'When we Stand Together' by Nickleback
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lj4NVYtzlQA&ob=av2e
One more depending on a prayer
And we all look away
People pretending
everywhere
It's just another day
There's bullets flying through the
air
And they still carry on
We watch it happen over there
And then just
turn it off
Hey, yeah, yeah, hey, yeah
We must stand together
Hey,
yeah, yeah, hey, yeah
There's no giving in
Hey, yeah, yeah, hey,
yeah
Hand in hand forever
Hey, yeah, yeah, hey, yeah
That's when we all
win
Hey, yeah, yeah, hey, yeah
That's, that's, that's when we all
win
That's, that's, that's when we all win
They tell us everything's
all right
And we just go along
How can we fall asleep at night
When
something's clearly wrong
When we could feed a starving world
With what we
throw away
But all we serve are empty words
That always taste the
same
Hey, yeah, yeah, hey, yeah
We must stand together
Hey, yeah, yeah, hey, yeah
There's no giving in
Hey, yeah, yeah,
hey, yeah
Hand in hand forever
Hey, yeah, yeah, hey, yeah
That's when
we all win
Hey, yeah, yeah, hey, yeah
That's, that's, that's when we all
win
Hey, yeah, yeah, hey, yeah
That's, that's, that's when we all
win
The right thing to guide us
Is right here inside us
No one can
divide us
When the light is nearly gone
But just like a
heartbeat
The drum beat carries on
And the drum beat carries on
Just
like a heartbeat
Hey, yeah, yeah, hey, yeah
We must stand
together
Hey, yeah, yeah, hey, yeah
There's no giving in
Hey, yeah,
yeah, hey, yeah
Hand in hand forever
Hey, yeah, yeah, hey, yeah
That's
when we all win
Hey, yeah, yeah, hey, yeah
That's, that's, that's when we
all win
That's, that's, that's when we all win
___________________________
"I've always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific." - George Carlin

Two new texts which will move to the wiki soon...

**************

The Mini-Madcat

»My friends, we can rebuild it. We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world's first ehh... bionic Mini-Madcat. Better than it was before. Better... stronger... faster... larger!«
-Catgirl Industries, Mid 2016

It all started with a gift of Sabre Fang to Catgirl Industries. When the Catgirls and Sabre Fang traded a series of working drones for a number of ZPE cores, Sabre Fang included a waved Madcat mech in his package.

It was a full articulated walking robot, armed with a series of colored lights on the shoulders and two ‘deadly’ water pistols in the arms. It had enough computer power to stay upright and move, but was otherwise remote controlled by wireless lan. A lot of catgirls liked the 60 cm high robot a lot. It was used in a number of jokes and games at the company in the following months.

When a group of ships attacked Jenga in 2016 to kidnap the catgirls and steal everything valuable on the station, the Mini Madcat had its field day. In a blue hair moment, one of the catgirls replaced his shoulder launchers with a series of waved paintball missiles. The Mini Madcat attacked the Boskonian troops inside the Hangar with a single volley of its missiles and colored the visors of a few of them green. While the rest of the boarding group quickly gunned the small mech down, a few Boskonians were unable to continue their mission without repairs of their visor.

After the fight was over, the catgirls discussed what to do with the pieces of their brave little friend. While a few of them suggested repairing it, most of them felt that it would spoil the ‘heroic sacrifice’. In the end they decided to build a new group of robots similar to the old one, which would ‘follow its role model’ and help defending the station against future attacks.

The Mini-Madcat Corps

Base Hull: Two legged walker built by Sabre Fang
Height: 3 m
Mass: 1.2 metric tons
Drive Type: ‘Myomer muscles’
Dark energy mass effect drive
Drive Rating: 54 km/h walking, 86.4 km/h running
540 km/h flying in atmosphere, 0.07c in space
Reactor: Whistler Philo MKIII mini-fusion reactor
Armament: 2 variable arm adapters
2 multi purpose shoulder boxes
Manufacturer: Cold Cat Spaceworks, Whistler Corporation, Catgirl Industries
Owner: Catgirl Industries
Registry Number: CI-MMC-001 to -006
Launched: Mid 2017
Primary Crew: 0 (remote controlled)
Operational Status: Active

The new generation of the Mini-Madcat was not designed as a toy. The Mini-Madcat Corps is a group of six remote controlled robots, each of them three meters tall. They are made of an endoskeleton of waved steal with a layer of laminated armor plates on top. Their arms and shoulder launchers are modular sets that can be easily replaced within moments.

Similar to the Mechs described in the Battletech novels and game material, the Mini Madcats are moved by a system of waved ‘myomer muscles’, similar to the body of a human. The muscles are a made of hundreds of fibres, each of them constructed from a specialized strain of memetic plastic. Staying as close as possible to the machines described in Battletech was supposed to help with the final waving steps during construction. The development of the myomer strain of memetic plastic was considered a mayor breakthrough for later applications.

Several components of the Mechs were bought from outside sources. The energy of the mechs is provided by a small Fusor bought from the Whistler Services, while a lot of chassis parts were made from Sabre Fang, who had already built the earlier toy.

The new mechs were upgraded a few times during construction, which delayed their completion until mid 2017. They finished models are built around two second generation mass effect drive, which projects a defensive forcefield around the mechs. The second core is used to extend the forcefield around the whole Mech, which is larger than the two meter diameter a single drone core would provide.

The main engine in the upper body allows the mechs to fly, but only after the mech cowers down and put his arms into a ‘standby position’. All weapon systems have to be locked down before engaging the flight mode. The bottom of the mechs feet are covered by the same sticky substance the catgirls used in the construction of their drones for the Panzerkunstlers for zero-g missions. Unfortunately the sticky effect is not strong enough to allow a mech of this size to walk on walls and ceilings in normal gravity.

The default modules of the arms of the Mini-Madcat corps are hands with integrated universal tool adapters, similar to the one of the Exocomps but larger. This allow them to use the Mechs in construction work while there is no danger on Jenga.

