Infatum

I have nothing against the Pocket D'ers, but I think there's a lot of us out there that aren't looking for the kind of RP that occurs there. A transdimensional nightclub certainly works for people just wanting to get drunk or pick up girls/guys/non-gendered rock creatures, but for anything beyond general socializing I think it really falls flat.

Pickup RP does work, usually, and honestly it is the main reason I keep coming back to CoH. It's not the most reliable thing in the world though and when you're running some mission/tf/trial for the umpteenth time it gets difficult to offer anything fresh beyond run of the mill snark (which of course is just as much my own failing than anything else).

I'd love to see a centralized in lore theme that could help bring the "doers" of the RP world together though. The game somewhat provides this with the incarnate lore/praetorians/coming storm, and I would be ecstatic if a handful of RPers gathered in the midnighter's club to discuss their next foray into the mysteries of the well of the furies or what not (leading to the formation of a mission/tf/trial team as they had people and inclination). With a little bit of prelude and discussion beforehand as to "why" you're helping synapse with the clockwork king yet again, an old TF could easily become a fresh source of RP and fun:

Vigilante: I was doing a little snooping in skyway and I found crates outside of a known clockwork warehouse that contained praetorian tech.

Hero: That does sound like it deserves more investigation, Synapse might have some more information, that's his part of town.

Rogue: Praetorian tech? I'd be happy to make sure that doesn't get into the "wrong" hands. *grins*

Villain: Who cares? The Clockwork King is no threat to me even with Praetoria's aid, I see little to be gained from this.

Not a great example, but you get the idea. I'd just really like any RP that was about the broader game lore, as opposed to showcasing individual backgrounds/quirks/drama (which has been my common experience with SG RP).

Of course the only way something like that will start is if someone actually bites the bullet and tries to get it moving. I hate being lazy

This really needs to include at least one permanent benefit (Permanent bat power, shotgun power or something) given the cost. I wouldn't even spend 5 points on this personally. You guys are my favorite MMO team, but this just looks like an attempt to make uninformed free players waste their points.

TK -> Shadow Punch (w/ MA VFX)
CaK -> Smite (w/ MA VFX) or possibly Air Superiority (w/ MA VFX) in which case I wouldn't bother with TK
Warrior's Challenge -> Confront from Katana/Dual blades, but with no sword.

That'd basically be it for superficial changes.

Played this last night, it's definitely an enjoyable concept, although I have to concur that it would actually be pretty awesome to have it framed as a real initiation rather than a simulation. Perhaps with clues and dialogue to still talk about what happened on Angeles' run.

I would suggest changing the earth control customs to not have status protection. I didn't have any trouble with them personally since I was playing a scrapper, but anyone without their own status protection would be in for a very rough ride.

The story felt a little too cluttered, especially when it started to become difficult to separate legitimate instructors from the corrupt members. This actually might be a good argument for making the entire thing a real run rather than a simulation, with more of a focus on the lore behind the school and the fighting styles rather than the corruption following the war. I walked away with a pretty good idea what had happened, but the entire thing felt a little "blurry" for lack of a better term. Making the corrupt faction a visually distinct group would clear things up a bit if you could find the room, but the whole subplot between them and the Arachnos feels a little suffocated as it currently stands.

Good writing on the bios, definite attention to detail. All in all it was an interesting arc with a unique concept and I had a fun time running it. I gave it 4 stars, and if the story was made clearer and crisper I could definitely see it being 5.

Ok so I went into this hoping to be the good cop to Venture's bad cop. If someone was willing to put together this many arcs obviously a lot of effort was involved, and I might as well give it a chance...

Who knew the road to hell was paved with good intentions?

Oh.

Right.

The worst part is I really can't say much, I can't suggest much, because there isn't much. Basically the first arc takes less content than is in some single missions and drags it out across five of them.

The writing is lack luster, even by my generally generous standards, and there just isn't much that happens. No reveals, nothing explained. Just some bad guys stole a book, and uh... it's really important or something... maybe.

The only thing I can suggest is for the author to take the story they've spread across all these arcs and condense it into one. If this first arc is any indication of the complexity of the others that would not be a hard feat.

