TeChameleon

I've got three arcs up, and I've been working sporadically on a fourth (not much motivation since I can't put it up, and I like all three arcs that are up), and I've got an idea right now for at least a fifth (a sequel to one of the ones that's up right now).

I've been enjoying myself thoroughly, and promoting my arcs quite aggressively, so I've got a respectable number of playthroughs (about 150 between all three of them, I think). Of course, once i15 hits, I'll be tinkering around with them some more... friggin' confuse powers are going to be gone so fast they'll violate some causal laws -_-

Alright... you're running one of my arcs, and I'm going to be there, dammit!

I actually took the day off so I could come (well, that and make myself a birthday cake- I'm taking one more step towards decrepitude on Sunday, so I'm planning on consoling myself with my Grandmother's infamous so-chocolate-your-tastebuds-implode Feathery Fudge cake. That and I'll take any excuse to make it )

Sign me up as @Wall of Knight... and what's your policy on lowbies? My fiancee is interested in tagging along, but her highest toon is level 10-ish; obviously, I could sidekick her (if needed, the MA can be a bit weird about that). If a level 10 is okay, then sign up @Fiery Panda-monium as well.

Take care of yourself, Back- we'll keep a light burning for you.

And the "WTF?!???!!!" reactions from newbies to the Shard when the eyeballs start chewing on them are always classic

Flashpoint Zeo had started to follow Teivos, but the man kept starting and stopping, to the point that the big tank had started to wonder if he was just doing some odd stutter-step variant on pacing around. "Human nature not changing much between worlds, according to what little self has seen. To be cautioning to rule with light hand; or problems likely once peace and safety restored." he suggested as Teivos took half a step towards the door yet again.

"As to 'change world'- to have neither temperament nor desire to rule, nor enforce rule. To be considering best current option to be preventing self-destruction until third option found. And to point out have been doing reasonable job of such so far; to be pointing out that 'different standards' holding true in other direction as well." he added.

Then, in a slightly exasperated tone, he added "To be following once are actually moving."

... if you only want the clue given once, then wouldn't only attaching it to one thing work..?

Identical navbar text for unlike objectives is both deceptively simple and a colossal pain in the [censored]- basically, it consists of putting identical text in each box, and then screwing around with it until it works.

And be prepared for it to break every... single... damn... patch!

(sorry, sore point for me >.&lt

*shrug*

I have a very simple rule that I follow on my Energy/Energy Blaster, that I have followed since the start. If I knock it back, it's my problem. It's also usually dead before the second bounce, but whatever, neh?

And the Scrappers that whine about having to move five feet to re-acquaint their target with their sharp whatever can get off their lazy backsides and move that five feet (I don't use my AoEs other than Nova and LRM Rocket, both of which erase most of enemy groups, so it's not an issue for Tanks, usually).

Flashpoint Zeo gave Teivos a cool glare, or at least as cool as could be managed with those blazing yellow eyes. "To not be wishing to paraphrase old politicians, but situation too appropriate not to; 'Societies that trade liberty for safety deserve neither and will lose both.' Humans incompatible with totalitarian rule." he said flatly.

"To be indicating location of portal, and self will pass through. Prior to said indicating, are welcome to attempt kicking, but will likely end badly." he added.

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City of Heroes: Too little; Too late?

I have others too:

Issue 15: Mediocrity
Issue 14: Indian Giver
Issue 13: True Lies
Issue 12: Age of Heroes

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Issue 16: Only sticking around to [censored]?

... so... irreversible brain damage isn't a negative side effect?

Just... y'know, asking >.>

Heh- welcome back, Obs. Glad to see ya.

Hmm... well, thanks for the attempt at Small Fears, at least, Laz.

This is honestly the first time the Confuse problem has come up- the mob that uses it is usually fairly rare, and most typically attempts to dice you (they're Ill/Kat) after spawning the Spectral Terror- I've almost never seen them use the illusion powers much in any of my testing. However, that being said, the Confuse is gone the second i15 hits. I really wish they hadn't made it standard.

Also, if the real Green Fog map (the one from the Croatoa ghost missions that actually contains... y'know, green fog) ever becomes available, I'm dropping the current map like a hot rock; it's too big (although theoretically, the hostages should spawn on the first three floors... at least, that's how I set them). But it's the best fit for the ambience, *sigh* In this case, I'm sacrificing gameplay for mood, a little, and I know it

Far more importantly (to me, at least) is... how was the story confusing? The lack of engagement is also kind of disappointing, but I suspect that ties back in to the confusion :/

Hehe... just 'cos I'm greedy- toss "How to Survive a Robot Uprising" (#12669) onto the pile. Odds are good that I'll review your other arc anyways, but this way I can beat the rush

Fixing Small Fears is proceeding apace- I think I got some of the worst offenders repaired- we'll see, I'm testing now.

