MrCaptainMan

So here's my queue:

Every Rose 17702
Hillbilly Cannibal Mayhem 21207 (didn't have banjo in the title, but it did have it in the description!)
ZAGMUK Act One: The Herald 266123 (replacing Power Play at request of Sumerian)
Ctrl + Alt + Reset! 137561
In Pursuit Of Liberty 221702
BE Prologue: Gangs United 250480
The Horsemen Chronicles (Part 1) 195149
The Wolfpack Chronicles (Part 1) 242869
Tailor Made 258291
Poi, Demonology, and Everything I Learned From Hellions 164235

I'm going to instigate a new rule after the Galactic Protectorate, I'm afraid.

NO MASTERMIND MOBS, NO WEBNADES. The odd one is ok, but if you've got armies of MMs, please don't ask me to play.

This of course adds to the 'no malta, no KoA' rule I've already got in place lol.

I''ve also decided to not strictly stick to the actual queue order, if I've only got an hour, rather than waiyt, i'll play a shorter one from further down, maybe.

Eco.

The Galactic Protectorate Trilogy by @Unknown Hero, Arc Ids 47143, 117281, 174352

It’s been a while since I played through GalProt 1, so I figured I’d quickly do it again to refresh what the arc was about.

MrCaptainMan, my lvl 50 En/En Blaster, my main, and my first ever toon, will be doing this, as he did the first one and it’s a 40-54 level arc anyway.

MCM looks like this and here’s his bio:

“Orbiting Saturn in the year 9365AD, mild-mannered astronaut Hank Wanger was sleeping soundly when his space stations gyroscope failed without warning and the space stations rotation slowed to a stop over the course of the night. The very slow shift to zero gravity catapulted Hank back thousands of years into the past, and granted him the incredible powers he soon found himself manifesting. Dedicating his life to crimefighting was a no-brainer, really. Realizing that such an explanation of his origin and powers was tending on the ridiculous side, Hank wondered if he would ever find out the truth...”

So, here we go again!

The Galactic Protectorate - 01 by @Unknown Hero, Arc ID 47143

“Memory’s a funny thing, isn’t it? I remember my last night on the station, clear as day. I remember watching the game before doing my final check on the droids and turning in. I remember waking up reeaaal slow, not really sure what was wrong. I remember my nose lightly touching the bulkhead above my bunk. I remember thinking ‘hm…gravity’s failed’. And then I remember waking up naked in Atlas Park. Why can’t I remember what happened between the nose-touching and the naked waking?

And also, why can’t I remember what the Galactic Protectorate is all about? Like I said, memory’s a funny thing. Luckily, my power suit’s got a load of recording devices. Let’s just rewind the thing…there we go….right, let’s see what happened…”

I’m going to stealth through this as much as possible, to get an idea of the plot again. I’ve read my earlier review, but maybe there’s been changes, and I think it’s only fair to play it again so as to give the second and third parts a better shot at immersing me]

“OK, so I was contacted whilst using the AE facilities for some…er…training purposes…yeah…what catgirls? I was contacted by a Synapse from an alternate dimension. He was a leader in the Human Resistance fighting against the forces of The Galactic Protectorate. He wanted me to rescue some important people for him, and used the AE array to zap me across the whatsits to his Atlas Park, which was in pretty poor shape. I quickly found the civilians I had to rescue, and made short whatsit of the guards holding them. I found a newspaper depicting a demolished Grandville, with the FP looking sad in front of it…

[The rescues were clearly marked by the Captured – Energy Field animation, and the various dialogues were either flavor text or hints at plot to come. There are quite a few names already, and I must admit I’m not a giant fan of military-style stories, so I wasn’t immediately ‘yay!’ about this mission.]

“So one of the hostages I rescued knew where a GalProt Comms Hub was, said Synapse, and I was off to sort its whatsit out and grab some info. Once inside the base, I attempted to stealth through and just extract the minimum info

[Nine objectives to do here, 3 computers to access, 3 more that are optional but identical so I have no way of knowing I can avoid them, basically making them non-optional until I’ve done the three required ones, and 3 mainframes. I just encountered the first mainframes ambush, and I hated it. I like ambushes, but MMs and slows and the mix of your mobs powersets left me cold, I’m afraid. That /storm is horrible]

“I soldiered on, up a floor, and up another floor…

[the second floor is completely pointless, unless you trigger a spawn here later]

“I found a massive room with another computer…

[I think this map is too big and your glowie times are too long]

“And then, on the last room, I found another mainframe. Kaboom – good. Ambush – bad. Wow, those babes were tough in a gang.

[horrible experience. I’m sorry, but when a gang of them arrive, it just seems like a mess. Not enjoying that at all. I don’t mind my health bar and end bar going down, hell, I don’t even mind dying, but being KBed and Slowed when there’s no way to get away from it is just not fun at all.

