Darkonne

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I've tried this a couple ways, adding to the "Wehrmacht" custom group both "Random 5th Column Boss" and specific bosses from the standard 5th Column enemy group; neither seemed to allow me to use them as Bosses or Allies through the Wehrmacht faction, even though I can use the same mobs as Bosses or Allies from the 5th Column faction.

I think this is probably a bug or at the very least unintended; if you know some workaround I'd be glad to try it though?

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I'll have to check my arc once I get home, but I thought for certain that I managed to get this to work. If my memory isn't playing tricks on me, I'll let you know.

And if it is playing tricks on me again, I'll probably forget this ever happened. >_>

-D

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* I was unable to author General Paulus as a Wehrmacht boss; for some reason, standard PvE bosses added to a custom faction cannot be used for "boss" or "ally" details. I don't have enough space to make a new custom model for General Paulus, so he remains 5th Column (for now; may change in I15).


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Really? I know I did that in my arc, and it was still working as of a week ago or so.

One thing I do recall, though, is that I could not select a "Random" boss for a detail; the boss had to be added individually. Perhaps this is the issue with Gen. Paulus?

-D

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Graeve_Digger - Hero Simulator Ch2 172468 [moved part 2 down a couple slots to look at other arcs in between]
Darkonne - 161865 Aeon's Nemesis


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Interesting. My arc also revolves around an investigation into an AE program (though from a villainous side). Hopefully it will make an interesting "compare and contrast" exercise for you, PW.

-D

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As much as I hate to give away my secrets, I honestly didn't think it was that much of a trick to begin with :P (I'm working on something fancier at the moment with er... less success so far).

You create an escort, set it to required. Set the surrounding enemy group to "Single" so that only the escort is there. Set enemy group alignment to "Rogue" (Which makes the escort hostile), and set combat abilities to "Pacifist" (So the escort won't aggro on the player). Now you've got an escort that the player can choose to fail, but it won't attack the player so they have a choice whether they want to complete/fail the mission.


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That is pretty nifty. Thanks for sharing!

-D

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Fury Claws might work, but Vanguard definitely wouldn't look right. Remember that the Extendo-Claw is part of the animations, so it would show up with whatever customization option you picked.

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Also, Widows can get the Poison Dart and Dart Burst attacks, which would look very odd with the basic Talsorian claw setup.

I'd still like it if they could get their own tweaked version of the Vanguard claws, but it's probably an extremely low prirority for BAB.

-D

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I had a couple people tell me that the mission spawned too many "background" LTs which, due to them being sonic buffers, were too difficult to clear. I did some testing last night and it seems if you run the mission on an even level difficulty, you could get situations where there was so many of them, unless you had a way of scattering them it could get pretty ridiculous.


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In retrospect, I should really have noticed my difficulty was still on Ruthless (CL:4) when attempting the challenge. Now I don't feel so bad about all my gratuitous deaths.

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I've fixed that and one other small error I detected in the arc that snuck in there. Anyone who tried this arc and were stymied by being mobbed by a map full of sonic LTs should retry it.


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I managed to clear the room before starting the test, so it didn't interfere with the challenge itself. The mass Lieutenants actually made for an interesting exercise at first: I developed a whole new respect for the Nemesis Staff's knockback and Psychic Scream's psionic damage. But the fun wore off after a while. :-)

-D

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Arc #161865, "Aeon's Nemesis"
tl;dr: 5 stars. Nits: no theme (but comedic)

Reviewed on: 6/8/2009
Level Range: 35-54/33-54/30-54/41-45/46-54
Character used: Amelia Escobar/Virtue


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Wow, I was not expecting that (given that the story does lack an overall theme).

Thank you very much for the review, Venture! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

-D

Finding my own story arc in need of visitors and my Crab Spider in need of tickets, I decided run address both problems at once by running and reviewing [u]Axis and Allies[u]. That turned out to be tougher than I expected: I find myself divided on the arc. Parts of it worked really well, and parts of it fell flat.

On the positive side, I think this was a very well put together arc. The story is a straightforward classic, and it flows very well. Each mission 'felt' appropriate to the story thanks to the setup, map selection and some nice details. I particularly liked the design of the Allied military critters: each had a distinctive yet appropriate look. Given the limitations of the available MA artwork and file size, I don't think you can do much better.

On the negative side, I never really felt myself getting invested in the arc. It's possible that I'm just never going to feel invested in a story about the Nazis conquering the world. But on reflection, I think the problem stems from how the arc starts off. Schadenfreude wants to restore the 5th Column to glory by sending me to depose Hitler, and then lead Nazi Germany to victory myself. What I don't understand is why Schadenfreude wants me to become the new Führer. We've known each other for a single mission when she gives more or less ultimate power over the cause to which she has clearly dedicated her life. I can't see how that would work.

