GlaziusF

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I have to admit, I have had other people say that the Minions are hard, but I have not really noticed it on my runs or in the regular game. There are a lot of other mobs I find more difficult.


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It's not that they're hard. It's that when you're trying to hunt them down to kill them all they can bolt really far when they panic.

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I am not sure why you would want to find evidence of them on the altar.


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Well, especially given the incoming golapo oog, a physical link would be appreciated - I got the interpretation that the Igneous were just blaming the Hellions as the usual suspects.

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I never claimed they were transformed humans.


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Oh, that wasn't to you.

It just seems like every damn thing in the game is some type of transformed human.

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The second mission was not originally in the arc. My first feedback from a tester said it was hard to follow the story, things jumped around too much. So I re-wrote and added that mission, to ease the transition from the Minions to the Hellions. The joys of writing. But I have been thinking about making some changes in the early missions to get the Future Skulls in sooner.

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Well, coming at it from the viewpoint of "this needs one more Skulls mission", I don't see why you can't just put some Hellions in the Igneous warehouse and go from there.

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I would just like to point out, in 54 ratings (so at least that many plays) you are the first person to mention the Igneous talking as a problem.

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Yeah, I'm weird like that.

@GlaziusF

Picking this up with an actual newbie - a single-digit BS/Shd. On diff 1, because lowbies is lowbies.

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Whoa. Minions of Igneous? As a defeat all? You know they run like the wind and jump like a leaf in said wind, right?

...yes, I wouldn't know what the Seeker was talking about. That's because the minions of Igneous can only speak their own simple yet beautiful native language.

Golapo oog, remember?

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...and now the rank and file are also talking intelligibly. You'd think Talshak would have mentioned something about that.

I guess I can buy the Hellions as a link here but I'd like to find some evidence of them on the altar.

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Hmm.

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat....v=#Post13668031

According to Manticore, the Igneous are a society of rock-people and NOT ACTUALLY TRANSFORMED HUMANS WOO! except for their leader who got shoved down a lava vent when some dude betrayed him and he's looking to get back to the surface and take revenge.

Not the sort of dude you'd expect to be responsive to an ancient amulet.

So this thing goes direct to the Warriors, huh? Okay. You'd think Talshak might pursue alternate means of divination given how elusive everything is.

...why's he complaining about prepping spells, anyhow? "OH MISERY WHY MUST I CONTINUE TO WORK TO SAVE THE WORLD".

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Ah, got it, it's tiring, right.

Dude doesn't have any friends among the cops who would know something like what gang pays tribute to who?

Anyway, in a Warrior hideout, hearing some Warriors talk about... Sigmund? Wrong mythology, dudes.

Wow. Complete dead end. Are these custom camo-panted Warriors I'm looking at here?

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So hang on. If this was all a runaround then why did it work to draw the Igneous out?

Seems like an awful complicated piece of magic.

Anyway, the future dies again. But this was really awful sudden.

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Storyline - *. There's not much pace at all here. Four missions of chasing my own tail and an attempt to cram an arc's worth of plot development into the last mission. You could probably trim out mission 2 and put in something before the last mission that actually involves the future Skulls a little more.

And how the rock monkeys can I understand the Igneous? That's not supposed to happen.

Design - ****. Interesting use of recolors to represent various parts of a villain group, but I didn't really see a reason to recolor certain members of the Warriors. Also there are a lot of defeat boss objectives that don't fire off unless the minions die too, which I don't really see the sense of.

Gameplay - *****. Short, simple, smooth.

Detail - ****. Enough little bits to make the missions feel somewhat alive, but especially for the last mission there really needs to be more going on, since it's the only one that apparently actually matters. Some false safes in the Warrior hideout and some actual minor artifacts from looking the Hellion warehouse would also be appreciated.

Overall - ***. Pretty much all of that's from the story. The uneven pacing and inexplicably vocal Igneous both threw me for some pretty big loops.

Tonight's mission: Simple Times (70801). (a prelude to an offered mission that I hadn't yet played). Verdict - ***. Review in MA Forums Thread.

@GlaziusF

Runnin' on a mid-40s DB/fire brute. Diff 2 for ~goodfights~. Shivan loaded and ready.

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Ohhhhh god it's a crazy cult.

Crazy cults sometimes have crazy money so I may as well.

(also you got some places where there's a period without a space after it so it looks like some weird kinda internet address. Clipped-out line breaks?)

...

Uh.

VANGUARD BOSSES INFLICT CURSE OF WEARINESS.

Nothing's as awesome as losing half your endurance forever, let me tell ya.

And I don't even have the merits to buy a curse breaker from the RWZ!

...questionable pharmeceuticals. Uh. Yeah. Can I say no here?

Guess not.

Why are there a whole bunch of random robots folded in with the Vanguard? Malta Titans? Praetorians? (Later on Ms. Liberty's making noise about these being repurposed robots, but MALTA TITANS ARE MADE OF PEOPLE.)

Huh. That's odd. This base has what looked like a prison, yet I rezzed back in the MA building.

Okay. If this is Liberty Belt Ms. Liberty (as her description seems to indicate)... she's undodgeable and regenerates at an insane rate, you're supposed to use an Orestes Rifle to damage her, and guess what I can't possibly have.

Yyyyyep.

Fortunately she's just got the EB scale liberty belt, and a Shivan and a -regen nuke help put her away.

