New Villians Contact: Sheng Dida

I made that Yuong arc so deep, so intruging - only to be a invited from a The form you have submitted is no longer valid message. Oh yes, fun.

Screw these borked forums. I'm doing it tommorow

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I remember hitting a room with 2 Cyst Crystals in my late 20's. Sure we had a hard time until I managed to convey the concept of breaking the crystals first. The pug I was in was convinced you couldn't do that... until I jumped into the horrid black mass and did just that, pugs eh?

Point is, it's doable.

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Yes, but what about having them room after room?

This is city of heroes, having some enemies in room after room isn't a huge issue.

There's no item durability or limited inventory, you'll get Inspirations when you defeat things so not even those are finite and things like health and endurance can be topped up via buffs or, shock horror, using Rest.

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Yes, but what about having them room after room?

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I fail to see how having the same encounter, multiple times, makes the individual encounter harder.

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Yes, but what about having them room after room?

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I fail to see how having the same encounter, multiple times, makes the individual encounter harder.

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Because it distracts and annoys you. That's what the real challenge hinders. It's not their power, it's the repetion. There's lots of XP/Imf/Prestige involved - are you willing to face the most annoying thing in your life to benifet? (a bit like farming, I suppose)

The greatest burden isn't the enemy's strength.

If you think that makes it harder, well thats your opinion, others may not share it.

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Yes, but what about having them room after room?

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I fail to see how having the same encounter, multiple times, makes the individual encounter harder.

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Because it distracts and annoys you. That's what the real challenge hinders. It's not their power, it's the repetion. There's lots of XP/Imf/Prestige involved - are you willing to face the most annoying thing in your life to benifet? (a bit like farming, I suppose)

The greatest burden isn't the enemy's strength.

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Considering how easily some teams tear through mobs, having lots of something doesn't automatically equal a tough slog.

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Since I'm not allowed to give a reason:

/unsigned

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Lol! ^This

oh and if u make it too tough no one will want to do it.

its a good arc the thorn tree is over used (so i would suggest smt else here and not a psionic toon or EM)

other than this 25-35 is ideal as a step up from the mundane mish content (not story line) of the lower arcs

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Yes, but what about having them room after room?

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I fail to see how having the same encounter, multiple times, makes the individual encounter harder.

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Because it distracts and annoys you. That's what the real challenge hinders. It's not their power, it's the repetion. There's lots of XP/Imf/Prestige involved - are you willing to face the most annoying thing in your life to benifet? (a bit like farming, I suppose)

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I've done Citadel and the Shards TFs several times; teh foe cannot bore me to defeat!

Seriously, an arc whose actual objective is annoying the players with repetitive gameplay is doing something very wrong.

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Since I'm not allowed to give a reason:

/unsigned

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I'll do you one better and just go: NO!

I have three problems with this arc.

The first one is the tone. The contact is talking to a high level villain, not a flunky straight out of mercy. The villain has done some incredible things to get there. I get a little tired of arrogant contacts who try to prove their importance with being arrogant. Some mutual respect seems to be more fitting to me.

The second problem is the arc itself. In the end its a fight against very tough opponents and they come out of the blue. There is no clue whatsoever, no storyline that they are involved. The only thing is that they seem to think that the villain is a threat because he took out a few random Arachnos bases. Well at level 45 they will have taken out dozens of bases nothing special here.

The third problem is repetition. Clearing out a base is boring. Doing that 3 times in a row without anything interesting happening is not a good thing in my book. I am sure that more interesting things can be thought of.

Thats my 3 cents.

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The first one is the tone. The contact is talking to a high level villain, not a flunky straight out of mercy. The villain has done some incredible things to get there. I get a little tired of arrogant contacts who try to prove their importance with being arrogant. Some mutual respect seems to be more fitting to me.


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The contact has not seen his/her power yet. Also, many contacts on Villians will treat you that way. Your full potential has not been seen yet, that's why he's treating you that way.

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The second problem is the arc itself. In the end its a fight against very tough opponents and they come out of the blue. There is no clue whatsoever, no storyline that they are involved. The only thing is that they seem to think that the villain is a threat because he took out a few random Arachnos bases. Well at level 45 they will have taken out dozens of bases nothing special here.


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I can see you have a pretty good point there - there is no storyline involved. But as in the last mission, this is your first (and probably last) delge into the Morea clan. Sheng didn't claim to know much about them either. He just knew that they were about, wrecking stuff. And he knew where they met. That's all he knew about them.

Also, about the "few Arachnos bases" bit, I'd like to quote from the actual arc:

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Black Scorpion: "I agree. He/She could become a threat to us all."

