Heroes: Rebirth

[Charon]

Well I can't beat most of them currently because my blasts are so weak. But many of them will have a hell of a time beating me due to my regeneration. And he still needs his eight hours of sleep.

If he start removing barriers these figures will change dramatically.

[Hotfoot]

Not to seem like a dick, but being super-duper tough is not a good power as a primary. Allow me to elaborate.

In this kind of game, being "super tough" only matters if you've got the speed to get around fast enough to protect others. Otherwise, you are a very dense, hard to hurt target that...well, can't do shit. If you're the Blob but with no real offensive punch, you're just not going to be a priority target.

Consider, for a moment, the team in a fight. You've got the blaster, knocking out targets at range. You've got the scrapper, tearing things apart close up. You've got the Controller, buffing the team and/or debuffing the enemy. Then, there's you, the Tank. Unless you can convince the bad guys to focus on you for some reason, all while they're being torn to shreds by your more lethal, but slightly more squishy counterparts, you've got nothing, and no reason to be in that fight. Any intelligent enemy is going to take you out piece by piece, starting with the squishy.

[Charon]

Really? Having only regen as a power is a bad idea? *gasp* I'd have never thought! Maybe I want to have difficulty with playing my character. And maybe, just maybe, regeneration isn't actually his primary power as I so clearly state in the character sheet. Like I said, as he is he fails, but that will change once he starts taking down his barriers.

[Hotfoot]

No need to get snarky. You can have "difficulty" with playing a character without intentionally gimping them, despite what people say. It's your choice, but the way you're describing it, everyone has more offensive punch than you do, so be prepared to play second fiddle in combat.

As far as quibbling over if something is a primary, secondary, or tertiary ability, it's simple: Ask yourself if anyone else can do it better. If the answer is "yes", then it's not a primary ability. Your primary ability is where you should shine, full stop.

Here's a general breakdown. Count out how many powers your character has, and then spread an imaginary 100 points between them, in order of how badass they should be. 1 being barely super at all, to 99 being as badass as you can reasonably get. Most characters have at least 2 abilities, offensive and defensive, with maybe some utility powers thrown in or implied in the original set.

The more powers you have, the less powerful each ability is, and the inverse is true as well. Specialists rock in their fields.

You have two powers. You're a specialist. You should beat the living shit out of other people, end of story. By saying your blasts are weaker than others defenses, but your defenses are better than their attacks, you sure as shooting imply that your Regen is primary and your Blasts are secondary. It's really that simple. So either you can be snarky and play word games or you can be straightforward about your character concept. One of the things that KILLED balance in the last game was people pulling shit with regards to how badass power X was in a given situation.

So please, do us all a favor, and I speak to everyone in this thread, not just you, please quantify your abilities. Not with Kilojoules or other nonsense, but with relative terms. Superhero games are not about providing hard numbers in real life terms, but just if you are roughly powerful enough or not to do what you set out to do.

And here's a handy guide folks: Some powers do lots of things. Be reasonable. If you've got a multifunction power like, say, TK, let the unitaskers have an advantage in the areas where you overlap. It's only good sense.

[Charon]

No need to get snarky. You can have "difficulty" with playing a character without intentionally gimping them, despite what people say. It's your choice, but the way you're describing it, everyone has more offensive punch than you do, so be prepared to play second fiddle in combat.

Yes. I know. Thank you.

As far as quibbling over if something is a primary, secondary, or tertiary ability, it's simple: Ask yourself if anyone else can do it better. If the answer is "yes", then it's not a primary ability. Your primary ability is where you should shine, full stop.

Here's a general breakdown. Count out how many powers your character has, and then spread an imaginary 100 points between them, in order of how badass they should be. 1 being barely super at all, to 99 being as badass as you can reasonably get. Most characters have at least 2 abilities, offensive and defensive, with maybe some utility powers thrown in or implied in the original set.

The more powers you have, the less powerful each ability is, and the inverse is true as well. Specialists rock in their fields.

You have two powers. You're a specialist. You should beat the living shit out of other people, end of story. By saying your blasts are weaker than others defenses, but your defenses are better than their attacks, you sure as shooting imply that your Regen is primary and your Blasts are secondary. It's really that simple. So either you can be snarky and play word games or you can be straightforward about your character concept. One of the things that KILLED balance in the last game was people pulling shit with regards to how badass power X was in a given situation.

I have been straight-forward from the very fucking beginning and haven't done shit in terms of playing "Word games". This character is going to lose his regen as his blasts become more powerful until a possible point where the energy inside his body eats him alive and he explodes. The only reason I'm getting snarky is because you keep assuming that I'm an idiot who doesn't know how to play.

