Bubbawheat

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32158
Letterman and the Debbies. The bank heist.

Its my first test run and I've for 4 stars. Its for the Villains. Just a simple bank robbery. Two Heroes (bosses) are waiting for you.

The heroes are based on a pair of short stories I wrote on the boards before COH even went Beta. Back then we heard about a power set that could summon beings-but we had no clue what could be summoned. Letterman can summon Debbies: Super strong cheerleaders. He could fire electric bolts from his cane. Silly concept, but it was a blast to write.

I have no comments, so I've got no idea what I could do to improve it. small map, quick run.

any feedback you can give me will be great!

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This reminds me very much of the movie Sugar and Spice, if fact I thought it was a spin off of it until I came back and re-read your description. Anyway, it was a fun little romp. the cheerleader designs were fun, a perfect use of energy melee, though it did bit me once or twice. Playing as a lvl 38 Trick Arrow/Psi, duoing with another Trick Arrow/Archery by the way. Boss name is misspelled with only one "t". The dialog was funny, the jumping jacks were a hilarious and unexpected bonus. Very fitting. I agree with what Galth said about the grammar:

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Entry popup: "Is a bank/ Rob it! Duh." punctuation and grammar problems.
Exit popup: "Congrads!..." Is this spelling on purpose?


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I'd love to get some detailed feedback on my arc:

Arc Name: Matchstick Women
ID: 3369
Missions: 3
Level range: 1-54, but post SOs recommended
Description: A story driven arc following a group of women arsonists that you have been led to by a mysterious flame. One standard diff AV/EB at the end.

Nice detailed reviews so far here.

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Reposting for anyone else here doing reviews. From page 10 @ 50 posts per page.

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submitted for your consideration...

Arc Name: Madness And The Minotaur
Arc ID: 90124
Faction: neutral
Difficulty Level: 35+
Synopsis: This is a short, 2 story arc set in Greek mythology (using a custom enemy group). Defeat the Minotaur and his minions in order to save the beautiful damsel from being sacrificed and stop history from being rewritten.

Feedback welcomed and appreciated in order to create an enjoyable story.


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I enjoyed this for the most part. I thought the custom group was a bit of a mixed bag. I didn't think that Storm fit the Titan that much, and it was a little annoying (the first encounter, first attack was a tornado that knocked me forward into the middle of the group) The human characters were a little bland, but the non-humans I thought were much more interesting visually. I think you might be better suited to just use some of the standard Cimeroran traitors along with your non-human critters. The bones were kind of a nice touch in one way, but I'm undecided. There were a lot of them, and they were all non-required, and didn't have a whole lot of flavor after the first couple. In my opinion, they felt like clutter. The story could use a bit more refining as well. It's an ok start, but feels almost like an outline of a story. The "maze" in the second mission didn't feel much like a maze at first, since it was a straight line, but then I hit the maze-like room and had a hard time finding my way back out of it. Oh, and played as my 38 Trick Arrow/Psi defender on a 4/5-man fairly well balanced PuG.

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Burning Arachnos map is actually a Council base? Might want at least a simple explanation somewhere of why one faction is using another's base.

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Is this really a big problem? I do mention it in the intro text briefly, but I just prefer Council as an enemy group and I would use "council base - on fire" if it was available. But there's only 4 indoor on fire maps that I know of (hellions, skulls, arachnos base, arachnos warehouse).

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Please review:

Name: Death to Disco!
Arc ID: 84420
Creator Global Name: @Wrong Number
Difficulty Level: Medium
Synopsis: It's 2009; Dr. Disco Fever has somehow altered the timeline so that Disco never died. The Star Spangled Banner is played to a Disco beat! Sporting events start with people standing up and "getting down" for our national anthem. Restore the timeline or be stuck Boogie Oggie-ing forever!
Number of EB/AVS – 0
Story Type - Humor
Mission Count: 2
Estimated Time to Play: about 30 minutes

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Whew! Finally got around to this one. One of the unfortunate side effects of having a Queue that shifts based on feedback and occasional personal preference. Anyway.

