Leese

The new comment system should work no matter what part of the globe you're in.

were these global tells or the new comments/complaints function in the My Published Arcs screen?

If it's global tells, that's the old system and won't be used anymore. They went to your US account because global tells couldn't be sent between the US and EU. The new system is much better IMO.

So... why can't we buy these yet? Apparantly they've been available in the US for three days now, but they've not turned up in the online or ingame stores for me yet. Did someone forget to activate them for the EU?

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You're not. This was mentioned by Avatea previously, in one of the Training Room or Mission Architect threads. Just can't seem to find it right now.

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I think MisterJ's point was that the USA side can buy new slots now, and have been able to since yesterday.

We still can't for some reason.

So...

When do we get to buy more slots? They don't seem to be in our ingame store yet.

Other 5th TF enemies are in the MA now, such as Schadenfreude, so I don't think it's that they've not had time. IMO there are two reasons.

1) Keeping some items TF exclusive. Reichsman is the big bad of the new TFs, and his impact would be lessened if every new MA arc for the next few weeks used him. IIRC Romulous is not in the AE, probably for the same reason.
2) He's a gimmick boss, where the players are more reliant on temp powers in order to defeat him. You can't give out temp powers in AE so he would be pretty much impossible for most AE teams. IIRC the STF's version of Aeon is not in the MA, probably for the same reason.

Not yet, but this option is being added in Issue 15.

.... you're right. Maybe I misremembered what Posi said. But I'm pretty sure he said something that indicated global tels were a better practical solution than mails.

GLobal tells are still an inadequate solution though. I hope the devs are working on a much better system for I15.

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Why was it changed from emails to tells? Does anyone know...?

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I believe it was so that the arcs would be published under a global name rather than the local name.

I do hope that they are working on this issue; has it been acknowledged and committed to?

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During the anniversary chat, Posi said that the e-mails version wouldn't have worked cross-server, never mind cross-region. So the current system is technically better - at least this way characters on Defiant can send feedback to ones on Union. They just can't send it to Freedom or Justice.

What, you think it takes actual qualifications?

Thanks for the reviewer status, emo. I'll have a look through my reviews and post the more positive ones to the site.

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Well, /targetcustomnext (edited for typo) helps to an extent, but only if you know how the hostage is named beforehand. (plus, since there are no parametrized binds you can't chat while on these missions, or else you would have to retype the whole thing...)

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I just use this bind whenever I want to find something on an outside map.

/bind t targetname Thingy

Where Thingy is the partial or whole name of what I'm looking for. Then fly around mashing T until I find it...

My apologies for the delay, I've been busy for a while and not had time to write this review.
I played this arc nearly a week ago, so while I did take notes a lot of this is from memory and you'll be seeing a lot of "IIRC" etc. If I've forgotten anything, I invite the author to correct me.

Review: Whatever Happened to the Cockroach Crusader?(Arc ID 67280)
by Al_Ewing

Synopsis: A slightly unbalanced arc that nevertheless is very well written and has a lot of charm. Some well designed custom mobs and dynamic mission objectives keep it fun and interesting.

Should I play it? Yes. It's a great tribute to the 60s Batman. Only reason not to is if you can't solo an EB (there are 4) but they should downgrade to Boss on Heroic.

Rating: 4 stars

I played this arc as Leese, my lv50 MA/SR Scrapper.

