PoliceWoman

5/19/2010

Monday

Star Amethyst (50 dark/ice defender) responded to a call for help in Skyway, assisting a Synapse TF with Babbage.

Deianira (11 SS/SR brute) solo'd Chris Jenkins: Attorney at Law, a single mission MA arc where you save a scuzzy lawyer from the Hellions. This was quick but funny and I gave it 5 stars. After that I also solo'd Jumping in Feet First, where you fight the Council and some partially transformed Nictus; the story felt a little bland to me, and the missions were heavy on ambushes, which I felt made them too hard at low level. I ended up giving it 3 stars.

Mega (50 SS/will brute) did a pickup clear-most ITF. There was some confusion as to what we were doing and the team got split up repeatedly, resulting in several deaths. Nevertheless we managed to finish in 48m 57s.

Samurai-ko (45 katana/will scrapper) did a Statesman TF. Normally I wouldn't bring a 45 to the STF, but the team leader said to "bring whatever" and Samurai-ko needed the badge. We had a team wipe against Dr Aeon due to the person with the temp power disabling Aeon's invulnerability missing on the first try. In the final mission we fought all the patron AVs at once; we struggled to beat Ghost Widow as the tanks positioned her so that she could attack the team, and either couldn't or wouldn't turn her to face away, resulting in Ghost Widow killing several team members and healing up repeatedly. We eventually beat her up. Our stone tanker and willpower tanker took turns tanking Recluse and dying (the willpower tanker even tried taunting from fly but got killed by ranged energy and END drain attacks). That looked painful, but between the two of them, they mostly kept him busy, allowing us to eventually beat the STF in 1h 20m, which one team member joked was "the fastest speed STF ever!" Samurai-ko did hit level 46; I had to take merits as reward. 37 merits is more than I remember STF being worth.

Shield Maiden (49 mace/shield brute) did a speed ITF in 25m 12s, which got her to level 50.


Tuesday

Deianira (11 SS/SR brute) solo'd Too Clever By Half, a funny mad science arc where one of Vernon von Grun's experiments goes wrong, and you help him fix things. I gave it 5 stars.

San Min (33 MA/will scrapper) solo'd the 3rd costume mission and the cape mission, then I spent some time at the tailor making a cute new costume for her, which I really like. I had one person compliment me on this costume (he mistook my red white and blue costume as patriotic American colors, though this was an understandable mistake), while another person made fun of it for showing too much skin, which I thought was strange as it actually covers more than most female hero costumes. Oh well, I like it. I joined an 8 player team running the new I17 story arcs at level 20, including The Fairest and Singular Vision badge missions. I hadn't run the Singular Vision badge mission before, it was actually quite cool, with [SPOILER] the cut scenes showing the mission holder's good and evil twins and all. From there we went to Croatoa and did a couple mission there before breaking up. This got San Min to level 34.

On this team, a teammate praised my Dev Choice arc, Two Tickets to Westerly, saying that she was happy to find a non-farm in AE. I pointed her to the Alternate Contact Tree using MA Arcs thread I recently started, which she liked, saying she'd bookmark it. This was really nice.


Wednesday

The author of Escalation (now a Dev Choice arc), which I reviewed once as part of my MA Arc review thread, asked if he could quote my reviews on a web site he was building. Since this person is actually a comic book writer in RL, I thought this was really neat. I told him he definitely could.

Updated Trademark Infringement to H35-54 level range.

Added: Too Clever By Half (#378944) V5-10
Source: Bubbawheat's recommendation.

Added: Cracking Skulls (#115935) listed as H1-14, but based on difficulty should be H12-14
Source: Low Level AE Missions thread.

Added: Chris Jenkins: Attorney At Law (#204942) H1-14
Source: Excellent Arcs thread, also Low Level AE Missions thread.

5/17/2010

Still catching up a bit on journal entries.

Thu 5/6

After the market downtime, Kinetic Combats were selling like crazy and I made 400M infl selling them on this day alone.

Indigo Ifrit (50 fire/rad corruptor) did a Recluse SF in 31m 48s, got a Cytoskeleton SHO.

Darla Doppler (44 kin/sonic defender) did an Imperious TF. During mission 1, a mob guarding a sybil was knocked through a wall, preventing us from completing the mission; we had to quit the TF and restart. Second try went fine, finishing in 25m 30s. Darla got a Soulbound Allegiance (DMG/END) recipe as a drop.


Fri 5/7

Mystery Girl (43 emp/pistols defender) joined a pickup ITF. Not quite sure what it was, but this team just didn't seem to click; we died an awful lot. In the final fight Romulus was mauling our 2 SR scrappers and ice tanker with his autohit AoE (which basically ignored all their defenses); I couldn't keep up with healing them all, and we were very light on debuff so we weren't doing enough damage to Romulus to kill him. Eventually our two tankers pulled Romulus away from the healing Nictus, and getting him away from his healing finally let us beat him. Finished in 1hr 27m (whew!) and got to level 44. I like my empath/pistols defender, but I'm not sure I like her on ITFs; several times I felt like I would've been better off bringing a dark or rad instead.

Spy Girl (25 Ma/ninj stalker) answered a call to help kill the Ghost of Scrapyard.


Sat 5/8

I got the Enduring veteran badge (66 months) on this day, giving all my characters +5 salvage slots, +5 recipe slots and +1 auction house slot - which I thought was a really nice bonus, since my inventory is nearly always full to bursting.

Teal Serpent (20 archery/traps corruptor) joined a small villain team for a bit, then later joined an 8-player pickup team that did the Skyway and Talos mayhems, getting her to level 22.

Arrow Girl (25 archery/nrg blaster) did a 5-player Synapse TF (2 kin, 2 scrappers, me as blaster) which went quickly, finishing in 1h 44m and getting Arrow Girl to level 26.


Sun 5/9

Police Woman (50 AR/dev blaster) exemped to a 31 defender who was having a hard time beating 30 Crey for the 2nd costume mission. Adding a blaster solved her DPS problems handily. I went on to participate in the Sisterhood Sunday event, which was to run the Keith Nance story arc in flashback. We were on +2 difficulty and finished in 43m 40s for 5 merits and "The Fairest" badge.

I then decided to catch up on the new I17 explore badges. For each hero zone I got a bunch of explore badges and a new accolade: Atlas Tour Guide, Wincott's Ally, Galactic Explorer, PPD Informant, Canyon Carver, Sky Gazer, Island Hopper, IP Address, Citizen of Salamanca, Lost & Found, Zig Warden, Portal Corp Analyst. (I had previously gotten the Faultline exploration accolade, sort of by accident.) Each one gave me 5 reward merits, too, which was a nice bonus.

Darla Doppler (45 kin/sonic defender) joined a pickup ITF. The leader accidentally started us on +2 difficulty and promised to lower it after the first mission, but it turns out our team was very strong and could handle it, so we stayed on +2. Clearing most missions, this took us 56m 0s and got Darla to level 46.

Teal Serpent (22 archery/traps corruptor) joined an 8-player villain team running missions in St Martial; they also did a Brickstown mayhem. Got a costume compliment, and also level 26.


Mon 5/10

Mega (50 SS/will brute) helped a corruptor friend who was having trouble beating Numina EB.

Started a new version of Deianira (a SS/SR brute) again; for some reason I keep making this character because I think SS/SR will be cool, but have trouble sticking with it. This time will be different! Maybe. Solo'd the Mercy Island arcs up to level 6.

Star Amethyst (50 dark/ice defender) joined an ITF, finished in 29m 3s.


Tue 5/11

Spy Girl (25 MA/ninj stalker) joined a 1st villain respec; our team was 3 brutes and me. Finished in 9m 13s. I took the respec award.

Kyrie Eleison (47 fire/regen scrapper) joined an STF; I was pleasantly surprised that I died only once, in the final fight with Lord Recluse. (I'm not that good a regen scrapper.) During the final cut scene, Ultra Mode had shadows moving as the WEB device slid into place, which was very cool looking. Finished in 49m 11s and got Kyrie to 48, along with a fistful of badges.


Wed 5/12

Yuki-Onna (50 ice/cold corruptor) joined an RSF. I got a "PW on cold is good" from a teammate, then another said, "PW is good on all toons", which was a nice feeling. We had a couple deaths against the Freedom Phalanx in the last mission, but battle rez'd and beat them in a single try, finishing in 31m 28s.

Darla Doppler (46 kin/sonic defender) did an ITF in 26m 2s, getting to level 47.

Shield Maiden (49 mace/shield brute) did a Sharkhead SF in 21m 10s.


Thu 5/13

Millie Volt (50 elec/elec brute) joined another player fighting Marcone bosses in St Martial, getting them both the Gangbuster badge. I went on to do the Bad Luck badge mission in flashback, working towards a villain accolade.

Arrow Girl (26 archery/nrg blaster) joined a pickup Citadel TF. The team leader was a 24 FF defender which didn't quite work since you have to be 25 to do Citadel; I thought it was a little weird to recruit a team for a TF you aren't the right level for, but we ended up doing a couple missions that got him to 25, then he gave the star to a high level fire/emp controller for the actual TF so we could play at level 30. The controller was the most aggressive empath I'd seen (and I mean that in a good way -- she kept our team moving forward at a decent rate). Finished the TF in 1h 28m.


Fri 5/14

Star Amethyst (50 dark/ice defender) did an ITF in 25m 41s. The same team started an LGTF but we got stopped cold by the Hamidon mission; we killed the blue mitos, the yellow mitos, all the pylons...but we could barely dent the green mitos, and they would immediately heal back up to full. After several failed attempts, we gave up and abandoned the LGTF. According to word of mouth, the green mitos require over 50 mag of stacked holds in order to kill. We switched to the Statesman TF, which ironically was much easier, finishing in 41m 43s and getting a Cytoskeleton SHO.

The same team switched to villains, and as Lady Arachne (50 wolf spider) I did a Recluse SF in 27m 41s (a record-breaking time, at least for this group). I think we were especially efficient because we had mad debuffs on the team (4 corruptors, 2 VEATs, 2 brutes; and Lady Arachne has a debuff-heavy team build). I got another Cytoskeleton SHO.

