Coulomb2

You're not alone. I was sad to see him die.

Played through both sides of SSA#5.

The cutscene had the intended effect - it was touching, and the arc itself was a fun play if ... shorter ... than I was hoping. I was also hoping for an additional cutscene at the end with some sort of reaction from the Phalanx - or a cutscene of the memorial/news reports; the scene itself was climactic enough for me, but the aftermath seemed ... well, just not there. But that's likely coming later.

The cutscene did seem very out of place villain side. I think I was secretly hoping it would actually be noticeably different, with darker, more sinister music and focused more on my character (or Wade) taunting him in his final moments, and belittling what he'd accomplished in his life. More of a 'good riddance' than the same one the heroes get. And then having the ability to inspect his body and notice the smile and realizing all the jeers and taunting really amounted to nothing ... he still found peace in death, and realized others would take up his mantle. In essence, killing him really didn't accomplish that much...

I do hope 'remove all references' is not going to be a repeat of the Council takeover. One of the things I've really enjoyed about the SSA's (and some other content I won't mention here) is how important I feel in the story; they do ... mostly ... feel centered on me (or, at the least, I'm important). I was there when Stateman died - I played an important role in the story. The game content being rewritten as though he never even existed completely marginalizes that. I hope there are still references to him, and that they are better than 'former villain group' or 'previous regime' typically used to refer to the 5th Column. I want to see him referenced by name.

But, to be honest, I don't see much point in even removing him completely. It's not necessary. It seems more natural to me for any given character that the game content treats States as alive for the stuff from 1 to 40 and it's only the post 40 content where he's treated as dead and gone. Couple that with playing each part of the arc as you level up (provided you have access to them), and it (for me) gives the feel that the 'old guard' that I looked up to (or respected, or whatever) getting from 1 to 40 is being replaced by me. Your character is no longer the up-and-comer: you're now taking your role as one of the most important heroes in Paragon City - and the world ... or one of the most notorious villains.

Those are my thoughts on the whole thing, but I'll be very curious to see where this ultimately goes... if Statesman is going to be removed to the point where he has virtually no role to play at all in the actual game content, I'll certainly be watching how it's going to be done with a lot of interest.

EDIT: And to blatantly disagree with some posters - I was happy to see him in Indie Port. I actually don't like the idea of being locked out of starting a TF (even one I don't play very often, and one that actually gives incarnate components) just because I chose to play a particular mission.

Actually, server maintenance is usually only on Thursdays. The servers being down on Tuesday usually means a publish - although it is quite strange they didn't announce it (as far as I can see).

I *think* the problem here is that you are setting the enemy group to "empty." I believe "boss only" is one of the options under the difficulty setting for the surrounding group (i.e. your options are easy, medium, hard, and boss only), and that'll allow the boss to spawn on its own, without surrounding mobs.

I'm going by memory, though, so I'm not totally sure I'm right...

EDIT: I did notice @Fantastic Foe wanted Shadows replaced with exploding planet - but only after playing the arc and doing the writeup. Hopefully one more round of feedback for that one will be welcome.

It’s a day later than expected, but here’s my second arc for Arc Club for December.

Arc #144416 Shadow of Grime Alley by @Fantastic Foe, Vigilante 45+, 49 plays

Overall Impression: It’s actually a cute arc, albeit one that, IMO really needs some polish to get really good. The story is easy to follow, but enjoyable none the less, and the pacing of the missions is just fine. Ever subjective, the humor was actually simple enough that it did usually work for me, though.

The dialog needs a significant editing pass to correct some grammer errors (and some places with awkward wording), and I do think really fleshing out the custom group would work well (along with the Skulls in King’s Row).

To be honest, I see no real reason why this should be a 45+ arc. The story, factions, and setting really speak to it working just fine as a 20-30 arc (and I will point out that the lower level ranged really jump around a lot – I’d force all of the missions to have the same level range if at all possible).

Overall, I’d give it 3 stars as-is: it’s got potential, but still needs a fair amount of work. But with some effort (and I’ve detailed a decent number of things below) it could easily move up to 4 or 5. This time around, as per my normal way of doing things (4 or 5 stars gets it 5 in game, less leaves it unrated), I left it unrated in game. I’ll point out if the author doesn’t mind me rating it 4 stars in game, I’ll be happy to do so (and I’m always open to revisiting arcs in the future and changing my rating).

One final point here: while the arc is about a Vigilante, it isn't really a 'Vigilante' arc: the player's character is acting more or less like a normal hero, not a vigilante.

