GlaziusF

Tonight's arc: Future's End (255895). Verdict - ***. Review in MA Forums Thread.

@GlaziusF

Comin' at this with a peacebringer on diff 1, to test its lowbie chops.

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Hey MS, I know you're all spacy and everything but would it kill you to tell me where I'm going and what I'm looking for?

Oh, okay. It's a busted-up office where the Skulls' necro immunity is serving them in good stead.

And the mage says... wow. The Skulls have a caster more savvy than Baron Zoria doing some spellhacking. (Zoria was mostly a tool of the Circle, IIRC.)

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And once again she doesn't tell me where he is or what he's doing. Go go police informants, or something.

Fortunately I've got some knockaround so escape is less of an issue.

But, wait. He's not actually instrumental in the rise of the Future Skulls despite his weird proficiency with spells? Be interesting to see what actually IS.

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...I'm beginning to suspect that someone may be messing with her divinations here. Defeat the Legacy Chain?

I mean, it is a time-tested Rogue Isles method of doing magical research, but all the same.

...oh hey. It's those balefire angels. Wonder what they're doing here?

Ah. Okay. So the Future Skulls are possessed by the rainbow of darkness. Or, uh, something. Let's see what the seer can see.

Oh. Heh. Why, that's almost cosmic justice. Almost.

...but if they're misusing the pillar like this, where are the Menders? Shouldn't they be trying to mess with this somehow?

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Man. That mission's here and gone before I can blink an eye. You putting all these on short maps?

I mean, I guess that's alright, but it really just feels like a bunch of little interludes.

The "pillar" is pretty easy to take down.

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Wow. The Midnight Club is compromised by stuff my pre-SO guy can put paid to? I wonder how that happened.

A couple of interesting captives... with a couple of pretty useless clues attached. I was hoping for a little briefing from them or... something.

Weirdly, the angels take down the Legacy Chain but lose big to the Skulls. That says interesting things about redside vs. blueside lowbie content.

One last Bride (who says "pillare" in her opening rant) and that's it.

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Storyline - **. I would rate this higher if it wasn't billed as the end. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but this is what I know now: the Future Skulls exist because they sent their spirits back from the future to create the Future Skulls. "So where did all YOU zombies come from?" There aren't any more clues about the Death Brides, the Highest show up in a cameo when I was expecting to find out something more about them -- or really ANYTHING about them -- and this introduces a new spin involving time travel that I can't believe Ouroboros isn't trying to prevent.

Design - ***. I suspect part of it is because there just isn't enough mission space for anything to happen in. All the maps seem to be short length, and they certainly flew by. The final confrontation, while it "should" take place in the Midnight Club, per the story, really feels a bit perfunctory just because the Midnight Club is such a small small map.

Gameplay - ****. Really the only thing that tripped me up was looking around for a silent ambush when the last boss called for help. I was expecting at least a little wrinkle there.

Detail - ****. No complaints here. Everything was solid and well-formatted.

Overall - ***. An end to the trilogy, but it doesn't feel very satisfying. The problem is solved, but I'm still left with a lot of unanswered questions.

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So I just have a little tiny queue of four arcs now!

Poi, Demonology, and Everything I Learned From Hellions 164235
The Consequences of War 227331 and 241496
The Fracturing of Time 171031

Quick reperat of the 'rules' for my subs:

no malta
no KoA
no or limited mezzes, please, or at least no damn slows
any level, either faction

If there are no more submissions, I'll be running some of the suggested arcs in the 'looking for mechanically complex arcs' thread I posted a few days ago.

Eco.

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Well, if you want lowbie arcs, you can probably do alright with Bricked Electronics (2180), or Dream Paper (1874). First one has less mez-prone enemy groups than the second.

Hey LJ, feel like returning the favor? Any of my current three, Dream Paper (1874), Bricked Electronics (2180), or The Bravuran Jobs (5073) would be greatly appreciated!

..unless you did 'em in an old dead thread, then never mind.

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Glazius, you should know that we've played all of yours and loved them.


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Belatedly, but thank you. Both of you, really. Finally taking a weekend to catch up on the forumage.

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What is there left to add to the game as far as defining features for an issue go?


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Issue XX: The Mean Streets, containing "user-generated" world events.

