I am so glad this game does not have this in canon.

[Snarky]

  On 7/31/2023 at 6:47 AM, Owl Girl said:

it's a weird thing about this universe: there aren't really any 'street level' heroes because they all end at the point of bending reality and getting something close to 'ultimate power'. you might have conceived the character as a Natural Dual Pistols/Martial Arts guy with a kevlar vest... but you're going to end up shooting lightning bolts and bringing people back from the dead!

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Yes, I struggle with this in every game really.  You can have a cool concept and three days in you are off to stop an alien invasion with your godlike powers.   Like, wait, I was just a vampire trying to not get killed by hunters like 72 hours ago….

[Sanguinesun]

  On 7/31/2023 at 6:47 AM, Owl Girl said:

it's a weird thing about this universe: there aren't really any 'street level' heroes because they all end at the point of bending reality and getting something close to 'ultimate power'. you might have conceived the character as a Natural Dual Pistols/Martial Arts guy with a kevlar vest... but you're going to end up shooting lightning bolts and bringing people back from the dead!

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The Boys does a pretty good job of showing what happens to street level heroes who dont skill up. Process of super selection if you will. 😛

[Marshal_General]

  On 7/30/2023 at 12:24 PM, SeraphimKensai said:

What about Mot?

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Apparently there is some sort of Hoople involving Mott.

[Neiska]

Personally I always loved the idea of DJ Zero being this absurdly OP strong being, stronger than anything we get to face in combat. And what's he do? Does he start an empire? No. Does he wage war? Kids stuff. Does he take sides in anything? Not a chance.

 

Nope, none of that. Instead he uses his phenomenal cosmic power to make his own interdimensional club and plays music. With a ski slope. And allows pretty much anyone access. The only rules? No beef.

[JasperStone]

  On 7/31/2023 at 2:56 PM, Neiska said:

Personally I always loved the idea of DJ Zero being this absurdly OP strong being, stronger than anything we get to face in combat. And what's he do? Does he start an empire? No. Does he wage war? Kids stuff. Does he take sides in anything? Not a chance.

 

Nope, none of that. Instead he uses his phenomenal cosmic power to make his own interdimensional club and plays music. With a ski slope. And allows pretty much anyone access. The only rules? No beef.

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So is he our Tom Bombadil?

[Neiska]

  On 7/31/2023 at 3:13 PM, JasperStone said:

 

So is he our Tom Bombadil?

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Kind-of sort of? I have heard people rp it as such but I have not read or seen any hard cannon lore about it. What I know of the game comes from mission fluff, and I can't recall anything about DJ Zero at all. But people seem to treat DJ Zero as omi-powerful and so on.

[ZemX]

  On 7/31/2023 at 6:47 AM, Owl Girl said:

it's a weird thing about this universe: there aren't really any 'street level' heroes because they all end at the point of bending reality and getting something close to 'ultimate power'. you might have conceived the character as a Natural Dual Pistols/Martial Arts guy with a kevlar vest... but you're going to end up shooting lightning bolts and bringing people back from the dead!

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That's not really about "the universe" if, by that, you mean the game's story.  It is not in the lore of City of Heroes that literally every hero or villain is or will become an Incarnate.  For the purposes of the actual story of the game, there might be only a few dozen beyond the handful of NPC Incarnates.

 

Gameplay-wise, sure, anybody can become an Incarnate.  But that's also a choice.  A concept player who really wants to stick with that ordinary Hawkguy dude can do so and let some other God of Thunder handle throwing the lightning bolts.

 

I'd say about 90% of the time, I am not playing this game AS an Incarnate even when all my characters develop those abilities, simply because I spend so much time exemplared rather than running what I consider fairly boring endgame content.

[FFFF]

Really agree with the OP.

 

Fighting overpowered god-like beings just feels overdone. I think the X-Men fight against the Sentinels is more engaging than fighting against Dark Phoenix. I prefer fights against the Legion of Doom versus fights against Darkseid. I want to play a superhero, not a godling. Fighting a supervillain group to prevent them getting their hands on a super weapon that can use to extort a nation (good); fighting a planet eater so the earth doesn't become the appetizer on his 7-course meal of galaxies ...ehhh.

 

If a lot of your new content is at that scale, fights against the Rogue Isles, Praetorians, Malta, etc. feels trivial, and sort of meaningless. Why stop a Praetorian conspiracy to replace key individuals with their Praetorian double if Rularuu is just going to end all dimensions next week?

 

With that said, I think a great example of where a global threat is realized and dealt with appropriately in-game is the fight against the Rikti. You have heroes and a whole division (Vanguard) formed to counter it. I think the story line is engaging and you really feel a part of something bigger without trivializing your contributions.

 

Just my opinion but I'd love to see a lot of new content in the sweet spot of level 35 - 49. This is when your character has almost all of their core powers and their build feels complete. The villains here are great and, in my opinion, underutilized. So more Malta, Carnival, Nemesis, Crey, etc. I'd love to see the game incentivize playing through these levels and not zipping past them as a road bump to incarnate content.

[Techwright]

  On 7/30/2023 at 7:09 PM, Snarky said:

Statesman died?  I never did those stories.  (No rewards).  Wow. Could have given a spoiler alert. 
 

Now you ruined it

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It was well past the 3-second rule. 

