MrCaptainMan

QR - Good dad? he gave his son an imaginary birthday party!

joking. ran your mission last night. I think it could have used some more text, maybe what was in the presents, and a souvenir, but I'm sure your son loved it. Nice.

Eco

What i found interesting was that the EB version of myself seemed to display exactly the same tactics that I do when I play! It was really funny. I also am totally weak against Knockdown lol

Eco.

I've made a 1-mission 'for fun' arc which is basically just a boss fight against my main, MrCaptainMan. I made myself an extreme/extreme en/enEB, picked a tiny map, 3 boss fights chained so the maps empty apart from me, and one or two of myself as the enemy group associated with me.

Taking my 50 en/en blaster in was amusing. I could solo myself if I was on my own, but if i accidentally aggrod 2 of myself I'd have to be lucky to survive, and three of me at the same time was impossible for me to beat. Even pulling myself was difficult because of the small size of the map.

My Sg-mate was able to solo me with her troller, but in order for me to beat myeslf, i had to use every trick in the book, including taking myself from behind and using the epic fiery KKnockdown AoE power which i forget the name of now to keep myself down. Once I was on my back I was easy.


Has anyone else had any amusing self-on-self experiences with the MA?

Eco

PS Now I also know what my tier 9 nuke feels like! Ow!

[ QUOTE ]
In the OP it states that an authour can only get Dev's choice once, but I've just read Mod 8's post 'Dev choice: becoming the chosen one', and it says that you can get mulitple DC's.

Has a red name said that DC is only obtainable once per author or it this just speculation?

[/ QUOTE ]

If we take the thread on 'becoming the chosen one' as the last official word on the matter, it IS possible to get multiple DCs.

I feel Twoflower's pain, but he does have 25% more slots than most of us already, so it's a little difficult to wholeheartedly sympathise, especially considering I didn't see any of this 'fix the system!' from him on test where he had 6 or more DCd arcs and was sitting pretty at the top of the lists.

he's not the only one who likes to write. I'm lucky enough to be extremely slow and careful in testing my arcs before publishing, so I haven't finished my second and probably won't for some time. I'm a perfectionist in some respects. I'm still considering a radical change to my one published arc, but am waiting for more feedback before I do. If I do decide to go with a change, it would be deceiving of me to let the ratings I have so far (5 stars, 5 plays at last check) stay, as the arc will be quite diferent in tone. So I'll unpublish and republish.

We work with what we've got, don't we?

When my three slots are full, and I'm really truly done with them, then I'll definitely want more slots. I fully expect purchasable slots to be available at some time, it seems impossible to me that NCSoft would ignore this avenue of revenue. I'm content to wait for that for now, and if i get a DC or HoF in the meantime, that's a bonus.

Eco.

QR - Does anyone have a lionk to the Dev statement about restricting DCs to one per player? I cant find it (but my search fu badly blows).

Eco.

[ QUOTE ]
saying Bloody in the U.K. is like dropping an F-bomb here.

[/ QUOTE ]

What? Who told you that? It's not that bad. Dropping an F-bomb in Blighty is like dropping an F-bomb in the US. Saying Bloody fairly minor. I could say it in fron tof my granny no problem for example. maybe someone elses granny, i'd have to think first. Bloody is on TV in the UK before 9pm all the time. I even think Ive seen it on childrens tv.

Eco.

QR - I just wanted to say sorry for any delay, but there are various arcs omn my list, and I WILL play and crit them, RLs been a bit of a sod lately.

This thread rocks.

Eco.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Arc Name: The Echo
Arc ID: 18188
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: MrCaptainMan
Difficulty Level: Easy
Synopsis: A simple rescue reveals a deeper mystery involving a face from the past and a possible plot to destroy the world. Story-heavy 5-mission arc, narrative told mostly via clues. The last mission especially is very story intensive (and until

[/ QUOTE ]

I know TeChameleon (And now Dumok) already did this but since this one has gone on for so long without any critiques, I'll review it as well. In case you're curious, I ran this with a claws/regen scrapper.




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Cheers v much. I've publisghed the final version now, so I wanted to respond one more time before i move onto my next arc.

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[u]Mission 1[u]

Briefing:

Pretty decent. It seems like coloring the text to attract attention to the right details might be a good idea, though. Some people do it on names, but I'd recommend just making the warning that the Freaks are the kidnappers a pale green so people know that's the key thing they need to know at the moment.



[/ QUOTE ]

I've done this for every mission briefing now.

