jwbullfrog

"Thank you Sergeant, that will be all."

Longbow Captain Susan Kane waited until her office door had closed fully before allowing herself the luxury of slumping forward and rubbing her face with her hands. She knew she was a good person, but there were times when she wondered just what the hell her past lives had been up to.

Twenty four hours earlier, a small group of infiltrators had managed to break into Fort Darwin, elude capture for just over an hour, incapacitate four officers and kill a fifth. As if that weren't bad enough, they were then able to hack into a supposedly secure teleport control system and use one of the fort's telepads to go...who knows where.

And now, it was all her problem.

On the positive side, Captain Kane knew that she couldn't be held responsible for any of it. Her entire unit had been engaged in a successful clear and kill mission in a Snake hatchery on the West side of the island. On the negative side, it had somehow become her fault by not being in the base at the time.

"If you had been here, we would have had tighter security. If you and your people hadn't been off on some snake hunt...," her fellow Captain Oswald Montcalm had accused, as her command had returned to the base.

"A snake hunt that we completed neatly and efficiently and one, I might point out, that you turned down because, and I quote 'It wasn't a mission worthy of my men,' unquote. And, " she continued, " I suspect that had we been here instead of you, we would have suspects in custody and your man would still be alive."

It was a low blow but there wasn't any way she was going to let him shift blame. Montcalm was a commander who had lost a man, and it was understandable that he was upset, but he was a self important fool. It was better to shut him down before he could get a solid rant going.

Had she not been bone tired, sweaty, and ready to collapse in an adrenaline crash, she might have been more tactful. Not that it would have helped. Montcalm had that most precious of assets in Longbow. Seniority. His commission predated hers by three weeks, so, despite the fact that he was semi-competent, completely lacking in basic tactical skills, and a lackluster field commander, he was, by Longbow tradition, correct. If he, as a more senior officer, said that it was her fault, then, despite all evidence to the contrary, it was her fault.

As a way of reminding her of her place, Montcalm convinced the base commander to assign her the task of finding and apprehending the suspects. And, just to make it even more galling, he had cited 'ongoing security concerns' to saddle her with a 72 hour time limit.

She had 48 hours left.

She leaned back in her chair and relaxed back into her command state. She knew what her people expected from her and she would always give it to them. She leaned forward slightly and keyed the intercom on her desk.

"Becky, could you come in here please?"

Thirty seconds later, Master Sergeant Rebecca Woodley walked crisply through the door with an armload of files. It took her three short steps to cross the room and place the papers on the corner of her Captain's desk. She took a step backward and saluted, waiting for the response from her superior officer.

Captain Kane saluted back before waving her hand at a nearby chair. Becky Woodley had been with her ever since they were both flying helicopters fror the Army. She'd been offered a command of her own several times but always refused, stating 'no desire to be an officer.' She'd always been Kane's personal sounding board and seemed to be quite happy in that job.

"You've gotten everything we need?"

"Yes, Captain. Combined with those interviews you just wrapped up, I think we have a pretty complete picture of what happened."

"Any surprises?"

Sergeant Woodley laughed. "It would have been nice but, no," she continued more seriously. "Actually, other than trooper Colher, every one of our people was neutralized in a non-lethal manner."

"What was different about Colher?"

"He was holding the flamethrower and, judging by the scorch marks, fired it at least once."

Captain Kane simply could not resist anymore. She lowered her head down to her desktop and let her arms drop limply toward the ground.

"How in the name of all that is Holy are we expected to use a flamethrower to arrest someone?" She let the exasperation seep quietly into her voice.

"Well, the base was on alert, Captain."

Captain Kane raised her head up enough to look at her Sergeant's face. Sergeant Woodley's expression remained neutral but her eyes rolled slightly. Susan Kane and Rebecca Woodley had both served with the US Army and the San Francisco PD's Special Strike Teams. They had a combined thirty years of service between them but they had never worked for an Law Enforcement agency quite like Longbow.

