Mr_Squid

*Cackles to self, and reveals that not only do squids regenerate tentacles, but I also poisoned all my tentacles, while waving the antidote around before smashing it on the ground.*

Wewt! Don't worry, I wont be hogging the limelight every Monday. After these three I think I'm going to take a break from arc writing for a while.

*Crashes an F-16 Tomcat into the next poster*

*Punches the next poster right in the kisser*

Well if nobody else is putting theirs on the table...*grunt* *THWOMP!* How about my eleven mission behemoth? Pretty please?

Arc Name: The Lost Choir: Chapter One: The Old Testament.
Arc ID: 123675
Factions: Tuatha, Rikti, Custom group.
Creator Global/Forum Name: @MrSquid
Difficulty Level: Moderate. Contains 2 AV's, but a fair amount of help for them too
Synopsis: This is essentially a combination of Christian Mythos and the classic "cosmic horror" story. The first part is probably the most slow paced, with a lot of unanswered questions.
Level Range: Intended for 45+, but you could get away with 30 plus


Arc Name: The Lost Choir: Part Two: The New Testament.
Arc ID: 136959
Factions: Ritki, Custom Group.
Creator Global/Forum Name: @MrSquid
Difficulty Level: Moderate-easy. Only one AV this time around, and once again, I give you help with him.
Synopsis: Part two is much faster paced then part one, and most of the questions brought up in part one are answered.
Level Range: Intended for 45+, but you could get away with 30 plus

Arc Name: The Lost Choir: Chapter Three: Apocrypha.
Arc ID: 141011
Factions: A bunch, mostly customs.
Creator Global/Forum Name: @MrSquid
Difficulty Level: Hard. One AV, but its a doozy. I still give you plenty of help though.
Synopsis: Part 3 is only one mission long, mainly being the climactic final boss fight.
Level Range: Intended for 45+, but you could get away with 30 plus

Wether we run my arc(s) or not, ill be there tonight.

[ QUOTE ]
Title: Frozen Earth
Arc ID#: 57928
Faction: Freakshow, Winter Horde, Customs
Creator Global: @Tahliah
Difficulty: Medium. There are two EB/AVs, but there's an ally to help. It's not good for lower levels and on high difficulties may pose problems for some ATs.
Morality: Heroic
Description: The planet is in danger of being frozen solid; only you can save the day (and the earth).
Duration: 3 missions; the first two are quick and on smallish maps. About an hour or so of play.

[/ QUOTE ]

A cute little arc, it reminded me of one of those old-rankin and bass christmas specials. My major complaint though, was that the story was a little too complex for its own good. Like did we really need all that stuff about Nemesis? I think not. If I were you, I would axe nemesis and the freakshow from the plot and just focus on your customs.

Speaking of customs, I thought they were...alright. For an ice themed villaingroup they honestly had a wide array of powers. Why not just give them all ice-themed powers and be done with it? Plus there were no decriptions for them.

I gave it three stars, but clean up the plot and give the customs some more polish and that could easily go up.

Time for mine:

[ QUOTE ]
Arc Name: The Lost Choir: Chapter One: The Old Testament.
Arc ID: 123675
Factions: Tuatha, Rikti, Rularuu, Custom group.
Creator Global/Forum Name: @MrSquid
Difficulty Level: Moderate. Contains 2 AV's, but a fair amount of help for them too
Synopsis: This is essentially a combination of Christian Mythos and the classic "cosmic horror" story. The first part is probably the most slow paced, with a lot of unanswered questions.
Level Range: Intended for 45+, but you could get away with 30 plus


Arc Name: The Lost Choir: Part Two: The New Testament.
Arc ID: 136959
Factions: Ritki, Custom Group.
Creator Global/Forum Name: @MrSquid
Difficulty Level: Moderate-easy. Only one AV this time around, and once again, I give you help with him.
Synopsis: Part two is much faster paced then part one, and most of the questions brought up in part one are answered.
Level Range: Intended for 45+, but you could get away with 30 plus


Arc Name: The Lost Choir: Chapter Three: Apocrypha.
Arc ID: 141011
Factions: A bunch, mostly customs.
Creator Global/Forum Name: @MrSquid
Difficulty Level: Hard. One AV, but its a doozy. I still give you plenty of help though.
Synopsis: Part 3 is only one mission long, mainly being the climactic final boss fight.
Level Range: Intended for 45+, but you could get away with 30 plus


[/ QUOTE ]

All three of those arcs compose one story, so if you are going to give them a look, please play all three in order.

