Beach_Lifeguard

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I'd like to offer my arc up for a review when you have a chance (and I'm sure you're now utterly swamped) as I'm looking for feedback (only had 3 plays so far as of yesterday; and two comments - one for a spelling error I had missed, now fixed; and another who said she liked it a lot and found it fun).

Title: Is it Live or is it Memory-X
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Story Arc ID: 70210
Author’s Global Chat Handle: @Armsman
Length: Very Long (5 missions)
Alignment: Heroic

Story Description: The 5th Column is building a device to control the world. Can you save the world from TOTAL DOMINATION?! (Hey it worked to get my Villians and Vigilantes pen and paper RPG group interested back in the day.)

Designer Notes: The Arc can actually be soloed by most Scrapper, Tank and MasterMind builds. In testing, my Gravity/Force Field Controller made it through mission 3 solo with no issues, but starting getting defeats in mission 4; so if you’re a support class or a blaster, you probably need a team-mate. This arc is actually based on an adventure I ran players through in the “Villians & Vigilantes” pen and paper RPG a number of years back. I was surprised at how much of the original ‘flavor’ I was able to keep in adapting it to fit in the CoX universe. There was only really one element I couldn’t include due to MA limitations.

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Running this with a Level 50 Katana/Regen Scrapper.

Mission 1: Citadel tells us this is a 5th column mission and it is a 15 minute timed one, but that is fine since it is a bank map. Fairly straight-forward kill-all mission on a tiny map. We obtained a flash drive and Citadel will decode it.

Mission 2: We find out from Citadel what big plans the 5th have: creating some type of AI. Mission 2 sends us to a Crey lab to destroy some parts and get a decryption device so we can read everything on the flash drive from mission 1. The mission has 2 objectives: destroy an item and click an item. there is also a battle between Crey and the 5th. At level 50, Crey wins in a landslide. This mission wins the award for Most False Glowies used in a mission. I must have clicked on 30 computers that didn't have the information I needed. And of course, when I get to the end of the map (large Crey Tech) it turns out I missed one, so I have to retrace my steps all the way back. Perhaps I am nitpicking, but way too many fake computers.

Mission 3: We found out the 5th have completed the AI but have lost it apparently. We are sent to an old warehouse to find some clues. The mission was a little rough...it is a defeat all for no apparent reason. The clue says Citadel is held in this warehouse, but he doesn't spawn until you collect all 4 glowies. Luckily, he was easy to find after he spawned. He said he doesn't know me...could this be a Citadel clone?? He needs to be led out, not sure why he can't make it on his own. I don't know if all the patrols spawned after Citadel spawned or if I missed them going through the mission, but patrols on a defeat all are harsh, and beyond harsh if they spawn after you have already gone through the map.

We see your custom group in this mission and they look incredibly great!

Mission 4: Story is starting to get very convoluted. Citadel doesn't remember sending me on the other missions, but he knows enough about what is happening to know about this AI and that the 5th are going to replicate heroes and world leaders. He sends us off to find info on the custom group. I have mixed feelings on this mission. On one hand, the custom group is so great and very fun to fight. On the other hand, you have to rescue 2 hostages, Statesman and the POTUS and they need to be led back to the door (but the mission objectives don't actually tell you this). Also, after you rescue them a new objective spawns. The story is losing its strength at this point too.

On an amusing note, Statesman and The POTUS fight each after you lead them back to the door. Statesman also takes some shots at me too.

Mission 5: We are being sent to the moon to disassemble The AI. The whole story just started getting a little too far-fetched for me around the end of mission 3. In the mission you have to destroy parts of the AI and rescue hostages.

Overall this one started out strong, but started to fizzle with the not so friendly mission objectives and mission design as well as the story fizzling out. It wasn't bad by any means and I am torn between a 3 and a 4...I ended up giving it a 3 because I just didn't find enough of the missions to be fun. 5 stars on the custom group though. Their look and their abilities were perfect.

Here is a list of arcs I have to review. If yours is missing, please re-post. I won't run them in this exact order, but it is pretty close. I will bump shorter arcs up to the top if I don't feel like I can go through another long or very long one before I call it a night.

8121 (but not until I play a level 35-40ish character)
55202 (25-35 character)
66477 (30-40 character)
70210
36492
84008
74617
80830
113956
114085
111486
117281
103955
119190
111352
128646

I should also give a brief summary of how I rate.
5 star - A very good story with fun missions. You can get here with just fun missions and an OK story. I don't read the other review arcs much, but those guys seem to really key in on all aspects of the story first and foremost. I don't. I like a good story, but as long as it is entertaining and the missions themselves are fun you can get 5 stars from me. If it is JABOSTH (a new term I learned!) that is fine by my, but it has to be an interesting JABOSTH.

4 star - You either have to have fun missions or a good story. I feel that arcs start with a 4 when I clcik play, then we go from there.

