Temporary Travel Powers

Here are some screenshots of the special/temporary travel powers mentioned in this blog. (Note that the Jump Pack from the Good vs Evil edition was a permanent power.)

Bubblegummer using the Jump Pack.





Another view of the Jump Pack. The character is Frog Solid.





Gromar using the Zero-G pack.





Stocker using the Raptor Pack.





Jingle Jet worn by Billy Coffin. This holiday flight pack has cheery music that plays when the power is first activated.

Travel Powers Part 2

Gromar's story:
 
If you want to start an argument among heroes state an opinion on various travel powers. People become comfortable with certain powers - especially ones they rely on like travel powers
.
Some people do combine powers if they complement each other (superspeed and superjump, for example, or superspeed and hover).

Lee has occasionally thought of learning hover to complement his superspeed skill but so far has stuck to flight packs. I have no idea what type of scientific potion or pseudo-cosmic ray would be needed or if it could be done at all.‎

I went to the Hero Resource Center I volunteer at and used a virtual reality simulation of Skyway City I had created. I played around with different types of travel powers.

Superspeed was fast but had a problem with heights. Augmented superspeed had the added problem of being harder to control. It was best for getting a good view of things at street level but flight was usually needed  for streethunting and finding things.

Superjump and Teleport were the fastest but also required the most work. Teleport was more precise than superjump but if you took too much time finding a landing spot you may fall out of the sky.

Streethunting with superjump involved jumping high, looking around, landing, and doing it again. I find it too busy.

Flight is the travel power that works the best for me. It may be the slowest travel power but it is flexible in that you can fly as high or as low as you need. You can hover and search for things and then fly directly to them.

I found it interesting to simulate various travel powers even if I wouldn't want to use them in real life.

Notes:

I had characters who used each of the travel powers. I was most fond of flight but other characters fit other travel powers so I used them. Villain characters in the Rogue Isles really needed flight or at least a flight pack.

I usually took Hover along with flight because certain powers could knock flying characters to the ground while a hovering character would just backflip. Hover was also slower and more manageable when used indoors.

I usually didn't take stealth with melee characters unless they were superjumpers. Superjump could be a bit erratic when landing and you had to land often and then jump again when traveling. Stealth meant you were less likely to be attacked while traveling. (One team mate without stealth was heading to a mission in Founders Falls when he was shot by a sniper and sent to the hospital).

The big issue with superspeed was balancing speed and control. If you had superspeed optimized for speed it was more difficult to use effectively indoors or in certain situations. For this reason I tended to just slot stamina reduction enhancements and knockback and/or slow resist

I didn't often take Teleport as a travel power because it needed too much micromanagement. If I did I took Hover to offer some safety and stability.

I tended to put stealth enhancements into travel powers if possible.

Travel Powers Part 1

Gromar's story:

I had been thinking a lot about travel powers in the days since our neighbours came to visit. Having a travel power makes life much easier as a hero.

Sometimes a power comes naturally but sometimes one has to prepare for a power and then train for it. One can prepare for a power in different ways. For example someone with a mutation background may have the necessary genes spliced into their system. For someone with a magic background, like me, the process may involve anything from a spirit quest to simply learning a new spell.

When I was a new hero in Paragon City travel powers were strictly regulated and you could only be certified at security level 14. You could learn basic powers earlier on though.

I was lucky when I arrived in Paragon City. There were a number of promotions going on for new heroes and I picked up a Pocket D VIP Pass and a Jump Pack. The former allowed me to teleport to Pocket D while the latter allowed me to jump great distances (it did have a cool down period though).

You could get by using flight packs or jump packs lent to you for completing missions for the police. These items were meant to be rewards to help out new heroes - not permanent gifts.

I obtained the Zero-G Pack for stopping a robbery attempt at the Kings Row bank. It was a jump pack that simulated the Super Jump power. There was also the Raptor Pack flight pack but I didn't get that until later.

I found the two jump packs very useful but found them less precise than I liked. It was easy to miss a target and land amongst a group of enemies.

My experience with the jump packs pushed me towards learning to fly. Once I had settled on a path I quickly learned Hover and Fly. I never looked back.