...so mission 1 is using a bioweapon to annihilate Paragon City. Man, where do you go from here?

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Up, apparently.

So I have the staff and Babs hasn't noticed me.

But I still have to fight him.

Uh... yeah, two missions in a row this has happened. I could have freed all the cultists and detonated the warhead without saying boo to Liberty too.

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Bug text for mission 3 is just a single period.

Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal! Good thing you were a fire blaster, otherwise I'd have been in deep.

So this is destiny, huh? Doesn't exactly feel very weighty, but there's only five missions to work with here.

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Man that's just a whole bunch of words crammed together for mission 4's briefing. I can make out most of 'em but seriously, man, spaces and double paragraph breaks are your friends.

So... find a hostage (do several loops around the map looking for a boss, maybe you should fix that navbar text), then search the map for a chained boss, then search the map for the chained final boss...

Then, since I led big S back into all the missile turrets for a gas, try to find the one last member of the group that spawned with him. Maybe the objective should just be to drop him alone?

Statesy doesn't even have a death scream.

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Storyline - **. There's a lot of consequence here but not much lead into it. Most of the stuff has already been done - they've found a biobomb, they've located the staff, they've readied the Way. All I do is step into a suit somebody else built for me -- even the final mission is more the cult's doing than my own. The idea of a "junior Vanguard" is really kind of ludicrous, especially given that the "kids" are level 48 because that's as low as Statesman spawns. At the end I'm the Messiah of some crazy cult and I honestly have no idea what I did to get there aside from "follow orders".

Design - ***. The random robots bundled in with Vanguard are really just kind of off-putting. If you want to cut them with something, why not just cut them with Longbow? It's practically traditional and it'd make Liberty's presence make a lot more sense. There's also really no reason to take out Liberty or Babs other than they're there - according to what the plot wants me to do I don't need to bother fighting them.

Gameplay - ***. I'm almost positive I was fighting Liberty Belt Miss Liberty there, which is a death sentence for anybody fighting her as an AV. Hunting around the last map three times for one spawn was a bit of an exercise in sliding around and pounding tab as well. And unless I'm mistaken most of the boss objectives also include their escort, which is kind of a pain in both the police station and Vanguard base situations, given that an element of the escort can spawn behind/down a wall.

Detail - **. The contact text alternates between one-liners and giant blobs of text with sentences that all run together. Cult-speak is tough enough to decipher as it is without also trying to untangle sentences from each other.

Overall - **. It's trying to paint a picture of me striding into greatness, but through one thing and another it really feels like I blundered my way there, boss fights notwithstanding.

Tonight's mission: The Shadowy Way of Light (221466). Verdict - **. Review below in this thread.

@GlaziusF

Running this on a mid-40s DB/fire brute, diff 2 for ~goodfights~.

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Ah, Dr. Aeon. Everybody's second-favorite unhinged scientist.

("LAUGH WITH ME!")

Anyway, looks pretty straightforward so far. Dr. n00b is making noises and in time-tested evil science fashion, I'm heading over to peer-destroy his experiments.

Well well well. It's a red goo scenario!

Even though I get batted around some by gravity bosses and their gravity sings, they always manage to stack enough controls to make it a non-issue for most of the fight.

Well, nothing like getting paid twice.

Although, uh, getting on board with self-replicating AI seems a bit dicey. Maybe I could try something safer. Like stealing Mako's teeth. Out of his mouth.

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Hmm. If I'm sending a message to Dr. Creed, maybe make that a "mission start" clue?

Seems to have worked, anyway. HAL's girlfriend is right on time.

I guess I should expect the same powers from HAL as from his duplicate, but still, seems a bit of a boring fight.

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Maybe you can drop in some different-colored text in the briefing to mission 3 about how you're going off script...

Good on you for remembering the difference in Cap Clockwork, *bzzt*zzl*.

Though wow. That's a sudden level drop. Am I "supposed" to be running this arc at level 20? Double-crossing Dr. Aeon doesn't seem very low-level.

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Dr. Aeon's going to be devoured by his own experiments. It must be Thursday! (though again, I'd appreciate some color-text denoting My Villainous Plan)

Haha, and the Mu Strikers mow down the VALs with minimal casualties. Yeah, they're that broken.

Ah, punchin' out Dr. Aeon. Some things never get old.

And then the containment... wait, she's just a boss? Aeon was, I think, an EB... well, the assault bots help a little with difficulty.

I'm kinda torn here. On the one hand I'd kinda like the option of turning her loose anyway, because I THIRST FOR CHAOS. On the other, trying to stop someone with a bunch of robots from running away might not be that possible for some ATs.

...wait, what? VAL is "on the loose"? I just shredded various essential pieces of circuitry. Be nice if I got a clue or, well, something explaining what happened after the enforced shutdown.

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Storyline - ****. I'd rate this higher if it wasn't billed as a "power play". Right now it's just picking somebody to side with, doing what Creed tells me as opposed to what Aeon does.

Design - ****. I'd like the different models of VAL chassis to actually look different - right now they all seem to have the same "red-and-black robot" look to them, which is alright but makes it tough to, say, pick out the bubblers and take them down first.

Gameplay - ****. Dipping down to level 20 in the middle of an otherwise all-levels arc doesn't feel right.

Detail - ****. The incidental detail with clues and interactions and suchlike is pretty nice, but it seems like all the VAL units had the exact same description.

