The_Phantoms_EU

CHAOS - Cake Hates A Orange Submarine.

So, basically, it's a PvP game where you can either be a cake or a orange submarine.

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But where's the cake?

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The cake is a pie

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I'm sorry, I've been very naughty

*hangs head in shame*

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You may be forgiven in exchange for cake

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You shall not be given cake, for it is a lie.

Can I haz piez?

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We're not going to ruin the surprise...but suffice it to say that all CHAOS is going to break loose in-game on our anniversary date and you're not going to want to miss it! From 11am EDT on April 28th to 12am EDT on April 29th

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From 11am to 12am is 13 hours not 1, if it was 11am till 12pm that would be 1 hour.

Anyway, I wouldl like to know the times on EU servers, if they are gonna be at same time or adapted to our zones.

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From 5pm BST on April 28th to 5am on April 29th (I think), converting the time zones.

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*Cough*

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I know that my times weren't probably correct, I was just changing it from EDT>BST.

Too late. Devs have already laid out their plans for the anniversary. Check General Discussion.

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We're not going to ruin the surprise...but suffice it to say that all CHAOS is going to break loose in-game on our anniversary date and you're not going to want to miss it! From 11am EDT on April 28th to 12am EDT on April 29th

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From 11am to 12am is 13 hours not 1, if it was 11am till 12pm that would be 1 hour.

Anyway, I wouldl like to know the times on EU servers, if they are gonna be at same time or adapted to our zones.

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From 5pm BST on April 28th to 5am on April 29th (I think), converting the time zones.

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I think the best example of "Soon" has got to be the task force that was removed from faultline sometime in beta. It was dubbed "returning soon" and never reappeared. Now that the zone has been renovated, I don't think it is due for a reappearance.

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And what about the Calvin Scott TF that Posi wanted to bring back in Ouroboros? What about that then?

By the way GG, about time you made a nice long post like that. The point you're missing is that as FFM said the devs are probably doing something; yet we're long overdue the stuff coming 'soon'.

Think about it. City Vault, over a year. No info other than denying the technical problems with it. New forum software, must've been about a year too. Last we got is "we're very close to finishing it". That was back in 2008. In-game canon, well we've sorta been waiting since I10 for some real in-game canon that MAKES SENSE (looks at Cimerora with an evil eye). Sorry, but Cimerora doesn't count, as it didn't really affect the main story, other than Romulus is some Nictus god (ahhh! non-white spoilers!).

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When all the firings happened in Brighton recently, Avatea or GR posted that a board merger with the US was something that was being looked at, but they never said it was definitely going to happen.

Hell, GR's been promising us new forum software for nearly a year, and that's still not turned up, so I wouldn't hold your breath for a forum merger...

Personally, I'm sick and tired of all the "soon" rubbish, and no longer expect ANYthing from NC.

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Agreed. New forums, City Vault, I13's motto being "all your base belong to us"...all just a lot of attractive things to make players come back...and then try to make us all forget about it.

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Would be nice to know what you're talking about, Rooks. Are you saying there's already a post made by Kegger in the Dominator forums about this or something? Because I can't find it there...unless you're talking about something else.

Or is there a party with lots of beer in the Dominator forums?

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Did you just edit that post after looking Kegger up on Google?



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Yeah, I had a sudden feeling it was some sort of slang I didn't know about.

Would be nice to know what you're talking about, Rooks. Are you saying there's already a post made by Kegger in the Dominator forums about this or something? Because I can't find it there...unless you're talking about something else.

Or is there a party with lots of beer in the Dominator forums?

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Except it didn't take it without authorisation, you all kept clicking the link and pushed through more transactions

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Why are you talking about antelopes? What has that got to do with the situation?

(See, I can respond without actually reading too.)

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Oi. I never said that!

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You are the biggest idiot I have ever seen, Carnifax. Your inflated ego sickens me to the point that I am going to sue NC of ever allowing you into the gates of this cruel dungeon we call the EU forums.

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A bit much don't you think, Myopic?

I found this on the French boards, couldn't find it on these boards though. Thankfully, I've translated it into English:

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Hello everybody,

Rather than leave you wondering why I no longer respond to your messages or questions, or why your messages or discussions not suddenly disappear over the next week, I want you to know that I will be out of service in a place where I would have no access to my computer until Monday 27th April.

GhostRaptor will always be there for both English and French players (I took out the fancy words that Avatea used for simplicity), GMs also if you have any problems or to report emergencies.

I'll see you all in ten days!

See you soon!

Avatea


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This could obviously be misused as soon as you get like a 1 star, don't edit and reset the ratings, and pretend that rating didn't exist.

It could also make the 'how many people played your arc' badges null and void. (eg, you got one arc uploaded, has 10 people played it, got the Author badge, take it down and it now has 0 ratings, therefore the Author badge shouldn't be there) If people were to have their badges taken from them...then they'd be pretty angry.

So for both these reasons, it'll have to be a /unsigned.

