Mr_Squid

The Halo 3: Extra Nuts edition.

I payed 400 bucks and I got...

A nerf gattling gun...

I payed $88.88 and got...

My Eagle Needs To Advance Loans.

QUASIFF

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Arc Name: Wrath of the Rulu-Shin
Arc ID: 9724
Faction: Hero
Creator Global/Forum Name: Mr_Squid
Difficulty Level: Moderately challenging to sadistic, depending on team makeup and archetype.
Synopsis: A mysterious group of Rularuu worshiping cultists have taken over portal corp!
Estimated Time to Play: About half and hour
Link to More Details or Feedback: Send a PM

If you do critique this arc, critique it only for the enemy group, not the story or content of the missions.

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It's a shame you are currently unable to expand this out into a fuller arc. I would like to learn more about your critters, their background and goals. Creepy little punks though.

All in all it looks like you've created a balanced and playable enemy group. Some of the costumes are really nice (I like the claws the best I think, but mainly due to the coloring). Some of the dialog may not need to be in all caps.

One thing you may consider, which I've done myself with my own custom group, is to tone down on anything non-standard in the costumes. Use auras, capes, wings and other unlockable costume pieces sparingly. I did that with Lord Voltor's Soldiers and found I can definitely pull all the full 5 mish arc I have planned.

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Huh, going to have to try that and see what happens with the filesize. Thanks!

Arc Name: Wrath of the Rulu-Shin
Arc ID: 9724
Faction: Hero
Creator Global/Forum Name: Mr_Squid
Difficulty Level: Moderately challenging to sadistic, depending on team makeup and archetype.
Synopsis: A mysterious group of Rularuu worshiping cultists have taken over portal corp!
Estimated Time to Play: About half and hour
Link to More Details or Feedback: Send a PM

This is really more of a showcase for a custom group. I spend a lot of time and effort creating these guys, and I hope you see that my effort shows. Unfortunately, being that there are twelve custom enemies in the group they take up far too much file space to be practical (just putting them in one mission took up almost 80% of my file space), I just don't have the heart to delete them though. Please enjoy this one off mission until file sizes are (hopefully) increased.

If you do critique this arc, critique it only for the enemy group, not the story or content of the missions.

Arc Name: Wrath of the Rulu-Shin
Arc ID: 9724
Faction: Hero
Creator Global/Forum Name: Mr_Squid
Difficulty Level: Moderately challenging to sadistic, depending on team makeup and archetype.
Synopsis: A mysterious group of Rularuu worshiping cultists have taken over portal corp!
Estimated Time to Play: About half and hour
Link to More Details or Feedback: Send a PM

This is really more of a showcase for a custom group. I spend a lot of time and effort creating these guys, and I hope you see that my effort shows. Unfortunately, being that there are twelve custom enemies in the group they take up far too much file space to be practical, I just don't have the heart to delete them though. Please enjoy this one off mission until file sizes are (hopefully) increased.

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Okay, my turn.

WALKING WITH DEMONS
Arc ID: 7000

Basically its an arc that attempts to take the popular trope of demons and put them in a more scientific light. As you go through the arc, you learn more about the biology and sociology of demons, and learn that even demons can be tricked.

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I loved the story! The settings for each mission matched perfectly. This could easily be 5 stars with some fixes.

Maybe it was me, but I didn't equate Arch-Demon with Arch-Villain. You may want to add some orange or red text warning players that the highest difficulty will spawn an AV.

1st Mission: Overall, very nice, just some small spelling errors and one of the helpers just took off running (might want to check his settings)

2nd Mission: I loved the map (what pack was that in?) Again, caught a couple of spelling and grammar mistakes. There was an extra click object on the mission, it must have taken 45-60 seconds to count down. It wasn't one that was needed. That was a bit annoying.

3rd mission: I like this map as well, but a lot will not. I never found all the click objects (thank goodness they were not mandatory) and didn't find the helpers. I don't remember if there were any misspellings on this one.

Last mission: Again, map fits the story, lost the contact to the ambush (had 2 spawn very close together). I was beating down the last EB (a Fire Tank of some sort) and got map served.

