NightErrant

Hm...

Well, Wallpapers are only as difficult as it is to actually put the image together in the proper size.

Making a Windows 7 Theme is also fairly simple as long as you have the wallpapers and sounds ready. In fact, I could probably make rudimentary CoH and CoV Windows 7 Theme Packs right now.

In fact, I just did. No custom sounds or anything, but it was that easy. XD

Here, have a sample. I've only got 10. (Though, it's for a 1024 by 768 screen, so...)

http://rapidshare.com/files/31817868...themepack.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/31818007...themepack.html


Basically, as long as you have the wallpapers done, making a Windows 7 Theme is easy.

Anything with Electric Blast.

Anything with anything resembling electric blast.

Especially AE Missions where they give EVERY MOB ELECTRIC BLAST.

The rare Mu enemy I can handle. I can even handle a few Mu enemies. (And now that I have Stamina and Quick Recovery, I can handle Carnies and their AOE of Suck too.)


But running "Welcome to Architect Entertainment" or "Mission: Awesome" is an exercise in frustration for me...

All four of my main toons are somehow related to the canon somehow.

NightErrant (A.K.A. Duke Harrison) and his cousin Morgan Serif are both members of the Midnighter's Club, and both have connections to Mu Ancestry, though neither of them really dress the part.

Operative Halfway (A.K.A. Robert Wexler, A.K.A. Agent Halfway or Operative Robert depending on which toon I'm playing) is a latent Psychic who was Partially Riktified (So he's halfway between Lost and Rikti in that sense. I used the "Strange Case of Benjamin A. Decker" rather than The Lost as inspiration), though he's only obvious as a Rikti when you take off his mask. I don't have a screenshot of him, but I do have a screenshot of my newest toon.



Duskshooter (Or "Screw this I don't want to drag my *** through Blueside Content when all my friends are Redside. Dark powers are close enough...")
He's a Dark/Dark Brute. (Not Corruptor. Ha! I bet you thought I was going to go AR/DM weren't you? Nope!)

His Origin Story is that he was a Nictus that was formed from the N-Fragments implanted into a Void Hunter. The Quantum Energy used to modify the fragments messed with his Nictus powers (Hence why he's a Brute rather than a Warshade), and also left him with none of that natural Knowledge Kheldians are supposed to possess. All he knows are language skills, basic math, and things he would have observed as a sort of "passenger" in the Void Hunter's body. Therefore, he comes off as sort of an idiot.

Anyway, Duskshooter was the incredibly tacky nickname of the Void Hunter that the Nictus (I'll call him Dusky) lived in. Dusky was sort of a passenger, and the Void Hunter wasn't really aware of his presence during the six months or so he was allowed to mature. Dusky, being completely innocent and unaware of the fact he even was a Nictus, made no attempts to take over the Void Hunter's Mind. He just sort of watched him "shoot the glowy people" and wondered what that was all about...

This went on for a while until a Longbow Operative shot and killed the Void Hunter, leaving Dusky alone in a freshly dead corpse. Unaware that the Void Hunter's Soul had left his body (and apparently undamaged by the shotgun blast due to the unorthodox nature of their bond), Dusky immediately began work on restoring the Void Hunter's body to a working state, as well as doing some "renovations" based off of observations of the superheroes and villains in Paragon city, resulting in enhanced Strength, Agility, and Durability.

When the Void Hunter didn't comeback, he decided he was going to "house sit" for him. He lives in the Rogue Isles under the Void Hunter's old nom de guerre, generally annoying the people who live there with his stupid questions, and beating up bad guys with his Nicti-enhanced strength.

TRR GO!

Yes, this is in fact a huge "Put the AE in Pocket D" suggestion. XD

Though the sets are something I've been wanting for a while.

The Architect Buildings which have become a ubiquitous site all over Paragon City and the Rogue Isles have become one of the more popular features of each city zone. Each side has one AE that is particularly popular. (For Heroes it's Atlas. For Villains it's Cap.)

But for Cross Faction Team Ups, there's a problem... See, the AE building is located in the Rikti War Zone. There's no reason for this. It just... is...

