TL: DR Thank you DB for the effort put into middlelining the powersets.
************
Hi guys
I want to do a couple of threads in here, so let's get this one out of the way eh? :)
We all often see this in WT or HoD shout:
'Which power is the best power for dps?'
'Which power is OP right now?'
Myself and a friend were helping such an acquaintance, he said to us in group 'Oh wow I've just returned to the game.. what happened to Sorcery?? I can't do the damage I used to :( '
I told him.. erm DD'ing isn't like it was before, he then interjected with 'which is the new OP power?' I tried to explain to him but he didn't understand.
I told him, I have every powerset and 90% (on the spot guess) of the powersets* are 'in the middle', then my friend added ' it's what you do with them' .. his name is D42 (da) a semi-well known Atomic Tank/DPS on the EU server, we've been friends for many years, he is often if not always top of the leaderboard for dps'sing.. even while tanking, out dps'ing some. I'm not boasting about him.. just demonstrating, he knows his stuff too.
But now.. I suspect our acquaintance really didn't want to 'get it'. As he kept pushing to find out the top DD/OP powerset.
Are there powersets that are UP? Sure! Water DPS is *somewhat* broken, High Tide doesn't *seem* to give the damage bonus that other powersets activating PI do (or perhaps the shark animation takes way too long). Nature is slightly UP compared to the middleline of the other powersets, you can up damage using forms and Roar does decent damage, but it's just not hitting the middleline imho. da recently switched from Celestial to Nature, citing that 'the stupid combos took too long' and I have to agree, it is not a quick power.. like Nature good for healing (Nature is beating it for healing atm) but the combos don't feel like your doing anything. I have often said to him.. Atomic and Celestial have/encourage similar playstyles however that extra time in Celestial's combos compared to Atomic is vast.
When I meet someone on their main for the first time, become friends and chat, we talk about roles, its a very easy subject to side into :) If they tell me they only have their main, I suggest they try other roles if they haven't already and depending on the powerset they have I make a suggestion of which other powerset/class they might like.
aaanyways .. I am starting to digress wildly..
For whatever faults the stats revamp had, it did accomplish a certain kind of balance. I *DON'T* feel ANY of the powers are OP.. sure, there are those more powerful than others, but the majority are more intune with the middleline, and the more powersets are intune the more it becomes about the player and the players experience. I think DB understand.. that RP and powersets are intertwined. If you think someone else will be a better DPS simply because of their powerset then you will have less morale in game, imagining yourself the unintentional victim. By making so many Powersets middleline it up's the overall morale of the community. I commend them.
There are two things I want to share for good player morale:
Contentment that you are no victim of favoritism of other powerset.
The promise that there is more powersets to come.
Maintaining all these powersets while adding new ones is a herculean task, but we players should have DB's back financially in order that we can all continue our hobby. I feel the same about DB adding new OW Cities, if they are willing to do it, we should support them.
peace
Sigma
-----------------
* am not talking about the wildly unbalanced older content. which I'm sure DB will get round to fixing at some point.
Tuesday, 3 April 2018
Monday, 12 February 2018
SigmaAtom meets the Legends of Tomorrow : The Netherwer [Fanfic Fun]
[RP/Story]
[Sigma is at his computer typing a report to send to OmegaAtom.]
Message Follows..
I was contacted some time ago by White Canary, current leader of LoT. informing me they had an artifact they wished to totally destroy from all existence. She asked me to put it in the Source Wall.. I very reluctantly agreed.
I came on board and was greeted by each member of the team, they seemed civil and pleasant.
White Canary informed me because of the artifacts presence aboard the ship 'The Waverider' was 'gimped', originally it would take 3 months to arrive, however Jax had this down to 3 days. I agreed.
A couple of hours after we debarked I ran into her in the hallway.. I said to her 'I'm curious of the reports I have been getting that you have been beaten in battle by lesser foes.. I mean I was sure you were LOA trained.. {friendly humor tone} You're like 'Diet Batman' and you don't use subversion.. what's up with that?' She replied insulted ' I HAVE to pull my punches, I enjoy killing so much it kills me. And.. DON'T call me : DIET BATMAN!'.
I then proceeded to the galley, many members were unused to this level of inactivity and I could see Mr. Rory was not faring too well by the many many lager cans on the table before him. I sat down next to him and he said 'To sit here you have to drink.. this is a 'drinking table'!' I responded 'Yes.. okay, I have had a few libations in my time hehe' we drank a few lagers and a couple of Scotchs.. then he said 'I hear you have some 'freaky-deaky' connection to the source wall? what's that like?' I replied a little horrified. '' When a Netherwer is born we immediately float from our mother then in the blink of an eye jet off to the Source Wall.. once there begin singing and we hear the resonance of the Wall back to us, it attunes us to the universe and even the multiverse.' Mr. Rory replied 'YOU SIR have definitely had enough to drink if you think I'm going to believe that! haha'. I was insulted.
I decided to meditate for a few hours. After this I went to inspect their medical facilities, to see if I could improve any of their technologies in healing and/or stamina. Mr Palmer was in the medical bay he had a slight headache which was being remedied. He said 'OH GOOD.. Sigma I *am* dying to find more about your people, they are very mysterious and ancient.' I replied 'Well that kinda sounds fun [smiles]..' I took my helmet off and Mr. Palmer's eyes widened with what looked like confusion and dizziness..
'Are you okay Mr. Palmer?'
He replied 'guhhh erm guh.. please call me Ray.. does your skin always bend space like that? it seems to be defying the laws of physics!!'
I replied 'Yes [smile] we are born this way.'
Ray: 'wow!... please tell me about your people.'
Sigma; Certainly.. what would you like to know?
Ray ; please start at the start.
Sigma; Well.. we are old. We are part of the fabric of both the universe and the multiverse and even the entirverse (entire-verse). There is not multiple versions of us as we exist in an opposite hive mind state, it sounds similar to an actual hive mind but is very different, I have one mind which is the controlling principle of all Sigma's in all existences of the multiverse. Hive minds absorb other minds, The Netherwer do not do this, it is innate, to co-exist with all other versions of ourself. This is just one reason the Otherworlders.. whom you perhaps know as The Time Beings or Guardians of the Speedforce chose our people to create the Source Wall. It is also good reason the Specter chose us to be Infinite Atoms..'
Ray; you speak as if The Malthusians weren't the oldest!'
Sigma; Oh My! whoever told you they were old??'
Ray; it's a long held rumor.'
Sigma; well.. I can only repeat what I was taught by my parents and fellow Netherwer, When the Malthusians were young, they were a war like people, they tried to destroy many peaceful races from existence, legends has it that my people put a stop to them. This was during the time of Valourium Consortium.. around 5 billion of years ago, all of whom have died out since.. There are older peoples than the Malthusians.
Ray interjects; How old are you??
Sigma; Ohw.. [sheepishly] I'm very young, only 3000 years old.
Ray is stunned.
Sigma; My people can live for millions and millions of years.. my parents are 2 million and 4 million years old.. they wanted to wait for a while before having a child.
Ray stunned; yeah.. you wanna wait a bit.. before having ...a kid.
Ray sures up; I gotta say.. I'm a little skeptical of what you are saying.. it seems impossible to me.. your people live for millions of years AND built the Source Wall?..no. I can't believe that.'
I was insulted having shared all my personal insights with this human and him reacting so. it was saddening and embarrassing.
Jax was the only member of the crew who did not insult me.. he DID call me 'freaky-deaky' but it was an inside joke between us. We both laughed without any discourtesy.
When we arrived at the Source Wall, I asked White Canary if she was 100% sure, as this action cannot be undone. She said she was and handed me a *very* strange twisted knife, it had the harmonic energy of the Dark Zone I could tell as soon as I touched it. I proceeded to the bay hatch, sealed the door and communicated to the team I was ready. They were a little alarmed I was going with no spacesuit but things were about to become clearer to them. They must have watched me on their screen as I approached..
Upon approaching I disengaged each part of my armor until I was in my skin only, my armor remaining in place. I began to sing.. The Source Wall opened a small vortex fiser, I could feel the Source Wall take the blade from my hand.. and into the vortex it went. I floated backward reengaging my suit of armor.
When I reboarded the Waverider.. I could tell something had changed in the group. I can only imagine they had a conversation about how they had spoken to me, and about the Source Wall which Commander Steel had referred to as 'absorbo-bricks'.. and now they understood.
The ride back was much more pleasant.. near the end White Canary stopped me in the hallway and said 'You can call me 'Diet Batman' anytime' [wink].
I did other things whilst with the Wall, I reattuned the harmonies of the blade, I caused peace in slight resonance to the Wall, I prayed.
When I disembarked their ship.. I felt a slight kinship with them, but I am sure others whom lives they touch feel this also.. they are a motley crew, but with a big heart.
Message Ends..
[Sigma is at his computer typing a report to send to OmegaAtom.]
Message Follows..
I was contacted some time ago by White Canary, current leader of LoT. informing me they had an artifact they wished to totally destroy from all existence. She asked me to put it in the Source Wall.. I very reluctantly agreed.
I came on board and was greeted by each member of the team, they seemed civil and pleasant.
White Canary informed me because of the artifacts presence aboard the ship 'The Waverider' was 'gimped', originally it would take 3 months to arrive, however Jax had this down to 3 days. I agreed.
A couple of hours after we debarked I ran into her in the hallway.. I said to her 'I'm curious of the reports I have been getting that you have been beaten in battle by lesser foes.. I mean I was sure you were LOA trained.. {friendly humor tone} You're like 'Diet Batman' and you don't use subversion.. what's up with that?' She replied insulted ' I HAVE to pull my punches, I enjoy killing so much it kills me. And.. DON'T call me : DIET BATMAN!'.
I then proceeded to the galley, many members were unused to this level of inactivity and I could see Mr. Rory was not faring too well by the many many lager cans on the table before him. I sat down next to him and he said 'To sit here you have to drink.. this is a 'drinking table'!' I responded 'Yes.. okay, I have had a few libations in my time hehe' we drank a few lagers and a couple of Scotchs.. then he said 'I hear you have some 'freaky-deaky' connection to the source wall? what's that like?' I replied a little horrified. '' When a Netherwer is born we immediately float from our mother then in the blink of an eye jet off to the Source Wall.. once there begin singing and we hear the resonance of the Wall back to us, it attunes us to the universe and even the multiverse.' Mr. Rory replied 'YOU SIR have definitely had enough to drink if you think I'm going to believe that! haha'. I was insulted.
I decided to meditate for a few hours. After this I went to inspect their medical facilities, to see if I could improve any of their technologies in healing and/or stamina. Mr Palmer was in the medical bay he had a slight headache which was being remedied. He said 'OH GOOD.. Sigma I *am* dying to find more about your people, they are very mysterious and ancient.' I replied 'Well that kinda sounds fun [smiles]..' I took my helmet off and Mr. Palmer's eyes widened with what looked like confusion and dizziness..
'Are you okay Mr. Palmer?'
He replied 'guhhh erm guh.. please call me Ray.. does your skin always bend space like that? it seems to be defying the laws of physics!!'
I replied 'Yes [smile] we are born this way.'
Ray: 'wow!... please tell me about your people.'
Sigma; Certainly.. what would you like to know?
Ray ; please start at the start.
Sigma; Well.. we are old. We are part of the fabric of both the universe and the multiverse and even the entirverse (entire-verse). There is not multiple versions of us as we exist in an opposite hive mind state, it sounds similar to an actual hive mind but is very different, I have one mind which is the controlling principle of all Sigma's in all existences of the multiverse. Hive minds absorb other minds, The Netherwer do not do this, it is innate, to co-exist with all other versions of ourself. This is just one reason the Otherworlders.. whom you perhaps know as The Time Beings or Guardians of the Speedforce chose our people to create the Source Wall. It is also good reason the Specter chose us to be Infinite Atoms..'
