GlaziusF

Tonight's leadoff arc is from someone with another extant arc I happened to random into. I figure since if I do a leadoff first I can do a random it should work the other way around.

Tonight's leadoff arc: Fighting Freedom (177930). Verdict: ****. Commentary below.
Tonight's first random CoHMR arc: Parts Unknown (78964). Verdict: ***. Commentary below in this thread. (not actually random as it got the playability fix since yesterday.)
Tonight's second random CoHMR arc: Time Loop (137561). Verdict: ****. Commentary on MA Forums Thread.
(Tonight's not-third random arc: CoHMR coughs up "Escalation". What is this, night of the living double-plays?)

Well, Dream Paper (1874) and Bricked Electronics (2180) are both supposed to be appropriate for 10-20 heroes, and I'd love some feedback from a blaster.

@GlaziusF

Running this arc on a low 40's Fire/DB brute. Mission Engineer will not elude me forever!

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If there isn't much time, why not run a timer?

Ah, because there really is all the time in the world. The clue's kind of vague HOW I learn this was a feint. I doubt these guys are the talkative type, as they don't actually say anything or appear to be doing anything inside the lab besides pacing about. Maybe get a radio message from Ms. Liberty?

I can see I'll need to keep some break frees around for these confu lieuts. Fortunately they only have one confuse power.

Uh, exit text? Maybe you should speak to the mission complete clue, he told me what these people were really after. Makes you look bad.

Oh. They actually were trying to destroy something. And the contact has no idea about the other thing I learned where they were STEALING ENRICHED PLUTONIUM.

As an afternote, this was a quite tolerable defeat all. On a tech map with minimal crannies and a very straightforward layout.

---

And in the second mission the contact is back in the loop! It's apparently payback time, though really I was not the one who got jacked around by the feint. I just went to the place and knocked people down until there weren't no more to knock.

...this mission has problems. The map is a giant sprawling office-to-cave-to-sewer affair and the only glowie, the one that completes the mission, is right in the first room. The only enemies to say anything are the ambush that shows up after the mission's already complete.

Apparently I have the chance to interrogate some mercs after a mission I can complete without killing anyone. What?

---

And now I get to trawl, apparently, the entire sewer system looking for a base entrance, because the same group that was introduced to us with a feint surely won't feint again.

Well, whatever it takes to advance the plot, I guess.

I get a boss name in the HUD and... I guess I have to fight the guy? For some reason.

Yes, there he is. Oozing arrogance and contempt, which are oddly blue and translucent.

He sets bombs and... I believe tries to run off? Or maybe it's panic from being knocked down too much. Anyway, for a moment I worry this mission is going to be uncompletable - the demo charges are reporting they're invalid targets - but once their guard is aggroed they show up as they should.

And we get no lead on whatever their base is, but I do capture a comlink. So... apparently what this guy added to sewer operations was a communications leak to the people trying to find them. That seems a bit counterproductive.

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...the next mission sets me to max level 34. For no reason I can discern. I don't complain much about an uneven level range, but the one thing that'll get me is a mission that takes away powers I had at the start of the arc for no apparent reason.

I lose access to Fiery Embrace, Mu Lightning, and Rise of the Phoenix, and I deeply miss the last two (the ally rescue spawns right in the middle of two other groups) and wouldn't mind the first either.

Taking the ally to the door isn't much of a challenge. Maybe if it was more than one ambush she could take out with her pinky.

---

So... Liberty gets to fight the nameless mooks and I get to fight the ancient supervillain. While she is a wreckin' machine and would probably trivialize the fight I think I would still miss her.

...and I not only fight the archvillain but his entire crew of crime. That's just swell. Good thing I tank-stealthed here, otherwise I'd have nowhere to fill up on insps for the next round.

Heading deeper into the base I chug my accumulated break frees to not get confused and practice my knockaround since none of the enemies except the downgraded AV seem to resist it, not that I'm complaining.

But I have to run all the way back to the entrance to mop up the last boss?

That seems to all have happened in entirely the wrong order. Maybe fight some warmup clone of the end boss right up front, then work through his inner circle to take him down at the very end of it?

---

Storyline - **. This is one of those "individual good missions, incoherent whole" things. The clues I get during a mission, the debriefing I get after the mission, and the briefing to kick off the next mission seem to be deciding what happens by majority vote instead of actually agreeing with one another. This really, really needs a pass for consistency. As it is I have no idea what I should be taking as true.

Design - ****. The two major shortfalls are the giant sprawling map that completes with a glowie in the first room and the end mission, which starts with the toughest fight and then moves into the lesser mop-ups. But the missions themselves are also completely empty of everything but required objectives. A little incidental detail would work very nicely indeed. I'm marking this up a star because of the frankly excellent visual design on the custom enemies.

Gameplay - ***. The main serious frustration was suddenly losing access to some powers I'd been using in the fourth mission. There was no reason that I could see to do this.

Detail - ***. The only real attempt to provide any atmosphere happened in the last mission, and while it did make the encounters fell appropriately climactic, every other mission was just bare minimum generic text.

Overall - ***. A pass for continuity, another pass to put in some incidental detail, and a reworking of that fourth mission to cap at the same level the others cap at would improve this arc greatly. As it is it's flawed.

These are tonight's arcs.

Tonight's leadoff: Matchstick Women (3369). Verdict: ****. Feedback left on MA Forums Thread.

Tonight's first random arc: Becky's Revenge (60197). Verdict: *****. (old review) It's, like, short but totally fun?
Tonight's second random arc: Parts Unknown (78964). Verdict: Still bugged - not unstartably so but unplayably so. Hasty patches tend to do this. Will return to the mission once it's fixed and tested.
Tonight's third random arc: Red Scare (77395). Verdict: ***. Review below in this thread.
(Tonight's not-fourth random arc: CoHMR shows me Becky's Revenge again. Is it trying to tell me something?)

