Down memory lane: A Hero's Hero

[Robotech_Master]

Did you know there's a fun little bit of original-game content still fossilized in the Ouroboros flashback system? The original version of Maria Jenkins's arc, where you rescue Statesman (who's now dead, in the game lore) from Tyrant (who's now a prisoner, in the game lore), is available as a level 50 flashback.

 

Went through it with a team last night. It took about 2 1/4 hours, at +4; would probablly go faster at lower difficulty, but I made 2 full vet levels along the way. Awarded 60 merits at the end, which isn't too bad for the length. Plus the Statesman's Pal badge.

 

Noticed a few things.

 

You can't be a Rogue for this, since it's hero mission content. Must be Hero or Vigilante. Level 50 minimum, which is kind of sad remembering how many low-level charactters used to be sidekicked through this to get Dimensional Warder early once upon a time.

 

This arc included Siege as one of the AVs, where the modern Jenkins arc doesn't.

 

Some of the AVs sure looked different back then. Siege looked like Citadel ate something that disagreed with him, and there wasn't any real effort put into making Bobcat look even remotely feline. She was just a human with cat ears.

 

The minions were different, too. Bastion's "warworks" were just lesser copies of him wearing copies of his uniforms. Neuron's "Clockworks" were the King's Clockworks painted silver. (And Antimatter's would have been the same painted blue, if they'd shown up.) And the rest of the Praetorian mooks were just extras from some generic street gang. Apparently this was before Cryptic could afford to pay people to design more character models.

 

One of the missions is that defeat-all-wolves mission that everyone used to farm, until they made it timed expiration. May award the Multidimensional badge, too; it's on that map.

 

One of the missions awards the Shrouded badge. (It uses the same map as the Nightstar stand-alone mission, and the badge is tied to the map.) One of the members of the team got Dimensional Warder out of this while we were there.

 

The AVs didn't have the banter lines delivered at each quarter of the hit point bar we've come to expect from the more recent implementation of the game, or any defeat lines either. They just said one line, then fought and died stoically. It feels really weird once you've gotten used to the modern version of things.

 

Several of the missions used the same maps, but there were a lot more defeat-all missions than in the current version of the arc. (Inclluding the one with all of Mother Mayhem and Malaise's psychic mental patients. Owie...)

 

When there were just one or two glowies as part of the mission goal, they were usually located in the same room as the boss, rather than scattered through the mission. When there were two AVs in a mission, one was always right at the mission entrance, rather than halfway through the mission.

 

For all that the arc was kind of rough and unpolished, the last mission had it all over the current implementation of the arc. Rescuing that schmuck Positron from that other schmuck, an AV version of a nameless Praetorian mook for crying out loud, just doesn't have the same import as fighting Tyrant himself to rescue Statesman himself. (Even if you end up wondering how a bunch of extras from a generic street gang could have gotten the drop on him like that.) 

Edited August 27, 2019 by Robotech_Master

[SlimPickens]

I do this arc on every character to get all the AVs for portal jockey (besides anti matter who you need to do the instant army arc for)

 

Its dated, sure, but honestly for 60 merits, shrouded, multidimensional (I think- I seem to always have both shrouded and multi after doing this arc) 13/14 AVs progress towards portal Jockey, and Statesman's pal badge (RIP) theres no better way to progress your accolade than this.

 

set to -1/1, no bosses, Elite only. I can complete this arc in under 1 hour.

[Apparition]

Yep.  Like SlimPickens, I run this on every character shortly after dinging level 50.  -1/2, no bosses, no AVs.  I haven't even bothered running the new A Hero's Epic on Homecoming.  Give me Statesman over Positron any day.

[Yoru-hime]

There was something to completing this arc as one of the capstones of your career. You were not only standing on even footing with the signature character of the game, you were hauling his tail out of the fire and giving Tyrant a good solid thrashing for messing around with your turf.  You could take a team if you wanted or you could handle him one-on-one. None of this "you and 15-20 of your closest acquaintances" business.

 

Nowadays, given how much you're already helping out the Phalanx in SSAs, rescuing Positron from a generic Tyrant-o-matic just doesn't carry that same sense of crowning achievement.

[LeapingLemur]

I keep forgetting these outdated arcs are still around in Ouroborus. I absolutely LOVED this particular arc. The old SG I was with used to do "hot tubbing at Tyrant's" to see who could last the longest in the lava pool before we'd beat on Tyrant. 

 

Good times! I'll have to go run this sometime if I can find peeps interested. 

[SlimPickens]

I just ran this again last night to double check if i would get multi dimensional badge as well as shrouded from the arc.

 

The answer is nope, you just get shrouded.

 

I think Multidimensional might be tied in with the instant army story arc i run to get Anti matter as my final AV for portal Jockey, because i usually have both shrouded and multi just form doing the arcs for the AV I think.

 

If the instant army arc is not awarding it, getting multidimensional is as easy as picking the hydra dimension story arc in oro, entering and exiting the map, and you get the badge. You can then quit the oro TF.

 

The cool thing about using these arcs for your accolade is that you get 60 merits for A hero's Hero, and 55 (I think) for Instant Army, so not a bad little take for 2 hours of your time and all that progress for the accolade. you basically just need to click 3 history plaques after doing the arcs, and you are the proud owner of portal Jockey.

 

Edit:  Ran instant army last night as well just for fact checking, and did not get the multi dimensional badge from that either. So that one youll have to grab from the hydra dimension Oro mission.

Edited August 29, 2019 by SlimPickens

[Jolly Ogre]

 Multidimensional is awarded for the hydra mission.

 

This badge is awarded for spending any amount of time on the mission map that appears in either of the Hydra missions from Tina Macintyre, and the Hydra mission from Unai Kemen. The badge is awarded after a random period of time while on the map, or will be rewarded immediately if you leave the map.

 

Edited August 29, 2019 by Jolly Ogre