Solo'd Mayday (50 fortunata) through Arena, a MA story arc based on the musical Chess, reinterpreted into City of Heroes terms. This was actually really good. I gave it 5 stars. This was also the last arc in my "I'll try yours if you'll try mine" review thread. After 13 months, 34 pages, and hundreds of story arcs, I've decided to take a break from doing formal arc reviews. It's been a good experience, and I hope I helped some people with my critiques, but it's also been a lot of work. I still plan to be actively participating in Mission Architect; I'm just going to focus on playing arcs that I choose to play because I want to, mostly for fun.


Sat 5/15

Mystery Girl (42 emp/pistols defender) exemped to a 5 player Sisterhood team in Faultline. I think they were having some trouble with running out of hit points before I arrived, so it felt like bringing an empath to join them really helped.

Some friends from the MA Arc Finder channel were doing the Dean MacArthur villain story arc on Triumph server, and I switched to Icy Witch, a nearly forgotten ice/cold corruptor on Triumph server who has been level 14 for approximately 2 years. Our 6 player team got through Dean's arc, getting Icy Witch to level 17 before I had to go out for lunch.

Millie Volt (50 elec/elec brute) finished the Wolf Spider badge to get the High Pain Threshold accolade (+150 max HP), then did the Exterminator badge mission in flashback and collected ghosts to get the Born in Battle accolade (+75 max HP); elec armor feels pretty squishy to me, so I'm hoping higher max HP will help. This is actually the first toon I've ever gotten Born in Battle on; I think the damage badge requirements got lowered a lot recently. I started trying to get Born in Battle on Mega (50 SS/will brute, my main brute) as well, but somehow despite being an older toon, Mega hasn't taken enough damage to qualify for this badge. I'm guessing this is because Mega has a lot of +max HP powers and IO sets; I vaguely heard that damage only counts for badges if it lowers you below your base HP.

I started a newbie fire/storm corruptor, getting the name "Idol" which I thought was pretty good, and making her an evil demon mostly due to peer pressure from all the demon masterminds we've had around lately. Joined a 6-player lowbie villain team that got her up to level 7.

Played Samurai-ko (44 katana/will scrapper) on a pickup clear-most ITF. I got a little overly cocky on mission 3 and tried to melee Romulus and Requiem up on their little platform in order to pull them down, and they obligingly stomped me flat. (I plead scrapperlock.) We had some confusion in mission 4 as to whether we were rushing to the final encounter or fighting our way there, but after we straightened that out, we finished the ITF in 48m 6s. This got Samurai-ko to 45.

After doing over a year of MA arc reviews, I decided I'd try and organize the various arcs that I played and rated highly in a way that other players could use. As a result I posted an Alternate Contact Tree using Mission Architect Story arcs on the CoH forum. I figure one of the most common questions people ask about MA is "What arcs are good for me at level XX?" and this would be a way for people to find that out more easily.

Thunder Girl (50 elec/SR scrapper) joined a pickup clear-most ITF. As one of the few level 50s on the team, they stuck me with the star. I was at +2 difficulty, which made our first mission a little hard (we had a good mix of ATs but most were lower level and/or not highly optimized) so I lowered difficulty to the default +0 for the rest of the TF. On mission 3 I pulled the various generals down to the bridge (I felt this would be safer for this type of team than rushing each general) and a teammate praised me, saying they'd never seen anyone do such a good job pulling the generals, which was nice. Though ironically pulling only the generals with very few minions meant that after we beat up Romulus and Requiem, we had to kill some leftover Roman minions to complete the mission. Anyway, this was a pretty fun team and we finished in 1hr 16min, which sounds long, but we killed just about everything in our path.


Sun 5/16

Teal Serpent (26 archery/traps corruptor) joined a 5-player LEGION villain team doing the Dean MacArthur and Leonard arcs. We beat up Ajax no problem, but hit a brick wall on the Leonard arc when we had to face 8 clones of the team leader, a demon summoning mastermind. Each of the 8 clones spawned a full set of demons and they were just way too nasty; it seemed like we killed a lot of pets but very few actual bosses, and we suffered 4 straight team wipes trying. At that point we switched to doing Teal Serpent's missions. It turns out that clones of traps corruptors are much easier to kill. I blame poor AI, a smarter traps corruptor clone could use Poison Traps, Trip Mines and FF Generators to be very deadly.

Bubbawheat reviewed my Two Tickets to Westerly story arc, as part of his project to review all the Dr. Aeon Challenge story arcs. His comments were very positive, which was nice.

I played Quick Katie (50 plant/kin controller) at the Sisterhood Sunday event, which was an Ouro flashback of the Freaklympics arc. While standing around waiting for teams to form, I got 2 compliments on Quick Katie's name, 2 compliments on her bio and 1 compliment on her costume...wow! I need to get Quick Katie out more often! I was on a 7 player team with a tanker, a FFer, a dark and me as a kin, plus some damage; this team was not the fastest (despite my best efforts to SB) but was very safe, suffering only one death near the end. Finished in 2h 24m for 34 merits.

Solo'd a few MA story arcs for fun. Playing San Min (33 MA/will scrapper), I replayed Hammer and Sickle of Paragon City to see what was different, but it seemed pretty much the same (I gave it 4 stars, again). Then I played The Bestest Radio Mission Ever, which was a single mission that was a fun mash-up of all the radio missions in the game. I gave it 5 stars. Switching to Deianira (10 SS/SR brute) I solo'd Unfair Trade, a lowbie villain arc where you help an acquaintance you made in prison. It was decently written but the ending was a little unsatisfying; I gave it 4 stars.

Finished the night playing Yuki-Onna (50 ice/cold corruptor) on an ITF, completing it in 29m 13s and getting an Obliteration (DMG/RCHG) recipe as a drop.

I still believe the proper course of action is to try to grow the player base, promoting Mission Architect to be more popular, so that people can naturally achieve 1000 plays routinely. I do think this is a realistic goal -- if Dr. Aeon and his cronies and the player base both work towards it. I know for a fact that hundreds of people are playing Mission Architect, albeit on a casual basis where they really are only looking at the front page of the search interface. What we need is to get these people trying other arcs that aren't just on the front page. I feel like this can be done by:

* Improving the search tool and/or providing alternate search tools

>> A better search tool would be nice (but this isn't a magic bullet, witness how unpopular the new market interface is)

>> Player-provided search tools and word of mouth definitely help (this is one of the reasons I have started the "Alternate Contact Tree for Mission Architect" thread)

* Making it more fun and exciting to play Mission Architect story arcs

>> Writing better story arcs (we all need to do this)

>> Identifying the best story arcs for players to try out (Aeon's Dev Choices, Bubbawheat's Player Choice Awards and every single reviewer out there reviewing arcs helps with this; and it is a shame that every single one of these seems to be drying out)

>> Reasonable but non-exploitative rewards so casual players don't feel like MA is a waste of time (the current patch has hurt this badly; the ball's in the devs' court for solving this)

--------------

Leaving that argument aside, however, I still think it would not be the correct choice to lower the current Hall of Fame standard from 1000 plays and 5 stars. It is self-evidently possible to achieve this standard -- after all, an arc just achieved Hall of Fame, which I believe spawned this entire discussion. So it is achievable, albeit very rare.

However, if the devs lowered the requirements for Hall of Fame, I believe every current Hall of Fame author would be completely justified in being furious at the devs for cheapening the value of their achievement. I know that if I had a 1000+ 5 star arc and suddenly you only needed 100 5 star votes to get Hall of Fame, I would be miffed. Just looking at how many people are annoyed that they lowered the "Epic Archetype Unlocked!" flag to level 20 (which is arguably ONLY A POSITIVE for players, but I still see people ***** about n00b nouveau kheldians) tells me that pretty much everyone would.

If we do want a lower standard, like 100 5 star votes or whatever, give it a different name, like "Popular", "Hot" or "Best of Mission Architect". I know they have the ability to do this - remember the "Master Builder" and similar badges that Mission Architect originally had? The requirements for "Master Builder" were "Have one of your arcs earn 100 votes with at least a 4 star average rating". They could perhaps change this from granting the player a badge (which infuriated the badging community), to adding some kind of "Best of Mission Architect" tag to the arc itself. Possibly reaching "Best of" status should be enough to grant the extra story arc slot, also; I think most authors who achieve a highly rated 100+ vote arc probably should be encouraged to write more arcs, anyway. But still leave the "Hall of Fame" tag at 1000 plays.

In other words, we should add a new honor without watering down the old one.

Added: The Bestest Radio Mission Ever (#1526) H35-54

Source: Excellent Arcs forum thread.

Short link to this list: http://tinyurl.com/22vm5nv


An alternate contact tree using Mission Architect story arcs.

One of the most common things I see players ask about MA is, "What is a good story arc for a level XX hero/villain?" This is my attempt to create a resource to easily answer this question.

Here follows a list of MA story arcs roughly sorted by level and theme. There's a wide variety of arcs, varying from the utterly serious to the completely silly. I cannot guarantee that you will like all of these arcs, or even any of these arcs. But they are arcs that I thought were good, fun, or noteworthy in some way. I tried to provide a brief blurb for each arc to help give players an idea of whether the arc sounds interesting. Your mileage may vary.

In contrast to my earlier review thread, this is a resource intended for players of MA arcs.

***** HERO LEVEL 1-9 *****

MAGIC

Azuria

A Tangle in Time (#2622) H5-54
A strange artifact catches you in a temporal loop.

Future Skulls (#4727) H1-14
Help Mirror Spirit prevent a dire future from coming to pass.

Tales of the PPD: One Hell of a Deal (#55669) H1-10
Work with the police to investigate a Hellion plot.

Idol Hands (#141376) H5-14
A Hellion's quest for power endangers the city.

Two Tickets to Westerly (#374002) H5-12
A Skulls Girlfriend asks you to help her and her boyfriend escape the Skulls gang. Romance.

Night Calls the Weaver (#375420) H5-10
A chance meeting with an old woman leads you to uncover a Hellion plot. Tragedy.

MUTATION

Fusionette

Nuclear in 90 - The Fusionette TF (#58363) H1-14
Help Fusionette investigate missing persons and battle Hellions. Lighthearted adventure.

Go. Hunt. Kill Skuls (#158877) H1-14
While in Perez Park, you agree to help another hero "Kill Skuls". Parody.

Chris Jenkins: Attorney At Law (#204942) H1-14
Even lawyers deserve to be saved from rampaging Hellions....don't they? Comedy. Single mission.

