PoliceWoman

The Warburg Connection review
Arc ID: 364832
Keywords: Canon Related, Drama
Morality: Villainous
Level range: 30-40
Warnings: AVs, EBs, high level enemies at lower level than intended

The premise is doing some sort of espionage and assassination in Warburg, that leads to something else. I played a 23 MA/ninj stalker, mostly for thematic reasons (this is my "spy" themed character). The contact is Alan Desslock, one of the normal VEAT contacts.

[5.0] points to start.

Mission 1
Briefing: the contact asks me to check out a lab in Warburg that was used for Project FURY. I'm supposed to meet up with a contact of his.

[-0.01] Formatting: caption for mission briefing should be in larger type, bold, or another color, to distinguish it from the rest of the briefing.

[-0.1] Needs explanation: Alan never actually explains who his contact is, or how I should recognize him/her.

Got "Warburg" as a starting clue.

[+0.1] Great map choice for this mission, the twisted metal and the big jars with humanoid figures are a good match with the story.

Inside the mission there are a few Rogue Arachnos with some dialog providing some nice exposition. Apparently their boss (Blitz?) is also planning on profiting from Project FURY.

[-0.1] Don't understand: my only objective is to rescue Alan's contact. Based on the briefing, shouldn't I be looking for remnants of Project FURY to sell off?

I found Traitor Hamilton being guarded by a Rogue Arachnos. I actually found her quite hard to find because she was in a Rogue Arachnos uniform, so blended right in (though, this seems to make sense based on the story); ended up searching the whole cave before I found her near the entrance (admittedly, my fault for stealthing). Her description implies that she's working for Alan Desslock. Rescuing her satisfies the "Alan's contact might be in trouble" objective, gives me the "Rogue Fortunata Hamilton" clue and triggers "Traitor Franken must die!" as an objective.

[-0.1] Don't understand: Why do I need to kill Franken? The clue says "This information will be of no use to you if Traitor Franken is allowed to leave this laboratory alive", but I don't understand this. What info? The fact that Hamilton has gone rogue? Clearly that info is still useful even if Franken escapes. Or is it something else, something to do with Project FURY? Anyway, I don't get why Franken must die.

Searching the cave again, I eventually locate Traitor Franken, who appears to be a Crab spider. Apparently he also knows Hamilton is a double agent, which is a better explanation of why Hamilton wants him dead. (Hamilton still needs to explain this a bit better when she asks you to do this though.)



Defeating Franken doesn't complete his objective, I end up having to kill a random Rogue Tarantula (apparently part of his group) to achieve the objective and complete the mission. You might consider making him "only boss required" (not a big deal though).

Completing the mission gives me "The Auction" as a clue. It also basically says that Hamilton makes sure Franken is dead; I actually ditched her and solo'd Franken, but since this is the end of the mission, I assume Hamilton catches up with me and Franken after the mission or something.

Debriefing: basically the mission is a bust aside from safeguarding Hamilton's treachery. Oh well.

[-0.01] Inconsistent: Franken's dialog seems to suggest he has "this last piece of Project FURY research data", but I didn't get a clue to that effect, and Desslock basically says we didn't get anything. Seems like I should've been able to take whatever piece of Project FURY that Franken had; or perhaps his dialog should be different.

[4.78] at end of mission 1.

Mission 2
Briefing: Alan Desslock says an auction will be held, or maybe has been held, for the Project FURY info. Crey either will win, or has won, the auction, and is sending Hopkins to pick up the goods. So Alan wants me to steal both the FURY data and the payment Hopkins is bringing.

[-0.01] Confusing: The briefing is rather confusing as to whether the auction is still to come, or has already happened. Based on the writing, it seems like it would make the most sense if Crey has already won the auction, and that's why Hopkins is being sent.

This seems unnecessarily complex (wouldn't it be smarter just to steal the FURY data, either before or after the trade, so we only have to fight one faction?) but hey, it's good to be ambitious. So going to let that go.

Inside the mission, I find it full of Crey. Sneaking by Hopkins (who has some dialog explaining what he's buying Project FURY with...how random) I steal the Refrigerated Crate, which gives me the "Hero Samples and Files" clue. This triggers "Blitz's representatives have arrived! They have Project FURY" as an objective.

I also saw a Captain Grool of Vanguard being held captive by the Crey right near Hopkins. He didn't seem to be required; I rescued him just to see what would happen, but he simply ran off. Apparently he was a failed bidder for Project FURY.

I fought Hopkins just for fun (he was optional), got him below 25% health and he ran. I couldn't finish him off before he made it to an elevator and escaped.

Backtracking to the first floor I find Traitor Ackbar, a Rogue Arachnos who I don't think was there before.



[+0.1] Having Traitor Ackbar shout "It's a trap!" got a chuckle out of me.

Ackbar also mentions something about a deal with Malta. Defeating Ackbar gave me the "Project FURY Files" clue and completed the mission.

Debriefing: Alan Desslock sheds some light into why Blitz wanted the Hero DNA, and the deal with Malta. Seems to fit together nicely.

[4.87] at end of mission 2.

Mission 3
Briefing: suddenly Alan wants me to rescue some old army buddy of his?

[-0.1] Plot: rescuing Alan's buddy doesn't seem to have any logical connection to the plot of the story so far.

Inside the mission is full of Longbow. I find Traitor Hamilton guarded by some Longbow. Could she be Alan's friend? He never said who I was looking for!

[-0.1] Don't understand: who am I looking for here? Alan really should've said.

Rescuing Hamilton satisfies the "Create a diversion" objective and triggers "Release prisoners to cause diversion". She also mentions "Deathstalker", who maybe is Alan's friend.

[+0.1] Neat side objectives in this mission.

[-0.01] Inconsistent: in this mission when I ditch Traitor Hamilton she says:

[NPC] Traitor Hamilton: The web of fate is unraveling. I can't follow you.

but in mission 1 she says "unravelling" (with two L's). I didn't flag this before as unravelling is a valid UK spelling, so is fine to use, but it should be consistent.

Deep in the mission I find Deathstalker, who looks quite a lot like a Malta gunslinger, but he's actually in a "Scorpion Gang". The longbow guarding him say they know he's looking for Project FURY. Hmm, is he tied in with the plot after all?

Rescuing Deathstalker triggers "Rogue Arachnos are attacking!", "Lead Deathstalker to safety" and "Defeat Longbow Ballista to escape" as objectives. Whew!

This map is gigantic, and I stealthed by everything along the way, so I end up having to clear the whole way out with Deathstalker. The temptation to get him killed to avoid leading him out is strong.

Some Longbow do shoot at him, though, and he says:

[NPC] Deathstalker: It's just a fleshwound.

[-0.01] Typo: "fleshwound" -> "flesh wound" (Deathstalker's dialog)

I nearly have Deathstalker to the door, though he's fairly beat up from stray Longbow aggro (he was just a lieutenant for me, so pretty squishy). But when I reach Fortunata Hamilton again, she suddenly betrays me and kills Deathstalker. Huh? I thought she was working for Desslock.

[-0.1] Don't understand: why does Hamilton suddenly turn against me? The only thing she said was "Once again our destinies are entwined" which doesn't really sound like a betrayal line. Also, it's been solidly established that both I and Alan Desslock have massive blackmail info on her.

Deathstalker's defeat causes the mission to fail, though the mission exit popup has me meet him again at the Arachnos hospital.

Debriefing: Desslock is justifiably suspicious that I might've purposely got Deathstalker killed.

Still not sure what this mission had to do with the plot though.

[4.65] at end of mission 3.

Mission 4
Briefing: So now we're using the Project FURY files to try and grease Deathstalker's way into the Malta Group. Alan Desslock goes on for a bit about why he is doing this (an indirect sort of revenge) but I have to agree with the accept message, "What does that have to do with me?"

In the send off message, Desslock says something about how Deathstalker will be able to give me access to Malta weaponry, but this doesn't really add up. If I have the Project FURY stuff that Blitz was going to trade to Malta, we could just as easily trade the Project FURY files for Malta weaponry directly.

This arc is intended for VEATs; if I were a Soldier of Arachnos, should I really be helping Arachnos defectors join the Malta Group? I'm thinking probably not.

[-0.1] Motivation for doing this mission feels a little thin.

Inside the mission, it's mostly empty with a few Scorpion Gang NPCs with some dialog.

Deep in the submarine base part of the mission, I find a "Refridgerated Crate".

[-0.01] Typo: "Refridgerated" -> "Refrigerated" (in glowy name)

Clicking the crate triggers the "Crey has discovered the base! Hopkins has arrived" objective.

Leading the various Scorpion Gang members around, I wipe out most of the Crey patrols and beat up Hopkins.



[+0.1] I like that Hopkins expositions about a tracking device in the crate, that perfectly explains why they just happen to bust in at this time. (Also, nice Get Smart reference.)

Debriefing: Desslock can't believe he fell for the tracking device trick, then blames Hamilton for triple crossing us, I think.

[-0.1] Inconsistent: how can Desslock admit he fell for this trick due to sheer neglect, yet he insists that Hamilton falling for this must be enemy action? I really think we need to find a clue or something that points more directly to Hamilton being the culprit.

[4.54] at end of mission 4.

Mission 5
Briefing: so now Desslock wants me to help with housecleaning by eliminating Hamilton. Huh? What happened to Project FURY, Deathstalker, and so on?

Send off message: OK, so we're telling Arbiter Daos that the Scorpion Gang stole Project FURY, so that Hamilton can't claim that we gave them Project FURY for free (since that is apparently unbelievable.... which I agree with).

[-0.1] Doesn't make sense: The story thus far is that Desslock has been trying to help Deathstalker and the Scorpion Gang up to this point; why would he double-cross them at this point? I don't have a problem with villains double-crossing other villains, but what's the motive for it? It doesn't seem necessary to implicate the Scorpion Gang in order to incriminate Hamilton, we have plenty of dirt on her already. (This became clearer later on - see below.)

Inside the mission, I find and rescue Arbiter Daos.

[+0.1] Dialog: I like Arbiter Daos's dialog, and how it addresses the codeword Desslock gave me and hints at his appointment with Hamilton.

Rescuing Daos gives me the "You Told Arbiter Daos about Project FURY" clue and triggers "Display evidence on computer" objective.

Clicking the computer gets Arbiter Daos to say another line, giving me permission to take out Hamilton, and also spawns "Fortunata Hamilton has arrived" as an objective.



I fight Hamilton and defeat her; her dialog is also great, contradicting herself mid-fight. This gives me "Hamilton Takes A Fall" as a clue and completes the mission.

[-0.01] Mildly confusing: "Hamilton Takes A Fall" contains dialog, which I initially assumed to be from Fortunata Hamilton (since it's her name in the clue title), but after reading it, it sounds like it should be from Arbiter Daos. Suggest you clarify this.

Debriefing: OK, this fully explains why Desslock betrays Deathstalker.

[+0.1] Good explanation for why Desslock sells out the Scorpion Gang, and good ending.

Good souvenir that linked to one of Arbiter Daos's canonical story arcs.

[+0.1] Good tie-ins to the official canon.

[4.73] at end of mission 5.

Overall
This was a good espionage themed arc, with lots of hidden motives, double agents and double-crossing. I liked what Desslock's master plan ultimately turned out to be. Excellent connections with canon NPCs and plotlines. I also liked the dialog, both of the main characters and even the stray patrols who helped further the story with their lines.

My main objections are: what motive does the player have to help Desslock do all this? The player never gets much of anything out of it. Also, there weren't enough clues to lead the player to believe Hamilton double-crossed us; deciding she was betraying us felt like too much of a leap of logic.

Rounding 4.73 up, I gave this arc 5 stars.


----

My queue is now:

@Gypsy Rose - The Greater Good #395861 (H45-54)
@FredrikSvanberg - Arena #390921 (V40-54)
---not accepting further submissions at this time---

Change log:
- Clockwork Mage, Clockwork Ranger changed to use custom exp scales. They have the exact same powers, but now award 85% exp instead of 75% exp.
- Vahzilok Bride changed to use custom exp scales, added Strike. Now awards 100% exp instead of 75% exp.
- Fixed RoboCora's costume (messed up due to metallic textures changing), changed to use custom exp, added Fistful of Arrows. Now awards 100% exp instead of 75% exp.
- Fixed RoboVal's costume (messed up due to metallic textures changing), changed to use custom exp, added Hack. Now awards 95% exp instead of 75% exp.
- Changed RoboBABy to use custom exp, added Haymaker. Now awards 91% exp instead of 75% exp.

Exp in general is still fairly nerfed due to the patch that punishes you for having allies, hostages or objects, but can't really address that yet.

4/27/2010

RL work has been pretty crazy for me, so haven't updated in awhile. Will try to catch up now.

Thursday 4/15

Mystery Girl (40 emp/pistols defender) joined a 5 player Sister Psyche TF. This was a relatively novice team; we had one blaster who seemed particularly bad who quit the TF about midway through. Our tanker had severe connection problems. We waited until he got back from his latest disconnect and got into the mission, TPing him to Clamor before finishing the TF. Total time was 2h 37m; Mystery Girl got to 41.

Indigo Ifrit (50 fire/rad corruptor) did a speedy LGTF in 28m 33s and Shield Maiden (48 mace/shield brute) did a speed ITF in 22m 27s.


Friday 4/16

Checking Wentworth's on my main character Police Woman (50 AR/dev blaster), I hit the 2B influence cap without noticing it and kept retrieving sales from the broker; I think I lost about 100M infl to the infl cap this way. Oops. Supposedly this won't be possible any more in I17 due to market interface changes. I bought about 6 purple recipes for Strong Woman (my 50 inv/SS tanker) to burn off my excess cash.

After that I played Police Woman on a Numina TF (couldn't find any alt who needed the TF badge), which we finished handily in 1h 2m.

I ended up liking archery/nrg enough to re-roll Arrow Girl (formery an arch/dev blaster) as an arch/nrg blaster, mostly because I like the name Arrow Girl for an archer. Got to level 8 and solo'd the Negotiator badge mission.


Saturday 4/17

Playing Darla Doppler (44 kin/sonic defender) I helped a 5 player pickup team beat up a Carnies mission.

Did the Faathim TF on Kyrie Eleison (45 fire/regen scrapper), getting the Unveiler badge (for Fake Nemeses), Visionary badge (for Rularuu eyeballs) and Demon Slayer (for Baphomet). The final mission was in that horrible Rularuu mist-filled cave; we attempted to stealth to the AV, but those Rularuu eyeballs have good perception, so this resulted in lots of deaths until we got the whole team to the end. Finished in 2h 6m, got Kyrie to level 47, and got a Respec recipe, a Red Fortune (END) and a Prophecy as notable drops. I sold the respec recipe the same day for 190M influence, not bad at all.

Arrow Girl (8 archery/nrg blaster) joined an 8-player pickup team in the Hollows; did David Wincott's arc for 4 merits and the Frostfire arc for 11 merits. This got the new Arrow Girl to level 13.

Millie Volt (46 elec/elec brute) did a 1st villain respec in 12m 16s, I took the respec and the badge.