Anyway, hopefully the feedback is helpful. And now for my thoughts while I was actually playing the arc…

Thoughts along the way.

The accept text in mission one is partially cut off – maybe a very minor reword so it all fits.

Okay, very nitpicky, but something to think about. I just asked the contact if Mike’s Grill is still there, but he just kind of ignores me! You could actually improve immersion a bit by having him actually answer the question (“Sorry to tell you, but it got hit by a firebomb, or something”).

Grime alley has a tragic history? And I already knew that? Huh?

Pop up in mission one has a comma splice – should be three separate sentences.

I’d just put in actual Skulls – the “flavor patrols” of customs are barely worth any XP anyway, so why not go for authenticity, eh? (At the very least, though, they could use a ‘makeover’ to help them look more like actual Skulls)

Mike’s friend’s “bodybag” looks set to “fade in” – which doesn’t make much sense (makes it look like I’m *putting* a body there!).

Some of the Family’s patrol dialog is actually pretty funny.

Why did the Family ambush me when I rescued Sara? She didn’t really seem like a ‘high priority prisoner’ they’d want back at all costs – especially if they’re already afraid that some sort of vigilante is on the loose and killing people.

Wordings a little awkward in the debriefing: I’d say “So the Family aren’t in King’s Row to expand their territory? They’re…” (and so on) Oh, and should be “hard to swallow”, not “hard to swallow with” (which almost sounds dirty).

Pop of for mission two: I’d put a comma after the cooking pasta (it’s the second element in a list).

Heh, the boss’ dialog set up actually worked quite well for me: it looked for all the world like he was trying to get his “tough guy” dialog out, but was having trouble since I was busy beating him to a pulp.

Eh … it kind of strains credibility that an ambush squad of “mooks” would hit the place the moment the boss went down just to try to take over operations on behalf of a different crime family. What were they tracking me or something? How’d they even know I’d just arrested the boss?

I’d add a bit more to the objective text: instead of “Clue” I’d flesh it out to “Find the last clue” or “Find last clue.”

More comma splices in the opening briefing for mission three – best to split some of those up into separate sentences.

Suggested rewrite to: “…the brass has been emphatic that we regular joes not become complacent.” (And again, this really should be its own sentence; borderline comma-splice as is.)

Also:
*and* not the secret entrance to the prison block I know you have (sendoff text for mission three)

Hey … isn’t this basically just Batman’s origin story?

Since the text does mention me saving police officers, I wonder if the mission would be better served by adding some rescues? (Might not be possible – I kind of remember the police station maps don’t allow rescue details, but I figured I’d suggest it just in case).

More comma splices in the debriefing. Remember – if it’s two independent phrases, use a period, not a comma.

All of your other mission “headers” have been light blue – I’d make the one for mission four the same, just for consistency.

Wait, so the Mooks are working with the Gat? (Or his son) --and I’ve give Don Nippolio (something like that) a fleshed out objective (“like Find Don Nippolio” – it just lists his name right now).

About the custom group, some tips, if you’re interested:

One, they look like a bunch of clones. I suspect you’ve got plenty of room left; I’d really flesh ‘em out by making several copies of each in the group, and varying hair style and face (you can also give them different weapons, but that’s not strictly necessary).

Two, I’d leave off the symbols on their chests. For one, if they’re supposed to represent the Mook faction villain side, those guys don’t have identifying insignia; and most of the mobsters in the game follow suit. It’s really the low-level street gangs that usually have insignia (like the Hellions or the Skulls, or even the Warriors).

Also, the Goon’s description needs a period at the end.

Heh, the daughter asking for the address of my secret lair was actually kind of funny.

Seems odd Gat’s using dual pistols – when people kept saying Big freaking gun, I kind of envisioned something more like the larger models you can use with Assault Rifle.

You know, I do think saying that after the Gat “falls” his minions whisk him away under a withering barrage of gunfire is kind of immersion breaking (his ambush goons hadn’t even gotten there yet, for one). I think it’d be much, much better to make that happen “off screen” after the mission (mentioned maybe in the debrief) – have the police van transporting him to the jail get ambushed and overwhelmed or something.

In the debriefing I didn’t quite get what “that is if he was just in it for revenge” meant in context with the first part of the sentence – I think you need to clarify the wording a bit.

Oh, and, you guessed it, more comma splices in the mission five text too… just do a very careful sweep and break up some of those splices.

