Mekkanos

Ah, I see. Understandable. Well, I'm still looking forward to your feedback, anyway!

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I don't mean to complain. But did I get skipped over?

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I was wondering the same thing. I doubt it was on purpose but I'm pretty sure those other arcs were posted after ours. If there's a reason for doing so, that's fine but it still would be nice to know for sure.

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Now we just need a significant plot rewrite on the 'I serve the 5th Column' from the Reichsman and less bowing to Recluse and we'll actually have a coherent, proactive SF for villains.

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The first part is a pretty valid story issue, but I thought the bowing to Recluse part was actually fixed. I seem to recall seeing someone posting a number of screenshots from a relatively late version of the SF and Recluse seems to give you the respect you deserve now.

Nice to see they put the actual Axis America in the SF too. I hope they'll put them in the MA pretty soon to replace the "We're not the Council Empire! Honest!" Axis America we have right now.

A while back, I might have actually agreed with the OP (Although I would have advocated filters instead of trying to kill the e-mail system). However, I've come to realize that trying to mess around too much with the e-mail system probably would cause way more problems than it would solve, since it would drive spammers to spam tells instead of e-mails. The e-mails are minor annoyances that take all of 5 seconds to get rid of most of the time but RMT tells are extremely disruptive. It wasn't fun when they did that quite regularly and I don't want that to happen again. I'm not sure how they'd react to e-mail filters but I don't know if it's worth risking the possibility of RMT tells again.

I know people are annoyed by the very presence of RMTers and want them removed from the game altogether, but that's just not practical. As long as there's an economy in any MMO, RMTers will be there to try to make a profit. Sure, we can try to squish them, but they're like cockroaches and will always come back. The best we can hope to do is try to minimize their impact and I believe we've done that fairly well right now.

Hey, at least you can look on the bright side. For every RMT account that gets banned, they have to waste some money for replacements since they can't use trial accounts anymore (Unless they have some way to avoid paying. I'm not sure). That money goes to NCsoft and, by extension, the game itself. Sure, it's not a lot but if they keep getting banned, it can add up.

Thank you very much for reviewing my arc. I'm glad you liked it! Anyway, let me address a couple of points (And observations) you brought up...

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The objective changed from "Defeat Raider Leader" to "Defeat Sky Raider Leader." That explains it. Might want to reword that objective so that it's a bit clearer what's happening.

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Yeah, I put in the system tab that you might want to defeat him to finalize your escape but maybe I should reword it not only so it doesn't seem so similar to the previous objective but also to give a better reason to fight him.

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" The client prefers to stay anonymous, but is wealthy enough to secure our involvement without asking questions." But should probably be changed to "and" since "but" indicates a contradiction between the two clauses, and I don't see any contradiction between them. Of course, that begs the question ... why did the Paradigm leader bring the letter with him to the battle?

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Well, the implication of the letter is that the client is wealthy enough to keep Paradigm Company from asking questions about their identity. That's why the "but" is there. Also, I assume that the leader brought the letter into battle because he forgot he had it in the first place. He probably stuffed it into his pocket or something. Really, I just had to make sure there was something for Darrin (I believe his name is spelled with an i, not an e like most Darrens) to use his locating magic on later while giving the player some insight into Paradigm's side of this issue.

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The mission pop-up says that the abandoned lab is clean, and mentions that the Sky Raiders never seemed to be neat freaks. I'd beg to disagree. They're technology freaks, and their warehouses in Sharkshead Isle and Striga Isle always seemed to be pretty spotless to me. I'm not surprised that they'd keep the place neat. It's not like they're the Banished Pantheon or anything. But I digress.

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Yeah, you do have a good point. I suppose I should change it to be something more like "This base seems a little too neat and tidy, even for Sky Raiders."

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I'm a little bit confused here. I thought the mysterious benefactor hired Paradigm to get the Eye of Chronos, not Sky Raiders. Or do we have TWO mysterious benefactors, one for Paradigm and one for Sky Raiders?

