Interface

For levels 40+, the TRILOGY OF MODERATE EVIL chronicles your struggles as a fairly vile, somewhat ruthless villain bent on clawing your way to the top the Destined Ones... or at least cutting in line. Commanded by Lord Recluse to do the tasks no one else wants to, you struggle through waves of custom foes, absurd plot twists, and deranged catgirls to secure your place at the top of the Rogue Isles' food chain.

Two Chicks at Once: mission arc #83920
Longbow has launched a cunning and titillating operation to undermine Arachnos' influence in the Rogue Isles. It's up to you to beat them at their own game.

Curiouser and Curiouser: mission arc #167567
How can Lord Recluse's latest plot be so secret, even he doesn't know about it? How do Longbow and Malta fit in, and who invited Nemesis?

Cat: It's What's For Dinner: mission arc #530511
Such a simple plan: steal the Orestes Rifle, kidnap Ms. Liberty, defeat Statesman. What could possibly go wrong? Choose from two possible endings.

Each mission arc should take no more that fifteen minutes to complete at +B -AV. No large maps, no defeat-alls, no grav/storm minions. Each arc has EBs, however, you will either be given EB allies, or you won't need to fight them.

After much agonizing, I finally found a way to implement this. The final map has a boss and a defendable object, both marked as required. The mission text tells the player to defeat the boss to get one ending, or smash the glowie for the other. The defendable glowie is set to rogue alignment, allowing the player to destroy it. The mobs 'attacking' it are custom mobs that look like normal ones, but their only power is Aim.

If you want to see the fruits of my genius for yourself, it's in arc #530511. Feedback on any aspect of the mission is appreciated.

What would be the easiest way to allow a player to choose to fail a mission?

I'm trying to write a mission where the player has a choice of two endings. Ideally, they can click one glowie or defeat one boss to complete the mission, and click/defeat another to fail, (with fail not really being fail in storyline terms, just an alternate choice). Is there an easy way to implement this?

Today I got a Soulbound Allegiance - Chance for Build Up recipe as a drop. Upon crafting it. I received the enhancement, but still had the recipe!

To test this, I obtained the ingredients and tried to craft it again, but nothing happened when I hit the create button. The recipe shows up in the recipe and crafting station windows, regardless of the 'only owned recipes' button. I also can't drag it to the BM slots, although it could be dragged to a chat window.

I have a screenshot if anyone is interested.

EDIT: logged in an hour later and it was gone. Oh well.

Here are a few stinkers I came across in my now-forgotten review thread...

Arc #172576: Eternal Legion Task Force #1 Awful in every way imaginable

Arc 64537: The Great War of Paragon: Makes no sense at all, EBs without warning

Arc 139281: Ghost Widow's Strike Force: Insanely hard, poor writing

Success! Fast Kitty also passes the Pillbox Challenge.

[ QUOTE ]
Fast kitty goes meow.

[/ QUOTE ]

That was Shadow Kitty. Fast Kitty failed at soloing a pill once. Maybe I'll go try it again... :-)

I just soloed an RV pillbox, without using a heavy or any other temp power.

Shadow Kitty

It seems that all my best characters are kitties. Maybe there's a secret flag in the code that cranks up the power level half a dozen notches when there's whiskers and a tail.

Try #1945: Positron's Task Force: the Remix. The enemy groups are Hellions, Skulls, and CoT, so it's playable as low as level 1. Nothing higher than an Lt.

Plus, you can tell your friends, "Hey I soloed Posi at level 10!!!"

I posted a review of it here a while ago. (quick summary: it's pretty good)

Arc #2622: A Tangle in Time

First off, I'm gonna admit that I came into this arc prejudiced against it already. Time travel is way, way overused as a plot device in MA, CoX, and sci-fi in general. It's filled with cliches, and it's full of things that people who spend hours searching for nitpicks will point out. But most of all, 99% of comic-book time travel stories ignore one basic paradox.