Rumors say the catgirls have a cache of lethal and non-lethal weapon modules, which would be installed should anyone try to attack Jenga again.

Trivia:

• So many of them! There are six (not four or five) Mini-Madcats, which train together every week. This spawned a lot of speculations by Battletech Fen.
  
• Mine! Each of the mechs is piloted by a specific catgirl through a remote control rig. Normally they don’t like to share their mech.
  
• Zero-g feet. The sticky feet allows the usage of the mechs in areas without gravity.
  
• Not a proto mech! Even with only 3 meters high, it cannot do the speed of the Battletech protomechs.
  

• Bionic mech! The intro of ‘The Six Million Dollar Man’ must be played to start the systems of the Mini-Madcats.
  
• No Combat Jumpjets. The weapons of the mechs cannot be fired while flying.
  
• Oh no, stairs! Like their precursor, the Mini-Madcats cannot walk on stairs without falling down like stepping on a Banana peel.
  

• Hands. There is a set of articulated hands for each of the mechs
  
• Spotlight. A multispectral spotlight (IR, normal light, UV) can be mounted on the shoulders.
  
• Waved bubble gum shotgun. mostly used for pinning or disarming people.
  
• Paintball missile launcher. Scaled up version of the original Mini-Madcat weapon.
  
• 12.7 mm coilgun. High velocity anti armor weapon, fires solid rounds with the shape of 12.7*99mm bullets.
  

And, of course, it's the fault of the other party for being unwilling to compromise, while one's own party makes a stand on matters of principle.

