Hell_O_Ween

I have just gotten word that i need to be re-located at work (nothing bad). As a result I am going to be slow with reviews for at least a week while I move.
My current Queue is:

1589, 71523, 60280, 13579, 68930, 75386

Sorry about this but real life wins over CoH (sometimes).

The best I have played. I highly suggest playing it. It is suitable for any character over 25. (does contain an EB/AV but it is far from a difficult foe


Arc 4431
Soldiers of Fortune

Length: 5 missions
Foes: Skyraiders, Arachnos, Security Guards, PPD, custom
Level Range: 20-35, 20-35, 30-35, 20-35, 31-35
Contact: Darrin Wade
Rating: 5 STARS

TL-DR
Pros: Excellent writing, Excellent story, Follows canon, Excellent choices of maps, Great story flow, Excellent use of Contact, Great use of allies, Well balanced foes (minor nit), Excellent foe concept, Strong consideration for the player in the missions. Overall an almost perfect arc.
Cons: Ummm....hmmmm....uhhh....The arc name is a bit weak?

Overview I will be very brief in the overview for this arc as it may ruin the suprises/enjoyment of it for others.
Darrin Wade calls upon you to obtain a few pieces of art. In exchange he will allow you to keep the most powerful item for yourself. In doing so you end up being caught in the middle of two mercenary forces trying to get the item for their mysterious employers. On one side you have the Skyraiders. On the other is a European group called Paradign Company. Paradign Company is a group of meta human mercs for sale to the highest bidder.
You begin trying to get the items for Darrin in a warehouse before they are on display. In other words when they are at their most vulnerable. You arrive to find Paradign has taken the item promised to you and the Skyraiders are in pursuit.
Darrin continues to help you as he promised payment that you did not get. he tracks the Skyraiders and Paradign (easily) to a pitch battle in the streets of Paragon. Using the distraction you attempt to recovery the item only to find the Skyraiders now have it.
Using the clues found at the battle you learn the Skyraiders at at a old portal lab they restored to working order. Darrin explains a bit more about the art he had you aquire saying that he can use it to summon 'help' for you. Fighting through the base you discover who had hired the Skyraiders but the quick intervention of Paradign has the item again in their hands.
Tired of chasing others Darrin divines the location where the Paradign company make base. You hack the computer inside to learn where the item will be exchanged with their employers will be and to send false info that the Paradign soldiers with the item are being followed (ensuring they slow down trying to loose pursuit). Again Darrin send 'help'.
The final confrontation where all is made clear occurs in an old Arachnos submarine base.

Specific review:
In all honesty there are only two things I can think of to point out as problems. And both are no better than nit-picking. One is in the first mission there does not seem to be any real reason to have to defeat the skyraider boss once you get the art and find out Paradign escaped with the other item. Perhaps in the clue include that the skyraiders may have the item or something. The second is the use of /devices. A minion in the paradign company uses this but of all the missions I have played these foes seemed to spam the webnades the least. In the 5 (yes five) times I ran this arc today they were never a real issue apart from two spawns that had multiples of the minion with /devices. Every other encounter was not an issue.

Mission 1: The mission intro and briefing were very good here. Upon reading the mission title and seeing Darrin Wade as a contact I got worried as the connection between mercs and Darrin confused me. But as you can tell my worries were completly unfounded.

Mission 2: The writing for Darrin was very good here. He gave a very in character reason (and subtle clues to true motives) for continuing to work with you after he had gotten what he wanted. I was very very impressed by the fact Darrin acknowledges your character as someone with a reputaion. To paraphrase he tells you to watch out for cops who may be preoccupied with the battle raging but with you reputaion they will still be after you. Also the map choice and mission design was as near to perfect I think can be done. The author used a common farming map (the outdoor demon farm map). This map allows for spawns to happen very close to one another. The author filled most spawn points with programed battles and those battles have KB using foes so they just spilled into one another. The result was a chaotic mess that lent itself well to a raging battle. I am not sure if you knew the battles would spill into one another or not but I suspect you did.

Mission 3: The writing again was impressive here. Let me explain why it was so good for a moment. The author realized that to keep the player interested in the arc there has to be something in it for them. So the missions all focus on that aspect. But the author also had another story to tell...or rather retell if you will. The original mission, some of Darrins exposition and small aspects of missions all relate to the second story in which Darrin is the star. This allowed the player to enjoy chasing his goals while still being involved in the other story. The use of an ally in this mission was handled beautifully. Darrin himself says you don't need the help (it's true you don't) but he wants to test his new spell. He summons a creature you may have guessed to be a part of the story by this point to help you.

Mission 4: It was great to see a story that gets tired of reacting and decides to act first. The plan to slow the Paradign thieves down to give you time to beat them to the meeting point is very well written and you actually felt like you were being proactive (even though the very nature of the missions make this an impossibility). There are also VERY subtle clues dropped for the hyper vigilant ( I am not hyper vigilant, I just played the arc many many times today).

Mission 5: There is only one thing I noted in this mission. The allies Darrin sends in to help you this mission do not have the custom text as they did in previous missions. I am not sure if this was intentional so as to give even more info to the players or if it was an oversite.

I cannot stress enough how much I enjoyed this arc. It is simply the best MA arc I have played and I would even go so far as to say it is better than most of the dev made arcs. It is a tragedy that this arc has only had 13 plays to its name. If anyone is looking for an arc in the 25ish to 35ish range then PLAY THIS ONE.

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Oddly enough, it never even occurred to me to explain how the students got their powers (is that bad?),

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No not bad at all. The arc is kind silly (in a good way) arc where the foes are more representative of high school bullies that an actual superpowered school.

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I originally had more ambushes at the end, but some earlier feedback mentioned the end boss was overly hard, so I tweaked a bit. I ran it several times myself both solo and on teams to try to make sure it was reasonably doable and still fun/challenging (which I HIGHLY recommend as having to deal with the mobs YOU made makes you really eager to balance them for all types of players/ATs).


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That is good. I wish more people took the time to test the arc thoroughly. It's a tiresome chore to play some arcs that just try to kill you (intended or not).

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I'm really glad you liked it and if it was fun to play then my personal mission is accomplished. If I do any significant changes, then I'll be sure to let you know. Thanks again for the great review

[/ QUOTE ]
It was fun. And I look forward to other arcs you make.

Arc 17702
Every Rose...

Length: 5 missions
Foes: Vahzilok, Legacy Chain, Security Guards, RIP, Tuatha de Damnon, Coralax
Level Range: (New way to list level range) 1-40, 1-15, 5-10, 5-30, 5-9
Contact: Polyana Hawthorne (custom)
Rating: 3 stars

TL-DR
Pros: Interesting concept, follows canon well (as far as I could tell), not difficult, good use of the MA features.
Cons: Poor map choices/timewasting, level jumping, typo, unexplained use of a foe, un-needed ally, overuse of clues

Overview:
After your breakout from the Zig a young lady named Polyanna Hawthorne askes you if you want to be a part of the Circle of Thorns. After a bit of back and forth you agree to get a book of translations to prove yourself. She warns you there meay be magical protection and to be careful.
A large warehouse filled with security slows you down but you manage to grab the book. This isn't all good as you set off a trap and some Tuatha attack. You are not sure but maybe you will keep the book for yourself.
Poly is happy and asks you to name your hearts desire so that the CoT can make it happen. When you do she says the components need will take some time to get unless you can get them yourself.
So its off to a ocean tanker to fight security again and steal some magic coral that Dr. Aeon was shipping. Oddly some strange creatures attack you and the security both while you are searching the ship. Still you manage to grab some coral and wrech some equipment in the process.
Poly tells you that you can go to the graveyard to have the spell enacted but she wants you to return to find out how you feel. She also warns you the effects are not immediate.
You enter the graveyard see only Vahziloks creatures yet you know the spell is complete.
Now as final proof you are one of them Poly asks you to kidnap some ancient bloodline people. You decide to set up a family reunion fair to lure them in. But the big problem here is the Legacy Chain guys found out what you were up to and arrived in force. After some careful navigation and minor skirmishes you kidnap each of the old bloodline people.
Now its time to be inducted into the CoT. Your blood isn't the right type so they can't make you a full member but they have other means to mark you as one of their own.
Entering the ancient CoT city you find that somehow the Legacy boys beat ya here. Its a fight and a half but you get all the ritual master to cast the spell on you, hook up with Polyanna and claim your CoT thorn thingy.

