TeChameleon

Hmm... so, the TeChameleon's patented Stream-of-Semiconsciousness review (featuring my usual tester, my level 50 Energy/Energy/Munitions Blaster), coming up for

Dr. Dave and the Copper Legion.

Mission One:
Hrm. Interesting enough opening. Not often that I work with an academic. Or at least one this absent-minded and prone to repeating himself.

Opening text- "An investigation is in order"? Uhm... as opposed to what?

Ooookay... wandering around in a cave murdering hapless Romans for no readily discernible reason. Maybe I'm just taking this too slow, but thus far not much other than me pounding them into wads of tinfoil-encased meat has happened.

Uhm... okay, apparently Heather is another one cast in the mold of the Absent-minded professor. Also, wasn't Pompeii destroyed something like 550 years prior to when Cimerora is set? Like her design, though- very adventurous-scholarly-Brit.

Wait, she has powers..?

*reads info*

... okay? I'm guessing this is one of those things that more will be revealed on as time goes on.

Hmm... one quibble about the clue- "Imperious wasn't always the emperor of Cimerora" Er... duh? I realize I may not be the brightest bulb in the box, but yeah, that wasn't that hard to figure out. Just kind of makes it feel like she's talking down to me a bit.

Heather seems remarkably unruffled for having been captured by the Cimeroran traitors (who murder women and children solely for the demoralizing effect it has on their opponents)... assuming that's who that was. And how were we intruding? It was just a cave!

I found the exit text a bit dry, but that's probably just personal preference- my own writing trends towards being a bit florid.

Mission Two:
Hmm... Dr. Dave isn't especially Genre Savvy, is he? Just "A cultural relic like the Terra Cotta Army", yet the Circle of Thorns have enough of an interest in it for it to turn up in their writings. Hmmm. Of course, he'd never listen to me, as I'm merely a superhero, not a trained Indiana Jon... Archeologist.

Opening text- hah. Very meta. Nobody's ever happy about stepping into Oranbega. Oh well. At least there aren't many ghosts at this level.

Bleah. With the number of demons I've killed all by my lonesome, I must have depopulated several circles of Hell...

Y'know, it might be worthwhile to add some flavour text to your patrols- they just appear to be wandering around at random. So what are they up to? I mean, the late, great Oscar Petersen's Blues of the Prairies work as a soundtrack, but it'd be nice to know what they're thinking of yet another costumed cretin beating them all senseless for the umpteenth time.

Oog. Yeh, big freaking surprise, have to go beat someone up for the book, just like Dr. Dave said I "might" have to. Not a huge fan of either un-twists or prescient contacts. Not a big deal one way or another, it just feels a bit forced. Maybe have one of the books in the bookcase, with incomplete info? (and a bookmark in it letting me know who was reading it last ). Also, forcing me to backtrack all over Hell's half acre to try and find where this twit spawned in behind me is not a good way to endear this arc to me :/ Particularly since finding anything on these damn orange bagel maps is a chore in and of itself.

Ah, wai hallo thar, Silankir. You were a wuss

Heh. "Right, so, you've beaten the info out of me. Now you're going away, right? Please?"

Mission Three:
And off to our next mystic stronghold.

... wait, the Midnighters were driven out? Well, I guess they're more academics now. Still, at one point they were punting Rularuu in the face :/

Hmm. You know, I'm really not sure how I feel about the Copper Legion echoing the look and functions of the Cimerorans so strongly. Also, why are they called the "Copper" Legion if their stronger members are other metals?

As a random aside... if I'm recalling my mythology corretly, weren't Hephaestus' golden constructs supposed to be golden women?

Oh, and the closing thing- upgrading your theory, huh? Surprise, Dr. Dave! Can I just say "told you so"?

Mission Four:
I love how just about everybody assumes that Longbow isn't really competent enough to avoid civilian casualties. Is there anybody that actually likes everybody's favourite Crest Commercial rejects?

Hmm... seeing the Copper Legion in better lighting, I think the design is growing on me. Still not entirely sure on the 'they're just like the Cimerorans in function' part, though. Also, Empathy minions are a pain in the bum.

While I'm thankful for at least some chatter, the victim responses seem vaguely... I don't know, 'canned NPC response #423'. Mind you, the creepy silence on the part of the Vulcan Automatons is entirely fitting.

... except for Chelsea. "Like, so scary!" indeed, heh.

O.o iPhone?

Operation... wait, what? Why am I taking part in an op named after whale vomit?

Uh-huh, Dr. Dave. "We" have to go put our foot down, alright.

Mission Five:
Huh. Apparently Dr. Dave isn't all talk.

Although, if there were enough Copper Legionnaries to mobilize a sizeable chunk of the city, and we smashed the lot... uh... just how many of these things are there? (and that's rhetorical- I know that a Legion was from 1000-6000 men, typically)

Wait, Malta? Magic really isn't their MO. In fact, they actively hate it, as far as I know.

Ah, so this Sun Coyote guy is Dr. Dave. Gotcha.

Minor typo- 'vertices to disable'- er... guessing that should be 'vortices' (plural of 'vortex')? Maybe? Or are these mystic widgets actually somehow... graph theory? Nodes? Really not too clear on this one (although that's probably because I'm gradually falling asleep- er, no offense to your mission, just a long night at work).

Hmm... Glass Dragon and Sun Coyote might be a twitch too powerful- I'm starting to feel like I'm actively competing with them for kills. On the other hand, it's not too bad- maybe just something to watch.

Wow, glowies can spawn in some funny spots- finally found the last one, tucked into a crypt O.o

Uhm, okay, that's a rather strange exit line... many things seem harmless when they're not trying to disembowel you.

Slightly awkward phrasing at the end- 'serve some good for the world' doesn't quite scan.

So, Overall:
Good, if slightly predictable, story, with solid writing and decent characterization. The missions themselves feel a bit sterile- nobody says much of anything, even when they have excellent reason to complain about these friggin' heroes coming in and using a good old fashioned beating in place of a library card. AGAIN.

The Copper Legion is solidly designed, and the mythology handled with aplomb; the biggest difficulty I had was... well, honestly this feels a bit... Hellboy 2.

The end boss was an interesting 'reveal', and made some sense, although I'm not entirely certain his powers work like that. Also, who was "Janus"? It was never explained, and I'm not familiar with the character (well, aside from the Roman god of gate-guarding and two-facedness etc.- is this another reference to the end boss?)

A solid four stars, I think- in need of some punching-up to take it the rest of the way to that final, fifth star (it doesn't have any egregious flaws, per se... just not quite enough greatness, in my opinion), but a very good story nonetheless.

Feel free to heap withering scorn (or, well, constructive criticism, whichever you're in the mood for ) upon any of my arcs listed in my signature that grab your fancy; Trollbane is a low-level arc (10-14), Small Fears and How to Survive a Robot Uprising are high-level arcs (45-50 recommended).

I'm pretty sure this is a known bug- Statesman, Back Alley Brawler, Ms. Liberty... pretty much all the Invulnerable-using high level heroes occasionally hit the Unstoppable bug, where they have literally 100% resistance to everything except for Psionic and Poison damage (thank you, Surveillance!)... and they use it roughly every minute or so. It makes them very, very, very annoying to kill.

... speaking of oddities, does anyone else find it strange that the OP's handle is "Atheism", and their avatar features one of the closest thing in cartoons to God?

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So is it Worth coming back?

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If you're interested enough to spend fifteen bucks, it's worth coming back. Much new stuff to see and do, new costume options, new creative outlets, and, at least on my home server (Guardian, to be precise), the lowbie zones are jumping- I've seen more newbies cruise past in the last couple of weeks than I have in several years... to the point that I've made something of a habit checking vet badges as I wander about out of nothing more than simple curiousity.

