Some of my hot-button issues:
Nerva. There's just too much of it. Can't we have some continental drift to pull the islands a bit closer together?
"I don't feel villainous." It's the same old complaint I've had since CoV beta. Most of the story arcs have me acting as the muscle in someone else's story. Very few of the arcs have anything to do with my character -- I know it's tough to do because of the nature of MMOs, in that every person has to be the star. Naylor's arc "Automatic Villainy" is a good example of how to work around this issue.
Corollary to the above: Content that's just flat-out wrong. St. Martial is the worst example, for my money. The arcs have you actually collecting debts for a casino. Really? That's what we get? And Hardcase, who is without a doubt my least favorite contact villainside. He has one mission that's even passably villainous (luring the Wailers into Paragon). Everything else is save this, rescue that. I consider Hardcase entirely misplaced in CoV.
"I believe you find life such a problem because you think there are the good people and the bad people. You're wrong, of course. There are, always and only, the bad people, but some of them are on opposite sides." Lord Vetinari, Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett.
As much as I don't like Hardcase, he's just as much as a neccessary element as Phipps and Thermani are.
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Some of my hot-button issues:
Nerva. There's just too much of it. Can't we have some continental drift to pull the islands a bit closer together?
"I don't feel villainous." It's the same old complaint I've had since CoV beta. Most of the story arcs have me acting as the muscle in someone else's story. Very few of the arcs have anything to do with my character -- I know it's tough to do because of the nature of MMOs, in that every person has to be the star. Naylor's arc "Automatic Villainy" is a good example of how to work around this issue.
Corollary to the above: Content that's just flat-out wrong. St. Martial is the worst example, for my money. The arcs have you actually collecting debts for a casino. Really? That's what we get? And Hardcase, who is without a doubt my least favorite contact villainside. He has one mission that's even passably villainous (luring the Wailers into Paragon). Everything else is save this, rescue that. I consider Hardcase entirely misplaced in CoV.
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I find Hardcase to be:
1) A change of pace.
2) An isolated incident.
That being said, my best friend was utterly sick of me ranting ad nasuem "And then I saved people! Becuase it was the right thing to do! Augh!"
Arguably, though, Hardcase doesn't favor doing what's "right". He favors perserving the Rogue Isles, a bastion of evil. His methods are about as altruistic as casting Heal on Kefka.
He's protecting people... in the Rogue Isles.
It's all fun and games until you add the prepositional phrase. (Also, his surprise appearance in Vivacious Verandi's story arc is flat out one of the funniest plot twists I've ever seen. I just imagined my villain being taken by the ear and dragged away from the fun. 
)
Edit: Alternately, you can read Cheita's one sentence response that says everything I just did.
Actually Hardcase is interesting person. He basically makes you send the wailers to Paragon City. It will be interesting when the Wailers finally get added there.
Whelp, thread over guys. Its hit the S&I zone.
Please exit in an orderly fashion to your left plz.
This would require a hell of alot of work, but ive always wanted to be a flunkie for groups like malta and CoT...i dunno, you could get special PPP's for those instead of arachnos based ones, and extra story arcs. Stuff like that.
I'd like to add extra emphasis on Enemy Variety. This is probably what's really murdered CoV for me. Particularly at the higher levels, it seems like almost half my missions are against Longbow, and another quarter are Arachnos. Give me SOMETHING else. ANYthing else. My villains usually die off around Nerva because I'm just so sick and tired of seeing the same boring red and white in every single mission. CoV has a ton of unique factions that see almost NO use.
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Corollary to the above: Content that's just flat-out wrong. St. Martial is the worst example, for my money. The arcs have you actually collecting debts for a casino. Really? That's what we get? And Hardcase, who is without a doubt my least favorite contact villainside. He has one mission that's even passably villainous (luring the Wailers into Paragon). Everything else is save this, rescue that. I consider Hardcase entirely misplaced in CoV.
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Can I add Terrance Dobbs to that list? I can't help but wonder if he was added in the high end game because players scrabbled so hard to be Bug Hunters.
The Abrams is one of the most effective war machines on the planet. - R. Lee Ermy.
Q: How do you wreck an Abrams?
A: You crash into another one.
He's there to further the Arachnoid story.