Ray; you speak as if The Malthusians weren't the oldest!'
Sigma; Oh My! whoever told you they were old??'
Ray; it's a long held rumor.'
Sigma; well.. I can only repeat what I was taught by my parents and fellow Netherwer, When the Malthusians were young, they were a war like people, they tried to destroy many peaceful races from existence, legends has it that my people put a stop to them. This was during the time of Valourium Consortium.. around 5 billion of years ago, all of whom have died out since.. There are older peoples than the Malthusians.
Ray interjects; How old are you??
Sigma; Ohw.. [sheepishly] I'm very young, only 3000 years old.
Ray is stunned.
Sigma; My people can live for millions and millions of years.. my parents are 2 million and 4 million years old.. they wanted to wait for a while before having a child.
Ray stunned; yeah.. you wanna wait a bit.. before having ...a kid.
Ray sures up; I gotta say.. I'm a little skeptical of what you are saying.. it seems impossible to me.. your people live for millions of years AND built the Source Wall?..no. I can't believe that.'
I was insulted having shared all my personal insights with this human and him reacting so. it was saddening and embarrassing.
Jax was the only member of the crew who did not insult me.. he DID call me 'freaky-deaky' but it was an inside joke between us. We both laughed without any discourtesy.
When we arrived at the Source Wall, I asked White Canary if she was 100% sure, as this action cannot be undone. She said she was and handed me a *very* strange twisted knife, it had the harmonic energy of the Dark Zone I could tell as soon as I touched it. I proceeded to the bay hatch, sealed the door and communicated to the team I was ready. They were a little alarmed I was going with no spacesuit but things were about to become clearer to them. They must have watched me on their screen as I approached..
Upon approaching I disengaged each part of my armor until I was in my skin only, my armor remaining in place. I began to sing.. The Source Wall opened a small vortex fiser, I could feel the Source Wall take the blade from my hand.. and into the vortex it went. I floated backward reengaging my suit of armor.
When I reboarded the Waverider.. I could tell something had changed in the group. I can only imagine they had a conversation about how they had spoken to me, and about the Source Wall which Commander Steel had referred to as 'absorbo-bricks'.. and now they understood.
The ride back was much more pleasant.. near the end White Canary stopped me in the hallway and said 'You can call me 'Diet Batman' anytime' [wink].
I did other things whilst with the Wall, I reattuned the harmonies of the blade, I caused peace in slight resonance to the Wall, I prayed.
When I disembarked their ship.. I felt a slight kinship with them, but I am sure others whom lives they touch feel this also.. they are a motley crew, but with a big heart.
Message Ends..
Wednesday, 24 January 2018
I have joined Khan's league Freakz n Geekz
Hi
as per the title.
As far as ORS is concerned.. It's too much investment to build again now.
So I'm trying this instead.
Might be good to have someone else at the helm.. being league boss is a mess of nightmare politics and too much work.
I have left ORS and all assets with BetaAtom my female char.
Who won't become relevant until there is a Star Sapphire healer.. which is unlikely to say the least in the near present.
I have hope in the future of FnG, and most of all I trust Khan.
Sigma
as per the title.
As far as ORS is concerned.. It's too much investment to build again now.
So I'm trying this instead.
Might be good to have someone else at the helm.. being league boss is a mess of nightmare politics and too much work.
I have left ORS and all assets with BetaAtom my female char.
Who won't become relevant until there is a Star Sapphire healer.. which is unlikely to say the least in the near present.
I have hope in the future of FnG, and most of all I trust Khan.
Sigma
Friday, 5 January 2018
Earth-24 [Fanfic Fun]
Earth-24:
On Earth-24 we have a Justice League made up of:
Battle Armor Superman
This realities sun is 10% less powerful and so this world's Superman is 10% less powerful.. but undeterred Earth-24 Clark fights even *harder*, having had to develop some semi-Batman like abilities.
Clark is married to both Lana Lang and Lois Lane, Lois having married him to keep his cover of Clark Kent, that he would not be exposed, but then they fell in love, Lana accepted that Clark loved them both and so they all live together in Metropolis.
Lana and Clark have a son called Caleb (10yo) and a daughter called Leora (9yo).
Lois and Clark have a son called Connor (7yo).
His nickname on the JL team is 'HotRod'.. this is because unlike the Clark we know, Earth-24 Clark, isn't a news reporter. Jonathan Kent would always say to him 'I knew when you lifted the car that you were special' and Clark always thought of this fondly.. so when a car on a jack in a garage buckled nearly killing Lana's father, Clark saved him in the nick of time, this began Clark thinking more about cars. There were also not many jobs available in Smallville as the place was dying due to underpopulation.. they desperately needed a mechanic.
So that's what Clark became.
After many years he was offered a job designing cars and that job was in Metropolis, He Lana and little baby Caleb moved to Metropolis. The first time he met Lois was during a piece she was writing about electric cars and their design.
Two years later Zod came to Earth and instantly sought out Kal-el, he became incensed when he discovered Kal-el had children to a human woman, aided by Zander Luthor the two sought to strip him of everything.. Zod even stripped him near bare and let the newspapers take detailed pictures of his face. While this was going on Zander had went to their home and killed Lana, Caleb and Leora..but he had not. Batman and Superman had teamed up a couple of times before this and became firm friends. Finding out about Zod from Clark, Bruce had a contingency plan incase Zod showed up with an intent to kill the children, and he acted on his plan, making brainless clones of them and put them in a sleeping pose in their Metropolis apartment.. taking the real Lana & children to safety.
Once the newspapers found out that Superman was Clark, it was on every headline, it was during this time Lois remembered how kind and nice Clark was, and didn't deserve this feeding frenzy of the media.
This was also the first time Clark met UltraWoman.. she smashed Zod like he was a dead fish, and weakened Zander's Chino ring enough to frighten him that he fled.
After this Clark was unsure how he could have a normal life again.. but Lois contacted Clark and offered him a deal.. She would marry him and divert attention away from him/Superman (no one would dare say anything to them or she would rip them to shreds verbally or in print) and write about how sad it was his family died and how she had pity on him. That it was mistaken identity on this poor soul only trying to live a right life. Lois would just keep lying through her teeth until they all went away.
Clark agrees. This also means Lana & the children will always be safe.
Batman suggests Clark needs a suit of armor..
Yesterday-displaced Batman
The Bruce Wayne of Earth-24 was in a near fatal accident that made him time displaced.
He is the Batman we know but also he lives simultaneously in the 1920s, thrown in time at any moment, but when returned, he returns back to the exact moment he left.
In the 1920s he is still Batman and fights bank robbers and gangsters, there is even a version of the Joker here, called 'The Carny'..who travels in a carnival killing strangers and selling their meat in pies.
All this makes this Batman have double the life experience than the Batman we know.
Feldgrau Lantern; UltraWoman (Stargirl/Atrocitus)
Very unlike the Courtney Whitmore we know, This superheroine fights on the cosmic level. Side-by-side with Battle Armor Superman has taken down; Brainiac, The Anti-Monitor and Darkseid.
But Earth-24's Courtney did not begin this way..
Here, she is the illegitimate daughter of General Lane, when she found out her father was not her birth father at 15yo one stormy night.. she ran away from home. After travelling for 3 days via Greyhound to her birth father's army base.. she walked right up to the guard at the front entrance and told him 'I am General Lane's daughter and I want to see him!'.. he faithfully communicated her message to General Lane who was asleep as it was 1am. She stood in the cold pouring rain patiently. Full of dread of what he might say.
He came in a car and picked her up, putting his large green overcoat around her..
At seeing him she began to cry.. but the tears blended into the rain on her face..
General Lane: I'm a bit startled to see you my dear.. so you have to forgive me, if I say or do something inappropriate.. but I knew one day you would come and I welcomed the thought of you and meeting you.
Courtney: Why? Why am I discardable?
General Lane: You're not.. your mother and I met before your mother and her husband, my wife and I had briefly separated for 6 months after our youngest went to collage, we were both seeing other people.. I loved your mother and she me, but we broke up long before we knew about you.. and by that time I was back with my wife.
Courtney:.. then you.. love .. me?
General Lane: of course.. you are my daughter. The measure of your eyes do not lie to the stars.
Courtney: then I can stay with you for a little while.. just til we get close.. yes?
General Lane: well.. no.. and it's not because I do not want you to, it's because it would shame Mrs.Lane in front of the whole base.. I can't have that, she hasn't done anything wrong..
Courtney interrupts: Wrong..? WRONG? 'I' am not something 'WRONG'
General Lane: I know that dear. But she doesn't. You be quiet like your father says young lady.. and give me time to sort.. some flavour of genius, in the form of a plan.
After two hours of driving around the base, just contently sitting in the quiet.
Driver: need to fuel up sir.
General Lane: yes, that's fine.
General Lane: Courtney, your kinda tall girl.. yes?
Courtney: 5'5" sir.
General Lane: Lets see if we can't hide you in the motor pool.. as a kind of intern.
3 days later during an alien attack..
General Lane is standing fixated on Courtney as a truck which has been thrown is hurling towards her.. most definitely about to kill her .. as his wife looks on she sees him throw himself in front of the truck to knock Courtney out of the way.. sacrificing his life to save Courtneys. Proving to Courtney forever. She is worth everything and that her birth father is a great hero.
This brief encounter with her birth father would shape Courtney in unfathomable ways.
When a Feldgrau Lantern first came to Earth, told to capture one of the inhabitants to be tested, Courtney (19yo) was already in Metropolis fighting crime as an unpowered superhero nicknamed the 'white hoody'.. He came to the city looking for a powerful warrior, however he drew the attention of Courtney who relentlessly chased him.. no matter what he did to her she would not let him go.. saying 'This is my Earth.. I will not let you invade no matter your power.'.. this impressed the Lantern so much.. they offered her a ring of her own.
She has a huge sense of pride in being Human, and woe betide the alien that threatens her precious Earth!
Head of the Feldgrau Lantern Corps she can summon many allies from the Corps, however this is rare as she is so powerful. She is head of the Justice League along with Clark then Bruce.
Cyborg Wonder Woman.
Infused with a Motherbox at her birth, the Amazons have performed this ritual for millennia. Diana was to be their Queen, but at 14yo her Motherbox activated early and Diana went crazy. She killed many of her sisters.. in shame she ran away, the Amazons still pursue her to this day.
Her Motherbox fully activated at 25yo.
She lives in shame.. trying to make amends and show her sisters that she did not mean to kill the others, hoping they might forgive her.
Cyan Lantern Hal Jordan
After marrying Carol Ferris, his boss at Ferris Aircraft, and having 2 children, a boy and a girl. Hal, being a pilot, becomes fascinated with faster travel and begins researching alien craft sightings. At a place known for sightings, in the middle of the night, Hal looks for any craft to give him an idea how the craft moves and so he could guess how to improve human craft.. but then suddenly.. a ship crashes, and he goes to investigate. In the ship is a dying alien.. his name is Amon Sur (yes not Abin but his son).. Amon tells him to take the ring which Hal does. His story begins..
Red Mist (Flash)
Barry Allen was struck by lightning, but not imbued with the Speedforce, instead he was imbued with the power of The Bleed, giving him the ability to teleport to anywhere in space, anywhere in any dimension. He is unable to time travel..this has meant that Iris has died, many of his team have died, despite this he remains optimistic about the evil-doers of Earth-24's Central City.
Earth-24 Barry.. is somewhat Bizzaro like, the Bleed affected his mind. He still tries to be heroic, but his jumbled up thoughts lead him to the wrong conclusions at times, this and being in denial about how he feels about Iris's death.. leaves him a very different person than the one we know.
Earth-24 has a 'banned' status on the Speedforce travel list because of him, he may travel to other universes, because in other universes he is weakened enough that the Bleed will not harm the multiverse, however if he was in Earth-24 and met a powerful speedster, together, they could potentially have the power to collapse universal walls.