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How is it now? Is the pvp any count? How is the PVE now? How is the RP community now in this game?

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PvP is... suffering, a little. It was revamped heavily, and much of the tiny PvP community foreswore it, if they didn't leave entirely. It's worth a look, though- I've heard a few positive reviews on the new direction from people who didn't PvP before, so who knows? It may be more accessible now.

There's some great new stuff for PvE- see if you can arrange a spoiler-free story run of the Imperious Task/Strike Force, that's an absolute blast, and the story is fun too. The Lady Grey Task/Strike Force is another good one- the Rikti Crash Site got completely revamped to become the (co-op) Rikti War Zone, with some interesting new zone events, an intriguing story (hey, remember those glowering-eyes billboards that said "They are still among us. Report suspicious activity to the Vanguard"? Well, you can finally see 'em, work with 'em, and beat the snot out of 'em. The Vanguard, that is).

I'm not sure if you would have seen the Statesman Task Force/Lord Recluse Strike Force... Lesse... you can now "Flashback" to old content (auto-exemplared down) via the Ouroboros system/zone (which is also handy for transportation, since you can pop out a portal anywhere you like)- there's also some cool Task Force/Strike Forces in that zone...

And, of course, there's the Mission Architect, which has loads and loads and loads of... well, Sturgeon's Law. But there's also that 10% that isn't head-explodingly bad, and enough stuff that's really, really good to keep you going for a good long while after you've tried all the other new toys

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It looks like they may have consolidated servers when I was last here, but I'm not really sure. It's been so long I don't even remember the server I was on. If this is the case and you were on one of the servers that was closed what happened to your chars? Thanks for your feedback.

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No server mergers... or if they did, I didn't notice, and nobody's mentioned it >.>

It keeps getting suggested every few months by people who think that because the server load isn't red all the time (which means that the server's about to explode, not that there's 'enough people') they should jam all the servers together, but it hasn't actually happened.

*headdesk*

And once again I miss a chance to join the Guardianites running one of my arcs.

*cries*

I've got to work that night, so I'd have... maybe an hour if I joined you lot, which probably wouldn't work.

Er... fair warning- I'm reeeeeally not sure what How to Survive a Robot Uprising will do to you with a full team- I've got a sneaky suspicion that the last mission will jump up and down on your head while giggling >.>

Ah, well- don't forget to read everything (typical caveat for my arcs, heh...)

((So... are we the last three participating in this thread? And Devious, China's going to have to wait for a bit- I don't want to hold up the thread, but I simply don't have the time or the creative energy to deal with peripheral storylines- I'm on crunch-time to finish editing down a novel for the rough-draft format and get it ready to hire somebody other than me to take a crack at editing it))

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"But you're willing to at least check it out and confirm exactly which group has been lying to you, right." For his sake he'd better be. "Under the circumstances, probably as good as we're going to get. Though I still have to wonder why you believe them so easily but refuse to believe us..."

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"To be being fairly obvious- first information in line with preconceived notions; truth not in line with 'conventional wisdom', therefore considered unbelievable."

Flashpoint Zeo didn't comment on Rularuu- he hadn't been involved with the Midnight Club during their first confrontation with the Ravager, and didn't do much cross-dimensional work, which might have been part of the reason the big tank was so on-edge at the moment.

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"If der Reichsmann's state is as you say, you've nothing to worry about."

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"If 'der Reichsmann' and badly-trained minor insurgency force considered so great a threat in present dimension, have nothing to worry about in any case." the tank noted drily.

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He said this as casually as one might be discussing the recipe of that cake in the picture, the lax shrug of one hand underscoring the candor in his words, "Any further questions? Something regarding this world, maybe...?"

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"To be wondering what SSR is being, and why inclusion in same to be considered such wonderful thing, or even positive thing, for present dimension. To also be wondering as to persistent avoidance of question as to what all shiny toys to be aimed at, particularly in event of Reichsmann being indisposed. Generals are having distressing tendency to be becoming petulant when deprived of favourite potential war."

I've got Five Analyze Weakness in Surveillance on my Energy/Energy Blaster. Rather nice bonuses, recharges in more-or-less the same time it wears off (few seconds difference), and a 22% -Def debuff and 14% -Res debuff in a single fast cast is nothing to complain about- try it on a softer target (Lieutenants, for example) once or twice and marvel at how fast they drop.

As to when I use it? Hard targets (EBs or higher I tend to try and have it on them at all times), when I want to take a peek 'under the hood' as it were with the real numbers bit on the enemies, when I want to see the shiny spinny graphic, when a mob has pissed me of and I want it to die, and if I'm not steamrolling.

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lol i have heard other names too but there is an area in Jamaica north of the capital of Kingston called Blue Mountain and the coffee from there is world renowned. a little geography lesson for ya all on other countries since it seems you may have skipped a day in class or never had geography of countries other than your own. lol

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Whoa... ease off a bit there, CC- I've actually been to Kingston (poverty there is absolutely brutal if you get away from the 'tourist' places- I was working there, and got to hang out with some of the guys in the shacktowns and just BS for a while... a real shame, in a lot of ways), and I hadn't a clue where "Blue Mountain" was (mind you, I'm not a coffee drinker either).

Maybe I've just been fortunate... either my interactions with the idiot-n00b variety don't stick in my memory, or else I simply haven't encountered that many of them.

A little more on-topic, yup! I've managed to get my fiancee hooked on CoH (she's as bad as I was when I started... she's got the bug baaaaad, hehehehe...), so while I was running the character I created to duo with her, I noticed a surprising number of newbies cruising through Outbreak- one asked about wings and capes and whatnot, and I explained vet rewards, costume packs and then the conversation drifted on to other things- turns out they were thinking about emigrating here from WoW

And both the newbie and my fiancee commented about how friendly and laid back the 'feel' of the CoH community is. So I think we're doing something right

Hmm... well, thanks for the review- some responses...

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Ugh. Back Alley Brawler greets me by saying "Heyas newbie." That grates. Others may react differently, but I tend to find that greeting as condescending and insulting. Especially since BAB immediately recognizes afterwards, "Good to see you again, you've come a ways."

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Brawler calling ex-pupils "Newbie" is canon- straight from his dialogue in the comics (specifically, #11 of the Blue King run). Honestly, there's really no negative connotation to the word 'newbie'- it just means that you're a relative rookie (n00b, on the other hand...)- and to BaB, one of the most veteran heroes in the city, well...

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Inside the mission, there are groups of Skulls and Trolls already fighting. Their dialogue bubbles come up before they can even see me. Which makes their reference to 'capes' being present ring hollow. And as a matter of personal taste, I wouldn't normally think "emogoth" to be a part of standard Troll vocabulary, let alone of a Troll that is supposedly mad with fear and rage.

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Triggers are hideously borked at the moment- they work right maybe once out of every ten tries, if even that. Not a lot I can do about it, sadly. The "Emogoth wimpies"... eh, that was more for the sake of lightening a rather grim arc slightly.

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"Superadine, a street drug often called Supes (or more recently Dyne), not only causes the Troll mutations in users, but has also become integral to the gang’s initiation rites, and in fact is a part of all gang rituals."

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Actually... and I'd have to check on this, since I'm not sure... I don't recall changing the name of the "Superadyne Labs" you find in the mission; canonically, the name seems to have either two variant spellings, or else the early devs just screwed up with one piece of info or the other- I just went with Superadyne since it's consistent with the abbreviation.