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It's all fun and games until you add the prepositional phrase. (Also, his surprise appearance in Vivacious Verandi's story arc is flat out one of the funniest plot twists I've ever seen. I just imagined my villain being taken by the ear and dragged away from the fun. )
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I actually hated that part of it, myself. The first time I did her arc, I was thinking, "Wow, this is kind of cool, I wonder where it's going to end up. I mean, I know she can't win, but..."
And then you run into Hardcase. Who tells you to do what he says, or he'll beat you up. Um... dubya tee eff? He'll beat me up? He's some punk standing around worried about wailers, who I kill by the bucket load. I should be able to tell him to shove it, and if he doesn't like it, he can try and MAKE me do what he says.
Sadly, you're not given the option. Your reaction is scripted for you. "Eek, yessir, sorry sir, don't hurt me, wahhhh!"
Lame.
The Mastermind Project
Leveling every primary/secondary to 50!
50: Bot/FF, Bot/Dark, Ninja/Trap, Merc/Pain, Necro/Dark, Thug/Dark
Works in Progress: Thug/TA, Merc/Poison, Thug/Pain, Ninja/Pain, Thug/Storm
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Corollary to the above: Content that's just flat-out wrong. St. Martial is the worst example, for my money. The arcs have you actually collecting debts for a casino. Really? That's what we get? And Hardcase, who is without a doubt my least favorite contact villainside. He has one mission that's even passably villainous (luring the Wailers into Paragon). Everything else is save this, rescue that. I consider Hardcase entirely misplaced in CoV.
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Can I add Terrance Dobbs to that list? I can't help but wonder if he was added in the high end game because players scrabbled so hard to be Bug Hunters.
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Eh? How do you figure? Terrence Dobbs is a [male reproductive organ]. He has you destroy the Arachnoids' on and only chance for a cure to their condition, just so he can stay in business, and even sends you out to beat the crap out of his competitors.
Dobbs is a bag of [feminine hygiene product], he fits in as a contact just fine.
That said, CoV could definitely use a few more contacts. Especially to the point where we can actually get referred to new contacts from someone other than a broker. Especially in the late 30s, My characters seem to run out of contacts often in that range. Particularly ones from enemy factions (not including Arachnos), those ones usually tend to be pretty fun.
Two wrongs don't make a right. However, three rights make a left.
L00k, w3'r3 r3f0rmed! W3'v3 g0t l1v3s n0w, 4nd 1'm 4 buz1n3ss Pwnz0r! -Reformed Freak Proprieter
Seek. Find. Rularuu.
Target. Destroy. Rularuu.
Go. Hunt. Kill Skuls. Rularuu.
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I don't think we can really call the BM broke. Its the lesser pop on Villainside causing the disparity between the WW and BM.
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A single person with a single account can put a strangle hold on what ever item strikes their fancy on the red side and that isn't broken? That would be the definition of broken to me or at the very least the definition of exploit.
If there is no way to fix the red side market with out causing it to take for ever, waste a lot of dev time, or create all new problems and exploits.... except for a merger.
A merger smoothes out and balances out all the existing market disparities. It also solves some of the coop problems that exist specifically because the devs don't want to allow things to transfer from side to side. Remove the barrier and viola' these things remedy them selves.
Heros can give wakies and break frees to villians and vice versa. Problem solved because there is no longer a need to have a ridiculous barrier in place to keep identical items in 2 games seperate especially when content is all ready NOT separate.
-Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein.
-I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. - Galileo Galilei
-When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty. - Thomas Jefferson
[*] Willy Wheeler's Badge mission is missing from Ouroboros.[*] The Force of Nature Accolade (villain equivalent of Geas) is still level bound such that you lose it if you exemplar below the level at which you obtained it.
Edit: Willy's badge is not missing. It is organized differently in Ouro. In standard mission play it is not part of a story arc.
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA
Nice list. Unfortunately, these things have been asked for literally dozens of times before with nary a peep from anyone who matters.
Be that as it may, I'd love to see many of these but I am also not about to hold my breath waiting. We the players have suggested till we are blue in the face; the thanks we have gotten is pretty much "LOLVILLAINS" from the rest of the playerbase, at least.