Over all, 4 stars (could be 5). I'd copy your longer text fields in to MS Word and run grammar and spell checker on them. Well going to log back in from the disconnect and try to complete that last mish again.

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Thanks! Ill fix the grammar and spelling mistakes shortly. I believe the second missions pack was from the extra COT map pack (vaults of mu is the name of the map). That extra long glowie you encountered just spawns an ambush of igneous. They have no purpose other than capping the mish at level 15.

Silly me forgot to post my arc!

Arc Name: Walking with Demons
Arc ID: 7000
Faction: Neutral (though more villainous then heroic)
Creator Global/Forum Name: @sharkopath (on test only) @Mr_Squid (on live)/ Mr_Squid
Difficulty Level: Hard
Synopsis: Team up with an enigmatic scientific group to investigate the biology and sociology of demons, and help orchestrate a plot to trick three of the most powerful archdemons.
Estimated Time to Play: Around an hour if you complete all objectives. Could be done in a fraction of the time if you stealthed everything, but would be much harder.
Link to More Details or Feedback: Check my global name above or send a PM.

................?

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If anyone is interested in giving my arc a run through I'd appreciate it. It's a level 10-20 Arc that I was able to solo through with my Fire/Fire tank. Below are the details:

"Behind the Burning"
Arc ID: 7155
Length: Long (it's 3 missions (2 outdoor maps), took me about 30 min to complete)
First Published: 3/20/2009
Morality: Heroic
Description: The Hellions are becoming more organized and someone is behind this change. Their arson targets have been more strategic and it appears that they are using them to cover up their real purpose. Find out who is behind this and what they are after.

I just also finished up a 1 mission arc if anyone wants to try it out. Large teams or high settings will produce an AV. Information is below:

"Future on Fire"
Arc ID: 7709
Length: Short (1 mission, boss is an AV or EB depending on settings). There are 3 Vindicator helpers in the mission.
First Published: 3/20/2009
Morality: Neutral
Description: In the not so distant future, Burnin Fury, the evil twin brother of the hero Burnin Up, has defeated every super powered being on earth. The future earth is a burnt, desolate wasteland. It's now up to you, travel to the future and confront him in Atlas Park, the site of his first attack. (40-54)

Thanks for any feed back!

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Just finished "Future on fire" you did a great job setting the mood. That was the perfect map for that mission, and the fact that every single enemy had fire powers meant that almost all of the time I was on fire, my pets were on fire, the vindicators were on fire, the sky was on fire, the ground was on fire, EVERYTHING WAS ON FIRE!!! So much so that this song was playing in my head the entire time.

My one gripe was that giving heat exhaustion to every single lieutenant might make them a bit overpowered. I was constantly running out of health and endurance. That might have been your point though.

Four stars.

Arc Name: Walking with Demons
[color= yellow] Arc ID: 7000 [/color]
Faction: Neutral (though more villainous then heroic)
Creator Global/Forum Name: @sharkopath (on test only) @Mr_Squid (on live)/ Mr_Squid
Difficulty Level: Hard
Synopsis: Team up with an enigmatic scientific group to investigate the biology and sociology of demons, and help orchestrate a plot to trick three of the most powerful archdemons.
Estimated Time to Play: Around an hour if you complete all objectives. Could be done in a fraction of the time if you stealthed everything, but would be much harder.
Link to More Details or Feedback: Check my global name above or send a PM.

Just played through "Small Fears". That was creepy as all getout. The ambush at the end did work by the way. If I had one suggestion, it would be to swap the maps for the first and third missions. I just found the map for the first one to be far creepier.

Okay, my turn.

WALKING WITH DEMONS
Arc ID: 7000

Basically its an arc that attempts to take the popular trope of demons and put them in a more scientific light. As you go through the arc, you learn more about the biology and sociology of demons, and learn that even demons can be tricked.

6. Using post it notes, fold an entire fleet of tiny paper boats, then put them in a public toilet. Whenever someone goes to use the toilet start screaming "BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES MEN! WE GOT A TORPEDO INCOMING!"

This thread is for the sole purpose of suggesting ways to make the world weirder. Feel free to suggest your own!

