Where can I beat up Hardcase?

I still like my idea better. It's made pretty clear in CoV that the only thing enemy groups hate more than each other is you.

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I think it would be nice if you were given the option to say yes or no to him, and if you said "No" he gives you one last threatening speech. Then the next mission you do, for anyone, he spawns as a nasty Elite Boss and tries to kill you. If you win, he mutters something about Arachnos being warned, which explains why there's no disaster; if he wins he comments that he'll have to take care of the situation himself and despawns ( so no coming back until you finally win ).

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Good plan!

One thing that really pissed me off with hardcase is by the time I Ran his missions I had already done missions for Magus Mu'Drakan , The arbiter next to him, Ice Mistral SF,Seer Marino,Kalinda as a starting contact As well as the Operatives in both cap and Sharkhead.

Frankly I was better connected than Hardcase so his threat was entirely empty.

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One thing that really pissed me off with hardcase is by the time I Ran his missions I had already done missions for Magus Mu'Drakan , The arbiter next to him, Ice Mistral SF,Seer Marino,Kalinda as a starting contact As well as the Operatives in both cap and Sharkhead.

Frankly I was better connected than Hardcase so his threat was entirely empty.

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I think thats the problem everyone has with hardcase. Right aroudn the point where you're finally starting to feal like a realy scary supervillain - a world-conquering threat - along he comes and treats you like a punk. IArachnos, at least, is scary. He's not. Or maybe he is - maybe he's badass - but you don't get to find out becuase, good idea or not, you don't have the option of how to interact wiht him.

AS the fellow at the top opf this apge says, that is a common problem in CoV because, frankly, you can't let villains conquer the world since 10-thousand other players ahve to ive there too on any given server. Someone has to keep them in line. Someitmes, that will get heavy handed. But while people may swallow that sort of treatment, however bitter, from a credible threat like Arachnos, bending over and taking it from a jumped-up streat tough is a step too far.

Its worth nothing that this is a problem with a lot of St. Marshal in general - I've always thought that the level order of ST. Martial and Nerva should be reversed. YOu come from Nerva archipelago, and you have just finsihed going toe to toe with nearly every member of the Vindicators and at least one or two Freedom Phalanx heavy hitters. You have travelled across dimensions and foiled a diabolical nemesis plot. You ahve prevented the Rikti from psychicaly enslaving the isles. You have fought the demon-goddess responsable for the destruction of Oranbega, and bested her, and bound her soul. You have imposed peace, at gun point, on warring factions of supervilains, led by the Arachnos Patrons themselves. ANd thats just the stuff I remember 2 years later off teh top of my head. Then you get to St. Martial and they have you chasing down missing call girls and beating up guys who welch on their gambling debts. Say WHAT?!?!?! Harcase's jackassery is jus the most heavy-handed and invasive example of a general theme of "congrautlations, you're 1st levle again" that pervades the place. Not that the streat level, gritty gangland style villainy isn't cool, but it feels ill-ordered coming after Nerva.

Or that could jsut be me.

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Its worth nothing that this is a problem with a lot of St. Marshal in general - I've always thought that the level order of ST. Martial and Nerva should be reversed.

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Great post, very well illustrated.

If not overly well spellt. Thank you.

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If not overly well spellt. Thank you.

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/facepalm


But yeah, good reasoning And now I wanna go to Nerva...

We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.

<QR>
How many missions/arcs show up if you type "Hardcase" in the AE search?

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<QR>
How many missions/arcs show up if you type "Hardcase" in the AE search?

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6

We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.

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If not overly well spellt. Thank you.

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/facepalm


But yeah, good reasoning And now I wanna go to Nerva...

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Spelt is perfectly good English, oh heathen American dog.

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If not overly well spellt. Thank you.

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/facepalm


But yeah, good reasoning And now I wanna go to Nerva...

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Spelt is perfectly good English, oh heathen American dog.

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Spelt is not spelt spellt.

We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.

Ahh, right you are! Someday... someday I'll learn to type! */em blood oath*

Can I haz internet?

We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.

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I loved that arc. Right up until the moment I talked to Hardcase.

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Note that we have no idea what, if anything, Hardcase's powers are.

That's relevant to why people hate getting threatened and pushed around by him: there isn't a single hint in game as to why we should think he's capable of carrying out his threats, no reason to think he isn't just J. Random Thinks-He's-Somebody with a big mouth and nothing to back it up.

