Rayonn

I've started running some AE arcs. I'll post my reviews here.

I'll be doing this with Aemilia Lacera, my heroic kin/inv brute (currently at level 40). As I don't have that much experience with the arc creator I'm going to primarily focus on story elements (characterization, plot twists, etc.), though I'll let you know if an ally, boss, or custom group seems unbalanced.

In general these are going to be critiques (directed at the author), though if I find one I especially like I'll write an actual review explaining why I'd recommend it to players.

I've got one arc published (thread here), but I'm not too happy with it and I'm planning a fairly major rewrite. I would like some feedback though, as detailed in the linked thread.

If anyone wants me to critique an arc, let me know here. I'm currently only doing heroic, neutral, and vigilante arcs, as playing villainous arcs with Amy breaks immersion so much that I can't properly experience the story, and I don't have a high-level villain.

Also, if you're not trying to write a compelling story but just a fun sequence of missions, expect me to misunderstand your arc and give you a review that will probably be fairly useless.

Finally, my first critique can be found at the MA club thread here.

This looks fun. I think I'll join with Forster William. (If I wasn't completely new to roleplaying he would actually make a good Magus)

As a high-ranking Sidhe, one of his current projects is to bring some of the culture of his homeland to the Rogue Islands, so his attempts at throwing high-society parties could serve as a setting for some of the quieter scenes villain-side. I think I'd enjoy the role of the character who brings together the major players but doesn't take part in most of the action himself.

To clarify some of my points,

1. It's possible that I hurt Toxin pretty badly before my tactical retreat.

2. That's what Pistola did with me. Maybe you should just give him an in-character explanation for that behavior and run with it.

3. I believe you. Actually I can't figure out why I thought it wasn't. (Maybe I got Nazi v. Soviets confused with 5th Column v. Council and was looking for an *Italian* name.)

4. I'm pretty sure my confusion about who was whom in the second mission was largely the result of my arc having a similar mechanic. In my arc the player experiences the memories in first person, so I assumed that was what you were doing. I don't think most people will have that confusion.

I really like the idea---my problem with that mission was that I was watching my character learn something that I already knew as a player.

5. I guess I'm not really recommending making the player backtrack so much as adding a 5th Column ambush after Sickle is subdued.

I just remembered that being attacked interrupts collecting a clickable objective, so you would have to defeat the ambush before you could finish the mission, which was the only reason I brought up backtracking.

I'd like to participate, but I don't have any high level villains and the last villainous arc I tried to do with Aemilia felt so out-of-character for her that I couldn't get into it. So if you don't mind I'm going to go back a few weeks. Hopefully that's ok.

Review: Hammer and Sickle of Paragon City
Arc ID 351727

Level 40 Kinetic/Invulnerability brute. (Yes, she's a hero. Started as a warden.) +0/x2 with bosses.


Mission 1:

Someone on the forums pointed out that the dialogue at the beginning sounds like a newscast, and I agree. Maybe you should have the professor show the hero a newspaper story, then tell the hero what he thinks of it (that would be the orange text).

And here's American Hammer. I like the flashiness of his costume; it gives me the impression that he's intentionally showing off his allegiance to his adopted country.

Toxin was tough. I just barely lost to him, but was able to pop a third-tier rez inspiration and finish him off. This, I think, is a weakness of my powerset (no psionic resistance) rather a play balance issue.

At first, I though he was going to be a generic end-of-level named boss, but now it looks like we're getting ready to learn more about him.


Mission 2:

No more problems with the professor's dialogue. On the other hand, there's nothing really to establish him as a character. I suppose that's not a problem, just the lack of a feature.

On the other hand, I did learn something about American Hammer's character. I wonder whether his interrogation techniques are a holdover from his former life, or he's just worried about his partner.

And we're going to tap into Toxin's memories. I really like the idea of having the player relive the memories of an important NPC (I already used it in my first arc). I would point out that, as an interrogation technique, forcibly rifling through someone's mind doesn't seem *that* much better than beating them up. Just more effective. Is this intentional? This might be a good hook for some characterization for the Professor.

There was a boss in each of the first four groups, including three in the first room. No problem, just popped Unstoppable--but I'm new to the power and don't have a good handle on the duration yet, so I crashed in the middle of a horde of darkwolves. Oops. Before I went back in, I double-checked my difficulty settings and realized that the density of bosses is probably the result of my difficulty settings combined with bad luck.

And I just saw 'defeat Toxin' in the objectives. Oh. I had assumed I was playing *as* Toxin, but apparently I'm just wandering around in his memories. I think this confusion is a side effect of my having used the former mechanic in the arc that I'm working on, and not really something that a typical player is likely to get confused about.

Making my way through hordes and hordes of darkwolves.

