Coulomb2

To Reign in Hell (Arc ID#448234, 4 stars, 5 stars given in game)

Sometimes, after a long, hard day of scheming it’s a lot of fun to just head over to the AE building and engage in a bit of fantasy.

Ah, here we have an author who’s programmed some sort of post-apocalyptic adventure. I’m intrigued. If I like it, and it gives me at least one idea that I could take into the real world to strengthen my eventual plans of conquest (and ascent to godhood), then I’ll reward you with the few measly tickets you’ll get from a positive rating, while I walk off with whatever the missions have given me.

Not fair, you say? You deserve more if I truly enjoy your VR fantasy?

Too bad. Take it up with my lawyer. His name is Mr. Energy Transfer. And he likes to put his Total Focus into burying all who would challenge his favorite client under a Barrage of Gloom. Which, incidentally, is exactly what will happen to you if I’m *not* impressed.

…

It’s two years after a series of solar flares just scoured most life from the surface of the planet. I’ve been hanging out in an Arachnos bunker, waiting for solar activity to return to normal (and, no doubt, filled with thoughts of everything I can accomplish in a world devastated by nuclear fires that have wiped out most of the competition). Yeah, yeah, I know – no mention of nukes. It’s the sun we’re talking about here. Powered by nuclear fusion. So it’s an apt description of the situation. Deal with it.

I’ve emerged from my bunker, and, as I wander across the blasted landscape, I spot a discarded TV that seems to be picking up a signal … from somewhere. I’m not totally sure about where or how the TV is getting power, and (as I just said), I *really* can’t tell you where that signal is coming from, but the TV is broadcasting a news report from two years ago.

Sun acting up… need to evacuate… blah, blah, blah. Get to the point, TV. Ah, there we go. I need to restore power to the communications grid, and reactivate the radio tower. Makes sense. In a world like this, being in command of all available communications is a definite plus. Let’s get started, shall we?

There wasn’t much to challenge me in the ruins of Grandville, so I promptly entered what was once Recluse’s Tower, seeking to power up the place, and get the radio tower online. The place was in lockdown mode when I entered, but it didn’t take long to find and override the source of the lockdown. That same terminal gave me a checklist of ‘repairs’ (or, really, diagnostics) I needed to do to get the place operational.


Listen up, Tower! “Arbiter” Perturbation has arrived!

I found the diagnostic computer for the secondary reactor first – but it wasn’t much help. The secondary reactor was completely submerged, and not functional. I found the primary diagnostic nearby, but it just reported all systems nominal. It looked like I needed to transfer as much power as I could to the Radio Tower, and I’d need to head down to the Power Distribution Center to do that.

Note: This seemed somewhat confusing. Here’s why: I’ve got a primary and secondary reactor. The secondary tells me it’s not working, and I need to transfer power to the Radio Tower. The primary tells me it’s working okay (and seems to indicate almost everything else here is working on some level too) – which implies it’s putting all it’s got into powering the radio tower. Um, but then why do I need to transfer power? It makes it seem like I’m diverting juice from the Radio Tower’s primary reactor to the Radio Tower. I figure the issue is something like the Primary powers the communications grid, and the secondary powers the actual building systems. But with the secondary offline, the Primary is getting power diverted to building systems, which means there’s not enough juice to fully power the communications equipment. So I need to tell it “to heck with the lights, AC, running water, and auto-flush toilets – just power up the friggin’ comm. grid.” If that’s the case, then it’d help to add a clue to help explain that.

Further in I locate the robot coordinating the security drones for the tower. Oddly, it takes to quoting Shakespeare while I beat it down. Must be some sort of corruption in its cliché inhibitor circuit caused by exposure to the solar radiation.

Luckily, the Tower Guardian robot happened to be Guardian-ing the very computer I needed to transfer all power to the radio tower. Doing so activator some more defense drones, but nothing I couldn’t handle. I pounded the little metal cockroaches to slag, and then left the tower to begin “step two.”

Note: The robots that ambush you after you redirect the power have their dialog all separated by hyphens… unfortunately that’s doing some really wonky things to how it displays in the chat window (including text just being lost off of right side of the window) – I get that you’re going for “effect through punctuation,” but, unfortunately it doesn’t accomplish its intended goal if half the text gets lost in the process. It looks like you tried to add manual breaks, but that won’t work well since different players have the chat windows scaled differently…

Also…

Another Note: Okay … it’s now clear the reactors power *all* of Grandville; again, either that isn’t mentioned before the end of the mission, or I just missed it. If it’s there, and pretty clear, that’s my mistake. If not, you might want to consider spelling that out more clearly.

…

Hmm, that strange TV had another message for me. The signal it was picking up seemed to be goading me to head back to the tower and reactivate (and patch into) the Arachnos satellite system.

Made sense – I’d restored communications, but they wouldn’t do me much good unless I had a foolproof way of figuring out exactly what was going on in what was left of the world, without having to rely on reports from useless thugs who happened to have stumbled across a walkie-talkie. I needed a more “big picture” kind of thing…

Once I returned to the Radio Tower, I found Arachnos wasn’t quite as “defunct” as I’d assumed. It seemed an Arachnos detachment was attempting to take control of the tower, and I got an idea that I was what prompted it.

A nearby cell had detected my efforts to redistribute power, and Arbiter Daos had sent these troops here to restore the power grid to its original settings, and also deliver a strange, almost alien-looking device.


The whole “pretend I’m an Arbiter” scam didn’t work too well on these guys…

For a moment, some sort of … alien? … signal coming from the device seemed to be messing with my mind – trying to convince me that I was in the grip of some illusion, and attempting to transmit a “new reality” into my brain. I destroyed it before it could succeed, and continued with my mission.

Note: At the moment, it seems pretty clear that I’m somehow under TV’s influence, and this device was trying to restore my “right” state of mind. But we’ll see where the story goes from here.

I cleared out the Arachnos, and established an uplink to the constellation of satellites over the area. Most didn’t work, but one showed me that there was something very unusual happening in Bloody Bay: half the island was covered in what appeared to be the canopy of a single, huge alien tree. And the whole place was surrounded by an unhealthy-looking energy field.

Oh, and I also decided to link WSPDR’s television broadcasts into the communications grid – anyone trying to access the grid would only see my favorite TV programs playing (yet more indication TV is exhibiting some sort of hypnotic control over me.)

Even knowing that it was something I probably *shouldn’t* do, I just couldn’t resist the urge to watch more TV. Perhaps it could link together some of the clues I’d found in the Radio Tower. Interestingly, the shows that were on gave me the idea to explore a ruined mansion on the east side of Grandville.

Notes: I never could get a good visual of how the whole thing with the octagon was supposed to work. Was it that the octagon ‘laid out’ over Bloody Bay, if transposed over a similar scale map of Grandville, would center on the house I was exploring? But why would I know to center the thing on the east side of Grandville? Or was it not a regular octagon, and drawing lines from opposing sides didn’t intersect in the middle? (Although, if it’s not regular, the lines from opposing sides wouldn’t all intersect in the same place anyway – at least I don’t think they would.)

The mansion belonged to a mad scientist, and was being investigated by the Legacy Chain (apparently another survivor of the solar flares). It was good they were there, too. Not only did they satiate my growing boredom by giving me a target for my violent impulses (there’s only so much TV you can watch, after all, before you have to take a break to engage in the mindless violence the TV encourages), they were also all too happy to blab what they’d been learning after I finished beating them up.

Apparently, the flares had been no accident, and this mad scientist, Dr. Itelet, had been attempting to contact a powerful entity from deep space, intent on harnessing its power. He was aided by the ghost of a Reginald Sarkin. In fact, while exploring the mansion, I’d been encountering Sarkin’s astral projections, which, seemingly unaware of my presence, were keen on blabbing even more secrets to me as they flitted about.

