Ravenswing

A lightning bolt, a real one, is way more powerful than the energy output of a Kheldian, or a Electric Blaster, for that matter. That's not god-modding, it is probably over-estimation of the power output.

The only character in the game who can shoot real, god-level lightning bolts is Statesman. So you're saying something he does rarely, you can do constantly.

It's not god-modding, it's bad estimation. However, you will always get people saying that you are god-modding because they don't like what you're saying. Sometimes, they're right, and sometimes they aren't.

Ditto. Congratulations to you both.

Well, it depends what the force field is actually doing.

The true classic is the Dune force-field which presents a repelling force in direct proportion to the amount of energy coming in. So, laser's are effectively deflected, and can cause large energy bursts, bullets repel nicely, but a guy with a knife can just slowly glide inside and stab you ina heart.

Force fields could be less effective against massive objects. Bullets have high kinetic energy, but low momentum. A sword has quite high kinetic energy (though not bullet high), but much more momentum.

Or... or...

Lots of ways to explain it, if you want to.

It's like the times I've had characters fight enormous targets with swords (or fists). In my fuzzy little mind's eye, they've climbing all over the thing, smacking it in the head, or pulling vital components out. Only way it makes the slightest amount of sense.

My point was pretty much that that kind of thing gets abused, and was in this case.

I find myself doing exactly the opposite. I have to explain away game mechanics. So, Gunwitch, with no defense really, she's going to be a Corruptor, will be able to survive someone spewing lead at her for weeks by the time she's level 20, never mind 50. That makes no sense since a good hit with a machine gun burst should rip her open. So, she dodges bullets (or whatever), and her health bar is an indication of how her 'luck' is running at not getting hit.

That, at least, is incorrect. The 'you can't fall to your death' (doom being a different matter) mechanic existed long before the 'you can't be one-shotted' mechanic, which I vaguely thought was PvP only; brought in due to Stalkers.

I think you missed one of the points of the Origin of Powers arc, that the Origins have changed over time. That arc seems to be the currently defined 'standard,' stating that Mutant origin stems from the nuclear tests after the war. Brother Abelard could easily be magic origin even if he was 'born with the power to...'

I've never liked the Science vs Mutant designation. Shalice is right. Why did Synapse develop super-powers when other humans would have just plain died? Because he had a mutation which allowed him to survive? Quite possibly. Because the experiment mutated him? That's an artificial distinction between Science and Mutant origins.

OTOH, the arc suggests that all the distinctions are artificial and the actual source of power may well be just one thing.

There's a difference between getting the chance to play a different kind of character, and wanting your character to be better than everyone else's.

And you know this, CB, or should. Maybe you've been playing Nega too much.


I'll go stand in a PvP Zone and you can shoot it at me if you want.

One word... Cimerora. I think Cimerora is meant to be at the end point of the lifetime of the last surge from the box being opened.

Also, I have a feeling that Lady Grey predates the box opening. The war between the various factions within Croatoa dates back to a period between the openings, etc. I think the evidence is there if you go digging about, and you really only get the 'full' story of the opening of the box if you read the first CoH novel.

(*sobs* Want more CoH novels! I'll even write one if someone gives me permission and something to write about. *sob*)

God of War is a single player game.

CB... if you don't want to read a thing I've written, then I guess I should ignore what you're saying too.

Seriously, that's not a reason which has validity in a multi-player setting which does not generally feature characters with Superman's level of power. It's an ego trip.

Is this the orbital railgun-type thing? Should be fun, I doubt one of those can one-shot Annette...


Oh, as an aside, I forgot: This is not the first time the box has been opened, and it is moderately clear from some Lore that individuals with extraordinary abilities exist all through history. The opening of the box simply indicates a huge surge in 'metahumans.'

Now, I will say that I tried to do this with the recent demon plot. The Big Bad was fairly impossing, but finding him could be done in many ways and was perfect for any level of hero. Unfortunately, I lost a lot of lower levels as soon as they found out a demon was involved because either 'I'm not use with magic' or 'I can't handle a big demon.'

And yours is a fine example, seeing as Nitoichi has her hands on a way of trashing him, if she can find him.

I wouldn't totally class Andrew as a CP Villain though. He's enormously powerful, but something of a glass cannon.

Absolutely, but that's been the point (or my point) all through this. What you have to ask yourself when creating a cosmic-level character is 'Why am I doing this?'

Except in a few, well played examples, the answer you will not hear, but which is the real one is 'I want to have the best character with the best powers and be able to do absolutely everything, because I roleplay the same way I did in the playground when I was 6.'

Other reasons:

'Because it's fun to play.' That's the selfish one in any situation where everyone else is not playing the same kind of character. Why do you think PnP superhero RPGs put so much effort into banding the power levels of the characters? Because it's darn boring being a 250 point character among a bunch of 750 point characters, that's why.

