Soloing Redside.

[Snarky]

I Recently did a climb to 50 on a Dark/Dark Brute soloing every available contact (including every story arc and side mission)  This was redside only.  I ran as a Rogue, picking up level appropriate TF and SF as available.  I did have to solo 1st Redside Respec SF due to lack of interest.  With a lot of temp summons (many from mission rewards, one from P2W) it was actually easy.  I ran at +0/x1, bosses on, AVs as EBs.  I stealthed as much as possible and knocked out every contact at the highest level for them.

 

Which brings me to the project, part deux.  Contacts 35-50, 40-50, and 45-50 were not needed to be completed pre 50.  Because they can still be fully knocked out at 50.  So now I have a fully incarnated and Accoladed toon that will be knocking these out.  As the long weekends hit I plan to start these.  Should be comically lulz.  I am even considering running it at -1/x1 just to make it funnier. Villains love a good beat down after all.

 

The badge hunt goes well.  I need Firebug and a Rikti bomb badge for a couple minor accolades.  I knocked out the invention system real early because I knew I would be doing my inventing/marketeering on the character for some time.  I have gotten about 75% of all location badges.  Ouro badges, I have never done those on a toon.  That should be....interesting.

 

This is a great way to view the game if you are an introvert with a crapton of patience.  This is a semi regular practice for me Redside.  THis will be the first I fully badge afterward though. I have never done this Blueside.  I think my highest attempt made it to 30s.  I did Goldiside 1-20 fully a couple times on live.  

 

The City of X is such a wonderful game for creating and enjoying characters.  I have a vampire brain in a jar setting on a Robot Body using powers of Darkness to destroy Gangsters, Longbow, and other world threats.  Happy Holidays to you all!

[tidge]

Congratulations, and I echo your sentiments.

 

Before this thread attracts the weird comments that "I just want to say I never play Redside because ____", I want to write that I have also taken characters through red-only content and that I feel as if there is a more natural progression of villainy on the Red side than hero progression on the Blue.  I can't quite put my finger on it, but 'defeating' Countess Crey in Paragon City rings hollow as a hero whereas beating down Synapse and Mynx  (for example) on your villainous path seems like an accomplishment because they never step foot in the Rogue Isles again (without taking another beatdown)!

[Apparition]

Red side for life.

[Darmian]

I've really only got one true never went Rogue never went to the gull Redsider...and oh he is sooo much fun. No double xp, just took it straight through. Outside of DA, RWZ and KW never set foot in Paragon outside a mayhem Mish. Redside is great!

 

 

 

(Gold IMO is better. Gold 1 to 20? Do Gold 1 to 50!)

Edited December 23, 2020 by Darmian

[Blackmoor]

8 hours ago, tidge said:

Before this thread attracts the weird comments that "I just want to say I never play Redside because ____",

God that gets old. People act like they're fighting a real life moral battle by performatively dissing on redside as much as possible.

 

I main redside on Everlasting- The server that consistently has the highest VIillain pop. I do a mix of both solo and Strike Forces. IIRC, 6-7 of  my 35 toons are villains, and I always make sure to do the mayhem mission on level(even though I know we have another option now).

 

 

[NihilXAOS]

I've been wanting to make a good solo monster to grind through all of redside solo, but I keep getting distracted on character options, especially deciding between doing a good concept, or making something that can take on some of the TFs solo.

[Marshal_General]

AHEM!

/coldwar

"Better dead than Red!"

[Dropwing]

Oh I’ve also been thinking of rolling a dedicated villain. I’ll probably make a Dom to take advantage of that sweet alignment power. 

[WumpusRat]

The only thing I didn't (and still don't) like about redside is that the contacts generally treat you like you're nothing more than a hired goon. They don't show you much, if any, respect, talk down to you, and generally consider you to be just some random thug off the street that they can boss around. That irks me, especially once you're up into the 30+ range, and you can literally level a city block without breaking a sweat. Yet some random lieutenant in Arachnos is sneering and talking down to you, or worse, there's a contact in St. Martial (I think it's Hardcase?) who literally threatens your life, and your only dialogue option is to meekly back down. What the hell.

