Hero Fireteams HQ

Kato Katana picks up "Elude" in Super Reflexes set

2006-04-04T08:35:00.000-07:00

Kato Katana finally made it to 38 last night. At the end I was resorting to farming swarms in Crey's Folly, if you can believe it. :) Screenshot at right. Beyond making you supposedly almost impossible to hit with anything, it increases your speed, jumping ability and endurance recovery (the speed and jumping are very noticeable even with just the one socket). So far it has been impressive in use against some purple and red villains in Founder's Falls. It has a Nova-like crash at the end, meaning endurance goes to zero and you can't recover for a while -- but at least health is not impacted at the end like Unstoppable, nor while in use like Moment of Glory. So it's pretty cool in that respect. :) It also has strong resistance to Defense DeBuffs.

Rikti Magus boss (Rikti with nasty CoT powers)

2006-04-04T08:22:00.000-07:00

Little Kat and Metal Mandroid did a Rikti mission about 43 last night with a very painful and interesting Rikti boss called "Rikti Magus." If I've faced him before I don't remember him. He's sort of a mutated Rikti boss with nasty CoT boss powers. What I wasn't expecting was that he hurls the nastiest sort of fire blast that does tremendous damage. I had enough greens on hand to survive it, but we had a whale of a fight with him. He was also zapping with lightning blasts, doing about 450 damage a pop to MM.

Is something wrong with our BBS?

2005-08-16T16:52:00.000-07:00

I am getting DNS failures on http://1.mfphpbb.com/fireteams.html, which is the URL that my browser saved when I bookmarked our BBS both at home and at work.

I also tried leaving off the "1.", as that might have been a load-balancing thing or something, but apparently "mfphpbb.com" is no longer a listed domain.

Is anybody else having this problem? Does anybody have a solution?

2005-07-28T21:11:00.000-07:00

SG Uniform Cape idea

2005-07-04T20:16:00.000-07:00

Doctor Galaxy's night watch

"Fire" Team Forms on Guardian

2005-05-17T18:54:00.000-07:00

Quite by chance, a new team heavy on fire users has gathered on the Guardian server over the last few nights. While I don't expect it to become anything official, it was interesting to see come together.

Out of the five characters, three of them are primary fire users:

Super Imp (fire/kinetic controller) Info Overload
Burger Man (fire/energy blaster) Blackjack
Fireocious(sp?) (fire/fire tanker) Nanoshock

Complimenting these three and completing the set of five different ATs:

City Cat (katana/? scrapper) James Kirk
Superheroic Man (empathy/energy defender) Captain Meson

As of last night they ranged in levels from 4 to 7. Was a nice change of pace and a chance to check out another server "community." :)

New look for Crusasder

2005-05-07T08:25:00.000-07:00

New 2nd costume look for Crusasder.
Posted by Hello

New Costumes Live!

2005-05-04T17:26:00.000-07:00

The new patch is finally live.

Oh, yeah, arena combat, "Kill skuls [sic]" badge, and so forth too. But it's the new costumes I was waiting for.

FLASH Free respec to celebrate City of Heroes' 1st anniversary!

2005-04-29T12:01:00.000-07:00

In case you didn't know, a free "anniversary" respec went live today (Friday, April 29). You can read more about it at official forum thread.

This is gonna be so awesome for Corporal Cold. I can finally fix his sorry self! :)

2005-04-26T06:58:00.000-07:00

Info at the site of a crashed Rikti ship

Anchored AoE Toggles may be doomed

2005-04-21T20:36:00.000-07:00

Cherno Bill may be going in for a respec after what's currently on Test goes live.

Apparently in their zeal to avoid letting bad guys carry "whammy" powers (Bill's two main powers, Snowstorm, Darkest Night, etc.) to the far reaches of creation, they are making the powers turn off when the anchor gets farther than your "maximum perception distance" from you.

None of the devs on the official boards has corrected the interpretation of this that a stealthy bad guy (or say, a sorc using Hurricane) could make your "whammy" drop at such a short distance as 30 feet. I'm hoping that this is a misinterpretation and the actual "perception range" (which a dev said start at 200 feet before enemy powers are taken into account) will be more reasonable.

The biggest concern for me is that I built Bill around those powers; to the extent that I planned his power progression for the first 24 levels around getting them and making them useful. If they become useless, I don't know what I'd replace them with. Since his secondary schtick is being very hard to hit and that includes Maneuvers, maybe I'd trade them in for the other two parts of Leadership.

Here's the full thread on the official boards. The thread was started to discuss a severe bug with "whammy" powers on the Test server, but this information came out during the discussion. At the time I read it, the thread was 3 pages long.

NCsoft's take on "packaged" MMOs

2005-04-19T08:25:00.000-07:00

An NCsoft VP posted some thoughts on forums about whether NC Soft would offer a "package" deal as SOE does for those who play multiple MMOs published by one company. NCsoft has a lot of upcoming MMORPGs (Guild Wars, Auto Assault, Tabula Rasa) on top of City of Heroes and the Lineage games:

We're looking at the potential of package deals for PlayNC products, but want to have a bunch of titles in the lineup first (so it's a better value).

GuildWars has a different revenue model (no sub fee) so it probably doesn't fall under a package - it would be for subscription games only if we did it.

There's a number of reasons for and against the model - one of the trickier issues to deal with is that we have to pay royalties to our 3rd party companies (Cryptic Studios, NetDevil, etc.) and if someone's paying a package rate for a bunch of games it turns out to be quite tricky to properly assign royalties. Sony hasn't done a lot of 3rd party products so they don't have that issue as much (Galaxies? Is that part of Station now?) - but about half of our upcoming games are from outside developers.