[ QUOTE ]
Ran arc one, witholding full review until I've done the whole thing. Immediate concerns:

Why the bible verses?
Suggest a pass over Rikti dialogue, a lot of it sounds not-so-Rikti.

Arc one rated 4 stars, was going to be 3 until the final mission. There finally was the Evangelionesque mind_!@#$ I was expecting. :P

[/ QUOTE ]

I purposely held off on bringing in the customs I had cooked up until the last mission, so as to surprise the player. As for the rikti dialogue I'll take a look at it. Sadu'sii does mention that he has a vanguard translator, which is pretty much just an excuse not to write entire mission briefings and clues in Rikti speak. Yeah, it sacrifices immersion, but at the sake of increasing player comprehension.

Arc Name: The Lost Choir: Chapter One: The Old Testament.
Arc ID: 123675
Factions: Tuatha, Rikti, Rularuu, Custom group.
Creator Global/Forum Name: @MrSquid
Difficulty Level: Moderate. Contains 2 AV's, but a fair amount of help for them too
Synopsis: This is essentially a combination of Christian Mythos and the classic "cosmic horror" story. The first part is probably the most slow paced, with a lot of unanswered questions.
Level Range: Intended for 45+, but you could get away with 30 plus

Arc Name: The Lost Choir: Part Two: The New Testament.
Arc ID: 136959
Factions: Ritki, Custom Group.
Creator Global/Forum Name: @MrSquid
Difficulty Level: Moderate-easy. Only one AV this time around, and once again, I give you help with him.
Synopsis: Part two is much faster paced then part one, and most of the questions brought up in part one are answered.
Level Range: Intended for 45+, but you could get away with 30 plus

Arc Name: The Lost Choir: Chapter Three: Apocrypha.
Arc ID: 141011
Factions: A bunch, mostly customs.
Creator Global/Forum Name: @MrSquid
Difficulty Level: Hard. One AV, but its a doozy. I still give you plenty of help though.
Synopsis: Part 3 is only one mission long, mainly being the climactic final boss fight.
Level Range: Intended for 45+, but you could get away with 30 plus

Okay...so I'll just put this eleven mission behemoth right here...and seeing as I'm making you do extra work ill be right back with feedback for both your arcs.

[ QUOTE ]
Before we deal with the other possible sources of fuss, Squid, would you say these arcs are soloable by, say, a Bane? An SO'd scrapper? And what's their level range?

[/ QUOTE ]

Ah yes, thanks for the reminder. The majority of the arc is pretty easy, but the final AV can be quite tricky. I give you a fair amount of help with it though, so as long as you keep your purples handy I think you'll be okay. As for level range, its intended for 45+, but I think you could get away with 30+, seeing as how auto SKing works.

Arc Name: The Lost Choir: Chapter One: The Old Testament.
Arc ID: 123675
Factions: Tuatha, Rikti, Rularuu, Custom group.
Creator Global/Forum Name: @MrSquid
Difficulty Level: Moderate. Contains 2 AV's, but a fair amount of help for them too
Synopsis: This is essentially a combination of Christian Mythos and the classic "cosmic horror" story. The first part is probably the most slow paced, with a lot of unanswered questions.

Arc Name: The Lost Choir: Part Two: The New Testament.
Arc ID: 136959
Factions: Ritki, Custom Group.
Creator Global/Forum Name: @MrSquid
Difficulty Level: Moderate-easy. Only one AV this time around, and once again, I give you help with him.
Synopsis: Part two is much faster paced then part one, and most of the questions brought up in part one are answered.

Arc Name: The Lost Choir: Chapter Three: Apocrypha.
Arc ID: 141011
Factions: A bunch, mostly customs.
Creator Global/Forum Name: @MrSquid
Difficulty Level: Hard. One AV, but its a doozy. I still give you plenty of help though.
Synopsis: Part 3 is only one mission long, mainly being the climactic final boss fight.

First things first, if you are going to review these, PLEASE review them as a single arc and not as three separate ones.

These ones took a LONG time to write. I went through several false starts and revisons before I finally hit upon a version I liked. Still kind of wish I could have made part 3 into the five mission epic I wanted it to be (I didnt because of the lack of shadow shard outdoor maps in the MA), but seeing as how the single mission of part 3 takes up ninety two percent of the available file space, I think I had few options. Still, I am very pleased with how this arc turned out.

