PapaSlade

Holy Crap! BaBs is going back to Cryptic. Now that's dev news! and horrible news at that.

That's the spirit! but seriously get to every IP address you can get your hands on. My cousin is having a card game tomorrow night and I am going to have to "look something up" real quick on his computer when I get there. If stuffing the ballot box works for Baseball's All-star team it can work for us too =]

hmmm...what if the magical barrier just seals the Rikti dimension off from earth itself. Magic can be oddly specific like that depending on exactly how the spell was crafted. Perhaps the spell did not seal the Rikti dimension off from say...the MOON!!! The Rikti have built a base on the dark side of the moon and are flying their motherships in from there! So now we will have to defeat the invading forces and take out their Moon base!!


Really. It could happen.

Let's face it, either the marketing department for our beloved game is a complete myth or whoever is in charge of said marketing department is such a disciple of the "word of mouth" marketing school that they are completely incapable of pursuing any other form of advertising. Print ads?? Those must be too old school. A cool video ad?? ehhh...ok we can do that but only once or twice a year because that's alot of work and our players make better ones anyway.

I mean really, what do they do? Schedule a half dozen interviews a year with devs on websites a casual gamer like me only find out about because someone on these forums posted a link to it. I say casual because, aside from breaking out Starcraft once in a blue moon, if I chose to play a game I am sitting down to play this. I haven't even upgraded from my old PS2 for console games. If I had not found this game on the shelf at best buy when the COH/COV box set was out (almost 4 years ago) I would likely still be searching for a game I actually like.

My frustration mounted as I was subjected to ads every month in my weekly comic book reading for "the other game", which I actually tried in beta. I want a COX ad in the middle of my next issue of Runaways! That should give you plenty of time because lord knows when that will come out...but I digress.

I really feel bad for our devs. It appears from my vantage point that they care a great deal about both the game and the player base. That they pour their heart and souls into their work because they genuinely like it. They give a damn. In return they get a marketing department that seems like it could care less if another person ever finds out about this game.

I feel bad for my fellow players. Many of whom scream from whatever little mountain top they can find what a great game this is. They make professional quality promotional videos and spread them far and wide. They give a damn.

Which brings me to a final point. In another thread BaB's asked what he is supposed to scream as he slaps the marketing department around on our behalf. The answer is simple:

"THE PLAYERS WANT YOU TO GIVE A DAMN!!!"

Sorry, that turned into a bit of a thread jack. In response to the question at hand much of what I want I hope comes in GR, but if it doesn't:

1.) More work on existing stories that are sort of just out there. Like the coming storm. So I guess a little fresher high level content. Well fresher all level content.

2.) More Villain TF's, not co-op TF's, VILLAIN TF's.

3.) Zone revamps for Boomtown and Dark Astoria. Just be careful with DA because a revamp could ruin the zone as much as help it.

4.) and a marketing team that gives a damn!!!

LOL....and ewww

I think what I was shooting for here was the thought that, if in the course of a different mission, you had the chance to take out Josef Mengele, a top terrorist weapons maker or someone else of that ilk would you feel it served the greater good. Von Grun has a well established desire to "rule the world" and experiments on the DE to create a weapon in an attempt to reach that goal. Aeon is equally power hungry but far more discrete. Not to mention he has trapped a demon to power his evil plans. Creed experiments on the infected in Mercy. These are people not plants or an imprisoned demon. He may actually be the worst of the bunch. So yes, Crimson "has a real hard on" for getting rid of these guys.

The taking of the actual men is meant to give Arachnos multiple secondary targets to worry about. That is the distraction. If you simply went after Grillo, they would likely target all their extra security to his most sensitive work. Now they must protect all the projects these men were working on, making your next objective easier.

The structure of the mission as well as Unai and Tina's dialogue is meant to suggest that they are determined to stay and fight to protect Portal Corp. So, if you chose not to dispatch them yourself then they are still in the building, fighting the good fight, when it blows up.

Since we have yet to learn exactly how our world will interact with the Preatorian world once Going Rogue comes out, I am unsure exactly what we will be "defenseless" against. Looking at the state of our world (in game) I might be more worried about us going there if I was a Preatorian. That isn't the real issue here.

What Crimson is really concerned about is not the threats we already know. The Rikti, Nemesis, Preatorians, etc. that you point out can still use portal tech. He considers them the threats at hand. The ones Paragon and the world seem to basically be at a stalemate with. Given a few more missions I would have liked to address that but we are a little limited in how much ground we can cover in one arc.