EDIT: Okay, if my testing is in any way accurate, I think I've fixed everything I can (I'm within maybe four characters of the size limit, so I couldn't expand on characterization and such as much as I would have liked to). Hopefully it's ready for a re-run, Hedoren.

Hey Glazius- if Small Fears is up anytime soon on your list, could you put it on hold please? I just discovered (via another review, agh!) that one of the recent patches buggered it up horribly, and I need to fix everything.

EDIT: I... think I've fixed everything. I'm starting to get very, very nervous every time a new patch comes out >.<

Flashpoint Zeo sighed. "Because playing god always to be giving such excellent results." he muttered a bit sourly. "Have been hearing tales of far too many worlds conquered 'for own good' by powerful idiots. Or exploding while powerful idiots attempted conquest 'for own good'."

He shook his hooded head. "To be suggesting that Malta probably coming here. Coincedence irritatingly rare in current lifestyle. To be likely wishing to steal any technology catching interest. If are coming here, likelihood of supers in pursuit also high. And, given last contact with present dimension involved dimension to be being full of psychotic fascists, violent conflict also presenting high probability."

He raised a scaly eyebrow. "To be suggesting further that Recluse to be being deranged megalomaniac posessing more power than sense, but to be also suggesting that is own worst enemy; thwarts self quite effectively, and to be likely being far more dangerous if presented with more coherent target than 'whole world'." The big tank, it could be seen, had little respect for many of the superpowered menaces that abounded on his world; while he treated them with as much caution as was necessary, he considered the majority of them to be morons at best. Dangerous morons, to be sure, but morons nonetheless. And that he considered free will significantly more important than whatever quasi-Orwellian utopia the SSR would bring.

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Whenever something like this pops up, my gut response is to assume author error. Maybe I'm just getting cynical with my MA experience. Either way, since I've had the good fortune not to encounter this in my own arcs, I can only imagine the amount of /headdesk you must endure during the day.

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It's entirely possible that this is something I'm doing wrong and not realizing- after all, I've only tried everything I can think of, not necessarily everything >.O

Mind you, this seems to be tied directly to me wanting to both chain objectives and have multiple objectives that only show up as a single piece of navbar text.

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Admittedly, it's not a huge stretch to assume that Praetorians are involved. But to say something specific -- like "Mother Mayhem must be here" -- when the only evidence is her name on an old wrapper....

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Hmm... actually, I think I can see how I can rework this one without too much trouble, and it would tie in to letting you know she's there ahead of time as well (if you're paying attention- even if you're not, though, I think the clue I'm going to put into the briefing should be enough to warn 'large nasty psychic thing', which should hopefully be enough).

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IMO, interesting characters feel like they exist outside of just the one story. They have their own friends, pastimes, histories and... well... lives. For them, this story is just a single moment in time, and then they'll continue doing other things.

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... *lightbulb goes on* Hmm. That's rather good advice- something that I think I was at least peripherally aware of, and that I've used in some of my other work, but which is sadly lacking in my MA arcs (well, in this one- the other two, one has BAB as your contact, and the other... well, give it a shot if you have time- it doesn't have to be a review, but you might like it if you like quirky contacts. #12669, "How to Survive a Robot Uprising"... or I might just run your other arc for the QPQ thing )

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Horror is extremely difficult to pull off in a medium that has little control over the audience. I certainly don't think I could make the grade. Like comedy, there's no middle ground; either the players get it or they don't.

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You know what's... huh. You know, I think this actually is an appropriate use of the word. Ironic, that is. You know what's ironic? I can't stand horror as a genre. It bores me to tears, for the most part, or else I wind up wanting to kick one or more people in it (for either being morons or jerks). This story just kind of wrote itself :/

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Fixing the Nav bar issue would be a substantial improvement, if it is indeed fixable.

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Here's to hoping >.<

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With a few tweaks here and there, I would absolutely be willing to re-run your arc. I feel bad giving such a harsh review. I was in a "brutally honest/cynical" mindset at the time, and am normally a much more lenient grader.

