Dr_Mechano

Edwina now had the evidence on what the symbols actually were...this case just even weirder...

She had found out who the coroner was and decided enough was enough, she had to pay him a visit, unfortunately this meant she missed Ataraxis grilling the assistant coroner. Why had this guy, who normally done such a great job in his reports, a guy who had been with the department for years...completely screw up this one report.

She took her coat, slid out of her chair and headed off to the home address. Knocking on the door when she did finally arrive and awaiting a response...

The other thing it reminded me of was air bending from Avatar: The last Airbender...

Anyone else see that, especially since they do base the mystical arts in that on real world martial arts (and air bending is based on Tai Chi IRC).

Edwina had come to exactly the same conclusion as Ataraxis, she had seen magical death autopsy reports before and they atleast got into the possibility of what kind of magic could have killed the victims and a lot greater detail of the injuries...simply labelling the cause of death as 'magical' was something a rookie coroner would do.

She wasn't officially part of the police investigation but then she had a worrying feeling the investigation had already been compromised. She begun looking through the employee database to bring up anything she could on the Coroner, there may be a link there...[Edwina would probably bump into Ataraxis since they're both investigating the same thing...have them both turn up outside the Coroners house? She'll run the symbol through the database as well once she gets it from Fea, interesting that there's two actual cops working on it...though Otrera appears to be a beat cop and Edwina is part of the Anti-meta unit]

Hmm name that issue game I see.

If it hasn't been used/suggested already and continue with the 'Into a mirror Darkly' theme from Issue 17 (which is technically Going Rogue free bits part one) then I suggest:

Issue 18: Mirror Shattered.

Damn it was just on my way to post this...

...so we may not have the Incarnate AT but our characters are effectively turning into one, sweet holy molasses!

I don't think it's 'harder' to revamp an old zone than it is to create a new one but...

They get more 'bang for their bucks' when they create a new zone since people can go 'oooh shiney!' instead of 'it's about bloody time!' when they revamp an old zone.

I agree with the people saying that we've already GOT enough zones, how about revamping the crap and near useless ones FIRST before focusing on 'ooh shiney!'. I had hoped with War Witch incharge the stance would change unfortunately it seems the relentless forward march of the shiney continues.

The grenade launcher attachment for most assault rifles in the real world can provide most, if not all, of the abilities which assault rifle features.

There's a grenade round (M30 Grenade), obviously, however the grenade attachment can also take enlarged shotgun rounds (Buckshot/Beanbag) and there is such a thing as Dragon's Breath rounds (Flamethrower and ignite) and any assault rifle is usually capable of single shot (sniper rifle/slug), semi-auto (burst) and full auto (full auto obviously).

Terrance begun his questions, he really needed to keep this guy distracted.

"Please answer the following questions in order, there are five questions, ranging from easy to difficult, answer all five correctly and you win the fabulous prize mentioned..."

"Question one, name the series, episode and episode air date that featured this music?," playing a brief snippet of the music."

"Question two, what role in which 1983 fantasy film was British actor Bernard Bresslaws last major feature film before he died?"

"Question three, 'who loves you and who do you love?' name the film, the role and the actor playing the role from which the quotation comes."

"Question four, name all the fantasy and science fiction films and TV series that actor Kevin Sorbo has starred in."

"Question five, whose biography is entitled 'If chins could kill: Confessions of a B Movie actor'?""

Some tough ones and a few easy ones, Terrance would hope it would keep the villain distracted long enough for someone to snatch the belt...

Indeed I did say the key problem was that everything in City of Heroes is repeatable and strictly non-linear in style...it's a rather major problem. Indeed in WoW you can't team with people who are earlier on in the quest chain than you because they can't see the things you see and you can't see the things they see. A certain unique Spider model (for hunters who had spider pets) which can only be gotten when you first come into the area, if you complete the quest chain you can't see it and thus can't get it anymore.

The way WoW uses it is that it's used sparringly, only for single quest area (the keep for example) OR to remove a single NPC (players who have done the fight for undercity hordeside version can nolonger see the Demon prince due to him turning traitor and the group killing him), they don't affect the whole game as it would have to in City of Heroes/City of villains because as heroes or villains your actions have a wider impact.

Hmm good points people...didn't think this all the way through obviously...still more than man enough to admit I got it wrong.

Manticore has stated that the Romulous Warshade and Romulous we fight in the ITF are two seperate people, they have no relation beyond having the same name.

Well the tech is there...

...admittedly it's in another MMO...

WoW uses phasing tech.

For example say I haven't completed the intro quests for a zone, I see the keep under seige, the undead and human soldiers battling it out, frost drakes circling overhead to occasionally swoop down and bombard the battlements. Now as the quests progress, let's say I do the quest chain which clears out the undead ground forces and bolsters the alliance soldiers numbers. The area than phases into a different state where the ground forces are gone and there's now an increased number of alliance patrols.

Once I've completed all the quest chains for that area, the keep is now a safe haven and a staging point to launching the attack to the next area. However someone who has just come into the area and not completed any of the quests still sees it as a warzone.

