Fireheart

As a dedicated lurker in these contests (I don't dare vote) I deplore how they seem to end with such drama, every time. I hate the eliminations, regardless if they're self-imposed. Every time, the Host seems to come under fire for something someone sees as improper.

Bubbawheat, You did a superb job and seemed to handle everything with aplomb, or at least with dignity. Actually, this recap post is an excellent idea! Show the artz in a positive light, focusing on the growth and skill and FUN we had this year, not to mention the occasional 'oh wow!' or 'LOL'. Remind us why this is (one of) the best part(s) of the Forums.

Let's do it again!

Be Well!
Fireheart

Oh, I'll eat it... Only... the Little ones are the most evil.

Eat or Pass:
Mac & Cheese + Can o' Chilli + Melted Cheese + Oregano + Garlic + Chili Powder

It makes a mass o' mess... For several people.

Be Well!
Fireheart

You do realize that NC Soft does not read these forums? Especially on weekends.

You'd be much better off submitting a trouble-ticket from the Master Account screen.

Be Well!
Fireheart

May I suggest reading the Scrappers forum?

Also, one way to cure a newb-osity infection is to start a brand new character of your chosen type and Play it up a dozen levels or two. In the process you will surely pick up a better feel for how the game and the character plays Now. Then you can turn around and apply your knowledge to the older character.

Be Well!
Fireheart

I made a turtle costume for an odd requester on the Costume Forum, but they were... unappreciative. I guess I was just ahead of my time!



Be Well!
Fireheart

I'll eat your Pretzel Dog... onna stick.

Have you every tried a Peanut-butter, Cheddar Cheese, & Mayonnaise sandwich?

Be Well!
Fireheart

I'd like to see Propel animate faster and also act as a cone, something relatively narrow, like 20-30 degrees.

Wormhole's mechanic is... really odd, sometimes.

Singy needs to fly faster... Or pick up the teleport-to-catch-up trick that MM pets have. It's really annoying to be working through a map and suddenly realize that your Pet is Not with you. I've had Singy get hung in the geometry on even a simple map, forcing me to dismiss and re-summon.

There are times when I wish the SFX of Gravity were more noticeable, even flashier, but most of the time I really appreciate how subtle it is... even insidious. I like it! Just needs a couple of small tweaks.

Be Well!
Fireheart

Is it just me, or does Fenian's skirt just keep getting shorter?

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Fireheart

Not quite, Chain checks to-hit on each subsequent target. It stops when it can't hit the next target. Which usually means it doesn't spread as far as you'd like.

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Fireheart

Sapphy, I'd love seeing you outside your outfit...

And I've seen you 'outside your usual outfit' so often, it's a wonder that your 'usual outfit' is so recognizable.

That said, I really like the leopard dress - although I've seen it before.

Be Well!
Fireheart

Lady DeeDee, I'll happily offer you a few of my cats...

Hero ID: 'Kitten Dreams'

Hi, my name is Kitty and they say I’m a ‘Dreamer’.
All I know is that I can make people fall asleep and have really bad dreams, and sometimes bad things happen to them in those dreams. Sometimes, I can even make my dreams ‘manifest’ and cause real things to happen. Sometimes they are nice dreams, sometimes they are not.
So, now I’m a hero and I go around putting bad guys to sleep and giving them nightmares, and then they wake up in the Zig - right?

Yes, there is a silvery white cat-tail poking from under Kitty's pajamas, even though it's hard to see in the pictures.


Deep background - Somewhere in Paragon City, there is a hospital and in that hospital is a sad, quiet ward, where sad, quiet children lie, each one in a coma. Once, Lucy Dreamtime spent a period there, but she woke up, eventually, and went on.
However, while she was there, she created and manifested a 'Dream Warrior' to guard her sleep, but she didn't want to create anything Scary, so she came up with Kitty.
Kitten Dreams appears to be a small girl, perhaps 10 or 12 years old, wearing pink pajamas, with distinctive cat-like features and silvery-white fur. On her shoulder is a toy cat, a stuffed plushie that Kitty calls 'Mister Snuggums'. Despite 'his' clearly inanimate nature, 'Mister Snuggums' has been observed to turn his head and watch enemies with disturbingly animate precision.
Kitty's existence might have been ephemeral, but Lucy inadvertently harnessed the sleeping dream-power of All of the children on the ward. Now, Kitty is entirely autonomous - except that she has no real 'past', before she became a hero and she still 'works out the issues' of the dreaming children who lend her power. Amazingly, since Kitty manifested, More of the children eventually wake up and go home, but Kitty's power and her belief in herself continues to grow.

