Venture

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  1. Quote:
    The game itself makes it extremely clear what his motivations are. Would it take someone saying to you "the only reason I didn't kidnap and molest that 11 year old girl is because I don't think I could get away with it" to help you realize that yes, intentions ARE just as important as outcomes?
    A smart guy once said it's our choices that determine who we are.

    I'd recommend the guy in your example get professional help, but whatever his internal monologue, he resisted temptation and walked away. I don't damn people for things they didn't do.
  2. Quote:
    Which, realistically, probably has more to do with the technical feat of making Cole Memorial a burnt out shell next time you're sent there (say, after dying in Nova) than due to any moral implications.
    Easy, narrate that the bombs killed a lot of people but didn't do much structural damage. Clockwork will have it cleaned up in no time.
  3. Quote:
    In this thread, let us discuss, brainstorm, and leave pitches for the Devs (assuming they look at this thread) for new story content ideas.
    Players already did that, it's called the Mission Architect.

    Of course, the players promptly showed the devs what they really want: farms. This may even be why current storytelling is so weak.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dilbert
    Idiot Manager: I say we give the customers what they want. *dramatic fist pound on table*
    Alice: What they want is better products for free.
  4. Quote:
    Scott was totally gung-ho for blowing up the hospital. He only lets you stop the bombing because he needs to keep you undercover. This has been repeated over and over in this thread.
    You can repeat it again if you like. He didn't do it, that's all that matters. Scott and Tyrant were both given the same choice; Scott went one way and Tyrant went the other.
  5. Quote:
    The Resistance is more willing to sacrifice innocent persons than the supposed "Tyrant" is, and that's where the writing fails.
    False. Tyrant was prepared to allow Arachnos to destroy one of Antimatter's reactors because it suited his agenda. Scott was not willing to allow renegade Crusaders to destroy a hospital even though it would have furthered his agenda.

    That does not make Calvin Scott the good guy, of course. My whole position from the beginning has been "Praetoria is a corrupt society and anyone capable of exercising power in it is corrupt". You just can't even begin to argue that he's worse than Tyrant. Tyrant's regime is sacrificing innocent lives every day, and there is no reason to believe the whole "protecting the remnants of humanity from Hamidon" thing is anything but a convenient scapegoat at best.
  6. Quote:
    Maybe a new thread needs to be started on how the users can overcome these issues. Maybe if we could light the candle that was there at one point we could come up with ideas that would get new exciting content being pumped out once again.
    I reviewed over 150 arcs. Police Woman and Glazius have reviewed lots, there have been any number of less prolific contributors. PW went to the trouble of creating an "alternate Contact tree" for people looking to level through MA. Players have run their own contests involving MA.

    Net effect: zip.

    The community has held up its end here, gone the extra mile. Barring an extraordinary effort by the devs -- which may still have no effect -- this is it.
  7. Quote:
    Why use nuclear weapons that would cause a ton of collateral damage and render the area radioactive and uninhabitable and might not kill the people you want to kill anyway when you've got a bunch of walking pocket nukes that you can precision-aim at the exact target you want to take down?
    I said "air strike" not "nuke 'em". Neither the BAF or Lambda would require a nuclear strike, based on what we've been told.

    Of course, that's assuming we're sticking with Mr. No WMD's arbitrary pronouncements.
  8. Quote:
    A lot of the Lambda facility is underground and in general underground facilities, barring tactical nuclear devices, will sustain limited damage from airstrikes.
    We have conventional weapons capable of dealing with hardened underground targets in the real world; I'm sure the Omnidisciplanary Scientists of the City universe can do just as well or better.

    Quote:
    There has to be a point where someone draws a line and says "No. We don't do that. We're supposed to be the good guys here."
    "It's not enough to survive. One must be worthy of survival." -- W. Adama

    So say we all.
  9. Venture

    I hate myself!

    Quote:
    To be fair they've also just implemented the system, and at implementation of any new system there's going to be a dearth of choices, because that's the way development works. After they're done rolling out the system I imagine they'll start adding more choices.
    Not gonna happen. This is Patron Powers 2: Electric Boogaloo.
  10. Quote:
    OK, so what are you going to do? Allow the Tyrant to stay in power? Engage in futile "just wars" against an almost incalculably stronger opponent. Please do tell. Both sides are bad. We agree on that. When the rubber meets the road what would you do as a super in Praetoria?
    Support the underground railroad and get as many people as possible out of Praetoria. Hook up with resistance movements in other parts of the world doing the same. Try to build a power base outside of Tyrant's sphere of control. Attempt to derail State atrocities whenever possible. Following the discovery of interdimensional travel attempt to win support from legitimate offworld agents (i.e. not Arachnos, Malta, etc.)

    That's what I would do as a Praetorian, mind you. As I said way back in GR's beta, my recommendation to the government as a Primal super who's seen Praetoria would be to either block access to the dimension or, failing that, open portals and throw nukes through them until the planet is uninhabitable or we run out. (One of the reasons why I can't get interested in the new trials is that they don't present any tactical problems that are actually better solved with small groups of superheroes instead of an air strike.)
  11. Quote:
    It's evil to lie right?
    No, not catagorically. Anyone who thinks that has never been asked the following question:

    "Do I look fat in this?"

    (I'm aware that Kant doesn't agree. It's important to remember that a) even Solomon can be wrong and b) Kant died a virgin.)

    Quote:
    Real people have to make choices that don't fit neatly into someone's subjective buckets.
    Ethics are situational but not subjective. To argue the contrary is to embrace ethical nihilism, which is self-refuting.

    Quote:
    Because to get back to my example, Mother Mayhem is a high value enough target that she gots to go even if we take out some of her innocent victims with her.
    As it happens, this is exactly the rationale behind Tyrant's regime.

