Vic Raiden

See, another problem is that due to the aforementioned MMOness, the "now" is all around the place. Depending on which NPC you ask, the Praetorian War either hasn't broken out yet, is well underway in the background, or has been over for so long that everyone had already managed to profit from it - and all of that is true at the same time. Then there's Statesman and Sister Psyche, who have always been dead until you play the SSA where they die, and even then they somehow manage to still be alive when you're doing the Underground Trial and the Faultline arcs, respectively. Good luck making sense out of any of that. Things pile up so much that one may eventually start losing track of what has or hasn't canonically happened yet... which, of course, makes it harder to actually cement one's characters as existing within the setting.

Being able to dispose of disliked contacts is one thing, another would be having a sort of OOC content warning regarding what kinds of evil each contact is up to or what origin their missions vibe with the most. I'd also say just add more contacts to cherrypick from, but I figure an ongoing tip mission-esque personal master plan system like someone suggested so long ago would be a greater help in actually feeling in control of one's villainy... but then there'd probably have to be some sort of hero equivalent so that nobody complains about unfair treatment, not to mention the sheer work needed for a robust multiple-choice mission chain like in the HC-brand rogue arcs but extended to the entire character progression.

"Grandville" in this case was just uttered as a substitute for Hell in "how the hell". I didn't refer to any particular arc or anything. It was just a general question about how I should talk about story arcs and TFs/SFs I completed when I want to bring them up in character, which you already partially answered and I thank you for that.

Bumping this a little since it was brought up in the thread about being jaded. So, how the Grandville is one supposed to refer to playable content ICly if there's the world's general MMORPG-y eternal stasis to take into account?

The game doesn't care what kind of enemy says what, just that there's enemies from this specific faction chatting. Who exactly they are is completely random... which it shouldn't be, because seeing an Arachnobot and an Arachnos Drone talk about their wages just feels Recluse-damn wrong.

Right. I figure my main problem is just with the suspension of disbelief, then. I find it hard to believe I'm achieving anything significant when I don't even get to see any consequences of my actions. I utterly cripple a major enemy group's operations in an area, yet they're still going around at full force. Even ignoring the fact enemy presence is greatly exaggerated for gameplay reasons, it just doesn't quite click to me. It was even worse on the very few occasions I used Ouroboros to complete an arc I accidentally outleveled, because then I didn't even get acknowledgement from the questgiver that I did, in fact, complete the arc.

See, this last post here perfectly describes why I used to be jaded towards MMORPGs as a whole before hopping on CoH: nothing the players do ever really matters because either the world is permanently stuck in one place so that every player can do every quest, or it was a RP event which will never be acknowledged by anyone outside a particular group. And since none of the players' achievements really stick barring the phasing in the starter zones, it's not hard to just stop caring.

Ah, right. I completely forgot that Dominatrix exists. Yeah, that'd make more sense... but I can tell a lot of people would rather betray her once the truth got revealed.

AFAIK the Circle was canonically obliterated in the Dark Astoria storyline, and so hard that I can hardly imagine them still be as big a deal as they used to be. Also, where exactly is that unused new zone entrance? I'd like to take a look at it myself.

If you mean Ms. Liberty herself, I heavily doubt it could go like that given she was the one who founded Longbow in the first place. But were she to indeed turn evil, I imagine she'd still have at least some part of Longbow forces follow her.

I started this game with recreating my favorite OCs, and beyond that it's mostly either going on autopilot or trying to round out an enemy force I cook in AE.

I have one Praetorian character thus far, but he's not a counterpart to anyone on my Primal roster.

There's always the Minimal Effects option here on HC, too, if that helps.

Obviously, logging out in the Crucible should provide the same day job benefit, with a different, more villainous name.

Do elaborate, please? I'm interested. Also, if I'm not mistaken, the nemesis system is copyrighted or something... sounds like a Nemesis Plot to limit the fun others could have.

Champions Online has only recently become a blip on my radar because of the character customization... but I never dove into it due to a friend warning me about the absurd monetization. I'm not hearing anything good about anything else, either. The only non-CC part that looks even remotely interesting to me is the fact one can create their own arch-enemy to fight.

So, for the four characters I have under my belt: - Deka as either a Paragon Hero boss or a Midnighter one. Might even be a Magic-origin contact. - Stahleon would definitely be an AV of his own enemy group, which could stage random raids on other zones. Might also be a Strike Force contact accepting exclusively characters of Science and Technology origins. - Victor could start as another Paragon Hero before becoming a unique Vanguard boss/EB/contact. - Operative Mesten is just a VEAT, so I don't see him as much more than a regular Arachnos Huntsman boss.

Revisited Major Liberty's model, mostly to make it more evocative of the United States.

I confess to having a demon girl character as well. However, she predates my involvement in CoX by several years, and I've been experimenting with her backstory to make her stand out. Thus far, what I have is that she was born a human, but ended up taken to Hell and turned into a succubus on her 18th birthday due to a curse on her family. Eventually, she managed to make it out of there, and is now seeking ways to either undo her transformation or ascend to angeldom... also, despite having been a succubus for 150+ years, she's still a virgin. Either way, one of my favorite OCs that I felt compelled to port into the game.

I did Kalinda's "clear out the Infected from the water treatment plant" mission immediately after completing Weber's arc, kinda out of spite for him forcing me to spread disease, but also to get double payment for solving a problem I myself caused. But more on point, yeah, it's silly how you get no say in the matter. My Elec/Energy Dominator, for example, would never do such a thing voluntarily, and yet the script railroaded him into it - and then again with Radio Free Opportunity asking him to go to Paragon City and spread even more plague, which is one of the last things a Technology-origin cyborg dictator-to-be would want to do.

Reviving this thread like the evil necromancer sorcerer I wish I was... I've taken a moment to look at the wiki pages for Sgt. Schorr's arc and the two Homecoming-brand Rogue arcs, and I'm positively amazed by the sheer volume of interactivity, from multiple-choice dialogue trees to even a multiple-choice souvenir in that Nerva guy's arc. Reworking every other arc in the game to be more like that would definitely be a task far too arduous for our volunteer team, but nonetheless I'd love to see more of this kind of content in the future. Villains could especially benefit from it due to how varied they can be in their motives and methods.

Huh, never encountered that before.

It's... confusing, sometimes. I did all the post-i21 arcs in Atlas Park already and saw all the "intruding" elements - Skulls in the south, Vahzilok in the north, Arachnos with their Rikti Pylon-ridden base in the west - phased out properly. Mercy Island, on the other hand... sure, the one building I was supposed to blow up is indeed on fire now when it didn't use to be and all the Fort Darwin setpieces have changed properly, but on the other hand, the various arc-linked overworld spawns - like the Longbow Communications Experts and Technicians or that Legacy Chain site with their magic circles - are still there, even though it doesn't make much sense. I wonder how complex it would be to at least fix that, to say nothing of the Schrödinger's Overworld idea that's been proposed here. In fact, the latter might not even be possible because there'd need to be two of each starter contact with different available mission door pools. Altough, I think Matthew Burke in particular could benefit from being shifted back because then he'd no longer force the player into the same Snake pit for all his missions... while the Kuzmin-Firewire/Weber-Harris chain would just be completely screwed over due to the whole plot of pushing Longbow back from the island, especially from the fort they took over.

What the Shadow Shard is even going on here anymore...

I dunno, a mirrored version of the Bio Armor effects could indeed be nice.