SuperOz

Hi hi from Brisvegas, aka Brisbane for any Euros and Yanks looking in.

@Solas over on Virtue where I started and stayed; didn't find out about the Aussie contingent on Justice for some time.

Proud_Citizen, I was BORN in Canberra and grew up there for thirteen years. All I can say is my condolences.

S.

Hello everyone.

After thinking about and mulling over what I'd write in this thread, I thought it was best to get my thoughts down on the virtual page and invite feedback and discussion about the future of CoX. I'm sure like many people, we're all thrilled to see the second expansion, Going Rogue, being announced, but I got to wondering (especially in the face of the about-to-be launched Champions Online and the upcoming DC Universe Online) what I personally wanted as a player to come out of the future of this game. So here goes!

Firstly, a graphics upgrade. Now, I don't pretend to know what kinds of graphics upgrades can go into this game and what in fact is even possible, but I think it should be close to the top of the list. Having had the opportunity to play the Champions game for a few days during their Open Beta, I found myself impressed at least by the more rounded and natural looking bodies of the characters, the level of detail in some costume parts, and surprisingly, some of the emotes! With a little experimentation, I was able to emote some dance moves (including breakdancing!) which had me feel a little sad about the shuffling two-step stuff we get here. But I'm not sure that's strictly graphics.

Graphics to me means the overall realism and level of detail you can see on-screen, and whilst I need to upgrade my graphics card to get that (which is cheaper than I thought), it's almost an expected given in this day and age of video games which are getting more and more detailed and interesting to look at. I certainly don't expect dedicated console game levels of detail (that's far too much to ask of any MMO), but CoX needs to be '2009'. It's a surprisingly detailed game, but...no hands! No real feet! A still sometimes tricky ability to sit in chairs! Can't we just click a chair and sit? And walking! All of these things may fall under the game engine, but I'm seeing them now and have before in older games and would hope to see them here. Add to this environmental effects. My nVidia 7600GS video card could handle the howling snowstorms and sandstorms in Champions...I think it's asking far too much that people demand that CoX remain rooted in its' pre-2004 graphics outlay. Upgrading your PC is a fact of life...and while I don't demand that anybody should, it's not entirely realistic to ask your MMO of choice to not do the same.

Secondly, gameplay. Now this isn't an endorsement of the more console-based style of play that Champions espouses, nor is it a damnation of turn-based play. I won't deny I'm a fan of weaponisation (the ability to use in-game objects as weapons), as I feel it's a classic staple of the superhero genre and I get painfully close in the Mayhem/Safeguard missions. An environment that reacts to what I do to it immerses me more in a game, and an environment that I have to react to is the same. Certain powers (the shield charge from the Shields set comes to mind) are a gorgeous example of that interaction I'm talking about. Knockback from attacks here is also a great example, and I can't help but think that can be added to. I don't really see us being able to plow through buildings, but maybe a wall? Maybe a heavily armored door or something that isn't a clicky?

Thirdly, I've never had any complaints with CoH's crafting (as it's been made to be optional) but bases are crying out for that expression of personal, intimate, creative crafting. It's a form of recreational gameplay that needs it. That area of recreational gameplay also should have some addressing, like interactive emotes instead of just waving to the air or a marriage proposal pose....that could be done for anyone.

Fourth, flexibility. Now, I come from a tabletop background where my preference is to build my character, my way with freedom to do so. BUT...even that is done in a framework where I spent points from a pool or pools of abilities/powers/advantages/disadvantages to work with. I would want to see CoH fully integrate their powerset proliferation...they must almost be completely there at this rate, or at least seeing a final point. From there, I'd love to see the doors thrown open a bit, able to rummage around through hopefully balanced powersets, mixing and matching. This is NOT an endorsement of the Champions model; I've played the pen and paper version of that game, and it's incredibly open to abuse and powergaming. If anything, I'm in favor of the points-to-build system that the DC game is apparently offering, which to me is more a finite control whilst still being flexible. Having a choice of -everything- isn't that great. Having a lot of choice -within- a big framework is.

