dugfromthearth

thanks, now I need to go update all of my threads with it.

good to have the info accurate.

my problem with FW is the same problem they have in every zone. The arcs don't really go together. And I usually like the first story more than the last.

I liked the survivors in FW vs the DUST rangers. Trying to deal with the ghouls, etc.

I wanted more of that.

But that ended and there was this completely different story about ghosts and carnival and such that I didn't really care about.

I'd like to remind them that as a trusted forum personality, I could be helpful in rounding up others to farm in their underground incarnate caves.

Yes, but the arc with the Rualru in the Midnighters Club is I believe many levels below the Shadow Shard. And I don't recall them really being introduced in the arc, although I may have missed it.

I stopped playing it before at episode 3 or 4. The first episodes just have no relation to one another (like what are rularuu and why are they here) and the stupidity of Manticore was too annoying.

But I played through all 7 episodes solo, and the end of arc is very good. The plot started to make sense. The early episodes got tied in. The epic nature of it was well established and supported.

The custom maps and missions were great.

I think the episodic nature does not work well. It was much better going through them all one after another, rather than waiting a week in between. So I look forward to playing SSA2, but I will wait until the whole thing is out.

innocence proves nothing

have you heard that they prefer a ewe in a herd to a ram?

my only annoyance with DfB is that with the trainers there to level you, it is much more convenient than the mission arcs in Atlas that are nicely chained in location except that you have to go back to Liberty to train.

I wish BaB or some Longbow trainer would show up between missions

I'll give Arcana that ever elusive kudo

of course if you really want to be overpowered you would play an ill/rad controller or a bots/dark MM

That's silly.

If the devs wanted potty humor about P Yin they would have put her in a zone called I.P.

We are heroes who save the world or people or cats or whatever. Something has to have gone wrong for us to be needed. Hollows was destroyed, a Hydra appeared in the sewers, etc. We should be used to things going wrong and us fixing it.

So I wondered why SSA1 felt so bad. I realized playing the 4th one (where you stand and watch Manticore and Liberty argue about who will protect Psyche) is that normally the disasters happen off screen. You hear about them and then fix them.

But in SSA1 you are forced to watch the disasters happen with no ability to prevent them. And not just once, but repeatedly - sometimes repeatedly in the same mission.

Had #4 started with being told that the dirge was causing a Longbow base to go wild, I wouldn't have blinked an eye. If I got to the end and Sister Psyche were insane, I wouldn't have blinked an eye.

The odd thing is that normally you are supposed to "show" not "tell" what happens. People prefer watching a movie to see the event rather than just have someone report what happened off screen. But a game is not the same as passive fiction. Watching a movie I feel no responsibility for a character making a bad decision. Playing a game I do feel responsibility if I am standing there watching them make it.

listos version: Missions need to be written understanding that we are participants and not observers in the events. If we are to be only observers that needs to be forced by having the events happen off screen or in a cut scene so that all responsibility is removed from us.

no, the TARDIS is a reference to these

I've started the Shadow Shard once. It was okay but I stopped playing it. Largely I think because I normally build characters for teaming, so soloing is not much fun.

But I'm thinking of starting a character in Praetoria - probably a stalker or brute. And then I might solo a bunch of content that I've never done.

So is Shadow Shard worth playing or just worth seeing (I've seen it)?

Play it all of the way through?

everything is getting harder?

the game has never been easier.

if you want harder, create a free character (no vet powers) and do some old vahz missions at level 4.

so create a comic cover using one of your characters and a title
turn in by June 15 for bonus points
deadline June 29

got it

I've been running through SSA1 on my character at -1/x1 difficulty just to get through it. I have played the first ones before, so I'm skipping the text. But the actual mechanics of the arcs are surprisingly interesting.

Speed clicking the glowies ahead of the pumicite ambushes
answering the questions of the rularu
destroying the power suppliers and turning on the anti-aircraft weapons vs Marshal Blitz

They really are interesting missions instead of just defeat all clockwork in the warehouse x3.

The content is much better than before in every way I can think of.

so it has come to this