@GlaziusF

Running on a low-40s DB/Fire brute (hereafter lovingly called "Easy Mode") on diff 2. Mission Engineer continues to elude me.

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Have you ever realized that some destructible objects have their targeting center off from their model's center? You will, when you see this contact.

Nice choice though.

Okay! Apparently this thing is fueled by powerful psychoactives. Let's go fight all the boys from the waiting room at Ding-Dang!

Nah, just a normal burning place with normal burning people. Wait, strike that last one.

Here's the hilarious thing - the patrols are rogue faction which means they can target and destroy anything, including the destructible objects. They put out their own fire for me and the mission completes.

(maybe just make them enemy and have the council wonder why they can't touch them or something?)

Questions tend to end in question marks, return text.

---

Hmm. Okay. So this is like the Knives of Artemis but instead of killing people it's burning everything.

Yes, probably totally wrong, WORKING ASSUMPTION BACK OFF.

The bosses have notable toggle powers and the captives notable rescue animations so fortunately I can just poing around and find everybody.

Hmm, so the cult leader is pulling a Heaven's Gate on everybody. Alright.

Unfortunately I spring the fightin' captive last. Fortunately it doesn't much matter.

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And now for the denouement. That's French for "when the villain gets it". Except not really. The little thread of a good thing gone wrong that came out in the last mission pops up in this one with a vengeance.

Original Hunch was actually burned, I seem to remember. Perhaps I was wrong about this. Nice book anyway.

But after the fighting's over the little coda at the end is rather disappointing. It wraps up the identify of the contact in a neat little package and that's the end of everything.

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Storyline - ***. The first mission doesn't seem to have much connection with the second and third. It functions as an introduction to the group, loosely, but there's no actual link via clues or otherwise. The third mission feels like a bit of a missed opportunity. If the end boss's "good side" has been helping you out all this time, why not have them show up? Not even as an ally, maybe just as a single-spawn escort-to-entrance that spawns after the end boss goes down.

Design - ****. Again, the first mission has a chance of finishing all on its own if I enter it and then go make a sandwich. That needs to be addressed. The customs are different both in their costuming and in the various auras they put on, which is always a help.

Gameplay - *****. I should technically be abstaining from this since I think I was aware perhaps twice that the enemies were actually trying to damage me (how quaint), and that was with Aim and/or Build Up going off. But as it was, everything went off without a hitch.

Detail - ***. The contact is deliberately written to be wordless, communicating only in pantomime. But the problem with this is that any hints as to its nature don't mean anything until the end. The earlier missions' contact pantomime makes sense once I know the end boss's life story. But I don't know it ahead of time. To put some words into it, why not have some scraps of newspaper dance up into the flames, display prominent headlines, and then burn away?

Overall - ****. Most of this is due to the, I suppose you could say, experimental nature of the contact and the impact it has on the storyline. Everything makes retroactive sense at the end, but I'm wandering in the dark before then.

[ QUOTE ]

Latter is an issue I've seen happen only once before, and been reported once again by another player. No idea how come the captive is fighting the mobs on its own before you get there.


[/ QUOTE ]

The push explosion is a toggle aura. Allies (including captives/escorts, who are effectively a special kind of ally) will run toggles, including PBAoE damage powers, and certain powersets can kill their own captors, who will just stand around and wait to die.

Okay. If/when it comes up I'll send any suggestions on revamping the ending to you via PM. Got a thread for it?

@GlaziusF

Running this on a low 40s DB/Fire brute, on diff 2, so bosses is bosses. Mission Engineer ain't gonna earn itself, after all.

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"Shady" characters, not "shaddy".

It's rather tough for a hero to get over to Mercy Island in the first place, given the rather dim view Arachnos takes of trespassers.

And... 5th? What? Why? If he's looking for mercenaries the Council would probably do just as well and also not canonically be in deep cover hiding.

Uh, you don't get to tell me I'm shuddering, clue. It's fine to just say "he must have been some kind of simulacrum. What's the real thing like?"

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Okay, she's got a fangirl crush on some kind of professional magician. I'm sure he won't turn out to ironically be the mastermind here.

Huh, he's actually in the mission. Reading a newspaper in the middle of a crowd. Okay, guy. Apparently I need to get you out of here alive (why, exactly?) so out you go so I don't get failed because an ambush spawns.

...and you're following me around anyway. Uh, okay, I guess? Fire/mental is a bit of overkill but I ain't complaining.

When you complete any single objective that has multiples, the clue and system text for completion will show up. So they shouldn't imply that you're done.

Sure, plucky girl reporter. Your crush isn't a zombie. Don't let me stop you from drooling on your signed photos, there. Never mind that apparently this stuff doesn't work on the living.

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...uh. Okay, the mission's called "diversion", and it's assumed that the key I picked up is for one of the many branches of the 22nd National that's being robbed.

Somehow I don't think I'm going to find anything useful here, but oh well.

And all I get is a newspaper about a crackdown on villain groups in Europe and a little lecture about how beating the boss all but assures the next step in the plan will work.

Whatever, guy. I didn't really see too many alternatives to swording you into a fine red paste.

Can the contact at least acknowledge that the guy who's being held hostage is the same guy in the paper?

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You know, if the police band is going nuts about the ambassador's kidnapping, maybe they're also going nuts about the zombies?

It wouldn't hurt for that clue from Jarst to be an actual explanation from him of what's going on.

Hmm. Looks like you got some stuff scrambled in the battle dialogue. PPD/Undead saying some PPD stuff, and then PPD/undead both doing zombie moans.

Bombs should be defused. If they diffuse, it's rather bad.

All the bombs seem to be clumped up together at the end. Is that deliberate?

Hmm. Ambushes can contain the Gateway lieutenants, who are definitely not zombies. Not sure what to tell you about dialogue in that case, though.

