GlaziusF

Review done as part of the CoHMR Aggregator project.

@GlaziusF

Running this on my fire/EMelee tanker, +0/x2 with bosses on.

As a side note, the umlaut may mean extra myth and/or metal, but it makes this arc a real pain to search for, as its unique distinguishing word needs some jiggery-pokery to work out of a conventional keyboard.

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New feature: contacts can have bios. Guessing this hasn’t been touched in awhile as it still has the standard AE contact description.

Apparently there’s an upcoming dimensional incursion that the usual guardians are too usual to actually go after, much as the real wreckers couldn’t go in after the WEB.

It’s called a tower, but really it’s just a bunch of crazy magical places stacked on top of each other with no rhyme or reason. Standard D&D fare, then. Let’s see what’s inside!

Renamed Diabolique/Black Swan/Infernals. with a side order of DE and storm elementals.

One of the obelisks I have to destroy is actually behind the boss fight that spawns it, between it and the door. This is probably a vagary of cave maps dealing with the “middle” setting more than anything else, but it might be worth looking for another one that doesn’t have this problem.

Anyway, my princess, er, intended rescuee is in another castle, but at least I’ve reestablished a link to the outside. Or rather, some kind of astral brainjack as I’m still in the tower.

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...I think? Did I come out in between missions 1 and 2 or was I stuck there?

The contact’s a bit muddled on the point, telling me that my body’s going through some kind of portal that even the Keepers don’t know what it is. In addition to getting my some backstory on Tannhauser, who was apparently a questing knight who found the goddess of love.

It’s going to turn out to be Slaanesh, right?

Anyway, I head into some kind of lbrary, start flipping around, and awaken a sort of EnAssault/Pain guardian who thinks I’m Oranbegan. ...were they even active a thousand years ago?

Rooting through the books, it seems like Tannhauser would do anything for love, but he wouldn’t walk away (so probably not Slaanesh then), and now he’s going to spew darkness all over the city in some kind of cosmic snit fit.

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Exactly how I get to the Hall of Echoes I don’t know, but apparently the Circle projected into this place a while back which explains the confusion. In self-defense, or were they interested in taking a goddess apart for spell components? I have a gnawing dread it’s the latter.

And since this place is apparently going to be made of memories I suspect I’ll know by the end of this mission.

Wisps and Hydra represent terrible memories, which is pretty fair.

I pop my ally, find a memory of an earlier, still sane, Tannhauser, and then get an objective to find another echo of his, which is somewhere back in the caves as the first one was in the boss room at the end.

Somehow Tannhauser 2 knows my name. I guess it’s just weird magic being weird.

Okay, hang on. Tannhauser was around when the Oranbegans warred with the Mu? That was dawn-of-human-history old, and I thought he was a little more recent than that.

Anyway, in attempting to steal the secrets of creating a clone dimension to keep Venus trapped forever, he ticked off the Circle and one of them placed a curse on him, rendering him completely unlikable. I’m not sure there was all too much magic involved there, but it certainly didn’t help.

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So Tannhauser completed his gate trap thing and ending him may very well destroy all love forever, so I should be careful not to do that in the process of saving the world. Well, I’ll see what happens.

I free some sacrifices who had somehow been ported in, take out Orion the hunter (who got wrapped up in Tannhauser’s angst field), and finally confront the man himself. He doesn’t seem inclined to run as his health goes down, though, and I worry I’m doing something terrible.

Oh good, he ported out. That’s a relief.

Anyway, the ritual’s foiled and the dark tower is open to intervention, so everything seems to be coming up in my favor.

Hmm. Okay, apparently when I went into the Hall of Echoes I somehow projected myself into his actual past. ...it strikes me that this may be an interesting way to proceed, but we’ll see.

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Oh. Spirit City. Would you believe I was expecting Arachnoid caves, given that this is the corrupt version?

There are at least web cocoons working as weak points, so it’s not all bad.

Hmm. Was Aisynia intended as a pure support character? She didn’t use any attack powers that I could remember. The designated helper system may be crippling her, as I found Reen first.

(It’s odd that both the Keepers I found seem to be dimensional refugees.)