(Yes, someone will say "just do it by time played" - but then you're incentivizing developers to do things like design their game so it's beneficial for you to stay logged on all night so they get more royalties).

Photobucket supports Blogger

2005-04-19T07:03:00.000-07:00

If you have trouble getting "Hello" to work with our blog here, you might look into the free Photobucket online photo album service, which supports Blogger via an API.

I am using it for some SWAT 4 screenshots but you could easily set up an album there for COH shots and then use it to post to the blogger here.

Auto Turret at last

2005-04-17T06:55:00.000-07:00

Turret at last! Crusasder finally hit 38 and got turret. The damage is only moderate (a sprinkling of single digit damaging against tough targets for example), but it can be helpful in wearing things down.
Posted by Hello

Rejected Recruitment Poster

2005-04-14T22:04:00.000-07:00

Join Hero Fireteams HQ and see the multiverse!

XFire IM supports City of Heroes "in game" messaging

2005-04-13T07:52:00.000-07:00

Some military shooter friends turned me onto the XFire instant messenger recently.

What's really great about it is it supports "in game messaging," which doesn't require you to alt-tab to the Windows desktop to use. (You just press X/Scroll Lock to open a small chat window in any game that supports the "in game messaging").

Lots and lots of games support it, including City of Heroes, World of Warcraft and about every action game out there. It will tell you what game your friend is playing, and in many cases allow you to one-click join their game.

For me, it will hopefully allow my non-COH fan friends to message me in COH and invite me to play other stuff. If you play more than one MMORPG, this might let your friends from the other game message you while you're playing. Or they might send you a message before they log in to something and get your attention to join them in the other game.

Nearly 300 games are supported. For now it's free, and is not festooned with ads like ICQ.

Your pictures go here

2005-04-12T17:48:00.000-07:00

Well, I took a couple of nice screenies of Team Mocha the other night - Expresso Joe, Chocoholic, and Eufloria. On my monster machine they came out very nicely, cropping them to just the characters and a little background still left plenty of resolution.

But sadly, I can't seem to convince Hello/Bloggerbot to submit the things. It says they are submitted, but they never show up. Grrrr.

Preview of revamped new COH comic book

2005-04-12T13:43:00.000-07:00

If you hadn't heard, Cryptic decided to end the current comic's run and start a new one that's more focused on the NPCs and events in the actual game, with a grittier look and put together by fairly well known comic book talents. The new comic's debut issue will have a storyline dealing with heroes suddenly dying in Paragon City when the hospital/teleportation/resurrection system suddenly stops working. I believe #14 wil be the last issue of the current comic.

View a 10-page preview at the Newsarama comic book news site. The preview portion focuses on Statesman, Positron and Manticore working together, along with a bow-wielding hero (archery is a power set promised for a future update).

Taxibot service

2005-04-12T07:47:00.000-07:00

If you've ever wondered about the occasional chat text from a "taxibot," there are various supergroups that focus around the idea of offering teleportion services in various zones. One on the Champion Server is Taxibots.org. It's an amusing site. :)

Another site with members on all servers is Paragon Taxi Service.

Update 5 debt changes

2005-04-11T10:49:00.000-07:00

At forums Statesman mentioned two planned changes in debt for update 5:

Couple of changes we're making in I5:
1) Instead of the first five levels being debt free, the first TEN levels will be debt free.

2) XP debt will be halved on mission maps (that includes outdoor mission maps, too).

I'm just guessing that this is to reduce the frustration factor for low level players and to make players a little less distressed when getting defeated in missions.

City of Villains archetypes

2005-04-10T09:07:00.000-07:00

In case you're curious, the 5 City of Villain archetype names have been revealed but not much beyond that. Statesman said in forums that these are fairly unique and are not just City of Heroes archetypes with villain-y names:

Mastermind

Brute

Stalker

Enforcer

Dominator

1st annual Heroes Choice Awards

2005-04-09T12:00:00.000-07:00

At forums they announced 1st annual Heroes Choice Awards. The nominations period was brief and already closed. This is a "best of" event to be voted on via online poll at the main site though it doesn't appear to be online just yet.

You will need to visit the contests forum threads section at the forums to vote yourself.

It includes both in-game things like best NPC, best arch villain, best story arc etc.; and forum stuff like "favorite board newbie."

Some of the more basic ones included: Favorite Arch Villain, Favorite task force, Favorite zone, favorite story arc, favorite set of villains.

What are your favorites? Since we don't have a forum per se, try adding your thoughts on those via the comments link on this blog post.

2005-04-09T09:54:00.000-07:00

Info at Firebase Zulu

Blackjack tries PvP arena fighting on test server

2005-04-03T23:05:00.000-07:00

Blackjack battling a tanker and defender in the PvP arena on the test server. When a tanker taunts you successfully, you're unable to attack anything but that tanker.
Posted by Hello

Cox Communications network problems

2005-03-31T14:30:00.000-08:00

Saw this at forums today:

03/31/05 05:06 PM
We received information from Cox Communications that they are having network problems. This may affect players using Cox Communications and playing on Freedom, Pinnacle, Liberty, Infinity, Victory, and Triumph. Cox Communications hopes to have this issue resolved as soon as possible.

Natch, I'm a Cox customer. :(

Arena problems on test server continuing

2005-03-30T22:18:00.000-08:00

Well, those of us who think PvP arenas are a bad idea might find it hard not to gloat about the continuing problems getting arenas to run on the test server. I still would like to see it on test to see how it works though. Latest is that the arenas make the test server too unstable right now, so they will not be in on test until the next patch, according to the official word at the forums.

