Coulomb2

Okay! Time for a Pro Payne update!

Late this week was a momentous event for Pro Payne and his 1 to 50 in MA project. While finishing up Eva Destruction's Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black arc, he finally hit level 40! So he's finally on the home stretch to 50 - albeit a home stretch that is likely to take him just as long to cover as it did to get to 40 in the first place.

Reminder: The actual in-game rating I give arcs is 1 star higher than what I report here. In the current system anything less than a 5 star rating in game is a de-facto condemnation of an arc. I speak from experience: I have two arcs that currently have a five star rating - both tend to get anywhere from 1 to 3 plays per day. I have five arcs that are four star ratings. In the last two months, one has gotten a single play. It has gotten to the point where if giving an arc I thought was worth 3 stars my 'in game' 4 star rating, and that rating causes it to go from 5 stars to 4, I'll go ahead an give it five stars in game instead. And I do want people to know that, for me, a 3 star arc is one that would otherwise be good, except for the fact that it has a flaw that actually noticeably affected my ability to enjoy the arc. I make this standing offer to authors of those arcs that I rated 3 stars (4 stars in game) - if you fix the flaw, I will make at least looking at enough of the arc to see if I can upgrade it to 4 stars (5 stars in game) a priority. That offer stands until the Devs do something to fix the rating system so that the average player (not just those of us on this forum) are at least encouraged to give 3 and 4 star arcs a try on a fairly regular basis. I don't know what that something is ... but as I've said before, I don't like the idea of being the one condemning an arc to utter obscurity. (And, if I play an arc that has no plays yet, I boost its rating by 2 stars, rather than just 1: it would literally have to have normally scored a 2 or lower rating before I'd be willing to start it off with a 4 star rating ... and the same offer stands: fix the flaws, and I'll upgrade the rating).

And now, onto the next set of reviews. I think I have time for three, but we'll see. So here we go.

Whack A Mole! (ID#2711, 4 stars)
The day came, a few weeks ago, where Pro Payne just needed to blow off some steam. So when a Carnival Barker offered a 5 minute game of whack a mole, Pro Payne agreed. Of course, this wasn't just your mama's what a mole - this was the super-hero version. Pro Payne found himself in a (deserted) bank, with five minutes to hunt down a 'Mole' and defeat it. That caused the next 'Mole' to pop up somewhere else, and so forth, with each 'whacking' earning 1,000 points. Defeat all five before the timer runs out, and you get a prize - which turned out to be a 'bonus round' of Whack a Mole (in the 'inside the dam' map), where you had 10 minutes to whack 5 more Moles - including the last Mole, who was a far more powerful 'paragon among Moles' if you will, seeking revenge for the brutal whacking you unleashed on his bretherin. Pro Payne actually got the high score on both games, and then, after getting that little bit of R&R out of the way, moved on to the next story (which was The Daybreak Patrol Needs Help!).

Pros: I can some this up in three words: I had fun. I mean, what a neat little concept - and it was done well (although I do have a few suggestions, below). And thanks to the rather low time requirements, the arc lends itself very well to replay. I haven't done so yet, but this arc definitely goes on my 'something to do for a quick diversion' list - and not just for Pro Payne. I, for one, want to see what happens if I fail the time trial (so don't tell me) - which will gel perfectly with me actually taking the time to real the Mole descriptions a little more carefully.

Cons: So why not five stars? (Well, five in game, but not officially) In this case it's the 'if there's hardly anything to grade, then what I do see ends up counting more.' This is such a neat little concept that I do have some suggestions that I think could move the arc from great to perfect. Once, consider actually making your current score part of the current mission objective line - that'll make it a lot more visible, and improve the feel that you're playing a good old-fashioned 'for points' style game. And more garishness! By that I mean consider making those mission objectives colorful (or even mess around with their size or boldness) - that'll also help with the 'carnival feel.' On a lesser note - I think a bit more variety in the Moles (appearance-wise, not powerset wise: I thought the powersets were well done given the need to quickly defeat these guys) might improve the comic value. Finally, if you get to wanting to make more tweaks to this arc - perhaps a few 'bonus' things after mission complete: no idea what they might be, but I did like the ambush of mini-moles at the very end, and perhaps some additional garnishes (heh, maybe even changed out or rotated in and out from time to time) could be fun too (like having a few 'prize boxes' spawn in after the mission complete, guarded by the little mini moles that give out humorous clues, or have you spending your points for garish carnie prizes, or something ... just brainstorming here).

Shortly after whacking some moles, Pro Payne received an urgent message. He was needed to rescue a group of heroes called the 'Daybreak Patrol' - who were having a pretty unique problem.

The Daybreak Patrol Needs Help! (ID#321834, 3 stars*)
*If I am remembering correctly, this arc was sitting at 0 plays, so I gave it 5 stars in game, in the hope that it would get the ball rolling - or at least not discourage others from giving the arc a chance.

The Daybreak Patrol is a group of heroes associated with the PPD (or that at least work closely with them) who derive their powers from suits of powered armor. The suits can be computer controlled - and therein lay the problem. Their onboard computers had been infected by a virus that was giving some outside agency control over the suits, with the members of the Patrol trapped inside. Pro Payne's task was two-fold: find and defeat the members of the Patrol so that the anti-virus could be uploaded to their armor, download and destroy all copies of the virus on the lab computers where the Daybreak Patrol had been 'kidnapped' to (the agency responsible had also had the armors 'report' to some labs for further study/modification/reverse engineering). Perhaps not surprisingly, it turned out that Crey had engineered the virus in an 'industrial-espionage-esque' attempt to steal their secrets for themselves. They had even managed to insert one last 'sleeper program' in the viral code that the anti-virus I was using didn't clear, and, using it, had the armors 'report' to a predetermined location in a last-ditch effort to secure them for shipping out of the country. Pro Payne again rounded up the armors, and defeated the ringleader of the operation - who was apparently Countess Crey (or someone who looked very much like her and had all her powers).

