Citizen_Razor

Just put in a line somewhere that states that your boss teleported away. Like you, I'd like an animation to show that. Failing that, you just have to work around it somehow.

Technically, they all teleport anyway. They're teleported to the Zig or to wherever LR keeps his victims.

This arc is now Issue 15 friendly.

I set the level range on all missions to 10-14, and changed the final destructible object in mission 5 into a clickable object. Keywords have been added. The status has been changed into "Looking for Feedback."

Now it's off to make some changes to "The Wolfpack Chronicles (Part 1)" and to publish it.

I don't really care why there are suddenly 2 HoF arcs up. I'm just glad they're up now so my badgers can work on the Critic badge. I think the rating system is beyond screwed up and too open to being manipulated (both by the 5-star citadels and the 0/1-star griefers) and needs to be desperately overhauled.

I also think that once an arc reaches HoF status, it shouldn't be knocked out of that spot by griefers. As far as I'm aware, only three arcs have successfully made it to HoF status -- "A Perfect Brew" by Green Dwarf, The Footsteps Initative by Muu, and now "Lizards and People" by Gadget Don. Three arcs, total, in the 2 1/2 months since issue 14 came out. I think that proves that HoF is plenty tough to earn and worthy of earning a permanent "DC-like" status once it achieves that point.

Custom critters should be DB/something. DB seem to be the weakest melee sets.

In-game critters should be Freakshow.

Use the "City Map 02" map for a quick mission.

I'd try to toss in a random Rikti Communication Officer in there somewhere if possible.

Toss in the words "Meow" or "Rikti Doll" in there somewhere. Maybe "cow" as I've seen that word pop up recently.

Thanks to Bubbawheat for his play-through and review, which can be found here:

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

Based on his feedback, I made several changes, mostly correcting a few typos here and there, as well as clarifying plot points here and there. I changed also changed the title color from dark blue to light blue so that it's easier to read, and changed the "Accept" text in each mission to add some variety.

I also changed the setting of the final mission. It uses the same map, but the mission briefing and send-off now refers to it as "a lab in Steel Canyon" instead of "Portal Corps in Peregrine Island."

I played through it on two different toons to make sure that it's solo-friendly.

A Lv11-12 Claws / Regen Scrapper
A Lv10-12 Stone / Super Strength Tanker

Both of them were able to successfully complete the arc without too much trouble. Next I plan on running through this with a ice/ice blaster and a fire/thermal controller.

Just to add to your ever-growing pile of arcs to play/review.

The Horsemen Chronicles (Part 1): Arc Id#195149

After thinking about it, I decided to just go ahead and make the necessary changes to this arc. I didn't like how it currently was, and although the tweaked version was already on Test, I knew that most people would rather play the Live version. Besides I had already asked several people to review my arc and I didn't want to just up and change the Arc ID #. But at the same time I knew there were a lot of flaws in the arc currently on live and I didn't think it was fair to tell people to "wait until Issue 15" when some of the flaws could be fixed right now.

So I went through this arc and made a lot of changes, based on the feedback and recommendations of various people.