(just went to check- you were correct, the object was called a "Superadine Lab"... guess I did change it. *shrug* I'm pretty sure I'd seen longform as "Superadyne" before... maybe in the Troll dialogue in Skyway? Bleah, now I feel the need to go check >.< Okay... huh. Apparently I've just been screwing it up all this time. *sigh* Fixed.)

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Feh. BAB sends me off calling me a "newbie" again. BAB, dude... buddy - it's not endearing. It's patronizing. It's the root source from which the insult "n00b" is derived, which is thrown around all too often by other players. Guess it's just a pet peeve of mine.

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Honestly, it sounds like you took strong offense to it (despite none being intended, or, to the best of my knowledge, inherent to the word), and it kind of tainted your enjoyment (such as it was) of the arc.

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Eh. I'm not particularly a fan of this implementation of Troll-speak. By deliberately misspelling the words that they use, you've made the normal Trolls look so dumb as to be barely functional.

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I'll take another look at it.

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Or even $name. Because I do have a name, dangit, and BAB hasn't yet had the common decency to call me by it.

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That was actually deliberate on my part- don't know if you caught it, but the very last time he speaks to you (when he thanks you), he calls you by name. Wanted to build up to that a bit, make it really stand out. Apparently it didn't quite work for you :/

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I'm not sure I buy into the concept of Numina being as spooked by the clues that I've found as BAB claims. If she's so afraid that she "nearly screams," then why is this still being subcontracted to someone no higher than 14th level? It just feels like a really odd disconnect. I'd dial down the text to suggest that she was "really disturbed," or something like that.

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It's possible to be frightened of something that's not terribly dangerous- all I was trying to imply there was that it was some really, really unpleasant magic. Like sticking your hand in a vat of slime in the dark, or whatever.

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I enter the mission, and... Lt. Sohmers, Longbow Warden, is apparently introducing himself to me from the end of a large room at the end of a hallway. Not sure what his trigger is, or how he's interacting with the existing enemies, because I have to fight through five spawns before I can even find him.

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His trigger is broken, is what it is. I REALLY wish they'd fix those.

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Great. I catch up with Sohmers, and he's a patronizing jerk. So long, Sohmers! Wish I could say it was fun teaming with you!

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Meh... I don't like Longbow, mostly- the only one who's worth his salt is Sefu Tendaji- the rest (who have any characterization, anyhow) are... well, patronizing jerks.

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I complete the mission, and start looking at the clues I've gotten. So... the Skulls apparently managed to steal a ritual from a necromancer that terrified the Circle of Thorns. Which raises the question... how?

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So... because he's terrifying, he's got good security? The Skulls, among their many bad habits, are professional thieves. In this case, I'm not sure how it stretches credibility :/

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I report back to BAB. Good Lord, this guy has no freaking respect for me OR the Longbow Warden he sent to team up with me. Calling us "the redshirt brigade"? Seriously? I've worked with [u]villains[u] who have shown more respect than this guy!

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Uhm... no, he was calling the Longbow the Redshirt brigade. Since a) I really can't see a street-level guy like BaBs having a lot of use for Ms. Liberty's private paramilitary force, and b) uhm... their shirts are red. Mostly.

And that's also a comment on Lt. Sohmers, quite frankly, being an utter lemming (something you didn't see since you ditched him immediately). Guy is totally suicidal. I've yet to actually manage to keep him alive on any of my runs >.<

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And it looks like some details get handwaved away. The Skulls stole a ritual from a Necromancer, who "can't track 'em because he'll fall apart in the sun."

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Hrm... we may have to disagree here- but (at least in some traditions) somebody who is deeply enough into black magic will begin to evince a strong aversion to sunlight, despite not being especially undead otherwise. It's a necromancer thing. And I didn't mean to suggest that the Circle had summoned him, just that you dropping the CoT boss (and thus his wards) would catch the Baron's attention and 'summon' him that way.

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This makes for the most frustrating fight that I've faced so far. Holds plus Confusion, and no mez resistance on my toon at this stage. I convert three of my medium blues into a medium mez resist, and take her down. The ambush is the cherry pit on top of this annoying sundae, and I get the heck out of Dodge before having to worry about them. Frankly, at level 14 and below, I consider ambushes during boss fights to be overkill, unless you KNOW that a team will be running the mission.

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... okay, I forgot that ambush. I thought I'd removed all or most of them from the boss fights. Sorry about that, mistake on my part. The Illustrated Woman is, in all honesty, broken right now. The last critter patch made it so that you could not get rid of that confuse. Which is not something I'm happy about, since changing "The Illustrated Woman" from... well, Illusion... doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I may have to suck it up and just change it, one supposes, although I'm not sure to what.

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BAB's mission debriefing contains the misspelled word, "distintegrate," which I presume is meant to be, "disintegrate." Unless you're deliberately making a pun and suggesting that we're removing all color from the Illustrated Woman.

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... you know, I've been misspelling it that way for something like two decades now? Huh. Guess you learn something new every day.

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So, I'm left to infer that the Bonemason is the person in charge of this particular Skulls plot.

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Clarified that clue slightly.

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BAB was so ticked that a personal friend of his was reanimated by this ritual, that he decided to invade Oranbega and get all medieval on the necromancer who created this ritual. Instead of on the person who used it. And why was the necromancer left in Oranbega again, instead of being apprehended? My brain is beginning to hurt.

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... uhm... I was pretty clear on that count- BaB was pissed off that the necromancer's best suggestion was to disintegrate his friends, not that he was the one who created the ritual (well, that too). And the Brawler was losing his temper, which doesn't lend itself well to rational thinking. I've added a bit of 'emote' text that flat out says that... yeah, the Brawler's pretty much lost it at this point.

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As he sends me off, BAB says that while I'm beginning to get a bit of a rep (oh, thanks for noticing, you condescending *bleep*!), I might want to "dial it back a bit" for this one, because I'm heading into all-out war. Bwuh? I should be... giving less effort, this time?

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Er... no, that was me trying to unobtrusively warn that turning down one's difficulty (set in game as 'reputation') would be a good idea.

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I also don't get why a Skull leader would want to turn the Hollows into the next Dark Astoria. If it were the Banished Pantheon, sure. But the Skulls have typically seemed more concerned with mundane matters of drug-dealing and money. Deliberately going along with a scheme to wipe out their biggest drug customers seems counter-intuitive.

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I think my best response to this is the relevant bit of the in-game blurb on the Skulls-

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The roots of this gang are grounded in the practices of a macabre death cult. Their fundamental belief is that death is the answer to all things. Initiates must choose a victim and murder them, dig their grave, and take the front part of the victim's skull as a mask. Their war with the Hellions over Perez has literally turned a section of the park into a Boneyard. As long as selling Superadine creates so much death, the Skulls are likely to remain in the service of the Family.

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The Skulls are a death cult; they're gang-bangers, aye, but they're completely obsessed with death (something that surprisingly few players seem to know... surprising, given that they use actual human skulls as masks...). The Superadine trade is a way to bring more death into the world, not entirely something that they do for profit. And murdering unsuspecting former allies (especially stupid unsuspecting former allies) is easier than going after harder targets, particularly when the only goal is mass death- which I'm pretty sure I spelled out in the various bits of text in the arc :/

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The first boss that I take down is Crimson Fist, again. Then a regular Skull Boss. Then Illustrated Woman, again. At which point the Mission Objective screen switches from saying "X bosses to defeat," to "Illustrated Woman." Which seems weird.

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That's a bug that I haven't been able to squash, despite repeated attempts and modifications of the compass text.

