Coulomb2

Okay, it certainly does seem Mondays and Wednesdays are the only days I have enough time to actually post to this thread.

Regarding Suziku: Yep, dead on. Didn’t catch that the Arachnos were automatons, although apparently the only side effect is that it made their dialog seem odd.

And, just to be clear, I certainly don’t think that Suziku shouldn’t run herself through the duplicator. I absolutely agree that’s the whole premise of the arc – definitely not what I was suggesting at all.

Okay, now onto my promised feedback (I guess it’s a “mini-review”).

The arc formerly known as:
Have a Blap, Blap, Blappy Day, Kids!

And now known as: A Very Special Episode (ID#457506, 5 stars in-game. I’m sure it’s “real” rating using my way of scoring arcs would have been either 4 or 5, with 5 being more likely, but since this is a 'mini' I didn't actually tally a score.)

I do have to say the arc is making far too many satirical jabs to not be “comedy.” (I’m making a reference to Wrong Number’s comment that she was thinking of removing the comedy tag.) At the end of the first mission, the reference to me not being sure it is Percy being led away because of a jacket over his head struck me as strange, given that he’s a Fake Nemesis. Granted, that may be a joke (or a reference to Percy actually “driving” the Fake Nemesis). Note: And one of the dangers of re-starting the arc is that I have to admit to not reading the mission briefings for the repeated missions as carefully as the first time – I just realized that I don’t actually remember if that reference was still in the debriefing. If not, just ignore the comment.

The reference to Paris and Lindsay is certainly recognizable, but seems a bit out of place (since it’s a ‘direct’ real world reference, whereas most story arcs – including this one for the most part – might allude to real world people, TV shows, etc., but don’t mention them directly). I figure if you invent a celebrity named after a European city, and pair her up with another invented celebrity with a name starting with L, almost everyone will see the reference. Just to be clear, the direct reference to real-world ‘celebrities’ wasn’t bad, it just stood out as different from the rest of the arc’s tendency to stick with allusions.

Minions-4-Hire really needs a pamphlet or brochure or something to “introduce” it; maybe you can find one on the ground in front of the warehouse in mission two. Granted, the pop-up text on mission entry is at least a decent introduction, but having a bit more there to “flesh out” the group wouldn’t hurt.

A few typos: Junkyard Dog refers to Nemesis as ‘Nemisis’ (may be deliberate since he’s obviously not a bright character).

Also, in the mission two debriefing, “…with someone like you Pro Payne on the case” – I might be mistaken, but I think there should be commas offsetting my name.

In the mission three sendoff, the trailing quote isn’t yellow. Also the wording in the second part of what is supposed to be the ‘crawling text’ on the TV is a little awkward.

In the vein of things that I might just be too dense to get – what the heck is “Q” rating?

At the start of the final mission, I got a warning that I’d be facing an Elite Boss and a “sneaky one” at that. I certainly do not have an issue with the warning being there – in fact, I think it should be – but I did want to comment that there didn’t seem to be anything sneaky about the EB at all. She actually struck me as pretty straight forward.

As far as overall impressions, it was definitely a fun arc, and I thought the pacing and the mission design were excellent. The custom group was nicely done – I was actually disappointed that I never got a chance to see or face off against Four Eyes, given the numerous references to the various “leaders” of the Injustice Legion. Although I never formally faced off against Jail Bird either – I sort of took away from this that his “gimmick” is that nobody’s entirely sure which of his hordes is really Jail Bird. Presumably it’s one of the boss-level versions.

Even in the original version of the arc, I liked the “play on words” in Bright Angel becoming Blight Angel. For what it’s worth, I actually did feel bad for her by the end of the arc.

One of the highlights of the arc is the mission contact – the TV is one of my favorites from Villain-side, and it was used quite well here.

My two chief criticisms are actually quite minor, and boil down to anomalies in the ‘impressions’ the arc gives me when I play it. I offer them simply in the sense of sharing information – I can’t offer solutions simply because I just can’t put my finger on what specifically is giving me these impressions.

The arc to me still has a somewhat “disjoined” feel to it, as though the story is not as tight as it could be. It’s certainly substantially improved over the original version (the overall plot, for example, was significantly clearer to me this time around), but that feeling is still there. What’s very odd is that I cannot identify exactly what’s causing it, and I’ve put a fair amount of thought into it.

Somewhat related is that the humor just seems a little “off” in the first two missions, but then clicks very well for me in the last two. Again, I’m not entirely sure what’s causing that feeling, though – the best I can come up with is that the style of the humor in the first two missions isn’t quite consistent with the last two; it’s more “silly humor” in the first two, versus increasingly “serious humor” (whatever that means – it’s just the word that comes to mind) in the last two.

Here’s one final thing that even strikes me as an odd thought to have, but I’ll throw it out there – it has always bothered me that Blappy is a blue lizard. Yes, yes, it makes perfect sense to me that what she looks like here is entirely different from what she might look like in the TV show, but since there is nowhere (that I could see) that suggests what her TV persona looks like (and Bright Angel shows up in what I presume to be – mostly - her TV getup in missions two and three), it seems natural to me to envision that the Blappy show features a blue, spiky, rather scary-looking lizard “hero.” Which seems at odds with it being a kid’s TV show. I’d figure her TV persona would have an almost generic, Power-Ranger-like quality, for example.

Of course, it’s very possible I’m just full of it and am the only one whose gotten those impressions.

Oh! And one last thing – I think Percy would work even better as a gold-colored, rather small, custom patterned after the Praetorian clockwork. But that’s just me.

Next week, back to Pro Payne’s regularly scheduled adventures. Although it’ll actually be Perturbation instead…

Will do!