This is fine for now, but when GR rolls around, Praetorians aren't going to have access to the RWZ until they can get to the dimension it's actually in. While other characters can, in theory, go to Praetoria and meet them their, the RWZ still stands as a somewhat sloppy solution to the problem of Cross Faction AE.

So, I offer an alternative solution: The AE Deluxe.

The AE Deluxe would be it's own, unique map, accessed via a portal in Pocket D (where it would be visible through the currently empty window) or through an AE Teleporter purchased from vendors in the lobby.

Making it it's own map prevents unnecessary load on Pocket D, but also opens us up to some interesting possibilities...

For one the AE Tower would be much, much larger than your average AE Building, and would feature a sort of meeting grounds area on the exterior to allow people who are LFG to team up without cluttering the "Immersion Sets" on the upper floors.

The Lobby would be similar to the traditional AE Lobby, if larger. Ticket Vendors would also be located on this floor.

After this however, the similarities end. Unlike the classic AE, which features a single "Gateway" room to the Arc Server, AE Deluxe features several "Immersion Sets", each themed to look as though you're meeting your contact in "real life". An Architect can state which Set they'd prefer players to use, but this is optional, and players can choose to ignore it at any time.

There can be multiple Immersion sets. (In addition, they don't have to actually exist within the physical tower. You can be teleported around to far flung portions of the map if needed.)

Classic: The Classic Arc Server Room, found in every AE Building.
City: Designed to look like a generic street corner, Contacts stand on various street corners. The Arc Server portal is made to look like a Truck.
Arcane: Heavily CoT/Midnighter Influenced, the Arc Server is made to look like a Circle of Thorns Portal.
Tech: Similar to a Tech Map, The Portal is made to look like a Base Telepad.
Portal Corp: A set designed to look like a Portal Corp Lab.
Ouroboros: A Set Designed to look like the Pillar Room in Ouroboros.
Studio B: A Power Suppressed Coffee Shop area where people can work on their arcs. No Arc Server portals.

These "Sets" are accessed through a special elevator that allows for immediate transport between sets.

The "Hospital" is much larger than the normal AE Hospitals, and features Inspiration Vendors in the room itself. It is treated as one of the "Sets", and can be accessed via any of the elevators.

What's the purpose of all of this? Several Reasons:

One: To Provide a widely accessible venue for Cross Faction AEing.

Two: To Provide Sets for AE RPing.

Three: Because it's cool.

...I dunno, it's 5 AM, I ramble alot...

...

People go to Mercy and Port Oakes? o_o

I thought those were tutorial zones!

(Well, I'm obviously kidding, but seriously... no one goes to Mercy Island or Port Oakes.)

I know many vampire toons, and they're all pretty varied in powersets.

But one that I think was interesting was the Thugs/Dark MM that's serving as a villain in my VG's RP Plot.

The idea is that he's trying to raise an army of Ghouls and Blood Bonded Vampires, so Thugs just fit with the whole "Modern Vampire" thing.

Well, if full on MM customization is in the pipe, that's probably better...

Though, I never said this would be easy. It's not like "Oh yeah we can do this in the next patch, piece of cake", but more like "This would probably have to wait until after GR, but it's possible."

Alright, so I want to see if this is even possible...

Normally, when you think "MM Customization", you think "Costume Editor".

What I would like to consider is, possibly, a form of MM customization more akin to Weapon Customization. As in, giving alternate henchmen models to the players.

Allow me to give an example. Suppose you were a Thugs MM. Normally, your thugs are a member of a generic street gang. But suppose your villain was a former Hellion? Then, during costume creation, you can select a "template" for your thugs. Some may be based off of existing Critter Groups, for instance. Some of these could be unlocked through badges as well.

These models are static, like the existing ones. I also realize that this obviously isn't going to be easy. Each set has 3 tiers, with 3 upgrades, so that's a minimum of 9 models. More if the third in a set has a special ability, or if you don't want your thugs to be triplets. There are (including Demons) 6 MM Powersets. That 46 models not counting random variation, but taking into account Arsonists and Medics. This obviously wouldn't be a simple undertaking, even if they started by using existing models.