Overall - ****. Not quite the power play I was hoping for, with a custom group that all ran together and an inexplicable level cut right in the middle. Overall a solid arc with a decent idea behind it and some solid fighting, but it needs a few tweaks still.

Tonight's arc: Power Play (187269). Verdict - ****. Review in MA Forums Thread.

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Storyline - ****. The only thing I really take issue here with is the whole "translator" plotline. Rather than them being a Paragon product, the Rikti seem to have developed them on their own, to communicate with the Lost in the years after the war if nothing else. Just having it kind of activate when I hit the right panel on a battlesuit seems a bit weird. Maybe the subplot that gets me distracted can be about some other side-effect of the psionic communications?

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I missed where the translators were a Paragon product. Do you recall where you saw that so I can look it up? If so, <insert muted cursing here> I'll look into making changes. Was this the only reason it dropped from 4 to five stars?

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The impression I got from the arc was that smacking a panel in Sewer Rikti's battlesuit somehow turned on a translator, which was then extracted and refined by Dr. Brinell so we could intercept Rikti communications.

This is apparently not what you wanted to convey.

That's why I say just skip the translator issue entirely and send us to Dr. B for another reason.

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Design - ***. The fourth mission was rather a confusing mess as I've documented. The clues looked to be at odds with who was actually following me and who was running for the nearest exit-like substance. Completing the second mission without even going "inside the Rikti base" as it were also seems off.

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Like I said, I'll look at map placement and see if I can at least force it (and the decoys) back into the Rikti tunnels. I'm also going to clean up the confusing dialogue. Was that all that dropped this to 3 stars?

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Yeah, when I'm not sure if the allies I'm rescuing should actually be following me around or not that's kind of a drag.

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Overall - ****. I'm not sure what to do about mission 4, source of my animosity. Obviously there are upper floors that I can't get into for... some reason, but just listening to the hostages and reading the clues gives me the impression that entirely the wrong people are staying behind to help me.

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Part of my goal is to introduce six particular heroes. You'll see why in the second arc. Early versions of the arc had them all introduced in the first two missions, and then recurring later. Unfortunately, that was way to many NPC heroes and way too much firepower. The player character became almost redundant, and boy did I hear about *that*.

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As far as MA goes, I generally don't mind being redundant as long as I'm "on the winning team". If I'm redundant AND the storyline's being written so that I'm either losing, or winning at orthogonal purposes to victory? Yeah, that's a pain.

@GlaziusF

Playing Part I on a high 40s spine/regen scrapper, diff 2 for ~goodfights~.

Given all the warnings about EXTREME I may have to go grab a Shivan. We'll see.

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Sup Pyron. Slummin'? That's cool, that's cool.

Okay, time for some historiffical fundutainment.

Interesting effect on the Rikti. I guess they haven't bothered fitting their troops with translators yet. But it plays hell with how the engine tries to work linebreaks.

I am continually amazed by how freakin' far a plasma bomb explosion can push you.

Something about the mission complete clue seems a little weird - aren't the Rikti winning BECAUSE they can do things like plant bombs under targets of opportunity? It's also odd to hear about how bad something will be after I've already stopped it.

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Ah well, next crazy war mission.

...you know, I get the point just fine that we can't understand the Rikti language yet without being hammered by twelve bubbles of extended character set. If the patrols have to vocalize, can it just be one of them?

So the intro text seems to indicate that these people are working together, but of course they're contained and separated by the time I actually get to them.

Gnnn. They have a kid. Well, both these guys just signed on to the redshirt brigade.

Weirdly enough the computer that takes the key is surface-side in the office. The mission completes after I free the second ally. Is there some way to force it to the back of the mission?

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a simple courier run. what could go wrong?

Man, how many people keep doing this? Battles Can Start While Heroes Aren't There. Pretending they are just doesn't fly.

Ah, that's why the Vanguard are getting their butts handed to them by the Rikti. They're customs. Nice look, plausibly retro.

You should be aware that the "jeering" animation loop has a part in it where the character jumps up and down like a monkey. I'm seeing the doc's guards doing it.

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Lazon's briefing in the final mission needs some damn paragraph breaks. I realize he's in a bit of a hurry but I still need to understand him.

More jeering from the Rikti in the base.

So the navbar goes "5 Heroes to Find, find Heroname, find Heroname, find Heroname, 1 Hero to Find". I think you want to consolidate 'em a little more.

Escort dude should probably have a different group name than "Cimeroran". He ain't, is he?

The mind controller's find clue seems to indicate she's going off on her own, like Mr. Shine did, but she follows me around.

Kinda ruins the impact of the multi-click clue here when you get it after the first objective you interact with.

Ggh. Experimental laboratory. I hate this room enough as it is without having an ally aggro the other side.

Huh. Okay, judging from the ally clues the mind controller and Gordon are supposed to run off and Mr. Shine is supposed to stick with me. But this isn't what's actually happening.

EB takes out the minder with splash damage. Oh well, this is what insps are for. Fight gets nice and crazy with the ambush.

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Ah. Looks like I just hit a save point.

Hmm. Nice work on the ice hero, really looks like just a pile of see-through polygons.

But, uh, this office has Hellion trappings all over the place. Yeah, I know, there's a terrible dearth of buildings on fire that don't have a bunch of Hellion stuff or low-level gang graffiti laying around.

Godspeed, Mr. Shine. Hope you got to a warship before you went nova.

