Happy New Year!

Bonus! No video or pictures, just the song, but that was good enough for me.

Merry Christmas!

It's a couple of days early, but I found this today, and it really entertained me.

Twelve Days of Christmas - A Cappella Remix @ Yahoo! Video

Another Video

I feel motivated to go do... something. I'm just not sure what.



"Like a big bear, man!"

Issue 13 Impressions, So Far

When I was in college, my best friend and I would write "hate notes" to each other on our bad days. The whole note would be filled with things we hated. "I hate the ice outside the cafeteria. I hate having to go all the way across campus for a meteorology class. I hate meteorology class," etc. They were actually very therapeutic, for the chance to vent, and, after the first twenty or so I-hates, good for a laugh.

I don't want my i13 impressions to sound like an I-hate note. Because I don't hate all of it. Really, I don't. I remember i9, and how I hated inventions and salvage and recipes. I've, uh, adjusted to all that.

Right now, I hate merits. I think I'll adjust, though. It's a whole new system. On one hand, I'm not going to get a recipe off of a twenty-minute Katie (or the disaster of an hour and a half Katie this past Friday night) that sells for a few million influence. On the other hand, though, I'm not going to end up with a Crap of the Hunter recipe after an LGTF. I see the pluses and the minuses of the new system, but right now, it does seem like the minuses outweigh the pluses.

I do hate whatever it is they did to chat. Getting blank or one letter tells is one thing, but what I really hate, is how the chat bar has changed. It's "sluggish," and difficult to deal with if you're typing quickly. I dislike that they broke the colors in the speech bubbles, though that seems very minor to me.

They fixed the SG costume thing, so now each costume and its SG color settings are saved. That does make me happy. And more costumes. More costumes are always good. Jez got her "woman in black" suit, so that makes me happy.

The leveling pact is... weird. Vagz and I pacted our new shield characters, and we seem to get delayed XP. We leveled coming out of mission doors several times, and more than once I got a sudden large grant of XP.

Oh, right! The base changes. The prestige refund is wonderful, and the less strict placement rules for base items is nice. Except, whatever it is that broke being able to raise things on the walls. That's just... weird. But, thanks to those other two things, the Night-Watch has even more teleporters, and a new teleport room that is definitely my favorite room in the base.

The shield power set seems... okay for now. I don't feel like I can judge it yet. Tresa (more about her some other time) is level 22, and currently has 3 powers from the scrapper shields set. It seems adequate, from the limited experiences I've had so far. I guess that means it doesn't suck, at least, or I would have noticed that. The powers in the set just seem odd to me. Against All Odds and Shield Charge seem like they're from some other set, and just got thrown into Shield Defense. Like, maybe there was a Shield Offense at some point, and the set was eliminated, but they saved those two powers and just threw them into the defense set. We'll have to see how it actually works, though, and I don't feel like I'll be able to have a good judgement of that for another ten levels or so.

I want to roll (UGH) a pain dom corrupter, but I don't have the character slots, or really even the time with all the other things I want to do in the game. It was fun on Test. But, with the thousands of other pain dom characters running around, it's probably rather pointless to do to run on PuGs, anyway. So, maybe I'll get to it, maybe I won't. I have more than enough to do with the BS/Shield, playing with the revamped Kheld (Constant Star is level 34, and I like the Kheld changes very much), the revamped Invulnerability (limited testing so far, and Cass finally got her respec and all her IOs, so it's hard to tell where the actual improvements have come from, but she seems MUCH better), and working to earn MOAR MERITS.

Video

I know, I should be writing about i13, and merit hatred, etc., and I will, eventually. But. I found this video, and it's sort of like one of those car crash things. I couldn't stop watching. If this was 1985, I probably would have taped the song off the radio and listened to it over and over. The video... well, I think someone spent way too much time at the Renaissance Fair. The singer's kinda creepy. And yet, I still couldn't stop watching.



But, please, someone tell me what the alligator is doing in all of that?

i13 Trailer

Something to watch while you wait for the servers to come back up:

i13 TOMORROW!

http://uk.boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=1275807&Main=1275807#Post1275807

That's all.

Happy Thanksgiving!

What I'm Doing While I Wait For i13, Part 3

15 Images You Won't Believe Aren't Photoshopped.

#15 kind of freaks me out. And the video in #10 really makes me want to go there and see that.

Also, 15 MORE Images You Won't Believe Aren't Photoshopped.

What I'm Doing While I Wait For i13, Part 2

This song is an old "in joke" with college friends. I did NOT know there was a video, or even a website until recently.

No Issue 13 For You!

Why didn't anyone tell me about this sooner?

Also, no Issue 13 until after Thanksgiving.

Yes, I am glad I didn't make that bet.

What I'm Doing While I Wait For i13

Happy Halloween!

I want our zombies to do this!



When I was in college, I made a video to this song, with a cast of thousands! Okay, tens. It was for a video production class, and it did get an A. Unfortunately, it's on a VHS tape. It was better than this one, too. The song's from The Lost Boys, and I remember the cartoons from when I was a kid.

Pain, Thermal, and i13

So, I'm finally patching up the Test Server to take a look at the new stuff. Or at least, the new stuff I can look at before Open Beta. Shields don't interest me at all. Not even a little bit. Honestly, *yawn.* (Sorry, Keen and Vagz.) But I'm interested enough in Pain Domination to take a look.

