Escalus
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Quote:You're not the only one to say that. I thought it was more fun than everyone else, which is why I put it out there. As very few people like it (ie me!), I'll take it down, fix some of the little bits Glaz mentioned in the design, but keep it for myself on test.Originally Posted by Venture
Personally I thought Legion looked interesting. Maybe it will suck, maybe it won't. It reminded me of The Prophecy, which I liked (avoid the sequels, though), especially in that it looks like the archangel Gabriel is the bad guy again. Recent filmmakers have had it in for him....
As for "The Fight of Angels", I decided to give it a look (having only seen the tail end of Glazius' review), found the first mission to strongly resemble kicking dead whales down the beach, and gave up without rating it. From the first mission I'd say it looks like junk. -
Quote:Gotta be honest, I knocked this one together a while back and it is one I quite enjoyed on test, so when the Quants were removed from the game, I chose my favourite other arc and published it to see how well it went down. I tweaked it slightly for some other maps, but I thought I'd see the reaction. Nobody seems to like the self-rezing customs, whereas I enjoyed it in more of a 'vindictive SOB' kind of way. If it doesn't work for anyone other than me, I can take it down and keep it as a fun test arc just for me, as the universal opinion is it sucks.Originally Posted by GlaziusF
@GlaziusF
Storyline - *. I just fought six Extreme DM/Extreme DA elite bosses. Yes, technically there were three of them but THEY ALL REZZED AND HEALED THEMSELVES RIGHT AFTER. And when I get back to my contact he laughs at me for being a chump. Really ends things on a high note. The metagame characters in the fourth mission feel out-of-place in an arc that the other characters I encounter are taking seriously. If you want to put "heroes" in suffering from, say, Wrath, Greed, Pride, and Envy that'd work fine. Maybe recolor some villain models - Greed is a Malta Tac Ops, Pride is a PPD Peacebringer boss, Envy is a Dark Ring Mistress, Wrath is a Vanguard robot... something along those lines. Frees up the file space too.
There's plenty of space as such, I just quite liked it the way they were. It does seem I'm the only one, but live and learn.Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
Design - *. The angel design is pretty nice. All one of it, not counting Mike and Gabe. Needs some variety in costuming so as to distinguish among the various types. Maybe just accent colors on the sleeves and pants. But the powers... good lord. Everything has Rise of the Phoenix. Everything. Except Mike, who stays down, and Gabe, who has Soul Transfer, which actually stuns through my defenses, unlike Rise, which just knocks me back forever. And both those rezzes have an untouchable period without an obvious trigger for it to fall off. If you free up space in mission 4, maybe just add two identical minions and one identical lieutenant and boss who just don't self-rez, so as to cut down on the number of times it happens. And then there's the matter of the AV spawning right exactly over my ally in mission 3. That was a fun surprise when I finally figured out what was going on.
No it should be up as 'work in progress arc' because that's what it was. As I said, I tested it a while ago and quite enjoyed it as an arc, and I thought I'd see what people made of it. Basic screw-ups from inattention can be easily remedied, but it was the custom chars I wasn't sure if people would like because they're gits. I like them but as I said, I seem to be the only one! It's the one comment I've had over and over ranging from your polite way of saying 'these customs suck' to some less polite ways!Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
@GlaziusFGameplay - *. Every mission with the angels in it was a slog. Drop one, get blown back 20 feet, stand up, try and pick out which of the identical white mass had just gotten up and wouldn't be damageable for the next 20 seconds... every. single. time. And then there was the last mission, which contained both an outdoor map without a minimap on, so I didn't know where I'd been, and three/six absolutely identical boss fights.
Detail - *. Agent "Crimson" is pretty obviously Indigo. The clickie in the first mission doesn't even have any text describing what I'm doing to get these invasion plans for Earth. I'm pretty sure you got Gabriel's exact flavor of death wrong, though there are darkity dark dark angels to be had. And Satan revealing he's lying at the end is just a brick to the head outta nowhere that didn't even have to BE there.
Overall - *. Esc, I gotta ask, is this another mistakenly uploaded version? Agent "Crimson"'s location on the map and actual identity, and the broken chain of bosses at the end, are things that should've been caught in test. The customs are a real annoyance to actually put down for the count, and the arc ends in a giant soul-sapping sextuple boss fight on a mapless outdoor map, followed by a tossed-off narrative gut punch.
If the arc only works for me (design flaws aside) then that is the way it will stay. -
Quote:It should be playable as that without any problems, but there seems to have been something screwy with the levelling of the characters.Originally Posted by GlaziusF
@GlaziusF
Playing this on a mid-40s earth/emp controller, 1 hero +1 level all bosses no AVs.
Yeah don't know why that was happening - I admit it's been a while since I tried the arc, but it never used to spawn greys. Damned annoying, really, so will have to alter the settings until it works right.Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
Huh. You know, somehow saying "this is a pirate signal in the MA" doesn't really work so much as just making the plea for help. I mean, everything's all equally unreal here.
So there are Midnight Squad, some Arachnos, and some Legacy Chain running around here.
...aaaaand none of them are actually in my level range so I get a giant pile of greys. What the sprout?
Oh, there's Wyvern and Longbow too.
Huh. Okay, there's some Arachnos here that are actually in level range but there's also a scattering of weird grays.
...and some PPD in level range as well. What the what now.
So this was all a weird alternate universe... why should it be applicable to this one, ex nihilo? I mean, maybe these were the guys who were planning to destroy the multiverse or something.
My bad on the clicky. Am usually better at that. Will alter that.Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
But okay, let's ride the plot train over to the Rogue Isles.
Abandoned lab, okay... oh, and some Vanguard in this alliance too.
Clicking the tapes (a fast clicky with no interaction or system text) summons a boss... dark blast/invuln? Okay.
I did not know there was a dead level-range for snakes. 1-52 group, except for the levels they missed out. I should play villains more. Oh well, will tweak the level settings. Cleans and Dirties are my shorthand, so can tweak the group description in the editor.Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
So I go over to the guy who's gonna analyze these tapes, and... it's Snakes.
You should be aware these guys have a giant level range where there's a dead space and they'll either be mega gray or mega purple.
These are apparently not the actual Snake snakes, they're just hyperintelligent snakes created by MAD mad mad SCIENCE science science.
So... what's on these tapes? I should apparently know but I guess I'll have to wait for Esc to tell me.
(Also it's really weird to read about these guys as "cleans" and "dirties". Sounds like a detergent-sponsored version of shirts vs. skins.)
You're playing as a 40 and it throws in bad guys that aren't close. It never used to do that. The Kalinda/Hequat thing was because I originally used Hequat and someone said it'd be better to use someone else and I thought I'd got all the references. Apart from the one on the main clue, apparently. Oh well... I'll throw in some Star Trek-esque techno-stuff to explain how the Handprints knew where the bad guys were going next.Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
Okay, how do logs of the attack give us a clue to the next target? That'd be interesting to know.
Esc says I go in first but when I get in I find him held captive.
Huh. There's 60's Arachnos in with these guys? (they're the 25-33 version of Arachnos)
Hang on. We're getting information from the Alliance but there are Handprints here? I thought we were raiding a base.
...what is this place we're in, anyway?
So I beat Mynx and Kalinda... and the end mission clue seems to think Kalinda was Hequat, or something.
So apparently if the Handprints ever team up they'll enslave the world and slaughter the hell out of everybody. And this alliance is devoted to stopping them. By slaughtering the hell out of them wherever they show up.
Okay, that's a little extreme, but it's not like I can't sympathize.