A Hero in Need...is a Friend Indeed! (#375018) H5-14
Statesman needs your help! But what could he want from an apprentice hero?

NATURAL

Epitaph

Hearts on Fire (#1472) H5-14
Love and death on the mean streets of the city. Tragedy.

Grim and the Green (#61156) H1-14
Help the police bust a Skulls drug ring. Introductory.

Learning The Ropes (#100304) H1-10
Back Alley Brawler introduces you to some of the basic villain groups. Introductory.

Cracking Skulls (#115935) H1-14
Stop the Skulls from producing a new version of superadine.

The Blue Devils (#468738) H1-5 or Vig1-5
Investigate a new street gang that is causing trouble.

SCIENCE

Detective Freitag

The Lazarus Project (#124906) H5-20
Investigating missing newbie heroes leads to a Vahzilok plot.

Relativity Be Damned (#177370) H5-54
Save Albert Einstein from interdimensional threats.

TECHNOLOGY

Mark Freeman

Bricked Electronics (#2180) H8-20
Help Mark Freeman stop the Goldbrickers' plot.

The Invasion of the Bikini-Clad Samurai Vampiresses from Outer Space (#61013) H5-25
Help B-movie director Ed Wood save the world. Comedy.

Storming Citadel (#379488) H5-10
You're miniaturized and enter Citadel's brain to make repairs. Single mission.



***** HERO LEVEL 10-19 *****

MAGIC

Brother David

The Dead and the Damned (#87912) H11-14
Help an unlikely couple get together, against the backdrop of a supernatural gang war.

The Hollows: Parapsychologist (#372507) H5-40, but should be H12-40
Talshak the Mystic asks for your help investigating a kidnapping by the Circle of Thorns.

MUTATION

Alphonse Rubel

Dream Paper (#1874) H11-20 (mostly)
Checking out apartment break-ins, you discover some sort of cursed paper.

Teen Phalanx Forever (#67335) H15-30
Your young sidekick joins a teen supergroup for adventures and fun.

Meet the Author (#543322) N1-54, would suggest H12-40
Your agent arranges for someone to ghost write your tell-all superheroic memoirs. Comedy.

NATURAL

Back Alley Brawler

The Next War on Drugs (#245042) H12-20
Back Alley Brawler wants your help to fight drug trafficking.

Talos Vice (#338380) H12-20
Team up with Detective Croquette to battle the drug trade. Miami Vice homage.

Project Dragon (#522067) H15-40
Infiltrate Tub Ci's martial arts tournament to stop a Tsoo plot.

001-Bonefire: FREEDOM Style (#540613) H10-14
Help Manticore stop a gang war. Remix of a canon arc.

SCIENCE

Rebecca Brinell

Tutorial Arc 3: Dark Harvest (#470181) H5-20, but should be H12-20
Help SERAPH rescue kidnapped warshades from the Council.

TECHNOLOGY

Foreshadow

Ctrl + Alt + Reset! (#137561) H15-30
Confiscating a dangerous artifact gets you stuck in a time loop.



***** HERO LEVEL 20-29 *****

MAGIC

Percy Winkley

Amulet of J'Gara (#1709) H25-30
Investigate the disappearance of a pair of members of the Midnight Club.

The Love Talker: a City of Heroes Faerie Tale (#30242) H24-54
Skipper LeGrange asks you to rid Croatoa of a dangerous faerie creature.

Astoria in D Minor (#41565) H20-29
Searching for a lost little girl leads you into the heart of Dark Astoria. Horror.

Daytime Divas (#94504) H1-54, but should be H22-54
You agree to an interview on a daytime TV show. Hijinks ensue. Comedy.

Faerie Gold (#95553) H25-30
Settling a miners strike leads to conflict with the Unseelie Fey.

Sea Change (#137269) mostly H25-31
You fall under the mind control of Calystix and struggle to break free.

Signal:Noise (#341194) H20-29
Following a plea for help, you find yourself alone in Dark Astoria. Surreal. (Essentially no exp, but very creepy.)

The Horrors of Innswich (#403608) H25
A mysterious letter leads you to an accursed New England town. Cthulhu mythos homage. Challenging.

Forsaken People - A Tale of Old Astoria (#534314) H20-29
Investigating a series of occult murders leads to something more.

MUTATION

A Mysterious Flame

Matchstick Women (#3369) H25-54
Investigate a nihilistic fire cult.

The Fan Club (#5898) H25-34 (mostly)
Some of your hero's overly eager fans get in over their heads.

Naughty Cat-Girls of the Third Reich (#41119) Vig1-54 but should be 22-54
Stop the fascist catgirl super-soldier program. Campy adventure.

Zero of the Day (#341250) H20-30 (mostly)
Investigating vandalism leads you to uncover dirty secrets. Drama.

The Golden Age Secret of the Paragon Society (#344596) H25-54
The last member of a Golden Age supergroup asks for your help against the 5th Column.

The Christmas Zombie Attack (#353610) listed H1-54 but should be around H25-54
Battle a zombie outbreak at Santa's workshop. Holiday.

NATURAL

Assistant Chief Bishop

Two Households Alike (#126582) H25-29
Feuding families, star-crossed lovers. Romeo & Juliet homage.

Kiss Hello Goodbye (#156389) H1-54 but should be around H25-54
A beautiful dame. A missing child. The dark underbelly of Paragon City. Film noir.

Agent of the OSS (#525356) H20-54
During WW2, the Office of Strategic Services asks for your help against the Nazis.

SCIENCE

Dr. Igor Bangalore

Big in Sumeria (#328391) H25
Help the Spirit Busters battle paranormal manifestations. Ghostbusters homage. Single mission.

A Mosaic of Shattered Dreams (#497506) H25-54
Investigate why supervillains are attacking an innocent family.

TECHNOLOGY

Dr. Benjamin Johnson

Teh Freakshow Artz Klub (#25622) H20-54
Freakz can haz art? Comedy.

Can You Win The Internet? (#85544) level range varies, should be around N25-54
Save the internet from assorted cyberspace menaces. Parody.

Behind The Smiling Spark of Madness (#255144) H20-54
Investigating strange pop music related deaths leads you to battle a nihilistic cult.

Ignition of the Machine (#318983) H25-32
Help a scientist test out his new android. Drama.

Against the Wickerwork Khan (#346904) H23-54
Journey to Panda Earth to save a princess from the deadly WickerWork Khan.

A Penny For Your Thoughts (#348691) H20-20
Penelope Yin asks you to save the life of her friend: the Clockwork King. Surreal.


***** HERO LEVEL 30-39 *****

MAGIC

Rose

The Golden Scepter (#9852) H35-53
A mystical guardian sends you on a quest to recover a dangerous artifact.

Tales of Croatoa: A Rose by Any Other Name (#178774) H33-34
You stop to help a little girl wandering near a cemetery. Tragedy.

MUTATION

Detective Frasenbacker

Clowns, Fast Food & McArchvillain (#1197) H30-54
Beat up clowns and fast food themed enemies. Parody. Single mission.

The Bestest Radio Mission Ever (#1526) H35-54
Amusing mash-up of every radio mission in the game. Parody. Single mission.

Trademark Infringement (#2220) H35-54
Battle an army of villains with rip-off costumes and character concepts. Parody. Single mission.

Death to Disco! (#84420) H30-54
Stop Dr. Disco Fever from altering the timeline to destroy Rock and Roll.

Challenge of the Splendid Pals -- Episodes 1 - 3 (of 9) (#159140) H1-54, should be H30-54
Join the Splendid Pals to battle the Legion of Gloom. Superfriends homage.

Silver Aged (#280017) H30-54
The archenemy of a retired hero escapes prison and menaces the city. Lighthearted adventure.

NATURAL

Ashley Porter

Ashley Porter and the Gorilla War (#130809) H1-54 (but should be H30-54)
A famous aviatrix asks for your help battling Nazi gorillas. Retro WW2 adventure.

Fatale Attraction - Part 1 of 3 (#181264) H1-54 (but should be H30-54)
Stop a gang of female criminals.

Task Force Mutternacht (#349522) H30-54 (mostly)
Indigo asks you to go deep undercover. Spy thriller.

SCIENCE

Detective Becktrees

Escalation (#6143) H32-54
A minor supervillain makes destroying your hero the focus of her career.

Pandas vs. Rikti (#68930) H30-54
Panda Earth needs your help against the Rikti.

Captain Skylark Shadowfancy and the Tomorrownauts of Today! (#337333) H30-34
Join the Tomorrownauts in a retro sci-fi adventure.

The Consequences of War (#227331) H38-54
Team up with a hero supergroup during the darkest hours of the Rikti War. Tragedy.

The Casualties of War (#241496) H38-54
Team up (again) with a hero supergroup during the darkest hours of the Rikti War. Tragedy.

The Murders in the RWZ Morgue (#452144) H35-54
You are sent to the Vanguard base to catch a killer. Mystery, single mission.

TECHNOLOGY

Your Computer

The Doctor Returns (#1152) H35-54
Help the Doctor hack the Mission Architect to stop a Crey conspiracy.

The Wentworth's Thanksgiving Day Parade (#347683) H30-54
Save Thanksgiving from a Nemesis plot. Comedy, Holiday-themed.

A Very Special Episode (#457506) H30-54
The popular host of a children's television show has disappeared.

Legacy of a Rogue (#459586) H30-35
A retired hero asks you to take a young hero as a sidekick. Drama.


***** HERO LEVEL 40-50 *****

MAGIC

The Storyteller

The Storyteller: Sabrina's Tale (#1237) H40-54
Romances with the undead never seem to work out. Tragedy.

Amazon-Avatars (#5909) H41-54
The Knives of Artemis unlock the power of ancient goddesses.

The Yellow Sign (#7739) N1-54 (probably should be H41-50)
Face horrors from the beyond. Cthulhu mythos homage.

Small Fears (#12285) H45-54
Rescue children from manifestations of their childhood fears. Horror.

Tales of Cimerora: Of Feathers and Fur (#12647) H40-54
Daedalus asks for your help saving Cimerora from mythological beasties.

Karmic Exchange (#47550) H45-54
A ghost asks you to stop her husband from making a terrible mistake. Drama.

Dr. Dave and the Copper Legion (#60280) H40-54
While helping with Cimeroran archaeology, you learn of a metallic menace.

A Warrior's Journey - The Flower Knight Task Force (#260284) H45-50
Travel to a faraway land of samurai and ninja. Drama.