“And then I had to go back to find the mainframe I’d missed…

[gah.]

“I found it a few floors down, and went Nova on its bottom. Before the ambush could arrive, I activated Synapse’s whatchamacallit and returned to be debriefed.

[That mission is far too big IMO. I came away with the location of another base, the access codes for it, and some sealed orders. The optional progress reports (progress reports on what, btw?) are a bit dry and, well, padded, it seems.]

“Synapse took the info I’d given him, but before we could act on it he told me I had to go rescue Manticore, who’d been kidnapped by the GalProt and needed…rescuing…

[Two objectives here, rescue Manti and create a false report of his execution. I’d think that maybe someone in the base would notice that he hadn’t been executed, but I’m just thankful its not a Defeat All ]

“I explored…

[and find an apparent dead-end with no point to it even though it’s got a number of spawns en route.]

“Up a floor I found a computer, and quickly typed up the false report…

[this still seems a little silly to me. The system message says ‘You've sent a false report to the other Galactic Protectorate bases!’, but MCM hasn’t got any knowledge of alternate dimension Galactic Protectorate email protocols when they’re applied to defunct alternate earth Arachnos computers. However, canon’s full of ‘you hack the computer’, and even my arc The Echo has a couple, I think, so…]

“Up another floor…

[you do know there are small maps available in the MA, right? ]

“and round a few corners, and I found Statesman in the last room. After a brief but vicious fight, I freed him. Huzzah!”

[I ate my entire tray of inspires and dropped every buff before going into that room, and I’m afraid I did that mainly so I could get it over with as soon as possible. Anticipating those storms and the bubblers and whatnot just depressed me.

“Back at the ranch, Synapse thanked me and bade me adieu, but warned me that the fight was not over, and that more was to come!”

[Your customs look great, but I absolutely hate the way they fight. Have you altered their powersets since the first time I played it? I’m going to implement a new rule to my thread, in fact, which is no storm, no MMs from now on. Sorry dude, but I can only say how I feel. I still think that the maps you use were too large, too. I’ll play the other two arcs as quickly as I can, as I promised you I would, and who knows, they may be awesome, but probably if I was doing this incognito, I’d not bother doing the other two based on this one.]

The Galactic Protectorate - 02 by @Unknown Hero, Arc ID117281

[Manticore’s the contact, and the first thing I notice is that he says ‘Darn it’, just like Synapse did in Part 1. Either he’s a robot and so is Synapse, or you’re using the same Voice for them.]

“This time, it’s Manticore who needs my help. We have to locate the whereabouts of a GalProt general, and he’s in one of three bases. Synapse and Manti are taking care of two, so its up to me to investigate the other one.

[Inside the lab, my objectives are to…find some info, destroy a mainframe and defeat a general. Haven’t I already found out like loads of info in the first part? I’m sure I found out something about a base, with access codes, and one of the civilians also told me something?]

“The bad guys are different this time…

[I’m now feeling snowed under the weight of bios, backstory, optional computer reports etc. It’s sapping my ability to be immersed. I’ve lost count of the number of different mobs in the Galactic Protectorate.]

“I access some computers. The whatsits swim before my eyes. Too much information shorts out my suits circuitry…

[this map has THREE elevators on the first floor. I’d be ragequitting by now]

“The first floor I try is empty apart from a load of GalProts in different costumes…ahh, my visor’s glazing over!

[totally pointless, that first elevator.]

“I fly around for a bit with my visor open to clear the condensation that’s built up from my labored breathing…

[dude, what the hell possessed you to choose this map? Its AWFUL.]

“Ah, there’s a mainframe. KaBoom – Good – wait for it….aha! No ambush! – GREAT!

“And then, eventually, I find the base commander, and kick him into next week. He isn’t the general, unfortunately. She is in another castle. Sorry, base.”

[Far too much ‘stuff’, not enough ‘cool stuff’, sums up that mission for me. The General’s not there. I wonder if the next mission will be ‘go to Place X and find out some info']

“Manti’s next job for me was to go to a warehouse to rescue Synapse, who had gone on ahead to scout the situation out. Oh, and find some info if possible. I headed in, and soon-

[well, ‘soon’ is relative. This is a giant warehouse map]

“ –soon find the computer. It has details of a transfer of a prisoner to somewhere. The prisoner is Sister Psyche…

[I just found a massive ‘end’ room, the standard ones with the L-shaped raised walkway round the far corner. Nothing in it apart from groups of GalProt. Why? What’s the point?]

“After another trawl around, I find the general. He rants a lot but I see to him. Then I have to find and defeat another General!

“I turn to leave, and spot the general in the corner

[phew, I’m glad he was spawned in the same room.]

