Venture
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Arc #519044, "Grunty McFisterson's Two Step Guide to Winning Respect"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: weak theme, not that funny
Reviewed on: 11/8/2011
Level Range: 1-14
Morality: Villainous
Factions: Hellions, Skulls, Longbow, Legacy Chain, Wyvern
Architect's Keywords: Easy, Solo Friendly, Comedy
My Keywords:
Character used: Amelia Escobar/Virtue
Difficulty: +0x2+B-AV
Fight promoter "Grunty McFisterson" offers your starting villain his help in building up your reptuation. You're going to do this by taking out the leaders of the local Hellions and Skulls crews. Of course, Longbow has to stick their head into your business and as usual, nothing in the Rogue Isles is exactly what it says on the label.
The arc doesn't do anything clever with mechanics or gameplay. The final boss's spawn does appear to be kicked up a notch, which isn't really welcome at this level. There's a theme of sorts but not much is done with it and some of the jokes are over the top.
There's nothing really wrong with this arc but there's nothing really right with it either. If you're looking for MA arcs to fill in the gaps while leveling or such there are worse choices out there, but there's nothing here worth going out of your way for. -
Quote:And that's the way the game is built and it's never going to change.
This is a recurring complaint of mine that dates as far back as 2005 - we're henchmen. -
Quote:No, this is Sister Psyche we're talking about, the woman who reads the minds of fanboys looking for an auotgraph and stops villains by partially lobotomizing them.
Typically, it's considered a serious ethical violation to force one's way into someone's mind and pull out whatever information one wants. -
Or we just haven't gotten the tweest yet.
Frinstance, no one even asked if this was the Primal or Praetorian one.... -
Quote:I usually just throw them back and wait for another tip, which doesn't take long.
I find I can do five of these in less than half an hour most of the time, unless I get saddled with one of the hostage escort missions which can take longer. -
I'd recommend taking a run through AE, if you're not adverse to that. Below are links to my review threads and a list of all the arcs I gave four or five star reviews to. I suspect, sadly, that many of these arcs are no longer available due to rule changes and the thrice-damned IP/obscenity filter, but it's worth a look.
Review threads: first, second, third, fourth
Five-star reviews: 10721 "The Horrible Mr. Caractacus", 12285 "Small Fears", 5898 "The Fan Club", 47550 "Karmic Exchange", 171693 ":: 24 Hours ::", 6143 "Escalation", 67335 "Teen Phalanx Forever!", 161865 "Aeon's Nemesis", 1296 "A Day in the Life of...Dr. Aeon", 55715 "Freaks and Geeks", 178774 "Tales of Croatoa: A Rose By Any Other Name....", 337435 "OMG it's the LOLBAT!", 6017 "Mercytown: The One With All The Fish", 338380 "Talos Vice", 61013 "The Invasion of the Bikini-Clad Samurai Vampiresses From Outer Space"
Four-star reviews: 10855 "Tomorrow Belongs to Me", 1992 "A Hero's Halo", 1614 "Don't Rain on My Parade!", 9550 "Soul Train: Origins", 1684 "Paracon", 7780 "Nobody of Consequence", 2180 "Bricked Electronics", 12669 "How to Survive a Robot Uprising", 3615 "Dark Dreams", 4747 "Future Skulls", 8713 "Ragnarok: Twilight of the Gods", 1579 "The Council's Long Con", 1571 "The Council's Good Graces", 2142 "Ninja Crimewave", 15381 "Heaven's Not Enough", 112548 "A Flame That Burns Bright", 2050 "The Outcast Outcasts", 49035 "A South Side Story", 114284 "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend", 32801 "Sharkhead Isle and the Circle of Banished Warriors", 170547 "The Beating Heart of Astoria: A Play in Five Acts", 135563 "Forever Lost", 97774 "A Simple Misunderstanding", 57352 "The All-Seeing Eye", 189675 "Who is Leonard Grubbenberry?", 1388 "Celebrity Kidnapping", 149323 "Toys From Heck: The Penny Preston Taskforce", 67356 "Shadow Initiation", 137705 "Rage Within The Machine", 60280 "Dr. Dave and the Copper Legion", 260284 "A Warrior's Journey - The Flower Knight Task Force", 167493 "Gizmette", 171031 "The Fracturing of Time", 227331 "The Consequences of War - Part I", 81043 "The Invasion of the Space Ape Armada", 118690 "Sibling Rivalry", 1567 "MacGuffin Delivery Service", 390921 "Arena", 245042 "The Next War on Drugs" -
Quote:"Two Households Alike" (#126582) falls into this catagory (mostly; it's a Family arc and it does have a four-way gang war in the second act). I didn't pitch it for the group 'coz you already did one of mine recently.
I wish I had time to search out more SJ arcs, as it's a superfun genre and such a staple of comic heroes. You just can't go wrong punching bad guys in the face! -
The haunted house was very well done. The trial itself was OK, nothing to write home about. The warning on the Abomination's specials was a bit too short; some of my melees got KO'd repeatedly due to their own animations.
I had hoped the event would be prolonged a day or two to accommodate those of us in the Northeast who lost net service to Snowtober, but c'est la guerre.
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Quote:Revisionist history. Or something that came and went in the blink of an eye, because I never saw it happen.
