Sometimes, I think the devs know us too well...

Same here. He started writing it again, then suddendly stopped just like he did last time.

The last time i read it he'd restarted it with most of the characters in an MMO. No idea where it's at now. i should go look it up.

On topic comment i meant to post and then forgot to add when reminded of Elf Only Inn: Love that mission briefing! Obviously i got too caught up in testing Praetoria, because many of the alignment missions are new to me, and they're all interesting and entertaining.

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

They werer on a boat and Duke got upset and jumped out of the crows nest.

He has been hovering so long that if the game judges falling damage from air time and not distance his impact will cause enough damage to kill him and sink their boat.

Also:

Not that obscure - just deader than a dead thing that is dead.

{mid-story cessations FTW}

I suppose if I wanted to be really obscure, I could make references to "Spin and Catch Fire", "Shaw Island", or "Life of Riley" (Which I had a cameo in).

Yes, THAT Life of Riley. Back in my "Bad Boys of Computer Science" days, when you could still read stuff like "Under Power", "When I am King", "Ghastly's Ghastly Webcomic", "Ashfield Online", "Exploitation Now!", and "Errant Story".

(Well, technically, Errant Story is still running.)

*EDIT*

(Jeebus H. LaserChrist, Krazy Krow is still doing Marilith?)

i was trying to remember the name of that one. yes, i loved it, my secondary main, seraph blue, is kind of influenced by how they did angels as symbiotic celestial beings. yes, it sucked that they went down and that dan guy apparently is not speaking with them anymore(at least thats how i interpreted it, might be misreading it). But yeah, they shut down right in the middle of wrapping up their big arc, gyahh.

This, loved that bit.

So I've been told. The game is plenty silly enough as it is. I keep wishing it'd take itself just a tad more seriously. We've already utterly ruined the Freakshow in this precise manner. I still hold the Freakshow War to be the only decent arc they have left. This is the arc that finally explains why the Freakshow are so feared and why they're such a big problems. It describes them as violent murderers and terrorists, it shows Dreck as a ruthless leader, Bile as a violent nutcase and even Upstart, who NEVER SHOWS ANYWHERE as somewhat of a sinister conspirator.

To my eyes, this is what they should be, not slogan-spouting squeak toys to laugh at. They kidnap and murder people.

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.

So how does the way they talk have any bearing at all on the danger they pose?

I think it's actually kind of appropriate that no one takes the Freakshow seriously, right up until they do something utterly horrible and you remember why they were dangerous in the first place.

I mean, this is a group of people deranged enough to turn violence, chaos, murder and destruction into a sporting event. They view a trophy made out of old car parts as justification for murder. The fact that they happen to behave like a collection of internet trolls is actually kind of fitting.

Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately.

That's just it - they DON'T do anything like that. They HAVEN'T done anything like that for years. In fact, the last meaningful thing the Freakshow have done dates back to Launch day story arcs. But what have they done since then?

Well, they took part in Miss Francine school for us to giggle at how a person without hands has such good handwriting. Then they started working at pawn shops, because a Freakshow with a day job is funny. Then they started working for our random individuals who didn't have a group affiliated with them, seemingly for the sole purpose of spouting one-liners. Oh, and they were welding rockets to their backs and singing about bombs.

I half expect to see them take part in a Justice Friends sitcom next, with a goofy Freakshow Tank sharing a room with a whiny Warrior Hewer and a bipolar Dark Ring Mistress, arguing about how the tank couldn't have used the last of the toilet paper because he doesn't have anything to use it on. They have been made utterly pathetic and complete laughing stocks. People are more likely to buy Tank Swiper plushies now than they are to take the Freakshow as a serious, credible threat.

And it's all because someone thought it was funny to use them for comic relief and has been running with it for six years now. And I still feel that T3h PwNxx0rz is what started it all. Remember back in the day how we used to get together to laugh about this and every now and then someone would post about "ZOMG! Look at this Freak I just fought!" These days, that's so old most people wouldn't even register it was ever meant to be a joke.

Something needs to happen with the Freakshow which would once again remind us that they're actual villains, not comic relief goofballs.

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.

