Citizen_Razor

All of my arcs are designed to be soloed. See my signature.

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You're the second person to mention Jack of Irons. This character must not have made an impression on me - I just cant remember him from any arc...

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He's one of the Giant Monsters in Croatoa.

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This was intentional, not from a story perspective, but due to a MA mechanical issue. If I only included my custom group, it would either show only the standard Cabal mobs OR the custom mobs - never both together. I had to add patrols from the regular Cabal group to force it to show a mixture. Not sure if they've fixed it yet - I'll have to experiment to see if I can remove this "kluge".

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That's an interesting bug. Never heard of that one before.

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I'd do that if the 3 ceremonies were a single objective, but they're 3 separate objectives, each with their own text. Nice idea, but not possible until the Devs implement the ability to chain a new objective from completion of more than one source objective.

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Ahh, yeah ... that makes sense. Well, you could chain Patrick off one of the ceremonies -- the one that provides a hint about Patrick. But that'd still look awkward. Yeah, that is one of the "features" of MA that I find annoying. I have a few missions where I want to chain one objective off multiple objectives, but that's not possible yet. Ah well, you gotta work with what you have. Hopefully they'll add that functionality in later.

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Actually, this was a play on words on "waterboarding". I had a picture in my mind of the hero grabbing the witch by the scruff of the neck and repeatedly dunking until she talked. Just some mild humor.

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Ahh OK, I get it now. Heh.

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I wish they would downscale elite boss allies just like they do boss and AV level allies.

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Same here.

Glad you enjoyed the review.

Taurus (4/20 – 5/20): This week will be a little bit twisted as unexpected things start happening to you. Carry a good luck charm with you just in case. You will find mystery in Deal with The Devil’s Pawn #207266 by @Alari Azure

Description: An evil Circle of Thorns mage has stolen some ancient relics, including a scroll that contains a spell that may be devastating for the people of Paragon City. Can you keep him from translating that scroll?

Number of Missions: 1

Level Range: 5-54

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

Challenge Level: 2

This is the second AE Horoscope review that I’m doing. Since I was already on Crazy Girl for my earlier review, I’ll stay on her. Only one mission long. Should be short and fun.

The contact tells me that a CoT mage, named “Devil’s Pawn,” has managed to get his hands on a spell called “Lucifer’s Scroll.” He’s trying to translate and unlock all of it’s secrets. “It’s” should be “its.” Lucifer’s Scroll has an evil spell of submission.

PPD wants me to go in so I can defeat “Devil’s Pawn” and recover the scroll before he can translate it. Very well. Sounds simple enough.

The objective nav bar is redundant. On top we have “Defeat the Devil’s Pawn, find & recover all the artifacts & Lucifer’s Scroll.” Then on the bottom we have “Recover Lucifer’s Scroll, 5 Ancient Artifacts to find, Search for clues about the accomplice.” I’d just change the top part to “Stop Devil’s Pawn” or something simple like that.

Also, "The Devil's Pawn" doesn't really seem like a good name for a Circle of Thorns mage. I get what the architect is trying to do, but it doesn't fit with the CoH canon.

In any case, I take care of the objectives, except for one last “Ancient Artifact.” What, I can’t use the one in my salvage inventory? So my favorite game of “Hunt for the Last Glowie” begins yet again. Eventually I find it, and the mission (and story arc) is over.

Final Summary: Well, where to begin. There was a *ton* of exposition in this mission, and the story was a fairly clichéd “person gets corrupted by evil artifact, tries to become powerful, is thwarted by the hero” story. At least it was only a single mission. Oddly enough, I think it would’ve worked better if the story was spread over several missions so that the story progression made some sense. As it was, it felt as if the architect tried to cram way too much stuff into this one mission. Some of the objectives were pointless. Why did I need to get all of the artifacts? What relevance do they have with the overall story?

Honestly, this felt more like a 2-stars story arc. The reason why I gave this a 3 stars is because it seems as if the architect did put some work and effort into this, and I feel that the work and effort should be rewarded with some tickets. Still, this arc needs a lot of work.

My rating: 3 stars

I'll submit all 3 of my remaining arcs as well. They're listed in order of preference.

#242869 - "Wolfpack Chronicles (Part 1)." Tyrant wants to open a permanent portal to the Rogue Isles, but he can't do it without your help. Collect the five artifacts needed to establish a connection between Praetoria and the Rogue Isles.

#2701 - "Taking Down Jack Ketch." Government conspiracies. A super-powered serial killer. A group of fledgling superheroes banding together. A climatic battle! This one has it all!

#2788 - "Cat War!" All poor Gizmo wants is a bowl of ice cream, but Nosher, his arch-enemy, won't let him have it. Rescue poor Gizmo from the clutches of Nosher and the Siamese Clique. (Humorous arc)

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Nice, thanks for trying to bring light to it, but it seems like it's probably not going to continue due to lack of submissions. Which is disappointing, because they were enjoyable.

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Kinda a bummer. I think it's a good "marketing" tool for those who want to get their arcs out in the public eye.

How many more arcs do you need for the next round of Horoscopes? I should go and submit "The Wolfpack Chronicles" for it.

Tales of Croatoa: A Rose By Any Other Name.... #178774
By @Silvers1

Description: Patrolling in Croatoa one night, you notice a little girl wandering aimlessly on the edges of a cemetery and decide to stop and help. Experience a tale of love, sorrow, and betrayal as you attempt to unravel a mystery.

Number of Missions: 5

Level Range: 33-34

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

Challenge Level: 2

Although Crazy Girl is a few levels above the level range, I haven’t played the character in a long time. I plan on using her for a few arcs in the future, so I figure this will be good “practice” so to speak. This will allow me to relearn Crazy Girl’s playing style.

The warning informs me that the story arc may contain: Archvillains, Elite Bosses, Higher level villains appearing at a level lower than design intent, and enemies with custom power selections. I hope I didn’t make a mistake in choosing this arc to be my “training grounds.” We’ll see.

The contact is a little girl named Rose. She is shocked that you're talking to her, as most people just run away when they see her. She asks you to stay and talk with her. I think I can see the outline of graves behind her. I stay and talk with her.

We exchange pleasantries and Rose informs me that Meanies with caps and pointy ears (aka Red Caps) have taken her friend, Billy, away and locked him up. Rose asks me to free Billy.

I check Rose’s bio. There’s no bio. I’d add a bio here, something simple like “Rose is a lonely little girl that you met while on a patrol in Croatoa.” Something that establishes Rose without spoiling the storyline.

In any case, I enter the mission. The objective is simple – find Billy and defeat the Red Cap leader. The architect seems to switch back and forth between “Redcap” and “Red Cap.” Since the faction is named “Red Caps” I’d go with “Red Cap” and stick with it, for consistency’s sake.

I find a pile of bones. I assume this is Billy, and am shocked when I find nothing. There are several piles of bones on the way, all of which I am unable to identify. There are also a few treasure chests. One is full of iron, which can harm the Red Caps. I wonder why they’d keep something like that around.

I find a large treasure chest. I destroy it, and the mission is over. I didn’t even need to defeat the Red Cap leader to complete the mission. I do it anyway, mostly to practice my strategies and to prepare for the upcoming Elite Bosses that I’ll be facing.

After I defeat Fei Darkwood and his pals, I check the clue. Apparently “Billy” is a stuffed teddy bear. Why would the Red Caps keep this? I speculate that they’re just doing this to torture a little ... ghost.

I return to Rose and give her the stuffed bear back. She is happy, but wonders why she hasn’t seen her Mommy and Daddy in a long time. She then sees her own grave stone and she begins to cry. Poor girl.

The next mission is Hide and Go Seek. Rose remembers her father and wants me to find him. His name is Patrick and he used to work at a warehouse during the night shift. Patrick would bring Rose to the warehouse and she’d play “Explore” and various games. Mommy worried that a box would fall on her, but Daddy worked so much and wanted to see his little girl every once in a while. Aww, how sweet. Sure, I’ll go and find Daddy for you, Rose.

