Samuel_Tow

I really can't blame you for that attitude, BI. The studio's own actions bring this kind of cynicism, and I agree with you completely on it. I will be a very surprised man if the "solo option" is actually meaningful and actually supported, because based on what I've seen so far, I highly suspect they'll come up with some way to make it impossible for me and you to solo our way into any form of Incarnate power whatsoever.

Far as I'm concerned, the onus is on the studio to prove my cynicism wrong this time around. We'll see how that goes.

That's what I thought when reading that, yes. Honestly, Recluse could be a REALLY cool face turn I mean, he can still be a terrible person, but if he saved the world and actually took credit for it, THAT would buy him a lot of credit to then go around bombing people's cities. "He saved us. We owe him!" "But he's punching me in the gut as we speak!" "Bear with it, soldier!"

And that's precisely why I never want to do them again. I'm perfectly fine with my villains being glamorous and cool and having greater goals than just kicking puppies and digging mass graves. A lot of the new villain content is like someone thought "villain = Wrong Turn. I don't want it.

And yet the country continues to thrive both economically and socially, with Paragon City being a beacon of progress despite its problems. I don't really know how you can say America has never had to fight on its own soil, considering the Nemesis has been starting internal wars since the 50s and the nation managed to rebuff and contain not one, but two invasions led by a vastly technologically-superior alien race. Not only that, but it also reverse-engineered alien technology and transformed Paragon City into a veritable stronghold, subdivided into sectors by nigh-impenetrable shield walls. Every time the walls go down, the Rikti invade in force, so they must be doing something.

There are no less than a dozen different terrorist and paramilitary organisations operating on US soil, seemingly every gangster has access to either black magic or cybernetics and an evil corporation owns much of the city, yet the government still manages to preserve law and order to such an extent that the city is in an economic upturn and the people prosperous. This doesn't strike me as a weak nation, merely a nation at war with crime and terrorism, but at the same time a nation that's doing pretty damn well for itself.

Wait, where's THAT coming from? Last I heard, my Omega clearance was authorised by the vice president, which I assume means the country has an acting president for there to be a vice one.

Last I heard, Recluse lost complete control over his ballistic missiles to the Rogues of Warburg, and last I heard from them, they were having trouble controlling them, themselves. Yes, SSA 3 has a single missile launched at US soil, seemingly for no reason, but I didn't take it to be nuclear. Besides, if Arachnos was such a strong nuclear power, one would think a mention might have been made of this at some point, or otherwise Recluse might have used this as leverage, but he doesn't seem to be able to. And even so, the US has a number of counter-ICBM measures even with contemporary tech, and in the world of City of Heroes, they have access to alien technology from the future. The last I heard a nuke go off was when the statesman took one to the back of the head and then had to walk it off.

As for the Praetorians, all I've seen of their "invasion" has been a few easily-defeated incursions, a few moderate but ultimately unsuccessful incursions and a whole lot of invasions by Primal Earth heroes into Praetorian Earth where we wreck their ****. Over and over again.

The original Rikti invasion that crippled the world was in 2002. It's nearly 2012 now. That's more than enough time to rebuild.

I don't want Recluse to act like a cartoon villain, is what I mean. Like I said, I'm not looking for a simulation of real-world events, but if we're going to be using international laws as a reason for the sovereignty of the Rogue Isles, then Recluse can't go around punching people through buildings on American soil.

On the flip side, if we want his to be a rogue nation, then that's fine, too. He's an international criminal holed up in an island stronghold and armed with thousands of nukes, so we don't want to mess with him. Have THAT be his excuse, but then we rob Crey of any reason to be there since they would technically be conducting business with a known criminal.

I just want the game to be consistent with its own lore.

The Primary damage isn't all that much. Not nearly what an Assassin's Strike from hide on a nasty minion - say a Sapper - can do. Assassin's Strike as a percentage damage power was tried, tested and subsequently rejected. It makes the power worthless for minions and it adds help in precisely the places where Stalkers already do well anyway.

You're thinking of Time After Time, the end of the Arachnos Patron arc chain. Specifically, you're looking for the Ghost Widow version, I believe, as that one sends you the farthest forward in time that I've seen.

Paragon City is not "on the US doorstep," it's within United States borders. Recluse is effectively trying to occupy an American city. That's practically the next best thing to a declaration of war. I have a very difficult time seeing the UN under any circumstances standing idly by and allowing one member to simply invade another and declare war without any consequences. And even if that happened, the US shouldn't need foreign support for a war on the Rogue Isles. Recluse has, what? Seven small islands? A flotilla of helicopters? Unless he has some grand master plan to punch the US army into submission planned BEFORE he invades, launching an overt invasion is asking for trouble. And even if he had such a plan, that would only work once.

