Citizen_Razor

You asked for it. You got it.

Two low-level arcs, one heroic, one villainous.

#195149, "The Horsemen Chronicles (Part 1)" -- Heroic, Lv10-14
#242869, "The Wolfpack Chronicles (Part 1)" -- Villainous, Lv10-14

Both are 5 missions long and will probably take 2 hours to complete. More if you're writing the review as you go.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) I work until 9pm, so I won't be reviewing anything then.

The queue is in the order that I received them, but is probably not going to be in the order that I play them.

#219484 The History of Statesman by jjac
#246604 Quatrexin's Quandary by Displaced
#3369 Matchstick Women by Bubbawheat
#178774 Tales of Croatoa by Hercules
#114284 Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend by FredrikSvanberg
#4727 Future Skulls by Justice Blues
#70801 Simple Times by Justice Blues
#255895 Future's End by Justice Blues
#227331 The Consequences of War - Part 1 by Dalghyrn
#241496 The Consequences of War - Part 2 by Dalghyrn
#227436 Halloween Night by BinkDeBook
#77311 The Ballad of Murky The Cat by BinkDeBook
#3463 Marked Man by Zikar
#250480 BE Prologue: Gangs United by Ozzie Arcane

End Games – Final Moves #17006
By @Calash

Description: A madman bent on revenge against his sister has already begun his final dark plans. Can you find out his devious plot and stop it before it’s too late?

My rating: 3 stars

Time for my next review! It’s a heroic, Lv40-54, 5-missions story arc. That means that it is, yet again, time to bust out Citizen Razor, my Lv50 Inv/Mace tanker. Warning: Story arc may contain Elite Bosses, Enemies with custom power selections. Well, that’s not too bad. I’m playing on CL 2.

The contact is a custom critter named Minkia. She seems to think I’m cute. I preen a little bit. “Names” should be “Name’s” in the mission introduction. Minkia owes a favor to Susan Veil of DATA. Apparently Robert Veil, Susan’s brother, got a bit ticked off at Minkia when she “borrowed” (aka stole) some of his money. Susan saved Minkia’s life.

So now Minkia owes Susan, and needs my help to stop Robert from getting his revenge on Susan. Oh, and by the way, Robert blames Susan and somebody named Calash for his imprisonment at the hand of Crey. So Robert is all out for revenge, and Minkia needs a big, strong hunk of a hero like me to protect her. Will I do it?

Sure, I guess. But what if I had been paying a female toon? Then the dialogue would just be awkward. Unless maybe Minkia swings both ways. Hmmm ...

I accept the mission. Ah, Robert thinks that Minkia is dead, and this helps Minkia snoop around on Robert’s computer. Robert’s plan is called “End Game.” Well, that’s mildly alarming. So Robert has sent some robots to attack a Crey facility and my task is to stop it. Umm, I don’t like the Crey. Why should I stop the robots from attacking them? Can’t I just sit back and bask in the glory of robots smacking Crey around for a little bit? Oh, Minkia says that the robot attack on Crey is very likely linked to his “End Game” and that I need to find a computer chip in the lead robot so she can hack into it and find more information about this “End Game.” Very well.

I check Minkia’s bio. It gives me some extra information. Robert is “Dark Veil.” After Dark Veil caught Minkia stealing money from him, he beat her nearly to death. Fortunately, somebody named “Silver Dragon” found her afterwards and saved her life. I’m guessing this “Silver Dragon” is Calash. Minkia is an expert computer hacker. There’s a period missing at the end of the bio.

OK, with all of that said, it’s time to start this arc! I enter the mission and there’s a lot of dialogue pop-up. I’m guessing this is the Crey / Robots fight. I sit back and let the robots smack Crey around for a little bit. But alas, it seems as if Crey has won the fight. I’m Lv50, so the Crey are those icky tank types. The objective is simple. Stop the Assault Bot and get the Memory Chip. While running around, a Crey says that four other facilities have been hit.

I skip the Crey tanks and go to the next floor, where a bunch of fighting is happening. I find a Crey / Robots battle. Ah, the robots are in a group called “Dark Veil.” I check their bios. “RAM Series I” has a typo in the bio. “Sieges” should be “Siege’s” in the final sentence of the bio. Anyway, the robots are based on Siege, who is, if I remember right, the Praetorian version of Citadel. A quick visit to ParagonWiki confirms it. So if Dark Veil has access to Seige’s technology, that means they’re from Praetoria. I wonder if this will pop up later down the road.

Alas, “Ram Series II” dies before I can check her bio. I’m sure I’ll be fighting them before too long, though, so I’ll have time to check it. I skip all of the Crey and quickly find Assault Bot, which seems to be a boss from the Mastermind pet pool. He’s in the “Robotics” group. I’d suggest the author change his group to “Dark Veil” for standardization since you can do that now with issue 15.

Anyway, the mission is quickly over. I check my clues. “Dar” should be “Dark” is in the Assault Bot clue. The only thing the clue says is that I have the computer chip and that it should reveal Dark Veil’s plans. There’s also another clue that I somehow missed, from a Crey group I had defeated earlier that had a sniper in it. The clue states that the robots are stealing specific things, including air pumps, duct work supplies, and high pressure biohazard containers. I wonder what Dark Veil needs all of those for.

Back to Minkia. She squeals in glee when she sees me and practically tries to jump my bones. Not now, dear, we have an “End Game” to prevent. Maybe later.

Mission #2 time. Alas, the highly-skilled computer hacker is not quite that good. A simple change in the encryption process and Minkia is stumped and can’t even get past the first level of security. I’m starting to suspect all of this is just an excuse for Minkia to seduce me. She tells me that she scavenged up some information from the Crey attacks. The robots stole air pumps, and biohazard containers. Hey wait, I already got that information! Unfortunately, Minkia has about as much clue as to why Dark Veil wants those items as I do, which is, nada.

The next step is clear. Get more information! And to do that, I need to do some breaking and entering. And I’ll be breaking and entering the lab of ... Arachnos?!? Whoa, wait a minute! Oh, apparently they have a lab dedicated to decrypting transmission from Longbow, and the computers there can crack just about any ciphers. Well, OK, that makes sense. Minkia somehow got the password for one of the computers by seducing ANOTHER guy! One of the Arachnos guys, I’m guessing, since the password is for the computer in the lab I’m breaking into. Boy, she gets around. If I ever decide to go out with her, I’m bringing along a bag full of strong antibiotics.

So, armed with the password, I head off to break into the Arachnos lab! The objective for this mission is to locate the correct terminal. The mission pop-up warns me that using the password on the wrong computer may set off an alarm. But how do I know which computer is the right one? HOW?!?!?!?

Trial and error, I guess. Very well.

I enter the mission, and even though I have yet to touch a single computer the Arachnos are all over me. At least smacking around Arachnos goons is a bit more fun that fighting Crey tanks, so I pause to enjoy the sight of mangled Arachnos bodies after I’m done with them. I <3 ragdoll physics.

I see a few Arachnos computer clickies. They’re named “Computer 4” and “Computer 3.” My hunch tells me that they’re not the correct computers and that if I click on them, I’ll have to deal with Arachnos ambushes, so I skip them. A bit further down, I see a second “Computer 4.” Definitely skipping that one. I also see a “Computer 1.” It might be the correct one. However, I see what looks like an elevator, so I decide to skip “Computer 1” for now and explore the map a little more. Alas, I only find “Computer 2” on the second floor. So I head back to the first floor and try my luck with “Computer 1.”

I chose correctly! It spawns an ambush. Since the ambush is a custom group, I decide to deal with them and read their bios. I see a “Circuit” robot that comes from, I believe, the Neuron faction of Praetorians. ParagonWiki proves me correct again. The bio of this “Circuit” robot is the same as the default bio. Suggestion: Use the new i15 tools to provide this critter with an updated bio tying it in with the Dark Veil group. But now there’s a second Praetorian connection with Dark Veil. There are also Patrol MK-1 and Security MK-1 custom critters in the ambush.

Oh, I almost forgot. The information contained in the memory chip that I just decrypted mentions that the “End Game” is an airborne poison targeting a group called the Vox’m. Never heard of them before. There’s also references to Susan Veil and Calash. OK, mission #2 over. Back to Minkia.

Ah, apparently the Vox’m are some of Susan’s friends. A’ight, if you say so. They are an alien race that have made their home in Paragon City. Robbie’s toxin will turn their natural scent into acid, which will slowly eat them from inside out. Yowch! Sounds painful. I suppose I’ll have to do my heroic duty and prevent that from happening. But alas, Minkin is but a mere computer hacker. We need a geneticist! And just who is this geneticist?

Why, none other than Susan Veil herself! So I need to go to the Portal Corps facility in Califoria (which is misspelled Califorian here). No worries, there’s a point-to-point portal just for me so that I don’t have to fly all the way to California. I step into the green beam and am transported to California.

Mission #3. Hey, look, it’s the Portal Corps map! I’m very familiar with it. When I arrive, I am greeted with alarm and the sound of gunfire. I don’t think I arrived at a good time. I’ll come back later. Nah, just kidding. The objective is to locate Susan Veil.

I open the door and see an odd group. The group is called “Rift Invasion” and I see a Frostling, a Tempest Elemental, an Energy Mage (I think this one is a Shadow Shard reflection and not the actual CoT mob) and Wisps. How ... odd. Thankfully, Dr. Susan Veil is right there in the front of the map.