...what do you mean this was a hollow victory, exit text? Losing one guy and saving several city blocks from being zombie slaves sounds like a pretty good deal in the end.

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Storyline - ***. I don't much like being told how I react to things. Aside from that, the justifications for hitting the warehouse and then the bank seem a bit weak. Maybe in the pile of simulacrum dust Graves leaves behind there's a more tangible link to the warehouse - same with the key and the specific branch of the bank.

Design - **: Having the 5th Column say that they're just placeholders doesn't excuse them just being placeholders. Aside from that the map choices and custom enemy designs are pretty reasonable, though Gateway could stand with a little more than one minion and one lieutenant. I have no idea why you escort the magician to the entrance in the second mission if he's just going to follow you around anyway, though.

Gameplay - ****. It runs smooth, aside from that meaningless escort bit.

Detail - *. A lot of problems here. Objectives and interaction text that don't start with capital letters, typos and word confusions, the souvenir giving the contact's name a couple of different spellings... it really, really needs another pass.

Overall - **. The idea's alright, the customs are reasonable, but the missions need more of a link between them, and the text really needs a pass to correct errors.

Another night passes, more arcs run.

Tonight's lead-off: A Voyage Fantastic (81829). Verdict: ***. Feedback on MA Forums thread.

Tonight's random mission from CoHMR: A Grave Undertaking (120646). Verdict: **. Feedback below in this thread.

@GlaziusF

Commentary from a low-40s DB/Fire brute, since Engineer ain't earning itself any time soon.

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Yeah, those involuntary muscles will destroy you every time.

Hmm. I get a captive who insta-rescues on mission entrance? Are there no level 51 enemies in the group you use? That can sometimes be a symptom of the game trying to spawn something but being unable to.

Also it seems a little off that a metahuman placement agency is working with level 50s. This seems like more low-level kind of work.

Then again, Terrence freaking Dobbs.

Hmm. The bacteriophage is killing its own guards with the AOE pulse aura and embedding them in the walls to boot. One gets stuck and I just kinda wait for it to get pulsed to death.

No caps in the objectives for the bacteriophage or the last cocoon.

Yeah, thanks for the vote of confidence, man. Really makes me want to head back into a slime-covered orifice.

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Geez, doc, would it kill you to be a little positive about the prospects of humanity not being wiped out by interstellar plague?

Hmm. The Coralax cave. I really don't like this one because half of it's empty, taken up by special spawns for TFs or missions. Sometimes patrols can wander down an "empty branch" and I'm never really sure which way to go.

Of course it's this guy.

But, huh. The ambush that shows up at 1/4 health mentions giving him clearance to retreat, except he just kinda hangs around still. Any reason he can't do a runner? There's a lot of terrain to catch him in.

...thanks for taking all the credit, doc. Really, I mean that.

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Storyline - *. So I get shoved into questionable orifices by someone who won't give me the time of day and proceeds to take all the credit. That's bad enough as it is, but the end boss is really just a shaggy dog story. His current plan in re the Rikti is to upload himself into their psychic network and create a world of mad steam geniuses. How does slaughtering everyone on earth help with that, exactly? It's not like there couldn't be, say, a Nictus adapted to a cellular parasite testing out a space plague, or a bunch of Malta Operatives preventing SERAPH from getting any Rikti technology they didn't pay for, or a bunch of Freakshow led by Dreck who got zapped with a shrink ray as a hilarious prank and then blown out the window onto a passing Rikti.

Design - ****. Good reskinning of the existing groups to serve as adversaries. I was expecting some destructibles in the last mission representing the emitters that were spurring sentience or something.

Gameplay - ***. Getting some guys stuck in the wall in the first mission and running around a half-empty map for the second are the major complaints I have here.

Detail - ****. Everything works well, though the end boss is missing any kind of custom description.

Overall - ***. Most of this is because the story treats me like an afterthought and ends with a completely unnecessary cliche. Without that it'd be 4-star territory and would need some map reworking to get up to 5.

Well, people are still playing these arcs and dropping the occasional piece of feedback in game, so I thought I'd put the threads back up.

Arc Name:The Bravuran Jobs
Arc ID:5073
Faction: Wyvern, Legacy Chain, Carnival of Shadows, Custom Group (villainous alignment)
Creator Global/Forum Name: @GlaziusF/GlaziusF
Difficulty Level: Medium/Hard
Synopsis: The tiny sovereignty of Bravura arose in the wake of the Rikti War. It claims an ancient ruling dynasty, but it's an open secret its holdings are products of military conquest. Sounds like your kind of place. And even better, they're looking for freelancers.
Estimated Time to Play: 60-90 minutes
Link to More Details or Feedback: CoHMR entry
Promotional Copy:

Well, people are still playing these arcs and dropping the occasional piece of feedback in game, so I thought I'd put the threads back up.

Arc Name: Bricked Electronics
Arc ID: 2180
Faction: Goldbrickers, Council, Custom Group (heroic alignment)
Creator Global/Forum Name: @GlaziusF/GlaziusF
Difficulty Level: Easy/Medium
Synopsis: Mark Freeman finds a ghost in a machine. Trailing it will lead you through the scrap heaps of Skyway City to stop a grievous heist.
Estimated Time to Play: 30-60 minutes
Link to More Details or Feedback: CoHMR entry
Promotional Copy:

Well, people are still playing these arcs and dropping the occasional piece of feedback in game, so I thought I'd put the threads back up.

Arc Name: Dream Paper
Arc ID: 1874
Faction: Lost, Tsoo, Trolls (heroic alignment)
Creator Global/Forum Name: @GlaziusF/GlaziusF
Difficulty Level: Easy/Medium
Synopsis: The Lost are breaking into the cheapest apartments in the city. Finding out why will lead you up a scanty trail of evidence to a disquieting conclusion.
Estimated Time to Play: 60-90 minutes
Link to More Details or Feedback: CoHMR entry
Promotional Copy:

Well, I wouldn't mind losing some threads - the ones for test versions of arcs that got replaced in live. But yeah, as someone who had all his threads for live missions vanish, I'd rather they didn't.