Entire Arc
<ul type="square">[*]Removed Cavatina the Lv10-14 Madness Mage from the entire arc and removed all mentions of him. He was only there to force the level range to be Lv10-14 anyway, and he was essentially shoehorned into the story. [*]A reviewer mentioned that when he checked Omega's information, he had the plot ruined for him. Apparently this was so bad that he gave my story a 1-star rating because of it. In any case, I changed the info for Omega in each mission to demonstrate what you know about him at that given point. That should prevent the player from having the story ruined for him/her.[*]Changed mentions of Omega sending artifacts to Praetoria. Now Omega keeps all artifacts until the final mission (this closes a plot hole).[/list]
Mission 1
<ul type="square">[*]Changed the description of the Body Bags clue to show that the corpses are wearing an uniform with the Water Department ID badge.[*]Changed the description of the body that had the ID badge ripped off. It is now a hole in his shirt. Because the other bodies have the ID badge, you know what kind of an ID badge it is.[*]Changed the mission objective description. It now says "Keep an eye open for anything unusual" and will disappear once you find the correct body bag.[*]Reduced the number of glowies.[*]Added more interaction text.[*]The Vahzilok have been placed in their own custom group called VahziIok. Players were finding it too difficult to fight the Vahzilok. By putting them in a custom group the number of mobs were reduced to 3 per group (instead of 4) or 1 Lt and 1 minion (instead of 1 Lt with 2 minions). That should make it somewhat easier to deal with the Vahzilok mobs. [/list]
Mission 2
<ul type="square">[*]Added information in the mission introduction to show that your contact has been researching into Omega.[*]Cavatina the Madness Mage was changed into Tarsis, and the level range changed from 10-14 to 5-14 (hopefully that'll make the critter a little bit easier to deal with). [*]Rationale for Tarsis bringing Omega to Oranbega added.[*]Description of Oranbega village changed to Oranbega section.[*]Number of Skulls patrol reduced.[*]Added Skulls / CoT battles. [*]Added more interaction text.[/list]
Mission 3
<ul type="square">[*]Added more information from your contact about Omega in the mission introduction.[*]Changed the Omega battle so that it is optional.[*]Changed the treasure chests to rubble.[*]Changed the mission objective so that it now reads "Locate the third artifact."[*]Mission completes when you locate the third artifact. [*]Added more interaction text.[*]Reduced the number of the Outcast patrols.[*]Added an Outcast ambush when you locate the third artifact.[*]Added Outcast/Troll battles.[*]Added Troll patrols. [/list]
Mission 4
<ul type="square">[*]Added text in the mission introduction to clarify the situation you find yourself in. The Hellions now do free most of the hostages, they just don't free all of them. [*]Changed the Omega battle so that it is optional.[*]Removed the set of lockers objective. [*]Changed the order of Sam Wincott (captive) and Nate Pohula (captive). Nate Pohula should now be the second captive you find, and Sam Wincott should now be the last captive you find.[*]Mission completes when you free all hostages.[/list]
Mission 5
<ul type="square">[*]Added text in the mission introduction telling you that your contact now can override Omega's teleportation signal.[*]Added reason for why you have to capture Omega instead of simply leaving with the fifth artifact.[*]Replaced Cavatina boss with Crackhammer (Clockwork Prince Cannon) boss. Updated dialogue accordingly.[*]Changed the "Crate" glowie into "Robot Parts" glowie. [*]Reduced the number of glowies.[*]Added more interaction text.[*]Changed the mission objective to "Find the Etched Clockwork Piece." When you find it, the objective disappears and directs you to the next one -- Destroy Portal Devices.[*]"Portal Creators" renamed into "Portal Devices."[*]Added an objective after you defeat Omega. You now must find the Portal Computer and reconfigure it so that Omega's mission is not successful. [/list]
Changes to Make when Issue 15 hits Live
<ul type="square">[*]Set the level range to Lv10-14. With the removal of the Madness Mage, the level range now varies from Lv1 to Lv20, depending on which enemy faction is featured in the missions. I put in a note that the arc is intended for Lv10-14 in the description. [*]Change the final objective in Mission 5 from "Defendable Object" to "Collect An Object." Currently it's not possible, but it will be when Issue 15 hits live.[*]Add keywords.[/list]
I'm still not 100% satisfied with it. I've had a few mentions that the Portal Corps map is too "high-level" for the Lv10-14 range and that the janitor should be able to deal with the threat. However, where else would somebody go to in order to create portals but Portal Corps? Also, there is a problem with the map outlay. The map does not allow for any glowies or defendable objects in the back room, so after you defeat Omega you'll end up having to backtrack to find the computer. I'm considering changing it to a random small/medium tech map instead so that I can have a little more control to chain my objectives in the final mission and to reduce backtracking to a minimum.

Still, I think that the changes I made should strength the storyline and make the gameplay a less repetitive. Instead of 10 required boss battles, there's now only 5, and you're only required to fight Omega three times (although you can fight him five times if you want to). If you've played it before, I'd love it if you replayed it and adjusted your ratings accordingly.

Sorry you failed. :-(

I need that blasted MoSTF badge myself.

If you're still looking for a Lv10-14 arc, I have one. "The Horsemen Chronicles (Part 1)" Arc #195149

See, I disagree. I think the fact that PW turns that cliche on its head is what makes this arc so strong.

Typically, stories about Nazi Germany are about two things:

1) You travel back in time to prevent Hitler from becoming chancellor of Germany. You either 1) fail or 2) bring around something far worse than what Hitler was.

OR

2) The story takes place in an alternative history where Germany won World War II. Hitler (then usually Himmler) rules the world with an iron fist.