Dhahabu Kingdom and the Indelible Curse of Hate (#367872) H41-54
Lift the evil curse from an African kingdom.

MUTATION

Saul Rubenstien

Saul Rubenstien's Discount Task Force (#1012) H41-54
A bargain basement TF experience. Comedy.

The Footsteps Initiative (#2291) H40-54
Mentor a team of newbie heroes. Comedy.

The Extadine Lab (#2595) H40-54
While investigating a new designer drug, you fall down a rabbit hole. Surreal. Single mission.

Grieving Angels (#41717) H45-54
Investigate why a supergroup has gone rogue.

Rise of the Drakule (#51357) H40-54
Vampire hunters ask for your help killing an army of vampires and goths. Comedy.

Why Do Bad Girls Like Bad Boys? (#63910) H41-54
Help a villainous Lothario solve problems with his love life. Romantic comedy.

Drakule vs. The Werewolf Bikers from Hell (#340316) H45-54
Werewolves and vampires are fighting again. Kill them and/or save the city.

In Pursuit of Liberty (#344916) H45-54 (mostly)
Explore the origin story of a young heroine.

Made to Wave the Flag (#384776) H45-54
Captured by Malta, you and several other heroes attempt to escape.

NATURAL

Crimson

Blitzkrieg (#3416) H45-54
Crimson asks for your help investigating a deadly Malta conspiracy.

Blowback (#4643) H41-54
A heinous Malta/Rikti conspiracy causes one operative to have second thoughts.

The Paragon Caper (#65246) H1-54 (should probably be H40-54)
An investigation goes sour and you go on the run while trying to clear your name.

That All Men Are Created Equal (#151277) H41-54
Protect a fledgling Eastern European democracy against the Malta. Geopolitical thriller.

Pagkagising ("Awakening") (#230100) H40-54
Challenge Filipino martial arts masters of the Limang Paaralan.

Splintered Shields (#253991) H45-54
An Arachnos raid leads to an internal investigation in Longbow.

The Coldest of Wars (#299972) H40-45
Cryogenically frozen communists are revived and threaten the city.

The Christmas We Get (#356477) H41-54
Help a rogue agent destabilize the Rogue Isles. Holiday themed.

SCIENCE

Professor Wayfare

Wayfaring Stranger (#4817) H40-54
Help a scientist-adventurer find his missing son. Johnny Quest homage.

Galactic Protectorate Part 02 (#117281) N40-54
An alternate reality Manticore asks for help against alien invaders.

The Lost Choir: Chapter One: The Old Testament (#123675) H45-54
Battle the forgotten gods of the Rikti.

The Fracturing of Time (#171031) H41-54
Fractures in time threaten all of existence. Surreal.

Paragon City Mad Science Fair (#254399) H40-54 (mostly)
Provide security for a competition of the scientific elite. Comedy.

The Rikti Accession (#278757) H40-54
Help the Rikti Traditionalists stop a Restructurist super-soldier program.

A Fistful of Suziku (#440157) H40-54
A cloning device creates flawed duplicates of yourself and your contact.

The Seventh Project (#530481) H45-54
You're on the trail of a shadowy organization selling superweapons on the black market.

TECHNOLOGY

Refurbished iArachnos Console

Turg Fiction: Ghost In The Machine, Act I (#1013) H50
You discover someone trapped within an old training simulation.

The Portal Bandits (#3326) H40-54
Stop an alien race from stealing Earth's portal technology.

The All-Seeing Eye (#57352) H45-54 (mostly)
Prevent a spy satellite from falling into the wrong hands.

One Million Eyes (#71933) H40-54
Join the new hero-themed social networking site and fight crime!

Looking Back: A Fifth Anniversary Celebration (#110993) H40-54
Nostalgic look at the history of the CoH forums. (Levels ramp up.)

Dr. Sigler and the Chronojumper (#131158) H40-54 (mostly)
A scientist with a time machine asks for your help to correct past mistakes.

Freaks, Geeks and Men in Black (#161629) H41-54
Team up with unlikely heroes to battle the Malta. Conspiracy theory.

The History of Statesman (#219484) H40-54
In the far future, the legend of Statesman is preserved by robot historians. Comedy.

Breaking the Barrier (And Putting it Back Together) (#347029) H45-54
Portal tech gone haywire threatens Paragon City with a Rularuu invasion.

A Long Time Ago In A Zone Far, Far Away (#529478) H45-54
A routine base inspection leads to something bigger. (Low exp, interesting mechanics.)


***** VILLAIN LEVEL 1-9 *****

Harrier Payne

The Burning of Hearts (#2260) V5-10
Help a jilted lover wreak horrible revenge on his ex.

Mercytown (#6017) V1-10
Dr. Krylov hires you to check out an underwater cult. Comedy.

Out of the Gutters (#68054) mostly V1-10
Screw being a "Chosen One". Become a villain on your own.

Quid Pro Quo (#82369) V1-10
A local scumbag tries to take advantage of you, but you make him sorry. Very evil.

Dr. Geist and the Scientific Method (#111022) mostly V1-10
A mad scientist hires you as a research assistant. Comedy.

An Internship in the Fine Art of Revenge (#255146) V5-30
Mentor a novice villain and help her get revenge on the hero who killed her dad.

Too Clever By Half (#378944) V5-10
A mad scientist asks for your help after an experiment goes awry.



***** VILLAIN LEVEL 10-19 *****

Desdemona the Glint

Ripping Out Reform (#1006) V16-19
Stop idealistic cops from reforming the Rogue Isles Police. Challenging.

Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend (#114284) V15-20
Work with Desdemona the Glint to steal diamonds.

Standing Within the Mists (#209473) V1-54, but author suggests V16-40
You plot a poison gas attack in order to steal a mystical artifact.


***** VILLAIN LEVEL 20-29 *****

Willy Wheeler

Celebrity Kidnapping (#1388) V22-40
Kidnap a famous celebutante and hold her for ransom. Comedy.

The Hydroponic Psychotropic Freak Out! (#1960) V1-54, should be 25-50
Beat up hippies for Arachnos. Parody, single mission.

Hopeless (#29262) V21-30
A businessman hires you to avenge the loss of his granddaughter.

All in the Family (#128109) V25-30
A Family capo hires you for a series of contract killings, which soon become personal.

Backwards Day (#329000) V25-30
Help Diviner Maros with his bizarre time travel problems.

The Descender (#339222) V25-31
An ancient prophecy makes you the messiah of a race of shark men.

Fear and Loathing on Striga (#350522) V20-29
Arachnos sends you to restructure the balance of power on Striga Isle.

The Do-It-Yourself Doom Army Project (#410418) V25-54 (mostly)
An unconventional advisor helps you recruit a private army.


***** VILLAIN LEVEL 30-39 *****

Your Laptop

Curse of the Emerald Parakeet (#1567) V35-40
You steal a cursed artifact that you can't get rid of, but everyone wants it.

The Butterfly Effect (#2965) N35-54
Help Dr. Aeon muck with alternate dimensions.

Becky's Revenge (#60197) V35-54
Help Becky the Tarantula Mistress get her revenge on Fusionette. Comedy.

Papers and Paychecks (#298290) Rog32-45
Give up your life of crime and get a steady job working for Crey Industries. Comedy.

Inhuman Resources - Inevitable Evolution at Work (#298132) mostly V1-40, should be V30-40
Recruit with the Inevitable Evolution VG, a shady group of dissidents in the Rogue Isles.

Deadfellas (#322373) V30-54
A routine contract killing leads into a confrontation between the Family and the undead.

Who Dares Wins (#454805) Rog30-35
A Sky Raider captain meticulously plans an attack on Terra Volta, but encounters unforeseen complications.

Groundbreaking new OCD treatment! (#482896) V30-54
A mad scientist building a mad science device asks for your help assembling the necessary parts. A little silly.

***** VILLAIN LEVEL 40-50 *****

Johnny Sonata

Johnny Sonata and the Hitmen (#1001) mostly V5-54, should be V40-50
Help Johnny Sonata reunite his old band.

Axis and Allies (#1379) V40-50
Go back in time to lead the Axis to victory in WW2.

The Return of the Lizard People (#2974) H1-54 (should probably be V40-54)
Help Dr Aeon muck (some more) with alternate dimensions.

Forget the Rose, Send Me the Thorns (#8925) V45-54
Help a CoT mage with his love life. Oh, and save the world. Comedy.

Of Sound Body and Mind (#13107) Rog45-54
A mob lawyer asks you to help execute a late mobster's will.

Scourge of the Phalanx: Reunion (#26048) mostly V1-54, should be V40-50
Help a villain group wreak vengeance on the Vindicators.

M for Malta (#99260) mostly V41-50
While following up some leads from a new contact, you discover a Malta conspiracy.

Through Rose-Tinted Glasses (#101681) V40-54
Exploit a nearsighted old lady who mistakenly believes you're a hero.

Vernon von Grun's Extraordinary Extradimensional Excursions (#115174) V48-54
A mad scientist sends you to explore alternate dimensions. Comedy.

Becky and Mandy: A Tale of Two Mistresses (#229350) varies around V40-54
Becky the Tarantula Mistress asks for your help rescuing her friends.

Why We Fight (#253990) V40-54 (mostly)
Virtual reality propaganda for why Lord Recluse is the best. Comedy.

Attack of the 50 Foot Villain (#363366) V41-54
An accident causes you to grow to giant size and attack Tokyo. Single mission.

Tidebringer (#385180) V40-54
Arachnos wants you to deal with the spectral pirate problem.

Until the End of the World (#431270) V40-54
You profit from another villain's obsession with androids.

Arena (#456200) V40-54
Arachnos assigns you as security for a high stakes arena gladiator match.

Interdimensional Headache (#459592) V41-54
Work with a rogue portal researcher to explore another dimension for profit.

=======================




HOW THIS WORKS

* I basically am listing arcs that satisfy one of:
--- I gave it 5 stars.
--- I liked it a lot. (Not the same as getting 5 stars.)
--- I felt it was "noteworthy" in some way.
* I will only list arcs that I've actually played through, that are still published.
* I will gradually add more arcs to this list as I find more.
* You can suggest arcs for me to consider, but I don't promise to play them; I'm now playing arcs purely because I want to.
* If I do play them, I don't promise to list them here. Please don't yell at me if I don't list your favorite arc. My selections are purely at my discretion.
* I am currently lumping Vigilante arcs in with Hero arcs, and Rogue arcs with Villain arcs, following the practice of canonical CoH arcs.