If she really is devoted to the 5th Column, wouldn't she want to make Requiem the new Führer? Or if she was only devoted to its "ideals," wouldn't she want to run the show herself and make certain those ideals are maintained? Obviously, to run this arc at all my character has to be sympathetic to those ideals, but I still feel like I'm more of a hired gun to Schadenfreude than I am an equal partner in her lifelong ambitions.

Basically, I think the arc glosses over exactly why I become the Führer. Everything after that makes sense and flows well, but being the obsessive nitpicker that I am, I can't quite ignore the first hurdle we skipped. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how to address this problem.

The "best" solution would be to make this arc the second part of a multi-arc story. In the first part, the player meets Schadenfreude and works with her to help preserve the 5th Column in the present day; at the end of the arc they find a way to go back in time, thus starting this arc. This would give the player time to bond with Schadenfreude. It would explain why she's willing to trust him as Führer, and make the player more invested in her story (as much as possible given the whole "Nazis win" premise). The problem with this solution is obvious: it's a massive amount of work and would require another story slot.

A simpler solution would be to make someone else the Führer (either Schadenfreude or Requiem). I'm not sure how much space to you have to tinker with the mission, but it would be a lot less work than adding a whole new arc. This solution risks making the player feel less involved himself (since he's now a flunky ratter than the ruler of Germany), but I think you can get around that by making the player a sufficiently important general that he effectively becomes the face of the Reich. But this way, the player can grow into the role rather than having it thrust on him after Mission 1. It would also give you a chance to explore Schadenfreude's motivations, if you're interested in that.

The last solution is the most straightforward: have Schadenfreude explain why she trusts the player at the helm of Germany in her opening dialog. Either claim that she knows the player already, or that she isn't up to the task herself and feels the player is someone she can rely on. This doesn't really solve the problem per se, but it does mean that anyone running the arc will have to come up with a solution themselves before they get started. They won't have to make the sudden switch from hired muscle to trusted ally during the arc.

Okay, that's the big stuff covered. Here are a few other minor comments:

* In mission 1, the Führer is being guarded by 5th Column troops. AFAIK, the 5th Column never operated in Germany; they were Requiem's private army, and only operated in America. It would be nice if you could create a unique group for the mission (the Wehrmacht, SS or somesuch) instead of using the actual 5th Column. Put all the human and robotic 5th Column troops in it (since the Axis America models seem to be the Council Empire models at the moment); you won't be able to change their /info but it would be a good compromise. Assuming you have space for another custom group, of course.

* In Mission 2, Gen. Weygand says "Viva la France" upon seeing me. I think that should actually be "Vive la France." But you should check with someone more knowledgeable to be certain.

* In mission 2, the use of Energy Melee by the British Soldiers seems a little out of place. I know most of the likely candidates are already used by the other armies, but EM struck me as off. Perhaps you could just give them a minor defensive set instead?

* In Mission 4, the soldiers guarding the Stormtroopers have a line to the effect of "There's one of them Krauts!" when they see me. The line feels appropriate to the time period, but given that I'm supposed to be the Führer of Germany at this point, I think they should recognize me personally.

* As far as I saw, none of the generals in missions 2-4 had a unique /info description. If this was done to save space it may be unavoidable But if you do have the space, a line or two about their (altered) history would be great.

So, there we have it. I haven't decided what to rate the arc yet: it's wavering between 3 and 4 stars, so I'll sleep on it and see how I feel tomorrow. In the meantime, thanks for the arc; it was fun, and I hope this can help improve it. I'd also love it if you could take a look at my arc when you get the chance: Aeon's Nemesis (#161865). I really need more feedback on it.

-D

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Original Post

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Mids is dead. Long live Mids!

Seriously, Mids did some darned fine work on his designer. I use it frequently. May successors maintain that high standard for many issues to come.

-D

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You have a Dev Director?

And you totally should copyright or TM that thing.

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That sounds like a new Mastermind Primary: Dev Directing! You can summon 3 interns, 2 programmers, and 1 lead designer. R-Type is the level 32 upgrade, of course. :-)

I'm sure they'll have it ready for I16!

-D

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I will throw this in if anyone feels like reviewing it.

Name: The Heart of Artemis
Arc ID: [will add it when I get home] (@Thornster should bring it up)
Length: Long
Morality: Villainous
Description: Greek Mythology speaks of a legendary artifact known as The Heart of Artemis. You stumble upon items that lead you to believe it may be re-forged. But, the advantage you may gain from doing so, is something no one will let you have.