So please, do us all a favor, and I speak to everyone in this thread, not just you, please quantify your abilities. Not with Kilojoules or other nonsense, but with relative terms. Superhero games are not about providing hard numbers in real life terms, but just if you are roughly powerful enough or not to do what you set out to do.

Fun fact. I have with the GM. He knows what I am capable of and where I am going with this. We have worked together on this very well to know the limits of this character far in advance to where he is now, not in hard numbers but relatively.

[Hotfoot]

You keep getting snippy, but here's the bottom line:

I said "Ask yourself if you can beat up anyone on the team. If the answer is no, revisit your character for balance tweaking". You came back with "My offense is not enough to beat up anyone, but my defense is so badass they couldn't beat me".

I'm paraphrasing, but it's the gist of what was said.

If you can't beat anyone with your blasts, then your offense is less than everyone else's defense. If they can't hurt you, then your defense is greater than their offense. It's a pretty simple logical proof.

Now you're getting snippy and saying that your defense is not your most powerful ability. I say "so be clear and say what you mean" and you get more pissy about it. The fault lies with your initial post, so don't get mad at me because you can't articulate what you really mean.

It's very simple, if X is your offense, Y is your defense, and A and B are the same for another character, and A+B = X+Y then if X < A and Y > B there is no POSSIBLE way that X > Y. Get it? Therefore, as you originally stated it, defense is your primary ability. Then you state that it is NOT, which makes no sense at all, so check yourself and your statements before you go off half-cocked AGAIN.

[Hotfoot]

Okay, here's my review of the characters so far.

Sylar, I mean DS's character, can result in far too much power creep as is. All he has to do to gain powers permanently is grab and hold on until he kills them.

For those of you who have seen "Heroes", you know how disgusting Peter and Sylar get at the endgame. Bad idea, I don't care if Rogue can do it in the X-Men, it's far too easy to abuse, especially with the number of deaths that seem to follow in these games.

Fisher, you have no defensive ability, but a bad-ass offensive one. Bad idea, like I mentioned over AIM.

Rheonix, you may have too many defensive abilities, but I guess we'll see. At least sonics and gases should still work...right? If there are limits to your Kinetic and Heat absorption powers, you may want to make note of it.

Tevar/CT: Very similar concepts, combo brawler/brains characters. CT is always on both, Tev is swappable. Hard for me to say what should dominate, since Tev can transform often enough that it's almost at will, making the distinction minimized, but it's just long enough for the change and the reversion that I'd give Tev a slight edge in most contests, even after CT's "Social Pariah" card has been played.

Nitram: A good support character, very weak in combat under most circumstances but useful in many other ways. Obviously, when fighting Omni-Corp you'll be like a pig in shit, but I'm going to guess it will go both ways in that fight.

Charon: Basic blaster, good so far, I see nothing wrong there.

Havoc: Well...Good luck.

Jason: 375mph is not even supersonic, much less hypersonic, may want to edit. You are going to be an annoying mother to hit though, with that maneuverability and the fact that it's flight. Kudos, you're the speedster, and you've got range. You're going to be really annoying, just don't get hit. Stealth is nice, even if it's just to tech things.

[Hotfoot]

While I'm at it, these are the roles I see each character in:

DS: Jack of All Trades/Opportunist (Power Leech)
Fisher: Dedicated Blaster (Energy)
Rheonix: Mixed Blaster/Absorber (Kinetic/Fire/TK Util)
Tev: Brawler
CT: Brawler/Kinetic Absorber
Nitram: Overseer/Distracter/Brain
Charon: Dedicated Blaster (Fire/Kinetic/Regen)
Havoc: Dedicated Blaster (Kinetic/Tank)
Jason: Speedster/Blaster Mix (Energy/Stealth)

Overall, not a bad mix. Blaster heavy, but then most teams are, and while there's some overlap on powers, there's enough variation that it shouldn't be too much of an issue. Of the entire group, I would probably list Jason as the most powerful, just because a fast flying blaster is a righteous bitch to kill when done properly.

[General Havoc]

I have to make some major adjustments to XC-001 Alpha, as the character as stands simply doesn't compete with the power levels being thrown around. I may wind up significantly upgunning and armoring this thing. If that results in objections, I will deal with them then.

[Hotfoot]

In an effort to show what I'm talking about with an arbitrary point system, allow me to demonstrate. Let's assume I brought back Mark 25, who would be pretty appropriate for the current story, and would be my first pick, even though I wanted to do a lot more with Hotfoot last time around.

Mark 25 is a Meta who was made into a Cyborg. His primary power was force fields. Originally, I made them limited to himself, but I quickly found that to be a bad idea, as he had limited offensive punch of his own and could not move around, so this time I would edit the idea to keep the concept without being utterly useless in a fight.

