Sewer Trial

Gonna try for this one Sunday December 31st at 2 pm. Will probably run it twice so if you have 38-41s and 50s who'd like the badge, we'll swap out.

The polls are now open....

The DB has been full for a while now. Leaving Az with the task of kicking toons who haven't been on in the last month or who don't earn prestige. :( So we've been talking and I am thinking of starting a "sister sg" to DB. We can put toons in there who are stagnate, like Calmar Chaud...I don't play her now she's retired, she's just taking up a spot in DB that could be used for a prestige earner. Or maybe you have a toon that you like to earn money on (we all need money), then you could put them in this sg and bankroll your prestige earners in DB. Also, it would be nice to add a few more AT to DB that could help in raids...trollers, bubblers, etc. This second sg wouldn't need a big base as we could use our coals for tpers. So what do you think? Here's the biggest question....what do we call it??

So far, here are the contenders....
Max Debt Brigade
Maxed Debt Brigade
Debt Brigade Maxed
Debt Brigade Maximum

Any other suggestions? Put in your vote now!

I'll probably create the new sg at the end of next week, give you all time to decide. :)

The Longest TF Ever (well, not really)

Tech-Blade, Chaud Woman, Azrhiaz, Tzadkayle, Avalanche Lion, Heavens Flicker and Protectin Force
This TF was really kind of a last minute deal and frankly I was suprised it all came together so well. We had no problems getting our 8 minimum and we seemed to cut through the missions like a hot knife through butter.

We started with 6 and a tell on Triumph Watch brought us two more and a bunch of others we had to turn away (this surprised me). So off we went, into the shard and started many hunts and a bunch of kill-alls in the caves of the Rularuu. Some of us were a bit rusty and died enough to keep things interesting. However, we really hit a stride and sailed through this very long taskforce in about 5.75 hours. We stealthed what we could, using PFF and invis to click glowies in the thick of things, and having a great tank and a damage-heavy team with shiny bubbles all around really helped. Nukes were abundant (Tzadi *was on the team after all) and we made a nice chunk of prestiege (about 75k) for the SG.

Speaking of the SG, Grand Poo Bah Chaud will be announcing something very shortly in regards to it!

And we will also be scheduling that damned Sewer Trial again in the very near future! We may be running it twice so those helping us with their 38s will be able to get the badge on their 50s. So if you have any interest, post a comment saying so!

Happy New Year all!

Dr, Quarterfield TF today at 2 pm

Sorry for the late post but my power went out last night and didn't come on until just now. For all of us people on vacation or without a job, let's run the longest TF ever made! Dr. Quarterfield in Zulu!! Level 40-44. Will take approximately 7 hours!! Maybe we'll break this up over two days since I have a belated birthday drink coming to me tonight!

Mission Breakdown

1. Fight Rularuu around Foxtrot -> defeat 50 Rularuu (FBZ)
2. Rescue exploration team -> 7 hostages to rescue. (FBZ)
3. Examine creatures at Bravo -> defeat 50 Rularuu (FBZ)
4. Defeat Rularuu at X-Ray -> defeat 50 Rularuu (FBZ)
5. Rescue the Explorers -> 9 hostages to rescue. (FBZ)
6. Defeat Rularuu, Crey -> defeat 25 Rularuu, 25 Crey (FBZ)
7. Defeat crey leader and guards -> 5 hostages (FBZ)
8. Fight Crey around Zulu -> defeat 50 Crey (FBZ)
9. Defeat Crey base leaders (FBZ) -> just take down the named boss.
10. Defeat all Crey at base (FBZ) -> there are glowies in the mission, but it is not necessary to complete mission. They are simultaneous click.

You NOW earn Dr. Q's phone number to call him.
11. Defeat all Crey at base (FBZ) -> glowies in mish unnecessary.
12. Defeat all Crey at base (FBZ)-> glowies in mish, not necessary.
13. Defeat Crey boss leaders -> search for clues (FBZ)
There are 3 glowies in the mission. 2 are connected by simultaneous clicks, the solo one has the clue.
14. Defeat Crey base leaders -> 8 samples, search for clues (FF)
15. Defeat all enemies in base -> find information, contain creatures (Bricks)
find a glowie for the info, and destroy an object to contain the creatures. Rularuu and Crey in mish.
16. Defeat Negotiators -> find information. (PI) Nemesis and Crey. info is a glowie.
17. Defeat all Nemesis Army in Base (FBZ)
18. Defeat Nemesis Base leaders -> locate information, contain creatures (FBZ)
similar to mission 15. there is no named boss, just take out final floor.
19. Defeat Portal base boss -> 2 portal computers (FBZ)
the computers are simul-click. get those and named boss at end.
20. Defeat all Crey -> 2 portal computers (FBZ)
similar to mission 19, now only kill all. computers are simul-click.
21. Defeat Portal base boss -> 4 portal computers (FF)
now 4 computers to click at once, and boss room.
22. Defeat Portal base boss -> 4 Portal computers, 2 Rularuu portals (FBZ)
the computers are simul again, and there are 2 more portal objects to destroy, along with boss and room.
23. Defeat Portal base boss -> 4 portal computers (Skyway)
simul-click again, and boss and room. ALMOST THERE.
24. Defeat all Escaped Rularuu -> 2 Rularuu portals (Talos)
Have fun in this. Circle of Thorns and Rularuu in a CoT map. kill all.

I hope you realize that once you've done this once, you'll never do it again :D

My team, with 2 teleporters, and no full team wipes, took 7 hours. You'll want to do this when you can devote a full day to the game.

Reward: +3 SO random, Portal Smasher badge (accomplishment)

Merry Xmas to all and to Az a good night!