3 star - I have issues with the amount of fun a mission is, or in other words, some of the missions are frustrating/not fun. Story probably has some issues too.

2 - Neither fun missions nor an interesting story, but it is obvious effort was put forth and perhaps there is something buried in the arc that can be polished up.

1 - Same as 2, but I didn't find much effort even put into making it a good arc.

0 - I don't think I would rate an arc a zero.

I'm in!

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Hope the OP doesn't mind me putting in a review on an arc in this thread.

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Arc Name: The Marcovici 7
Arc ID: 113886
Arc Length: 5 missions

I am pretty happy with how this came out. I am worried about how people will feel about mission #3. You just have to play through it and there is a more than reasonable explanation after it. I am interested in feedback good or bad.

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Decided to go from the bottom up!

I rated this arc *** .
Good: The first half.
Bad: The second half.

I don't like to give away much in the way of plot but this arc gives you a nemesis. Albeit a slightly lame one, but with a resonable plan of attack not often taken by your foes.

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I am worried about how people will feel about mission #3.

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This isn't the problem. I loved this concept, especially as the character I was playing had no concern for personal safety. I'm tempted to retry this with 8 stealth machines and see what happens. Only fault is not enough chatter in the mission. I want to know what those freaks are thinking - but they never tell me

Mission 4 is where it goes wrong. Why Arachnos? Who puts their transmitters on the ground in steel canyon? No chatter, at all pretty much from here on in. The missions start to feel dead. The peak of this mission is at the end of mission 3.

Mission 5 is exactly as expected, and adds absolutely nothing and could eaisly have been replaced with a mission 4 pop-up saying "And you catch the villain".

Work on the end and this could be a great arc.

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Thanks so much for the review. Now that you mention it, I can look back and completely agree that I fizzled out in the last 2 missions. I think I rushed through those with only a general idea on how to end it.

I think if I change mission 4 to the outdoor map in (I think) Cap that might work better. i also think the final confrontation needs to be a lot more epic, perhaps make him an EB and/or add ambushes.

I am glad you enjoyed the beginning of it and it gives me something positive to build on.

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Please try my arc.

I Will Dance On Your Grave
author: @dugfromthearth
arc# I don't know

5 mission arc. Custom version of the Skulls so it is levels 1-50. Dark magic, voodoo, and necromancy. No EBs or AVs.

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Mission 1: Well, I get that she is a voodoo woman and would talk like that, but it is very distracting and takes away from the story you are trying to tell. Not a bad first mission. It was an outdoor scavenger hunt for 8 hostages, one of whom was possessed. Nice job on a custom group modeled after the skulls and that other group was very nice as well.

Mission 2: The story creeps forward a bit here as now we are going after the Boss of the guys in the first mission. We are once again going to rescue 5 more hostages as well. The mission was pretty fun. Once again the custom group of skulls is fun to fight against. They feel like a higher level version of the real skulls. Nice job on the custom boss.

Mission 3: The story seems stuck in the mud at this point. Each mission is basically: The Skulls have taken people, go get them. I did get the tip during the loading screen of Go. Hunt. Kill Skulls. Nice! The custom zombie group here look real good, but feel a little overpowered, particularly when I had 2 or 3 Lt.s aggrod at once. With the 3rd mission in a row of saving people I decided to stealth most of it. Bonus points for making the hostages easy to find with the green glow.

Mission 4: The story sidetracks to a shaman that we have to go rescue. The mission was a real disaster. It is the burning forest map and for as far as the eye can see there are hostages in a the green glow, but no enemies guarding them and they are not part of the mission objective. There are destructible objects everywhere but they are not the objective either. I finally find the ally and rescue him, and a new mission goal pops up, but I have absolutely no idea what it means. I wait for an ambush or something and get nothing. I look all around the map in stealth mode and still nothing. I have to quot the arc at this point because I just don't know what to do.

I didn't rate, but up to this point I think it was a 3 or 4 star arc depending on how it ended.

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Arc Name: The End of All things
Arc ID: 85556
Faction: Several Custom
Creator Global/Forum Name: @The Combat
Difficulty Level: Medium-Hard (contains some EBs, and 1 AV that should be easy because of allies and a final AV that doesn't need to be fought.)
Synopsis: You are recruited to destroy a universe where all things are personified by a spell. You fight Time, Earth, and save Life.
Estimated Time to Play: around 30-45 min

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Running this with a lvl 50 ill/rad controller.

Mission 1: You should break up the introductory text into paragraphs to make this easier to read. What we are about to do and why is not explained very well, other than there are rewards in it for me. The mission itself was just OK. I am not a big fan of defeat alls on outdoor maps. the EB was nice enough, but the rest of the custom group just didn't do much for me.