Darla Doppler did a Manticore TF, as part of the Signature TF marathon; finished in 1h 12m.

Kyrie Eleison did a Numina TF in 1h 6m. This got her an Obliteration (ACC/DMG/RCHG) recipe drop and the Task Force Commander accolade.

While checking the Talos Wentworth's on Strong Woman (50 inv/SS tanker), I heard a 24 blaster begging for help with a difficult mission on broadcast. I exemp'd to him and helped him on a Defeat All Warriors mission. The Warriors had a hard time hurting my invuln tanker even exemped to 24, and I got kinda cocky and herded a few groups of Warriors together to help the blaster's AOEs. But, I think my partner thought I was in trouble because I was surrounded by mobs! So he activated Whirlwind and knocked them all away from me! It was totally noob-like, of course, but I think he was trying to protect me, so it was actually kinda cute. Anyway, I helped him mop up the Warriors and he seemed very grateful for the help.

Shield Maiden (48 mace/shield brute) did a speed ITF in 29m 22s and got to level 49.

Star Amethyst (50 dark/ice defender) did a speed LGTF in 25m 8s, got a Doctored Wounds (END/HEAL/RCHG) recipe drop. Spent 400 of her merits buying two Luck of the Gambler (DEF/+7.5% rchg) recipes; these were selling for around 130M infl each, making the yield 650K/merit. This is actually much higher than my average result from random rolls (which tends to be aronud 250K/merit), so I'm thinking maybe buying recipes rather than random rolls may be more efficient use of merits now. (I didn't used to think so, but that was when LotGs were much cheaper.)


Sunday 4/18

Mega (50 SS/will brute) did a 1st villain respec in 10m 32s and took the 14 merits.

Responding to a call for help on LB, I brought Indigo Ifrit (50 fire/rad corruptor) to help fight Scrapyard.

Arrow Girl (13 archery/nrg blaster) joined a pickup team that did some missions in the Hollows and Skyway City. This finished her Julius the Troll arc (6 merits) and got her to level 16.

Water Lily (19 rad/storm corruptor) joined a Sisterhood team of villains doing missions in Sharkhead, which got her to level 21.

Mystery Girl (41 emp/pistols defender) did a 2nd hero respec as part of the Sisterhood Sunday event, finishing in 1h 1m. A teammate saw my costume and said, "You're Carmen Sandiego!" That wasn't what I was thinking at all when I made the costume, but I had to laugh and agree that I looked just like her.

Blond Justice (50 broadsword/shield scrapper) did an ITF in 29m 34s (nominally a speed TF, but we waited several minutes for someone who disconnected near the end). Also got a costume compliment while passing through Ouroboros.

Indigo Ifrit (50 fire/rad corruptor) joined a pickup Recluse SF, with a team of 4 corruptors (2 rads, 1 traps, 1 kin), 3 brutes and a dark MM. No one had unlocked Lord Recluse as a contact except for a level 49 corruptor, so we ended up making her the leader and we all exemped to level 49. Doing the LRSF at level 49 with a mostly inexperienced team seemed like a [i]really[i] bad idea, but for some reason I didn't quit. I did get to use Vengeance and Fallout a lot. We muddled through til the last mission, where we had 2 straight team wipes against the Freedom Phalanx, failing to kill any of them each time. One of the team members somehow was able to autocomplete the mission, completing the TF and awarding all the badges, despite the fact that we killed none of the heroes. I have no idea how he managed that, and he wouldn't tell; I think there was some time delay involved from whatever it was he did (he mentioned something about "everyone got 5 minutes?" earlier) but other than that, don't know.


Mon 4/19

Thunder Girl (50 elec/SR scrapper) joined a Master of Dr Kahn TF attempt. Someone died within the first few minutes of the first mission, but we elected to press on. Finished in 34m 48s.

Mega (50 SS/will brute) joined a very pickuppy clear-most ITF. Somehow I got stuck with the star after joining, mostly because I was level 50 and most of the others weren't. It was slow going and we had lots of deaths, but nevertheless finished in 58m 40s.

Spy Girl (18 MA/ninj stalker) solo'd Seer Marino's "Oh Wretched Man" story arc for 8 merits, getting to level 19.


lost my notes for 4/20 til 4/22


Fri 4/23

I used free respecs for Strong Woman (50 inv/SS tanker) and Police Woman (50 AR/dev blaster), in anticipation of another free respec being granted with the next issue. Builds as follows:


Strong Woman I17 respec

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.621
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Strong Woman I17 respec: Level 50 Science Tanker
Primary Power Set: Invulnerability
Secondary Power Set: Super Strength
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Presence
Ancillary Pool: Energy Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Resist Physical Damage -- ResDam-I(A), ResDam-I(19), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(21)
Level 1: Jab -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(3), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(3), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), P'ngS'Fest-Dmg/EndRdx(36), P'ngS'Fest-Dmg/Rchg(36)
Level 2: Dull Pain -- Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(A), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(21), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(29), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(29), Dct'dW-Heal(33), Dct'dW-Rchg(33)
Level 4: Temp Invulnerability -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(5), RctvArm-ResDam(7), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(7)
Level 6: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 8: Unyielding -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(9), RctvArm-ResDam(9), RctvArm-EndRdx(19)
Level 10: Taunt -- Zinger-Taunt(A), Zinger-Taunt/Rchg(11), Zinger-Taunt/Rchg/Rng(11), Zinger-Acc/Rchg(15), Zinger-Taunt/Rng(17), Zinger-Dam%(17)
Level 12: Haymaker -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(13), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(13), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(15), P'ngS'Fest-Dmg/EndRdx(34), P'ngS'Fest-Dmg/Rchg(34)
Level 14: Fly -- Frbd-Fly(A), Frbd-EndRdx(46), Flight-I(48)
Level 16: Health -- Numna-Heal/Rchg(A), Numna-Heal(50), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(50)
Level 18: Invincibility -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def(25), LkGmblr-Rchg+(25)
Level 20: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(27), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(37), P'Shift-End%(40)
Level 22: Knockout Blow -- Hectmb-Dmg(A), Hectmb-Dmg/Rchg(23), Hectmb-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(23), Hectmb-Acc/Rchg(27), Hectmb-Dmg/EndRdx(33), Hectmb-Dam%(34)
Level 24: Kick -- Empty(A)
Level 26: Tough Hide -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def(42), LkGmblr-Rchg+(42)
Level 28: Rage -- HO:Membr(A), HO:Membr(36), HO:Membr(37)
Level 30: Tough -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(31), RctvArm-ResDam(31), RctvArm-EndRdx(31)
Level 32: Weave -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def(37), LkGmblr-Rchg+(43)
Level 35: Provoke -- Zinger-Taunt(A), Zinger-Taunt/Rchg(42), Zinger-Taunt/Rchg/Rng(43), Zinger-Acc/Rchg(43), Zinger-Taunt/Rng(48), Zinger-Dam%(48)
Level 38: Foot Stomp -- Armgdn-Dmg(A), Armgdn-Dmg/Rchg(39), Armgdn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), Armgdn-Acc/Rchg(39), Armgdn-Dmg/EndRdx(40), Armgdn-Dam%(40)
Level 41: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 44: Laser Beam Eyes -- Apoc-Dmg(A), Apoc-Dmg/Rchg(45), Apoc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(45), Apoc-Acc/Rchg(45), Apoc-Dmg/EndRdx(46), Apoc-Dam%(46)
Level 47: Physical Perfection -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A)
Level 49: Resist Energies -- ResDam-I(A), ResDam-I(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Gauntlet
Level 2: Ninja Run

Strong Woman's build is meant to raise smash/lethal DEF as high as possible (not quite soft capped, but at around 35% right now; a few mobs around her quickly gets her to the soft cap from Invincibility), with good recharge and some regen. I don't quite have all the purple and other rare recipes in the above build yet, but it's something I'm working towards.



Police Woman I17 respec

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.621
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Police Woman I17: Level 50 Natural Blaster
Primary Power Set: Assault Rifle
Secondary Power Set: Devices
Power Pool: Medicine
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Munitions Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Burst -- Dev'n-Acc/Dmg(A), HO:Centri(3), Dev'n-Dmg/Rchg(3), Dev'n-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(5), Dev'n-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), Achilles-ResDeb%(7)
Level 1: Web Grenade -- GravAnch-Immob(A), GravAnch-Immob/Rchg(7), GravAnch-Acc/Immob/Rchg(9), GravAnch-Acc/Rchg(9), GravAnch-Hold%(11)
Level 2: Slug -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A), Apoc-Dmg/Rchg(11), Apoc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(13), Apoc-Acc/Rchg(13), Apoc-Dmg/EndRdx(15), Apoc-Dam%(15)
Level 4: Caltrops -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 6: Aid Other -- Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(A), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(17), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(17), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(19), Dct'dW-Heal(19), IntRdx-I(21)
Level 8: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), Krma-ResKB(48)
Level 10: Targeting Drone -- GSFC-ToHit(A), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(23), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(23), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(25), GSFC-Build%(25), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(27)
Level 12: Buckshot -- HO:Centri(A), HO:Centri(27), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(29), Posi-Dmg/Rng(29), Posi-Acc/Dmg(31), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(31)
Level 14: Aid Self -- Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(A), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(31), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(33), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(33), Dct'dW-Heal(33), IntRdx-I(34)
Level 16: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 18: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A), Jump-I(34)
Level 20: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(21), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(36), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(36), P'Shift-End%(36)
Level 22: Cloaking Device -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 24: M30 Grenade -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(34), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(37), Posi-Dmg/Rng(37), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(37), RechRdx-I(39)
Level 26: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 28: Tactics -- GSFC-ToHit(A), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(39), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(39), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(40), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(40)
Level 30: Beanbag -- Stpfy-Acc/Rchg(A), Stpfy-KB%(40), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun(43), Stpfy-Acc/EndRdx(45), Stpfy-Stun/Rng(45), Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg(45)
Level 32: Full Auto -- Ragnrk-Dmg(A), Ragnrk-Dmg/Rchg(42), Ragnrk-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(42), Ragnrk-Acc/Rchg(42), Ragnrk-Dmg/EndRdx(43), Posi-Dam%(43)
Level 35: Vengeance -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 38: Taser -- Amaze-Stun(A), Amaze-Stun/Rchg(46), Amaze-Acc/Stun/Rchg(46), Amaze-Acc/Rchg(46), Amaze-EndRdx/Stun(48)
Level 41: Body Armor -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx(48), TtmC'tng-ResDam/Rchg(50), TtmC'tng-ResDam(50)
Level 44: Surveillance -- UndDef-Rchg/EndRdx(A), UndDef-DefDeb/Rchg/EndRdx(50)
Level 47: Resuscitate -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A)
Level 49: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- HO:Micro(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 1: Defiance
Level 0: Ninja Run


This is very similar to Police Woman's build before this respec, with basically the same powers. The new rule that you keep powers up to your level+5 changed the order I took some of the powers. Also, with Ninja Run in the game now, I no longer felt it was worth it to 3-slot Sprint for travel speed; I moved the extra slots around to get a small amount of +ranged DEF (now up to 13% ranged DEF; nothing exciting, but better than before).


Spacegirl (50 mind/rad controller) did a Justin Augustine TF. Despite being the 8th person to join, I got stuck with the star for this TF again, due to being level 50 and a flyer. This actually was quite boring as I spent almost half the TF just standing by the contact while people completed Kill 50 hunt missions. I did get to go to Firebase Zulu and fly all of the clicky missions there...which was also rather boring. Nothing wrong with the team, this TF just seems really unexciting. The highlight of the TF was a team member noticing how everything in the Chantry has a depressingly "emo" name, and announcing "Next hunt is in the Bastion of Cutting Myself For Attention". Finished the JATF in 1hr 39mins.

Arrow Girl {16 archery/nrg blaster) joined a small team running the arc to unlock the Midnight Club. We had a team wipe in the Lady Jane mission where Lady Jane overaggroed mobs around us, and we got hit by an ambush at the same time. Nevertheless got Arrow Girl to level 17.


Saturday 4/24

My pool of tickets from people playing my AE missions was near the cap, so I claimed a bunch of them and burned them on Gold recipe rolls at 3700 tickets each, getting:

1 Luck of the Gambler (END/RCHG)
1 Luck of the Gambler (DEF/+7.5% rchg)
1 Lockdown (ACC/END/RCHG/HOLD)
1 Devastation (DMG/RCHG)

The LotG (DEF/+7.5% rchg) is the big prize, of course.

Spy Girl (19 MA/ninj stalker) solo'd Willy Wheeler's "There's a Sucker Born every Minute" arc for 17 merits, getting her to level 20. I went to Sharkhead to solo Spy Girl's second costume mission; a mastermind bystander was watching me kick Family around and cheered me on, which was nice. Then went to Bloody Bay and solo'd a couple door missions and got a Shivan; this got her the Agent Provocateur badge (which I immediately set as Spy Girl's display badge) and the Gunner badge.

Playing Police Woman (50 AR/dev blaster), I was in my SG base and tried to drop an Ouroboros portal, but clicked my chem nuke by mistake and nuked my own SG base. Doh! I went to Warburg to rescue scientists and launched a missile to get the chem nuke temp power back.

Linda Lightspeed (28 rad/nrg blaster) joined an 8-player pickup team that did some door missions and fought a Rikti invasion in Talos; this got Linda to level 30.


Sunday 4/25

Arrow Girl joined a Sisterhood team doing missions in Faultline, beating up Arbiter Sands, Nocturne and Captain Castillo for a fistful of level 21 SOs. A teammate taught me how to fix the "Ready!" bug where it shows color codes; typing "/unbind F7" seems to fix that problem. This team got Arrow Girl to level 19.

Spy Girl (20 MA/ninj stalker) ended up forming and leading an 8 player pickup team; we were very light on support and had 2 team wipes against Arachnos, 1 team wipe against Tsoo. One brute even left due to the lack of team support; he was trying to tank for us but kept dying because he was SK'd up from the teens, and at that level, brutes just aren't very tanky yet. Nevertheless we kept doing door missions, eventually getting Spy Girl to level 23, and completing the Strikebreaker mission (against Scrapyarders) and the Seaweed badge mission (against Sea Witch). This also completed a mini-story arc for Spy Girl for 5 merits.

Arrow Girl solo'd Jim Temblor's arc in Faultline, saving Fusionette a few times, for 5 merits, and did most of Penelope Yin's arc. My ISP went down just as I was leading Mr Yin out, so didn't quite finish, but did get to level 20.


Monday 4/26

The anniversary event was in full swing when I logged on, and as Police Woman I battled giant monsters and archvillains in Talos Island. This was totally chaotic and I ran back from the hospital more than once. Someone noted we had very few empaths rezzing, but I was making liberal use of vengeance and resuscitate. Someone thanked me for a rez, leading someone there to say something about "yay for PW's obsession with the medicine pool". Anyway, an army of heroes fought a crazy number of GMs and AVs; I sprayed bullets at everything I could, and ended up scoring 258 reward merits (129 GMs killed!).