@GlaziusF

Running this on a low-40s DB/fire brute, diff 2 so bosses is bosses. Let's see how it handles.

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So... this Drakule. Is he from Double Hell, or Scarytown? Because I don't think I'm ready for Scarytown.

Opening contact dialogue: thoroughly earnestly hilarious.

Anyway. Into the cloughb. Hmm. The human minions could stand to be just "people with an unhealthy obsession with black leather" or somesuch instead of calling out a subculture.

Also you really need to find some way to give the ninja dudebro a popped collar. I don't care if he's wearing spandex long johns, he needs a popped collar.

The actual boss is not much trouble since I keep a couple break frees sitting around for MA missions, and Mind is the short-duration kind of confuse. Also, nice use of those parts from the magic pack. Tiny pink wings EVERYWHERE. Crazy.

Also also, striking visual design on the flaming guys. Crouched over or even standing up they manage to look nonhuman despite using the same mesh.

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It seems my contact is a machine, whose only two speeds are "walk" and "kill Drakule".

Ah, burning Oranbega. This does nicely as a demon castle.

...though the brides of Drakule seem to have come from an alternate dimension where this is a thoroughly serious story and there are no such concerns as attempting to update one's wardrobe after centuries of sleep or cleaning up the kitchen after a failed batch of hemoblood decides to start sliming out and devouring spawn or similar amusing castellan pastimes.

And the Castlevania bit coming from Drakule himself is one spot of parody in what seems like an otherwise serious boss fight.

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Storyline - ****. I was having fun laughing at how pretentious and overwrought everything was until the tail end of the second mission, when it suddenly became just, uh, tentious and wrought, I guess? That sudden tone shift was the only dark spot.

Design - *****. Very well-thought-out visuals on the custom enemies, and the maps are serviceable as well. I would have liked to see more random chatter in the castle, though.

Gameplay - *****. Drakule kicked my [censored], mostly because I'd run low on inspirations fighting the brides. With a normal loadout he went down readily enough. But dying once to the final boss isn't exactly unreasonable.

Detail - ***. The fight dialogues and descriptions of Drakule's Brides and Drakule himself are a lot more pedestrian then the rest of the arc, which is lightly comedic. They just sort of put the brakes on the good mood that was buoying me along. If they get a little humor in 'em, well...

Overall - ****. But it could easily have been 5s across the board if the last mission kept the light tone up all the way through.

Tonight's missions!

The leadoff for tonight: Amazon Avatars (5909). Verdict - ****. Commentary on MA Forums thread.

Tonight's first random arc: Heroes No More? (36861). Verdict - *****. Unfortunately this is an old rating that I think carried over from test and the thread has fallen off the forums.
Tonight's second random arc: Rise of the Drakule (51357). Verdict - ****. Commentary below in this thread.

@GlaziusF

Playing on a low 40s DB/Fire brute. Mission Engineer is getting closer by the second.

Played this once, very early on, and kinda remember it, but it's apparently changed so here I is again.

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So Mr. Alex has an artifact of danger. Honey, aren't they all.

His pitch seems a little stilted though. Maybe just "Whatever will motivate you to retrieve that artifact, I offer to you. Once it is free we can discuss terms."

Hmm. Place seems empty. Oh, but there's a boss on a catwalk right up front.

Heheheh. "With some success". Sure thing, magical weapon description. Keep pretending the Warriors aren't getting owned five ways from Sunday on the streets of Talos.

I'm not sure "Forensics" is usable as a category noun when talking about types of evidence.

Little clue typo: it should be "Protective Amulets" -- but there's really no need to have separate clues for all the filler, especially since they're so long. Just dumping a little cursory description into the chat should work.

Everything isn't front-loaded this time so that's a bonus.

Hmm. Maybe Alex should call Malta "their CUSTOMARY employers". Other people do hire the Knives.

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Eh heh heh. Is there anyone who has a problem with beating up on Malta?

But this clue: "These files seem to indicate that Malta isn't behind the theft of the artifact. You'll need both these files and the papers on the Supervisor to confirm this isn't just a Malta trick." I... really don't understand what you're trying to say there. How does a computer file tell me anything about what information I need from someone else?

What are they? Retrieval orders? Malta warehouse manifests? And why do I need corroborating evidence?

It still seems rather odd for Malta to be willingly sharing any information with invaders. I wonder, does it work if the guy in charge thinks you're an outside agent hired by the Knives and gives you the information to get you to go away?

---

Aw geez, Perez Park In Yellow. Fortunately there's no backtracking involved here.

Does that swordguard pose make enemies invalid targets? I think I had some problem targeting the Knives around the artifact.

...and the mission doesn't complete when all the tablets are destroyed and the artifact retrieved. I still have to save the Malta.

That doesn't seem right. It also means I have to wait around for the caltrops to disperse for the mission to complete.

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Little typo in Alex's intro, "solider" for "soldier". Maybe he could give a quick summary of the relevant pantheons or somesuch.

...ow, ambushes and honor guards composed entirely of custom lieutenants are pretty unreasonable, given that up until now things have been pretty stock.

Actually, the custom lieutenants are pretty unreasonable all on their own. Stacking -def combined with heavy broadsword damage and what I think is Against All Odds going off is collectively kicking my [censored]. I just can't keep up enough inspirations to handle them all.

Kind of weird to have Aphrodite reference the Iliad right after Alex talks about not trusting ancient myths.

Getting up to the double digits now for the count of the number of times a group of three lieutenants has kicked my [censored].