Well, its finally done. It's taken over two weeks of hard work (off and on of course), but I have finally finished my Christian-themed Mega-arc;

THE LOST CHOIR

Part one: ID 123675
Part two: ID 136959
Part three: ID 141011

I tell ya, this thing quickly got progressively bigger and bigger as I wrote it. It started as a quick little five mission arc, but quickly grew to "One arc, and then a second smaller one to wrap things up" then "Two full arcs" then "Three full arcs" then "Two full arcs and a climactic single mission because the idea I had for the third full arc was silly."

As it stands, The Lost Choir is eleven missions long. Quite a timesink I know. But, if you do give it a look, please play all three parts in order, and send feedback.

Thank you very much.

You mean like the Madcat? As a dedicated lover of all things Mechwarrior, I APPROVE!

[ QUOTE ]
but was missing some details in sections that left me scratching my head as to what I was doing.

[/ QUOTE ]

Would you be so kind as to explain?

Argh, completely forgot about this. Came back to the dorms at 4 with the intention of playing until 6, ended up falling asleep until 8. Well, that's college for ya.

I think I am going to try and play through all of these arcs myself as well, at least the ones that give me XP. Just to level my night widow. I might even post some of my own opinions in this thread as well, but only after I let Alt have his say.

Eh, I would just nudge it a bit towards the Vanguard base. Maybe even extend the warwall a bit and stick it IN the Vanguard base.

[ QUOTE ]
Arc Name: Fallen Angel: Crossing Over
Arc ID: 111352
Faction: Villainous
Creator Global: @twiig
Difficulty Level: Higher levels recommended.. 25+ I'd say.
Synopsis: Arachnos is looking for potential heroes to convert and join Arachnos. Their newest target is an angel, but not for long.

Estimated Time to Play: "Very Long", but should not take more than an hour. Maps are small or medium and only 1 defeat all on a small map.

Note: Made this as a crossing over story for my main hero to become my main villain.
Spent the past week creating, but want to get more eyes on it for error correction and improvement. Some additions to text/dialog still needed.

[/ QUOTE ]

Nice to see a good villainous story for once, but I was kind of bugged by all the player terms in the arc. The characters talking about "Buffs" and "Badge Hunting" and "Rerolls", it was all rather surreal. Personally I would nix those terms, as it kind of kills the immersion. Although, once again, its nice to feel evil for once.

Also, positron was kind of a dolt. Why didn't he recognise angel Irene in the last mish? She was wearing the same damn costume!

Still, a fun little arc. Four stars

Heres mine:

[ QUOTE ]
Name: The Descender
ID: 33034
Morality: Villainous. If your not comfortable with world domination, steer clear.
Length: Very Long, around an hour to two hours, depending on team makeup and build.
Difficulty: Moderate-Hard. Plenty of AV's, but plenty of help with them. One of the few arcs that is actually easier solo, due to the difference between AV's and EB's. (And it makes a better story solo)
Groups: Coralax, Arachnos, Circle of Thorns, Custom Group (The Virtea)

This is my stab at exploring the mythos behind the Coralax, one one the most enigmatic and underused villain groups in the game. It is also a world domination arc, so it is VERY non-canon.

[/ QUOTE ]

Name: The Descender
ID: 33034
Morality: Villainous. If your not comfortable with world domination, steer clear.
Length: Very Long, around an hour to two hours, depending on team makeup and build.
Difficulty: Moderate-Hard. Plenty of AV's, but plenty of help with them. One of the few arcs that is actually easier solo, due to the difference between AV's and EB's. (And it makes a better story solo)
Groups: Coralax, Arachnos, Circle of Thorns, Custom Group (The Virtea)

This is my stab at exploring the mythos behind the Coralax, one one the most enigmatic and underused villain groups in the game. It is also a world domination arc, so it is VERY non-canon.

We all know that this version of the Mission Architect is just the first pass, and we are going to be seeing more additions to it in the future. But what sort of things would you like to see added?

Here are two of mine:

-Greater control over bosses. I mainly want to be able to cause a specific boss to ambush the player when an objective is completed.