I have less problem with Hardcase than most people do. I don't think he's a hero for being a demon hunter, considering that his primary client is a mafia-linked singer who's trying to break a deal with the devil, and that his job consists of protecting mafia-owned casinos and their patrons from demons. I do think that there's one tiny problem with his character concept: if he's as good as he says, how in the heck can Governor Sonata, even as rich as he probably is, afford him? But no, even as a level 39 character, I don't have much doubt that the world's most effective demon hunter has some trick up his sleeve that I can't deal with ...

... but I wouldn't have to take the game's word for it if, just once, I saw him either smack the living crap out of my character, say with some combination of long-duration mag 200 hold and a full set of energy melee attacks, or if I saw him one-shot something way, way above our mutual level, like a giant monster. If he could actually do the stuff he says he could, if we could see that he could do the stuff he says he can do, he'd stop being Muerte from Undercover Blues and turn into Riddick from Pitch Black.

(Which is why if I ran into an AE arc where I easily defeated Hardcase, I'd 1-star the arc on my way out for majorly violating canon.)

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(Which is why if I ran into an AE arc where I easily defeated Hardcase, I'd 1-star the arc on my way out for majorly violating canon.)

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Eh. If it was an overall decent arc anyway, I would 3 star it, like I do any mission that is equal in quality to a typical paper mission or run of the mill non-arc contact mission.

Then I would just no-prize the ease of defeating him away by figuring Hardcase was replaced with an inflatable Hardcase...filled with Folgers Crystals, and we just didn't notice.

There is no actual reason to believe he is "the world's best demon-hunter". Even he doesn't make that claim. He's just "a" demon hunter.

When he has a viable weapon against a 6 foot tall mutant lizardman, then i will regard him as a threat, Hell Terrance down in grandville i fear more than Angstcase.

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There is no actual reason to believe he is "the world's best demon-hunter". Even he doesn't make that claim. He's just "a" demon hunter.

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His bio does indicate he's a veteran demon hunter and that surviving that long is a testament to his skill or luck. But yeah, there's no indication that he's the best in the world, or for that matter that a veteran demon hunter poses a threat our characters couldn't handle. All we have to go on is a threat that could easily be bluff or bluster. Even if it's not, "considerable amount of firepower" is just another day at the office for our characters; we face armies of super soldiers, robots, wizards, and monsters on a daily basis (and given how many demons we're likely to have defeated by the time we hit St Martial, including possibly a demon queen/she-devil, many of us fit the criteria for "veteran demon hunter" ourselves).

So yeah, for that encounter it'd be a lot less "what?!" if we actually had some evidence that he was more of a threat than all the other big bads we take down every day. I'd still want revenge on him later though

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the world's most effective demon hunter

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More effective than Infernal? I call shenanigans!

Shhhhhhhhenanigans!

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Kind of like the arc from Magus Mu'Drakhan, you're cursed and forced to save all of Mu kind, numbering some one billion people across the globe. Why would my character care if a billion people die? OH! I've been cursed so that if they die, I'll die too? Well, that's convenient isn't it?


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I thought that was Mage Slayer Zakura's (sp?) arc and the justification was not only is at least 1/3 of the Earth's population descended from the Mu but that you might be as well and could very well die if you don't stop the ritual. Of course someone will have a character is not not human or whatever but it works for most of the playerbase.

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the world's most effective demon hunter

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More effective than Infernal? I call shenanigans!

Shhhhhhhhenanigans!

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Get your broomsticks!!

Yeah, Infernal could lay waste to Hardcase with no effort.

Let's see how he does against Bat'Zul, eh?

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Kind of like the arc from Magus Mu'Drakhan, you're cursed and forced to save all of Mu kind, numbering some one billion people across the globe. Why would my character care if a billion people die? OH! I've been cursed so that if they die, I'll die too? Well, that's convenient isn't it?


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I thought that was Mage Slayer Zakura's (sp?) arc and the justification was not only is at least 1/3 of the Earth's population descended from the Mu but that you might be as well and could very well die if you don't stop the ritual. Of course someone will have a character is not not human or whatever but it works for most of the playerbase.

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The fact that an awful lot of people have MU blood (1 in six, not 1 in three) comes up in Zatara's arc, but the curse thing is Mu'Drakhan. You kill a circle mage and as he dies he curses you to share the fate of their intended victums - the hated descendants of Mu. They are planning to kill all the descendants of Mu to fullfill the bargain they once renaiged on with the demons (allowing the demosn to lay waste to their city). By doing so, they intend to forge a new compact with Lilitu, whom you end up having to beat up.

A lot of people use Hardcase as a sign post of what's wrong with the villain mentality throughout the game. In the 30's it annoying yet dealable, but the 40's and up treat you much the same except for the PPP arcs.