Happy birthday Az! I am on the road then so I wanted to get this posted for you...Good timing on picking you next for the drawing hobby. I hope to be home soon! Until then 1 mil influence to the first blog poster to name the famous actress I used for this sketch of Az. I like stealing Alex Ross' style...use real people. OK who is next?

PS Here is a pic of Makin Debt and I on our worldly travels this week. Hope all had a great holiday this year.

Happy (Early) Birthday Azzie!!!

I'm two days early but I wanted to make this post because I'll be away from my comp for the next few days.

December 27th marks the birth of one of our very own Grand Pooh Bah's! The original....the great....Azrhiaz!!! :cues trumpets and the release of white doves:

Have a great birthday Az!

Happy Holidays!

I just wanted to take the time to wish all DBers (and honorary DBers) a very happy and safe holiday! Thank you for making this game so much fun and for being so valuable a part of the SG!!

I've removed a bunch of inactives from the member roster so if one of your alts was one of them, let me know and we'll get them back in. We have some spaces to fill now so get to recruiting! Keep in mind, we have plenty of scrappers and khelds already! Tanks and trollers would be most welcome. Or a few more blasters since Colder and I get lonely sometimes.

As Colder mentioned, the blog has been converted and is causing issues for some. If you are having trouble with getting back into the contributor list, let us know and we'll resend an invite.

Here is a thread from the board about Wentworth's. Colder made a very good prediction on the "loot" theory. And it sounds like it will be even harder to keep people in SG mode since auctions will be using your influence. I'm all for upgrades and fun, but they really need to reconfigure the prestiege system if they want to keep both financial systems going. It will be interesting to see what kind of stuff can be crafted and how sought after they might be. What are *your thoughts on it?

Again, a very happy holiday and joyous New Year to all! Anyone have any CoX or SG wishes?

Blogger + Google = F's things up!

I guess Blogger and Google decided to have an unholy union and mess everything up.

For any of you who have been having problems with the blog, you need to login to your account and merge it with a google account. It's easy...you just basically need to pop in a valid email (just use the one that got you onto blogger in the first place) and the rest basically takes care of itself. That way, you can get back on the contributors list.

Supposedly we get new nifty features with this "merge" but I haven't had time to check it out yet.

My apologies to anyone who has been running into problems with the blog lately.

I got a fever...

...and the only prescription is more GMs/AVs.

I am heading out and about on vacation and thus may have limited time in the next week or so. BUT this Saturday I would like to whoop it up against someone, anyone, someone scream!

So 4pm PST, someone call out who we want to stomp and I will be there. Me? I got a hankering for some RV AVs again, though willing to do just about any group event high or low. Sound off!

RoA Base Raid

Yet another raid for Debt Brigade has come and passed. We stood valiantly against Riders of Apocalypse and kept our base from being shut down. They still had some disconnection problems on their end but it was not as bad as the first attempt. Which means, we had some fight action!

I spent most of my time bubbling and trying to detoggle certain tough tankers, aka Ton of Bricks. I invented many names for Ton of Bricks during the raid, none of which I can repeat without verifying everyone's age beforehand. :)

Somehow I racked up 3 kills, which is just plain weird for my FF/Rad defender. I can only assume I stole some kills from a fellow SG member. My apologies if that was the case.

Zandryne seemed to be a favorite target of theirs, big surprise there, poor bubblers. Congratulations to Colder for the most victories in DB! Also, I have to give some recognition to Back Track from RoA for getting a whopping 17 victories to 4 defeats.

RoA apparently had some difficulty locating our generator despite spawning very close to it, hehe. Nice job on the base layout Az!

Az started a thread thanking RoA for the raid on the official CoH forum board. It can be found here. Several RoA members make some comments in the thread and it sounds like a good time was had by both sides, which I always think is the most important thing. It was a fun raid and good job to everyone. Next, we get to raid their base...

Here's a screenshot of the score provided by Az:

Repel Ball

Well was getting ready to go to bed and get all rested for the first day of my new job tomorrow (I'll be working night shifts at a vfx co. on Pirates of the Carribean 3) I checked the boards and found this hilarious game: repel ball!

Teams are lvl 3 kins with the repel power. Team makes a large room in their base and intiate a raid. Then they go to town on a level one MM pet. Look at the video and you will surely get a good belly laugh! repel ball video

Here's the thread that discusses it. Very fun times it seems!

Fun with Adobe

My daughter has a Wacom tablet, which is a graphic artists' tool for use with photo editing programs such as Adobe Photoshop. She has been showing me some of the capabilities and I wanted to tinker around. That coupled with the fact I needed to test the scanner of our new printer, I decided to draw a real quick sketch of Colder. Then I added some effects, and for fun threw in a cut out of an actual screenshot of a CoT mage, added even more effects, and well here it is. Lots of fun and if I had time and training, a potentially amazing cool for things to come. I will make a serious effort to do another drawing, probably just a pencil sketch--I was thinking of hooking up the leader in all the mayhem we go through--and sometimes cause. I recently found the art of Alex Ross (look him up you comic book nerds you know you want to :-), and was inspired by his amazing style. So maybe a portrait of Az in his stylings? We shall see.

Glitches for EVERYONE! Well...almost everyone.

As i changed my costume with sg colors i was in nova form and when i got out I was in human for to myself.If you do it in tanker nova hitting buttons like o,a,s,and d all have emotes.As seen if 1st picture all you do is the tank nova then go to sg colors hit cancel and jump and it will automaticaly give you the sheild and baton.Once ypu hit the group you lose them.

Woot!!

