IanTheM1

I'm not exactly up to date with modern continuity, but the time travel thing was introduced in the second movie, which had its own problems. And I'd say either way the time travel idea was ill-conceived. Of course, I was describing Statesman with those very same limitations, and he definitely cannot time travel on the fly. (Ouroboros is an incredibly problematic gray area regardless.) He also suffers far less power creep than Supes.

And while there aren't a thousand other super heroes running around Metropolis, there are countless worldwide, because again, Superman can't be everywhere. We don't have the luxury of being able to detail each and every unique home city for every possible new character, so things are fudged a bit in CoH, and they at least justify it - 90% of the hero population was wiped out in the Rikti War; Paragon City is a hotbed for crime.

It's called narrative convenience, and comic book stories are built out of it. You can ask "Why doesn't the bad guy shoot the good guy and get it over with already?" or "Why doesn't Superman just punch the bad guy?" but the answer is pretty obvious - do that and you've killed the plot. There's no more story. (Plus that whole "can't be everywhere" thing.)

The world of City of Heroes was written with the idea of a big-name supergroup in mind* with a leader named Statesman who was world-renowned hero. It was also built with the idea that your character can grow into just as much of a hero as he is.

Complaining that Statesman is overly superior is like complaining that a level 50 player character is stronger than your level 1. The game is explicitly designed so that at level 50, you are seen as Statesman's equal, and similarly on the other side of the game, a bad enough dude that Recluse doesn't necessarily want to mess with you anymore.

*Funnily enough, the original design for the game had you joining supergroups like the Freedom Phalanx, but that was eventually dropped.

Wow. Just...wow. There's so much wrong in that final sentence alone...

Threats? Orders? Demands? Maybe villainside, yeah, which is one of the flaws of the game. But from Statesman? From any of the Freedom Phalanx? From any of the normal citizen contacts? No. Never.

Never said Gordon tries to act like a teacher or a handler. I said he gives advice, and Batman listens. Not because he commands Batman, but because he and Batman work together and mutually trust each other and fight for the greater good. This is exactly the type of relationship that encompasses at least 90% of City of Heroes' contacts. They also tend to beg for help too, even the Freedom Phalanx.

But you're conflating marketing with design here.

CoV was marketed as a stand-alone product because it was. You could buy it and play without already owning CoH. This was a good thing, because it meant more new customers. (I could be wrong here, but while expansions tend to be hyped, I certainly don't cheer over new EQ expansions, for instance, since it's an additional cost on top of the initial purchase. They don't pull me in.) The only expansion element of CoV was SG bases.

And quite the contrary, allowing both heroes and villains to play CoV would only make things worse. Instead of being a second faction with its own legitimate population with its own legitimate concerns, villains would be extremely marginalized. You might eliminate the folks who are biased towards one side of the game over the other (devs hate villains, etc.) but you'd still have folks like me pointing out that villainside was sorely lacking and under-developed.

Except that there's not really much you can do with Faultline except add what would amount to villain versions of the hero arcs. You'd naturally be using the same maps, and there would be similar goals, since Arachnos' purpose in Faultline is singular: Find the Psychochronometron.

Rogues will only be there because they've started acting heroic. According to HeroCon info, Rogues can't actually start heroside missions (due to lack of trust), but can participate in them and otherwise act like a hero would (sans the market).

Maybe you had it easy, but I've done the Silver Mantis TF exactly twice due to its needless restriction.

I would really love to know where you got that from.

Except that CoV is a complete game. There's plenty of content and there's enough to get from level 1 to level 50. The issue here is purely that it has less dedicated content than heroside, largely due to the nature of how co-op arcs are written, and the fact that Cryptic tried to avoid the bloat that CoH had but ultimately also lost some of the good fat, as it were.

This continues to be my primary concern with these sorts of ideas. There's no logical reason to not have PVP, but introducing PVP is an equally bad idea.

Also, I'm not a fan of trying to recycle heroside content into villain content. I really want something original and new for villains.

I meant the "lowered XP for outdoor mobs" part.

Considering we're talking optional hunt missions, I don't see the big deal. I would assume most people hate hunt missions because they show up between instanced missions, almost inevitably send you to another zone, and tend to be a pain due to poor level or difficulty considerations.

