Category: Consortium of Justice

Diverse Hands II

Continued on with the odd mash-ups between heroes and villains. Lynn Calodo and Kazima joined up with some folks for the Hero/Villain quests (Lynn dinged, Kazima dinged shorly thereafter), then later, over on Virtue, Honor the Flag and Copper Mountain joined in (Honor dinged once, Copper dinged twice).
I’m not all that devoted to the badges, but the gameplay is always good fun.
I need, though, to make a point this afternoon of getting everyone logged in long enough to get the Heart of Xness badge and the toga piece (though very few folks I have, if any, will ever go for the toga thing — well, maybe Velvet). Not sure who, if anyone, I want to still run through the Valentines stories. Torchy, probably, and maybe Velvet. Possibliy Eliza Dee, just because I miss playing her. Heck, we should probably see if we can push the Azures through (“You’re ‘Beautiful,’ darling.” “You’re ‘Beautiful,’ too, dear.”).
The disads of so many alts is coming back to bite us. Though, to be honest, if I *don’t* run those mishes any more, I think that would be fine. It’s the teaming and gameplay on them I’m enjoying, not (once again) going through an incredibly laggy Arachos set.
Honor continues to proceed apace, development-wise. I discovered that she’s still not able to tank a half-dozen orange Arachnos types. Getting better, though, and I seem to have stabilized my endurance needs, even with Energy Melee consumption.
Lynn — is now tied for 4th highest character in my stable, which is mildly alarming. (Though Margie’s soloist, Blue Point, is now tied for second in hers.) It was kind of cool Lynn ending up as one of the more powerful characters in the Valentines group (even when we were facing the right level of baddies). I had some fun playing her, too.
She’s joined up in the new “Nexus Program” (the revised Allies of the Alliance). We’ll see how that goes. In related news, I’ve dropped the (briefly joined) “OOC RP” chat channel, given some folks who’ve subsequently migrated to it. Still finding the “Alliance OOC” to be a lot of fun and meeting my OOC needs.
And briefly got on as PC to get the CoJ tied into the Nexus and the Longbow Elite. It will be interesting to see how (or if) that latter group stays tied to the Alliance, and how each will affect the other.

Helping hands

Psi-clone and Amorpha wrapped up the Madeleine Curry story arc (which, hands-down, has some of the best contact dialog in the game) with a final assault on the Madame of Mystery, an AV.
Also known as “pound your fists against a brick wall.” As an AV, regenned damage at a furious rate, and was highly resistant to everything but psi — and despite PC having a temp psi power, he and Amorpha hammered at her for a good 20 minutes with the health bar barely nudging down below 100%, and that only for a few moments.
“If anyone can hear me, we can use some powerful help,” I /cced.
CC, in this case, stood for chirping crickets.
Fortunately, we got by with a little help from our friends. Specifically, we called in Avo and Puck Bunny, who were off on other characters, but who showed up in our contact list. Avo showed up, helped pound away for a while, then suggested some other folks. Jagoro got called in, and PB was on the way (having disconnection problems), and we’d gotten Synoptic coming in and a couple of other “New Alliance” sorts were in the wings …
… and we finally started overcoming her resistance/regen, esp. with a couple of high-level wolf whistle summons and steady pounding.
And we won.
Whew.
It was interesting, and a nice demonstration of why burning of bridges is rarely a good idea. Even if I support what happened with the Alliance break-up (which I do, in principle), there are any number of individual players and their characters on the “other” side I’d be happy to go to the assistance of, and, clearly, vice-versa.
We are, after all, supposed to be heroes.
And that may well come in handy, as we start marching into the AV wars in the road up to level 50.