MISSION 1
<ul type="square">[*]The contact is Albert Dollarworth, butler to the famous billionaire Brett Winter... who just happens to be close friends with Roachman, the Cockroach Crusader. Roachman and ROachgirl have got in some trouble they need our help for...[*]Alfred warns us that Roachman has been kinda Grim and Gritty lately. Gone are the days when he laughed and helped out at charity events - ever since his nemesis, Day-Glo, died falling off the statue of Atlas, he's got more reclusive and rude.[*]First mission map is the 22nd National Bank, which is full of ice-themed enemies who work for a villain called Daddy Cool. This means lots of slows, of course, but it wasn't a problem on my playthrough. (but I'm /SR, so...)[*]A simple defeat-all with two allies and a boss. The allies are Roachman (spawns at the front) and Roachgirl (spawns at the back) and both are MA/Dev IIRC. Daddy Cool is an ice-themed beatnik EB with some nice lines.[*]Once the robbery is foiled, Roachman immediately takes off without a word to us, complaining of a headache. Nice foreshadowing.[/list]
Mission 2
<ul type="square">[*]Some time later, we get a call from Albert - Roachman and Roachgirl have gone missing! And to make matters worse, Day-Glo has somehow returned from the dead and is sticking up a casino. While Albert tries to figure out where the missing superheroes are,he asks us to go apprehend Day-Glo.[*]The map is one of the small casino maps, so this is a very short mission - Day-Glo is right in front of us as we zone in. He has a luridly coloured costume that actually isn't as bad as it could have been, and he isn't too hard to beat.[*]When you return to him, Albert is surprised that Day-Glo didn't use any of his usual tricks... instead, he just tried hitting you with martial arts. Unfortunately it's impossible to investigate this oddity further because Day-Glo escapes from the police.[/list]
MISSION 3
<ul type="square">[*]Albert has some "good" news though - he's found out what happened to Roachgirl. She's been kidnapped by Krime Kitten and is being held hostage on a cargo ship, which will explode within the hour...[*]Map is a normal cargo ship filled with Krime Kitten's mutant catboy henchmen. There are lions, tigers and cheetahs, but they're all pretty much the same - all Claws/, which gets a bit tedious after a while. Nicely designed costumes though.[*]Roachgirl is found at the back of the map and needs to be escorted out. She'll fight, so this mission can be failed, which isn't a problem until we meet...[*]Krime Kitten, IIRC a Claws/Regen EB who was standing at the base of the ramp leading to the exit door. I liked her soul-inspired costume, but found her to be a major pain to fight, especially while trying to keep Roachgirl alive. For some reason it took a long hard fight to bring her down, which seemed a little much while escorting Roachgirl too.[*]Ultimately, the biggest problem I had with this mission was its lack of relevance to the rest of the plot. This really felt like filler - like the author had a Batman villain parody he wanted to use but didn't know where to. The only small plot point this mission provides is the fact that Roachman doesn't come to rescue his sidekick.[/list]
MISSION 4
<ul type="square">[*]The next briefing is a distress call from Albert! Day-glo and a gang of Freakshow are attacking the Roachcave itself![*]This is a fun mission with a variety of interesting objectives. I won't go into detail here, as I've decided to spoil the plot less in my reviews, but suffice to say a few mysteries are solved, there is a challenging but doable EB fight and a 2001: A Space Odyssey reference that initially seems tired but is then subverted in hilarious fashion. [*]My only complaint about this mission was that on my first playthrough, a required glowie spawned in an inaccessible place. (behind the southern wall of the first large 3-level room, BTW) It may be worth moving this glowie's spawn point to the middle to avoid this. I had to restart the mission in order to proceed, whereupon the glowies spawned correctly.[/list]
While it's not perfect, I really enjoyed this arc, though I do believe squishies may have some problems if they choose to fight the EB versions of the bosses. Ultimately, I give it 4 stars.

Finally! I nominate...

"The Twisted Tongue" (1444)
By @Days

I loved the writing in this arc - it was highly convincing and humourous, and had a great twist.

Not seen this posted anywhere else, so take a look.

http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/69...y-Special.html

Actually it would be more apt if the Posi in the comic had sold him some land and told him to do anything he wanted with it except build farms there.

Still a cute picture though.

I'm incredibly poorly read for someone so pretentious, so it's no wonder I didn't recognise a Neuromancer reference. That makes much more sense now.

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Cant tell whether you like the fact that the contact was reset or not. Was a melancholic ending good or bad?

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It was good.

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It is supposed to show AE's uncaring business side. you fulfill your contractual duties. thats it. your job is done as required by the agreement and by the agreement you dont get anything extra.

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Ah. I interpreted it as his memory being wiped and rebooted, effectively the "death" of the contact, because he is no longer needed. Maybe this was caused by the "it's been an honour" speech at the end of the last debriefing.

One note: I'm going to close my list to new applications at the moment. I'll keep working down the current list until the end and probably take a short break after that. Reviewing MA arcs is nice, but it does kinda take time away from the TFs etc I also want to run.

Ramon_Daark only just missed being reviewed before JD because his arc was down at the time. Now that it's back up, I've gone back to it.

Review: AE Combat Evaluator (Arc ID: 143449, Heroic, 20-50)
By Ramon_Daark

Summary: An arc with original concepts and fun missions that suffers due to an extremely muddled plot, possibly-unbalanced custom group and lacklustre presentation.

