M_I_Abrahms

OK, we're not talking about Natives to Praetoria. Going Rogue is supposed to give us the opportunity to change the sides of the existing characters. In order for THOSE Heroes to change sides, they need to have a reason to join whichever side that will cause them to fall and become Villains. Right now, the ONLY organization Heroes have ANY reason to join is the Resistance. That means that they would HAVE to be the ones to cause Heroes to fall, but Tyrant is supposed to be the one to do that, because he's EVIL

Dammit to hell.

I've already given up hope that there's ANYTHING remotely resembling a redeemable trait among the Praetors, so my only hope left for genuine ambiguity in this issue was for the Resistance to be manned by a group of dangerous psychotics. People who are bloodthirsty enough that the players are left to wonder if a crushing dictatorship might not be so bad, if only because the only other current option is rampant crime, war, and bloodshed. So now we get the profile of Calvin Scott, the leader, face and symbol of the Resistance...

...who's most evil act on record is that he wants to rescue the woman he loves.

For crud's sakes, the line between good and evil is now officially clearer in Praetoria than it is on Primal Earth. I'm not even kidding, the description I'm reading on this guy couldn't portray him more as a Hero if he had his last initial emblazoned on his chest. On one side, we have "Tear down the Evil Overlord, save the damsel, free the people" and the other is "Rule the world, crush all freedom and slaughter thousands". How is any of this going to appeal to the 'morally gray' nature that is supposed to lead to side switching? This is about as gray as choosing between "frolicking with unicorns" and "selling your soul to Satan".

How about Hunt 50 Nemesis in RWZ?

I'm willing to admit when I'm talking out of my 4th point of contact, and I was when I brought up Martial Arts. You've mentioned a style that spends months teaching you how to punch before they show you how to kick, so I guess that works.

As for the Security Levels, it bugs me EVERY time I see it, not just here, because it doesn't WORK like that. Whenever Security Levels are mentioned in fiction, it's always under the assumption that just having clearance level X means Joe Hero will be able to enter/look at Macguffin Y, and that's not the case. If someone has no business looking at something or being a certain place, it doesn't matter if they have clearance to match the President they ain't getting in. You can't keep something secure otherwise.

Now for the points you bring up, Dual builds and the Difficulty slider. For the latter, I'll admit it's something so far gone from reality that it didn't even enter my mind as to a possible explanation, so absolutely add that to the list. And for the former, let's work at how one Hero is a master of ALL forms of Super powers before we get into the magic that was previously relegated to a Nuclear Power plant. Come to think of it, let's add the Heroes Respec Trial to the list too. I'd love to see the hand wave that explains how Radiation can change the powers that were given by the gods.

But I do have one more question before I close out here. This discussion all started when it was mentioned that the text of the game dictates character concepts. Well, I have two characters, one on each side as it turns out, who are autonomous robots. With all the text about breathing, sweating, eating, drinking, slicking hair back, viral infections and nervousness, there's at least as much text saying that Heroes must be biological. If the game's text says Heroic Redsiders are an invalid concept does this mean robotic characters are similarly invalid? If so, how does one explain Citadel?

...and now I'm thinking of what the BABs gym billboard would look like.

Contacts, Trainers and Levels all can be traced back to one over arcing problem. Learning your Power piece meal. And in many cases, the 'powers' we pick are really part of what would, were this a comic book, be considered a single power. When talking about a martial artist one would say he or she is a master of ju jit su, or kung fu rather than listing each endividual move in their repertoir as it's own fighting style. Out of all of my different characters, I have one in which progressive levels of power actually makes sense, my Bots/Traps Mastermind.

I do understand that this is done to allow for A) player progression and B) a way to allow time to move on. The way I understood it, a player hasn't moved on from fighting Skulls because he's suddenly more powerful than them, it's because by the time you reach a certain level, you've already broken the gang. Of course, since this is multiplayer, they can't just remove the Skulls from the board, as new players will need them to gain THEIR levels, which actually leads me to the ambient crime...

You can't really expect a player to stop EVERY crime on their way, expecially the ones which have no reward because they are too low. It would completely invalidate Travel Powers. However, that's what a Comic Hero would do. Stop ALL crime in "their" city. Actually, I think that this is a bit of hand waving that we're technically supposed to engage in - that the Crime by gray enemies just doesn't happen. However, intended hand waving is still hand waving, thus it's presence on the list.

As for Contacts, you mentioned the BIG one, the part about never moving. However, also consider that crime is crime and the Contacts SHOULD be handing out any info they have, no matter how 'powerful' the Hero may have gotten. But they don't for much the same reason we are supposed to ignore gray enemies. Also because people complain NOW about running outleveld arcs. (well, maybe not as much as they used to) One can toss the cell phone situation on the pile too, though the devs have gotten better about it. New high level contacts no longer require proof that you're as good as the papers say.

As for the Security zones, it's another tie-in problem with Security Levels. I never liked that you had to be X level to 'unlock' the doors. But that's the old soldier in me. Something is either secure, or it's not. And that's the way they work now. If you're a Hero, you have the clearance. End of story.