CoH, CoK, and Chimpanzees.
Sep. 19th, 2004 10:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackofallgeeksIf my ports were opened, I would so be playing City of Heroes. But, as they aren't, I'm not. I did manage to play some this weekend, though. Friday night was spent trying to get through the Tutorial to meet up with Leslie, which didn't happen. But that's alright, since I did get comfortable to the world, and my character has since gone through three incarnations, starting as Ermyne and ending up, now, as Svelt. Though, I may try renaming her, as it seems I misspelled 'svelte'...
Same concept, though. She's a mutant, as opposed to the other super-origins (Technology, like Iron Man; Science, like Captain America; Natural, like Batman; or Magic, like, uhm, Spawn..?). I haven't thought up a very detailed background yet, but I've figured some general things out. Born middle class, her parents divorced before she was 10, and her mother ended up with some jerk not long afterward. The guy beat her even before her mutation developed, which happened at pubety like most Mutants', and included the development of weasel-like features (ears, tail, claws) and heightened reflexes. She ran away from home as a young teen and got mixed up in gang-type activities until a chance encounter with some other superhero put her back on track and started her on the road to super heroine status, herself. Or something. She then registered with GIFT (one of the groups set up to coordinate super hero activity) and moved to Atlas Park in Paragon City.
I did play with Leslie, and Mike some, on Saturday night. We tried playing on Ermyne's server, but Leslie couldn't get in. Then we played on the server where I made Sic Semper (a Natural-type guy, similar in abilities to The Juggernaut), and though he and Leslie's Annunciata got to kick around some, Mike couldn't get in. So we all made new characters; mine was Bethan, a Magic-type Controller, with gravity and healing powers.
Saturday was taken up by the Champions of Kamigawa M:tG prerelease. I had picked up my brothers friday night, and we left from school early on Saturday morning, at 4am, after a mostly-sleepless night. For those not interested in details, I ran in two sealed-deck flights (a flight is a four-round, Swiss-style tournament) and played one booster draft. I went 4-0 in one of might flights, netting me 16 boosters as prize, and bagged another two boosters for my one win in the draft (it was single-elimination, but a single win was enough for some prize). All told I came out of there with 485 new cards, 270 of which were prizes. Whee.
For those interested in a few more details, there's not really all that much more to say. My first flight I built up a Black-White deck, as those two were supposed to be the strongest Limited (that's the format) colors in the set, according to Curtis (who makes it his business to know), and I really had nothing else to work on. I wonder now if maybe there wasn't a half-decent Red-White deck hidden in there somewhere, maybe, but it's an academic concern. I went 1-2, and then dropped, as you simply can't get prizes with two losses. My second flight I pulled two great cards, Yosei being the better, and Tekano (a big Legendary creature who would have been better with more supporting cards) being the other. I almost went Black-White again, but the Black I was given simply didn't have the creatures I needed. So I put in green for it's variety of small, easy-to-cast creatures, and went on my way. I had a couple close games, but at the end of it all, I was sitting at the top spot on the table with no losses. It felt good to be up there. *grins*
My draft went well, too, though not as well as it could have been. I started out drafting heavily in Red and Black, pulling a nice assortment of creature removal and skull-knockers. My first game, the one I won, was against some poor kid who used too many cards (48), too many colors (3), and too few lands (19). My sleek DeckOfPain tore through him pretty cleanly, and the match was over in under ten minutes. This led to one guy, Tim (who I'd met earlier, in my 4-0 flight) say "I don't want to play that guy. I'm scared of him." which amused me. My second match was against the guy who'd beaten Tim, and though the game was hard on both of us, my deck bowed under the strain before his did.