Susan Kane was beginning to wonder if her old apartment on De Haro street was still available when someone knocked on her office door. Captain Kane sat upright and quickly composed herself while Sergeant Woodley stood up and arranged herself at parade rest alongside the desk.

"Come in."

Oswald Montcalm stalked into the room. "Well?"

"Well, what?" Captain Kane answered calmly.

"Why haven't you done anything to find the people who killed my man?"

"As per procedure, we've reviewed all audio and video logs and conducted interviews with the necessary personnel. I was reviewing that information with my senior Sergeant when you came in."

"And? What do you intend to do about it?"

"Continue my investigation." Captain Kane stood up and turned to face her Sergeant. "Master Sergeant."

"Ma'am."

"Please assemble the unit on the main deck in 15 minutes. Full battledress and standard patrol gear please. I'll provide further instructions at that time."

"Ma'am." Sergeant Woodley snapped off a parade ground salute, and turned sharply on her heel and strode out of the room.

Captain Kane waited for a moment before turning back to face Montcalm.

"Now, Oswald, if you will excuse me, I need to get dressed."

She didn't wait to hear if he had any reply. The sooner she was away from him and Fort Darwin, the better.

You gave a wonderful amount of information but to what end?

I have no idea what your final point was intended to be.

I'd say that, unless you're going to be teaming regularly, Ill/kin is going to drive you crazy through the lower levels.

Illusion starts off slow. Very slow. Spectral Wounds isn't the strongest of attacks and Blind is a single target hold. You do get confuse fairly early and that can make a big difference if used properly. Once you hit 18 (?) then you get phantom army and your damage capacity goes way up.

Kinetics is a superior set if you're teaming but you lose a lot of functionality as a soloist. You're better off slotting your heal (Transferrence) as a endurance reducer and trying to keep fights down to 1 or 2 to 1.

Just my opinion but I don't think these will really work well together. Feel free to give it a try and let me know how it works. Actually, I'm kind of interested in trying this for myself.

Others have said some of these same things but I feel the need to chime in here.

1. Variety. -- Costumes, characters, powers -- I have yet to come up with an idea that I could not figure out how to do in the game.

2. Story. -- Tons of it. Even after 5+ years, I have not seen it all. and, to make it all more interesting, we, the players are adding more of our own.

which leads to...

3. Players. -- This is the best player population I have ever run across. Unlike other games, we will help out new players, adopt them, get them up to speed. We also have some long term relationships (friendships and animosities) that have formed here on the forums and during play. In many ways, our player base is a very large and extended (very extended) family.

4. Scenery. -- The single, biggest MMO killer for me is how the game looks. For example, I know that there is a 'world's biggest MMO' and two competing superhero games out there, but I don't play them because I cannot stand looking at them. Our City IS SPECTACULAR. The art team here has done superior work over the years and continues to improve.

5. They Listen. -- It may not feel like it from time to time but our Development team does actually listen to our feedback. There have been more than a few changes made to this game because WE SAID WE WANTED IT.

There are many more things to love about this game but those are the biggest that come to mind.

If nothing else, I would love to see all of the surviving actors for not only the Doctor but his companions, in the same place at the same time.

The thought I have is something like the Doctor Who at the Proms concerts, perhaps divided into stages where you bring out actors from that part of the series (i.e. Sarah Sutton and Janet Fielding sharing the stage with Peter Davison) mixed in with music and stories from the series.


It's a rough idea but, yeah, I could get behind that. Make it possible for me to but tickets and I would strongly think about it.

[QUOTE=AzureSkyCiel;4091247]Also, Penny still needs a cool hero name. Any suggestions in this thread?

QUOTE]


How about:

Bad Penny
Penny for your thoughts
A Penny saved
Clockwork Mistress (well, maybe)

or

Yin-tense
Yin-stant
yin-terpretation
Yin-pulse


ok, back to you...

Continuing on 1/28/12 in a new thread here.