[ QUOTE ]


Content:
<ul type="square">[*]Nice dialogue. You made the Freaks as entertaining as they usually are. I think there's a typo when one of the Freaks asks "Who the drekk" Harold is, though. Isn't it spelled dreck or is this just being similar to En Vogue's "flakkin'" slang?



[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, it was supposed to just be Freak slang, not a reference to Dreck, so I've changed it to 'brakk'

[ QUOTE ]

[*] En Vogue's info was a little awkward, mainly because he mentions the guy that paid them early on, talks about the conclave and then suddenly goes back to the guy. This might make it unclear as to which guy he's talking about. I understand you would want to keep the guy's identity until the end to increase the impact but you might still want to revise this. Maybe you could just say something like "The guy that hired us?" If you don't have enough room, though, don't sweat it.[/list]



[/ QUOTE ]

I added a bit to the debrirfing making it more obvious that Harold is Janices husband (I thought it was obvious enough in retrospect from what she says before she's rescued, but...

Also removed the bit about 'the handoff guy', as its irrelevant really, and then there's no split reference to 'the guy'

[ QUOTE ]


Debriefing:

No problems here. It seems a little weird that a Hero would pay people like the Freakshow to do things like that when there are villain groups who would probably be more reliable. Maybe that'll get explained later.



[/ QUOTE ]

I hope the final missions debriefing explains this.

[ QUOTE ]


[u]Mission 2[u]

Briefing:

Fairly good. However, the mission acceptance task seems to suggest that your character already knows that they'll be going after librarians, when the contact only mentions that you'll actually be going to an archiving facility (Instead of just accessing a random computer with the files) in the send off text.


[/ QUOTE ]
Good point. I added a reference to the Archive Facility in the briefing so it flows better. I really like the 'Crey Librarians? No problem!' Player acceptance line lol, so i wanted to keep it.

[ QUOTE ]

Content:
<ul type="square">[*]Hah! Evil librarians, archivists and janitors! Awesome! They weren't too hard and their powersets are pretty appropriate although it seems weird that angry librarians are empathy defenders. :P I swear that the janitors looked unnatural, though. I think it's their skin color, which looks rather strange for some reason, and their freaky faces. It might just be me, though. Also, they only seem to use their tools once and then use their dark powers from then on. That might just be the cost of having two melee powersets, one of which uses a weapon. Also, the Librarians use the default Frankengun. Did you want that?



[/ QUOTE ]

Completely forgot I could customise the weapon lol. Cheers. Ive altered it now so they've got a cooler looking one. Also lightened the janitors skintones, i think they look better now.

[ QUOTE ]


[*]The different files on the heroes and villains you found were very entertaining. Mother Superior's was particularly hilarious. [*]Nice "ambush" with the head librarian. He spawned right next to me when I got the last file, which is probably more luck than anything. Not sure if the lack of capitalization in his last few lines is on purpose, though.



[/ QUOTE ]

he's the head Librarian - quiet is a priority with him [ QUOTE ]
[/list]Debriefing:

Good. The fact that the contact has no reaction at all to the fact that the Librarians tried to kill you is a little strange, though. Is that on purpose? I guess he was probably expecting it, considering his briefing dialogue.



[/ QUOTE ]

yeah, I fiigure everyone knows that ANY Crey facilitys gonna have security.

[ QUOTE ]


[u]Mission 3[u]

Briefing:

Mostly, no problem. The line "I'm sure if you explain things to the Crey personnel they'll be fine with it." could use a comma after "personnel" though

Content:
<ul type="square">[*]I really like the opening pop-up. It certainly shows the sillier side of Crey well. [*]The clues regarding the Lifesavers' deeds was great, showcasing both incredible heroics and bizarre adventures in under 300 words! I think that "yield" is mispelled and I believe that kangus (As in the Living Kangaroo) should also be capitalized considering it's describing a name. [*]The message from "The Monitor" is interesting. It's hilarious just how over the top it is.... I get the feeling that something's not right about The Monitor going mad, though, but we'll find out soon enough.[/list]Debriefing:

I liked the fact that the contact pointed out the inherent ridiculousness of the Monitor typing out the evil laugh and using FIVE exclamation marks to show his seriousness (Apparently, this is a Discworld reference, but even if I haven't read that, it's still hilarious)! No complaints here.

[u]Mission 4[u]

Briefing:

Nothing really wrong here. The "Still busy" dialogue seems to reference Wallace and Gromit with the whole "Get cracking, Grommit!" line. At least, I assume that's what you're referencing, although grommit also has some meanings too (I'm American, so some of the phrases you use in this arc are lost on me but I won't rate you down on that).




