Scarlet Shocker

Countess Crey... who knew? there's another arc early in the villain chain... you end up following a whole longbow arc because some feeble-minded twerp got jilted and ends up killing his girlfriend and you're pretty well powerless to do anything about that other than let him go or kill him. That's super-sloppy and pretty horrible. I don't mind being a villain and choosing to do horrible things, even if that means killing NPCs, but if you're relegated to a spectator, WTF is the actual point?

A couple of the things I hate most in this game: Well of the Furies: it's awful and makes my skin crawl. It's this amorphous parasitic monster that we welcome into our hearts and gives us power. It borrows (very badly) from classical mythos and turns us into little more than a viral load. There were so many ways we could have increased our power, in game with the existing lore. I hate the fact that we are effectively gifted power (and it could potentially therefore be removed) because we're on some celestial watch-list. So many alternatives could have worked - things that existed in lore too. An example (not definitive) could be the Shivan meteors. Obviously all the power bods would be looking at that and maybe could have discovered something in them that boosted the powers of PCs and signature characters. It could have fitted in with all origin types without any trouble and would make an interesting story even more interesting. (That's just one example but I'm sure you can think of others) TPN Incarnate Trial: This is without doubt the absolute worst dogshit in the game. At a player level, it's cheap and nasty, repetitive and uninspiring. But when a normal human civilian can throw a rock at a a metahuman hero (who's saved the world many times over the course of a 50+ level career) and literally defeat him that's just the worst writing in the game. It's truly cringeworthy and I hate playing the TPN as a result. I remember on live I wrote a forum post that got a huge amount of feedback and even then few seemed to disagree with me and there did seem to be some tacit admission by the Paragon CC staff that there was a serious issue there.) Maelstrom, a very interesting character was also criminally under-used throughout the entire Incarnate story. (I actually like a lot of the Incarnate trial content but the raison d'etre of the whole thing is built on a foundation of marshmallow and some of the story telling is very sub-par.) The Death of Raymond Keyes: Keyes, overall was well written and as the antithesis of Positron something of an antihero. He struck me as being one of the more interesting Praetorian signatures and his death was poignant and almost noble. Almost. But by the time that he died, it was clear the OG devs were running out of steam with Praetoria and their ideas were becoming a bit stale. They could have written an amazing ITrial where Keyes leads a league of PCs to beard PHamidon in is lair and actually destroys it, thus saving Praetoria, neutering Emperor Cole in the process and allowing everyone to move on to the next phase of incarnates. Keyes might have perished in the attempt, a last throw of the dice for somebody who clearly in his own mind deserved more; "I'll show those bastards, or die trying!" That would have allowed a whole "uneasy truce" thing to happen between Primal and Praetorian earths and perhaps a longer term slightly more political thing rumbling on in the background but not in your face all the time thing. Game of Thrones with superpowers. The Death of Sister Psyche: We knew that Who Will Die was going to end Statesman. That was never a surprise - as a signature character in game he was not well loved, lacking the wholesome charisma of Superman who he seems to be pretty well a simulacrum of, and much function at a time in game when it was questionable if Tankers were even necessary in most content. Obsolete in powers and emotionally he had to go. There seemed, from what I recall, little remorse or mourning at his passing from the player base but I may not have picked up on that. However the murder of Sister Psyche by her husband of all people because she was going to mindwipe the entire city was just horribly written and unnecessary. I must admit at the time I didn't see that coming and was a bit shocked but then it became clear. The Sis P TF was running out of favour for being too long and Matt Miller wanted his creation Penny Yin to have a higher prominence in game. She is a cool and interesting character but they didn't need to swap out her TF. They could have rewritten Sis P as they have with otehrs and given Penny her own unique TF. The Yin TF isn't bad. In fact I rather like it but it was not necessary to kill Shalice off to make Clamor a very good TF for Penny. Far better to do something like force Synapse to retire (cure him of Crey's evilness?) or kill him entirely and rejig stuff. There were so many options for some very interesting characters (why, for example, wasn't Aurora Borealis involved when she was instrumental in Shalice's "mind riding" the first time?) This was a story written by committee, by numbers rather than love of the game. There's other stuff... but that'll do for now.

