Citizen_Razor

Leo (7/23 – 8/22): Math is not your friend this week, especially Bunnygirl multiplication! Be careful where you step. You will find fun in TOO MANY BUNNYGIRLS! #101165 by @Clave Dark 5

Description: You can’t swing a dead cat around here without hitting another stupid bunnygirl mission. Ugh. Somebody should do something about them, once and for all.

Number of Missions: 3

Level Range: 1-54

Character I’m using: Crazy Girl, Lv37 Illusion Control / Radiation Emission Controller

Challenge Level: 2

When I called this story arc up in the queue, I find out that apparently I’ve played this before, and gave it a rating of 4 stars. I barely remember this story arc, so I’ll be giving it another play-through. Let’s see if it retains its 4-stars rating. I think I used Citizen Razor the last time, so this time I’ll use Crazy Girl, since this story arc seems to be suite for her.

The contact is a filing cabinet. Apparently I’m sick and tired of all those bunnygirl missions that’s multiplied in AE, so it’s time to go to the source and destroy them for once and for all. There’s also a tabloid, named “The Rogue Isles / Paragon City X-aminer” that’s been portraying those bunnygirls as clean, harmless fun. They’ve ruined many superheroes’ careers by publishing lurid, photochopped pictures of them.

Mission 1. There are 7 possible clues to find. I find a photographer named Annie Ying who is taking pictures of Bunnygirls. I “free” her and she informs me that she can see the headlines now. “Crazy Girl in Bouncing Bunny Bacchanal.” That ungrateful witch! I free 5 “poor schmucks” who actually think they have a chance with the Bunnygirls. None of them thank me for saving their lives. I also save a Bunnygirl who was being held captive in some ritual. Mission over.

Mission 2. There’s a name connected to all of this. Dr. Maggie von BunnyGirl. She’s been using some sort of transformation ray to change ordinary people into BunnyGirls. This must be stopped! I go into the warehouse, and the objective is to check the shipping records, destroy the device, and defeat the Warehouse manager. The warehouse manager is a guy by the name of Rabbitual Criminal. I defeat him. The shipping records mention something about scientific equipment coming in to be assembled. They’re making more transformation rays! But only one is working. I destroy the one that’s working. The mission is over.

Mission 3. It’s off to the office of “The Rogue Isles / Paragon City X-aminer” to put an end to Dr. Maggie von BunnyGirl’s evil plan for once and for all. And to prevent those scandalous (photochopped) pictures of me cavorting with BunnyGirls from being published. I enter the mission, and the objective is to take down 4 “Ripsy-X” staff members.

The first boss is Miss Agonyheart, who writes a love advice column. She lives alone with four small cats. She belittles me during our battle, then informs me that I’ll never find love.

The second boss is Watership Doom, who is the fashion writer. She thinks my boots look horrible with that top. She then places me on the “Top Ten Worst Dressed” list. Oh the horrors!

The third boss is Annie Yin, the photographer from the first mission. I defeat her and grab her camera. Now the pictures should be safe!

The final boss is Dr. Maggie von BunnyGirl herself! She speaks in a terrible German accent, and it’s quickly apparent that the accent is fake. After I defeat her, she drops a disk. The world is free from bunnygirls!!!!! Unfortunately, the disk has a complete layout, set “ready to publish” and, unsurprisingly, it has pictures of my adventure with the BunnyGirls. They’re not going away just yet.

Final Summary: You know what’s funny. When I first played this story arc, this was shortly after Issue 14 published. I enjoyed it and gave it 4 stars. Since then, I’ve had the opportunity to play a lot more story arcs, and I’ve seen arcs that were considerably funnier. New Age Ronin’s “Becky” trilogy, Wrong Number’s arcs, and of course the “History of Statesman” story arc that got five stars from me. Compared to those arcs, this one is merely OK.

Having said that, this story arc does have its high points. The bios of the “Ripsy-X” staff were hilarious and is what saves this story arc. The missions were short and not too difficult – essentially what a comedy arc should be.

The plot isn’t perfect, and the second mission doesn’t have much point to it other than to have you destroy the transformation ray (which can easily be put in the third mission). There was a lack of diversity among the “BunnyGirls” which could’ve lead to some more comedy.

I’m downgrading this one to three stars. My apologizes to @Clave Dark 5.

My rating: 3 stars

Simple Times #70801
By @Justice Blues

Description: Talshak has called you in to handle a small problem in King’s Row. Nothing major, just the same old, same old. At least, that’s what you both thought.

Number of Missions: 5

Level Range: 5-14

Character I’m using: Horsemen Brute, Lv14 Stone Armor / Super Strength Tanker

Challenge Level: 1

This is the sequel to “Future Skulls,” which my review can be found here. I enjoyed that story arc, giving it a 4. Let’s see if the sequel holds up as well. I’m using Horsemen Brute, the same toon that I used in the first story arc.

The contact is Talshak the Mystic. He’s one of the contacts in the Hollows storyline, the one who gives you the infamous Atta mission. His bio says that he spends most of his time keeping the Circle of Thorns and Minions of Igneous in line.

Mission 1. Talshak informs me that there are reports of a small invasion of the Minions of Igneous (or “rockies” as I’ll be calling them from now on) in a warehouse in King’s Row. Well, that’s a bit outside of their usual territory, so the PPD called him because of his experience with them in the Hollows. Talshak finds it a bit annoying being considered an expert, but we must do what we can to keep the chaos at bay. I, personally, prefer to keep chaos at bay by burying them in rocks, but what do I know? I’m just a stoner.

In any case, Talshak asks me to clear the entire map of the rockies. Ack! A defeat-all? This early in our relationship? Very well. Talshak also asks me to keep an eye out to see if I can find any reason the rockies have spread into King’s Row.

I enter the warehouse. The objective is to search for clues, defeat the Seeker, and defeat all of the rockies in the warehouse. The mission is fairly straightforward, and the map is small enough so that a defeat-all is not too aggravating. The Seeker is a rock boss, and he informs me that I’m too late. I wasn’t aware I was being invited to a party. Apparently he was yelling about some sort of object. I shrug and make a note to ask Talshak what’s going on. I also find some packing material to give to Talshak.

I return to Talshak. He’s as confused as I am as to why a rockie was speaking in English, and he informs me that he will use the packing material I found to scry out some information.

Mission 2. Talshak is successful in finding the item of power. Whoa, I thought they all were taken out of the game. Now I can finally get an item of power for my solo SG base. AWESOME! Oh, not THAT kind of item of power? Bummer. Anyway, Talshak tells me that it’s in a cave complex in the Hollows, and that the residue indicates that it can be used to summon an Elder Being, possibly even deities. Talshak reminds me of my experiences with such artifacts from my previous experience in “Future Skulls” and that it would be a Bad Thing. Rockies with voodoo powers? Indeed, I concur. He asks me to investigate the caves and retrieve the artifact. I agree to do so. Upon my agreement, Talshak gives me a sketch of the artifact.

I enter the caves. The objective is simply to find the artifact. Well, that’s simple enough. For some odd reason there’s Hellions in the map as well. Whut? I teleport my stony behind to them and beat them up a little bit. Ah I see I missed a battle. The Hellions are trying to give the other Brothers time to get away. I guess I’m not the only one after this artifact. I find a Magma boss and defeat him. It blabbers some gibberish, but says my name. I suspect that does not bode well for me. The shiny artifact is right next to the boss. I click it but the amulet is not there. Looks like the Hellions beat me to the punch. Bummer.

I bring the bad news to Talshak. He tells me that the Hellions are much too skilled at finding items of powers. Their base must be absolutely rocking. What, I already used that lame joke? My bad. Talshak says he will have to spend some more time trying to scry its location. He is also concerned that I was specifically expected by the rockies, and he concludes that something strange is going on. Gee, ya think?

Mission 3. Talshak tells me that the artifact can be used to summon, and that the rockies believe they can free their Master with it. Talshak also has divined the location of the amulet, and I have to get it before the rockies do. The amulet is too powerful to let the rockies and the Hellions have it. Talshak informs me that the Hellions don’t matter, just getting the amulet before the rockies is what’s important. He also hopes that by studying it, he can find out how information about it is being spread around the city and why the rockies think I have a connection to it.

I enter the Hellions hideout. It’s on fire. Typical. And there are ... Warriors?!? Boy, this amulet is like the town bicycle ... everybody wants a ride on it. The objective is to find the artifact and to question Blaze. I find Blaze right off the bat. He’s surrounded by Warriors. He says that he heard about the amulet from some Skulls girlfriends, raided the tunnels to get the amulet, and turned it over to the Warriors. Apparently it disappeared. Blaze begs the Warriors to convince Tomas that he had nothing to do with its disappearance. I bust up their little party. After Blaze goes down, the objective shifts to “Question Tomas.”