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Wallace &amp; Gromit was indeed the reference.

[ QUOTE ]

Content:
<ul type="square">[*]The Freaks, as usual, were hilarious and the bios for the individual boxes you had to destroy were even better. I wonder how many people will notice? The one about breaking the fourth wall was probably the best. I noticed that the "scientific doodads" didn't have any custom description, though, which is too bad.[*]When Smiffy (Love the name, by the way) says "or i'm gonna be royally cheesed off..." I think the I in "i'm" needs to be capitalized. [*]Again, hilarious pop-up in the end. I certainly did show them who was boss!



[/ QUOTE ]

I added a bio for the Scientific Doodads and tidied up Smiffy's text too.

[ QUOTE ]
[/list]Debriefing:

Again, no problem here. Hooray for saving the world by beating down inanimate objects!

EDIT: Ok, Test is back up so I'll finish the arc.

[u]Mission 5[u]

Briefing:

Again, good. The text message from the Monitor was hilarious. Nice to see you're highlighting the most relevant dialogue in the send off dialogue. However, there was a bit of a typo in that section. The contact suggests " I think you should take them down as they arrive, one at a time, they'll be too much for you en masse." I think that the comma after time should be a period and "they'll be too much for you" should be its own sentence.

Content:
<ul type="square">[*] The taunts broadcasted throughout the mission are certainly creepy, definitely highlighting the fact that the person saying it all is insane.[*] The progressive defeating of each boss to get more clues and eventually draw the final boss out is a novel idea. Kudos on that![*] As I progressed, the contrast between the extremely entertaining Freaks and the progressively more disturbing dialogue from Montieth became more and more apparent. It really was like an emotional seesaw. I do agree with the others that Montieth's story is certainly a departure from the light-hearted feel of the rest of the arc, but it certainly explains his descent into darkness. I think it's fine the way it is, personally.[*] Some typos I noticed: Mr. Kipling says "In fact, i'd say this is easy as pie!" "i'd" should probably be "I'd". Also, Kneepad says "Hey! you ain't a Freak!" I think "you" should probably be capitalized.[*] Sheesh, that was depressing.... Really sad to see he'd make such a plan for that reason. (EDITED at the author's request) The final clue could use some paragraph breaks if possible, though.[/list]Debriefing:
Well, I suppose that does explain a number of things. Still a really sad ending, but the contact does what he can to make you feel better. By the way, Janice is missing capitalization in the final paragraph and I believe the Zig is capitalized too.




[/ QUOTE ]

I corrected all the typos you pointed out.

[ QUOTE ]

[u]Overall[u]
Excellent arc. Very entertaining on the whole, although the mood shifts immensely towards the end. After all the goofiness of the arc, the utterly depressing ending really hits hard. Some people may not like it, but I think it works well. By the way, who the drekk was the Harold guy Janice mentions in the first mission? I don't think he's ever mentioned again. Finally, it sort of bothered me that no one ever seems to refer to you by name. Is that on purpose?



[/ QUOTE ]

Definitely. All the way through, the contact calls you 'hero (Hello Hero, saved the world any lately?' and Montieth does too in his final monologue. Which I felt contrasts nicely with the exit popup in Mission 5.

Additional things I did in this final edit was to add an OOC instruction in a different colour to the briefing for mission 5 which wearns tuen player about the sequence of bosses etc, so they wont get irritated by map-wandering too much. And every boss thats defeated now has individual (tailored ) text in the chatbar telling the player to look out for other freaks nearby and to check the clues.

Not much more i can do!

Phewe. im glad thats over. Now to work on my next epic!



[ QUOTE ]

Anyway, my own arc was broken for a while, making it impossible to review. However, I was able to fix it with the latest patch. Thus, I'd like to repost it so people can critique it again.

Arc Name: Soldiers of Fortune
[color= orange]Arc ID:[/color] 8119
Faction: Villainous
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Mekkanos
Difficulty Level: Medium (Involves a custom villain group that is balanced for the middle levels and a slightly difficult Arch-Villain towards the end)
Synopsis: Battle two ruthless mercenary groups for an ancient item of power with the help of some unusual allies! Ideal for people in the 30-35 range.
Estimated Time to Play: About an hour or two, depending on how fast you go through the missions. None are defeat all.

[/ QUOTE ]

it's on my list, dude. Will get round to it within the week.

Eco.

QR Dumok: lol no, no, you're right, his helmet IS bizarre. The fact that he's called the HEAD librarian too is making me giggle about it now.

