An outfit claiming ownership of a patent that pretty much covers the entire interface of practically every virtual world out there fired its opening salvo at
City of Heroes. Register article here.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Seen on The Economist (via the SJGames forums): British Steam Car Challenge hope to beat the land-speed record for steam cars.

There's just enough layman's-tech description in the article to make it possible to describe in-story how Doug and Kohran might build one, if the need arises during DW XII...

Is there a master list of day jobs somewhere, or is it necessary to compile one?

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

[img]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/Jeremy/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot.jpg[/img][img]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/Jeremy/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-1.jpg[/img]

That waitress at Pete's who took so long to seat you,

And left you to stand in the doorway,

With her stringy red hair and her thousand-yard stare,

In her mind, she's the Princess of Norway.

As she takes down your order, she's crossing the fjord, her

White stallion spits foam like a madman.

Many Vikings have died trying to take her as bride,

But her heart is reserved for a bad man.

Quote: Rich fantasy lives.


Somehow she survives in a world she contrives.


Inhibited husbands and frustrated wives


Lead rich fantasy lives.

Quote: Rich fantasy lives.


He quietly thrives in a world he contrives.


Techno-drone insects in cubicle hives


Lead rich fantasy lives.

Quote: Rich fantasy lives.


Our peace-bonded knives and our hyperspace drives.


Until that steam engine to Hogwarts arrives,


We have rich fantasy lives.

Rich fantasy lives.


Our quests and our tribes and our Babylon Fives.


Until something better than this world arrives,


We'll lead rich fantasy lives.


Rich fantasy lives.

I hope you don't mind me asking, but I was wondering if you were planing on putting an RSS feed into your website. Personally, I've found myself using
my RSS reader more than my bookmark bar, simply because its easier to use the reader then to click individually on each bookmark I have, to see if there is
something new on a website. Thank you
-----
Stand between the Silver Crystal and the Golden Sea.
"Youngsters these days just have no appreciation for the magnificence of the legendary cucumber."  --Krityan Elder, Tales of Vesperia.

Hi. Umm... This is kind of awkward... What should I say? Let's see...

Ok, well, I found my way to Drunkard's Walk via the recommended fanfic list on TvTropes, which is where I've been getting most of the fanfics I've
read lately. I've read through most of what is currently posted, and I'm going to start Dead Bang pretty soon.

What else, what else... Oh yeah, I signed up here on the forum because I had a question/suggestion to ask over on the website part of the forum, and, um,
yeah.

Thanks for the great story.

Ok, that didn't go too badly, I think.
-----
Stand between the Silver Crystal and the Golden Sea.
"Youngsters these days just have no appreciation for the magnificence of the legendary cucumber."  --Krityan Elder, Tales of Vesperia.

Because people like the Firefly version of this, I figured this version might go down well.

here

"Let me make sure I've got this right," Purrfect Arrow shook his head as if he was trying to clear it. "You're saying that every
winter someone goes around all the suburbs of Paragon City and randomly leaves wrapped packages sitting in parking lots, roofs, streets, you name it. And when
you open these packages sometimes you'll find some candy canes, or smaller gifts, or even snow men that pop out of them and attack you?"

Purrfect Scrapper nodded her head excitedly. "Yep! And then you get to slice them up and go on to the next one!"

"But... that doesn't make any sense!"

Sammy grinned. "Nope! But it's fun!"

The catman groaned. "They really need to change the motto of this place. Paragon City: Abandon All Logic Ye Who Enter Here."

*****

They decided that Brickstown would be the best place to go present opening. Sammy and Arrow, along with a few others from Riot Force and The Legendary started
making their rounds. The two cats went their own way while the others all went looking in different directions. After a minute, they found a brightly wrapped
box about a foot deep and two feet wide.

"So this is the present I'm supposed to open?"

The scrapper grinned. "Open it!"

"Okay okay..." Arrow reached down and slowly inched the top off, ready to flee at any sign. When he had it about a handspan up, with no explosion,
he lifted the lid the rest of the way off and inside was a single candy cane.

"OOH, CANDY! Look Arrow, you got a candy cane!" Sammy bounced and gave him a smile. "Can I have it? Please! Oh, canIcanIcanI?"

The archer chuckled and gave the peppermint stick to her. "Sure, go ahead. That was a lot less... nervewracking than I was expecting it to be."

"Thanks!" Sammy nommed on the candy cane as the two of them went around the corner to find yet another decorated box. "Another one!" The
catgirl darted forward and opened the box with a large flourish... and found yet another candy cane. This one she proffered to Arrow with a grin. "And
this one's for you."