Death Brigade has a 50, Chaud comme l'enfer!! Thanks to everyone whose played with her along the way, special thanks to those of you who helped her get her last couple bars last night...Az, Deep, Tzad, Mag and Da Zi! :) Even though she's 50 don't expect her to get soft, evil is in her blood. lol

Winter Event

There's nothing more fun than a holiday event on CoH (unless it's a raid of course) and here is a thread describing what is now on test. Give out some presents and don't forget that we need to save Baby New Year!

Please RSVP for the raid December 10th @ 4pm Pacific time with the Riders!! So far I have: me, Chaud, Sword, Colder, Cap, Rulltran, Baba, Lost, Oathdog, Shatter-Storm, Chica
Maybes: Deep, Ebon, Giant Stone

Prisoners of Eden

Tzadkayle, Amethyst Archer, Lumeir, Magnan, Da Zi and Mighty Thorn
Sunday afternoon we gathered around the Woodsman in Eden, seems Hami had captured some heroes and it was our job to free them!

First, was the little DE hunt...200 of them! And then we headed inside the depths of the DE's subterranean tunnels, with the 4 hour timer ticking. The only fun thing about these tunnels is the awesome free falls, as you fall deeper and deeper into the cave. Once in we were met with the rock wall (AV) which spawns boulder and carin, that wall musta be build by some mighty tough rock cause it wasn't going down. Mag tried to keep the 2 Quarries (GM's) off us. Lumi, Da Zi, and Ame tired to keep us alive and get rid of the boulders, while Tzad and I (thorn) smacked at that wall. Once the wall was down we headed in, but those dang Quarries kept following us. So we headed back out...Tzad and Lumi hovered precariously over one of those awesome holes and blasted at the Quarries, down the holes they fell, don't hit the sides on your way down boys! :)

We headed for the mold wall (AV), now that's a science project gone awry! The lichen had to be taken out first, I'd tell ya how that went but I was stung by an angry swarm on the way and was stuck sitting in the dark cave all alone, one sting and -fly, -tp, -recharge...I couldn't fly and no one could tp me, I had 18 stings so I danced around and did a bit of yoga before continuing on. I arrived just in time to catch the last remnants of lichen being zapped out. The mold wall was...well moldy..it also spawns boulders, etc...but eventually we "broke the mold"! (that bad pun was put in just for Cap!)

Then down the hole we jumped again and landed by some really nice waterfalls. We were faced with the incredible task of clearing away the DE from this room...a huge amphitheater for the Crystal Titan (AV) to deliver his speeches to the hundreds of minions gathered there. Mag rounded up group after group as we blasted, held and spined them to death. Finally, reaching the back of the room where the heroes were held captive in cocoon type prisons, there was a spines (quill) , a rock tank (slate), a storm (gale) and one more I don't remember...I can tell you how they were captured, however, these heroes only attack if you bring the DE very close to them, no travel powers! Poor things, didn't even have sprint!

the AV waving hello
Once all the DE were killed, oddly the Titan never noticed all his minions were being picked off, we headed up to kick some Titan butt! Now this Titan has a foot stomp that deals over 2k worth of damage so you need some special inspirations (ambrosia) in order to survive, which you get from killing DE in the caves, we had some left over from the last attempt at this trial so we didn't pick up extras, bad move! I'm not sure what happened next it was all a blur of dying, rezing, more dying, let's just say that Titan wasn't done with his speech and he didn't like being interrupted. All out of ambrosia and wakes we headed out to the base to restock and regroup, on the up side we got to jump back down the holes again. :) Then we started killing some DE to earn more ambrosia's, once we had a lot we were about to head back to the Titan when a swarm blew in, intermission while we wait for travels to come back! Once again we entered the amphitheater, this time with no minions to talk to the Titan gave Lumi the bird (I saw it!). We popped the ambrosia and started smacking that big rock down...he didn't go easy, but a few ambrosia's, and a couple shivans, later his speech was done, no encores! I got a shiny new enhancement a quartz... Kinda like a mini Hami (I got a damage/range). A fun trial!! Oh I had a few ambrosias left over so I put them in the base storage for the next suckers...I mean team...who wants to do this. :)

Crystal Titan on the rocks

p.s. It's not letting me load pics on here, so I'll have to have Az do it later. :)
-added for ya :)

Upcoming Raids

Old School/Shadow Empire agreed to a raid. I put forth December 3rd to them and have not heard back.

RoA have agreed to a re-engagement on December 10th (Sunday) at 4 pm pacific once again. If you want to see what the #1 prestiege earner on the server, most of the IoPs available, and a 40 million dollar base looks like, look at their little video. Congrats to Riders on their new #1 status. And a big thanks for letting us see your layout before we raid you. . .

Did Eden Trial over the weekend with Feline Fellowship. Chaud's turn to tell ya about it!. . . pictures ready to be inserted. :grin

Issue 8 should be up tomorrow! Ya hoo!

Hurry Up and Wait

Violet Warmth, Garl Darklord, Tech Blade, Makin Debt, Zandryne, Lost Senpai, Azrhiaz, Colder, DeepCut, Giant Stone, Ebon Mauler, Metoid, Hutokaze Remastered, Evincar Ascendant, Elitess and Rulltran
Well it was a long 2 weeks of preparing for what promised to be the raid of the year! Toons were played so that levels could be reached and prestiege earned for new weaponry. Warburg was farmed for rad pistols and the base was reconstructed completely! Debt Brigade was edgy but ready to meet the Riders of Apocalypse in battle. So we waited. And waited. And waited.

After a brief 10 minute foray in the red room with our enemy, the waiting began anew. Zandryne took some Vicodan to ease her nerves about the "Kill the bubbler!" cries from the Riders. We continued to wait.

Riders apparently had a ton of DCs. We, fortunately, did not. They never made it back to the base. They apologized profusely for the issues and requested a rematch.