It would seem that the Shiva Meteor was but a small aspect of an extremely powerful (pan-dimensional?) entity “based” around a distant star in a distant galaxy. The Shivans were merely the entity’s “fingers” (kind of like the Orz, from Star Control 2, I guess). Perhaps using the Meteor as a ‘gateway’ or conduit of some sort, Dr. Itelet had somehow prompted this entity to trigger the solar flares.

I was getting a better picture of what was going on, but there was still a lot left to do.

Note: It did bother me a bit that the star map ‘pinpointed’ a star in a distant galaxy. In general, real star maps only depict stars in our own galaxy (and even then, only as they appear in our sky – although a star atlas would certainly show where they were in space). Either way, the bottom line is complete star maps (or star atlases) frequently only show fairly nearby stars – and almost never chart star locations beyond our own galaxy. In fact, even our best telescopes can only pick out the very brightest stars in even nearby galaxies. Almost nobody else would complain about that, but it’s one of those things that, as an astronomer, I get annoyed at (since it implies a lack of understanding of the sheer scale of a galaxy, or the vast distances between them: a complete star atlas of the Milky Way, for example, would have more than 100 billion stars. In order to make it big enough so that the stars didn’t all crowd on top of each other, the chart would have to be more than 300 km to a side. And depicting even the closest giant galaxy to ours at the correct scaled distance and to the same level of detail would require the map to be 7500 km to a side…)


Here’s a tip, Sarkin. Helping to summon something called the “Destroyer of Worlds” to “the world” was probably not your brightest move.

Once I left the ‘haunted’ mansion, Sarkin told me more – although most of it matched what I’d expected. Itelet had managed to contact the Destroyer of Worlds … the fundamental “core” entity behind the Shivans. He intended to control it, but it bested him, and took control of his body, fleeing to Bloody Bay. Once it got there, the flares began and “the Earth burned.” Thankfully, the Legacy Chain had just now destroyed the shield, so we could head to Bloody Bay and confront the Destroyer directly.

That left the question of how exactly I’d get to Bloody Bay, what with none of the helicopters or ferries being functional any more – but Sarkin gave the answer: he’d use his magic to teleport me there.

You know, all this was really working out in my favor – the Destroyer had done in almost everyone who could have stood against me, hopefully at the cost of a *huge* personal expenderature of power that would leave it weak and vulnerable to my attack. If I could wipe it out, I’d likely be one of the most powerful beings left alive on the planet. That’d certainly make any attempts to become the undisputed lord and master of the Earth considerably easier. I’d have to thank the Destroyer for doing me a favor while I was rending it limb from limb.

Note: The wording gets a bit hard to follow in the briefing – it sounds as though the Destroyer put up the shield, then the Legacy Chain arrived on the scene and destroyed it. The moment that happened, the flares began. But I suspect (as indicated above) you mean that the Destroyer got to Bloody Bay, put a shield up, and then (while protected by the shield) ‘did its thing’ to destroy the world. Now, two years later, the Chain figured out how to bring down the shield, allowing us to get to Bloody Bay.


Upon arriving at the tunnel network under Bloody Bay, Perturbation engages in a favorite pastime: destruction of valuable property (that isn’t his).

Sarkin teleported me into a cave network just below the huge tree that had taken over Bloody Bay. From the sound of it, a massive attack was underway on the surface, and the vermin spilling into the tunnels just supported that. I had to fight through a number of Legacy Chain, Arachnos, and Wyvern – but, not surprisingly, most of those in the tunnels were the Shivans.


Got Shivan?

I found Sarkin a bit further into the cave, and he made it clear I needed to destroy the central root of the tree. I did so, and summoned an entity called Armageddon in the process. I have no idea if the creature was some sort of guardian, or a more concentrated manifestation of the destructive energy flowing through the dying Shiva Tree. Whatever it was, it was extremely angry, and not convinced I was any sort of threat to its plans.

Big mistake. On its part.

For something that wiped out much of the Earth, Armageddon didn’t offer much of a challenge. Maybe my theory about its previous activities weakening it greatly was correct? Whatever. Too bad for Armmie.


In a desperate gambit to win a losing fight, Armageddon fires a blast of radiation at a very sensitive area. Thankfully, Perturbation’s Energy Aura deflected the shot, saving him from a lifetime of falsetto talking.

With Armageddon returned to the primordial ooze, there was very little left to stand in my way. I had control of the best surviving communications grid on the planet. Not to mention the few remaining spy satellites in orbit. And, at least for the time being, I didn’t have some sort of phenomenally powerful cosmic entity trying to destroy my potential acquisitions.

Things were looking up…

Stuff I Didn’t Hate: I really liked both the story and the premise (the story being the actual events depicted in the arc, and the premise being that the arc was post-apocalyptic). In particular, I really liked the expansion of the backstory about the Shivans, the tie-in to the cataclysm that nearly destroyed the Earth, and the whole idea of the overall Shiva entity manifesting as a huge alien “tree-thing” in Bloody Bay. The design on the custom boss at the end was well done too: it certainly gave the correct impression of a “special” Shivan. The interaction with the TV was well done, although I did find myself critical about a certain aspect of how TV ties into the story (which I’ll discuss in the next section). While the mission design itself wasn’t particularly noteworthy (that’s not an insult – I simply mean that there aren’t a lot of terribly complex mechanics expertly pulled off; which is fine), they are certainly well paced, put together in a logical way, and where chained objectives are used, the author has used them well (for example, by making good use of front, middle, and back to prevent the chained objectives from making the player have to do an excessive amount of backtracking).

Perturbations: There are parts of the story that have an oddly ‘unfinished’ feel to them, as though the author was starting down one path, and then switched down another midway through. This was most notable with TV’s place in the story. The arc seems to start with the impression that TV is trying to take control of you, convincing you that serving its agenda will advance your power (whether or not that’s true remains to be seen). You seem to fail at an early attempt to break this control – and then, well, that’s it. It’s as though TV wins, is now in control, and it’s time to move on to the “real” story in Bloody Bay. But that ends up making the whole interaction with TV seem like a loose end never tied up. Finally, at the end of the arc, it’s as though TV was just helping you keep your sanity, rather than trying to control you (which seems at odds with what struck me as more ‘sinister’ undertones involving the TV earlier). I’d say a second, if considerably milder, example is the role Arachnos plays – the sub plot that Arachnos is still around and trying to re-assert its power doesn’t seem to go anywhere: again, midway through the story it just feels like that sub plot is abandoned, and we now focus on the Legacy Chain and the situation in Bloody Bay.

In other words, if I had to characterize what felt a bit ‘off’ to me: the arc actually felt somewhat like two shorter (if related) arcs I played back to back.

Suggestions: As always, these are just things that come to mind … take the ones you like, ignore the ones you think are silly:

1. Consider removing the aspect of the story that makes it seem like the TV is controlling you – *keep* the TV (it’s done well), though.

2. Perhaps consider making Arachnos a bit more active in the last two missions.

3. It did seem odd that a level 25 villain would have the power to challenge something that can destroy worlds. I presume that destroying the ‘root’ greatly weakened it, or perhaps it was greatly weakened by causing the flares – either way, I do think it’d help to explain a bit more clearly in the story how it’s possible for you to stand a chance against the end boss.

4. Related to three, and a very rare suggestion for me (I almost never suggest making something harder), but Armageddon just screamed AV to me, so I was a bit surprised he was an EB. Granted, I *do* understand making him an AV gives him the purple triangles, which makes even the EB version more difficult, so it’s kind of a Catch-22, but it really felt to me like he should be an AV.

So, in Summary, it’s a very good arc. I liked the premise. I really liked the story (with the caveats mentioned earlier).

Score: 4.347

(Completely forgot to post this two days ago – the last batch of ‘mini-reviews’ from the Player’s Choice arcs; I didn’t get to the custom groups).