Cuba was never within US borders. Paragon City is. This is more like Modern Warfare 2 where Russia invades the US or Modern Warfare 3 where Russia invades all of Europe simultaneously. This is an invasion of the regular armed forces of one sovereign state within the borders of another. Even wacky comic book logic can't excuse that. This is a declaration of war. I mean, Longbow holding a fort in Arachnos territory is pushing it, but as I understand it, Nerva is technically independent from Arachnos and neutral, plus I understand they have some sort of permission from someone. It's not literally an armed invasion.

You know what IS an armed invasion, though? Longbow occupying Fort Darwin by force. True, Longbow are not directly affiliated with the American government, but they are based in the US and such an open occupation should probably brand them as terrorists. Instead of torturing their soldiers and burning down his own base, Recluse would be within his full right to demand that the US government take actions against this terrorist organisation operating from within their borders which is unlawfully attacking a sovereign nation and attempting to overthrow its officially and internationally recognised government.

I'm not asking for a simulation of contemporary international politics here, but I'm asking for SOME kind of consequence for a clear violation of international law, or otherwise the abandonment of said international law. Either the Rogue Isles are a recognised sovereign nation or they're not. If they are, then they can't attack other sovereign nations and they can't be attacked themselves. If they can attack and be attacked, then they have to be declared a rogue state and some other reason brought up for why they can't just be invaded by a coalition of forces. This is almost word for word what I've been seeing in the news for the past few years, and it's becoming harder and harder to accept.

Really, it's gotten to the point where Recluse himself comes to Paragon City, blows up buildings and punches the Statesman, then he leaves and our response is "Oh, that recluse! He's so wacky!" On the flip side, we have Longbow carrying out terrorist guerilla action within a foreign nation's borders, and Recluse's response is "You'll PAY for this CAPTAIN PLANET!"

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What happened to Lord Recluse? He became a joke, is what happened to him. Instead of acting like an evil mastermind in charge of what may be the most powerful criminal organisation in the world, he's a mugging chucklehead who does his own punching and who fails to make use of laws when they actually work for him. He's acting like an oaf, and he really shouldn't be.

You know what? That's a great idea. AeonTech already is an Arachnos front, and at the same time is a legitimate organisation with the kind of morals to make Clarissa Von Dorn blush. Recluse already has an infiltration tool ready for use. In fact, if Arachnos agents are spotted coming and going from an AeonTech facility? Well, so what? Arachnos is the ruling authority in the Rogue Isles where AeonTech is based, so their police force are on sight to provide premises security, as well as to handle shipping and maintenance. They have a plausible reason to be there.

Using AeonCorp as a front would be the smart thing for Recluse to do, because it gives him access to Paragon City in a way that heroes can't so much as touch him. So long as it resembles a legitimate business - which I gather it actually is, at least on the side - then it's perfect!

That's not how the background info makes is sound, though. Recluse's Rogue Isles aren't kept safe because of lawyer speak like Crey can manage. He controls a sovereign nation which is not subject to US law, and whose foreign politics are pretty hostile to the US. The only reason the US can't just declare war on Recluse and nuke his *** off the islands is because the US isn't the only country in the world, and is still subject to United Nations law, which still consider the Rogue Isles an independent, protected state.

Well, if a UN member nation performed a large scale land invasion of another member nation, caused wide-spread destruction, murdered and kidnapped civilians and started setting bases of operation, that kind of support and protection would cease overnight, and Recluse has neither the resources nor the personnel to fight a continental super power. And the thing is, he's not going to fight JUST a continental super power, but likely all the NATO nations, as well. The last thing Recluse needs is to be the next Saddam, hence why he needs to play the politics, not spit in the face of willing suspension of disbelief.

You're right, the Crey corporation is able to keep up a legitimate front despite quite a few very obvious crimes committed, but do you know how they manage? They cut their losses and let their people take the fall. It's always a conspiracy within the company, always some employee's personal agenda and the Countess simply never knows about it. Crey manages to keep a legitimate face because none of their crimes ever trace back to the Countess. Recluse was IN Paragon City. He punched the Statesman on top of my head. He was yelling taunts and insults. It's pretty hard to claim he didn't know about this. It's pretty hard to claim his army did not invade the shores of a sovereign nation.

You can't expect me to see these things and still take the in-game reality seriously if it's not consistent with itself.

Oh, and then there's this. This kind of balance is what I'd like to see. Right now, if I'm at around level 37 and want to be level 40 within the next few hours, I can run the ITF once or twice, or hop on an 8-man team or do something like that. If I do that, I'll be 40 before I even know. Or, if I don't feel like teaming, I can cover that distance in two, three, maybe even four days by myself, and in neither case will I complain.