Pros: The mission design was fairly good overall - the missions were fairly direct, without excessive numbers of objectives, and, although it did use 'chains' of objectives, they were handled just fine and didn't get annoying or otherwise detract from the gameplay. That made the overall pacing of most of the missions good. Put simply, the gameplay itself was good: I didn't get bored playing the missions, the story (mostly) made sense to me, and was presented in chunks at about the right pace to keep me engaged. Also, the Daybreak Patrol were pretty well done as well - very reasonable power choices, and their costumes looked like what the story suggested: power armor.

Cons: First and foremost, this arc really needed some dedicated proofreading: typos, grammar errors, and some pretty awkward phrasing in places; some additional formatting on the mission briefing and debriefing text wouldn't hurt, but that certainly wasn't a deal breaker. In mission though, you might want to limit boss dialog that implies the boss is handily defeating the player (as was the case with that really big tank-like armor): this one really is just a minor nit (at least for me), but it did seem a bit silly that big tank-guy was telling me how slim my chances were of victory and how likely my defeat was while I was busy mopping the floor with him. Okay, on to some other observations: I did notice some places where I thought the placing of mission objectives could be tweaked a bit (in either the first or second mission, almost every objective seemed to be in the same room - a bit of spreading the less critical objectives to the middle and front parts of the map: or, if the placement is a bug, it might be helpful to try out some other maps to see if the objectives get placed in a more staggered manner). The fact that the last mission was an outdoor mission didn't quite make sense to me - it seemed more like if Crey was intent on smuggling this stuff out, that they'd be taking pains to not be as 'out in the open' as an outdoor urban map is - an abandoned or normal warehouse is one option, although even an outdoor map that suggests more 'outskirts of the city' would be better? And the Freakshow ambushing me in the last mission because they felt cheated seemed odd - I got the impression the Freakshow were hired by Crey at the beginning of the story, and nowhere did I get the feel Crey was later trying to cut them out of the deal, which is why it seemed odd that they were acting like they weren't getting a cut of the reward (perhaps just making it very clear that they're just flat out turning on Crey and betraying their contract just 'cause they feel like it would work better). Finally, I would recommend either just flat out making the mastermind of the whole thing quite obviously Countess Crey (rather than using the C.C. model but renaming it "Armor Thief" and giving it a new description) - or have a logical underling be the one directing the operation (such as Hopkins, or create another custom character). Oh and here's a bit a technical feedback - perhaps try it out in a 'test' version of your arc and see if you like it: instead of having the armors 'packed in crates' in the last mission, why not have them as rescuable allies (that stay non-combat, or just run away once you rescue them with a 'returning to base' dialog) - it would work for most of the armors, since all but one show no skin, so it's perfectly believable they'd be able to walk around under remote control.

This arc certainly has potential, but this time around I did feel like some pretty significant polish was needed. But make no mistake - the arc was still very playable, and I did have a good time playing it, in spite of the feeling that it needed some more work.

Sadly, I truly am out of time for today ... which is a shame because I did want to get to "The Superadyne Revolution" today (so that I could reward Space Nut's extreme patience with me with a very positive review for an arc that I thought was very well done) - but I'm going to ask for his indulgence for a bit longer.

On the schedule:

Next Wednesday: A review for The Superadyne Revolution.

Next Friday: Reviews for The Rikti Accession and The Glory of Moment.

And still to come in the coming weeks: Reviews for Too Many Bunnygirls, AE's Premium Quality Mission, Day Job Hell, and Freaks, Geeks, and Men In Black.

Next on the list to play (and then add to the review list): The Sleeping Star, followed by (a somewhat staggered playing of) the Galactic Protectorate arcs.

Until next week! (And again, apologies to Space Nut - I promise the review of your arc is next)

Well let me be the first to welcome you to the club, then, and suggest some arcs to get you started.

Learning The Ropes was specifically written as an alternate 'intro' to the game (with Back Alley Brawler acting as your first contact). If you like, you can then follow it with Cracking Skulls and The Lazarus Project.

All three arcs are listed in my signature, along with their arc ID's. Hope you enjoy them!

EDIT: Oh, and level ranges. Learning the Ropes is 1-10. Cracking Skulls is 1-14. The Lazarus Project is 1-20.

And now, for Pro Payne's next update, along with two or three new reviews - whatever I end up having time for. I'll post some new reviews on Friday as well.

The update on Pro Payne's progress is very short: he's still level 39, inching his way to level 40. Not much more to say there, so on to today's reviews:

The Coldest of Wars (Arc ID#299972, 5 stars)
Pro Payne was sent by Agent Janet Kellum to investigate some activity at a nearby Crey facility (related to the fact that Crey agents were spotted at nearby graveyards; it was hinted that the 'gravedigging' might have something to do with what the player doing the developer arcs would eventually come to know as the Paragon Protector project, but it seemed pretty clear to me that this arc was set before you were supposed to know about that). What Pro Payne found were clues that Crey had found something very interesting, and was in the process of researching it in the hopes it would really boost progress on their 'artifical hero' projects. Kellum needed to find out more, but Crey was alerted to the threat, so she arranged to have the power cut to the Crey lab where it was suspected the new 'find' had been taken. It turned out doing so was not a great idea: the find was a group of 60s Cold War-era Soviet supervillains (of course, they saw themselves as heroes) that had been in suspended animation. The power was out long enough for them to go free, and they immediately began to implement their original plan against Paragon City to activate a series of ice cream machines in a plot to freeze the city solid - in the 60s, ice cream vendors were at every street corner, and most of them were of a particular brand that had been modified (unknown to their owners) a powerful 'cold field.' Fortunately, there were far fewer of these ice cream machines in the 21st century as in the 60s, so Pro Payne was able to shut enough of them down to foil the Soviet's plan. In desperation, the agents then planned to detonate a nuclear bomb from a hidden bunker - but Pro Payne was able to track them down and stop them in time to prevent a nuclear catastrophe!

