DreamWeaver

It doesn't. It's only if you do something that directly affects a mob or another player. Trip mines, time bombs and caltrops do not break Cloaking Device.

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Tbh i am hoping for some serious mass PvP on this zone that targetters and field tactics will come even more in place.If that the case the toon specialization will be the next FoTM for PvP.Stalker Hunters,Targeters,Controller hunters,Flag carriers,Flag carrier guards(5 invul with superman build and taunt) etc.Well maybe i looked too much in the future and went for too much specialization but well i like this.

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"Got the Flag!"
"TP incoming!"
HEROES SCORE A POINT.
"TP back into the Warzone"
"Got the Flag!"....

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Hmmm...

Is RV going to be more like CTF or...
- Unreal Tourney Onslaught (capture point A to chain it up to point B, to C, to enemy base / victory point)?
- "Domination" - control ALL or certain percentage of strategic points to win?

...if it's one of the latter two, I foresee fun with Trip Mines

Sneaking up on the Epics with my AR/Dev Blaster.

A few questions...

- Munitions Mastery fits the concept pretty damn well... is Cryo Freeze any good? (Will have Vanguard medal by this time to help for special occasions)

- ...or is the potentially aggro-causing Sleep Grenade better?

- Body Armour sounds best shield power as it doesn't burn END... am I right?

- Any other Blaster Epics that match up?

I've noticed a few whinges about UBB on these boards, and I need to put together a messageboard for work - preferably one that's easy to link to individual channels with.

What's your favourite flavour of bulletin board?

w00ty cake-related goodness, LDF, and gratz on dinging

Hangovers past by any chance?

Already do that - trigger powerthrust with Energy Punch cued and you'll get the double shot. Also good to cue Slug etc - you can have the gun drawn and ready before they hit the floor.

Only thing I'm uncomfortable about is no stealth for PVP, but there's just too many other goodies to play with. Could respec out Energy Punch later though.

And what's better than mayhem and chaos?


MORE MAYHEM AND CHAOS!!!!!111eleventy!!!
etc.

OK, slightly remixed...
01 Slug
01 Power Thrust
02 Energy Punch
04 Build Up
06 Buckshot

....planned...

08 Hasten
10 Bone Crusher
12 Sniper Rifle
14 Super Speed
16 Hurdle
18 Health
20 Stamina
22 Flamethrower
24 Combat Jump
26 Beanbag
28 Power Boost
30 Conserve Power
32 Full Auto
35 Boost Range
38 Total Focus
41 Body Armour
44 Cryo Freeze Ray
47 LRM Missile
49 Sleep Grenade

Point taken...

And what about Full Auto with Boost Range AND Build Up?

Trying out an AR/Eng myself after successfully levelling AR/Dev to 38. Good concept choice for your classic guns-n-fists hero

Thus far:
01 Slug
01 Power Thrust
02 Energy Punch
04 Build Up
06 Buckshot

....planned...

08 Air Superiority
10 Bone Crusher
12 Sniper Rifle
14 Fly
16 Swift
18 Health
20 Stamina
22 Flamethrower
24 Stealth
26 Beanbag
28 Conserve Power
30 Power Boost
32 Full Auto
35 Boost Range
38 Total Focus
41 Body Armour
44 Cryo Freeze Ray
47 LRM Missile
49 Sleep Grenade

...thoughts please?

GREETINGS, CITIZEN!

As The Computer knows all, it knows that traitors and Communists have begun spreading lies about alternate dimensions. Dimensions where people run free and wild without the wise, wholesome and brain-nourishing guidance of The Computer.

These are obviously lies. No world could possibly exist that does not revere The Computer. And you - lucky Citizen - will be privileged to damn well make sure it doesn't... one way or another.


MISSION STATEMENT
As a member of the elite Dimensional Investigation, Retrieval of Technology, Warfare and Arbitrary Disposal of Seditionists unit, you will be investigating the dimension coded N3-RFED, where the obviously fabricated Rogue Isles and Paragon City are said to be.

Our ultimate aim is to ensure that these laughable fairytales pose no threat to Alpha Complex or Friend Computer - at any cost. You will also assist in the construction of an advance base from which technological items and other discoveries will be sent back to your home dimension.

Rest assured that while you may never see Alpha Complex again, your brave and completely voluntary mandatory sacrifice will be known and appreciated by those with the correct Security Clearance. Maybe even all four of them.


SELECTION PROTOCOL
As the process of cloning is the most natural thing in the world, you may select Natural Origin. Equally, as our perfect society is the product of most perfect Science, this too is open to you.

Those who work with our advanced and reliable Technology are particularly welcome, as are those who enjoy working with Robots. We have many highly useful and helpful Drones, Protector Bots and Assault Units to assign, many with better intelligence and danger sensing abilities than humans.