I think I imagined him sort of standing on the balcony of a library or on the control deck of the archive facility using the 'Library HUD' in his helmet to check on late returns etc. Plus, of course, with that helmet on, no-one has ever seen his face...

OMG I'm keeping the helmet and adding to his bio!

LMAO This thread is the best thread evar!

Eco.

[ QUOTE ]
The Echo

Just ran thru the first two missions before test went down for maintenance.

1) I liked the dialogue from the Freaks. I've seen so much Freak chatter over the years that I tend to ignore it but these Freaks are up to something entirely different.
The dialogue from the Boss at the end is pretty good as well as the clue.

2) I agree with Chameleon, the Archivists SOOOOOO need handlebar mustaches.



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LMAO I'm on it. lol you're both SO right.

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Likes: The critters. Fun but not under or overpowered. They fit the theme of the story. (I was totally expecting to enter and have to fight the usual Crey mobs so it was a very pleasant surprise to find these critters.
The "Wrong" computer entries, lol.... You really have to make an arc about the cyborg nuns from the future now. The puns were nice as well.

Dislikes: The Head Librarian's look was all there except the head. Is he supposed to be wearing a robot helmet? I was thinking a Derby would fit just right.



[/ QUOTE ]

erm, now that you mention it, I'm not sure what happened there. i made him before the others, I was going to just put him in with a bunch of normal crey. I sort of started out with his head and then got carried away when i discovered that hideous suit he's wearing. I think now i';m kind of partial to his ludicrous helmet. lol. I'll have a look though, it doesn seem a bit bizarre.

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Computers seemed to take an annoyingly long time to activate. When an ambush would happen it would be when the bar still had about 1/4 left to go as well.



[/ QUOTE ]

Hm..I didnt put any ambushes in. There's one patrol i think from one of the glowies...

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I'm going to play the 3rd mish after supper and hopefully Test will be back by then.

[/ QUOTE ]

Awesome! Its quite late here now unfortunately, and Ive got work early tomorrow, so i might not respond till tomorrow. Thanks v much for playing it and look forward to your further comments.

Eco.

[ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
Arc Name: The Echo
Arc ID: 18188
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: MrCaptainMan
Difficulty Level: Easy
Synopsis: A simple rescue reveals a deeper mystery involving a face from the past and a possible plot to destroy the world. Story-heavy 5-mission arc, narrative told mostly via clues. The last mission especially is very story intensive (and until

[/ QUOTE ]
Hmm... okay, so far so good.

Freaks are always fun to bludgeon. Dialogue is snappy... can almost hear the contact smirking as he sends you to beat the Crey senseless.

- The librarians are great, and tougher than you might think- the support from the lieutenants makes them much more durable. Fun little brawl, although I can tell you were thinking like a Blaster, heh... if you can hover and zap 'em a good one, they're much less threatening.

And like I said, the archivists so need a handlebar mustache.

- Third mission... oyyyy. This isn't really your fault- past level 45, there's no such thing as any Crey that's not a Tank. It's incredibly annoying, since they take forever to kill &gt;.&lt;



[/ QUOTE ]

Hm. Noted. I stealthed them on my blaster, mostly, and with BU+the En melee attacks, they weren't very problematic. I should have tested them on my defender, maybe

[ QUOTE ]


- the clues thus far have all been wonderfully awful- my favourite thus far is the Mother Superiour (Habitual criminals. Argh, my brain!)

- Typo- "The Lifesavers Deeds"- missing apostrophe (Lifesavers'), also 'the codes yeild'- should be 'yield'.




[/ QUOTE ]

How embarrassing, typos! lol after about a zillion edits and re-reads, ..ah well, that's what this thread's for i guess!

[ QUOTE ]



- Oooh, subtle Discworld reference (Five exclamation marks!) I like!

- Uhm... 'all the evidence points to him having turned'? His name on the lease, his super-name being used to hire Freaks to save someone, and his super-name being put on a Crey document..? That's really not a whole lot of evidence...



[/ QUOTE ]

Well there IS the note from him before that point, of course. Plus I'm at the absolute limit of text in this (trying to shoehorn it all into the text limits had me pulling my hair out ), and i needed to set him up as the bad guy before the end mission of course, whilst also wording it so that it's not absolutely stating hes a villain. Plus I see the contact as not hugely intellectual, tbh.

[ QUOTE ]

- Puns... breaking... brain...

- First glowie wasn't, for some reason (the tech-box thing). Odd bug.

- "Now it's just landfill" is kind of an odd way of putting it- I get the meaning, but it's a useage that I'm not familiar with.