And lastly, story. My biggest and most pleasant experience with an ongoing story where you feel like a central character has been the Epic Quest mechanic from Lord of the Rings Online, where a lot of the time, you can be the only character involved with the over-arching important storyline. It can exist independently of the game, can give out some of the best rewards, but has at its heart a great STORY. The Task Force/Strike Force mechanic has that here to a point, but it's like getting the meat of a story without any of the sides. You go straight to Synapse/Positron/Lady Grey/whomever without hardly any preamble. They're just there. I like a flow from NPC to NPC that happens a bit more in regular zones, though at times even they feel a bit disjointed. If CoH could get this refined and build more story around the TF/SF's, I would be greatly happy. You may disagree! Add to that a building of what's there; there's a thread on this forum right now talking about easter eggs found in the Shadow Shard....does this not CRY out for a story to be put out there to answer questions, or pose new ones? I think so.


ANYWAYS. Thank you for listening to my little diatribe and I hope I haven't glossed over or over/understated what this game is providing, as it's still my longest standing game at 34 months and counting. I intend to keep playing!


S.

I have to admit when reading this why there isn't an official/unofficial 'Guide to Paragon City' or 'sourcebook' for City of Heroes. Paragonwiki and the Virtueverse websites are nice, but there are SO many varied sources to glean game continuity from, I'd personally as a writer and a roleplayer love to have them collated in one place in a readable form.

S.

I like this. I in fact think the new structure is opening it up for more emotes (with luck) in the future, as we're a bit overdue for genralised emotes that aren't attached to costume packs. And I didn't expect to see the Booster Pack emotes added as not everyone would have them; but by the same token, I wouldn't mind seeing if the menu can support distingushing if the player in question has a given Booster or not.

Otherwise, a good addition.

The funny thing is that only night owl Americans and Aussies will be seeing the forums off....

UBBThreads, I salute you. You've tolerated our flames, quote pyramids and ridiculous signatures and avatars. May you long be remembered by the forumites.

Adieu, old friend. Adieu.

/e salutes and signs off

S.

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• Oh come ON! When are they going to give Stalkers Fire Aura?! ‘Cuz nothing says invisibility to me like bright orange flames!

• I upped the difficulty to the max and the Atlas Statue just animated and threw the ball at me.

• I think there’s a glitch in the difficulty settings; I was able to manually enter “0” into all the fields and now when I just walk into the door everything in the map dies and I get the Mission Accomplished message. I wonder if this is what being Blue Steel feels like?

• We need to be able to set our personal view of other people’s powers to Standard! I just played with a guy who was running a force fields/radiation blaster with a shield of every day-glo shade imaginable and rad blasts to match. You need to either let us shut off that stuff or start supplementing my migraine medication costs.

• I don’t think my computer likes the combination of colors I just chose for my powers… my graphics card just burst into flames.

• So I have to look at other people’s choices for their power colors, huh? Most compelling argument for buying a black and white monitor that I’ve ever heard.

• Why can’t I choose Invisible as a color? I want my enemies to be confused as to why they’re taking damage.

• Hey, what’s with this disclaimer on the City of Villains creation screen? “You can now choose ANY color for your villain’s powers… as long as it’s black or a shade of red.”

• Yeah… that’s hilarious… you’re the 6th Thermal Defender today to cover me in pink fire and make “Flamer” jokes.

• So what am I supposed to call my Dark Miasma now that it’s flamingo pink?


[/ QUOTE ]

*laughs until tears run down her cheeks*

Steel, you may have just given me the script for my I-16 teaser (if I come out of retirement).

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

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You will. You KNOW you will.

It is...inevitable.

S.

I suppose I'd get lambasted for wishing that our characters could look as nicely detailed as they are in their profiles? I know, I'm spoiled from console games....

S.

I'm with the Commander on this one; letting Supergroup base computers do SOMETHING other than one SF would be good....but if you wanted a fun way to take out the building?

Let one of the scenarios (or maybe more than one) loose into the world...not a pretend story, not a 'what if' scenario...make it real. And let us deal with it.

S.

Warshades are reformed, like Jetfire is a Decepticon who changes sides to the Autobots. Considering the depth and breadth of the forms that players can choose to take (single-form, human, dwarf/nova, human/nova, human/dwarf...and that's not including the Warshades), I see any Kheldian group as having tremendous variety and interesting characters.

Yes, I am seeing Transformers as a template, no getting around that. I just find them tremendously similar, at least story-wise.

Also consider that when Going Rogue comes out, it may be possible to go entirely evil as a Kheld, thus becoming a Nictus.

S.

Hi everyone.

As the proud owner of my own level 32 PB, who I quite like (I still get blown away by the versatility of the Kheldians and I wish there were more of them), I got to wondering if there were any Kheldian-centric Supergroups? I haven't heard of any myself, but I'd appreciate hearing if there were.

