http://www.cityofheroes.com/news/archiv ... es_52.html

Huh... probably easier to bug a few of you guys for a Terra Volta run really...

Today had testing of a new Halloween invasion on the test server, and while I missed it, it looks very interesting...

On Thursday, July 31st we will be doing a brief test of the 2008 Halloween Event on the Training Room Test Server at 1:30 PM Pacific and running approximately
2 hours. Along with previous year's Trick or Treating we are also including a massive Zombie Apocalypse!

Zombie Apocalypse!

During the above testing time on the Training Room, be wary for the uneasy dead - they may assault any region in the game at any time! For those familiar with
the Rikti Invasions, the Zombie assaults function in much the same manner. After the Halloween event has concluded, there will still be a period of an hour or
more of occasional Zombie activity.

Apocalypse Associated Badges

There are a number of badges associated with fighting off hordes of Zombies. These badges correspond to overcoming each different Zombie type (Minions,
Lieutenants, Bosses and Elite Bosses) in certain numbers for each type.

Trick or Treating

Like the previous years Halloween Events, while the event is running players will be able to investigate various doors throughout zones that are level
appropriate for their characters to either receive a naughty Trick (the spawning of a number of different critters) or a special Treat. The Trick or Treating
aspect has changed slightly from previous years. Treats can be Inspirations, Event Salvage or Temporary Powers / Costumes. For more details (spoilers) about
last year's Halloween Event, visit the excellent player created resource Paragonwiki.

We have made some adjustments to Trick or Treating based on your feedback from previous years. For this test, we would like your feedback about how often
Tricks or Treats are given out, as well as the frequency you can Trick or Treat, and the spawn sizes encountered when you get a Trick while part of a group.
The current parameters are as follows: A person can only click on a door once every 5 minutes. When they click the door, their name is added to a list kept on
the door. If their name is on the list, they can't use that door. That list is cleared every 5 minutes. There is a 10 second timer preventing you from
clicking another door immediately. Spawns will spawn according to the team size of the player opening the door. If the spawns have no one to fight for a period
of time, they move to a door and leave. If they can't get to a door, they will just fade out.

Oh HELLO! How did this Wonder Woman trailer slip under the radar?
Or has anyone else seen this? Is there a better copy (than this bootleg, at least?)

Looks really interesting. I don't know if there's any continuity with the DCAU other than the animation style and creators, but it LOOKS awesome!

I am currently looking at adding more members to the TOTL comic and was looking for

Permission

Screenshots

Bob: Beach Baby and Sailor Null are relatively easy costume wise, I would like to use them (probably more in the background) I might be able to do LT, but I
will use the images on the site rather than the COH equivalent. I also want to borrow Allistaire for a Gil story.

Fox: I would like to use QB Kitsune/Nogi - How many tails should Nogi have (and what is the minimum number you will accept - I think canon is nine, which might
be problematic.) Also what are the visuals for her retinue as I recall you saying they are very different than depicted by the game engine. I may also take a
stab at Wide.

Acyl: I am hoping to use Superball

I am currently working on models for Gil MacHeath, Morgan and Bella.

Anyone else is free to volunteer, screenshots are always useful.

It was mentioned at one point that Nene had hacked Doug's helmet, and retrieved a lot of status data from it before he removed the auto-reply function from
it.

How much did she get?

The reason I'm wondering is a thought I had for chapter 6. When Lisa starts solo-ing, she's going to be feeling mighty lonely for a while. She might
start super-leaping around town with a portable music player with her. I've already figured out what her favorite "reminds her of Doug" pieces
would be. But are there any songs in his list that you feel she'd gravitate to more?

Also, a fun thought crossed my mind that I thought I should check about here first. I'm looking at her using an optically-controlled interface for a
handful of devices she'll be carting along courtesy of her benefactors. The music player would be one of them. I was considering having her get Nene to
alter it so it was voice controlled similar to Doug's system, as something she puts together to remember him with. But would you rather that not be
duplicated? I'm thinking it would be something of a moment for Doug, whenever he finally meets up with her again, if she casually gives
a system play command to her music player, forgetting that Doug's just standing *right there* and listening to her do it.
---
Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.