1. Go to a supermarket in a respectable part of town. Wear a crisp white shirt with a tie (or a nice dress if your female), but rumple it up a bit and muss up your hair. Then go buy a pregnancy test and a coathanger, and watch the cashier's reaction.

2. Take all of your friends DVD cases or videogame cases, remove the disks, and replace them with salami.

3. In the middle of a busy public place, randomly fall down and start acting like your trying to grab onto the ground. When someone asks what your doing, tell them that gravity has reversed for you and if you let go you will fall into the sky.

4. Go into a Gamestop and ask them if they have any Colecovision Tapes. When they say no, ask them if they have any turbografix tapes. When they say no, ask them if they have any Magnavox oddessy tapes. When they say no, whip around, grab the flashiest looking high budget shooter off the shelf, shove it in their face and scream "WELL WHAT DO YOU CALL THIS THEN!!?!?!?!?!?"

5. Find a veterinary clinic, preferably one that looks a little worn down. You know, the kind right between a pawn shop and a bail bonds office. Make sure it has a big window out front, as well as a little treelawn where they plant flowers or bushes or whatever. Also make sure the receptionist can see you through the window.

Now start digging around in the treelawn dirt until the receptionist notices you. Ignore her, and keep digging until you find an earthworm. Then stand up, hold up the earthworm, and give a big smile to the receptionist as you walk in. Walk up to the reception desk, and slam the worm on the counter, being sure to squish it a little as you do so. Then tell the receptionist that you want this worm spayed. As soon as the receptionist begins to say anything, put on a blank expression, and slowly slide a 100 dollar bill across the counter to her, being sure to slide it through the worm guts as you do so. Hopefully, she will take the money and the worm into the back. This is why you chose one in the bad part of town, as they might just be desperate enough to take 100 dollars to spay an earthworm. If she does not, then dont despair, as you have created more then enough weirdness already. When she returns with your (hopefully now spayed) worm, get another big smile on your face, eagerly snatch the worm from her hands, pull out a white envelope, and stuff the worm inside. Make a show of carefully licking the envelope and sealing it JUST PERFECTLY. Then place the envelope on the counter, pull out a big black rubber mallet and smash it. Pick it up again, and holding it in both hands, lean forward, look the receptionist dead in the eyes with a maniacal grin on your face and whisper "My girlfriend is going to love this!". Then sprint out of the clinic, making sure to trip slightly as you do so.

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RespectMyAuthoritah

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Inspired by this.

uh...is luminary trying to take a dump?

> Open door

Volley 70

Alright, I just made this thread so we can brainstorm ways to actually get people to USE CoH's old hazard zones. The sad fact of the matter is that nobody ever uses these zones. When was the last time you have ever seen a bunch of people actually hunting zombies in Dark Astoria? I havent seen it since....what...Issue Five?

In any case, these zones need a revamp. However, I think we can all agree that a full faultline-style revamp for every single old zone is out of the question. So how else can we breathe life into these old zones?

Okay, so currently these are the zones that need to be looked at.

-Perez Park
-Boomtown
-The Tunnels
-Dark Astoria
-Crey's Folly
-Eden
-Abandoned Sewer Network
-Sewer Network
-Terra Volta
-The Shadow Shard (all four zones)

The only thing that most of these zones offer is a bunch of large spawns of enemies. Thats it. Some offer a trial as well, but in comparison to the rest of the zone, the actual space the trial encompasses is tiny in relation to the rest of the zone.

So, here are some of my ideas:


-Apply the Giant Monster Scaling Code to Hazard/Trial zone mobs.

Doing just this would bring in the recipe hunters, the salvage hounds, and anyone looking for money in general. Currently there is only ONE place in the entire game I can think of where people actually hunt OUTSIDE for drops. The Cimerora wall. Adding the scaling code to these zones would decongest the wall, as well as maybe get people to stop farming outdoor missions. You might have to do a bit of coding to get drops to scale to the level of the player, but otherwise just this little change could potentially draw in more people.

-Add SHORT story arcs to introduce trials, condense trial zones, and rework trials themselves (slightly).