“He kills me with his arrows but I Rise from the Fiery Ashes of my conflagration and smack him in the chops. Now to find Synapse…

[Your map makes me cry. I find Synapse right at the start. Lol I must have just run past him without seeing him. My bad, maybe? In any case, having him say ‘Now let’s see what they’re hiding in this base!’ makes me laugh like a drain. I’m actually glad I didn’t find him till the end/. Having to take him with me would have made me want to sit on a poker.]

“Back on the porch, Manti’s overjoyed to hear that we’ve found Sister Psyche, and he organizes a giant shindig in my honor. The entire Human Resistance is going on the attack for this one, in the form of , er, waiting on standby while I go in and rescue her myself. Manti’s coming with me. Also, I have to defeat the general and ‘ every Galactic Protectorate officer in that area.’…

[what? I hope that’s not….]

“Sister Psyche is easy to find. She seems to have gone to the synapse-Manticore School of Swearing too..

[“Darn it!’, says Sister Psyche lol]

“Then, a little way away over the hill, I find General Guinevere. Me and Sister start our engines…

[General Guinivere’s dialogue is choking me I’m sorry. “Let the enemies of the Galactic Protectorate be vanquished this day!” etc seems too much. I like a bit of overblown ‘Gadzooks,By the bearded whores of Zeus, never before hath I been bested by mortal ken!’ stuff, but this stuff’s too serious for me. The fight is moderately hard, G’s an EB. She kills me once, stays on a sliver of health for far too long, but we overcome. I don’t need to go get Manti]

“After the victory, its bunting and huzzahs all round, back at the gazebo, and the Human Resistance change their name to the MrCaptainMan Freedom Fighters!”

[That middle mission did my head in. I feel quite bad for feeling like this, but for example with your mobs bios, it feels like there’s no point reading them because next mission I’m going to be meeting a whole new set of mobs from the same group. All the bios seem to be very long-winded too. How many different mobs are in the group in total? Seeing loads of different types makes the GalProt seem more like a crowd of people than a military organization.

This was more ‘meh’, I’m afraid. Sorry.

The Galactic Protectorate – 03 by @Unknown Hero, Arc ID 174352

“OK, this time it’s Sister Psyche who’s on the other end of the dimensional doodad. She can have some. She needs me to go rescue some doctors. Pff, ‘darn it’, why can’t I go rescue some nurses instead? Preferably British nurses from the seventies that used to wear those sexy uniforms with the crossed over aprons sort of thing…where was I? Oh yea, doctors.

[Another map, more mobs. 3 doctors and a nurse (yay!) to rescue, base commander to defeat]

“Inside, I feel myself starting to hallucinate…

[Devices. Webnades. Marvelous]

“I rescue a doctor, but the stupid woman doesn’t know where the exit is…

[Escort to door, PLUS ambush. Lovely. Are we going to get my first 2-star review here?]

“I turn my suit autopilot on and go to sleep”

[This is horrible. I hate my life. I just rescued a nurse by Novaing, and the ambush that arrived webnaded me into oblivion. There isn’t a font large enough to describe how HORRIBLE it was. The GalProt part 3 has 1 play as I write, and I can quite imagine that’s because of people getting to this hideous part and simply abandoning it. What fiendish mezz-proof toon have you tested it on? And what’s with all the damn Masterminds?

I keep going, spotted by **&^%&ing devices masterminds and chased as I run through ^^%%$ing molasses. If I could by some esoteric means transform your arc into a flesh and blood creature, maybe by purchasing some kind of Arc-monculous from the NCSoft store and growing it in a vat for a few weeks, I would torture the little [censored] till it died.

Oh, it’s a huge map too.

Another 5 minutes goes past, and I’m actually shrieking at the screen “What the **&^((ing hell made him choose this [censored] map? Its GIGANTIC!@!!”

And all the while, I’ve got the ‘escort Nurse Rosenmiden (even the bloody names are long-winded!), escort Doctor Regios’, etc, to remind me I’ve got to go all the way back through this awful gauntlet of misery.

I find the Base Commander, and he’s an easy lieut, thank god, and then plod back through the map with my escorts, eating break frees like they’re crack-glazed M&Ms until we reach the entrance. The narrative of this mission reveals that maybe the MrCaptainMan Freedom Fighters aren’t completely the good guys…maybe? I’m not sure, to be honest.]

“Wassat? Hm? Not the humus? Mmbllmbll…snrrrkk…

[Sister Synapse calls the rescued Doctors traitors for wanting to work with the GalProt, and then asks me to go and defeat another general. They started with 12, I think., so there’s plenty left for the rest of this story, no doubt.

Oh, if the general isn’t in the base, I have to…look for information…

Typos in the entry popup I think – Psyche’s spelled wrong.

Another large map, Fifth Column this time. I find Manitcore and free him without too much trouble. I’ve sussed the GalProt Success Method by now. Juts eat loads of break frees, kill the MMs as quickly as possible, and desperately try to ignore any mobs you don’t absolutely have to deal with. Each spawn seems to be a robotics mastermind with webnades, a soldiers MM with AR, and an emp to generally piss me off by healing them.

