Shield_Shocker

[ QUOTE ]
Shield Shocker - Arc 153323 White Collar Crime
Ok, for my review of this (and its pretty basic) I want to start with the enemy choices. I hate Freakshow, personally. Not because they are hard for me, or anything.
I just hate the self res. HATE the self res. I never know if they are gonna stay down, and it drives me nuts. That aside, its not bad!

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for reviewing this! Ah, bad luck that you hate the Freaks. I enjoy them personally, but more importantly they make sense as villains involved in stealing technology.

[ QUOTE ]
Mission 2: Your special boss had the tag "All Custom Characters" instead of any specific enemy group. You might wanna fix that. Same with Mission 4's boss. He had the same tag, which kinda broke the immersion.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hm, they shouldn't, but I must have messed something up there. Should be an easy fix, thanks for pointing it out!

[ QUOTE ]
Missions 1 and 2 and even 3 to a point seemed very...generic. I was ready to give you a 3 when I hit mission 4. Not alot challenges my SS/WP Brute. But Mission 4 did.

I ran into a room and got promptly faceplanted. That threw me off. Then I realized how hard that custom group really was. I took it slow from there.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks, good to hear that they challenged you. I hope they were not too powerful once you realized they'd require your full attention. I tried to balance them to be challenging but not too hard.

[ QUOTE ]
For once the allies were not overpowered. I am used to getting an ally who could solo the mission. By the same token however, they were a bit underpowered and in a few occasions died.

[/ QUOTE ]

I also prefer my allies to not be too overpowered. I tried these guys out as minions and bosses and decided having the majority as lieutenants worked best in terms of providing some assistance without overshadowing the player's character. Their strength should be in numbers if you can keep them alive.

[ QUOTE ]
Finally, Mission 4 had a CRAPTON of objectives crammed into 1 map. While not "bad" per say, I was confused when I zoned in and saw like 5 different specific things.
All in all, a 4 star mission, thanks to the final part

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks, not sure how much I really want to trim from the grand finale there, would color coding some of those objectives help at all?

Thanks for the good rating, I'm glad you had fun overall and a big thanks for posting a review.

Hey, thanks very much for the review!

[ QUOTE ]
White Collar Crime ID# 153323
mission 1
how do you know it is the freaks?
you could always do powerspike in the hacker speak... powasp1k3 or something ridiculous like that
exit pop up... maybe "of the freak leader...?"

[/ QUOTE ]

Good point on the name, I'll tweak that.

Not sure I understand your first comment, how do you know it is the Freaks? Was something in the briefing unclear?

[ QUOTE ]
mission 2
the boss has a hacker speak name here.
in forz3 1l3vhn his description is about the crey special projects not the character itself. is this on purpose?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, he's actually a member of Crey Special Projects that has gone into "deep cover" with the Freaks. That's supposed to be the first hint for the player that CSG is involved. I'll try to make that more clear in the mission info.

[ QUOTE ]
mission 3
i like the surprise destruct sequence. that is a great touch.
maybe you could have its destruct dialogue go more than once, per damage that it takes. some kind of countdown?

[/ QUOTE ]

Glad you enjoyed that. Do you know how I would make its dialogue do that? I'd love to do a countdown by more than 1/4 damage intervals if I could.

[ QUOTE ]
mission 4
the void two captured animation was really weird... it might be bugged...

[/ QUOTE ]

Hm, that's the second report I've had of that, though he keeps looking fine in my testing. Not sure what's going on with that. What was he doing in your run through? Sounds like I just have to pick a different animation.

[ QUOTE ]
very nice and neat little arc you have there. i was thinking it was a little slow in the beginning but it got better as it went along. i could not see any typos, it had the appearance of being thoroughly checked and edited. the first two missions were a little on the forgettable side. but you had me intrigued when you threw in the destruction sequence. that was a nice touch and completely unexpected and added new tension to what was feeling like a routine mission.

[/ QUOTE ]

Glad you enjoyed it. I didn't want to reveal too much too early as I figured Crey would try to act through proxies first and cover their tracks. I'm glad that it got more interesting as it went along, that was definitely the intention.