 

Other than that, redside is by far my favorite. I just wish there were contacts that treated you with respect, fear, and/or awe. 

 

The only one who does that I can think of off the top of my head is Dean McArthur in Sharkhead, who actually wants to be on your good side and help you out, rather than using you for his own ends. You could crush him like a bug and he knows it.

[Snarky]

49 minutes ago, WumpusRat said:

The only thing I didn't (and still don't) like about redside is that the contacts generally treat you like you're nothing more than a hired goon. They don't show you much, if any, respect, talk down to you, and generally consider you to be just some random thug off the street that they can boss around. That irks me, especially once you're up into the 30+ range, and you can literally level a city block without breaking a sweat. Yet some random lieutenant in Arachnos is sneering and talking down to you, or worse, there's a contact in St. Martial (I think it's Hardcase?) who literally threatens your life, and your only dialogue option is to meekly back down. What the hell.

 

Other than that, redside is by far my favorite. I just wish there were contacts that treated you with respect, fear, and/or awe. 

 

The only one who does that I can think of off the top of my head is Dean McArthur in Sharkhead, who actually wants to be on your good side and help you out, rather than using you for his own ends. You could crush him like a bug and he knows it.

The Arachnos guys.  Sure, they are just a Natural with training and a few gadgets.  And an entire Arachnos army behind them.  The deep story here is the threat of Arachnos in your life.  THis is started with Kalinda's arc in Mercy.  To offset this you have Burke's arc.  He tells you to work with Arachnos, take advantage of them, and make it on your own never trusting them.  

 

similarly Hardcase.  St Martial is his turf. You actually do beat the crap out of him in Johnny Sonatas arc.  But anytime you talk to these underworld contacts they are talking shit and talking what advantages they have.  Whether it be a street corner hustler of Lord Recluse they all want to tell you what a badass they are and why you need to do something.  I follow Burke's lessons.  I mainly play 2 main types of villains.  Super Muscle.  You can threaten these guys all day long.  It is like sunshine, keeps them warm.  Or Super Evil.  Threaten them.  There is a mental notebook.  They are going to kill everyone you know as soon as they get what they want from you.  Everything they want.  Figure out what you are doing, who you can introduce them to, etc.  Then there are my Harley Quinn crazy types.  I run male toons, but it is the same cheerful craziness.  Have no idea what is going to happen, but it is going to make a LOT of noise.  I like NOISE!!!

[WumpusRat]

1 hour ago, Snarky said:

The Arachnos guys.  Sure, they are just a Natural with training and a few gadgets.  And an entire Arachnos army behind them.  The deep story here is the threat of Arachnos in your life.  THis is started with Kalinda's arc in Mercy.  To offset this you have Burke's arc.  He tells you to work with Arachnos, take advantage of them, and make it on your own never trusting them.  

 

similarly Hardcase.  St Martial is his turf. You actually do beat the crap out of him in Johnny Sonatas arc.  But anytime you talk to these underworld contacts they are talking shit and talking what advantages they have.  Whether it be a street corner hustler of Lord Recluse they all want to tell you what a badass they are and why you need to do something.  I follow Burke's lessons.  I mainly play 2 main types of villains.  Super Muscle.  You can threaten these guys all day long.  It is like sunshine, keeps them warm.  Or Super Evil.  Threaten them.  There is a mental notebook.  They are going to kill everyone you know as soon as they get what they want from you.  Everything they want.  Figure out what you are doing, who you can introduce them to, etc.  Then there are my Harley Quinn crazy types.  I run male toons, but it is the same cheerful craziness.  Have no idea what is going to happen, but it is going to make a LOT of noise.  I like NOISE!!!

Yeah, the Arachnos guys have "an army behind them", but at the same time, you're told early on that it's basically survival of the fittest. If a squad of Arachnos flunkies pick a fight with you and get curb-stomped, you won't get punished for it. The Arachnos guys should know that too. So mouthing off to the walking nuclear meltdown, the girl who fires lasers from her eyes that can melt a tank, or the guy that can pick up and juggle cars would seem like a Really Dumb Idea(tm).