A Fistful of Suziku (Arc #440157, 5 stars)

After my last adventure with the Nagans, we’d at least been able to find a common ground. I would act as their liaison with humanity, and, in return, I might have some say the next time they hatched a plan that could result in the destruction of all reality. I could say, “Hey, Nagans, I know you’ve got the best of intentions, but this plan of yours, brilliant though it may be, could possibly cause all spacetime to come apart at the seams.”

Sure, I’m not a scientist. Heck, I’m not even a real hero. And I’d really have no idea if whatever their next plan is really would destroy the universe, but I figure that as long as I say that any time I hear about a Nagan plan – any Nagan plan – well, it can’t hurt.


Okay, so let’s rehearse what I’m going to say. “Now, Suziku, I’m sure what you’re cooking up is both brilliant and radically advanced, but are you *positive* you’re not about to destroy all reality?”

So when Suziku contacted me, I was all geared up and ready to warn Suziku about how whatever she was up to might destroy us all. But that’s not what she wanted to talk about. Instead, it turned out that the Nagans had caught a Nemesis Automaton trying to infiltrate one of their bases. They’d easily captured it – Nemesis didn’t have a good feel for replicating the Nagans just yet. But Suziku figured it was only a matter of time, and we better put a stop to it.

I agreed. So Suziku informed me that they were going to release the automaton, and wanted me to track it back to its base of origin. I wasn’t quite as convinced that was a good idea, but I couldn’t think of anything better to try, so I told them to get the ball rolling.

Quick Note: “But your government would rather have a fit” (in the ‘accept’ text for mission one) read awkward. You might want to change that.

Within the base, I located a large number of Nemesis soldiers working to perfect the next generation of Nagan automatons. I shut down any of the copies I could find, and also destroyed whatever equipment I could find. I figured it might be a good idea to bring in the base commander for questioning, so I sought him out as well.

Quick Note: After defeating the Nagan Gunslinger Automaton, I got a system chat message ‘Unit waiting to test targeting system adjustments.’ I think that was intended as dialog spoken by the automaton upon defeat, but appears to be in the ‘Boss is defeated’ text box (or whatever it’s called).


Hey! It’s a Nagan Incenerator Duplicate! I like things that really can’t do much of anything to hurt me in return!

The Base Commander ended up being a Warhulk – as a result, my attempts to subdue were futile. The thing just blew up the moment I disabled it. Without a commander to question, I tried to access the computer terminal to see what was going on. Unfortunately, that proved to be a bad idea. Apparently, all of the equipment in the room as aimed at mass producing Nemesis’ automatons. The machinery scanned me in, and popped out a replica with my exact memories at the time of the scan. The automaton ran off, thinking it was me, and my mission was complete.

Given that my replica might have some sleeper programming in it, this was not a good thing… I raced back to Suziku, knowing full well my copy would probably get there first…

Suziku was confused (since I’d just been there a few minutes ago), but her technical expertise was enough to discover that the equipment wasn’t creating mechanical replicas – it was making organic ones instead. How very un-Nemesis like. Suziku speculated that it might be used to make cheap copies of existing automatons … the thought of which made her nervous.

I was happy to let Suziku continue to study the machine at the Nemesis base. I needed to track down my copy before it did something I’d regret…

When I heard over the police scanner than the Freakshow were trying to disrupt the reconstruction effort in Faultline and I’d been spotted on the scene there I headed that way. My instincts that I needed to stop myself were spot on. Not only was my copy “changed” (it was now blue) it was also willingly listening to the Freakshow entreaties that it would be more fun to smash things up rather than put a stop to their activities.


It’s kind of like fighting those punching dolls that keep popping back up after you knock them down.


Hey! I’m blue! You’d think this would give me cold defenses, and cold powers. But no. Apparently, though, it did turn me into a complete wuss who runs away at the drop of a hat…

Not only did I put a stop to the Freakshow attack, I also (after a rather protracted fight) put down my copy as well. So I now needed to figure out if all of the copies produced by the duplicator would turn to evil – or if they were simply highly suggestible. Or perhaps it was something else…

Even more alarming was the fact that my duplicate could not be convinced that it wasn’t me, appeared to be in the process of going completely insane, and I hadn’t been feeling well either since the duplication occurred. I attempted to contact Suziku, hoping she’d learned more about the duplication machine. She didn’t pick up her communicator, prompting me to drag my duplicate back to the Nemesis base to speak with her directly.

Once there, I found the reason for Suziku’s silence – the base was under Nemesis attack. My duplicate ran into the base, screaming something about proving it was the real me. Figuring that would serve as a pretty good diversion, I also entered the base.

I found Suziku held hostage by Nemesis soldiers almost immediately upon entering the base. I freed her, thankful for the help.

I was not in any way even remotely surprised when I found Suziku held hostage by some Nemesis soldiers a little further down the hall. After freeing her, I headed upstairs. And guess what? Yep. Suziku, being held hostage by Nemesis soldiers.


Whichever one of you is the real Suziku, please raise your hand. Oh. All of you. Okay, well, just make sure to summon a horde of robots to help me clear this place out.

I tried asking them which one was the real Suziku. Turns out they were all the real Suziku. Given my own experience with my duplicate, that didn’t surprise me either. But it was worth a try.

In the room where the duplicator had been, I found the raid leader, and (as near as I could tell) the real Suziku. I also found my own duplicate – who still appeared to be undergoing unexplained changes: his colors were closer to my own again, but his powers seemed to be shifting. All I got from the raid leader was the information that the duplicator had been captured and moved out of the base (the fact it clearly wasn’t here meant he was just stating the obvious).

