GlaziusF

@GlaziusF

Run on a low-40s DB/Fire brute, diff 2 so bosses is bosses. Mission Engineer is so close.

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But Mr. Joker, fish are a natural resource. They can't be copyrighted!

...yeah, that's about my experience with intellectual property laws as depicted in comics.

Fortunately we won't be going that way.

We WILL be going the way of cheap 10-cent knockoffs of famous villains. (I will admit to not getting the claws one at first just because the power set is so iconically Mongoose. Maybe she should be MA?)

And heroes!

And of course the guy in charge, Bruce "Summer" Storm.

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Storyline - ***. Not so much for being one mission as for really only having one distinct voice IN the mission, that being the boss. Since you can make custom bosses with any custom character I was kinda looking forward to ripped-off speeches by the various members of the custom group. Alas, it was not to be. There are conversations from the hostage guards, but those have to be generic, and the whole point of the customs is that they're ripping off something specific.

Design - ****. I could get most of the ripoffs first glance, taking powersets into account. This is really just for not putting in places in the mission for individual ripoffs to rant about their special snowflakeness in specific (and also for teams of less than -- what, 6? -- to encounter any bosses) .

Gameplay - *****. No complaints. The slugfests were a little challenge but pretty fun all the way to the end.

Detail - ***. Custom descriptions, while often trying to be comedic in their own right, are rather hit-and-miss as to whether they relate specifically to what the custom is trying to rip off. As such they fall a little flat. (F'rex: the claws needs a little less "generic catgirl" and a little more "beautiful international diamond thief", Ten Pin is begging for a comment about "also he's really muscular. His muscles just LOOK like fat because.... because." Weirdzo is pretty perfect just because the speech pattern is also iconic.)

Overall - ****. A mildly humorous arc that was a bit too bland for my taste. Yours may vary!

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If you don't mind, check out my arc, #195149, "The Horsemen Chronicles (Part I)."


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I'll keep it in mind once it actually shows up on the site. But for now I have two people to play and two days to play them in, and then two more arcs for the following days. The future's looking so determinate I want to keep scalars far away.

And tonight's leadoff iiiiiiis: Trademark Infringement (2220). Verdict - ****. Review on MA Forums Thread.
Tonight's random CoHMR arc: Looks Can Be Deceiving (137657). Verdict - ****. Review below in this thread.

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Thanks for taking a look at the arc. I'm sorry about all the map/bug issues you had... I've honestly never had any problems like that with the arc.

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Well, it was a couple of fringe cases. The boss close to a destructible wouldn't be much worry with a normal boss, and I've already reported the embedded glowie as a bug, with /whereami and /loc results, so if it wasn't in the queue to fix it is now.

I'm really most concerned about the level of Energy Armor on the minions, because energy drain takes off like half a blue bar and will never miss. And since they don't have melee powers they will fire it off if they ever touch you.

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Unfortunately, it seems that I can't make a "collect" objective conditional upon some other objective (i.e. can't make the collect only spawn once the boss is down).

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FYI, you can do this in I15.

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And until then you can put it "inside" a destructible object. Those are still chainable.

As far as dialogue goes, I don't mind the contact's rambling as it is. I'd just like some inner-monologue stuff such as prefaces the fourth mission to make it clearer what I'm planning to do before I frob the datastream.

Though it's not a perfect example, my own Bravuran Jobs has several missions where the contact's talking about one thing and you decide to do something else.

There was a wondrous attempt to type the title of this mission arc, but the subject field was too small to contain it.

@GlaziusF

Running this on a low-40s DB/Fire brute. Diff 2, so bosses is bosses. Mission Engineer is so close now.

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NO ONE will be admitted during the THRILLING contact scene!

...the army. Oh, I have bad omens about this map.

Oh good! It's not red Atlas Park with a million low walls and no minimap!

It's the Galaxy-like map with the parking garage. The boss is modestly easy to find on these, and nice work on the green helmets, even if they are three to a pack.

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Mysterious alien radiation! Is there nothing you can't make grow to tremendous sizes, or at least place distressingly close to the camera lens?

Hmm. "2 civilians to save, rescue last civilian"? Somethin' wrong there.

...why are the giant ants using sonic attacks? Ants don't even have lungs! (you might be able to work it if you gave them wings and called it vibrations or something)

Nice work on giving the queen a non-mammalian model, though. I wasn't expecting an EB around now but it's nothing I didn't have the insps for.

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Welp, normal mission in Croatoa i WHY HELLO THERE OPTIONAL BOSSES! Man, those things blend right into the trees.

The breakable objects are easy enough to find though, important in a map like this.

...man, if it ain't the reds in these movies, it's the greens.

Little problem at the end where a destructible spawns right in front of a giant monster, but some tactical Sir Robin and I manage to get enough time alone with it to destroy it.

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...uh, whoa.

Energy Drain takes off like half the blue bar regardless of rank. And it's autohit. Having two minions pop it when I go in to melee with them, as you do, means I'm basically tapped out.

...and there's a jail.

And there are four patrols that somehow all found their way INTO the jail.

