If you don't like the writing...

I think there'll be more hot, salty tears of rage after I24

[QUOTE=Venture;4337885]The real problem with the first 1.5 seasons on TNG was that every episode was an obvious remake of a TOS episode. (An old acquaintance who allegedly had connections said this was due to Executive Meddling.) There were no dynamics between the characters because the characters were being played by actors who were actually playing other characters. If that makes sense. Which it doesn't. I'll stop now.

Yeah, but you can say the same about every NPC that stays out in the open. Like you said, that's a gameplay limitation, similar to back in the day when Lady Grey was said to be a "hero" but had the stats of a lieutenant and was pathetic. It was hard to buy that she was ancient and very powerful when she had fewer hit points than my pets. But again, when these characters showed up - and the Phalanx showed up a LOT in various Grandville arcs - they were quite impressive. Positron, Synapse, BABs, these were quite potent. And Miss Liberty was downright scary. She's the one EB I've always had the most difficulty taking down for some reason.

I see what you mean, though. Which is exactly why this story arc was the time to give them actual characterisation and personality, and to demonstrate why they have that reputation. And instead, we got basically a character assassination of the Freedom Phalanx any anime would be proud of. It just feels that when the bad guys need to "win," it doesn't matter what the good guys do because the plot will bend over backwards to have them beaten anyway. It seems contrived and the Phalanx seem like completely different people.

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.

For some reason, pre IOs, Infernal was the only EB I ever had trouble with. I'm not sure what it was, but it seemed like no matter what character I was playing he was just out to get me. Whenever I see someone on global chat asking for help with Infernal I drop whatever I'm doing and go help just so I can take him down out of spite.

As far as it being about the limitations I agree. But that's one limitation that works better for villains than for heroes. Why would the Phalanx need my lowbie hero to go save the day? But it makes total sense that a high ranking villain would send weaker villains on tasks that they see as beneath them. While I don't like it when my villain is made someone else's flunkie, I can handle it when I'm a low enough since it means I haven't really made a name for myself yet. Although it would be nice to have the option of going back to your old contacts once you're higher level and beating them up or making them run errands for you.

It gets downright schizoid when the game starts trying to have it both ways.

In SSA 2.2 we have Doc Harding (the archaeologist, I don't recall his actual name) say "Ooo, you work with the Freedom Phalanx? You must be Big Damn Hero! Of course I'll follow you out of this danger." and then we have Positron, in the exact same mission, saying "Gosh, $Character, I don't think we're up to this. I'm glad we have a Big Damn Hero like you around." Meanwhile, the heaviest lifting they've had to do during the entire chapter is to help me with Ghost Widow, which didn't take much of anything, really.

If the message is supposed to be that the public still thinks of the Phalanx as Big Damn Heroes but the Phalanx themselves know the truth that you are the Biggest, then the message needs some more work.

The I24 Incarnate arc contact comes pretty close to openly hero-worshipping us