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The iffy grammar isn't limited to the new starter content. I ran through the First Ward arcs for the first time the other day and ran into Dominatrix telling me that she "Could care less" about what happened to the [MacGuffin] which really made me enjoy kicking the crap out of her.|
Originally Posted by Kallandra
I never thought I'd be saying this, but I really miss the Snake missions in Mercy, along with Doctor Creed's arc. I also miss both Outbreak and Escape from the Zig
 I feel I learnt more from those than the new Galaxy Tutorial and subsequent missions. I think the amount of bugs, typo's and abominable grammar probably play a part in my not liking the new starting arcs. That, and I'm curious to find out if the Cult of Stheno is still around. |
And the problem with the new content is that the "Tutorial" isn't a tutorial, it's an interactive intro and that's *bad* because it's billed as a tutorial and should be there to teach new players *all* of the basics so that if they don't do the starter arcs (which is extremely common thanks to the damn DfB) they'll still know roughly what they're doing.
That said, I enjoyed the starter content the first time around, probably redside more than blueside because you *expect* someone like Scirocco to manipulate you for his own ends which makes the early stuff less jarring than the blueside Manticore bits. It's just that now there's basically only one content path from 1-5 it gets pretty boring pretty quickly with multiple alts.
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I think you're reading my comment out of context. |
Originally Posted by BYiro
Orobouros, level 14. Better late than never.
OR are you in *that* much of a hurry to get to 50? |
I was simply stating that despite how old and stale the old content was, it had choices which gave it some replayability. Different origin contacts, Galaxy or Atlas, Burke or Kalinda... The new content doesn't have any of that and for someone who alts as much as I do, it gets old very quickly.
However, given how things have been restructured, that's an impossibility. The new arcs are geared to new players not those of us who have been here for years and like a little variety.
@Dante EU - Union Roleplayer and Altisis Victim
The Militia: Union RP Supergroup - www.themilitia.org.uk
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No, it IS the same as never. There's no point in running low-level content if you're no longer low level. The content itself wasn't great, it was just better than what replaced it, and I vastly prefer levelling up on Snake missions and the old Origin contacts than the only path I have now. When you see people pining over the legacy content, it's rarely because that content was good, but rather because, as an alternative to new content, it's seen as better.|
Originally Posted by BYiro
Orobouros, level 14. Better late than never.
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When running new content, I find myself with hands extended towards the screen, yelling "Wrestle! Wrestle!" as I read through reams of text and have my gameplay interrupted YET AGAIN with more "dialogue" trees that I have no input into, or I find myself put into irritating gimmick fights that take me out of the experience one too many times.
I used to defend Twinshot's arc, but in retrospect, it's because I actually was playing a "kiddo" in it, so the specificity of her narrative didn't register with me at the time. Looking back on it, it's just the same mess as Dr. Graves - it assumes my character is a young rookie who fell over backwards into super powers. Just yesterday, I was proofreading someone's backstory which showed his character as a capable, smart veteran cop who knew the system and was simply dissatisfied with it. Getting called "kiddo" by a woman who looks like she can't be a day older than 30 doesn't strike me as appropriate in the situation.
Bottom line is, I'd like to have an option to run the old starting content AS I'M STARTING OUT.
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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.
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So, I finally finished the third arc today actually on my street justice/willpower brute, who is a retired pro fighter taking the fight to the streets kind of guy and I kind of see how the kiddo part could be annoying.
***Spoilers***
Not half as annoying as all the assumptions that Grym makes. (Me angry? No I wasn't angry at all...). That being said though I can read over such things and it doesn't bother me that much. What annoyed me more in the last level was the caption boxes going way to fast, not helping that the "Help" chatter was making the text disappear faster then I could scroll to read back fighting those annoying clockwork.
What I did like was the scene in the portal room. It felt pretty heroic lining up, apart from the enemies being way to easy.
And then it sorta ended....it somehow reminded me of the last quest of the legacy quest chain in Star Wars Galaxies, I had spent 52 levels or so doing everything related to that legacy quest chain and then it sorta ended...out of nowhere...not a real resolution or anything. If I was a new player like I was in SWG I would not no what to do next. Oh, and why do we need to go back to Atlas Park to talk face to face other then yeah, this is kind of a important character moment...(which it wasn't).
And what happened with Flambeaux? And why was Christian Slater in Star Trek VI?
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@Lyrik
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Hope is the first step onto the road to disappointment.|
Originally Posted by 3dent
I didn't touch Mercy 2.0 yet, but I hope it's better. I really do. |
Seriously, Graves is about five times worse than Twinshot's arc. I didn't mind Twinshot too much.
And hey, I got to punch Graves and co in the face. That more than made up for it. >_>
(Mercy itself is decent. Just not Graves. Graves is terribad)
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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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The whole game does - and always has - that's what security/threat levels are |
Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
it assumes my character is a young rookie who fell over backwards into super powers.
