VulnaviaPhibes

Thank you, that's a good point! ^w^ I went back to read those arcs since it's been a bit of a bit! I do like that Lukas Morakis is an established character from when we first met Alexander, that's good conservation of detail! But I feel like the arc still could have done a bit more to flesh the guy out. He only has two lines in John Houston's arc (if we don't count "..." and "wait a minute!"), and his character there is only a light expansion of what we know from the Redeemer mission– making his interest in honor and fairness more global and political, rather than just personal. Which is fine, since so much other stuff is happening in that arc, and his role in it is more symbolic. In this, though, we spend five missions with him as our primary point of contact, and I don't think we come away knowing anything more about him than we did at the start: that he's honorable, brave, fair in his dealings, opposes the evil ways Odysseus has embraced, and believes in a more positive version of the Warriors credo. You're totally right that we already have a decent sense of who Alexander is from previous missions. I just hoped that giving him the spotlight would mean we'd learn more, is all.

Okay, final review, this time for the blueside arcs! I think the overall quality was good, if not as interesting or compelling as the redside plots. Kogan's arc was by far my favorite, it felt like an underdog story in a way that few arcs do, largely because of the easy-to-fail optional objectives like recruiting the Freakshow, interrogating Orbital Fracture, evacuating the actors, and speaking to the press. The fact the success and failure here was based on your cleverness and thoroughness as a player made the consequences feel especially real. I appreciated the little role-play options as well, to counter-play your character against Korgan's ruthlessness, to embrace it, even to decide how your character triangulates with him and Blackwing politically. They were a very nice touch. The fifth-column commander having unique dialogue for fighting a woman was nice as well. Well, not nice. You know what I mean. It felt authentic to have him spew misogynist invective at me. Not to mention the little details on Blackwing's procedures, evidence admission, the news ecosystem. I know I have now made three posts gushing about attention to detail but it's so incredibly rare in an MMO especially and I want to emphasize how much I appreciate it. It's what makes these arcs so memorable. Zeigler's arc was appropriately ominous, towards the end, though I wish more of that mood and atmosphere had been cultivated earlier, more of a slow build-up and less of a twist, though I suppose that's subjective. I understand wanting to make it feel very ordinary at first but I felt like the veil wasn't pulled until it was slightly too late to give the final reveal the build-up it required. The secret ending was nice though– I like that it ties all the Nictus business together. And finally I appreciated the characterization of the coming threat. My worry when I first heard of them was that they would feel... less significant than previous grand-scale villains, Enormous, but not thematically interesting. I like that you've made them unique in how they relate to humanity and what they mean for the future. It feels less like infiltration and betrayal and more like emergence from ignorance. The world has always worked this way, but we could only ever see a small fraction of it, so we couldn't put the pieces together. Alexander's arc was. Adjective. It felt deeply anticlimactic to me. Where was the drama of the Midnighter Club being put to fire and the sword? Where was the drama of the big reveal? We didn't even get to talk to Botis before we fought him, which could have been a perfect opportunity for some build-up. It felt more like an information-gathering mission for the finale than the finale. I think it also suffers for a certain lack of... personality? Alexander is stoic and honorable, but that feels like all he has going for him. Who is he as a person? What is he like? Is he trying not to reveal anything about himself to us? How does he relate to us? How do he and Infernal know one another? How about Frostfire? Why is Frostfire stopping his work to give us a dry lecture on the different kinds of mutants a propos of almost nothing? If he's concerned about the treatment of the Awakened, what is he trying to do for them? How do the broadly male chauvinist warriors feel about working for a witch? How does the witch feel about working for them? I think her only lines are variations on "get them!" And the Words of the Warrior... I just didn't find it sufficiently believable. The fifth column lines in Kogan's arc were a blend of real evil stuff that fascist types believe and sillier takes on the same, toeing the line between insightful and parodic, but when it was silly I felt like it was on purpose– the writer was mocking what had just been said before the commander said his next realistic piece. The Words were just too broad, departing too often from the specific kind of AM Radio conspiracy rant that they're parodying to make general conspiracy jokes and not drilling in tightly enough on the "I have hot blood! I am an animal! Big men kill the enemy!" sort of stuff that it's ostensibly making fun of. It was one of my favorite parts of the arc because it did have personality to it, but compared to Zeigler's arc and especially Kogan's it fell flat. Having replayed Erin West's, I'm even more impressed with it by comparison. The sheer amount of characterization it gives to the fairly flat Tavish Bell! The fact that if you give Ms. West your pronouns as they/them you don't have the option to ask ignorant-questions about your nonbinary teammate's identity, the way the final monologues all interlink with one another logically regardless of which or how many companions you have. It's just *chef kiss* delicious. I'll be heading back to replay Mr. Dapson Esq.'s arc as well, since I'm certain I missed some easter eggs. I suppose the only fair final verdict is that the Homecoming team has been putting out a pretty huge variety of missions and story arcs, in terms of subject matter and in terms of quality. Where they're good, it almost always seems to come down to Personality and Attention to Detail. My favorites, like Erin West, are stuffed with both, while my least favorites, like the redside Striga arcs, feel very dry and bare-bones. And my final words: @Velvet Violet, you are absolutely incredible. ❤️ I would love to follow you to any future projects on other games, or in other media. With love, at last, Vulnavia

