City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

New official story released: "Shivans"

Aett_Thorn

By Aett_Thorn,
Posted on: 2011-09-22 11:43 in CoH and CoV General Discussions

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by CoH Facebook
Ten minutes ago, Detective Jonathan Ghaly's biggest concern was tracking down a suspect in a burglary in Galaxy City. That all changed once the meteors slammed into the city. How does an ordinary PPD detective handle an alien invasion? Read the new Shivan lore to find out!
Read the story here. What did you think of the ending?

 

Posted

If that's an ending, I'd mark down the writer for failure to complete the essay. I know conclusions are hard, but I'd rather have work turned in late than to omit it entirely.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by GuyPerfect View Post
If that's an ending, I'd mark down the writer for failure to complete the essay. I know conclusions are hard, but I'd rather have work turned in late than to omit it entirely.
Yeah, cliffhangers only work if you know there's more to come. It sucks when a TV show's season ends with a cliffhanger, but it is okay because you know in 3-4 months, the next season's premiere will add an ending.

I don't see them posting "Shivans 2." I get that it is supposed to be a lead-up to the point when we get into the tutorial, but c'mon, leave us with "Just as the Shivans approached his position, Back Alley Brawler landed in front of him, and Ghaly knew: the supers were inbound."

Boom, hope is given, we know that that is where we enter the tutorial, but we aren't left thinking, "Gee, while I'm running through the streets trying to find Blue Spectrum, Ghaly is most likely getting killed in one of these alley ways..."

Give the people hope!

@Winter. Because I'm Winter. Period.
I am a blaster first, and an alt-oholic second.

 

Posted

Here's the ending of the story:



"One night while doing his job in the PPD, Detective Jonathan Ghaly came upon an innocent woman being dragged into an alley by a giant blob of a monster, faintly humanoid in shape, covered in thick, sickly veins that pulsed with an alien aura. Jonathan called out for help, to no avail. As his fear and anger grew, he launched herself toward the alley. After a blur of flying, energy blasting, and healing light… Galaxy Guy was born!"


Sure it's plagiarism, but it could happen!

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Avogadro, Science Lord
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Posted

I just like the fact that he took advantage of the Shivans' poor AI. Stupid meteors not giving their abominable horrors better fragment-brains.

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

"I was just the one with the most unsolicited sombrero." - Traegus

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Winterminal View Post
Give the people hope!
Well, there's the fact that nobody in Galaxy City drops below 1 HP. He'll be fine.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lazarillo View Post
Well, there's the fact that nobody in Galaxy City drops below 1 HP. He'll be fine.
I can't help reading this and thinking of the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

I can just see the head of Detective Ghaly sitting alone on the ground after a bloody battle, yelling at the Shivans for being wussies.

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

"I was just the one with the most unsolicited sombrero." - Traegus

 

Posted

Quick, Developers!! Make a Shotgun Powerset!!

or at least, a Gun Mastery Powerset, in which all [or selected guns] are used within it!!

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Winterminal View Post
Yeah, cliffhangers only work if you know there's more to come.
Who says it's supposed to be a cliffhanger other than just sort of "fading to black as he's overcome?"

 

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill View Post
Who says it's supposed to be a cliffhanger other than just sort of "fading to black as he's overcome?"
If that's actually the intention then it leads to a dissatisfying conclusion. It's a Tasha Yar death. Well, you can suppose that it's "meaningful" in that he saved anyone the Shivans were chasing (assuming that those people weren't just smacked by meteors or eaten by shivans down the next block), I guess.

It reads like a cliff-hanger. When I think of the "fade to black" type of heroic death, I think of the finale of the TV show Angel - The surviving heroes look at each other with all Hell literally bearing down on them and some of them possibly already mortally wounded. They know they're going to die. Angel grins and says "I'm going to have a shot at that dragon." The end.

I'd prefer a going out guns blazing ending or at least a "Lady or the Tiger" ending. Something that draws an actual conclusion.

 

Posted

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I'm not viewing it as a story meant to stand alone. I view it as setting the scene for what our characters will be facing... providing some background or atmosphere. In that respect, I think it did the job of conveying that things have dramatically changed.

 

Posted

a couple minor discrepancies, otherwise a nice story

 

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Nova Knight View Post
Maybe I'm in the minority, but I'm not viewing it as a story meant to stand alone. I view it as setting the scene for what our characters will be facing... providing some background or atmosphere. In that respect, I think it did the job of conveying that things have dramatically changed.
the minor thing that does feel breaking is how Ghal's handgun entire clip's worth of handgun rounds did nothing to the Shivans while any player using dual pistols can two shot a shivan (and since this it likely before getting dual wield, assuming you didn't pick it first, the "two shot" part is literal).

But that's just nitpicking.
For those who'd like a happy ending, just pretend your hero swoops in and lends the good detective a hand, otherwise what good is your character?

But I do agree we need more gun sets. I've got a good handful of ideas for a shotgun set and a rifle set.

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow View Post
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.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ninja5287 View Post
Quick, Developers!! Make a Shotgun Powerset!!

or at least, a Gun Mastery Powerset, in which all [or selected guns] are used within it!!
That's what Assault Rifle used to be, way back in beta.

People got sick of all the weapon redraw.

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dual wielding shotguns, baby!

 

Posted

Loved every minute of this and the ending left an avenue for hope in addition to triumph. Kudos!

 

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It would be interesting if there was an Ouroboros mission that allowed you to cross paths with Detective Ghaly and fight off fifteen or sixteen elite boss Shivans.

 

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Quote:
Originally Posted by SlickRiptide View Post
It would be interesting if there was an Ouroboros mission that allowed you to cross paths with Detective Ghaly and fight off fifteen or sixteen elite boss Shivans.
Now that would be cool.

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow View Post
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.

 

Posted

a thing to note:

Quote:
and realized he had to do.
...and realized what he had to do.
OR
...and realized he had to do something.

Other than that, yeah, this looks like an Oro or an AE mission ripe for the writing!

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by AzureSkyCiel View Post
the minor thing that does feel breaking is how Ghal's handgun entire clip's worth of handgun rounds did nothing to the Shivans while any player using dual pistols can two shot a shivan
More evidence the Devs nerfed accuracy! Beginners luck my ***.

PRTECTR4EVR

 

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. DJ View Post
dual wielding shotguns, baby!
My brain automatically envisioned this with dark shades and exposed teeth biting down on a cigar, so it's probably some fundamental law of science that it has to be that way.

 

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I don't know, seems to leave plenty of room for one of the thousands of player-created heroes to come in and save the day. I like it.

 

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Quote:
Originally Posted by TheDeepBlue View Post
That's what Assault Rifle used to be, way back in beta.

People got sick of all the weapon redraw.
I think I would have loved to use this instead of the franken-gun that we ended up with.

 

Posted

Good story. It cannot be concluded by the nature of the game. The Shivan invasion is ongoing until further notice so there's no simple resolution. It's a flavouring... it's giving us something to work with in the background as we as player characters take up the cause and attempt to drive the Shivans back from Galaxy.


"You got to dig it to dig it, you dig?"
Thelonious Monk