Let's say that at 12:34 PM, Jimmy buys an ice cream cone. At 12:35, a bully jumps out of the bushes, steals the cone, and runs off. Distraught, Jimmy runs across town to Capetini's, and tells his story to the superheroes hanging out there. At 12:45, Timescream travels back in time to 12:31, drags the bully out of the bushes and kicks him in the nuts a few times, and travels back to 12:46 for another whiskey sour.

Therefore, the bully never stole the icecream... which means Jimmy never went to the heroes... which means Timescream never went back to stop the bully... which means the icecream DID get stolen, which means...

This is (IMHO) the most basic time travel paradox, possibly even more basic that the old chestnut about killing your own grandfather. Some stories address this using one plot device or another, but many ignore it, or just drop the 'Timey-Wally Ball". Or something.

1) You speak to Azuria, who tells you that an excavation has discovered the Donut of Forever, and you need to go neutralize it, using an amulet that Azuria just happens to have handy. The text is a bit odd here... she says "We're all counting on you, $name" even though there was no danger or urgency.

I clicked a glowie, rescued two PPD officers (unique names, descriptions and appearance) and kicked a CoT boss in the nuts. Interestingly, I got the 'Show Off' badge immediately upon entering the mission.

2) OH NOES! Azuria doesn't recognize me and is telling me to do the exact same thing! Everything in the mission is the same, except the boss has different text as I kick him in the nuts again.

3) I talk to Azuria, who... er... actually I'm gonna stop narrating the story here, because doing so would give away too much of the story, and I don't want to do that because it's a really good story. Suffice it to say that it doesn't fall into any of the major time travel paradoxes, and doesn't ape any well-known tropes. Or at least none that I read. I suppose, given enough time, TVTropes will expand to cover every possible storytelling device. Then, it will be a trivial matter to script an AI author, add a 3D renderer and speech synthesizer, and sit back as TV shows are generated automatically. Until that day, all we have are Star Trek reruns and CoX, so go ahead and give A Tangle in Time a try. As a bonus, the enemy groups (CoT and PPD) both scale to very low levels, so this should theoretically be playable as low as level 5.

Rating:

Arc #1688, The Echo

I played The Echo a week or so ago, and was eagerly waiting for the QPQ post so I could review it. This is totally one of the best arcs I've played since MA began. The devs really need to begin nominating more Dev's Choice arcs, since this one really deserves it. Of course, the devs are no doubt busy doing, uh, dev stuff, so maybe they should appoint people from the community as 'Dev's Choice Choosers' or something. I wouldn't mind helping to point out arcs that Don't Suck for nomination, even if it means wading through pools of crummy ones. More fuel for the fire, as they say...

1) This starts out light, with a call for a hero to rescue a hostage from the Freaks. The Freak hideout is tastefully decorated, with throw pillows and tasteful potted plants on tasteful end tables. Well, OK, those aren't actually there, but if they existed in the editor, they would be. Maybe that's coming in I15. I go in and defeat 'En Vogue', who has cute dialog, and free the hostage, who does not need to be led out.

2) Some overheard dialog gives us a clue about 'The Monitor', so we go raid a Crey archive for information. What would normally be a cliche mission is livened up by a very funny custom group, and some funny clues as well. Interestingly, one clue relates to the 'Habitual Criminals', a group seen briefly in another of the author's arcs, 'The Audition'... except that the latter is published about 180000 missions later!! Foreshadowing at it's best...

3) We've found out that The Monitor is actually a hero (!) and he's dead (!!) So to get more information, we go raid another Crey base, built on the site of the Monitor's old HQ. This is a bit of a head-scratcher, tho.

"Hey Joe-Bob, we've finished demolishin' the building. Whacha we do 'bout them there com-puter boxes?"

"Be too much work 'ta unplug an' move 'em away, Vern. Leave them right where they are an' build the whole base aroun' them!"

Anyway, we enter the base to hear a funny announcement, kill patrols with funny dialog, and find funny clues on the aforementioned com-puter boxes. All in all, it's funny.