[/ QUOTE ]

Ah, possibly British English colloquialism, I guess. Might change that. What would the US eng equivalent be?

[ QUOTE ]

- Shakesperean Freak = the purest of awesome. That was great! "Look, I gotta guard a crate, I'm gonna better myself while I do it, OK? ..To be or not to be..." ROFL!

- "Guard this crate, but not too hard." HAH!

- Okay, dialogue is gold.



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Thanks very much. That's great to hear.

[ QUOTE ]


- Associating map points with the Freak bosses would make the final mission much easier- the map is big enough that having to roam all over the place is a bit... meh. And having to travel the full length of the map multiple times to try and find where one guy spawned in is just annoying.




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I spent lots of tests rearranging the front, middle, back Boss spawn points. I also tried out a good few other maps too, but that was the best of a bad bunch for the amount of bosses I had to deal with. The fact that there's so many of them didnt help, but the clue character limit of 300 chars forced me to use so many. The monologue was cut down numerous times as well in an attempt to reduce the number of bosses in the last mission. As it is, the first 6 or so should spawn in that first big room, then the second 6 or so in the middle two rooms and the final 6 in the last room. Unfortunately, there are more than 19 spawn points in that map, so there are a few random spawns in the ship at the mission start - this messes up the chain of spawns sometimes. I'll try to think of some way to lampsgade that the player should search the first room thoroughly until he's sure there are no more spawns in it, but I'm sure you can see how that's gonna be a little hard.

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- Uh... exactly how mangled was the French that Sans Direct was spouting supposed to be (to the car? &gt;.&gt? Also, the final thing should be "Alors! J'ai mal a ma tete!" (i.e. 'my head hurts')



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Lol I wanted anyone who could speak French to be wincing at Sans Direct's dialogue. The same goes for Twp Twp (Stupid Stupid in Welsh) - his 'welsh' dialogue is excruciating, and his defeat line is 'I'm really tired now!'

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- A Gaelic Freakshow..? (or Welsh, or something...)

- Oooookay... Montieth's story? Say hello to my little friend, Mr. Mood Whiplash. Seriously, the difference in tone is staggering.



[/ QUOTE ]

I thought long and hard about that last mission. I wasn't sure to put the Freaks humourous dialogue in it or not. As it was before I did, the monologue starts out sort of mysterious and gets more ane more, well, you've heard it so you know. My Sg-mate played it wiothout any Freak dialogue, and pace of fight,clue,fight,clue etc seemed to work ok. At the end she said she cried (which made me rather pleased, I must say!). It's a shame you missed the end debrief, becasue the contact explains some more info. Among it is that 'He must have been relying on the fact that in this business, you capes often hit first and investigate later, eh?'. All the way through, it seems like a normal enough amusing superheroish freak bashathon, and then as you say, the mood changes...somewhat. Over on the MA chat board there was a debate about dark veil stories in the MA, and though i don't think there should be any Saw-like baby-slicing stuff written, i think there is room for more...drama?

I also think that people can sort of multi-task, which is why I put the Freak funny stuff in. The Freakshow ARE funny, I think. What they've done to themselves is appalling, too, and i am penciling out a serious Freak arc at the moment, but they are also classic cartoony supervillains too. CoH CAn do hammy moustache-twirling, and it can also do stuff that makes you go 'aww' - and lol I think its possible to have both in the same mission, sometimes!

[ QUOTE ]


- Definitely put in guideposts for the spawning bosses- it's hard to be immersed in the narrative when I'm flying all over this bloody huge tub trying to find what obscure corner the boss ahs stuffed himself into.



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I'll have a look and see what i can do. ther might be space in the chatbox somewhere - It should help those that read the chatbar if no-one else

[ QUOTE ]


- ACK!- I lost the ending text- apparently I moved too far away from the contact, and it auto-closed. Didn't even get to read all of it

So, overall:

Great writing, although the ending is kind of a 'wait, what the hell just happened?' moment- having everything be Looney Tunes-level gloriously silly for the first four missions, and then hitting that in the final mission is... uhm... honestly, I spent most of Montieth's story waiting for the punchline that would turn that horrifyingly depressing story funny.



[/ QUOTE ]

Did you notice that the nav instruction in the last mission was 'Foil The Monitor's Plan' - and of course, you don't. I wanted to have a 'Mission Fail' right there, tbh, but the engine doesnt allow it (Plus it might have been too much of a downer lol).

[ QUOTE ]


Overall, a fun, swift arc, and the Freakshow are just great. Montieth, on the other hand, is, uh... it's like finding a case of this in the middle of a Silly Symphonies episode while the mayhem and hilarity unfolds all around. It hits a really, really jarring note. I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about it.



