I was goofing around playing City of Heroes, and I started to wonder if, with the latest updates of more costumes, I could design peoples characters on this board using the games character generator. For some folks I didn't even come close. For others, I don't think I did half bad. Mind you, I felt the need to photoshop these a bit further, but at the moment I just threw them together for a cheap(and blatant, the lighting kept changing on me during this) composite image.

Funny thing, I didn't even use the new costume parts in these. See if you can tell who they're supposed to be, and guess their powersets.

i got four outta five(transmutate, you, doc archeville, and prisma nova...or is that starshooter)

as for their powers, i got nothin' ^^;

Icefang, JW%, Dr. Archeville, Black Zarak, StarShooter

I had a Jackal-like character when I played CoH... no screens, tho.

Not BZ, it's Dreadnought I think... or maybe it is BZ.

ME, Ninja Me, Human Doctor Me, Dark Knight of the Apocalypse Me, and Female Demon Me!


(All the good guesses were taken!)

Yeah, Dreadnought was my other guess.

I'd go with me over BZ as well ^_^ and my guess are the same as JM. Didn't find wings fitting for you JW%?

wonder if he's gonna do the rest of us, maybe a few TFDers?

Icefang, JaggedWing, Doctor Archeville, Dreadnought (prime), and Starshooter.

Icefangs outfit has all kinds of problems, most prominately he should have a black "browline" that merges with his black ridgeline, making his face more prominate. And they're not supposed to be ears so much as audio antenna, more Transformery(Batman also has the antenna like that... why it's not in CoH? Dunno). His shoulder pads are supposed to be larger too, as they're meant to be part of his feline head in beastmode.

JaggedWings mask has far to many features on it. It's just meant to be a colored area to imply a mask, no vents, no "goatee"... he's also supposed to have horns, but there are no horns in CoH that extend from the back of the head. And, like Dreadnought said, I couldn't find any wings that suited me. Some of the villains... well villainesses... have them as costume parts, but not the player characters. The nearest I came was Trenchcoat with a V cut, but then I couldn't have my chest emblem(the skull, nearest thing I could get to the beastmode head).

Doc probably should not be wearing a surgeons mask. And he probably should be wearing a dressshirt beneath his lab coat. Plus, rather than "exposed brain" it should be a metal dome(which wasn't an option) and his hair should frizz out a bit more. Plus, you probably can't see it, but one hand should be cybernetic while the other flesh. His arms also cover his chest detail, labled as "Eldrich" it's a many tentacled squid, in mottled green and grey, on his labcoat breast.

Dreadnought deserved a full cape, what he has there is just a half mantel. Also, the wings on his head I was very questioning. He shouldn't have wings, but he should have that thin crown on his forehead. A simple headbang would have done it, but that wasn't an allowed option with dreadlocks. Pity.

Starshooter, technically, should also have her wings down by her hips like JaggedWing, and they should be brown. The "wings" that extend up from her shoulders are folding fan blades. I came to a compromise. Also, I'm not sure if I got the colors right for her helm. The shapes right, but some of the black and red might need to be reversed.

Icefang I listed as Claws/Willpower Scrapper. Sounded about right. Either that or an Ice blaster, but then I couldn't show off the claws(which I guess is technically one of the new costume options). Besides, his beastmode paws become fist weapons, that's close enough to claws, and for Willpower... well he's onery ain't he?

JaggedWing I listed as a Gravity/Kinetics Controller. More because I wanted something more support oriented on the team. I could have gone Scrapper, but that would have made him Martial Arts/Super Reflexes(Martial Arts is almost all kicking, and with JaggedWing's sensitive and fragile wings mounted on his wrists he prefers using kicks in melee, and Super Reflexes is of course more his anticipation of events rather than reacting to them quickly).

Doctor Archeville is Mind Control and I believe Radiation. I wasn't sure what to give him as a secondary, but I figured the ability to melt his foes and recharge his friends while he was lifting levitating and hypontizing them was a good one. Plus, I'm sure that Doctor Archeville would appreciate having he power to Mutate fallen allies back to life(stronger and faster than before! Muahahahah!). Oh, and while everyone elses heroic origins were listed as "Technology" Doc had the benifit of being born... of SCIENCE!

Dreadnought is Broadsword/Willpower scrapper. I thought about going Invunerable instead, and it's a tough call Could really have gone either way, and infact now that I think about it Invunerbility is probably the better choice for the character. Alternately I could have done him as a MultiRifle/Energy Manipulation Blaster.

Starshooter is another Scrapper, with the primary of Katana. The secondary I pondered for a bit, with Willpower and SuperReflexes comming to mind, but I finally decided that given her connection to Cthulhu meant that Dark Armor was the way to go. Able to drain the lives and the souls of those attacking her to fuel her, to vanish into the shadows, or to stun or terrify any who get to close. That set her origin to Magic, as in the later levels she would be using the Elder Gods to enhance her prowess.

Three Scrappers, Two Controllers, a balanced team. A single scrapper can handle themselves against their share of foes, being both high damage and with the third highest personal protection. Scrappers tend to be loners however, working best with either a single rival scrapper, or being kept as an "attack dog" of a Controller or Defender. To many Scrappers on a team means they'll be in over their head because they don't work well with teammates and as team size grows mission difficulty grows at a steeper rate. That means heroes need to synergize or they will fail. To balance out our Scrappers however, the Controllers stand back and reducing foes to no threat at all, while often being able to fuel their allies to greater heights. Unfortunately, Controllers need to be protected from those who they haven't weakend, and Controllers have very little direct damage themselves.