Power List
Force Fields (Self/Others): 50 Points
Latent Strength: 20 Points
Latent Toughness: 20 Points
Technopathy: 10 Points

Race: Human Cyborg
Limited Vulnerability: Hacking (Can be hacked)
Vulnerability: EMP
Limited Resistance: Hostile Conditions
Dependence: Maintenance/Specialized Food
Equipment: Customized Car, Bike, Pistol (Ultima)
Flaw: Shattered Psyche
Perk: Enhanced Memory, Internal Database

So there you go, a very basic character sheet, gives pertinent information, and relative power levels. He wouldn't be able to defeat the brawlers of the group, but he can do some damage and he provides the group with a useful buff, especially useful to the blasters of the group who are naturally squishy, by and large. This allows him to fill a role in combat that, while mostly defensive, is highly useful and makes him an asset to the team. His other utility power, technomancy, is vastly overshadowed by NeXT, but the two working in concert could achieve great things.

His perks are roughly equivalent to his flaws, though numerically it's not the case, I figure it's rough parity in just raw utility vs. detriment, and if a question arises of rough power level, I'd give the person with the most substantial flaws an edge (Fear: Water in the desert would be pretty lame, for example).

Point is, if there's ever a question about his relative power, it's easy to answer. Sure, it's not perfect, and it's not meant to be a hard and fast rules system, it's just meant to be a rough guide of what your character is capable of. Use it or not at your discretion.

[rhoenix]

Alright, for the sake of the idea - how would different powers be categorized, point-wise? What would a certain amount in that ability translate into real-world terms, and how would upgrades and increases be handled?

[B4UTRUST]

I appreciate the help Hotfoot and it's a good assessment overall. I'll take some of what you said into account. I thought trying to get a hard quantifier of what the powers were capable of would be a good way to prevent power creep again. It is, but perhaps the method I chose was not neccessarily the best, easiest or most correct one. I'll look into it.

[Dark Silver]

Sylar, I mean DS's character, can result in far too much power creep as is. All he has to do to gain powers permanently is grab and hold on until he kills them.

For those of you who have seen "Heroes", you know how disgusting Peter and Sylar get at the endgame. Bad idea, I don't care if Rogue can do it in the X-Men, it's far too easy to abuse, especially with the number of deaths that seem to follow in these games.

That's a pretty clear cut understanding of my character, along with your classifying him as a Leech/Jack of All Trades (I seem to play these types alot...)

But I should clarify for the players - It takes a longtime for him to kill you with his power. For Metahumans, it's half a hour of constant, unbroken contact with someone who is otherwise living the entire time. If something beyond his leeching kills them in the middle of it...well..he gets a nifty power boost for however many hours the GM decide he'll get it....but he won't gain it permanently. His power doesn't work on corpses, and it doesn't work on "tissue samples", it has to be a living, breathing subject.

I figured between the living thing, the insanely long time for the permanent power-up, he's pretty well under control and there's little chance for power creep.

So...Example time!

Legion is in the middle of a battle with his team, and the team's heavy blaster just went down in the fight. He scrambles to the teammate, and tries to see if he can help, only to there's nothing he can or the rest of the team can do, and his teammate will be dead before help arrives. Legion removes his glove, touches some bare flesh, and starts soaking in his teammate's power, because they need a replacement heavy hitter now.

In the time it takes for him to start leeching, his teammate goes into cardiac arrest, and dies - Legion had maybe twenty seconds of contact with the "donor", and he gets the powers and memories for the next several hours. In a few hours, the powers will fade, and within the next 24, the teammates memories and "mental ghost" will disappear from Legion's mind.


Hope that clarify's things, I had gone over most of it with B4 when we were working with the character to make sure to limit his level of power creep.

[Charon]

You keep getting snippy, but here's the bottom line:

I said "Ask yourself if you can beat up anyone on the team. If the answer is no, revisit your character for balance tweaking". You came back with "My offense is not enough to beat up anyone, but my defense is so badass they couldn't beat me".

I'm paraphrasing, but it's the gist of what was said.

If you can't beat anyone with your blasts, then your offense is less than everyone else's defense. If they can't hurt you, then your defense is greater than their offense. It's a pretty simple logical proof.

Now you're getting snippy and saying that your defense is not your most powerful ability. I say "so be clear and say what you mean" and you get more pissy about it. The fault lies with your initial post, so don't get mad at me because you can't articulate what you really mean.

It's very simple, if X is your offense, Y is your defense, and A and B are the same for another character, and A+B = X+Y then if X < A and Y > B there is no POSSIBLE way that X > Y. Get it? Therefore, as you originally stated it, defense is your primary ability. Then you state that it is NOT, which makes no sense at all, so check yourself and your statements before you go off half-cocked AGAIN.