Andy Cruger winced at his many bruises, the gun of one of his captors pressed against his temple, the headache he still nursed and the pain from his old bones from weeks of mirco gravity, as he was forced into the large plexiglas tube.
He had heard about these things from OGJ headquarters and people who had taken several of the smaller Boskone bases. Meant for the ‘production’ of catgirls that the Boskones seemed to sell to everyone interested.
For a moment he silently cursed at Haruhi for sending the Apollo out into the belt to do recon on a suspected Boskone hide out.
Too bad that it had been. And that they had seen Apollo even if they had run on absolute minimum levels. Not that it was really hard to do with Apollo anyway. As the only waved parts were the drive and the life support and the rest was a near 1 to 1 copy of the original Apollo Command and Service Modules, there was not much to be seen. And with space being so damned large not very visible either.
"Be glad," one of the Boskones, one of those used car salesmen types said with a grin." You’ll go from your fifties back into your twenties. And I’m sure you’ll fetch a nice price when were done with you."
Andy looked up and into his face.
"Fuck you," he muttered. The Boskone just grinned, but kept himself from giving a reaction as the tube closed and the plastic skeleton presses uncomfortably into his back.
He felt how something liquid slowly flooded the tube and started to breathe in and out to get as much oxygen into his blood as he could. His personal best was at four minutes, but without moving he could stretch it to five minutes.
One of the bonus point of making it through Navy SEAL training and serving as one for six years. Through it was dulled by twenty five years as a civilian.
"It may be a tad uncomfortable," the Boskone said." Pray for unconsciousness."
He closed his eyes and then held his breath as he prepared to whatever would happen to him and the fluid pushed over his face. ‘A tad uncomfortable’... For Andy that meant it was going to be very painful. Maybe as painful at having to go through an op with your foot broken and without painkillers that may make you slow to react...
Going back to his training and long life, he tried to focus on something different then his current situation.
Then the pain started. Stronger and at the same time stranger then anything Andy had ever felt in his life.
-----------------------
"Andrew Cruger?"
Andy up from the table in front of him and to the faces of a pair of suits that screamed FBI.
"Yes?"
"Agent Willard, FBI," the suit said and a badge was shown to Andy." Agent Dobson."
"What can I do for the FBI, Agent Willard?" Andy asked and tried to look as non-threatening as he could. Not that easy for a man in his mid fifties who looked like a body builder.
Willard did not look all that impressed.
"We heard that you are building a space craft," he said matter-of-factly." And that you may be in possession of Handwavium."
Andy snorted and shook his head, reaching out to grab his cane.
"None of that stuff anywhere near this hangar," he said and then mentioned towards the door leading inside the hangar." I’ll show you."
Opening the door and walking through it with a noticeable limp, he chuckled again as the pair of suits followed, well, suit.
"Accident?" Dobson asked.
"Work related," Andy noted." I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you."
Seeing Willard reach for his weapon, Andy raised his hand.
"Keep that gun away," he noted," and allow me to elaborate..."
He made a short pause as they walked towards the ‘work area’ of the hangar, hidden away by large tarps hanging from the ceiling.
"I’ve served this country as a Navy SEAL for six years until this got me out of that job. And you don’t have the security clearance to know what exactly happened..."
He reached one of the tarps and pulled it away, allowing the Agents to walk in.
"And does that look like it would go anywhere anytime soon? Aside from a Museum perhaps?"
Both Agents blinked a few times as they looked at the skeleton build of an Apollo Command Module, while the Service Module next to it was nearly done.
"If I’d wanted to go to space, I would have ‘waved my camper. Or hitched a ride with someone."
He smirked a little.
"Besides, Michael, Thomas and me build this thing since 2001, way before handwavium. And we want to get his done as close to the original specs as we can."
Willard went back to being unimpressed.
"And do you want to do with it when you’re done?"
Andy shrugged as he nodded at Martin who stuck his head out of the hatch of the Command Module.
"No idea," he said," maybe put it into my yard. Or give it to the museum."
The FBI agent gave him a flat glare.
"Hey, other people rebuild cars, planes or ships. We just chose to go with an Apollo."
He than walked to the Service Module.
"If you suspect handwavium anywhere here or at home of any of us, you are free to search for it. With a warrant of course. If you would now please excuse me?"
-----------------------
There was a flash of intense pain running through Andy’s body and he tried to open his mouth in a scream only to find that he couldn’t. Grasping for straws, he concentrated on a different memory to keep himself from going insane.
-----------------------
"Stellvia Station," Andy said into the microphone of the old style radio, its cord coiling in the microgravity of the Command Module. "This is Apollo, please come in."
"Apollo, this is Stellvia Traffic Control," a pleasant female voice came back over the radio." How can I help you?"
The three men in the Apollo Command Module smiled at each other and Andy brought the microphone back to his mouth.
"Stellvia Control, Apollo," he said, sticking to the old radio protocols." We are wondering if you have a place for us to dock."
He floated up to look at the long Docking adaptor that was docked to the Apollo’s docking system, a rather quick adaption based on the Apollo-Soyuz docking adaptor, only that this one contained a docking mechanism for the International Docking Standard that had been developed for the ISS.
"Apollo, I’m sure we can squeeze you in somewhere," the voice came back over the radio." Do you have special requirements?"
Looking out side he could see a few other space craft floating up next to them as they approached the ring station that was Stellvia. Through the word ‘space craft’ was somewhat broad when it came to what floated around outside of the Apollo.
"Is that a 1964 Shelly Cobra?" Martin Davis wondered out loud, blinking a few times, while the car in question moved closer to them.
"Looks like it," Thomas Erickson noted with a chuckle, making Martin and Andy join in for a moment.
"Stellvia Control, Apollo. We either need a docking port compliant with the International Docking Standard, or micro gravity hangar space. We’re not your normal car..."
"Apollo, I think we do have a docking port for you," the voice answered, sounding a little stunned.
Andy hoped that the girl on the other end was. It was not every time that you had an actual working Apollo floating around your station.
"I’m going to send you the coordinates for the port and..."
"Negative, Stellvia Control," Andy interrupted the girl." We are not capable of automatic docking. We’d need running light or something along that line."
By now the crowd of unusual space craft had increased, all of them wanting to take a look at the Apollo craft that slowly floated towards Stellvia.
"Apollo, please hold the line."
The three men looked at each other and chuckled. Their leaving of Earth had been a little rushed as the guys at the FBI had finally found out about their use of some handwavium when they had prepared for lift off. Not that it had helped the suits down on the ground any. And the Chair Force had send a flight of F-22, but those had not been able to catch up with the Apollo when it went straight up.
As Stellvia turned in front of them, the drift of the Apollo slowly pushed the Moon into view pretty much highlighting the station in front of it.
"Apollo, Stellvia Control," the girl came over the radio again." We got someone who is going to help you with the docking. He should come up to you at any moment."
"Stellvia Control, Apollo. Thanks for the help and sorry for the added work."
"No problem, Apollo. All part of the service."
Only a moment later something came up from the side and slowly and very carefully maneuvered around the Docking Adaptor and positioned itself in front of the view ports of the Apollo.
To Andy it looked like someone had build a large sled out of pipes, slapped a rocket engine one one end, added a few RCS thrusters and the front of a scooter to it. And a figure in a guine looking NASA EMU stood behind the scooter front. Heck, the suit still had NASA signatures on it, together with a patch reading ‘Whistler Orbital Sevices’.
The figure in the suit lifted a hand and pulled up the gold tinted visor. A man in his late thirties grinned back at them.
"Apollo, this is Orbital Sled Two," he said, the mans accent sounding British or Irish." I’m told you need some help with docking?"
Andy chuckled and gave the man a thumbs up through the view port.
"Sled Two, Apollo. You could say that. We got nothing that wasn’t in the original Apollo CM, well aside from the life support. So we have a little trouble with finding the docking port."