Well there is a BLINDLY obvious reason why it is the Freakshow that work for random individuals, out of all the level 30+ enemy groups, they are the only ones without any proper agenda beyond 'causing as much chaos, violence and murder as we can'.

Crey are all about the corporation, the Carnies work purely for DeVore, Malta is...well Malta and by extension the Knives of Artemis are incredibly limited. That is not getting into the Circle of Thorns, Arachnos, Longbow etc. who all have their own agenda.

Freakshow are powerful enough that they make good thugs and easy enough to entertain (just tell them that there will be violence and they'll likely agree to work for you) that pretty much anybody...even villains like Flambeux...can get them to work with them.

Anyway...yes you really are a genuinely grumpy guss Sam, sorry but it really is true, perhaps you should lighten up just a little bit?

Besides the Freakshow are a threat in the 20-30 range...they're used for laughs because by the time you're level 40-50, they are way out of their league, almost any AT can just brush them aside with ease even in large numbers. They're punching above their weight, as it were.

I'm not saying it's bad that they work as mercenaries. You're absolutely right that it makes sense for them to be the ones to do it. In fact, my "double" heading up a gang of Warriors seems out of place. They should spawn the good double in that Arachnos mission alone.

But what bugs me is that this is literally ALL they do. Right off the top of my head, I could list at least 15 things the Freakshow could be found doing that would disgust most people with any sense of empathy, but you'll never see them do any of those things. Because they're too cute to sully like this. Look, I am prepared to eat crow if tomorrow we get a new Freakshow arc that makes me afraid of them. I WANT to eat crow over this. But I won't, because that won't happen.

Too dark for the game? Hardly. Just look at the simple murder of a sympathetic character that Nemesis soldiers commit. That's dramatic. Or what I'm doing right now, which is trying to save an exec from an assassin, only to find her with her throat slashed very deep. Ouch! Now I want to find that guy and beat him senseless, and I didn't even know the lady. Hell, she was probably in the Syndicate. Or, again, the murder of Mike Swartzwald for no reason other than because he found out too much.

All we ever see the Freakshow do, aside from being stupid in a cute and cuddly way, is destroying random unimportant property that no-one ever seems to care about or stealing random unimportant things that no-one ever claims. This is pretty much the next most cartoony type of crime after "robbing a bank" because it doesn't feel like anything bad is taking place that shouldn't be allowed to happen. It feels like a game of cops and robbers.

If the Freakshow are a violent, dangerous gang, then they need to feel like they are a real, pressing danger to ordinary people. And they just don't. Even the Warriors, absurd as they are made out to be (seriously, who writes for these guys?) still come off as much more of a credible threat and a lot less like a loser joke. The Freakshow should not feel like losers, that's what it comes down to.

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.

What are you talking about? Bile shows up in Tina's arc. (Okay, it's a version of Bile from Omicron Zeta 12-20, but it's still Bile.)

A single death is a tragedy. One million deaths is a statistic.

Probably cause he changed the premise and lost most of the old humour (in my opinion anyway.)

Originally Posted by Deus_Otiosus This entire post should receive some kind of award for being both hysterical and fantastic. Well done.

I think he was referring to Upstart, not Bile, with that last part.

Otherwise, he made an uppercase U in upstart by accident.

Thread's gone a little off topic, but if I'm right, you should take a look at that mission from the Vigilante point of view.

IIRC, the last line of the Vigilante's accept text is, "That'll show those ungrateful punks in the forums." Now that's comedy!

Upstart, yes. He has the potential to be a really cool villain and a really chaotic influence on what is already a pretty chaotic group, but he never does anything because he apparently he's out of "Get out of Jail free" cards and he hasn't rolled a double in over six years. Poor guy.

And speaking of Bile the Technophile, he, Clamour and Dreck really have only one show each, and each of those is... Kind of pointless. Dreck raids another dimension for... Some reason and his only point is to add an AV, Bile isn't even from our dimension and his only point is to add an AV to a REALLY boring mission, and Clamour is... Part of a TF, and by default I have no idea what the hell is going on there. But she shows up at the end, gets taken out and we're all happy about it. Meh.

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.

Which makes Tyrant quite the statistician

Think he can help me with my stat homework?

Just tell him it's a danger to society, and you'll never see it again