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Heh... no worries (I've been there. Don't grade while sleepy and grumpy, it doesn't work well >.&gt, and thanks for the willingness.

And harsh or no (and yeah, it was very definitely harsh), the feedback was useful (well... moreso the second round, but nevertheless).

EDIT- Oh- don't know when I'll get to it, might be a few days at the very least; I'm on crunch time for banging out a manuscript (... it feels really weird to dignify it with that name, but I guess that's technically what it is). On the other hand, I'll probably need a break at some point, so who knows?

Hmm... well, thank you for the detailed review- some responses...

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I’m not sure what was causing these bizarre Nav directions, but I imagine it has something to do with misplaced text and/or mistakes with objective chains.

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... if you'll excuse me, I'm going to froth incoherently for a while.

EVERY SINGLE [censored] PATCH BREAKS THE SODDING COMPASS TEXT WORSE THAN THE LAST ONE! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGG HHHHHH!!!!

Er... sorry. I feel a bit better now. But not much.

I'm about at the point that I'd like to punch the person who keeps buggering the compass text in the throat, though. Do you have any idea how many times I've had to fix those [censored] stupid navbar text clues? I swear, I've spent more time on those things than the entire rest of the arc put together.

What's supposed to happen (and, indeed, what used to happen... sometimes, when the moon was aligned and the server was in a good mood) is the fact that the '2 children to rescue' was identical in all the rescue-multiple dialogues caused it to display just once. The name-of-a-rescuee-randomly-appearing is a consistent problem I've run across in several arcs, my own and others, and haven't had a whole lot of luck getting rid of it.

*sigh*

Looks like I have another fruitless night of hammering on the friggin' navbar text ahead of me, which will inevitably broken in some new and horrible fashion by the next patch.

Anyways, moving on...

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When I arrive at the school I find it filled with Childhood Fears, personified by ferocious beasts, evil clowns, and schoolyard bullies. A few have some interesting designs, but most are unimpressive and lacking the terror they’re supposed to instill.

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Wait, there were clowns on the school map? They should only have appeared in the final mission...

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Overheard by what? Wait… does this mean that my initial contact was nothing but an apparition? I’m confused….

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Oop- yeah, sorry, guess I should clarify that; your first meeting with the Urchin (his actual name is Jake, if you care, but it really isn't important) is a psychic projection on his part- the psychic-ness is also how he's sensing all this crap.

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For example, the beginning Nav text in Mission 2 is, “A strange feeling from above… A clue, maybe?, Mother Mayhem must be here. Find her!”

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That'd be the broken navbar text again. I hadn't realized the patch had broken it, although why I'm surprised, I'm not sure- every single other patch has broken the damn thing. It's supposed to switch to "Mother Mayhem etc." after you click the glowie.

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the Clue that vaguely hints at her involvement was half-way through the mission, and even then it would take a huge amount of suspension of disbelief to infer that Mother Mayhem was present.

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Uhm... why? Praetorian trash (the fact that it's from Praetoria and has basically been marinating in bad vibes at the asylum is what makes it ominous, not the fact that it's trash) in Paragon City seems a reasonable clue, and the fact that it's directly related to Mother Mayhem, well... I don't know; it just doesn't seem like all that much of a logical leap to me.

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Maybe I’ve been sheltered up until now, but it seems like I’m finding more and more arcs lately that launch AV/Ebs at me with little-to-no warning.

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Uhm- the description text says quite bluntly "EB/AVs present". Mother Mayhem's involvement is a plot point that I didn't really want to give away, to be honest :/

My apologies for the faceplants, anyways.

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The Contact himself had his annoying moments, mostly in the form of inconsistant personality and awkwardly-written dialog. He’ll switch erratically from clear-minded and sensible to incomprehensible, panicky gibberish.

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Hmm... going to have to take another look at this- ditto the ellipses, although I personally find the '...' thing a difficult balance to hit.

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I myself was told to feel an ominous apprehension when approaching a cardboard box

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I'm pretty sure I just had you feel something 'wrong' about the box, not 'ominous apprehension' >.>

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For all its faults, I did find one thing I liked about this arc: the custom mobs. Every one of them has a nicely fiendish appearance that truly did echo the childhood anxieties they’re supposed to represent. Phobia herself as a wonderful “ominous shadow” look that I found fiercely appropriate.

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... I appreciate the compliment, but didn't you say at the start of the review that you found them bland? O.o

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surprise AVs

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Aside from, y'know, the bloody description saying "Contains EB/AVs" before you ever started, and clearly visible every time you open the Architect Options menu.