Specific Review:
I like the idea of a game intro mission that does not include Arachnos alot so I was looking forward to playing this arc. I ran it first with my Io'd scrapper with little to no issues but figured since the author note states its made with a level 2-5 in mind I will just make a brand new toon and give it a go. This is where the biggest flaw really hit me. My deal breaker flaw. By deal breaker I mean the one thing that I dislike so much that regardless of other things in the arc I cannot rate it highly. Time wasting. The maps are not the huge varietybut they are a bit too big for an under 10 character and as a result you end up spending far too much time in each mission. Another time waster is the 3rd mission that completed upon entering. I am not sure if this is a bug but both times I ran it the mission was just completed without my doing anything.

Mission 1: The writing is very good in that it did not contradict anything canon yet still made you feel apart of the story. The map here is just too big for a first mission or the type of mission. If this arc is truely for new characters then a large map will mean the character will level multiple times before completeing (my brand new character leveled twice in here). Consider the first mission by Kalinda or Burke. Both are extremely small. I did like the glowy clue but as its the only goal both it and the mission clue come up at the same time. As they are almost identical its unneeded.

Mission 2: Again fairly well written. The one sided conversation aspect of the briefing is a little distracting but forgivable considering the limits of the MA. This is another large map, the container ship. Too big IMO. If I may suggest something. Use the small mercy map where you come by boat. Have the mission goal be simply a boss battle with the carrying a crate animation. Say they are already unloading. Just to speed things up.

Mission 3: If auto completion is not intended it needs to be fixed. If it is this is a complete waste of time. Anything you say in this mission can be done in clues or mission briefings. Forget forcing the player to load then exit just to continue your story.

Mission 4: Another large map. This time with hostages and Legacy chain. This outdoor map has far too many spots the hostages can hide making you run around alot. Also, and I understand this is a semi bug, but with outdoor maps it is a pain to get the hostage to actually enter the glowing red exit box. I did like the abridged history of the CoT here alot. As a side note, your text before entering the mission says PI but uses the KR carny map and has the Rogue Isle police running around. Was immersion breaking as I tried to sort it all out.

Mission 5: Other than having Poly as an ally there is nothing wrong with this mission. In fact I liked the use of the rescues as triggers for the spell. Its not a highly original use of the MA but it is a far cry from the multitude of poorly handled rescues I have seen. The map is a perfect choice in that its not too large and not too small for the final mission. I also very much liked that there was no 'Boss' encounter. Thats not what the arc is about and you didn't try to shoehorn one in. Bravo.

As I said I rated this arc 3 stars. I just can't get past the length of time I end up in missions. The 4th one in particular was a pain. Once I entered I tried to stealth find the hostages (tuff on a level 3-4 corr). After looking for the last one for a long long time i started just killing everything thinking maybe you set the last hostage as a boss battle. If the author does not want to change the map then please please add dialogue to they can be found easier just by running near them.
It is a decent arc but without speeding it up I cannot raise the rating.
As always if you edit the mission I will re-play and re-rate.

Arc 53131
A Heroes Final Stand

Length: 3 missions
Foes: Psychic Clockwork, Malta Group, Arachnos, Axis Americans, Custom
Contact: Arachnos Traitor Kalinda
Rating: UNRATED (Unable/unwilling to finish)

TL-DR
Pros: Quick missions
Cons: Undeveloped story, Contradictory clues, miss matched foes, overpowered final mission, lacking logic

In fairness this arc has a disclaimer stating it is not finished
Overview:
Kalinda, an Arachnos traitor, has discovered that Lord Recluse has gone mad with power and is going to stage an assault of Paragon city and enslave the Supers there. She needs you help to stop him.
First you need to slow the attack preperations enough so that you have time to end it. That means beating the general in charge of the refueling the flyers. This Bane (Crab) Spider General also knows where the Field General is so you need to get that outta him to.
He turns out to be in Mercy finishing up on the flyers there. After a quick fight he spills the beans on General Bonestripper.
Bonestripper is hanging out in Mercy with a bunch of Psychic Clockwork he got on loan from his best friend the Clockwork King. A quick fight later he has given you a satnav location, a chared note and a slightly damaged flash drive all pointing to where Ghost Widow is hiding until the battle.
It wasn't a huge suprise that she was in her Tower. You enter to find she has Psychic Clockwork, Malta, Axis Americans as well as her normal Arachnos minions on her side.
Its a tough battle but you arrive to find Ghost Widow.
(INCOMPLETE REVIEW DUE TO BEING UNABLE?UNWILLING TO FINISH)

Specific Review:
The plot is very basic and relies on an odd motivator. If the contact is indeed the Kalinda from Mercy then her reasons for turning coat are very odd. She is upset that Lord Recluse is doing what he always does and attack Paragon?

Mission 1: I am told in the briefing that I am looking for a Bane Spider but both times I played the mission I found a Crab Spider. The mission has a 30 minute time limit (which you are warned about) but it being one of the smallest maps in the game it is not hard to finish for any AT.

Mission 2: This mission just made no sense to me. Here is a general who according to the briefing had just suffered an air strike to thin his numbers yet he is just hanging out in mercy?
Also why does he have Psychic Clockwork as allies? The fact that he is friends with the Clockwork King is just out of left field to me. The oddest thing here tho is all the conflicting clues. Bonestripper says he is giving you a SatNav location of Ghost Widow, the two clue says you got a flashdrive and a charred piece of paper. The contact only acknowledges the paper. As a side note, both time I ran this Bonestripper did not summon any of his pets. He used alot of his Dark Miasma powers and only once did he use the pulse rifle to attack. I suspect this is due to the Dark set being ranked higher than the pet set but I am not sure.

Mission 3: This mission is level locked at 54 which is just an awful design choice. Even with the constant warnings from the contact that you need a team. My lvl 42 Window was slapped around pretty hard that by the time I got to the end and found an AV that had not scaled down I was getting upset. After a few more deaths I quit and ran my IO'd scrapped through. He may have been able to beat Ghost Widow solo but it would take a long long time and any mistake on my part would have meant starting all over. In the end I decided I didn't want to spend the time. Also what is with the mishmash of foes. Arachnos, Axis Americans, Malta, Arachnos, Psychic Clockwork? I could not make heads or tails about the choices. Nor did I really understand why I was after Ghost Widow other than she is, as you put it, Recluses right hand man.

I did not rate this arc as I did not finish it but even if I had I doubt it would have gotten any stars. It needs a story that makes sense, foes that go together and the last mission should not be level locked liked that.
A serious re-write is needed for me to play this arc a second time.