Susan has an unnecessary quotation mark at the end of her captive dialogue. Anyway, I free her, and she informs me that there are four portal generators that have to be destroyed. Apparently the portal generators are bringing all of the creatures in “Rift Invasion” to this building. Susan seems to be a force field bubbler. I check her bio. Seems that when her brother went evil, this incident caused her to be fired from DATA. So now she works for Portal and is dedicated to protecting the heroes of Paragon City ... all the way from California? Well, whatever works, I guess. She’s in the “Calash” custom group. That’s odd, I thought Calash was an individual, not a group. I’d make her group “Portal Corps” instead.

Well, I have four portal generators to destroy, so I go off and do just that. I lead poor Susan to her doom, then head to the bottom floor. On the second floor, I find a bunch of PPD fighting the “Rift Invasion.” What the PPD – Paragon Police Department, in case you were wondering – is doing in California is beyond me. At this point I’d just suggest that the architect completely drop the reference to California and keep this mission in Paragon City. The reference to California is pointless.

At the bottom, I destroy all of the portal generators. Mission #3 over. Apparently after it was over, I visited Susan at the medbay and she looked at the data there. Thankfully, she can create an anti-toxin because Robbie used a sequence that he always used as a kid. Well, I’m no geneticist, but if you say so. In any case, I now have the data to make a vaccine for Robbie’s toxin. I bring this to Minkia. She thinks she knows somebody who can make the vaccine.

So now I have the antitoxin. All I need to do is to introduce it to Robbie’s supply of toxins, and the problem is solved. Minkia hacked into Robbie’s system again (thanks to the decryption I got from Arachnos, I’m guessing) and found where the stock of the toxin is. It’s in some warehouse in King’s Row. Dark Veil plans on pumping the toxin in some caves under the warehouse.

The mission #4 introduction is missing a period at the end of the third paragraph.

Minkia tells me there are five containers of toxin I need to neutralize. By the way, this is the first paragraph of the send-off for mission #4:

[ QUOTE ]
Here's what I found out. . There are five containers of toxin that you will have to inject the antidote into. This will destroy his supply of the poison..

[/ QUOTE ]

This needs to be cleaned up into:

[ QUOTE ]
Here's what I found out. There are five containers of toxin that you’ll have to inject the antidote into. This will destroy his supply of the poison.

[/ QUOTE ]

Minkia also says that the warehouse will be guarded by a robot called Calash Mk-II, who Dark Veil created to discredit Calash. I have to take him out. Longbow will be there as well.

Mission #4 time. The objective is 5 Toxin Storage Units to locate (needs to remove a period from that), locate the MK-II android. The mission is full of Dark Veil robots, which is composed of a combination of custom critters and in-game robots such as the Neuron robots, the Hercules Titans, and a few others. At least this gives me the opportunity to read the custom bios.

Bio for Security MK-I:

[ QUOTE ]
Slightly more intelligent than the battle droids it can summon the MK-1 can dispense low level programming as well as relay communication from higher level androids.

[/ QUOTE ]

I’d change it into:

[ QUOTE ]
Slightly more intelligent than the battle droids it summons, the MK-1 can dispense low level programming as well as relay communication from higher level androids.

[/ QUOTE ]

Bio for Patrol MK-I:

[ QUOTE ]
An early design by the madman this series was replaced by the Security class android.

[/ QUOTE ]

I’d change it into:

[ QUOTE ]
An early design by the madman; this series was replaced by the Security class android.

[/ QUOTE ]


Bio for Security MK-III:

[ QUOTE ]
A recent modification has added a distorted version of Susan Veils nano-healing system allowing the MK-III to perform instant repairs in battle.

[/ QUOTE ]

Veils should be Veil’s. This bio mentions that Dark Veil has been getting robots from other dimensions. That explains why some of the robots are Praetorian in origin and why the design of an earlier critter was based on Siege.

Anyway, back to the mission itself. I quickly find four of the toxin containers. I also find a Longbow ally, who is a force field / illusion controller. Now, normally I’d ditch the ally, since I’m a solo act. But it’s getting late, and there’s a bunch of (optional) boss battles, so I decide to let the Longbow ally hang around to speed things up.

The Longbow ally and I quickly find Calash MK-II. He’s an EB. I didn’t really pay attention to his powerset. I think I saw energy blasts. Calash MK-II’s “enemy spotted” dialogue is missing a period at the end. We make quick work of Calash MK-II, but there’s one more toxin storage unit to find.

Once again it’s a game of “find the last clickie” that I enjoy so much. After looking all over the warehouse, I finally find the last toxin. The mission is over. The mission end clue states that Dark Veil had anticipated my arrival and had kept some toxin as back-up. He can teleport those toxin into the caves anyway. Well, if he had the technology to do that, why didn’t he do that in the first place? Why wait until after I bust up the lab?

End of mission clue:

[ QUOTE ]
In the event this facility would be shut down he was prepared to ship the remaining toxin to an off-shore lab that he had installed several teleport devices.

[/ QUOTE ]

I’d change it into:

[ QUOTE ]
In the event this facility is shut down he was prepared to ship the remaining toxin to an off-shore lab where he had installed several teleport devices.

[/ QUOTE ]

Back to Minkia. She said she expected something like that, and that I need to hurry up and get the last of the toxin before it kills the poor Vox’m.

And now it’s Mission #5. The end is in sight. Minkia intercepted a message from Dark Veil to a freighter to pick up the last of the toxin. Umm, why doesn’t Dark Veil simply teleport it to the caves instead of waiting for the freighter? In any case, it’s a timed mission and I have an hour to do this.

The send-off tells me that my main goal is to take out Dark Veil. Calash MK-II never arrived at the Zig, so he’s probably with Dark Veil. But on the bright side, I’ll have the original Calash there to help me.

The final mission. I’m in Dark Veil’s secret lab. The objective is simple. Defeat Dark Veil. Well, shouldn’t I also neutralize the remaining toxin? What if some random villain happens to wander by and find the lab and the remaining toxin? Then the villain could kill the Vox’m too!

In any case, I find Calash soon enough. He’s an Elite Boss. Well, that’ll certainly make the final battles a bit easy. I’d probably lower him to a Boss. I distract Calash with some robots and leave him behind.

I run into Calash’s evil brother. He’s not listed as an objective. I’d suggest adding him as an optional objective. Yeah, Minkia did tell you about him, but if you’re on a team you might not be privy to that information. This time I’m all alone. No Longbow to help me! And he’s spawned as a +1 EB too. Let’s see how this goes. At least now I get to see what his powerset is. He seems to be a Fire Shield / Super Strength tanker. He also mentions that not even Calash can help me. Well, that’s good, because Calash is not with me anyway. At the halfway point, there’s an ambush, which isn’t really that big a deal except there’s a new mob in the bunch, a healing drone. I focus on the healing drone until it’s defeated, then it’s back to Calash MK-II. All the new robots do is boost my ToHit buff. Calash MK-II goes down.

Now it’s time for the final battle. It’s time for ... Dark Veil!

And there he is! He’s surrounded by “Dark Veils Personal Guard.” Veils should be Veil’s. He’s an Elite Boss. I read his bio. His bio says his world was shattered when he was blamed for the kidnapping of Calash. So did Dark Veil actually kidnap Calash, or was he framed?

OK, it’s time for the battle. I take out the healing drones first. Dark Veil is ... surprise, surprise ... a Robotics / Force Field mastermind. He calls in an ambush at 75% and 50%. It’s not hard to bring him down, just tedious. Whenever the ambush comes, I just take care of the healing drones, and then return to Dark Veil. Eventually I take him down. Just when I think the mission is over ... blammo! There’s three escape drones! I have to prevent them from escaping!

The three escape drones are all Security MK-III bosses that run away when they reach 10% of their HP. Thankfully my tanker has the Nemesis Staff, so I have some ranged attacks. They’re carrying boxes, so they’re easy to recognize. One spawns right next to an elevator and I just barely prevent it from escaping.

Unfortunately, I can’t find the last drone. Even though I’ve cleared the map, and looked all over the map from top to bottom five times, the last escape drone is nowhere in sight. The mission fails. The toxin escapes, and the poor Vox’m are slaughtered. Well, no they’re not. They merely have to relocate, and Susan will have to work on something to clean their caves. Minkie is disappointed in me, and I don’t even get any pity sex afterwards. Honestly, at this point, I don’t even care. I’ve already spent 3 and a half hours on this story arc.

Mission #5 “Mission Failed” wrap-up’s first paragraph needs a space between the first two sentences. Third paragraph is missing a period at the end. Also, there’s an extra period at the beginning of the final paragraph.

Final Summary: I’ve already spent a ton of time on this arc, so I’ll make this short and sweet. The story itself is average. There are a lot of minor typos, mostly concerning punctuation. The custom critters were OK, but more details need to be added to explain why all the in-game critters were now a part of “Dark Veil.” Yes, it’s a lot of work for something that only a few folks will even care about, but if the architect is going to submit his story arc for review, that’s the kind of details he’ll have to work on. When I saw “Calash” in the first mission introduction, I was a bit worried that I’d be in a Mary Sue story, but the architect thankfully avoids that for the most part. Still, there are some aspects of the story that probably could be dropped, especially the whole “Susan is in California” part.