Arena review
Arc ID: 390921
Keywords: Complex Mechanics, Drama, Romance
Morality: Villainous
Level range: 40-54
Warnings: AVs, EBs

The premise is that the player is an Arachnos soldier assigned to handle security for a sporting event held in St Martial. I played a 50 fortunata on default difficulty. The contact is Amanda Vines.

[5.0] points to start.

Mission 1
Briefing: I like the "newscast" style of the briefing. It seems the sporting event is the pseudo-PvP gladiator matches, a "purely cerebral display of skill". I like how it smoothly introduces my role as "security" for this event; the initial clue also reinforces this. The mission accept message and send-off message tie in nicely, as well.

[+0.1] Neat initial briefing.

Inside the mission my goal is to "Stop the Freakshow rampage". I find B4nKbUsTah who...starts speaking in rhyme. Okayyy. The lines make sense at least.

I beat up B4nKbUsTah, who admits in dialog that this was all a publicity stunt by Pohsyb.

I also rescue Mrs. Thales from some Freaks, she also suggests Pohsyb is trying to cheat to win this competition, in rhyme. (Though "lunatic" doesn't really rhyme with "tricks".)

Either defeating B4nKbUsTah or rescuing Mrs. Thales triggered the new objective "Pohsyb finally showed up/Make sure he's safe" (not quite sure which, both happened at close to the same time).

I rescue Amanda Vines and The Arbiter, and they each have some fun lines that might be foreshadowing. We'll see.



[-0.01] Typo: "profesional" -> "professional" (Amanda's dialog)

There's an extra period at the end of The Arbiter's description, but I believe this is his standard description, so didn't mark off for it.

Rescued Krylov and Castle. They also had good dialog.

Deep in the mission, I found Pohsyb as a hostage.

[-0.01] Typo: "excentric" -> "eccentric" (Pohsyb's description)

Puzzlingly, he is guarded by the Family instead of Freakshow. Their dialog does explain this, though. Rescuing him completes the mission.

[-0.1] Needs some clues: the various hostages said an immense amount of plot-relevant information in their dialog, about how Pohsyb was behind the Freak attack and is crazy and robbing the casino, and so on. I think some of this info should appear in the clue journal, for later reference and/or for players who aren't in range of the significant dialog when it occurs.

[+0.1] Nice use of hostages. They all were relevant to the story and had good dialog that provided useful exposition.

[-0.01] Wrong form of address: "Mr Krylov" should be "Dr. Krylov" in the debriefing (note punctuation also)

Krylov speaks in broken English in the debriefing, but I assume this is deliberate. Basically the Americans accuse Pohsyb of staging the whole thing (which may, in fact, be true) but Pohsyb and Krylov deny everything.

[5.07] at end of mission 1.

Mission 2
Briefing: some good exposition of the fallout from mission 1 and the first gladiator match that is apparently occuring in mission 2.

Although the briefing hints at how to get into the arena, it's a little confusing why the mission has me "Infiltrate the Arena", at least until I read the mission accept clue, which explains it all. I feel this is a little awkward but with the clue explaining the actual mission, I didn't mark any points off for this. Apparently I'm being sent to try and bribe Castle to throw the game. Failing that, I'm to meddle with the game's results.

[-0.01] Phrasing: "What the nanites do?" -> "What do the nanites do?" (in mission begin clue)

I quickly locate Castle, guarded by Rikti drones (curse their high perception!). Rescuing him from the Rikti (err, "Castle's Gladiators"), Castle ungraciously refuses my bribe. Stupid heroes and their stupid ethics!! This triggers an objective to "Seal the arena/Use the control panel".

I do like how Castle's dialog (as I move away and close to him again) depicts him waffling and considering the bribe. Neat trick.

[+0.1] Nice dialog.

Exploring the map further I find some battles between Castle's gladiators and Pohsyb's gladiators, which does a good job of illustrating the "gladiator match".

I eventually find the Arena Control Panel; clicking it triggers a "The Arbiter has arrived/Force a stalemate" objective. Apparently I force a stalemate by attacking the Arbiter. I believe attacking an Arbiter in the Rogue Isles is a death sentence, but the clue assures me "nobody can see what happens", so...what the heck.

I find the Arbiter again. Interestingly this time he has a custom description that is missing the punctuation error from mission 1. (OK maybe that's not so interesting...maybe I obsess over typos too much...)

I decide the best way to fight the Arbiter is to train him onto Pohsyb, who then begins helping me fight the Arbiter. This also implicates him in my crime in case he is tempted to reveal that I ganked the Arbiter. Or at least that was my reasoning....

While fighting the Arbiter he says:

[NPC] The Arbiter: You dare strike me? I'm the Arbiter, my word is law! What do you mean you "have orders"?

[-0.01] Formatting: there's an extra space between "What do you" and "mean you" (in the Arbiter's dialog).

[-0.1] Logic problem: if activating the control panel "seals the arena shut", how is it that the Arbiter is able to enter afterwards? Perhaps he has the access code, just as I did, but then the arena would not be "sealed shut" and I could not "have the Arbiter trapped in the sealed arena" (since he could use the same code to leave).

Debriefing: the Arbiter emerges, presumably under the mind-control alluded to in the mission begin clue, and gives a lengthy speech declaring the game invalid.

[-0.01] Confusing: what does all this stuff about "Chanting gurus, walkie-talkies, walkouts, hypnotists" mean? (Apparently this is a direct quote from the musical, so only marked this -0.01 rather than -0.1, but this will still be baffling to people who don't know that.)

[-0.1] Don't understand: if we have the Arbiter under mind control at this point, why don't we simply disqualify Castle and proclaim Pohsyb the winner? I don't understand how we benefit from invalidating this game and simply scheduling a rematch. This would make more sense if Pohsyb was losing the current game. But Castle's dialog suggests that this isn't the case.

[-0.01] Inconsistent: the initial orders were to "force a stalemate", but having the game declared invalid by the judge is not the same as a stalemate. A stalemate is still a valid game. (Nitpicky, so only marked off -0.01.)

[4.93] at end of mission 2.

Mission 3
Briefing: The contact expositions to the camera that the contestants are meeting to schedule a new game.

[-0.01] Phrasing: "A vehicle pulls up now" -> "A vehicle is pulling up now" (in briefing)

Another mission begin clue gives me my actual mission briefing. Now it seems we are going to throw the game to Castle, in exchange for him releasing a prisoner. Hmmm

Was I actually trying to make Castle win in game 2? I thought I was trying to bribe him to lose, but now I'm a little confused.

[-0.01] Typo: "Zigg" -> "Zig" (more typical spelling) in "The Deal" clue

Considering Castle already declined a bribe offer from us in mission 2, I'm not sure why my superior officer thinks he would accept one this mission, but I'll go with it for now.

The map is very small and I quickly locate Castle and rescue him from some Family. Castle seems more willing to deal now. Rescuing Castle triggers Krylov's appearance; Krylov threatens to inform on me, but I beat him up and basically Castle agrees to betray his ideals and Krylov agrees to betray his buddy and we're all very happy and villainous.

[+0.1] This actually does feel pretty perfidious. Good stuff for a villainous arc.

The mission was very short (all the action occurred within sight of the mission door), but I thought this was fine.

[-0.01] Form of address: "Mr. Krylov" should be "Dr. Krylov" (in debriefing)

[-0.01] Character voice: Krylov's dialog here has lost the broken Russian/English thing that he was doing earlier in the arc (in debriefing)

[-0.01] Typo: "completly" -> "completely" (in debriefing)

[-0.1] Confusing: Mrs. Thales is talking like Castle is leaving her. This isn't otherwise hinted at before this, unless it's meant to be implied that Castle is ditching Mrs. Thales as part of defecting to the Rogue Isles (this isn't clear, if so).

[4.88] at end of mission 3.

Mission 4
Briefing: apparently Castle had a change of heart and is now preventing the Arachnos breakout from the Zig. What happened to his heroic ethics? He took the bribe, he should stay bribed! Bah.

[-0.01] Typo: "Ziggursky" -> "Zigursky" (twice, once in briefing, once in send-off)

[-0.01] Typo: "satelite" -> "satellite" (twice, once in briefing, once in mission accept)

"one night in Brickstown can make a hard man humble" -- groan.

[-0.01] Typo: "Zigg" -> "Zig" (in mission objectives)

Breaking into the Zig, I slip past the PPD and through the tunnels to get inside, and I quickly free Mrs. Vines from her jail cell. Apparently Castle did arrange for her to be transferred to the low security cell block, after all?



This triggers "Lead the prisoner to the flier" and "Defeat Castle to escape" as objectives. I think some Longbow may have spawned too.

I wonder if Mrs. Vines should be in a "Prisoners" or "Spies" faction instead of "Civilian"? (Just a random thought.) Getting Mrs. Vines to the flier causes her to mention that she's Amanda Vines' mother.

[-0.1] Continuity: this appears to conflict with the "Kidnap Amanda Vines' Family" mission given by Westin Phipps, which places Amanda Vines' mother as a civilian in the Rogue Isles, not a spy who has been in the Zig for the past 7 years.

I go to confront Castle to "escape" and his dialog (recognizably from One Night in Bangkok - I know the song from when it was popular, but hadn't seen the musical) makes it clear that he's still selling out to us. Great.



Defeating Castle completes the mission.

Debriefing: back in St. Martial, Amanda Vines continues her intrepid reporting as we show up with Castle in tow.

[-0.01] Phrasing: "It's going down next to the casino" makes it sound like the flier is crashing. Suggest rephrasing to "It's landing next to the casino".

[-0.01] Phrasing: "The chopper's setting down on the helipad and the doors open" -> "The chopper's setting down on the helipad. The doors are opening!"

Amanda's reaction to seeing Mrs. Vines is very interesting. I'm quite curious about that subplot now.

[+0.1] Intriguing subplot.

[4.83] at end of mission 4.

Mission 5
Briefing: Amanda approaches me and she claims Castle told her everything about how I bribed him and he turned Mrs. Vines loose and all.

[-0.1] Doesn't make sense: why would Castle confide all his dirty laundry to Amanda Vines, a reporter?? Revealing his wrongdoing seems unwise considering it would probably get him kicked out of the hero profession and removed from the championship title.