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Well, the implication is supposed to be that there is one for each group. Darrin mentions early on that each mercenary group probably has their own client. (SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT PLAYED THE ARC) Obviously, we know that there was only one in the end but we're supposed to believe there's two throughout the arc (Nemesis and, later, Arachnos).

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Wade's just as fed up as I am, and uses a location spell. Well, why didn't he just use that the first time around?!? That sure would've saved me a lot of time.

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This is the second time a reviewer has brought it up, so it sounds like I need to rework the text here. The idea is that Darrin's location spells (As seen in his own arc) only work to trace where people have been, not where they're going. It would be rather pointless to try to use the spell to get the Eye since the people with the Eye would be long gone by the time you arrive at the place the spell found. The only reason he used it in this case was because you needed to find a way to communicate with the Paradigm group that had the Eye at the moment.

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But wouldn't that just make them rush to their target faster so that they wouldn't lose it and make sure their benefactor has the Eye?

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Well, if they rushed to the target, they'd bring their pursuers with them and the battle in the Sky Raider base would take place all over again, endangering their client. I figure they were just being smart.

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Ya know ... now that I've hacked into the computer ... why do I need to defeat the base guardian again? I did my job. Why can't I just leave? Ah well. I go off to find the base leader.

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Darrin said that it was just to be safe but I admit that it's a rather weak excuse. I need to think of a better reason to take him out with what little space I have left...

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I was a bit let down that the final AV/EB was not Nemesis himself (or one of the Fake Nemeses), but I suppose it makes sense that Nemesis would send over one of his minions to take care of a middling detail.

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Actually, the reason it wasn't Nemesis himself was because his level range was strictly 40-50 when I first made the arc. However, I recently discovered that with the new level range toys, you can now actually make Nemesis appear at lower levels than he's supposed to. I even made him (Along with some of his goons) spawn at level 1 in a test mission! I'm not sure if I want to remove General White, but I will say I'm quite tempted to do that in order to get some file space back and add some more cool stuff to the arc. I guess I'll have to think about if it would help or hinder the story...

Anyway, thanks again for reviewing my arc! It was quite helpful!

I suppose I'll act as the guinea pig for this one. It's always nice to see new reviewers, after all! I have a 45-50 hero arc starring Malta called Blitzkrieg and a 30-35 villain arc starring the Sky Raiders and a custom group I created called Soldiers of Fortune. Their arc IDs are listed in my sig. Pick whichever one you like (Or both!) but if I had to have you choose one, Soldiers of Fortune is slightly less popular than Blitzkrieg and so it could use some help.

I may play one of your arcs later when I get time.

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It is a known fact that the Rikti apparently have lost the ability (or choose not) to sexually reproduce and as such reproduce in an entirely artificial fashion.

Bwha? Where does that come from? What I get from B'Nadek and Dark Watcher's material is that the mutation process begins in utero and is continued after birth. I don't see anything that conclusively states Rikit use artificial reproduction....

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I think that the places where people get this idea would be the Timothy Raymond arc, where you steal (And later destroy) a number of Rikti embryos that were fertilized by Timothy's DNA, and the point where B'Nadek mentions an "exo-womb" when you talk to him.

I guess it's a little unclear, though, since the previously mentioned embryos may not be the regular way the Rikti reproduce (Since they may have only been made in that way to better utilize Timothy's DNA) and the "exo-womb" may refer to something only the adult converts go through. It seems like a weird question to ask but it might be good if Manti confirmed which of those ideas is correct.

Also, yay, another of my questions was answered!

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Even the patch notes don't seem to have a lot of the nice little features of this issue.

Like I just did a kidnap mission, and the hostage shows up on the map as a small green arrow. Very handy.

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Something that I haven't seen any comments on is the visual effect applied to characters at the end of a cutscene during the Anniversary TF. It's a screen-space effect, something that doesn't exist anywhere else in the game, which required whole new tech to make happen (and which we're already trying to figure out ways to utilize elsewhere).

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Hm, I'm pretty sure there's no cutscene during the TF, but the SF has one. I think I know what thing you're referring to here, though...