Hello everyone, JWB here.

For those of you who have been following the story up until this point, I figured I'd start the second part in a new thread just to help keep things neat and tidy. If you're a new reader, part one of the story can be found here.

As before, the plan will be to post new episodes on Saturdays until I reach the end, and, as before, I have no real idea how many episodes I will need to get there.

I do appreciate feedback so please feel free to PM me if you have questions or comments.


Epitaph: part 2. Episode 1 coming 1/28/12

I'll put 1,000,000 inf on Fusionette right now.

Although she's a bit of a ditz, and a bit prone to getting captured, once you get her free, she's a more than worthy ally.

She has the bonus of knockback. Flambeaux cant shoot if she can't stand (a way I've beaten her more than once.) She also has the bonus of mobility (Has anyone seem Flambeaux fly? I don't think I have.)

I'm discounting allies since we know Flambeaux hangs out with Freaks but, if we did allow them in Fusionette would have another edge. Lets just look at her friends list shall we?

Faultline (Jim Temblor, stone tank)
Penny Yin (most powerful psychic in the game universe and the person the Clockwork King has a crush on)
Doc Delilah (SS/Inv tank)

We could also make allowances for her Vanguard membership so......


Again, 1,000,000 on Fusionette. Any takers?

Concept Characters....

Yup, that's me. I have quite a few of them. In fact, if they dont have a good concept, they rarely make it past 20.

The Queen of all of them is my dear, beloved, Doc Vendetta.

When I started playing this game (way back when it was actually two games) I started out on villain side and had ths wild idea for a radiation based healer.

Yup, a healer based on radiation. A set with one heal. I'll give you a moment to let that one sink in.

So, I put together a rad/rad corruptor and stayed with the idea of 'support.' She would take everything from the rad secondary and as little as possible from the assault side.

Even today at lv 50, she has only 3 actual attack powers.

The only reason this one trick pony survived was becuse she became a debuff machine and other people kept inviting her onto teams.

She's still one of my favorites but, would I do that again.... probably not.


And very special mention should be given to the character tha occupies that picture over there. That's Cass. Her whole concept is built around a booster pack.

You see, a while back I was walking around Atlas PArk and I thought, "what this city needs is some street performers" but, since there really wasn't a way to do that well, the idea sat there....

Until the magic booster pack.

Suddenly I had the ability to juggle and do fancy card tricks and read fortunes. A wise cracking, Ms. Liberty dissing, fast talking, street gypsy was born. She also has the distinction of being my only other lv 50.

There's already an interesting thread here talking about powersets people list as 'never again.' After reading through that I wondered about the other side.

What powersets, if any, are your "GoTo" sets. These are the ones you will usually go back to time and again when considering new characters.


For me, I have a soft spot for the 'love it or hate it' champion, Empathy.

Thats right, I keep coming back to the support set of all support sets. It just fits my playstyle. No matter what game system I'm in, tabletop or computer, I tend to gravitate to the buff/debuff kind of power selections.


How about you? Any personal favorites?

I'll take any combination of AT's that come along.

Really.

Despite what others may say, there is no such thing as a 'useless' AT or powerset. There are, however, less than useful players.

You can have the best built, most purpled, slickest character, character in existence, but if they're run by a lousy player, they are worse than useless.

You all know the feeling. The one where even the simplest of missions (TF's ect.) go completely wrong because of that one fool that just can't seem to do their job right or just doesn't seem to have any idea what to do with the powers they have.

On the other hand, You could have the most vanilla, most basic AT, run by a good player and they will always be a benefit.

So, to sum up, If I'm building a team, feel free to sign up. Just be aware I might get rid of you if you're more trouble than you're worth.

Happy Birthday Ace.

Long Range Teleport.


It'll save a fortune on gas....

I never saw the States/ Recluse relationship as similar to Professor X/ Magneto. I always saw it more like the Doctor and the Master.

