HolyEvilAoD

Also, Going Rogue brought back a glut of old players and a bunch of new ones too (at least from what I've seen, especially with every server being in yellow or red during peak hours). So those people who are coming back from long hiatuses with level 50s will probably be buying up stock and driving up prices of purples.

I've rolled only two or three times so far (I had planned on saving up for a PvP recipe, then did the math and realized that was stupid), but I've got 1 LotG and 1 Miracle so far, plus a few other nice recipes (like the Kinetic Combat triple and the Aegis +Psionic Resist).

I'm sure this has probably been said already, but I'll say it again. And I'm sure that'll be the result of this thread anyway, but... All powers should get alternate animations eventually. Everything from Brawl and Rest down to even more alternate animations for Super Strength and Martial Arts.

Of course, there's gotta be a place to start, so here's my suggestions on what to begin with:

First, pool powers should get added for customization. I'd kill to change my Warshade's Hasten to be purple and black, ditto for giving my Magic Scrapper a wand or something instead of the Tricorder in Aid Self.

Second, alternate weapon-based animations for the blast sets would be awesome. You could have different types of weapons for people. Like a magic wand that could be waved around for magic-based blasters. Or an ice blaster who uses a cold ray instead of throwing snowballs. Or turn Radiation Blast into a laser gun with a simple addition of a pistol-based alternate animations.

Third, alternate animations for the weapon sets. What seems like an extremely easy thing to do would be to let people chose what hand they use for the weapon. I'd love to make a left-handed Broadsword/Shield scrapper. But beyond even that, more animations from the weapons sets would be awesome. Two-handed attacks for the Broadsword, Axe, and War Mace would rule. So would stabbing attacks for the Broadsword. Instead of jumping and spinning for the "Whirling" attacks for the medieval weapon sets, they spin the weapon over their heads. And less flashy, over the top animations for Dual Pistols (I'd kill for something closer to what the Malta Gunslingers do). Perhaps Crossbows for the Archery powersets.

Alternate animations for the rest of the attack sets could be done too. Martial arts styled Energy Melee for characters playing Mystic Monk types. Fire melee attacks that all use fire-weapons. The same for Ice and Stone and Electric melee.

And then there's virtually limitless possibilities for the various buff, debuff, and armor sets. Have characters whip out a wand and wiggle it to create force fields. Or have characters fire a buff dart out of their dart gun. Or a guy makes a magical glyph in the area (like in demon summoning) to activate his fire armor. There's so many possibilities there.

[ QUOTE ]
Just a note, as of this point, I am not going to be taking any further review requests for the time being. I'm going to run through all the rest in the thread, as well as any re-reviews people asked for. Once those are finished, I'm taking a break for a while.

[/ QUOTE ]

As I said, I'm not taking further review requests.

This is a rereview of DeviousMe's arc #2922. This is gonna be a lot less in depth and just touch on the changes.

3 out of 5 stars

First off, the first mission map has been replaced with a shorter one. I think it's gone a bit too far on the small size, though, as most of the dragons are all in the same room. Plus, it's less linear, so I fought Rollister before I even found the dragons.

The dragons haven't been changed, which I still don't like, but I doubt Devious and I will agree on the merits therein.

The second mission is still on the Thorn Tree map, which is fine, as the story calls for it. There's more exposition on just why Malta is helping out Dark Dragon (it makes it explicit that DD took out the Thorns for the Malta).

Third mission is still in the Warburg base. I do think this one is unnecessary, since it could really be any Malta base. And as someone else once said, when everything is special, nothing is. Nothing much seems changed with this mission.

Fourth mission seems to imply DD wants to steal the subs this time (I can't remember if this was included in the original version I reviewed. I don't remember it though). Also, Mako is swapped for Scirroco. There's some extra story here about DD taking out people who could summon him again, though it seems a bit weak. I mean, technically there's nothing stopping the Thorns from summoning him AGAIN. Or from other mystics doing it.

Final mission is in the Faultline dam still. You're once again presented with the choice of "let him go" or "go get him". Again, I can't see why anyone would choose to let him go. There seems to be no downside to capturing him, since DD is still clearly a villain and he has been using the player as a stooge, incentivising the capture.

There's some effort at the end through DD's dialogue to make letting him go seem more palatable, but I think at this point it's too late.

Also, the enemies are still way powerful. I did this with a Rad/Rad defender partner this time and the last room destroyed us utterly. Like we dropped in 5 seconds from the alpha. We eventually managed to do it through the use of tons of temps (I had to pull out Amy, use two Nectars to confuse some of the enemies off me, I died once, the Def died twice, I used up an entire full Inspiration tray).

