Zemblanity

I always assumed "Vanessa DeVore" was just Sister Psyche with a fancy mask on, always struggling with the dominant (and unaware) Shalice Tilman persona for control over her own body. If so, she's at least 80 years old, and probably alot older than that.

----------------------SPOILER-------------------

Are you refering to the scene where the Dream Doctor accuses Mender Silos of altering the past so a certain dagger only imprisons a certain being instead of killing him?

----------------------End SPOILER-------------------


True, we *could* go back to the past and alter Sister Airlia's ritual so it only imprisons Rommie and Imperious, but by that same logic we could have simply Ouro'ed SSA #3 and prevented Wade from getting Miss Liberty's blood (I suggest knocking her out before she leaves to Warburg and swapping her with a Nemesis Automaton).

Heh, save the cheerleader, save the world

* Edit - Sorry, Eva

Which neatly divides the hero player base into two seperate categories, those willing to rationalize some killings as "necessary" and "justified", and those that don't kill. Sadly for me, Statesman's death was a very clear statement as to what side the devs will favor from now on.

I was doubtful at first, but I liked it. The part where Statesman appears ready to fight back and Monica just holds him back...

"Monica, I have to stop him, the world's in real danger!"

"Marcus, the world's fate doesn't rest on one man's shoulder's alone. Rest now, and see for yourself."

"I... I... alright."

Let's just hope the PC heroes are up to the task.

It's a celebration of independence, which Positron and his team needed alot more than we players do, just as Statesman means alot more to them than it does to any of us. When Jack left, we players barely noticed. All of his previous work remained behind, and as long as maintenance and the occasional update came forth, we were happy. But the remnants of the old team did alot more than just keep the game up and running. Invention system. Mission architect. Power Customization. Praetoria. Morality tips. Incarnate content. Against all odds, they actually made the game better. Always in the shadow of what their predecessors did.

For the Freem 15, I imagine it must mean the world to finally claim City of Heroes as their own, to stop feeling like the crew of a low-budget sequel. It's their baby now, i7 to i22 and still going strong, no one can claim otherwise. I say cut them a little slack even if it is borderline bragging. So the devs couldn't wait to tell everybody they were finally bringing down the portrait of their old boss. Does it matter? They deserve it.

Statesman's last wish was to see Darrin Wade behind bars for the rest of his life. I'd like to respect his wishes, if possible, so if your villain would be so kind as to delay his vengeance until my hero arrests Wade, well, I'd appreciate it. Let's just say the key to his Zig cell will be under the rug

I can't help but notice that neither Manticore nor Sister Psyche are in that picture... hmmm...

Thank you, Michelle, that was beautiful T_T

You assume too much. I don't count myself as lucky. And I don't think it's appropriate to discuss this in a message board, sorry.

Ideally, yes, but I'm not ready for that, particularly when the script tends to force me into taking actions against my, and incidently Statesman's, moral code. For instance, I adamantly refuse to accept that heroes be allowed to kill without consequences, and yet not only does the game encourage it, it often forces that outcome.

I could be wrong, but IMO Paragon City should resemble Metropolis rather than Gotham City. If Superman dies and Batman takes over... let's just say we might as well start calling it the City of Vigilantes.

That depends on what the writers allow us players to do.

Do we get to drive Manticore out of the city, or at least put him in his place? Will we be given a scripted option to always follow the "Walking the Path" Badge even when it's unreasonable and puts everyone else at risk? Will Paragon City's NPCs acknowledge our efforts and start acting as helpful informants rather than employers? Will the Phalanx and the other NPC heroes start deferring to the players or will they keep refering to my lvl 53 incarnate as "kid"? Will the villains start taking the players seriously or will they keep giving on speeches about Statesman while we're in the process of rearranging their faces?

All of these problems will need to be corrected once there's no more Statesman, because you really don't want to become the sidekick of Statesman's ghost.

You get the chance to prove every detractor wrong by dismantling the whole Arachnos operation, saving the hostages and not giving up on the justice system when you decide to arrest Thiery instead of killing him. In that sense, the revamped Atlas Park storyline is perhaps the most satisfying hero mission released since the Tip system came out.