[ QUOTE ]
the last mission is where you rolled out all the custom enemy group. i only wish that we could have had earlier encounters with some of them, besides the two bosses. if you could find a way to sprinkle them in a little earlier it would be nice. i wish i had ideas on how you could perk up the earlier missions.

[/ QUOTE ]

Very glad to hear you enjoyed the custom group, I was worried they might be a bit too hard, tough to balance the custom enemies right now. I could perhaps use them as the response team to help the Deputy Director rather than using Paragon Protectors, that would bring a few more of them in a mission early. I was just worried that would make the response team too hard for some players.

[ QUOTE ]
there were a couple of loose ends that i could not tie in my head. who was mr black and why should i trust him, especially in something that looks like a corporate turf war?

[/ QUOTE ]

Good question. Mr. Black is actually a senior executive in the "Void" Security branch, specifically in charge of being a liaison with independent super-powered 'assets'. I could give a bit more info on him, but his initial offer is really supposed to be the equivalent of a super-heroic consulting gig where you don't know much about your new employer. I figured he would be somewhat sparing with info at first for security reasons and that might also lead to the player wondering if they're really working for who they think they are. But I didn't want to cause too much confusion, just some curiosity and mystery.

[ QUOTE ]
i am also not clear as to why their shipment was intercepted and how this tied to crey. did they intercept crey tech too? did i miss this in the clues? if so why did i pursue this further? i must have missed something important along the way. maybe thnis could be solved by more detailed clues?

[/ QUOTE ]

Hm, I'm sure I explained that somewhere. If it was in one of the more easily missed clues, I'll make sure I add it to the more obvious briefings from the contact too.

[ QUOTE ]
otherwise, while slow starting, this arc picked up at the end nicely. the custom group was a lot of fun to fight. i would be interesting to take with a large team.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks again, your feedback is much appreciated and I'll make some improvements based on it.

Funniest mission I've done. Great idea, always thought those exploding drug labs should have some effect, but _brilliantly_ executed. Very creative. 5 Stars!

[ QUOTE ]
Finished mission 4.
Your arc is well written, detailed (as in good descriptions on npcs and such), and fun. I recommend this arc.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thank you very much for playing through it, I'm glad you enjoyed it and your feedback was helpful to me in fine tuning it.

[ QUOTE ]
Void 2 was standing there shooting a sniper rifle at the furniture while he was being held captive.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hm. Not sure what I can do about this. I wanted it to be clear that he was not actually captured but fighting. In my testing, he had a group around him and he was shooting directly at them. I assume the MA either didn't place the group or placed them too far away when you played it?

[ QUOTE ]
Rescue Sgt Brady again? How lame is this guy to get captured twice in one arc?

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, he is a minion. ;-) Seriously though, he's a good cop but he's in way over his head against a group like Crey Special Projects. The intention was less to make him seem lame (hence some of the additional info/clues that should highlight his courage) and more to point out that Crey Special Projects are pretty much going to be able to kick everyone's butt without your hero's involvement.

However, I'll tweak his encounter to make him also seem like he's still fighting instead of already captured.

[ QUOTE ]
I completed the mission without getting all the objectives when I dropped the boss, I still had a Void to rescue.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ah, good catch. The void agents are optional objectives, but they can be important enough as far as overcoming the final fight that I wanted to be sure to list them out. Maybe I should add an "(optional)" to their text? I was concerned that if I didn't list them, people would overlook them and get in over their heads in the last battle without their help.

[ QUOTE ]
So, given what I saw in the "production values" of your mission, I'd be interested in your opinion of my mission.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sure thing, I'll play through it later today. I'll post my review in the other forum though, I don't want to keep bumping this thread given I put it in the wrong place.

Yes, noticed that and posted there after I'd already posted here, sorry about that.