Unbeknownst to the Justice League, Barry has kidnaped a few Iris Wests from other realities. He keeps them in an old abandoned army bunker.. thinking.. 'well.. if one of them wants to stay I can replace Iris.'. He told them if they 'gave it a try and liked it they could stay, but if they absolutely don't like it (he) would take them back to their Earth.'. This experiment has been ongoing for around a year.. even though they all protest, Barry has not brought them back to their original realities.
Superchic (Supergirl/Mon-EL)
After many lawsuits of the Justice League from Lex-Corp, near bankrupting Bruce Wayne, Supermodel Barbara Gordon offered to help, fitted with hidden cybernetic calf muscles that allow her to fly, she pretends to be a superhero, does photo shoots and gives the money to the JLA, Mara-EL of Daxam is her 'body double' and does the actual fighting.
Battle Armor Superman disapproves of this, however he does not want to see Bruce bankrupted, the last lawsuit Bruce paid for was 4 years ago and Wayne corp has been doing well with their government contracts since, due to that and Superman's battle armor advertising (whose sleeves are nicknamed 'Rock' and 'Roll') the suit is built by Wayne Corp and on the shoulders have the logo, this has given Wayne Corp credibility.
Judges are kinder to Superchic than they were in the past to the Justice League, due to her giving up her seemly privileged life to become a superhero. Also she's jaw droppingly beautiful.
L.O.A trained Joker (Batman+Joker)
Upon hearing Talia was pregnant with Batman's child, The Joker followed her to Nanda Parbat with an idea of killing the child. There he met for the first time Ras' al Ghul, who threw him into the pit with the other fighters, the Joker not only survived this ordeal but thrived which impressed Ras'. Hearing that Batman had undergone LOA training piqued the Jokers interest and so he submitted to the same training.. and then killed everyone* in LOA except Talia who managed to get away with the child. Her and Bruce are now married, Alfred babysits little baby Ras'al while the couple fight crime.
*Draining the lazarus pit and replacing the water with similar looking Joker toxin. So when Nanda Parbat's inhabitants ran to the pit heal their wounds.. instead they started to choke on the fumes then started laughing, which choked them all the more.
Orange Kryptonite Empowered Zod
In the phantom zone, they had ran out of food, the men started eating the crystals, including Zod.
On Earth-24 Phantom Zone, the Orange Kryptonite dust poisoned him, he almost died, however surviving this slowly over time his body got used to this, when he arrived on Earth it accelerated his absorption of sunlight, as a catalyst, realizing this he spent one year orbiting the sun. But to give an example of how fast he is empowered, one week on earth he gained 1 years sunlight exposure, in one month 4 years, in three months 12 years.. by the time he fought Clark he was much stronger than him by a factor of 4.
He no longer has access to the dust and is unsure how long the remaining Orange K in his body will catalyse him.
(One third of the Phantom Zone was burnt in the explosion of Krypton as they did not shut the portal in enough time. This caused radiation throughout the Phantom Zone and degraded their systems including food replicators.)
Grey Lantern Bizarro
Biz encountered a Grey Lantern on earth, thinking they were an enemy he began to attack, instantly a bubble shield surrounded them but Biz kept attacking, a loud chime rung out with each strike until a ring came for Biz. he is ultra chilled out now, doesn't like to fight..but if asked *may* participate a little until he stops caring.
Good friends with Battle Armor Superman.
Earth-24 Lantern Corps
-----------------------
Cyan Lantern Corps
Powered by Fascination
(Equiv. Green/Blue)
Much as the Green Lanterns with this Hal Jordan as their Number 1 Cyan Lantern. But also has auto defense abilities. see below.
Peach Lantern Corps
Powered by Desire
(Equiv. Violet)
Encases people in a crystal of absolute sexual desire, when they emerge they either are willing subjects or have been granted a ring to do the same to others, can make simple light constructs, like a sword and shield, but nothing that has mechanical moving parts.
Powered by Hubris
(Equiv. Orange)
Grants the wears auto defense light constructs,
making them pretty much invincible.
Chino is the same colour as a latte coffee.
Feldgrau (Grey-Green) Lantern Corps
Powered by National Pride/Self Respect
(Equiv. Red)
Grants the wears auto offensive light constructs,
making them pretty much invincible.
Feldgrau is the same colour as a washed out grey-green army uniform.
Grey Lantern Corps
Powered by Apathy
(Equiv. Black)
Grants the wears auto defense light constructs,
making them pretty much invincible.
Infects others who attack them, inasmuch the more they attack, it makes them more attractive to the ring, each attack chimes a very loud bell like sound and eventually a ring will come and place itself of the attacker. they will immediately chill out.
These Lantern Corps had their own equivalent 'Greyest Night Prophecy' which saw most of the 'Controllers of the Universe' wiped out, only a handful survived to guide the Cyan Lantern Corps to victory over the Grey Lanterns, however.. the Grey Lanterns had hid a number of huge Grey Lantern power batteries around the universe, which regularly send out Grey Lantern rings.
The Cyan Lanterns still pursue and destroy these batteries. But should they encounter a Grey Lantern, the Grey Lantern can drain their ring.. apathy being the opposite of fascination. The batteries can be destroyed with concentrated fascination, overloading the battery causing it to explode.
During 'Greyest Day' The Lantern Corps of Cyan and Feldgrau teamed up, aided by accident by the Chino Corps (whom Zander Luthor thought could destroy the Grey Lanterns alone) and again by accident by NiKNoQ of the Peach Lanterns (who was at the right place at the wrong time).
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Note: I was getting Magenta and Peach colour names mixed up. I have now fixed this. 10th/Feb/2018
On Earth-24 we have a Justice League made up of:
Battle Armor Superman
This realities sun is 10% less powerful and so this world's Superman is 10% less powerful.. but undeterred Earth-24 Clark fights even *harder*, having had to develop some semi-Batman like abilities.
Clark is married to both Lana Lang and Lois Lane, Lois having married him to keep his cover of Clark Kent, that he would not be exposed, but then they fell in love, Lana accepted that Clark loved them both and so they all live together in Metropolis.
Lana and Clark have a son called Caleb (10yo) and a daughter called Leora (9yo).
Lois and Clark have a son called Connor (7yo).
His nickname on the JL team is 'HotRod'.. this is because unlike the Clark we know, Earth-24 Clark, isn't a news reporter. Jonathan Kent would always say to him 'I knew when you lifted the car that you were special' and Clark always thought of this fondly.. so when a car on a jack in a garage buckled nearly killing Lana's father, Clark saved him in the nick of time, this began Clark thinking more about cars. There were also not many jobs available in Smallville as the place was dying due to underpopulation.. they desperately needed a mechanic.
So that's what Clark became.
After many years he was offered a job designing cars and that job was in Metropolis, He Lana and little baby Caleb moved to Metropolis. The first time he met Lois was during a piece she was writing about electric cars and their design.
Two years later Zod came to Earth and instantly sought out Kal-el, he became incensed when he discovered Kal-el had children to a human woman, aided by Zander Luthor the two sought to strip him of everything.. Zod even stripped him near bare and let the newspapers take detailed pictures of his face. While this was going on Zander had went to their home and killed Lana, Caleb and Leora..but he had not. Batman and Superman had teamed up a couple of times before this and became firm friends. Finding out about Zod from Clark, Bruce had a contingency plan incase Zod showed up with an intent to kill the children, and he acted on his plan, making brainless clones of them and put them in a sleeping pose in their Metropolis apartment.. taking the real Lana & children to safety.
Once the newspapers found out that Superman was Clark, it was on every headline, it was during this time Lois remembered how kind and nice Clark was, and didn't deserve this feeding frenzy of the media.
This was also the first time Clark met UltraWoman.. she smashed Zod like he was a dead fish, and weakened Zander's Chino ring enough to frighten him that he fled.
After this Clark was unsure how he could have a normal life again.. but Lois contacted Clark and offered him a deal.. She would marry him and divert attention away from him/Superman (no one would dare say anything to them or she would rip them to shreds verbally or in print) and write about how sad it was his family died and how she had pity on him. That it was mistaken identity on this poor soul only trying to live a right life. Lois would just keep lying through her teeth until they all went away.
Clark agrees. This also means Lana & the children will always be safe.
Batman suggests Clark needs a suit of armor..
Yesterday-displaced Batman
The Bruce Wayne of Earth-24 was in a near fatal accident that made him time displaced.
He is the Batman we know but also he lives simultaneously in the 1920s, thrown in time at any moment, but when returned, he returns back to the exact moment he left.
In the 1920s he is still Batman and fights bank robbers and gangsters, there is even a version of the Joker here, called 'The Carny'..who travels in a carnival killing strangers and selling their meat in pies.
All this makes this Batman have double the life experience than the Batman we know.
Feldgrau Lantern; UltraWoman (Stargirl/Atrocitus)
Very unlike the Courtney Whitmore we know, This superheroine fights on the cosmic level. Side-by-side with Battle Armor Superman has taken down; Brainiac, The Anti-Monitor and Darkseid.
But Earth-24's Courtney did not begin this way..
Here, she is the illegitimate daughter of General Lane, when she found out her father was not her birth father at 15yo one stormy night.. she ran away from home. After travelling for 3 days via Greyhound to her birth father's army base.. she walked right up to the guard at the front entrance and told him 'I am General Lane's daughter and I want to see him!'.. he faithfully communicated her message to General Lane who was asleep as it was 1am. She stood in the cold pouring rain patiently. Full of dread of what he might say.
He came in a car and picked her up, putting his large green overcoat around her..
At seeing him she began to cry.. but the tears blended into the rain on her face..
General Lane: I'm a bit startled to see you my dear.. so you have to forgive me, if I say or do something inappropriate.. but I knew one day you would come and I welcomed the thought of you and meeting you.
Courtney: Why? Why am I discardable?
General Lane: You're not.. your mother and I met before your mother and her husband, my wife and I had briefly separated for 6 months after our youngest went to collage, we were both seeing other people.. I loved your mother and she me, but we broke up long before we knew about you.. and by that time I was back with my wife.
Courtney:.. then you.. love .. me?
General Lane: of course.. you are my daughter. The measure of your eyes do not lie to the stars.
Courtney: then I can stay with you for a little while.. just til we get close.. yes?
General Lane: well.. no.. and it's not because I do not want you to, it's because it would shame Mrs.Lane in front of the whole base.. I can't have that, she hasn't done anything wrong..
Courtney interrupts: Wrong..? WRONG? 'I' am not something 'WRONG'
General Lane: I know that dear. But she doesn't. You be quiet like your father says young lady.. and give me time to sort.. some flavour of genius, in the form of a plan.
After two hours of driving around the base, just contently sitting in the quiet.
Driver: need to fuel up sir.
General Lane: yes, that's fine.
General Lane: Courtney, your kinda tall girl.. yes?
Courtney: 5'5" sir.
General Lane: Lets see if we can't hide you in the motor pool.. as a kind of intern.
3 days later during an alien attack..
General Lane is standing fixated on Courtney as a truck which has been thrown is hurling towards her.. most definitely about to kill her .. as his wife looks on she sees him throw himself in front of the truck to knock Courtney out of the way.. sacrificing his life to save Courtneys. Proving to Courtney forever. She is worth everything and that her birth father is a great hero.
This brief encounter with her birth father would shape Courtney in unfathomable ways.
When a Feldgrau Lantern first came to Earth, told to capture one of the inhabitants to be tested, Courtney (19yo) was already in Metropolis fighting crime as an unpowered superhero nicknamed the 'white hoody'.. He came to the city looking for a powerful warrior, however he drew the attention of Courtney who relentlessly chased him.. no matter what he did to her she would not let him go.. saying 'This is my Earth.. I will not let you invade no matter your power.'.. this impressed the Lantern so much.. they offered her a ring of her own.