When all is said and done, I think I was a better player than most of the people there. Granted, few really high-skill players go to PreRelease tournaments, but I think I understand the rules exponentially better than the majority of players who were there, and I can generally read the board nicely, too -- there were a number of times when my opponent could have easily bowed me, but didn't make the move he should have. I also seem to play the Player well, too -- a number of times I made a risky move, attacked with a creature who should have been stopped and killed, or left my self vulnerably open, and the Opponent never collected on it. I decided that if you make what looks like a bonehead move, at least in that environment, people will generally assume you have something up your sleeve. Now, every now and again I did have a little trick, and my Stack-Fu was the cause of many distraught opponents, but I was lucky then never called my bluff when I was on the edge.
Curtis took the test to qualify for being a judge. He said I could probably get Level One certification no problem. The test wasn't that hard, and except for a few questions I had for him ("Does this card replace the creature's typed with 'Demon Spirit', or just add them?"), all he got were stupid newbie-type questions ("Can my Spirit block his creature that had Protection from Spirits?"). I also had a wonderful Stack-Fu trick that I verified with a judge, allowing my creature to survive a two-pronged attack which should have killed him (and would have, if my opponent had been more clever -- or more direct, depending on how you look at it).
And that's about it. Nothing much happened today, really. Except that is seems Genie (a pretty girl I met a while back and recently found online) not only plays Magic, but was teaching my other friend (and her roomie), Liz, how to play. Though, I had thought Liz already knew how to play...
Damn, but do I want to play City of Heroes...
Same concept, though. She's a mutant, as opposed to the other super-origins (Technology, like Iron Man; Science, like Captain America; Natural, like Batman; or Magic, like, uhm, Spawn..?). I haven't thought up a very detailed background yet, but I've figured some general things out. Born middle class, her parents divorced before she was 10, and her mother ended up with some jerk not long afterward. The guy beat her even before her mutation developed, which happened at pubety like most Mutants', and included the development of weasel-like features (ears, tail, claws) and heightened reflexes. She ran away from home as a young teen and got mixed up in gang-type activities until a chance encounter with some other superhero put her back on track and started her on the road to super heroine status, herself. Or something. She then registered with GIFT (one of the groups set up to coordinate super hero activity) and moved to Atlas Park in Paragon City.
I did play with Leslie, and Mike some, on Saturday night. We tried playing on Ermyne's server, but Leslie couldn't get in. Then we played on the server where I made Sic Semper (a Natural-type guy, similar in abilities to The Juggernaut), and though he and Leslie's Annunciata got to kick around some, Mike couldn't get in. So we all made new characters; mine was Bethan, a Magic-type Controller, with gravity and healing powers.
Saturday was taken up by the Champions of Kamigawa M:tG prerelease. I had picked up my brothers friday night, and we left from school early on Saturday morning, at 4am, after a mostly-sleepless night. For those not interested in details, I ran in two sealed-deck flights (a flight is a four-round, Swiss-style tournament) and played one booster draft. I went 4-0 in one of might flights, netting me 16 boosters as prize, and bagged another two boosters for my one win in the draft (it was single-elimination, but a single win was enough for some prize). All told I came out of there with 485 new cards, 270 of which were prizes. Whee.
For those interested in a few more details, there's not really all that much more to say. My first flight I built up a Black-White deck, as those two were supposed to be the strongest Limited (that's the format) colors in the set, according to Curtis (who makes it his business to know), and I really had nothing else to work on. I wonder now if maybe there wasn't a half-decent Red-White deck hidden in there somewhere, maybe, but it's an academic concern. I went 1-2, and then dropped, as you simply can't get prizes with two losses. My second flight I pulled two great cards, Yosei being the better, and Tekano (a big Legendary creature who would have been better with more supporting cards) being the other. I almost went Black-White again, but the Black I was given simply didn't have the creatures I needed. So I put in green for it's variety of small, easy-to-cast creatures, and went on my way. I had a couple close games, but at the end of it all, I was sitting at the top spot on the table with no losses. It felt good to be up there. *grins*
My draft went well, too, though not as well as it could have been. I started out drafting heavily in Red and Black, pulling a nice assortment of creature removal and skull-knockers. My first game, the one I won, was against some poor kid who used too many cards (48), too many colors (3), and too few lands (19). My sleek DeckOfPain tore through him pretty cleanly, and the match was over in under ten minutes. This led to one guy, Tim (who I'd met earlier, in my 4-0 flight) say "I don't want to play that guy. I'm scared of him." which amused me. My second match was against the guy who'd beaten Tim, and though the game was hard on both of us, my deck bowed under the strain before his did.
