All I need is some...

R E S P E C T

3rd year anniversary coming up...WHEW it goes by quickly. Freebies coming...see link to forums announcement. See? Baba is at Terra Volta? Subtle isn't it?

Raid on Saturday/Jake Mather

Incidently, if there's anyone available Thursday evening around 6 pm Pacific and has a toon on test, we've been asked to test a new base raid patch that is supposed to help fix some raid stability issues. Another PvP committee member's group is going to be our opponent (villains). Not an all out assault raid, but just testing the issues the devs have asked us to try out.

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It's time to show some villains what these heroes are made of! Raid this Saturday, April 21st! We will be attacking them this time so don't expect to walk over them as easily as we did before. Our original time was slated for 3:00 pm pacific, however, It has been changed to 5 pm.

Confirmed: Azrhiaz, Incredible Sam, Garl, Zero C, Chaud, Dark Ston., Baba, Tatankasa, Chica, violet, terramedic, Making Debt, Sword
Maybes: Deep, PK Gaff, Tech, Bunny Heal Heal, Hutokaze, Lady Firma, Amazingman,

If you are 30 and above, PLEASE make sure to go run the patrol in Warburg to get the Phase Shift power. We will be attempting to win this raid via pylons. I will place down a worktable so you can make a set. Please note: you get two. If you are interupted while placing it, the pylon will be lost. It takes approximately 30 seconds to place and you cannot be in a power that renders you "only affecting self" (PFF, invis, phase shift). If you run out of pylons return to the base via death or the entry portal and make more. We need to have 5 down at a time and they can be placed in ANY room of thier base (only one per room though).

Any questions?

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On a side note, some of you may remember Jake Mather from the SG. He raided Alpha Team with us once and a few of us were wondering where he disappeared to. I am sorry to say he was shot and killed by his roommate a couple months ago. How awful!! RIP Jake. Here is a thread on the boards where you can post your condolences to his RL friend.

Comic Creator Contest

My entry for the comic contest can be found

here

The program is fun to use but the whole process is very buggy. Had to reload program twice. The uploading to the website is borked (you will note some font errors that occured after I uploaded). Registering on the website was sketchy took me numerous tries to get that to work. Right now I have an account on their site and can upload, but I can't log in and try to delete or modify my account. It says "beta" and tech support thus far is non-existant. So if you want to try this out, like I said I had a riot making it but the publishing etc. was a major pill.

If you have a tough time trying to read it look up top for places to enlarge the pictures.

(Info/details on the comic contest here)

Fun and Games in CoX

Dunizel checking out the new DBR digs
First order of business: Attacking Raid on DDoC on Saturday the 21st @3pm Pacific. As always, please RSVP! We've got some great people with us so we should hopefully rock their socks off (and wreck their stuff).

There's an interview with Lord Recluse here. And issue 10! Could it mean a level hike? What exactly does he mean!!

Don't forget the Lethal Lottery this weekend, Saturday @ 3pm Pacific. Lvl 47+. I'd actually like to start running some of the games with our coalition that I've learned about at the pvp meetings that sound like a lot of fun. "Capture the Flag" being one, where there are two or more teams in WB and whoever launches a specific nuke first wins! Imagine the mayhem! Another Warburg one was "Tug of Warburg" which is a game when two sides fight over a scientist and the first one who gets him to the top of their alloted scaffold on the launch pad wins. CRAZY! We can also run a lethal lottery of our own and lower the level so more toons qualify if you prefer some arena action. Anything for a bit o' fun, ya?

PvP Fun

As many of you are aware I was recently brought into the PvP committee that is being run by ExLibris. The function of this committee is to make PvP more interesting and get/keep/bring back PvPers into this aspect of the game. I am part of the Rewards section, as well as the Events section. There will be some big in-game PvP events coming into the game over the summer and it should be interesting to see how the response is to it. I can't really tell you much, but I think it will add a new facet and new level of interest in the game. There's some fun stuff being planned behind these closed doors so don't feel too badly I wasn't on test. I just got into the committee too late and by the time I got approved, it would've been opened up anyway. :shrug:

So being I'm involved and since you ain't got nothing to do with your 50s in the upcoming issue, I thought I'd mention that on the Saturday the 14th @ 3 pm pacific/6 pm eastern there is a Lethal Lottery being run on Triumph (lvl 47+). Random teams of three will beat each other up until only 2 are left. Find the details here and sign up. I will probably going in with Azrhiaz, so if you want to kick my ass or kick some ass with me, SIGN UP! Check out the fun Cap, Deep, Celeano (lss) had in the arena last night! DB vs PDC! Goo-oOOOoooo squishies FTW!


I'd also like to welcome lss and Tzadi to the DB! PK Gaff is Tzadi's "new" (already level 20) grav/kin troller and Psyberus is our newest emp/psy blast defender! Deep has also rolled a new spines/SR scrapper for us. I'd tell you its name but he keeps rerolling it! lol So welcome to all new members!

I am Baaaaack

Hey all just got back from a nice vacation backcountry hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains. Didn't get to see any bear, but it was beautiful with some spectacular views. Makin' Debt and I are still sore from the 3 mile non-stop 2,700 elevation gain we did in one day.

Yup it is true I was on Test Server (closed) with quite a few other Triumph toons.

