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Forum URL: http://www.eyrie-productions.com/Forum/dcboard.cgi
Forum Name: City of Heroes
Topic ID: 47
#0, homage character of the month
Posted by Gryphon on Oct-07-09 at 02:30 PM
(not quite a parody, not quite not... )

So. In City of Heroes there are epic archetypes that are unlocked by getting a character to the level cap. I spent a very long time not doing that, but I finally have one, so the time has come to look at the hero-side epics.

Both are kind of irritatingly constrained as far as background and story goes, since they have - unlike all the others - an origin and general backstory that are prescribed by the game's built-in lore. In a way, this is a greater challenge to be creative, because the game has set out to make it harder to do that very thing. If all Peacebringers are, as the lead PB contact says, the fusion of a very specific type of alien energy being with "a willing human", well, there's your #0 issue written for you, then... or is it? Maybe that guy's wrong. Maybe he's bullshitting you. Or maybe that's just what he thinks.

Similarly, because PBs all have the same power sets with the same graphics, and those are all shiny and sparkly and white, one tends to notice that people tend to design their PBs' costumes to suit. They're usually dressed in white and many have some kind of angelic theme going on.

So, well, you know me, I gotta be different just like everyone else.

(Entertainingly, it took me five minutes flat to get my first in-game design criticism, which came while I was standing next to Ms. Liberty in Atlas Park leveling up to level 2, and which was, and I quote, "lol space suits arent brown".)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#1, RE: homage character of the month
Posted by BeardedFerret on Oct-07-09 at 07:26 PM
In response to message #0
In Russia, everything is brown. Metal Gear Solid 3 taught me.

#2, RE: homage character of the month
Posted by StClair on Oct-07-09 at 10:43 PM
In response to message #1
Da. Is pravda.

#3, RE: homage character of the month
Posted by CGWolfgang on Oct-08-09 at 02:17 AM
In response to message #0
I think what makes me laugh most about his writeup is that I can see a comic panel taking place during the fusion with a little internal monologue caption at the top saying something to the effect of "*sigh* I'm not going to live this one down."


________________

Thing I learned from being underway #22 - Mixing Bleach and Lime Away will, in fact, not allow you to clean twice as fast. (I didn't do this one.)


#4, RE: homage character of the month
Posted by BobSchroeck on Oct-09-09 at 07:41 AM
In response to message #0
Heh. I like. Reminds me a little of a toon I did up a year back or so on some server other than Virtue: Robobringer, the first fusion of a Kheldian and a sentient robot. Any resemblance to Iron Man was purely cointentional.

-- Bob
-------------------
Five years ago I was a four-stone apology. Today I am two separate gorillas.


#5, RE: homage character of the month
Posted by E_M_Lurker on Oct-10-09 at 07:22 PM
In response to message #0
If I ever manage to get Lincoln to 50, my PB will probably be a girl with a cat on her shoulder... the Kheldian fused with the cat, and the girl is just a hologram. :)

--The Evil Midnight Lurker what Lurks at Midnight
"An object at rest--CANNOT BE STOPPED!!!"


#6, RE: homage character of the month
Posted by Gryphon on Oct-10-09 at 07:52 PM
In response to message #5
>If I ever manage to get Lincoln to 50, my PB will probably be a girl
>with a cat on her shoulder... the Kheldian fused with the cat,
>and the girl is just a hologram. :)

Jedi Anne (Truss's wife) has a Mastermind like that. Mr. Fuzzbutt is the evil genius. The robotic exoskeleton is just there to convey him into battle alongside his minions and carry the rifle. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#8, RE: homage character of the month
Posted by BobSchroeck on Oct-12-09 at 08:15 AM
In response to message #6
>>with a cat on her shoulder... the Kheldian fused with the cat,
>>and the girl is just a hologram. :)
>
>Jedi Anne (Truss's wife) has a Mastermind like that. Mr. Fuzzbutt is
>the evil genius. The robotic exoskeleton is just there to convey him
>into battle alongside his minions and carry the rifle. :)

I wrote a character like that for a GURPS multi-genre tournament I did for a Dexcon ten or more years ago... the player character was a sentient cat with psi powers, with a teenage girl who thought she was a witch (and that he was her familiar) as his dependent...

