Techbot Alpha

Yeah, an option is a good idea, because they were kinda cool...in my opinion. That is not an opinion everyone will share, and indeed it wouldn't be appropriate for my one sonic character. So a blanket change would be bad.

I agree with all those points, with the addition that stuff should NOT be bloody convoluted to get (Rularuu kit Redside, where it's only an option on certain arcs) or where it is entirely side locked (looking at YOU, Redcap daggers and Taskforce Epaulets!)

In-game unlocks are good. The Council weapons are spot on perfect, in my opinion; beat up goons, take their stuff. Brilliant.
Having to farm Fake Nem bosses, or grind Family Bosses? Not to mention the 50-locked Incarnate armour....

I /Sign this

(Gods damn you all, stop making me agree with Golden Girl! >_<)

The main problem with Recluse is...well...he's badly written. He's made to look ineffectual...if he's ever used at all, in fact. He is the master of Webs, for heavens sake, he should be second only to Nemesis when it comes to puppeteering and spinning plots, on level and arguably superior to the Centre and the Council because, hey, you don't see THEM with their own Island nation.

Now, yes, people did feel (rightly so) that being nothing but an Arachnos lackey for the majority of Redsides history sucked. And that's fine. Not being a lackey is good.
But in the same way Villains team up with mad doctors or guys who have more resources or for mutually beneficial backside-whupping, Recluse should be the big-bad that people can turn to to make an offer. i.e. If you lend me a flyer and some scientists then, I dunno, I can take out anyone who is particularly bugging you at the moment.

He needs to be the kind of guy where Heroes do "But, but I did X, Y and Z to stop you!" and he can reply "I know. As expected."
Cue even laughter

((Posting this today so people have time to read and react tomorrow, when it will actually be published in the morning -Alpha ))



7th of June, 2012
Human Smog, The Column of Samantha Christophe.

(Published in the front of the Paragon Times and on its own online page)

Sometimes…sometimes you need to take the high ground. Sometimes you need to take one on the chin, or the cheek, or the backside. Turn the other cheek, and all that. Be the ‘better’ person. Sometimes, that’s the only way to resolve problems and stay vaguely sane in this world.

And sometimes you just wish you hadn’t, that you’d done what might well have been the ‘right’ thing and got blood on your hands for the sake of cleaning one stain off the worlds face. Thinking about it, I guess I’m glad that’s never been my call. It’s another reason I continue to hold that people who decry any and all Heroes are idiots or worse; somewhere, somehow, a Hero has to make a decision like that every damn day.

I’ll stop dancing, anyway, and get to the point. One people may well probably know already. As of yesterday evening, the 6th of June, Alexis Cole-Duncan, aka Miss Liberty (Not Ms Liberty, her daughter) is dead. Murdered while trying to negotiate peace with the Isle of Warburg.

Warburg is a stain in the sea that doesn’t have much right to exist anymore. A hot-bed of conflict, primarily over the missiles batteries it has, and the devastating payload manufacturing plant, named ‘The Web’ in typical Arachnos Spider-fashion.
This is all old news, though. If you somehow don’t know it, go look the damn thing up. Take an interest instead of relying on the Heroes and then verbally backstabbing them…

This writing is messy. Abruptly moving house followed by the sudden death of a rather prominent ex-Heroine and daughter of Statesman himself could do that to a person. I suppose you get used to certain people being around, and then when they suddenly aren’t it comes as a shock. Given Alexis was seventy seven this year (and didn’t look a day past thirty, if that), it doesn’t seem unreasonable to expect that, like her father, she’d be around for many years to come.

Except that’s not happening, now. The world has lost a good woman who was known for turning the other cheek, because Marshall Jason Blitz of Warburg was given ‘one more chance’. Would things have been different if someone had ‘dealt’ with Blitz before now? Would it have been better if the Freedom Corps and city Heroes simply stormed Warburg and disarmed the missiles, much like in ‘76 when the Heroes of the day forcibly disarmed the nuclear weapons on both sides and averted idiotic Mutually Assured Destruction?
Apparently, one of the people to blame for all this is Malaise, born Jean-Pierre Lourdin. A man who was given ‘second chances’ by both Sister Psyche and Ms Liberty. Turns out that the naysayers were right in this case; sometimes, it seems, bad just stays bad.

Where does that leave us, then? The former Miss Liberty is…former. Malaise and Marshall Blitz are apparently in custody, thanks to Manticore and other Heroes that were drafted in to help with the ‘peace’ conference, although they were apparently out-manoeuvred when it came to defending Alexis.
I guess, much though it seems easy to lay the blame on them, I for one can’t. Seriously, what the hell do people expect? They were Heroes. They acted like Heroes act, trying to give second chances and going things ‘for the greater good’. That’s what we expect of them, right? Damned if they did, damned if they didn’t…

Should we? Should we stop holding them to such ideals, almost impossible ideals, and instead ask them to do the right thing? To simply take the scumbags and head-cases out of the world? Then again, I guess that just destroys the whole point, the whole symbolism of the Hero, doesn’t it?
It’s a mess. All of it. And Statesman, from all accounts I can find, is currently un-findable. Supposedly tracking someone else, someone behind both Malaise and Blitz. I guess he decided that there are some things you just need to do yourself. I doubt anyone in their right mind could blame him for being angry.

Eh, this will have to do, mess though it is. I’m done. I just hope Statesman does the right thing…whatever that may be.

You, sir, are doing it Very Darn Right. I salute you

The market UI is still a pile of junk, in my not so humble opinion. Which makes me even more leery of the Dev comments on how 'valuable' UI team is. Possible because they have to then pick straws on who gets the horrible job... That's sure what it feels like.

Heh. Since this is already technically a poll post...

All those in favour of a non-Penny/SH background?
Aye