Ok, played through this and found it quite enjoyable. Played it with a Level 40 Katana/Regen scrapper. I thought the theme of the arc was pulled off quite well, the only thing missing was little blue guys chasing me and hitting me with fish. ;-)

I ran into one strange glitch, which I think had to be a MA bug of some kind. With the Therapist and Vanity in tow in mission #3, I found the Steel you Lack and attacked the cowering guys next to him. Immediately one of those (a wolf) vanished along with the Therapist and Vanity. Just plain gone. Couldn't get Steel since I couldn't defeat his group without that last guy and the Therapist and Vanity never returned. Ended up defeating Secret Shame on my own, which was a bit of a challenge.

The final fight was quite challenging indeed, wasn't sure if I would be able to pull it off until I did, the Door kept healing up and smacking me around. Ran twice to regroup and re-engage, without Secret Shame's help I don't think I could have taken him. I enjoyed the references scattered here and there and laughed a few times.

One other comment is that I never could find Steel in mission #2 and when the briefing for one mission said that I had encountered more of the little Nightmares (man, those things can be tough), I had just gone through a mission without being attacked by any of them, oddly enough. I think this is just some of the MA variability at work though, some of my tests on my own missions saw placements change randomly to out of the way locations.

Overall, highly recommended. Very imaginative and well executed, definitely more fun than just about any standard game story arc.

5 Stars.

I'll give Hero Therapy a try tonight. Let me know what you think of White Collar Crime, Arc ID 153323.

Ok, I just took the timer off Mission #3. I also found that an ambush I thought I'd removed that triggered off the self-destruct console was actually still in there, so I'm pretty sure that's what happened. I took that out and toned down the final Boss group as well.

Thanks again for the feedback, hopefully it will be challenging without being overwhelming now.

Thanks very much for the feedback, I really appreciate it!

[ QUOTE ]
1) I really don't like time limits.

[/ QUOTE ]

I can certainly take that out.

[ QUOTE ]
2) the proliferation of different goon types was confusing, it looked like the police were helping the bad guys given how some of them looked.

[/ QUOTE ]

In Mission #3? There should only have been one custom villain. #4 is pretty much all custom villains, but #3 is almost all normal Crey. Was this #4 you were talking about? I tried to make the advanced Crey look similar (but more advanced) to the normal Crey operatives and tanks.

[ QUOTE ]
3) the final battle was pretty hard. I solo'd with a MA/Shield scrapper and when the reaction team showed up I got creamed. I ended up loading up on skittles and going back to kill a few before I died, rinse and repeat. In addition some other badguys showed up and I am not sure from where, I thought I had cleared the area before moving on the boss.

[/ QUOTE ]

[/ QUOTE ]

I'll try to tone it back a bit more. I tested it with my Katana/Regen scrapper and was able to do it on Unyielding, but only just. The sequence of events should have been:

- Fight Boss, get boss to 1/4 Health
- Boss calls in Response Team (Ambush)
- Defeat Boss and Response Team, Boss activates Self Destruct Console and activates destruct sequence
- Self Destruct Console appears along with some Crey attacking it, defend it long enough to disable it before the destruct code completes

Is that what you remember or was something misfiring?

Hi Everyone,

I've finished my first arc and would love to have your feedback on it. It's called "White Collar Crime" and deals with a new high tech corporation that opens an office in Paragon City and finds that super-powered assistance is part of any successful business plan.

Arc # 153323

Thanks for reading!

[ QUOTE ]
It's fixed internally. Should arrive on the test server "Soon" (aka hopefully the patch after next).

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks, _very_ glad to hear this, it was bothering me more and more.

[ QUOTE ]
First...I confirm that we're working on right now (as in pohsyb in the next room) to add CoV costume parts into CoH if you own both games....

Then we repeal the hated stealth nerf. The reason why: many well reasoned posts. It's that simple. You guys pointed out the problems.

AND now...we're changing the way Archvillains spawn. A ton of forum goers disliked adding so many AV's into missions a while back...so we've come up with a solution. If the team size and mission difficulty are ABOVE a certain level, an Archvillain spawns. Below that, players will face only an Elite Boss. If the mission is set on the first two levels of difficulty, it takes 4 heroes or more to spawn an Arch Villain. On the third level, 3 heroes or more. On the fourth level, 2 heroes. On the highest (Invincible), a solo hero will spawn an AV. Note this works in BOTH City of Heroes and Villains.