This arc actually twists BOTH of those. You travel backward in time to take Hitler out SO that you can in turn rule Nazi Germany which then rules the world with an iron fist.

Nowhere in PW's arc does it say that you bring around the Holocaust. That is left completely up to you. Maybe you do bring around the Holocaust. Maybe you bring around a different sort of Holocaust (kill all 'em French!). Or maybe you become a ruler like Dr. Doom rules Lativeria. Who knows? It's completely up to YOU, as the player, to decide what happens as a result of your helping Germany win World War II.

I think that, as far as villainous arcs goes, this is one of the best arcs out there. Only New Age Ronin's "Becky's Revenge" comes close as a good villainous arc, and that one is more humor-themed.

"Axis and Allies" earns Citizen Razor's Seal of Approval.

It is possible to trigger multiple objectives off the same collection objective, as you say. It, however, is not possible to trigger ONE objective off multiple objectives.

For example ...

I can set a situation where you click on a glowie, which then makes a boss, a destructible object, and a defensible object all show up.

However, you can't make a situation where in order for a boss to show up, you have to defeat his lts, find a glowie, and successfully protect an object. You can make a boss show up by defeating his lts, make a boss show up by finding a glow, or make a boss show up by protecting an object. But you can't make it so that you have to do all three in order to make the boss show up.

That's what I meant.

In the last week, my arc has been rated several times. Only one person bothered to leave any feedback, though. At least it was positive feedback.

[ QUOTE ]
Very cool story, like the way it ties in with “Going Rogue”. Very fun to play arc for the lowbies. :-)

[/ QUOTE ]

I've made some changes to the arc on Test. Right now I think that as soon as Issue 15 hits live, I'm unpublishing #195149, copying over the test version to live, then republishing it with a new arc id #. I only have 17 ratings, so it's not like I'm losing a high number of ratings, and it's too much of a pain to go to the saved file and change everything all over again. If there were a way to republish from a saved file (instead of directly from the MA interface itself), I'd do that. But since there isn't, there's no point in doing all of that work.

When Issue 15 hits, I'll make a new thread with the new arc ID # for this arc and its counterpart (and Part 2, if I have it finished by then).

However, if you want to check out the polished version of this arc, it's currently published on Test. Arc Id #225334.

Likewise, I have a new story arc, also on Test, that is the villainous counterpart to this arc. It's called "The Wolfpack Chronicles (Part 1)" and its Arc Id is #225335

(Insert Sign Here): Adventure and fortune are there for the taking so take them. Today a portal can open to an entirely new dimension and horrors you might not have even dreamed about a week ago. This is a moment to join the Horsemen in their vigil of Praetoria. (Arc #195149, designed for Lv10-14 heroes).

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If 500 people answer "yes" for a particular arc, give the author another slot.

It doesn't matter how many people say "no". If 500 people want to see a new arc by a particular author, then that author has an audience and deserves a new slot to make more arcs for their audience.

Does that mean every person who has 500 fans deserves to be in the Hall of Fame? No, because I'm proposing that we

Disassociate the "Hall of Fame" reward from the "extra arc slot" reward.

I understand that the "Hall of Fame" is supposed to be "the best of the best according to player votes". However, in practical terms, that will always be "the most widely-publicized arcs with the widest possible appeal", and I think it's a mistake to only give out extra slots to those authors. (It's a similar problem to the kind of thinking prevalent in the mainstream American entertainment industry, but that's neither here nor there.)

500 positive votes should be the minimum requirement for a new arc slot, but the Hall of Fame requirements can be much higher. For example, at least 80% "Yes" votes out of at least 1000 ratings.

[/ QUOTE ]

I approve of this. Best idea I've seen proposed thus far.

Sounds interesting. My arc is currently in limbo, as I'm waiting for issue 15 and its changes to republish my arc and fix its flaws. But once issue 15 drops, I'll be sure to come back and ask for your feedback.

I can has ur stuf plz?

I just tried out "Teen Phalanx Forever!". Very funny arc, particularly missions #2 and #3. You captured the feeling and tone of a "teen supergroup" perfectly. The dialogue was witty. I gave it a well-deserved 5 stars. If I could give it 6 stars, I would. IMO, arcs like this is why the MA was created in the first place.

Very well done.

When you get the chance, check my arc out. It has been, for the most part, well-received.

