LaserJesus

I forget, is the Payoff badge still in? If so, that's another thing that can be bought with tickets.

And no, the Payoff badge doesn't do anything, except be a badge.

Range is definitely Drakule's weakness in the first two arcs. In the third arc his primary has a couple more ranged attacks.

Coloumb2 from the Pro Payne thread informed me that apparently the Dark Ring Mistress I had in the last mission of Drakule Armageddon 5: This Time, It's Personal! did not auto-level down past 45. I've switched it out with a Death Mage and made the carnies that spawn with it into CoT.

I played at level 50, on difficulty 4. This was with my Scrapper. I've played him on difficulty 4 since the difficulty settings were introduced, so it's a proper baseline for him as far as challenges go. If I ever happen to be required to play at a low level with him, I generally turn it down to difficulty 2, since I prefer to fight things at their proper rank.

In addition to difficulty 4 being the proper level of challenge for my high level Scrapper, it's also good to see how things ramp up if a character does happen to run through at a higher difficulty setting.

As for the boss issue, if I ever have a custom boss as part of an enemy group, I tend to drop in at least one of each in one of my missions as a non-required boss spawn, so it will be seen, and if a character can't defeat it, they can just skip past it.

The Fracturing of Time
Arc ID: 171031
Author: @Tahlana
Rating: 3 stars

Short Version
An arc that uses some non-conventional usage of the Mission Architect to tell its story, with good custom enemies and interesting use of standard ones. The only problem is a glaring plot hole in the story.

Plot Synopsis
An alien race's plan to save their race from conquerors turns into a threat to the entire universe. It's up to you to save all of existence.

Story
The story is surreal. I like surreal. The way the story is told is different. I like different. I like seeing the Mission Architect used to tell stories outside of the norm.

However, there's a few problems. The first one I ran into was the device the Kydrosi plan to use to save their race from extinction. First, why would they build a device that they themselves cannot use? Second, why doesn't it affect anyone inside of the building it's housed in? It's never explained why they need an outsider to activate it, or why everyone inside is immune to its effects.

Considering that it turns all of the Kydrosi into energy beings outside of space/time, the latter is a handwave to explain why the allies inside of the mission don't magically disappear when you activate it. However, it's not explained why it doesn't affect them in the context of the story. It just says that it won't affect them. Same with the requirement of the outsider. It's simply a plot device to explain why I need to do it at all. Unfortunately, it's not explained in the context of the story, and frankly, I can't think of an explanation that would make any sense. The story would be better served if the reason why I am needed is because the conquerors have taken over the lab, and no one can activate it as they have all been taken hostage or are being murdered.

The second is the sudden time jump in the second mission. I understand that it's supposed to show that I've been separated from the normal flow of time by being in another plane of existence, but it didn't really end up portraying that effectively to me.

First, since the player can't really have any meaningful dialogue, suddenly being jaunted from time and having the player character's memories being somehow from before the events of the Kydrosi is entirely on the player to imagine.

Second, if I don't remember this mysterious shadow man at all, what reason do I have to enter a yawning Void of Doom at his command?

Third, the time/memory jaunting is only used at that point, meaning that it really is not necessary to the story. Considering the problems it can cause, and since I had these problems others might as well, it's probably doing more harm than good.

The last plot hole, and this really is the big one for me, is a spoiler of a reveal later in the arc. So if anyone reading this review wants to play the arc and not have an important plot reveal spoiled, skip the next part.




The contact is a fragment of myself created by my trip into the Shadow Void, and always has been. It was not a Kydrosi Scientist at the beginning like it claimed. The story says as much, and the souvenir confirmed it. Considering that I activated the device which caused the Kydrosi to become fragmented and attempt to destroy all of reality, and that this is what caused me to enter the Shadow Void, and that me entering the Shadow Void is what caused this fragment to exist outside of space/time, and the fragment is what initially brought me there to activate the device in the first place, then none of the events of the arc should have happened.

Even if we throw out the intrinsic paradox of having to cause the near apocalypse before the near apocalypse can begin, the problem still exists that the fragment of myself knows exactly what caused the near apocalypse, and yet brings me to the Kydrosi homeworld specifically to cause it.

Considering that using the device causes them to become mere fragments of themselves that seek only destruction that cannot be saved, and in the end will be destroyed when I save reality, then the best possible thing to do is nothing. Let them be destroyed by the conquering aliens. The Kydrosi are doomed, no matter what. The contact knows all of this, as he experienced it first hand. Yet he still brings me to the planet to cause this whole mess, for no reason other than to cause it. Thanks to this flaw, the entire arc is rendered nonsensical.




Spoiler's over. You can start reading again. Like I said, I love some of the things you've done here, and I give you points for trying for something out of the ordinary. It's a noble cause. It's also a very difficult one.

