Venture

Renowned
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  1. Quote:
    The "Syndicate" formed because Cole and his people set out a better equipped and more capable squad of officers to police the streets.
    That's just not true, and if you're going to ignore what's actually said in the game then there's no point in continuing the discussion.

    Quote:
    The US Government didn't create the Mafia.
    Since it started in Sicily, I should hope not.
  2. Quote:
    They only recruit people with psychic potential. Not psychics. There is a difference. A person with psychic potential may never realize their ability. A Psychic has psychic ability.
    Now you're just being silly, doubly so since the LT /info boxes state the Syndicate trains the psychic abilities of their recruits.

    Quote:
    Your statement was wrong in that you described them as -created- by the government. they were not.
    There is a huge difference between a bunch of criminals, or even small gangs of them, and one huge monolithic criminal organization. The State created the latter.

    N.b. as well that it is far from proven that all members of the Syndicate were criminals before joining.

    In any case, as previously mentioned, there is no shortage of in-game dialog to the effect that Syndicate members are fighting to avoid Tilman's clutches. If it pleases you to ignore that, whatever.

    Quote:
    Responsibility Loyalist = Hero
    People who send their daughters to be turned into Borg drones aren't heroes.
  3. Quote:
    You can't look at the Crusaders and scream "Evil Terrorist" unless you're ignoring that the Crusaders are in an armed insurrection. War changes the rules about what it a legitimate target.
    Um, no, it doesn't, since "the rules" such as they are exist to determine what constitutes a legitimate target in time of war. Outside of war nothing's a legitimate target.

    Quote:
    There is no Geneva Convention here. No "rules of war."
    Absence of codified rules does not invalidate standards of morality.

    Quote:
    Like with Japan needed to be shown that they can't win, the people of Praetoria must be shown that the social contract that they made with Cole is false.
    The people of Praetoria are powerless. If Cole hit the hoped-for Zero Approval Rating the best his subjects could manage is a re-enactment of Tienenamen Square. Add in the fact that they're drugged into docility and the Crusaders' stunts are revealed for what they are: acts of terrorism committed by people who know they can't win but are too crazy to stop fighting.

    This, also, is considering the Crusaders only by their actions. It gets worse when you actually talk to them. Any ethical person speaking to the likes of Hatchet or Crow for five minutes should realize you don't even want to know these people, must less join a revolution with them.

    Quote:
    Revolution is inevitable, conflict is inevitable.
    But terrorism is not.

    Quote:
    The Syndicate -CONTAINS- Psychics, Venture. Might even have some psychics in charge. But the Syndicate is composed of Tsoo and Mooks and other organized crime gangs bunching together to keep out of prison.
    No. They are all psychic. Read the Syndicate entry on ParagonWiki.

    Quote:
    The Syndicate isn't just a bunch of psychics trying to avoid imprisonment.
    It is more or less stated in various places (e.g. Kang's arc) that they are. Some of them might have been criminals to begin with that that's immaterial. For at least 15 years they've lived in a totalitarian government that has declared their very drawing of breath a crime.

    Quote:
    But Tub Ci was a criminal before Psychics were outlawed/contained.
    Tub Ci is not even the leader of (or even a leader of) the Syndicate. He's Wu Yin's bodyguard. The leader (maybe even founder) of the Syndicate is not named and is killed off off-screen as the Nova Praetoria arcs begin. According to McKnight's arc Tub Ci was presumed dead 15 years ago -- which is when the Seer program went online and when the Syndicate was formed. Hmm....

    Quote:
    So, the Responsibility Loyalists are as evil as Tyrant...for doing the exact same thing the Heroes of Paragon do? They protect the lives of the people who can't protect themselves to the best of their abilities withing the confines of the law.
    They're not as bad as Tyrant, at least not in the general case, but they are no heroes. They are complicit in every act of oppression committed by the regime they support.

    As I've said from the start: Praetoria is a corrupt society and everyone capable of exercising power in it is corrupt.
  4. Quote:
    Arachnos and Longbow both invade Praetoria in different parts of the story; Longbow being all Golden Girl and trying to tell everyone that Emperor Cole is evil no matter what actual logic you may use, and Arachnos legitimately trying to destroy the place since there's no Lord Recluse there.
    Primal Earth forces are involved in Praetoria because of Praetorian attacks on Primal Earth. With an infinite number of parallel worlds, Primal Earth has neither the resources nor desire to meddle in any of them arbitrarily.