Mission 2: The contact said he lied to me, and the story is pretty hard to follow. I still have no idea what the contact is trying to accomplish. Destroy the universe? If that is it, why would I want to help since I am part of the universe. I think an abundance of typos might be leading to the hard to understand story. The mission was just a scavenger hunt for 2 allies and the EB on a very rocky terrain outdoor map. Not very fun for me.

Mission 3: More of the same nonsensical dialogue from the contact. Another random outdoor map with a hostage to save and then the mission is over, but you can stick around for an EB boss. I didn't.

Overall this was not a very good arc. To get a 4 star rating it has to be either fun to play or have an interesting story. This had neither. I'll give it a 2 star rating, but honestly it is probably closer to just 1 star, but there was some effort put into the custom groups, etc... so I'll just go 2 star. Sorry.

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Arc Name: A Hero is Made, Not Born
Arc ID: 20863
Faction: Hero
Creator Global/Forum Name: @OverlordIndigo
Difficulty Level: Medium
Synopsis: Updated 4/22/09] Traveling back in time you aid the enigmatic Commander Chronus to inspire the career of a would be hero. (( This is a lower level mission by design and should be soloable for most characters.)) [TAGS: SFMA/LBMA]
Estimated Time to Play: 15 minute timer. 1 mission
Link to More Details or Feedback: Feedback Thread

Link to Movie Poster

All feedback is appreciated.

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Playing this with a Level 11 BS/WP Scrapper.

Nice touch with the introductory poster.

Mission 1: 15 minutes timed. The blue text is very difficult to read. The mission was really fun though. We need more low level missions and a search function to find them, IMO. Custom Boss looked very cool and matched his name perfectly. Your ally is perfectly balanced. Quick, but fun mission worth 5 stars.

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Submitting my arc for review:

Arc Name: Light of the Sun
Arc ID: 89545
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Skydance/Skydance
Difficulty Level: lv46+ recommended, slightly above standard CoH mission difficulty. Adds can be dangerous, final Boss is somewhat dangerous
Synopsis: Crey is up to something in Crey's Folly, and a young hero was already severly hurt. Janet Kellum is looking for an experienced hero to help her out.
Estimated Time To Play: 5 missions - 30 to 60 minutes, small maps, no defeat all, stealthing possible of some missions
Enemy Groups: Freakshow, Arachnos (very few), Crey + Crey Custom group.

Further Comments:
It is very helpful if the player is familiar with Gordon Stacys 'Revenant Hero Project' storyarc, and Crey in general. A plus if your hero has worked with Janet Kellum before (lv40-45 Crey contact).

The custom group is not overly difficult, especially solo they are not noticeably harder then standard groups. In bigger teams (or solo if more then one spawn is aggroed), some of the debuffs/buffs can stack quickly making them a more serious threat. Problem mobs will need to be identified and given priority.

The final boss is no pushover, but should not be impossible, inspirations may be needed depending on build/AT. She will scale down from Elite Boss to Boss on heroic.

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Playing this with Lvl 50 Ill/Rad Controller

Mission 1: Crey is up to something - a guy is burned and unconscious - Freakshow moved into the former Crey base. We go in and beat up some Freaks and get some information indicating that Crey might have moved their warehouse to Warburg. Standard warehouse mission with freaks and a boss to beat. No issues with any of this so far.

Mission 2: This seemed like a filler mission and not entirely needed. The glowie was right up front. I never had to engage with the enemy. You could have addressed the need for the flier in the story and skipped this, but it is not a big deal.

Mission 3: Thanks for adding the note on where the door is on this map. First time I played it I had no idea. I am sure this will help a lot of players. This is a fun map to play on once you get inside and you did a great job adding to the Crey group with your customs there. Another fun mission, and the clue moves the 'mystery' along.

Mission 4: Excellent story progression with the clues and a real fun mission fighting Crey and your Crey specialty group. that last room was great with the ambush - just lots of chaos.

Mission 5: Great final mission with a variety of objectives that each wrap up a little bit of the story.

Overall this is one of the top 2 or 3 arcs I have reviewed so far. An easy 5 star rating. the only negative was that one mission that did not seem necessary. I would recommend everyone give this a try. It is Dev's Choice quality good and it also fits right in with the game's canon material. Excellent work and thank you for posting this arc.

Arc Name: The Marcovici 7
Arc ID: 113886
Arc Length: 5 missions

I am pretty happy with how this came out. I am worried about how people will feel about mission #3. You just have to play through it and there is a more than reasonable explanation after it. I am interested in feedback good or bad.

I just published my own new arc this evening.
It is #113886.
I would appreciate anyone who wants to play and send me some feedback. On mission three, I tried something a bit risky I think. You just have to play through it and there is a legit reason for it. This is very story driven, should be easy to solo with most builds. Just 1 boss at the end.

I'm gonna review mission #113839 called Enter Sandman with my Lvl 50 Ill/Rad Controller.