Silently the guy laughed and shook his head, before he returned the thumbs up.
"Apollo, you got big brass ones then. Just come along. I’ll show you the port."
"Roger that, Sled Two."
-----------------------
Another shot of intense pain flashed through Andy’s mind. It felt like it was only his mind as he could not feel his body anymore. For a moment he felt like he was going to go insane, but with the same stubborn determination that had pushed him through Hell Week, he tried to push that feeling of pain away and concentrate one something else.
-----------------------
"Martin, you are insane."
The 65 year old man in the silvery Mercury Space suit just grinned back at Andy as he slowly worked himself out of the seat of the Mercury and into the large empty hangar of the SkyLab Complex that only contained the Gemini additionally to the small black capsule.
"Not insane enough to not try my luck in space," the old man noted and kept grinning." Especially seeing that zero gravity does wonders for my rheumatism."
"Still does not change anything."
The old man kept chuckling, while Andy moved to secure the small capsule to the hull of the SkyLab module that was used as hangar.
"And you know that no one could have kept me from doing that. Especially not when my father worked on the Mercury Project."
Martin sighed.
"My way of saying thank you to him."
Andy just patted the older man on the back.
"I think were all here then," he noted." Lets get to the others."
Martin snorted.
"Don’t be so fast," he said." I got the feeling that we’re going to get some visitors you didn’t expect."
"Aside from you?"
Slowly they floated away from the Mercury and towards the connector node that kept the currently three modules of the SkyLab Complex together.
"Whistler isn’t going to deliver the other modules until the end of July."
"Andy!" they heard the yell of Thomas echo through the module." We got a visitor!"
Blinking and trying to ignore the chuckle coming from Martin, Andy sped up as he grabbed the next rail and pushed himself through the mostly micro gravity environment of the Command Module of the Complex.
"What’s up," he asked as he floated past a pair of improvised decks.
"Looks like we got a few crazy Russians wanting to join us."
Andy blinked.
"What?"
"They call themselves Sojuz TMA-12..."
"They didn’t..."
"They did..."
"Shouldn’t they go for the Soviets?"
"I asked them the same," Thomas said." But they said that they like being capitalists."
Behind them, Martin began to laugh out loud.
-----------------------
The mental pain was soon replaced by the return of a more bodily pain and a strange alien feeling. Andy could not put his finger on it, but the next jolt on nearly unbearable pain drowned out the alien feeling, making him concentrate more on his memories.
-----------------------
For a moment Andy wondered why the hell they had joined Operation Great Justice. Not only was that a stupid name for a pseudo military organization, but the entire thing felt more like some kids playing Risk or something like that.
Okay, so it sounded like a good idea at the time, but right now he was more and more on Fnords side about the whole thing.
There was just enough happening in favor of OGJ.
"What?" he asked and stared at the grainy black and white image of Kyon wincing back at him on the video communication system of the SkyLab Complex.
Sometimes the use of old technology to build everything around here had its negative sides.
"What does Haruhi think?" he asked." Or does she think at all?"
Kyon winced again and tried to look apologetic.
"I’m sure that you can do..."
"We are not equipped to run a Recon Mission," Andy said, interrupting Kyon." How does Haruhi think that we are going to do this. move up to that asteroid and observe it with binocs?"
Kyon breathed in deep and then shook his head.
"You’re the ex-Navy SEAL," he said." You figure it out."
With that he cut the connection, leaving Andy staring at the screen with impotent rage.
"Argh," he screamed and threw a bag of coffee through the Command Module, making it wetly impact into an equipment rack.
-----------------------
Slowly the pain subsided and Andy felt the more normal thought process return, even if there was something akin to migraine remaining. That last memory had been before Apollo had been captured for doing just that, sitting in deep space, pretending to be unimportant while the crew took terms at observing the asteroid with binocs.
Just their luck that the Boskones had noticed them after just a day and managed to capture them before they could turn off the lock that kept the main engine on Apollo specs for the most time.
Around Andy the liquid drained away, allowing him to take a deep breath, and for the first time he felt the changes that had been done by the machine.
For one there was a new appendage coming from his behind that snaked around a little and hurt from laying on top of it. He could also feel how his ears moved slightly to all but flatten to his skull. And then there was the unknown weight on his chest.
Looking down, he saw that, yes, they were a pair of sizable assets for a woman.
So it had happened...
Say good bye to Andy Cruger the very male 50 year old ex-Navy SEAL and say hello to Andy Cruger the very curvy young catgirl.
The he realized something else. Whatever had actually happened, his hands and feet were not bound anymore.
The next moment it was as if someone had turned a switch in Andy’s mind, while there was the rage of the gods burning in the back of his mind, the mindset of the highly trained Navy SEAL came to the surface.
Above Andy the tube was opened by the ‘used car salesman’, who loosely held a gun in his hand.
"Still conscious?" he asked and grinned down at Andy." That will make breaking so much easier."
Andy’s hand shot out, grabbing the Boskones wrist and turning it around with a snap of breaking bones, making the gun, a Walter PPK, Andy noted absentmindedly, drop into the tank.
Before the Boskone could react with more then a scream, Andy had grabbed the weapon and leveled it against the mans head. Without saying a word, the finger thightened around the trigger, sending a 9 mm bullet straight through the man’s head.
At the same time, Andy’s head turned around, looking for another target. Finding none, the Boskones apparently thinking that the new catgirl would be either unconscious or not able to defend herself, the new catgirl pushed up and hopped out of the tube.
Walking around and looking around in the mostly empty room, Andy soon found a mirror.
Sadistic bastards, was the next thought as Andy looked into the mirror.
What looked out of the mirror was a maybe 5 foot 6 tall woman with darker skin, long straight white hair, a pair of white furred cat ears and a while tail sticking out from the back, both with black tiger stripes. And one that was quite nude and would certainly have been very attractive to Andy, had he not have been the catgirl in question.
For a moment, Andy felt like collapsing into a crying heap on the floor, but right now that was not possible. Thomas and Michael where still around somewhere and the Boskones were fingering around with the Apollo. Not to mention the mission. They had to get back to Stellvia with the info they had managed to collect. And maybe a little more...
There was time later to have a nervous breakdown. Or just a plain breakdown.
Taking a deep breath the new catgirl closed her eyes for a moment, before walking up to the computer of the Catgirling Machine. Without actual care the case of the computer was ripped open, surprising Andy with the apparent upgrade in strength. Longer times in micro gravity were not that good on the muscles after all.
Now with the exposed computer sitting before her, she raised the gun, sending a 9 mm through the harddrive and making the computer come down to a sudden halt with the loss of its main memory, before a fist came down to the mainboard, destroying it beyond recovery.
That being done, the glance went towards the dead Boskone hanging over the side of the tank. Maybe he had a spare mag.
With some disgust at the man, Andy removed his jacket and threw it over her shoulders, before looking through his pockets, discovering a few keys, a smartphone and a spare mag for the Walter. Not bothering with the smartphone, she pocketed the keys and the mag, before turning around to face the door. Just in time to see it open.
"Will, is something..."
The Boskone walking in with a MP5 in hands did not have much more to say as Andy had already dropped to one knee, before sending a pair of 9mm bullets his way. One hit his chest, while the other ripped open his throat, making him stare and then collapse with a wheezing sound and his trigger finger tightening around the submachine guns trigger, making a three round burst fly over Andy’s head, one of the bullets nearly clipping on of her new ears.
Eyes still on the door, she jumped over to the downed Boskone, who tried to point the gun at her again before he died, but that was silenced with a bullet into his forehead.
The gun still pointed at the door, Andy grabbed the MP5 and a single spare magazine from the dead guard, before looking out of the door to the left and right to check if the corridor was empty.
Time to show these Boskones what a Navy SEAL could do. Even if she was missing a team to complement her.