What the heck was that with the thin, Elite Boss (and dark armor?!) version of the Gat. Granted, the “Batman” jokes are kinda funny – and I do like the fact he actually is using a big gun – but what the heck is he even there for? (Operative Parker’s dialog didn’t really clear this up for me either)

Well, the patrol clears it up a little, but the idea behind the decoy does kind of seem like a stretch, although that’s just my opinion.

Found the real Gat (okay, Gat-shield deploy also made me smile a bit). The truth is that just made me question the decoy even more. Why would Gat give the decoy a perfectly serviceable *gun* (and an assault rifle no less) when *he’s* totally out of ammo. Wouldn’t he make the decoy fight bare-fisted and use the gun himself?

I did also think Arachnos’ role in this felt a little ‘tacked on’ – the story certainly makes enough sense without it (and there’s nothing that says that Gat couldn’t be lairing in an abandoned Arachnos hideout in Faultline).

EDIT: Oh, and just for the record, I did get the Batman references (beyond the origin story thing I mentioned earlier) - there's a lot of them, and I did get a kick out of the parallels.

Well, it's an extreme longshot but I figured I'd throw it out there...

You mentioned that you've got at least one friendly character still in the SG. My suggestion is this: after a few days, check to see whether the troll logs on frequently with the character he used to screw up your supergroup. If so, there's not much you can do - and everyone's suggestion to just start again from scratch is probably best. But if the troll stays logged off lay low, completely ignore the troll, and don't provoke him in any way (by "lay low" I don't mean don't log in - I just mean be patient and try to avoid interacting with the troll in any way if he *is* logging on with other characters).

If the character that messed up the supergroup is not one the troll actually plays a lot you might be able to take advantage of the fact that people like him often do what they do specifically because it gets a rise out of others. If their targets aren't "playing ball" (just ignoring them entirely), they get bored and move on in search of more victims who will "play ball." In short, if he loses interest in antagonizing you and your friends he might focus his attention elsewhere. That *could* cause him to:

1. Not log on with the specific character used to ruin your SG - particularly if it isn't really a character he actually plays a lot, OR...

2. It doesn't sound like he really has any interest in actually re-making the SG or anything; he's just doing what he does to be destructive. When he's done and satisfied he's caused all the grief he possibly can, he might quit out of the SG (who knows, maybe he'll join another SG with that character hoping to cause trouble).

The point is, once he's lost interest in causing you any more grief, you or a friend's character might get the red star back by default, which will give you access to your large pool of prestige when "rebuilding" your SG.

Yes, I know it's a *big* long shot (there are a *lot* if very iffy conditionals in what I wrote above), but it might work.

Not so much a newb moment as a humiliating defeat.

Way back in 2004, when the game was new and I'm on my first character - an elec/elec blaster. I've just entered Crey's Folly. First thing I see is a trio of Crey Protectors (those are bosses if you don't know). They con green. I'm thinking, "eh, green. Easy enough."

What I didn't know is that they have a "freeze ray" power that puts you to sleep (along with a very low amount of damage). And the sleep lasts longer than it takes the power to recharge. And this is in the days before break frees existed: we had an inspiration called discipline that you had to remember to use *before* you ever got mezzed. And I forgot to use it.

I got off one attack. Then I was asleep. I have no idea why, but all the three Crey Protectors ever did was fire off that freeze ray. Over and over again. So I stayed asleep constantly, taking little snippets of damage.

I kid you not, it took them something like *ten minutes* to finally kill me. I would literally get up and do some chores, then come back and check to see whether or not I was dead yet so I could go to the hospital.

To this day I don't know why I didn't think to just log out, wait two minutes, and log back in... (maybe *that* was the actual newb moment).

EDIT: Oh, and I did think of one of my true newb moments. My second "favorite" character was my Invul./Axe Tank. I'd be embarrassed to admit the number of times I ran into a large spawn to "gather" them for my blaster partners to destroy, and *totally* forget to turn on any of my toggles. Death would come quite swiftly after that...

Finally, after a very long time, had a chance to try out the new TPN trial.

We lost. It sucked. It had to do with low public opinion. And something about entering a building I could never find. Well, I *might* have found the building... but at the very least I must not have been at the right doors.

...Kind of makes me want to be on BAF and Lambda, since we can win those.

So we did. And won those.

I'd say try not to make stuff suck so bad in the future. But...

eh...

eh...

...you know, if we'd won, I'd have liked the trial.