I thought it was really funny. Enjoyed all the writing and disco references in the second mission. The Rock 'n Roll patrols were a nice touch, though you could possibly cut one or two out. I liked the crey in the first mission. Though at first I thought that they were chosen because they have a secret service vibe to them, but then I realized that doesn't exactly make sense. But that doesn't really affect the arc at all anyway. I liked the use of color, effective and not overdone. The custom mobs in the second mission were pretty well put together, the only minor sticking point was there was a point where I was getting a lot of stacked slows from entangling arrows and ice blasts, but nothing frustratingly difficult. Overall I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Ok, another re-edit for Matchstick women. I added a second boss that should give more dialog info for teammates. I cleaned up the typos (forgot to pay more attention to AE interface from my last edit as it does weird things with text when I'm not looking). I also added clues, bio, and AV tags in the description so players know to look for them if they want. And I added a little twist to the end that I personally think works well and ties things together better. Let me know what you think.

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You could fake it by using two arc slots per choice - choice A - they continue with the existing arc. Choice B the text tells them to quit their existing arc and go play arc #arc_id instead

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That would be an awesome supergroup idea: Choose your own adventure type mission: Choose A - go to arc #121455, Choose B - go to arc # 121521

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Reviewing (I hope Bubba doesn't mind sharing)

-Galth

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Don't mind at all, gives people a chance to get their reviews sooner, and to get more than one perspective if/when I also review them.

Current Queue:

84420: Death to Disco!
90124: Madness And The Minotaur (bumped for interest and feedback)
103594 - A Close Encounter ("all level friendly", bumped for feedback)
32158: Letterman and the Debbies. the bank heist
17523: A little RnR
39392: Intellectual Property Theft
100483: "a precious gift..."
99836: Attack of the Cliches

81141: The Island of Misfit Heroes (updated)

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ArcID: 81141
Title: The Island of Misfit Heroes

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I didn't get very far into this one. Playing as my 39 Fire/Fire Brute I was just getting hammered constantly, with the Ninjitsu and the Broadsword just taking me out within a few seconds. I saved Cpl. Arizona but he didn't help much at first, but he did end up helping a little bit. After 5-6 deaths I gave up. I will try again with my 50 SR scrapper before totally calling it quits.

On another note, critter design is alright. Nothing outstanding, but nothing bad.

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This is a one off I did in beta.
"Architect Entertainment O-o-o-o-o-n-n.....line...."
ID:2902

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This was a fun little mission. Played again as my 39 Fire/Fire Brute (random side note, if you see fire/fire as my character, it's Burnt Matchstick. The character design that inspired the arc). I like the concept and I thought it was pretty well fleshed out - for a simple one-off mission. The character designs were interesting (Can't place my finger on it, but compared to the last arc's critters, I liked these costume designs much better. Both are plainclothes type critters, but there's just something extra in Galth's designs that made them pop more) My biggest complaint is Aeon was a pain in the butt, which I would fall on every single attack. That is when I wasn't in a detention field. I was actually glad that he ran at 1/4 health which made me fail the mission. Again, will try with my SR scrapper just for kicks.

Current Queue (posted for my own benefit):

81141: The Island of Misfit Heroes (left feedback)
84420: Death to Disco!
32158: Letterman and the Debbies. the bank heist
17523: A little RnR
39392: Intellectual Property Theft

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Thanks for trying it. I double checked and all the critters are on standard. I tried to make the powersets match what type of item they was, so maybe bubbler isn't the best for the gum, maybe dark for the tar patch will be better?


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It's a tough thing to balance, and you can't please everyone, unless you get several people saying they're having problems. Maybe change the bubbler, but feel free to leave the rest unless you get others also saying they're having problems.


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I did run your arc, the nice thing was is was playable for my toon, a dom. After reading someone else's review about the clues I'm goin to run it again and read them this time. I was a little lost on the why and what just because I generally don't read the the bio's or clues.

edit: Reran it and read the clues and bio. Really nice story, a bit sad but all in all I enjoyed it better knowing what was going on. It's so nice to find a decent arc that doesn't have EB after EB set at extreme in it.

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Thanks for the comments, I think story is a tough line as only the leader easily reads the intro text and is the only one that sees the return text. A lot of people skip clues and descriptions, and dialog is very limited on text. But I'll take another look at it sometime soon and see if I can further tweak it.

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I'm not a creative person but I made a silly little arc. It's one mish and a defeat all, but I was able to test run through it quick.

84741-Do your part: clean up the park (in honor of Earth Day)

I'll run your mishs and get back to you.

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First, I think it's a very creative idea for a mission, and I like all the designs and wide variety of critters here. Unfortunately, for my level 39 Fire/Fire Brute, it was a pain. I'm not sure exactly what the problems were. I think the rad blasts played a large part, and the Bubble Gum bosses were awful, knocking me back every three seconds (one of those things that bypasses my 3 pts of KB prot) and putting me in a detention field every chance it gets. If they are on Hard or Extreme, I would recommend dropping them down at least one level. Keep in mind my powerset choice may have played a factor, but I'm just giving you my personal experience. Good luck!