Chit-chat

More PC/A goodness last night, hunting Carnies in PI, clearing Rikti on alternate Earths, and facing down scary-looking-but-pretty-flimsy Praetorian clockwork.
The latter mish was with Puck Bunny, who’s also at 45. PB’s play was erratic as Player-of-PB was being inundated with tells viz The Great Schism. Then, mid-mission, I started getting tells from a fellow leader on the “Champions” global channel, which nearly floored me — haven’t conversed in that channel since, well, it was set up, esp. when Coalition Chat started up.
Anyway, long discussions ensued about what had happened, how things were going, how they could have/should have happened differently, how the future might look, etc. (and in so doing received confirmation of another Lurker here 🙂 ).
(Bottom line, to my mind, is that the principals involved (any or all, but in particular Stateswoman and the FP Leadership) need to make a public statement about the matter — not necessarily an open debate, but a straightforward “Here’s what happened, here’s why, here’s what we intended, here’s what went wrong, here’s where we’d like things to go.” Not defensive, I hope, but straightforward and honest. In absence of that, the only folks talking are either (a) ignorant, or (b) biased, which means that the majority of folks out there who are still rocked back on their heels by all this have only unreliable sources regarding what actually happened and why.)
(Yes, by the bye, I could also make a formal statement viz my own role in this as an SG leader. But I’m not going to put words into others mouths or second-guess motivations without statements to work from — and, honestly, my role here was secondary in key ways. Once the Official Word is given, I’m prepared to chime in as appropriate. If it never is … we’ll see.)
At any rate, after Margie headed to bed, I did a bit more chatting with a couple of leader types, and a player or two, then called it a night (so far as CoH stuff was concerned — I ended up staying up too late getting some other things cleaned up, but that’s a different matter).

Vicious

“University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small.” — Henry Kissinger
I don’t know what it is that makes political infighting so nasty in social groups, except for how Dr. Kissinger puts it.
Regardless, nasty and vicious is what we ended up with in the big Alliance Schism of 2006.
I’m certainly pleased to see some folks out on their asses, don’t get me wrong. Other folks I’m sorry to see go, and some of the groups that were booted could have remained so far as I was concerned.
The whole thing was executed horribly (though, to be fair, I’m unsure what triggered the actual timing, unless it was Bill spilling the beans), and it could have been framed and spun a lot better (and, evidently, was intended to be). But, bottom line, “freedom of association” (as well as “he who pays the piper calls the tunes”) meant that if the Phalanx leadership wanted to get rid of some groups, that was their prerogative. And, on balance, I’d rather be with the ones left than the ones kicked out. There are exceptions, on both sides, but if the line is drawn, I know which side I want to be on..
Evil clique? Whatever. I’d expect a truly evil clique to be better organized. And spend less time agonizing over this stuff. And have cool t-shirts.
I’m not a confrontational kind of guy. I would likely never have taken a step like this, and would never, ever have done it as it was done. There are people I’ll miss, people I’m sorry have left, and others who, if I won’t exactly miss, I wouldn’t have minded if they were still around.
On the other hand, there are some folks whose nattering in CC will not be missed by me at all.
And all that said — I’m not going to lose a lot of sleep over it tonight.

Doing the social thang

Went out with Velvet and P-Siren to Capt. Atomyc’s weekly Freedom Phalanx exercise meeting. Took for-evah to actually get going, between PS being delayed in joining and then uncertainty as to where we were going and then (most especially) delays in how to actually make a team of 9 work.
In the end, had a group of 7 up against Infernal. Velvet was the point person, natch, as the only tank on the team. Mostly consisted of going through portals, finding a group of a dozen or so demons, standing in the middle and taunting them, then letting the controllers lock them down and the blasters take them down. I was SKed to the highest person in the group, I think, so between that and bubbles (Margie’s mostly, though Puck was tossing them off, too), I was immune to pretty much anything thrown at me.
In the final battle — no prob. I locked down Infernal, the others took out the portal and the peripherals, and then we took him down proper. One death only (and I don’t think that was from Infernal). A kinetic on the team kept my endurance up, and it was just a matter of hitting him enough times.
Got some decent XP for Infernal and the mish, but my high SK kept the overall XP-per-demon pretty low. A fair trade-off for immunity, I suppose.
(As a complete side note — Margie has sometimes joked about replacing the FF on P-Siren with Sonics — and it just occured to me that, with a name like that, Sonics would make a lot more sense now. Not that I’m suggesting she reroll a level 29 character!)
After that, we switched over to Fazenda and Araware. We have a Storm Knights meet-n-beat on Monday we want to attend, and it would be nice if we had our travel powers by then. We’re 13, so it’s just, oh, several pips away. Should be more than doable.
One thing I’ve noticed the last few times out is that the SG channels on other groups tend to be a lot more chattery than the CoJ. Sometimes there’s more SG chat going on than CC (and, to be honest, I tend to swing that way when on those channels, too). F/A had a nice, lengthy, IC/RP chat with someone last night, all on SG. Earlier in the evening, we were using the FP channel for all our organizational discussion around the mission.
As to the difference from the CoJ? Well, four of the several regular players in the group are in duos (Margie/me in our various CoJ instances, mostly PC and A; and, of course, Hype and Syn). Duos tend to talk mostly to each other. There are other individuals in the CoJ, certainly, and they do pipe up, but it tends to mostly be in CC.
Interesting. Question is, is that a problem?

