FredrikSvanberg

The Galactic Protectorate - 01: #47143

3 stars.

Pros: good language, attention to detail, plenty of varied opponents (but see below).

Cons: First of all, the story doesn't grab my attention right away. It obscures and mystifies and expects me to do all the work to find out why I should care about this alternate dimension and the enemies who are conquering it. I don't expect everything to be handed to me on a plate but I think it needs something to grab me right from the start. I haven't played the other parts yet so I don't know how the entire story pans out, so I won't go into the plot. The first mission seemed completely unnecessary except possibly to set a mood and establish that this dimension has suffered a disastrous event. If it had been combined with the second mission and delivered the clues I found there, it would have made more sense. The second mission was also pointless, on its own - Synapse even says that it was almost a complete waste of time, except for a overheard comment about /another/ place where the real action of the arc waits.

Unfortunately, the third mission was bugged. After I saved the hostage, as soon as he reached the elevators the mission failed. I won't hold this against you but unless a fix comes out soon, perhaps you could turn the hostage into an ally. This also meant that I might have missed any clues I would have got from the other objective.

Now, for the custom enemies. They are TOO varied - too many different kinds and all of them have different names, power combos, etc. There's no distinctive theme to them except that they all are pretty girls with cute hairstyles. I know that they are supposed to be gathered from 12 different "armies" with different power specialisations, but I think you'd be better off if you used less variation.

Since your arc is already divided into 3 parts you could perhaps divide the custom enemies into three parts as well. Use soldiers from armies 1-4 in this arc, armies 5-8 in arc 2, and armies 9-12 in arc 3. Sometimes less is more. These enemies are so varied and different that it becomes meaningless to try to plan or strategize, and since they can show up in so many combinations it's unlikely that they will synergize well, which means that we don't /have/ to use strategy.

I'd go for more synergized combinations and less variation for a interesting fights. These enemies are going to show up a lot over three arcs so you will want them to be as fun as possible to fight.

I'd like it if you review my arc: #1152, The Doctor Returns. I've recently updated it with new custom enemies and pruned some unnecessary story elements.

I've updated #1152, "The Doctor Returns".

New features include custom enemies - Architect Entertainment staff - a tighter story and hopefully more fun.

Maybe he just means a not-silly SG. I wish I could find some myself.

Of course, my own personal SG is srs bsns, but I don't let other people in.

The other SG I'm in is even more srs bsns but I don't want just anyone to join.

This is why numbers is a bad idea for rating.

It should just be "recommended/not recommended", and only the number of "recommended" ratings should count for things such as Hall of Fame. If 1,000 people thought your arc was good enough to recommend it, that's all we really need to know.

Two levels? Surely you can begin the socketing after just one level.

...

Coming soon straight to DVDs all across the globe, it's THE SOCKETING!

featuring Talen Lee as a troubled Emp/Arch Defender in search of truth and justice.

The mob took away Talen's sockets.

Nobody takes away Talen's sockets!

Talen Lee in THE SOCKETING!

Alright, pohsyb said that any required objective would always be visible in the navbar. This makes sense, of course. I will just have to modify my missions to take these changes into account. Consider this brief drama over.

Finally getting a chance to look into this. It doesn't seem to be Working As Designed, or the design is bad:

For this mission I have one allied Fusionette and four enemies. The ally objective is called "Fusionette", the navbar text says "Investigate the doctor's claims". The boss objectives are called "Fusionette?" and their navbar texts are blank.

In the mission they show up as "Investigate the doctor's claims, 4 Fusionette?" which isn't what I wanted.

I then changed all of them to have the same singular text "Investigate The Doctor's claims". Now they show up in the mission as "5 Investigate The Doctor's claims".

Either way, it's wrong!

Weeell, you could always put your newbies through "Diamonds...". It's still there.

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What do you think needs to be done? Or do you think nothing should be done?

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The limited AI means that the real challenge isn't to be found in PvE.

Perhaps there is another form of confrontation within this game that doesn't depend on the limited AI to provide challenges.

Look around and see if you find it.

Rodion: Yes, pohsyb confirmed that this was Working As Designed and that the solution seemed to be to simply remove the text. I will try that as soon as the servers come back up.

There are ways I can work around this but I would very much have preferred to keep it the way it was. I also don't want to change this now and then they fix the bug - if it is a bug - and I have to change it back again. If this is working as intended and we're not supposed to be able to do this I want to know so I can start figuring out a way to work around it.

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BEST: Junk Gaint - Inv/SS Tank.

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I'm gonna make Giant Junk now.

I'm out.

Oh sorry, I guess I shouldn't have posted at all, should I?

I have a mission in one of my arcs which contains 13 collection objectives (computers).

Nine of them are simply duds and don't do anything.

Three are alarmed and trigger ambushes.

One is the required objective and completes the mission.

All of these have the singular navigation text set to "upload the file" and the plural navigation text set to blank. This used to mean that the navigation text in the compass said "upload the file" no matter how many of the computers had been clicked, and it looked neat and proper.

Now the navigation bar says "13 upload the file", counting down when each computer is clicked, which of course looks horrible and is also not how the help-text in the MA interface describes that the singular navigation text should work. The help text says that the singular text will NOT be numbered and if we want a number in there we have to explicitly add it ourselves.

Has anyone else noticed this and is there a solution?

I'm pretty sure that the reflecions only come in Crey, Circle, Council and Rikti flavour. High-level mobs, anyway.

I've tanked Rom on a freaking Crab Spider (with appropriate backup of course), so I think you should do fine with your inv/SS tanker.

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Uho... Forum consolidation? The game is dying i tell ya!

You heard it here first!




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No, I think we heard it first back in issue 2 or so. At the latest when Arenas were introduced.

Ah, the sweet fresh air of a new review thread. I'll dump my old stale arcs in here and see if I can't fog up the place. Please review #1152 and/or #114284, if you want.

If I remember correctly that's working as intended.

I think they made it so only one buffing ally will actually use its buffs. Otherwise it's possible to create missions with buffing allies who won't fight (and thus won't steal xp/inf/tickets) but will stack enough buffs on a player that they become practically invincible.

If you get more than one set of buffs on you that might be the real bug.

I think you meant to say "uninformed" in your title.

That seems like a bug to me.

If the pet doesn't work the same at any difficulty you should probably make a few bug reports.

Thanks for your review. The Longbow weren't so much guarding Desdemona as having showed up lured by the same trickery that got the Outcasts interested. They're hoping to catch you as you come to kidnap her. I'm also assuming that her role as a criminal broker isn't known to the public. I think her contact info describes her as some kind of celebrity.

Alright. My arcs are #1152 and #114284. Have fun!

It would limit the amount of xp you can get from a single mission or arc by the number of tickets you get, which is already a limited number. 1500 tickets per mission (or arc, I can't remember, I never get that many tickets). Then they could set a cap on how much xp you can buy with tickets based on your level, so that you can only buy 5 bubbles of xp with tickets each level and have to get the rest in the real game, perhaps. Something like that.