Doc_Reverend

There's still the Praetorian Hamidon to deal with, too. He's kind of a problem since he's, y'know, a walking shoggoth apocalypse. Shogalypse? Hm...

There's two, both SG-mates of mine. One has been busy with school and real life, the other... just hope he's okay. He was out sick for a long while, reappeared in December saying he was on the mend... and then vanished.

@Outback Saviour and @Homeless Justice.

Awkwaaaard...

Better books than Starship Troopers are either The Forever War or Armor. I recommend both.

Though the Roughneck Chronicles cartoon was pretty good, I thought.

But as for this... well, I'm pretty sure the lines in the trailer were the opening lines to the book. And hey, it's power armor.

That's not to say we wouldn't like some more non-incarnate zone revamps. Boomtown, Perez, Crey's Folly and the Shard could all use some love. And the 30-40 and 40-50 ranges definitly could use some new content.

Just logged in, don't see the new sig arc up.

Agreed. I actually don't mind raids now and then, when it's with people who know what they're doing and so forth. They're fun, but they're like modern day Cookie Monster says: a sometimes food.

The Dark Astoria missions on the other hand are wonderful. I feel important in them, yet not scene hogging. I admit, the stories themselves work great with several of my characters. The young adventurer with the blood of a fallen hero in her veins (who happens to be buried in Moth Cemetary)? The nature-bound changeling? The supernatural investigator? So many work well here.

I loved that it made me feel like the hero, and gave me ways of getting through things that gave the illusion of not being railroaded. Like if I didn't bluster or threaten the Tsoo guy but instead acted empathetic and understood and respected his position, he'd let me pass without a fight. Or the villain intro arc, where you can basically tell Daos that he is going to help you and tell you what you want to know, and he's just got to deal with it. "I beat up Reichsman and your boss made me an honorary Arbiter" or "I beat up the Freedom Phalanx" or "I'm an Incarnate and I'll decorate the walls with you."

I really liked the ramp up in tension and action as the story continued, from investigating and hampering the Knives to direct action against the big bad's forces. Same time, made me feel powerful. "There's an entire army of Talons out there. We can help." "It's only one army, so you just need one me."

The enemies themselves can give you a challenge if you're not careful. My willpower scrapper had some trouble later on against Banished Pantheon. Their debuffs can really ruin your day. But it made it interesting. It's been a while since I was properly challenged. And the enemy designs are good. Even if I imagine going all God of War on the Ravagers.

Honestly, my only complaint has been the boss fights. The major EBs don't feel as sturdy or dangerous as I feel they should for how powerful they are supposed to be and look, and they don't scale to AVs. But this is a quibble, and I've discussed it elsewhere.

Really hoping this level of writing and storytelling keeps up in future content.

The iXP and thread drop rate I find to be not bad, especially while teaming. I was running my controller last night through some missions with a friend's blaster. My controller was all kitted out with all her Incarnate powers at Rare or Very Rare, while my friend didn't even have his common Alpha slotted yet (and I think he's using SOs). His connection and computer aren't really sturdy enough for trialing. Running two or three missions last night at +3/x4, he was able to get about 4 or 5% progress on his Judgement and Interface slots.

Yeah, it takes longer, especially if you don't team and can't solo as well, and I figure there will be some tweaking, but it's not bad.

D'aww! That's too cute. Add me to the Chibi list.

For modeling CoX in a game, I'd just use Mutants & Masterminds, either 2nd or 3rd edition. It's a much more robust system.

Heck, it was a Mutants & Masterminds game that got me into CoH in the first place!

Another thing I would like is the ability to set these up in AE if at all possible. Like... a pack of mix-and-match generic "gimmicks" or powers for AVs or Giant Monsters or let's call them End Bosses to make custom endboss enemies.

It's more like a Black Dog.

An interesting note. I consider the Battle Maiden fight in the Apex to be probably the best fight in the game. Battle Maiden herself is not an especially tough AV. She's fairly middle of the road. But by making us move around, take stock of our environment, we get some neat stuff.

In fact, I consider her a LOT more interesting than the much more complicated Trial boss fights.

Tanking is still important in her fights, because it keeps Battle Maiden from sniping the support and pulls her out of her burn patches and keeps her focused on the tanker. Support is still important because it keeps us alive and her weak. Control is still important because it keeps the mobs off our back. Damage is, duh, damage.

Same time, the final fight in the Sutter, while exciting, can be annoying. The difference? The heat seeking strafe patches that are tough to dodge, hit underground, and the guy teleports everywhere. Nobody likes teleporters, and nobody likes being randomly blasted out of the sky.

It's a fine balance.

I do think the idea of having a major villain having some... let's call them Henchmen EBs guarding them. They're the Oddjobs, the Right Hand Mans who play bodyguard for the AV. Some are on buff duty, some fighters, some tank even (heck, give them some taunts!). They're fairly generic though, maybe faceless or wearing masks, whatever. But you can scale them up or down with the difficulty desired by the players. A more powerful player or team may get more EB (or even weakened AVs or very strong Bosses) "bodyguards", while a less confident team gets less or none.

It'd be like fighting the Center. You don't fight the Center, really. You and all his inner circle tear up his office throwing each other around.

Another option is giving EBs powers that seriously boost their raw durability just to keep them upright. Don't be afraid to give something like The Sentinel, say... 75% resistance to stuff, or a power that boosts their HP. It's still an EB in terms of damage, but it's sheer durability make it feel tougher. It won't really change the outcome of the fight, just make it a bit longer and more time to use their flashier powers. Also, this high durability makes an EB better suited for a small team.