Johnny_Butane

There's the difference between the face someone shows the public, and the face someone shows to their co-workers/subordinates.

In Statesman-the-character's defense, most of the jerkiness he demonstrated in the comic was directed at Manticore, who delighted in pushing his buttons and butting heads. Manticore of the comic is the classic Lancer character archetype, and the book is mostly from his point of view.

Most of Statesman's jerk scenes, when he's not confronting a bad guy, are of him interacting with Manticore, or being overprotective of his granddaughter, which is understandable really. He's certainly not a jerk when he's paired of with Sister Psyche. He's really chummy with Foreshadow. Besides Manticore, most of the people he works with seem to like him enough.

It really comes down to this:

-He's in a position of leadership above Manticore, who's the team loose cannon and is constantly being challenged by him.

-He's over 100 years old, and has seen a lot of friends and loved ones die. Especially, given the fact that super heroes usually don't have peaceful endings. Keeping people he has to work with at a distance with a hard exterior is a sanity survival mechanism.

-Nowhere in the game is he anything more than the totally professional, premier hero of the city. He doesn't talk down to players any more than any other NPC. He doesn't DO much of anything, so how can he possibly BE a jerk?

-Besides the comic, we have other writers' interpretations of him. The Web of Arachnos novel presents a young, dashing rogue Statesman who's the prototypical 1930's mystery man with a shady past. He was most defiantly not written as a jerk, but as a suave leader with crafty street smarts. The Freedom Phalanx presents a Statesman in mourning for his wife who's growing disillusioned with the good fight, partially due to mental manipulation and mid-1980's bleakness. This, unfortunately, may be the Statesman the comic creators decided to run with, which is sad because it ignores the character development he got by the end of the book.



.

Counter point: All of the Judgements have considerable mitigation regardless of which branch you take since defeated enemies deal zero damage.




.

Alternatively, and it may not happen anytime soon, but there really should be a web of contacts in game who just spill exposition for new players on various NPCs and organizations. Make it clear up front these guys aren't offering missions, and those who care about the lore will seek them out.

If there was ever a need for Atlas Park to get a museum, this would be it.



.

Presumably they would, you know, compensate with a Smashing/Lethal Judgement by making it hit a little harder.

Also, part of the beauty of Judgement is you can have multiple Judgements if you primarily care about mechanics first. A Lethal Judgement would completely mess up zombies and Carnies(?). Smart players can make that kind of flexibility work for them.

Me, of course I want a strength-themed Judgement. Throw a massive chunk of rubble or an exploding bus. That's why there's no buses left on the streets, you know.


.

Only if the light and damage are on a slight delay and the power starts by causing a Knock Up on all the enemies.

Everything lifts into the air and then FWOOSH!


.

I've heard from multiple sources that have some level of reliability that, much like was done with the Alpha/Shards, another level of currency will be used for the remaining slots besides Threads. And, like Shards can be converted into Threads at a loss, the new currency will give people who are currently stockpiling Threads a small leg up by converting them into *whatever*, also at a loss.


.

It's like this:

You're familiar with the Speed Force from DC's the Flash? No matter what the speedster's origin (hit by lightning, magical mantra, chemical formula) they get their speed and power from a quasi-mystical extra dimensional force called the Speed Force.

In CoH the lore now says that regardless of your origin (Tech, Natural, Mutant) you get your power from a quasi-mystical construct called the Well, which is both sentient and a jerk. And if you want more power at 50, you must suck up to the Well and become an Incarnate of its power by doing Incarnate trials(raids) because the Well is big on meritocracy.


.

20-25 is the last range that needed any new content any time soon. There's been a good amount added to this range over the past several issues.

Just about any other range would have been better.

30-35? Yes!
35-40? Sure!
40-50? Most definitely.

What's worse is that this comes at the expense of a real solo Incarnate tract that people have been hounding for ever since the system was first seen.

And it's been brought into question if the new content will even be in Ouroboros, let alone the fact they've said some of it will be faction locked.

New lore and story developments, those I care about. Those are also things I can read about on the wiki without even playing, sadly. But that means the work put in for a new zone is for nothing.

Unless the GM in First Ward craps Empyrean Merits, I really don't care. I've got no reason to set foot into the zone because the number of alts I have in that level range is zero; there's so much content in the 20's nobody stays there long.


.

That great and all, and if they were getting more of a mention in Incarnate content instead of 20-25 Praetoria content, I'd care more.
But by this point they need far more than a mention.

Five slots in, I'm already sick of that "path". And the devs saying i21 is only the beginning on the end to the current Praetoria stuff isn't encouraging me.

The fact of the matter is, I don't want this game to be any more about Praetoria than it is about the Rikti. Or the 5th Column. Or the Skulls. I don't like that the Incarnate content revolves around Praetoria and that the big P has wormed it's way into every other facet of the game for the past year. i21 may be titled 'Convergence', but to me it's more of an ham handed 'Intrusion'.

