After the storm

I can't believe that the posting of a few simple rules would cause people to flee in fear. Especially when the rules for new members did not apply to them.

I should have known this would happen; they were constantly making enemies and insulting people anyway. it was only a matter of time for them to turn on the rest of us.

I was willing to look past everything, but trying to organize the SG into doing a few regular events turned into a pissing match form people who didn't want to be in charge but didn't want anyone else to be either.

No matter: the problem solved istelf, they can't do anything to us except run their mouths. Now we get to move on.

I don't care if the SG stays small for a while; we need to screen new people coming in. Did you know that's it's against the TOS for a 12-year old to be playing the game? Daddy's little girl 1 is not even supposed to be on until next year. We have several one-session toons still on the rolls; and some people who won't get into SG mode and contribute prestige to the effort.

The apathy has to stop if we want to move forward.

If you're reading this, you're already part of the solution. Please help get the better attitude spread around among our existing members and caught by new ones.

It's disappointing

I'll put it bluntly- some people may like the ESK, but almost no one is putting any effort in.

NO one- and i mean NO one- is showing up for any scheduled missions. Half the players aren't even in SG mode. They don't use the base, or they do but never leave inspirations, enhancements, or salvage; and they never come on and say hello to anyone, let alone offer to team up.

I've started removing the dead weight from the rolls. Many people were invited in by jay, and precious few know any of the rest of us. Unless something changes, they have no ties to us whatsoever.

We made it into the top 100 supergroups, but after peaking at 93 we're slipping- 99 as of today. At the present rate, we will have to begin dismantling the base in about 3 months.

If you have read this far, they you know that I intend to do something about this. I plan to ask people from our coailtion to put an alt into the ESK and play it a for a minimum amount of time; and I will do the same- or someone else from the ESK.

Schulls and Sex Machine have the people to do it, and we're in coalition already. Single-group loyalty is not rewarded in the CoV system, so we gotta roll with the changes.

Ok, time to start culling the herd.

Jay...

does anyone know why jay and his brother quit, and his brother sent me an insult before leaving?

I'm going to give him a day to explain it, then he's expunged from the records altogether. no one wants a quitter around.

Amended a couple hours later: I spoke with him briefly. He did indeed quit; said he wouldnt be in any supergroups. he gave it up; he doesn't get it back when he changes his mind.

Jay, you didn't even try to talk to us. You pissed me off. I hope you're happy with your new circumstances; maybe it's time for you to go on to that new game after all.

If this is what we ahve to look forward to; I'm all for a major purge. I've put too much into this to let others screw it all up; replacements are on the way.

Winter Event badges and other stuff...

E.Normus has finished his ski vacation with news of the winter event.

Besides the four badges you can get, one each mission, for rescuing the Baby New Year, there are several others you can get on the missions or in the ski zone itself.

One is the Trucker badge- fly to the hovering truck between the ski slope and Pocket D disco.

If you kill 100 frostlings and such, you get the Cold Warrior badge. Kill enough of the Bris leaders (?) and you get a Bane badge. Red caps give a badge too, and if you kill Snaptooth 5 times you get the Toothbreaker badge.

E joined a mixture of Hero and Villain teams, and rumors have it that some Heroes have buffs that brutes really like. I haven't seen it myself; I can tell that there are many who don't like to get in there and fight like a Brute can.

E will be on after 10 to conduct badge expeditions for everyone who hasn't got all of them yet. I'm also going to have a contest to see which ESK toon adds the Xmas pieces to their costume best; infamy and Xmas gift prizes.

One other idea- have at least one of your toons save their Holiday Cheer for our base Xmas party. I think we should have it Saturday, Dec. 23, all day. Exchange presents and run mission together before the Xmas family stuff starts. Let me know if you can make it.

Happy Winter Event!

ps Ski races!

Weekend schedule 12/15- 12/17

Use the comments for this entry to pick one of the mission times that you wish to attend.

All times are EST. Unless otherwise specified, meet in base meeting room.

Thursday- All Night Skiing and Baby Rescues.

Friday- 10 pm Strike force, calling levels 15 plus, meet in base and mission is in Cap Au Diable.