    Quote:
    Play the game, get informed, then make statements.
    I played the entire expansion in beta, thanks for asking.
  5. Quote:
    I say this in a spirit of honest confusion: I wasn't aware that the Syndicate was created by the state.
    The Syndicate is composed of psychics trying to avoid becoming first Borg drones and then Tilman's lunch.


    Quote:
    In short: if Praetorian Hamidon isn't real, then Going Rogue is V the Movie and I am disappoint.
    I don't think that Praetoria measures up as a scenario rife with moral ambiguity but I also don't think it was ever really intended to. The devs did say, flat out, that Tyrant is the bad guy and his regime is evil. I have no idea where the Draco in Leather Pants style admiration is coming from and/or why some people are so hell-bent on trying to show the brownshirts of a fascist state in a positive light.
  6. Quote:
    Honestly, take out the Seers & Enriche and Cole looks a lot more reasonable.
    Helps, but not much. The real problem is that not once in the 20 levels do you ever fight or even see a threat to Praetoria that was not created by the State.
  7. Eh, threw in one of my existing ones.

    Edit: Or not, since the instructions here turned out to be incomplete. I resent the submission according to Ocho's instructions, if that helps.
  8. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Golden Girl View Post
    I have no interest in ruling the world
    Sure....

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Thurston Howell III
    "I don't want to rule the world; I want to buy it and pay someone to rule it for me!"
  9. Quote:
    "Too many have already forgotten how hubris nearly destroyed us all."
    So says a man who thinks he alone should be allowed to make decisions.
  10. Quote:
    Signature characters shouldn't bloat up to multiple times the power level of everyone else simply because having us stuggle against their Mary Sue Defender with more HP than a player Tanker is easier (and more fun) for the devs than giving us challenge worthy of a team of super heroes, like fighting a team of super villains or a Galactus.
    Know what will happen if you throw a team of Boss or even EB rank mobs at a team of players?

    You're not going to get eight one-on-one fights. You're going to get eight eight-on-one fights as the players focus fire on individual targets while the mobs flounder about helplessly because the CPU budget for AI doesn't give them a snowball's chance in hell of using teamwork.

    That doesn't excuse the excesses in the fiction (if Statesman can survive getting hit with a tacnuke then nothing any player does should affect him at all) but there's no way the game is going to work if mobs are limited to PC power levels. If the computer isn't a cheating ******* the game will be very, very boring.
  11. Ghost Widow is closer to an Anti Sue than a Mary Sue, but even that is a stretch.

    Sueness is relative to setting. Character traits that would brand a character as a hell-worthy Sue in most settings barely register in a superhero work.
  12. Imma gonna suggest that Positron's blog entry for this week suggests we're not likely to see another name purge any time soon.
  13. Quote:
    The math is sound. Give me a new set of variables and I'll run it again, and again, and again.
    Errors in your math defy enumeration. You include irrelevant factors and disregard relevant ones. Changing the values isn't going to help. In the immortal words of Dr. Pauli, "this isn't even wrong".

    There are five Ventures in The Other Game. I'm only one of them. There are also fifteen more "Doc Ventures" or such, about half of which are obviously derived from the cartoon. This makes me glad I have the name on all but (IIRC) three servers here.
  14. Steampunkette's method is known as a Fermi proof, after Enrico Fermi who popularized it (and made rather amazing use of it). The technique when properly employed is valid. In this case, Steampunkette's premises are mostly spoo.

    And she wouldn't know a logical fallacy if it bit her head off.
  15. Recent comment on the arc:

    [Tell] #####: Feedback on Architect Mission Two Households Alike: Definitely one of the better arcs out there. Like that so many underbosses with 'nicknames' have appropriate bio info with hints to their background and such. Good job setting up the player to hate Diablo and thus set up the full impact of the letter souvenir. Not sure if there was anything in Diablo's dossier clue early in the arc that would foreshadow his turn of heart. Maybe you don't want to have that, make it come out of nowhere. A subtle note like "he has not known friends, or even lovers" which
    [Tell] #####: which might hint a loneliness in retrospect which would motivate him. Not sure. Surprise twist works, but also nice to have a hint you can't see at first, but gives different meaning after the end.
  16. Quote:
    Farming using the AE is pretty much the issue on this board that will cause you to get flamed like a ....great big, flame..attracting...thing.
    must...not...write..entire...arc...in...BuffySpeak ....
  17. During the i18 beta, Zombie Man opened a thread by this name with a set of screenshots of the Praetoria contact Mr. G being watched by various pedestrians and mobs. I continued it with the following, reposted by request:

    ----

    He once rezzed a fallen teammate...by combining two blues into an Awaken.