When all is said and done, I think I was a better player than most of the people there. Granted, few really high-skill players go to PreRelease tournaments, but I think I understand the rules exponentially better than the majority of players who were there, and I can generally read the board nicely, too -- there were a number of times when my opponent could have easily bowed me, but didn't make the move he should have. I also seem to play the Player well, too -- a number of times I made a risky move, attacked with a creature who should have been stopped and killed, or left my self vulnerably open, and the Opponent never collected on it. I decided that if you make what looks like a bonehead move, at least in that environment, people will generally assume you have something up your sleeve. Now, every now and again I did have a little trick, and my Stack-Fu was the cause of many distraught opponents, but I was lucky then never called my bluff when I was on the edge.
Curtis took the test to qualify for being a judge. He said I could probably get Level One certification no problem. The test wasn't that hard, and except for a few questions I had for him ("Does this card replace the creature's typed with 'Demon Spirit', or just add them?"), all he got were stupid newbie-type questions ("Can my Spirit block his creature that had Protection from Spirits?"). I also had a wonderful Stack-Fu trick that I verified with a judge, allowing my creature to survive a two-pronged attack which should have killed him (and would have, if my opponent had been more clever -- or more direct, depending on how you look at it).
And that's about it. Nothing much happened today, really. Except that is seems Genie (a pretty girl I met a while back and recently found online) not only plays Magic, but was teaching my other friend (and her roomie), Liz, how to play. Though, I had thought Liz already knew how to play...
Damn, but do I want to play City of Heroes...
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no subject
Date: 2004-09-20 05:53 am (UTC)That about sums it up ;)
no subject
Date: 2004-09-20 05:53 am (UTC)I gotta be me.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-20 07:25 pm (UTC)2. Looking at the description of Origins on the website(http://www.cityofheroes.com/features/heroes.html), here's my impression:
Mutant: Self-explanatory. While most peopel get shafted with Albinism or Polydactylism, you have become a superpowered being with limitless potential.(X-Men)
Science: Simply put, a mutant who didn't get his powers from birth, but through an experiment or accident.(Captain America, Spider Man, The Incredible Hulk, Fantastic 4)
Technology: This character uses Technology to fight. This covers Regular people who made or recieved amazing technology, people from the future who use their advanced technology, Aliens using their own brand of technology, and probably robots adn cyborgs as well. It may be of note that their gadgets have yet to eb successfully replicated, making them one of a kind. Generally, a catch-all category where the power's in the tools, not the person.(Iron Man, Annex, Cable(?))
Natural: This is the tricky one. According to the description, these are people who have nothign special about them, just resources and deteremination. While this is perfectly acceptable for some powers, for others it's stretching it a bit. If one were to include gadgets, this would encroach on the Technological origin. If it were developing latent psionic powers, that could fall into Magic, Mutant, or even Science. My conclusion, based upon this, is that a Natural origin means that the character derives most of his strength from himself, with minor, if any, influence from the other 4 origins.(Batman, Iron Fist, Punisher)
Magic: This character gets his powers from some supernatural force. If the source of powers can't be traced to the other 4, chances are that it was magic. (Doctor Strange, Cloak and Dagger(?), Spawn)
3. It has long since been determined that you aren't the average casual player. Getting Level 1 certification seems like it would be simple for anyone who keeps abreast of the recent rulings. Then again, that DOES exclude a lot of people . . .
Anyways, just a few clarifications, from geek to geek. ;p
no subject
Date: 2004-09-20 07:27 pm (UTC)I'd think Dr. Strange would be a more obvious example.