M_I_Abrahms

No, not really. But his is a special situation, given his history. The only power he has is from his agreement with Recluse, which amounts to "Work for me or die, and it won't be in a good way."

Actually, the big complaint about Phipps is that he's NOT important. None of the stuff he does has any real meaning except for petty villainy. If anyone in Arachnos is "mustache twirling" evil, it's Phipps, not Recluse. And to top it all off, he's not really good at it either. The only reason he's in the 40+ bracket is that his homeless shelter is stationed in the slums of Grandville.

Not getting into it here, but content or no, I still like the new power sets/costumes.

I believe the idea is which COULD offer them, if not for the Praetorian angle. And there's one that stands out Red side as the #1 choice...Hardcase. He's already considered to be a costume change from being a Paragon hero anyway.

THANK YOU! I was beginning to think I was the only one that remembered that.

Ah, but they don't get those things until a much higher level than the Skulls and Hellions get to. It's possible that the Low level PPD, while being better than they used to be, still wouldn't survive large battles with those groups.

The entire structure of the Praetorian government was designed by Tyrant when he took the job. Even if it wasn't exactly the way he wanted, he's had decades of being in charge to shape the world to his will. If Tyrant is evil, then everything about Praetoria is evil. Having our Heroes work for him in this scenario makes as much sense as Superman taking a job with LexCorp.

EDIT: Well, maybe the Heroes who's descriptions say "This character is really a Villain, he just got to 50 before CoV was released."

Funny, I thought that's what the rest of us have been trying to set up the entire time. It was your point that there is no gray present, Tyrant is clearly evil and the Resistance are heroes. Why? The devs said so. And anything else is being a Tyrant apologist.

Actually, we've been trying, but you keep bringing up the fact that he's evil, because the devs say so. So, you win. He's evil.

The thing is, in order for a Hero's fall from grace to work, there has to be a morality play. A play like that must have ambiguity. Unfortunately, you can't be ambiguous if one side is clearly defined as evil. Without this play, the content of Pratoria and the side switching make no sense. In other words:

If Tyrant is evil, then Going Rogue fails.

It's a bit more than 50% that go evil, if you consider how many more NPCs are meta-human criminals.

Just because I'm playing catch up: I'd pull the lever and do everything I can to get the last child off the tracks, even if it means I'm on them.

Except all of that got thrown out with the same three words you've been repeating from the beginning: Tyrant is EVIL.

This only works when there's a question of moral ambiguity. When you have clearly defined sides like the way the Loyalist and Resistance have been portrayed, the ambiguity goes right out the window. The Heroes may as well decide at random to join Recluse, or Reischman, or Nemesis himself for that matter.

Because the only options are Mother Theresa and Hitler. Period. No Exceptions.

He could have been creepier. The way he's being presented is just stock and quite honestly lame.

No one's confused about Mender Nemesis' evil goals. It's Nemesis, no one really cares he's a one trick pony.

However, Going Rogue was presented as a Heroes 'fall from grace'. It's an epic idea, at it's core. People that have dedicated themselves to the idea of Justice struggling with where the line should be drawn. Too much and you're oppressing the people and crushing freedom. Too little and you're protecting criminals and promoting anarchy.

Going Rogue could have had immersive and thought provoking content. It could have secured it's place in gaming HISTORY by being the first game with a subtle and innovative moral choice system. It could have had unique and complex stars. Instead, it looks like we're getting more of the same Black and White we've had since day one, a side switching that makes as much in-game sense as Powerset Proliferation, and Recluse 2.

You're right. All of the evidence is pointing to Going Rogue being a complete waste of time. May as well give Recluse the starring role rather than re-image Tyrant. And with the time and resources saved, maybe we could get a conclusion on the Coming Storm story line.

The problem folks are having is, Going Rogue is supposed to be the Grey side. Heck, they even described it as such in Branforth the Seer's letter from the Omega Capsule. (Make you choice: red blue or gray, choose who to spurn and who obey) Unfortunately, what you're describing throws all of that out, in favor for more of the same very clearly defined Black and White we've had since the beginning.

Well, if they are going to be the exact same, then why bother with Going Rogue at all? Just give the Loyalist Plot to Arachnos, and save a lot of time and money. The Resistance idea works just as well in the Rogue Isles as it does in Praetoria.

@Marcian: Dreams are the lies we tell ourselves so we have a reason to open our eyes in the morning.

To be honest, it wasn't that well made BEFORE I13, either. PvE is designed to be compatible with almost any combination of power sets. However, even before I13, many many builds were considered poor performers. Add to that the likely hood of dedicated PvPers gravitating towards the high end for this activity, it created an imbalance between those that know, and those that are new.

Then I9 and Inventions hit, and the folks that already had an advantage both in builds and tactics were able to really min/max their builds, which led to a scenario where a new player would enter a PvP zone and die before he had a chance to see his attacker, much less put up any defense.

I13 was actually an attempt to fix all of this...by making large groups of powers work completely different than they do in the rest of the game. (and by the way guys, the way I understand it, the power change is triggered by the PvP flag itself, so for people to participate in world PvP they say goodbye to their mez protection everywhere) Instead this made everything MORE complex, even further alienating the PvE crowd. And in the end, it fixed nothing. There are still a handful of build that are considered 'top tier' it's just a different group.