I visited red side for awhile, first playing April Fool (50 thug/TA mastermind), then after a crash I logged on Shield Maiden (49 mace/shield brute) who got to battle Hamidon in the waters of Cap au Diable (getting a lousy Centriole HO as reward). It seemed like villains were really light on support, so I finally switched to Schadenfreude (50 AR/pain corruptor) to throw heals, buffs and rezzes around.

After the event, the ski chalet was briefly open, and Spy Girl stealthed into the ski chalet to purchase the fur boots, fur gloves and earmuffs costume pieces with candy canes I had leftover from last winter.

Sisterhood re-review
Arc ID: 123426
Keywords: Challenging, Custom Characters, Kid Friendly
Morality: Heroic
Level range: 40-54
Warnings: AVs, EBs, extreme AVs, extreme EBs, custom powers.

The premise is to stop an enemy organization intent on stamping out all superpowered people. (Not Malta, some new organization.) With extreme AVs, I played a heavily IO'd 50 MA/SR scrapper on +0 x0 difficulty (bosses OK, no AVs). The contact is a custom heroine called Power Lass.

Since this is a re-review, I'm going to focus on my previous comments, for the missions I played through. I'll add new comments if/when I get to later missions.

[5.0] points to start.

Mission 1
[FIXED] Phrasing: "I am the of Sisterhood" should probably be "I am of the Sisterhood" [i]

[-0.01] Formatting: "A.L.O.N.E" should probably be either "A.L.O.N.E." (note period after E) or just "ALONE" ... i.e. all letters should have a period after them, or none. (Still present)

[FIXED] Don't understand: who are the Sisterhood and ALONE? These names are mentioned in the briefing with no background info at all. Should explain at least a little more in the briefing what Sisterhood and ALONE are. (The briefing now gives some explanation of this.)

[FIXED] Mission accept message is just the default "Accept", would be nicer if customized to fit the mission. (Now customized; though I think it is strange for me to call a SG leader "little girl")

Send-off message: the contact says ALONE has some files in a cave.

[-0.1] Don't understand: how does she know they keep files in a cave? (Still not explained; she just knows?)

[FIXED] Phrasing: the contact says to "leave no witnesses". This makes it sounds like she wants the player to kill everyone there, which for most heroes would be very unheroic. (Rephrased to "make sure they don't follow you", which kinda works.)

Inside the mission there are a large number of custom enemies in a group called "A league of No Enhancements".

[-0.01] NEW: Typo, "witch base" -> "which base" (in mission entry popup). I guess this message is meant to explain how Power Lass knows the file is here, but I'm afraid "lucky guess" or "Telek told her" still don't seem like enough explanation to me. I think I'd rather have Power Lass say, in the briefing or send-off message, "I've uncovered the location of one of ALONE's bases; maybe some clue could be found there?" (Rather than just happening to know that there are files kept there.)

[-0.01] Capitalization: "A league of No Enhancements" should probably be "A League Of No Enhancements" (capitalizing the ALONE initials) or just "A.L.O.N.E." or even "ALONE". (Faction name is still like this.)

[-0.01] NEW: Typo, "Enegry Lt" -> "Energy Lieutenant" (mob name)

[-0.01] NEW: Typo, "poeple" -> "people" (Gadget Girl description)

[FIXED] Gunner has no description.

[N/A] Enforcer has no description. (Did not see this mob, maybe removed or renamed?)

[N/A] Robot Maker has no description. (Did not see this mob, maybe removed or renamed?)

[N/A] Costuming: Gunner and Enforcer costumes look so similar that I thought they were identical until I got very close. (Did not see Enforcers)

[N/A] Power selections: Enforcers and Robot Makers all seem to be masterminds and are the only lieutenants and bosses in the ALONE group that I ran into. As a result, every fight they summoned a massive number of pets. This is likely to be unfun for players. I'd suggest using MMs in moderation; perhaps only the bosses, or mix in some other lieutenants and bosses so not every one of them summons pets. (Did not see Enforcers or Robot Makers)

[-0.01] Objectives: "3 Search computers" should be phrased more naturally, like "3 computers to search". (It's still like this)

[N/A] Punctuation: "something." should omit the period. [i](Didn't see Power Lass in this mission, think she was removed.)[/]

[N/A] Don't understand: Power Lass's line seems like she is replying to the Gunner, but it doesn't make sense in this context. [i](Didn't see Power Lass in this mission, think she was removed.)[/]

[N/A] Punctuation: "lets" should be "let's". [i](Didn't see Power Lass in this mission, think she was removed.)[/]

[FIXED] Objective: "Search computers" really should be labeled just "Computer", since it is an object when the player encounters it in the game.

[FIXED] Typo: "lotections" -> "locations" in clue name.

[FIXED] Typo: "Golory-Girl" should be "Glory-Girl" in clue body.

[FIXED] Phrasing: "It seems that they do not have Telek, Golory-Girl and Shocking Child are held in a base" does not scan. Do you mean they don't have them in this base? Or maybe you mean they are in ANOTHER base? The way it is phrased doesn't quite work and I am actually confused as to what it is supposed to be telling me.

[FIXED] Typo: "That not yours" -> "That's not yours"

[FIXED] Gameplay: even though I've found all the other objectives in the early part of the map (all 3 computers and Power Lass spawned right near the door), I still have to Defeat All on a fairly large map. There is not really a lot to do in the rest of the map except kill the custom mobs. This feels tedious and unnecessary; many players will be unwilling to finish this mission. (no longer a defeat all)

[-0.01] NEW Punctuation: "you can find Power Lass friends" -> "you can find Power Lass's friends" (in mission exit popup)

[-0.1] Debriefing needs more writing. I'd suggest reviewing the events of the first mission and/or the clues that were found. (There IS more writing here but it still doesn't really say anything...this should be a place you put some explanation of the clues that were found and their significance, and maybe get a hint of what is going on.)

[-0.01] NEW Phrasing: "will my friend Telek told me telepathy" -> "well, my friend Telek told me telepathically". Also, this info would make more sense in the briefing rather than the debriefing. (in debriefing)

[-0.01] NEW Typo: "Shes" -> "She" (in debriefing)

[4.71] after mission 1.

Mission 2
[FIXED] Briefing needs more writing; for all practical purposes, it's completely missing. I'd suggest explaining what to expect in the mission ahead, what the objectives are. (some more writing has been added)

[-0.1] NEW Plot problem: this really doesn't logically follow from mission 1? Mission 1 gave us a clue with the location of Glory-Girl and Shocking Child, who are captured by ALONE, but now mission 2 has us go after Telek and the CoT instead, mostly because the contact happens to be wondering about Telek and Telek sends her a telepathic message at exactly that time. Seems a little too coincidental; hard to believe.

[FIXED] Mission accept message is just the default "Accept", would be nicer if customized to fit the mission. (Message is now customized)

[-0.01] Typo: "Circle of Throns" should be "Circle of Thorns" (still present, but now this text is in the briefing)

[-0.1] NEW missing text: send-off message is now just 4 words, "OK, I am ready!"; needs some more writing here.

[FIXED] Doesn't make sense: if Power Lass can telepathically communicate with Telek to find out where Telek is, why didn't she do that in the first place, instead of sending me in mission 1 to find clues as to Telek's location? (Telek is no longer established to be captured by ALONE; but, see Plot problem, above)

[FIXED] Doesn't make sense: it was previously established that ALONE captured Telek. How did she get into the hands of the CoT? (Telek is no longer established to be captured by ALONE; but, see Plot problem, above)

[-0.1] Doesn't make sense: how did the Well of Knowledge get involved in this story? What is ALONE's interest in it? Needs some foreshadowing and/or explanation. (still unexplained)

[-0.01] Objectives: Most of the objectives make sense, but "Get past Baphomet" does not. Baphomet wasn't mentioned by the contact, so why would I think I need to do this? (Can fix by explaining this is necessary in the briefing.) (still unexplained)

[-0.1] NEW Doesn't make sense: mission entry popup now says "You wonder why is a 6 year old the leader, and why would Telek need a Well help." But, we have not yet discovered that the leader of ALONE is 6 years old, so this would not make any sense to a player just entering this mission for the first time.

[-0.01] Typo: "lets find" -> "let's find" (still present in Power Lass's dialog)

[-0.1] Doesn't make sense: She says we should find Telek, but it is possible to rescue Telek first. (could still happen)

[-0.01] NEW Typo: "was save by him a few times" -> "was saved by him a few times" (in Power Lass's description)

[FIXED] Doesn't make sense: actually I've already found the Well of Knowledge and looked into it at this point, so his line here doesn't make sense. Possibly it would make more sense for the Well of Knowledge to be an objective triggered by defeating the Well of Knowledge Guardian, which would force the player to defeat the Guardian before they could look into the Well. (Baphomet now triggers the Well of Knowledge objective)

[FIXED] Phrasing: clue title should probably be "ALONE leader's childhood".

[FIXED] Typo: ctiy -> city (in "A.L.O.N.E's leader childhood")

[-0.01] Typo: poeple -> people (in "A.L.O.N.E's leader childhood", two times) (still present)

[-0.01] Phrasing: "The she made her own army know as A Luague of No Enhancements" should be "Then she made her own army, known as A League of No Enhancements" (in "A.L.O.N.E's leader childhood") (still present)

[-0.01] Typo: become Lady Atom -> became Lady Atom (in "A.L.O.N.E's leader childhood") (still present, though now she "become Lady Star")

[-0.01] Typo: "hates" -> "hate" (in Telek's dialog) (still present)

[NPC] Telek: Thanks, now lets find The Well of Knowledge.

[-0.01] Typo: "lets" -> "let's" (in Telek's dialog) (still present ... also, awkward as this time I found the Well of Knowledge before I found Telek)

[-0.01] Phrasing: "But her powers allow her to see, you know what everyone is feeling, so know who is coming, she knows when to run." I think this sentence is trying to explain Telek's powers, but it didn't quite make sense to me. Need to rephrase it. (In Telek's background story.) (still present)

[-0.01] Pronouns: "One night when he was 10 she saw..." should be "One night when she was 10 she saw..." (in Telek's background story) (still present)

[-0.01] Phrasing: "she didn't want her parents get kill" should be "she didn't want her parents to get killed" (in Telek's background story) (still present)

[FIXED] Typo: "She helpped Haily" should be "She helped Haily" (in Telek's background story)

[-0.01] Phrasing: "Then they break Kelly free" should be "Then they broke Kelly free" (in Telek's background story) (still present)

[FIXED] Typo: "taking oders" should be "taking orders" (in Telek's background story)

[-0.01] Phrasing: "save the city powered beans" I *think* should be "save the super powered beings" (in Telek's background story) (still present)

[-0.01] NEW Typo: "Anwers" -> "Answers" (in title of "Anwers to All Your Questions" clue)

[-0.01] NEW Typo: "Then are some questions not even I can anwer" -> "There are some questions not even I can answer" (in "Anwers to All Your Questions" clue)

[-0.1] Debriefing needs more writing. (still only one line)

[3.95] at end of mission 2.

Mission 3
[FIXED] Briefing needs more writing. (now there is some writing here; but I think it is a little confusing, see below)

[-0.1] Inconsistent: briefing says "I need to find out who this Lady Star is", but in mission 2, we already found out that Lady Star's real name is Jennie Star.

[-0.1] Don't understand: "Telek says Lt. Software is in the same base." Lt. Software has not previously been introduced, so I have no idea who this is. This briefing should explain who he is and why he is important to the story.

[-0.01] Phrasing: "She says he knows Lady Star have a close ally, we must get some answers out of him." This sentence doesn't make sense; perhaps it is meant to explain who Lt. Software is. Try to rephrase it, maybe mention something about what Lt. Software is like, what his known powers are, what kind of reputation he has, stuff like that.

[FIXED] Inconsistent: briefing calls the villain "Lady Star" but the "A.L.O.N.E's leader childhood" clue calls her "Lady Atom". (Now she is called Lady Star throughout.)

[FIXED] Don't understand: the contact wants to save Glory-Girl and Shocking Child at this point, but so far we have had no clues indicating where they are, so I don't see how we can do this. (Now we have some info from mission 1.)

[FIXED] Typo: "awnsers" -> "answers" (in Send-off message) (this word no longer present)

(This is where I stopped last time, so everything after this is new.)

[-0.01] Confusing: mission title is "Make Lt. Software talk", but shouldn't our main goal be to rescue Glory-Girl?

The very first objective I find is, in fact, Lt. Software. He has the same description as an Enegry (sic) Captain. Since he is a special boss, possibly he should have a custom description (even though you are using one of your normal models for it).

[-0.01] Typo: "Enegry" -> "Energy" (twice in Lt. Software's description, and presumably in Enegry Captain's description too)

In his dialog he says:

[NPC] Lt. Software: You are strong, but I will never tell you my Lady's scerets!

[-0.01] Typo: "scerets" -> "secrets" (in Software's dialog)

Defeating Lt. Software gives me the "General Atom" clue.

[-0.01] Inconsistent: Lt. Software says General Atom is "in a warehouse" in his dialog; this should also be stated in the clue, since it is important to the plot.

[-0.01] Phrasing: first sentence of General Atom clue is much too long (5 lines long), should be broken up into several smaller sentences.

[-0.01] Phrasing: "they meant around 6 or 8 year old" probably isn't what you mean; I think you mean "they met around 6 years ago".

[-0.1] Doesn't make sense: "Telek believes General Atom is hiding something that Software nor Lady Star knows". This doesn't make sense for two reasons: first, Telek is not here (I have not found her yet), and second, General Atom is not here, so how would Telek know he is hiding something even if she is a telepath?

Also, I have now captured Lt Software and "made him talk", but the mission is not over (still other objectives left), despite being titled "Make Lt. Software talk". You might consider titling the mission something more general that covers all the required objectives. For example, "Investigate ALONE base".

I kind of think you might be better off not having the contact explicitly tell you to take out Lt Software in the briefing, and have the defeat Lt Software objective be named something more vague like "Find a clue as to what ALONE is up to". That would make it seem a little more mysterious.

I found Telek; she and her guards had dialog of:

[NPC] Gunner: Help! PLease put us down!!
[NPC] Telek: I know you are lying, I"ll just wait for my friends.
[NPC] Gunner: We will do anything, just don't kill us.
[NPC] Telek: I enjoy holding you up in the air.

[-0.01] Animation: based on dialog, I think Telek's guards should probably be in a "floating captured" animation, but they were just standing there normally.

[-0.01] Typo: "PLease" -> "Please" (note capitalization; in Telek's guard's dialog)

[-0.01] Typo: "I"ll" -> "I'll" (in Telek's dialog)

When I rescue Telek, she says:

[NPC] Telek: Thanks, now lets find the others.

[-0.01] Typo: "lets find" -> "let's find" (in Telek's dialog)

I found and rescued Glory-Girl. One of her guards says:

[NPC] Gunner: We have captured the strongest of The Stisterhood.

[-0.01] Typo: "Stisterhood" -> "Sisterhood" (in Glory-Girl's guard's dialog)

[-0.01] Phrasing: "the A.L.O.N.E" should be "A.L.O.N.E." with no "the", since it already starts with "A League" (you wouldn't say "The A League of No Enhancements"). (twice in Glory-Girl's description)

[-0.01] Typo: "Gracie punch the bully" -> "Gracie punched the bully" (in Glory-Girl's description)

Finally found and rescued Power Lass, which completed the mission.

