FredrikSvanberg

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Bah. Here I was thinking of an actual ring that went on your finger, like a GL ring or a Legion Flight Ring.

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Oh sure, a ring on your finger was the first thing on your mind. Like we're going to believe that.

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Oh, I'd like to know what the plot holes are so I can try to plug them.

Whatever the Doctor does from inside the system is meaningless; Crey can always take the entire system down and reinstall from the offline backups. Then she has to do the whole thing all over again, and sooner or later she'll get caught. In any case, once word got out that the Architect system could be used in this way, no sane person would ever use it again regardless of any assurances from any agency, up to and including manifestations of the Divine. The story doesn't actually do anything to resolve the problem in the canon behind Architect Entertainment; it actually makes it worse by proving the worst expectations are justified.



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I could go on and on about how The Doctor makes sure to make sure that her presence within the system can't be compromised but I think I've already got too much text for these missions and I don't think it would be worth it. I might have an idea on how to plug this particular plot-hole though. I'll look into it. The story certainly does something to resolve the worst problem, i.e. Positron's completely uncharacteristic approval of the MA technology. At least in my opinion. You have however pointed out something that I will need to clarify, and I will try to do so.

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I don't think we should have to write arcs based on the possibility that someone might not finish the story - it would be quite impossible to take that into account for every story we create.

In the general case if the player chooses to abandon an arc it can be safely assumed the Contact gets someone else to do it instead. In this case that's problematic.



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The Doctor keeps mentioning that she has other people working for her, helping her out with hacking and other things. If the fourth timed mission is failed, for example, another user uploaded her file from a different location, with the player's admin account. The player can be replaced but it is inconvenient and The Doctor is in fact trying to tie up the loose end of this rogue copy running around in the flesh in the most humane manner possible.

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So would I, but this gave me an opportunity to make a story about The Doctor so I ran with it.

I think we can do stories with the Doctor that don't open more cans of worms than they close.

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Almost certainly, but this is the can of worms I decided to focus upon.

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Arc #1152, "The Doctor Returns"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: some plot holes, Tomato In The Mirror ending


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How can a trope be an "offense"? I thought they were tools. At least it should say "cheap Tomato in the Mirror ending" or something like that. Sorry, I'm nitpicking on the nitpicker. Oh, I'd like to know what the plot holes are so I can try to plug them.

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The mission has some clever writing, but the Tomato In The Mirrior ending is cheap and likely to rub people the wrong way. (Besides, what if "you" just abort the arc at that point?)


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Well, the players can decide that this was just some fun and games without real consequence, or they can decide that their copy actually did leave the original version behind. Nobody else is ever likely to find out. The Doctor could perhaps convince someone else to reboot the system to cover her tracks after the copy left, but that's not really important.

I don't think we should have to write arcs based on the possibility that someone might not finish the story - it would be quite impossible to take that into account for every story we create.

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While it does provide an explanation for the insane backstory the devs saddled the Architect with, I'd rather just pretend the backstory doesn't even exist, frankly.

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So would I, but this gave me an opportunity to make a story about The Doctor so I ran with it.

#1152: The Doctor Returns.

Since my arc wasn't in your queue I resubmit it, with a number: #1152 - The Doctor Returns.

You should write these reviews in The City Scoop.

Dare I put my own arc up for review? "The Doctor Returns"

People will just have to organize more pvp events, which will also increase the demand for more pvp IOs. It's some sort of vicious circle...

(To the tune of The Circle of Life)

From the day we arrive on the server
And blinking, step into the zone
There's more to be killed than can ever be killed
More to pwn than can ever be pwnt

Some say beat or be beaten
Some say live and let live
But none can agree what they want from peeveepee
You can never please people like these

There's far too much at stake in here
Loot to find that can never be found
So the fun time is over
Noobs need not apply
Except as fertilizer scattered on the ground

In the Circle of Grief
It's the squeal of misfortune
It's the weep of pain
It's the land of no hope
Till we find our place
On the path of grinding
In the Circle, the Circle of Grief

On the path of grinding
In the Circle, the Circle of Grief.


(Apologies to Elton John)

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Anybody think the merit costs are fair, or do villains just need that big Strike Force worth 50+ that the heroes just seem to have several of?


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While I wouldn't complain about getting more SFs for villains, those hero task forces that are worth 50+ merits are worth that much because on average they take forever (give or take a couple of hours) to finish.

Villain SFs are smaller and faster to finish, on average, so they get less merits.

The more time and effort you put in, the more merits you get out. That is the idea anyway.

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An ability the player never has under any other circumstance, and has been called a bug in every other circumstance where it appeared.


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Peacebringer Light Form prevents rooting.

My issue with the blue cave isn't that it's hard to navigate or anything like that.

It's just ugly. Ugly and unrealistic. We have these caves (blue, shiny almost glowing rock) that look rough and mostly natural with strange rock formations everywhere. Then suddenly, in the most unexpected places, we get wooden doors, wooden support beams and mine cart tracks as if this was in fact an old mine? It just doesn't make sense. Especially the tracks.

Fortunately when issue 14 goes live I will be able to level from 1-50 without ever having to enter a blue cave again. I spent a few weeks on Test and when I got back to live and entered a blue cave for the first time I realized that NOBODY had used that tileset in any of the missions I had tested during all that time. This is a trend which I have no doubt will continue forever, or until someone makes a mission with the blue cave just to spite me.

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Then again how would you explain in the lore, every super powered being on both sides of Paragon being suddenly able to reconstruct reality and create their own pocket universe, without bordering on silliness? I mean, really, even for a comic book universe. LOL

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Well, Gamester would have been a much better NPC as the man behind Architect Entertainment than Aeon. For example. Mostly because he's supposedly neutral in the fight between Arachnos and the Phalanx.