My personal rating system reserves one star for "You didn't try." this first arc barely pulled a two, and didn't exactly leave me chomping at the bit for more.

I highly doubt you'll take my suggestion, but should you do so I'd be happy to try the resulting arc and review it.

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I try to end with CK just for the sake of if KB hits. KB dont bother me but it does look so pretty when hit someone and they go flying back dead

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Crane Kick is pretty much the reason I love MA. That animation paired with the knockback is a beautiful thing.

Just to throw out something that hasn't been mentioned, but I've been personally considering...

Brawl can actually become a pretty respectable attack with enough damage procs in it. With yet another damage proc in the PVP set, I've been seriously considering revisiting this idea. May have to go to the warzone tonight and try a few attack chains out on the dummies to see if I like the feel >_>

Sounds fun.

I'd be happy to lead one of the hero teams with Infatum, sadly he has nothing special to offer the raid except plenty of kicks for the rikti's collective [censored].

Global is @Infatum

I use a mix of air superiority, storm kick, crane kick and dragon's tail in Infatum's build. The biggest thing is to get storm kick and put it in your chain as absolutely frequently as possible. Everything else is pretty much secondary.

In any case you will undoubtedly hurt your DPS by adding pool powers. Infatum's is somewhere around 110 factoring in Arcanatime assuming my calculations are correct. I've been trying to find a way to rework my chain to rely on Air superiority less, but so far no dice.

I'd like this feature, although admittedly it's because I want to make a challenge arc for myself where I get to take on the entire Praetorian Phalanx as EBs >_>

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I can't think of a single SF/TF in the high end game that doesn't require some sort of debuffing. Well maybe the ITF if you don't mind it taking forever.

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I've run plenty of high end TFs without debuffers or buffers (the entire shadow shard), and there's no reason numerically speaking that the STF would require one either.

In any case given how resistance works someone immune to smashing would remain immune no matter how much debuff is put on them. The immunity applies to both the damage and the debuffs, which just makes this problem all the more significant.

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Now see, this is the problem. A TF should not be dependent on you having debuffers in the team. Anyone should be capable of finishing it. We had a full team and it became impossible. That's a design flaw.

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Agreed. I'd be curious if any team of purely smashing/lethal ever has completed this barring temp powers. Immunity to any damage type just excludes players it doesn't add challenge. I thought we learned this lesson back with Envoy of Shadows when he used to be immune to fire. EDIT: Or was it Infernal? I can't remember

I'm fairly certain lag valley could be fixed just by removing all the useless spawns up on the ramparts above it that no one ever attacks anyhow. Last team I was with actually slogged through rather than pulling, and the lag got progressively better once the ambushes stopped and we had killed off a good chunk of the troops. Might have just been a fluke though I suppose.

In any case the ITF is definitely one of if not the best TF in my book. Lots of fun to run, and probably one of the most challenging groups to fight for my main just because of how dangerous they become in large numbers with their defense debuffs.

Gave this a run through last night. I really liked the premise of the arc, it took the canon in a very believable direction and did so quite well. Perhaps my only relatively strange complaint was the custom CoT bosses. No problem with their powers, but their outfits seemed a bit off, perhaps by artistic intent given their purpose and plans, but their skin seemed too healthy of a color, they felt a little too short (to be fair, everyone in canon is actually too fricking tall, but meh), and the amount of skin being shown felt a bit clashing with traditional Thornish fashion sense. Just giving them a more ghastly look might be all that's necessary. There may be a reason for their healthy glow that I missed though.

5 stars in any case

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I have to throw my five-star rating into the pile for this one, too. I've played all Venture's arcs and this is by far my favorite. As noted, Kobushi is a -great- character and I was actually WORRIED when I "overheard" that he had been killed.

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I'll ditto that. I was already liking him after the first mission, and by the end I really felt for him and literally gave a little sigh of relief when I saw the message on the bar for his glowie.