[-0.1] Game balance: this mission has 3 EB level allies in it, but the "boss" mob is only a lieutenant. As a result, the allies really seem much too powerful for this mission. (I didn't mind the EB allies in the previous mission because you had to fight Baphomet, but there is no one that tough in this mission).

I thought this mission felt a little bland; basically fighting more of the ALONE guys and rescuing some allies. It could use something to make the mission a bit more exciting. I didn't mark off points for this as there are several mission details in the mission. But it felt to me like this mission needed something more.

[3.41] at the end of mission 3.

Mission 4
Briefing: the contact warns me General Atom is going to be a big fight.

[-0.01] Phrasing: "General Atom have some tricks up his sleeves" -> "General Atom has some tricks up his sleeve" (in briefing)

[-0.01] Phrasing: "Telek think he has powers, I think she is right, and it isn't because she a dang mind reader" -> "Telek thinks he has powers. I think she's right, and not just because she's a dang mind reader" (in briefing)

[-0.1] Doesn't make sense: Lady Star has been established to hate everyone who has superpowers -- so much so that she's created a private army to fight superpowered people. It doesn't make sense for General Atom, her "best friend", to have superpowers.

Send-off message: the contact outlines a plot to trick General Atom into using his powers on camera and admitting he's behind everyone who attacked Lady Star.

[-0.1] Plot problem: so far there has not been any clue, nor any hint, that General Atom was responsible for people attacking Lady Star. If the "real story" is that General Atom created Lady Star's original problems, then there needs to be more foreshadowing, more hints leading up to this, rather than having Power Lass just suddenly tell us that this is what she thinks happened.

[-0.01] Typo: "Gerenal" -> "General" (in send-off message)

[-0.1] Don't understand: "They all so lucky you are not a villian then again Telek know your every move" (in mission entry popup) ... what makes me think about being a villain? This message doesn't seem connected to the story or what is currently happening.

[-0.01] Typo: "villian" -> "villain" (in mission entry popup)

[-0.01] Typo: "Telek know your every move" -> "Telek knows your every move" (in mission entry popup)

Found and rescued Power Lass. She says:

[NPC] Power Lass: Thanks goodness you came. Lets find my team and get General Atom!

[-0.01] Typo: "Lets find" -> "Let's find" (in Power Lass's dialog)

Found and rescued Telek. Then I found and rescued Shocking Child.

[-0.01] Typo: "the A.L.O.N.E" should be just "A.L.O.N.E." (in Shocking Child's description)

[-0.01] Phrasing "took her to her secret base a protect her" -> "took her to Telek's secret base to protect her" (in Shocking Child's description)

Found and rescued Glory-Girl.

Found a Computer which "turned on the cameras" and triggered "Defeat General Atom".

General Atom spawned as a Boss for me, relatively close by. With 3 EB allies, we make short work of him, completing the mission.

[-0.1] Game balance: this mission has 4 EB allies, but the boss of the mission is only a Boss. As a result, the allies seem much too powerful. Consider making them weaker (maybe Bosses) and/or making the opposition stronger (maybe an AV).

[-0.1] Missing text: General Atom just has the default "Boss" description. Since he is a special character who is important to the plot, he should have a description.

[-0.01] Typo: "villian" -> "villain" (in General Atom's description)

[2.82] at end of mission 4.

Mission 5
Briefing: It's just a sentence fragment, barely half of a line. Needs some more writing here. At the very least, I think the contact should explain that you need to convince Lady Star to view the tape, but the only way she can be convinced is by force.

[-0.1] Missing text: mission briefing is too short.

[-0.01] Typo: "to far ahead" -> "too far ahead" (in mission accept message)

[-0.01] Typo: "freind" -> "friend" (send off message)

[-0.01] Typo: "you are awsome get get them" -> "you are awesome, go get them" (mission entry popup)

[-0.01] Typo: "Convines" -> "Convince" (mission title)

[-0.01] Inconsistent: "Lady Atom" should be "Lady Star" (mission objective)

Found and rescued Glory-Girl, an elite boss ally. She says:

[NPC] Glory-Girl: See, it was uneeded Olivia Q and the Sisterhood were right behind me!

[-0.01] Typo: "uneeded" -> "unnecessary,"

Found and rescued Telek. One of her guards says:

[NPC] Gadget Girl: We should have knew Olivia Q would come!

[-0.01] Phrasing: "should have knew" -> "should have known"

Found and rescued Shocking Child. She says:

[NPC] Shocking Child: Thanks! Now lets get Lady Star!

[-0.01] Punctuation: "Now lets get Lady Star" -> "Now let's get Lady Star"

Found and rescued Power Lass, who says:

[NPC] Power Lass: Thanks, now lets get the others!

[-0.01] Punctuation: "now lets get the others" -> "now let's get the others"

There were at least a couple ambushes that were triggered due to rescuing the heroes.

I found and fought Lady Star, who was a custom assault rifle elite boss for me (not sure what secondary).

[-0.1] Missing text: Lady Star really needs a description, especially since she is the final boss of the arc.

While fighting her, an ambush spawned and said:

[NPC] Gadget Girl: Stop in the name of A.L..O.N.E!!!

[-0.01] Punctuation: "A.L..O.N.E" -> "A.L.O.N.E." (in ambush dialog)

then Lady Star said:

[NPC] Lady Star: I will wripe all of you out! Even if it means unleashing a monster!

[-0.01] Typo: "wripe" -> "wipe" (in Lady Star's dialog)

Defeating Lady Star and her group gave me "The Turth" as a clue.

[-0.01] Typo: "Turth" -> "Truth" (clue name)

[-0.01] Phrasing: "She has saw the tape, she called her raid of" -> "She has seen the tape and called her raid off" (in "The Truth")

[-0.01] Phrasing: "At least until she think of a way that the tape could have been fake, or General Atom escape and controls her" -> "At least until she thinks of a way that the tape could have been faked, or until General Atom escapes and controls her" (in "The Truth")

[-0.01] Phrasing: "You have stop the war" -> "You have stopped the war" (in mission exit popup)

The debriefing is kind of on the short side (just two lines). I'd recommend making it a little longer, to give the story a more fully detailed ending. Possibly some of the info in "The Truth" could be moved to the final debriefing.

[-0.1] No souvenir.

[2.37] at end of mission 5.

Overall
I do think this arc is improved over the last time I tried it, and I got through the whole thing this time. The way you find the lost heroines makes more sense now, though now the CoT kidnapping one of them seems rather unrelated to the ALONE plotline.

I still think the story could use some work. Perhaps the biggest and easiest improvement you could make would be to fix the various typos and improper uses of English; normally a few typos are no big deal, but there were so many that it was very distracting. Also, adding some writing to the missing or mostly empty text blocks would help a lot.

I still kind of think the ALONE custom group is a little on the bland side. I like that you got rid of the mastermind powers, but they still seem to be rather generic guys in purple uniforms. They could really use a little more theme or something to make them more memorable as enemies.

I found it somewhat unbelievable that Lady Star hates superpowers, yet her best friend has superpowers. I think this could be made to be believable, but it would require some writing explaining how General Atom has concealed this from Lady Star all this time.

Rounding 2.37 off, I still could only give this arc 2 stars. I feel like it is better than before, but still could use some improvement. I hope some of this helps you out!


----

My queue is now:

@FredrikSvanberg - The Warburg Connection #364832 (V30-40)
@Gypsy Rose - The Greater Good #395861 (H45-54)
@FredrikSvanberg - Arena #390921 (V40-54)
---not accepting further submissions at this time---

I'm not sure what exactly will fit your theme, but here's my best guesses:

Attack of the 50 Foot Villain (#363366): become a giant monster and attack Tokyo! (fits savage rampage theme, if you can picture yourself as a giant movie monster)

Pandas vs Rikti (#68930): help Panda people fight Rikti! (not really savage but has furry allies)

Against the Wickerwork Khan (#322480): help Panda people fight weird constructs! (not really savage but has furry allies and enemies)

Butterfly Effect (and its sequels; I forget the arc id though): visit an alternate dimension of lizard-people! (animal-people enemies)

4/15/2010

Friday

Kyrie Eleison (43 fire/regen scrapper) joined a Sara Moore TF. This mostly went well until the very last mission, where we tried to stealth through the horrible foggy cave map but kept getting spotted by the eyeballs, which got pretty messy. After some hijinks we got everyone to the end boss and completed the TF in 2h 14m. Kyrie got to level 45 and a Ragnarok (DMG/RCHG/ACC) recipe drop.


Saturday

Goth Angel (9 arch/nrg blaster; still don't really like this name) joined a 6-player pickup team in Steel Canyon that did some radio missions and the Kings Row safeguard. We had one team wipe in a mission against the Vahzilok.

Helen Highwater (25 storm/psy defender on Triumph) joined a 4-player MA Arc Finder team for Ashley Porter and the Gorilla War, a retro WW2 adventure where you help a famous female aviator battle Nazis and gorillas. I had played this once before, and I gave it 5 stars, which is probably a little generous (it is an old story arc and could use some polishing), but I'm a sucker for cheesy retro adventures.

Water Lily (12 storm/rad corruptor) joined an 8-player pickup team running newspaper missions in St. Martial. We had two team wipes against Freakshow; one at a trick hallway intersection that almost always causes a team to overaggro, and once when our main brute got disconnected. Nevertheless this got Water Lily to level 16.

Shield Maiden (46 mace/shield brute) solo'd more of Ghost Widow's patron arc, managing to solo an EB-version of Citadel (he had some kind of energy aura elude power, which I never knew he had). Finishing Ghost Widow's second arc gave me 10 merits. Later on, Shield Maiden joined a Silver Mantis SF run by the FETISH villain group (who I had never heard of before, but they seemed competent and fairly nice). They specifically asked not to stealth anything and to clear everything in our path; our team was pretty buff-heavy (I was the only brute) and this seemed to work fine. Finished in 2hr 15m and got Shield Maiden to level 47.

I joined the Giant Monster Hunt Event, playing Star Amethyst (50 dark/ice defender) at first, then later switching to Spacegirl (50 mind/rad controller) to give Sisterhood SG more of a showing (since I was on a mostly Sisterhood team). We beat the Kraken, 2 Clockwork Paladins, Eochai, Lusca, Babbage, and a paladin construction site. Detouring into Recluse's Victory, we defeated all of the villain AVs, getting all the badges and the Justiciar accolade. While in RV, a dominator started buzzing the fringes of the group, picking off stray heroes and trash talking us on broadcast channel. The event leader wanted to petition him, but I said, there's like a jillion of us, let's just kill him. Spacegirl doesn't have a PVP build by any means, but nevertheless I landed two kills on our villain (admittedly, with lots of help). I mocked him in broadcast (his earlier trash talking had annoyed me), until I remembered there were "nice" people in the zone, so I should be on better behavior.


Sunday

With Shield Maiden at 47, I could now slot some level 50 IOs I had been saving up, so I respec'd her into the following build:

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.621
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Shield Maiden I16 respec: Level 50 Mutation Brute
Primary Power Set: War Mace
Secondary Power Set: Shield Defense
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Flight

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Pulverize -- Mako-Acc/Dmg(A), Mako-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Mako-Dmg/Rchg(3), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(5), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), Mako-Dam%(7)
Level 1: Deflection -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def(7), LkGmblr-Rchg+(9), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx(9), TtmC'tng-ResDam/Rchg(11), TtmC'tng-ResDam(11)
Level 2: Jawbreaker -- Mako-Acc/Dmg(A), Mako-Dmg/EndRdx(13), Mako-Dmg/Rchg(13), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(36), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37), Mako-Dam%(37)
Level 4: True Grit -- Mrcl-Heal/Rchg(A), Mrcl-Heal(15), Mrcl-Rcvry+(15), Numna-Heal/Rchg(17), Numna-Heal(17), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(19)
Level 6: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 8: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 10: Active Defense -- HO:Membr(A), HO:Membr(19), HO:Membr(21)
Level 12: Combat Jumping -- DefBuff-I(A)
Level 14: Clobber -- Mako-Acc/Dmg(A), Mako-Dmg/EndRdx(25), Mako-Dmg/Rchg(25), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(27), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(27), Mako-Dam%(29)
Level 16: Against All Odds -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 18: Whirling Mace -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(29), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(31), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(31), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(31), Oblit-%Dam(33)
Level 20: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(21), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(23), P'Shift-Acc/Rchg(23), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(33), P'Shift-End%(33)
Level 22: Battle Agility -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def(36), LkGmblr-Rchg+(36)
Level 24: Phalanx Fighting -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 26: Shatter -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(37), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(39), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(39), Oblit-%Dam(40)
Level 28: Grant Cover -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 30: Build Up -- GSFC-ToHit(A), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(43), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(45), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(45), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(45), GSFC-Build%(46)
Level 32: Crowd Control -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(34), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(34), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(34), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(40), Oblit-%Dam(40)
Level 35: Shield Charge -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(42), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(42), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(42), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(43), Oblit-%Dam(43)
Level 38: Kick -- Empty(A)
Level 41: Tough -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(48), Aegis-ResDam/Rchg(48), Aegis-EndRdx/Rchg(48), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(50), Aegis-ResDam(50)
Level 44: Weave -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def(46), LkGmblr-Rchg+(46)
Level 47: Fly -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(50)
Level 49: Health -- Heal-I(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Fury
Level 4: Ninja Run


I'm missing a lot of the above (have none of the Aegis, Performance Shifter or Luck of the Gambler sets yet) but I did stockpile a bunch of Obliterations and Mako's Bite, so slotted all my attacks with IOs, mostly focusing on positional defense. Since Shield Maiden was running on SOs before, this was a pretty huge upgrade.

Spy Girl (15 MA/ninj stalker) solo'd through the Outbreak disease arc, getting the Plague Carrier badge.

Water Lily (16 rad/storm corruptor) joined a 4-player pickup team that got her to level 19.


Monday

Mega (50 SS/will brute) did a speed ITF (28m 45s) and a speed LGTF (27m 15s).

Shield Maiden (47 mace/shield brute) did a 7-player speed ITF (27m 35s) that got her to level 48.

Linda Lightspeed (27 rad/nrg blaster) did a Citadel TF (1h 1m) that got her to level 28.

Through some trickery with getting another toon to help, I got the Kings Row and Skyway mayhem missions on Spy Girl (15 MA/ninj stalker) and switched to other alts to get the badges. This got both Shield Maiden and Millie Volt (49 elec/elec brute) the Marshal accolade.


Tuesday

Spy Girl solo'd the Vahzilok Conference story arc for 7 merits.

San Min (32 MA/will scrapper) joined a Katie TF. This went well until the last mission, where for some reason someone team TP'd us to Katie's prison, where we all freed her, but then she latched onto a non-flyer and started aggroing mobs. Then we got team TP'd back to the mission door twice (I guess someone must've thought this would bring Katie there too). After some confusion, we eventually got a flyer to go back and retrieve Katie and completed the TF in 37m 37s. This got San Min to level 33.