The real Suziku told me that she’d managed to decipher the secrets of the duplicator. When the time came to try it out on a sentient subject, the other members of her team (and the humans present, most likely) objected to her plan as unethical. As I hadn’t yet given her my planned speech about how whatever she was planning was going to destroy us all (I’m just kicking myself that I didn’t do that the moment she contacted me), she simply locked herself in the room with the duplicator and started making copies of herself. If I wasn’t a hero…

…well, it would be better to focus on the problem at hand. According to Suziku, evidently using the duplicator triggered a quantum instability that would ultimately cause any organic matter involved in the process (the original included) to come apart at the seams. See! I KNEW it! Something was going to come apart at the seams!

Ahem…

So anyway, Suziku figured that as long as we could get a working copy of the duplicator, reverse its function, and re-integrate all of the copies into the original, everything should be fine. Unless doing so caused the universe to implode. (That last one was all me. Suziku didn’t mention that at all.)

Evidentially, the equipment used to build the duplicator was mostly manufactured by Aeon Corp, so if I raided an Aeon Corp Lab, I might be able to find the parts Suziku would need to rebuild the duplicator. Heck, I might even find a blueprint, since it was at least possible the design was actually Dr. Aeon’s, and not Nemesis. I headed over to the Rogue Isles.

Aeon’s lab was well defended by Arachnos soliders (who actually had some pretty funny dialog – although, I have to admit that I thought the dialog was almost a little too flippant and trite even for the light comedy typical of the Nagan arcs), but was also under attack by Nemesis. Apparently, the Nemesis were here for the same reason as me – to find the parts needed to make the duplicator operational again. Well, I guess that’s almost the same, since technically I didn’t have even a non working copy of the duplicator, so Suziku and I were looking to build the thing from scratch.

Nemesis had captured Dr. Aeon. I freed him, eliciting only a promise that he would destroy the base before he let the technology fall into anybody’s hands. Figuring that he would probably don is power suit and try to stop me, I called in some help from the Nagans. Besides, the combat was hot and heavy and Dr. Aeon is typically no slouch (as I just mentioned). Well, and also just because I wanted to see what would happen. Suziku sent a Wraith and a Ranger in to help me (although I never figured out what happened to the Ranger – I heard her from a distance away, but never found her).

Nemesis had also captured an Arachnos technician. I knew the tech could help me get into Aeon’s computers, provided that I could defeat Dr. Aeon before he could destroy the base. I freed the tech, and defeated Dr. Aeon (who was nearby).


I think you’re aim’s a little off, Dr. A. Which is too bad, because my deadly Nagan ally looks like she’s got you dead to sights.

I then accessed the computer terminal with all of the duplicator information. I learned that it really was Aeon who had developed it – but Nemesis had stolen the device. Since the computer had a manifest of everything I’d need to make my own version of the device, I picked up the necessary components on the way out, and headed back to Paragon City.

Note: You need to look over the Dr. Aeon’s Threat clue in mission four – the wording is garbled and doesn’t make much sense. I get the gist (Nemesis is here looking for spare parts to repair their copy of the duplicator, but Aeon would just as soon destroy the base rather than let any outside party get the parts), but the wording needs to be cleaned up.

I contemplated locking Suziku into a very small room so that she couldn’t make any more trouble, but I figured I needed her help anyway to make the duplicate of the duplicator. Besides, she kind of grows on you – well, as much as any unethical scientist whose experiments regularly threaten to destroy all reality can. It actually occurred to me that she’s kind of like the Nagan version of Dr. Aeon.

Anyway, it was time to build a duplicator, put it in reverse, and re-combine all of us.

Note: In the return text for mission four, you might want to consider rewording the reference to the first test of the unduplicator: “The tests at merging non-organic subjects went very well, at least they did after that first test which only resulted in a rather odd-looking metal ‘sculpture.’” Your call, of course, but I think that wording is a little less awkward.

Suziku was ready to get started. Rather absent mindedly, she told me that the Nagans had tracked down where Nemesis had taken the duplicator. One of the other Suzikus had told my duplicate where the base was, and that I planned to re-combine us. The duplicate had raced off to the base. I wasn’t sure if he wanted to stop the Nemesis, or if he wanted to join them in an effort to prevent being reintegrated… but Suziku informed me that the duplicator could be reversed without a physical re-arrangement of its parts. All that needed to be altered was the software running the device. Suziku gave me a copy of the reintegration program, figuring it’d just be easier to run it at the Nemesis base, rather than try to drag my copy all the way back to the Nagan lab. (Note: Wait a minute – isn’t their version broken because of all the parts Suziku and the Nagans took from it? Or did I miss the part where they told me the Nemesis army had actually made it out of Aeon’s base with replacement parts? If so, that’s just me not catching every detail – If not, that may be worth adding in for consistency.)

So off to the Nemesis base I went. Again, apparently.

The Nemesis base was actually an old, abandoned 5th Column base. It didn’t take me long to find my duplicate. He definitely wanted to replace me. So he certainly wasn’t responding to any impulse to fight the criminal activities of the Nemesis Army – he was there to enlist their help in defeating me so that he could become the ‘original.’ Most of the mission was a very long, protracted fight with him (interesting side note – my double does have Healing Flames, but just almost never uses it. Thank goodness.). The ambush proved fatal – but the moment I saw it, I anticipated I was either going to be defeated, or have only a sliver of life left after dealing with it. So I moved into the midst of the soldiers – if I was going to be defeated, they were going to taste the full brunt of my wrath upon my rise from the ashes.


Let’s see. Fire Scrapper: check. Fire Scrapper Duplicate: check. Nemesis solider ambush with lots of things that make big, firey explosions: check. Yep, that’s a lot of fire.

Worked like a charm! I finished off my duplicate, re-integrated us, and then set the base to self-destruct.