When I go in the warehouse, I note that no one has worked here in a long time. The objective is to find 4 skeletal remains and 2 clues. The map is full of Ghosts. I find some bones. One of the clickies says that the bones are dry and brittle ... and glow. To my eye, that sentence, while grammatically correct, looks awkward. I’d probably go with something like “The bones are dry and brittle and give off a soft glow.” I don’t know if you can fit that in the 100 characters limit, though.

In any case, after I’ve cleared the map, I’ve found 3 skeletal remains and 1 note, meaning I still have 1 of each to find. Time for my least favorite part of the game – playing “Hunt for the Last Glowie!” Ugh.

I decide to check out the clues that I’ve gathered so far. The glowy skeleton says that the man died by magical means, and that the ending was not pleasant. Another skeleton indicates that not even the women were spared. The note that I found says “She is coming. Adriana, you must” and is cut off abruptly. I’m guessing the note was very likely written by Patrick, and Adriana is the mother. As to who this “she” is ... I’m speculating that she is Rose herself. Let’s see if I’m right or not.

Back to the “Hunt for the Last Glowie!” *sigh* I really, really hate this part of the game. Although it’s dark, and glowies do show up relatively well, this map is full of all sort of nooks and cranks for glowies to hide in.

I somehow stumble over a pile of rubble. There’s a piece of witch hat in it. Apparently the Cabal was behind this massacre. But this is out of character for the Cabal.

OK, one more pile of skeleton to find. *sigh* So far everything has been in the back of the map. I really, really hope this last skeleton is in the back as well. Finally, after something like 30 minutes of searching, I find the last skeleton. This skeleton is clutching a crowbar, but obviously using his physical might didn’t help him. Mercifully, the mission is over.

I return to Rose to tell her that I didn’t find her father, but I did find a piece of witch hat. Rose informs me that her mother used to wear such a hat, but stopped when Rose asked if she could wear it. Then witches stopped by and made Rose’s mother cry. Those mean witches!

Rose then tells me I should seek out Jack. Jack doesn’t like most people, but he likes Mommy and Rose. Rose thinks that if anybody knows what happened, Jack would.

I hope this Jack isn’t Jack of Irons. Rose informs me that Jack is in a cave in the Misty Woods. She can’t come with me as she blacks out whenever she tries to leave the graveyard. So I go off to find Jack, bringing Billy with me.

I enter the mission. The objective is to free 3 Fir Bolg and to find Jack. There are Fir Bolg fighting the Cabal in the cave. Oh I think I get it now. I’m guessing that Jack is Jack O’Lantern.

There’s a custom group here that looks like the Cabal called “Cabal Sisterhood.” Checking their bios out, it seems as if the “Sisterhood” is reanimated / resurrected Cabals. There’s a regular Cabal patrol going around. I don’t know if this is deliberate or an oversight, since all of the other mobs here are the “Cabal Sisterhood” group. The Fir Bolg is confused by this attack, as the Cabal has traditionally left them alone.

I find Jack O’Lantern soon enough. The Cabal around him are asking about some amulet. Jack refuses to tell them anything about it, and tells them that what they did to Adriana and her family was despicable.

I meet Jack outside and show him Billy. Jack tells me that Adriana was once merciful to him. Adriana married a man called Patrick and left the Cabal. The Cabal was not amused, but would’ve left her alone if she hadn’t taken the Amulet of Amiri. It belonged to Adriana’s grandmother, but Rhiannon considered it her property. Rhiannon is now the leader of a rogue sect of the Cabal that generally disdains life and practices the magic of necromancy.

Adriana stopped to visit Jack a day earlier and now speaks of retribution. Jack tried to dissuade her, but was unable to.

I return to Rose, who is upset at this news. She sobs at the floor and wails that her gentle father never did anything to them or anyone and now her mother was all alone. She then tells me to go away and to leave her alone.

As I stand alone in the graveyard, I find something mysterious inside Billy, the Teddy Bear. It’s the amulet! A feeling of power comes over me, and I understand why Rhiannon wants it. I vow to keep it safe.

Since Rose is not cooperating with me, I vow to beat the stuffing out of various Cabal witches until I find out what I want to know.

I enter the mission. The objective is to free Patrick and to disrupt 3 ceremonies. Wait, I thought Patrick was dead! Or at least, it sure was heavily hinted at. I’d probably tweak this mission so that you disrupt the 3 ceremonies (one of which has a hint about Patrick being alive), then chain it to the “Free Patrick” objective so that it shows up after you’ve disrupted the ceremonies.

I quickly find Patrick Callihan. Ah, he’s a ghost. Well, guess he’s dead after all. He says it’s too late for him and I must save his beautiful wife. I inform him of Rose’s state of mind, and Patrick goes to find her immediately.

I find a ceremony. Oddly enough, the “iron cauldron” is a treasure chest. Might want to change that. The “bubbling cauldron” and the “mystical cauldron” are also treasure chests.

In any case, I disrupt the three ceremonies. The Cabal are summoning dead people and using them as catalyst for their spells. I use “enhanced interrogation techniques” on one of the witches by dunking her in water. Which is kinda amusing, considering I found one of the ceremonies in the water. Those witches didn’t seem to mind the water too much. Also, it’s called “waterboarding” not “water dunking.” In any case, the waterboarded witch tells me where Rhiannon is.

I return to the graveyard to revisit Rose. She’s happy, and her daddy is with her. Aww, how sweet. In any case, Rose remembers Rhiannon and the fact that the pointy-hat women were scared of her. She’s concerned that her mother went off to stop Rhiannon all by her lonesome self. No worries. I’ll be there to help Mommy Dearest out. Rose says that her father wants me to bring Billy along, even though she doesn’t know why. Oh, I have a hunch. It’s probably because of the insanely powerful amulet that’s inside Billy.

In any case, it’s time for the final showdown. The objective is to find Adriana, find Jack, and defeat Rhiannon. Adriana and Jack both are optional objectives. Seems simple enough.

I find Adriana, who is an Elite Boss, and free her. She is upset with me for interrupting her self-destruct spell. I shrug. She’s a bit overpowered for an ally, especially considering that I have a Phantom Army and Phantasm to help me out. I leave her behind.

A patrol mentions that Rhiannon wants to supplant Mary MacComber. So clearly the regular Cabal patrol in one of the earlier missions was an oversight. In any case, I find Rhiannon Darkraven. She’s an Archvillain scaled down into an Elite Boss. It’s a close battle until I take care of Rhiannon’s guards and the ambush, but once those are dealt with she goes down fairly quick.

The mission, however, doesn’t end. I guess the optional objectives aren’t optional after all. I go and find Jack, free him, and now the mission is over. I wonder why “Defeat Rhiannon” was in orange text while “Free Adriana” and “Free Jack” were in white text. Ah well.

I return to Rose one last time. She informs me that Mommy just left and she was so sad, but she should not be. Rose and Daddy both are in a happy place now. Rose then gives me a rose and fades away. Story arc over.

Final Summary: I enjoyed this story arc, and the final battle with Rhiannon was interesting. I did find a few problems, outlined in the review above, but overall the story was well-written and enjoyable. Unfortunately, it was a bit difficult to make this a funny review due to the mood and tone of the story arc. In any case this was a good “warm up” for Crazy Girl.

My biggest gripe was with Mission #2 and all of the clickes in that cluttered map. I’d either go with fewer clickes or find a smaller “abandoned warehouse” map. As it was, I very nearly rage-quit this story arc out of sheer frustration, which would’ve been disappointing. That one mission is what knocks this arc down to a 4.

My rating: 4 stars

Aries (3/21 – 4/19): Danger lurks around every corner this week, hopefully you know martial arts or else you might be in some serious trouble. You will find thrills in Impossible Kung Fu Mission! #111367 by @Spiral Architect

Description: No corny disco songs. Just flying fists, flashing blades and Technicolor blood. Fight your way through the “progressively harder” Five Deadly Chambers against custom critters of classic Kung Fu cinema.