That being said, I was struck with a particular idea, which likely has been thrown around before, but got inspired by me going to the movies tonight to see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

I thought there were certain similarities between the groups, with the Autobot/Peacebringers being peaceful creatures who come to Earth to help protect against the Decepticons/Nictus. The Peacebringers/Autobots also have close ties to the human race, the Peacebringers obviously taking this a step further with the bonding into a joined form.

Woud this be an unacceptable model to use for a Peacebringer group? It seems that the Kheldian story generally seems to have gotten lost along the way with all the time that's passed, and I wondered if a more coherent concept behind them wouldn't give them a bit of lfe.

I'd appreciate any and all feedback.

S.

Hi everyone.

As the proud owner of my own level 32 PB, who I quite like (I still get blown away by the versatility of the Kheldians and I wish there were more of them), I got to wondering if there were any Kheldian-centric Supergroups? I haven't heard of any myself, but I'd appreciate hearing if there were.

That being said, I was struck with a particular idea, which likely has been thrown around before, but got inspired by me going to the movies tonight to see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

I thought there were certain similarities between the groups, with the Autobot/Peacebringers being peaceful creatures who come to Earth to help protect against the Decepticons/Nictus. The Peacebringers/Autobots also have close ties to the human race, the Peacebringers obviously taking this a step further with the bonding into a joined form.

Woud this be an unacceptable model to use for a Peacebringer group? It seems that the Kheldian story generally seems to have gotten lost along the way with all the time that's passed, and I wondered if a more coherent concept behind them wouldn't give them a bit of lfe.

I'd appreciate any and all feedback.

S.

Hmm. This seems like fun....let's see what I can contribute.

Eureka Phoenix: Inspired Shiva
Steelmonger: Slagheap
Last Omegan: Overlord Alpha
Shadowtracker: Lightstealer
Slayshadow: Lifelight

Those are the ones that most translate, anyways...

S.

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Luckily for me, the EU forumites know me so my name is safe. Just my luck - we finally merge the forums so they can tell me how much they like my vids, and I'm retired.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

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Just remember, being retired in a superhero game is like saying Jean Grey's dead and buried....

S.

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Yeah, except it's not my character that's retired, it's me. How many times do the artists come back out of retirement?

And hooray for the boards being vBulletin. Are we going to have the usual limitations on graphics in signatures and all that still?

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

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Bah! You're never retired. They always...pull..you...back...IN....I've seen spy films! And artists come out of retirement all the time. Kirby, Swan, and Schaffenberger for comic book artists, and there are innumerable film directors who have to. So nyah.

And yay for vBulletin!

S.

[ QUOTE ]
Luckily for me, the EU forumites know me so my name is safe. Just my luck - we finally merge the forums so they can tell me how much they like my vids, and I'm retired.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

[/ QUOTE ]

Just remember, being retired in a superhero game is like saying Jean Grey's dead and buried....

S.

Just recently, I've been tinkering and puttering around and making characters, all with different looks and styles.

'How's that different from anyone else on CoH?' I hear you ask.

The difference is that I've been doing this on a wrestling game on my Nintendo Wii. The reason I bring this up is that I read somewhere that wrestling games seems to have a penchant for detailed character customisation, and I can confirm this is true.

Although a Wii isn't a graphics powerhouse, the current iteration of wrestling game allows on an XBox or PS3 a staggering SIXTY-FOUR layers of detail on a single character. This includes layers of clothing, underwear, socks, eyewear, headwear, necklaces and jewelry. It's a truly astounding range.

The ability to customise a character's look however is what really blew me away. Every facet of my character had slider bars attached to it. Skin alone had skin tones, skin aging, custom colorisation, scars and marks, face paint and tattoos, all of which could be layered.

Body types also had sliders for Eyes, ears, nose, cheeks, jaw, chin, eyebrows, eyelashes, neck, shoulders, arms, legs, feet, hands, chest, and torso. ALL of these had seperate sliders for thickness, angle, mass and so on. I was able to fairly accurately recreate my own real-life face (as a test) with this system.

I realise such a form of character creation is very graphically intensive (or at least I assume it is), but it is everything a CoH gamer would want and more. The question I guess I'd put out there is if CoH could or would support something so intensive? I'd be all over it myself and it really reminds me of what current-generation games are capable of.

S.

Oh, very much so....

My second ever character, a classic SS/Inv Tank I called Burnum. He was made as this Hulk ripoff, but when I started developing the backstory of the character (making him an Australian Aboriginal deity recreated in a human host), it really changed how I came to see the character. Ideally, I would've made him a SS/Inv Brute (for the Rage factor), and maybe I'll still be able to with Going Rogue, who knows?

