LaserJesus

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MA created the 4th edition of DnD.

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We're supposed to insinuate that MA did bad things, not good things.

MA stabbed a kitten in the face and then posted it on the internet with the caption "Can I has bleed to death nao?"

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I personally find it hilarious that some of the people who criticize Venture for "having to get the last word in" and "not letting things go" are just as guilty of it themselves.

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I was thinking the exact same thing.

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QR - People, IGNORE Venture, do not feed the troll! He will never be 'gracious' or offer 'a somewhat softer touch'. Other people's feelings mean nothing to him, and he's said as much on numerous occasions.

Eco.

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Actually, I agree. Maybe if all the people who call him a troll at every opportunity ignore him then we can stop having so many arguments around here.

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Absolutely. And if he could stop trolling in threads like this, then everybody would be happy

Eco.

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You have him on ignore. You have no idea whether he's trolling or not.

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QR - People, IGNORE Venture, do not feed the troll! He will never be 'gracious' or offer 'a somewhat softer touch'. Other people's feelings mean nothing to him, and he's said as much on numerous occasions.

Eco.

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Actually, I agree. Maybe if all the people who call him a troll at every opportunity ignore him then we can stop having so many arguments around here.

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QR

Here's the thing, it's fine if you don't like something. I don't think anyone's saying "you have to be all hugs and like everything." But it's not fine if you go on a personal crusade to destroy something. That is just counter productive to the idea of encouraging more story-driven arcs, as opposed to the farming content we all hate.

Also, it never hurt anyone to be a bit gracious when giving opinions.

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Even though it'll likely get me pulled into this mess, as I recall, Venture posted his opinions about Blight and was called a troll by multiple people for it. That's not a personal crusade. That's taking personal attacks from multiple people for saying his opinion about a thing that a guy wrote.

Say what you want about his tone of voice, but the only people who I've seen that are actively spreading negativity around here, are the people who feel the need to flame people that they don't like at every opportunity.

MA tore all of the flesh from my right arm.

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Studies have shown that a person who uses AE will actually cost the health care system less over their lifetime than someone who does not, due to the fact that an AE user dies earlier.

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That might be true... were it not for the myriad of birth defects caused by MA.

It's tragic that a baby's first--and ultimately only--word has to be "laeft".

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Well, AE should have warning labels that explicitly state that it should not be used by pregnant women or women who may become pregnant in the near future.

They're one of the standard bosses that people like to farm, because they have very few attacks.

MA clubs baby seals and profits off of blood diamonds.

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These suggestions simply to let the two factions duke it out ignore the estabished premise that the open warfare is tearing apart Paragon City and endangering innocent lives. And although simplistically it may seem like the "correct strategic move" to let two enemies weaken one another, just allowing two batallions of supersoliders to battle openly in the streets of a thriving metropolis is frankly more idiotic than anything Max suggests.

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You're operating under the false assumption that the only way to stop the gang war is for your character to stop going after Nemesis and instead weaken the Council.

You're not the only hero in the city. Maxwell could easily put out a call for other heroes to handle the Council's forces while your character continues to pursue Nemesis. In fact, not doing so is stupid. Even a hero on the level of Superman or Batman couldn't stop a war between two supervillains and their super-soldier armies by themselves.

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This will help cover the increased medical costs--a burden we all must share--associated with the physical issues brought about by extended and focused AE usage.

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Studies have shown that a person who uses AE will actually cost the health care system less over their lifetime than someone who does not, due to the fact that an AE user dies earlier.

Unrelated note, AE peer pressured me into smoking.

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Again, if detente is the actual objective, then the course of action is logical. While it goes against Max's common sense and the player's too, it isn't as cut-and-dry as Throwing the Idiot Ball. (Let alone Jumping the Shark, which is something else altogether.)

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I can't help but say this. Since when did Max have any common sense?

Anyway, if you place yourself in Maxwell Christopher's shoes, the logical thing to do would be to continue to put the hurt on Nemesis instead of the Council. Nemesis, according to Maxwell, is the greatest super genius and villain of all time. When backed against the wall, he would neither be subsumed by the Council or agree to serve them. Nemesis would probably go into hiding before bowing to the Center.

I've disagreed with Venture before about Nemesis, but Maxwell Christopher is a complete idiot, and he does throw the idiot ball to you by the definition of the term. A character (In this case, the player) who has the idiot ball is acting uncharacteristically stupid for the sake of a plot. So if you think that letting Nemesis get the upper hand in the war (And you are, since it's not that hard to imagine that Nemesis would be playing weak to gain an upper hand later) is a stupid idea, you are forced to act stupidly because your only option is to do what Maxwell Christopher tells you to.