The changes in the story did help somewhat. Dark Dragon's motivations and the motivations of the various enemy groups were made clear and there's far less "bad guys acting stupid" now. I still think the "Arachnos base" mission feels a little bit tacked on with only a weak reason for both DD and the player to go there. And I still find the choice at the end to be a no brainer for any character who is supposed to be a hero; no hero would not go try to arrest a Space Pirate who nearly got them killed and had proven to be a manipulative [censored]. And I still think that the unique maps are overused.

Still, it was a real improvement over the prior version.

[ QUOTE ]
Here you go, more fodder to be fed into the review-o-matic cannon for violent expulsion all over the forums. Please feel free to tear both of these apart, as I'd like to get the most constructive criticism possible so I can improve these arcs to their full potential. Thanks in advance!

[/ QUOTE ]

I ran this one already. The review is on page 9, I think.

[ QUOTE ]
Arc Name: Facing Chaos
Arc ID: 105163
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Aracade
Difficulty Level: Easy/Moderate
Synopsis: An old king that has seen his world end learns the cause of its destruction is being drawn to this world. Unwilling to see another world fall he calls for the help of the heroes that protect it. (Level 40+)
Estimated Time to Play: 45 to 90 minutes

[/ QUOTE ]

4 out of 5 stars.

Run with my 50 BS/SR Scrapper.

King Odilian of the Realm of Dragons tells me that a being he calls Chaos, which caused the destruction of his world, may have come to Earth. He has no direct proof, but wants you to check it out.

To start off, he sends you to investigate a cult that supposedly worships Chaos. The cult ends up being a custom group with CoT and Mu mobs. You're supposed to find a Member of Chaos. It turns out to be Riki Tiki Taly, a "Weapon of Rip Van Twinkle".

King Odilian confirms that RTT was who you were going after. Rip Van Twinkle, apparently, is a woman locked into a "world of chaos" who apparently exists only to kill. The King takes the information to Longbow. But when he's there, he witnesses several Longbow arguing and a good portion storm out.

Something similar happened on his world before it was destroyed and he fears it means Chaos's influence has already spread. You're asked to go find them and warned they'll attack you if they're under Chaos's influence. Inside, you find the Cult of Chaos trying to turn several Longbow members (hostages to rescue) as well as hostile Longbow.

You also encounter Seeds of Chaos: Dark Swan's Shadows, Arachnoids, Devouring Earth, Tuatha, Hydra Spawn, and Darkwolves. Leading them is a "dragon-like" monster called Firada which is a Fire Blast/Fire Armor boss. Apparently, these are Longbow, warped by Chaos's power.

The King says the same thing happened on his world, though he never realized they were human. With his suspicions confirmed, the King sends you to take down part of the Cult. He warns you you might need help, so sends his youngest daughter along to aid you, promising she is a healer.

Inside, you quickly find several Firada with normal groups, some Cultists defending an altar (misspelled "alter"), and some monsters being sacrificed. You also find a "Chronas' Shadow", I believe supposed to be a "fake" version of the Cult leader. You eventually do fight Chronas, a Fire EB (I'm not sure which fire sets he used. I think maybe Fire Blast and Fire Control).

When you beat him, apparently Chaos rips his soul out. Oddly, I never encountered the King's daughter in this mission, despite looking around for a while.

Now you're sent after Rip Van Twinkle. She appears early on in the mission, surrounded by Knives of Artemis and Malta for some reason. She's a Claws EB (no purple triangles) and when you beat her, two Guard Beast objectives spawn. They are both called ******, a Fire Melee/Ice Control boss. They weren't too tough.

With them beaten, you have to go beat Rip for good. She appears to be a MA/Archery EB this time (still no triangles). She hit Build Up and Aim and one shot me. Second time she did it again. Third time, I turned on Stephanie Peeble's Ring and used tome Sturdies. I took her down this time, though she did put a beating on me.

With her beaten, you witness the Chaos energy flying off and all the people transformed turn back to normal. The King thanks you and gives you a crest to remember him by.

In all, I enjoyed the arc. I thought the plot was fairly strong and the missions made sense. The enemies were good as well, though a few of the mobs added to the custom groups (Malta and Knives) were odd choices.

But it still felt a little... I don't know, lacking. The world shattering nature wasn't played up nearly enough, I thought. Despite the bad things happening, it never really seemed truly eminent. I think maybe because the enemies are just retreads of villains already used as opposed to custom mobs or anything.

Plus, the last mission fell a bit flat for me. Fighting Rip wasn't really the epic conflict I wished it was (despite the two deaths, those were due more to the overpowered nature of Build Up and Aim on custom mobs than anything else). Of course, the MA is limited here. You can't really make a Ruladak or anything.

Also, the names were a little off. Rip Van Twinkle and Riki Tiki Taly don't sound threatening.

