Base: Constantly Under Construction

Just a quick note for those wondering what's going on: Omicron Cypher decided that he would like to redesign the workshops, so be prepared for a bit of construction in that area of the base.

Tags: base_

Base Rent

Just paid the rent of 42372 prestige. Using the formula from the boards gives us a net worth of 3,136,701 prestige.

Formula from the boards:
Rent = Prestige * ( 0.000278049 * Prestige ^ 0.2596)

Inverse of that formula:
Prestige = exp(ln(Rent/0.000278049)/1.2596)

Tags: base_

Upcoming Events

I'm going to be out of town this coming weekend, so I won't be able to organize events for then, but here are some things I'm thinking about for the coming week or two:

1) Team mixer night with the Arch Villains. Get to know our allies by running missions with them. We'll probably start out by meeting up at the base, then breaking into teams depending on level ranges, availability of LKs, and such.

2) Silver Mantis SF. This is for levels 20-25, requires membership in the SG, and has a minimum team size of 4. We can run multiple SFs in parallel if there are more than 8 people interested. My understanding is that this SF is comparable in length to the standard CoH TFMs, so the "standard" completion time is approximately 4 hours. If necessary, we can have a team that runs this "casual style" in two 2-hour blocks on different days.

3) PvP Night. As suggested by Staggerlee (Tormenting Soul), it would be fun to get a group together and check out the new PvP zones. Siren's Call seems to be the best bet, but I'll leave the specifics for Staggerlee to decide. See this post for any details/comments on PvPing.

So...any ideas for other events? Any suggestions for scheduling?

Tags: events_

Gobble, Gobble

It's past midnight here, so Happy Turkey Day!

Tags: misc_

Teleporter Primer

Teleporters are a bit wonky at the moment, so here's a brief overview of how they work.

We have 4 teleporters in the base: 3 PvE teleporters and 1 larger raid teleporter (which we will not be using for a while).

The PvE teleporters will take you to any of the 6 PvE zones in the Rogue Islands. Each of the 3 teleporters covers 2 zones. Entering from the control room (where the mission computer is), the first on the left goes to Nerva and St. Michael, the second goes to Sharkhead and Cap au Diable, and the last goes to Mercy Island and Port Oakes.

To use a teleporter, walk into the center of the teleporter and click on the computer inside. Because the swirly blue field blocks clicks, you'll have to zoom into first persom mode in order to do this.

Enjoy!

Tags: base_ intro_

Next Hidden Evil Night

I nominate Friday night for out next all-stalker group. Current top level is 6, so if you haven't joined, feel free to roll a scrapper and level up to that point. We'll start Friday night once we have at least four interested people on (in order to meet the minimum teaming requirement for the group).

Tags: events_ hiddenevil_

Base Update

There hasn't been much to say about the base, as we've pretty much maxed out our current options without doing a significant upgrade to the plot and infrastructure (which will require close to 2M prestige between the plot, power, and control upgrades).

We now have all three PvE teleporters up, giving us easy access to all six PvE zones in the Rogue Islands. The raid teleporter is also up, although it won't be much use to us until we upgrade the plot (or sell off a workshop) and install a vault.

All that's left from a PvE perspective is getting the SG healing badges and installing the upgrades to the infirmary (inspiration vendor and improved medical teleporter).

Keep earning that prestige and saving that salvage. If you're accumulating lots of salvage, you can refine it into components or pass it off to Omicron Cypher. I wouldn't recommend building anything but components at this point, as we don't really have a need for them at this point and they'll just eat up our available prestige.

Tags: base_

Proposed Merger

After talking with a few members of the VG about it, I would like to propose a merger between our alt group, Hidden Evil, and my brother's VG, The Silent Hunters.

The Silent Hunters is an all stalker group. Our same rules and ethics would still apply. If everyone is agreeable to this, I will arrange the terms (to make sure that our ranking members get rank and a say-so, etc) and we can continue with this.

Tags: politics_

Kidnap victims (amusing bugged mission)

One of the St. Martial contacts has an unfortunate habit of going out of his way to make sure that the inhabitants of the island are safe from the scheming of the various organizations fighting for power there. Now, as long as I get paid I have no problems working for him, but rescuing hostages and stopping evil plots just doesn't sit that well with me.

However, this mission to rescue kidnap victims from the Council had an unexpected twist to it that really warmed my heart.



