[The Legendary] valles: Woah, wait, there's a frickin' huge -canyon- in Dark Astoria?!
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Yeah.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: That "canyon is a graveyard]
[The Legendary] valles: Moreso than the rest of the zone.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: You know, DA is an easier fix than Faultline
[The Legendary] valles: There -has- to be an interesting story behind the whole 'vanished population' thing.
[The Legendary] Hexane: Gah, Paragon is so much brighter than the Isles. Must turn down gamma.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Just give it a contac chain arc.
[The Legendary] valles: *NODNOD*
[The Legendary] Foxboy: First contact is in the Hospital
[The Legendary] valles: I even -have- one that I'm trying to write a fic for.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Gotta involve the BP
[The Legendary] Foxboy: and the Tsoo
[The Legendary] valles: Nah.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Folks dont even RELAIZE there's Tsoo in there
[The Legendary] valles: CoT
[The Legendary] valles: There are Tsoo in DA?
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Yup
[The Legendary] valles: So, the Circle - and the Tsoo, mebbe - are investigating DA.
[The Legendary] valles: Because, whatever happened...
[The Legendary] valles: ...like, -ate- -people-.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: LOTS of juju
[The Legendary] valles: Maybe it got their souls, too, maybe it didn't.
[The Legendary] valles: But all of them are -dead-, and the power in their lives -went somewhere-.
[The Legendary] valles: Figuring out that much is the first contact's arc.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Add some Croatoa/Ghost ship ghosts as well to the door mishes
[The Legendary] valles: Mmm... no ghost ships. I have a thought for that, later. Just hit me.
[The Legendary] valles: Second contact...
[The Legendary] Foxboy: AVs... new or pre existing?
[The Legendary] valles: ...draws the conclusion that, since the BP -didn't exist- before Astoria went Dark...
[The Legendary] valles: ...that power? Raised their minions. Freed their bosses. Etc, etc.
[The Legendary] valles: His arc is tracking down -how-. Forensics, sorta.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: So contacts will have a Kolchak/Medium/ST Elsewhere vibe
[The Legendary] valles: Third contact... thinks they're getting ready to do it -again-.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: To... say... Atlas?
[The Legendary] valles: Or Steel, or - no. Talos. To Talos.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Gotta include a trip to Croatoa for something in there though
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Even if it's just a fedex/ambush mish
[The Legendary] valles: So... stopping their plan...
[The Legendary] valles: ...it takes, y'know, preperations. Spell groundwork.
[The Legendary] valles: Croatoa works in, there.
[The Legendary] valles: The BP twigs to this.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: NASTY ambushes
[The Legendary] valles: Does some of their necromantic ritual shit.
[The Legendary] valles: Aims the Ghost Ship at the center of the defense preperations.
[The Legendary] valles: A la Babbage in Synapse.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Who
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Whoa
[The Legendary] Foxboy: rahter
[The Legendary] valles: *snrk*
[The Legendary] valles: Once -that-'s done with...
[The Legendary] valles: Croatoa again, but just passing through.
[The Legendary] valles: Headed to the -spirit world-.
[The Legendary] valles: On a mission from G.O.D.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: And we get to see "bright astoria loaded with BP and RedCaps?
[The Legendary] valles: Gerald Owen Demontheses
[The Legendary] valles: Ayep.
[The Legendary] valles: On our way to confront the key to the BP plan...
[The Legendary] valles: Who is, of course, either an AV or a GM in his own right.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Snappy! or one of the Unseelie
[The Legendary] valles: I don't think that that'd have the right feel.
[The Legendary] valles: Snappy is - nasty as he tries to be - too lighthearted.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: So unseelie.
[The Legendary] valles: I mean, kidnapping _Baby New Year_?!
[The Legendary] valles: He's a joke.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Magic-origin nasty Khelds
[The Legendary] Foxboy: A joke with a nasty Punchline
[The Legendary] valles: This calls for something grim and awful and- *groan*
[The Legendary] valles: ...as much as I hate to say it, being very against the man's works and themes, Lovecraftian.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Lughebu's cronies, eh?