Mission 1: This is a horror themed arc and the contact and custom group really fir in nicely. The auras on the custom enemies look very cool. Their powers are nicely balanced. The story is a little Nightmare on Elmstreet-ish, but does not rip it off at all. Good start.

Mission 2: You have to defeat the big bad's #2 in command, which is a cool looking boss with good dialog. Maps are fairly standard, not overly long. Mission objectives are straight forward.

Mission 3: We are going after the big bad in this mission. He is an EB, but you get a boss towards the end of the mission to help you out.

Overall this was just a fun arc. The story was good, and had an interesting horror theme to it. The custom enemy group was really nice and fit the theme perfectly. The missions were on the shorter side, making this a fairly quick arc to run through, which is nice.

5 stars, and I recommend a play through on this one.

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Submitting my arc for review:

Arc Name: Light of the Sun
Arc ID: 89545
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Skydance/Skydance
Difficulty Level: lv46+ recommended, slightly above standard CoH mission difficulty. Adds can be dangerous, final Boss is somewhat dangerous
Synopsis: Crey is up to something in Crey's Folly, and a young hero was already severly hurt. Janet Kellum is looking for an experienced hero to help her out.
Estimated Time To Play: 5 missions - 30 to 60 minutes, small maps, no defeat all, stealthing possible of some missions
Enemy Groups: Freakshow, Arachnos (very few), Crey + Crey Custom group.

Further Comments:
It is very helpful if the player is familiar with Gordon Stacys 'Revenant Hero Project' storyarc, and Crey in general. A plus if your hero has worked with Janet Kellum before (lv40-45 Crey contact).

The custom group is not overly difficult, especially solo they are not noticeably harder then standard groups. In bigger teams (or solo if more then one spawn is aggroed), some of the debuffs/buffs can stack quickly making them a more serious threat. Problem mobs will need to be identified and given priority.

The final boss is no pushover, but should not be impossible, inspirations may be needed depending on build/AT. She will scale down from Elite Boss to Boss on heroic.

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Quoting myself here (sorry), from an earlier request for a review in this thread, since you already reviewed arcs before, and after my post, it probably just got overlooked. If not, I apologize for bringing it up again.

Still hoping you can find the time to give it a try, as I would love some feedback on how it plays for others, and what things need tweaking.

Thanks again.

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Sorry about that. I am not reviewing in any strict order, but you are pretty much next on my informal queue. Look for something tonight I would think.

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Take any in my sig. I need the most feedback on "the Revenge of Hro'Dtohz" and "Hunting the Dark Dragon".

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We will go with Hunting the Dark Dragon #2922. Love fighting the Circle, hate the Malta, who doesn't hate a sapper.

Mission 1: The circle is summoning dragons, allegedly. We will go and investigate. I assumed we would be clicking something, but the dragons were a great idea. They were way overpowered as allies, but in this case I was happy because it was a really huge Oranbaga cave and the quicker you can get through one of those the better.

Mission 2: If I have this straight, Circle summons the Dark Dragon, but can't control it. Dark Dragon makes a deal with Malta. Poorly designed mission objectives here. It says defeat Weedeater leader and crew. There were 3 bosses, and crew meant entire huge room with the thorn tree. I would skip adding his crew to the defeat, but that is just me.

Mission 3: OK, next up we take a stolen Arachnos flier into a Malta base. If you don't know this map uses a door to go inside the building, you are S.O.O.L. which I was for about 10 minutes. A hint would have really been nice. Otherwise the mission was fine. Your map choices are some of the more annoying ones in the game though. Space pirates are a nice touch, but I'll be interested to see how they fit in, or if they ever do.

Mission 4: OK, back to the dark dragon and his next target. Perhaps we meet him in this mission. Wow, nasty ambush, dropped me before I even knew they were coming. I regroup and head back in, knowing they are there now. Ambush goes down this time, but still not without a fight. Mako shows up out of nowhere, I hardly have to fight him though, something else in the mission brought him down to about 1/5th of his health. I stepped in and finished him off no problem.

Mission 5: Contact says he is lost in the story. Frankly, so am I. That one big room was a real battle inside. More information on who the guards you had to beat were - mission objectives should be clearer. Mission gives you a choice on how you want to finish, which is a neat ending. I won't spoil anything here.

Overall, I think you took on too much story here. The mission objectives were poorly defined in some instances. Map choices were more tedious than fun in some cases. 3 stars.

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Thanks for your time, this gave me a ton of useful info. Some changes made since this review:

Mission 2: Weedkiller Leader now changed to the name of the boss, makes him easier to find. Objective changed to defeat boss only.

Mission 3: Patrols added whose dialogue tells you where the door is.

Mission 4: Mako's appearance is now scripted to blend more smoothly with the rest of the mission. Fixed inconsistencies and added more info on the main plot.

Mission 5: Rewrote nav. text to clear up who needs defeating.