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now let the flames come

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You do know that saying that doesn't automatically invalidate everyone who disagrees with your opinion, right?

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that's not it, i'm just used to have ppl flame me the second i write a truth.
i just have a nature of saying what others think, but some flame back to hide there shame.

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When you write a truth? Wait...you're saying your opinon (it very obviously is) is true? Hate to say it, but opinons can't be 'true'.

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Yeah, it's been left stagnent for a long time now. The Midnighters & Cimorororia was just a weird addition which made no real sense in terms of where the main story was going.

I would consider the Rikti War Zone a major story addition though, possiblely one of the most significant ever to hit CoH.

But then in the next issue rather than giving some sense of closure to it they came up with Wacky Adventures in Time which made little sense, and then Wacky Adventures in Sparta... I mean ancient Rome, which made even less sense to the ongoing story.

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I have not posted for a long time or in fact played for a long time but I have to agree with all of this. This is a game about Super Heroes it's foundation lies in the comic book - I bet a pound to a penny that our developers haven't picked up a comic book in ages, because if they had they would realise that they were adrift in a sea of mediocrity. There is no consistency or coherence, their direction is just so random. Anyway, I say enough with the bells and whistles it’s now time to polish the symphony !!

PS - RWZ 10/10 – Faultline 9/10 – The Hollows 8/10 – Cimorororia – nil points

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Cimerora is there for a purpose - a very important one

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And a very stupid purpose.

Heroes/Villains should be doing more of what they actually do - that's fighting each other (or that's what seems to happen in most comics) instead of teaming up to fight intergalatic aliens or evil Romans. Just a thought y'know. Because it's getting to the point where it's getting pretty stupid.

And that's when the story was thrown out of the window, which leads us right back to the start of this thread...

Fighting aliens? Going back in time to stop an evil force which shall doom the world? Fighting rogue Romans? Sorry, but I think Heroes and Villains should really get back to fighting for justice/world domination.

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You know why, its the orange jumpsuits

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Yeah, the real reason for removing the prisoners is because we got sued.

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That would be a bit dumb, given that COH's prisoners were around a long time before Portal was.

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No, I'm joking...

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It's hard to tell with your posts sometimes.

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That's is why I'm so epic.

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You know why, its the orange jumpsuits

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Yeah, the real reason for removing the prisoners is because we got sued.

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That would be a bit dumb, given that COH's prisoners were around a long time before Portal was.

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No, I'm joking...

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You know why, its the orange jumpsuits

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Yeah, the real reason for removing the prisoners is because we got sued.

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Removed Prisoners (level 30-38) from the list of creatures that could be placed in missions. Any missions that become invalid after this change will have to be edited. Do NOT “Unpublish” your mission, or you will lose your Arc ID and ratings. Please note, items that were causing issues and that were subsequently removed from the Mission Architect will need to be reworked before being introduced back into the system.

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&

What? They're gone! That's just fine and dandy...Prisoners are in one of my published arcs!

EDIT: I've had to replace the Prisoners with 5th Column...*looks at Posi very angrily*.

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Arc #1090, "It's a Knife-Eat-Fork World"
tl;dr: Rating mercifully withheld until fixed. Several canon violations, non-heroic "Heroic" arc, "Just a bunch of stuff that happened", surprise timed missions, gratuitous custom faction, Wall Banger plot, inconsistent level cap, mission order royally messed up and confusing.



The story begins with your contact reminding you of those chips you found and telling you those cyborgs are holed up in a lab... Wait, what?

Okay, it looks like the author was testing mission 4 of the arc and forgot to put the order back the way it's meant to be when he published it. This is hardly excusible, but I've got a review to do.

Anyway, I rush over to the abandoned lab and am greeted by a bunch of custom mobs that are basically the full female Cyborg costume set. Minions were dual blades/something, lieutenants are elec blast/elec manipulation. I was on my Elec/Elec Brute, so they didn't really do much. There was also a hostage named "Fork", who was not mentioned by the contact at all, and whose description was "Fork in the heat of battle", while he was appropriately cowering on his knees. Okay. Fork turned out to be Elec Blast/Elec Armor and helped me take care of all of the 8 or 10 cyborgs on the small map. The mission outro text stated that apparently I had dismantled a whole army of the things. This is one of the very rare cases where I'd say a LARGER map would be better for the mission.

Next up, mission 2! Apparently those cyborgs, whom I just wiped out completely, are robbing a bank. This feels like watching the Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi all over again, with the non-chronological order. Kind of surreal, but not in a good sense.

Anyway, it's a LSSL map, and thus once again rather short. Gotta love that catchy beat in the background though. Having beaten up the cyborgs with little effort, I found a safe in the vault. Since this is a Heroic arc, I naturally crack the safe and loot its insides. Sadly, all that's inside is a tape recording, where some scientist tells you to stay away from the cyborgs because "YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE GETTING YOURSELF IN TO". Might have been more dramatic if I were playing a toon without capped Energy resistance, but that's not the author's fault.