Time for the Comedy arcs; these work a bit differently, since for this category I’m grading more for “do I think the arc is funny” versus the way I’d normally score arcs. Thanks to time constraints, each “mini-review” will only be one or two sentences.

Comedy is subjective, and so an ‘absolute’ ranking seems off-base; instead, the very first arc I play will automatically receive a “5”. The next arc is rated relative to that (6 if funnier, 4 if I didn’t think it was as funny). The next arc works the same way (although I’ll try to take *both* previous arcs into account). So the “score” is completely relative: the numbers themselves are meaningless beyond letting me compare one arc to another.

(As before, all arcs get 5 stars in game. I don’t intend to give them a ‘out-of-game’ star rating here.)

Captain Skylark Shadowfancy and the Tomorrownauts of Today! (#337333)

A funny, well-constructed arc. Really reminded me of ‘Fallout in space’ – a satirical take on the 50s vision of the future, but with plenty of dark undertones. Favorite Parts: The references to vacuum tubes, punch cards, and other archaic computer tech. Least Favorite: I hate flying villains in large, cavernous rooms, when I’m a predominantly melee character.

Comedy “Score”: 5 (It’s the first arc from the category; see above)

Drakule vs. The Werewolf Bikers From Hell (#340316)

Satire of Underworld, and of modern vampire and werewolf “lore” in general. Lots of genuinely funny stuff here. Favorate Parts: Ashton. The descriptions on the mobs, especially the vampire ones, are very funny. Least Favorite: That point where the werewolf boss hit dull pain.

Comedy “Score”: 6 (It was close, but humor being the subjective thing it is, I found it funnier than the previous arc.)

The Ghastly Secret Of Dreams (#386861)

Full of a lot of silly, but (IMO) clever humor. Very hard call, actually. I found the previous arc more funny, but this one felt equally funny as the first – so it gets the same score. Favorite Parts: The silliness is clever enough to be funny. Least Favorite: Honestly, the self-depreciation about Dev’s Choice. Not saying the author doesn’t make a good point – just that it’s the one part of the arc that doesn’t really add to the comedy value.

Comedy “Score”: 5

The Ms. Manners Task Force (#416951)

Ms. Manners’ greatest foes have escaped the Zig, and are angling for revenge. The arc is a (fun) cameo-fest for a large number of the author’s previous (and entertaining) characters, along with some dev characters as well. Favorite Part: The fight with manhandle. IMO that was gutter humor done very well. Least Favorate: Some of the map choices seemed a bit odd (the Zig escape being in a sewer seemed odd. I know why it’s there – hard to place objectives correctly on the actual Zig escape map, and it’s not like a canon arc – the Freakshow War – doesn’t do exactly the same thing, but it still struck me as weird), but that’s about it. Suggestion – Find a way to squeeze in Blappy and/or Bright Angel!

Comedy “Score”: 5.5 (Found it to be a bit funnier than Skylark and ‘Dreams’, and had the funniest single moment so far, but I thought Werewolf was more consistently funny throughout.)

Outbroken (#379017)

Coyote has been laid low by exposure to the ‘contaminated’ mutagen, and you must take his place. In doing so, you uncover the dark past of another member of the “Outbreak” team, and work to return him to the “light.” Favorite Part: It’s a very good arc – well constructed. A bit silly, but kind of a neat idea overall. Least Favorite Part – Coyote’s random bouts with Tourette’s Syndrome. I get the idea (and it’s part of the story), but it just seemed ‘off’.

Comedy “Score”: 4 (Don’t get me wrong – I actually like the arc. I thought it was clever, and very well put together. And I found several parts light hearted, for lack of a better word. But I didn’t actually find it funny.)

Too Clever by Half (#378944)

Von Grun’s Latest Scheme backfires, with comedic results. Favorite Part – The devouring earth quoting scientific theories/principles. Least Favorite Part – Would have preferred for the optional objectives in mission two to be marked as such.

Comedy “Score”: 5.4 (Basically, I found it equally funny as Ms. Manners – since, for voting purposes I had to choose one or the other for 2nd place, I ‘ranked’ them using the only remaining distinction I could think of; of the two arcs, which had the single funniest moment, in my very subjective opinion. So, basically, Manners ended up scoring a very narrow victory over this arc.)

Frankly, all of these arcs were quite good, and it was difficult choosing the funniest pair. I could probably play through all of them again in a week, and have a different opinion as to which two would have gotten my votes.

Congrats to all the winners! And to all the nominees - win or no, they were all very good arcs!

Gotta slip one last vote in...

(And, I found every arc in this category to be funny - this was a *very* tough call).

1st - Drakule vs. The Werewolf Bikers From Hell (#340316)
2nd - The Ms. Manners Task Force (#416951)

Okay, time for me to cast my vote for the Lowbie Arcs!

1st - A Hero in Need...is a Friend Indeed! (#375018)
2nd - Holding Down the Fort (#379065)

Whew! Four out of the six categories. Let's see if I can squeeze in one or two more before the deadline!

Reminder: All arcs with mini-reviews here are awarded 5 stars in game, regardless of the score reported here.

A Hero in Need...is a Friend Indeed! (#375018) (5 stars)

This one is an awfully fun little adventure. You [CENSORED AT THE AUTHOR’S REQUEST]

Likes: “Feels” low level, so mission accomplished! Yet it also feels like I did something important (just not world shattering), so, still, mission accomplished. Nice [CENSORED].

Dislikes: Nearly every custom mob was giving a flat 75% XP, even though, given the level max for the arc, if they were set to custom, and given exactly the same powers most of them would be giving more XP. (For what it’s worth – and I’ve tested this – if you weren’t aware of this, it turns out XP is based on exemplared level, not ‘native’ level, so you don’t have to worry about custom settings ‘shortchanging’ high level characters who want to play – well, unless that was not WAI, and the latest patch ‘fixed’ that…)

Very good, very fun, very well done arc.

Score: 4.83

Damage Limitation (#447945) (3 stars)

A hero is delivered dead to the doorstep of Hero Corps, and I’m recruited to find out why. The problem is that I find nothing but confusion. The basic facts of the arc I get … Crey’s set up a ‘support group’ with the actual intent of rooting out disloyal employees. And my main target is apparently one of the Nuclear 90, only he’s managed to remove his ‘nuclear core’ (or disable it). And Crey isn’t willing to get directly involved, so they hire on a large number of (level appropriate) villain groups to do their dirty work, and give them plausible deniability. So, anyway, I rescue the hero in danger … keep my contact from quitting (wait, …*what?*), and … um… and the arc’s over. And I can’t pin anything on Crey.

Likes: The mission briefings are well written, and I have no trouble figuring out exactly what I need to do to complete each mission… but…

Dislikes: First, and relatively minor – the arc needs an editing/proofreading pass. No biggie; I’ve got at least one that does too. More to the point: I missed something along the way; I’ve spent at least half the arc having no idea what’s going on. I get the impression the author wanted me to notice something subtle that would tie everything together. Or maybe he didn’t, and figured only an idiot wouldn’t see the obvious connections. Problem is, I didn’t. So either I missed the reference. Or I’m an idiot. Or both. None of the options help me enjoy the arc more, though. And whatever I missed, it was pretty critical to linking together the parts of the arc and helping them to make sense.

Don’t get me wrong – it’s not that the story is wholly incomprehensible. I get a lot of the major points about what’s going on. It’s just there’s connections that need to be made, that I’m missing. Either I missed a critical clue (which is possible), or several critical things are in the in-mission dialog (which is often not a good idea). And just about everything else (basic design, the detail in the clues, etc.) is above average, at least.

Score: 3.417

Holding Down the Fort (#379065) (5 stars)

The situation is grim indeed. Recluse has activated his Web, rendering the Freedom Phalanx powerless. The city’s highest level heroes are now in Grandville, trying to stop him. So it’s left to the low level heroes to ‘hold the fort’ while the higher ups are gone. The arc’s both fun, and a neat take on both the ‘heroes lose their powers’ theme that a lot of arcs have (thanks to Aeon’s second challenge), and the ‘what’s going on elsewhere while these task forces depicting major battles in the City of Heroes world are happening’ motif that a few arcs like to explore (Fred’s “Striga Isle” arc comes to mind, but that’s not all.)