4) Piecing the clues together, we find that the Monitor is planning to build... A DOOMSDAY DEVICE!!! Since some of the com-puter boxes had in fact been updated yesterday, we know where to go, so we're off to a warehouse to smash five crates. Each crate has a cute name, funny description text, and gives a descriptive (and funny) clue when smashed. The level of detail is superb.

We've been getting clues about 'The Monitor' all along. At first, I thought he was something like a high school hall monitor who got super powers from drinking from that cruddy water fountain too many times, and now stops villains who run too fast. Or something. But as the issue goes on, I get the feeling that he's not right in the head, but in a way that can't be ignored.

If I can digress for a moment, let's look at Batman. In particular, two of his biggest foes, the Joker and the Riddler. Both of them are clearly a few olives short of a full deck, but they come across quite differently. The Riddler is always hatching some nefarious scheme- in 'Batman Forever', he was trying to drain the city's resident's brains- but there's never any sense of menace. One feels that the worst he would do is invite you over for crumpets and a quick round of hide-the-salami. The Joker, however, backs his insanity up with something tangible; knives, guns, bombs, and menacing thugs. He's nuts, but you can't turn your back on him. I eventually got the same feeling from The Monitor.

5) We go to a cargo ship, and proceed to defeat FIFTEEN FREAK TANKS, one by one. Normally I would decry FIFTEEN FREAK TANKS as a huge waste of the player's time, but here each one has a unique name and funny combat dialog, and most importantly, each one gives the player a piece of the Monitor's speech, delivered over the loudspeaker as you fight. This tells a compelling story of what happened to the Monitor and how he came to be as he is. After you get the whole story, you encounter the Monitor himself. I can't remember whether he was a boss or EB, but he wasn't too hard regardless.

The Echo is one of the few arcs that is funny AND tells a great story. As soon as the Devs appoint me Official Dev's Choice Chooser, I'll nominate this one first off.

Rating:

I played the original Lesbian Hellion arc. It was funny, but I _knew_ some doofus would complain and get it banned. Sadly, the same will probably happen here.

Arc #1262: Attack of the Space Clowns

Another arc submitted for Sarcastic Reviewing on the MA channel, this one by Champion's Ashcraft. As an aside, it seems that people are actually _reading_ this column and mentioning it in the game. I suppose that even if no one plays my arcs, it's still worthwhile if I can save people from playing Crappy arcs, except for some lulz.

Ah, who am I kidding... PLAY MY STUFF!!! Especially 'Curiouser and Curiouser', it's only been starred 9 times. Oh, and read the mission souvenir before rating it. The souvenir ties the whole arc together.

Anyway, the contact for Attack of the Space Clowns is Dr. Forrester, who sends you into a lab filled with... wait for it... clowns. There about 6 different ones (not counting bosses, if any) with varied powersets and cool costumes and bios, although one has generic minion text. You fight the clowns, and... that's about it.

There are four missions, but I won't give a blow-by-blow because, well, you've heard it all already. There's Rikti in one, and a minor Plot Twist at the end, but that's about it. Mashing it all into one mission would work, but there's just not enough funnay to sustain four missions.

I searched TvTropes for 'Stretching a Joke', but couldn't find anything, so I'll make up one here. Those of us draped in front of the tube in the mid 80's no doubt remember Mr. Belvedere, a limp sitcom about an erudite, upper-crust Englishman who finds himself as a butler for a generic middle-class American family. Each week, he would serve the kids macaroni and cheese, they would pout and whine, and he would say something that passed for wit with a British accent. That was the entire joke, but they somehow spread it out for six years.

There's nothing wrong with Attack of the Space Clowns; no kill-alls, minions with control powers, or naked catboys; it just spreads one joke too thin.

Rating: BELVEDERE

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

Neither of them is available as a boss, so the only way to make the mission easier would be to make them optional, or eliminate them altogether. If anyone has any suggestions for working that into the storyline, please post.



[/ QUOTE ]

Make a custom mob that looks identical?