[The Legendary] valles: Or the mad bad man himself.
[The Legendary] valles: Oh, something else I'd wanna put in the DA plotline:
[The Legendary] Foxboy: He does not get the item, so he raises his bid to his next round, 5000
[The Legendary] valles: 'Run away from the AV'
[The Legendary] valles: A chase scene.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: All benny hill like, eh?
[The Legendary] valles: I guess.
[The Legendary] valles: I'm picturing more... hitchcock, if that makes sense.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: North by northwest?
[The Legendary] Foxboy: OR The Birds?
[The Legendary] valles: The first, if I'm remembering my film history right.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: My brother used to hang out ina building that Hitch ate lunch in during the filming of one of his movies.
[The Legendary] valles: Contact: 'Go here, do this'
[The Legendary] valles: Player: *does so*
[The Legendary] valles: AV: 'Hi! You can die now!'
[The Legendary] valles: Player: !!!! OMFG!! *dies*
[The Legendary] valles: AV: 'Nice hospital. ^_^'
[The Legendary] Jimmy Amp: ok, after quitting the team in which I got one piece of invention salvage, I've gotten 3 pieces in the first 5 mobs of my solo mission
[The Legendary] valles: Player: !!! *dies again*
[The Legendary] valles: AV: 'Hiiiii!'
[The Legendary] Foxboy: And I'm telling you, from TEST. The numbers are EXACTLY the SAME
[The Legendary] valles: Player: @%$^#@ *tries running, this time*
[The Legendary] valles: AV: *chasechase*
[The Legendary] valles: Player: *runrun*
[The Legendary] valles: AV: *chasechase*
[The Legendary] Jimmy Amp: but the chance per mob is to give it to one member of the team, right? so on a team, the chances get spread out between the team members, correct?
[The Legendary] valles: Player: *run* HALP! *run*
[The Legendary] valles: Contact: Try this.
[The Legendary] valles: AV: *chasechase*
[The Legendary] valles: Player: *runrun* *does this*
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Yes, but teams have in general LOTS more mobs than solo, so thit's supposed to balance out
[The Legendary] valles: Contact: Try that.
[The Legendary] valles: AV: *chasechase*
[The Legendary] Jimmy Amp: well, so far, in my experience, it hasn't... I have yet to do any TFs, though
[The Legendary] valles: Player: *runrun* *tries that*
[The Legendary] valles: Contact: Okay, now fight.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: And, V, this sounds like the post-arc TF
[The Legendary] valles: Player: What are you, crazy?!
[The Legendary] valles: Player: *runrun*
[The Legendary] valles: ...'post-arc?'
[The Legendary] Foxboy: For example: Striga Isle
[The Legendary] valles: AV: *chasechase*
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Post-arc is Burkholder
[The Legendary] valles: Hmm.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Croatoa: Post-arc is Katie Hannon
[The Legendary] valles: It really would fit better as a TF... but...
[The Legendary] valles: ...the arc's resolution is kinda final, the way I see it.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: It's liek the Daffy Duck Dynamite trick?
[The Legendary] valles: Nani?
[The Legendary] Foxboy: 'It's a great trick, but I can only do it ONCE'
[The Legendary] valles: Ahhh. Yeah, exactly.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Each zone NEEDS a TF
[The Legendary] Foxboy: ^_^
[The Legendary] valles: Player: *runrun* *duck into alley* Aw, $@#%!!
[The Legendary] valles: AV: Cornered ya!
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Co-op zone concept
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Paragon's Little Asia
[The Legendary] valles: Player: *fights*
[The Legendary] valles: AV: Well, gosh.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: AV: Half hour fight if oyu have this issue's magic bullet
[The Legendary] valles: Player: BOOYAH! FUCK YEAH! TAKE THAT, BITCH!!
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Hehehe
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Only problem:
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Lots of playrs WILL NOT LIKE the "required" debt
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Too dim to get teh concept, see.
[The Legendary] valles: Well, it's not really 'required', the way I see it.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: IF you JUST RUN IN THE FIRST PALCE!
[The Legendary] valles: It's only a question of how long it takes them to figure out, 'Don't fight, dumbass!'
[The Legendary] valles: Exactly.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Hm. Howabout the "hint" they give in The STF and LRSF?
[The Legendary] Foxboy: +4 AV
[The Legendary] valles: What hint are you talking about?
[The Legendary] Foxboy: EVen when it's solo
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Heck, "Giant Monstering" it works too