The boss is something I've fought before, pretty much just a big chief soldier, and the fight is easier than it might be since his help can't actually get past him in the tiny doorway.

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Storyline - ****. The only thing I really take issue here with is the whole "translator" plotline. Rather than them being a Paragon product, the Rikti seem to have developed them on their own, to communicate with the Lost in the years after the war if nothing else. Just having it kind of activate when I hit the right panel on a battlesuit seems a bit weird. Maybe the subplot that gets me distracted can be about some other side-effect of the psionic communications?

Design - ***. The fourth mission was rather a confusing mess as I've documented. The clues looked to be at odds with who was actually following me and who was running for the nearest exit-like substance. Completing the second mission without even going "inside the Rikti base" as it were also seems off.

Gameplay - *****. No real frustrations here.

Detail - ****. Solid all-round, a couple little minor glitches like enemy group assignment and briefing text running together.

Overall - ****. I'm not sure what to do about mission 4, source of my animosity. Obviously there are upper floors that I can't get into for... some reason, but just listening to the hostages and reading the clues gives me the impression that entirely the wrong people are staying behind to help me.

Tonight's arc: The Consequences of War, Pt. I (227331). Verdict - ****. Review in MA Forums Thread.

@GlaziusF

Running on a high 40s spine/regen scrapper, diff 2 for ~goodfights~.

Arc is apparently actually ID# 249003.

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Dubious mission intro. I like it when a mission intro text at least tries to tell me where I'll be going and what I'll be doing there.

I also like it when the mission post-accept text at least tries to tell me where I'll be going and what I'll be doing there.

The hostage's dialogue feels a bit... unnatural. Like she's reading from her stage directions rather than a script. The archaeologist has a name. The artifact has a name. It wouldn't hurt to use them both.

Weirdly enough the glowie I'm looking for spawns just outside the last room.

So why have the Rikti got these things? Were they planning to use them in a doomsday device? Did they get caught up in the gears of an excavator?

Guess I'll never know.

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Off to pick up the next plot coupon.

...that's cute, intro text, but I'm not a Snake and neither are you.

The Snakes have their own tileset. Some reason you're not using it?

Mrs. M handily slaughters her captors with her damage aura while I'm typing up comments on the intro.

Oh, so that's how chained glowies work. The object spawns in but isn't interactable until the objective is cleared.

...kinda weird when it's a display case in a cave. That just don't look right.

Also is there some way to give it text that isn't "Can'tCompleteThisObjectiveYet"? That just looks wrong.

The artifact's actually halfway through the mission, not in the boss room. Deliberate?

....okay, I thought maybe I was picking up bits of an ancient alien battlesuit but it seems more like random trophy stuff.

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Yeah, these missions really need more in the briefing about where I'm going and what I'm doing there.

The "rescue" animation for the hostage here is just more energy field. Kinda looks odd when I get pegged by burst damage from the silent boss and then have to run back to wake him up again.

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Mrs. M wipes out her captors again. She seems to be set on pacifist follow for whatever reason.

Putting Instant Healing or a similar "god mode" power on a boss is basically an incentive for me to duck behind a wall and grab a drink since there's nothing I can do to wear whatever's running it out.

I defeat Monumental Pain... and the navbar still wants me to "defeat Monumental Pain"?

Mr. M is thankfully inclined to hit things.

Oh. There she is again. And this version actually says things. I think I'm seeing a bug here.

Monumental Collapse... has a description that's exactly his name. Um. Okay.

Oh boy, it's Rage. Good ol' defense-ignoring one-shotting Rage.

I will say this for him, at least he appears to be wearing the stuff I picked up for him.

...looking for the archives, I duck down a side passage on a previous floor and find two copies of The Pain standing about ten feet from each other. What?

Oh. There it is, on the second floor. A defendable object, not that this is hard to defend. (its description says it must be destroyed. Might want to look at that.) But, uh, backtracking through an empty building is not my idea of a fun time after the end boss. Why not just have it be a glowie active from the start?

I mean, it's not like "this was all a trap I'm really here to END YOU" is a terrible way to take this.

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Storyline - *. So there's this husband-and-wife team of super archaeologists who teach at Winthrop U, are rather open about their powers, and have a kid following in their footsteps. Unbeknownst to them there's a secret society on campus dedicated to the pursuit of power via artifacts from the Precursors. The head of the society - one of their departmental colleagues - sends them out, under the guise of putting together a collection for a revolutionary exhibition, to find the last pieces of the ensemble that will turn him into a Precursor warchief.

That's a pretty neat story.

But it's not this arc's story. (I mean, it might be, but I'm pretty sure I made most of that up.)

This arc's story is a piece of Silly Putty slapped on top of that story, peeled off, and then pounded down on some blotting paper.

It's got the same rough shape as that story, but there's so much missing. What are the artifacts? Why do the various villain groups have them? Why am I getting them? Who are the Monumental Family and why are they involved? Does that secret society have to come out of nowhere? What's giving them their powers? (maybe there's an interlude in mission 4 where Monumental Girl's been captured by them and you answer her SOS and discover The Fiendish Plan but too late to stop The Rage from pulling it off.)

Design - ***. Overall the maps do more to tell the story than the story does. Which is okay as far as it goes, but they're rather lifeless aside from the required objectives and some of the things I generally expect to show up - like introductory boss rants or boss dialogue at all - just don't. And what was with those four The Pains in the final mission?