Likes – Well written, good pacing. Interesting (and very story appropriate) way to introduce low level heroes to some of the higher level factions. I was very happy the author left out the Eyeballs in his custom Rularuu group.

Dislikes – Not many. I thought it could have used a few more clues (what can I say? I like clues). The Natterlings apparently have a bug that causes them to not give XP (just the minions; the lieutenants seem to give XP just fine). Really, not much to complain about.

Very solid arc.

Score: 4.53

Past Echoes of Tomorrow #379399 (4 stars)

The arc is basically an origin story for both Fusionette and (after a fashion) the Nuclear 90 – and I actually found it to be a very well done story. Overall, the arc’s very high quality, but with a few caveats that keep it from crossing that bridge from very good to excellent.

First, and most important, the author (and perhaps a friend or two) really need to go through a serious editing pass; not just of the text (although there really are a fair number of typos and grammatical errors in the arc), but actually play through the missions, making notes of everything that isn’t ‘working as intended’ (for example, check to make sure all of the needed objective text is there, so you don’t get the default text that appears when it’s missing).

Two, although more of a nitpick, the arc is making heavy use of some unique maps. In and of itself, that’s not bad. *But* some of these maps are actually rather long. It really kind of throws off the arc’s ‘pacing’ – albeit only a little.

Third, the intro to the fourth mission seems to be a weak point in an otherwise very entertaining story: there’s no mention of exactly how the Hellions got the list of the Nuclear 90. It’s literally like ‘the plot requires them to have the list now, so WHAM, they’ve got it.’ This is pretty easy to fix, though – ironically, if Numina seems just as surprised as me that they got the list (and is curious as to how), that makes it clear that there is a “real” way they obtained the list, and (kind of) foreshadows I might figure it out in the mission. For that matter, though, how does Numina even know they’ve got the list?

…Fourth (and related to two), Atta’s map?! Oh dear lord I hate that map. But, you *did* instruct the player on exactly how to get to the final objective if they want to bypass most of the map. For what it’s worth, I did *NOT* rescue civilians that were ‘out of my way’ – frankly, they’d need to have individual clues/rescue text as a ‘reward’ to make it worth the effort. They’re just random civvies with the name Nuclear 90 that all say the same thing; just not enough motivation to hunt them down in this huge, densely populated map. (And one final nitpick regarding the map – if we’re all level 10, and it’s early in our careers, *and* we’re experiencing the ‘birth’ of the Nuclear 90, then shouldn’t Atta not have been defeated yet in the in-game chronology? So where is he?)

Is that really how Numina ‘died’? If it is, that’s pretty cool (and I need to pay more attention.) And the last mission is pretty cool too – it seems to imply I’m responsible for putting some of those Midnighter Club exploration artifacts in their ‘proper places.’ Neat touch.

So basically, I think it’s a very good arc with some extremely good ideas – it just needs some work to really unlock its potential.

Score: 4.365

Talos Vice (#338380)

Okay, in the interest of fairness, with apologies to PW, whom I have the greatest respect for as an excellent author, I’m going to exclude this arc from this category. Why? I’ve already given it a (well deserved, IMO) first place vote in a category that I think fits it a bit better.

The Icari (Arc ID#458576, 4 stars)

Today Pro Payne is relaxing, and doing a bit of ‘net surfing. His ‘time off’ is interrupted by a news report that streams onto the monitor… the Council, led by Maestro, are attacking Atlas Park, interested in a meteor that struck near there last night.

Before long, the Icari – who, according to the story, are the second most famous supergroup in Paragon City – have arrived on the scene to put an end to the Council threat.

For no good reason, I rush to help. Note: That probably sounds harsher than I mean it to, but I’m immediately noticing a ‘motivation’ issue related to a logical flaw: if the Icari are so powerful, we’re talking multiple level 50 heroes, which suggests the Council attack warrants that level of response. As a mere level 24 hero, what possible help would I be? I’m not saying you shouldn’t start the story this way, but I do think the mission briefing should give more motivation as to why I’d rush off to help, given the circumstances. Possibilities include: (1) It’s a chance to see the Icari in action, maybe learn a few things. (2) I’m the cautious type – I doubt I’ll be needed, but I’ll head there just in case. In either case, that means the mission “description” should also reflect what I’m really going there for: instead of “Defend Atlas Park from Council” how about “Watch the Icari in Action!” or “Lend a Hand in Atlas Park.”

When I get there, I find that the Council has somehow subdued the Icari. I first rescue Patriotic Man, followed by Mental Maiden (and I’m now noticing that these heroes appear to be deliberate clichés of hero archetypes: the strong, handsome, nearly invincible leader, the unrealistically ‘hot’ heroine – who typically has psychic powers; it’s actually kind of a neat touch). What seems a bit odd is they don’t make much mention about how they got subdued in the first place – if *I* can defeat the Council guarding them, then whatever captured them must be something I haven’t seen yet, but they don’t react surprised at their capture at all.


I’ll bet you’ve one of those plush Statesman toys on your bed, don’t you?

Quick Note: Oh! You might want to make Mental Maiden’s “first injured” line something other than “Oh, you did not just shoot at me.” The problem with the fly AI is that the NPCs something do small amounts of damage to themselves by dropping a short ways – which can lead to Mental Maiden saying that, even though nothing is shooting at us. Granted, it’s completely safe to put lines like that at 75% health, etc.

Typhoon is next, followed by Sentinel X-39 (the obligatory intelligent robot). Does seem a tad strange he talks like the Rikti – ironic given that he was built to fight them (but that doesn’t actually bother me). And then, finally, Wildcat (the obligatory catgirl).

With the Icari rescued, it’s now time to enlist their help in defeating Maestro. With five heroes to aid me, it’s a very, very quick fight. Maestro goes down, amid no small amount of bragging that his defeat is meaningless and whatever he’s planning will be very bad news for all of us, regardless of what we’ve done here. Presumably, the meteor fragment I find on him is part of this plan of his…


And now the Icari are assembled! Except for Patriotic Man, who kind of got lost on top of city hall. Wait – is that really a giant heart on Mental Maiden’s tuckus?

Early Impressions: The story is off to a pretty good start, although a few things seem “off” – it doesn’t seem reasonable the Icari could be captured by foes I can defeat; you’ve got a lot of options there (“That field Maestro had prepared five force cages specifically tuned to our resonances! He knew we’d be coming!” would be one example), but it does strike me as a loose end that would be good to tie up.

I’ve got another suggestion, but one that you might want to be very careful about, even if you think it’s a good one (and you might not) – one way to make the Icari seem very, very powerful is to actually make them Elite Bosses or even “AVs” – pity you can’t make them “Hero” class. You’ll get complaints about overpowered allies, but it would at least make them far more powerful than you, and, should the player wish to fight Maestro as a full AV (I didn’t), 5 Elite Boss companions greatly improves the odds…

One significant criticism: I really couldn’t think of a good reason, either story wise, or play style, to have the Icari come in one at a time – given that its an outdoor map, that really leads to a lot of annoying “backtracking” over a largely empty map. I do realize that it may be a way to force the battle with Maestro to be after you rescue the last Icari, but you might accomplish the same thing by putting all the Icari down at once, chaining Maestro to Patriotic Man, and then having Patriotic Man give you some “mentoring advice” when you rescue him: “I know you’re eager to prove yourself, young hero, but Maestro is an extremely powerful foe! We should make sure all of my fellow Icari are rescued before we confront him.”

Finally, the map seems very, very empty. If there’s a way to add more battles and/or patrols, I’d highly recommend it.

