Columnist_Freak

Thank you for the thorough and helpful review.

To be honest I haven't checked that Arc in a long while, and I realized it's not even telling the story I wanted to tell, which is obvious from your comments and corrections. I'm very grateful for the help with any spelling and I've already addressed many corrections you made, as well as rewriting the arc a little since I noticed that there were lots of plot holes.

You are right though, Global Heroics and The League are both a real Super Group and real Villain Group on Triumph, of which I am a member. Originally I would have had them introduced as a side part of the story, but I did not wish to steal the spotlight away from the player, so I cut them out except for in the background plot. Now that I've edited it, it should become clear as to why they are mentioned in name only.

I'll set myself up to play another one of yours and give it a thorough review in return as thanks.

Having played your Axis arc and thoroughly enjoying it, I decided now that I felt that my own Arc was ready for more criticism I decided to try out your Papers and Paychecks arc, which I've been eying for some time.

I played the arc with Webmaster Surge, my level 43 Crab Spider.


Overall, I was going to give this arc a solid 4 out of 5, until I got to the last mission and was presented with a specific choice. Having made my decision and being pleased with the results, (And the fact that this was the first of 14 arcs I've played that actually had a choice in it) I decided to give this 5 stars.

What I really liked:

1. Its a breath of fresh comedic air to be a temporary employee of one of the villain groups of the game, and you did a wonderful job presenting just how frustrated the Crey Employees must feel when they are being attacked on all sides during the period they clock in each day until eventually heading home.

2. Jenny the ____ was a really nice touch, and the fact that she showed up in every mission kept me looking for her in the 3-5th just to see where she would pop up. Her dialog was well written, seeing as how I lost track of her a couple times and got to listen to her thoughts on that.

3. I absolutely love it when people place a "team" of heroes in villainous missions to let us try to take on multiple characters at once. Thanks to the limits of the system, its not easy to place four to five unique individuals in the same spawn, but yours worked out just fine, and it was a treat to hold my own against all five.

4. Sometimes it takes my brain a little more to get some jokes, but I did catch most of what was given, with the crates in the first mission, to the photocopier in the second. And with the souvenir being a nod to part of the story itself I found myself commenting aloud that this was definitely a well thought out story.

5. The choice. I'd love to see arcs with more of these. I won't go into detail to spoil it, but I was impressed that such a choice was presented to the player.

As for the little things, English is not my major, so I couldn't really spot out any sort of spelling problems for you, but the story and the message was able to flow perfectly, and I didn't feel confused or see any holes in the plot at any point in time.

So altogether I give 'Papers and Paychecks' 5 stars. And I'll be happy to recommend it to a couple of my fellows who like to run story-driven arcs.


The arc I have in return for you to run is:

A Surprise fit for a Baron
ID: 318352

Its a level 32-50 Heroic arc. Four missions, and I've made several changes to it to improve the soloing experience as well as fill in a couple plot holes that other reviewers have come across. I hope you like it when you get around to it.

Soloing an Ice/Kinetics controller is a painful process.

I've just got him to level 20 a day ago, and during the grind from 1 to 20 I was on a total of three teams that lasted more than a single mission.

Every other team I've been on takes upwards of fifteen minutes to assemble. Then a single mission is completed. Following that, two players will immediately notify the team that they are leaving. From that point, there is a 75% chance the rest of the team will immediately dissolve after those two players have left. In the small 25% chance, the team continues with less than half of its original starting number, and will fall apart in the middle of the second mission.

Thankfully I have yet to particpate in an AE farm, and I never wish to do so. Perhaps some people find it enjoyable, but I'll be staying away from it. Hopefully the changes coming in I16 will make it so that the farmers don't have to consume the majority of the playerbase to do their farms.

Arc ID: 297943
Arc Title: A Surprise Fit for a Baron
Morality: Heroic
Level Range: 20-50
Length: Long (4 Missions)
Description: The World Organization Summit is in two days, and the Supergroup known as Global Heroics is in charge of security. Spread thin across the world, they require your assistance to stop their wicked counterparts from laying waste to the Summit and disrupting global relations.

I've been looking for critique for this arc, and I'll fill any requirements you have for a critical review.

I understand where the people crying for smaller to non-existent travel times are coming from. We all have lives, and jobs, and responsibilities that come first before a game about super heroes.

However, I must agree with Samuel_Tow here, and wonder if some people here, just want to be instantly teleported to their mission, and click on every enemy to kill it, then after completing their mission, click the exit button and appear right in front of the contact that gave it to them.

City of Heroes is unlike any other MMO in the fact that the world of COH exists as a single city, instead of an actual, "World" or "Continent."

The fact that I can cross the entire world in less than two minutes at level 14 is extremely rare to the MMO genre. In other games, (Who will not be mentioned) its a whole other social event just to get to the mission you're planning on completing, which is exactly what Sam was saying. And to many (as apparent by the fact that their subscription numbers are just plain ridiculous) that's seen as a part of the game and enjoyable content.

