TeChameleon

Oy Northman- have you gotten a review from me anywhere? I know I played Cutthroat Competition, and I'm pretty sure I gave a review... somewhere... unless, of course, that was the one that the "The form you have submitted is no longer valid" bug ate, to much cursing.

Heh-

Snap shot = must.

LRM Rocket = thing of beauty.

Surveillance = wonderful (and a great spot to stick some rather nice IO sets you couldn't use otherwise as a blaster). Very handy for mauling that annoying EB- I use it in conjunction with Aim and Build Up, since it does pretty much the same thing, just from the other end

Snipes = situational, but not as bad as all that. Very handy in certain situations.

Body Armour = mildly handy, as it never turns off, costs no endurance, and can occasionally make the difference between living and dying. Also a handy spot for IO sets that, once again, you don't necessarily have any other way to access.

... *hugs*

All I can say for now, Noire. Prayin' for ya.

*chuckle*

This couldn't possibly be a ploy on the part of the devs to get more people to send goodies...

I kid, I kid- we've got a great bunch of devs, they deserve the occasional batch of goodies (although at this rate they're going to come into the offices one day and find they can't open the lobby door because it's so full of bri... goodies.)

*sigh*

Looks like you're going to have to strike me from the list, Chill- the fiancee is wanting to see Star Trek, and this Friday is the only day we could do it (originally were going on Wednesday, but that didn't work ).

And, no offense, but I'd rather spend time with her than you guys

(of course, she's going to be starting playing... or may have already started without me... in the next day or two, so things may change... or, at the very least, I can do both )

I want lotsa feedback on my MArc, though!

... well, unless you decide not to do it since I'm not coming, which is also fine.

Huh- take care, Pepsi- hope you can come back soon.

Wow... these are some seriously detailed reviews.

I'd love it if you were willing to take a look at any of my arcs, Misho- the names and numbers are in my signature, and I believe that all the relevant info should be in the mission description.

Thanks in advance!

Flashpoint Zeo gave a very faint shrug, an infintesimal shifting of his shoulder plates that nevertheless managed to indicate that it was a matter of borderline cosmic-scale indifference to him whether Wolfgang believed him or not. He was somewhat surprised that Wolfgang had openly admitted that the fuhrer... or whatever... wasn't feeling 100%, but little showed on his masked, shrouded face.

"Lies? To be thinking a moment... History of place since Nazi twits given boot, intentions of crazy dictator concerning home dimension of self, actual doings of crazy dictator in present dimension, ability or lack thereof to travel between home dimension of self and present one, war apparently are gearing up for with... unknowns... list goes on. Considering self has been present in dimension for less than forty-eight hours, is impressive list." the big tank said.

"Most urgent lie insofar as concerning self appears to be being rumour... Vlasta..? to be considering simply exploding home dimension of self to be rid of Reichstwit. Would be forced to express strong disapproval if such were case." he finished.

((And for the record... Flashpoint Zeo's dialogue is at least as awkward to write as it is to read. The tangled tenses are rather fun, though ))

Oh... huh. Just noticed the caveat about 'playing your missions first', which I don't think I've done.

So, off to run Positron's remixed TF. My (in)famous stream-of-semiconsciousness reviewing is at your service- you're getting my thoughts pretty much as I get them

MISSION ONE:
City of Gyros. Right. I'm having flashbacks to Saul Rubenstein's Discount Task Force >.>

Hellions... okay. *shrug*

Wait, why is Posi doing that weird monkey-walk thing? Is that something you did, or some bizarre Architect glitch? Odd... even though I logged out and came back (for nearly a day... I actually have a life right now, something that is taking some getting used to ), he's still doing it o.O

Hyper-accelerated metabolism... oy.

MISSION TWO:
Package... m'kay... y'know, this really is reminding me very strongly of "Saul Rubenstein's Discount Task Force" (think it was Ascendant that wrote it?)