After some more caverns, I meet Col Gobi, and my rage escalates to unbelievable levels. I’m mightily glad there aren’t random pockets of gamma radiation floating around in my flat, or I’d literally have turned into the Hulk, I’m sure. Force Field/Robotics mastermind, on either hard or extreme. With an emp to heal him too.

When I finally defeat him, I remember that I’ve got another boss to defeat. This blows.
…

And then I Mapserver DC.

Are we all having fun, reading this? lol I’m laughing right now in the manner of one who laughs up at the bright silvery round circle in the sky at night through the bars in the window at Belle Vue.


I take a few long deep breaths.

That’s not enough, so I stand up and do some stretching exercise.

Then I pour myself a glass of wine and log back in.

Here we go again.

Here’s my plan. I
‘m going to eat a buttload of lucks, hope nothing hits me as IO attempt to zoom to the Bosses, and …that’s it, really.

…

Good heavens, it worked. I rushed through, only suffering two or three angina attacks en route, and rescued Manticore. I took him with me to the bosses, and we did them.

The computer file mentions another gemneral and something about a counter-attack.

I’m sorry that I’m now quite vitriolic, but this is a case of the maps, mechanics and mobs being so hideous that it’s made me not give a monkey’s about the story.

So the next mission is to defeat another general before she can attack the MrCaptianMan Freedom Fighters when they’re at home.

Righto. I’m not looking forward to it, frankly. It’s going to probably have Ninjitsu bloody MMs this time, and be on a giant fiddly map. Sister Psyche says she’s coming with me…

…so I’m a little confused as to why she’s already captured when I arrive. At least the maps not a big cave or labyrinthine office complex. Its an outdoor, Boomtown I think. Thank heavens, I can fly and avoid the mobs.

I locate Sister Psyche easily. She’s quite close to the start and clearly marked by the Captured - Energy field animation.

Then, I find Ms Liberty too, and free her, again easilky.

And luckily, General Sahara is then within sight! Wow, hoefully Ill be over with this real soon!

There’s a slight hiccup with general Sahara’s Unaware dialogue. In the chat window, his last line is ‘Troops, prepare to break through their perimeter!’, but in his speech bubble, it’s ‘Troops, prepare to break through their p ' – this is presumably because the chat bubble isn’t big enough for the full 300 characters. It does illustrate however that your dialogue needs trimming.

The General doesn’t prove too much of a threat, but she sumnmons lots of ambushes.

Now all that other stuff, all the rest of my bi***ing and whining about your arc, that’s just me being a dick, maybe. I’m sure there’s other players who’d love everything that I hated. But this bit, this end fight and the ambushes, I really want to wag my finger at you. I love endboss ambushes. I think they add a load of exciting tension to an end boss fight. So the thought of an outdoor battle with Sister Psyche and Ms Liberty helping is great. But as I landed the killling blow to Gen Sahara and turned to see the hordes of Masterminds running towards me, ready to web and slow and probably bubble and bloody shotgun KB repeatedly too, I just went ‘gah’ and exited. And that makes me sad.

Sister Psyche gives me another ‘congratulations and thanks, the war isn’t over, etc’ debriefing, and that’s the GalProt part 3 done.

Forgive me, but I probably won’t be playing part 4 or beyond. The customs look very nice, but your maps are too big, the missions are repetitive, seemingly reiterations of ‘go find someone, discover a location, defeat a general’ and the mobs are teeth-grindingly unpleasant to fight.

Here's some hopefully positive suggestions. I think that you should avoid trying to make each part of the trilogy as long and ‘standalone’ as it is, if that’s what you’re doing. Without the limitations of having to stay within 5 missions, you could experiment with all sorts. Mix it up a little. Try this, maybe: replace that Fifth Column map with one of the small Council Radio station maps from the Striga TF and see how much story you can fit into that. Having a short mission every now and again would give much more variety to the missions in your arc and stop players like me from entering yet another mission to see a tiny little section of map and /facepalming, then switching off while we rush to the end. If I know I’ve only got a small amount of space to work in, as a Player I’m more likely to appreciate what’s been done in it, and as a writer its quite interesting to see what I can do with it. Policewoman’s arc Celebrity Kidnapping’s got one mission that’s in the office map from the Blueside tutorial. It’s minute. It’s almost not necessary, that mission, but it’s just perfect that it’s in there. Check it out if you haven’t already for a really good example of ‘less is more’

Your arc has potential, certainly, but it currently makes me think of Henry David Thoreau’s quote ‘Simplify, Simplify’.

3-stars for all 3 parts.]

“Hey! What’s going on? Where am I? In the AE building? What happened to the Galactic Protectorate? I…hm…memory’s a funny thing…”

Eco.

Turg Fiction:Ghost in the machine part one.

