User:MuonNeutrino
Greetings! If you've found this page, it's probably from the link in my forum signature, and you might be wondering what sort of madman lies behind such posts. Here I will be leaving such info about myself and my characters as I choose to share.
About me
In my personal life, I'm a shy, socially awkward, highly introverted Astronomy graduate student. I'm a INTP[1] type personality, and it shows. I have been obsessed with space, space science & exploration, astronomy, and similar pursuits for as long as I can remember. It is my fondest wish to someday retire on the Moon. In the infrequent times I'm not absorbed in classes, teaching, grading, or my research, I pursue such geeky hobbies as tabletop miniature wargaming, building models for said wargame, reading an altogether inordinately large amount of books (mostly science fiction, popular science, and WWII history) and other reading materials, playing video games (obviously), and generally not having a social life. I also enjoy cooking and singing, and occasionally dabble in writing (some of which can be seen on these pages).
In my City of Heroes life, I spend considerably more time on the forums and in Mids' than actually in-game, and generally know way more about the game than someone with my limited playtime ought to. I'm an altoholic, and although you'll only find my more developed characters on this page, there are many more where they came from. I am generally obsessed with optimizing characters as systems, in that they aren't necessarily intended to be the most tricked out characters in existence, but they are carefully optimized within the rules and guidelines I have in mind for that character. My knowledge of game mechanics generally comes from the same source; as far as I'm concerned, I am required to understand the details of any system in which I take part. I can't be happy participating, otherwise.
I tend to participate on the forums in topics which fit my analytical bent. I try to avoid emotional topics, and I don't care much about pimped-out builds and the associated extremely high end challenges. I like expounding on game mechanics and the characteristics of my favorite powersets. In game, I tend to mostly go along for the ride. I enjoy teaming for the tactical challenges it brings (to me, combat is a tactical minigame) but I absolutely cannot stand leading teams or trials - even when it goes well, for an introvert like myself the feeling of responsibility sucks all of the fun out of it and makes it an actively draining experience. So if I can't join in on someone's action I mostly solo, but I actively watch channels for a chance to get in on anything that's being run.
Characters
For me, characters are one half tweaked and tuned combat systems carefully optimized for best performance given my personal rules, one half fantasy escapism from the depressing and disgusting events that are all too common in 'real life', and one half people with stories and personalities that quite often only exist in my head. And yes, that comes to a lot of halves, which is one reason that, while I make a lot of characters, I actually fully develop much fewer of them.
For a character to really 'gel' for me, they need to have a good concept of what I want them to be in game terms (which means, among other things, a Mids' build fully planned out to 50), a decent concept of who I want them to be in story terms and at least a rudimentary backstory (often not written down, but must be there), a decent costume that's thematic and aesthetically pleasing, and a good name. Often a character concept starts out with only one or two of these (generally a powerset combo and build, but occasionally a name, costume, or story concept). I try to develop such ideas completely before creating the character, but often parts of the whole are slow to come to me. In those cases I will sometimes make the character anyway (although never without a Mids' build) in hopes that the ideas will more fully develop with play. Sometimes that happens, sometimes it doesn't. The ones for which it doesn't, or whose concept, name, costume, or powersets turn out to not be as interesting as I'd hoped, get deleted or become part of the stable of only occasionally played alts. The ones which do gel tend to rise in levels fairly quickly, although they still must compete with my other alts.
Some of my more developed characters are listed here (although their pages might not be so well developed!):
More to come!
Story Arcs
If I ever finish any of the arcs I've been working on for so long, they'll be posted here!