You may be right about taking on too much story. I tried to trim it down some, drop more info with less clues. If you'd like to take another look at it and let me know if it reads better now, I'd appreciate it. If not, that's cool too, as the maps are still the same due to plot purposes.

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I don't know whether I'll get to it or not. I have about a dozen on my list, but the changes you listed sound like it would do a real lot to improve things. Thanks for posting your arc. I plan on giving your Dev Choice arc a go at some point as well.

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Story Title: Spectre of the Gun's Search
ID#59161
Length: Short
Levels: 1-54
Alignment: Heroic
Map: outdoor map
Faction: Custom
Genre: Western
Length: 1 mission at this time
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Leaf Cutter Ant/smyte

Difficulty: Set on Heroic boss should be soloable. Set at higher difficulty the boss will be more difficult. No EB/AV. All enemies are 1 primary 1 secondary.

Contains: 1 boss, 1 release captive, 1 ambush, collection and patrols

Arc Description: Spectre of the Gun is looking for one of the bullets that killed him in 1867. He has the guns and 1 of the bullets. The second bullet has escaped his grasp, when he finally has it in his ghostly hands, what powers will he be able to tap into then?

Working on the next missions for this arc.


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Playing this with Lvl 50 Ill/Rad Controller.

Mission 1: I like the western theme here, but we are going after a criminal and saving somebody we have zero knowledge about. Lots of issues here. There is a spawn right on the entrance, so as soon as I am in there I am already stunned, then I am able to barely drop my phantom army and i get drop kicked right out of the mission. Also, there are what, 50? 100? chests, only 1 of which is the one you have to click on to complete the mission. The boss was overpowered for a boss. There was kickbacks, stuns, and terrorizing all in that one group, not to mention gang war and all his other minions. I got through him without a defeat, but it was a huge challenge.

I have to give it 2 stars, not because of the boss or the roaming patrols that were at the entrance, up in the trees, etc... but just for the glowie scavenger hunt. Get rid of all the fake ones. It is so annoying. If I wasn't reviewing this, I would have quit as soon as I saw dozens and dozens and dozens of chests with the mission objective of finding just the 1 you need.

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Arc Name: Getting to know Oneself
Arc ID: 41625
Faction: Neutral
Creator Global/Forum Name: @FireBrandi
Difficulty Level: Medium
Length: 4 missions
Synopsis: Help the Midnight Club investigate the mysterious links that connect one Hero to others out there. You find there is greater significance to this link that suspected as well as a danger.

One EB and one AV, there is an ally to help with the AV so it can be soloed. No kill-all, so you can skip right to objectives to finish quickly.

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Running this with Lvl 50 Ill/Rad Controller.

Mission 1: Introductory text says we are going to unlock the secrets of the universe! That is a tall order to live up to, but the basic premise of why we are doing this first mission is pretty interesting. Souls are linked together, but there is a force keeping the linked souls from meeting each other. The mission was a small warehouse and a rescue against the council. No problems with the mission. The hostage's soul is linked to our contact's soul.

Mission 2: Contact sends us in to find another soul linked to her and the hostage in the first mission. The more linked souls we find the more evidence we can gather as to what the force keeping them apart is. The mission introduces a custom enemy group, but we have no idea who they are, why they are there and how they are linked to this story.

Mission 3: Off to save another soul linked to the others, but this time it is a villain. We have to defeat this villain instead of rescue. It is a map of banish pantheon with a custom enemy or two thrown in. The clue offered by the boss really clouds the story, but the dialogie from your contact clears it back up.

Mission 4: I don't want to spoil too much of the story here. The EB was pretty tough, even with an EB ally with you, but it was a fun mission.

Overall this was a really good story arc. The custom group was good, but didn't serve much of a purpose as a group. We didn't learn much about them, just a little about their EB that you fight at the end. The main problem with the arc is that it seems like a story about your contact rather than a story that you take part in (if that makes any sense). You are forced into playing the backstory of your contact. It is still a good arc, but that is going to keep it from a 5 star rating from me.

4 stars.

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Arc Name: The Doctor's Aide
Arc ID: 51539
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Oro Liquido
Difficulty Level: Three missions are 30-54, one 40-54 (Protector). Custom EB in final mission.
Mob Groups: Crey, Custom
Synopsis: Crey is close to unleashing a devastating computer program. Your goal is to aide the hacker known as 'The Doctor' in putting a stop to them.
Estimated Time to Play: 1 hour? Three medium, one large size tech maps. None are defeat all.

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Running this with lvl 50 ill/rad controller.

Mission 1: Interesting introductory text. I could see this kind of story line getting confusing, but so far everything makes sense. This mission itself is a standard Crey Tech lab and 1 glowie. I mentioned before that Crey is one of my favorite groups in the game, so this was fun for me. One problem with them though, is that at lvl 50 only crey tanks spawn. Not your fault obviously.

