Spectral_Ent

Here are some of the costumes so far, courtesy of Bubble, Kallandra and Echo 13.





The pictures were taken from Echo 13's PC, as I don't have a good track record with good graphics settings, so thanks for that, Echo, and thanks for standing still long enough for him to take the pics, Kall and Bubble!

EDIT:


And now, courtesy of Tyger's screenshot taking skills and Crimson1, Bubble, Nitro v. IV, Kiken, Kallandra and Crimson Commonwealth for standing still and coming up with the awesome costumes.

First, questions!

In the game, generally, villain groups that meet up with their other-dimensional equivalents tend to band together. The big thing about the Carnies, though, is that they're a personality cult centred around DeVore. As such, I can much more easily see it coming out as a Carnival civil war. It might, in fact, be one of the good investigation points for heroes (or villains) looking for an in. Carnies have been attacking each other, why?

This is planning and discussion area for my proposed Carnival Earth Invasion plot. I've proposed this to the URP channel, and it seemed to get a warm reception, which has passed my "need proof it's not just my crazy idea" threshold. I am, therefore, going to actually have a go at running it.

Before I go any further, I should probably also note that next week, from this weekend onwards, I am much, much more likely to be available to Email, which I can PM you, or on there here forums, because I'm really not sure what I'll be getting in terms of internet for at least a little while.

The basic idea sprang to me after some discussion of alternate Earth’s where the psychics of Paragon are the Ring Mistresses of Carnie Earth. The idea would be that Carnival Earth would be trying to take over Primal Earth, and the psychics of Primal would be their first target, to be replaced with their Carnie doubles. This would serve as groundwork for a proper Carnie-Earth invasion of Primal, with wacky hijinks doubtless ensuing as people meet their circus-themed doubles.

The obvious addition to this, and a facet which was overlooked, is that the Carnival don't just have psychics. Characters who are brawlers or SS tankers could easily slot in as Strongmen doubles. The second thought is that in a world where the Carnival have taken over, they would most likely have absorbed and assimilated other groups as well in the process, a la the Carnival of Light in Praetoria. I'm seeing a Spider's Web Troupe full of what, in another world, are Soldiers of Arachnos, instead being macarbe-themed acrobats and freakshow performers, or a Taleteller's Guild of what remains of Oranbegans and the blood of the Mu. In short, an easily adapted other world. It would ideally still have a majority of women in bustiers and men in iron masks though.

A closing thought would be towards the nature of the eventual invasion. I would imagine that it would be more of a slow infiltration, with the Carnies taking the places of people in our world and ensnaring others with subtle sorcery, then the slow moving of groups of troops in under the cover of new circus acts before a shadow war is fought across the city. This could do for some good "who's been compromised?" witchhunt type drama, some "trapped in another world" drama for the people who have been kidnapped, and eventual action packed scenes to close. Since it's the Carnival, it'd be very easy to get lots of theatrics involved, as well.

So, any comments, questions, suggestions or criticisms? I'm primarily interested in making this an entertaining event, so please do pitch any and all ideas!

Roy Cooling I actually liked for the gameplay elements. I like exiting somewhere other than where I started, and I liked Castillo. I don't like "Yeah, Malta! Man, those guys, huh?", by any means, but I don't think it's unsaveable.

Vincent Ross's arc I quite liked, particularly for the dialogue options. The ending, in particular, leaves you as either having used him to steal the power of the coral or feeling some sort of kinship with him. I liked that. The "kill the hero taskforce" mish could use some work, because as-is a lot of them just sort of stand around, not doing much, which is a wee bit of a pain. It also reinformed my desire to have a Coralax Trial that completely avoids mentioning the words "Well", "Furies", and "Of", not necessarily in that order. Use other possesives!

Finally, a lot of hero stuff is okay. It's just bland. The contacts need makeovers, a personality quirk or two, and all the pointless "kill all" missions removed and they'd be alright to run as an alternative to papers or tips.

Just to give one big example of what I mean...

Spoilers incoming.






Let's give it a bit more space
















That should do.




Mistress Nadia can apparently restore Makara's spirit sight. But, not right now, because Talons are attacking. After that you go back to Vanessa and she's off to the next bit, and eventually you stop Serene (kill? I'm not sure, that wasn't clear either) and then are sent off. Did Makara ever get help?

Or Noble Savage and the Forlorn. We know they took heavy losses. Is Noble okay? We know he's alive, sure, but we don't even get to go back and give a "thanks!" or "how's it going?". We just kind of have to abandon the Forlorn and Noble Savage presumeably with crippling injuries and losses. We don't even get a "Thank you, <name>, but I'm alright. We will manage without you." I just have to go because destiny said so. What gives?

This totally discounts what happens with Katie or Diabolique, anyway, and if anything First Ward's problems are even worse now the Apparitions are just free. There just seem to be a lot of loose ends that not only do you not clear up but you are explicitly told you're not wanted to help clear up. It just feels a bit weird after all you've been through with that fledgling community.