The time has come to roll up sleeves and put money where mouths are. The developers know what needs to be done: they are not stupid people. They don't need a list; these entire forums are lists of what needs doing.
If they get with it, I will be the first to cheer. VEATS. Nice. I will play them. But we got other issues that need addressing.
I wait with interest to see if they're addressed. That's all.
Red, she said:
Bad
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Willy Wheeler's Badge mission is missing from Ouroboros.
[/ QUOTE ]No it isn't. You have to do his arc, because it's apart of the story arc.
1) More non-Arachnos or even anti-Arachnos content. I want to play a Villain who doesn't need to make up excuses for why he's working for Arachnos, especially when--despite having no real game option other than being a loyal Arachnos minion--Arachnos still attacks you every chance they get. Sure, they freed him from prison, but Villains aren't known for loyalty, especially when they get no loyalty in return.
1a.) To be specific, Trainers, Stores, and Difficulty Setting NPCs that are not linked to Arachnos.
1b.) Continue the trend started with Burke. Plenty of villains have perfectly evil reasons to want the Isles free of Arachnos control.
2.) More contacts, more ways to be evil. Villains have more varied motives and moral codes than Heroes. Some have codes of honor, some are forced into an unfortunate situation, some just don't care, and some love being evil. In short, Villains need different paths to gain experience based on their particular brand of bad.
3.) More variety for Longbow. For the love of all that is evil, at least give them another type of Lieutenant. Villains fight them so often in the game, and yet, with the exception of the Bosses, the group is incredibly repetitive. Why not give them a robotics division?
Virtue:
Grul Doctor Pinnacle Swarm Caller Pity Fist Smashdozer Dhuuln
This is the greatest thread ever, and should be stickied.
Seconded. Especially to the longbow diversification.
You can't spell Slaughter without laughter
All your gonna do is just farm behemoths anyways.
My thoughts on November 30.
Personally I really think Wyvern and the Legacy Chain need to go to 50. The PPD are amazing at how great they change and never get boring. I'd actually be all for Longbow getting new unites since they're basically: guy/girl with gun or flamer.
Oh! and for the love of cats please, please! fix the spine wardens so they don't kill rescuables...
My major gripe is that everyone and everything is 2nd wheel to Arachnos and his legions. How about several new zones completely free of Arachnos' influence, just total chaos.
I'd even like to see a rival super villain, with his/her own territory(s).
131430 Starfare: First Contact
178774 Tales of Croatoa: A Rose By Any Other Name ( 2009 MA Best In-Canon Arc ) ( 2009 Player Awards - Best Serious Arc )
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3.) More variety for Longbow. For the love of all that is evil, at least give them another type of Lieutenant. Villains fight them so often in the game, and yet, with the exception of the Bosses, the group is incredibly repetitive. Why not give them a robotics division?
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Here's a quick thought on this, scale the Longbow Wardens down to Lts and minions the same way Paragon Protectors scale down. Was running Project Revnant solo with my blaster last night (ugly) when I thought about this. PPs and Wardens are similiar in they have multiple power sets that use the same model and with their god-modes they're basically a Boss+. The differance is PPs scale down to challenging and intersting Lts and minions while Wardens are boss only. Looking through Pargon Wiki's Longbow entry there are boatload of different types of Wardens. Scaling them down to Lts and minions would add a great deal of variety to longbow.
It is better to ask forgiveness than permission.
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Seconded. Especially to the longbow diversification.
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You mean Legacy Chain Proliferation? Wait... They're being added to the Hollows, aren't they. So even enemy groups are being proliferated? It'd be rather amusing to see a mission in the late 30s heroside where you have to clean up all those Wailers who just got lured over there (just like how one of my favorite bits in CoV is where you cause the Outbreak plague).
I'll totally agree on the villain enemy group issues. It's especially nasty for my Electric Armor Brute who turns into a Papercraft Armor Brute the moment more than one Nullifier looks in his direction (why oh why is their debuff unresistable?)... I would love to see Longbow get a different Lieutenant to spice it up, and for the sheer number of Longbow missions to drop, proportionally. We barely see any Malta and Carnies (pity, my Electric Armor Brute has all kinds of payback waiting for them on behalf of my heroside toons), the Devouring Earth are pretty much nonexistant, and even if we can't go to the Shadow Shard, it'd be great to be able to go back to Technician Naylor again for 45-50 Rularuu stuff.