Here is the project I was working on. It is the proof of concept.

PS: Though there is no nudity - it should be considered NSFW - Sorry Wire... Sorry.



The full comic is at

http://www.magma.ca/~revdark/Tales_of_T ... ary_01.zip

I hope to, with permission (and being able to handle the costumes) to feature other Legendary members.

Probably not the Ultimate Question

and yet, it has the right answer...

How many possible unique results can you have if you roll 2d10 and multiply them?

Forty two.

Numbers appearing once in the results: 1 25 49 64 81 100

twice: 2 3 5 7 14 15 21 27 28 32 35 42 45 48 50 54 56 60 63 70 72 80 90

thrice: 4 9 16 36

quaternary: 6 8 10 12 18 20 24 30 40

by blocks of ten:
1-10   27 times (also equals percent chance)
11-20  19
21-30  15
31-40  11
41-50  9
51-60  6
61-70  5
71-80  4
81-90  3
91-100 1

Why bother?

...

(looks left)

...

(looks right)

...

Let me get back to you on that.

 

- CD [small]I'm sure it must be good for something...[/small]
ETA: Looking back on this a few days later as I post it, and specifically the distrobution of results on the blocks-of-ten table, perhaops this should be moved into one of the RPG Writing areas as a possible suggestion - I seem to rmember hearing that more people can multiply faster than they can add, and this way there's no fudging over which die you rolled as the tens... Splitting it out into blocks of five to get more options gives the wierd irregular probabilities of the "how many times listed" section back, though.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

Please, please, PLEASE someone who knows tell me if the formetting copied out of existing posts is right - I gave my best guesses, but don't have a connection at home to find references and don't want to do up the rest of my characters/gear/Gearhead characters and have someone say "Well ain't that cute... BUT IT'S WRONG!!"

Hopefully the wiki formatting is functional, I have no real idea what I'm about with it but copied from Cobalt Greywalker's Pheonix Forge listing.

Still need:

Wave COnvoy

Full Wave Booster

KITTEN

SS Magic Bus
converted Greyhound coach

Not greatly modified inside except for the addition of a small galley and converting the side doors into an airlock, the Magic Bus serves as a passenger shuttle when the Gnarlycurl gets a charter to ferry a science team somewhere, or when it's serving as a hotel and parking terminal such as on Phobos during the SOS-dan Con.

VF-1MS

USS Miranda

Type-VW Shuttlecraft

...but I'm going to wait until someone tells me if I totally bungulated the Gnarlycurl (aside from listing a bunch of character and ship pages not written yet under Crew and Auxilliary Vehicles) before takling them because this was a big headache to copy all the format code when I only have guesses what it actually means... and I'd rather be writing story anyway, or catching up on the threads I downloaded to catch up on at home.

 

~~NOTOC~~

^ Base Hull: | one-peice asteroid nickel-iron |
^ Size: | 525ft square by 226ft tall |
^ Drive Type: | Speed, max velocity .02c |
^ Owner of Record: | [[char:wave_convoy|Wave Convoy] |
^ Flag of Record: | Gearhead Command |
^ Home Port: | Marsbase Sara |
^ Purpose: | residence, mechanic garage, hotel, and conveinience store, (OGJ: Mobile surgical hospital) |
^ Launched: | 2010 |
^ Current Location: | Main Asteroid Belt |
^ Crew: | [[chars:wave_convoy|Wave Convoy] (Owner/Commander/Oversized Gopher)\ [[charshuko|Shuko] (First Officer/Chief Mechanic)\ [[chars:marcel_lechevalier|Marcel 'Micheal' LeChevalier] (Logistics Officer/Store Manager)\ [[chars:myrtle_rosenburg|Myrtle Rosenburg] (Head Chef/Chief of Staff)\ [[chars:irving_rosenburg|Irving Rosenburg] (Hotel Manager)\ a [[chars:julian_friez|Julian Friez] (Head Plumber) (translates as Chief Engineer and Enviro plant mechanic)\ Herschel Rosenburg (Accounting Department Head, Chief Gardener)\ [[ships:kitt10|KITTEN] (Chief of Security, Executive Transport)\ |
^ Auxiliary Vehicles: | //[[ships:magic_bus|SS Magic Bus]//\ //[[ships:full_wave_booster|Full Wave Booster]//\ [[ships:kitt10|KITTEN]\ |
^ Faction: | Gearheads |
^ Recorded Firsts: | Most Indestructible Object in Known Space |
^ Status: | **Active** |