Gameplay - ***. Backtracking through a base after a boss fight, in search of the objective that'll actually complete the mission, is kinda annoying. Instant Healing and Rage are just general pains to go up against.

Detail - **. One of the reasons the story's so weak is that there's pretty much nothing beyond the basics in the way of detail. Everything gets a small, minimal description that doesn't really explain much.

Overall - **. As a skeleton it's promising. But right now there isn't any meat on these bones.

Tonight's arc: A Monumental Occasion (249003). Verdict - **. Review in MA Forums Thread.

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I understand the point you're making. I do, I think I just wanted to include that danger in the pull too heh, plus it just sorta fit the story.Mind you, I had toyed with the ideas of changing his group diff. to Medium and busting him down to regular boss level, so I'll have to consider that.Also, he's set for the middle of the map spawn, so that I will have to look into.
Thanks again.

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Well, one thing I've picked up from checking the maps is that maps have a front spawn and a back spawn, and everything else is middle.

Even if it's closer to the entrance than the front spawn is.

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Ah well yea, it's actually by design, frivolously explained if you trigger the dialogue.It's sorta the end result of that wee hint about Caitlin's DNA.I wanted the punch of an AV without actually having an AV..heh..so the number of Bosses or EBs in the group scale by difficulty and team size.
Given the length of the arc, I decided to make the end result of him succeeding evident , on a small scale, to represent the danger if he had fully completed his wacky plan..But, I'd rather you not just go back for the reviews sake, so I'll have another look at the arc and see what I can modify. Thanks for the response though

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An EB is the punch of an AV without having an AV. Since it's what AVs turn into for solo heroes.

Dude and his other selves just kind of spawned blocking a passageway right at the start of the map, and according to the nav bar, I was supposed to beat him. (Or at least it had his name in there, which made me think he was a required objective.)

Three simultaneous elite bosses (because this is what it can turn into with a bad pull) are far, far tougher than one AV scaled down.

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Now as to the 2nd mish and the multiple EBs, I think I did too good job on Dragon if it sorta scared you off heh. I actually really, really underpowered Titan, as my rationale was that he lost some power when he split himself( and battle wise, he's a pushover if you pull, which is my default choice as a blaster for EBs.)
Again, he can't stand KB, you can knock him and those bots around like paper.

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My issue is not so much with having to fight one of him as it is with having to fight three of him at once.

Because his escort is drawn (bugged, probably) from the same villain group he is, and he is apparently this group's only member, he is escorted by more of himself.

I mean, if you think that's a reasonable challenge, I'll go back and give it a whirl. But I think it's a bug.

@GlaziusF

Running on a high 30s archery/energy blaster, diff 2 for ~goodfights~.

Went and got a Shivan anyway.

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The opening crawl's a bit of an infodump. I mean, heroes just trawl the police band all the time looking for random people getting kidnapped.

You can probably give a background on the kidnap victim in the accept text.

Oh hey, Super Tsoo. I especially like the shadow guy who's on fire.

I... I haven't really got good concepts of some of these guys. Or any of these guys. There are some plant part people and some Attribute Lotus people and some minions with build-up, somehow. And they all have about one line of description apiece, which doesn't really help me form images of them and their powers and why they have them. I mean, I get that a villager from out of Mongolia is using swords. But Talsorian blades?

The cluelessness is kind of painful, especially since I'm apparently supposed to know this syndicate, or at least the clues are written as if I do.

The boss pops Build Up and wrecks my ally in about three seconds, and me shortly thereafter.

Oh, wait, that was probably Conserve Power. He just got rather lucky with Shadow Maul.

Three times.

Four times.

Five times.

And... the Rikti are involved in this. Somehow. At least I get fireworks.

Standard Plural Objective Warning: a plural objective that drops a clue drops it when you complete any single part. I don't have enough watch to piece together after one dustbin.

Also the navbar seems to be using default descriptions for several objectives - just the name of the captive/ally/boss.

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And - wow, yeah, two mission arc.

Oh.

Ha.

Okay, so there's this thing where if there's a faction with just an EB in it that EB substitutes for everything.

Including minions.

So, uh, I think you want to sit down and redo some of this anyway, given the larger file size I15 has given you to work with, and when you do so give the EB an escort that isn't from his own villain group.

Because no way am I going to be able to take down three EBs, even with a Shivan.

One it's done, drop me a line, and I'll finish up the arc.

Tonight's arc: A Father's Iron Will (198952). Verdict - INCOMPLETE. Take a look below, Kem.

Unfortunately it's too late to pick up another one. Aheh.

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As to the final fight, any suggestions to "add a wrinkle"? I'm not eager to add ambushes, given how tough Escalation Extreme is for most players. And I don't neccesarily want to add allies, since the plot and theme is supposed to make it more "hero vs. villain grudge match".

I suppose I could add a post-defeat ambush of robots trying to retrieve Escalation's unconscious form. Could even follow that with a Crey extraction team shouting "the Countess wants that woman analyzed!". Or Arachnos troops saying that the mad scientists want to see the results of the supplies they sent.
Thing is, that could end up being anti-climactic, after the big fight...


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Why after? An ordinary small ambush of Rogue-aligned whatever researchers won't exactly make much of a dent in the player and Extreme E is just going to mulch them like so many dandelions. She's a big enough player that other people want a piece of her action, so to speak.