That's more or less where I stand. Raids, to me, seem like something some proto-MMO came up with and now developers make them because that's what players keep expecting and players expect them because developers keep making them. I have some very serious doubts as to whether anyone actually seriously sat down and thought about whether City of Heroes SHOULD have raids at all. All anyone seems to have been concerned was whether we COULD, to sorta-quote Dr. Ian Malcolm. It seems to me that the City of Heroes development team just never had enough time, resources and personnel to truly delve into the subject of raids, and that's the sole only reason we didn't get them for this many years.

Now, obviously, the ultra-large-scale teaming concept isn't something that's "evil" on its own merits, and City of Heroes is nothing if not indulgent, so the more kinds of players it can cater to, the better. There's nothing really intrinsically wrong with Raids on a principle level, it's just that some people - myself among them - simply don't like raids, and yet we're put in a position where we want to progress, but the only source of progress is raids, raids or otherwise raids. And I could cry foul and criticise the people who made this decision all day and all night, but the fact of the matter is that for raids to even exist and be doable... You kind of have to have a certain critical mass of players. Whether the people interested are enough by themselves to support this critical mass or whether for raids to exist, unwilling participants have to be roped in, we'll soon see.

A couple of points:

First, how many people run Trials is not informative of how many people LIKE Trials, merely of how many people like Trial rewards. Right now, there is no option to Trials. It's like saying that clearly every person in the game loves defeating foes, because clearly everyone is defeating foes when that's really the only way to level up.

Secondly, if most people liked Trials, then there wouldn't be a reason for the development team to worry about introducing a solo path of Incarnate progression. Surely with so many people enjoying Trials, they'd just continue to run Trials and the critical mass would be maintained. Yet the development team have expressed concerns that enabling solo progress might kill raid-goer numbers, and thus the solo path would have to be significantly less rewarding. There has to be something to it.

Oh, right, the mission to defeat Ghost Widow has Arachnos in it. Of course!

I could actually make one in the Architect, now that you mention it, but I'd need a little more than just this basic premise

Daedalus doesn't deal with Arachnons. The soldiers invading Cimerora are Malta.

As a hero? Fight back an Arachnos infiltration as opposed to an Arachnos raid. Say I stop a bank hist and, when frisking the villain, find a he booked his flight from the Rogue Isles through Really Not Evil Shipping and Vacationing. When I check this with the PD, it turns out a lot of recently arrested bank robbers from the Isles booked their ship tickets through the same company, so I go there. At first, everything looks legit, like they just have bad security checks, but there's something off about it. So you insist to check the offices, and all of a sudden the receptionist pull rifles and Arachnos soldiers come rushing out to kill you because you're obviously on to them. Turns out this was an Arachnos front.

That sort of storyline would still paint them as the brazen, callous villains that they are, conducting criminal operations in the heart of an American city, but it would also show that they DO care about not getting caught. Arachnos agents can then still rob banks and put bombs under people's doting grannies, but they do so secretly, because they don't want people to know they're doing these things. It makes Arachnos seem smart as well as powerful.

Occupying a city block just seems like a bonehead move. They're gonna' get run off, if not by a swarm of heroes then by American armed forces. Here's an idea - dress your soldiers like EMTs and set up a mock field hospital, then dress other agents as patients and claim it's full. Or dress your men as firefighters and send them all over Galaxy City. By the time people smell a rat, you have your meteorite fragments, you have your Shivan samples and you can clean house and leg it.

Arachnos is just stupid. And I get that Recluse is just using the Rogue Isles, running them into the ground and will probably jump ship when a better opportunity presents itself, but it just makes the whole organisation come off as colossally stupid. Not something you want out of your premier bad guys.

Isn't it, though? For all the options we're given, what's the first thing Arachnos do when they show up in new content? On the villain side, they're your task masters and the de facto "bad guys" while Longbow are your enemies and the de facto "good guys." It's years down the line, and literally the first thing these guys do is right back down the exact same alley that made me hate both Arachnos and Longbow at the same time.

And why is Recluse in Paragon City personally, laughing a chucklehead? This is something Dr. Evil would do. The only reason Recluse has any authority at all is because the UN recognises the Rogue Isles as a sovereign nation and him as its leader, thus preventing the US from bombing his empire back to the stone age. Showing up IN PERSON to attack US soil and shout taunts at the US' premier hero is the fast track to bringing his nation into open war with the United States. And I don't care how many super weapons he has, he's gonna' lose.