I find some cardboard boxes, and although I don’t find the amulet, I do find a glowing blue cup. I decide to keep it. Now all I have to do is question Tomas. I find him on the second floor. He’s a custom critter wielding a mystical sword. He’s trying to find where they have the amulet hidden. I’m guessing the Warriors don’t have the amulet either. While I fight Tomas, the rockies decide to show up and join in the fun. I take Tomas and the rockies down. In any case, the amulet is nowhere to be found. I give Talshak the news. He decides to investigate the Skulls side of this story.

Mission 4. Talshak does his magic voodoo thingy once again, and has tracked it down to a Skulls warehouse. He tells me that the spells are harder than they should be, as if somebody is fighting him. All he could find out was the location the trail started, and he doesn’t know what is there right now. Still, I should go and check it out anyway. He doubts it’ll be the end of the story. Duh, we’re on Mission #4 out of 5. Of course it’s not over yet. It’s like when Dr. House “solves” the medical mystery at the half-hour mark. Of course it’s going to be the wrong answer. We still have 30 more minutes to go!

Anyway, I head off to the Skulls hideout. The objective is to search for information and to defeat the warehouse boss. I also catch a whiff of a familiar smell, but can’t quite identify it. I knew I should’ve not eaten that week-old bean burrito last night. Oh, it’s not me.

[ QUOTE ]
[NPC] Gravedigger Slammer: I know he's in charge, but I really wish he didn't stink to badly.

[/ QUOTE ]

“to” should be “too” in that sentence.

One of the Skulls patrols mention something about wondering what it’s like to be changed “like that” and the other Skulls replies “power, pure power.” Hmm. Is it that Future Skulls boss I fought in the first arc, perhaps? I find the warehouse boss, and it’s a Future Skulls named “Death Skull.” Hmm, I don’t remember fighting a “Death Skull.” I go and check my review, and it mentions fighting a guy named “Bonesnap.” Are they the same guy, or is it just the Future Skulls that I’m supposed to find familiar?

The information that I find is a crumpled piece of paper. The clue seems to be incomplete to me. It has female handwriting on it and mentions the address where the artifact was originally. So now I know how the Hellions got the information.

In any case, I return to Talshak and give him the news. He tells me that it’s very bad news that the Future Skulls was there. No feces, Sherlock.

[ QUOTE ]
You know how closely ran the last encounter with them was.

[/ QUOTE ]

That sentence is awkward. I’d change it to “You know how closely fought that last encounter with them was.”

Talshak informs me that Mirror Spirit is working with the Legacy Chain elsewhere, but he will go ahead and contact MAGI and the Midnight Squad anyway. We still need to figure out how the rockies got involved in the first place.

Mission 5. Talshak informs me that the artifact was fake and covered with illusions to fool all who saw it or scryed it from a distance. When somebody finally caught up to it, it became dust and fell apart. So I’ve been wasting my time this entire mission? Not to worry, Talshak says, as we will just find out who cast the spell on the amulet in the first place. He also tells me that the Future Skulls have arrived in the present and are attempting to bring around their future. Obviously I have to prevent this from happening. Again.

I enter the mission. The objective is to stop the Future Skulls from completing the ritual by defeating Bonesnap (again) and the Future Bride (again). I’m not sure how the Future Skulls managed to set up their ritual by making me run all over the place trying to track down a worthless amulet, unless the point was to keep me distracted so that I’d not be around to stop this ritual. If I had not played the first story arc, I’d be completely confused by now, and I’d be thinking this story arc was “just a bunch of stuff that happens.”

Anyway, I find the Future Bride and turn her into dust. I then look around for Bonesnap, find him, and prevent him from completing the ritual. The mission is over. Well, that was kinda anti-climatic.

I return to Talshak. He informs me that now we know there are Future Skulls among in our time. Well, that’s something, at least. But we still don’t know who told the rockies about the artifact. Apparently it was designed to trap Azuria and Mirror Spirit, but because of the connection to the rockies, Talshak was brought in instead. And because Talshak got involved, we were able to halt this ritual. So either it was a pure fluke, or somebody did this on purpose. The story arc close with this cliffhanger.

Final Summary: This story arc was a bit of a let-down and didn’t really work as a stand-alone. The involvement of the Future Skulls felt shoe-horned into this story arc, and the “chase for the amulet” felt a little bit pointless and could probably be wrapped up in fewer missions. The finale was a little bit anti-climatic and didn’t really seem connected to the rest of the story arc. Overall, I’m not sure exactly what it was that my character accomplished, other than preventing the Future Skulls from being successful, which he already did in the first story arc.

My rating: 3 stars

Cancer (6/22 – 7/22): Keeping your feelings inside may strain relationships with friends and family. Take an hour of “me time” to vent your frustrations by destroying Doktor Kannoenfutter and his eight elite robot bosses, then approach things with a fresh perspective tomorrow. You will find robots in The Terrible Plan of Doktor Kannoenfutter #N/A by @Eraserdog

Description: The evil Doktor Kannoenfutter is at it again! He has constructed eight powerful themed androids and sealed them up in isolated chambers, while he tries to overwhelm Paragon City with his army of scavenged relics!

Number of Missions: 5

Level Range: 40-54

Character I’m using: Crazy Girl, Lv36 Illusion Control / Radiation Emission Controller

Challenge Level: 2

First of all, the ArcID provided in the AE Horoscopes page is incorrect. It looks like the architect unpublished his story arc and republished it. As it stands, right now the arc has zero ratings. Hmm. In any case, this is the next review in my “AE Horoscopes” series.

While I’m copying the mission description, it suddenly hits me. An evil doctor. Eight powerful themed androids in isolated chambers. An army of scavenged relics. My god, this is a Mega Man rip-off! I run “Kannoenfutter” through BabelFish, and eventually figure out that it’s supposed to be German for “Cannon Fodder.” (The correct spelling for Cannon Fodder, by the way, would be Kanonenfutter.) I don’t want to be biased, but ripping off copyrighted material will practically get this arc an automatic 1-star for me. Still, I’ll give this arc a chance. Maybe this will be a clever homage full of interesting plot twists, but I’m not optimistic. I’m just informing you of my own personal bias right upfront.

In any case, Missions #1-4 have a level range of 1-54, and Mission #5 has a level range of 40-54. I think Crazy Girl probably can handle this, since ill/rad controllers are supposed to be “AV-killers” and probably can handle pesky Elite Bosses.

I start the story arc, and the contact is ... a trash can?!? It’s named “Broken Joe” and doesn’t have a bio. I click on it, and apparently it’s some sort of transmission? Coming from a trash can? My confidence in this story arc is rapidly plummeting, and I’m pondering if TerminusEst13 has room on *his* queue for this story arc. Anyway, this is what Broken Joe says:

[ QUOTE ]
*Eroooomn-click* I used to serve Dr. K – now look at me! I’ll have my revenge, though...let’s just see if his plan can handle a few SUPERHEROES! *nzzzz* I mean, forget what I said about revenge. You must save Paragon City from the eight androids! *vvvt!*

[/ QUOTE ]

Mission 1. The objective is to “2 Locate Boss Door.” I’d change that to “2 boss doors to locate.” Anyway, the “Locate Boss Door” is a glowie. I click it, and now I have to defeat “Keiji the Trapper.” I find the robot, and I’m expecting an Elite Boss, as per the description, but I only get a Boss. Huh? I’m playing on Challenge Level 2, I should be getting Elite Bosses. Judging by the name, it looks like it’s a Devices critter. I don’t know what the other powerset was, as I took it down in record time. A clue pops up ... and it tells me “You got Trap Shot!” Oh for Chrissakes, now I *know* this is a lame Mega Man rip-off. I’m sorely tempted to just end the review right here, but I’ll finish the story arc for the sake of this review.

The second boss is Tess the Inductor, who seems to have electrical powers. Defeating her nets me the “Tess Coil.” The mission is over.

Mission 2. More of the same. This time I am to defeat the Cooler and the Vector. I do so.

Mission 3. Oh goody, the “Master Door Control” is in this mission. I can free *all* of the remaining robots! Sweet! I destroy the “Master Door Control” and the four robots are freed. I don’t even care enough to list them. Also, I strongly suspect the fact that there are four of those robots in this mission means that Mission #4 will have all 8 robots, and then Mission #5 will have the Doktor himself. At least I managed to ding Lv37 in this mission, so it’s not a total loss. I defeat all 4 “robot masters.”