Intended this to be easy but with the Malta in there you should try it with at least a lvl 22. I intend to make a TF version of this so any constructive comments would be appreciated.


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I was looking for a villainous arc, so I ran through this with my level 37 Crab Spider. It went pretty smoothly, and I enjoyed it overall. My comments below (which will include spoilers in case anyone wants to avoid them).

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Things I would like to know: What do you think of the custom mobs?, does the "action" involve you in the story?, Is what is happening clear? Did you like my informative text in the intros? Did you get a good feel for each of CANUCK's agents?


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I liked the custom mobs. The Lieutenants were the least themey of the bunch, but they were still fun. The bosses weren't over the top powerful, and they were still clearly more dangerous than the lesser mobs.

I think the /info for the CANUCK CRA-Zs was a bit too detailed, though. They often included a lot of personal details that felt out of place in someone's resume, and sometimes crossed into telling rather than showing. I think you could still convey a sense of personality with a shorter, more career oriented style. That would be more in keeping with the traditional bios. It might also be better to focus on fewer of the CRA-Zs. They kinda crowd each other out when they're all present in the third mission.

On the story, I understood what was happening, but I do think the beginning was too abrupt. We find some odd relics that we were not expecting. Yet almost immediately after finding them, Scratch learns about a Malta project they could be used for, where and what other items we would need to complete that project, and even has some idea of who would be trying to stop us. That transition is too rushed. We either need to know more about the Hand of Artemis project going into the arc, or to figure it out slowly over the course of the arc.

Also, while I understood what I was trying to do, some of the components needed for the Hand of Artemis were very confusing. Why does it take a Rikti microchip to create an ancient, mystical artifact? Why would I expect to randomly run across a Dark-powered hero on a random mission? I think these components need a little more background information on just why they're needed.

I did like what the Hand of Artemis did, though. The ultimate tracking device is a neat idea that still feels appropriately powerful. It fits with the huntress theme of Artemis, and is a perfect object for the Malta Group to obsess over. The only problem with it is that it doesn't seem like it has anything to do with the story of Artemis trying to renounce her divinity that was mentioned before mission 2. So I liked the end of the story, but I felt the beginning needs some work.

On the subject of the [informative text] portions of the mission intros, I don't think they worked well. The information was clearly germane to what was going to happen, but I'd rather find a way to convey that information without it feeling so out of place. Either work bits of it into Scratch's dialog at appropriate points, or present it as a single background blurb at the start of the arc. This may just be a personal preference on my part, but they didn't help the story as presented.

A few other details I noted: in mission 2, Capitaine Quebec's unaware dialog included "$name" directly, rather than substituting the name of my character. Not sure how that happened. I found some of the unnamed NPC dialog a little awkward: it didn't sound like something the character would have reason to say out loud.

Anyway, this isn't really a formal review, but hopefully it will help.

-D

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Heh, poor boss. He needs a stricter hiring policy. I'll see if I can prevent this from happening.

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Erm, I hope you can't! If you give him guards with Mez protection, you're going to make life miserable for a dominator. We were a confusion-heavy duo, me with Mass Confusion and her with Seeds of Confusion, so Confusion is one of our mainstays.


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Oops. I shouldn't have written those two sentences back to back. I meant that I was amused at the BBEG's problem, and also that I would attempt to prevent the time-on-target ambush issue.

I don't mind you beating the BBEG to death with his own henchmen. Though I do sympathize with him; I tested a custom Illusion critter of mine with my Fire/Dark Brute, and it wasn't pretty. Confuse was very, very tough on the poor Brute.

-D

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For the record, there is NO Issue 15 Closed Beta.

Where:
Issue 15 Beta will occur on the Training Room (in both North America and Europe), and not on a separate server (like the Macintosh Closed Beta)

Who:
Issue 15 Beta will be open to everyone who has an active account. Trial Account users will have access to the Training Room, however Trial Account limitations will still be in place on those Trial Accounts.

When:
Soon

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Actually, I have a dentist appointment Soon. Could you guys push I15 beta up to the week before Soon, or maybe Very Soon? Pretty please?

-D

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Maybe change where the ambushes spawn then, make the first one in back and the second in middle or something so there is a little more time between when they arrive. Having them both show up within a matter of seconds meant we were surrounded and quickly went down without hope. Spacing them out for even another 15-20 seconds would have been enough for us to get a handle on the first group before the larger second one arrived.

