Emerald_Fusion

Thanks for the update Posi!

Name: Shadow Syndicate

Currently Recruiting: We are always accepting new villain recruits!

RP Level: RP-lite, but RP-friendly

PVP Level: PVP-lite, but PVP-friendly, with planned VG PVP events from time to time

Theme/Concept: Shadow Syndicate is the Praetorian Earth version of Fusion Force! Most of our Shadow Syndicate villains are the evil couterparts of our Fusion Fusion Heroes, however this is not a requirement to join.

Activity: We are primarily a PVE group. With our coalition members, we have 100+ active and semi-active members. There are typically 25-30 members online every night either on the heroes or villain side. Thursday evenings are considered our "Villain coalition" night. There are usually a few villain teams running specifically that night, with other teams running throughout the week. We use our forums to plan SFs, badge missions, and VG events. We are mostly an East Coast group, but have members in the other 3 US time zones and one in the Netherlands. Our "prime-time" would be 7PM to Midnight Eastern.

Requirements for Membership: New members must be at least 18 years of age. We have a 90-day activity policy on Shadow Syndicate. Members over 90 days out are kicked from the VG only if additional space is needed and are welcome to return when they come back. You must have one free global channel available to join Fusion Force Global.

All new recruits must come through our website located at evil.fusionforce.us. Take a look around our site. The Shadow Lair forum is our villain group forum. Check out The Shadow Syndicate Blood Pact located in our New Villain Recruit forum. It will tell you how we operate. If you're interested in becoming a Synner register and post in the New Villain Recruit forum with your character name and global handle. A leader or captain will contact you in-game for a tryout.

Like Fusion Force, Shadow Syndicate has a uniform! The uniform is not mandatory, but encouraged at Threat Level 20!

Leadership: @Emerald Fusion, @Umber, @Kyle Al'Mordu, @Lady Dark Star, @Razreshat, @Galaxas, @Parthenon, @Catwhoorg, @Magrat, @Kaasha

You can PM me here if you have any questions about Shadow Syndicate or visit our website: evil.fusionforce.us

See you in the Rogue Isles!

I was re-reading the Issue 12 teaser and this line stuck out at me:

The Midnighters hold many secrets within their walls, including a highly coveted Ouroboros crystal, enabling them to travel to the far reaches of time. There is a familiar threat in an ancient land and the Midnighters need the help of both Heroes and Villains to stop it.

Could that be a co-op Hamidon raid?

Nice!! Welcome back Manticore!

Seem like a very positive change for CoX!

Our monthly subs will go to one company not two as it does now, so that essentially means more money and resources for the game itself! The devs only working on one game should result in faster QoL issue resolution and possibly quicker expansions!

All good stuff!

Just wanted to point out my OP back in Feb. 2006.

Time travelling back to Outbreak to get Isolator..

The devs do listen!

Gratz guys! Thanks for sharing the very cool screenshots!

While I still think a pentad is a fantastic team I did recently level Solar Lord - L50 Fire/Energy Blaster in 311 hours. I had a dedicated team with a Dark/Dark Defender and Warshade. Sometimes it felt like we were a pentad with the Dark holds and slows, and the Warshades Dwarf form.

The three of us were unstoppable and we rounded out the team with with SG and coalition members of various ATs.

I followed most of the guide I made except we outleveled Manticore, Citadel, and the Shard TFs. We did missions on Rugged or Invincible most of the time, and did all the other TFs and Trials.

Gratz to all the Pro-Isolators that posted on this thread! Our ideas and suggestions paid off!

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I don't recall them saying that about the badges. I do know they don't intend for one character to experience all the content...

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/agree

The devs have stated that didn't intend for one character to experience all the content. They have never stated that one character can't get all the badges.

Go Pro-Isolators!!

My partner and I celebrated our 14th anniversary tonight and in that 14 years I've learned a few things about making compromises. I'm going to make an effort to do that now.

There was a very brief time just after badges were introduced when you would get credit for "defeat #" badges while teammates were in another zone. I know several people took this opportunity to get Isolator at that point. Sadly, many of us heard about this too late.

IF the devs do make Isolator available post-Outbreak I think changing this one badge to work that way would be the absolute easiest way with the least amount of time spent on it.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind killing 100, 333, or even 10,000 to get the badge, but if the devs don't want to spend a lot of time on it, this could be an easy way to make it work.

This would please the Pro-Isolator crowd for sure! We'd only need to convice a friend to roll a new toon and team with us while they run through Outbreak.