While I was busy at the Nemesis base, Suziku had managed to get her duplicator working, and had reintegrated all of her selves. She thanked me for my help in solving this latest crises. There is something endearing about her, which led me to simply take the compliment, wish her good luck, and move on to my next adventure.

Then I remembered that I still hadn’t given her my “whatever it is you are about to do, don’t, because it might destroy the universe” speech.

…

Then I also remembered that she still had a working copy of the duplicator.

Oh lord…

Pros: The arc is just plain fun, and most of that can be attributed to the story presentation and the characters. The Nagans themselves are, as usual, very well written, with Suziku quite possibly being one of the most memorable characters in the architect system – frankly, if somebody where to come up to me and say “name some characters that really stand out to you among the MA missions you’ve played” the first that would come to mind are Anton, Suziku, Drakule, and the Teen Phalanx. The list of memorable characters is longer, of course, but those are the first characters that jump to mind for me. Although a “Nagan” arc, it makes very little use of the Nagans as foes, instead focusing on the Nemesis Army, Arachnos, and the Freakshow. It’s really, IMO, a great decision. The Nagans are a very well designed custom group, are challenging, and if you really want to face off against them, you’ve got two other arcs to choose from (really three, if you count their cameo in ‘McGuffin.’ And there may be more.). So it’s a nice change of pace to have a Nagan arc where they’re a part of the story (always a plus, given how well-written they are) but they’re not your foes.

The arc makes good use of the system’s mechanics, with non-clickable objectives used to ‘spruce up’ the final room in at least two of the missions, and chained objectives carefully constructed to minimize the need to backtrack.

And the multiple Suzikus are very funny. It’s a minor point, but the use of color to give the impression of different Suzikus talking works very well. I’ve seen it before, but the technique is (unsurprisingly) used well here too.

One final note. The arc’s title might lead you to believe that Suziku will be the focus of the story – but she’s not. I felt central to the plot the whole time, and that’s a solid pro.

Cons: Not many, really. I noticed a couple of typos, and a few sentences with awkward wording – that’s to be expected in a relatively new arc. I’ve mentioned them above where I noticed them. The Arachnos dialog, while funny, seemed a little out of place. Yes, the arc’s got a tongue in cheek tone, but Arachnos was a little too tongue in cheek for my taste (insert standard disclaimer about all my feedback in inherently subjective and this isn’t a suggestion to change anything, just an honest mention of my impressions). Oddly, though, Dr. Aeon seemed right on the money to me, though.

And let’s progress from minor, to ultra-minor. I’m not a fan of fighting my own double. But that’s totally a function of the fact I’m basically highly resistant to my own damage type. And the use of your double makes perfect sense here. I’m just obliged to complain every time I have to fight myself. For no XP. And I suspect I’m going to be seeing a lot of this what with doppelgangers being party of the system now. Heck, at the moment, I’m two for two.

In the interest of “you wanted feedback, so if it crossed my mind, I’ll mention it” – putting Suziku through the duplicator didn’t really strike me as vital to the story (although without it, the title doesn’t make any sense). Of course, it sure did make the story that much funnier – I mentioned Suziku is a very well done character, right? So no way it should be removed from the story, but anything that would give a stronger justification wouldn’t hurt. I want to make it clear that this is very much an “in passing” suggestion. Don’t waste time trying to think of ways to give the Suziku copies a stronger reason to exist in the story. All I’m saying is that if something pops into your head that would have that effect, it makes an already great arc even better.

Score: 4.67

Next up (for, hopefully later this week) – know how to get me to do something that isn’t exactly on my schedule? Bribe me with the potential to win a prize!

I’m currently (time permitting) playing through Have a Blap, Blap, Blappy Day, Kids! I’ll post a mini-review (with nothing more than a few feedback thoughts) when I get a chance.

I hope you get a lot of opinions on this; I'd actually be interested to see what people think about it as well.

Mine is don't unpublish it (although, in your place, I'd still make the edits to the published version). I honestly don't think it'll get any more plays that way. Basically, I'm of the opinion that having more than a few dozen plays, even at a four star rating, is giving it a play rate that is higher than just about any one of my arcs that has few plays.

In other words, a five star rating, without a lot of plays, IMO, results in an even slower play rate than four stars and a lot of plays. I've got two arcs with five stars, one with 11 and one with 2 plays. I've got one with four stars, and about fifty plays. I'm fairly sure that perhaps the one with 11 and 50 have had one or two plays thus far this year. The one with 2 plays hasn't gotten one at all. And I actually put hours into updating it (albeit just because I wanted to, not really to increase the rate it got plays). I've got one arc with about 80 plays, four stars, and it gets a play (like your arc) about once a month or two.

So it seems to me that the number of plays the arc's already got is more important than the rating *at least for arcs that don't already have a few hundred plays.* So I wouldn't unpublish it.

Right on schedule, here's the first review! There are still five more arcs in my queue, and once those are cleared out, I'll open it up to suggestions again.

(Part of the reason for the once per two weeks schedule is so that I've got time to do things other than 'nothing but MA reviews' - so the typical pattern will be 'one week on, one week off'.)

Here goes...

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

You know, it never hurts to have a rather attractive woman greet you on your return from ‘vacation.’ But it’s time for Pro Payne to get down to business.


Huh. That’s an odd little bug.

Said attractive woman was my contact; her name was Queen Auri, and she claimed her seers had directed her to contact me through Portal Corporation. Evidently her world was one where sorcery was used to enhance the advance of technology, and her kingdom and its people had become quite prosperous by trading their goods with others. But a dangerous curse had fallen over her people like a disease – a curse that was slowly turning the peaceful artisans of the kingdom into raving psychotics attacking all around them for no good reason at all.