As you all have probably found out by now, the salvage system is gonna be expensive everything costs big bucks. There was a lot of growing pains to get it where it is now and I am not at all happy with the concepts that were proposed and how it has come to be at this stage. Since I have been gone for five days I am sure the promised patch to fix some of our complaints has dropped, but it left the system well, still sucking for many. And well the concept of it being "something you can skip if you don't like it" well I was seeing loop holes with that...but not sure if that will be fixed by the patch will have to log on today to see. Another issue I have is making a huge system for issue 9 and selling it as something you can skip...hey thanks for offering me something that I don't want to do...nice to wait for that. As you can see, in the end after a few weeks with this invention system, I am not fond of it, much of it to do with how the Devs went with it and forced it into the game despite a LOT of objections and complaints by the testers. I am officially not a fan of Statesman--he pissed off a lot of people with his tone, attitude and approach with this system change. His spin on this? You can make a new kind of toon.. an INVENTOR! Once you do so many recipes you get badges that open you up to all recipes for certain levels etc. So then you can have a crafting toon! Thats right you can stand around all day while people tell you Hey make this! Hey can you make that? (Read: a cheap attempt to say there can be a new archtype--read CHEAP). Ya this is his take on WoW in City of Heroes/Villians. Hell he mentioned WoW many times in his posts. He even equated the system to Ebay. City of Ebay is not what I wanted. Many, MANY, testers had objections to how this system has turned out and how much influence you have to drop now (the very first version was by far the best...Positron took it away in 2 days and we never saw it back, despite about a 75% objection rate). In the end the attitude that Statesman took was "Hey my game, my rules, deal with it." I almost debated dumping my account from his 'tude. I was that pissed. One thing kept me coming back...new game content i.e. STF. Make that two things...game content and having fun with the DB and coalition buddies. I missed having the whole crew there and not being able to talk about it. But Triumph server had a HUGE showing on test. Seemed about a 1 in 5 was from Triumph. Might have just been my luck of the draw though.

STF is a RIOT. Tried it numerous times and have yet to get past Dr Aeon. Every team I had was short of tanks and apparently there is a temp power you get for doing the Thorn Tree mish and no one was too aware of it or would drop from the TF by the time we hit the mish. I ran it once (with Metoid in tow) and had Ghostwidow "ghosting" it (watching it while we suffered). She actually rezzed Metoid at one point to help us out. It was fun. What they did to mess up the game with inventions, they did the complete opposite with STF. I wish they had invested more into new content such as this STF. It will be quite the reward for high level toons.

Hami? I gave up. It is a whole new ball game and except for the die-hard Hami addicts, we all stopped trying. Too hard ( he was later tweaked), too long, issues with the new inspriations to help defeat him (the drop rate for them was as borked as the drop rate for salvage at lvl 50---imbalanced and a pain to get) and the reward isn't quite worth it now with invention junk easier to craft. I will let the Hami-holics come with a new game plan and then maybe go waste time there. Hami is quite pointless now with inventions. He may drop something rare but then once you get it it? Then what?

New emotes to try are crouch, fish, wait, and a cell phone, they are in menu of emotes near chat bar under options I think. (Pic is of Baba in Wentworth's watching all the sucking of influence for a stupid common salvage).

I didn't do much on Villians side, my high level CoV toons are on my second account so not much testing done by me on the dark side.

Az, wish you could have been on closed testing, you would have had some sound input with you experience. For that matter all of the Debt Brigade could have. But at least we got to represent. Well see you online soon.

It never fails....

I'm always the last to post. Have a busy day and everything big happens...rofl

"Where you been Chaud??" "You been spending to much time on WoW" Nope...where I've been is with Dr. Earl and Baba...yes on the test :D

The good doc shared most of the info...I have to say I'm still not so impressed. If you want your toon to be maxed out it's gonna take a lot of money, a lot of salvage and a lot of inventing. For PVP toons these new "sets" won't be optional, at least not in my opinion.

Here's my pic from test...when GM_lighthouse made a personal appearance to try and help fix a bug at Wentworths...my son was on Calw veloce (DB toon). Oh and the cross server influence transfer...shhhh I did it, twice. :)

STF Tonight..., possibly...

This is open to anyone on Debt Brigade or their affiliate coalitions (so take no offense).

The core 4 of the Unpredictables SG will be tackling the STF on test tonight, assuming that 2 of them can get test up and running before 6PM Pacific, since they are east coasters and need sleep. We wanted to extend an invitation to all those who may have played with us in the past, or would like to experience our awesomeness, Chica knows full well how cool we are. :-D

Here is the team so far...

1) Fritz Lang - lv50 Inv/Em/Energy Tank
2) Duchas - Lv50 Emp/Psy/Psy Defender
3) Quick Shadow - Lv50 Dark/Regen/Dark Scrapper
4) BudBoy - Lv50 Elec/Ice/Fire Blaster
5)
6)
7)
8)

You can contact me in the test server as @Dr. Earl Grey if you wish to join us. As you can see, we will need at least one debuffer and a bit more firepower. The new characters you copy to test will go to the original test server and not test server01, so we will meet on the original test server at around 5:30PM Pacific. hopefully we will get started soon after. If this does not work out we will definately do it tomorrow night at the same time.

Test is now open

If you've been jonesing for a new look at the next issue, test has been reopened to the public.

Patch Notes here

Damn, there goes my morning workout!! LOL

Locale of the Statesman TF in IP

WOOHOOOO!!!

I can talk about it now!

Anyway, here are some helpful tips to enjoying I9.

1) The Consignment House is a must, money will be even tighter considering how much stuff costs. It is far better to sell things you don't want then to just delete them to make space, trust me on this one.

2) Invention IO's that are made on the tables are UBAR! It made playing the doc a whole new and exciting experience (an elec^3), I could cut back on some enhancements and hardly notice a difference. I went from slotting 2Acc/1Rech/3Dam to being 1Acc/1Rec/1EndRed/1EndMod/2Dam. This is a godsend for characters that can fill multiple roles, you will want to use them. I think ED had the invention system in mind from the get go, this just proves it. Serisouly considering dropping stamina and hasten because of this (both serious crutches for many characters, hasten not so much, but definately stamina).