And maybe when you're confused, instead of coming at me and belittling my intelligence repeatedly you could actually look at my character sheet and go "Oh, that's what he meant".

But I guess since going back to the first page to look at my character sheet is far too confusing for you I'll say this. At the time, due to the barriers that are suppressing his energy blasts, his regeneration is his primary power. As he removes barriers, his energy blasts will get more powerful and his regeneration will get weaker, until a point in time where it will be practically reversed and he'll have very good energy blasts but very little regeneration. As to my post which apparently started this, why I made my previous assessment (Which I am amused that you decided that I was being cocky about instead of a fair assessment). However, at the end of the post I said "If he start removing barriers these figures will change dramatically." Clearly showing that something was going to change in this scenario.

In addition, your comments about trying to refine this system for powers to make it work better are appreciated, please stop trying to optimize everybody's character and their relation to one another in the team.

[Charon]

Sylar, I mean DS's character, can result in far too much power creep as is. All he has to do to gain powers permanently is grab and hold on until he kills them.

For those of you who have seen "Heroes", you know how disgusting Peter and Sylar get at the endgame. Bad idea, I don't care if Rogue can do it in the X-Men, it's far too easy to abuse, especially with the number of deaths that seem to follow in these games.

Actually, thinking about it. It isn't the power-stealing I have much of a problem with. My problem with DS's character is that he has a very good power, the one to steal other people's powers, combined with a regen that seems to be almost as good as mine even though my second power sucks right now.

[Dark Silver]

My character came around first though......everyone else with regen is stealing from me.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Edit:
And actually, your regeneration is a lot better than mines. Your regen is constantly rebuilding your body from being killed by your fusion plant power. without that fusion plant eating you alive, your regen would be off the charts, wolverine style (similar to how Wolverine's Adamantium skeleton prevents his Regen Factor from working at full strength).

Legion's is at a set limit, unless he sucks someone else's wanked regen factor, which heals Legion and keeps him from getting aging at a normal rate, keeps him from getting sick, and a few other things. His regen right now, and perhaps permanantly, is no better than your GIMPED regen.

[LadyTevar]

Amusingly, Heidi and Jerri have a limited regeneration. It only goes into effect when changing personalities.

Thus, if Heidi gets fucked up, she has to be kept alive until the serum wears off. When she shifts back to Jerri, all wounds will heal.

[Hotfoot]

And maybe when you're confused, instead of coming at me and belittling my intelligence repeatedly you could actually look at my character sheet and go "Oh, that's what he meant".

Hey man, you're the one who's been going back and forth over what your character's primary power set is, not me. I've just been carrying on a conversation. That you mistakenly stated something is not my issue. You'll note that nowhere in my comparison do I consider eventual "level up" enhancements, because that's a non-issue for the start of the game and initial gameplay.

If anything, I didn't come in here trying to insult your intelligence, I'm trying to help you avoid the same pitfalls I ran into with the first game. My first character, Mark 25, was built as a Tank, but I quickly found that without something to make him able to actually defend other people, he was pretty much useless. Sorry for trying to pass on the hard-learned lessons of years past.

But I guess since going back to the first page to look at my character sheet is far too confusing for you I'll say this. At the time, due to the barriers that are suppressing his energy blasts, his regeneration is his primary power. As he removes barriers, his energy blasts will get more powerful and his regeneration will get weaker, until a point in time where it will be practically reversed and he'll have very good energy blasts but very little regeneration. As to my post which apparently started this, why I made my previous assessment (Which I am amused that you decided that I was being cocky about instead of a fair assessment). However, at the end of the post I said "If he start removing barriers these figures will change dramatically." Clearly showing that something was going to change in this scenario.

In addition, your comments about trying to refine this system for powers to make it work better are appreciated, please stop trying to optimize everybody's character and their relation to one another in the team.

You don't get it. I want there to be common ground and easy understanding this time out. Last time a lot of gnashing of teeth and bad blood was due directly to hemming and hawing about specific limits to abilities, or how much better someone is at something.

But hey, if you want the team to go out with characters who can be killed by a simple thug wielding a 9mm, be my guest. I doubt they'll feel so super though. Nobody in the last game was without at least some sort of defense-oriented power, even the least powerful among us. Besides, if you don't want to listen to my advice, you could always ignore me. Same goes for anyone here.

What you don't get to do, however, is dictate my posts to me. Don't like it? Too bad. You have your options, I have mine, and I'll do as I see fit.

[rhoenix]

At this point, I'm just watching the discussion - however, having some sort of rough comparison for powers would be useful, I think- perhaps just as much for the GM as for the players.

B4, it's your game, so it's your decision, but perhaps it would provide a good quick-reference to avoid sneaky powercreep; the more obvious ones would be more easily spotted.