Update, having played the Rogue arc: Oh My God. I thought the attention to detail in the Villain arc was good but this blew me away. The individual descriptions for all the reporters at the press conference! The dialogue trees with genuine consequences in future dialogues! The affinity system that determined what allies would stick with you and which would turn coat! And my favorite piece of mission tech– going back to talk to old contacts! (It just adds a lot to them, makes them feel more alive, imo.) This feels so, so close to the machinery needed for Master Plans. (The white whale of redside, I know, but just imagine...) And beyond the technical attention it was genuinely really well written. Erin West is such a fantastic face for Crey, not a 90s yuppie but a believable 2020s sellout with some real depth to her, and of course her pet "reporter." (The corporate land acknowledgement line of questioning with him stood out in particular.) Even in the 00s Crey felt a little dated in its criticism of corporate capitalism and I'm genuinely impressed with how much better this is than vanilla. Excited to try the Vigilante arc tomorrow. ❤️

Just commenting to say I finished the redside arc and it was fantastic. I love the Freakalok so much– they've got so much personality and such a cool aesthetic, and I like the feeling of ownership and sometimes even leadership I have over this NPC faction. It genuinely feels like the player villain is creating something strange and new that's spiraling out of their control more and more as it evolves and changes. It's ominous. I will also throw in a dissenting voice against an opinion I saw previously expressed– I really like the amount of effort that goes into the NPC dialogue, clues, and especially the NPC bios (I've had the info option hotkeyed for RP, and it's nice to be able to use it on NPCs too and get something cool). Sure, in the moment it can be confusing to keep up with, or overlap with itself in a way that's hard to read, just as a consequence of how the game handles dialogue, but it's still nice to read it afterwards. I can feel the passion put into the game and how much fun the devs are having and I can't help but smile too. ^w^ And finally, on that same note, the amount of detail work that went into Kallisti is incredible. It feels four times bigger than it is because of all the weird little secrets and NPC conversations and varied neighbourhoods and such. Big fan. Excited to try the rogue and vigilante arcs, since I really liked the writer's previous work on Shauna Braun et al. If there's one thing I think is definitely overall better in this era of City of Heroes, it's the writing. Keep it up! <3

I just wanted to say how much I love the Grandville update. Checking on all of the heroes in arachnos' dungeon was so cool, especially the special cells. I love the little worldbuilding touches that you've been adding!

I've got to say the new redside striga story arcs seem strangely unfinished. Obviously their production value is a lot lower, and maybe the previous arcs, both the vazhilok stuff and especially the rogue and vigilante content, just set the bar too high with dialogue trees, moral choices, interesting boss fights, and so on. And presumably most of the focus was on the issue finale. However, even for a more low-key project, a lot of the writing feels like a first draft. The NPCs don't have much character, the wording is often awkward, and there's none of that classic redside camp since the dialogue is so sparse, and mostly utilitarian exposition. The bare-bones sparseness of the writing combined with the bare-bones simplicity of the missions makes the story really hard to get into. The vibe and quality seems much more in the vein of the blue-side striga arcs. The contacts even tell you to check their shops for enhancements, even though contacts don't sell enhancements anymore... Was it intentionally written to be a throwback to old-style CoH? To match the quality and style of the blue side arcs? If so, why? This is obviously an enormous project, especially for an all volunteer team, but the Homecoming team has made so many incredible, beautifully polished quests in the past, so it just seems weird that these quests were released in this state.

