Despite myself, I like SSA2.1 <no spoilers>

In spite of all the above, perhaps the most welcome change I saw was - *gasp!* - Power Makeovers for upgraded opponents. This is something I have ranted and raved about since the first iTrial where we fought level-shifted Warworks with only paper-thin hand waves to hint why our level-shifted characters were suddenly fighting against opponents that were neutralizing or flat out surpassing our shiny new scaling benefits.

This arc demonstrates how a few subtle costume changes or auras can make a familiar enemy's sudden performance boost feel more justified. Finally, we are relieved of the palette-swap failures that have endured for nearly two years. Let's hope they keep it up.

I get where you're coming from, especially with the reasoning. The visual queues were most important to me because iTrials tend to be rather sparse on story content for sake of gameplay (larger groups of players tend to focus more on Scrapper-lock than Lore-reading), so we must rely on what we see to tell the story most of the time. Story Arcs have the benefit of expanded lore so they can take it a step further to demonstrate what effects those visual queues represent, and that's a good thing.

This is important since the Devs are loathe to stop making Incarnate Trials, which I still believe are the worst content addition ever made to this game because it reinforces the elements that oppose the openness and accessibility which makes CoX unique. As such, visual queues are a nice first-step into explaining why our godlike powers do not feel as godlike when engaged in these activities.

To explain my reasoning: Dungeons and Dragons had levels representing character development as well, but it also had creatures operate on a CR system. Stronger enemies were more visually and/or descriptively impressive in scope to more accurately represent the illusion of progress. Never was there a Goblin that could challenge a level 10, who likely was taking on young Dragons by that stage (and if you did encounter one, he was probably a Demi-God among his kind or similarly empowered far beyond his physical limits).

Video Games have generally lost sight of that sense of Scope, granting phenomenal power gains without increasing the scale of visual or descriptive queues of new foes to provide a justifiable sense of progress. I would blame Dragon Warrior, but this probably goes as far back as Wizardry or Ultima. For that reason, I've always found it troubling that one Warrior minion could very easily wipe out every Clockwork and Hellion in Atlas Park if he so chose when he's basically just a guy with a sword against psychic-empowered automatons and a demon-summoning cult. But if you throw him in some enchanted plate mail with a magic sword and glowing red eyes, then I might be more convinced.

I agree with you about Incarnate Trials, but for more than just the reasons you've listed. Yes, on a technical level, raids are a fail in a game that had up to that point been pretty loose with what it expected you to do and how it expected you to play, and the "soup of effects" mosh pit that most of those are drowns any sembalnce of story. I ran a BAF yesterday and I did my best to read NPC dialogue as it was occurring, and I simply couldn't. They drop several giant four-line text boxes at a time, some of which show up behind my Trial window and I'm forced to pay far more attention to "Xanta has received a second warning!" and "Siege is being reinforced!" than to flavour text.

But that's really not my biggest concern with Trials. Those are technical problems, and technical problems can be fixed, or at least the game designed to minimise their impact. Where my beef with iTrials lies is in the type of story they tell, which is one of industrial warfare even if the "plot" is different, one of planning and preparation, and one where the individual really doesn't matter so much. What matters is the collective, and an individual's sum total of contribution is fitting into a slot and doing a job that has no real feedback. What drew me to City of Heroes and to fiction in general was the sense of mystery and exploration, but above all, the sense of adventure. iTrials are not an adventure, they are a job. Once in a while, sure, I can run them, but as the sole path to progression they were meant to be? No, they make me feel like a grunt in an army, not like a super hero with his own name and identity.

SSA1 tried to remedy this by painting everyone but us as incompetent, rude and obnoxious, and in so doing it failed because that's just dragging the game through the mud in order to make the player feel less crap. SSA2, in my eyes, does a much better job of feeling like an adventure because it's a genuine mystery and despite still including all of the Freedom Phalanx (or what's left of it), they're not presented as losers. Instead, you have the Meteor Man problem of "You can't be everywhere, you can't save everyone." which forces the Phalanx to split up and gives the story a legitimate reason for the player to be his own named entity.

SSA2 is an interesting story that involves signature NPCs and plays to their strengths, but still leaves the leading role to the player without destroying the other characters. And that's a win!

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.

Eh, no, Dark Astoria is just the same as every other story in CoH and in comic books (with added Lovecraft cliche factor). The writer might have more successful in disguising the story mechanisms for you, but I wasn't impressed.

It might have been more to your taste, but it certainly wasn't better writing.

And I think the actual character you are playing influences how you view a story. If it suits the character you rate it more highly. I played DA as a robot, so was obviously completely unmoved by threats of soul sucking and bodyshock scenery. I've played other arcs as a rather dim thug, so prefer ones that treat me that way than those written for a scheming evil genius.

I rather have a completely different view of the iTrials, only because there are arcs and content to connect to the various different Trials.

First Ward explains why Marauder wound up being the guard of Lambda.

Quite a mid of the 10-15 Praetorian content has you dealing with the BAF.

Praetor Keyes' entire arc in Neutropolis explains his utter breakdown during the Reactor Trial, something that actually confused me until I went back and played that content. At first, I was always sure he was just nuts, but it's more of "I've absolutely HAD it with this crap!"

The Underground one again, sort of requires some First Ward because of Praetorian Vanessa DeVore, but even then, the Devouring Earth twist at the end (The Avatar) is nice, especially with how they explain it.

My only complaint with Trials so far is that Tyrant's fight still feels a little anti-climactic comparatively to Keyes, where there was a build-up of suspense and what not throughout the entire trial right up until Keyes himself pops up and fights you.