I started off with him just having a tank top with tattoos, and eventually settled on this grey-skinned behemoth with white 'war paint' (which was just the Tribal pattern). It's surprisingly simple in design and spawned two or three alternate looks as I progressed his story.

I fell in love with the character so much I went and made a custom action figure! You can find pictures of it in a thread I made a little while ago about making them for friends also.

I still love the character (I recently made another more avatar-like look for him) and never get tired of him SuperJumping all over the place.

S.

It was a joke Positron mentioned in an article about wanting to do a graphics upgrade for the game. In it, he said he was looking for two R-type programmers (R-Type is an old side-scrolling platform game from the 80's).

But he's also presumably looking for graphics people for real.

S.

Combine the animation for the /listenpoliceband with a different looking gizmo, a Power Rangers effect, and you're set.

Same with the Ouroboros portal animation. How many people have thought of the 'tapping your wrist gizmo' as some sort of activation of a tech thing? Perfect choices right there.

Happy Birthday to Sister Flame....the greatest hero on any of the servers.

Plus, I await to see a mission arc starring the awesome team of Sister Flame and War Witch (you know it's a natural!)

I'd also like to second the idea of a parent/child SG on one of the servers. I think it's fantastic that this game can support such great interaction for families (how often can you say THAT about kids being online?) and to see kids learning to play with other kids and take home some of the values that the truer aspects of heroism and doing good would be just a great thing all round.



S.

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How it works is when you click the setting, that setting is checked against a set of values in the powerset definition and turns powers off and on. There's no general rule like "hard is always powers one through six" so there is literally no rule for a tooltip to tell you. You have to set the setting and actually *look* at the powerset power listing to see what "Hard" means for powerset X.

But that's still irrelevant, because I'm not describing what the setting does, I'm describing why the setting was deemed necessary, because I've been asked several times why the devs chose to complicate the critter interface by adding another setting to adjust difficulty besides just minion/LT/Boss. Let me repeat: this is not a UI issue. The question is more properly stated (in more nit-picky bulletproof terms) why was the decision made to add such a setting to the user interface at all, regardless of how it works mechanically.

Why I added this question to the FAQ is specifically because I've been asked why its there several times, but only once asked what it actually does. In the next version of the FAQ, I'm adding the question of what it does to avoid further confusion.

As to the issue of a "test group" mode, while it came up in closed beta that testers should have a way to spawn a map for any number of players on the team to see what it looks like, it would be impractical to actually program a literal AI controlled group to test a mission given the limits of the critter AI. However, I'm not sure what that has to do with the difficulty setting, because the difficulty setting does not affect the number of spawns in a mission regardless of team size. Just to make sure you and I are even talking about the same thing, as previously mentioned the only thing that setting does is turn off and on the powers of the custom critter you're making. It is not a mission spawn setting. Basically, it does things like turn off Energy Transfer on a critter if you don't want it to have that power.

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I think adding what it does in your next FAQ would be most welcome, because if you're like me and you're going to ask the question, you want some guideline to the answer. And I bear in mind that not everyone is going to get this right off the bat; you need this to be as user-friendly as possible. And if that means offering up an explanation for most of everything, then so be it. It might seem obvious to most people, but if you want people to fully utilise what this tool has to offer, then you explain as much as you humanly can.

I understand what you're saying about mission difficulty vs. critter difficulty and while that in itself is more or less clear (though I don't see why you couldn't use the same game settings of Heroic through Invincible, terms that people can instantly lock onto and recognise), and while some playtesting helps...you honestly can't guarantee you're always going to have a group to help you test your mission. That's an inevitability, and a fact of life. And I for one want that option to test not requiring a group at all. Even a 'god mode' where you can walk the map, making sure your NPC dialog and objects are working as you want them to WITHOUT having to fight the mission would be preferable to what we have now. Without that, I forsee a situation where test groups just won't be interested in playing the published version either due to word of mouth ('hey, we played this, it was okay') or they just won't test (a situation already occuring on the Test server) due to lack of interest or a desire to just play already published missions.

That needs to be addressed, or many budding authors (myself included) will be stuck wondering what tweaks if any have to be made to their story. Even simple tools to make sure the patrol spawns trigger would be appreciated. If we're going to create stories, then don't force us into the position of playing them to risk a defeat when all you want to do is see if the map and NPC's are working okay. It's self-defeating and a waste of time.