Or sometimes two lieutenants. They just. Don't. MISS. And their entire attack chain is enough to kill me.

Weirdly enough the actual bosses don't present as much threat. Fire is like mothers' milk, with a break free mind control isn't a problem, and the axe doesn't fire off nearly often enough to worry about.

---

And now, the ultimate showdown of ultimate destiny.

Hmm. All the Warrior, Centurion, and Wolf patrols seem to say the same things. Maybe just throw in one speaking and the rest silent?

Huh. There's a battle between Knives and what they call "outsiders"... but they're other Knives? What?

Ah, okay. Didn't get to see all of it with all the text popping up. Battles can still start without heroes present, and referring to them as if they were is still wrong.

Yeah, the warrior lieuts are way overpowered. I jump into a patrol of four centurions and handle it no problem, then two warrior lieutenants school me.

I am having no luck finding this boss, and it takes seemingly forever to be able to move and jump again after I finish every battle with a group I land in.

And FINALLY I find her. I think she was an overspawn, she shows up in an area I already have a minimap revealed for. Maybe her attendant Knives should be doing a casting animation or something.

A little grape flavor, a little orange flavor, and I can rage her down no problem.

---

Storyline - ****. About the only thing I don't buy here is Malta trying to cooperate with somebody who's in their base killing their mans. I think you can still get the information even if they still perceive you as hostile.

Design - ****. Great visual work on the customs. Reasonable map choices for pretty much everything, but I still wonder about having to free those Malta operatives to complete the third mission. It's not like they're being sacrificed or anything.

Gameplay - *. I think it must be the new power levels taking effect, because those warrior lieutenants are absolutely freakin' brutal. Really, toning them down to minions would make perfect thematic sense, maybe mix them up with the lady Centurions to be the baseline enemies for mission 4 if you don't have room for another custom enemy. Also the last map effectively becomes a "defeat all Knives of Artemis on outdoor map" mission since the Artemis spawn has no distinguishing marks aside from her model, which really doesn't stand out until you get close enough anyway.

Detail - *****. Pretty thorough detailing of everything involved with the various missions, including custom descriptions for bosses and allies who already have stock entries.

Overall - ****. I'm rounding this up because most of my major beefs with how things are going seem more like oversights and casualties of a patch, and won't be too bothersome to correct.

@GlaziusF

Feedback from a low 40s DB/Fire brute, diff 2. Mission Engineer stubbornly refuses to earn itself.

---

...I get to be target practice. Oh boy oh boy.

Man, these guys are just a bunch of stooges.

Although, when you've "faked a plural" by giving single objectives the same plural text, you can't count on the single text to show up right. (Dr. Howard's the last one up but the HUD says I need to take out Dr. Fine.)

I like the visuals on the suits, though, and they're not too overpowering either. They even have autopilots in case the pilots get mentally compromised! Because automated combat systems never decide to wipe out humanity!

Actually, I don't know.

...oh, the lead project scientist has a dead wife. That's a harbinger of stability.

Ah, sorry. I guess late nights bring out my inner cynic.

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Little typo in the briefing for number 2. "Meesenger" for "messenger". But it's never just a courier run.

I see how it is. Lull the hero into a false sense of security and then HAMMER HIM WITH TWIN BLAST SETS.

Seriously, nice work on the extra suits, though the Augmentors look a little too much like standard Arguses to tell apart at first glance.

Once again the wrong singular comes out of the plural.

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Some ancient mystery of the past, hidden away in Eden, is the key to all this? Alright, I'm on board, I'm not bored. Let's chop some mushrooms.

Hmm. The objectives in the HUD look weird. Did you fill in any text for 'em?

Okay, so the dude loves his dead hot wife. ...and she's actually a slimebeast now? Or possibly a Malta Titan. Or a Rikti! Maybe a Carnie ring mistress? A Warwolf?

(I am making a subtle point that FREAKING EVERYTHING IN THIS GAME IS SOME KIND OF TRANSFORMED HUMAN BEING WHAT THE HELL)

Ah, that kind of transformed human. Okay.

---

Oh, the Augmentors are kinda purply now that they're in good light. Needs to be a couple shades lighter I think.

Hmm. Tenements are more row-housey and less warehousey. You might have gotten away with an abandoned office or something here.

Nice seeing these knuckleheads again, though.

---

And now it's time to stick a blade in a crazy man's head.

Or words to that effect, anyway.

Hmm. Eliza still has C'Kelkah's default description and there's no special text for getting her out.

Hmmmmm. She sticks around, and Doc Walter shows up right by the door and mows down my following help. Well, half of it, anyway. The fight's nice, with a couple (apparently) unannounced ARGUS ambushes, a final announced one, and some Rikti reinforcements.

And Eliza is just kind of standing there, watching, unhittable, all this time. I'm thinking something might have gone wrong there.

---

Storyline - *****. Crisp, clear, nicely self-contained. Only one problem - did the doctor recently head into his old base and write down the truth about Eliza, or was that sitting around for a while? It seems like the kind of thing Sister Psyche would pick up on.

Design - ****. A little weirdness on the map choice for mission 4, that odd color tinting on the Augmentor that doesn't show up distinguishably in some lighting conditions, two silent waves of reinforcements in the final showdown, and Eliza's weird clingy spectator behavior. But everything else was quite solid, especially the design of the customs.

Gameplay - *****. The Argus suits were definitely hard but not unmanageable, though they got a lot tougher after the first mission. DIdn't have much trouble finding my way through the missions or figuring out what to do, either. Solid playing.

Detail - ****. The incidental scientists are great, but there are a few too many objectives with just their default HUD text and a little unevenness in the singulars of early plural objectives.

Overall - *****. This one gets rounded up. The story's good, if predictable, the customs are visually distinctive and generally distinguishable, and it just needs a little polish to get 5s across the board.

Another night, some other arcs.