Just wanted to pop in and add my opinion: the story/lore of city of heroes has always been my favorite part. The extremely high quality of writing has always been what set this game apart and made it truly special, and I'm overjoyed to see the homecoming team carrying on that tradition. You guys are doing incredibly! Much love. ^_^ ❤️

I'm just popping in to say how much I love Becky the Tarantula Mistress, and that I love that she's getting some well-deserved screen time, and I really appreciate the makeover the art team gave her! The pink is so swanky, and I love the custom decals! Hot Mess Express indeed... ❤️ (It has always been my headcanon that tarantulas customize their exosuits with stickers and decals and stuff and it's amazing to see that confirmed with my favorite tarantula of them all :3) All the little details, like the beds in the smelting factory, the multiple clickable pizzas, the secret Crey experiments, not to mention the new music... SO much love went into this release, and I want you to know that I appreciate and ❤️ you. ^_^

I played on live but only for two or three months before it shut down. It was so fun that I had to come back. I was still in middle school back then, so this game is definitely very nostalgic for me.

Oh that was so cool!! You did such an amazing job! I was NOT expecting it to be the way it was. SUPER spooky!

@Number Six Mine is M1 as well.

Great news for anyone having this problem- Island Rum still works just fine! It will give you an error message when it tries to install Wine, but then it will go on to install and run the game without trouble. That's obviously not a sustainable fix lmao, but it does allow you to play the game. ^_^

Thank you! Tragically, even with the latest build I still can't install the game, though the launcher otherwise works. 😞

It doesn't seem to be working for me, unfortunately. I've checked the launcher.log and I'm running build 4520, but I'm still having the same game files installation issue. EDIT: As a secondary concern (The log says I'm running on 4520, not 4518, so this is probably not the issue)- my computer won't acknowledge the launcher.exe you linked above as "safe," even if I open it manually, for some reason it forgets that I did that when it comes time for the launcher to use it, and either cancels out or trashes the file. @golias how did you manage to get around that?

Okay, just sent.

The problems I mentioned with the installer and launcher seem to be fixed- it installs properly, and the launcher doesn't freeze or crash upon opening. Thank you! ^_^ However, there seems to be a new problem. When I try to download Homecoming, the progress bar stays stuck at 0% permanently, and trying to close the launcher during this process causes it to freeze up and become non-responsive exactly like it did before.

Update: it seems like it might be a problem with Wine. It was the Wine64 preloader that was freezing before, and now that I've uninstalled, the Wine64 loader is freezing again and failing to complete the setup and install the launcher/game.

The launcher has been working fine for me for months, even worked this morning, but starting now, it doesn't open correctly. The window can't be clicked on or interacted with in any way, and the Wine taskbar is also unresponsive. The only solution is to force-quit. Is anyone else having this problem on their Mac? I'll probably uninstall and reinstall, but that seems a shame.

I love this proposal so much. The gradual transformation of the order vs liberty themes of Praetoria from political to mythic is just so fun to see play out in-game, and I really feel like a storyline for these archetypes could integrate those mythic themes back into the main storyline of Praetoria in a way that makes you go "Oh crap! That's what was going on here, that's what this means symbolically..." plus it could add yet another conspiratorial twist, and it's always fun to layer those. Also I love Lamashtu and an elaboration on the relationship between the mythic world and Praetoria would be welcome. PLUS SNAKE BODY. I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED SNAKE BODY. ❤️ This is just wonderful, thank you for suggesting it! ^_^

Yeah Port Oakes is squeezed into a small level range but Bocor, the Radio, and Veluta Lunata remain quite good. I almost always hop over to Bocor before I hit level 10, and then go for the other two before going over to Cap.

Honestly sometimes I just log in and walk around. Usually somewhere pretty like night ward or mercy island. Just take in the atmosphere and go about my little day for a few minutes.