I gave this arc 5 stars as well. My only minor complaint is the custom Malta, they weren't problematic, they just felt a little needless and somewhat under explained, and their costumes didn't feel entirely malta-y. Mind you playing a scrapper I'm pretty at ease with the standard Malta, so I'd imagine for many characters seeing the sappers swapped out was even more of a relief than finding Kobushi

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I get the feeling you probably prefer villainous arcs to heroic and possibly go for anti-heroes, which I don’t. Unconventional heroes, fine; anti-heroes, no. Again, nothing wrong with that preference, but not my cuppa.

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Not at all, but given you came to that conclusion I'm guessing I wasn't as clear as I could have been with some of my other comments. The problem here wasn't the theme of sacrifice, or the fact that it was Solus making that sacrifice, but rather the presentation of it (which I'll try to cover the specifics of better below)

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One other thing I wondered was whether you were aware of the historical incident which is intended to be illustrated, which is the Rikti attack upon superheroes and bases in which so many heroes died. I get the feeling you may not be aware of that incident, and that may be part of the problem as well. Not something that a writer can do anything about, however, so we’ll set that aside, too. Sometimes, you’re damned if you do stick with history and damned if you don’t.

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The reason I said this felt more like a history of Solus rather than the history of the war had nothing to do with you getting the events wrong or making events up. It had to do again with presentation. The entire arc revolves around Solus. There is very little (possibly none, I don't have the text in front of me) mention of other super groups, and the rest of the war feels relegated to the sidelines rather than playing an active part in the story. I am not suggesting by any means that you add five other SGs or even one (that would make things worse), but rather as I suggested in my initial review, involve vanguard more, mention the greater war effort more and basically pull Solus a bit out of the spotlight and use them more as an example of what is going on in the greater war (which sounds to be your intent, but isn't how it came across to myself or my roommate who got to listen to me narrate the entire thing for them... well let's leave their opinion out since I'm probably not a great narrator )

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Actually, I’m only guessing what you mean by ‘milk run’, as you don’t reference the specific mission, but if it’s the one with Brinell in it, I’ve asked about cutting back the number of Vanguard, too. I think it’s down to the bare minims as it is, but I could be wrong. This may simply be a case where you run into MA limitations.

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Given only one mission has vanguard I figured I didn't need to provide any additional details here as to which mission I was referencing. The body bags suggestion was specifically for that mission, obviously you have plenty elsewhere. I wouldn't say you're hitting technical limitations though, a bunch of body bags, a captured vanguard or two and you've got the same effect without the vanguard running around making players feel even more like glorified package runners.

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The reason for the ‘milk run’, by the way, becomes very important in the second arc. For one, it was pointed out to you in the entry popup that it’s kind of strange that such a secret and supposedly well-guarded facility was attacked. (Read: red flag, and you need it for the second arc, which you didn’t run.) It’s also needed as a way to work around canon. According to canon and history, the first ‘official’ translator for the Rikti wasn’t available until *after* the first war. Therefore, it’s important to note (and believe me, when you write an arc, you’ll find people *will* hold you to it) that what you’ve got is a prototype translator and how you got it.

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I wasn't necessarily suggesting scrapping the mission, hence why I bothered to suggest ways of improving it. The mission offer dialogue could also use work though to better frame the importance of it. As is the contact feels like they're patting you on the head and trying assure you you really are doing something mildly important. Instead, emphasize the heavy fighting in the area, or how this thing is so bloody important that it can only be trusted in your hands. I'd have to replay it to offer anything more specific than that.

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I’ll get to the ‘why the player isn’t important’ issue later on, but in essence, this wasn’t meant to be an arc where your character is grand, glorious and saves the day. It’s intended as an illustrative piece to put a history incident in perspective.

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That's fine, better than fine actually, but again it currently feels like the arc revolves around Solus not the general history. It's good to hear your intent behind this arc, because as I mentioned in my initial review, that's not how it came across at all. It really felt like a dogpile of Solus cameos and Solus related lore that pushed out the general historical theme it was supposed to be a part of.

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In writing, there is a technique called association. The idea is to use a situation or a comparison which gives the reader a schema, or a frame of reference, which allows him or her to relate to (and hopefully sympathize with) a character or a situation in a story.