It is intentional at that point and at the start of the mission, Esc doesn't care. He wants the Alliance dead (they just killed an alternate version of his ex-wife and he's kind of lost sight of being a hero) so it really is a case of the Alliance creating what they tried to prevent. Irony. I know the mission has some flaws, such as the amount of running around required because the spawning never seems to work quite as I'd like (ideally it'd be progressive, rather than random) and I threw in the allies to help so that a) it fit the story and b) solo alts would appreciate the help! I'll tweak the ending text to have a bit more reflection on Esc on what the Handprints have now become. There probably is another group of Handprints out there doing bad things. Sequel, maybe...Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
So now the Handprints are going to unite and destroy the Alliance! And this time it'll work, even though the Alliance punched their clocks the first time around and the Handprints are at greatly diminished fighting strength!
And they'll become exactly what the Alliance feared!
...I don't know if that's intentional or not. Esc doesn't appear to notice, or in fact care.
So this is some solo allies scattered all around the map, versus... the Freedom Phalanx, the Vindicators, and Arachnos. Large portions of all of the above, at any rate. Feels like a giant game of whack-a-mole, really. One takes damage, another pops up, another pops up, three more pop up...
I'm running all over the map here, and I must cross this thing half a dozen times, mostly because this map has a giant multi-pronged middle and I ping-pong between the various ends of it.
Having three elite bosses following me around makes quick work of the one elite boss at a time I end up fighting. Several lieutenant allies die as a result of splash damage. None of the losses really adversely affect my ability to get stunned by the alpha strike and recover in enough time to maybe peg a boss twice before it goes off to that great memory register in the sky.
Pretty much everybody just goes down with versions of the same spiel. You don't know what you're doing, how can this be, do you realize who I am, etc.
But... I really don't know what I'm doing.
I mean, there's probably another universe out there where the Handprints have wrecked the place and are now ready to start taking a hammer to the timestream.
When I wrote it, this was all the arc space I had left so I wanted to go to a conclusion as soon as possible. Plus I'm not sure the route you suggest would work as on a personal level I'd like to go after them and beat the everloving hell out of whoever was trying to wipe out all versions of me it could find. One the other hand, I may have watched Jet Li's The One too many times...Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
Storyline - **. You know, you could have broken off mission 5, called this thing The Alliance - Part 1, and it would have been okay. But my reaction on learning why the Alliance is doing all this is more along the lines of "we must learn to understand this creature" than going alongside Esc and his merry band to wipe them out of existence. I mean, I can definitely buy the "freedom fighters" from one world in the multiverse deciding to stomp out the seeds of their own personal tyranny wherever, and the nature of the opposition is a nice, climactic reveal that could set up a more involved second half than "base invaded, everyone dies".
The grey's never used to happen, which is a shame as I used to enjoy playing the arc at various levels and seeing the other types involved in the Alliance. The snakes thing I had no idea about, which kind of sucks as I was looking for a nice 1-50 group that would work like that. Anyway, will reset the missions so it plays at higher levels by default, which is a bit frustrating but better than not working properly.Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
Design - ***. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that the custom group deciding to "go grey" is a new bug introduced with I16 or even the latest patch. They do represent an alliance pretty well, and the last mission is somewhat of an appropriate slugfest, with the boss monsters popping in spread out enough so that I don't get three at a time breathing down my neck. But the Snake mission is going to present a problem if the levels aren't restricted, as they currently aren't, and the whole arc seems like it should be set at 45-50 because of the epic scale of everything going on here.
I may need to look at the allies again and see if they're helping or hindering. I could also try a different map to minimise the running around. If I could position the spawns to be exact it would be nice, but obviously not today.Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
Gameplay - **. That last mission. I meant it when I said I could get stunned by the opening salvo and wake up in time to win. I don't think I even managed that with Numina. The waking up, that is. Couple that with the walking back and forth and forth and back and back and forth and forth and back and the nice LADY and it makes me feel like some kind of bizarre shepherd.
Mission 4's text can be tweaked and so it makes a bit more sense and gives it a bit more flow than 'it just works, go with it'.Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
Detail - **. Clean writing here, what there is of it, but there really isn't the justification for part 5 that I'd like there to be. Also, mission 4 is lacking in several ways. I don't know how the tapes from mission 2 actually led us to this place, I don't know where "this place" actually is to begin with, and the final clue seems to come from Hequat, played here by Dame Not Appearing In This Mission.
The greys thing is annoying me, and is a very weird thing but hopefully tweaking the level range will fix that. If not, l'll just have strip out all of the lower range enemies from the group. Part 2 is an interesting idea, with mission 5 tweaked so it leads on to it. I'll have a good think on that, but thanks for the critique.Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
Overall - **. There's one thing you can do to greatly improve this arc. ...well, maybe two things, the second one being find out what's going on to pull a giant pile of greys out of your custom group and make it stop. If you can actually snap off the last mission and create an arc about hitting the Alliance where they live, or trying to negotiate a truce, or whatever, that'd probably have a lot less of a "whack-a-mole while herding superpowered sheep" feel to it, since the confrontations themselves could be spaced out and you could use the same supporting cast but deal them out over the course of multiple missions a couple at a time. -
Quote:You don't really need to know a great deal about Queen, or even the song (I Want It All, if anyone is interested!) it was just a quick arc I put together after listening to the tune on my iPod.Originally Posted by GlaziusF
@GlaziusF
Playing this one on a high 30s archery energy blaster, diff settings 1 hero +1 yes bosses no AVS.
NO WEAPONS NO ITEMS FOX ONLY FINAL DESTINATION
Caveat: I know nothing about Queen, other than that any casette tape left in a car for long enough will become a Queen album.
I've gotten the impression that people aren't fond of Red Atlas, so I went for something a little different. Didn't know the back spawn didn't work though for this map, but it's mostly putting Vines on the roof, which I can live with. The patrol spawns don't quite spawn as I'd like, but spawns are just annoying. I can tweak the New Arachnos descriptions and just tidy it up a bit. They're designed as they are because Mad Albert is... well, mad, in the mad scientist vein rather than the total cuckoo type.Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
"see the terrible future" is a 75% chance of Red Atlas.
Oh! Marchand's Office!
...the "back" spawn doesn't work in this one though. Just so you know. Since the map is part outdoors it can just drop it anydangwhere.
Huh. Custom Arachnos? Some "Crab Spider LB", which I guess stands for "longbow" archery/SR with stat resists. Kind of an odd choice given Arachnos is pretty techno. Also no crab backpacks. Maybe call them Wolf Spiders?
Ah, wolf spiders are melee, crabs are range. Kinda odd given that the actual ones are capable at both distances.
Missing like crazy because every lieut's SR. Also completely unable to apply any kind of crowd control. I can connect with Total Focus, Bone Smasher, and Energy Punch and they're still up and attacking.
The lottery strikes and Amanda Vines actually shows up on the roof. She tells me what I've picked up from the patrols - someone killed Arachnos from the inside and then took out most of the world's heroes under the pretext of a peace talk.
...but if that's the case, why is the new Arachnos even bothering to use the old one's nomenclature and costuming?
Anyway, this all came to pass because somebody got hold of a dimension-hopping being of pure potential and misused him.
Clues can do a bit of tidying up, or at least making sure they have enough difference to make it pertinent. The chatter is nice, but the map seemed a bit small for my tastes to have lot more patrols spawn in. I can look at that though.Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
So let's go play Child Protective Services, shall we?
Aw. Not much going on in this base aside from one dude who's an investigator. I liked the copious chatter in the first mission and I was kinda expecting it to keep up.