[/ QUOTE ]

I thought of that, but IMHO there's no way to cut 'n' paste costumes, so I would no doubt get it wrong. Of course I could just put her in a bikini or negligee...

Eagerly awaiting Super Booster XVII... "Dans la Boudoiur"

Sorry about repeated deaths... when I made this, I assumed that Sliver Mantis would be easy with you having an ally, and Ms. Liberty would be effortless with two. Up until recently I had Ms. Liberty summon Longbow ambushes as well, although the main reason for that was to have them shout "Chick Fight!"

Neither of them is available as a boss, so the only way to make the mission easier would be to make them optional, or eliminate them altogether. If anyone has any suggestions for working that into the storyline, please post.

P.S. The original plan for the final mission was for the player to infiltrate the Vindicators' base and plant a hidden camera in the showers, but that's a bit too pervy even for me

I made a few changes to my missions today based on feedback received in this column...

Positron's Task Force: the Remix

Fixed some spelling errors.
Changed text to reflect how Posi is now jogging in place, instead of on all fours :-)
TODO: when I15 comes out, hopefully I can eliminate the level reduction.

Two Chicks at Once
Tweaked text and fixed some spelling errors.
Removed Devices from the minions in the custom group. This should reduce Web Grenade spam.
Standardized the colors for the lieutenant's dialog. Changed Scirocco's text to a more legible color.
Mission 2: switched to a slightly smaller map.
Mission 3: enemy group is now Elder Snakes.
Mission 3: Silver Mantis will now spawn _after_ the player meets Ice Mistral.

Curiouser and Curiouser
Tweaked text and fixed some spelling errors.
Removed Devices from the minions in the custom group. This should reduce Web Grenade spam.

Arc #181244: Waves of Chaos

1) The contact is named Bloodstreak, who informs me that his arch-nemesis Stryker and his army of cybernetic ninjas has stolen the Zodiac stones, and although he doesn't know what they're for, we can't let him get away with that, can we? I smell a vanity arc, but decide to plow on anyway.

Things look up inside the mission. The ninjas are a custom group, with well written and often funny descriptions. An ally, Plasman, says, "I always wondered what being rescued feels like." All the dialog is well written and funny.

2) The Circle has the last stone, so we need to go get it- not Oranbega, but the sewers, filled with CoT and ninjas fighting each other. More funny dialog; a CoT boss says "I just know I'm going to be reassigned to a rooftop in King's Row." The only sin is Hiding The Real Glowie Among Fake Glowies Without Any Real Reason For It, but there's only about 4 fakes.

3) One of the Saints (the contact's SG) has betrayed them and stolen the stones, so we go to an outdoor map to pummel him. It's Plasman, who isn't too hard to beat, and gives a dramatic clue when beaten. The text is well written, although it's a bit awkward when juxtaposed with the funny stuff before.

4) To a cave to defeat Stryker, but in a rare display of brains for a Big Baddie, he is merely acting as a decoy while his minions do the ritual! Afterwards, we find the waves of chaos are flowing over Paragon. Longbow are robbing a bank, and Swan is wearing a frumpy dress.

5) To the Infernal map to defeat Chaos himself. Chaos is a fire/energy AV/EB, who fell to Purple's squid form and purple fluffies with the help of half a dozen purples.

Waves of Chaos is very well written, funny in places and dramatic in others. The dramatic stuff is a bit jarring coming on the heels of the funny stuff, but that doesn't spoil the overall experience. Well worth playing.

Rating:

Arc #131430: The Starfare Chronicles

The contact is a moderately shapely green-skinned alien named Tari, who launches right into how she is a representative of the "Starfare", who are battling the Zrak'Tah, aka the Dominion, who are really really evil and planning to invade Earth. The 'Dominion' gives me Star Trek vibes, Zrak'Tah possibly a reference to the Jem'Hadar. Tari can't talk to the governments, so she is asking the help of heroes.