And the Mechanic is in here too. Cool. I don't know how much of an established character he is in your canon, but it might be cool if he wasn't normally superstrong but was able to use his technical/programming skills to give himself superpowers in the mission. On the other hand I'm rather fond of the 'genius tank' concept. (Example: Roy Greenhilt of Order of the Stick)

Oh dear. I stumbled onto Toxin when I wasn't expecting him, so I retreated down the lift to wait until all my powers had recharged. Given the trouble I had with him earlier, I wanted to make sure I was ready. While waiting, I wrote the preceding paragraph on the Mechanic's powers. About the time I finished, the Mechanic came down the lift. He was fairly hurt, and I noticed that the objective 'defeat Toxin' was no longer on the navbar. This is the first issue I've noticed with the gameplay. If an ally can single-handedly take out the main boss of the mission, I think it's safe to say the ally is too powerful.

Well, I missed the 'Information' objective in the front of the mission,and had to got back for it. I remember standing right here, so this was probably the result of a fury buzz.

I found the remaining objectives pretty easily. Basically, I recovered some data on Toxin's past, but nothing particularly unexpected. He was a 5th Column operative who was captured by the Council and experimented on. Didn't his description in the first mission say the same thing? Perhaps you should put some sort of twist in here. As an extreme example, the player could discover that Council convinced Toxin to defect (or brainwashed him), then released him (and made it look like an escape) to infiltrate the 5th Column. This would obviously lead to major changes in the plot; some other twist might not. The scifi basis for his powers (as described in the debrief) is interesting enough though.


Mission 3

A bit more info on the Professor.

Wow, I'm glad this sort of thing doesn't happen in *my* university, especially considering that my office is in the basement, right down the hall from a lab with chemicals in it.

Fought a supervillain who, based on his costume and description, appears to be a former Soviet (they his name doesn't sound all that Russian - but I could be wrong about that). I find it somewhat odd that the 5th Column seems so interested in hiring or manipulating former Soviets, considering that the Nazis were, if I remember correctly, rather fanatically anti-Communist.
Also, Tovarisch's dialogue seems a bit too boastful fanatical for someone whose description states he works for the highest bidder.

Overall, a quick mission with a very high density of 'and the plot thickens'.


Mission 4

So I'm working with a former Councilman for this.

Powered through a bunch of 5 Column, confiscated the weapons, and found out where I need to go to rescue Sickle.

I had some gameplay problems with Pistola, who seems to be set for Aggressive behavior, as on rescue he ran and agreed pretty much everything in sight, which I had to pull off him with taunt. He nearly died anyway.

On the other hand, I love how indignant his 'left behind' dialogue is.

And it looks like I should have just let him die. I really should have seen that coming. It fits well with the theme of shifting allegiances that you've been developing so far, and seems totally in-character for a Council operative.


Mission 5

New York Sickle has been brainwashed by the 5th Column? That is not good at all, and especially poignant since she's a former agent of a different totalitarian government.

I'm hoping Hammer will get a chance to show off his characterization in this mission, as it hasn't been made that much of yet, but has been hinted to be interesting.

I just rescued American Hammer, and got a clue… YES!! I knew it! (He was indeed concerned about New York Sickle.) Is he set to Aggressive? He seems to have an in-story reason to be, but I din't have any problems with him.

I was able to take down the EB with no problem, once I went Unstoppable. (Love that power.)

I think the clues here should be a bit longer, to really drive home the emotional impact at the climax. Maybe include some dialogue between the two leads, with a distraught Hammer begging Sickle to snap out of it.

The medical supplies were about 10 feet away from the boss fight. Was that intentional or did they just randomly spawn like that?

The climax needs to be a bit more climactic. What if you had to go back to the middle of the map for the medical supplies, fighting through a 5th Column ambush that spawned after you defeat Sickle?


Review:

Story and writing:
A solid, exciting thriller that didn't really reach for anything that I would call 'greatness' (which is by no means a flaw), but succeeded at most of what it did try for. Very nice development of the theme of shifting allegiance.

A few things I would change:

Some of the characters could use more development. The Professor isn't really any more memorable than the guys who are always asking you to hunt Skulls or Hellions at the early levels, though does hint at some more depth. Also, his very first lines are rather odd and don't match his speech pattern in the later dialogues.

Mission 2 pretty much consisted of discovering in-character what I already knew out-of-character about Toxin's backstory from reading his description in Mission 1. This made it fairly boring in terms of story development. Either his description should reveal less or there should be a twist of some sort.

I would like to see more of the dynamic between American Hammer and New York Sickle. As I mentioned above, they could have some dialogue in the clues that drop towards the end of mission 5. Hammer reminding Sickle what they fight for would make a good counterpoint to all the betrayal we've seen earlier.

The end of mission 5 could have a bigger climax. Ending with the player and American Hammer fighting through a 5th Column counterattack to get to the medical supplies for New York Sickle.

Tovarisch's motivations seem muddled. For a hired hitman, he sure does boast a lot about how the 5th Column is going to pwn the Council, crush all lesser races, unimaginable power, unlimited rice pudding, et cetera, et cetera. I think this is the biggest story problem that I noticed.


Game balance:
The enemies are all balanced, which is to be expected since most of them are stock enemies.
On the other hand, some of the allies have issues. Specifically, Pistola acts like a bad PuG teammate, and the Mechanic can solo the end-of-level boss.


