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Quote:...What? What complete destruction? Dark Astoria as it was originally was essentially a foot-note. Nobody used it!Originally Posted by Xanatos
Olympian Armour set
Council vs 5th Column Arcs.
Adamastor Zone event.
Stalker buffs.
The above sound awesome. Not awesome enough to justify the complete destruction of Dark Astoria, but awesome nonetheless.
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GG's spoiler is correct.
Which honestly didn't have the shock value that I was expecting the reveal to have. -
I've got a few:
No One Left Behind
Show's Over
Fair and Balanced
Witness For The Fallen -
Quote:A) You're going to have to explain this oneOriginally Posted by Scarlet Shocker
This. iTrials caused me to cancel my sub and have spoiled the game for me with
a) crap stories
b) cheat mechanics
c) horrid inconsistencies
B) These are actually necessary or the trials wouldn't be a challenge
C) Again, going to need examples. -
My only problem is the players.
There's always ONE person in every PuG league who, despite having all the instructions laid out in plain English, goes and seems to either forget everything, or purposefully does NOT follow instructions:
Biggest example? On a Keyes, we were going for "Avoids The Green Stuff". So what happened? First time an Obliteration Beam Reticle appears, everyone scatters...except one person who runs past us and head-long INTO the reticle. -
It's hilarious that people get all over Longbow's case when Arachnos is as bad or worse and blatantly gets away with stuff. But Longbow does something and it's immediately unforgivable.
Lovely double standard. -
Quote:Oh right, because Longbow taking Fort Darwin is inexcusable, but Recluse invading Galaxy City isn't grounds to just declare war and stop all over the Isles, right?Originally Posted by Benchpresser
She's never been held accountable for the BLATANT illegal invasion of the Rogue Isles by her Longbow mercenaries.
Also, her attempted "take-over" of Vanguard duties in the RWZ. Considering Vanguard is sanctioned by the UN and as far as I know Longbow is NOT- in the eyes of international law she and LB aren't that different from Arachnos. -
Quote:I'm perfectly fine with it accepting TAoE sets. The way the power works is interesting enough for a melee set (Like fireball, it hits the target, then everything AROUND the target, you don't even have to hit the initial target to beat up the mob around them).Originally Posted by Smiling_Joe
Very true. However, you also need a target to activate Shadow Maul, Pendulum, Cleave, Headsplitter and Golden Dragonfly, but those powers all take PBAOE sets. Why? Because they're melee powers.
But those are cones, right? Yet ranged cones like Throw Spines, Shockwave and Repulsing Torrent all require targets and all require Targeted AOE sets. Why? Because they're ranged.
Spinning Strike is a melee AoE that's being shoehorned into a ranged set over nothing more than semantics, and the fact that it's the lone targeted melee AoE shouldn't make it the exception to the rule.
I don't care so much - as I said, my build is done - but I have to scratch my head at the logic.
And I keep responding to this thread because quite frankly I think it's setting a bad precedent for future melee AoE powers that just happen to require a target.
It's a melee power. It should accept melee sets. -
My friends in my SG have bugged me incessantly to post about this, so I'm hoping to put this here in the hopes of getting feedback and to get the arc out there for people to talk about in general.
"The Directive" is part of what I'd like to call an "arc-series". That is, rather than try to tell a whole story in one arc, tell the story over a series of arcs. Make it an ongoing, dynamic story that feels for episodic than one-shot. Admittedly, I can see that folks without much patience would feel that this is dragging things out too long, but I've gotten rave reviews, and the style seems to appeal to them (It feels like waiting for new episodes of a TV show).
The arcs themselves are level-tiered, so expect some exemplaring. The reason for this is because these were about the approximate level range that I was at when I wrote them, and as they were run ICly, it made sense to tier them according to that experience. Gives players a sense of progression as well. These arcs are also intended for whole groups, and are meant to be run at +0/x1.
There are currently four parts in all, and I would highly recommend a balance of ATs for a group. The villains of my story are quite challenging. I like to balance the story with the challenge of combat, and usually the final encounters of my arcs (the 'final boss' if you will) are usually the most satisfying parts (At least the feedback I got indicates as such), so expect to work for your prize.
