Samuel_Tow

The Dark Watcher out-and-out says that she's pretending, and she all but admits it. However, knowing it's all an act doesn't make her text any less pink, any less bolded or any less annoying. I know that you can just word-swap, say, "teddy bears" with "Clockwork" and "dark knights" with "Syndicate" and so forth and it will end up resembling coherent human speech, but it's a lot like Resistance linguo - just because it makes sense doesn't make it any less annoying.

At least with the Resistance, the in-game reality agrees with us that it's stupid, with comments like "Who wrote these orders? A four-year-old?" and "I can see your mouth moving, but all I hear is 'punch me.'" from various sources. All we get for Penelope is an admission that, yes, it's intentional but never an admission that, yes, it's really stupid.

To be honest, I've never been a fan of "Hollywood Madness" where characters just babble incoherently, but that's just me.

And click, and click, and click, and click. I can set Fly to autoflight and walk away. I can set Super Jump to jump on its own with something as simple as "++up$++autorun." I can even set Super Speed to travel on its own in a lot of places, either by finding bodies of water or stretches of rail line, such as the one running almost all the way North-South in Independence Port or the one running between the two stations in Skyway City.

It's twice as unwieldy inside a mission where you may as well not even bother using it, because you rarely have 300 feet of straight corridors. You can, by contrast, use Super Speed with great efficiency, Fly if you use Mouse Look and even Super Jump by hopping continuously even under a low ceiling.

I have Teleport on quite a few of my characters, and it's just a chore to travel around with it, to say nothing of using it inside, say, caves.

Well, you could have mentioned my reasons for WHY I said that

Generally, all of the other Travel Powers cost significantly less and are far, far, FAR easier to use. Yes, Teleport is fast if you click fast (though it costs more that way), but I feel it pays for its speed with its unwieldy controls, in a similar way to how Super Speed pays for its speed with lack of vertical movement.

I'm not saying Teleport should be ripped up and replaced, just that I don't feel it deserves such a high cost, which really does little more than make you shut down your toggles when crossing Independence Port.

Actually, we also have a Monstrous skeleton in the game that's used for quite a few things, Kheldian Dwarf form being one of them, along with things like Werewolves, Shivans, Clockwork Princes and so forth. It's basically a model with a large chest and wide shoulders, short legs and long arms.

It's not player-usable because it doesn't have animations defined for almost any existing powers, and making new ones would not be feasible, or at least so BABs used to say. It does have basic animations, such as running and jumping ones, as well as several but not all emotes (which is why they disabled a whole swath of emotes for Bright/Dark Dwarves way back when), so it's usable as an NPC with few stock powers, but not something that's applicable to players. I don't think that rig has any costume items defined for it, either.

No real point to this, just thought it was interesting.

Further proof that Nazi vampires are superior to Fascist vampires

I'm trying to keep the discussion to the field of story arcs, thus relevant. By redefining what "story arc" means, you put words in my mouth by making it seem like I said every MISSION in the old content is good, when this is nowhere near true, not anything I would ever say in my right mind. I am discussing solely story arcs when I say I would sooner play "Launch story arcs" over newer stories. And I would. I would not, however, play Luanch single missions, because those are very, VERY rarely good.

The Alexander MISSION is not good, and for a variety of reasons, but I never claimed it was.

There's something wrong with the order, for the simple fact that whoever is in charge of keeping canon consistent doesn't give a fish fin about doing a good job. Every new arc added destroys about as much old content by virtue of making it not make any sense as it actually adds in its own content, and this is not a new thing. Random examples that I ran into recently.

Gordon Bower, mayor of Salmacia, still insists that "this happened overnight" after Banished Pantheon allowed the Fir Bolg to exist in the world "last year." This refers back to the first Halloween even we had back in 2004 or 2005 where Eochai and the Fir bolg first showed up as pumpking head Razorvines - what I assume was a quick fix for a Halloween-themed enemy group - and they decided to make the whole zone about that in I5. That was right around five or six years ago, yet the guy still says "last year."

The 35-40 Council contact (I forget her name) says that it looks like the Council might have a connection with a "mysterious group called Arachnos." This in the same level range where "the Arachnos" are all over the papers, calling heroes out to a duel. At least it no longer says "S.P.I.D.E.R." (and boy am I glad they didn't go with that!) like it did back at Launch, but this is clearly an arc which hasn't been touched since City of Villains made Arachnos not-mysterious.