These first two missions have had basically successive clues showing up on complete - there's only one thing to do, so it drops a clue, which completes the mission, which drops ANOTHER clue...
Why bother? It's not like they're separate bits, either. One usually ends up restating the other in part or in whole.
Yeah, this is a short arc as I Want It All isn't quite the rock opera classic, and also doesn't have enough lyrics for me to adapt.Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
So, on to the final boss fight.
Apparently you weren't planning on this to be some kind of rock opera...
But I really have to ask why not.
Anyway, "Youth" is as mustachioed as the guy who's been sending me on these missions, and he has no description at all.
...and I thought he was kneeling, but it turns out he's just very very small.
So about half this map is completely unused, as the boss just shows up right by the portal when I tag back to it. He's Thugs/Fire, and mad enough to sport a giant pumpkin head for no apparent reason.
Fortunately my squishy pal who's rad to be with has things under control there, with an assist from my AoE self. He rezzes, but by that time the mission's complete and I fly the coop.
Unfortunately somebody bugs me to look something up and I misclick and miss the ending text.
The spawning on this map is an annoyance. I set Youth to back, he appears a room a little way off from the entrance. I set it to front, he spawns where the AV spaws, I set it to middle he appears at random. Annoying as hell, because I like this map... Youth's lack of description is interesting, I thought I'd done that but obviously not! It can be tweaked and made better.
The storyline was pretty simple, nothing too flash as it wasn't called for. The adapted lyrics astext will be interesting to get the opinion of a Queen fan of and see what they thinkQuote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
Storyline - ****. Not that I expected the ending text to be worldshaking. The storyline was pretty straightforward and nothing I haven't seen - madman acquires being with cosmic power, attempts to take over world, you put the kibosh on his plans, sail on star travellers. It seems like this "great power" of Youth was just what Magic was doing for me - Mad Al just had more capacity to take advantage of the visions of the future. The title led me to expect something more, like for Mad Al's troops to actually be created from Youth's imagination, or his own mad scientific perversions thereof.
The last map's spawns are a pain and I may just have to change the map, or wait until the Crey map comes back. Is annoying as the AV spawn works fine. Mad Albert is Mad Scientist mad, as he did strange experiments on the Fir Bolg and ended up with a pumpkin for a head. I'll look at the New Arachnos powesets though - I didn't want to stray too far from having normalish powers as a comment I had when testing it was along the lines of why would they have these powers, and my answer was because Mad Albert likes them!Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
Design - ***. The last map is 50% unused space - I scooped up Youth right on the first floor down, took him to the portal, and the boss fight was right there. While a nice touch overall, it left me wondering if something hadn't gone wrong somewhere. The custom Arachnos... really aren't "out there" enough. They're basically HK Arachnos - recolors with off-brand armor. I thought this guy was supposed to be MAD.
The New Arachnos are on a fine line between too hard to beat (maddening isn't over-powered!) but hard enough to have taken out the old Arachnos and put the smackdown on the signature heroes. I think the balance is met, though maybe a little more variety wouldn't hurt.Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
Gameplay - ***. They are pretty maddening to fight, at least. SR makes the hard to hit and shrugs off crowd control and knockaround. Add the rocket boots and any melee lieutenant is practically guaranteed to be in your face beating... uh... your face in. I could understand if this was one lieutenant's gimmick, but it's the same for all of them.
Detail can be worked on, I know what bits are missing, what needs tweaking and what needs removing! The rock opera thing didn't quite fit the song - you can check it out here at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOdWxf1tRmI - but I do have ideas for a follow up, I just need to work them out a bit more before I start to create a new arc.Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
Detail - ***. No bio on Youth just made me a bit sad. No specific variation on the New Arachnos bios for powersets (or even to explain the difference between Crab and Wolf) was a bit of a letdown too. The restated clues for the first two missions just didn't make any sense to double up on... and while I'm not taking points for this, I really got the hankering to see this done up as a rock opera.
Some good pointers, and things that can be worked on. Thanks for that.Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
Overall - ***. An arc that doesn't exactly swing for the fences but is fairly solid for what it is, which needs a little more attention to detail, powerset variety, and objective placement to really shine. -
Quote:With respect, I disagree and it will make for an interesting discussion on another thread, so we don't clutter up Glaz's reviews with back and forth about itOriginally Posted by Venture
There are characters and players who require what you would call "killer GMing" in order to be challenged at all.
I don't agree that anything in MA is challenging at all, Killer GMing or no. Writing something that was an actual challenge, as opposed to just making the numbers bigger, would require tools we don't have and likely never will. The only thing you accomplish by trying to kill the players is to vastly limit the number of people who will actually experience your story. It's a stupid self-limiting thing to do.
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Quote:March of the Maniac Mimes - 3007.Originally Posted by Wrong_Number
What are is this a review for?
WN
It's been slightly tweaked based on the review to clarify some of the mission objectives (second mission's defeat all objective was the last room, but the map ignored it, so have dumped that for now) and hopefully sort out enemy placements (knew the first EB was middle placement), but not much other change than that. -
Quote:I don't think the mobs aren't turned up to 11, they have a lot of debuffs and good perception, which makes it difficuly. If they were cranked up I'd say they were 8 or 9, and the description does warn people before playing.Originally Posted by Venture
You want to play an arc that makes you think about what you want to do before you do it and has a learning curve, try this one.
No one's arc does this. Not even the one I wrote that was intended to kill people. Turning the mobs up to 11 is just killer GMing, not creating some kind of tactical challenge.
I've done this arc as a L50 scrapper, a L50 blaster and a L50 WS, and it can be done. These are not pimped up alts either, they have some IO sets but nothing special. Is it hard? Yes. Does it say 'this is hard' on the tin? Yes again. I don't want it to kill people, I want it to test people. Do people want testing? Maybe not, but it's the arc I wanted to create.
Glaz has given me some good pointers in his review of what to fix up and I agree about some of them, I just don't agree with his overall conclusions. -
Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
@GlaziusFI have to say from the start that this arc is flagged as challenging and may not be suitable for some archetypes. It’s pretty clear that if you do this as a lowbie, you’re probably going to get a hiding, because this is not a quick and easy arc.Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
Running this on a lowbie Peacebringer, diff 2 for more AoE fun stuff.
Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
@GlaziusFThese are deliberate design choices – I didn’t want everyone to be immediately identifiable and I certainly didn’t want the ambushes to announce themselves because a) they’re mimes and b) you never know what’s coming. This is supposed to be a challenge. It may not be something a casual gamer will appreciate, but that’s the way I wanted it.Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
My contact is "the Mystic Lynne", which makes me think that Lynne is some kind of category noun and there's a Martial Arts Lynne and a Robotics Lynne out there somewhere.
Anyway, I get to walk into the Midnight Club because of a something.
...12 Midnighters? Can this map even support 12 Midnighters?
Ah, if they're all inanimate, then yes.
The custom enemies all seem to have the same description, except for their name and rank. It really doesn't help to associate them with their powers at all, which is a bit of a drag as there are some priority targets and some disposable ones.
You know, I respect that the ambush has got to be silent? But it's kind of a death sentence to just get jumped and have no idea whether the first shot came from some straggler or the vanguard of a new assault force.
Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
@GlaziusFThe Zig should just be set to the end room, rather than the whole map. I’ll double check that and see if I nudged the wrong setting at some point. As for the name, I pulled it off Paragon wiki - Zigursky Penitentiary is also known as the Zig, the Big Zig, and the Ziggurat. The full name is the proper name, I’ll grant you, but the Ziggurat flows easier in terms of the story.Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
Um, the place isn't called "The Ziggurat". "The Zig" is definitely short for it, and there are plenty of Bablyonian references in Brickstown, but it's the Ziggursky Penitentiary.