[The Legendary] valles: I've had a thought as to plotlines for Boomtown.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: The CH must be on the same server. and.. Justice went BOOM
[The Legendary] valles: Ahhh.
[The Legendary] valles: Eek.
[The Legendary] valles: So... Boomtown was a major hotspot during the Rikti War, right?
[The Legendary] Foxboy: So of course everyone hops to Virtue.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Right
[The Legendary] valles: So, say that, though it's never come up before...
[The Legendary] valles: ...at some major turning point, the entire district got locked down.
[The Legendary] valles: By agency unknown. Nothing in, nothing out.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Tie it into Crey.
[The Legendary] valles: Survivors reported being herded into safe zones and shelters by masked heroes they couldn't recognize.
[The Legendary] valles: What happened, we find out in this arc...
[The Legendary] valles: ...was that either Crey or the Rikti themselves...
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Post these suggestions to the Boards. Seriously
[The Legendary] valles: ...were trying to develope a stasis/fast-time weapon.
[The Legendary] valles: Like Batman's Clock King.
[The Legendary] valles: The entire arc is a time travel thing.
[The Legendary] valles: Welcome to the War.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Woohoo! Both of them, right?
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Rikti and the Big 2
[The Legendary] valles: 'The Big 2'?
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Golden Age States FTW
[The Legendary] valles: Ohhh...
[The Legendary] valles: Hmm.
[The Legendary] valles: Make that the TF.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: kk
[The Legendary] valles: I was mostly thinking in terms of the sheer awe value of throwing PCs into the middle of the height of that kind of battle.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Baumton would have been a major target for Sabotage during the Second World War, since the armory was there
[The Legendary] valles: NPC heroes all over the place, villain-hero co-op, soldier-rikti like you usually see monkeys...
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Whoa.
[The Legendary] valles: ...and, WWII would tie in oh-so-well with those rumors about the Fifth Column coming back.
[The Legendary] valles: 'You remember how we won the war?'
[The Legendary] valles: 'There's a chance that could change.'
[The Legendary] Foxboy: OOOH
[The Legendary] valles: 'We need -everybody- we can get ahold of to make sure that _that_ _doesn't_ _happen_.'
[The Legendary] Foxboy: This arc is made of awesome and win already
[The Legendary] Foxboy: ESPECIALLY if it winds up co=op
[The Legendary] valles: ^_^
[The Legendary] Foxboy: No Arbiter Sands helping out. I'm talking player villains
[The Legendary] valles: So am I, yeah.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Two arcs that open a contact in Pocket D?
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Or giving villains access to Boomtown?
[The Legendary] valles: Maxed-out MM + Defender Buffs = Holy Bombardment, Batman!
[The Legendary] valles: I'm not sure.
[The Legendary] valles: I'd favor treating 'Old Boom' as a completely seperate zone,a ccessed a la the PVP zones.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: It might be fun to see an OLD PARAGON set.
[The Legendary] valles: With blueside being recruited by the FP and reds being shanhaied by Aracnos.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Like, KR in its heyday
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Shiny, busy KR if you can picture it
[The Legendary] valles: Model Ts in the streets.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Steel Canyon... still under construction
[The Legendary] valles: It sounds cool as hell, yeah.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: But poor Jay and War Witch
[The Legendary] valles: But... I'd wanna see how the quieter WWII Boomtown arc plays out with players before I committed tos uggesting all that work, y'know?