(I won’t have detailed commentary after each mission in this particular style, but, as I’ve indicated, I do think there are several subtle changes that’ll really improve the flow of this first mission.)

I return to my computer and start to analyze the fragment. I leave the news on while I work. Naturally, the Icari take nearly all of the credit for saving Atlas Park, and seem to have very little appreciation for my efforts to save their collective rear ends. Ah well.

Oddly, my computer can’t tell me much about the meteor fragment, but it doesn’t seem to be a problem. The fragment’s pulsating glow keeps getting faster and faster, and it actually starts to vibrate and … well … “pull” itself in a particular direction. Figuring it might be useful to know where the fragment is being drawn, I “follow” it (i.e. hold it in my hand and move in the direction it wants to pull me). It leads me out of the city, and straight to a Circle of Thorns lair. It wants to pull me inside, so I head in to check the place out.


Pro Payne takes out his wrath on having to delve into the constipated bowels of Oranbega on a bunch of hapless Circle cultists. It’s for the best. They were going to … um … go steal babies, or something.

Although I had to pause in places to ward off Circle cultists, and those creepy spirits they cavort with, the fragment led me to a cluster of five obelisks. As I approached each one, the fragment seemed to interact with the obelisks, producing an image of each member of the Icari I had just rescued, along with his or her actual name. The one exception was Sentinel, where I got a kind of schematic, revealing what it’s core “body” was like under all the powered armor. I surmised the Circle was performing some ritual here, and it involved the Icari. I figured it might be a good idea to stop it, as I’ve never known a Circle ritual to be good for its intended victim (unless, of course, the victim was also a Circle member). So I delved deeper into the lair to find whatever dark mage was overseeing the building magical energies…

Thankfully, I didn’t have to proceed much further into the spirit-infested halls of Oranbega to locate the mage directing the ritual. The foul wizard’s name was Minos, and he bragged that the ritual had stripped the Icari of their powers. I defeated him, but he claimed it was too late – the ritual had already done its damage.

Note: He also referred to me as ‘some other novice hero’ – so more than one hero has stumbled across this plot? That doesn’t seem likely: I needed a fragment of the meteor to find this place…

I’m not sure what the Council and the meteor have to do with this (or why the meteor fragment did what it did), but perhaps that’ll be revealed in time.

By the time I return to my computer, I notice the meteor fragment has crumbled to dust, and I’m seeing news reports that lead me to believe Minos really *had* stripped the Icari of their powers. Figuring that perhaps something I’d learned in the Circle’s lair could be of use to them, I try to track them down – a task that shouldn’t be too difficult given that I know all of their secret identities.

It turns out I don’t even have time for that … the next news report reveals the Council is attacking an apartment building named Wrightman Heights. It doesn’t take a genius to notice that’s the last name of Patriotic Man’s secret identity. When the reporter mentions some other notable people who live in the apartments there I recognize the true identities of the other Icari. I’m guessing Wrightman Heights is probably the supergroup’s “cover” – effectively their supergroup base.

With no time to lose, I rush to rescue them from the Council attack.

I found Typhoon close to the entrance, and safely escorted out. Without her powers, it was very clear she was afraid INS would deport her – I located an e-mail that indicated she had likely struck a deal with INS to remain in the country so long as she was willing to work with the government in law enforcement.

Rather than backtracking every time I found a new member of the Icari, I opted to “collect” them all, then head back to the entrance. I found Wildcat further in. Somehow (I wasn’t clear on this) I learned that she was a Crey experiment (basically an origin story very, very similar to Mynx), and was forced to take ‘regenerative drugs’ to control the constant pain the experimental manipulations caused her.

Note: Her description refers to her as a pickpocket, yet she breaks into a Crey facility (pickpockets usually don’t practice their profession by breaking into places) – it might be better to call her a burglar.

I also found a note in the trash that was somewhat disturbing … in it either Wildcat’s informant, or perhaps boyfriend, had tracked down the Freakshow’s stash of superadine – suggesting she was actually using the dangerous drug to help her control the pain; although I had no proof of that.


The glamorous life of a hero! Hmm … maybe I should turn off the burning auras before I go digging through (largely paper) garbage.

Another note: Actually, if you’re meaning this to be the drug the Freaks use (which would be a lot more appropriate since it dulls pain, and helps a body accommodate extensive modification – hence its value in allowing the Freaks to cram lots of cyberware into their bodies), it’s excelsior, not superadine.

I found Sentinel and Mental Maiden further in, along with Maiden’s diary – although there was nothing terribly incriminating there. Patriotic Man was next, and then it was time to face the leader of this raid, a Lt. Briggs.

Briggs revealed the Council had made a deal with the Circle to perform the ritual, and then intended to deliver the heads of the Icari to Requiem.

A few minor criticisms/suggestions: Actually, the Council is led by the Center – it’s not totally unbelievable that these troops would be reporting to Requiem, but it’s something to think about. Also, the Circle mage did mention that the ritual could be performed only every 5,000 years – and is clearly, very, *very* powerful. Granted, in the context of the arc I’d see why the Circle would have some motivation to help (they probably hate the Icari too, so they offer to do the ritual, and the Council does the “dirty work” of gathering the components and killing the Icari) – but IMO it’d be a bit more believable if the Circle was getting something else really valuable out of this… actually, you could use that as an extra wrinkle in the story, if you wanted. Perhaps the Circle wants to use the Icari as ‘hosts’? So some of the ambushes are the Council’s Circle “allies” intent on kidnapping powerless Icari before they can be delivered to Requiem…

I found a strange device on Briggs, but couldn’t figure out exactly what it was for.

On the way back out, I managed to stumble across a safe full of tracking devices that were “property of the US military” – I gathered they were part of an attempt by the military to track Sentinel. I also spied a bulletin board holding a photo of Roger’s wife; according to the date the wedding was actually several years ago.

I got the Icari safely out of the building, but was surprised by a small group of Council who’d broken through the police line around the building. In the battle with the Council goons, the Icari ran off – wow, *that* was a rash thing for them to do.

It takes two weeks, but with no idea where the Icari have run off too, the only lead I’ve got is the device I got off Lt. Briggs (evidently that lead involving Jonny D. and Wildcat’s “Freakshow stash” didn’t go anywhere – or hasn’t yet). I managed to bypass its security, and determined that it was some sort of tracking or monitoring device … it revealed the location of the Icari’s supergroup base, and was monitoring a spreading fire. The entry logs also showed me that the members of the Icari had been coming and going for the past several days. I needed to get there quickly before any additional clues as to what was going on were lost.

What I found at the burning base was rather chilling. Scattered about where a very large number of clues that allowed me to piece together at least part of what had been going on… the Icari had gathered here, afraid and desperate. But, somehow, they’d managed to get their powers back – but their desperation had caused them to do terrible things upon their return. Mental Maiden had murdered her boyfriend, although I wasn’t exactly sure why – or what the circumstances of his death were. Wildcat had (apparently) solved her pain problem my executing Jonny D, and taking his stash of superadine. Sentinel had exacted revenge by killing the soliders that were trying to retrieve him. Typhoon was being blackmailed by the INS officer who oversaw her end of the “bargain” with the government. It appeared that he was, well, lusting, after her, and offered to make the risk of deportation go away if she ‘ran away with him.’ She killed him for it – although I did think it odd he died of blunt force trauma; I would have figured a lightning bolt or something.

But it was Patriotic Man that bothered me the most. I got the impression that below his “heroic” exterior, the man was really a womanizing creep who had been cheating on his wife for years. I’d already suspected Mr. Patriotic here was at least partially coercing the loyalty of his fellow teammates (after all, Typhoon remain in the country due to strings he was pulling. I got the impression he provided the drugs that managed Wildcat’s pain, too.) I found the body of Patriotic Man’s wife in the base as well – but it looked like she’d taken her own life. Had she simply found out about all of his affairs, or was something more sinister going on? See, the thing is, the others had directly taken the lives of people they considered threats. But, beyond humiliating his wife to the point of prompting her to commit suicide, it didn’t look like Patriotic Man had actually physically walked up to someone and killed them.