Honestly, the arc was more a 3.5, but I felt generous so rounded that up to 4 instead of down to 3.

Just a note, as of this point, I am not going to be taking any further review requests for the time being. I'm going to run through all the rest in the thread, as well as any re-reviews people asked for. Once those are finished, I'm taking a break for a while.

[ QUOTE ]
I never talk about invention enhancements. I talk about a cube. It's too bad you're not a comic book buff as it seems you missed the entirety of the parody. Not your fault, of course, just unfortunate.

[/ QUOTE ]

You never specifically mention Invention Enhancements. However, the Arbiter says something along the lines of "making Inventions without salvage." I'm not sure what that could possibly refer to but Invention Enhancements. Even in CoH lore, inventions aren't actually made with Salvage. Just enhancements are.

[ QUOTE ]
Not sure what other group I could have used in their place, the hero side is a little limited for heroic groups, and story-wise I didn't want to use the custom group for all the missions. As far as failing the mission, I haven't had much complaints on that end. Obviously, in a group I don't think she ever gets away, but solo stalkers I can see having a problem.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, someone somewhere once said (maybe Talen Lee in her review thread, I think, maybe) that there are certain groups that are so overused in the game that you'd better have a really good story for them, else the boringness of the group will end up seeping into the story. I don't know who else you might use, but maybe a custom group would be more interesting.

As for the difficulty of the mission, it didn't bother me too much, I was just noting it as an occurrence.

[ QUOTE ]
I've found difficulty to be one of the most subjective things in the game. I've had a few who couldn't get past the first mission and others who don't have a problem. I'm just sorry that the story wasn't compelling for you.

[/ QUOTE ]

Maybe. My scrapper is pretty weak, overall. But a couple of Lucks got me through each fight.

[ QUOTE ]
Ouch! No story and no personality. I guess those hours of tweaking dialogue and making sure each EB had their own voice failed me miserably. Maybe the clues and souvenir weren't as fleshed out as I'd hoped. As this is all subjective, I can't really take much issue with anything except for calling it a "magical cube"; they're scientists, so no magic.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sure, each EB has their own "voice". That doesn't give them personality. Or at least not one that is really displayed enough to make it meaningful. Most of them have 10 lines of speech, tops. Almost all of it are variations on typical "I will beat you/You fight well, but not enough/Maybe you're better than I thought/I can't believe you beat me" stuff.

There's a reason that most arcs in the game do not deal with multiple EBs or AVs. At least not ones where you're supposed to build up an antagonistic relationship with them. The ones that do tend to be the longer arcs. With 5 EBs and only 5 missions tops, you don't build up a relationship between the player and the bad guys.

[ QUOTE ]
I wished you had provided an example as I try to keep the grammar as clean as possible; especially since my proof-reader friend apparently missed them.

[/ QUOTE ]

I always misuse the term run-on sentences. You didn't ACTUALLY have run-ons, you just had long, meandering sentences that suffered from a lack of direction. I could probably go back in and find a few if you really want me to.

[ QUOTE ]
By having the protagonist as one of the rogue copies pushes the story from "block standard" into "relevant" or even "moving". The rogue copy sacrifices itself for the benefit of everyone.

[/ QUOTE ]

The thing is the player never knows it was a rogue copy. There's no indication that the rogue copy knows it's a rogue copy. There's nothing moving about it. The player never becomes attached to the rogue copy because the player never knows it exists until after its supposed sacrifice.

Plus, there's no apparent reason it would need to sacrifice itself, it just happens. What's to stop it from just rematerializing too? There's no indication that's not possible. So it's a meaningless sacrifice at that.

[ QUOTE ]
Instead I have the AE security patrols talk about having detected a rogue copy and investigating. If the players don't realize that they are talking about the character at that point I guess they weren't paying attention, or that the patrol dialogue had fired off too soon as usual.

[/ QUOTE ]

Or we noticed it and didn't realize it was supposed to imply that the character was actually a copy. At this point in the arc, the player and the Doctor are going around mucking around in the AE mainframe. You're a rogue element or a rogue program or a rogue administrator or whatever.

[ QUOTE ]
Everyone doesn't like twist endings for some reason. Personally I love them. My only regret is that I haven't been able to figure out a way to drop more hints about what is really going on without revealing the twist too soon.

[/ QUOTE ]

Twist endings are fine. See the Sixth Sense for one that I enjoyed. Planet of the Apes was a good one. Fight Club was another one. I'm sure I could go on.

However, yours lacked the emotional impact needed to be a good one. Yours was essentially "Your character remembers nothing", because as Venture said, the copy was never real. And it was just a copy. The only thing deleted is the experiences, not the personality or life or anything like that.

[ QUOTE ]
Arc ID: 1152
Title: The Doctor Returns
Global: @FredrikSvanberg
Recommended Level: Missions range from 35-50.