We were killing the boss pretty fast that first time around, because we had his own guards attacking him too (Confusion FTW!)


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Heh, poor boss. He needs a stricter hiring policy. I'll see if I can prevent this from happening.


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The second mission send off is where I started becoming interested. There were some nice touches (the watermelon). And the plot, of course, was interesting and kept me guessing on what was a simulation and what was acting on it's own almost to the end, so that was good.


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That is indeed good. :-)


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Yes, that was the mission. We were thinking "why are there suddenly clockwork running around here?" and things like that. It seemed odd.


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The Clockwork are hunting the Ally you free in the mission; they spawn when you free him. His dialog and /info should imply why, but it may be too hard to catch that. I'll try to clarify it a bit.

Thanks again for taking the time to comment, Smurch!

-D

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Name: Aeon's Nemesis
Arc ID: 161865
Length: Very Long
Morality: Villainous
Description: "You've heard a rumor that Marshal Brass is looking for someone to test a secret feature of the Architect system."


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I ran it with my wife, me on my level 37 Mind/Ice dom, her on her level 34 Plant/Thorn dom.


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Hooray for feedback! And from Dominators, too. +10 bonus points for you, sir!


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Overall, I liked it. Mostly my complaints are nitpicky more than serious, I won't go into them at this time, but I'll just say you may want to revisit some of the dialog here and there.


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I have a hard time with dialog; it takes me a long time to write and what sounds good to me might or might not sound good to everyone else. If anything particularly stood out, let me know what it was and I'll see if I can improve it.


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The only WTF moment we really had was the multiple ambushes on the end boss. They seemed like they came at the exact same time and we were overwhelmed and had to hospital. On the second time back we used those guys to build domination and then fought off the boss... barely. I used almost a whole tray of insps to do it, but we did it. I don't think I could have soloed it. We ran on Challenge Level 3, however. On challenge level 1, I might have been able to solo it, although those ambushes still may have swamped me. If it's possible, space them out a little more is my advice.


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The ambushes on the end boss spawn at 3/4 and 1/2 health (the second spawn is larger, though). There should be time between them, but ambush arrival time can vary a lot depending on just where they spawn. I could move the last ambush to 1/4 health, but then I'd be worried that sometimes the boss would be killed before the reinforcements even arrive.

I'm not sure which is the better option here. How fast were you killing the BBEG on his own? I'll have to see what works best for the most people.


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Otherwise it seems well balanced for Doms. It was challenging, but not a faceplant marathon. The custom critters seemed about right in balance, especially to the standard mobs.


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That's good to hear. The last patch seems to have removed the Defiance effect from AR critters. :-)


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The story wasn't bad, either. The initial set up was kinda weak and since my char had already worked with Martial Brass, the introduction broke versilimitude, but it picked up from there and I was engaged throughout.


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I wasn't sure how to handle Brass's starting conversation, since there's no way to tell if the PC has worked with him before. In my early drafts, I tried to be ambiguous, but it felt rather awkward. Having him (re)introduce himself seemed like the smoother of the two evils to me.

And I know the arc takes a little while to get going, but I felt that a ramp up worked best for story, both in terms of plot and feel. I tried to make the early missions short to compensate. I hope that worked, and at least it sounds like it wasn't boring.


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We had some glowies that obviously spawned an ambush (heard the dialog) but they never showed. Also some of the enemy groups chosen for ambushes in mission 3 seemed... odd. I wasn't sure if they were really ambushing (and if so... why?) or if they were escaped holograms or something. It was never very clear.


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Hmm. Ambushes can be glitchy, but those may be spawned patrols rather than actual ambushes. I'll see if I can make a clearer distinction between the two.

Actually, did you mean mission 3 (the Council base) or mission 4 (Aeon's office)? Mission 3 is pretty uniform, so I think you may mean mission 4. 4 has, IIRC, three glowies which can spawn mobs, only one of which is an ambush. I was trying to add some variety, but it sounds like I need to make things clearer. There are no escaped holograms there, just stuff Aeon was working on.


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Again had some nitpicky moments here and there but overall I found it to be a good arc. It just needs a little polish.

I rated 4 stars.

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Thanks so much for trying it and giving me a report! I'm very happy that you liked it, and I'll see what I can do to improve it further.

Meanwhile, everyone else is still welcome (nay, encouraged) to try it for themselves. The more the merrier, in fact. I only ever tested this solo, so I'd be curious to hear how it handles large groups.

