Hellguard

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They can't go back and fix their customs. Also they cannot update their arcs and fine tune them with the new tools in issue 15 MA.

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Trust me, I know full well the limitations that come with having a DC arc. I was just looking for clarification on the term "broken," since DC arcs can't really "break." (One of the main reasons I haven't risked unpublishing my DC arc so I can make much needed changes -- hoping, of course, they'd "re-DC" it -- is the current limit of 3 arc slots. Once we can buy more arc slots, I'll be very tempted to go ahead and do it since I'll have a few more slots to play around with...)

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And the arc being unplayable is interesting as well. Did the devs play it a long time ago, finally decide to DC it, and then just do it without testing it again first?

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That's what I was thinking, but they would have had to have made their decision before the last patch that changed stuff, wouldn't they? That's the only way I can think of for a published arc to be invalidated; it's not like you can edit it to do anything to make it invalid and then republish it.

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I'm surprised that there is another one, I figured that Dev Choice was on hold until after i15 went live because of how many arcs would break

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I assume by "break" you're just referring to critter changes? Because DC arcs don't get invalidated like other arcs do when there are changes to maps and the like.

Although, this latest DC arc *is* invalid, so that's pretty interesting in and of itself.

Depending on how long ago it was (you said "a month or so," but maybe it was longer?), you may be remembering the bugged massive damage that custom Ninjitsu mobs did when Issue 14 was first released.

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Qr

Just don't mention Chunnelling, Twinback Lugeing, Sminting, catherine-wheeling, blindfold piggybacking or Hackensack Mud Pies and you should be ok.

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::Heads over to Google::

It's been awhile since I've done that mission... what sort of map is it on? Warehouse, tech lab, office building, outdoor, etc?

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No, Inokis you're missing the part where *the aggro range exceeded your visibility*.

Some missions are like that.

In fact the old Cape mission (ooooold) was bugged so that the item you're supposed to be protecting would basically start getting hit the MOMENT you entered the mission. Since it was (at that point) a 2 or 3 level mission map, you might get through the first couple mobs before you get kicked out Failed.

Just because you weren't there to see the Boss run by, doesn't mean he didn't do it - he was the mission objective, therefore if you ignore him long enough he'll do exactly what he did: escape. It wasn't on a timer. It was merely that he NOTICED you coming into the mission, and his actions were triggered by that alone. You didn't need to start a fight or even be in the same room with him, for this to happen.

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Ok,let's say this is what happened,How is it possible to not fail the mission? Wouldn't this be considered a bugged mission?

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Of course it is. Also, Eislor mentioned this buggy behavior in one of the first few posts in the thread, but apparently the OP ignored or missed it.

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(And to make sure the forum monster doesn't eat it)

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FYI, this forum doesn't have to worry about the forum monster. This forum, like Player Guides, has been marked "do not purge" for a little while now.

Arc Name: Victors Online
Arc ID: 97980
Faction: Heroic
Difficulty Level: Medium to High (three EB/AV fights, but there are allies provided to help should you need them)
Synopsis: A corrupt video game company is stealing powers from real heroes to make their upcoming game more realistic!
Estimated Time to Play: 45 minutes - 1 hour (4 missions total)

This arc earned a "More fun than a barrel of monkeys" rating in
Wrong Number's Ha Ha Hut !

Since the original post for this arc was purged before they marked this forum to save, thought I'd repost the thread.

Arc Name: Saving Synapse
Arc ID: 1003
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Hellguard
Difficulty Level: Medium (1 EB)
Synopsis: Mender Silos has discovered that in the near future, a mad villain is going to use Synapse's speed powers to destroy the timeline. Silos tasks you to go back in time to prevent the origin of Synapse, but you are unsure that you can live with the consequences.

As a Dev Choice arc, it's obviously very heavily plaid, and here's a small sampling I've received on it:
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High quality story. Consistent with official lore. No blaring spelling/grammar issues. Well balanced missions. Deserving of a Developers Choice designation. Giving you 5 stars.