3) Invented costume pieces are character specific, so make sure if you have the ability too, to transfer said items to the character you want to get the costume.

4) The new Hammidon is a tough bugger, read through the forums and you will see the strategies involved to bring him down.

5) I have not tried the STF yet, but I most definately will now that my friends are all able to join me. From what I understand, its slightly easier than the LRSF.

6) Please read through the I9 discussion boards, there is a wealth of information there, many of which I just couldn't tell you because of the amount of testing that has gone on.

7) The green line now goes to the southern end of Skyway and the center of Founders Falls. there are stores in Kings Row now as well.

I'd be more than happy to answer questions, sooo..., waddaya doing? Go read up and then hit test!

/bind key team GET AWAY FROM THE SPAWN POINT

Ten of DB's Finest! Amazingman, Hell Butterfly, DeepCut, Jace 'Aracil, Azrhiaz, Lady Firma, Zandryne, Incredible Sam and Garl Darklord (Tech-Blade and Ulti-Chica had to scoot)
Congrats to everyone on another super raid! I felt a bit like a kindergarten teacher yelling at the boys to get our of the lobby so the enemy could get organized. Sheesh! It was like telling worms not to wiggle! GET OUT OF THE LOBBY! :) We had granted Dire Disciples of Chaos that room as a safe spot upon load. I think they deserved it after their initial spawn point happening in the middle of the Hallway of Death! It really isn't much fun to have 12 against 2, so i thought we could fight with honor and try to get a good battle royale going. I kinda miss the good ol' days of throwing down with Alpha Team. I think we have definitely shown we are no one to trifle with and we know our shit. Props to DDoC for participating!

It was a bit of a late start and attackers had a lot of DCs. They had a nice variety of ATs in the mix so we were all able to pick on whom we liked best. I felt like all I did was send tells and yell for the most part, but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and DDoC are very much looking forward to doing it again. Next time we will attack them. Hopefully they will have someone as bossy as me on their end! :grin: One of them even threw out a Shivan. How can we be sure that wasn't Megeara in disguise! And he told *me he was moving this weekend, yeah, right!

I look forward to going into someone else's base next time. I am anxious for the challenge and am dying to see how we fare. We will be talking strategy in the near future. I would like to schedule the rematch in the next two weeks. Please post in the comments a day you would prefer. Again, THANK YOU to each and every one of you for taking the time to attend and KICK BUTT!


Finally, here's a video of some of the new (and old) wings that will be in the game come issue 9. Burned wings are pretty cool and I fear it will be city of fairies too soon! Pretty cool!Wings and more wings

Villains 1...Leviathan Eye Socket 0

l to r: Melqar, Dark Tzadkiel, Tyrant Metal, and Thundar V.2

Break out the champagne cuz I just did my first SF!!! Woot!

Tzadi, Az, Cap, Chili, and I decided to run the Sharkhead Isle SF. It went fairly smooth even though the damn contact wouldn't hand out the cell phone until the 4th or 5th mish. Poor Chili aka Deep had to leave for a bit but he never came back :(

I can honestly say I don't remember much. I was using my MM and truth be told, I don't find my toon very exciting. I wish I went with a more offense-based secondary because Force Fields are dull, dull, dull (did I mention dull?) Therefore, I wasn't paying much attention. Thanks to Az for snapping me back to reality when she told me that my bots weren't doing anything :P

However, the last figh was pretty cool. We had to steal the Eye of the Leviathan and got face to eye (?!?!) with a giant peeper. Az took a nice shot of it:

So thanks to everyone who came out! Great effort as always and the company was, of course, the best.

Newly Elected

Well all, I've been nominated and given the honor of representing the Triumph Server as a PvP representative! :bows: Now what exactly that means, I don't have much of an idea yet!! :laughs: Apparently there are 3 big events being planned and I will be taking part of their creation in some manner. Ex Libris is heading this up and it could be a fun thing! Anyway, just thought you'd like to know that Earl isn't the only special one around here! :mysterious wink:

With that said, part of the process is reporting bugs/crashes/etc. So with Sunday's base raid coming up, if you experience a DC or something "weird", please make a note of it with the following (if you can)

Hero/Villain Name:
VG/SG's involved:
Server:
Time/Day of Bug:
Attacker/Defender Team Size:
Game Type (ie: Heros or Villains):
Operating System:
Amount of RAM:
Connection Speed:
Type of video card:

Describe what happened fully:

So far we have: Colder, Chaud, Chica, Garl, me, Tatankasa, Tech, Incredible Sam, Violet
Maybes: Ebon, Deep, Cap, Amazingman, Minx, Soul Muncher, Project XII, Sword, Karrnage

Oh and here is a shot for the ladies to entice them to sign up for Sunday's raid as well. I think he's looking for you Sword! :)

Website Update

Hi all! I'm lazy. I get tired of typing. The new URL of this site is now: www.debtbrigade.com. You can still get here the old way, but the new official domain will direct you here thusly. Much easier to remember too.

Welcome to all new members. Weekend events (all at pacific time):

Strikeforce on Sunday at 4:00 pm
Eye of the Leviathan - level 25-30 villains -- team minimum of 4. Meet at Renault in Shark (near the Siren's Gate)

Synapse on Saturday around noon, I'm thinking? Levels 15-20. Anyone up for it?

