Peacemoon

Dream Paper (ID: 1874)

This is a well written arc, I didn't find any grammar or spelling mistakes so good job :-)

The story itself is pretty good and the missions are well well crafted with good use of dialogue.

I wasn't sure though why the lost would raid a homeless site for one of their papers, especially if the manager is the one behind it and asking a troll to deliver it for him? That bit didn't really make sense to me.

The Tsoo bit was interesting. I did feel personally that surely Grandma knew what she was taking and was happy with it, I did go with it. Infact when the Tsoo boss hinted there was more at work, it was quite disapointing that the story didn't follow that lead to figure out what he meant.

The troll paper boy (he was kinda cute, I liked his character) didn't seem too interested in helping sometimes, was he set to fight defencively? Probably best actually, I can imagine him dying on aggressive.

My one quip would be the final bosses power selection. I don't understand the selection. Surely Psi/Psi would fit better? There are a lot of psi powersets to choose from, including the blaster and dominator secondary. :-)

Overall I did enjoy the arc and rated it 4 stars. The actual quality of the dialogue was easily 5 stars though. Nice work!

Just an example I thought I would try slot Martial Arts and Gravity Control into "the system" that I suggested in my last post.

MA:
Thunder Kick: 1
Storm Kick: 2
*Shuriken: 2
Cobra Strike: 5
Focus Chi: 10
Crane Kick: 3
Crippling Axe Kick: 6
Dragon's Tail: 6
Eagle's Claw: 8
(*= Assuming MA gets a ranged attack)

GC:
Crush: 1
Lift: 1
Gravity Distortion: 2
Propel: 5
Crushing Field: 4
Dimension Shift: 7
Gravity Distortion Field: 6
Wormhole: 8
Singularity:9

So assuming my mob was Gravity Control he would look something like this:

Minion:
Standard: Crush, Lift, Gravity Distortion.
Hard: Crush, Lift, Gravity Distortion, Crushing Field.
Extreme: Crush, Lift, Gravity Distortion, Crushing Field, Propel.

Lieutentant:
Standard: Crush, Lift, Gravity Distortion.
Hard: Crush, Lift, Gravity Distortion, Crushing Field, Propel.
Extreme: Crush, Lift, Gravity Distortion, Crushing Field, Propel, Gravity Distortion Field, Dimension Shift.

Boss
Standard: Crush, Lift, Gravity Distortion, Crushing Field, Propel
Hard: Crush, Lift, Gravity Distortion, Crushing Field, Propel, Gravity Distortion Field, Dimension Shift, Wormhole.
Extreme: Crush, Lift, Gravity Distortion, Crushing Field, Propel, Gravity Distortion Field, Dimension Shift, Wormhole, Singularity.

The numbers could use a bit of tweaking, but I think in essence "the system" works very well in my opinion.

What the devs need to do is go through each set and catogroise each power by difficulty between 1 and 10. Some powers which are high up (7-10) should be not be available to minions, and only available to lieutenants on extreme and bosses on hard.

Example:
Ranged/Melee Low Damage: 1 (Power Bolt)
Ranged/Melee Medium Damage: 2 (Power Blast)
Ranged/Melee High Damage: 4 (Power Burst)
Ally Heal: 2 (02 Boost)
PBAOE Heal: 4 (Radiation Aura)
AoE Hold: 6 (Gravity Distortion Field)
Status Resist: 7 (Unyielding)
Summon Controller Pet: 7 (Singularity)
Ranged/Melee Extreme Damage: 8 (Sniper Blast, Total Focus)
Buildup/Aim: 10
Nukes: 10 (Inferno, Blizzard etc)

This is just an example. Then you could set the following parametres:

Minion (1-5)
Standard = 1-2
Hard = 3-4
Extreme = 5

**Any power over 5 is unavailable to minions, however it still gives you some good choice I think.

Lieutenants: (1-7)
Standard = 1-3
Hard = 4-5
Extreme = 6-7

**Lieutenants could potentially have nasty attacks, but its up to the player. Sometimes you can balance a group around weak minions and super powered lieutenants.

Bosses (1-10)
Standard = 1-5
Hard = 6-8
Extreme = 9-10

**Bosses can obviously potentially access everything and again its up to the player how much they wish to restrict it.

Okay it isn't perfect, but its a better system then what seems to be in place. The only difficulty is making sure you categorise the powers correctly. Also some sets do not have come with a full repetoir of powers.

For example, Empathy may not have a difficulty 5 power so for minions there is no difference between Hard and Extreme. Unfortunately this is something we will have to live with, unless the devs put in Absorb Pain or Regeneration Aura (+hp regen).