===== S. V. Gnarlycurl =====

//Created by: ClassicDrogn//

===== Known Vehicle Quirks =====

* //Helluvatough!:// You know that layer of handwavium paint that makes your average carmod vacuum tight and bulletproof? Now make it ten feet thick. That's the thinnest part of the hull... Boskone ramships splattered against it like rotten eggs the few times an attempt was made on it, and even high-yield explosives only rattled the crew and fixtures without so much as pitting the surface.
* //Helluvaslow!:// Due to its fantastic mass, Gnarlycurl is one of the pokiest mobile assets in Fenspace, able to be outrun by anything except thingsw like The Island and Grover's Corners which have stationkeeping ability but don't generally move as such.
* //Surf's up, Dude!:// The main engine can produce internal gravity but does not even hit the break-even power generation point unless surf rock is playing at least in the engine room, and is limited to half of its already unimpressive speed unless it's on all other decks as well, except the hotel bedrooms.
* //Welcome to the Machine:// Unattended readouts have a tendency to reset to an odd, blocky pictograph-based language that no one has entirely figured out yet, and embossed 'circuitry' patterns gradually flow over permanently mounted items. They are similar to the angular ornamental designs favored by the Mayans as well, so it doesn't bgreak the theme. Despite this and the ever-increasing systems integration of sliding doors, light switches, etc., none of the ship's computers have shown any sign of awakening as AIs.

===== Known Crew Quirks =====

* //I'll come up with something:// Really, I will. Though most of the crew have or will have their own character pages for this kind of thing.