TL;DR version: This story arc is decent but needs a lot of polish.

Here, please.

[ QUOTE ]
As to the warnings about it being hard.... Well I didn't make them. My intent was to be fairliy easy to play on solo, so someone could enjoy (sorry you didn't) the story. With upped level of difficulty and teams it has been challenging (I guess that all depends on your uberness).

Is there a way to remove the warnings that make it look SO hard, when in fact at a low difficulty setting, it is fairly easy?

[/ QUOTE ]

The only thing I can think of is to adjust the power of your customs so that their powerset is not on the "extreme" setting anymore. If they were not ... then it's probably a bug that you can't really do anything about until the devs decide to fix it.

In Pursuit of Liberty #251306
By @Gypsy Rose

Description: Liberty Rose Jones was an ordinary child or was she? Help Liberty find her true destiny if you dare.

My rating: 3 stars

I fire up my Lv50 Inv/Mace tanker, Citizen Razor. This story arc is heroic and 5 missions long, and the level range is 45-54. 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.

The contact is Ms. Liberty. She basically asks me to save an innocent child, and then gives me reasons why she can’t do it herself. Sure, I’m a hero. Of course I’ll save the child! The child is named Liberty Rose Jones, and the Family has kidnapped her. There will also be an ally there for me.

I enter the mission. The objectives are to find the safe, free Liberty, find Agent Liberty, and defeat Big AL. AL should be Al (lower case l).

Oh hey, there’s a patrol, and it has custom villains. The group is called “Anti Liberty League.” The Anti Liberty League is an elite villain group determined to take over Paragon City and to deprive its citizens of freedom and liberty. It appears to be headed by somebody named “MAL.” The custom critter description makes the group sound as if they are individual members. That’s a tricky thing, since they are minions and it’s entirely possible you could see 5 “Frozen Followers” running around, all with the exact same origin story. That’d certainly be an interesting coincidence. We’ll see how the mission is set up. Oh, they all have a “FF” theme going on.

Yeah, it is as I feared. “Feline Follower” shows up twice. So apparently there are two people in that group who just happens to have been cut by a cat and gotten cat-like powers. I get what the architect is trying to do, but really, if the custom critter is a minion or lieutenant, the description should be vague and generic. Making it too specific makes it look odd when you have multiple versions of the same person running around. Only bosses, Elite Bosses, and Archvillains should have specific origins in the bio.

Anyway, I find Agent Liberty and free her. She says “It’s about time you showed up.” How did she know I was coming? She’s a member of the Liberty Elite, the special ops division of the Liberty League. She kicks hard.

I find Big Al and beat him. Apparently he’s cousin to the mysterious MAL mentioned in the bios of the Anti-Liberty League. I know this because I found a note on Big Al’s body telling him to kidnap this Liberty Rose Jones fellow. I also find a family tree in a safe. An Alexis Cole is mentioned in the family tree. Cole is the last name of Statesman. Coincidence? I don’t think so. We’ll find out.

I find little Liberty and free her. The system message informs me that I have saved the future! Awesome, and I wasn’t even trying! I get a note from Agent Liberty explaining to me what I already knew, in case I wasn’t reading the bios. Mission over, I go back to Ms. Liberty. She thinks up of ways to give me thanks and instead of giving me anything … she just says “You’re a hero and don’t need any thanks!” I’ll be sending her the bill from my psychiatrist.

OK, on to Mission #2. Seems like little Liberty just can’t stay out of trouble. She’s disappeared in some cave, and I have to go and save her again. Oh, and there’s some treasure too. Not surprisingly, the Anti-Liberty League (ALL) is there. Guess I gotta kick some ALL behind again.

The objective is simple. Find the treasure and save little Liberty again. I find little Liberty soon enough. She said she could've taken care of it … ok maybe not. After freeing her, we head off to find the treasure, which I do in short order. There is a mysterious costume in the treasure. Apparently this costume is for little Liberty. Mission over. Back to Ms. Liberty. She’s a bit contradictory. First she said that since I’m a hero, I don’t need any money for doing my stuff. Now she thinks that I went after the treasure to get money.

Mission #3 time. Ms. Liberty goes all “Ocarina of Time” on me and tells me that it’s been SEVEN YEARS since we last talked! I’m guessing Little Liberty is not so little anymore. She says “it seems like only moments ago.” Well, that’s because it WAS moments ago!

Guess what? Yep, it’s time to go and save Little Liberty’s not-so-little bottom again. She’s wandered off in some enchanted garden looking for a book. *shrug* Whatever you say, Ms. Liberty. I go off to save little Liberty for a third time.

The objective is to free little Liberty, find the book, and defeat a boss named Fern Fatale. The mission is full of the ALL goons, and for some random reason there’s also DE in the mission. I don’t know if this is a bug or intended. It’s the outside forest map. When I saw “enchanted garden” I was expecting a Croatoa map.

Anyway, I find Fern Fatale. She’s an plant controller / mind controller boss surrounded by a bunch of DE granite lieutenants. All of which drop those annoying carnies. Oh this is going to be so much fun. I take the granites out first, then focus on Fern Fatale. When I defeat her, she says “you may have killed me, but you will never defeat MAL!” Problem is, in CoH lore, we don’t kill anybody. We “defeat” them. I’d change the instances of “kill” into “defeat” or “stop” instead to be more consistent with CoH lore.

OK, Fern Fatale is out of the way now. Time to find Little Liberty and that blasted book. Oh great, now I’m alliterating too. I quickly find the book, and it’s a journal. What is a journal doing in a garden? I don’t know. It tells me that little Liberty is Miss Liberty’s granddaughter (which would make her Statesman’s great-granddaughter). Didn’t see that one coming, did you? It also mentions something about two swords that make the user very powerful. I’m guessing MAL will be Dual Blades.

Now that I have the book, it’s time to go and find not-so-little Liberty. I run around the map for a little bit and finally find Liberty Rose Jones. To paraphrase Hartigan from Sin City, “Skinny little Liberty, she grew up, filled out.” Her bio mentions something about swordplay. I guess Liberty Rose Jones is the dual blades one then, not MAL. Anyway now that I found her, the mission is over. I bring Liberty around a little bit to see her in action. She’s an EB, but she only kicks things. Martial Arts then. I leave the mission.

I visit Ms. Liberty again. Ah, the magic swords are missing! That explains it. I guess I know what I’m doing next. Ms. Liberty tells me that I need to journey to a possible future and get the magic swords, or all is lost! Liberty Rose Jones must fulfill her destiny! For some reason I wonder how I’ll get back. Duh, I’ll just use the Ouroboros portal to come back. Anyway, it’s off to the future I go.

Mission #4. It’s the ruined Atlas map! The objective is to find the coffin and … rescue Statesman?!? Wait, I thought I was here to find the swords! Well, let’s see what happens. In any case, I go over the entire map … and find nothing. That’s not the first time that’s happened to me on that map. I swear this map hates me. I decide to start killing enemies and see what happens. As soon as I type this, I find Statesman. He’s held in an energy field. I free him, and he tells me to take the magical swords to his great-granddaughter. He also gives me a note to give to Liberty Rose Jones that tells her she must wear the costume and take the swords and become a great hero! Now it’s time to look all over the map again to find the coffin.

I suppose this is a good time to mention that I’m deaf, so it’s not as easy for me to find clickies on map as it is for everybody, since I can’t hear it beeping. That can make finding a clickie that blends into the background on a large outdoors map frustrating for me. Just as I am about to quit and call it a night, I find the coffin. As expected, the two swords are in the coffin. Now that the mission is mercifully over, I go back to Ms. Liberty. I guess it’s time to make Liberty Rose Jones face her destiny.

OK, it’s mission #5. Guess what? Yep, I need to save Liberty Rose Jones again! Call it a hunch, but I’m guessing I’ll have to fight MAL in this mission. Ms. Liberty tells me that I do have to fight Master Al, or MAL. He’s tough and I should bring friends. I’d suggest making this part orange so that it stands out. In any case, I totally disregard that advice and enter the mission. I’m a solo act all the way, baby!

The mission pop-up has a typo in it. “Depends on” should be two separate words. The objective is to rescue Liberty Rose and defeat MAL. It’s another outdoors map, this time with graves! At least Liberty Rose is very easy to find this time, except she’s called Liberty Storm now. Oh, it’s another toon. Might want to put that as an optional objective somewhere. I guess she’s here to help me fight MAL. I leave her behind. I also free Agent Liberty and Statesman just for the heck of it. They're also not in the objectives. I'd suggest putting them in there as well.

I find MAL and ditch all of my allies. Let's see if I can deal with him solo. It’s a bit tricky, and I do use inspirations, but I manage to take him down. The worst part was also dealing with the Dark/Dark Lieutenant, who was constantly dropping my accuracy. Once he went down, the battle was cake. MAL is a Robots/Force Field mastermind. All the extra robots do is provide my inv tanker with ToHit bonuses. They do drain a little bit of endurance, but popping blues is enough to deal with that. MAL’s bio merely says that he’s strong and eveeeellllll.

OK, MAL’s down. It’s off to find Liberty Rose … again. At least she’s easier to find, as she’s in the same green magic field that Liberty Storm and Agent Liberty were in. I free her, and the mission is over. I’ve saved the world! Go go me! And the story arc is over.