There are a lot of powers in the game whose actual power is questionable. Darkest Night? It would seem the devs rate it as 1 or 2, yet I would rate it as 5 or 6.

The problem with buffing/debuffing sets, is that for players you get some of the core powers early on and they are often extremely powerful, then you get more utility powers later.

In the hands of mobs, these "core" powers can often be overpowered if just thrown in at standard. I think the devs must realise that for the buffing/debuffing sets, lower level powers are not always weak. Darkest Night is a good example of this theory.

Despite being a low level power, I would rate it as 5, meaning minions could get it at extreme only.

You also have to remember that minions are common, and that you often fight more then 1. If you have 2 minions with Darkest Night, they amplify the effect because it stacks, crippling the opponent. I had a similar experience with this already, I had a radiation group in one of my arcs. Radiation Emission for minions gives them all Radiation infection (-accuarcy, -defence). I tested it and it was fine, until I found a group with 3 of this type of minion and they all used it and I was cripplied. Its definitly an extreme power, unless you can make it so mob versions don't stack, which I doubt is possible.

Anyway..just some thoughts from me.

Custom Mobs do have level restrictions on their powers, I don't know whether it is across the board and done in a systimatic way though.

I know for a fact that my boss who has Gravity Control/Energy Assault will not summon his Singularity IF:

A) It is on heroic setting and he gets demoted to Lieutenant (Singy is for bosses only atm)
B) The level is too low. I just started testing a sequel arc and on that the boss is set to level 20 max due to Vahzilok and he does not use either Total Focus or Singularity.

This may not be the case for all sets, but I know for a fact that this is the case for my boss. He wont summon Singularity at low level.

I also had a Dark Miasma secondary boss who I never saw summon his Dark Servent. Then one day I did my arc with a higher level alt (41 not 24) and there was Fluffy. Anecdotal evidence yes, but I believe it to be true.

*edit bosses having knockout blow as standard is rediculous. That used to be exteme only and with good reason, it does 90% of my controller's health in one shot. This means that I either make the SS boss vulnerable to status effects (i.e easy kill) or he will almost one shot me, no middle ground.

Thanks Lycenus for the reply!

I agree, I wish there was a "house" set which is the same size as the casino. The only alternative I've come up with is a CoV small office set and say it is a mansion.

I'm sorry you found them a bit difficult, I try to ease people into the group gently by including only a few on mission 2 and an ally on mission 3. Did you have the difficulty set higher then heroic? Still, I'm sorry about that I've tried hard to make sure they weren't too overpowered.

I will give your missions a go tonight when I am back from Uni, same for you Glazius ;-)

Right I've made some changes and updated the arc, if you wish to play it again :-)

GlaziusF is there an arc you would like me to play?

Thankyou everyone for the feedback I have received so far, it has all been very helpful :-)

Back from Uni, going to check it out Yes Patient X should definitly be there somewhere, you might be right about the Crey though they usually end up in the middle. How odd, these darn placement things!

Hey thanks for the feedback, I will give it a good look over when I get back from Uni tonight.

The detective dialogue has been quite troublesome for me really.

No idea what happened for you on Mission 4, it is a tech map but I chose a linear map on purpose because I don't like the "lost in space" labs. Patient X has always been in the final room, perhaps you didn't look properly and presumed a bug too quickly? Again I have done this arc myself over 10 times and never had it fail. :-)

As for the noise, I will probably reduce the number of clues.

Arc: The Doctor Returns
ID: 1152
Author: @FredrikSvanberg

First of all, I would like to say that "The Doctor Returns" is a very interesting story, and its very cleverly written in my view. It makes you think a lot. Then once you have the right idea it changes the rules a bit, which is why I love it!

The author pays good attention to detail and brings in a lot of CoH lore that already exsists. For those that don't know "The Doctor" is someone you meet on a 35-39 mission, who ends up being someone who lives in an aritficial world and speaks through the medium of a computer. The allies and enemies this person has during the canon mission, reappear in this MA arc. All this makes it feel like a "real" CoH mission with lots of tie ins to prexisting content, which I think is very good and probably what the author intended.

The missions are of good length and well designed, although I wasn't 100% sure about the sewer mission it didn't seem all that appropriate, despite reassurances from the story.

The author did make good use of the maps he did choose though, such as the office -> cave map to illustrate a backdoor entrance into a standard office mission which I thought was very good.

There were some very clever and well done aspects of this mission and it was obvious to me that time was taken to thoroughly explain everything so that it was all very believable. Although sometimes you don't need to fully explain something, I think the Ghost Widow's clue did perhaps go a bit overboard in that aspect.