I'll probably remake (NOT "reroll." There's no freakin' rolling involved!!) Angel Noir, my level 44 fire/thermal corrupter as... something/Pain Domination. Not fire. Maybe Dark. Not fire because nothing Fire Blast is ever going to compare favorably to Fyre's Fire Blast. Several hundred million influence later, yes, but the result is the same. And I hate Thermal. Why? Because with a corrupter, I want to blow sh*t up, not buff and heal, and heal and buff, and buff, and buff. Thermal's a mix of Forcefield or Sonic and Empathy. There's shields, AoE heals, single-target heals, Thaw (which is similar to Clarity or Clear Mind), and a couple of debuffs. Imagine playing an empath, a rad, and a force field defender ALL AT THE SAME TIME, AND trying to do damage, on a PuG with 7 other crazy people. It's not fun.

I played her until level 44, though, for several reasons. First, I reserved the name before CoV was launched. I played the character in CoV closed Beta, and rushed with make the character on Live with the headstart. In the early days of CoV, there were plenty of teams, rushing to make 40 (that was the level cap for CoV then) as quick as possible. No one knew what they were doing. Just racking up XP. I'd only been playing CoH for a couple of months then, too, and I barely knew what I was doing there. I hit 40 fairly quickly, withing maybe 2 months of the CoV launch. I had NO idea what I was doing. Over the new two years or so, Angel gained 4 levels, and racked up several respecs. And I was never happy with her. Even less when I compared her to Fyre. But, I didn't delete her, because I was attached the name, because I did have 40+ levels invested in her (even if the time committment wasn't much), and because she got the Ghost Widow patron hold which is the coolest looking power EVER.

But, I don't play her. Soloing is disappointing because she doesn't do the damage I want. Teaming is painful, because teams want a Thermal corrupter to buff, heal, buff, buff, heal. I don't expect Pain Domination to be any less buff/heal heavy. But, if I'm aware of that, and build the character to buff and heal, and do it well, then maybe it won't be so painful (no pun intended). Maybe. Since it'll be new and shiny, though, I'll play it, and be able to justify using a character slot just to save a name.


Let's see, what else... The patcher's not done yet.

I'm so over zombies. I loved the idea, and the implementation. The early start was amazingly awesome. E and Scarlette were standing outside a mission entrance in Dark Astoria, when there was the sudden loud sound of something that may have been music, a long puzzeled silence, and the groan of the undead as they started clawing their way out of the ground. It was freakin' awesome. Seriously. I've hunted GMs a few times, and Fyre's spent some time ToTing, earning more costume salvage, influence, salvage, and recipes. Including a purple Armageddon proc, Chance for Fire Damage, which I love the irony of. I'm over the Halloween event as a whole, though. Which is probably good since there's only a few days left. I still love the red sky, though, and I think Dark Astoria should have year-round random Zombie Invasions.

The DB scrappers hit 47 last night. They're interesting right now. The RP is good and involving, but not at melodrama levels, and of all my scrappers, I don't have one at 50 yet, so that's one of my goals. Cass is still 48, but I'm waiting until the i13 Invulnerability changes to resume playing her.

Speaking of Thermal, though-- yeah, I know, delayed reaction-- I did make my lowbie controller, Andromeda Balan, mind/thermal. But she was meant to duo with a fire scrapper, which meant she could focus on the controller part, and not the thermal part. In fact, she won't even pick up shields until after level 20 and Stamina. Even with the special guest stars (whoever Keen and/or Mason decide to bring along), she's still been just fine. A small team of the 4 of us is a heck of a lot different than a full team of clueless PuGers. RP-wise, Andy has a few secrets, including one big one. She--

Patcher's done! Gotta go!

Screenshots

As much as I've been playing, I haven't been taking screenshots. I am working on series of "bad bios," (some things are so awful, they just need to be shared) but I'd like to get a few more before I post them. Which means I need to start PuGing a little more often. After that, it shouldn't take long. Other than that, here's what I've gotten lately.

Break-dancing Zombie
Second in a series, the first being Keen's "Ninja Zombie."

Fyre, waiting for a response to a petition during an ITF due to Sister Psyche-- er, Solaris going into a fugue state inside her bubble and not doing anything.

A Vanguard Heavy on patrol in the RWZ.

Trina's the one in black in the center. Other than that, I don't remember who any of those other people are. Just random PuG members.

Trina and Tyrant meet...

... and decide they really don't like each other.

I wonder how well the trains stick to the schedule in the Spirit World.

Speaking of things that don't belong in certain places: Romans in an office building.

When Fae go bad.

Captain Castillo, up close and personal. His outfit isn't that bad...

Especially when you consider this guy.

Literal 80s

This is only good if you remember 80s pop music. I do, and Tears for Fears was one of my favorites. If you like this, check out the "Literal A-ha" video in the recommended videos at the end.

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Expansions

First, Trina (Alastrina Sylvanie, Will Power/Super Strength/Energy Mastery) hit 50 Wednesday evening on an Invincible Imperious Task Force run.

Invincible? Yes, and it was fun as hell. I don't think it would work with every team make up, both AT-wise and player-wise. There were somewhere around 50 deaths. Trina died... three times, I think. Once with about 3 groups of enemies around her, and once pulling the healing Nictus off of Romulus. There was one crazy controller who was the leader and organizer who died more than a few times, and another controller who spent a good portion of the TF dead. We almost had a wipe at the Phalanx, but I self-rezzed, popped SoW and Rage at the same time and knocked out its last few HPs.

I pulled Cass out for awhile the other day and played her long enough to get to 48. She doesn't even have all her SOs replaced with IOs. I did some of that, but she needs another respec, because the last few levels I was getting frustrated and picking powers almost randomly. Stealth sounded like a fun choice. But it's pointless, and I can find something at least a little better, even if I just go with the first two powers from the Fighting pool for the 47 and 49 choices. Or maybe Conserve Power and Focused Accuracy. Or maybe Caltrops. Okay, maybe Caltrops isn't the best choice, but it could be fun.