He chuckled as he took it from her. "Thanks Kitten." Breaking off the tip, he popped it into his mouth and put the rest of the candy cane into his
salvage bag. "Well, I think I get the idea now. I'm going to go around and see what else I can find." Concentrating briefly, he willed himself
invisible and went onward to the next box. Sammy darted the opposite way to search for her own presents.

The next one had a slightly different reaction when he touched it... it literally exploded and out popped a half dozen snow men, and every last one of them was
looking for trouble. It took him a few moments of wondering 'How did all of them fit in that little box?!' before he realized that they were just
standing there and hadn't noticed him. Thankful that he could go invisible at need, he snuck away from them and went looking for another box. It was
getting to be a cat and mouse game, and he was quickly growing to enjoy it.

Eventually he saw one on a slightly raised platform near the war walls and hopped up onto it. Pulling the lid off, he was taken utterly by surprise by the 20
foot tall monster that loomed out of this one, and apparently saw the hidden archer just fine. The giant snowman pulled out a even larger sword made of ice and
swung it at Arrow, knocking him off the platform and into the middle of the street flat on his back. He sat up trying to get his wits together when a driver
suddenly turned and came barreling down the road. A quick dodge and jump avoided that obstacle, but had taken his attention off the giant who hurled a fistful
of ice shards that hit Arrow directly in the chest. Gasping because of cold and pain he got up and stumbled down an alleyway that had a large trash bin in it.
He ducked behind the trash bin and kept still and quiet until he heard the thumping steps of the giant retreat back to where the box had been.

He sat there for a few minutes, shivering in the cold, until he finally realized the sounds of the giant had quieted down to nothing. Getting up from his spot
he peeked around the corner of the building, and his jaw dropped. There was no 20 foot snowman acting like the yeti. Only the wrapped box was back, as if
nothing had happened. Not even a sign of ice or wetness on the ground, as if it had melted. Warily, he returned to the box and opened it again. This time
was only a candy cane again. He left it there and leaped up to a nearby rooftop to watch what would happen next.

Twenty minutes passed as he crouched on the corner of the roof and nothing happened. The box still remained open with the candy cane in it. Finally he gave
up and leaped back down to the box and picked the cane out of it. He walked away from it about ten paces, and then something made him turn around. Standing
there was a completely different, sealed up box. The other one had been green and square, this one was yellow and tall. He blinked and looked around, but
there was nobody suspicious in sight.

Going back to it, he opened it up and it exploded in snow and a roar, as yet another giant came out of this one. Ready for it this time, he jumped into the
air and went over about a dozen rooftops before looping back to the roof he was on before. Sure enough, there was the huge snowman and his horde of smaller
snowmen all gathered up. He made sure to stay invisible and kept his distance from it as it prowled in a circle on the ground. Again, after a short while had
passed it was still there. He frowned and shivered slightly as the time passed. Suddenly he was caught unaware by a sneeze, causing him to blink for just a
millisecond. When he opened his eyes again all the snowmen were gone and a wrapped up present was in that spot again.

****

About two hours later the group got back together. They all shared stories and counted up the canes they had gathered, but Sammy noted that Arrow wasn't
there. So she went on a hunt for the archer. About 2 blocks away she found him standing and staring at an unopened box. He didn't even seem to notice
that she had come up beside him. Thinking for a moment, she darted forward and opened the box.

That got a reaction out of Arrow. "No, Don't!" He cried.

Before she could even blink he had jumped over to a rooftop a block away and perched there warily, his tail twitching and every line of his body set to flee.
She frowned and grabbed the candy cane out of the box before using a small jump pack she'd gotten a long time ago to join him on the rooftop. She crouched
down next to him and looked at the empty box. "What happened?"

He wouldn't take his eyes off the box. "Sometimes... actually a lot of times... a big, huge, giant snowman would come out of those. I don't know
how, but they did."

Sammy nodded and grinned. "Hey, you found a Winter Lord! I've heard they're big and ugly and nasty but I didn't see one when I was going
around and opening the boxes, it's so cool that you got s..."

Arrow actually interrupted her, looking at her in shock. "Winter Lord? Why didn't you TELL me about this? I've been knocked around by their
swords and nearly turned into an icicle every time one of those monsters popped out of a box."

She looked back at him in surprise. "Wait a minute, monsters? You saw more than one of them? How many, I mean even the rest of the group only saw like
two or three total and they've been looking as long as we have all been out here."