Actually, if I'd known what the hell to do, without trying to keep track of a very complex description of what to do from the team leader, that I *thought* I got ... at least until it the part where it was useless cause I couldn't seem to get to where I was supposed to be or even understand why I was losing.

Oh well. Too bad.

It sucked.

Happy holidays.

Okay, today I’ll do my first December arc for Arc Club. Tomorrow I’ll do number two. For today, I picked…

Arc #482914 Black as Midnight: Team Spirit by @Supafreak, Hero 50, 39 plays

Overall: I went into this knowing the arc is a prologue of sorts, so the fact that not everything is wrapped up by the end didn’t bother me in the least. Honestly, the first time through was pretty frustrating – there was a constant feeling of “I’m not sure I’m doing the right thing to move the mission forward”, which led to a lot of backtracking (see below), which in turn tended to break the flow of the story. This was in spite of the clues; although I suspect the author strongly objects to adding more to the mission objectives, I do actually think the mission objectives are seriously underutilized to get the player to advance the mission forward (I know the intent is to use the clues to move you forward rather than the objectives, but … well, I guess I found that I’m surprisingly dependant on the objectives to let me know that I’m correctly moving the mission forward. If other players are like me in that respect, it could be a problem).

Of course, now that I know what to do, I could easily progress through the mission at a good pace – but I do think tweaking the objectives would increase the chances that the first play through is smooth rather than frustrating.

Of course, I may have just been having an off day, and everyone else whose played the arc had no problems at all, so take my comments with a grain of salt.

Officially, I think this’d be on the border between 3 and 4 stars “as is” (my opinion only, of course), but since I do think a second time through would go a lot smoother, I’ll nudge it up to 4 stars (which lets me give it 5 stars in game).

Thoughts along the way:

In the opening briefing – “There’s been an increased missing person reports…”; I think you mean “There’s been an increase in missing person reports…”

Exaulted status? Does that imply I’m supposed to be an incarnate? (I am, so that’s not a problem; just curious).

The mission’s got an interesting mix of redone Circle (that seem to be a splinter branch intent on animating banished pantheon corpses; it’s a neat touch). The “Hunters” look like shadow shard “reflections” – that may be intentional, but there wasn’t an obvious reason why they might look like that.

I did think the descriptions on the “Void Summon” mobs seemed oddly different than the others: while most everything in the mission has pretty “standard” descriptions in terms of the style, the Voids read more like you were getting the info from a “combat report.” I’ve seen that style used before, and don’t mind it at all – but it did seem a little odd that one faction would be in one style and the rest in the other. Seems like it’d be better for all the descriptions to have the same style. (Note: Same thing with the bosses in the Midnight Hunt faction. And the bosses of the ‘Shadow Portal’ group – I think that’s what the group is called.)

Oh, and the Death’s Head cult boss has a misspelling in its description (I forgot the exact word while I was writing the paragraph above, but just check the description; you’ll see it easy enough).

Found BrandX – hmm, her bio seems awfully dark for a Longbow experiement; reminds me more of Crey. EDIT: Oh! Based on the souvenir she a "guest appearance" type character, so her bio isn't actually the author's work.

Oh, okay, I see the theory behind how this is intended to work … Ravenessence’s illusion leads me to Deadfall, whose been bitten by a zombie. Then Deadfall and I head to where the real Ravenessence is … only we have to fight an Archmage of Darkness (which actually then spawns Raven in...and gives the message Deadfall is not feeling so hot).

To be honest, I think you really need to have the objective text reflect a bit more clearly what you should do. I know you’re not a fan of having much there (and, to be fair, you’re attempting to direct the player through the clues), but IMO the objectives are a much better place to prompt the player as to what to do next. Believe me, things like “Head deeper in to find Deadfall” and “Press on to find the real Ravenessence” would have been far more helpful than “3 Midnighters, Capture Tormas” being up there the whole time.

Also, the clue that drops when the Archmage dies only makes sense if Deadfall is with you (I’d managed to ditch her a while back and really didn’t want to go back and get her because I was already a bit frustrated after backtracking and scouring every square inch of the map I hadn’t yet explored before finding her, since I wasn’t clear whether I needed to head forward to move the story along). I went back and got her, but giving her the ability to fly might be very useful – greatly increase the chance that you won’t lose her.

Hmm … when I went back and fetched Deadfall, I ended up picking up Neverest as well – so he suddenly gave me a clue when I brought him to where the Archmage was. But he refers to Black Maverik. Who the heck is that?

Oh … except Neverest isn’t here. Wait, what? Did he just run off after giving the clue and I missed it?