I spent a few hours updating the Night-Watch's base. I finally took the time to figure out what I needed to do to add a Rez Ring and more Teleporters. I added Perez, Brickstown, Croatoa, and Peregrine Island to the teleporters, in addition to the Steel Canyon, Independence Port, The Hollows, and Crey's Folly that we had. I want to switch PI to something else, because by the time you need to go there, you should have the Ouroboros teleporter available. I'd like to switch it to the RWZ, since it has limited access points, but we don't have the beacon for it. I really thought I'd gotten all the Exploration badges with Trina, in SG mode, and so we should have the beacon, but we don't. I plan to go back over them sometime soon, but as of yet, I haven't. I wonder if there IS a beacon for the RWZ, since it's supposed to be locked-down by the Vanguard? Something I'll have to check on. I had to move some rooms around to fit the new Teleporter Room and the Medical room, and just for the hell of it, I added a "meeting" room. Mostly just because I liked the special SG meeting tables. The base is a little bit of a maze now when you first go in, because the layout is different. I still make some wrong turns, even though I was the one who did the layout. But, then, everyone knows how good my sense of direction is. Also, to improve the Rez ring to the next step up, we need the SG healing badge (I think), so I've been trying to run Evan and even Blaze on PuGs to work on that. It's a bit off yet, though. I'd say we're about 3/5 of the way to the badge. (Actually, now that I look at Paragonwiki, it's the second healing badge, which we're no where near.)

Otherwise, it's been RP-week, aside from my usual PuGs. Which is a welcome change, especially compared to my usual PuGs. Nothing too Earth-shattering. This week. So far. But, it's still been fun.

The Robot(s)

Counter-LOL

I see your lolcat:




And raise a chihuahua:

One or Fewer

I was bored while I was dodging McCain news coverage.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 1 or fewer people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

What's Going On

So, I got Evan to 50 on Saturday. Now you're asking, who's Evan? Because I never mentioned her in the blog before, and I doubt anyone's seen her or played with her. Evan Caine, Kin/Rad/Power defender. She went from 1-50 in about a month, all PuG. Now this is testament to the amount of free time I currently have, but mostly to the fact that kinetics is kind of awesome, because I really didn't spend an inordinate percentage of time on her at all. People are addicted to Speed Boost. It's kind of sad, really. Transfusion is nice, too. But, really, it's all about the Fulcrum Shift. Or at least it should be. I don't think that everyone really understands how it works, or maybe how much it works. One Fulcrum Shift can put everyone in melee range at the damage cap. loldefenderdamage? Ha. Fulcrum Shift makes Evan a blaster with Build Up running. (Uh, loldefenderdamage still counts for all other types of non-Fulcrum Shifted defender damage. Just for the record.) I actually took Atomic Blast, the rad nuke, on her. Fulcrum-Shifted defender nuke is no joke, and if anything lives, one Transfusion and her endurance is instantly full again. Of course, anything living after that is rare.

Trina's still at 49. (Alastrina Sylvanie, WP/SS/Energy tanker) I'll run her to 50 sometime soon. I don't have a lot of motivation to do it, I think. My goal was to level a tank, which I have. After she hits 50, I'm not sure how often I'll take her out. I can tank. (It's really not that hard, like I've said.) I feel like I proved that. But, I still prefer other things. I think my next project will be another blaster. I started an Energy/Energy blaster awhile back, and she's still at 27. The knockback is workable. I can hover over things and turn it into knockdown. But every time Energy Torrent knocks some poor scrappers target away while I was actually targeting a totally different enemy, I feel bad. And every time some n00b energy blaster who runs into a group and scatters everything with his half-slotted Nova, leaving a bunch of pissed-off, barely-scratched enemies with free-roaming aggro, I cringe. So, I'm not sure she'll ever see 28.

Back on the Kinetics front, Elli (Ellianne Sylvanie [no relation to Trina], Gravity/Kinetics controller) hit level 32 and got her Singularity. Gravity's holds are so-so, the duration could be better, but the Singularity makes up for a lot. I'm more interested in getting her higher level Kinetic powers. Wormhole frustrates me a bit. It's a nifty power. The graphics are great, the effects are useful. But for some reason, the targeting just sucks. Both what you pick up and where you put them is unreliable. I'll keep using it because the disorient IS reliable, and sometimes it really helps to put mobs in another place, even if it's not EXACTLY where you want. The RP is fun, too. Elli is my sweet little good-natured "fairy princess." (As for the "little" part, she is by far my shortest character, not counting Mo, since nothing is shorter than Mo.) It's hard to curb the sarcasm sometimes, and remember that she is generally happy, sweet and nice, and not sarcastic, bitter, and/or tough. Vagz has an interesting story developing with his WS, Derick Darklight who's Elli's duo partner.

As for Luna, if it wasn't for the RP, she would have been deleted long ago. Psi blast continues to disappoint me. The damage by itself is nothing outstanding. The best power of the set is probably Psionic Tornado, because of the AoE damage and knockup. Mental Manipulation... well, it doesn't suck. It does have some nifty toys, mixed with some decent damage. The big problem is when you run into something like robots, say on a Council mission. Or Nemesis. Or Carnies. Only one of the Psi Blast powers has anything other than psi damage. It takes forever to kill one Council Hoverbot, while it blasts and beeps at you from range. Those beeps get really annoying after awhile. Not to mention the rockets it launches. And, yes, I have to admit it, I still despise the way the ice shields look. Not merely dislike, or even hate. Despise. As for defense (damage resistance, whatever), they're awesome. I just wish I didn't have to look at them. (Go ahead, tell me to put my camera in first-person.) Between all the defense (damage resistance, whatever), the lolpsidamage and Vagz's loldefenderdamage, they do get through missions just fine, and above the base difficulty level. Luna and Vagz, however, are getting along much better than they have any right to. For the moment. Luna is totally the kind of person would sabotage any good relationship she had, but so far she's behaving. And it's still interesting in how they interact, at least partly because of all the differences they do have.