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Hero Version
Villain Version

Each person you speak to tells you a short story, unless you're the same origin as them then which they'll tell you a lot more. Overall when you look over all of the extended stories they all imply that every origin owes it's existence to magic.

What a crock.

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The only person who really implies it is Tarikoss, who is flat out wrong, anyhow. Probably lying, considering his Strike Force. If you do enough CoT arcs, both heroside and villainside, and that one Portal Corp mission heroside that has the dimension where the CoT were peaceful, you'll know that War Witch's explanation is the correct one.

The mutant thing is just flat out retarded, however. Isn't Sister Psyche like 80 years old or something? That would mean she was born before 1938. She also says "We're both mutants", "No mutant was born before 1938", and "I don't think of myself as a mutant". Which is it, lady?

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Can you two just take it out back already?

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You kidding? Forum drama is like a free show.

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Hey there, LaserJesus. Having an arc reviewed would be awesome. Are you looking for folks to play one of yours in advance? I'm afraid I missed your original thread and information on such, if you are.

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I don't require people to play my missions, but feel free to do so anyway!

MA showed me the visions of the future which man was not meant to see, stripping me of my sanity and leaving me something less than human.

Considering that the contact is a spineless snitch, him asking me to stop the Skulls even though he's probably selling out some of the Family in the process just to save his own hide is well within character for him. Hell, you could even have him turn states if you wanted.

Yeah, I ran this the same night I posted the review, so the glowies are in the front in the current version. Sometimes the spawn locations are counter intuitive. I've found plenty of maps where Middle is the actual Back for glowies. It's a common problem on lab maps, and one of my friends had the same problem on an office map.

If you feel the need to keep the defeat alls, do it. The comment wasn't so much of a criticism as it was a warning to you that some people hate defeat alls so much that they'll one star you just for having one, and a warning to anyone who is reading this that it has defeat alls, so they should avoid playing it if defeat alls annoy them that much.

The Superadine Revolution
Arc ID: 262739
Author: @SpaceNut
Rating: 3 stars

Short Version
A good plot except for one part that stuck in my craw, and a few objective choices that have the potential to really annoy some people.

Plot Synopsis
Work with a Family informant to defuse a brewing gang war between the Skulls and the Family over the Superadine trade.

Story
For the most part, I didn't have an issue with the plot. However, where does the contact get off by threatening me? For starters, I'm not aware of how the gang war is my fault, as it was clearly in the works from the beginning judging by the clues I find, and as I'm currently working to stop the entire thing, and putting quite a few Skulls and Family members in jail in the process, I'm not sure the FBSA really would care. A Family goon's word isn't very good, either. This is how I imagine it going down:

Family goon: "Yeah, I have information that Phantom Protector just started a gang war with the Skulls!"
FBSA: "Really? What's your name, and what evidence do you have?"
Family goon: "Well, my nickname is The Snitch, and while Phantom Protector was following a lead I gave him about a Superadine operation, the Skulls started trying to take over the Family!"
FBSA: *click* "@#$@ing prank calls."

I can't think of a single superhero that would take that kind of crap from a mob flunky. As soon as he threatened to betray Batman, that goon would be dangling over a building so fast that he'd get whiplash.

I don't have a problem with working with a Family snitch who's willing to sell out his organization. That's perfectly reasonable. In fact, I don't even see a need for him to threaten me. Any superhero worth their salt would stop a gang war or takeover as soon as they learned about it. I should have cracked him on the side of the head with the hilt of my sword just for suggesting that I wouldn't.

However, the writing was very technically proficient. I didn't spot any typos or egregious spelling and grammar errors. Doesn't mean there aren't any typos, but I certainly didn't spot any.

Mechanics
The custom skull enemies were pretty well put together. Mostly Mace and Axe, for Sluggers, Slammers, and Choppers, and the LTs were obviously Assault Rifle. The Bone Daddies may pose a threat if they hit you with Soul Drain, but that's the way Bone Daddies have always been.

The custom Elite Boss Skull leaders were more or less the same as the Bone Daddies, but with Dark Miasma as a secondary. From what I could tell, they just had the heal and the hold powers, so nothing too overpowering there.

However, a couple of the missions are defeat all, and the last mission requires you to backtrack to find clues after you rescue a captive. The defeat alls were only a minor inconvenience to me, as the maps were of reasonable size, but I can see a lot of players screaming bloody murder at the thought of having to clear a map. The backtracking in the last mission was a bigger annoyance, as the captive spawns in the back, and the clues spawned in the front. It'd probably be best just to have the clues also spawn in the back.