Tonight's leadoff: The Day I Tried to Live (131780). Verdict: ***. Review on MA Forums thread.

Tonight's random CoHMR mission: The Night Has a Thousand Eyes (121455). Verdict - *****. Feedback left further down this thread.

Feedback from a low 40s DB/fire brute on diff 2. Engineer ain’t gonna earn itself.

—

Hmm. Okay. First-person narration and I get Max Payne HUD for a while then? I can buy that.

First mission’s kind of empty though. Fortunately I could get through this hospital in my sleep.

—

Ah, and this is when the snapping happens. You’ve got default text for the “clear out the last room” objective though.

Default text for most of the destroyables, too, as well as the hostage. Shame really. I want to see what “I” think of all this.

—

It’s a shame there aren’t any “pure Rikti base” maps. You work with what you have, I guess.

One of the amusing observations about many online games in the age of “customization” is that you spend an hour in the character creator picking from eighteen gajabillion combinations of eyebrow, scar, lip shape, and nose groove, and then you look like a unique and beautiful snowflake… for anybody who’s looking directly at your face… in the 5 minutes before you put on your newbie helmet.

The point is, the face is small in relation to both the screen and the rest of the character, and with most of the changes of the mission’s internal narrator being visible only on his face, they go unnoticed.

Maybe his shirt explodes off him in the vacuum of space?

—

Hmm. An enemy group composed entirely of lieutenants, huh? This might get a bit problematic.

I really, truly, do not like this map, especially this map with chained objectives. There’s just so much terrain to cover and so many places to check. At least the ally’s a bit of help in the cleanup and he can follow me easily.

I clean out the entire map, to find States alone in a vacant lot I’d already cleared out. What the heck. Classic outdoor overspawn, I guess.

—

Hmm. Freaklympics. This is one of those maps with a “special spawn” in the entire back room, the upshot of which is that nothing will ever show up there. If you wanted the mechanical to show up on the podium, well, no such luck. Maybe use the shorter Freak warehouse? I think that one has normal spawns in it.

The Shadow Shard Reflections work well in this last map, though.

—

Storyline - ****. As far as the storyline goes, about the only thing I’m wondering is: what’s the state of the contact telling me this? Some kind of ghost? Maybe he needs some fog effects or something. And talk more about the clarity of the grave or how he’s beyond the insanity or whatever. Also, was I supposed to sympathize a little with the machine? I guess part of it is that I reflexively sympathize with anything that doesn’t go “I MUST REMAKE THE UNIVERSE SO I CAN BE AT PEACE”.

Design - ***. Show, don’t tell. After every mission the contact rails at me about the philosophical realities he was confronting - but if I’m really taking part in his madness along with him, then shouldn’t I be seeing them too? Maybe even fighting them? As it is that doesn’t happen until the end. If nothing else, solo pacifist “allies” work nicely as, I guess you could say, actors.

Gameplay - ***. That Steel Canyon map is responsible for most of this, first because I’m running all over creation trying to find the dang end boss, who apparently has no unaware dialogue or animation, and second because radiation debuffs are all click powers for the AI, meaning as soon as I jump into a group of 3-5 lieutenants i get a couple rad debuffs that make it a lot harder to take on the rest of them. It’d probably go a lot easier if the rad hero and, say, the insect were just minions.

Detail - ****. This arc tries to do something interesting, so this ranking is higher than it might be - it attempts to rewrite the HUD and the description windows to conform to the model of internal narration, but some of the HUD objective text and descriptions are their standard selves, more consistent with an objective observer. If it was supposed to feel schizophrenic, it really just came across as confused and incomplete.

Overall - ***. I feel like I know what this arc is trying to do. But the occasional afterimage of the contact in the throes of madness aside, the missions are really too pedestrian. Most of the psychological drama just comes in waves of text from the contact, detached from the action of the mission. The use of the interface to establish internal narration is a nice tool, but it’s unevenly implemented across the arc. So the final impression: an arc that tried to do something novel but executed unevenly.

@GlaziusF

Running on a low-40s DB/fire brute on Diff 2. Mission Engineer ain’t gonna earn itself.

—

Stuff is jumping out of computer screens in the fine old cyber-movie tradition. The enemies look pretty evocative, especially the lieuts and bosses with their techno-shields. Couple minor points - consider a different model tech shield for either the boss or the lieutenant, and you have to give something Elec Manipulation if you want it to shoot red lightning.

Apparently the rise of Terrorbyte has begun. Computer viruses wreaking havoc in the real world, and they don’t even need an EVIL SALVAGE FLIPPER to do so!

—

Mission 2 starts out with what seems like a repetition of the debrief text from Mission 1. I already know the virtunoids are popping out in police stations - maybe tell me what’s special about this particular one?

Oh, a list of bank security codes!

Hmm.

Two lists of bank security codes - the safe opening and end-mission clues have the same title and talk about the same things.

The EB’s escort hit me right after they spawned, but then spawns inside a police station tend to wrap around walls and suchlike.

Though I’m not sure how a list of printouts necessarily means Terrorbyte already has the information. Maybe one of the Betas dot-matrix printed REDUNDANT INFORMATION on it with lightning scars, or something.

—

And now he’s moved on to all the banks! I do kinda like the feeling that I’m working in concert with a bunch of other people thanks to this multitasking hologram. Let’s see what’s inside this one.

A cargo ship… and just kinda incidentally, a complete file wipe. Even though the mission conditions were to take out all enemies, I’m guessing you marked the EB’s escort as not required? They don’t still count in the “defeat all” total that way, so.

Once again the mission complete clue tells me pretty much the same thing as the objective clue but with slightly different phrasing.

—

Hmm. Looks like this mission I’m going on alone, to take on a ship full of advanced tech. The link from the past mission isn’t exactly clear - I can buy a government office with a list of police station, and a police station with a list of banks, but why have information about a cargo ship on a bank computer? Unless it’s a ship the bank financed, then say that.

