Okay, so the Tsoo, Vazhilok, Hellions, and another group I can't remember, got new critters in their ranks and the Praetorian Clockwork underwent a complete overhaul along with quite a few Praetorians, so that leaves us asking: what updates, revamps, or overhauls would you like to see for various enemy groups in the game.
For me, I want to see a complete overhaul of the Skulls, lore, looks, style, etc. But powers can stay mostly the same since, well, they're supposed to be a low level, petty gang, but let's dissect their problems-
Style and looks: Look at the skull mask we can get with magic booster... Then look at the ones the Skulls wear. While the anatomy of the skull mask face detail is impossible for any normal human being, the fact is, it still looks like it's made from real bone and not a paper cutout mask. In the end, emblems and masks aside, they look like palette swapped Hellions.
Then, let's look at their names, their leaders are named Marrow Snap and Marrow Drinker, then there's Compound Fracture, The Strong Man, Brittle Bones, The Lasher, and it goes on, but there are some good ones, but really, for a gang using Death themes, they certainly have limited themselves to the crappiest of crap when about EVERY culture has a death god or three.
Lore: Go through Paragon Wiki and find any good arcs with them at the center besides Bonefire. Go on, I'll wait.
...
Got anything? Yeah, I thought not. Though in some fairness, the Hellions don't have much blueside, but then that was fixed with Redside, and they even got special bosses, but then, there's more than just arcs the skulls are or are not in, but go to the information page on the site or look up their story in Paragon Wiki.
Now... What the hell does this all mean? where do the Skulls get their powers from? Are they magical? Somehow natural? It all feels weak and watery.
For looks and style, I'd mostly like to see them look a bit more distinct from the skulls, maybe give them the purple, banana clip SMGs for their Lt.s instead of the UZI, a different shotgun model (god knows, ANY gang that uses shotguns could use a new shotgun model, like maybe one with a stock) for the buckshots, give them a DP Lt. (Hellions too, I've always felt that as gangs they would be the natural ones to go Gangsta style with their pistols), and new jackets and such. To be honest, the hellions could make do with a looks upgrade too.
The gist of my own lore ideas is basically to make them less of a standard "in it for power and glory gang" and closer to just being a gang about wanton destruction in a cloud of black nihilism while at the same time giving foreshadowing to seeing that these guys could just as easily be one step away from becoming a troll or two steps from becoming part of the Freakshow later on, but that there's a connection between a lower gang to a higher gang beyond just chain of command.
Bow the next group that could use a severe upgrade is the Knives of Artemis, they have less diversity than Skulls and Hellions, they have no real arcs of their own, and in general we seem to only know them as Malta's call girls who, as going by RWZ mob dialogue, don't think as long as their paid.
Hmmm... An organization of women who model themselves after the virgin goddess of the hunt not thinking as long as their paid by a group of men, are mostly a satellite organization and given no development of their own... Nope, no unfortunate implications here, ladies and gentlemen!
So here's what needs to be done for starters, one new boss type at least, two new Lt types, three new minions, AND NO CALTROPS. Also, let's try to give them some arcs that center around THEM, and stop pretending there's only a hundred of them, even someone on minimum difficulty settings takes down more than that on most missions involving them! (Or at least give them all a Teleport-Away defeat animation to provide us with an illusion that we're not really permanently taking them down like normal gangs. ... On second thought if they do this, do it for Council, Sky Raiders, Malta, and possibly Nemesis as well.)
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.
Okay, so the Tsoo, Vazhilok, Hellions, and another group I can't remember, got new critters in their ranks and the Praetorian Clockwork underwent a complete overhaul along with quite a few Praetorians, so that leaves us asking: what updates, revamps, or overhauls would you like to see for various enemy groups in the game.
For me, I want to see a complete overhaul of the Skulls, lore, looks, style, etc. But powers can stay mostly the same since, well, they're supposed to be a low level, petty gang, but let's dissect their problems-
Style and looks: Look at the skull mask we can get with magic booster... Then look at the ones the Skulls wear. While the anatomy of the skull mask face detail is impossible for any normal human being, the fact is, it still looks like it's made from real bone and not a paper cutout mask. In the end, emblems and masks aside, they look like palette swapped Hellions.
Then, let's look at their names, their leaders are named Marrow Snap and Marrow Drinker, then there's Compound Fracture, The Strong Man, Brittle Bones, The Lasher, and it goes on, but there are some good ones, but really, for a gang using Death themes, they certainly have limited themselves to the crappiest of crap when about EVERY culture has a death god or three.
Lore: Go through Paragon Wiki and find any good arcs with them at the center besides Bonefire. Go on, I'll wait.
...
Got anything? Yeah, I thought not. Though in some fairness, the Hellions don't have much blueside, but then that was fixed with Redside, and they even got special bosses, but then, there's more than just arcs the skulls are or are not in, but go to the information page on the site or look up their story in Paragon Wiki.
Now... What the hell does this all mean? where do the Skulls get their powers from? Are they magical? Somehow natural? It all feels weak and watery.
For looks and style, I'd mostly like to see them look a bit more distinct from the skulls, maybe give them the purple, banana clip SMGs for their Lt.s instead of the UZI, a different shotgun model (god knows, ANY gang that uses shotguns could use a new shotgun model, like maybe one with a stock) for the buckshots, give them a DP Lt. (Hellions too, I've always felt that as gangs they would be the natural ones to go Gangsta style with their pistols), and new jackets and such. To be honest, the hellions could make do with a looks upgrade too.
The gist of my own lore ideas is basically to make them less of a standard "in it for power and glory gang" and closer to just being a gang about wanton destruction in a cloud of black nihilism while at the same time giving foreshadowing to seeing that these guys could just as easily be one step away from becoming a troll or two steps from becoming part of the Freakshow later on, but that there's a connection between a lower gang to a higher gang beyond just chain of command.
Bow the next group that could use a severe upgrade is the Knives of Artemis, they have less diversity than Skulls and Hellions, they have no real arcs of their own, and in general we seem to only know them as Malta's call girls who, as going by RWZ mob dialogue, don't think as long as their paid.
Hmmm... An organization of women who model themselves after the virgin goddess of the hunt not thinking as long as their paid by a group of men, are mostly a satellite organization and given no development of their own... Nope, no unfortunate implications here, ladies and gentlemen!
So here's what needs to be done for starters, one new boss type at least, two new Lt types, three new minions, AND NO CALTROPS. Also, let's try to give them some arcs that center around THEM, and stop pretending there's only a hundred of them, even someone on minimum difficulty settings takes down more than that on most missions involving them! (Or at least give them all a Teleport-Away defeat animation to provide us with an illusion that we're not really permanently taking them down like normal gangs. ... On second thought if they do this, do it for Council, Sky Raiders, Malta, and possibly Nemesis as well.)
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