Pros: This arc made very good use of a lot of things that make arcs fun and interesting to play: there was a wide variety of foes (Crey, Freakshow, and the custom foes in the Soviet factions, although with a large number of unique bosses - there were even 'cameos' of the winter horde near the ice machines). The customs themselves were well done and well balanced. The story line was a perfect combination of fun, interesting, and, well, 'cute.' I actually did sort of feel like I was in a (rather light hearted) 60s era made for TV spy show. The mission pacing was very good as well: the arc kept my interest quite readily the whole time, and none of the missions seemed to drag.

Cons: Not many to speak of - missions two, three, and four were timed, and originally the arc didn't do a very good job of warning you they were going to be timed. It lead to a case where I actually failed a mission because I wanted to see what the next mission was going to be before leaving for work, and didn't realize it was going to be timed. But that is a problem the author has since fixed - I mention it here as an opportunity to remind MA authors of the importance of warning players when an upcoming mission is going to be timed. I did notice that an information dossier Janet Kellum gave me prior to the last mission seemed to mention a 'class' of Soviet assassins (along with intel on most of the bosses you'd be facing, and the robotic servants and defenders designed by 'The Engineer') - I remember spotting everything in the dossier except for those assassins. Either I didn't notice them, or they don't appear in the arc at all - but if they're *supposed* to be there, I figured the author would want to know.

Next was...

Captain Dynamic, the Great, Faces the Great Face (Arc ID#190069, 5 stars)
Pro Payne is 'trying out' for the role of Captain Dynamic in his very own MA arcs (which CD can't be bothered to play test or even check out for himself). What Pro Payne quickly finds out is that the arcs have been hacked, and basically 'trashed' by hackers at the behest of a European villain who (if memory serves) wanted to get back at Captain Dynamic and the Great Face for 'getting' the Captain Dynamic identity first (the truth is I don't really recall why the arc was hacked - but the results of the hacking are very amusing). Pro Payne finds himself heroically rescuing a cat from a box, stopping some Rikti badness, beating up multiple 'hacked in' copies of Captain Dynamic that have taken the place of Council goods, and 'thwarting' the Great Face (while collecting some very amusing personal e-mails between him and C.D.) - or, really, thwarting the hacker who messed up the arc in the first place.

Pros: Honestly, this isn't the funniest arc I've played - but what it does, it does extremely well. The author has done an extremely good job of portraying a 'broken' (or really a 'hacked') arc, yet, in reality, keeping the arc's missions extremely playable. In spite of the fact nothing is working right, and the mission objectives are basically (in many cases) nonsensical, it is somehow always pretty clear what you're supposed to do next (which, amusingly, often results in a mission objective updating to another rather uselessly worded objective). It's worth playing the arc just to see some very creative use of mission objectives.

Cons: Of course, when things aren't *supposed* to work right in an arc, it does make you wonder if a 'bug' in the arc is intentional or not. The only one that really had me wondering was that giant truck that spawned in in the first map - it was clear (from the dialog) something had spawned in behind it, but I wasn't able to get past it, or attack or destroy the truck (in spite of it being a destructible object). The mission was already complete - if there was a 'bonus' objective near the mission entrance, it was clearly optional, but I honestly didn't know if not being able to get to whomever was speaking was intentional or a real bug with the arc.

After dealing with C.D.'s horribly mangled MA arc, Pro Payne was contacted by Ms. Liberty for a very important mission.

In Pursuit of Liberty (Arc ID#221702, 3 stars)
A relative of Ms. Liberty - Liberty Rose - (her niece?; the exact relationship was a detail that I don't remember) is 'destined' to become a great hero, and, in the process, also stop a very dangerous threat that could spell doom for the future of Paragon City. But she needs a mentor of sorts to help her at very key points in her career. It started with Pro Payne being sent back in time to rescue her after she'd been kidnapped by the Family. In doing so, Pro Payne is introduced to the 'Liberty League' (a supergroup dedicated to fighting for liberty) and the 'Anti-Liberty League' - a villainous organization lead by the mysterious 'MAL', and dedicated to opposing the Liberty League. MAL is very intent on destroying all that is good and just, and will ultimately usher in a very dark future for Paragon City if he is not stopped. But to stop MAL, Pro Payne must first acquire a costume for Liberty Rose (from the aforementioned dark future), the Swords Liberty Rose will use as her signature weapon, and then actually help Liberty Rose in her ultimate confrontation with MAL and his Anti-Liberty league. Thankfully, with Pro Payne's help, MAL is beaten, the future saved, and Liberty Rose goes on to great things.

Pros: The story is billed as a 'light hearted fairy tale', and the author does a very good job of presenting it as such. Much like the first arc of today's reviews, the story is 'cute' and, in my opinion, did a good job of hitting the kind of campy, over-the-top story telling I typically associate with fairy tales. The plot isn't overly complex (not bad given it's a time travel story), and the custom faction is very, very well done. In fact, I think they deserve special mention: I was impressed with nearly all aspects of them: visually they were very well designed, had good descriptions that fit the overall theme of the arc, and, in spite of having a fairly wide variety of powers, were still well balanced...