Mission 4. The trash can tells me I have all of the parts needed to storm Kannoenfutter Robotwerks, which just happens to loom above Paragon City in a cloud. *groan* It’s a straight-up Mega Man rip-off, just as I feared. The trash can informs me that I need to scrap all eight bosses before they’re reactivated. Just as I think I have to fight through the eight bosses again, I find a glowie of broken robot parts. I click on it, and apparently that’s the only thing I need to do. *whew* So at least I don’t have to fight the eight bosses again. Not in this mission anyway. After I find all 8 glowies, a new objective appears – Free Unit 3021. When I free it, it tells me about Alpha-X, the first robot that Dr. K created. I need to defeat it. Unfortunately, that’s not the end of it. After I defeat it, I have to find six escape pods! Lovely, even more backtracking! After destroying the six escape pods, this mission is finally over.

Mission 5. The objective is to defeat Alpha-X. I do so. Now I need to defeat Doctor Wily ... err ... I mean Dr. K. I find him ... and ... umm ... he’s not wearing pants. I’m guessing he’ll be a robots / force field Mastermind. I was close. He’s a Robots / Devices Mastermind. Defeating him summons ... not surprising ... a “Mecha Dr. K.” At least this one is merely a Zeus Class Titan. Maybe I spoke too soon. It has a heck of a punch and actually takes me down. Three times. I eventually manage to take Mecha Dr. K down, but it’s not done yet! Up next is ... Special Dr. K! What, I’m going to defeat a cereal? Oh, not THAT Special K. This one is an Elite Boss, surrounded by a bunch of those healing minions. Oh boy, this is gonna be fun. Oddly enough, Special Dr. K is vastly easier than Mecha Dr. K. Ah well, I take him down, and the mission is over. I have a pre-selected hill all ready to put my helmet on and everything. Wait, no I don’t even have a helmet.

In any case, I exit the mission and talk to the trashcan. Surprise, surprise, Dr. K is still around. He informs me that the robots were programmed to feel pain, and that I was the subject of some psychology experiment. He then asks me to fill out a questionnaire on my experiences. Whatever. Finally, this story arc is mercifully over.

Final Summary: Where to begin? There was no story here, just a rip-off of the Mega Man games. While I suppose the original “Mega Man” games didn’t have much of a story either, at least they were EIGHT-BIT games, and the genre they were in didn’t demand much of a story. The point of those games was not to enjoy the storyline, rather it was to solve the puzzles in the levels. This doesn't translate well in the CoH-verse. The custom critters were not that imaginative, and they all looked like lame, slightly-colored cyborgs. The “Futtdroid” minions were super-annoying with their empathy healing. The missions required that you click on a glowie, which then spawned the boss, resulting in you backtracking all over the place to find the boss you just freed.

Lame rip-off of a well-established franchise. Lack of a story. Tedious missions. Boring custom critters. All of that combine to make my first-ever one-star review. My god, the missions in the AE Horoscopes series are off to a bad start. I’d despair if not for the fact that there’s a couple of Ed Wood riffs coming up, as well as “Escalation” which I’ve heard good things about.

OK, I don’t want to be completely negative here. So I’ll provide some suggestions on how to improve this story arc (besides just trashing it and starting all over again, without being a Mega Man “homage”).

1) For missions #1, #2, and #3, ditch the whole “click on the glowie to release the boss” motif. It’s completely unnecessary and only serves as a time-sink.

2) Provide all of the robots with unique dialogue when you fight them. I did chuckle at several of the clues, particularly the “Maxx Slider” one. Additionally, put some more info in the bios.

3) Diversify the looks of the robots. They don’t all have to look like cyborgs or robots.

4) Remove the Empathy powerset from the “Futtdroid” minions. All that does is make them annoying, and make it difficult for low-damage toons to play through this story arc, especially when multiples of them appear in a single spawn.

5) In Mission #4, there are simply too many objectives, requiring a ton of backtracking. Eliminate the “free Unit 3021” objective. It’s unnecessary. Just have Prototype Alpha-X show up searching for the destroyed robot parts. Likewise, defeating Prototype Alpha-X should end the mission.

My rating: 1 star

Edited to add: I decided to check up on this arc on a whim. It's now gone. I have since edited the review to reflect the fact that there is currently no ArcID for it.

Sorry for taking this off the track of Venture's reviews, but ...

Marsquake, you're really determined to hate that arc, aren't you? This is a *villainous* arc! You're an evil guy! You're not here to sparkle rainbow out of your [censored]. You're here to kick puppies and steal lollipops from babies.

The Nazis are one of the few legitimately EVIL entities in the real world. They oppressed the rights of people, slaughtered people just because of who they were, and damn near took over the world. Only the fatal flaw of trying to invade Moscow, and getting involved with Japan's war with the USA, prevented Germany from ruling the world.

If you're a villain with world-domination tendencies, then disposing of Hitler and correcting his mistakes so that you rule the Nazis and, ultimately, the world makes perfect sense. My villain is a deranged serial killer who is obsessed with clearing the world of what he considers to be "scum." In his eyes, anybody who gets in his way is "scum." If he sees a way to grab power and impose his will on the world, he'll gladly take it. That'll make it easier for him to remove "scum" from the world, after all. "Axis and Allies" makes perfect sense for him. There's no "Idiot Ball" being thrown here.

To throw the "Idiot Ball" means to treat your characters as if they were complete idiots. PW's "Axis and Allies" does NOT do that at all.

By the way, I am no longer taking submissions for reviews. I have a very busy schedule coming up soon, with summer school coming to an end, and my getting ready to move to a new apartment. Once that's done, I want to take some time to totally revamp my Horsemen/Wolfpack storyline. Due to those circumstances, I don't think I'll be able to provide the quality of review that I should be, and that's not fair to the architects.

I will finish up my queue, which currently has 9 more requested reviews and 8 more "AE Horoscopes" reviews, though.

The Consequences of War – Part 1 #227331
By @Dalghryn

Description: On May 23, 2002, the Rikti invaded Earth. During the war that followed, tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers, and heroes sacrificed their lives to save Earth. Over 200 heroes made the ultimate sacrifice on the same day. This is their story.

Number of Missions: 5

Level Range: 40-54

Character I’m using: Crazy Girl, Lv36 Illusion Control / Radiation Emission Controller

Challenge Level: 2

This is a story arc that I’ve heard good things about, and the premise is interesting. I’m using Crazy Girl. When I first put this on my queue, the level range was 30-54. Apparently it got bumped up to 40-54 in the meantime. Still, I think Crazy Girl can handle it. The story arc warns me that there may be Archvillains, Elite Bosses, Extreme Elite Bosses, Extreme Bosses, and Extreme Lieutenants. Boy, I’m glad I got in some practice on Crazy Girl earlier.

The contact is Lazon, who is the founder of the SOLUS Collective, a group that accepted heroes not generally accepted by others. Sounds like the perfect place for Crazy Girl.

Mission #1. Lazon informs me that the Rikti war has been wearing everybody down. The vets have been stretched to their limits, and the newbies aren’t up to fighting the kind of war that the Rikti are waging. So Lazon is glad to have me onboard. He informs me that seismic monitors and sewer cameras are indicating that the Rikti are up to something underground. Lazon sent Captain Superior and Billy Bad Boy to investigate, but lost contact with them 30 minutes ago. So it’s up to me to find those two guys and to figure out what the Rikti are doing. The mission briefing indicates that this is going to be a kill-all mission.

I enter the mission. The objective is to find 2 heroes, destroy 5 bombs, and to defeat Tro’Naht. So not a kill-all mission then? I find a bomb and some Rikti guarding them. The Rikti are speaking in symbols.

I find Captain Superior and free him. He says he’ll stay behind and deal with the reinforcements while Billy and I clean up the rest. 1 bomb and 1 hero down.

I take out 1 more bomb, then run into Tro’Naht. He’s speaking English, in the traditional Rikti pattern! I defeat him, and the clue informs me that he had a translator on him. That’ll certainly be helpful.

I find the rest of the bombs and Billy Bad Boy. Billy is not impressed with my help. That’s ok, dear, I’m not impressed with your faux-Hellion self either. After I free him, he apologizes for dissing me and says the Rikti drives him crazy. The mission is over. I get a transmission from Lazon informing me that the Rikti are targeting high-profile targets for bombing. Communications are still jammed, so Lazon sent the two heroes out to find some more reinforcement.

Mission #2. Lazon might have a lead on the whole jamming thingy. He’s located an underground energy signature that indicates it’s a Rikti bunker. There may be some computers there controlling whatever the Rikti are using to jam frequencies and making communication difficult. It’s a long shot, but Lazon can’t ignore it. He gives me a decryption key and tells me that it’s heuristic, meaning it learns, but it will probably fail the first few times it tries. I’m also to meet up with Energy Blastion and Empathy at the bunker.

