Which arcs would you want to see re-done?

Especially if then at a later date you need his expertise to quell a more dangerous demonic invasion.

Hell extend this to other contacts (both red & blue) who if you work with you get to get their help (or pin the blame on) later in your career, while if you go against them they won't talk to you or no longer exist for you to talk to.

@Thread:
Pretty much all Blue content prior to about i9, (minus stuff that has been updated recently) but especially the Shadow Shards (not just the TFs). Don't play red side often (if it can be avoided) so can't really comment on what it needs.

And I'd love to see Tip style mission replace most of the filler and paper missions.

I agree strongly with the first point I quoted here, and I agree with the spirit of the second, but I think it'd be difficult to change the culture of the game this way.

There were many factors that created the speed run culture that dominates TF runs. When discussing it, most people, including the devs, focus on the fixed rewards for all TF's (Pool C recipes) that were granted prior to the age of merits. However, there's another factor involved: many of the old TF's are so long and time-consuming that even a "speed" run takes many hours. When a TF is set up to run in six hours moving at "normal" speed, I can't really fault players for wanting to skip as much of it as possible to cut it down to a manageable two. I'm convinced that this, not the desire to get rewards really, really fast, is the predominant factor in the development of speed runs.

This brings us to the aspect of speed running I find most insidious. Because people (myself included!) have developed this mindset that "if we don't rush, we'll be slogging through this thing for the next six hours," they try to bypass as much as possible even when it causes them to miss out on halfway-decent content. For example, in the ITF, I like slaughtering hundreds of Romans on a team like a buzzsaw, but people avoid it because they've been taught by older content that NOT FAST IS BAD.

This brings me to the second point. I don't think there's anything the devs can do to fix this perception at this point. With a few exceptions, the kind of high-end player who runs a lot of TF's is unlikely, in my experience, to care about the quality of the content. Rather, they care about how fast it can be done (and therefore what the rewards are, since TF rewards are based solely on completion time). I have plenty of acquaintances who won't run the new Positron TF's, despite the fact that they're entertaining, because they "don't give enough merits" and "the old one was better." With that kind of attitude among players, no wonder the devs don't like to reexamine old content.

I agree with this. Especially with Brass since his arcs are the only way to get an O-Portal for villains "naturally". Levels 15 through 20 for Villains are way too crowded (especially since the temp power for the mayhem mission in that range is a must have).

Master Of badges are based on completing the TF with no temp powers and no defeats. There is no "no failed missions" challenge option for TFs, so it can't be required.

The stupid part is, if you can't beat the CWK without dying, what makes you think you can beat Hami? Might as well get the failure out of the way early so you can either restart with a better team or say "screw it, let's finish anyway" and play like idiots the rest of the TF and get it done faster.

The thing is, the speed run "culture" didn't really become dominant until the introduction of merits and the ITF. Before that, sure there would be stealthing, if you could do it. A stealther wasn't "required" for anything but the Cavern of Transcendence. Now you "need" a stealth+TPer or two or three IOd to the gills melee characters.

Those kinds of players don't care about TFs, they care about rewards. Why should TFs care about them? Frankly, who cares how fast those people can get rewards? They still get them faster than everybody else, there is always some means available for them to get more rewards faster than everybody else. If you reduce the efficiency of one method they will find the next most efficient way and do that.

Meanwhile, for players who do care about content, the newer TFs, and even moreso trials, are a unique experience. They are designed with a team in mind, which regular arcs can't be, and that allows the devs to make use of mechanics they can't use anywhere else.

You know, I already had little respect for "Master of" badges after that time period where TF difficulty was bugged and resulted in all the AVs never spawning above level 49 in level 50 TFs, including the STF and LRSF, for a month or so before it was fixed. Hearing this nonsense now makes the "Master of" badge even more of a joke for the LGTF.

If an arc ended that way, I would consider it a monumental disappointment. It would vindicate his whole "I'm the boss of you" attitude.

Taken as a whole, his character amounts to "St. Martial is my town, and no one gets to have fun in it without my say so." If the Wailers want to break open the Giza, they have to get through Hardcase. If VV wants to paint the town red, Hardcase puts a stop to it.