I wouldn't mind seeing this team in action honestly...

For the next couple, how about I try to do Prisma Nova, BlackZarak, and Transmutate, since those seem to be what folks are interested in. I'd be happy to see some one else making attempts. For example, let's see the Jackal(or describe his costum by the parts needed to build it and I might be able to recreat it if you're no longer in the game).

i take it you won't bother with making me

Conversely, here's a team I NEVER want to join...



DarkMousette, Transmutate, Prisma Nova, and BlackZarak.

DarkMousette was easy enough to do. Just the leather with straps for her shirt, gloves, and pants, and combat boots(debated more leather with straps, but decided combat boots work better). Angel wings, color everything black, and then go back and make her makeup and hair color purple.

Transmutate uses several of the new costume options, including the Enforcer chest armor. My regret with this one is that the robotic face didn't mesh well with the Jack O' Lanter grin. Maybe I should have gone with just metallic rather than robotic, but the robotic actually looks better... fitting his maniac grin in however...

Prisma Nova is actually a pretty sleek and simplified design. I probably should have added some sort of back detail, since her feline forepaws act as shoulderpads(like Cheetor), and maybe something other than sunglasses, since I was just trying for her red jewel eyes on an otherwise human face. Main problem is a lack of red detailing. She should have it at her wrists, knees, ankles, and outlining her face and collar bone. Plus, she should have bare toes(both fingertips and toes are clawed). Note that while her katana is different from Starshooters, it's still not quite right for her(maybe I should have gone with the rapier? that's as close to the "drill sword" as we can get). She's also out of scale... she shouldn't stand any taller than Doctor Archeville or Starshooter. I just didn't want to shrink down my screenshot because I accidentally had the camera to close when I took it. It's funny, but my sprites are more properly scaled than this, and here I actually have a scaler to work with(BlackZarak is practically maxing out the size scale, Dark Mousette is not quite at minimal).

Finally, big, bad, Black Zarak... with his afro. This time the wings are meant to be just like they are(like his helmet has them), though the chin gaurd is perhaps a little to covering. Couldn't find "shoulder guns" so I took liberties. Couldn't find claws either, so just big huge gauntlets were used. You may not notice it for the chest, but both the chest and legs is "insectoid". Also, I know BlackZarak's main weapon(aside from his bare... er... pinchers) is a electrical trident. The game doesn't have anything close to that, and no Zarak Shield either, so the nearest I managed was that cool looking gun that looks like the one in his toy package art.

DarkMousette: Empathy/Darkblast Defender
Transmutate: Willpower/EnergyMelee Tanker
Prisma Nova: Katana/SuperReflexes Scrapper
BlackZarak: AssaultRifle/ElectricalManipulation Blaster

I debated on those powers honestly, but most of them fit for the character in my mind.

Every single one of those characters could be good or bad depending on how they're played. And, in fact, the team could be good... logically it hits four out of five archetypes and should theoretically synergize excellently. But if I was invited to this team I would give you ten to one odds it would suck BADLY. It's just a feeling I get with experience in the game, but I'll try to explain it.

First of all, we have the team Leader: BlackZarak. He's a Blaster. He brings Da Pain in a big way. Assault Rifle set has tricks for all occasions, including sniper rifle, gernade launcher, shotgun spread, flame thrower, and minigun, leading it to often be called MultiRifle. Electrical Manipulation is also very good, allowing him to deliever even more damage up close by calling down the thunder through his fist... er Pinchers. Trouble is... it's a little TO GOOD. Looking at his character design, I'm strongly thinking he shouldn't be a Blaster. He's going to run into the middle of a group of baddies, call a ThunderStrike, half kill all of them while stunning half of them, then he's going to punch one through a wall... then he's going to realise he left his gun behind, and that all that big bulky armor is not reflected in his stats. Two hits later, the half dead enemies that were not stunned are going to be dancing on his fallen form.

Secondly, let's look at the rest of the team. We'll call into the fore Transmutate. As a Tanker, he can't be stopped. He's thrown into battle(throws himself into battle preferably) and stands there making fun of his teams enemies so they pound on him rather than somebody weaker(IE: Defender, Controller, or Blaster). Willpower because it basically offers all around cheap protection from everything. The idea is that your not protected from certain things, but that you're just stubborn enough to stand up against everything. The trade off being, you don't have any strengths as well as not having any weaknesses. Most Tankers have one group of enemies that break through their achellies heel and bring them down. Willpower Tankers have an even chance of being brought down by just about everyone, which means as a Tanker set Willpower is lackluster(as a Scrapper or Brute set is shines brightly). Plus, there is his Energy Melee to look at. It's a powerful single target melee damage. Every time he throws a punch, his fists ignite into glowing pink "pom poms" of DOOM. Once more, it's a little to good and a new commer might focus on what he's good at(even if some one else is better than him) rather than what the team needs him to be doing. He's apt to charge into battle and start punching one target until it falls, then change to the next target, not taunting foes and not spreading his minimal damage around to draw attention to himself. Which means several enemies are going to ignore him, and go straight for someone else. Like BlackZarak.