I enter the mission. The objective is just as Lazon said. Find 2 heroes, hack into the computer system. I see several of those floating Rikti thingy, and I try to hack into them but fail. I then run into Energy Blastion and free him. I find the right computer to hack into, and all of a sudden there’s a bunch of Rikti goons on me. After I survive, I read Energy Blastion’s bio. Apparently he’s married to Empathy and they have a son. I’m sensing a tragic end coming for those two. In any case, I only have one more objective left – find Empathy. After fighting my way through the map, I do find Empathy. She says she thinks Eric (Energy Blastion) is too far away to help, but he’s right there with us. I free her and the mission is over. In any case, I have a small data file. Guess I’ll give this one to Lazon. He runs off to get it translated.

Mission #3. Lazon informs me that the file gave them the break they needed to put a dent in the Rikti plan. It has information on where the Rikti have deployed their jammers. Meanwhile, he still can’t make any sense of the translator I got in the first mission. My next task is to run off to Rebecca Brinell in Galaxy City. Unfortunately, the Rikti are attacking. So I have to go to Dr. Brinell’s lab, hold off the Rikti, and give her the parts when the lab is secure. Lazon informs me that once the lab is secure, Dr. Brinell will give me a directory of files with everything they have on the Rikti. I am to give this directory to Lazon.

I enter the mission. I don’t see any Vanguards. But then again, my brother called me and started blabbering about the apartments he wanted to rent, so I was distracted for a half hour. I’m guessing the Rikti enjoyed some Vanguard breakfast during that time. I did notice that the Comm Officer had all of his minions out but there was no portal. Anyway, I take care of the first floor then head to the second floor.

I see the Vanguard soldiers now. Unfortunately for me, they triggered a spawn that had a Comm Officer, which means that I had to deal with a whole bunch of ambushes. Yikes. I manage to survive the insanity, then I find the computer with the data on it and download it. Shortly afterwards, I find Dr. Brinell and rescue her.

When I call this information in to Lazon and SOLUS, I see that the base is under attack. I then hear explosions and the screen goes black. Apparently the jammers were a distraction to mask the Rikti’s true intentions – a city-wide attack on Paragon City. Uh oh! This is not good! I can’t get in touch with anybody at the SOLUS Collective base, leading me to suspect it was one of the targets of the Rikti attack, and I’m the only one close enough to help.

Mission #4. I finally manage to contact Lazon. He tells me to get with Penthouse and Commissioner G in the tech sub-floors. I also need to take out a Rikti sub-commander, presumably the one named Dro’Vidt. As I head towards the base, I notice the sheer destruction that the Rikti has done to Paragon City.

I enter the base, and I immediately see Lazon being held by the Rikti. The objective is to find 8 heroes, find the injured rookie, and defeat Dro’Vidt. Yikes! I’m guessing Lazon is one of the heroes. When I free him, he rattles off a whole bunch of names and what the heroes are doing. He then tells me that the Rikti are hitting the residential section and the less-experienced heroes are being slaughtered.

I don’t know how the architect did it, but dang, this base is *full* of Rikti critters. My Phantasm actually died twice just in the first floor when he’s never died in the previous three missions.

In any case, I find a body bag on the second floor. It’s one of the rookies I was sent to find, a superhero named Flash McIntosh. He’s dead. I clear the rest of the second floor, finding several more corpses. I also find Penthouse (interesting bio) and the “newbie” named Prince Nigel IV. I escort the newbie to the door and wish him good luck.

On to the third floor. I have one hero left to find, and I still need to defeat Dro’Vidt. I find Commissioner G soon enough, and now it’s time to take down Dro’Vidt. He’s a Rikti Heavy Elite Boss. I take him down and take care of the ambushes. The mission is completed. I look out a hole in the wall and see a bunch of Rikti troops dropping onto the roof. I see a bunch of heroes wearing “Protector of Innocents” badges. So basically, a bunch of Lv10-19 toons are rushing to their doom. In any case, I’ve cleared the tech sub-floors. Time to join the real battle.

Mission #5. Not surprisingly, the scene is absolutely chaos. Lazon tells me to take care of the wounded and to take out Hro’Dath. The screen suddenly goes on a loop, so it looks as if I’ll have to save Lazon as well. The mission briefing warns me that Hro’Dath is an AV and to plan accordingly.

I enter the fray, and my objective is to find 7 heroes, the injured rookie (Prince Nigel IV again?), and Hro’Dath himself. The injured rookie is not Prince Nigel IV, but a toon by the name of Translucent Girl. Thankfully, she spawned right by the door, so it’s a snap to escort her to the door. I also find one body bag, so I now have 6 heroes to find. I don’t identify the body, as there’s no time. I find another body bag, and it’s time to head to the second floor. The smoke coming from the fire makes it hard to find the glowies. I hope I didn’t skip over one.

I find Lazon on the second floor. Unfortunately, he’s just about ready to go nova. I free him, and he asks me to tell Captain Superior to get the data chip out of the desk after we defeat the Rikti. He then flies right out of the window and explodes. All of a sudden Hro’Dath is right there. I wasn’t expecting him this soon, but my illusions and I still take him down. Unfortunately he teleported away, so I’ll be facing him again. I then uncover two more bodies, but there’s still two more left to find. Looks like I gotta backtrack and begin my favorite game of “Find the Last Glowie(s)!” At least it’s a small map. After searching around for about 10 minutes I find the last body bag, and the mission is over. I leave the mission to my Pyrrhic victory. I then give Captain Superior the message given to me by Lazon. Captain Superior informs me, “We have our orders. We will carry them out.” And the story arc is over, to be continued in Part 2.

Final Summary: Overall a well-done arc. I do have some (admittedly very minor) nitpicks. Throughout the entire arc, whenever I accept the mission the “mission acceptance” text is something like “I agree to do whatever.” That looks a little bit odd to me. I’d remove the personal pronoun from those and make them simply “Agree to do whatever.”

The missions are, for the most part, well-designed, and although none of them were de jure “Defeat All” the architect added enough objectives to make them de facto “Defeat All” missions, and I basically treated them as such. My only complaint was that it was a bit difficult to find the glowies in the burning map in the final mission. I’d suggest making the body bags disappear when you find them, just for convenience’s sake.

This story arc brings to you the harsh realities of war, and all of the dead bodies showed that. I liked how the architect portrayed the “newbies” bravely rushing to what was surely their doom, just because they knew that they couldn’t allow the Rikti to win.

Ultimately, if the devs are looking for a story arc to use as “canon” to portray the first Rikti War, they could do worse than this story arc. Minor nitpicks aside, if I were a dev, I’d give this arc a “Dev’s Choice” badge. There’s very few story arcs that I’d do that to. I’m looking forward to playing Part 2.

My rating: 5 stars

[ QUOTE ]
If your L50 character is one who got there via AE, using "virtual levels", then would it unlock a EAT/VEAT that was only usable while within the AE? I would assume not, since all characters spawn outside of the AE.

[/ QUOTE ]

No, you'd have to unlock Lv50 in the main game in order to get the epic ATs. A toon with virtual Level 50 would not unlock the epic ATs.

[ QUOTE ]

Okay. Here's one for you.
A L1 enters the AE and levels to L20. He exits at levels L-MG-1/L-AE-20 (Main Game / AE).
He then plays the main game to L14, so he is L-MG-14 / L-AE-20? Or would the AE XP add together with the MG XP for L-14 / L-AE-25+?

[/ QUOTE ]

Nah, your virtual level would still be 20. It'd only start to increase when your main game level surpasses 20. At that point, your "real-world" experience would compensate for your lack of "virtual" experience.

I have no idea how hard that would be to code, though. I imagine that it'd require a lot of coding, and allow for a lot of potential bugs to slip by.

As neat as the idea sounds ... whoever brought up the legal point has a good point.

Thanks to those gorram "buy inf for money" sites, somebody could buy some inf, do some gambling with inf, win big, then sell his/her inf for cash.

Boom, CoH's now involved in real-world gambling with real-world cash.

Too much legal headaches to deal with.

While reading a thread about "AE Babies" (aka new players who have no idea that there's a game outside of the AE building) and how little they knew about actually playing the games with their Lv50s, I was struck with an idea.

We can't remove XP from AE. The box advertises it as an alternative way of getting from Lv1-50. To change that would be to open themselves up to a lot of trouble.

But who says that the toons playing AE from Lv1-50 *has* to be Lv50 in the "real" game?

I propose this: Virtual XP and Virtual Levels.

The idea is that it doesn't matter how good the simulation is, it's only a simulation. It cannot prepare you for the real thing. A pilot can spend hours and hours in a flight simulation training until he gets the hang of things, but he's never going to be a real pilot until he actually flies a *real* plane and gets some hands-on experience.

The same applies for being a superhero. You can spend a ton of time honing your fighting skills ... but that doesn't mean that you're ready to take on Lord Recluse himself.

So while you're in the AE, doing AE missions, you get Virtual XP and gain Virtual Levels. This is an alternative leveling path that applies only to AE missions. So if a Lv1 newbie enters a boss farm and goes to Lv50 ... he's Lv50 *only* in the AE building. When he steps outside of the AE building, he's back to being a Lv1 newbie because all of his experience was virtual.

