Forgot How Bad Vivacious Verandi's Arc Is
By
Benchpresser,
Posted on: 2011-10-10 11:02 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
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I love it up to the point where you get worfed by Hardcase. I wish they had some option in the end to let things go to hell anyways - then Hardcase can come in, fix things himself and chew you out again - but at least this time he will be chewing you out for doing it YOUR way.
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Originally Posted by Daemodand
So you go around beating up on the bad guys and get sent to Hardcase to be scolded like a powerless child. It'd been a while since I had done this arc so I forgot how bad it is.
On the upside, her dialogue is written with personality. Not nearly enough to save this thing from being awful, though. Maybe I should go look her up in the AE to see what people have done with her there. It's got to be an improvement, right? 1 Star. |
Globals: @Midnight Mystique/@Magik13
It's hard for me to take threats from Hardcase seriously when one of the villain alignment tips in the same level range involves releasing some demons just to piss him off and then beating him up.
_________
@Inquisitor
There needs to be another option;
[Headbutt Hardcase]
In fact, I'd love that for a few of the contacts/talkies 
some of the red side contacts really need putting in their places.
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Originally Posted by Zwillinger
GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.
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Originally Posted by Captain_Photon
NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.
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Personally, I picture my characters dangling Willy Wheeler off the side of that cliff he's near. I'd love an option for that |
Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha
There needs to be another option;
[Headbutt Hardcase] In fact, I'd love that for a few of the contacts/talkies some of the red side contacts really need putting in their places. |
"What happened to Willy Wheeler?"
"I let him go..."
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Yeah this. It's one of the relatively few arcs where you aren't just charging in like a bull and beating up your enemies. You get to sneakily pit various groups against one another. I like that. It's a shame it's ruined at the end.
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Originally Posted by EricHough
I love it up to the point where you get worfed by Hardcase.
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Years later, a fine red mist is still settling in the crater where Westin Phipps used to stand.
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Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha
There needs to be another option;
[Headbutt Hardcase] In fact, I'd love that for a few of the contacts/talkies some of the red side contacts really need putting in their places. |
Having Vengeance and Fallout slotted for recharge means never having to say you're sorry.
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I want to kill Hardcase, rez him, and then kill him again and so on until I get bored with it.
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Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha
There needs to be another option;
[Headbutt Hardcase] In fact, I'd love that for a few of the contacts/talkies some of the red side contacts really need putting in their places. |
total kick to the gut
This is like having Ra's Al Ghul show up at your birthday party.
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I'm fairly sure that Tip mission was written specifically to let you do that.
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Originally Posted by Mr_Morbid
It's hard for me to take threats from Hardcase seriously when one of the villain alignment tips in the same level range involves releasing some demons just to piss him off and then beating him up.
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Character index
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Fixed that for you!
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Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha
There needs to be another option;
[Evicerate Hardcase] In fact, I'd love that for a few of the contacts/talkies some of the red side contacts really need putting in their places. |
"Well, there's going to be some light music and a short note of apology saying, 'The universe ended last week, we're really sorry, we don't know what you're doing here, didn't you get the message?'"- Steve Moffat
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"Hey Willy. Remember when I said I'd kill you last?"|
Originally Posted by Valorin
Personally, I picture my characters dangling Willy Wheeler off the side of that cliff he's near. I'd love an option for that
"What happened to Willy Wheeler?" "I let him go..." |
"Th-that's right Matrix, you did!"
"I lied."
My guides:Dark Melee/Dark Armor/Soul Mastery, Illusion Control/Kinetics/Primal Forces Mastery, Electric Armor
"Dark Armor is a complete waste as a tanking set."
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First thing I did when AE came out was made an arc involving cloning Hardcase just so I could kill him over and over and over again (with a neural link between him and his clones, just so he could feel each death).
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Originally Posted by SwellGuy
I want to kill Hardcase, rez him, and then kill him again and so on until I get bored with it.
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Good point! "I can unleash enough force to end you! Ouch! Stop hitting me!"|
Originally Posted by Mr_Morbid
It's hard for me to take threats from Hardcase seriously when one of the villain alignment tips in the same level range involves releasing some demons just to piss him off and then beating him up.
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Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha
There needs to be another option;
[Headbutt Hardcase] |
The best comics are still 10�!
My City of Heroes Blog Freedom Feature Article: "Going Rageless?"
If you only read one guide this year, make it this one.
Super Reflexes: the Golden Fox of power sets!
WARNING: I bold names.
You know, on a lark, I did one of the old CoH story arcs in the 30s yesterday. It was the one about the Vampyr Progenitor that the Council was trying to create. The Rise of the Vampyri. At the same time I realized why people complained about old blue side stuff, while also realizing that all those complaints were rendered essentially meaningless today.
The story was fine, standard hero stuff, stop the bad guys from doing something really bad. It wasn't a particularly long arc. I remember it being much longer. The old canard about having to travel all over the City was there....but who cares. I got a mission in Founders to go to Kings Row. So I took the train and there I was. Sure that might have sucked when there was no train in Founders and you would have had to go to Steel to transfer, but those days are long gone.
With the only close to valid complaint against hero content gone, I'm struck with how actually bad the writing is in Villains. For most of the time, you are a hired stooge and nothing more.