Of course, before I forget, at the total opposite end of the spectrum are the VEATs. There's very little RP, which is fine. First, because Karma doesn't have a lot story. If asked, I'm sure she wouldn't consider herself a villain. She was born and raised in the Etoile Isles. Her father worked for Arachnos until he was killed. To her, Longbow and the Freedom Phalanx and all the rest are the interlopers in her country, interfering with the only type of government that she's ever known. I try to play her as very practical, with military knowledge, training, and thought processes. (Yes, the sarcasm slips.) She's become more mercenary with her new status as a "Destined One," and her new partners, but the basics stay the same.

But, again, who cares about the RP on that team? With 3 VEATs, we rip through the highest difficulty like it was nothing. It's almost boring because everything's so easy. The lure here is new powers and how quickly we can get them. And, making fun of Lee's crab legs. Poor guy. The minor focus on the RP might be a bad thing, though. Lee has a very interesting backstory in his bio space, and I know Vagz has some things going on for Silence. Maybe we'll get to that once tearing through reds and purples and earning new powers gets old.

Dr. Horrible

Sort of on-topic, since it's about super heroes and villains...

If you haven't heard of it yet, and I doubt that, check it out here: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.
The notable part, at the moment, is that the whole thing's available on Hulu.com now. There's three approximate 15 minute installments, or you can watch the entire 43 minute episode.

Speaking of things found on Hulu, the entire first (and only) season of The Dresden Files is currently available there. The books are, of course, much better, but the show is at least entertaining.

Mary-Sue Test

Just something I found by clicking around. The Universal Mary-Sue Litmus Test. There is a section for RPG games, and I think you can make it apply for CoH. Even if you don't go by their scoring, I think you can still use it to measure: If you're laughing by the end, you're probably okay. If you're getting pissed off by the end, you might wanna rethink some things.

Oh, and while I'm throwing out semi-random links, see if you can get this to work: Song Tapper. Nifty concept, but it doesn't seem to find my songs. As usual, I blame my keyboard.

Boom de CoH

This is my new favorite:

Boom de CoH @ Yahoo! Video

Also, in case you didn't see the original commerical for the Discovery Channel somewhere on the internet by now:

Zombie Apocalypse

When I logged on to the forums earlier today, I saw a posted notice about the Halloween event, Zombie Apocalypse!, testing on the Test Server. So, having nothing much better to do in the afternoon, I updated my Test Server copy, copied the newest version of Fyre Hex over, and went. Trick or Treat lasted an hour an a half, and I made three zombie invasions.

Trick or Treat with the new rules is more chaotic than ever. I spent most of my time on Peregrine Island chasing other people's roaming spawns.

The zombie invasions work just like Rikti invasions, only without the ships and the bombs.

Steel Canyon during a Zombie Apocalypse!

Atlas Park during a Zombie Apocalypse!

The new costume piece for the event, the Pumpkin Head costume.

All the other Trick or Treat costumes are the same as last year, including my favorite.

Notice the many, many zombie bodies on the ground. Possible cause of super-extra lag.

Yes, that's the real Castle floating over the zombies.

The big thing is a Nightmare-- no, really, that's what it's called. A Zombie Apocalypse! Elite Boss.

In case you want another view.

City of Heroes/Villains Videos

At least this one has something to do with City of Heroes... Sort of... I think...





I'm not sure how I feel about the music matching the video, but it's a nifty retelling of the Seer Marino arc that we just completed with our little VEAT team.

Random LOLs

Because I don't feel like making a "real" post:














How To Confuse An Idiot:



Now, you might need this:

Videos

How Soon Is Now - Snake River Conspiracy

Note that she does all that stuff in heels, like my characters do. So no more stilleto comments. Riight.




Not on my playlists, but who cares?

Aftermath of Double XP Weekend, Etc

Let's see if I miss anything:

Alastrina Sylvanie (WP/SS tank)-- 43-45
Jez Cavell (DB/WP scrapper)-- 44-45
Ellianne Sylvanie (Gravity/Kinetics controller)-- 23-30
Karma Noir (SoA)-- 17-25

Not bad. I ran a PuG with Vagz's Warshade, Derick Darklight, and Keen's Li Hwan, a storm/electric defender while I played Elli on Saturday for several hours. We kept the team up with at least six people, usually with eight. A few hours of running a PuG (AKA "herding cats," or "leading the kindergarten field trip) will wear you down. Later in the evening, Vagz and I duoed Elli and Derick, both for the break from PuGing, and for a chance to try out all the nifty new powers we earned. Wormhole is just fun. It's really the whole reason I wanted to try the Gravity Control set, and so far it's living up to my expectations.

TF Sunday was spent with the VEATs. Aside from the crashes, mapserves, and long load times, things went well. I'm still impressed with the VEATs, especially after playing over a hundred levels of Khelds (Warshade [Aurora Noir] to 34- deleted. Warshade [Obsydian Fyre] to 43- deleted. Peacebringer to 27 [Skylar Blaze] - deleted). Vagz (Sounds of Silence-Night Widow), Keen (Operative Lee- Crab Spider) and I (Karma Noir- Bane Spider) all got to level 25 and got to respec into our respective branches at 24. I am excited to continue to play and try out the other new powers, even after I was reluctant to start the VEATs.

