansas...
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: A minikin that looks a teensy bit like Alice. I knew it! Wait, I mean, WTH?
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Cerebella is a near genius. So, I guess she was just kinda smart. And now she thinks she has no brain. Oh Scarecrow...
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: She said it! i was wondering about that. PS - I'm liking it, difficulty so far absolutely not a factor.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Not only that, but her clue quotes from the song... uh oh, I smell copyright infringment.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: If this man's an empty kettle with a name like Valentina, I think I'd be a little scared. I think it will be a different stanza.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Hmm... there's a hole in the ground. Why do they always pick this exact spot to dig a hole?
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Kinda disappointed that <The Brood> don't all have unique bios, but it seems a very large mix of standard mobs.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: No "man's an empty kettle" in her clue, she's just friends with the "boy who shoots the arrows"
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Just have to "search for information" now.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Found a warning note from Cerebella written before her incident. Though it doesn't make sense who she's writing it to back then.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Captains Courageous, I mean Captain Courageous has lost his courage in a cargo ship. Put 'em up, Put 'em up!
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: While I love the parallels, by mission 3 I'm ready to shake up the repetitive nature of these missions.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Have forgotten to mention the mobs. First Tuatha, then Winter Horde, now Spectral Pirates. Enjoy the mix, but how to tie together
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Found a pamphlet for Master Marvel... did I mention Copyrig- just kidding. I smell Wizard.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: I'm off to see the Wizard!
Bubbawheat #CoHMA Lots of random glowies lying around.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA They all seem to have minor references and jokes in them. *cough* *ripoff* *cough*
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Died a couple times, but both from kamikaze Life Mages.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M5: Master Marvel told us where to find the Wicked One, and the talismans to restore the heroes's confidence and power.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M5: Bringing my Ice Ammo, frozen water works, right?
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M5: Wicked One is a classic rendition of the Wicked Witch, full on Magic booster witch outfit.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M5: And again, difficulty came into play - Boss -> Lieut with grav was much easier than earlier control customs.
Bubbawheat Bubbawheat #CoHMA M5: And I'll miss you most of all Cerebella.

Things got a little out of hand when they ran out of the 9 layer brain dip at the Zombie Jamboree.

If I am a winner, I permit NC Interactive, Inc. and NCsoft Europe Limited to use my name, likeness, photograph, hometown, and any comments that I may make about myself or this contest that I provide for advertising and promotional activities. I also certify that I am at least 13 years of age and am eligible to participate in this contest.

I knew I wasn't imagining things:

Peace_On_Earth bio claims his Ill/Rad soloed new Hami (doesn't say new, but I remember it happening, and I wasn't around for old Hami)

Also Ultimus' TankMage Mastermind -- List of AV's Owned he posts in there somewhere, and some soloing achievements all around in that thread.

Now this would be a great April Fools Joke to put these in game for a day (except maybe the Ancient Bone one).

I remember someone with the forum name Peace On Earth claiming that they soloed Hami with a fully IO'd Ill/Rad, took them a couple days, and considered that "beating the game" and quit afterwards. I never heard for sure if it was verified though.

Well, I found my first challenge arc (both for Aeon's Challenge, and as it uses the keyword "Challenging") that I had to quit, and that honor goes to:

Bad VooDoo #373659 by @BeyondReach

I'll just give it a mini-review + tweets at the end, in reverse order as usual.

A Villain Loses his Powers: In this arc, Mr. Bocor gets "hit with something" and loses his voodoo powers, and it's my job to follow his leads to get it back for him, all the while following a secret conspiracy/alliance/feud type thing all between the Legacy Chain, Wyvern, and Solomon's Hand (custom group).

Appropriate for the Level Range?: I had tons of difficulty with this arc running on the default difficulty solo @ lvl 5-6. From the Legacy Chain boss with fire imps, to the earth control lieutenants, and finally the plant control boss that I finally gave up on. Lots of purples could have gotten me past it, but I was done by that point, and I've only got 8 inspiration slots. I've spent 3 days (albeit with brief playtimes) and many deaths. Time will tell if this is due to a bad character choice, and if this is the case, I will revisit this arc. But as it stands now, it's way too challenging for this low level.