Something about the clues also were leading me to think that part of the reason these people here had died is because the Icari had gotten back their powers very suddenly – I was wondering if they’d unintentionally killed these people when their powers came surging back “on”; there were definite holes in that theory, but the fact Patriotic didn’t seem to have suddenly killed somebody made me suspect he *might* be responsible for getting the Icari’s powers back. I just didn’t know how.

But what was worse, like it or not, the Icari were guilty of manslaughter at the least, if not outright murder. They had to be brought to justice…

Suggestion: I don’t at all object to the fact the base was empty, but if you’ve got the room, you might want to consider designing a custom faction of security robots and seeding the base with a small number of encounters (boss details and patrols, possibly), just to make the mission slightly more action packed.

Also, it’s not yet totally clear why they burned their own base down, but I’ll see if it’s mentioned later.

As I ran from the base, I managed to pull one last file from the central computer: a video showing the Icari, with their powers returned, planning to attack a Council base where they believed the mastermind of the plot to kill them could be found. It was clear that they were going to slaughter everyone there. They’d gone from hero, to vigilante. It was up to me to stop them.

I had to hope they were not yet at full strength; otherwise I wouldn’t have a chance. The fact that Wildcat actually said she was back to full strength made me think my chances weren’t good…

I got to the base, but it was too late – the Council were dead. There were only two things left for me to do: figure out what exactly had happened to give the Icari their powers back, and to take them in, if I could.

(For clarity, I’m going to continue to refer to them by their original names, although in the arc they all have new “villain” names, and different appearances).


Look lady, I set myself on *fire* to heal myself. I’m no stranger to being in pain. Take an aspirin and quit whining.

I found Wildcat first, completely tripped out on superadine. Next was Sentinel, in an upgraded body. For lack of a better way to put it, it was clear his “ethics” program had been completely re-written – he was now intent on killing every villain in Paragon, and would kill any hero who tried to stop him. During both fights, my foes had said things that further convinced me Patriotic Man was behind all this – not only the return of their powers, but his promises to them about “what they could do with their new abilities” seemed (to me) to have pushed them over the edge…

Typhoon was next – and in the process of defeating her, I learned more of what had happened. Evidently when she refused David’s “offer”, he was going to turn her in and have her deported. Out of desperation, she grabbed something heavy from his desk and bashed his brains in. Her lamet: she hadn’t gotten her powers back soon enough. But she knew she had to answer for her crimes.


One more chapter in the epic conflict between fire and water.

Note: This one’s just my opinion on it, but David didn’t exactly sound ‘innocent’ as Typhoon’s description suggested. *Of course* he didn’t deserve to me murdered, but basically giving her a chance to stay in the country on the condition that she has a relationship with him is very unethical... (yes, I’m aware it’s actually done in real life – heck they’ve made sitcoms based on the idea – but something about the setup gave me the impression this wasn’t David seeking to do her a favor out of the goodness of his heart…)

I found Patriotic Man next – by defeating him, I learned that, ironically, he was probably the biggest lie among the Icari. Publicly a hero, he actually only cared about maintaining what he had – his fame and the behind-the-scenes hedonistic lifestyle it granted him. He was willing to do anything to get it back. It seemed he’d struck a deal with … someone … to get the group’s powers back. I didn’t know who the deal was with, but I still had one more Icari to hunt down.

Note: And yes, I got the reference – “my wings … melting” and Icari are both references to Icarus. Just letting you know

It almost seemed like it was Mental Maiden who’d fallen the furthest. Six years of pent up rage at being seen more as an object than a heroine had finally come to a head. Ironically, I have little doubt Patriotic’s insistence that her costume have a very poor surface area versus body volume ratio just exacerbated the problem. Let’s see … take a *psion* who is sensitive to public opinion, and does *not* want to be a sex object – and who happens to be very attractive – and put in her a costume that is practically guaranteed to make just about every male she rescues have … interesting … thoughts about her. Then, take away her powers so that the males that fall into the scum of the earth category might actually have a chance to act on said fantasies (and, apparently, do act on them). Then give her powers back. Yeah, that’s probably not going to go well.


If I let you read my mind, and you find that I *haven’t* been laughing at you, can we skip the part where you try to rearrange my synaptic connections in new and interesting ways?

I subdued her – and, perhaps, her unauthorized deep scan of my brain showed her the critical error she’d made: there are sure to be people who she’s helped, but who’ve repaid her heroics with lewd fantasy. But there are plenty who genuine appreciate having their lives saved. The problem comes when you focus on the bad, and ignore the good, as she did.

There was more bad news as I returned to my computer. I didn’t know who’d helped the Icari get their powers back, but, apparently, whomever it was, also engineered their escape... destroying the police cars carrying them to the Zig, and removing the devices placed on them to suppress their powers. There was no indication as to who it was, or why they did it.

But the Icari were still out there; I suspected I hadn’t heard the last of them.

Pros: A fun, well-written arc overall that had only a few flaws that kept me from giving it a 5 star rating (review-wise; it got 5 stars in game). The mission briefings are well written, and the clues make for a very interesting read, as to the in-game descriptions of the Icari. Frankly, I found the idea of starting with a bunch of superhero clichés, and actually giving them deeper (and darker) backgrounds was a nice touch – their “golden” exteriors hide a real darkness, and one that ultimately leads to their downfall. With the exception of the first mission (and, to some extent, the third), the pacing is good, causing the arc, and the story to flow well. A very good arc overall.

Cons: I’ve got plenty of comments, critiques, and suggestions for the author to consider (or dismiss) in the walkthrough; here I’ll touch on two things. First, the loose ends are a bit frustrating. It’s possible there’s a sequel in the works, but it doesn’t exist at the moment, and you’re left wondering if you’re ever going to know the rest of the story. It’s not that I think every strand in the story has to be tied up – but how the Icari got their powers back (evidently through some sort of “deal with the devil”) seems like a pretty big strand to leave hanging. As I said, for the moment, there are no answers, and some players may find that frustrating.

The second thing is the pacing in the first and third missions. As I pointed out earlier, finding a way to keep that mission from being a “hunt down the next chained objective” on a very large map would be a major improvement. And I do have to say that the map seemed strangely empty – for a massive Council attack, there didn’t seem to be a whole lot of Council…

In the third mission, the need to escort all of the Icari back out can get to be a drag. I’ve got a couple of suggestions for how to make it more fun… see if you like some of them (and they’re not necessarily mutually exclusive).

(1) Make only the “front” escort an actual escort. Make the other four a “free an ally” (and have them run off, saying “I’ll try to find my way out”; you can still use the ambushes (and it *might* be possible to set the ally to be a non-combatant follower, to create an impression they’re following you for safety, but actually leading them to the entrance isn’t necessary to progress the mission).

(2) If they have to stay escorts, having patrols or even boss details spawn in behind them could be useful to make leading them out more interesting. You’ve got to be careful about how you do it (e.g. the “front” rescue doesn’t spawn anything, one of the “middle” rescues spawns something up front, and any “back” rescue spawns stuff to “middle”), but it can at least make leading them out more interesting.

And that’s it! I enjoyed playing the arc; thanks for asking me to review it!

Score: 4.25

The next review (tentatively scheduled for the week of January 11th) will be to Reign in Hell, with Krusader’s Adventures two weeks later (i.e. I plan on sticking to my normal schedule).

And now back to playing Player’s Choice arcs.

My Villainous/Rogue arc votes:

1st - Fear and Loathing on Striga Isle (#350522)
2nd - Until the End of the World (#431270)

Like the others, there were some hard choices for me here. "Doom Army Project" is a great arc, as is "Unfair Trade." Once again I find myself wishing I had more votes...