Reason: brilliant writing that effortlessly sucks you in. Teally stand-out storytelling.

Celebrity Kidnapping, as above

Reason: textbook perfect 'zig breakout' mission. Every MAuthor should use this as a 'learn how'.

@tubbius 'Tubbius Trilogy'

Reason: totally lovable custom characters that just generate a big lazy cheesy grin.

Theres lots more, ill add when i remember.

Eco

[ QUOTE ]
You don't know what a "Mu" is?

[/ QUOTE ]

thats some really bad lag youve got there

eco

Besides, the new 5-minute timer diesnt actually nake it faster, does it? Doesnt it just reduce the number of toons needed for one cycle of kills?

Eco

Qr - i farmed the rep badges for a while as the 'victim' to help my sg mate get the pvp badges, butim nit going to do it for my badge toon. Its deadly boring. Almost as boring as real pvp in fact.

Eco

Dechs - I was a bit disappointed, yes. I tend to form preconceptions based on the titles and descriptions, and i thought i would be enjoying it. Egyptian-themed magic guy vs robot mastermind sounds ripe for a cool arc. If you put Tut and Dechs in another arc, ill be sure to check it out.

Eco

I'll have a few arcs in my queue up and posted soon, but in the meantime I'd like some more to review. I seem to be having the most fun with low-to-middle level arcs, so if anyone has any they'd like me to run through and comment on, red or blue side, please feel free to suggest away. Another 5 arcs should be sufficient.

Eco.

A classic 'alarm goes off - cops arrive' setup is to fill the map with maximum patrols all trigerred off that rescue objexyive on the last room.

Eco

Qr - if this isnt a farm, and its for 'training noobs' then youll be running it wirh lvl 1-5s, maybe 1-10s, right? How is this supposed to train noobs to use their post-lvl 10 powers? By watching your lvl 50 fight, maybe?

At best, this spunds more like a way for noobs to quixkly see what high level mobs look like rathet than a trainer.

Or you xould just call it a farm.

Thetes another way for noobs to learn how to play. Its called playing tge game normally.


Eco

Qr - the defenders of Clear Alls arent defending ALL Clear Alls, just ones that arent tedious.

Someone who would find a Clear All on Blacbeard's casino map too much to bother with has such a short attention span I'm surprised they even manage to get to 'accept' without ragequitting.

Eco

So here's my queue:

The Galactic Protectorate Parts 2 and 3
Every Rose 17702
Hillbilly Cannibal Mayhem 21207 (didn't have banjo in the title, but it did have it in the description!)
Power Play 187269
Ctrl + Alt + Reset! 137561
In Pursuit Of Liberty - ID 221702

I've had a busy weekend, but hopefully i'll be able to get onto these this week.

Eco.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
And another ten minutes later, I’ve cleared the entire map and still – no boss.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's things like these that really make me angry. Whether it's bad mission design, or dishonest mission design (like having the nav bar say "defeat the boss" when it's actually a glowie), or the super-random bug where something random doesn't spawn (and frustratingly often a required objective on the last map of a multi-mission arc, as I'm an uber alt-a-holic, I tend to just logoff and switch to a different character and come back to it).

Whatever the reason, the ire tends to be reflected on the architect themself, whether or not it was through any fault of theirs. Which reminds me, I have a mission I need to re-do that I had to logoff on the other day.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm assuming its a bug of the AE rather than any particular misdesign by the writer. It was a shame after all that, though.

Eco.

A Bad Hand From a Worse Dechs by @Dechs Kaison, Heroic Morality, Long (1 small, 2 medium, 1 unique map). Description tells of a fellow Hero, Kinetic Tut, wanting some help recovering an artifact, and hints at bitter rivalry ensuing. Systemm warns of possible EBs, Extreme EBs, and Extreme Bosses. 10 plays, 4 stars as I started it.

The level range is 30-54, so I’m taking my lvl 37 Emp/Sonic Defender in. His name is Soundman, he looks like this and here is his bio:

“Chip Diggly was the sound technician for a rock band when the lead singer spilled his pint over the frankly gigantic wall of amplifiers onstage. The amps blew up, and if Chip had been watching he would have seen the unfortunate rocker take a whole load of amps (that went up to 11 of course) in his face. Chip wasn't watching, however, because at that time he had his head under the sound desk in a mess of cables and his fingers sadly in contact with bare metal. The amazingly loud guitar lick that was occurring at the time of the explosion, coupled with the singers equally loud and, as it happened, luckily not aptly named death-grunt fed back through the gubbins of the sound desk and into Chips body, followed a second later by bits of the sound desk as it exploded itself. AMAZINGLY, all this gave him incredible powers. Who'd have thought that could happen, eh?”

Soundman has been stuck at lvl 37 for AGES, lol, and I blame my altitis, but he’s ready for another gig. The stage is yours, dude.

