"You're scaring me, Mag," Terrence commented from his perch on the reception desk as he watched the other man work. Mag didn't pause in his
efforts, but his ever-present cigar twitched from one side of his mouth to the other as he heaved another large crate off the teleport pad, hefting it to his
shoulder in one smooth motion.

"Why?" Mag inquired as he vanished down the hall towards the medbay, his voice betraying none of the effort of carrying his load. Terrence waited
while a rushing sound, almost like water, drifted down the hall. After several minutes Mag returned empty-handed and took up position near the platform
expectantly.

"You're hauling around enough crates to feed an army," Terrence pointed out. "If they were food, I mean. What are you doing?"

Another crate flashed into view. Mag hoisted it, then brought it over to the reception desk and dropped it unceremoniously next to Terrence.

"Take a look," he offered, drawing deeply on his cigar and frowning momentarily as he visibly recalled it wasn't lit.

Terrence shrugged and wedged his fingertips under the top, prying it loose with the sound of nails protesting as they were drawn out of wood. He blinked down
into the box.

"Mag."

"Yes, Terrence?"

"Are these...?"

"Yes, Terrence."

"For god's sake, man, why?"

Mag reached down into the crate and drew forth a handful of little blue objects, letting them trickle through his fingers. "Do you remember what time of
year it is?"

Terrence frowned. "Fall?" he hazarded.

"No! Well, okay, yes," Mag admitted, "but that's not the point. It's almost Halloween."

Terrence blinked and frowned, staring at his fingers as he ticked off days. He looked up. "Okay, but what's that got to do with anything?"

Mag clamped the lid back on the crate and snorted. He lifted it to his shoulder and started for the medbay. "Remember last year, 'Unca
Terr'?"

"... oh. Yeah." Terrence winced. Another crate flashed into view.

"That'll be the greens," Mag called, his voice echoing down the corridor. "Be a good forklift and bring them back here?" Terrence
shrugged and did so.

"Don't you think you're overreacting a little?" he asked as he entered the bay. Mag was perched on a stepladder, shaking the last few blues
out of the crate he carried into a cavernous hopper feeding into a dispenser at the bottom with a large "HELP YOURSELF" sticker pasted crookedly
above the lever.

Mag popped his neck and crunched the empty crate into a trashbin. "Let me ask you this, Terr," he said, removing his cigar and habitually tapping
the nonexistent ash off. "How many more catgirls do we have hanging around here than we did last time around?"

Terrence thought about that for a minute as Mag took the crate of greens from him, repositioned the stepladder, and began filling the other hopper. He cleared
his throat.

"Sooo... I'll just go get the other crates..."

"Thanks, pal, you're a saint," Mag replied cheerily as he shook a green waterfall into the dispenser.

Who would be the 'official' person who recruits people into Riot6.1? And does anyone here play them?

asking because I;ve got a couple of paragraphs floating about in my head for SSgt Shortimer's intro, and I need to bounce some ideas off people...
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

"So there's this mission,
right?"
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."

So, after the latest stint in AE, I realized that, as effective as Largo was as a walking buff generator, I could probably do somewhat better. Also, that I was
sick of Teleport as a travel power, but that's another story.

So I didn't take a chisel to his build. I took a chainsaw, swapping out power choices and generally exploiting set bonuses to attempt to address the main
points of weakness in his current build.

The points I'm looking to address here are:

1. Endurance. MMs may not NEED endurance, but I've finally gotten sick of not having it, so this build is meant to allow me to do stuff while running all
my toggles, etc. etc.

2. Boring Invincible Gameplay. Largo's gameplay style is very much "sit there and buff the bots while they kill everything", and while that's
fine, I felt I could adjust it so that I can actually do something WHILE buffing the bots and the bots are killing everything. This ties into #1 above.

3. Synchronization. This is mostly the reason I dropped the GW Patron toggle in exchange for the ranged cone. Defense is Largo's stock and trade, so an
attack focused on To Hit Debuff would benefit him and everyone around him.

Admittedly, this build dropped Resuscitate, the Teleport pool entirely, and Vengeance, so Largo's now a much more solo-centric build as compared to Clank.
While he still has utility (Aid Other, the shields), he doesn't have powers that don't really benefit him if he's not teamed at present.