I am changing my reviw policy slightly. If an arc is obviously unfinished I will not review it here. I will send an ingame review stating that you can contact me via forum PM to get any notes I have

Arc 6536
Paragon High

Length:1 mission
Foes: Custom
Level Range: All Levels
Contact: Dexter Davenport (custom)
Rating: 4 Stars

TL-DR
Pros: Quick, balanced foes, cute concept, humerous ally
Cons: lacks any real story

Overview:
Young Dexter Davenport is tired of seeing the bullies, cliques, polulars and in crowds tormenting the other students at Paragon High. In his frustration he asks you to help find out what is behind this recent rise in swirlies and wedgies.
Upon entering the school you see the normal assortment bullies who immediatly try to ply their trade upon you. After a few hallway encounters you find poor young Dexter in peril.
After rescuing him he runs off shouting something about Nerdboy.
Confused but interested in finding the source of all the trouble you press on. Roughing up the students reveals that its the (Vice) Principle who is putting these students up to it.
You decide to go have a few choice words with the principle but on your way you find a familiar kid again in peril. Young Dexter is in costume now as the schools resident hero 'Nerdboy'. With his help you find the (Vice) Principle and explain to him that what he is doing is wrong. Of course this explination is in the form of a slap upside the head.
After the dust clears Dexter, AKA Nerdboy, begs you not to tell his mother about the whole costumed hero bit as he is sure to be grounded.

Specific Review:
This is a cute one-off mission that is not too challenging yet not a complete cakewalk. The halls of Paragon High are filled with the expected combatants. Football players, cheerleaders, goth girls ect. Their info text is dissapointingly short.
The map could probably be a bit smaller given that the arc is essentially a one joke arc. On large teams the added foes could make the joke overstay its welcome (not sure as I solo my reviews). I solo'ed this mission with a level 12 defender and a level 50 scrapper and neither had any trouble. The ally (Nerdboy) might be set a little to high as he summons the full bot line but truthfully it did not bother me the times I ran it because he spawned very close to the end of the mission resulting in only having him there for the last leg.

I rated 4 stars simply because there isn't a story to draw me in and I don't know if a story can be really added to this mission without ruining the one off feel of it. If the author was to include a plot about how the students all got powers from the evil black magic administration, for example, then the mission becomes grounded in a sort of game reality. This kills the silly nature of the story. Sadly I don't think there is a way to get me to rate it higher. At least I can't think of anything.
Still, as always, if you do make changes let me know and I will re-run and re-rate.

Current queue:
53131, 17702, 4431, 1589, 71523, 60280, 13574, 68930

After seeing some of the recent posts I have re-printed my queue for those who do not want my (a) review of their arc. No questions asked and no insult taken if this is the case.

I am currently creating an arc and I want to have a diffrent font in the word ballons of a foe. It will of course still be ledgible font just not typical. Is this possible and how is it done. (I have search but cannot find anything at all in regards to font. Then again my searchfu is weak)

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Here is the interesting question: If you Edit and Republish your story while a team or person running solo has only completed say 3 of the 5 missions, does that Edit & Republish kick the players out? Will the players have to start the arc all over again or will they be able to just pick up where they left off?


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As I understand it once you start an MA arc it is set. You keep the current arc regardless of changes made to the original. This is from arcs friends have edited while I was playing them.
I am not sure about arcs that get unpublished due to GM decisions or patch updates.

After doing a few reviews and playing a great many MA arcs I have come to the conclusion that

My Arcs Suck. Hard.

I currently have two published and I am going to be doing some major rewrites to them. In the meantime Venture you can remove the one arc of mine from your queue (27136). If I can correct the problems I will re-submit for review (knowing I have to wait for you to be taking more requests AND being put at the bottom of the queue).
Thank you.

Arc 46405
The Unmaking, Part 1: Entropic Ascension
Length: 5 missions
Level Range: 40-45
Foes: Banished Pantheon, PPD, Custom
Contact: Mal'Ket (custom)
Rating: 5 Stars
TL-DR:
Pros: Great twist ending, balanced foes, not long for a 5 part arc
Cons: Bad map choices, insulting to player, un-needed allies

Overview:

Mal'Ket, a liason for The Cult of the Golden Chalice is ordered to ask for your help. It seems the Banished Pantheon are close to finding the legendary Urn of Entropy. If the Etropy Shade inside is released the world is doomed.
Upon entering the graveyard where the urn is hidden you are suprised to find the Banished Pantheon fighting amongst themselves. It takes a while but you figure out which urn among many is the one you are looking for. Bad news is its already been opened.
Mal'Ket is very upset with you but gives you a chance to redeem yourself. The Entropy Shade has already begun possessing people and its up to you to put them down....permantly. The kicker is it's begun possesing PPD Psi-cops. Still what must be done must be done. Mal gives you the Amulet of Ocyron so that you do not fall under the shades influence.As you are fighting the PPD you run across a hero named Mr. Glacier. He too has fell prey to the Entropy Shade. With grim determination you melt the Glacier and find the Entropy Shadows vessel, Officer J. She is fully in the spirits power. Knocking her out allows the Darkweavers of the Golden Chalice to take her so an exorcisim can be performed.
Oddly you are invited into the inner chambers of the Cult Of Gold Cups to help with the ritual. Mal'Ket will be your guide in the caves of the cult. When you arrive you are shocked to discover that the Entropy shade is again loose, set free by the traitorous Darkweavers of the cult. You manage to fight your way to a LT of the Shade and bring it down.
Mal is furious but he calms enough to tell you that the possesed cult members who escaped with the Entropy Shade are assaulting the mayors office. Mal gives you some Soul Powder which can be used upon allies to keep them free of the Shades power. Inside you find Valkyrie who is trying to calm some PPD officers. Once you destroy the cops she understands the threat must be ended by any means. Sadly you are too late to catch the Entropy Shade but you are able to stop a LT wielding a very large axe. The Entropy Seer makes a menacing threat upon his defeat that you are now being targeted by the Entropy Shade.
Mal is again upset that the Shade escaped but you have one last chance to catch it. Currently is is gathering its strength in a nearby warehouse. The Cult of Cups will join you inside to fight off this beast. Alas the Cult is possesed despite the Soul Powder...at least they seem to be possesed. Things are getting hazy to you. Steeling your resolve you fight your way past them and as you near the Entropy Shade.....
SPOILERS











Everything becomes clear. You are not meant to protect people, you are to unmake them as the Shades chosen warrior.

Specific Review:
Few of the MA arcs have suprised me, not because I am smart (i'm not as my numerous typos attest to), but because there are few that are suprising. This one is a suprise. The final mission layout is fantastic in its design.

Mission 1: The mission intro and briefing do give you the feeling that Mal'Ket is not happy about having to deal with you. Bravo. And the mission itself is a nice intro to the story without being a tedious time waster.

Mission 2: The level of insults from Mal'Ket were starting to get to me. I was begining to dislike him. Good job on that. In the mission it was nice to find optional rescues that were not on the nav bar. It showed me that Mal wasn't exactly that interested in the loss of life but the end of the problem.

Mission 3: I liked the intro and briefing but was suprised to find a cave as the map. It didn't really feel like a headquarters location. If you can make the map work well maybe use the Midnighters map instead (although with such a well known location people may dislike that) or a generic office map. I am not sure of a good way to fix this but the nav bar gave everything away right from the moment you entered that the Darkweavers were traitors. Maybe wording it a little more ambiguously.
If I may be so bold as to offer a suggestiong here. Perhaps put in a few defend item objectives that are not required. I mean the Entroy guys are about unmaking AKA destroying why not have them break stuff. Just a thought.