The Graham Easton arc definitely has really tight and well-designed missions. Efficient and particular and with variable amounts of combat depending on your build and choices. Beeline to the end on your Stalker and get out, or brawl for a while on your Brute. I feel the story could be fleshed out slightly though at the end though. My absolute favorite thing about it is the option to more or less side with the Tsoo and tell off Easton to his face. I love when Hero storylines have Vigilante~ish "I care more about my personal code of ethics and justice than the letter of the law" options. I definitely see the comparisons with Shauna Braun, both in terms of mechanics and in terms of narrative. Both very clean, fast, streamlined stories.

Very interesting! I like the idea that planned spawns and spawning behavior, not just unique enemy/faction design, can lead to more interesting mechanical challenges that require more forethought and planning than normal. And objective design too, maybe with more objectives being added with larger groups, instead of just more enemies, if that's possible. It might help avoid the rolling death ball and make the mission more dynamic. I will say in terms of narrative design and storytelling, I think looking to the Vincent Ross / Mr G method of incorporating old contacts into new content is a smart idea. It makes the choice of what contacts you spend your time with in a given level range important in the long term and adds weight to that choice, like you're actually building up a powerful network of allies that can help you in your long-term plans. I think it might be interesting to offer multiple choices of these as well. For a magical problem, you could call Vincent Ross OR Mr Bocor OR Mortimer Kal, depending on whose missions you'd completed. Maybe they all give you the same info with different dialogue, or maybe they each give a different clue that adds a different side-objective to the next mission, or maybe they use branching mission tech to give you different missions. I really like the middle option though- clues that add new side objectives, Vincent Ross style, because it doesn't seem overly taxing and complex, but allows missions to play out very differently depending on what choices you make and who you choose to side with. This is very villain focused but you could probably do some hero stuff with this as well. Sort of like the investigation mission from the new Vazhilok arc, but instead of a branching mission based on a specific dialogue, a situation where calling up different people would give clues that let you pursue different elements of your investigation within the mission and pursue the mystery from different angles. You could even do it where you could work with a traditional detective or a magical investigator or a crook on the inside, and explore the same mystery from different angles. It seems like it would a cool way to add more personal choices and more replay value to a lot of story arcs.

"Just join everlasting" was a pretty silly/dumb "solution" for me to propose lol. But I do think that Everlasting's villain population makes forming paper, mayhem, and strike force teams very easy. They just need to advertise more aggressively and be more fun and quirky to get people's attention, since you're competing with good single player content as well as other team content. (I was on that Renault SF as well, as Cervina Dolorosa, and I must say the LFG messages were a bit tepid). I know I was a bit dismissive of the whole argument, and that's not fair, but I do think that it means something that the unofficial RP server also has the highest % of Villain and Praetorian characters. The draw of the Rogue Isles is not rolling through bland missions with huge teams, and Praetoria even less so. Homecoming has a fraction of live's player-base, Redside has a fraction of that, and most of those players are not jumping from big team to big team like blueside players often are. So yes, big teams will form slower, but that's in part due to the nature of the game and the way it's designed, I think. I like this idea because it opens up a lot of conceptual space. Your morally grey types, amoral mad scientists and revolutionary freedom fighters and stuff like that, can play the content that makes the most sense for them without having to change their alignments back and forth to get access to it. However I'm not sure it would actually fix the problem of it being hard to find a redside group on most servers. If 99% of players are already rogues or vigilantes, and alignment can be changed instantly in the pocket D, and TUNNEL/bases allow you to teleport anywhere from anywhere, then the main mechanical obstacle to redside grouping is already gone. I'm not sure how much more this would do. I think people who've posted about players in most RPGs finding evil content unfun or unpleasant in itself might be hitting the nail on the head, actually. Redside content is fun and well-written and enjoyable, but it's only to the taste of a limited number of players who really love the vibe or really get into character, and that would explain why it's most popular on the rp server, I think.

I feel like this argument has been going on for so many years that it's lost track of itself. Why do we even want more people to play redside? So it's easier to find groups? Just play on everlasting, I've literally never failed to quickly fill a group for whatever evil deeds I wanted to do there.