At the end of the arc there is a very good plot twist in my opinion, its very well written and there are clues that something is going to happen so it doesn't take you off guard unless you arn't paying attention and just read the arc final dialogue. Personally I loved it and I especially loved the attention to detail which was constant throughout.

I rated it 5 stars.

Big Bang it was very good, especially for a first attempt, I didn't realise that, so even better ;-)

[ QUOTE ]
Arc Name: Accidents and Emergencies
ID: 105110
Faction: Heroic
Creator: @Rhino Mikali

Mission 1:
Jimmy "The Mouth" Taylor is talking about his "brothers" - I think "associates" would be more appropriate unless they are his actual brothers. It may be called "The Family" but I don't think they call each other brothers. Some spelling errors in the clue.

Mission 2:
Nice design and info on the custom enemies. I don't think that the unrequired glowies scattered around the map adds anything to the mission. I would get rid of them. Or make one of them give me the clue about the body, since it would make more sense than giving me the clue after I defeat one of the bosses. Also, the clue about being ambushed seems unnecessary - the ambush made it clear that I had been ambushed, if all the Crey and other enemies didn't already give it away.

In the mission debriefing Watson says that "only a few people apart from you and me who even knew you were going to Vibe. All of them good cops" - except for the snitch from mission 1, of course.

Mission 3:
Watson provides the identity of the mole, some rookie away on a solo assignment. Rookies are allowed to go solo but Watson is forced to have a partner? Personally I'm more inclined to think that Watson is setting me up for some reason, perhaps because he hates heroes, but he promises that from now on he's going to help out and not let the loss of his former partner affect our relationship. This text has a missing word.

Argh! CoH crashed, I'll have to finish this post later.

[/ QUOTE ]

I love this critique, because you are thinking of things I haven't considered. Let me try address them:

* Yeah I did mean brothers, kind of keeping it in the family, but I agree associate is probably better, especially as you never really meet them no point in making it sound strange at a glance.

*Just had another look at the clue zapped 2 errors. (He's, and Coincidence)

*There is a hidden clue on one of the glowiess, but perhaps there is too many non-needed glowies. I might reduce that a bit.

*Yeah the ambush clue is an old clue that I rewrote not long before publishing, I should have probably just got rid of it completely.

*Yes that is a loophole in the story which I didn't consider. Although Matron does say "everything the policeman has told us.." but speech text is notorious for being missed, I might put that in the clue instead.

*True I never really thought about that, unless I give West a partner who has no idea what is going on.

Thankyou a lot, im looking forward to the rest and also post what mission you want me to play ;-)

Hey Big Bang Man I tried your arc and its pretty good. I think its a bit incoherent occasionally (robot contact for a magic arc, the CoT lady wasn't very CoT imo) but overall it was good and light hearted.

I would say the custom longbow powers could use a tune, they all had very controlling powersets where that wasnt always necessary. Their outfits were very bright :P

Also on the final mission, because I play on heroic the boss was a lieutenant, but the ally was an elite boss! Luckily I thought I would suss out the final boss first without releasing the demon, so I still had quite a challenging fight. :-)

Lastly I think you could add some colour to the contacts text, like blue for the title/subtitle and light green for an important line is always good imo.

Anyway, I enjoyed it!

Cool beans, I will check yours out while having lunch :-)

Hey guys, I am trying to get some feedback on my latest arc and I thought this is probably the best way. If you post a review about it I will gladly post a review of yours. Even if its just a short review with a few helpful comments, I don't mind. Also if you come across any spelling mistakes please tell me, sometimes its easy to miss your own mistakes.

I don't mind reviewing short or long arcs, however I play as a Mind/Storm controller, currently level 24 so I would ask to keep Archvillains at a minimum unless I have something backing me up. :-) Basically I need to be able to solo it. Having said that I'm pretty good at the game, I'm use to soloing and Peacemoon has some decent enhancements.

Here is my arc's details:

Arc Name: Accidents and Emergencies
ID: 105110
Faction: Heroic
Creator: @Mikali Rhino
Length: 5 missions, each between short and medium.
Enemies: Family, Crey and Custom Group (Custom enemies are healthcare professionals mainly)
Difficulty: Custom group are medium difficulty. No elite bosses or archvillains.
Suggested Level: 30+
Estimated Playtime: About an hour, depends how involved in the clues you get.

Description: When an emergency alert comes through that Atlas Hospital’s top consultant is in real danger, you are asked to help Paragon Police reveal who could be behind the threat. As your investigation deepens, you quickly realize the fate of many more lives could also be at stake.

With that said I am looking forward to receiving feedback, but also the oppertunity to play other peoples arcs. Hopefully it will be mutually beneficial. :-)

some of the censors are definitly too much, but what can we do?