Number of Missions: 5

Level Range: 1-54

Character I’m using: Jack Ketch, Lv50 Ninja Blades / Super Reflexes Stalker

Challenge Level: 3

Since this is a martial arts themed arc, I decided to use Jack Ketch as he uses ninja blades. This is the first of 11 “Horoscope Reviews” I plan on doing. All arcs are taken from here. I’m doing this to bring some exposure to the AE Horoscope and hopefully get more people to play the arcs there.

So why 11 arcs? Because one of them is mine, and I’m not going to be reviewing my own arc. In any case, this is going to be a light review and won’t be as detailed as my reviews usually are.

The premise is essentially you fight through a gauntlet of martial arts enemies. The first mission has a bunch of Shaolin monks you have to defeat. You have to defeat all of them, but the map is small.

The second mission you have to defeat the Daughters of the Lady Dragonfly. They hit *very* hard. I suspect their power sets are set to Extreme, and the architect hasn’t updated this arc since Issue 15 was published. Still, debt is meaningless to an Lv50.

The third mission you take on the Bronzemen. They are very hard to take down. I think they are Super Strength and Regeneration. I have to employ the strategy that I haven’t used since my lowbie days -- slash and run. It takes me a while, but I eventually defeat the Bronzemen.

Time for the Fourth Chamber. I have to beat Lung Singe (who can breath fire) and clear the fourth chamber. Lung Singe is an Elite Boss Fire Controller who calls in ambushes of Demon Lieutenants. Using Elude, Water Sprout, and a few inspirations I take him down.

I go to the Fifth Chamber. Surprise, surprise, the contact is the guardian of the Fifth Chamber, along with the Lady Dragonfly from the second mission. The Lady Dragon is, surprisingly, only a Boss. There are patrols using the Bronzemen, Demons, and Daughters from the earlier three missions. One such patrol sends me to the hospital. They’re nasty. I come back, defeat Lady Dragon, then defeat the Blind Master. The Blind Master is an Elite Boss, but I find him considerably easier to defeat than Lung Singe, even with all of the ambushes he sends my way. After I defeat the Blind Master, the objective tells me I need to find Ping Pong (who had been appearing constantly through the arc and looks like Bruce Lee). He spawns right next to me and is surrounded by Shaolin Monks. After defeating them, the story arc is over.

Final Summary: The arc does what it says in the description. There isn’t much story here, but this was designed to be primarily a challenging arc. I was initially going to give this 3 stars, but I must admit I did enjoy the challenge provided by this story arc. Some of the mobs kicked my behind around, especially the Bronzemen and the patrol with all of the Lieutenants. The final battle was a bit anti-climatic as Blind Master went down a bit too easily. Still, a fun story arc to run through.

My rating: 4 stars

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I have put her bio in there. I know I did. Copy and paste, straight from ParagonWiki. The MA hates me, it really does.

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Did you put it in the "Story Settings" section? In the "About Contact" area, there's a field for "About Contact." That's where the bio should go.

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I will do you one better. That entire sentence was not supposed to be there. One of the changes I made right before you ran it was changing that section of the return text. Some of the other changes definitely did make it in, from what you said in the rest of the review, so I don't know what is going on. Told you it hates me.

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Sounds like you were probably hit with the editing bug. I mentioned it in another thread, but basically, it goes like this:

You have the "first draft," so to speak, of a published arc. Let's call it Mission A.

You notice errors. You make the edits. You then republish it with the changes. Let's call this Mission A1.

When that happens, you *need* to refresh the search engine to make the most recent version of your story arc show up. If you don't, then the AE interface shows you the old version.

So say you've republished the arc, but you didn't refresh the search engine. You see some more errors. So you make some edits and republish it.

Unfortunately, you just republished from Mission A, so all of the changes you made for Mission A1 is lost. So changes that you thought you made are suddenly not there anymore.

It's happened to me a few times. Bloody annoying bug.

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Actually, she says she thinks that is who they are trying to contact. Based on the Coralax involvement and the flooding, it is a good bet, but she does not know for certain.

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Ah, OK. I must've misunderstood that part then.

Future Skulls #4727
By @Justice Blues

Description: Mirror Spirit has sent you a message. She has found some disturbing information about the Skulls and something they are planning. She needs your help to save them from themselves. Along with the rest of the world of course.

Number of Missions: 4

Level Range: 1-14

Character I’m using: Horsemen Brute, Lv13 Stone / Super Strength Tanker

Challenge Level: 1

I’m changing the format of my review a little bit to provide some more information. As you can see, I’ve added the number of missions, the level range, the toon that I’ll be using, and the challenge level I’m playing the arc at. I’ve also moved the rating to the end of the review. Still, if you look at the post title, you’ll see how I rated the arc by the number of stars in the title.

This is the first part of a three-part storyline. There’s apparently a feature where if you rate two (or more) of an architect’s missions within a certain time period, the person only get tickets from the first rating. Since I want the architect to get the full amount of tickets that he/she should be getting, I’m bumping this story arc up the queue. I’ll play Part 2 in a few days when it comes up in the queue.

In any case, it’s time for Horsemen Brute to start cracking some Skulls. The contact is Mirror Spirit (the trainer in Faultline). She doesn’t have a bio. If I remember right, she was created when CoH was released in Korea, but I’m not really that familiar with her storyline. I head over to ParagonWiki to refresh my memory. Ah, she’s with W.I.S.D.O.M. and she’s the manifestation of a sacred mirror that used to do crimes until she was defeated by Foreshadow.

With that out of the way, it’s time to begin the story arc. Mirror Spirit saw the future and it was horrible. To prevent that, I have to beat up on some Skulls. Sounds like a plan.

I *think* there’s a comma splice in this sentence, as the second comma is unnecessary:

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It was horrific, the city was in ruins, with large sections flooded.

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I accept the mission, and Mirror Spirit tells me to hurry, as she does not know when the Skulls will begin the course of action that ends up destroying the world.

The objective is to find the information that Mirror Spirit sent me after. I’m in a burning building. I think this is the fifth time I’ve been in a burning building in the last week. In any case, I find Bonesnap. He says something about not needing a sacrifice for a few hours. I defeat him. Alas, he refuses to say anything about the ritual. I guess I’ll have to read some of those glowing books. Alas, none of them have the information I’m after, and I guess I’m disgusted. They’re stacks of Playgirl? The final bookcase I search through shows me something frightening. The cover of the journal has a cover that feels like leather … but not like any leather I’m familiar with. Uh oh. It’s the skin of ring-tailed lemurs! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

Mirror Spirit is happy I found the book. She likes the feel of dead lemur skin? Freak. Apparently the Skulls are trying to raise Merulina, the deity of the Coralax. The Midnight Squad are doing research on Coralax. Mirror Spirit wants me to go to one of their hideouts. My question is, if the ritual is a little bit of Circle of Thorns, a little bit of Coralax, a little bit of Hellions, and a little bit of the Banished Pantheon, why is the Midnight Squad not researching all four groups? Surely every tidbit of information help?

In any case, I guess I’m going to pay the Coralax a visit. Mirror Spirit approves. Of course she does. I’m doing her job for her.

I enter some caves. The objective is to search for information. The place smells like fish. Mmmm fish. I see some glowing urns, but alas, there is nothing in them. There are also a couple of patrols that say something about guarding something. I’m guessing that I need to find this thingy that the patrols are trying to guard.

I find a boss named “The Guard.” He’s one of those Coral Sentient critter. He screams something about keeping “it” safe. I throw rocks at him until he runs away crying. I then look at urns until one of them break, showing me nothing. The clue tells me that I kept a fragment of this urn to remind myself that failure is always a possibility.

I return to Mirror Spirit empty-handed. She tells me that she thinks the Coralax there were under a “Guardian” spell and were forced to protect something that was very powerful. This sentence in the Mission #2 debriefing is awkward:

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One of the others will be able to find something we can use Horsemen Brute.