[+0.1] Good writing: I liked the way Amanda asks after her mother, then offers several possible bribes. This worked for me.

I'm scripted to decline all the bribes and so she says I need to meet up with Castle to get his thanks. The mission begin clue tells me a little about what Mrs. Vines' fate ultimately will be.

[-0.01] Phrasing: "we must make certain of what is true and what is mere propaganda imprinted on her mind through the primitive and destructive brain-washing techniques our enemy is likely to use" -- I couldn't figure out what this was supposed to mean. On the face of it, it sounds like "we" are going to use the techniques of "our enemy", but this doesn't make sense. (In "Endgame" clue.)

Castle wanting to "thank me properly" sounds pretty ominous to me, but I go in the mission anyway.

[-0.01] Typo: "accomodations" -> "accommodations" (in mission entry popup)

The mission is full of Arachnos who are apparently hostile to me ... I'm not quite sure why. Then I overheard some dialog from "The Arbiter"...uh oh. That must be why. Some patrols also exposition about the Arbiter making sure no one can meddle with the championship.

[NPC] Tarantula: He takes that game way too serious if you ask me.

[-0.01] Phrasing: "way too serious" -> "way too seriously" (in patrol dialog)

[-0.1] Don't understand: I have the objective "What is Krylov doing here?" but Krylov is not in sight, so I don't know why I should be wondering this. Instead it forces me to search for Krylov, which seems counterintuitive to the spirit of a "What is Krylov doing here?" objective.

Found the Arbiter, he's back to the default Arbiter Sands description with the extra period. I wonder if you should standardize his description for all of his appearances in this arc, to add the custom text about arbitrating the championship games. The Arbiter didn't seem to be required, so I left him alone.

I eventually track Krylov down and he monologues about how all the gladiator players now hate me for various reasons.


Hey, I was just following orders, buddy.

I beat Krylov up. This triggers the "Pohsyb thinks you robbed him of his title/Defeat him" objective.

[-0.01] Pohsyb's description is unchanged from his earlier appearance, but I must point out that "He is the current undisputed Arena gladiator champion of the world" is no longer correct, at this point in the story arc.

Pohsyb has an arena gladiator with him. I thought this was odd; I am not sure whether arena gladiators are able to leave the actual arena. Couldn't find anything that said they couldn't, though.

Defeating Pohsyb triggers an objective called "Castle regrets what you made him do/Send him packing".

I found Castle and fought him. He uttered the lines:

[NPC] Castle: They all think they see a man who doesn't know which move to make, which way to go, whose private life caused his decline wrecked his grand design. Some are vicious, some are fools, and others blind -- to see in me one of their kind.

[NPC] Castle: Nothing you have said is revelation. Take my blues as read; my consolation?
[NPC] Castle: Finding out that I'm my one true obligation!
[NPC] Castle: And so you're letting me know how you've hated my success.
[NPC] Castle: And every poisoned word showed that you never understood. Never!
[NPC] Castle: Is there no one in my life who will not claim the right to steal my work, my name?
[NPC] Castle: My success, my fame -- and my freedom!

[-0.01] Dialog: While these are the apparently lines from the musical, it didn't feel like they fit the situation in the story arc. It just felt like he was reciting lines from a play. (I only marked this -0.01 since it is intended as a reference. But it still felt somewhat out of context.)

Gameplay: Chasing down triggered spawns on an outdoor map was mildly annoying, but the sequence of objectives was only 3 links long and the map wasn't that large, so letting that go.

Debriefing: a good wrap-up of the story, telling a little bit about what happens to the major characters.

[-0.01] "Mr. Krylov" should be "Dr. Krylov" (in debriefing)

[-0.1] Dangling plot thread: Arbiter Sands and Arachnos in general wanted me dead during mission 5, how did I get out of that?

[-0.1] Don't understand: why was Amanda Vines crying at the end of mission 3? I thought it had something to do with her mother, but she clearly was surprised by her mother's appearance at the end of mission 4, so it couldn't have been.

[-0.01] Formatting: souvenir title is too long to fit in the default width text box. I can only read "Arena Gladiator World Championship Promotio" before it gets cut off.

[-0.01] Typo: "Ziggursky" -> "Zigursky" (in souvenir)

[-0.01] Continuity: "forcing the first match...into a stalemate" - actually it was declared invalid by the Arbiter, not a stalemate (in souvenir)

[-0.01] Continuity: the souvenir says Krylov revealed that Pohsyb is agoraphobic, and this was used against Pohsyb. This never occurred during the actual story arc. I saw where it was stated that Castle won, but it seemed to occur off-camera between mission 4 and mission 5.

Although Castle has some good motivation for regretting his choice even as presented, I think it would be just a little stronger if you made it clearer that Castle regrets losing his wife as well. It seemed like Mrs. Thales vanished at the end of mission 3 and was never mentioned again.

[+0.1] I thought the whole premise of this arc was really quite cool.

[4.53] at end of mission 5.

Overall
I thought this was a neat story about the rivalry between the two players and how Arachnos wanted to use this to further their own goals. I liked the idea that it was an adaptation of a musical; though in places using the exact lines from the musical didn't feel like it quite fit. The way all the briefings and debriefings were written as reporting by Amanda Vines, with a few lines interjected by the player, was really well done. I liked the way supporting characters and dialog were used to further the story. I liked that there was a lot going on, with several subplots; though I felt some of these subplots needed more closure.

Rounding 4.53 up, I gave this arc 5 stars.

--------------

That's it for (formal) reviews from me, for the time being. Thanks everyone, for all your support!

Here's my batch of villainous arcs:


Celebrity Kidnapping (#1388) V30-40
Kidnap a famous celebutante and hold her for ransom.

Papers and Paychecks (#298290) V32-45
Give up your life of crime and get a steady job working for Crey Industries.

Axis and Allies (#1379) V40-44
Go back in time to lead the Axis to victory in WW2.

Attack of the 50 Foot Villain (#363366) V41-54
An accident with portal tech causes you to grow to giant size and attack Tokyo.

Personally, rather than asking that the devs lower the bar for the number of unique plays required, I would much prefer that the devs work on growing the pool of active MA players, by making story-oriented MA arcs something that players want to do, and are excited about. More people actively playing MA arcs would mean more arcs would get more plays, and more HoF arcs being crowned would naturally follow.

For awhile it looked like we were going in that direction, with the various events Dr. Aeon sponsored, which I thought were quire well received. Right now, however, it doesn't feel like that's happening. Though I do believe the devs want Mission Architect to succeed, and I absolutely agree that exploits need to be quashed, in my opinion the last patch was much too punitive towards legitimate story arcs. This ended up hurting the level of player interest in Mission Architect, and not enough has been done to correct that.

This is pretty far afield from the original topic, but regarding "purging" old arcs, I think you could implement a much less drastic solution as follows:

* Create a new "freshness" classification for arcs. An arc can be "fresh" or "stale".
* A newly published arc is marked "stale".
* An arc is marked "fresh" if someone (including the author) plays through the arc from beginning to end.
* An arc is marked "stale" if the author republishes it. (But becomes "fresh" again if the author playtests it.)
* Every patch (or possibly only patches that affect MA) automatically marks all arcs "stale", except for honored arcs (guest author, dev choice, hall of fame). Honored arcs are permanently "fresh".
* Add a "freshness" search criteria allowing users to search for "fresh" "stale" or "don't care" on freshness.
* Set the default search to only search for "fresh" arcs.

Advantages:
* Automatically expires old arcs that are not maintained, without actually deleting them. (However, you can save a beloved arc whose author has vanished by playing through it on your own.)
* Encourages authors to playtest their own arcs after each republish and after each patch. (This is a good practice in general.)
* Low development effort (at least, I think so)
* If you vanish for a year and your arc goes stale, you can come back and it's still there, though it may need some sprucing up.


This doesn't address the exp issues, but would address the clutter issues. Not sure if cleaning up the arc clutter is even on dev radar at this point (I'm sure there's a lot of bigger fish to fry), but thought I'd put this forward just in case.

5/10/2010

Work has been pretty busy so I've been rather slow at updates. In fact, this update only catches me up to the middle of last week.

Tue 4/27

Strong Woman (50 inv/SS tanker) did a successful Master of the ITF with a 7 player team (tanker, 3 VEATs, FF, rad, scrapper) in 1hr 15min.

Strong Woman went on to do a Statesman TF with Whirligig SG (3 defenders, 1 controller, 3 blasters, 1 tanker). Mostly went fine, until I tried tanking Lord Recluse from the ground, just to see if I could. Lord Recluse smashed me flat almost instantly. Despite my 90% lethal RES and having eaten 2 big purples to raise my DEF, he somehow could hit me for 1841 lethal damage. I'm not quite sure how people tank this guy face-to-face! I ended up going back to the fly/taunt strategy, which worked fine, and we finished in 1hr 15mins. I got an Endoplasm SHO.

Wed 4/28

Arrow Girl (20 arch/nrg blaster) did the new Positron TFs, doing "Rule of Three" (Part 1) on a 3-player team that finished in 50m 52s and got her to level 21. I love the evil clones that you encounter in the last mission!

Then she did "Dam Heroes" (Part 2) on an 8-player team; had a team wipe against a Nictus cyst crystal (we had a kheldian on the team) and a semi-wipe trying to stealth/TP to Rollister, where we got team TP'd to a spot where we immediately aggroed 3 mobs. The last mission with all the triggered objectives felt very long to me. Finished in 1hr 45min and got to level 23.

Overall I really like the Positron TF revamps; the missions and bad guys that you fight were a lot more interesting, and I like that it's split between two TFs now, so it isn't just a huge solid chunk of time. Only downside is that it's a much lower merit reward.

Thu 4/29

I started "Teal Serpent", a new archery/traps corruptor, borrowing the name from a historical villain who fought Atlas back in the 1940s. I like the idea of legacy heroes and villains and figure my Teal Serpent would be a descendant of the historical one. I purposely made Teal Serpent's costume really shiny (metallic textures) because I really enjoy the reflections in Ultra Mode. Solo'd to level 3, then joined an 8-player pickup team that got Teal Serpent to 8.

Thunder Girl (50 elec/SR scrapper) did a speed ITF in 31m 0s.

