Endless War

I'm talking about war! Good god! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing!

Let me say this up front: I enjoy City of Heroes. But I feel like the storyline has been in a rut for a very long time, and the next four or so issues (?) look like more of the same:

Issues 9-16: The Second Rikti War. Earth is invaded by people in (mostly) green and tan uniforms, with funny heads, who come here from another timeline to kill all of our supers and convert us to their way of life because they think our supers are a threat to them. We find out who fed them this lie, defeat that person, war ends.

Issue 15: Return of the Fifth Column: Earth is invaded by people in red and black uniforms, who come here from another timeline to kill all our supers and convert us to their way of life because the think our supers are a threat to them. Fortunately, we pwn them in a single issue, and tell them to come back later, because officially we were already in a war and don't have time for their silliness.

Issue 17-23: The Praetorian War: Earth is invaded by people in (mostly) red and white uniforms, who come here from another timeline to kill all our supers and convert us to their way of life because they think our supers are a threat to them. We find out who fed them this lie, defeat that person, war ends. Oh, and there are two other fronts in the war: at one point, as a distraction, earth gets briefly invaded by Soldiers of Rularuu, who are here to kill us all, because we imprisoned their god; the Banished Pantheon complain that they thought of that first and we get invaded by one of their gods and his armies, who are here to kill us all, because ... oh, never mind.

Issue 22-?: The Coming Storm: Earth is invaded by translucent green and red aliens who come here from another planet to kill or enslave us all and steal all of our supers' powers. Why? Just because ... because that's what happens in City of Heroes since issue 10, I guess, Earth gets invaded over and over again, and mostly only the uniforms change.

You know what I miss? Fighting crime. Remember when superheroes fought crime and poverty and corruption, and stood up for truth and justice and all that?

Look, I know that there are constraints on us because we're an MMO. Our characters can only solve problems by beating people up. But there are people we haven't beaten up in a very long time. Someone's still arming the Sky Raiders, or we wouldn't have had to fight them alongside the Praetorians in Skyway City. Someone's still funding the Council, and they still intend to turn us all into one big Nictus farm. God only knows what the Circle of Thorns will get up to after the current issue, when they can stop worrying about Mot, but they're still cursed until they figure out some way to fulfill their contract with demons to kill all of the Mu ... at this point, 1/3rd of the Earth's population have Mu blood, it came up years ago in a Nerva Archipelago story arc. Oh, and once The Coming Storm is over and Lord Recluse stops being distracted by his fear of The Well, Arachnos will go back to trying to conquer the world. And, you know, hey, not all Nemesis plots are going to involve us playing let's-you-and-him fight with aliens.

So you know what I'd like to see, once the Coming Storm is over? A couple of issues where, for one to at most two issues per storyline, actual Primal Earth bad guys try something really, really big or at least really, really interesting. Devote an issue to updating the Crey storyline. Devote an issue or two to foreshadowing the Second Council War. Send us to West Libertalia to deal with the Sky Raiders. Send us into the Shadow Shard to Nemesis' hidden brass city (he has to have one out there) to defeat his steampunk dirigible fleet. Send us to Gagarin Station and Armstrong Base to find out what the heck the Lost were ranting about back in issue 8, October '06. Heck, for the 2014 election year, give us an issue dealing with all of the Council brainwashed politicians and candidates, Nemesis Automaton politicians and candidates, Circle of Thorns possessed politicians and candidates, Family bribed and blackmailed politicians and candidates, and so forth. Just, please, give us a year or two off between alien invasions after this one? Please?

If Superman can take time off from fighting Apokalypse to deal with Lexcorp, we can take time off from our seemingly-annual alien invasions to deal with Crey.

while I agree that invasions are over done - there isn't much else for an epic storyline

you aren't going to get 24 heroes together to stop a bank robbery

I hate to be a broken record, but have you ran tip missions lately? I want more, no doubt, but they are standard superheroic capers. so were the holiday missions, a classic mad scientist and a magic ritual gone wrong with not many repercussions outside of lord recluse quitting eharmony.
I'm not saying id disagree with more unrelated stuff, and I'd love more tips, but I do think part of it is mmo structure, and part of it is coh is going through fairly standard comic story lines, but since issues have a far longer bake time than comic books, it seems to be slower, and it is, because it has to be. plus, with incarnate level stuff, justifications for fighting "regular" super villains runs into the perception that we are fighting stuff beneath us. In a way it is power creep, and unfortunately, in any long running thing based on increasingly powerful characters, it happens. I can't exactly say if its good or bad, because its kind of both merely that its what i see, a lot, and its a limitation to storytelling as much as its a benefit. and once it starts its difficult to rein in.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

Just wanted to make a snide comment about war and it being good for nothing.