This is what I mean: right now, when your hero goes out in a zone, there's an area beyond the outermost limits of targeting where stuff actually spawns. It moves with the hero. In a sense the hero creates the spawn by running around in a zone.

So you visit an NPC, and set yourself to "opposing" a particular enemy group. The engine then spawns that enemy group as doing special unusual stuff, resulting in overworld versions of objectives you ordinarily find in missions, like defending objects, preventing escapes, and escorting (for a short distance) NPCs.

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One small question. When talking about subtractive colours, you say "each colour absorbs all colours except the one it reflects." Does that mean that, say, Cyan absorbs everything BUT cyan?


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Because this got lost in the shuffle I figured I'd answer it.

The three primary colors of light are red, green, and blue.

The three primary colors of pigment are absorbs-red, absorbs-green, and absorbs-blue. What gets reflected is then blue/green (cyan), blue/red (magenta), or red/green (yellow).

Yes, red light and green light make yellow light. You can prove this to yourself and blow your own mind with any modestly-equipped science center or a couple of flashlights and colored cellophane.

This is why on any package printed with ink you'll often see a test grid in cyan, magenta, yellow, and black.

@GlaziusF

Playin' this one on a DB/fire brute, mid 40s, diff 2 for actual boss fights.

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Ah, mad science. Always fun to work with. Just so happy to be doin' what they're doin'.

The shopping list and various other gear are just kinda begging for a "mission start clue".

I was expecting a mandatory fight with Dr. Aeon with this posse in tow. I mean, I get a fight, but the way the mission's structured means that what I have to do to get it completes the mission.

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Oh boy it's time to go look at dystopia I can't wait.

Why can't any of the futures we go look at ever be utopias? Why do they all have to be Red Atlas?

(here's a plus though, Red Atlas is really easy to find stuff in, it's all round agony hall PROTIP)

So the apocalypse is gonna be DE-flavored with Rikti and CoT mix-ins? This one, anyway?

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So... now I'm a gofer. There's got to be something here she's not telling me.

Ah, that's what she's not telling me. Because it's something I'm telling myself. SNOOP MODE ON.

Oh no, DHMO! I hear that stuff'll level houses if used properly.

The glowies here can't seem to make up their minds about whether to dump the interesting asides into the system message or into my clue tab.

Also, the fridge really needs purple stuff and Sunny D.

So, kind of hilarious - the vocal guards on the explosives end up on the other side of the room entirely via the usual spawn group hijinks.

Hilariously Tiny Nitpick: can you set up the objectives so the portal component is the last thing that drops?

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Huh. Go into a bunker and load stuff onto a memory stick? This is sounding like some other Lazarus.

Pretty nice, the chained objectives work really well here under the pretense of restoring power to the system.

It looks like in the future all villain groups will be simplified into one faceless legion as powerful as they are generic.

Actually I don't know what to think about these guys, but I kinda sympathize with their predicament. They're like trapped space marines except instead of an alien it's my swords ventilating their ribcage. Wonder what the bossman will make of me.

Ah, he's gone stir crazy. Okay.

Hmm. Survival horror games tend to date-stamp all their logs. I think you can spare the characters here, right? Especially since people can encounter the files in any order.

Uh, kid? I know we're working together and all but I'm still a villain here. Do you really want to spell out for me how much you care about your mom, who she is, and where I can find her?

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Now what was that password? L-triangle-R-triangle?

Oh, hello little currently-not-glowing bomb. You're not ominous at all.

I go up an elevator and see like four of 'em planted in a room. Getting a very Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs At Midnight vibe here.

Hmm.

Okay, when I take her to the door, is she supposed to step out? Because she's still following me around and the mook squad that just staged an ambush seems to think that she's gone off-site.

If mommy dearest is still tagging along when I hit the last bomb it makes sense that I need to drop the raid guy, but what's blocking me from getting out on my own again? Maybe he's got an ECM rig or something?

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Storyline - ***. I'm really not seeing the "parallel" here. It feels "orthogonal". Maybe because the last time I played the other one it was still in beta. But missions 2 and 3 really feel like unnecessary cameos when I consider the upshot of the arc, which is a techno genius building a time portal to save her mom. The test run to the future and the gofer run seem... well, reasonable but not necessary. They don't hurt but they don't help either.

