Two minds about First Ward

Too lazy to multi-quote so just a few observations:

1: Johnny Ambush should look up the definition of "ambush." It usually includes the words "surprise," or "unexpectedly" or some such. If the player is surprised when they click a blinky or defeat a named boss and don't get ambushed, this is a sure sign that you are overusing them.

2: "Bosses on" is technically the default. Allowing us to scale them down to lieutenants is a bone thrown to weak soloers. So, if you have to turn bosses off, the difficulty may well be an issue. If you have to turn bosses off with a Scrapper post SOs, the difficulty is definitely an issue.

3: When someone says the same thing over and over again in every single related thread this is called spamming and should be reported as such, not replied to and quoted so said person has an excuse to keep doing it, and incidentally derails the thread.

We're not on the Well's path - that's the whole point

I fall into category 1... my firend and I team up on a regular basis and we took our Beam/time corruptors to First ward shortly after level 20, around 21 after doing our cape and costume missions, and stayed until we finished the last arc.

The arcs are entertaining and challenging and we enjoyed them completely. A two man team ensured us bosses to battle and EBs as well. I found it interesting, at least on a 2 man team, that they not only find a way to give you enough to battle to get the badges for all 5 of the new enemy group but we wound up with 4 or 5 badges for the groups normally found in the 1-20 content.

Occasionally we got overwhelmed by an ambush but usually we held our own and survived. One thing we loved was not a single contact had any missions outside of their arcs.. we like to sync up so that both of us get the ned bonuses and merits. While it was always a part of the overall story a few less talk to missions would have been just fine LOL Other than that I enjoyed it totally.

Actually, the complaint about Katie could probably be resolved in the same complaint as "the ending feels rushed and unconnected." We could have two arcs, 20-24 and 25-29, a "find out about the apparitions" arc that ends on "something's up with the Carnival of War", and then a 25-29 arc that deals with the Talons. Then we could build them up properly and rescue Katie at the end. During the Talons arc she could fall to their anger because of lingering resentment toward you, and then snap out of it (after you beat her up, of course) to hold off part of the army before you go fight Serene.

None of the text about Sorceress Serene involves ambushes

I felt bad about Katie, but only because I had freed her from the Network in the first place. What a shame and waste of effort. Probably end up having to kill her outright eventually.

It's funny that you go to such lengths to assure we the readers that First Ward is definitely, absolutely, categorically not a challenge for a couple of reasons. The first is that you seem to be strongly implying, amid your accusations of mere tedium, that you do in fact find parts of it annoyingly hard but don't want us to think that you do. The second and more interesting point is that if you think First Ward is so pathetically easy, you appear to be basically alone in your beliefs. I and others have argued that it isn't too hard in the face of many, many posters who feel that it is. But now you're here to tell us that we're all wrong, it's ludicrously easy and we're literally all stupid because we can't see how easy it is. That's an interesting claim.

I have to ask, is there anything that you like about City of Heroes at all? It really seems like there is not. The gameplay is for simpletons, the story is dreck, I'm sure you find the graphics repugnant both for how antiquated they are and for the fact that ultra mode has made the system requirements marginally higher. Do you just pay your sub because you like the forum so much?

I play weird concept builds. I have two toggle-less tanks. I don't turn bosses off.

FWIW, I always run new content at base level the first time so I can concentrate on the story. That said, there are several instances in the First Ward arcs that spawn bosses wether you turned them on or not. Apparations are especially bad at that.

The more I think about the story of First Ward, the more frustrated I get. It starts off well enough with bringing peace to the survivors’ compound and the build up of the Apparitions as threats is pretty good. But then it just seems to stop. After you’ve secured the chapel the plot just spins off into nowhere. Once the reveal as to what the Apparitions are (which I did quite like) is given, the plot gets hijacked by Serene.

And here’s the issue: I have no idea who this Serene is, neither do any of my contacts. Apparently I’m meant to know who the Talons of Vengeance are though and why them being released is a big threat but this is never explained. Suddenly, stopping the Apparitions or at least putting them to rest or restoring the Seers becomes a non-priority.

I’m a film buff and I know how evil test screenings can be to a plot. All it takes is for some bad test reviews and all of a sudden, a crappy new ending is shot and slammed onto the backside of the film regardless of whether it fits the rest of it. This is exactly like what First Ward feels like to me. Once the villain is revealed, the story becomes about her and whatever else was going on up till that point is jettisoned. Which would be forgivable if the villain was actually interesting or had some purpose or, heavens forbid, we were allowed to kick her back to the Stone Age. But, as others have noted, the whole conclusion to First Ward is done by NPCs.

Once the villain is banished, nothing happens. Several people died, the Apparitions are still there and the best damn character in the whole sorry mess is locked up back in the Seer network with no way to get her out. For a hero, it’s an entirely Phyrric victory. And as for a villain… well I can’t see any of my villains following the plot that far. Despite Doorman’s little speech and the option to occasionally be rude to contacts, there’s nothing in First Ward for them. None of the contacts even have the decency to try and buy my villains’ help which is the usual stock solution for ‘why should I help you?’

And that’s the kicker. Once I left First Ward I was left with a feeling of ‘what was the point of that’? There’s zero reason to go to First Ward by Primal characters, none. It looks beautiful, the missions are fun but it’s let down by its overall plot. Now I’ve run the missions, I’ve got no desire to return to it again which is a real shame. Oh and yes, I did read every bit of dialogue and every clue. I had plenty of time to read them all carefully having had my backside kicked by Captain Ambush every time I dared to try and read the wall of text presented to me.

First Ward is an amazing visual zone but as I’ve noticed in recent years, the quality of the writing is slipping further and further and this really undermines everything else, at least to me. When I get more excited by tracking down and defeating Frostfire, an arc that’s almost seven years old, that’s a fair indication that something has gone awry.

I feel pretty much the same way as the first post here. I'm only just starting on Katie's arc but it's alternating between "that's cool", "man this is a lot of running around talking to people", "That's kind of neat", "well that's a kick in the pants", "getting my butt handed to me", and "that's pretty funny".

Wait till you meet Master Midnight. He's "hilarious".

I think you can envisage the look on my face when I type that.

Eco.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."