Things that are more difficult redside, and hence more fun.

Ever since they full story of Praetoria came out, I've felt that the name Tyrant is actually an example of bad comic writing. Especially if we get the name from his generals. These are the people that agree with him, and publicly support his Utopia. It makes as much sense as a certain white haired radical who's proclaimed goals of protecting mutant kind from the oppression of Humans calling his group of freedom fighters the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

My comic example has been ret-conned to a more neutral name, I can only hope that with Going Rogue the name Tyrant will be ret-conned out of existence as well.

After Ouroboros was introduced, all the Developers had to do was say "If Praetorian Cole antagonized so many people with the name Tyrant, the world will end! That's why we had to keep the conflict moderate by naming him *****."

Something cheesy, but what I'm saying is that they had free license.

The whole thing sounds like a massive ret-con, since the Praetorians of I2 are written as a bunch of homicidal jerkasses who took to cackling evil like a little child takes to a Mars bar. Yes, I know that they could have been completely different and it was just our interpretation of them that painted them to be this, but then... That's a ret-con pretty much by definition. And I'm not an idiot. I can read what my character is supposed to perceive, and I can read what the writer intended to allude to. And I have no reason to believe the original writers were at all trying to make the Praetorians "deep." The infamous story bible that cost us the 5th Column could have said so, but even if it did, I doubt the writer was fully aware of this.

That said, I don't mind a ret-con in this regard. Their presance in the game is entirely too small to matter (two arcs out of a hundred) so just ret-conning those doesn't really alter all that much, and I could live with it. It's nothing in the slightest like altering the 5th Column, a group that was so deep-rooted in the game that they ended up just throwing a can of spray paint over the whole thing and pretending it's completely different. But it affected so many facets of the city that no-one's buying it. Ret-conning the Praetorians, on the other hand, would be akin to ret-conning the Shadow Shard. Who will really notice?

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

In that case, I'd very strongly advise you not to get your hopes up

How about "Marauder?"

They'll probably go with some kind of awkward "But that's what THEY call him! He's actually calling himself Real Nice Guy Man! And if you didn't just beat him up, you'd know!" business. That might even fly, and I doubt too many people will mind. It's certainly better than trying to rewrite all reality or change time or wipe people's memories. There's a reason some of us don't read comic books

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Tyrant and the other Praetorians' role as the "mine is an evil laugh" twisted-superheroes-ruling-the-world faction was taken over by Recluse and Arachnos, so the new versions of the Praetorians will be less obviously evil at first, to make them different from the whole Rogue Isles set-up - so instead of the openly evil dictator ruling a dirty, rundown land that was the original concept of the Praetorians, and which was transfered to Recluse and his country, we're getting a hidden dictatorship set in a gleaming, spotless world.

Which should have been reserved for Nemesis Seriously, though, I'm glad Arachnos took the boring alternative to let this one be more interesting.

And again, that'll just require a ret-con of some magnitude. I just hope they don't pull an "Origin of Powers" explanation for it and just stick to a less absurd variant.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

You may have a point, but I always just pictured it as a mercenary type. A kind of soldier, sort of.

@Golden Girl: Yeah, hope isn't something I'm that good at anyway. Heck, the whole expansion feels kinda meh to me now, since by everything I'm seeing it feels like they threw out the entire gray morality aspect.

Steam is too dirty

Although, as the current missions are very "private" - like you don't really see many normal Praetorian citizens in the arcs, it'd be possible to keep them quite similar to the way they are now, as when they're out of the public eye, the Tyrant and his thugs don't have to put on a show of being nice.