Hrm... well, at least it wasn't Oranbega :/

That was a short little mission... and Posi's still monkey-walking >.>

MISSION THREE:
Ah, yes... the requisite swipe at Azuria-loses-things. Sorta funny, but it's been done.

Wait, I'm fighting Skulls? Why? Azuria sends you after the Hellions, normally... and the sudden level-drop is a bit disorienting >.>

Hrm... the interplay between the clues and the other text is cute, but I'm finding that if the humour is falling a bit flat (which it is, for me- not necessarily your fault, but...), the arc really doesn't have a lot to fall back on. Plus I just woke up, so I'm not feeling especially funny >.O

Also, why couldn't Azuria handle the Skulls... isn't she supposed to be a powerful sorceress?

MISSION FOUR:
Aaaaand level limited again. Kind of jarring.

The wand clues aren't even trying to be funny?

Heh... "Hedge Mages". Although isn't that usually "Hedge Wizards"?

Oooookay, the silver wand joke was a bit tacky >.<

... Anti-Rogaine? Oy.

MISSION FIVE:
Yah... I'm not really talking to Positron, even though I'm talking to Positron? I get it, it's just a bit... suspension of disbelief, y'know?

I hate trying to find stuff on this map >.<

Hrm... yeah.

So, overall: I suspect I'm just not cut out for humour arcs. Since the particular style of humour didn't appeal to me that much, the whole thing felt a bit pointless- Hellions, Skulls, and CoT. Whoop-de-flippin'-do. I think it could benefit from some... no, make that a lot more enemy chatter- you can pack in a lot more jokes that way, and the 'funny' of the whole thing doesn't hinge on Posi being a narcissitic twit.

The arcs are short and clean- not too much extraneous faffing around (although some optional glowies with more jokes would be good)... but there wasn't a lot of substance to it. I guess my final word is "Needs more funny".

I'm glad you enjoyed the arc

Hmm... okies, let me see if I can answer some of your questions (obviously, some of the stuff needs to be emphasized a bit more- a lot of what you asked got answered in BaBs text or the clues, but it was apparently buried).

[ QUOTE ]
That boss is nasty. I’m noticing /psi is a popular element in custom bosses, lol. I like the bio you gave him.

[/ QUOTE ]
Heh- actually, if you read the monument in Steel (it's one of the Just Said No to Superadyne badge plaques), it mentions him as being psychic. So the powerset was kind of a natural

[ QUOTE ]
Mission 3: Fill me in—who’s Ms. L? I also like the historical context that BaB gives you; it improves the story arc a great deal so that I had a better understanding of where things were.

[/ QUOTE ]
If by "Ms. L" you mean the Illustrated Woman, well, you got the answer to that later, heh...

[ QUOTE ]
I’m grateful for the assistance, but the Longbow has Lady Grey/Fusionette syndrome, if you know what I mean.

[/ QUOTE ]
Yeeeah, noticed that. If Lt. Sohmers is a boss, he fares a bit better, but on Heroic, he's 100% lemming. Not sure what, if anything, I can do about that- I may just fake-up a Longbow Spines Scrapper with a custom critter, not sure :/

[ QUOTE ]
Mission 4: Can I tell you something? I have a pet peeve about outdoors, especially “hunt and find” maps where it could be ANYWHERE.

[/ QUOTE ]
I really, really don't blame you. Little secret? I don't like that mission very much either; if I could place the boss so she always spawned in the graveyard, I would in a heartbeat, since that's where I want her anyways (thus the clue >.O). However, it's the best map I've got available, *sigh*

[ QUOTE ]
I get the Skulls and CoTs’ motives, but I still don’t really “get” what the Trolls have to do with this, other than the Hollows connection and the fact that they want revenge due to the Skulls’ massacre.. The “spirits” or whatever doesn’t like the trolls, I get that, but I’m not getting exactly WHY.

[/ QUOTE ]
The answer to those two questions are related- the ghosts got away from the Skulls and went ape-[censored] on the Trolls. The Trolls, being Trolls, reacted. Somebody attacks the Trolls -> the Trolls attack somebody (and the 'dyne lab was too good a target to pass up).