In considering the point system though:

1 - If we do go onto a rating system of sorts - should "weaknesses" for powers be included for a few more points (as Inferno's Fusion ability basically burning him from the inside out, in his case the points for that being dropped right into his Regeneration ability)?

2a - How would "offshoot" abilities of main powers be treated in terms of points? Would points have to be invested into those as well, or do they inherit the points of their parent power?
(e.g. Ct's character Sunrise gaining his Illumination ability, which would radiate strong sunlight in the area around him, blinding everyone who can see and can even cause light burns - would the power of this ability be directly related to his Light Control power?)

2b - If an "offshoot" ability is derived from more than one power (for instance, Sirocco learning how to enclose fire in a field of force, allowing him to throw fireballs that explode on impact) - how would the power rating on it be treated? Just both powers' point values added together and divided by the number of powers that went into it?
(e.g. Fireball ((Force 60 + Fire 40) /2 = 50)?

3 - In terms of power variety: how would powers be differentiated? Would there be a master list that could be compiled as a quick reference?

[General Havoc]

Allright, here is version 2.0 of my character sheet. Note well the alterations to size, weight, armored protection, and the gauss weapon. As always, please submit objections if any, and we will see what can be done.


Name: Project Lycurgus internal designation 'XC-001 Alpha'
Public Alias (defunct): "Sentinel One"

Height: 15 feet, 7 inches
Weight: 6,620 pounds empty, 7,075 pounds fully loaded

Physical Description: XC-001 Alpha is a war machine. An enormous, bipedal robot mech, with two fully articulated legs supporting a main body with a pair of weapon arms attached to either side, similar in broad strokes to ED-209 from the Robocop movies. Unlike the fictional version however, XC-001 is clearly and visibly designed for police duties. It sports a set of blue and red lights atop its main body, along with the emblems of Omnicorp's "Law Enforcement" division, and other, presently-blank areas clearly designed to incorporate the symbols of whichever municipal police organization the robot eventually was made a part of. The robot is a mix of dark blue and gunmetal gray, though not for camouflage, as it carries large spotlights and floodlights on either side of its "shoulders", above the weapon arms. The weapon arms rotate vertically, and the entire main body does so horizontally, while the articulated legs are capable of surprising agility, allowing the robot to bring its weapons to bear on targets in any direction. Heavily armored and physically imposing (by design), it has no apparent 'head', though its optical and other sensors are located in the upper portion of its "chest", and thereby it can often appear to be "peering down" at whatever it is addressing. Its voice is gruff, deep, and monotone, imposing and authoritative all at once, designed by Omnicorp's expert behavioral scientists to grant maximum chance of its commands being obeyed by the public in general.

((For those having trouble picturing the robot, I recommend this link for the general idea.))

History: XC-001 Alpha was a prototype police robot created by Omnicorp Law Enforcement, a division of Omnicorp international. Project Lycurgus' (named after the legendary law-giver of Classical Sparta) original design was for a manned battle robot whose armor and firepower would give police the capacity to deal with the ever-more dangerous metahuman incursions into major metropolitan areas. When it became clear that such a thing would pose enormous training and personnel concerns, the project was re-purposed to provide an unmanned, fully automated police robot, controlled via an Artificial Intelligence. The intention was to give police a weapon that could be deployed and programmed to local specifications, for the primary purposes of "heavy" law enforcement duties, riot control, counter-terrorism, and anti-metahuman action, while still retaining a focus on the core police duties of crime prevention, civic order, and public safety.

There was nothing wrong with the theory, indeed several major police departments had already begun budgeting to order a small number of "Sentinel One" robots for their forces, but the events surrounding the destruction of Omnicorp and the devastating war that ensued thereafter, ended the project, the department, and quite nearly the robot itself. The original prototype had only been finished for a matter of weeks, and was still undergoing field tests when Omnicorp's descent into chaos erupted, and only its designation as a "police" project, rather than a "military" one prevented the rogue AI controlling the Omnicorp war machine from re-purposing it as yet another monster-weapon to be deployed for the annihilation of humanity. The project was abandoned, and the prototype placed into cold storage and promptly forgotten about.

All records pertaining to its creation (save those stored within the robot itself) were lost in the destruction of Omnicorp, as Omnicorp's main robotics lab was destroyed by Ultima after a brutal engagement in the Arizona Desert, but the storage facility that the robot had been relegated to survived the war. For seven months, it remained in an extended power-down mode, its fractal AI frozen at initialization, its systems periodically checked by maintenance bots. There the robot might have remained to this day, save that the facility suffered a massive power failure seven months after it arrived, triggering the automated emergency subroutines that included activating any functional robots under their own power, so as to reduce overall power drain on the main facility. Once activated, the robot left the facility, attempting to fulfill its operating-level directives, vague though they were, to the best of its abilities.