Final Summary: The story arc was okay. I had a few frustrating moments in Mission #4, and nothing about the story really drew me into it. I was mostly just playing babysitter to Liberty Rose. MAL was evil just for the sake of being evil. The custom enemies were not too bad, although the dark/dark Lts did get a bit annoying if there were two in a group and their tohit debuffs stacked. There were some leaps in logic, such as the dairy just sitting around in a garden and the magical swords somehow being in the future. And for such an important person that was so vital to the future being saved, Liberty Rose sure got captured a lot. Ultimately, this arc was basically just an origin story for Liberty Rose, and I was only there to help facilitate it. The story wasn't bad, and it did have some good moments and logically it held together well. It just didn't really grab my attention.

"The Consequences of War" is one of those arcs I've been having my eye on for a while. Consider it added to the queue.

As for my arcs, either "Horsemen Chronicles (Part 1)" or "Wolfpack Chronicles (Part 1)" would be good. The Wolfpack arc seems to be well-liked with a high rating average, but I have gotten virtually zero feedback on it thus far.

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks for the feedback! Obviously I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it more, but that's life in the big city. I'll definitely be doing some mechanical reworking, and taking another pass at some of the text - it's tricky trying to work with implication.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's a new story. That's what the revision and editing process is for. When "Horsemen Chronicles" was new, somebody tore it to shreds and pointed out many similar plot holes and leaps in logic in my story. I've since then tried my best to shore things up. Ultimately, some stories work for some people and and doesn't work for other people.

[ QUOTE ]
It is (was. In testing it seemed that tweaking placements had finally gotten them to spawn reasonably, but apparently not, for which I apologize) a defendable object mostly for MA-mechanical reasons - the Vanguard warhead container object isn't available as a collection, only a defendable. So story logic will have to bow to mechanics here to avoid tedium, and I'll try to find a reasonable replacement object that's collectable.

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Does it *have* to be a Vanguard warhead container? Yeah, MA has some limitations that can be frustrating to work around.

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Have you played Indigo's arc? I ask because the people who tested this before it was published all picked up the 'friends' reference in the intro to mission 2 and worked out that mission 1 had been a setup, framing Malta for the attack on the Nemesis base.

[/ QUOTE ]

I haven't played the Indigo arc in a *long* time. OK, so we're framing Malta for the attack on the Nemesis base ... but why are we attacking Nemesis in the first place? The Infiltrator project is Crey's, so what does Nemesis have to do with it in the first place? That part either needs to be scrapped or explained better.

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The timer on this one is deliberately long, and mostly an aesthetic thing to give it a sense of urgency (plus I always find it somewhat absurd in canon missions when the contact says 'Hurry, time is of the essence! There's no time to waste!' and I can park the mission on the back burner for three weeks).

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One hour is more than sufficient to complete the mission. I get what you're trying to do. I just dislike timed missions (or kill-all missions) in general. You'll probably run into a few people who think the same as I do.

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Like most of Longbow's black ops people, Orange doesn't so much have 'issues' as 'a lifetime subscription'.

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Oh, I got that. That was one of the few things I did like about the arc. The problem is that, while it's a cute bit, it didn't really have any significance to the overall plot.

[ QUOTE ]
Well, thus the bit in the intro popup about the wreckage and blood spatters on the walls. My hope was people would read that and go 'Ah-ha, okay, that's a blood spatter, not a mystic sigil poorly copied out of a paperback grimoire by a Hellion'. If we ever get an office map that's on fire but doesn't have mystic symbols scrawled on it, I'll be changing this in a hot second, of course.

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The blood splatters on the wall didn't bother me as much as all the altars popping out of nowhere did. The blood splatter I can handwave away ("Oh, it just *happened* to splatter in that pattern"). The altars are a bit difficult to handwave away, though.

There's a smaller burning map that I use in "Cat War" that, while also Hellion-related, does not have any altars sitting around. It's in Unique Maps --> Warehouse --> Hellions, I believe. It *is* small, though, but it might work better for your story.

[ QUOTE ]
Again, I have to ask if you've played the arc where she's introduced (30-35 range). This is the devil of trying to play with canon characters, I guess - not everybody will be familiar with them, so you have to balance bludgeoning people with information they already have or leaving them in the dark as to what's going on.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've played through all of the CoH arcs and most of the CoV arcs. I don't really remember that one, though. Some additional information is always good, even if the player is already aware of the previous story. That's why they put the recap pages in the comic books and the "Previously on..." part at the beginning of shows. If you already knew the story, it's a good refresher. If you didn't, it helps bring you up to speed.

[ QUOTE ]
This would be why you face three EBs, one huge, one male, one female; one ranged zappy type, one melee scranky type, one controllery type. This is also why they all have full-face masks. (Strictly they might also be clones of friends/SGmates/etc.) Also see the dialogue when you blow up the central computer in the last mission and the text in the souvenir.

[/ QUOTE ]

What you tried to do ... create a "clone" of the player ... is an interesting idea. But until the MA allows you to "copy" the player directly (something I'd love to see, as the perfect ending to my saga would be for you to fight your own Praetorian clone), it just comes off as awkward. None of the three EBs "matched" me. That's why I suggest you create customs of the "generic heroes" found in the mayhem missions and make them the infiltrators instead. At least then there would be legitimate reason for them being familiar -- you've very likely ran into them before.

I do get what you're trying to do. But the current MA limitations just doesn't make it work.

[ QUOTE ]
And the final map, is, again, down to mechanical issues. When I first started working on this it used the Crey Hero lab map, but that one's gone to the Great Cartography Center In The Sky, requiring some rejigging. The hospital seemed a reasonable replacement, in story terms.

[/ QUOTE ]

The hospital wasn't that bad this time around. I just have had too many bad experiences on that map. Objectives getting lost, paths getting stuck, looking all over the map for that one last mob or glowie. Thankfully everything happened in the final room, so it was not too frustrating to get through the final mission.

Good luck with the arc!

Just a note: I'm a teacher, and even though it's summer I have to teach summer school. I'll try to get to at least one arc a day, but I'm not making any promises. Hopefully I'll get to your arc in a timely matter. I also reserve the right to move arcs up in the queue if it fits one of my toons' level range.

Having said that:

Current Queue
221702 - Pursuit of Liberty (Arrow Rose)
17006 - End Game-Final Moves (Calash)
219484 - The History of Statesman (jjac)
246605 - Quatrexin's Quandary (Displaced)
3369 - Matchstick Women (Bubbawheat)
178774 - Tales of Croatoa (Hercules)
114284 - Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend (FredrickSvanberg)

[ QUOTE ]
I'm not sure if you've played either of my arcs, but I'm pretty sure you haven't commented on them, you can take your pick.

137561: Ctrl + Alt + Reset
level range: 15-30
Description: Foreshadow didn't see this coming when he sent you to retrieve a dangerous temporal artifact from the Wyvern, and now you're stuck in a time loop and have to find your way out.
Notes: This is the stronger and more well recieved of my two fully fleshed out arcs. It's pretty close to its final stage, but fresh feedback is always welcome.

3369: Matchstick Women
level range: 25+
Description: A mysterious flame sends you on the trail of the leader of a strange and hostile cult of women arsonists.
Notes: This is the earlier of my arcs and has also gone through a lot of revisions, but could still use some direction for tweaking, as well as more advertising to help it out.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've played Ctrl + Alt + Reset, and I think I sent you some feedback in a PM. Oddly enough, it doesn't show up as "played" in my list. Weird.

I'll add "Matchstick Women" to the queue.

MirrorsirroM #251306
By @Dot Communist

Description: A simple job for an associate of Agent Indigo's leads to the uncovering of a plot, the return of an old threat with a new face, and the discovery that sometimes when you gaze into the mirror, the abyss gazes back into you.

My rating: 2 stars

I noticed that this arc had no ratings, so I bumped it up the queue. It’s 5 missions long, level range 41-54. It contains Elite Boss and enemies with custom power selections. Not too bad for a Lv41+ arc. I’m bringing my Lv50 Inv/Mace tanker, Citizen Razor, since he’s the only 40+ hero I have. This will be on Challenge Level 2.

Without futher ado … the contact is Agent Orange. She can talk to plants. She’s an associate of Indigo. Get it? Indigo. Crimson. Orange. When do I get to meet their partners, Agent Teal and Agent Pink? But I digress.

The mission seems simple enough. There are bad experiments going on. My job is to go, hide, and plant some devices then get away before it go all ka-bloomey. I accept it, and Orange is glad that I’m cooperative. Well, what if I didn’t accept? What would she do? Toss a hissy fit? Sulk away?

Anyway, I go in the mission. Apparently it’s a Nemesis base. Wow, another Nemesis plot, and so soon after the last one? That guy gets around. The map is the Portal Corps map. The objective is to plant the first device.

I find Enigmatic Device 1. It’s a defendable object. I defend it, and a new objective appears. “Plant second device.” Uh oh, I hope I don’t have to run all over the map to find the 2nd spawn location.

While looking for the second device, I run into a patrol who caution each other to “stay sharp” as the sensors show something unusual. Well, you’re a bit too late with that news, bub.

I find the second device. After defending it, it’s just as I feared. The next objective is “plant final device.” And I have to backtrack all over the place to find the final device. There’s no storyline reason that I can see that you have to do those three in sequence. I’m familiar with this map, since I used it in one of my arcs before I eventually replaced it with another map. It looks like the architect put all three objectives in the “Middle” part of the map. The problem is, the “Middle” part includes three separate floors.