Fortunately after half a dozen deaths I don't show up behind doors anymore.

Voltaic Sentinel is its own tiny permasapper, and Short Circuit is another end bar killer.

Dying because you have no end to do anything and are getting permajuggled in a corner by force bolt is ten kinds of frustrating.

And it happens four times. BECAUSE AIM HITS THROUGH LUCKS.

So that's forty kinds of frustrating. That's as many as four tens. And that's horrible.

...and the last glowie spawns in a wall. Peachy.

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Well, I'm reviewing anyway, because it's late and I haven't the time to restart this.

Storyline - *****. Even though I didn't see how this ended, it's a great pastiche of various B-movie plots, all joined together with everyone's favorite time-traveling alien National Socialist vampires.

Design - ****. Great visual work on the customs, though the sonic bugs seem a little off and dodging around a giant monster standing right on top of a destructible objective probably wasn't in the original parameters.

Gameplay - *. Not for the bug. For the terrible, terrible Martians. Whenever any of the minions touched me they'd fire off Energy Drain, which is half my blue bar unavoidably gone. The lieuts popped aim, dropped a sentinel, and spammed elec powers. I was helpless to do anything as I died, over and over and over and over. And don't even get me started on the general who tanks your recovery rate AND base defense. It's like fighting a group of nothing but Malta Sappers except they can deal real damage as well.

Detail - ****. The customs and the bosses really needed more overblown descriptions, to fit with the tenor of the arc. As it was they were pretty pedestrian.

Overall - ***. I was having a lot of fun with this arc and its cheesy B-Movie aesthetic, but the Martians proceeded to experiment on that fun in unspeakable ways and it became a rampaging monster that I could only escape because it got stuck in a wall.

More arcs come tonight!

Tonight's leadoff: Standing Within the Mists (209473). Verdict - ***. Feedback on MA Forums Thread.
Tonight's random CoHMR arc: Tale of the Creatures from Another Forbidden Planet! (97983). Verdict - ***. Feedback below in this thread.

@GlaziusF

Running on a low 40s DB/Fire brute. Diff 2 so bosses is bosses. Mission Engineer. -_-

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Wow, that's long accept text. I generally don't think it's a good idea to get cute with accept text, just make it an objective statement of the goals and shunt any amusing dialogue to either the briefing or the "on mission acceptance" box afterward. That way team members can know what's up too.

I will say the premise is modestly interesting. Stealing crime gear from the criminals and all.

Mmm. Traditionally there's something you have to do in the last room - I'd suggest moving the gas itself to the back. As it is there are about three empty rooms at the back of the map I wind up on.

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Hmm. You got room for a little inner monologue in the briefing for the second mission? As it is I was a bit clueless what I was doing running through the security offices... well, until I got inside, anyway.

Once again, though, the objective shows up on the third floor of 5. Lot of nice little flavor bits in here, though, some stray arifacts to smash and civilians to kidnap. Managed to just run through everything and laugh at the puny guns.

It may be because I just ran a mission on the relevant map yesterday, but I see what you're going to pull here and I love it in advance.

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Once again, you could probably move/copy/paraphrase the mission intro text to some "inner monologue" in the briefing.

Any reason why this Council base isn't, uh, a Council base?

The sole objective shows up somewhere close to the back this time, and I guess it's in a "back" location since this is the top floor.

But... wait a second there, mission complete clue. Heroes? Emergency services? I thought this was the Rogue Isles. Have I been running around in Paragon City all this time? Nerva is the "good part" of the Rogue Isles, heavily patrolled by Longbow, so it wouldn't be unreasonable for something to get moved there, but a lone villain with a presence in Paragon City enough for a stable base of operations seems a little much.

Having the contact talk about the location of Maegwyn in the first briefing would help a little.

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There! The briefing for the finale has the kind of internal monologue I was asking for!

Heh. Yeah, this is about what I figured would happen.

...you'd think "may grant HIDEOUS BERESERKER FRENZY" would have been mentioned on the tin of this stuff. Ah well, wouldn't hardly be a challenge without SOME opposition.

...aw no. What's this I see on the second floor just upstairs from the elevator? After fighting a grand total of two spawns from this custom group?

Why yes, it DOES appear to be what I came here for!

I head up to the top floor anyway in search of something interesting, and yep, there's a nice chemicaled boss, but all his pathetic mewling doesn't change that this fight's really kind of an anticlimax at this point.

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Storyline - ****. It needs an explicit place to happen, a little more monologue since the contact's in her own little junkie world, and this monologue would include not only your immediate mission plans but maybe some explanation of how you two met in the first place, because she knows your name. (though we may be getting contact descriptions in I15 that'd take care of that.)

Design - ***. I was pretty impressed by the incidental spawns that made the first three missions feel populated. Can't think why they vanished in the fourth. (you can have a "boss" fight with any element of a custom group, if you want to do setpieces consisting only of people) But when the vital thing that I need to do shows up maybe a third of the way into the mission, that just doesn't make sense.