As to why the ghosts don't like the Trolls... well, both were Regulators, and strongly involved in the war on drugs as it involved Superadyne. The Trolls are pretty much the living symbols of 'dyne and its abuse, and, since the spell involved brings ghosts back and binds them as spirits of rage... they vented that rage on they symbol of the thing they hated.

Like I said, I guess I'll expand on that a bit more- I know that the clue mentions them as being spirits of rage, and the Brawler mentions that he that some of his dead teammates had just that kind of anger against 'dyne, but it may need to be clearer.

[ QUOTE ]
To be fair, you DID warn me, but The Lady cannot be properly soloed; at least not without lots of breakfrees and even through that, she can spam holds. You might want to reduce her difficulty, if it’s not at the lowest level already. If it IS at the lowest level, then okay. Not a very big deal, nothing inspirations can’t solve anyways.

[/ QUOTE ]
I think she might be on Hard, not sure- I'd have to double check (and honestly, I think she'd actually be worse if I dropped the difficulty, since then she'd just be spamming a handful of attacks... an immobilize, a hold, and a confuse >.O).

[ QUOTE ]
Overall, I liked this story, although I think the Trolls' part in it could stand to have a little more story behind it.

[/ QUOTE ]
Hmm... problem is, the Trolls don't really have that much reason for being there- they're hyperaggressive idiots in the first couple of missions, then victims for the others. Hrm. Once again, something to think about.

Thanks for the run and the review!

Actually, that's the first time I've seen or heard of the glowie popping out right behind a group of baddies- most of the time it's in some irritating location that's impossible to find, but not guarded >.<

And the 'allowing for the PC being a robot/AI' is something I had planned on, forgot, and then got yelled at by Venture for when he reviewed it

And yeh, I know that there's only a tiny fraction of the people that'll get the R.U.R. reference- it's more in there for my own amusement than anything else (well, that, and it's fun to find little things like that). I threw in a fair number of robot-references into this arc, although I tried to keep them appropriate to what was going on, but they're there if you keep your eyes open (and are as big a nerd as I am )

[ QUOTE ]
Arc #12669, How to Survive a Robot Uprising

Robots have been turning upon their masters ever since the very first story about them. Still, this arc manages to avoid most of the cliches, and even pokes fun at them briefly.

The mission description says it's "solo UNfriendly", so I used Fast Kitty again. Your contact is named /hide, and meows as a box of parts. You are deliberately kept in doubt about who or what he is, which works out believably.

1) You meow into a base where you are attacked by robots from various factions, some of whom are transparent for some reason. One of the author's characters appears to help you; normally self-insertions are a mark of a lousy arc, but this was meowed well, and the character name, Archimedes' Lever, is a clever reference. The boss is a Vanguard HVAC, which I haven't even seen used in MA before. Mob chatter is well written.

2) An Arachnos base, where you meow more robots.

3) You learn that the 'virals' are trying to subvert Malta robots, so you meow onto a cargo ship to stop them. This is where the arc stumbles. The first thing you see upon entering is a group of FOUR ZEUS TITANS. They are fighting some regular Malta, who die in five seconds flat.

Now, Fast Kitty is Really Awesome, so I was able to meow in and smash them. (yes, FOUR ZEUS TITANS at once, without using the tier 9. There should be a badge for that.) Beating the Titans isn't strictly required, but there were groups of FOUR ZEUS TITANS all over the ship, one of which was right in front of a required glowie. This would no doubt present an insurmountable barrier to someone who isn't on a team and isn't Really Awesome. This isn't a fatal FAIL , since the arc did say it's solo UNfriendly, but still it will meow this arc off limits to some. (ever try to get a non-farming AE team together? try it sometime).

4) You enter Portal Meow and fight all sorts of Praetorian robots, like Seige's RAM series, Nightstar's SPECTRA robots, and Neuron's Electrodes. Good variety here.