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Just my $.02, I'm happy to get a little teaser, but I don't like how they attempt to write in things like the MA as part of the CoH storyline. Probably just me, it just doesn't make any sense IMO and should just be kept as an out of game lore content creator. I feel the same way about writing proliferation into the story line. Do we really need to explain in game why villains can carry a mace now?

Don't mean to be negative, it's just a little thing that bugs me. Overall it looks great and I'm glad to see some pics!

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This.

Stop trying to explain meta-game things that don't require in-game explanations.

When City of Villains was released we were told that yes, we would eventually be able to change sides. I made at least one character (villains mostly) based on this assumption. Later on when it was revealed that this would not happen in a timely fashion after all I deleted those characters, but I still remember that the promise was made and not delivered upon. I should have known the worth of a promise made by Jack but back then we didn't know. We just didn't know.

My idea for opening up Striga did actually include villain content. It wouldn't be coop, it would just use the same map but the instances would be separate, and so would the content.

Striga isn't in Paragon. There is no in-game reason for why villains couldn't go there.

Reminds me of my idea to open up Striga for villains but this sounds a lot cooler. It would of course mean more work and take more time but it'd be worth it. Also, it doesn't prevent them from opening up Striga for villains as well, since the level range doesn't overlap. More places for villains to go that aren't Nerva is good in my book.

Ok, what the heck is Aero?

I like the new ski slope. I keep thinking that it would be fun to see something like this on a larger scale. Either a mission where you slide down something (a REALLY long slope, several miles long preferably) and must finish in a certain time - with enemies sliding along with you, shooting at you. And of course you would be able to shoot back, without rooting since you're sliding. That would be awesome.

As for the other part of the winter event, the baby new year mission and the christmas present hunting, I think it would be more fun if for next year we got an entire Task Force devoted to this.

I'm thinking 3-5 missions set in a frozen snow-covered minizone similar to the snowy Croatoa. We would go up against the Winter King and his minions. To help us: Baby New Year and Gamester. Of course, Gamester being who he is (Lord Nemesis), he can't be trusted, but we still need his help. Don't ask me how I know Gamester is Lord Nemesis, but it's really quite obvious. Just humour me.

In the task force (which is given to us by Father Time) we would first have to save Baby New Year in a manner similar to the current mission. With the future on our side we travel to a wintery St Martial to seek out clues on Gamester by collecting 99 presents scattered about the instanced map. Each one has a chance to provide a candy cane or spawn enemies - but not just the snow guys. They can spawn almost any kind of enemy. The last present has a message from Gamester. He is held captive by the Winter King and is forced to make presents for him. We travel to the King's domain, a frozen winter land with plenty of ski slopes, redcaps, tuatha and winter horde enemies scattered about. There we invade the Winter King's ice palace, free Gamester and together we take on the Winter King himself. The king spawns Winter Lords to his defense and is aided by Snaptooth and a horde of redcaps. When the king is defeated he gives us his hoard of candy canes (30 canes per person should be fine) and promises to not invade again for a whole year.

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Do they actually believe that people are going to sign up just so they can spend months dinking around with the costume creator?

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I know many, MANY people who still are "dinking around" with the costume creator after several years, and who were mainly attracted to the game because of it.

Actually that's a good idea. Not going to happen because of lack of time, but perhaps they can fix it later.

Not that we need it now that we can just have 30 items in there but it would have been a good way to sort invention salvage too.

Perhaps walking could be considered a "defensive stance". You're not as careful when you run around. Walking could grant a small amount of defense and a recovery bonus, since you're not running and exerting yourself. That might make it more worthy of the animation time than "just" as a roleplaying thing. If walking was also introduced at the same time as dual pistols we'd be up to our necks in cool just slowly walking through a mission shooting stuff, all Terminator-like or Robocop-style. Yeah, that's the ticket. Walking.

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I wonder why nobody have suggested the following:

E.L.I.T.E Agent

G.I.F.T Ambassador

M.A.G.I Investigator

D.A.T.A Operative

S.E.R.A.P.H Researcher

You would get them by logging out in the appropriate office in Galaxy City or Atlas Park.

Hero For Hire - log out near any of the Hero Corp contacts.

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Logically, each would be a flavour version of the other. You would get whichever would fit your Origin, and only logging out in your specific category would count.

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What I had in mind was that you should get the corresponding inherent attack as a reward for each origin. These attacks would then improve further as you kept working at them, to become fully-fledged useful attacks even for high-level usage. Your original origin attack would become even better.

As a Hero For Hire you would be able to change your difficulty setting at increasingly cheaper rates.

I wonder why nobody have suggested the following:

E.L.I.T.E Agent

G.I.F.T Ambassador

M.A.G.I Investigator

D.A.T.A Operative

S.E.R.A.P.H Researcher

You would get them by logging out in the appropriate office in Galaxy City or Atlas Park.

Hero For Hire - log out near any of the Hero Corp contacts.

Once upon a time the presents buffed everyone in your team within range... Unless they never actually did that but just said that they did in the description. They were much nicer back then.

The enemy I would love to see more than anything for villains is some kind of "real world" military. But not just a Council or Longbow clone. They should use large groups of disciplined infantry, sure, but in addition they should be able to call in long-range artillery strikes, air strikes, bomb runs and missile strikes. They should also have tanks that actually fire their guns. How many times has The Hulk fought the US military? That's right, I want to feel like the Hulk, bouncing around and smashing puny humans and their tanks.