Jophiel

I'd just as soon not tell every potential player exactly who & what their primary opponent will be like before they start even playing the game.

$6 to save a 100k file? No thanks.

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QR - You can change the color of the text by holding down the mouse as you mouve over the text youve alread typed and right click - you'll get a drop down menu with colors, fontsizes etc.

[/ QUOTE ]Keep in mind though that the color/font/style tags all use character spaces so you'll eat into your available amount of text.

I've got a lvl 13 MA/SR Scrapper so maybe I'll try running it with her and see if it goes any smoother.

Dead & the Damned is on queue for tonight. I've about exhausted my list so if anyone has other lowbie arcs they'd like played, post 'em here.

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What difficulty level were you running on? The "recommend difficulty 1" in the description text is there for a reason, neh?

[/ QUOTE ]Heroic. Maybe I just suck that much but there was a definite ramp-up between mission #2 & #5. And a lvl 9 scrapper isn't exactly a bag of tricks that you'd be playing him differently between the two missions. I mean, there's no good reason why I'd have smeared him in #2 and found him a brick wall in #5. Something certainly seemed to have been up, hence my deciding not to rate it so I can give it a fairer shake the next time around.

I'll have to try it again sometime soon and see if the problem repeats itself.

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I tend to agree with people here, 4 stars is where it's at.

[/ QUOTE ]Four is the new five. Pass it on.

Played though A Tangle in Time (2622) tonight on my lvl 9/10 (leveled partway through) DB/Regen Scrapper. Azuria is after still more artifacts to fill her vaults and sends you off to locate some time portal and disable it for transport with an amulet. When you do so, though, things start going bad in a hurry. You find yourself stuck in a... wait for it... tangle in time and it's hard getting yourself out when everyone else things that the time stream is just dandy.

I was skeptical of a time travel arc and might have even subconsiously put off playing this one because of that. If so, my subconscious is stupid and doesn't know a great arc when it sees one. I'm loathe to review this in too much depth because I hate to give stuff away but it was a great story and well deserved the five stars I gave it. Mission #3 was well executed but, unfortunately, I went linkdead just as I completed it so I missed Azuria's "Complete Mission" text.

Minor issue: The patrols in Mission #3 weren't close enough to me to target me and so they referred to me as "$Name".

Anyway, good times. If you haven't yet, play this arc. Despite it's "Long" rating, it took me under an hour to complete.

It was the CF boss. Strangely, the first time I came across him in the arc, he beat me. then I grabbed some inspirations, went in knowing what to expect and thrashed him. I think he was an orange con (I did not level or anything in the arc).

The second time, he was a red con and just demolished me. I couldn't even get to the point where it was reasonable to think "With a slight change in tactics and some luck, I'll beat this". I didn't think it was working as intended and just gave up.

Plotwise, and I'm away from my notes, I really liked the idea of the wraiths of fallen heroes being pressed into service or that something wicked was tearing through Supatrolls and spreading panic but... maybe I missed something but the ending reason seemed to just be "Skulls like killin' stuff and the trolls were there." The buildup seemed to beg for a much more grandiose vision.

On edit, I recall that the Skulls had some bigger plans in regards to making their own Skull-y Shangri-la but the Skulls/Trolls conflict is what felt flat. And that was the thing that was driving the story to begin with.

I say this knowing that I never completed mission #5 so I may have missed some dramatic twist.

I'm still working on through this but took most of the weekend off to play my main and recharge. My current queue consists of...

Tangle in Time
Dead & the Damned
Party Like It's 4940 Degrees

I tried Trollbane this weekend and was having an all right time of it, wavering between three and four stars depending on the moment when I hit the final mission. The first boss I came across absolutely destroyed me (lvl 9 DB/Regen Scrapper on Heroic). Then I bought a bunch of Inspirations and tried again. This time, instead of dying with the boss at 90%, I died with him at 80%. I tried once more, equally unsuccessfully, and gave up on it. It wasn't due to ambushes or anything (funnily enough, I think there was an ambush the first time when he engaged but the boss destroyed the ambush critters ) but the boss himself was impossible for me.

Since everyone knows there's custom critter issues and everyone is in something of a holding pattern waiting on I15, I declined to rate the game at all. Up until then, it was pretty good, needs a good going over for spelling & grammar and the plot can be tightened up slightly but the ending boss(es) were the killer. I never even saw the rest of the bosses so I can't comment on them.

Oh, it wasn't the Illusion boss either. It was another boss I had fought (and defeated) previously who suddenly seemed ramped up in power.