Mission 4: The only problem I have here is the map choice. The green fog map is eerie but the Entropy guys just got to that location and it is already that corrupted? Whats worse, the last map has none of the green fog making this location seem more suitable for the last map. Also valkyrie is completely un-needed. Her presence made me thing the final boss in the mission was going to be a brutal overpowered borefest (it isnt). maybe instead of Valk use a PPD boss thats being possesed till you save them. Just a thought.

Mission 5: As I said I loved the twist here and the way you pulled it off was great. As I said, this mission is the one I would use the green fog map on. The green fog map is also larger which means you can throw more clues as to the twist. Things like unmarked and optional bosses fights, patrols ect all of which can say something.

I loved this mission and suggest it to pretty much everyone now. Even if you were to ignore my suggestions (not to say they are great suggestions just random ideas) the arc stand up beautifully. Very well done.

My queue is again full

46405, 6536, 53131, 17702, 4431, 1589, 71523, 60280, 13579, 68930

Keep in mind that others can review too.

At this point my queue is down to 4 missions, I will take the next 6 requests for review now.

Arc 38226
If you teach a man to fish

Length:2 missions
Foes: Coralax, Scrapyarders, custom
Level Range: 25-30
Contact: Dr Barlow (custom)
Rating: 3 stars

TL-DR
Pros: Uses canon, quick, mild humor
Cons: Nothing exciting in the arc

Overview
Dr Barlow, a scientist for a super-soldier creation group, wants you to retrieve Mako's tooth that was knocked out in the fight between Mako and Scrapyard. Currently its in the care of some scrapyard loyalist so you must break in and steal it by force.
Once you give the tooth to Barlow he is able to clone a weaker but more passive version of Mako. But there is trouble, the Coralax have invaded the lab and if they are not removed they will destroy all the hard work. To ensure it goes well Barlow puts on his power armor and lends a hand.
It's going well till you see the cloned Mako who immediatly attacks you.
When the dust settles you find out that the cloned Mako was sending a telepathic signal out calling the Coralax to help him. Barlow leaves you wondering if the real Mako has this ability as well.

Specific Review:

There is nothing wrong with this arc. Nor is there anything really special about it. It is a simple 2 parter that hints at canon and lets you beat alot of foes up. The inclusion of Dr Barlow as an ally seemed wasted but it didn't hurt anything.

Mission 1: The clue on the tooth is slightly funny, but otherwise nothing special in this mission.

Mission 2: Man they clone things fast. One patrol drops a nice hint and the cloned Mako is ok (looks to be the standard lizard costume). The mission debriefing fills you in on things you may have missed but again nothing special here. As a side note, how DO security cameras detect a telepathic signal?

The 3 star rating is due to being a baseline mission. Nothing wrong to drop the rating nothing special to increase it. perhaps more (and funnier) jokes can improve this arc to the higher ratings.

Over the next few day I am fairly busy so may only complete one review a day (if that).
My current queue is:
46405, 6536,53131,17702

Arc 1992
A Hero's Halo

Length: 3 missions
Foes: Marauder's Fighters, Soldiers of Rulauru, Custom
Level Range: 45-50
Contact: Powerthrust (custom)
Rating: 3 stars

TL-DR
Pros: Quick arc, Allies of LT rank
Cons: Annoying foes, uninteresting story.

Overview

Powerthrust asks you to help him find out why he has a halo and figures the best way to do this is track down others who have a halo and ask them about it. He is going to question a bunch of off duty heroes and asks you to see Catscratch Fevah. Cat is fighting off Marauder's minions in an office and once you rescue her she aggrees to tell you about the halo if you help her take down the lead Marauder. It's not hard and she does hold her end of the bargain.
She has no idea where she got the halo either just that she noticed it first on the ski slopes in Pocket D last christmas. This is the same info Thrust gets from the others he asks.
A little investigation reveals that the halos are made of metal from the Shadow Shard and that a signal is projected from them. So it's off to the Shadow Shard. Oddly Thrust feels a little under the weather.
In the shadow shard you find ghostly versions of well known heroes that immediatly attack you as well as recievers for the signals to investigate.
After dispatching the ghost versions and gathering info on the recievers you head back.
The situation gets very serious as the halos are found to be stealing the souls of heroes. It's become epidemic as those heroes you faced and many more are in critical condition in hospitals.
Back to the shard to shut the soul stealing down. This time Powerthrust is coming along despite feeling ill. You find more powerful Stolen Essence versions of heroes including one of Thrust himself. Defeating them releases the stolen essence and destroying the soul sucking maching puts an end to this vile plot.

Specific Review

The plot just could not hold my attention here. A story about another character costume? Sorry but it's uninteresting. Couple that with logic flaws and annoying bosses and the arc just sank. That said its not a bad arc. There is nothing that made me go "I am upset to see this' Just was bored if that makes sense?

Mission 1: A simple mission, nothing stands out as good or bad. I did like that the ally in the mission was a LT rank meaning it helped but didn't overshadow the player. As a minor note, the heroes just accept how a strange glowing thing just appears above their head and no one thinks to look into it? A little immersion breaking.

Mission 2: The cave felt too big, long stretches of nothing. Also the mission briefing made the plot transparent here. As a side note, The story just jumps quickly here. It goes from 'hmmm whats this thing' to 'WTH its sending signals' (gets worse in last mission)

Mission 3: The story makes another huge jump here. First you were wondering what the halos were, then you find out its a Rularu plot and now its 'OMFG they are stealing our souls!!!' Just seems to esculate at a very fast rate. The bosses in this mission are just plain boring to fight. They have higher rankings for powers, especially armors, making the fights tedious. When one popped unstopable I just went into autopilot. It didn't affect the rating but it didn't help it either.

I gave it three stars because there wasn't anything that felt wrong with the arc. I have no idea how to make this story interesting to me but to make the gameplay more fun try exploreing some of the MA features. include more clues, Triggered events, ambushes ....something that can hold my interest. And please tone dwon the bosses armors.
it should be noted that the arc has many heroes in it (I don't think they are all the authors but may be the authors friends). The use of them isn't in your face and dosnt hurt the story to me. But for those who are tired of the inclusion of authors toons be aware.

It's a short enough arc that if changes were made I would be willing to give it another go and re-rate.

If you wish to discuss my review lets keep it in private as to not derail the thread.

next Up: 38226

RE Laserjesus
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Sorry, I don't mean to take up your time discussing back and forth the editing process, but I really do take this kind of feedback seriously and try to improve my work accordingly.

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I don't have a problem discussing things more but lets do it in PM so as to not derail the thread.

RE Cuppa_LLX
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quick question, since LR is a AV and miss 3's Mag'gan is a AV you think it would work better to switch Meg'gan in 3 with Zen'rath in mission 2?

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Honestly the fact that there are EB's and AV's everywhere make the mission grind to a halt. Make them bosses until the final fight IMO.
But if you wish to discuss further lets go to PM

Edited to include: This is a review on the current published arc, which is diffrent then the one I played originally.

Arc 45503 (now 67087)
Through the looking glass

Length: 5 missions
Foes: Rikti
Level Range: 45-50 (with one mission locked at 41)
Contact: Unnamed Mirror Spirit avatar
Rating: UNRATED (as I was unable to complete it each attempt)

TL-DR
Pros: Interesting concept
Cons: level jumping, very difficult (sorta), brickwall foe.

Sadly I cannot give a full review of this arc due to my being unable to complete it. But I will discuss what I was able to finish.

Specific Review:

The idea of an alternate world where things are diffrent than our own is an oft used yet still mostly interesting plot. The problem is that in the first mission you are just tossed into the mix without explinations as to your relation to the story. Are you a native of Earth X, did ya use portal tech, ect. The text indicates in the first and second missions that you are already involved in the story yet the debriefing on mission 2 says its not yiour world. That was confusing to me. Also many bosses are renamed but info text indicates the original or is blank.