5) Time for the Final Showdown, where you are meowed by _three_ of the author's character's (the minion group is Shameless Self-Insertions ), yet there's no Big Baddie. A mistake? I don't meow. The mission meows off with a nice souvenir.

Rating this one is hard... it's fun and challenging if you're Really Awesome (or on a good team), but unplayable if you aren't. Since you were warned about the difficulty, I'll give it just half a FAIL .

Rating: FA

[/ QUOTE ]
Heh... I find it kind of funny that you mention the very first robot story at the start of this review- once I get more slots one way or another (I'm an eternal optimist, but I'm mostly expecting to have to pay for 'em ), I've got a sequel to How to Survive a Robot Uprising in the works, called "Robot Uprising Redux" (or... "R.U.R."? Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, knowwhatImean, knowwhatImean?)

Anyhow- to respond to some of the stuff you mentioned- the first mission robots are all actually Council 'bots, in reference to the "Rogue Robots" mini-arc in the lower thirties, blueside. Unfortunately, Council robots cap off at level 35-ish, but, thankfully, they have Shadow Shard Reflection counterparts. I decided that the transparency was a minor price to pay for being able to use the mobs I wanted, heh.

As to the major reason (or at least the one you expounded most upon) that you consider my arc unsoloable... the contact specifically tells you to avoid the Malta Titans, which is quite doable with any travel power... in fact, if memory serves, there's only one group you can't avoid with Sprint alone. Also, if you're willing to drop your difficulty level (anathema on a Brute, I know ), it's even squishy-able- I did most of my testing on my (sadly purple-less) Blaster.

As to the last mission- the *whole thing* is supposed to be the climactic battle. There's no 'final boss fight' because, well, a) I'm planning a sequel, and b) the mastermind behind all this isn't really a combatant. And there's three of my Shameless Self-Insertions because I've found that, even with all three, they die depressingly easily to my custom critters- apparently, I'm better at creating mobs than I am characters

Anyhoo, I'm glad you enjoyed the arc and didn't get too frustrated with it; after the amount of tweaking I had to do to get that one even halfway playable, I have a hefty new respect for our devs that have to make missions that are playable by anyone, and can't just use a warning flag to try to avoid pissing people off >.O

Well, once you hit the 10-14 range, may I offer my arc, "Trollbane" (#106553)? It's heroically-oriented, but there should be enough mayhem to satsify the bad Doctor- there's a gang war brewing between sometime allies, the Trolls and the Skulls, with Superadyne at the root of it... but there's something else, lurking beneath the surface.

And, if nothing else, he can steal some of the Skull's 'dyne lab gear

(standard warning- contains a handful of EB/Bosses)

Feel free to direct some withering sarcasm upon any of my three arcs; the numbers are in my sig.

Fair warning: Small Fears contains EB/AVs, and if your Brute is an Invulnerable-type, you may have more trouble than average, simply because of damage types. Trollbane also has EB/Bosses, but it's a lowbie-oriented arc (10-14), and should be reasonably accessible to most ATs. How to Survive a Robot Uprising is tough, but should be doable for most, thanks to allies scattered liberally throughout.

Sarcasm more than welcome, as long as there's a review in there as well

Flashpoint Zeo nodded to Isabel, then raised a scaly eyebrow. Unless the body double he had accidentally kidnapped had been doing a remarkably poor job of actually doubling (which seemed unlikely, given the volume of makeup the poor bugger had been half-smothered under), they weren't quite to the Sovereign yet.

A heavy sigh shifted shoulder plates and blew out a brief billow of flame. "Are not expecting self to believe are Sovereign, correct..?" he asked, just to be certain. The huge tank didn't worry much about waiting for an answer- the cyborg would answer or not, as he wished.

"Will reiterate; Reichstwit is being popsicle under titanic mountain of rubble; alien invasion blasted area to gravel, is questionable whether goose-stepping idiot could get out, even if was not frozen solid. Even if got loose, are any number of supers running around could match twit, at least when working together. Is non-issue." he finished with an indifferent shrug.