Design - ****. This is more of a "6 -2" rating, because it really uses the new chaining well, but there are like 8 models for the group that cameos in the first mission and never shows up again and 3 models for the group that's opposition in the last two. Seems a bit wrongly weighted there. I realize it's supposed to be a faceless government organization, but Crey and Malta both do variety with their MIBs.

Gameplay - *****. Either I got very lucky or there was a lot of time and care put into reasonably locating all the chainables. Only real frustration was some terminals in mission 4 located in a generally enemy-free region of the room.

Detail - ****. Serviceable detail, plus points for the investigables in mission 3, minuses for stock descriptions on stuff like the Nagans and Mission 4 Agency that the mission logic tells me I'm not supposed to understand.

Overall - ****. A well-crafted arc that makes some well-realized choices I happen to not agree with.

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Since you asked, I present "All Consuming" (261148) and "Of Futures Past" (254599).

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Cool. Looks like tonight's feature is Of Futures Past (254599). Verdict - ****. Review in MA Forums Thread.

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Man, "as you know" is kind of a weird thing to say in a briefing. If I already know why bother telling me? (you can probably say "ever since the start of the Rikti invasion")

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The title of the arc is “The Consequences of War – Part 2,” and while I’ve written the two arcs to be playable independently...


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Oh no, this isn't about how the arc should stand on its own. It's that "as you know" is most often a practical way to say "you don't actually know this, but I don't want to make you feel dumb when I tell you".

When what comes after the "as you know" is "ALIEN SPACESHIPS ARE INVADING THE PLANET AND BLOWING HOLY HELL OUT OF EVERYONE" that just sets up this hilarious mental image of the most oblivious hero ever.

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Boss objective should probably be just the boss. His escort can spawn in the back room behind a couple walls.

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So, you’re saying I should make the objective just taking out the boss, but not necessarily his minions? If so, I’ll consider it, but it isn’t like the map is huge and makes it hard to actually find and deal with said minions.

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I say this specifically because I was worried the objective might have broken when I mowed down the boss and the stuff around him but it still didn't complete. Some of the small maps like this and the PPD station are very generous about what they consider acceptable spawn placement.

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The Rikti communicators have apparently come a very long way in sophistication of message. Unless they were actually trying to call out for pizza and Traitor McBackstab here just has a big imagination.

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I’m not certain what you’re getting at with the last two statements. Are these bad things?

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How did this guy get started narcing on the Vanguard? Either the Rikti explained things to him on the kindergarten level they're currently speaking on, or he just kinda decided to all on his own for... some reason. Either way, hilarious mental image.

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Lots of repetitive character mash in here, both from Rikti patrols and from the Vanguard battles. Still, good to see the Garibaldi twins doing something with their lives.

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I guess I might need to re-write the text and eliminate the nods to two of my favorite sci-fi television characters thanks to the limitations of MA that keep me from being able to provide multiple dialogues for multiple battle spawn.

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One talky battle dialogue, N silent ones. The "broadcast radius" of NPC dialog seems to have gone through the freakin' roof with I15, so don't worry about it being missed.

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Oh, this is another one of those "this map is the first half of a building" things. Okay. Okay. Still throws me a bit to hear people worried about something in the "next mission".

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I find that all the better player-created arcs find ways of doing more than what’s been done by the devs. Realistically, characters will know that they have a future, and that there will be paths and consequences and decisions and… well, stuff that happens beyond this mission. I’m kind of proud of this type of text, myself.

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Well, there's no actual way to force people to take up the next part immediately, unlike the devs who can actually chain missions, so I tend to frame MA missions as being their own self-contained worlds.

Specifically, whenever an NPC talks about something happening in "this building", I read it as "this mission".

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The MA completely limits my ability to tell the story I’m trying to tell the way you want me to tell it. I can’t have you fighting beside the SOLUS Collective and yet force them to die. If I could, trust me, I would.


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Sure you could. That is, it's possible.

- bill it as a holo-experience of (hero X) of the SOLUS collective
- 5, maybe 10 minute timed final mission, defeat all, several AVs and heavy suits, framing device is some giant mothership-mounted cannon charging up
- fail popup: "suddenly green light floods over you and you feel as much pain as the system will allow. The next thing you know you're outside the simulation."
- maybe some kind of fourth-wall-breaking success dialog if you actually manage to win about how they still don't know and can't model everything heroes faced in the first war

But then, maybe presenting it as explicitly a simulation would take some of the edge off the impact.