She has a huge sense of pride in being Human, and woe betide the alien that threatens her precious Earth!
Head of the Feldgrau Lantern Corps she can summon many allies from the Corps, however this is rare as she is so powerful. She is head of the Justice League along with Clark then Bruce.
Cyborg Wonder Woman.
Infused with a Motherbox at her birth, the Amazons have performed this ritual for millennia. Diana was to be their Queen, but at 14yo her Motherbox activated early and Diana went crazy. She killed many of her sisters.. in shame she ran away, the Amazons still pursue her to this day.
Her Motherbox fully activated at 25yo.
She lives in shame.. trying to make amends and show her sisters that she did not mean to kill the others, hoping they might forgive her.
Cyan Lantern Hal Jordan
After marrying Carol Ferris, his boss at Ferris Aircraft, and having 2 children, a boy and a girl. Hal, being a pilot, becomes fascinated with faster travel and begins researching alien craft sightings. At a place known for sightings, in the middle of the night, Hal looks for any craft to give him an idea how the craft moves and so he could guess how to improve human craft.. but then suddenly.. a ship crashes, and he goes to investigate. In the ship is a dying alien.. his name is Amon Sur (yes not Abin but his son).. Amon tells him to take the ring which Hal does. His story begins..
Red Mist (Flash)
Barry Allen was struck by lightning, but not imbued with the Speedforce, instead he was imbued with the power of The Bleed, giving him the ability to teleport to anywhere in space, anywhere in any dimension. He is unable to time travel..this has meant that Iris has died, many of his team have died, despite this he remains optimistic about the evil-doers of Earth-24's Central City.
Earth-24 Barry.. is somewhat Bizzaro like, the Bleed affected his mind. He still tries to be heroic, but his jumbled up thoughts lead him to the wrong conclusions at times, this and being in denial about how he feels about Iris's death.. leaves him a very different person than the one we know.
Earth-24 has a 'banned' status on the Speedforce travel list because of him, he may travel to other universes, because in other universes he is weakened enough that the Bleed will not harm the multiverse, however if he was in Earth-24 and met a powerful speedster, together, they could potentially have the power to collapse universal walls.
Unbeknownst to the Justice League, Barry has kidnaped a few Iris Wests from other realities. He keeps them in an old abandoned army bunker.. thinking.. 'well.. if one of them wants to stay I can replace Iris.'. He told them if they 'gave it a try and liked it they could stay, but if they absolutely don't like it (he) would take them back to their Earth.'. This experiment has been ongoing for around a year.. even though they all protest, Barry has not brought them back to their original realities.
Superchic (Supergirl/Mon-EL)
After many lawsuits of the Justice League from Lex-Corp, near bankrupting Bruce Wayne, Supermodel Barbara Gordon offered to help, fitted with hidden cybernetic calf muscles that allow her to fly, she pretends to be a superhero, does photo shoots and gives the money to the JLA, Mara-EL of Daxam is her 'body double' and does the actual fighting.
Battle Armor Superman disapproves of this, however he does not want to see Bruce bankrupted, the last lawsuit Bruce paid for was 4 years ago and Wayne corp has been doing well with their government contracts since, due to that and Superman's battle armor advertising (whose sleeves are nicknamed 'Rock' and 'Roll') the suit is built by Wayne Corp and on the shoulders have the logo, this has given Wayne Corp credibility.
Judges are kinder to Superchic than they were in the past to the Justice League, due to her giving up her seemly privileged life to become a superhero. Also she's jaw droppingly beautiful.
Others..
Chino Lantern Zander Luthor (Lex/Sinestro/Larfleeze)
Leader of the Chino Corps, he has ZL in a Superman style emblem emblazoned on his chest, the other Lanterns of this Corps have the 'spiked shield inside a lantern' emblem.
L.O.A trained Joker (Batman+Joker)
Upon hearing Talia was pregnant with Batman's child, The Joker followed her to Nanda Parbat with an idea of killing the child. There he met for the first time Ras' al Ghul, who threw him into the pit with the other fighters, the Joker not only survived this ordeal but thrived which impressed Ras'. Hearing that Batman had undergone LOA training piqued the Jokers interest and so he submitted to the same training.. and then killed everyone* in LOA except Talia who managed to get away with the child. Her and Bruce are now married, Alfred babysits little baby Ras'al while the couple fight crime.
*Draining the lazarus pit and replacing the water with similar looking Joker toxin. So when Nanda Parbat's inhabitants ran to the pit heal their wounds.. instead they started to choke on the fumes then started laughing, which choked them all the more.
Orange Kryptonite Empowered Zod
In the phantom zone, they had ran out of food, the men started eating the crystals, including Zod.
On Earth-24 Phantom Zone, the Orange Kryptonite dust poisoned him, he almost died, however surviving this slowly over time his body got used to this, when he arrived on Earth it accelerated his absorption of sunlight, as a catalyst, realizing this he spent one year orbiting the sun. But to give an example of how fast he is empowered, one week on earth he gained 1 years sunlight exposure, in one month 4 years, in three months 12 years.. by the time he fought Clark he was much stronger than him by a factor of 4.
He no longer has access to the dust and is unsure how long the remaining Orange K in his body will catalyse him.
(One third of the Phantom Zone was burnt in the explosion of Krypton as they did not shut the portal in enough time. This caused radiation throughout the Phantom Zone and degraded their systems including food replicators.)
Grey Lantern Bizarro
Biz encountered a Grey Lantern on earth, thinking they were an enemy he began to attack, instantly a bubble shield surrounded them but Biz kept attacking, a loud chime rung out with each strike until a ring came for Biz. he is ultra chilled out now, doesn't like to fight..but if asked *may* participate a little until he stops caring.
Good friends with Battle Armor Superman.
Earth-24 Lantern Corps
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Cyan Lantern Corps
Powered by Fascination
(Equiv. Green/Blue)
Much as the Green Lanterns with this Hal Jordan as their Number 1 Cyan Lantern. But also has auto defense abilities. see below.
Powered by Desire
(Equiv. Violet)
Encases people in a crystal of absolute sexual desire, when they emerge they either are willing subjects or have been granted a ring to do the same to others, can make simple light constructs, like a sword and shield, but nothing that has mechanical moving parts.
Peach is 'pale pinkish-yellow'.
Chino (Brown) Lantern CorpsPowered by Hubris
(Equiv. Orange)
Grants the wears auto defense light constructs,
making them pretty much invincible.
Chino is the same colour as a latte coffee.
Feldgrau (Grey-Green) Lantern Corps
Powered by National Pride/Self Respect
(Equiv. Red)
Grants the wears auto offensive light constructs,
making them pretty much invincible.
Feldgrau is the same colour as a washed out grey-green army uniform.
Grey Lantern Corps
Powered by Apathy
(Equiv. Black)
Grants the wears auto defense light constructs,
making them pretty much invincible.
Infects others who attack them, inasmuch the more they attack, it makes them more attractive to the ring, each attack chimes a very loud bell like sound and eventually a ring will come and place itself of the attacker. they will immediately chill out.
These Lantern Corps had their own equivalent 'Greyest Night Prophecy' which saw most of the 'Controllers of the Universe' wiped out, only a handful survived to guide the Cyan Lantern Corps to victory over the Grey Lanterns, however.. the Grey Lanterns had hid a number of huge Grey Lantern power batteries around the universe, which regularly send out Grey Lantern rings.
The Cyan Lanterns still pursue and destroy these batteries. But should they encounter a Grey Lantern, the Grey Lantern can drain their ring.. apathy being the opposite of fascination. The batteries can be destroyed with concentrated fascination, overloading the battery causing it to explode.
During 'Greyest Day' The Lantern Corps of Cyan and Feldgrau teamed up, aided by accident by the Chino Corps (whom Zander Luthor thought could destroy the Grey Lanterns alone) and again by accident by NiKNoQ of the Peach Lanterns (who was at the right place at the wrong time).
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Note: I was getting Magenta and Peach colour names mixed up. I have now fixed this. 10th/Feb/2018
Thursday, 7 December 2017
SigmaAtom's Guide to Roles and Formation
In ORS, I teach a couple of classes. One of them is my class on Roles and Formation. Most enjoy knowing they are on the same page as the rest of the league. And if they are new the information becomes invaluable to them, as many MMOs do not have a controller class in the same way we do in DCUO. Some of this is re-worked from the old guide that sorely needed updating and some proper formatting. 08.Dec.2017.
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Hi
Thank you for agreeing to take my class, I hope you find it enlightening. :)
Today we are going to learn about Roles and Formations. In the 'Charge' [Formation] we have [Assault] Tank, DPS and [Support] Healer, Controller.
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Hi
Thank you for agreeing to take my class, I hope you find it enlightening. :)
Today we are going to learn about Roles and Formations. In the 'Charge' [Formation] we have [Assault] Tank, DPS and [Support] Healer, Controller.
[Assault]
Tank
First into the fight. highest defence. the tank leads the charge of the formation and should know maps well, a basic grip of the storyline helps too. the whole group follows the tank as a pinnacle of formation. can grant control immunity. They are a human shield through drawing aggro & fire. Many are Speedsters, but not all.
DPS
general fighter and/or heavy weight. does quest and story items. protects the controller and healer, does crowd control (killing mobs) good all rounder. dps's move around a bit but should try to stay in the centre behind the tank, as the healer and controller should line up with the tank. An easy way to remember a DPS's job is: Damage. Protection. Story. Create damage, protect [Support] and do the story, in that order.
DPS doesn't mean that; it means Damage Per Second but this is an easy way to remember it.
[Support]
Healer
keeps everyone alive. essential. group shields. buffs. stays second last in the charge and has the controller as bodyguard. should not be made to fight, if any dps's let hostiles stray a combination of the healer and controller is used to take down the hostile.
Controller
Last in the Charge. Restores energy: keeps the energy fires burning. The Tank and Controller are the 'bookends' of the Formation stays last to protect the Healer, if you see me waiting for you and your a dps.. kindly move!. ill want to protect the healer first. the controller restores their energy by Power over Time and buildups of weapon discharge, then shares it with the group; the healer gets to heal the dps get to fight and the tank can grant defence to themselves or others. Many are flyers but not all.
If the troller can't see the healer they can't power heal them, some tanks will say that the Healer should go at the back, last, but this breaks the ability to power heal + BG (bodyguard). not all trollers fly, but I found many many do.. with good reason, you can see the whole fight from the sky easily.
Mindset:
If you are [Assault] .. don't worry about your bars too much, your health bar should be pretty much near max all the time, and you should be PoT'd at all times, if one DPS is being a power hog, then that's not the Controller fault. The power the Controller has is not for you but for the Healer to keep the group alive but so long as the Controller has PoT'd (Power over Time) the group; they have done their job. Have confidence that both health and power are coming. Support are working on it.
If you are [Support].. don't worry, you don't have to know the story, or know the map, just follow the group and let them get on with their jobs. IF you are Controller and have a late group member, let the whole group know what's going on and why you have to wait.
Basic Strategy:
[Tank]
The Tank's job is to keep the whole group alive, if your group wiped quickly, and the healer & troller were empty, the tank did not draw enough aggro.
The Tank's primary concern is the whole group's health. Healer buffs can also help the survivability of the group. human shield distracting mobs/enemies by drawing the aggression toward them (aggro).
The Tank is the *only* one who should open doors or trigger 'open door events', He/she should wait for the whole group. No DPS's should trigger the event.. why? because the group will die. It also grows the Tank's confidence, that they can do their job without a DPS taking it off them.