If you want to search for them, simply type in 'The Directive' and it'll bring them up easily enough, no need to type out specific IDs. -
Quote:Anti-Matter during the very beginning of the KIR openly states that Neuron has been dealt with decisively (Tin Mage)Originally Posted by Seschat
MoM, I can't disagree with you there. BAF, Lambda, and Keyes? (Not to mention Apex and Tin Mage?) My apologies, but those really don't come across as any more final a victory than the last half dozen times we stomped those bozos at the request of our Peregrine Island contacts. No cutscene or lavender text box from Prometheus telling us that we have succeeded in besting one of our world's mortal foes once and for all. Marauder falls, Marauder fades from view, Marauder (presumably) shows up in the med-porter on the far side of Neutropolis, and colors the air blue with non "Rated T For Teen" language expressing how very disappointed he is with this turn of events, Marauder gets an email from Cole expressing how HE is disappointed with Marauder's failure. The war goes on.
Battle Maiden was incapcitated during Apex and was driven away.
In MoM, we see Metronome is using Seige's body as his own, so unless Siege has a back-up? He's gone.
Nightstar is likely also (at least for the time being) permanently incapacitated.
Marauder is the only one who feasibly might still be kicking, but given he was beat on by a league full of Incarnate it's doubtful he'll be fit for duty anytime soon.
Prometheus states outright that "It's regretable, but you will have to eliminate Keyes." However, I believe speaking to him later states that Antimatter isn't dead, though again, given the beating he took? He's down and out.
TPN takes care of Maelstrom.
MoM puts Malaise and Praetor Tilman out, with the latter no longer even having a BODY anymore.
This leaves Praetor Duncan and Praetor Sinclair as the only things between us and Emperor Cole. -
With regards to DA, any of those questions regarding possible arc material might very well be answered IN THE UPGRADE TO THE ZONE.
I think people are knee-jerking right now with regards to the new stuff. -
Quote:Actually, the Gameplay/Story Segregation IS occurring, with regards to the Citizens. Yes, those people SHOULD NOT be able to under the circumstances even scratch your armor. However, they obviously (and quite alarmingly!) do.Originally Posted by Kitsune9tails
I disagree.
At no point does the story indicate that incarnates should be immune to pacification. Both story and gameplay are in sync. But the ability of the citizens to take us down is not clearly associated with the telepathists for some and just plain distasteful to others. I personally would be just fine with a better visual emanating from the telepathists or even some atmospheric text in a caption box spelling it out.
That's the segregation right there. The story says it's outright impossible unless the Seers are somehow capable of that (And Telepathists aren't a normal form of Seer), but the gameplay mechanics say they can, and will, hit you for significant damage.
Likely because it's a heavy-handed hint that you need to get rid of the Telepathists before they turn too many citizens (which results in a hailstorm of firebombs and rocks) -
Quote:I was waiting for someone to beat me to it, and was shocked when no one mentioned it. It's something that always tends to come up during videogame discussions whenever there's an issue between the gameplay and the story. All I do is just point to the trope.Originally Posted by Scythus
Cool, I knew there had to be a trope for it.
I'm not trying to trivialize the discussion, but it seems that the core of the problem, what the entire argument/debate boils down to, is this one trope. -
...I am going to sound rude and snide, so I apologize in advance, but this must be said:
Congratulations, you've spent this entire thread arguing about probably the most common problem in videogames:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...orySegregation
There's going to be a point where it simply isn't possible to make the two meet. Incarnate Trials are just that. Hell, huge chunks of the game are like that. And there's basically no way to fix it. There's always going to be some discrepancy between what your characters SHOULD be able to do in a comic-book style world, and what the game says you can and cannot do.
And there's really not much you can do about it. -
I find that Traps and Devices do a wide variety of tasks a little differently.
Devices has Smoke Grenade, which is quite a bit more useful than you might think, and the changes to the Gun Drone have made it very viable, especially with the adjustment to the Defiance buff (I remember hearing about an Ice/Devices Blaster who could get THREE Gun Drones going at a time). Although it's true, it has some powers that just feel meh by comparison.
- Taser: This is a prime example of a Devices power I cannot get behind. It's a Mag 2 stun with some Energy damage. That's it. Absolutely nothing else to it. With the exception of slotting it for set bonuses I see no reason to touch it.
- Web Grenade: I admit, after playing a VEAT I'm incredibly spoiled by the ridiculous (by comparison) Wide Area Web Grenade, or even Mace Mastery's Web Envelope, both of which are good AoEs. Whereas Traps and Devices get...just Web Grenade (Though it's amazing for the -Fly)
As far as the sets in general? Traps definitely feels like you get more bang for your buck. FFG is a ridiculously good power (+Def and Mez protection), Acid Mortar is actually a mini-tank (Seriously, check it's HP sometime). Poison Trap is a literal Godsend (Slot it with Lockdown Proc and toe-bomb one, hilarity).