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A Troll ambush spawns in the middle of the fight - which as I mentioned above, seems overkill for what I suspect is an Elite Boss fight at level 14 and under.

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Again, apologies- I thought I had gotten rid of those.

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And it further explains that said part of Oranbega was mostly deserted, which I suppose is an explanation of how he managed to pull it off - it just raises the subsequent question of why that section of Oranbega would be so deserted if the CoT had chosen to summon a Necromancer of such far-reaching intellect in that area.

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The Baron wasn't a CoT summon... oh, okay- found the 'problem line'- I just meant that Drejak had summoned the thing he feared in the sense of 'called to that location', not the more typical demon- or ghost-summoning. Changed the wording to eliminate that confusion.

And it was deserted because the Baron was wandering around in there, seeking to bind the various spirits to his will; given that the CoT are all ghosts (either spectres or posessing human shells), you can see why they'd want to avoid him.

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Still, it's manageable if run on the lowest difficulty rating. You might consider putting in a warning in the mission introduction to make sure that players do so.

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That's a good idea, and one that I've implemented- I had actually mostly assumed that the average person would be running on heroic (since that's been the rule, rather than the exception, in my experiences with lowbie teams). I put them in as EBs so that they would stay bosses on Heroic, since I've found that they dropped far too quickly as Lieutenants, to the point that it was a case of 'hey, that's an interesting... oop, well, it's dead now, whatever it was'.

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Nevertheless, following the storyline really did give me a headache. I need to take an aspirin and lie down for a while. Three stars.

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Apologies for the headache, I guess. Hopefully I've clarified things enough to clear up the worst of the problems.

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I shudder to think how much space that would take up. That mission already flies by quickly on account of the Midnighter Club map being small and compact, and I also trimmed the interaction time for the crates to below their defaults. Do you [u]really[u] find the first mission that boring?

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Oh, sorry- that was more of a nit than anything else. As to how much space that would take up... roughly 1%, if memory serves- a glowie with some text takes up about 0.2-0.3% (I just managed to squeeze one in to Small Fears, after all). Another option to take away from the busywork feel is to separate the textless glowies from the necessary one, so that the one you need isn't always the very first one you find.

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Andvari explains in the briefing that he chose a time when a hero was seeking to do battle with Atta, chief of the Trolls.

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Oop- missed that. Might want to re-emphasize it in Infernal's dialogue, since I really had no idea why he was there- didn't object to him being there, or anything, just kind of .

Also... hmm. It's all in the presentation, I guess- you'd need to be a fairly diplomatic villain to present Infernal's defeat to Atta in a positive light- Trolls seem to have a fairly touchy pride, at least when it comes to combat, so any implication that he needed help with Infernal is more likely to get you chucked out on your ear than a positive reception.

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Would you prefer it if the Hero were stripped out entirely, and some separate patrols put in with different bits of dialogue, but the same annoyingly huge map were used? Or should I simply write that map off as "Never To Be Used In Any Arc Whatsoever For Sheer Bloody Bigness"?

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No to the first bit- just wondered what the heck he was doing there, since I missed what Andvari meant about an 'invading hero'. Adding some life to it would make a difference, but...

Well, unfortunately, the map is just so incredi-bloody huge that it turns any mission set in it into a horrific boring slog- I tried to use it as well (with battles, patrols, bosses, the whole nine yards) in another mission, and had to give up, because the triggers had a distressing tendency to misfire, and you were left with a boring, boring, boring slog through a gajillion irrelevant enemies who were just standing there.

Honestly, I'd say "too bloody big". Take that as you will, of course- if you take another look at it, and feel you can spice it up enough that it doesn't feel quite so Sisyphean, then by all means- it's your arc; my review is simply my personal impressions.

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So you equate lack of mention with lack of knowledge? I mean, I certainly know that the Trolls aren't real Trolls, but rather humans mutated through Superadine overdose. I just didn't find that fact particularly relevant to Andvari's plans. If a cask of everfull mead has been further enchanted to give all who drink it more qualities like the Trolls of old, including intelligence, what does it matter if those who drink from it are chemically altered to begin with?

[/ QUOTE ]
Er... no, that's an "or" clause. Lack of knowledge OR lack of mention. And I brought it up because it would really depend on how chemistry and magic interact; Superadyne is weird, weird stuff if you look at the backstory- it doesn't just turn people strong, green, and dumb- there's a (small) chance of it giving psychic powers, or even the ability to perform interdimensional teleportation. So it might be open to question what, exactly, it would do when combined with magic mead.

And even if it doesn't somehow misfire- I'm assuming that Andvari is, as is typical for many Nordic dwarves, quite competent, magically- then I still sort of wonder how well the mead will work when there's another factor actively working against it- you could end up with accelerated Supa Trolls, honestly- both 'dyne and the mead make the Trolls tougher, so that'd work fine, but the 'dyne makes 'em dumb, while the mead makes them smarter- I just wondered if the two might cancel each other out. After all, unless the mead is somehow designed to discourage it, it's not as if the Trolls are going to stop doing 'dyne.

It's a story question thing, not necessarily a slam on the contact.

[ QUOTE ]
Sigh... and I had hoped to save on space by letting it be known that the players were getting paid well for their efforts from the start. I felt that players didn't much care for repetitive dialogue. Apparently, the exception is when the contact says, "Yes, I really AM paying you well for your services. Really. Yes, here too. And here again."

[/ QUOTE ]
Not... quite... what I meant. While repetition would serve the same purpose, it's not the best tool for the job. Andvari giving mention that "here's your payment for the first job; if you do this next bit for me, I'll be able to do such-and-such for you, and maybe throw in a little bonus as well" would, I think, work better than his just assuming that he'd bought the player's loyalty and that was that. City of Villains has already got too strong a "City of Mercs" vibe. If it was the player cultivating Andvari as a future ally- maybe cementing a treaty that the player would leave the underground alone when they conquered the Eastern Seaboard, or offering his services as a mercenary if the player helps him gather an army suitable to him, offering the Troll tunnels as a getaway route/safehouse to the player... just something other than 'here's some money, hahahaha, you're mine, now, [censored]!' Also, he really takes too many liberties with the player- if some idiot dwarf tried to slap power limiters on me while I was super-villaining for him, I'd feed him his own intestines.

It's... to borrow a line from Interface/Purple Lovin'... "not a fatal FAIL". Just a weak point of the story that will sour some villainous players on it. Honestly, of my villains that have developed personalities- one wouldn't even understand the offer (too crazy), one would be annoyed at the offer of money, but would love the chance for a good fight, and one would happily take his money, and drop him like a hot rock the second he started trying to cast things on her... and possibly attempt a little recreational homicide in the process.

[ QUOTE ]
So, to your mind, every mission should have a patrol with dialogue, every glowie should be different, and every named Boss should have something to say? Just looking for clarification on what makes a mission less vanilla.

[/ QUOTE ]
Not necessarily every mission- but none of your missions (or nearly so) have those things, and when it's on a really, really big map, it can get a bit 'go here, kill this, go here, kill this, go here, kill this...' We have a lot of tools to tell a story; having the mission itself be 'dead air' is, in my opinion, unecessarily limiting yourself.

Also, required bosses do, I think, need some dialogue, strictly as a gameplay thing- a lot of players (myself included) use that as a "aha, something important that way" signal.

Sorry if I'm being overbearing about this; I'm a strong proponent of 'mission flavouring'. Triggers, optional glowies, mob chatter, and the like, are your friend (another option for mob chatter, if you want it to look like a standard spawn rather than wandering around, is having them guarding a hostile 'hostage' who's in the fist-to-palm animation, or whatever) when it comes to setting a stage. For example, your first troll cave- Andvari hints that he pretty much 'collects' interesting magical items- optional glowies that had you stealing some of those nifty toys for yourself, if you wanted, would make that cave far more interesting, and less of a '... so what's this supposed ancient Norse Troll doing hanging out with the Redcaps?'