Wha wha wha wha CLEAR THE ZIG? This place is HUGE!
Okay, dialing this thing back to 1 and reloading the game. Got an unlucky spawn with two controller/healers in it and I can't even dent them.
Wow. Right as I spring the warden he tells me about two other prisoners and it turns out I'm right in the middle of a spawn of one of their guards, because I was fighting the warden's at range. Pop goes the squidly.
Lordy, there are an awful lot of ways to get multiple controls stacked on you. Including those mind mimes, who can do it all on their own.
Lots of fun to get controlled mid-air and drift over another spawn of mimes, let me tell you.
The boss mime objectives don't complete until the entire spawn goes down.
...which is just as well, as I get another hard ambush on me after the last one drops.
And yep, the mission's to clear out the ENTIRE Zig, not just the building itself.
I find the last one parked on top of an outer walkway in the yard. Not on patrol, just coincidentally standing there. Good thing I have innate for fly.
Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
@GlaziusFThe glowies shouldn’t have been on the objective list, I’ll change that. The Mimes are tough because that’s what I wanted them to be. They do have great perception, they’re not just hit and run enemies, you need to think about what’s going on. It’s not an arc for the ‘I Want It Now’ generation.Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
Carnies.
20 Carnies.
On this gigantic sprawling overworld map... and I'm bumped to 30. Well, naturally.
So, battles. Heroside carnies don't natively spawn lower than 40, which can be a problem when a map only brings you up to 30. I have to engage in a little luring and dying... okay, a lot of luring and dying... to get some of the Carnie survivors away from glowies so I can click on them, and escort groups so I can fight them.
Man. These mimes are just lousy with +perception passives. Targeting drone, SR, Willpower... I have no idea if any given group of them is going to spin around and fight me.
That's not a good thing, by the way.
Oh. The glowies were actually completely optional. And so, by extension, were half my deaths. Good to know!
Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
@GlaziusFI didn’t know the ally was bugged, will tweak that when I get home. I’ve certainly been able to lead him out without problems before. I did know about the mage forting you even though he’s attacking. That’s just damn weird…Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
Oranbega.
I SWEAR, if there are 21 freaking CoT mages to rescue...
Oh good! Only ten... destructible objects?
Yes! Destructible objects! ...and they're more vocal than the mimes.
Also I have no idea why the altars would explode or how the mimes would make them do it because they all have a default description.
So I find the high mage, and free him. The navbar says "find the high mage" but it's giving me an escort point to the door.
Now, there's something you should know about Oranbegan crystals. Allies will tend to aggro on them and, since they can't be targeted or destroyed, stay that way FOREVER.
Guess what I have to lead this guy past.
Yeah.
In the hopes that the escort isn't actually required I go off in search of the other bombs.
And die. Again. To a silent patrol that drops from an upper ledge.
Fortunately on my way back I notice that standing just within ally perception range will make an ally run toward you when you rejoin it... for a few steps anyway. So we get to the door.
And then he turns on me.
I have never been so thankful that "fight defensive" allies don't actually fight you on betrayal as I am now.
Oh.
Wait.
They don't attack you of their own volition, but they do assist anything else on the map once it decides to break your face.
This could be a ptoblem.
So yeah, when allies betray you they get enemy ambush "I know where you are through three portals and 100 feet of stone" follow instead of ally "I can't find my way around this pebble" follow. It's only thanks to a lot of flying speed and the high mage's insistence on Fortituding me before launching his attacks that I can actually take out all the altars.
Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
@GlaziusFThe boss shouldn’t have spawned there, he’s set to the back of the map. DuBrea was set to middle with the Mastermime set to the back, so that might be it and the map’s placement had a fit. The objectives thing I’ll look in to.Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
The big boss, huh? I slip out to pick up a Shivan. I have a feeling this guy's going to be a downgraded AV.
...10 leaders. Uh... alright then...
Hey! Lucky break, the big boss is... right in the first room of the mission.
Uh.
Was that on purpose?
Anyway. Moving through, beating the same bosses I saw in the Zig, activating the cures (which apparently come out of some kind of vial I was never given?) and... oh lord, it's another defeat all.
Okay, the sorceror supreme who tried to pull this off is on the fourth floor up. He's a decent enough fight straight up.
Huh. The LAST objective up is "defeat DuBrea". Looks like another case of a plural objective picking the wrong singular when it's down to the last. Maybe, if you want them separate, you could have separate objectives for DuBrea, the fire/psy demon guy, and the generic leaders.
And the last thing I do is run back downstairs through an empty map and click on a transparent glowie I couldn't hear because of a nearby waterfall.
Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
@GlaziusFThe Zig mission made sense as the Mime’s went after a ready made stock of captives to bolster their forces. Going after the Carnies also made sense as it affects both red and blue side and they have the psychic/mystic connection which would identify them as targets. While the objectives are similar I thought there was a good variance in the missions for it not to be an issue.Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
Storyline - ***. Was the excursion to the Zig strictly necessary? The story's told in a rather minimalist fashion (somewhat necessarily so) so the missions don't really have much to distinguish themselves from each other. It's basically OH NO DEMON MIMES ARE LOOSE -- OH NO STOP THEM AT THE ZIG -- OH NO STOP THEM AT THE CARNIES -- OH NO HELP THE THORNS SO WE CAN GET A CURE -- YAY IT'S A CURE BEAT THE BIG BAD. I appreciate that you want to give people a feel for the group outside the tiny tiny Midnight Squad map, but are two repetitions really necessary?
Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
@GlaziusFThis was not meant to be an easy arc, this was set as a challenge. The Mimes are brutal because I wanted people to have a challenge as a challenge. Patrols say nothing, ambushes say nothing, you have to be careful, you have to be cautious and I thought the challenge was established in the first mission – a small map, yes, but it sets it up as the mobs are difficult and the ambush is silent. The next mission…. Yes, something isn’t right there, it should be defeat all in the building not out in the yard, but this is where stealth comes in to it. The third mission, I may need to tweak the level settings, but it terms of progression it’s logical – you’ve learned that ambushes are silent, you’ve learned that rescuing hostages isn’t easy, let’s go to work. This leads to the fourth were you have to be on your guard, and the fifth which is a finale. There is progression and maybe some of the numbers have been set too high on the objectives, but if you ignore the warnings you’re going to get a pasting.Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
Design - *. This is definitely not an "all levels" storyarc. For some reason (I'm betting the AV) the third mission floors at 35, and really 35-54 is probably a good working range for this arc. The mimes are absolutely brutal. They stack defense debuffs, they stack slows, about half of them have a control power (does Beanbag come standard with AR now or did you add that?) and about half of them can heal the other mimes. Frequently it's the same half, which is a magna pain. Nothing like getting somebody down to a sliver only to be held and have their health just pop right back up in a green/red/blue/black swirl. It doesn't help any that there's no apparent reason for the mimes to have the powers they do, and aside from the big bosses all their descriptions are the same except for a name and rank. And then there's the Carnie mission. Purples, even purple minions, can wreck a day right proper. You can kind of cheat the standard spawner by making a custom group of Carnies and just throwing them all in there to get the 30-40 ones to show up, heroside and villainside. Also, I was not expecting to open the last mission by fighting the evil mastermind and then work my way DOWN through the ranks.
Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
@GlaziusFI think you missed the point of the arc. I’ll agree the AV in mission 4 isn’t working as intended, but the point of the gameplay is it’s meant to be hard. You want a quick and dirty arc, play something else. You want to play an arc that makes you think about what you want to do before you do it and has a learning curve, try this one. I had thought all the required objectives of the mission are in the menu and the non-required ones weren’t, I’ll double check that, but this was meant as a challenge and it sounds like it was. The fact didn’t like how much of a challenge it was shouldn’t be an influence because the mission description warns you. The only way I can make it more obvious that this will be hard is to have the opener have a pop-up saying ‘are you sure you want to do this Mr Squishy?’.Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
Gameplay - *. Entirely aside from the endless parade of deaths at the hands of the mimes, the missions are frustrating. Objectives that are soetimes required and sometimes not (generally searching the bodies), defeat alls on giant maps, double-digit required objectives pretty much guaranteeing one's going to be crammed in an out-of-the-way crevice somewhere... and then there are the ambushes. The silent ambushes. Except the powers are pretty loud colliding with the back of your skull. I realize they're mimes and they don't talk. Yes, I realize this. But having a hard ambush just kind of pop in unannounced, while it might be funny once, gets to be a serious drain. Here's a thought: invent different ways every mission for the mimes to be silent. One mission they're going "...", one mission they're going “---!", one mission they're going ":walks against the wind:", you get the picture. It'll still be pretty amusing but still serve the same purpose actual dialogue balloons serve, which is to let the player know there's something there. Oh, and the AV in mission 3, who is either a giant sack of hitpoints to wear down or a jagged knife in your back, and whose ally code is bugged anyway. Maybe just have him wander around and wreck things set to Aggressive once you spring him?
Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
@GlaziusFI think that’s a bit harsh as well. The vial thing… I should probably add in a start-up clue for that at the end, but the descriptions say what I wanted them to say. Yes, they might be samey, but that’s what they are. These are an enemy you know little about, your contact is a git and he tells you what you need to know. There are touches in this for the glowies, for the fights, all over that seem to have passed you by, and I suspect that’s because you were getting pasted all over the place.Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
Detail - **. So what was with those vials in the last mission? Some beginning clue you revised out but left the click text in for? It's kind of a cool image which was rather spoilt by me going "wait, what vial? When did I get a vial?" The altars in the fourth mission just have their default description - more questions unanswered. And the mimes themselves all have dry, samey descriptions, up until the big bads in the last mission. "Bluman, Demon Mime of Walking Against Wind, possesses keen senses to detect approaching winds and prodigious strength to make futile progress even against hurricanes." That actually helps! "LeQuoi, Demon Mime of Being Pulled by Invisible Pets, can evoke the claws and fangs of a rabid dog and the life-sapping stench of... well... ANY dog."
Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
@GlaziusFFor the first time in the reviews you’ve kindly done, I can’t accept that, and I feel it’s graded wrongly. The level range may be wrong for the Carnies mish, I can fix that and the optional objectives, but the other things are uncalled for. 1 is most definitely an unfair mark, it discounts the fact it was supposed to be a challenge, it discounts the fact there were more design touches in there than were reported on. Yes, I’ll agree there are bits in there that need a touch up, but this arc was not worth a 1 rating. 2 would have been harsh, 3 would have been fair based on what you’ve said, 1 seems to me to come from the fact you’d spent the evening getting your *** kicked - I wouldn't have tried it as a lowbie PB, I'd have fired up my 50 WS.Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
Overall - *. Rethink the level range. Rethink the mime descriptions. Rethink the defeat alls. Rethink the need for the Zig mission. Rethink calling out optional objectives in the nav bar. Rethink the progression through the last mission.
I’ll take due criticism and there’s stuff in here to work with certainly, but the overall review isn’t in context of the way the arc is billed. It's hard, and if you don't apppreciate it going in, you will get a kicking. -
Quote:Gonna hazard a guess you didn't like this one that much then. Wonder how much of it is down to the custom chars?Originally Posted by GlaziusF
Tonight's arc is The March of the Maniac Mimes (3007). Review forthcoming... sometime tomorrow. This one ended up being a marathon for all the wrong reasons.
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Quote:I ran it as lowbie on a energy melee/shield tank.Originally Posted by GlaziusF
@GlaziusF
Running this on a genuine lowbie, sub-teens broadsword/shield scrapper. Diff 1 for the genuine lowbie experience (forgot to correct it when I put the review on CoHMR).
The warehouse map could be shorter. It used to be a cave, which Im not fond of.Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
Ah, sensible. Send someone who isn't Superman after the Kryptonite.
...uh.
A long, featureless kill-all in a warehouse.
And the enemies sap your recharge time by 20% every time one of those bolts connects.
That map doesnt quite work as well as I intended. I know when I played it, the enemy did slow me down, but I was hoping it would teach people to be careful and help them later in the game. Though by my reasoning this wouldnt annoy people, which thinking about it now, Im guessing might not be the actual caseQuote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
Man, are these guys gonna be a regular feature? If all the minions connect that's like the opposite of Hasten.
...and as soon as I rescue the hostage I get five quantum guns to the face. Neither her nor I can move very much, and if I wasn't using my veteran ranged powers she'd be dead.
Also she has the system's stock lieutenant description.
Also I have to go through FIVE floor transitions (elevators, building door, cargo elevator) with her in tow, a couple of the rooms are a real pain to lead an escort back through (second floor of the building) and there's nothing on the way out.
I thought BOOM was quite cute. I dont know why people dislike defeat all missions, yes they can be long and if youre in a hurry are not for you, but its part of the game. That is my personal preference however, though perhaps the cave could be smaller. Ive not seen the spawn bug with the destructibles though thats a new one me and I fully appreciate its annoying!Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
...okay, the equipment doesn't need to say "boom" when it dies. I can see and hear it going "boom".
At the end of the objective bar I see another defeat all! That's doubly bad (this is a pretty expansive cave) since destructibles still do that thing where a guy spawns inside the destructible. If the geometry doesn't vanish, as it doesn't with these experimentation tubes, it's possible that guy can get stuck in there.
For all the help Lady E is I'd rather she show up near the middle to give me a wrecking buddy.
No that would be me screwing it up after tinkering during a play session and not thoroughly testing it afterwards changing the names on the bosses on first and third missions and not ensuring it was changed in all the other places I made reference to.Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
A... a Nictus powered robot? How does that even work?
But you know, okay, it's not like the Council can't build multiple giant robots.
Not okay: two glowies to click down a side passage I missed at the very beginning of the map. (Also my ally is missing her description again.)
Even worse: they spawn a boss.
...and in some kind of transcendent weirdness the boss spawns a long way away from either the giant robot viewport or the pump room just before it.
The way this map was set up I could clear it out without ever seeing the giant robot, and that's rather sad.
...I drop a warwolf Dr. Beckett and the clue refers to an... Archon Ziggy? What?
Yeah, the system text calls him Ziggy, too.
...Esc, am I playing another arc where you uploaded the wrong version of it?
What happened there was, I did the giant robot bit and thought but that doesnt really explain the league stuff I was doing earlier, lets add another mission and sort that. Now because the other stuff works well and in your head it makes sense, you go with it. Being too close to something can hurt the objectivity because as the review phrases it, it seems to be seriously out of order. The robot mission could be the last mission, the tracking one moved up a couple of slots just some sitting down and thinking hmm this hasnt made sense for people, what can I do better?, which is what Ill be doing tonight. The minion at the bottom of the stair well is annoying though, I'd not seen it do that before, but I'll be giving it a proper rework anyway.Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
...um, what? It's not over?
Lady E found a tracking device lab? But I thought mission 3 was her Last Mission or something.
I just blew up a giant robot base, that's a great place to end things!