Fortunately no crystals show up here to distract my allies.

...up until the boss room, anyway. Agh. Fortunately the BS/Shield isn’t crippling.

And finally, freeing Venus, a Solaris recolor. I was kinda hoping we’d do something like lead her against Tannhauser, but as one final mop-up it’s not so bad.

Strangely no souvenir, though. I’m betting this arc was starting to strain at the seams a little in its day? That’s something else that’s changed.

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Storyline - ***. There are a couple of weird wire-crosses going on with the story. Yes, weird stuff happening just to set the atmosphere isn’t exactly rare in occult-type comics, but even so, these bugged me.

First is getting astral-brainjacked back to my contact just as I get sucked through a portal in Tannhauser’s Mysterious Dungeon, resulting in two simultaneous trippy experiences. I wouldn’t have a problem with either of them independently, but both the Gate and the Keepers are complete mysteries at this point, so having them both do mysterious things at the same time just results in this impenetrable CGI blob, because I don’t know what’s what. If you still wanted to have that nifty effect going on, then maybe the connections between floors are outside the tower proper, and the Keepers send me in having briefed me on their plans to, I don’t know, use a magic circle to blow a bubble of reality and stick it in the stream between floors so we can talk for a bit. This gives me something to expect, which makes anything I don’t expect therefore a product of the Gate.

Second is the revelation that when I was walking through Tannhauser’s memories I was actually affecting his past somehow maybe kinda. I’d think that might be mentioned as a non-beatdown solution to this whole thing, since at one point destroying Tannhauser means destroying love, but the arc ends with a conventional bossfight and that loose thread is just sort of flapping free. It was actually better as a just a weird thing that happened to happen - the extra explanation from the Keepers makes it seem important when it actually isn’t.

Design - *****. Missions are busy and full of evolving objectives. Stock mobs are used in creative ways, and when necessary customs step up.

My only real complaint here is that there’s a little too much in the way of Oranbega and Oranbega derivatives, but I don’t think this is something you can actually help if you want to do an arcane dungeon. Unless you want to go totally bonkers and use Croatoa as a floor or something, but with the complex nature of most of the missions that’d be a bit of a recipe for disaster.

Gameplay - ****. As an unfortunate intersection of the complex missions and the vagaries of map choice, some of the maps can put objectives behind you even when what spawns them is a boss in the front of the map. And while the big blue Oranbega is pretty visually stunning, as an Oranbega-alike it can randomly spawn crystals that mess with the allies I’m supposed to have for the final boss fight.

These aren’t necessarily things you can help. They’re more properly problems with the game rather than anything you deliberately introduced. But they may be worth addressing, and there are exceptional arcs that have tried to work around problems more properly present in the game.

Detail - ****. About the only thing that bothered me here is Tannhauser’s timeline. He’s presented as a questing poet-knight with a doomed love, which is very age-of-chivalry, and overall his look and powers reinforced that impression. But he’s also written as operating back at the start of the Oranbega/Mu conflict, which was sparked by Ermeeth going “hey kids, MAGIC!” and the ensuing spontaneous bout of atheism, placing it sometime around the dawn of humanity. Did I miss that he used his gate to go back in time for whatever reason, maybe?

Overall - ****. An ambitious arc that reaches out for a fantastic plot, flavorful settings, and intricate missions, but because of this it’s a bit of a bumpy ride. It’s good, and it can be great.

They done got merged. This is the right place to ask now.

If you start with how Media operates in American Gods you'll have 90% of the capabilities of Television down.

The extra 10%? Television does have its "own voice", though it only came out in the Nemesis invasion arc, when it was weak. And of course, "TV Land" is a real place (a real fake place?) where people can go, and from where Television can push things "as seen on TV" into the real world.

Television doesn't make things up. Someone has to have put something on TV for Television to use it. So if security camera footage makes the news, it can use that. But since anybody who Television gives missions to is sufficiently (in)famous to have been on TV themselves, it can edit them in as, say, a special guest on a talk show.

Oh, it's optional? I thought taking it out was part of a required "gather clues" objective. It seems relevant.