I also wouldn't mind something analogous to the Portal Corp missions. These are, in my mind, some of the most ideal team missions in the game: you've got a ton of missions, most of them with an AV, and they're all in safe and convenient place for a team with lowbies on it. Yes, I know this makes it ideal for farming and powerleveling, but god it's frustrating trying to bring my wife's lowbie Corruptor with my level 50 on his missions, since most of these are in Grandville and she's bound to die three or four times just getting there (I try to escort her, but with the lag and constant "oh noes I moved 5' too far to the right and now I'm in the Gutter", that becomes more hassle than it's worth).
I actually rather like Hardcase. He adds depth to what is otherwise a rather one-dimensional view of the Rogue Isles ("hey, look, there're actual people in the Rogue Isles and not just caricatures of Snidely Whiplash"). You've got the crazies psychopaths and the people who are out for themselves, but I find it hard to believe that there isn't a single person in the lot who doesn't think "you know what, rampaging demons all over the city might not be a good idea", or, you know, somebody who actually thinks killing folks might be a bad idea. My main villain is one of those crazy idealist types who is trying to be the defender of humanity, but thinks the best way to do it is to go the Rikti route and destroy all magic users and anybody who worships a god... He's going to go out of his way to help Hardcase out, but in the end, he's pretty darn evil.
I completely agree with the other end, though, in that you spend 50 levels being someone else's lackey. Villains are supposed to be proactive, we've been told this from the beginning, but outside of the newspaper/mayhem missions, we don't see that.
Global @Diellan - 5M2M
Mids' Hero/Villain Designer Lead
Virtue Server
Redside: Lorenzo Mondavi
Blueside: Alex Rabinovich
Got a Mids suggestion? Want to report a Mids bug?
Now that I am trying to think of fixes I am drawing blanks...
There is a bug with ambushes in missions currently, where other mobs attack them. It is funny to see longbows fighting each other. The best example would be Krylov's Vazhilok conference. The second mission is an outdoor map(shady badge). Just go to the cemetry and get a hostage, when the ambushes start, they get in fights with all the other mobs around.
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My major gripe is that everyone and everything is 2nd wheel to Arachnos and his legions. How about several new zones completely free of Arachnos' influence, just total chaos.
I'd even like to see a rival super villain, with his/her own territory(s).
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I think it would be better to have a power struggle zone... but lets not thread jack here.
@Blood Beret(2)Twitter
I am a bad speeler, use poorer grammar, and am a frequent typoist.
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You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. Winston Churchill
I haven't had enough coffee today, but I believe no one else has mentioned it ...
Heroes have a third trial, the Cavern (?) of Transcendence in The Hollows -- this also opens up before Villains get their first respec trial.
Just my $.02, but I generally like playing Villains more than Heroes -- I really like brutes, doms, and corruptors. But man am I ever burnt out of the content. The only new villain content ever added to the game was, IIRC, the Grandeville stuff and a new starting contact.
A couple SFs. Some mid- / high-level arcs in Sharkhead, PO, and Mercy ... and things will be much, much better in Villains.
And, honestly, I don't even care that much about PPPs anymore. Yes, there's more variety heroside (the different PPPs are awfully close to identical, with only activation and animation times being the big differences /em yawn). And yes the APPs have some Monty Hall laughers. But that's mostly a PvP concern, IME. And PvP just isn't /my/ thing, but I have been led to understand it's a big deal for others.
But, good god. I really, I really want some new villains-only content from ~25 to 45.
Oh.
And demons. I want demons.
Ummm ... no particular reason, mind you.
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Well... Less pop yes but also really hard to get some salvage at certain levels. Grandville is basically tech/magic, RWZ is tech and with the new i12 stuff we might finally see a magic zone, that should fix a LOT.
Oh, speaking of salvage, fix the people that don't make sense at low level... The legacy of Chain still drop tech and even the Luddites do too!
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Yeah legacy chain should drop magic but I'm not sure what the luddites should drop. They HATE tech but aren't really magical either... Maybe both?
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They're more likely to use magic devices than tech, so I say magic.