Let's move on to Prisma Nova... as a Scrapper on this team, she's going to be neither the toughest(Tankers are tougher) or the most damaging(Blasters are more damaging) and won't really have a job to fill. Her powers are only average, the Katana is neither as hard hitting as the Broadsword, or as fast moving as Claws. It's fast, efficent, and a good all around choice. Super Reflexes on the other hand, despite being my favorite powerset, is better for a Stalker than a Scrapper. The idea behind Super Reflexes is that 19 out of 20 times, you'll avoid all the damage some one tries to deliever to you. That 20th time... the damage is delievered to you in full, and if you're not dead instantly, you've got 19 more hits to recover before the next one probably will finish you off. Running solo or at a low difficulty(or both), that's no problem. Nobody is going to survive to hit you much more five times in a row before you've cut them down. In a group, or at a higher difficulty level, they start to be more of them, living longer and dealing more damage. Given the Scrappers tendancy to not be able to work well with a team, being on this one means she's basically fighting without much assistance against higher odds than she can handle alone.

By now BlackZarak has been spending alot of time on the floor... so he recruits Dark Mousette. In fact, he's probably refused to enter any mission until he found DarkMousette, or a similar powered teammate. A Defenders primary is the same as a Controllers secondary: aid your allies and/or weaken your foes. In the case of Empathy, it's PURE aid. She has the power to heal all allies around her in a radius, the power to heal one ally at range, the power to injure herself to dramatically heal one ally, the power to protect them from effects that would keep them out of battle, and other more useful abilities to increase their damage and survivability. Sounds good right? Absolutely. Once more, and this seems to be a theme with everyone on this team but Prisma Nova, TO GOOD. A Defenders secondary concern is to supply supplemental damage. Dark Blast isn't particularly good at this, being wide ranged attacks that are pretty diffuse(though nobody can refuse how cool it is to fill a room with cthonic tentacles that molest your foes), and so she's probably not going to draw to heavily on her secondary. Most new arrivals are comming from other online games, which means they expect to NEED the holy trinity: Warrior, Mage, Priest. Or in this case Tanker, Blaster, and Empathy powered Defender(note that while the first two of the trinity translated, the third did not). In other games, health is precious and anyone or anything that refills it is equally precious. In City of Heroes, health is a constantly regenerating fount, easily refilled... and even easier to drain. An Empath has very little they can do to slow that draining, their primary means of protecting a team is to reactively heal their comerades... assuming those comerades arn't dead already. That means that Dark Mousette is going to need to babysit this team, which probably is in over it's head, and she's going to fail by no fault of her own, get blamed for it, and then repeat the process. On the bright side, if they actually succeed(and the odds are they will at least once in awhile), it's also going to be entirely her fault, thus reenforcing the idea that she's valuable and they couldn't do it without her. Even if the victory was caused by one of the others pulling more than their weight(Transmutate taunting a whole group onto himself and keeping Whirling Hands going, or BlackZarak standing back until absolutely nessisary, picking off targets until his electrical melee attacks are assured a kill).

I've been on teams like this, frequently. With everything seeming to be "to good", alot of newcommers(or just those who don't learn) want to be like that, to make themselves stronger rather than learning how to synergize with their teammates strengths. To much of a good thing is often punished, promoting a more balanced play experience. Often I get sick of the slow progress and continual defeats, and even more I grow annoyed with everyone elses comments that "this is the smoothest team I've ever been on!" because one or two people actually know what they're doing and are making up for the rest. The painful part is those one or two people... you probably can't TELL who they are.

And yes, I've been playing, so I had a rant stored up.

You know. That worthless self absorbed and bickering team would make for a good comic book.

Holy hairballs! It would have been an awesome story. And I do look good, and I like the powers I got... :D

I always pictured myself as a Catwoman type, if I was a human superhero. But yes, having bare feet with cat-like feature in them add that extra cat edge (walking without being detected, and perhaps be able to "land on my feet", and be able to scratch the enemy). I can only picture my well-manicured hands. :D

It's funny I just realized, the guy you make of me actually looks some what like the Marvel version of Transypoo in my comic:



(He's got gun hands!)

Having been on such worthless self absorbed teams, I disagree that it would make for a good ongoing story. A one shot, perhaps, but on the whole if you find yourself disliking the heroes as much as the villains, the story isn't particularly good.

The game doesn't have very good models for bare feet. I actually tried their version, and it looked pretty much like boots(particularly given the silver skintone). "Wrapped"(as in martial arts wrappings) turned out better, but that just looked like your toes were poking through frayed socks and leg warmers. Finally just went with the metallic boots. If the heels are uncomfortable we can change it while I give you a foot rub. I suppose I could have made you digitread like JaggedWing, but that didn't seem right either. And your clawed hands don't show up while you've got them wrapped around the hilt of a sword, but they are clawed(cosmetic only).

And glad I got Transmutate so good(you can see how different that is from Icefang now I hope), I was using your comic for referance material(though not that one). Gun hands arn't allowed in the game, but you can get some pretty funky gauntlets, so I went with that.

Oh, as for Origins, DarkMousette is Magic, Transmutate is Mutant, and Prisma Nova and BlackZarak are Technology. The Origin of your powers plays a pretty limited role in the game stat wise, and is pretty much there just for fun.

I suppose if I'm going to do more, I should ask people what they think their powersets should be... as is I've been trying to shoe horn your known board persona into the powersets that I think fit you best. And I could be wrong(probably AM wrong with BlackZarak, I almost wanted to make him an Electrical Brute). Rather than writing them out however, I'm just going to give you a link to a wiki. Like all wiki, the information is not perfect, but it should give you the gerenral idea.