But if I'm already in the mood to go clean out Perez Park, I'd love to get a "Defeat X Hellions" mission from a contact in Perez Park so I could get a little more XP for my troubles.

As for two, the idea is to bring some parity to the XP rewards over time. Hunt missions, if you're dedicated to street sweeping already, are theoretically faster than instanced ones, so they would have to give lower rewards. But if you can two in the same time it takes to do one instanced mission, it should logically even out.

They are canon. Whether or not they count because they're not primary canon (if we're going to get into that nonsense like Star Wars) is a matter of opinion.

Also, is the official website's timeline and backgrounder info not canon simply because it's not in the game?

Why aren't the player characters resting on their laurels? Because Statesman is one guy. See: Superman. He's very powerful, but he cannot be everywhere at once, at all times, watching over everyone.

And PCs do have the greatest impact on the game world, albeit in a necessarily limited way. Did Statesman save the world from a second Rikti invasion? No. My characters did. Did Statesman travel the multiverse, preventing it from collapsing in on itself in the process? Nope. Did he save Wincott's son from the Minions of Igneous? Nuh-uh.

This just baffles me. Quite honestly, it sounds like you're seeing things that aren't there. Statesman does not command authority by default. At best, he commands respect because he's damn well earned it. I'm also confused on how he can both invalidate PCs entirely, but also stand around and not actually do anything.

For some reason where I see veteran heroes guiding, training, and molding the new guard into their successors, you see authoritarianism, with PCs strongarmed into obeying the all-glorious Freedom Phalanx.

I won't say that the contact relationship isn't a bit problematic on both sides of the game, but there's a difference between "following orders" and "following advice". Batman certainly does not answer to Jim Gordon, but he definitely listens to what he has to say.

Flash Arrow

Entangling Arrow. Though with this as an AoE rather than ST, it's redundant with Glue Grenade.

Glue Arrow

Original. I actually kinda like this power.

Poison Gas Arrow, just with a hold instead of a sleep.

Not from Trick Arrow, but identical to M30 Grenade and enemy grenade attacks. Plus, a pure attack power in a debuff set?

Disruption Arrow

This tricked me at first, but this is essentially Oil Slick Arrow's ignite effect.

EMP Arrow

I count six (maybe seven) powers that are identical or extremely close to Trick Arrow. So sure enough, 2/3 of the set.

I don't recall that. Best I remember they nerfed Hydra XP because they were specifically being farmed. (And then of course they made Hydra tougher in a handful of ways but never restored their XP...)

The easiest solution to making street sweeping somewhat relevant again: Allow the Hazard Zone Officers (or whatever they're called) to give repeatable hunt missions. I would still expect them to give lower XP bonuses than instanced missions, mostly to balance out travel time and such, but it would still be a decent incentive. Obviously for villainside just add in another legion of Arbiters or whatever other Arachnos agents.

Read the novels. The best portrayals of Statesman you're going to get. And IMO, they redeemed his character after his constant jerkish appearances in the comics.

Of course, I'm not really clear on how Positron or Psyche are necessarily more interesting. None of them really do much in the game at the moment outside of give TFs and fight villains in a few arcs.

But then, here I go taking joke posts seriously.

Did whut?

You know, I'm starting to learn why exactly you have the highest negative rep score I've seen on the boards.

Going to agree with this, if anything along these lines. Mostly because the powerset as detailed in the OP is already made up of 2/3 renamed Trick Arrow powers.

Quite simply, respecs are not for stripping out enhancements to send to your other characters. Positron has gone on record saying that allowing you to put ten enhancements in your tray to save after a respec is already generous. I wouldn't expect that to change any time soon. (This thread offers a possible balanced alternative.)

Same here. Trams were definitely working as they do now in November '04. Honestly, I could've sworn hearing that got stamped out pretty quick closer to launch.

Might makes right. You want to wear a cape, in imitation of your glorious leader, Emperor Cole? Then prove yourself first.

On the other hand, I got nothin' for the Resistance.

I like the core idea (specifically for auras, since capes are tangled in lore issues), but I think that trying to sidestep story/theme restrictions and parity via a vet reward isn't so great.

If we're going that route, music triggers as well, please.