-The addition of Shadow Shard maps. These maps are just way too cool not to be added to the second pass. Not only are they very neat looking, they are versatile, and we conceivably pass them off as everything from the interior of a deranged persons mind to heaven.

Nice to see your going to be free again soon. Incidentally, I am curious about something. What are your feelings about arcs spread over two or more sub-arcs? I ask because I have started work on my third arc, but due to filesize limitations and the scope of the story, I doubt I will be able to make it work within just one arc. Do you think it would be possible for you to review both parts at once? Or do you only do one arc at a time?

Name: The Descender
ID: 33034
Morality: Villainous. If your not comfortable with world domination, steer clear.
Length: Very Long, around an hour to two hours, depending on team makeup and build.
Difficulty: Moderate. Plenty of AV's, but plenty of help with them. One of the few arcs that is actually easier solo, due to the difference between AV's and EB's. (And it makes a better story solo)
Groups: Coralax, Arachnos, Circle of Thorns, Custom Group (The Virtea)
Mission 1: Unique cave map. Collection , battle, patrol.
Mission 2: Small Oranbega map. Collection , Boss , defensible objects.
Mission 3: Unique cave map. AV's (2 of them) , Ally (3 boss class) , Allied patrol, Battle.
Mission 4: Unique outdoor map. AV's (3 of them) , Ally (Elite boss class) , battles (Just shy of a HUNDRED of them!).
Mission 5: Unique Arachnos map. Collection (times five, each one spawns an AV) , AV's (five of them),Ally (EB class), Allied Patrols.

Thanks for the review Venture! Always nice to get feedback.

Couple of things though:

In terms of the tediousness found in missions four and five, there is really little I can do to alleviate it in mission four at least. I was going for scale there, and I think I pulled it off. However, this also means that it gets annoying to run around the map constantly searching for the EB's. On the fifth mission however, I put in the abyss wells as a means of letting the player set their own difficulty. I remember running through the arc with a group of people who just decided to hit all the glowies as they came up to them and let the rest sort itself out. I played with this on a few of my test run-throughs, and the way the five AV's spawn in the last room is such that you can easily fight one while leaving the other four unaggroed.

As for the overachieving NPC's? Well ya got me there. That was something I worried about when this review was coming up. But there was a design decision behind it. I'm going to repost something I posted in Lazarus's thread about the same issue

[ QUOTE ]
This was another design decision. You see, in my opinion, the most villainous feeling mission in the game is "Defeat Romulus the Warshade" from Psymon Omega. Right before this mission you get a void rifle to help during the fight. So you walk in, whip out your void rifle and force feed Romulus Nictus energy. It's not even fair. Every shot takes off about 1/5th of his health AND knocks him back, and by the time he gets back up, you shoot him again! This to me felt incredibly villainous since there was no sense of honor at all. You don't even try to be fair. So I tried to replicate this feeling with the Virtea bosses, and having them do most of the dirty work for you. It helped reinforce the image that they could easily help you take over the world I think.

[/ QUOTE ]

That being said, I still think I'll tweak it so the EB's spawn surrounded by bosses, and the Virtea bosses no longer self rez. Ill run through the arc again just to make sure that I didn't go too over the top though.

As for the ending? Well you got me there, but I honestly have NO idea how to change it to make it fit into a character's canon. I mean, where do you go from there? "The Leaders of Arachnos recognize your badassery and agree to leave you alone as long as you don't sic your army of sharkmen on them"? I think the ending works fine as it does, as long as people realize everything in the MA is non-canon. Especially seeing as how the canon itself goes out of its way to show it is non-canon.

Thanks for the nice well thought out review! Couple of things:

[ QUOTE ]
Right off the bat I see a couple things that are wrong. First, it should be "more ancient than the dinosaurs" in the description. Secondly, purple text is very hard to read, especially in the MA room.

Mission 1:
Now comes the next issue. Captain Mako is the contact and refers to the end results of his second patron arc where you don't give him the power of the Leviathan after he tries to kill you for it. Question is, why is he asking a level 31 villain for help when this battle was with a level 40+ villain?


[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for pointing out the spelling error. Seeing as how I have written almost exclusively on computers for my entire life, I've come to rely on spell check as a crutch.

The issue of level ranges was something I grappled with the entire time I was designing the arc. I only originally planned to use the Coralax for two missions, but that would mean de-leveling the player with no real explanation. I then tried making a custom group of "Coralax Purebloods", so the player could stay level 50 through the entire arc, but they looked like absolute crap. I finally decided to cap the first four missions at 30-31, and bump up to 50 for the final one using the blood of the Leviathan as a justification for the level bump.