Kitty speaks simply and quietly, with all of the joy and secret wisdom of a child. She knows a great deal - perhaps as much as all of the sleeping minds in Paragon City, but it does not color her simplicity. She 'knows' evil and fights it every day, but she does not fear it.

Now, this one is more Cat, less girl:

Hero ID: 'Midnight Stalker'

Famous theoretical sorcerer, Ambrose St. Quintin was experimenting with shape-changing magic, when a misstep involving his feline familiar 'Midnight' produced a catastrophic mystical melt-down. When the fires had been put out and the smoke cleared, Ambrose St. Quintin and his familiar were simply gone. Huddled in their place was black-furred humanoid with distinctly cat-like features.
Forensic magicians have determined that both the mage and his familiar are 'in there', along with at least eleven other arcane influences, in dynamic balance. Mentally, the being is a strange composite - he responds to 'Ambrose', most of the time, can discuss The Art with brilliant erudition and then be completely distracted by a stray sunbeam.
However, his feline nature caused him to roam and no form of humane restraint seemed able to hold him. When he showed up on the doorstep, proudly dragging the criminals that he had captured, he was hurriedly, retroactively registered as a hero, for his own protection.



He can talk, and does talk, in English and a half-dozen other languages, some of which have been 'dead' for millennia, but he may not always be coherent - consider him to have a very bad case of ADD, when he's not out hunting bad-guys. Often enough, he is silent, or only speaks in 'cat-talk'.

He is not 'naked', he is Cat! (He has smooth, thick fur.) Cat does not need accessories, cat is perfect and perfectly fine as cat. It can still be a bit embarassing (to you, not cat) if he decides to groom himself thoroughly... right?

Next, we have one who is... not all cat, but still a fine lady.

Hero ID: 'Kitsuneko Fireshock'

"Love-child of a Kitsune and a Neko-kami, I was raised, quietly, away from the hurly-burly of the Celestial Courts. My mother taught me all the graceful arts of society and my wandering father returned often, stealing me away to lurk in the darker corners of the realm. Together, they taught me to know my hybrid heritage and power. Finally, I went before the Celestial Bureaucracy to be accepted as a worthy scion of my line and a citizen of the Courts. To my shock and horror, the mandarins decried and denounced me as a vile spawn of miscegenation. They cut off my tail and expelled me from the Celestial Courts, disgraced, disfigured, anathematized, and ostracized - to die in shame.
But I am stronger than that, craftier and wiser than they expect of a maiden. For I know the paths of power and I have the will to walk them. I will live among the people, become a hero, and make my name last a thousand years! Then I will gain Nine tails and I will return to the Celestial Courts with power enough to defy them all!"



She is a fox or a cat or a spirit or a lady - or all of those and more. She is a mistress of fire and electricity (Fire/Electric Blaster).

I have lots more - robot-cats, faerie cats, a 'Balrog Kitten' even. I may post pics and stories later, if you like. I hope these give you lots of good ideas and feelings.

Be Well!
Fireheart

Edit: Oops! The central image, with the tights and skirts, is the true, current costume for Kitsuneko. The others are older, from the development phase of her current costume.

Okay, Cami, I'll take the plunge.

My millennia-old preistess...

I can barely remember when I was just a woman, just a girl, but I was one - once.
I can just remember the first time the Goddess came to me, came into me, came over me, filled me, possessed me, spoke through me, and worked miracles through my hands.
And not just one goddess, but all goddesses, who are one goddess, over and over, through time.
I journeyed from place to place and people to people, as time passed.
Goddess-touched, I grew no older, I did not die - I went on.
Filled with power and miracles, I remained powerful.
I was Inanna. I was Ishtar. I was Isis.
I was Ashera, Astarte, Anahit, Artemis.
Many goddesses and one.
But she came less often.
And less often.
And not at all.
I was alone.
For a long time.
Now it is a new time, a new place, with new gods and goddesses.
And I am here.


If you want to get fancy, her aspects are Love and War, Weather and Chaos, Fire and Storm.
Technically a Fire/Storm Corruptor, but that's only because she couldn't be a Defender or Blaster.
Have fun with the double-swirl of coat and veil!

Be Well!
Fireheart

A pithy flipster? Perhaps he should be a comedian?