[ QUOTE ]
Omega, a mysterious figure originating from Praetoria, is collecting artifacts. Discover the secret behind Omega's actions before it's too late! (Level 10-14 arc) #195149

[/ QUOTE ]

I have a possible arc for Taraklis when she reaches the Lv10-14 range.

The Horsemen Chronicles, Part 1 (#195149).

Feedback is welcome. (And yeah, I know the Madness Mage is repetitive -- he'll be gone when Issue 15 arrives and I can manually set level limits.)

Sorry the story didn't work out for you. Still, thanks for the feedback. I'll take them into consideration and hopefully make the story better.

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You know, just to get this out of the way, I don't get this story. Tyrant's trying to invade our dimension! There's an EB in every mission! LEVELS 10-14!

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EBs start showing up in Lv10-15 arcs in CoV. Clamor, at the end of the Posi TF, is an EB. But really, if there was a way to make the critter a boss on Heroic without making it an EB and having it scale down to a Boss on Heroic, I would've went with that. Since there isn't, I made it an EB.

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10-14 are when you start taking down the bosses of minor gangs and investigating some of the groups you'll fight the leaders of at 20. Not when you save this entire dimension from evil mirror Statesman.

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I was going for an epic storyline that spanned across all levels. One of the things that I find disappointing about CoX is the lack of a "epic" storyline that starts when you're Lv1 and spans all the way until you're Lv50. Sure, there's the Kheldian storyline and the SoA storyline, and I supposed the "Destined One" storyline as well, but the SoA storyline is weak, and the "Destined One" storyline is scattershot.

[ QUOTE ]
Ah, the Vazhilok pollutant plot.

...but exactly how am I supposed to know that a corpse used to have a water department ID badge? There are LOTS of corpses that don't have water department ID badges on them.

[/ QUOTE ]

Good point, something I'll have to think about.

[ QUOTE ]
So, I have to find the right body, backtrack to fight a boss, then go back to the boss room to fight another boss.

Ah, the first of five Five Parts Of Arbitrary.

---

A... a village in Oranbega? Oranbega is a giant sprawling subterranean city! That's like saying "a village in Manhattan", there's no place for it to be.

You can call it "a small section of the Oranbega caves" or something.

[/ QUOTE ]

Noted.

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It could have been something light in that display case, yes. Or it could have been something heavily that was magically levitating, as magic things tend to do!

So this guy can teleport out and he's already got the thing I was trying to stop him from getting.

...why am I fighting him, again? Honest question, here. It doesn't seem to even slow him down any.

Also, you don't need multiple patrols saying the same thing.

---

Multiple patrols saying the same thing here, too. On entrance, even. (also street punks don't really say "fellow")

...and can I get a little variety on the decoy chest messages, too?

Okay! Now I have what this guy was trying to find!

...why am I not just bailing? If he can't get it his portal won't be complete.

[/ QUOTE ]

In the version on Test, Omega is optional and you can bail without defeating him.

But at this point, you're not supposed to know why Omega is collecting the artifacts and what he is planning on doing with it. So ideally, you want to capture him and interrogate him and find out what he's doing.

Obviously I need to change the character description.

[ QUOTE ]
Okay, okay, wait a second. This guy is trying to open a portal from Praetorian Earth to this one that is going to lead to the entire planet being slaughtered and/or enslaved. (I don't know if Alpha has told me this yet but it's in Omega's description every dang time I fight him.)

And an office building is more important than this?

...yes. Apparently it is. So much so that I just GIVE UP THE THING THAT CAN SAVE THE PLANET.

...how do I know Sam Wincott keeps a badge of honor in his locker? And that he took it to work today?

Ah, I see. But I found the glowie before I sprung him.

[/ QUOTE ]

Another thing I changed on test. Now Sam Wincott tells you that the badge was taken from him. There are no more lockers.

[ QUOTE ]
You know, the same boss fight over and over again just gets kinda boring after I've seen him maybe twice.

---

Clockwork at Portal Corp. The guys who study Rularuu for a living. Um. One of the guys broadcasting for a farm team could probably knock them over with his pinky, but okay...

Okay! I have the last artifact! Now this guy can't open a portal over to this side!

Why am I even bothering to do anything else in this lab?

...why are the Clockwork building portal machines? How do the Clockwork even know how to build portal machines? Wouldn't they have done this already so Clocky can get a pep talk from his world-conquering other self?

...having scooped up all but one of the crates, the HUD text tells me I have to find the etched clockwork piece. But... I already have it.