It continues to do so.

Character Bio: Leaving aside the question of whether AIs are "alive" or not, one could be forgiven for imagining that XC-001 Alpha is not living, but rather a simple drone of some sort. For a battle robot, XC-001 Alpha is quite placid, particularly by comparison to the hell-infused monsters that are more commonly associated with Omnicorp's robots. It is patient, calm, happy to render assistance to any passerby who requests it, and speaks in polite tones, utterly belying its imposing appearance and scale. Being a law enforcement robot, it does a fair bit of law enforcement, whether or not the local authorities wish it to. Strong emotions, such as fear, anger, hatred, rage, passion, happiness, or despair, seem to be beyond its capabilities, and as a result, the terrible violence it can unleash in a split second is almost more horrifying for the suddenness with which it can appear. XC-001 Alpha interprets its protocols to "Protect civilian life" and "Preserve the Public Order" in a ruthlessly literal fashion, and while its programming is sophisticated enough to refrain from committing overt atrocities (opening fire on a riotous crowd, for instance), it can and will deploy brutally lethal force against those who cross certain "lines" programmed into it. Still, the only hints that one gets that the robot is anything more sophisticated than a mindless (if sophisticated) drone, come not in flashy displays of emotion, but through far more subtle means, a fact easily understood when one considers what an AI actually is.

Artificial Intelligences are complex computer systems designed to simulate consciousness to the closest possible degree, which is not all that close. While there are several methods to achieve this goal, the most common one is the use of fractal algorithms, in short, machine code that re-writes itself based on sense data and experiential results fed through complicated equations. This code is then run, new results are generated, and these in turn are fed back through the system once again. Over time, fractal AIs achieve their own 'personalities' based on the unique changes to their underlying code, a process not of growth but of gradual divergence from the original template. This process can be influenced by "training" the AI, subjecting it to stimuli and inputs to foster the sort of "growth" that is desired.

Accordingly, when one says that XC-001 Alpha is a "young" AI, the term does not quite mean the same thing it would mean in a child. Due to the destruction of Omnicorp and the robot's lengthy period in storage, its AI was never granted sufficient time to diverge from its original programming to a discernible degree, and the "training" it was supposed to undergo was never actually completed. Released unformed onto the world at large, XC-001 Alpha's AI is, to put it mildly, well out of its depth. Worse yet, the AI was programmed with a basic operating system, modeled roughly off of Azimovian principles (heavily modified of course). It was intended that this would be supplemented with a series of detailed protocols provided by whichever law enforcement agency purchased the robot. These of course were never uploaded, thus leaving the robot with nothing to fall back upon save for its (fortunately extensive) libraries, and its AI core parameters. It comprehends nothing of politics and media hype, and does not understand that Omnicorp is now synonymous with devastation and death on an international scale, and that AIs themselves are regarded by the public at large with fear and hatred. Consequently, the behaviors and experiences it has had since leaving the facility are beyond perplexing.

Fortunately, the Omnicorp scientists that programmed XC-001 Alpha were extremely studious, and so rather than suffering a system fault, XC-001 Alpha has diligently tried to interpret this exceptionally confusing set of sense data through its patiently-waiting fractal algorithms. So far it has resulted in nothing more than total confusion, chaos, and more than a little violence, but, blessed with the patience of a computer, it diligently tries and tries again to fulfill its core directives of upholding the law, protecting civilian life, and maintaining public order against all threats, even if most bystanders don't see it quite in the same light. To be perfectly honest, XC-001 Alpha doesn't know what else to do.


Affiliations: None at present. Omnicorp is officially defunct, and no specific law enforcement agency has ever taken its place. XC-001 Alpha is presently an "independent agent", a fact which causes it a rather large amount of programatical distress, all things considered, as the entire concept of vigilante justice is one of the things it was designed to combat, if necessary.


Special Equipment: Designed for Law Enforcement, rather than Military duties, XC-001 Alpha nevertheless carries an enormous assortment of weapons (lethal and non-lethal) and systems designed to aid it in its duties. Spotlights, sirens, and flashing lights permit it to focus attention on itself or others at need, and its sheer size is a deterrent to even heavily armed criminals or metahumans.

The robot is extremely heavily armored, plated over in layers of solid titanium-neutronium alloy, interspersed with belts of plas-steel shock absorbers, rendering it entirely proof against small arms fire, and capable of sustaining tremendous damage from heavy weapons or metahuman assault. Kinetic stabilizers permit it to remain upright and fighting even in the teeth of extremely heavy fire, and it carries an emergency energy projection forcefield which can deflect particularly heavy bursts of fire for a brief period, extending out from the robot like a semi-transparent bubble. It uses its durability to great effect and without hesitation, employing its energy shield or even its own armored body to protect civilians or allies in fulfillment of its core directives while it returns fire against any assailant.

