Yogi_Bare

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Arc #177826, "Lights, Camera, Scream!"
tl;dr: 1 star. Offenses: no plot but still throws the Idiot Ball, Killer GM

Reviewed on: 7/16/2009
Level Range: 25-54
Architect's Keywords: Challenging, Custom Characters, Horror
My Keywords: Same
Character used: Agent Cerulean/Justice

"Carrie S. Hutters", a filmmaker, wants your help in making a short "holo-film" about vampires. As part of the research for a larger film effort, she wants you to head into a vampire enclave and retrieve both a specimen and a diary, all while wearing a mini-camera and microphone. This takes you to the Midnighter's map to fight a few custom mobs, none of which are particularly noteworthy. You do find the diary, but the Clues say you get a sample of the boss vampire's flesh (the defeat text says "blood") and there's another Clue about Carrie being involved with the Council that makes absolutely no sense at this point. All she says in the debriefing is "Fantastic job! We'll definately keep you in mind for our next flick." OK.....

The next flick turns out to be "A Dozen Deadly Roses", a story about a jilted bride cursing her married friends and causing wacky supernatural hijinks involving her reanimated victims and all the brides or prospective or former brides in the area. You're sent in to retrieve the wedding rings of the victims and break the curse. You have to fight six parties of triggered spawns on the burning Hellions office map, meaning you have to run all over the place. All of the mobs are Lieutenants with Regen and they all resurrect on death. This was tedious enough for the arc to hit one star right there. The Clues also mention the Council again, and again there is not one single Council mob on the map.

The next one is "Frat Party Massacre", in which a frat party held at a graveyard (are people really that stupid in Paragon City?) You're to go in and clean up the inevitable zombie attack, paying particular attention to the "B'arat Triplets". These turn out to be "Brats", Plant Control/Dark Miasma (I think, not sure) Bosses, surrounded by large groups of frat-themed zombies with annoying powers. You're on one of the fog-covered graveyard maps too; fortunately the Brats have bright pnk auras making them fairly easy to spot from the air. Again the clues mention the Council. The entire final debriefing is: " You're beautiful. We like the way you work; we'll be starting our next set of films soon and we'll call you. . . for real, we will." That's it. There's an extremely perfunctory souvenir.

The arc has no plot but still managed to throw the Idiot Ball thanks to the Council references. It is really nothing more than a shooting gallery of cliched, uninteresting and overpowered custom mobs. Skip it.

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It is supposed to be a cliche B-rate set of horror flicks (as stated); which is typically all idiot ball-type stuff (and hokey).

The Council are the producers; not supposed to be in the thick. Was hoping there was enough allusion w/o actually having to point it out. (player never encounters them... but Carrie does...)

It was supposed to be more play-oriented than story-centric and I do realize that the second arc was a bit stout (hence; the 40-50 (i think) level range recommendation); but it shouldn't have been impossible for a Melee-type , or competent team, of that range [and the the player is rewarded well for that chapter (kinda making up for the weak rewards from the other 2).]

[Note: The brides were originally standard Bosses that I could solo w/ a /WP brute; the I15 custom option meant that I was actually able to reduce their original attack chain... the only thing I think they got from the Regen was Fast Healing [forced] and the self rez (doubling the spawn without actually having to double it); this mission was actually toned down quite a bit.]

[Note: I wondered if the trigger arrangement for the second mission would throw things off... wasn't there originally but having the triggers actually helped in nixing the problem of multiple mob aggro (especially given this particular mob); will change, I think]

The third mission was hokey zombie-mobbing fun, which has probably been done to death, but hey, it's a B-flick. Zombies are [] limited in what they're supposedly able to do. They use MM Necromancy, for more zombies [of course] and a minimal melee attack chain (wish I could've axed any secondary entirely); giving the cheerleader zombies pink pom-poms.

About it being in a foggy graveyard? Why would a zombie frat party be anywhere else? [Same with the Midnighter club as the vampire lair; sure it's the Midnighter map but for intents and purposes, it's just another somwhat gothic backdrop for a vampire hangout.]

[Note: Note: With the exception of the second mission; I could solo a squishy somewhat decently through the arc]

Sorry you didn't like it and I see your stance (and agree); I just think we're viewing it from 2 different contexts.

Cheers!

*further edited for clarity and typos... which are still there, lol.

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I didn't recall seeing more than one pistol on Maelstrom in the video. Just rewatched it, and that's all you ever see is one.

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He has two holsters.

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GR Lore Page; didn't even know that this existed until today

also mentioned here.

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Done.

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lol, cool game

I've never used Taunt/Confront powers; did the old Taunt bring ranged enemies any closer than their max attack range (excluding them cycling to melee attacks)?

How effective is the -Range in PvE play?

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I've returned to the game after being away for a year. I remember there was some talk about adding Incarnates. Is that still in the works?

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I believe it's been back-burnered again and again. From what I could tell about Incarnates, they were a particular Archetype(Tanker, Defender, Mastermind), plus an third powerset from an different archetype. Such a character runs afoul of "Why play the regular Archetypes?"

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Having to split your power selection between 3 main pools, side pools and possibly a patron/epic pool seems restrictive enough; IMO.

I think I see another difference, please verify: Brutes have Taunt built into all of their attacks and offensive auras.

Excluding the actual power Taunt/Confront, are Scrappers having to chase down mobs more than Brutes mid-combat?

Less filling!

Tastes great!

Less filling!

Tastes great!

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Hmm...Well, I'm 42 so it should be over 20HP then. Now that I think about it, I may just be having a dyslexic moment and it was 50HP (Note: I am not dyslexic, just...Dumb). Even so, it's not what I was expecting. Then again, if it were better than it would probably be overpowered.