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You can achieve this with three characters as I suggested. Captain Superior (because of the events at the end), the contact (although he doesn't have to stay the contact) and poor Tommy mauve-shirt who we grow attached to right before he gets waxed. As is you have far far too many characters for me to get attached to any of them. They spend half the arc jockeying for screen time, and thus botch the very writing technique you're trying to employ as none of them end up at all well developed. I would suggest asking yourself this. Other than the three I mentioned, what story purpose do the others serve, or are they just window dressing? Because as window dressing I think they're seriously hurting the story currently.

As an author I can understand why you wouldn't see this. These characters are already developed in your mind, and many of them probably exist as fellow players or your own characters, but to a third party they're all random heroes spouting catch phrases, and after the third or fourth they just start to become little more than distractions from any characters that actually are important to the story.

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But why a supergroup, and a no-name supergroup at that? Why not give your player character a chance to be a member of the Phalanx, rub shoulders with Statesman, save the world?

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I never suggested you not use Solus, or to use the Phalanx for that matter. I think using Solus as the example victim is fine, I think making Solus "the story" rather than "part of the story" is not.

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So, why make the player character work with a supergroup at all?

Because that is what gives us the schema for the events which occurred. Many of us have been in supergroups. Even if we have not, we all have an understanding of the dynamics within such a group. Moreover, many of us have mentored other beginning characters or have been mentored ourselves. Most of us have also been in a situation where we’ve gotten over our heads and asked for assistance from other members in our supergroup or from members in coalition supergroups. Therefore, a normal supergroup is a structure we all understand. It becomes our schema for the events which then transpire.

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The problem here is that you make the leap of treating the player like a member without much real explanation or justification. The player ends up being a bit of an observer no matter how you cut this, so I don't see how this sort of treatment is necessary to create that atmosphere, if anything it seems to damage it by muddying what the player's actual role is (since you don't actually say they're a member). Vanguard is a good device for explaining why the player is working with Solus, but it would have to be something that was frequently referenced at the very least to have a convincing effect (rather than Vanguard basically dumping the player in the contact's lap).

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It isn’t necessary, in this instance, for the character to feel as if they are a member of SOLUS. It is, however, expected that through association, the character can make the leap and think, ‘Wow, how might this have affected *my* group back in those times?’

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This will occur naturally, *if* attachment is created to some of the characters, but again right now there are far too many.

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It’s also hoped that, through the attrition of those NPCs, that the player can actually get a frame of reference as to how that event could have impacted supergroups at the time. Thus, the number of NPCs listed.

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This can be provided with body bags, textual references and the one mauve shirt who you really get to know just before his brutal death at rikti hands (and of course the events in the finale). Having the plethora of cameos isn't necessary, and drowns out the story currently.

Let me know if I missed anything. A lot of your response revolved around defending the use of Solus, which as I've said I don't think is a problem in and of itself.

For some reason I find myself thinking of this.

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/unsigned.

The intention behind the mission architect is for any character to use it as an alternate leveling path from 1-50. Anything that restricts the ability to do so is a bad idea. And yes, it's still a bad idea even if you think it will reduce farming.

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Good job on that reading comprehension, don't hurt yourself on your way out of the forum.

OP:

Sounds like a good idea. It doesn't restrict anything, just helps give new players a better breadth of the game rather than stuffing them right into the AE fresh out of the tutorial.

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We ran the Manticore TF the other day. The team was capped at 35 and so were most of the bad guys. All but those darn level 40 Paragon Protector Elites. It was only those foes, and only in a few of the missions.

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You didn't just kill them like real men? That's what my team did when we hit that bug

At one point we had four of them on us at once, it was not pretty.

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I would suggest that there never again be an AT designated "epic". New ATs should just be regular ATs available at character select. I would much prefer a number of "neutral" (that can play on either side) ATs to coincide with Going Rogue.

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Agreed.

An amusing read on Twixt over at GM Dave's blog

Although I'm not against the rep change by any means, I have to agree with one of the previous posters who suggested having the victim have a small chance of a recipe as well. That would definitely encourage new players to try PvP as well as prevent you from feeling totally shafted when you get nothing from revenge except well revenge

As a player, it doesn't sound like Twixt did anything wrong.

As a professor, the guy sounds completely incompetent.