The Queen wanted me to help her husband, the King, rescue some people from a farm collective where there had recently been an outbreak of violence. I was happy to help, and found both the King and some villagers that had been taken hostage by rampaging citizens of the kingdom.


As is often the case, the best way to break a spell is to beat the tar out of whomever is suffering from its effects.

They, of course, thanked me for my help (although the King was close to succumbing to the curse of hatred, and fled from me soon after the rescue), but also made references to a “Spider King” to whom a recent alliance had been made. They also told me that the trouble had started shortly thereafter.

Spider King, huh? There’s certainly an obvious suspect – but that would still leave open if this is *our* Lord Recluse interfering in this dimension’s affairs (and if so, why?), this own world’s version of Recluse … or perhaps something else entirely.

Whatever it was, Pro Payne had already resolved to put an end to it. It was time to report back to the Queen.

Upon hearing that her husband was falling under the sway of the curse, Queen Auri was despondent. I suggested we seek out this “Spider King” – and learned from her where he could be found. Based on what she was telling me, I got the distinct impression that the Spider King was well known to the Queen and her subjects. I was beginning to suspect he was, at least, not the Recluse of our world – but Auri’s reference to his being “not quite human” didn’t sit well with me. She also warned me I’d have to prove my strength to him.

That made me particularly hopeful that I was simply facing the leader of a race of mutant spiders that had nothing to do whatsoever with either world’s version of a dangerous Arch Villain. I headed off to face the Spider King…

Spider King Anansi’s lands were primitive, if ruggedly beautiful. His warriors were hostile to me, but at least appeared native to this world – and quite human. Anansi was certainly *not* human, but at least proved to be willing to talk to me (at least after I’d proven my strength).


Lord Anansi really is a big mutant spider. Fortunately for me, like most spiders, he isn’t impervious to heat…

Evidently, members of his Spider Kingdom had also fallen under the sway of the curse. He’d left me a “gift” of some sort, but I still had to find it, and his warriors continued to challenge me as I searched (I wasn’t quite sure if they were hostile simply because they wished to test my strength, or if it was the effects of the curse).

Note: It’s a very minor thing, but Anansi’s group was listed as Anansi’s Warriors; if you’ve got nothing better to tweak, putting him in his own faction (like Spider Kingdom or something) might make a little more sense to those paying attention to tiny little details, but it’s obviously not a significant issue.

At the very least, the warriors Anansi had charged with burying the gift were still willingly following their king’s orders – although they tried to fight me off, I defeated them, and broke open the container they were attempting to bury. Within was a letter to Queen Auri, and a map to a location near Auri’s kingdom of Dhahabu. Although I wasn’t sure how yet, the Spider King had claimed this information would be useful in helping both kingdoms. I returned to the Queen so that she could perhaps tell me more about the place the map would be leading me.

Upon speaking with Auri, I learned that the location on the map was a collapsed mine that was thought to hold a powerful mystical artifact – the Portal of Perception. Once a sorcerer in her kingdom had sought the artifact, and been exiled when his single-minded quest to acquire it had caused a cave-in that cost the lives of several miners. The Queen speculated that the sorcerer might possibly be behind the Curse of Hatred. The Spider King’s letter provided clues that would aid me in using the Portal. And – hopefully – the Portal would give me the insight to see all that was happening here. I was hoping it would not only tell me if the exiled sorcerer really was behind the curse, but also tell me where he could be found – assuming he was the foe I needed to defeat to put an end to this threat to Dhahabu.

Following Anansi’s instructions, I activated the Portal of Perception (after proving my strength to the Portal’s Avatar). The Portal’s magic revealed to me that somehow the curse would be ended once I had helped the King (Aurus) to unlock his emotions – it implied there would be more to it than just that, but I wasn’t yet sure what else needed to be done. It also showed me a face – the fact of the one responsible for the Curse. I suspected it was the banished sorcerer, but only the Queen could tell me for sure.


You know, there’s just something about treasure chests in caves that triggers that old D&D instinct: ‘yeah, I know I shouldn’t pull the lever, but I’ll bet something interesting will happen if I do…’

Note: I liked the design of the mission, with one caveat. A cave map sort of necessitates a fair amount of backtracking if you don’t choose the “correct” path – especially for chained objectives. Since I found objective 3 and 4 before 2, it didn’t take long to complete the mission once I’d finally found 2, but it did leave a long period were I was just uncovering map. A couple of foes (I’m thinking boss spawns – although they don’t have to actually spawn bosses) scattered about – to keep the map fairly clear, but to give something to break up the monotony too – would be helpful here. Optimal would be something unique to the map (not sure what – the undead remnants of the slain miners come to mind, but that’s potentially a bit cliché.) By the way, I did click on one of the chests just to see what would happen. My only gripe about that (and it is a very, very minor one) is that the XP penalty involved with groups that have only one rank (never mind the role playing aspect of it – I’m essentially having to act against my character just to give myself a bit of action) would make a few things I *have* to fight a better choice for a diversion.

The Queen verifies the face is that of the banished sorcerer (well, it’s not so much that the arc spells this out as it’s very easy to figure out). I’ve learned from the Portal how to break his spell, so the Queen sends me to do exactly that – which will, of course, involve facing the sorcerer down and putting an end to his evil. Since I’ve also learned where to go, I head out to face him down.

Chukuzi was the name of the sorcerer I needed to defeat, and he had taken up residence in an ancient blood spattered temple, surrounded by his insane, hate-filled followers. At last! A straight fight! Pro Payne repaid hatred with violence (yes, the dark irony is not lost on me), but fought his way to Chukuzi. On the way, he destroyed three powerful mystical runes powering the curse.


