Bane Spider Ruben is awesome!

Hey, I have something else positive to say about the game's writing! What the hell is wrong with me?

Bane Spider Rube's story arc is awesome, and I don't mean that in a back-handed way like I did with SSA1.7. This one was genuinely enjoyable, it was almost impeccably written and I actually liked the characters. I don't know who's writing these stories and where that person was before, but I am a fan. Everything from Ruben's introduction dialogue to the dialogue choices (OK, maybe not the specific TEXT of the choices, but still), the new characters and the old... It's good! It's genuinely, unironically, non-cynically good.

Woah!

That's not the only reason I made yet another thread, though. See, when I started the arc, I had the misfortune of starting it with Praxis, and I got the impression it would be so badly inappropriate for her. I mean, Praxis is a higher reality goddess, and all-powerful to boot. She is formless and unknwoable, and there's not a chance in hell that her avatar on Earth will ever get mind-controlled. Plus, it has no ears and no "outfit." That, and all the going undercover and acting mind-controlled and all that seemed to be so badly out of character I was slapping my head about why I picked Praxis to try it with. And, to a point, these were out of character. Buuut... The ending.

Oh. My. GOD! The ending of Ruben's arc is just amazing! It's amazing in general, but for Praxis, it was even more so. I don't want to spoil too much, but suffice it to say that I'm given an option to give a speech before a group of villains, and I can choose a number of approaches. There's one that tries to appeal to the villains' senses, there's one that tries to be nice to them, and there's one that simply IS Praxis. I actually can't do it justice, so I'll quote one spoiler-free portion of that speech:

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You declare that when you give an order, it is a command, not a request. You warn that you will not sit idly and listen to them whine about their sorry excuses for lives. You order them all to do as they are told, or they will die by your hand.

I actually spoke with Viking the other day, and we were discussing why Praxis would offer a deal based on something I'd said. My response was something along the lines of "Praxis does not offer deals. Praxis commands." That was two or three days ago, and the game quoted me before I even thought to say this! The phrasing in that whole speech is just... Inspired! I love it! I wish you could see the kind of mile-wide grin I have just typing this out! All of the out-of-character nonsense was worth it for this. I can ret-con the rest out, but this is how Praxis should act!

And that's not the whole of it, either. It's not just me being happy because it fits one specific character, oh no! This speech, this arc, "gets" villains. It gets the big, bad, arrogant, uncompromising kind of villains that CoV just never seemed to be able to comprehend. Some guy tries to stop Praxis, she orders him to move and the guy just recoils like a slapped puppy. The game sends Praxis to a stage, and she just tells all the people gathered there that either they obey, or they die.

THIS! This is what I want my villains to be like. Not just Praxis, not just Zik, not just Cedric. This is what I want my big bads to be. They know they're the best and most important, and they WILL act like it. Even Dean McArthur, for all the praise I heaped on him, didn't really get that. He got close, but we were still buddy-buddy by the end. Not with Ruben's arc. Here, my villain gets to look the game world in the eye until the game world backs down.

I love it. Do you have any idea how many years I've been waiting to say this? I love this story arc!

*edit*
Funny observation: As soon as I was done with Ruben and got one over on Arachnos on the way out, I have to say... Cap Au Diable seems a lot brighter and more cheerful than I remember it. I'm sure nothing has really changed about the place, but now that villain arcs don't make me feel like a horrible, horrible person, even the drab grey-and-brown colour scheme actually looks less depressing. Interesting... I'm just happy that someone on the writing team seems to have finally cracked how to make being evil actually FUN. It sure beats the old "crime does not pay" moral being shoved down my throat because at least in this arc, crime really did pay.

Excellent!

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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.

I found both the low level new arcs really good. Try the Brother Hammond arc. Probably on whoever alt you have that just enjoys kicking puppies.

I dunno I didn't find it that puppy kickworthy. More comedic than anything else, more so involving the bits with Doc Aeon. The finale was a bit disappointing though.

I don't have much of a choice but to either try it with Praxis or just not try it at all. Still, Praxis is the avatar of an amoral cosmic horror who regards sentient beings with the same dignity as she would regard a rock, so evil acts shouldn't be a problem. So long as I'm not expected to do it FOR the puppy-kicking.

Still, if Ruben was this good, I don't see why Hammond would be bad.

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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.

I knew I was going to love this one as soon as it offered me the option to tell him off, to say "Who are you to give me orders? I don't work for you?" The exasperated boiler-plate he gives hits just the right tone, as does everything from there up until you get to decide what to do with the super-weapon you just stole. This is everything an Arachnos-themed Project: DESTINY story arc should be!

Yeah, I really enjoyed this one, for the reasons sited. Just imagining his expression of sheer annoyance when you say "I'm not taking orders from you!" made me grin. And then his response to "But I have a special brain!" being basically "Hey, it's your funeral." and explaining why you shouldn't take chances with mind control.

I'm not familiar with Bane Spider Ruben offhand, but he is now Bane Spider Pee-Wee Herman in my head.