Reminder: Base Raid on April 1st at 3pm. So far, it's me and Colder. Who else is in? See? I posted a sexy picture to entice ya'll to sign up already! C'mon in, the water's fi-i-iiine!


On a final note, here is a link to an article on the new Hamidon enounter Bring on the debt.

And we have a winner!

Azrhiaz and Hell Butterfly judging at the Costume Contest
Thank you to everyone who showed up to help judge our first costume contest in Atlas Park! I always thought they were silly but we got a few new recruits from it. I would also like to thank those who offered to pitch influence in for the prizes. We'll hold another CC in a couple weeks or so. I also really appreciate those who showed up in uniform! REPRESENT! Big thanks to Chica for getting it started too!

I was contacted by a villain group who would like to practice raid with us. They apparently don't mind the bugs and would perhaps like to do it on a regular basis! We are going to try to shoot for April 1st around 3pm pacific. Please RSVP in the comments (or ingame tell to me) to let me know if you can attend for a little villain beatdown! If there are people who want to raid and have specific times they can do it (I know we all have things going on outside of life), please let me know and I will try to plan raids so we ALL can participate. They said they often like to do two raids in a row (to take turns at defending/attacking) so also note in your comment if that is agreeable or not.

CANCELLED Finally, Faathim the Kind is being led by Baba Kanoosh tomorrow (Tuesday) at noon pacific. It's a long one (took us like 6 hours last time) so if you don't' have a job or have the day off, come join us and help the SG earn the Rikti Plasma Cannon!

Freedom & Faathim

Svanlaug in Croatoa
No more pirates!! :runs joyfully from the building and falls off the plank by accident:

New teleporter put down in the Red Room, next to the back infirmary. It goes to Faultline and to Eden, so you can get your hami raid on.

I also upgraded the control room so it can house a cannon. Don't plan on putting one down yet, but it will be ready when IoP time comes.

Costume contest tomorrow (Sunday). I'm thinking mid afternoon (2-3 pm pacific) so if you can show up in your SG uniform to cast your vote as a judge, please do so. Baba and I are running Faathim at 12 noon (pacific) on Tuesday the 20th. So for all you non-working types, come on out for a bit o' fun.

Upgrades and You

Alright all, we have close to 3 million banked on hero side. Do we want to keep saving or do we want to upgrade the existing base? If we upgrade to additional secure rooms (or bigger secure rooms) on the existing plot, they will be there if (or when) the Cathedral of Pain trial comes back online and we will not be paying any more in rent. However, one might say we have enough firepower already and to just keep it saved until we can purchase the first secure plot and worry about bigger rooms then? It's all of our money so tell me how you want to spend it. If I were to upgrade the existing base, I would most likely turn the control room into one that can house a weapon or upgrade the vault to hold more than one cannon. If you have any base suggestions (even if it doesn't involve upgrades) please speak up!

And Death Brigade. Any thoughts on where we want to go with that? Other than my continual emails to Planty Man about his um.... interesting additions, I wasn't sure if we wanted to move in the direction of raids with that one or not? So speak up.

With the advent of so many people leaving for WoW or for RL stuff (:throws shoe at all those people:) we will need to start recruiting people for the SG to keep it alive and well. So if you are playing with someone who you think might make a good addition, please invite them (even if they are already in an SG -- you all know ours is better! :smile:) A little note on ATs: we have a lot of scrappers and PBs already. And if you see a new person in the SG list, please play welcoming committee! We specifically want players who are not opposed to raiding and earning prestiege. Please make sure they are aware of our kick policy (30 days) as well. I have made a disposable toon that will be deleted and restarted at 15 or so to recruit. Chaud and I will be running in the Hollows this weekend to see who's around. I also would like to note that I don't mind dishing out influence for the first round of SOs, but most of my heroes don't have a ton of cash from running nearly exclusively in SG mode for their careers so if you are in a leadership position, please help out those who need it and don't just send them to Azrhiaz. Villainside, however, is another story! Infamy is not a problem! :lights cigarette with it:

What fun are we doing this weekend? Any ideas? I wouldn't mind doing Faathim the Kind again. Tzadi had mentioned doing Ice Minstral on villainside. We could even host a Costume Contest in Atlas if you want? Never did that before and it might be fun torturing the lowbies. :smile:

Kickin' Ass in the DB Base!

Well what a blast of a good time!! Thank you to all who participated, especially our friends on the villain side! It was good to have some fresh blood in the mix and a little variety with ATs! It is clear that a high level toons and/or good team balance is important. Get those raid toons leveled!

We didn't really raid to win since we didn't have big enough teams, but we thoroughly enjoyed a battle royale twice in a row. Thank you to those people who switched sides so we could run it!


Force fields, force fields, force fields. The first raid was a bunch of force bubbles shooting various people across the base! I was getting dizzy from everyone flying about! Melqar took great advantage of his foot stomp with toons that did not have knockback protection and as usual, the taunting tankers were a pain in the ass. However once the MMs got their bots out, we seemed to hold our own very well. Zandryne had a blast pushing everyone around and putting Melqar into detention. He would then chase her into the red room and stomp on her for it! Hell Butterfly also has a great debuff in rad, breaking through the to hit buff in rage even. Lucky for her since she liked to stay in melee range. (silly sword!) C'mon Knockout Blow!