I spent 220 of San Min's reward merits on 11 recipe rolls, getting (all at level 33):

1 Aegis (END/RCHG) 1M infl
2 Gift of the Ancients (DMG) 1.2M
1 Luck of the Gambler (DMG/+7.5 rchg) 91.9M
1 Luck of the Gambler (END/RCHG) 1M
1 Mako's Bite (DMG/RCHG) 5M
1 Obliteration (ACC/DMG/RCHG/END) 20.1M
1 Pacing of the Turtle (END/RCHG/SLOW) 500K
1 Positron's Blast (DMG/ACC/END) 15M
1 Siphon Insight (chance of +tohit) 500K
1 Touch of the Nictus (ACC/END/RCHG) 1.3M

...a total value of 137.5M infl, or 625K infl/merit, a really good haul.

I joined a mother ship raid with Thunder Girl (50 elec/SR scrapper), picking up a bomb credit, a Master-at-Arms kill, and about 400 Vanguard merits, which I used to buy the +10 salvage capacity "storage sack". Thunder Girl went on to join a speed ITF (27m 37s).

Police Woman (50 AR/dev blaster) picked up the Mortician day job badge (for logging out in a graveyard) and the Archaeologist accolade. This gives her every day job badge (whew!!) and a total of 643 badges.

I briefly logged in Star Amethyst (50 dark/ice defender) to help a team kill Eochai in Croatoa.


Wednesday

I solo'd Linda Lightspeed (28 rad/nrg blaster) through A Scandal in Paragon City, a story arc where a rather shady hero hires you to retrieve an incriminating video of him; hijinks ensue. This was pretty neat but I couldn't really believe my hero would do some of the things the story has me doing (though it would make perfect sense for a villain). I gave it 4 stars.

Linda joined a Hess TF after that. The team was talking about the LB channel some, and I had someone say that there was "less porn talk on LB thanks to PW", which was nice. Our team seemed somewhat split on whether we were speeding the TF or clearing it, with about half of us doing each. As a result, the final mission (and the TF) completed before I ever even saw the AV. Not a big deal, I guess. Finished in 46m 26s.

Spent a little time soloing Kyrie Eleison (45 fire/regen scrapper) on Peregrine Island missions; joined a friend for 1 run through his Battle Maiden minion farm before excusing myself, then solo'd the Psychic Clockwork King (as an EB) and got the Emancipator badge.

Police Woman (50 AR/dev blaster) joined a Citadel TF (1h 7m). I couldn't find any alts who needed the TF badge, so thought I'd bring my main character; it was fun shooting Council with full auto.

Spy Girl (17 MA/ninj stalker) solo'd the Origin of Power story arc, which was a little tedious (so much running around) but worth 5 merits.

I joined the Trials event with Star Amethyst (50 dark/ice defender). First we did the Cavern of Transcendence trial; the leader wanted to clear all the Igneous before clicking the altars. This was kind of messy; I was the only defender and the team wasn't real good about staying together, so we had a lot of deaths (unfortunately I did not have my rez power at level 15, may need to fix that next time I respec). But once we cleared all the mobs, we found that the mission was repopping, so we ended up going back to the normal strategy of stealthing to each altar and teleporting a team member there. Finished in 29m 21s.

After that, we reformed for the Abandoned Sewer Trial. This time there were two support toons on my team; me, and a trick arrow controller (who didn't have many trick arrows). Had a lot of trouble keeping people alive (the team got split up a lot) but fortunately at AST level I had recall friend and Howling Twilight (an AoE rez), which both helped a lot. We had a lot of trouble coordinating killing the force field generators at the same time (our damage dealers kept catching them in AoEs, killing them by accident) but a competent scrapper took charge and got us all pointing the same direction, after which we were able to beat the Hydra, getting a fistful of badges. Finished in 1h 20m.

The Trials event broke up at that point, but someone was running another Cavern of Transcendence trial for the people who missed it. I joined with Thunder Girl (50 elec/SR scrapper). The team leader knew exactly what to do and where to position everyone, even having a method for synchronizing everyone clicking the 8 altars at the same moment. Finished in 7m 34s.

After that, I played Spy Girl (17 MA/ninj stalker) for a bit. Accepted an invite to a 6-player pickup team working on Seer Marino's arc. The team seemed light on support, and we suffered 2 team wipes against Arachnos. After saving Ghost Widow from Ohanko's intrigues, I called it a night.

More on Scandal in Paragon

A Scandal in Paragon City review
Arc ID: 392334
Keywords: Custom Characters, Non-Canon, Mystery
Morality: Neutral
Level range: 20-26
Warnings: AVs, EBs, extreme Bosses, custom powers

The premise is that an up-and-coming hero asks me to steal an incriminating video. The contact is a male custom character in a suit. I initially played a 40 empathy/pistols defender, mostly because she has a trenchcoat & fedora costume to match the "detective noir" feel of the first briefing.

[5.0] points to start.

Mission 1
Briefing: the contact claims to represent a certain hero who wants me to steal a video of his indiscretions with a certain villainess.

[+0.1] I like that my hero instantly sees through this and identifies the contact as the actual principal.

Send-off message: wow, quite a sordid tale. I quite like it though. (Silver Mantis...uh oh...I have trouble fighting her on my scrappers...)

[+0.1] Interesting premise. (OK, inspired by Scandal in Bohemia; still a good premise.)

Inside the mission, the map is full of custom "Dewey Cheatham and Howe Law Firm" enemies. I was planning on stealthing the mission, but the temptation to kill some lawyers ends up being too great, so I fight some.



[-0.1] Game balance: Law Clerk, a martial arts lieutenant, has build up. This makes him hit REALLY hard for a level 26 enemy. I'd suggest dropping that from his power set.

Snuck past most of the other lawyers and found "Senior Partner Howe's safe". Clicking this completed the mission and gave me the "One of Silver Mantis' metal thorns" clue; basically Your Princess Is In Another Castle.

This mission ended awfully quickly, so I scouted around a bit more until I found Senior Partner Howe, who was an optional objective. She did have some fun dialog, but she also spawned several rooms past the safe that I opened, so most people would probably complete the mission before finding Senior Partner Howe and thus never get to see her.

[-0.1] The "Senior Partner Howe's safe" objective seemed to spawn a lot closer to the mission door than Senior Partner Howe herself; as a result you can complete the mission after exploring only about half the map, which potentially wastes some of the content you've placed here. I'd suggest making the objective spawn in "back" if it isn't already. (Note - I did this mission twice and this happened both times.)

The map also felt a little too big for the amount of content (from what I could tell, 1 collectible, 1 optional boss, 2 patrols). There were at least 4 mission details, though, so I didn't mark any score off for this. You might consider either using a smaller map or adding more items of interest (perhaps more lawyers with dialog, false glowies with details about unrelated cases, something like that).

Debriefing: I'm a little surprised that I'm now wanted by the police, but I suppose it makes sense for attacking a law office.

[5.00] at end of mission 1.

Mission 2
Briefing: hmm, so now we're going after blackmail material to use against the assistant DA in order to get him to drop charges against me?

[-0.1] Plot: what happened to recovering the sex tape? Shouldn't finishing that job still be our top priority, then clearing the charges?

[-0.5] Unheroic: battling the police and acquiring blackmail material against an assistant DA seems conspicuously unheroic to me. I realize this is a "neutral" arc, but taking this action doesn't seem to make sense for a hero at all. Perhaps it should be "villainous"? Even so, Howling Patriot, who is a hero, seems to be endorsing this action, which doesn't quite make sense. (Granted, he does have some self interest here.)

[-0.01] Doesn't make sense: Mission entry popup says "Maybe you should have borrowed somebody's stealth suit" ... but actually I was running the Stealth power the whole time I was there, so this text doesn't really make sense. (Kinda nitpicky.)

[-0.1] Difficult to believe: the writing suggests that Howling Patriot is getting the PPD to put up just enough fight to make it "look good" but this seems rather unbelievable to me. One or two crooked cops, maybe; a whole map full seems hard to believe.

[-0.01] Objectives: "Find useful blackmail material." should omit the trailing period, since it looks odd when immediately followed by a comma.

Stealthing around in the mission, I eventually find "Sergeant Kablowski", presumably the optional PPD Sergeant. He says when I get near:

[NPC] Sergeant Kablowski: I heard the sound of fighting. Howling Patriot's agent must be here. Good. Let's get this over with.

....but actually, I haven't fought anything in this mission yet, so there was no sound of fighting to be heard.

[-0.01] Dialog: Kablowski's dialog assumes that fighting has occurred. Should perhaps reword to something like "I heard something" and even if someone stealths, it can be assumed that the sergeant overheard a footstep or something. (Nitpicky.)

Found a desk glowy called "A 2 GB Memory Card". This seems kind of odd, should perhaps just be called "Desk".

[-0.01] Missing text: when I click the "2 GB Memory Card" the progress bar is completely blank. Should have some words there.

This gives me the "A 2 GB Memory Card" clue, which suggests I should find a computer to read it. I have to backtrack quite a ways before I find the computer that it's linked to.

[-0.01] Doesn't make sense: why can't I just take the memory card to my home computer, rather than use one here? (Somewhat nitpicky.)

Found the computer which is labeled "A.D.A. Jacobson's Dirty Secret". Should probably just be labeled "Computer", though, and give a clue named that, since you shouldn't be able to see that it's a Dirty Secret until you actually access the computer and the memory card.

[-0.01] Missing text: the "A.D.A. Jacobson's Dirty Secret" glowy has no text on the progress bar.

Clicking this glowy completes the mission and gives me "A Disturbing Set of Pictures" as a clue. The description of the nature of these pictures seems so over-the-top as to just be silly; not quite sure what tone you are going for in this arc, though, so maybe this is okay.

[4.24] at end of mission 2.

Mission 3
Briefing: so I get a note from Silver Mantis saying how impressed she is with my evil actions. She challenges me to a showdown.

[-0.1] Player involvement: it does not feel like the player has really contributed to solving this mystery; we didn't uncover clues that led us to Silver Mantis's secret base, we never found the film on our own. Basically Silver Mantis just hears I'm looking for her, and calls me out. I think I would've liked more "detective mystery" elements (following clues, etc.); as presented, it feels like the player is just reacting to events that happen around her.

Inside the mission, it's an Arachnos base filled with Arachnos mobs. A wandering patrol has some fun dialog helping to establish Silver Mantis's character. Not a lot else seems to be in this mission except for Silver Mantis herself, who spawns as a +0 EB for me.



I fight her for a bit (chomping lots of lucks to stay alive) but can't outpace her regen (perhaps not surprising for a solo empath defender). Some Arachnos mobs add into the fight; either the patrol I passed before, or an ambush with no dialog (not sure which; if it's an ambush, it should really have a line to say, to cue the player that an ambush is incoming).

I decide to clear all her minions before my lucks run out, then ran away (and out of the mission) to buy another load of inspirations. Silver Mantis regens to full health, of course. Second try, she defeats me through 3 lucks. Third try, I get her down to about 60% health before she kills me. Watching my combat stats, I see that her attacks actually debuff my defense so that the lucks don't really help all that much.

It did not seem like it would really be fair to complain about an empath defender being unable to solo an AV, so I quit the arc and switched to a damage dealing character. I considered switching to a level 50 scrapper or blaster with IO sets, but felt this wouldn't be a fair comparison considering the arc is level 20-26; instead I brought on a 28 rad/nrg blaster with SOs slotted.

Re-run of mission 1: Used stealth+superspeed to find the glowy, which finished the mission. This time the glowy safe spawned on the 1st floor but the senior partner again was in the very back of the 2nd floor. You may want to adjust the glowy to spawn in "back" if practical (or use a smaller map), in both my runs through this mission I would never have seen Senior Partner Howe if I hadn't specifically looked for her.

Re-run of mission 2: found the 2 GB Memory Card glowy in the very back, then had to backtrack a little to find the Dirty Secret glowy. For what it's worth, I didn't have to fight anything to complete either of the first 2 missions (mostly just time hunting glowies).

Re-run of mission 3: wow, what a difference a blaster makes. 3 lucks, aim/build up, some blasting and some blapping, and I beat Silver Mantis. She has pretty fun dialog as she, uhh, goes down.



There wasn't an ambush this time, so the extra mobs I encountered while playing my defender must've been the patrol.

[+0.1] Fun dialog: Silver Mantis, and also the roaming patrol who talks about Silver Mantis.

Defeating Silver Mantis completes the mission and gives me "The infamous tape" as a clue. This clue suggests I should make a copy of it and blackmail Howling Patriot with it.

[-0.1] Unheroic: while this clue completely makes sense for villains, it doesn't ring true for a hero who might be playing this "neutral" arc.

Debriefing: Howling Patriot seems very grateful for my destroying the tape and returning it to him. (I think it might be a little more believable if I gave him the tape and he destroyed it, so he can confirm the tape's authenticity, but this is very nitpicky.)

[-0.01] Typo: "relived" -> "relieved" (in debriefing)

The souvenir is quite well-written, but I might suggest that instead of "An Engraved Invitation" as souvenir, you get "Silver Mantis's Phone Number". The souvenir makes it a little more ambiguous as to whether you made a copy "for insurance" or not, which works better for me than what's currently in "The infamous tape" clue.

[4.13] at end of mission 3.

Overall
Liked the premise, writing style and dialog. Some things portrayed seemed conspicuously unheroic even for a neutral arc; this might make more sense as an outright villainous arc (that just happens to have a hero as a contact), or else it should be adjusted so a hero could reasonably do it. Mission 2 to blackmail the assistant DA seemed off-track from the main plot. Would've liked more investigation of clues (since Mystery is one of the arc's keywords), and to have the player's efforts lead to finding Silver Mantis, rather than her just showing up and challenging the player.

Rounding 4.13 off, I gave this arc 4 stars.

----

My queue is now:

@Delightful Dolly - Sisterhood #123426 (H40-54) re-review
@FredrikSvanberg - The Warburg Connection #364832 (V30-40)
@Gypsy Rose - The Greater Good #395861 (H45-54)
@FredrikSvanberg - Arena #390921 (V40-54)
---not accepting further submissions at this time---

Don't Freak review
Arc ID: 385769
Keywords: Solo Friendly, Custom Characters, Drama
Morality: Heroic
Level range: 20-54
No warnings.

The premise is to fight Freaks who are attacking an office building. Sounds simple enough. I played a 45 mace/shield brute on +1 x1 difficulty. The contact is a custom character, a female office secretary.

[5.0] points to start.

Mission 1
Briefing: the contact wants me to help rescue her friends in an office building invaded by freaks.

[-0.01] Capitalization: "freaks" should probably be "Freaks" throughout (in 2 places in the briefing, 2 places in the mission accept, 3 places in send-off) since this is the customary capitalization for Freakshow.

Found and rescued USaid Help who seems to be a PPD ally. USaid and his guards say:

[NPC] Metal Smasher: OK maybe you will. Now I am freaking!
[NPC] USaid Help: DON'T STAND THERE FREAKING. HELP!
[NPC] USaid Help: ASSISTANCE APPRECIATED. FREAKS CURRENT STATUS: FREAKING.