This would satisfy the Anti-Isolators that are concerned over resources spent, because it should be something fairly simple to change for this one badge.

It might even satisfy the "badge purists" that think the badge should be earned not given. We'll if you're on a team with someone that's earning it, aren't you providing them moral support. Okay, that's a stretch I admit.

It probably would not satisfy the tiny handful anti-isolators that rerolled at Issue 2 ::snicker:: just to get the badge. But you can't please everyone.

Edit: One more! I'm sure it would please everyone on the forums that want the Isolator threads to end.

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just create a new toon at I2's release.

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If that works for you, then that's great! If your badge collector character was made after Issue 2 (and the introduction of badge) then you had the opportunity to get it. Congratulations.

Every character I've created since Issue 2 has Isolator.

HOWEVER my main character;
• the character I made the first week of release,
• the character I still play several times a week,
• the character that still has his very first costume
• the character that has been respec'd 6 times due to nerfs
• and the character that is my main badge collector

does not have Isolator. And currently, he has no way to get Isolator. He was never given a chance to get it, because it wasn't there. And there was no way I was rerolling him because of all the time and levels invested in him already.

My 2nd 50 was also Pre-Issue 2, but he's not my badge collector character, so I don't care about getting it him. My main, Emerald Fusion, is my badge collector character, and I would like to get Isolator on him. It's that simple.

All we (Pro-Isolators) are asking for is a way to do that. Make us jump through as many hoops as you want to get it, just give us the same chance everyone else has had since Issue 2.

I don't understand why anyone (devs/player) would deny any Pre-Issue 2 character a chance from getting Isolator.

The badge text still applies to us "started our career on a high note". We sure did, we took a chance on a game and a company that very few had heard of before, and it paid off. Big Time! Please reward your loyal customers Cryptic!

I've been keeping up with the thread, but have not had time to post. I just wanted to pop in quickly and say, GO PRO-ISOLATORS!

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If this isn't doable, forgive my noobishness, but would it be possible to have a friend make a new character, send that you a team invite (wherever you are) and then kill the required # of Contaminated? I don't think that the kills would count if you were in a zone other than outbreak...but has this been tested by anyone?

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Like all "defeat #" badges, you have to be in the same zone. And yeah, it's been tested.

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It's my opinion that getting it should be a non-issue. It shouldn't be a hard badge to get - create it as a Portal Corp mission with a special contact, send people to an instanced version of Outbreak at combat level 1 and let them kill 100 Contaminated. Problem solved.

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Agreed. It's a simple solution that would end the Isolator dilemma once and for all. If that's not challenging enough for Positron, ramp up the count to 333, 500, or even 1,000. Every Pre-Issue 2 hero (even some of you ANTI-ISOLATORS) would be lined up at that contact as soon as it went live.

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... Are the developers still listening to a now 12 page long question?

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hehe, 12 pages!

Check out 47 pages about Isolator over here:

GO PRO-ISOLATORS!

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Positron challenged:

IF we were to ever add a way to get Isolator post-Tutorial, it would most likely be incredibly hard to get. Annoyingly hard. Irritatingly hard. There-would-be-a-zillion-people-asking-to-make-it-easier hard.

But IF we were to add it, it would be available nonetheless.

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Bring it on Posi!! We're ready! I'm sure it won't be any harder than your Task Force being run by a team of level 10s!

Check out this Isolator thread over in the Ideas and Suggestions forum:

An idea for Isolator!

Go PRO-ISOLATORS!!

GO PRO-ISOLATORS!

Any other creative ideas how the devs can allow us Pre-Issue 2 Heroes to get this badge?

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View 2: A badge is a trophy
Badges represent an event or activity like a medal or trophy. The experience of getting each badge is key to each badge's identity. Since the badge represents an experience, you can't really have alternate means of getting the same badge. A different experience results in a badge that represents something different, and thus results in a different badge.


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This is how I view badges too, but all pre-issue two characters never had a chance to get Isolator. We HAD the exact same experience, but badges were not in the game at that time! That is why there should be an alternate means to get it. It's the one exception to the rule.

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A level 1-5 TaskForce. Make it as long as Positron, longer in fact as there would be no travel or pool powers (unless you are a Kheld, but that is no different than now). Have it in Atlas, Galaxy, Kings Row and the Hollows. Have portals (in door missions) spew a few contaminated, but do not award the Isolator for the contaminated, but for completing the TF. For those that have the Isolator already, give a temp power.