Suggestion: Make *one* objective with all three devices. Make them “collect an object” objective. Set them so that they fade into existence (so you’re “planting” them). That’d make this part of the mission so much easier. As it stands, all it is right now is an unnecessary timesink. If you *must* have them spawn in order, put them in the back room where it’s all in the same area and thus a bit easier to find.

After running all over the place, I *finally* find the final device and “plant” it. So far I’ve already been on this arc for 45 minutes. And it’s only the end of Mission #1. Oy, this doesn’t look good. Back to Agent Orange. She just tells me “good work” and that’s it. No explanation as to why I was planting those devices.

Mission #2 now. Agent Orange tells me that the Nemesis Army is upset. Well, duh. We did just set up mysterious devices in their lab. I doubt they’d be too happy about that. Orange says that Nemesis left devices that could be sourced back to them. But the clue from Mission #1 says that all traces of its origin and manufacture had been erased completely. Those don’t jibe with each other.

Anyway, Nemesis is pissed, and they’re getting their revenge. Orange says that one of her informant is caught in the crossfire. Uh oh! I have to escort the informant out! I am also to gather some reports. Why, I don’t know. Also, judging from the red text, it’s going to be a timed mission. Oh joy. Yep, I have an hour to do this. I hope this isn’t one of those bugged missions.

Hey look! It’s Malta! Why? I have no idea, but there they are!

I find my informant … and it’s a plant! Literally. I mean, like a plant with leaves and stems and roots and all that jazz. Now Agent Orange’s bio makes some sense. I find the reports in three safes. Mission over, and I go back to Agent Orange, hoping she’ll have some explanation for why the heck there were Malta in the mission. Nope, she doesn’t. She’s more concerned about the plant.

I have problems with the map. While I get the reason why the architect chose that map – it’s burning, and fire is dangerous to plants, which is your informant – it’s a map with magical symbols and platforms all over the place. Not a place that Malta or Nemesis would be using. I realize there isn’t a wide variety of burning maps to choose from, but if you must use that map, try to make the enemies fit that map, or provide a reason why Malta and Nemesis are in that particular map.

On to Mission #3. Now I’m going to decrypt those files and I’ll be “borrowing” a facility in Striga to do so. Why can’t I just go to one of the Longbow or Freedom Corps lab instead? Wouldn’t that be, like, a lot easier? I mean, it’s not like they’d particularly care much how I got those files, since they participate in shady dealings themselves. But I guess I have to go to Striga to do this. Oh, and there’s a note that it’s assumed I’m in a SG and if I’m not in a SG, to ignore the clue. That doesn’t bode well.

Well, it’s off to Striga. The objective is “first computer, second computer, third computer.” Need verbs there. You know you can group multiple objectives together by making their “plural text” the same, right? In any case, I’m in a Council map. Why the heck I’m using a Council base to decrypt files that I got from the Malta about some Nemesis experiments is beyond me. Honestly, I’m not understanding the story here at all.

I find the first computer quickly enough. It spits out the decrypted file. Hellions are mentioned. Okay. Next computer. Ah, it’s one of the small maps used in the Hess TF. I find a safe. How that equals a computer, I don’t know, but it does. Clicking on it spawns a battle between Malta and Council. It also gives me a clue that mentions my SG. I wonder if I was not in a SG, what would it say? $supergroup? Anyway, the clue is an intercepted Crey communication and mentions Vanguard, Midnight Club, and my SG. Apparently there’s a Crey infiltrator that’s been in all those groups. A Dr. Renault is mentioned.

On to the third computer. Apparently a Malta guy is in Vanguard and he has a psi-bomb. There’s a dead drop in Brickstown. *shrug* Time to go back to Agent Orange. At least this mission was short and sweet.

Mission #4. Orange is concerned about this infiltrator, so she bends the rules slightly. I am to see a computer specialist named “The Doctor.” She’s interested, but she needs somebody to get inside the facility and unlock the computers.

What facility? If this “Doctor” is such a computer specialist, why doesn’t she, ya know, have her own super-computer like Birds of Prey’s Oracle? Why does she need to break into some random facility to use a computer? Does. Not. Compute.

Anyway, I guess I’m going to escort this “Doctor” to the computer. Oh, and I need to find the password too. Because this Doctor, apparently, is not skilled enough to quickly crack the encryption on the computer by herself. And I’m entrusting her with valuable information about some random Crey infiltrator? This is going to go well, I can tell.

The objective of this mission is to locate Dr. Renault. This map is full of Crey. Unfortunately, I’m Lv50, so that means that the Crey I’m dealing with is all those annoying tanks. I dislike those tanks. Crey is fun at Lv30-45, when there are a decent variety of critters to fight. But at 45+, it’s nothing but tanks, tanks, and more tanks. Ugh. I simply run past them and try to find Dr. Renault.

Defeating Dr. Renault nets me the password. And now there’s another objective. It’s simply “Project: Infiltrator Central Computer.” Oh joy, another mission where I have to backtrack all over the place to find an objective. Oh, thank god, the objective is right there in the back room too. Like the first mission, it’s a defendable object. I defend it. Once I do, a new objective pops up – “Defeat Project: Xi.” Checking his bio tells me that “He looks familiar.” Weird, I’ve never seen him before. He also utters one line: “Citizen Razor! I’ll teach you to pretend you’re him.” Umm oookay. He’s an Elite Boss with Energy blasts. I wear him down and defeat him, getting a clue. The clue insists that he is familiar, dammit! Very well, if you say so.

There’s another clue that mentions that Crey is taking Project: Revenant to the next level. It also mentions Romero Heights. Looks like we’re going to Dark Astoria next! I head back to Agent Orange. She tells me that the Doctor has sent along some material and the news is dire, indeed. Surprise, surprise, Crey has created infiltrators and placed them in all sorts of places, even my own SG!!!! ZOMG! Considering the title of this arc is “MirrorsrorriM, I’m guessing this Project: Xi guy is probably a clone of me or something like that. But what if I had been playing a female toon? Also, how the heck Nemesis, Malta, and the Council got involved in this mess, I still don’t know.

Well, it’s on to the last mission. At this point I just want to get this arc over with. Astoria and a hospital are mentioned. I immediately groan. I just KNOW it’s going to be that blasted psych ward map again. I dislike that psych ward map. Anyway, people are being taken there for “assembly” and I have to stop it. Whatever, I just don’t care at this point. I have to destroy the central mainframe and the “assembly” unit. And any infiltrators I might find.

I enter the mission … And yep. It IS that blasted psych ward map! *sigh* The objective is to locate the main storage computer. The enemies are Crey. I find it and destroy it. It seems to recognize me. I’m sure that’s probably bad news. Next objective is to defeat Project Tau, another Elite Boss. I think he has claws, but I’m not sure. His bio says that there’s something familiar about the way he moves. Very well, if you say so, bub. He thinks I’m pretending to be me. I beat him. Time for the next objective, which is to destroy the processing facility. I destroy it. Now on to objective #4 – Defeat Project Rho. Ya know, there’s no real reason why those have to be sequential. Why not put all objectives on the map at the same time? Ah well. I go to find this Rho fellow. I’m sure that he’ll be somehow familiar, even though I’ve never seen him before in my entire life, and that he’ll think I’m not me. Oh it’s a she. Eh, same thing. Time for another EB battle. At least she’s quiet. I beat her, and that’s it, this arc is finally, mercifully over.

It’s back to Agent Orange one final time. Here’s hoping that the wrap-up will somehow tie everything together and provide some explanations. Nope, no explanations at all. No clues as to who the “projects” were supposed to be. Just a “yay, the facility has been destroyed. We’ll try to find the infiltrators. Good job!” send-off.

Final Summary: I hate to use this phrase, but I think I have to. This REALLY was “Just a bunch of stuff that happened.” The story does not hang together well. Questions were raised … then dropped with no answers. The first mission was poorly laid out. Objectives were chained together for no apparent reason. I’m not saying this arc was entirely bad. The architect did put some effort into this. The critters’ names and dialogue mostly fit their factions. But overall, the story was very weak. There were a few single-word objectives.

I can see the story in this story. It could be a good story if all of the unnecessary stuff, especially the part with Nemesis, Malta, and Council, was ripped out. Just focus on the Crey and the infiltrator part. I’d suggest having the Crey impersonate the player, but the tech for that isn’t possible right now so it wouldn’t come off well. Instead, have the Crey impersonate those Paragon City Heroes that we see in the villain mayhem missions, and indicate that in the bios. Drop the references to the supergroups. That’s unnecessary. The story *could* be good, and if all the excess was removed and the relevant parts were polished, I could see this being a 4-star arc. However, as it is right now, it’s just a mess.

I see I have a queue already. FYI, I'm looking for lowbie arcs for my batch of lowbie heroes and villains. So if you have any, that would be cool.

Current Queue:

221702 - Pursuit of Liberty by @Gypsy Rose. Lv45-54 Heroic.
17006 - End Game - Final Moves by @Calash. Lv40-54 Heroic.
219484 - The History of Statesman by @jjac Lv40-50 Heroic.
251306 - MirrorsirroM by @Dot Communist Lv41-54 Heroic.