Powersets (as of my linking that particular page they have not included the Dual Blades Melee set for Scrappers, Tankers, Brutes, and Stalkers. Odd because the information is in the Wiki, just not linked through that page. It might be best to go through the subcatagories rather than try to go directly to the articles)

Keep in mind that when building a character in that game, you select a Primary and Secondary powerset as your Archetype restricts you to, and then at level 6 "Pool powers" that are availible to everyone open up. "Pool powers" include such stuff as stealth, flying, teleporting, and other fun things. So when I did not list Starshooter as having the power of flight... well that's because I only made the character long enough to get some screen shots. Certainly hasn't developed flight yet, despite having wings. Just in case some one thought I forgot to include that they can fly when listing their super powers. It's not that you can't, it's that I didn't think it worth listing.

Let's see... who else can I try to fit into the game system?

Those are really cool!

And technically, my wings are NOT brown, so this is perfect. I think you got brown in your head because of a pic Roady may have done once?

yeah, that was a beast-version for the email game, not her FnorDoM self.

Those are friggin great though JW%!

Seing those characters, I looked at the game and it looks fun. I'm downloading the game to give it a try. :angel:

How can I get in on the awesome?

needless to say, i guess the team i'm on and the CoH version of me both suck ^^;

ah well, thanks for including me anyway ^_^

Glad to have you on my sucky team.

Are you familiar with the term "friendly fire"?

It doesn't matter to me how you'd view me to look in the game. However, I did try to come up with a powerset I think 'fits' my character. Given I've got no expereince with the game (other than about 5 minutes of play on CoVs free trial or whatever) I would like your enlightened opinion on my poor attempt to choose my own powerset.

I figured the best I could do is: Storm Summoning/Energy Blast Defender.

My guess is, it sucks much balls. I was thinking of doing something with Storm Summoning and katana, but I don't think it'll work that way. So how bad do I suck?

City of Heroes is a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game where you take the role of a superhero. It's like World of Warcraft, Everquest, GuildWars, and all those other soul draining games out there. It requires an online connection to play(even to design a character!) and besides the price for buying the game, you also have to pay a monthly fee. I'm not doing this to push the game though, just to play around with their character generator. Which I heard fans had cracked and now there was a free "Character maker" download that let you plan out your character without being online(I haven't tried it, why would I need to?).

If you DO get in the game, I'm @JediWar send me a Global Tell when you're on. I play on every American based server except the "Freedom" server(which has the largest population, thus for me the most latency). I do not have access to any of the UK or the Asian servers. I am on the test server. I'm also have both City of Heroes and City of Villains, which technically is supposed to be two different games, they just share the same monthly fee(Imagine World of Warcraft, where you have to buy a seperate disk in order to play as Horde rather than Alliance). With a recent buyout, I think City of Heroes has become a free addition to all City of Villains subscribers, and vise versa.

Zabgoths kitbash figure of you actually, which was based on that pic, which I also have. You'll note I made your boots brown for the character, and your beast head brown. I think the "G1" look you have for FnorDoM your bat mode is black metal. Eh, so I was using the wrong referance picture. It works out MOSTLY the same.

If you want your character done by me, just give me a description. Unfortunately, I've already checked, "boony hat" is not an option(fedora, cowboy, baseball, coolie... no boonies). Nor is wheelchair.

A matter of opinion. If you mean the costum sucks... can't help it. Give me a better description and I might come up with something better. Might also tone down the black to a dark grey so some of the leatherbuckles stand out. If you mean the POWERS suck... actually no, they don't. Empathy/DarkBlast is considered by some to be the ultimate Defender powerset. Empathy offers some very potent benifits to your teammates, particularly Tankers(and during certain events where both Heroes and Villains join forces, Brutes).

The main problem is that Empaths are in heavy demand by inexperienced players. Which means inexperienced players pick that set in order to be popular. Which means bad playing is reenforced in a downward spiral. In the hands of a good player an Empath is phenomanally good(little tricks like using the power "Fortitude"... it provides a bonus to one teammates defense, accuracy, and damage... could mean more to a suicidal Blaster surviving a fight than a heal). However, a good player can only do so much if their teammates are terrible.

Oh, and while I haven't touched on it, Dark Blast is favored because it's got a wide spread to it's attacks, every one of the attacks "blinds" it's target(decreasing their accuracy thus making them less likly to land a hit on you and your friends), and has a number of Control effects built in(the tentacles bind your foes legs and keep them from advancing, another power sends a wave of black mist across the ground that knocks enemies onto their backs, ect). All of which builds up to being better for the team, and being worse for solo play.

Alternately DarkMousette could have been a Dual Blades/DarkArmor Scrapper. Which would have been kinda cool... Dual Blades are a new set, I haven't played them with the DarkArmor combo. Unfortunately, for that team

As for your team sucking... it's BlackZarak and Transmutate. I'm pretty sure they'd try to suck intentionally, just to see if they could.

Oh, also did a Zabgoth, now that the Tanker set War Mace let's you have the option of, besides the standard spiked mace, a BIG FRICKIN' HAMMER(also lets you choose "Baseball bat" and "PipeWrench"). Lost connection before I could screen cap it. I'll try to get him in the next one.

No, sadly there is no Storm Summoning Katana. Yet(rumors have it it's set to be added as an unlockable to be introduced in the future). A certain villain has that set(well, Scimitar rather than Katana), but he's at level 50, an ArchVillain Patron, and by that point you start bending the rules.