But what if you're already a Lv37 superhero? Does that mean that when you're in the AE building, you're Virtual Lv1? No. You already have 37 levels of real experience, and those real experience are going to help you in the simulation. If you're Security/Threat Level 37, then when you enter the AE building, your Virtual Level is also 37. You can get up to VL50, but when you exit the AE building you'll go back to being Lv37.

Bottom line is, if you want to make it to Lv50 in the real game, you have to play the real game itself. But if you're contend to stay in the AE all the time, you can make it to VL50 and be powerful in the virtual world. You can level from 1 to 50 in AE ... but only in the AE virtual reality.

I'd remove inf and prestige from AE, and increase the ticket output. You could use tickets to purchase slots for both your "real" build and your "virtual" build. Anything that is put into your real build is duplicated into your "virtual" build.

I'm not sure how the logistics of that would work out, and I'm aware that it would essentially create a "game within a game." But that seems to be the best way to deal with the "AE Babies" who are woefully inexperienced with the overall CoH game.

Thoughts? Suggestions? I'm a horrible person and should be tarred and feathered?

[ QUOTE ]
I hope that this offered some constructive criticism, Razor

[/ QUOTE ]

I completely missed the first review. Thanks for catching the errors. Can't believe I put down Omega as a Horsemen. That's definitely a "D'OH!" moment.

Oddly enough, mission #4 is my favorite mission. The 14 crates all have souvenirs from various lowbie canon CoV story arcs. I think the patrols, battles, and ambushes on that small map makes for a frantic, chaotic mission. Pretty much exactly what you'd expect to see in Azuria's vault. But it could do with some tweaks.

Again, thanks for both reviews.

[ QUOTE ]
CR, As I mentioned in my tell, I ran "The Horseman Chronicles" last night. Once I get ready, would you like the review here or in my The Consequences or War thread?

[/ QUOTE ]

Out of curiosity, did you ever write up the notes and post it somewhere? I was looking forward to hearing your thoughts about the story arc. :-)

[ QUOTE ]

It's okay to argue. It's okay to yell. If the author is a good author, they'll take what they've learned and create even better things in the future. Though I wish people would stop asking people who make it a duty to provide criticism to provide them with their criticism and then deny the criticism.

[/ QUOTE ]

In Witch Engine's defense, he never asked anybody to review his story. The arc was posted here by another person who really enjoyed it. This brought the critical eyes upon it.

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

*ahem*

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Gemini (5/21 – 6/21): It’s time to revisit a little history this week. Be sure to bring your reading glasses, and your sidekick. You will find Ms. Liberty in Childhood Horrors #5369 by @Xenite Blackthread

Description: The story of Ms. Liberty and the feud between Lord Recluse and Statesman as it is exposed by the player when Lord Recluse’s recent scheme, to exact revenge through Ms. Liberty and every other Hero in Paragon City, is discovered! Can you and your team stop the diabolical Mind-Web Virus?

Number of Missions: 3

Level Range: 45-54

Character I’m using: Citizen Razor, Lv50 Invulnerability / War Mace Tanker

Challenge Level: 2

The next part in my “AE Horoscopes” series of reviews. The contact is Ms. Liberty. Just a note, but I read the “Web of Arachnos” novel that was published a few years back, so I do know a little bit of that CoH lore. Anyway, let’s see how this story arc goes. I’m making note of the fact that the description mentions “your team” so this might be difficult to solo.

Mission #1. I enter the story arc expecting an epic battle with Lord Recluse or something like that. Instead, I get a random radio mission featuring the Council where I need to save some guy who used to be a Lost. Huh. Very well. I have 3 data terminals to find and a hostage to free. After I free the hostage, I am informed that I need to find the Council boss that has the cipher key for the data terminals I just hacked into. I find the boss, who is some whiz hacker kid, and basically the Council is working with somebody called “The Overseer.” Ms. Liberty takes the data and gives it to Positron.

Mission #2. Apparently the Overseer is now mucking with the emergency hospital beacon. At this point I’m completely confused. This story arc has absolutely nothing to do with the description that was provided. I check the AE information to make sure that I didn’t accidentally click on the wrong mission. #5349. “Childhood Horrors.” Yep, it’s the right mission. Huh. Whatever. I have to destroy three “Dampening Devices.” Arachnos goons are protecting them, so maybe there’s *some* connection to the story description after all. After I do that, I am told I need to find Positron. Once that’s done, I now need to defeat the Overseer and learn about his plans. Call it a hunch, but I think the Overseer is Lord Recluse.

I fly all over the map trying to find this “Overseer.” Nada. I then proceed to clear the map of enemies. Finally I find “Overseer ???” hidden waaay back behind a building. He mentions something about the “Mind-Web Virus” so finally there’s some connection to the description. It’s one of the Crab Spider bosses. Not surprisingly, it’s not the real Overseer. When I defeat him, he tells me he captured one of my friends and that she has some alarming news for me. Huh? Okay.

Now the objective is to find my ally. So yet again I have to fly all over the map. *sigh* At least I’ve already cleared the map. It’s Sister Psyche. I free her, and now I have to escort her to the exit? On an outdoors map? *sigh* At least it’s one of those maps with a truck. I bring Sister Psyche to the truck, and finally this mission is over. I am told that Ms. Liberty is in a coma due to the Mind-Web Virus. Oh noes! Cowardly is misspelled in the mission exit pop-up. Apparently the Overseer planted the Mind-Virus Web into the hospital emergency beacon system, and when Ms. Liberty was defeated in another battle she got infected with it.

Mission #3. Ms. Liberty created a mind-lock with me? Umm, why? Wouldn’t it make more sense for her to create a Mind-Lock with somebody she works with everyday, like, say, one of the Vindicators? But lucky me, I was chosen! Positron warns me that it’s likely no one can save Ms. Liberty. Of course I ignore this warning. Sister Psyche tells me that Ms. Liberty has erected powerful shields around her mind and that it has something to do with a childhood memory. Ahh okay.

I enter the mission and there’s a lot of objectives. 6 objects of power to find, locate the flittering shadow, and defeat Ms. Liberty’s shadow. That’s a mouthful and a half. The mission is on an Arachnos map and is full of ... vampire bunnies? Umm okay. I’m just going to rush through this mission as fast as I can.

Basically, Lord Recluse gave Ms. Liberty some book about vampires, and Statesman gave her a stuffed bunny, and those two things somehow morphed into vampire bunnies that were patrolling Ms. Liberty’s mind. Yeah, I don’t get it either. In any case, I defeat Ms. Liberty’s Shadow, free Ms. Liberty’s Mind, and meet the rest of the objectives. This mission is over. Ms. Liberty is happy to be back. Story arc over.

Final Summary: Let’s see. Where to begin? The first mission had very little to do with the arc and was basically a random radio mission. The second mission’s chained objective meant a frustrating run all over the map trying to complete the mission. The third mission doesn’t fit CoH canon. Lord Recluse and Statesman were feuding a LONG time before Ms. Liberty was born. They used to be best friends, but grew apart shortly after they both got their powers from the Well of Furies. This happened in the period between World Wars I and II, a long time before Ms. Liberty was born. There’s no way Lord Recluse was even a part of her childhood. Basically, this story just doesn't make any sense at all.

My rating: 2 stars

[ QUOTE ]
I guess I'll use some less obscure lore the next time - the precedent for "heroic" outcasts is a well-hidden CoH "secret".

[/ QUOTE ]

Do you mind pointing out that story arc to me? I honestly don't remember it. It might've been something I played years ago or skimmed through.

[ QUOTE ]
She also wishes to remind you that the Longbow in her building were there for the same reason as the Outcasts - they had heard the rumours she had spread and figured they would protect her, despite her protests. She told you so after you were done with the mission.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, I made a note of that. But at the time I first entered the mission I didn't know why Longbow was there (and really, at that point, the player shouldn't know until they find Desdemona anyway). That aspect of the story made sense to me.

[ QUOTE ]
I suppose convention demands that Teremex tries for a final attempt at treason but on the other hand I'm writing him and I decide whether it's his style or not. He's an ancient highly intelligent wizard who sees a chance to get what he wants in exchange for something he doesn't care about. Why should he attack someone who already beat him once?

[/ QUOTE ]

If you don't succeed at first, try try again? :-) It just didn't seem like CoT's style to me. And from my character's perspective, it isn't wise to just give CoT some crystals that they could then later use against me, all for some shiny diamonds. It might make sense for Desdemona, but it doesn't make sense for my character.

Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend #114284
By @FredrikSvanberg

Description: A story of love, death and betrayal which will bring you from the heights of Aeon City’s penthouse apartments, to the irradiated catacombs of Bloody Bay. You must deal with a new group of heroes trying to clean up the Rogue Isles in this moral and emotional rollercoaster ride!