===============================================
"I'm terribly sorry, but I have to kill you quite horribly now."

and half of COH is down.
grrr.-Terry
------
"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." - Antoine de Saint Exupery
"Luge strategy? Lie flat and try not to die." - Carmen Boyle (Olympic Luge Gold Medal winner - 1996)
Mary Sue's theme music
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy

Hi folks!
I've been looking over the info provided, as well as having spent some time looking at the stuff available for sale and the attendant game stats....and pardon me for being a wet blanket and dragging my little cloud of darkness into the Issue 9 release, but....
Just what is supposed to be the incentive to upgrade to IOs?
Sure you never have to upgrade them to keep "current" (I noticed their numbers stay bluish as opposed to the familiar green/gray/yellow/red), but there's a catch. IOs below level 15 only give a bonus slightly better than Training Enhancers, 15-25 is around the DO mark. Level 25+ was touted as being equal to SOs for bonuses...but a level 25 damage SO gave me 36% and a level 25 damage IO gave only 32%. That is NOT equal.
And the IO bonus is fixed to the level of the enhancer. A level 10 IO kept until level 50 does NOT increase its bonus, it stays at the same level 10 bonus (12%, I think).
Maybe I'm being too much of a powergamer (darn you D&D!), but I can't see the point to going for an enhancer that is a pain to get the pieces for and doesn't give as much bang for the bucks spent.
And the math gets worse (IMO) for multi-effect IOs. The one I was looking at this morning was one that Mecha got, and it was Damage/Range: 18% and 11%. Oh sure, if you got the whole set of 6 you got a whole 2% resistance to fire and a few other things, but again, I can't see sacrificing my takedown power for some miniscule buffs. I feel I'll get a far higher rate of return for being able to flatten the bad guys in one shot versus doing it in two and having endurance recovery that's 2 points higher etc.
Am I calculating things wrong here? Or missing something? Maybe I'm too much of a powergamer, but right now the only reason I can see for even MAYBE bothering with the invention system with MechaDeuce is for costume pieces.
Again, I apologize for being a wet blanket. It's just that after all the build-up for I-9 and all the people gushing about it....I just don't get it. I feel let-down because I feel like there's sweet bugger all in the update for myself and my characters.
(I'm not leaving CoH, but I'm just not finding I9 compelling in any way. It doesn't change the game for me. And that's disappointing. After three years of playing, I'm not getting that sense of wonder anymore. )
Feel free to comment or point out anything I'm missing... Say *something*!
Bert V.V.
skyknight@sentex.net

Wow. So, here's what just happened.
For the purpose of this discussion, assume 'just' has a looser meaning than otherwise is accepted.
So. At the end of January, I found myself incapable of affording another month of our fine shared addiction. I thought 'okay, wait for an opportune moment'. Then I noticed that one would not be forthcoming for some time. When this occured I thought of going onto the boards and letting people know that... and then I made little panicky noises until the urge to do that went away.
I never said this was an explanation that would in any way exonerate my decision-making prowess.
Long story short, I /am/ taking advantage of the free weekend, but I am not quite back yet.
Note 'quite'.
I /should/ be able to pay with my next paycheck and indeed plan to do so. It'll be hard, because my Local Computer Gaming Store has opted against continued stocking of the time cards for this game, but it just means I'll have to do it another way which is a tad inconvenient for me. But I want to come back, so I'll deal.
Long story short? I return, a bit behind schedule.

thinkinrussian.org/
God, I'm old. I remember my Dad dragging the entire family to watch this.