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I’d just drop the name from that sentence completely.

In any case, we’re running out of options. We don’t know how to prevent the horrific future. It’s time for one desperate gambit … we have to use the Crystal of Time and Space to send me into the future that Mirror Spirit saw. (Saw should not be capitalized in that sentence.)

Mirror Spirit says that she will try to send me to a place and time where somebody that knows what might happen will be. However, if there’s no one that matches that description, I’ll be stuck in time forever with no way of returning to my present time!

So to prevent a vague, possible future I am risking my life and sanity? Sure, I’m game. Mirror Spirit warns me that if I fail, there will be no resource and life as we know it will be DOOOOOMED!

Wait, are the Skulls trying to bring Jack Emmert back to City of Heroes so that he’ll undo all of the cool things added to the game since he left that he said was impossible to do? OH NOES! That must be prevented AT ALL COSTS!

I grab the Crystal of Time and Space and rush to my possible oblivion. Thankfully I manage to find somebody who knows what’s going on. The objective is to find the Bride. I guess the objective for Mission #4 will be to Kill Bill? I’m on the Faultline map.

So I’m in the future now. There are a bunch of Future Skulls, which are reskinned Skulls with grey skin. There’s also a custom group called “Highest” here that “looks like angels but fight like devils.” They seem to want to wipe all life from this world as “this time must not be.” That’s a little bit confusing. I’d change that into “this era must not be.” By the way, there are some normal-looking Skulls in the “Future Skulls” group. I don’t know if that’s deliberate or an oversight.

While looking around for the Bride, I level up to 14. Yay! I find the Bride of Death. Wait, I thought I was supposed to find somebody who was going to help me out. The Bride of Death’s bio states that the Skulls are forced to kill constantly in order to keep their lives going. After I defeat the Bride of Death, she does a face turn and thanks me for stopping her. She then tells me what she knows of the way this time came to be. She tells me the time of the ceremony and gives me a dagger that is infused with magic and could be used to trace the location of the ceremony itself.

I head back to give Mirror Spirit the good news. Mirror Spirit takes the dagger and goes to work her magic on it with the rest of the Midnight Squad. After some time, she comes out and tells me she was successful. They have found the location and time of the ceremony.

Just as I am about to bid them adieu and wish them luck in stopping the ceremony, Mirror Spirit informs me that the spell showed that *I* am involved in stopping the ceremony. Curses. Foiled again!

I need to go and stop this ceremony. I have an hour to do this. None of the Midnight Squad can help me. Very well. Guess it’s up to me to save the day yet again. But first ... I run off to get my Level 14 travel power!

I come back, and accept the mission. I have 60 minutes to do this! I have two sacrifices to stop and I need to defeat Bonesnap.

I find one of the sacrifices ... and it’s Penelope Yin! The Clockwork King will NOT be amused. I look around to make sure he’s nowhere in sight, then rush in and take out the Skulls around Yin. Yin thinks that the Clockwork King sent me. She’s so wrong. After I free her, she informs me that the Skulls were blocking her power somehow.

The second sacrifice is Yanamari of the MAGI. Never heard of her before. After I save her, she informs me that somebody was draining energy out of her body. Stopping the sacrifice did not restore this energy, however. Somebody was leeching off Yanamari and Yin. Judging from the objectives, I’m guessing this somebody is Bonesnap.

I run around a little bit and find Bonesnap, who is in the middle of a green magical energy. He says he’s being filled with magical energy and that he will marry Death today. I beat him up. He really doesn’t seem that much stronger than the first time I met him in Mission #1. After he’s defeated, he reverts back to his normal ugly self, so I guess the ceremony was unfinished, and I saved the world. Go me!

I return to Mirror Spirit. She congratulates me and tells me that she will try to find out who it was that the Skulls were trying to contact. Wait, I thought she already said they were trying to contact Merulina. Huh. In any case, the destruction has been prevented.

Final Summary: Overall I found this story arc to be entertaining. The missions were all of appropriate length, and the gameplay was good. The dialogue was good. The story logic was internally consistent, other than the small plot hole at the end. The reason this is 4-stars is because there’s no really “wow” factor that made me go “This arc is awesome!” But this story arc is good and entertaining. After playing this arc, I am definitely going to play the sequels. I also want to see more of the Highest (the custom group) and I assume they'll be showing up in the sequels.

My rating: 4 stars

I have a couple of lowbie arcs. They're both pretty long-ish, about 2 hours each, so I'll certainly understand if you don't have the time to play either one of them. But I thought I'd toss them into the ring anyway, so to speak.

The Horsemen Chronicles (Part 1), #195149
The Wolfpack Chronicles (Part 1), #242869

They're kinda "mirror" stories of each other. Horsemen is heroic, Wolfpack is villainous.

Matchstick Women #3369
By @Bubbawheat

Description: Follow the trail of fire to its tragic source. A mysterious flame shows you the story of a cult of women arsonists, and their crazed leader.

My rating: 3 stars

This story arc has 3 missions and is level ranged 25-54. I want to give my Lv50s a break so I decide to bust out my Lv20 Broadsword / Regen Scrapper, Fab Four Razor. He’s a bit below the level, but I think he’ll be fine.

Why, yes, yes, I do have a toon named Citizen Razor, and another toon named Fab Four Razor. And yes, they look the same. Why do you ask? You got a problem with that?

In any case, the warning states that the mission may contain Elite Bosses and enemies with custom power selections. Judging from the story arc description, I get the sense that the custom critters probably have fire powers. Let’s see if my scrapper can blow their fire out. Since my Scrapper is 5 levels below the suggested level range, I’m playing this on Challenge Level 1. The bosses will be lieutenants and the Elite Bosses will be mere bosses.

The contact is the Rikti thingy that looks like it’s on fire. The contact tells me that I see things in the fire, something like a young girl that changes into a young woman who then makes copies of herself. It tells me that I should look closer. “Look closer” is done in red / orange fonts, so that “Lo” and “er” are in red while the other letters are in orange. For a brief moment I think it’s calling me a loser, but the red words spell out “loer” and that doesn’t make any sense. So I look closer.

Apparently I see a bomb, and I feel beckoned to step into the fire. I think this would probably be a better arc for my fire/thermal controller, but he’s only Lv11, so ...

I walk into the fire, feeling like I’m in a Billy Joel song, and I’m in a burning Arachnos map full of Council mobs. The objective is to stop the fire from spreading, and I have to destroy explosives.

I see a Council guy wearing a fire fighter uniform. Although the objective says I should be stopping the fire, and the Council guy seems to be trying to put out the fire, I decide to “arrest” him by slicing him repeatedly with my big sword instead. Then I stop the fire by making the explosives blow up. Well, I’m not exactly sure how that works, but whatever.

When it goes all ka-bloomey, I see some dialogue from a “Greenstick Match” and a “Pyromaniac” wondering which Council idiot it was that blew up the bombs. Umm err ... In any case, apparently the explosion exposed a water valve, but the sprinkler system is not working. I need to find the water mains.

The objective is now to open 4 sprinkler valves. I see a Greenstick Match saying that the whole world must be cleaned with fire as she was. All of a sudden there’s a group near me. I defeat them, and the objective now reads “3 sprinkler valves to open.” I guess the group was one?

While I was typing this, the objective somehow reduced to “2 sprinkler valves to open.” I’m guessing there’s some patrol somewhere doing my dirty work for me. I run into another Matchstick Women group, defeat them, and now the objective reads “1 sprinkler valve to open.” There’s also a random Council Vortex Fire guy who’s spewing fire everywhere. I defeat him, then I find the last valve, which is a fire hydrant, and destroy it.

You know, I honestly have no idea if the patrols were a part of the objective, or if the patrol somehow destroyed all of them for me. In any case, I only saw one fire hydrant. The mission is over. I return to the Rikti fire.

Council should be capitalized in the Mission #1 briefing.