The 20-25 Agent G mission to defeat Captain Castillo (again) to prevent him from interfering presents the player with a memo between Castillo and Virgil Duray, "the leader of the Sky Raiders." This comes in the same level range as The Sky Raider Secret story arc, where much is made of the true nature of the Sky Raiders and only at the end is it revealed that Colonel Virgil Duray is their leader, and that the Sky Raiders themselves are ex US military soldiers using equipment embezzled from the military. Typically, you want to put a statement of a fact in the level range AFTER that fact is revealed to ensure players do them in order.

Levantera's arc The Stange Case of Benjamin A. Decker ends up with the Dark Watcher revealing the true nature of the Rikti to the player, something which normally takes place during The Rikti Plague in the same 35-40 level range. Following this, Serpent Drummer's arc begins with a peace conference between humans and Rikti, with C'Khelkah leading the way and a long "On Rikti Factions" briefing given out right at the start. That in the same 40-45 range that Division: Line takes place where C'Khelkah is originally introduced, the concept of Rikti factions and what they stand for is first explored and the nature of Rikti society first opened up to the player. Logically, this would have to happen BEFORE people start negotiating peace with the Rikti, meaning that that arc would probably have to take place AFTER Angus McQueen's, but the way they are placed, this won't happen.

The new Tina McIntyre' 40-45 arc has the player go into a warehouse and meet the mistress of the Carnival of Shadows - Vanessa DeVore, and have a completely unnecessary conversation with her. The 45-50 arc To Save a Soul is preceded by the revelation that Vanessa DeVore is the leader of the Carnival of Shadows, a completely pointless act given that the game treats it as common knowledge beforehand.

In the 15-20 Synapse TF, the Clockwork Kind is supposed to have been destroyed, hence why Clockwork stop spawning post level 20. One can excuse Penelope's Clockwork guardians as taking place before this event, as her arc is also in the 15-20 range, but it does not explain the Clockwork King's appearance in the Lady Grey TF in the 45-50 range when he's supposed to have been long since taken out. In fact, when sending you to her first mission on the world of the Psychic Clockwork, Tina McIntyre says: "The Clockwork King? I haven't thought about him in the longest time." This implies that he has indeed been defeated for all this time.

Furthermore, in the LGTF, the Clockwork King shows up escorted by Psychic Clockwork. The same Psychic Clockwork as in that alternate dimension, in fact. It's almost as if they couldn't be arsed to make electric versions of his old minions in the 40s. The problem with that is the Clockwork King of that destroyed world destroyed it because he realised his psychic potential, making him unstoppable. The only thing keeping ours from destroying the world is his madness preventing him from knowing he's psychic. If he's using Psychic Clockwork, then this assumes he's healed from his madness and knows his powers, either making the alternate dimension pointless, or putting a large plot hole in the story.

And that's just off memory. Paragon Studios are in serious need of an editor, and maybe a story bible, because this Neuron approach to story writing is really turning what used to be cool and exciting fictional universe into a right mess.

The request was for civilian children, and as far as I known being a child is sort of a prerequisite for one becoming an adult, at least as far as humans are concerned.

Whatever benefits it may or may not have in combat, teleport sucks as a travel power. It's ungodly costly, hideously unwieldy and the MOST busywork of any travel power, and that's including Super Speed. It really doesn't need to be as costly as it is. I don't mind expensive, but not THAT expensive.

What I'm saying is that not everything has to be a crossover war. We have plenty of domestic villains that hatch plenty of domestic crimes which we could be fighting. It doesn't always have to be a full-scale war involving and requiring zillions of heroes. I'm perfectly happy stopping a Nemesis plot to kill 70% of the people on Earth, or a Malta conspiracy to flood the world with killer nanobots, or the Rikti's plot to reopen a large, stable gateway back to their home world or really anything of the sort.

I can see how they'd want every Issue to be one specific event (often with no foresight as to what to do with that two Issues down), but there's something to be said about adding to the static world and just expanding the game world as a whole. Not everything has to be "an event."