[DPS]
If someone is knocked out, it is primarily the controllers job to save knockouts, DPS and Healers *do* help however take a quick glance around and ask yourself ' Am I going to be dragging aggro around the map endangering everyone if I go to save a knockout?' if the answer is yes; then let the troller handle the pickup, if they are worth their salt, they have worked on zero aggro and can slip in and save the knockout with a very low chance of being harmed. PLEASE don't open doors.. I can't say this enough times; please, let the Tank BE a Tank. :)
Simply put, the DPS's primary concern is dealing damage to mobs. Protecting support yes. but killing firstly. Story yes... but. you get me. :)
[Support]
Support in general are not there to draw aggro, in fact it's a very undesirable situation. Support should work on not drawing any aggro from mobs and bosses, this keeps them safe so the DPS can continue their job of damage and not have to run over to save them from mobs etc.
[Healer]
The Healer's job is similar but with emphasis on keeping the tank alive. Buff's to keep the DPS happy and hitting hard. Tank comes first and the healer should always reserve a little power for the tank.
[Controller]
The Controller's primary job is to keep the Healer alive. Debuffs are secondary, PoT's/Recharge thirdly. (second and third can be interchangeable depending on the situation, but never the first) always keeping enough power for the healer to keep everyone alive (meaning also and primarily the tank).
DPS's *should* be PoT'd and HoT'd at all times. The Controller can use debuffs on enemies to control the group's power eating by lowering defence, controlling the healer power out with weapon smashing and increasing the group survivability. The Healer can add buffs raising the protection and abilities of the group, increasing survivability and help alleviate power eating.
At times I've seen more and more healers wondering off and ranging.. this is an upsetting trend, and I feel bad every time they die because of this, if they had stayed close I could have protected them and revived them from knockout.
Symbiosis
The Tank and Controller have a symbiotic relationship in regards to keeping the integrity of the formation.
The Healer and the Tank have a symbiotic relationship in regards to the group's health and survivability.
The Controller and the Healer have a symbiotic relationship in regards to the Healers survivability and power needs.
[Tank-Controller]
The Tank should wait until all group members are in the trigger spot/door until proceeding, the controller should wait on the last group member to keep them with the group. When the tank checks his map, he/she should see no blue blips off map, if he does, it means 1 or more of the group have fell behind and the controller is probably there waiting on the lagging group member, and the he (the tank) should tell the group to wait.
I have seen LOADS of DPS's triggering a door event, only to die, becuase I was the ONLY Troller in the raid. They needed me but I was busy collecting an errant DPS, so why would another DPS trigger the door event? the healer is almost certainly going to die without the controller present, then the tank then the DPS. you need to wait for the group to be whole.
[Healer-Tank]
The healer should keep a keen eye on the Tanks health, because as soon as the Tank dies, the job of healing is going to get a LOT harder; if not impossible.
[Controller-Healer]
The Controller is the Healers bodyguard, not just that the Controller is responsible to ensure that the healer has enough power to heal the group.
[Healer-DPS]
If the Controller is KO'd then the Healer becomes the one to save knockouts as they should have the least aggro.. this is FAR from an ideal situation, because if the healer dies the group dies. The DPS should note when the Controller goes down and one should stay by the healer, but not too close, causing less burn (damage) than the others to save the Healer from knockouts.
In short..
Tank and DPS are [Assault] and Healer and Controller are [Support].. think of them like.. a band. The Tank is the Singer, the DPS are the Guitarists, the Healers are the Bassists and the Controllers are the Drummers. We work together so we 'ROCK!'
We at ORS hope you have found this class informative. If you would like to leave a donation the tip jar is on the desk as you leave the ORS Office.
have a great and bizarre day!
Sigma.
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P. S if anyone has any improvements, please PM me :)
Sunday, 3 December 2017
The Flying Potato.. or how to fix Gadgets powerset and make it like Sorcery
Hi guys
So since I have came back the stats revamp had time to settle in a bit before I came back.. what do I think?
Nature is a bit weird with all the SCs, Mental DPS is a bit useless as is Gadgets, although I do like the bombs now.. ohw I just want to say to the person who thought up making Turret explode after 1 min of inactivity.. I'm impressed, I didn't think the Flying Potato could be worse, but you just swooped right in there and showed me my error! Why was this approved? so I can't even have a shred of company? flip.. DB you seem determined to say that Gadgets is most certainly NOT a pet power, so I guess the next power WILL be a Controller Class Pet power right?.... right??
How could we make Flying Potato even worse?
Give him a little fanfare trumpet when called, to put a finer point on his uselessness.
NO!.. A 1 minute cut scene for calling him DURING the fanfare! little flags pop out his sides!
How could we make Flying Potato better?
Make him a Tank pet like Guardian, he doesn't need to DPS just be good at tanking.
Then stop Drone being a SC and make Drone like Watcher giving out charges instead of priority heals.
'But Sigma there's no DPS pet!'
Okay, then if the player is in DPS stance then Drone is like Fury and Crystal and if the player is in Controller stance then Drone is like Watcher.
I'd like Gadgets to be as fun to play as Sorcery, I hate magic RP dispite this I have loads of fun playing as Sorcery because the powerset is so well put together.. however not just that, but this completes the Pet Trifecta, not only for each class, but for Meta (Earth) Magic (Sorcery) and Tech (Gadgets).
For every bit of distain I have for the direction the team have taken with Turret, I have unequivocal admiration for the AI programming of Guardian.. wow.. he's like a novice human Tank, I.. just wow! for any AI to be close to human-like is just amazing and the team have outdone themselves with his AI.
please, never touch it! please. it's remarkable. The only thing I've never seen him do is 'turtle' which I may have missed.
So as you probably guessed, I'm thinking 'nick Guardians AI and put it in Turret, make everything he does a Taunt. Use battle display to PoT and heal him.'
job done!
Sigma
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I just feel so intensely that it's dragging on and dragging on, it's been what? 2 or 3 years? right now Gadgets is boring as flip. apart from the bombs which are pretty cool, only fun thing about Gadgets right now. Before Metal and Gadgets were like twins, but since the stats-revamp it broke them up and they don't need mirrored, perfect time to get us our controller pet powerset!
Powers I am enjoying are.. Electricity, Sorcery and RL. I've been back now for a month or so, today was the first time I almost DD'd, third on the scoreboard, that was with Sorc.
It's so bugging me that the Trifectas aren't finished so we can move on.. The Pet Trifecta and the Lantern Trifecta.
I KNOW I have to WAIT on a Lantern Healer but Gadgets is SO easily fixed!!
PLEASE someone out there.. hit the batpole and rescue my sanity!
So since I have came back the stats revamp had time to settle in a bit before I came back.. what do I think?
Nature is a bit weird with all the SCs, Mental DPS is a bit useless as is Gadgets, although I do like the bombs now.. ohw I just want to say to the person who thought up making Turret explode after 1 min of inactivity.. I'm impressed, I didn't think the Flying Potato could be worse, but you just swooped right in there and showed me my error! Why was this approved? so I can't even have a shred of company? flip.. DB you seem determined to say that Gadgets is most certainly NOT a pet power, so I guess the next power WILL be a Controller Class Pet power right?.... right??
How could we make Flying Potato even worse?
Give him a little fanfare trumpet when called, to put a finer point on his uselessness.
NO!.. A 1 minute cut scene for calling him DURING the fanfare! little flags pop out his sides!
How could we make Flying Potato better?
Make him a Tank pet like Guardian, he doesn't need to DPS just be good at tanking.
Then stop Drone being a SC and make Drone like Watcher giving out charges instead of priority heals.
'But Sigma there's no DPS pet!'
Okay, then if the player is in DPS stance then Drone is like Fury and Crystal and if the player is in Controller stance then Drone is like Watcher.
I'd like Gadgets to be as fun to play as Sorcery, I hate magic RP dispite this I have loads of fun playing as Sorcery because the powerset is so well put together.. however not just that, but this completes the Pet Trifecta, not only for each class, but for Meta (Earth) Magic (Sorcery) and Tech (Gadgets).
For every bit of distain I have for the direction the team have taken with Turret, I have unequivocal admiration for the AI programming of Guardian.. wow.. he's like a novice human Tank, I.. just wow! for any AI to be close to human-like is just amazing and the team have outdone themselves with his AI.
please, never touch it! please. it's remarkable. The only thing I've never seen him do is 'turtle' which I may have missed.
So as you probably guessed, I'm thinking 'nick Guardians AI and put it in Turret, make everything he does a Taunt. Use battle display to PoT and heal him.'
job done!
Sigma
--------------------
I just feel so intensely that it's dragging on and dragging on, it's been what? 2 or 3 years? right now Gadgets is boring as flip. apart from the bombs which are pretty cool, only fun thing about Gadgets right now. Before Metal and Gadgets were like twins, but since the stats-revamp it broke them up and they don't need mirrored, perfect time to get us our controller pet powerset!
Powers I am enjoying are.. Electricity, Sorcery and RL. I've been back now for a month or so, today was the first time I almost DD'd, third on the scoreboard, that was with Sorc.
It's so bugging me that the Trifectas aren't finished so we can move on.. The Pet Trifecta and the Lantern Trifecta.
I KNOW I have to WAIT on a Lantern Healer but Gadgets is SO easily fixed!!
PLEASE someone out there.. hit the batpole and rescue my sanity!
Tuesday, 28 November 2017
Everything you ever wanted to know about Krypton but were afraid to ask.. or Kryptonian RP fun.
[Role Play]
Sigma:
The story of the death of Krypton is often told well..
I was there when Jor-el first beseeched the Council, so moving was his words, so careful his sentiment, I honor him and the ones gone by naming our league The Order of The Red Sun, to remind us all the lessons that Krypton and Jor-El had to teach.
I knew Jor-El's aunt; Zana-El, may God's rays rest upon her, treated as the El's are, like the princess she was. I met Jor-El once, it was after his speech when his aunt approached him to warn him to be careful of his intentions in front of the Council. She introduced me and we spoke briefly but he spoke passionately of his love for Krypton and righteousness, I told him the technology of Krypton was strange .. that it seemed unnatural. When the Kryptonian crystals destroyed the planet, I knew, and remembered that conversation and my friend whom had died.
I was actually in the next system on Xenex, which is.. was a Kryptonian moon colony, the first colony. We saw the flash, a point of light in the sky as the core exploded. The Xenos like the Daxamites are descended from Kryptonians. When the Kryptonians abandoned the Monarchical system, Dax-El the Father of the Daxamites and his family colonized Daxam. The Xenos felt they were an abandoned people, so they gave up having either monarchs or a council..they did not even employ the caste system, and when Krypton tried to enforce it upon them, the Xenos fought back and won, as there was much unrest on Krypton about the whole matter, instead they are a theocracy. Since the time I was there, the Xenos have left and scattered from the moon. Xenex was the principal colony and asif a capital city to all other colonies outside of the Rao system. Every colonist of every Kryptonian colony are of the caste Xen and could legally call themselves this, but as stated their last name does vary due to their culture, familial & personal beliefs. The friend I was visiting was Vana-Xen, she was looking for transport to Havania and a place to stay.
Vana-Xen told me: 'Kryptonians don't like Daxamites and see them as backwards thinking, like 'hillbillies', Daxamites think Kryptonians are stuffy, pompous and self righteous. Xenos don't mind Daxamites but think of Kryptonians as traitors and if a Kryptonian defends the Council in the presence of a Xenos, they will attack them, Daxamites see Xenos as failed experiments and instantly have pity on them.'
There are things of old seldom spoke..
The members House of El, are the last of the principal noble house of Krypton, and while Kara-el is the oldest of the House El, Kal-El is the descendant of the most senior member of that house (Jor-el); Zod and his men while kryptonians are not of noble birth, but are sworn to protect the nobles. This is why General Dru-Zod feels such deep internal conflict.. to attack the 'charge' he is sworn to protect is, even to himself, treason.. even though at times he threatens Kal-El.. he never tries to fully kill him, he can neither lower himself to be the traitor and hypocrite nor give up hope that Kal-El will one day be the first Prince of New Krypton.