They were friends once, but the Master's lust for power and insanity drove them apart. They both still deeply respect each other (as the third Doctor put it 'Best Enemies") but they just cannot reconcile their differing philosphies. Any yet, they have saved each others lives several times. Showing that there's still something there.

Forget romantic subtext. This is deeper.

States and Recluse have a similar dynamic. They were once friends until the Well changed them. Marcus Cole believed in using that power to save the world. Stefan Richter, perhaps driven a little mad by the well (or by his own failings) believed in using that power to rule the world (since somebody had to do it.)

I would think that Recluse would take his time and go after Darren Wade, not because he wants all of the power for himself, but because he simply doesn't think Wade can be trusted with it. Recluse has spent years fighting the Well and has gotten pretty good at it. He feels he's the only one left who can actually keep it in check.

Ah, its all a bit babbling. But You see where I'm going with that

"I suppose you're all wondering why I invited you, the five greatest villains on planet Earth, to meet me in this dark and depressing manor house on the edge of a cliff, during a rainstorm. I propose a crime so epic, so monumental in it's scope that it will make us MASTERS OF THE WORLD.

I propose nothing less than the elimination of the one obstacle to all our ambitions, the one man who has, time and again, thwarted us at every turn, the man who has sent our grandest schemes crashing down time and again....

....oh, yeah, we're going to kill Statesman too. Hopefully that won't take up too much time. But after that....."

Thank you for joining me for part one of Epitaph. Please join us next week for part two.


---JWB

Hiya Paragonners. Alexis Alexander here with my continuing report.


"Alexis, are you nuts?"

I suppose I should explain that last quote readers. As we made it back down the stairs to ground level, I mentioned to my companions that I wanted to get closer to downtown so I could get a good look at the damage in that area. All three of my partners had good, logical, very reasonable, arguments why that would be a bad idea and had formed a consensus that we should just call this a lost cause and look for a way out.

Readers, I pride myself on being a sensible person with a habit of taking good advice when it's offered to me. But there's a large part of my personality that just refuses to give up on a puzzle. (It took me three years to solve my Rubik's cube but did I give up? I did not. It's now sitting on top of my TV as a prized paperweight.) There were just too many unanswered questions.

That is why, when I told them that I was heading downtown with or without them, Sandy felt the need to question my sanity. I didn't hold it against her. In fact, I had quietly asked myself the same question moments earlier.

At street level the damage didn't seem as bad as it appeared from above but now we moved with more caution. By now we had two known threats in the forms of Longbow and Vanguard and a less immediate third threat of the Shivans. On top of all that, the sun was setting. We needed to find a place to take cover for the night.

Two blocks later we found what we were looking for in one of Paragon City's more successful retailers, Harper Brothers furniture and appliances. The glass at the front of the store had been smashed, most likely by looters since the store seemed to be missing every single, easy to carry, electronic item from cash register to microwave to toasters. Despite the rather thorough sacking, the store had several things that we found perfect for our needs.

The store's stockroom had solid walls and doors that we could secure easily enough, so we set up camp in there. A bit of lifting gave us serviceable mattresses (I had been afraid of sleeping on the ground. I didn't really have a lot of planning time for this you know.) and a couple of simple, but comfortable chairs. A small employee break area provided us with a coffeemaker and a small hotplate that must not have been worth the looters' trouble. More importantly, the break area had a small attached bathroom that still had running water.

Readers, never underestimate the comfort factor of running water in an emergency situation. It's true that a shower was out of the question but we could at least wash our faces and the toilet would flush. Those two things alone changed things from desperate to merely uncomfortable.

Sandy and I dragged mattresses around while Handshake worked on getting power flowing again. Carpenter had stepped out to take one more look around the building and set up a few nasty surprises for anyone or anything trying to sneak up on us during the night.

She stepped back into the room a few minutes later and I helped her shove a refrigerator into the doorway to block it. It would be a pain to move in an emergency but we were willing to risk it.

"Everything looks quiet out there. I've set up a few sensors but I don't think we'll need them. I'm pretty certain that this neighborhood has already been cleared."