S.

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Q1.3: What's the purpose of the difficulty setting anyway?

A1.3: Seriously, you need to make some critters and find out for yourself. Originally, critters just used everything, and I mean everything. This means every Thugs minion spammed Gang War, and every Willpower critter rezzed at the end of the fight - with no way for the player to have any say in the matter. Also, Bosses would be hitting far harder than players expected, because they now had *our* powers. Critter powers are generally limited to Scale 2.0 damage - even the critter version of total focus hits for only Scale 2.0 damage. But now they have our version, which hits at 3.56 scale. This means critters are capable of hitting 70% harder than ever before. On top of that, they now have Build Up with alarming frequency: a critter that uses BU + TF can hit nearly four times harder than any other critter of the same rank generally hits with *any* attack in the standard PvE game.

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Unfortunately, I disagree with this 'try it and see' approach. Any other design tool or creator software is very specific in informing you on how it works and this should be absolutely no different.

If the software itself cannot inform you of what the difficulty setting means and you have to test it by playing the mission/fighting the boss in question, then you are wasting time in designing your overall mission to test ONE feature. Something seriously lacking as I have suggested is more tooltips to help guide novice mission builders with this.

S.

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Except for one interface design oversight, the difficulty slider is trivial to explain: it adjusts the set of powers a custom critter will get in a manner that is specific to each mission maker powerset (each powerset is individually configured as to which of its powers are standard, hard, or extreme).

But the issue I was highlighting was the question of *why* it was *needed* and that is not a user interface issue: its a question of understanding that custom critters are intrinsicly more powerful than standard critters. I could give you a three page numerical explanation, but actually seeing custom critters' performance on extreme for yourself will answer that question much more directly.

What a setting does and why its there are two completely different questions. Saying that setting is to adjust critter difficulty is literally correct, but totally worthless without context.

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Again, I'll have to disagree there. Not everyone will want to (such as myself) go into the mission and evaluate the performance of the given NPC in action. The only context to explain the difficulty is to see it in action, which requires you to encounter it in a way that wouldn't be indicative of how it'd truly perform in a group. It makes more sense to have an explanation of how this works; I understand the concepts of Lieutenants, Bosses, Elite Bosses and Arch-Villains; so would anyone who's played the game to some extent. I'm not going to go in and playtest every single boss under every single setting; if you have that much time on your hands you should be working for NCSoft. I already suggested a test setting where you ride along with a generic group to see how it plays out if you want the 'practical example' of play, but having a guideline beyond some generic terms is equally as useful. I don't consider ANY aspect of a powerful design tool to be trivial to explain when the point is to make it as understandable and user-friendly as possible.

S.

[ QUOTE ]
Q1.3: What's the purpose of the difficulty setting anyway?

A1.3: Seriously, you need to make some critters and find out for yourself. Originally, critters just used everything, and I mean everything. This means every Thugs minion spammed Gang War, and every Willpower critter rezzed at the end of the fight - with no way for the player to have any say in the matter. Also, Bosses would be hitting far harder than players expected, because they now had *our* powers. Critter powers are generally limited to Scale 2.0 damage - even the critter version of total focus hits for only Scale 2.0 damage. But now they have our version, which hits at 3.56 scale. This means critters are capable of hitting 70% harder than ever before. On top of that, they now have Build Up with alarming frequency: a critter that uses BU + TF can hit nearly four times harder than any other critter of the same rank generally hits with *any* attack in the standard PvE game.

[/ QUOTE ]

Unfortunately, I disagree with this 'try it and see' approach. Any other design tool or creator software is very specific in informing you on how it works and this should be absolutely no different.

If the software itself cannot inform you of what the difficulty setting means and you have to test it by playing the mission/fighting the boss in question, then you are wasting time in designing your overall mission to test ONE feature. Something seriously lacking as I have suggested is more tooltips to help guide novice mission builders with this.

S.

The earth never looked so peaceful.

Continents sat like parts of a giant jigsaw puzzle that fit just so, as if they were always meant to sit on the great sphere that always seemed incomplete without them. Islands dotted the spaces in between as if they were pieces that had broken away and fallen into….where?

And the sphere itself was perfect. How was it made so? It was as if Creation had smoothed the edges of a rough diamond into a perfect circle and decided to adorn it with the jewels of land on a perfectly flat surface.

But none of it compared to the great hands that held it aloft. The broad back that bore the weight of its creation and all that went along with it. Strength showed in every sinew, every muscle. Strength and responsibility meshed together in one simple pose.

