Arilou

Originally Posted by Twisted Toon

They did not win against the DE. If they did, there wouldn't be the constant threat of the DE surrounding the, allegedly, only human city left on the Praetorian world. They're just managing to hold their own, despite the Resistance and us pesky Primal Earthers constantly interfering with their plans.

But, yes. They are tough.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow

The Honoree himself isn't difficult, and I didn't find Holtz (the text calls her "he" but she's using a female model) hard to kill, either. I even stepped in and wiped out all the portal, then proceeded to smack down what must have been around 80 Rikti that had spawned by that point.

What I was trying to say is that every time someone in Beta complained he couldn't fight the portals, he was told "You don't have to! And if you try to and can't, you're stupid!" This would all turn on its head if the mission were changed to where you DO have to fight the portals. Which it just might.

Originally Posted by FredrikSvanberg

Maybe they want Tin Man and Apex to provide some challenge even for characters level-shifted many times over. It's geared towards future Incarnates as well as the present ones. I do agree on one thing though: Praetorians aren't that tough. Malta isn't that tough. Those things makes no sense. But I'll roll with it. I enjoyed playing both TFs even though we didn't even complete them. One time some complete morons quit on us as we were about to fight Meuron/Boobcat and the other we just couldn't damage Battle Maiden fast enough. I still thought the new challenges were fun - not the purple enemies but the tactical stuff. I think it's ridiculous to try to make us believe that the completely incompetent idiots that populate Praetoria are able to build war-machines of such power, in those numbers, however. I'm just going to imagine that they come from another Praetoria where the Praetors aren't all bumbling buffoons.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow

Um... No, nothing of the sort. Only very few stories actually tell YOUR story. Off the top of my head, those can be narrowed down to the cape mission, the aura mission, Time After Time, Automatic Villainy and the Dean McArthur -> Leonard storyline. I'm probably forgetting some (like the alternate world that the alternate you destroyed) but most of the arcs available out there do not, in fact, have anything to do with out characters other than by the proxy of player. Division: Line, for instance, never really claims to do anything to me, require anything specific to me or change anything about me.

Furthermore, Task Forces cannot be argued to be "your story" simply because of how they're written. Not only do contacts only ever address the Task Force in general and never people in particular, but none of these Task Forces give you clues explaining what "you" did and what happened to "you." Yes, the Respec trials do have "you" exposed to radiation, but that's a side effect of the story.

The Incarnate arc is, in quite a few ways, a hero's journey. It's a personal arc revolving around the acquisition of personal power. I'm not against people doing this arc in teams - to each their own. But to each their own, I would rather like to not HAVE to bring other people if I didn't want to.

---

Let me put it like this: Evil Geko has been going around the threads, telling people that they don't have to fight the spawning portals, and can instead pull Holtz and the Honoree out of the room. That as a solution to people who didn't like and couldn't fight huge swaths of endlessly-spawning Rikti. The whole idea was that this was a place where people are supposed to be "smart," not where they'd need a specific build.

Now imagine if tomorrow the developers decided that they didn't want that to be possible and made neither Holtz nor the Honoree able to leave that room so you HAD to fight them amid the portals? I'm sure at least a few people will slam their dicks on the table and proclaim "YES! FINALLY IT'S HARDER!!!" like always happens no matter the change, but it would indeed render quite a few arguments FOR the arc obsolete.

I have nothing against the Tin Mage TF or TFs in general, even if I don't really want to do them. I just ask that not every damn thing to do with Incarnates be turned into a Task Force.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow

All this proves to me is you didn't actually read the thread before posting your character assasination on me. Here, let me save you the leg work:



Trapdoor's difficulty is not and has never been surviving. He's not that tough an EB one on one. The problem is killing him while he's being healed by his bifurcations, which was easy to do when you could pull him away from them. Having to fight him WITH the things healing him, however, creates the problem of how to even kill him at all. He could stand still and not move and that would still be a problem.

Originally Posted by Jetpack

How about a shard for completing an alignment mission? That would be a guaranteed shard every 2 days. Not sure it makes much sense with the lore, but it would be something.

Edit - I'm not actually proposing this - I think merits are enough for an alignment mission, but just an idea.

I would prefer some Incarnate story arcs that provide shards, but that would be a lot of work for mission creators.

Originally Posted by Jet_Boy

BP are so underused.

Originally Posted by bAss_ackwards

When City of Villains was announced and they were talking about how Grandville was going to be a "vertical" zone, I think my imagination really went crazy and I thought it was going to be a ridiculously tall city with lots of stuff happening from top to bottom. Turns out it is tall with most of the stuff happening on the ground floor.

Originally Posted by bAss_ackwards

Perhaps I should've expanded. Melee ATs aren't as disadvantaged as others have said them to be if you simply keep Battle Maiden moving. It hasn't been hard for me to do thus far, and I don't even have Confront.

Originally Posted by Carnifax_NA

There is a progress-based path though, things like the Lady Grey TF and the other recent end-game TFs (obviously not the i19 ones).

Originally Posted by MajorPrankster

While I do, I think, understand your viewpoint on wanting the game to not be real life Sam, this statement is just not true.

I do not think the time and effort involved to attain the highest tier of power in City to be, in any way, 'too much' and I have NOT reached it. I am close on a couple of 50's, but not really there.

Effort must be expended in an MMO to attain the various tiers of power if it is going to thrive. Doom on God-Mode is fun for an hour or so and then I don't want to play it again.

I would be out the door and I think there are quite a few that would be in line with me to leave, if this game was nothing more than Gauntlet with a Hero skin. It may well attract other to replace those that leave who enjoy such a play style, but I do not think there are enough to make it thrive as an MMO.

If the particular effort involved is not pleasant for one as a gamer, then by all means, find something fun. That's why I stay here, even after trying pretty much all the others.

One of the edge topics this is really hitting on for me is the notion of the game ever being 'work'. Sure there are portions that are tedious now and then. There are certainly portions that are time consuming.

But Work? Right now, I am an IT Director. For years I was a waiter and many other things. During all of that time, there has never been any game I found to be 'work'. Tedious, time consuming or simply not fun, but 'work' never enters into it for me, personally.

I think the problem is that some people in general think that just because there is an item in an MMO, no matter if it is a weapon, a badge or an enhancement, that they are entitled to have that item simply because they bought the game. Not even single player games are built with that in mind. Some level of effort must be expended to attain the goodies in a game.