Currently there is absolutely NOWHERE in game where you can learn that the various trials exist. The only way anyone hears about them is from other players. Perhaps a short story arc could be added to each trial zone to introduce people to the primary enemies of the zone, and let them know that the Trial exists. Trials could also be rearranged so all the trial contacts are in the zone the trial occurs in (or right outside), and that all the missions in the trial occur in the trial zone. Trial zones could also be condensed slightly, as they have a lot of empty space right now. Do we really need all those labyrinthine branches in the abandoned sewer network?

So thats my two cents. What do you guys think?

Wow...I never thought of this... AWESOME STRATEGY!!!

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"Rogue" <-- "Rouge"

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*facepalm* And here I am making fun of people who make this mistake! EDITS AHOY!

The Arachnos Flier, White Whale of Grandville.

Okay, scratch that last post. THIS version is the final final FINAL version of the guide.

What is the Arachnos Flier?

The Arachnos Flier is a heavy combat/transport helicopter used primarily for troop deployment. Arachnos Fliers are seen commonly throughout the Rogue isles, having become Arachnos's primary method of transporting troops. Arachnos fliers are also quite capable in combat scenarios, posessing a heavy quad-barrel plasmatic channelgun turret, as well as a swarm missile projector and drone bay.

Of particular interest is the squadron of four Fliers that patrols the area of Grandville known as "The Gutter". Due to the large scale Arachnoid infestation, Arachnos has seen fit to periodically send one of four fliers into the gutter to eliminate Arachnoids en masse .

Okay, that's nice but what is it?

Sorry, got caught up in backstory there. Anyways, the Arachnos Flier is the Grandville zone event. Every 2-12 hours (real time) and at dusk (in game time), the Arachnos Flier spawns and begins a patrol of the gutters. Killing the Arachnos Flier awards the much coveted heat seeker badge, as well as a sizable amount of experience and infamy. Of particular note, the Arachnos Flier was bugged for a very long time, causing it to spawn only once per server cycle, or sometimes not at all. In addition, the Arachnos Flier is the only giant monster in the game capable of running away and despawning. Thus, the Arachnos Flier has garnered an almost mythic reputation for being notoriously difficult to kill. However, I hope to dispell those myths.

Cool, so where do I find it?

Locating the Arachnos flier is half the challenge, for while it always spawns in the same place (that big red window in the Grandville watchtower), it will move to one of several locations first based on its name. After all, there are actually four fliers (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta) and each one has a completely different flight path. The Locations are:
<ul type="square">[*]South Ward: 237 yards southwest of the Spider City dot.[*]East Ward: 434 yards due northeast of the Spider City dot.[*]East ward 2: 692 yards northeast of Spider City dot.[*]North ward: 650 yards northeast of the Spider City dot.[*]East Beach: 700 yards directly east of the Spider City dot.[*]South Beach: 557 yards southwest of the Spider City dot.[*]North Beach: .62 miles northnortheast of the Spider City dot.[/list]While it is moving from location to location it will activate a power shield which renders it invulnerable to all attacks. When it arrives at a location it will stay there for approximately 3-5 minutes before moving to the next one.

Note that when it leaves this location it will NOT activate its power shield, meaning it is possible (but not likely) to get in a few shots and kill it while it is flying away. Eventually it will fly past the zone wall and despawn.

FLIGHT PLANS


Alpha:South Ward, East Ward 1, East Ward 2, North Ward.
Beta:North Ward, East Ward 2, East Ward 1, South Beach.
Delta:East Ward 1, South Ward, North Ward, East Beach.
Gamma:East Ward 2, South ward, East Ward 1, North Ward, North Beach.


So how do I kill it?

Ah, now we come to the heart of the matter. You see, because it works differently then other giant monsters, the traditional perceptions about fighting monsters do not apply. In short, you must realize two things:

THE KEY TO DEFEATING THE ARACHNOS FLIER IS SPEED.

You cannot approach the Arachnos flier with the same sort of trepidation that accompanies most other Giant Monster fights. You simply don't have the time to form a well balanced team, buff up, upgrade pets and all that. You have to form a team QUICKLY. Find your server's badge hunting channels and as soon as the zone event message for the flier appears, immediately start sending out broadcasts. Hopefully you should be able to assemble a team very quickly. Also turn to your supergroup, coalition, and broadcast channels. Don't worry about getting together a large well balanced team. As long as you have some aggro management, you could take down the flier with six people or even less.