Alas, the common quote amongst the team was that RoA were scared. I didn't say it, but I know who did! :grin: But perhaps they should be? Because we all know it's better to give, than to receive! Grats to all who dished it out, who earned a ton of prestiege, leveled their toons, farmed for rad pistols, downloaded vent and/or tested the defenses! Hopefully, our rematch will be more satisfying.

Eden trial sometime this weekend. Stay tuned.

---

Oh and btw. . .

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHAUD!
I hope I put enough candles on it . . .:)

Raid Day on Sunday!

Hi all!! The Apocalypse is nearly upon us!! Can we turn away the Riders or will the world end? Sunday at 4 pm pacific. Please get to the base early for the pre-raid rundown!

I need 8 unstable rad pistols! These are available in Warburg missions off of the non-glowie missions. Make sure you are carrying 20 spells of power and 20 alien techs so you don't get more of those stupid things! We are nearing our prestiege requirements for the best possible raid scenario, so great job on earning it! Below is an updated list of who is coming:

me, Chaud, Colder, Elite, Evincar, Sword, Megeara, Tech, Rulltran, Violet, Baba, Garl, Incredible Sam, Hutokaze

-(possibles)Deep, Ebon, Project XII, Lost, Makin' Debt, Metoid, Ulti-Chica

Please know we will most likely be running with the full 16-man team, so you may not make the cut. My priority is getting 4 tanks. However, I imagine there will be no-shows so hopefully we will all get in. Speaking of getting in, the "no raid scheduled" join bug can be averted by zoning, I have been told. If you encounter this bug I recommend starting outside the base portal. Then when the raid warning flashes, go into the base and try to join again.

Rulltran and I had a blast testing out the defenses last night using Melqar and Zorayas. Gave Violet a heartattack when the raid warning flashed, but we definitely learned a lot about the weapons! I will be emailing you all an updated floorplan of the base! Learn it! We will also have to return the favor to Riders by attacking them at some time in the future. Make sure your wills are up to date. :grin:

DB Ramblings

Garl Darklord Hits 50

Congratulations to our newest Fifty!! Garl Darklord finally made the big bad in Warburg last night! Great job!

I offered up Dec 2nd or 3rd to Shadow Empire for the raid and said maybe around 3 pm. How's that working for everyone?

We are getting closer to getting back into shape for the Riders raid. Great prestiege earning all! So far for the raid I have:

me, Chaud, Colder, Elite, Evincar, Sword, Megeara, Tech, Rulltran, Violet, Baba, Garl, Incredible Sam

-(possibles)Deep, Ebon, Project, Lost, Makin' Debt, Metoid, Ulti-Chica

Did I miss anyone?

Manticore tomorrow at 3 pm Pacific hosted by Rulltran!

Flying with Style!

Okay, so I had a bit to much fun on test today...lol I thought I'd share some pics with you! Didn't try using the respec's. Some of the new costume options are really cool, fat pigtails would need the right toon. Lots of new ear styles. Haven't tried the wings with SS but hoping they move, someone on test said they are working on getting them to move when you jump-that would be nice.



Chaud with her axe!


Picking a new sprint power. :)


Woot! Wings with the sprint power on.

Manticore or level 24 respec?

I'm trying to level my bubbler Rulltran, who is currently 32, up a bit over the next week and I've been trying to come up with a good way to do this. I've settled on either the Manticore task force (my first pick) or the level 24 respec. I was thinking of getting a team together for this Saturday or Sunday of this weekend. Does anyone have an interest in this? If so, what day and time would be good for you?

Raids

Hi All! I went in and gutted the base so please excuse our appearance while we are under construction! I was able to eek out 2 more defensive rooms which will allow us 3 more weapons! However, we will need about 400k to get the base back up to raiding standards and reinitialize some of the teleporters. So please run in SG mode for the next two weeks and run some task forces or something! If we can't earn it, say good-bye to 2 of those guns! :pout: Go in and map the place out so you don't get lost during the raid! :)

The villain group, Shadow Empire has accepted our invitation to raid. They are asking for a date. How does Sunday the 26th sound? It is right after Thanksgiving so it could be really good for you or really bad. Please let me know and I will get back to them.

Again, recap for the Riders raid: Sunday 19th @4 pm pacific. Who's in so I can get a head count?

I'm a tank! I'm a tank! (and vet rewards)

I always knew I was a freak but this is getting ridiculous! However, with this clever disguise and Ahne's skill, he trounced Trenton the tank boss back to New Jersey and retreived the Chameleon armor before the freakshow could upgrade and threaten Paragon City once more!!

More importantly, Riders of the Apocalypse have officialy accepted our invitation to raid. I have put forth a tenative date of November 19th (a Sunday) around 4 pm Pacific. Gear up boys and girls, it's gonna get NASTY! :grin: We will have to guard the generator well, and I think most of you know why! If we can make 1.5 million prestiege in the next two weeks, we will be able to upgrade to a secure energy room. This would be a super addition to the base because it allows for 2 more weapons. I think we're gonna need 'em!

*Also have put forth an invitation to Shadow Empire, a pvp oriented villain group. Get ready to rumble! Get those toons leveled and earn some prestiege so we can put down more weapons!

P.S. Great job on Silver Mantis SF all!

L to R: Planty Man, Melqar, SolidFade , Chaud comme l'enfer, and Kamikazi

Veteran Rewards on Test! The wings are REALLY cool. Azzie has to wait some yet, but here is her in a trench coat (with belly shirt) and sporting the new fat ponytails with disco shirt.

Couldn't seem to find the extra base details open to me. They should be in Add Personal Item but they weren't but the base still seemed a bit bugged (things were crooked and the teleporter beacons wouldn't atach). And I'm not sure yet how to claim my permanent new weapon or pick a special sprint look. But hey, I'm gonna be late to work now! damn. . .!