“One two…one two one…one two..testing one two……cos I’m a SOOUUNND-MAN, doo-doodoo, doo-doodoo, I’m a SOOOUUNND-MAAAN…yeah yeah, I know, I’m just crew. But since my lead Captain Skipp quit the band, I’ve had to take the mic myself, you know? What’s a sidekick to do when there ain’t no…side…to…kick…? …what does that mean, anyhow? I never thought about it before…are sidekicks called sidekicks because they’re supposed to kick sides, or side with the kicks, or what?

“ I don’t suppose it matters, anyway. This gig, the booking agent was some dude called Kinetic Tut, he’s got this ancient Egyptian look going on, Eye of Horus on his chest, the headdress and king tut beard thing…takes me back to the Maiden tour of ’84 and ‘85, tell the truth. Ah…good times…

“Anyhow, he’s got a gig for me. It’s a basically a reclamation, he wants me to go get a ‘cartouche’ back from some Crey who stole it from him. Crey…they can be a tough crowd, but to be honest, when you’ve had it large with the Pistols in the Nashville, hecklers ain’t much cop.

[One part of the briefing makes me smile; Kinetic Tut says he’d deal with it himself but he’s ‘just a defender’. I’m no rabid ‘Defenders’ can solo stuff too!’ player, but…well, I have soloed a TF (only Sister Psyche, admittedly), and some other defenders might bristle at the thought that they can’t cut it with the Scrappers etc ]

“Right then. Let’s go and find this ‘cartouche’…maybe I should’ve mentioned that I don’t know what the hell a cartouche is…it sounds like some sort of facial hair. Maybe it’s a false beard of some kind…

Mission 1: Find Kinetic Tut’s Cartouche

“The venue for this bash is a little place, standing room only, but that’s cool, I’ve crewed in small clubs before. The crowd’s hostile, but a few Crey ain’t too much to handle. I find a crate after dealing with some crashers in the back room, and just as I’m starting to look at what’s inside, BLAM – it’s a raid! These big crazy robot geezers grab me from behind and proceed to give me a right royal kicking! Ow, tough crowd!”

[Fairly small map, which is good. I dealt with a few Crey no problem, and then found the glowie and everything turned sour. As soon as the crate glowie had finished its progress bar, an ambush of your customs spawned right behind me – the crate was in a crevice behind the stairs, so it was the worst possible place for it and the ambush. I started to read the clue, then noticed I was getting hit HARD, turned, ran for the exit and they killed me. I could have hit ‘exit’ at any time, of course, but if that’s what I’m supposed to do then why bother with the ambush at all. As it stands the first time I meet your custom group, I’m fighting for my life immediately, it’s obvious I’m not going to win, I don’t have time to savor their look or read their descriptions, and then I’m dead. My initial conclusion as I lay there, face down before I exited was ‘I hate them’.

The exit popup then rather rubbed it in by saying ‘luckily you survived the ambush’ – remember, I was faceplanted when I clicked ‘exit’.

“After the gig I checked in with Tut to see what the door had brought. Supporting another gig, apparently. Someone called ‘The Ace’ has put the cartouche in another location, guarded by some kind of plant-robot. Or maybe it’s a robotic plant. Sounds like a crazy combination, but then so did Thrash Shanty music, and look what happened to that!

“So Tut’s got a rival agent, a guy called Dechs Kaison. He’s the guy who stole the cartouche. He’s put it in the keeping of this robot/plant creation of his, and that’s the main act for my next gig.

Mission 2: Defeat the Seed of Kaison

“This spots regulars are the Dev Earth, Tut tells me. They’ll be rock music fans, then…see what I did there?”

[The clue from mission 1 is signed ‘the ace’, then Tut talks about Dechs without there being a clear connection between him and ‘the ace’ – I’m assuming they are the same person, but it could be clearer. I think you should reword Tut’s reference to the ‘planted’ pun too. Tut says that Dechs mentions a ‘plant’, but the note doesn’t, really]

Its an outdoor gig, this. I figure I’d best slip through he crowd incognito; don’t wanna get hassled by groupies this time. I go invisible and make my way across the park to the stage. There’s the lead, ‘Seed of Kaison, a flying green guy with horns and stuff. His band’s made up of robots from the Kaison Corpration…

[I can get a look at the customs now. The robots certainly look robotic, the various types are named after the cards in a deck, Hearts, Spades, Diamonds, etc. The Jack has a diamond on his chest, however, and the Diamonds don’t appear to have anything.]

“I jump in and start a duet with the Seed and his group enthusiastically backing!

…and almost immediately, the bouncers grab me and throw me out! What gives? I didn’t even get a chance to do a stage dive!