Mutants are obviously Traitors and are not eligible to join. At all. Ever. Really. Not a one. Particularly not Mutants with Psionic based powers, who would obviously be doubly Traitorous. Reviled enough for immediate disposal or dimensional exile on some damn fool suicidal erran...

...errr, yes. Disposal.


ARRIVAL PROTOCOL
Our most highly qualified and mostly sane transport scientists have identified an ideal arrival site. You will materialise at the secure facility known as the Ziggurat, well away from any possible criminals, mutants, or other undesirables. Once there, you will make contact with the leadership and with IntSec Covert Operative Matthew B-URK-3 for assignments.


UNIFORM POLICY
As we may encounter hostiles, team members should make every effort to create a sensible costume that fits in with the general populace. However, all new transfers and Troubleshooters are required to wear uniform red shirts. This is as a mark of respect to The Computer and acknowledgement of your new purpose in life.


RANKS AND CLEARANCE LEVELS
There are four ranks available to group members: High Programmer, Disaster Op, IntSec and Troubleshooter. Members are warned that they may be labelled Possible Traitors if evidence of conspiracy, communism, mutation or sedition are discovered, or if any higher-ranked VG member feels like it.


SECRET SOCIETIES
These do not exist, as we are all united in support of The Computer. Be suspicious if any VG Leader approaches you with tempting offers to be part of one.


"CO-OPERATIVE" MISSIONS
All Troubleshooters are expected to accept missions from Operative M1-Burke-TTW and explore where they lead, reporting back as necessary.

However, you will eagerly drop what you are doing to perform group mandatory bonus duties. As a sign of your elite status, these will always be performed at the highest level of difficulty. You will co-operate fully and happily with all other VG members at this time.

Unless they're suspected Mutants. Or Traitors. Or possible Communists. In which case, let your instincts guide you.


PROPAGANDA
When teaming with others, ensure that you tell any non-member you team with how great the Computer is, how well you work together with other VG members, and so on. They may even be fit for membership pending voluntary kidnapping, brainscrub and personality modification therapy. Whether they'll be fit for anything else afterwards is a question for R&D.


SIGN UP TODAY!
Yes, Citizen, YOU too can join the Alpha DIRTWADS. Sign this thread and stand by for a communique from Command.

Be brave: trust The Computer. The Computer Is Your Friend.

Fearless Leader Emily-U-LUV-2

...remember, DC, you asked for it.

PS/OOC: Don't know what's happening? Good, neither do we, because it'd be traitorous.

This VG's concept is based on the wildly popular Paranoia role-drinking game which is currently making a comeback. Players take on the role of Troubleshooters, cloned servants of The Computer. Suicidally dangerous missions, factional infighting, backstabbing, and repeated violent death are all part and parcel of the fun. In the tabletop game, players were given six "lives" (or clones) to use before being knocked out - known as the "six-pack", which was some people found was also a good way of keeping score.

Non-citizens must immediately read this valuable guide (clicky) to serving Friend Computer before reporting for Free Bouncy Bubble Beverage (and brainscrub).

Further reading and online supplier for the very happy and mandatorily enjoyable tabletop game can be found here (clicky).

Tried Psi, Elec, and Power. Power's easily the most useful, but Elec is more spectacular...

New Merx MM - Gen. Dare E Lee (mutant evil cow enslaving soldiers with psychotropic cheese...)

GRUNT 1: Pvt. Ben Slidale
GRUNT 2: Pvt. Jurgen Zola
MEDIC: Cpl. Bill Paese

SPCOP 1: Sgt. Rick Ford
SPCOP 2: Sgt. Val D'Aosta

COMMANDO: Col. Stan Basset

HOME ON THE RANGE: HERO! Magazine meets Ranger Emily

The first time Emily Kaywinnet Priest's father knew she was a hero was when he got a call from her high school. She'd been fighting, and he fully expected to have to discipline her - until he met her victim in the hall.

The fourteen-stone hulking bully was still swearing blind he'd have revenge as he was wheeled away with two dislocated knees. Alan Priest took his battered, bleeding, but defiant eleven-year-old out of school, showed her the principal's stern warning letter...

...and had it framed. It's next to her desk in her Legion workspace.

"The only thing he said", she says with a smile and a sip of coffee, "was that I shouldn't let them hit me that hard. So he taught me Tae-Kwondo".

Any visitor with preconceptions about what a hero looks like is going to be disappointed by little Emily. At five foot two, dressed in rough, practical leathers lined with Diamantium Kevlar, she doesn't look the type to gracefully soar out of the Paragon sunrise. The green flak jacket proudly displays the Forest Service Ranger patch and her sewn-on nametag, but gives away little else - other than the scuffs and patches.