Other than double XP weekend, I've been spending a lot time on my tank. Yes, I only have one. I spent 3 years too concerned about the difficulty to ever play a tank past the first ten levels. But, you know what? It's not that hard. It's... well, it's pretty easy. Why didn't someone tell me sooner? And, no, the ease of play is not a delusion on my part. I'm not blindly blundering about. Well, unless comments like "This is easy now that we have a good tank," or just "Good tanking!" from PuGs mean absolutely nothing. No, PuGs aren't exactly think-tanks, but I still think it says something. That, and automatically being handed the star after a mission or two. I've lead more teams as a tank than I have in my previous three years all put together. The only tough part of tanking is other people. Mostly, blasters. What is it with crazy blasters? I mean, really.

Lorelei Laughlin(level 50 Illusion/Radiation controller) got yet another respec. This is her third since she hit 50. And I HATE respecing. The more powers, the bigger pain it is to do. Note my incomprehensible and convoluted respec notes below. Contrary to expected beliefs, the spot is not a coffee stain, but an odd fold and reflection in the paper.



Xylia Thorn (Plant/Radiation Controller) has still been stuck at 43. Now that I've gone through all the nifty new plant powers, I'm bored with her. I'll probably get her to 50 someday, but I'm no longer in a rush. I started an Ice/Kinetics controller, to feed my amusement with controllers and still attempt to keep the need for obnoxious buffing at a minimum. It makes me absolutely insane when some other clueless controller throws an immobilize down on top of Ice Slick. And phrases like, "You know, every time someone immobilizes mobs on an Ice Slick, god kills a kitten," only works for one or two groups before they forget and start button mashing again, even with a longer explanation on why both of those things are bad.

More Pointless YouTube Videos

I fell way behind on the pointless YouTube music video posts, but I had a busy week.


Somebody Told Me - The Killers
There's one reason why this song's on the list. I know the line doesn't really say this, but it sounds like, "Never thought I met a Rularuu in the moonlight." Now tell me you don't hear that.




The Fallen - Franz Ferdinand
The song's on the list mostly for Villain side, for the line "What's wrong with a little destruction?" But, -warning- the video's one someone made from Shaun of the Dead, and there are a few flashes of gore. If you don't want to see it, go look it up somewhere else if you really want to hear the song.

Voodoo Child - Rogue Traders
I usually don't like the live versions of songs, but the video wouldn't link, so this is the next best thing.





Bullseye - Aly & AJ
Obviously not the "official" video. And, no, I have no idea what's going on around 2:38.

Music Videos

So, I've been meaning to do a big music post again. I'm on the far side of a pop phase at the moment, spurred mostly by stuff I heard randomly while listening to Pandora Radio. But instead of a long (to write and to read) post, I decided to just, again, randomly post YouTube videos. I'll try to do one or two a day until I get bored. Here's three for today.

Paralyzer - Finger Eleven





Four Minutes to Save the World - Madonna featuring Justin Timberlake
(The version I have as an mp3 doesn't have Timbaland, and I like it better. But still, good title for a superhero playlist)





Cold as Fire - Britney Spears
I sort of feel bad for making fun of Britney Spears, but I didn't make the video. Someone with way too much free time did, so they can have the guilt. I like the Oompa-Loompa back-up singers, even better in virtual stick figure form.

ALF

I know I need to make a real post sometime soon, but... not today. Soon. Until then, you get this:

Independence Day Muppets

Happy Fourth of July!

Off-Topic of the Week

In my morning internet rounds, I came across the most depressing newspaper article ever. Aside from the topic, what strikes me is that it's an AP story, not something from some rinky-dink paper no one's ever heard of. The AP needs to put this guy back on his meds, and not let him write until they kick back in.

But just two stories under where I found that link, I found this. Kinda makes you forget all that doom and gloom for at least four and a half minutes.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.


Also, interesting to note that Blogger thinks that "internet" is a misspelled word.

The ITF and More

So, Sunday's ITF went well. Here's the thing: I get impatient with people sometimes. I know, shocking. I'm not into "herding cats." It's frustrating. This is a problem I don't seem to run into in RL, just in-game. Maybe because the discussion takes longer in text, maybe because consequences are only in-game as well. Maybe because people enjoy standing around and looking at characters and scenery as opposed to staring at walls. I don't know.

The ITF can be hard. I've done it six times, and succeeded twice. All but Sunday's were PuGs. Of course, that other success took an hour and 29 minutes. Yes, less than an hour and a half. I wanted ours to succeed, so I tried to work with the group make-up a bit. I wanted a "healer" or another defender, but settled for a scrapper. And I'm glad we got him. He was a good scrapper, and it turned out to be, oddly, an almost perfect mix. I say "almost" on a scale of no-death, super-fast, impractical and probably impossible perfect.

The first mission is easy. Even on the higher difficulty setting we had, it gave us no trouble. Second mission isn't too bad, but the complications of the ambushes and, to a lesser extent, the exploding crystals-- although they did seem to be complicated for our lone sk'ed villain. The third mission requires some tactics. Instead of standing around discussing it, I chose our tactics there at the end, with the pulling to the ledge instead of fighting through the groups, and dropping down to take out the computer. The fourth mission is hard. Go to the forums and you can read page after page and post after post of people discussing what to kill first, with what, and why all the other ways are WRONG. They're not wrong. It depends on the team make-up which way it's going to work the best. And, usually, the only way to figure out which way is best is to try it and see what happens. Luckily for us, the tactic we picked first worked, and worked well.

In other news, the plant/rad controller I created on a whim, Xylia Thorn, is level 41. She FLEW through level 1-38. I was amazed. For some reason, teams dropped off around 38, and the leveling has been slow going-- compared to what came before-- since then. The plant controller primary is... well, it's awesome. It's that Seeds of Confusion you get at level 8. It's an AoE confuse that that mind controllers don't get until level 32. And plant gets it at 8. Doesn't seem fair, does it? Too bad. Suck it, mind controllers. Carrion Creepers is awesome, too. It's like a field of really nifty looking temporary pets. Not to mention the actual pet, the giant fly trap. It's a Giant Fly Trap, on legs, that follows you around. Nothing else needs to be said. I want to get her to 50, because I can. Not because I need another controller or another rad at 50. ( I chose /rad again because it wasn't /empathy /force fields or /sonic, and OHGAWDNOT /thermal. Less buffing, more throwing Seeds of Confusion and Carrion Creepers at people.)