erSo, since most people aren't really looking at the official forums, here's a quick and dirty breakdown of key quotes:

Keynote Panel:


- Titan Weapons, 12/6
- TPN and Minds of Madness (MoM) Trial

-Players asked for: update to old zones
-Solo Incarnate Path

Issue 22: Death Incarnate!

DARK ASTORIA REVAMP!
Banished Pantheon and Tsoo upgraded to Incarnate level.
Love of Diabolique Trial.
New solo incarnate path.
You can go through arcs, get IXP and salvage and stuff.
DARKNESS CONTROL!
STAFF FIGHTING!
More proliferation.
New Tier 9 VIP rewards. Fire and Ice Armor sets.
Flying Carpet power.
Introducing "Super Packs," a pack of 5 random rewards. Costume pieces, consumables.
ATIO's are going to be exclusive to those packs.
They're not going to be very expensive.
Costume set that is exclusive to the packs.
Ton of new costumes in 2012.
New loyalty program open Dec 1-March 31
They want to expand the pet system and keep the load off the servers, thus why you only get one 'companion' pet. Pets take as much server effect as a player, so they limited the pets as they're expanding them.
The base editor was written a long time ago by someone who is no longer at the studio, and is very fragile. Every time they've tried to alter it, they broke it. So they want to get back to bases.
Epics and pool power customization?
Posi: "It's inevitable."
Samuraiko: "Can we have more videos? I can't make them all for you!"
Black Pebble has been working with the Seattle team on the next videos.
The Freedom launch trailer was worked on by an agency, rather than in house.
Posi: "There's some... stuff coming with weather. It's probably not what you're thinking, it's a lot more subtle. But it opens doors for new things in the future."
Posi: "I still want a moon base."
Nate: "Whenever we get a bug, it gets assigned to a default setting. One of the QA guys to tweak Posi's nose named it Moonbase. When is this bug going to get fixed? Moonbase."
WW: "Definitely Boomtown has come up for a revamp, it's been on the list."
Talk about the buff pet and vanity pet clashing. Once they've got the data mined they'll take a look at changing it.
PvP guy won't bloody shut up.
PvPguy has been talking for two minutes.
Nate: "We've had a lot of people saying "oh, just do this!" But that's how we got it to where it is in the first place. We want to have a robust design in mind for it."
GM asks who has PvPed in the last month, few hands. Asks if they would PvP with some changes, lot of hands.
They would love to do a Hero Con again. They were really busy this year.
The Pummit is essentially a proof of concept for future events. They want to increase interaction in events.
Chances of getting a wolf mastermind.
Posi: "Your chances now are better than they ever have been."
3D figure printing?
GM: "We thoroughly examined that. We just have some fundamental challenges with our in game models and making that work. Right now we don't have any realistic way to do it."
Female MM pets?
GM: "I just leaned over to Melissa and said "Fembots.""
Mastermind pet customization, even with preset pet types would be a UI nightmare. They're looking into it, but it will not be in the next few releases.
Randomizing AE facial features and hair. "That sounds like something we'd want to use."
They have a few ideas for rewards (salvage, recipes, etc) in the future that will help out with juggling all the drops and such.
If you run across a mission that doesn't tell you that it's a kill all, bug it.
Zone phases are going to be used sparingly, and used rarely for things like task forces in the future, since it breaks zone events.
Sharing stuff across an account, rather than having to e-mail it every 15 seconds. Someone from engineering "He's the two brightest people I know!" says that it wouldn't be difficult at all to do.
Ouroborii being merged?
Nate: "Isn't Ouroburos a dirty, dirty hack?"
It would be really hard.
They could, possibly, create moving characters between accounts. They managed to do it accidently when they set up the server transfer system. I didn't hear anything about plans to do it, however.
They've been thinking about incarnate/hard mode TF's like the LRSF and STF.
Two beacons per teleporter limit? They'd have to go in and take a look at why it's there and what the consequences might be.
Being able to invite your alts in your SG. Mass cheering. Posi says that it's been noted, but it runs counterintuitive to what SG's are supposed to be. Posi shoots it down "Blah blah server resources, blah blah, antisocial."
There's a very good chance we'll get a summer event at some point

***

Marking Panel


***


They look over sales data twice a day, as well as reading the forums with regards to what is selling, what isn't, what is liked and isn't.
Their goal is to put higher end costume pieces on the market. They are going to continue giving pieces for free to VIPs
http://yfrog.com/j2fmfdpj
Ooo, concept art for Titan Weapons that will be for sale, on December 6th.
They will continue to release a new power set with each issue. For 21 it was Time Manipulation, next is Darkness control.
Staff Fighting comes out next year.
Black Friday/Cyber Monday will be having some big sales.
They're experimenting with packages, sales, and bundles. They will consider permantly discounting items if they sell greatly at the lower price.
They have the weekly items well into 2012.
Next week they're going to have a Thanksgiving-themed costume piece.
Enhancement converters.
Super packs.
Enhancement converter UI. Convert an enhancement into another one. 
In-set will change one IO into another one of the same set.
In-category to change one IO to one of a similar type. Melee to Melee.
There will be another one that is random based on rarity. Purple to purple, orange to orange.
Super packs have 5 items of variable rarity. It will contain buckets of reward merits, Elemental Order costume parts, and ATIO's.
Video showing the basic UI for this.
You are guaranteed at least a Rare card if not a Very Rare.
They mention an Enhancement Catalyst, which they will get to later.
You can track the pieces through the Collect screen. The elemental pieces exist at every level. Once you get an account bound item it will not appear again and waste a card. YAAAAY!
http://yfrog.com/h0i62xgj
http://yfrog.com/nxai1ztj
http://yfrog.com/klhdvpzj
ATIO's are unique, one set per character. The set bonuses and procs can be specific to the AT. Stalker's Guile puts you into Hide when it goes off, for example.
Scrappers get +Crit, Tankers get +Res, etc.
http://yfrog.com/oc1cnjj
Enhancement Catalyst turns ATIOs into Superior ATIO's, which are not tradeable. You combine them at level 50 (essentially making them Purple-con IOs)
http://yfrog.com/gybl0jbj
The VRATIO percentages get higher, the procs hit more often, for bigger effects.
http://yfrog.com/od6e7lpj
http://yfrog.com/nwtq7pnj
http://yfrog.com/oc1cnjj
http://yfrog.com/gybl0jbj
http://yfrog.com/nvapcjkj
http://yfrog.com/nxx3zddj
Fire and Ice Tier 9 armors will come out in early 2012. Celestial Armor will be "put in the Disney Vault" once the third Tier 9 comes out.
They have stuff planned for Xmas and New Year's.
http://yfrog.com/khlzfgmwj
Q and A time.
http://yfrog.com/oelaeraj
http://yfrog.com/hs190xcj
http://yfrog.com/gz17ladj
They are still working on getting your veteran tokens up front.
Talk about the 30 day IO license.
They want to keep Incarnate pieces VIP only.
Starting out with a contact's call capability and the crafting table as possible QoL purchases. They considered the table. Posi has to talk to Black Scorpion to see if it's possible.
The Super Packs will be cheaper than 350 points. "Significantly cheaper."
They're going to keep Tier 9 VIP rewards for about 6 months.
Enhancement Catalysts exist only to boost ATIO's.
One of the devs want to put Rularuu weapons in the store.
They want to cycle Tier 9 VIP rewards due to not wanting it to become too complex and unwieldy. 
They've been looking at how to do the Bank missions after you've outleveled them. It's another piece of arcane tech by people who don't work with the company. They're extremely interested in it, and as players themselves they want it. They've talked about it.
"Harriet Jones, Prime Minister. Is there a way to re-chose veteran rewards that I made a mistake on?"
It is technically possible, but they don't want to take anything away from someone.
Ghost Falcon, NPC Transformation powers: "They cost as much as they do because I really hate those people on eBay that are selling these for like $100 and $200 and $300."
"He means if he disproves of their actions. He doesn't hate them."
Posi: "You only hate them because you can't sell them for that much."
Accessing live servers from outside of the game client causes load issues.
Posi restates that adding 3 extra slots as a potential buy to the market broke a huge number of things. It's something they want to do. Second Measure says "It would likely require an entire revamp to the way the power system works."
Zwill: "So it accidently the whole thing?"
SG rename? They've looked into it, but they have to weigh it on if it is potentially worth Customer Service possibly murdering them.

