Finished Twinshot's arc

finally finished running a lowbie hero through Twinshot's arc.

I'll admit, it didn't leave as bad a taste in my mouth as Graves. The characters were more likable in general though ironically I felt they were less developed than those in Graves. Where Graves gives each character their own mission where they're the star, Twinshot just throws you into a few missions and sometimes you rescue and/or have one of them as a tag along (usually grym/flambeuax). In fact I kind of like Grym and Flambeaux wasn't that intolerable. Dillo was flat out irritating, a JarJar with super powers. Proton.. I honestly can't say much about because he got so much less development than anyone else, and given the twist at the end he feels more like a set piece than anything.

Really, I kind of liked the general flow of the story. The 'twist' at the end is hamfistedly bad, it's completely obvious Twinshot isn't the traitor and that Proton is... well, again, he had so little development it's a non issue. I can't even feel bad for the guy, I had no attachment to him either way.

The railroading was kind of annoying, but not half as bad as Graves. Twinshot taps you with the clueless ball. Graves tapes the idiot ball to your head.

But again, Graves actually had better development for the characters. You got to know who they were, their background, some of their interests, and how nuts they all were.

Twinshot... well, you get the most face time with Grym but you don't learn much about him. Next is Twinshot herself, and the dialogue with her isn't that bad and I found her connection to Maelstrom somewhat interesting. Flambeaux is mostly a valley girl and you get half a mission with her tagging along. Dillo.. ugh. No missions with him explicitly, just having to talk to him a few times (thank goodness, though even that is too much). And then there's Proton, who is mostly in the background til he is done as his time as a set piece.

Compared to Graves. Well, you get a solid feeling for Graves personality with the (possibly overlong) dialogues with him. Crosscut is extremely creepy. Zephyr, as much as I dislike his surfer dude schtick, is actually kind of neat as the physical embodiment of an abstract entity. Omnicore is a whackjob. Dollface probably gets the least development but then she, like Proton, has the 'big twist' to her character. Though even then, she still gets a bit more time than Proton I think. But still, we got to know more about these guys.

Twinshot's just felt like my character was actually a part of this event going on. Graves... well, aside from being tedious and annoying, was just ridiculous. The 'game' is a farce from start to finish and by the end we feel like idiots and pawns. Where's the fun in that? And heroside at least introduces something that becomes relevant later on (Praetoria). Graves has nothing to do with anything in particular, and I don't think people even want to see Babydoll or cthulu or whatever she is later on. Whereas, I actually wouldn't mind seeing stuff develop with the Shining Stars more, I'd like to see more of Grym and Twinshot and even Flambeaux.

Though, both still completely fail as tutorials. There's just so much wrong with all of them. I mean even by the time you start them, you should already know about Enhancements, Trainers, and Inspirations. And come on, introducing Field Analysts/Fortunatas on how to adjust the game difficulty when you're level FIFTEEN? What kind of moon logic is that? Especially Twinshot's arc. Was it just me that got sent to Croatoa?? That's some serious wtf there, new players shouldn't be anywhere NEAR there unless whatever you're looking for is RIGHT at the entrance (like Annah).

It still just surprises me how bad the tutorials are compared to the Praetorian intro. Love or hate praetoria, you can park just about anybody into the tutorial there and they'll know enough about the game to get by. 15 minutes or less and you've got targeting, running, enhancements, inspirations, mission doors, dialogue, badges, alignment choices, trainers, difficulty slider, vendors, merit rewards and day jobs explained. Short, sweet, to the point and let's you jump into the game.

Kind of curious if the devs actually plan to use and develop these characters anymore, at the least. Or if they're just stepping stones that will be promptly and completely forgotten by the story at large. I kind of wouldn't mind them, even the graves crew, showing up later, seeing them develop as heroes/villains, etc.

Anyway, my 2 cents. Was okay to run through once, probably no more than that.

I think we'll see Dillo again

Unfortunately I'm inclined to agree, since he talks about helping us wit the Shivans and all that.

Quite a shame. I hope they at least give him some better dialogue instead of the garbled "for kids" scifi speak.

Personally I preferred the Graves arc. I know some felt like his arc treated you like an idiot, which Graves did. But I was always laughing because I knew they were all underestimating me. If I could have been given the option of kicking [spolier]'s butt at the end it would have been perfect imo.

As for Twinshot's arc. I've run it once but won't be running it again. The character development was good but I found too many of the game mechanics drown right annoying and at worst left me shouting at the game!

I actually didn't hate Graves' arc. Or rather, I did hate it, but I kinda liked the end of it, and the overall implication of the creature and how it operates. All that was kinda cool.

Actually Maelstrom's henchmen show up quite a few times. Riptide in the Sutter TF, and the rest of the gang in the Power Loyalist storyline in Praetoria. (where there's quite a bit of interaction with them)

We are needing more of the Dillo is our air spaces. *hoorb*

Just finished the last Graves arc tonight. I actually thought it was some of the better writing in CoH. I particularly cared for the writing of the Facemaker, Fateweaver, and Tech Quartermaster. Seemed to me they accomplished the job of telling you their function better than their heroside counterparts. I found the lackey request more engaging than the sidekick one as well. I felt no need to go to the clues on these with Graves whereas with Twinshot I did.

Overall I do like Twinshot better because it's a long slog of "Wait,... why am I doing this?" with Graves 1st 2 arcs before you get to the excellent 3rd.