Demise of Discipline Inspirations

2005-03-28T16:57:00.001-08:00

I guess most of miss missed the fine print but "break free" inspirations were supposed to completely replace "disciplines." Apparently this was supposed to happen with Update 3, but they left the disciplines in at NPC stores by mistake (you shouldn't, in theory, ever see them as drops). You can read more in this forum post by Positron (who's about 2nd to Statesman on the COH designer totem pole). They will be removing disciplines from the game entirely with update 4. Don't bother "hording" them because it sounds like any existing disciplines might be converted to "break frees".

Official COH Forum Bytes

2005-03-27T12:03:00.000-08:00

Here are some interesting posts of late from Statesman. I'm putting links to the post so you can read them, rather than paste in the sometimes long posts here.

XP location range adjustments (you'll better understand how it works in terms of people being within a certain range)

Problems with making jetpacks permanent for players (problems with letting players have a jetpack for flight powers, as things currently stand; in case you didn't know, there seems to be a temporary jet pack power provided by a certain sky raider mission)

Paragon Protector stomping

2005-03-27T11:57:00.000-08:00

SilverKnight puts a head splitter stomp on a Paragon Protector.
Posted by Hello

Test Server Update: arena off until Tuesday

2005-03-26T10:48:00.000-08:00

I've paddled around on test server a bit. Cryptic said that due to major technical difficulties the arenas won't be up and running again until Tuesday. The arena buildings are still there if you want to see them, and run around inside -- the terminals to set up PvP matches just aren't working. You can still get on test to try out the new costume options at least.

Angel of Nether vs. The Tsoo

2005-03-26T07:23:00.000-08:00

Angel of Nether vs. The Tsoo Army, during an overwhelmed team mission. :)
Posted by Hello

Hand Some vs. Fake Nemesis

2005-03-25T11:02:00.000-08:00

Hand Some faces a 47 Fake Nemesis boss.
Posted by Hello

Geo Gabs: Making City of Heroes more comic book-y

2005-03-25T07:45:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd try jotting an occasional brief column about my perhaps useless thoughts on COH. :)

Although I'm terribly addicted to the game (if they never changed it, I'm sure I would still keep playing) -- there are things that kinda bug me and I wish they'd improve just to immerse you more...

When you get right down to it, the only crimes you interrupt on streets are basically purse snatchings, "sacrificial ceremonies" (CoTs) and plain old bullying. If you pick up a non City of Heroes comic book, you might see heroes doing all sorts of additional other things: maybe interrupting an attempted robbery of an armored car transferring bank money; escorting someone from place to place; protecting someone from assasination attempts; maybe saving passengers on a hijacked train (wouldn't it be fun to save some people on the Paragon subway?). I'm sure there are more. If you have any suggestions, add them to the comments here. :)
The windows inside door missions seem like a miss opportunity for neat little dramatics. This is only exploited nicely in the finale of the Striga Isle Hess task force. Without spoiling anything, you see something dramatic through windows a couple of times but you can't interact with it. You just "see" it, and for most players going through that TF their first time, it really has an emotional impact on them.

Think about how the Half-Life games used windows go give you a glimpse of The Man in Black; or how System Shock 2 used windows to either give you a glimpse of horror (making you feel helpless cause you couldn't help the person on the other side of the glass) or of a happier drama (two people successfully escaping the doomed space station). Whenever I look through a window inside a door mission, I tend to see it as a little dramatic moment waiting to be designed. :D
Do you know any comic book heroes who sit around saying "I'm not fighting those villains 'cause I won't get enough exp," "Let's skip all these villains so we can get the glowie at the end," "We don't have a chance against these level villains so let's do something else" "I just want to hunt cause i'm bored with all the missions now." etc.

Many heroes like Spider-Man practically thrive on battling villains that hopelessly outclass them, because they're emotionally invested in being a hero, and not running from a fight, no matter how impossible. Now, a player can simply do that in the game out of bravery, but there's just no emotional reward for tackling someone 5 or 7 or however many levels above you. My rambling complaint (sorry) is that comic book grounding isn't strong enough to break the Everquest/MMORPG mentality for most average-casual players (I want more exp, I want more influence, I want to spend the least time possible doing it, I don't care about the storylines or who the villains are, etc.). To me (and just IMHO), it's not 'cause casual players are bad people -- it's because the game doesn't get most involved enough in storylines and caring about characters to take them away from their typical MMORPG mindset.
Active storytelling. Some missions really annoy me when they say something exciting like "So and so hero went to investigate, and now he's gone. Find him!" And I hold my breath and hope that there'll be an NPC hero battling Devouring Earth. Instead, it's just some Lesser Devoured labeled "Firehawk" or something, and he babbles a sentence of caption balloon dialogue. Bleah.

Why not use the "window gimmick" mentioned above to just give me a glimpse of the hero fighting Devouring Earth, and then falling in battle, and transforming INTO a Lesser Devoured? The Kheldians show the game can do "transformations" beautifully afterall. Wouldn't that break your heart to see that? But also be so cool? :D

Hero Fireteams HQ team photo

2005-03-25T00:45:00.000-08:00

Much of the SG gathered for Level 17-20 missions last night. Er, this morning...
Posted by Hello

Who's Who

2005-03-25T00:30:00.000-08:00

With all our new members, I thought it time to publish a roster. The format is:

Highest Character (Original Member or Nominated by/Seconded by)
- Alt Characters

Nuclear Inferno (Original Member)
- Blue Tank
Bionic Mantis (Crusasder/Info Overload)
- Bionic Fury
- Jeneration
- Bionic Mirage

Hand Some (Crusasder/Info Overload)
- Fife
- Saint Cross

Info Overload (Original Member)
- Donna Quixote
- Little Kat
- Queen Paragon
- Doctor Galaxy
- Thundar Tank
- Mindsinger Beta

Sgt. Chaos (Original Member)

Crusasder (Original Member-36)
- (33) Metal Mandroid
- (32) Igloo
- (19) Corporal Cold
- (32) SilverKnight
- (13) Dr. Barium

Ivory Mistress (Original Member)

Angel of Nether

GHOR

Meltdown.