Gameplay - ***. I never thought I'd have to mark down for being too easy, but if "frustratingly easy" made any sense at all it would apply here. In the first mission I found the necessary glowies all clumped in a hallway, figured one of them had to be a trap, fought all the way to the end of the mission looking for the real one, and nope, that was them. There's a total of one boss-level fight in this arc and it's optional. I want my 15 minutes of sweaty-palmed button-mashing boss fight before I call it a caper!

Detail - *****. The contact's very well-realized, there's a nice variety of customs in the final battle, and most of the objectives have fitting if plain descriptions.

Overall - ***. By the later levels of CoV characters either can handle bosses or run on a difficulty where they don't encounter them. A fight with a normal boss now and then is exciting and perhaps a good marker of a significant objective or installation. As it is, even if this is a jar of water from the Well of the Furies, I think all I had to do to get it was click six glowies. It just doesn't feel like it means anything.

The review's going here because the thread went defunct in the great thread defunctening.

@GlaziusF

Running on a low-40s DB/Fire brute. Diff 2 to fight bosses as bosses. Mission Engineer just keeps coming closer.

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...good lord that kid's got a freaky face. The combination of the angled eyes and the hair make it look like someone grabbed the top of his head and pulled.

"The other two"? Kid, you and the HUD need to have a little chat.

...wait, is that one custom lieut using Psychic Wail? There's this "end recovery debuff" icon that shows up after the PBAoE.

...and the HUD goes from "Get the last kid out" to "2 children to find and lead to safety"?

Oh, I see. That other kid... showed up as a chained objective? Why isn't he just on the map to start with? (also the system message checks assumes he's spawning on escort complete but he really spawns on rescue)

...and the custom minions are using Shockwave and Pendulum? Lordy. That explains why I'm getting shot full of more holes than a sponge at an augur convention.

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...um, kid? How exactly am I supposed to go diving into the psychic plane? I don't exactly keep a portal under my bed next to the questionable magazines.

This office is, I'm pretty sure, not in psychic space.

...yeah, it's psychic wail. Lieutenants with a tier 9 psychic blast that stuns.

I search the upper offices for a "strange feeling above"... after I'm halfway through the caves and realize there should be something upstairs. It's hidden behind a wall, and...

Oh. Hi, AV. Good thing I made my own luck.

...wait, I'm inside Mother Mayhem's mind? How the baloney sandwiches did that happen?

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I guess given that this kid can rip open portals to the asylum like it ain't no thang, I shouldn't have been surprised.

But I do dislike the asylum, there's only one variation on the map and it's frustrating to navigate because of all the tiny walls.

OH COME ON NOW. Lietuenants with rage! They always hit me and do double damage and seem to gain resistance to lethal for some inexplicable reason and IT DOESN'T WEAR OFF in anything like a reasonable timeframe!

And the tier 9 psychic blaster lieuts also get confuse now, and there's another one with Deceive and buildup.

Yeah, uh... why exactly am I bothering with fighting Mother Mayhem? And what's with this whole puppet business? You'd think she'd be able to, y'know, READ MY MIND AND KNOW WHY I'M HERE?

Anyway, after burning all my insps trying to survive the final boss's... ESCORT... I am in no shape to fight another AV. Good thing they sell inspirations right outside the hospital.

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Storyline - ***. I have no idea how I managed to find the second mission or what it really represents, and the SECOND fight with Mother Mayhem in as many missions just feels glued-on and unnecessary.

Design - *****. Visually the custom enemies are very distinct and definitely built to look scary and otherworldly.

Gameplay - *. But their power selection is unnecessarily brutal. Rage? Psychic wail? Two confuses? Tier 9 melee powers on minions? And the second AV fight shows up as a surprise when I'm tapped out from the first.

Detail - ****. I'm betting that space issues kept the missions pretty sparse - there were an awful lot of customs. But sparse is sparse, though everything certainly fit.

Overall - ***. Leave Mama M out of the third mission or give her a really, really GOOD reason to be there, and for cryin' out loud psychic wail on a lieutenant is murder.

Tonight's leadoff and only mission (I need to start playing earlier so I can get to bed earlier): Small Fears (12285). Verdict: ***. Review below in this thread.

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GlaziusF here helped me a lot with Speeding Through Time way back when, so I'm just saying this is a great thread by a cool guy.

I may have to try and wiggle my way into a review here. Pretty sure I've played all your arcs at some point, but that's just because I'm awesome and ahead of the curve.

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Uh, you don't need to play my stuff or anything. Just post your mission on www.cohmissionreview.com and say you want me, baby. I'm easy that way.

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I was just saying I'd already played them to point out how cool I am.

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Well, put the arc on CoHMR, it'll go in the bingo draw with all the others.

Dream Paper (1874) works as soon as you can handle Lost and Tsoo, which may not be very soon.
Bricked Electronics (2180) I have done with a level 6 shield scrapper, though admittedly on heroic.

@GlaziusF

Running on a low-40s DB/Fire brute, diff 2 so bosses is bosses, in search of Mission Engineer.

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Ah, low-level gangbustin'. Good stuff.

Mr. Runner lives up to his name. Good thing I still have my Nemesis staff.