-- Bob
-------------------
Five years ago I was a four-stone apology. Today I am two separate gorillas.


#12, RE: homage character of the month
Posted by E_M_Lurker on Oct-27-09 at 11:41 PM
In response to message #8
>>>with a cat on her shoulder... the Kheldian fused with the cat,
>>>and the girl is just a hologram. :)
>>
>>Jedi Anne (Truss's wife) has a Mastermind like that. Mr. Fuzzbutt is
>>the evil genius. The robotic exoskeleton is just there to convey him
>>into battle alongside his minions and carry the rifle. :)
>
>I wrote a character like that for a GURPS multi-genre
>tournament I did for a Dexcon ten or more years ago... the player
>character was a sentient cat with psi powers, with a teenage girl who
>thought she was a witch (and that he was her familiar) as his
>dependent...

A recurring idea for a Ninja MM: Ninja Minion no. 2, looking exactly like the tier-1 ninja, with the others named NM no. 1, 3, and 4. No. 2 is just a helpless mind-controlled minion of the Oni Lord Futomaki, at least that's what he claims every time they bring him in for trial...

--The Evil Midnight Lurker what Lurks at Midnight
"An object at rest--CANNOT BE STOPPED!!!"


#13, RE: homage character of the month
Posted by Soulscode on Oct-29-09 at 08:45 AM
In response to message #12

>A recurring idea for a Ninja MM: Ninja Minion no. 2, looking exactly
>like the tier-1 ninja, with the others named NM no. 1, 3, and 4. No.
>2 is just a helpless mind-controlled minion of the Oni Lord Futomaki,
>at least that's what he claims every time they bring him in for
>trial...

Back in the day when I was playing CoV, one of my SGmates had a ninja MM that used the costume matching deal with his tier-1 minions for PvPing. Made him harder to pick out of his self-made crowd.

-----
It would have been an accidental shooting, had he not reloaded... twice.


#14, RE: homage character of the month
Posted by Peter Eng on Oct-29-09 at 12:03 PM
In response to message #12
>
>A recurring idea for a Ninja MM: Ninja Minion no. 2, looking exactly
>like the tier-1 ninja, with the others named NM no. 1, 3, and 4. No.
>2 is just a helpless mind-controlled minion of the Oni Lord Futomaki,
>at least that's what he claims every time they bring him in for
>trial...
>

There was a villain group like that at one point. It wasn't restricted to Masterminds, though. So, on occasion, Ninja Minion Roku was actually a Brute...

Peter Eng
--
Dalek and the two Snowths:
EXTERMINATE!
doot doo de doo doot.
EXTERMINATE!
doot doo deet doot.
EXTERMINATE!
doot doo de doo doot, de doo doot, de do-do do de doot doot doo doot doot.


#7, RE: homage character of the month
Posted by Matrix Dragon on Oct-11-09 at 07:01 AM
In response to message #0
>(Entertainingly, it took me five minutes flat to get my first in-game
>design criticism, which came while I was standing next to Ms. Liberty
>in Atlas Park leveling up to level 2, and which was, and I quote, "lol
>space suits arent brown".)

Science fiction taught us long ago that space suits can look like whatever you want them to, no matter how impractical. Anyway, people in Atlas automatically void their rights to criticize costumes, just like some of the really scary ERPers in the D.

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter


#9, RE: homage character of the month
Posted by twipper on Oct-14-09 at 03:59 PM
In response to message #0
*sigh*

I'm guilty of the angelic look, but only because the PB powerset suited my valkyrie design for Urth.

Excellent character design, Gryph.

Twipper


#10, RE: homage character of the month
Posted by Gryphon on Oct-14-09 at 04:46 PM
In response to message #9
>*sigh*
>
>I'm guilty of the angelic look, but only because the PB powerset
>suited my valkyrie design for Urth.