This is precisely why Paragon City needs Statesman alot more than it needs Manticore. The city needs hope, not vengeance, it needs to have its foremost hero believe in the system rather than arbitrarily discarding it when it gets personal, it needs to know someone up there is looking out for its people instead of just punishing villains.

The worst you can accuse Statesman at this point is seeking solitude to grieve the death of his daughter, just as he once did when his wife died.

Which is something the devs should fix, not ignore and say "why aren't you used to it yet?"

While that is true, the very nature of the game (good vs evil) demands at least some branching to exist. For most of the game, heroes and villains don't share the same storylines, and each "path" leads to a different outcome. Going Rogue offered more than just Praetoria, it also offered choice, per-se, in the form of Tips missions, an interesting mechanic that has since been abandoned.

As of now, the game allows you to choose between four paths in Primal Earth - Hero, Rogue, Villain and Vigilante, as well as their four "twisted" equivalents in Praetoria - Power, Warden, Crusader and Responsibility. Unfortunately, most of the old content is incompatible with these paths (reducing them into either Heroes or Villains), and almost no new content is being released to build upon this mechanic. Even worse, for awhile the trend seemed to be co-op content, further reducing the content's branching from two paths into a single one.

Now, co-op content might be easier to deliver (half the work) but it's also much less satisfying for whichever side the writers decide to neglect. My main problem with blue-side SSAs is that they're essentially villain arcs being witnessed by heroes, unable to do a single thing to make things right. The iTrials and ITF, on the other hand, are basically "save the world" missions that villains are forced to participate if they wish to claim its tasty rewards.

Arcana, I understand the challenge of delivering near-infinite branching, but reaching at least four possible outcomes in the game is certainly doable, if not eight (including Praetorian paths). Through phasing, a high-level Vigilante could reshape Primal Earth into a very different place than would a high-level Villain, so to speak. At least, that's how I interpreted this mechanic when it was first launched, and a single, unifying outcome between all paths (impossible in Praetoria) would never be as satisfying. Good versus Evil.

Co-op trials offer the advantage of combining the entire server population and create crowded leagues, so it's perhaps the best practical compromise until multi-server trials are implemented. Solo, instanced, co-op missions, however, are much less justifiable in my book, particularly when the stated goal is to reach a "canon" consensus amongst high-level players at the cost of their own enjoyment.

Not true, we had that choice in 1-20 Praetoria. Player actions mattered then, not just dialogue loops, but actual choices with actual consequences. You felt like a real participant in that world. Not the center of the universe, since your toon was just a small fish compared to Cole and his goons, but at the very least, you were the center of YOUR little story. You made a difference.

Do you side with the ruthless vigilante that just saved your life or the well-intentioned rebel that just tried to get you killed? You just found out the government is using the city's water treatment facilities to slip drugs into the water supply, will you blow it up and free the people, even knowing they'll be forced to consume radioactive water for months because of your actions?

And then they stopped. Why did they stop? Why isn't the new content like Praetoria? And why isn't Praetoria being made into a 1-50 experience?

Going Rogue is the prototype of my ideal kind of MMO, one with a strong, solid, well written solo content while still inserted in a community shared world - meaning I can team whenever I want, but if I want to solo it won't feel much different from a decent single player game.

The opener is right, there's been a serious drop in the quality of the game's content in the last 18 months or so, even as the graphics improved. First Ward and the SSAs are nothing like Praetoria. No real choice or branching paths, just one big corridor that doesn't even feel satisfying enough to walk through.

Energizing_Ion, you want to know why this argument is used so often? Because we're not just venting air, we actually *know* Paragon Studios can do better. They have in the past, and I'm hoping they will again in the future.

If you mean Invisible Falcon, the hero that disappeared in the 90's, I don't think it's ever mentioned that he's Patrick Duncan. Gordon Stacy just says his cousin is looking for him. If he were Ms. Liberty's father, Miss Liberty's husband and Statesman's son in law, I don't think it would be just his cousin looking.

As far as I know, Patrick Duncan's hero identity (if any) has never been officially revealed, either in the books, comics or game, and I was just speculating. The Freedom Phalanx novel, happening in 1986, suggests that Alexis and Jessica were living alone, so it's likely that Duncan was either dead or missing by then, or at least forced to be away from his family.

Would be nice if the game auto-exemplared all your contacts, so that you wouldn't have to worry about outleveling them.