Turgenev

Near as I can tell, they represent the letters "D" and "T". zOMG! It can only mean one thing!

The Demolition Team!

I'm presuming it SHOULD read "The door comes to those who have travelled".

Athy, it's the series of longs and shorts at the top of the first page. Here's the quote of the original:

-.... . / -.. --- --- .-. / -.-. --- -- . ... / - --- / - - .... . / -.. --- --- .-. / -.-. --- -- . ... / - --- / - .... --- ... . / .-- .... --- / .... .- ...- . / - .-. .- ...- . .-.. . -..

So what's with the Morse Code at the top of the page? "6E DOOR COMES TO TTHE DOOR COMES TO THOSE WHO HAVE TRAVELED"?

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I mean, the whole reason that the 5th column were taken out of the game was because in order to succesfully market co* in Europe, the nazi references had to be taken out.

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Dude, where have you been? That's been debunked a thousand times over.

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Would it be any more palatable if we suddenly said that Nazis were now uber-marketable? "City of Heroes - Now, with more Nazis! CoX is Na-zi-licious!"

And yeah, what Sadako said. That argument was SO February 2005.

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I do think most of us are reading into this more than the issue designers, but it makes for great speculation nonetheless.

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Never let absence of concrete fact get in the way of wild and obscenely confusing speculation!

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Don't the 5th column have their own symbol? You know, the red and black one with the skull? I highly doubt that this is the herald of the return of the 5th, as they simply have used the old symbol for us old timers.

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Not exactly. Technically, the Reichsman is an alternate-timeline version of Statesman, and he was the leader of "Amerika Korps", which is what the 5th Column "could" have been if the Nazis succeeded in WWII. The Reichsman isn't dead; he's in "suspended animation" in the Freedom Phalanx's HQ after having come through PortalCorp and attempting to assert dominion over our reality.

More information can be found here:

http://www.cityofheroes.com/gameinfo...herworlds.html

So, to build on the Reichsman theory, it COULD (and this is hypothetical) represent a magickal aspect arising from the "Nazi America" timeline that is in alliance with, but not subject to, the 5th Column as it exists in "our" timeline, and may not have been encountered before.

Or, we're wrong, and it's just heralding a death to all contacts as the first step in shutting down our servers. Issue 12: MUO?? DOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!

On a slightly more serious note:

1. It's a cross-symbol of the traditional infinity pattern and the Ouroboros (which also represents infinity or eternity), certainly.

2. I'll say it also looks like a wood cutting; and the style of it appears to have Nordic influence.

3. Direct comparison culturally there is to Jormugandr, a child of Loki and also called the World Serpent.

Implications:

a. If I had to point to something in-canon, there's good money it's Reichsman. Nazi propaganda rooted itself, at least superficially, in Norse mysticism.

b. The method of his appearance/influence could be one that's time-related. Looking at the Paragon Times article, time's either gone flutzy (someone is changing history), or it's from an alternate timeline. Both are avenues to Reichsman.

c. This could directly refer to the Flashback system; however, I'm more inclined to say it will open up new story arcs, possibly via Portal Corp/Shadow Shard, by going into alternate timelines, or Paragon's own past, to pursue this threat to PC's history.

I'm suspicious of Reichsman because of the heavy Nordic styling of the symbol; it's almost certainly magickally rooted; gut response is telling me it's a time-loop "go back into history to change the future" storyline; and it would open the door back up to the 5th Column.

If it's a time loop storyline, we'd get to explore moments of PC's past as well. I'd love to join Atlas in his solo fight against the Nazi armada at Independence Port.

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What the..? Explain! Explain!

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"Save the snakes, save the world."

I mean, duh. It's obvious.

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It'll make the heavy badges unobtainable, but you can always just delete the badges too, since in this case player unhappiness seems not to matter too much.

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Actually, it'll make the Heavy badge MORE obtainable by not having Heavies locked to certain people for farming purposes. It's # of heavies picked up, not the length of time you own them.

It WILL make the PB badge that much harder though, and I'm in agreement that the requirements for the pillbox badge, at least, be cut in half.