In addition to its weapon arms, it carries an internal storage bay that can fit a large amount of cargo, evidence, or even a passenger at need, as well as internal ammunition storage bays to feed its heavier weapons, and a pair of retractable "interface" arms, with three-fingered "hands" that extend from above the weapon-arms, enabling it to awkwardly interface with human-sized objects.

Internally, it houses a small, automated forensic laboratory, originally designed to assist in police investigations, as well as a battery of external sensors that give it visual, thermal, ultraviolet, and electrostatic visibility. Its auditory sensors are able to filter out all noise save that of a specified wavelength, and all external sense data is automatically transcribed to a recording file stored locally and purged every three months. It has a series of computer interface ports (located behind a locked, armored panel) with retractable plugs that permit it to interface with most computer systems, and a state of the art anti-virus system to prevent tampering should the occasion arise. It is fully fluent in 150 major languages, and even carries separate vocabulary protocols for speaking with the mentally impaired or with children, as well as a full communications suite, including wide and narrow-band radios, microwave signal transceivers, a satellite uplink system, wireless communications router (with full internet access), a police-band secure-comlink transmitter/receiver array, and of course, adjustable-strength speakers with a maximum volume of 130 decibels.

Designed for police work, and the preservation of civilian life, XC-001 Alpha carries an assortment of non-lethal weapons for the subjugation of suspects without deadly force. These include an extremely powerful noise emitter, a water cannon (requires external water supply), a short-range compressed air launcher (effective at up to 15 feet at simply blasting man-sized targets off their feet), and an adjustable-strength Taser. For restraining suspects, the robot can either deploy plastic zip-cuffs (for compliant suspects) or employ its adhesive "sludge-gun" (for non-compliant suspects). Most of these non-lethal weapons are mounted on the sides of the main body of the robot, below the weapon arms. As a last resort, the robot can restrain normal-strength suspects through the simple expedient of reaching down with its interface arms and picking them up off the ground, though for obvious reasons, this is not recommended behavior against metahumans.

The nature of XC-001 Alpha's design, and its stated profile of counter-terrorism and anti-metahuman incursion means that non-lethal weapons are not always sufficient to permit it to carry out its duties, and given the threats that it may face in the course of such activities, it is no surprise that XC-001 Alpha is very well armed. Unlike the non-lethal weapons, the robot's lethal munitions are prominently displayed for deterrent purposes. The weapon arms each carry a 7.62mm NATO machine gun, with an extended barrel and low rate of fire, intended for use in situations where precision and discretion is called for, mounted above a rotary-barrel, high velocity, 30mm gattling autocannon, intended for use in situations where they are not. The machine guns are anti-personnel weapons, and can fire in single shot, three round burst, and full autofire, while the stability of a three-ton weapons platform (to say nothing of the advanced targeting computer) gives them superior accuracy, particularly in single-shot mode. The autocannons are used against vehicles, metahumans, and other "major" threats, and are a relatively indiscriminate weapon, deployed primarily when the collateral threat to civilian life is judged sufficient for "weapons free" operations to be authorized by the robot's core protocols. In addition to the weapon arms, XC-001 Alpha also carries a pair of 'shoulder' mounted grenade launchers, which can deploy a variety of projectiles ranging from non-lethal (smoke, tear gas, concussion, flashbang), to lethal (high explosive, shaped charge).

The robot's most devastating weapon however is mounted in the dead center of its main body, a military-grade 73mm electromagnetic rail gun, which uses gauss technology to fling ferrous metal projectiles at near hypersonic speeds at its target. Designed as a last-ditch defense against heavily-armored threats, or extremely powerful metahumans, the rail gun is both catastrophically powerful and lethally precise, capable of reliably striking a man-sized target at distances up to a mile, given proper visibility and weather conditions. Discharging the weapon however is not to be taken lightly. The hydraulic shock absorbers used to dampen the recoil of the rail gun are only partially effective, forcing the robot to brace itself properly before each shot, lest is suffer structural damage or even fall over. Firing the gun produces a sonic boom, a powerful shockwave that that can shatter windows, damage hearing, and even knock birds out of the air in the vicinity of the discharge. Coupled with the extreme technical complexity of both rail gun and ammunition, and the problems involved in dispersing the heat built up from its use, XC-001 Alpha does not employ the rail gun save against targets that pose an "extreme" threat to itself or its core directives.