In order to incentivize larger teams, Positron is going to add a bonus to AV rewards!

[/ QUOTE ]

Thank you, thank you and thank you.

[ QUOTE ]

Seriously, both games are missing the "super team" aspect, it's all just gangs led by a couple of supers. Please find a way to do this sort of thing.

I'd kill for the "final boss fight" of a Strike/Task Force to be a team of 5 different Boss or Elite Boss level villains/heroes that have witty dialogue, as well as complimentary powers and fighting tactics, instead of just a giant bag of HPs with the ability to one-shot squishies (AVs/Heroes).

[/ QUOTE ]

I wholeheartedly agree. Such missions or TFs would also be ideal for the SG/VG mission computer.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
As to the timeline:
I said it when it was first mentioned, and I'll say it again....I really don't like that timeline piece.

Just my two cents

[/ QUOTE ]

I have to agree. Before the Rikti War, there was no shortage of heroes. It made a lot more sense to me, at least, that the Hollowing could happen and another zone could be "lost" after the critical losses to the hero population during the War and the incredible overload on the remaining heroes.

Is anyone else amazed by how good Calibans are in gladiator matches? Also, the Arch-Mage of Agony is incredibly good, but that's to be expected. I still think he's underpointed though.

Thank you for all the great times, the great improvments and here's hoping for another year of the same (and City of Villians!). Best multiplayer game I've ever played, bar none, best community, best devs!

Just my $.02, in some detail... these are intended for PvE.

1. Give blasters some defense or resistance depending on their primary/secondary that scale with level. What I would like to see is something equivalent to this:

For elemental resistances (energy, electricity, fire, ice) the primary would start at 10% base and add +1% for every two levels (first bonus at L2), ending up at 35% base at L50. This would only be for the blaster's energy type, so a Fire primary would be good at not taking damage from Fire, but would have no resistance to Ice. The secondary would offer a 0% base resistance, but add 1% every other (odd) level, starting at L1. This means a blaster with the same primary and secondary would end up with 80% resistance to that element, otherwise 35% to primary and 25% to secondary. Keep in mind that this is at most resistance to two element types, non-enhancable, but scaling with levels.

For Devices blasters instead give them a defense bonus that scales with level, starting at 3% Base and increasing by 1% every four levels (bonus starts at L4). This should be lower than the resistances since it applies to all attacks and there are more stackable defenses from pool powers that can also increase this to higher levels than there are resistances. At L50, a /Devices blaster would have an inherent Defense bonus of 15%.

2. Give base damage and accuracy on Blaster ranged attacks a minor boost (10% or so) to set them apart more from the higher overall damage cap Scrappers have.

3. Blasters get 20% unresistable damage on their Primary, 10% on their secondary. If the primary and secondary are of the same element type, these higher of the two (20%) is used for both Primary and Secondary powers. This gives a bit more reason to take some of the weaker secondaries in combination with the same type stronger primary.

And finally, for PvP:

Give blaster (and all AT, for that matter) ranged and melee attacks a chance of dropping a toggle when they hit. I'd suggest the chance be base 10% for Primary Powers, base 5% for Secondary powers, scaling +1% for each slot in the power. (so a six-slotted Primary would have a 16% chance to drop toggles, a six-slotted Secondary would have a 11% chance).

Toggles themselves should have a base drop resistance as others have suggested. I'd suggest a 8% base for Primary toggles, a 4% base for Secondary toggles. Pool power toggles should have only a 2% toggle resistance. This means that a Primary power with its base slot has a 3% chance of knocking off a Primary toggle, a 7% chance of knocking off a secondary toggle and a 9% chance of knocking of a Pool power toggle.

-----

I think these suggestions would bring Blasters up to the level of other ATs and give each blaster type a bit more flavor. The PvP change is just something I really would prefer over the current toggle dropping solution and it would help Blasters as well in the arena as they would be the premier ranged de-togglers (at least would have a chance to drop toggles at range).

Thanks to all who read this far...