Notes: I was late getting a travel power because in the beginning I wasn't sure what I wanted. Later on I had to prioritize powers - especially the fitness pool
‎

Developing Powers

Gromar's story:

The neighbours were over for dinner. Rob has no super powers but has worked with heroes. At the moment he is a stay at home dad. Carol can fly and has super strength. She is a hero liaison in our city.

Our neighbours have no problems with super powers but are finding it challenging to deal with their children's developing abilities.

Mikey is six and is super fast. When he gets running around in the back yard Lee is the only one that can catch him. The boy was worried for a moment when Lee suggested his parents give him concrete shoes to slow him down. Lee was joking but his comment highlights the fact that the parents have more to deal with than a hyper six year old.

Karly is an adorable three year old girl but she sometimes scares people with her telekinetic powers. Recently she has developed a new power.

Carol and the kids were shopping when Karly lost sight of her mom for a second. Carol said Karly called for her and she replied. Then her daughter levitated above the clothes racks and said "Now I see you mommy."

After dinner we talked about powers and the kids. Someone asked when was the optimum time for powers to develop but we had no definitive answer. Both Lee and Carol had powers in their teens and their travel powers developed during that period. Most of my powers didn't develop until my mid twenties.

It was an interesting evening and got me thinking about Paragon City again.
‎

My City Of Heroes Timeline: Part 2

Today I will continue looking at my COH history.

On aspect of Issue 11 I forgot to mention was the Ouroboros/Flashback system to play old missions one had missed. This allowed players to collect badges they had missed and added a lot of replay value to the game - especially for top level characters.

I remember Issue 12 for the makeover of The Hollows zone, the Midnight Squad, and Cimerora (a Roman zone).

The Hollows revamp was okay and the new content appreciated but the original missions weren't changed and new enemy groups sometimes made streetcleaning missions harder.

The Midnight Squad and Cimerora stuff was great and got added to later on.

During this time I created several new characters
.
Darc D Zire was a Dark Armor/Ice Melee tank. He was tough but his attacks didn't have a lot of ooomph and so the stamina sink of Dark Armor was more of a problem.

Psychodude - Psychic Blast/Mental Manipulation blaster. he was fun to play although some of the sounds associated with his powers could be annoying.

Witan Nurdi - Plant/Storm controller. This fellow was the first controller I really liked and he was one of my favourite characters. He had some awesome powers that made him tough and deadly and he could cause absolute chaos to groups of enemies.

Issue 13 added Day Jobs which gave characters benefits based on where they logged out and the option to turn off experience gain. Turning off experience was a good way to stop out-leveling contacts.

In 2009 (Issue 14) The Mission Architect system was introduced which allowed players to create content that others could play. It was fun and Mickey Fist used it to create some interesting story arcs.
One criticism was the amount of MA buildings they added to the game. Every regular zone got on and the buildings looked out of place in zones like Croatoa and the Rikti War Zone.

Champion Characters 2012

Here is an alphabetized list of some of my characters on Champion server. The text source of this list includes characters from other servers and mentions around 60 "playerslots".

I think that the playerslot file recorded the most recently visited characters on each server and there was a limit to the number recorded.

This would explain why some characters I remember playing near the end of the game - and whom I have screenshots of from that period - don't appear on the list.

Important characters not listed: Bo Torch, Mason Face, Talcum Powda.

Possibly deleted: Corvalis, Darc D Zire

Characters known to have been deleted: Blue Snafu, Ice Volt, Spare Partz.

Here is the list:

Agent Octon
Aurum Shadow
Beam Angel
Beastbot
Beatstreet
Billy Coffin
Bubblegummer
Catman Deux
Cosmic Ninja
Dead Fred
Deathtoad
Dr. Fost
Dr Nox
Drinkmachine
Dude Lee
Fariel
FirstPawn
Flamboy Ant
Frog Solid
Fryer Tuck
Gromar
Hotmist
Kactus Kid
Kid Krowe
LumberYak
Mad Mountie
Mickey Fist
Mocking Byrd
Molokai
Moo Gumbo
Mr Mechanical
Mr. Sizzle
Mr Sting
Ninja Hoopdance
Pookstein
Psychodude
Red Aeon
Rocky Rollem
Shoot2thrill
Stocker
Stonecat
Super Scoop
Teriyaki Kid
Witan Nurdi
Zakker

My City Of Heroes Timeline: Part 1

‎Large game updates to City Of Heroes were called Issues. In this post I will talk a bit how they influenced me.