That arc in particular is a large part of why (I think) he's so reviled. Because you're off causing havoc and mayhem and then he steps in and puts you in time out. And you immediately comply -- you're given no choice to do anything else. He's the sheriff and once he gives you a stern talking-to, the funtimes stop. It's bad enough that every time you turn around in the Isles you're given a reminder that you only exist at Lord Recluse's sufferance, but at least you're given the CHANCE to put the hurt on Arachnos. Hardcase just... sends you to your room.

I consider that wholly antithetical to the spirit of CoV. My typical visit to Paragon involves several hundred police officers shouting at me to stop and me stepping over their broken bodies en route to the bank. Part of being a villain is that you get to DECIDE which laws (if any) apply to you. "No, I will not stop robbing the bank." "Yes, I think I will perform this experiment anyway." "I don't care what Mother Nature says, I'm putting octopus arms on that chimpanzee."

I'm willing to accept a certain curtailing of freedom because it's a persistent MMO and everyone has to live there. I ACKNOWLEDGE that my villains will never be allowed to crash the Moon into the Earth/summon Azathoth/force the nations of the world to submit. I can accept that I should fight the Rikti because I can't rule a world that they'd destroyed. Hardcase (and Arbiter Daos in the Patron arcs) exceed that suspension-of-disbelief. They forcibly remind me that I'm reciting the lines that someone else has written and there's no room for me to put my own spin on things.

I'm normally a big fan of the writing in the game. Some of it I think is great (much of Praetoria); some is very strong (Automatic Villainy; parts of the Grandville material); some is just okay (a lot of the old blueside content). But I consider Hardcase and Arbiter Daos in the Patron arcs outright failures. It's railroading of the worst kind and I'd hate to see more.

The stupid thing is, like I said, that's not even the hard part.

Of course the level 49 AV thing means that everyone who cared already has their MO everything badges and it's like pulling teeth to get a decent team together for those of us who didn't get them that way.

I love Vernon Von Grun. Just thought I'd mention that, so it doesn't seem like we all hate everything.

I think it's telling that a lot of villainous AE arcs have nothing to do with Arachnos at all. Many of them involve your villain doing their own thing.

As of tonight I'd like to announce that I have a new prime candidate for content that needs to be redone: Reichsman. ***** ***** **** Reichsman.

Just ran the Barracuda SF today with my static team. Couldn't beat him. Had debuffs. Had damage. Had a Brute that could survive it. Didn't have an MM. No SF for you, sorry, you can't cut through that giant sack of HP before it phases and heals back up because nobody chose to saddle the static team with a door-blocking lag-inducing AT. ****. Never mind the whole "Reichsman one-shots everybody" thing, even though we faced him later after he'd powered himself up and he clearly couldn't do that. Or that we're all being played for chumps. Or.....well the Reichsman TFs have been complained about since they were in beta and nothing was done to make them not stupid, instead they were validated with a Master Of badge. Someone find me the devs responsible so I can smack them upside the head with a carp and demand that hour of my life back.

Absolutely! He's a favorite of mine. Even though the arc has you being his Igor, he's so well-written that the arc is enjoyable. He didn't try to browbeat me or belittle me, he just said, "Hey, buddy, let's do some SCIENCE."

It's also telling how few AE arcs involve Nemesis either.

And even better is that he acknowledges that he would never have gotten to where he is at the end without you.

I had a total blast using him as my main contact in my AE arc "Too Clever By Half." Talk about trancechanneling your inner mad scientist...

"How dare you interrupt the illustrious and all-important march of science? Do you not comprehend that your mewlings are distracting me from unlocking the secrets of the universe? From bringing the primal forces of nature under my very command? Oh, it's you. Err, sorry about that. I was just... practicing for when I actually have lackeys of my own."

"Quickly, quickly! The longer you dawdle, the more likely it is that word will get back to Arachnos about what happened and I'll be facing certain doom! Don't you have any sense of loyalty? Of devotion? Of... wait, I forgot who I'm talking to. It doesn't matter! Hurry... or I will threaten you with that most vile and horrendous of tortures... I WON'T DEDICATE MY NEXT BOOK TO YOU! How do you like THAT?!"

And if there is a God, and they ever make a City of Heroes movie, only one man is cool enough to be cast as Vernon von Grun...

... Eddie Izzard.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

Dark_Respite's Farewell Video: "One Last Day"
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)