Storm Summoning itself is a very good powerset. It doesn't really bloom until you get Freezing Rain, but with Steaming Mists and Hurricane around you, putting Snow Storm and Freezing Rain on your foes, you've done pretty much all a Defender is expected to do. Factor in some of your other powers, and you've got yourself pretty well protected and doing some decent damage(any foes caught in the Freezing rain take more damage, artificially boosting your damage from Moderate to High). Energy Blast is also pretty good, delievering some pretty decent single target damage, some okay area of effect damage, and with a chance(strong chance) of sending your foes flying when they're hit. It's possibly the worst Defender secondary though(no inherint debuff), better as a Blaster Primary where you can get some better damage through it.

Your main problem is that melee teams are going to HATE you. Only fellow Storm Summoners appreciate Storm Summoning despite it's power, because it's heal/mez protection is minimal(O2 boost) and often skipped, and it offers no other ally only benifits. Everything else you bring to the table helps you as much as your teammates. Factor in Gale, Hurricane, Tornado, and ALL of Energy Blast, and enemies are going to be thrown into the air, flung around the room, bounced off walls, and in general kept from hurting you... but also Scrappers and Tankers are going to have to run after them just to hit them, while Blasters are going to be reduced to single target shooting instead of lining up a huge group. Knockback in the hands of even an experienced player can be annoying to a group. A truely expert artist of knockback will gather all the enemies together, but managing that is near impossible.

Basically you just designed a Defender(normally team oriented) who can fight solo real well(though not as well as a Scrapper). And is fun to play if you like watching bad guys flung around like ten pins. Not so much fun to your teammates though.

If it makes you feel any better, that's probably the sets I'd have choosen for your character too...


****************************************

I started to actually sprite the comic, and then realised it didn't quite work in sprites. So I tried to screen shot it in game, and realised that I'd need to actually level these guys up to do it, and decided that was to much work. However, here's the scripts I came up with. It needs a few more comics to set things up.

***"AFK = Availible For Killing"

Pannel 1: Two "Trolls"(street gang that abuses super solider drugs, looks like Da Fonz, with green skin, tusks, and tiny horns) Trollkin and Ogre are standing around. Trollkin injects his boss with Superdyne. Ogre's eyes roll back with a big smile. A shapely shadow slips behind them.

Ogre: "Good 'Dyne..."

Pannel 2: Prisma Nova conks the Trollkin on the back of the head with pommel of her sword. He collapses out cold.

Ogre(still out of it): "Trolls high..."

Pannel 3: Prisma Nova slashes the Ogre, lopping off his arm. This get's his attention.

Pannel 4: Ogre's arm regenerates from the effects of the drug, and his eyes glow red. Prisma Nova's eyes go big with a "help me" look.

"Trolls SMASH!"

Pannel 5: Prisma Nova is running for her life, ducking and dodging as chunks of sidewalk and small cars are thrown at her. She runs past BlackZarak, who is clipped by one of the big rocks.

Prisma: "I thought you said you were ready to help me against him!"

BlackZarak: "I said I was going to get a drink! Why'd you have to aggro them?!"

***"l33t is for the w34k"

Pannel 1: Prisma Nova is staggering out of the hospital, having been teleported there after her vital signs dropped below safty to be revived(she now has a fee to pay). She's not happy. Her communication channel blips up.

BlackZarak(Broadcast Channel): "Lvl 10 teem, LFM!"

Pannel 2: Prisma Nova walks over to BlackZarak, who is also leaving the hospital.

BlackZarak(Broadcast Channel): "Lvl 10 teem, LFM!"

Pannel 3: BlackZarak and Prisma Nova walk across the hospital parkinglot.

Prisma Nova: "You know, you can spell things correctly and write the whole message out."

Pannel 4: BlackZarak stops, his arms crossed as he glances about with an air of superiority.

BlackZarak: "Nonsense. If I bother writing it out people will think I don't know what I'm doing!"

Prisma Nova(muttering): "At least spell 'Team' right..."

***"Blind Invites are Bad"

Pannel 1: An Outcast(elemental controlling street gang, wears jeans and a Tshirt) is threatening an Innocent Citizen on the street.

Outcast: "Give me all your money!"
Citizen: "Help! Help!"
Transmutate(off pannel): "Halt evil doer!"

Pannel 2: Transmutate leaps into battle, punching the Outcast with glowing pom poms of Doom! The Outcasts own hands burst into flame.

SFX: (fight sounds... Biff, pow, zap, whatever)

Pannel 3: A window with the words "BlackZarak has invited you to a team... Accept? Decline?" appears, covering much of the action. All you can see are some flames.

Transmutate: "What the frack?! I can't see what's happening!"

Pannel 4: Transmutate clicks Accept. More obscured fight is going on behind the window as it closes.

Pannel 5: Transmutate is a burnt cinder laying on the pavement, the Outcast walks away triumphant.

BlackZarak(Team Channel): "Hey, I got a tanker and... whoa, you must suck!"

Transmutate(Team Channel): "$#@%* You."

***"Hurry up and Wait!"

Pannel 1: That same Outcast is beaten up pretty bad and is running. He ducks behind a building and glances back.

Outcast: "Whew... must have lost 'em."

Pannel 2: Pan up to see Transmutate dropping from the rooftop performing a "Total Focus" or "Bone Smasher" attack(two handed overhand smash with the glowing pink pom poms of doom, the difference is Total Focus is a leaping attack, and since he's dropping down it could be either or)

Transmutate: "Wanna bet?"