In June 2007 I received the Good vs. Evil Edition as a birthday present from my friend Tor. I installed the game and created Gromar.

The edition had some cool costumes and two amazing powers: the Pocket D VIP Pass (teleport to Pocket D), and the Jump Pack.These travel powers were a big help to all of my characters.

When I joined the game Issue 9 was active. I remember using the auction house and learning to craft things at the University. I had fun doing things from earlier issues such as police band missions.

Issue 10 brought Rikti Invasion events. These were both fun and and could be annoying if they interfered with regular missions. The invasions were good for experience and for the Watchman Badge.

The Elusive Mind power associated with the badge was a big help for characters (like Gromar) who didn't have protection from psionics.

The badge also unlocked the Rikti Axe which became Gromar's favourite weapon.

One of the most important updates for me was Issue 11. This was because it introduced the Willpower powerset for melee types.

Willpower became my favourite armour type because it was sturdy and adaptable to many different character ideas. It was great for testing out new powersets because I could rely on it while learning the new set.

During this time I created Mickey Fist a Willpower/Fiery melee tank. He became my favourite character to play and my base designer. He was tough and just seemed to fit me. I would have probably written about him if I had kept blogging in 2007.

I will continue this discussion in later posts.

Screenshots: First And Last

I took over 500 screenshots while playing City Of Heroes. Here are the first and last screenshots.

Here is Gromar in Skyway City. He just finished talking to a contact (Jake Montoya -the man to the right).

Taken 6/16/2007 / 18:20:46.

Next is Gromar participating in the shutdown vigil in Atlas Park. The game officially shut down at midnight Nov. 30, 2012.

Taken 12/1/2012 / 01:01:58.

An Axe A Day...

Gromar's Story:

Remembering my old costumes got me thinking about my old axes. I have had several over the years but I only keep two of them mounted on the wall.

The first is the battle axe I got from my uncle. It looks a bit battered now but could still stop a villain or two. It stopped quite a few villains over the years.

My uncle had a silly saying: "An axe a day keeps the villains away". Axes inspire visions of violence and retribution. Crooks don't like losing body parts. You don't always have to use lethal force but your axe says you can if you need to. The old battle axe still looks deadly.

The second axe is one I took from a Rikti officer I defeated during an invasion attempt in Talos. It has a very large blade but is surprisingly light and agile. It looks as deadly as the battle axe but adds another layer of mystique - I had to defeat powerful foes to obtain it.

The Rikti Axe was my main weapon for the remainder of my time in Paragon City. When we evacuated I had a copy made and put this one on my wall.

When I was looking at my Rikti Axe Lee asked why none of his weapons were hung on the wall. I said they were best kept in the freezer or they would melt. Lee said they had been but were now in my drink. Ice blasters. Sheesh.:)

Gromar with his Rikti Axe.

Note: The Rikti Axe could be unlocked by acquiring the Watchman Badge.

Gromar's First Costumes

Gromar's first costume. June 18/07

Gromar's second costume. June 23/07

Note: The glassy glow around Gromar is his Ice Armor.

Gromar's Ugly Costume

Gromar's story:

Thinking about my first days in Paragon City always brings me back to my first costume. They say image is everything and that is true to a point but when it comes to costumes durability is more important.

In the beginning things were okay but I wanted to develop my own identity - and not be a clone of Cougar Canuck. Leather and bone armour and a helmet with cat ears just didn't fit my vision.
I could deal with my image at a later time but the pressing issue was the durability of the costume.

 My cold powers caused the leather to stiffen up and become uncomfortable. One day I got hit by a Hellion with a baseball bat and my catmask/helmet split in two. After that I looked more like a Mouseketeer than a hero.

It didn't help that a newspaper article about upcoming heroes said: "If he performs as poorly as he dresses Groyar won't last very long as a hero." Luckily there were no photos and the reporter spelled my name wrong.

Everyone told me not to worry about it but it bugged me. The nearest Icon store (tailor) was in the northern part of Steel Canyon. I tried getting there but without a travel power I had to run down the streets. I made it half way there when a group of Outcasts sent me to hospital.