Oh- to separate out your specific concerns: mob chatter would be a huge plus. And even if you don't have space for each and every glowie in the first mission to have different text, separating the 'real' glowie spawn from the other four (textless) glowies, so that it wasn't guaranteed to be the first one you found would be a major improvement.

So... because I feel like it, I'm going to review another arc in hopes of getting another of mine reviewed

Mind you, even if I don't, I've got about half an hour to kill as I type this (so I may wind up doing the review in two parts), so eh, either way, I win

As per the usual, stream-of-semiconsciousness reviewing is the order of the day, and I'll be running on my level 50 Energy/Energy/Munitions blaster.

A Tooth for a Tooth-
MISSION ONE:
Ooh, nice formatting.

Aaand an excuse for level-limiting. *sigh* Oh well.

Hah... love the Midnighter relaxing with a cup of tea

If you've got room, I really think it would work better if there were different clues for all the crates (so five separate retrievals rather than just one duplicated five times). Otherwise the last four just feel like busywork... which, I suppose, they are, really, but no point in boring the player...

MISSION TWO:
Hah. Andvari is a bit of a sod, isn't he? Yay for sympathetic magic...

Aha- saw that coming. Soon as the entry text mentioned 'bleating'... yup, Billy Goats Gruff attacking a Troll. Poor goats get a bad rap, really. Everybody always assuming they're the aggressors

Troll's got a nice look to him... kind of a pity we can't push the facial sliders a bit further, but within the constraints of the CoH costume creator, it works nicely.

Hmm... despite how small this map is, it can get a bit annoying for a defeat-all, just with how many nooks and crannies it has.

Huh... okay, either I've lost Gunnar, or else for someone with 'skin like granite', he sure drops easy :/

Very nordic feel overall, although I'm not sure German fairytales wandering in quite works

MISSION THREE:
Funny... for some reason I always thought it was "Wayland" Smith, not "Weyland"... or is that just a variant?

Whee for a cycle of revenge. Typical Norse, yeesh.

The entry text is phrased a bit awkwardly- maybe "They've gotten complacent too soon... time to show them the dangers of that mindset." or something to that effect?

Hmm... not sure on the archers' costume- did they really wear mail under a tunic like that? Looks a bit odd in whatever case.

Hmm... many beardy people in coloured outfits. Can be a bit awkward to find the bosses (although Weyland stands out nicely thanks to his wings). Perhaps auras of some kind? Explained as enchantments (visible only to you) to mark them, so they can't escape you?

MISSION FOUR:
So the finale... he wants to subvert the modern-day Trolls, does he? Eh, guess you have to start someplace.

Infernal? Uhm... ooookay?

Great. Knocked Infernal into the nearest group of Trolls, and they promptly jammed him into a wall. Bloody lovely.

Well, he managed to unstick himself eventually, but I'm off to the inspiration store- Infernal's a nuisance, going to need a bit of defense.

So... uh... what was Infernal doing there? No clue, and his dialogue doesn't give much in the way of hints either.

Oy... the Atta cave, while perfectly thematic, is a big map. And feels kinda lifeless at the moment, to be honest. Some patrols, mob chatter, optional glowies, whatever, would go a long way towards dispelling the 'sheeze, yet another branch of this stupid huge-[censored] cave'.

*yawn* More cave, more trolls. Weird lag issues only thing spicing things up.

Well. I've now spent more time in this bloody useless cave playing "Where's Wald... er, Atta" than I have on the entire rest of the arc. Interest... fading... rapidly...

Figures that Atta would be in the absolute LAST branch of the cave I checked. Either that or he hasn't spawned >.<

Hrm. So he wasn't there either. Time to go back to all the little hidey-holes I ignored when it didn't look like he was in there.

... one thought comes to mind as I circle 'round and 'round... "This is definitely the way to cap off a story of myth, betrayal, murder, and high magic... wandering aimlessly for hours in a cave full of garbage and idiots." At a guesstimate, I've now spent twice as long in this worthless hole as I have on the entire rest of the arc put together.

Ooookay... did I miss some branches somewhere? Because I could swear I've killed every living thing in this cave without laying eyes on Atta.

... right, figures. Soon as I type that, I find him. Buggeration, what a waste of time.

Eye of the Magus, Build Up, and it's damage spike time.

Interesting- seems our (Dark) Dwarf takes the long-term view of things... although his lack of knowledge (or at least lack of mention) about Superadine strikes me as odd- that's what's impairing the Troll's brains and giving them their powers, after all.

So, OVERALL:

An intriguing arc, well plotted and with excellent contact text, brutally murdered in the home stretch by a severe case of maptoodamnbigitis. I realize I'm probably the last one that should be talking about oversized maps used for mood rather than gameplay, but come on... my five-story office map didn't cause you to take an extra hour and a half or more just trying to find your objective >.<

From what I've seen of your two arcs, your greatest strengths lie in contact dialogue laying out the story; your missions themselves tend to be somewhat vanilla, with a... rather minimalist approach when it comes to in-mission dialogue, flavour glowies, triggers and the like. And a fondness for outsized maps >.>

So... between the horrifically gigantic, mind-numbingly tedious final map, Infernal showing up for no reason at all, the rather sterile feel of the missions, the busywork glowies, and the feeling that Andvari apparently deciding that this was all about him about midway through, I clocked this one in as a three; a solid three, mind you- the contact alone rates at least that, and the story was engaging- but the problems are severe enough that I don't feel comfortable in rating it any higher.

As far as story goes, the only change I'd suggest (quite strongly, in fact) is Andvari dangling the promised reward a little more often, and maybe sweeten the pot every so often- after all, he does say he understands greed. He mentions the reward once at the beginning, and then it's all about him and you toadying for him- something a lot of players really, really don't like, and a repeated complaint about the 'canon' CoV missions. And maybe change the souvenir to give mention that you got a nice, fat reward out of him.

Hmm...

Ran across a rather interesting phenomenon last weekend; my fiancee finally (after expressing interest for some time) got around to starting in on City of Heroes, and I created a new 'toon to join her.

While in Outbreak, I noticed that it was rather busier than it had been last time I was through (which, admittedly, was a good while ago)... and, out of the... ehh, maybe seven or eight characters that went scooting by, only one had more than the three month badge, and most not even that.

Then, wandering around AP, I was curious, and started poking at folks' badge screen, uncovering another half-a-dozen newbies. And this, mind you, was on Guardian, which is hardly the most populous server.

So... was that just an isolated instance, or have the rest of the forumgoers noticed an influx of newbies lately as well?

Defense?

Death is the ultimate -Acc debuff. I don't care if they shoot at me; I can do that too, and I'm better at it.

Hover, a control or two, and the ability to control when and where engagements take place via Stealth and KnockBack have stood me in far better stead for most battles than defense ever could- I think my main blaster is still in Hami-Os, so really not that much in the way of IO sets

*sigh*

Wish I could come, but I've got my once-every-four-months-or-so all-weekend D&D game this coming weekend, and I'll either be travelling or nerding it up this Friday

[ QUOTE ]

The mission map itself is a suitably creepy one, well-suited for the theme of childhood fears and nightmares. There's some nice bits of dialogue to foreshadow what may come later in the arc. Though I must say, the fact that it involves escorting three victims back to the entrance, through the course of a five-floor map, tends to make my own rescue maps look a bit tame by comparison. Ultimately, I was a bit non-heroic in handling this issue: after I rescued the second victim, I let my Night Widow fade back into stealth, and bolted ahead, leaving the victim whimpering alone until I could find the remaining victim three floors further up, and then retrace my steps and get both of them out safely.