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Black Scorpion says that he/she could become a threat if he/she continues down the path they're going. He/she has cleaned 3 Arachnos bases in a row, if he/she continues to do that and starts moving on to even bigger things like higher ranked Arachnos then even Recluse's lieutenants, he/she will become a threat.

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The third problem is repetition. Clearing out a base is boring. Doing that 3 times in a row without anything interesting happening is not a good thing in my book. I am sure that more interesting things can be thought of.

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This is the first time you've faced Arachnos under Sheng, also they don't know you're the crazy villian who mauled then tens of levels before. They just think you're another one of his apprentices. Would they send a AV in or anything? But just to be sure, they'll send a whole 3 bases of troops. Sheng sees your potential from here, and is more respectful than earlier, and he knows you can do it easy. Yet his personality leaves him to put his own burdens on his apprentices.

Considering that 1-40 in CoV is pretty much all about Arachnos getting a handle on just how special/powerful you are and then letting you buddy up with a Patron to see what you can do, they probably would know who you are.

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Considering that 1-40 in CoV is pretty much all about Arachnos getting a handle on just how special/powerful you are and then letting you buddy up with a Patron to see what you can do, they probably would know who you are.

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(sorry not making this clear in OP...again ) Sheng's apprentices aren't usually one of the Destined Ones, so Arachnos would count you as just another hopeful. Also, any reports of Arachnos seeing your costume and remebering are very unlikely, due to the point that most of them are killed before they can get to Recluse

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Black Scorpion says that he/she could become a threat if he/she continues down the path they're going. He/she has cleaned 3 Arachnos bases in a row, if he/she continues to do that and starts moving on to even bigger things like higher ranked Arachnos then even Recluse's lieutenants, he/she will become a threat.

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Hence why it shouldnt be 45-50. By the time you reach 45 there is a fairly big chance you've had a little brawl with one of the patrons. Not to mention chances are even already there you had a fight with the big man himself. Therefore it would make more sense if it was 35-40 or 40-45 in the current setup. Even though adding a patron in that arc has alot of possibilities of screwing up the general storyline.

Imagine this, if you already beat up one of the patrons BEFORE becoming their servant, whats the use of picking them as a patron anyway? Would make more sense if you had a pick from wretch, barracudda, silver mantis or ice mistral there seeing they all seem to have their own agendas anyway. Well, not sayin the patrons dont, but its often a bit less obvious or immediately goin for the big bucks.

/conditionally signed (if was lower level range: true, else: false)

There's a lower level version one, Yuong Dida: Yuong Dida

Solo only content? No way from me.

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The contact has not seen his/her power yet. Also, many contacts on Villians will treat you that way. Your full potential has not been seen yet, that's why he's treating you that way.

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Considering that Shen is an operator in a highly dangerous place like Grandville he wouldnt want to send out just any muppet. So assuming he is a smart fellow doing a little research about the apprentice is a good idea.

But besides that he can have his reasons to be an arrogant person. But that part is done to often IMO.

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I can see you have a pretty good point there - there is no storyline involved. But as in the last mission, this is your first (and probably last) delge into the Morea clan. Sheng didn't claim to know much about them either. He just knew that they were about, wrecking stuff. And he knew where they met. That's all he knew about them.

Also, about the "few Arachnos bases" bit, I'd like to quote from the actual arc:

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Black Scorpion: "I agree. He/She could become a threat to us all."

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Black Scorpion says that he/she could become a threat if he/she continues down the path they're going. He/she has cleaned 3 Arachnos bases in a row, if he/she continues to do that and starts moving on to even bigger things like higher ranked Arachnos then even Recluse's lieutenants, he/she will become a threat.

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To make this Morea Clan and their involvement with Black Scrorpion an interesting thing is if the villain would have stumbled over their excistence during his misisons. Thus making it viable that they would consider him a threat to their own operations which probably relies on secrecy (as they are not known by anyone). That would give them a reason to try to take the villain out. The last mission could then be a rescue to save this Shen as he is confronted by the clan to silence him. This could be discovered after an ambush from the morea clan.

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This is the first time you've faced Arachnos under Sheng, also they don't know you're the crazy villian who mauled then tens of levels before. They just think you're another one of his apprentices. Would they send a AV in or anything? But just to be sure, they'll send a whole 3 bases of troops. Sheng sees your potential from here, and is more respectful than earlier, and he knows you can do it easy. Yet his personality leaves him to put his own burdens on his apprentices.

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This is not however the players first clean out arachnos base misison. And then 3 bases after each other without anything interesting happening is boring. But see my remarks about how to make the story more believable above.