I, for one, welcome our returning 5th Column overlords.

Tags: misc_

Screenshots of the Base

I just thought that I'd put up a few screenshots of our base to share with our non-Team Evil friends. (Edit: redid screenshots with higher quality textures/world detail.)


entering the base


the main hallway


our conference space


the med bay and the basement enterance


basement with the generator


the control room


peering into the teleport room


the peon work area


the evil genius work area


the crafting hall


the arcane alcove


the tech lab

Tags: base_

Feedback on the blog

So -- we've used this blog for almost 3 weeks now. What do people think? Is it pretty easy to keep track of what's going on? Would you prefer migrating over to a more traditional message board system?

Tags: blog_

Stalker group: Hidden Evil

Well, the all stalker group had a successful first night, getting through a little over half of the Mercy Island content. For those of you interested in joining this group, see this post for details. Currently, the highest members of the group are level 6, so feel free to play up to that point on your own if you like.

If you have any characters beyond the 3 allowed in the SG, feel free to add them to the "Hidden Evil" alt group. We're already in coalition with them, so it will be pretty easy to communicate back and forth between the two groups. Feel free to contact Lord Conquerer, King Venom, Omicron Cypher, or me for invitations.

Tags: hiddenevil_

Coalition: Arch Villains

We have formed a coalition with the villain group "Arch Villains". They're a group of about 20 with roots on Pinnacle going back to CoH beta. Please feel free to use the coalition chat channel to communicate with them for grouping, event planning, or just general socializing. Currently, both of our bases are open to coalition members, so don't be too surprised if you see some of them checking out our home.

We'll try to set up a VG meet-and-greet mixer sometime in the near future.

Tags: politics_

Alt Stalker Teaming Sun 8pm EST

For those of you interested in a slightly different CoV experience, we're going to be starting an all-stalker alt team. The goal here is not to just have a SG full of stalkers, but rather to have a group of characters that we can use to easily group with people of different levels. After brief discussion with King Venom and Lord Conquerer, we decided that having an all-stalker team would make for some interesting possibilities. Keeping in mind that the goal is to have an alt group that stays closely in level to each other, here's what I have in mind:

1. Everybody plays a stalker, but there are no restrictions on origin, costume, powersets, or build.


2. All members will belong to an allied SG tentatively named "Hidden Evil" (pending availability). The allied SG will follow the same guidelines as Team Evil, except that there is no restriction on the number of characters per player.


3. In order to keep everybody as close together as possible, all members agree to play their characters only in one of the following situations:
   
   1. There are at least four members of the stalker group teaming together. This way, even if four members are higher level than the remaining ones, we can still LK up to a full team of 8.
   
   
   2. You are lower level than the highest level stalker in the group. In other words, you can catch up to the highest level stalker, but once you are even with the highest level stalker you should stop playing that character.
   
   
   3. You are doing something that doesn't earn exp, whether standing around chatting, getting exploration badges, or malefactoring for influence.

We would designate one night of the week to be stalker night in order to make finding a four-person team easier. Hopefully, if we can keep the characters close enough in level, we can even try to sync our contacts together.

Since the respec SF is currently bugged and we're putting Silver Mantis off until next week, I propose making this our Sunday night even for this weekend. The goal would be to see how feasible this is and to advance through the low levels. I'll be trying to put a team together so we can start Kalinda's missions at 8:30p EST -- please bring a level 2 stalker fresh out of Breakout. If this is too short notice, we'll try again later in the week.

Any thoughts?

Edit: Due to OC being sick, he'll be online tonight so we may try Silver Mantis after all. I nominate Wed night for this -- how's that work for people?

Tags: hiddenevil_

Do not attempt the respec trial!

Just a warning, it's nice and broke. When you kill the last vine it kicks everyone off the server.

Tags: bugs_

Reminder: SG Mode

Sorry for the title, been playing Rikti missions a bit much.

I notice that there are a half-dozen of you with zero prestige earnings, all under level 25. Remember that there is no penalty for playing in SG mode until level 25, and so you can help us earn prestige without hurting your influence flow.