@GlaziusF

Running on a spine/regen scrapper, high 40s, diff 2 for real boss fights.

Wonder who the contact's gonna be now.

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Oh, that guy.

Man, "as you know" is kind of a weird thing to say in a briefing. If I already know why bother telling me? (you can probably say "ever since the start of the Rikti invasion")

Well, all I can say is it's a good thing I have an immobilize.

...aw. I thought that intro clue was gonna be the false datafile.

Hmm. Boss objective should probably be just the boss. His escort can spawn in the back room behind a couple walls.

Good thing he doesn't run, otherwise he could throw down detention field...

The Rikti communicators have apparently come a very long way in sophistication of message. Unless they were actually trying to call out for pizza and Traitor McBackstab here just has a big imagination.

Also these guys are recolored Longbow and I just fought a Ballista, didn't I?

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Hmm. Accept text doesn't even need to be in "my voice" if you're using it to restate mission objectives.

Lots of repetitive character mash in here, both from Rikti patrols and from the Vanguard battles. Still, good to see the Garibaldi twins doing something with their lives.

The lack of exit points on this map makes the rescues kind of hilarious. They just stand there with a vengeance.

Man. Seems like every other spawn's got a dang boss in it. Freakin' diff 2. And this map is huge and the stuff is hard to pick out in general.

I would really rather have somebody's help here.

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Oh boy, it's the asylum map. The only-one-of-its-kind, terrible-ally-pathing asylum map.

I don't like this one much, if you can't tell.

Hmm. I think you got the escort/find text for the Vanguard guy reversed.

Oh, this is another one of those "this map is the first half of a building" things. Okay. Okay. Still throws me a bit to hear people worried about something in the "next mission".

Thanks for sticking around and helping me fight, guy who completed the mission when I rescued him! Kind of bleakly hilarious this is the first guy to do so.

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Hey, it's the burning office again!

The assault suit parks his fat behind in a doorway right into the second floor, so I can't really slip past to find anyone, and the doctor who is apparently supposed to help me just tags along and never heals me or attacks anything.

And what became of the vanguard soldier I may never know, as the bugged intersection of captives (Empathy) and timed objectives boots me out of the mission.

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Sigh. Red Atlas.

I know, I know, but... Red Atlas.

Can't find anything in Red Atlas.

It's got a minimap now, but everything hides behind broken down walls and nothing will follow you more than 25 feet without having to detour around a chunk of rubble or wall or...

Huh.

Well, looks like I actually don't have to find much. One of the patrols wanders into the big boss and I follow the dialogue bubbles, and a quick loop around city hall gives me the bittersweet relief of not having to hunt anything down at all.

Looks like I have to break the big man down all on my own, and so I do.

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Storyline - **. Yeah, it seems unreasonable, I know. But I'm just thinking about the plan as presented. This whole thing was supposed to be a feint to draw this one group out, but judging from the aftermath they just got mowed down in the same sort of general street fighting and dropship lasering that wiped out so many other heroes. And as the one person who actually followed the feint all the way through, I... miss the dropship pass completely and jab spines into the fleshy bits of the guy who masterminded the whole thing? I mean, I realize everybody's got to die at the end (THE SHIP SINKS!) but I showed up too late to catch it, just like I showed up too late for everything else.

Design - ***. The last map's got all the game trappings of a climactic final boss fight, but the real action has already happened. I'd prefer... well, either a truly empty fight, against a guy who came out of his battle armor to gloat (no ally patrols in this case), or a 5-10 minute "impossible timer" that actually puts me in the fight with the collective so I can get a feeling for the impossible odds. (I wonder if you could reframe this as a holo-recreation of sorts, so that you could actually "get obliterated" in the last battle and still have that in the frame, so to speak.) That plus all the hero rescuees that never actually helped -- well, I felt detached, like I wasn't allowed to be involved in events as they happened, and that puts a damper on any combat high.

Gameplay - ****. Mostly for doing laps and laps around the giant circus tent map without ever managing to find anything but boss fight after boss fight. I really need to learn where stuff is on that mess.

Detail - *****. Generally solid, with exceptions as noted.

Overall - ***. My main beef here is that, for something that's supposed to be an experience of the original Rikti Invasion, I spend a whole lot of time either backstage making sure the people who experienced the original invasion can get out there, or on stage after the production is over sweeping up.

