SSA SPOILERS: He's WHO?!
She was already dead, killed either by Darrin Wade or a player villain. That was an illusion fading.
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When I ran this Villainside, to me it looked like her spirit got up off the floor, and this is City Of Heroes/Villains where ghosts do indeed exist
![Smile](images/smilies/smile.gif)
That said, I liked part three much better on Villainside than I did Heroside.
Lisa-Loved doing part three redside. Good Job.
So don't wait for heroes, do it yourself
You've got the power
winners are losers
who got up and gave it just one more try
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Typically, it's considered a serious ethical violation to force one's way into someone's mind and pull out whatever information one wants.
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Unless you've already been in there, and won.
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Arc ID#161629 Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black
Arc ID#431270 Until the End of the World
Well you know, that's just like Psyche standing there in Malaise's cell going "NO I WON'T READ YOUR MIND EVEN THOUGH YOU KNOW ALL THESE DETAILS AND WHO'S BEHIND THIS AND THE WHOLE PLOT, YOU TELL ME WITH YOUR MOUTH!"
Seriously, the writing is AWFUL. |
Not to mention it'd be SERIOUSLY horked for her if she mindrides into him to get the info (like she did in the comics when Manticore was dying in the hospital) and Malaise arranges for someone to kill him while she's trapped in there. Byebye, Sister Psyche...
Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)
Edit: Though, now that I think about it, there is a missed opportunity in the arc, not talking about the ending, though. In the villain version at least you fight the Shining Stars, would have been a great place to add some custom dialogue if you were a hero and ran those arcs before turning villain (which that character did). But all we got was generic 'You won't win!' 'I've beaten lots of punks like you,' etc.
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Or for a really tricky bit of coding: I ran the villain version of the arc first, then the hero one. All through the latter, I was thinking "Hey, my villain Crimson Snow should be around here somewhere!" How cool would it be if the game could actually detect that and have your villain alt show up as an enemy (and vice-versa)?
![EEK!](images/smilies/eek.gif)
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191775: How the Other Half Lives
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SPOILERS
*Sigh* Arc part 3 continues the trend of the hero side version being an inferior near copy of the villain version just with parts removed. Villains continue to get extra information and a major reveal while the heroes are denied the whole picture. In other words, you don't really lose out on anything from only playing the villain arc, but heroes are denied parts of the story in their arc. And while villains don't get an exclusive cool temp power this time, heroes don't either when they should; to balance against getting nothing cool from the first two arcs. Oh wait, heroes do get something this time. They get FORCED TO FAIL. Warburg is still full of Rogue Arachnos. A hero is dead, pointlessly. Villains execute a beloved hero. Heroes get to lose. Devs get to stuff another woman into the refrigerator. Must be getting crowded in there with the bodies of Seer Katie, Vanessa DeVore and War Witch. . |
My biggest issue with the new part? It is THREE missions, with the plot being said person dying. Yet, in the pretty load screen..it GIVES AWAY THE ENDING! Awesome job..dont even need a spoiler..you know it is going to happen right away.
Yeah i got the impression he wanted her to read him to spring something on her.
And keep in mind, he's a fairly powerful psychic on his own. Trying to read him is probably pretty difficult if it doesn't just turn into a Scanners type struggle for control (possibly with Scanners-style head poppage).
Still waiting to get a villain up to 30 to run this.
I have to say, I'm kind of disappointed with how short this is. They seem to be compressing them more and more. I didn't mind the first's length so much as I just hated the "GO GO GO" timers and "OMG AMBUSHES". Mission 1 was about as bad as mission 1 in episode 2 villainside. "Ok, got the glowy and... oh mission over. Really? that wasn't even 5 minutes".
Aww.
I was even on my heroic Necromancer and I couldn't bring her back from the dead... I don't think Statesman would mind having Zombie!Alexis as a daughter, do you?! 8-(
My COX Fanfiction:
Blue's Assembled Story Links
Typically, it's considered a serious ethical violation to force one's way into someone's mind and pull out whatever information one wants. |
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"
'I don't like the look of it at all,' said the King: 'however, it may kiss my hand if it likes.'
'I'd rather not,' the Cat remarked.
'Don't be impertinent,' said the King, 'and don't look at me like that!' He got behind Alice as he spoke.
'A cat may look at a king,' said Alice.
So am i the only one who thinks SOMEBODY will sacrifice themselves to bring her back?
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Overall loved the villain side of part 3 to the 'Who Will Die?' arc. Probably because I got to feel little bit more villainous.