Things worked out a few days later when I joined the Safe Harbor supergroup and a fellow member teleported me to the tailor.

The people at Icon were very helpful. They repaired most of my old costume and treated it to not react to the elements. They also sold me a treated full head leather helmet.

The full helmet was a big help dealing with my developing Ice Armor powers. Constantly freezing and melting frost on the skin takes some getting used to. In addition to that was the fact it hid my identity. I could go out without my costume and be incognito.

Sometimes image is everything. Once I had my costume issues worked out I began to settle in and feel a part of Paragon City.

Notes:

I made a mistake when making Gromar's costume during character creation. I was afraid of messing up and losing the character if I restarted so I completed the character and entered the tutorial.

It was then I found out you couldn't change your costume until you went to a tailor.

Coming To Paragon City: Part 2

‎Gromar's story:
 
After leaving home I hitchhiked from town to town and took the bus when I had the cash - which wasn't often because work was hard to come by; and I didn't have a lot of money to begin with.

Sometimes I would offer my services to local police but most just laughed and said no thanks. My journey to become a hero wasn't feeling very heroic.

Then one day in a small town near Pittsburgh things changed. I had been given a job cutting wood in a guy's back yard when some hooligans began to harass the man's son and the boy's girlfriend. Someone pulled a knife and I knocked it away with the flat of the ax. When the others joined in I knocked some of them out and the rest ran off.

I had subdued ten people - and barely hurt them - and was uninjured myself. The locals were impressed and bought me a bus ticket to Paragon City!

I arrived in Paragon late at night and managed to get a room at the Hotel Geneva in Atlas Park. In the morning I met with the Magic Hero Liaison and started work.

Coming To Paragon City: Part 1

Gromar's Story:

After Lee showed me his old diary I went searching through my stuff for mementos. There wasn't much but I found a photo of me in my first hero costume. What a flood of memories that produced.

I grew up in a small Canadian town in the middle of nowhere. My parents died when I was 18 and I moved in with my aunt and uncle.

Uncle Bob had been a hero called Cougar Canuck. He only had a few magic powers and his wits but he managed to help many people. He was saving trapped miners when an explosion caused a cave-in and injured him. He lost most of his powers but managed to rescue the miners. He decided it was time to retire after that incident.

Aunt Martha was a seer and said I would be a hero but I wasn't so sure. I had some cold related powers but they had developed late. The only skill I had was using an ax. I learned that from my uncle.

The summer I turned 23 was a restless one for me.I needed a change but felt obligated to help my aunt and uncle. When things got tense I would sit in the sweat lodge we had built.

One evening I had a spirit vision in the sweat lodge telling me to go to Paragon City. It was very intense and after talking to my relatives I decided to go.

My uncle gave me his ax and his cougar mask - or what was left of it - and my aunt whipped up a leather costume. It wasn't pretty but it would do until I could afford better.

Lee Finds A Journal

‎Lee's Story:

I just found my old diary from 2007. What a trip down memory lane it was to read it.

The journal covered my journey from Ridgeback to Paragon City and my work as a hero in the city. There are also copies of letters and emails I sent to family and friends.

The diary ends with me arriving back in Ridgeback to attend a funeral. The rest of the diary was damaged when I returned to Paragon City. A bottle of conditioner or shampoo leaked and flooded my suitcase. Even heroes deal with normal crappy things.

I wish the later entries had been readable but I would have probably found them as embarrassing as the ones I read.

I was a horny teenage hero trying to fit into an adult world. Many of the diary entries are me mooning over guys like Pookstein and wondering how I would come out to my family (I told them the day after the funeral).

I have kept several journals since then but none were like that first diary. Most entries were short records of missions and current events.

What would that 15 year old have written about me moving in with Gromar, the destruction of Galaxy City, or Project Zero? I don't know but it would be an interesting read.

Eleven years is a long time - especially when it involves the transition from a teen to an adult. It's even longer when it involves abandoning your world for a safer dimension.

I can't go back to being the boy I was but I can enjoy my old journals.

Servers

‎There were 15 public servers and a test server in COH. I only had experience with four of them.

Champion
 
My first character (Gromar) was created on Champion and my friends played there.