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Oookay, kind of an odd intro, all told.

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I spent a lot of time trying different text for the first three missions. The story is very odd and I didn't want to shove too much info down the gullet of the reader all at once. The 'what am I doing?' feeling is intended because the other way feels like the voice-over to a cheesy sci-fi movie.

[/ QUOTE ]

All I'm saying is, you could probably break off half the post-accept text and jam it in the pre-accept without really ruining too much. You don't need to go into reasons, even.

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[ QUOTE ]
I sneak into the mission and I think a patrol blows up the first restrictor. Fortunately that's just a warning one and I manage to defend the second.

[/ QUOTE ]

I WISH I could reproduce this. They never even look at the restrictors when I've played it. In the first version this mission was a moral choice, you could save the items or stand back and watch them blow up. I'm really curious what happened in your run to actually get them to attack the things for once.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think in the course of hitting a patrol that came right up to the door to say hi I may actually have poked myself close enough to the device to aggro its guards by proximity and then immediately retreated, as you do when lining up melee cones.

All I really know is, by the time I saw the PPD shooting the device it was already in the smoldering scrap phase.

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[ QUOTE ]
When the big dogpile from all three mind shards happened in the final mission, I was sure I'd reached the last boss. Hunting around for the real thing afterwards just felt like a bit of an anticlimax.

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I tried to make a final mission that was different from normal arcs and other MA arcs. Do you think switching the two boss fights would work better?

[/ QUOTE ]

You could just shift the dogpile to the actual final boss. Maybe bump Sister Psyche up front, then fill the map with clones and put Big Red in the back?

@GlaziusF

Running on a high 40s spine/regen scrapper, diff 2 for ~goodfights~.

It's nice that Mission Engineer is so easy now, I can just run these missions on whoever I want!

---

Oookay, kind of an odd intro, all told.

I generally expect a mission intro screen to tell me something about what I'm supposed to do, and the briefing fills in details after that.

Well, the patrols are filling in some more. THE MINDWEB HAS YOU. Or something like that.

Eheheheheh. "Synapse! Scout the crash site!"

Oh, that's an interesting assist. But really, they didn't do much. Between me and Miss Sis Psyche, dude bit pavement.

Still, I have to give him points for effort.

Oh god, crazy roaming spirits in search of a host body. I'm sure that there might be some villain group somewhere that this guy would NOT be able to find "recruits" in.

This is gonna get ugly.

---

Hmm. Same setup again. It doesn't seem accidental. I really do like to know what I'm getting into, and it's not like you're running close to text limits on the mission intro text.

If Different Trifecta is going to talk in Different Text Color, he should talk in it all the way through the briefing and the bug text.

Ohhh dear. Looks like he's not just satisfied with bringing Mayhem Psychos to the party.

Uh, protip. The stock Psycho Clocky is actually from an alternate universe and his stock description makes mention of it.

I'm pretty sure I didn't just step sideways into Epsilon Tau 27-2 here.

Well, congratulations on the balanced customs, the psycho clocks kicked their [censored].

Oh. It's a hostage so large it's indistinguishable from the scenery. That's new.

I realize that's supposed to be Psycho Babbage, but given the size of the ceiling in here it actually looks like some support pillars came to life and are rambling around.

Kind of a neat effect, really.

---

Heh. Okay, modestly interesting gimmick for number 3's briefing here.

I sneak into the mission and I think a patrol blows up the first restrictor. Fortunately that's just a warning one and I manage to defend the second.

It's a little worrying when the cops hit me with AoEs as I'm trying to clear out the psychic gremlins.

Hmm. Looks like Sister Psyche doesn't trust me. Thanks for that, glowie. But I wonder where she's been, all this time.

---

The special custom bosses are pretty keen. It's nice that they're in the same rough colors as their text.

...but the clues are making me worry.

Yep, yep, worry confirmed.

---

Oh _ho_. That's an interesting last boss. Makes the third mission a little more understandable.

It's not the last boss.

Now THERE's an interesting... wait, what? That's not the last boss either?

Oh, THERE's the real deal, finally. Hate that end drain but I had some luck with blues dropping, so I guess it works out in the end.

---

Storyline - ***. It's a good storyline with a simple twist in the middle to keep it interesting, but frontloading the text in four out of the five missions so it's basically "Hi there! (accept mission)" leaves a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. I realize there's practically no difference at all but I still like to know what I'm getting into.

Design - *****. No complaints here. The custom group and the various guest bosses look very much like psychic energy beings. while still being distinguishable enough from each other... well, the minions look exactly the same, but other than that they're fine.

Gameplay - ****. When the big dogpile from all three mind shards happened in the final mission, I was sure I'd reached the last boss. Hunting around for the real thing afterwards just felt like a bit of an anticlimax.

Detail - ***. Check your stock descriptions and make sure they fit the thing you're trying to portray - this also goes for the Mayhem Psychos and the Crazed. You can edit stock descriptions for the members of custom enemy groups now, so take advantage!

Overall - ****. Rounding up on this one. Needs a little more polish and maybe some text tweaking, and a little different structuring of the final mission so the final boss fight actually feels like an end boss fight. But overall, solid work.

Welcome back, everybody!

I'll probably only be playing one arc a night, as there are still some things I try to tweak now and again.

Tonight's spotlight: The Trifecta Task Force (164681). Verdict - ****. Review below in this thread.

