Pictures

I haven't posted pictures for a long time, so here's a bunch of random ones.

Lord Nemesis does not approve this post.

Random Drop Ship explosion from the Virtue event... well, I'd tell you when, but I can't decipher the dates in the new screenshot format, that I hate.

The Shadow Shard

Jez, listening to Vanguard lecture.

Mo, wondering who "they" are.

VEATs vs. Malta

Silence and Andy after they defeated Hro-whateverhisnameis

My elec/elec brute, Darkened Hex, with her patron and his peeps.

Perez glitch

Looks like it hurt, doesn't it?

This is Pocket D's idea of an appropriate band for the VIP lounge.

Looks like it hurt, doesn't it?

No, really. Don't look behind you.

Looks like it's going to hurt, doesn't it?

Current Events

So, I hate the post-AE market. Still. Prices fluctuate too much, for one thing. 1,000 one minute, 100,000 the next. I put in low bids and let things sit. I'm much too impatient for things like this. On the other hand, Fyre's about over 1.5 billion influence. Mostly from merits from raids and TFs, and either saving for expensive recipes, or, lately because I've been bored and it amuses me, doing random rolls and selling whatever I get. The thing is, though, it's a billion, right? But, now, that's just a set and a half of purples or so. I'm glad I bought all of Fyre's purples when they were *coughgigglecough* reasonably priced. I'll wait until she hits two billion, take a screenshot, and then start distributing among alts and such.

Also, even aside from the market, I still despise the AE. I used to PuG a lot. Now, there's practically no such thing. I won't even start a new character, even though I do have an empty slot on Virtue and two characters I'm contemplating deleting. The forums have had lots of threads on the AE and it's impact on the game. My favorites are the threads where people complain about the lack of teaming outside the AE, and/or the poor quality of teammates who leveled up in AE farms, and then get laughed at by people who say it hasn't done anything bad to the game... and then go on to say they only solo or play with their SG.

Aside from my continued, all-encompassing hatred of the AE, I have done some leveling. I have an elec/elec brute I started as an experiment who's now level 43. And, yes, let me say right out, she has leveled some from AE farms. Because sometimes, that's the only thing available, and I get very bored very quickly soloing. There was a KiTTY AE arc, not farm, night that got her several levels, and a couple of farms, and more than a few SFs, including the ITF (ISF? Whatever.) Red-side, it's absolutely impossible to find a "real" team. I've been planning on re-rolling (THERE IS NO ROLLING) Angel Noir, again, as fire/dark instead of dark/dark, but I hate the thought of trying to get her up in level again.

I will say, though, that brute is a lot of fun. Squishy. Very squishy, which at some point I'd like to see if I can help a bit with some sets, but lots of fun. Electric armor's getting a buff in i16, too, a power called Energize will become the new Conserve Power, and it'll have a heal and a regen buff to it. That might help. I'll wait and see before I judge it. I know it exists and I've seen the current numbers, but I'll wait to see how it actually works, and what it is when it finally gets to Live.

I am looking forward to i16. Roxi Toxic (currently level 18 rad/rad defender) will be re-rolled (THERE IS N.. aw, forget it) yet again as a rad/ blaster. Probably rad/fire from what I've been looking at. That's about the 12th incarnation of poor Roxi. Maybe this one will stick. Andromeda Balan, my fire/kin, will have awesome looking imps. Jade Arcana, my energy/energy blaster, will have energy blasts that match her name. Earl, Blaze Noir's Dark Servant, is going to be awesome-looking. And Mo's empathy auras will be... bright pink.

I have no opinion on the "Super Sidekicking" scheme at the moment. I'll wait and see how that works out, though I am curious about it. I think most people are not sure about it yet, but I haven't paid that much attention. I'm much more concerned about all the pretty colors.

Oh, right. The two characters I've been thinking of deleting are dom-Fyre and my PB, Constant Star. Dom Fyre because 1) technically, the character does not exist anymore. Fyre has been LONG gone from the Isles. 2) Doms don't excite me. The damage is kind of meh and the holds are also kind of meh, unless Domination is up. Sure, I could work on a perma-dom, but that takes a lot of planning and a LOT of infamy, and I'm just not that interested. Also, red-side. Still, not my favorite. My Bane's 48, and can easily take over for anything I'd need a high-level red-side character for, not to mention the brute that's coming up.

The PB is level 47, and I haven't even logged her in for over two months. Light Form is awesome. I mean, awesome. Everything else is pretty meh. I cannot imagine anyone ever saying, "You know what this team needs? A Peacebringer." I would much rather play one of my scrappers or a blaster.