Tonight was movie night. Guess what I went to see.
---------
... well, that could have gone better.
Wish my head wasn't ringing like a damn bell at Sunday mass, too, come to think of it.
Ouch.
And here I am, all dressed up with nowhere to go. But up, that is.
Father would be proud ...
... fuck that.
I'm pretty sure I don't have a concussion, though, despite the fact that I think I blacked out there for a moment.
Eh, maybe it's just my head getting used to being introduced to steel girders. Once the disbelief about my skull not being splattered all over the landscape as a result of that passes, it's nothing to get too excited about.
Aaaaand the fact I just thought that must mean I got knocked around harder than I thought I did, since it did not sound sane in any way, shape, or form.
Wait, I'm thinking _sanity_.
Right. Sanity.
Nice.
Good joke there, me.
I think sanity went straight out the window the moment I decided to a)have conversations with dear old dad, who's been dead for the past couple of years, or b)play the glorified, dress-up version of cops and robbers.
Still trying to figure out which one the fuck I'm supposed to be on the latter, by the way.
I groan, pick myself up to my hands and knees, and shake off the cobwebs ... oh, bad _bad_ fucking pun there.
Just in time to see my friend about to get skewered by a piece of my own equipment, which is being swung about by someone, or some_thing_, that's black, hissy, and has far too many teeth for comfort.
There's a moment I want to dash forward and try to put myself in-between the sharp and poky bits sticking out from one 'wing' of said piece of equipment, before my brain comes back on from ... well, what'd you know, I _am_ concussed ... swimmingly fabulicious, that ... and I reach for the belt, flip a catch open, and double tap.
The glider, still in mid swing, blows up in the black thing's face.
Its/his screech of pain is music to my ears.
"Well, that was bracing," I say, and Pete looks at me like I've grown a second head.
Hi, I'm Harry Osborn.
I'm quite possibly insane, and recovering from a case of severe MPD with homicidal tendencies thrown in for good measure.
And I fucking _love_ technology.
Ain't it grand?
---
The Goblin: Legit?!?!
a shameless ripoff of another man's concept
----------

Driven by my 'meh' feelings about the third movie. Seriously, the plotholes. Argh. The plotholes. And what's with the crappy retcon? For cripes' sake, leave it be! It ain't broke! Trying to work it around will just turn this into another Marvel tale of wagging the dog. Somebody go hang the writers already.
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm

Vroom and Boom!
Flatout 2 is a wonderful racing/destruction game, similar to the Burnout series, but with more emphasis on racing than on destructing.
I cheated. I also used an Xbox gamepad on my PC.
I _highly_ reccomend using a gamepad with analog triggers for this game. On a GeForce 8800 GTS, full frame with max pretty is easily achieved.
Unpatched, the audio support sucks, and there are audio glitches by the pound. Patched, this all goes away, and the audio is nearly flawless on 5.1. The soundtrack is surprisingly good, with Rob Zombie and Yellowcard and some other very good stuff, and one or two lame tracks.
I pirated this game. I am, however, going to go buy it.
The racing action is tight, with handling being almost too realistic (with a high-powered rear wheel drive vehicle, you can get in a bad place and just spin tires fairly easily).
The minigames, or 'events', are comical, challenging, and plain WEIRD. Baseball, bowling, soccer, darts, curling.. all with thrown drivers.

reccomended for all racing game fans.Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

The book is called
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
The Sun Kings:
The Unexpected Tragedy of Richard Carrington and the Tale of How Modern Astronomy Began
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
/QUOTE/
In September of 1859, the entire Earth was engulfed in a gigantic cloud of seething gas, and a blood-red aurora erupted across the planet from the poles to the tropics. Around the world, telegraph systems crashed, machines burst into flames, and electric shocks rendered operators unconscious. Compasses and other sensitive instruments reeled as if struck by a massive magnetic fist. For the first time, people began to suspect that the Earth was not isolated from the rest of the universe. However, nobody knew what could have released such strange forces upon the Earth--nobody, that is, except the amateur English astronomer Richard Carrington.
/ENDQUOTE/
I was wondering if anyone could tell me more about this book or if it was worth going through the trouble of trying to find it on inter-library loan.
howard melton
God bless

A Map of Online Communities. Never know when something like this may come in handy.---
Mr. Fnord
http://fnord.sandwich.net/
http://www.jihad.net/
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

Homeworld with bad acting and a funny hat.
The 'genetic mutation' upgrade path is interesting, but it's not interesting enough to hold my interest in the face of the incredibly bad acting and piss-poor script.
The _game_ is actually quite lovely to look at, but combat is an orgy of micromanagement and confusion, and the ability to do twelve things at once seems to be a perquisite.
That, and playing the part of a religious zealot always leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
I give it an OMGFAIL out of FDSFGS.Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979