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Commander Kira, currently level 40 Fire/Storm Corruptor.
Looking for: Self-serving villainy, or mystery/investigation arcs of any alignment. Minimum level 39 or higher; I'm willing to exemp her but I've grown rather attached to that little cloud in the short time I've had it. No AVs or knockback-resistant EBs please, I'm squishy. Also enemies with high fire resistance take too long to kill, fire armor EBs are right out.

[/ QUOTE ]My Standing Within the Mists arc is good up to lvl 40 and is made of self-serving villainy. I haven't had any reviews on it since I made some changes to it so I'd be interested in hearing feedback. I've soloed it on my defender so it's squishy friendly.

My other arc (the Chris Jenkins one) is a one-off single mission humor arc, levels 1-14. So it doesn't meet your lowbies tech/science requirement but it wouldn't take much time out of your day if you want a change of pace.

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You can run other arcs and ask that the author play your arcs when you leave comments. I'm not sure how the general populace feels about this one, I can't decide if it's acceptable or shameless begging.

[/ QUOTE ]I tend to write down an arc number if someone leaves it in a comment on one of my arcs. I can't promise I'll get to them but I don't see it as begging.

I don't leave my arc numbers though just because I never think to.

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It makes me wonder why they play the game, though. After all, since the argument seems to be that Venture's work is *too* similar to stuff we see created by Devs, it stands to reason that they don't like the Dev's work. That being the case, why play the game?

[/ QUOTE ]Without addressing the rest of your post (because I have no beef with Venture, his arcs or reviews), the easiest answer for me is this: Can't it be both?

If I want content that feels like professionally created, canon-pure developer content, I have an entire game's worth of it right outside the AE walls. If I'm in the mood for comedy, horror stories, historical reimaginings, "What if?" games with the canon, etc then I can find them in the AE.

[/ QUOTE ]And if I want content that feels like etc. etc. that I haven't PLAYED three times already, MA is still the only option.

[/ QUOTE ]Absolutely, if you've gone through the "real" stuff already. The point being that merely not wanting to play an arc that feels like Dev content doesn't mean you don't want to ever play any Dev content.

Edit: I'll end my replies here with that since this isn't an AE debate thread.

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It makes me wonder why they play the game, though. After all, since the argument seems to be that Venture's work is *too* similar to stuff we see created by Devs, it stands to reason that they don't like the Dev's work. That being the case, why play the game?

[/ QUOTE ]Without addressing the rest of your post (because I have no beef with Venture, his arcs or reviews), the easiest answer for me is this: Can't it be both?

If I want content that feels like professionally created, canon-pure developer content, I have an entire game's worth of it right outside the AE walls. If I'm in the mood for comedy, horror stories, historical reimaginings, "What if?" games with the canon, etc then I can find them in the AE.

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As far as I can tell Michael means "who is like God" Raphael is "God has healed" and Uriel is "God is my light."

[/ QUOTE ]Whoops, Gabriel is Strength, not Michael.

I've seen multiple ways of reading the names depending on the book. Main point being that you can pick a noun, translate it into Hebrew, attach an -el and have something that'll both sound angelic and have some sort of meaning. Granted, that meaning might be "God is my platypus" but meaning is meaning

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Angel proper names seem to end in "ael". Michael, Azrael, Gabriel...

[/ QUOTE ]The -el suffix translates to "of God" where each angel is being named after some attribute of God. Michael is "Strength of God", Raphael is "Medicine of God", Uriel is "Light of God", etc. So you could decide on a word, try to translate it into Hebrew, stick an -el at the end and have a quasi-authentic angel name.

No, I'm not especially religious or anything; I just find the lore behind it interesting. My own name here "Jophiel" means "Beauty of God" and was (in non-Biblical texts) the name of the angel who was set to guard the Garden of Eden and keep the exiled Adam & Eve out.

Yeah, it's a downer. My arc was at 5 stars up until about 60-odd votes. First hit on the 5-Star search returns. Then, as I was playing a mission, I started seeing a string of "Your arc has been voted on" messages with no tickets. About four or five of them within a 15 minute period. When I got out of the mission I was in, I looked and I was at 4 stars.

I'm not saying that I only deserved five star ratings (I've had mixed reviews on it -- excellent and less than excellent -- and tried to work off of any constructive criticism to make it stronger) or even that there was some sort of colusion or shenanigans behind that string of low-ratings. No doubt there were legitimately placed 2, 3 & 4 star ratings in there. But, where my arc had hit over 60 plays (and won me a handful of badges: Acclaimed, Writer, etc) it's scraped up into the 70's for plays in the week since. And I'm certain that's only due to my presence in the Arc rating/review threads on these boards.