I've been waiting to run the villainside arc with my SG but haven't been able to yet. You're really making me want to push ahead and Oroborous it without them! I've done the hero version but this sounds really cool!

Easily one of my favorite villain side arcs. Had so much fun playing it. Loved how much freedom you can have that speech.

I was actually kind of annoyed at the "If you have enough intelligence to speak with me, you have enough intelligence to be controlled," but I accept it as a necessary out just because the story needs the player to have the device. I considered having Praxis explain to him that a higher intelligence cannot be controlled through a puppet avatar, but then I remembered Praxis does not explain her actions, so I went along with it

Really, though, for me it was pretty easy to "pretend" the device never happened. Considering what Praxis is, I'm never going to run into any story arcs that are entirely appropriate for her, so I'll HAVE to do at least some re-writing. To that effect, simply claiming a device was never brought up and Zukor never had a device of his own to steal just works better for Praxis, and it's what I've chosen to do.

See, when I say that City of Heroes is open to pretty much all concepts, this is what I mean. I'm not saying the story will literally expect any kind of concept so much as that so many can work with not a lot of change to the actual events. I know in the past I've baulked at the prospect of having to claim what's happening isn't happening and it's something completely different, but that's chiefly for total changes that break the flow of a story to the point where I might as well just write my own for how unrelated the result is. With Ruben, I can recognise the need to account for all players, including the ones who lack psychic protection, so it's acceptable to just sidestep this where unneeded.

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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.

OK, for the people who told me to go run Brother Hammond's arc - I did. And I have to say that while it's not bad, it left something to be desired, and I can't say it's nearly as satisfying as Ruben's. See, with Ruben, we're given the opportunity to have quite spectacular ambitions and we end up pulling one over on the contact, who ends the story disappointed and kind of deflated. With Hammond, the ambitions are... A lot less interesting. A bank. Be still my beating heart. And the ending is kind of a strange turnaround of really having accomplished nothing but gained more enemies who may prove stronger than they seem.

Now, I get that a lot of this is just backfilling to fit the arc so that it works for most characters, not just my higher-reality goddess, and I can actually work with that. The bank never happened, the "hire me" never happened and it was all for control of that thing at the end. I can work with it. See, when the story is actually GOOD - and Hammonds really was - I'm willing to give it a lot more credit and meed it much closer to the middle. Sure, it's not perfect for Praxis, but it's good, and I can work around the parts that don't fit.

However, what I really couldn't look past is the dialogue choices. I'm never going to agree with whoever's writing the text for those choices just because it makes all my villains sound like unintelligent chuckleheads, but at least with Ruben, the actual meaning behind the decisions was still solid. Do I try to appeal to my villainous posse or do I threaten them with death? Sure, the text may not have fit, but the intend did. With Hammond, this is nowhere near the case. The very first decision I'm given is to either yell at the guy to stop preaching or to pretend I'm interested, whereas given the arc, I was kind of hoping for a third option that says "we have work to do."

Overall, though, the whole thing seems unfulfilling. Sure, with Dean/Leonard, I still ended up with nothing to show for it, but at least I got to put one over on practically everyone. Protean is poor, Leonard is broke and Dean is in my eternal service. With Hammond, not much seems to have been accomplished. I mean, I didn't get control of the Luddites permanently, I get that I can't change the status quo. But it just feels like I made them stronger. The whole thing was supposed to be a scam against the Luddites, but it plays out more like a prank. They get to strike at Aeon, they get a new leader who may be even better than old and I didn't even get to humiliate them. I guess they have egg on their faces... Somewhat. But really, nothing seems to have happened that made much of a difference.

If anything, Aeon is the one who got the most humiliation, so I guess that counts for something

---

This is a bit sideways of the subject, but I've been trying to figure out exactly what Praxis is after in the game without actually giving her a tangible goal. As best I can tell, she can both forward and back along the timeline, and as such is trying to set up events to some kind of end that I can't really see at this point. On the smaller scale, Praxis needs control over Bat'Zul, which is where control over the Luddites comes in. I figure she's try to control them, set the demon free, but bind it so that it doesn't just run wild, and instead works towards some mysterious end.

That how I'm explaining it, anyway.

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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.

Frankly, for as petty and pointless as Hammond may be, involving Bat'Zul really does make it the higher-stakes one, and as such the one more appropriate for Praxis. Yeah, I know the arc skirts the issue, but considering Praxis is omniscient, I can still tell a higher-class story than that one really was, at least personally to myself

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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.

FWIW, I love both arcs. I hope all new villain content is at this level or above.

Hey Sam, out of interest, have you run the two new Blueside arcs? Laura Lockheart and Graham Easton in Steel Canyon (15-25 level range IIRC).

They're pretty good, but for some reason only seem to be popping up in the Find Contact button, rather than having a pop up box.

I have not. Haven't had the opportunity to run a low-level hero yet. However, come Mecca Armour, I'll be rerolling a hero of mine since we now have proper energy claws, and I'll run those stories with her. I've not really heard anything about them, however.

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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.