No room to fly in here, huh, Chukuzi? Yeah, no more tapping the space bar for Pro Payne!

Chukuzi fell, but the curse had taken on a life of its own, and had at its disposal one last, desperate gambit to maintain its existence: it had infected the King. If I could not break its effects on him, Queen Auri would fall into despair, and Dhahabu would be plunged into an anarchy ripe for the curse to run roughshod through.

Note: I’m not doing blackflips of joy for Chukuzi having fly, but I didn’t count off either, so to speak. That’s one of those things that I’m honestly always on the fence about (except on outdoor maps, where it really is kind of a jerk move) – on one hand it almost always “fits” when a mob’s been given that power, but on the other hand fly, and a few other powers, always strike me as “when the bad guy has it, the only practical effect is to make the fight more annoying – not really any harder, just more annoying.”

It was time to seek out the King and put an end to the Curse of Hatred once and for all.

I entered the King’s personal hell, as his mind fought with the power of the Curse. Within, I found a twisted reflection of myself – no doubt a manifestation of the Curse’s attempt to turn the King away from the hero that was coming to save him. That said, that manifestation packed quite a wallop. Especially since we were both largely immune to each other’s damage.


Now that the Doppleganger function is available, it has become increasingly important to ensure your characters are not largely immune to their own primary damage type…

Thank god that whatever sets powers for doppelgangers didn’t give mine healing flames. That would have been beyond miserable.

I freed the King’s emotions, which brought to my side the Queen’s avatar, to help in the upcoming battle. We then tried to subdue the King. It started out just fine, but then that blasted ambush (filled with hordes of psi damage, which – shockingly – I can’t do much to resist) of Chukuzi clones hit me. While I dealt with the ambush in a desperate attempt to keep them from ripping my mind to shreds, King Aurus proceeded to tear the avatar of his wife into a thousand pieces. On the up side, that kept him from annihilating me. On the downside, there was now nobody left to keep him from annihilating me.

Which he did. A couple of times.


You’d think, after a while, he’d stop turning his back on me and walking back to his happy place…

Fortunately, dogged persistence – and the ability to rez myself practically ad-nauseum – ultimately whittled him down, allowing me to put his soul to rest (not in the bad way – in the “I’m now a happy camper and will stop tearing holes in my would be rescuer” way).



Why can’t I have a limit break?

Note: It wasn’t actually as bad as I’m acting. I’m more concerned with time put in than actual number of times I’ve been defeated. And, thanks to Aurus’ willingness to walk back to his spawn location, rezzing myself and launching into the fight again didn’t take all that long at all.

Pros: To be honest, by this point just about every author who is active in these forums and requests a review tends to put out arcs that have a very polished feel to them, and this is no exception. For lack of a better way to describe it, the writing is very good, the arc flows very well, and while the story didn’t rivet me, it was certainly still good. In fact, one thing I can say for the story that I genuinely appreciated is that it is direct, and easy to follow. I’ve played through a lot of very convoluted, complex stories in MA (and some of mine would certainly qualify too), so it is *always* nice to play one that doesn’t require a significant expenderature of brainpower to follow the plot. So this arc’s combination of easy to follow while still being interesting was very welcome. The design for the customs was good: the Spider Warriors (I thought) seemed to be the most visually appealing, and Chukuzi’s pantheon made good use of re-appropriated standard mobs. And, in general, the customs were well balanced and fun to fight.

In other areas: the arc made good use of maps, and for the outdoor maps I suspect the author set the enemy faction to empty and used patrols and boss details (that didn’t actually spawn bosses) to fill the map. This is a very good way around one of the most frequent problems with large outdoor maps – the huge number of spawns often lead to a “fight your way around the map until you get bored, then just hit fly (or stealth) and deliberate search out only the mission objectives” approach. By effectively reducing the number of spawns on the map, it was much easier to actually explore the map normally while looking for the mission objectives.

Cons: Not many. I was of the opinion that the author actually had a bit too *few* details populating his outdoor maps. As mentioned above, I love the general idea as a way to improve the pacing on outdoor maps, but in this case I thought the maps were just a tad too empty for my taste.

My other comments are really just minor nitpicks here. I didn’t like Chukuzi’s ability to fly (but, frankly, I’m not going to like fly on any mob where the ability isn’t an integral and vital part of their back story or the story of the arc – and that’s just due to the fact that a boss mob taking to the sky for no apparent reason rarely registers as “Oh cool! The mob can fly!” or even “Hey, it does make sense a sorcerer would have a fly spell active…” (and that *does* make sense). Instead it’s the much more practical, “Yep, I do buy he can fly, but all I’m getting from this is the need to precede every attack with a tap of the spacebar.” Never mind the fact that I’m well aware I can just draw him out of the room into the low-ceilinged antechamber. Which is yet another reason I didn’t count off for this.

Did I enjoy fighting my Doppleganger? Not particularly. But that’s because the jerk has 90% fire resistance to block most of my damage. That’s certainly not the author’s fault, but, hey, the ‘cons’ section is where I mention stuff that annoyed me. Like the above complaint, I didn’t actually count off for this. I can comment that to me, it would not have been terribly jarring if he had random powers (which would have solved the problem), but I’m certainly not suggesting other players wouldn’t find that odd. It’s something to suggest, but a suggestion that I would not be surprised in the least if the author didn’t see a need to change. Gameplay wise it probably improves things a bit – at least for solo players – but story wise it *is* potentially a problem.

So the final verdict? It’s a strong arc, well worth playing. The overall story may not have been the most noteworthy, riveting story I’ve played through – but it was certainly enough to keep me interested, easy enough to follow, and there were no issues at all with gameplay, pacing, or writing. Well done.