I’m guessing that “P.hantom Strike” isn’t a typo – that it’s needed to defeat the profanity filter? (Note: With my incarnate pets and abilities, and two elite boss helpers, I had no trouble at all taking him out as a full AV.)

Oh … huh, Neverest didn’t vanish. Apparently he was standing in a corner in the room. Odd.

…and Black Maverik is the murdered Midnighter. Got it.

Neat … it looks like this is set up as a multi-parter where you get to choose the “flavor” of the story’s next part by selecting which version of the arc you want to play. I’ve actually thought of doing this myself … neat idea!

Thanks for the info folks! Very useful to help me prepare for the switch from VIP to Premium on my alternate accounts.

The duals retaining their original size makes sense - you paid for them. I'm a bit disappointed to hear that the insp. you buy with reward merits will downgrade; in a sense, the fact you have reward merits is because you *paid* for the right to have them, so they really shouldn't loose buying power based on when you choose to spend them.

My main account is VIP, and will stay that way for the foreseeable future.

I have an alternate account that was created as part of the "create a new VIP account for 99 cents" promotion from about three weeks ago. So at the moment it is a VIP account. It will lapse into Premium on the 28th of December.

The account has 1 reward merit (just like a Free account would), so it's at reward tier 1.

I have a character on the account that is part of a Supergroup, and has 200 million influence. He's in supergroup mode.

Okay, that's the setup. Here's the question(s):

When that particular account goes back to Premium, since it'll (apparently) still be Tier 1 (unless I get a second reward token on the 28th or something):

What will happen to my supergroup membership? Will the character be removed from the supergroup? Will he stay in the group, but be unable to access a base? Will he be forced out of supergroup mode (or will he be totally unable to change his setting - i.e. if he's in SG mode will he be forced to stay that way)?

What happens to his influence (the cap for Tier 1 is 25 million)? Will 175 million influence just evaporate into thin air? Will he get to keep his influence, but won't be able to earn more until he goes below 25 million?

Also, while I suspect the following, if I'm wrong, can anyone set me straight?

He's got 90 reward merits. I assume I won't lose those, and I assume I can spend them normally (which includes 'buying' random large inspirations, even though they won't drop from enemies any more).

I assume I'll keep whatever salvage I've got, along with recipes. I assume I can still build anything I've got the salvage for ... although, depending on the circumstances I won't be able to use it (e.g. I could build an IO if I actually happened to have the recipe and the salvage, but if I slotted it in, it would have no effect on my character).

Although I won't be able to add stuff to the market, I assume anything I've got there will stay there - and I can claim or pull stuff off the market, I just can't add anything new (e.g. 'change' a bid, etc.)

Late to the game, but I wanted to thank Bubbawheat for running the contest, and wanted to thank everyone who played my arc - after all, it *is* a great feeling to win, but the fact that the arc practically doubled in plays is the best reward of all.

Arc #514570 Terra Mystika: The Nexus by @Lord of Storms, Hero 40+, 10 plays

Overall Impression: It’s a solid, fun arc, and the way the last mission is set up is really very neat, although I would have liked it to have more of a climax. The story moves right along too. While the missions are pretty short, the first three are basically “copies” of each other (in terms of what you are doing) – find clues, close portal, beat local boss. Since the missions are short, it doesn’t actually make the arc boring (like I said, the pacing actually feels really good), but it does create the feel of “gee, wouldn’t it be better if there was more variety in those missions?”

“Officially” I’d rate this 4 stars (with “more variety”, more of a “climax”, and an editing pass in a few key places mentioned below, as being what would be needed for a solid 5 stars). But, unless the author specifically requests the ratings be “as is” (as PW did for Crises at Talos), I prefer to give 5 stars if I’d rate 4 or 5, and leave it unrated if I’d give it three or less, so in game I gave it 5 stars.

A few “thoughts along the way” from when I was actually playing through it:
Minor nit – even though she’s a boss, story wise it makes slightly more sense for Melinda to be closer to the front of the mission … if the back is preferred, perhaps her saying something like “My teleport spell put me deeper in than I would have preferred…”

Minor grammar thing in end of mission clue – probably better as “That’s how they work:” (with a colon; putting a comma there makes it a run-on). And (at the end of the clue) “portal” instead of “ortal.”

In mission two the first dialog I heard didn’t make a lot of sense: they were talking about something like “yesterday it looked like a building in Budapest or along a street in Berlin, but now it looks all run down” – is the building “decaying” or something?