Mission 1: A simple beat a boss and rescue a hostage. Minor notes in this. I don't understand the map choice. The Steel Canyon by the tram map. The briefings gave me an out in the woods feel but the mission was in the middle of a city....a city showing no signs of the war that is said to be raging. Next is the nav text didn't indicate who was a boss who was a rescue, or that there was a rescue, I honestly thought it was two bosses I was after.

Mission 2: You are sent to rescue Lord Recluse himself. Ok, little odd but ok. He is being guarded by Dragon of the Rikti (renamed). Then you need to fight another Dragon to complete your goals. These are EB/AV foes and you do not have a warning as to them in the mission. The second one proved to be harder than the first as Recluse fell fairly quick to him leaving me alone and inspirationless (used them on the first Dragon). On my scrapper I did ok, My corr went down hard, it took many many many deaths to get past this guy (corr uses SO's). my dom didnt even dent him so tests with the dom were out.

Mission 3: You are level locked to 41 here...no range just level 41. The list of goals was huge, find 3 hostages and fight 3 big bads. This mission is a mess honestly. Every hostage is a extreme setting Merc MM so you end up with an army running behind you (even found a hostage not on the rescue list who was a thug MM which meant gang war too). I thought this was overkill untill I found the AV. He did not scale down he was an AV. Being locked at level 41 meant that My scrapper was underpowered and not built to take on AV's. The massive allies couldn't dent the AV, and ended up aggroing the two other big bads, two more Dragons EBs. Corr faired a bit better actually hurting the AV with debuffs but after the third death I figured It just wasn't worth it.

I hit a wall I was unable to climb sorry. I did not rate the story as I was unable to complete it. A team shouldn't have issues but solo there was no way to do it. The way I review an arc is I stop at every spawn check it out, read all i can then move to the next. If I was to run with a team they would either have to be willing to stop at each mob and wait or I would have to change my review style. I don't find either appealing so someone else will have to review this one.

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As far as the Nemesis angle goes, like you said, I was going for an Ocean's Eleven style story. In the Ocean's series, things never go perfectly for them. Yeah, David Lake made a serious mistake there, but something had to happen to mess it up. Nemesis wanting revenge for stealing from them seemed like it worked to me. If you've got another suggestion as for how things go wrong, I'm all ears.

[/ QUOTE ]

See the idea is sound, its the execution. Like I said I can't see anything short of a total rewrite to fix things....for example:

Mission 1: Steal the plans to Hayato's lab. But say they steal something else as a diversion too so as to not tip off Hayato.

Mission 2: Steal some theft aiding device from either Skyraiders or Goldbrickers or another theif group. (setting up the revenge senario).

Mission 3: Break the guy out of the Zig but make it actually feel more of a riot. Throw in boss encounters (which are not required goals so no nav bar text for them) with ambushes tied to them....give it a chaotic feel. Doing it here gives you a nice beat em all up mission to go with the theft ones.

Mission 4: The kidnapping. Use a nice samll office and make them escorts without ambushes. Forget the scientist as a foe...just a simple kidnapping. With Hayato have him turn on ya at the door saying enough is enough or some such crap and proceed to fight you. Use a clue or his dialogue to show he is a hero, or even do it in the mission debriefing.

Mission 5 is the actual robbery. Make this one slightly chaotic as well. This is where the Skyraiders or Goldbrickers or any other thieves you had picked for mission 2 show up again (giving us time to forget we messed them over) They know about your job or suspect it ect and they want a cut. They will fight for that cut. Also to give the Oceans 11 feel and include the guys from previous missions have them get captured because the rival thieves messed up your plan. So you need to rescue each of them. Then you have to do their job for them because they are hurt, scared, distracted whatever, just have them leave. Make each goal a triggered event with alot of ambushes to give the chaotic feel.
This will require ALOT of testing becuase it has a serious risk of being tedious in making you run back and forth alot. Keep it to around 2 goals with no more than 2 triggered goals I would say. Just make sure you have alot of ambushes patrols ect to keep the action going on the backtracking.

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I will change the bots to energy assault. You're right, the end drain is too much.

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In large groups it can be yes. KB can be too sometimes but there are alot more ways to overcome that.

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As far as the amount of allies, how can I do an Ocean's Eleven style heist without them? I see your point about how powerful they are, though. I'll address that.


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One ally is good, two is pushing it....the rest just don't need to be there. Think back on the Remake of Oceans 11, everyone has seperate jobs to do. They don't all meet up until they are escaping, which can be done in the mission debriefings.

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(Side note, the Rikti's name is based off of Vincenso Peruggia, the man who stole the Mona Lisa, keeping with the heist angle.)

[/ QUOTE ]

Ahh...did not get that.
But let me bring something up here I didn't go into detail in my review. All the heist members are very special. This is keeping in the Ocean 11 concept. Problem is they are all special in context to the game as well. Rikti thief, Freak mutant ect ect. Why not make them just special people. Highly skilled with maybe a special power here and there. This will keep the players special too. Which was a huge problem in the arc, I felt like a hired gun without a brain. Give the players a job only they can do.

Arc 8928
A Career of Evil
Length: 5 Missions
Foes: Nemisis, Prisoners, Security Guards, Custom
Level Range: 35-38
Contact: David Lake (custom)
Rating: 1 star

TL-DR
Pros: Arc Idea is interesting (sorta)
Cons: Author's characters inserted badly, too long, annoying foes, badly written, awful plot twist, too many allies, immersion breaking

Overview

David lake has a job for you. A richboy philantropist (sp?) has created a new free energy source at the same time Crey has created a new powersource they wish to sell. Lake was hired to destroy the free one so Crey can sell theirs. He hires you to help.
The kicker is the lab with the new powersource is incredibly well guarded. This means you need to collect an assortment of allies and items to pull the job off.
First up, you need to bust a Freakshow out of prison who has special power over machines. Lake has a corrupt Longbow Officer so you bust in while a riot occurs.
With getting the Technopath out of the way you need a special EMP bomb to disable the security at the lab and Lake know where one is. A Nemisis lab. Trick is the bomb is in a specially locked safe that only one person knows the combination to...and he had his tongue removed so he couldn't say it. Thats where a Rikti telepath defector comes in. You break in the Nemisis base with Lakes partner in crime Red, a Family boss. V'Zenzo Pr'Jyah, the Rikti, is already inside. You need to get the Rikti telepath to the base's commander and have him rip the combination from his mind.
Next up you need both the head scientist and Hayato, the richboy, to break the security on the lab. There is trouble with this as bot the head scientist and Hayato are formidable opponents. Hayato himself is rumored to be a world class Martial Artist and assassin. As a result you can't just drag the two of them around the lab when you break in there. The scientist codes are voice printed so you just need a recording but Hayato is the real problem. Enter The Chameleon. A shapeshifter who can copy a person down to their DNA. He just needs to touch them.
Takes a bit but you manage to find The Chameleon, who is posing as a buxom woman, and defeat the two men.
Next its off to the first stage of the sabaotauge. Here you need to break into the labs airlock and disable a security computer. The Chameleon and Technopath go in first to open security door to open the way to the computer. Problem is when you show up someone has set off the alarms and you only have an hour before everything is re-routed and you loose your window to get to the new powersource data. Worse yet the highly aware robots guarding the lab are now activated.
A first you and the Technopath think its the clumsy Chameleon who did it but it turns out Nemisis used your kidnapping of the scientist and Hayato to replace them with Automatons.
Still you manage to destroy the Automatons and destroy the security computer. Which opens the path to the actual lab, wherein you can plant the EMP destroying the data, earning Crey and you alot of money. The kicker here is that your destruction of the security computer activated a more advanced security bot which you must get past.
To ensure you are able to pull this off everyone joins in. Red, Lt Peridot, the Chameleon, the Technopath and even David Lake.
After a long fought battle you set off the EMP destroying the data on the new powersource earning everyone alot of money. The only drawbacks are Hayato escaped and is now gunning for you And the Advanced Robot may also have escaped. Lake goes into hiding and suggests you do as well.