[-0.01] Dialog: I think this is meant to be funny, but could use some work (IMHO). Just using the word "freaking" a lot doesn't seem funny enough (to me, anyway ... different people may feel differently).

Found a "bulletin board" glowy.

[-0.01] Capitalization: the glowy's name should be capitalized ("Bulletin board") to match the usual convention for glowy names.

Clicking the bulletin board gave me the "Items posted on the bulletin board" clue which was well-written with good descriptions, but it's not immediately clear to me how this clue connects to the story. (Later on after I found more clues, this clue made more sense, with the defaced Efficiency Inc flyer.)

Ran into a patrol that said:

[NPC] Metal Swiper: There's got to be at least one working copy machine in this building. Let's keep looking.
[NPC] Juicer Freak: No way. There never is. Let's stop wasting time and take another coffee break.

I didn't understand this initially, but it was explained later on.

Found a glowy that looked like a desk but was named "Memo" and gave me the "Memo from Efficiency Inc." clue. Possibly this glowy should just be named "Desk" and you find the memo on it (but this is really nitpicky, didn't mark off score for it).

The memo itself is funny, with the consulting firm recommending that workers should be replaced with Freaks.

Found "Bomb 3" and clicked it. (Not sure how I know it's Bomb 3 and not one of the others, but this isn't a big deal.)

Found Jenn Hardinson, an office hostage being guarded some custom characters purporting to be Freaks; a Gossip Freak, a Geek Freak and The Freak N' Boss.



[+0.1] Like the names and bios for the custom Freaks.

[-0.1] Costuming: the custom Freaks don't look anything like the other Freakshow; they just look like normal people. Shouldn't they have cybernetic limbs and spikes and stuff like the standard Freak models?

Found and rescued Dwane Simon Krute IV, and Scott Michaels.

Found FreaKing and fought him. He seemed to just be an ordinary Freakshow boss? While fighting, he says:

[NPC] FreaKing: You think you are freaking now? Just wait!
[NPC] FreaKing: Lol. That tickles.
[NPC] FreaKing: OK maybe it pinches.
[NPC] FreaKing: You have no chance against the master. Ha!
[NPC] FreaKing: Ok maybe a chance.
[NPC] FreaKing: Alright now I am freaking.

[-0.1] Disappointing: the story does a good job of building up FreaKing as the leader and an important figure in the story, but having him turn out to be a typical Freakshow boss feels much too ordinary. Especially after encountering the custom freaks we've seen up to this point. I think he needs to be more special somehow. Perhaps "the FreaKing Boss" would make more sense as the big boss.

[-0.1] Dialog: FreaKing's dialog is very mundane. Needs to be funnier (if you're going for comedy) or more interesting somehow.

Took some searching time and some backtracking to find the last 2 bombs; this was mostly my fault for just not seeing them earlier. The last bomb I found gave me the "Freaking Bomb" clue.

Debriefing: the contact explains the whole story, that the regional manager was trying to replace all the workers with Freaks in order to cut costs and increase profits.

[-0.1] Don't understand: Why were there bombs planted in the office? I understand the regional manager outsourcing all the work to the Freaks, but it doesn't seem like bombing the office fits into the plot; it certainly wouldn't make the company more money.

[-0.5] Not enough is done with the basic idea of replacing the office workers with Freaks. I rated this as -0.5 because this is really the core concept of the entire story arc, and I feel like it needs more material to support it. I think you need to show a few examples of Freaks attempting to do office work and failing miserably for various freaky reasons -- to illustrate the pitfalls of outsourcing (sure, they work for cheaper...but they are totally incompetent). I did see the patrol that was looking for the copy machine, but there needs to be more. For example, you could have a group of Freakshow destroying the copy machine, protecting the water cooler or coffee machine, destroying some vending machine that won't give them a candy bar, etc., with dialog that illustrates how ill-suited they are to working in a normal office. Maybe some customers of the firm who the Freakshow are trying to "help" but the customers are totally freaked out by them (so they are hostages in-game, but a lost sale in terms of the story, further contributing to the regional manager's downfall).

[4.17] at end of mission 1.

Overall
I like the office setting (not sure why this is marked "drama" instead of "comedy" ... perhaps it is intended as a cautionary tale against outsourcing) but I think you need to do more with the basic idea of Freaks replacing the office workers and why that just won't work. I also think the big boss encounter could stand to be spiffed up a bit, maybe given a special custom model and some more interesting dialog.

Rounding 4.17 off, I gave this arc 4 stars.

----

My queue is now:

@Niklarus - A Scandal in Paragon City #392334 (N20-26)
@Delightful Dolly - Sisterhood #123426 (H40-54) re-review
@FredrikSvanberg - The Warburg Connection #364832 (V30-40)
@Gypsy Rose - The Greater Good #395861 (H45-54)
@FredrikSvanberg - Arena #390921 (V40-54)
---not accepting further submissions at this time---

The Star-Dwellers review
Arc ID: 380417
Morality: Neutral
Level range: 6-14
Warnings: AVs, EBs, custom power selections

The premise is a 1930s adventure with the Midnight Squad investigating a mad pulp author. I played a level 9 archery/em blaster at default difficulty. The contact is a custom character, a distinguished looking man in a formal suit.

[5.0] points to start.

Mission 1
Briefing: the contact affects a pretty good English manner of speaking, and asks me to help a member of the Midnight Squad, a writer who has "run afoul of the local hooligans" by failing to pay his bar bill.

[+0.1] Fun briefing.

[-0.01] Typo: "suprise" -> "surprise" (send off)

[-0.01] Typo: "cux of the problem" -> "crux of the problem" (send off)

This doesn't seem particularly epic as tasks go, but it's a low level arc, so I'm willing to go with it.

Inside the mission, I confront Nicky Fingers, who apparently is running this speakeasy.



[-0.1] Continuity error: Nicky Fingers (and all the other Mooks) appear to have the default Mooks description, which refers to Governor Marcone and Guido 'the Mooch' Verandi. This description can't work for this story arc, which is set in 1931, Prohibition-era America. Possibly they should have enemy group and background story to match their role as members of the "Trillo mob".

Found and rescued Philip Ashton Howard. He says:

[NPC] Philip Ashton Howard: I am a scholar and bookseller - what pittance do you expect me to use to pay this debt?!
[NPC] Philip Ashton Howard: AAAAH! Help me!!
[NPC] Philip Ashton Howard: Thank you for your help. I don't think they're done, though - they'll probably head to my shop!

I like the first line, but the second and third lines really need to be written in the rather antiquated style affected by H.P. Lovecraft (or perhaps R.E. Howard), to be a little more evocative. (Very nitpicky.)

Rescuing Howard completed the mission and gave me the "Act 1" clue, which seems to better match the Lovecraft style.

Debriefing seems neat too.

[4.98] at end of mission 1.

Mission 2
Briefing: the contact wants me to pick up an old book at Howard's shop, to keep it from falling into the hands of the Mooks (err, Trillo mob). What could go wrong?

[-0.01] Objectives: one of my objectives is "Defeat Bald Tony" but Bald Tony isn't mentioned in the briefing at all, so not quite sure why I know this is needed. (Suggest either mentioning him or rephrasing to "Defeat Mook boss" or something similarly generic)

I beat up some mooks and clicked on some Bookshelf and Bookcase glowies that didn't seem to have the right book.

(Got dragged off to a team at this point. By the time I got back, I was a level 12 arch/em blaster. Reran mission 1 quickly to get back to where I was)



Beat up Bald Tony and found the safe containing the "Act 2: Cuirach Manuscript" clue.

Debriefing: the contact seems extremely happy that the manuscript has been recovered....suspiciously gleeful, I might say.

[4.97] at end of mission 2.

Mission 3
Briefing: some pages are missing from the Cuirach Manuscript; the pages have some especially dangerous info on them, so we need to find them.

[-0.1] Don't understand: "Most likely, we can find them at a dockside warehouse"? The narrative lost me here; what makes us think the missing pages just happen to be in a warehouse?

Inside the mission, ten lines of dialog instantly appear as I zone in. Battles between Mooks of the "Trillo mob" and Cultists of "Circle of Thorns - 1931", it seems.

Found a Box that seemed to be a false glowy, and a couple Crates that counted towards the pages objective.

From a distance I heard Ma Trillo speaking some lines of dialog; she called an ambush before I even got to her. When I found Ma Trillo (a +0 lieutenant for me), she was slightly wounded. I think she must've somehow tangled with some CoT that fought her group. While I fought her, she called another ambush, this time of CoT.


So then I shot the little old lady. She was a mob boss, I swear!

[-0.1] Inconsistent: Ma Trillo first fought some CoT, then talked about working with them, then summoned a CoT ambush. Are the Mooks and CoT friends or enemies? Seems to be both in this mission.

Leveled to 13 fighting Ma Trillo and her ambushes.

Found 2 desks that each gave me another page, then another crate that gave me the last page and completed the mission. Got "Act 3: The Lost Pages" at the end of the mission, that mentions something about the names of stars taken from the evil tome.

[4.77] at end of mission 3.

Mission 4
Briefing: so supposedly everything is all taken care of now and we're just going to the club to have some tea. Yeah, right.

[-0.01] Typo: "Cruiarch Manuscript" (in briefing) should be "Cuirach Manuscript" (to match earlier spelling)

[-0.01] Typo: "Mighnighters Club" -> "Midnighter Club"

Seems weird to call Philip Howard just "Phil" in this briefing (he is called Philip everywhere else), but this is very nitpicky.

They really have the same password in 1931 as they do in 2010? Well, I suppose it could be traditional.

[-0.01] Inconsistent: mission entry popup describes a huge crowd of people socializing, but the map is actually quite empty of people and Sir Bradford even says "Such a low turnout". (I do eventually run into a patrol of Midnight Squad with some dialog, but the place still seems pretty low population compared to the popup dialog.)

[-0.1] Objectives: "Retrieve the Cuirach Manuscript from storage" is in my objectives, but was never mentioned in my briefing and nothing I know suggests that I should steal it (or take it for safekeeping). So why is this my objective? Based on the briefing, I should be looking for Sir Bryce to have some tea.


Nice place you've got here.

In the conference table room, I do find Sir Bryce and he has some dialog when I get near him, which was nice. Near him is a big display case labeled "Cuirach Manuscript" which I suppose I should be taking.

[-0.01] Missing text: the progress bar when clicking the Cuirach Manuscript is completely blank.

After clicking the manuscript, I now have the objective "Gather the lost Manuscript pages".

[-0.1] Don't understand: why do I need to gather the lost pages again? I just did that in the previous mission. Maybe this mission is making me the person who actually repairs the book? If so, this needs to be clearer. Needs more explanation. Perhaps add some clues, or make it clearer in the briefing that he expects me to restore the book. (The briefing does mention repairing the book, but didn't give me the impression I was supposed to do it.)

In one of the side storerooms, I find a box labeled "Lost Pages".

[-0.01] Missing text: the progress bar when clicking the Lost Pages is completely blank.

Once I get the Lost Pages I now have an objective called "Restore the Cuirach Manuscript". There is no clue as to how I should do this, so I end up just searching around the Midnighter Club looking for something new.

This objective chain is requiring a moderate amount of backtracking, though the area of the map that everything occurs in is relatively small, so it isn't too bad.

Back in the conference room I find a "Restoration Desk", which I click.

[-0.01] Missing text: the progress bar when clicking the Restoration Desk is completely blank.

After clicking the desk, I hear some dialog from Cultists and Ma Trillo and now have "Fight off the attackers!" as a goal. Sir Bradford and I battle a CoT patrol that roamed up to me and I can hear Ma Trillo fighting that Midnighter patrol.

Heading back a bit further, I find Ma Trillo, this time a boss with some summoned zombies. While fighting her, she summons a Mook ambush, also, but I narrowly manage to defeat her. In her dialog she expositions that she's already learned a lot from Baron Zoria.

Completing the mission gives me the "Act 4/Intermission: The Restored Cuirach Manuscript" clue.

[-0.01] Clue name is much too long, it doesn't fit in the text box (on my screen it gets cut off at "Cuirach Man").

[-0.01] Phrasing: "the names' importance is clear" should be "the names' importance are clear", or perhaps "the importance of the names becomes clear". (in Act 4/Intermission clue)

[-0.01] Typo: "dwel" -> "dwell" (in Act 4/Intermission clue)

[-0.01] Typo: "Midnighters' Club" -> "Midnighter Club" (in mission exit popup)

Hey, I never got that cup of tea, either! Aww. (Nitpicky)

The idea of restoring the manuscript (in a downtime mission) and then battling the CoT invaders is kind of neat. I think it needs to be a little better explained, though.

[4.47] at end of mission 4.

Mission 5
Briefing: The CoT have kidnapped Philip, and Sir Bradford wants me to help perform some ritual to find him.

It's a little confusing that this is labeled "Act IV" when it's mission 5, but mission 4 was the intermission, so I suppose this works.

[-0.01] Typo: ephermal -> ephemeral (in send-off)

[-0.1] Confusing: Sir Bradford performs a "Ritual of Seeking", then the mission title is itself "Stop the Ritual!" Am I supposed to be stopping Sir Bradford's Ritual? Or some sort of CoT ritual? My guess is that I'm here to stop a CoT ritual, but the briefing mentions the Ritual of Seeking and never mentions a CoT ritual (our ostensible purpose is to rescue Philip), so it's presented in a rather confusing way.

Inside the mission, I found Sir Bradford Bryce, only with glowing white eyes, guarded by CoT. He has some cryptic dialog as I rescue him. I'm guessing he's been possessed by the demon he summoned. His description reinforces this idea. "Sir Bradford" joins me as a Boss ally.

Found and defeated the 3 Ritual Casters, who ominously said something about "losing control" and "They are coming." Then we found Philip Ashton Howard and rescued him, which triggered "Lead Philip out to escape the Star-Dwellers!" and "6 cosmic horrors to escape from (combat not necessary)".

[-0.01] Objectives: "Lead Philip out to escape the Star-Dwellers!" should omit the trailing ! as it looks wrong with a comma right after it.

I was a little curious as to the nature of the cosmic horrors we were escaping from, and soon got to find out as we ran across a giant monster that promptly ate Sir Bradford.


Don't do it Bradford! Nooooooo!

I tried to run away with Philip but ran smack into another giant monster, which killed me.

I think you may have some players ragequit here because of the unfairness of putting 6 giant monsters in a level 6-14 mission. However, this encounter really felt true to the Cthulhu mythos genre to me. It actually WAS pretty horrifying to realize I had no chance at facing down the monster and I not only couldn't save Bradford (since he was solidly aggroed on the monster) but I had to run away with Philip. Admittedly this is not very heroic, but it fits the story. So I'm going to give it credit for

[+0.1] Good representation of cosmic horrors, evocative of the Cthulhu Mythos genre

....but, you may have other players who think this encounter is utterly unfair.

Returning from the hospital, I load up on lucks and use them liberally to get back to where Philip is and lead him past the cosmic horrors. This was NOT easy; I had to grab him from between two of the cosmic horrors, then running back out I lost him once in the caves and had to go back for him, braving the cosmic horrors once again. The monsters spit at me repeatedly, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been able to make it without eating those 3 lucks.