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inelegant objective formats

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That would be 'broken' more than 'inelegant', but eh :/

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uninteresting/irritating Contact

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That's something I'm going to have to work on, I guess- any suggestions (well, beyond fixing the dialogue inconsistencies, obviously).

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I’d feel dishonest if I rated higher than 2 stars for this arc.

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Uhm... ouch?

*sigh*

I suppose that's what I get for trying for an arc as subjective as a horror one

Assuming I ever manage to get the navbar text working right again (yes, it actually used to work properly, although that's starting to feel more and more like a distant, happy dream -_-), do you think a second runthrough would change anything?

EDIT- if any of my responses came across as aggressive, I apologize (well, aside from the 'surprise AV' thing- it's right in the description!)- I'm mostly just frustrated with having to rework the whole stupid thing every time a patch hits. Guess I may as well get used to it :/

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Blueside may have been ranching; redside, with its small, scattered spawns and craggy terrain, only allows for herding, alike to the traditional practices of the inhabitants of Jammu and Kashmir.

(Issue 13, with its Day Job rewards and Patrol XP, provided wide-open spaces where rewards could be consistently harvested, allowing for groving as well. By, you know, Grovers.)

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Fixed that for you

Hmm... well, being the review wh... hound that I am, I'll set my first arc upon the bonfire:

Small Fears (#12285). It's up on CoHMR, and there's a thread for it... uhm, I think. I posted it, it dropped into oblivion, and I haven't seen it since. I'll pull it up in a minute, just want to get this up now.

EDIT: Here it is.

Oh aye, fair enough- it's not a major worry, it was just kind of a questionmark (and I have to note that both a Rikti Rifle and a Rikti Sword fall under equipment, not powers )

Er- curiousity question- where on your queue is my arc (whichever one you pick)? It's tough to keep track of what you're doing, review-wise :/

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Why does Superman even need to be Clark Kent? For the amazing money I'm sure he makes as a reporter?

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I'm sure he would like to walk the streets of New York with some semblance of normalcy. I mean, who doesn't like at least a little anonymity

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It lets him know when something is happening as it happens. That and he's apparently pretty good at the whole journalism thing.

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I've heard a few theories over the years- originally, it was just so he'd have his finger on the pulse of what was happening as it happened (given that at that point, he couldn't hear a gnat fart in Pnohm Penh while sitting at his desk).

In more recent years, it's partially a way to unwind, and partially a way to continue the "Neverending Battle"- he can do things as Clark Kent, Respected Journalist that would simply be impossible for Superman. It's also a job he can do without feeling like he has a huge unfair advantage- sure, he can seek out more dangerous stories than average without much risk, but to actually write well- that's all 'man', without any 'Super' interfering.

And I'm a fan of both Batman and Superman when they're written well.

One question I had with using Moment- I don't... think his powers let him mimic anything other than the physical attributes of his chosen form, thus him using a Greater Devoured when we meet him in combat. I could be totally wrong on that, of course.

"To be awfully quick to be pointing fingers concerning wars... particularly immediately after declaring intent to 'destroy resistance' with massive military force." the big tank said with a sidelong glance at Teivos, angling his body very slightly so that he could cover both him and Wolfgang, although the motion was unobtrusive. "To be freely admitting to existence of conflict, although to be somewhat curious as to origins of intelligence, given that contact markedly absent for many years. To be pointing out, however, strong preference to personal liberty on part of humans; exchanging liberty for safety not considered desireable."

Griffin's small wave to Isabel was noted, but not reacted to. If body language was anything to go by, Flashpoint Zeo might as well have been discussing a minor point of etiquette at a high-class cocktail party. Flickering flames aside, he was apparently completely at ease.

The big tank shifted slightly, as if remembering something. "To be offering warning; dimensional incursions to Primal Earth... and to be sparing self look, did not name it... reacted to. Self would suggest refraining from massive show of force, since will all-but-inevitably result in confrontation to advantage of no-one. To be having too many trans-dimensional invaders over past several decades... and to be reminding, home plane is Earth to be considering putting Reichsmann on ice worth minimal notice... page three at best."

Hmm... I've had a slightly different experience- when I had that bug pop up on the LGTF after Blasters got Surveillance, the -Res debuff inherent to Surveillance (14%) did... well, nothing. The percentages didn't move so much as a tenth of a point.