Vic Raiden

I decidedly like the one before fighting Dr. Geist in the finale of Dr. Creed's arc. Something genuinely funny about a mad scientist breaking out into standard mad scientist ranting only to get silenced by a grunt assisting him.

Not gonna lie: the first time I saw that airbase, I thought that it was Council property, and consequently that the Council has an air force.

Faultline and Sharkhead have similar airstrips too, the latter being part of Governor Cage's private property. Because nothing screams 'ultra-rich' like having a lavish mansion on a tiny island with its own airstrip and docks.

Speaking of Croatoa, hasn't anyone else found it weird how it's connected to Paragon City's maglev network despite being far enough away for the city to not even be visible on the horizon? Because I sincerely don't see how it could make sense in-universe.

I know there's a good number of medium-rise apartment blocks in Kings Row and Brickstown, but yeah, it is weird how there's not a single player-accessible proper suburban area with small single-family houses. The only area I know of that was described in official lore as a suburb is Eden, and even it is mostly skyscrapers, at least in the parts that haven't been completely naturified yet.

The only actual stadium I know of is the one in Kallisti Wharf, which is still under construction. Haven't seen any playgrounds either, only a couple concrete basketball courts between random apartment blocks. No elementary, middle or high schools either, just the four Paragon University campuses. Having a big shopping mall somewhere is a big dream of mine, as is having a coastside amusement park by that horn-shaped peninsula north of Astoria.

Dunno. Anyway, I find it criminal that next to none of the shops/hotels/whatever across the overworlds have functioning interiors, even if it's just the lobby. Like, the only shops you get to enter in Paragon City are a small handful of enhancement vendors, while the only restaurant-adjacent location with a casually accessible interior is Blackbeard's Pub in Port Oakes, despite a number of other locales having already modeled insides for use in instanced missions. And don't even get me started on the only non-trainer tailor in Praetoria only talking with the players outside her studio instead of inside it! Also, regarding travel hubs other than harbors: the map says there used to be an airport in Boomtown proper (i.e. inside the player-accessible boundaries), why aren't there any discernible ruins thereof!? And while I can accept the Skyway City airport being a more recent replacement constructed in the in-between space for extra safety, I also find it ridiculous for a city the size of Paragon to not have any 'regular' train stations that aren't the tourist maglev.

Base Builder is a no-go due to NPC pathing issues, but I suppose building custom maps out of the generic tilesets could still work. Also agreed about the Lost pieces.

Best thing we got so far is setting an enemy type to not auto-spawn and then putting them in a single spawn detail.

Friendly heroic succubus who really wishes she could stop being a demon. Evil cyborg overlord from the 80s seeking to reclaim his old glory. Psychic Praetorian Kamen Rider with dreams of becoming a true hero. Disgraced Arachnos Arbiter from the Atlas Park questline.

Not sure how much flak I'd get for this, but I'd also like to retcon the PPD Psychic and Kheldian divisions out of existence. They just kinda make no sense with the PPD's overarching "gimmick" of being ordinary police officers deadset on doing their job without resorting to superpowers - and both of those specific subgroups directly violate that, especially the Awakened who have NO business being as numerous as they are. I'd keep the powered exoskeletons and drones/mechs, though, they're cool. Also, I'm very not a fan of Homecoming's decision to make the Kallisti Wharf precinct so ridiculously corrupt and violent that they had to be replaced with a custom-made PMC group. That just clashes so horribly with the PPD's overall characterization, I can't even.

Okay, but if Lord Recluse is killed off, then who's going to hand out the LRSF?

...okay, Arachnos' treatment in general really does bother me a lot. They were first vaguely foreshadowed in one task force in issue 3, then only actually debuted in issue 6/CoV launch, with Arachnos enemies starting to appear in hero content one issue later... As a result, we have a big evil empire which is treated like it's always been there and a big deal despite only actually appearing in a rather small portion of actually plot-relevant blueside content. Prior to Issue 21, a blueside player wouldn't even know of their existence until close to level 20, and the existence of a whole Arachnos base in Atlas Park - complete with a suspiciously weak Arbiter in charge of it - feels kinda hamfisted as a new introduction to the faction, foreshadowing via a Recluse's Victory exploration badge be damned. Then, the old City of Heroes website mentions Arachnos has contacts, spies and liaisons within just about every single gang and other criminal organization in Paragon City, which just... I don't feel like enough is done with that. I guess what I'm saying is the Aaron Thiery arc should be removed or at least rewritten to not be about Arachnos, and there should be more hints/foreshadowing towards the organization's existence and involvement in the situation in the city, more propers shows of their evilness and the threat they pose, hopefully culminating in late-game arcs where you actually get to take the fight to their turf outside of the MLTF. Because I think it's weird how villain players get to fight Lord Recluse as the final boss of non-TF/SF story content while hero players don't. It's certainly not helping matters that whatever Arachnos could be up to at any given time gets repeatedly sidelined in favor of an enforced truce against the Arbitrary Greater Common Enemy of the Week™ which usually only exists to justify a co-op zone being co-op instead of PvP.

