LaserJesus

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You should be able to just create a new character and give them the same name but a different save name. It might not work to just edit them and save differently, not sure though.


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You should be able to give it the same name, and then hit "edit save path" and just put in a different file name. I'm pretty sure that's how I did it for the male and female versions of the Drakule Spawn, one with the filename Drakule SpawnM and Drakule SpawnF or something.

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Just ran a DKTF, I noticed that the "Invulnerable" Reichsman took damage, with nothing special having been done. That is totally different than the Invulnerable Reichsman from the BSF on my last few test runs that was always "Unaffected."

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Was the damage being dealt by pets and/or psychic damage? Because that's the only thing that would affect him on my run through of the task force. Everything else got a big UNAFFECTED.

Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend
Arc ID: 114284
Author: @FredrikSvanberg
Rating: 3 stars

Quick Version
A serviceable plot with only a couple hangups in couple spots with difficulty and some mischaracterization.

Plot Synopsis
An average everyday bank robbery becomes something more when the stash of diamonds you're sent to steal isn't quite what was expected.

Story
The plot is alright (That's right, I said it again! And you can't stop me!), and makes sense for the most part. Outcasts going hero is a bit of a stretch, but not out of the realm of possibility. However, the Outcasts' dialogue never really seemed like Outcast dialogue to me. As in, it didn't seem like the kinds of things that a bunch of punk kids who think they're all haaaawd and gangsta because they can shoot a fireball would say. Seemed far too eloquent. Sure, some of the Outcasts may not act like they're all thug, but that's more likely to be the exception than the rule.

Desdemona seems like she's speaking as if English is her second language. My first thought was that English was the author's second language, but the rest of the dialogue seems to be in order, so I'm not sure. If it's on purpose, then it's out of character for Desdemona, whose dialogue is more reminiscent of a girl who's trying to be ghetto because it's the "in thing". Huh. Kind of like how I imagine the Outcasts.

I guess long story short, what I'm stabbing at is that the arc needs more faux thug life action in the characters' speech. The Circle of Thorns members all sound proper, however.

I did happen to spot a couple typos. In one of the clues for Mission 1, Ica should be Ice, and in one of the clues for mission 2, !ts should be its.

Mechanics
First thing I have to say is, I know I ran this on difficulty 2, but it seemed like most of the boss spawns were set on at least medium. For a 15-20 arc, easy seems the way to go in my book. Speaking of 15-20, a Shivan Decimator in the fourth mission? Woof. I only soloed it because I was still riding high off my level up buff, so I Assassin's struck it like a Mack truck, making him go down pretty quick. My main level 50 Scrapper, who is the person I usually bring along for these missions because he can take on anything that's not completely ridiculous (looking at you, build up) can hardly fight those things solo at level 25, let alone level 15 which is what I was running it at. Even with the allies you get, some solo villains are going to have a really rough time with that fight. If I were playing a level 15-20 Dominator I might have cried. I would use a Shivan Destroyer instead, or throw the Ideal for Teams tag on the arc.

The custom boss and EB weren't anything too hard. First one went down super fast to my assassin's fists of electric fury, and the second one only got me because he spawned next to a big group of minions. I came back and rocked his world in the end, however.

The third mission I did find a bit frustrating. The fact that it was an outdoor map didn't help. I really dislike outdoor maps, but that doesn't automatically affect my rating of a mission unless it gets egregious. However, the main problem was the fact that it was an outdoor map with an incredibly vague objective, simply "Find a clue". Thankfully, I was a stalker, so I could just slip by the huge battles that are spawning bosses and blindly search for the glowie/hostage/escort/defend object/destructible object/defeat all/boss... Oh wait, it's a boss, tucked in the corner. A Ruin Mage with a special name. Unfortunately, since the battles were spawning bosses, a Ruin Mage doesn't really stand out so much. I'd make the objective more informative. I mean, since you arrive to the scene of a fight between CoT and Outcasts, you could just say "Press the Circle Leader for information", and then the player would know he's looking for a named CoT boss. As it stands, the player doesn't know what to look for at all.