 

The main thing I dislike (or, well, outright hate) is the forced dialogue choices. Especially when it comes to Hardcase. He literally threatens to kill you to your face. And your ONLY option is to just meekly knuckle under. "Oh gosh, sorry sir, please don't hurt me! <sob sob>" It's pitiful, and it makes me never want to do that arc. 

[Snarky]

3 hours ago, WumpusRat said:

Yeah, the Arachnos guys have "an army behind them", but at the same time, you're told early on that it's basically survival of the fittest. If a squad of Arachnos flunkies pick a fight with you and get curb-stomped, you won't get punished for it. The Arachnos guys should know that too. So mouthing off to the walking nuclear meltdown, the girl who fires lasers from her eyes that can melt a tank, or the guy that can pick up and juggle cars would seem like a Really Dumb Idea(tm).

 

The main thing I dislike (or, well, outright hate) is the forced dialogue choices. Especially when it comes to Hardcase. He literally threatens to kill you to your face. And your ONLY option is to just meekly knuckle under. "Oh gosh, sorry sir, please don't hurt me! <sob sob>" It's pitiful, and it makes me never want to do that arc. 

i see your point.  and i agree.  Hardcase thinks he is that tough.  But you KNOw you are tougher.  But tree dialogue options were beyond the early Devs planning.  I do recommend you run the Johnny Sonata arc.  I hate wailers but curb stomping Hardcase is a joy.

[Hexquisite]

On 12/24/2020 at 6:35 AM, WumpusRat said:

The only thing I didn't (and still don't) like about redside is that the contacts generally treat you like you're nothing more than a hired goon. They don't show you much, if any, respect, talk down to you, and generally consider you to be just some random thug off the street that they can boss around. That irks me, especially once you're up into the 30+ range, and you can literally level a city block without breaking a sweat. Yet some random lieutenant in Arachnos is sneering and talking down to you, or worse, there's a contact in St. Martial (I think it's Hardcase?) who literally threatens your life, and your only dialogue option is to meekly back down. What the hell.

 

Other than that, redside is by far my favorite. I just wish there were contacts that treated you with respect, fear, and/or awe. 

 

The only one who does that I can think of off the top of my head is Dean McArthur in Sharkhead, who actually wants to be on your good side and help you out, rather than using you for his own ends. You could crush him like a bug and he knows it.

My internal RP alters the tone and dialogue of contacts, and my pre-written responses to them, to whatever best fits the story I'm been making in my head. Hardcase threatens me, and I beg for my life on a character that wouldn't do that? The "Oh no. Please. Don't hurt me," is delivered in a deadpan with an eyeroll, or in a tone one might give when humoring a child that's playing a dastardly villain.

 

That's generally how I deal with the lack of respect redside. I reject the characterization they give me, and substitute my own!

[Snarky]

4 hours ago, Hexquisite said:

My internal RP alters the tone and dialogue of contacts, and my pre-written responses to them, to whatever best fits the story I'm been making in my head. Hardcase threatens me, and I beg for my life on a character that wouldn't do that? The "Oh no. Please. Don't hurt me," is delivered in a deadpan with an eyeroll, or in a tone one might give when humoring a child that's playing a dastardly villain.

 

That's generally how I deal with the lack of respect redside. I reject the characterization they give me, and substitute my own!

and that is what makes a good role player.  and possibly a great actor

[Clave Dark 5]

Redside was my home on Live (before the population drop and the All-Incarnate-All-The-Time madness swept up the end anyway) and I've got a stalker I'm currently revisiting the Isles with solo as well.  Once or twice I've hopped over blue to gain a quick level or two, but otherwise, justa nice leasurely re-exploration, just taking whatever mission's on offer that I feel like.