Her utterly relaxed pose draws a few disdainful looks and coughs from the Talos Island commuters, with muddied boots up on the back of a nearby chair, a huge travel mug of black hazelnut coffee in one hand and idly waving as she tells stories with the other. But what they don’t know is that every single one of them is alive – and the same shape – today, because yesterday she stopped the Devouring Earth releasing an intelligent plague dubbed “Unity”.

“And what people don’t know”, she smiles, “can’t hurt. S’pose that’s my job. Our job,” she says with a smile and a wave to a fully spandexed hero – who, despite having magical gauntlets, a sword nearly as long as he is tall, and rippling chest muscles, still has to wait in line for his skinny latte. He shrugs with a theatrical frown and she breaks into a laugh. "People knew a tenth of the stuff that we do, the sane ones'd run a dozen mile 'fore they look back."

It’s when that smile cracks through the grime and the green eyes suddenly flash with fun and energy that you get what she’s about. From the shock of rough red hair to the tips of the tiny combat boots, Em’s an adventurer. A Tom Sawyer tomboy, for whom fame and fortune are minor distractions compared with saving lives and protecting her beloved parks and forests.

Born in the quiet town of Tusayan, Colorado, Emily’s playground was some of the most spectacular scenery on Earth. “Living on the edge,” she says of her Grand Canyon home, “gives you a different perspective to city folk. It’s older than you. It’s bigger than you. It’s seen more than you’ll ever see, and it’ll still be here when you’re gone.” She fondly recalls long summer days spent with her Hualapai friends – the reason for her fight with the bully was an attempt to cut one girl’s sacred flowing locks – rafting and scrambling around the rocks, running free in the forests, and learning secrets at the feet of the elders. “Under the mud, no-one could tell me apart.”

Her parents – a fire ranger and a botanist – instilled her with the love of nature and the outdoors, and also with the skills to save lives. At fifteen, she rescued a party of stranded hikers, lost and weak with hunger and thirst, from the foot of the Canyon, dragging them each a half mile to her raft and taking them down over grade 5 rapids to Diamond Creek. She seemed vaguely puzzled by the attention, and forgot the TV crews were coming when she heard that a new baby deer had been born nearby.

It’s still a problem for news crews keeping up with her today, and she’s only here for the interview because this is where she stops for coffee each morning before checking in with the NFS office and the Legion. She breaks off mid-chatter, eyes aglow, to frantically wave over Gennaro the owner. “They’re back”, she whispers, and gestures to a pair of squirrels quietly stealing a preoccupied businessman’s croissant. “Shiny”.

Emily’s parents were delighted when she went to study botany and animal biology at ARU, but the rough-and-tumble country girl didn’t sit well with spoilt, groomed cheerleader types and fidgeted constantly in labs and lectures, still feeling the call of the wild. An answer came when the college’s Army cadet corp opened up recruiting, and she soon proved the equal of any crewcut jarhead wannabe. Following her bachelor’s degree, she signed up for the Airborne Ranger officer programme and came near-top of her class, with a prized Sniper qualification. And while other women had to fight to get onto the Green Beret course, Cadet E. Priest was never in doubt.

But it was at this point that she had a new fight on her hands, one she never expected, and the one time she thought to throw in the towel. Prepped and ready to field an anti-drugs detachment in the fields and jungles of Colombia, with the chance to see dozens of new species, she suddenly found a new set of orders in her pigeonhole. Ones that she grew to hate. She was transferred to DC as an honour guard and PR worker for the Army, and hated every minute of the “cushy tushy” post. She even took to tackling muggers and leading clean-up days to try and keep out of the office.

“Speaking of which”, she says, “’scuse me a second.” I’ve been lost in the story so long that I hadn’t noticed a scream behind us. Without missing a beat, Emily idly tosses a (recycled) plastic ball onto the floor – gluing three triumphant Warriors to the sidewalk as they sprint past. They look around furiously but suddenly pale, seeing Emily’s smile... not to mention, of course her infamous Bauer And Drescher Multi-Functional Ordnance launcher “Mal” resting quietly between the tips of her boots on the chair back, pointing right at the leader’s crotch.

There’s a beat as they weigh up their chances. Then Emily simply coughs, lifts the barrel a tiny bit, and gives a pointed look. Resigned, the leader hangs the stolen handbag over the tip and is treated to another flash of that dazzling smile, followed by another pointed look. Even more resigned, the boys drop their money clips into the handbag and Emily hands it back to its owner. Lesson learned, Emily goes back to her coffee and mercifully lets them slink away.