My other i12 experiments... well, poor Ashleigh. I haven't touched her since I made Xylia. I spent some crazy amount of influence on that Karma -KB IO for her, and haven't run her since. She may be on the chopping block. I wasn't overly impressed with the fire/fire scrapper. If she does get deleted, though, she's getting respeced to take that IO out. It was way too expensive to just throw away.

Then there's Lunatrix. I have to say, I'm not overly impressed with the psychic blast/mental manipulation power sets. I like blasters. I have, you know, just a bit of experience with blasters. Maybe if that wasn't true, I wouldn't be disappointed. But it just seems lackluster to me. Too many gimmicks, not quite enough damage. It's not awful, but compared to other blasters I've played, I'm just not impressed. It's not unplayable, but if I'd made it on a random PuG character, it probably would have been deleted for disinterest.

(Also, I'll take a minute and admit to my absolute hatred of the ice shields. I do not want to be a giant ice cube. A huge draw of the game for me was the character creator. Yes, I realize a large part of the reason why CoH has so many female players is because of the dress-up doll aspect of the game, and I'm secure enough the my tough-grrl aspect of my personality to admit to that. If I wanted to be a giant block of something, I'd go play Runescape (very short trial period with that a few years back). On the other hand... the ice shields are wonderful for keeping a psychic blapper on her feet, and practically making her a tank... So, shields plz. *sigh*)

But...

Something odd happened. Luna's duo partner was scheduled to be Defender Vagz, for the sake of "this is what we're making when power proliferation in i12 happens," not, "these characters will get along well." Personalities was not factored in AT ALL. In fact, if anything, I thought it would go badly. The characters, though, had other ideas. It turned out to be... interesting, to say the least. The interactions between the characters is what's keeping me playing and wanting to play Lunatrix. Weird how things work out sometimes.

What I Did With My I12

So, I12 is buggy. Let's get that out of the way first. I crashed twice today, just switching characters and once yesterday, and once the night before. Normally, I run into my game crashing once or twice a month. I'm not very worried about that, though. New issues tend to do things like that. If it continues over the next couple of weeks, then I'll get concerned.

Other than that minor annoyance (and of course the icon bug), I like i12 so far. Best issue ever? Maybe not, but it's pretty good. The first thing I did, like a lot of people, was make a VEAT. Well, no. Actually, the very first thing I did was claim my 5 free character slots, all on Virtue. (More slots!! YAY!) Then, I made my VEAT. I chose to take the Bane Spider route, even though I've heard Banes are less awesome than others. I wanted to save the name, Karma Noir. No, she doesn't have much of a story yet. I haven't even played her past level 1 yet, either.

The next thing I did was make my psi blaster. You may recognize her from Team 3.0. I kept the same name, since Team 3.0 was over on Guardian, so the new psi/mind blaster is Lunatrix. And, yes, I did have to log into Guardian to look up her real name. Miranda Lancaster. Her introduction from Team 3.0 here in the blog says "Elise," but I changed it, like, the next day. Other than that, she hasn't changed much. Things in the Rogue Isles didn't go so well for her. Con-artistry was one thing, but she wasn't ready for outright villainy. She hid out for awhile, and then decided to turn herself in for her past crimes. She was able to work out a deal where she remains free as long as she continues to work for the city of Paragon as a hero and doesn't get into anymore trouble.

On the other hand, there's my fire/fire scrapper, Ashleigh Burns. I used the name Ashley Burns back when the servers were flooded with Supergroup fillers for the prestige bonus. I think she was a fire/fire controller. (There was also her brother/cousin/something, Scorch Burns, a fire/fire tank. I don't think he'll do anything but continue to live on the SG roster as a level 2 in nonexistent space.) Ashleigh just graduated high school and moved to Paragon to start college in the fall. She started working as a hero without informing her very normal parents, who never quite understood their mutant daughter. She's eighteen, because I don't think Paragon is any kind of place for children to run free. She'll be mostly PuGs, probably, but when I RP her, expect a lot of "Ohmigawd!" type comments. I don't plan on making her annoyingly cheerful, but she'll be my anti-angst character. Until/unless she gets deleted.

I'm not overly impressed with the fire/fire scrapper, so far. She is only level 13 at the moment. Assuming I continue, she'll probably skip her passive Temperature Protection. She'll need the normal Swift/Health/Stamina, as well as Combat Jumping/Super Jump. From there, she'll have to pick up Acrobatics, as there's no KB protection in her shields. Except for the 25 million influence +KB protection IO that Fyre just bought her. That IO is +4 points of protection. Acrobatics is +9 points, now. I think she'll be workable with just the IO until I get the free power choice for Acrobatics. She NEEDS Stamina a lot more right now. If I can fit it in, I'd like to try for Tough and Weave. I think she's going to need the extra defense, although Healing Flames does seem to recharge rather quickly. Of course, with a 25 million influence investment already, she's probably going to stick around for awhile.

I have to say, the psi/mind blaster isn't especially impressive. She's only level 10, though. She burns endurance quick. The damage seems kind of meh. Of course, the blaster I play the most is level 50 and has considerable IO bonuses, so I may be just stuck comparing the two. I'm trying not to judge too quickly. Generally, I try to reserve judgement until level 20, with a couple of notable exceptions. (Harmony Hex: Sonic/sonic defender who played only on PuGs, AKA "Die, I don't care, I'm not buffing you again because you're a moron." And, poor Hex Raven who would have lost a battle to a kitten because a) the kitten did more damage and b) the kitten had better endurance management. I just didn't have the patience to wait for her late-bloomer build to bloom. Too bad, because I liked the character.)

