Feedback: "Who Will Die?" Part 1

I completely sympathize with them. While some characters (depending on powers) can easily solo this story arc--which I found awesome--some characters, even at level 50, will fail completely. Add to that the exempt to level 20 and lose of so many powers and, yeah, I can see why some would be irratated.

Edit: Oh, So my squishies can leave the mission and let the timer run out on those ignious ambushes, then re-enter the mission to complete it? Okay then.

Thanks for the correction, I appreciate it.

That means everything else about what I disliked is valid then?

I think it is worth paying for... I remember when both John Saul and Stephen King came out with small "Serial Stories." They were each a 5-book series and each book was about 100 pages for $4 - $5. They were stand alone stories in their own right, but fed to a larger over all story.

I bought each book and read them once and enjoyed them.

I relate the signature story arc to these "serial story" books. The only difference is I can play these arcs several times on different characters and get something from them each time. I can also play the arc on all new characters I create and they will get the rewards as well. The arcs are playable in solo or team and red or blue side.

IMHO.... If you're only looking to play the arc once and then be done with it, then no, it's probably not worth the money. If you're looking at the fact you now have added permenant content to your game play, then it's worth the money.

How exactly could you fail the arc? Seriously? What would be the fail conditions?

Personally, I died because I had my difficulty cranked up from running around at 50. I can always turn it down and I'm sure it would be fine, difficulty wise. I just don't see what is fun about that.

This is supposed to the best that COH has to offer. SO good people will be clamoring to pay extra for it. I'll be the first to admit that I threw my toys down in a huff and went and did something else when confronted with the difference between the reality and the hype.

I mean, I was really looking forward having something new to run on my 50 that wasn't a tedious, lagging slog of 40 strangers that I know only well enough to dislike playing with. They should make a point to tell people this is lvl 20 only.

They probably mean being unable to solo it.

Getting to the end and being unable, for whatever reason, to defeat the EB at the end, I'd assume. Since it's set up as a TF, you can't just call a friend and say "hey, come help me out". You'd have to quit and start all over again.

Run the 2nd mission of the arc on a level 11 Dark/Dark blaster... Winning by letting a timer run down that despawns all the Ignious ambush mobs, instead of defeating them all, is Fail in my opinion. Not much to be proud about at least.

Why would you fight the ambushes? They don't need to be fought. Run through and click all the glowies.

Because they spawned right on top of me and squashed me flat in seconds?

Which looks really funky when the rocket board is the source of your flight.

run faster!

Haven't run Graves yet, but especially in this one, there isn't even the promise that you can share or have the power. Alastor just wants the power and as far as I can tell, you're just there while he's talking about it pretty much.

and what about the mobs around the glowies? and what if the ambushes catch up to you before you finish clicking the glowie?

What if you didn't have to wait?

Or you could use one of the dozen or so temporary/permanent flight powers, aggro Lemkin, and fly over the lava. Ta-da!

Yes, it is a game. But the day the above statement looks and feels entirely true will be the day I unsubscribe from City of X and never come back. War Witch said it best in the development interviews leading up to Going Rogue, "City of Heroes is a comic book inserted into an MMO."

City of Heroes IS an interactive story. You might not be invested in that story, nor the genre from which it sprang. I'm not holding that against you. But as I'll point out below, this isn't the way everyone feels. Since the beginning of MMORPGs, button-mashing gamers have butted heads with those who come to these games to immerse themselves in interactive, persistent stories. (For the record, I dig the button-mashing too.)

My global list helps me stay in touch with regular teammates who not only wait for everyone to read their clue bags, but sometimes even request for the team leader to copy/paste mission dialog into chat (on more interesting story arcs). It's not so crazy. If you think walls of text are crazy in a game, you should see the pen-and-paper RPGs that some of my CoH pals play. Or visit Roleplaymarket and sign up for a game. You will find a ton of great gaming that is sorely lacking in button-mashing, and a bunch of players who couldn't care less.

I've read most of them (still reading them). Most of my regular teammates have read some, or all. In canon-based AE arcs, I'm sometimes impressed to see nods to the CoH comics. Look, I'm sure we both agree that the game needs to be inclusive, not exclusive. That welcoming mat needs to be there, whether people enjoy comic books or not. But it's just as off-putting for me when I see someone poo-poo the game for design changes that establish it more firmly within its own genre.

I don't think it would matter. People who don't like story-telling elements also don't want it there for other people who do like it. As always, if you don't want to read something, you can skip it. But they are concerned about potentially having to wait on other people to read stuff. On random PUGs, and with teammates who don't share my preferences, I always skip the text. However, City of X is an RPG, not an arcade game. I enjoy reading the unfolding stories when I can. Hopefully there will continue to be storytelling involved, the more the merrier, the more comic-based the better.

It's all 3

Dammit, I could have just said that.

/frustrated emote
/curseyou emote

... um.... OK.

Then again, people were complaining about Trapdoor with their IO'd out characters while I was (and still am) beating him with just plain old SOs, too.

Don't stop moving. The glowies are "clicked" very fast. Two lucks will get you through any aggro, unless you're insisting on running at +4x8 or something, in which case, it's your own damn fault.

I've outrun the ambushes every time but the first - and that's because I stopped to screw around with the mobs. Hell, grab temp stealth, position yourself out of aggro range and click. Not hard to do. They tend to be pretty spread out, or leave a "dead spot" near the glowie.

See my Guides and Tutorials

I though it was just my old system. If you can't see the obelisk on a more modern one, then yes it needs to be changed. Especially since the entrance pop up says you can see it.

Wait? What? What vision? In one of the missions? Or did I miss something in one of the clues?

Zwillinger has said the later arcs are higher level and will get longer. I would guess that they set a standard price for the arcs and that is what they cost, no matter the length. So 400 for 3 missions is not that great, but when it is level 50 and 10 missions, it will still be 400 points.

First, your powers are still slotted. You don't lose any enhancements. A 50 exemped down to 20 is far better off than a level 20 with the same powers. You have more slots in the powers, the enhancements still work (Not as well, but they do work), and the level 50 also has his powers from level 22 and 24 to use.

I managed it on a fire/fire blaster at level 11, so it is not like it is impossible to do. I didn't even have to fight any ambushes, just ran and hit the glowies as fast as possible. And that was without using any purples, stealth or any kind of defenses.

That is quite possible, however, I'd still contend that 400 for 10 missions wouldn't be a good value. First Ward may well be on the cheap side of things, but I still think it's a fair point of comparison.

7 parts + finale [I haven't done it, wanting to do it with level approp isn't of exemping, so I don't know if the 'finale' part is a 'full arc' or not to be honest] + the new zone for 600 points.

I can easily see 400 points for the entire series [Who Will Die?]. [edit] It's just odd to see that sort of price disparity in fairly similar content.