In the second mission I encountered an image of myself – it seemed to have something to do with the Nexus, but what was going on was never explained (at least I don’t think it was): I got the impression I was already supposed to know what was going on. In the briefing for mission three, I learned from Melinda that there exist something called “Nexus wards” – and they could look like anything. IMO, this really could use a stronger, clearer setup: perhaps a “mission start” clue that explains what the idea behind these wards are. Right now I’d guessing they are some sort of “defense” (that happens to be hostile to people from worlds other than the Nexus’), but it’s not clear what they are in spite of Melinda’s dialog suggesting I should actually already be familiar with them.

There’s another Nexus shade that looks just like me in mission three – but it’s not hostile; it doesn’t interact with me in any way, either. Don’t know if that’s intended or needs to be fixed.

Okay, the way the last mission is set up is a really neat idea. The puzzle almost seems *too* easy to solve, but I really like the setup.

I would suggest an editing pass on the second paragraph of “The Betrayer’s Plot” – it’s basically a big run-on and actually is pretty hard to follow.

Also, there’s got to be a way to add a climactic finale to that final mission so it doesn’t just ‘end’ with the accusation (maybe a few of the Elder’s loyal “wardens” could teleport in, and you have to defeat them before they can assassinate the other Elders or something)…

I did then click on the “wrong” glowies just to see what would happen. As an alternate to the storm elemental “renames” (i.e. the Nexus creatures) you might want to consider having “rogue wardens” loyal to the betrayer Elder ambush me instead, saying something like “Quickly, stop $name before he figures out who our real master is and foils his plans!” (or something). Just an alternate suggestion.

Okay, I’ve been focusing on the Player’s Choice arcs, but I don’t want to neglect Arc Club, so today and tomorrow I’ll do my two arcs for November (technically tomorrow’s will be a day late, but I’ll be sure to do two more after than for December).

Arc #524278 The Astral Prison by @Zaphir - heroic, level 40+, 11 plays

Overall Impression: A very well done, fun arc with a neat story, good gameplay, and a lot of nice touches. I gave it five stars.

A few “thoughts along the way” from when I was actually playing through it:
Why is it necessary that I use my powers to escape the Astral Plane? The mission two briefing suggests I need to defeat two “controlling” thought beings to open the way for escape, and, obviously, my powers will come in handy here, but it’s not real clear why simply using them is necessary to “poke a hole” in the dimensional fabric. I thought that’s what I was taking out the “controllers” for…

Syllable’s description mentions him “beating the tar out of me” – I’m make it a more neutral statement (in the actual fight, he didn’t even lay a hand on me).

The Robot Warriors are the shadow shard reflections. The rest of the custom faction looks solid, so I honestly don’t know if the reflection thing is intentional (remind you of the ‘unreal’ quality of the prison), or if the whole faction is supposed to feel “solid” this time.

Oh … okay. The fact they are encouraging me to use my powers without explaining *why* its necessary (or how using them will help free me) is actually part of the plot. Gotcha.

Third mission intro: “…I can see it from here that it is rather shoddy…” Should probably be “…I can see from here that it is rather shoddy…” (or possibly “…I can see it from here. It appears to have rather shoddy…”)

The ‘custom’ Protectors in the last mission are neat, although I do think their description could use a second pass: it makes it sound like I’m not aware of what they actually are (which, in an arc that goes up to level 50, is not a safe assumption) – one actually refers to them as a ‘supergroup’ for example. I’d recommend making their descriptions reflect what they actually are a bit more.

*But* the fact that they actually speak as though *they* think they’re really heroes is a nice touch, and fits in very well with the story.

Okay for Best Comedy Arc it looks like (for me) it's going to be:

1st place - Whack a Mole: Lambda Sector #508837 by @Bubbawheat
2nd place - Crime is Art and Art is Crime #517859 by @Twoflower

"Crime" and "Dating Ms. Liberty" were actually neck-and-neck for me, but I scored "Crime" *slightly* higher and have to choose one or the other, so there you go.

I fully intend to follow the pack shamelessly for the category my own arc is in, so:

Best Lowbie Arc

1st place - The Blue Devils #468738 by, well, *me*

Today, Pro Payne will learn that…

Dating Ms Liberty Isn't Easy #464550 by @Jinkobi

You know what? My title has pretty much been the same for the last 25 months. It’s time for a change. Something new and grandiose to reflect my newfound incarnate awesomeness (tremble, criminals, before my two common-level incarnate powers!) So off to Ms. Liberty I head. Only I find she’s got problems of her own. Apparently someone is stalking her, writing her love letters and other nonsense. I decide to help her out.

I start by trying to track down her stalker – and also destroy the truckloads of ‘shopped photos (in the form of newspaper articles) of her and said stalker in compromising positions.

Note: Why the heck is Longbow hostile to me?! Aren’t they on Ms. Libery’s side, like me? Oh, and the custom group (which is funny) needs to have a spawnable boss, so they give more than 50% XP. Hmm … why are heroes attacking me. You know … I assumed this was a heroic arc – I should check on that once I get out of the mission.

Checking…: Nope. Heroic. Seems weird (not comedy-weird either) that I’m beating up heroes.

More Notes: That said, the Heckions are actually pretty funny. They need more than just minions – but that was satire that brought a smile to my face. Hey, comedy is subjective *and* hit-or-miss. The ‘random players’ struck me as having some funny stuff and some stuff that fell flat; the Heckions were pretty amusing. Now if only the groups could be filled out with the other needed ranks.

Anyway, I destroyed all of the incriminating materials, and put the stalker in the hospital. It was time to go brag to Ms. Liberty.

Apparently my bravado had some unexpected benefits. Ms. Liberty thinks I’m cute, and, hey, why not just ask her out on a date? She’s receptive, but her psycho Grandpa (Statesman) is going to put me through a ‘test’ to determine if I’m ‘worthy.’ Bring it.

So I head to the Vanguard base, fight a few soldiers States sets on me, and then he tells me that he’s going to put me through a series of challenges. The first one is to protect a Vanguard bomb from being destroyed by Vanguard soldiers. Vanguard, being a rather difficult faction, quickly dispatches me (well, the ambush does anyway), and destroys the bomb. Mission failed.

Ms. Liberty isn’t happy I failed “Grandpa’s” challenges. But decides we’ll go on a date anyway. (And – after a fashion – suggests quitting out and restarting as an option – which I’d actually do if this was the *first* mission, but not the second.) Okay, I’ll play along. Note: Actually, trying to spin the mission failure as a clichéd “if the authority figure doesn’t like you now, that just makes me like you even more” might play better here. The way it’s presented right now just highlights the fact mission failure really is meaningless (beyond the fact that whatever comedy was planned for the rest of the mission is now lost to the audience – always a risk when you make a mission in a comedy arc fail able).

So anyway, since Ms. Liberty is still up for that date, we head over to the Longbow Officer’s club. Unfortunately, one of her many ex’s, unable to deal with the breakup, ruins the evening by crashing the party and challenging me to a fight. He loses, but the whole incident puts kind of a pall on the evening and so I just call it a night and take Ms. Liberty home.

Since Ms. Liberty still wants to try for a ‘good’ date, she asks me if I’d come with her to judge a costume contest. I check my day planner and sure enough, I’m free, so, you know, why not?

Once again, we head to Atlas Park, where I meet Ms. Liberty and then proceed to judge the costume contestants. Note: Like the first mission, AP is populated with humorous “satire” characters and most everything on the map is hostile. Also like before, comedy or no that just doesn’t make much sense. Why would I be hostile to a bunch of heroes? For that matter, why are the police hostile to me?


On the plus side, brutally beating down scores of newbie heroes means Ms. Liberty won’t actually need to worry about training them.

After judging the contest, I end up having to fend off three more of Ms. Liberty’s ex boyfiends. Note: Oddly, the ‘Texan’ stereotype looked like Santa Claus in a toga, which was weird – but the other two actually did look like the stereotype they were supposed to represent.

Well, enough was enough. Sure I like Ms. Liberty and all, but if all of our dates involve me beating down her ex’s, it’s just not going to work out. Especially if dating Ms. Liberty makes Longbow and the PPD want to attack me on sight.