Mission design:
Chaining of objectives keeps the missions moving. Nice pacing. However, Mission 5 needs a bigger climax.
Since the Council are basically recolored 5th Column in terms of gameplay, there isn't really much variety in terms of enemies. If you consider this to be a problem, you could kill two birds with one stone by having some other group involved (in addition to the Council) in Toxin's origins. They could show up in Mission 2, or just be mentioned there to foreshadow their appearance in one of the later missions.


Since this is my first review, I'm declining to give star ratings. I might add some in once I have more of a baseline. I rated the arc 4 stars in-game.

I have an arc in progress that I would like some feedback on:
Arc ID: 486856
Keywords: Solo Friendly, Origin Story, Drama
Length: Very Long (5 missions)
First Published: 02/20/2011 10:26pm
Morality: Vigilante
Level Range: 20-29; 1-14 for the flashback at the beginning.
Enemy Groups: Skulls, Council, Two custom groups.
Description: Anathocleos had been tracking the man who murdered his family for years. The chase crossed star systems. Now that he had caught up with him on Earth, nothing was coming between him and revenge.

This is my first arc, and since I published it I've learned some things from playing really good arcs. I'm now vaguely dissatisfied with this one, and I've got a complete rewrite in the works, but before I take it down I'd like to have some people look at it and find out as many of the specific problems with it as possible.

-- The current lack of descriptions for the custom enemies is a symptom of the arc being unfinished. I'm aware that I need those.

-- Does the gameplay seem balanced? It's intended to be doable but challenging on solo.

-- Some things that I'm planning to keep after the rewrite include
* the 'tech dealers' custom group, including their boss, Will Jackson. Their power choices are a bit random; this is intentional, as they use a mix of alien technology from different sources. Do they seem balanced? Do the costumes look good? If not, are they too flamboyant or not enough? Are the engineers overpowered?
* the mechanic of having the player experience Anathocleos' memories. It will be restricted to one of four missions, though. In the others the player will take a more active role.
* the general outline of the story, including the fairly horrible things that happen at the end (i.e. in the fourth mission). This is supposed to be the story of the main character's crossing the line from hero to vigilante (or maybe from vigilante to villain?), after all. Is there a standardized disclaimer that I should put in the arc description? On the other hand, the player may be able to prevent the worst of it, I haven't decided yet.

-- I'm planning to take out the epilogue. I like the idea, but I put it together fairly hurriedly and in my opinion it's the weakest of the five missions. Having the player personally present for the events at the end of what's currently Mission 4 will leave the epilogue unneccesary, I think.

Well that was long-winded. Anyway, I'd appreciate it if anyone could post their comments on this. Thanks.

Sounds good. I'm gonna be busy a lot of the next week in RL, so perhaps we can wait a week to see if anyone else is interested.

Thanks.

Loved the arc. If you were trying to highlight the conflict within the Resistance I would say you succeeded. The fairly dark storyline, flamboyant enemies (Arachnos) and only limited success at the end gave the arc the feel of an RTD-style Doctor Who Christmas Special (not in quality, though - those tended to be some of his weakest work).

I think the best thing about this arc, though, was the dialogue. It was snappy, and did a good job of sketching out the personalities even of minor characters who only had a few lines. ("Hail...Arachnos...")

EDIT: Thinking about the Christmas specials seems to have left me thinking that Arachnos had two Ss. That's Rachnoss ("Noooo! My childreeen!"). Fixed.

This looks awesome. I'm playing Cole In Your Stocking on your recommendation. Could you do a review of Nothing Else Remains (#486856)? It's listed as a work-in-progress, but it's largely finished except for the custom enemy descriptions (and any gameplay issues that the reviewers point out).

EDIT: On second thought, don't bother making a video. I played through a couple of arcs you recommended, and realized that mine needs a good deal more work than I thought it did. If you'd like to critique it, though, I'd appreciate that.

I've got an arc in-progress that I could use feedback on. Nothing Else Remains (#486856).
I haven't yet written descriptions for the custom enemies, but other than that I think it's finished (unless gameplay issues come up), so you can make the review public.

Cool! Thanks.

I'm relatively new to the game. I've gotten my mind/empath controller (my second highest level character-I've got a 38 brute on triumph) to level 30 mostly by soloing and some PuGs. I've reached the point that, as long as the difficulty is manageable, soloing with this character feels like playing chess endgames repeatedly: I can get a full spawn locked down, then it's just a matter of spending forever killing them.

On the other hand most of the pick-up groups I've been in, I was sidekicked up to a much higher level, the difficulty was low enough that the team could steamroll through without really needing any controls, and I felt like a second-rate defender.

My solution is to try to put together a (smallish) team around my level that could play together on a regular basis. It would be cool to get a team of 2-4 characters that worked together consistently and could take on mobs that were too big or too high level to just steamroll through, but instead required cunning and teamwork.

If anyone is interested, let's see if we can decide on a night that we could get together on a weekly basis and run a few missions. My schedule is flexible, and since my character is a vigilante I could go either redside or blueside.

So, I have a concept for a dominator that would seem to fit with either the electric control/electric assault or electric/energy assault powersets. I was wondering how the play styles of the two secondaries differ. What are the pros and cons?