Saving PI

I figured I'd head over to the test this morning and do a little radio mission. The basic missions are just like villians...i.e. rescues, defeats, find an object. After doing 5 of these missions I got a save PI from vandals mission. First objective is to stop villians from robbing the bank you have 5 mins (your right Az this was a bit hard!) little bug was playing Tech, so we headed to the bank. We arrived just in time to see some huge brute by the name of Critical Mass headed out of the bank, slammed me up against the doors and I was a gonner, thank goodness for revive. :) Little bug and I smacked his big Energy butt down! woot bank saved and we get a nice temp power! Then the counter starts at 15 mins, there are vandals destroying the city (carnies and malta...can you say Blues please!) the vandals hotspots appear on the map and you have to get them quick or they vandalize to much and your outta there. Finally, we located our first "talkies" and uncovered a sinister plot to blow up an office building. Four bombs to disarm in 6 mins. woot! We were able to disarm the bombs, stop an arms deal, stopped the arson, and save the pawn shop! After an hour in the mission we decided PI was saved from evil. :)

P.S. while doing a croatoa mission yesterday Zan encountered these hostages that just wouldn't leave her alone! When they said "We won't forget it" they meant it, stalkers!! Sword and I had fun tping Zan all over the map to see if they would follow, they did...I even tp'd myself in this tree and they climbed it! rofl Just remember...be careful who you rescue!

Halloween Event on Test

Well the party was a blast. Followed suit of Cuppathon, so I dusted off Cuppa's SPOON. Metoid and I got to talk to a lot of devs. Cricket was there with the new wings...HUGE hit and they look sweeeeet! GW was as hot as always, Manticore hung out and basically chatted like a regular Joe for at least an hour per PD (8-10). Arctic Sun was there, Lighthouse, lots of DJs, good times. Classic end of party GM spawns...TWO EOCHAIs was fun. Well I could go on put we had a 160 push-up set at PT and at 120ish I was smoked, so my body is not up to typing lol. CYA Saturday for SF on CoV side.

Clear Skies Ahead!

Lumeir and Stoney ponder the future

Silver Mantis TF on Sunday, I'm thinking! 2 pm sound good?

Halloween ends tonight at 8 pm pacific, but the witches will be sticking around (according to Positron) so don't panic if you don't get that slot by tonight. Plenty of event salvage in storage in Debt Brigade if you need it.

Got the download this morning for 8, so I imagine it'll be out soon. Also the Eluder/Persuer badges will be awarded after Halloween is turned off for all toons logging in through November to celebrate CoV's one year anniversary. Speaking of i8, here is the latest patch notes. They took out the new fly animations and are reworking them so you can pick the one you prefer. One new hairstyle for females, "fat ponytail" :sigh:

Col Duray calls out the Death Brigade

So I never quit the Silver Mantis SF from a weekend or so ago. I don't play my stalker much so I kept popping in from time to time. I have the last map half cleared when low and behold Spellfrost shows up. So we commence the effort to draw out the ol' purple Col all by ourself. I discovered a nice hit and run tactic to take out the lowbie turrets. After about 3/4 of the guns are gone he shows up. Bad news, he is an AV. He spawns bosses (Jump Bots). I pop a shiv, Spellfrost tries to squeeze the last of her Domination out...and we get smacked. Spell quit and being a glutton for punishment (and remember, I don't play my stalker much so what is another bar of debt?), I go back for some photo ops. I did manage to dent his health bar. But a lone villian versus an AV who spawns two bosses aint a fair shake. I would like to schedule this SF again. I have the recipe for us to win. I just need a full crew. Saturday is good so far, send me a shout on times that work for you all. Try to click on the photos to enlarge them. His closing line stung a bit.

Incidentals

Hi all and happy Halloween! If you don't have your costume slot you better get cracking! Some extra salvage in the base if you need it, however, check your inventory beforehand. I never ToT'ed with Chuz or Dunizel but somehow all the pieces were in their inventory?! Sneaky devs. . .

A big congratulations go out to Thundar v.2 on reaching the big bad 50!

Cathedral of Pain trial, according to a Positron interview online, will not be up until around issue 9. :big frown:

We are getting close to being able to afford our new secure energy room (about a million left to go), so thanks to all who are earning prestiege! Speaking of security, I have invited one of the largest supergroups on Triumph to practice raid with us, the Riders of the Apocalypse. Hopefully we will be able to schedule a raid soon. I doubt it will be pretty, but I sure hope it will be fun! :) Extra bandages in the infirmary!

What's new with ya'll out there? You've been so quiet. . . give us update on your toons.

Boo!

Metoid and his sister Dark Calling swept this years costume party! 1st Place Scariest! 1st Place Pumpkin Carving! 2 Raffle prizes! And Metoid also won Most Likely to get PWNeD in PvP! WooT!

Happy Birthday Megeara!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEG!
Hope it's a very happy one!

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Well the 2x2 tourney has beeen postponed until the following Saturday (11/4) since not enough teams signed up. I think Melqar and Zandryne just scared them all away.

More info on the Invention system

Spoilers Here!!!

Don't read this if you want to wait until the official I9 announcement....who am I kidding: EVERYONE IS GOING TO READ THIS!

Take it with a grain of salt...seems legit but you can never know.

All of this stuff sounds pretty cool I'm truly curious as to how this is gonna affect both PVE and PVP (I have a feeling the nerfs will come quick and swift once some exploits are found).

