While I've lost much of my free-time due to work and RL and so forth, I've been kinda bitten with the bug to begin work on a new Operatives video.  If anyone has a good theme/song/idea whatever, I'd be glad to hear about them.

 Granted, it might be a year before another video comes out, but the more ideas, the merrier.

Songs, general plotlines, scene ideas and whatnot are all welcome. =)

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And I? I stand in the dark with a pick in my hand striking at heads! I need, more desperately than my children need me, a way of seeing in the dark. What way is this? What dark is this? ... I cannot call it ordained of God. I cannot get that far. I will, however, pay it so much homage. There is now in my mouth this sharp chain. And it never comes out.

Great News! :D

 \o/  <- this is me being happy at the idea!

 Righty, prepare for general stream-of-conciousness ideas:

*  I think that historically the Operatves were arrayed against the Rikti (see Sabotage, Crash Landing, the rocket one (did it have a title?)).  So perhaps something RWZish - soloing the mothership maybe?  Something 'set' on the rikti home planet (via careful use of RWX mission maps).

*  We've not been tremendously visable for a while - perhaps an explanation as to why (we've been off-world fighting rikti, or we suffered a major defeat which laid us low (even lower!) for a while.  Or maybe we were imprisoned in a time bubble by Ouroboros lest we discover/spoil their plans.

*  I've been toying with the idea of putting together a *really* slick 'Matrix'-like choreographed fight scene (where the 'attack' and 'response' emotes gel with each other *really* well - y'know person A swings a haymaker/highkick/sword/axe etc at person B, who ducks/sways out of the way (or the 'dragon sweep' would work *fantastically* well with the target avoiding it with the jump-kick MOV).  Or doing other things with powers that don't happen in the game (deflecting blasts, throwing mobs into each other etc).  Feel free to do it first though (as I may not ever actually get round to it myself).

*  I love the idea of 'Origins' stories - I had a good one worked out for Op Havoc all that time ago.  Perhaps the origin of one of your Operatives would make a good video.

*  As you probably also already know, I'm a big fan of doing things in the videos that arn't technically possible in the game (hence I thought the warburg rocket thing was brilliant).  A bit simpler than that may just be to have an Operative use powersets that arn't possible in the game (have someone in a fight start off with a katana or dual blades (or both!), then move to martial arts (perhaps it gets knocked out of their hand), then they move to something else (shovel maybe, if the fight is in one of the 'construction' areas of the game that has workmen in it etc).  Or have someone using both fire and ice blasts etc.

*  As we discovered, it's possible to do some *really* bizzare things by playing with model scaling.  Maybe a 'Honey I shrunk/blew up the kids' motif - either for the adversary (the Ops have to work out a way of defeating a giant spider rampaging through AP) or the Ops themselves (they are shrunk by the evil Dr Aeon and have to avoid interesting situations on the way to making themselves proper-size again.  Or a power-rangers style battle on monster island (with non-'normal' monster mobs of course).

*  Various other bizarre/non-possible things.  Hamidon in Creys Folly.  Maybe a little mini-Lusca in one of the lakes in Atlas Park.  Maybe some scenes with 'moving' vindicators (Miss Liberty, Blue Steel, Luminary, Mynx etc). 

*  I'll shaddap now.

 

Okay, unshutupping one moment:

*  Allied in with the idea of swapping weapons (and also with the idea of a 'lengthy' choreographed fight scene), the 'actors' could also have costume changes, perhaps to depict damage etc (isn't there a 'shredded' option for the Operatives-style jacket?).  Or someone has the 'smouldering' aura for a little while after being somewhere hot or being in a (literal) fire fight with someone.

Ohh, all good ideas, some easier to do than others....  (the warburg rocket was a perpetual pain in the buttocks, but it was so satisfying when it worked.)

I -really- like the 1st option, the 'Operatives VS the Mothership, round 2' battle... the changing powersets and whatnot... the choreographed fight scenes and all could be worked into that one, but it'd require a -really- good soundtrack.

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And I? I stand in the dark with a pick in my hand striking at heads! I need, more desperately than my children need me, a way of seeing in the dark. What way is this? What dark is this? ... I cannot call it ordained of God. I cannot get that far. I will, however, pay it so much homage. There is now in my mouth this sharp chain. And it never comes out.

Any help you need, let me know...I'm more than happy to lend a helping hand.

