Cover of the Day

I'm going to try and set up some automatic posts for the near future.   I've been under the weather with leg and fever issues -- Not Covid since I've been vaccinated for a month give or take.    We'll see.

This toon is my main in the Mutant Academy SG,  a variation on an old theme.   She is an Energy/Energy Sentinel build that I've gotten to level 37.

The SG has been a little quiet -- I think one of the leadership is likewise under the weather.  Hopefully we'll get going soon enough

City Bouncing...

I've spent a lot of time on some of the other servers.   I have been doing a role playing stream with pr_OGamer on twitch on Saturday afternoons on the Unity server.  Time has bounced around from 2PM CST to later.  Check it out here - pr_OGamer.  Sadly I've missed the last two weeks due to my health.  I'm not as young as I used to be...

I've been playing Dynamo.  Its been interesting -- especially since I've had to play with different microphone and headphone equipment to get it to work.  Admittedly its been an odd journey... since we started in Praetoria with most of us wanting to migrate to the hero side.   On Unity that isn't a quick fix -- and requires doing a lot of tip missions.

Homecoming has attracted my interest of late.  I left it ages ago because it banned streaming -- most probably as a tactic to avoid legal hassles from you-know-who.  But I've gotten back into it. Of all the servers out there, it has the biggest population by far.   I've been on Excelsior there.  I've been exploring old alts and making new ones.  I've even started making covers again under the Cryptic Comics logo.   I'll be posting some soon.   I've been on a few Discord sites with some.  I might have to start making a list of invites for those groups and get it on the links page.  Been so long since I've updated that I'd be surprised if anything works.. 

I have to admit that there is a strange mixed bag of sites on Homecoming when it comes to SG bases.  Some are very small -- Little more than Med bay, teleportbay and a few storages. Others are very elaborate.  Base designers seem to be in short supply though. From the old setup base building has changed.  When the game was live you had to earn prestige to be able to expand the base.  ;Prestige is no longer earnable and there is an infinite supply. So 1 person SG could make a super-elaborate base before ever recruiting a single member.  No badge hunting to earn teleport sites.   AND they have added so many objects to the base builder that weren't in it originally.    You don't see as many bases with objects combined or forming artificial walls and such.  It is rather mind-blowing if you have the creativity to make them into something.  It has been so long since I did any base design work, and I was by no means an expert.  I can't say I'm not eager to try.

I've got rampant altism on Excelsior that is for sure.  I've over 30 characters made, but I've only been focusing on a half dozen or so.   There are some busy groups out there, but being East coast, I'm not finding many members on early in the day on weekends.  Most appear to be night owls, and at least one is in an Japan/Australian time zone.  But I've been doing covers of most of those that I've been playing.  You'll see those shortly.

Still here

I've been bouncing back and forth.  Still playing PinballFX 3 a lot, Skyrim and Fallout 4.   But I've also gotten back into City of Heroes.

I've been spending most of time on Excelsior server.  I've seen some streamers on this server, Damage Nation for one.  And I've made contact with a supergroup on the server -- The Legion.   Already have two toons in the group -- One is a new controller mixing Gravity and time .   

Also included was a version of the following, now up to level 23 or so...

I've been having fun running missions with the group.   

I am a little nervous about the rumors that NCSoft has made some renewal efforts toward the City of Heroes trademarks.   Personally I think they would worry more about the 2 or 3"spiritual successors" City-like projects underway.   I suspect they may end up enforcing their trademark versus the private servers just to reinforce ownership and giving them CLEAR legal avenues should any of the successors stray too close to the CoH property.   I hope I'm wrong, because we could see NCSoft close City.  AGAIN.  

I'm going to have fun WHILE I can ...

City of Heroes Returns...

In case you haven't heard, my favorite MMO of all time is back.   Sort of.   Apparently Titan Chat and some others, who had been running the cannibalized version of City with no game play known as Paragon Chat have had a working version of the servers for the game.   BUT they've had to keep it secret to avoid the inevitable Attack of the Lawyers that would result if it were known.   BUT one lone player, a Youtuber, blew the whistle on it.   So they opened up the servers.  And a flood of people have registered for accounts and are playing the game yet again.   There are 4 servers up now: Everlasting, Indomitable, Excelsior and Torchbearer. 

Apparently these servers are hosted in Amsterdam.   Some people are in talks with NCSoft to avoid any legal shutdown, but the server code is out and available.   Quite likely they'd be looking for an endless game of chase the servers if they don't come to an agreement of some kind.    Running servers like this is expensive; I've heard quotes of $4500 monthly.    No one is asking for money YET, probably for legal reasons.

Server stability is questionable at times.   And more than a few Mapserver shutdowns have occurred.   Late evening East coast time seems to be the peak as people all over America try to get on the game.  I've seen queues as high as 2000 people waiting to get in, but that was when only 2 servers were in operation.    Thankfully the Tequila software used to get in has the character creator available.   You can create costumes on that software while in queue for the live game, save them, and load them in the live game -- saving time recreating them.   If you have that NAME you want, I'd suggest logging in and preserving it, even if you aren't ready to play.

Originally they were talking about the possibility of a complete wipe -- but I've my doubts they'll do that.  They have had too many people doing to much to do that now.   

Playing the game is somewhat different than before.   They don't know anyone's NCSOFT history or purchases -- so they don't bother.   ALL auras and costume elements are available from the start.   A Pay2Win vendor can give you Prestige enhancements, Powers like Sands of Mu, Nemesis Staff, Prestige sprints, Wisp and drone pets and the llike  that we used to get for being long term subscribers for free.   Movement powers open up at level 4, which include the 3 lesser powers.  Meaning you can go directly to Fly without needing to purchase Hover first.   For old timers -- thats like 10 levels early. 

