Mecha_GM

Sigh. I am seriously bummed out by this... and I resubbed after about a year away *yesterday*.

Kudos to you, Steelclaw.

Fun stuff!

This is just inspired brilliance.

::applause::

Quick response:

a) thanks for the feedback. I'm sure it will all help a lot.

b) The reason I had the warning on Olbrech, and not Superianna or Gamma Emitter is that he's the only one who is classified as an AV, the other two are designed as EBs, so no purple triangles for them and they'll be EBs when going up against a team (or when the player is on Invincible)

3) regarding the plot: Olbrech and his cronies are from an Earth-2. They *thought* they were coming back in time to have their revenge, instead the device they used sent them to an alternated dimension. I clearly need to clear this up.

I'll look into using an established merc villain group instead of the custom mercs I made. Which would probably free up enough space to tuck in another two missions to a) explain the plot a bit better and b) maybe use the League of Mayhem villains a bit more.

Again, thanks for the review. It was quite helpful.

[QR]

I think this is a facinating idea, and I am behind it 100%!

I'd like to reserve "e" as my character.

Just a couple of other notes in regards to your (very helpful) review.

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In her text you typed “Fie, fie” maybe this is the sound she makes when talking, but you could add a couple of * * at each side so that I know is not a word and simply a sound.


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Actually, "fie" is a word. It's an old one, coming from Middle English.

fie
–interjection
1. (used to express mild disgust, disapprobation, annoyance, etc.)
2. (used to express the humorous pretense of being shocked.)
Origin:
1250–1300; ME fi < MF < L; cf. ON fȳ, L phy

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I also didn't understood why the arc was named like that, maybe I missed a reference, or maybe there's no connection between the arc's name and the story.


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Oh, it's tied into the story. Pitcher plants are a type of carniverous plant that lure their prey in with the scent of something they want, and then the prey falls into the trap and cannot escape from the plant's digestive juices. The first two missions are traps set by the League for the player. I could have gone with Operation Flytrap as the name and had a similar tie between name and plot. I just felt that the Pitcher Plant was more appropriate. (also, Morrigan uses the latin name for the plant in her dialogue at one point)

Again, thanks for the review.

Hey, thanks for the review!

(especially thanks for getting the team to run through it)

I agree about the souvenir... when I first put the arc together, I was almost exactly at 100% full, so didn't have room for one. I've economized here and there, so I could (and should) add one back in.

I intend to squash the typos, thanks for catching more of them!

regarding the mechanics of the enemy group...

I was afraid what you've described with Superianna and the Merc bosses would happen. I cranked the diffuculty on their attack sets back to the minimum... and there is nothing I can do about KO Blow on Superianna or the damage levels on the Merc Captain.

I don't see the snipe listed, but the Merc Captain does get:
Burst
Slug
Buckshot
M30 Grenade
Flamethrower

with Assault Rifle when set on Standard. And if I could get rid of KO blow on Superianna, I would.

As to the Merc Troopers, they're set on Ranged AI, no idea why they're so fond of charging into melee. I'll see if I can find a different secondary than Martial Arts for them, that should help there.

I'll also see what I can do with the final mission to spice it up a bit.

Again, thanks for all the feedback. It's a big help.

(I hope you had fun playing through the arc)

Well, I keep tossing this one out there for reviews, so I may as well put it out there again:

Operation Pitcher Plant (arc numbe 4370)

It's become noticably more difficult since the patch that changed the custom enemies, so I'd love to see what I may need to tweak down further than I have already.

(also, I'd love to hear how it works on a team)

Thanks!

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At some point this weekend, I need to remember to write up my review of Teen Phalanx Forever! (67335)... I ran through it with my Warshade a while ago, and enjoyed it immensely.

If you get the chance, I'd love more feedback (especially after the changes to the custom enemey powers in the last patch) on Operation Pitcher Plant (4370).

Keep up the good work!

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Mechanics

The custom enemy group is rather well balanced. The two minions are Energy Blast/Empathy and Assault Rifle/Martial arts, and the Lieutenants are Energy Blast/Energy Manipulation and Assault Rifle/Willpower, which was thankfully set to standard.

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First off, thanks for the review.

Secondly, yeah, I was very careful to make sure I went with just standard Willpower... I wanted those guys to be tougher, but not to give them the full gamut of Willpower nastiness.

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Being solo, I didn't see the bosses, however, Morrigan Le Fae, Cyberix, and Steel Locust were all boss rank and were in the League of Mayhem custom group along with the minions and LTs, so on a team they will spawn as the bosses in regular mission spawns. Since they all seem to be unique characters and not just named versions of the League of Mayhem bosses, I strongly suggest moving them to their own group apart from the mercenaries.

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Ack! Yeah, that's something I'll fix when I get home tonight. There are bosses of each type of mercenary as well.

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Also, the battlesuit lieutenants and the medisuit minions looked practically identical, the only difference being height and their body sliders. I would suggest giving the battlesuits a different color scheme to make them easier to differentiate in a fight.

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Hm... fair enough. I'll monkey with their appearance when I get home... I don't want them to be *too* dissimilar, but I get your point.