This is part of the player/character separation - if something looks like it completes an objective I'm going to fight it/frob it when I get the chance, instead of leaving it for later.

Given the kinds of AoE I put out I may well have started it accidentally, but I'm confident something will probably come along to make this work properly.

I guess recoloring another robot boss is out of the question?

Ah. Yeah, come to think of it, aren't traps one of the few sets that hasn't made it in yet?

I17 broke enemy captives running? Or... uh, whatever setting you used there? I'm curious.

Well, to go back on this a bit, I don't really need resolution to the question of what she was after in Warburg. I don't think it helps establish anything about her motivation. Malta and the Arachnos both operate there, and with the way the plot has been going, worrying about anything more than stopping the mad robot bomber seems a bit like building sandcastles in front of a tidal wave.

Well, there's an entire mission focused around just the idea of this guy getting the parts. It does serve as an intro to him as well, but the handful of robots that a solo character fights still seem like a bit of an anemic payoff.

Well, there's me and there's my character, and honestly we sometimes have conflicting desires. I'll deliberately interrupt glowies to see if I can catch a funny message, or look at the details of a destructible object or vocal boss, or try to accomplish what I think are required objectives as I see them in order to minimize backtracking over empty ground later. My character isn't going to deliberately botch opening a crate to see what happens, or necessarily wait around before jumping into battle, or worry about backtracking as long as there isn't time pressure going.

But even putting that aside, with the way the mission plays out, my character seemingly intends to leave the bombs to whatever Arachnos cleanup squad eventually shows. Marking the bombs as optional (which I generally only do if there's some associated clue/dialogue that I think people might want to read if the objective is completed) doesn't so much break immersion as convey the attitude I'm supposed to have.

To me, the whole Warburg situation is a matter of resolved backstory with the opening clue to mission 4. While at the time I am further curious to the nature of what happened there and why, there isn't much I could learn that would inform the actions I'd take in mission 5. So really, at that point, anything about the nature of Iron Valkyr's mission just seems superficial, no matter what it is.

Review as part of the CoHMR Aggregator project.

@GlaziusF

Running this on a high-40s DB/Fire brute, +1 x2 with bosses on.

I forgot heroes and villains actually had separate contacts in Cimerora, okay?

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Right. Save an apprentice from Romulus's forces, who was working on... eh, it's not important right now.

Heading through the caves I'm reminded how badly a resistance-based offtank is going to get shredded against these Romans. I'ma go scale down and come back.

Right, it's a little more reasonable at +1 x1. Not so much terrible cascading -defense.

I find a map to Circe's Island and a hostage, who calls this whole thing out as being a trap for a prospective rescuer. Good thing Daedalus delegated this, huh?

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Unfortunately, Romulus still has a bunch of maps.

Ah, Croatoa. We really need more actual green forest maps that aren't that little corner of pseudo-Eden.

I rescue two generic Sybils and a named one who warns me of some kind of Satyr.

I also find Sister Solaris, but whatever animation you've chosen for her doesn't seem to have any particle effects associated with it, which makes it tough to pick her out in this environment.

I head back to the Satyr with Solaris in tow. He's a pretty reasonable diffculty and excellent visual axe/shield custom. These Satyrs appear to be actual mythological creatures, rather than the analogues to the warwolves of modern times that the cyclopes and minotaurs are hinted at being.

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And now to confront the Satyr lord with Daedalus, on another sprawling outdoor map.

The satyrs seem to be archery/SR minions with SS/archery lieutenants. Explosive arrow may be a bit off tone here, depending. The lord himself is an SS/Inv bruiser who calls in ambushes at low health.

Harpies. Sonic blast/claw flyers, and in this broken terrain they get good use out of the flight too. Nicely done ambush, even if dealing with them leaves the satyr and Daedalus to chase each other all over this backcountry.

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Daedalus sends us after the harpy queen in the hope that she'll provide some information on Romulus's search for some mystic item. I guess she's a more likely source than the Satyrs, who are all just party dudes.

The harpies have added War Legbone, er, Mace/Mental lieuts to the mix.

After rescuing a minotaur, I look around for the harpy queen, who looks to be psy assault/pain. She has anguishing cry, but fortunately the AI doesn't know the right range for that yet.