Weaknesses: Ignoring for the moment the inherant weaknesses of AI-controlled systems, XC-001 Alpha, while incredibly powerful in a law enforcement sense, is not without weaknesses in design. Though reasonably agile, the robot is limited by its sheer size and weight. It cannot enter most buildings, nor even cross footbridges that are not re-enforced for car weight. Its weapons are varied and powerful by the standards of civilians, but are not as potent as those of military robots, nor is its impressive durability all that impressive when compared to true war-machines. Moreover, while it is designed to deal with metahuman incursions, the sheer variety of metahuman powers and capabilities make all but the most prima facie defense against such things an impossible task. Metahumans can potentially disrupt its circuitry, warp its structure, or even lift it into the air with but a thought, and while it is programmed to deal with the more common permutations of metahuman powers, there are discrete limits to what it can do in the face of some of the more outlandish abilities in existence.

Secondarily, there remains the problem that the Sentinel-1 series was never designed to operate independently, but rather as part of a major metropolitan police force. Its strengths lie in support of police, not in replacement thereof. It cannot pursue suspects into buildings, nor interrogate them, nor fight as effectively alone as it can while supporting a platoon of SWAT or uniformed officers. Its maintenance requirements are extensive and complicated, and it is utterly incapable of repairing itself or fixing broken systems. So far it has avoided (mostly through luck) any severe damage, but it is only a matter of time before combat or mischance robs it of a key system. XC-001 Alpha was designed, from the beginning, to be part of a larger force. In a larger force, its systems can be maintained, its strengths multiplied, its weaknesses negated. In a larger force, it can provide support, assistance, and aid to its fellow law enforcement officers, and through interactions with them, it can sort out the difficult "learning" process that all fractal AIs must go through. In a larger force, XC-001 Alpha can potentially become the robot it was originally designed to be.

Now if only there were such a force in existence somewhere...

[Hotfoot]

That's a pretty clear cut understanding of my character, along with your classifying him as a Leech/Jack of All Trades (I seem to play these types alot...)

But I should clarify for the players - It takes a longtime for him to kill you with his power. For Metahumans, it's half a hour of constant, unbroken contact with someone who is otherwise living the entire time. If something beyond his leeching kills them in the middle of it...well..he gets a nifty power boost for however many hours the GM decide he'll get it....but he won't gain it permanently. His power doesn't work on corpses, and it doesn't work on "tissue samples", it has to be a living, breathing subject.

I figured between the living thing, the insanely long time for the permanent power-up, he's pretty well under control and there's little chance for power creep.

So...Example time!

Legion is in the middle of a battle with his team, and the team's heavy blaster just went down in the fight. He scrambles to the teammate, and tries to see if he can help, only to there's nothing he can or the rest of the team can do, and his teammate will be dead before help arrives. Legion removes his glove, touches some bare flesh, and starts soaking in his teammate's power, because they need a replacement heavy hitter now.

In the time it takes for him to start leeching, his teammate goes into cardiac arrest, and dies - Legion had maybe twenty seconds of contact with the "donor", and he gets the powers and memories for the next several hours. In a few hours, the powers will fade, and within the next 24, the teammates memories and "mental ghost" will disappear from Legion's mind.


Hope that clarify's things, I had gone over most of it with B4 when we were working with the character to make sure to limit his level of power creep.

Here's the problem I have. Even using this aspect of your power once makes you doubly as dangerous as any member of the team. You already have frightening versatility with just a few touches here and there. Do you really need permanent power absorption on top of that? I mean, if you wanted to gradually improve the character over time, there are plenty of other ways to do it that don't involve raw force multipliers. Gradual adaptions of powers you mimic frequently, being able to leech at range, or even the dreaded Peter Petrelli "I can do what you do by thinking of you" dodge, with obvious and severe limitations.

Hell, want something really nasty? Grow it into a positive feedback loop power, boosting allied powers while you're nearby.

[Jason_Firewalker]

Jason: 375mph is not even supersonic, much less hypersonic, may want to edit. You are going to be an annoying mother to hit though, with that maneuverability and the fact that it's flight. Kudos, you're the speedster, and you've got range. You're going to be really annoying, just don't get hit. Stealth is nice, even if it's just to tech things.

I need to go in and edit again, thats all...

[LadyTevar]

I love you dearly, Havoc... but I'm still having a bad feeling about a robot like that. :sad:

[General Havoc]

I love you dearly, Havoc... but I'm still having a bad feeling about a robot like that. :sad:

Good.

Seriously. Good. I wanted a robot that people will object to as being overpowered. Not something I thought was overpowered that turned out being half the strength of everyone else and laughable. I can parse it down in power level now that I have found something that makes people uncomfortable, but for once in my games, I actually wanted a war machine.

Contrary to popular opinion, I DO occasionally play powerful characters.

[rhoenix]

Honestly, I was waiting for Havoc to up-gun his character significantly. I'm just fine with his character as-is, particularly concerning that growth for his character will be difficult as it stands now. Because of that, I'd actually suggest that his (Havoc's) character be more powerful than the other PC's to start with.