Hoo boy, here I go: Rikti should NOT have been human all along, regardless of Dr. Sheridan's missions. That just kinda kills their alien-ness. I don't know what to do with the Council/5th Column split: whether to get rid of the replacement or of the 5th's subsequent comeback, either way having two nearly identical enemy groups is a bit redundant. Related to the above, get rid of Reichsman or at least rewrite him into his own person instead of a second Alternate-Universe Evil Statesman. Considering Arachnos' spider/web motifs, I feel like they're a better fit for the "super-high-level force of evil which manipulated all the lesser crime in Paragon City" niche than Nemesis, who doesn't even have any particularly unique henchmen as he currently stands. Rewrite the "revive Red Widow" Valentine's Day arc because it still makes very little sense. Cut the revamped Dark Astoria off from the greater Praetorian War storyline, because it frustrates me to no end how a deal as big as a literal demon god of death threatening to destroy the world is ultimately just a by-the-way to an interdimensional invasion. Bring Sister Psyche back, she didn't deserve to die. Get rid of all the greater Incarnate lore and especially of the buildup to the Battalion/Coming Storm. The Well in particular should rather remain as a non-sentient manifestation of humanity's collective potential instead of becoming a person with its own goals and the ability to hijack Signature Incarnates to speak through them. Do something about Statesman, because the records are kinda very messy ever since it was decided he has always been dead. That's all I can think of for now.

Creating a code for standable moving platforms and applying it to ships, cars, trams etc. shouldn't be all that difficult... right?

Screw it, I'm voting Michael White instead. Brought police corruption down to zero, surely he can do the same to government corruption.

Nothing stopping Christie for having been mayor in an interim between two of Morales' terms, I think. Except Salamanca is a separate town and not a district of Paragon City.

I present to you, the objectively best cinematic shot of Talos Island one could ever take.

Could we please not turn this thread into a personal fight? The starting point was that the writing in Robert Kogan's arc is wonky and should be changed to something more tasteful and less out-of-place.

Then again, most of the earlier content isn't as readily bad, though maybe that's just because the descriptions are shorter. A couple sentences detailing what's going on and what you need to do about it, nothing more. There just didn't use to be as much space for bad writing. Compare that to modern content, where every talkable NPC has a whole novel's worth of text, and problems only become more glaring that way.

No, all I can find about him on the wiki is he's the head of a tech company called Christie Consolidated, with a suspicious lot of money and influence to make Kallisti Wharf into his personal playground.

Perhaps? All signs so far are pointing to this elusive Emil Christie guy who apparently repaired the whole district all by himself, but who knows what he actually is. Could be a Crey agent, a Nemesis automaton or even a Malta officer for all we know.

I know we're not supposed to discuss politics openly, but a lot of what I know about Kallisti Wharf content feels just wrong. Not only this 5th Column commander sounding like he spent way too long on Twitter, but also things like the BWI precinct plaque being a scathing critique of the local police department, long since replaced by the BWI. It just doesn't make sense. The PPD was originally depicted as a very idealized, firmly genuinely benevolent police force their real-life peers should strive to emulate, and then suddenly you have an absurdly corrupt precinct "not understanding the locals' problems due to not being locals themselves" and a very unsubtle stand-in for George Floyd's death which caused such big riots that a mysterious shady businessman had to step in and replace the police in KW - and only KW - with an equally mysterious and shady PMC with such great training and weapons that they had zero problems bringing the crime rate way down despite having to put up with endgame-level enemy groups. I have no idea how I'm supposed to take all this, but it certainly could've been written better.

Could be cool, but at the same time it feels kinda wrong to have Menders out in the open and let players casually approach them. Then again, I suppose it's no different than having the Recluse's Victory portal right in Atlas Park and letting player casually go there right from the start to get Entrusted with the Secret early.

One more typo regarding that guy: his name is supposed to be Olde Tyre Fire, but the orange narration text in the first dialogue box calls him Old Tire Fire instead.