I tried an ITF on Fyre, after Keen and I ran the Midnighter arc with Fyre and Stronghold. (Fyre is now wondering how in the heck Stronghold and Havoc could possibly be the same person, by the way.) The Midnighter arc is a lot of fun. I still love the new maps, both the Midnighter caves (also used in Cimerora and the ITF), and the Cimerora zone. The ITF was PHAIL, though. Not because death happened, because it did and it will in the three missions that lead up to the finale. It was phail because the last mission is... well, I won't say impossible. It CAN be done. I was on a team that did it on Test, and did the whole TF in one hour and twenty-nine minutes. I was also on a team that took four hours to decide it was phail, and another that took almost that long only to fail. The team the other day on Live took about 3 hours to decide it was phail. It's difficult, let's say.

Some of the other little QoL are fun, too. There's a lot of talk about how much easier it is to get a global name from a local name, or vice versa. (In fact, this is a pretty interesting read, if only for the RP points.) I don't care either way, myself. But I am enjoying the notes feature, if only to one-star the idiots I run into on PuGs. I'm getting used chat boxes full of color. Now, it seems easier to read with the separation. I'm constantly combining inspirations. I love being able to click someone's name in chat and getting options that include sending them a tell or inviting them to a team. How much easier is that? The separation on the contacts tab is excellent for my 50s especially.

I12's been fun so far. I even took Mo out for a bit late one night to fly through the sewers and help out the newb, and I ran into two other people randomly doing the same thing. And best of all, I still have 2 free character slots. I did want to use that new Arctic pattern, though. Hm...

My Turn

(Edit: Orignal post 3:30pm)

I intend to keep this brief, but I may ramble. Forgive me.

Or don't.

I'm a pretty honest person. I don't like lying. I don't like liars. I'm not good at faking things. Oh, I can do it, but not for long, and often not well. I also am a rather empathetic person. (Empathy: Not just for Defenders.) So, I don't like to hurt people's feelings, and I'm really good at understanding other points of view. I believe in having and showing compassion. Sometimes, naively, I expect the same things from other people. Oddly, though, this adds up to something that might seem contrary on the surface. I don't take crap from people. Push me once or twice, and I'll ignore it or excuse it. Push me three times, and I'm going to push back, and twice as hard. And trust me, my mouth has never written a check that the rest of me is incapable or unwilling to cash, to borrow one of The Family's more colorful phrases. (Yes, I have spent some time on the docks in Striga lately.) This is why I tend to avoid confrontation. It may take awhile, but once I lose it, I lose it A LOT.

So, what's this little self-discovery trip about? Well, like I've said before, it's impossible not to put some of yourself into a character you devote so much time and energy creating and, more importantly, playing and acting. Fyre has some of those qualities that I just described. Maybe not in the same order, or not in the same amount, but they're certainly there.

That's the only thing I can attribute in-character to Fyre's previous repeated forgiveness and overlooking of Masonry's actions.

Yep, that ended awhile ago. Now, I didn't think so, but apparently I was too subtle in my and Fyre's avoidance of Masonry. I thought refusing to team with that character was hint enough. Apparently not. Through blog post, and later through an off-line message, I got a request for Fyre to be a part of an RP STF. An STF that was, mechanically, certain to be a failure. I'm not an overachiever or a control freak, but starting something that's doomed to failure before the start... well, it's not something I would normally do. And teaming Fyre with Masonry, again, is something I have been strenuously avoiding. But, because of friendship with and respect for Masonry's player, I put that aside and did as asked and brought Fyre on with the intention of participating in said doomed STF.

Now, had I known that I and my character was wanted for a filler, I have other characters I could have brought. Had I known that I was setting my character to be attacked, I wouldn't have went. Had that attacking come from Masonry, I could have dealt. After all, that makes perfect sense. Had I known that I was setting myself up to be dog-piled by an entire group of people who subscribed to Masonry's revisionist history, I certainly would not have participated. And that last is what happened. Fyre was very quiet during that initial attack-- and I say "attack" because that's exactly what it was-- because her player was shocked speechless. As close as I came to quitting right there, I didn't, because I knew that that STF wouldn't have gotten very far with five players, three of which were tanks. Again, friendship and respect kept me from removing my character from a situation which she surely would have left. I tried my best to salvage the mechanical portion of the task force, both by lending my characters best abilities and my own experiences with the STF.

I don't, and will not attempt to, justify my characters hatred-- yes, let's not soft sell it: hatred-- of someone who has repeatedly tried to kill her and people she cares about, either by setting it up or doing it himself. I could post chat-logs, quotes from blogs, whatever you want. I'm not going to bother, though. I don't think it's necessary. If you want to read some of those things, the blog archive is there. If you'd like chat logs, I have the files. Masonry is a murderer several times over, under the influence of drugs, nictus, black magic (or whatever exactly that is), and himself, both in the heat of the moment and by cold calculation. He is exactly the type of person our heroes spend their entire careers fighting. He's had so many chances to redeem himself that I have, honestly, lost count. And yet, my character has been cast in the role of villain by now two groups of people with whom she and I have had little to no interaction.

We're not our characters. Very true. And yet, being set-up to be (to use Fyre's words), a punching bag by a group of characters and/or people you do or don't know is not fun. So, yes, I did take it personally yesterday, and I left feeling very angry, on my and Fyre's behalf, and somewhat hurt on mine.

