Who's Online

YES!!! THANK YOU!

@mercy_: Anytime :-)

Going offline now and I will try to be on tomorrow but I don't know.

Just got here.

I will be back.....

I think I want a nap for a while.

I'll have posts for people tomorrow night or Monday.

Off and on.

Be back soonish.

Online but sick as a dog so I'm not sure how long I'll be around.

Going Offline.

I took a hiatus, haters. Now I'm back to cause trouble. It's official.

Online and I think I've shaken it! Wish me luck lol.

@strigidae_23: Shaken what!?

The sickness?

@_strigidae_: Indeed.

I'm ALWAYS online!

Online. Where are all the European players?

I died yesterday! And it was 8am in the EU at that time :P

@pyrogram: You died yesterday?

@strigidae_23: Yup. Or else I would have been here, or you'know, alive at least.

@pyrogram: Damn. Everything okay today?

@strigidae_23: Apart from waking up at 2PM and missed half the day >_< Ah-huh.

Hey. When people have skills or stuff that "cancels out powers" how do we gauge what exactly is counted as a power and what gets cancelled out? You got all these people with powers and stuff connected to their biology and physiology so how does it work? If it's genetic and biological how do we decide if it's just like any other part of biology like hair colour. How do we say for instance it cuts off regeneration and super strength but not cut off hair colour or non-sickle cell? What's the distinguishing between "power" and "biological function"?

That's a good point you know. Something like metaphysics (some Impero kinda thing) may be cut as that's EXTERNAL powers. No idea, something along of that.

@pyrogram: Yeah Q's not sure either. Wasn't sure where to put it, in advice or Thoughty Thoughts. But then he put it here in case LL thought about it too but other people as well. Max possiblity.

Too tired to do anything tonight.

3AM. I guess I should sleep. Bye peeps!

Well in the end that's up to the people involved; how they want to sell it.

However if it is a biological function I don't think it would be cut off by 'power dampening'. To attack purely biological abilities I think someone would need a biological attack, such as a biotoxin or virus.

The attack should fit the target; I can't punch peoples chi reserves or shoot holes in peoples magical spells, power dampening should only work on 'power' powers, not extraordinary biology's.

Agreed. Quintus had power dampening and it never worked on Impero (as in shutting them down). But what we would do was to sell the fact that I couldnt damped or negate his chi and powers but if they left his body, say he shot an energy beam, or chi beam, etc, then I could manipulate/dampen it defensively. If that makes sense.

@the_last_arashikage: Yeah that makes sense.

I think some abilities are written broadly and without a lot of detail, because that works for a character in comics that has one story a month and maybe one major battle ever three or four months at most. But roleplaying and writing aren't the same things. We have stories almost every day, probably twenty to thirty times the rate of a comic character and we have major battles quite frequently. There needs to be a bit more detail in some powers.

That's why I hate it when a complex and nuanced power gets one line of description in a Bio; sometimes when you're trying to sell that power its really hard because you just don't know it works. Power dampening is one of those things, a lot of the times people don't explain how it works, why it works, what kinds of powers it effects, what the scale is.. nothing, and that's a shame because an explination makes it a lot easier to sell a complex power.

I agree but its a catch twenty two. The EXACT minute you announce a power and how it functions is the EXACT minute 50% of the active characters suddenly show up with a way to negate it. Its a give in. Sometimes I think it'd be better not to explain your powers at all, but then of course you'd have people pulling any and everything out of thin air. Hopefully we can find a more equal middle ground.

Great explanation about roleplaying and writing by the way. So true.

I thought about this a while back, learning of a newcomer. An archer, or something. With arrows that were said to negate powers of all kinds, regardless of whether or not the arrow hit. And my first thought was "well, how does the arrow work? I'd like to know an at least somewhat viable explanation." I think it depends on the negation type in relation to the power to be negated.

Also, this. Agree. Actually works in a few ways, now that I think about it.

@_strigidae_: I like when you agree with me

@the_last_arashikage: Still not your friend.

@the_last_arashikage: Yeah unfortunately that's also true. I don't get too upset when people copy my stuff, but I know when I have a genius idea it will be copied, and if its an offensive ability people will add defenses against it. I can't deny how frustrating that is; I know every time I see a bio add an immunity to one of my abilities I get a little bit irritated. What's the point of me being creative with an ability if people are just going to invent 'immunities' to it? Its kinda a slap in my face.

I had the same problem with this character right here. Ivana has Mister X's move reading. I knew if I made it telepathic like his is that everyone would be coming up with reasons why it didn't work on them. BS, but I KNOW its going to happen and I have a pretty good idea who would be doing it. So I didn't make it telepathic, I made it some tachyon somatic link that's really complex to explain in posts and is a pain in my behind to write. Just the price of doing business sometimes :-P

At the same time though.. only a few of those people ever make it anywhere. When someone adds something like that to their character I'm not the only one that notices. Most of us know who the dirty players are.

@strigidae_23: No doubt. I dont even mind if its done in a somewhat comicbook esq believable way. Doctor Octopus comes up with defenses for Spider-Man (original Doc Ock mind you). He knows him, he's fought with him, he's studied. It makes sense. There are so many ways to go with this and thats why Rpging above all else is give and take. Sometimes you're the pigeon, sometimes you're the statue ;)

@arquitenens:Cries

I'm at the point where I don't really write my powers into my bios anymore. A big chunk of that is laziness (let's be honest), but a big chunk of it is exactly what Gambler and LL have said. The moment you specify something new and innovative, or something powerful, there are people who either copy it or half the Vine comes up with an automatic defense for it, regardless of whether or not it suits their character and previously established power set.

Yeah. It really shouldn't have to work like that but I think the only way it will change is if we start calling people out for behavior like that. It hampers the creativity of the vine.

I agree, absolutely.

Sometimes I wondered what to do with that. But I always feel like I have to give some indication of it; although, with some certain characters, like Strigidae, even as I thought of more uses for her powers, I didn't update it. In part because I was lazy. But there have been subsequent explanations of some aspects, such as having no limit, though I just let those go in threads, didn't feel like adding them.

However, I am not against someone's character noting something and saying "that's interesting," if that's what they're like. When I had her fight a spider enemy, I thought about it, and I learned (from somewhere) about the benefits of spider-like clothing, and I thought, if she comes across an enemy like that, and she finds a way, she's going to manufacture clothing out of spider silk. Not because I was worried about him beating me (I wasn't. XP), but because I thought of her, and her battle-oriented mind. The goal of the character is maximum efficiency in battle. If she makes an observation that would lead to something developing to make her killing more efficient, she wouldn't think "spiders aren't my gimmick." She'd try to implement it. Although, I never did implement spider stuff like I thought, I had her scavenge Stark for his anti-metal claws, and save some Source particles for study for Arcani purposes, as well as experimenting with certain things to see how they affect her. Because it would be stupid for her not to.

George Zimmerman just got arrested.

@mercy_: It's a domestic incident....so yeah. Let's wait before saying much else lol. Those things are never black and white.

I might just be paranoid.

If feels...weird.

You did it! :O

I read that. I'm shocked that the crazy gun nut is in trouble for....being a crazy gun nut.

@myrmidon_: It feels weird!

@fukuro_zoku: Embrace the newness!

And anyways, I think the new name sounds cool ^__^

@myrmidon_: But it feels weird! It's different!

@fukuro_zoku: Of course it's different - It's a new name!