Pannel 3: Transmutate walks up to BlackZarak who's waiting at a door. Prisma Nova is to the side with a boombox at her feet dancing.

BlackZarak: "What took you so long? I've been waiting forever here! We need to get in there and confiscate the illegal weapons the Outcasts are selling."

Transmutate: "Had to chase down this guy. I'm here now. Let's go in."

Pannel 4: BlackZarak puts his hand out stopping Transmutate. Prisma Nova is still dancing like a maniac.

BlackZarak: "Hold it! Don't go in yet?"

Transmutate: "What? Why not?"

Pannel 5: Same as before. Transmutate nods wisely agreeing with BlackZaraks wisdom. Off pannel some one is throwing money at Prisma Nova as she dances for them.

BlackZarak(Broadcast Channel): "Lvl 10 team, LF Healorz!"

***"Force Fields SUCK!(double sized)"

Pannel 1: Our three heroes wait at the door to the mission. A fourth arrives. She's wearing a large dark blue cape, a face covering hood, thigh high boots, and dark blue with gold trimmed coat over her tights. She seems to be floating, and there is a second set of glowing eyes hidden in her hood. She looks very dark and gothy.

NewGirl: "I am Gvnega Asoyv, the Black Wall. I will defend the righteous from harm!"

BlackZarak: "Great! We've gots healz!"

Pannel 2: Our team enters the mission, Gvnega Asoyv pointing at each one and putting a force bubble around them.

Pannel 3: Transmutate punches an Outcast, knocking him away. Bullets bounce off his force bubble. BlackZarak blasts an Outcast, his force bubble deflecting the flames thrown at him. Prisma Nova twists out of the way of a sledge hammer, bringing her katana into the neck of yet another foe. Floating above them Gvnega Asoyv matches a lightning bolt thrown at her with a blast of inky black smoke.

Pannel 4: The force bubbles flicker and fade out, BlackZarak stands prominately in a pile of vanquished Outcasts, his team equally victorious around him.

BlackZarak: "Sweet! We totally rule!"

Pannel 5: BlackZarak starts to walk out of the pile and stubs his toe on something.

BlackZarak: "Owie! It hurts! Healor fix me!"

Pannel 6: Gvnega Asoyv gives him a blank look. Prisma Nova is rolling her eyes.

Gvnega Asoyv: "I'm a Force Field Defender... I... cannot heal you."

Prisma Nova(muttering): "It's just a stubbed toe, you'll live."

Pannel 7: BlackZarak is pointing at the door firmly, Gvnega Asoyv is slouching down and looking at her feet as she leaves. Prisma Nova is looking at him questioningly.

BlackZarak: "You can't heal? You suck! Get out of here and quit leeching on us! Come back when you can pull your weight!"

Prisma Nova: "You didn't have to kick her off the team. You sure we'll be alright without her?"

Pannel 8: BlackZarak is nodding reassuringly as he turns back to the fight. He doesn't see what Prisma Nova is reacting to, which is a sledge hammer heading at his head, while one has already been planted in Transmutate who's sprawled out on the floor at the feet of an Outcast.

BlackZarak: "We'll be fine."

Transmutate: "Yeah we don't need a leech on our... ungh"

Pannel 9: Prisma Nova is waiting for the rest of them outside of the Hospital. BlackZarak comes out.

Prisma Nova: "You going to call her back and apologize?"

BlackZarak: "Wouldn't even if I could find her. Wonder where she went?"

Pannel 10: Gvnega Asoyv stands on the edge of a rooftop, the glowing eyes under her cloak revealed as a kitten she's hugging. She has lost all of the dark gothy, now she looks cute emo, and is clearly crying.

Gvnega Asoyv: "... nobody loves me..."

***"Team Seek only works if you use it."

Pannel 1: Dark Mousette is walking down the street.

Dark Mousette(Broadcast Channel): "Level 11 Healer, Looking for a team!"

Pannel 2: BlackZarak, Transmutate, and Prisma Nova are walking down the street.

BlackZarak(Broadcast Channel): "Lvl 12 team, LF Healor! PST!"

Pannel 3: Dark Mousette is walking down the street, looking more downcast.

Dark Mousette(Broadcast Channel): "Level 11 Healer, Looking for any team! Please! Willing to be a Sidekick!"

Pannel 4: Dark Mousette walks past BlackZarak, Transmutate, and Prisma Nova.

BlackZarak(Broadcast Channel): "Lvl 12 team, LF Healor! PST! We SK!"

Pannel 5: Transmutate stops glancing back at Dark Mousette as the team walks past without noticing her.

Transmutate: "Ummm... guys? What about..."

***"What the books don't teach you"

Pannel 1: BlackZarak, Prisma Nova, Transmutate, and Dark Mousette are walking down the street to their mission.

Dark Mousette: "This is great! I'm really a newbie here, but I've read all the forums and hint guides! It looks like we've got a great team!"

Transmutate: "Heh n00b."

Pannel 2: They head into an abandoned warehouse.

Dark Mousette: "We're fighting Clockwork eh? Transmutate will charge in and taunt them while using Whirling Hands to draw all their attention on his tougher armor. I'll use Heal Other to keep him standing while Prisma Nova heads in and starts cutting them up. Meanwhile BlackZarak will stay beside me and..."