[ QUOTE ]
First thing that is unusual are these Virtea I run into. I'm curious as to where in the lore this name comes from as so far I have seen them pop up in 2 Corolax arcs now but look utterly different. These are pretty reptilian looking.

[/ QUOTE ]

The only place the Virtea are EVER mentioned is in this article on the COH main site. I think the reason you have seen two wildly different interpretations of them is because 1. We have pretty much no information on their appearance, and 2. We never actually see them, which invites players to use them as a jumping off point for a custom group. I tried to make them look pretty shark-like and I think I succeeded.

[ QUOTE ]
To be honest though, those ears on the Virtea Mantas look pretty silly.


[/ QUOTE ]

I was trying to replicate the little horn jobbers on a Manta Ray's head, and those ears were the best thing I could come up with. But yeah, they do look pretty silly. Ill see if there's some good horns I can swap them out with.

[ QUOTE ]
That aside. I went on the glowy hunt and found the book in the first room. However, the clue annoys me. First, it names the book "The Tome of the Depths", so the name need to be fixed. Secondly, it just says "Maybe it would be best not to tell Mako about this one..." but doesn't tell me WHY.


[/ QUOTE ]

The abyss/depths thing is my bad, just a lack of proofreading. As for not telling you WHY you decide to keep this from Mako, well, I wanted to put the full text of the prophecy in the clue itself, but couldn't fit it in 300 characters. So I moved it to the mission complete clue.

[ QUOTE ]
Anyway, it's a prophecy about how the hound of the spider king will send his minion to ensure the destruction of the sleeper but said minion will rebuke the orders and cause the return of the Vitrea. Yeah, it's about me, I get it.

[/ QUOTE ]

I tried not to beat you over the head with it. In an earlier version of the arc it was actually FAR more simplistic. What you saw was a second draft after I made it more mystical.

[ QUOTE ]
Well checking out the south path was a waste of time. All three of the chieftains were in the north path. Redjac and Blackfin filled me in on the history of the Virtea through clues, but Whitefang told me nothing.

[/ QUOTE ]

Really? All three are supposed to give clues. Hrm, going to have to double check that...

[ QUOTE ]
Upon my return Mako informs me that I had actually killed 'Cuda and that he has no idea that I caused the awakening of the Leviathan. Oddly he tells me to flee the Rogue Isles, which seems quite out of character. Especially as Arachnos is trying to figure out what to do and probably needs all the help they can get.

[/ QUOTE ]

Now that I think about it, it is pretty out of character. I'll try and change it to something more ruthless.

[ QUOTE ]
Now I am informed that St. Martial has been destroyed by the Leviathan. Funny, I thought Sharkhead Island would be first since that is where it is entombed.

[/ QUOTE ]

I picked St. Martial since I really wanted to use that map (mostly because I could put almost a hundred battles on it), and because of all the zones in CoV, St. Martial is the one that looks most like the destroyed city the map is based around.

[ QUOTE ]
I figure out they're all going to spawn at the end and just go and click all the glowies and run to the end. The Khan got stuck in the floor somewhere but I didn't bother to try to get him out. Anyway, the leaders of Arachnos were pretty much pushovers with the three Great Whites backing up.

[/ QUOTE ]

This was another design decision. You see, in my opinion, the most villainous feeling mission in the game is "Defeat Romulus the Warshade" from Psymon Omega. Right before this mission you get a void rifle to help during the fight. So you walk in, whip out your void rifle and force feed Romulus Nictus energy. It's not even fair. Every shot takes off about 1/5th of his health AND knocks him back, and by the time he gets back up, you shoot him again! This to me felt incredibly villainous since there was no sense of honor at all. You don't even try to be fair. So I tried to replicate this feeling with the Virtea bosses, and having them do most of the dirty work for you. It helped reinforce the image that they could easily help you take over the world I think. That being said, I think I may have overdone it. Giving you three bosses AND an elite boss is just overkill. I think ill tone it down to just the Khan.

So once again, thank you for the feedback. I will be sure to take it to heart, and make appropriate changes.

So what do all of the little buffs DO?

OMFG! It's the second (or, uh third?) coming of LaserJesus!