Should I play it?: I think so. It's a fun arc with some good writing, and is fun to play. It just needs a lot of polish and a restructure of the story.
I said that the custom group was "possibly unbalanced." This refers to the fact that a lot of them seem to have mez protection. When the next patch hits and Mez protection is only available on Extreme this may change.

Rating: Three stars.


Summary: The contact is the "AE System Avatar," who is appropriately just the basic Contact Hologram. Apparently we've started a PvP training program to test our skills, and as we calibrate the system the Avatar will devise PvP training programs to suit our level of ability.

Except it's not going to work like that...

MISSION 1
<ul type="square">[*]We quickly get the impression that not all is well with the entry text - "Lost connection to mapserver"[*]It's a city map full of freaks, and we have one goal - find the Simulator Interface AI. This turns out to be a contact hologram lookalike. A new chained objective appears once we have him - defeat a Freak called BSOD.[*]BSOD is a EM/inv Boss, with some funny lines. He seems to have a grudge against someone called "Hexx." On defeat, he promises to track the player down in the real world and kill them.[*]On return to the Hologram, he gives a worrying stream of error messages, non sequiturs and HAL references and then reboots.[/list]
MISSION 2
<ul type="square">[*]After rebooting, the Hologram informs us that our acceptance of the Terms and Conditions in the previous briefing allow him to press-gang us into helping him fix this mess.
... except I never agreed to any terms and conditions. I just agreed to waive my right to sue if this went wrong. Maybe consider putting some reference to the EULA or something in the first briefing?[*]The system has traced some suspicious activity to a specific location within the system, and wants to send us in to do some "debugging."[*]This mission is another Freakshow mission, in an abandoned office, and it's timed at 60 minutes. You didn't mention that before I accepted the mission BTW. There are only two objectives - destructible objects, so it's fairly simple.[*]The second destructible object has some odd dialogue...
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[NPC] Virtual Console: decryption eta 25 minutes
[NPC] Virtual Console: Decryption complete. Pass key for protected memory space ready.

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These two lines occurred within ten seconds of each other. Must be a Windows-style progress bar.[*]Knocking out these two objects completely closes off the Freakshow's access to the system. We won't see them again for the rest of the arc, and we'll never discover what BSOD's problem with Hexx was.[*]In the debriefing, the Hologram has tracked down who Hexx was - one of the main designers of the MA system, who was fired and is now deceased following a zombie outbreak in Steel.[/list]
MISSION 3
<ul type="square">[*]It runs out the Freakshow were trying to force access to a protected area of memory that the system didn't know about. The Hologram sends you to check it out.[*]Inside, there are... the Circle of Thorns? Quite unexpected. They're guarding a number of Power Conduits, and complaining about how unnatural they find this "technology" stuff. The conduits seemed to be taking energy from the virtual world and converting it to mystical energy![*]Destroying each conduit gives the message "You have destroyed all of the Conduits"[*]Overall a simple mission.[*]On returning to be hologram, he starts tracing where the magical energy was being sent to...[/list]
MISSION 4
<ul type="square">[*]I'll be honest, I'm not entirely sure what the first part of the next briefing means, but it seems to boil down to - this looks like Hexx, but it can't be, there's another piece of protected memory, go have a look in it and try to find Hexx.[*]Another timed mission, at 90mins, but this one gives you appropriate warning.[*]This mission contains a custom group - Circle mages combined with BlackICE enemies that represent the virus protection in this memory. They're nicely designed, but at least half of them have mez protection.[*]Worth noting - BlackICE is the name of an existing PC security program, but I guess they're not going to worry about you using the name.[*]To begin with, the main objective is finding the right glowie Node out of about seven. As a nice touch, if you click the seven nodes you're not meant to, you get an ambush as the virus checker realises there have been a lot of suspicious logins recently.[*]Once the node is found, a Boss spawns - Redvik, a Circle Mage who took a tumble off a KR rooftop and is currently in the Zig's hospital wing, "undergoing rehabilitation through Interactive Holographic Imagery as well as physiotherapy for four artificial limbs."
I really liked this character. He's well written, has an interesting concept, a sympathetic problem, a believable motivation and I think he could... nay MUST be expanded upon. I'd say that personally, I found him to be the star of the arc.[/list]
MISSION 5
<ul type="square">[*]Accessing that node in the last mission let us know where Hexx's "code" is. I'm still not clear whether this Hexx is an AI or the man/zombie himself, or if he's actually done anything bad, but we need to go knock him out.[*]Before we go, the Hologram says that after this mission he will be reset again.[*]This mission was very short and rather anti-climactic. The only objective, Hexx conned as a Boss, and was pretty easy to defeat.[/list]
Upon returning to the Hologram, it only welcomed us to AE and directed us to the terminals to pick a mission, having reset itself already. I found it quite a touching and melancholic way to end the arc - I hadn't realised how much I liked it until that point.