Lets take this into CoH. Now lets say you complete the Lady Grey TF which is the culmination of the entire RWZ storyarc, now instead of Vanguard being besieged, they're outposts are clear and the Rikti are all but fought back to the valley with the crashed mothership. Vanguard troops are clearing out the rest of the troublemakers in the warzone (Arachnos, Council and Malta/KoA) instead of just fighting Rikti.

Strangely the best time I've had in PvP was a purely PvE experience.

Late night RV, in there with my bots/FF Mastermind...now I could nearly take down a single GM level AV on my own with help of a buffed Heavy.

A Second MM is in the zone farming the pillboxes, sees me single pulling BaB away from the group and fighting him. He decides to come over and lend a helping hand, we proceed to WTFpwn him.

It was rather hilarious because the only other people in the zone at that time were other farmers (who cheered us on) and one PvPer who quickly realised that 2 x MM is not someone you want to jump into (he lacked teleport foe) especially when one of them can go "meh...here...cool off a while.." and cast detention field, letting the both of us finish off the AV before turning back to the PvPer (see it has it's uses people!).

The only AV we couldn't beat in our awesometastic duo was Statesman thanks to his perma-unstoppable but overall the experience was incredibly fun.

Saying that I did enjoy PvP pre-issue 13, was a casual PvPer and would often take part in the large fights and even some fiteclubbing style things, if it got interupted nobody whinged...the spectators on the other side just nuked the people interupting.

Right, since nobody answered my question before, I'll ask again...

Could the PvP zones stand up on their own two feet if everything PvE was stripped out of them? Seriously, I'm asking this as an honest question, because, surely PvPers would prefer a zone that's entirely PvP focused and yes I do include the pillboxes/heavies of RV in the PvP catergory since they're a PvP mechanic (every FPS/RTS game has control point capture or Domination mode in it these days, makes sense for RV to have the same).

Everything else gets stripped out, non-essential (aka non-baseguard) NPCs are removed, the nukes are taken out of warburg, the shivans taken out of Bloody Bay.

PvPers must want a pure PvP experience surely, one that is unsullied by PvE, people are there for one thing and one thing alone, to PvP, no complaining, no nonsense of badge hunting just pure PvP.

Isn't that what PvPers want though?

The Following Monday morning

Edward was, as usual, at the office, he had made it his goal to oversee every New You participant personally, first to make sure the customer was satisfied with the service and second of all to make sure the person undergoing the change was 'suitable' for it. Although he operated in the Isles, business was business and you didn't make business by killing people. Pregnant women or young children were kept strictly off the list and he would make sure on a case by case basis that each one fully understood what they were going though.

Having done his rounds, overseeing the patients both coming in and going out, so far, so good, nobody had died and everyone had been happy with their choice, Edward retired to his office.

His friend, assistant and business partner Steve the Shivan was in his office, a cup of freshly brewed coffee awaiting Edward on the desk, "Ah thank you Steve...who knew being legitimate was such hard work, making people happy takes a lot out of you let me tell you and to think those 'heroes' in Paragon City would baulk at this idea...I mean, making people happy for a decent fee is hardly a crime..."

Edward sighed, "still I do miss the old ways, I shall have to go about causing some trouble again, I think old Spruky boy was right I have gone soft...which reminds me...how is he doing recovering?"

Steve pushed the chart infront of Edward, "ah...doing well, he'll be out by this afternoon...I did have to tell his boys to keep it down but they're good lads when you're helping them out after all..."

"Still, causing trouble, well I suppose I could unleash some genetic monstrosity on Paragon but that would reflect badly on the business...atleast all the other bigshot villains seem to be leaving me to my own devices...mind you that's because they will probably end up using my services if the need was dire enough..."

Edward sipped his coffee as he begun looking over the R&D reports for the latest experiments.

((ok, just for you Brit this is a map of building's first floor, the second is a huge R&D department, there's another building opposite which produces all of Edward's mechanical goods. The place is covered in cameras in both the exterior and interior and the guard drones are all tier 1 mastermind pets.
))

Terrance had a plan, this 'Spoiler' fellow seemed to desire attention and a chance to show off...so that's exactly what he'd give him...

His casing shimmered turning black with a the infamous skull and cog logo. He fired up his anti-grav jets and took in a deep mechanical breath, he didn't need to but it made him feel better.

Hovering into view and using his best automated voice setting he begun his spiel.

"Hello Capecon goers, are you interested in having real superpowers? Thanks to the Necrotech New You program we can give you a gift of the gods, answer the trivia questions provided by this unit correctly and win not only free participation of the New You program but two weeks, all expenses paid, in the world renowned Golden Giza casino and hotel, please see www.Necrotechtoastydreams.com for terms and conditions, those under eighteen must seek permission from a parent or guardian before approaching this unit. You have twenty seconds to shout out the attention grabbing phrase, 'I love you Talkie Toasters!' to get this units attention..."

That should get his attention and distract him from beating up heroes both real and fake for a while...Terrance was about to unleash his trivia buff...he didn't spend all the time studying useless facts for nothing...