In the devs' minds they may see this as some grand coalescence of threads they've been carefully been laying. To my eyes it looks more like they've been floundering for several years about the Coming Storm and are mashing Praetoria in all it's retcon'ed "glory" into it at the last minute and claiming they planned it all along.


.

That is an extremely oblique reference that most wouldn't even get.

One of the reasons I'm disappointed in the Incarnate content is that it doesn't present the kind of scope of being an Incarnate that the novels and comics suggested.

In the comics and novels, Hades is an actual place you (well Statesman at least) can go. The Furies, the stuff in the comic with Prometheus, all points to this vast plane of existence of gods and such that we as Incarnates still don't see or even glimpse.

We're unceremoniously 'inducted' into being an Incarnate and whop-de-doo, we get to hang out with Prometheus in Ouroboros of all places and he talks down to us. We've yet to meet any pantheons of elder beings or get to step outside of Earthly bounds. It's just "well, there's the Well and it's a jerk. Go concern yourself with fighting robots in Praetoria."

If there is a world of gods and demigods, as Incarnates we're certainly not them and we're very much looking in from the outside with a grouchy blue has-been who wont even be straight with us.


.

No, but on a tangent the game has problems with contradicting and incorporating the spin-off media like the novels and the comics.

-It took quite a while just to get a Cyrus Thompson statue put in.
-The Furies were first only mentioned in game just last issue.
-The in-game stuff about the Well doesn't resolve with the novel.
-Statesman's restaurant is nowhere to be seen. From the 1930's or not, such a thing would be a major tourist attraction by this point and would have been preserved.

Then, as its been mentioned there's also problem with the non-sliding timeline. Ms. Liberty would be 30-something by now, not the fresh youngster the game portrays. Manticore should be in his mid 50's; time for him to start looking a little more Frank Millers-ish, maybe
The Rikti invasion is still treated like a 'recent' event even though it's more than a decade in the past.

Time is a big mess in the game, and not one even the Menders can attempt to fix.


.

You know who also tried, and succeeded, to control/destroy magic on their world?
The Rikti.
And they're trying to do it again on Primal Earth, according to some villain arcs.

The Rikti, Praetoria and Cimerora all seem to be involved in the Coming Storm somehow.

Hmm.



.

Yes. Yes you absolutely are.



.

I'm sure there will be regular express trains leaving from the main CTA stations to the forbidden area nobody is supposed to go.

If not, you can always travel by brigadoon-buggy.



.

I didn't say either way what I thought of the idea. I was just pointing out that Claws supporting it is a wee bit hypocritical with the crap he's given me in this thread.

A Brute at the damage cap would still do 1.7 times the damage of a Tanker at same, as opposed to 1.8 times. This is excluding Bruising, mind you. That's not an earth shattering change to my concerns, considering Brutes would still having only 10% less max HP.

Also, contrary to what some assert, I don't necessarily think Tankers need straight up better damage than they have now. I want their potential to be equitable to Brutes and Scrappers. Brutes/Scraps have purple and green inspirations and Destiny Rebirth and Barrier to keep them upright; if I wanna mainline big reds and have a 1kilo KO Blow like a Brute who did the same, why can't that be allowed?

Not that I would reject a .5 dam mod increase if that was all that was changing, but it's not really my goal.




.

He was saying he supported the change to the Scrapper cap as well.


.

You support raising resistance caps on Scrappers, already one of the highest performing ATs, without a commensurate decrease in damage. But Tankers aren't allowed to have their damage cap raised without gutting their survivability?

Hypocrite.


.

Actually, I'm ambivalent about Tankers getting more damage.

What I want is to see Tanker damage caps increased. Not the same thing.

Alternatively, they could have Brute resistance caps and Brute and Scrapper Max HP caps adjusted downward.

Obviously, the alternative option would upset some Brute and Scrapper players, while my preferred course wouldn't really upset the apple cart, according to what Arcana said at least.



.

And you said the devs didn't listen to me.



.

-Because I've asked nicely a number of times.
-Because I've asked rudely a number of times.
-Because I'll be their friend for ever and ever.
-Because I'll leave them alone for ever and ever.
-Because the current performance of Tankers doesn't synch up with their description in game or on the website and that could be off-putting to new players coming in with CoH:F
-Because my two cats are adorable and agree with me on Tankers.
-Because, as proven with Invul, once something is fixed I tend to shut up about it.
-Because I've put countless hours into hounding for Tankers to be treated fairly, all the while entertaining the community.
-Because it's there.
-Because despite my ranting, I hunt for bugs, boost the game with potential players, help anyone who asks, give away a large amount of in game stuff to strangers in the name of good will and while I can never match the contributions of others, especially someone like you, I try damn it. That should count for something.

You may not think any of these are good reasons, but added together perhaps they amount to half of one good one?


.