Tags: misc_

Quick note: Weekend events

Just a fast note: due to RL issues, Omicron Cypher will probably not be able to make it online Sunday night, so we're putting off the Silver Mantis SF until another weekend. However, we'll still run a SF at 8pm eastern -- either respec or one of the standard ones. Exactly which one will be dependent on the participants levels. As inf earning through rsk was part of the original plan, we'll likely be trying to target the 20-25 range, although 25-30 is also possible. Feel free to post in the comments with suggestions of exactly which SF you would like to do.

Tags: events_

Cathedral of Pain

So, I took Bal (well, Balshor1, technically) on Lady Sadako's (well, Lady Sadako3, technically) run through the Cathedral of Pain trail to get an item of power. Here's what I learned:

The goal of the trial is to destroy three obelisks in order to open the portal to the Cathedral of Pain. Once inside, you need to defeat Rularuu.

The trial is level 50. If you are below level 50, you will be auto-sked to that level. There is supposed to be a limit of 24 characters in the trial, and it seems that you really want three teams for this.

The trial is also on a 60 minute timer.

The obelisks are located on an outdoor map done in the style of the Storm Palace. The portal is on an island in the center, the obelisks are each on a separate island surrounding the portal island. All of the islands seemed to be connected by bridges and close enough to use superjump.

Each obelisk is surrounded by natterlings of various sorts (mostly minions with a few lts). Also, there is a large box next to each obelisk that spawns wisps, elementals, and eyeballs. The obelisks are protected by shields which can be taken down by defeating the spawns from the boxes. The natterlings apparently heal the obelisk, and they respawn whenever the shield does.

All three obelisks need to be destroyed before the portal to the Cathedral of Pain will open. The obelisks respawn, so you need to coordinate the teams to take them down near-simultaneously.

Once the portal is open, everybody enters the Cathedral of Pain, which looks like the interior of the Chantry or Storm Palace (with the dark purple lighting). Inside are three more of the boxes that spawn wisps/eyeballs/elementals. The box in the back also has Rularuu, an AV, by it. The goal at this point is to take out Rularuu, which was pretty easy with 20+ heroes mobbing him.

At that point, the trial completed, and we now had a +1% XP item of power sitting in our vault.

All in all, it seemed a pretty easy trial.

For Lady Sadako's review of the trial, see this post on the Training Room forum.

Tags: guides_

SG Costume?

Do we want a SG costume? With free costume tokens coming out, making a second outfit to wear when playing with your favorite buddies won't cost you a thing. Wearing the SG costume would be entirely optional, of course, but it might be nice having a snazzy outfit to show our team loyalty. Any design suggestions?

Tags: admin_

King Venom's mission info list

Since I'm prevented from doing my missions for a while (bugged mission door), I figured now would be a good time to post the mission info I've got so far. This is only rough/unedited, but it might prove useful. Check out the first comment on this post - I don't want to post it on the main page because it is fairly long.

Please feel free to add any info you may have, if possible please put it in roughly the same format - or just include mission short desc from the nav bar, extra goals, map type, enemy types, and if there are temp powers/badges awarded. Usefull stuff like that.

Tags: guides_

Quick base update

The four basic/advanced crafting tables are back up with enough control to keep both them and the two teleporters active. Note that to use a teleporter, you will need to zoom the camera in close enough to be inside the teleporter, then click on the computer. The blue swirly field is currently blocking mouse clicks. The teleporters are currently set up to take you to Mercy Island, Port Oakes, Cap au Diable, or Sharkhead Isle.

We are very close to exhausting the potential of our inital plot. About all we can do on our current plot is add a third teleporter to Nerva and St. Michael. Doing this will require upgrading the current teleport room at a cost of 450k, plus the placement cost of the teleporter itself and two beacons. The upgraded teleport room will also be able to eventually support a raid teleporter.

Once this is done we can start saving for a base plot upgrade. The smallest upgrade available will cost just over 3.3 million prestige, so it will take a while to get there. (By comparison, our current base is probably worth around 1.5 million total.) We'll also will be maxed out on control with the third teleporter, so we'll probably add another database (106k) before upgrading the plot. (Small point of upgrading if you can't add anything useful to the base.) With an upgraded plot, we can expand our current workshops to support the expert tables, add a vault for base raids, and do all sorts of other nifty things.

So, don't expect to see too much happening with the base in the near future, but we do have big plans for the prestige you all are earning.

Edit: I neglected to account for the 5 control cost per teleport beacon. We'll need another database before we can add the third teleporter, so that's next on the list. We're actually almost there -- as of a few hours ago, we were only 26k short.