Anyway, tl;dr, here's the build.

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.601

http://www.cohplanner.com/


Click this DataLink to open the build!

Maximilian Largo: Level 50 Technology Mastermind

Primary Power Set: Robotics

Secondary Power Set: Force Field

Power Pool: Leadership

Power Pool: Flight

Power Pool: Medicine

Power Pool: Fitness

Ancillary Pool: Soul Mastery

Villain Profile:

Level 1: Battle Drones

• (A) Blood Mandate - Damage/Endurance
  
• (3) Blood Mandate - Accuracy/Endurance
  
• (5) Blood Mandate - Accuracy/Damage
  
• (9) Blood Mandate - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
  
• (11) Blood Mandate - Damage
  
• (34) Sovereign Right - Resistance Bonus
  

• (A) Devastation - Chance of Hold
  
• (39) Devastation - Accuracy/Damage
  
• (39) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage
  
• (40) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
  
• (42) Entropic Chaos - Chance of Heal Self
  

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense
  
• (3) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance
  
• (5) Gift of the Ancients - Defense
  
• (13) Gift of the Ancients - Defense/Endurance
  
• (37) Gift of the Ancients - Run Speed +7.5%
  

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense
  
• (7) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance
  
• (7) Gift of the Ancients - Defense
  
• (15) Gift of the Ancients - Defense/Endurance
  
• (40) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
  

• (A) Endurance Reduction IO
  
• (9) Endurance Reduction IO
  

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense
  
• (11) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance
  
• (13) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Recharge
  
• (37) Luck of the Gambler - Endurance/Recharge
  
• (37) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance/Recharge
  

• (A) Defense Buff IO
  

• (A) Blood Mandate - Accuracy/Damage
  
• (15) Blood Mandate - Accuracy
  
• (29) Blood Mandate - Damage/Endurance
  
• (29) Blood Mandate - Damage
  
• (33) Blood Mandate - Accuracy/Endurance
  
• (34) Blood Mandate - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
  

• (A) Flight Speed IO
  

• (A) Defense Buff IO
  
• (17) Defense Buff IO
  
• (17) Defense Buff IO
  

• (A) Miracle - Heal
  
• (19) Miracle - Heal/Recharge
  
• (19) Miracle - Heal/Endurance/Recharge
  
• (25) Miracle - Endurance/Recharge
  
• (46) Miracle - Heal/Endurance
  

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense
  
• (21) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance
  
• (21) Kismet - Accuracy +6%
  
• (23) Kismet - Defense/Endurance
  
• (43) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance/Recharge
  

• (A) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Endurance
  
• (23) Doctored Wounds - Heal
  
• (25) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Recharge
  
• (42) Doctored Wounds - Endurance/Recharge
  
• (46) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Endurance/Recharge
  

• (A) Flight Speed IO
  

• (A) Blood Mandate - Accuracy/Damage
  
• (27) Blood Mandate - Damage/Endurance
  
• (27) Blood Mandate - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
  
• (31) Blood Mandate - Damage
  
• (33) Blood Mandate - Accuracy/Endurance
  
• (34) Blood Mandate - Accuracy
  

• (A) Miracle - +Recovery
  
• (43) Miracle - Heal/Endurance
  
• (43) Miracle - Heal
  

• (A) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod
  
• (31) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Recharge
  
• (31) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Accuracy
  
• (46) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End
  

• (A) Endurance Reduction IO
  
• (33) Endurance Reduction IO
  

• (A) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff
  
• (36) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge
  
• (36) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge/Endurance
  
• (36) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Recharge/Endurance
  
• (40) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Endurance
  

• (A) Endurance Reduction IO
  
• (39) Endurance Reduction IO
  

• (A) Endurance Reduction IO
  
• (42) Endurance Reduction IO
  

• (A) Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff
  
• (45) Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff/Recharge
  
• (45) Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff/Recharge/Endurance
  
• (45) Dark Watcher's Despair - Chance for Recharge Slow
  

• (A) Trap of the Hunter - Accuracy/Recharge
  
• (48) Trap of the Hunter - Immobilize/Accuracy
  
• (48) Trap of the Hunter - Endurance/Immobilize
  
• (48) Trap of the Hunter - Accuracy/Endurance
  

• (A) Ghost Widow's Embrace - Accuracy/Recharge
  
• (50) Ghost Widow's Embrace - Accuracy/Hold/Recharge
  
• (50) Ghost Widow's Embrace - Accuracy/Endurance
  
• (50) Ghost Widow's Embrace - Endurance/Hold
  

• (A) Empty
  

• (A) Empty
  

• (A) Empty
  

I found this during a random browse:

Wolf Puppet

Life-size, yet.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

This is so intensely, mind-blowingly, ecstatically FUCKING COOL!!! I can't find enough FUCKING EXPLETIVE ADJECTIVES to describe how GODDAMN COOL this is!!!