Great stuff! I can see why the Devs picked it. I rarely give out five stars but this arc earned it

Nice arc. The mobs were particularly well designed to work together, at least the lt-minion combo. The healing was very annoying, which made me change my standard method of pound on the lt's and footstomp the minions to death. Played it on unyielding with an inv/ss tank, no problems. the storyline was compelling, as well.

Great story and great use of clues. Silos was also perfectly written.

Great story and NPC dialogue! You did 2 things I normally don't like. A defeat all and telling the player what they decide to do. However, in both cases they were done well enough that I didn't mind. This arc definitely deserves its spot as "Dev's Choice."



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Now, the arc gets its fair share of complaints. Some of them are even deserved. The biggest two complaints that I hear (and fully agree with) are that I don't warn you about the EB in the 2nd mission, and that the last mission is (unnecessarily) a defeat all. If I could edit the arc (without unpublishing it, of course) I would do so gladly to rectify those things as well as a handful of others. I've learned quite a bit about the MA since making this arc during Issue 14's Open Beta that I would love to apply to it, given the chance. At least with Issue 15 arcs will have an automatic "EB warning" so hopefully that complaint will go away.

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"Likely" and "probably" don't really cut it for me. And as for 3k Kelvin, he's more like hired muscle than any sort of leader. Yes, he's an EB, but he doesn't really have much of a Hellion feel to him. And if they supposedly have a leader, I'd like to meet/face him in-game.

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The Hellions *do* have a leader. His name is Nick Pocker, aka Tempter, who runs his gang while being imprisoned in the Zig (see here for more info).

Of course, you never face him in game, except in a couple of MA arcs (one of which, The Unleashing, is mine ).

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Er, so what you're saying is someone copied the villainside "Origin of Power" badge mission and changed the last mission to be a farm?

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No, he's doing a review of the actual Dev-created Origin of Power arc to, I guess, "make a point."

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O.o

YAY!!!

Wow, now that's what I call listening to your customer base!

Or a huge coincidence.

Eco

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Well, it's not like you were the first person to ask for more slots...

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Anything labeled as a Dev's Choice will not give any tickets, but give normal awards instead.

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Until Issue 15 goes live, at which point you'll be able to pick whether you want tickets or "real" rewards.

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That is a bit pricey. Hopefully they're testing the price targets as well as the technical infrastructure.

On the other hand...I'm not sure we want some of these folks writing 8 arcs, are you?

Oh and hey! Does this mean if an arc is DC'd you get some money back?

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No, I would imagine it's just like now. Right now there's a max of 3 slots per account; getting a DC or HoF frees up one of those slots so you can effectively have more than the "max." Once the max is 8, I don't see why the mechanics would change.

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Actully, $6 bucks for one ... $10 for 2 and $20 for 5.

Does anyone think that they're looking at MA as the new cash cow of CoX?

Personally, given the 8 extra slot limit per account ... I think they're shooting for the whole enchillada ... because 1 + 2 + 5 = COINCIDENCE (I mean, 8).



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It's not a max of 8 EXTRA story slots; it's a max of 8 slots TOTAL. The patch notes make this more clear:

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Players can purchase up to 5 additional story slots with a maximum slot count of 8 slots. Please note that players start with 3 story slots.

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The answer is, cause some of the people over in Justice are getting all cocky about the number of viewers their section has right now, and I'm proving a point that maybe that has more to do with a link to their section through the dev digest than how awesome Justice is. Don't get me wrong...Justice is awesome. But all the servers are awesome in their own way.

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Betcha won't post in the Triumph forum...

It's nothing harmful; it just gives you an extended menu of options when booting up (such as Safe Mode, "last known good configuration," etc). You can usually "activate" it by pressing a certain function key when your computer first boots up.

Sometimes, though, it "activates" itself after a crash. Was your computer rebooting from a crash when you noticed this?

At any rate, there's nothing harmful about the advanced startup menu in and of itself.

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I had the same problem last night. I had to open the team tab to quit. It's happened a couple of times before, too. I'm thinking that it must be a bug.