Specific Review:
Sadly there is only one thing I like about this arc, the idea of a Ocean 11 heist type job. The problem is the entire arc is poorly put togeher with NPCs who steal all the spotlight. In the entire arc you are nothing more than hired muscle.

Mission 1: The idea of breaking out a guy you need isn't original but its a nice opening mission and the Zig escape map is perfect for this. This is where things fall apart though. Lake has a corrupt Longbow officer as a friend to help you here. Thats not an issue in fact I kinda like that a bit. It's ruined by the fact that every Longbow on the map isn't hostile to you and the prisoners think you are a hero. remember you are at least level 30 on this mission...long enough to have made a name as a villian. This is like saying you and your past deads mean nothing. In effect, it just furthers the feeling you are just hired muscle. Another issue here is when you rescue the Technopath you need to fight past a Family boss who wants his radio back to listen to a game. Thats ok I guess but he is after a radio during a prison riot??? And he is in a full suit???? Dosn't make alot of sense. Aother issue is that the Teechnopath is a bot/devices ally (no the /devices didn't bug me here). Whats wrong is that he seems to be extreme/extreme, which puts you in the backseat in every fight hereafter because you now have a Longbow boss and a superduper powerful MM with you.

Mission 2: Rob Nemisis?? WTF??? A guy who cut his tongue out so he can't say a combination. Even the author mentions he can write it down but dismisses that idea by saying he would rather die. Problems abound in this mission. First you don't actually need to defeat the Nemisis Boss to get the combo, I found the safe before I found the Rikti and before I found the boss. Second, you have two allies again making you fairly useless here. Third the mission debriefing has your contact make an offhand comment about Nemisis comin after you. Lastly, and I admit this may be nitpicking, the name V'Zenzo Pr'jyah didn't feel very Rikti to me.

Mission 3: Giant map just destroyed the missions flow. Long stretches without any foes to fight, not that it was an issue because they were all security guards who are a cakewalk. Then you run into the scientist who is an elite boss. His powers are explained in his bio in a way that feels very 'i just want another fight' way. he is also incredibly dismissive in the entire fight saying whatever have your codes...making you feel like it was a big waste of time. Speaking of the codes... the lab has this incredible level of security but it can be broke by a taperecorder? (Ok he does say a high quality recording but still) Then Hayato shows up and he is all 'I am so cool I have powers and have manipulated the Crey to become rich and am still screwing with them'. I really wanted to quit at this point. But I pressed on.

Mission 4: Very annoying foes in this one. Elec assault (dom set) can be brutal in large numbers as it eats your end away fast. couple this with the foes being able to see through stealth and you have an annoying mob...not overpowered...just makes me go 'uggh another mob I can't avoid in anyway'. With the foes improved perception they could see farther which meant alot more accidental aggro than usual. This isn't a bad thing usually, but with the end drain it was annoying. I suggest changing the Elec assault to energy assault but don't change the perception value. Having both Chameleon and the Technopath here again made me feel useless in the fights that I couldn't avoid. Plus they attack anything including the destructible object which spawned a very large ambush. in trying to contain it another group was aggroed resulting in a fight with 2 spawns and a huge ambush. On my IO'd scrapper it wasn't an issue, on my corruptor it was very much an issue. I don't know what to say about the inclusion of the Nemisis automatons of the EB's you fight in the last mission. It added absolutely nothing to the story other that another fight (and more annoying exposure to characters I found silly before). And the small foes concept has gotten to me. Every darn mission I play has foes in the tiny range. As a minor note, why couldn't the Technopath just make the bots stop attacking? This broke immersion badly.

Mission 5: Due to the MA I planted the EMP very early in both runs which meant there was no reason to ever face the awful EB/AV at the end. Having so many allies makes you again useless...actually it makes you nothing more than a guide as I never tossed a single attack until the end fight.
And the last guy was just plain bad. A big robot with insanly high defence and end draining attacks. After missing ALOT on my IO'd scrapper I just backed off and watched the bazillion allies take him down in seconds....again his parting 'i'll be back' just made the fight seem pointless. And the fact that the big bads escaped and want revenge just made me go huh why I did nothing really the entire time????

I gave this one star just because I wanted to play a 'Heist' type mission. To fix this arc it would need a total rewrite. Ditch the Nemisis angle, give the player more of a role, LESS ALLIES and not as powerful. Change the bots attack set, Remove all the 'My NPC's are so cool' stuff. If you can do that I may play it and re-rate it but honestly it was a real chore the first time...it would take alot to make me want to try it again.

Next Up: 45503 (if it is indeed back, havn't checked)

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Deal. I'll trade you the henchmen for the killing them bit. I like that a lot.

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Heh...no problem.

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I think its mainly because they're AR. They seem to get stuck in rifle mode and don't go back to the Nade. Ideally I'd give them no secondary at all, because I wanted to make sure they were relatively harmless, but that's not an option. Devices seems to be the next best option in that regard. Any suggestion on how to handle this without making them stronger would be greatly appreciated. Making them ridiculously easy to kill was sort of crucial to the design. Note that even the "boss" objectives are still Lts.

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I have found the lowest setting for regen on minions makes them very easy. Its my goto set for minions I don't want very tough.

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I'm thinking the Elites need to be toned down. They make life difficult for Mez types and I've noticed a few times they stack up and become much harder than I intended. I'm not totally certain but that could have been part of the problem. Reverb should probably be toned down as well, but it's hard to do so. Part of the problem might be Liquefy, which I can't take away without also taking the Bubble (which I like on him, but need to take from the Elites). I think I'll start by toning down the elites and see from there.


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It should be noted here that the elites refered to are not Elite Bosses but a foe called 'Reverb's Elites' and are LT level. Don't want anyone thinking you load up with EB's in the mission.

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Wow, mission 5 totally failed from a storytelling perspective. Originally I had designed the thing to be a sort of "if you fall into the old cliches you fail, but you can take over the world if you ignore them". Monologuing to Fantastic (optional) would cause him to escape and if you couldn't kill him, he could get away with the info that stops your plan. Unfortunately, this led to a required objective based on an optional one and just didn't work. What actually happens now is if you monologue he escapes the deathtrap (you totally missed that, which is nobody's fault but mine) and you can kill him directly. That just... failed, miserably.


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Wow...I played the mission twice and made sure to click the glowies. neither time did i run into Fantastic again. maybe just bad luck. A clue will work good in these areas...meaning the clue option in the MA so that you have something else to read.

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I think I'll just take the concept all the way. Force the player to monologue and let Captain F escape and potentially thwart the whole thing. It raises the stakes in the final mission considerably and gives me more characters to flesh things out. I can also tie in the characters of mission 4 a little to anchor that firmly into the rest of the story.


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Thats beautiful. Fits the overall story concept very well. Yes as a mega villian we should do this.

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Much appreciate the feedback. It's been really helpful. I'll send you a PM once the arc is fixed up. Glad you liked it.

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Looking forward to playing the revised arc.