Oh, I'm not dissing it - I've seen some very nicely designed "angel" characters. I even have one of my own, though I really made him to counter an absurd assertion on the CoH Forum a few years ago and haven't actually played him. I just like running counter to the cultural flow sometimes. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#11, RE: homage character of the month
Posted by Gryphon on Oct-14-09 at 05:56 PM
In response to message #10
Here's the aforementioned "angel" character:

I made him in response to someone's assertion, during one of those interminable arguments about the names people give characters, that "there's no worthwhile reason why anyone would ever begin a character's name with a period."

The sharp-eyed viewer may discern that he's kind of a riff on that episode of the original Battlestar Galactica where Starbuck and Apollo die and go to Heaven (or think they have, anyway), and the only way you can tell is because their uniforms have turned completely white. :)

As you can see, this was before weapon customization, and he's still standing in the parking lot at the beginning of the tutorial. Maybe I should reroll him with a completely white rifle as well. Or make him a PB, so his wings actually work. You lose the rifle joke at that point (though it could still be his nickname from the War), but that might be okay, I'm bored with Assault Rifle anyway.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#15, RE: homage character of the month
Posted by RenoDumont on Jun-08-10 at 03:56 PM
In response to message #11
Very cool, Gryphon. However I think it's funny that they recently knocked all of the epics from level 50 requirement to the level 20 requirement.

Also, was older Russian comsonaut suits orange at one point?


#16, RE: homage character of the month
Posted by Gryphon on Jun-08-10 at 04:18 PM
In response to message #15
>Very cool, Gryphon. However I think it's funny that they recently
>knocked all of the epics from level 50 requirement to the level 20
>requirement.

Have they? Ah, well. I suppose that means if I do start playing again at some point, I may actually be able to play the villain epics, though I can't say I have much interest in them, slaved as they are to the preposterous CoV backstory.

>Also, was older Russian comsonaut suits orange at one point?

Yes, probably; when I devised Ivan, the only picture I could find of Cosmonaut Ivan Ivanovich was taken with Soviet color film, with all that that entails. I've since run across another picture that makes it clear his suit was mostly orange; what I was picking up in the older photo was the olive drab of his parachute harness.

His costume fails on a lot of different points of authenticity, since the costume designer has (or had, last year) no properly astronautical helmets or jumpsuits.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#17, RE: homage character of the month
Posted by RenoDumont on Jun-09-10 at 01:01 AM
In response to message #16

>Have they? Ah, well. I suppose that means if I do start playing
>again at some point, I may actually be able to play the villain epics,
>though I can't say I have much interest in them, slaved as they are to
>the preposterous CoV backstory.

Yeah, I'm with you on that one Gryphon. I like the idea that the villains have their own epics but having them be slaves to the "IT" group of villains for the game is kind of wonky.

One of the guys in my SG/VG on Virtue is hoping that they'll let the villain epics switch sides and let a Crab Spider fight Rikti in Steel Canyon-he thinks that would be cool.

>>Also, was older Russian comsonaut suits orange at one point?
>
>Yes, probably; when I devised Ivan, the only picture I could find of
>Cosmonaut Ivan Ivanovich was taken with Soviet color film, with all
>that that entails. I've since run across another picture that makes
>it clear his suit was mostly orange; what I was picking up in
>the older photo was the olive drab of his parachute harness.
>
>His costume fails on a lot of different points of authenticity, since
>the costume designer has (or had, last year) no properly astronautical
>helmets or jumpsuits.

Either way, it's a pretty damn cool toon you've got there, Gryphon!


#18, RE: homage character of the month
Posted by Star Ranger4 on Jun-09-10 at 03:42 AM
In response to message #16
>>Very cool, Gryphon. However I think it's funny that they recently
>>knocked all of the epics from level 50 requirement to the level 20
>>requirement.
>
>Have they?

yeah, as of Issue 17. While I originally looked at it favorably, in retrospect I have enough trouble budgeting time for all the toons I already have to be starting any new ones.


#19, RE: homage character of the month
Posted by twipper on Jul-13-10 at 04:19 PM
In response to message #18
LAST EDITED ON Jul-13-10 AT 04:20 PM (EDT)
 
Feel free to give me shout Star Ranger, I'm still wandering around the game on one of my numerous alts. @Shaw Lwhon

Twipper