[/ QUOTE ]

3 out of 5 stars

Run with my 37 Spines/DA Scrapper.

The Doctor from the Crey Arc sends me an e-mail, telling me she's discovered something terrible about the MA. Apparently, Crey wants to take the digitized copies of people, make copies, reprogram the copies, and then rematerialize the copies.

In order to prove this, she sends you into a certain mission in the MA to check it out. Inside, you have to find the original user and defeat the 4 copies. The original user turns out to be Fusionette.

This makes dealing with the copies somewhat problematic for me, as DA is not strong against the Energy damage (or Smashing, for that matter...) and Knockback they throw around. But with the help of the other Fusionette, I don't have too many issues.

The Doctor tells you some stuff about Crey's operation, then sends you into a mission she put a backdoor into so you can gain administrator status. You go into an office full of Arachnoids. Almost immediately, you gain an ally, Executable #6 taking the form of a Paragon Protector.

With the administrative rights granted, you're sent in to look at some of the older files that exist to back before AE opened. You have to decompress 3 files, which end up being Fusionette, Jim Tremblor, and Ghost Widow as hostages. Then you have to defeat the Sys Admin, which spawns another file, Positron.

The Doctor says this proves that Crey made a copy of Positron and it was that copy who approved AE Tech. You're sent in to upload a file to their systems that'll let the Doctor wreak havoc, but you only have 60 minutes to do it. There are a bunch of bad nodes that spawn ambushes, but you can avoid them by clicking on them from a distance and seeing that they say "Bad Node".

With the Doctor now inside the system, she sends you in one last time to erase all trace of what you've done. That way, she can stay in and keep hindering Crey's plans. You go in, get two passcodes from custom Crey bosses, and then blow up two mainframes to simulate deleting files.

With the mission complete, you step out. Apparently, the person running all those missions was a "rogue copy" of you and now the real you has been released. Which is kinda a weird ending that took a lot away from me. It seemed to be a twist simply for the sake of being a twist. I certainly don't know what the ending adds to the story.

Thus, while I liked the story and it held up pretty well and the missions are interesting enough, I can't give it a higher grade than I did.

[ QUOTE ]
Arc Name: The Ideality - Part 1: A New Foe
Arc ID: 42436
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: @parhaius
Level Range: 1-54
Synopsis: A mysterious and hostile new group is seizing territory all over Paragon City - but for what purpose?


[/ QUOTE ]

3 out of 5 stars.

Run with my 50 BS/SR scrapper.

Apparently, a bunch of villain bases have been raided or taken over by some unknown force and you need to go and find out who's behind it. Apparently tip says a Council base will be hit next, so you go there.

Inside, you find the Ideality attacking the Council. The Ideality appear robotic in nature and call the Council "fleshbags". You have to defeat the Raid Leader, a BS/Shields boss. Unfortunately, no one knows about the Ideality, so you need to infiltrate one of their bases to find out about them.

Inside, you have to collect some of their parts, get some files, and take a hard drive (those last two seem fairly redundant). The evidence is sent out for testing, and it turns out that the Ideality wants to turn people into machines so as to perfect them. Apparently, they're planning to raid a bionics conference full of Paragon's best and brightest, so you need to go stop them.

You have to rescue 6 hostages. One tells you about an Ideality base near by, so you're sent there to take care of that. All you need to do here is defeat one boss. You find a chip on him that leads you to a robot factory.

You have to take out two prototypes and destroy 3 assemblers. At least one of the prototypes is an EB, but he wasn't very tough. In fact, I can't even remember what his primary was. Probably Energy Blast...

Anyway, the arc is alright. It's obviously written as an introduction to this villain group. The main problem is there isn't much of a coherent story. It's just a couple of random plots by this group you stop.

On the plus side, the villain group is fairly well designed. They look decent, they provide a moderate challenge without being overwhelming, and they have a good concept that doesn't retread on any current CoH stuff.

[ QUOTE ]
Jenkins's Guide to Super-Villainy
Arc ID: 84008
Faction: Villainous
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Circuit Boy
Difficulty Level: Missions #1-3 1-50, Mission #4 20-29; easy to medium difficulty
Synopsis: Tired of Kalinda prattling on about searching for the "Destined One"? More than just a mercenary gun for hire? Tired of exterminating snakes for Mongoose? Not thrilled to be Doctor Creed's lab assistant? Want to know how to become a real super-villain? Jenkins has just the guide for you!
Estimated Time to Play: 4 missions, 60-90 minutes

[/ QUOTE ]

1 out of 5 stars

Run with my 32 Nin/EA stalker.