Round Two was 3 against 5. Meg, Lumeir and Chaud Woman waited anxiously for the villains to come in and pummel us. Which they definitely did for the first few minutes! Lumeir did not bring enough breaks and was wrapped up tight in thorns. Planty Man hit domination and held a surprised Megeara through wet ice and even Chaud Woman could not withstand his swarms when he got through integration. But Debt Brigade doesn't go down easy and once we got our groove on and camped the spawn point for a few minutes, our confidence soared and we started to let them back into the base and enjoyed the resulting battle. Especially when they came after us in the Hall of Death. :)

Lumeir and the chill cannon hold Got Debt? way up in the air!
Everyone did great! I was very impressed with how well the MMs did and Baba's work with Planty Man definitely paid off. Chaud Woman has taken first place in kills, outranking Colder and Deep, so congrats to her! I'll hold 'em, you fold 'em! POW! It was a lot of fun! We will definitely be holding another event like this very soon! It was great to have some teamwork and we all learned a few new things!

Az, you nimble minx you...

Look at you Az, thinking you're all cool with that question and even smoochin' the big wigs boots a bit too. :-D

http://coh.warcry.com/scripts/news/view_news.phtml?site=36&id=69314

More Specifically:

"Azrhiaz: Is there anything in the CoX games that you wish you'd never put in? Was there something that sounded great and then turned out to be a disaster or more trouble than it was worth? Thanks for a great game! I waste many hours on it! :grin:
Jack Emmert: I regret not putting more time and energy into Hamidon. It turned out far different than I envisioned. Hopefully the new Hamidon encounter we are putting into Issue 9 will make the raid more enjoyable and interactive for a greater number of players."

That's a really good question too, too bad he kinda skirts around the answer. Still, I have to agree with him, Hami raids could have been soooo much better.

Issue 9 movie preview

Issue 9 Beta testing is rumored to be going around. Here is link to preview of new stuff (windows media movie) link

Why is it in the movie I can see Hami attack but when I got to a real Hami raid all I see is my framerate crawl to 1 fps?

:-)

No vines up my butt..possibly...

As far as the Debt vs Death battle, my sched may not allow to partake in some PVP madness.
Can someone else take lead on the Hero side? I'll try to make it if I can but as far as me leading the Heroes, it wouldn't be a good idea since I can't commit 100%.

Any takers? I'll send you an autographed 8x10 of me in a Speedo.

Waitaminute....aren't I suppose to be encouraging people to take the reigns?

Death vs Debt

Two of Paragon's Biggest Celebrities
Thanks to all who came out to the Warburg event. 'Roo and myself looked very smart in our brand new SG uniforms. I also saw Tat in it! So handsome! :) Warburg was a bit quiet, but word spread quickly and soon the PvPers arrived and mayhem ensued. We did very well for not having PvP builds and I must admit I was really impressed with how super everyone did! I got my Warburg time badge and a good time was had by all.

Death Vs Debt! This Saturday at 5:30 PM Pacific. Are our villains more powerful than our heroes? We shall soon find out! If you haven't already RSVPed, please do so, in game or in the comments!

Sunday is Safeguard Day! If you need or have a SFG mission that you want to donate to our 50s speak up! I have KR, Steel, Sky, and Bricks saved on some of my toons. I can probably get FF if necessary as well.

Oh and if you found this post too boring, here's another interview with Positron about I9. Betcha didn't know the consignment shops were cross-server, did ya?

Not DB related...

I know that this is not a true Debt Brigade topic, but I do know that many of you have a primary or secondary home in Alpha Team. I have made a post that for those of you who are in AT, I need for you to provide input to, or to at least look at. Check out the forum section, I have made the newest post there.

Some decisions need to be made and I think everyone who is in some way affiliated to AT needs to provide some sort of input.

Alpha Team site

Bored Like Me

Well, if anyone has AIM and wants to help my day go by a little better, add me as omjolnir. I know some of you are on Yahoo Messenger, but unfortunately, I am not able to install anything on the computer at work. And I think tech support would smack me if I asked. :grin:

Warburg Smackdown: Sunday 5 pm pacific. Get your new SG Uniform and come help us mow down anything in our path! This will be a coalition event, so tell your friends. We will be calling targets on the coalition chat!

Death vs Debt! Saturday March 10th at 5:30 pm! I need to know who's gonna be on what side! Colder will be heading up the goody two-shoe side while I will be leading in the bad-asses. So far, I have Planty Man with me. Leave a comment here stating your preference.

Poor Metoid

Metoid (aka Baba Kanoosh's aggro nut blaster son) is sicker than a dog. Are dogs that sick? So I am home tending to a nice toasty 103.9 fever and a "persistent non-productive cough." We say it is bird flu but none of the birds are coughing outside. OK, TFs are out til they fix the bug, any other events still going strong? Debt vs Death is up and on the boards what else?

And the winner is. . . Zenith!

Taking a commanding lead, Zenith has been voted to be the SG official uniform by members' choice! It was followed closely by Secret and a distant third was Bane 1.

The designer of Zenith was. . . well, um..... me.
(I didn't vote for it I swear!)

This costume is black with the red that is the #6 slot from the left

Upper Body --- Tights --- Armored Pads -- Red/Black
Shoulders --- Layered Pads -- Black/Red
Bottoms ---Chitin with Chiten Pattern -- Black/Red
Chest Detail -- Bullseye

I put the names of who designed what on the page if you are interested. Thank you all SO MUCH for participating! And congrats to um... me!

Warburg throwdown this Sunday at 5 pm Pacific! Get dressed for it!!! Let's show those heroes and villains what a beach party is REALLY all about!

You May Call Us ----- ARCHVILLAINS!

Chili Penguin, Thundar v.2, Azrharn, Dark Tzadkiel, Chaud Comme L'enfer, Bringer of Death, Lady Shadow Star stand over the fallen Liberty
Please cue up the Queen song because We Are the Champions, my friends!! That's right! You heard me correctly, we beat the Lord Recluse Strike Force and are the proud new owners of shiny badges and an SHO!