Mission 2: This is similar to mission 1, but advances the story a little bit. Our contact has been captured, and the big bad in this mission dropped a clue. Map and enemy group same as mission 1, but that is perfectly fine in the context of the story.

Mission 3: The next mission says we have to hack the Crey computers and enter a virtual world. Let me tell you, if I am ever stuck in a virtual world, I will fully expect to see this custom enemy group in it. Nothing too complicated, but they just look like they belong in there. One of the best custom groups I've seen that fits their theme. The mission was another Crey Tech map, no issues with it at all.

Mission 4: Story is wrapping up nicely, as we learn what the clue from mission 2 was, and we learn exactly what the Crey are up to. The custom EB is very nice, fits perfectly with the rest of the custom group and the theme of the story. Your ally in this mission is placed perfectly and is a good help against the boss, which would prove pretty tough without her I think.

Overall, the missions were fun to play through, and the custom group was one of the better looking ones. the only thing keeping this from 5 stars is the story. It is not a bad story. It has a beginning, middle and end, and all makes perfect sense. I just don't know if it is all that exciting of a story. I am far from an expert on this, so I'm having trouble saying exactly what it is missing.

Still, 4 stars and worth a play through. Its fairly short and has a nice group to fight.

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Got another one here for ya.

Arc Name: The New Freaks in Town
Arc ID: 72852
Morality: Heroic
Factions: Custom, Freakshow
Level range: Mission 1 is 1-45, Mission 2 is 1-50

Synopsis:There is word around the city that there is a new villain group in town and are planning an attempt to overthrow the Freakshow. That's bad new for the Freakshow by far, but it could turn out bad for all of us. You must make sure this doesn't happen and prevent an all out gang war.

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Mission 1: Interesting premise, although it seems a bit strange to be helping the Freakshow. Very nice on the custom group. The EB was very tough, but still solo-able. Mission objectives fit the story so far. Nice start.

Mission 2: This is a good use of a big outdoor map because it fits the story line perfectly, and it is pretty easy to track down the first and then the second boss. Two fun EB fights.

Overall the missions were fun and the custom group was excellent. They could be a group in the regular game they are so well done, though I have to say the stone Lt is way overpowered. Also, while I like short arcs, I thought this one could have used another mission or two and could have gone more in depth on the custom group. They were so well done, I wish there was more to them. Perhaps they get another story arc? Would love to play them again and learn more about them. I am going to give you 4 stars even though I want to give 5. The arc just needs a little more story, maybe another mission or two.

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Take any in my sig. I need the most feedback on "the Revenge of Hro'Dtohz" and "Hunting the Dark Dragon".

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We will go with Hunting the Dark Dragon #2922. Love fighting the Circle, hate the Malta, who doesn't hate a sapper.

Mission 1: The circle is summoning dragons, allegedly. We will go and investigate. I assumed we would be clicking something, but the dragons were a great idea. They were way overpowered as allies, but in this case I was happy because it was a really huge Oranbaga cave and the quicker you can get through one of those the better.

Mission 2: If I have this straight, Circle summons the Dark Dragon, but can't control it. Dark Dragon makes a deal with Malta. Poorly designed mission objectives here. It says defeat Weedeater leader and crew. There were 3 bosses, and crew meant entire huge room with the thorn tree. I would skip adding his crew to the defeat, but that is just me.

Mission 3: OK, next up we take a stolen Arachnos flier into a Malta base. If you don't know this map uses a door to go inside the building, you are S.O.O.L. which I was for about 10 minutes. A hint would have really been nice. Otherwise the mission was fine. Your map choices are some of the more annoying ones in the game though. Space pirates are a nice touch, but I'll be interested to see how they fit in, or if they ever do.

Mission 4: OK, back to the dark dragon and his next target. Perhaps we meet him in this mission. Wow, nasty ambush, dropped me before I even knew they were coming. I regroup and head back in, knowing they are there now. Ambush goes down this time, but still not without a fight. Mako shows up out of nowhere, I hardly have to fight him though, something else in the mission brought him down to about 1/5th of his health. I stepped in and finished him off no problem.

Mission 5: Contact says he is lost in the story. Frankly, so am I. That one big room was a real battle inside. More information on who the guards you had to beat were - mission objectives should be clearer. Mission gives you a choice on how you want to finish, which is a neat ending. I won't spoil anything here.

Overall, I think you took on too much story here. The mission objectives were poorly defined in some instances. Map choices were more tedious than fun in some cases. 3 stars.

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Please add me to the cue.

Arc Name: Bugs and Robots, ma'am, bugs and robots
Arc ID:53433
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Nod
Difficulty Level: Above average (custom enemy faction, custom AV)
Synopsis: A new villain group infests Paragon City. It's up to you to find out why and stop them!
Estimated Time to Play: 30-60 minutes

I've run it solo with many ATs and level ranges, and have had teams of up to 5 people run through it.