Jenkins asks you if I want to know how to be a real super villain. I apparently think he will know how, despite him being Arachnos's whipping boy, but I say yes anyway. Despite him promising that you're not going to be an errand boy for someone else, he immediately sends you to do something for him: steal some sharks from Captain Mako.

Considering he just talked about lasers and "cranial mounts", he's quite obviously trying to make "sharks with frikin' laser beams". Yay, an Austin Powers reference. That's... topical.

You're sent to the Chum Bucket mission map, which is tiny. It seems like the map is supposed to be empty, but there is one enemy here. The sharks are somehow in crates. When you get the last one, it spawns a Boss. The boss spawns an ambush at about 50% health.

When you beat the boss, it says Mako will "chum" him, which makes no sense. I think he means "Captain Mako will turn me into chum".

Since the sharks end up being too small, Jenkins declares this plan a failure. His next plan is to grab the Malleus Mundi from the Circle of Thorns. You need to get it before Ghost Widow does.

There are several obvious Scooby Doo take off characters who are allies in the mission. Their costumes are pretty well done (at least the fake Daphne, Velma, and Fred). Their names are stupid for the most part (Tiffne? Raggy? Thooby Boo?) They talk about solving a mystery.

There's also an "Old Man Johnson" custom Mace/Shields boss who is given the shovel and manhole cover costume parts. He killed me in two shots and I couldn't hit him, even with a large Insight. As you fight him, he talks about all the things he was behind, none of which are relevant.

You eventually find the book, but it's not the Malleus Mundi. It's the Malleus Burundi, which apparently lets you take control of the country Burundi.

The contact text here is now a reference to Pinky and the Brain. But Jenkins sends you off to take control of Burkholder's giant robot under Striga. All you need to do is click on a computer to upload a virus.

However, it turns out that Jenkins accidentally wrote down an extra 0 in the command codes, so they don't work.

You decide you've had enough of Jenkins and go to fight him. When you engage, in case you never realized who Jenkins was a reference to, he hammers it over your head by screaming it at you. He also summons his sharks, which are custom Rad mobs, and the giant Mech Man, which turns out to be some regular Mech Men.

With Jenkins beaten up, you leave him off to be incompetent on his own.


Have you ever been unfortunate enough to watch one of those awful movies like Epic Movie or Disaster Movie? The movies that purport to be comedies, but actually are just filled with references to other things?

That's what this arc was like. Instead of a plot, it tried to be funny, but more or less failed. There were no jokes, just references. It's not even like it had jokes that weren't my style. They just weren't jokes.

And if that's not bad enough, the arc pretty much invalidates its own premise. You're offered the chance to not be another villain's lackey, but that's what all the arc is. Doing things for Jenkins.

Pretty much the only thing to recommend is the costume designs on the fake Fred, Daphne, and Velma. Which is probably against the MA rules anyway, now that I think about it.

[ QUOTE ]
Arc Name: Super Science Invasion
ID:9691
Global:@Device
Range: 30s-40s (plenty of EBs, not really meant for solo, but many have)

[/ QUOTE ]

2 out of 5 stars

Ran this with my 32 Ninja Blade/Energy Aura stalker.

Retired Arbiter Kirby has gotten word that a "Dr. Wasp" has invented a cube that creates inventions without salvage. This is a bit of an odd quasi-OOC thing, because I'm not really sure how you can talk about "invention enhancement" in character.

But you're asked to go after him. The lab is guarded by Longbow. Dr. Wasp is a Sonic/Thorns EB. He spawns an ambush of custom AR mobs. When you defeat him, he does not have the cube.

Apparently, a hero name Insecta-girl breaks Dr. Wasp out of the Arachnos jail. She's tracked back to a lab. You go after her, figuring that the cube will be there or you'll be able to use her as a bargaining chip.

Once again, you have Longbow, the most boring group in the entire game. She's a Energy Blast/SR EB. She runs at 25% health, and since she's SR she's nearly impossible to catch, so she got away.

Luckily, Dr. Wasp doesn't want to see his friends hurt, so he agrees to hand over the cube anyway. You're to make the exchange in a warehouse. Naturally, it's a "trap", and you have to fight Minerva, a Archery/WP EB and Battle Armor an Energy Blast/?? EB.

Now you're sent to steal all their equipment from their superbase. Finally, no Longbow, just custom mobs. You have to steal 3 pieces of equipment. Early in, you discover a scientist who drops a feather that you take after she runs away. There's also another EB, Grey Gargantua, who looks like a Gray Hulk ripoff. I didn't fight him because I didn't need to.

Apparently, the group are researchers for the military, which constitutes an invasion in Lord Recluse's eyes. They've apparently all gathered in a warehouse and you are sent in to take them out. All 5 EBs. This isn't challenging, because none of them are particularly strong. It's just tedious.

Anyway, you get a good job from the Arbiter and that's that.