Cons: ...which is why it was such a pity that they were barely worth any experience - the XP hit was so large (37.5% normal) that they just didn't feel worth fighting. That was, for me, actually one of the largest technical flaws in the arc, and one of the rare times I've rated something down for the amount of 'reward' it gives: and the only reason I did so is because it is a problem that can be fairly easily fixed by the author. The issue is that the bosses in the anti-liberty league are intended as unique characters, so they are set to not spawn 'normally' - which leaves the faction without anything that could serve as a 'default' boss, setting the already "nerfed" XP for custom mobs (which I *can't* fault the author for, and wouldn't grade down for) to half what it would normally be. Combine this with the fact that the first mission is against level 40+ family (which are themselves only worth about one-third the normal amount of XP), and the appearance of several boss-class allies that do a very good job of sucking up the already meager rewards, and what you've got is an arc where the rewards are so low that it gets pretty hard to ignore. That alone might have been enough to give the arc an 'official' 4-star rating (i.e. 5 stars online), but there were a few aspects to the story itself that also took just enough away that I felt the arc needed some work, and ended up with me giving it 3 stars (4 in game). First, I really wanted to see MAL developed more in the arc - there's more of a story there than is actually in the arc - until you get to the very end, where you just get nearly all of MAL's origin and back story all at once (in his description). Given that Liberty's story is developed through the arc step-by-step, I think perhaps developing MAL's story in a more step-by-step fashion throughout the arc would improve the story. Also, MAL's appearance and defeat in the last mission raised an issue for me: I actually stumbled across MAL and beat him long before finding Liberty - or the other two Liberty League allies. In effect, it felt like I robbed Liberty of her destiny - I defeated MAL for her, without her having any chance to help at all!

Feedback: For this arc, I do actually have some specific suggestions that I hope will help the author out. One, you may want to actually consider treating the first mission like an Oroborous flashback, complete with Ms. Liberty even warning you that because you are going nine years into the past, you might experience some temporal scaling. You can then cap that particular mission at level 29, and use the level 20-29 Family, which are worth full XP, rather than the dismal amount the 40+ Family are. Yeah, the whole XP thing is the dev's fault (well, really, the farmers' fault) - but at least there's a workaround, for now! Also, the Anti-Liberty leave really needs a boss that is set to spawn in: either a 'generic' version of one of the unique bosses, OR, you might consider making one of the minions or lieutenants in the existing group a boss (in particular, the Fatal Followers, or the Dark Followers - or whatever those dark guys were called - seem like good canditates, but any will do). To a lesser extent, you might want to consider making the allies lieutenants as well: a lieutenant is still reasonably hard to actually defeat when facing enemy minions, but doesn't have the overwhelming combat presence of a boss (which even from a story standpoint gets troublesome - if the members of the Liberty league are so powerful they can likely clear the map on their own, then why exactly is my help so important?) Finally, I think the story would be served much better if you set MAL to spawn after rescuing Liberty Rose in the last mission - at least that way it's much more likely that she'll be there to participate in that fight, which makes more sense, story-wise.

A few other tidbits to help too: I did find myself wondering why MAL and his forces were in that big graveyard? Adding some mission objectives giving them a climactic master plan that needs foiling would also give the arc a stronger ending! (Imagine it: MAL and his forces have littered the graveyard with machines and crates of chemicals and nanites that, when released, will "infect" the dead, causing them to rise as an army of bio-mechanical zombies under MAL's control, that will spread through Paragon City! Or something like that - something to make that moment in time the 'fulcrum point' where Liberty Rose saves the city from disaster.)

Alright, that's all the time I've got for today. For Friday, I intend to post reviews of "Whack A Mole" and "The Daybreak Patrol Needs Help" (and, time permitting, "The Superadyne Revolution").

Until then!

Okay, as mentioned last week, I am temporarily closing down suggestions to give me a chance to catch up on posting my mini-reviews of arcs Pro Payne has played (without posting reviews coming at the exclusion of actually playing Pro Payne, which was the whole point of the project). Pro Payne's current queue is:

322480, 161629, 53951, 47143*, 11728, 174352, 269714, 304290.

If you've requested an arc, and don't see it on the queue, check below - these are the arcs that I've played, but haven't yet posted a review (I get two, maybe three, per week: usually on Wednesday and/or Friday)

(Arcs with reviews on the way, in order): 299972, 190069, 221702, 2711, 321834, 278757, 328789, 262739, 101165, and 148476.

While I'm playing 'catch up' I'll be mostly playing random arcs found by messing with the search feature (stay tuned for updates on how well that works) - those will get "super-mini reviews" (literally one or two sentences of my impressions). Once I've got the reviews out of the way, I'll open it up to suggestions.

*This arc, and the ones after, are the Galactic Protectorate series - as per the authors suggestion, I'll be only playing those at level 40 and higher, and I will almost certainly be playing a single random arc between each GP arc (again as per the author's suggestion).

Also, there are two arcs that I tried before and failed to complete (typically because the arc contained a boss that I simply could not beat - most frequently due to a combination of healing abilities and massive fire resistance) - I do intend to play those as well, and post reviews here. They are Act II of Ghost in the Machine, and The Portal Bandits (the irony to Lazarus' statement is that I *have* attempted Portal Bandits, and couldn't get through it - I did want to try it again after hitting level 40+, although if Lazarus would prefer I didn't, I'll respect his wishes... so do let me know)!

Stay tuned: I hope to have the next review or two posted tomorrow, with more on Friday.

Alright, time for yet another update for Pro Payne (and Pro Payne's accessories. Ugh. That was a *terrible* joke).

Pro Payne is now level 39, and about four bubbles away from hitting level 40. He has also almost reached a (to me) fairly major landmark - he is almost completely IO'ed out! Granted, they are common IOs, but the fact that from this point on he will be sporting better than what +3 SOs would offer was (to me) an important test of the AE system: nearly all of my newer characters have been able to deck themselves out with a combination of common and set IO's by 40. The fact Pro Payne has been able to as well tells me that, roughly speaking, the "tangible" rewards are at least vaguely on par with a non-AE character - although it is worth mentioning most of my non-AE characters would have earned FAR more influence by this point. But there is something to be said for Pro Payne having never been 'wanting' for enhancements that provide the maximum benefit.

Of course, a non-AE character would have been at least in the mid 40s by now ... but that's more a subject for my upcoming "the end of the project and final conclusions post." Which is still a rather long way off.