And indeed, as far as he was concerned, he spoke the precise truth- he'd seen Marcus Cole and his dimensional dopplegangers get beaten to pudding far too often to hold them in the same kind of awe that the locals here seemed to.

Then the giant tanker straightened, and his eyes blazed more brightly as his focus sharpened. "Now, to be wishing for you to begin spinning lies for self. Have been lied to by all since arrival; is turn of Dark Sovereign or... functionaries... of same. Would request that truth be used sparingly; prolonged lack of exposure rendered self unused to same, may cause rash." he announced, his tone suspiciously bland. There was sarcasm present (in a more than generous amount), but clearly the big tank didn't have any particular expectation that any of Teivos' people would be so gauche as to actually tell him the unvarnished truth.

Oh, oops- sorry, Chill- my global is @Wall of Knight.

Hmm... well, it looks like I *might* be free Friday- put me down as a maybe... not sure what toon I'll be running (most likely either Energon X, my 50 blaster main, or else Thomas Savage, my... uhm... don't remember <.<... PB).

Also, may I offer up my arc, "Small Fears" (#12285) as a short (three-mission) arc to be run?

Hey Steelsky. Feel free to take may arc, "Trollbane" (#106553) out for a spin. It's (mostly >.&gt balanced for levels 10-14, and takes a peek behind the curtain of a largely neglected area of CoH lore- Back Alley Brawler's Regulators. Skulls, Trolls, and more black magic than you can shake a really big stick at.

Standard warnings- it's got a handful of EBs/Bosses in it (including one that I think needs toning down, but that can't be toned down thanks to a rather stupid change in critter difficulty levels in the latest patch... yay for perma-confuse even on Standard >.&lt, and it's on the long side.

Other than that, have fun! (I hope )

Agreed with Policewoman- this is a neat idea, and could be a lot of fun expanding your characters' stories.

Arc offered to which character?: Extrasensory. Magic, myth, and a psionic global threat.
Arc Name: Small Fears
Arc ID: #12285
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Wall of Knight/TeChameleon
Level Range: 45-50
Soloable?: Qualified yes- bring a good inspiration loadout.
Length: Medium (Three missions, none terribly long)
Difficulty Level: Medium-to-hard, depending on character
Synopsis: No matter how happy your childhood, there are always a few corners of darkness, little pockets of black fear that every child knows. And now those shadows are expanding. Something is clawing out of the lost childhood of Paragon. Are you ready to confront the fears of the nursery? (contains EB/AVs)
Estimated Time to Play: 45 minute-hour-ish?

Arc offered to which character?: Edwin Schmidt. High technology and a higher threat (no time-travel, though)
Arc Name: How to Survive a Robot Uprising
Arc ID: #12669
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Wall of Knight/TeChameleon
Level Range: 45-50
Soloable?: Again, qualified yes- a good inspiration loadout should see you through.
Length: Very Long (Five missions, some on the long-ish side)
Difficulty Level: Fairly hard
Synopsis: Something strange is happening with the AIs of Paragon City; DATA has asked you to look into it. Your natural first stop, Citadel, got nothing. Until you noticed that you had a new message on your service... from Citadel! telling you to visit a certain warehouse in Steel Canyon... (Solo UN-friendly)
Estimated Time to Play: 1-2 hours, depending.

Heyas Spell.

If you wouldn't mind taking a look at my arc, "Trollbane" (levels 10-14, #106553) and/or "How to Survive a Robot Uprising" (high-level arc, #12669), I'd appreciate it. Both are at the "Hmm... I'm not seeing anything major wrong, but I can't shake the feeling that they're not as polished as they could be" stage.

Oh- fair warning, Trollbane has a handful of EBs in it, although I don't think they're anything too tough to handle.

EDIT- Oh, and as an aside... #of playthroughs =/= #of reviews >.<

[ QUOTE ]
The Nemesis are apparently after some "Nemesis Defectors", who are Tsoo tattoo artists, apparently? The Tsoo claim to have information on a Nemesis plot of some kind. The Nemesis leader says something about you being there right on time, insinuating that this was some sort of trick.