Score: 4.83

Next on the list: It's time for more Suziku!

Okay so after getting feedback on one of my arcs (thanks to Zamuel and Fred) informing me that some of my mobs from a custom group were not giving any XP, I went in to have a look, made some changes, and playtested the arc.

I'd assumed based on the feedback that GR had introduced a few bugs that were pulling mobs from my "boss holding group" - and as a result the 'attendants' to my boss spawns were only awarding 25% XP. Well, turns out that's not the case. After checking, all of my 'set enemy group' options are set to groups that have minions, lts., and bosses, and should therefore award 100% XP.

So here's the bug: In two of my missions, I've got destructible objects guarded by members of a custom group - the custom group is composed entirely of 'non-zombie' Vahzilok (Reapers, Morts, and 'standard' Eidolons). The purpose is to keep zombies from spouting dialog that you'd never expect to hear coming from, well, zombies. *But* for some reason the mobs that spawn to guard the destructible almost never award XP. Mind you, it's not reduced XP, it's none at all. "You have defeated Reaper." That's it. No reward text whatsoever.

And it's not consistent. From among four destructibles in two missions, three had guards that gave no XP, and one had guards (still from exactly the same custom faction) that gave normal XP. Patrols, and guards spawning with boss details are giving XP normally (although, to be fair, they're using the standard Vahzilok faction.

The destructible guards are always Reapers (even though the faction does have lts and bosses), although that doesn't come as a shock - my playtest character is on 0/x1, and the guards are set to 'easy', which, IIRC always spawns two minions as guards - I've never seen it spawn a lt instead. Doesn't mean it can't - just that I've never seen it at that setting.

Anyway, that's all of the relevant information I've got. I did look over the forum to see if anyone else had reported this, but I didn't see anything (and the fact experienced MA folks were thinking it was because the group didn't have all three ranks - when they actually did - leads me to think that this is a new bug none of us knew about).

If there's a workaround (other than perhaps just setting the guards back to the standard Vahz faction), I don't know of one. Any ideas?

Okay! Thanks for the requests everyone! My queue is now officially full. It will, of course, re-open once I've got all the reviews posted for these arcs.

I'm very much looking forward to playing them!

A few clarifications (to some comments that I realized were not fully addressed in my original post).

First, by default, my plan is to use Pro Payne for neutral missions. Frankly, I'd forgotten that was an option, but I may as well mention it. Just FYI, Pro Payne normally plays at +1/x2, with bosses turned on but AVs set to spawn as EBs. Defeat is not infrequent for him (I don't mind much, since I'm level 50 and it gives me a chance to use Rise of the Pheonix), and I take that into account when judging whether or not the arc's difficulty is unnecessarily high (i.e. it's got to get pretty excessive; I've played arcs where I was defeated twice each mission, and unless there were deliberate design elements behind the defeat that I thought could have been done better, it didn't bother me).

Perturbation (who will only be brought out for Villain and Rogue arcs) is a considerably more powerful character. He is typically set for +1/x3 (he can handle higher difficulties, but his comparatively weak AoE damage makes clearing out very large spawns a little tedious), with bosses and AVs set to spawn. If a spawned AV proves too much, then I just pare the difficulty back to EBs and reset the mission (I usually keep it at EBs for the rest of the arc, then switch back to AVs). The one exception is if I see the warning for Hard or Extreme AVs - at that point I'll set it to EBs right off the bat.

If all goes according to plan, I should get to the first arc on Monday, and go from there.

Thanks again everybody for the suggestions!

Although there is still much left to do, I have certainly enjoyed my break (largely spent exploring all of the new toys in Going Rogue). But the time has come, so without further ado:


The Continuing Adventures of Pro Payne

Who is Pro Payne? Here’s his original thread, for your reference (although I ask that you look to the end of the thread for what my current reviews actually look like).

In short, I play the arcs in my queue, and post the reviews here.

The Ground Rules

I’ll be doing this in cycles. Each cycle has six slots open for submissions. My goal is to average one review every two weeks. That really means that there will be times where life is busy, and it’s three to four weeks before I post something. Other times I’ll have more free time than average, and may get to post two in one week.

Posts requests to this thread. The slots are first come first served, but for each cycle, I’ll only put one arc per author in my queue. But I have no problem with an author who is watching this thread like a hawk managing to get in a new arc each cycle.

Once my queue is full, all requests posted after that are simply ignored. Yes, I know its draconian, but having a waiting list precludes organizing this into cycles.

The rating I give you arc is based on my own internal scoring system. Don’t let the fact it uses numbers fool you. It is completely subjective, based on things that make arcs fun for me versus things that annoy me. In game, your rating is your score, rounded up (e.g. 4.01 rounds up to 5 stars). Here, your rating is a standing rounding of your score (e.g. 4.01 rounds to 4 stars). A new option: Until changes to the system make the in-game grading fairer (there are several billion threads that address this, so I won’t here), you have the option to request a minimum in game rating. As long as the rating I would give is equal to or above your minimum, I’ll rate it in game. If not, I won’t rate it in game. I’ll still rate it here, and still post a review, though. If you don’t request a minimum, I’ll give it whatever rating I’ve got it scored for (as described above).

You may also request a difficulty setting. The only consequence of doing so is that I may push the arc back further in the current cycle’s queue to lump arcs with the same difficulty setting together (to save me travel time). If you don’t request a difficulty setting, I just use whatever setting I feel like using.