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You know, ordinarily I would throw a fit when SS customs start raging, but in this case how could he [Terry Wheeler] not! (but seriously, no rage please)

[/ QUOTE ]

I didn't mean for him to have Rage, but he might've ended up with Rage somehow as a result of patches with powerset tinkering. As of I15, I made him a "custom powerset" boss, and he definitely shouldn't have Rage now.


[/ QUOTE ]

Perhaps that comment would make more sense if you know that a certain monologue from "On The Waterfront" was also in the final scene of "Raging Bull"?

Still busy tweaking my own stuff out - boy, this level scaling stuff doesn't half work like you think it does, am I right?

Ah, wonderful. Flu went away but a nasty head cold snuck in behind it. Having trouble thinking very clearly.

But I am clear enough to come up with this: because of the changes in I15 some people may be changing published arcs, to a greater or lesser degree. I know I'll be working on developing a couple of things. So I'm going to put this on hold for a week, to give people a weekend to work on their arcs in. Anybody new that comes in gets tossed into the random pool, as usual.

@GlaziusF

Runnin' on a high 30s ice/axe tanker. Diff 2 for ~goodfights~.

---

Oh hey, it's Lars the Immortal! Sup buddy! How's that blown-up MegaMek doin' for ya?

Okay, go to a place and spy on somebody. Can do. But... uh, what place? This front company, right? Not like some offshore data processing facility?

Eh, whatever, I'll figure it out.

Hmm. Protip: Clues that come from collections will drop after the first element of the collection is collected, not when you've collected all the elements in the collection.

(does "collect" even look like a word anymore?)

Thanks for the summary of what I just did, mission complete clue. Want to tell me what all I found when I was poking through these records? No? Okay then.

Y'know, if this place is a front office there should really be some civilians somewhere. Maybe being "protected" by Council or something. Or maybe have some Council pacing around talking about their boring office jobs.

...some Council saying anything wouldn't be remiss, actually. Place feels like a dang tomb.

---

Ah, so here come the civilians. Good deal, good deal. Now... why aren't you telling me what you found, Lars? I can handle the truth, I promise!

Okay, let's go save some... um. "only armed troops", you say, intro text? There are civilians to save here, right? They're right up in the nav bar!

System text when you accomplish an objective also displays after you've accomplished any objective, not the aggregate, so the system tells me I found all the civilians when there are still some left.

...heh. I was thinking "wouldn't it be awesome if the spy shared a name and description with the mook janitors", and he does, on both counts!

Aw man! I gotta run him out through this whole empty building, without so much as an ambush to say hello?

Yep. Yep, I do.

Ah, so that's what Lars didn't want to tell me.

---

...y'know, it'd suck hard if I was screwing up somebody planning to go double agent. You checked this with anybody, Lars?

Alright then, off to go plant an axe in the face of justice.

...why do the villains patrolling the cargo hold not think the lady I have to wax is even here yet? Hmm.

Well, she's here, alright. Out of curiosity I let her drop me.

Yeah, about what I thought she'd say. Why am I axing her questions again?

Right, right, orders is orders. Okay, let's see if she runs.

She does! ...probably because of all the slow and knockback, though, considering it's DEEPER into the cargo ship.

And the Council there obligingly whittle her down.

Um, what?

I guess this was a setup all along? For her?

Anyway, I jump in to deliver the coup de grace and feel rather bad about myself.

---

Okay, let's see who was telling the truth, here.

Oh, that's interesting. The patrol is talking about a traitor! I wonder if it's anyone we know.

Two patrols saying identical things. I get a little tetchy about that.

Why hello there security chi- whoa there you're an EB with Focus Chi. Not cool. Man, dude looked like a Galaxy in this weird cave light. Back from hospital again.

Man. Ice armor with a couple lucks does NOTHING against Focus Chi. Kinda depressing.

The ambushes are appreciated, they help keep Energy Absorb topped up.

Hrm. The system text on Hawkins' defeat seems to be something he should be saying.

Man. It's a sad day when people trust Council intelligence over the word of a hero.

Ah well, it's put us on the right path to the denoument, so no complaints.

---

The... lab. Oh-Nictus-fragment-boy, this might not end well.

"We have something to show you." Twist the knife, why don't you.

...huh. Okay, that was completely unexpected. Fighting this doctor guy who came out of nowhere, right about the second floor. He's up on a third-floor balcony, meaning my ally's falling off the edge trying to get up to him.

He says "I'm too important to be captured" but I'm pinning him to the ground pretty regularly... and then either he fires off something (EM Pulse?) that drains my end and stuns me, or I get careless, hit an empty tank, and get held by Choking Cloud when Wet Ice drops.

And then he bolts. Exitward. And by the time I chug a break free and follow him down the crazy narrow winding path, he's already reached the elevator.

And then I see the loading screen.

...what?

I had no idea this guy was even here, there was no indication I should stop him from getting away, and now the mission's wrecked?

Bull! At the most I figured this was to make him an "optional fight", since he seemed to be Extreme Rad Blast (opening with Atomic Blast)/Extreme Rad Emit.

The fail text even assumes I'd found the transformed dude, when nothing of the sort happened. Was the doc supposed to spawn in the back, then? Looks like the weirdness of map positioning might have bit you in the underneath there.