Saturday- 1pm Exploration badge hunting for all zones

8pm Level 40+ missions, lackeys invited if there is room

Sunday- Morning run for starting and low-level toons, various missions

7pm Arena battles for badges, gladiator and PvP- base raid practice

Sign up for at least one of them below. Leaders, let's split up the responsibilities for extended missions- you can set and organize the teams too.

I'd like to see everyone who is signed up in our SG participate in a group mission at least once a month; if they don't there should be another strong reason to keep them or we should cut them loose, to keep the slot for someone who will help.

Please spread the word about the blog to everyone- let's get more people reading this.

Here's where we stand:

We have around 8.4 million prestige.

The top supergroup on our Top 100 list has around 29 million prestige.

We are fairly close to several other groups in prestige; currently we are drifting around spots 92-95.

In order to improve the base defenses, we need more power. The only way to get more power is to add a generator, and the smallest base plot that allows that is seveal million in prestige more than we have now. We gain prestige at the rate of 10-20,000 per day, with our present membership and activity level. We can imporove this; that is why I am trying to orgainze more missions by group. A team gains more experience points, and more prestige, by being larger- so a team of 3 sg members is only a fraction as productive as a full team of eight. It's possible for a team that's well organized and moving from mission to mission to get 50,000 prestige in a day, so if we can do that at least once a week, we will have a better chance of moving up the list and toward the bigger base defenses.

If you care about our SG future, you know what to do. Let's work together to get the top spot.

Sign up here and post any comments...

PL means different things to different people...

I've noticed that there are degrees of powerleveling, and it's a problem because at best it's organized gameplay and at worst it's extreme munchkinism.

Munchkins, by the way, were the D&D players that insisted in having a vorpal sword for their 1st level paladin, son of a god, who has a kingdom and... I won't go on. Simply, it's a player who wants everything of value in a game without doing the tasks necessary to get it.

What I see in powereleveling is that there is an unrealistic gameplay cheat, an exploit of the game features. This is done by bypassing all the rooms into a mision, reaching the objective, and completing the mission for the bonus. Thi is done by one or possibly 2 players, while the team is filled out with lower level toons who stand inside the mission door but don't actually do anything.

The developers make it more diffficult to do this, but the response is to find another exploit.

I have a problem with this on principle: I ran those missions, I fought (and lost often enough) for the xp and the mission bonus; why should someone else get a free ride?

Looking at the other side for a moment: Player A has already played several toons though the mission sequence; why does he need to do it when he can get credit in a fraction of the time? -or- I paid for the game, can't I do anything I want?

So there are reasons to powerlevel that seem to be plalatable... why does it still bother me?

It's the knobs that send blind tells that say "Please PL me". Its' the people who join a team but insist on running the missions as PL, and want to invite the "rest of the coalition." It's the superior, smug attitude that some people take when you want to do things a different way.

So, I guess I have an answer- if it's for a good reason only, I can condone PLing, but my opinion is that you earn what you get.

Ok, test number one. I want to share a few screencaps from the Unreal levels I wrote. Check them out, and tell me about what you think in-game and there just might be a reward in it. Unless you tell me it sucks. ;)

The first is from a map I call Sandbox; this is a bunker in the center of the zone.

Here is number two: another angle of the Sandbox.

This is from a clunky map, but the image came out so well; I should touch it up.

I used Mars images taken by the current missions to lay the textures in this entry, called "Angry Red Planet"

OK, folks. If you're still reading send the comments...

Our New Base

I have made a map of the base and a key so that you can tell which rooms serve what function.

In the future, I will add relevant details for each of the rooms.

The main reason for setting up the base like this is that it is more easily defended in case of raids.

EVIL SHADOW KNIGHTS take note...

I've gone with the flow and decided to get a free blog. I'm going to use this to post ideas I have and to schedule gaming times for our supergroup, the Evil Shadow Knights, on the Victory server in City of Villains.

If you're reading this I assume you're a member of the Knights and want to remain in the group.

I see that I can share screenshots here; and I can get feedback from you. You can post your ideas and game times here too.

Stpe One: get every Knight to read this blog, and post their toon name here. If we need space for a new Knight, those who do not post here will be released to allow room.

Important Pages:

ESK Original Pages

ESK Rules