-D

I've finally finished my first arc, and I couyld really use some feedback on just how well it works. If any kind reviewer has an opening in their schedule, here it is:

Name: Aeon's Nemesis
Arc ID: 161865
Length: Very Long
Morality: Villainous
Description: "You've heard a rumor that Marshal Brass is looking for someone to test a secret feature of the Architect system."
Suggested Level Range: 35+
Estimated Running Time: 1.5-2 hours
Estimated Difficulty: Moderate (similar to a standard villain Story Arc)

The arc has 5 missions, though the early ones are fairly quick. It mostly uses existing enemies, but there are several costum mobs. Hopefully they will be interesting and not infuriating/boring.

Since I have no high level Controllers or Dominators, bonus points if anyone can review it with one of those. Hope you all enjoy it!

-D

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The third mission, while it does state before the mission that it is a timed mission, it didn't register with me when I first read through the intro text. I suppose this is my fault due to the way I read, but I would suggest making the warning a different color than the rest of the text so people who read fast or people who just skim will see it for sure.

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Ooh, yeah... good idea. I'll figure out how to do that tonight.


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Select the text then right-click on it, I think. That should give you a list of ways to format the selected text.

-D

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The guiding principle on the custom critter powers that was expressed to me was basically: they should have our versions of the powers they get, unless that is provably broken (for the critter) or wildly overpowered (emphasis on "wildly").

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I like that sentiment, but I wish we had a little more fine control over the nature of those powers. For example, I was testing some of my new Assault Rifle toting critters using my Dominator. The catch is that AR uses the Blaster code, which means it gets a copy of Defiance: Burst and Slug can be used while mezzed.

That's a nice effect for lieutenants and bosses, since it makes them a little dangerous while held. But it was a real pain for minions: they only had three AR powers to begin with, so holding them only removes Buckshot. That meant my Dominator was resting a lot, and it made the minions seem vastly more dangerous than they were intended to be.

I realize this is sort of an edge case, since plenty of characters might never notice the Defiance effects. But it does make me wish we could restrict the use of "genuine hero grade powers" to critters that warrant them.

-D

I'm sorry to see you go, Ex. I liked the work you did, and you'll always have a special place in my heart for briefly giving Darkonne his long sought "Mighty" title.

Best of luck in whatever you decide to do next. We'll miss you!

-D

Here's a bug I noticed last night.

If I edit the costume of a custom critter in the MA and save that costume as a new file, everything works properly. But if I save that costume over an existing costume file (ie. I overwrite the file), it will instead save a copy of the costume used by the character I was logged on with.

-D

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In-game unlockables and veteran rewards, sure. But we're talking a whole other animal with purchased booster packs. You don't get access to them at all unless you pay, be it for hero costumes or for MA costumes.

And that's fine -- Paragon Studios needs money to keep the game supported. We got Powerset Proliferation by the great sales of the wedding pack, for instance. If you really want the pieces for your MA work, scraping up $10 is not that difficult.

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You still couldn't use the booster pack material for your own costumes without paying for those packs. That should be sufficient to encourage people to buy them. That was, after all, the whole reason people bought them before Issue 14.

To me, being able to use things like Cyborg parts in the critter editor seems like it would be good advertising for the packs.

-D

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You need to have bought the actual booster packs it to use them in the MA.

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Really? That's disappointing. I thought the point of buying them with tickets was to decouple the use of those parts in the MA from buying the expansion.

If we needed to buy the expansion anyway, we shouldn't need to also spend tickets unlocking the parts all over again. :-(

-D

Fascinating reviews, Venture. I'll read them as long as you keep writing them. :-)

-D

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The second was an alteration of the first idea by a player "Chibi Lime" to instead have an icon appear in the health bar window like the proximity icons used for day job locations. I love this idea and hope the devs would seriously consider a QoL feature to help our friends enjoy the game more.


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Seems like a great idea to me. I usually keep the game sounds very quiet when I play, so I'd be happy to have an alternate means of locating shy objects.

Here's hoping this won't be a technical nightmare to implement!

-D

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I find it hard to believe that the power is too powerful if allowed to use generic IOs but not if you use the more powerful set IOs.

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As far as pure recharge is concerned, Set IOs do not buff more (except possibly through set bonuses, but there are ways to simulate that) than pure recharge SOs/IOs.


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Actually, Set IOs can buff more than SOs/Basic IOs, if you wish to improve more than one aspect of a power. By frankenslotting two Def/Rech IOs in Mind Link, you can get higher bonuses to both Defense and Recharge than you'd get by slotting a single basic Defense and basic Recharge IO.

Similarly, by slotting a Def/Rech and a Def/Rech/End IO, you could boost Mind Link's Defense and Recharge by a little more than using basic IOs would and get some Endurance Reduction for free.

-D