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And that's why the game has only given you a couple of powers when you start, and sent you to stop muggings and drug deals by stret gangs - even if you've created a cosmic level avatar in your head - and that's why cosmic level avatars will still be told to come back when they're more powerful by contacts who offer missions against Outcasts, and why cosmic level avatars who take a trip to Steel Canyon after Atlas park, instead of going to the Hollows or Kings Row, will see purple Clockwork that can 2-shot them.
@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
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Being new to being a hero isn't quite the same as being new to reality, which is how the early arcs often paint you.
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Originally Posted by Golden Girl
The whole game does - and always has - that's what security/threat levels are
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Different opinions, although to be fair, Red-Side has a higher minimum bar than Blue-Side |
Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha
Hope is the first step onto the road to disappointment.
Seriously, Graves is about five times worse than Twinshot's arc. I didn't mind Twinshot too much. And hey, I got to punch Graves and co in the face. That more than made up for it. >_> (Mercy itself is decent. Just not Graves. Graves is terribad) |
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Let's Dance!
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That's really the only problem I had with Twin Shot... The automatic assumption that my character was some young pup. |
Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
I used to defend Twinshot's arc, but in retrospect, it's because I actually was playing a "kiddo" in it, so the specificity of her narrative didn't register with me at the time. Looking back on it, it's just the same mess as Dr. Graves - it assumes my character is a young rookie who fell over backwards into super powers. Just yesterday, I was proofreading someone's backstory which showed his character as a capable, smart veteran cop who knew the system and was simply dissatisfied with it. Getting called "kiddo" by a woman who looks like she can't be a day older than 30 doesn't strike me as appropriate in the situation.
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I was running those arcs with Anigan. He's old enough to be any of those kids' father. It was just face-palm worthy silliness to have him constantly addressed as "kiddo". >_>
Now, I know as well as anyone that it's impossible for the writers to account for even a fraction of the character designs we come up with, and that often their "default" choices can lead to some grumbling (See the massive number of dialogue points that refer to all characters as "human", for instance, even when many of us play things that obviously aren't-), but it seems reasonable to me for them to at least make *some* effort to avoid that kind of thing where possible.
But they don't.
And we end up with something ridiculous.
Like this "kiddo"-business.
@Brightfires - @Talisander
That chick what plays the bird-things...
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I have a backlog of lowbie AE arcs to run. That's what I'll be doing until level 5 with any new characters I make from now on. It'll also have the side benefit of allowing me to get out of Atlas very very quickly.
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Originally Posted by 3dent
And in any event, you have to level up to 14 somehow. Which is, well, possible with street sweeps and radios, but if they aren't your thing either, you re left with DFB (may as well PL), new contacts or radios and the Hollows (past lvl 5.)
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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
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I assumed that poor Twinshot was babysitting her team of... Umm... CRCs for so long that she sort of assumes any super interested in joining her is "kiddo" until proven otherwise. And, well, any sane superhero would run from her crew like plague, whether Twinshot herself is personal friends with FP members or not...
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Originally Posted by Bright
Like this "kiddo"-business.
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True, that...|
Originally Posted by 3dent
And, well, any sane superhero would run from her crew like plague, whether Twinshot herself is personal friends with FP members or not...
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I figure Anigan stuck around just to keep "those dang-fool kids" out of trouble. The guy may be a gruff old bruiser, but he's still got a protective streak, and that bunch seemed pretty hopeless. <_<
@Brightfires - @Talisander
That chick what plays the bird-things...
Concerning the Villain flip-side of Twinshot's arc, I did find myself wincing as my character was constantly forced into being a gullible idiot time and again by the dialog choices. Yes, they were funny dialogs, but maaaan... at least give me a couple of choices to click on that don't portray me as a loser.
Yeah, the kiddo thing is pretty passable. Replace it with 'newbie' in your head if it makes you feel better.
Aaaand, yeah, I have to say that the Twinshot arc, much as I dislike these 'super tutortials', it better than Graves arc. For one, the Graves arc just tosses you into some very chumpblock missions (Sorry, I'm a squishy dominator still gaining his powers, why throw 2 Boss spawns at me *at the start of a mission*? Oh what's that, a whole mission of nothing but boss after boss spawn?) And two, while the Twinshot arc has some things thrown in to obviously appeal to younger crowds and some poor attempts at humor, the Graves arc is just... degrading for what it puts you through and how it makes you act.
Twinshot at least flows together decently and the tutorial elements feel somewhat better woven together, wheres Graves everything seemed like so much afterthought. "Oh yeah, enhancements, he gave his up, what an idiot. You shouldn't do that" etc. And none of the characters are really likable. I mean, they're all villains so that's sort of the point, but they're not *good* villains. A good villain you like to dislike. The Hearts of Darkness are just plain unlikeable. At least the Shining Stars have some characters you can like.