Goth Angel (13 arch/nrg blaster) started Rule of Three TF on a 3-player Sisterhood team that was scouting out the new TF for an upcoming Sisterhood event. I thought this was a good idea (it's always unfortunate when someone tries to run a TF event and has no clue how it actually works) but it made our progress really slow, so I had to quit for the night about halfway through.

Fri 4/30

Police Woman (and all my other alts) got the Exultant badge today, for the anniversary event.

Water Lily (21 rad/storm corruptor) joined a 6-player Silver Mantis TF; finished in 1hr 34m and got to level 23. A teammate complimented me on using hurricane to debuff Colonel Duray in the final mission, while holding other Sky Raiders at bay, which was nice.

Sat 5/1

Spy Girl (23 MA/ninj stalker) solo'd through The Warburg Connection, which was a very good espionage-related AE story arc where you're sorta working for Arachnos, but also involves lots of double-crossing and personal agendas. I gave it 5 stars.

I spent some time playtesting and tuning my own various AE arcs. On various toons I modified, republished and playtested Teen Phalanx Forever, Talos Vice and A Warrior's Journey - the Flower Knight Task Force. With the I17 changes, I was able to pick powers for custom mobs that increased their exp slightly; though it's still capped equal to the value for a standard PvE mob, at least you can reduce the penalty somewhat. The blanket nerf on allies and hostages still hits exp pretty hard in my various story arcs (as I use both heavily), but I don't feel there's as much I can do about that. Yet. Supposedly a fix for that is "coming soon".

I brought Shield Maiden (49 mace/shield brute) to Rikti War Zone for an Anniversary costume contest; I like how her Valkyrie-esque costume looks, but didn't end up winning or placing.

Teal Serpent joined a 7 player pickup team of mostly demon MMs that did the Atlas mayhem, the Plague Carrier mini-arc, and the King's Row mayhem. Got a compliment on Teal Serpent's costume from a teammate, and got to level 14.

Sun 5/2

Ran Blond Justice (50 broadsword/shield scrapper) around a circuit of the wall in Cimerora, beating up Cimeroran traitors just because. A passerby complimented me on her costume.

Arrow Girl (23 arch/nrg blaster) did a 5 player Sister Psyche TF; we were quite light on support, with a good thermal and a weak force fielder (I don't think he EVER cast bubbles) on the team. We had one team wipe in a Council mission, due to several people were AFK while the rest of us were pressing on. Global chat was down when I accepted this team invite, and when they came up, I realized I had joined the team of someone I had previously 1-starred, something I normally would not do. But he was doing such a great job of leading the TF and getting us through missions that I was forced to revise my opinion upwards. Finished the TF in 2h 9m and got Arrow Girl to level 25.

Teal Serpent (14 archery/traps corruptor) joined a 5 player villain team that cleared most of the PTS station map. After that I did a solo playtest of my Two Tickets to Westerly AE arc after that, to make sure it was still working in I17. This all got Teal Serpent to level 17.

Mystery Girl (42 emp/pistols defender) participated in the Sisterhood Sunday event, doing Rule of Three TF on an 8 player team. We had one team wipe against CoT in the last mission due to overaggro. Facing the evil duplicates, the team quickly decided that the controller's top priority should be confusing my evil duplicate, which makes perfect sense (an active enemy empath is always bad news), but was also a nice ego boost. Finished in 1hr 18min.

Continued on to do the Dam Heroes TF on a 7 player team. No serious problems, though the tanker ran out of time and had to quit midway through. Finished in 1hr 12min, got Mystery Girl to level 43 and the Task Force Commander accolade.

Markets were down over the weekend, and someone was asking on LB for Kinetic Combat IOs. I'd been stockpiling those, so I ended up bartering a set of 4 Kinetic Combat (AD, DE, DER, DR) IOs for an Apocalypse (chance for negative) recipe and 25M influence. I thought this was a good deal at the time (based on the prices I remembered before the Wentworth's downtime) but after the markets came back up, Kinetic Combat prices had a huge upwards price spike while Apocalypse prices stayed stable. For example, I sold a couple Kinetic Combat (DER) IOs individually for 200M each after markets came up, much higher than the pre-outage price, and more than the value of an Apocalypse proc. So in hindsight, this wasn't as good a deal as I thought. But hey, I sold two Kinetic Combat (DER) IOs for 200M each, so I'm not too sad about it.

Someone on the MA Arc Finder global channel was going crazy because she had unpublished her story arc and couldn't find her local copies of the story arc, so thought her story arc was permanently gone. This seemed rather puzzling to me, but I was eventually able to help her by suggesting she check her recycle bin, where she found her story arc files. Heck if I know how she got them into the recycle bin without realizing it, but it seemed to fix her problem.

Star Amethyst (50 dark/ice defender) joined a 6-player ITF set on +2 difficulty. We had a veteran team and had no problems, finishing in 36m 1s. A teammate was impressed by my tar patch/ice storm/blizzard AoE combo, calling it "sexy". Or maybe it was just the visual appearance of purple ice crystals falling from the sky. Anyway, found a Mako's Bite (ADER) recipe and a Doctored Wounds (EH) recipe as drops.

Mon 5/3

Teal Serpent (17 arch/traps corruptor) joined a 6-player pickup team that got her to level 19. Everyone on the team was a demon MM except me. That's been about par for the course on lowbie villain teams since I17.

Tue 5/4

Spy Girl (23 MA/ninj stalker) joined a 5-player Silver Mantis SF. Due to vagaries of the team leader disconnecting and a lower level person becoming leader, we ended up being at level 24 on +1 difficulty. This meant we were mostly fighting +3s. We had a corruptor disconnect and never come back, then the original leader ran out of time and quit the TF, leaving us with 3 players on the second to last mission, fighting at high difficulty. At this point the team felt we couldn't finish the TF, and the other two players quit, leaving me solo.

I decided to try and press on while alone, because I'm pigheaded stubborn sometimes. The second to the last mission is a Defeat All, which kinda sucks for stalkers, but I managed to work my way through it. The very last mission against the Sky Raiders helicarrier was pretty cool as a lone stalker; I snuck up to the various gun turrets and took them out one-by-one. After clearing enough of these, I did manage to spawn Colonel Duray as an AV. I tried 3 times but just could not beat him, even with a full load of inspirations and a Shivan. I could dent his hit points some, but would run out of inspirations before I could really get him to low life. Duray's ability to spawn more Sky Raiders bosses and FF Generators was pretty killer as well; I felt I needed to clear those guys out so as to get my shivan back onto Duray, but it burned too much time. I eventually had to quit the SF as being uncompleteable. It did get Spy Girl to level 25, though.

Mega (50 SS/will brute) did a speed ITF in 26m 30s.

Wed 5/5

Teal Serpent (19 arch/nrg corr) joined an 8-player pickup team that did one of the new villain arcs that got us the Bane of Ajax badge, and got Teal to level 20.

Millie Volt (49 elec/elec brute) did an 8-player Ice Mistral SF; went pretty straightforwardly, finishing in 49m 14s and getting Millie to level 50. (I'm not sure which level 50 this is for me. I've given up on counting.)

I think level 5 is too low to be expected to handle an Elite Boss. At level 5, you really only have 4 powers, one of which you were forced to take (and might suck). You might have TOs slotted. Most players I know, however, don't bother even slotting TOs, so they would have nothing slotted.

It's true that there are canonical level 5-10 villain arcs with EBs in them. However, I don't think the fact that the devs did it, makes it acceptable.

I do think a level 14 should be able to handle an EB just fine.

With the caveat that I know nothing about the particulars of your arc or your mission, in my opinion the Big Bad Guy of a level 5-14 arc should be a Boss. Or if you'd prefer to keep him an Elite Boss, I might suggest you raise the min level to around level 12 (for DOs).

After having written several story arcs, I find that you will always get some people who leave feedback saying it's too easy, and other people who leave feedback saying it's too hard -- no matter how easy or how difficult you make the opposition. My personal belief is that you want to strike a balance, but lean towards the easy side (like, 3 people who think it's too easy for every 1 person who think it's too hard). This is because "too easy" may be mildly disappointing, while "too hard" means either the player ragequits, or wins only after dying repeatedly (leaving the player with more of a negative feeling).

Also, players can usually fix "too easy" on their own, by raising their difficulty level. It's not usually possible to fix "too hard" this way.

The Greater Good
Arc ID: 395861
Keywords: Solo Friendly, Save the World, Drama
Morality: Heroic
Level range: 45-54
Warnings: EBs

The premise is that a mysterious organization is recruiting heroes, and you have the opportunity to join them. I played a level 50 AR/dev blaster, heavily IO'd for +recharge and +max HP. The contact is a custom female character in a white outfit.

[5.0] points to start.

Mission 1
Briefing: an old mentor recommends you to this new organization, the "Greater Good".

[-0.01] Presumes too much about the player: I think it is a little much to assume that the player was mentored by Captain Courageous. Some players may have very detailed back stories that don't allow for this. Perhaps have Captain Courageous be a hero you worked with (not necessarily your player's mentor), or make the mentor un-named so that it can fit with any player's back story. (This is rather nitpicky, so only marked off -0.01.)

[-0.01] Accept message of "I am not really sure I want to do this" is rather indecisive (i.e. unheroic sounding), particularly considering the story presents the player as approaching Angela Goodheart, and not the other way around. If you don't want the player to immediately jump on board, consider rephrasing to something like, "Can you tell me a little more?"

Send-off message: the contact asks you to "play along" and to rob a bank. She recognizes this isn't especially heroic but justifies this with "this bank is a rich man's bank" and "he has so much money, and he does nothing to help anyone but himself."

[-0.5] Motivation: as a hero, I really cannot justify robbing a bank and fighting innocent Longbow who happen to be guarding it. I appreciate that you've tried to describe this organization as "modern day Robin Hoods" and the bankers as being selfish rich people, but it is still stealing and very difficult to see this as heroic.

Inside the mission, the bank is guarded by Longbow. Some of them have some dialog expositioning that I'm not the first hero to break into this bank.

I end up stealthing past all the Longbow and just clicking the 3 safes. The first safe gives me the "Crumpled piece of paper" clue. Clicking the 3 safes completes the mission.

Debriefing: the contact says "give me the money, and trust me it will be used for the greater good." Somehow this sounds rather suspicious to me. Is she perhaps related to Westin Phipps? Maybe I'm just being paranoid.

