mousedroid

And now, allow me to present the new, streamlined Erin Brand:

Wow, you aren't kidding, Nazghul - this is not an enviable task.

First off let me once again thank everyone for participating. I have to say, each of your entries have elements that I really like - whether it is Starwind's mask/headpiece combo, McBoo's use of the Angelic plus top with the mystic hood, Johnstone's color palette and use of the celtic chest symbol, or Clobbertime's skirted look (and I really like the metallic leg armor with that outfit). But there are two costumes that really stood out for me, and for completely different reasons.

Alasdair's design has a regal, and vaguely religious look to it, and it's how I would picture Brigid dressing if she'd been born in the Middle Ages. I am stongly considering making this one of her alternate costumes, and as such, Alasdair has earned one of the two prizes I am awarding for this contest.

However, Alasdair will have to wait until after StormVyxen has decided which price she would prefer (in case she wants the Influence prize on Virtue, of which I can only award one). StormVyxen's entry certainly isn't the flashiest, and I may color it a little differently, but she has somehow captured almost exactly the sleek, modernistic, armored look I originally envisioned, but was unable to put together, for The Erin Brand. Well, done, SV! Please let me know whether you would prefer 10-million Influence on Guardian or Virtue, or 15-million Infamy on Virtue.

Once StormVyxen has decided, you can let me know which you would prefer, Alasdair.

And for the other participants, if you have villains on Virtue, or heroes on Guardian, I would like to give you each 2-million Infamy or 1-million Influence for making the effort to put together entries for me (and so I won't feel too bad if I adopt parts of your designs into other costumes ), so let me know.

Is the NPC AI written to target Spectral Terrors summonded by Illusion Controllers, or do the NPCs ignore them (assuming they are not afraid of them)? If NPCs don't attack them, then they should not be targetable by players, IMO; otherwise they should.

I will be making my decision and naming the winner(s) tonight around 9:30 PM ET. So, anyone who wants to contribute a costume suggestion still has about 12 hours to sneak one in.

Thanks to all the participants so far - your contributions are all great, and greatly appreciated!

I really hope this gets fixed before the... people who fix this stuff... go home for the weekend.

I probably use the in-game store about twice a month on average, so it's just my luck that I get an idea for a new toon, or a new name for an old toon this week and the store is unavailable.

I think it would also be cool to just have random occurances where you see Statesman just flying through Atlas Park, or maybe fighting Lusca in IP. As I understand it, DCUO will allow you to team up with their signature characters (semi-)regularly, so seeing the CoH/CoV signature heroes/villains doing something other than standing around motionless seems like a great, immersion creating idea.

The CoH 5th Anniversary event was a blast with the GM and AV invasions, but I wouldn't want that to become a regular thing lest it lose its shine. People already complain enough about the random Rikti and Zombie invasions. I'm hoping we'll see a similar one-day event for the 5th Anniversary of CoV next year though.

Danish Prune Omlettes

What's more annoying was that since I couldn't use one of the extra slots I had bougt to make a new character, I decided to delete one and use that slot. Unfortunely when I deleted that toon, the game locked that slot too. Fortunately store access seemed to come and go so after switching servers a couple of times my slots were back long enough to make a new toon. Then they disappeared again and I went to bed.

Serious reply:

You're talking about 10 PM to 8 AM - I don't know whether that's Eastern or Pacifc or some time zone in between, but it's a chunk of time when a large portion of the US population is asleep. I know there are European and Australasian (is that the term?) players on the US servers, but I don't know how those hours relate to their sleep or work schedules, or what percentage of the player base they make up.

So anyway, if you're not having trouble finding teams during prime time, just at the time when most of the world is in bed or possible at work/school, I don't see why the servers should be merged just to accomodate your schedule, and that of the few other players that play during the same hours as you.


Non helpful reply:

Maybe you should quit playing CoH. Seriously. I don't know what you do with the rest of your day, but your spelling, punctuation and grammar are atrocious. Unless you're 12 years old this poor quality of writing is inexcusable; and if you are 12 years old, what are you doing staying up all night? Honestly though, if you dedicated half the effort to improving your communication skills as you do to looking for, and complaining about not finding, teams in a video game, you'd be a lot better off.

What server? And how do you feel about word-play names or jokey sounding names?

I've wanted Westley's suggestion of Buzz Off on Virtue ever since my name Bee-Yotch got generic'ed, but I finally settled on the inferior, but still pleasing to me, Pain in the Wasp.

Depending on your taste, and availablity, you could try any of those names.