SPOILERS

Are you referring to the fade to black and the little narration dialog boxes that occur during the cutscene where Reichsman is freed that tell you that you wake up inside of a 5th Column base? I thought that was a really neat effect that looked quite comic book-like. I definitely would like to see that in more locations in the game!

Of course, I could be completely mistaken since there aren't any characters actually shown during that time but that's my best guess.

I guess I missed the boat in the first thread but I'd definitely like to try this thread. I have two arcs that I'd definitely like reviews of. Blitzkrieg is a 45-50 hero arc starring Malta while Soldiers of Fortune is a 30-35 villain arc (I have not adjusted every mission to conform to this but I will soon) that stars the Sky Raiders and a custom group I created. They're both listed in my sig but if you must do one, Soldiers of Fortune needs help a little bit more. You could always do a detailed review of Soldiers and a quickie of Blitzkrieg if you like.

I have not run any of your arcs yet but since you have a queue for critical arcs, it looks like I have some time. I will run one of your arcs and give feedback when I can.

EDIT: Oops.... Forgot to actually post it in the format you wanted...

Arc ID: 4431
Arc Title: Soldiers of Fortune
Author: Mekkanos
Morality: Villainous
Number of Missions: 5
Description: Fight two ruthless mercenary groups for an ancient item of power with the help of some unusual allies!

Arc ID: 3416
Arc Title: Blitzkrieg
Author: Mekkanos
Morality: Heroic
Number of Missions: 5
Description: A simple investigation into Malta Group activity turns into a fight for the freedom of heroes everywhere as you uncover the sinister Operation: Blitzkrieg.

I'd definitely like feedback on both but Soldiers could use more detailed feedback while I'll accept a quickie for Blitzkrieg. I'm about to run one of your arcs and will post feedback in the proper thread.

EDIT2: I've given you some feedback in-game and you said that would suffice. In that case, I'm definitely waiting for your review!

Well, I appreciate the fact that you were able to stick through with the arc to the end but I feel like I really should have known better than to subject you to it when you disliked my last arc. I think that Malta has one of the better stories of any of the villain groups in the game but I was worried that the fact that the Malta enemies were annoying would override any feelings regarding the story when I made this arc. It looks like that's exactly what happened in this case. Anyway, going on to some individual points...

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The bosses dialogue in the fight was good, but his dialogue when he notices me says “take ‘em down!” and there’s only one of me. The ambush dialogue talks about “a confirmed MHI” being on the base. I assume that’s me, but the acronym is unknown to me. I googled it, but I don’t think that the Malta think I’m a Manufactured Housing Institute, a Master of Healthcare Innovation or an employee of the Mitsubishi Heavy Industry Corporation. I’m guessing its [something, Mobile, maybe?] Hostile Intruder, or similar?

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Regarding the first point, "Take 'em down" can be viewed as singular or plural depending on how you use it. I believe canon arcs use it the same way, although I can't remember where. Also, MHI is a term Malta uses quite often but you only learn what it stands for in one mission where the boss actually says "So, you're our Meta-Human Intrusion." Generally, it just refers to a super-powered intruder. Your interpretations of it are amusing, though.

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I’ll say here that I’m not a huge fan of the speech marks you use in this mission. I paragonwiki’d Crimson to check his dialogue for uses of “friends”, and all I found were multiple places where Indigo uses ‘friends’. The one in the Nav Bar looks the worst IMO, but it’s a really minor quibble.

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Hmm, I thought I recalled Crimson using "friends" quite often along with Indigo. Maybe I misremembered. Regardless, I AM considering removing the quotes from "supplier" except the initial time Crimson brings it up, so I appreciate you bringing that up.

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I wonder why Crimson can’t just phone them up? He’s a government agent, isn’t he?

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Well, technically, he's a Longbow agent. He probably does have the pull to do it himself but I imagine he would want you present in case something went wrong anyway. As luck would have it, something went wrong.

