Melancton

That was a VERY strange fortune in that cookie.

"We've traced the call to... INSIDE OF YOUR HOUSE!" *cue "Psycho" music*

Darn it all, Troy, I was making a metaphorical point and you went all literal on me.

It is not as though nobody else has written anything for CoH that has been good; the point is that when you ask a typical player with a good bit of time under their belt what their favorite bits of CoH writing are, your arc (in-game and comic book) will be mentioned in the top three at worst and very, very often at Number One. There has been PLENTY of writing in CoH that has gotten bombed by the playerbase and your CoH stuff is mentioned in that regard only by contrarians trying to get attention.

The Incarnate lore is a huge, poorly-written mess which has finally irked me to the point that I do not want to play it.

Why have a proven team player who got fantastic results riding the bench when that content is being conceived and written? Have the Zuni-lover at least consult on it, even if you are not going to hand him the reins. But handing him the reins is the Smart Move. That statue of Cyrus Thompson is there in Kings Row for many excellent reasons.

The point of all of this is not to make you blush and dig your toe in the sand and say, "Aw, shucks," but rather to point out the Solution to the Problem. Given your track record, I think you could have produced Incarnate lore as compelling and enjoyable as your other work. And you could ultimately fix the mess to where so many folks were not saying "Blecch!" along with me.

(Of course, perhaps it IS only a problem for ME. It could be that the vast, vast majority would play the Incarnate content even if you were required in-game by the lore to join the Nazi Party and wear a plumber's plunger as a hat, without being bothered in the least, because they never read it, etc.)

Au contraire, Yoda, despite your , YES IT IS.

Fans of old Dark Astoria wanted missions and arcs. They will get the same old Dark Astoria locked in a museum, still with no new missions or arcs. How did that fulfill their requests?

Years of asking for new stories with Shatner, Nimoy and Kelley does not mean that Star Trek:Voyager fulfilled those wishes.

But I do understand. New Astoria is coming, like it or not, and it will not be dark, etc. The Devs have spoken, that is that. There is nothing left to cover.

DA needed story content. There was no debate about that. It was often-requested.

If I may draw an imperfect analogy: The old automobile does not have as much power as before. It needs new spark plugs and wires; it is, however, a classic automobile.

The new 2012 Speedmobile will blow the doors off anything on the road.
Yes, if you replace the old car with the 2012 Speedmobile, you have stepped up.

But is it necessary to replace the old car? Could you not have gotten the new car AND replaced the spark plugs and wires on the classic car with the classic look? You would have two cars that run well that appeal to different aspects of driving.

How would that not ALSO be a "massive step forwards"? And arguably bigger than the one that we are getting?

With the part you quoted put back into its context, not so much.

Look, there are some GREAT arcs with GREAT writing. There are some WONDERFULLY WRITTEN stories covering multiple arcs. There are other arcs and stories in the game that are lame to terrible, and yes, there are players who write far better than that.

It is a matter of taste, and there are plenty of folks who either 1) like/love the Well of Furies/Incarnate lore and/or 2) do not care about whether or not the writing is good or bad, they just want to play 50+ level stuff. More power to them, and may they get lots of content to play somewhere other than DA.

I think the rationale for the Incarnate system, ie, the Well of Furies, is terrible, terrible writing and I am chagrined to hear that DA will be absorbed into it. There are a number of players I would trust to do a better job than the Devs have with the Well of Furies.

Alas, posts on a forum are a horrible way to have a conversation. It is very easy to come off in an unintended manner. While it is easy to say "No offense intended," hopefully none is actually being given. It is not my desire for my end of this to come off as snarky, but I am leery that the printed medium has limitations, so bear that in mind.

Now, you may have a point there.

Conceivably, it could work out that there could be Incarnate content that does not involve the Well of Furies. Given that Incarnate status derives from the Well of Furies, I do not see that as being possible. It would be like having Superman content that does not involve Krypton. Still, it could turn out to be Not So Bad.

Let me reiterate that you may also have a point that we know very little about what things will actually look like or the storyline will be, other than Noble Savage verifying that fog and ghosts will be gone. Having been a participant over the years in a good number of threads asking for specific things to be done to Dark Astoria and discussing its aspects, I find the announced plans to be dismaying in the extreme. It is as though we described a Big Mac on our wish list and the Devs have announced a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken is on the way. I may end up liking it, even REALLY liking it--- but it is not what we ordered, if you will. *heavy sigh*

Good comments. I exerpted parts, but I could have easily quoted the entire posts.

I have postulated that CoH was apparently DESIGNED as a STREET-SWEEPING game, with some missions thrown in. Thus we have so many zones in which THERE IS NOTHING TO DO BUT STREET-SWEEP.

That is not what the game has become-- it is now MISSION-CENTRIC. With that, there is "nothing to do" in DA.

So add contacts and missions Dark Astoria. Voila, something to do. Resolve the possibly conflicting lore and give the missions the spooky feel that the zone invokes.

I remember when they added the Zone Guide Person near the gate way back when, and thinking, "Dang, that is pretty brave to stand with your back to a zone filled with all those zombies." That is the effect that the creepiness of the zone has on many, many folks.

Not me. I have wanted contacts and arcs in keeping with the atmosphere that resolved the conflicts in the lore. There have been threads through the years in which a lot of folks have asked for that. I recall virtually no sentiment for "DA is great as it is. Don't do or add anything."