Soldiers of Fortune #4431
by @Mekkanos

Description: Fight two ruthless mercenary groups for an ancient item of power with the help of some unusual allies.

My Rating: 5 stars

My very first request! Sweet. I fire up the MA Interface and check out "Soldiers of Fortune." It's a villainous arc. With Extreme Archvillains and Extreme Minions. Yikes! It's level ranged 30-35. Unfortunately, I have no villain in that level range, so I fire up my Lv50 Ninja Blades / Super Reflexes Stalker -- Jack Ketch.

And my contact is ... Darren Wade! The (rumored) aspect of Rularuu himself! Interesting. Let's see where this goes.

Darren Wade tells me of some artifact that was used in the Mu / Oranbegan war called the "Eye of Chronos." Apparently its power was nullified by the CoT, but the power is still there waiting to be awakened by the right person. Wade isn't interested in it, but maybe I am? Well, sure, why not? Boy, that Wade guy sure is swell!

I accept, and Wade says that although he's not personally interested in the artifact itself, he *is* interested in art, and I'll find out why soon enough. Ooookay. Fortunately, the artifacts are not at the museum yet, so they're sitting around in a warehouse all weakly-guarded and stuff. Boy, I sure am lucky today!

Or not. When I enter the warehouse, I find a lot of limp bodies. Somebody beat me to the punch! I bet it's that Darrin Wade! He's a shifty guy, that one! Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I run into a custom group called the Paradigm Company. Apparently they're a bunch of mercenaries who think that because they have powers they're better than everybody else. Well, my serial killer is going to prove them wrong. I do like the costumes. They're simple, the chest logo works, and the color scheme works. Bravo on the design. It doesn't stop Jack Ketch from making mincemeat out of them, though.

Anyway, the objective of the first mission is to steal 4 pieces of art and to take out the Raid Leader. Since I'm a Stalker, I stealth to the objectives. Clicking on the objective gives me a clue, which tells me that I found a painting of a broken landscape with blood-red skies and eyeballs that appears to have teeth for eyelashes.

Hmm, a picture of the Shadow Shard. And Wade's very likely one of the aspects of Rularuu. I wonder if there's a connection there.

I find a guy who goes by the name of Hellraiser Skyes. The bio says that Hellraisers have supersonic blasts that are so destructive that it is as if hell itself has risen. The Hellraisers are the deadliest, toughest agents that Paradigm has to offer. I laugh as I slaughter him in only one hit. Being a Stalker rocks. All of a sudden there's Sky Raiders everywhere. No worries, I wipe the floor with them. I assume they're after the Eye of Chronos as well.

Unfortunately for me, Skyes says that they have already taken the Eye of Chronos. Bummer. Looks like I gotta track them down. Ah well. I've found the last art treasure, so it's off to find the Raid Leader.

Oh, apparently Hellraiser Skyes *was* the Raid Leader. Unfortunately, when I defeated him and his gang, the mission didn't complete.

Oh, I see. The objective changed from "Defeat Raider Leader" to "Defeat Sky Raider Leader." That explains it. Might want to reword that objective so that it's a bit clearer what's happening. Anyway, I find the Sky Raider leader and show him exactly who's the boss in this scenario. He mentions that the "Eye of Chronos" is not worth it. Looks like not only do I have competition from the Paradigm Company, the Sky Raiders just tossed their hat into the ring.

I inform Darrin Wade of this. He promises to help me get the Eye of Chronos. He then tells me that the news are all abuzz about a fight between the Sky Raiders and the Paradigm Company. This is the perfect opportunity to nab the Eye of Chronos from under them! Wade warns me that it'll be dangerous to enter a heated battle. I show him my matching pair of Lord Recluse's Helmet and Statesman's Helmet souvenirs, then tell him that I'll enter the battle.

Wade pats me on the head and tells me that one of the leaders of either faction probably has it. He also warns me that the PPD is there as well and probably will want to take me in as well, considering how many times I've kicked them around. I go into the mission.

Ah, it's the Family Farm map. The objectives are simple. Defeat Paradigm leader and defeat Sky Raider leader. Seem simple enough.

I find the Sky Raider leader easy enough and I do my thing. In an amusing coincidence, apparently a wandering PPD patrol or Sky Raider patrol must've found the Paradigm boss, as he was somehow defeated and the mission was quickly completed.

Eh, works for me. I read the clues. " The client prefers to stay anonymous, but is wealthy enough to secure our involvement without asking questions." But should probably be changed to "and" since "but" indicates a contradiction between the two clauses, and I don't see any contradiction between them. Of course, that begs the question ... why did the Paradigm leader bring the letter with him to the battle? In any case, it seems as if the Sky Raiders have the Eye of Chronos now, and that Paradigm is working for a wealthy benefactor.

I inform Wade of this. So who's wealthy, aware of something like the Eye of Chronos, but doesn't have his or her own batch of goons to grab it, so has to hire the Paradigm out? Wade has some ideas.

I go to the next mission. Apparently the Sky Raiders are using an abandoned Portal Corps lab, and they managed to get a portal working. So the mysterious benefactor is probably from another dimension. I wonder if this has anything to do with those mysterious Shadow Shard paintings? Let's see. For now, it's off to the Sky Raiders base to intercept the transfer of the Eye of Chronos.

I'm a little bit confused here. I thought the mysterious benefactor hired Paradigm to get the Eye of Chronos, not Sky Raiders. Or do we have TWO mysterious benefactors, one for Paradigm and one for Sky Raiders? Well, let's see if this mission clears any of that up.

I accept the next mission. Wade tells me that he will be sending some allies my way.

The mission pop-up says that the abandoned lab is clean, and mentions that the Sky Raiders never seemed to be neat freaks. I'd beg to disagree. They're technology freaks, and their warehouses in Sharkshead Isle and Striga Isle always seemed to be pretty spotless to me. I'm not surprised that they'd keep the place neat. It's not like they're the Banished Pantheon or anything. But I digress.

In any case ... I meet my first ally, and surprise, surprise, it's one of those giant eyeballs. I resist the urge to stab it to death. I leave it behind, as it's cramping my stalker style by bringing aggro on me. The objectives are to find 4 safes to search and to defeat the client.

Ah, I find the Sky Raiders' benefactor. It's ... a Nemesis Warhulk! Gaaah! I got caught in a Nemesis Plot! Oh, they came from the Shadow Shard. Of course. I go ahead and find the last few safes, even though I know there's nothing there. Mission over. Back to Wade. Not surprisingly, the Eye is gone again. Of course, we're only on Mission #3! There's still two more missions to go before we find the eye! Haven't you watched any dramatic TV shows? In any case, the Paradigm probably has the Eye now. Boy, that Eye sure gets around.

Wade's just as fed up as I am, and uses a location spell. Well, why didn't he just use that the first time around?!? That sure would've saved me a lot of time. Anyway ... Wade uses his spell to trace where the owner of the notice from Mission #2 was, and it's the Paradigm Company stronghold!

Wade says that he has a device that will hack into the Paradigm computer and tell the group that has the Eye that they're being followed. Apparently this is so that they'll run around trying to lose their imaginary pursuers. But wouldn't that just make them rush to their target faster so that they wouldn't lose it and make sure their benefactor has the Eye?

Well, Wade disagrees, apparently. He tells me that while the Paradigm goons are running around, I can take my time to find out exactly where they're going and beat them to the punch. That's my next mission.

Wade says that he can send me some more eyeballs, but they won't be any stronger. Pfft. I don't need no steenkin' eyeballs! I go into the mission.

Ok, now I'm in the Paradigm base, which is not quite as clean as the Sky Raiders base was. The objective is to hack into the system and to defeat the base guardian. I find two of the Rularuu creatures and I leave them behind. I then hack into their computer and send the "OMG Yer being FOLLOWED!!!!!!!!" message.

Ya know ... now that I've hacked into the computer ... why do I need to defeat the base guardian again? I did my job. Why can't I just leave? Ah well. I go off to find the base leader.

It's a Hellraiser Shepherd. He says that he just finished talking to the client and that the location is secured. I'll take a wild guess. The client is also Nemesis.

After I make Shepherd into my personal whipping toy, he whines that I could've simply asked to buy it. Nah, that's for wusses. I kill people *and* take the money. Oh, apparently some Sky Raiders also followed me to the base. I guess they're not complete idiots after all. It doesn't matter, since I had already hacked into the computer, so I just bid them a fond adieu and make my way back to Wade.

Wade informs me that the Sky Raiders are now keeping the Paradigm folks busy in their base, since they think that the Eye is still in the base. He also explains to me that the painting I saw in Mission #1 was painted by one of the Shadow Shard folks, and it acts as a gateway between the Shadow Shard and our world. He's been using it to send the Rularuu monsters to my help. Well, I kinda already figured that out, but I do appreciate the piece of exposition. It'll be helpful for those who have never been to the Shadow Shard.

Anyway, I check the clues, and I find out who the client is. It's ... Arachnos!!!! But wait, that doesn't make any sense. Arachnos is an organization that has a TON of goons. Why would they not simply send over some of their disposable goons to get the Eye? Why bother with contracting an outside organization for this operation? Hopefully the next mission explains that.

OK, on to Mission #5. Wade reveals that he has an ulterior motive for helping me find the Eye. Well, DUH! Apparently the Eye is not from the Mu / Oranbega war of our world ... it's from the Mu / Oranbega war of Shadow Shard!