The police ally goes down to what are effectively dual ambushes - Runner's guards and the actual ambushes. Thank goodness for inspirations. But I don't think the second ambush is needed here.

Ah, time to pull up a chair for storytime. Cops have secrets and all that.

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....wait wait wait wait wait. Dude cold murdered 20 people and he's already out on parole? I mean, okay, maybe the Zig's full up with people who tear down city blocks for jollies, but still.

Bzuh? The Button Men are on my side? Not that I'm complaining about help as lowbie as I am now.

Ah, okay. Looks like there IS a secret about them 20 murders. Thanks, enemy description!

The HUD seems to think this is a defeat all but there are still Hellions running around when the mission completes.

Ah, a dumbfire burnination machine from an ancient civilization, or whatever.

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Man. Somehow running Circle on diff 2 gives me spawns with twin spectral demon lords.

Not surprised I got beaten to the punch there, really. Wouldn't be much of an arc if I just came back safe and sound.

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Hmm. Final map's nice but really a bit too small. The detective shows up within spitting distance of the end boss. Ah well, chug insps and charge has worked before, it'll work again.

Heh, this guy's made of ally keep-away. Hot Feet AND Rain of Fire. Not that I'm complaining about them not being in range to get shredded.

Also the description of what happens to Kindle would fit perfectly well as an end-of-mission clue, especially since there may still be some mopup to do so the system text gets scrolled off.

But... if the idol was this easy to break why didn't they just do it in the first place?

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Storyline - ****. The story overall is great, but there are a couple of things right at the end that bug me - the last area is set up to be some kind of leyline focus, but exactly how the Hellions tie into it is never explained. And why not just destroy a statue that turns its possessor into a dumbfire magical inferno, if it was easy enough for a little dude like myself to do it?

Design - ****. Great work on the small number of custom "guest stars", and on using a map (the speakeasy) that I hadn't seen used before to very good effect. But I am just a little bit weirded out by the last map with the ally so close to the boss spawn. He had Targeting Drone up too, so I was almost certain he'd start attacking as soon as he was free.

Gameplay - *****. Circle Spectrals are a giant pain, but they're not YOUR giant pain, so it all works out.

Detail - *****. Very nice detailing job on pretty much everything. Just a couple tiny things I'd correct that I already noted in the main review.

Overall - *****. Solid lowbie arc with a decent storyline and some nice guest stars. Needs a little more polish but brother, don't we all?

@GlaziusF

Playin' on a low 40s DB/Fire brute, diff 2 so bosses is bosses. Mission Engineer is so close, so close.

Per the author's request I will not openly comment on the ending.

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So the Freakshow want a party girl, living in a party world. I get them.

Oh. Hired muscle. Well, they have the muscle and they're easy to hire.

Unconventional intervention strategy, if that's what the guy was gunning for.

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You know, if this is for level 50 heroes, Crey is a discredited front for Julianne Thompson's global domination ambitions.

But I can forgive this for HAHA SWEATER VESTS AND LITTLE BOWTIES.

Also someone else has noticed the magic pack's wonderful inclusion of TWEED JACKETS.

(though you should probably put that guy back at the entrance as it was he and his squad surrounded me after I finished the last mission)

So... the guy I'm looking at got earthquaked and then earthquaked again.

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Time to go sort through his old photos!

...hmm. A sonic device.

And there was a sonic tank, noted for dressing up like a Freakshow.

And a lot of the Freakshow are former Crey.

Are these things related? Time will tell.

Also I can forgive the whole Crey 'accidentally' opening fire thing because the setup is so funny.

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Hmm. You know, I'm beginning to suspect how this is all going to end. Not going to say anything, though, but the current state of affairs seems far too obvious to be the whole story.

Very considerate. It's not often that you find a doomsday weapon actually labeled "Doomsday Weapon".

But where's the module that makes shoes for orphan children?

Hmm. Though the Freak chatter here is a little worrying. It's like this stuff is here just for the mysterious boss to establish himself as a threat.

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I can see what you're going for with the final mission here, but there are just so many places for the freaks and their entourage to hide, and I don't really have a good sense for where the "areas" are. So the upshot is that I spend a whole lot of time jumping around over dead space and pounding tab, and half the time hitting on Freak minions who've rezzed behind me.

(the "defeated boss" system messages are getting to HEY WISSEN levels of repetitively annoying here)

And it ends about like I thought it would, though not exactly for the reason I thought it would.

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Storyline - ***. I don't buy it. That's all I'll say here. The story sets up for something to happen in the last mission but the thing that shows up is the wrong shape.

Design - *****. Second mission has hilarious customs. Everything else is well-fitting for what it's supposed to be.

Gameplay - ***. The end map is a lot of jumping over empty space. I realize to some extent this can't be helped but that doesn't mean it's any less boring. And the end boss just saps and saps and saps. It's not even very damaging, it's just an empty blue bar.

Detail - *****. But everything's fleshed out to the last bit, and it's always worth it to check a description or bug the contact.