[4.48] at end of mission 1.

Mission 2
Briefing: the contact says the money I stole helped a lot of people, so I should feel good about that. That is a nice touch. Now the contact wants me to find her brother, who also joined the Greater Good. So she wants me to infiltrate the Greater Good, to "get someone on the inside". Wait, isn't the contact herself a member of the Greater Good? Checking her info, it does say she's a recruiter for the Greater Good.

[+0.1] Like that the contact does go to the effort to claim that the stolen money was used for good.

[-0.1] Doesn't make sense: Angela is herself a member of the Greater Good, why would she need me to infiltrate the organization? She's already a member, and as a recruiter, she probably has better access to personnel files or other stuff that would help track down a member. I did see that Angela said she joined the Greater Good only to help find her brother in mission 1, but this still could use some explanation for why she needs me to help.

Send-off message: I'm to break Mr. Worthington, the founder of the Greater Good, out of prison. "Naturally, he was framed" and "No doubt you will have to take on some members of the Paragon Police".

[-0.5] Motivation: fighting the police and breaking someone out of jail seems really unheroic. The motivation presented for doing this feels pretty thin; the only reason we are doing this is because the contact said so. I think a lot of heroes would have a problem with breaking someone out of jail. (This would probably be fine, however, if this were a "Neutral" arc.)

I sneak past most of the guards and find Mr. Worthington in one of the holding cells. Defeating the police guarding him, I free Worthington, which completes the mission and gives me "Another crumpled piece of paper" as a clue.


This is going to be difficult to explain to the police chief.

[3.98] at end of mission 2.

Mission 3
Briefing: the contact wants me to kidnap the banker's daughter. I'm not exactly sure how this contributes to finding Angela's brother; I'm guessing it's to get me fully into the Greater Good organization.

Inside the mission, at least this time I'm fighting Family.

I find a wastebasket with "Yet another crumpled piece of paper" as a clue.

Found an urn and a painting that didn't do anything, but they kinda make sense for decoration in a rich mansion.



In the very back of the mission I find Nikki Richardson being guarded by some Family; after I free her, she starts following me. Though it doesn't look like I have an objective to lead her out.

[-0.01] Inconsistent: Nikki Richardson is in the "Richman Family" enemy group; I think she should be in "Richardson Family".

At this point I'm still missing the "See what you can find" objective; backtracking to the first floor I find a desk that I missed, which gives me the "Appointment book" clue and completes the mission. The clues appear to point towards some sort of collusion between Richardson and Worthington.

Debriefing: so we're holding Nikki for ransom for more "fundraising" for the Greater Good. (This again seems rather unheroic but I've probably marked off enough points for this already.)

[-0.01] Characterization: Angela is depicted as changing from "starts to cry" to "smiles brightly" in the same debriefing; this is too quick a change in mood, IMHO.

[-0.01] Punctuation: "help!." should be "help!" in the last sentence.

[3.95] at end of mission 3.

Mission 4
Briefing: so the final mission is to attend a party where I'm formally inducted into the Greater Good.

Send-off message: the contact finally realizes that Worthington isn't really a good guy, and maybe has something to do with her brother disappearing. She's planted some canisters of anti-mind-control gas in the mission that might free some of the other heroes from Worthington's control. I think the idea is to attend the party, free what heroes I can, then battle Worthington.

[-0.1] Don't understand: why is my objective to "Find the desk"? Angela did not mention anything about a desk. I thought maybe I should be releasing cannisters of gas.



Ran into some people partying, with a drum and dancing. Nice for background color. It would be nice if they had some dialog also. Same for the people holding hamburgers later on, the lady giving a speech on a soapbox, and so on; they look nice, a little dialog would be good, if reasonably practical. They should be congratulating me on being inducted to the Greater Good or something, since this party is, technically, in my honor. (Later I found they only get dialog if something aggros them; that may just be how friendly spawns work, not quite sure.)

I quickly locate the desk. It gives me the "Contents of desk" clue and triggers "Find the Computer" as an objective. I'm still not totally clear on my objectives (i.e. why I need to get the computer).

[-0.01] Capitalization: "desk" should be "Desk" to be consistent with how other glowies are marked.

[-0.01] Phrasing: "for at least 2 years and are their job is to train new recruits" -> "for at least 2 years, and their job is to train new recruits" (in Trainer description)

I had to explore most of the map before finding the computer in the very last room.

[-0.01] Capitalization: "computer" should be "Computer" in the glowy name.

Clicking the computer gives me "Contents of Project Robin Hood File" as a clue, and triggers "Find Mr. Worthington" as an objective.

Mr. Worthington is nearby and I battle him. I wonder if he should belong to "The Greater Good" faction instead of the "Worthington Family"?

When Mr. Worthington starts to run, he encounters the Greater Good trainees who are drinking tea. This actually does trigger their dialog (I guess they DO have dialog but it only goes off if they are aggroed) and they attack Mr. Worthington and help defeat him.

[-0.1] Don't understand: if Mr. Worthington has all these Greater Good people mind-controlled, why would they say "They are attacking our guest. Stop them!" and attack Mr. Worthington himself?

Defeating Mr. Worthington gives me a "List of Targets" clue and triggers the "5 canisters of gas to release" objective. I click one of the canisters and some of the Greater Good people start fighting each other (not sure if this was intentional or a leftover ambush from Mr. Worthington that finally reached me).

I end up having to backtrack over the whole map to look for the remaining canisters.

[-0.1] Gameplay: having to backtrack over the whole map to look for the triggered canisters is a little tedious. (It would be OK to have to explore the whole map the first time for the canisters, but having to re-trace my steps makes it a little tedious.)

More ambushes spawn and end up aggroing the various partygoers, with both friendly and hostile Greater Good mobs fighting each other. This is a little confusing but seems consistent with the story so far. I think I might like if the "friendly mobs" had dialog suggesting that they've been freed of the mind control effects of the chemical; I think that would help support the story a little better.

After some searching for canisters, clicking the fifth canister completes the mission.

[-0.01] I think it might be a little more dramatic if you flipped the objectives around so that defeating Worthington is the climax, rather than having the mission complete on a glowy click. Fighting the Big Bad Guy is a bit more exciting than combing the base for the last glowy.

Debriefing: pretty good explanation of the aftermath. I like that we find out what happened to Victor in the end; though it might be a little more evocative if the player actually gets to rescue a hostage named Victor sometime during the mission, rather than have him only appear in the debriefing.

[+0.1] Liked the final debriefing and the wrap-up of what happened to the various characters after the arc.

[-0.01] Don't understand: "it seems he tried to warn Worthington that something was wrong" doesn't quite make sense for Victor to do; if Victor found out that Worthington was the culprit, why would he try to warn Worthington? Perhaps you mean that Victor tried to confront Worthington and got captured as a result.

[-0.1] Dangling plot thread: after the player robs a bank and busts a convict out of prison, she should totally be wanted by the police, or there should be some explanation of how the player is ultimately exonerated for these crimes. Basically, the consequences of the criminal acts are never addressed in the story arc.

[3.60] at end of mission 4.

Overall
I like the basic story structure of Angela trying to get you to investigate the Greater Good organization and look for her brother. I found the set up to be somewhat implausible, however; I don't think there is enough justification presented that would make an average hero willing to do some of the criminal acts that are portrayed.

If the Greater Good is out robbing banks, kidnapping heiresses and breaking people out of jail, I actually think they would pretty quickly be labeled a villain organization and not a hero organization. Right now, the way the Greater Good is presented, I think the player would have to be pretty oblivious to not realize that these are not good guys.

I think I would find it more believable if the Greater Good were some shadowy vigilante supergroup, technically wanted by the law, but supposedly helping people. Perhaps Angela could have gone to the police after Victor's disappearance, and then Angela (and the police) ask the player to "go undercover" infiltrating the Greater Good. This would then explain away why the player has to rob the bank, etc., and why the player doesn't permanently get in trouble for these actions.

Also, a random unrelated idea: consider having Mr. Worthington be somehow related to Niles Worthington, the guy who sells out the Vendetti in a CoV mission. There's already sort-of a Family connection in the arc. You don't have to do much with this, but it would be a nice nod to in-game canon.

Anyway, rounding 3.60 up I gave this arc 4 stars.

----

My queue is now:

@FredrikSvanberg - Arena #390921 (V40-54)
---not accepting further submissions at this time---

Here's my 2 cents:

1. Why does the player summon the Fae, only to send them back in the end? Seems to me like you should either want to summon them, or want to get rid of them - not both. Basically, what's the motivation for the player to do all this? Why should I want to free the Fae or send them back to their homeland at the end?

2. As time goes on I'm gradually less excited by complex chains of required objectives such as described in mission 1 and mission 4. It's often too easy to have these break, or have these trigger an objective in an area the player has already explored, thus forcing the player to retrace her steps a lot.

3. Fae and Arachnos don't really "match" thematically, IMHO. You might consider using a more magic-focused group than Arachnos. Granted that Arachnos has those Mu mystics, but I just find the idea of Fae in an Arachnos base to be somewhat dissonant. Unless it's your intent that they seem out of place for humor value or something.

Hope that helps!

I had to update some custom mobs that used the "Metallic" texture (the Robotic Teen Phalanx), presumably due to the old Metallic being deprecated by I17's ultra mode.

I didn't notice any problem with custom factions that included recolored standard mobs, either mixed with custom mobs or not.

I didn't notice any problem with my one custom mob that used a shield (a Riot Cop with the riot shield).

I did notice that the portable generator destroyable object seemed to be missing; I was using that for a nuclear power plant in Attack of the 50 Foot Villain. Right now it just looks like some barrels; haven't decided what to replace it with, yet. I feel like a proper movie monster must destroy a nuclear power plant, though.

Changes:

* Made I17 compliant; went through all custom mobs and set them to use custom exp. Tweaked power selections slightly to try and make exp mostly in the 90-100% range.
* Restored Lady Sayaki's custom costume (she was temporarily a recolored Sister Solaris due to space constraints).
* Made Lady Sayaki an ally instead of a hostage. Motivation is that Lady Sayaki's psi damage can help the player break through Pearl Mantis's unstoppable, if it comes to that.
* Added a custom dual blades minion. Same uniform as the regular Spider Clan minion, but uses two swords instead of one, mostly for variety.

Playtested, seemed to run fine.