I think part of the problem could be solved fairly easily by altering the end of Matthew Hashaby's contact chain. Once it ends you're just stuck with Twinshot unless you go street sweeping or hit radio missions. Why not just have the end contact do what a number of traditional contacts do and give a choice of contacts, pick from like 3-4 to go to.
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I've started writing a level 5-10 arc so I'll always have something worthwhile to do instead of the new crap.
| I have a backlog of lowbie AE arcs to run. That's what I'll be doing until level 5 with any new characters I make from now on. |
Current Blog Post: "Why I am an Atheist..."
"And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained/As we did in the days when Victoria reigned!" -- T. S. Eliot, "Gus, the Theatre Cat"
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Yup, this is what I do too. I just need to find some passable villain 1-5 arcs.
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Originally Posted by Eva Destruction
I have a backlog of lowbie AE arcs to run. That's what I'll be doing until level 5 with any new characters I make from now on. It'll also have the side benefit of allowing me to get out of Atlas very very quickly.
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Excuse me, but this is still the USA. We're allowed to disagree with you and proclaim that we don't like how the developers are handling Praetoria and their chosen direction for this game|
Originally Posted by Golden Girl
Because Praetoria's awesome - it's added so much to the game, lore-wise, system-wise, and content-wise, and is a major part of the ongoing transformation of the game that started back in I17.
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Thank you
There is no such thing as an "innocent bystander"
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Actually, it's the Internet. You're only accessing it from the USA.
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Originally Posted by BigFish
Excuse me, but this is still the USA.
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Ah, The Internet: Where the men are men, the women are men and the 14 year old girls are FBI agents.
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Originally Posted by Lady_Sadako
Actually, it's the Internet. You're only accessing it from the USA.
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Omnes relinquite spes, o vos intrantes
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Though to be fair, NCSoft is a US based company and the bulk of the fan base and the servers, both game and forum, and located in the US.
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Originally Posted by Lady_Sadako
Actually, it's the Internet. You're only accessing it from the USA.
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NCSoft is Korean.
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NCsoft is a South Korean company with a US branch. It's Paragon Studios that is a US-based company.
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Originally Posted by Agent White
Though to be fair, NCSoft is a US based company and the bulk of the fan base and the servers, both game and forum, and located in the US.
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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.
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Actually, now that the developers have the ability to make gender-specific alterations to text, such as Dean asking guys out to a beer and girls out to a candle-lit dinner, I'm not sure if that couldn't have been the case. Simply call male character "new guy" and female ones "new girl" and be done with it. Granted, there's the problem of calling grown women "girl," but that seems a bit more easily acceptable.|
Originally Posted by Agent White
Yeah, the kiddo thing is pretty passable. Replace it with 'newbie' in your head if it makes you feel better.
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Or dispense with the complexities and just gi with "rookie." "Kiddo" is both archaic and something an old man would say, and again - Twinshot does not look like an old woman. Hell, I'd be surprised if she were older than I am. "Kiddo" assumes age, which is not a safe bed. "Rookie" assumes a level of power and experience, which IS a safe bet because it is defined by the levelling system. Sure, I might want to claim that my character is an ancient immortal vampire of incredible power, but if he's level 4 and obviously can't back that up with action, he's still a rookie.
Honestly, that's Twinshot's biggest failing in terms of writing - it's written with the assumption that we'll all be playing junior heroes. That's why dialogues make us sound so goofy and awkward and why everyone treats us like kids - because the writer honestly thought that's what we'd be.
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Originally Posted by Agent White
Twinshot at least flows together decently and the tutorial elements feel somewhat better woven together, wheres Graves everything seemed like so much afterthought. "Oh yeah, enhancements, he gave his up, what an idiot. You shouldn't do that" etc. And none of the characters are really likable. I mean, they're all villains so that's sort of the point, but they're not *good* villains. A good villain you like to dislike. The Hearts of Darkness are just plain unlikeable. At least the Shining Stars have some characters you can like.
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"Playing the hero" has to be the goofiest part, because at that point we're essentially LARPing. You want to have a contest? Set up its ground rules ONCE, then just have us compete for them in several missions. Say, like the Freaklimpics. Today is the Council gear stealing round. Whoever steals the most expensive or highly-advanced piece wins. Tomorrow, it's the snake-wrangling round, where whoever brings down the biggest snake wins. The day after that, it's the information extraction, where whoever gets the most important piece of Arachnos information without getting detected wins. Just set up the rules so they make sense, rather than seeming like random events happening on the screen.
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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.
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kiddo, sport, newbie or various girl names if you're a male character (oh the lulz I would have if Dr. Cox was a contact)
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Originally Posted by Agent White
Yeah, the kiddo thing is pretty passable. Replace it with 'newbie' in your head if it makes you feel better.
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OR are you in *that* much of a hurry to get to 50?
And in any event, you have to level up to 14 somehow. Which is, well, possible with street sweeps and radios, but if they aren't your thing either, you re left with DFB (may as well PL), new contacts or radios and the Hollows (past lvl 5.)