He can start with "Take my Sanity Check, Please!" and "I don't get any Respect!"

If he's a hit, he can quit his day-job as Bicycle Messenger of the Elder Gods.

Be Well!
Fireheart

I'm not sure Sapphic Neko has anything to be modest about. Anyone who looks at her is just going to have to learn to gaze upon the Awesome and Deal with it!

Be Well!
Fireheart

My personal feeling is that greater complexity will actually reduce the number of voters. And the Number of voters has been in decline for a while - which just happens to concentrate the 'personality' voters and other issues that people have been taking umbrage at.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure how to drive more traffic to this little corner of our mutual obsession.

Be Well!
Fireheart

Okay, I'm sorry, but I want to see them ALL!

*camps out at the multi-plex*

Be Well!
Fireheart

LOL Delightful!

Be Well!
Fireheart

1) Servers.

Lots of servers means lots of different variations on the basic 'City of' community. Compared to some other games, we have a pretty cool society of friendly people, but there are still some people who engage in anti-social behavior. With the notes and stars system, it is possible to flag them (for yourself, at least) such that, even on an Alt (alternate character) you can recognize them. I try to be more tolerant, so I don't use that system, but many do.

One side-effect of this is that high-population servers have a slightly higher concentration of... people who inflict Their 'game' on others, despite how that affects other peoples' 'game' experience. If there is a set of behaviors that annoys you, then you will inevitably find more such annoying people on the high population servers. That said, you can almost always find people hanging around on Freedom and Virtue, with Virtue being the overt Role-playing community. Every server is slightly different.

Caution: Just because you log on and don't see a bunch of people hanging out under Atlas, doesn't mean there is 'nobody on the server'. 'City of' is highly instanced (which you probably have noticed) so the people who are actively playing the content are not seen in the common zones.

Finally, there are people who enjoy casual RP on every server, not just Union and Virtue, so feel free to explore!

2) Is it worth leveling a character from the beginning to get back into the feel of the game?

'City of' definitely encourages multiple characters. A Fire Scrapper plays differently from a Fire Tanker which has a different feel than a Fire Controller which has a completely different experience from a Fire Blaster - and soon we will have Fire Defenders, too. And that's just on the 'blue' side. There are hundreds of possible combinations of Archetypes, Power-sets, and play-styles.

From my PoV, there's no reason not to have a dozen different alternates - not just to get a feel for the 'new game' caused by the myriad changes and developments since AE came out. No, you should explore how it feels to play the different roles and aspects of the game from multiple perspectives. And if you don't feel ready to go from Blaster to Tanker, yet, then try out some of the other power-sets - an Energy Blaster is a completely different animal from a Fire Blaster!

3) Friends!

Frankly, my largest source of friends in-game is not just my SG, or hanging around Pocket D, but the Global Channels I've joined. There are lots of server-wide and cross-server chat channels, covering dozens of interests, from Giant Monster Hunting, to Taskforces, to All (insert AT) teams, to Role-playing, to... Rule 34.

4) Is there anything I'm missing out on?

If you've been dormant since Architect, then you should definitely respec your character for Inherent Fitness and get your 50 his Alpha slot and start looking into Incarnates.

If all you've done is push one character to 50, then you've undoubtedly missed a TON of content! There's Croatoa, the new Faultline, the new and improved Hollows, the Midnighters Club, Ouroboros, and time-traveling to Cimerora.

If you don't have the Going Rogue expansion, then you've never experienced the dystopian moral quagmire that is Praetoria - where everything is so clean and shiny and the missions leave you feeling dirty.

5) Should I level another character, is the best way to level still at the Architect building?

No offense, but Architect is supposed to be like an Amusement Park - you go there for the crazy rides and the sticky candy, but you don't Live there!

In my opinion, the best way to gain levels and have fun, is to leave the AE Babies behind, and go out and be a hero in the City. Smash Trolls! Bury the Vahzilok! 'Dis-a-semble' Clockworks! Zap Freakshow! Moon Warwolves! Put the Mojo on the Circle of Thorns! Show your Moxie to the Family! Prune back the Devouring Earth!

Save the world! Or at least the neighborhood.

Be Well!
Fireheart

Well, I didn't want to point any fingers, Flash, but the character is kinda brilliant... and creepy.

Be Well!
Fireheart

Metal-Feathers.

They look like you could injure a rhinoceros by molting in the wrong place.

Still, they do look cool and the armored version is rather bulky.

Be Well!
Fireheart