[-0.1] Too difficult: even avoiding combat, it's going to be crazy hard to get Philip out. I had to run past a gauntlet of 3 giant monsters, and they all seemed to have pretty good perception. Maybe it could be made easier to escape by lowering the number of cosmic horrors? It could be just bad luck that I ran into so many, but it didn't really seem like I had a chance until I ate 3 lucks.

Debriefing: a nice wrap up of the story and explanation of what possessed Sir Bradford. A few final notes:

[+0.1] Nice "retro" atmosphere; I liked the 1931 theme of the arc.

[-0.1] Hard to believe: the secret of how to summon the cosmic horrors was in the Cuirach manuscript, split between at least 6 pages that were torn out of the book. I prevented any of them from being captured by the CoT. How did the CoT summon the cosmic horrors? The story claims they get the info out of Philip Howard. But I find it hard to believe that a drunk who is clearly terrified of the cosmic horrors ("We haven't a chance" he says) would be willing and able to recite 6 pages of ritual from memory.

[-0.01] Dangling plot thread: what happened to the Cuirach Manuscript at the end of the story? After I repair the manuscript, it is never mentioned again. But based on the story's premise, it is easily as dangerous as a nuclear weapon, so I'm uneasy at not knowing what becomes of it.

[4.34] at end of mission 5.

Overall
I liked the 1931 setting and the "Call of Cthulhu" feel of the story. I think you could make it even more immersive by adjusting some of the writing to be more like the stilted, obscurely worded Lovecraft writing style, as well as changing the descriptions of the Mooks to be more "in theme" (like the CoT - 1931 and Midnighters - 1931 factions you've made). The final encounter with the Star-Dwellers was quite neat but I think was a little too hard, even if you don't fight them.

Rounding 4.34 off, I gave this arc 4 stars.

----

My queue is now:

@Gypsy Rose - Don't Freak #384769 (H20-54) (played, need to write up notes)
@Niklarus - A Scandal in Paragon City #392334 (N20-26)
@Delightful Dolly - Sisterhood #123426 (H40-54) re-review
@FredrikSvanberg - The Warburg Connection #364832 (V30-40)
@Gypsy Rose - The Greater Good #395861 (H45-54)
@FredrikSvanberg - Arena #390921 (V40-54)
---not accepting further submissions at this time---

I'll go with May 4.

It's 4/10/2010, and it was a year ago today that I started this thread and started doing arc reviews. A year is a pretty long time and I think I'm ready for a break.

I feel like I've accomplished my initial goals for creating this thread, which were:
* To get some people to try my story arcs and get useful feedback for them.
* To find some fun story arcs for me to try out.
* To help other people make their story arcs more cool.

With that in mind, I'm going to be closing my queue to further submissions. I'll finish reviewing the arcs already in my queue, however. After that, I'm thinking of starting up some new (but different) MA project. (I do still like MA, after all.)

4/9/2010

Wednesday

I started a newbie archery/nrg blaster. I pictured this character being a hover-blaster, so tried dozens of <adjective> <flying thing> names and eventually got the name Goth Angel, which I'm not completely happy with, but decided to roll with it, giving her pale white skin and a black outfit. Got a costume compliment on this. Solo'd my way to level 2, then joined a 6-player Whirligig team doing lowbie radio missions in King's Row; this got Goth Angel to level 7.

A pretty big exp nerf to Mission Architect was patched in, and I decided to test its impact on my story arcs by playing my own Teen Phalanx Forever! story arc. The nerf is intended to reduce exp for missions that have "buff bot" allies, but it seems poorly implemented. It appears to reduce exp by 10% for each ally, but it counts not only buff bot allies, but also combat allies, noncombat hostages (the people you rescue), and destroyable objects. I've heard reports that it will also sometimes count NPCs involved in battles, friendly patrols and bosses, but can't confirm this. The patch seems pretty crazy punitive towards normal (non-farm) story arcs. Dr Aeon has posted that it's a temporary solution, but temporary fixes have a way of becoming permanent, so kinda taking that with a grain of salt. Despite the (noticable) exp nerf, however, I did get to level 8 by the end of the arc.

Joined a pickup Hollows team after that and ran through David Wincott's story arc, getting 4 merits.


Thursday

Strong Woman (50 inv/SS tanker) joined a pickup Lady Grey TF. I was asked to bring a tanker, but we had a shield tanker on the team already when I joined, so not sure what was up with that; the team leader mentioned to me that the other tanker wasn't that experienced. (Not that I count myself as being an especially good tanker...) We did a mix of stealthing and clearing mobs (I mostly cleared mobs in my way until someone with stealth TP'd me to places). The Honoree was pretty tough for us because we had no debuff to speak of (only emp and kin for support), and he went Unstoppable for awhile, but we eventually dropped him, finishing in 1hr 3m. I got a Red Fortune (DEF) and Mako's Bite (ACC/DMG) recipe as random drops from this TF.

Spy Girl (15 MA/ninj stalker) solo'd through 30 Minute Hero, an AE story arc about getting stuck in a time loop. It was a little repetitive (as time loops tend to be) and the writing of how the time travel worked was a little confusing to me, but it had a cool back story and ending. I gave it 4 stars.

I saw someone recommend one of my story arcs on LB, which was nice. This was actually quite a pleasant surprise, because it was a person that I thought was mad at me for silencing him on LB.

Started to do my taxes while I was online, windowing between the game and TurboTax, but I'm so bad at multi-tasking that I eventually had to just log off to focus on the tax stuff. (I could never 2-box worth a damn.) Fortunately, the government owes me money, so this didn't turn out too bad.

Personally I think that improving the game balance to reduce the number and efficiency of AE farms is a fine thing. I don't like that AE has become near synonymous with farming and PLing.

However, the patch of 4/7 does a poor job of achieving this goal, while negatively and arbitrarily impacting the vast majority of normal, non-exploitative story arcs. Unlike previous changes (such as the ones penalizing custom mobs if they don't have certain powers, or penalizing custom groups who don't have all rank positions filled), there is really not a good way to work-around the current patch while preserving the integrity of a story. It's simply not reasonable to remove all allies, noncombat hostages and defendable objects.

The success or failure of Mission Architect as a feature is almost entirely dependent on player-generated content. I believe the 4/7 patch discourages (even drives off) many players who use Mission Architect in non-exploitative ways, reducing the Mission Architect fan base and hurting its viability as a feature. I urge you to rollback this change immediately. Replace it with a more targeted fix later on, one that specifically stops the bad behavior without hurting "legitimate" players along with it.

By comparison, I think my work flow for a typical story arc goes something like this:


Daydreaming/idea phase: work effort 2-4hrs, duration 2-90 days
Storyboarding: work 1-2hrs, duration 1 day
First draft (in test mode): work 8-16hrs, duration 2-7 days
Playtesting: work 2-4hrs
--- publication ---
Advertising/promotion: work 1-2hrs, duration forever/until unpublish
Rework & refinement due to player feedback (in "live" mode): work 4-24hrs, duration forever/until unpublish

TOTAL: 18 to 42 hours per arc (average 30 hours).


Some of my arcs require some research, mostly poking around ParagonWiki and Wikipedia for interesting bits of game lore and real life lore. I count this as daydreaming/idea phase.

I don't count doing arc reviews as part of "advertising" budget, as it isn't directly related to one of my story arcs, though it does earn me a lot of plays (especially on my less well-known story arcs), so maybe should be counted.

I've published a total of 10 story arcs on live (8 are still up; 2 have been unpublished). At an average of 30 hours each, I estimate my lifetime total as being 300 hours.

My billable rate would make that quite a sum, but the truth is, I did it because it was fun. I enjoyed the act of creating something that I thought was cool, and that I hoped other players would think was cool too.


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


Regarding the original topic, "How will this affect you", the current patch impacts 7 of my 8 currently published arcs. I find that my writing style uses a lot of allies, hostages and battles, to make missions seem more interesting than the average radio mission. The only one of my arcs it does not impact is Attack of the 50 Foot Villain. Ironically, this is my one arc which I've had several players accuse of being a farm.

I don't plan to rework my various story arcs to try and conform to the standard set by the 4/7 patch, as I believe the 4/7 patch is Not Working As Intended and needs to get rolled back or fixed.

I looked at your screenshots and I agree that it looks like your custom enemy group ought to award normal rewards.

Is it possible that the character you are testing on has Patrol exp? For reasons I don't fully understand, Patrol exp does not count inside AE, and this could make it appear like you are earning half the exp inside an AE mission that you are outside, when actually you're earning normal exp in the mission, and double exp outside. (Sorry if this seems like a dumb question.)

30 Minute Hero review
Arc ID: 386310
Keywords: Challenging, Solo Friendly, Sci-Fi
Morality: Heroic
Level range: 10-20
Warnings: EBs

The arc description is just "Sometimes, 30 minutes can last a life time." I cannot tell anything about the story based on this; maybe it has a lot of timed missions? Anyway, I played a level 15 MA/ninj stalker at default difficulty.

[5.0] points to start.

[-0.1] Arc description: needs to be more descriptive. Currently it tells nothing about the story. You need to have something here that says something about the story, some sort of hook to make casual players who read the description curious enough to try the story arc.

The contact is a recolored civilian by the name of Dr. Ryga.

Mission 1
Briefing: a mysterious woman runs up to me and begs for help, then collapses.

[-0.01] Phrasing: "Get her out the road" should be "Get her out of the road" (mission accept message)

Accepting the mission gave me the "Dig Site Address" clue.

[-0.01] Phrasing: "In all likely hoods" should be "In all likelihood" (send off message)

[-0.01] Phrasing: "There are people endanger" -> "There are people in danger" (send off message)

I kinda wish I knew more about what I was getting into, but the woman did gasp out that people were being attacked at this dig site, and I suppose that is really enough to get a hero to help.

[-0.01] Objectives: "3 Survivors to find..." should omit the trailing ellipsis, it doesn't work with the comma right after it.

Inside the mission, I find it is full of Gold Brickers. I rescued Digger Daniels from some of them; he counts as one of the survivors.

I found 2 Researcher Body glowies; each one counted as a survivor, but they are actually dead bodies.

[-0.01] Objectives: "3 Survivors to find" maybe should be "3 Diggers to find" (since some are already dead, so can't count as a Survivor)

Clicking a patch of debris labeled "Broken Artifact", I got the "(Optional) Broken Artifacts" clue.



Found and defeated Raid Leader, who gave me "Odd Compass" as a clue and completed the mission. The description of the compass makes me immediately wonder if it's an alethiometer.

Debriefing: doh! it's not an alethiometer, it's a time machine! And I'm stuck in a time loop.

[4.85] at end of mission 1.

Mission 2
Briefing: the events of mission 1's briefing repeat, but with slightly different wording and the woman says a little more before collapsing.

[-0.01] Phrasing: "It was all happening again all the way down to the paper yet. In your hand was not only the paper but the compass from before." is awkwardly phrased; suggest rephrasing to something like "The woman hands you the paper with the address on it again. It was all happening again, just like before...except this time you have the odd compass in your hand."

[-0.01] Phrasing: "Before she couldn't say more her exhausted body finally gave out on her" is awkwardly phrased (and kinda makes it sound like she dies); suggst rephrasing to "Before she could say any more, she collapses from exhaustion."

[-0.01] Spelling: "interrorgation" -> "interrogation" (in briefing)

[-0.1] Don't understand: why is there a time limit on this mission? We have a time machine now, after all.

[-0.01] Phrasing: "Get her out the road, again" -> "Get her out of the road, again" (mission accept)

Inside the mission, it appears it's identical to mission 1, with exactly the same objectives, only with a 15 minute time limit.

[-0.01] Typo: "the sent of blood" -> "the scent of blood" (in mission entry popup)

This time I find a different hostage, Dr. Alexander.

[-0.01] Typo: "Has a bit of and anger management problem" -> "Has a bit of an anger management problem" (in Dr. Alexander's description)

I end up rescuing him. I clicked a "Rubble" glowy that did nothing, then an "Ancient Tablet" glowy that gave me "(Optional) Short History of The Angel's Compass" as a clue.

[-0.01] Formatting: "(Optional) Short History of The Angel's Compass" is too long a title to fit in the default clue title bar. Suggest you make it shorter, e.g. "(Optional) A History Lesson" or something similar.

[-0.01] Phrasing: "700 Years ago give or take a few years." is not a complete sentence and is a little awkward anyway. I suggest you rephrase it and combine it with the next sentence, e.g., "700 years ago, a woman people believed was an angel..." I think you can drop the "give or take a few years" part, people understand that about dates 700 years ago. (in (Optional) Short History of The Angel's Compass)

Found another Rubble glowy that did nothing.

Rescued Digger Daniels and Dr. Ameila Stride. Stride says:

[NPC] Dr. Ameila Stride: Thank you, thank you.... I will forever worship the ground you stand... THANK YOU!

[-0.01] Phrasing: "I will forever worship the ground you stand" -> "I will forever worship the ground on which you stand" (in Dr. Ameila Stride's dialog).

The name "Ameila" boggled me and I spent some time researching whether it was a valid name (I thought maybe it was a misspelling of Amelia). It does seem to be, but I forgot about the time limit while I was doing this, and ran out of the time, failing the mission.

Fail debriefing: decent summary, suggesting maybe I missed out on some info, but this time the people got saved instead of killed.

[4.66] at end of mission 2.

Mission 3
Briefing: still stuck in a time loop. This time I only have 10 minutes to do the mission?

[-0.1] Don't understand: why does the time limit keep getting shorter? I think there must be some reason for this, but it's not clear to me why. The story claims that "I" notice I only have this much time left, so I definitely should know why.

[-0.01] Phrasing: "Grabbing her and setting her to the side to rest." is not a complete sentence. Should be something like "You grab her and set her to the side to rest." Or merge with the previous sentence to make "you didn't wait for her to collapse, instead grabbing her and setting her to the side to rest."

[-0.01] Phrasing: "take note of the amount of time" should be "you take note of the amount of time"

Send-off message: for some reason this reads like the first time; I look at the paper, I find an address, it's where the dig site is located, etc. But I know all this already, so this doesn't seem right.

[-0.1] Continuity: Send off message doesn't seem right considering this is my third iteration of the time loop.

[-0.01] Typo: "its where the dig site is located" -> "it's where the dig site is located" (in send off)

[-0.01] Typo: "people endanger" -> "people in danger" (in send off)

Rescued Dr. Alexander again, seemed to have the same dialog.

Rescued Digger Danials again.

[-0.01] Typo: "Danials" -> "Daniels" (think it was "Daniels" in previous missions)

[-0.01] Phrasing: "I will forever worship the ground you stand" -> "I will forever worship the ground on which you stand" (Stride's dialog, again)

Found and defeated Raid Leader, completing the mission.

[-0.1] Repetitive: This mission seemed exactly like the last one, only with a shorter time limit? I'm not at all clear on why it was necessary to do this again? I don't *think* I've learned anything new on this iteration of the time loop.

Debriefing: "one problem dealt with"? "rush to reach the meeting point"?