Thanks for the generous words, Marcian. For my bit, heck, I think there should be (with authors' permissions) a list of all the submissions, so people can read what was sub'd. Or they could post it here, or in another thread for that purpose. Or feature another City Scoop, like you brought up. It'd be a great balm to soothe us losers! (Joke, joke... kinda...) *snif* *drowns sorrows in his brand new p1mp rig he just built XD*

Congratulations to all the speech contest winners.

I liked what I wrote, and I feel like sharing. It may not have won, but I hope you enjoy what I submitted for the contest.

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Today, the trumpets of war blare once more.

War... It sounds trite, when it passes our lips these days. To war against evil. To war against oppression. To war against one another. And in these perilous times, when the apex of our race – the superhumans – finds itself divided by ethos and by temperament, war has become the very definition of our lives.

But many years ago, when the foul wind of the Rikti blew across the world, all superhumans of our beloved Earth rose, as one force, to stand united against their brutal invasion. Together they anchored, side by side, to defend to their last breath the shores and peaks of our marvelous world. Together, they fought; they wept; they conquered; they died. They shed tears and blood and their very lives in the cause of common survival, communal victory. Together, they flared impossibly bright, and burned with a ferocity and bitter majesty not seen on the face of our world since the dawn of myth.

Together, they were magnificent.

And today, the Second Rikti War looms over our beloved Earth like a black sun.

Humans are, and ever have been, a race nourished by pride. Pride in faith, in self, in patriotism and in self-determination. Pride in our hope; in our dreams; and in our belief that our best days are yet to dawn.

But with the Rikti invasion, eclipsing the sun of our achievements, there will be no dawn.

If we fail, no sagas will be written of us. No songs will be sung of us. Because there will be no bards, nor chroniclers, no any human life left in all the universe. No laughter, no weeping will echo across the barren wasteland of Earth. No sweet wind. No life. Merely a red, red rain, to drown the dust of our civilization, forever.

If we fail, we will be but the first to fall before the Rikti onslaught. Beyond us, our families, our parents, our children. Our people. Our history. Our civilization.

And so today, we sally forth as we did those many years ago – a vanguard of superlative skill and determination to once more shine, as our forebears did, with a light to destroy the Rikti darkness that threatens Earth’s cerulean skies.

Today, we shall once again be magnificent.

Up, arms! Stand like iron, and steel your hearts!

UP, arms! Let our mighty roar shake the heavens!

UP, ARMS! And let us remind these upstart invaders once more that TITANS yet prowl the Earth!

Since we're brainstorming...

I always felt an audio clue would work out the best. For instance, when the air raid starts, EVERYONE begins to hear the air raid siren go off if they are in a non-instanced zone. You can then read the followup channel (however they address/improve the existing one) to see what's going on, and where. Building on Joyce's idea, you could hear a fire engine horn go off for 10 seconds, or hear muffled bad techno music, for the Steel fires or Skyway raves. (Granted, if the rave's music was loud enough to be heard across Paragon City, IMO it'd take a bunch of heroes to resolve THAT party. )

Just throwing out ideas, but I've always liked the idea of an air raid siren for an impending invasion. Mind you, overall I find Issue 10 to be a complete hit. They hacked out the Admin channel solution because of a technological stumbling block, and I respect that, but I'm also hopeful they improve it.

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Still don't understand what the big deal is. I think people need to relax and just put it out of their mind.

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It's a pervasive irritation that uses the Admin channel, which we have been drilled to pay attention to as a server-level announcement, to relate minor gameplay information. It's a hack that, due to its nature, is something painfully unavoidable.

I know why they did it, EvilG; they ran out of channels to use, and to make more is "hard". That's understandable, but that doesn't make it easier for those of us who DO think it's an irritation to swallow. I'm glad Lighthouse is stepping forward and at least putting on the table that they will look into alternative options, for people like me, and not just do nothing because people like you can deal with it.

*bump*

Since Issue 10 is coming out, this may be applicable once again. And, dang it, I miss Pilcrow. No one could dazzle the forum community with an array of math like he could. XD

-J.

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Also, in the interest of presenting every side of an article, Turg volunteered to be our guinea pig. What about Eric the Red as a counter?