A few more notes...
<ul type="square">[*]Spelling and grammar were quite flawed - typos and grammar errors were frequent. You have some interesting writing buried under them though.[*]If I had to pick one flaw that drags this arc down, it would be a lack of focus in the villains. Who is the main villain? BSOD? Redvik? Hexx? What, in fact, was the evil plan I foiled? I'm not entirely clear on that. Is Hexx alive or dead, why was BSOD angry with him, and why was he apparently working with Redvik? In the end this arc raises more questions than it answers, and I believe it's because you have too many villains. The time you have to actually develop them or better explain their plots is split three ways, and with the limitation of 5 missions that's time you don't have to waste.[/list]
So overall, even though I enjoyed playing this, it ranked a three.

I can't get into the master account page either, it seems to be down.

You can increase your XP/time by increasing your challenge level at a Fateweaver, but naturally that makes things more difficult.

Challenge Level 1: Enemies are your level. Bosses downgrade to Lieutenants.
Challenge Level 2: Enemies spawn as if there is one more person on your team - so if you're solo you'll get enemies as if you were a duo.
Challenge Level 3: All enemies are 1 level higher than you.
Challenge Level 4: Enemies spawn as if there is one more person on your team, and all enemies are 1 level higher than you.
Challenge Level 5: All enemies are two levels higher than you. When solo on other difficulty levels Arch-Villains/Heroes will degrade to Elite Bosses, but on this difficulty they stay as AVs!

10 feels like a little early to be increasing your difficulty, but if you're having a very easy time of things it could be worth a shot.

MERGE THE SERVERS...

With Guild Wars.

They can't jump. We can fly. Taking over will be easy!

Thanks for the review, Master Z. Really appreciate it.

I did think long and hard about whether the player should get to keep Project Ragnarok in the end, but I decided against it for two reasons...

1) I'd prefer to keep my arcs canon-aligned.
2) If they got to keep it, the best I could do for an epilogue would be "you start planning what to do with it" because some villains would immediately explode the RI, and some would hold Arachnos to ransom, and some would sell access to the higest bidder... and so on. I feel I can make the assumption that a villain would want to control Ragnarok, but I can't assume too much about what they would do with it.

As for Elspeth... I really came up with the story about you exploiting her senility before the Ragnarok stuff. There are plenty of contacts who try to use your villain to their own ends, but Elspeth was intended to be a true innocent.

I see what you mean about CL2. For the record, this blaster usually solos on CL4 in the canon game. It's a dilemma trying to decide what difficulty to run on - I think that, despite the pain, I'd rather encounter true bosses and EBs rather than downscaling, which is why I haven't been running on heroic.
If anyone has any opinions on whather this is fair to architects or not, I'd like to hear them.

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Hey - you know I'm a sucker for a poor pun - so Ram Beau had to be done... that meant archery skills that can drop helicopters. Though I did jiggle the difficulty as previously they immob'd you and pretty-much-perma-blinded you as well. That really wasn't fun being unable to see any mobs!

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Now that I think about it, I vaguely remember being blinded a few times... but I'm not sure TBH. I may be thinking of a different arc. You may want to check anyway that Ram Beaus are on the right difficulty.

Re: level ranges, yeah, it was clear why you had the breaks, but uneven lavel ranges seem to be a big problem for some people. It didn't affect my mark.

With Ramon's arc offline for now, the next spot goes to Judgement Dave. I've been meaning to play his arcs for a while, but something else always seems to come up, so I'm looking forward to this.

My standard disclaimer applies - this is just my opinion, based on my playthrough. It's not law, and other people's opinions may vary but be equally valid.

Review: Ee-Ai-Ee-Ai-oh! (Arc ID 3662, Heroic)
By @Judgement Dave

Summary: A purely comedic arc, Ee-Ai-Ee-Ai-Oh is a well written and funny arc, that sadly suffers from a very squishy-unfriendly custom faction in the final mission.

Should I play it?: If you have an armour set and mez protection, or want a challenge on a squishy, you should. However the arc does completely shatter the 4th Wall, so if you don't like meta-humour you may want to stay away.