Final Thoughts
Not a bad run, but you should definitely bring a friend or two to deal with that Decimator in mission 4.

Keep these coming, guys. I was raised on MST3K, so this stuff is as good as it gets for me.

Glad to see that I'm not the only one who gets perverse pleasure out of playing horrible missions.

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A century later, almost no one can remember seeing a horse and buggy in their lifetime...

[/ QUOTE ]I saw a horse and buggy pull into McDonalds not too long ago. The guy parked the horse (seriously???), got out, and started heading in. That's definitely one of those 'what the hell?' moments you never forget.

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Hey man, even when you're Amish you want to get your hands on a Shamrock Shake.

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First time I did this one live, someone asked "We can't beat him, right?" and someone who had done it before said, "Right" and *I* said, "If it bleeds, we can kill it." And was laughed at. Seeing as how I was the only one who thought it'd be fun though, I dropped it.

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I never said it was impossible, just that it was impossible for our team.

(QR)

Best part of this thread is the multiple comments saying "Or maybe you suck."

And not best in a good way.

Red Typhoon
Arc ID: 4912
Author: @MM3 Squints
Rating: 2 stars

Quick Version
Custom enemies with annoying powers, and a plot that doesn't make up for the playability issues.

Plot Synopsis
An international crisis is brewing that could lead to World War 3, and the Malta Group and a mysterious intelligence group from North Korea seem to be at fault.

Story
There's potential here. The core idea behind the plot isn't a bad one. It's the same premise behind movies like A Sum of All Fears. Unfortunately, it's not really executed well. First off, the contact says in the first couple of missions to avoid combat if you can, but the missions themselves don't really seem to give me any incentive, mechanically or in terms of story. The missions are just hunting for collectible objects, without much explanation other than "There is information here that we need." Also, since I'm fighting Malta, who are pretty much considered rogues by every Western nation, I don't really see how my actions could cause an international incident. The arc also bills itself as team oriented, and I can't really think of a way that a team of heroes would be well suited to espionage. At least, as well suited to espionage as a lone hero.

At the end of the third mission, the AV says, and has a note, that suggests that he was working with your contact. The comment and the note really aren't all that convincing. Anybody could say that someone was their partner and have a note with the person's signature forged. However, the contact doesn't make all that impassioned of a defense of himself, mainly just saying "You gotta believe me."

The next mission has you fight the real culprit, who escapes, but not before you can take a photo to prove your contact's innocence. Next mission, you team up with the contact and this time take him out for good. Unfortunately there's no explanation as to why he wasn't able to just escape again. The whole situation with the possible nuclear war has a rather anti-climactic ending, as well. It just kind of stops after you catch the leader of the North Korean intelligence group.

The text also needs a lot of work in the area of spelling and grammar.

Mechanics
The arc bills itself as a challenge for solo characters, more meant for teams. On this front, it pretty much delivers. The main enemies are Malta, which a lot of characters have trouble with, and his custom group. The custom group features minions who heal, and minions with Ninjitsu. Thankfully, Ninjitsu's no longer as freakin' ridiculous as it used to be, but they can still pack a punch. One of the lieutenants have both Illusion and Sonic Resonance. The Illusion powers are turned up high enough to have Spectral Terror, which is frankly just plain irritating. Fear is something most characters don't have protection against, and their fear power has a pretty big tohit debuff, which stacks with itself. The sonic powers are also turned up high, with them shielding pretty much everything in sight. Combined with the healing minions, this can make fights a big chore. The other lieutenant has aim, as does one of the bosses, so anyone with defense as their main protection (like myself) is going to find those enemies particularly annoying.

The final AV has Ice Control and Psychic Assault. In otherwords, prepare to be slowed to oblivion. My SR scrapper has slow resistance, and still had his recharge times at practically nothing during the fight thanks to the Ice Control powers.