Mission #2 tells me that the flame begins its dance again, that there are women moving together in harmony searching for something, and that there are small dots of fire being drowned out by the women. Again, it tells me to look closer. So I do.

I see some women struggling, so of course I have to go and help them. The objective is to find 4 girls and to defeat 2 leaders. I’m on an Outdoors map. Seems simple enough.

I find one girl and free her. I then wander around a bit and find a leader. She mentions something about getting potentials for the ceremony. I try to take her down, but the damned green matchsticks keep on healing her, and she hands me my [censored].

Undaunted, I come back to try my luck again. This time I take out the greenstick match first, then I turn my attention on the “perfect match leader.” Without her buddy helping her, she’s a bit easier to take down. After I defeat her, her personality suddenly changes and she says that the leader, Emily, is crazy. Emily took her in but now she wants to burn them all in some cleansing ceremony.

I’m guessing that’s probably not a good thing for those women. In any case, I have 3 more girls to save and 1 more leader to defeat.

After wandering around for a little bit putting out various matches, I find the next boss. This one seems a little bit more loyal to Emily. I snuff her flames out.

There’s still 3 more girls to save. After I save them, the mission is over. I read the clues. Basically, the Matchstick Women is a cult, and the leader, Emily, enjoys burning them. One of the girls that I saved doesn’t feel anything and said she’d be a “Perfect Match.”

Back to the Rikti Fire. The mission briefing informs me that the turncoat leader showed me her face and ... well ... let’s just say that this is what she looked like after the surgery. She’s too afraid to tell me where this Emily is. Guess I’ll have to wait for the next mission then.

I look into the fire again. I see what I’m pretty sure is Emily now. She’s leading women into a very bright flame. I look closer. I’m now in a burning building, but this time it’s calm.

The objective is to seek clues and find “the woman I saw in the flame” (aka Emily). I find the clue quickly, which turns out to be Emily’s journal. Apparently she was trapped in a fire when she was nine years old. She was saved, but her face was horribly scarred. Poor girl. I’ll be sure to make her feel all better -- by repeatedly stabbing my sword right into her face. Maybe that’ll fix her scars.

I find Emily herself soon enough. It’s a close battle, but I eventually quench her flames before she can burn the building down. She seems to be happy about this. Mission over.

I go back to the Rikti Fire one last time. I see Emily again, but this time her face is perfect and unscarred. See, I told you that repeatedly stabbing my sword in her face would cure her of her scars! I knew it! She is happy now and says “thank you” then disappears in a puff of smoke. Story Arc over.

Final Summary: My apologizes if the review seemed a bit lackluster. I’m fighting off what may or may not be whooping cough. In any case, this story was decent, but honestly, look at the description. That's pretty much the entire story right there.

I noticed a lack of variety among the custom critters. I did note by the arc id number that this was a fairly early arc, so this was probably created before the changes in the AE interface made it so that you could fit more custom critters into the arc. The “Greenstick Match” was somewhat annoying, especially if you were unlucky to get two of them in the same spawn. I think she was an empath. Wouldn't it make more sense for her to be thermal, considering the fire theme?

[ QUOTE ]
Just wanted to point out, those warnings are not necessarily for the mobs you fight. Allies are also placed in that list, you could easily get Warnings about Extreme EBs, and at the end the player is going, "Wow, I must be really tough!" not realizing the Extreme EB was the Ally from the first mission.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, I know that. But when you start the arc and check out the description, you have no idea if the "Extreme Elite Boss" will be your ally or your enemy. Although my toon can handle most anything tossed at him, he can't handle everything. Some powerset combos would annihilate him. So I was a bit concerned when I started the arc. Especially when I also saw "Extreme Boss" and "Extreme Lieutenant."

It turned out to have been a moot point at the end, as none of the mobs were too overpowering.

[ QUOTE ]
I have a question for you. I received some input from several who have played the arc, that it would be more fun if the same villian group wasn't the main feature of all 5 missions. So here goes the question. You said: "The warning states that the story arc may contain: Elite Bosses, Extreme Elite Bosses, Extreme Bosses, and Extreme Lieutenants! I gulp, but I go ahead and accept the mission. I am playing this on CL 2, so the bosses will be bosses and the EBs will be EBs. Sounds like fun."

I am not quite sure if this was purely sarcastic or if you enjoy a challenge.....But I am considering changing my main villian group for my future mission. I may create a mixture of non-custom villians, or if that can't fit, use a non-costum group.
Do you have any types you enjoy fighting, or you think would make sense for a leap into the future.

[/ QUOTE ]

If I remember right, the villain group ended up not being too frustrating to fight. The only time I felt a little bit frustrated was when there were two of the "Fear Followers" mobs who were stacking ToHit debuffs on me, dropping my accuracy. But popping a few yellows and taking them out took care of that.

Really, my tanker is pretty durable and can survive most anything. I was a bit worried about the "Extreme Elite Boss" warning because some powersets make EBs tedious to fight (Willpower, Regen, Super Reflexes, etc.) None of your EBs had that problem, though.

The sheer amount of warnings on your arc might scare off potential players, though. But since it's a high-level arc, you do want your mobs to prove some challenge instead of being a complete walk-over.

As for changing the critter groups ... it's up to you. If you think it'll improve the story, go for it. That part didn't really bother me too much. I thought the custom mobs were fine, if a bit generic.

Mecha Mutiny: Quatrexin’s Quandary #246604
By @Feizel

Description: Robot Madness!! You like robot’s!? You’ve come to the right place!

My rating: 3 stars

There's a typo right there in the description. robot's should be robots.

The description notes that the arc is intended to be a fun way to get XP from Lv22 to 33. Unfortunately I don’t have any villains in that range. I have 2 50s, and everybody else is under Lv20. So for this story arc, I decide to break out my favorite villain, the dreaded serial killer Jack Ketch! He’s an Lv50 Ninja Blades /Super Reflexes Stalker. The warning states that the story arc may contain Elite Bosses and higher level villains appearing at a level lower than design intent. There are five missions, and I note that the enemy groups are Psychic Clockwork robots and a custom group. My stalker kills things fast, but doesn’t fare well in large groups, so I am setting this to Challenge Level 3. I’ll be facing +1 and +2 mobs, and the bosses will be bosses and the Elite Bosses will be Elite Bosses.

The contact is Dr. Quatrexin. I confess; I’ve never done the Black Scorpion patron arc. I hope that doesn’t affect my enjoyment of this arc.

Seems that a bunch of robots suddenly went missing, including a special project that Dr. Quatrexin was working on for Arachnos called “Edison.” While Vanguard is dealing with most of the situation, Lord Recluse wants to keep the “Edison” project under wraps.

In the first paragraph, “Don’t” should not be capitalized. Also in the first paragraph, “way” should be “wake.”

After I accept the mission, and Dr. Quatrexin tells me that he has a warehouse for me to check out. Vanguard will be checking it out. If I hurry, I can beat them there. But if I happen to run into any Vanguard guards, I should either avoid them or kill them. Guess which one I’ll be doing.

The second paragraph in the send-off has a sentence that has too many periods.

I enter the mission. The objective is to defeat a Clockwork boss and to defeat a Vanguard boss. Wait, I thought I was supposed to avoid Vanguard.

[ QUOTE ]
[NPC] Vanguard Commando: I don't see any of our robots

[/ QUOTE ]

This line is missing a period at the end.

I see a Vanguard Unit Leader. However, he’s placed in the Crey group. I don’t know if this is a bug or an oversight. In any case, I take care of him without too much trouble. The custom group seems to be another version of Vanguard. One of the mobs in the custom Vanguard is actually a Crey Tank, complete with the Crey bio and description. Might want to change that. There’s also a reskinned Bane Spider Commando called Vanguard Commando that has the Arachnos bio / description.