Overall - ****. Mostly this is because the last mission is such a comparatively boring letdown, which is not the shift in tone that was advertised.

Tonight's leadoff mission was going to be "standing within the mists" but it hasn't popped up on CoHMR yet. Maybe tomorrow.

So tonight's ACTUAL leadoff will be The Echo (1688). Verdict: ****. Commentary on MA Forums Thread.

First random CoHMR arc: Saving the Haven Children (4102). Verdict: ***. (old review, commentary not reposted).
Second random CoHMR arc: Idol Hands (141376). Verdict: *****. Review below in this thread.

[ QUOTE ]
GlaziusF here helped me a lot with Speeding Through Time way back when, so I'm just saying this is a great thread by a cool guy.

I may have to try and wiggle my way into a review here. Pretty sure I've played all your arcs at some point, but that's just because I'm awesome and ahead of the curve.

[/ QUOTE ]

Uh, you don't need to play my stuff or anything. Just post your mission on www.cohmissionreview.com and say you want me, baby. I'm easy that way.

@GlaziusF

Playing on a low 40s DB/Fire brute, diff 2 so I fight bosses as bosses. Mission Engineer draws ever closer.

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Lumps of crystal sitting around giving out missions is no basis for a system of justice! How would it sound if I said a piece of jasper told me to rob a bank?

But more seriously, the second person contactery doesn't work. Drop it into first-person, wrap some italics around it, and call it good. It turns into a headtrip instead of somebody awkwardly puppeting me and telling me how to feel.

It's kind of sad that the knockoff reflections of Crey are more fun to fight than actual Crey in this level range.

"permeate" is active, not passive. You can't just substitute it for "fill". And, uh, giant hunks of rock don't have emotions. Emotions are evoked, not projected.

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Passive-aggressive little hunk of shiny, this crystal. First it decides I'm offended, then it decides it's apologized. Look, buddy, just give it to me straight, alright?

...

HATE THIS MAP.

Only one layout, terrible pain to navigate, have to click on a "dead end" to progress making it impenetrable for first-timers, can't freaking see anything. It works in its original context because most if not all of the Rularuu glow. This is not my beautiful 1800s cattle town! I was expecting like that one Croatoa village map or something!

And there are little internal demons that let me know I've found them by popping build up.

...wonderful. The terrible thing about these caves in general, and this map's use of them in specific, is that you can knock something into a wall and then it can hit you from anywhere on the map but you can never hit it.

GUESS WHAT I DID TO A BOSS.

Quitting game, coming back, planning the knockaround a little better this time. And that fight was going so well until the Sapper stepped in, too.

Speaking of sappers, aim and short circuit put together can take out about 2/3 of an end bar pretty inerrantly. Good thing the AI doesn't understand the range of the latter or I'd really be screwed.

Man. This is gonna turn out to be another arc about playing psychotherapist to some codependent nutjob who thinks the best way to honor the dead is by destroying everything else they ever loved. At least this time I'm taking my frustrations out on the twisted little twisters inside his brain.

Also now that I don't knock a boss into a wall, "prevades" is probably a typo for "pervades", and it means "to be everywhere", meaning using it as a contrast doesn't work either. (Yes, I'm being a little anal about this when I overlook other grammar mistakes in other arcs. If you're going to use ten-dollar words don't put 'em on paper plates.)

...also, random boss placement REALLY doesn't work in this cave, because there are side passages that you can just completely ignore on your first pass.

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Yeah. First-person narrative would really work a lot better here. You're trying to express sensations that don't really work when all there are is a wall of text.

Huh. Okay, so is this in an alternate dimension (as Neuron's bots would seem to suggest) or are the Portal Corp labs just falling apart now?

(also, PX4837 isn't consistent with Portal Corp nomenclature. All the dimensions heroes visit have the pattern "greek letter greek letter number-number" and the numbers seem to be two digits at most. For example, the Psychic Clockwork dimension is Epsilon Tau 27-2.)

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Why yes, intro text, I do wonder why the Circle is here in this graveyard.

It would be nice if one of them would tell me.

....okay, one of them does! But exactly how brushing some moss off a tombstone and getting interrupted notifies him I have no idea. (seriously it just seems like that objective bugs out. Also the stone vanishes but that may be deliberate.)

...uh, dude, I know Diviner Maros. I've done missions for Diviner Maros. And you, sir, are no Diviner Maros. I appreciate the paucity of the models but with the arcane pack out you can probably whip up a custom that looks pretty close.

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And now it's time to fight somebody's emotions come to life in a freaky alternate dimension.

...uh, I think I did this already and it was called mission 2.

Still the same 3 EBs with an AV friend to help 'em. Can a brotha get that greatest of all treasures, which is Hope? Or some kind of assist.

I mean, from what I understand the dude locked himself in a room and paced his thoughts around so much they wore through the floor of his mind, turning him into a psychopath with a private army of neuroses.

There's got to be something left that wants to actually go on living.