 

  On 7/30/2023 at 9:32 PM, A Cat said:

Personally I like the idea of a Tyrant redemption arc. I am a big fan of Praetoria in general though. IIRC, there was even an idea of the reformed Rikti showing up with a mothership or two to help out in the invasion, which would be kino af. Now that would be one hell of a redemption arc. You'd go from all "The only good Rikti is a dead Rikti" and "If they run they're Rikti, if they don't, they're well disciplined Rikti" in RWZ to cheering them on.

 

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A Tyrant redemption arc would be interesting, and we'd get "Statesman" back (hopefully with a cooler costume), but if we need someone in the top position again, I'd really like to see a redemption arc for ....spoilers due to new players.......

  Reveal hidden contents

the Honoree, aka Hero 1.  Until Omega Squad, he was on-par and good friends with Statesman, is another with significant Well-power, has a relationship with Lady Gray, and probably would, even with his mind fully restored, command the respect of both humans and allied Rikti.  Throw in Excaliber and you've got all the makings for a "Once and Future..." story: A return to his former mind and position, battle scars (PTSD, and from his forced transformation) to get past, a possible struggle in his relationship with Lady Gray (especially if there are additional hints that she might be what the original dev team intentioned, and he suspects that), and a struggle to be the leader the world needs while realizing he's occupying the space of his fallen friend.  They could even set him up as a placeholder until Tyrant is ready, then we'd have Statesman II holding the line on planetary activities, while Hero 1 moves to hold the line against the growing Battalion threat.

 

[Psi-bolt]

  On 7/31/2023 at 7:37 AM, Snarky said:

Yes, I struggle with this in every game really.  You can have a cool concept and three days in you are off to stop an alien invasion with your godlike powers.   Like, wait, I was just a vampire trying to not get killed by hunters like 72 hours ago….

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There are characters I avoid taking through the Incarnate powers just for this reason.  I have a character that's a reformed Thugs MM who became a FF Defender and a school counselor.  Once she got to 50, she just went back to work.  I pull her out sometimes to do a TF, but she's only involved in the Praetorian War's parts that "normal" heroes are like the Sutter TF and the lower level arcs.

[High_Beam]

  On 7/30/2023 at 1:44 PM, JasperStone said:

I got the Motts

 

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That commercial used to piss me off so bad because no kid craves applesauce the moment they are able to form words and feed themselves.  Its like Christmas socks, or ribbon candy at Halloween.  Dammit now I am angry again!  Curse you @JasperStone

[High_Beam]

  On 7/31/2023 at 2:37 PM, Marshal_General said:

Apparently there is some sort of Hoople involving Mott.

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That is an obscure play on words right there.  They were tight with Bowie though.

[Snarky]

  On 7/31/2023 at 7:12 PM, High_Beam said:

That commercial used to piss me off so bad because no kid craves applesauce the moment they are able to form words and feed themselves.  Its like Christmas socks, or ribbon candy at Halloween.  Dammit now I am angry again!  Curse you @JasperStone

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Okay.  I guess i will give these to someone else.

[Clave Dark 5]

  On 7/30/2023 at 4:10 AM, LegionAlpha said:

Anyways so there was this thing of Marvel and DC most powerful cosmic beings list, now my knowledge of entities of both franchise are a bit dated since the 90's back when there was clear idea of who was who in both universes. However since then many new critters have popped up all saying they were around before creation and it very confusing.

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My guess is that highlighted text + time.  They've had to publish several issues of comics since the 980s, every freaking month, which is just a recipe for weak canon to keep accreting like layers of dirt over an archeology site.  Plus it's so fun for a creator to come up with another "super universe-threatening bad guy" right?  And everyone has to try and top the last guy who did that as well.   They do start to pile up after a bit.

[SwitchFade]

  On 7/30/2023 at 4:37 AM, Snarky said:

You missed the whole Well thing then huh?

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Off the rings of Saturn, around Jupiter ... Nothin' but net.

Edited August 2, 2023 by SwitchFade

[SwitchFade]

  On 7/30/2023 at 7:40 PM, lemming said:

RNG is the most powerful cosmic entity

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Rng bows before the Rick Roll...

[High_Beam]

  On 7/31/2023 at 7:19 PM, Snarky said:

Okay.  I guess i will give these to someone else.

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I cant be angry at these because Christopher Lee.

[Snokle]

Well, most comics or series/media that goes long enough will eventually fight some sort of cosmic entity as they need to keep up threat and danger which will continue to bring people in to watch/read. In games where they need two lures which usually is power draw to keep people in for progression, then a threat which justifies the new power it will always happen. This is doubled down in MMOs as they need a constant churn of money from monthly subs or microtransactions.

 

So there is enough cosmic entities we have in the world now if you look into the lore and see notes that are scattered around, we do not fight too many of them, but it would be a natural progression for this to happen, as when live they need to make money and keeping everything the same power wise people would get bored and leave to go somewhere else, so there is natural power progression with a new big bad always showing up.

 

Now for their story and lore, who knows how well it should be in the end as we only have AMAs and certain notes on what they planned to do, which as always plans change all the time and get altered/edited as time moves along. So for the most part is speculative on what Live would of been as it has been several years of the game being dead, which you could say was the ultimate entity - time.