So, uh. Did the Rikti even HAVE Kheldians swing by their neck of the universe? How would their technology be useful to track Khelds?
Also chained destructibles sometimes do this thing where you can't target them until you aggro their guards. This is a problem when the guards spawn on the other side of a wall, as they can here.
Since I basically did a second lap of the mission to date after hitting the glowie, why are they even spawning in at all? I've already got stuff to destroy and it didn't seem like anything chained off the mainframes.
Lady E is... at the end. Even after the Archon that spawns in.
I take him down but the mission goal is still there. Maybe his ambushes?
...nope.
Ah, right, there's a minion of his who spawned down a staircase behind a pile of crates. NOW the mission's over.
This isnt an early draft, I know that because if it was youd have been saying why the **** have you put in Rikti devices that spawn at L35 for a lowbie arc! and it was lucky I had an SG member to call on with a L50 otherwise Id have been very annoyed. That was my fault for testing it with a L50 of my ownQuote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
Storyline - ***. Like I said, I really didn't get the point of that last mission. Even if by proxy, I blew up a giant robot. The whole "I found the tracking system" just flies in out of left field, and it can't be allowed to succeed because voids still show up for Kheldians.
Design - *. Five elevators of backtracking with a hostage, two defeat alls, allies who in most cases I rescue largely after the mission is already over, some rather bizarre objective placements, and a custom group that really isn't suitable for characters of all levels to fight.
Gameplay - **. And here's why. Shield doesn't really factor into this, but a lot of defense sets don't get the tools to deal with negative energy damage until later in their career. And for anybody who's resistance-based, rather than defense-based, those bolts can seriously eat into the recharge rate. Lower-level characters don't yet have a full attack chain, let alone one with enough padding to handle the large recharge debuffs quantum guns deal out.
Detail - **. My non-Kheldian ally never had a description, and there was the matter of that confusion over the archon's name in mission 4. Clues are supposed to make you feel less confused, not more.
Overall - **. Esc, I strongly suspect this is another arc you uploaded an early, buggy version of, but if that's the case I'm not giving this a re-review. You've had time to check. This whole thing just feels unfinished and untested.
Anyway, the review is fair I dont think it needs a rereview, unless you fancy trying it again later without a review, because comments are appreciated.
Storyline works well, just needs a bit of a reordering to make more sense to anyone who isnt me. Gameplay guess its not as lowbie friendly as I was hoping for. I didnt have many problems, other than being cautious but that said Im not much of a support toon player. I hit things, they fall over, I make wise cracks. Detail, didnt realise the description was missing from Superbi, will fix that, the other stuff is a screw-up on my part caused by excessive tinkering, and thinking its fine because it was fine before. I swear my last words will be I wonder what will happen if I do that
The overall score does reflect what it the arc is, currently, and is very fair. In my head it all makes sense, however - and I should know this from writing plays! - you only see the bugs when other people are reading them allowed (typos, plot holes, the language sounding off) which is why you do test readings. Im not disappointed with the score, more disappointed with me for not doing it better, but live and learn. Without the feedback, I can't fix things because I don't always realise they're there. -
Quote:Well, is getting better at least! Glad it's tagged as a work in progress rather than a final!Originally Posted by GlaziusF
@GlaziusF
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Storyline: *. So what's worse than a story that paints you as a dominated demon puppet? A story that forgets you're a dominated demon puppet halfway through. (What am I supposed to think? My will's no match for his, I'm going all "yes master of course master" and he's praising me like a dog that did a particularly difficult trick, possibly involving ramps.) This is yet another arc that ends on a destructible object going poof. It doesn't even summon in any ambushes or anything. After what was supposed to be a tough boss fight, winding it down that way just feels like a letdown.
Design - **. Yeah, uh... when the climactic boss fight leaves me a little bit dinged up and then the nuisance hero pastes me in three shots? Guess who doesn't seem like that much of a threat. Also this is coming down for stuff that's probably just normal RNG variation, which may seem unfair, but part of your job is to make sure you're using maps and allocating objectives such that the RNG doesn't park the captive 100 yards from the door in a straight line over open terrain, or put the trigger for a whole mission down a missable side passage, or put two chained boss fights in close enough proximity that the player's getting mauled by the second boss right after the first one drops.
Gameplay - ***. It was all going so well up until that last map, too. But unavoidable boss death followed by the sudden realization I'm in a damn JAIL MAP often offends.
Detail - ***. Generally solid spoiler-free work here, though there are some places I noted down where I'd like a little more detail or at least not a default description.
Overall - **. It's definitely an improvement on the first draft, but the changes broke almost as much as they fixed.
Spelling and such can be fixed up easily - am so used to having a spell-check to pick up little bits and pieces like that along the way that there are times I do feel like a spelling retard! Descriptions... that's me not paying attention when I change the object.
The finale needs a bit more of a boost then, I can work on that, in fact I might have an idea or two right now, though I'm sorry about the Miss Liberty spawning right on top of you as the plan is to try and sneak by her to get to the book so I'll have to relook at that, as I didn't think the bosses were in the same place! That said, I think I set them both to middle. Would be nice to have more categories of placement...
I'll go over the story again and see if I can tighten it up. I could have sworn I'd put in a piece where the protagonist breaks the hold and is just doing the rest of the mission for the rewards, but it looks like I missed that bit out in the fix. Gives me stuff to work on tonight.
Thanks again for the review (again!), and the extra star! It will get there in the end.
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Quote:It's my own very stupid fault. This was a story I ported over from my second account, before we had the option to buy extra slots and the edits I made to it I made on live and not the saved local version. Didn't even think to save the current published version of that arc, and another, before I deleted them. My language last night was not for minors!Originally Posted by GlaziusF
Ouch. Here's a quick tip - if you want to use the test tools with a production arc, edit it and save it locally, you can run it in test mode then.
On the other hand it did give me a chance to fix some of the stuff in there that didn't work that I had kept, but is a lesson learned. -
Quote:My exact phrase is 'oh crap, that's not the arc I wrote'. Well it is, but is a very early draft, as I dropped the Thorn Isle during testing for exactly those reasons you state, and the last time I tried the arc it was the vills respec cave and I augmented the Mu with rogue Midnighters. Either I didn't hit save or I've done something very silly. That's going to bug me until I get home and I'm certainly sorry you had to play that, because it's not very good and you're going to come away thinking this guy has no idea what he's doing. Which I apparently don't...Originally Posted by GlaziusF
@GlaziusF
Playing on a mid-40s DB/fire brute, diff 2 for real boss fights.
Amusing aside - viewed slightly off-kilter I parsed the contact as bare-chested with red suspenders.
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Huh. The Circle may have a reputation for worshipping demons but in my experience they just go through the necessary motions to summon one.
Now Hellions, those guys definitely worship demons.
Hey mister? I don't know how long you've been down there but there's way more than one woman in Steel Canyon. Can I get a picture? A description? Ice sculpture, maybe?
I mean, the Longbow running around, half of them are women.
Okay, the guys chattering about Escalus, one of them says "on On Peregrine Island", and the other one talks about him going through Independence Port?
Le what?
Indy port is on the opposite side of the city from PI, check a tram station for a big city map.
...um. You might wanna give Helen a description that is not a spoiler for the rest of this arc. (at least now we know she falls into the "pure evil" bucket of the great dead/all-powerful/pure evil Summers Memorial Comic Book Wife Sorter)
I'm glad I got frustrated a couple arcs back, makes it easy to remember the little nook under the construction scaffolding where she actually ends up.