It is quite the nifty map for pure style, however. Where is it located in the Architect files?

[/ QUOTE ]
*sigh*

Yeah, there's actually another (much smaller- three floors, I think it was, with smaller floors, and even creepier) map that I'd prefer for this- but it's not available yet in the MA

As to this map (which I agree is too large, but it fit the mood so perfectly >.&lt, it's under "Unique Maps"- "Office"- "Green Fog".

[ QUOTE ]
But I do recommend scaling the bullies back on the power scale a bit.

[/ QUOTE ]
Oop- sorry, that was a "I hadn't checked it since the last patch" problem- when they rejuggled the power availability, they got a power or two (like Rage -_-) that I really, really didn't want them to have. Fixed.

[ QUOTE ]
In which case I would suggest possibly making Mother Mayhem spawn only after the clue is found.

[/ QUOTE ]
Uhm... actually, that's what it should have been set as, I'm not sure what changed it (patch breakage again?). In whatever case, fixed... mind you, the spawn point isn't really something I can control, *sigh*

[ QUOTE ]
Of course, exactly how Mother Mayhem brought a demon into this world is not made clear. Not saying that I disbelieve the possibility - I just wish I had a better understanding of how it was taking place.

[/ QUOTE ]
Honestly? That being left out is a combination of three things- first off, space limitations- I've got maybe enough room for another couple of sentences, so any non-essential story bits got trimmed. Secondly... yeah, it's not vital to the story- all the Praetorians are constantly jockeying for power through whatever means; in this case, MM tried a means that was a bit beyond her. And finally, keeping the origins of the monster deliberately vague is a time-honoured horror tradition

[ QUOTE ]
I'm not sure if this was deliberate or not, but there seems to be a slightly different set of custom monsters in the group this time around, as compared to the previous two. I get to see the Closet Monster and the Clown monster for the first time in this mission, though I also see the Mean Girls and some of the other minions from the past 2 levels. At least the Bullies aren't present.

[/ QUOTE ]
Quite deliberate, I assure you... mind you, from the way you're putting it, it sounds like the Mean Girls looked the same as they did in the first missions? They shouldn't have- the originals should have just been blue with glowing eyes and antennae, and the final ones should have been chitinous with wings and faceted eyes. The Bullies could have been around (also with both a visual and a power upgrade), but no big deal either way.

Glad you got to see both the Closet Monster and the Dark Clown, though- I will admit to being rather proud of the designs (which is part of the reason they're the ones that got saved 'til the last mission).

[ QUOTE ]
Minor spelling error - when Mother Mayhem is finally defeated (again), she says, " No... the pupetteer... tangled in the strings..." The proper spelling should be "puppeteer."

[/ QUOTE ]
Pretty sure that's an accepted variant (like "mispelling"/"misspelling").

[ QUOTE ]
Unanswered questions include what brought Mother Mayhem back to Paragon City in the first place, since she's ordinarily a native of Praetorian Earth.

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MM was on Primal Earth because she was fleeing from Phobia (the Praetorians can travel back and forth without much trouble)- I thought the dialogue had at least hinted at that.

[ QUOTE ]
Just how did the mission contact manage to contact me when he was being held captive by these demons of nightmares?

[/ QUOTE ]
Psychic powers (generic brand )

[ QUOTE ]
By what means was the chief phobia able to enter this world, and just what did Mother Mayhem do that allowed it?

[/ QUOTE ]
Phobia never came to Primal Earth- she was on Praetoria, in Mother Mayhem's asylum (which she took over and, although it wasn't explicitly stated, is what altered her followers in the final mission- can you imagine what getting loose in Mother Mayhem's asylum would do to creatures that feed on fear?)- that much I know I made mention of- the contact tells you he can sense Phobia through a dimensional rift (although those aren't the exact words he uses).

As to what Mother Mayhem was doing... is it really vital to the story? Actually... hmm. I wonder.

Hah- just enough room. Squeezed in an optional glowie clue in the final mission that hints that Mother Mayhem either stole or bargained for the thing that summoned Phobia from Diabolique (the go-to girl for Praetorian magic), since it involved 'the powers of the mind'.

[ QUOTE ]
Of course, I think it's possible to make escort objectives more interesting. I've even seen examples in other people's arcs - such as triggering the creation of patrols and/or boss spawns after an escort is obtained, thereby ensuring that there will still be interesting fights and scenery on the trip back.

[/ QUOTE ]
Agreed- triggered patrols are what I used on my "Small Fears" arc, since there's only one version of the map that I wanted to use (there's actually another map I'd prefer, assuming it supports my objectives, but it's not available yet )

[ QUOTE ]
though I'll still be keeping the Dr. Vahz model for him.

[/ QUOTE ]
Eh, not a major worry, it was just kind of an O.o moment.

[ QUOTE ]
I also have no problems, story-wise, with the CoT operating on the PTS grounds. The Cap au Diable Strike Force in City of Villains firmly establishes that they have no issues with conducting a large-scale raid on those very premises, and they even tried to bind Bat'Zul for their own purposes, and were extremely ticked off when the players interfered with their plans to do so.

[/ QUOTE ]
Fair enough- I'm not that familiar with the redside SFs- but even though there's no reason for them not to be there... is there actually a reason for them to be there?

Like I said, I enjoyed the arc, just feel it could use some tightening here and there.

Just don't actually get lost if you're in Spain. Nobody speaks English and the water quality is iffy >.<

*grin*

Not getting off that easy, Frozen

Seriously, though, I'd feel better if I did a proper review (especially as it's been long enough with enough other runs in between to make me a bit leery of trying to do it from memory).

So-

[u]Cutthroat Competition[u]:
Playing through with my usual tester, my level 50 Energy/Energy/Munitions Blaster, Energon X. No purples or anything, so he's not all that high a performer- he's just my main and the character I'm most comfortable playing.

As always, you'll be getting my (in)famous stream-of-semiconsciousness reviewing, where you get my thoughts at about the same speed I do.

MISSION ONE:
Minor sorta-kinda-error in the briefing- pretty sure 'passerby' is both singular and plural (so not "passersby").

"Raxanthris the Abductor"? My, career day in Oranbega must be interesting...

Ugh, ghosts >.<

Hmm... this map is kind of on the big side for multiple leadouts and a boss fight- any chance of using a smaller one, since it's just a CoV office?

Raxanthris, meet my little friend, Mr. Blaster-Level-Damage-Spike. B'bye, Raxie.

"Minmae" Van Whooters? Keep wanting to correct that to "Minmei"... and yes, I am a Robotech fan, how'd you guess?

Wonder what that says about me that I had a harder time with a random Spectral Daemon Lord than the actual boss? >.<

Rose Thorn doesn't seem to have that much in the way of a sharp tongue from what little dialogue she has- especially not sharp enough to deter kidnappers :/

MISSION TWO:
Interesting premise, and it makes a certain amount of sense, heh...

Wow, another bloody huge map.

Huh. My own personal Abomination. *starts singing "My Pet Zombie" to the tune of the 'My Pet Monster' themesong*

Argh. I have to escort a fighting, minion-level ally all the way across this bloody oversized map? Blech.

Oh joy. I drag that idiot three-quarters of the way across the freaking huge map, then he decides to live up to his name and suicide against a group of CoT that I missed on the way in. Bah.