AE is back up and running -- with several FARMS running.  I think they are going to be tweaked.   I've joined a few and leveling can be RAPID.    Most people get the first few levels in sewer runs running from Atlas Park Sewer entrance to Steel Canyon -- or close to it.   Going from level 1 to 10 is possible on such runs.

People are running task forces, creating supergroups, even saw one Costume contest advertised in the chat.   Teams are EASY to come by and people are having fun.  Yes the game engine is a bit dated, but it runs at ULTRA settings on my current rig with no problems.   Even when you've a full group of 8 tackling countless enemies with powers galore going wild.  

SO many people are in such a good mood.   I've seen dozens of Twitch streams running of City, with hundreds of viewers of it. 

I'll leave with a few youtube videos Links (embed isn't working)  to help you get on and see what is going on...

Private Server is Real by Positive Gamer -->https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbRvDFKCLis

 Setup Tutorial by Positive Gamer--> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrs_B6WRRJM

 How to Play COH for Free - Kabaleryo Show --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pztDGii3fvo

City of Heroes - Home -- Darkborn --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oecro0gPx8

Fallout 76

I'm still on the fence about Fallout 76.   Playing with others could be good OR bad.   I've had too many times where games that are rated teens or mature have grade schoolers playing, cursing like sailors, or whining at everything.   Fallout has been a solo game for so long.   I'm willing to try it, but I could see it go badly so easily.   Especially if some whining grade schoolers love to nuke every settlement just for the hell of it.

I'm not too sure about some of the creatures.   I know that the FEV is in the wild, but seeing such bizarre and large forms within 3 decades of the apocolypse?   Seems a little bit much.   Introducing supermutants at this point in history, earlier than ever before, seems lore breaking too.   I can't help but wonder if these will be dumb or smart varieties.   I hope there is story behind it that fits.   I can conceive of them having the same source as Fallout 3 , but that seems almost a cheat.

Been thinking of getting into another game.  Fallout 4 has been my go to game for about a month now and is starting to get repetitive.   I always focus on one weapon group, but by the time I've got he toon to the 60s, they've branched out into multiple weapons.  They all blur together.    I saw The Raft on steam and it seems interesting.   The Mars colonization game looks interesting as well.    Jurrasic World Evolution is another game that just came out.

Fallout

I've played a lot of Fallout over the last month.   3 different playthrus.   I've had some trouble with my mods.   Taking two characters into Nukaworld and going for the full raider playthru.  But in both playthrus I had multiple issues.  Trying CBBE , I liked the new PAMPAS set.   However the MESH extension I never could get to work -- Skin that should show under the mesh was invisible, which gave the weird hollow-character effect.   WORSE when I finally was able to start raiding the commonwealth, Shank wouldn't let me chose ANY targets.  At least not until I got rid of most of my mods.   It seems various combinations caused issues, including my Scrap Everything mod.   Turning that off caused lots of previously removed objects to reappear.

So I finally tried to play NO MODS.  Its been a LONG time.   Some of the mods I had did give me a few starting supplies and caps I don't have now.   Plus there is no ammunition workbench, so I had to use the manufacturing elements to produce some 10mm ammo for the Ultimatum I got from the Creation Club DLC.  Further I'm used to having Ballistic weave sooner, and on more items.   Now it isn't possible , especially on non-Railroad characters.   Leveling also seems to take far longer.   I did manage to get an achievement for producing all the ammo -- first Fallout 4 achievement in AGES.

Still not to sure what to make of the Fallout 76 annoucement.   It doesn't sound like a full Fallout Game, but I'm not sure what it will be.   Especially making it a prequel is interesting, as long as they don't break lore to stick the usual Fallout stuff into the game.  JET shouldn't be around any Virginia setting, nor caps used as money, nor supermutants (unless they come from the capital wastlend vault).   I'm concerned about it becoming a zombie survival game substituting large number of ferals.  I'd be concerned about any FEV enlarged creatures that early in the Fallout timeline as well -- maybe a few slightly oversized stuff noted in passing, but not actually as opponents.   There is SOOO much that could be done interestingly, and sooo much that could be big lore breaks.   Still wonder about it.   I suspect that everybody BUT the player character left the vault in 2097, and he/she had to stay an extra 5 years, alone.   Perhaps as a safety measure? Shutting down Vault systems?    So many questions.   Can't wait for E3 to spread some more info into this... 

Back again...

My old computer has been hanging on by a thread forever... going into meltdown everytime I started ANY Game.   The old Nvidia 680 graphics card was jumping the system temprature by as much as 40 degrees if used at all.   This meant playing games was luck of the draw at best how long I could play before the game would lock up if not the WHOLE system would crash.

The budget finally allowed for a replacement, and the last couple weeks I've been putting the new unit through its paces.   Of course that means getting used to Windows 10 from windows 8.1 among other things.  Graphics wise I've upgraded to a GTX 1070 card.   Not THE top of the line, but close enough.   Too many of the GTX 1080 cards were unavailable due to the Bitcoin blight on the Top of the line cards.   Not that I would have been able to swing for that at CURRENT prices.

Needless to say I'm happy.   The new unit is plays everything at top level graphic settings for nearly every game I try -- Fallout 4, Skyrim SE, Champions Online, Diablo III, Saints Row IV, and more. Couldn't get Fallout 3 to work but most of my Steam library came thru.   Even was able to get my Xbox Pinball FX3 library to migrate over to the PC without spending a sent thanks to it being a play-anywhere title.  

So in the last couple weeks I've had SEVERAL sessions on Champions Online and actually managed to level several idle toons up for the first time in months.  One new toon even got a couple cover's produced. 

Look for some NEW content here shortly.