While Dru is a Kryptonian supremacist and in many ways could be considered a fascist, those are ideals that do not lend themselves easily to hypocrisy. As odd as that sounds, lowering himself to human standards is not an option. I agree with Dru-Zod on a few points, he is right that Krypton shouldn't die and that abandoning the ideals of Krypton is no way to learn from it's mistakes. But the methods he employs, I do not agree with and have told him myself, he noted my protest.. I was surprised when he remembered me from his childhood.. he called me as he did then 'the Starman'.
But I digress.. of the caste system, each caste are family;
Krypton's caste system I explain thusly:
You are born into your job, it is assigned by your lineage.
The leaders and scientists are of the House of El,
the artists and custodians are of the House of Van,
the engineers and hearthsmiths.. those who build are of the House of Ur,
the priests, timekeepers and chroniclers are of the House of Pax,
the farmers, chefs, and miners are of the House of Bet,
the soldiers and Cromsmen.. soldier-philosophers are of the House of Zod,
the world builders and colonists are of the House of Xen.
The Noble Houses were El, the primary noble House, then Xen, Ur and then mid-noble Van.
There is one name they are forbidden to take.. Rao, as this is their name for God.
The House of Pax is exempt from being either noble or worker caste as they are the Priests of Rao.
There was some debate about female priestess' they debated it for hundreds of years, then eventually there was an agreeable compromise, some of the House of Pax were given the Outlyer, which was a vast tundra on Krypton, there they made a huge kind of monastery and if anyone honoured the 'new way' they may come and worship there also.. none are turned away, and if you return to your city, you are welcome there also, none are turned away. Priestess' would visit the cities.. you could see them acting like nurses to the children.. it was nice. Before any of this females were not allowed to have any part of the priests portion, and could only be timekeepers and chroniclers. Members of the House Pax are free to marry and not forbidden to stay to caste, they may marry from any House, however they must give up their order.. this is why out those who take this option many many are females.
Jura-Zod, Dru-Zod's mother was Zana-El's bodyguard, from the time Zana-El became chief of the genetic council, I got to know Jura-Zod as a friend too. Impressive combatant and a great passion for righteousness..
She would talk sometimes about how angry little Dru would get if he didn't get his way. Zod's father however was ice cold and refused to speak to me.. I got the feeling he would kill everyone if he could only find the justification to do it.. believe it or not Zod is an improvement on his father. Dru is named after his mother, and his father was the head of the House of Zod, the Chief Supreme Guardian of Krypton, General Zal-Zod. This title passed to Zod upon his father's death, some years later.
Jura was nice.. serious but nice, I was sad to hear of her passing, she was a good friend, may God's rays rest upon her. I attended Dru's 10th Shopnah.. for humans' it's like a mix between a spelling bee and a birthday party.. he came best in show. Jura was very proud.
There are also 'rogue' family names inherited by lineage, these came from mixed marriages with Daxamites and Xenos, as Daxamites and Xenos did not have the caste system.
I would guess Dru-Zod is very surprised the head of the House of El has a surviving heir.. so surprised that it fascinates him, the idea that Kal-El could be the linchpin restore Kryptonian society.
Zod's forces are not all of the House of Zod, some are rebels who joined forces with Zod on hearing of the Council's failure. All Houses except Pax have joined Zod's cause, but none from the House of El, which Zod feels he needs to restore Krypton. There are less than 20 members of the Kryptonian House of El remaining, and Kal-El is suspected to be the last male of his House.
Some of Zod's Cromsmen act like priests and healers towards Zod's men.. he does not however allow them to lead bystand to Rao, only a priest or head of House may do this, so he does this himself..
Zod finds this very shameful, as it is traditionally a priest but necessary as he has none of the House of Pax to fill this role. It is shameful to him that his Cromsmen act like priests, they should not being doing this out-of-caste behaviour for a sacred act and shameful to him that he cannot provide all his men need, I'm using 'men' as a majorative, I say 'men' but as you know the caste system has no differation between genders except as explained the House of Pax.
The House of El has many facets that it was the original house of Royalty, as it was on both on Daxam and Krypton, this is why Mon-EL is a prince of Daxam. Even though Krypton has 'done away with' the royalty aspect of governance, it is still very present in the minds of Kryptonians, that should a member of the House of El be of high prestige, he or she is STILL treated as royalty, Krypton changed to the caste system, but in this, there was still a council of Kryptonians who were held absolute in judgement.
Lara was Kal-El's mother, her caste was Van and like all others in her caste she was forbidden to marry outside of it, but Jor-El asked special permission of the Council for them to marry and it was granted, but for the remaining time, everytime Jor-El went to the council, they dismissed his requests and treated him less than is usual for an El, .. in fact I think they treated him more like a member of the House of Van.
Jor-El was once one of those council members until he married then he explored the sciences, his decline from a Council member was slow one.. he didn't just get up one day and he was fired, Council members can't fire other Council members without a law being broken.. allowing him to marry a Van was a political move for most of the Council.. then it begun.. the ignoring him in passageways when he said hello, not inviting him to Council adjournments or notifying him of Council meetings, it became very awkward for him.. eventually Jor-El got the hint and just resigned.
As his father was head of the House of El.. and was elderly it was pertinent in the Councils minds to reduce Jor-El's prestige within the House .. and as Jor-El was young this made for easy sport as he was not familiar with such twisted politics, it was easy prey.
He was 35 years old, like 19yo is to humans. to think he was only 55 years old by the time.. Krypton.. so young.
An easy way to remember Kryptonian aging is whatever age a Kryptonian is they would be considered approximately half their age if they were human.. Kal-El being afaik 32 years old at present, is only 15 in Kryptonian culture.. a teenager.
Dru-Zod is 105 years old.. I wonder if he got to complete his final Shopnah before the end of Krypton. The final Shopnah is the most important one.. you are bathed by the priests and timekeepers and dressed in gold.. females may request that the males including the priests are not present until the dressing is complete but they *must* allow the priest to wash their face and hair with special oil called Rah-hom-nah.. the bath is this oil, a genetic blend of all comparative genes in your 'pool' it is seen a 'birth of life'.. the final Shopnah is like a wedding to your life.. you are married to your adult life. Most final Shopnahs occur around a Kryptonians 80th birthday.
It's beautiful, I have attended three including Zana's daughter Mara. We obviously don't see the bathing, but the dress is a *bit* revealing as it's only meant to be family members attending. The scene is amazing though, a golden room with special crystals all refracting light so much that it unites again into white light.
I told Kara about this and she just said 'eioeww.. so you mean I was meant to take a bath in my dead relatives?' to which I replied..'no it's not like that.. you aren't actually related, it's not ashes.. these are synthetic genes made for just for you, only in that bath but yes they have every combination of every gene in your House'.. she replied '.. still. eioiew.'
She's still young, should I lose hope or keep it? She's 30 years old.. 14 years old by Kryptonian culture. She also thought it sounded like 'a creepy disco' which kind of shocked me being honest, as the light is nothing like that. It's like everything you see is rainbow of bokeh, with the gold reflecting the light it's not dark. It's beautiful.
Kryptonians marry between the ages of 20 and 25, any older and it's considered *very* embarrassing. If you can't find a spouse on your own you have the option of going to the priests who will try to find a match for you.. none of this is obligatory, no more than humans using dating sites, a priest will suddenly out of the blue come and want a quick chat to you about everyday banal things, this is him in secret checking if he thinks you are suitable match then he will leave and say nothing. If you are both considered a match you both will get a love letter from the Priest in a non sexy but passionate way of how he believes you are a match and inviting you both to to come to Temple for the bystand and service to Rao.. afterwards one asks the other if they would like to go for food or neither or both.. there is no obligation to say yes, but most Kryptonians will at least try this 'date' as they are flattered by the effort taken to attract them.
Kryptonians allow each other dual-marriage, that is if one spouse asks the other and they agree, they can marry another person and remain married to the first. For whatever faults.. in the Kryptonian caste system, divorce is pretty much unheard of on Krypton. I will note that marriage is seen very differently than on Earth, marriage is seen as a skill you learn, like to humans learning to ride a bicycle or tie their laces. You may love each other or appreciate each other.. marrying purely for love on Krypton does happen but then again many learn the skill of care with their partner and then they fall in love with each other later.. because the time taken and the care and skill. This is also why Kryptonians marry young, because it takes time to learn those skills, and hastens their maturity.
Mentally, 20-25yo's, compared to mighty intellect of their fellow Kryptonians are very young, the caste system speeds this understanding, and ensures that the people produced are ready to deal with harder tasks than marriage, which humans struggle with.
Superman, Kal-El.
All the Earth know of him.. but what are his motivations?
Does he not care about Krypton?
He has shown in many many instances preferring Earth to anywhere else including Krypton.
WHY? Why is it so easy for him to disregard his heritage? Is it solely his upbringing.. or could it be in his eyes.. Krypton as a society failed and he keeps his thoughts secret. Although I don't entirely agree with him.. I can see some of Zod's points. Kal-El knows he is meant to be the next 'prince', but that seems to mean nothing to him. What are his true motives other than protecting the Earth? I trust Kal-el's intentions towards the Earth.. but towards his own people, if he ever became their prince?.. I am not 100% sure I would trust him with this.
Would Zana-El his great-aunt approve of him having non-kryptonian children?.. I don't know but the question goes round & round in my mind that the Kryptonians are so depleted, could he not marry both Lois AND a female kryptonian noble? One marriage for love and the other to restock the nobles?
I'm no way suggesting Kara his cousin or Alura his aunt, but there are Ur's and Xenos and Daxamite EL's he could marry to restore his lineage. But humans would never accept him having two wives, as I see on TV the women are quite angry about even having one husband.
I'll admit I don't know but I feel Zana-El would find him selfish and self-serving to not even consider a dual marriage. And while the taunts Zod throws at Kal-El about Lois being his 'pet' and an unfit wife are unpleasant, what I feel Zod is really saying is Kal-El thinks like a little child and only of himself.
Kandor is a bottled city. Using Kryptonian science, one city of Krypton was saved.
I heard rumors Brainiac had done this.. but I knew of a secret technology developed by Zor-el of shrinking large objects, but when I first heard this, it was in mid stages of development.
I mentioned Zor-El, he is Jor-El's brother. Alura is now his widow, their daughter is Kara-el who on earth is known as Supergirl. Alura is the leader of Kandor, She pardoned Zod and Ursa for their crimes. Alura is of the House of El, not by marriage but by birth, she is Zor-El's fourth cousin, by Zana's great-grandfather.
I have spoken in passing a couple of times to Kara about her great-aunt .. she smiles politely to me because she never really knew Zana, this was after Zor threw Zana out of his workshop for visiting him while he was busy and she never returned. Zor-El was named after Zana.. the insult of being thrown out wounded Zana deeply. She was so upset when we spoke she let slip about the aforementioned shrinking technology. In Kryptonian culture being named after someone gives you.. a 'twin' like status together. They call it a 'life-bond'.
(Sigma remembers the 'original timeline' and does not realize things have changed, in the original timeline; Kandor was shrunk by Zor-El and placed in the phantom zone inside a secret crystal, years later Brainiac hearing about the death of Krypton and learning of the shrinking technology, travelled back in time and stole Kandor, using the technology Zor-El developed. When Superman and Supergirl freed bottled Kandor, Brainiac travelled back in time once again and bottled Argo City, he remained with his younger self, Brainiac still owns Argo City. The removal of these two cities destabilized Krypton all the more, which sped up the decline by around 50 years, in the first instance Supergirl was shrunk by her father and put into Kandor, in the second timeline there was not enough time to complete the shrinking project, so Zor-El used some of Jor-El's birthing chamber technology combined with a rocket to earth to save Kara-El, it was all very rushed and not Jor-el's field so he miscalculated the time dilation. Unknown to Superman, Supergirl and Mon-EL, Brainiac also bottled and owns the Daxam 'Temple of the Ancients' with around 1000 yellow sun powered Daxamites in 'sun chambers' forever sleeping.)