Since Pro Payne has long finished his quest to actually reach level 50, I no longer have a vested interest in playing nothing but him in MA. Of course, this wouldn’t be The Continuing Adventures of Pro Payne if I didn’t at least use him frequently. But, unless circumstances cause a change of heart, arcs marked villainous or rogue will likely be played by my level 50 brute, an Energy/Energy/Soul character. Circumstances that preclude me from using my brute for ‘evil’ arcs are mostly situations where I happen to have saved up a significant amount of day job time for something that would give me no benefit in MA (Pro Payne’s day job is always the ticket bonus, so it’s not a problem). You do have the right to request Pro Payne play the arc, regardless of alignment. I doubt anyone feels it has to be Pro Payne playing their arc, but I’ll throw that out there just in case.

In the event all of the requests this first time are villain arcs, though, I’ll probably use Pro Payne anyway.

Pro Payne is now open for round 3. Three slots remain - first come first served; but only one arc per author.*
No arcs in the queue at the moment.

Reviewed for this cycle:
Dhahabu Kingdom and the Unfathomable Nightmare of Sand: #453511 (5 stars)
When The Words Stop (#494099) (4 stars, 5 given in game)
Nothing to Worry About (#500325) (3 stars, 4 stars given in game)

*I'm going to relax this rule slightly given the paucity of requests. If I've got no more requests in the current queue, I'll take a second (or third) request from the same author. And don't let the number of slots left fool you. I don't get requests fast enough for it to have any real meaning.

Note: Obviously, a lot of work go into these reviews, and at a time when there is a whole lot to do in game. I've opened the queue again, but you'll probably notice that my newer reviews will have far fewer screenshots than previous ones - while they take a fair amount of time to prep, IMO they really don't add that much. Also, I do plan on taking a short break while I wait for suggestions. Provided I have a suggestion by then, my next review will be the first week in April.

(Coming Soon: running tally of the arcs reviewed here and their 'official' rating. I might even get fancy and include links.)

My nominations:

51357 Rise of the Drakule
350552 Fear and Loathing on Striga Isle
253991 Splintered Shields
347029 Breaking The Barrier (And Putting It Back Together)

(and I've got at least one more that seems to have changed, so I need to play through it again to make sure it is still just as good)

And, if it counts, I'd like to second:

161629 Freaks, Geeks and Men in Black
344596 The Golden Age Secret of the Paragon Society
61013 The Invasion of the Bikini-Clad Samurai Vampiresses from Outer Space
71933 One Million Eyes

EDIT: Removed last statement. Lazarus pointed out that PW's already got a DC, so doesn't qualify anyway.

Well, and in addition to the ranged attack in most melee sets not being too terribly bad, in some cases it works perfectly well to just have the secondary as one of the ranged blast sets, and pick one of the bottom tier ranged attacks. That's not always appropriate (e.g. if you want your mob to have defensive powers, or if it just doesn't fit the concept), but it can be very useful.

That said, like Eva, I *always* shoot for 90% to 100%. I'm very reluctant to make something worth less than 90%. But I also try very hard to balance the customs to whatever level range I intend for the arc. If the arc's designed for levels 1 - 10, you don't really have to load up customs with overpowered abilities to hit 100% XP; and if I've done an arc where the level 50s are all giving out 100%, then that's a pretty good sign that the arc needs to be set to level 40 - 50, because those mobs will be too challenging for lower levels.

In effect, a lot of the problem is caused by people who write the arcs being a bit lazy, and just leaving the level range as 1-54, when fine tuning it to the actual difficulty of their mobs would be more appropriate (and my general rule of thumb is X-10 to X, where X is the first level the mob becomes worth 100%, but that's just the way I prefer to do it - it's not necessarily the "right" way).

Anyway, that's my 2 cents.

The pattern I've seen most often that flying mobs use (particularly custom ones) is either stand on the ground or hover close to it while they engage you. Once they sense they're losing (low hit points, have missed you several times in a row, etc.) they get a lot more willing to fly off with a significant increase in altitude. I can't tell you how many times I watched a mob basically fly upward at about a 45 degree angle to a height that'd probably correspond to 30 to 60 feet, and spend some time hitting me with nothing but ranged attacks.

One other possible idea for allies is to trigger ambushes based on engaging a boss (and perhaps one or two more as the boss continues to lose hit points), but set the ambush to allied. If you make the ambush difficulty hard, it'll usually spawn in a fair number of allies per ambush. But like Eva's suggestion, once the allies arrive, they won't follow you around.

No, but only certain outdoor maps are allowed to use GMs. It's possible you're trying to put one on an indoor map, or one of the outdoor maps that isn't allowed to have one.

I've only skimmed this thread, so I may be repeating what someone has said, and if so, I apologize, but...

...exactly the same thing happened to me after the last patch; my frame-rate went to crap. Took me a while to figure out what it was.

While I've got the advanced graphics settings active, I have almost nothing "ultra" equipped. And after a bit of testing I was aware of the fact that my hardware just can't handle any of the improvements in the shadows allowed by ultra mode. Well I noticed that after the patch the sliders that controlled the shadow setting had changed slightly (I want to say that it used to be two sliders - one that said something like "None, Stencil Shadows, and Shadow Maps." And if you set it to shadow maps, you had shadow quality sliders (none of which I could use cause the shadow maps always tanked my frame rate no matter what).

Well now, it looks like it's been changed so you can have shadows enabled or disabled, and if they are enabled you get a slider where the second to lowest setting (called 'lowest' does what the old 'stencil shadows' setting did). After the patch, my settings were automatically updated to 'enabled' and 'low' (for shadows), which was using shadow maps and tanking my frame rate. Took me a long time to figure out what the problem was, but once I did (I noticed that my character was actually casting a shadow, instead of the simple 'dark spot' below his legs), and set the slider to 'lowest' everything was back to normal.

Again, likely not your problem, but I figured I'd chime in just in case...