Unrelated polemic about state of game, developers and players with unjustified threat to rage quit!*

Retconning (for the uninitiated; retrospectively changing content to fit with a modernized game) is pretty contentious issue and can get a lot of folks in a bit of a tizzy but I notice in games it can happen quite a bit, and has indeed happened more than once in this game. Sometimes it's awful clunky and other times it makes complete sense. I understand and agree that there are solid arguments on both sides for maintaining the status quo as is, but also for changing it when circumstances fit. A lot will depend on player preference. But, let's assume for this thought experiment we'd got the green light to go ahead and change stuff in game to make it fit better with the overall arcs, lore and game feel. If you were given that opportunity, what would you change, why would you change it and what changes would you implement?

I feel like I'm having a "Four Candles" reaction to this as in "well why didn't you just say so?" Thank you 👍

he'd have been fine if they hadn't nailed him to the bloody perch!

Dupin' rares and gone to the Americans #UniqueDragon

Personally I'd love a "rationalization" sweep through the game. Mostly the biggest issues I have are with the GR expansion - and TPN still gets my goat. Most of the content is ok if not great but some is just downright crap but that's the subject for its own thread I reckon.

Rez doesn't work either!

So is it better to leave the Proc out or should I wait until my attack chain takes over 10 seconds? 😁

I remember that and it was nothing like your description #threadderailment

Ambiguous retort

Truthfully Id din't get a lot of what you said here and I've never heard of the stons test so I may be missing something... again, dipping toes in water here. This is new territory for me, but it sounds like you're making the point that AS is akin to the old Blaster Nuke on live, which was eminently skippable because the damage it did was not worth the debilitating effects of your recovery crash leaving you borked while the enemies it didn't kill took their revenge on you

just confirming that all things being equal we'll be happening today (Sept 7th), times as above! Everyone welcome

No caviar for @Snarky

I hear you. I wasn't proposing a retcon - although that has happened more than once in this game, many times. The whole Praetorian arc has had several reworks over the years before GR's release. But yes, I wouldn't mind it withering on the proverbial vine and the team moving in a different direction. That said I actually have more confidence in our new devs than the OG devs, simply because our new team only have to worry about the player base and the hallowed lore of our City. No publisher to please, no profits to turn, just write great stuffs that fits with the content and ambience we have now. I say let them have at it. I trust them to deliver.

Thanks. I have rarely ever played Stalkers, last was on live before Incarnates so... to be sure I'm understanding you correctly, I should use a different power to hit with and wait til I get an orange ring around AS before use?

I'm working on a Stalker, almost the first time ever, the name of Meatwave (StJ/DA) I've just got my AS, and I'm thinking Combat Teleport would be useful to have - get me in, rip out the guy's spine, get out. But I also note that AS is quite a long duration, 8 seconds which is probably the time I take to identify said spine before ripping it out. Would that negate CT? Is it a useful power to take? I'd be interested in knowing what is a good technique and what powers I should and shouldn't take.

just use a smaller font. That'll do the job nicely!

I'd be a little careful of the AMAs post-Sunset. I honestly believe that some of it was extremely... mischeivous. Matt Miller's comment that Lady Grey was a sleeper agent for example, which stuck in my mind at the time as very odd. I have a very strong feeling that there were only the barest bones of an idea about what the Battalion actually were, or their back story and there was nothing concrete sketched out in detail so far as I've ever seen so likely what was mooted would have changed drastically long before it went live. We can imagine what might have been or was can trust our existing devs to take the game in whatever direction they deem fit. Personally I wouldn't object if they threw out a lot of what went before and came up with their own thing.

you just wait til you get something tender caught in those flies mate. That'll make your eyes water!

I've made a Savage/Dark Stalker

does +5ing Swift IOs actually have a significant impact? Seems a waste of boosters

Youngster! Git off my lawn!!! 🤣

I like how you're thinking there! I've never played a Stalker to any significant level. I might have to have a look at that