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That last sentence makes me quite pleased, tbh. I made ya think, eh?

[ QUOTE ]

Oops- one other thing: some indication that you need to read the clues as things went on in the final mission would be a huge help (like adding Boss Defeat Text that said something like "The loudspeaker activates (check clues)". I seriously would have had no idea why I was running around beating up random Freak Tanks if you hadn't mentioned the clues before you logged off.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, I will get on this, it's been mentioned before.

Thanks v much for playing it. It's lovely to finally get some feedback, and very helpful feedback it was too.

Eco.

QR - I thought I'd have a go at 'How to Survive a Robot Uprising too, while I'm here (I like this thread ), but after seeing what the first mission holds, I think it's not for a 50 en/en blaster to solo lol. Purples everywhere!

Eco.

EDIT: I didnt rate it, I hasten to add. And it does say Solo-UN freindly in the briefing, so not a criticism. Great title, though!

QR - Nobody going to crit my Mission? I did follow the rules.

I'll do another review while I wait, I guess. I'm just about to start

"Welcome to Architect Entertainment"
Arc ID: 13220
Length: Long (4 Missions)
Morality: Neutral
Plot: Dr. Aeon welcomes you and wants to show off his newest creation. Of course, it's Dr. Aeon. With him around, something funky always happens.
Author: @Acid Zero


-------------------------------------------------
Right, I soloed this on my 50 En/En Blaster. Took me about 40mins altogether I think.

Mission 1.

Your Dr Aeon Dialogue is great. Really really good. I think you’ve nailed him, tbh.

30 secs into the first mission, when I saw the first ‘minyen’, I grinned wide and said ‘Awesome!’ They look great and the concept is nicer too.

Mission 3

More goodness here, though I got a little confused (not much, finished the mission easy enough). Were there more objectives before the Aeon rescue? I liked the extra objective after you got A to the exit, but I might have been annoyed with it if I’d decied to take him with me all the way and then have had to retrace my steps once again.

Mission 3.

By now, my opinion could have been summed up as follows:”Awesome, fun, simple, fast, not too challenging arc. IMO, EVERYTHING that CoH should be when it’s done well.” – That unfortunately isn’t my final opinion, but I just want to say that during mission three I was thinking the arc was that good.

Mission 3 itself is indeed simple, fun, and nicely designed. The incursions objective was nice, and their number just right imo. One small irritation was that I wasn’t immediately sure where they were (I stealthed my way through the mobs on the way to the end rescue), but as the map was fairly small and straightforward this wasn’t a huge problem.

Mission 4

Here’s where it went a bit to pot I’m afraid. The drones were a welcome assistance, and fit wonderfully with the story. It was quite cool to have two silent assistants too. However, they both disappeared before I reached the end, I’m not sure what happened to them As they don’t have any dialogue, its not as easy to know you’ve left them behind as with speaking allies.

Before I got to the EB, I encountered a serious difficulty with fighting more than 3 mobs at once. I originally thought that the different coloured ones had different powerset combos, but in Mission 4 I only seemed to encounter elec/FF ones. The saps combined with the KB was horribly irritating after a while. And then the EB fight was fairly annoying too, for the same reason. You DO state in the briefing, to be fair, that the player may need a team, but for solo players without end drain protection or KB protection, it could be a turn-off.

After the EB wasted me, I went to the insp saleswoman, ate loads of everything and with a lucky AoE kd power, got the EB in a corner and defeated him without too much difficulty that time.

Victory! I grinned in satisfaction, ready to read the Boss defeat clue, then frowned in anger as an ambush attacked me. I really think there’s no need at all for that ambush, dude. It totally got up my nose. The exit button is up, so I didn’t have to fight them, but I like to stay in the mission after I’ve completed it and read any clues I’ve got before I leave. Others of course may like the extra action.

So, overall, brilliant fun. Simple, like I said, but I can’t fault your dialogue or most of the mission design. I recommend it without reservation, even with the annoyances I suffered, as some of those were due to my build.

Faults and quibbles – Some more individual bios for the different custom mobs would have been nice.

Less sapping and KB, maybe (although the powersets DO go with the concept of the mobs, so I’m not sure what else you could do.

NO to the final ambush!

EDIT - i just wnt to say too that the custom mobs looked really good. perfect fit for their concept, the auras were lovely.
-------------------------------------------------

Eco.

Forgot to post my thread for a crit!