I remember how it looked the first time I saw it.

What did it look like?

A shining blue, reminding me of the great nebulae of Abraeus Minor. As if it was calling out, ‘this is your home now’.

And you knew they were here?

Always I know. We are never far from each other.

Two pairs of eyes, but yet one, looked across the distance at the great statue of the mighty Atlas, fallen hero of Paragon City. Everything was seemingly alive to both, symbolic and true at the same time. Blurs of color occasionally streaked the air, or along the ground…flares of bright light would start from the ground and soar into the sky, sometimes with fanfare and sound, other times with the faint smell of burnt ozone carrying across the breeze. Flickers of light, teleporters no doubt, appeared here and there, some stopping at the top of the globe to pause, only to appear once more at the nearby City Hall where the flag fluttered and reminded everyone of just what Atlas had been protecting when he fell.

“Does it always look so peaceful even though you’ve been here such a short time?” the youthful voice asked.

"Always," a voice that sounded like water running over melting ice responded. It was soothing, but smooth. Old yet somehow young. ”I cannot remember a planet that had such life and vibrancy to it.”

“Was that before or after you chose me?” the younger voice asked.

The person speaking the question stood, letting the gentle breeze catch the fin-split cape that he wore. He was no more than twenty, but carried himself with a demeanor that spoke far beyond his years. A young man of apparently African descent, his short brown hair, though straighter than would be usual, brushed his face. He stood up on the ledge of a building that oriented on one face towards the park that was such a beacon for ‘capes’, as so many in the city seemed to refer to them. He winced; the tight-fitting bodysuit he wore was still new to him and pinched him in places he didn’t think he had. It was described to him as stealth, the style, ribbed on the abdomen and legs, padding out the gloves. Yet again he felt the flick of metal on his ear; this being the dress uniform of his designated ‘Super Group’ demanded that he wear metal pauldrons whose edges brushed his unprotected face more often that he cared to count. At least the one constant, his wraparound sunglasses, stayed intact. Sure, it was a visual thing, but when he manifested….well, it had a look and he liked that.

Both, the older voice responded, using his.

Most people would find that uncomfortable, even maddening. A voice that’s your own, using your tone, but added with something more than just wasn't you But he didn’t mind; it felt completely natural.

“You’ve been to Earth before?” he asked, even as the answer came to life in his mind. Images of stars and planets he didn’t recognize appeared as memories to him; the Earth appeared, though it was cleaner somehow, maybe hundreds or thousands of years ago.

Yes, but you were younger then, his other voice responded, as if it were something you discussed over a cup of tea. The other voice called itself Eureka Phoenix in his mind, but his (at least it sounded like a him) real name, so he was assured, only sounded like that and that it didn’t really matter so long as he was comfortable saying it.

That was the problem in being bonded to one of the Kheldian race; you could speak to any two of them and they’d give you two different stories about where they came from and they could both be accurate. Not even they seemed to know how old they were, having long ago transcended human form. The most anyone seemed to know that collectively they were called Peacebringers, enemies of their former subjugators the Nictus, and they were either policing them, or their own, or both. And for reasons really only known to them, the Kheldians would bond themselves to living hosts and the process was normally mutual. Even some Nicti had reformed, calling themselves Warshades. Eureka was starstuff, immaterial and yet solid, sentient yet ethereal, ancient and youthful all at the same time.

It annoyed the hell out of him.

“You keep saying that,” he said with a faintly exasperated tone.

This is true, but you are only human.

Both chuckled at that, seeing the humor and irony. Both had come a long way; Eureka came from the stars, heeding a call of one of his own to give sustenance to a living and willing host. Rugiel was his name; or at least what he chose to be called in his form, such as it was. Tom (or Tommy as his friends called him) had come by a much longer route. He’d been a host too, in a completely different body.

“Not for that long,” Tommy said, a laugh in his voice. It’d felt like a lifetime ago, and it had been. He still had his parents, born and raised in Faultine in the Mullins family household. He still had his studies at the Steel Canyon undergraduate university; he still had everything he remembered. But when Eureka joined him, he gained so much more. Memories of another life, as another being entirely. And to save his life, the other being made him somehow. And yet another brought his essence, his self, to this body.

You’re thinking about it again, aren’t you Tom?

“Yeah,” Tom responded. “There are times….”

Don’t think about it too much, Eureka responded. The more you do, the more questions you’ll have. And the more time you spend asking them, the less answers you’ll see.