However. They're both hanging around, and have been for awhile now, because I dread the idea of leveling something up in AE land.

Emotes

This is mostly for my own reference, because I don't feel like writing them down, or copying to something else and printing. The list came off the forum, from a post by Back Alley Brawler, and is every emote currently in the game. Obviously, you have to type "/e" "/em" or ";" before the word in-game to make it work.

Return to Neutral

• None

Regular Emotes

• Lecture
  
• Explain
  
• Disagree
  
• Roar
  
• AFK
  
• Newspaper
  
• Frustrated
  
• Drat
  
• Shucks
  
• Sleep
  
• AssumePositionWall
  
• AlaKazam
  
• AlaKazamReact
  
• Akimbo
  
• Wings
  
• Angry
  
• Attack
  
• BatSmash
  
• BatSmashReact
  
• Backflip
  
• Binoculars
  
• Crouch
  
• BigWave
  
• OverHere
  
• Flip
  
• Research
  
• ResearchLow
  
• Down
  
• Bowdown
  
• Bow
  
• Sorry
  
• FancyBow
  
• ElegantBow
  
• Praise
  
• Camera
  
• Cellphone
  
• Cheer
  
• Rooting
  
• WaveFist
  
• Clap
  
• Victory
  
• Champion
  
• Winner
  
• TheWave
  
• Chicken
  
• CrossArms
  
• CurseYou
  
• Noooo
  
• Clipboard
  
• DropBoombox
  
• Boombox
  
• BB
  
• Dance
  
• BBDance
  
• BBTechnoid
  
• BBRaver
  
• BBMoveOn
  
• BBQuickie
  
• BBYellow
  
• BBElectroVibe
  
• BBLooker
  
• BBAltitude
  
• BBWindItUp
  
• BBBeat
  
• BBKickIt
  
• BBCatchMe
  
• BBShuffle
  
• BBJumpy
  
• BBDiscoFreak
  
• BBMeaty
  
• BBInfoOverload
  
• BBWahWah
  
• BBNotorious
  
• BBDogWalk
  
• BBPeace
  
• BBSpaz
  
• BBHeavyDude
  
• BBVenus
  
• Dance1
  
• Dance2
  
• Dance3
  
• Dance4
  
• Dance5
  
• Dance6
  
• DustOff
  
• Drink
  
• EatDonut
  
• Donut
  
• EatFood
  
• Eat
  
• Food
  
• FlippingCoin
  
• Fishing
  
• Fear
  
• Afraid
  
• Scared
  
• Cower
  
• Flashlight
  
• FlashlightUp
  
• FlashlightDown
  
• Flex
  
• FlexA
  
• FlexB
  
• FlexC
  
• Flex1
  
• Flex2
  
• Flex3
  
• Welcome
  
• BuzzOff
  
• GoAway
  
• Handsup
  
• Surrender
  
• HoldTorch
  
• Howl
  
• Invent
  
• KissIt
  
• GetSome
  
• Kneel
  
• Crack
  
• Knuckle
  
• Knuckles
  
• MartialArts
  
• Kata
  
• Laugh
  
• Laptop
  
• LaughToo
  
• Laugh2
  
• BigLaugh
  
• WallLean
  
• Ledgesit
  
• ListenPoliceBand
  
• DontAttack
  
• No
  
• Panhandle
  
• PeerIn
  
• Protest
  
• Hmmm
  
• Plotting
  
• Paper
  
• Point
  
• What
  
• Huh
  
• Shrug
  
• ReadBook
  
• Rock
  
• RollDice
  
• Dice
  
• FlipCoin
  
• CoinToss
  
• Coin
  
• Burp
  
• RaiseHand
  
• Stop
  
• Scissors
  
• Salute
  
• MilitarySalute
  
• AtEase
  
• Lotus
  
• Yoga
  
• Grief
  
• Score1
  
• Score2
  
• Score3
  
• Score4
  
• Score5
  
• Score6
  
• Score7
  
• Score8
  
• Score9
  
• Score10
  
• SlapReact
  
• Scheme
  
• Plot
  
• Sit
  
• SitChair1
  
• SitChair2
  
• SitChair3
  
• SitBench1
  
• SitBench2
  
• SitBench3
  
• SitBench4
  
• SitExecutiveChair
  
• SitStool
  
• SitTable1
  
• SitTable2
  
• Slap
  
• Smack
  
• ThreatHand
  
• SmackYou
  
• Screen
  
• TouchScreen
  
• Slash
  
• SlashThroat
  
• Talk
  
• YoureWelcome
  
• Thanks
  
• ThankYou
  
• Teabag
  
• DrumDance
  
• Hand
  
• TalkToHand
  
• JumpingJacks
  
• Typing
  
• Type
  
• EvilLaugh
  
• ELaugh
  
• VillainLaugh
  
• VillainousLaugh
  
• Muahahaha
  
• Waiting
  
• Wave
  
• Hi
  
• Whistle
  
• Wounded
  
• Yata
  
• YataYata
  
• Thumbsup
  
• Yes
  
• Nod
  
• Idle1
  
• Idle2
  