Number of Missions: 5

Level Range: 15-20

Character I’m using: Wolfpack Blunt, Lv12 Spines / Willpower Stalker

Challenge Level: 1

Although Wolfpack Blunt’s a few levels below the level range, I decide to use him. He’s a Stalker so I should be able to handle this, but I’m playing this on Challenge Level 1 just to be on the safe side. This is, so far, the only lowbie villainous story arc that I’ve been asked to review.

The contact is Desdemona the Glint, one of the newspaper mission providers in Cap au Diable. She wants me to steal diamonds. I wonder if I should switch to my female Mastermind toon, but she’s only Lv11. I decide to stick with Wolfpack Blunt for now and agree to rob diamonds. Desdemona wants 30% of the cut.

I enter the mission ... and it’s empty! It’s like somebody called in a bomb threat. The objective is to “get the ice.” I head to find the diamonds ... and ahh, there’s a lone Outcasts boss there. Apparently I’ve walked into a trap. The Outcasts boss wants to capture me so that they will be on the news as heroes. I make “Ice Age” (Lead Freezer) into a popsicle. After I do so, Outcast spawns appear everywhere. I don’t see any glowies, and this is a small map, so I start slaughtering Outcasts right and left. When I clear the map, the mission is over and there’s no diamond for me. Bummer. Ice Age informs me that they took the diamonds to their secret base.

I return to Desdemona sans diamonds, but I’m not entirely empty-handed. I do grab a few moneybags out of spite. She is not pleased and allows me to keep the money I stole. She then comes up with a brilliant master plan to get revenge on the Outcasts. She will spread rumors that I am going to kidnap somebody famous. When the Outcasts show up to stop me, I’ll humiliate them. Sure, why not?

[ QUOTE ]
So the plan is real simple, no? First I tell everyone you are going after young, hot, trendy, beautiful celebrity girl, to kidnap, or kill, or worse!

[/ QUOTE ]

This should be “you are going after a young, hot ...”

[ QUOTE ]
Then you can ask them where my diamonds go,

[/ QUOTE ]

Should be “Then you can ask them where my diamonds went.”

Ahh, Desdemona *herself* is the hot, beautiful, trendy celebrity girl that I am to kidnap. I see. Sure, why not? I enter her penthouse and I am impressed with how loaded she is. I ponder kidnapping her later. But first, the Outcasts and the diamond. My objective is to “kidnap” Desdemona the Glint.

While on the way to find Desdemona, I find a random Longbow Nullifier. I have no idea why he’s there, but I make him engage the emergency teleportation beacon anyway, just out of sheer spite. I then find Desdemona, who is surrounded by various Longbows, and I “kidnap” her. The objective is now to find the Outcast “hero.”

Backtracking, I find “Firezone,” an Outcast Lead Scorcher. He goes down quickly to my mighty “Assassin’s Impaler” attack and now I have some kindling for my fireplace. The mission’s over.

After I torture Firezone, he tells me that the Outcasts are coming to the Rogue Isles to do what the so-called heroes won’t. I wonder why they’re trying to be heroes when they’re villains in Paragon City. This part needs some more clarification.

In any case, they’ve taken over a few blocks in Bloody Bay and are protecting the people there against the Freakshow. Firezone also informs me that they will sell the diamond and use the money to help the Bloody Bay denizens.

[ QUOTE ]
!t's true,

[/ QUOTE ]

Should be “It’s true.”

In any case, I return to Desdemona to see how our master plan is proceeding. She claims that Longbow showed up first and she couldn’t get hold of me in time. When I inform her of the Outcasts’ hideout in Bloody Bay, she warns me that it’s bad news.

[ QUOTE ]
But you got good information from mangled Outcast, no?

[/ QUOTE ]

... from the mangled Outcast ...

[ QUOTE ]
before you go rushing off like the angry bull in arena.

[/ QUOTE ]

... angry bull in an arena.

Desdemona then informs me that everybody is rushing over to Bloody Bay to steal the diamond. Oh noes! We cannot allow that to happen! She doesn’t know where the Outcasts are hiding, but tells me to just look for where all of the fighting is taking place.

[ QUOTE ]
I have arranged transport with Arachnos flyer.

[/ QUOTE ]

... with an Arachnos flyer.

I enter the mission. The objective is to “find a clue.” There’s a joke in there just begging to be let out, but I have nothing. I see the Golden Giza in the distance, but write it off as my mind being affected by the cosmic radiation. I wander around and find a Circle of Thorns boss named Teremax who is blabbing something about getting their crystals back. I shove some “crystals” up Teremax’s bottom. After I treat him like a high school boy dunking on LeBron James, Teremax begs me to come back to him after I defeat the Outcast guardian and we shall discuss business. Like I’d help those CoT pansies?

Now the objective is to find the Outcast guardian. I wonder what elemental name I’ll see next? I haven’t dealed with a Lead Brick or a Lead Shocker yet, so I’m guessing it’ll be either “Electric Arc” or “Stonehouse.” I’m wrong. It’s “The Cthonic.” It looks like a Lead Brick reskinned with red (ruby?) stones. It doesn’t matter, as I make him personally acquainted with his brothers – rubble and gravel.

Defeating Cthonic reveals the entrance to the Outcasts base for me. It’s a tunnel underground. Teremax then tells me that I am so clearly his master and god, and he has a deal for me. If I get the crystals for him, he’ll exchange them with *real* valuable diamonds. The crystals are worthless and only meaningful to the CoT.

I head to Desdemona to discuss this shift in plans. She’s all for it. Personally, I wouldn’t do it, but Desdemona is blinded by the shiny so I go ahead and do it anyway.

I enter the Outcasts base. The objective is to find the crystal and to destroy all would-be heroes. I guess I have to kill all of the Outcasts then. I hope this map isn’t too big.

I find a locked chest. I guess I need to find a key for the locked chest. I backtrack and run into a Shivan named “Jiggles.” It’s an Elite Boss. This is gonna be an interesting fight. By using my bag of Stalker tricks, I manage to take Jiggles down.

[ QUOTE ]
From the shivan's gooey remains you pull the key to what looks like a chest.

[/ QUOTE ]

That sentence is awkward. I’d change that to “... you pull what looks like the key to a chest.”

In any case, I now have the key. I guess it’s time to kill all of the Outcasts on the map. I find “kill-all” maps to be annoying, unless it’s on a tiny / small. Just a personal preference. Ah well. In any case, after I defeat all of the Outcasts in the map, I open the treasure chest and get the evil magical voodoo crystals.

I meet up with Teremax again, who tells me to meet him at a cemetery (which is misspelled “cemetary” throughout this arc) to exchange the crystals for diamonds. Desdemona is cautious about this whole deal and tells me to be careful.

[ QUOTE ]
Just promise me you will be careful, yes?

[/ QUOTE ]

“You will” sounds overly formal for Desdemona’s tone as presented throughout this arc. I’d change it to “you’ll.”

Anyway, I promise to be careful. I’ll be extra careful to inflict maximum damage when inserting my spine-bananas through Teremax’s body after he tries to betray me.

I make it to the “Cemetary” and the objective is to exchange the merchandise and to find the raid leader. I find Teremax surrounded by some Outcast goons and free him. When I free him, asks me to lead him to the exit, which is kind of tricky to do on an outdoors map. After I do so, he actually *gives* me the diamond. I’m flabbergasted. The CoT mage actually kept his word?!?

In any case, I now need to find the Outcasts raid leader. I find a custom mob named Tunguska. He’s all green and orangey. His bio says that he’s spent too much time in Bloody Bay and that the radiation has changed him. While I fight Tunguska, he goes all emo on me and begs me to kill him. I oblige. Mission is over.

I return to Desdemona and give her the diamonds. She is so excited that she puts out. Score! The story arc is over.

Final Summary: While the story arc was overall decent, I don’t think I ever saw an explanation as to why the Outcasts suddenly wanted to be heroes. I suppose you could argue that Frostfire used to be a hero before becoming a villain, but that doesn’t mean that the Outcasts are full of borderline hero/villains. They’ve always been a fairly villainous group.

There were other instances where the motivation of the characters didn’t really jibe with the CoH lore. Why did Teremax simply exchange the crystals for the diamonds? I mean, even if I did smack Teremax around, he should still be trying to figure out a way to betray me in the end so that I’d have to forcibly get the diamonds from him. Also, my villain has fought the CoT many times. I doubt I’d be so willing to just hand over some powerful voodoo crystals to them merely to get diamonds so I can score with Desdemona.

Finally, I don’t think Desdemona’s voice quite matched her in-game voice. Here Desdemona came off as a flighty, ditzy bimbo. I mean, sure, she’s a little bit flirty, but she doesn’t throw herself all over you as she does in this story arc.