Doctor Who theme - on TESLA COILS!!!



My mind, she is blown...

[table]

One burger and most of the fries later, I had determined several
additional things about my latest stop.

First, like the vast majority of the worlds I had visited, this
version of Earth had no metahumans. I'd been hopping from
timeline to timeline for at least a hundred and fifty years,
probably more, as best as I could determine. (A few of the
worlds I'd visited seemed to exist in a timeless "eternal now" in
which duration was an entirely subjective thing. And to be frank
I still couldn't be sure just how many months I'd spent training
the Sailor Senshi, thanks to Usagi playing at silly buggers with
both time and my memories there at the end.) Unfortunately,
after all those decades I *still* had no clue why Homeline and a
handful of other universes were the odd men out when it came to
true metahumanity. I resolved to spend some time discovering
what this world might have in common with all the others, if I
were here for more than a couple days.

Second, among the divergences from Homeline was Sunnydale itself.
I'm a California boy, born and bred, and even if I *am* from L.A.
I'm not so self-centered that I don't still know the rest of the
coast. Sunnydale sat on the same patch of land as Santa Barbara
back home. Not precisely -- its town center was maybe a mile or
so from where Santa Barbara's was when I left, and the city
limits were a good deal smaller. Which was because it only had
about one-sixth the population of Santa Barbara, best as I could
recall. So not really a straight analogue, even if it *did*
still have the same area and zip codes. Likewise, what had been
Santa Barbara County back home was Sunnydale County here.

The geography was a bit different, also. Again, if I were
remembering right, the north edge of Santa Barbara ran right up
against a line of mountains and chaparral, including a big
national forest. Here, though, there was a wide, broad desert
between the city and the mountains -- the one I'd landed in.

Usually geography doesn't vary *that* much between versions of
Earth, so that was pretty weird. Especially since the rest of
California seemed to be more or less unchanged. I wondered if
maybe the tether-thing had something to do with it.

The weirdest thing about Sunnydale, though, was that the paper
had a 4-page obituary section to match its giant economy supply
of cemeteries. And not big obit articles, but the usual one- or
two-column-inch, tiny-type "thus-and-so died, services at J.
Random's House of Embalming on Tuesday" things. There was the
usual variety of causes, including the gonzo ones that, if they
make it into the paper at all, offer the careful reader the
opportunity for guiltily inappropriate laughter. In this case it
was an accident with a barbecue fork.

So I laughed. When I read the first one, that is.

By the fifth, I wasn't laughing any more.

By the tenth I was frowning.

And when I finished the obits, I swore in every language I knew
plus a couple I didn't. According to the paper, in the previous
week at least fifteen people -- none of them connected to each
other in any way that I could determine other than residency in
Sunnydale -- had all died from neck wounds inflicted with
barbecue forks, evenly split between "accidents" and "gang
violence". Another half-dozen or so had been victims of "animal
attacks". And several more had been coyly attributed to an
unspecified "neck trauma".

Bull-fucking-*shit*.

I should have known when I saw how darkly-aspected that tether-
thing was.

This gods-be-damned town had *vampires*.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

It's been a while since I posted anything about C8's build. Double XP weekend allowed me to make at least one major tweak (the 5th Hecatomb Slot). But there have been others over the last few months and I haven't documented them. So here's his build as it is currently. Any comments on or brickbats?
Might there be any way to incorporate the new Power from the Body Mastery pool "Physical Perfection" into this mix? Would that be desirable? Or superfluous?


Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.601
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Cyberman 8: Level 50 Technology Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Martial Arts
Secondary Power Set: Super Reflexes
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leaping
Ancillary Pool: Body Mastery
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Thunder Kick

• (A) Touch of Death - Accuracy/Damage
  
• (5) Touch of Death - Damage/Endurance
  
• (7) Touch of Death - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
  
• (25) Touch of Death - Chance of Damage(Negative)
  
• (42) Touch of Death - Damage/Recharge
  
• (45) Touch of Death - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
  

• (A) Defense Buff IO
  
• (3) Defense Buff IO
  
• (9) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance
  
• (31) Luck of the Gambler - Defense
  

• (A) Defense Buff IO
  
• (3) Defense Buff IO
  
• (9) Luck of the Gambler - Defense
  
• (31) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance
  

• (A) Touch of Death - Accuracy/Damage
  
• (5) Touch of Death - Damage/Endurance
  
• (11) Touch of Death - Damage/Recharge
  
• (25) Touch of Death - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
  
• (34) Touch of Death - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
  
• (34) Touch of Death - Chance of Damage(Negative)
  

• (A) Defense Buff IO
  
• (7) Defense Buff IO
  
• (13) Defense Buff IO
  

• (A) Hecatomb - Damage/Recharge
  
• (11) Hecatomb - Accuracy/Recharge
  
• (13) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
  
• (29) Hecatomb - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
  
• (37) Hecatomb - Damage
  
• (40) Hecatomb - Chance of Damage(Negative)
  

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO
  
• (43) Recharge Reduction IO
  

• (A) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage
  
• (15) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
  
• (15) Crushing Impact - Damage/Recharge
  
• (34) Crushing Impact - Damage/Endurance
  

• (A) Run Speed IO
  

• (A) Run Speed IO
  
• (17) Run Speed IO
  
• (17) Run Speed IO
  

• (A) Healing IO
  
• (19) Numina's Convalescence - +Regeneration/+Recovery
  
• (19) Numina's Convalescence - Heal
  

• (A) Endurance Modification IO
  
• (21) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Endurance
  
• (21) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod
  

• (A) Defense Buff IO
  
• (23) Defense Buff IO
  
• (23) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
  

• (A) Run Speed IO
  

• (A) Scirocco's Dervish - Accuracy/Damage
  
• (27) Scirocco's Dervish - Damage/Endurance
  
• (27) Scirocco's Dervish - Damage/Recharge
  
• (29) Scirocco's Dervish - Accuracy/Recharge
  
• (43) Scirocco's Dervish - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
  

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
  
• (31) Luck of the Gambler - Defense
  
• (46) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance
  

• (A) Jumping IO
  

• (A) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Damage
  
• (33) Mako's Bite - Damage/Endurance
  
• (33) Mako's Bite - Damage/Recharge
  
• (33) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge
  
• (36) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
  
• (36) Mako's Bite - Chance of Damage(Lethal)
  

• (A) Absolute Amazement - Chance for ToHit Debuff
  
• (36) Absolute Amazement - Endurance/Stun
  
• (37) Absolute Amazement - Accuracy/Recharge
  
• (37) Absolute Amazement - Stun
  

• (A) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance
  
• (39) Red Fortune - Defense/Recharge
  
• (39) Red Fortune - Endurance/Recharge
  
• (39) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance/Recharge
  
• (40) Red Fortune - Defense
  
• (40) Red Fortune - Endurance
  

• (A) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff
  
• (42) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge
  
• (42) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge/Endurance
  
• (43) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Recharge/Endurance
  
• (46) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Endurance
  
• (46) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance for Build Up
  

• (A) Defense Buff IO
  
• (45) Defense Buff IO
  
• (45) Defense Buff IO
  

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Endurance/Recharge
  
• (48) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance
  
• (48) Luck of the Gambler - Defense
  
• (48) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Recharge
  

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO
  
• (50) Rectified Reticle - To Hit Buff
  
• (50) Rectified Reticle - To Hit Buff/Recharge
  
• (50) Rectified Reticle - Increased Perception
  

• (A) Accuracy IO
  

• (A) Endurance Reduction IO
  

• (A) Recharge Reduction
  

The family is thinking of setting up a Virtual Private Network. Our understanding of VPNs is that they require static IP addresses, which not all of us have...
is this true? If not, what do we need to be able to implement a VPN that allows a mix of static and dynamic IP addresses?
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012