EDIT: You know, given the quality of the arcs I see here, I really wish there was at least some sort of prize for just being nominated...

Important Reminder: Each arc here was given 5 stars in game since these were not 'asked for' reviews (or mini-reviews). Pro Payne still has three slots open for detailed reviews, as of this post.

Here are my mini-reviews for the villain arcs. They were actually mostly played through with my Blood Widow character (since he can get XP, and most of the arcs here happened to have a level range that was pretty close to the Widow's level). "The End of Saturday Morning", though, is a high level arc, so I played through it with Perturbation - my level 50 EM/EA brute.

I'm currently working on finishing up my detailed review of "The Icari" - that will be posted soon: either tomorrow or the day after.

Fear and Loathing on Striga Isle (#350522) (5 stars)

I played and reviewed this arc in March; go here if you want to see the review. Thought it was a great arc then, and still think so now.

Score: 4.875

Unfair Trade (#373846) (5 stars)

An old cellmate calls in a favor, and I find myself in a plot to transfer the powers of the heroines Flambeaux and Polar Shift to him. Although it’s likely the heroines will eventually have their powers restored, my aid creates a potentially powerful new ally – and absolves me of a debt.

Good, solid, and pretty fast-paced arc. Well written, and well designed. I definitely liked that little “geek” touch – name Maxwell, who has just gotten fire and cold powers, after Maxwell’s Daemon. Nice.

Only thing that seemed odd to me was Nemesis angle – seems pretty clear it was to give you more to do in the office (and foreshadow how Nemesis takes over businesses), but it didn’t actually bother me.

Score: 4.56

The Do-It-Yourself Doom Army Project (#410418) (5 stars)

Dear old Granny Bloodfist has decided to help me build my own ARMY OF DOOM! With her help, I recruit all the necessary personnel, put down a rebellion in my ranks, and then demonstrate my AWESOME POWER by ripping the heart out of Grandville.

The missions are particularly well done here – the arc’s got clever design and plenty of little “side things” to do. And it passed what is potentially the hardest test of any ‘comedy’ arc (since comedy tends to be subjective) – at least this audience member found it quite funny. My ‘army’ was a hoot. I only wish I’d been ramped up to a higher difficulty so that I could see what one of the bosses was like…

What didn’t I like? Eh … I’d like to have seen more clues. And I’d be happier if the lackey’s didn’t have caltrops. But don’t let that fool you – it was a very good arc!

Score: 4.53

The End of Saturday Morning (#391934) (3 stars)

I start out on a ‘caper’ to turn an entire planet into a ball of gold (and thereby enjoy the benefits of an endless supply of money – at least until ten to the twenty-fourth kilos of gold makes the metal rather worthless on the market) – but it quickly seems as though I’m falling victim to some sort of TV fantasy. I survive the experience, but end up quite happy to have destroyed the fictional worlds intended to delight young children, if only to ensure I never have to experience them again…

Whatever the audience this arc was intended for, I’m definitely not it. This was no fun for me at all … and I say that with full knowledge that I don’t think the author *intended* it to be.

Likes: Well, um … there’s a kind of surreal quality to it. And it does capture the whole ‘the side of good is stupidly powerful in Saturday morning cartoons, so how could a self-respecting villain ever have any realistic hopes to triumph?’ motif. The arc is labeled ‘challenging’ and *absolutely* delivers what it promises.

Dislikes: To accomplish what is mentioned just before this paragraph, the author has had to subject me to just about everything that I’d not enjoy – if I had to make a list of foes I’d rather not fight, they’ve been reskinned, given new descriptions, and inserted into this arc in multiples. And then attached to ambushes. So I get to fight something I’m not having any fun fighting, and then one or more large ambushes stream in to ensure that I can top off a not very fun fight with a defeat. By the time it was done, completing the arc was a chore – I was deliberately looking for the next objective so that I could finish it as fast as possible and move on.

I like this author’s work. The problem here is that this arc, however well designed (and it strikes me as designed to do what the author intends), is not the kind of thing I want to play. I’m sure others do – but this one’s not for me.

Score: 2.787

Until the End of the World (#431270) (5 stars)

Reviewed this one not long ago at all; you can find the details here . I was of the opinion the arc was very well done; I enjoyed it a great deal.

Score: 4.827.

Oh hey! The voting's been extended to January 3rd. Excellent; that means I'll probably have time to play through and vote on all of the categories!

Okay, best Hero arcs.

1st - Made to Wave the Flag (#384776)
2nd - Golden Age Secret of the Paragon Society (#344596)

And this was a *tough* category. I really wish I didn't have to choose just two.

Next up are the best hero arcs. I’ve had the pleasure to review several of these already – where applicable, I’ll include links to those reviews. Although listed here, I have not re-played the 1st and last arc in the list because the review was so recent. For “Golden Age Secret” and “In Pursuit of Liberty” I’ve only done a speed play-through to get an impression of how much (if at all) the arc has changed (and if any changes would alter how I scored it).

Again, all of these arcs got 5 stars in game, regardless of what is reported here. Frankly, they all range from very good to flat-out superb. Definitely one of those situations where I wish I had more than two votes…

Dhahabu Kingdom and the Indelible Curse of Hate #367872 (5 stars)

Here’s a link to my recent review of this one.

Since this one was reviewed very recently, and doesn’t look like it went through anything other than minor tweaking as a result, I didn’t play through it again.

Score: 4.83

The Golden Age Secret of the Paragon Society #344596 (5 stars)

One heck of a lot of fun steamrolling the Nazi’s. In my opinion, this one is Wrong Number’s best arc (of the ones I’ve played), and she’s got some very good arcs! A link to my original review – I played through it quite quickly this time, but it still seems very similar to when I played it before (granted, I’m probably only going to chatch a drastic change in the entire plot, or the total absence of something that really annoyed me – which the original arc had none of).

Score: 5.42

In Pursuit of Liberty #344916 (4 stars)

Here’s the original review, although this arc has clearly gone through enough changes to warrant a rescore, and added comments.

A few things I noticed: Isn’t Liberty Rose’s costume supposed to have gold in it? Maybe it’s a small tiara or headband or something that I missed?

Also, very, very, *very* minor nitpick – there’s *nothing* wrong with the note in the third mission (I get it – MAL gave the journal to Fern, Fern then locked it away – so ‘this’ journal, in the note, is fine), but for whatever odd reason, my brain is happier if it’s “the journal”, not “this journal” – “this” implies it’s right there, in Fern’s possession, *to me* - that’s not technically what it means, but that’s the impression reading the clue gave me. Just figured I’d mention it. Feel free to ignore…

Mission 4: I think the reference to a Nemesis plot is a joke – but I think it draws away from the story. Shouldn’t the Dark Alliance be under MAL’s control? Keep the arc’s plot *tight*! (Again, just a suggestion, but it’s what popped into my head when I read the ‘Mission Briefing’ clue).

Overall, this arc, in my opinion, shows very significant improvement over when I reviewed it last:

The whole ‘fairy tale’ feel is even better done (although the arc doesn’t really cast itself that way any more), and MAL is better integrated into the plot. There’s only one thing that (again, in my opinion) is still missing – an actual plan for MAL. He’s practically destroyed the world in the future (although the Nemesis ‘joke’ sort of draws away from that, which is why I think it’s a mistake to include it) – and the aspect of the story where my role is to help Liberty become powerful enough to defeat him is very much improved. But it remains unclear as to what exactly his plan is. His *motives* are fine – it’s the *plan of execution* of his revenge that doesn’t seem to be there…

Score: 3.822

Legacy of a Rogue #459586 (5 stars)

An extremely well done story that really draws you in. Put simply, this was an excellent arc with a very compelling story.

