Darch_Angel

Personally, I'm really impressed how my veteran slots, which I most certainly did NOT pay for, and never had anything to do with the online store to begin with, are also now arbitrarily locked while the store is offline. GG guys.

Thanks again for the review. Y'know, I swear I toned all those mobs down so that there shouldn't be any set to extreme, but since they were at some point the MA still claims them as such. I would've set the level range higher, but I've played through it with a couple lowbies without any real trouble.

The biggest problem with the arc, as I see it, is that it's basically something I started writing before City of Heroes was even released. Incidentally, that's why I feel no shame about inserting my own characters. Yes, these are characters I play as, but I've been writing for them for a while now, and I know their 'voices' so to speak. But anyway, back then, I just wasn't a very good writer (which is not to imply that I'm a terribly good one now...) and the arc shows it, but I felt like had to get the story out in some form or another just to let it stop festering in my head. I had to cut a lot of stuff too, so that didn't help. If you think I focused too much on my own characters as it is, you should've seen the pre-publishing version.

I tagged it comedy because I felt there were a number of light-hearted bits in the first two missions, particularly the second one. The various dialogues between the combats going on especially, plus the dialogue from the boss is humorous and explains why it's in a sewer. I didn't make the boss a required objective because there just wasn't any real reason to do so, IMO. Another reviewer called me out for the tone shift in the third mission, but we had to agree to disagree on that one. I like stories that start off light and amusing, and then suddenly get serious after the drama bomb hits.

If there's one beef I have with your review, is that I just don't feel like you put a lot of effort into it. There's a couple of things you said that are, frankly, just plain wrong. I never said Bloodstreak was 'doing research' for Azuria. He says that she's 'got [him] searching for info' which would imply he's gathering research materials from who knows where throughout the city. Okay, that's not a big deal, I can accept that you interpreted it differently. What really bugs me are where you state that Stryker made his cyborg army (I very specifically stated that Crey created them, he only reprogrammed them to be loyal to him. Fine, whatever, same difference I guess), and you keep making reference to a character named Plasmon. That's funny, I don't remember a Plasmon. There's a Plasman in there however. Again, that's really not a big deal, but all these things just make me feel like you decided right off the bat that you weren't going to like the arc, and just glossed through it without giving it your full attention.

Overall however, I can't really argue with your rating. Frankly, the more I look at it, the less I like this arc. I've always been the type of artist who is embarrassed by his own work.

On that note, I look forward to you reopening your queue for submissions. I think this arc is beyond saving, but hopefully you'll like my other one better.

Whoops, guess I wasn't next. Must've miscounted. Should be soon though. I hope so, I've only got so much nervous cowering in me.

Hmm, I do believe that I am next.

If anyone needs me, I'll be off whimpering in the corner.

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I have to admit I'm still baffled as to why you care. If the top level range varies widely, yes, that affects what powers and abilities you'll have as you progress through the arc. But if the lower limit varies, all that happens is the bad guys may get a little beefier - AFAICT it doesn't really materially affect how easy or hard the arc is overall.

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As I understand it, the biggest problem with this kind of level jump is that just because a lowbie has been auto-SKed up to the appropriate level doesn't mean that they can actually handle enemies at that range. Putting aside the problem of not having nearly as many powers and slots at that point as they should (including a number of defense/control options), there's also the fact that once you hit level 25-30, the game will be assuming that you're completely decked out in SO enhancements at the very least, if not a few IOs, and will be balanced to that assumption. A lowbie who's still using TOs or even DOs is going to be seriously out-classed.

From the other side, I personally find being suddenly auto-exemplared to be equally frustrating since it means I won't be getting XP for that mission.

This concept is fascinating. I may have to do one of these when I get home from work tonight. My first arc in particular could use it. The story stands just fine on its own (no complaints anyway), but there's a few plot points I just never really had time/space to explain adequately. Hopefully I can keep my commentary as interesting as yours.

Seeing as how all of my efforts to promote my arcs (Read: Virtually no effort whatsoever) have ended in failure, I've decided to resort to the usual Plan B: Casual threats of horrific violence.

So seriously, play my arcs. You'll find them in my sig. I can't be held accountable for my actions if my demands are not met!

And in the interest of convincing you that I'm not a complete monster (too late) I'll even make the standard offer: Play my arcs, and I'll make an effort to play yours. I'm not about to start doing a full review thread, since I don't have the attention span for that, but I'll probably post brief impressions.