Arc: 55098
The same thing we do every night...

Length: 5 missions
Foes: Longbow, PPD, Custom
Level Range: All Levels
Contact: No. 86 (custom)
Rating: 4 Stars

TL-DR
Pros: Has humor in text and mission layouts. Custom foes are balanced(mostly) with great costumes. Not terribly long despite the 5 missions. Well paced. Well written. Good choice of maps. No AV/EB that I ran across
Cons: Annoying foes (will explain the contradiction), seems unfinished. Lacking end payoff.

Overview:

Your henchman No. 86 tells you that your plans for world conquest are falling behind and that you need to motivate the troops.
After subtle 'motivation' you are told that minions you had sent to retrieve materials for your 'project' have been captured and that you need to deal with it personally. While escaping you meet up with a would be hero named Captain Fantastic.
upon your return you find out Dr Reverb, a rival evil warlord, has almost completed his world destroying device and the heroes sent to stop him have failed. If the world is destroyed you cannot enact your master plan so you put an end to Reverb.
It seems Longbow has discovered your plan and lab so you must remove them while collecting the components and scientists for your evil plot. Along the way you dispatch Captain Fantastic agian.
At this point you are ready to enact your evil plot, Destroy the captured Captain Fantastic and rule the world. A quick trip into your evil lair you find that Longbow again have come knocking. The fight was a nice distraction but you launch your missles, put Fantastic in a deathtrap he can't escape and become the ruler of the world.

Specific Review:

This is one of those arcs that make ALOT of assumptions on the character. It assumes you are a world dominating obsessed villian with a draconian management style. It assumes you have a rival and assumes you have henchmen.
To this I say....So what.
The arc felt very much like James Bond meets Venture Brothers from a villians point of view. It may not fit your character, in fact it probably won't. But its fun as hell. Forget your characters goals and motives and just sit back for the show on this one. The use of a henchman as a contact is excellent in that it makes you feel as tho you are the one plotting not being given jobs to do. truth be told I had been looking for a way to do this with my villian arc and am now stealing this idea, or rather a variation of it. The only thing I might suggest is instead of a numbered henchman maybe make him just a henchman. That way you can go Darth Vader on him and have the player kill them for giving bad news only to have a new henchman the next time. You can have them introduce themselves each mission....just a thought.

Mission 1: The henchmen foes look great, simple faceless masses with a info text to explain why you see them again and again. Well done. The map was a good smallish size for a kill all and enabled the pacing flow.
The only thing in this mission that bothered me was the use of /devices on everything. Although for some reason the foes did spam nades less and attack more than I noticed in previous missions it still bothered me. Did not mark you down for it tho. This is why there is a contradiction in my TL-Dr. The foe is annoying yet not as much as I thought it would be. Perhaps they are fixing it?

Mission 2: The intro text and nav bar goals text was excellent. And the boss was fun. Again a well sized map for pacing.

Mission 3: A timed mission which is indicated in the text of the mission ...bravo. Fantastic use of activating text. Humerous conversations in the generated battles. Doctor Reverb and his gang had great costumes...again the minions looked exactly like minions should, faceless and numerous.
Doctor Reverb himself proved to be a challenge my first go and a chump my second go. I could not figure out what had caused this. Regardless, keeping your bosses moderatly weak might be a good idea as the story will flow faster if they are. And speed in a comedy arc is good...keeps the jokes flying.

Mission 4: For some reason the humor slowed at this point. I suspect that the arc is not fully completed. Some suggestiong would be to include humerous text to your rescues and collections. Make use of your 'clues' to add more jokes without it being thrust down a players throat. If they want to read more they will if not they won't. It can't really hurt you.
If I may be so bold, one of your rescues says that the player has your family and when you rescue him he says don't hurt Emily. I got the feeling of inside joke here. Instead maybe something like 'he has my goldfish' and 'don't hurt Wanda'. This way you have a joke that everyone is included on. The family thing was too serious for the arc IMO.

Mission 5:The death chamber idea was great and done well but with no clue attached it was anticlimatic. Same with the rocket launching. Again, use clues to give more to your players who are enjoying your arc.
Also the goodbye text was more or less a throwaway. Give us the big picture...tell us exactly what your evil plan was. I don't care if its silly ...thats the point of this arc...have some fun.

The reason why I could not give this a 5 star is it does not seemed finished. Some things just seem incomplete. If you can flesh it out a bit I would be happy to play again and re-rate.

Next Up Arc # 8928 (unless 45503 is back)

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odd i ran it last night

if it helps look for my user name @CuppaLLX and the 5 mission version. (the 4 mission version is for people who dont want to endure the last mission)

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Not that odd, I am hearing alot of grumbling from farmers that this morning a bunch of 'farm' arcs were removed. I use the quotes because not all of the arcs removed were actual farms.
I had searched your name, the arc name, the number and any other variation I could think of including the foes groups you used. When you get a chance make sure its still around.

Currently running 55098 a second time review coming soon.

My review of Arc #45503 Through the Looking Glass has been postponed.
The reason is it seems to be gone. I like to play an arc at least twice before reviewing it. Once on my Io'd out scrapper so that I can stop and read everything and once on another character either in the level range or a less sturdy character. This gives me a way to balance my opinions.
When the arc is back up let me know so that I can do my second run (also the second run is when I vote as I have the full picture)

[ QUOTE ]
Correct. This arc is, in essence, an answer to the hypothetical question "if your character was a signature character, what would their Task Force be about?"


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I missed that completely. Maybe allude to it in some way.

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I think there's a bug with the creator where it doesn't always save the scales correctly, so some of what you're seeing may be unintentional. But in my case it was deliberate (for the servitors). Yes, they are statues, but more to the point, they are parallel Clockwork, and most of the Clockwork are pretty small.

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I should have been more clear. This didn't affect your vote in any way...it was more of a general grumbling about custom foes.

[ QUOTE ]
Good point. My thinking was that the player's character would obviously have realized that something was wrong (probably before this mission), but that the system wouldn't be giving them any real way to figure out the cause, short of continuing the simulation in order to see what it does next. I was also wary of putting words in the player's mouth (though I suppose I already did that with some of the Accept Mission strings)

I have an idea on how to handle this more explicitly, without requiring branching text or whatnot, but I don't know whether there's space left to pull it off, so I'll have to do some testing and adjusting this evening.

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I'm glad you have ideas because it did seem odd to me.

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No ... the spawn placement settings have no effect on most outdoor maps, so the location is entirely out of my control.


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It's not really an issue. It just means people will miss some of your content due to pure bad luck.

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I'll have to do something about it, as that behavior is definitely not intended. It's either a bug, or I've been misunderstanidn how collections work all this time.


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Please do, this was a letdown.

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The allusion was also a (very terse) explanation for why I chose to add that particular character to the story. But if it is giving the impression I'm trying to make UD seem cooler-than-thou, I'll take it out.

[/ QUOTE ]
This bears saying...not just for you but anyone reading. These reviews are all 'personal opinion' before you change anything in a mission you have made ask others who have played your arc about the issues. I have found that friends tend to gloss over things they don't like in your arcs but will open up when asked specifically.
This particular part just rubbed me the wrong way. It's not that it was wrong its just it bugged 'ME'. Others may not have issue with it.

[ QUOTE ]
That particular tag wasn't my idea ... it came from a thread here in the forums, where it was suggested for arcs that "make an effort to work into the story of the game" (or something along those lines). Whatever the exact wording, it was broad enough that to my mind, it included arcs that attempt to expand upon canon, as long as they don't outright contradict it. If it's misleading, out it goes.