For example, Mother Mayhem's assylum would be a high security facility in GR - normal citizens would just know it was the place where "mentally ill" people were sent to have their behaviour "corrected", before being sent out back into society - so having Mother Mayhem being openly sadistic like she is in the current version of the mission wouldn't really need to be changed, as she's "in private".
And the same would apply to the final mission where you rescue Statesman - again, it's a "private" place - Tyrant's lair - which very few normal Praetorian citizens would even be aware that it existed, and like the assylum, it'd be staffed with fanatical loyalists.
So while the new version of Tyrant mightn't twirl his moustache in a lava cave, he can still do his twirling in a hidden chamber deep under or high up in his tower.
And the same "non-public" thing applies to the other Praetorian Guard misisons, like Neuron's lab, Anti-matter's space station, Shadowhunter's wilderness - they're all places where they can act as evil as they like, as there's no one else around who they need to fool.

Mostly, the current Praetorian missions will just need updated models and maps, and a few tweaks to the text to make it fit in with the newer lore.

It was never there in the first place

Too many Tyrant apologists have been building their own version of GR in their heads, and not actually been following what the devs have been saying

Actually, the morality thing had nothing to do with Tyrant in the first place. I thought the point of Going Rouge was supposed to introduce 'falling' from grace, as in Heroes questioning the morals they thought they believed in. Instead when I'm seeing is people willfully saying 'heck with this' and willfully choosing to jump sides. The way it looks to me, it may as well be an option on the difficulty slider contact.

I want to fight bosses.
I want to fight Arch Villains at their full power.
I want to be a bad guy now.

Sorry to thread jack, and Jeff Vogel's game's were good - I spent months playing Exile series, but his opinon of what makes a good game experience is more than a little jaded.
And he should lose any respect from any gamer when he openly encourages use of gold farming as a form of begin cheating that doesnt hurt anyone, and that people against gold buying are are unseemly and trying to be 'BIG MEN' for stopping gaming sweat shops from running. Bottom feeder is right.
It doesnt take much reading of his blog to see how upset he would be if other people got paid for ways to cheat his games.

that said, enjoyed reading your thoughts.

And it will - there's no reason why you can't go to Praetoria as a Hero, and find Tyrant's form of law enforcement more to your liking than what you've been used to on Primal Earth.

There are plenty of jokes about the Zig having a revolving door instead of a gate, so in Praetoria, you can pursue a more aggressive type of crimefighting, without being held back by annoying things like legality, the courts, defendants' rights and so on.

It'll be the purest form of justice - a criminal target will be identified, and you'll be sent to take it out - permanently.
And the almost crime-free paradise of Praetoria is vindication of everything you've always thought crimefighting should really be about.

In Praetoria, you'll be able to be the be the force of justice you've always wanted to be - you'll be a true hero, and do things your way - the right way.

I suspect in the Praetorian storyline they'll generally go with "Emperor Cole", but stick to Tyrant in the Portal Corp missions. (Though I think they did say they would be updating the models used for the Preatorians)





Also: GG's posts seems to have done a heel face turn in tone

They'll need to - that faceplate restricts the moustache too much - that white "Emperor" suit give total twirling freedom.

Just trying to give encouragment to the weeping Tyrant apologists, and show them that they can still be a "hero" who supports a dictator

I think you have been looking too much into distorted dark mirrors recently.

All my mirrors are normal and clean

Well from the looks of it you already "know" everything that is happening in GR. Like you looked a little to much into the looking glass and fighting the Red Queen.

Logic and feminine intuition - an unbeatable combination for finding out the truth




And actually reading up on what the devs have said also helps a heck of a lot too

But don't tell the Tyrant apologists that - their "I'm-sure-that-Palpatine-guy-wasn't-so bad" hopes for GR have already been badly damaged

But not in the case of CO.

The difference between a hero and a terrorist is often the difference between the winner and the loser.

It's always easier to demonize your enemy. It strips them of their humanity, so you don't have to worry about hurting or killing them.

If God is on our side, who can be against us?

I'm willing to chalk this up as 'point made'. This was all I wanted to do, was to see if you could understand that some of us enjoy games with a deeper story than Sonic the Hedgehog. If you're willing to accept that some folks do understand the concept of acceptable losses, that there can be heroes who believe the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, then I have no problem with your desire for a story no more complex than "this man is evil, beat him up."

I am ready to agree to disagree at this point.