My Mind/Storm is level 24 and I've soloed pretty much all the content available to him.

I think controllers are very powerful solo, but you have to slot your "attacks" for damage - you can't slot them for hold duration etc and expect them to hurt. (although I have squeezed 1 hold duration into dominate)

With my 3 hit combo slotted for killing, (that is dominate, mesmerize and levitate) and mass hypnosis to setup containment, I can take out most spawns without trouble. If I can't, I can always abuse confuse to use them to my advantage.

So can controllers solo well? In my opinion, yes they can.

However on large teams you are more useful in maximizing your control powers. On small teams however I find my solo build is better, and actually helps speed things up as I am throwing out decent damage myself.

I had a map where setting it as "back" would have it end up in the middle, and vice versa. Just something to think about if you are having problems.

I'll throw mine on the pile, I'd love more feedback.

Arc: Romulo and Juliette
ID: 45146
Author: @Rhino Mikali
Level Range: 25-30

Don't forget mine Venture (45146) I posted it some pages back, but couldnt remember the Id so refered to my sig

Would love some feedback on my arc (its in the sig), I realise its not perfect but hey, everyone starts somewhere :-)

Its a short story and thus shouldn't take too long to play. Probably takes longer to read all the clues.

Thankyou for the feedbakc guys, its all good!

Arc Name: Romulo and Juliette
Arc ID: 45146
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Rhino Mikali/Peacemoon
Difficulty Level:Solo Friendly
Synopsis:A tragic story of two star-crossed lovers with a heroic twist. With dark forces at work its up to your hero to determine whats really going on and solve the mystery.
Estimated Time to Play: 30~ Minutes. More depending on how much you like to read clues ;-)
Guest Stars: Azuria

My first arc, but would love any feedback on the difficulty, story or anything. :-)

Happy Easter!

Ah then it must of changed, but yes Gravity Well was orginally designed to do what you suggested, much to the shock of Gravity Controllers everywhere ;-)

However the location effect - periodic knockup, or AoE lift, is another suggestion that is always fun with gravity.

However my initial suggestions were more minor because to be frank, nothing much is ever done with Gravity. Probably because as a set, it does not have a very loud voice.

[ QUOTE ]
If I could take the game, put it in a box separate from everyone else, and change one power in the set, I'd swap Dimension Shift or Propel for a power named Gravity Well. Targetted AoE, 25ft. radius, 90-second recharge, 20-30s duration. Creates a reverse repel effect, drawing all foes toward the center, along with a slow. High chance of knockdown throughout the duration, ala Freezing Rain. A readily-available AoE knockdown would synergize perfectly with Crushing Field, thanks to its lack of a -kb effect.

'Course, it would require totally removing an existing power, which probly just ain't gonna happen.

[/ QUOTE ]

This has been suggested many times, even when Kheldians were released and they had/were going to have access to a power called "Gravity Well". It fits with the set and the theme, but I agree, unlikely that despite how unpopular Dimension Shift is, it will never be replaced.

Personally I think the only thing that saves Dimension Shift from the axe is the fact it sounds so cool, despite being so lame. How such a power relates to a set based around Gravity I don't know though ;-)

The way I see it Boardthug, is that Gravity needs the tools to do its job. Where as most control sets have a plethora of powers that get the job done, gravity has lots of powers that are just fluff. The only power in the whole set that is often skipped is Dimension Shift and for good reason. In the rare circumstance that its needed, you are probably dead anyway.

Current order:
1, Crush (ST Immob)
1, Lift (ST Knockup)
2, Gravity Distortion (ST Hold + Knockback protection)
6, Propel (ST Knockback)
8, Crushing Field (AoE Immob)
12, Dimension Shift (AoE Intangible)
18, Gravity Distortion Field (AoE Hold + Knockback protection)
26, Wormhole (AoE Enemy TP + Stun + Knockback)
32, Singularity (Pet)

If you look at that list, you will see that
A) Gravity gets no AoE control outside AoE Immobalize until level 18. This itself is laughable. A dark blast corrupter has more AoE control then this.

B) The AoE hold at 18 has a long recharge and short duration. In my experience a team can kill between 2 - 4 groups before it has recharged, giving it an uptime of 25-50%. Otherwise, Grav relies on just AoE immobalize till..

C) Wormhole arrives at 26, and is not even that good. Most gravs try and abuse it with walls as a work around to the knockback anyway.

Conclusion?
In practice, a Grav just under performs. That has always been my experience while playing as one. Any road test of Grav will show the same. Now I could do a more in depth analysis but the facts to me are clear.