Captain Meson (Original Member)
- Cherno Bill
- Expresso Joe
- Cosmic Rae
- Lady Paradox.

Fire Elf (Captain Meson/Info Overload)
- Penetant
- Eufloria
- Toxithorn

JAMES KIRK (Info Overload/Captain Meson)
- GOOR
- QUEENS ROSE
- MAGIC V GIRL
- MASTER COSMO'S
- LADY IRISH
- MYLANTA
- ATOM HOOD

Venom Orchid (Captain Meson/Info Overload)
- Nanoshock
- Chocoholic
- Mad Satyr
- Raging Phantom

Techno-Cop (Crusasder/Info Overload)

Crystal King

Anklosaur

Test server "Looking for Team" improvements

2005-03-24T11:37:00.000-08:00

Also on the test server right now are enhancements to the "Looking for Team" feature. You can now specify whether you're looking for a team at all; or specifically what type of missions you want to do (Patrol [hunting], missions, TF and trials). You can also jot a short note that will appear next to you on the "Find" list. Try not to abuse it. :D
Posted by Hello

Scaling feature on test server

2005-03-24T10:46:00.000-08:00

Peek at Update 4: Using the scaling features to make a scrawny Blackjack. :) For the face settings, you can click "random" or fine tune seven different aspects of your hero's head.
Posted by Hello

Head Splitter at last!

2005-03-24T09:42:00.000-08:00

SilverKnight finally reaches 32 and the legendary Head Splitter. :)
Posted by Hello

That dam taskforce

2005-03-20T07:31:00.000-08:00

So a bunch of us did the Positron taskforce last night(and much of this morning). Aside from the heinously excessive length, it was a blast. The task force was led by Cosmic Rae and, aside from myself, included Donna Quixote(exemplared down to our level), Eufloria, Saint Cross and Chocoholic. Apologies if I spelled anyone's name wrong, as by the end of the night I was in pretty sorry shape. All did a praiseworthy job.
Saint Cross was always out in front, taking point and drawing fire. I was amazed at the punishment he took.
Donna was everywhere, often seeming to be on the front lines and guarding the flank at the same time.
Rae did all the little things, from teleporting lone foes in for an easy kill to locking down tougher foes to healing in a pinch.
Several times, Chocoholic saved my life by healing me when I thought my health bar was already at zero. I wasn't the only one as I saw many health bars yoyo-ing in the heat of battle.
Eufloria was a blasting machine. So many times I took aim on a target only to see it fall under a barrage of energy blasts.

Overall I incurred debt 5 or 6 times but had it all paid off by the end. I wasn't keeping track but I'm sure I fell the most. Twice I went from 100% to 0 instantly due to focused fire from bosses. Twice it was due to overzealous pursuit of enemies. Once it was due to applying my awaken too early. We experienced 1 full team trip to the hospital early on, falling to a horde of zombies(I think it was zombies). Debt became rarer as the task force progressed and we became more comfortable and experienced with our tactics. Thanks to everyone for helping in the mission to save the dam. I would appreciate any feedback on my performance.

Techno-cop

2005-03-19T15:03:00.000-08:00

Here is FireElf's photo
Posted by Hello

Taking out Positron's Trash

2005-03-19T14:27:00.000-08:00

Positron formed Task Force Antimatter to run a marathon of errands, culminating in a big 4-way fight between the Vahzilok, Clockwork, Circle of Thorns, and, of course, the heros, who were victorious! ((We started March 18, 2005, at about 10:30pm EST and ended the next morning at about 6:45am EST. Exhausting, but fun!))

Task Force Antimatter was lead by Cosmic Rae, aided by Donna Quixote ((exemplared)), the voice of experience, and the eclectic talents of Saint Cross, Techno-Cop, Chocoholic, and Eufloria.

A reporter asked the busy heros to take time out for a group photo, to inspire the good people of Paragon City. We hope to post the photo separately once our contacts make the appropriate arrangements.

Member Sign-in Sheet

2005-02-04T10:30:00.000-08:00

Please add a comment below to let me know you have visited the site. Trying to find out if anyone is actually coming here :)

Thanks

2005-02-01T09:37:00.000-08:00

JAMES KIRK uses Air Superiority on a frozen Ancestor Spirit in Skyway.
Posted by Hello

Pyromaniac

2005-01-18T09:31:00.000-08:00

Crusasder goes pyro during the Striga Island TF.
Posted by Hello

Robot herding

2005-01-18T09:28:00.000-08:00

Blue Tank herds an army of council robots during the Striga Isle TF
Posted by Hello

Remodeling - Pardon the Dust

2005-01-17T07:04:00.000-08:00

I hope to get this place into a little better shape in the coming weeks. I would love any comments on what items you'd like to see included. Anyone can respond to the posts here (I hope I have it set properly).

If you are a member and would like an invite to be able to create posts here, send a valid e-mail address to me (Info Overload) to my in city e-mail account ((in game e-mail)).

Thanks.

The Geo Returns; free respec on live servers

2005-01-12T08:09:00.000-08:00

The Geo has returned from his holiday blues period. :)

Just a reminder the free respec for ALL heroes went on live servers yesterday. You should see a text message about "1 free respec unclaimed." Just type in /respec for your hero to be taken to the respec screen. Do that for each hero.

Keep in mind the free respec is on test. If you had any heroes on test, you may want to experiment with a possible respec there first to see if it's going to work the way you want.