The kitten thanks you in advance.

I think it really is just an issue of polish. I assume it's not the sort of thing anyone would lose a star over, but Venture's right: The tools to correct something like that exist now, and there's no reason not to take advantage of them. It's not a big deal, but it just looks sloppy.

Ha! My arc is perfect for this since the zodiac is referenced by its magical mcguffin plot coupons.

Arc Name: Waves of Chaos
Arc ID: 181244
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Darch_Angel
Difficulty Level: Contains 1 EB, and 1 AV, but it shouldn't be too bad. Especially since I took away its self-heal (with apologies to my team-mates. WOW THAT SURE WAS FUN *ahem*)
Synopsis: Player is requested to help secure a number of artifacts, and in true Paragon City fashion, it quickly spirals out of control and becomes yet another Save the World arc.
Estimated Time to Play: I'd say at least an hour. 5 missions, but most are pretty short.
Link to More Details or Feedback: Er... sadly missing. I got one review a while ago but I can't remember where. -_-;;

Libra (or possibly in opposition to Libra if you need something else. Good idea, Shagster!) - Your sign is unusually chaotic this week. Perhaps something can be done about the Waves of Chaos in arc 181244 to restore some balance.

Well, Cras gets my vote just for having a Mercs/Traps MM. My own MM gets very lonely at times.

Seriously, I <3 this thread. Thank you for making my downtime at work just a little less dreadful.

Also, props to Galactic Hobo. His first post was a tad preachy, but ever since then he's been hamming it up beautifully. I say, bravo to you, Sir.

It's a pity Venture's not accepting any more review requests for the time being. I'm having a really strong urge to write an arc where the player has to foil the evil villain Jabosth (whose plans always seem random and pointless). Kinda sounds like a CoT villain... or perhaps the Rikti Ja'Bosth? Either way, I'd have to do everything in my power to make sure the arc had a real strong theme to it, just for extra mind-explodey points.

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If I ever decide to subject my Arc to be reviewed by Venture and the worst thing he says about it is JABOSTH I'll be happy with it. I find it hard enough to make sure the overall plot makes coherent sense, so trying to shoehorn some deeper meaning to it is out of the question.

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I have to agree with this. My primary concern for my arc is telling a good and coherent story. I understand what Venture means when he says that if there's no theme then it's not literature, but I don't agree that something has to have literary value to be entertaining. I mean, junk food has no nutritional value, but it doesn't stop me from eating it.

That's not to say I didn't have any themes in mind when I wrote my story. The problem is that my arc is based on an original story I wrote a while ago, and adapted to the MA. Naturally, a lot of stuff had to be cut, either for time, or just to avoid the common rookie mistake of assuming the players want to know my characters' life stories. (PROTIP: They don't.) I might have been able to expand on certain themes a lot more by making it a multi-volume arc, but I doubt I could have made each volume a self-contained story, and I definitely agree with Venture that that's bad form.

I think I'm most eager for my eventual review just because I'm curious to see if I get the dreaded JABOSTH or not. Remember writers, just because you know what your theme is doesn't mean it came out in the finished product!

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Couldn't you, y'know, take that ranting someplace elsewhere?

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/signed

Seriously, speaking as someone whose arc is approximately number 30 in the queue (and eagerly awaiting his review sometime before Christmas ), it's really frustrating to load up the forums, see that this thread has multiple new pages since I was last here, and instead of finding half a dozen new reviews, finding maybe one review followed by a two-page shitstorm of people debating their bad score.

Do you have a right to respond to criticism? Yes. If you think the review was unfair, then please explain why. But you made your point in the first response, there's no need for this epic back and forth, especially with someone who has openly admitted that he hasn't even played the arc!

I can understand being upset, even offended by the score you got. Just take the debate somewhere else. Reading a dozen posts about why you didn't like the review just makes you seem like you're throwing a whiny tantrum.

I'll cop to the vanity arc bit, but to be fair I'm writing for characters that I and a couple friends created long before CoH was even announced. In fact, there's a couple of plot points I cut out partially because of space considerations, but mostly because they started treading a little too closely into 'let me tell you about my awesome characters' territory.

I suppose the sudden dramatic shift is a bit jarring, but I've never seen any reason why drama and humor arcs have to be mutually exclusive.

I'm glad you bothered to find the boss in mission 2. I don't believe in forcing the players to fulfill an objective if there's no good reason for it, but I definitely had fun writing the encounter.

