Irresponsible

My pleasure. The whole team really seemed to enjoy it. I may have had the same problem with Souvenir clues as you until I realized that you have to have it on the first mish of the arc which is kind of frustrating cause you then have to word it carefully to avoid giving away too much.

I had to review this one just because the name grabbed me. Sounded very Lovecraftian and I was not disappointed. I don't know if you've reviewed any arcs for this thread but if not and you want to the info for mine is at the bottom of this post.

Terrors of Old (Arc ID: 124746) is a long arc with 4 missions. There are no AVs or EBs and the bosses are just tough enough to make it challenging without being overwhelming. You could probably do it solo but I did it with a team that was nearly full (started with 7 but ended up with only 4 cause some had to drop out before the very last mission due to real life concerns).

I really loved the custom group and how they are so varied in powers and costumes but still maintain a group theme. My favorite Hell Hound is probably the one who summons the zombies cause that is just freakin' cool.

The choice of maps were excellent and beautiful too and I don't usually like cave or CoT maps but you picked ones that were gorgeous/and or I'd never seen before even if they were a little hard to navigate (especially the 3rd map-which also the coolest looking one). I wouldn't change them for anything.

The stories was very well done and there weren't even any typos that I noticed! (this alone almost earns you a 5 star in my book). You did a good job of building the tension until the final climax. The various dialog bits and descriptions of things like the altar at the end were also deftly done. The contact is one suave customer who was very good at revealing needed info without blabbing on forever.

Really the only negative thing I can say about the arc, if it is a negative, was that it's listed as being neutral when it's clearly meant only for heroes (and you do feel very heroic by the end). I don't think most villains would be that interested in saving the world unless it's more clearly spelled out how they could profit directly from it, but that's just my opinion. I was also hoping for a detailed souvenir clue, maybe a Hell Hound helmet?

5 stars for this excellent arc and that's not just because I'm sick of all the mindless farms out there.
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My arc number is 115015 and the name is Alternate Realities. It's a 5 mission arc with many ambushes, an EB, and 2 AVs, but also lots of allies to help out with the AVs and such. Most of the ambushes can be trigged so they are optional since they only happen after the mission is done but you really are probably gonna want a team to do it unless you have a really uber Melee toon.

Basically it's my attempt to pack in a bunch of elements from the Mayhem and Safeguard and regular bank missions in one arc but with some twists thrown along with a story that has a choose your own ending designed for villains or heroes.

Huh? Only difference I've seen between them is that PBs can soak up more damage and hang in fights longer while Warshades can do more damage to their opponents. Both are pretty awesome.

I've tried reviewing a few arcs in this thread but it's often frustrating cause they mostly require teams to complete them when none is to be found. I'm nearly convinced that it's pointless to post mine anyway since I've gotten people who I've played it with that range from loving it to saying that it's impossible to complete even though I've done it with full teams, just me and one other player, and completed it solo many times on various alts.

Then I see comments like this from serious reviewers just trying to help and I'm floored:

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11) In all the time I've played on blue side, I've never run into the "PPD Awakened". If this is something encountered only on red side, I'd avoid using on a blue side mission.


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See cause that seems to me to be the whole point of the MA. Why bother with it if you can't provide Heroes and Villains things they ordinarily don't get much or any chance to run into?

This is why I don't like the rating system and am half convinced it's just better to create things that amuse myself and to heck with what anybody else thinks.

Whatever it is I just hope we finally get some female pets. How sexist it is to have it so only men can be minions.

Free at last, thank god almighty I'm free at last! After three grueling weeks of working obsessively on this bloody arc it's finally done. The vexing part was figuring out how to get two bosses to spawn in a mish the way I wanted them too without it being all buggy. Talk about a crash course in what the MA can and can't do. There are lots of ambushes and hard bosses but I tried to include ways to finish the missions in order to make avoiding the worst of the onslaughts possible if you are careful as well as provided allies which can be used strategically so that soloing it isn't out of the question for any AT. There is a defeat all in one mission but it's a small bank map so don't worry

Arc Name: Alternate Realities
Arc ID: 115015
Faction(s): 5th Column, Snakes, Council (with some suprises)
Difficulty Level: You decide (Ambushes, EB, 2 AVs).
Creator: Irresponsible
Synopsis: My attempt to take all the most fun elements from both safeguard and mayhem missions and jam them into one arc with a few non-canonical twists thrown in just for kicks. Hopefully the story actually makes sense too. Neutral alignment.
Estimated time of play: About 1 hour and 15 minutes to complete all 5 missions, less if you rush through.

Now that that's done I can finally start going through and playing all of you guys' arcs here. The few I've done so far have been pretty great. Victory does rule.

Thank goodness. NC NorCal was such an unwieldy moniker. Congratulations.

This reads like one of Strong Bad's old timey video games. Kids these days sure don't know what they missed out on.

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And it could be a nerf to both.

Any set that depends on slows to mitigate damage is going to suffer when facing opponents that use pets now. Depending on what you usually fight, that may or may not seem like an issue to you.

Also, if you have pets, the simple fact that their attack rate is going down-- compared to what you're used to if you have SB or another power that boosts recharge rate-- then that's also going to be a nerf to you as well.