Oh well... I can't imagine all that much to be done for it.

I ran through the Nadir arcs this evening as everything else on my plate was listed as a Long or a Very Long. There's actually three separate arcs: Dr. Nadir & the Hellion Heist (49661), Dr. Nadir & the Clockwork Conflict (125942) and Dr. Nadir & the Vahzilok Vivification (145051). I only intended to go through one but they were all fast, single mission maps and went down, one after the other, like popcorn. All played on a lvl 9 DB/Regen scrapper and totalling perhaps 35min between the three of them.

Each arc is very simple -- Dr. Nadir is attempting some scheme and you need to stop him. They're largely dependant upon stock critters although there's a couple customs including the good doctor himself. There's no deep plots or mysteries here, just a comic style villain with progressively more grandiose plans. While not really humor arcs, they have some chuckles and certainly aren't anything to take seriously.

The three maps had a few eyebrow raisers -- if I came across napalm in a burning building I'd either carry it out of there or else quietly leave and board up the door, waiting for the problem to take care of itself. Either way, I'm not convinced that breaking open the canisters would be such a great idea. The 2nd arc "warehouse" isn't really much of a warehouse at all unless we're in the 25th century and the 3rd arc has some amusing patrol set-ups which lead to unusually chatty zombies. But it's all pretty minor stuff.

I half wondered why these weren't made separate missions within a single arc but, in a way, I'm glad they're not. Each one stands alone and if you're low on time just play one or two. You'll probably be back to finish the rest.

All three arcs were rated at four stars. Good fun but nothing groundbreaking.

Knocked out Bricked Electronics (#2180), a heist story which begins with some reconditioned cellphones that your contact can mutantly feel vestiges of data within. Your investigation into the phones' origins leads you on an arc through pawnshops, warehouses, caves and offices up the big ending. I almost hate to get into it too much because I'd just be giving stuff away.

The few custom mobs are nifty to look at and, for good or ill, fell quickly before the wrath of my lvl 11 MA/LR scrapper. Flavor text was amusing when it came up. I noticed a few areas where it seemed to be sparse but, by about the time I was wondering "Hey, why is this place silent?", I'd bump into someone with something to say. I did spend a moment wondering why, if you have a potential threat which requires three components to become a real threat, you can't just call it a day after taking out one component. But I guess you can't go about hero'ing half-heartedly.

Really, I can't come up with any criticisms of this arc that wouldn't be extremely petty. It's an older arc judging from its number and has obviously been polished up over time. Five stars for it. I've no idea how long it took me to complete because my wife pulled me away part-way through but it's definately not quick at 5 missions length.

Arranged in alphabetical order for fairness and ease of use:
<ul type="square">[*]Altoholic_Monkey -- Indies (1 mission) | Sequels (2-3 missions) | Epics (4-5 missions)[*]Bayani[*]Beach_Lifeguard[*]Bubbawheat | (In Character) [*]Burning_Brawler (QPQ)[*]DeviousMe (QPQ)[*]Dominemisis (QPQ)[*]Dragonslay[*]Frozen_Northman (QPQ)[*]HolyEvilAoD[*]Jophiel[*]Lazarus (QPQ)[*]LaserJesus[*]Misho (QPQ) | Non QPQ[*]Peacemoon (QPQ)[*]Policewoman (QPQ)[*]Rapulis[*]ridiculous_girl (QPQ)[*]SteelSky[*]Sooner (QPQ)[*]Stomphoof (QPQ)[*]Talen_Lee[*]theHedoren (QPQ)[*]Venture[/list]
EU reviewers
<ul type="square">[*]Col.Blitzkrieger[*]Leese[*]Master_Zaprobo (In character)[/list]
Review sites
<ul type="square">[*]City of Guides - Mission Architect[*]CoH Mission Review[*]Mission Architect Advanced Search Site[/list]
Note: QPQ = quid pro quo: Play and rate/give feedback to the reviewer first in order to get a review on your arc, some are more lenient on this than others. Also, tends to have a shorter queue.

Also, some non-QPQ have more than one reviewer with some not accepting new submissions, check the most recent page for up-to-date information.

Things are a bit jumbled so here's my queue as I understand it:
Bricked Electronics
Trollbane
Tangle in Time
Dead &amp; the Damned
Party Like It's 4940 Degrees

Also, without titles, there's a "Doctor Nadir" arc in there and #216693.