Final Thoughts
The experience wasn't an unpleasant one on the whole, but really, being threatened by a Family goon who probably has multiple warrants out for his arrest really annoyed me.

MA raised the national debt and stole my identity.

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what happened to this thread? it used to be full of lots of lulzy drama and bile; now it's all civil and good natured.

Frankly, I'm disappointed.

On a related note, where's judads? I don't see his words.

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This thread definitely needs moar judads.

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Seriously Witch Engine, just apologize for your arc kicking Venture's dog, and the healing can begin.

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That won't solve anything, since it's reached the point where the entire MA Forum has started arguing with Venture. Actually if anything, this is getting Witch Engine tons of exposure.

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While the rating of the arc drops. Law of Averages has already taken hold.

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I'm just saying, everyone running to defend someone from Venture/use this as an opportunity to get their kicks is what's causing this debate to continue. Venture's just one person, people.

This is getting silly.

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Seriously Witch Engine, just apologize for your arc kicking Venture's dog, and the healing can begin.

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That won't solve anything, since it's reached the point where the entire MA Forum has started arguing with Venture. Actually if anything, this is getting Witch Engine tons of exposure.

The Perfect Drug
Arc ID: 244209
Author: @Zikar
Rating: 2 stars

Short Version
An arc with a run of the mill plot with a final encounter that will either be far too easy or far too hard.

Plot Synopsis
The Council is developing a new super-soldier serum capable of making an army of superhero killers.

Story
The plot wasn't bad, but it was nothing memorable. The Council making a better super soldier isn't really anything remarkable in the City of Heroes/Villains universe. That's really all I can say about it.

However, I don't think a Galaxy Archon is a good choice for the Longbow mole. Galaxy soldiers are said to be brainwashed by Arakhn in their info. A normal soldier would probably be a better choice.

I dunno, none of the dialogue was really spectacular, and the clues were pretty bare. The contact return dialogue consisted of a sentence or two, usually. The laundry list given by the contact in the last mission was a bit jarring. Took me out of the story a bit.

Other than that, there are a few typos and grammatical errors sprinkled throughout, nothing some editing won't fix. Only one that I definitely remember was part of the Ascendant Archon's dialogue, though should be thought.

Mechanics
Wow, that last encounter. I haven't seen an elite boss use Rage in forever. The warning also says Extreme elite bosses, and I never saw either of the allies use powers that would give them away as being Extreme, so I must assume that it's the super soldier. Thankfully due to my panic frenzy of hitting practically every inspiration in my tray when I saw the Rage activate, I was able to kill him before he got the chance to one shot me with Knockout Blow.

The author does give allies. A boss with high amounts of force field and energy blast, and an elite boss with spines and something else. I didn't have him for much of the mission. Both of the allies are required objectives, and I didn't want them around making the final boss far too easy.

The thing is, when your final boss hits hard enough to one shot a Scrapper, and gets enough to-hit to make Elude look like normal SR toggles, with the caliber of help given, the boss encounter will play out in one of two ways:

A) The allies will help you kill it so fast that you swear you just fought a minion.

B) The Elite Boss will kill your allies so fast you swear that they were minions, and then do the same to you after your help is gone, unless you're very good at taking out powerful enemies.

Neither of these scenarios are good scenarios. Overpowered help is hardly ever a good thing, and an Elite Boss who hits so hard that even Scrappers are in danger of being killed in a couple hits by a non-AV level enemy is never a good thing. Just say no to Rage. Unless you happen to play a character with Super Strength. Then you should say yes to Rage, but only with the character you play.

Final Thoughts
If not for the final encounter, this wouldn't have gotten 2 stars. Encounters like that really are a no-win situation for everyone involved.

Some fun facts, when I played through that with my own team of horrible mission finders, I was playing an SR scrapper. I died at least twice, and nearly came close many more times thanks to the novas.

One of the teammates was a Bots/Traps mastermind, the master of killing AVs. Imagine our surprise when, what the hell, we're barely getting past his regen between a Scrapper, a Bots/Traps Mastermind, and a Storm defender.

I whip out my trusty Power Analyzer Mk III, and LO AND BEHOLD, HIS REGEN DEBUFF RESISTANCE IS 100%.

I AM NOT EVEN KIDDING.

Needless to say, after fighting the first one, we dropped nukes and summoned an HVAS for the second one.

Seriously, I am too good at finding horrible MA arcs to play. Some would see this as a curse, but having been brought up on MST3K (every week my father would cook pancakes and we'd watch it, THAT'S parenting my friends) playing awful arcs fills me with glee.

Oh, I didn't notice the PvP part. Yeah, in PvP I've always used a Grave Knight. Once you force it to walk into melee, it'll start using it's broadsword.