Now for an important announcement: Pro Payne will be temporarily suspending accepting new arc suggestions as of Tuesday of next week (September 29th)! So if you've got an arc you want Pro Payne to play, let me know before then (especially those of you who are waiting for me to hit 40 - go ahead and suggest your arc, so that I can put it in my queue). There are two reasons for this - one, it'll give me some time to play "catch up" for posting "mini-reviews" of the arcs I've already played (since I do want to get to all of them). And two, it'll give me a chance to do something I've mentioned before, and been meaning to do, but, thanks to all of the wonderful suggestions, just haven't gotten around to: messing around with the search features to see what I can (or can't) find with it.

So without further ado - now to the mini-reviews! But first, a note regarding them. As I have done so many times before, let me remind those reading this that your in game rating was one higher than what I list here. And please do not take the amount of feedback I offer as an indication of my opinion of the "quality" of your arc! The simple truth is for some arcs I can think of several things quite quickly that would have made the arc more fun for me, but for others, human nature being what it is, I just come up blank: for some I think the arc is just great, and I can't come up with any suggestions. For others, for lack of a better way of explaining it, the arc just doesn't "sit right" with me - although I can't come up with any suggestions for improving it (hey, if I could do that for every arc, I'd be the best arc author *ever* - something that is clearly not true).

A Show Of Hands (ID#296884, 4 stars - just barely below the threshold for 5)
I'm going by memory here, but I think this was [i]@Lazarus[i]/s work... thank goodness for the Edit function if I'm wrong about that. In any case, this is clearly the same universe as "The MacGuffin Deliver Service." As I'd expect, it was a solid, well-done arc with good mission design and pacing, and certainly worth a play by any fan of the MA system (that is, for something other than farming) - Lazarus has again shown skill at using the system to design complex, yet interesting missions that are well paced and very playable. Here's the thing: the mechanics of the arc were very solid, but the story itself, while certainly humorous in places, just didn't reach out and grab me. I do honestly think part of the disconnect was that the arc had a kind of 'generic' quality to it - specifically the item you are trying to recover (along with the mysterious 'buyer') is left totally to the player's imagination. Let me be clear: there's nothing wrong with that, at least theoretically, but (and let me be very clear that this is nothing more than my opinion) if you happen to play the arc when you are not in a particularly imaginative mood (as I wasn't at the time), that tactic can detract from really getting into the arc. In other words, in this case, I just plain wanted the author to tell me exactly what it was I was trying to fence (and re-acquire) - it's as simple as that.

Alone, that would be a nit that was not enough to bring a solid arc from a low five stars to a high four, but there was one other thing. Those dang Nagans. Man they're hard - they are quite literally built as a 40+ group (at least): a wide variety of damage types coupled with some pretty vicious debuffs means that if you are solo you do have a weakness they can and will exploit! I didn't quite have Rise of the Pheonix yet, and Pro Payne's firey aura defenses just weren't quite up to the task of surviving the onslaught.

My final verdict: a good solid arc that fell just slightly shy of capturing my interest (and that criticism is very much subjective on my part), where the custom mobs were a little over that fine line between 'an interesting challenge' and 'I'm getting a little tired of face planting.' The only feedback I can offer: is it possible to tone back the Nagans a bit? I suspect that wouldn't be easy - the issue is more variety than individual difficulty.

Two Great Tastes (ID#314798, 3 stars - really just barely under what I'd give four, but this arc hadn't yet been played and I refused to relegate it to the purgatory of a four-star rated arc with 1 play, so I gave it 5 stars in game: like it or not, I want MA arcs to be played ... and knowingly making something 4 stars doesn't fit that goal)
In this arc, Pro Payne comes across a Nemesis plot to combine the Freakshow's cybernetic technology with their own steam technology.
I liked the story - it was told well, and the pacing was just fine. But there were a few things that I think needed work, or at least some re-thinking. Here was the biggie - there was both a minion and (I believe) a lt. that were decked out with electricity powers. The problem was not the electric blasts - it was the fact that even the minions had both short circuit and power sink. Eep! I can see if you were playing a defense-based toon (which will tend to avoid those attacks), or a toon with heavy end-drain resistance, it wouldn't make you want to pull your hair out. But if you're a melee, resistance-based toon with no real ability to resist an endurance drain effect minions who can suck out 70 endurance points get to be annoying... I would really recommend removing one or both powers.
The other issue I had was story-wise: I just plain didn't buy that Nemesis himself would be there in that last mission, and that he would be helping me (which just compounded my annoyance at having the 'help' of an elite boss that, with one swing of the staff, could suck half the XP off of something in addition to knocking it back out of melee range) - perhaps a Fake Nemesis sent to oversee the operation to shut down the "Nemeshow" project would be a better fit. I can't really explain it any better except to say that it just "feels" more like what Nemesis would do in that situation. But, as always, that's just my opinion.

That's all of the reviews I have time for this week! Of course more are on the way, as time permits!

Check out the arcs in my sig ... hopefully you'll enjoy them!

There's both high and low level arcs, although ever since the new exemp. rules came into effect, even the low level arcs will earn XP on high level teams...

That's pretty cool, ZM. I had already noticed that the level up graphic had changed at some point in the fairly recent past (in particular that the graphic for low levels seemed really toned down, and the hitting level 50 had those new sparkly "fireworks"), but it's neat to see just how the progression goes.

Which is one of the reasons I still want to see it, even while exemplared!

Regarding the "no sign you just leveled up" bug:

Today I logged online with a toon that was half a bubble away from level 39, and played an AE mission that took him down to level 29.

He leveled up during the mission, and the same bug we saw while playing the Positron's TF last night was also in effect: there is no graphical indication that a character has just leveled up (except for the green 'level up' arrow), and the inspirations that are normally cast over you on level up don't occur. I *think* that your life and end are still refilled - it's hard to verify this since the bug really does make it difficult to determine exactly when you leveled up.

Anyway, the point is that the bug isn't specific just to being exemplared while in a TF. It is also *at least* affecting level up when exemplared in an AE mission (and I suspect that bug applies for *all* instances of someone who is exemplared leveling up - but I don't have any proof of that).

I've got two bugs to report. Sorry if they've been reported elsewhere.