Wow also has a lot of burn and churn, the head honcho at Blizzard said that 70% of all characters ever created never get past level 10.

WoW is the mmo for when you have the free time. The endgame requires dedicating four hours a day, three times a week (that's a casual raiding guild, the hardcore ones are six days a week) plus you then have to grind gold in order to buy all the best stuff (potions etc.) for the upcoming raids. So you're looking at putting in a minimum of 16 hours (12 to raid, 4 for gold grind) a week to have a chance at maybe getting something epic for your character...

You really do need to dedicate a lot of time to WoW to get the most out of it. City of Heroes, by comparrison, is very casual (despite what the old 'elite' say about modern WoW being "like so casual it sucks, anybody can get epics, phft...stupid welfare epics, you don't deserve them, back in my day epic meant something!") and appeals to those whose time is a bit more restrictive.

Hmm wish I could find the links but an EU forumite called Mothers love (who sadly left the game) actually use to make proper t-shirts/hats based on CoH. She tried for AGES to get NCsoft marketing to either A) take the designs themselves and market them or B) get permission from their marketing to sell them but they ignored her until after repeated Emails they just said no.

My favorite ones were two baseballs caps, one with debt written on it and the other with influence on it.

((OOC: This is just some background/providing a plot hook for those interested, it's for Union RP since Dr Mechano is considered a 'hero' on Virtue due to landing in the wrong place during a dimension jump, he also doesn't have his company set up there.))

It's around 4am, you know the time when all the adverts are either for 'chat' lines or infomercials for incredibly awful products that nobody would really buy. The cheapest time for people to get some TV advertising. However one advert is clearly different from the rest.

"Hello there," Doctor Edward Johnson aka Doctor Mechano appeared on screen, dressed in a fluffy sweater and blue jeans, obviously trying to appear as 'non-threatening as he can manage. He's sat at a nicely polished, large wooden desk his doctorate hanging behind him (even if it is in Robotics) and a picture of his robotic family in a fancy frame set on the top.

"Now some of you know me from my past exploits, rest assured I haven't just hacked into your TV signal to announce a new reign of humanity improving chaos...oh no...this time it's a paid for commercial for my new service," he paused and offered a smile.

"Tell me, are you tired of having your purse, wallet or laptop stolen by gang members or being threatened by body harvesting zombie criminals?"

"Well now the people behind the 'Dream Partner' plan are offering a tailored service to give you, the unpowered public, super powers without the danger of falling into toxic waste, having cruel experiments done on you or otherwise hoping the lottery of life says it is your turn to have superpowers."

"The New You program is tailored to your desires, you have a personal consultation with myself and we go through what you would like to change...perhaps you want to be more muscular, perhaps you want to be taller, perhaps you want to change gender, all those things can be done using our secret genetic manipulation and nanite treatment," the scene changes to sweeping across a large room filled with various glass tanks, a grey goo filling the inside of each, above them hovers breathing apperatus and a group of scientists on the catwalks over each one.

Cutting back to Edward now in what looks like a brightly lit hosptial ward with friendly nurses and doctors behind him going about their business, talking to the patients in bed, "Not only can we completely change what you look like, through the same treatment we can grant you the power you've always wanted, whether that be super strength and an iron hard skin or the ability to sculpt fire to your whim..."

"Why go to Icon or the Facemaker, who offer a substandard pay for upfront service, no money back offers if you dislike the new you and shoddy customer care. Here at the Necrotech toasty dreams factory and private hospital we offer a service which is second to none, a wide range of payment plans including paying in low cost monthly installments and are dedicated to making our customers the happiest they can be with our service."

Now Edward is one again back behind the desk, "This is the future of humankind, wouldn't you want to be a part of it?"

"So go to the website www.toastydreamsfactory.com/newyou and check out our Frequently asked Questions, payment schemes or have a look at our other service, after all a new you is going to need a new partner, why not one you've designed yourself?"

"Here's a happy customers testimonial incase you think I'm just making it up..."

The scene cuts to a beautiful and amazonianly scuplted woman with green eyes and blonde hair. Dressed in a tight t-shirt showing off her generous 'assetts' as well as the muscles along with tight fitting blue jeans.

"I use to be a skinny office worker, I was never happy with the way I looked and could never find the time to both work and bulk up," the scene shows a before and after picture, the key thing to note in the picture is that the skinny office worker was male before the change, "now thanks to Necrotech's new you program not only have I got the sculpted body I've always wanted, I'm now the woman I always wanted to be and I can bench press a truck!"

The scene once again cuts back to Edward, "So you can be as happy as Terry there...spelt with an I now of course...for low monthly installments, be the you you've always wanted..."

The image fades out to white background, the symbol of a cog with a skull over it in pink appears with the words, 'Necrotech, where anything is possible'...followed by a generic male voice over going, "This was a paid for advertisment by the Necrotech corporation."

((I know this will get a rise out of atleast two characters, plus I'm sure there would be people interested in this service...feel free to post your IC reactions below..the advert is broadcast in both the Isles and Paragon City.))