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The first two maps felt a little long, the first because lab maps are always huge, and the second, while not excessive, felt a lot longer due to the escort.

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Again, fair point. I may monkey with this some tonight... especially the second map.

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The third mission, while it does state before the mission that it is a timed mission, it didn't register with me when I first read through the intro text. I suppose this is my fault due to the way I read, but I would suggest making the warning a different color than the rest of the text so people who read fast or people who just skim will see it for sure.

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Ooh, yeah... good idea. I'll figure out how to do that tonight.

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Story

The plot isn't spectacular, but it is well written, aside from typos and little grammar errors. Nothing big enough to make you not enjoy it, however. The characterization of the custom bosses I thought was very good. Overall the experience was a positive one.

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Thanks. I'm especially pleased you liked the characterization of the villains. I'll look into squashing more typos and grammar mistakes tonight, hopefully.

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Final Thoughts

I wanted to give this a 4 star, but some of the problems I pointed out earlier, like the unique characters being bosses in the same group as the minions, knocked it down just barely to 3. However, this is definitey not an arc I would suggest against playing.

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About what I expected, to be honest. Thanks for the feedback, and I'll work on cleaning the arc up. (also, it will be useful for my next arc involving the League of Mayhem)

Arc Name: Operation Pitcher Plant
Arc ID: 4370
Faction: League of Mayhem / Fifth Column
Creator Global/Forum Name: @mechagm / Mecha_GM
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Synopsis: The League of Mayhem stage a series of crimes to lure a particular hero (you) into a trap. Can you thwart their schemes and find out why they're after you?
Estimated Time to Play: Approximately 1 hour (3 longish missions)

I'd love to get some feedback on this arc, it's my first one and I've enjoyed playing it myself, but I would like to know how it works for other people. (and especially how it works for teams)

Arc Name: Operation Pitcher Plant
Arc ID: 9280
Faction: League of Mayhem (personally created villains based on some of my friends in my VG on Pinnacle)
Creator Global/Forum Name: @tygress (on test), Mecha_GM (on forums)
Difficulty Level: Medium to hard. (one EB in each of the three missions, a couple of ambushes, and one /ninjutsu boss)
Synopsis: The League of Mayhem have been hired to take out a particular hero/heroine. Who hired them and why?
Estimated Time to Play: Approximately 1 hour.
Link to More Details or Feedback: Post feedback here! (or PM me, or use mail in-game, whatever floats your boat. )

I'll try to make it this week, though it will depend on when I get home from work.

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is the bug that TOO MANY missions mobs are spawning as +1?
(meaning the fix will be to tweak down the overzealos spawning subroutine)

or is the bug the fact that there are ANY +1s mobs in mission?
(meaning once the fix goes in we wont see any +1s anymore)


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The impression I have gotten from reading other posts on this (and this is just my interpretation) is that its more of a case that too many +1 mobs are spawning in missions.

I recently rolled a new lowbie scrapper and I noticed that there were several missions where the significant majority of the mobs in the mission were +1 level to me. I think all of them were missions that were previously frontloaded, which, to me, says that it is indeed related to getting rid of frontloaded missions.

Most of those mission I've been able to handle, so far. Though on more than one occation I've just found that while it is noticiably harder, it is also far more tedious to complete the missions. I don't mind, per say, that the missions are harder and take longer to do... but since I tend to log in for 1/2 an hour to an hour at a time, the exra difficulty and duration of the missions puts a serious crimp in my enjoyment of these shorter sessions. I could, instead, go fight crime on the streets, but I personally have more fun when I feel that I have an actual goal or directed sense of purpose to fighting the mobs... which is why I do get a kick out of missions. (and story arcs especially)

Also, I've noticed some particularly nasty sets of spawns in some missions with a few of my alts. I was playing one of my level 15 scrappers, and had a Tsoo door mission, in the first hallway there was either the single nastiest spawn I have seen as a solo character at that level, or else there were more than 2 spawns of mobs in extremely close proximity. It contained, all at +1 level, 1 Sorcerer, 2 Ancestor Spirtis and 4 Enforcers of various sorts. I'm pretty sure it wasn't a patrol or anything, since they were just standing there, doing nothing. Needless to say, I had my head caved in by the ancestor spirits in relatively short order. I think I might have been able to come up with a plan to deal with that, but at the time I had gone through a spate of about 5 tsoo missions, and I had been defeated an average of 2 times per mission during that span. (mostly due to having to face +1 level Dragonflys) And I decided that I needed a break from the bloody Tsoo.

My guess is that they won't eliminate all of the +1 mobs from the missions, though I admit, I'd like to see fewer +1 level bosses in the early game... the minions, for the most part, I'm fine with... the lieutenants I find to be a mixed bag... it largely depends on what type of lieutenant it is. But the bosses... every now and then they make for a good nasty surprise, but after going through multiple consecutive missions where I had to deal with +1 bosses, it got more than a little tiresome.

I don't know if it is possible with the game's current tech, but I personally would like to see the occantioal boss who is equal level accompanied by minions who are +1 level. Not every mission, of course.

Anywho, that's my take on the whole situation.