It was a slow start. But patience is a virtue and since we waited this long to do it, a few dances on Recluse's conference table will keep us entertained until we all arrived. We had 7 of the crew (and extended crew) there. Your truly, Azrharn (necro/dark MM), Chaud Comme L'Enfer (fire/thermal corr), Dark Tzadkiel (energy/dark corr), Chili Penguin (fire/cold corr), Thundar v.2 (EM/Inv Brute), Lady Shadow Star (stone/inv brute) and Bringer of Death (??/inv brute). Yes, that's right. There were 7 of us. We started with 8 (an /ela brute) but he was impulsive, annoying and a whiner and fortunately he left when things got a bit difficult! But I shall name no names because we perservered and stomped States and company into the pavement! Oh and did I mention we had no rad, no kins and no stone brutes?

The first mission is to defeat Crimson, escort a scientist to a computer and defeat a few longbow chasers. It was definitely mayhem with the ambushes and when I was knocked off the bridge, the scientist followed me over the side and we thought we were goners. He somehow managed to stay attached to my leg and we got him safely inside and forced the codes from him while beating Crimson to a bloody pulp for sending our alternate selves on all those Malta missions. Please note: you must lead the scientist with no stealths on the team at all, especially shadowfall!

With our codes in hand, Recluse sent us off to Warburg to steal the Orestes Rifle from the Malta group. Upon arriving, we run into the infamous Kronos Titan. We dispatched him and entered the facility and made our way to the back where The Slinger (AV) lay awaiting us. The Slinger is a MM and summoned waves and waves of bots to repel us, but alas, they were no match for Strike Force Tarantula. We get the rifle and head off to Nerva to dispatch with some heroes.

So here is where it starts to get a bit iffy. Our /ELA brute keeps running in before we are ready. We defeat Malaise and chase Swan and Mynx all over the complex. Valkyrie is last and rezzers and hits MoG, but alas, even she cannot stand against the 8 of us.

Fast forward to the future, where Back Alley Brawler, Sister Psyche, Manticore and Numina lay in wait. It is the future destroyed map of Atlas with random phasing of players (especially me). No real problems here.

And at last, we arrive to the finale. The clash we have all been anticipating: The Freedom Phalanx! Eight level 53 Heroes clustered under the globe in Atlas Park: Statesman, Positron, Manticore, Sister Psyche, Numina, Synapse, Back Alley Brawler and Citadel.
Azrharn looks down on the Heroes
We set up and Dark Tzadkiel makes the best pull on Numina ever. Synapse comes with her but Lady Shadow Star taunts him and keeps him busy while we hammer on Numina. At her last drip of health, she nukes and takes all of us out and our evil plan has been FOILED! We reassemble and try to pull again. She brings all her friends with her and we get pounded on. Positron farts and we all eat dirt.

Again, we reassemble with our friend the /ELA brute being negative all the while. We fire up some vengeance on his dead body, get a nice pull on Numina and are getting some really good kicks to the face in when Back Alley Brawler peers over the staircase wall and says "What are you kids doing down there?" They proceed to beat us to bloody pulps, with Chaud eating the end of a Knockout Blow and getting popped up 20 feet in the air! (I had a good view of this from where I lay on the ground!)
a view of the dead
At this point the /ELA leaves. We'd been talking about him relentlessly on the Friends channel and all hooted in delight when he quit the team. Amazing how one sourpuss can bring down the moral of the entire team. But the pulling isn't working. Dark Tzadkiel recommends rushing the platform. We will pick a target and Lady will taunt off the other 7 Heroes. Chili Penguin commits suicide in a pack of longbow so we can hit Vengeance on the team and our shivans. We rush the platform, Cap DCs, and we drop a bunch of nukes, some Serafina Shard and holding our breath, drop Numina!! We run for the plane, out of inspirations, and exit the mish!

Panting, we restock and head back in. We hit our groove with this method and whittle down the Heroes one by one. Sister Psyche is the next to go, followed by Positron, Manticore, Citadel, Synapse, and BAB. We had a couple of team wipes but nothing serious really. Even the pets seemed to stand up okay with a glowing red head.
Bringer of Death stands alone

But then -- the last man standing, the mighty Statesman

We are out of nukes. We are out of Shivans. I even used my last vial of DE bees! Ol' Blue and Red is hovering under the Atlas globe like a dark cloud over our heads. With a tightness in our throats, the penguin sacrifices himself yet again. We vengence up and then we charge. Cap wonders aloud, "Who'd have thought States was a runner?" We chase him here and there and when he overloads, the pets and corrupters die. I try to rez them with Howling Twilight but they are too far apart. Cap and Bringer chase States up Atlas's leg while I try to TP everyone into a pile for the next rez. States sees me, charges over and punches my face in. I drop instantly.

Wash, rinse, repeat. Back we go into mission. It's getting late, but victory is so close we can nearly taste it. We clash with States again. Again many of us die. I use an awake and just popped the break when the lightning falls from States' fist, killing me instantly. Only the brutes and Chaud are left standing. Cap yells that Unstoppable is dropping. He runs over and drops a wake to me, "Get up Azr. We need your help"

"Use me as vengeance bait!" yells Dark Tzadkiel, "use me!" It's cast, I turn on my debuff and my leadership toggles and then rez him. The team is getting back on it's feet. I'm running out of end and can bring forth no more pets. I am running into melee to heal the brutes praying "No lightning, no lightning, no lightning!!" Chili brings forth one last fireball and our powerful foe drops in a heap at our feet. We stand victorious!! We claim our synthetic hamidon enhancement (I get dam/range) and exit the mission with our shiny new badges and a spring to our step.