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Yes, the Mu are treacherous monomaniacs, and there's a lot more people with Mu blood than make it into Arachnos.
But the Vaults of Mu are some crazy spiritual plane, a reverse run of the (also CoT special) Spirit City map. They're not what happens when the Mu settle in Oranbega.
Due to my level any variant groups you had in the custom don't actually spawn - I know I'm out of range for the midnighters. The result is wall to wall Super Strikers (at high levels they get more lightning powers), who don't so much chew away at my blue bar as swallow it whole.
Fortunately I have a little temp stealth saved up for a rainy day.
More fortunately the books I'm looking for are about halfway through the city itself.
Yes, yes, I've done very well, thank you demonically Liefeldian Mr. Grace.
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Sweet Christmas, brother. You need to take some laughin' lessons from Vernon von Grun.
Hmm. It'd be interesting to have a mission that spit out endless waves of attackers that you'd beat when the timer hit zeroh wait that actually happens in Croatoa.
I suppose this is a good substitute.
Whoa whoa whoa. I have to wipe out all the Longbow on Thorn Isle in half an hour? That's not a very good prize!
Let me tell you how big Thorn Isle is. I spent the entire time at maximum rage, ended with 45 seconds still on the clock, and cleared 400 bonus tickets.
That is how big Thorn Isle is.
And that's without having to backtrack, just running right from one spawn to another! There's obstructing terrain and sheer drops all over Thorn Isle and the Longbow can fly, so all it would have taken was one runner and that would've been it. I would have carved my way through a wall of human flesh for half an hour solid and still failed the mission.
Maybe this would be a workable replacement: Escalus and N Longbow sorcery/excavation teams (boss spawns), where N is modestly small. After that they won't have the manpower to break through in time.
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Uh... yay Rosemary's baby? Apparently I get to go off and have the Best Day Ever in the meanwhile.
Or not. My spree of destruction through Oranbega destroys no artifacts, disrupts no rituals, and steals no fenceable shinies. Instead I... help someone out of the goodness of my navbar. I mean heart.
Oh hey, I didn't know the missing fortune teller scaled so high. But... is she supposed to just have the missing fortune teller description? And shouldn't she stick around (ally not captive) instead of just bolting if she's going to discuss stuff with me?
Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal! You know, if this guy was gonna wreck the world you'd think they'd spare more than a mook squad of Longbow to take him out.
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Um... description, I'm pretty sure she's not actually brainwashed here, or she'd be trying to kill me too. Though I guess there's something going on since she doesn't remember me, she's not exactly a pawn of the big man either.
The destroyer of worlds... isn't even an EB? Le what? The ambushes come out way too fast here, even with me dealing with them and claw-lady on whatever she feels like his HP just plummets like a stone.
Also he seems to open with Inferno, which would be a pretty big deal to some other guy without capped fire resist.
And after that I need to push a Warden down the giant stone stairs. Bit of an anticlimax... and for some reason the clue from him comes before the clue for springing Viv.
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Storyline - *. Vivian being everything bad that happens to women in comics crammed into one little package aside, there's stuff I really don't buy here. The Circle is summoning this guy who wants to destroy the world - but they're actual people, or the spirits of same, and the world is where they keep all their stuff. The hero opposition to this guy, though they apparently know about him and his plans, consists of one actual hero and a big pile of Longbow. And I only find out about him because I stop to help some random person on my rampage through Oranbega? Even if he's just planning to rip my heart out instead of destroy civilization, that last one's still a bit of a problem.
Design - **. A custom group where the level range makes it made entirely of Mu Strikers, a final boss who's a paper tiger (seriously, the Warden gave me more problems), map choice that's pretty much the entirety of the "special Circle" maps but without much appreciation of how the maps actually play (the "Oranbega" map is just a giant tunnel run crampathon), and a 30-minute red-and-white armored wall of human flesh with the only notable element being one single vocal boss spawn.
Gameplay - **. Seriously, that mission on Thorn Isle is absolutely terrible. It made me want to stop playing the arc. The other missions are well enough in their own way, but if I was only doing this casually I would have jumped ship right then and there.
Detail - *. Checking Viv's description in the first mission, even though it wasn't even the same model as her final appearance, spoiled the plot of the whole affair for me.
Overall - *. Needs a story that doesn't have the heroes trying to put out a forest fire with an eyedropper, a custom enemy group which will never be composed entirely of Arachnos Mu at any level range, hostage/ally descriptions that make sense for the person they're supposed to be at the point in the plot they're supposed to be (the standard fortuneteller description is also out of place since I don't care about Paragon City), and a third mission that's anything but "defeat all Longbow on Thorn Isle".
As for the other points, what I was going for was a simple arc for any kind of play, without EBs and stuff, as an arc that could be played for fun to get through some of the lower levels and it may not have worked quite as well as intended. -
After all this, you're telling me there isn't a badge for Hellions?
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If you're after a custom content driven arc, you could try my March of the Maniac Mimes arc - ID 3007. The enemies are all custom - minions, lieuts, bosses, EB and AV - most with custom power selection. I think it should meet the 70% criteria!
All feedback is appreciated, even constructive criticims, as I can't make the arc better if I don't know what doesn't work! -
Quote:Yeah, they're prequels, but if you were playing it in order it would be a sequel. Semantics, really.Originally Posted by GlaziusF
@GlaziusF
Huh. Little leery since the description calls it a sequel to 2 other arcs, but they're more like prequels, am I right?
Running this on diff 2 on a high-40s spine/regen scrapper.
Psion was a restore when I found I had more space, from a time long ago. Rad probably shouldn't be in there, but was a bit hard as an EB. Might be time to reinstate him. Some interesting bits to consider and tweak when I get back in the system.Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
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Heh. The lighting makes it look like the contact has a big A insignia. But okay. Dude got abducted probably by Malta, my turn to be a hero's hero.
Huh. Freakshow? Well, a warehouse, anyway.
Nope, not Freakshow. Hello, customs.
Hello, Psion. You don't have a description.
Hello, E. Man, your bio's a tall drink of water. I think paragraphs work now.
You gonna actually fight stuff here? No? S'cool, s'cool.
Oh, I'm escorting you. Man, that was some tough terrain, but OK I'll just---
Hi mysterious enemy. ...your description, however, is less mysterious.
Hi guy named Rad who spawned because the MA likes to give bosses on diff 2 now! ...you sound like you shouldn't be a random in-mission boss but somebody important.
I dropped the cave on a suggestion and promptly forgot to tweak the text on the next part. Give D'oh! The sword was set to the back of the map, am guessing that needs fixing as well. C'est la vie, as our French cousins say. It sounds like I need a bit more exposition on the storyline as well, as it's supposed to read as the Escalus in the past had the sword stolen from him by the new group just after he got it.Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
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Man. Time travel. Eventually it just becomes a giant flurry of one-upsmanship. Wonder how it's gonna get caught up this time out.
Hey there, intro text. Last mission wasn't in a cave, so why are you talking about the last one?
Hi again E. You fightin' this time! That's good. That's good.
Hi glowie at the front of the cave. ...you've got just what I came for? Well, that was nice of you. And there's nothing between us and the exit, either! Is that a mistake in placement?
Well, let's find this leader, then.
(also I would like a clue about the sword please)
...whoa, what? I thought this was when he got his sword, and here we are running into a submarine base?
Ah, there's the mysterious boss who is Rad from the first mission. He also needs a mysterious description.