Pannel 3: BlackZarak runs towards the nearest bunch of Clockworks(little rusty robots with gears and winders), leaping into the air with a lightning bolt behind his overhead smash. The rest of the team just watches.

Dark Mousette: "... and blast them from range while staying... oh crap!"

BlackZarak: "LETS DO THIS!!!"

Pannel 4: Clockwork scatter in all directions from BlackZaraks ThunderStrike power. Prisma Nova chases after one into another nest of the little buggers, while Transmutate stands back and catches one of them that was knocked over to him. Dark Mousette throws out both hands casting her healing power on BlackZarak, who is getting electricuted by the little robots.

Pannel 5: BlackZarak is already on the ground. Transmutate is taking a beating, and Prisma Nova just got thrown through a window. Dark Mousette is looking at this wide eyed.

Prisma Nova: "RUN YOU FOOL!"

Dark Mousette: "Eep!"

***"If you ain't dying, you ain't trying!"

Pannel 1: Transmutate is punching out a robot one quarter of his size. Dark Mousette is standing behind him looking shell shocked. The room is littered with little gears and rusty robot parts.

Transmutate: "Aaaand, that's the last of them! Hey! We won!"

Pannel 2: Transmutate dusts himself off, looking around. Dark Mousette drops to her knees in a pile of debris.

Transmutate: "That was fun! Bit tight there for a second, but we really pulled through and saved the day!"

Pannel 3: Dark Mousette is raising Prisma Nova from the dead while Transmutate surveys the room with hands on hips.

Transmutate: "I hope the whole mission goes as well as this room did! This is the best mission I've been on since I joined this team!"

Prisma Nova: "Thanks."

Dark Mousette: "..."

Pannel 4: Transmutate is looking around for someone while Prisma Nova and Dark Mousette poke through the debris.

Dark Mousette: "Is it always like this?"

Prisma Nova: "Yes."

Transmutate: "What happened to BlackZarak anyway?"

BlackZarak(Team Channel): "You're standing on my corpse."

Pannel 5: Transmutate backed off but Prisma Nova ran over there and has started dancing on BlackZaraks corpse.

Dark Mousette: "It'll be a half hour before I can raise someone from the dead again. It'll be five minutes if you go to the hospital"

BlackZarak(Team Channel): "I'll wait."

BWAHAHAHAHA!

on a random video game related note: GAAAAAHH!! WHAT THE FUCK? I CANNOT JUGGLE PROTECTING EOWYN AND MERRY FROM THE GIGANTIC MUTANT FUCKING ELEPHANTS AND THE FUCKING WITCH KING! THE BATTLE WITH THE FUCKING MUMAKS RUNNING AROUND WITH THE FUCKING ORCS ALWAYS HITTING AND KILLING ME IS TOO FUCKING MUCH!!! I HAVE TO RUN TO ONE FUCKING SIDE, FIRE LIKE CRAZY AT THE FUCKING SHIELDS AND ONCE I KILL ONE, I GOTTA RUN TO THE OTHER FUCKING SIDE AND DO THE SAME FUCKING THING!! THEN THE FUCKING WITCH KING COMES IN AND STARTS FUCKING ATTACKING THEM!! WHAT THE FUCK?! DID THEY EVEN BOTHER TO FUCKING BETA TEST THE DAMN GAME BEFORE MARKETING IT?? WHAT THE FUCK???

*panting*sorry, i had to get that outta my system. the pelanor fields level drives me insane. i cannot juggle keeping those two alive AND keeping myself alive...shoulda upgraded legolas...i'd do better with his sorry ass...but noooo...getting my ass kicked by the king of the dead made me decide to work on aragorn, therefore screwing me up.


please don't ban me for cursing like crazy. i was so frustrated i thought i was gonna cry :(

I'd have a blast with that then.

The comic transcripts were pretty funny. A lot of that I get being a Guild Wars player. I really felt sorry for Gvnega Asoyv though. Though I generally take anyone who actually plays, don't care much for the folks who just AFK and let the others do the mission and then take credit for it. That sucks.

Gvnega Asoyv is my highest level Defender. Forcefield/Dark/Teleport/Fitness(she can not actually hover, except for a few seconds after a teleport), in the mid 30s. That one comic is basically her life, just repeat it over and over and over again. I can't play that character more than a few missions before I get sick of it. I get random tells from uninformed who tell me how much I suck. And I get alot of pity, with a number of people saying "I love bubbles! They're just idiots!" I'll admit while on a team I protect them pretty well... but Forcefields really is the worst Defender Primary out there.

Yeah, I've had people who go AFK during missions. Fortunately, with City of Heroes, if you're AFK for to long and the action moves to far away from you, you stop getting rewards(XP, Inf, Salvage drops, ect)

Dark Mousette: Are you using the Ballista to take out the Elephants faster? Normal arrows just won't cut it...

oh heck...

Direct Link or Website, search for the game you want

Meant no insult by saying I felt sorry for her. The comic made it sound like she did her job correctly but they still kicked her off the team. A lot of good gamers get bashed by others because they don't do what they think they should do.

the elephants are a pain in the ass to kill, and i rarely use the ballistas. i upgraded aragorn's arrows so that it takes two hits to scrap the shields

No insult, just pointing out that I didn't make that character purely for the comic, rather I made the comic around actual(or at least in game) events.