Nice model reuse for the ship captain, but his description’s still showing General Z’s description.

The boss in charge this time… has Rage. Rage is pretty terrible. One-shot me even through fire armor. It becomes a matter of waiting for it to wear off.

Unstoppable, not so much. That I can power through. But Rage is a big game-breaker.

Once again the clue the boss drops and the mission clue say pretty much the same thing in the same way.

—

And the last mission is an assault on the central base, with another Terrorbot who, again, I wait out Rage on before engaging. Weirdly enough these guys are harder to drop than Terrorbyte proper.

And now I own the most dangerous computer chip… IN THE WORLD.

—

Storyline - ****. That little bank-to-cargo ship hiccup was the weak link in an otherwise solid story. Sure, AIs coming out of computers and taking over human civilization is cliche by now, but so what?

Design - *****. Not that there was a lot of extra detail here, but the custom enemies had particularly eye-catching designs, and were color-coded while still very thematic.

Gameplay - ***. The ragebots are most of the reason for this. The rank and file of the custom group were nothing I couldn’t handle, and I never had to go off scrounging for things to do to complete a mission.

Detail - **. …but, I don’t think there was a single bit of non-required text in the whole thing. Everything had default descriptions and default mission objective lists, even stuff that could have been grouped together like the various destructibles in Terrorbyte’s lair.

Overall - ****. This one gets rounded up. The story is simple but solid, the customs have a very nice visual design, but the SS EBs need to lose Rage and the missions themselves need a pass to populate description and HUD fields, and maybe trim out some redundant end-of-mission clues.

Ancient review dug up from www.cohmissionreview.com as part of my CoHMR Aggregator thread.

@GlaziusF, Running on a high 40s spine/regen scrapper.

Probably will turn out impossible if there’s any buildup, because lolregen.

Anyway. Reactions!

—

Opening spread needs more cheesy lines about a search for the ultimate wisdom of the fist.

…okay, how the hell did you pull that off? A whole bunch of kneeling untargetable enemies that stand up in waves.

And then you get build up and rain of arrows dropped on you. Nothing a little MoG can’t handle.

—

Uh, why call me “master”? I’m a girl. You might want to make up crazy-sounding degrees like Guardian of the Jade Pagoda or something to call the survivors.

Enemy descriptions are appropriately hokey.

Were you trying to go for the “English words badly out of sync” with the hostage? Because that’s the effect I got.

—

Wow. Spending 7K of arc space on a one-off sight gag. That’s impressive.

You know, with the minions’ descriptions mentioning “melon hammers” I was figuring them for Carnie mallets, but those look like ordinary maces.

So these are the Bronzemen. Time for the deadly art of WAITING UNTIL THE RAGE TIMER EXPIRES.

I’m on the edge of my seat here, let me tell you!

Wow, it lasts longer than it takes MoG to recharge.

Weirdly enough the mission completed with a few of them still standing in a guard pose. I’m guessing whatever weirdness you used to gather them up got weirded out.

—

If the joke is that the pronunciation of the fourth boss’s name disguises its amusing spelling, then to make it work in transcription you need to spell it phonetically. Loong Sangay?

Once again the defeat all completes without everything going down, I guess because just the boss was needed and his servitor demons who didn’t join in on account of being spread out weren’t included in the calculations.

—

I realize you may be going for terrible grammar and rapid-fire dialogue with the contact stuff but it just isn’t working for me. Terrible grammar makes things slower to read, not faster.

Space out the master’s lines more, give his little verbal tic a proper set-off from the rest of the sentence, see?

I like the ally concept? Shame he goes down to splash damage from a random patrol.

Time for the ancient secret art of WAITING FOR ELUDE TO CRASH.

Should Ping Pong really be labeled the way he is? I guess since he shows up twice he needs a different name, but “Ping Pong has found something” would work too.

—

Doable despite the buildup. Some dying but that’s what Revive is for.

…don’t look at me that way.

Alright visual and mission design and gameplay - noted exceptions are the defeat alls completing with people still alive, and the whole “wait for the timer to run out” strategy. The blind master was actually far easier to beat than his student, mainly because he did about half the damage to himself with energy transfer.

Story and detailing less so - I wanted a crazy over the top kung fu story, maybe with a little self-parody thrown in. “None have survived to tell the tale. Then how do I know what’s in there, you ask? Because INSOLENT STUDENT SHOULD SHUT UP, that’s how.” What I got was pretty pedestrian.

@GlaziusF

Arcing away on a level 40 DB/Fire brute, since Mission Engineer ain't gonna earn itself.

---

Hmm. I'm not sure why Ms. Liberty is trying to use "setting a bad example" as a crowbar here. I mean, heroes free innocent civilians from being kidnapped all the time, and usually they don't even get anything out of it.

Herbert's lame little explanation could actually work out if this is one of those Council bases built into a secret entrance in like a supermarket or something. "But I was just looking for the men's room!"

Hmm. The clues mention a particular Council guy and act like I'm supposed to know who he is, but I've never heard of him before. Maybe he's written his name into the comments of the files in appropriately self-aggrandizing language?

I wonder where he's going to show up and then I remember the winding tunnels at the beginning of the map - which are really terrible for immobile snipers. His sniper status also actually makes the overall fight harder since my splash AoEs clearing out his troops are enough for him to summon help.

---

Positron needs backup? But all that stuff is grey to him. No XP.

Ah, Lord Recluse got some of the boys from the old neighborhood to help kick off his latest invasion.

Hmm. Or not. The Arachnos are still talking about an Overseer.

...agh. I cleared out this entire map (no joke) looking for Posi, and finally found him under a ramp in one of the construction yards, tucked away in the corner.

Chaining objectives on an outdoor map like this is really just frustrating. I had to crisscross an empty map three times to find everything out.