Next up, mission 3. Your contact sends you to break "Helen" out of the Zig. Wait, what? I thought this was a Hero arc?
What's even more of a Wall Banger is his claim that "the guards are off duty, so the prisoners are all loose". If this was meant to be a joke, it was poorly executed in my honest opinion. This mission exemplars you down to the level of the Prisoners faction. Surprise exemplaring is something you really should avoid in an arc, unless there's a very good story-based reason for it.

Anyway, Helen turns out to be a Knives boss. After defeating the Prisoners guarding her cell, who are pestering her to give them weapons (why the heck would she have weapons in her cell? The Guards Must Be Crazy.), she tells you the Knives were planning on taking over the world after enslaving the cyborgs. Right. This is wrong on so many levels it's a little depressing. She also mentions you were the one who arrested her in the first place - that's nice to know, but makes rescuing her even more bizarre. Fortunately this is not an escort, so she just runs off and the mission is complete.

Next up, mission... 1!
*Rubs temples.*
Alright, your contact asks you if you want to know about something that's all over the news. This implies your character does not read newspapers or watch TV. Right.
Anyway, the Knives are, for some reason, attacking the WSPDR building in Cap au Diable. Your contact gives you an excellent reason to stop them: Because otherwise you won't have good TV to watch. Why a hero would be watching TV broadcast by WSPDR is beyond me. Anyway, the boss is Helen again. Wait, my bad, this is the -first- time you meet her. She's wearing a more-or-less convincing Knives outfit replica, which is immediately ruined by her drawing Claws when you agro her. At least the author didn't give her the currently-bugged Ninjitsu to emulate a KoA cloaking device. She went down pretty quickly on Unyielding, without hurting me much.

Thoroughly chronologically confused now, the bizarre plot not helping to bring much clarification to the whole matter, your contact finally sends you to Atlas Park, where the Knives have apparently started work on taking over the world.
Um, yeah.
Apparently, you, having destroyed the cyborgs, actually helped them, somehow. It's left unclear how or why, but it has something to do with them looting chips off the destroyed cyborgs.
Um, yeah.

The map choice is a little unfortunate. There is a completely random huge asteroid lodged in the ground next to the city hall, and you enter through an Aspect of the Pillar.

Honestly, with the way the arc's been playing so far, you could easily change the parameter to "Villainous" and change the map the the final LRSF map, where you enter through an Arachnos Flier (there's no asteroid either), and nobody would bat an eye.

You find Fork again here. For some incomprehensible reason, the KoA guarding him yells "Get his electricity!". This was also exclaimed in mission on-... four, where one of the cyborgs guarding Fork said the same thing.
The goal of the mission is to protect a Rikti Bomb. The Knives guarding it have some wonderful lines of text, along the lines of "If we punch it real hard, it'll blow up!".
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After taking out the suicidally stupid Knives around the bomb, and waiting half a minute for their Caltrops to fade, the arc finally ended with a mission success.

And that's about it.

I have to be honest, this arc is pretty bad. I'm not even sure how you could salvage it. The story makes almost no sense at all - the messed up mission order doesn't help. Fork's presence or feature in the name of the arc is not explained at all. The cyborgs are not explained at all, at least not to the player - the contact mentions getting more info on them off the tape recording, which he does not share with you. Breaking villains out of the Zig is not heroic, an that entire mission is just jarringly bizarre. There is so much wrong with this story that it really needs a total makeover. Also, Helen really ought to be Broadsword/Something. You might actually -improve- the arc by rewriting it as a villain arc. As it stands now I honestly can't recommend it to anyone for playing, to be brutally honest.




Further reviews postponed until Maintenance is finished.

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Thanks for the review, even though you didn't rate it too highly - I didn't realise that the missions were mixed up - thanks for that

By the way, I did feel I wanted it to change it to Villainous with breaking Helen out of the Zig and all, but the overall "save the world" plot did make me want to just make it Heroic.

I'll read your review in further detail later.

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I did publish a similar idea earlier and you didnt like it. But that was before we experienced 65000 arcs, a failing rating system and a search engine that does not help you find good stories.

But to prove my concept: try any part of sd0cd0cn0eb0av0lv0ts0

It works. I know its ugly but it does work.

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Still, it's a very confusing system and it would be much easier to use signs/pictures or something similar to that.

Would be nice if you could review my arc 'It's a Knife-Eat-Fork World', ID 1090.

Some basic info: No EBs/AVs, pretty easy-going arc. It's more a story-bent arc.

Would be nice if we had pictures of signs to show what the arc's like, instead of a stupidly confusing text code...like a picture of someone laughing for humour, etc.

A text code would be simply too confusing and as you admitted, it's really just gibberish.


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(I have an overwhelming sense of deja vu here).

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Yeah, I'm pretty sure the OP suggested this a while back.

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what's with the big silence? is this still on omega?

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I'm pretty sure they said this was cancelled on Defiant Events MOTD. Will have to check, though.

Edit: Looks like the MOTD has been changed. I'm 90% sure it did say that, but you'll have to ask Omega.