That's my big beef with Recluse and Arachnos - if they were written like a logical evil organisation which needed some kind of foundation to exist and had to at least acknowledge some rules of international politics in order to use the laws to its favour, then it could be a very compelling antagonist. Instead, Arachnos is reduced into a caricature evil organisation populated exclusively by dicks and who seemingly the whole world sees as overtly evil yet hasn't felt the need to wipe out of existence. And when Manticore does try to help out the people of the isles, he's branded a criminal. When Longbow set up a base of operations, they're breaking international law. So what about Recluse and his goon squad who raid Paragon City on a daily basis AND raided both Galaxy City and Altas Park following a major disaster?

Recluse can be a great antagonist, but he needs to be handled with care, and his organisation needs to be less obviously evil. It could still be obvious to us as players and to anyone who cares to look, but come on, man! At least try to pretend!

Well, there's ego and then there's asking for too much. Take a look at something like Saints Row: The Third. That entire game centres around a character who isn't afraid to take on anything, no matter how guano insane or difficult it may seem to a sane person, and ends up succeeding through sheer badassery. Of course, the game is careful to not push the line TOO far, but said character can still take down squadrons of jets, platoons of armoured vehicles and enough people to depopulate a small island nation. Sure, that might seem like a stretch, but when you have a rocket launcher with infinite ammo and regeneration health... Why not?

The point of ego isn't to break the game and sail through it all in easy mode. The point of ego is to have the confidence that no matter what the game throws at you, you can beat it. It may not always be simple, it may not always be easy, it may not always even be fun, but BRING IT! I've often said that City of Heroes is a game which makes me WANT to do stupid things. It makes me want to get in over my head, it makes me want challenge a platoon of soldiers, it makes me want to take risks. It does that because my characters are allowed to be capable and, thus, I get to have much confidence in them. It's that confidence that I will succeed, that ego that I can take on the world and the world will come out second best, that the game really has going for it, and that really no other MMO that I'm aware of does.

MMOs are typically games that you're supposed to be afraid of, because you're just some nameless gnat in a world that's bigger than you. City of Heroes is just the opposite. It's a game you're supposed to taunt and dive head-first into it, because no matter what's on the other end of the screen, you can take it. THAT is the kind of ego I want to have in a game.

He does appear to actually be lifting the world, which I guess was the artist's vision when making him. He's like a weightlifter about to do his final push. The thing is, the mythological Atlas did not lift the world so much as he held it up for all times. He should, in my opinion, look more like he's holding the world up, rather than trying to lift it up and jump off with it.

I've been playing this game for seven and coming on eight years now. When I started, I was 19 and essentially fresh out of high school. I'm 27 now, I have a job and I teach computing to people 19 and 20 years of age. In this entire time, I have never even begun to grasp what the HELL people's problem with having an ego in a game is, especially one whose original trailer yelled at me: "City of Heroes, where YOU are the hero!"

By level 50, players have single-handedly saved the world on numerous occasions, fought demigods and literal gods, fought back entire armies, saved a thousand worlds and have the personal power to take on overwhelming odds. This leads players to develop an ego. No! Really? I never saw that coming!

Yes, we have a big ego here in City of Heroes. Isn't that the point? Why do people keep saying that like it's a bad thing? Why do people keep insisting on making us humble, as the Iron Sheik would say? What possible purpose could that serve? If I wanted to be humble, I'd play a Korean grindfest MMO where a single basic enemy could kill me if I didn't bring a team. City of Heroes is escapist fantasy. It's a game that's cool exactly BECAUSE we're strong enough to be confident in our abilities. It's cool exactly BECAUSE we can afford to have an ego.

Having an ego in City of Heroes is not a bad thing. It's what makes it special.

Jack Emmert liked to say "risk vs. reward" a lot, and I remember scratching my head about it at the time, insisting that it was much more prudent to balance content in terms of "time vs. reward," instead. It seems I wasn't mistaken, and I still feel the same way to this day. It doesn't matter how hard you make something - if it's rewarding, people will farm it, and all this does is make it frustrating. Worse yet, make something easy and long, and thus unrewarding, and people will avoid it like the plague. There's a reason almost no-one ever goes to the Shadow Shard.

The solo Incarnate path seems like the best time to learn this lesson: Don't bar people from making progress by great difficulty. Let people feel like heroes and defeat their own foes, then balance their rewards based on time. Because time is the one currency we all have. I'd sooner have the ability to make a tiny bit of progress towards a larger goal every time I log in even if it takes a long time, rather than be locked into only ever making big steps but only if I win at very hard content or if the dice roll in my favour, as the Shard drop mechanic does now.