I would bet you dollars to doughnuts that you assume wrong. Not only is the "Strike Pack" announcement very much the diametrically opposite of "solo friendly," but nothing we've ever heard of I20 in any way, shape or form suggests that that will have solo-friendly Incarnate content in it, either. Nothing, furthermore, that any developer has ever said in regards to any part of the Incarnate system has even so much as resembled a suggestion that solo-friendly activities will ever be considered for the Incarnate system. From the very start, they set out to create the City of Heroes raid grind equivalent, and that seems to be precisely what they're doing.

Oh, sure, occasionally you'd see things like "Oh, well, we might potentially at some point see about maybe considering solo play, perhaps. But on the other hand, this is an MMO so tough cookies." That's about as far as you can go towards suggesting there will be solo activities while making it perfectly clear that there won't be, in such a way that people can't hold you to your words later on.

Will we EVER have solo Incarnate abilities? I don't know. Maybe in 10 years. But from the way things are looking right now, not any time soon. Not until the whole system is done and over with and years have passed and they turn around to reevaluate if they can't improve it. It took over two years for AVs in solo missions to start scaling down into elite bosses. I don't foresee it taking any less time for solo play regarding Incarnates to so much as be considered.

I have to agree with the Techbot here. The level of "politically correct" fear flying around on these boards is disconcerting at times. Woman? Are you nuts! Then people will put them in bondage! Children? That's crazytalk! Don't even talk like that!

Sometimes I worry about society, since it seems like people can't think of children without mentally associating them with molestation and can't think of women without associating them with abuse. They're not intrinsically linked, you know. You CAN have children in a game without breaking seven laws just for having them there.

Sure, I can get with that. One storyline with multiple stories, both solo and team, to do with that storyline seems logical.

On the flip side, I hope the Praetorian war doesn't monopolise all content for years to come, so eventually we'll have to do something else. And to be honest, I'd rather not have every level of Incarnate content be some kind of crisis event or war or invasion or what have you. Let us be proactive for a chance and go start something, rather than always being invaded by everyone and their grandma.

I meant to say in missions. There's one in Aeon's PTS, but beyond that...

I don't know... The Red and The Black is an interesting arc which is completely soured for me because the writer decided to steal all of his named characters from Oban: Star Racers, both in name and personality. Reference is good. Blatantly taking every name of every character who ever showed up in an entire 26-episode series is annoying, and capable of completely ruining an experience, especially when most of those guys don't make sense if you haven't seen the show.

The Thief of Midnight is a good story, though, for the most part. I like Darryn Wayde in terms of how he's written, because he's written in such a way to make me hate him, and he does that very well. The final robbery of the Midnight Club is particularly well done, even if I feel the Living Armour suits are cheating. There's some kind of bug that makes them targetable and moving before they awaken which ruins the illusion, though. About the only problem I have with the story is it's comprised of largely unrelated events. Beat up on the Midnighters, now go find out who killed my friend, now go steal from the Midnighters! If I were judging JUST the two missions regarding the theft, I'd give it a very high score, but the other stuff just brings it down.

Dean/Leonard's episodic storyline is definitely good, I agree. It does at times make our characters look like fools temporarily, but it's all set right by the end, so I don't hold grudges. Leonard's writing is quite a bit less interesting than Dean's, but both are written well, and Dean has character like no other contact The plot itself is nothing too special, but it's just good enough to be interesting, with the occasional plot twist thrown in for good measure, and the writing for the whole arc is superb, in my eyes speaking to either a professional writer or a damn good amateur.

When it comes to Praetoria, I'll agree with hating Bobcat's arc because it's just stupid, and I'll add Penelope Pitstop's arc because it's just damn annoying with bolded pink text essays of irritating nonsense. I know they were trying to make it sound crazy, but they succeeded so well it's physically irritating. I have quite a few problems with the game's take on morality, but that's more a general direction thing than a problem with any particular story arc, so I'll agree that what story arcs are in Praetoria are VERY good. Quite a few of them put a smile on my face for various reasons, and that counts for a lot.

I still like Division: Line, however, because in addition to being a good story, it actually delves very deep into canon and goes very far in its revelations. Of course, those are revelations the developers saw fit to shift about 10 levels earlier, making the story pointless in context, but I like to look at it like it's still 2004, back when the Rikti didn't speak unfunny one-liners and we still took them seriously.