In any case, I quickly find the Clockwork boss, who is called Ta’Raach. That doesn’t sound like a Clockwork name to me. More like Rikti, really. Clockwork bosses are named things like Gearshift, Bolts, Powderkeg, or Hinge. Basically, after mechanical things. In any case, I apply my can-opener to Ta’Raach and the mission is over. The clue tells me that Vanguard thinks that the Clockwork King is behind the missing robots. How I got that information from one of T’araach’s (that’s what it says in the clue) gears, I don’t know, but I did.

I head back to Dr. Quatrexin. He says that it makes sense that Vanguard is investigating Clockwork. I move on to Mission #2. Dr. Quatrexin tells me that although they know very little about the Clockwork King, Arachnos has had some dealing with a particular Clockwork called “Clockwork Maiden.” Dr. Quatrexin suspects this Clockwork Maiden of raising ruckus and spying on Arachnos. He does not think it bodes well for his Edison project. So I have to go over to Maiden’s lair and find out what’s going on.

The mission objective tells me to search for clues and defeat Clockwork Maiden. But what if she’s innocent? Oh, like I care? Just point me towards the robots to destroy. There are various robots in a group called “Royal Subjects.” Rikti Drones, Council hoverbots, Council mech men, a Praetorian Clockwork, Arachnos drones, etc. I see a custom critter called “Gadget.” All of the robots still retain their original bios.

It doesn’t take me too long to find the Clockwork Maiden. I read her bio. Seems Dr. Quatrexin was right. She was indeed a spy for the Clockwork King, who wants to expand his reach in the Rogue Isles. “Rogue Isles” should be capitalized in the bio.

During my battle with the Maiden, she informs me that the servants have taken to the streets. I’m guessing that’s not a good thing. I add the Maiden’s golden skull to my ever-growing pile of souvenirs. By the way, there seems to be some extra spaces at the beginning of Clockwork Maiden’s “battle begin” dialogue. It looked like this, with five spaces between the colon and the line of dialogue (typically there is only one):

[ QUOTE ]
[NPC] Clockwork Maiden: Jack Ketch you are too late! As you perish here the servants take to the streets!

[/ QUOTE ]

I then find the clue, which is just around the corner. It’s a transmitter and I shut it down. The clue says “Psychic waves. Does that make any sense? Better see what the Doctor makes of it.” What, the fact that the clockwork belong to a faction called “Psychic Clockwork” was not clue enough for me?

“Findind” should be “Finding” in the Mission #2 end pop-up. I am to report my finding to Dr. Quatrexin. I do so. Dr. Quatrexin passes the buck onto Dr. Aeon. The slacker!

Surprise, surprise, the robots are revolting. It’s almost as if I’m playing Mega Man X again. Dr. Aeon determined that the transmitter was sending out digitally formatted psychic waves, essentially spreading the Clockwork King’s powers to all machines instead of just to his Clockwork robots. Dr. Quatrexin found six of those within a half kilometer area. He thinks there must be thousands of them in the greater Paragon-RI area. Well, that’s great, isn’t it? Let the Clockwork King rampage all over Paragon City while I sit back and enjoy the chaos. I’ll come back later and reap the rewards.

Oh, right, Dr. Quatrexin wants me to stop the rampage so that I can save his precious “Edison.” The paycheck better be worth giving up a chance to see Paragon City being overrun by rampaging robots.

Dr. Quatrexin wishes me luck, and tells me to not sweat the Vanguard, as they still don’t realize it was us at the warehouse. Except I had to go out and defeat one of the Vanguard Units, thereby bringing attention to myself. Vanguard most definitely does KNOW I was at the warehouse.

I enter the mission. The objective is to deactivate six transmitters. A Vanguard guard tells me to steer clear of the Royal Guard if I see them. As if! If I see them, they are SO seeing the business end of my katana. Anyway, it’s off to find those six transmitters.

I find a transmitter and shut it down. “Transmissions” should be capitalized in the “objective done” system message. Also there should be a period at the end of both the “beginning objective” and “ending objective” sentences.

Ohh I see the Royal Guard. They are a couple of Longbow Heavy +1 Elite Bosses. Hmm ... I try my luck. They kill me, but I have one nearly down. I hit the hospital and buy some more inspirations. The worst part is that I’m Lv33 so I lost my access to Elude. If I had Elude, I would’ve been able to take care of them no problem. When I return, I take down the Longbow mech with a well-timed Assassin Strike. Now it’s on to the Vanguard Heavy. Without his brother, he’s considerably easier to take down. Pfft, so much for the Royal Guard.

I find another Royal Guard patrol, but since I’ve already proven my point I fly around trying to find the last few transmitters. I find them in short order, and the mission is over. Dr. Quatrexin tells me that shutting down the six transmitters didn’t do much good. Well, duh, not with the thousands and thousands of transmitters still out there. Dr. Quatrexin thinks he has another way, though.

Dr. Quatrexin informs me that Dr. Aeon has an extra powerful sub-sonic pulse emitter. Maybe we can use it to take out the psychic core of the transmitters? Well, it’s worth a try. Anything for your precious Edison, Dr. Quatrexin.

Unfortunately, Dr. Aeon’s lab is overrun. For some weird reason I’m not shocked at all. Dr. Quatrexin tells me to hurry up, and yet again cautions me to avoid the Royal Guard.

The mission pop-up says “Let’s hope Dr. Aeons plan will work”. It should be “Let’s hope Dr. Aeon’s plan will work.” But wait, what plan? I thought Dr. Quatrexin came up with the plan himself and that they had lost communication with Dr. Aeon. The objective is to initiate the pulse and save Dr. Aeon.

I quickly find Dr. Aeon and save him. I then leave him behind to play with the robots. I find two more Royal Guards and dispatch of them. I then press Dr. Aeon’s red button, which, I assume, emits the sub-sonic pulse. Mission over. Time to go and see if it worked. Considering that it’s Mission #4 out of #5, I’m guessing it didn’t.

The mission exit pop-up informs me that it didn’t. But wait! Dr. Quatrexin informs me that the pulse knocked out all of the transmitters except for one, and that the robots are returning to normal. So did it work or not?

However, there is still one transmitter left. And it’s mobile. Are they moving it, or is it something far, far worse?

Oh NO! It’s a NEMESIS PLOT! Will I never escape that cursed Assyrian?

Nah, it’s not that. Rather, the Clockwork King implanted the last transmitter in Edison Prime. So now I hafta destroy the thing that I was sent to out. I think I see my paycheck vaporizing. I turn around and tell Dr. Quatrexin to take care of his own problems himself. Well, no I didn’t, but only for the sake of this review.

Edison Prime is at Striga Island. I head over there. The objective is, obviously, to defeat Edison Prime. Ya know, why do I need to destroy Edison Prime? Can’t I merely shut him down, unscrew his plate, and get the last transmitter? Then the robot would still be intact.

Actually, ya know, never mind that. Destroying Edison Prime sounds more fun, and honestly, who cares about Arachnos? I’ve already kicked Lord Recluse’s future butt around a ruined version of Atlas Park. Arachnos can kiss my butt!

It’s the Council map with the gigantic Mech Man. Unfortunately, Edison Prime is *not* the Mech Man. He, however, is trying to capture the Mech Man for the Clockwork King. Edison Prime is an Elite Boss. His bio says that he was designed to be the ultimate robot warrior for Lord Recluse.

Edison Prime informs me that I’m a human weakling. I might be human, but I still plan on taking his shiny read skull anyway. I’ve always wanted a shiny red toilet seat. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough inspirations, and the annoying pop-up guns keep on knocking me out of hide, so I am defeated. No worries. I stock up on inspiration and come back.

In a curious twist, just as I am on the way to transform Edison Prime into a piece of furniture, the mission suddenly completes. I’m guessing that Edison Prime fell into the lava and it killed him. I am kinda bummed, but eh whatever. That’ll make for one uncomfortable toilet seat.

I go back to Dr. Quartexin, and he’s all like “Yay!” Thankfully I get paid after all. I add Dr. Quartexin to my list of future victims. And this arc is over.