I'd like to thank all my friends who participated in the Strikeforce for the fun and the perseverence to overcome this challenge. This one is going down in the history books.

/em victory

Oh and here is where I am bragging about our win on the CoH boards! You'll see mention of our /ela brute a few posts down sine he hit 50 on our SF

It's showtime! LRSF

Put on your game faces and get ready to be cocked, locked and ready to rock. Chew gum and kickass people, it's showtime.

Az has already posted a strategy guide from the forums that can be found here.

I've been reading this strategy from Paragonwiki here.

Paragonwiki's version *might* newer since it refers to the final mission's heroes conning at level 53.

Lets go get 'em..

PDC selling secrets to Arachnos

Richard Fitzhenry seen here selling classfied information to Arachnos....

Oh wait, that's Ahne Toreph in disguise! Get this nifty outfit during missions in Faultline!

Hey all! Don't forget LRSF Sunday at 5 pm pacific! We have close to a full team so we should be good to go! We even have a brute with Taunt! woot!

Voting has been exciting on the SG Uniform Contest! We have a very close race!! The polls will close on Wednesday, so if you haven't already, vote! See post below for the details and the link to the costume page.

Safeguards! I've been saving up some on my toons for our old timer 50s. Let's schedule a night to do them! Unfortunately with Pirates 3 delivering soon I can't get on until around 9pm during the week, so maybe next Saturday sometime? I have available on a variety of toons: Kings Row, Steel, Sky, Bricks and quite possibly FF. Azrhiaz needs: Steel and IP

And finally Death Vs Debt! Who is greater!? Sign up for the side you want to play! We'll get our raid on in 2 weeks! Saturday, March 10th at 3pm Pacific if that works for everyone!

E. Rex Sean over the holidays

Who needs Exterminator on CoV?

I have the Exterminator badge mish for CoV, needed for an accolade. Anyone need it? Man I like the effects I added to this picture! Adobe FTW!

How to do some special stuff that is quite useless...

Click on picture to see larger view of details

...But can look interesting and provide for some witty banter. To change your in game font, go to this website here. You can pick what font you want out of c:windows/fonts. I used the comic book font and found it to be cool.. you will note it in the picture above. Note it doesn't change all fonts, just mainly windows and chat lines.

As for symbols...After much research and some help from a nice fellow with a global of Celz in Triumph I figured out the issues I had. I was attempting to copy a unicode "picture" (most likely a jpeg or such) and it wasn't taking. I tried downloading some free fonts to copy from and found them to be "exotic" i.e. the game wouldn't recognize them. Going to the start page and hitting charmap.exe in the Run bar worked but had very limited characters and you had to hit or miss which ones would work in-game. So I researched unicodes and found there are many websites with the characters and the codes, usually 4 letter/number combos. You can open up Microsoft Word, type in the 4 letter/number combo and then hit the alt button and the x key at the same time and they transfer to the symbol. Then highlight the symbol and hit control +c button. Go to in game and paste via control +v. The game takes any working unicode symbol when done that way.

Wiggles in Anticipation

Statesman TF Teaser

Looks like our typical team of scraps, blasters and tanks ain't gonna cut it.

Fortune Teller Badge Mission

Hi Guys, I am holding the Fortune Teller badge mission in case anybody missed it and needs it. Please let me know if you need that badge.
Thanks

Lord Recluse Strike Force

C'mon and lets make this official, the big daddy-o of them all is ON Sunday Feb 25 5ish PST - at last count from what I gathered from Az is:

Dark Tzadkiel
Azrharn
Thundar v2
Chaud (something French)
Chili Penguin

We have still have slots ready to go and if time's an issue, we can hash that out during the week. I think I can get Darknacht ss/drk brute (Ame's husband) to join too.

Tz

Send in your votes!

Well I was initially going to set up a poll here on the site, but since I'm getting tells with votes, I figure you can just send an offline to @azrhiaz with the name of your favorite costume! I suggest not voting for your own, but you can. Or you can email me online or ingame with your vote.

Link to costumes here

And this is why you can't nuke Hamidon...

Who's that in the blue toga? *grin*

and the Entries are. . . !

Here is the link for the contest entries!! We have many wonderful choices and a big gold star for all that entered for your creativity!! Great job!

Voting will commence next week!

Lord Recluse Strike Force

Yes, again I bring this up! Someone is trying to schedule a LRSF on the boards, so this is his thing. But I'm suggesting it for this Sunday at 2:30 pacific and wanted to know who would like to run it with us. So far it's:

Azrharn
Dark Tzadkiel
a SS/ELA brute from the boards

Anyone else interested? Please note: you will be required to bring nukes and shivans.

Invent a Bug!

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=312062&an=0&page=0&gonew=1#UNREAD

Thread here covering the new headache coming to CoX...inventions! Here is the dev in charge of it:

http://www.cityofheroes.com/game_update9.html

I am not finding any sense of urgency or desire for this mess to get going. I hope they invent a channel just for it so the airwaves aren't clogged with OMG! I got this anyone want to trade?

--Baba "Bah Humbug" Kanoosh

PS: Az says: SG Uniform Preview page will be up over the weekend. If you haven't emailed your entry by Friday, you are S.O.L.

Candy, hearts and flowers....

