Longbow .. Friend? Foe? or whatever

I find it interresting that the Rogue Isles are now just a few miles off the coast of Paragon, and really part of the US.

The Rogue Isles are definitely NOT part of US jurisdiction and are very much a sovereign nation. If the developers changed their mind on the matter, then they'd need to also change the Mender Tesseract TF where we help overthrow President Marchand, the former leader of the Eotile Islands nation, and helping institute Recluse as the new ruler. Because of the Rogue Isles were just a part of Rhode Island, they wouldn't have a president.

Maybe I don't know enough about US federal law, and I do know that each state has some degree of independence from the federal government, but I'm pretty sure they can't define a small section of their land mass as a sovereign nation with its own president that was recognised by the UN last I checked.

Also, I honestly wouldn't trust the developers to know how far off of the US mainland the Rogue Isles are. I get that this is a stupid thing to say since it's as far away as they say it is, but this is a "The Hamidon is a what what of what?" situation. One time someone quoted 50 miles off the coast. One time someone quoted Mid-Atlantic. One time someone quoted 10 miles. Either the old land of the Mu moves about a lot, or else whatever volcanic force it was that tossed Bloody Bay over another island is altering their position.

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.

Last I knew The Etolie Islands were kind of midway between Bermuda and Rhode Island. Far enough to be separate from the US but close enough that travel to and from wouldn't be overly long or tedious.

I always thought the Rogue Isles were in some part of eastern Europe what with them being so depressing and dreary.

The CoV site says this...

Quote:

Geographically, the Rogue Isles are a small chain of islands NW of Bermuda that run in a band 50 to 20 miles off the US coast. Officially known as the Etoile Islands, there are dozens of islands in the chain. The main cluster of the group, home to Spider City, is at the 50 mile marker, outside U.S. jurisdiction. From there the smaller islands string toward the US coast.

Which makes a lot of sense. However, there is this quote from the CoH site...

Quote:

Deals were struck in the highest of offices, and in exchange for "playing nice" and "lucrative taxes", the government turned a blind eye — and the Rogue Isles became a haven for the super-powered and evil.

Edit: Reading through the whole history, yep, it's an island nation in the neighborhood of Bermuda.

It all starts here...

http://na.cityofheroes.com/en/game_i...early_year.php

You bring upa good point, Sam. If the devs have changed how they view the isles, they need to let the players know.

I really don't mind a few retcons in the story to fix/clear up the story.

Though I do wish they'd quit bringing in player made up ideas and running with them. Or taking a joke and (as Sam said) running it into the ground.

As it is, you can usually run up against most enemy groups and most people will say (IC or just the player) "Hah, these guys are such jokes."

Now, admittedly, I do that with some of the lower level enemies, that I see more as street gangs (Hellions/Skulls/Outcasts/Trolls) the type which Spidey swings in, stops and is quickly gone, but the enemies seen in the 40+ range, even if simple are suppossed to be real threats, even if the characters sweep right through them.

But I think clearing stuff up like that is less likely to happen when they give the writers free reign to ignore canon and just "give a good story"

Also not helped when a lot of the player base doesn't care about the story and makes up their own or just wants to smash their way through it, so it becomes less of a priority for the devs.

So in closing...Devs tie up some loose ends and make the enemies serious threats again (at least story wise!)

There is very little love lost between myself and Longbow. Now I did start on CoV back when it was it's own game, and that explains a large part of it, but even when I got to heroside I found that Longbow was the same group of Pompous, egotistical, self important, busybodies that they were in the Rogue Isles. The only new thing was that I could not shoot them when they got in my way.

I see them as little more then a private mercenary army that has quasi-legitimate status thanks to powerful patrons. I don't see them as any more 'good' than Wyvern, or Legacy Chain, or any of those other similar organizations.

They are, at best, bumblers who would be best put to use directing traffic in Skyway city, and, at worst, little better than Malta or Crey.

But, from a story point of view, we kind of need them. After all, if they were a competant and efficient, the city wouldn't need us.

The 'quality' of Longbow is probably heavily dependant upon their posting. The guys in the Rogue Isles are going to be murderous motherf*****s, for obvious reasons. They're basically soldiers over there, fighting not just a war, but a ludicrously ideological one. Messy.

I don't doubt that a lot of the ones you'll see wandering around Paragon City are genuinely friendly and helpful people. Citizens seem to have no problem with them in Atlas and the PPD like having them in the Hollows, both places where there's more scope to have some scruples (as opposed to an energy blast in the face).

With Longbow hurled more and more into the paramilitary aspect of quite literally invading the Rogue Isles, the whole organisation continues a heavy shift into b*****d mode, leaving behind whatever well meaning, heroically minded principles and intentions it had when first formed. And they probably didn't even particularly notice. They're just 'doing what needs to be done'.

Basically, Longbow are an absolutely (and no doubt entirely unintentionally) brilliant example of the alignment system. They've gone Vigilante in a way which is, when you poke at it a bit, highly plausible and a good lesson if you're RPing or writing background for a character shifting their alignment in the same way. It's not as if their position isn't arguable and subjectively understandable; who the hell IS doing something about Arachnos? We're out there fighting and dying and no-one else is really stepping up to the plate like we are. Where was the almighty Vanguard? Don't give me that 'extraterrestrials only' garbage, the UN just doesn't have the balls to act against the clear and present danger represented by this 'sovereign nation', they just want to pander to their politics while normal people die. Well they can take their little task force and shove it someplace warm and wet, because we were dealing just damn fine with the Rikti as well before your purpled posers turned up, and another thing you f-

And so on.

I played CoV for two years before I ever put one toe blueside.

Longbow are the bunch who FLAMETHROWER people in the name of heroism, as if characters on a team in the mission were a bunch of rampaging xenomorphs. Nice.

And now they own Fort Darwin, which makes bile rise every time I see it.... geez.

Longbow are not my friends. They never will be.