But, it may be more possible that total customization. What do you think?

...I admit that my Brute's powers are colored Red/Black. But that's because they're supposed to be Mu Magic (which, ironically, is actually Red/White, so I need to go fix that...) But he's SS/WP so no one really cares anyway...

One thing that does bug me though, is Pain Dom's colors. No matter what I pick, I always end up with some color and Black.

I wanted to match the powers of other incarnations of that toon, (Dom/Troller/Mastermind whose powers are all a light grey, except on the MM...), but there's this fugly cloud of Black I can't get rid of...

I have seen some cool Power customization though. The Bone Spines are common. I know someone who colored Pain Dom to match Dark Blast.

I know two people with Pink Dark Miasma. I would like to recolor Dark powers to look like Nictus powers... It may be possible...

I'd love a reverse Recall Friend for my TP Toons.

I do use trays. I have 3 arranged at any given time, really. My main toon is rather light on click powers (So my main ones fit comfortably onto a single tray), and my alts are fairly low level.)

So Tray 1 has all of my Super Strength Powers (Except Handclap and Hurl), Mu Lightning, Air Sup, and Punch (Which I only got for Weave), plus Hasten and Rage.

My other trays are 2 and 9. Tray 2 has my Will Power Toggles, Resurgence, Strength of Will, Demonic Aura (My "Can't Touch This" Button, as of right now. ) , Mystic Fortune (Which I use a lot in teams), and fly.

Tray 9 contains mostly utility powers. D and Mission Transporters, Jump Pack, Sprint and Ninja Run, Walk, Ouroportal, and Self Destruct (for when I need to get to a hospital really quickly)

Tray 3 (Accessed through alt) contains temp powers like Warburg Rockets and Shivans, though this may be changed in the future.

First of all, you can't just get rid of typed damage.

Psionic Damage isn't physical at all, for one, and while you can avoid other types, it makes sense that some types would hurt more than others.

So... no on that.

/em bounces on the lovely Aeon Corp Couch.

Hm... Oh! Will there ever be an AE Terminal in the pocket D? Or a portal to a special map dedicated to a HUGE AE Building? It doesn't have to share a map with the D, it just needs to be accessible.

I've been chaining box codes. I have purchased a month, of course, but between the AE Edition, the Mac Pack, and a $4 Copy of CoV, I think I've spent more money on Superboosters than my subscription...

Big Lots does carry CoV (Not sure about CoH.) Snagged a basic edition today. They didn't have a normal edition, but at least it was a month of game time and a Black Scorpion Hero Clix for only $4. *shrug*

No offense, but that does seem like a bit much for a microtransaction power...

I mean, the other powers are mostly little bonuses. Like Mystic Fortune. It's common to pass around fortunes before a mission, but the recharge and the fact that it's only a random team buff balances it out.

Self Destruct is either an amusing way to kill yourself, a Ghetto Teleporter, or an "OH ****" Debt Avoidance Button.

The Super Tailor is purely cosmetic, and Ninja Run is useful as a Travel Power at low levels, but it typically falls by the way side for anything but Travel Powerless builds.

A Mini-Fitness Buff however, is a clear and distinct advantage. You have to remember that 5-10% is roughly Accolade Bonus level.

Plus, it lacks the sort of... "flash" that the other powers have. Every other booster power is flashy and distinct. (The Super Tailor lets you hulk out or switch genders, or BOTH)

It's a nice idea, it's just... you know... unlikely.

Must... Resist... Urge... to make... Tin Mage...

Knowing Virtue, about 500 Tin Mages are going to be in Atlas Park in the next... um...

...15 seconds.

I am curious about Rikti Civilian Clothing... What does the common Rikti wear? Robes?

Also... Lineages... that's an interesting idea for EPPs!

The Lineage of War is right out, of course. They're evil

But the Rikti Epic Pools could each be themed after a different Lineage. I mean, obviously not every Lineage could be turned into an EPP. (Though, you could turn the Lineage of Art into one if you used things like Music and Illusion based art, but... I mean... that would just be a severe left turn...)