The times they are a changing...

I posted on the CO forums today and was reminded of this little blog of mine... I have neglected it so badly!! Fortunately, I've not neglected my game and have been getting a lot more out of it lately!

F2P has opened up a whole new demographic to the game and I've been loving it. With the new people come new experiences and new toys (and LAIRS tomorrow!) and I've been trying to keep up with the possibilities. Check out the video that I made from our last aftershock run!! I promise to make Monday my new post day for as long as I remember to!!

http://youtube/s7LBt-g6Vyw

Alright! I know it's been a while!! I'm BACK!!

So I'm back - there was some personal stuff going on (real life so often intrudes on my digital one!!) and I was unable to play much or blog. NOW, I'm in Gillette Wyoming and have all the time in the world! There is this white stuff that falls from the sky and you can't wear t-shirts outside and I haven't seen the sun.... Why oh why did I ever leave California!?!

Actually, I'm only here a couple of weeks, but I'm still not going outside!

Back to the game - I've been doing a bit of beta testing for the free-to-play Champions Online and I have to say I love the new stuff! I think you all are going to have a great time with it. I also think that the Cryptic folks are pretty brilliant! With all the new, cool devices in the C-Store, even I will be shelling out some cash to buy stuff and I'm a lifer! (Gold subscriber, free players will be Silver) I can't go into details yet, but after the 25th, I'll post a blog about specifics!

So we had an 'end of beta' event last night that was a riot!! It ended with a three-zone costume contest with Cryptic Devs and GM's judging. The winner gets to become immortalized in-game and there were some really awesome costumes! I didn't win {sadface} but I totally agree with the judges on who were the finalists! Congrats to the finalists! (My costume is the one with the giant backpack - they didn't judge taking character biographies into account or I might have had a chance!)

The other part of the event involved the devs/GM's tossing random cosmic baddies at us in the middle of Ren Center! It was sheer chaos and I died over and over and over but the spawn point was close enough that it was no problem.... I just sat there, tossing my poor little teddy bear toys at the bad guys and giggling like a fiend! Clarence made an appearance! (Mecha-Teddy from Christmas Event)

Grond hopped in from the desert to make an appearance! (Yes that is TWO Teleosaurs in the background! Thankfully that Qwyjibo was fighting on our side and keeping them occupied!)

At one point we had Kigaltik, two Teleosaurus and two Qwyjibos up - SO MUCH FUN!!

I call this shot "Kigaltik sings 'Stayin Alive' with Teleosaurus backup singers!"

There weren't many people on Zone 3 at first, it was looking ugggggly for the heroes. There was talk of hiding in Club Capris but we were more afraid of the role-players than we were the dinosaurs!! (Just kidding my RP'ing friends!!)

First kill of the night - it seemed soooo easy! The crowd started grumbling and the GM's sort of went "Yeah?? You think that's boring??? Let's Play!" and then they brought the BOOM!

After all the fun, I went to the desert where Grond was gunning for me - this hit was the last thing I saw from him for the night... I woke up at Witchcrafts feet thinking he had every right, payback is a bitch!

Hope to see you all on free to play starting January 25th!! I'm @geminiwench in game, I have 4 level 40s, am in 2 awesome supergroups (All-Stars and Aegis), have almost completed the tier 2 Science travel power and have been playing for over a year... I love to help out newbies so shoot me a tell if you need anything!!

Crisis Zones

Started my day by working on the Vibora Bay Crisis, it is pretty awesome. You get to pound on Vampires, Werewolves, Evil Angels and Voodoo Priests. It has one of the scariest areas for me though. This is the edge of the abyss and if you fall, you fallllllllllll and then you die. It's funny, I am afraid of heights even in an online game!! Vlork keeps inching toward 40. He's 38 right now and I just totally respec'd him. I have no idea why I did it, he was fine on his own but I start reading through the forums about these uber-builds and feel the need to try them out. Champions Online gives you respec tokens pretty often so it doesn't cost much to change your entire build. It's a good thing they do too! I have a few characters that I made for 'flavor' instead of effectiveness and they needed LOTS of work. My next project is to get into PVP. The Super Group (All-Stars) is really into PVP and I want to be able to get in on the action. Next came the Monster Island Crisis!! It was one of those rare days when Schmoopy tore himself away from Star Trek Online and played with me. We had a great time, we fought, we died, we laughed and he even leveled Drake Star (his most hated character that he's spent so much time on that he can't give her up!).