• BeatChest
  
• Tarzan
  
• TauntA
  
• Taunt1
  
• Taunt
  
• TauntB
  
• Taunt2
  
• FlyPose1
  
• FlyPose2
  
• FlyPose3
  
• FlyPose4
  
• Drum
  
• DrumLow
  
• FloatBooks

Badge Restricted Emotes

• Dice7
  
• ListenStolenPoliceBand
  
• MATablet

Wedding Booster Pack Emotes

• Propose
  
• Proposal
  
• MarryMe
  
• PoptheQuestion
  
• MarriageProposal
  
• ProposeMarriage
  
• Rice
  
• ThrowRice
  
• RiceThrow
  
• Confetti
  
• ThrowConfetti
  
• ConfettiThrow
  
• RosePetals
  
• ThrowRosePetals
  
• RosePetalsThrow

Cyborg Super Booster Pack Emotes

• RobotDance
  
• RoboDance
  
• DanceRobot
  
• Dance7
  
• PowerDown
  
• RobotPowerDown
  
• PowerUp
  
• RobotPowerUp

Magic Super Booster Pack Emotes

• Juggle
  
• JuggleBalls
  
• JuggleMagic
  
• JuggleFire
  
• JuggleElectricity
  
• MagicCards
  
• CardTrick
  
• CCPrestoChango
  
• CCLightning
  
• CCSpin
  
• CCCast

Science Super Booster Pack Emotes

• CCDrinkFormula
  
• CCSuperSerum
  
• Experiment
  
• MixFormula
  
• Calculate

Costume Change Emotes

• CCBackFlip
  
• CCHowl
  
• CCEvilLaugh
  
• CCSalute

Restricted Costume Change Emotes

• CCPeacebringer
  
• CCWarshade
  
• CCVanguardSigil

So, what have I been doing?

Aside from that nifty character ranking on the side of the blog there. (Thanks, Keen!!!)

You can see over there that I've gotten a few levels, including getting the re-made Andromeda Balan to 50. A lot of that was AE farms, both before and after the Posi-rant. I had a Widow that got into her 30s with AE farms, too, but she got deleted because: 1) I felt NO attachment to her since nothing but her first 10 levels was gotten outside the AE, and 2) after trying to level an elec/dark corr, I realized that I do NOT like red side. I just don't. For one thing, pretty much all the teaming red-side right now is AE farm. Yeah, I know. It has its place. But that's not all I want to do, especially at level 15 on a team struggling slowly, SLLLLOOOWWWLLYYY through a boss farm. It's too bad, because the elec/dark was pretty nifty. Electric is not the most damaging set, but how cool does the red lightening look, especially paired with all the dark effects? I 'll tell you how cool, REALLY cool. I might try that again sometime soon.

I made an AR/Energy that's been a lot of fun, both for game-play and RP. "Skaza" means "destruction" in Slovak, by the way. I remade Roxi Toxic for probably the 10th time, this time as a defender. Rad/rad, of course. She's 15, and she's running into that same AE problem that I ran into red-side, only not quite as much.

I've been running a lot of task forces with the 50s, mostly Andy and Fyre, and using the merits. For Andy, to give her an LoTG +recharge and a few other tweeks, and with Fyre, I've used the merits to buy expensive recipes, like the Numina unique, and selling them. Fyre has... quite a bit of influence, even after I got her the field crafter accolade. If anyone tells you that you can make money doing that, they're lying to you. Badly. Hit them with something and run away. It's a cruel, terrible lie. Okay, maybe before i14 and crazy salvage/market prices you could, but not anymore. Not even close. Mo's been earning merits in Hami raids, and has a few new pieces like a LoTG and a Numina unique. Empathing for the raids is not hard, and there usually isn't an overabundance of emps at raids, so I've been taking her instead of Fyre.