Notes: The arc definitely has its funny moments, and the basic premise works just fine for me: the author (based on the arc description) seems worried that players are going to take issue with the ‘absurdist’ premise behind how the canonical characters are presented in the arc. But that doesn’t bother me at all – I’m perfectly happy to play along. Technically the arc is put together quite well: the missions progressed forward smoothly enough, and complex objectives were used quite well. But the arc does have some significant flaws, in spite of all the hard work that clearly went into it. There are a *lot* of grammar errors (sentence fragments especially), and not of the ‘I’m just writing the way people talk’ variety (which wouldn’t be an issue). As mentioned before, there are plenty of hostile factions where it doesn’t make sense at all why they’d be hostile (and there’s nothing explaining it in the briefings or their descriptions). It could be made to work, but in my honest opinion, the author needs to put more effort into explaining why newbie heroes, Longbow, and the PPD are attacking me on sight. A bit of “backstory” could turn that from weird to actually funny. As for the groups themselves, they really do need all ranks present. That “newbie hero” group, in particular, has so many members that there’s really no reason to select a few and make them lieutenants and bosses. It wouldn’t hurt to make higher rank versions of the other factions too (like the Harsh Judges), although that’s not quite as critical as making the main opponent group of the arc worth full XP. Of course, as already mentioned, there is certainly a risk in making one of the missions fail able. Does it upset me that I failed? No, not this time. Do I feel inclined to ‘take points off’? Nope. But maybe the fact I didn’t see the whole mission did cause me to miss some things that would have made me add points… it might be worth rethinking whether you *really* want that mission to be able to fail (or, if some of the ‘tests’ can’t be failed, perhaps put those first so you see more of the mission before you have a chance to fail).

Like most comedy arcs, the humor here is certainly hit or miss, which isn’t a bad thing. Everybody has different tastes. I did think there were several missed opportunities to use clues to add to the humor (for example, every time you defeat an ex, or for each ‘costume judgement’ you get humorous clue).

So my opinion? The arc’s got a lot of promise, but I did feel like it needed some work.

Score: 4.485* (4 stars “official”, 5 stars in game)

*While remembering that my scoring system is BS anyway, it’s worth noting that for purposes of the Players Choice contest the scores for the comedy arcs might be quite different from what I’d normally give as an “official” score, since I’m putting extra emphasis on whether the arc does what the category is looking for – did I find it funny?

And now it’s time for Pro Payne to start on the next category…

Best Arc – Comedy

Pro Payne has actually been at level 50 for some time now, and so it stands to reason that it is time for him to get in on some Incarnate action. So today, Pro Payne will strike against Emperor Mole, and his lieutenant, Molerauder by sabotaging Lambda Section in…

Whack a Mole: Lambda Sector #508837 by @Bubbawheat

I join the LFG queue to head to Lambda Sector, and soon after the obnoxious green button comes up commanding me to enter the trial. I refuse, since I want to see what else the LFG queue has to say: it informs me that 15 of 16 have joined the trial, so I must be the lone holdout. Don’t you just hate that one guy who won’t press the green button?

What?

Oh, right… okay, so I hit the button and head into Lambda sector. Apparently my other 15 teammates are fetching the Mole-lecular acids, leaving me to get the Weapons Caches. (No, that’s not actually in there, but I thought it was funny). I defeat Emperor Mole’s footsoldiers (which are very well done parodies of the actual IDF forces) and collect the grenades.

Then I find Molerauder. Just when I think I’ve defeated him, he jumps to another part of the map, and enrages (Note: Really nice touch on the emotes – especially the beating the chest one that mimics what he does in the real Lambda trial’s cutscene when he drinks the serum).

I track him down, but he just jumps to yet another part of the map.


You know, I kind of wish I’d actually let him beat me once, just to see if he says what he’s *supposed* to say…

Third time’s a charm. This time, Molerauder goes down for good. And I get an uncommon component.

And now Pro Payne has unlocked his Interface slot, and can start crafting incarnate powers.

Note: Silly though it is, I’ve decided that this ‘qualifies’ as unlocking Pro Payne’s incarnate abilities.

It’s a lot of humor packed into a short, sweet little arc. Really, it’s the amount of satire, and the little details that just make the arc: the custom group is very well done, mob descriptions are – by and large – satirical versions of what the real IDF mob descriptions are, dialog is very good – true to the actual things Mauauder says in the trial, but still satirized, and objective placement leads to a very smooth progression in the mission (it was always clear where to go next and what to do).

Score: 5.042* (5 stars)

*While remembering that my scoring system is BS anyway, it’s worth noting that for purposes of the Players Choice contest the scores for the comedy arcs might be quite different from what I’d normally give as an “official” score, since I’m putting extra emphasis on whether the arc does what the category is looking for – did I find it funny?

WOW, was the race ever close for the Heroic arcs (for me anyway)... my *word* this was a tough call!

1st - A Very Special Episode #457506, by @Wrong Number
2nd - Legacy of a Rogue #459586 by @Night-Girl

(And honestly, if I were to play through the list again, my votes might be different.)