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Take a look at the first one in my sig, it's VERY short, I'd say less than 5 minutes, and I believe that I was one of the first ones to test your Matchstick mission. A VERY interesting custom group, I should say.

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Pretty funny, quite true as well. Not much really to say about it other than that though. Had a test arc named "The Princess is in another castle." so I must get around to that one when I have time as well.

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9882 please and thanks

2 missions, no defeat alls, lots of optional stuff, last map is big-ish i guess.

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I'll start off with the good: Great mission intro, very funny. When the close up pic of the contact showed up, it made me do a double take, in a good way. Good, funny concept and dialog. Mostly good use of text size and color, though you did go a bit overboard in places.

Now the bad, or at least "need some work": The custom group is too similar too each other, you need a bit more varation in the costumes. Also web grenade is a major pain, especially as a level 18 Fire/Thermal controller as it goes in with Defiance (still goes off when held), had many deaths. The second map is a unique one, but it is very bright and annoying after a while. Also, while your truck idea is funny, it's just so wrong to blow up a truck full of dogs, even if the text says they're ok. And that text only shows up on the screen of the character that got the final hit. Everyone else just sees "ArOOOOoooo!!!!" I think it would work just as well as a defendable object instead of a destructible object. And the Scruffles in the second mission forces it to 40+, I would suggest just using a custom critter unless your other bosses also force the mission to the 40+ range, I didn't actually finish the mission because I just couldn't handle the map anymore, and half my team had to quit. The story is funny, the mechanics just need some work. Good luck, and post again if you fix it up, I want to see how it ends.

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Much improvement. I played as a level 38 fire/fire brute this time. The variation of the critters are much better, nice designs and powerset choices. Challenging, but not frustrating. Good replacement map choice for the second mission. Still has the same feel without the blinding light. Entangling arrow also a better choice than web grenade both as a better choice for a dog-napper, and not as annoying as a player fighting them. It still cracks me up everytime I get near a truck and see "BARK BARK". One last thing that I think was just overlooked. Your "mid-boss" in the second mission has the defeat text something along the lines of "adslkgafassl", it seems like it was a placeholder that didn't get finished. Had a really great time playing it the second time around. 4 stars!

Current Queue (posted for my own benefit):

84420: Death to Disco!
32158: Letterman and the Debbies. the bank heist

Also a note: Updated Matchstick women slightly based on some of the comments. Don't think I addressed them all, but did address some I think.

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9882 please and thanks

2 missions, no defeat alls, lots of optional stuff, last map is big-ish i guess.

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I'll start off with the good: Great mission intro, very funny. When the close up pic of the contact showed up, it made me do a double take, in a good way. Good, funny concept and dialog. Mostly good use of text size and color, though you did go a bit overboard in places.

Now the bad, or at least "need some work": The custom group is too similar too each other, you need a bit more varation in the costumes. Also web grenade is a major pain, especially as a level 18 Fire/Thermal controller as it goes in with Defiance (still goes off when held), had many deaths. The second map is a unique one, but it is very bright and annoying after a while. Also, while your truck idea is funny, it's just so wrong to blow up a truck full of dogs, even if the text says they're ok. And that text only shows up on the screen of the character that got the final hit. Everyone else just sees "ArOOOOoooo!!!!" I think it would work just as well as a defendable object instead of a destructible object. And the Scruffles in the second mission forces it to 40+, I would suggest just using a custom critter unless your other bosses also force the mission to the 40+ range, I didn't actually finish the mission because I just couldn't handle the map anymore, and half my team had to quit. The story is funny, the mechanics just need some work. Good luck, and post again if you fix it up, I want to see how it ends.

I'd like to get some constructive criticism on a couple missions I've made for the Scoop (which hasn't done a whole lot for advertising honestly).

Arc Name: Exploring the Architect
Arc ID: 2711
Missions: Currently 2
Description: It is two independent missions in my series of articles exploring some of the things the mission architect can do. The first mission is my AE take on the classic superhero choice: You might not have enough time to save both, so who do you choose? The second mission is just a fun little game of Whack-a-Mole.

I'm surprised, I'm not getting flooded, I'm actually getting requests at the pace I can complete them at... for now. Remember though, I'm asking for feedback on my arc as well, so if it comes down to it, I'll review the ones that left feedback before those that didn't, even if they are further down the queue.