I would have to say, lose the spectral terror, since it's not so much challenging as it is annoying as hell, especially on lieutenants. Get rid of the single target sonic shields. The bubble's good enough. Lose the aim, and do something about the high amount of slows from the Ice Control. It still should be a good challenge for a team, but not have anyone pulling their hair out over annoying debuffs.

Final Thoughts
The plot needs to sell itself more. I need to feel a greater urgency about the situation. The enemies need some work, and the spelling and grammar definitely need to be tuned up.

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I had hit him with the MM temp power before he went unbreakable and it didn't stop him from doing it.

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Well, I mean after it gets fixed.

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Masterminds get Black Scorpions Temp that allows to knock Reichsman out of Unbreakable mode OR prevent him from going to Unbreakable mode OR kill his regen while in Unbreakable mode. (Currently bugged)

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I suspect that due to the long recharge time, it's probably meant to prevent him from using unbreakable, rather than using it while he is in unbreakable to take him out of it.

The SF at least has some interesting stuff happen. The hero one doesn't do anything cool after the second mission, and it definitely doesn't have the SF's cool cutscene.

And yeah. MM power is broken right now.
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat....v=#Post13695620

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I just did the Reichsman SF. First time into the room, my team didn't know what was going on, as nobody had done it before. The ambushes got us separated and we wiped. Then we all went in and went through the ambushes nice and slow and together to Reichsman's room, and then we got Reichsman into a corner and figured out what our temp powers did and annihilated him in less than 20 minutes. Granted, we were really debuff heavy, myself being a /poison MM, and we had a rad corrupter, a fire corrupter, and a dark corrupter. Still, I only saw him use his phase power twice, and neither time did he get all the way back to full. Is the mastermind power really broken? I think it might be a PBAoE. We were all bunched up next to him, after all.

I actually have to say that the strike force is far better than the task force. The task force is pretty much the same as any other task force, but the end boss has more hit points. At least the strike force brings something interesting to the table.

Alright, I'm going to start reviews again. A combination of beta testing the hell out of the MA changes in I15, getting The Sims 3 (so damn addictive) and a debilitating summer cold (I hate summer) was the reason for my absence.

Just to respond to a few of the posts that have been made:

A) Drakule's dark regen was always a tough thing for me to decide to keep or not. On one hand, Standard meant just the two armors. Not too impressive for the big bad. Dark Regen itself is just ridiculous on AVs though. Some teams had no troubles, if you had some slows, or -regen or whatnot, he went down in no time flat. If you were melee heavy, he was a beast.

However, with custom power selections, it's gone! So is Oppressive Gloom, since the stun's kinda mean, and Cloak of Darkness is gone since some people were reporting not seeing his model. He's got Soul Transfer now, but if you've completed all the other objectives, killing him should end the mission immediately, as his encounter is set to only need the boss to complete.

B) If the writing for Rise of the Drakule and its sequel seem very derivative, there's a good reason for it, as it's a parody. I assure you it is definitely not meant to be a serious story. To me, the humor comes from the sheer ridiculousness of the contact's dialogue, the character Ashton, and the dichotomy between Drakule's completely overwrought brooding and the utter incompetency and lameness of his wannabe vampire army who hang out in dance clubs. Senses of humor are wildly different, and if it doesn't strike you as funny, then I'm not too worried. Some will get it, some won't.

C) Alright has been in use since the 1800s, and it both saves space for the character limit for dialogue, and it looks far more conversational to me. Besides, Ashton's a dudebro who thinks he's a ninja and wants to become a vampire to score with hot vampire chicks. I don't think he has the best grasp of the intricacies of the English language, brah.

Fighting Freedom (177390), Rise of the Drakule (51357), and Return of the Revenge of the Son of Drakule Part 2: First Blood (84543) have all been updated.