What really has him worried and what is driving his actions is the threats that are still out there. What will these Portal Corp people unlock next as they cavalierly hop from dimension to dimension? That is what Crimson is trying to prevent. The next "Rikti War" against an as yet unseen enemy. If that means the sacrifice of those stationed on the other side to save all those that remain on Primal Earth, is that the greater good? Given the cost of the Rikti Invasion, I think that is a legitimate concern.

It may be the most advanced technological breakthrough in the world but it may also be the single greatest threat to the future of the world as well.



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Agreed, the story may not be original, but I still think the idea behind the threat of portal tech is a sound one.

Perhaps, since the contest is over, I need to change my discription for the arc to include a disclaimer. It appears the arc is a bit to dark for many heroes and I understand completely that not everyone wants their character turned into the punisher. Part of the problme may be that I play the majority of my time red side and even my heroes tend to be a bit more vigilante. In fact, now that I think about it, all my favorable feedback has come from people I know that play mostly red side. I am sensing a trend.

I also thought Crimson explained his reasoning rather clearly but I think by the time I get around to it most hero players are already in the "this is just crazy" frame of mind and simply do not want to hear it.

Crimson states that he has disabled the police band and set up a distaction to give a window to work in. So you are basically the first "hero" on the scene. Perhaps if I added a timer it would lend the feeling of urgency. I could add a few hostages that just run off I suppose but they really can't see you doing any of the work to take down Portal Corp.

I struggled with adding a fight between Arachnos and security on the first floor but with Unai already on that floor it would complicate things if you were fighting Unai and ran past a group of security that just just stood there and watched you fight their boss. Placing them in the second or third floor means they stand around and watch you place the explosives and do nothing. I could try the last floor. I assumed if they were in proximity to the big names they would be dead before you ever got there and you have the same problem with Tina as you do with Unai. Any security in the building would need the ability to turn on you as well as fight the attacking Arachnos. Making them Rogue means they attack you before you do anything that calls for them to attack you. In the end I decided that the mechanics available did not support the behavior needed for what the charatcer was doing in the mish.

First, there are very few bosses that are required to be fought. Sands, Black Scorpion, and Mantis are all not required for mission completes. Granted, Mantis can be hard to avoid but the others can be by passed. Aeon is the other tough fight but he is just making it look good and once he does that he bails (runs off at half HP). I thought I made the dialogue and the objective listings reflect that but if you have a suggestion to make that more clear I am all ears. As far as allies go, I bounced around placing Crimson in the last mission but the story really reflects him as keeping his hands clean on this one because it may just be the start of what he is up to. Anyone else would have been just a throw in. This is sort of designed as a covert ops type arc, hence not a lot of extra players involved.

Again, perhaps I should change the arc discription to include "for the darker hero and their like minded friends" or something along that line.

Again, I really appreciate the time you took and any suggestions are great. I think there was a wide spectrum of takes on the challenge. As I said earlier, I play mostly red side, so for me some of the entries just simply did not go far enough. The "evil" they asked of the player was dipping their toe in to test the waters. I guess I went to the other extreme. I still say the potential threat from portal tech is not a "bad concept" and Crimson wanting to eliminate that threat could result in the greater good for the people of Paragon.

What can I say, I like the map and it fit Crimson's profile. He knows alot about what Malta is up to.

Actually, the only one with Portal insights is Grillo. The rest are targets that serve as misdirection to Arachnos. I also could not find Grillo, Von Grun, or Creed as fightable enemies in the MA so all three were made for the mission.

The mission goal is not to "take out" the technicians. They attack you once they realize you are not there to save Portal Corp from the Arachnos attack. Yes, you save them from Arachnos because you are still a hero at heart and cannot just leave them to their fate. Once they become an obstacle to the mission they leave you no choice and must be removed.

Crimson's logic is sound, in his mind anyway (and mine). He views portal tech as the single greatest threat to Paragon City. He feels Paragon City's and the worlds defenders have their hands full with the threats at hand, many have which are a direct result of using portal tech (Rikti/Rularuu). The next threat that comes out of those portals may tip the balance and bring everything crashing down. Some people may interpret that I mean Going Rogue is the next big threat but it is not meant that way...it could be anything.

I really appreciate you playing the arc. I have a few things that others have pointed out that I need to fix/polish up and now that I am home from vacation I should have some time to get to those. I hope you play it again and let me know if it makes more sense.