[The Seed was an orange boss. He was standing in a group with a Club, an Diamond, a Spade (all white minions) and a yellow Jack. The Jack had the electric end-sucking power. I ate 4 lucks, 4 oranges, 4 reds, I had manoevers, assault and tactics running, and Rec Aura and Reg aura. I died very quickly. That’s my second horrible experience at the hands of your customs. I’m starting to understand why Tut considers this too hard for Defenders, but your mission description doesn’t say ‘DON’T TAKE DEFENDERS IN’]

“I get up from the gutter outside, and sneak in again. I’m gonna get in that spotlight again! I lurk in the wings and try to catch the attention of one of the band…’pssst, over here, free groupies!…

[I’ve got to pull, but it’s not going to be easy. First I’ve got to clear a few spawns of Dev Earth that are near, so that I’ve got somewhere to pull to. Also, there are patrols wandering around, so to avoid ending up with more agro than I can handle, I have to take care of two of those. The amount of Knockdown and Knockback that the Kaison Corp robots have is extremely annoying. I don’t enjoy fighting them at all.]

“gah…

[I pull, they all come for me, I have to Teleport to safety, and to cut a long story short, it’s a disaster. The combination of outdoor map, patrols, Dev Earth holds, the robots KB and KD, and the Fly trap of your boss, its all too much. I resort to Self Destructing in order to kill just one more of the Boss’ guards in the end.

…I’m sorry, but I can’t even stay in character lol.

Here’s what just happened. I filled my tray again, and went back, invised, to the boss spawn. There’s the orange boss Seed of Kaison, with his Fly Trap out, and one white spade minion. I ate everything in my tray, activated all my buffs etc, and attacked the spade, killed him quickly, then turned to the Seed. He brings out the carrion creepers and spams me with holds etc, but I get him down to a tiny bit of health, and then he calls for an ambush of Dev Earth and then flies straight up in the air miles away. I have Teleport as a travel power, but I’ve got some quite good mousePort binds, so I manage to get up to him and blast him. He dies…and the mission doesn’t complete. I’m low on HP myself, so I teleport back to the starting section of the map. While I’m wondering why the damn mission hasn’t completed, that ambush shows up and kills me. So now I’m dead after having apparently accomplished my goal. If I wasn’t playing this as a review, I’d ragequit at this point.

…

I re-enter, and find the problem. The boss spawn had one more minion spade, who was standing a way away from the rest and who ignored the battles that happened earlier, giving the impression that he wasn’t part of the boss spawn. I recommend you change that boss objective to ‘only boss needed to complete’ I hated that mission.

I have the cartouche, anyway. The boss talked about ‘stalling’ for some reason. I’m afraid that’s what this mission looks like it was meant to do, since it largely seems a bit pointless.

OK, the debriefing says that the last mission (and maybe the first too?) were simply diversions so that Dechs could steal Tut’s Magical Artifact collection. I’m really confused now. What has Tut been doing while I was off looking fro his cartouche? Shouldn’t he be in his lair or wherever his collection is? The ‘brute Squad’ (two mentions in the briefing, but only one uses capitals) is stealing the goods, and its them I have to stop.

Mission 3: Stop Kaison Brute Squad.

This is a timed 45 minute mission. Tuts send-off is ‘Whatever you do, don't let the Kaison Brute Squad leave. ‘

I invis again, and enter. It’s a warehouse map, with the Kaison robots dotted around . I see a new one, the Jester – very nice. I find a single mob called ‘Kaison Brute Squad’, which is a bit odd. He’s an MM (sigh) but only yellow, so he goes down to the tactic of ‘eat everything, activate all buffs, attack’. The mission completes with no clue.

On my way through the map, I did see some bookshelves with robots reading books. The Nav instructions didn’t mention them, so I ignored them.

Tut next tells me that now that we’ve stopped Dechs from obtaining the magical artifacts, its time to go destroy his organization (!). He‘s going to accompany me. We have to

Mission 4: Bring down the Kaison Corpration

As I enter, I get a badge! It’s Extractor, telling em I’ve rescued a hostage. Just by entering the mission?

I invis and proceed. A little way in I meet Tut (That must be the hostage auto-complete). We pair up and continue. Thankfully, he seems to ignore mobs for the most part, which is good as I hate allies turning a mission into a clear all. We find a generator and destroy it, and then a little while later a mainframe. We destroy that and the ambush that arrives. Then the Nav shows ‘bring down the mastermind’, so we proceed deeper into the base to find the boss.

…except we reach the last room and he’s not there.

I accidentally leave Tut behind for a bit, and his ‘lost’ dialogue says ‘where’d you guys run off to?’ – I’m solo.

So we turn around and go back through the map again, looking for Dechs.

And on the way we run into the Seed of Kaison again. Lovely. No warning, just an orange boss, carrion creepers, and TUT DIES.

Fantastic. I managed to defeat the Seed while his creepers were busy killing my ally.

Ten minutes later, I’ve scoured the map, and I still can’t find Kasion Dechs. I decide to exit and check the description again.

Nope, no help there.