I've been thinking of making another new alt, but aside from another run at the elec/dark corruptor, I don't have any ideas at the moment, so I've mostly been running 50s for influence and merits when Vagz and I aren't working on one of our duos, either the characters that are meant to be duos or impromptu duos.

Those runs with the 50s on TFs, though, have been on well-organized teams, mostly with the KiTTY channel. I did do a PuG ITF out of boredom the other day, though. That was a mistake. I've been running ITFs with people from the KiTTY channel, on the maximum difficulty, and we've been finishing in just slightly over an hour on average. The PuG ITF took 2h37. Yep.

i15 should be out soon, and I am looking forward to it, just for the new faces. Like Keen said in one of his blog posts, several of my characters will be getting "plastic surgery." OOC, of course. Off the top of my head, both Andy and Skaza will be getting new faces, and possibly several others.

Briefly, a word on my opinion about the Going Rogue expansion. I don't have one. Why? Because we know virtually nothing about it. I have a very much "wait-and-see" attitude about it. Honestly, though? I think a lot of people are going to be disappointed, because they're running away with the speculations. My take on the announcement is that you won't be able to take existing characters "rogue," especially since the announcement mentions a "parallel universe." I don't think current CoH or CoV characters will be able to interact with the Going Rogue universe, except maybe in PvP or co-op zones, just like our current characters in CoH and CoV can't. Yes, absolutely, I could be wrong. But I won't be disappointed or even surprised if I am. Still, though. Wait and see.

Pictures from the Fifth Anniversary

The announcement said "CHAOS" and that's what it was. But, in a good way.

I Don't Like Issue 14

Don't say that out loud, and please don't spread it around. Mobs with torches and pitchforks will show up. The Mission Architect is sacred and the best thing ever to happen to the game, if you read the forums. I'm... just not impressed. Or maybe just not interested, or both.

But, there's like a hundred new badges you can get! Yeah? Well, I could not care less about badges. I think you have to have some sort of collector gene to "get it," and I don't.

But you can earn tickets to save and get what you want! Oh, yeah? I thought that's what merits were for? And before that, it was just influence, which worked fine for me. Have you looked at the market lately? I mean, really? The market's always been... a little shaky, but right now* it's just ridiculous. Sure, selling common salvage is great. But wait until you try to buy something or, worse, wait until you try to sell some of that rare salvage you had saved to finance alts.

But there's unlimited new content! Think of the creativity! There are thousands of missions available. That's very true. Last I looked, the MA numbers were over 50,000. Part of that has either been removed by GMs and some have been unpublished by players. A HUGE part of that is farms. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate farming. I've participated in it before, and I probably will again. It's boring, but it can be effective. In fact, I was trying to get Tresa some XP last week, and came across a farm MA mission where the lieutenants were called "Tickets" and the bosses were called "MOAR Tickets." I finished the mission, and plan to never go back to it. I was on a PuG with Mo in Peregrine, and we ran a farm MA mission where the enemies were called "Meat." Mo got half a level off of that, and I hardly had to do anything. So, it served its purpose. It was effective, but boring.

Not all the MA missions are farm missions, though. A lot people actually tried to create actual missions. Like the person who tried a tribute "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." Or the arc that I was on yesterday with a team where the missions were meant to resemble "Snakes on a Plane," "Shaun of the Dead" (which had the title character's name misspelled as "Shawn," not to mention other spelling and grammatical errors), and the Austin Powers movies. Aside from the fact that the devs have forbidden even parodying copyrighted material, they were awful. "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" tribute was at best boring and pointless. The other was just terrible.

I've seen more than a few missions that someone wrote featuring their supergroups. That's very nice for those people and their supergroups. I haven't bothered attempting any of those.

Some people tried to write missions that fit into the game world. I've run into a couple of those that were are comparable to anything you might find in the game outside of the MA.

Here's the thing, though, for the people that actually tried. Some people write very well. Some people write pretty good. Some people should not be allowed to form written words. Most people, though, are mediocre writers. Once you wade though all the farms, the missions with (TEST) after the title, the ones with such "questionable content" that you know just by looking at the title that it'll be pulled within the hour, and the ones that have spelling and grammar mistakes just within the title, chances are you're going to end up with a sort of okay mission.

Of course, there are exceptions. But first you have to get past the 49,650 missions and arcs that are not.



* "right now" because that will likely change in the next couple of weeks for better or worse. It will either settle into a more predictable pattern which will become accepted as the norm OR something new will be introduced, again, and the market will change accordingly, again.

What I'm Doing While I Wait For i14

In the tradition of "What I'm Doing While I Wait For i13":

Brute Fights