In any case, I am to go and get the Eye, fight an AV/EB, and kick Paradigm's behinds all over the world. Very well.

It's time for the final mission. Yep, Arachnos is there. I hope there's a good explanation. The objective is to defeat the client and retrieve the Eye of Chronos. I run into an Arachnos patrol, and they're just as confused as I am. Eh, it's not like I need an excuse to beat up on Arachnos goons anyway. I find three Rularuu allies and I leave them behind as Arachnos food.

I run directly to the back room. Hey looky, there's another Hellraiser to add to my list! I quickly dispatch him and the ambush that follows.

I see an Arachnos Base Commander. I kill him ... and suddenly ... NEMESIS! Ha, I called it! Now the objective is to investigate interlopers in the tunnel. So I backtrack to the beginning of the tunnel and there's an Elite Boss. Unfortunately it's not Nemesis, but a General White. Alas, I'm at a level where I don't have Elude, but no worries. I pop some purples, and it's on.

Just to make things a little bit interesting, an Arachnos patrol decides to join in on the fun. Then there's a Sky Raider ambush afterwards. I take care of all of them. But alas ... I still haven't found the Eye of Chronos. The Sky Raiders apparently think I have them, but I don't. I guess it's back to the end room again. Ah, apparently there was a Paradigm critter that I skipped over. Killing him nets me the Eye of Chronos and ends the mission.

Back to Wade one last time. He says that he unlocked some of its power and that I should be a bit stronger now ... except I'm not. Ah well. Wade promises even greater rewards when Rularuu is freed from his prison.

Final Summary: It's a Nemesis Plot! At least I called it halfway through the arc. Throwing in Arachnos was a good red herring. The missions were all fun to play through. The custom group of Paradigm was well-done, well-designed, and not too frustrating to fight. I was a bit let down that the final AV/EB was not Nemesis himself (or one of the Fake Nemeses), but I suppose it makes sense that Nemesis would send over one of his minions to take care of a middling detail. I was able to easily solo this arc. I didn't see any obvious or not-so-obvious plot hole, nor did I see any typos. Although it is a well-constructed story arc, it felt as if it was missing that little "wow factor" that would make this arc awesome. As it is, it's a very good arc. On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd probably rate this a 8.5, just barely pushing it into the 5 stars area. Really, It's the design of the customs that pushes it over the edge. Without that, it'd be a 4-stars arc.

In Poor Taste #259920
by @Wrong Number

Description: Ever done a radio mission and pondered what the devs were thinking when they named the boss? Should these guys be out on the streets? Ms. Manners doesn't think so and she needs your help to round up the worst of the worst starting with a boss named Manhandle. It only goes downhill from there.

Rating: 4 stars

I just saw this arc posted on the forums, and I thought I'd check it out. I fire up Horsemen Brute, my Lv13 Stone / Super Strength Tanker.

Why, hello there Ms. Manners. Yes, I do remember you from "Trademark Infringement." Nice to see you again. She informs me that several of the villains found in police missions have "questionable" names and parents have been calling newspapers all upset because children are reading stories about those villains and making crude humor. So it's up to me to put a stop to me.

I'm not sure how the fact that I'll be arresting them again ... and putting their names in the newspapers again ... will stop this, but what the heck. Ms. Manners tell me that the first villain is in the Tikki Lounge. I thought it was called the Tiki Lounge, but I could be wrong.

I note the acceptance text mentions something "spitting up." I'm sensing some double entendre here. But what the heck. I go ahead and accept.

The mission auto-SK me up to 20. Not surprisingly, the sendoff has a whole bunch of double entrendres. I enter the mission and I find a large Freakshow boss holding a jackhammer. 0.o Unfortunately, even though all of the mobs are Lv20, the boss is Lv40. I quickly beat a hasty exit and drop the mission. That's a pretty nasty bug there. Hopefully that'll be fixed soon.

I then switch to somebody who might be better able to deal with a Lv40 Freakshow boss -- My Lv50 Invincible / War Mace tanker -- Citizen Razor. He's doing this on Challenge Level 2, so the bosses are bosses and Elite Bosses are Elite Bosses.

I take down the Freakshow boss without too much trouble. "Aroused" is typoed in his dialogue. Honestly, I was a bit shocked when he didn't rise up again. See, I can make my own double entrendes too! Oh, apparently he dropped a little black book that contains the name of my future victims. Wait, those are ACTUAL names put in the game by the devs?

In any case, Mission #1 done. I go and talk to Ms. Manners. After I accept the second mission, she's making all sort of puns about how bad something smells. I sense a villain with a stinky name. Call it a hunch.

The "subtitle" of Mission #2 is missing a capital letter. It should be "Any Way the Wind Blows."

I enter the mission, and my hunch is proven correct. It's a Tsoo boss, not surprisingly. There are also some optional crates of contraband cheese to destroy. I'm not sure why I'm destroying them instead of confiscating them, but what the heck, I'll play along. Destroying them nets me nothing, not even a clue. I note the critters guarding the crates say the same thing when I approach them. Might want to remove one of those lines of dialogue so that only one guard says it instead of two.

After I take down the Tsoo boss, I get a clue telling me that I found a message on his cell. The criminals are on to me and they're meeting at a place to discuss how to attack me. How convenient. OK, it's back to Ms. Manners.

Mission #3 also has a missing capital letter. It should be "Only Themselves to Blame." Judging from the mission acceptance text, I'm assuming there's some B&D involved in this particular mission.

Well I'm wrong. It's just garden-variety "questionable" names. I think it'd help strength the story a little bit of those names appeared in the clue given at the end of the first mission. In any case, there's four bosses to defeat and one optional hostage to free.

Oh, Ms. Manners is also there, although she's not mentioned in the objective. Might be a good idea to add that there as an optional objective. In any case, I freed her, then I left her behind. I'm a solo act all the way, baby!

I easily take down the four "Questionable" bosses, and the mission is over. I return to talk to Ms. Manners, who thanks me then runs off. Apparently a bunch of 7th graders got super powers and she has to stop them from making bad names.

Final Summary: Amusing missions. A lot of double-entendres flying around. Some of them got a chuckle out of me, particularly the one with the Freakshow boss using a jackhammer. But ultimately, none of them were really LOL-worthy. A few typos here and there, and the story could be strengthened by tying the bosses in mission #3 with the clue in mission #1. I'd also suggest scaling down the first mission to Lv40 so that it fits with the other two missions.

Edited: Wrong Number unpublished her arc accidentally. It's up again with a new ArcID. I edited this review to reflect the new info.

I thought I'd go ahead and join the party and make my own review thread. I can't promise I'll be as awesome a reviewer as many of the other folks providing reviews here.

This is not a quid pro quo situation, although I'd certainly appreciate it if you played my arcs and provided some feedback or comments.

As for my ranking system:

1 star: This arc is beyond horrible. There's virtually nothing redeeming here. Very likely only a farm or a poorly-disguised farm. There's no story here, or the story makes absolutely no sense at all. Typos and poor grammar abound.

2 star: The architect put in the minimal amount of effort required to publish an arc. Objectives are single words. The story is barely there. There are many typos and grammar errors. Arcs that are extremely frustrating with tedious objectives that require me to run all over the map and wasting my time will very likely get two stars.

3 stars: The story is decent. There's nothing really special about the story, it's just there. I can tell the architect did work on the arc, but the story just didn't grab my interest. Maybe I spotted a few errors here and there, but the grammar is overall competent. There's probably one or two "WTF, this doesn't make any sense" moments here.

4 stars: This arc is good. There's no obvious flaw with the story. The grammar is impeccable. There are no obvious plot holes that I saw, and the gameplay is fun and entertaining. The arc is mostly bug-free. It, however, is missing that certain *something* that would make it a 5-star arc.

5 stars: I absolutely loved this arc. The story engaged me. I enjoyed the characters and the dialogue. The missions were fun to play though, and I'd gladly play through it again. It has that "wow, that rocked!" factor. There was almost no flaws. (Note, to me, 5 stars does not mean "perfect!" -- It means the arc earned an "A" from me.)

I imagine that I'll be giving out mostly 3s and 4s.

My first review to come soon.

<QR>

Thanks for the tips. Got Arena Survivalist and Pentad Victor on my badger!

Thanks for the review. It is much appreciated.

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the last being an easier version of the Vahzilok? Actually, I think it's a subset.

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Kinda. The Vahzilok usually spawn in groups of 4. Putting them in a custom group makes them spawn in 3s instead of 4s. Somebody pointed out that even though I was doing it to make the Vahzilok slightly easier, it could've been constructed as hiding them in a custom group to fool players. So I put the note to let people know that Vahzilok is in the arc.

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The contact explains this to me better. Note the contact could have a description in Story Settings, that I would access from Ask about this contact.

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I didn't know that. I had already given my character a bio in the character creation process. I thought it'd show up in the "Ask About the Contact" part automatically. Apparently it doesn't. Thanks for letting me know. Alpha's bio has been added.

All the typos you pointed out have been corrected. Thanks for catching them.



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Why were these guys down here, apparently unprotected, if my contact already knew this sewer has long been infested with Vahz?

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Same reason why the Vahz never seem to run out of victims. People are stupid. The contact didn't know about the victims, just that the sewers were full of Vahzilok.