Here's the complete setup, in case it is necessary to reproduce the bug:

We're on a team of four (tank, blaster, controller, and warshade), playing Positron's task force. We started the TF at level 17, and so were exemplared down to level 15 for the duration of the TF. As expected under the I16 rules, we still have access to all of our powers, and are gaining XP.

The controller picks up the Flash Freeze power at level 18. Here's the bug: the power's animations play normally, but the 'trapped in ice' graphic the power puts over slept mobs while they are asleep shows up for about one second, and then fades out. The mobs appear to still be asleep, but do not show any outward sign of being under the effects of a sleep (they stay stationary in the "combat ready" pose, and do not attack, unless they are hit with an attack or effect that would break a sleep type mez).

This bug is quite effective at rendering the power almost totally useless, since team member that would be inclined to "save a sleeping mob for later" have no outward indication that the mob is actually mezzed (since it even plays the combat ready animation, but just doesn't move or act while still 'asleep') - the mob *looks* active, so it tends to get attacked, which *makes* it active.

The controller is using customized colors for the power - they aren't the default colors.

Also, while playing the Task Force, we've noticed that the normal level up graphic does not play, and the buff (the inspirations that are cast on you with level up) also do not play. It seems to be related to the new exemplaring rules, since we saw the graphics and inspirations normally before starting the Task Force.

No problem! I've added The Daybreak Patrol Needs Help! to my queue. Unless you object, I'll probably be 39 when I play it; Pro Payne is almost 39 right now, but I don't think there's enough left in my queue to get me to 40.

It may have been long, but it actually answered a lot of my questions (and, as I indicated, questions I was genuinely curious about at the end of the arc).

Actually, not realizing the Circle were already in power when Philip's parents die clears up a lot - I think it's safe to say that's a fulcrum in the plot: if you *get* that, then there appear to be far fewer loose ends in the story than if you don't (and, as is obvious, I didn't catch on to that: possibly a consequence of actually playing the arc over more than one day for RL reasons). After all "the world already sucks, but your actions will, hopefully, make it better" plays out a lot differently than "something terrible happens to make the world suck, and you're job is to keep that terrible thing from happening."

It was actually really interesting to see your reasoning for which villain group would be able to rise to power in the vacuum left by the fall of the Circle - although mentioning it did bring up a kind of minor issue I had when trying to piece together why Nemesis was now in charge. Unfortunately the game canon, when put in the hands of an outside author (especially one who is obviously familiar with the game's canon), cause certain 'pairings' to be suspicious: supposedly Mender Silos *is* Nemesis (even though that's only a rumor even in the context of game canon), so any time a Mender plot directed by Silos (and I did get he was directing Paelin) leads to a future where Nemesis rises to power, I start to wonder if that's the angle the author was going for, even though I don't see that angle as very good writing for the Menders (it may not be totally clear what exactly the Menders are *really* up to, but the vague clues that Mender Silos is a "reformed" Lord Nemesis from 1 million years into the future really would conflict with him hatching plots to put the "misguided" version of himself from the distant past into power). Don't worry - by the end of the mission I was almost positive that wasn't the angle you were going for: Nemesis conquering the world was pretty clearly a side effect of the Circle's fall, rather than the result the Menders wanted "all along." But locking onto the possibility that you intended for the rise of Nemesis to be the Mender's goal, and then being releaved that, apparently, that wasn't the case, still then left the obvious question of 'How did Nemesis rise to power?', and made the need for a clear answer to that question more pressing.

For what it's worth, I think you perfectly captured the feel of the Menders, too.

If you do ever write up a sequal or sequals that explore in more detail how the Circle rises to power (and more of what the world under them is like), you'll certainly have at least one player interested in seeing that story unfold.

Okay, time for a real update (or at least as much of one as I can manage in the thirty minutes before it's time to head in to work).

Pro Payne is currently level 38, and (evidently) is once again playing others' arcs, having finished his play through of my own arcs (before the I16 XP nerf).

I do want to mention that in selecting and playing arcs, I will not be avoiding arcs simply because they use custom mobs with (now nerfed) XP values - so please don't hesitate to recommend arcs with customs. As much as I loathe the decision to make custom mobs worth below average XP, part of this experiment is about getting Pro Payne to level 50 in MA through the play of legitimate arcs. When the time comes to write up my final review of the experience, that is when I will express my opinion as to whether or not my 1 to 50 MA experience led me to feel that this was truly viable way to get a character to 50 - by 'viable' I really mean 'at a rate that is at least somewhat similar to legitimate outside play.' (Granted, at the moment my experience has been 'borderline', so we'll see if the nerfs push it over to 'not recommended').

Okay, on to the reviews (they'll have to be on the short side, and I may not get all of them in today).

The Bestest Radio Mission Ever (ID#1526, 4 stars)
Pretty cute little 'metagame' idea - that all of the random items you recover over and over again in the police scanner missions are really result from the efforts of a smuggling ring led by the Arch Villain 'MacGuffin.' The mission design is (ironically) more engaging than the standard radio mission, and the custom mobs are well balanced and well done. A perfect example of why ratings (or at least my ratings) are so subjective: it's certainly better than average and well deserving of *at least* 4 stars, but it just didn't feel '5 starry' to me when I played through it, although I'm at a loss to explain what exactly made it fall slightly short. This is definitely one that I'll probably play again, and might upgrade the rating if it turns out to have 'grown' on me. (Although I can't update the rating 'in game': I gave it 5 stars there as per my 'one higher than the real rating' policy).

Of Mentors and Legacy (ID#1589, 4 stars)
In this arc, Pro Payne's normal AE play was interrupted by an Oroborous Mender using the system to send him into a dark and terrible future. It is a future ruled by the Circle of Thorns, and the Mender has identified a hero that potentially could prevent this future, if only he had the proper role model (you), and the proper motivation (in effect, shifting backward the date his parents got slaughtered by the Circle so that he is consumed with a vendetta against them). Unfortunately, the destruction of the Circle left an opening that allowed Nemesis to conquer the Earth. Pro Payne ended up setting up the stage (I think) for a third, brighter future by saving both the hero and his parents.