I’ll try clearing all.

/grits teeth.

And another ten minutes later, I’ve cleared the entire map and still – no boss.

Lol What can I do now?

I have to quit. I looked everywhere. I even destroyed the 4 lab equipments. Nada.

So, I didn’t rate it because I don’t rate unless I finish.

My overall impressions, as you can see, weren’t massively favorable I’m sorry. It started well enough, but almost immediately turned sour with the advent of the first ambush and then the subsequent murderous customs. I like the idea of a magic bloke having a robot mastermind rival, but the KB and KD made me angry, and the Seed seemed just randomly added for no real reason. There isn’t a great deal of plot here, either, which isn’t a problem necessarily, but when you have a short simple story, it really helps if the missions can be done in a clear linear fashion without backtracking or wandering around or repeated trips to the hospital.

And then I couldn’t find the Big Bad. That’s a shame, I was looking forward to seeing what he looked like, as the costumes for your customs were all good.]

“Whoo…testing, testing…is this thing on? Soundman…has left the building.”

Eco.

[ QUOTE ]
He probably thinks Lost woukd be better if it was edited down to a single 90-minute movie.


Based on what I've heard about the show, I doubt it has enough actual plot to fill a 90-minute movie.

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LMAO you're like a caricature, venture. I'd love to know if there's anything on TV that you like that comes in a goodly number of episodes.

I'd guess babylon 5 if anything.

Lost is very well-made television.

Eco.

That was awesome.

Eco

Qr - listen to Ewa - she speaks wisdom. Heaven forfend people judge cases on their individual merits, when blanket one-size-foys-all statements can be thrown around.

Eco

Qr - listen to criticism, OP, tweak and alter your arc if necessary according to feedback, but dont listen to venture. He probably thinks Lost woukd be better if it was edited down to a single 90-minute movie.

Eco

If they designed CoH 2 so that existing CoH toons could be ported over to it somehow, I think they might have a better time of it with a sequel.

What I'd like to see from any Coh2 is essentially paragon and the RI from CoH1, but with shinier gfx etc, and another 3or4 times as much geography and content.

Eco

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I should've been more explicit. We the players are generating story content several times the total mission content of Coh and Cov combined. In essense, we are doing the devs work for them.

It is an explosion of content that added a lot more to do in a game that became a boring pattern after you levelled you first few 50s.

"Adding value to the IP" is the key phrase. Instead of "Wow they are increasing the value of our property," its "Ooo how can we capitalize more on their creative impulse."

The players writing quality arcs and enriching the game are rewarding the devs and publisher, not the other way around.

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I thinkyou're in a minority with this opinion.

I personally am fine with the micro-transactions,; my only gripe with the AE slot purchase thing is that I want to buy more than 5!

Eco.

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Story wise, why IS there an AE building in RWZ anyways?

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I don't see how an AE building in RWZ is any stranger than an AE building in any other zone.

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The war against the alien invaders doesn't get in the way, maybe? And from an AE business point of view, who exactly is supposed to be using its facilties? It's like someone builing a bar in no man's land around the time of the battles of Ypres. If it was inside the Vanguard walls it'd make more sense, yet still be ridiculous. I really hope someone says 'oh, and whay exactly is there an AE building in the RWZ?' at a dev interview, I'd love to hear an in-game rationale for it lol.

Eco.

Lol MB, I should have added 'yet'!

/sticks large 'NB: Dont whine abt market' note to monitor.



Eco

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Given how MCM always asks on Freedom's global channels how he should roll and in which pool for best bang for your buck recipes, I slightly doubt Cavatina's rant was aimed at him specifically.

Or maybe it was a comment you made a million years ago

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No. it was mostly a jab at how one time him and me got into an argument in the MA arc finder channel over how "unfair" the market was.

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dunno what fraction of a million years ago that was, but I have absolutely no memory of said 'argument' lol. As far as I recall, I've always thought that the Market was more tedious than unfair, so I'd put cavs recollection down to a misunderstanding rather than a clash of ideologies.

I whine about farmers and I whine about pvpers ganking mr when I'm badging in wb and I whine about farmers and I whine about not being able to duo TFs and I whine about farmers, but the Market, I don't whine about that lol.

Eco

I'll play it if you add the mu guy who talks to you like dirt in the redside origin of power arc. I can't remember what his name is, but he's in cap au doable I think, near the big electric power stTion thing. I think he also has a task force. In the OoP arc, the player gets two dialogues to choose at one stage, both of which are so submissive I nearly smashed my monitor up.

Eco

Lol the mission 2 Teturn Fialogue sync was lucky, then. Try playing it through as I did and you'll see how cool it seems. If you wanted that to be more of a feature than a lucky event, you could put sth in Fritz' original briefing 'if you ever see any Red system messages, please obey them for your own safety' or similar 'safety insructions' - that way, perhaps mire people would see it.

Eco