Arrow looked away from her. "I'm up to seven so far, I think." He seemed to think for a second and then stood up. "I'll show you,
follow me." He leapt off that rooftop and made his way to another rooftop near a corner of the war walls. "Do you see those?" She nodded as he
pointed to the 3 separate boxes that could be seen from that vantage. He concentrated for a moment and turned translucent, then jumped off the rooftop to the
first box. Without pausing he tore the lid off of it and made his way towards the second box and did the same thing. He had managed to dodge the blasts from
the first two Winter Lords that appeared but when he opened the third box and jumped towards where Sammy was waiting, the final Winter Lord nailed him in the
back with a blast of ice. He made his landing spot but the ice threw his balance off and he went tumbling ears over tail off the other side of the high rise.

"Arrow!" The catgirl darted over but sighed in relief when she found him flat on his back on the top floor of the fire escape for the building. He
was panting in exhaustion and pain, but had a triumphant grin on his face.

"See, I told you. 3 boxes, 3 of those giants." He winced as he sat up, bits of fur having frozen to off his back to the metal grating of the fire
escape.

She held out a hand to help him back to his feet, and noticed his hand felt like ice itself. Once he did manage to get to his feet, he had to lean on her for
support and she noticed that all the fur on his back was tipped with frost. "Ohmigod you're covered in white and you feel like you're one of
those snowmen yourself and you're shivering that can't be good we're going to the infirmary now and you're getting yourself checked out and no
arguing!" She tried to use a tone that she'd heard Aunt Ifrit use with Alice and it seemed to work since he only gave token efforts at arguing and
didn't resist her leading him at all.

About a half hour later she paced the lobby of the hospital like a tiger and pounced on the nurse when she came out of the back room. "Where's Arrow
is he okay he's been gone so long and nobody's come out and said anything and I don't know what's going on and..."

The nurse held up her hands and smiled, cutting off the tirade. "He's fine. I came out here to see if you wanted to come visit him in his
room."

Sammy mutely nodded and followed the nurse back. She found Arrow bundled up in a thick blanket in his room and sipping some hot tea. He smiled as he saw her
walk in with a concerned look on her face. "Hi there Kitten. I've been told to lay off of the animated snowmen that throw ice for a while and that
all I have to show for today work is a handful of candy canes and a cold." He sighed and looked at the tiny TV up on the wall. "They want to keep
me here for a couple more hours just to be sure."

Sammy shuffled and stared at her feet. "I'm just really glad you're okay." Looking up she noticed a clock on the wall and jumped. "I
was supposed to be home fifteen minutes ago, my aunts are going to have my hide if I don't go I'll seeya later Arrow!" And she was out of the door
like a whirlwind leaving the nurse and Arrow in the room alone.

The nurse looked back at the archer. "Is she always like that?"

The cat man looked out the slowly closing door with a smile on his face. "Yeah, she is."

When he's on any server except Virtue or Freedom.

I'm attempting to bring another fallen soul in from the cold that is WoW, plus my wife is semi-sorta-maybe-kinda getting back into City of Heroes. So if
you see me on but I appear to be ignoring chat, check the server I'm playing on. It may just be one of them on my machine and not me behind the keyboard.


Anyway, just a heads-up so y'all know I'm not deliberately ignoring you if I happen to be appearing to, y'know, ignore you.

(Generally speaking, I'm either sitting right there or in the next room, so I may see your comments anyway, but still.)

--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs

Just had a thought a few minutes ago. Ever wonder why the Rogue Isles never EVER have clear skies?

I just figured out a possibility.

Weather generators. Centered in Grandville. Not for any grand world takeover scheme, but just to continuously produce a low level effect that keeps the skies
overcast. Why?

To interfere with Spy Satellites.

If the isles are always cloudy, no optical views of the Isles can be had from space. Mind you, just having cloud cover doesn't mean spy satellites
can't see anything at all. There's always infrared. But there can be other measures in place to deal with that.

It's one of Arachnos better, more subtle toys. True - it's not invisibility or anything grand like that. But it's effective for what it's
intended to do.

So why is this thread in the Mission Design sub-forum? Because I was thinking the subject of weather generators and the disabling of same (or protecting them,
from the Villain POV) might make for a decent mission premise.

Which also makes me wonder - might it be possible in the mission generator to make instanced outdoor areas that duplicate outdoor sections of existing areas?
Like how the Mayhem and Safeguard areas work? And if so - can you change things about those areas? Like, say, the overall texture scheme?

I remember on Test Server, I've seen times when overall lighting and color schemes for entire zones were switched or altered. Bright sunny day in Martial
Island for example. I've got a couple of screenshots of the Golden Giza looking incredible against a bright blue sky!

Wondering if an instanced zone area can be altered. Be nice if it could be. Not expecting that to happen on the first edition of the mission editor though.