===== History & Internal Layout =====

After their dramatic escape from Earth and the somewhat cramped journey to The Island and Starbase One Wave Convoy, Suko, and Micheal decided they really needed a bigger ship, as well as some sort of paying work. What they ended up arranging was a contract with Rockhounds that provided their engineering and machinist skills, and Convoy's giant-size physique, in return for leaving a stepped pyramid hull behind will turning one of their rocks into a habitat shell. On completion of both ends of the deal they finshed off the interior and set up a business at first around fenship repair and occasional construction, then as a hotel and general store to provide more services to clients while their ship/homes were in the shop. Once Operation Great Justice began, a small medical staff was added as well to fix up wounded fen as well as their craft, expanded to a full surgical hospital unit after the fall of Crystal Osaka.\
Also as part of this emergency services role, a pair of large "atmosphere tents" was created from 'waved heavy fabric, tubes 100ft in diameter and 150ft long that could be folded around the high-pressure air tank to inflate them into a bundle small enough to haul both at once on the tail of Wave Conovy's truck form, then unfurled, zipped up, and inflated to provide emergency atmosphere containment and a basic area to work in around even middle-sized SS-class ships.\
A four-stepped pyramid carved in one piece, the Gnarlycurl is one of the larger active ships in fenspace at 226ft tall, with a 525ft square base. The bottom of the hull is 30ft thick, the outer walls 20ft, and the top and floors between the four decks "only" 10ft, all treated with Seibertron handwavium, giving it a good claim to being damn near indestructable. The penalty of course is weight, despite having fully a quarter of the bottom deck devoted to the engine room at a nominal loaded weight of 5.5 million tons (5 million metric tons) it can barely keep up with bulk carriers three times its keel length.\
The top of the pyramid is equipped with a variety of "airlockvators" in sizes ranging from "single human" to "wave convoy and a couple friends" clustered in the center, where the shaft used to hollow out the interior was cut, and a 100ft wide ramp (with man-scale stairs on either side for when the gravity is shut off) leads down each of the outer faces to allow access on those occasions the Gnarlycurl lands on a planetary body - the reactions the first time they came in on Mars were particularly amusing. The ramps maintain gravity perpendicular to thier surfaces in space, greatly increasing the landing area available, to the point that even SS class vehicles can make a hard docking as long as they're equiipped to land on a solid surface, though atmospheric containment cannot generally be provided at such scales. \
Technically the ability to internally dock multiple SC-class craft makes the Gnarlycurl a Space Platform rather than Space Vessel, but as it was already flying before the designation was brought into use and is much more mobile than the 'platform' designation suggests it retains the SV moniker. Besides which, it's on all the stationary.\
The decks are labeled A through D from top to bottom, with sublevels or major compartments given numerical additions as neccesary. The first internal deck is 120ft square and entirely open space, configured as a garage where Shuko fixes SC-class vehicles damaged beyond the owner's ability (or willingness, when there's someone else to do the work for a modest fee and deep, claw-foot iron bathtubs calling out to take a long relaxing soak in) to repair unassisted, or simply rents tools and hangar space to those who can handle the work but want atmosphere and gravity to do it. A number of new, scratch-built vehicles have been constructed there as well. Like most of the rest of the ship, it has a 40ft cieling.\
B-deck is 200ft square and is set up as a warehouse style store, with areas for consumables, raw materials like roll and sheet plastic, sheet metal, insulation, and bar stock, machine parts, electronic components and devices, and an area for culturing various kinds of handwavium, including the Seibertron type exclusive to Wave Convoy and the Gnarlycurl. This would be excessive for just the regular crew, but most of it is to support the repair and construction business, as well as anyone staying as a guest while their ship is worked on. \
C-Deck is the living area, equipped with quarters and a rec room sized to Wave Convoy (including a remote control big enough to crush a strong man's pride for the entertainment center functions of the computer running a theater-size projected screen monitor) along with less prodigious accomodations for human crew and guests. Human-size quarters are stacked vertically four levels high and given a supplementary number such as C.1, C.2, etc. with C.1 being the lowest level with the permanent crew's living and common areas. The top sublevel contains the Montezuma and Quetzalcoatl Suites, where the mildly Aztec/Mayan themed decor is taken to the ultimate extremes.  The main rec room also doubles as a bridge with its large monitor, when it's actually neccesary to have a real bridge instead of using whatever computer terminal is handy to log in and do what's required. C-deck overall is 290ft square.\
Post Crystal Osaka, C.3-deck is converted into a fully equipped hospital ward with a surgical theater and a small neonatal area, to go with the expanded role of the ship in the intensified OGJ operations.\
About a quarter of the D-deck (a long strip down the middle, D.2) is devoted to the engine room, an area longer than a football field with a massive horizontal 'Wave Motion Engine that hums and glows and hisses little spurts of steam. The starboard side, D.3, of this deck is environmental engineering and a beach and swimming pool that doubles as bulk water storage, while D.1 on the port side has a park/garden area, the walls painted with landscape murals and a mobile track light mounted in the cieling. Whatever combination of 'wave batch and genre influence enhanced the Fateful Lightning's Garden skipped over D.1, in fact a fair number of plant varieties have been treated with Seibertron handwavium and have a metallic/mechanical appearance, thoguh those who fear not getting a cyber or techno-organic biomod, or who already have one have found that most remain as edible as ever, and often have new and interesting flavors. The Blued Steel Roses are one of the more popular items in the Gnarlycurl's shop inventory. \
By a stroke of good luck the ship was in Mars orbit already when the SOS-dan Convention was called, setting down on the surface of Phobos and making arrangements with Phobos Control to have their own approach queue for attendees who wanted to either rent a room aboard or just needed parking space, with shuttle service provided to and from the habitable areas of the colony.\

===== Stories =====

//Gnarlycurl// is featured in the following stories:

* Surfing With the Alien
* SOS-Dan Convention Thread (I think so anyway...)
* (tbc)