Being the Cool Kids

When Margie and I founded the Consortium, it was largely as an extension of our local CoH circle.

Mission: A convenient place for the non-aligned/SGed folks in the Hill-Kleerup (“Consortium”) orbit to SG together (and thus see each other while online) — a fancy, slightly less functional, but currently operating local version of Global Chat. (I’d ID it specifically for our Colorado group, but we’ll likely open the doors to Avocet, too, at least. It is largely (for RL purposes) a social grouping; for RP purposes, it’s a way to easily team up on stuff. RP for characters not required (but always fun).
As we moved into the orbit of the Alliance, that description had to change some, and it became more of a place for folks to do experimental character work — alts, mostly. That was mostly for the benefit of Margie and myself, again, since we’re both altaholics, and didn’t want to have to justify that to any of the existing SGs (or delay in getting them tied into the Coalition Chat once we’d created them). It remained, with a couple of stray exceptions, mostly a place for our circle of friends, and often mostly for alts.
That’s been changing in the last month or so. We’ve been getting a steadily increasing number of applications. They’re generally alts still, including a growing pod of Kheldians, but the Consortium is becoming a lot more than just our vanity group. There are numbers there — when I look at who’s logged in on the SG page it’s now often more than 2-3, more like 6-7. It’s becoming a place where, to some degree, some of the cool kids hang out.
Wow.
I don’t know how that will continue to change the Consortium. Two areas that come to mind:

  1. We probably need to schedule more regular SG events and communications. The Consortium has always been RP-light, and as a largely alt-driven group we haven’t had much identity and bonding after the initial admission. Perhaps we should look at evolving that a bit.
  2. We (Amorpha and Psi-clone) probably need to consult with our folks a bit more often than we have over Alliance issues. Maybe. In general, I’ve felt comfortable speaking in the Royal We for the Consortium in Alliance Leadership discussions. Can I still say that’s true, with the number of active members who are, frankly, *not* me? Granted, our group is mostly alts still, and many (though by no means all) of them have leadership roles in other SGs. Still, something for me to bear in mind.
  3. Right now, the officers in the group are all me and Margie, in one body or another. Should I change that? Is there someone interested in more responsibility, and how comfortable do I feel with that?

In short, I feel a bit like we’re moving from a family business to something a bit more corporate (appropriate enough). I’m not thinking of any significant changes, especially since I think it’s the non-demanding, non-melodrama aspects of the Consortium that a lot of people are attracted to. But as we get bigger and more diverse, some changes will (and should) occur. I’m beginning to think about that.
And I’m noodling about it here rather than on the Consortium forum because, well, it’s still in the noodling phase. 🙂

The irony is killing me here

That even as I was contributing to discussions in the Alliance leadership yesterday regarding escalation of personal conflicts to various leadership and guidelines of how such conflicts should be resolved …
… I was dealing with a real life HR issue on just that very theme.
I am here to assure that it is *much* easier to deal with even the most fractious and irritating CoH character/player than a real, live, employee.
Further deponent sayeth not.

The Forum is Live

The CoJ forums are live and active. Many thanks to Margie for reviewing stuff before I put it up (and for come up with some marvelously droll folder names).
For those already part of the Consortium, at your convenience (and to set a good example) check out the stuff in the Portfolio folder, and create a profile/dossier for your character (even if it’s just your ID card biography). I ‘preciate it. I’ll be slowly filtering my own alts in there over the next week or so.
Y’all who are currently in the Consortium, thanks for all you’ve done, participationwise, and for helping take this to the next level. Should be fun.