...and my contact's mind is going, Dave, she can feel it, but the hologram's still here. I guess I can buy that, but there are lots of Vindicators other than Ms. Liberty.

Also apparently it was Lord Recluse all along? I can buy him using an alias to talk to the Council but his own troops should call him by name.

---

And now apparently the whole Freedom Phalanx are getting in on the hologram. I can understand what you're trying for, but there are probably better ways. Like making the contact your mission computer or something.

Speaking of mission computers, don't the Vindicators have a rez ring in their base? Why was Ms. Liberty using the public medicoms?

o/` And there's a creepy doll
That always follows you
It's got a ruined eye
That's always open... o/`

Heh! Okay, this bit of backtracking I don't mind.

But should the enemies really have such detailed information about them? I mean, I come into this having no freakin' clue.

Also Miss Sis Psyche tells me I have to find two objects but the HUD says six. I guess they're all fractured up...

The "allies" who are set to wander say their "you lost me" text and "you found me" text essentially at random, which is kinda atomospheric but also a bit bizarre, since Psyche wandered pretty close to the boss room and I didn't see her say goodbye until the middle of the fight.

And now I... what? That's it? Two missions of setup to one mission of payoff? I was expecting something a little more, especially since the description mentions "every hero in Paragon".

---

Storyline - ***. Aside from the thing about Ms. Liberty using the public hospital network, there wasn't much off with the story. But it felt like it was going somewhere and then it stopped. Like, another mission deeper into Ms. Liberty's subconscious, or maybe a trip into the collective unconsciousness of every hero who fell victim to this plan, with the custom group running rampant.

Design - ****. Aside from the awkwardness with ally dialogue in the last mission, this used most of the features of the MA pretty well. I wonder if the custom group should more closely mimic the Vampyr's powers - DM/regen and MA/regen, maybe?

Gameplay - ***. The real deal-breaker here was backtracking across an empty overworld map multiple times in search of objectives. I'm not sure what to say about that, or if everything being around makes sense from the start.

Detail - ***. The descriptions mentioning the details about something crazy I'd never seen before didn't make a lot of sense, and the arc overall has persistent issues with run-on sentences that make it tough to separate ideas. New idea, new sentence.

Overall - ***. An interesting concept that ends too early for my liking, with a rather exasperating backtrack-fest in the middle.

Okay, one more thing to say: You can stick multiple arcs in your queue, but I won't do your arc as the leadoff for the night unless a week has passed since I did your last one. (It can still come up randomly, though.)

Tonight's leadoff: Death to Disco! (84420). Verdict: ***. Commentary on MA Forums thread.

Random CoHMR mission one: Childhood Horrors (5349). Verdict: ***. Commentary on MA Forums thread.
Random CoHMR mission two: Impossible Kung-Fu Mission (111367). Verdict: ****. Commentary on MA Forums thread. (old review)
Random CoHMR mission three: Technology Terror (54535). Verdict: ****. Commentary below in this thread.

@GlaziusF

Running this on a low 40s DB/Fire brute, since Mission Enginner inexplicably refuses to earn itself.

Also, due disclosure: I know pretty much nothing about disco. Not how it started, not how it went, not "why it deserved to die". I liked classical music as a little boy, and while my palate has broadened, mostly it's to other forms of instrumental music.

I am pretty much 100% guaranteed to get no in-joke.

---

You know, I was about to say "you can call him 'God of Rock', but no, you can't.

The President has been kidnapped by disco. Can I rock hard enough to save the President?

...um. Crey? Crey was only established in the 90's. I wonder if they time-traveled.

Ah. And so they... er, apparently did? It's not really clear.

Also, Carter was grey-haired when he was in office.

---

A forest. Why am I in a forest? Wasn't Disco Demolition Night in Chicago? If this is supposed to be a park or something, you ought to say so.

Rock seems to have the upper hand, though. Handily, even. None of the rockers seem to go down in the combats.

Though I have to say I don't exactly get the disco powersets. Katana? Dual blades? The sonic/sonic I kinda understand, but the ice/electric dual blaster just doesn't make sense.

I think there are axes, maces, and broadswords that resemble more normal objects and would make more sense to give people who are, essentially rioters.

The costumes are pretty nice, though. As are those huge crates.

Though the boomboxes really don't work, given that they pump out mostly techno and electronica. Maybe just have the guards doing Dance Rave?

Hmm.. I know the doc needs to spawn off only one of your many alternate destructibles, but given how Disco Demolition night shook out maybe it should be the records?

Ah, okay. So these were Crey guys who came back along with their former janitor.

For some reason the objective doesn't count as complete until his body fades away. Since he talks about coming back I thought he might show up somewhere else on the map, but it was not to be.

---

Storyline - ***. My main problem with the storyline is that there wasn't enough of it. I was expecting a final showdown in THE HALLS OF ROCK-ock-ock or something, and maybe a little buildup to stopping the one fateful night as well.

Design - ***. Visual design's only really off in one place -- just have a look at some file photos of President Carter. Powers design is a little more problematic - I have no trouble with the Crey doctors having random-ish powersets, but some of the Disco Nation people feel off to me. The location for that mission also feels off - maybe call it rioting spilling over into the streets and Disco "fighting back", and put it on a KR map.

Gameplay - *****. Had a few bumps with the Disco people until I figured out to prioritize the Devas, and the Doc tossed me around a bit before the -knockback from the gravity controls kicked in. But no problems finding objectives or fighting it out.

Detail - ***. Part of my problem with the design is actually that the powers for the Disco Nation don't flow at all from the enemy descriptions. They're modestly biographical but in most cases (bar KFF and the Diva) do nothing to explain the powersets.

Overall - ***. It's an idea that could go places and it plays well, but the powers feel kinda tacked on, and I feel like the story stops about halfway.