Other than those, the missions were well-designed and I enjoyed playing through it. Although it was set to Level 15-20, my Lv12 Stalker didn’t have any problems soloing it. The tone and mood of the story arc was well done and I never felt overly frustrated, not even during the “kill-all” missions. The objectives were clearly laid out, and lore problems aside, the story arc’s internal logic was consistent.

My rating: 3 stars

Or that I see a plot hole that you're refusing to acknowledge. "No, my ending is perfect! It must be! Many people like it and have highly rated it!"

It's not perfect. There are problems with your ending, problems that I've pointed out. You can fix them and strength the story and make the story truly ambiguous, or you can stubbornly cling to it and let the story remain merely a Nemesis Plot. I showed you many of the places where your premise fell apart. It's up to you.

Honestly, IMO, your story arc is the MA version of "The Matrix." Highly popular, good word-of-mouth, lots of people think it's deep, but it's really just a story full of dime-store philosophy slathered on nifty special effects where if you think about the premise for even a little bit, it completely falls apart.

[ QUOTE ]
The whole sort of point is that you're sharply pulled from what you know to be 'acceptable' into a BLATANTLY impossible situation, and then from there, ripped violently into another equally impossible situation. The whole idea is that by the end, you should be questioning if atlas, Blighted atlas, the medical institute, and the asylum even exist, if they do, what ones do, and who is and is not telling you the truth. It also mentions right in the arc, if Solemnise is to be believed (and you SHOULD question him and his motives!) then you've had hundreds of different superhero fantasies before this one and Blight is just the most recent one you have thrown yourself in. It stands to reason they'd be disjointed, if you are, in fact, crazy.

[/ QUOTE ]

I know I said my previous post would be the last one, but I had to address this point.

If that was your point, then as far as I'm concerned, you failed. Sorry.

The "blight" is a BLATANTLY impossible situation? My toon's already defeated a Reichsman who was able to draw in energy from many dimensions' version of Marcus Cole. He's also prevented Lord Recluse from drawing in the powers of most of the world's powerful superheroes. His very first mission was to contain an outbreak of a contaminated virus. He's visited dimensions where the Nazis won World War II, where an eviler version of the Freedom Phalanx rules, and where an insane god slumbers. If he has been involved with all of those BLATANTLY impossible situations, then an outbreak of a fast-moving that creates zombies is, well, just another day at the office for him.

The problem isn't that the Blight is "blatantly impossible." The problem is that it drastically changes the status quo of Paragon City, thereby marking it as a "false adventure" when you regain your sanity and providing us with an easy point of "well, this is where the 'insanity' begins."

Another flaw in your premise is that my toon has had hundreds of different superhero fantasies before "Blight." The problem is, before "Blight" my so-called superhero "fantasy" was fairly consistent and the internal logic was solid. I didn't go to a ruined earth, then back to a world that was perfectly safe with no explanation whatsoever, then have a completely new arch-villain to fight the next day, then end up in a completely different city. If it is indeed a "fantasy" then I've had *one* long, consistent fantasy. Heck, the hospital itself reinforces that, by having the doctors and nurses call me "Citizen Razor" to "play along with me" and make mentions of Paragon City, the Freedom Phalanx, and Lord Recluse. A person with many different disjointed fantasies would have memories of different cities, different scenarios, and different events, many of which would be contradictory with each other. Although "Citizen Razor" might be the one constant in all of my fantasies, the nurses and doctors would never be able to know which fantasy world I had just emerged from and wouldn't refer to anything from Paragon City. After all, I could've just visited Metropolis, or the Marvel New York City, or Mars.

Dr. Nemesis might tell me that I've had many different fantasies. But if I don't remember them, then I have no reason at all to trust him. In fact, the only aberration in the memory of my "fantasy" is the events of "Blight."

If everything else is consistent except for that one aberration, then it stands to logic that it's the only one that isn't real. It isn't real because it's a hallucination. Therefore, everything after that point also isn't real until I regain my sanity.

I'm only "insane" for Missions #2-4.

You might've tried to make it so that it's "possible" my character is crazy. But if you look closely at how it's set up, it falls apart. You make too many assumptions about the character (the whole "many, disjointed fantasies" thing, for starters) that isn't true.

You might've intended for my toon to question if everything is real or not, but ultimately the only thing you did was reaffirm that the CoH-verse is real (for my toon) after all and that I was caught up in a failed Nemesis Plot.

If you want to make my toon question whether Paragon City is real or not, then you need to change the "Blight" and change it into something that won't drastically change the status quo of Paragon City. That one event is what firmly places the whole adventure into the "just a hallucination" camp. If the Blight itself isn't real, then everything after that isn't real either. If you set up a scenario where something *could* be real in regards to Paragon City, then everything that happens afterward *could* be real, and your "ambiguous" ending is actually ambiguous. As it stands right now, it isn't.

[ QUOTE ]
A reviewer should judge a story on its own merits. That's the whole point of review, to present a resonably fair and unbiased look at 'did this story succeed in what it was attempting to do', not 'does this story cater to my personal bias'.

[/ QUOTE ]

OK, let's look at the story itself.

In Mission #1, the contact asks you to "neutralize" a biological attack on Atlas Park. You do so, except one of the canisters has sprung a leak.

You come back a week later for Mission #2. You find Atlas Park a wasteland full of zombies, including Ms. Liberty. You kill her. You then inform the contact, who then put you in a quarantine because you came into contact with the blight.

In Mission #3, you find out that this blight has spread all over the world because Synapse got infected with it and ran everywhere with it. Since the quarantine is now useless, the contact sends you to Captain Mako, whose people made the biogen in the first place, in order to find / create a cure. All of a sudden things go weird.

In Mission #4, you find out that you're a mental patient with extreme delusions of grandeur. The contact is your doctor who is trying to get you to take your medication. You take it and roam around the hospital, finding out stuff about yourself.

In Mission #5, you begin to suspect this is a trap, so you palm the medication and start fighting the doctors in an attempt to escape the hospital. You also fight the contact, who you believe to be a noted supervillain, and you break free. The story arc ends with your contact switching between begging you to continue to take your medication and taunting you about his plot.

The ending is left ambiguous as to whether you're actually insane or not.

Here's the problem. You want the "fantasy" part of the story to be rooted in the real "CoH" world (hence your complaint when I mentioned "yeah, I'm not in a quarantine, I'm in the AE building). But it's not the real "CoH" world.

You tried to set up a situation where it may or it may not be a "Nemesis Plot" but it is so CLEARLY a Nemesis Plot. If the fantasy world was real, as you have set it up, then the blight is in full effect and most of the Freedom Phalanx is dead. Except the last time I stopped by Atlas Park, Ms. Liberty was still there training newbies (and PL'd MA babies). Clearly the "fantasy world," as you set it up, is not real.

The only possible conclusion is that this was indeed a Nemesis Plot, and the canister that you "neutralized" had a powerful hallucination agent put there by Lord Nemesis to get you "off the board," so to speak. So you hallucinated the "blight" and all of Mission #2.

It stands to logic that if Mission #2 was a hallucination, so was Missions #3-5. That explains the Clockwork King appearance in Mission #3 and all of the hospital stuff in Mission #4. The "medication" that was given to you before mission #4 was more of the hallucination agent. Only when you stop taking the "medication" do you return to reality and see through Lord Nemesis' tricks.

There's nothing ambiguous about this story at all. It's a Nemesis Plot. If I was truly schizo, then I would've returned to the "blighted" land to continue my paranoid fantasy, except I didn't. On that aspect, the "ambiguous" ending failed.

I'm done with this story arc. I think I've done a more than sufficient job of explaining why this wasn't a 5-stars story arc for me, and only a 3-stars arc. You don't have to like my reasoning, or even agree with that, but that's one of the dangers of opening your story arc up to the public. You'll get people who love it, you'll get people who absolutely hate it, and you'll get people who are "meh" about it. As long as it works for the majority of people, which your story apparently does, that's all that matters. It just didn't work for me.

I edited my earlier post to reflect that it was the second mission (my fault, I didn't make it clear that I played through the first mission again to get to the second mission). In any case, the screenshot is right there. It says "Miss Liberty" in my version.

Futhermore, regarding the quarantine thing, the issue isn't that I left it to go to the AE building. The issue is that by the time the contact tells me I'm in a quarantine, I've already left Atlas Park *twice* -- once for an entire week. At that point, it's kinda too late for the quarantine to work. The cat is out of the bag, so to speak.

As for the ending, in order for the ambiguous ending to be successful, the hero needs motivation for *both* endings. That's why it worked on that Buffy episode. On one hand, she's a superpowered being with a tight circle of friends in the "fantasy" world, but boy does her love life sucks and she has the weight of the world on her shoulders. But on the other hand, in the "reality" world, she's a mental patient but her parents are alive and not divorced. Buffy had to choose to say goodbye to her parents forever when she opted to remain in the "fantasy" world.