Ok, lets see:
New content - Check.
Provides a way to get Isolator - Check.
Mostly preserves Isolators text - Check. The 1st 5 levels are the start of a toons career.
Long, dangerous, but gives a valid reward for the same - Check.
Provide some alternatives to starting toons - Check.
Properly introduce badges to new players - Check.
Shut up the nay-sayers - Nothing will ever do that.

Look on the same nay-sayers face's if the Developers do this: Priceless.

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I love it! That is awesome Snowglobe!! Yay!

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Any opportunity for anyoen to get Isolator post-tutorial must, IMO, meet these four non-negotiable criteria:
[*] It must be limited, solely and exclusively, wihtout exception, to those character who never had the opportunity to earn Isolator the "approved" way - meaning, those created before Issue 2;
[*] It must require EFFORT to acquire - effort commensurate with the effort of killing 100 level-one Contaminated with (at best) a Security(1)/Combat(2)-levelled character;
[*] It must be a one chance only, no re-attempts allowed scenario; once you leave the "do-over" mission or whatever, you must not be allowed to return (ideally, there ould be a hospital IN the mission, of course);
[*] It must involve precisely zero alteration to the existing badge text.


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It's almost what I laid out in my original post, but with a few more restrictions. But this would work for me Pax! I like it!

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I feel if the devs would just award the badge to all the pre issue 2 heroes, the Isolator threads would stop all together...

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I think that would be fine, however I wouldn't mind having to defeat 100, 250, or even 333 to get the Isolator badge. If the devs feel I need to earn it, I have no problem with that! I'm one of the heroes that took out 10,000 freaking Rikti Monkeys, 333 Contaminated would be a cake walk.

The Isolator badge is a "defeat #" badge! It is NOT a special event badge and in no way compares to Celebrant, or the Winter, Halloween, or Valentine's Day Event badges, because it's a totally different type of badge! Those were limited-time event badges! Isolator is available right now! This very minute! Except no one has access to the zone unless they are a brand new character!

Isloator is like:

• Bone Crusher: Defeat 50-100 Bone Daddies.
• Finder: Defeat 100 Lost bosses
• Gearsmasher: Defeat 100 Gears.
• Monkeywrencher: Defeat 50 Zeus Class Titans
• Regenerator: Defeat 100 Ogres or Caliban
• Tracer: Defeat 100 Sorcerers
• Untouchable: Defeat 100 Family bosses
• Visionary: Defeat 100 Rularru Bosses
• Weatherman: Defeat 100 Outcast bosses

and many others, except there's one big difference! Any of those can be obtained by any character in the game!

• Isolator: Defeat 100 Contaminated

That one can not! When Issue 2 and the entire badge system was introduced the devs really should have awarded Isolator to ALL characters created between Issue 1 and 2, because as the badge says, we all "began our career on a high note."

Someone mentioned it earlier in the thread: The Pro-Isolators in this thread are being nice, cordial, and posting constructive ideas to rectify a badge that should have been taken care of long, long ago. Our counter arguements are also nice and cordial.

Not once in this thread have we done as you described here Celtic:

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...You [censored], whine, moan, and further prod just to get something your way...

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The only people in this thread that are acting that way are you Celtic and the other Anti-Isolators.

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Seriously...nobody is going to think "Ooooh...that guy has isolator AND all of the other badges...he must be cool"; if anything, they'll be saying, "Wow...he's taken the time to get isolator and every badge in the game? It looks like somebody needs a life."

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Getting the badge has nothing to do with who sees it or what they think. It's for the players of the game that are badge collectors to collect a badge that they should have had access to when the badges were first implemented!

The time YOU feel will be WASTED on Isolator, others (the majority of this thread) feel would be TIME WELL SPENT.

And how do you know how much time would be spent by doing any one of the ideas that have been posted on the thread? You don't. Only the devs do, and ultimately giving every Pre-Issue 2 character a chance to get Isolator is their decision. HOWEVER we (Pro-Isolators) can and will continue to come up with creative ideas for obtaining the Isolator badge. So get used to it.

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Another idea for Isolator!

The Abandoned Sewer System is underneath the entire city, so why not have an entrance in Outbreak!

IIRC, heroes that reach level 35 can enter the Abandoned Sewers. They would have to find the route to Outbreak and would exit a manhole cover in the street. They would be autoexemped to level 1 upon entry.

They could take out 100 contaminated, get the badge, and the only way back to the city would be back through the Abandoned Sewers.

The manhole would only work for L35+ so level 1s wouldn't be able to use it.

This would also be a way to help teach friends that are new to the game. You could meet them in the tutorial and show them the ropes!

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Liquid & Celtic,
What do you think of this idea?