The Arc as an Arc: The actual plot of the story was fairly intriguing, if a little hard to follow - which I'll accept some of the blame for that one, breaking it up between several play sessions. I wasn't sure how much I liked Bocor as a character, and I don't think he seemed much like his canon self. He had an interesting style to him, but at the end, I wasn't sure how I ultimately felt about it. The missions had a lot of interesting stuff in them as well. It's basically the difficulty that killed it for me. It is marked as "challenging", but this is a 5-10 level range arc. Now that the challenge is over, that level range could be bumped up to something higher to help compensate. The arc wasn't all bad, but frustration got the better of me this time, which you can really see in the tweets below. Better luck next time.

#CoHMA Bad Voodoo # 373659 by @ BeyondReach, entry in the 2nd Aeon's Challenge.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Mr. Bocor has lost his voodoo power and needs me to get it back. Threatens me upon suspicion of treachery, not sure if I like it.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Legacy Chain is here taking something from the Family I was supposed to meet.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: I'm wondering if this is like about half of the arcs I play- This Johnny Ventrivi I'm looking for isn't going to be here, or dead
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Adamants of Steel look awfully villainous, are we sure they're heroic?
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: He's alive! Just held hostage by the Chain... cha cha chain.... chain of fools.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: heh, he said "ruckus".

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: I kind of like Mr. Bocor's tone, though it doesn't seem to fit him. And now I'm off to check out some Wyvern.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Ouch, these customs are pretty tough at level 5 for a corruptor.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA And completely decimated by HMV's soldiers, let's go for round 2.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA round 3's the charm? At least one less minion this time...
Bubbawheat #CoHMA Oh come on! 2 lucks got him down to a sliver of life though.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA He wasn't even the faction leader? Grr...
Bubbawheat #CoHMA I found Lieutenant Rose (a guy, and not a Golden Girl as I first suspected), and he's not the leader either.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA and dead again...
Bubbawheat #CoHMA I'm confused, which leader of which faction am I supposed to be interrogating again?
Bubbawheat #CoHMA grrr... bodering on /ragequit
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: So <Hand of Solomon> is missing Solomon, and wanting to partner with Wyvern?
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2 return: Contact says "Speak with me tomorrow around the same time" Sounds good. See you tomorrow!

Bubbawheat #CoHMA continuing M3: Interrupting another meeting - between Solomon's Hand and Legacy Chain - and getting an Ether Mirror for Bocor.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Solomon's Hand's Earth Mother is having fun perma-immob'ing me, and I'm Held half the time on top of it.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Found a Liefieldian boss... with Fire Imps?! Really?
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Bah, my indignation got deflated. I rechecked my eyes and realized it was a standard Legacy Chain boss I was fighting. Poo.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Boss turned out to have the ring controlling the mirror I was looking for, now to find the other boss.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3 (whoops labelled the last couple wrong): A custom Storm EB->Boss, I don't have high hopes for this one.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Surprisingly the custom EB->Boss was easier than the Legacy Chain Boss->Lieut. But more annoying slowing my two attacks to nothin
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Retrieved the artifacts, but they weren't the right ones, or Bocor can't use them, so must find the one who can...tomorrow.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA: M4: sendoff text feels like a big run on sentence, like he's telling me everything in one breath.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Off to kidnap Jason - the one that can work the Voodoo mojo back into Bocor, and blow up the base - for good measure.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Kicked to the curb by two Fang Agents, I hope it's not just that I picked a bad character to use... >.>
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Lots of patrols wondering around, one will probably end up getting me while I tweet.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Earth Progenitor Seraph - boss level... I have a baaad feeling about this.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: I was right. Immediately held, taken down for over half my health, then the other half before I could take out her other minion.
Bubbawheat Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: That's it, I've had enough. When I can't get more than two attacks off, it's time to quit.

Looks great! As for the Rogue Isles, do neighborhoods. Mercy use one of the snake neighborhoods and the arachnos base, whatever their names are. That would give you six of the sections, then you just need to figure out the last two. You could also use Oroborous for one of the trains.

I'm pretty sure I've seen a few before, but I'm looking for some screenshots of characters with their own sword clipping through their heads. Either from a specific angle while they are fighting, or due to rag doll physics. Preferably your own screenshots as I would also like to use them for a certain project I have in mind that may or may not turn out. But anyway, show me some suicide kings!