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Storyline - ***. This is another mission that tries to get cute with the contact. The problem is that, while I have no doubt the author has a clear picture in mind while writing, that picture has to transmit, and the more stylized the text gets, the less likely it is to actually happen. I have no idea what distinguishes mission 1 from mission 3, or mission 2 from mission 5, other than that 2 and 3 are more boring than their counterparts - 2 because of the map, 3 because Crey provide a lot more variety than Neuron's wall o' robots.

Design - ****. The maps at least make sense with what they're supposed to be, and the use of custom enemies and custom groups is generally well-done. I do question giving the lieuts and EBs access to Aim/Build Up, if possible Maros needs a model that actually looks more like him, and given that all the psychos are supposed to be manifestations of one guy's heartbreak shouldn't they all be one gender? I mean, Despair comes off as a heartbroken lesbian, which I am pretty sure a guy from the 1800s would spontaneously combust on encountering.

Gameplay - ****. The EBs with their occasional short-circuiting help are a pain, and the final boss opens the fight with Instant Healing. I wore most of it out taking out his mook squad and his singy, but we were still ineffectually flailing at each other for quite some time.

Detail - **. The main fault in the storyline is how terribly the contact text expresses what's actually going on. It feels like someone trying to communicate with sign language in a mascot costume - there are shapes under the surface moving but it's very hard to tell what they mean. Eventually I just gave up. Which is exactly the opposite of what you want to happen.

Overall - ***. An arc that needs a pass for balance, and whose storytelling style attempts to do something new but ends up obscuring the story. Not the overall shape of what's going on, but the reason why each mission is happening.

(yeah, like I'm gonna try to type out that monstrosity of a title)

@GlaziusF

Running on a low 40s DB/Fire brute. Diff 2: bosses is bosses. Engineer draws closer.

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Okay, looks like somebody didn't finish coding some things and just left a bunch of placeholder crap in. Dummied out bosses, missing objective text...

Of course it's all deliberate.

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Second mission, looks like I've been routed to some kind of test server?

The bugs' descriptions are too common sensical. Needs more IT jargon. "This file is created by: when:"

...dude, Ted. No porn on the network drive. How many times do we have to say it?

(though can you make minions out of 'em too? Having a dual blast/assault lieutenant is kind of a pain.)

What garbled text leaks through seems to indicate the server farm has various unique and bloodthirsty elements. And it's gone rampant. Peachy.

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The cornball slogans are getting more ball-shaped and full of corn as time goes on.

Um... I'm not sure I WANT to fill out a pile of forms on a bloodstained ancient desk. Oh well, anything for a few cents of refund, right?

Gack. In modest numbers these elec blasts drain me dry, and that's just one spawn.

Heh. I wouldn't push it, complete clue. "Problem? WHAT problem? This burning building is completely natural!" seemed to be more the tenor of my interactions.

---

Storyline - ***. No, I'm not marking down for humor. I'm marking down for "I just signed a blood contract, meddled with stuff I don't understand, fought crazy manifestations of system files, and now it's just OVER?" C'mon! I signed a document legally binding me to undertake a mission in compensation and the entry popup is I AM THE DREAD DAEMON ROBERTS AND I AM HERE FOR YOUR SOUL. Everybody was acting like the system had a mind of its own, so let's SEE it!

Design - *****. But the crazy random stuff that occurs as a result of corrupted missions is suitably over the top.

Gameplay - ***. But getting hammered by twin blast lieutenants isn't much fun, and neither is waiting around after every spawn in the last mission to recover from the severe, severe sapping elec blasts dish out. Ted's porn folder needs minions, and the system bugs need some more enemies with non-sappy power sets for variety. Energy melee/assault, maybe?

Detail - ****. Not so much for the terrible spelling, because it was deliberate terrible spelling. But the "log files" need a more techie description on them, and the "affronted British gentleman" style of the accept text didn't really work for me. Just make the accept text a quick objective summary of the mission goals, such as they are. There's nothing wrong with that.

Overall - ****. A well-realized idea with some difficulty hangups whose main flaw is that it doesn't go far enough.

Whaddaya know, I got arcs in on a Friday.

Tonight's leadoff: Premium Quality Mission (148476). Verdict - ****. Review below in this thread as the provided one was dropped from the boards.

"Tonight"'s first random CoHMR arc: A Glimpse Into Eternity (38604). Verdict - ***. Review below in this thread. Actually one I looked at last night, thought was interesting, and have been running off and on today.

Another "leadoff" from this thread a bit later tonight!

[ QUOTE ]

Also, when did you realize that Steve was placed there on purpose, and not just a random boss to fight?


[/ QUOTE ]

First mission. Wyvern isn't one of those guys that spawns bosses on diff 2; also, what part of I READ EVERYTHING did you not get?

Making, yes.

Publishing? That's a different animal.

[ QUOTE ]

- Changed the map on mission four from outdoor 'Steel Canyon' to 'Atlas ruined'. Removed destroyable objective.

The ally and Elite Boss have green auras that make them easier to find against the dark red landscape.


[/ QUOTE ]

Red Atlas a) has no minimap b) has broken terrain over half the map with two-story walls. It's a worse outdoor map than that offshoot of Steel Canyon.