This arc doesn't have much story to it. In the first three missions, you're trying to get this magical cube. In the second two, you're just fighting the EBs for the hell of it. In fact, the entire arc seems to be "Fight EBs for the hell of it." I can't say they're author inserts, because they use powerset mixes you can't actually create, so it seems unlikely. In the end, it's just a bunch of fights against EBs with no personality and for no good reason.

It also suffers extensively from run on sentences in the contact dialogue.

It's not terrible, it's just not interesting or that good.

[ QUOTE ]
Eclipse Over Paragon (64609)
30-50 range


[/ QUOTE ]

4 out of 5 stars

Run with the 50 BS/SR Scrapper.

Colleen Nelson tells us that she thinks a warehouse in Striga houses a new Shadow Seed, which is used to turn soldiers into Warwolves. You're asked to go in and stop it. You're also told other heroes might be hitting it as well.

Inside, you find custom "Stunted Nightwolf" mobs. You have to free a hostage, collect 3 crates full of strange liquid, and find an ally. The hostage tells you the warehouse was only a hub and there are other warehouses with the liquid in it.

The ally seems like he's supposed to be a joke character, but he wasn't funny. When you free him, a "Defeat Archon" objective appears. The Archon says he would have abandoned the warehouse if not for the Center's orders.

The contact says the scientist said the liquid is water, irradiated with Nictus energy. The Council apparently deems the experiment a failure, because the nightwolves they make aren't very strong. You're sent to one of the warehouses, while other heroes are sent to the rest.

The warehouse is the tiniest one available. The only crate has a note that says "Eat lead" on it, which spawns an ambush and a boss mob. Once you beat the boss mob, you get a mission complete.

Apparently, the ambush was just a distraction, and the Council has launched an attack of Mech Men on Steel Canyon. Apparently, they're spraying the Nictus water all over the place. The scientist was a liar.

You have to defeat 3 Emitter Droids (the names should really more closely reflect Council naming schemes) who are custom mobs who look a little like robotic Vandals and find a "suspect". You also have to deal with numerous people who have turned into weakened Warwolves, including some PPD and Longbow.

You have to fight another Archon who seems to have a cold and is unaffected by the spray. The robots also have commands to restock at stockpiles across the city, so you're sent to eliminate one of those. You're warned to not let anything distract you. It even says so in the nav bar.

The ally from the first mission is the only enemy there, transformed into a Warwolf. He's a Claws/Regen Boss. You don't have to fight him, just click on 12 crates, which are all very close together since the map is very small.

Apparently, the Council and nightwolves are converging on a single base in Striga. You're sent there, figuring it's the base the scientist is in. Inside, you find numerous patrols of Council and transformed people. You also find transformed versions of a few well-known heroes, which was a nice touch.

The scientist appears as a AR/Dark Miasma EB, which is a slightly odd combo. He wasn't too tough. You also find a computer with all his research on it.

With that, SERAPH can create an antidote to cure people. However, the comedy character seems to have been overexposed and can't be cured so easily.

I liked the arc, it was a relatively smart plan by the Council and the custom group was quite well done. The writing was strong as well and the missions weren't too long or tedious.

I do think the "comedy" character is misplaced (and he's definitely a joke character. His bio is pretty obviously meant to be a joke) and he adds nothing to the arc. I suppose you're supposed to feel sorry for him, but as he's not legitimately funny, he doesn't.

Still, a good strong arc.

[ QUOTE ]
So you think the Bane is too EASY? Sheesh. I wanted to use the destroyed lab map from the mission where you fight Baphomet villainside for the finale, but it's apparently not available in the MA. You should imagine that you're in that map while you run the last mission.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think he only hit me with one attack the entire time. The most challenging part was chasing him across the map to kill him once he ran. If other people are complaining about his difficulty, then perhaps I just got lucky. But between myself and two boss allies, I had no difficulty at all.

[ QUOTE ]
Arc Name: Bugs and Robots, ma'am, bugs and robots
Arc ID:53433
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Nod
Difficulty Level: Above average (custom enemy faction, custom AV)
Synopsis: A new villain group infests Paragon City. It's up to you to find out why and stop them!
Estimated Time to Play: 30-60 minutes


[/ QUOTE ]

3 out of 5 stars

Blah blah, 50 BS/SR Scrap.

Max Nodick, aka To The Max, says locals are going missing, but it's not the Vahz or Lost. So he asks you to go check out some local caves. Inside, you find some weird bug people who go on about something they call Her. You find some cocoons, destroy it, and find a bunch of egg sacs.

While Max and his SG test the eggs, he sends you to another cave to clear it out. You have to search 5 webbed bundles. Inside one, you find a huge shell.