You can claim it later of course. If you have a lower level hero it may be better to wait a while before taking advantage of it. In my case, I do have one level 14 hero (Corporal Cold) who needs a melee attack and a travel power to be more useful to groups.

I respec'd Crusasder to get Super Speed, Caltrops and more sockets in Stamina then he originally had at 23. I plan to respec Blackjack to get him stamina, and possibly switch him to Super Speed from Super Jump. Igloo, already respec'd once, might get a makeover too. I think Metal Mandroid is pretty much just the way I wanted him, which is rare for me. :)

A New Appointment, and Congratulations

2005-01-04T15:47:00.000-08:00

Hero Fireteams Members:

As you all know, I've been spending a lot of time in the lab the last few months, and having been doing much actual patrolling. Though I enjoy hands-on work cleaning up the city, I also enjoy the lab work, and I feel very happy that I've been able to help many of you with small or large devices to use in your work.

I've been thinking about this a lot, and I have an announcement to make, which I suspect will surprise none of you and please most of you. You all know Info Overload, who has been part of our group since its founding, and who in fact helped shape the philosophy that became our founding principle. As I have been spending more time in the lab, she has been pulling more weight on the street, mentoring in actual combat to supplement theoretical exercises, and in general doing the more "extroverted" half of the leadership duties.

So it's time to make it official. As of today, Info will be the co-commander of our group. In general, we will split responsibility according to our demonstrated strengths. She will be the field commander, available for advice or backup as she always has been. I will stay with the more logistical and support side of things, interfacing with the city bureaucracy, running the lab, and so forth. Since this is mostly a recognition of the way things have been for some time, I don't expect this to cause any real disruption - it's mostly giving overdue credit for her great work.

I'm not entirely hanging up my spurs as an active hero; I hope to be able to schedule a little time each weak for patrolling and doing some missions. In fact, by recognizing where my best contributions lie I hope that scheduling that time will become easier - the folks I interact with will no longer assume that I am getting my patrolling in "some other time", but will be more likely to recognize how little patrolling time I get and respect it.

In any event, Congratulations to Info, and many thanks for doing so much of the work of this position long before it was acknowledged.

Member Profile: Dark Return

2004-10-17T14:33:00.000-07:00

Real Name: Austin Maxim
General Power Classification: Scrapper
Power Type: Dark Melee/Regeneration
General Origin Classification: Technology
Current Security Clearance: 26

Height: 7ft 0inches
Weight: 325 lbs.
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Blue

Team Role(s): Support , Damage Dealer

Strengths:
1. Powerful, short range cone attack (shadow maul 6 slots)
2. Self healing powers, and endurance recovery
3. Uses tactics to help allies, resistant to disorient.

Weaknesses:
1. Effects of his cursed gauntlets makes him edgy and a little hastey for blood.
2. No taunt or attention getting attacks.
3. Melee attacks has to be in the middle of most battles.

Force of Jazzs' background

2004-10-14T17:04:00.000-07:00

Jasmine Hildebrand an extremely talented engineer and mechanic was one of the first engineers employed by the sky raiders. At first Jasmine was unconcerned about their activities and morality, but as more and more of her colleagues were having fatal "accidents"she started getting concerned. So Jasmine started delving into the deceased techs recent works, and as it turns out all the accidents occurred after the completion of key research goals; a personal teleporter, a winged jetpack, and a A.I. robot that is almost indestructible. She herself was on the verge of completing her research on a force field generator. Over the next few months in secret Jasmine worked on integrating the force field powers into a suit.
On the planned unveiling of her generator Jasmine decided to take her suit and create an "accident" of her own. That night she blew up her lab and any traces of what she was doing in secret. After weeks of lying low Jasmine donned her force field generating suit and made her way to paragon hero HQ and signed up to fight paragons villains including her ex-employers the infamous sky raiders. Her hero name is now "Force of Jazz" and she fights to protect freedom and to keep advanced technology from falling in the wrong hands.

A little background on Dark Return

2004-10-14T16:42:00.000-07:00

Three months after the devastating Rikti invasion subsided.

Austin Maxim a paragon P.D. detective was investigating a string of grave robberies where the grave was completely devoid of all contents including the corpses. On a stake out with his partner at moth cemetery in dark Astoria, Austin started to here a distant drum like rhythm. It was Austins watch and his partner was fast asleep "I must be hearing things", He thought to himself. Austin decided to take a stroll in hopes of getting the incessant rhythm out of his head. As he was walking he noticed a couple of Blue glowing orbs moving slowly in distant moth cemetery, so he thought he'd take a look. With gun drawn he ventured in towards the hovering orbs as he drew towards the pulsing spheres it began to become foggy, a cold fog, cold like Death. Something was not right, but before Austin new it he was completely surrounded by a thick oily blackness he couldn't tell north from south. The blood in him started to pump and the fear started to rise before he new it he was at a dead run. The cold spine-tingling black urging his feet and fear on he kept running. As he ran he started seeing a building coming up ahead, like a beacon thru the storm. Pushing the large iron doors open was an effort, but he did get it open and closed it behind him with his back. Collapsing against the inside of the door Austin had a chance to catch his breath and take a look around. The dimly lit interior was a welcome against the cold dark death outside. In the center of the room was an open sarcophagus, taking a closer look Austin could see a pair of obsidian black gauntlets. The lamps in the room where placed in a way so there were no shadows. With a loud boom the large iron door flew open cracking the wall it hit. There in the doorway was the black fog being held at bay by the strange lamps. There was also one of those strange glowing balls hovering in the doorway, as it moved closer Austin could make out a large humanoid form and the blue globe was embedded in its chest. Austin pulled the gauntlets on as if they told him to. After wielding the light devoid gauntlets he was drawn towards the hulking horror, as if he'd done this before he grasped the orb in a gauntleted fist while thrusting the corpse back in turn tearing the blue pulsing globe from its chest. The corpse collapsed lifeless to the ground, and the gauntlet holding the sheer started absorbing, no eating the glowing orb. When the orb was fully absorbed the gauntlets seemed larger than when he previously dawned them. With a new found vigor Austin rushed out the door towards where he left his sleeping partner. As soon as he reached the car he collapsed in a coma.