Here, the player doesn't have such a choice. Let's see, I can choose to be a super-powered being who gets to smack around villains and fly around Paragon City while teaming up with other superbeings and fight Lord Recluse, or I can choose to be a mental patient who maybe ... MAYBE ... will be allowed to return to "real life" but only if I take my medication regularly? Well, geez, that's kinda an easy choice, isn't it? There is no hard choice for my hero to make.

Ultimately, what you did was ambitious. You tried to do something very different with the MA, and I think that for the most part you pulled it off very well. Most people will, and have, enjoy it immensely. It's something that hasn't been done before in MA, as far as I'm aware. Unfortunately, not everybody is going to share the same reaction. People bring their own views, likes, and prejudices to the table. I just happened to have seen that same story done before, down to many plot elements being the same, and that affects how I view the story itself.

I mean, if somebody wrote a MA arc about a prince of a feuding royal family, all of who have their own powers, whom gets involved in a power struggle in a faraway land that is slowly falling apart to chaos; a lot of people might love the story and enjoy it, but I'd dock points because of the similarities to Roger Zelazny's "The Amber Chronicles" series even if the architect had never heard of Zelazny before.

[ QUOTE ]
OK, I just checked AGAIN since I'm still on, and no, it says Ms. Liberty.

[/ QUOTE ]

*sigh*

I ran through the first mission again so I could check the second mission to see if I was imagining things. I wasn't. Check here. I pointed it right out for you.

[ QUOTE ]
Some nitpicks - I just checked my arc again, and nowhere that I can see does it call her Miss Liberty, it's consistently Ms. Liberty throughout.

[/ QUOTE ]

Check the nav bar for Mission #2. It says "Find Miss Liberty."

[ QUOTE ]
Blowing up the canisters - pretty much all destructible objects in the game explode, so I made the best of it and noted in the mission that you're disposing them by breaking them before they can be deployed, and incinerating the contents. I dunno, use your imagination I guess.

[/ QUOTE ]

There's two ways to work around this.

1) Make the canisters a clickie, and have them disappear when done. This makes it look more like you're disposing of them safely. The clue can mention the leak.

2) Make them defendable objects. Arachnos is trying to break apart the canisters to spread the biogens. You're trying to prevent this from happen. This does have the side effect of making it possible to fail the mission, but since you're going to be exposed to it anyway, one way or another, the final result is ultimately the same.

In any case, setting up a "highly violate canister" that needs to be protected ... then having the player beat up on it until it explodes or breaks apart ... is a "WTF" moment for me, and I do dock stars for that. If it was the only way in the game to "remove" something, I'd deal with it. But it isn't.

Blight #140423
By @Witch Engine

Description: Arachnos has been spreading biohazardous material around Atlas Park. You’re on the case, but cleanup might not be as simple as it first appears...

Number of Missions: 5

Level Range: 40-54

Character I’m using: Citizen Razor, Lv50 Invulnerability / War Mace Tanker

Challenge Level: 2

I had been hearing some good things about this story arc on the forums, so I decided to give myself a “treat” and check this story arc out. This will be a “short and sweet” review. Apologizes to those who were on my queue. I promise I’ll get to your arcs.

So anyway, I fire up the holodeck and enter the mission. The basic premise is that Arachnos is trying to spread biohazardous material around Atlas Park and I have to stop this from happening by destroying the canisters. I’m not exactly sure how making a canister explode and destroying the outer shell of it will prevent the biomutagen from being spread. That seems somewhat contradictory to me.

Destroying one of them informs me that a canister had a small leak in it before I destroyed it. I’m guessing this is not going to end well for me. In any case, I destroy the rest of the canisters, and the mission is over.

Alas, the clean-up crew didn’t return, so it’s up to me to go and find out what’s happening. At this point, I remember an earlier comment by a reviewer. I’m pretty sure I figured out the twist. In any case, I return to Atlas Park, only now it’s completely and utterly ruined. Oh noes!

In any case, I am off to find Miss Liberty. Nitpick time, but it’s Ms. Liberty, not Miss Liberty. Miss Liberty is the daughter of Statesman and Ms. Liberty’s mother. They’re two different characters. Unless this story is taking place during the 1970s.

Anyway, this map is full of custom-made zombies. One particular mob is a Thermal lieutenant that “burns zombies to make them scream.” So whenever the Lt buffs his teammates, they look like they’ve caught on fire. That’s actually pretty clever.

In any case, I find Ms. Liberty (correctly named), who is, not surprisingly, all zombie-ified. She’s an Elite Boss. I clear her zombie buddies, then take her down. Mission over.

I inform the contact. The contact is upset, and tells me that Atlas Park will have to be quarantined. Including me, since I might be infected. Except I’m standing right there in the AE building, all un-quarantined. And if I’m infected, then so is the contact as well. So already, that little problem has hit some snags.

And here there be snags. The blight has spread like wildfire all over Paragon City. Now it’s all over the world. Synapse got it, and like the annoying little virus he is, he spread it all over the world. Strangely, I’m uninfected, so it’s up to me to stop the whole thing. We conclude that I need to go to Mako’s guys and have them create an antidote.

I’m in a burning Arachnos lab, in the middle of Grandville. My objective is to find Captain Mako. I think that’ll be a new EB/AV for this toon to solo, actually. There’s a surprise mob in the mission, somebody I was not expecting to see, and I suddenly have an unexpected ally. In any case, the unexpected ally and I both take on Captain Mako. Captain Mako informs me that there’s no cure. Curses. Foiled again!

When Captain Mako is defeated, he screams “Code White! Code White!” and asked for some doctors to come and that the patient is out of control. Well, now that’s fairly odd. I exit the mission.

I talk to my contact, and all of a sudden the story takes a plot twist. I guess I’m now a mentally unstable person named Morgan Cook who thinks I’m Citizen Razor. My contact informs me that I’ve been having extreme delusions and begs me to take my medication. He promises it’s not a Nemesis plot. I take my medication.

He allows me to wander the hospital. I go and do that. I enter the mission fully expecting to find the infamous “psych ward” map that I dislike so much. I don’t. Instead I’m in some tech map, and I have 6 clues to find.

OK, I have to admit, this mission is extremely well-done. Apparently I’m cuckoo for cocoa puffs, and there’s all sort of clues here indicating that I’m actually Morgan Cook and that I am completely insane. The map is full of non-hostile doctors and nurses. There’s even a zombie in the map who cowers in terror when I walked close to him. When I get all the clues, the mission is over.

I leave the mission, and the contact basically says “See? There’s no super-villains running around. You’re in the hospital. Now be a good boy and take your medicine and maybe your mommy can come and visit.”

I, however, am not buying my contact’s story, so I pretend to take my medication so I can go all insane again later. This strikes me as being very similar to that one “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” episode in its sixth season where Buffy thinks she’s insane.

In any case, I am allowed to walk the hallways again. Of course, since I didn’t take the psychotropic that the contact tried to give me so that he could “take me out of the game,” I can see things for what they really are again.

I go off to find my contact and inform him that I can still save the city. I am in that psych ward map. When I find my contact I inform him ... quite violently ... that I am leaving the hospital so that I can save Paragon City. My contact is not amused and begs me to stop. I ignore him and leave the hospital.

Final Summary: Although this story arc uses the MA in clever ways, there were a few flaws in the story. Flaw #1: How does beating up a canister full of biohazard materials make any sense? If I see a canister full of biohazardous materials, my first instinct is to carefully remove it and allow the experts to take care of it. It is not to beat it up so that it explodes, allowing the toxic fumes to enter the air and in my body. Flaw #2: Miss Liberty and Ms. Liberty are not one and same. That is a minor error and easily fixed, but it’s still an error nonetheless. Flaw #3: I’ve seen this exact same story before on an episode of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” titled Normal Again. It’s the exact same premise. The hero is exposed to some drugs and starts to hallucinate that the world he/she is in is not real and that everything is just a fantasy. Then at the end, the hero escapes back into the violent fantasy world while it’s left ambiguous which world is the real one. Those flaws knock the rating down to a 3.

Mind you, there *are* some good aspects to this story. The architect did something clever with the custom critters in Missions #2 and #3, and mission #4 was well-done. I think that if I had never seen that Buffy episode before, I'd probably have given this arc 4 stars.

My rating: 3 stars

FYI, the Midnighter Club only allow you access to Cimerora at Lv35. To get to Ouroboros at Lv25, you need to do Doc Delilah's arc *or* have somebody open an O-Portal for you and grab the exploration badge in Ouroboros.

Doc Delilah's arc is 20-24, so you can get to it now. However, I believe you need to talk to Jim Treblor first, who will then send you to Doc Delilah.

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