Piecemeal's Personal Story

[Zhym]

"Enjoy some of the canonical reasons for notorious changes, and a heaping bathtub full of foreshadowing!" 

 

Anyone know what this is referring to, or have a Cliffs Notes version of what the heck happens in Piecemeal's Personal Story?  I played it, and I still have no idea what was going on there.  I imagine it doesn't help that it's been ages since I ran The Freakish Lab of Dr. Vahzilok.  All I know is there was something involving teleporting, the matrix, the Arena, and a quick side trip to the Rikti homeworld.  But the lore references and foreshadowing went right past me, alas.

 

 

[cranebump]

I ran it in Beta. I thought it was really well done.

 

And yet...I didn't give a sh*t about what was happening, because it wasn't me (i.e., my character). I could perhaps also say that of other personal story mishes (Brawler's, The Center, etc.). But those mishes are MUCH less involved than this one They're short and sweet, so it didn't bother me to step into someone else's shoes for a brief cut scene. This wasn't that. At all. I found it...a bit much.

 

Again, from a straight design/story perspective, it's excellently done (though I'd like to give @Ankylosaur or @Darmian [or any number of other great authors]) the same tools and see what they could do with them). Frankly, due to the length alone, it felt a bit self-indulgent to have me run as someone else's toon for that long. If not for the lore ties/foreshadowing (which I'm currently clueless on, as well), I'd call this a vanity arc (albeit a really well-done one). Perhaps if I school myself on the story more -- as well as run the final version -- I'll be more appreciative of the arc in its entirety. 

 

All that said, I encourage others to play it, simply to enjoy the design elements. They're pretty impressive, and the story is well-executed. It all bodes well for future arcs (and the new, present ones, of course). 

Edited February 22 by cranebump

[Skyhawke]

I ran Vahz's lab about a month ago, so that stuff was fairly fresh in my head, but I was also lost after a bit in this one. I think part of the problem was pacing. Everything zipped by so fast I didn't have time to really take things in before being shunted somewhere else. Is this taking place before the Galaxy City tutorial, during or after? I kinda felt like it was in the beginning of the invasion, but wasn't fully sure. When the mission ended and that was that, I was left thinking "Already?".  I'll play it a few more times to see if it clicks. I liked all the other Freaklok stuff and would like to see and fully understand the ending of that story arc. 

 

I did enjoy the idea of

Spoiler

the Shivan attack/Battalion initial strike severing people from the Well (I did catch that much) and depowering the superpowered and hollowing out normies.  

 

[Zhym]

1 hour ago, cranebump said:

Frankly, due to the length alone, it felt a bit self-indulgent to have me run as someone else's toon for that long.

 

1 hour ago, Skyhawke said:

When the mission ended and that was that, I was left thinking "Already?"

Interesting to see reactions that it was too long and too short. :)  I agree with @cranebump, though, that it seemed a little too much for a "Personal Story."  I figured it would be more like the Dark Astoria or Praetorian personal stories—a little bit of behind-the-scenes exposition that our characters couldn't be expected to be privy to, short and straightforward, maybe with a chance to kick some butt with a completely overpowered hero á la Emperor Cole or Anti-Matter. 

Spoiler

I was not expecting platformer puzzles (I finally gave up on trying to reach the Incapacitated Hero) or a purple-conning Void Harbinger enemy that would send my butt to the hospital in seconds.

I agree that it's really well done.  But I also agree that it would be more engaging if there had been a way to have the player's character be an actual protagonist instead of riding along for someone else's story.

 

It's a problem I think CoX has fallen into at times: leaning too heavily into the lore and the major NPCs like Statesman, etc.  I play because I want to play my toon, not because I want to be a bit player in some NPC's story.  The great thing about CoX not being a Marvel or DC property is that none of our characters have to play second fiddle to Iron Man or Superman.  So why would CoX introduce Iron Man or Superman equivalents for us to play second fiddle to?  But I digress a bit.

Edited February 22 by Zhym

[Zhym]

1 hour ago, Skyhawke said:

I did enjoy the idea of

  Hide contents

the Shivan attack/Battalion initial strike severing people from the Well (I did catch that much) and depowering the superpowered and hollowing out normies.  

 

Spoiler

I really hope that's not foreshadowing an upcoming power nerf.

 

My guess is the devs wouldn't go that far, but I wouldn't be surprised to see some TFs/iTrials that suppress various powers.  The easiest way to deal with power creep is to take away those powers.

 

[sbloyd]

It does introduce a way to stop having us play second fiddle to the Recluses and the Positrons and the like.  Kill them.

 

Kill them all.

 

[Arnabas]

I personally didn't find it too long. I do think that it could be handled a little differently, however. Instead of playing through the whole thing as "someone else's character," which seems to upset some (but didn't bother me), the story could be a short arc with the character performing an investigation. They'd play as their own character through the mission, and at the end of each mission, get a brief snippet of Piecemeal's story, playing her for only a minute or two each time.  

 

Doing that would let players keep coming back to their own character for most of the action, while still getting to see the behind-the-scenes stuff.