"Any sign of the Chaser pilot?" Sandy asked.

"None," Carpenter shrugged. "I'm not sure we'd know in any case. Longbow probably has already listed this part of the city as vacant."

"But won't the pilot report that he encountered someone out here?" I asked.

"Well, assuming he made it back to HQ he should, " said Handshake as he walked back into the room unrolling a thin blue cable. "At least, that was SOP for Arachnos pilots. Report everything then wait for instructions. I can't imagine it would be any different for Longbow."

"And even if he did, there's no guarantee that they would do anything about it until morning." said Sandy. "They're probably doing what we're doing, getting behind walls for the night."

While we unwrapped some camping food and set up a simple meal, Handshake finished unrolling cable and set up a laptop in the center of our cushions.

"Shall we try to find out?," He asked. "The power's dead so it looks like cold food tonight and no coffee in the morning but, " he smiled, "this building has a perfectly functional landline phone. A lot of folks forget that you can get onto the internet that way. If my little adapter box holds, we should be able to get a bit more information."

Camp rations, no power, and a dial up Internet connection. Could things get any more primitive, readers? Still I had the luxury to sit back and take stock of the day.

On the whole, I now understood the rush to get the public out of what was potentially a war zone. In fact, making the disaster sound worse than it was would just help get people moving. It would be weeks, if not months before people from different parts of Galaxy City would be able to compare notes and start asking questions. On top of that, by feeding the media with carefully crafted stories of widespread disaster, the government would be able to reinforce that message and by the time the media remembered to start asking questions instead of 'focusing on the human tragedy', the quarantine would be fully in place and it would be far too late to do anything about it.

"But why not let the heroes in?"

"What, Alexis?"

"Sorry, Sandy. Just thinking out loud."

Actually, I'd worked with heroes long enough to know the answer to that question. I hate to tell you this readers, but the majority of those heroes that you've come to rely upon in times of crisis, couldn't keep a secret if their lives depended upon it. In fact, there are a few that are so desperate for notoriety, that they would post anything you tell them on Facebook.

They may be Super, but they are still human.

Given that long standing policy has been to keep invasions out of sight and out of mind for the general populace, the government cannot afford to let any but the most trusted heroes into Galaxy City. Just one of the glory hounds shouting about a second invasion would panic a public that is still wondering why its taking so long to get rid of the Rikti.

I know that my telling you this isn't really helping matters readers. In fact, I can smell some bridges burning brightly behind me, but I trust you to be more intelligent than panicky. Please try not to prove me wrong.

I guess, until someone more qualified comes along, I've become your war correspondent. I'll keep sending out reports for as long as I can...

...That is, assuming I can find someplace around here to charge up my Blackberry.


Alexis Alexander, Investigative reporter and now, War Correspondent, for Paragon News Services, reporting from the front lines in Galaxy City.








End part 1

Tender and heartwarming moments hmmm?

As already mentioned "O Wretched Man" goes straight through heartwarming into near devestating. Still, there's a lot of love there.

"I lost my Daddy" Penny Yin's arc in faultline ends with one of my favorite lines of dialogue (YoudiditYoudid itYoudidit). I not only get to save the day but I get to make someone happy because of it.

The final mission of the Warden storyline in Praetoria where all of the people you've saved (rescued, ect) are there to see you off and wish you well.

Oddly enough, the very first arc in the new Atlas. You get to save Matthew AND his wife, and they seem happy about that.

Those are just a few that come to mind. I'm sure that someone will think of others.

I'll give you what i can.

of the ones you've listed they are...


SoA= Soldier of Arachnos. One of the two villain epic AT's

MT= Mis-Tell. Something you said in chat that was put out over the wrong channel.

PBAoE= Player Based Area of Effect. Any power that radiates out from your character

let us know more and we can get you up to speed

"I beg you, please provide some context at the BEGINNING of your sentence." -- KYON