***

Lore Panel


***

Posi: "Tell us about Praetoria."
Protean: "Praetoria, f*** yeah!"
Posi: "There are words on the screen here, but for some reason I have trouble focusing."
First Ward is just a start of the story about Tyrant wanting to stamp out any magic not under his control.
Dr. Aeon didn't realize the guy in the SSA looked liked Penn Jilette until someone on the forums said it. "Hey he doesn't like Penn... oh, yes he does."
Posi: "And he does illusions! We didn't even realize that!"
Praetoria's story will end
Batallion is most definitely the Coming Storm and it will be the next threat after Praetoria.
More on Prometheus, Ouroburos, and time travel will come in the future.
They've had over 20 people writing for CoH over the years.
Posi: "We've had Sean McCann trying to tie up loose ends..."
Viridian: "Kill everyone."
Aeon: "I'm going as fast as I can! I can't kill them fast enough!"
State of defeated Praetorians: Defeated and contained, comic book dead, and outright dead. They have a list.
"We have a list of who Sean is allowed to kill."
Aeon: "It keeps getting shorter by the day."
Samuraiko: "I was about to cry when you put up the slide about Dark Astoria. I thank God..."
"You'll want to thank Mot for it."
"I will worship Mot if it gets I22 out quicker."
She wants to see the Revenant Hero thing continued and more Crey.
"Don't assume that Crey hasn't gotten into Praetoria. Heroes tend to face Crey tech once they've got it perfected."
AE lore has to be handled with care so players don't go "Well, AE is evil. I feel stupid for using it."
"Didn't Crey invent MARTy?"
There are no 5th Column plans at the moment. There is some 5th column lore in revamped DA.
Praetorian Stephan Richter.
Posi: "Two fates, either really dead, or something else. I know that's lame. But we did write ourselves a back door if we want him to appear in Praetoria, even though we wrote him as dead."
"The Power of Tartarus DOES reside in someone in Praetoria."
If/when they look at Shadow Shard a revamp Darren Wade would likely be involved.
Viridian thinks that the Goldbrickers are the awesomest, least utilized villain group and wants to use them more.
Protean wrote a story arc involving the Zig during his interview, it's still sitting around waiting to be used.
Eventuallly they will conclude the story of Hero 1.
Arbiter Fabulous asks about Weaver One and dubs him "Nightmare Fuel."
Posi: "That's fertile ground for development. As far as I know, you know everything about him that we've wrote."
Brass Monday and similar time travel things are kind of hard to do, since they would have to make whole new cars, architecture, etc.
Zwill will be putting the powerpoints online next week.
Hero Corps was before even Positron's time. Posi has never been interested in the mercenary, heroes for hire type of thing. Hero Corps does have a shady side, being sponsored by Crey.
There are two timelines in the game 2004-now and the 7 years of game-time, and the timeline of your levelling. They try and unveil information keeping the world in your levelling path.
There's a story they want to tell with the Galaxy City Shivans that they have planned.
Malta lore
"What, do you hate your endurance bar?"
"I'm an Empathy Defender. I want people screaming for Recovery Aura."
The Knives of Artemis has some stuff coming up in content.
"Terrible Volta" needs to be looked at.
"So you want Johnny Ambush here to go over that?"
Talk about how TV.
Posi: "I want to make it like an Incarnate Trial. But I think Tim Sweeny's head just exploded because he doesn't know how to code handing out Respecs."
Talk about character interacts that would like to see. Ghost Widow and Belladonna. You've got Ghost Widow wanting to bring herself back to life, in a living body, and what better body than one that is essentially her own.
The writers seems to like the idea.
There have not been many mirror matches regarding Primal and Pratorian versions meet. They've discussed several pairings.
Katie Douglas stuck in First Ward was meant to be a cliffhanger, meant to make you just want to murder Mother Mayhem. But there's story coming up where you free her.
Luddites will get something soon.
"It's tough to gather them because they don't have text messaging."
"They have carrier pigeons."
Talk about the abandoned Portal Corps building in the Hive.
Positron has been trying to get an airport into the game forever.
Protean: "You don't have airplanes. You fly through Hero Air. 20 heroes with Group Fly."
"Until recently they flew faster than you."
"You couldn't have 20 Masterminds on a plane."
"You could make an arc early on in Mercy. You could have the Snakes on a plane."
Posi: "SECURITY!"
Posi is fondest of Ouroburos and the 13 methods of time travel.
Aeon's proudest of the Dean MacArthur arc.
Protean likes First Ward the best, getting the Ostermann building designed. His least favorite is Dominatrix and Tyrant.
"I sense the words "Retcon" followed by" Eww, eww, eww, eww, eww."
Protean: "That is filthy Resistance propaganda."
Arc they'd like to see most:
Posi: 5th Column Moonbase.
Aeon: Rise of Dean MacArthur!
"Sean! See me in my office!"
Protean: The rise and repowering of Orenbaga.
Viridian: Allowing villain players to actually destroy the world.
Posi: "Once per server."
"Do farming Jaegers tend Nemesis plots?"
Dev panel: "ERROR! ERROR! ERROR!"
They have a rule of three for art assets, if you have three uses for it, usually it'll get a thumbs up.
Regarding Resistance slang: "What is a slippery biscuit?"
Protean: "Let me answer a question with a question, what do you think a slippery biscuit is?"
"T for Teen!"
Protean and Sean Pittman worked on resistance slang, which they dubbed "Spitspeak" due to the abbreviation of Sean's name.
They did not make a dictionary to make it seem more chaotic and leave it to each individual resistance member to determine meanings and keep it cryptic. As well as to be purposely confusing. Having someone look at Clockwork bugs and go "I don't understand this." Or having seers talking spitspeak around Mother Mayhem. "Terminate that one."