The City of Heroes Community is a special one and I will always look fondly on my times arguing, discussing and playing with you all. Thanks and thanks to the developers for a special experience.
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"Hey, Mr. Big Bad Demon Hunter, I have news for you: I'm not a demon!" *Blam* *Smash* *Kapow*
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Originally Posted by Mr_Morbid
It's hard for me to take threats from Hardcase seriously when one of the villain alignment tips in the same level range involves releasing some demons just to piss him off and then beating him up.
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Eva Destruction AR/Fire/Munitions Blaster
Darkfire Avenger DM/SD/Body Scrapper
Arc ID#161629 Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black
Arc ID#431270 Until the End of the World
Ah, Hardcase. Such a terrible contact.
It was pretty clear the development cycle in City of Villains; you have the early content (lots of focus, lots of deliberate decisions to make it feel different from CoH), with multiple extra stuff to do; then the second stage in Cap Au where things spread a little more and you can miss contacts; the hidden contacts showing up in this range as well; and then as they got onto St Martial, it was clear the writers were suffering narrative fatigue. With a few rare sparks of neat - the slot machine and Johnny Sonata, both hidden contacts with very low thresholds - the writing staff was clearly running low. And what they did was create a lot of filler. The filler would show itself as narrative cul-de-sacs - stories that started, went, and wound up where they started rather than try and show any kind of long-term problem.
Then we got Grandvlle, where a reinvigorated team got to create tons of content and it's pretty damn good. Most villains who talk up the content were probably talking about the beginning and the end.
... Anyway, I forgot where I was going with that, but Hardcase is a dick.
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I remember running Hardcase's arc with my buddy Kyber; my main, Nalrok, is a giant demon. We picked the arc since Hardcase dealt with demons.|
Originally Posted by Eva Destruction
"Hey, Mr. Big Bad Demon Hunter, I have news for you: I'm not a demon!" *Blam* *Smash* *Kapow*
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I specifically remember his line of dialogue: "No one deserves their souls ripped away by demons. No one." And then something about how demons are scum.
Kyber and I played out a scene out-of-game where Hardcase said this to Nalrok, and Nalrok picked him up by the shoulders and tore him in half like a sheet of paper.
My guides:Dark Melee/Dark Armor/Soul Mastery, Illusion Control/Kinetics/Primal Forces Mastery, Electric Armor
"Dark Armor is a complete waste as a tanking set."
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A problem besides arc length (and some of the higher level ones are VERY long) is that the original hero contacts will rarely get straight down to business with the arc and instead send you on a number of unrelated missions first. You don't hit this problem through Ouro, but if you actually level with the contacts you get a lot of filler missions that are no more interesting than tips or scanner missions.
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Originally Posted by EvilGeko
You know, on a lark, I did one of the old CoH story arcs in the 30s yesterday. It was the one about the Vampyr Progenitor that the Council was trying to create. The Rise of the Vampyri. At the same time I realized why people complained about old blue side stuff, while also realizing that all those complaints were rendered essentially meaningless today.
The story was fine, standard hero stuff, stop the bad guys from doing something really bad. It wasn't a particularly long arc. I remember it being much longer. The old canard about having to travel all over the City was there....but who cares. I got a mission in Founders to go to Kings Row. So I took the train and there I was. Sure that might have sucked when there was no train in Founders and you would have had to go to Steel to transfer, but those days are long gone. With the only close to valid complaint against hero content gone, I'm struck with how actually bad the writing is in Villains. For most of the time, you are a hired stooge and nothing more. |
_________
@Inquisitor
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But with the new Abandon option you can actually bypass those too. Simply keep abandoning the optional filler (some of them aren't optional, ymmv) until you finally get the first mission for the arc.|
Originally Posted by Mr_Morbid
A problem besides arc length (and some of the higher level ones are VERY long) is that the original hero contacts will rarely get straight down to business with the arc and instead send you on a number of unrelated missions first. You don't hit this problem through Ouro, but if you actually level with the contacts you get a lot of filler missions that are no more interesting than tips or scanner missions.
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Personally, I don't mind the filler because it's still a mission, usually has you doing something heroic and xp is xp. The only ones I don't like are the street sweeps. I save my completes for those when I can't just abandon past them.
I should have said something on-topic
I've never done Verandi's arc. I've only gotten 3 villains to that level and only one got her as a contact just as I outleveled her.
As for Hardcase, if you are playing a rogue or a vigilante (and I mean that in the roleplay sense, not the alignment sense) or under-cover dark hero then he makes a perfect not-so-villainous contact where you can do missions that actually help people out. If you want to be a real villain you should bypass Hardcase or follow it immediately with the beat-him-up tip.
So you go around beating up on the bad guys and get sent to Hardcase to be scolded like a powerless child. It'd been a while since I had done this arc so I forgot how bad it is.
On the upside, her dialogue is written with personality. Not nearly enough to save this thing from being awful, though.
Maybe I should go look her up in the AE to see what people have done with her there. It's got to be an improvement, right?
1 Star.
The best comics are still 10�!
My City of Heroes Blog Freedom Feature Article: "Going Rageless?"
If you only read one guide this year, make it this one.
Super Reflexes: the Golden Fox of power sets!
WARNING: I bold names.