[-0.1] Don't understand: the debriefing doesn't make any sense in this context.

[4.20] at end of mission 3.

Mission 4
Briefing: we have 5 minutes left to do....something? I now think maybe we completed mission 3 so fast in order to squeeze in whatever we're doing in mission 4. Something to break the loop.

[+0.1] Cool premise: OK, now that I understand what is going on, this IS a neat idea. (Still needs more explanation earlier on.)

[-0.01] Phrasing: "a cave that rest at the edge of city limits" -> "a cave that rests at the edge of the city limits" (in Briefing)

[-0.01] Typo: "ageing" -> "aging" (in Briefing)

[-0.01] Objectives: "Defeat the Magi" ... how do I know a Magi is responsible? In the mission briefing I only had "stop what or whoever is causing this loop in time". I suggest you make your objective simply "Stop whatever or whoever".


You have gained a point of skill in Monologuing!

Inside the mission I find Arch-Mage Chronas. There's tons of neat looking glowies surrounding him, but conscious of the 5 minute time limit, I focus on beating Chronas, and I manage to beat him before time runs out. I did sneak some time in to look at Chronas' description.

[+0.1] Chronas has a very cool background story. (I like the various glowies giving clues that help explain the full story too.)

After the fight I took some time to inspect the Urn (gives Destroyed Urn clue), Rubble (gives Destroyed Statue clue), Sealed Case (gives Imprisoned Voice clue), Chest (A Torn Wing), Strange Altar (Repeating History), Pile of Books (The Angel's Gift).

[-0.01] Phrasing: "makes it impossible to for you to open" -> "makes it impossible for you to open" (in Imprisoned Voice)

[-0.01] Phrasing: "All that gathered energy erupted but not as a flash of light but as a beam into the air and into a ripping a large hole in the fabric of reality" is very awkwardly phrased (in mission exit popup). Suggest rephrasing to something like "All the gathered energy erupts into a glowing beam that momentarily rips a hole in the fabric of reality."

[-0.01] Unresolved plot element: A hole just got torn in the fabric of reality? That can't be good. (Should maybe state that it naturally closes or fades away.)

[-0.01] Phrasing: "found away to control time" -> "found a way to control time"

[-0.01] Phrasing: "There is no telling the ending result of the Mage" is awkward, suggest "There is no knowing what became of the Mage".

[-0.1] Unresolved plot element: what ended up happening to the unconscious woman that started the arc by asking for help? And the various people encountered at the dig? What was the story with the Goldbrickers, were they hired agents of the mage? Need some closure to these loose plot threads.

[4.22] at end of mission 4.

Overall
I started off with the feeling that this was Yet Another Time Loop story, but I really liked the back story of Chronas and the Angel, though ultimately nearly all of that is found out only in the very last mission. Of the time looped missions, mission 2 seemed different enough from mission 1 to feel worthwhile, but mission 3 really seemed repetitive (though maybe that was the point of a time loop). It took me awhile to figure out why we're trying to do the time loop faster and faster each time; time travel is kind of confusing, and I think this could benefit from some more explanation so the player can follow what is happening. I liked the end of Chronas's story, but would've liked to know what happened to the various other characters we encountered, too.

Rounding 4.22 off, I gave this arc 4 stars.

----

My queue is now:

@K'aji - The Star-Dwellers #380417 (N6-14)
@Gypsy Rose - Don't Freak #384769 (H20-54)
@Niklarus - A Scandal in Paragon City #392334 (N20-26)
@Delightful Dolly - Sisterhood #123426 (H40-54) re-review
@FredrikSvanberg - The Warburg Connection #364832 (V30-40)
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@FredrikSvanberg - Arena #390921 (V40-54)

Katie V reports in her testing results that "Release Captive" objectives now reduce exp also, apparently counting as Allies for this purpose despite having no combat ability. I find it difficult to believe that Release Captive objectives penalizing exp is intentional. I hope that gets corrected.


[Edit: also "defend an object" and "escort" ... it does not make much sense for those to cause an exp penalty.]

Here's some testing that I did:

Character used: a level 7 archery/nrg blaster on default difficulty.

Control: killed a +0 Skull minion outside the Kings Row AE. 16xp.

Story arc used: #67335

Mission 1: 4 combat allies, 4 noncombat hostages, player SK'd up to level 15
+0 Vahzilok (non-custom) minions solo'd by my character consistently earned 7xp (43.75% normal exp).
If allies helped, the exp was further reduced proportional to the damage inflicted by the allies.

Mission 2: 3 combat allies, 3 noncombat hostages, player SK'd up to level 15
+0 Clockwork (non-custom) minions solo'd by my character consistently earned 9xp (56.25% normal exp).
If allies helped, the exp was further reduced proportional to the damage inflicted by the allies.

Mission 3: 2 combat allies that are gradually spawned as triggered objectives as the mission progresses, 0 noncombat hostages, player SK'd up to level 20.
+0 Freakshow (non-custom) minion solo'd by my character before any allies were spawned earned 16xp (100% normal exp; low sample size though).
+0 Freakshow (non-custom) minion solo'd by my character after 1 ally was spawned earned 14xp (87.5% normal exp; low sample size though).
+0 Freakshow (non-custom) minion solo'd by my character after 2 allies were spawned earned 13xp (81.25% normal exp; low sample size though).
If allies helped, the exp was further reduced proportional to the damage inflicted by the allies.



You really found that "release captive" objectives penalize exp? That seems nuts. Your theory is consistent with my data though.

Thought I'd try gathering some hard data from testing. This is what I found:

Character used: a level 7 archery/nrg blaster on default difficulty.

Control: killed a +0 Skull minion outside the Kings Row AE. 16xp.

Story arc used: #67335

Mission 1: 4 combat allies, 4 noncombat hostages, player SK'd up to level 15
+0 Vahzilok (non-custom) minions solo'd by my character consistently earned 7xp (43.75% normal exp).
If allies helped, the exp was further reduced proportional to the damage inflicted by the allies.

Mission 2: 3 combat allies, 3 noncombat hostages, player SK'd up to level 15
+0 Clockwork (non-custom) minions solo'd by my character consistently earned 9xp (56.25% normal exp).
If allies helped, the exp was further reduced proportional to the damage inflicted by the allies.

Mission 3: 2 combat allies that are gradually spawned as triggered objectives as the mission progresses, 0 noncombat hostages, player SK'd up to level 20.
+0 Freakshow (non-custom) minion solo'd by my character before any allies were spawned earned 16xp (100% normal exp; low sample size though).
+0 Freakshow (non-custom) minion solo'd by my character after 1 ally was spawned earned 14xp (87.5% normal exp; low sample size though).
+0 Freakshow (non-custom) minion solo'd by my character after 2 allies were spawned earned 13xp (81.25% normal exp; low sample size though).
If allies helped, the exp was further reduced proportional to the damage inflicted by the allies.



I don't have any specific conclusions on this, except that I do think combat allies are double-penalized due to the general reduction in exp for allies being in the mission at all, plus additional reduction in exp when they do damage to mobs. My feeling is that this change was probably intended to target the buff bot allies that are present in many current farms, and this double-penalty to fighting allies is perhaps inadvertant and excessive. My personal opinion is that perhaps fighting allies (i.e. allies that attack normally and do damage) should be excluded from the calculation that reduces overall exp based on allies in a mission, since they already reduce exp for every point of damage they inflict.

4/7/2010

Thursday

Star Amethyst (50 dark/ice defender) did a speed ITF (22m 57s) and speed LGTF (23m 14s). Of note, Star Amethyst was the only support character on both TFs (the rest were various tankers and damage).

Logged on April Fool (50 thug/TA MM) mostly because it was April Fool's Day, and I spent 140 merits on red side for level 46-50 recipe rolls, getting:

1 Aegis (END/RES) BlackMkt=500k
1 Luck of the Gambler (DEF/+7.5% rchg) 230M
1 Mako's Bite (DMG/RCHG) 2M
1 Devastation (ACC/DMG/RCHG) 8.5M
2 Trap of the Hunter (chance for lethal) 133K
1 Lockdown (ACC/END/RCHG/HOLD) 5K

...an average yield of 1723K infamy/merit, which of course is skewed very high due to the LotG.


Friday

Noticed that rare salvage seemed to be way up in price on blue side, not sure what prompted this and I'm not sure whether it will stay like that or crash back down to (what I consider) "normal" levels. I ended up selling a lot of my salvage reserves on blue side and got close to the infl cap again. Placed a few buy orders for purple recipes to try and spend down my cash a bit. As a result, over the course of the weekend I got an Apocalypse (DMG/RCHG/ACC) for 350M infl, Apocalypse (chance for negative) for 200M infl, Apocalypse (DMG) for 225M infl. Crafted these and slotted them in my tanker's Laser Beam Eyes for extra IO set bonuses. I also finally managed to sell the Respec recipe I got weeks and weeks ago; I had to take it down (originally listed at 300M) and re-list it, selling it for 200M. I ended up eating the 15M listing price from the first time I put it up, but it's still a nice chunk of change.

Mystery Girl (38 emp/pistols defender) joined an 8-player Citadel TF formed on LB. The team seemed to split up, a lot, but we managed okay. The kin defender seemed impressed that I kept him mostly alive, saying "I tend to die a lot" (his play style was very aggressive, even for a kin; often he would go off and try to solo a spawn by himself). Finished Citadel in 1hr 24m. Followed that by playing Mystery Girl on a Manticore TF formed on LB, finished in 1hr 10m.


Saturday

Shield Maiden (44 mace/shield brute) joined a clear-most ITF formed on LB; despite being somewhat pickup, it was a very good team and finished in 39m 8s. This got Shield Maiden to 45.

Shield Maiden solo'd Don't Freak, a 1-mission AE story arc about an office building where jobs get outsourced to Freakshow. This was kinda fun but could've done more with the basic concept. I gave it 4 stars.

San Min (29 MA/will scrapper) joined a pickup Sister Psyche TF that finished in 1hr 34m, getting San Min to level 31.

Strong Woman (50 inv/SS tanker) tanked for a pickup STF. I took the special power from the Thorn Tree and tried to use it on Dr Aeon in mission 4, but my first shot missed and Dr Aeon went wild, seemingly ignoring my taunts to beat up teammates for a bit, until my second shot made him vulnerable. Final mission went pretty easily; I taunted Lord Recluse from a flying position again, which worked better this time (never got hit by the energy attack). Finished in 1hr 28m and got a Centriole. Also had a teammate compliment Strong Woman's costume.


Sunday

Solo'd Shield Maiden (45 mace/shield brute) through the Brickstown mayhem mission.

Thunder Girl (50 elec/SR scrapper) joined a Master of STF with a team of:

2 scrappers
1 blaster
1 stone tanker
2 controllers (fire/kin, ill/rad)
2 defenders (cold/ice, emp/?)

This went fine until the last mission where our strategy was to pull the patron AVs singly all the way back to the ship. While tanking one of the patrons (Mako, I think?), Black Scorpion and Scirocco both showed up and managed to clock me; I died from Black Scorpion hitting me for 1691. This was embarrassing but I'm not sure what I could've done; I was way over the defense soft cap (over 100% defense to all positions, which still gave him a 10.5% chance to hit according to the combat spam) and couldn't really run away from the AVs, and was killed while at pretty high health (though not at full health). Just bad luck, I guess. A few more people died right after that, but we ended up finishing the STF in 2hr 4m. I got a Nucleolus.

Idealist (50 fire/thermal controller) solo'd Made to Wave the Flag, an AE arc about escaping from a Malta base with some NPC heroes. This was a good story with excellent characterization and dialog. I felt the ending was a little weak, but I still gave it 5 stars.


Monday

Playing Strong Woman (50 inv/SS tanker) I organized and led a 6-player Moonfire TF, which we completed in 1hr 4m. This was actually my way of getting the wolf and vampire badges (without boring farming), and Strong Woman got the Atlas Medallion accolade as a result.

Shield Maiden (45 mace/shield brute) joined a kill-most ITF which finished in 38m 48s, getting her to level 46.

I rolled up Hyzenthlay, a level 1 rad/psy defender, to participate in the Rabbit Run event in Steel Canyon. It being the day after Easter, I had chocolate bunnies on the brain, so I made Hyzenthlay's costume look like a chocolate rabbit, short with big legs to match my idea of what a rabbit looks like. For some reason people really noticed this, and I got two comments on the appearance of her, umm, rear. Anyway, I seem to be really out of practice at dodging aggro while sprinting, and managed to get killed 3 times during the rabbit run, having to restart the race from the beginning each time. Despite this, I was determined to finish the race, and I somehow ended up coming in sixth (though I suspect this was because everyone who did worse simply gave up trying to make it to the finish line). The first place winner was a level 1 force field defender with PFF; wish I had thought of that! I was hoping rad heals would keep me alive, but found that aggro from +13 mobs killed me too quickly for the heals to matter.

Mystery Girl (39 emp/pistols defender) joined an 8-player pickup team fighting Nemesis. We had a semi-wipeout when we encountered the Tech Room of Doom (the one with a central platform surrounded by catwalks) and the team decided to rush right up the middle, into a Nemesis crossfire. Managed to recover from this and actually beat the Nemesis AV. Got Mystery Girl to level 40.

San Min (31 MA/will scrapper) did a Manticore TF in 1hr 1min, getting to level 32. A teammate complimented me on her costume. At level 32 I slotted 4 sets of 4 Kinetic Combat IOs into San Min's various attacks (since I had these lying around my base from my market manipulation efforts). This gave her +15% smash/lethal DEF and +6% max HP, a nice boost.


Tuesday

I was checking the Black Market with Shield Maiden (46 mace/shield brute) when a friend asked to join me, so I started a team doing Ghost Widow's patron arc missions. This snowballed into a full-fledged pickup team that grew to 8 players at the largest, but was about 5-6 players for most of the time. I was taking anyone who would join and playing pretty aggressively against tough enemies; we had a lot of deaths, including multiple team wipes against Longbow (mostly due to stacked sonic debuffs from Longbow Nullifiers), a couple against Paragon PD, and one against Malta. Nevertheless we kept moving and most people seemed to get decent exp. We beat Ghost Widow (as an EB) in the arc where you temporarily bring her back to life, which gave me 10 reward merits.

I can understand the necessity of eliminating AE farm exploits, but the described change to exp rewards in missions that include allies sounds pretty heavy-handed.

Friendly NPCs are a very useful tool for storytelling, both as major characters who become "Ally" details with dialog and characterization, or minor characters who battling bad guys in the background to make the environment seem more alive. You can see examples of both these cases even in dev-authored arcs.

I view myself as a prolific MA author; of the 8 story arcs I currently have published, 7 have friendly models in them. All are intended to support the story; none are intended to be buff bots that unfairly help the player. In fact, more often I've had players complain about low rewards due to allies "kill stealing". To have the rewards reduced even further seems discouraging.

Sharply reducing the rewards for any mission using friendly NPCs may address the short-term problem of a current farming exploit, but I believe it will also make it more difficult for Mission Architect to fulfill its stated primary purpose: namely, allowing users to create rich stories that can be enjoyed by the general player base.