Is it time to move on from Recluse and Statesman? (non-doom post)

Hello all.

As is my wont, I tend to give topics a little bit of thought before posting. In this case, with Going Rogue only a month and a half away I've had cause to wonder about the backstory/meta-story of the game.

It's quite easily the case that for the first four to five years of this game that the end of the Rikti War, and the ramifications of it were the focus of the stories around this game. The lore, the Rikti War Zone, all of that were gearing towards telling this story.

Then with Midnight Hour (taking us into time travel) and now Going Rogue, it seems like the focus has shifted to Praetoria particularly and indications suggest that the meta-story is going that way too. The Endgame System at the very least has some part to play in the area (which is good, because I'd like to see Praetoria get as much time to be used and explored as possible) with only speculation suggesting we may see the Rikti homeworld and so on.


So where does this leave the story of Paragon City and the Rogue Isles? While it's unlikely and probably not doable to have the War Walls come down, it does feel like that story has stalled significantly. I'm not saying all mobs and bad guys should just disappear, but I think most would agree that zone makeovers such as what happened with Faultline could and should happen to advance the game's story. I wonder if that'll be the case.

The same is probably more pointedly true for the Isles. The Destined One storyline plays out at 50, isn't really continued in the VEAT storyline and the Isles have become their own little city-state. I keep wondering what Recluse is going to do in response to Praetoria, or if he will at all.

Don't get me wrong; each one has built on the other. CoV built on CoH, and Going Rogue clearly builds on both of those. I just hope it's not at the expense of forwarding the stories of both to showcase the new and shiny.


S.

Stalled? I'd say it was more background than anything.

If anything, I'd say people were getting burnt out on "It's a nemesis plot." Hopefully with the Dark Watcher's arc, there aren't any more. >.<

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#1. Incarnate system is a follow up on the Cimerora and the concept of Incarnates... it also is the follow through with story of the gods that is part of the Circle of Thorns story adnd the Council, and Arachnos, and 5th Column.

#2. Praetoria follows up on the Portal corp stuff with dimension hopping and such.

#3. What the dev should do about the Rikti... like a suggestion I had. Create a zone where the good Rikti are trying to settle down and have portal corp help them establish a portal home and establish relations (since the good rikti are the majority) and the mobs are all weird due to that... Then let the enemy Rikti make fortified area...revamp creys folly maybe to and make the enemy Rikti team with Nemesis...

This would pretty much wrap up the rikti story and tie it into Praetoria as well as ope up something cool like you know, letting us see the Rikti Earth, having a cool "going rogue" zone where morality is really tested, and possibly get a moon zone ^.^

Absolutely Recluse should be largely ignored if not killed off. Either way, that story pretty much is done as of the patron arcs, so continuation would not involve him anyway. Future villain arcs should be more like the excellent i17 arcs, more self-focused without loyalty assumptions.

As for Paragon, it makes sense that the story went to Praetoria with GR coming up, but if the slowly approaching storm plays any role in coming issues, it will probably be in primal earth.

Yeah, Recluse is done. You have shown him you can kick his butt, and only choose not to because destorying the world is bad, it's where you keep all your stuff (although I have three villains who would disagree with that.) The continuation of that storyline has sent us to go settle Recluse's little personal grudge with some guy who ticked him off, leading to the most insulting badge in the game. The Destined One storyline was crap to begin with. Kill it.

As for the Rikti, that's the problem with maintaining a static world. Sorry Angus, I'm a little late to stop a second Rikti invasion. I've done Levantera's arc, it's already happened, and even if I haven't, look up in the sky. That arc needs to be shunted off to Ouroboros.

I'm fond of the idea of running the story forward, updating zones and enemy groups, and retiring contacts when their missions no longer make sense. Put them in Ouroboros so that we don't actually lose content, and lower Ouroboros's entry level so people don't have to wait until twenty-five to do one of their favourite old lowbie arcs.

I know I've made it sound like I think it's simple, but I'm well aware it's beyond time-consuming. I just feel that while the world can keep expanding and expanding, the early arcs and the old contacts are just going to keep looking more and more out of date. Many enemy groups haven't progressed at all in years, and I think it's about time Dr Vahzilok had a breakthrough in his particular area of science. Why not have a new branch of Vahzilok around level thirty-five that are around fifteen feet tall and deadly?

On the note of Statesman and Recluse, I think we've probably had enough of them by now. I think it's around time that there was a change in the line-up, or a new major player.

oddly, I can agree with the Lord Recluse dying part, but I'm okay with Statesman.
Why? Because for about 40 levels of gameplay blueside, all I've even SEEN of Statesman was the cover art on the box of the game and maybe passing the guy by in IP.
I don't hear a whole lotta of the same crap that I hear about with Lord Recluse, who's shoved down your throat from level 1-50 redside, as I do Statesman.

Statesman... Maybe he loses his powers for good and finally gets to live the remainder of his life as a normal human, maybe assisting in directing others towards what they need to do.
And Lord Recluse finally gets killed off, Arachnos crumbles to dust, etc. etc.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.

There is a new major player. His name is Tyrant. He killed Stephan Richter in the past, I'm sure he looks forward to doing it again. Same goes for Statesman.

I like them both, for different reasons

I don't think that second quote is actually mine

I'm pleased with the consensus here so far. I actually edited some of my post to avoid getting too into it and lobbying, but you guys went and said it. :P This Recluse is not just insulting to the customers, but a mind boggler, as I can't imagine how his role was ever considered to be a good idea by anybody involved.

For States, it is not such a big deal. His 'ooh I had to invent a restricted origin to explain my being so strong' schtick is kind of pathetic, but it doesn't hamper the game like Recluse does, other than his use in promotions. They ought to consider using other heroes to promote, since States kind of screams 'generic' or 'Cap wannabe.' It doesn't make a case to potential customers that they can create their own ideas. Some better promotional heroes would be BABs, Posi, Psyche, Mako, Maelstrom, GW, WW, or Synapse.

They're not going to get rid of Recluse - rewriting the 1-50 red side content would be a rather big task