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His name was Omega. My contact's name is Alpha, making this seem strange - he's supposedly a bad guy? His description doesn't help much, but it does acknowledge that.

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An earlier reviewer had a HUGE issue with me providing too much information about Omega. He felt that it ruined the storyline for him. So I decided to just leave everything vague until the end as to not ruin the story.

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So I'm off to get Omega from Oranbega, who is already known to teleport out on defeat. What am I doing differently this time that might allow me to catch him?

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You're helping Alpha study the teleportation technology that Omega uses. I added a line to indicate that.

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Entry pop-up says "at least it's only the Skulls" - if I'm in Oranbega, I can bet I might encounter Circle of Thorns here. Indeed, I did. The pop-up misrepresents me.

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I didn't mean it as in "the Skulls are the only mobs in the area." I meant it as in "The Skulls are much easier to deal with than the Vahzilok." As in "Oh, it's only you. I thought it was somebody much worse."

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My contact now has been given access by Synapse to the database regarding Tyrant's dimension (where Omega came from). Granted access - isn't Alpha working for the group put in place by Freedom Phalanx (includes Synapse) specifically to monitor Tyrant's dimension? So why wouldn't the Freedom Phalanx have provided that data from the beginning? This makes no sense.

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Good point. I removed that mention.



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Two hostages say weird stuff, about finding her magazines, about him forgetting a date. I don't see any relevance to the plot?

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The magazine line was left over from an earlier objective that I took out. I left it in anyway because I thought the line was funny. As for the guy forgetting the date -- when you first find him, he says "But I thought today was Casual Friday!" and he's wearing a horrible Hawaiian shirt.

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Perhaps Omega could be set as "Boss only to complete".

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He's been set to "Boss only to complete" on all the missions where he's a required objective, including this one.

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And I can't find the computer that comes next, after searching the map three times, top to bottom to top. I have to quit.

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I think adding that objective borked the mission. Although I've been able to complete it without any problem when I've ran though it, at least three people (including you) have told me they were unable to complete the final mission. I simply removed it. I wanted to give the player a sense of victory at the end by preventing the artifacts from being sent. Ultimately I decided to go back to my original ending, which had the artifacts being sent to Praetoria but at least you captured Omega.

Ultimately, it looks as if the story didn't really work for you. Ah well. That's all right. Your feedback did help me in some areas, so thanks for them.

Venture did a review of this arc, which can be found here:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...age=0&vc=1

Based on his feedback, and those of some others, I made some more tweaks to the arc.

The biggest tweak is that Omega is now no longer an Elite Boss, but a regular ol' Boss. Suggested Difficulty Level to play this arc is at 2, so that the bosses spawn as bosses instead of being downgraded to Lts.

I also added in some information regarding why you, a lowbie, are being sent off to do this instead of the mighty Lv40+ heroes.

I will be taking another look at the final mission when I have the time. Something funky is going on with the chained objectives and I need to figure out what's going on and how to fix it.

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The Praetorians are a threat level 40+ outfit; why is this job going to security level 10-14 characters?

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The Longbow is led by Miss Liberty, have heavy-hitters such as Crimson and Indigo, and is backed up by the might of the Freedom Phalanx. Why is your Lv1 villain picking fights with them in Mercy Island?

You're not dealing with the big guns of Praetoria (yet). You're dealing with one of their lower-level threats. Tyrant tried to blaze in with the big guns and that failed, so he decided to take a different approach this time and send in a "small gun" and try to infiltrate Paragon City from the bottom up. I thought I explained that, but I might've done that in the Wolfpack arc instead. I'll have to reread the arc and see where I can add that in.

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The browser claims that this uses an easier version of the Vahzilok, but I didn't see any change.

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A typical Vahzilok group (On Heroic) usually has four minions or 1 Lt and 2 minions. When I put them in their own custom group, their spawn started following the rules of other CoH groups (3 minions, 1 minion & 1 Lt, or 1 solo Lt). That makes them a little bit easier to deal with. I don't know how much this affects the Vahzilok spawning behavior on higher difficulty levels.

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the Praetorian counterpart to the Freedom Corps ("Force Initiative"...the author's invention, as far as I know, and thus likely to be contradicted fairly soon)

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Force Contingent, actually. I plan on bringing in Wolfpack underlings in later arcs, and using a reskinned Longbow group. The Longbow critters have gigantic "FC" on their chests that cannot be edited out. Just my way or preemptively hand-waving that away. When Going Rogue comes out, and a bunch of new mobs, including Tyrant's own "Longbow/Arachnos" group, show up I'll just change over to that. That's an easy enough detail to fix when the time comes.

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and take it to Omega, who is supposed to spawn after the Boss' entire encounter is dealt with...but didn't.

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That's odd. You're the second person that's happened to. It's never happened to me during any of my playthroughs. Out of curiosity, what difficulty level did you play it on?

That map has five "rear" objective spawn points. Three are taken up by the portal generators, one by the Clockwork boss, and one by Omega. So there should not be any problem at all. It's weird that's happened twice now. I'll have to take a look at that.

Thanks for the review and the feedback.

On Pinnacle I set up a solo SG and a solo VG filled with my alts. The Solo VG was always intended to have Praetorian counterparts to the toons in my SG.

SG (Horsemen) :: VG (Wolfpack)
Razor (Scrapper) :: Blunt (Stalker)
Brute (Tanker) :: Savage (Brute)
Sekhmet (Blaster) :: Anubis (Corrupter)
Streak (Controller) :: Glare (Dominator)
Maniac (Defender) :: Lunatic (Mastermind)
Vishnu (Peacebringer) :: Shiva (Crab)
Athena (Warshade) :: Arachne (Widow)

Some feedback:

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Wanted to try this after Wolfpack. Had a lot of fun, now on the side of Alpha. The last mission unfortunately bugged out on my duo team... got the infamous 'boss doesn't spawn' bug, so I wasn't able to defeat the final Omega. I may come back and give it another go another time. Still enjoyed.

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Looks like that annoying bug strikes again! Bummer.

The arc is now up to 18 ratings with an average of 4. It's slow going.

I played through it again, this time using a Lv10/11 Fire / Thermal Controller. In the first mission Omega kicked me around, but once I figured out what to do he was cake the rest of the way. My vet powers did help immensely, though. Only my Lv10 ice/ice blaster remains. If I can solo this arc with him as well, I'm tagging this arc "Solo-Friendly."

I don't think you've ran my one-off arc, "Cat War!" yet. It's #2788. It's not as funny as either of PW's humorous arcs, and it's composed mostly of inside jokes, but what the heck. It's one more rating for me and something for you to do. :-)

Made some minor changes to this arc ... namely, I fixed the souvenir clue that you get when you complete the arc. I had originally posted the arc on test, and somebody played through it and gave some feedback. I then made some minor changes to the arc based on the feedback ... but I forgot to reflect those changes in the final souvenir clue. D'OH! Well I went back and fixed that.

Soloed through the arc on Difficulty Level 1 with my Lv11 / 12 Spines/Willpower Stalker. Was able to complete the arc without any deaths. Granted, it *is* a Stalker, which is ideally suited for solo play, but he didn't have Placate yet and was able to stand up to the various enemies.

I pimped the arc on the "MA Arc Finder" global chat, and got a few bites. With apologizes to PW, here's the feedback.

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Well done, I had a lot of fun on this arc. Liked the Horsemen reskin as I mentioned, and I liked how you used patrols and Alpha's ambushes. Omega was quite contemptuous of every one (especially Azuria, loved that), making it feel very villainous. Tying the 5 factions into the origins was very clever. (Found a minor typo at the start of mish 2 (buffon instead of buffoon)). 5 stars!

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Typo has been corrected. I deliberately made Omega contemptuous of everybody except you, the player. Although I like most of the CoV arcs, one of the biggest gripes I have with many CoV contacts is how they treat you like a lackey. I tried to have Omega treat the player with respect. I hope that came through.

BTW, the Horsemen reskin mentioned above refers to my recoloring of Longbow agents. I changed their color schemes. The Horsemen is a subgroup of the Freedom Corps (like the Longbow is) dedicated to monitoring Praetoria.

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Very well done. I enjoyed the story and map design. Worked great with lowbies, and that can be hard to find in the MA!

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This is a great lowbie level mission. I had fun running it with a stalker! Looking forward to the next one.

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That's all the feedback I have for now. Please do check the arc out. :-)

Arc Name: The Horsemen Chronicles (Part 1)

Arc ID: 195149

Keywords: Canon-related, Sci-Fi (should be Soloable as well)

Length: Long (5 missions)

Morality: Heroic

Enemy Groups: Vahzilok, Skulls, Outcasts, Hellions, Clockwork

Level Range: 10-14

Description: Omega, a mysterious figure from Praetoria, is collecting artifacts. Your task as a Horseman is to discover the secrets behind Omega's actions before it's too late.

Now that Issue 15 is here, I can finally publish the first part of "The Wolfpack Chronicles," the villainous counterpart to "The Horsemen Chronicles."

Here's the description:

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Tyrant wants to open a permanent portal into the Rogue Isles, but he can't do it without your help. Collect the five artifacts needed to establish a permanent connection between Praetoria and the Rogue Isles.

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This story arc is intended for Lv10-14 villains. As always, I am looking for feedback and constructive criticism.

The arc ID is #242869.