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Is Erik the Great even still around? I thought he got banz00r'd years ago.

*finds his guinea pig suit from college. Yes, I have one, I was poor in college, I had to find some way of supplementing my income. I was young, I was foolish...*

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<qr> But what's the secret?

...learn one of the darkest secrets of Paragon City...

The intrigue begins!

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The secret:

The Rikti War never ended. Ever wonder why there are walls around Paragon City? It's not to keep the Rikti out.

It's to keep us in. Paragon City is a laboratory for the Rikti, so they can study us and prepare us for their next Invasion.

The story here is that we realize we have been duped for years, and struggle to fight our way home, to staunch the invasion and reclaim our home once again.

...or maybe it's that States isn't a natural blonde. Roots can be nasty that way.

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This is the type of fight I've been wishing for! The co-op task force would be awesome if there was a strong story content in there, maybe a mission to recover some technology in which the villain members patron comes and try to secure, or a end battle that is so enormous that both statesman and recluse has to come in as npc's to lend a hand.

I still think hero 1 might show up.

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Just a thought: maybe Hero 1 will be the AV at the end of the co-op TF....

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I was just gonna say that ... ;-)

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Okay, game design hat on.

How about an invisible contact in the new War Zone that only becomes "visible" when you've finished the TF? Such as Hero-1, who is held captive by the Rikti, and you have to bust him out to return him home as a POW, and afterwards he gives you more endgame content for the War Zone and any new areas? This contact would ONLY be visible if you have the TF badge for it. (Or he's in an office/room/cave/bathroom/etc that you can only enter if you have the TF badge.)

Howzat?

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Issue 10: Invasion, the tenth upcoming free expansion since the launch of City of Heroes® in -->April 2004<--

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Okay, either Issue 10 is officially over 3 YEARS late ...

... or ...

... somebody let Statesman "do the math" again ...

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Au contraire, mon ami. The grammar for Lighthouse's sentence is correct. "Issue 10, the tenth expansion since COH went live in April '04..."

I wish the 5th would return. I want a Grammar Naaazi archetype.

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Hot, but where's the 5th?

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Ya know, I was hoping for the 5th Column to rise again as well, but this is just as good, if not better, since I still have the last day of COH Beta in an old memory file in my head, twinging over wanting to see the Mothership in the sky again... XD

Man up, everyone! Rikti BBQ at Turg's place for the End of the World Party!

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Does that make me one of those weird crazy players?

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You were one of those years ago, 'lana. This is merely an affirmation of your weird craziness.

I'm on the Top 30! w00t! Go me!

Any chance they could put this off by a week? The timing with Father's Day makes it pretty inconvenient for me unfortunately, and probably for a lot of others out there. Just putting this on the table, less whine and more a "what were you thinking?"

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Back Alley Brawler?!?!?

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And you have 24390 more posts than him.

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Well what's left?

If it's not a new power, and it's not a re-do of an existing power... it's a temp power?

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It's just Ripper. The Devs had to scale their FX down to make it playable for the demo, so all the other FX went away.

I can't believe you didn't datamine this!! The whole fun of titles was the danger of choosing the wrong ones at 15 and 25!!!

...sorry, wanted to give you guys something familiar. Works like a charm, and is a long time in coming. Thanks for making it convenient for all levels, not just 50's.

Hrm. For my theme on Doc Turg, I gotta say "Teleport". Why?

1. For a sorcerous professional, flight or SJ is too undignified. Why travel, when you can simply "be" there?
2. Fastest travel power, and in his jaunts, he does a LOT of traveling.
3. In PvP, it gives him the "here I am, now I'm not" edge. With 3 ranges in there, I can TP outta sight before anyone can really get an ambush going on me (unless a stalker alphastuns me and I'm outta BFs), and I can TP right back in.
4. Chaos is Turg's thing. TPing in and out of a fight, like the Nebulon B Frigate "Warspite" in the original X-Wing game, dumping pets and PBAoE effects constantly, while jumping out before the enemy can react. Keeping them on their toes, focusing on you while your effects and teammates wear them down - Priceless.