Another name I have been after on Virtue is Tarantula Hawk, which at first doesn't sound like much of an insect name, but look them up on wikipedia - they are big, bad-*** wasps that hunt tarantulas as food for their larvae! ETA: They don't look anything like bees though.

A little over three days left to get your entries in. And thanks again to those who've participated so far!

I plan to be there. I'm generally not much into the tank play style, but I have a fire/war mace tank on Guardian whose concept I like. Maybe once I get some more levels under his belt I'll enjoy playing him more.

Unless time is a factor, or I'm already committed to a team with a different toon, I'm always willing to team with my two 50s. They both skipped a lot of content like TF/SF and mayhem missions on their way to 50, so I enjoy exemping down to run these things.

I may joke that it's hard to get used to having so few powers, because it is, but it's fun too, so any time anyone is looking to fill a TF team on Guardian, or a SF or mayhem team on Virtue, feel free to send me an invite.

Good stuff so far, gang. I like the variety I'm seeing so far and can't wait to see what others come up with.

Also, I don't think it would be unfair to let people submit more than one design if they want - is everyone else OK with that?

screenshots from MA are fine, and changes to power effects colors are too. I don't think Broadsword has any effects you can change other than the sword, and I plan to stick with the color tintable longsword for this costume. But yeah, if you want to monkey around with the colors of the Willpower effects, knock yourselves out.

Other stuff: I am a soon-to-be 21 month vet, so you can use any of the vet reward costume pieces upto and including the shoulder capes if you want.

You can also use auras if you want, but if you do, please post a screenshot with and without the aura.

Please do.

And another note, I will pop in from time to time, but I'm going to refrain from making comments on submittals until next Friday so as not to give later submitters an advantage in knowing what I do and don't like.

I'm guessing I'm too late to get in on this, but it never hurts to ask, so, am I too late to get in on this?

OK, here's the deal - Erin Brand, my Broadsword/Willpower scrapper is one of my oldest characters and was my first 50. I love this character and I love playing her, but I've never been thrilled about her original costume. As pictured below, her costume has remained largely unchanged since I created her about a month into the game. I will keep this costume for sentimental reasons, but I want an updated look for her, so I am turning to you, the supercreative costumers of the Screenshots and Fan creations forum.

The prize for the costume I like best will be the winner's choice of either 15-million infamy or 10-million influence. Unfortunately my toons are not super rich and are not spread server to server, so I can only offer the infamy prize to toons on Virtue and the influence prize to toons on Virtue or Guardian. To sweeten the pot even further - if two posters come up with really great costumes, each will get 10/15-million influence/infamy (but only one can get a 10-million influence prize on Virtue).

So what do you say? A little background on the character - her real name is Brigid Mackin, and sh is of Irish descent. Her family are the mystical protectors of Ireland and she inherited her powers, her sword (The Emerald Blade) and her longevity from her grandfather. Don't worry about getting her face (I think I used #12) or hair color just right, but her costume should contain at least some green to honor her Irish heritage. She is of magic origin and has access to all the Vanguard and Roman pieces, all the booster packs, and the rocket and winged boots craftable costume pieces.

I will leave the contest open for one week with judging on the evening of September 25, and the prize(s) awarded as soon as possible afterward.

I don't mind an occasional "kill steal" - I'm just happy to see other heroes and villains on the street for a change.

I agree - this should be slated as the 120 month vet reward. Otherwise, I agree with the poster who said, "no."

For one thing, if you're a vet, you shouldn't be running across zones from the hospital very often. Other than that you've got the base teleport power at 24 months, the purchaseable mission teleport power, the purchaseable jet pack, and now the option to buy the Shadow Shard or Grandville jetpacks at level 1. Movement in this game should never be a justification for power-leveling.

I doubt that's the reason for the suggestion though. Instead it's probably that 1) toons "feel too weak" before level 20, and/or 2) this game needs new low level content.

Nothing should be done about #1 IMO - you should start out relatively weak so that you feel more powerful as you get higher in levels. Hopefully GR will provide some new beginning game content, and after that CoH and CoV will also get some new 1-10 or 1-20 missions and contacts.

Before I read the OP's suggestion, I thought "reputation" was going to be tied somehow to influence/infamy. For example, every time you die, or drop a mission, prices go up/down by 10% to a maximimum of 100%.

In other words, if you die three times in a mission, when you go to sell the recipies and enhancements that dropped, the store will only give you 70% of the normal value for them. Or, if you need to replace the enhancements you've outleveled, they charge you 130% of the normal going rate.

The two problems I see with this though, are that there's no fair way to make it affect the market, and I don't have any idea how you'd improve your reputation - one completed mission to offset each death? That might be a little too harsh.