While watching Armageddon tonight, the speech by the president made me realize something. At least in that case, war was good for something. As it was the creation of all those weapons over the years that allowed us the have the means to take out the threat. Had we been a peace loving species that whole time, we'd have been wiped out. Kind of makes all the strife and sacrifice seem even more signifigant.

That said, I agree. Once the Storm has passed I think we've 'earned' a few issues of relative downtime, where various smaller plots can be worked on.

So here's my question - if there isn't much else for an epic storyline, then... Why does every storyline have to be "epic?" Why does every storyline have to involve 24 people? Why does every storyline have to be max-level Incarnate stuff?

And again, Mot did just fine presenting an epic storyline that didn't require a zillion people. I haven't run the Large Breasts trial since that's Praetorian stuff and requires a zillion people, but the actual storyline of the zone worked just fine without being a war against another dimension.

And again, I've been on a Hamidon Raid that consisted of around 200 people and crashed Victory twice. I've been on a Hamidon Raid that consisted of over 100 people and actually succeeded, horrible gameplay experience notwithstanding. The game seems to be perfectly capable of presenting large group content without having another dimension invade us.

I'm sick and tired of inventing brand new never-before-seen bad guys who eventually just fall flat while we staunchly ignore the good stories of the past and the interesting bad guys that brought many of us into the game's lore to begin with. What about the Sky Raiders, what about the Family? What about the Goldbrickers? What about the Warriors? What about the Council? What about the Circle of Thorns? Hell, what about Nemesis? I haven't heard anything about him since Issue 10.

Quote:

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.

Funnily enough, we were discussing this the other day on Union RP chat. I think the problem is the glut of Incarnate level content, while the majority of 'typical' Super Hero and Villain stuff is sort of sitting there, doing not much.

I'm still advocating, loudly, that the pre Hollows and Faultline revamp stuff is ALL in dire, dire need of trimming down, cutting out all the fed-exes that make no sense, the filler junk, the 'go see the security chief' missions that I think about 1% of people must actually like...

The quality of missions recently has been great. The level of Praetoria and First Ward (without, might I add, all those stupid, pointless ambushes...) should be the base level for the entire game. Not getting out of Atlas and suddenly being sent on hunts and fed-exes like it's 2004...

There is a wealth of hero and villain groups, as Sam mentions, that could have tons more exposition. They really should get it.

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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.

We need a Stop the Purse Snatcher iTrial!

I agree, could someone go wake up Lord Recluse, or something?

I want a domestic threat at some point. And by domestic I mean from Earth. Primal Earth, to be exact. (Not often to have to narrow down what Earth you're taking about...) I'd like for Heroes to run into some mad scientist plot or similar. A giant robot is never a bad idea, although the War Walkers have run that a little into the ground.

Maybe the next signature story arc will do this, if not, use the one after that for it. Pick up the pieces, exploit the opportunities that arise from it (or stop those that try to) and generally have time to build something up. Like Lord Recluse finally getting to do something. Maybe have that thing with Ms. Liberty trying to redeem him be something to do.

I just go with his definition since he's the op. It didnt fit my definition either, but I tend to have very specific definitions of things relative to others (you should hear my rant on the use of the term "god-like" sometimes, i think i melt plastic within 15 feet ) so i was going by his terminology..as i read it, if im wrong, i hope he comes back to correct.

and actually, the dev earth, i dunno. when i think of monsters, outside oif the greek kind which were specific punishments from the divines that had a specific goal, target and behavior, I tend to see monsters as really strong beasts, they want to eat, establish territory, and establish shelter. but stay out of their territory, dont show up on their food chain and they wont really seek out confrontation. The dev earth seem to be controlled by hamidon, who seems to still have the mind of a sentient, if redical, human with the specific goal of destroying or assimilating humnaity. so i cant exaclty say i see them just as monsters, they seem to be a directed group of attackers with a goal of destroying all humans and "restoring" the earth. and in praetoria they are directly doing exactly that, they even negotiate truces with specific behavioral terms.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

Recluse: "Scirocco, Widow, Mako, Scorpion. Assemble. Today, we knock over a hot dog stand."

All: *puzzled look*

Recluse: "...of doom."

All: "ahh!"