f13.net

Just wondering if anyone else has been assailed by random groups of Ninjas yet?

Myself and a friend poped out of a mission map in steel-canion (i think) only to have my friend suddenly attacked by a squad of ninjas who just seemed to come running across the map from nowhere, slice him a couple of tims, and then rush off into the distance.

I tried to target one, to find out what villian group it was from, but they were gone before I even really had a chance to react.

Anyone know what that might have been about?

Needless to say, it was still pretty cool.

Perhaps Blake Edwards (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075066/) joined the Live team?

That was most likely a Tsoo hit squad.

I've had various characters in beta and launch attacked by Clockworks, Tsoo and Vahz, I believe.  Basicaly, when you're working through some of the story arcs, you will piss off certain gangs, who will then send a squad to kill you from time to time.  

I was hunting clocks in Skyway City last night, when a group of ninjas I'd run from (thought I ran into the group accidentally) appeared in the fight (about a mile away from the contact where I'd just grabbed a Tsoo mission).

Dude kept wanting to run, and we were both out of endurance, just activating powers as we could...but we managed to take out both the group of Clocks and the entire ninja squad.

Honestly, I wish it happened more often.

A bunch of times when I've completed 5th Column missions, about 3-4 Nazis will come running around a corner and start pounding on me when I step out the door. Really annoying when I decide to check my enhancements right after I step out the door.

I've run across one mission to kill some Skulls in King's Row around level 7-8, and there's always a small group that comes after you a minute or two after you accept the mission. Pretty nifty imo. It's happened each time I've run the mission (three of four total, with different characters).

The times I have seen that happening, it has invariably been asshats deliberately training high level mobs into low level gathering areas, like level 20 Tsoos to the Positron-Valkryie statue in Steel Canyon.

If im not mistaken, when you accept certain missing they give you an oblique warning that "group X" might be gunning for you.  I've had it happen with gangs, clocks and vahz too.  The vhaz one was sort of funny as I had just sprinted by Cevik and when he msgged me a hello I stopped and promptly had a bunch of zombies try to eat my brain.  I think he set me up.

Actually that was also funny in that I was lvl 12 or 13 i think and had just left a mission in Kings Row so the zombie hit squad would have been red purple to probably most of the heroes in the zone.  Bet that cause some flinching when they appeared and started running through the streets.

Another hit occured right after I accepted a clock mission that had with it a temporary EMP Glove power.  I had no sooner added it to my quickbar and 3 clocks swooped down.

I like the variety.

Xilren

Now that you mention the temporary power, the mission in King's I was referring to gives you a temporary flash grenade power. Maybe the two parts are linked?

The flashbang grenades are a skull thing.

The EMP glove is the first of two (so far) temporary powers I've had in the context of clockwork missions.  I just did a kill 15 with a new, niftier temp power (killer damage and a stun) last night.  It seems to be something that tech (and maybe science or natural) players get to do....test out new weapons on the clocks.

I sort of like to think of it as the U.S. giving the Afghanis experimental weapons back when it was us vs. the USSR.

Cevik, your seekrit identity is out! We all know you are Doctor Vahz...admit it!

No link between the temporary powers and hit squads, but often the mission will have them both.    I've sometimes had hit squads come after me from a "capture x number of y villians" hunting mission.

The unusual thing about SurfD's experience is the ninjas ran off as soon as they appeared.   In my experience the hit squads are usually there to stay until defeated.

And I would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for you pesky kids!

Urk. I'd just finished reading a thread named "Milking Dr. Vazhilok", uh, somwhere, and last night I was perusing a photo thread with Cevik's old "obese guy with sombrero" avator, uh, somewhere else. Damn you, Way, for the image your comment caused to form in my brain. Damn you to Hell. In a flaming car.

Back to the thread: I've had Nazis hit me as I left a 5th Column mission, too.

Perhaps this sort of thing was the reason a squad of level 40 Nazis appeared in Steel Canyon the other night?

Last weekend I got energy torrent (energy cone dd+knockback) as a temporary power.

That was fun.

I think you can get more or less any power as temp power if you are high enough and lucky enough.

Actually, there might be.  Last night I got another hunt 15 mission with a temp power last night (this time hunting Lost with a cone dd and stun) and 30 seconds after accepting the mission, here comes the hit squad.  As I was grouped with Cevik and Way at the time, I think they scaled the squad for the 3 of us b/c they sent 10 of 'em, too bad I there we nowhere near me at the time.  :)  Thanks to hit and run tactics with fly and a handy police drone, i survived and got 5 of em.

That 2 temp power missions for me where I immediately got jumped.  I honestly can't remember the flashbang grenade one.  The other mission I do remember was one where I had to take evidence to a city offical and they flat out told me the hellions or skulls were coming for me.

Xilren

Or when it was us vs the taliban....we'll never learn that everything we sow is eventually reaped.