...also I have a minotaur who cuts through her like a combine harvester through a chicken. The ambush she calls doesn't even have time to show up before she's a crumpled heap.

She namedrops the artifact - a helmet that belonged to some guy from Chile.

The entire lot was god-forged, yeah, but out of his kit the shield's really the most famous part, with the spear coming in close behind.

I guess it depends what it's needed for.

But I guess Achilles was buried with it, as it's time for us to go to hell.

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Well, the underworld, anyway.

Apparently as a future dude Hades doesn't know what the hell is up with me.

Oh. Leviathan caves. That's not what I expected. And word of warning about these things, they're like half plot-specific spawns and therefore show up in MA half-empty, even though potential mission objectives are spread throughout.

I pick up Icarus, who is apparently THAT Icarus. He's psy/therm... well, the therm part makes sense, anyway.

I find a reliquary buried in the cave wall. It's the helmet that Romulus was after! ...but the mission won't complete unless I defeat him even though I've denied him his prize?

It'd make sense if Daedatron asked me to put down Romulus on the off-chance he might be trapped in the underworld.

In addition to recolored engineers, there are DBlade/DArmor minions and DMelee/Psi lieuts.

Romulus taunts me as his health drops, asking what I'm going to do with an ancient helmet anyway. ...actually, jury's still out on that. He doesn't say what he'll do with it either, apart from the presumed adding it to his war chest.

Things wrap up on an interesting note, even if the crushing fist of tragedy descends on Daedalus from a clear blue sky.

...pff, even the souvy is calling out that I have no idea what the helmet is for. That's just wonderful.

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Storyline - ***. I have three problems with this storyline.

First is the crushing fist of tragedy descending from a clear blue sky at the end there. Was it supposed to be some kind of revelation that Icarus was dead? Going on the assumptions of myth, if Daedalus is free then he’d have come to grips with that a long time ago. If Icarus disappears during the course of the story arc, or slightly before it, then it means a little more to find him in the underworld.

Second is the bizarre mystery of the Helmet of Achilles. Supposedly it’s vital to Daedalus’s effort, but it may as well be a power crunch for as much as I know about why. Even though I understand that Daedalus may not want to talk about his secret weapon, he can at least let on to what the helmet’s useful for.

Third is the rather reactionary nature of the whole affair. Between the initial mission to recover Daedalus’s mapmaker and the final mission to recover the treasure he made a map to, there are three missions of putting out ancient Roman fires - the kidnapped Sibyls, then the Satyrs, then the Harpies. They’re the titular elements for the arc, but they just seem to interrupt the main plot, rather than being something that, say, Daedalus sends you to investigate.

Design - ****. The custom mobs are visually striking and generally pretty distinctive. Map selection isn’t necessarily ideal, but there aren’t many good options for outdoor forest maps that don’t involve the Spirit World, and the underworld isn’t easy to model either. Roman caves are already in use in this arc, rock tubes are boring, Oranbega variants are out as we’re only modeling the Underworld, not Hell, and mines are out for the same reason. The Leviathan caves are the best of a bad situation. Maybe you could make Arachnoid caves work?

I don’t get why Romulus is a necessary defeat in the last mission. Maybe when we get to the reliquary we find he’s already looted it. That’d be an easy reason, at least.

The one thing I don’t quite get about the custom mobs is why so much psy assault. Harpy slavers, fallen heroes, and Icarus all make use of it, but psionics don’t seem to really fit any of them.

Gameplay - **. This is where things start to fall apart. I’m not taking anything off for using the stock Cimeroran traitors - at least in theory they’re a level-appropriate problem, and it’d hardly do to have an arc in Cimerora with no Cimerorans. The boss fights are reasonable with decent helper NPCs, though the minotaur makes the harpy queen a bit of a joke.

First, there’s the matter of outdoor maps. It’s important that it’s possible to end them with decent speed, especially the large sprawling maps like you’ve got here. Compared to an indoor map, an outdoor map doesn’t have a lot of tactical variety; it’s just the same fight on open ground, over and over, so it’s much easier to get bored. You’ve made a pretty good effort to give important objectives particle effects or notable animations, but several important objectives (Sister Solaris and the satyr bosses) don’t really have any.

