New villain arcs unsatisfying. Not enough choice.

Spoiler Alert.

Ok, I played the new villain arcs, and at first I thought they were really good. I looked on paragonwiki for my choices, and although I liked what you can ultimately do to Fire Wire (you have a choice, which is good), his arc looked a little too "idiot card" to me. It seems he plays you for a patsy the whole time and you teach him a lesson at the end.

So, I chose Doctor Weber instead. His are more straightforward, no choice, but he doesn't mess with you, either.

Then you get offered Lt. Harris. Now we're talking supreme evil. I thought this was great at first, but then, you don't have any choice here either. You must kill this woman because she rejected the contact. Sure, she is Longbow, but...maybe this motivation might not do it for you, especially if you are prone to more roguish thoughts? And maybe you ARE a woman that has had to reject someone, and feel some sympathy for her? Too bad! The one choice you are offered is to take him out once the deed is done. Personally, I feel it might be better if you could say hey, you're kinda crazy I'm not killing her. Even though my villains almost certainly would take the choice to do it. lol

Then we come to the Dr. Graves training arcs. Talk about the idiot card! WOW!
He treats you like crap the entire time. Always talking down, being furious. I could not find a legitimate answer for why the player just doesn't snap this guy's neck for his sheer insolence. You are strung along with the prospect that these fellow villains are your competitors, and that you will be able to take them out after all is said and done, and you do not. Everybody lives. Even Graves, who basically shows you gratitude, but mocks you at the end. He says "where do you think you are, paragon city?" No, sir, that is not the difference. The difference is that here, we can kill our contacts for crossing us! Oh, wait, they have Aron Thiery. I mean, really, if there ever was a perfect place to put a "kill this guy" option, that is it. Especially if you just did the Virgil Tarikoss strike force, which is in the exact same level range, who also plays you like a fool, and then says "haha, I'm really a hero, there's nothing you can do about it and I"m just gonna stand here laughing at you".

So what I'm saying is I kinda like the arcs (the mission where you defeat Crosscut is hilarious at the end), but more choice is good. Right now you go from supremely evil to "diet coke of evil" without missing a beat, and you just go right along with the words that are put in your mouth. They have the technology to make these arcs better, it just seems like the opportunity isn't being taken.

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SadysCHICK ALL the Badges! (I can get. 1396)
Full image by David Nakayama
Arc ID 1435: Performing without Annette
Arc ID 7206: Sadystic Tendencies
Arc ID 3864: The Chronicles of (In)FERNIA!

I have a feeling that during the closed beta period, villain arcs weren't played as much and/or the more analytical players weren't in that part of beta. I also think that in a couple of places they may have tried a bit too hard to add "more evil" without adding enough nuance to it.

Intriguingly, I'd like to compare the differences in the end result to the Barracuda SF's testing and feedback. For all of the SF's flaws, the players focused on it, it got unique mechanics that the snorefest blueside didn't get, and the players pressed the point that Lord Recluse should present you with more respect to the point it got edited that LR canonically makes you an Arbiter.

The other thing me and some people in-game were discussing is that parts of the Graves arc don't quite feel organic in setup. It's like there was a planned end goal and the story was forced to fit.

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The heroside ones seem to work much better. The training one I haven't gone all the way through, but it did have some story things that were interesting (Twinshot seems to be related to Maelstrom in some way). The Atlas Park arcs are great, actually. They tie in very nicely with the Shivans hitting Galaxy, and explain why there is gang activity in such a pristine part of the city.

It works well for the first few levels, if you don't feel like burning through them via the Sewers (and you can run those and then the sewers, if you want).

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Guide: Tanking, Wall of Fire Style (Updated for I19!), and the Four Rules of Tanking
Story Arc: Belated Justice, #88003
Synopsis: Explore the fine line between justice and vengeance as you help a hero of Talos Island bring his friend's murderer to justice.
Grey Pilgrim: Fire/Fire Tanker (50), Victory

There are new Sewer Arcs? Oh... I have been in the sewers... my bad.

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I am in the beta for an upcomming MMO that takes good vs. evil pretty seriously - sometimes too much so, but that is the road of evil, no? I think it is difficult for this game to do well because they really don't have the custom-for-you world down (like WoW really gets into now-a-days). I mean, you kill contact X, but he/she/it is still there...

I'd love to see something where you destroy a significant thing (like the powerplant in Cap or something) and from that point on, your map is different (no powerplant). Unfortunately, the talent and the toolset for that are obviously missing from this product. It's like being painted into a corner and the only way out is to start over with a wider intention in mind (which is seriously cost-prohibitive).

I'd love to see a ton of contacts/arcs/etc. just removed (mostly blue-side); so much wasted on useless and bad arcs or missions (think pre i13 stuff). The latest missions are definately on the right path, though!

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"Look how many pages of crap are in this thread already!" -r0y to all threads on these forums.