Already, I can tell what's coming. Space Nookie. I'm going to make it with someone, possibly Tari, then find she is really an alien shapeshifter and be forced to betray her, or she betrays me or something. Tari tells me to go to Steel to 'make contact' with the Zrak'Tah, and in Star Trek lexicon, 'make contact' means 'make whoopie'. James T. Kirk's tallywhacker brought more alien races into the Federation than all Starfleet's diplomats combined.

1) I'm sent to the Midnight Club, where Zrak'Tah are holding Midnighters hostage. Since the group name is "Zrak'Tah invaders", they're obviously not going for a sneaky, shapeshifter-esqe invasion, or else the name would be "Zrak'Tah just having coffee" or something. There are about half a dozen types of them, mostly melee with one rad/rad, with cool costumes, although about half have generic minion text. I rescue four hostages and get a clue. No nookie yet.

2) The Zrak'Tah have acquired the Codex of Infinite Evil, and hope to use it as an incentive to get the Rikti to ally with them. Or maybe it's the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom. Definitely Codex something. Anyway, I go to a lab, pummel the Rikti and Zrak'Tah leaders, and get the Codex back. No booty to be had here.

Unfortunately, this is a minor case of Did Not Do The Research. (I'm stealing from Venture again, but then he got it from TVTropes). Tari says the Starfare and Dominion have both tried unsuccessfully to ally with the Rikti before. However, the Rikti are not from outer space; they're from another dimension, the gateway to which was open only briefly before being magically barred by Hero 1 and the Omega Team.

3) The ship is under attack, so I beam up to fight the badguys. 3 glowies, locate Tari, defeat the commander, and oh yes, defeat all invaders, which brings me to a greater problem.

Up until now, when someone had a mission that required the player to defeat all enemies, I borrowed from South Park and said "Kill-alls are bad, mmmmkay?" However, no one pays attention to Mr. Mackie, and it seems people aren't paying much attention to me either. I need a new catch-phrase, something which people will remember when hunched over the MA console. I thought of "Kill-alls will kill your chance of becoming Dev's Choice", but there aren't any new Dev's Choice coming out lately anyway. I also considered 'Making a kill-all will make your peener shrink", but there are a few people who claim to be women IRL, so that won't work either. Feel free to post suggestions here. In the meantime, I'll go with "The 'defeat all enemies' objective makes a mission take significantly longer while adding little to the story, so please don't waste the player's time this way", although that doesn't roll off the tongue as easily.

Anyway, I Kill All, click the glowie for some interesting messages, and discover that Tari has been killed. No action here, although I briefly consider taking liberties with the body.

4) In very well written narrative, Tari tells us that she has uploaded her consciousness into the ship's computer, and now _is_ the ship. This puts a damper on my plans for makin' bacon, unless I can upload my own mind into another ship, and, er, dock with her. (with Blue Danube Waltz playing in the background.) Her crew has been captured, and supplies taken, so I go to warehouse to get them back. This is a timed mission, although the time given is way more than enough.

5) We've located the alien leader, so I beam into a cave to administer a Severe Pummeling. Along the way, I discover that Tari has created a solid hologram of herself and projected it down to help me. The hologram is grav/emp, which helps a lot.

After disposing of the nearby aliens, Tari causes the hologram's clothes to disappear except for a tiny bikini. She beckons me into a dark corner, and slips a green-skinned finger underneath my-

OK, OK, that last bit didn't happen. We actually pummel lots of aliens, smash 3 crates, and free 3 Rikti hostages. Amusingly, the info text for the Rikti says that they are shapeshifters who are impersonating Arachnos troops. See, I knew there were shapeshifters here! Finally we pummel the EB leader, who is easy for the Kitty, but might pose a challenge for non-awesome types. (the AV/EB _was_ mentioned in the description). The ending text is excellent, and leaves things wide open for a sequel.

Despite the lack of alien poontang, and few boo-boos including a defeat-all, Starfare Chronicles tells a great story. Well worth playing.