“Is that meant to be cryptic or something?”

Yes, but I am very clever.

“Excuse me, young hero. Am I interrupting?”

The voice sounded like it had been carved out of granite.

“No, I was just speaking to…oh.”

The voice matched the person, the personality. Did legends even have a personality?

The cape was probably the thing most people associated with the man; the long flowing red that defined most of his iconic costume. It showed up in his simple boots and gloves, the strip of color running head to toe along his bodysuit, flanked by borders of blue and only broken by the black belt around his waist. White stars were emblazoned on those borders up to his hips, and one large one was stamped on his broad chest. And finally, the was the iconic faceplate, like some ancient warrior’s. There was only one person this could be.

Statesman, the hero of Paragon City for the last eighty years.

“Oh…no sir,” Tom responded. He’d heard so much about this living legend, both good and bad. The good ranged from respect to outright admiration for the countless times he’d saved the city, his actions during the Rikti invasion. The bad ranged from his almost absolute rule over his legendary team, the Freedom Phalanx, to his being a tyrant. But he here he was, and his blue piercing eyes as he floated before him, arms crossed over that famous star, and he was speaking to him. Eureka was merely curious.

Greetings, hero of Paragon. I am honored to meet you, he said even as Tom felt his vocal chords being hijacked.

Hero of Paragon? He’s not some newcomer, you know…

Statesman smiled, but it was out of politeness, not some sense of familiarity or even respect. Tom felt a chill run his spine’s length even as the man inclined his head towards him.

“And it’s an honor to meet another Peacebringer into m…our city,” he responded in that same hard-yet-soft voice. “I was wondering if you were busy right now. I’m investigating a recent flare of attacks by some Hellions in Galaxy City.”

Tom felt himself frowning behind his sunglasses. Hellions were small-time gangers. Why would Statesman be interested in them?

“Of course, sir,” he found himself replying. He’d been cleared for action against them weeks ago now, and Galaxy City was considered safe for well, everyone. “Can I…”, he began to ask, but the blur of red, white and blue was already heading to the train, the only safe way to get around in the city aside from the massive gates to each of the ‘safe zones’, as they were called.

They must feel like caged animals, Eureka wondered even as they shifted form; the weightless squid-like form flew quickly enough to keep up, or so they thought. By the time they glided past the occasional surprised person, the departing form of Statesman, being given a wide berth by the carriage of people was already appearing distant.

“Just great,” Tom murmured.

Galaxy City was the model of what the larger Paragon was meant to be; clean, well maintained, a safe place for the ordinary citizens of the city to live. But it never entirely stayed in the mold; people were still mugged on the street, despite the presence of the Phalanx’s own headquarters and one of its members being permanently stationed there. Despite the patrols of Longbow. The first thing Tom heard as the doors opened was his communicator rumbling with Statesman’s voice.

“Nebula District,” his voice said in clipped tones before the signal went dead.

“Sonuva…can we…?” he began to ask even as they shifted form again; Tom hadn’t gotten around to asking why there was even a huge, armored form known only as Dwarf, but it felt the same. The major advantage was the ability to teleport. The thought occurred to him as the train platform disappeared and the warehouses of the district came into focus that appearing in the midst of your enemies was a useful trait to have.

Focus,Eureka reminded him. We’re here. And he’s already begun.

Tom felt his eyes widen, even as they hit the ground running. Part of him thought it was useless to even to do so, even as the body of a Hellion flew directly across his path, shattering a crate to his left. And the one behind that. And then the chain link fence. Already there was a large cluster of bodies, either unconscious or barely so spread around the whirling blur of color that was the city’s premiere hero. Flashes of his trademarked lightning flashed occasionally as the blur took solid form.

“Inside! NOW!” Statesman roared. It was enough to make both Eureka and Tom pause, the voice that some people said could break bones directed at them with a fury neither had associated with this man, literally the paragon of Paragon City.

“What are we even doing here…?” Tom asked, the red and blue blur moving ahead of them as the entered through the shattered doorway. What was left of this warehouse was being torn apart in a frenzy.

I’m not sure, Tom. But he’s angry. So angry. Perhaps…

They were cut off by warehousing container smashing through a wall just in front of them, Eureka’s natural instinct to become intangible saving them as it collapsed like thin card against the far wall to their left.

“This is crazy….Statesman! What’s going ON?” Tom found himself demanding as they floated through the tear in the wall, the imposing caped figure just before them with shoulders hunched and head lowered. It seemed to them both that his face turned slightly at the sound.