Six months later.....

Austin opened his eyes to discover himself in a strange room. He was strapped down and connected to strange machinery, to weak to move he just laid there until someone came in. At the sight of Austins consciousness the doctor started calling his colleagues. While his piers arrived he went to tell Austin what has been taking place while he was comatosed. Apparently shadows and blue balls weren't the only things "EATEN" by the still attached gauntlets. The gauntlets fed off life-force and Austins was the closest to feed off of. In an effort to save his life he was injected with tiny nanobots to help repair and preserve his body. The only thing is that new injections of nanobots have to be introduced on a regular basis to counter act the gauntlets hunger.
The discovery of these strange zombies and powerful artifacts has drawn the attention of paragons finest. After hearing Austins miraculous story; Captain Meson of Hero Fireteam HQ generously donated a nanotech power suit he invented when he heard of Dark Returns condition, giving Austin the ability to keep the cursed gloves at bay as well as bestow regenerative powers. With the generous donation Austin decides to battle paragons villains until some kind of anti-curse can be found to remove the dark gauntlets. Until that time Austin Maxim will be known as "Dark Return"

Member Profile: Little Kat

2004-10-14T15:10:00.000-07:00

Real Name: Little Kat
General Power Classification: Blaster
Power Type: Assault Rifle/Devices
General Origin Classification: Magic
Current Security Clearance: 20

Height: 4ft 5inches
Weight: 85
Hair: Tawny and Black Fur
Eyes: Blue-green

Team Role(s): Sniper, Damage Dealer

Strengths:
1. Powerful, long distance snipe attacks
2. Some Knockback attack powers
3. Fast moving, hard for meleers to pin down except in small spaces.

Weaknesses:
1. Though she has become somewhat more understandable post-transformation, she lacks the vocabluary to hold deep tactical discussions.
2. Unable to absorb damage.
3. Range of attack often puts her outside of range of healers.

Other comments:
If you cannot find her when on a team be sure to look up or in things, as she often is climbing on or in boxes, walking on rails, or just generally trying to be above ground level.

She also will not discuss the details of her transformation from a controller to a blaster, other to say that she got tried of being picked on and that she used magic to "acquire" one of Sargeant Ion's special rifles and a supply of Captain Meson's web gernades and caltrops.

Member Profile: Cherno Bill

2004-10-11T17:19:00.000-07:00

Real Name: William Neretski
General Power Classification: Defender
Power Type: Radiation Emission/Radiation Blast
General Origin Classification: Science
Current Security Clearance: 21

Height: 6', 0"
Weight: 200 without armor
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Blue

Team Role: eventually tactical hindrance/expedition but currently primarily ranged attack; some healing ability

Strengths:
1. Variety of skills suitable for filling in weaknesses in a team.
2. Eventually will have massive effects leveraging team vs villain power ratios, with strong "debuffs" and "buffs".
3. Blasts are a little weak on damage, but reduce enemy defenses as a side effect.
4. Snipe cycles relatively quickly for repeated use.

Weaknesses:
1. Variety of skills reduces effectiveness in any one role
2. In terms of his powers for his security level he is a late bloomer. He is just coming into his main powers as he tops SL 20.
3. Despite his massive armor, Bill is actually a young adult. He can be impetuous or even impatient at times.

Other comments:
His massive armor makes him slightly tougher than many ranged attacking heroes, but since it is mainly for containing and controlling his radioactive and thermal emissions it is not as protective as it looks.

A Word from Captain Meson

2004-10-11T17:11:00.000-07:00

The supervillain power surge which brought us all so much grief seems to have mostly subsided; the villains in most missions are no longer uniformly operating a full Combat Level above the nominal threat rating your contacts use in giving you missions.

There do seem to be some residual effects, though, which leave just the main "boss" villain of affected missions boosted. I know most of your fellow Fireteams members will be happy to come and help you finish off such a boosted foe if you need it, so don't be too shy to ask! ((Be sure to /bug missions where you get a red boss so the devs can fix them! As always, use /bug while still on the mission map so they get the complete dump of the situation, and use the description box for things that wouldn't be obvious from a raw dump of the map and contents rather than repeating those things.))

Most of you have noticed that I've been spending a lot of time in the lab recently. I was trying to help research the power surge, and I hope that some of my results will help the city authorities if it recurs. Lab work is very soothing to me, and I must admit that if some of you folks hadn't specifically asked me to come back into the field I might well have given up the active heroing life in favor of lab work and developing little devices for you all to use. But actually taking on crime, villainy, and evil in person has its own rewards, and I find that now that I've gotten back onto the streets it's easier to keep the habit up. If you have a mission you'd particularly like my help on, please feel free to give me a call.

Member Profile: Simon Shadow

2004-09-13T09:08:00.000-07:00

Real Name: Simon Shadolitzki
General Power Classification: Defender
Power Type: Dark Miasma/Dark Blast
General Origin Classification: Science
Current Security Clearance: 6

Height: 6', 3"
Weight: 220
Hair: Black
Eyes: Grey

Team Role: Damage Dealer

Strengths:
(Mostly untested)
1. Staying power
2. Stripping enemies of their defenses
3. Quiet
4. Little downtime

Weaknesses:
1. Uncommunicative
2. Focuses too much on dealing damage, not enough on team support skills

Other comments:
Dark and taciturn, but good-hearted inside. Should grow into a valuable SG member.