I so love the Monster Island Crisis!!!! Sidekicked up with the Schmoopy and took on the big boys! The fight between the two of them is so epic and then you get to take a serum and get big and throw down too!! This toon is Skrug, she has powers that make her big to begin with so when I take the serum, I get HUGE! It gives me a giggle... Plus she is a brute so there is no finesse to her fighting style, she just wades in and makes things die.

Spent some time grinding Vibora Bay with Sai. I love this zone too because it makes me think of New Orleans. (Right down to the saxophone player on the corner, under the balcony!) I grind the zone for the costume pieces that drop. Some people sell the stuff but I am so into the costumes I just can't stand to part with them. I live for the day that the 'butt-cape' drops off one of the Vampire mobs!!

Note to the devs - the crypts in Vibora Bay are way to huge to not have back doors out once you finish the mission!!!!

Above is Madame Giggles. She is Middea's Nemesis and Middea finished her first Nemesis mission (with a bit of help!) and it went pretty well. Schmoopy's character Cajun helped me out because I couldn't solo it. This is the first toon I've ever had that I couldn't solo it with. She is sorcery and just not good at crowd control yet. I hope that changes with a couple of levels because I really like playing her. I just have to use her as more of a dps, support character. So now it's 1:40 am and I'm resisting the urge to pull an allnighter and log on Spyborg to grind some more for crafted travel power mats... I WILL get that tier two Storm Rider travel power!!! See you online!

Some times a Super Group is just so super....

Won't you take me to.... Funky Millenium City!! There was a PVP tourney in the ren center today and the All-Stars showed up in all their finest. This is Spyborg's newest look and I'm kind of digging it!! My broken finger is slowly getting better but just a word to the wise, pain killers plus ventrillo is not a pretty picture!!

Vlork is about half way through the Vibora Bay crisis. Which I think is the second best crisis in the game. Monster Island is the best by far but Vibora Bay DOES have the 'book that goes blah' as shown above, which makes for a pretty cool image!!

I also took him to Lemuria. Now THIS crisis is the suckiest one there is... you can solo all the others but this one. There are these little robot drones that you have to protect as they pick up supplies and then repair the ship. Thank goodness you don't have to complete it to access Lemuria or I would never ever go there. Still, it is by far the prettiest zone that Champions Online has and it's a great place to grind for Mysticism crafted travel power materials so be looking for more from this zone as Vlork spends more time there.

One last screen shot of the All-Stars!! It's a fun group of guys and I'm glad that I found my way to them. The last few Super Groups I've been involved with have either faded away or were full of jerks or people who's idea of a good run on a Saturday night involved rather juvenile attempts to have cybersex with me....

Just hadto take a shot of Shademaker dancing with the Saloon Girls at Belle's. She sort of fits in well don't you think?? See you online!!

A day of patriotism and costume contests

Saturdays are usually all about the costume contests. There is usually one a day but on Saturdays there seems to be one every couple of hours. Below is a pic of the Heroes' Inc (the improper use of the apostrophe is theirs!) I brought out Little Bow Peep, my archer. She's won a sexiest category with her other costume but I don't like to use one once it's won something. So I made her a bunny Peep (like you get at Easter) but no one seems to get that and I've never won with her. On the steps is Scion, he hurt my eyes!! Quark won and the funniest statement about that was "She doesn't look anything like a Ferengi!!" in fact, she looks like a little toy soldier and this is the second time I've seen her win.There was a little costume contest in the blimp in the Ren Center. There were only about 10 people in attendance and it had a zombie theme. Don of the Dead won it (a zombie in a suit!) but I thought that Glenda Gigglefitz was the best... Below is a pic of Angelfyre in her zombie suit jumping from the ledge. I time it so I fall and then hit my fly power once I get close to the ground, it's sort of a rush.

The best costume contest was the patriotic one thrown by Arcane Arrow. He decided to do it in honor of 9-11. There were a ton of really good red, white and blue costumes. I brought Skrug, my brute... She didn't win of course but I have to say that just seeing the other costumes is my favorite part of the CC's.