Rating: F

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks to this arc, I've added 6.15 points to my loathing score for the Circle of Thorns. A DM/WP scrapper at level 14 versus Spectral Demons. I think I'd rather have a colonoscopy administered by a blind doctor. (My chance to hit never got above 30% in one fight.)

[/ QUOTE ]

I've taken a Dark Melee scrapper, brute and stalker all to level 50. For four years now the devs have been saying that DM has no tohit penalty... THEY LIE!!!!!!one!!!

Arc #60327: There's Something in the Water

Thanks to PKDauntless for offering his arc for Sarcastic Reviewing on the Champion MA channel. (which may become obsolete come I15, which has a game-wide MA channel. Oh well). Rest assured that I enjoy satirical arcs at least as much as regular ones. Actually the 'normal' arcs tend to blur together after running too many. I've saved the world for the 8th time today, woohoo. To quote Mr. Incredible, "I wish the world would just... stay saved!!"

1) The contact is Dr. Aeon (the arc is written for villains). He is looking into the curious 'rubber civilian' effect; where Paragon City civilians can fall off a 5 story building and walk away, be untouched by a hero's Nova, and so forth. I like stuff that subtly pokes fun at the game itself. Even the devs have done this on occasion (remember the 'Ishmael' plaques?)

We are off to capture some civilian test subjects, who have been lured to a generic office guarded by PPD. At lvl 50, this means Peacebringers. The Lt.s self-rez, which depending on your point of view is either an annoyance, or extra inf. At level 30, this likely means those annoying PPD Swat and Ghosts. Funny dialog throughout.

2) We have the subjects, but their skin cannot be pierced by needles! So, we're off to raid Statesman's doctor's office. A nit-picker could say that the citizen's own doctors must have needles that work, but... eh. It's for teh funnay.

Off to a lab to click glowies with more funny dialog. Ms. Liberty is there as an optional fight. Interestingly, even though she was a hero (not EB) she went down easily.

3) A courier with Dr. Aeon's stuff has been held up by Arbiters. Solution? KILL EVERYONE! Yup, it's a kill all, although the map isn't too big. More funny dialog.

4) Dr. Aeon has found out the cause of the syndrome (which was given away in the title) so we're off to the Faultline dam to find out who's behind it. The ending was a bit disappointing.

There's Something in the Water has no FAILings except for the small defeat all. However, what starts out as a great premise doesn't get carried to the finish. It kind of runs out of funnay as it goes on. Like, you go to a sub shop and order a 3-foot hero sandwich and start eating it at one end, and it's really great, but as you go on the guy making it started running out of salami and swiss cheese, so it gets thinner and thinner as you go on until at the end it's just bread with mayo and mustard and a few olives.

Rating: FM

Arc #182289: The Audition

As of this writing, the author of The Audition hasn't reviewed any of my arcs yet. However, since this column is sinking faster than (insert Michael Jackson joke) and I need a threadbump, I'll jump in anyway.

----------------==========IMPORTANT===========--------------------

If the author HAS reviewed one of my arcs, read the black text and ignore the red text.

If the author HAS NOT reviewed one of my arcs, read the red text and ignore the black text.

------------------------=====================----------------

1) The contact is Synapse, who congratulates me on applying for entry to the Freedom Phalanx (I did?) and offers me a chance to use the MA portal to audition. A bit of technobabble here, but we're used to that by now. He teleports me off to Skyway, where we see...

A Troll rave, except the Trolls are all naked. Eeewwie. Not only is it a defeat all on a huge outdoor map, there are 12 "Supadin Lab" to destroy.

Wait, this isn't Skyway? Where am I? The nav bar says 'Find out what's going on', so I blast a glowie, which gives us an interesting clue, which leads to the blasting of four more glowies and some custom mobs named 'Destiny'. However, these guys have grav powers, which is not a good thing to give to minions, especially those who appear in multiple. Some funny (albeit confusing) dialog throughout.