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Still seems like a classic case of trying to have it both ways to me in angry defiance of the laws of reason and logic. If the attack rate for pets is going down then people fighting them will have an automatic built in mitigation that will require no thinking or planning or expensive IOs (last part sucks for those who've already bought them but helps those who have yet to). Besides from the dumbing down factor already mentioned, I can see how it could possibly be harder fighting NPCs with pets for everyone and require different tactics but otherwise it's simply impossible for this ill wind to not benefit somebody or at least to do equal damage to both parties.

As far as the PvP stuff aren't serious PvPers the ones most likely to have used the IO recharge "bug" to boost their pets? That being the case then even Ice Tankers will probably have an easier time of it fighting pets, won't they? Maybe the problem is discussing this at all until there's more time to test it out.

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On the other hand, past experience has shown me that complaining about such things on the Forums is a waste of energy.

We aren't going to change the Devs' minds.

I have a lot of respect for them, and they do listen, but in the end they're going to do what they think is right for the game and I don't think we are able to change their minds very often- if at all.

Hopefully, there's a reason why this has to be done, and why it has to be done now.

But it has sucked the enthusiasm I had for I14 right out the window.

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You had me until right there. Compared to every other game I've ever played the Devs for City Of are light years ahead when it comes to actually listening and taking input from us players.

I can read hedgehog but when some of the folks are saying that this change is a nerf to those who have pets and some are saying that it's a nerf to those who have to fight those who have pets I have to wonder if they don't cancel out a bit is all.

What gets me is that evidently most of the people who are really upset by this change have figured out a way to play that most players never even think of or can't afford and also allegedly are so smart in how they play that their pets rarely get slowed due to them having parsed every possible battle configuration. No doubt they feel that the game is being hopelessly dumbed down for the great unwashed masses and I can see their point. Then again they are so smart that they will undoubtedly figure out fun new ways to exploit bugs that the clueless Devs don't even realize exist so I don't know what they are worried about.

In any case they do not represent the vast majority of players but are rather a small and very vocal minority that nevertheless probably have the power to make the Devs pull their hair out in frustration with their apparent expectations of perfection or near perfection from a video game.

What about the pseudo pets? They used to be able to be slowed too right? So even they will benefit or at least break even much of the time.

Those ideas sound reasonable FreshFish but I run into slows all the time in this game even outside of PvP so don't think it's quite all that one sided.

Why all the hub bub about this? Doesn't the lack of pet recharge buffing pretty much even out considering they can no longer be slowed? Given that and the fact that at least thugs have better AI now this is clearly a buff and not a nerf at all.

Looks good to me but then I love stuff like that. Seems like it would be useful for those who are really serious about planning out what mobs to level against.

I just thought it meant that you can make your own arch nemesis if you want by tweaking with the MA and not a separate feature by any means.

Captain Dynamic is the coolest faux comic book hero of all times. I hope he gets his own tv show or book or movie out of this.

Unfrakking believable! You should get a medal or your own signature character or something for doing all this amazing advertising for free! Loved the Shakespeare quotes and the part where everything looks like a three dimensional blue print the best and the evil laugh at the end of course.

Ja, I think I find this very useful, danke.

Yay! Congrats to all the winners, especially to Mister Maniacal, who I believe is a returning winner from last year? You might want to consider retiring Mister to give somebody else from Protector a chance

Are we going to get to see screen captures of all the finalists in this thread of do we have to go hunting in the individual server threads?

I suggest that next time you add a temp (or even permanent!) power reward to the BNY mission that would enable people to slide everywhere because being able to "skate" on the ice in that mission is the best part of the winter event. I think it's speed should be slightly faster than sprint or perhaps just use less endurance than sprint. Maybe you could also tie it into the ski slopes by making the power enable them to move much faster on already icy surfaces as well.

I'd choose the PvP changes but I'd probably get flamed down to the 9th circle of hell or something. So I'll say the Hollows makeover. Go Skulls girlfriends!

I think the best change of all is that now people seem to have an easier time making flying characters that can PvP. Whatever changes they make in the future I hope that this remains the case.

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Yea, I'm not too eager on the reduced rewards thing. To me, that gives me no real reason to play player created missions at all if I can just run dev created missions for full rewards. What's the point?

I'm not looking to see if theres any 'zomg he's totally creative in this mission!' as, for the most part I'm sure, we'll be restricted to creating the same basic missions we've been running for how long now? Kill 'em all, kill the BOSS, find the SHINEY, lead the retard OUT, and so on. As such, theres nothing really NEW about it, other than it slowing down my leveling process.

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Wow and you figured all that out even before MA has been released! How are you are predicting stock prices?

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A whole new meaning to the phrase 'damned with faint praise.'

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More like I'm starting to have second thoughts about trying the MA cause it sounds a lot harder to make something worthwhile than I ever imagined. Kudos to you if you can manage it.

I think it's interesting that they chose to put out this story with the new Mission Architect feature coming up in I14. This guy is a pro and he apparently can't write a good story arc without at least twice breaking the rules of the tutorial as set out for him and requiring new code to be written, something players using the MA won't have as an option. Does this mean that all the player created missions are going to suck or just that we are going to have to be more creative than people who get paid to do this stuff for a living and have had years of experience at it? Has a gauntlet been thrown down and, if so, who will be brave enough to take up the challenge?