Okay, well maybe it was more like council, spiders and snaptooth. Either way the valentines event is up and running! Debt and Death Brigade members unite! Sworn enemy was kind enough to join Chaud for some fun in pocket D. Like last year, there's a hero and villian part to this event, two missions for each and then the infamous Snaptooth missions. This time you can choose from various awards, including costume pieces. Chaud got a shiny new partygoer badge, nothing better to give a girl for valentines. :)

Deadline in 4 Days

SG Uniform Contest deadline is fast approaching! Get your entry in by Feb. 14th to win 2 months of free game time and one million influence! Please see this post for details

No Debuffs? No Problem, we just had fun instead

You may....

...note a certain...

...theme here from our foray into Recluse's Victory. Or should I say Victories? No, we had no debuffs. No, we didn't beat any AVs. But we had a great time. I counted at least three coalitions represented, Posse Commitatus, Protectors of Tomorrow, and Wings Over Paragon, I am sure there was more but I lost count. We had two full teams going and a third started. The CoV players had fun with us, we won some, they brought a TON and won some, we drank caffeine and waited them out and won some more. Good times had by all once everyone realized we didn't have a prayer versus the AVs without some serious debuff specialists. We earned some prestige and enjoyed a lot of goofing off, which is straight DB style--that's how we roll yo!

Highlights? Some brute named Krudo getting owned on more than one occassion. The team I led wiped in like 10 seconds by 5 corrupters and 4 brutes. Yelling Ghost Widow! THen we all met in the resurrector and yelled, OK MAKO! Thanks for all who showed and we need another coalition event again soon, great bringing the whole community in for group fun.

Ok I am off to power level my rad/rad defender , I understand where he belongs now.

Dear Az, Did you know of this and why then haven't we exploited it?

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=7419142&page=0&fpart=1&vc=1

All we need is a team of 8 Villians and we can be rich I say! Rich! Oh yeah we were going to RV this weekend too....hmmmmmmm Mu hahaaaa haaaaaaa

How to Draw A Chaud Woman with Adobe

Step #1...Follow the footsteps of the great ones.

Meet the awesome artwork of Adam Hughes. Known as the "Good Girl Artist," he currently is one of the hottest artists to work covers etc. Since I suffer from copy cat-itus, a wretched condition where I only draw well from others photos or art (not from my scratch i.e. from my empty head), I figure a Chaud Woman must be of Adam Hughes' caliber. (Sidenote if you have time Google the word "Chaud").

Step #2...Realize why they are great

So when I get done with my sketch I know why I never went into the art industry--talent like Adam Hughes scared me out the effort. I was better a few years ago, but am seeming to have some rust to knock off.

Step#3...Get with the times!

Next I scan my sketch using my new spiffy HP 3310 all-in-one printer. Not a bad home multi-purpose printer (shameless plug for HP in hopes I get a small stipend or maybe a t-shirt). Once scanned I send the image to Adobe Photoshop Elements to do clean-up. I also wish to experiment with the effects with this awesome program (the plugs keep falling out of me like bad words at a sailor's house!). Now I plug (ha- I said "plug") in my Wacom tablet which enables me to draw with a "pen and tablet". I love this tool and it is a very cool gift if you have any friends or relatives that really like to draw or tinker with photos. (I just can't stop plugging stuff! Someone help me!) I then create a layer to trace the lines I want to keep and start to add some tones (I could use color but wanted a sketch look).

Step #4...Shady Shading

So now the experimenting truly begins. I can add some color, then smudge, blur and thus blend almost like a pencil drawing. Looks better but the downside is it very time consuming. The upside? If I used a pencil and eraser my living room is covered in eraser chunks.

Step #5...Take a break and have fun this is all just a hobby

Words I say to myself when I glance over at the incredible art of these comic books folks and then stare at my mess. It is fun none-the-less. I may just print the outlines and then render the rest with pencil, either way when I am done I will post it for you Chaud. The progess is going along much faster while I search for a job. Being bored and amused with these here computer thingys, I thought I would post this mess for fun. Hope to see as many of your 50s this weekend in RV.

--Baba

What Say You?

The players ask Posi what the deal is! WarCry's Ask Positron A few interesting comments though nothing to dance about. Next month's guy in the hot seat will be none other than Statesman! Ask him something, anything. I dare ya! And maybe someone here can tell me what an "Akimbo Pistol" is? :scratches head:

Entries are rolling in for the uniform contest!! Fortunately, we haven't gotten any more bathing suit entries. :grin: Remember the deadline is Valentine's Day and that's only 7 days away! Hurry and send in your stuff! Otherwise your Free 2 Months will be going to someone else! See post below for all the details!

Upcoming events!
-Deep is going to run Eden Trial Friday night around 8 pm pacific.
-Chaud and Baba are organizing an AV beat-down in RV for Saturday. (6 pm Pacific)
-They are tenatively throwing the idea of a 4x4 PvP tourney around in the forums. I'd prefer to bring my own team so if anyone has an interest in a little arena action, post it. You know how unreliable these can be, so take it with a grain of salt. When I hear more details on it, I'll update this.

Congrats to Cap on earning over a MILLION prestiege for Paragon Defense Corps. Now if only he'd earn that on one of his DB toons, we'd be in business! However, rumors abound that PDC will be gearing up towards becoming a raid ready SG so we might be able to go in soon and steal their Manticore posters! Woot!

We are chugging away towards almost halfway there to getting the first secure plot, guys! Keep up the great work earning prestiege! We'll be able to get more than one IoP with a secure plot so more buffs for all. You know, if they ever bring that stuff back online. . .

RV needs to be smacked

I read where Chaud wanted to lay waste to evil doers in RV. I am game and will try to call up some reinforcements this weekend. Anyone else interested? Chaud when would be a good time for you? We will need two full teams at least so the more the merrier.

but.....

okay, not an offical entry...no shoulders :( But....it was worth a shot. Come on. :)