Ever since they changed the mission structure to give greater rewards, and half debt, I've felt terribly sorry for War_Witch, who is our level designer. She builds these beautiful cityscapes, and players just complain about how they hate looking at them, because it takes them all of a minute to get across and enter the mission door.

If instant gratification is what you seek, look no further than Atlas Park's AE building. It's got endless repeatable missions, a hospital that is located IN THE BUILDING, and is right next door to the Wentworth's where you can sell your rewards to get greater rewards.

As for me, I'll continue to fly across the city looking down at all the busy little NPCs below and immerse myself. I've never understood why the Farmers seek to get to level 50 as fast as they can. There's no "ENDGAME" like what is featured in other MMOs. You get to level 50, and then... you... do more missions?

So what you're saying is, instead of limiting the ability to farm nothing but bosses for rewards...

We should evaluate the reason why all bosses give greater rewards, and if that reason is justified?


Beating up a minion gives you two dimes.

Beating up a lieutenant gives you two quarters.

Beating up a boss gives you a dollar and one quarter.

The point you're making, is that the money we got from beating these people up used to be balanced by the fact that there was only 1 boss per 20 enemies, and around 5 lieutenants.

Instead now, you can walk into a room and there are now is nothing but groups of bosses. Your income rate has increased dramaticly because now you have the same number of enemies as before, but now they are all rewarding you the best possible rewards.

Maybe I'm just confused.

What is it with all the Godwins in this thread?

I highly doubt the NSDAP is interested in hiring exploit reporters.

Hopefully I16 will put an end to the AE babies, as farmers no longer need AE babies to pad out their missions.

It is an odd experience when 40% of the game's players are located in the starting zone.

If the Developers of the game condemn the farmers, then the farmers must be hunted down wherever they farm!

Having been gone for about a year, I've just been exposed to the AE farming.

My exposure came in the fact that the entire city, and the island chains are very, very empty. Like, Dark Astoria Empty.

Then I walked inside of one of those new buildings, and discovered where all the players are.

Reminds me of that Double-ewe, Ohhh, Double-ewe, game where one part of the game contains 90% of the players.

And reporting is important to the game. There's a reason characters get turned "Generic" and there's a reason missions get reported too. If you don't like getting renamed or your missions disappearing, then perhaps you should try being original for a change?

Oh man, I wouldn't get enough laughs when I read this forum without That_Ninja.

Everything that comes out of his hands is pure moronic gold.

That's what I thought.

*First Day of City of Villains Live*

*Summon Soldier(s)*

"No, I didn't ask for the Janitor, I wanted my soldier."

I'd really love to change the looks of my minions, but I don't think that's going to be available to us without a major overhall in the game itself.

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What an excellent thread and a terrific advertisement for the City of... games!

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My thoughts exactly.


Actually, I'm surprised this discussion lasted as long as it did.

I'd personally love to take on a few missions where you become a member of the freakshow.

Or assist the Circle of Thorns in bringing ruin to the Banished, in Dark Astoria.

Or assisting a couple 5th Column in helping start the fall of the Council on Striga.

Making my way over into Paragon, let in through Crey to work for Crey's intrests.


Lots of things that Villains could do. My loyalty is not with Recluse at all, and giving us a change of scenery would work very well in my eyes. It could even open up the door for more shared content, something I don't have a problem with.

Well, I'm glad they learned that the Lord Recluse Strike Force, has no use for Masterminds, Stalkers, and Dominators when everyone just wants Corrupters and Brutes.

So, they fixed it with the Statesman Task Force. All hero archtypes should be used to their full extent.



All I see in the predicable future is:

HO's are popular for heroes because they are easy to aquire.

IO's are popular for villains because their attempts at gaining HO's are flawed.

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Rap is ruining our children! That's not music and they shouldn't try and teach them that it is. *frowny face*

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I beg to differ!

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I disagree also! Clearly Ghostface Killah is the pinnacle of human musical achievment!

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Are there a lot of allusions to [censored] drugs and violence against innocents in his songs? Or is my sarcastic meter broken?

I've killed entire armies.

I've destroyed nations and brought about World War III.

I've robbed thousands of banks.

I've fought against demons until I became one myself.

I've survived alma and her twisted world.

I've sent honest people to their doom, and dishonest people to their deaths.

I've helped a group of freedom fighters free humanity from oppression by killing a third of the remaining human population under the control of the combine.

I've chainsaw'ed zombies in half and laughed maniacly while doing so.

I've seen The Rock go from psychopath to demonic psychopath.



And then just the other day, I pulled over on the highway to call for a tow truck to come help out a family that had engine problems. Was a bit of money out of my pocket but I felt so good doing it.


Videogames have made me pure evil.

Well, if you're on a certain Strike Force, thats the eye socket.

This is what I'm gonna have on my Epitaph:


"Remember friend as you pass by, as you are now so once was I, as I am now you too will someday be, so prepare for death and follow me!"

1000 points for whoever can guess here that rhyme comes from.

5th Column based characters?

Well, I've got The Baron, and also in comic style.