[ QUOTE ]

One of the things I noticed in all the missions that bugs me a little personally is a cluttered nav bar. I always prefer multiple rescues et. al. to be combined so it's "4 Teen Phalanx members to meet" instead of "Meet Citadel XP, Meet Manticora, etc." And when it's down to the last one, use the singular to add their name.


[/ QUOTE ]

This would be nice if it worked.

But it doesn't work.

The singular for a "disparate plural" objective is... I think either the first or last one that appears in the mission window?

Regardless, it's fixed, and therefore not guaranteed to actually match the single objective that's really left.

@GlaziusF

Live feedback from a low 40s DB/fire brute, on diff 2, so bosses is bosses. Mission Engineer draws ever closer.

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Oh boy, mishandled temporal equipment. That never goes that never goes that never goes vergo vergo vergo vergoes wrong.

Hmm. Marx is awfully unconcerned about being beaten on. I wonder if he's out-of-sync with the timestream before he finally acknowledges that I'm beating him into unconsciousness.

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Huh. Uh, what happened to the artifact? I don't know how to interpret Foreshadow's reaction - it isn't until I enter the mission again that I realize it's vanished.

Maybe mention it in an end-of-mission clue or a debrief?

I'm not sure why I fixate on the computer specifically here, but okay, I click it, go fight Marx, come back... and prevent Wyvern from breaking it? I guess come I15 this'll be replaced with a chained click.

Be nice if I got a clue about trying to interact with the computer, then getting pulled out, or "bumping up against the edge of the loop" and replaying the same actions over and over.

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Heh. So this is how it keeps from going stale. W-Space!

Marx's recollection of the event seems to be moving further back into the past. Interesting touch.

It wouldn't hurt to have actual interaction time and text with all the stuff to frob, especially since you're just picking things up blind.

...you know, Steve was still up when I punched out Marx this mission. I could have just said "HEY STEVE!" and there ya go.

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Be nice to get a clue from Steve, who after all this was just another Wyvern boss. Maybe the artifact he was talking about, so I get a picture of what it looks like before it melts down into a closed loop of causality.

Y'all were coexisting just fine, man. In the same warehouse and everything. Maybe like "we must not touch", or "if it comes that close, then..."

Three months? Is that three actual months or did it eat three months from me? And wasn't I coming out just slightly before I went in? Four loops does not really make three months.

Also, how the hell does Foreshadow know what the device is when I never got that information and it's disappeared up its own behind now?

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Storyline - ***. There's never actually a reveal what the device IS until I fight it. And some of the steps in the chain that I repeat don't make sense in that I knew everything I needed to LAST loop and the stuff to interact with was still there. If you've got space (and I don't see why not) use the fourth mission for the reveal (maybe by now Marx is a non-combat ally), have both artifacts "disappear" back to the start of the loop, and then the fifth mission is an outdoor map ("wait, what? This... was a warehouse. Right?") full of hideous monstrosities with Steve and Marx and the computer unaffected by their journey sidewise through time because of exposure to antichronons in the lab or something.

Design: *****. Thoroughly excellent map choice reinforces the idea of the same "boss room" being at the end of an ever-lengthening labyrinth.

Gameplay - *****. Nothing off here, everything was pretty much smooth sailing.

Detail - ****. Marx had a standard description every time I bothered to check. He should be getting tweaked over time as well. Aside from that and a request for actual interaction with the filler glowies in the third mission, no complaints about the detail.

Overall - ****. An interesting concept, but with all the actual explanation crammed up against the very end. It needs to be spread throughout the arc a little more, or the arc needs to not end in the same mission where everything's explained. Either or.

@GlaziusF.

Running on a low-40s DB/fire brute, diff 2 so bosses is bosses, in search of mission engineer.

As a prelude, I wonder how many arcs in the system are just silently broken, with their authors wondering why no one ever comes to play them.

AE players, if you hit play and the contact remains a pulsing hologram and there is no "architect options" button in your HUD, please send a global tell to the author and let them know their arc is broken. Most people don't think to check after every little patch.

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...uh. You don't need to warn me in the first mission that things are going to explode out of control, arc. I'm a big boy. I can punch things.

I wonder why this isn't a shop, then I find out there's a hostage rescue, then I wonder why, when there are radio missions on the pawn shop maps with captives to rescue, the game won't let you put any captives on them.

Joe's rescue dialogue tells me that he's pointed me to a stash, which I guess is this glowing whiteboard, but it would be nice to get a little clue or something to that effect.

Also there's an entire other floor to the little office. I guess that's just map weirdness, I remember radios on this plot being a bit off too.

Also the glowie that triggers Joe can spawn in little nooks on the bottom floor so you just miss it, as I did on my second try at this. Maybe just make it optional and put him there to start?

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Looks like more classic Crey blame-pushing. A lab doing something weird... with another empty last floor. I find an informative glowie on floor 1, the spawner glowie on floor 2, and back to floor 1 to fight the boss.

Magical artifact - oh, the runed thumb drive. I don't consider it so much a magical artifact as a piece of technology with some magic painted on top of it. Maybe describe it as a piece of rock about the size of a thumb drive that's been filed to fit in a standard slot or something?