Also make sure to check out the next wave of veteran rewards! Veteran Rewards Part 3

Silver Mantis sends Death Brigade to its DOOOOM

So the mish computer is up and everyone was ready to give the Silver Mantis SF a crack. At only 6 mishes long, it looked to be fairly simple and we had many high level villians to keep the mobs in check. It seemed each map was new, an unseen layout and design (a check on the web confirms this fact, all original maps just for the SF). When we arrived at the last mish, folks were ready to put the AV down, pin on the badge and...hold on what the heck is this? The Sky Raiders base? Surrrounded by Sky Skiffs and turrets? Oh. My. An hour and a half later and about a half dozen team wipes later, the Death Brigade was hurtin'. Melqar had run into a dozen turrets and was riddled like a a target at the range. Spellfrost was seen with a smoke trail plummeting to the ocean. Chaud? Held. Mercy Mercy? Belly-up. Solid, Kamikaze? Fleeing laser-guided missles. Doc? D/C'd...i.e. Dead and Conscious-less. Tech? Standing there with a red health bar looking left and right for a teammate, any teammate that was standing. So with a heavy heart--and more likely--heavy eyelids, folks had to pull chocks and head back to the real life. The SF is still up and I shall be logging in to see if the map can be respawned. I am also going to scout the map, I read on the 'net the AV will spawn after an unknown number of turrets are taken out but he hides high in the air in the corner of the map. More to follow.

Post a time we can try to finish this or to re-accomplish.

Jack in Irons' Momma is sooooo fat. . .

heroes jog around her for exercise! Or run around Paragon trying to find that stupid jerk! /rant

Just got some random stuff to post. Put a base down for ill-mannered. Only has an inspir and salvage storage to hold Halloween extras. Put a few event salvage in there for you rude and crude types, so please help yourself! Megeara will be decorating a room for it, so cross your fingers he is better at it than Baba! LOL j/k

There is a tenative 2x2 Halloween arena tourney if anyone has an interest. It's for level 30s and under. Was gonna bring Melqar and he needs a good partner (hero or villain doesn't matter)! Who wants to smash a few faces in? Winners gets an HO. Will be held on Sat Oct. 28 at noon pacific. Anyone want to join in, let me know and I will RSVP. Details here

Planty Man is hosting the Silver Mantis SF on Sunday at 2:30 pacific. Level 20-25. Got 4 so far for it. Incidently, we still need to run the final 2 zulu TFs too. Post an idea of when you wanna do it!

Halloween Live!

Well below are some of the badges related to Halloween! Chaud, Sword, Baba and I door camped for a couple hours and got all our Halloween salvage and these badges!



You will need one of each for your 5th costume slot:
Lord Recluse Mask
Statesman Max
Hamidon Costume
Back Alley Brawler Gloves

The Invention System

It was suppose to be on deck for Issue 9 but it was accidently put into Issue 8 for a brief period of time. Here are some screen caps for it that I found off of the GameAmp website.

Someone's getting fired from Cryptic...

Hoard your salvage!!!! I wonder if the Invention System will be robust enough to facilitate an economy. How do you fellow DBer's feel about that? Good for the game? Bad for the game? Discuss!!!

Grats, Grats, and Boo!

A big congratulations goes out to Calmar Chaud and to Dunizel to reaching the big, bad, boring 50! Also like to extend a big welcome to Violet, Justice, and Evincar to the DB!

Also congrats to our villain group, The Death Brigade, for getting the Tree of Wonders finally. A big thank you to Sworn Enemy, Chaud Comme L'enfer, Casual Agent, and Azrharn for standing around a crystal and making it happen! It's so much easier with 6 pets, sheesh!

Halloween event is coming up on Wednesday! They changed it a bit and I've listed those below. Once you get all your toons that extra slot, if you find yourself with extra event salvage, drop it in storage for other SG toons to use!

Halloween Event Changes
- Drop rate of Salvage increased. Each piece has an exactly equal chance of dropping. This will put a TON more Halloween Salvage into the world. You have a better than 1 in 3 chance every time you get a treat of getting a piece of Salvage. Previously it was 1 in 20.

- Door Timers will default to 30 seconds. We can adjust this during the event if it proves unpopular (a fight should take about 30 seconds, at which you can click the door again, or if you got a treat move on to another door with your group).

- Player Timers will remain at 60 seconds (just like 2 years ago).

- Treats will only drop Medium and Large Inspirations (and rocks, of course).

- It will take 20 Unseelee to get the Ghost Touched badge.

- Salvage now has the correct icons.

Look Who is. . .

Now testing...

Issue 8 is up on the Test Server (as of this posting the Test Server is down lol). New fly animations!!! Woot!!!

Check it out!

Cathedral of Pain unavailable

It looks like the Cathedral of Pain trial has been taken offline for technical reasons. Here is a post by Cricket on the official CoH forums boards.

Post-Pylon Wrap Up!

Alpha Team & The Debt Brigade
Another raid under our belt!

What more can I say? I'm really enjoying these InstaRaids and the comradre we are all building. Fun times as always. The communication between all of us was great and we were solid at backing each other up.

Vent! Vent! Vent! It is such a great tool and makes working in Unison so much easier. For those who have been raiding on a regular basis with us please consider getting it if you haven't already!

Mad props to Alpha Team as always! I think we're showcasing what a Coalition is all about and it has been a great way to meet and interact (in a violent way of course) with our brother in arms. We're both learning quite a bit from these raids and I think we could give an SG an run for their money (or IoP :) It seems to me that trying to win a raid via pylons is quite the tall order. Another huzzah and kudos to Alpha for keeping us on our toes and for being the first to take up the challenge.

Anyways, here are some details about the madness, in no particular order:

- Alpha with the sneaky placements of their pylons. I knew someone would sully the top of our generators :P

- being caught in the middle of a brawl between Brick Liberty and a fellow DBer as soon as I rez in the base. So that's where the phrase "WTF" comes from

- trying to take down Brick in Granite Form (good luck kids!!!)