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The atmosphere outside here doesn’t seem as dynamic as in Celebrity Kidnapping. The two villains feel a bit tacked on. I’m not sure right now whether or not they are anything to do with the Evil Plot or just random Zig villains who’ve taken the opportunity to escape.

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Strange that you didn't think it wasn't very dynamic, considering how the Longbow and PPD in the map are having an all-out brawl with the Rogue Arachnos and Knives. Anyway, regarding the mission, they're just random Zig villains. I would have used the generic Rogue Isles Villains from Safeguards if I could but since they weren't available when I made it, I made my own. They're little more than small amusing fights.

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This mission was a bit weak IMO. All three objectives spawned outside, so there wasn’t any point to me going inside at all. The entry popup warning leads me to believe that the objectives placement may be set to ‘any’ for this mission.

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It's not necessarily that the objective placement is set to any. Instead, it's more like the bosses refuse to be placed where I want them to be. I wanted the Knife boss to be indoors but she keeps spawning outdoors even when I set her to spawn in the back. It seems like only Rescues spawn in the correct place (Battles spawn in the jail cells, hence why I didn't have any and opted for patrols instead). This, sadly, is an Architect problem...

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It’s Malta, I conclude. I just can’t find any enthusiasm for the group or for plots dealing with them. I lean towards the hammy ‘MWAHAHAHA!’ type of villain group I’m afraid, Malta’s ‘dark n gritty’ conspiracy plots just make me /shrug.

You’re a good writer and you’re mechanically adept. If this were an arc featuring a different mob group, and a slightly more campy plot, I’d be 4-starring it I think. But I’m going to give it 3 because I didn’t have as much Fun as I like to, purely because of the faction.

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I'm more than somewhat saddened that my choice of villain group is what ultimately made you grade it one star lower than you initially considered, but I guess that's what I should have expected when I chose a group like Malta. It was made pretty clear in the previous arc that we have different tastes and it's made even more clear here. I personally don't like writing camp because I want to be able to take my villains seriously but it looks like you're the opposite in that regard. For people who like camp, I imagine Malta just isn't appealing as a villain group because they're generally a very serious group (With a few exceptions, such as the loonies who were trying to clone Roger Vrabel, but even that involved traumatizing an innocent family). I guess I just like fighting enemies that actually make you want to stop them rather than simply being amused by them. Not that I mind people like Aeon, though.

I guess, in the end, I should have remembered that we have different tastes and not subjected you to the arc. That said, I do appreciate how you caught a number of errors that have somehow lasted through about a dozen revisions of the arc.

Thanks for your time!

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Also, Thunderkiss totally pwnd the arcs suggested for her, so if anybody has any more Malta, Knives or Rularuu arcs, bring 'em on!

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How about the hero arc in my sig, Blitzkrieg? It stars Malta and the Knives make a guest appearance, but people seem to like it anyway. I hope you'll think the same!

EDIT: I'd definitely like to hear your thoughts about it, review or otherwise, by the way.

Well, looks like I'm up next... Let's hope my arc performs all right...

Also, as a side note, I ran Kiss Hello Goodbye a while back and enjoyed it quite a bit. It's always cool to see some arcs that are completely different from the usual CoH/V fare. I managed to keep the "Big Bad" from running, so I feel pretty proud of myself.

Whoa... Not only was my Igneous question addressed but it actually prompted Manti to finally give us a glimpse of the legendary story bible! I'm quite honored! Shame the Devouring Earth thing wasn't directly addressed but it sounds like they don't have anything to do with the Igneous despite what the Recon Officer for the Hollows says.

Fun fact: The minion and lieutenant versions of the Magmites ARE actually in-game, although you never fight them. You can put them in a custom group if you want to see them, though. You'll find out pretty fast why they removed those ones and made the minions and lieutenants exclusively Pumicites.

Also, as entertaining as the Blue Steel "facts" were, I would have preferred some actual information on him. He's done several notable things but we pretty much don't know anything about him except his powersets and that he works directly for the police.