Also

unique -> ??? -> Skulls
unique -> outdoor -> burning forest

you can see two of them in action in my arc 3369: Matchstick Women

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Here's a quickie for ya. Just 1 mish with 5 cute bosses and bunch of in-jokes. It's Anime, not Fables/Storybook, so, you'll probably miss the in-jokes, but it should still be amusing:

Enter the Father Hat Gang arc ID 21391

Have fun and good luck! I'll add Matchstick Women to the list!

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I enjoyed it. I've never seen AzuManga before, but I do enjoy other anime, so I recognized the familiar anime girl types, and I thought the dialog was funny and fit well. I was running a duo with lvl 37 Trick Arrow/Psi and 39 Trick Arrow/Archery, with a couple other TAs joining before it was all over. Bosses were a little tricky, but not impossible for us. Story/motivation was a little muddy, which might be because I haven't seen the anime, but remember a lot of the players probably haven't seen it either. But overall fun nonetheless.

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hey quick question, since pubised arch ar limited to 3, and i assume this is account level what about locals? can i swap out missions between local and publish so i can have more then 3 in a broad sense or is local similary limited

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AFAIK Local is unlimited so you could swap out arcs if you wanted; bear in mind though that unpublishing an arc will lose all ratings on that arc.

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still its the only way to resonalbly create several multi arc task forces so i kinda have to deal with it

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You can totally re-edit an existing arc, but it's a real pain, and you could end up losing all your progress.

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"Animal Farm" Farmer John is a simple CoH/V farmer until all his animals revolt!

ID: 71800

One mish, it is a defeat all, but there two rescue/ally's that will help clear the map. Ran it numerous times in test and live, takes about 1 hour on average. Will try to get on matchstick tonight or tomorrow whether or not you run mine.

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You have a nice variety of custom critters here, that's one thing I like about shorter arcs, there's more room for critters, and more variety is always good. The costume designs are pretty nice, though the powersets seem kind of odd at times. The dog is transparent and fights with energy melee, the empowered seagull is a kin. There aren't any "right" choices for powersets, I'm just letting you know the feeling was kind of off.

The EBs were too difficult for me as a softcapped 50 MA/SR scrapper solo. Two hits and I was down, several times, and only had 10% chance of hitting the woodpecker, even after focus chi. The ambush was an interesting development, but unfortunately, I couldn't see if that was played out more since I wasn't able to complete. Sorry.

I'd love to get some detailed feedback on my arc:

Arc Name: Matchstick Women
ID: 3369
Missions: 3
Level range: 1-54, but post SOs recommended
Description: A story driven arc following a group of women arsonists that you have been led to by a mysterious flame. One standard diff AV/EB at the end.

Nice detailed reviews so far here.

Personally, what I read since the MA came out:

NPC descriptions - Yes! It currently makes me sad when I look for a description and see "A minion is no match for a hero...". There shouldn't be important information, but any sort of flavor is great to go here. Even if it's as simple as a robotic custom group who have for their descriptions "ID# 4521, rank: minion" Just whatever flavor you want to add to your custom group.

Clues - I find myself forgetting about clues a lot, I wouldn't put any story-important information in there. Maybe just if something needs explained a bit better.

NPC dialog - I like dialog, it pops up right were I can see it easily. Although if you're spawning multiple patrols/ambushes, that becomes many repeated lines of dialog in the window.

Sub-mission conclusion - Depends on the story really. Most don't need much, just a little capper then give the important info in the next mission's intro.

The biggest place you can save on space is custom critters honestly. And there's always just editing down the details, cut a line here or there while trying to keep the same basic idea. You can probably cut a four paragraph intro text into a three paragraph intro text. It really depends on what's important to you.

I'm looking for some good 1-3 mission story arcs, I don't always have a whole lot of time to play in one chunk, but I like playing other's missions and giving honest feedback, so I thought I'd jump on the reviews bandwagon to also help get some more plays on my own arc. So here we are.

Rules:

1. Post only 1 arc, with no more than 3 missions, preferably with no defeat alls or "challenge" type AVs.
2. Play and comment on my own arc # 3369: Matchstick women, let me know what you liked, what you didn't. Post your comments in this thread.
3. If your arc features my current mood (at the moment, Alice in Wonderland, Oz, film noir pulp crime) it will move to the top of my list.
4. I will probably only get to 1-2 per day that I get a chance to play, more on the weekend, so if this list gets big, it might be a bit before I get to you.