Mission failed because the janitor was a moron. Whee.

MISSION THREE:
Aha- that's what happened, I think- I don't remember anything beyond that horribly oversized map- I think I wound up getting cut off by a Rikti Mothership Raid, and discovering that it killed my mission progress >.<

Okay, so, destructables.

Huh... custom mobs. Interesting. Where did they get the souls of frenzied warriors, though?

Pfft... hahaha..! Poor Soulbound Berserker. His stubby little hyperthyroid arms are so thick that he can't actually do the fist-in-palm wait animation properly- he can't reach! Might consider a redesign, he just looks silly. Mind you, it didn't matter much one way or another- thanks to his brief introduction to my little friend Mr. Damage Spike, I don't even know what powers he had.

I swatted Stratus the Overseer as well, since he was handy.

O... kay? Both remaining altars spawned within a few feet of one another. I'll be very glad when they allow us more control over what spawns where >.<

Odd. Altars are apparently on the list of 'things that are no longer immobile', considering that it was affected by my KB. Looked more than a little odd, too.

Ha ha... exploding altar killed the guardian spawn of ghosts. Good riddance to bad rubbish. Hate hate hate hate hate HATE HATE CoT ghosts!

MISSION FOUR:
The Facemaker is a weird one, isn't she. I'm surprised she didn't declare war on Serge at the same time... fun dialogue, though.

Argh... outdoor map. Huh- and the boss spawned within a few metres of the starting position. Fun. Meet Mr. Damage Spike!

And, succesful. It's good to be a blaster

Time to wander off and gather up allies, I suppose. Wait, why are the models suddenly 'trusted nurses'?

... ah, okay- they're not actually the models, just nurses re-built using bits of the models. Might consider renaming them, since it kind of left me going "... bwah?"

*grumble* Okay, having the allies be optional would be nice. I've already stomped the boss flat, having to hunt all over this huge-[censored] map trying to find some random idiots is a bit grating, especially since they should theoretically be able to take care of themselves.

Leroy is Dr. Vahz? WHAT? Yeah, sorry, but no. The Facemaker is Dr. Vahzilok's pupil; she shouldn't be surpassing his greatest creation with some guy she picked up off the street... well, the sewer. And what was up with his dialogue? "You'd think the Mission Architect would give me a better default animation!"? Again... WHAT?

Also, Doc V is the wussiest EB ever >.O

Minmae... "If only mom could see me now"? Is it one of Facemaker's Nurses, or is it Minmae? And if it's actually Minmae, what's she doing as a 'trusted nurse' when you kidnapped her all of two missions ago?

Also, none of them seem to have lost/found text- not that I cared that much, since I just ditched them, but it could prove awkward if someone actually did want to keep them around.

Bleah. Still flying around looking for the last ally ten minutes later. This could definitely have been trimmed (or at least made optional), since I didn't actually need any of them.

Ugh, FINALLY. And... "Every Rose has its thorns?" Seriously?

Good closing comments...

So, OVERALL:

Fun little story; some of the dialogue could, I think, use a little tightening, in-mission, especially. The first, second, and fourth maps are just way the hell too big- and why would the CoT be around the PTS? That's a non-CoT demon, and you'd think they'd be wary of getting onto Bat'Zul's turf.

The Allies in the final mission need to be optional, especially on that map- they could pop up anywhere, and they're more than a little annoying to find.

Some plot stuff didn't work for me- why were the Circle so hot to get more 'warriors'? Surely the Facemaker doesn't have the firepower on her own to warrant a massive buildup on the part of the Circle of Thorns... Also, their usual MO is to just grab (live) victims and stick a thorn in 'em- reanimating corpses is more the BP's schtick. In other words, the custom mobs were nifty, but kind of unecessary (and a bit suspension-of-disbelief-breaking).

I like the basic premise, but I think it could use some tweaking- maybe this is just a single faction of CoT? Also, the level-ranges were kind of inconsistent- it was a bit annoying to have certain powers come and go at random.

Polish it up a little, and I think you've got a five-star arc on your hands (as it was, I gave it... eh, 3.5, rounded up).

EDIT: Oops- feel free to take your pick of my arcs to review- whichever one interests you (and the requisite info should be in the descriptions).

Petition?

Put Apex in the game already, dammit!

Flashpoint Zeo sighed at the veiled insult that Wolfgang delivered, twin curls of flame briefly detatching from his usual all-enveloping curtain of fire in the region one might assume his nostrils to be.

"To be retracting fangs, 'Wolf'." he said, sounding a bit aggrieved. "Dangerous 'stuff' not typically militarily oriented- to be being leftovers from godwars before era of humans, and uncontrollable by same, or Persons or Entities of Mass Destruction, sometimes to be being accidental results of rather stupid experimentation... is rarely deliberate; dimensional travel technology being carefully guarded, and blowing up dimension one happens to be standing in rarely gives desired result, unless result to be being suicide on grand scale."

A pause, and a shift of the massive shoulderplates in something that wasn't quite a shrug. "To not be quite same as heavy military buildup, fortifications, and ludicrous level of infrastructure apparently oriented towards conquest."

Another sigh. "As to Nazi popsicle, will arrange visit to interrment site personally..." via a portal, to prevent knowledge of the exact location getting out, and under the direct supervision of the Freedom Phalanx, he didn't add- Zeo rarely worked with the Phalanx, but... well, he knew a guy who knew a guy, as the vernacular went. "... once contact reestablished."

A raised eyebrow, mostly visible under the concealing hood by the widening of one blazing yellow eye. "To be planning on fighting whom, exactly, with all shiny military toys are producing?" he added as an afterthought.

-----

Sun Tzu bowed himself back into Thalathis' presence, giving Xu Guan a sharp look- the juniour official was rather more ambitious than the seniour tactician would prefer, something he considered could become problematic.

"<Alas, honoured ancient, my own presence is required here- a conference of the heads of the Sorcery Council has been called, amongst whom I am priviledged to count myself a member.>" he started.

"<However...>" the elder sorceror added quickly, quelling the dawning triumph on Xu Guan's face, "<My sorceries should prove equal to the task.>" The sharp scent of not-quite-ozone filled the air, the ominous chanting that those who knew Sun Tzu quickly came to associate with his magic swelling to a thunderous crescendo. Light flared, and when it cleared... nothing had happened. Sun Tzu stood there as before.

The old sorceror bowed again. "<Please forgive my absenting myself; I have already been summoned. What you see before you is a Homunculi woven of spirit, air, and fire. It has much of my power invested in it, and should be able to function as if I were present with you.>"

In the council chambers, the tactician tuned out the droning of the chief elder as best he could. If Teivos could somehow be forced to attend one of the council meetings, he considered, the man would expire of boredom before an hour had passed. The homunculus should prove an entertaining diversion, while allowing him to remain in perfect safety while his consciousness rode the construct.

[ QUOTE ]
At first Energy/Energy would suit her, but considering the lack of damage output, slow attack animations (lots of scrappers) coupled with the already mouth-foaming hate I was recieving from groups because of my knockback (lots of scrappers), I decided I'd try something else

[/ QUOTE ]
I've been a proponent of Energy/Energy ever since I rolled my first toon- and still my favourite- an Energy/Energy blaster.

Point one: Melee are going to [censored] about your knockback no matter what. I've been [censored] out about my KB... on a team with two stormies -_-

Ignore them, you'll be happier, especially if you've already gotten used to using your KB as mitigation.