Finally, I thought I'd give a shot of one of the traditions of the costume contests. Everyone runs up to take a good look at the winners and chaos ensues. Since the anniversary party bombs you see a lot of dancing. There is also a lot of dueling and some role-players do their thing. It's sort of fun!

Other than costume contests, I spent the day grinding. Spyborg spent an hour or so getting travel power materials. I usually grind with her until her inventory is full and then go in to craft what I got. It's a long process but I'm dedicated to the idea of getting her to tier 2!! Vlork did quests and killed Megatarek with the help of my husband's lvl 40 character T'gran. Sai did her grinding in Vibora Bay. I am trying to get costume unlocks for my account (especially the butt-cape!) but she didn't get anything yesterday. Favorite name of the day was "Copyright Protection" which I thought was hilarious. Champions Online has a bunch of copycat characters (countless Deadpools and Hulks!) and they try to keep on top of the situation. If they catch you, they change your name to generic##### and notify you that you have to change your name. If you change it to something similar like "D3adpool they will lock you out of your account. I applaud their vigilance. I totally support an artist's right to protect their intellectual property. See you online!!

Grinding, Leveling and Costume Contests! Oh My!

I must say, the costume contests are one of my favorite parts of CO. Team Badass runs some of the best ones, they allow you to change between categories and they have tons of them. I've won a few and lost many but I always love to see the creativity that other players use. I gave Abby Normal a run and she didn't win anything (she's the one in green with the Sorcerer Teddy action fig). It's sort of hard to compete against the 13th Witch (in purple next to me).

Even after the anniversary event, I still get a thrill out of kicking a little Mega-Destroid ass! Here I am with Sai, answering the call to arms. I only died three times so it was a pretty good run for her! She is pretty squishy and I have trouble keeping her alive at times. That's one of the great things about CO. No debt for death, no exp loss... They have a 'star' system. You start with a full set of stars that give you a bonus to your damage/healing. As you die, you loose stars so that bonus goes down. You can buy stars to replenish them OR you can just kill stuff and they come back. Either way, it definitely makes 'death' much less of an impact so I don't find it nearly as frustrating as I have found other games!

Had to make a visit to WCOC a couple of times today. I would have given ANYTHING to be in on the dev meeting where they discussed the likelihood of them being able to get away with WCOC as the name of the TV station that is constantly being menaced by Foxbat!

Bubble Boy to the rescue!!! He's my force build and a lot of fun to play! I got him two levels yesterday plus Middea got her Nemesis!

Quit dancing Foxbat and fight like a man!!! Also, figure out what you owe me from the Foxbat IOU ping-pong ball!! I'm tired of using up bank space keeping them!

Ended my day by killing Sheriff Robo. He's pretty easy.

Fun things from today: Doctor Brain apparently got bored and decided to do a riddle contest in the contest channel. Royally pissing off Kali who thought that it should only be used for costume contests. She/he (gender is so NOT obvious in this game, most guys play girl characters!) 'stormed off' the channel in a huff and I guess that this was supposed to teach us a lesson but what it actually did was leave the channel for the rest of us who were enjoying the riddles!

Favorite character name today: OH GOD NOT THE BEES (that really is the name!! I love it!!)

Not much playing done yesterday...

I had class and was feeling 'ucky' so I didn't play too much yesterday... So let's talk Costume Contests! I've played most of the MMO's out there and I have to say that CO is by far my favorite when it comes to character customization! There are endless combinations and I have a serious case of 'altiholism'. Each character has several costume slots so I can spend HOURS playing with them. The end game to this process for me is the costume contest. I have won several and even got 500g for my Mudkip themed costume that I made for Glub Glub. Below, you will see the costume that won for WORST once. Looking at it now, I guess I agree but at the time I was very sad because I thought Spyborg looked cool. Andromedeus also won the WTF category once, but that is sort of the look I wanted for her so that was pretty cool. One of the problems with grinding Monster Island is that you come across scenes like the one below. I couldn't resist tossing a party bomb at Quijibo. I love that you can just fly around the corner and run into a couple of cosmic creatures fighting it out! Of course it messes up your grind time because you can't just be wandering around with giant flaming monkeys and dinosaurs hanging out!! See you online!