We should probably team again now that I have inherent Stamina and improved Brute Fury. Now that I actually CAN, I'm turning more and more into you

That's not an "excuse," you simply don't judge single missions against story arcs. That's like saying "I hate the Rescue 21 Mystics in Oranbega!" arc or the "I hate the Assist Sewers Security Chief" arc or the "Speak with Warburg PvP Liaison" arc. They're not arcs. They're missions, and as such cannot be judged by the same standards, because they weren't intended to conform to the same standards.

I will admit that I personally like the Alexander mission for its writing and character, but I will admit that the actual gameplay is beyond annoying. It combines some of the game's most egregious mechanics, those being emergency phone patrol and street hunting. I typically "don't give two rats about how the gameplay," but there are exceptions where gameplay is bad enough to sour me on a good story, and Alexander's mission is one such. It's essentially one instance, but gated behind a patrol and a hunt. Were it three door missions, I would be more forgiving, but it isn't.

The story in that mission, however, is one I like. I've always been a fan of the concept "honour among thieves," so having Alexander give himself up willingly because he's disillusioned with where the gang is going is actually a very powerful theme, and one we really ought to explore more in the game. Going Rogue's "grey-and-grey" morality always seems to manifest as making the good guys bad and the bad guys worse, but almost never does the reverse by making the good guys better. In fact, I suspect this is the single biggest gripe I have with the game's take on the middle ground between good and evil - it's ALL EVIL.

Have we actually run missions together, NT? In City of Heroes, I mean? I know I pester you pretty much every time I see you on Global, but did we ever get the chance to team up and actually do a mission?

And this is where you and I differ fundamentally. I play this game like I'd watch a movie - I sit down and make sure that I do the coolest things I can afford to do without turning the game into work. And like in a movie, if I spend too long watching the same plot with no plot development, I either fast-forward until something is happening, or else I find another movie to watch.

Mechanics don't interest me. At all. As a point of fact, I wouldn't bother running numbers, making Mids' builds or rifling through City of Data if I didn't HAVE to. Many people will tell me that I can just go by the seat of my pants, but I can't. If I just wing it, the results are crap. I need to know what I'm doing. However, if I could play the game without needing to know any numbers and it just somehow magically ensured that I was still awesome... Hell yeah I'd do it! But that's unrealistic.

Alexander "The Great" Pavlidis' mission is not an arc, but rather a single multi-part mission. I'd appreciate it if we stop calling it an arc, lest we insist that Crimson gives out about 30 arcs, plus one really long arc.

What Roy's mission did to me was wish that we were able to abandon arcs in progress. The only reason I completed it was because otherwise I'd always have an open contact offering me missions right up to level 50 and into Incarnate-hood. I never intend to run it again... Well, beyond the one character whom I abandoned mid-way through his arc. I'll have to finish that arc on that character, but beyond that it just pisses me off too much to put myself through that again. If I want gameplay like his, there are plenty of missions which will throw ambushes at me until I die of old age.

Nothing of the sort, Tech. I've been playing through the old arcs for some time now, and I can safely say that I cannot disagree with you more. Yes, some of them suck. Unai Kemen's "To Save a Thousand Worlds" sucks because it has no story and the "To Save a Soul" arc is terrible because it's hideously padded.

Those are two arcs out of a whole sea of them. I would take World Wide Red, the Eternal Nemesis, Division: Line and even Missing Melvin and the Mysterious Malta Alliteration over anything added pretty much since Faultline. In fact, I just redid Division: Line earlier today, and numerous times I caught myself saying "Yes! Yes! THIS is how I want content to be written!"

I don't give two rats about how the gameplay is in it. All gameplay in this game comes down to "kill stuff, click stuff" when you get down to it, and complicating it with ambushes, timed missions other such only serves to bog things down, if I have to be perfectly honest. Division: Line plays just fine, and I wish Rikti Magus bosses showed up outside of this arc, at least in the 45+ content. They're really cool enemies, and there are a might few of them.

I would take the writing of ANY Launch Day arc over Roy Cooling's, and that's including things like To Save a Thousand Worlds and the original Positron TF. They aren't good, no, but at least they aren't BAD. They're just boring. Roy Cooling's arc's plot is both boring and full of holes, and that's far, far worse. Bad enough that no amount of ambushes can fix.