Anyways, thanks for the review, glad you enjoyed it.

EDIT: Almost forgot. You said the final boss was energy/fire? I could've sworn I had him set to energy/dark. I guess either works, but I need to go check that later.

Okay, decided to run both the other ones since they're related and I'm just gonna blow through them on my main since I'm more interested in the story than anything else. Here's my impressions as I'm playing.

Two Chicks at Once:

About halfway through. Rather enjoying the mood of it so far. Also enjoying that I could just stealth through the first two missions. Y'know, Crey maps are kinda surreal at 50. Nothing but dudes in power armor all over the lab. How do they get anything done with no scientists? Oh well, whatever.

As I said, enjoying the overall tone. I can see some people getting upset that the Arachnos bigwigs are acting a bit OOC, but screw them. I am greatly amused by any story that assumes that any character, no matter how fantastically evil, is still just another character at the end of the day, and sometimes they're gonna be smart-[censored] or just act kinda goofy. I mean, nobody can be over-the-top evil 24/7.

Third mission has some minor nitpitcks for me. Johnny Sonata's /info assumes that I ran his arc, which I wouldn't necessarily have done even if I was playing a villain right now. Also the smily in the clue I got seems a little out of place.

Fourth mish gave me the same problem a lot of people seem to be having, Ice Mistral spawns behind Silver Mantis. Probably not much that can be done there. I'm not sure I understand the presence of Praetorian demons. I mean, they're as good a mob as any, and I guess it was just supposed to be an arena, but why demons? Oh well, whatever. Time to wrap this up.

LOL at Queen.

Okay, enough stealthing, let's make with the smashing. Turned around for a couple moments to free Ice Mistral and saw that Mantis pretty much cleared the rest of the room while I had my back turned, the little scamp. Oh well, I'm an Illusion controller, I'm used to having pets do all my work for me. Also, it just hit me: Shouldn't the Longbow Spec-Ops be Lieutenant class?

You know, now that I can actually get a good look at Silver Mantis while she's not trying to cave my head in, I get the feeling I'd rather like to see this calendar.

Normally I'd gripe about the surprise AV/EB, but since I've got two more on my side as back-up, I'll let it slide. Hell, they're still fighting in the background while I write this.

Okay, overall quite enjoyable. Noticed a couple of typos, but none that haven't been pointed out in this thread already. Now onto the sequel...

Curiouser and Curiouser:

First thought: "Mako flashes you a disturbing grin." Does he have a choice? I've seen that shark-faced creep before.

Tiered difficulty? Your ideas intrigue me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

I like how there's /info text for pretty much everyone and everything. Almost feels like I'm finding easter eggs. Also, LOL at Manticore. Hope I didn't interrupt anything.

I have to agree with people that you're taking a bit of a risk including scripted responses for the PC, but I don't have any problems with the words being put in my mouth in either of these arcs. If you wanna portray my character as a rather laid back smart-[censored], you go right ahead.

Aaaaand now I understand the Tarantula Becky joke in the last arc. Love the dazed animation on the Longbow surrounding her.

Next mish... could've done without the boss dropping in right behind me just as my Phantom Army was taking their union break. Actually had to burn some of my inspirations, you jerk.

Well, of COURSE it's a plot by you-know-who.

And I take a several hour break to go have dinner and come back to find that I had hilariously bad timing, as the arc was pretty much over. The ending seemed rather abrupt, but then I haven't had time to read the souvenir yet. Presumably that ties it all together. Or something. Dunno, kinda had a few beers at dinner, so I'm a little past caring now. Anyhoo, I declare both arcs a out of out of freem. CONGRATURATIONS.

I'd like to see 181244 - Waves of Chaos sarcasticized. I believe I played your Positron's TF Remix once upon a time, but I'll go play one of the other two when I get home from work anyway.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I humbly submit my arc for your reviewing pleasure. May I present:

Arc Name: Waves of Chaos
Arc ID: 181244
Alignment: Heroic
Length: 5 missions, at least a couple are pretty short
Genre: Serious with light humor elements
Synopsis: You agree to help out a fellow hero who has his hands full, and before you know it the entire world is at risk. Just another day in Paragon.

Notes: Very story-focused arc. As mentioned it is primarily a serious arc, but I do hope to get at least a chuckle out of players here and there. Also, there is 1 EB, and 1 AV, both required for completion, so keep that in mind.

Any and all criticism is appreciated, the harsher the better! BRING IT ON!