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Yeah, it's a pretty rare one, too. I've seen it a couple of times, but not very many.

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The contact is 'The shadowy figure' - I found that funny for some reason, like he's THE Shadowy Figure as opposed to just any old shadowy figure.

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Haven't played the arc yet (although it, and the others by the author, are on my list), but it doesn't sound so strange to me. As long as it's THIS Shadowy Figure, who is an actual CoV contact...

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I ran your arc and though solid play wise I felt the humor was much more suited for a male audience. So, I am using a life line and calling in a guest reviewer, Hellguard.
WN

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Totally understand your position, the idea came from ongoing in-jokes we have in the Angry Angel SG. The EB of Mish 1 is a new invention, otherwise the custom toons are based on members of the SG. That said ty to you and Hellguard for you critques and I did expand the intro dialogs to give it more backstory.

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I'll give it another run-through. I hope I didn't come across as overly negative in my review, because there was a lot of promise in it.

And I really liked the Freak EB you made.

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If you are doing Dev Choice missions, you don't get tickets, you get salvage, recipe and enhancement drops just like normal missions.

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Yep. When Issue 15 goes live, however, you'll be able to choose between tickets and "normal" rewards.

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Holy $*#%.

We can edit the colors on NPCs now in the MA?!



Wait... *smacks self* The title only says AVs

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With Issue 15, you can edit colors of any (most?) standard mobs, including AVs, bosses, minions, etc. This feature will be nice to add mobs to custom groups without increasing the file size of the arc by a large amount.

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Title: Raiders of the Lost Party Hats
Arc ID: 85221
Creator’s Global Name: Zafft
Mission Count: 2
Notes – run solo or a team with defense against Psi and Dark damage.

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I ran your arc and though solid play wise I felt the humor was much more suited for a male audience. So, I am using a life line and calling in a guest reviewer, Hellguard.

WN

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Lowdown – A bizarre little arc. It starts with you looking for ... items... stolen by the Freakshow in a panty raid and gets stranger from there. The arc could use a bit of work; the biggest problem is that the Big Bad's motivation isn't really explained. I have a feeling the Big Bad (as well as the contact and an ally in the arc) is a character of the author or someone the author knows, and there is no doubt some RP reasons behind the Big Bad's plan. It just doesn't come across in the arc itself.

Funny Level – Mildly amusing.

Fun Level - So-so. Nothing inherently unfun about it; you're fighting Carnies and Freaks, with 2 unnanounced EBs thrown in. The dialogue is funny.

Let’s up it to 11! – Motivations need to be better explained. There were also a couple of lines that would no doubt make more sense if I knew the players or characters involved. I don't fault anyone for using their own characters or a friend's, but if you're going to do that everything needs to make sense to people who don't know them. There are also a couple of typos that I noticed.

Overall Rating – A mildly amusing arc that needs some work. It could be pretty funny to people who like a certain type of humor (Will Ferrel movies, Porky's, etc) but even if you're in it for the laughs it would be nice if the story came together better than it does. I'd say it's worth a play, though. The first EB's dialogue is worth reading, if nothing else.

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Title: Raiders of the Lost Party Hats
Arc ID: 85221
Creator’s Global Name: Zafft
Mission Count: 2
Notes – run solo or a team with defense against Psi and Dark damage.

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I ran your arc and though solid play wise I felt the humor was much more suited for a male audience. So, I am using a life line and calling in a guest reviewer, Hellguard.

WN

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The Hellguard Signal™ has been seen! I'll have this review up sometime today; the kids and the wifey want to celebrate Father's Day a week early since I have to work next Sunday. Might take the boy through it, to get a double dose of manliness.

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Hi guys,

I'm a new player to city of heroes and i like to know if the game is any good? can it keep me going for the next few years.

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I started playing this game nearly 5 years ago, and my main account hasn't been inactive for more than a couple of days during that time. My household has FOUR accounts total, two of which are active at all times.

Yeah, it's enough to "keep you going" for a few years.