- walking into Dr. Earl Grey matter-of-factly during the chaos. We both stopped, looked at each other for a beat...and then proceeded to shoot the shit out of each other

- "Wait for it....wait for it.....HE MOVED!!!!"

- walking into the midst of Alpha Team in order to get the invite from Mondaag. I think I have a phobia of gold and black now

- me secretly cursing DeepCut for getting more kills than me :P

I hope everyone had a great time...I know I did. A shout-out to Elitess who showed up for the raid but couldn't join in due a damn raid bug. Angry letter time!!! :P

I wished our favorite trubador Meg was there because I love reading his post-raid posts. Hopefully the ramblings of an ice blaster are as entertaining as those of an ice tanker :D

Cathedral of Pain Trial LIVE!!

Trial on Friday 10/13 at 7 pm Pacific

The One Book of Rularuu gives a 20% reduction to debt incurred by all Super Group members." Reduces Rent by: -150,000

Logged on early this morning to clean up some of the mess Alpha left behind (blood, teeth, Chynna's face print on the wall) and an announcement came over broadcast that the Items of Power are NOW AVAILABLE! We have until Monday to get organized and get ours! Screw that TF this weekend!! We have other plans! We can take up to 20 SG members into the Shard to get our Item of Power! Let's plan out when we can all assemble and do this thing!

Welcome to our newest members btw and a big hello to our new coalition!

Raid and stuff...

Hey all. I just wanted to thank everyone for the uber good reception that Ebon and myself have received from everyone so far. We have both been playing with some of you off and on for a while and it is great to finally be in the fold (Dark Justice Legion R.I.P.).

Well what to say about the raid? Being on the receiving end of a person controlled bubbler isn't my idea of a good time. I think it is kinda tough to be the attacking team. Not too fun to have everyone know where you are going to spawn in. Mr. Cut it was cool to be your partner. A regen scrapper with adrenaline boost, fortitude, and regeneration aura was a sight to see! The Alpha Team sure was tricky in the placement of their pylons. I would like to have a go at being the attacking team and bring Garl along for that ride. That's all for now and I am looking forward to teaming with more of you and to the next raid. Cheers!

Halloween Event Starts 10/18

Even in a city where many citizens dress in unique costumes to battle real mystical threats, Halloween is a special time of year. While Paragon City's Halloween holiday was dampened last year by renewed hostilities from the Rogue Isles, this year's October events look to be even more promising than before, with record numbers of citizens all over the city ready to welcome trick-or-treaters of all ages.

However, a dark shadow has fallen over this year's festivities. Word has spread from the shadowed town of Croatoa that strange things are headed south to spoil the holiday with their own evil celebrations. With the location of the Malleus Mundi still a mystery following it's disappearance last year, it's feared that new creatures might appear on the city streets. There have already been rumors that the Unseelie court may be sending fiends to paragon City to join the Vampires and werewolves that stalk the night on All Hallows Eve. Now there have even been sightings that the fearsome giant Jack-in-Irons has been seen heading south to join the Pumpkin King.

To combat this dark tide, Croatoa's Ravenwing Cabal has offered to help by encouraging heroes not only to fight these dangers, but also to enjoy the holiday. Heroes are encouraged to look for Ravenwing Cabal member Annah in Croatoa to learn more once the Halloween festivities begin. There are even rumors that a rogue member of the Cabal called "Granny Beldam" has plans to offer the same encouragements to villains from somewhere in the Nerva Archipelago. It remains to be seen if the villains of the Rogue Isles will appreciate any festivity, despite Lord Recluse's orders for mandatory Halloween cheer among the populace.

ARRGH!

This box does nothing but confound me!

Meg needs tech savvy, please!

Here's the deal. I'm tooling through the AP mayhem mish with a baby mm when I get mapservered three times in a row. When I er-log in after the third, the game starts verifying files. But now when I pick a server all of the characters are there but the "Go to Paragon/Rouge Isles" button is greyed out. Its that way on all of the characters, on all of the the servers. When I hit roughtly the third or fourth server to check, the game drops to a sound loop and crashes.

My tech quotient is frightfully low, I keep more than a few tech services people busy. Anyone with more education than I have any ideas?

Meg

Upgrade Now Available

Today they released the upgrade from the new boxed set. For $9.99 you will get the Tiki Lounge Gold Card, a Jump Pack, and some new costume options. So after dropping my ten bucks, I run into the game to check the stuff out. Not terribly impressed, I'm sorry to say.

The Gold Card gives you a power to teleport to the Tiki Lounge from anywhere and you can use it once every 30 minutes. Tiki Lounge is cool, but nothing going on in there. Just a room. The animation is pretty neat when you teleport, but takes an ungodly amount of time. Don't think you are going to escape from anything using it.

Costume options are very few, at least what I found. There are Justice and Sinister versions of a new shoulder option, a new boot style, a new glove style, and a new pattern in the pants option. That's just what I found. There might be more? No new hair. Boo.

The jump pack is a cross between flight and jumping. If you hit your space bar continually, you will go higher and higher. Guess it's good for you superspeeders. My first try with it I found it a bit unweildy.

The base is now shut down to our coalitions and is being revamped slightly. Please put your salvage into the storage since I need some components still. Your raid email will be going out soon. I still have to get with Rage on it.

Alpha and Omega

or

Base Raiding: Take Two!

The time had come. Weapons had been polished and armor was cinched tight. Colors had been donned and strategies had been laid out. The time had come. There was battle in the air!

The next engagement had been planned and agreed upon. Alpha Team and the Debt Brigade would meet head to head in a re-match, this time the home field advantage would belong to Alpha Team. This time the Brigade would be going on the offensive.

And anyone who listens to us on Vent knows we get plenty offensive.

Ahem.