***

Costume Design Panel


***


Avatea introduces David Nakayama, Second Measure, War Witch, and Eric Chen.
Random doodling as Second Measure talks about the design process.
SM: "Tech sleek armor, potty suit. Err... power suit."
A lot of sci-fi and retro future suggestions.
SM: "Techno ninja pirate catgirl crossed out, bear written in."
"Costume for my mans."
"Steampunk Transformers."
"Nonhumanoid body types, four legged, blob, etc."
"Disguises. Like groucho glasses."
"More mustaches."
"More shorts."
Predominating themes are street clothes and retro sci-fi.
Giving player models fingers was looked at, but the amount of data required would increase by a great deal as well as the time needed to be put in. I think they said the entire rig at the moment has 14 "bones," each hand has like 15.
Suggestion that the bubble helmet be a neck option rather than a head option.
The older monster heads look so bad due to them trying to get them to conform to standards of the normal feature placement of auras and the like. They're standardized from the skeleton.
Texas Justice suggests the bubble helmet going with it by itself, having it headless, kind of like Mysterio from Spiderman.
Suggestion of a classic KITT/Cylon aura.
"Can we get a rifle with a plunger looking thing like a Dalek? Who doesn't want to go around in a bubble helmet with a plunger gun going "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!""
Asymmetry costs a lot in resources. Not so much geometry as in texture space. If they went nuts with asymmetrical options they would essentially knock out the bottom 10% of computers.
There's apparently a cool background of Romulus Augustus.
Goldfish in boots.
Peanut Gallery: "Talsorian Suspenders!"
"Ming the Merciless super collar!"
Panel says that the collar would clip with a lot of hairstyles. Chat is saying that long hair ALREADY clips with high collar capes.
"If you make the ring vertical it's Uranus!"
"Lusca baby backpack!"

***

Endgame/Beyond Panel


***

Quote:Here's the quick summary of the Incarnate panel based on my recollections:
Dark Astoria getting a revamp with Mot, PB and Tsoo (this was in the keynote but bears repeating). Old DA will be available through Ourborus (like Galaxy City).
New DA will have different story Arcs for Heroes and Villains along with repeatable content. Based on what they said it sounds like the repeatable content is implied to be co-op with tip mission style "moral choices" but they didn't say that outright. 
Regarding new slots, they will definitely not be coming out in I22. However Black Scorpion did say that they have heard the complaints regarding the number of currencies and the current plan is that the new slots will not have new currencies/salvage associated with them.
The new Incarnate trial featuring Diabolique will effectively be an epilogue new DA storyline but will not be the culmination of it (so not like Striga and Croatoa where you have to do a TF to see the final story).
Maelstrom's Teleport Kick attack in TPN Campus was the inspiration for Vorpal Judgement.
Adamastor will appear in the new DA but will not be a major opponent.
In terms of Incarnate story, the Preatorian arc is intended as an epic-cross-over battle of armies" style story which is why it's Trial focused. The Mot arc is being designed as more of an individual heroes comic book and as such is more single character/team focused.
We will eventually fight Cole and when we defeat him the well will be left without a champion. And nothing bad can come form that... Right?
That's what I recall, I'm probably missing some stuff but I think I hit the high points.

Quote:I talked with Viridian after the summit was over to get a little clarification and it sounds like heroes and villains run the same basic story arcs but your decisions (As in heroic or villainous choices) play a larger role in how they turn out, with things wildly diverging towards the end based on what you decide to do.
Anyway, going back to the panel, both Astral and Empyrian merits (Along with Incarnate XP, threads, and salvage) will be available through the content in Dark Astoria, though it was noted that Empyrians (Maybe Astrals too, it wasn't clear whether they were talking about one or both) will likely have a time lock on them to keep people from getting them too fast.
In addition, they mentioned that the groups that are getting involved in this such as the Banished Pantheon and the Tsoo are getting some more powerful members, with members that were previously bosses being downgraded to Lieutenants and so on. There was some mention of Underlings being part of these group as well but I can't recall what was said. The pre-Incarnate versions of these groups are unaffected.
In terms of characters that are involved in Dark Astoria's storyline, Mot is obviously a major figure, and Diabolique will also play a part that will likely tie in to her trial. The third major character the Devs mentioned is Blue Steel, who it sounds like we may finally get to fight if we choose to (Though the Devs jokingly warned that it may not be a good idea).
Finally, it was mentioned that our incarnate shifts, normally reserved for the incarnate trials, will actually work both indoors and outdoors in Dark Astoria.