And Caltrops has to be one of the best powers in the game simply because it's effects are essentially unresistable. As for confusing the enemy AI? Honestly, unless you're dropping it on the spawn that the tank is trying to pull, it's a ridiculously good set-up. My DP/Dev Blaster often drops Caltrops at the corner, and uses his attacks to pull enemies or spawns around the corner and into the Trops, where he proceeds to pick them apart while they go berserk trying to get out. -
Quote:You win a thousand internets for that RCR reference, my good friend.Originally Posted by Talen Lee
Barf!
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Eh, remember that 8 Demons Mastermind thing Reppu posted a while back? We did a requirement that we all take Maneuvers at level 8. With the combinations of /Time and /Thermal and Ember Shield stacking? Hahahah, yeah.
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Quote:If you think about it, there are a number of other uses for the Snowball as well.Originally Posted by Mikuruneko
The decision to include the snowball power as a permanent option in the Winter Holiday Pack is... interesting.
A number of RPers, while they enjoy a good snowball fight on occasion, find it rather difficult to enjoy their RP if they're dancing at a radio show or just doing their own thing if people continually pelt them with snowballs. Even moreso when the people doing the snowball throwing won't stop if you ask them politely to.
With the inclusion of that power in the pack, there's now no respite from this form of RP griefing. At least before, we knew that if we waited long enough after the event, it'd stop. Now we have all year long to look forward to people who feel the need to keep others from having fun doing what they do. Please reconsider this, or at least let Null the Gull give us the option to not be able to be hit by them (which you probably actually can't do with current tech, sadly).
Did you know it raises the Domination bar? Melee characters essentially get a zero-damage ranged pull power they can use starting at level 1. -
Quote:I'd also like to use this one as well. I'm not saying the the players having an omniscient view doesn't make the situation look worse than the characters would realize. But all it takes is for one rogue or villain to boast about their part on the scheme to get the whole story.Originally Posted by El__D
Genre Savvy would like to have a word with you.
Your characters live in a world that has been populated by superheroes for around the past 100 years. There are numerous stories and records about conflicts between Heroes and Villains (the plaques, contact and mission dialogue, the back story behind Paragon City/The Rogue Isles, etc.) around that your characters would more than likely know about and have as a frame of reference.
Beyond that, the experience of the individual character comes into play. For example, I've got a character who has been fighting crime in Paragon City for over 10 years (his first step up into the direct 'superhero' scene was with the Outbreak and helping with the Rikti War). When he went in to the 4th WWD Arc, he picked up on the fact that Malaise was planning something; he avoids answering your questions, telling you more information, and basically stalls you until the Dirge hits. My character may not have known what Malaise was stalling them for until the sound-system activated, but it's pretty obvious that he was up to something.
Heroes don't see everything coming, but if you don't use previous arcs, dialogue, and information you've gathered to at least try to get an idea about what might be happening, the only trope that Hero will be using is this one.
So all the arcs redside about Villains gaining power or using what's available for diabolical means (Vincent Ross, Patron Arcs, etc etc) don't count as "tangible victories"? Do I even need to bring the SFs into this argument? The problem we're stating is that the Heroes seem to constantly be on the receiving end of really bad things.Quote:Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect
The heroes have been accomplishing worthwhile things the entire time the game has existed. Paragon City is still standing, in spite of the number of plots to destroy it or take it over. That means they've been winning the entire time.
The only time the villains ever get to win is in an alternate reality, or in the future, or any number of other hand-waving excuses as to why Lord Recluse or the player character is not now sitting on a throne in Atlas Park. All it takes for the heroes to score a victory is for nothing to change at all.
The villain characters have been treated like chumps for the entire existence of villain characters. Only recently has there been the option to not be just another Arachnos flunkie. Every time there is co-op content released, the villains get to tag along with the heroes and help them out because there is a bigger threat, instead of taking advantage of the heroes' distraction to further their own goals like a real villain would do.
I find it hilarious that the first time the villains get to have a real, tangible victory the heroes start whining about it.
Heroes: Meteors utterly obliterate Galaxy City, Arachnos takes advantage of the situation to invade
Villains: Longbow takes over Fort Darwin, only to immediately lose it to a new up-and-coming villainous PC.