'It's the character's concept.' Not a reason. Why is it your character's concept?

'I want to explore what it's like to be a god amongst mortals,' or similar. Learn to write fiction. Seriously, that kind of thing is better developed in fiction (which is what comic-books are). You have total control of what all the other characters think of yours. You can be the only CosmicMan among mortals, instead one of two-dozen CosmicMans, so you aren't really that alone in having godlike powers, are you? Roleplay, especially online, is not a good place to explore this kind of thing due to all the other people doing the same. In a PnP game, the GM would tell you what the point-limit is and you could go eat your god's character sheet, unless you're playing Abberant.

'It's a superhero game, we're allowed to make powerful characters.' Yes, it is, and yes, you are. But why do you have to be vastly more powerful than the most powerful canon beings in the game? I've heard this argument in pretty much every online RPG I've ever played in, by the way. In LotRO, the nymphomaniac elves were always older, smarter and wiser than Elrond and more powerful than Gandalf. In WoW... how man transformed dragons are there out there? In NwN I had to deal with walking gods everywhere I looked, and they were always more powerful than any of the fully statted gods in the source books. So, this reason doesn't cut it. It's just an extension of the 6 year-old playground RP excuse.

Now, it could be me getting old (which I am), but over the years I've come to appreciate that you don't need the most amazingly powerful character in the game to have a character worth playing. I also started appreciating the effort people put into creating the settings we roleplay in. So, why not actually try to fit into that setting, rather than basically just blowing a raspberry at the developers of the setting and saying 'my fun is more important than your setting and the enjoyment of every other player in the game.'

The way this works for Superman/Batman crossovers is to make Superman dumb as a brick. Normally he's at least averagely capable of applying intelligence to a problem, but with Batman around he turns into "Superman SMASH!" It's like Batman's cape is made of some special kind of Kryptonite which saps Superman's intelligence. Even assuming we just say Bats is more intelligent than Supes and a better detective (not unreasonable), Bats gets to do what he's good at, Supes gets to do what he's good at.

This does not happen in RP. The cosmic-level characters do not stand back and let the others do what they're good at, because CosmicMan is good at everything, and generally the player wants to do everything; if someone else is doing it then CosmicMan isn't the centre of attention.

Also, Superman doesn't turn around to Batman and say "we'll do this MY way or I'll squish you like the gnat you are." This tends to be the battle strategy CosmicMan will employ when confronted by a street-level hero.

Well, you've certainly proved you are rude, can't read the rules/don't care about them, and have passive aggressive issues. There's a lot of 'new' people here now because of the forum merge who have no idea who you are. However, you say you haven't been posting for a while, so I'd have to say that who you where means nothing. I never liked that Forum Cartel title I managed to get, and being away for a while means that that title means even less than it did. Presumptions of entitlement based on past glories just make you look arrogant.

Anyway, I'd like to see those characters dropped in as trainers, and hey, perhaps we'll see their Praetorian counterparts popping up in GR's new zones (kind of doubt it, what with the coolness that is the revamped Praetorian Guard).

If they were added to the game as active characters, they would need to be heavily toned down, as, in reality, the Vanguard top level crew were before they made it into game. (In the comics, one of them just casually fixes Positron's armour, just like that... hand wave.) The amount of special animation required to implement them as seen in the video would just be, quite frankly, a waste of resources.

And here, in posts from opposite ends of the thread, is the essential problem of playing in an environment where over-powered (meaning 'beyond the norms set by canon') characters co-exist with 'street-level' heroes.

You see, Devious, in this world of superheroes, everyone should be about as super as everyone else, but some chose to make their characters more super than the most powerful beings in the (game)world. At that point, common sense has been thrown out the window already, why should anyone else coming across such defanged uber-gods have to show any.

Ah well, it's like the first episode of a TV series isn't it? You got that episode where you're setting all the charaters up and the plot's really just to get them to the start point for the show. It's never as good as the rest of the series.

If you had, I'd have kicked myself. I've been over it enough.


And thank you, CB.

There's your problem... talking about it.

Technically only a fragment of a hero's mind at the moment, I have Rei. She gets to come out properly after Going Rogue, but I've been formulating her personality and she has made one appearance in fiction. She's a horrible piece of work. She's a psychopath, sadist, murderer, sexual deviant, and not really a very nice person, and she doesn't really have breaks to put on to stop her doing things.

However... to be honest, babies and kittens are pretty boring to maim and kill, she much prefers adults, and she isn't going to talk about it to people. She would much rather demonstrate, over the course of several hours, with a lot of sharp objects.

She is, however, about the most nasty villain I've yet concocted and she's probably too nasty to actually roleplay much.

I probably still have the logs, and the 'banter' was... yeah... anyway, move along nothing to see here.