Second, there’s the matter of powerset choice, specifically powersets on the minions. Minions need to engage in melee range. At least half of them, anyway. AoEs and some defense sets rely on having multiple weak targets clumped together. Satyr and Harpy minions both prefer ranged. Minions also need to be careful with debuffs, even incidental debuffs attached to damage powers, and tons of stacked sonic blasts from the Harpy minions can seriously devastate damage resistance. War mace (shillelagh)/SR satyrs (or MA/SR satyrs if you think you can get awak with shurikens) and claw/invuln harpies would be more reasonable minions.

Detail - ****. The only really off element here was the map to Circe’s island. In an arc that’s otherwise pretty sparse with details, every clue feels like it’s supposed to provide some important information. A map suggests that during the course of the arc we’ll actually go to the place it describes, but this wasn’t the case.

Overall - ***. The big problems here are with the supposed feature groups of this arc, the Satyrs and Harpies.

As far as plot goes, they seem to be more a distraction to the plot that starts and finishes the arc: Romulus is up to something, take him down. If the arc were about taking them on as paths to Romulus, from the start, I’d have no problem, but they feel more like an obstacle than a focus, which is not what you want of the groups featured in the title.

And for reasons I’ve already documented, fighting them involves a whole lot of darting around hitting individual minions, which isn’t much fun.

It seems like they're going after her because... she's the only option they have anything resembling a lead on, and that finding Sister Psyche in the process turned out to be a nice bonus.

Which is about the strategic equivalent of lashing out blindly. As far as the story has been explained to me so far, the occupation of Earth was largely unprovoked. Direct confrontation looks like the only workable option at this point, but that doesn't say "so begin confronting!" to me as much as it says "look for other options".

Yes, if this was a monster movie I'd be the guy in the back yelling "we must try to understand this creature!", and I realize that intelligence-gathering is not exactly Manticore's bag, but I just spent all of last arc biffing dudes in the face as an equal option of last resort.

I mean, if the arc started off with "we need to get Sister Psyche back, I found some fragmentary intel on the people holding her" it would be excellent motivation for Manticore, on both a personal level (unless they never tied the knot in this universe) and a strategic level, because when you're a resistance you can use a good Psychic Friends Network. And it would feel less like I was just flailing around largely blindly, hoping success would fall on me somehow.

I am being... lightheartedly serious? What I mean by "inform their actions" is not so much "tell me their plans" as "tell me what kind of plans they make". The Tsoo are out to take over the underworld by any means necessary, with a side order of pursuing arcane power to eliminate mystic threats. The Malta are a paramilitary organization that uses brainwashing, counterintelligence, and high technology in an attempt to control the world. The Freakshow are wild and crazy guys out to break stuff and weld it to themselves, not necessarily in that order.

As Division 12 has many of the trappings of a galactic SCA, I would be entirely unsurprised if General Gwen adhered to a code of honor that would make her responsive to a challenge from Manticore pitting his freedom and the freedom of some up-and-coming rabble-rouser against the freedom of Sister Psyche.

I would also be entirely unsurprised if each of the thirteen administrative districts of Earth (or whatever) were governed in a matter befitting the idiosyncrasies of their respective generals and said idiosyncrasies propagated down through the ranks, resulting in distinctive patterns of behavior that could be exploited.

Even if this introduces massive logistical plotholes, this kind of thing happens all the time in comics: a technologically superior alien invasion is turned aside thanks to some cultural vulnerability that makes no immediate logistical sense.

Why does Gwen accept the challenge? Because she thinks Division 12 is powerful enough to win it. And because so far they have, and when the criminals who threaten the peace of space have tried on occasion to cheat, the rest of Division 12 came down on them like a ton of bricks.

In short, the cultural vulnerability exists because up until they hit a city of heroes, nobody was strong enough to exploit it.

You've created a group that stylistically, mechanically, and descriptively reflects the idea that determination and strength of will matter more than high technology or innate power. But they don't seem to really be acting any differently than a completely different group with completely different ideals did in the last arc.