...okay, they're not building portal machines. They're tricking me into destroying them to make their job easier.

And picking my damn pocket.

So let's see, thus far I've put the entire world in mortal danger THREE TIMES, and I had no choice in any of them.

...and apparently this last time IT TOOK. The one thing I wasn't supposed to do under any circumstances JUST FREAKING HAPPENED.

Gee, exit text, do you think I've forgotten about the bit of fingerpointing you did after the first mission? Eesh.

---

Storyline - *. I want to go negative here. I understand this is a setup for a larger arc, but I just oopsed my way into DOOMING THE ENTIRE WORLD. THREE TIMES. Most people can only manage once and they have to TRY even then!


[/ QUOTE ]

Well, that's a bit harsh, but I can see where you're coming here. I wonder if I changed the description of the boss so that you didn't what the boss was doing until the end, if that would change how you perspective the story.

In any case, you make many good points. I'll have to take a second look at the story and figure out how to move the story forward without making the hero being stupid.

[ QUOTE ]
Design - ***. The custom is nice. But a lot of times I passed Cavatina's position on the map by the time I dug up the glowie that was supposed to spawn him and I had to backtrack. For the first four missions can't he just start out on the map?

[/ QUOTE ]

Cavatina is only there to force the mission to be Lv10-14. He's already gone from the arc on Test, since you can manually set the level limits there. The Madness Mage only shows up in Mission #2 now.

The thing is, I wanted to "save" Omega for last. I wanted the player to find the artifact and defeat Cavatina *then* fight Omega. But the current MA setup only allow you to tie an objective to one previous objective. So I could either have you find the (missing) artifact then fight Omega, or defeat Cavatina then fight Omega. But not find the missing artifact and defeat Cavatina then fight Omega. My compromise was to find the artifacts, then fight Cavatina, then fight Omega.

In any case, it's a moot point as Cavatina is no longer in the second version of the story.

[ QUOTE ]
Gameplay - ***. Fighting the same two bosses mission after mission after mission just gets boring.

[/ QUOTE ]

Removing Cavatina should help, as should making Omega optional in Missions #4 and #5.

I debated with myself whether I should not even introduce Omega at all until the final mission. But I was concerned that some players might find Omega too difficult and get frustrated when they reach the end of the arc and only to fight the "unbeatable" boss and feel like they wasted their time on the arc. So I put Omega in the first mission to get that out of the way. If you can beat him in the first mission, you're set for the rest of the arc. If you can't, well, at least it's only one mission and you haven't wasted that much time.

So on one hand, you have some repetitiveness. On the other hand, you have frustration if you can't beat the "Big Bad" at the end of a long arc. Which one is worse? I don't know.

[ QUOTE ]
Detail - *. Omega has what I assume is his default description in the first mission. Reading it there ruined the rest of the story.

[/ QUOTE ]

Clearly I'll have to change that.

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Overall - *. Not an average, since I would really rate story and detail lower than 1 if I could. Detail because I ruined the plot of the arc for myself in the first mission just by checking somebody's description. Story because I have to be dumb enough to doom the world multiple times for it to work.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry you didn't like it. I hope some of my changes will address some of your concerns, but ultimately I think my story just didn't work for you. Ah well.

Still, thanks for playing through my arc. You provided some very good feedback and gave me a lot of things to think about.

[ QUOTE ]
Actually i'm wondering when the next picks for Dev's Choice / Hall of Fame are going up. It's been a while

[/ QUOTE ]

This.

It's been nearly two months since any new Dev's Choice arcs were put up.

This isn't what the devs promised would happen when MA was announced.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

If you don't mind, check out my arc, #195149, "The Horsemen Chronicles (Part I)."


[/ QUOTE ]

I'll keep it in mind once it actually shows up on the site. But for now I have two people to play and two days to play them in, and then two more arcs for the following days. The future's looking so determinate I want to keep scalars far away.


[/ QUOTE ]

No worries. I just checked and it's up on CoHMR now.

http://cohmissionreview.com/2009/06/...t-i/#more-1203

Get around to it when you can. The arc's kinda stalled at the moment, really, as I can't make any of the major improvements I want to do until Issue 15 arrives.

If you don't mind, check out my arc, #195149, "The Horsemen Chronicles (Part I)."

I just posted it on the CoHMR site, and the thread for it is here:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat....=0#Post13598333

Thanks!