===== Hard numbers =====

one board foot of steel = 12x12x1 inches = ~41 pounds\
12x41= 492 lb./cu.ft.\
\
ramp foot 80x100\
ramp top 20x100\
ramp height 226\
\
80-20=60\
20x100x226= 452,000\
60x100x226/2= 678,000\
\
k=1000\
\
452k+678k= 1130k\
1130k*4= 4520k\
\
base (chamfers normalized)\
495x495x30 = 7350750\
\
C/D floor/cieling\
400x400x10 = 1600k\
\
D walls \
4x40x20x380 = 1216k\
\
B/C floor\
312x312x10 = 973,440\
\
C walls\
4x40x20x282 = 1,222,400\
\
A/B floor\
234x234x10 = 547,560\
\
B walls\
4x40x20x214 = 684,800\
\
A cieling\
156x156x10 = 243,360\
\
A walls\
3200x136 = 435,200\
\
\

total: 21,624,260 cubic feet of hull metal\
\
10,639,135,920 pounds\
\
5,319,567.96 tons\
\
4,835,970.873 metric tons\
\
\
Engine (internal): 20x30x310 = 186,000\
\
2.25 gal/cu.ft.x186k = 418,500gal\
\
water is 7lb/gal, the slightly thicker wavegoo is 11lb/gal\
\
4,603,500 lbs wavegoo\
\
2301.75 tons wavegoo\
\
2092.5 metric tons wavegoo\
\
\
Nominal loaded weight is 5.5M tons, 5M metric tons\
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

I'm not sure if it should go in the Places in Fenspace listing or Faction info, probably the first with a link from the second, but the notional home of
the Gearheads is Marsbase Sara, named for and styled after the version that appears in original Macross. It's the only place other than the Gnarlycurl
itself (and hence the only fixed location) where you can get things 'waved with the Seibertron type strain, doing which with structural members to provide
reliable spaceframes with the narrow pylons favored by the Trekkies being one of the settlement's biggest moneymakers. It's also pretty much the place
to go if you want robot pilots... and definately not the place to go if you have ideas of stealing one, especially after Crystal Osaka, the UN Spacy Mars
Force/ZION Mobile Infantry/Brave Knights (depending on who is ATC that day, mainly, subfaction rivalries are not generally strong enough to split the actual
response force) respond very quickly and noteably poorly to joyriders, let alone more serious criminals.

Tourists and paying customers in general are a different matter of course, and there are several pilots from various fandoms who give lessons and a
(stylized and ceremonial, for the most part) Upright Mode Special Vehicle Pilot liscencing process - essentially just a proficiency test driving one without
destroying the surroundings like Hikaru when he first hit the Battroid lever in his VF-1D during the attack on Macross Island. Owning your own mecha is
essentially an automatic pass unless you truly suck, but it makes a nice souvenir and there's a frameable certififcate as well as the laminated card, and
most places in Fenspace that ask for ID at all without requiring their own will accept one.

Aside from the mecha and piloting lessons, there are the usual complement of eateries and tourist ferries to the Pyramids and Great Face, and a nearby
outcrop features a 'mysterious fist imprint' in the solid stone. More honest tour guides will admit that it's known to have been made by Wave
Convoy, rather than being a pre-existing feature to be held up as evidence for still-hidden natives, at least after getting a few oohs and ahs.

One noteable restaurant is The White Dragon, serving good food at fairly reasonable prices in a Traditional Chinese themed atmosphere. It is located on the
surface level of the just completed transparent carbon dome added to expand the habitable area, giving a pleasantly park-like feel, not to mention a supply of
fresh produce once the farms start producing.

Another is Excelion's High Test Pit Stop, which actually caters to machine or partly machine (ie borged) clientele, though it's a viable place to
top up your fuel tank if you're just a squishie pilot too. Vaguely like the 'cafe' where the android girl I can't think of the name of works in
Gunbuster II: Daibuster ep 1.

Oh, physical layout - the original is a bunker-style building with a big bay door that leads down a ramp to the underground mecha bay, with five
high-but-not-THAT-high cielinged levels in the center of the wide spiral ramp, numbered from the top down. The new expansion dome only has the surface and one
sublevel complete, and those have an -EX added to the level number. See the Fodor's thread listing for more on the restaurants mentioned.

- CD

- CD
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

Reading in the Disturbing Implications of Land Rising into the Sky thread, it looks like Gaye would really appreciate a telepresence unit ala Shortwave, once
the tech becomes available, and whether she actually subscribed or not would have at least recieved an invitation to the Grearhead/Metropolis Foundation
mechatronics thread where Wave Convoy posts the designs. Interested any?

- CD
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows