Crystalblue

Time to behold "The Power from Outer Space" (64800)

Rescue an Artifact from Oranbega? Doesn't sound promising, but then again those Thornies messed up my favorite eating place. I'll teach them not to mess with my pickles!!

No purpose in trying to be subtle with guys like these.



Anyway seemed to be a false lead, at least the next lead wasn't in a darn cave, but in some Crey lab. Now Crey I can work with. Their Heads - My Mace!



Hmm... So those five people don't need rescuing after all. Seems what I'm looking for is a "Hero Machine" then. Better make sure it isn't in the hands of the Freakshow! And... why does my 'special' approach always end up in battles like these?



Anyway - the situation was about to turn explosive. Those Heroes are getting powerful all right, too powerful. I've gotta stop them before they overload! Stan "The Science Man" Steele, thinks it's Nictus stuff. Would explain those purple glows some of the Freaks were tossing 'bout.

Better hire those Boog.. I mean Seekers to tag along in hunting down this "Tuberman" who started this mess, it's their powers and lives on the lines after all.

In the end we uncovered and stopped the nefarious plan, defeated (in unison) the guy responsible and all without the Boog... Seekers losing too much power, and they made me a Honory Boog.. Seeker too.

Well the Government of this world might be daft, but at least there are honorable heroes around.



Me and the Gang!!

The "One PING Only": I really liked the choice of main villain group (The N-Freaks), recognizable and different at the same time.

Carl is a curious type.. he was the only guy not to run screaming out of the bank when the Freaks arrived, just going on his knees to get a story without getting hurt. And he's following on purpose, a hero in front of him means even more free pictures.

Paparazzi!

The idea was that Carl met your character before (but *after* the time of the bank heist) - started comparing pictures (which never got run in the papers originally obviously with an invasion staring shortly after the Heist and got forgotten) and in the end (somehow) came to some conclusion about time travellers amongst us, which snowballed into a full scale exposure of the Menders.

And the cross between Ace Hanlon (mentality-wise) and David Beckham (look-wise) in the picture is the dazzling Captain New York, he loves two things more than anything... New York City and Himself -probably not in that order. (I wanted people to feel good about beating up these heroes)

Thanks for taking a peek inside

Cleaned up some text.
Added some verbs to the Mission 1 Directives.
Made the Crates Mandatory.
Sadly is doesn't seem as if War Hulks can be recolored (to Steel).

Now I've got everyones attention... let's go for something completely random (well, as long as there's no nasty Orange Warning Label)

Occult and supernatural detective "Dagger of Pain" at your service, testing "Ghouls, Goblins and Demons, Oh My!" (24406)

Don't mind my name, that's just for the thing that gave me my powers (the Dagger of Loviatar) and seems to keep mutating me as well, not that I can't live with my current almost Angelic form. This time I'm hired by Queen Tatiana - since she does feel like a kindred spirit to me, I take the job.



The Queen has a pest control problem, and it has spilled out into our world now, and I'm just the Woman to clean out all those pesky otherwordly vermin. I *AM* warned that I'll have to take out the lot of them, and that they are both small and good at hiding, so I put on my invisibility and see if I can't suprise them out in the open.

Despite their many supernatural powers they are no match for me (me freezing everyone in solid ice before they can use any pesky abilities).



Their boss "The Ogre" is a different matter - don't let him hit you! His club hits pretty hard.



Sadly it's never that easy. Some managed to escape from the cave the breach between worlds started in, and are on the loose - time to pick up stragglers, and deprive them of any shinies they have taken a fancy to along the way



The "One PING Only": Despite using mobs with electric powers myself in my Arcs, I have to warn every designer not to overdue this. Being Held and bled dry of energy at the same time, so you can't do anything, even when the Hold breaks will gain you quite some hostile feedback. Now me - I can hold everything that moves before being seen, and blast if before it comes around, but it's something to consider still. For those trying this - Kill Order is Goblins first, then Ghouls, and lastly Demons.

Yup, color tags especially do this. Can be written shorter than they end up later, and remain OK till you try to republish. Since you're generally stopped from typing too much in a field, it doesn't get rechecked (even though it suddenly is too long) until republish time, the orange error finder remains no help here.

A story by another Forum regular: The Echo (1688)

Hmm.. Jack & Janice! Her husband doesn't care she's missing but this bloke does. Never Mind. I'm feeling in a bad mood and really tired of saving this unappreciative world, maybe helping out just a single one feels better.

Hmm.. Again! Found the Dame and some French sounding Freak who claimed he's just 'babysitting' - riiiight. I knock the stuffing outta him (my right eye is itching and I don't even have it anymore, stuff like that makes you cranky).



Hmm.. Third time. Someone beat her up and noone wants to talk with us about nothing. Mace time! Sadly the Crey had nothing to offer but Rude Employees and slow computers, and this Monitor Guy I was looking up, seemed to be a goner already.



Luckily there's more Crey labs to go through for Info, the next in more ordinary use (not that it stops me). And looks like this Monitor line isn't such a dead end after all. So now I'm looking for an insane criminal mastermind? Heck! At this rate I'll end up saving this world anyway.

Yup... Stop evil guy and doomsday weapons. Now this city already owes me LOTS and I got NOTHING, ah well! I soon run into another Loud (VERY loud) mouth Freak. I think those freaks were actually happy to see me, preferring a fight over box-watching duty anyway. So - them and me happy both!



(Almost missed a big ugly wodden box in the middle of a hall-way. I dunno' didn't look enough out of place. Yeah - go ahead and blame the one-eyed guy for missing stuff - IT WAS IN MY BLIND ANGLE)

So... Now he throws the gauntlet at me (literally), thinks I'm afraid of his Doomsdays device and his Freak Army. NO WAY! I don't like this dimension that much anyway and I'm not afraid of no Freak, so I can only say - BRING IT!!!

So Mr. Insano can "Hear the World" - I'll make sure to hit him so hard with my Mace it'll make his ears fall off.

Well by the 5th Freak or so it was clear, he was a nutter for a reason. He had some bad day at hero-work once. But seriously no need to blow up the world. Grow Angry and Bitter - perhaps yes (simple caltrops in the face can do that to you). Hmm... Could you make a mace that could crack the earth? (What's with all these French Freaks anyway??)

In the end there is little choice.. I guess it had to end like this either way



I still wonder about this dimension and its so called qualities and values. Would 'Tyrant' have allowed such things to happen?

The "One PING only": Using stringed bosses to tell a long story in the right order is a smart idea, and Freaks are great for that, noone ever gets tired of beating up Freak-bosses. They can put a comedic edge to even the most tragic of stories - like this one.

PS! For SOME reason it isn't always loading all the inline images... If there ain't 4 Images you aren't seeing them all (I've chosen to go with 4 images per story in general, should be just about right to give people a look-n-feel of the mission at hand)

Might as well share my MA experinces in a thread too - sharing the fun (or the horror of it all) - I'm not a great reviewer so I'll stick to one comment (or PING) only for each story, the one that leapt the most into my eye.

First up a classic: CTRL+ALT+RESET (137561)

Okay.. this guy Foreshadow tells me the governement are fools and don't know what's good for them.

The sneaky Wyvern may have put a dampening field on the warehouse, but I should still have enough powers left to avoid most and knock the rest silly.

Since I tend to agree on the fools part, I'm game and agree to recover the dangerous artifact from any fools guarding it.



Things don't work out quite as expected, I find myself somehow back before recovering the stuff, not just once, but twice. But knowing the place so well I've learned to search through it fast - Regeneration Scrapper style (ah yes - right there - that's where it itches - put some more arrows in while I search this crate)



But anyway.. the only way to fix this is OLD Mare Style, so I grab my gear from my 'wild early teens' and go at it, fourth time's the charm.

It doesn't look good for the Wyvern this time, and there's embodied Time Shifter Artifact all over the place, but at least agent Marx doesn't want to fight me this time.



In the end the good ol' "Find Stuff - Break Stuff" saves me once again as it has done so often, mission accomplished.



The "One PING only": I like the chosen look for the mutated Wyvern, nice and gruesome

Hmm.. I might have a little something I threw together one day I was bored

Arc Name: Technological Advances
Arc ID: 266163
Faction: Villain
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Crystalblue
Difficulty Level: Easy-Medium (levels 33-45)
Synopsis: Mender Tesseract has a (slightly villanous) plan to save Earth, and somehow it involves helping Nemesis & the Freakshow strike a famous deal.
Soon you're not just up against the Heroes of Paragon City but also figthing Steampowered Tanks and an entire Rikti Invasion, with the existance of the Menders themselves at risk.
Estimated Time to Play: Short-Medium (3 Maps)

I already know it has the following shortcomings:

Setup:
- Yes! It IS a villain mission because we ARE helping the bad guys
- Tesseract COULD have chosen to gain results helping good guys too you know!
Mis.1:
- Some missed opportunities of extra jokes with the cameo characters
- Not the right map (didn't have the original mission available to check)
- I went with (and tested on) a map I liked instead and will probably stick to it
- The customs WERE made specifically for this mission, I'm not flaunting alts
- Bosses ARE just meant to be Lts. and I do know Boss groups are a little spread out
Mis.2:
- Somewhat dialogue poor (Mis.3 too but there it's more OK)
- Yes 'Doble Brothers' not 'Dalton Brothers' - check names on Wikipedia
Mis.3:
- Pacing problem - it IS the climax but doesn't feel like it compared to Mis.1
General:
- Level range due to rescued peoples level, level around the mission it reenacts
- Level-adjustments is canon in Mender-missions, and at least it doesn't jump
- Can give people that "So now I'M the *****??!?" feeling <- censored, same word Venture uses in connection with throwing certain balls.
- I hope the Souvenir to some extent mitigates this

Fixes:
- Changed spelling of hopefull -> hopeful (it just LOOKS so wrong)
- Added non-mandatory canon clue to Mis. 2 to liven it up (why only 300 chars?)
- Changed "Hapless Costumer" to "Hapless Customer" - Seems he didn't sell costumes after all

Hmm... Rikti invading random missions - This gives me an idea for a storyline.

Too bad I don't have the time to make one right now.

Arc Name: Technological Advances
Arc ID: 266163
Faction: Hero
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Crystalblue
Difficulty Level: Easy-Medium (levels 33-45)
Synopsis: Mender Tesseract has a (slightly villanous) plan to save Earth, and somehow it involves helping Nemesis &amp; the Freakshow strike a famous deal.
Soon you're not just up against the Heroes of Paragon City but also figthing Steampowered Tanks and an entire Rikti Invasion, with the existance of the Menders themselves at risk.
Estimated Time to Play: Short-Medium (3 Maps)

[u]I already know the following[u]:

Setup:
- Yes! It IS a villain mission because we ARE helping the bad guys
- Tesseract COULD have chosen to gain results helping good guys too you know!
Mis.1:
- Some missed opportunities of extra jokes with the cameo characters
- Not the right map (didn't have the original mission available to check)
- I went with (and tested on) a map I liked instead and will probably stick to it
- The customs WERE made specifically for this mission, I'm not flaunting alts
- Bosses ARE just meant to be Lts. and I do know Boss groups are a little spread out
Mis.2:
- Somewhat dialogue poor (Mis.3 too but there it's more OK)
- Yes 'Doble Brothers' not 'Dalton Brothers' - check names on Wikipedia
Mis.3:
- Pacing problem - it IS the climax but doesn't feel like it compared to Mis.1
General:
- Level range due to rescued peoples level, level around the mission it reenacts
- Level-adjustments is canon in Mender-missions, and at least it doesn't jump
- Can give people that "So now I'M the idiot??!?" feeling
- I hope the Souvenir to some extent mitigates this

Fixes:
- Changed spelling of hopefull -&gt; hopeful (it just LOOKS so wrong)
- Added non-mandatory canon clue to Mis. 2 to liven it up (why only 300 chars?)

Could they be killed by something while running away?

You don't really - It's all rounded away before we get to look at it.

3.5 - 4.4999 is all 4 when shown

The author gets X Tickets per awarded star for each person rating it, to gain hall of fame you have to have a rating of 5 (that's 4.5+) and 999+ rated plays, and enough votes the other way and HoF is lost again (you don't lose the bonus arc awarded if already used, but you'll be unable to edit anything till one mission hits HoF again)

DC are chosen by the developers at hand and becomes locked for editing (and start giving normal awards in stead of tickets), but here the bonus arc becomes permanent.

I belive that's it for rewards.

Playing an arc with HoF (and now DC too) gives a badge, can't recall if there is still a badge for getting you arc into that status.

There isn't much use in long replies to Venture's reviews. The reason he's a go-to person is he lists EVERYTHING. The things everyone thinks is wrong, the things someone thinks is wrong, and a few things only Venture thinks is wrong. THAT's the kind of reviewer you want .. not one who leaves out a crucial bit.

You edit what you think is important, and the stuff that despite criticism you - as an artist - still wan't as-is, you leave unchanged.