Jax-Ur Zod's Scientist, he is also a noble, but is completely devoted to Zod's ideals. I suspect he pretends to be Zod to further Zod's cause, a body double where people are not sure what the original looks like. He just tells them he's Zod and they believe him. He is a member of Non's original team, Non's 'lab assistant' on Krypton, their engineer, there he studied everything Non and Jor-el did.
I learned Non had become mad, such a shame for such a meek man.. I did not know him myself but Zana-el would send him food with little messages to remember to eat and not work too hard.
Non's full name is Non-Ur, he began as an Engineer but was so talented in the sciences many El sought to work with him, they did not interest him, until he met a young Jor-el. Non is also a noble, but driven mad by regret. Dru-Zod does not see him as a candidate for restoring the nobles due to his insanity and while his House is noble; is not El.
I mentioned Non's madness.. such a shame. Non has been driven mad by both the Phantom Zone, and the Kryptonian Councils betrayal of him and Jor-El, their betrayal meant billions of lives perished on Krypton, as Non and Jor-El were the only two to tell the people the truth of Krypton's imminent destruction. Ursa was the next to find out when she interrogated Non and Jor-El, many Kryptonians believing the Council's lies for a long time, she took the proof of Non and Jor-El's discovery to Zod, which in turn led to a revolt on Krypton.
Billions of lives could have been saved if the Council had approved Non and Jor-El's plan for evacuation of Krypton, however even knowing the truth, they refused to sacrifice their technology, status and lifestyle.. A very flippant reason.. it was politically unsustainable; that if they led the evacuation of Krypton the remaining Kryptonians would have banished them to the Phantom Zone for losing Krypton in the first place.
It was evil and self-serving.. and Zod killed them for it. The remaining Council members and a few powerful custodians imprisoned Zod and his forces in the Phantom Zone moments before Krypton's destruction. For millennia.. no Kryptonian had killed another Kryptonian, it was beyond forbidden, this is another reason Zod cannot bring himself to actually *kill* Kal-El.. this is why the Phantom Zone exists as a prison, because murder of their own kind is abhorrent to them. Zod broke this rule nearing Krypton's end..he was not the first as I heard of rumors that had surrounded his father, but I imagine it still chokes him.
Non was still standing with Ursa as his guard from earlier.. he went in too, whether the Council meant it or not.
Zod often taunts Kal-El that Jor-El was a traitor; this is false in his eyes, he does it as an insult but not how we simply understand it; in fact he does not believe Jor-El was a traitor at all, or how could he bring himself to have company with Non. no, it is a feign; a soldier taunting a noble that the other nobles are fighting amongst themselves... this is lost on Kal-El, he does not realize the significance, because he was a newly minted coin by Jonathan and Martha Kent, as shiney upon the Earth that coin might be.. by Kryptonian standards, Zod finds his intellect.. lackluster to say the least.
Sigma:
The story of the death of Krypton is often told well..
I was there when Jor-el first beseeched the Council, so moving was his words, so careful his sentiment, I honor him and the ones gone by naming our league The Order of The Red Sun, to remind us all the lessons that Krypton and Jor-El had to teach.
I knew Jor-El's aunt; Zana-El, may God's rays rest upon her, treated as the El's are, like the princess she was. I met Jor-El once, it was after his speech when his aunt approached him to warn him to be careful of his intentions in front of the Council. She introduced me and we spoke briefly but he spoke passionately of his love for Krypton and righteousness, I told him the technology of Krypton was strange .. that it seemed unnatural. When the Kryptonian crystals destroyed the planet, I knew, and remembered that conversation and my friend whom had died.
I was actually in the next system on Xenex, which is.. was a Kryptonian moon colony, the first colony. We saw the flash, a point of light in the sky as the core exploded. The Xenos like the Daxamites are descended from Kryptonians. When the Kryptonians abandoned the Monarchical system, Dax-El the Father of the Daxamites and his family colonized Daxam. The Xenos felt they were an abandoned people, so they gave up having either monarchs or a council..they did not even employ the caste system, and when Krypton tried to enforce it upon them, the Xenos fought back and won, as there was much unrest on Krypton about the whole matter, instead they are a theocracy. Since the time I was there, the Xenos have left and scattered from the moon. Xenex was the principal colony and asif a capital city to all other colonies outside of the Rao system. Every colonist of every Kryptonian colony are of the caste Xen and could legally call themselves this, but as stated their last name does vary due to their culture, familial & personal beliefs. The friend I was visiting was Vana-Xen, she was looking for transport to Havania and a place to stay.
Vana-Xen told me: 'Kryptonians don't like Daxamites and see them as backwards thinking, like 'hillbillies', Daxamites think Kryptonians are stuffy, pompous and self righteous. Xenos don't mind Daxamites but think of Kryptonians as traitors and if a Kryptonian defends the Council in the presence of a Xenos, they will attack them, Daxamites see Xenos as failed experiments and instantly have pity on them.'
There are things of old seldom spoke..
The members House of El, are the last of the principal noble house of Krypton, and while Kara-el is the oldest of the House El, Kal-El is the descendant of the most senior member of that house (Jor-el); Zod and his men while kryptonians are not of noble birth, but are sworn to protect the nobles. This is why General Dru-Zod feels such deep internal conflict.. to attack the 'charge' he is sworn to protect is, even to himself, treason.. even though at times he threatens Kal-El.. he never tries to fully kill him, he can neither lower himself to be the traitor and hypocrite nor give up hope that Kal-El will one day be the first Prince of New Krypton.
While Dru is a Kryptonian supremacist and in many ways could be considered a fascist, those are ideals that do not lend themselves easily to hypocrisy. As odd as that sounds, lowering himself to human standards is not an option. I agree with Dru-Zod on a few points, he is right that Krypton shouldn't die and that abandoning the ideals of Krypton is no way to learn from it's mistakes. But the methods he employs, I do not agree with and have told him myself, he noted my protest.. I was surprised when he remembered me from his childhood.. he called me as he did then 'the Starman'.
But I digress.. of the caste system, each caste are family;
Krypton's caste system I explain thusly:
You are born into your job, it is assigned by your lineage.
The leaders and scientists are of the House of El,
the artists and custodians are of the House of Van,
the engineers and hearthsmiths.. those who build are of the House of Ur,
the priests, timekeepers and chroniclers are of the House of Pax,
the farmers, chefs, and miners are of the House of Bet,
the soldiers and Cromsmen.. soldier-philosophers are of the House of Zod,
the world builders and colonists are of the House of Xen.
The Noble Houses were El, the primary noble House, then Xen, Ur and then mid-noble Van.
There is one name they are forbidden to take.. Rao, as this is their name for God.
The House of Pax is exempt from being either noble or worker caste as they are the Priests of Rao.
There was some debate about female priestess' they debated it for hundreds of years, then eventually there was an agreeable compromise, some of the House of Pax were given the Outlyer, which was a vast tundra on Krypton, there they made a huge kind of monastery and if anyone honoured the 'new way' they may come and worship there also.. none are turned away, and if you return to your city, you are welcome there also, none are turned away. Priestess' would visit the cities.. you could see them acting like nurses to the children.. it was nice. Before any of this females were not allowed to have any part of the priests portion, and could only be timekeepers and chroniclers. Members of the House Pax are free to marry and not forbidden to stay to caste, they may marry from any House, however they must give up their order.. this is why out those who take this option many many are females.
Jura-Zod, Dru-Zod's mother was Zana-El's bodyguard, from the time Zana-El became chief of the genetic council, I got to know Jura-Zod as a friend too. Impressive combatant and a great passion for righteousness..
She would talk sometimes about how angry little Dru would get if he didn't get his way. Zod's father however was ice cold and refused to speak to me.. I got the feeling he would kill everyone if he could only find the justification to do it.. believe it or not Zod is an improvement on his father. Dru is named after his mother, and his father was the head of the House of Zod, the Chief Supreme Guardian of Krypton, General Zal-Zod. This title passed to Zod upon his father's death, some years later.
Jura was nice.. serious but nice, I was sad to hear of her passing, she was a good friend, may God's rays rest upon her. I attended Dru's 10th Shopnah.. for humans' it's like a mix between a spelling bee and a birthday party.. he came best in show. Jura was very proud.
There are also 'rogue' family names inherited by lineage, these came from mixed marriages with Daxamites and Xenos, as Daxamites and Xenos did not have the caste system.
I would guess Dru-Zod is very surprised the head of the House of El has a surviving heir.. so surprised that it fascinates him, the idea that Kal-El could be the linchpin restore Kryptonian society.
Zod's forces are not all of the House of Zod, some are rebels who joined forces with Zod on hearing of the Council's failure. All Houses except Pax have joined Zod's cause, but none from the House of El, which Zod feels he needs to restore Krypton. There are less than 20 members of the Kryptonian House of El remaining, and Kal-El is suspected to be the last male of his House.
Some of Zod's Cromsmen act like priests and healers towards Zod's men.. he does not however allow them to lead bystand to Rao, only a priest or head of House may do this, so he does this himself..
Zod finds this very shameful, as it is traditionally a priest but necessary as he has none of the House of Pax to fill this role. It is shameful to him that his Cromsmen act like priests, they should not being doing this out-of-caste behaviour for a sacred act and shameful to him that he cannot provide all his men need, I'm using 'men' as a majorative, I say 'men' but as you know the caste system has no differation between genders except as explained the House of Pax.
The House of El has many facets that it was the original house of Royalty, as it was on both on Daxam and Krypton, this is why Mon-EL is a prince of Daxam. Even though Krypton has 'done away with' the royalty aspect of governance, it is still very present in the minds of Kryptonians, that should a member of the House of El be of high prestige, he or she is STILL treated as royalty, Krypton changed to the caste system, but in this, there was still a council of Kryptonians who were held absolute in judgement.
Lara was Kal-El's mother, her caste was Van and like all others in her caste she was forbidden to marry outside of it, but Jor-El asked special permission of the Council for them to marry and it was granted, but for the remaining time, everytime Jor-El went to the council, they dismissed his requests and treated him less than is usual for an El, .. in fact I think they treated him more like a member of the House of Van.
Jor-El was once one of those council members until he married then he explored the sciences, his decline from a Council member was slow one.. he didn't just get up one day and he was fired, Council members can't fire other Council members without a law being broken.. allowing him to marry a Van was a political move for most of the Council.. then it begun.. the ignoring him in passageways when he said hello, not inviting him to Council adjournments or notifying him of Council meetings, it became very awkward for him.. eventually Jor-El got the hint and just resigned.
As his father was head of the House of El.. and was elderly it was pertinent in the Councils minds to reduce Jor-El's prestige within the House .. and as Jor-El was young this made for easy sport as he was not familiar with such twisted politics, it was easy prey.
He was 35 years old, like 19yo is to humans. to think he was only 55 years old by the time.. Krypton.. so young.
An easy way to remember Kryptonian aging is whatever age a Kryptonian is they would be considered approximately half their age if they were human.. Kal-El being afaik 32 years old at present, is only 15 in Kryptonian culture.. a teenager.
Dru-Zod is 105 years old.. I wonder if he got to complete his final Shopnah before the end of Krypton. The final Shopnah is the most important one.. you are bathed by the priests and timekeepers and dressed in gold.. females may request that the males including the priests are not present until the dressing is complete but they *must* allow the priest to wash their face and hair with special oil called Rah-hom-nah.. the bath is this oil, a genetic blend of all comparative genes in your 'pool' it is seen a 'birth of life'.. the final Shopnah is like a wedding to your life.. you are married to your adult life. Most final Shopnahs occur around a Kryptonians 80th birthday.