I'd say "Guess Who" but I'm not sure myself how the second two turned out. BladeRaider, turned out alright I think. Maybe I should have gone with a different sword. Star The Wanderer, in a surprisingly complex grey suit(surprisingly because it just looks grey, when really it's four tones of grey blending into one another). Wasn't honestly sure what to do here, but it may have looked better with a Jacket instead of Sweatshirt. I dunno. And, he's not on the forums at the moment, but Zabgoth was suggested. Big guy(not really that TALL mind you, but he's standing closer to the camera). A look of utter rage, demonic rams horns, mohawk(well "fighthawk" the mohawk is more of a block shape), steel toed stomp'n boots, and a big hammer. Hopefully I captured the basics.

BladeRaider: Katana/Regen Magic Scrapper
Star the Wanderer: StormSummoning/EnergyBlast Mutation Defender
Zabgoth: StoneArmor/WarMace Technology Tanker

Another team I do not wish to be on. I'd join it for the novelty factor though, and depending who I was playing as I might supply the vital ingredient to make it a success. There really isn't anything major this team needs honestly, it's got the three basics covered: Crowd Control, Damage Mitigation, and Damage Dealing. Putting a Kinetics on the team though would make everyone happier.

Picked Regen for BladeRaider because in TAOWAR in order to summons he needs to cut himself and spill blood. He seems to heal instantly after spilling enough blood to spread across a scroll(so it's more than just a little cut). Katana/Regen is probably the Scrapper-est of the Scrapper sets. Pretty much a no brainer here, hard to play badly.

Main problem is going to be that Zabgoth, while by and far the BEST Primary for a Tanker(well, the tanker who wants to take the beating and spit in their face, some tankers have other goals), has the worst secondary. You almost never see a Mace in game, that's because BattleAxe does the same thing, with more damage. Mace is theoretically faster and less endurance intensive, but after playing both of them, I don't see it(in fact Mace seems MORE endurance intensive while being less damaging). Also, Stone Armor comes with a few drawbacks. First of all, the armors are visible. So you're going to look like you've got brown lumps growing out of you with your protection against physical damage. Magma flowing from those lumps when you pick up your protection from Thermal damage, and Crystals floating around you when protected from Energy/Psionic damage. And, for protection from Control effects the power "Rooted"... does what the name implies. It encases your feet in massive rock shoes that only let you move at a snails pace(which I guess is better than before where you couldn't move at all).

With our Tanker moving so slowly, it would be a shame if someone had plentiful to the point of excessive Knockback powers on this team. And I've already explained this.

Cool. A lot closer than I thought CoH could get to me. I use a jian (double-edged Chinese straight sword), but that sword is cool to :D

Yeah, the amout of blood used on the scroll is more or less just there for visual effect. Really, it's surppose to be a small line of blood that could come from a hard thumb bite. Sadly, it wouldn't have looked as good.


Also, this reminds me of something Curse did waaaaaay back when on TFD (this was back in the shoutbox days). I turned out as a Ryu like dude, not a bad thing :P

Good job on Blade, looks like how I'd imagne him to look if he spend a few months not shaving his already unruly beard. rofl Though I was never much of a team player. My character looks creepy, more like a villian of some sort.

You know......I still have a shit-ton of 90's Toy Biz Marvel figures. They could (in theory) be used to bring said "Abandoned concept" to life comic-wise. Granted they'll be licensed characters and I don't kitbash so they'll look nothing like the intended Heroes but.......

...it wouldn't be the first time.

It's not really ABANDONED yet... but it probably will be. If you're going to do it with figures like that, I'd be better off just doing sprites. I've already done a number of City of Heroes and City of Villains sprites, and of course all the AUG.

And while I COULD have done a slightly more trimmed beard, that one I felt was closest. As for the sword, they actually have an oriental straight sword. I'm not sure it's a jian though. That one there is just listed as "fantasy blade". I could have done a one of two styles of Katana or a "Ninja Blade", and also a few others. And I didn't HAVE to color it blue, but I did.

Yes, Star The Wanderer looks pretty villainous there. It's all the drab colors mixed with the stern expression. Wasn't really sure what to do there honestly. I should probably redo it. Still, you don't HAVE to be on a team. Nobody HAS to be, though characters like DarkMousettes Empath are at a decided disadvantage trying to solo. Amusingly, given "Vigilence" you might have the most fun going into a mission and getting your teammates killed in order to benifit from the endurance discounts(storm summoning can be endurance heavy, particularly if you're blasting). That's pretty villainous there(take Doctor Archeville along with you, his "Fall Out" power will let him turn dead teammates into bombs).

Roadbuster and Phyrefly are next. I want one or two more to fill up that team while I'm at it. Any suggestions?

Agent X

Edit: BTW, I like my character looking rather like a villian. Given the personality of him in the Rroo'tah fiction, it fits rather well. Anti-hero type fella.

Agent X as he appears in Warped, or as he appears in TAOWAR?

Or a fusion thereof?

I would go with Warped, since that's his comic and has some customizing done to it.

Not that you can tell the customization after it's been converted from a robot bounty hunter to a human superhero...

Oh, I figured out why I'm having such a pain with camera angles. There are three models in the game. Male, Female, and this "Male with no neck"(for folks who want to be like The Hulk) that's listed as "Huge". Each of them actually has the camera set at a different level. I've been using the backwall to judge things by, but that means after I line things up, the females are actually closer because their camera is lower. So... yeah... Firefly is a bit to big again. And Roadbuster not big enough.

Anyway, here you go.

Wow, it's amazing how close Roady got... X too.

...And now for some of the completely random bull slag that I come up with at 5 in the morning...