Member Profile: Donna Quixote

2004-09-13T09:00:00.000-07:00

Real Name: Unknown
General Power Classification: Scrapper
Power Type: Broadsword/Regeneration
General Origin Classification: Natural
Current Security Clearance: 18

Height: 6ft5in
Weight: 200 lbs
Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Blue

Team Role(s): Grunt, Mini-tank

Strengths:
1. High damage attacks recharge fairly quickly.
2. Is in extremely good condition - long lasting in battle and hardly any downtime between battles.
3. When enraged, can take a lot of damage without noticing (Dull Pain), in addition to higher than normal health replenishment (Both Fast Recovery and Health).

Weaknesses:
1. Is insane.
2. Attacks do good damage but are somewhat slow.
3. Often, especially when in the middle of a battle, becomes so focused on taking out criminals that she looses track of what is happening with the rest of the team.

Other comments:
Donna is now using a fully developed booster unit that allows her to jump great distances. Thank you Captain Meson!

Tactical Problem #2

2004-09-10T08:32:00.000-07:00

You are off to take out Mr. Po and his level 17 Tsoo minons. You will face groups containing Ancestor Spirits, Ink Men, and the dreaded 2 Sorcerors that heal each other.

Which 3 pre-20 Fireteam members would you take and why?

If you had only 2 per-20 Fireteam members, what AT/powers would you try to recruit for the 3rd member of your team and why?

Member Poll #1

2004-09-10T08:29:00.000-07:00

Are you reading this blog?

So far we have Member Profiles, which I've tried to keep up to date by editing the security level when I become aware of changes, and Tactical Problems. What else, if anything, would you like to see here?

Member Profile: Shiela Shadow

2004-09-09T09:05:00.000-07:00

Real Name: Shiela Shadolitzki
General Power Classification: Scrapper
Power Type: Dark Melee/Dark Armor
General Origin Classification: Science
Current Security Clearance: 6

Height: 5', 10"
Weight: MYOB
Hair: Red
Eyes: Blue-gray

Team Role: Damage Dealer

Strengths:
(Mostly untested)
1. Good damage, ideally to multiple foes at once
2. Stripping enemies of their defenses
3. Low equipment costs

Weaknesses:
1. Sometimes (?) talks too much
2. Overly dependent on her brother's support
3. Tires easily
4. No "pulling" ability
5. Inner demons can cause an overly blood-thirst behavior if not controlled.

Other comments:
Still young and undeveloped. Working towards being a maximum damage dealer.

Member Profile: Ivory Mistress

2004-09-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

Real Name: Sheri C. Masterson
General Power Classification: Controler
Power Type: Mind Control / Empathy
General Origin Classification: Natural
Current Security Clearance: 30

Height: 5ft4in
Weight: 118 lbs
Hair: White
Eyes: Blue

Team Role(s): Healer, Buffer, Holder, Assistant Captain to Info Overload

Strengths:
1. Can hold those who want to harm her friends while they arrest them.
2. Can heal her friends at a real great speed and bring them back to full health in no time.
3. Will never abandon a friends when in trouble, devoted to her task at hand.
4. Keen eyesight and good sense of direction.
5. Speaks French!

Weaknesses:
1. Is very frail.
2. Attacks do nearly no damage, she can't bear harming peoples as it's against her nature.
3. Speak too much in middle of fight, that could cause some concentration problems.
4. Prone to childish behaviors.
5. Sgt. Chaos :D

Other comments:
She's not one who likes to lead the group in different tasks, so she's more effective when teamed with those who take the lead, that's one reason she's working so great with her captain Info Overload, or Sgt. Chaos, or any other "mission leader".

Member Profile: Info Overload

2004-09-07T09:00:00.000-07:00

Real Name: June DeFoo
General Power Classification: Blaster
Power Type: Electrical/Electrical
General Origin Classification: Science
Current Security Clearance: 31

Height: 6ft0in
Weight: refused to disclose
Hair: Red
Eyes: Blue

Team Role(s): Sniper, Artillery, Air Support, Emergency Scout

Strengths:
1. Alpha-snipe (buildup + aim, followed by Zapp, Lighting Bolt, & Lighting Charge) can usually take out 1 lieutenant or 2 minion level enemies very quickly.
2. High damage attacks recharge fairly quickly.
3. Telsa Cage can take an enemy out of the battle for a short time. Has high hit percentage against lieutenants and minions but practically zero against bosses and higher.
4. Remote Object Blaster (ROB) is especially useful when solo or in duos. Adds a mini-blaster to team, increasing firepower.

Weaknesses:
1. Low health; will be defeated if forced into melee range, especially against melee specialists, and cannot withstand a return alpha strike from large, ranged groups.
2. Mind controllers; if not taken out in alpha-snipe or focused on another teammate a mind contoller WILL sleep, stun, hold, etc. Info - seems to have practically no resistance to these attacks, even when using inspiration.
3. Slow; when stealthed even slower.
4. Lousy sense of direction; gets lost, turned around and otherwised confused

Other comments:
Currently working to improve target selection. In most cases after alpha strike had been just targeting next enemy by distance (auto target). Now trying to focus on unengaged higher/problem enemies and assisting any teammate in trouble.