---

In the name of ACTUALLY seeing the end because I'm curious, I pass through the whole thing again. Observations time 2:

The agent is a random janitor. Kinda a nice touch, but it still stinks having to break flow and get him back through a cleared area to the door. Why bother? I mean, the OTHER janitors presumably get out just fine.

Liberty's Edge spawns deeper in the cargo ship this time, and wackiness ensues as she slaughters the end room, apologizing for taking them all out. Really, set her to Enemy faction rather than Rogue, otherwise you get things like this happening.

MAN. I must have been lucky taking that guy on the first time. I get him on the ropes, and then he pops Focus Chi and two-shots me. Several times. Can't even bolt away because his shuriken's doing a thousand damage.

...also the terminals say I'm "cownloading data". Moo, baby.

You don't need to put periods after your objective names. They get commas after them already.

...why is the HIDDEN FAILURE OBJECTIVE talking about robots? He's rad/rad, and I was expecting him to be a robots mastermind.

Great Moments in Ally Range Buggin': my ally staring determinedly at a destructible for several seconds while Head Splitter (the only thing with range to hit it) recharges.

Ah, and the happy couple is finally together. Man, given the wreckin' machine this guy is, you probably intended for him to be sprung before the doc, rather than the other way 'round, yes? Maybe you should look into chaining those objectives.

Kind of a shame the destructibles only had their default description. I wanted some Councilicious flavor text.

Not sure what it means when the GROOM wears white, but eh, it's a crazy world of lovers in this crazy world.

---

Storyline - ***. It's a messed-up world where people trust Council intelligence more than a hero. I would have at least liked the option to spare the hero begging me to stop hitting her about the head and shoulders with a plasma axe. (maybe if you capture her, she's out on bond for insufficient evidence or whatever, and the arc's written with her free.)

Design - *. That's pretty much entirely for the surprise failable mission objective. I have no way of knowing what objectives are required for mission complete and what objectives aren't without the author indicating it to me somehow. Having all that fightin' go to waste and not even catching a glimpse of the guy I was going after really left a sour taste in my mouth. (It doesn't help any that apparently I was supposed to engage him AFTER springing the wolf, but the map didn't exactly make that an option.

Gameplay - ***. Backtracking over an empty office, getting shredded by a Chi Focusing EB, trying vainly to hit a rad emission EB when the toggle's up... I'm not counting replaying the entire arc in this, but I got plenty frustrated even without it.

Detail - ****. With the exception of those generico breakables in the last mission, this was pretty well done.

Overall - ***. Rounding up here because it looks like the tremendous arc-stopping problem I had in the last mission can be cleared up pretty easily, through better objective placement, better warnings to the player, or both.

@GlaziusF

Runnin' this one on my high 30s icer/axer/tanker. Diff 2 for ~goodfights~.

---

Willy Wheeler has a brilliant plan! How many things could not go wrong?

...well, the prison yard's full of Longbow and PPD but no actual rioters. There's one thing!

Oh wait, there they are. Took a little moving in to trigger the dialogue.

I'm gonna see what happens if the escort bites it, so I'm going to leave most of these guys for us to "take out together" and if she goes down, welp.

Nice prison scrubs on her. I half expect to see a Zig logo on 'em.

Ah, but as broken up as the prison yard is, it's murder to try and path an ally through it. Fortunately most of the infighting has culled the numbers topside so I don't have to worry about her deciding to jump a fence and land in the middle of five angry dudes.

---

Ah, heist movies. What crazy little twist will lead to the unraveling of this whole operation? Does a concerned Longbow Eagle fan call in his entire regiment?

Oh, the Freakshow decided to come in and go crazy. That's okay too!

You know, ordinarily I would throw a fit when SS customs start raging, but in this case how could he not! (but seriously, no rage please)

This is gonna be a fun debriefing, I can tell right now.

Huh. It's actually here. No tracers, explosives, or dye packs? Who knew Hollywood could deal square?

Willy, you are one coldhearted sunova. And I mean that in the best way.

---

Oh, hello there empty warehouse. You're not suspicious at all.

Oh, hello there Family boss. Oh, wait, you're a custom. Man, I could hardly tell you apart.

Crud! Hello, ambush photographers!

Hoo boy, looks like a lot of people decided to sneak in during that fight.

Paris, honey, I'm sure if you asked your good buddy TV that question he'd set you up.

Lois Watson. You're not... YOU ARE. Oh good lord, how many freakin' people are going to be waiting at the door?

Less than expected, actually. I was kinda expecting the bum and Unbelievable Man to show up to ruin the party.

---

Storyline - ****. So why didn't the bum and Unbelievable Man show up to ruin the party? (aside from maybe arc size limits) I was all set up for the crazy escalating showdown you get at the end of certain heist movies, but it was all just a bunch of cops.

Design - *****. A shame you can't equip NPCs with cameras, but other than that, fitting use of maps and an understated but solid design on the customs.

Gameplay - ****. Little irritations in running the first escort over all that broken terrain and watching her trip on rubble and fallen guard towers. Maybe just make her an ally and have the rescue spawn a Longbow Warden fanboy back near the chopper who flew in to make sure Paris was alright?

Detail - *****. No complaints here. Pretty solid work on the customs, even if they're only a few fitting lines.

Overall - ****. I went back and forth on this, but overall, I was disappointed, just a little, to see the arc making promises it didn't keep. Dammit, I wanted to finally see what Unbelievable Man looks like!