Hm, the story is much improved over its initial form when beta first started. This version seems to give players a lot more credit than the initial story, where we seemed to be fighting the 5th because we didn't want Recluse to get mad. Now we have two more satisfying motivations: revenge and desire for a reward.

I suppose I'll have to run it again to get an idea of how the gameplay changed but from a storyline perspective, it looks like it's almost ready for prime-time. The only MAJOR storyline problems would be a few issues with Mueller (The 5th seem to act like he's one of them like before even though it sounds like the Reichsman flattens him in the cutscene this time) and Reichsman himself (He wasn't the leader of the 5th before, although I can understand why they'd rush to his banner). I suppose the Arbiter thing is somewhat of an issue too, since it really doesn't make sense to make people who have fought Recluse into Arbiters. Personally, I think that the concept is cool enough to overlook that for now but I know some people won't let it slide.

Well, I know you ran my villain arc and didn't like it particularly much back in the Mission Critique thread (I've changed it a bit since then but I don't think that would change your opinion of it). However, if you would like to run my hero arc (Blitzkrieg), I think you'd probably like it. Its arc ID is in my sig.

I will warn you that it features Malta and there are two AVs and an EB, but one is optional and you'll have help with the other two (Of course, if you stealth, you probably won't be able to bring that help along). The last boss has Grav attacks, so keep that in mind if you don't want to be held to death. If you can stomach that, though, I think you'll find that it has a stronger story than my previous one.

It's always nice to have another reviewer around these parts and after looking at your first review, I think I'll give this a shot. My two arcs are in my sig. Blitzkrieg is a 45-50 hero arc starring Malta while Soldiers of Fortune is a 30-35 villain arc starring the Sky Raiders and a custom group I created. If you must review one, Soldiers needs a bit more help than Blitzkrieg, so I would review that one. However, I would certainly appreciate it if you could run both if you have the time.

It's been a while since I've heard anything from this thread, so I'm just checking to make sure nothing has happened (And to make sure the forum monster doesn't eat it). I'm really looking forward to your review of my arc (Or arcs, depending on whether you run one or both), so I hope to see it fairly soon!

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Probably not true, of course, since it points out that Nemesis is really a bumbling fossil and not the master criminal he's supposed to be, but it is completely consistent with all known facts on the table about the start of the Rikti War.

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Actually, you could figure that Nemesis would count on Hro'Dtohz taking such an opportunity to seize power for himself and his Lineage of War. It would make sense that he would have studied the Rikti extensively before making his first move, and would have identified Hro'Dtohz as the means to his end.

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Of course, if he had studied the Rikti THAT extensively, he probably wouldn't have risked starting the War because he would have known that he would be outmatched by Hro'Dtohz. His plan was to swoop in and save everyone from the Rikti menace (Never mind that he probably wouldn't be hailed as a savior for long, since people were still around that could remember his coup in Washington D.C. and how many lives that nearly cost) but he counted on the fact that they were mostly a peaceful culture that wouldn't have much in the way of weaponry. If he had closely looked at the Lineage of War, he might have noted that Hro'Dtohz was different from the other Rikti and might pose an appropriately greater threat.

I give a little more credit to Nemesis than Venture does but I really do think that the whole Rikti War business was a failed plan because he didn't fully study the Rikti Lineage of War and thus underestimated them. He tried to salvage his reputation by acting like it was all part of the plan but honestly, Nemesis is not infallible like some people think. If he was, the world would have been in his hands long ago. Of course, I don't think he's a bumbling moron either, but that's just my opinion.

Sorry to hear that your thread was wiped... Welcome back, regardless! Anyway, I have two arcs that are listed in my sig but I believe the one I submitted to you was Soldiers of Fortune, a 30-35 villain arc. If you have time, though, I'd definitely appreciate it if you also ran my other one: Blitzkrieg, a level 45-50 hero arc. If you must review one, though, Soldiers is less popular.

I look forward to hearing what you think about them!

Happy birthday, Karo! Hope you have a great one!