(This part's ironic because people always complain about how Longbow are a bunch of jerks and borderline vigilantes, but have no problems with Arachnos trying to ransack what's left of Galaxy City)
Heroes: Miss Liberty is killed, Malaise puts Psyche into a coma, Statesman is about to bite the bullet, and the Phalanx is falling apart
Villains: Absolutely nothing happens to any major villain character, save the loss of Malaise, who really isn't on their side to begin with.
I'll state it once, and I'll continue to state it as long as folks believe I'm arguing otherwise: I have no issue with villains winning, as long as it's not so one-sided. And no, arguing that the entirety of the game's content from 1-50 is heroically favored isn't valid because the arcs in CoV are self-contained and separate from the arcs of CoH.
And this thing about "Villains should be pushing their plans forward and taking advantage of the situation, instead of helping" is also a load of bull. Any smart villain would realize that undermining the heroes at such a crucial juncture (Imperious Task Force, Lady Gray Task Force, and the Incarnate Trials) would only potentially damage or ruin any plans they have. Sure, villains could eke out a victory...then immediately lose when they can't stop the badguys from completely overrunning them.
This is a little thing that TVTropes likes to call Status Quo Is God. Heroes can be smashed and tossed around as much as the devs like, but god forbid the villains have to lose anything of actual substance.Quote:Originally Posted by Ogi
Fifth Column: still around.
Rikti: still around.
Praetorians: still around.
Villains didn't have to do a damned thing to save themselves. Meanwhile:
Miss Liberty: Dead.
Malaise: Dead.
Statesman: Dead.
FP: Under new management. -
Quote:Yeah, I like how we're blaming the victim here. She was the target of a brutal and debilitating mental assault designed to render her DEAD simply by using her worst fears and nightmares to drive her comatose, because Malaise simply wanted to screw her up in the worst ways possible "for the lulz".Originally Posted by Zubenelgenubi
I call Shenanigan on that type of thinking. She CLEARLY acted in self-defense against a man who was rap1ng her mind and trying to murder her. Not to mention that she was acting as an officer of law enforcement at the time. No court in the country would convict her, and nobody could logically fault her.
Killing him was self-defense, pure and simple. If you want to get technical it was suicide-by-cop, because he knew it would end that way. -
I'll argue that killing Malaise was inevitable, not to mention deserved. There was no way of removing him from her mind, and if left unchecked, could cause untold damage.
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Quote:Because letting a mad god-like being ruin the reality villains want to rule is the better alternative?Originally Posted by Finsplit
I'm rather suspecting it'll involve Wade invoking Rularuu and villains once again having to set aside their plans to fight "for the greater good." Because the devs have only gone to that well at least three times, why not do it again?
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After reading a lot of responses in this thread (which makes me happy to have this discussion) it is true that I am likely overselling how much the Villains seem to pull ahead in these arcs compared to the Heroes. (I did state in my OP that I was probably a little biased)
As for the OOC vs. IC? The character I have been running the SSAs with is a 50+3 with a fair amount of experience under his belt. I can still see plenty of holes where my character I think SHOULD have seen some of the twists coming. Now this is retroactive of course, which leads to another interesting thought:
I stated that I believed the arcs were geared towards folks unfamiliar with the lore. What if the arcs were also geared towards level tiers? At level 20, my character (the aforementioned 50+3) wouldn't have known the connection between Darrin Wade and the Rulu-Shin, even though I as the player are already fully aware due to having leveled the character to 50+3.
This could also explain the rather glaring gaps in common sense and logical thinking. -
Quote:Honestly, if Psyche hadn't have killed Malaise, I would've. She did everything she could to stand up for him and support him, and he tries to kill her for...hell, what reason DID he try to kill her for?Originally Posted by Zemblanity
Does anyone still feel like a hero in Paragon City? I mean, at least Cyrus went down fighting, Alexis just let herself be kidnapped and wacked without lifting a finger. She's Miss Liberty, for crying out loud! And what's with Sister Psycho executing Malaise in front of my toon while he does nothing? Statesman's death might create alot of vigilantes, but it may also make at least one hero hang his cape.
Sorry, Jack, I no longer believe this is true. Paragon City as you left it is dead. Here's your badge back.
I'm sorry, he was past the point of redemption right then. -
Quote:I don't disagree with this, but there IS (as someone mentioned before) a rather big problem with this, is when one person's story doesn't match up with someone elses.Originally Posted by Vox Populi
What could have made these signature stories stand out is using the new mission tech to create story trees, that branch off in different directions based on player actions, rather than a series of linear arcs which play out to a pre-determined conclusion.
Whose story becomes the valid one then?