    There is such a thing as just war theory, and the Crusaders utterly fail to meet its criteria. And the Wardens, however well-intentioned they may be, are joined to them at the hip.


    Quote:
    Seriously, run the arc where you take her down heroside if you haven't recently and tell me this wouldn't be a glorious chance for [Countess Crey] to make her way to at least partial redemption.
    Countess Crey is irredemable, having jumped over the Moral Event Horizon with the creation of Project Revenant. Of course, Frostfire is also irredemable but that didn't stop anyone over at PS.

    Quote:
    I think that they're going to finish up the incarnate storyline in the next two to three issues (or maybe even two if we get another .5 issue like Alpha Strike) because that will take us all the way to the Omega Slot which will likely be unlocked by doing a Emperor Cole incarnate trial.
    So maybe there's going to be a Tyrant trial. We get to arrest Recluse, too, which accomplishes exactly what?

    Quote:
    My point is this: Just because the well favors Cole, and just because the well is the ultimate source of those worlds having super powers, doesn't mean it can do much about our using its power to thwart its plans; all it can do is empower Cole, it can't *depower* us.
    Why not? It can do anything the devs want it to do; it's just a plot device. The fact that it's spewing contradictions and Unfortunate Implications all over the place is just a demonstration of why your phlebotinum shouldn't have a speaking part.
  12. Venture

    I hate myself!

    Quote:
    Well, Trials are the main feature of the Incarnate system - so once the Praetorian war is over, the Trials will continue.
    And how many storylines in this game are actually "over"?
  13. Quote:
    Emperor Cole has the potential to be more than just the "Bizzarro world Statesman"
    No. He doesn't. This is the point. He is an evil twin, he will always be an evil twin, he will never be anything but an evil twin. You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.
  14. I haven't run an arc in gods-know-when. I jotted down a few numbers to review but never got to it. Hell, I was in the middle of making changes to "Blowback" and never finished.
  15. Quote:
    Bored after two and a half issues with the same story arc?
    Yeah, as it turns out, stories that are centered around one of the most trite, cliched, overdone hackneyed plot devices in history actually aren't all that interesting in the long term. Go figure.
  16. All of this blather about how any rating less than five stars is harmful is nonsense.

    I just checked, there are over 375 pages of five-star arcs. At twenty arcs per page, the simple fact is that the odds of your arc being high enough on the list as to be seen by someone casually browsing are effectively zero and no rating system is going to change that. It's not even going to come up on a random request limited to five star ratings.

    The browser needs changes, sure, but refusing to hand out five-star ratings like candy is simply not the problem.
  17. Venture

    I hate myself!

    Quote:
    He isn't - he's one of the best supervillains they've made so far
    That's the sad part.
  18. Quote:
    The other part of the culture of the MA community that left me with a bad taste in my mouth was the "story first" contingent.
    If your game has no story, it's not an MMO, it's Tetris.

    Quote:
    There was a sizable contingent of people in the MA community that would 5 star a story NO MATTER HOW BAD IT PLAYED. A certain vocal part of the community would basically say that as long as the arc had the requisite number of "in-jokes" or correct pop culture references, then the story was good and the arc was amazing.
    I can't think of a single frequent commentator who did either of these things.
  19. Quote:
    If we don't, though, we'd have to start stealing stuff from Malta.
    Who, as it happens, already has a weapon designed to disrupt powers taken from the Well. I'm guessing we'll never have a chance to fire an Orestes Rifle at Tyrant or his crew, though.
  20. Quote:
    I'm taking what Lady Grey said at face value.
    Lady Grey is just another chick with superpowers who won't come clean about her background.

    Quote:
    The bad guys keep getting more powerful. In order to stop them, I have to take some risks.
    The competition has already told that story. It didn't end well for the protagonist, or about, oh, half the population of the planet he was standing on at the time.

    For that matter, if there was ever any shred of decency in Tyrant (which I doubt), your position was also his.
  21. Quote:
    I see the Well less like a character and more like a mcguffin, just one capable of vocalising its actions.
    If it can talk, then it is intelligent, and as a very smart person once said, never trust anything that can think for itself unless you can see where it keeps its brain.

    Quote:
    It can't actually control you or hurt you unless you let it, and the only way you can let it is if you're irresponsible, or otherwise desperate.
    How do you know that, or more importantly how do our characters know that? The claim that "a little won't hurt" is, as it happens, the standard method for inducing corruption. No sane, ethical person would have anything to do with the Well as described.
  22. The Well is not amoral, it is flat-out evil.

    Quote:
    Okay, you come up with a good reason for the Well to share power with Hero and Villain PCs equally without making it amoral.
    Easy: don't make it a moral agent.
  23. Nope.

    You could fake it by using a computer terminal or such as your Contact and narrate the player as using it to talk to different people, but that's it.
  24. Quote:
    When I started playing I tried reading the stories and almost quit because the mission arcs outside of the Hollows made very little sense.
    What makes sense about the Hollows arcs? They're just a bunch of stuff that happened, bordering on Random Events Plots. The same goes for Striga. Croatoa is marginally better.
  25. Quote:
    And yet they're still capable of developing the most advanced technologies the world has ever known despite being "dumb."
    Xiang Yu. Incomparable warrior, brilliant military leader and strategist...and completely inept at politics or any kind of normal personal interactions. If he'd delegated some authority or at least listened to his advisers he might have ruled China. Instead he torqued off people and nations, turned potential friends into enemies and, depending on which version of the story you like, ended up either cutting off his own head so an old friend could claim the new emperor's reward (which is impossible, but if anyone could do it, it would have been him), or getting hacked to bits by a mob (so badly that the emperor had to split the reward five ways).

    "Sometimes smart goes all the way around and becomes stupid again." -- Rita Rudner