I like meta-humour. Overall, 4 stars.

I played this arc on tenacious, as Jacintha, my lv42 Archery/Elec/Elec blaster. BTW, this is the character I mainly want to level ATM, so unless you give me some indication that the arc won't be squishy friendly, I'll be soloing your arcs on a blaster.


Report: The contact is Statesman, AKA "Some dude called Marcus," who informs us that some so-called-heroes have bought their way to power, cheating the system. He wants them caught, and their supplier brought to justice.

MISSION 1
<ul type="square">[*]First mission is level 13-19, in some Troll-filled Tunnels.[*]A simple mission. Not much to do here except fight through to the end and defeat a Troll boss. A few patrols complicate some encounters, but not too much.[*]The troll boss is well written, as he gloats over the noobs he defeated despite them being high level. Man, these guys must suck.[/list]
MISSION 2
<ul type="square">[*]Marcus has tracked down the cheaters - apparently they're trying to do the Hess TF, but are hopelessly stuck on the second mission.[*]Goals are simple - complete the cheater's mission goals - destroy 3 generators, save Dr Faber - and capture them too.[*]For me, this was the best mission in the arc. The "level 50 heroes" con as Lt Allies, and while good to have around are never important for finishing the mission after the initial rescue. They all have some funny lines and bios, and are appropriately useless. (you would not believe how quickly the fire blaster died)[*]In addition, I loved Dr Faber's response when informed these morons were the ones sent to save her.[*]As you meet up with the cheaters, you find notes that point you toward a man named "Old Macdonald," who has a farm in Croatoa.[/list]
MISSION 3
<ul type="square">[*]With the location of Old Macdonald's Farm discovered, "Marcus" send us along to close it down, with Positron as ally backup.[*]Map is the Croatoa farms map. Faction is a custom faction, consisting of Macdonald's Chickens, Sheep and Cows. It's a nicely designed faction, at least visually, but I found them frustrating to fight. The mobs which I remember included...[*]The chickens have Minion and LT versions, with Martial Arts and Flight, which means hover is useless. (bearing in mind one of the designed purposes of hover was to stay out of melee range) They do a lot of damage, and with 2 in a spawn they can perma-stun you.[*]The sheep have TA/A, and WILL immobilise you, which really doesn't help.[*]The cows are empaths, who will CM everyone around them, rendering my mezzes useless.
Fortunately nobody has mez protection aside from CM. It was still a very annoying group to fight. I'd suggest removing flight from the Chickens - the real birds aren't exactly known for their ability to soar through the air, and the changes coming in the next patch will give them ranged attacks.[*]There are also a few spawns of Fire/Kin farmers, which spawn only as Lts. Since they're controllers, they were definitely best left alone by me, as a group of 4 fire trollers WILL perma-hold.[*]Positron spawns as a Boss-level Hero I think - he was pwned by a group of farmyard animals he aggroed. He does deliver a plot point, almost referring to the farmers as "rival farmers" before correcting himself to say "evil."[*]Old Macdonald is a Rad/Rad EB, and a toughie. While manageable by himself, he once again proves what I'm calling "Leese's Maxim."

"It's not the EB that kills you, it's the ambushes."

Yeah, he calls three ambushes, a tactic that I generally find to be overkill most of the time. But, in the end, he was beatable.[*]Overall, this mission represented a significant and aggravating difficulty spike for me. My philosophy is thus - I don't mind if arcs are hard or easy, but they should be consistently so.[/list]
Upon returning to Marcus, we get the twist ending - he and Positron run their own farms, and we've just shut down their main competitors. It turns out to be an amusing end to a comedic arc.

A few more notes...
<ul type="square">[*]Level range is inconsistent - mission 1 is 13-19, mission 2 is 29-35, mission 3 is 40-54. This doesn't bother me too much, but it may concern you.[*]Spelling and grammar were generally excellent. The only way I could mark you down for this would be on your tendency to only use two dots in an ellipsis, and that's so minor I barely see the point.[/list]
Overall I really enjoyed this arc until the third mission, which quickly became an exercise in frustration - not as bad as some others I've played, but bad enough that when the EB died I immediately hit Exit, glad it was over. But putting aside the annoyed feelings the last mission gave me, I think this is a definite 4 stars.

Simple answer - cap the rewards per hour in the MA at, say, 100-150% of what you would expect to gain doing canon missions. People who are doing non-exploitative missions won't feel a thing.