Tags: base_

Silver Mantis SF

Hey all. I'm a bit new at this, so bear with me please. I would like to do the Silver Mantis Strike Force that is given to us by the Mission Computer in the base. I found this info on it so far:

"Given by: SG Mission Computer contacting Silver Mantis
Min Level: 20
Exemp'd to: 25
Min # in party: 4
Several missions against Crey, Sky Raiders, Lost, Council Vamps.
And our beloved Colonel Duray was the lvl 27(?) Arch-Villain

Final mission just has to be done just for the spectacular view.

Memorable Missions: Council Vamp Producing Crypts in Striga
2 Hospital Rescues.
Escort 2 Tsoo Tattoo Artists to safety (one mission, 2 hostages, 2 bosses)
The hospital rescue were glowie clicks that caused 3 waves of ambushes each.
Also received Tellus Legacy of Earth..."

I would like for us to get a team together to do that this coming up weekend. I know that we won't get XP for it (at least those over level 25) but those 25+ could use some Infamy I'm sure.

Thoughts?

Tags: events_ guides_

11/14 Base Update

With the fix of the missing prestige bug, we got a 400k prestige infusion that let us put in upgraded control, the advanced forge (arcane worktable), and a teleport room. We're a bit short on control -- only one of the teleporters is working, and it will take you to CAD and Sharkhead. Once we get more control up, the second teleporter will take you to Mercy Island and Port Oakes.

So...next goal is another database. As of this post, we need about 50k, so hopefully it will be up soon.

Regarding crafting and salvage: Just about all of the placable items you can currently craft aren't useful to us at this point. We'd like to be able to craft the medical upgrades, but we need the SG healing badges for that.

Tags: base_ crafting_

Respec Success!

Team Evil successfully completed its first group respec (although Lord Conquerer's previous experience with outside villains was invaluable at the end). The team consisted of Lord Conquerer, Mie, Lady Crey, Raury, Omicron Cypher, and me (Palcioz). Time for completion was approximately 90 minutes.



Tags: events_

List of Alts

Hey, all -- in an effort to keep track of which character belong to whom, please list your main character and any alts in the group in the comments to this post.

List as of Jan 8, 2006:

Lord Conqueror
Path of Destruction
Bad Dawg
Bitter Flower
Fallen Valkyre
Deprive
Presence
Hell's Mercy
Screaming Medusa
Echoes of the Fallen

Assassain
Gom Arhan

Lady Licentious
Lilith Lilitu

Dr. Jack
Maynelhem

Mie
Lisa
Cave Mortis
Capio
Trim

Proxima Centauri
Fodero
Red Ant Bite

Palcioz
Bray
Cameo
Glumdalclitch

Omicron Cypher
Maverick XS
Maverick Thorn

Magma Phoenix
Double Impact

Alice of Malice
Winter Wulfen

Lady Crey
Placate

Alice of Malice
Kaptain Kadaver

Tormenting Soul
Towering Inferno
Lin Gui

Demonblood
Oni

Tags: admin_ intro_

Base Update

Last night, we finally got sufficient prestige to place the infirmary and a resurrection circle. When you are defeated, you should now have the option to resurrect either at the hospital or the base. If you resurrect at the base, you should be able to exit the base either right outside the door of your mission (if you died in a mission) or approximately where you died (if you died outside).

The next goal is to get a workshop build and a basic worktable. This will run 100k for the room and 25k for the table. We currently have 35k banked, so we will hopefully get this working by the end of the weekend. This will almost tap out our available control, so the next goal after that will be to buy a bookshelf at 106k. This will double the amount of control available and allow us to work towards the other five worktables.

The other option is to build a teleport room, but judging from people's comments in SG chat, you'd all rather be able to do something with your salvage.

Edit: Okay, I overestimated both the control requirements and the amount of time required to earn prestige. Basic arcane and tech worktables are now in place, allowing you to refine your salvage and craft a few items. Although you are welcome to craft whatever you like, I would not recommend actually making anything beyond components as the crafted items are either useless to us at this time (like all the base defense stuff) or too expensive to place (like everything else). Next goal: Increased control. We're currently at 45/50, and I'd like to put up a bookshelf, which costs 106k. After that, we can either build more workshops, add a mission computer, or build a teleport room.