Mechanics
All in all, the custom enemies are pretty well done. They definitely look like classic Sci-Fi aliens. Their powers are pretty well balanced. Nothing is too incredibly powerful, though the bosses in the 4th mission that use ice powers could prove nasty to some. Those slows can stack up pretty high on someone without resistance to them.

I love the use of the Storm Elementals in the 4th mission. Very nice touch. Seriously. This mission is my favorite part of the arc. Even though I gave it a 3-star rating (which isn't a black mark from me, by the way), this mission is reason enough to play this arc. It's hands down the best non-standard enemy group that I have seen in an AE mission. It will definitely be a huge mind trip for anyone who hasn't seen Storm Elementals before. Considering that they're only in one mission for Villains and hardly anyone goes to the Shadow Shard, I imagine that's a lot of players.

A couple little technical glitches. The boss in the third mission said $Name and $Heshe instead of my name and the proper gender. I'm not sure if capitalization matters for $name, but it definitely does for $heshe/$HeShe. In order for it to be capitalized and work properly, you need to use the latter. You may as well switch it to $name instead of $Name at the same time, as even $name will sub in my name exactly as I've spelled it.

The other one is that the destructible objects described their destruction as dialogue. I imagine you meant to do that, but it's pretty odd. The system text would be a far better place for that.

Final Thoughts
I really like what you've done with crafting the experience of the arc with both the dialogue and the mission settings. Without any plot holes, this would have been a 5, easy. Without the last one I mentioned, this'd be a 4. However, that last one was just way too much for me. Perhaps some others won't care as much as I do that the story makes sense logically, but I personally just couldn't get past it.

In Pursuit of Liberty
Arc ID: 221702
Author: @Gypsy Rose
Rating: 2 stars

Short Version
A whimsical tongue in cheek story that was marred by overpowered allies and annoying enemies.

Plot Synopsis
Travel through time to repeatedly rescue a girl who is nearly as bad as Fusionette when it comes to being kidnapped to ensure that she fulfills her destiny to become a hero.

Story
The plot has an underlying humor to it that I like. It's obvious that the story doesn't take itself seriously, and the ridiculous things that happen in it are fine in my eyes for that reason. However, the comedic energy doesn't hold up completely throughout. Comedy is not an easy thing to do, so there's no real quick fix solution. The only real thing that I can suggest outright is to increase the volume of humor. Whether the jokes will work or not, however, is a subjective thing and also a tricky one.

Mechanics
Practically every custom ally is set to extreme something, or has a custom power selection that has extreme powers. They're also mostly Elite Bosses, including an Elite Boss level Statesman. Even a character that isn't great at soloing doesn't need help that's as powerful as that. A Boss with custom power selections to give them a couple extra attacks and powers for survivability is sufficient. Statesman should also probably be the Boss version. As it stands, he's hitting enemies for 900+ damage.

The custom group was fine, except for two things. Fearsome Stare and Rain of Fire. Fear is something that most people do not resist, and it carries a hefty to-hit debuff with it. Not to mention the long duration. Putting it on anything less than a boss is too much, since running into one in every other spawn, or getting unlucky and having multiple ones show up is murderous.

The Rain of Fire is bad because it causes the allies (and by extension, pets) to run like a madman in a random direction, aggroing everything they get near. On the last mission (which is on an outdoor map) I rescued Liberty Rose (who is a required objective) and in the very next fight a minion dropped Rain of Fire on me. Liberty Rose bolted past 3 other groups, past a fence, where she aggroed more groups, and then lost sight of me. This caused the things she had aggroed to turn on me. Now I was facing down about 5 of the aforementioned LTs with Fearsome Stare. As you can imagine, I was a very unhappy camper.

Also, what's up with the Devoured Pyrisses who randomly spawn in the third mission? Elite Bosses just standing around with no explanation as to why is not really a good thing, especially Devoured Pyriss, as she's a rather specific EB for a specific arc. Without her name or bio changed, it's kind of like having a bunch of Madames of Mystery standing around.

Final Thoughts
I wanted to like the arc, but the mechanical problems killed it for me. By the end I was just far too frustrated by it.

(QR)

I'm just wondering when it will count. Due to lapses in my subscription, I'll have the 60 month vet badge in October. I'm just wondering if they've tallied up who has the 60 month badge now, or if they'll do it when the Loyalty Plan promotion ends. If it's the latter, then I'll have it.

Look, as far as I'm concerned, unless you start dropping some old English on us, you can't claim that you're speaking proper English and we're not. Your version of English has been just as butchered* as ours.

*evolved




Hmm, that sounds too serious. Imagine a clown just said all that.

40-50 on my Blaster, and I kept getting interrupted by real life events. Damn real life.

However, that was my whole goal for the weekend, so I declare this double XP weekend a success.