Final Summary: This was just an okay story. It seems as if the primary point of this story was for the architect to beat up on a lot of robots and get his toons to Lv33. What’s so special about Lv33, I’m not sure. Personally I’d probably try to level up to 35 instead, but there may be a bug associated with it that I’m not familiar with. I suppose that if you enjoy blowing up robots, then you’ll love this arc. The architect does try to hang a story around the random destruction, but ultimately the point is just to blow up robots. There were some plot holes (covered in the review above), and I noticed a lot of minor typos, mostly with missing punctuations.

Also, I’ve never played the Black Scorpion patron arc, so I have no idea if Dr. Quatrexin’s characterization is spot-on or not. Dr. Aeon didn’t seem to speak with his correct voice.

Unfortunately, no.

Hopefully they add that function soon. I have an arc that could benefit from that.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
What I think is a good idea for the front page:

3 random Dev Choice
3 random Hall of Fame
3 random 5 star
3 random 4 star
3 full random arcs

That way the Dev's Choice don't dominate the front page, and it gets rotated every time it's refreshed.

[/ QUOTE ]

Now that is an excellent idea.



[/ QUOTE ]

The problem is, that shows only 15 arcs on one page. Right now the default is 20 arcs per page (except for 19 on the front page for some odd reason).

Make them 4 of each, and you have 20 arcs on the front page.

At least you get a "free" month. Granted, that month cost you $19.99 instead of $14.99, but ...

[ QUOTE ]
I agree it must be a [censored] to find. I know you problably can't answer this next question Babs but Why can't the powers that be look at the code back when it was working and see what changes were made between the two? It might help isolate where the problem could potentially be.

[/ QUOTE ]

Castle said that this bug showed up when they introduced the Mission Architect. Well, the Mission Architect was a massive undertaking that involved a LOT of coding. It's going to be difficult to find out what, precisely, was in the MA code that created the bug with the pre-existing code.

[ QUOTE ]

It's not the change-making that's the problem, it's the stuff you miss that's linked to the changes you made that's the problem. I've screamed out loud several times and prayed quite fervently that no one's run one of my arcs after finding mistakes resulting from changes that required dialogue corrections I'd missed, and so on.

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh yeah, I'm well aware of that. There's problems with part A, so you change it to make the story better, but you forget to look at the big picture so suddenly the details in part A contradicts or doesn't make sense when you take part B into account. D'oh!

Happened to me many times. That's why they recommend you run through your entire arc again after making any major changes and making sure that everything still hangs together well.

The History of Statesman #219484
By @jjac

Description: Rediscover this legend of the Old World and journey through the forgotten past alongside the 28th century’s favorite robot historian, THE TIEM MASHEEN!

My rating: 5 stars

This is a mission I’ve been meaning to play for a while. I played through the architect’s “A Tangle in Time” arc earlier and enjoyed it. This is supposed to be a comedy arc.

The level range is 40-50, but the first mission is set to 1-54. I’d suggest the architect fix the level range of that mission so that it’s standardized with the other missions. It’s 4 missions long and heroic. No warning. I decide to fire up Citizen Razor, my Lv50 inv/mace tanker. The challenge level is set to 2.

The contact is Nemesis! Oh noes, did I get involved in yet another Nemesis plot?!? Oh, he’s called “THE TIEM MASHEEN.” The description says that it’s a rusty old Nemesis robot that’s been reprogrammed.

The mission heading is dark purple, which is hard to read. I’d suggest lightening it up so that it’s a bit easier to read. I guess the robot is from the Naruto B. Vanderhuge Museum of World History. I know absolutely nothing about Naruto. Anyway, this time machine is programmed to show me the life of Statesman, and we’ll start by looking at Baby Statesman spelunking the magical caves of ancient Rome in search for the Well of Furries. That’s either a typo, or I’ll be running into a ton of catgirls and wolfboys.

I exclaim “What, Wait a...” and apparently the robot think that’s my name. Cute. The robot instructs me to check all of the clues and info boxes, as this is a history lesson.

The mission objective is to find Baby Statesman. And apparently somebody wants me to access a data node as well. The custom critters all look like that guy from “God of War.” The bio says that all Roman soldiers are required to be called Spartacus. I see.

I find a data note and access it. It’s a note from Mender Lazarus of Ouroboros. It tells me that although I’m wondering why I’m on a field trip 700 years in the future, I should just play along and keep the network distracted.

I find Statesman, who is a reskinned Baby New Year. The bio says that his name was believed to be J’ak Em’ret of the Rikti, who are now extinct. I free him, and now the objective is to defend the Well of Furries. I quickly find it and it’s a trash can. I defend it and notice that my HP is dropping quickly. Oops I forgot to turn on my toggles. D’oh. I turn them on, and take care of business. Mission over.

When I leave the mission, Lazarus hijacks the machine and tells me that as long as we work together, we’ll be out of here in no time. I talk to the robot, and it tells me that Statesman got powers of various beasts, but his face was disfigured so that’s why he wore the mask.

The second mission informs me that Statesman built the pyramids and killed all of the sabre-toothed tigers. But now I will go to World War Second and prevent a great dictator from using the power of the pyramids for nefarious deeds. I ponder if there will be giant shapeshifting robots as I accept the mission.

In any case, I get to watch as Statesman defeat the evil Axel powers. The mission objective is to find Statesman and to find the scouting subroutine. There seems to be two stories going on here: The humorous take on Statesman’s life story, and something involving Mender Lazarus.

I find the subroutine. It’s guarded by what seems to be a bunch of Mega Man clones. I destroy it. The clue tells me that Mender Lazarus really, really hates horribly inaccurate retellings of history. I assume Lazarus wants me to correct this.

The map is also surrounded by “Wolf Pack sub-marines” and “5th Council Vampyris” custom critters. Obviously mocking the 5th Column / Council’s obsession with werewolves and vampires. The bios mention that the vampires and werewolves have a symbiotic relationship. The vampires feed on the wolves’ blood, and in turn the vampires protect the wolves’ eggs. Well, that’s certainly ... interesting.

I quickly find Statesman of the Freedum Falanks. He informs me that the Great Dictator is gathering powers from his pyramids. The objective is now to defeat the Great Dictator and to destroy three obelisks.

I find an Egyptian obelisk, and it looks suspiciously like a Rikti machine. It also mentions that the Great Dictator is Chaplene. Uh oh. I remember him. He was one mean bastich. Let’s go and win World War Second, Statesman!

Charles Chaplene is right around the corner. I help Statesman save World War Second! Chaplene’s bio states that his sanity was shattered by his failure as an actor. I make him a failure as a great dictator as well.

Oh, there’s also a non-required objective, a boss by the name of Noseferatoo. His bio has a dig on organized religion, which automatically grants this arc an additional star.

There’s another non-required boss named Lesser Dictator. I think it’s a homage to M. Bison of Street Fighter II fame. There’s a few of those Lesser Dictators around. I destroy the last two “Egyptian obelisks” and the mission is over.

I read the clues. Apparently the real Statesman disappeared around 2012 in Detroit. Figures. Nothing good ever happens in Detroit. I should know, I used to live an hour north of it. I’ll just blame the Detroit Lions and move on. Anyway, when Statesman and most of the Freedom Phalanx disappeared, all of the big baddies (Recluse, Nemesis, Rikti, Council, Circle of Thorn, Devouring Earth, etc.) started wrestling each other for power and essentially nullified each other within 50 years. That’s nice, I guess, but man, 2012-2062 must’ve been a hellish period to live through.

The 3rd and 4th clues should be “Mender Lazarus – 3rd (or 4th) Transmission" for consistency’s sake. Unless this is deliberate.

I exit the mission, and the machine greets me with a bunch of baseball metaphors. Apparently V-Day happened on February 14, 1946, because it happened on Valentine’s Day.

Mission #3 informs me that on October 28, 2005 (the release day of City of Villains, in case you were wondering the significance of that date), Statesman meets his arch-villain ... a terrifying tyrant who weaves his wicked web and waits for the innocent to fall prey to his mutilating mandibles. Hmm, I wonder just who this arch-villain is.