I loved it except for my complaint below that the ending felt quite abrupt. If the arc just continues at 30+, though, and they're still programming that, then I guess it's all good!

I would, ideally, prefer if it could be wrapped up within its own level bracket, with possible references to the First Ward stuff. As it is now it feels like you're leaving the place with a lot of unfinished business, I'd prefer if I didn't have to wait another 25 levels for closure.

It's a shame. If they were phased areas it might actually be quite cool. I can avoid NPC aggro by just not going near NPCs, so I don't think I'll use them, sadly.

I completed First Ward last night. My very first point is that I loved it. The writing, the zone, the enemies, all were fantastic. There's only one problem. The ending left me feeling really hollow. On a normal arc, you get a definite "Nice job, call me again some other time" thing, usually after stopping a major event from going down. In Praetoria, not only did each arc wrap up with you stopping a major event, but you also left getting to see how you'd affected everyone's life.

First Ward didn't really have that. Everything's still broken and messed up. You seem to just leave everything in the lurch at the end of the final arc, with a fairly bland "Fate says we're going apart now". You haven't undone all the bad stuff you had to do to get there. You never really get much closure on what happened to the mastermind behind all of it after the final mission. You've never really helped the survivors after stopping the assassination attempt. Apparitions seem to still be everywhere, as is Diabolique.

It's doubly unsatisfying because all of the previous arcs made you feel like you were a real force of change in the area. It felt like, because of your actions, the survivor compound was turned around, the Carnies were growing back together, and you were finally getting to the bottom of the Apparitions. Even the lengthy Apparition bit made you feel like a badass. (The Seers bits and the Asylum were quite chilling as well). But after the last few parts, everything seems to suddenly get worse again and then you're just sort of pushed away. No, we'll deal with it now. By ourselves. Because you'll be back on Primal.

Did anyone else get this feeling or is it just me?

This does seem somewhat redundant as all heroes will now have a travel power for 14 levels now. The chance of running into a mob by accident is fairly low...

I had assumed they put you on a seperate phase from all your enemies, allowing you safe passage through DUST infested zones, but they don't, and all the paths you follow lead you through enemy-less areas anyway. What's the point of them?

-Found in the Tome of News, a free occult and mysticism based newsletter in most Paragon magic shops.

Young arkanist looking for mentor, particulaley one who works with heroes from Paragon. Interested in putting magical powers to better use. Please call outside of work hours.(8AM-5.30PM).

(Number supplied)

I've always loved bursting in on crimes on my way to missions. It gives me an enormous feeling of satisfaction despite the fact they're only fake people...

I need to get out more.

Same here, get the purple dolls whenever I use dimension shift or gun-fu powers.

Just killed the Seed. I was a member of the team before the attempt was started and participated in all sections of the attempt. Not only did I not get the badge, but neither did anyone else in the League, although Devourer was correctly awarded for everyone. Apparently, this is a bug when Leagues are used to defeat the Seed, although that's second hand from a teammate.

Shadow Simulacra freely use the T9 powers from both sets in the Posi TF. Is this intended for a level 10-14 boss? If it is, I'd reccomend against it, as both powers are fairly nasty, especially Time's effect on a mob of 8 bosses.

I don't get the detoggle thing being such a big deal for people. Do none of you play Blasters/Defenders/Controllers/Dominators/Masterminds/Corruptors? Do the people who play melee ATs never micromanage their toggles? Do none of you use TP as a travel power? I honestly don't get this.

That said, the fact Fly now has Afterburners as well, I think, somewhat mitigates the Rocket Board's fly speed being higher than the cap. If Afterburner can be slotted to make it even faster than Rocket Board, then that's even better. I understand where he's coming from, though. "Can the Flight cap be a bit higher?" has been a request I've heard a lot, and it suddenly coming in the form of a purchasable power does look a bit iffy.

Midday, Galaxy City

Luna kicked back and stretched out on the blanket she'd laid on pavement in front of the statue. A small crowd had gathered to watch the meteor shower, and Luna was among them. She checked her watch and rested her head on the blanket, waiting for the white streaks to appear in the sky. There was always a sense of connection there. A longing feeling that intensified when she saw celestial bodies or the black emptiness of space. It made sense. Part of her was born in that black void, after all.

A small gasp of appreciation jolted her out of memories of deep space and back to reality. A small streak of white had just shot past in the sky. Luna smiled as it lazily arced over the city. She could almost imagine it was a young Kheldian arriving and drifting down from the sky, but that was just the illusion a bright object so far away gave. Or, at least, far away in theory...

The meteor continued to streak down, and steadily grew brighter, as well. Luna sat up, frowning, even as the crowd behind broke out into a small chorus of polite applause. Then, the pale white streak broke into a red trail, and rugged indentations on the meteor began to become visible.

"Oh, crud... Everyone in the Hall!" she shouted, taking flight without wasting time to check if the people had heard or if they were following.

