The Twinshot Trap

[srmalloy]

On 9/9/2019 at 9:49 AM, Yoru-hime said:

Personally, I still feel like no story arc is ever really complete until Azuria or MAGI has had something stolen. I suddenly feel the need to go play through Wheel of Destruction for old times' sake. 😄

I picked up the habit, whenever I did the Wheel of Destruction arc, to tell Azuria in local chat "I'd like to put this under 'Will Call' for the Banished Pantheon, please" whenever I delivered a piece to be put in MAGI's 'secure' vault. I kept wondering why there wasn't a pick-up window on the outside of City Hall  back where the MAGI room was, so the villains don't have to actually go inside City Hall to collect the artifact(s) they want.

[Zombie Hustler]

On 4/7/2020 at 3:00 PM, Sakura Tenshi said:

That said, I still don't mind running Twinshot and Graves are somewhat regularly because it's still a bit more interesting than some of the older content than stuff like Jake Montoya or the literal non-arcs handed out by Azuria and the other old origin contacts (which is a hell of a shame because 'origin related storyarcs' was a cool concept).

Agreed that Origin Arcs was a cool concept. Its execution was lacking, though. They were functionally all the same sorts of stories, just with different enemy groups. I would love to see/have seen something more distinct done with them, though.

 

For instance, I could see something like the Skull's story arc in King Row being a "natural origin" storyline, and having a corresponding similar storyline exploring different sides of that story (such as a mutant origin arc around the Trolls and their connection to the Superadine side of that story, and a magic origin story tied to the Hellions, etc.). They would all have their own distinct stories, but some of the parts would tie together; you just wouldn't see the entire picture unless you were to run them on different origin characters (or team with others).

 

On a side note, I think that the Graves' missions are some of the worst written in the game. I can't stand to run them, not even for the Mercy Story Arc badge completion (and I am a total badge whore). Most of the stories written by Positron I just find terrible.

[ArchVileTerror]

Ah, was it Matt Miller who wrote the Graves arc, Hustler?  

[Zombie Hustler]

On 5/8/2020 at 4:07 PM, ArchVileTerror said:

Ah, was it Matt Miller who wrote the Graves arc, Hustler?  

To the best of my recollection, yes.

[Eva Destruction]

Dr Aeon (can't remember his real name) was the lead writer when those arcs were introduced.  I'm not sure who actually wrote them.  Aeon was not a good writer either, he leaned on gimmicks over substance.  After reading through the developer AMAs from the years after Sunset, there was some really hackneyed writing philosophy going on there.  I think, ultimately, you had writers who were more focused on "well, I think it's cool" than "will the players think it's cool?"  Which is why we got the Origin of Power crap, issue after issue of Praetoria, Fusionette showing up everywhere,, the whole Incarnate storyline being yet another Nemesis plot, etc.  I'm willing to concede that the marketing department might have insisted they insert Captain Hotpants and Emo McPlotdevice into everything they could possibly be inserted into, since they're the sig characters for Going Rogue, but for the rest of it, no excuse but a couple of nerds who think they're more clever than they really are.

[ArchVileTerror]

As much as some of the worst writing in this game gets under my skin too, and as much as I want to be able to know who was responsible for those worst offences for my own sake of closure . . . I don't think we need to name-call any of those writers.

 

Except Sean Fish!  Meanie-head thought he could destroy the beautiful love story between Captain Mako and Manticore?  PHA!  *shakes a fist-shaped tentacle*

(No, but seriously.  No hard feelings against Sean either.)

[AShyStarspawn]

I mostly just play the early on arcs on both sides for merits and badges and don't really care otherwise as most of my characters do not fit the heroic or villainous archetype the arcs consider them as. When I first played threw them I completely ignored the tutorial stuff as I just care for the story. I also play through the Graves and Twinshot arcs a lot because they are a just a tad more interesting then the bucket list of meh throwaway arcs at their levels, although City of Villians has way less throwaway arcs at that level with Bocor, Kalinda's old stuff, and so on.