Day 3 after i14 went live, practically ALL of the common salvage was GONE. Uncommons were selling for MILLIONS of influence, as were rares.
In any case there's only one thing I would say I need the market for at all and that's uncommon recipes. For everything else it's a mere convenience, as there are reasonable alternatives available. Farmers aren't making my life any better. -
Quote:i c whut u did there....
I and the other barman present hadn't egged him on or anything -
Quote:It's still a throwaway evil goatee-wearing mirror universe. It's just one of those annoying pieces of trash that sticks to your hand when you try to throw it out and you have to shake your hand repeatedly to get it into the can....
Ah, but remember, that was pre-retcon Tyrant from back when Praetoria was still the throwaway evil goatee-wearing mirror universe rather than the increasingly complex mess that is has become today. -
Quote:Fixed.
I that think Tyrant will be in a Trial, but there might be a tweest on it -
Quote:Ahahaahaha no. Allow me to drop the other shoe: once you have unlocked the Destiny and Lore slots, BAF and Lambda stop awarding Empyreals.
The devs are simultaneously adding an even greater incentive than we have now to completely ignore KIR & UG Trials. -
Peacebringer's Quantum Flight suddenly does not give its phase effect as of the last patch.
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Quote:It's great; you should try it some time.
It must be so nice to be so omniscient and certain about everything.
Let me break it down for you.Quote:Show your work.
There are people who like grilled salmon. There are people who like chocolate cake. There is some "overlap" as you say between these two groups, probably a very great deal of it. What you will not find very much of, however, is people who want grilled salmon and chocolate cake together in the same bite. This is because some things, even when they're things you really really like, just don't go together.
Whether or not there are people who like both story arcs and exploitave farming is not the point. The point is that if you put two activities with opposite and incommersurable goals into the same conceptual space then one or both activities is going to suffer. As long as farmers are allowed to perpetuate the idea that AE is nothing but a Wheel of Fortune with WIN on every space the story writers have no chance to even be heard.
As I said:Quote:You just watch... Your alleged player base that has been itching to storm the AE for the great story arcs once all those pesky "farms" are gone...
doesn't exist.
It's entirely possible that we're in the damage-done phase and there's no way back. But we will not even be allowed to try until the moneylenders are thrown out of the temple.Quote:Maybe the shiny has worn off or maybe all the crap we've had to take has driven them off for good. Maybe not.
Yeah, PKs and other griefers have been using that line in muds/MMOs for decades. It's false. If "your way" is harmful to the game's environment then it's wrong, and there is no scenario in which the insane PLing and loot generation in AE farms isn't toxic to the game.Quote:Don't tell me how I'm supposed to play the game, because my way is no more or less right than yours is. -
Quote:Three out of four of these are correct.
I find it funny any time I read this phrase. And not just with farms. We can go with "Badgers and PVPers." Or PVPers and PVEers. Or min/maxers and people in it for the story. Blueside and redside.
Not in any meaningful sense.Quote:THERE IS OVERLAP. And probably a *great* deal more than you think. -
Quote:False.
There isn't a single storyline in this game that rises above mediocre.
You don't know that. Neither does anyone else.Quote:No, they'll be out farming regular content again. No one's going to suddenly start running story arcs because farming in MA missions isn't efficient.
We had an active, fairly high number of players interested in story arcs when AE started. Maybe the shiny has worn off or maybe all the crap we've had to take has driven them off for good. Maybe not. What I do know is that public perception is that AE is only for farming, and if story arcs are ever going to have a chance to regain their place that perception has to change. The farms have to go. Not onto their own "tab"; they have to go away. Some things just don't mix. The chess club and the racquetball team can't both play in the same room. There's plenty of farmable content in the rest of the game; go use that.
Simply put, this town ain't big enough for both of us. -
Quote:You have to do it all before anyone enters the house.
ive tried doing that but after you make both the bored guy and bored gal eat candy then devil girl wont talk to you and nothing seems to spawn -
Quote:Right, they'll be too busy playing the non-crappy ones.
Just so we're clear, less people farming MA missions does not mean more people are going to play through someone's crappy story arc. -
Quote:I am in the Pro AE crowd. Anything that makes munchkins look elsewhere for their free lunch is good for us.
Venture I always thought you were in the Pro AE crowd...
Have you ever watched the Captain Dynamic promo videos for AE? They're still in the Media section on the company site, though you'll have to dig for them. Go watch the first one if you haven't already. I'll wait.
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Back? Notice who is the butt of the joke? That's right. If you're a munchkin, you're not in the "pro AE" crowd. You're the enemy. -
i21.5 is on Beta and open to all VIPs.
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Anything that reduces rewards in AE is OK in my book.
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Quote:If there was a good reason -- yes.
So if you lost half your levels but it was for the good of the game you would accept it?
Both of those games had massive problems aside from rollbacks. Try again.Quote:Earth and Beyond was doing level drops because of exploits with ammo. I know there was at least one other that did rollbacks, I think it was shadowbane but I cant be sure, I never played it. -
Anyone find the "easter egg EB" mentioned in the dev article?
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Quote:Name them.
Yes there is, and games have shut down prematurely for pulling garbage like this.
Yes, you can, if it is necessary for the long-term health of the game.Quote:You can not take away a players completed work