She accelerated as fast as she could, then, a few feet away, shapeshifted into White Dwarf form, latching onto the side of the meteorite as it rocketed down toward the earth. If things were as hoped, she could use the increase in mass to weigh the meteor down, and direct it somewhere there wouldn't be anyone to get hurt by it...

Gemini Lake! If she could pitch it in the water, then things would get pretty wet, but at least the lake would absorb most of the impact. And it wasn't like she couldn't swim. She grabbed hold on the side and began to shift herself along, hoping the meteor was still high up enough that its trajectory could still be changed...

A few moments later, a small group of picnicers hurridley packing up were drenched in a tidal wave from the nearby lake as a meteor and a Kurukt crashed into it and sunk to the bottom. The group watched in surprise as a small, bedraggled girl pulled herself out of the lake's edge, brushing her blonde hair out of her face, and spraying water out of her mouth.

"Hey. Sorry about that. Meteors, what are you gonna do?" she grinned up to the drenched group standing on the small hillside.

Then, her smile evaporated as the sky behind them came into focus. A thousand small, red dots were slowly coming into view...

I'll just repost then. And hope that's not against the forum rules. You can delete posts I think...

EDIT: Idea, if Alpha doesn't mind his thread could be the open RP thread?

Ah, dangit, I posted in the Alpha thread. Maybe a mod could just mash the two together? They're the same thread, purpose-wise.

I'll be trying to get a piece up, as I've made it quite explicit that Luna intended to sit under GG and watch the meteors. I think it'd probably be neat to have a thread in the RP section for people's reactions, especially since there'll be a lengthy downtime. It'll give some of us poor obsessed souls something to do. :P

I'd like to start off by apologising. Last night when I came onto URP, I was very tired, and more than a little upset. I really didn't come into that argument in good faith, and I feel I've made things more of... Well, an argument, which isn't what I come here to have. Having taken a step back, it's obvious to me that I should be talking instead of shouting, so we all hopefully reach some sort of consensus about the universe.

Now, Union has a lot of characters, and we all occupy a shared universe. I think the majority of Union's roleplaying community is proud of that fact. But the large amount of characters leads to problems when they're living side by side, namely because we don't have a fixed reference point. To a degree, we can look to game mechanics. A BS/Shield scrapper, for instance, is less likely to be, say, a walking nuclear bomb with power over energy. But even then people use sets to reference different things. One person's Kinetic Melee is short range sonic combat, and another's is ancient tai-chi that's unlocked their chakra potential. And even then we encounter fudge, such as if the walking nuclear reactor up there is *also* a good swordsman and primarily uses that in his fights, only going nuclear when he has to.

But even when we're on the same page with an approximate agreement of everyone's power level, or even in a situation where power level is less relevant such as talking or someone trying to hack a computer, people often have very different *tonal* ideas for their characters. One person's invulnerable superman expy is a dashing hero in a four colour comic. Someone else's is a haunted survivor of his grim and gritty superhero deconstruction. When we're interacting with communities where we've all implicitly understood where we're at, this is fine, but what do we do when we get crossovers? How can we avoid the inanity of a Punisher meets Archie situation? My proposal is very simple, we just need to be aware of tonality difference and talk it over beforehand. This is a very simple thing to do, to the point where it's usually implicit, but I feel we could do with bringing it up. I think a lot of people left pretty upset yesterday, and that's mainly a breakdown in communication. We all had very different ideas about what was going on. Now, this is easy to build on: We could get a tagging system, Virtue uses a "MRP" tag for their more mature characters, but the more complicated the idea gets the harder it'd be to implement. A little bit of talking would go a long way. And this isn't just for fights, either. It's not hard to imagine the conflict when a Hollywood style hacker encounters a system that's just not connected to the internet. Two people've brought different assumptions to the table and unless they talk to each other someone's going to be dissapointed. Even social situations might warrant this; If your cartoony superhero starts talking to someone else's Punisher type superhero, things might also be dissapointing on one end.

The second proposal I'll put forward is really more of a personal pipe dream, and that's the idea of keeping a record of events, maybe here or maybe on the Wiki. This'd serve to increase immersion if we left an evidence thread, and a contact, so people could more easily springboard into plot. I would happily look after this page if it got made, but someone has already pointed out the newspapers and "Last Night In" threads are already here, so it might just be a case of me using them more. Be the change you want to see and all that.

But wait, what if you don't like my ideas? That's fine. You're welcome to! I would, however, prefer that if you dislike the idea, you're specific about what you dislike. It's even better if you have a suggestion for how you'd change it. I'm really not trying to force people into a system of conflict resolution they don't like, I'm just trying to pitch the idea there should be one. The idea of a collective records thread is even more tenuous, and that's just on the "something I'd like to see" wishlist. Please don't take anything I've said as an attack on you, your characters, or your way of doing things. Please do take this as an invitation to an open debate. I don't mind if things get a little intense but let's focus that on the issue, not each other.

Wonder what the odds are that the flood of people onto the forums now the game is down is going to make the forum hamsters die?