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So, let me get this straight. Have we answered the "who will die" question yet? Does "Alexis" answer that? Well, no, not really, since there are four more arcs left in the queue, and I find myself less and less motivated to go through them. It's become clear to me that these arcs thrive on shock deaths, and I'm honestly just not interested in that. Especially since they introduced a character who had no appeared in the game prior to this, showed her for all of one mission, and then killed her pretty much as suddenly as they introduced her. I guess you can't waste a character who would have to show up in missions or hand out missions, but this just seems unnecessarily cruel storytelling. So we have a mission the sole purpose of which is to explain how Alexis is a nice person, just so we'll feel worse when she gets a bridge dropped on her by the end. Classy.
Though, honestly, is there anyone who DIDN'T expect her to die? The frikkin' loading screen pic is the Statesman looking at a corpse in the morgue (charming visual, by the way, that's exactly what I want in my escapism, guess I can't complain about the mass graves at Fort Darwin any more), what did you think was going to happen? Someone who ISN'T Alexis but is still close to the Statesman dying? Yeah, if I didn't know we were watching torture porn, that pic set me straight. I hope we'll get something less depressing when this arc is over, but given that this kind of depression seems to be in all new content, I worry that someone at Paragon Studios is about to commit suicide, judging by the tone of the writing. Either that, or they're preparing to pull a Ginax ending.
Really, though, as a story... This was solid. Aside from the last mission, the objectives of which are essentially "55 Puppies to Kick" at least on the villain side and a side order of "I want to take orders from you!" this was actually well structured. The contact for it was incidental and unimportant, but it had relatively straightforward missions, it had a lot of action and the events therein were logical, for the most part. Can't really complain about that. In fact, I'm pretty sure Darryn Wayde proved to be the man behind the curtain, and I'm OK with that. The game has been building him up to be a big shot, so it fits. However, with City of Heroes borrowing from TNA Wrestling's booking, I fear that BECAUSE this makes sense, it'll turn out he wasn't the man behind the curtain and Malaise is using him, that Darryn Wayde never went to the Shard and doesn't have any magical powers, and "Jean" just gave him a many-years-long illusion that he was someone he wasn't, and everyone instantly believed it.
But, hey, Darryn makes sense. It involves Rularuu (and thus promises to break us out of the Praetoria rut), it's big, it makes sense. Can't ask for more than that
Really, as a standalone, this is pretty good... Or would be pretty good if not for the suspect writing. I'm not talking about storytelling or narrative or exposition here. I'm talking just basic technical writing flubs, like suspect grammar, spelling mistakes, the word "Rogue" used in a sentence it has no reason to be in in-between two words and so on. As a foreign speaker of English, this honestly comes off as having been written by someone for whom English is not a native language. On multiple occasions, the writing seems to be shooting for regular expressions (like "keep the cancer under control") but misses and goes for the uncanny valley of expressions (like "maintaining the cancer") where the words are properly spelled, the grammar is correct and the sentence has a meaning... It just doesn't mean quite what it was supposed to mean and doesn't really sound like something that's natural to say in English. It's like an uncanny human face simulacra robot. I get what it's trying to represent, I get that it's not actually real, but it's still just... Weird.
Honestly, of all the SSAs, this one seems like the best, but only as a standalone. The others felt pretty much like "Your Princess is in another castle!" The same one mission but repeated three times. Find the Obelisk! Now find the Obelisk! Aha! Now we can find the Obelisk! This one actually kind of sort of follows a three-act structure, it makes sense and, technical errors notwithstanding, it's pretty well written. It's just a shame that we seem to be getting off on killing characters. That really ruins the whole experience for me. Frankly, I don't think I want to play the rest of the SSAs. Which is just as well, I suppose, since I'm not actually paying for them.
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Yeah, and when an insane psychic who sucks people into his mind to torture them with their greatest fear says "Read my mind." ... Yes, Admiral Ackbar. Would you like to say something, sir?
It's a trap!
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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Stop using broken English.
Stop repeating words.
Check that all fields in both contacts are filled in.
In other words - get an intern to proofread these horribly written missions.
When I did the villainside version, I ran it with Profiteer, my Mercs/TA MM. When I got to that last mish and she's in the circle, and Wade goes, "Go for it," my response was to reply in-character, "Sorry, dude, you didn't contract me for a hit, just for a kidnapping. You want her offed, do it yourself."
Of course, after he shrugs and BANG, in response to his snark "not everyone's a born killer," she remarked, "Yeah, tough guy... real hard to take out someone trapped in a summoning circle. Next time, try shooting fish in a barrel, at least they try to present a moving target."
Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)
Stop using broken English.