Quote:Ok, here's what I've got from my notes:
Time Manipulation fun fact- swirl direction changes depending on if you are buffing or debuffing someone. Clockwise=Buff Counterclockwise=DeBuff
Titan Weapons-
-Available to Scrappers, Tanks, and Brutes (sorry, not for stalkers, then again kind of hard to be sneaky with a giant a$$ hammer)
-Essentially allows 1 power to do 2 things (with momentum or without momentum)
-Goes off of a momentum system. 
-No momentum, slow attacks, if you have momentum you have shorter animations and more AoE goodness.
-So far Hammer and Sword, potential for Axe as well.
Dark Control- Sorry, no tentacles people
Move list:
Shadowy Binds- DoT/Imob
Dark Grasp- Mod Dmg/Hold
Living Shadows- Wide Cone/Dot/Imob
Posses- Confuse (with glowing eye goodness)
Fearsome Stare- Cone/Terror
Heart of Darkness- PBAoE/DoT/Disorient
Haunt- Summons Shades Dmg/Fear/Taunt (to the shades). Essentially, the shades will go out and attack the mob in question, casting taunt and fear on them while attacking them. If the mob dies, they will move on to another (like gangwar, we can't control where they go) to attack. They ARE killable, and somewhat squishy.
Shadow Field- Ranged AoE/Hold
Tier 9- TBA
It looked really interesting, with all the dreary, inky effects.
Staff Melee- Scrapper, Brute, Tank, Stalker
Power Staff Mastery- much like Swap Ammo, in where you can pick from three styles
Mind = gives boost to recharge
Body= Gives boost to Damage
Soul= Gives end discount
Perfection is built thru attacks, and there are two attacks that will either build or spend it.
Eye of the Storm and Sky Splitter.
Staff will have a longer range than most melee classes.
Addition:
Dark Assault for Dominators
Two new darkness powers (I believe for controllers in the prestige pool? Was hard to hear)
Soul Absorption- Regen+ after defeating enemies (for whole group
Fade- Targeted, like a mini MoG for others.

Quote:We're testing three improvements to stalkers in i22:
-Assassin's Strike: using Assassin's Strike outside of hide will be an uninterruptible attack with no windup time, dealing Superior damage. This will allow Stalkers to do very competitive dps.
-All Stalker attacks that are not Assassin's Strike will build stacks of a buff called Assassin's Focus. Assassin's Focus increases your chance to critically strike with the out-of-hide Assassin's Strike.
-Stalker Buffed Max HP will be increased by about 400. This should allow them to fully benefit from powers like dull pain, hoarfrost, etc.
-These changes to Stalkers should make them very competitive top-end damage dealers, and help them with their early attack chain since they can use Assassin's Strike mid-combat.

Quote:Quote:
[table]

Space History Reenactment Group
The Space History Reenactment Group are a small group of people who are not the usual sort of fen, as they are more interested in reenacting the 'glorious past' of manned space flight with their ships. At least sometimes. Most of the time they move around in Fenspace and take in the sights.
The SHR Group started out with the arrival of the Apollo at Stellvia in late 2011, causing some ruckus as people realized that the craft was a near 1 to 1 copy of an Apollo Command and Service Module, with only drive and life support being treated with handwavium. Everything else, including the computer, were mundane technology on 60s level.
Apollo was only the first craft, being joined by the Gemini, a not nearly 1 to 1 copy of a Gemini capsule, the Mercury, a rather close 1 to 1 copy of a Mercury capsule, and lately by Sojus TMA-12, an actual Sojus capsule that never got off the ground.
All these vessels are only waved in their life support and drive systems, with the rest being mundane.
A good number of Fen are on the good side with them and the Apollo is always welcome at most stations throughout Fenspace. Only the population of Island One dislike the SHR Group for their positive outlook and celebration of the 'glorious past' that they feels was denied to them.
Generally the age of the people in the SHR Group is at least fifty years over the age of a normal Fenspace Citizen, with Martin Andrews, the pilot of the Mercury, being 65 years old.
At the moment the SHR Group is looking into acquiring an OV-200 shuttle build to near original specs with only its life support and drive being 'waved.
Their homebase if the SkyLab Complex in Low Earth Orbit, constructed from five SkyLab copies build with the help of Whistler Services, who posses the five remaining Saturn V upper stages in space.

In a slightly more thought out idea, I've been trying to put together a list of Fen specific educational award/degrees for possible use in stories.

My current list:

Doctor of Cybernetics

Doctor of Biomodification

Doctor of Handwavium Engineering

Bachelor of Space Engineering

Bachelor of Unusual Biochemistry

Bachelor of Robotics

Bachelor of Xeno-Architecture

Bachelor of Artificial Intelligence

Bachelor of Transrational Science

Master of Unusual Sciences and Engineering

Any others people can think up?

A thought I had: Are there any charities in Fenspace, or do the Fen just work with the 'Dane ones?

http://www.thecaperadio.com/forum/viewt ... f=3&t=9621

New Dark Astoria stuff? SOLD!

So every two years thereabouts (June of 2009 was my last one), I donate my hair to Locks of Love, to be used in wigs for young cancer patients. This time, I lopped off a whopping FIFTEEN inches of hair.

2011 Biennial Hair Donation - Length by cmdrjlc, on Flickr
I'll be dropping this off in the mail on Monday.
--

"You know how parents tell you everything's going to fine, but you know they're lying to make you feel better? Everything's going to be fine." - The Doctor