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Hmm. I'm not sure exactly what motivation Silverball has to be giving me this information. Ah well, we'll see how it lies.

Maybe if he mentioned his buddy was captured by Arachnos first, and then brought up how it could help you out a bit later?

A few notable side investigables here, nothing major.

Rescue objective right in the middle of two other spawns. To the hospital I go. Coming back and springing the captive the system text says something about a forcefield, but he's just hands-on-head kneeling.

...a thick data packet? Sounds weird, considering data packets aren't actually physical objects.

---

Ah, now a demon's after me. Not like that's new, but at least I'm not a floating soul.

Oh. The drive was powering a portal to a spirit realm. Let's see what it looks like!

...heh. Oh, that's a nice justification.

I say the same thing to you as I have said before: battles can currently start without characters present. Do not assume they are when writing dialogue!

I say the same thing to you as I have said before: multiples of a given objective will display their complete text after every objective is completed! Do not assume complete text only displays once all the objectives are finished!

Oh. So it was a different demon that had the whammy on me than the demon I actually fought in the lab? Uh, alright.

Not so alright: THEY ALL USE MIND CONTROL WHAT THE HELL. Except, blessedly, the boss, so when I run out of break frees at least the confuse doesn't get perma-applied.

Get juggled a bunch with stacked levitates, though.

---

Storyline - ***. My main complaints are that Silverball doesn't have much incentive to be helping you after the second arc - what's in it for him? - and the final boss and his enemy group just kinda come out of nowhere.

Design - ***. The "lines" of customs look pretty much identical, and the tendrils make it hard to pick out the different body shape of the brawler line. And do they all have to be spamming mind control?

Gameplay - ****. Seriously, do they all have to be spamming mind control? I can get confuse stacked even through a single break free and then I can't do much of anything but watch as the psi damage takes its toll. I don't actually die in the last mission but it comes close in a couple places.

Detail - ***. Notably missing from this arc is any kind of explanation as to the true nature of the drive before you dive inside it. Common mistakes also ruin the atmosphere details try to set up in the last mission.

Overall - ***. Figure out something for the customs to have that isn't Mind Control, foreshadow the end mission a little bit, and fix the problems with text not fitting the events of the mission, and this goes up a bit.

@GlaziusF

Playing as a low 40s DB/Fire brute on diff 2, so bosses is bosses. Mission Engineer draws closer with every passing moment.

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Ah, smacking down homegrown justice. One of the most satisfying parts of the late game. Let's see how this goes.

Hmm. The first two-three sentences of the custom enemy description aren't really necessary, except for the boss. Nice power design, interesting objectives (is saving the destructibles optional?)

I'm not sure about some photos and a manifest meaning outside help. I mean, there was probably a manifest in the warehouse and cameras aren't a controlled technology.

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Hey, I'd probably enjoy smacking around a leader just for the hell of it, at this point.

Intro text, these guys may be young but it's not like none of them had a voice drop yet.

So it was supposed to be a trap set by the puny men with bows. Works out about as well as anything else they do.

Really this sounds more like a Longbow thing. Wyvern are just Manti's private army, and spending money funding guerillas... actually, never mind.

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And we're going to discourage them with total destruction. I can get behind that.

The two terminals I have to access are literally right next to each other. Random placement weirdness? The interact text for the second one is "access the last terminal".

Short little base all in all. I was expecting more actual destruction but I guess the aftermath is nice.

And I guess we get to put some guy's girlfriend in a refrigerator now or something?

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You'd think LS would take his girlfriend with him, wherever he was going.

Interesting presence though. I would have expected a boss, but she's just behind two of them from the custom group as an effective noncombatant. ...why not just an "ally" following you around, though? I guess you'd have to knock her out to stop her calling for help or somesuch.

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And now it's the end. Please don't be on fire, base, you do my framerate an awful turn.

Ah, dear, you are. At least you don't have the obvious geometry hole you used to have.

The Huntsman is good help doing enough damage to him though he does shrug off a lot of it being as S/L tolerant.

---

Storyline - ***. Ordinarily this'd be a bit higher but I was struck by something near the end of the Wyvern base - this is a gender-swapped version of Lorenz Ansaldo's Sea Witch arc. Chop off the first two setup missions and it's pretty much the same structure, and the first two setup missions don't really establish much of a link to the "helper group" within the missions.

Design - ****. The customs are very "street" looking, with more specialized attire for the one-off bosses. The missions take place in generally appropriate and modestly full settings, though I kinda lament the lack of stuff to break when I'm invading enemy bases.

Gameplay - *****. No problems working through, but I'm glad I saved up inspirations for the end boss. Also thank you from the bottom of my withered little heart for not giving him Rage.

Detail - ***. I didn't really get much of a sense of personality from the customs aside from "generic do-gooder". We don't get any real background on Liberty's Son so whatever he says about his oath or whatever doesn't really have much impact to it.

Overall - ****. It's pretty much a competently executed canon mission with the names changed, and a decently-realized new custom group.