Been a long couple of days, yeah. Cleaning up after a sendoff for an RL friend leaving the country.

So let's go long: The Consequences of War pt 2 (241496). Verdict - ***. Review on MA Forums Thread.

Been a bit of a long day so let's have a short one, shall we?

Illpracticed Malpractice (246459). Verdict - ***. Review on MA Forums Thread.

@GlaziusF

Alright, time for some light comedy on a busy day.

DB/fire brute in the mid 40s on diff 2 for real boss fightin'. Let's see what this is.

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Well, "kidnap some guy" is basically a paper mission. Let's see how this all shakes out.

Ah, the asylum. Interesting choice. A torture to lead someone through because of all the walls.

Hmm. The Arachnos rescue seems to spawn about four patrols that all say the same thing. I'd suggest one vocal and three silent, myself.

Similarly for the resident rescue. Unfortunately it's not as interesting as it could be as they all spawn out of line-of-sight.

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Storyline - ***. This is basically on the strength of the setpieces rather than the contact-presented plot, and there are basically two here, aside from the spawned patrols which just hammer the same thing over and over. I was kinda expecting more crazy crap, like cybersurgeons installing Windows ME into a robot villain for kicks, or somebody running a Superadine still on the side, or ritual sacrifice of a Snake to invoke the protection of Hermes on the next doomed operation, or hilarious and terrible patient files strewn all about the place. As it is I just get people standing around and snarking.

Design - ***. Points for the med staff, all of whom have credible but distinct powersets. I especially appreciate the nurse's Darting Hummingbird Work Avoidance style. Minus points for the asylum, since it's only three floors and some of them short ones I think it really restricted what you could bring to the table in terms of boss locations and other interactables. An office works fine as a hospital's administrative section.

Gameplay - ****. Popping a bunch of patrols in after the last rescue brought some system chug along with. Other than that, pretty simple.

Detail - ****. Minimal but serviceable descriptions on the customs and the boss. But I'll say again, this map really needed more stuff to do.

Overall - ***. Rounding down on this one. It feels like a modestly tweaked ordinary kidnap mission rather than a comedic look at the nefarious goings-on behind closed doors in the Rogue Isles medical system.

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I would love it if you would play my arc:
In Pursuit of Liberty - ID 221702


Thanks so much. I hope you enjoy.

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It's got to be up on www.cohmissionreview.com.

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You know, I appreciate your reviews, but I was just thinking... except for the final thoughts at the end, your reviews aren't really very useful for anyone except the author. The play by play comments don't really mean anything unless you already know what's going on in thea arc. Just a thought.

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Well, yeah. That's why I try to dump it into the author's thread if possible. The comments at the end are a quick summary for the folks at home, but this is basically the forum equivalent of sending tells to somebody as I play the arc, except they don't have to be online for it.

@GlaziusF

Running this on a high-40s spine/regen scrapper, diff 2 for real boss fights with real bosses.

I don't actually have a single character who is vaguely Asian inspired so I just used super science to make a generic samurai disguise.

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If I don't know anything about this new dimension how am I supposed to tell something's wrong?

Eh, whatever. HERO CARD AWAY.

Hoo boy. Perez Park In Yellow.

...IT'S ALL A NEMESIS PLOT (okay probably not).

Unintentional irony award - my ally speaks of strange iron weapons that strike from afar, then pops buildup and one-shots a minion in the next group with a shuriken.

She also tags along after I drag her to the extraction point. For a moment I think I'll need her, but the boss is something I've fought already. (for whatever reason custom spawns are now mixing in bosses when they spawn for 2. Not that I mind too much.)

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...Lord Aion. I'm going to love this.

Hey. Hey buddy. Yeah, you. What's with that "strange costumes" line? I worked hard on this!

Eh, no accounting for taste.

Wow. These are some advanced-looking weapons. Aion should really be using one of 'em instead.

Worth dying to him for that line, though.

Wonder if his backer is actually who the enemy group implies.

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It would seem to be!

Which is kind of odd, given Chimera's proclivities. I mean, dude doesn't come after people with a gun.

I'm a bit surprised by Lady Sayaki, but why was I expecting anyone else again?

...huh. He calls himself Lord Chimera here? Can't be the Praetorian one, that one is Manticore except the [censored] who killed his parents adopted him.