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Mission 1: People and animals disappearing - insect infestation. I'm intrigued. Fairly easy mission. We will have to see how it goes from here.

Mission 2: I don't usually like these particular maps, but with the big cocoon's and the smaller size, it worked perfectly. The custom group is pretty cool. I like seeing non-human shaped groups.

Mission 3: I'm not sure I see the connection between the hivers and a robot factory, but into the mission we go. That one robot is really amazing, the one that is human shaped. I think it is custom created. Worth the price of admission just to check out the great design. Story got bogged down here as we seemed to go off on a (almost) totally unrelated tangent with this mission.

Mission 4: OK, story gets back on track here. Somebody knows the location of the big bad, so we need to go in and get him out safely. The mission was pretty fun. Densely populated with robots. Maybe a bug, or maybe a design flaw, but the hostage would target when I hit tab, and also auto targeted during battles.

Mission 5: The final battle and our contact is coming to help! It was maybe an unnecessarily long map. The EB was very well designed as well, a fair fight.

Overall, the Hivers looked and acted perfectly. That one custom robot was excellent. The story was OK. We don't know the motives behind the custom group, we don't know where they come from, what they want. We really don't know anything about them. We know the big boss has robot parts and insect parts, but not how, or why, or what powers they give her.

3 stars with easy potential for 4 and even 5.

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Arc Name: Coming Unglued
Arc ID: 6015
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Linarra
Difficulty Level: Easy/Medium
Synopsis: Something has “dislocated” this dimension from the other dimensions…
Estimated Time to Play:35min - 1 hour
Notes: 3 missions. Small maps. No missions are ‘kill all’; can be a quick set of missions or longer at your discretion. Story based. Crey enemies, with a few ‘surprises’.

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Mission 1: Pretty basic story premise to get things going. Short, but decent enough mission. Cool little ambush on the first object.

Mission 2: Well, the story is moving along, but we really have no idea what effects the pylons have, what the dangers are, etc. The contact is just sending us on missions without a real overall purpose so far. In fact, I am not even sure who the enemy group is. Is it Crey? Why are the Crey there? Another short but sweet mission. I have no real problems with the missions themselves, though they are a bit basic.

Mission 3: Another short mission, making for an arc you can run through pretty quickly. We do need more of these. The message after each glowie indicated an ambush but one only came after the last glowie and the mission ended so I could exit out and avoid it.

Overall the missions were fine, if not overly simple. Mostly minions. I'm not sure if there were even any Lt.s No bosses at all. The story made sense in that it progressed from start to finish, but there was not much to it at all. I have to give it just 3 stars, but there is probably a much better story in there somewhere. Give us a purpose to do the things we are doing. Give us a reason behind the enemies we are fighting (if that makes sense).

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I'd appreciate it if you would take a look at Arc 8121, Rapp'Mas'Ta's War. I've had a lot of friends look at it, but you know...fresh eyes, huh? It IS solo-friendly, and I enjoyed writing it. Hope you have fun!

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Since the first map is a lvl 35-40 mission, I am going to skip this until I am playing a toon (or have one - I don't think I have anything in that range right now) that is level appropriate. It is on my list but might be a while.

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As per your feedback, I modified mine. Lowered the 2nd mission EB to boss, changed the 2nd map.

Arc# 25633

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Running this modified arc with my illusion controller

Mission 1: Excellent job on the custom group. They look and fight just like the real phantoms. Ally is overpowered while working through the mission. He made all the fights trivial, but was a nice help against the EB. I would consider putting him towards the end of the map so you can pick him up just before the EB fight. Otherwise a fun mission. Interesting start to the story, with the other dimension angle, etc.

Mission 2: Much better on the 2nd mission than last time. The boss was a decent challenge but do-able. Interesting development with the amulet. The exit pop-up and subsequent mission text was.....well, it was a twist, but I'm not sure how I feel about it yet...

Mission 3: Oh, this map. I cringe when it comes up. I've run into it in about a half dozen arcs in this thread alone. It turns into a scavenger hunt for the one boss you have to fight. The boss fight was pretty easy for an EB, which is OK. Not sure how much of a challenge you were going for. We never find out about me in the other dimension. Your contact using you as a pawn seems a bit cheap.

This is another 3.5 star arc, and since I am in a good mood tonight, I'll bump it to 4 instead of down to 3.


Mission 3:

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check out mine if you like

Its a fun little gang war romp.. arc in sig
Origin of Mezzolith, 77406


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Running this with a level 8 scrapper...

Mission 1: The story starts out neutral as the description says, but it just doesn't feel right playing either a hero or villain. I won't deduct points for that, but just wanted to let it be known. The mission was fun and good for leveling low toons. It might have been a bit long and the escort all the way back didn't seem necessary at all, considering you saved other hostages and didn't have to lead them back. You are setting up a BIG story here, which is a high risk/high reward scenario.