Here it is:

Arc Name: The Echo
Arc ID: 18188
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: MrCaptainMan
Difficulty Level: Easy
Synopsis: A simple rescue reveals a deeper mystery involving a face from the past and a possible plot to destroy the world. Story-heavy 5-mission arc, narrative told mostly via clues. The last mission especially is very story intensive (and until

Also includes one new custom group, the Crey Librarians! They shouldn't cause too much of a problem, and hopefully they'll amuse too.

I recommend doing this solo or in a duo. Some story elements are conveyed through the debriefing, so not all team members will be able to get the whole story.

In the last mission especially, pay attention to the clues.

HAve fun, and be firm but fair with your crits!

Eco.

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Would love to get folk's take on ARC 3361 "Heroism is Good Business"...

... and yes, I've the same problem with the Crey that was already noted.

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Im just about to start it. Will report back via an Edit of this Post.

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Right, overall, an interesting enough storyline,nice to see sb working with the normal villain groups instead of focusing on custom Vampire Elvis presleys and whatnot.

Here are the notes i jotted down as i played through it:

I played it on a lvl 50 En/En Blaster, Science Origin.

Contact’s face is a bit dark because of the lighting in the AE room. Not much you can do about that, but I didn’t realize she had a gold tiara on until I saw the boxout pic of her in the info window.

‘Give me a briefing on&amp;nbs”

‘They’re all supposed to be locked up..’ – who, the hard drives, the research stations or the Crey? Might need some clarity here.

Colorizing for the attention-span impaired is good.

Patrol dialogue has Sname in it in the chat window (I think this is a bug, not your error?). I personally don’t like the ‘Copy “Weapons Free”, locked and loaded’ etc stuff, but that’s totally subjective.

O’ Conner’s bio has small typo – ‘Crey hopes in increase the power of their battle armors.’ – ‘..hopes for an increase…’ perhaps?

Mission 2

‘Don’t’w worry Dr parker Ive got your back on this.&amp;nb’

Dr Dibblys guards has ‘Forget the spaz! Get the $type' in the chat bar and in the speech bubbles.

Gamma Prime – maybe some reason for him and his mission complete req to suddenly appear might be added (especially considering the actual reason he’s there) – I means some reason why the player has to defeat him . Also, his bio has &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; in it, as well as the ‘increase in’ typo. His dialogue’s all in CAPS, but the players name isn’t, which jars a little.

Both scientists have exactly the same dialogue upon release. A little differentiation, even rephrasing one of their sentences (it IS amusing line) would be nice imo.

The contact giggling at the debrief of mission 2 – I must have missed sth, because I didn’t know what was so funny. She’s talking about Dibbly, and the rescue of dibbly was a bit cluttered I felt. Lost of dialogue all at the same time and an ambush straight away, also with dialogue. I didn’t have time to take it all in.

Mission 3

‘Yeah, I’m in. Tell me where these goons are test’ – incomplete?

LOL interesting surprise guest there. His ‘left behind’ dialogue has ‘you’re the Science $type, I’m just the guy with the…’ – I wont spoil it lol.


Hmm…Is Blood Ninja invisible? I flew around stealthed till I saw his ‘Understood. To get the device, $name will have to go through me.’ Line (note error), but I couldn’t see him anywhere. I’m still in the mission. I’ve had a good fly round for quite a while now. Covered the whole map.

I’ll post what I’ve got so far anyway, and add more if I find Blood Ninja.

EDIT - Ah, yep, he's a Stalker isnt he? I flew around for a while longer, then decided to kill all and see if he spawned. He ASes me just after I'd had a fight with a few Crey, so i was low on HP and he was able to one shot me.

The ally is horribly annoying because he doesnt have a travel power, so you have to forever go back and babysit him along.

After the really very easy ride so far, Blood Ninja is a shock, anfd not a pleasant one for me I'm afraid. She killed me again and I hosped, ate an entire trays worth of inspirs and then defeated her. But i didn't enjoy that mission at all.

I felt the last mission was the weakest. Only 2 objectives, really, and one of those was annoying rather than cool. Toons with +per will have a totally different experience, though., of course, but i hate stealthed mobs, hence my personal feelings there

Eco.

QR

Arc Name: The Echo
Arc ID: 17565
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: MrCaptainMan
Difficulty Level: Easy
Synopsis: Easy story-heavy mystery to unravel regarding a forgotten face from the past and his dastardly plan. Recommended for SOLO HEROIC play (Villains will find the narrative doesn't make sense)
Estimated Time to Play: 1-2 hrs. Some missions are stealthable.
Link to arc thread for feedback etc: The Echo
My first arc, this. It's quite story heavy, especially the last mission. Any feedback welcome.

