M_I_Abrahms

Sure, ignore the content of the game. That's a good idea.

Hired is still leaps and bound over enslaved.

In order for it to actually DO anything you have to actually put effort into it. You have to be altruistic, especially if you're actually trying to provide livable shelter for the people in the Isles. Again, way to much effort for the kind of people that rob banks instead of hold down nine to fives.

And again, you've missed the larger point - City of Villains can be change in text only to something significantly more palatable to the players without changing the status quo.

As his cover story, not because he actually cares about the potential victims he lures to Haven House.

The answer is simple: Why would you want to? Seriously, if you look at it, ruling the Rogue Isles is really a point against Recluse's credibility as a Villain, rather than one for it.

Let's say the player was actually given the opportunity to take over. Congratulations, Player. You know rule the trash-filled, vacant lot in the bad part of the slums. The most valuable thing on your land is the chewed up five dollar bill buried under half digested baked beans.

It will take a considerable fortune, and months of hard labor to get your property habitable much less profitable. And that's not even taking into consideration the rats that will chew through your foundations because they preferred the old boss. Or the thugs who grew a pair when they saw you take out what was considered the toughest guy on the block, so they figured they'd give it a shot. Not to mention the game of miscreants who come by frequently to break your stuff because they don't like your outfit. (EDIT: Forgot to add; Of top of all that is the little detail that if my Villains were into public works projects, they wouldn't be Villains, now would they?)

It would be considerably more believable, and enjoyable for the game to say that taking over the Isles isn't worth your time and effort, rather than saying you wouldn't dare make the attempt because you are too frightened and weak to survive a fight with the weakest of the cannon fodder. Especially when the game mechanics already shows that idea to be a lie.

Any of our Villain characters have put down uncountable Arachnos spiders of all ranks, and by the thousands. We've defeated all of Recluse's Generals multiple times, and handed him his own head. For some players literally! The game play says we are the toughest and the strongest, and the narrative says we're complete cowards with barely the strength to stand. It's a pretty big dissonance between the two.

You aren't getting it. Recluse can still be the boss, Arachnos can still be the predominant force in the isles. NONE OF THAT HAS TO CHANGE. They can still be 'in charge' and still recognize that the player COULD be a threat IF THEY WANTED TO.

Seriously, it's a huge change just going from: "Do this or die." to: "Will you do this?"

Every last mission could be identical, except for the brief/debrief and that could change the feel of the entire mission. Your character isn't doing this because he's powerless to stop repercussions of saying no, but because he's recognized as the only one with the power to do the job.

Just so we're clear, you realize the amount of change needed is along the same lines as fixing typos, right?

Villains current content is not enjoyable. According to you, editing live content can't happen as it's a tremendous undertaking. New content comes in at a trickle. I17's eight missions is a huge update, as far as content goes. Thus the game's not going to get any better. Thus the only enjoyable content is Hero-side. Play a Hero, or leave.

Whether this was your intent or not, this is how your post sounds to me:

Elite Boss, in this case. Yeah, in one of the higher level zones, the 'zone event' is an EB that runs around sometimes.

Not quite, you do face a Ballista Heroside during the RWZ arcs.

Heck, doesn't the Longbow Ballista running around St. Martial technically count as a 'Zone Event'?

It's not about being nice, it's about being powerful. In a war, if one person can sway entire battles, he or she gains respect on both sides of the conflict. Their opponents may not like them, but they can still respect that the person has talent on the battle field, and is a genuine threat to their own agenda.

THIS is the respect I've been talking about. We just want the game to acknowledge that the character has some power behind him. That he or she is more than just some unpowered, unskilled, low level punk that could be crushed easily by just about ANYONE in the Isles. It doesn't matter that the character has slain thousands of his foes and gone up against some of the most powerful Heroes in Paragon, they are still treated as if Johnny Pickpocket can mop the floor with us. If the contact is so much more powerful, then THEY can go deal with Infernal this time. I've already beaten him half a dozen times, and if I'm no threat, then he should be a walk in the park for you.

There's no sense of progression in this case. Your character never evolves, at least in the eyes of the contacts. And if a character never has any power, even min/maxed out at 50, then what was the point of playing the game at all?

That is a good point, they did a lot of work on the Posi TF, significantly more than just changing the text. They also completely redid two entire zones, which is also significantly more than changing text. In fact, if you think about it, Golden Girl's argument is that the folks that notice typos may as well just get used to them, because the devs 'don't change existing content', and fixing typos is the exact same kind of work as it would take to change the tone of the contacts.

Of course, Heroes contacts actually treat the player with respect NOW so...they don't have to wait at all.

Should only take about fifty years at the rate Villains get new content.

You won't have to. Just play a hero.

So, take a month of time, and lose the 'true Villain' badge and perks, whatever they may be, just to get access to Epic powers that aren't under the control of Arachnos? Not to mention that no matter what, we're still in a situation where it's only the Heroes that are treated as more powerful than that level one minion. The contact, any contact, can and will crush you at will should he or she so choose, and they're not afraid of making sure you know about it. Because however strong you are, whatever level you attain you are not a threat.

Oh no. Neg rep is when you see red instead of green, but it works the same way. So many points below zero gets you another red bar, to a total of five bright, and six dull. Of course to those who are red/green color blind....

If he's smart, Six will remember Ahren's lesson.

You only really need one reason why our Villains don't want to take over the world. Ruling the world is really, really boring. It's just as bad if the Heroes 'win', too. Congratulations, there's no more crime in the world. Enjoy your new job at Taco Bell.

Yeah, that's my other problem, it's usually down to the wire if I actually go back through the facility.

Just going off the persona you present to us.


Incidentally, I keep missing the clone that we get to save. What room is it in?

More to the slaughter, then. If all the Villain cares about is a steady supply, then it probably doesn't matter if he goes to the victim, or the other way around. Someone in that position probably COULD move up if they wanted to, but that just means the people that come after their job might actually be competent.