It's beautiful, I have attended three including Zana's daughter Mara. We obviously don't see the bathing, but the dress is a *bit* revealing as it's only meant to be family members attending. The scene is amazing though, a golden room with special crystals all refracting light so much that it unites again into white light.
I told Kara about this and she just said 'eioeww.. so you mean I was meant to take a bath in my dead relatives?' to which I replied..'no it's not like that.. you aren't actually related, it's not ashes.. these are synthetic genes made for just for you, only in that bath but yes they have every combination of every gene in your House'.. she replied '.. still. eioiew.'
She's still young, should I lose hope or keep it? She's 30 years old.. 14 years old by Kryptonian culture. She also thought it sounded like 'a creepy disco' which kind of shocked me being honest, as the light is nothing like that. It's like everything you see is rainbow of bokeh, with the gold reflecting the light it's not dark. It's beautiful.
Kryptonians marry between the ages of 20 and 25, any older and it's considered *very* embarrassing. If you can't find a spouse on your own you have the option of going to the priests who will try to find a match for you.. none of this is obligatory, no more than humans using dating sites, a priest will suddenly out of the blue come and want a quick chat to you about everyday banal things, this is him in secret checking if he thinks you are suitable match then he will leave and say nothing. If you are both considered a match you both will get a love letter from the Priest in a non sexy but passionate way of how he believes you are a match and inviting you both to to come to Temple for the bystand and service to Rao.. afterwards one asks the other if they would like to go for food or neither or both.. there is no obligation to say yes, but most Kryptonians will at least try this 'date' as they are flattered by the effort taken to attract them.
Kryptonians allow each other dual-marriage, that is if one spouse asks the other and they agree, they can marry another person and remain married to the first. For whatever faults.. in the Kryptonian caste system, divorce is pretty much unheard of on Krypton. I will note that marriage is seen very differently than on Earth, marriage is seen as a skill you learn, like to humans learning to ride a bicycle or tie their laces. You may love each other or appreciate each other.. marrying purely for love on Krypton does happen but then again many learn the skill of care with their partner and then they fall in love with each other later.. because the time taken and the care and skill. This is also why Kryptonians marry young, because it takes time to learn those skills, and hastens their maturity.
Mentally, 20-25yo's, compared to mighty intellect of their fellow Kryptonians are very young, the caste system speeds this understanding, and ensures that the people produced are ready to deal with harder tasks than marriage, which humans struggle with.
Superman, Kal-El.
All the Earth know of him.. but what are his motivations?
Does he not care about Krypton?
He has shown in many many instances preferring Earth to anywhere else including Krypton.
WHY? Why is it so easy for him to disregard his heritage? Is it solely his upbringing.. or could it be in his eyes.. Krypton as a society failed and he keeps his thoughts secret. Although I don't entirely agree with him.. I can see some of Zod's points. Kal-El knows he is meant to be the next 'prince', but that seems to mean nothing to him. What are his true motives other than protecting the Earth? I trust Kal-el's intentions towards the Earth.. but towards his own people, if he ever became their prince?.. I am not 100% sure I would trust him with this.
Would Zana-El his great-aunt approve of him having non-kryptonian children?.. I don't know but the question goes round & round in my mind that the Kryptonians are so depleted, could he not marry both Lois AND a female kryptonian noble? One marriage for love and the other to restock the nobles?
I'm no way suggesting Kara his cousin or Alura his aunt, but there are Ur's and Xenos and Daxamite EL's he could marry to restore his lineage. But humans would never accept him having two wives, as I see on TV the women are quite angry about even having one husband.
I'll admit I don't know but I feel Zana-El would find him selfish and self-serving to not even consider a dual marriage. And while the taunts Zod throws at Kal-El about Lois being his 'pet' and an unfit wife are unpleasant, what I feel Zod is really saying is Kal-El thinks like a little child and only of himself.
Kandor is a bottled city. Using Kryptonian science, one city of Krypton was saved.
I heard rumors Brainiac had done this.. but I knew of a secret technology developed by Zor-el of shrinking large objects, but when I first heard this, it was in mid stages of development.
I mentioned Zor-El, he is Jor-El's brother. Alura is now his widow, their daughter is Kara-el who on earth is known as Supergirl. Alura is the leader of Kandor, She pardoned Zod and Ursa for their crimes. Alura is of the House of El, not by marriage but by birth, she is Zor-El's fourth cousin, by Zana's great-grandfather.
I have spoken in passing a couple of times to Kara about her great-aunt .. she smiles politely to me because she never really knew Zana, this was after Zor threw Zana out of his workshop for visiting him while he was busy and she never returned. Zor-El was named after Zana.. the insult of being thrown out wounded Zana deeply. She was so upset when we spoke she let slip about the aforementioned shrinking technology. In Kryptonian culture being named after someone gives you.. a 'twin' like status together. They call it a 'life-bond'.
(Sigma remembers the 'original timeline' and does not realize things have changed, in the original timeline; Kandor was shrunk by Zor-El and placed in the phantom zone inside a secret crystal, years later Brainiac hearing about the death of Krypton and learning of the shrinking technology, travelled back in time and stole Kandor, using the technology Zor-El developed. When Superman and Supergirl freed bottled Kandor, Brainiac travelled back in time once again and bottled Argo City, he remained with his younger self, Brainiac still owns Argo City. The removal of these two cities destabilized Krypton all the more, which sped up the decline by around 50 years, in the first instance Supergirl was shrunk by her father and put into Kandor, in the second timeline there was not enough time to complete the shrinking project, so Zor-El used some of Jor-El's birthing chamber technology combined with a rocket to earth to save Kara-El, it was all very rushed and not Jor-el's field so he miscalculated the time dilation. Unknown to Superman, Supergirl and Mon-EL, Brainiac also bottled and owns the Daxam 'Temple of the Ancients' with around 1000 yellow sun powered Daxamites in 'sun chambers' forever sleeping.)
Jax-Ur Zod's Scientist, he is also a noble, but is completely devoted to Zod's ideals. I suspect he pretends to be Zod to further Zod's cause, a body double where people are not sure what the original looks like. He just tells them he's Zod and they believe him. He is a member of Non's original team, Non's 'lab assistant' on Krypton, their engineer, there he studied everything Non and Jor-el did.
I learned Non had become mad, such a shame for such a meek man.. I did not know him myself but Zana-el would send him food with little messages to remember to eat and not work too hard.
Non's full name is Non-Ur, he began as an Engineer but was so talented in the sciences many El sought to work with him, they did not interest him, until he met a young Jor-el. Non is also a noble, but driven mad by regret. Dru-Zod does not see him as a candidate for restoring the nobles due to his insanity and while his House is noble; is not El.
I mentioned Non's madness.. such a shame. Non has been driven mad by both the Phantom Zone, and the Kryptonian Councils betrayal of him and Jor-El, their betrayal meant billions of lives perished on Krypton, as Non and Jor-El were the only two to tell the people the truth of Krypton's imminent destruction. Ursa was the next to find out when she interrogated Non and Jor-El, many Kryptonians believing the Council's lies for a long time, she took the proof of Non and Jor-El's discovery to Zod, which in turn led to a revolt on Krypton.
Billions of lives could have been saved if the Council had approved Non and Jor-El's plan for evacuation of Krypton, however even knowing the truth, they refused to sacrifice their technology, status and lifestyle.. A very flippant reason.. it was politically unsustainable; that if they led the evacuation of Krypton the remaining Kryptonians would have banished them to the Phantom Zone for losing Krypton in the first place.
It was evil and self-serving.. and Zod killed them for it. The remaining Council members and a few powerful custodians imprisoned Zod and his forces in the Phantom Zone moments before Krypton's destruction. For millennia.. no Kryptonian had killed another Kryptonian, it was beyond forbidden, this is another reason Zod cannot bring himself to actually *kill* Kal-El.. this is why the Phantom Zone exists as a prison, because murder of their own kind is abhorrent to them. Zod broke this rule nearing Krypton's end..he was not the first as I heard of rumors that had surrounded his father, but I imagine it still chokes him.
Non was still standing with Ursa as his guard from earlier.. he went in too, whether the Council meant it or not.
Zod often taunts Kal-El that Jor-El was a traitor; this is false in his eyes, he does it as an insult but not how we simply understand it; in fact he does not believe Jor-El was a traitor at all, or how could he bring himself to have company with Non. no, it is a feign; a soldier taunting a noble that the other nobles are fighting amongst themselves... this is lost on Kal-El, he does not realize the significance, because he was a newly minted coin by Jonathan and Martha Kent, as shiney upon the Earth that coin might be.. by Kryptonian standards, Zod finds his intellect.. lackluster to say the least.
Zod chooses his words carefully, as do all Kryptonians, for Zod.. Kal-El's innocence of what Zod's remark signifies, also could show that Krypton as a society was a success; that Kryptonians are NOT inherently smart but it was Kryptonian society and the caste system that made them smart. This would give Zod great pleasure being of the soldier caste. But also a crux that to rebuilt it must be the perfect likeness of itself.
Zod is a serious man. He would not state Jor-el was a traitor without assigning equal blame to Non.
Ursa is Zod's wife. Ursa was the person given charge to arrest Jor-El and Non for treason, however she discovered that they were telling the truth, she freed them and reported the truth to Zod. Zod started a war on Krypton, believing that the Council had hidden the truth, this is also why he doesn't blame Kal-El for Krypton's destruction.
Zod believes in the caste system absolutely, and the thought of 'breeding for choice' disgusts him.
Zod believes in the caste system absolutely, and the thought of 'breeding for choice' disgusts him.
Daxam still exists after the explosion of Krypton but 1/3rd of the whole planet is a burnt wasteland, like after a nuclear war would be on earth. Krypton and Daxam were much like The Earth and Mars are but closer together.
Last year I returned to Daxam for the first time since Krypton's destruction. I don't know many Daxamites but have a couple of acquaintances.. I visited Sim-Vur he is a priest of Rao on Daxam, he said 'things have just gotten worse since we last seen each other.. the royal family have gone a little mad to be honest, they often talk to all of Daxam in their decrees about conquering the galaxy.. however alarming this is, the more alarming thing is we haven't just abandoned Daxam and gone off to seek a new home.'
I know Sim-VUR as a wise person in the matters of Daxam, he is very long lived and has seen much. Normally saying the royals 'have gone a little mad' would be treated with the highest order of treason.. but he is so old, nobody minds him or bothers him when he says these things, he could probably even say this in front of Queen Rhea-EL and she would just call him 'you old coot!'. The killing of priests is forbidden on Daxam, and is punishable by abdication and banishment, but that doesn't mean it has never happened, BUT Sim-VUR is the OLDEST priest and if Queen Rhea killed him the priesthood would come out in force to act on that law.
While Daxam had the same technology as Krypton in the interim, it diverged.. Daxamites don't just throw a crystal on the ground and it builds a house for them, which was how Krypton eventually exploded too many crystals invading their planet, Daxamites have special laser technology, they send drones in search of mountains and rock formations that fit their desired requirements and the drones use the lasers to burn away the excess rock.. can I just say this is; in my humble opinion, a much smarter way of doing things, I have no idea why Kryptonians think Daxamites are 'hillbillies'.
About Krypto the dog.. I don't know but I find this very odd that Krypton had dogs and strongly suspect that Kryptonians had been to Earth long ago.. I suspect genetic experiments very long ago as even Daxam has elephants... it's weird.
You sometimes see elephants in their iconography, they are a symbol of power much like lions are on Earth. If you go the Royal Necropolis, which is a huge and vast structure, you can see Kings and Queens riding elephants in war.. I don't know if they found a way to *actually* do it but in the icons depicted their trunks jet fire.
You sometimes see elephants in their iconography, they are a symbol of power much like lions are on Earth. If you go the Royal Necropolis, which is a huge and vast structure, you can see Kings and Queens riding elephants in war.. I don't know if they found a way to *actually* do it but in the icons depicted their trunks jet fire.
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