There are a good number of folks who do not like the fog. There have been some suggestions as to how to keep the effect but make it easier to navigate. That would be the ideal, I think.

I think you have set up an either/or that really is not either/or.

"Tied to DA lore" means nothing if the Devs shoehorn in the very silly sentient, insane, etc. Well of Furies business. It is like saying that it is "tied in to classic Superman lore" only to find out that Jor-El is now the leader of a men's glee club and his son is shot into orbit due to a ghastly error by the high school rocketry club. What??

Bring on the 50+ Incarnate content; lots of folks want that, just do it elsewhere; bring on the Well of Furies lore, but please do not taint DA with it is my premise.

As far as "waiting 'til we see more of what the new DA has to offer" this sounds very much like "those screenshots of the New Circle of Thorns were not official. Wait until the official announcement." At which time, of course, it is then too late to have any hope of affecting the final product, and the Buns of Steel Mages would now be part of the official lore in Jor-El's Glee Club in Paragon City. If the Well of Furies is bad lore in my opinion, I cannot see how it does not work out that Well of Furies+Dark Astoria=More Bad Lore.

To your point, it is NOT NECESSARY to an "update" of the zone to completely eliminate the atmospheric elements and bring in the silly Well of Furies lore. It is NOT an either/or, unless you are taking the approach that the way to "update" the Malaise pants is to eliminate them. That is certainly "A" way to go about it, but not necessarily "THE" way to do it.

The major problems with Dark Astoria were 1) street-sweeping was all there was to do there unless you had the stray mission or Adamastor was out and 2) the lore was confusing and possibly contradictory. It had a unique story and a unique atmosphere. Updating the graphics, as I understand it, would not necessarily mean having to eliminate the story and the atmosphere, and could make it easier for travel. So to uproot and chuck everything, ie, fog, ghosts and current story, seems to be overkill. The zone could be "fixed" with contacts, arcs and better graphics. Bringing in the Well of Furies and a "new look" causes all sorts of concern given the Circle of Thorns experience.

I recall this from Back in the Day.

And once again, I LOL'd.

*tips helmet to Eva*

Most welcome.

In all seriousness, that would be great. I don't see you as a Lore Wonk or some such. What you have is a great sense of what is appealing about CoH and how to consistently apply those elements to best effect. Superheroes are appealing for a number of reasons; get those right and it will take you a long, long way.

What is bothersome about the lore, to use a simple example, is not just that Ms. Liberty's name has been given as both Jessica and Megan; it is the sense that nobody appeared to even be aware of it at PS and both get used as time rolls on. The fix is as easy as saying that her given name is Jessica Megan Duncan; her grandfather still calls her Jessica but she has taken to going by her middle name, Megan. Has that even been done anywhere officially? Well, that really is a trivial sort of thing overall... but it illustrates the sorts of holes in the lore regarding Dark Astoria, Talos Island and a host of other non-trivial crack-ups. Has anyone really noticed at PS, and if so, why do they not fix the holes?

The DA saga could be something very awesome if tightened up and given a bit of Love. Your affection for the lore and your sense of what works would make you an excellent candidate for the job. Hey, you made Agent Nance a veritable Model Citizen compared to the path he would have otherwise taken!

Okay, everyone join me in another rousing chorus of "Hire Her Already!"

At the risk of sounding like Sam I Am, would you buy a temp power that summoned one of your alts from the same server to assist you?

Would you buy CoH Comics written by Troy Hickman and drawn by David Nakayama?

I am pretty much with you until these goodies show up. Then, I fear, I will veer into "Shut Up and Take My Money!" land.

I am sure you can point him to the various threads we have participated in that attempt to make sense out of the lore as it is. I still think Astoria went dark, was redeemed by the Freedom Phalanx in the 50's and went dark again after the Rikti invaded in 2002.

Will he at least be getting a pair of pants?

I have no disagreement with the notion that more level 50 content is needed. I just wish it would not be Dark Astoria.

We also need more 40-50 content. I would hope it does not have to be "either/or" for the duration. Obviously, content devoted to lvl 50+ is content that was NOT directed at any other level, etc., but hopefully we could get more of both levels of content in the near future.

And by "content" I mean "well-written and entertaining content." I understand that tastes vary, and for some folks, ANY content is fine with them, however... I'm just sayin'.

Great minds thinking alike, all in rapid-fire fashion. Devs? Sounds like we have a winner for sure here.

That is a GREAT idea! The whole point of terminating the comic was that it was expensive, blah blah blah. Turn these guys loose on it, and it would be a money-maker. I gauge that from the overwhelmingly positive response to Hickman's work on the comics in "Smoke and Mirrors" and to Nakayama's work on the comics, covers and in-game art design.

This is another FANTASTIC idea. The tech is already there to clone at least your own character in a mission, so perhaps it would not be too much of a problem to clone another character of yours on the same server.

I would part with funds for both of these ideas. They would also be repeat-purchase money-makers.

You know it is bad when even Aslan facepalms.

This suggestion has had a lot of support over the years. My thought was that it could be like the items in Propel, ie, each player sees on their computer what is appropriate for them. If you have the reward activated, you see your own character standing near City Hall in Atlas Park as one of the giant statues, and if not, you see the default statue as it currently appears.

Now that the doppleganger tech is in place, it would seem that the most problematic aspect of that has been researched.

This is the first time I have seen this idea mentioned in almost 3 years. It sort of disappears into Ye Olde Blacke Hole whenever it is suggested.