(This is a general observation, not aimed at any one specific poster)

Hmm.. have only recently noticed that it actually stacks different objectives that share names so I can't tell if it is changed (with pluralis blank I think it takes that as it having the name of the object per default which seems to be what you are experiencing), but

For now I suggest actually _adding_ a Pluralis to them all like:

Files to Upload

And making the Singularis

One Final File to Upload (How unlucky can you get?)

Sorry.. had the same thing and ended up designing my own advanced Tsoo.

[ QUOTE ]
Unfortunately, "defeat all" seems to provoke the same kind of knee-jerk "grr, snarl" reaction from a lot of people as "sapper."

[/ QUOTE ]

Hehe.. I have one defeat all on a casino map, and I use (random) Malta in one spot... I love the way Sappers make people stop and take three deep breaths before rushing in. They make my characters feel alive

Technically it could have been a 3 Star

221 / 49 = 4.51 = 5
224 / 50 = 4.48 = 4

[ QUOTE ]
I am more than sure they don't need any suggestions from the player peanut gallery

[/ QUOTE ]

You are being a little unfair to the developers here. Unlike many other MMO's they actually enter actively into a dialogue on the forums about new ideas (at least that's how I remember it from a couple of years ago), to the point of coming (digitally) face to face with people on the test-server.

Nerfs they generally don't discuss with people though since input tends to be too biased.

Costum critters will be filling a good deal less in I15.

That should help.

Well... I'd blame Positron then He started this ....

This will be included in I15 so I doubt anyone will take the time now.

[ QUOTE ]

Anything that hurts a farm should have no impact on you


[/ QUOTE ]

This was aimed at the possible removal of maps and such

Someone already explained the XP thing but yes.. nerfed AE rewards will hurt storymakers too since storyhunting audience could go for paper/contact missions instead.

[ QUOTE ]

Apparently you do care, at least some, or we would not be here. Why should an "exploit" bother you? Are you an unpaid enforcer?


[/ QUOTE ]

I'm just like that I'm afraid - Yes I report Exploits! Nothing Personal. This is not limited to this game, or to AE, or to gaming in general. Turning a blind eye to exploits means forfeiting ones right to complain when an exploit comes along that really does hurt *you*. It's probably not a popular stance but no point in lying about it. Not that I come across many of them since I don't give anything but storymissions a second look.

[ QUOTE ]

Just as I should make no assumptions about you, you should make none about me. I am constantly on the lookout for interesting content.


[/ QUOTE ]

Not aimed at you, sorry if it looked like that, was not the intention - but we have had some "All stories suck and noone will play them anyway so get lost all of you story-noobs" trolls around here trying to speak for other people. Was trying to refute that behaviour. They should learn to say *I*.

[ QUOTE ]
I have a very difficult time with all of the negativity on the forums.

[/ QUOTE ]

You and me both..

Three good things...??
- I got get beaten up by myself, only in AE
- I helped Lord Recluse after a drunken Binge, only in AE
- I prevented all soft-ice from tasting of Liver, only in AE

I know forums are a good place to find good arcs, but I like to find some (like the Recluse one) that I haven't seen pitched.

Threads have a tendency to turn into circular promotion only.

I spent 5 minutes sifting through the rubble today - was long and annoying, but finding something 192771 made it worth it, but I could still do with less clutter for sure.

Manga Available

Removing AE doesn't seem like a very good idea at all.

A lot of people have embraced this new addition to the game for all kind of different reasons.

Well.. bad players are bad

No matter how they got their levels

These posts (just as a "Lets all go Farm" post) just add to the Bonfire.

Let's see what Positron is going to do first and worry afterwards, when all suggestions can be of the

- Please lessen nerf for _us_

category, which is a much nicer way to go about it.

Note.. I haven't made any suggestions yet (it's bad karma to suggest nerfs for anyone, I'll wait till after they hit and suggest ways of loosening them instead for my purposes, and I'm sure people focused more on the powerleveling challenge will too) and you start by offering me therapy, that's a somewhat strange move.

You say it's not everyones game - I hope it can be the game of both the story crowd and the power-challenge crowd, since more customers = more money and more money = more content for everybody.

Personally me (and my money) are just back for the expanded story running options in I15 (and to a lesser extent the story making, but once you made 3 - more often than not just for the benefit of a small couple of friends - you are pretty much done with that anyway, so if one is only looking for that, or for any fame that might come from making missions, disappointment will probably come and one won't last long)

Currently the story-finding options just aren't really very good.

-- Made a much needed tl;dr edit.