I have half a mind that this is not entirely appropriate for a blog post. However, the invitation and discussions occurred on blogs, so I don't feel this is entirely out of place.

In-character, Fyre will not be teaming with Masonry ever again, as she and I previously intended. Yes, Masonry and Frost both have come to have the same intentions, now, and their players have posted so on their blogs. And I truly believe I would have been much happier had I stuck with my own previously reached intentions. But, even with the most heartfelt requests otherwise, I will not go back on my resolution again.

Out of character, this is not meant to hurt anyone's feelings or make anyone angry. However, it if it does, I will not apologize. Not for the least reason that I myself spent most of the day angry, and probably just a bit hurt. I posted because the explanation will, hopefully, make me feel better about it, and, in the best possible outcome, avoid such a situation again. Please, don't ever put me in such a situation again. To sum it up somewhat mildly, it was unpleasant.

Feel free to post any public comments, questions, concerns or flames (I know just what do with those, should they they occur) here. Private ones can be sent in-game in tells, or e-mailed.

Edit(6:22pm):

Over it.

Hey, lolcats.

PuG Entertainment

Contrary to what has been stated elsewhere, I don't think every pick-up team is terrible. I have been on a LOT of PuGs. There have been a few that have astounded me with how quickly purple-conning mobs simply evaporated. Some have been entertaining in other ways, like the interaction between players. And, yes, some have been absolutely terrible. The worst for me was one on Freedumb on Mercy Isle. I quit the team before we even got into the mission.

Thanks to the forums, I've found a way to make even the bad PuGs entertaining.

Credit to some guy I never heard of before on the forums for Bad Team Bingo.
Yes, I have a card printed out, on my desk, and ready to go.

I12: Cimerora and the Midnight Club Pictures

These pictures are most definitely spoilers for I12, specifically Cimerora, the Midnight Club, and the Imperious Task Force. If you don't want to know, don't look any further.

This is one of the first things you'll see of the new maps, in the arc that grants you access to the Midnight Club. The hero side arc is slightly longer than the villain side, but, without giving more away, let's just say that it's worth it.

Inside of the missions from the intro Midnighter arc. This room is worth exploring.

Inside the Midnight Club. The tiny woman in the chair is a store that sells various level SOs.

A line of Centurions in Cimerora

One of the streets in Cimerora.

A view of Cimerora from one of the cliffs.

Yep, that's a Minotaur. They con as Elite Bosses. You'll see quite a few in the Imperious Task Force.

One of the giant robots from the Imperious Task Force.

5th Column robots from the Imperious Task Force.

Nictus Romulus from the Imperious Task Force

Inside the fort, up the looong road, you finally get to the courtyard and find Romulus and his troops.

Fyre in costume in the cave the Midnighters use to access Cimerora.

The female version of the Roman costume that unlocks from the Imperious Task Force, with Fyre playing model.

Open Beta

There's an hour yet, I know.
But there are videos and info all over the forums already.
This is what I want. Also, switch around the drop-downs, and you can check out the other VEAT powers.

Fifty Again

At what point does hitting 50 get boring? How many 50s do you have to have before it's just not a remarkable thing? Does it ever happen?

Lorelei Laughlin (Illusion/Radiation Controller) hit 50 on Thursday, May 1. I made her to play with the sets, and to play a controller I didn't hate. No RP in mind at all, so character-wise, there's not a whole lot to say about her. It took over a year and a half to get her to 50, because I just wasn't that interested. I think she was the original Derick Darklight's(Vagz's Warshade) duo partner, maybe? The name came from a Las Vegas guidebook that sat on my desk for awhile. That's about the only interesting thing about her.

So, like I said to several people, now I never have to play a controller again!

Oh, wait...

Ellianne Sylvanie hit level 27 before she met the chopping block a few months ago. She was an archery/energy blaster. A few weeks ago, I brought her back to check out the changes to archery that came with I11. They weren't bad. But one of the reasons I brought her back was to partner with Derick Darklight, whose last duo partner Hex Raven (dark/dark scrapper) got deleted in a fit of hating the dark scrapper power sets. (Do we see a pattern here? Poor Derick and his partners. Note, Idaho was also a common teammate.) But a blaster and a Warshade don't duo well. But a controller and a Warshade might. So, Elli's a grav/kin controller this time around. Let's see how long that lasts. She's level 12 at the moment, and my goal is to get her as close to Derick's 18 as I can. Today. Only today. Why?

Open Beta for I12 starts tomorrow. As of now, I'm patched and copied. (And I just saw that the original Elli still exists on Test.) I'm hoping that they're going to *surprise* add more costume parts, but I just don't see that happening. Other than that, I'm interested in the new zone, psi-blasters, and maybe a fire/fire scrapper.

Maybe a fire/fire scrapper. But, I don't see anything dulling my fondness of dual blades/willpower. Especially Willpower. I spent a lot of time on an Invulnerable scrapper (Cassandra Noir, MA/Invul, level 47). If I would have played Willpower first, I would have never, ever looked at Invulnerability. Of course, that's neglecting the fact that Cass was created pre-ED. Jez is definitely my favorite at the moment, powers-wise and character-wise. We just finished a Malta arc last night, and possibly for the first time ever, Malta didn't suck. There may have been a couple of small rough patches, but nothing major. Malta, as a subject, falls firmly into Jez's area of expertise. Surely a relief for her, after the Carnie's and BC's... entire existence. Not to say that Jez and BC are having problems. They're getting along quite well. With the Malta, though, Jez may have been a bit more serious that she was becoming previously. Malta, and that type of work, is something she's familiar with, and easily recognizable as "work," so CIA-Jez came out more than adventurous-Jez. But she still didn't close herself off as much as she might have. That's some sort of progress.