Member Profile: Blackjack

2004-09-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

Real Name: N/A [Vegas witness protection program]
General Power Classification: Scrapper
Power Type: Martial Arts/Regeneration
General Origin Classification: Natural
Current Security Clearance: 24

Height: 5ft 10inches
Weight: 185
Hair: Black
Eyes: Black

Team Role(s): Damage Dealer, bodyguard for non-melee types, Puller (Warrior's Challenge pull)

Strengths:
1. Solid damaging attacks, esp. with Focus Chi activated
2. Some Knockback and Disorient attack powers
3. Built in resistance to disorientation (stun)
4. Built in fast healing and recovery
5. Integration toggle provides some resistance to Knockback, Disorient, Hold, Sleep and Immobilization
6. Modest endurance usage unless toggles are on

Weaknesses:
1. Slow-to-fire attacks (updated training procedures expected to improve speed) make it hard to keep up with blasters on large teams
2. Less damage than a blaster, less durable than a tanker
3. Warrior's Challenge not much good against high ends
4. No ability to slow enemies

Other comments:
Believes future training procedures and improved critical hit chances will enhance future performance.

Tactical Problem #1

2004-09-03T10:28:00.000-07:00

How would you approach the situation and why?

The situation:

The team is in an old warehouse. After clearing a long straight corridor you come to a T-intersection. To the right is a group consisting of 1 Bone Daddy and 6 minions of mixed types (gunners, slashers, etc.). To the left is a group consisting of 1 Murk, 1 Mort, and 4 Abominations. The groups are (barely) far enough apart that (if the team is careful) they can be tackled separately. All of the bad guys are level 17.

The team:

Expresso Joe (level 17 controller)
MonochromeStone (level 15 tank)
Donna Quixote (level 15 scrapper)

Member Profile: Expresso Joe

2004-08-31T15:33:00.000-07:00

Real Name: unclear (coffee stains on the form)
General Power Classification: Controller
Power Type: Illusion/Kinetics
General Origin Classification: Science
Current Security Clearance: 17

Height: 6ft0in
Weight: 180 lb
Hair: coffee brown
Eyes: hazel

Team Role(s): Support (holds, buffs, debuffs), some damage
* planned roles include strategic mobility, but not until SL22 on current schedule

Strengths:
1. Decent damage capability for a controller - makes a good teammate for a tanker, defender, or another controller
2. High personal mobility

Weaknesses:
1. Odd/limited healing capabilities (Kinetics heal)
2. Limited selection of holds

Other comments:
Like many Science heroes, I didn't pick my selection of powers and don't control what new ones manifest. I hear folks talk about how popular "Illusion/Kinetics" is for folks designing their own powers - tech and magic types, I guess - but I'm not some optimized combat machine. Just Joe the deliveryman whose roomate left a jar of heavy water next to the coffeemaker one night.

Member Profile: MonochromeStone

2004-08-31T15:29:00.000-07:00

Real Name: Mark Modson
General Power Classification: Tanker (high damage)
Power Type: Invulnerability/Stone Melee
General Origin Classification: Mutant
Current Security Clearance: 15

Height: 6ft8in
Weight: a LOT
Hair: White
Eyes: Can't see behind them shades

Team Role(s): Tanker, Puller (taunt), Damage Dealer, Handling Bosses and Thick Armored Types (Freak Tankers etc.)

Strengths:
1. Auto-resistances to smashing/lethal attacks and energy/negative powers
2. Super Jump at 14 so sidekick-able to higher levels reasonably
3. High knockback, used judiciously, keeps villains off their feet
4. Taunt for pulling, and pulling nasties off glass jawed blaster friends.
5. Powerful stone melee attacks allow better damage dealing than most tankers

Weaknesses:
1. Slow recharging attacks
2. High endurance drain
3. Slow when SJ's off
4. Not able to take as much punishment as Rock Armor tankers

Other comments:
Working on gradual swich to DO enhancements. Might put off fitness one more time to get Build at 16.

Member Profile: Captain Meson

2004-08-31T15:16:00.000-07:00

Real Name: (classified)
General Power Classification: Blaster
Power Type: Energy/Devices
General Origin Classification: Technology
Current Security Clearance: 28

Height: 6ft2in
Weight: 200 lb
Hair: black
Eyes: Blue

Team Role(s): Scout, tactical preparation, sniper, general offense

Strengths:
1. Endurance - can fight nearly nonstop in long battles
2. Personal stealth and preparatory devices (caltrops, mines, smoke grenades)
3. Knockback attacks tend to reduce enemy attack rate

Weaknesses:
1. Lack of area-effect powers - one cone, no spheres
2. Knockback can inconvenience melee-oriented teammates
3. Occasional disorientation when sniping while hovering

Other comments:
Often the meta-lepton density will achieve local state saturation, interfering with optimal distribution over the target region. Luckily, tunnelling tends to ameliorate this effect in a moving target region. So we can generate a "force blast" but a meta-lepton "force field" is hard to make reliable.

Welcome!

2004-08-30T18:30:00.000-07:00

Hero Fireteams HQ is organized as a supergroup under the revised Paragon City charter, but we are different from most supergroups. Our membership is diverse in powers, in security level, in patrolling patterns. What we share is a commitment to the idea that small groups with good tactics can outperform large, less organized groups in most situations. Sure, once in a while, a huge threat comes along, and one of the city's signature heroes must organize a Task Force. But for day-to-day countering of evil, a fireteam of heroes is both more effective ((and more fun)) than a whole squad.

The defining vision of Hero Fireteams is that no matter how large our membership grows, we will prefer small teams (two to four, or maybe five members), and we prefer some tactical sophistication in combat. We are interested in the unfolding story of the salvation of Paragon City, and prefer well-defined missions to ad-hoc area patrols. The group exists primarily as a clearinghouse for forming these small teams, a resource pool of other heroes who share the same beliefs and whose suitability for small teams has been demonstrated.

Membership in Hero Fireteams is by invitation, and is generally extended to heroes who have engaged in at least a few small team missions with existing members. Ideally, the prospective new member will have worked with more than one distinct combination of other members, but this is not a requirement.