I accept the mission. Yep, you guessed it. I have to go and fight Lawd Nemesis! I go off into SPACE! I enter the space lab and I have to fight a bunch of Gewher Jaguars. They look like a mutilated version of robots with jaguar legs. There’s also a Lancer Surgeon who is ... well ... he’s dressed in doctor overalls. Because he’s a surgeon. Get it?

The objective is to, yet again, find Statesman. There are also 3 security protocols to destroy. I find one of the security protocols and it’s guarded by the same Mega Man clones that were protecting the subroutine in Mission #2.

Along the way, I find “Manticore.” Well, let’s just say that the historians got their information a tad bit wrong. I free him, and he runs away as he’s afraid of heights. I'm not sure how wise it is for a guy who is afraid of heights to go running around and exiting space stations, but hey, I'm not the one in a robotic body suit.

I find Statesman. He is Statesman, hero of America. He asks me if I saw Manticore, his side-kick. Err ... yeah I did. He's currently floating right by the space station window. But nevermind him. I get a 5th clue upon freeing Statesman that basically says “wotta morons those 28th century folks are.” The first objective is now “Defeat Lawd Nemesis.”

I destroy the last security protocol and find Lawd Nemesis, who is really Lord Recluse and is classified an Arch-Villain. I think it’s the version from the Mender Silos TF, though. There’s a boss called “War-Hulk” in the group. It is theorized that he was built using vacuum tubes and a *lot* of gamma radiation.

Oddly enough, I don’t fight Lawd Nemesis. He says I can’t put him away for good, as I have to think about the franchise. Guy’s got a point. I let him run away. The sixth clue tells me that the world has been devolving into a bunch of morons as people rely more on citations from movies and video games instead of history books and museums. I wonder if this is a subtle dig on AE farms or if I’m reading too much into it. Mission over. The pop-up message tells me that I can finally meet Lazarus face-to-face.

Mission #4 tells me that I need to scour Lawd Nemesis’ wrecked spaceship for ... wreckage! Very well. I accept the mission and it looks as if Mender Lazarus is already in trouble. Off to save the day (millennia?) I go!

The objective is to save Mender Lazarus! There’s a bunch of Mega Man clones here and some weird green-skinned “Mainframe Guardian” thingy. I’m not sure what, if any, game this is from.

I see Mender Lazarus being held by those Network Guardians and Mainframe Guardians. However, I am distracted by a shiny piece of land so I click on it. It takes forever to finish, and when it does Lazarus cries that he needs my help and I should leave the glowies alone. Heh. What makes this even more amusing is that I am literally right next to Mender Lazarus when this is happening. Guess I better go and free him.

I do so, and the objective changes so that I have to shut down THE TIEM MASHEEN and destroy three data banks. This is an outdoors map, but the architect has thoughtfully made the objectives very easy to find by giving the mobs an animation – I don’t know what it’s called, but I think it’s the Captive Energy Field one – that makes them shoot out bright blue light fields. This is a small touch that is much appreciated and really cuts down on any potential frustration.

In any case, I find THE TIEM MASHEEN. And it’s a (Fake) Nemesis Plot after all! It has decided that after 700 years, it’s time to take over the world. But it’s also lonely as it hasn’t seen any of its compatriots in seven centuries – not since the war. Too bad for it. I turn THE TIEM MASHEEN into scrap metal. Lazarus is pleased, and he can now turn his efforts into correcting the written history ... by copying articles off Wikipedia. Go figure. He asks me if I want to do this again next week, as he wants to tackle the Pyramids of Gaza even though the Rikti doesn’t agree with me. Yeah, I think I’ll pass on that adventure.

I exit the mission. THE TIEM MASHEEN is still there, but it’s lifeless. The exit dialogue comes from Mender Lazarus, and it’s the exact same thing as the 8th clue. I’d suggest completely dropping the 8th clue to avoid the repetition. In any case, the arc is now over.

Final Summary: This was a very well-done story arc. The “Lawd Nemesis” group was clever and well-designed. I didn’t see any typos. (Doesn’t mean there weren’t any, just that I didn’t notice them.) The story was amusing, and the internal story-logic was consistent. I enjoyed seeing the twisted history of Statesman. There was an “A-Story” (the inaccurate history of Statesman) and a “B-Story” (the Mender Lazarus part), something that can be difficult to pull off given the limitations of AE, but the architect managed to pull it off very well. I also really appreciated the little touches and details that were put into this story arc, such as all of the animations making it very easy to find the objectives, and all of the custom bios.

The only flaws that I saw were that the clue titles were not consistent, and that the final summary repeated the same thing that was in the 8th clue. I'd also lighten up the dark purple coloring of the mission titles, and set the level range of the first mission to 40-50. Those, however, are pretty minor flaws and doesn’t detract from the overall storyline nor the final rating.

If you republish your arc ... you need to wait until you see the message "So-and-so has been republished" *then* refresh the search list before you make any more edits.

If you don't do that, and you make more changes ... you'll be editing from your original, unedited version. So any changes you originally made will be lost in the second round.

Let's put it this way.

You have a published mission. Let's call it Mission A.

You spot a few errors. You edit it and republish it. Now let's call it Mission A1.

However, if you don't refresh the search list, then it's still showing Mission A. So if you spot some more errors and make some more edits, you're still editing from Mission A, not from Mission A1. Therefore all of the changes that were in Mission A1 will be lost.

Yes, it's annoying.

You're half-right.

Dev Choices *are* protected. Its true rating average could be 3, but it'd show up as 5 stars anyway because it's "protected."

Hall of Fame, on the other hand, is not protected. You could make it to the HoF, then people could down-vote it and you'd lose your HoF status. That was a huge problem back when zero-stars were possible. Now that it's not, HoF arcs have been able to stay around for longer than 10 minutes.

I agree, DC arcs do occupy too much prime real-estate in the AE interface. But the solution is not to be DC for only one week. Personally, I'd change the front page to show only 5 random DC arcs, 5 random HoF arcs, 5 random 5-star arcs, and 5 random 0-4 star arcs. Obviously your chances of reaching the first page would be greater if you had a DC or HoF arc, since there's so few of those, but at least more people would have a chance of making it to the front page, and it wouldn't be so dominated by all the DC arcs. Pages 2 and the rest could be sorted the way they are now.

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I am currently in the process of re-writing much of my second arc, (to improve it I hope. ) so you may want to move at least it and the last one down on your actual playing list. The changes should be up in the next day or two, depending on how my testing goes.

This shows the problem with getting reviews. People give you feedback and you end making changes to make things better.

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No worries. As with the "Consequences of War" story, I'll probably be playing parts 1, 2, and 3 several days apart to ensure I judge each arc on its own merits and to make sure you get the full rewards.

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Ah…Mission 3, how you vex me so. If I have any question for you it is this:

Would the arc rate better if mission 3 was not there?

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Hmm. That's a good question. Removing Mission #3 would certainly help the story flow a lot better, as all you really need is a comment from Minkia, something like "I'll call up Susan and see if she has any ideas. Come back later." Something like that would take care of the entire mission.

But would that be enough to improve the rating. I think it'd need something more -- a better explanation for why Dark Veil doesn't simply teleport the toxin into the caverns, for starters -- along with some more polishing of the details in order to get a higher rating. It doesn't need an overhaul, merely some tweaking here and there.

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Part 1 *and* Part 2? While I wish every reviewer would be able to make the time to run both arcs for perspective's sake, that's biting off a crit of nearly task force proportions -- and I appreciate it.

Like I've said, I already have notes ready to write up for The Horsemen Chronicles. I'll add The Wolfpack Chronicles to my list.

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I'll probably not do Parts 1 and 2 back-to-back. Apparently if you rate two different missions within a period of time, you only get tickets for the first mission that was rated. I played one of Wrong Number's arcs and rated it. Then I played another one the next day, and she didn't get any tickets from the second mission.

So I'll probably do Part 1, then Part 2 a few days later.