Well, my arc, Soldiers of Fortune, (Listed in my signature) is intended to be played in the 30-35 range. It does have an AV/EB and moderately challenging foes but it should be manageable for most people. It's also a villainous arc, so if you don't mind your scrapper acting out of character, I'd definitely like for you to try it out.

Hm, neither of my arcs are particularly suited for the silent movie style but it still might be interesting to see what your take on them is. They're both in my signature. Blitzkrieg is a 45-50 hero arc starring Malta while Soldiers of Fortune is a 30-35 villain arc starring the Sky Raiders and a custom group I created.

It should be interesting to see the silent movie version of these arcs, heh.

EDIT: I will say that Blitzkrieg has the superior story, though, if that means anything.

EDIT2: However, Soldiers of Fortune is probably more interesting to play, so take that how you will.

Thank you for taking the time to make this thread, Manticore. I hope you won't get TOO swamped by questions. Anyway, I have a few different lore type questions. If I had to get any answered, though, I'm curious about this one...

1) Was the Shadow Shard dimension fairly similar to our Earth before Rularuu was imprisoned there and began to bring it to the state it's in now? For instance, was there a Mu-Oranbegan war?

Here's some others if you have the time... The stuff in the parenthesis are just my notes on the question for clarification purposes. They don't have to be included should you actually choose to answer these.

2) What exactly are the Igneous and what is their connection to the Devouring Earth? (I figured it would be good to ask this since it doesn't look like the Igneous will ever be revisited)

3) Do Rikti have "families" in the same sense that humans do? (One soldier mentions that he will miss his wife and children before he self-terminates and Bu'dekka mentions dating Hro'Dtohz, so it sounds like they get together in the same way humans do. I just want to see if I'm correct.)

If you can stomach Malta, I'd definitely recommend Indigo and Crimson's two arcs: "Melvin and the Mysterious Malta Group" and "Project: World Wide Red." Malta has one of the more fascinating stories of the different villain groups and, as Xalaqia said, they do absolutely monstrous things in the name of "freedom" and "democracy." That's why my story, Blitzkrieg, centers on them despite the fact that they are annoying to fight.

Other good stories on the hero side that have been around for quite a while would include...
<ul type="square">[*] The two Sky Raider arcs "The Sky Raider Secret" and "The Mysterious General Z" [*] The (currently) Council arc "Ubelmann the Unknown" [*] The Devouring Earth arc "The Terra Conspiracy" [*] The Crey arcs "Corporate Culture," "Revenant Hero Project" and "The Evil Countess Crey" (Or "On the Run" as the Ouro crystal puts it.[*] The Circle of Thorns arc "Library of Souls"[*] The Clockwork arc "The Mind of a King"[/list]
The villain side has quite a few good ones as well, but the arcs Seer Marino ("Oh, Wretched Man!") and Marshal Brass ("The Aeon Conspiracy" and "Echo Down the Aeons") give definitely stick out. Slot Machine's second arc "High Roller's Last Gamble" is also worth a mention, along with all the patron arcs.

EDIT: Agh! How could I forget Vernon von Grun? I am shamed! All four (Yes, four) of his arcs are absolutely awesome.

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I'm not certain about redside, but on blueside at least, the RWZ isn't the first arc in the game to explicitly spell things out like that - there's older high-level blueside storyarcs that reveal this too. Indeed the old blueside Rikti arcs is where the 'Omega Clearance' tag comes from.

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Yup! The blueside arc in question is "The Organ Grinders," which is a 35-40 arc. Basically, you find out the same exact thing that is mentioned in the OP but it is still pretty easy to miss so it's good that they put the reveal in the RWZ as well.

The redside "reveal" is in two arcs: Timothy Raymond's "Strange Memories" arc in the 30-35 range (Although it's handled slightly awkwardly) and Ambassador Kuhr'Rekt's arc "Kuhr'Rekt Revenge" in the 40-45 range. The latter one not only reveals the Rikti's true nature but also confirms which one of the theories regarding how they got to their current state (As listed in the RWZ clue) is true. I'd definitely recommend checking it out. Just keep in mind that the contact gives you this information in clue form after you accept his missions.