Tags: base_

Respec Trial This Weekend

So, anybody up for running the first respec trial this weekend? Minimum level is 24 (I believe), and if we can keep the top 3-4 villains in the group at approximately the same level, we should be able to LK people up into a 2-level range.

I propose Saturday night, 8pm eastern. Anybody interested? Interested but prefer a different time? Comments are yours....

Edit: Looks like Sunday night, 8pm EST works better for most people. Plus, the more people who are 24+, the better. Let's try to keep the higher villains in the group around the same level so we don't have too bad of a level spread for the trial.

Edit 2: I am told that this trial has a minimum level of 25. Adjust your plans accordingly. Judging from current levels, I'm predicting that we should be able to run in the 26-28 range on Sunday.

Tags: events_

Group policies

I've made a few minor updates to the proposed group policies. Please see this post for the specifics. Any comments should be left at that post.

If there are no other suggested changes before then, I think we should go ahead and consider the policies final and implemented in one week (on November 17).

Edit: If you don't see a bunch of red text on the top of the policies, please refresh the page.

Edit: The policies should now be considered final and active.

Tags: admin_

Base & weekend update

I purchased the mainframe last night - now all we need is 160k for the medical room (150k) and transporter (10k)! Almost there guys! Your next alt will thank you for earning that prestige when they have the benefit of a teleporter to get back to missions.

I had a great time this weekend grouping with everyone, old and new alike. We ran the level 15-20 Strike Force twice on Saturday with great results - that last mission is murder on MM's though! Gotta love pets that try to kill stationary burn patches (lava)... The AV himself was no pushover, but not in any way "hard" - it was the map that was the killer there. At least you can see the map this time! (The Hollows trial uses the same map, but the map is hidden.) I do apologize if I was a little more bitchy than usual, I shouldn't be letting my RL stress leak over.

Member levels are moving along nicely with a nice distribution - we have several low & mid twenties now and a good smattering of teens and lowbie alts as well. Something handy I found - if you are looking for a quick xp fix - try hazard zone door missions - they are very short and the reward is 25% higher. The Siren's Call missions have been one of two sorts so far - plant 2 bombs (very annoying because bombs make no noise!) and a defeat all that also requires a hostage lead out. Handy thing is the hostage is a rad/rad who will fight for you, happily slaughtering his allies...

Tags: base_ events_

Sky raider mission bug

In the mission where you have to defeat Bastilla-1 (a VERY cool mission, by the way -- won't say anything more to save the surprise), there's a bug where if you are defeated and try to exit to the hospital, you'll be ressurected where you stand. (There's an error message about "can't find gurney" or somesuch.) As this mission involves an elite boss and you'll be standing back up right where he killed you, this is a potential invitation to massive amounts of debt. I highly recommend that you don't do what I did and use this "feature" to solo the dude. He's rather tough -- bring along some teammates to get the fire off of you when you stand back up on your feet.

(If you do want a hint, check out this screenshot.)

Tags: bugs_

Cape Mission Team

We currently have 3 20+ villains, 2 19s, and 2 18s. Anybody up for a join cape mission team this weekend? It's a tough one for a lot of ATs to solo, and with mission combining we'll only have to do it once.

Tags: events_

Alt Group?

So, any thoughts on what we should name an alt group? One nice benefit of starting an alt group is that we can use the alt group bonus prestige to build a social base while we focus on getting the Team Evil base functional. If we get 15 characters in the alt group (meaning, let Lobster at it for 5 minutes or so), we get 300k prestige that would buy us a couple of rooms and some furnishings.

Tags: hiddenevil_ admin_

Base Editting and Design

I went ahead and gave all ranks temporary base editting privileges so we can all play with the base editor for a bit. I went ahead and stuck in some decorative stuff -- feel free to edit anything that's currently there. All prestige is completely refundable, so don't worry about spending it. Know that this free-editting period is so you can play around with the editor and will be restricted once we have enough prestige to start making the base functional.

I think that to encourage members to earn prestige we should consider granting personal space eventually. One of the social rooms could easily be designated a bunkroom, and we could allot space out of it for personal design based on the amount of prestige earned for the TG. There are a lot of details that would have to be worked out for this, but it'd be pretty far off in the future anyway.

Tags: base_

Hero <-> Villain Communication

Please remember that if you want to be able to hear members of the opposite faction, you need to set the appropriate options under chat.

Tags: intro_