As to damage- Energy damage is almost precisely middle-of-the-road for primaries, and better than most for secondaries- Energy Punch and Bone Smasher both animate blisteringly fast and do ridiculous damage- don't be afraid to jump in, smash some hapless minion's face in, and jump out again. Even Power Thrust can do respectable damage if you slot it correctly (something that took me years to figure out >.O), and is very useful for getting things that are in your face out of your face.

As to animation speeds- I think you'll find that's more timing than anything else; I've run Archery, Energy, and Electric (as a Defender secondary) up to fifty, and at least experimented with Sonic, AR, and Fire- while some animations are a bit faster than others, corpse-blasting can be a problem no matter what set you're on.

Hmm... looking at the animation times, I'm not sure where you're coming from; Tier one and twos are standardized (all exactly the same), and Power Burst is one second slower than its equivalent in Fire, 0.17 seconds slower than its counterpart in Archery, and 0.33 seconds faster than its counterpart in Sonic.

Energy Torrent is faster than any cone except for Buckshot (1.07 vs. 0.9 seconds), and it's a bit stronger than Buckshot.

Explosive Blast is pretty much middle-of-the-road- there are two faster AoEs, one equal, and one slower.

So... yeah. Take that as you will.

[ QUOTE ]
When it's Back Alley Brawler giving the mission, not so much.

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Hrm... I did try to give BaBs a reason for absenting himself (and like I said, I was actually hoping to find some way to stick him in), even if it was his own rather stupid fault.

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The Baron was (it seemed) Necromancy/Dark Miasma; the Bonemason was Necromancy/Dark Blast. That meant the Bonemason could fire the three attacks duplicated in his primary twice without waiting for a refresh. Biiiiiig boost in the attack chain there.

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You could be right- a simple enough fix, if that's the case.

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They were not; the second one was a +1 level spawn. That meant more damage, harder to hit, and longer-lasting control powers.

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Except that that's really not something I have any control over- the mission options were set identically, and I'm not sure why she spawned as a +1.

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At this level that's not likely to be a problem with Boss-level Masterminds, I think. If they're left at Bosses most players will fight them as Bosses, as most players run above Heroic difficulty starting early. Only my Controllers are likely to still be on Heroic after level 6.

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Really? Most of those that I run with stay on heroic until at least the post-Stamina levels. Difference in personal experience, I guess.

Hmm- did I forget to ask you to run my arc, "Small Fears", Bubba? I thought I had. It's number 12285, in any case- three missions long, and be ready for a handful fo EB/AVs (none terribly durable, so a few lucks should get you by, and maybe some reds if you're playing a lower-damage AT). Oh- and it's a higher-level arc.

Thanks for the review, Venture!

Hmm- lesse-

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What you found was actually enough to scare Numina. She won't talk about it until she's sure of her findings. For some reason that isn't really clear waiting for that isn't an option. Brawler sends you to Oranbega, saying that if he goes personally it would trigger a massive reprisal from the Circle. There just doesn't seem to be any reason for you to go either, but, it's in the script, so....

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Oop- writer fail. Guess I need to make it clearer that at least some of the magic involved is Oranbegan in origin (the Baron's info mentions that he seems to use both Mu and Oranbegan magic), which is why you went down there.

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On her defeat you get a Clue saying you took a photo of her to show Brawler, presumably assuming your character doesn't know who she is from history (which most should, IMO)

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Actually, you could also infer that you're just taking the photo as confirmation- after all, would you want to believe that your close friends had been zombified? I didn't actually say one way or another, so...

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Brawler's response to the photo is to go beat more information out of the Baron. Um, yeah.

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Hmm... writer fail again, I guess- what I intended to convey as happening was that the Brawler simply lost his temper, and the Baron provided the most convenient 'face' for that anger- thus his invasion of Oranbega despite having just said that it's a really, really bad idea for him to do so.

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Brawler and the Phalanx have to face the Circle, leaving the city's fate in the hands of a hero under security level 14...OK....

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There is precedent for this- the Caverns of Transcendence Trial (admittedly, that leaves the city's fate in the hands of a bunch of heroes under level 15, but whatever), along with the Vahzilok Pollutant Plot ("... bad news for everyone with a faucet"). That, and, at the end of the day... they're still just Skulls.

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The arc has a good story up until the end, when Brawler decides to go street hunting in Founders' instead of dealing with a potential city-destroying threat. If the Contact is going to be someone so prestigious then either the threat has to be dialed down or its magnitude needs to be sprung on the player during the mission so there's no opportunity to call in the big guns.

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Honesty time? If I could have included the Brawler as an ally in here, I would have- I may just give up and fake-up a copy of him (not too hard, since all I really need is some excuse for him not to have his usual gloves, I suppose), but I'm not sure. Unfortunately, he's level-limited out. Also- prestigious or not, the Brawler is still the Newbie trainer, and a pretty street-level kind of guy.

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The trip to Oranbega in Act III is kind of wedged in as well.

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It's partially a search for clues, and partially a break from fighting nothing but Skulls and Trolls, honestly. And there is a (apparently poorly conveyed, unfortunately >.&lt story reason for it.

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Finally the arc really has too many Elites for one that caps at 14...as in, any.

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And here, I have a bit of a problem- the difficulty spikes you encountered are irregular at best- the two instances of the Illustrated Woman you faced were identical, yet the second fight was an order of magnitude more difficult, from what I can tell from your account. The AI is so erratic that the fight can range from forgettable to a horrific grind to a brick wall (as far as I remember, the Bonemason should have the same powers as the Baron, who you apparently didn't have much trouble with).

In fact, for the majority of my testing (on a variety of ATs), each and every boss was pretty much a pushover- I even lost one of them to a Troll/Skull battle before we ever got there (on a larger team). The crazy difficulty you encountered is an outlier case, which leaves me reluctant to play with things too much. Although that confuse is gone the second we get the ability to remove individual powers >.<

Also, I left them as EBs so that most players would be encountering them as bosses- I really kind of wanted to avoid the Dark/died too fast issue.

Anyhow, thanks again for the review- I'm going to poke the writing a bit more (clarify a couple of things), and also mess with the powersets again... although like I said, as far as I can tell, it's more an AI issue than anything else.

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"Oh. Got it. No. The SSR has neither means nor intent to destroy your home universe. Interesting you'd believe so, though. People do that often where you come from?"

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"To be having no idea..." Flashpoint Zeo muttered sourly. Hard as it may have been to believe, he'd actually lost track of the number of universe-ending threats that he'd faced down or heard of. It wasn't exactly a daily occurence or anything, but, well, in the supers community...

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"Don't get me wrong, however. If it turns out you're lying, we are going to attack. If not though, and der Reichsmann really is no longer a threat to anyone...well, then I'd say you've nothing to worry about."

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"Reichsmann not much of threat to begin with." the fiery titan snarked. It may simply have been that Primal Earth spawned an overabundance of supers- but, while the various Marcus Coles were near the top of the heap when it came to personal power levels... well, Tyrant must surely be getting tired of people wandering over to his dimension to kick his head in when he got uppity.

It crossed the big tank's mind to wonder briefly where the Axis Amerika Recluse... or Rekluse, or whatever... was, or what had happened to him.

Then he refocussed on the conversation.

"Questions: to be wondering what, precisely, intentions of... Sovereign... are in present dimension. Massive military perpetually geared to state of high alert to not be being conducive to long-term stability in state of non-expansion. Imperial ambitions, what are, precisely?" If Wolfgang was following through the tangled tenses and mangled grammar of his fiery inquisitor, he'd realize that, as far as Flashpoint Zeo was concerned, this was a heavily militaristic empire that was running out of world to conquer, and that he was (justifiably, as far as he was concerned) worried about where those ambitions would be turned next.