[/ QUOTE ]
Minor point of order, Laser-

The Tsoo Tattoo artists are a glitch; if you set it to 'random civilian', you'll get Tsoo Tattoo Artists (for the first two- the third will be an actress of some sort, don't remember her name, then two more Tsoo Tattoo Artists, then... a weatherman, or something? Don't remember exactly).

About the rest of it, I've got nothin'

"Is easy to condemn when rules are written to suit own prejudices, no?" the huge tank commented softly... perhaps too softly to hear... as the doors opened. He stepped through, gave the luxurious office a cursory glance- his human half considered it needlessly showy, his dragon half looked at it with a faint gleam of avarice- filed the information for later, and planted his feet firmly to wait, his arms still folded. Now that he had a proper audience with Teivos, he would wait until the building crumbled around them of old age if need be. Dragons are nothing if not patient, and that particular virtue had been inherited by Flashpoint Zeo.

Of course, he would have preferred to 'interview' Teivos in his own inimitable style somewhere far away- dictators trended more strongly towards honesty when confronted somewhere other than the heart of their stronghold... but he'd take what he could get.

Flashpoint Zeo sighed, shrugged, and followed the cyborg's gesture, manifestly not uncrossing his arms. "Have excellent reason to not want portal to own world in hands of Sovereign, if rumours to be believed." he commented, his tone curiously neutral. Then, as if remembering something "Was only attempted attack on head of State. And did not kidnap anyone. If must pile charges on, at least make some pretense of accuracy."

Then, unexpectedly, he added "Have had occasion to visit current world before contact was lost. Was hellhole then. Rule of Sovereign does not appear to have made noticeable difference. Rule recent thing, or improvement not high on list of priorities?" he asked, tone still carefully colourless.

[ QUOTE ]
I really am sorry about the rating. It's clearly not a badly done arc, a bad arc or features bad themes. I just don't enjoy that kind of theme and I think that the reason I find a problem with it is because well, as I said, horror and superhero don't blend together well because they play on utterly different fundamental bases.

[/ QUOTE ]
... okay, seriously? Don't apologize. You gave an honest review, and an honest rating (well, at least I hope you did, if you agonized that much over it ), which is all I wanted. You also helped my dig up some of the more niggling bugs (like the contact's bloody name being mispelled!), and made me think through why I had done what I had done once more. In my books, that's a good critique.

[ QUOTE ]
As far as caring more about the contact, I really think the first step is going to be in giving him more of a name, making him more than just what he does.

[/ QUOTE ]
Hmm... see, as I said in the PMs, would you really care more about him if he came up as "Jake"? This may just come down to a stylistic thing- I feel that calling simply "Oracular Urchin' holds with the overall mood.

[ QUOTE ]
So, the short list: Good maps, good mission variety, good use of triggered events, good custom enemies, good monster info. Unforunate choice of plot type, surprise EBs, and the compass text needs a lot of work.

[/ QUOTE ]
Thanks for the review, Talen- I'd actually been looking forward to this one.

Kind of a shame that you didn't enjoy it, but, well, can't be all things to all people, unfortunately- the 'unfortunate choice of plot type' isn't something I can do a lot about without discarding the entire arc, after all

The EBs are no longer a surprise- I took out the 'tough to solo' caveat and altered it to 'contains EB/AVs', which also just barely fits. The 300 word descriptive text is rather painful sometimes, especially when you want to actually... y'know, describe your arc >.<

The compass text has me to the point where I'd like to bludgeon it with a mallet, and maybe the guy who designed it, as well. It simply does not want to cooperate with chained objectives. I've tried tweaking it yet again, but, for the first mission at least, I'm on the edge of giving up >.<

Any suggestions as to how to make you actually care about the contact? I've actually gotten some good feedback on him as well- one friend commented that he'd actually gone and gotten his 'kid friendly sentai costume' rather than his more usual 'grimdark' one for that character.