Mission 2: There is a reason there are few, if any, outdoor maps at the low levels. Without a travel power they are brutal. There was a hostage named Kitty Katt, but it was not an objective and I was supposed to lead her back to entrance.

Mission 3: By the way, there have been numerous typos/spelling errors, please run a spell checker. I don't really take off for that, but it is distracting. The story starts to clear up here a bit: rogue hellions, mages kidnapping skulls, etc. The mission was pretty good. The story is getting alittle better but seems to really bog down with details.

Mission 4: References to a building bombing that I read in the clues, but your contact makes it seem like we just did that mission....possibly I got all muddled up with all the clues, etc. Early in the mission I saved a girl and she didn't say a word. Oranbaga map with portals is not right for a level 1-14 arc. I'm exhausted from this mission and have to call it at this point without being able to finish.

Overall, it is a very muddled story, overrun with so many clues and factions and twisting story lines. As far as gaining XP and tickets at a low level the missions are alright, but the choice of maps is not appropriate for low levels.

I can really only give this a 3 star rating. It would probably be high if the maps were adjusted and there were not just so many objectives in each mission.

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Since I was one of your early reviews, I thought you might be interested in the next chapter I've been working on and published tonight.

Arc Name: "Nothing Left to Lose"
Arc ID: 83170
Faction: Villain
Creator Global/Forum Name: @jbrass/jbrass
Difficulty Level: Medium (Optional AV at end)
Synopsis: Sequel to "Nobody of Consequence" (7780) -- You're asked to find the link between a new hero on Rogue Isles and Black Scorpion
Estimated Time to Play: Three missions -- 30 to 45 minutes

Only three missions for this one. Gave me a little more breathing room and able to more adequately explain what's going on without worrying about the memory limit.

I have issues that I don't believe the final mission works the way I want it to. I won't explain why so as to not direct your experience.

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Mission 1: We start off with an interesting premise: low level villains banding together to overtake their bosses, but then the plot seems to get overly complex bringing in some other groups. The mission itself is fine. there are 2 custom bosses to defeat, neither were very difficult - your standard boss. The clues and the wrap up text didn't reveal much.

Mission 2: Storywise, this mission is just something to do to distract Black Scorpion. The mission itself was pretty fun though, with a variety of objectives.

Mission 3: Well the story picks back up here and does a pretty good job of tying things up heading into the mission. It makes me want to find out more about the Undestined One. I don't know if it is me, you or a bug on the map, but I heard the glowie loud and clear and search for a good 10 minutes, never to find it. I had to quot the mission.

Overall, this had potential until I was unable to complete it. For now, I have to give it 3 stars. If it turns out to be a bug, or just my stupidity, I would give it 4. If you can fix this or give me some help here, it could very well be a 4 star arc.

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If anyone has the time, I'd love to get some more reactions to my arc. Some background.... I came up with it as I was writing it. I had a picture in mind of a villain group reminiscent of the silver-age villains you'd find in the comics (the ones with campy names or themes, like the Royal Flush Gang who dress up as characters in playing cards).

ID: 30821
Title: A Clean Break
The Pool Gang were just a bunch of local homeboys frequenting the pool halls in Kings Row. When capes started proliferating, they found an excuse to put on tights and hassle the local gangs. But someone seems to be leading them into more dangerous waters, and you're asked by a friend to come down on them before they get in too deep.

Even though the story was spontaneous and, admittedly, a learning exercise while I was discovering the Architect, I spent time polishing dialog, costumes, mission objectives, and story. I worked on picking out powers for the villains so they'd be a moderate challenge for the average player. I also spent time adding small details to make it look more professional (proper wording for clues, navigation text, etc.). I'm rather pleased with how it all came out, and got good feedback from the few people who played it (two so far), so I wouldn't mind hearing from more people.

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Mission 1: I have to nitpick and say that you should break up some of this text into paragraphs. It is a bit hard to read. Your contact's speech is a bit tough to read, but I get that he is a pool hall hood and is supposed to talk that way. Good beginning to the story though. Wow, what a GREAT custom enemy group! I love the look of them! I can't say enough good things about them. They are tough little guys though. Are they all WP defense sets? That might be a bit rough. Just a fun group to fight though.

Mission 2: 8-ball is an excellent custom boss. Nice story progression with Crey. Just a fun story arc so far.

Mission 3: You might want to check the pop up that comes up at the mission entrance. I think you have a wrong name in there. Good finish to the arc. Another nice custom boss, totally fits with the whole theme. Ally maybe a bit over powered, but he was nice to have in the EB fight. You might want to experiment with having him spawn towards the end of the map. Having him for the whole mission made all the fights trivial.

Overall: Well, the story is not going to win literary awards, but it is good comic book stuff - and most importantly it was a fun story, fun custom group, and just all around good time for the whole family!

5 stars!