2) Synapse scolds you for missing the audition, but offers you a chance to fight another baddie to redeem yourself, so he teleports you again. Again, you arrive not where you should be, but in a cave, where you soon run into Lord Recluse himself!

Not only is he the lvl 54 AV from the SF, he summons multiple waves of Arbiter bosses in addition to Bane Spider Executioners he normally spawns. I had to quit, restart, and bribe some Protectors of Neverland to join me in taking him on. Fortunately there are always a few dozen hanging around the MA, although finding ones above level 8 wasn't easy.

He didn't attack, though, just followed me around as I killed more Arachnos, eventually destroying a glowie in a big room filled with water where dozens of Arachnos troops were swimming. The map is a unique one I didn't recognize... the Grandville YMCA, maybe.

3) Synapse is yakking at me again. His dialog is funny repetitive and well written filled with spelling errors throughout. My next objective is to 'resist temptation', so I'm sent to...

...the Paragon Dance Party map, filled with dancing catgirls. And catboys. Naked.

...a bank that should have been empty, but it's being robbed by the 'Habitual Criminals', a funny custom group (although I only saw one kind of minion besides the Mother Superior.)

4) More whining from Synapse, but he sends me off to 'Forgive'. After yet another teleporter mishap, I arrive in...

...the Infernal map, which is empty, until after wandering for 15 minutes I click on the 'Confession Booth' in the last room, which spawns a million ambushes throughout the map. Except you don't fight them, you just listen to them 'confess'. I really, really didn't want to hear what the Skull initiate did to his 3 year old sister, and the Knives of Artemis' text put me off tacos forever.

...a cargo ship, where you encounter a really weird group of Maestro's disciples and their really, really weird boss. It's a defeat all, but I'll forgive that because _every_ group is unique and has their own dialog.

5) I'm a complete loser, but nevertheless Synapse needs me to foil Lord Recluse's Grand Master Plan, so I'm sent to...

...the outdoor Dreck map, filled with the naked trolls and catboys from the previous mission. Not only is it a kill-all, but the map is patrolled by about a dozen AVs with Stalker secondaries. They're naked too.

... a spaceship, which looks surprisingly like an Arachnos lab, filled with tiny beings called 'Constructors' who supposedly created the universe. (is the author making reference to the 'microscopic space fleet' from Hitchhikers' Guide?) These guys have control powers, and are hard to beat despite only being Bosses. Also Squall Elementals, which a lot of MA authors use lately, most likely because most people will never see one outside MA. Lots and lots of funny dialog.

Overall, The Audition made me feel...

...violently ill.

Rating: FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL

...somewhat jealous, because the author clearly has access to high quality recreational pharmaceuticals. The arc is trippy and well written, the only no-no being the grav mobs in mission one. Anyone looking for a coherent plot will be disappointed, but those people abandoned the MA weeks ago.

Rating:

Arc #124796: A Night at the Opera

In light of the poo that's been dripping through this column the past week, I feel the need to showcase a good arc, even if just to show that Champion-ites can produce quality material.

Knowing Wayward Girl, I jumped into A Night at the Opera expecting to find a Bacchanalia of scantily clad catgirls, but was only slightly disappointed to find a well-written story of secret societies and betrayal. I won't give a mission breakdown cuz I did it a few weeks ago and forgot the details, but suffice it to say the writing is superb and the badguys are not too hard. Definitely give this a try if you want something to wrap your head around.

Rating:

I typed in [Liberty Belt] and got the following:

+52.5% resist to all damage (!!!!)
Mag 17.3 Status resist
+50% ToHit
+160% damage

Stacked onto a Hero's damage, resists and hp regen, I strongly doubt that this beast could be beaten even by a team.

Which brings us to an even greater issue. Ghost Widow's Task Force has 22 votes with an average 4-star rating. If Venture 1-starred it, even if no one else did, that translates to 15-20 people giving 4-5 stars to a mission they didn't complete, which means blatant vote-wh0ring.

New rating: EPIC FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL BO BAIL BANANA FANA FO FAIL