There was a lot I really liked about the arc - a very good story overall, and I really liked the use of the Circle of Thorns (it was really quite a lot of fun to 'see' a future where they had taken over the world, and I liked the author's ideas of just what that future might be like). I also (at least in principle) liked the 'Nemesis plot that wasn't *really* a Nemesis plot' angle too. Frankly, the *only* thing keeping me from giving this a 5 star rating (on the forums, in game, of course, it got 5 stars) was some loose ends that really did kind of bother me, from a story perspective.

It was never all that clear to me exactly how the Circle rose to power - which isn't a fatal flaw in the plot - but it did leave me wondering 'if Philip was no longer driven by his parent's death, then does that mean once again Circle rise to power and take over the future?' Perhaps my 'mentoring' of Philip was just as inspiring and led to Philip preventing the Circle's rise in some other way, but it isn't clear whether or not I really saved the future. It also not clear exactly how the destruction of the Circle in the alternate future leads to Nemesis' rise - was it that the Circle, in rising to power, so badly weakened all the other villain groups that the path was clear for Nemesis (who, presumably, avoided conflict with the Circle) once the Circle fell at Philip's hands? Again, it isn't really spelled out in the story... you're kind of left to speculate. In short, the author has created a rather interesting alternate future (two, really), and the whats of that future are very clear, but the hows of how the future got that way are much less clear. Still, I do honestly think this would be a five star arc for sure with just a little bit more about how this future came to pass.

Okay, that's all I have time for right now - the reviews for Whack A Mole and A Show of Hands will have to wait for next time!

Just a very quick update:

Pro Payne is now level 37. He's been currently playing through my own MA arcs.

The reason: most of my own arcs will be affected by the XP changes in I16 - a lot of them either make use of custom mobs (some more than others, and some missions more than others), or the Freakshow is a prominent group (none of them are 'farming' arcs, although one is designed to be a challenge, but the bottom line is the Freaks are just fun to write for, I have fun fighting them, and the fact they're worth bonus XP certainly didn't hurt the fun factor).

While I absolutely do not agree with the XP changes to custom mobs (I honestly think it is very unwise to make mobs that are almost always either equal to or harder than 'standard' mobs actually worth less XP, and still have no real in-game feedback on just how much XP they'll assign without actually publishing and playing the arc), I did think it was time the Freakshow were at least worth 'normal' XP - I've played versus them with a variety of characters through just about every level range they exist at, and they certainly never struck me as 'harder than average' - just 'average.' Still I don't think an actual nerf to 'below average' for them was warrented. But that's just my opinion.

But, the bottom line is I've wanted to play through my own arcs while they were still work 'correct' XP, so that's been keeping Pro Payne occupied.

Once that's done with - he'll be right back to playing everyone else arcs.

His current queue: 296884, 314798, 299972, 190069, 211702, and 257242. (I do plan on posting my usual 'mini-reviews' for The Bestest Radio Mission Ever' and 'Of Mentors and Legacy'; but at the moment I feel like I'm racing the clock to finish my arcs before I16 hits the live servers.)

All of the suggestions have been added to Pro Payne's queue. It's currently:
1526, 1589, 296884, 311775, 299972, 190069, 221702, and 257242. Arcs that will auto-exemplar me (which is only the last one listed, I believe) will probably wait for I16 to go live, so it's possible for Pro Payne to earn XP.

(Pro Payne is still in his alternate 'outside world' build, working toward the level 36-40 safeguard; once he's done, he'll be back to MA)

Time for the weekly Pro Payne update!

Pro Payne just reached level 36, which, as happens every five levels or so, means he's about to switch to his 'normal citizen dressed in tights' build and do five scanner missions and a safeguard to get the temp power - that does mean that there will be a (hopefully) short delay before he's back to his 'pretending to be a fire scrapper in MA' build. I've added the latest two requests to his queue, which sits right now at:

1526, 1589, 296884, 311775, and 299972 (With Space Nut's arc, 262739 on the back-burner for either when I need to take a break from Pro Payne and play my villain again - or the launch of Issue 16 where Pro Payne can hopefully still earn XP even when playing missions that auto-exemplar him: so do be patient Space Nut - I *will* get to your arc!)

Here's the latest round of mini-reviews:

Celebrity Kidnapping (1388, 5 stars)
Pro Payne found himself 'role playing' a villain engaged in a kidnapping scheme against Paris Holiday, noted reality TV celebrity.
Pros: Yet again we have a very entertaining and very well designed arc by Police Woman, with interesting mission design, very creative custom foes (the paparazzi were really well done, and it was quite refreshing to actually get to fight convicts who weren't worth an XP pittance), and excellent pacing. I was never bored, enjoyed all of the missions, and really have to compliment Police Woman on an excellent example of the right way to do a 'character cameo' (Police Woman actually makes appearances in the arc, to help try to stop you - it makes perfect since for her to be there in the context of the story, and I didn't find her in any way overpowered or annoying to try to defeat).
Cons: Really none that I can think of. I honestly think the only suggestion that might slightly improve the entertainment value of the arc would be if it was possible to add some text in the mission debriefings or perhaps some of the clues to make it seem even more like Paris is so much of a 'lives in her own world, spoiled brat, separated from reality' celebrity that actually holding her is just more trouble than its worth - that feeling is already in the arc, and slight modifications to make it even more pronounced might possibly improve the humor aspect of the arc a bit. But again, I want to make it clear that this is certainly not an arc that I felt 'needed improvement' - it is an excellent arc and very deserving of the five stars I gave it IMO.