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Or... it is? I guess he showed up here to slum or something?

Investigating around here. I guess it is "or something". I wonder if it actually would connect with Praetorian technology of if C is just covering his hinder.

Looks like some hinder-covering. Pity. I was almost looking forward to ninjas in the streets.

Lady Sayaki is going to be rather disappointed when she just goes down to one hit point.

Also, question: did you stick random silent gorgons all around this map or did they spawn in on their own? If the latter, were you using the stock Chimera minions group?

Because when I dropped down to get the last clue, what I thought was a normal spread-out group turned out to be two gorgons.

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Huh. Well, I guess dropping off the battlements is traditional, but given that catching people when they're falling is a big hero thing, maybe have her go the other traditional route and slice open her abdomen with a mind blade.

...you know, this map is really bad for pop-in. Really bad. Like, Recluse shows up 6 inches behind my back bad.

Everybody who's got an alternate coloration has also got a nice alternate bio except, for some reason, GW.

And I FINALLY get the gag in the name of the recurring boss character.

With two EBs as backup and a decent serving of inspirations it's a close final fight but I pull it off.

Be kinda interesting if Mr. S spawned on the map as an ally "boss" after it was all over. Just to see him.

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Storyline - ****. Needs a little more foreshadowing or something on Chimera's part. I mean, I get the idea of what's happening in the same map that I kill him. Maybe drop hints earlier? Also, how much space you got? We really don't see much of the Spider Clan hierarchy early, and throwing in some of the "patron sidekicks" wouldn't be out of place.

Design - *****. But everything that does show up pretty nicely, and the customs are real class. My only real complaint is that the hawk clan kicked [censored] and only ran into trouble when they chased a spider into another group of 'em. Sometimes this was a boss group. Sometimes this meant that a boss had already said his warning and just blindsided the hell out of me. But there's not much to be done if you want battles on that map.

Gameplay - ****. Surprisingly few frustrations as long as I packed some break frees for GW's terrorize. But trying to hunt down objectives, especially chained objectives, on an outdoor map is always a pain.

Detail - ****. Pretty well done all-told, with the exception of GW's non-bio, and there was enough detail in the clues to give me a picture of what was really going on. But if I'd fought Chimera first in that map chances are I'd be staring at his death poem and scratching my head.

Overall - *****. Quality fights, nice help, good customs. There are annoyances but all lumped together they seem a little too minor to hold back.

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There's always Consequences of War - Part 2 if you're up for seeing where the Rikti War goes from Part 1.

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Was going to play this tonight but I can't find it up on CoHMR.

So instead tonight's arc is The Flower Knight Task Force (260284). Verdict - *****. Review below in this thread!

No review tonight. I'll see if I can sneak one in tomorrow.

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Though why aren't these guys using the professional shapeshifter they have on staff?

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Because you may have already beaten him up, if you're 50 and have done Crimson's arc

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You beat him up multiple times in that arc. Presumably when he gets into the Zig he just goes "hey guys I'm a normal prison guard and Moment impersonated a nude Sister Psyche to get me in here, help please" and is out a minute later.

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Only complaint is that while the sec agents look the part the engine likes to pretend custom groups are Lost/Clockwork/Vahz alikes and spawn bosses for 2 heroes. And since I'm diff 2 that's a lot of elite protectors.

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An i15 thing? I've run this multiple times on diff 4, and the only bosses that spawned were the ones I placed. Although since i15 I have only tested with a low-40s character, so maybe your level has something to do with it?

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I can only guess it's an I15 thing because somebody else's custom group was also spawning bosses for me on diff 2 - though it was the same character.

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There was a one-hour timer, until that bug made the mission auto-fail when the captive reached the door. Once it's fixed the timer will be back.

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Ghk. Is there some thread about known issues with the MA?

@GlaziusF

Running as a high 40s spine/regen scrapper, on diff 2 for actual boss fights with actual bosses.

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Huh. How you managing this? Last I checked pawn shops didn't have hostage points.

Ah. That's how. Bet they wish they were still doing Excelsior. -_-

Hmm. No notebook showin' up in my clue tab from the desk, though that was a nice combination of tightly controlled spawn points and the natural habits of the Knives.

Ah. That's why. It's a big notebook. Maybe the system text should say something like "once ninja chicks have stopped trying to kill you you can give this a proper look" or somesuch.