I'm going to try to handle those in roughly that order, exceptions being made for arc length vs how late it is at night. If I missed anyone, let me know. Right now, I'm sticking to arcs produced by the posters in this thread so the ones actively soliciting feedback can get some.

Also, this isn't a QPQ arrangement but all ya'll feel free to play my arcs anyway and let me know what you think

I pulled out Welcome to Atlas Park on a level 4 Shield/SS tanker. Rereading Steele_Magnolia's comments about it, she admits that it's pretty much just a grind to get the first few levels out of the way. That's about all it is. You meet your contact who says (paraphrased) "Hey, welcome to Paragon City. Go beat stuff up in Atlas Park." Then you go to Atlas Park and beat stuff up. I noticed an Arachnos ship parked outside City Hall and was momentarily excited at the thought of some sort of raid or attack but... nope. Only crime Arachnos was guilty of today was double-parking.

Beyond that, there's a few patrol texts that are good for a chuckle and... that's it. It's a kill all with the stock newbie factions. If this was a "real" arc, I'd have given it 2 stars but, since it's just for grinding on, I'll refrain from judging it as I would a normal mission.

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I am not sure why you think the contact and player were being incompetent. Talshak was casting spells to find the artifact, the location would be revealed to him, and he sent you off to get it.

[/ QUOTE ]The "incompetance" remark was more tongue-in-cheek but I felt like it was a lot of "Go here and get this... whoops, just missed it" over and over (even if the reason I just missed it wasn't my own fault). Maybe if one of the missions was an unqualified success -- you obviously can't get the thing to stop the end mission but maybe finding something else which was exactly what you came looking for (a book with information, whatever).[ QUOTE ]
On mission 4 it sounds like you just got lucky. Or unlucky, as the case may be. I don't know why it didn't spawn more for you to fight, but I really don't have any control over that part.

[/ QUOTE ]I know. It was more of an observation than a real criticism.[ QUOTE ]
Thanks for running the arc and your review of it. I am holding off on editing either of my arcs or putting up the 3rd one until after I15. But it is always good to get other POV.

[/ QUOTE ]I15 can't come quickly enough I enjoyed Future Skulls quite a bit, but I felt that Simple Times needed a little something else to feel less like an extended goose chase.

Glad you enjoyed it. It was my first MA arc so I didn't get into tinkering with the deeper aspects of it. The nav bar though is, as you said, easily fixable so I'll have to patch that up next time I'm at an AE console.

Updated to add:
-- Fixed Nav Bar entries. No more "1 data files to locate"
-- Added text to the various interaction/collect phases (beginning, interrupt, etc)
-- Added a souvenir!

Played through Simple Times on my still-level-eight DB/Regen scrapper. Total run time was a touch over an hour. Someday I'll think to look at the clock before I start the arc.

I wound up giving this arc three stars. It was "good" but it felt like a nearly step-by-step retread of Future Skulls. I know it's a sequel but the plot plays out almost identically with the hero chasing an object needed for some end-of-the-world shennanigans and missing it every step of the way until you're forced to stop the event which you would have prevented if you or the contact had shown any compentance three missions ago. I don't remember Future Skulls exceptionally well since I played it several weeks ago but I believe I rated it a 4 or 5 at the time. This just felt like the same thing. It was put together well with no flaws or major errors, it just didn't offer anything new.

Other minor things, none of the critters have any special text in the first group of missions. It would have been nice to see something special about The Seeker or the Hellion boss. In mission #4, I was able to reach the third floor without fighting a soul due to a very sparsely populated map. I saw a little patrol flavor text on the sides of the sides of my screen but didn't bump into anyone.

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And until then you can put it "inside" a destructible object. Those are still chainable.

[/ QUOTE ]I'm not in love with that solution although it may be the best one possible at the moment. I think the real answer is that any heavy revisions beyond those made last night are going to wait until I15. Having greater control over spawn points should really help the "Trip over the glowie as you enter, nevermind the 'Back' setting" issue.[ QUOTE ]
As far as dialogue goes, I don't mind the contact's rambling as it is. I'd just like some inner-monologue stuff such as prefaces the fourth mission to make it clearer what I'm planning to do before I frob the datastream.

[/ QUOTE ]I gotcha. That should be easily addable.

That was one of the difficulties in writing the arc -- I want the player to feel like they're in control rather than just running for their contact. Of course, the only way to do this is to take the entire thing out of their control through designer fiat and say "You're going to rob a zoo now, got it?! It was ALL YOUR IDEA!!". Some "monologue" text at the bottoms of the contact screens could help keep you mentally focused on the prize.

Note to self: Add zoo robbery mission.