Stop repeating words. Check that all fields in both contacts are filled in. In other words - get an intern to proofread these horribly written missions. |
Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)
*****
So now what they need to do is add the tech to the game that has Statesman attack you on sight when you go rogue or full hero, for killing his daughter
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When I did the villainside version, I ran it with Profiteer, my Mercs/TA MM. When I got to that last mish and she's in the circle, and Wade goes, "Go for it," my response was to reply in-character, "Sorry, dude, you didn't contract me for a hit, just for a kidnapping. You want her offed, do it yourself."
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Why do our villains constantly get roped into serving in someone's grand scheme? I know Darryn goes out of his way to say "You are an equal!" pretty much out of context, just so that I can't make that complaint. It's just the same way all the Freedom Phalanx in Maria Jenkins' missions say "This is your mission, I'm just here to help, you lead the way, I follow, you're the hero of this story, now stop whining about it on the forums, ya sissy!" But even so, it's his plan, his plot, his story. I'm just tagging along. WHY am I always tagging along with other villains?
For heroes, I get it. You want to do the right thing, other people know how you can do the right thing, you do what other people say. It makes sense. But for villains? I got a bad taste in my mouth being asked to kill Alexis (even though Tyler would offer without a second thougth, since he sees humans as vermin), but when that was done, I wanted to punch Darryn, too. I don't know if I'm playing a Chaotic Stupid character who just wants to screw over everybody of if the story just made me hate Darryn, but being all giddy to follow his plan just seems... Odd.
This is a recurring complaint of mine that dates as far back as 2005 - we're henchmen. When I say that we can still use the existing contact system and just claim that we're following our own plots, I mean for the NARRATIVE to say this. Because even though Darryn says "You're an equal..." I still followed his plan, I still followed his orders. We're equals... But it's still his plan and his story. It is, in essence, Dr. Graves all over again, minus the humiliation.
Honestly, I'm too tired to argue the same points every time, but I just feel compelled over and over again. If we're going to involve player villains in major storylines, they need to be involved as progenitors, not opportunistic side characters. You can give them all the limelight in the world, but if they're following orders, they're still second fiddle. Dean McArthur and Leonard did it right. Sure, it was railroading. Sure, I were still following contact instructions. But at the same time, both contacts were working for me and were helping me and, when push came to shove, this was still MY story. I didn't get to pick what it was, granted, but it was still ABOUT me.
Oddly enough, I wouldn't have minded if our villains were superfluous to the events in the SSAs. I got involved, I busted some heads, I made some waves, but it turns out a guy with an Easter Island head is weaving a grand tapestry. Not interested, so I turn around and leave. Yes, it would have wasted my time, but I'd still have liked it, because I'd sooner waste my time by my choice than devote it to someone else's cause.
It's 3 AM and I'm not making any sense, but here's the jist of it: I wanted an option to punch Darryn Wayde, but one didn't show up. I get why we can't kill him, but at least reminding him of the third option would have been fun.
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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Or we just haven't gotten the tweest yet.
Frinstance, no one even asked if this was the Primal or Praetorian one.... |
Then there's that we already know what Wade wants: Rularuu to be whole and for our dimension to be wholly eaten. Is he looking for a vessel to house the mad god?
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Stop using broken English.
Stop repeating words. Check that all fields in both contacts are filled in. In other words - get an intern to proofread these horribly written missions. |
Like a 'vile' of blood. *wince*
Michelle aka Samuraiko/Dark_Respite |
Seriously, Devs, you expect people to pay extra for this? Make an effort!
"Everybody wants to change the world, but nobody wants to change themselves." -Tolstoy
Especially since they introduced a character who had no appeared in the game prior to this, showed her for all of one mission, and then killed her pretty much as suddenly as they introduced her.
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Besides, no one would stick around if the big secret was revealed in part three of seven.
So Penn Jillette is an illusionist?
Who knew?
Story Arcs I created:
Every Rose: (#17702) Villainous vs Legacy Chain. Forget Arachnos, join the CoT!
Cosplay Madness!: (#3643) Neutral vs Custom Foes. Heroes at a pop culture convention!
Kiss Hello Goodbye: (#156389) Heroic vs Custom Foes. Film Noir/Hardboiled detective adventure!
Stop using broken English.
Stop repeating words. Check that all fields in both contacts are filled in. In other words - get an intern to proofread these horribly written missions. |
Seriously? :P
Also, what the heck is that graphical line at the submarine now? It starts in the water at the center of the sub, goes out into the bay and then cuts in a right angle to the bridge abutment. It's hideous and obvious. I bugged it, but I don't have much hope they'll fix it.
Goodbye may seem forever
Farewell is like the end
But in my heart's the memory
And there you'll always be
-- The Fox and the Hound