Notebook full of awesome, by the way. Has Indigo found herself another Melvin?

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Multiple patrols in here, saying the same thing. One of each and then a silent one, maybe? It's not like you need the names for anything.

It'd be funnier if the Freak boss was some variant on "compressor", but I won't hold that against you.

Maybe that can be the name for the other one.

Looks like I might have been wrong about my guess as to the origin of the brainwashed zombies. Only one faction is your-boss-used-to-work-for-us enough to hire the Freaks.

But didn't Project Revenant get the lid blown off it at about this point?

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Oh. It may not be Project Revenant.

Well, let's carve a swath of destruction first and read clues later.

. . .

Ooh, this is some nice conspiracy stuff.

This is actually a really well-done evolving mission. Maybe all the chips just fell the right way for me but it flows very well. No backtracking or anything.

Though why aren't these guys using the professional shapeshifter they have on staff?

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Wow, that was only mission 3? That was some great plot development. ...but now, what happens? I think I may be walking into a trap.

Huh. Nope.

Another great evolving mission.

Only complaint is that while the sec agents look the part the engine likes to pretend custom groups are Lost/Clockwork/Vahz alikes and spawn bosses for 2 heroes. And since I'm diff 2 that's a lot of elite protectors.

Also the destructo needs a bit more of a guard, right now there's just one minion talking to himself.

...wait a second, let's count here. They had one which I broke and confiscated and took delivery on another, which I also confiscated. I guess they actually had three, then, or does the one in the crate not count?

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What, no timer? C'mon man, this practically demands it.

Oh, the poor cops. The poor, doomed cops. The poor, doomed, Malta spawn gun turrets to say hi to them and then I have to deal with the gun turrets cops.

Oh, very nice use of stationary allies there.

Pity I find the guy before his holo-buddy shows up on radar, but outdoor maps aren't exactly what you'd call focused.

Speaking off, most of my allies are in the back end and Alwani's right by the entrance. Yeah. Outdoor maps are pretty terrible with this stuff.

Also his clue isn't mission-numbered.

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Storyline - ****. My only problem with all this is, where was Moment? I mean, the one guy who has actually impersonated diplomats to provoke war just doesn't show? It wouldn't take much, dude is as eccentric as a catgirl on silvervine and they probably don't enjoy working with him, but mention it?

Design - *****. Sweet Christmas this was tight. A couple speedbumps in the last mission as noted (maybe make it a "tv studio" office?) but seriously this is a freakin' 6. One other thing, a lot of times bosses called for help and nobody came, which may have been deliberate on your part.

Gameplay - ****. Last mission, mostly. It's like street-sweeping six city blocks to try and find something.

Detail - *****. The contact was pretty sweet, and the clue chain leading up to the finale was detailed and had its own little consistency rolling along.

Overall - *****. What swings the balance here are great use of chaining to evolve the missions and the contact voice. Just, uh, clear up that last mission, okay?

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Eh, what the heck, it's been a while since anyone's torn into one of mine.

Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black, #161629.

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Good enough! Tonight's arc is then Freaks, Geeks and Men In Black (161629). Verdict - *****. Review on MA Forums Thread.

Well, it's good to see somebody doing lowbies. None of my missions are designed for characters over 30... yet.

2180 is workable with lowbies of any level.
1874 is for anybody who can handle Tsoo.
5073 is designed for 20-30 villains. Villain 30-40 Carnies are fightable in that range, has been my experience. But it's currently experiencing some weirdness - I've received reports of the Carnie mission not actually spawning anything for 30-40 villains to fight, though I haven't managed to reproduce it.

Man. I need some more arcs if I'm going to keep going with this. It'll be a couple more days before anybody's week timers run out. Tonight I work on my arcs, I guess.

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I'm not really sure what "core game" even so much as stands for.

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Running from spawn to spawn on a map and defeating them?

I can only think of a few ways to add to that...

1. New tilesets, as the OP suggested (a different backdrop is always nice)
2. Changes to the AI so that it's no longer 'dumb as a box of rocks' as someone once called it
3. More ways to interact with the environment while you're running from spawn to spawn and defeating them

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This, plus new maps on existing tilesets (new geoms) and new poses for enemy groups in general. (I've seen Lost getting harangued or curling up for a nap on the floor, those seem new with I15).