I'll change the Cave. I'm not much of a red-side player so wasn't as aware as I should have been about the spawns. It was originally the Ruladek cave until I got some feedback saying people couldn't find their way. This is what happens when you tinker too much, it stops being what you intended. Again, I'll look over the text.Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
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...wow, that's a giant exposition dump there. All in one paragraph, too. Impressive.
Maybe spread that out a little, there are at least a couple separate ideas at work there.
Aw, man, the Shaper cave? Like two-thirds of this thing is special spawns for the task force and therefore empty in MA.
Hi there, portal. You're a portent.
Huh. Kinglyman is actually down one of the side chambers, not in one of the big open rooms. The Law Cast is a help there.
You should probably rewrite the clue for the glowie now that it's a chained objective.
Will adjust the exposition again, as this is supposed to be set after LGTF, but can understand how it could be confusing. Sadly since the Honoree isn't free yet, he's not supposed to get freed until we get a nice TF where we resuce him, but until then... I thought it was a nice time travel twist, just not as well-executed as I intended.Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
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Man, it never feels right using time travel to mess things up.
...whoa.
Whoa whoa whoa whoa.
Whoa.
I have to wreck the Honoree's chance to escape from the Rikti for this guy?
...um.
Wait a second.
Per the contact, this is during the Rikti invasion.
Hero One went into the Rikti homeworld to seal it off from our reality at the very end of the Rikti invasion.
He hasn't had a chance to come back until recently.
There is a slight problem here.
They should have spawned earlier. Will fix it up. Will also look in to the Vanguard bosses as well, see if I can drop them. They are a little fierce.Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
Also vanguard bosses (colonels, I think) can give you Curse of Weariness, which someone doing AE runs is not guaranteed to have any way to lift, or the means to buy said way.
Why am I still starting up the Rikti generators when Escalon is down and his sword is shattered?
That's damned annoying, when this first went up the LB were getting their ***** kicked. I will look in to that and see what goes on. I know the map isn't perfect, which is a pain, but the other Atlas maps are not in keeping with the story, though I'm hoping we see new maps for Atlas at some point to change it.Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
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Awwwww geez. Red Atlas/Agony Hall. Broken terrain, bosses hiding in little tiny rooms surrounded by broken walls and covered with smoke.
So here's some hilarity: in the battles, Longbow have enough presence to have Wardens. Wardens are freakin' wrecking machines, so basically the entire map fills up with my allies and entire other spawns just get completely wrecked. I kinda half-heartedly join the battle to drop Medea, and i kite Arrow into a couple of spawns and he drops...
Then I rescue Escalus. And then I try to hunt down the last coordinator in a map full of bosses already.
Man, that doesn't make any sense. Longbow have handled these dudes and the big bosses are down.
The Honoree issue is an explanation error on my part. It should be set after LGTF and I don't think I made it that clear. The Longbow should have been getting a kicking. Might swap them to Paragon Police, as I want it to be more of a massacre, otherwise the whole climax is ruined, as you found out.Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
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Storyline - **. It started out promising! But then there was the part where I had to sacrifice the Honoree (who shouldn't actually have existed yet) to save this guy and I'm like, wouldn't Hero 1 be more useful on balance? And then in the final battle he can basically sit on the sidelines while Longbow cleans up.
Longbow issues aside (damn it, I wanted them dead!!) Red Atlas isn't my favourite map, but is the best until a better one comes along. The Shaper cave is a mistake due to lack of knowing, but I do quite like the submarine base. Perhaps Portal Corp would be better suited though and will take it on board. I will give the objectives a good going over as well.Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
Design - **. Don't get me wrong, the enemy designs are pretty nice, and the custom powers are satisfying to deal with. But the submarine base and Shaper cave are somewhat questionable choices, objectives show up weirdly clumped together, important commanders show up with the rank and file, the final battle ends up greatly in favor of Longbow, and I have to hunt down the small fry to finish the final battle.
Gameplay - ****. Hunting down bosses through Red Atlas is always a chore. More so if I get "false positives" from other bosses showing up.
Will give the descriptions and text a good going over. You always think you've got everything until a fresh pair of eyes looks it over. If I don't know (or don't realise!) it's broke, I can't fix it.Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
Detail - ***. Accept texts and bug texts are pretty perfunctory, one of the customs is missing a description entirely, and a lot of the arc text assumes I've been able to read and remember Escalus's giant description - for example the legend of the original king and his sword.
The anticlimax is an annoyance, as it should have been more, well, epic. Death, destruction, big fight, yada yada yada. The continuity SNAFU wasn't supposed to be a SNAFU, but needs a touch more information to correct it. People who tried the arc before knew what story I was going for, and I perhaps haven't taken the people who don't know in to the level of accouting that should have been.Quote:Originally Posted by GlaziusF
Overall - **. A pretty good setup that takes a hard left into a giant continuity snarl and ends on an anticlimax.
Thanks very much for the review, an honest critique that does give me a lot to work with, think about and fix up. -
My first three arcs are on CoH Mission Review, with the others to be posted soon (they've been submitted), if you have chance please check them out.
Thanks in advance. -
Quote:Because there'll be another Mongoose. Apparently there's another Escalus, too. Checked him out, just to see, of course.Originally Posted by Mongoose_EU
I was wondering why I have "_EU" at the end of my name
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That's disappointing. Is it worth asking in-game, as while tips are helpful what I need is training, such as one on one fights.
I know I'll lose but what I need is someone to say 'next time you should do this'. I realise that the adjustments on PVP have upset the PVP community (you'd have to be blind not to!!) and I know I'm coming late to the party.
If there really is no point, then thanks anyway. -
I'm not a PVP player. I've tried and I suck and it puts me off PVP, because it's not fun. I used to enjoy PVP tho, and last night I played Jedi Academy for the first time in years, multiplayer, found an active server and we ran round the map killing each other with great abandon. I play Mario Kart on the Wii racing people around the world and I enjoy that and it got me thinking about PVP in CoX.
I need help. I need to learn PVP. I need to work with someone who can say 'this is where you're going wrong' and help me to learn the skills. I don't have a maxed out IO build, I have some nice IOs certainly, but all the powers and buffs in the world don't help if you suck!
Is there anyone who would be able to help me out because at the moment I only play half a game and, yes, the PVP badges would be nice, but I need training in the art of PVP. -
Good luck with the future, GR, and thanks for everything over the years. Not the end any of us would have wished for, but all the best.
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As we've seen a number of people openly say they're leaving, one of whom I call a friend, it's not a great advert for the game, a game that personally I'm enjoying more now than I have for a while, so I figured we could do with an 'I'm staying' thread. It may take off, it may not, but I think it's worth a go.
My name is Escalus, I play a broadsword scrapper on Union as a member of the Clean Handprint supergroup and I have no intentions of leaving the game. -
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So GR can't say when he's be on the server because it's still morning in America?
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Why would you want to see GR? He isn't alowed to say anything.
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Given that GR is soon to become a retired hero, you could buy him a pint in PD and say thanks for everything. -
I'll add an arc for review:
Title: March of the Maniac Mimes
ID: 3007
Suggested Level Range: 30+
Description: Youre called upon by a Mystic named Lynne to investigate a disturbance in the Midnight Club that is preventing the mystics from entering. They need someone to go in there for them and see whats happening, though by the title of the arc you may be able to hazard a guess as to what's kicking off
The last mission contains an EB and an AV, though I was able to give them a good kicking with my BS/Inv scrapper! Also, try not to get the glowies on first go and remember that a Mimes actions are louder than it's words!
Link to City of Guides entry: http://www.cityofguides.com/ma/view-mission.php?id=56 -
It was a very well done piece of work, and I'm not just saying that because I got second! If any arc deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, this would have my vote.