[/ QUOTE ]
Just for the record. I have no issue with playing fast and loose with canon. IMO the MA is perfect for going crazy with stories. Marvel had a fantastic comic called 'What if' and I think if an arc isn't canon then its a 'What if' story. I only brought it up because your description made special mention of canon.

I really did enjoy your arcs overall and if you do make any changes let me know and I will run them again (won't review again, might make mention of changes here tho).

Edited to include: holy crapzilla there are alot of typos. Too tired to fix now...

This was a two-parter so I will review it as one arc.

Also I will be changing my review format. I tried to follow Ventures style as this was his thread but it doesnt fit with the way I write and it gave away too many surprises.

Arc: 3962 and 4804
Temporal Anomalies
and
Inversion Point

Lenght: 4 missions and 4 missions
Foes: Clockwork, Banished Pantheon, Custom
Level Range: 11-20 and 25-30
Contact: Professor Jamie Salladon AKA Usurper Dyne (custom) then Heteodyne (custom) hope I spelled those right as my notes got spilled on.
Rating: 3 stars and 4 stars
TL-DR
Pros: Fun, great story shift, well written (mostly), balanced foes, excellent foe design (mostly), good story flow, has cannon ties
Cons: Some clumsy wording of mission text, too much info about the contacts, very bad map choice in one mission

Overview:
The story starts off wiith a simple rescue of a young girl who wants to be a hero. during this you discover the Clockwork are acting odd.
Then you are asked to find some missing psychics the clockwork kidnapped, but it turns out they are not clockwork but a group called Golem Court. Still everyone still refers to them as Clockwork.
Then things get weird. You contact has code errors in his Intro text but still you do as he asks (?) Which is to rescue someone named Hettie. Hettie turns out to be a hero named Heteodyne, Usurper Dynes alternate dimension dopelganger. She sees the Golem Court as her realities Clockwork and you fight a boss that was there to force her to be the Golem Kings wife.
Then you find out that you are actually in the Mission Architect and that there is a bug that needs fixing so you fight the Golem King who aludes to a partner.
(next arc)
Heteodyne is now your contact and she asks you to enter the Mission Architect to clean up a bit of code. Inside you find the Banished Pantheon who need to be cleaned out and Mynx who helps you do this.
Mynx gives you the number for her personal training program. In that program you find Mynx's programed version of Crey called Cray and her passive aggressive version of Synapse who runs off quickly. The code that needs cleaning is Some Banished Pantheon masks that are named in a technological way. These Masks are accompanied by strange zombies with cybernetics. Even more curious they are from a group called 'Kolizhav'
Turns out that the Golem Kings ally was his realities version of Dr.Vahzilok called Dr.Kolizhav. he is using the mission architect to enter this reality. Both Dynes have a way to do this but need you to clear the way which means you need to take down a guardian in the mission architect. Usurper Dynes send his wife to help you but a glitch ruins that.
After defeating the guardian you are sent to shut down some techno item in the MA. But it dosnt work as you planned and Dr.Kolizhav shows up. Defeating him sends him and his plans packing. But according to the Dynes he knows we are here and may try again.

Specific Review:
Your two contacts have fully fleshed out stories making me think they are the authors toons. Usurper was a friend of the Clockwork King and even had his cybernetic made by Ol' Brainjar. And Hettie is Usurper's female counterpart. This was handled very well not intrusivly so it didn't bug me until in the second arc they casually mention how they are friends of Mynx.

Mission 1: Map is a not too large not too small cave that fits the mission type well. The hostage is cute in a lil orphan Annie way.

Mission 2: Each goal is a triggered event. I assume this was done to make you find things in specific order which is a neat idea but it results in some backtracking. The Golem Court are balanced well for the levels you are capped at and the costume is decent, nothing great but not bad either. The info on each is interesting. But they are small. I understand that they are little statues but for some reason all the small foes in the MA is getting to me. Mission map felt a little to large for my taste but that may be due to backtracking issues not the actual map. I do like the cannon name dropping you do here.

Mission 3: The mission text had an corrupted file look to it as a clue as to something wrong. It wasn't a hard guess as to why. Even with the corrupted text in Usurpers mission briefing you just go along and do his mission without saying a word about it. Little immersion breaking there. I don't know how one would fix that without changing the direction the Arc takes. The mission entrance pop-up is cute. Another perfect choice for map size and type.

Mission 4: This one is where the rating went down. Using the sharkhead Leviathan (sp?) map has a couple flaws IMO. First its very large and the spawn placement is fairly spread out so I found long long stretches of running to the end without encountering anything. Second its a very well known map which had no conection I could see to the mission you made.
The final fight was largly forgetable due to the Golem King having a fairly bland costume/powers.

Mission 1 (5): Hettie now is your contact and she says the Arc is now a Taskforce. Thats well and good but give us a TF callsign (pout). Anyway the mission is simple enough a defeat all in a moderatly sized map. I liked the hostage and kidnapper animation choices. I wasn't fond of having Mynx helping me. She does vast amounts of damage which made me look pathetic in comparrison. Not a big deal just slightly off putting.

Mission 2 (6): I loved the idea of entering Mynx's personal training simulation as well as her virtual Synapse. Was not a fan of the Cray costumes but liked why she used them instead of standard Crey (not a typo it is Cray and Crey). I really liked the custom BP/Kolizhav guys. Who Kolizhav was is not a suprise at all. Maybe a change in the name? Keep the mystery longer.

Mission 3 (7): I am not sure if it was intended or not but the Boss you need to fight spawned very close to the entrance so the mission was over quickly. I had forgotten that I had an ally in the mission so completly missed that part. Going to go back to check it out.

Mission 4 (8): The better looking graveyard map was perfect, its too bad the effect was ruined by it being daytime when i went in. The very first glowy dropped the clue which told me I had found all the glowies yet something went wrong. It proved to be anticlimatic finding the other glowies to spawn the final foe. Perhaps have it that you need to collect the others first making the last one a triggered event which then triggers the final fight.
Now I gotta say I was actually looking forward to fighting the cannon version of Dr Vahz as a renamed foe. It disapointed me to find he was a custom foe. I understand this was done becuase of level limits but it was still a letdown as I love his costume and powers. The custom Dr Koli (dosnt have the same ring as Dr Vahz) was fairly bland. Not sure how you could spice it up but I really thing it needs it.

The first arcs major flaws which hurt my rating were the forgetable final fight and the map choice in the last mission.
The second arc only lost marks because of the casual Mynx friendship remark...it had a very 'I am so cool I sit at the cool table' feel to it that really hurt my opinion of the contacts. I know that wasn't your intent (at least I hope it wasn't) but it really rubbed me the wrong way.

As a minor note, you make a big deal out of your mission being cannon or rather CANNON yet all that really is cannon are the refrences you make to past cannon events. And your contacts actually break cannon.

As always if you change things let me know and I will replay and re-rate.

I have completed arc # 45503 but too tired to review it now...will do it tomorrow.

My queue is full for now when it gets down to 5 arcs I will fill up to 10 again

Current Queue:

55098, 8928, 1992 or 2595 (still have not decided), 38226, 46405, 6536, 53131, 17702, 59152, 7595

As always if you don't want me to review say so.

I was asked why my queue is limited to 10 arcs in private. In case anyone else is wondering it is becuase the arcs in a queue are unlikely to be reviewed by others and large queues mean people end up waiting a long time to see a review.

Current queue:

45503, 55098, 8928, 1992 or 2595 (have not decided), 38226, 46405, 6536, 53131, 17702

I have room for one more before I cap the queue. As always if you do not what me to review your arc then let me know and I will take it off my list.