 

Some of the mission-givers are insulting yes, but not all of them, I feel that's an overly broad brush.  I'll also note that the tips I've run have been very "You encounter [situation].  You could be a right dastard and do X, or maybe be less of a dastard and do Y," so I actually haven't felt too talked-down to yet myself.  Mainly I've done tips, Doc Buzzsaw and Dr. Graves so I dunno maybe I just ran into better ones?

[tidge]

3 hours ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

Some of the mission-givers are insulting yes, but not all of them, I feel that's an overly broad brush.  I'll also note that the tips I've run have been very "You encounter [situation].  You could be a right dastard and do X, or maybe be less of a dastard and do Y," so I actually haven't felt too talked-down to yet myself.  Mainly I've done tips, Doc Buzzsaw and Dr. Graves so I dunno maybe I just ran into better ones?

Tip missions IMO are among the better written content for both Red and Blue. As described above, I have also found myself leveraging Tips more often in the Rogue Isles at certain points in a villain's career than I would Blue side... partially because quick/easy XP from TF/SF isn't as readily available and partially because there are a few arcs/contacts that I don't want to bother with.

 

I'll add this little bit about my own head-canon: I can appreciate the Redside contacts sending characters off to certain missions (because they subconsciously recognize that your character will pwn them!) but I can't understand why the Freedom Phalanx would simply stand around not doing much of anything in Paragon city.

[Clave Dark 5]

Because they're scared of REAL villains!

[Snarky]

On 12/28/2020 at 4:11 AM, tidge said:

I'll add this little bit about my own head-canon: I can appreciate the Redside contacts sending characters off to certain missions (because they subconsciously recognize that your character will pwn them!) but I can't understand why the Freedom Phalanx would simply stand around not doing much of anything in Paragon city.

I was fortunate enough to know a great storyteller who used a lot of alternate worlds. It helped me think of the possibilities as they might be, rather than just assume everything is the same in a different world.

 

Between Ouro and a billion different alts all trying to re-write timelines and re-experience things it is easy to forget "paragon City" as we know it in the run from 1-50+Incarnate is a very brief period of time.

 

In the timeline where you take a villain and break out of the zig, er, defeat a Shivan in Galaxy, um...crap, it started already.  

 

Okay, so in the timeline where you become a Supervillain the Freedom Phalanx is being overwhelmed by you and other villains and Arachnos schemes.  Culminating in the LRSF.  Oh, and the Ritki thing.  They have a LOT on their plate.  And in that very specific timeline it does not go well for them.  

 

As you play through Redside you defeat their agents, befoul their attempts at being heroes, and in the end defeat them.

[Myrmidon]

The one thing about the Rogue Isles I never could stomach. All the damned Longbow.

[golstat2003]

2 hours ago, Myrmidon said:

The one thing about the Rogue Isles I never could stomach. All the damned Longbow.

Pretty much why I stopped playing COV on Live for long stretches of time. That, the depressing atmosphere and the atrocity that was Grandville back on live. Thankfully alot of the memory leakiness seems to have been fixed since then via the work of the private servers for that zone. Either that or it's cause our computers got better. 😛 

[Blackmoor]

3 hours ago, Myrmidon said:

The one thing about the Rogue Isles I never could stomach. All the damned Longbow.

Those heroes in Paragon City are far too wimpy to contend with a truely tough enemy group like that. A Longbow Warden is way more powerful than your average cape can handle.

[tidge]

8 hours ago, golstat2003 said:

Thankfully alot of the memory leakiness seems to have been fixed since then via the work of the private servers for that zone. Either that or it's cause our computers got better. 😛 

Modern video cards may have something to do with improved performance. When CoV launched I had what at the time would have been considered a "mid-range" rig, but my video card struggled with drawing the architecture of the Rogue Isles. Much of the time in the zones was spent drawing resources that would not normally be visible to the players, such as building extending deep underground into hills or otherwise below street level.

[Force Redux]

11 hours ago, Myrmidon said:

The one thing about the Rogue Isles I never could stomach. All the damned Longbow.

Conversely, I enjoy blowing them up 😁

Edited December 31, 2020 by Force Redux