Liberty
 
Liberty was my backup server for when Champion was down for maintenance or other reasons. I also started some characters there when short of slots on Champion most of these were transferred to "champ" later on.

My old records show these toons on Liberty:

"Liberty-bot" - no information.

"Weather Vayne" - experimental Ice/Storm controller? I also had a version on Triumph.

"Helleon"- this name also appears on Triumph. Helleon was the first Brute I liked and played often. He was a Fiery melee/Fire Armour villain. He was eventually transferred to Champion.

Bubblegummer and Pookstein were also transfered to Champion.

Freedom
 
A friend asked me to create characters on Freedom to help flesh out a Supergroup. I eventually became the leader of the SG and redesigned the base. I signed in every few months just to pay base rent.

Miss Dumpling - my only female character was a 4 foot tall, pigtailed, War mace/Invulnerability tank.

Microsaurus Rex - was a 4 foot tall dinosaur and a Claws/Invulnerability scrapper.

Triumph
 
A friend invited several of us to to join a group on Triumph and play together. I created Psycopup and got him to the right level and found out my name was wrong. lol. Everyone was named Doom Trooper something-or-other.I have only one screenshot of Psycopup and don't have any power info.

Characters mentioned as being on Triumph. (Based on an old text file):

"Sno-Mann" - no information

"Weather Vayne" - see above, but one screenshot shows him as Ice/? Dominator in a Kings Row mayhem mission.

"Billy B"- no information

The following were characters that were either transferred or copied to Champion and Liberty.

"Hotmist"-  Fire/Storm controller

"Dude Lee"- Martial Arts/Willpower scrapper

"Pookstein"- Fire/Fire blaster

"Helleon"- Fire/Fire brute.

You can see I experimented with other servers but anyone interesting was transferred or (if low level) copied to Champion.

Some Characters From 2008

‎Here is a list of characters from an old text file. The file showed account username, server, character, and "playerslot" (the position in character select). Champion server characters are shown here in reverse order (Gromar - my first character - is shown in slot 0 while Darc D Zire is 17). Character order depended on creation initially but changed later.

Darc D Zire - Dark Armor/Ice Melee tank

Kactus Kid - Spines/Willpower scrapper

Powerlon - ?

Blue Snafu - Archery/Devices blaster

Witan Nurdi - Plant/Storm controller

Psychodude - Psychic Blast/Mental Manipulation blaster

Mickey Fist - Willpower/Fiery Melee tank - my main character

Starpoke - Peacebringer

Tankboy - Invulnerability/Energy Melee tank

Deathtoad - Radiation Blast/Dark Miasma corruptor

Mason Face - Willpower/War Mace tank

Bubblegummer - Ice Blast/Ice Manipulation blaster

Downtown Clown - Mind Control(Illusion?)/Kinetics controller

Kid Freak - Electrical Blast/Electricity Manipulation blaster

Stocker - Katana/Invulnerability scrapper

Spare Partz - Assualt Rifle/Electricity Manipulation blaster

Corvalis - Claws/Regeneration scrapper

Gromar - Ice Armor/Battle Axe tank.

This isn't all of my toons from that period but it is a lot of them. The records are mixed up. I have contemporary screenshots that show characters not listed here.

Introduction 2018

‎

It's been a long time!

I always intended to keep writing about Bubblegummer, Gromar, and City Of Heroes but various things made that difficult.

My last post was written on October 27, 2007. I had planned on writing about Lee's trip back home and then following with the Halloween Event but was still working out the story plot when the event started.

The Halloween stuff was fun and all of my toons participated. It was fun but my characters advanced a lot and it became more difficult to go back and resume their stories.

All of my heroes mentioned in the blog made it to level 50 and were still being played when the game shut down in 2012.

I had saved over 500 pictures, and some text files, and had lots of memories. Sometimes I would visit Paragon Wiki or watch YouTube videos about COH for old times sake.

Recently I have been playing around with a program called Paragon Chat. I recreated Gromar and Bubblegummer and a few others to test the system and revisit Paragon City.

I hope to post my thoughts, some old (and new) screenshots, and maybe some fiction.

It's good to be home.

Note:
I have left the old links in the sidebar but they are either dead or irrelevant now. Refer to the "Links 2018" section.