The Consortium moves shop

There’s now dedicated forum space for the Consortium of Justice over at the Alliance forum. I still need to get the various folders there set up, with instructions on what goes where and so on and so forth.
By the nature of our shift over to the Alliance, the Consortium will be changing some. It will, for example, no longer be just the hang-out place for folks in my and Margie’s orbit of friends. That’s regrettable on one level, but, on another, it’s exciting.
It’s also an opportunity for further RP and journaling of gameplay (IC) for the multitude of CoJ players already with us, particularly those of you without your own webspace.
Something you can do in the next few days, whilst the CoJ forum is being set up. We’ll be asking every member to put something for their hero into the “Portfolio” folder.

  1. Minimum: A paragraph to describe your hero (probably the same as what you have in your ID card).
  2. Preferred: An outline dossier, similar to the FP template (but without the optional player info).
  3. Even better: As above, but with a link to a Crey Threat Analysis of your character.

Until the furniture is moved in, you can be scribbling something up for your characters.
The other odd thing about the Consortium in the AoC forum will be the idea of matches between forum IDs and heroes. Given the highly “alt” nature of the Consortium heroes, I don’t expect a 1:1 ratio of logins to heroes. You might want to consider, though, making an ID (or two) for your “main alts” in the Consortium, so that their cute little picture and name will show up next to your biography and such. I’ve already done this for Honeygun and Torchielle. (Let me know if you need a space for your forum icon, or need help pulling one together, since I have most of you in screen caps already.)
The Blog of Heroes, though, isn’t going anywhere. I have plenty of intention of continuing to do OOC gameplay descriptions and notes and CoH news here. I’ve already been doing most of my IC stuff over in the forums, and that’ll continue.

They like us! They really like us!

To: Consortium Members
From: Graham (Psi-clone) Thorne, Consort Prime
Re: Bully for (and Bullish on) the Consortium!
I’m pleased to announce a personal communique from Patriot One that the Alliance of Champions has formally accepted the Consortium of Justice under its umbrella.
This is a very proud day for me, and it should be for you as well. We’ll be setting up forum and web space for the group at the Alliance site in the next few days (alas, personal commitments this evening prevent me from immediately hopping on it), and be making further announcements at that time.
Again, you should all be very proud of this achievement. I’m sure that, in conjunction with our brethren in the Alliance, the Consortium will become an even brighter star in the firmament of Paragon City’s heroes.
~~ G. Thorne
/GT:dch

The Consortium’s Premiere

consortium_1.jpgFirst night out as the Consortium was fun. Psi-clone, as “Consort Prime,” brought in Margie’s TT, and ran about doing some head-thumping (including taking on a pretty nasty red-level-to-me-purple-to-Margie boss). We recruited Zazi in (huzzah!), and Margie and I wrapped the evening loading up alts and inviting each other in.
So far, so good, though some costumes don’t “work” as well in the team colors. But, then, I don’t have expectations of everyone being in SG colors all the time.

Welcome to the Consortium of Justice

uncle_psi-clone.jpgThe Consortium of Justice is now online on Champion. Founder and Consort Prime, Psi-clone, will be figuring out how to invite people in Real Soon Now.
Everything came along per the description below, with two small exceptions:

  1. I wasn’t able to find quite the shade I wanted, so I settled for a deep, rich blue and a silvery light grey. Not bad looking, I think.
  2. I discovered that you can’t change an SG’s colors once they’ve been set, which kind of makes it difficult to tell what will really work well together, eh?

Anyhow, there you go.

Supergroup Idea

As inspired by Boulder Dude:

  • Group Name: The Consortium of Justice (because you just gotta get “justice” in there somewhere)
  • Motto: “You Never Walk Alone”
  • Team colors: Indigo and silver
  • Team insignia: That cool diamond of boxes that shades between light and dark.
  • Mission: A convenient place for the non-aligned/SGed folks in the Hill-Kleerup (“Consortium”) orbit to SG together (and thus see each other while online) — a fancy, slightly less functional, but currently operating local version of Global Chat. (I’d ID it specifically for our Colorado group, but we’ll likely open the doors to Avocet, too, at least. It is largely (for RL purposes) a social grouping; for RP purposes, it’s a way to easily team up on stuff. RP for characters not required (but always fun).

The floor is open for comments. Barring any significant changes, I’ll probably throw this together tonight.