 

To rate the characters in both arcs. I don't really hate Twinshot as a character, she's okay for me really. The kiddo thing doesn't exactly annoy me nor does her personality. I personally do not understand why people hate her so much for that but maybe I am just weird. I did found Flambeaux and Dillo annoying though and Manticore's mysterious role during the Shining Stars Story just didn't work for me because his whole plan for you and the Stars could of easily fallen apart if you think about it for abit. At the very beginning he could of easily got you and the Shining Stars killed with his test in the first arc as I doubt his fake Arachnos were going for just takedowns considering it's Manticore we are talking about. Imagine how badly that would of gone down if Manticore got a team of new heroes killed. In the second and third arc he wouldn't tell you anything about what he was doing which nearly got Twinshot unfairly pegged as the traitor of the team over Proton. I know that's his character and that he's the resident Batman of Paragon but that still annoyed me considering the Shining Stars was supposed to be a team he helped make big, not nearly destroy with his own secrecy. I did like Proton and Gyrm though. Proton before the reveal came off to me as the only sane man while Gyrm was endearing, a bit misguided near the end of the story but its clear he was trying his best. I found Proton being brainwashed by Praetoria making sense

 

Graves on the otherhand, oh boi I didn't like him at all which I think may of the point of his character. I can agree that Graves arc does have more issues, mainly Graves himself being an utter dick the entire time.  I honestly wished there was a choice to just leave him and Omnicore to Dollface's mercy as I dislike those two  characters and it would of fit a lot of my villains more than just insulting him. The other villains were okay beyond Graves and Omnicore. Zephyr was silly and more like a saturday morning cartoon villain which I didn't mind. Crosscut is creepy but he really fits the archetype of a sadistic creepy villain which you don't see often on Redside, barring Mako and contacts, oddly enough so I liked him. Omnicore was even worse than Graves or Flambeaux for me, she'd never shut up even when you beat her down twice and then she still tries to kill you again near the end so you beat her down a third time. Bane Spider Reuben's arc reveals that she still hasn't changed. Dollface was.....ehhhhh? You can tell there was something off about her at first, it was far too telegraphed. I don't really find the dumb blond schtick she had before the reveal was endearing, she only gets interesting and less tropey at the end when you find out she was actually some eldritch horror possessing a young girl's dead body that wanted to possess you too. I really wish they went with another character for her other than the dumb blond stereotype before the reveal. Scirocco's role to me in this story was far more interesting than Manticore's in the Shining Stars story as unlike Manticore he actively helps you during nearly the entire story. I always liked Scirocco's character though so I am probably biased.

 

The other new early on stories like Matthew's and Kuzmin's are better and I think they would of served better for extended tutorials conceptually. I would highly recommend all of Goldside's stuff if you want pretty good early level to mid level stories.

 

You have to deal with Maelstrom though if you run early Praetoria or tip missions. Seriously fuck that guy, he's one of the most dislikeable characters in the game with his whole ''too cool for you kid'' edgy shtick. He's far above Twinshot in that regard. Not to mention his backstory is pretty much about how he killed his best friend because he wanted to impress Daddy Cole.

Edited May 10, 2020 by Sleepymoth

[Herotu]

On 4/6/2020 at 4:29 PM, Zeraphia said:

"Let me introduce you to Ms. Liberty!"

 

Lady, I'm level 6, that didn't happen by magic.

Well, actually ... 

[Herotu]

On 5/10/2020 at 4:40 AM, Zombie Hustler said:

To the best of my recollection, yes.

Whatever happened to Matt Miller. I can't find him anywhere ... I'm going to presume he's lazing in the sunny tropics eating bananas and pineapples as they fall from convenient trees. Looking good, Billy Ray!

[Aberrant]

On 5/21/2020 at 12:09 AM, Herotu said:

Whatever happened to Matt Miller. I can't find him anywhere ... I'm going to presume he's lazing in the sunny tropics eating bananas and pineapples as they fall from convenient trees. Looking good, Billy Ray!

Not sure what he's doing professionally at the moment but he has a Twitter.