“You can detect unique energy signatures. What I was looking for isn’t here,” came the abrupt answer, followed instantly by the rush of wind as Statesman exploded from the ground and through the roof of the warehouse.

"No way. No way," Tom growled. “We’re going after him.”

My thoughts exactly.

A form made of something almost like light, is what they called it. Noone quite knew how Kheldians could be made of particles of light, but it was enough that Tom felt like he was part of the air as they rushed upwards, heading past and in front of the blur that was Statesman. It wasn’t until he felt his skin again that he realized how cold it was up here.

" Statesman! You had no reason to abuse us like that!", he felt Eureka say with an authority that spoke so much on his shared self. He saw the glow coming from his body and the blur solidify to Statesman’s form.

“I don’t have to explain myself to you….”

"Yes you do," Eureka countered, cutting him off. "You are Statesman; you are held to a standard to which the rest of us aspire…yes, even we Kheldians, for you are someone who has led their people to a resistance of the Rikti, where so many races could not. So many planets. You are an inspiration. You are who you are."

The steel-colored eyes behind the burnished faceplate narrowed a moment, the gauntleted arms folding across the broad chest. Tom felt his heart hammering in his chest. He couldn’t hear Eureka anymore.

“It’s my fault.”

Tom hadn’t said that. He had to blink, compose himself.

Statesman had said that. It didn’t sound possible, real, coming from his mouth.

“I’ve been in this city for so long,” the deep voice coming from his mouth continued, though it sounded old. Older than he’d realized. And it was tired. “And they’re still here, those punks. The gangs. No matter how many heroes, no matter how many police…they’re still here, all over.” The eyes lowered, the voice became softer.

“They…stole something. Part of a cure, they said. For the Lost. After all this time…I didn’t think it was possible.” They were moving now, barely touching the roof of an overpass into Skyway City, the unofficial home of the Lost. And just as they’d begun, they stopped. The voice became a whisper. The Lost were there, wandering the streets in an aimless rhythmic pattern. Whatever was there seemed forgotten. Their name was truer than anyone wanted to admit.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” Statesman whispered.

Tom felt his heart sink in his chest. He sounded like an old man.

“You said I stopped the Rikti. I didn’t stop this. I didn’t stop the Hellions. Or the Skulls. I couldn’t save them,” he trailed off finally.

The silence hung between them a long moment.

“You’re not alone,” Tom said, finding his own voice. “I mean…we can save them. Maybe not all of them….but as many as we can. Back in the war, people gave their lives for everyone here, even the Skulls, the Hellions.”

“So many,” Statesman echoed. “Friends….” There was more to that word, he didn’t say it.

“We do it for them.”

“For what they wanted. What they fought for.”

“Yeah. For them.”

Tom didn’t have anymore to say. How many friends, how many family and friends had Statesman lost since…the 1930’s? Longer? Had anyone even asked him? Did anyone think to? Here he was, the avatar of Zeus, a god amongst gods. Alone.

“Thank you,” he heard Statesman’s voice distantly. He hadn’t heard him flying away, but the anger had gone, replaced by something he thought was a mixture of hope and loss. What a thing to have. By the time he turned to look, Statesman was just a red speck in the sky, already too far away to reply to. “Did you ever feel like that?” he found himself asking Eureka.

Sometimes, he felt the voice reply. But we do not have a world of our own anymore. We have our hosts, our lives. He…he has both yet neither. I grieve for him.

Both yet neither. A world changed beyond what he knew, and a life as….what? A paragon? As Statesman? Is that what being who he was meant? To be so close to people but so far away?

“We should get going,” Tom heard himself say softly.

Yes, we should.

“Tell me again how Earth looked the first time you saw it…..”

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Timothy Zahn. THERE is the Star Wars writer to emulate. If Sister Flame's arcs hit that benchmark, I am gonna be in those arcs like white on rice.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

[/ QUOTE ]

Someone writes Star Wars other than Timothy Zahn? I must've selectively wiped that from my memory.

S.

[/ QUOTE ]

Brian Daley

[/ QUOTE ]

I only know my master, Darth Zahn.....

S.

[ QUOTE ]
Timothy Zahn. THERE is the Star Wars writer to emulate. If Sister Flame's arcs hit that benchmark, I am gonna be in those arcs like white on rice.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

[/ QUOTE ]

Someone writes Star Wars other than Timothy Zahn? I must've selectively wiped that from my memory.

S.