Apparently, the bugs also mentioned some kind of attack, but I missed that in the NPC dialogue. An alarm goes off in a robotics factory, and your contact thinks the two things are related for some reason.

Inside, you find some robots that are a mix of custom mobs, Neuron robots, and Council robots. You find many of the insects too. You have to search 5 containers, one of which contains a chitinous plate with wires fused to it.

Just then, you contact gets a message from another robot factory, with a witness who apparently saw Her. You need to go save the witness, then escort him out.

The witness tells you that Her is in a cave about a mile away. You go in and fight Her, who is actually called Ma'am, a Sonic/WP AV. She was quite easy to take down for me. She mentions before the fight that she's just the first wave of an alien invasion. After she dies, you have to take down her cocoon, else she'll just reemerge.

And with that, the arc is complete.


The arc isn't bad, it's just not great either. It's just pretty average. The story is kinda weak, I feel, and ends with a lot of loose ends. Why were the insects attacking the robot factories? No idea. Never resolved.

There just isn't a lot of meat here to the story. It's kind of dull and simplistic. It's got some potential, but just isn't terribly interesting. The clues and contact text are fairly sparse as well.

[ QUOTE ]
Arc Name: The Knights of Rularuu
Arc ID: 75386
Faction: Malta Group, Custom Rularuu
Length: 4 missions
Morality: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Vanden
Difficulty Level: Hard
Synopsis: Who would've thought that one of those endless Malta missions would turn up something like this? (1 AV, not recommended for weak soloists)
Estimated Time to Play: 1 hour

[/ QUOTE ]

4 out of 5 stars

Run with the same old 50 BS/SR Scrapper.

Justice-Guy, who talks a lot like a surfer dude, is working for Crimson investigating the Malta and he wants some help with it. You have to clear out a Malta base and search for any clues there.

You meet up with one of his friends there, who senses he's in trouble and runs off. She tells you she'll send you some help. The help ends up to be a Ring Mistress, who has apparently left the Carnies (against canon, I believe, as all Carnies are supposed to be under the mental domination of Vanessa deVoere). The computer files you find are all encrypted and the base commander gives you no clue.

Now you're sent to another base with Justice-Guy to get into a door that JG couldn't get into before. You find Rularuu attacking the Malta, who seem just as happy to let you take over the base than deal with them.

One computer tells you that Malta was experimenting with portal tech. The other clue is fighting some really cool looking custom Rularuu mobs.

Apparently, Malta had created a portal to a part of the Shadow Shard that can only be accessed directly from our dimension, thanks to the warped space-time in the Shard. You're sent in to help evacuate 5 of the humans there. Each one gives you a portion of a legend, much like in the Shadow Shard TFs.

In a nutshell, there's an aspect of Rularuu known as the Bane who controls the new Rularuu. And JG seems to think the Bane has come to Paragon to wreak havoc. You go back to the Malta base, hook up with JG and Serras, save two technicians, reactivate a dimensional stabilizer, and defeat the Bane.

Bane appears to be a simple Axe/Fire Armor EB, not an AV (I never saw the triangles, at least. And even if he was an AV, he was really weak and didn't do much damage or tank much. And he ran at 50% health). After finishing up everything, you are thanked by JG.


I liked the arc a lot. The writing was very good, the plot was pretty good, and I think the custom enemies were very well done. The one thing that marked it down from 4 to 5 stars was how... well, unepic the final mission was. The Bane, for supposedly being a badass, was a real pushover. I was expecting something like Lanaruu or Ruladak. Instead, I got a pretty wimpy Axe/Fire EB who ran like a girl at 50% health.

Still, it was fun and well done and I'd recommend it.

[ QUOTE ]
Arc ID: 48942
Name: Too Drunk Too Be Alcoholic
Global: @DLancer
Level Range: 30-45
Missions: 5 on small/medium maps.
Enemies: Crey, Freaks, Custom Group; 2 AVs (missions 3 and 5, both of which give allied EBs)

[/ QUOTE ]

4 out of 5 stars

Run on the 50 BS/SR Scrapper.

Dark Lancer's friend Jack has been kidnapped by some Freaks who live in a liquor store in Skyway City. You're asked to go save him. It's one of the small tech store maps. You have to defeat the Freak Boss and find the hostage. However, there is no hostage, just some glowies that give you Crey Brand Alcoholic Beverage and an inventory sheet that showed you where they got it.

Naturally, Dark Lancer was talking about Jack Daniels. The contact decides that you should investigate the warehouse where the Crey Alcohol came from, since Crey doesn't make alcohol.

You have to gather information and defeat the warehouse manager. The information is a file cabinet that spawns an ambush upon clicking (the ambush has some grammar errors in its spawn dialogue). You find documents on Crey's research into subliminal advertisement.