Of Papers and Paychecks (298290, 5 stars)
Pro Payne, ironically, gives up his 'life of crime' (again, role played, as he's actually a hero) to join Crey.
Pros: This is one of the best arcs I've played in the MA system. Extremely creative, excellent basic concept, excellent mission design and pacing, very good use of custom mobs (with excellent examples of mobs introduced as 'additions' to an already existing group: some so cleverly done that you might miss they're actually custom mobs), with a very well done (and player choice directed) plot twist at the end (albeit one that I did see coming, but still enjoyable to play). With Pro Payne I chose the 'good hearted' ending (since he's really a hero); but I'm looking forward to playing this one with my villain, and choosing the 'bad hearted' ending.
Cons: I honestly can't think of anything I really objected to in this arc, and can't think of any suggestions that would improve it - it's one of those rare arcs that, while other MArcers might be able to suggest something to make it even better, I'm coming up with nothing.

A Close Encounter (#233720, 3 stars)
Pro Payne joins (what I think) is some sort of special forces government division tasked with cleaning up an alien encounter and possible alien invasion.
Pros: The actual mission design and pacing was solid enough - there was really nothing that struck me as a poor choice, or unfun. Both types of custom mobs seemed well balanced overall; while the web grenades did get excessive at times, it wasn't enough to really bother me or really make me feel the arc needed to be graded down for mob balance. I was genuinely interested in following the story - although I do admit that there were good and bad aspects to that (with the good aspect being that I actually like 'alien encounter' stories, so was interested to see where this one was going).
Cons: ...but if there was any one word I could use to describe the feel of the arc's story, it was 'disjointed.' Frankly there were a lot of plot elements that seemed tacked on, or even downright arbitrary, and other things that would have been helpful to the plot, but notably missing. First, understand that I'm well aware of the fact that one aspect of MA is to write stories about things that are in no way related to the 'CoH universe' - and that's fine, but it can also be very risky, and, IMO this arc is an example. Why? Well, there's really no connection to the rest of the CoH universe, which compounds the disjointed feeling I got when then arc started and I just found myself suddenly working for this 'special forces' group (or whatever they were). There was no sense they'd just contacted me or anything of that nature - it was as if I'd been working for them all along, but even that fact was more implied than stated (nothing like 'ah, Pro Payne, our most valuable field operative. Welcome back!' to start the arc, or 'Allow me to introduce myself and explain why I've contacted you...' - at least that I can remember). The other primary complaint is the plot twists just struck me as too heavy handed - the plot started out making sense: I've rescued an alien covertly from an anti-alien group, and it turns out there are clues that I uncover later that lead to what appears to be an planned invasion from this group. But then, it turns out that it was really all a big misunderstanding, and the aliens wanted peace all along (it was a peaceful mission), and the anti-alien group has really been under the domination of the aliens all along.

...Huh? For lack of a better way to describe it, it just seems like the plot needs to be re-written a little to be somewhat smoother - to flow a little better.

Finally, while the Earth For Humans group struck me as just fine visually, I really do think that the aliens (the Squeeg?) could be helped out with a little more 'visual variety' - I certainly acknowledge that we've got height and body type variations, but the fact that they're all wearing basically featureless 'tights' of different colors, while pretty consistent with many folks' visualizations of what aliens would look like (seriously, why do we all think aliens are going to have really boring clothes, because that does seem to be a recurrent stereotype), does make them kind of boring looking, which does make them somewhat boring to fight ('cause half the fun of custom mobs is lookin' at them!). They could definitely use some 'Rikti treatment' (i.e. a bit of a costume change to give them a more varied look than they once had).

MacGuffin Delivery Service (#1567, 5 stars)
Pro Payne robs a pawn shop, only to uncover something that he can't seem to get rid of.
Pros: What really stands out about this arc is excellent use of clues - it isn't just that you focus on what ultimately ends up being the main plot item, the arc does an excellent job of making you feel like you really are looting a pawn shop looking for valuables to hock, and in the third mission, like you really are searching for a book that will be of use to you, yet you find a nice, varied mix of things while looking for your objective. Touches like that go a long way toward making the missions feel more 'alive' - it avoids the feel that the only purpose of the mission map is as a place to store your mission objective. I can say similar things about the 'incidental characters' - the arc does have plenty of characters in it that are not necessarily directly related to the plot (although some end up getting snagged into the main plot anyway) that you just happen to run across as the story unfolds. Note that that isn't a requirement of telling a good story, but when done well and appropriately it can enhance a story, and this arc is a good example of 'incidentals' being used very well. The arc's also good a very good sense of pacing, and 'build' - the mission do get progressively harder and more action packed overall, but it's a gradual increase that (in my opinion) didn't involve really jarring jumps in difficulty (and yes, I truly did enjoy the chaos of the last mission - it seemed a very fitting end to the arc; and the second mission, with the fence, really stood out as 'well done' too). In all honesty, this is a very good example of an arc where, while the basic story doesn't really 'wow' me (in all honesty, there's nothing really all that 'new' or 'original' about a cursed item you can't get rid of, that everybody else wants), the basic story is told so well that the arc is still very entertaining to play!
Cons: For me, the biggest 'flaw' of the arc really just amounts to a nit - in effect, your inability to get rid of the item is really only 'explored' in a mission debriefing. If I had to suggest an improvement, it would be this: why not put some examples of your constant attempt to get rid of the item in the 3rd mission as well? Sort of a 'yeah, you know you can't get rid of it, but that's not going to stop you from trying while you're looking for a solution to the problem' - maybe a few glowies in the CoT map where you're basically just trying to leave the thing in a rune-covered urn, or bury it, or crush it on a table, or whatever - just to make the player really feel like they're trying to get rid of it, and it just ... won't ... work!

Still on the 'to do' list is to 'move' my master list of arcs to the very first post - it just seems to make more sense, now that we have almost unlimited editing abilities to store the list on page 1 of the thread, than in some random location deep within it.

Note that as always time management concerns will probably mean my mini-reviews for next week will be unusually short just to give me the extra time to do the planned edits to the main list.

Until next week, and keep those suggestions coming!