    He has used Elude to solo an AV...on his Blaster.

    His Loyalist character let Washington...and Cleopatra...live.

    He has beaten his teams to Shadow Shard doors...using Walk.

    He is...The Most Interesting Man in Praetoria.

    "I don't always play MMOs...but when I do, I play City of Heroes."

    "Stay super, my friends."
  18. My answer was going to be "dip yourself in lighter fluid and strike a match", but that's better.
  19. Quote:
    The problem with a challenge arc versus a normal one is that you literally can not pay people to play it.
    For some odd reason "Psychophage" (#283197) not only has 16 plays but at least one commentator here thinks it's my best work. :-/
  20. I've made a few changes to this arc, mainly in the form of some new custom mobs:
    • Polettis now have a custom Underboss and LT, both Dual Pistols/Super Strength.
    • Tsoo removed from act II, replaced with Lost.
    • Darrin in act III now a custom Dual Pistols/Willpower Minion.
    • Extraneous ranged attacks removed from various custom mobs.
    • Some details re-ordered so their Clues will appear in a better order.
  21. Quote:
    I'd give +rep to Johnny Butane right now for trying to use logic and reason while being essentially dogpiled by an unruly mob who loves their ad hominems, slippery slopes and strawmen (you know I had to throw that word into this thread, muhaha)
    He's done nothing but hurl the same. He's offered no real reason for changing the existing system other than "I wants it, preciousssss".

    People have been raising objections based on actual observed behavior in The Other Game. That means said objections are not irrational.
  22. Quote:
    This would just result in a wave of people re-subbing a week before the scrub just to secure their name before vanishing again at the end of the month.
    If they are willing to pay real money to keep the name then they're entitled to keep it.

    If someone got the name you wanted before you then they get it and you don't. Run over to Home Depot, buy a hammer, nails and some wood, then build a bridge and get over it.
  23. Quote:
    I *just* got Sparkdance for my Clockwork Elec/Elec dominator.
    I grabbed Sparkdancer on Virtue the day i18 went live, also a Praetorian E/E Dom. I'd been using the name for a DB/Electric on Protector for a while. Last year I wanted to move her to Virtue but the name wasn't available. I tried it on a lark and it had opened.
  24. Quote:
    Okay...list me what you've gotten so far?
    Venture, Starfall, Eric Moonraker, Eva Knight, Jessica Ballantine, Nola Pinepixie, ALX-7, The Dakota Dragon, Iphigenia, Mr. Pagliacci, The Philosoraptor, Ranger Umbra, Sam Beowulf, Ursus Minor, Fleetblade, Vector Alpha, Ghostblaze, Merribelle, Thermophage, Agent Cerulean, Alison Silverheart, Caldera, Ebon StarKnight, Force XI, Graveblossom, Horatius Aquila, The Laughing Gnome, Master Kasai, The Red Iguana, Simon Joule, Dr. Solaria, Master Shadowscale, Phonon Flux, Adriella Cassidy, Bow Jest, Coloratura, Exergia, Ion Lash, Knight Zero, Scylia, Shadow Violet, Sparkdancer, Victor Praetorius, Gothzilla, Penelope Panda, The Undead Comic, Ahuilizti, Glass Ashes, Amarantia, Amelia Escobar, Amy Sunflower, Arcanum, Cat Stevie, David Moonbow, GI Jane, Jack Stonecrack, Jaidal Singh Bennet, Konoros, Lady Avernus, Mother Night, Ms. Gale, Phil Noir, Sieglinde, Stormtouch, Tisiphone Delta-7.

    I left a few out that were obvious variations (e.g. Lady Caldera).
  25. Quote:
    If someone wants the name, they're going to use that "creative" crap to have it. So just GIVE it to them without the clutter and nonsense punctuation marks. Other than schadenfreude and being petty and childish, there's no reason not to.
    I like it the way it is. When I see someone using that "creative" crap it's truth in advertising: they're letting every know up front they're a would-be diva who can't deal with not getting their own way.