The manager tells you Crey planned to distribute the beverage in the Rogue Isles to the villains, but he doesn't know why. Masquerading is also misspelled there.

Lancer sends you to talk to a friend of him, Markus DeLorean. Markus is apparently investigating a Crey lab and you're warned a Crey operative is trailing him. Markus tells you the drink likely just has subliminal primers in it instead of booze. The agent is a Rad/Rad EB, so he was annoying, but died quick enough.

Lancer tells him the TV told him Crey is starting up their operation out of Brickstown. Inside, you find some random gang bangers and some wandering Arachnos, Carnies, Freaks, and Longbow who don't seem to know why they're there. But they all attack you.

When you fight the Overseer (who has some funny lines) you're told that it was all a trap set up to get you. You also find a computer that has the location of the warehouse the drink is being stored at. When you check it, the Council ambushes you. "Get XXX... for some reason!"

Lancer tells you Countess Crey is inspecting the warehouse now and he's going in to stop her. You're invited along. You have to go in, free Lancer from Crey, destroy four production pods, and defeat Countess Crey.

With everything done, Lancer invites you out for a drink.

Now, this arc might not be for everyone. It's pretty much a humor arc through and through. And it takes a little while to get going. The first couple of missions didn't do much for me humor wise, but the last three had a lot of good stuff.

It needs to clean up some grammar and spelling issues. But aside from that, I enjoyed it a lot. And even if it did clean up the grammar, I doubt it'd be bumped to a 5 stars. But it's still good.

Arc Name: "The Council's Long Con"
Arc ID: 1579
Length: Long (4 missions)
First Published: 4/8/2009 04:32 PM
Morality: Villainous
Level Range: 20-35 (mostly)
Description: The Council wants to recruit a scientist from another villain organization. It's up to you to make sure the scientist defects.

Arc Name: "The Siphon"
Arc ID: 113294
Length: Long (5 missions)
First Published: 4/24/2009 07:36 PM
Morality: Villainous
Level Range: 15-24 (mostly)
Description: A magic-heavy arc where you decide to go off and steal some artifacts then use them to make yourself more powerful.

[ QUOTE ]

Yeah, but as far as I could tell, the war left them without bodies. It wasn't until Zoira came along in the 1800s that they finally were able to achieve corporal form again.

"The Library of Souls" shows that the Circle was body-napping people way before Zoria showed up...that's only when they started operating anything like in the open again.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ah. It's been three years since I ran that arc. So I must not remember that part.

[ QUOTE ]
As for how long the Oranbegans have been in the Isles ruins...the war ended 14,000 years ago. So yeah, they've had some time.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, but as far as I could tell, the war left them without bodies. It wasn't until Zoira came along in the 1800s that they finally were able to achieve corporal form again.

Then again, like you said, canon is a mess with the Thorns.

Nope.

[ QUOTE ]
Just commenting on some of the Circle lore here:

Oranbega is only in Paragon City, the underground cities you go to in the Rogue Isles, I believe, are the ruins of the Mu civilization. At least I'm fairly certain, I'm a bit rusty on my CoV lore. In any case, it's not Oranbega.

This is correct. They look the same because the Mu and the Oranbegans both come from a common culture so they have similar architecture.

Exactly what the Mu ruins in the Rogue Isles are is still up for grabs a bit. Some parts of CoV seem to claim the Isles are what is left of Mu itself. Others say they were an outpost. The latter is more likely to be correct given references in the earlier CoH material.

[/ QUOTE ]

Are you 100% positive about this? Thorn Isle, at least, seems like it would have to be Oranbega. Or at least have been the Circle of Thorns possession for quite a long time. After all, the very thing they get their name from comes from the giant tree growing there.

Additionally, there are certain arcs that paint the Circle as having been in the ruins beneath the Rogue Islands for a long time. I know that part of it is supposed to be Mu/Muvian in origin. But it seems like it almost certainly must be partially Oranbegan in origin too.

[ QUOTE ]
But I was sure you had to have the Mu Bloodline to become a Circle mage. I could be wrong, though.

It is implied in various places that the ability to wield magic is tied to the body, not a metaphysical quality of the soul. Thus, when looking for hosts, CoT magi will naturally look for ones with strong "magery", and such people are likely to have Mu ancestry. However, contrary to what a lot of players have assumed, it is not the case that everyone in the City universe who can wield magic has Mu ancestry. It's the most likely case, but the devs did leave wiggle room for people with other ideas for their characters' backstories.

[/ QUOTE ]

In fact, the Possessed Scientists are explicitly stated as not having the Blood of Mu and yet are obviously capable of magic.

I've always played it that the Blood of Mu means that the possession is more likely to produce good results. You can become more powerful by getting a good old Mu Blood Body, but that's not gonna happen if you're in a clunky generic brand.