When the flier moves from location to location one member of the team should activate fly and set it on follow (a jetpack will work fine also). Ideally the entire team does this, but if not the team member (or members) who are following should teleport the rest of the team to its new location (be it recall friend or the assemble the team veteran reward). If nobody has teleport, then the follower should just call out the location of the fliers next stop. If you can manage to get these steps down, you should have one half of the equation down, the other being realizing that:

THE ARACHNOS FLIER IS NOT A VERY TOUGH MONSTER.

Technically speaking, its not even a monster at all. Its classification in the target window says "transport". Whereas other giant monsters have very high regeneration rates, the regeneration rate of the Arachnos Flier is comparatively low. You don’t need tons and tons of debuffs to kill this thing. All you really need is some aggro management, be it from a brute, MM pets, Arachnos Widow (who I hear make pretty good tanks), or hell, anyone who has lots of purples. Lets take a look at what this thing can actually do.
<ul type="square">[*]Energy blast: A quick single target pulse from the channelgun turret. Does moderate energy damage. This is honestly pretty wimpy as far as monster attacks go. A brute with enough toggles on should be able to shrug it off no sweat.[*]Energy Saturation: A cone spray of energy pulses from the channelgun turret. Does heavy energy damage. This one on the other hand, HURTS. However, its on a fairly long recharge timer so you should be able to heal before getting nailed with it again.[*]Swarm Missiles. A barrage of, well, missiles. I have honestly only seen the Flier use this attack once. Generally when engaged at close range it will just alternate between energy blast and energy saturation. The only time I ever saw it use this was when I was running away. I cant tell you much about it, but I can tell you that it hurt. Still, as long as you don’t go running away, you shouldn’t have to worry about this one.[*]Summon Bane Spiders. Generally the Arachnos flier will use this the first time it is aggroed on a drop point. It summons 7-12 level 50 Bane Spider Commandoes (via a very cool animation) who will then begin to attack anybody attacking the Flier. In all honesty, Bane Spider Commandoes are pretty wimpy. They only have two weak melee attacks and a weak ranged attack. However, they do also have web grenade, which can create problems. Because web grenade has a –fly component, it can prevent you from following the Arachnos flier when it moves from site to site. Therefore, one member of the team should focus on taking out the Bane Spiders as quickly as possible before they web up the entire team (preferably one with heavy AOE capabilities.) Two more things about this attack. One, it will only use it once per drop site. Two, the bane spiders are level 50. So while any level villain can attack the flier and contribute equally, anyone under 45ish is going to get massacred by the bane spiders.[*]Summon Drones. The only time I have ever seen the Flier use this attack is when foes have moved out of range of all of its other attacks. Usually this means that you will only see it when it is leaving its final drop point on the beach and flying off into the wild blue (er…red) yonder. All it does it summon a swarm of floating mines that will home in on any targets nearby, be they player or arachnoid. (They resemble the crab spider attack Omega Maneuver). Get close to them and they explode, doing LOTS of damage.Thankfully the mines move quite slowly, so all you have to do is steer clear.[/list]
So as you can see, the Arachnos flier only really has two attacks that it commonly uses, Energy blast and Energy Saturation. One of those is a single target and one is a cone. So in other words, the Arachnos Flier cannot directly attack every member of the team at once. All you have to do to avoid the cone attack in other words, is not to stand by the person who it is currently aggroed onto. One more thing about the flier. Because it is a FLIER, it will never completely touch down to earth during its patrols. Therefore, anyone who relies heavily on melee attacks is either going to have to hover near the flier (via fly, hover or a flight temporary power) or jump to hit it.

END

Post deleted by Ex Libris

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get your hands out of there!
hey guys, nevermind that this guy is beating the crap out of me...
KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!
you're doing it wrong...
YOU CAN TAKE MY PAIN, MY ANGER, AND ALL OF MY ATHLETE'S FOOT!!!
I'm no doctor, but that can't be good for your back...and neck...and spine...

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How the hell do you get the pet status window to display when your playing your crab?