Thanks for your play through and review. I made a few changes based on your comments (all on the Test version and will be brought to Live when Issue #15 arrives).

<ul type="square">[*]Corrected a few text errors, particularly putting in $hisher substitutions in place.[*]Added a few Skulls/CoT battles in Mission #2 to liven things up a little bit. Hey, the Skulls are invading Oranbega. I doubt the CoT would just sit around and let that happen.[*]Made the Omega boss battles in Missions #3 and #4 optional. I changed the goal of Mission #3 to get the artifact before Omega does. In Mission #4, your primary goal is to free the hostages. Hopefully those two changes will reduce the time it takes to complete this arc and make the arc a little bit less repetitive. I so wish I could make Omega ambush you when you free Sam Wincott, but I don't want to set up a situation where you have three or four Omegas ambushing you and wiping the floor with you.[/list]
If anybody else plays through this arc, feel free to give me some feedback. I am constantly striving to improve this arc.

[ QUOTE ]
Cutting right to the chase, I gave this arc four stars. It had a pretty solid story but suffered a little along the way. The arc starts with a representative of the Horsemen asking you to help them out. It seems that a feller from the Praetorian alternate universe is trying to open a portal between our worlds and, naturally, we'd get the short end of the stick on it. To avoid this, the first thing he does is send me off to fight some Vahlizok (or however its spelled) in a sewer. My character is rightfully sceptical that the best way to save the world is by conducting sewer sweeps. But, as it turns out, there's bad guys (well, worse-than-usual guys) down there and they're collecting various tchotchkes which will allow them to open the afore mentioned portal. Rather than go through it mission by mission, you can pretty much sum it up as "Bad guy wants a thingy, you need to stop the bad guy from getting the thingy... bad guy gets the thingy."

This is really the flaw in an otherwise well executed story arc. Each mission is identical to the point where I felt as though Cavatina &amp; I were "Sam the Sheepdog" and "Ralph Wolf" from the old cartoons. The ones where they start the short by punching in and greeting one another, conduct some hijinx against one another and... before the big boom can come, the whistles blows, they punch out and and say "See you tomorrow, Sam." "See ya tomorrow, Ralph." This was also a detriment because you run into a main bad guy again and again and, by mission #3, I knew "Ok, have 2 greenies and a break free and this'll be cake". The story advanced but the missions felt largely the same.

[/ QUOTE ]

Part of that is dealt with, I hope, in the revisions currently on Test. But I will take your advice in mind and work on some things to make the missions a little bit more varied.

The first step, obviously, is removing Cavatina (who is only there to force the missions to be Lv10-14) from the arc. I'll think about what else I need to do to spruce things up a little bit and make everything less repetitive.

I did put Omega in the missions instead of holding him off until the final battle on purpose. I've seen several complaints where people were enjoying an arc only to run right into a frustrating battle at the end of the arc, thereby making them feel as if they've wasted their time as they couldn't complete the arc (especially if it took two hours to get to that point). I didn't want people who played this arc to encounter this problem, so I put the "frustrating" stuff right off the bat. If you can get past the first mission, you can complete the entire arc easily.

[ QUOTE ]
Beyond that, there were some minor flaws such as that I don't think Skulls own bandanas, The Bad Guy asks if I didn't learn my lesson last time (erm... I beat you last time, hence us being in Mission #2) and my female hero overheard a thug saying they "were warned about him" (hint: use $himher).

[/ QUOTE ]

Ha, good catch. I went in and edited all of the text substitutions in. I did that in a few places but obviously didn't catch all of them.

As for the Skulls Bandana, it's a souvenir in the game.

http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Skulls_Bandana

[ QUOTE ]
I don't want to sound too critical though because I enjoyed the story and felt I had it largely pieced together before the contact filled me in (I was close but on a slightly different track). With some more variety in the missions, this would have been a five star arc. With a weaker story, it would have been a three (no major errors but nothing exceptional). I trust that the revisions Citizen_Razor has planned will push it upwards rather than downwards

Oh, and this was a pretty long arc to play straight through. I think, in total, it took me a touch over two hours.

[/ QUOTE ]

Some of my changes should make it a little bit shorter. Removing three boss battles will help, and I made two of the Omega battles optional (in mission #3, where you get the artifact before he does, and in mission #4 where he's only hanging around to taunt you). I also added a few CoT / Skulls battle in Mission #2 to spruce up things. Hopefully that'll cut the time and repetitiveness down somewhat.