Eco.

Qr - 55 views and only 1 Gratz? Truly the badge community is a maudlin bunch at times.

Congratulations, mate. Well done and may you enjoy many more!

Eco

QR

I use a bind from a Guide I found years ago called something liike 'the ultimate fly/hover bind'. I cant seem to find it in the guides section now but it basically wirks like this:

I am walking or just standing. I hit 'F' and Hover kicks in., If i hold down a movement key, Hover deactivates and Fly activates. when I let go of a movement key, Fly deactovates and Hover starts again. If i hit 'f' again, they both swiotch off.

Its great, if you can find it.

Eco.

PS I just found it! Here it is.

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showf...?Number=422333

The instructiuions are quite easy to follow too I think.

Awesome story, eaburn.

Eco.

QR

Having done the Division:Line arc twice now, I noted down some comments for every mission that may help others going thru it.

There are 13 missions in all. I found what i think is the most efficient way to do them all.

Mission 1: You can ignore all the citizens. The glowies are mostly at ground level in the central part of the map, apart from one which is outside against the wall. I ate loads of lucks and rushed it.

Mission 2: 6 glowies, again no fighting is necessary

Mission 3: Fairly small map, I chowed loads of lucks and ran to the boss. Defeat him and his spawn to finish

Mission 4: Defeat the boss and his spawn. Luck-rush thru to the big room with the gantry overhead

Mission 5: Ignore the citizens again, theyr'e not needed for mission complete

Mission 6: No fighting needed, one glowie to click

Mission 7: As for mission 6

Mission 8: Luck rush to hostage on second floor, then run back to exit. Fairly small map, I made it withoiut having to fight - Hostage doesn't stop for mobs.

Mission 9: Ignore the Info requirement, clear last room for complete.

Mission 10: As for mission 9

Mission 11: Luck-rush to last room, largish map, hostage hiden in corner, guards to kill for complete

Mission 12: PI portal mission - No fighting needed, just click 6 glowies

Mission 13: Huge Oranbega map - this is horrible. 12 glowies to click, but difficult to do without clearing as you go. Contains really big cave room with rope bridges etc in it, at bottom is difficult to spot tunnel to final room.

I also found that using my Ouroboros portal to get a quick route to the Talos tram/base portal a big help, but there was still a fair amount of running around too. Set you Base TP pads to brickstown, Creys Folly, PI and Skyway, and use the Ouroboros crystal for the 'TP to contact' to get to FF for the missions there.

Ive just finished the second run, and it should be awhole lot easier now I can use stealth again. Im looking forward to doiong the Ben Decker arc last, i must say.

Eco.

QR Also, on mission 5, where it tells you '4 citizens to save', you can just pop a whole load of lucks and run straight past everyone to the second floor and the final boss room. RAther annoying that the mission briefing doesnt make it clearer that the civvies rescue arent mandatory.

Eco.

QR

Hi. Firtsyl, great guide, nice one.

Secondly, a warning to any blasters out there who havent done it yet - Division: Line is HORRENDOUS, especially with no enhancements AND AT only. no stealth, weak attacks, I'm hating it. And the last mission is in a massive oranbega map. It really is awful.
However, if there is no other alternative, then we're stuck with it. I've done it once, and now i can only bring myself to do one mission per night.

Eco.

EDIT lol I just had to quit half way thru one of the missions after dying for the fourth time. Orange comm officers, drones and mentalists - yuck.

One other tip for Division: Line - on the first mission, the briefing says to rescue citizens and click thr glowies - you can just ignore the citizens and the mission completes when youve clicked all the glowies.

QR

Great story. I cried too. Awesome. Its always nice to see villains fleshed out and given more understandable reasons for their behaviour. I add my vote for canonizing this. Thanks a lot, this gets added to my massive and growing list of Reasons Why I Love CoH.

Eco.

QR

Why hasn't this been moved to the Guides forum?

Sometimes the mod behaviour is baffling.

Eco.

QR

Hi. Here's my suggestion from a thread ( here )on the general forum. I would like to see all TFs team size minimums reduced to 2 and have scaling applied to them so that the mobs and (especially) bosses encountered in them were defeatable by a duo.

By scaling, I mean the mechanism that already gets used in missions whereby rep affects wether bosses are EBs, AVs, etc.

I'm not advocating making TFs easy walkthroughs for a duo, I don't want them to be soloable, and i don't want the current experience of a full team to change in any way.

But I'd like to be able to duo them with my partner and have a chance of finishing them.

Eco.