Truth was, the camera loved her face, her figure, and her bright, homespun style was exactly what the forces’ spin doctors and branding agencies wanted. But repeated transfer requests and promotion review boards got her nowhere – until the last straw, a request for a calendar shoot. “Hell, no-one’s pawed me since I took my first step in uniform, and now they wanted to offer me up on a platter. Not happening.”

Suffering from depression and never wanting to see another desk again, she applied to the Forestry Service. A friend of her father’s found the application and pulled some strings, and she was finally free – joyously throwing her scratchy dress uniform out of the window as her pickup fled the capitol at 100mph.

Fate had one last trick in store, though. Emily was training as a “smoke jumper” – the ludicrously dangerous job of parachuting into the centre of a fire and stopping it from the inside out. She was assigned to a forest fire near Paragon – and found holidaying Hellions at the heart of the blaze, laughing as they destroyed all around her and chased animals, firemen and heroes with darts of flame.

They didn’t laugh much longer.

Battered and bruised but triumphant, Emily drove a fire truck with sixteen miscreants duct-taped to the side – and one unlucky spandex hero in the back seat - out of the smoke and into the daylight, “and the rest, as the movies say, is history.”

Now permanently assigned to Paragon and the Forestry Service’s first sanctioned hero, tempting offers to come back to DC and front the Army Advanced Assault hero program have been waved away, all with that dizzying smile. She has friends here now, a new home with one of the city’s foremost hero groups – the Liberty Legion – and all the physical and intellectual challenges a young hero could want.

Drawn to the subject of her recent success, she’s shy about the Unity plague – but lights up when she begins to explain the technical details, blinding me with the science of intelligent microbes and guided DNA. Perhaps mercifully for this reporter, just as she gets onto the amazing forensic scientists she worked with and the techniques she learned, her phone rings.

Listening intently, she nods, smiles, and says simply, “On my way”. She doesn’t even say anything, just points at the phone, twists her face up a little bit in wide-eyed apology, and smiles again. A second later, her gravity belt whines into life and she’s gone, soaring away over the crashing waves. Gennaro bustles up, picks up her tip and her forgotten coffee mug, and tucks it behind the bar. He looks at the green dot receding into the distance, and cracks a smile. "Good kid."

She doesn’t wear a cape except on honour days, and has a running feud with an Icon store owner who still thinks she’d look better in a basque. But she’s every inch – all five foot two of them – the hero.

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Also, I want a 'give minion cookie' emote.

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Mercs have "throw radioactive Jaffa Cakes packet" animation, will that do?

Bots/Traps here, and never really needed Stamina - or endreds, for that matter, except on toggly powers (Tactics, Stealth, Fly. Couple of EndRdx in the hungrier travel powers will cut your setup time in half.)

Even with Assault, Tactics & Stealth running I've still got plenty of power for Repair, traps and the odd blast. Let the pets take the strain...

Nice work Nemi

My advice:

Drop:
Triage Beacon if you can, it's really not worth it for either the power or the slots.

Drop:
Seeker Drones - you get these for free when you use the L32 Upgrade on Protector Bots.

Take:
Poison Trap should be your very best friend - drop one in the middle of a Longbow mob or pull them into it and watch them choke helplessly as your bots grind them down.

The -Regen component is also hugely useful when fighting Elite Bosses and AVs - if they can't regenerate, you'll have a much easier time crushing them.


Switch:
Exchange your CJ and SJ for Teleport, taking TP Foe, Teleport, and Recall Friend. Then take Trip Mine at 35, giving you access to the wonderful world of telemining (set up pile of mines, TP foe enemy on top, one instant death).

Recall Friend is also great for retrieving lost pets and moving your Acid Mortar about, extending its useful life.

Could do - I'm not sure if DW has the power to do that, but will check if you give me a yell when I'm on.

Incidentally, we could use some fresh blood... /e muhahahahaha ... so if anyone's got any inactive alts in the SG they aren't planning on playing again, please let me know...

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Then you have the option of not charging in.

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...and the option of getting the TP Foe power

Either immob from range and TP Foe or TP them onto something like Caltrops. (or a biiig pile of mines... /em muhahahahhaahahaah etc)

Ooops, someone forgot to drug Mr B's milk. Crazy foo'!

New Full Auto bind: "Aggro magnet ON!"

(with apologies to Captain Invincible, which is rather good and has Christopher Lee singing in it.)

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*steals Dreamweaver's Piccy*
MY NEMI! *eats*

Update!

The Black King - Paint it Black (Rolling Stones)

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Crazy foo'.

Hehe... I got on the Hall of Fame with Ranger Emily, so DW's making a special guest appearance for this...

The blaster's way: pain tumbles
As cherry blossom from trees.
"Rez plz."