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Planetside - BlackVoid (Seraphim, Retired)
CoH Division Leader - @BlackVoid

A neat combination of the Ops vs the Mother Ship and an origin story might be Iron.  Remember Steel bought it (we thought) at the end of Crash Landing, so the Ops reactivated the protoype: Op Iron.  Turns out that Steel wasn't really gone after all, that he was trapped in a system inside the Rikti Mothership.  (It gets better.)  After finding this container (a crystal maybe) and fighting to get it back to the lab, the Ops realize that it probably contains the "personality" of Op Steel, which would be good because Iron has basically no personality at this point.  The problem is that there are three personalities in the matrix and it's breaking down, and won't sustain them any longer.  So they dump all three of the personalities into Iron.  Now Iron essentially has the personalities of Steel, The Iron Talon (a broadsword scrapper from the first Rikti war), and a somewhat pessimistic Rikti agitator named D'Sortar.

I've always, of course, loved the Havoc origin.  She was rescued from the Praetorian Mother Mayhem and Malaise's asylum.  She was, and technically still is, nuts.  She fixated on Plum (Illusion Control) and Slate (Storm Control).  She's got maybe some hint of psychic ability but honestly she's just SO crazy that she causes the people around her to share in her hallucinations and delusions. 

Anyway, I live to serve.  If I can help, let me know.

Mint 

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A Blog even your mother would love: http://www.brianandpamela.com

Former Trimmer CoH Division Command - We rule by surprise. Fear and Surprise! And ruthless efficiency. And an almost fanatical devotion to .... I'll come in again.

something i just remembered:

 

a while back Presti was anglin to get a bunch of Ops together and play out a slightly modified skit based on Monty Python's Spanish Inquisition skit. you could always film a reenactment =) 

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CoH Division Leader (retired) @MonevTheGale

Maiven:

Monev is the root of all civilization

Monev The Gale:

something i just remembered:

 

a while back Presti was anglin to get a bunch of Ops together and play out a slightly modified skit based on Monty Python's Spanish Inquisition skit. you could always film a reenactment =) 

 Or we could do it 'live':

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=Virtue&Number=9823764&page=0&fpart=all

:D

(seriously, it'd be great to have enough Ops to put on a skit, but i kinda have to be realistic about the chances ;)

Well, I don't think I'll ever give up my account...I love CoX too much. I haven't been on much the last week or so because of work, but I'm hoping that'll change after the server migration over the holidays. If you need my help on anything for the videos, let me know...I'm really good with Photoshop and I have some experience with Flash, so I can make nice graphics for the beginning.

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Planetside - BlackVoid (Seraphim, Retired)
CoH Division Leader - @BlackVoid

True enough, with the rapidly approaching holidays, though, I think everything's going to have to be put on hold a bit anyway. =)

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And I? I stand in the dark with a pick in my hand striking at heads! I need, more desperately than my children need me, a way of seeing in the dark. What way is this? What dark is this? ... I cannot call it ordained of God. I cannot get that far. I will, however, pay it so much homage. There is now in my mouth this sharp chain. And it never comes out.

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And I? I stand in the dark with a pick in my hand striking at heads! I need, more desperately than my children need me, a way of seeing in the dark. What way is this? What dark is this? ... I cannot call it ordained of God. I cannot get that far. I will, however, pay it so much homage. There is now in my mouth this sharp chain. And it never comes out.

I've been doing a lot of work with After Effects and some Flash at work, also if you're looking.  I don't have anything really online... I'm going to be putting up a portfolio eventually, as I'm expanding my freelance work right now.  But I'm more focused on actually doing work than marketing. =)

Mint

 

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A Blog even your mother would love: http://www.brianandpamela.com

Former Trimmer CoH Division Command - We rule by surprise. Fear and Surprise! And ruthless efficiency. And an almost fanatical devotion to .... I'll come in again.

Ok, I spent a little time today working on my online portfolio.  It's not comprehensive, but you can check it out at http://www.mintconditionstudios.com/portfolio.  Check the video links, I don't have any Flash stuff up right now.

 

BV, do you have a portfolio, I'd love to see what you've done.  

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A Blog even your mother would love: http://www.brianandpamela.com

Former Trimmer CoH Division Command - We rule by surprise. Fear and Surprise! And ruthless efficiency. And an almost fanatical devotion to .... I'll come in again.

Pretty sweet stuff, Mint!  Looks kinda complicated and a pain in the touche, but very neat!

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And I? I stand in the dark with a pick in my hand striking at heads! I need, more desperately than my children need me, a way of seeing in the dark. What way is this? What dark is this? ... I cannot call it ordained of God. I cannot get that far. I will, however, pay it so much homage. There is now in my mouth this sharp chain. And it never comes out.