I am rather ashamed to admit that I was tardy in getting to the pre-raid meeting. Sorry Az, I will be on time next time, promise! I was delighted to see several new faces in the mix, a hearty welcome to Ebon Mauler and Rulltran for reasons that will quickly become clear in the narrative.

The clock wound to a close and the warnings were given. And then battle was had!

One of these days I'm going to remember to take some screenshots for posterity to record the glorious chaos that is a base raid. But Alpha Team can take great pride in the thought that they kept this poor little ice/mace tank far, far too busy to do anything but mash attack buttons, auto-fire a taunt and drop Energy Absorption when it was up.

And swear a little. Some. Ok, a lot but Az did it first!

Alpha Team took to the offensive right from the opening bell, pinning us down in an open hallway with withering firepower and, wait for it,

FWOOOOOP!

Our old friendly fire comrades Amia and Blackcircle, the bubblers. It was quite kind of them to give me a taste of the various walls and storage racks in the Alpha base. I would recommend some salt and lemon juice be left out as a courtesy to those of us left sucking brick so early in the game.

Barrages were volleyed back and forth and the various members of both teams leapt to and fro like frogs left on a hot plate. I started hammering out taunts early and managed to make quite a nuisance of myself. This notion was reineforced when I managed to make of the few trips past the Bubbler Barricade.

After one lucky Superjump and a swing or two to get some attention, I discovered a new game to play while I recuperate in Hibernate. It's called Count the effects icons on my screen. Alpha made it quite clear that I was offsides. I stopped counting at nineteen different icons crowding that corner of my monitor.

But then our secret weapon made quite a timely appearance by porting me out of the center of attention and into our own little circle of protection. There were more than a few cheers of having out very own bubbler and Rulltran is a well-appreciated addition to the Brigade.

I am not sure who first decided that the Alpha mediporter needed to go but Templar Fire Tank charging us from the rear of our formation may have had something to do with it with the decision. The search for anchors was temporarily sidelined as we proceeded to make junk of the offending piece of equipment.

In more than one occasion, I found myself in the middle of a taunt phalanx with Makin' Debt and the Ebon Mauler. We would wind up in the same tile, fire off one or two taunts and split like scalded rabbits, dragging all kinds of tank-generated hate our way.

I do have to say that I spent far less time hearing the dreaded FWOOOP! in this raid. I am unsure if this was due to us being more coordinated or Alpha having to deal with an offending bubbler on the receiving end.

But I know which one I would like it to be...

My personal high point in the raid came not long after we had found and demolished the third anchor. Once again, I had been shunted off into the corner like a naughty brat by Amia and I started scrolling through my power trays looking for something to try. And I found something long neglected in a dusty corner of my arsenal. Something I took off a defeated Freakshow Juicer so long ago. I sheathed my mace, blew dust off the barrel, sighted and popped Amia with a stunning beanbag.

HOLY HANNAH! IT WORKED! BUBBLER STUNNED! It was here that my roommate finally decided to see what the hell I was cackling about. I attempted to explain, she patted me on the head and I leapt back into the fray.

Many a blow was traded before the clock finally had its way with us all. In the end we had taken three anchors and were in the process of eradicating two more, but it was not to be. Once again I want to offer a note of genuine thanks to every member of Alpha Team for a being a great sport in our raiding. The sense of good fun and rousing competition makes these get-togethers a real treat and something to really look forward to.

And another three cheers for all my companions, old and new, in the Debt Brigade. It is always a blast running around with you all and I look forward to more adventure with you all in the future.

As always, your humble ice/mace chronicler bids you good hunting!

Meg

More Veteran Rewards

They have listed the second year of veteran rewards. Wings are at 15 months, so 46 & 2 is going to be singing Tool for a bit longer I imagine! Awww! But at least there won't be two billion winged toons running around now. I might make that marker by I8, but I'm not sure who I'd put 'em on! lol But I love the samurai armors, that's just same plain cool stuff there! I'm sure Cap will model it for us! lol

Raid on Sunday @ 3:30 pm Pacific! So far, I have:

me
Colder
Chaud
Baba
Mrs. Baba
Elitess
Rulltran
Ebon

It's limited to 16 so reserve your spot! And scream if I missed your name. Lt. Rage and I will be laying down some ground rules so expect to see them soon. Yes, your shivan will probably be left at home. I am considering approaching Caste of Set for some practice raiding also. I think it will be a whole new ball of wax fighting villain ATs! I'll be standing next to Tech for his tactics buff, thank you! lol!

Might be doing some minor shifting of the base for the raid. Then again, when it comes to moving stuff in the base, it's never minor. Grats to all the people who leveled yesterday, and a big welcome to our new members, Beetle and to our Dark Justice Legion friends, Ebon and Garl. Had fun in Siren's with ya'll last night!

Healing Badge #2 is Ours!!

A big thank you to those who participated in all the heal farms!! A big thank you especially to Sword for holding the Tome of Persephone mission for the red crystal! Only 100 million more points to badge #3! So we should have it. . . oh, by 2010! lol We need to one do on the villain side as well. We can do it with Melqar, Sword's MM and a healer. Healer would probably have to be at least a 20 or sk'ed up to such.

The rez in the base will now be at 45% as opposed to it's meager 25% before. And no, I don't think it can ever be 100% (that I know). Congratulations again to all!

Tenative Raid on Oct. 8

Just trying to get a headcount to see if anyone wants in on this? Probably 3 pm pacific or thereabouts? Pylon raid.

Please give me, give me my WINGS...

Listen to the tales and romanticize, How we follow the path of the hero...

It's time now! My time now! Give me my, give me my wings!
Give me my wings! --Wings for Marie, Pt 2. Tool, 10,000 Days, 2006.