Questions about the Roy Cooling arc (spoilers)

Having just replayed Indigo's Multiple M Malta Melvin Madness arc *Couldn't resist the joke* I'd invite anyone to compare the writing with that one vs the writing in Roy Cooling.

Sure the arc is a LONG one, and after that third run to crimson bit you want to tell the kids to buy a fax machine already, but it reveals the bits and pieces about Malta in a very enjoyable manner. clue here, clue there, Crimson letting you play fill in the blanks.

Roy Cooling on the other hand is the equivalent of the filler strips in questionable content.

"HI, WE'RE MALTA!" "I'm a BAD guy!" >.> <.< "I am ETERNAL!"

And thats before you get into the technical flaws in the mission (Rogue PPD flashbangs, not highlighting the fire escapes you can use, not pointing out till the damn end you could get nance's help if you talked to him first, continued and constant abuse of the ambush mechanic praetoria style so on)

Granted I will say the arc did have two good points. The helper swat AI's actually seemed to be the most competent pets i've had in an arc. And Callisto. I Love the guy, he needs to be in more arcs outside faultline.

Now that you mention it, the SWAT team were one of the few times I've had much luck keeping non-hero NPC helpers alive. Usually they run off and do something stupid.

Speaking of, right before you enter the infamous sewers of rogue PPD, you have some cop following you. Was he supposed to enter the sewers and help ('cause he doesn't). If not, why is he following me on the streets?

Running Crimson's World Wide Red just now, I ran across a piece of pretty damning evidence as to how secretive the Malta group SHOULD be:

Quote:

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, SAM is the superhuman affairs division of intelligence no? Would make sense they'd have more info on a group that primarily involves superhumans (if in an antagonistic role) than a "regular" CIA guy.

Roy Cooling is interesting that it seems to do things wrong by attempting to do everything right, plus lore hurts rather than helps.

It tries to appeal to newcomers by introducing Malta yet it takes some of the weight away from meeting them later on. Likewise, it tries to be far too upfront about Malta's involvement to appeal to the vets when the vets who actually pay attention to the storyline know that Malta is being way too visible for their usual way of doing things.

Lore oddly hurts the story since the MediPorters are supposed to be pretty safe and energy efficient which dilutes the concerns of not sharing it with citizens. Something as simple a stating it isn't or perhaps adjusting things to mention that the new upgrade will protect heroes from Cole's assault but it is far less energy efficient than the old version would clear a lot of that up.

While I do enjoy the arc, it seems to have the same problem as the Reichsman TF/SF in that someone thought of an "awesome concept" without fully checking the canon. Though I have to give Horatio credit for owning up to that fact and making a few adjustments. I'd say that a few adjustments is really all that's needed but I doubt it'll happen since they would be small adjustments.

I think you would have a lot more luck nailing Cooling's arc to the wall on the weakness of it's own arc by not invoking some of the older stuff. Cooling's stuff has a lot of problems, and I really want them to be fixed because as an arc is was a lot of fun to play (and I disagree about the Malta Titan - having it spawn as an EB is a great way to show that you're taking on something that is a major threat that at higher levels spawns only as a boss - mechanics equal story progression there).

But when you look at the older stuff there are a handful of good arcs, and they mostly sit at the higher levels. When I started playing I tried reading the stories and almost quit because the mission arcs outside of the Hollows made very little sense. Don't tell me that the story holes in Cooling's arc are bad but then handwave the absolutely awful padding that you see in a lot of the older stuff as simply a mechanics problem. The padding is a major story problem - way way way too much of my time is spent in fights that ultimately serve no purpose.

Say what you will about Cooling's arc - and there are many problems with it - but ultimately it's short and the mechanics are interesting enough to keep me involved. Writing is more than just the text on the screen, it's also the delivery. And too much of the time in the older arcs were spent with a lot of really awful delivery; and worse than that, too much of the old arcs were spent with really awful delivery while ensuring that it felt like your character just wasn't doing much. Some of the gang war stuff at low levels is interesting, but ultimately dropped. The Vahz arc is interesting, but having the worst in mission debuff in the game on you while fighting Vahz is probably the worst idea ever.

Then there are the Striga contacts. I like the Striga arcs. I really do. But a lot of them seem kind of strung together in a non-intelligible way. "I heard that these guys are being a problem, you should go after them". "I lost my wedding ring, can you recover it?"

So yes, go after Ray Cooling's arc. But don't tell me that the older stuff is better. Because it's really not. A handful of them are - but even there a lot of them are really really long mission arcs with a lot of really annoying hunts. By and large, including the new 1 - 20 stuff Goldside (which, granted, have a great deal of difficulty) the newer content makes a lot more sense in a shorter amount of time than the old stuff.