What I liked: just about everything. If I’ve got to name a few specifics: the idea to make a recurring, if relatively minor, villain of the arc’s iconic hero a “redeemed” hero herself (who then later fell from grace – but just a bit), and, ultimately his lover to boot was a very cool twist. I saw it coming – but the fact I *wished* the plot was going to take that twist is why I think the author did such a good job. Then to use the twist to play up the bitter anger this brought up in the hero’s once devoted ‘original’ sidekick added even more. And the custom group was very well designed, visually. But…

What I didn’t: …eh, the custom group, while extremely neat looking, did seem a bit overpowered – although a few rather difficult ambushes probably contributed to that impression. And the level range for the arc meant the Circle spawns where heavy with the ‘spectrals’ – and dear LORD I *HATE* those things…

…but don’t let that fool you. This was a great arc.

Score: 5.295

Made to Wave the Flag #384776 (5 stars)

Wow. Just wow. This is the first time I’ve played a “great escape” type arc in MA, and what a “first” – I can’t imagine how this arc could have been better. Excellent writing and design; it kept me glued to the screen wanting to know what was going to happen next.

I literally have nothing bad to say about it. Very, very well done!

Score: 5.84


Task Force Mutternacht #349522 (5 stars)

Did a very recent review of this one; here’s the link. The review is very detailed, so no need to repeat what I wrote here, except to say that this is an excellent arc.

Score: 4.955

I *might* have enough time to play the villain arcs and cast my vote for those before the deadline.

Well, having played a number of arcs for the Player's Choice contest, I can tell you that on the "low end" (i.e. just playing normally instead of ticket farming) the rate and amount of ticket drops seems totally normal to me.

Some possibilities - although they're just speculation:

1. I've been on a 'lucky streak' and have been getting higher than average drops.
2. You and your friend have been on an unlucky streak, and have been getting significantly lower than average.
3. If the drop code *has* changed, it's operating on some sort of diminishing returns principle: the more tickets that have dropped in a particular mission, the less likely additional drops become. That'd make the drops look normal if you're not farming tickets, and unusually low if you are. But, again, that's just baseless speculation (and, not to insult the devs, but considerably more 'elegant' a fix than has been typical of them addressing an MA problem - their style up till now would be far more akin to "if farmers are getting tickets too fast, we'll just nerf the drop rate for everybody" instead of "well find a way to just address the tickets farmers are pulling in without punishing the non-farmers").

EDIT: Just thought of one more - I mean this by way of possible explanation, rather than accusation: You didn't mention what mobs you were using on your custom map. *If* they happen to be whatever the current "exploit" mob (to get lots of XP and tickets for very little challenge) is, it's possible the XP value of that mob was reduced (presumably to 1/3rd normal) - since tickets scale with percent XP rewarded, that'd also reduce the number of tickets you're getting. And if you were interested in the tickets, you might not have noticed the XP was lower?

Continuing what I did last year, I'm currently using what little available time I've got to play through arcs in the Player's Choice awards. I won't finish all of them (not by a long shot), but I'll post mini-reviews here for the ones I do get to. There's not much to the mini-reviews; just a few sentences giving overall impressions about the arc.

Pro Payne's regularly scheduled full reviews will be back next week, starting with Mirror Man's "Icari" arc. The requests have been very light this time around, so there are still four slots open, so there's still a LOT of room in the queue.

Today's category is Short Arcs:

Note: All arcs presented here automatically get 5 stars in-game from me, since the authors haven’t directly requested a play or review. The ratings listed here are what my scoring system actually rates the arc, but, again were not given in-game; all arcs here were rating 5 stars in game.

By Any Other Name #398110 (3 stars)

The Rikti C’Kelkah wants to ‘pay back’ the good Vanguard has done for the Traditionalists. His good deed: rescue the devoured Pyriss, and restore her to normal. In the final mission, a newly restored Pyriss helps you defeat a Rikti spy that had infiltrated the Vanguard.

It’s a fairly quick play (although the outdoor map with the Redcaps isn’t a favorite), with a straightforward story. The story’s not particularly deep, but the arc is fun.

Score: 3.125

"Hack" #403410 (2 stars)

Erm … okay, apparently it’s a contest (that is now closed). You have 15 minutes. There are 64 glowies. Each one takes something like 2-3 minutes to search. You have to get the correct ones to win. I checked out the url, and there are – or rather were – some nice prizes.

It’s an interesting, and innovative use for AE. If the contest was still going on, I’d be more inclined to check it out. But it’s not really a story.

Score: 2.08 (Case of “there’s hardly anything here for me to score”)

(The following is a re-post of a portion of the mini-review in the MA arc club thread)

The Murders in the RWZ Morgue #452144 (4 stars)

Likes: The mission is put together very well, and it’s actually quite fun to play through. By and large, the murder mystery is interesting.

Dislikes: I did think the solution was a let down – it came right out of left field since the diplomat didn’t even appear until the very end, and there really wasn’t much of a clue as to why the monkey would go on a killing spree until you actually see the solution at the end of the mission. I think the arc needs at least some foreshadowing that the diplomat exists to make the solution to the murder a bit more satisfying. Also, an additional (or even optional) clue where you find an autopsied Rikti warrior in the base might be good, so there’s at least some clue present as to what might set the monkey off. Heck, a few more ‘red herring’ clues added to the mission might be useful (so the player doesn’t automatically assume every clue is relevant to the mystery). And I was never clear why the Rikti monkey *started* with bloody paws – it seems like he’d only have blood on his paws *after* the murder… unless I was following the trail backwards, and the monkey had hid in the box afterwards, then left again.

In other words, I’d favor some more (perhaps optional) clues scattered about – some relevant, some not – to really make this feel more like a murder mystery.

And no, I’ve never read Murders in the Rue Morgue, so I wouldn’t know if that story also has the same ‘plot holes’ in it (nor would it convince me that more clues wouldn’t make the arc more fun).

It was still a very fun arc!
Score: 4.458

Storming Citadel #379488 (4 stars)

Neat premise – good design, good choice of a map. I like the idea to appropriate elementals and will’o’wisps as Citadel’s internal defenses.

By the way, I completely ignored all requests to lower my difficulty. And then my wife walked in, and we had a five minute conversation. And I still beat the mission. With about 8 seconds to spare.

Well done!

Score: 4.33

Talos Vice #338380 (5 stars)

It’s an homage to Miami Vice; the author’s done a great job of capturing the right feel with very well constructed mission dialog, and clever ‘custom’ groups. The story itself is pretty straightforward, but that’s not at all inconsistent with the show. Of course, where the arc really shines is the construction – it is very, very well put together.

The only thing I found objectionable was the use of “Int.” and “Ext.” to describe settings. I absolutely concede that it is probably for the best given space limits, but it was still a little distracting.

Score: 5.045

And just one last time: while I certainly am using my standard, highly subjective 'scores' to sort arcs for my 1st and 2nd place votes (and to give them 'out of game' ratings), all arcs played for the Player's Choice contest automatically get 5 stars in game.

Votes for Short Arc Category: (Hopefully I'll have enough time to run through one or two more categories before voting closes)

1st - Talos Vice (338380)
2nd - The Murders in the RWZ Morgue (452144)*

*And I should note that the 2nd place for me was a very close race between this and Storming Citadel.

Hey WN, any substantial changes since I posted the mini-review on this arc in the Pro Payne thread? If so, I'll be happy to play through it again; If not, I can just repost my review here.

I've been indisposed for the past week, so it isn't until now that I've had a chance to thank everyone who played Blue Devils and gave feedback! I very much appreciate both the positive response to the arc, and the constructive criticisms that will help me improve it once I get time for the next editing pass.

Thank you all very much!

During the Beta I kept thinking to myself, "Self, wouldn't it be very cool if you could buy incarnate shards with tickets?" But it'll never happen, since it would encourage farming MA.

But, you know, putting a timer on it seems like a great idea. It ensures you can't get shards *faster* than doing dev content, but still at least makes it possible.

Great idea!