I guess I'll keep it on and see how it affects me in the long run. I'm considdering swaping it for Energy Manipulator: Chance to Stun eventually, maybe both if I end up liking Entropic Chaos.

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I've slotted all of my -END attacks (except holds) with the Stun proc; coupled with the hold procs; I feel like a wannabe Dom.

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Brutes in PvE are better than Scrappers, Just my observation after nearly 4 years of doing both mainly

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That's not an observation. It's an opinion. And one I disagree with.

[/ QUOTE ]I'd say in some situations they're better... and in others they're worse. But, IMO, the difference really won't matter 99.9% of the time. And if you're trying to maximize performance to obscene levels... why the hell are you even CONSIDERING anything other than Controllers?

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back at ya

I already have my Controller's and a few Brutes; I'm gearing up for Rogue and have a couple of melee powerset combos I'm looking to use but before I start leveling either choice (Brute/Scrapper), I was looking to get a little more insight into the two.

The things actually being pointed out are the Brute's higher base HP, higher resis cap and a more consistent high damage output.

Any other differences that should be noted?

I tend to use only 2 slots on Stamina w/lvl 50 EndMod IOs with reinforcement from:

Set bonuses and/or 'procs' for +Recovery and/or +MaxEnd

Multi-Attribute IOs from sets (***/End)

Only running necessary powers during combat

Accolade powers for +Recovery and/or +MaxEnd

Popping a blue if needed

Honestly, I don't mind that they're charging for the Super Tailor, but there would be two things I would prefer:

1. Leaving the Booster as is but giving everyone the height slider (even if it's locked into all used costume slots; 'adjust-one-adjust-all')... that's the one thing that should've been allowed from the start (barring standard code rants). Genderbending and stockmorphing I don't feel warrant the privy of being a mandatory must-have for everyone.

2. Giving everyone this feature in lieu of making the Booster power an on-demand build changer (no trainer needed) on a long recharge click that isn't modifiable by global recharge bonuses.

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I'm going to assume that the same player would be playing either one, so skill is irrelevant.

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Yes.

I've scanned only the first few pages and I am pleasantly surprised at the amount of constructive, straightforward and positive feedback the OP received.

Especially considering the 'apparently' tense climate created by AE quick-leveling.

Thanks to everyone that offered advice and assistance to the OP.

Which would you rather use? Have on a team (Co-Op or otherwise)? Reasons?

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No, she's obviously a Thugs Mastermind who didn't take any of the pet summons. Just look at how survivable she is(n't).

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No MMs blueside :P , besides the Primary doesn't have 2 Single Shot powers.

that's one nasty avy you have there

The Gunslinger set and Lady Jane's set are different (Malta apparently getting the better of the two)

PWiki - Malta

From the lowbie Midnighter arc (Blueside)

1. Is she supposed to be our preview into Dual Pistols?

2. Is she supposed to be emulating Lady J from GI Joe?

PWiki - Lady Jane

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/architect
*select arc*
*goes to sleep*

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Was thinking more along the line of months as opposed to hours (like the Vet badges); wouldn't want to award a badge whose basis is play experience to some insomniac who couldn't pry himself from his keyboard for a couple of days.

The idea is to award a cross-account badge for playing a particular faction (Hero/Villain) for an extended period of time.

The goal is to help others find where a player has their particular strengths and can help differentiate quick 50s from those who've invested more time in getting theirs just by peeking at their badge list.


This could be expanded to badges being awarded for X amount of time logged in as a particular AT.

This would help add more definition to a given player's playstyle experience.

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OMG! I didn't even know there was such a thing as a portable workbench. And I was happy in my ignorance. Now there is just one more thing in my life that I can pine over and will never have.

No doubt next you'll be telling me that there's an unlockable 'make nude' feature!

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match 'tops (bottoms) w/skin' color to your toons skin color; wear a trench, cape or bolero... then go jump in a lake; literally.

Feel free to add any quick tips on how players can improve their Corr play.


Want to get a feel for how your Corr secondaries might play out at the mid-levels; try rolling a Defender with the same powerset combo. Defenders get to use Corr secondaries a lot sooner enabling you to more quickly find out if a particular combo suits your playstyle.

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So don't buy a cheap laptop expecting to game with it. Laptops are always more expensive than the equivalent PC, and get more expensive the more power you try to put into it.

So either accept that limitation or build a desktop to save money and still get power.

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I bought the laptop to add mobility to my computing... gaming is a small percentage of that equation. I do have the desktop... but that's really not the point and laptops aren't the only issue being addressed.

The point being that the game may be outpacing some aspect of the potential playerbase's setups; the connection type, the vid card, processor, etc.; while the solution could be something that lowered how taxing the demands of the game would be enough to make it viable for the podding/cell crowd.

I think it would go a long way in retaining and attracting players.

This really isn't a personal gripe, being that any upgrade that CoX pushes my system into needing is probably going to be an upgrade that improves the performance of my other non-game video progs.

Henderson
Lesnar

not picking a winner for the GSP fight - not too familiar with his opponent; just hoping there's no "GSP in grease"-type controversies for this one.

I'm not speaking about 'netbooks', I mean actual notebooks.

Talking with a few of the Best Buy guys, they told me that many on the entry level (at that time) laptops were decent for some gaming but there were a few games (including CoX) that weren't friendly to the integrated graphics card setup. The laptops that they suggested for gaming (at that time) were over $1K brand new.

My 2 year old $700 DuoCore Gateway does great with Sony Vegas and other vid/audio editing software but couldn't handle any gaming I put into it.

And from the chatter I used to see floating around, I wasn't the only one having these problems.

Granted, my system may be akin to one of the $600 models now available but it definitely isn't one of those $300 netbooks.