In both Drakule arcs, the enemies pretty much all have their powers changed around for various degrees of difficulty. The Dark Blast/Dark Armor bosses have Dark Miasma instead of Dark Armor, since they finally no longer have to have Darkest Night. They just have the heal, the hold, and stealth aura. The AVs and EBs in both of those arcs are far less huge single target damage heavy and more focused on AoE attacks now.

In Fighting Freedom, I added another minion, and toned down the power level of all bosses, so it should be far more solo friendly to more characters.

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Screw that [censored]!

HE LEFT ME!

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*hands Judas Ben and Jerry's*

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Currently, Snipe powers aren't available. I'm always hopeful that it will under a Sniper-class critter to be added later... I'd love to have a Stealth-sniper Ninja use an Archery snipe.

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They are available in the assault sets, actually.

Of course, there's no Archery Assault powerset, so...

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This AI attack bug is appearing in Dominator Assault sets as well. It seems to happen most often if you engage the critter in melee right away. For example, if I aggro a Fire Control/Fire Assault critter from range, he will use all his powers. But if I ran up and melee him right away, he totally forgets most of his powers and just chases me around spamming Incinerate. He is set to Ranged pref, I already checked that.

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Speaking of ranged attacks, anyone else notice critters with multiple ranged attacks, one of which being the melee set ranged attacks doing the single attack spam?

A couple specific examples, I have a Fire Blast/Fire Melee minion, and at range it was only using Fire Blast, never Flares. Another minion that was Martial Arts/Super Strength was only ever using either hurl or shuriken.

A few more buggy melee sets. Stone Melee seems wonky, though Stone Fist and Heavy Stone Fist might just look the same. Ice Manipulation is doing the "pick one attack and stick with it", and no, it's not the pull out ice sword and never use frozen fists bug. They were just spamming frozen fists. Mace is only using one attack repeatedly.

Spines and Claws seem really weird. They'll use one single target attack exclusively until their PBAoE recharges. Then they'll use that, then pick a random single target attack to spam.

Electricity Manipulation seems to be working fine.

Last time I did Doc Q (read: 2 years ago) we got it done in 3 and a half hours, even with me and the other SR scrapper having a contest to see who could get killed by the eyeballs the most.

We both tied at 22. Thankfully, our team seemed to be amused enough by our antics to keep rezzing us.

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Meh.

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MEH

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Yeah... don't get me wrong, I love the idea of power customization (depending on how it's implemented anyways). However, it'd be nice to be able to try new, interesting things instead of doing the same stuff just with different colors. Who knows? Maybe we'll get both.

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I doubt the entire issue will just be that. I'd frankly be amazed if the issue didn't at least have some new story arcs or a new TF or something.

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Uh, what? You're making [censored] up.

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No, I'm making a guess. There's quite the difference.

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Yeah... don't get me wrong, I love the idea of power customization (depending on how it's implemented anyways). However, it'd be nice to be able to try new, interesting things instead of doing the same stuff just with different colors. Who knows? Maybe we'll get both.

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I doubt the entire issue will just be that. I'd frankly be amazed if the issue didn't at least have some new story arcs or a new TF or something.

You never called me, Braxx.

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It's Purple and Blue!

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careful, or you'll go blind.

although this is a great feature, i was saddened to hear GR will not be coming out for even longer in the same post.

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Uh, what? You're making [censored] up.

He said Going Rogue isn't I16. Doesn't mean that Going Rogue won't be out until 2010 or some [censored].

Protip: I6 wasn't City of Villains. Yet they came out at the same time.

(This isn't to say that I16 and Going Rogue will come out at the same time. But then again, who [censored] cares, my name isn't red.)

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AI Issues:
* Martial Arts Critters have a tendency to get stuck using the same attack over and over.
* Super Strength Critters have a tendency to get stuck using the same attack over and over.
* Allies and Escorts will have their defensive toggles running when captive, but once rescued will turn those powers off. This is odd as they go through the animation of turning the toggle on while it is switching off.


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Battle Axe is having the same issues, and so is Psychic Assault at melee range.