theHedoren

In an effort to consolidate feedback for my own references -- and possibly to bump my thread -- I went back through several threads to find reviews for "The Copper Legion". And since I just love to make lists...:

• Beach_Lifeguard (4/18)
• HolyEvilAoD (4/23)
• Lazarus(4/24)
• parkin (5/21)
• TeChameleon (5/27)
• Deathbug (5/27)
• ridiculous_girl (5/28)

I kinda wish I'd been keeping track of in-game feedback, too. Some of it was very helpful, and I had a few glowing testimonials I could've used here as advertisements. Curse my lack of self-promotional foresight!

*Edit - Fixed links for the new forums.

Fashion Show, snowy Croatoa, and Snaptooth's cave are not currently available in the MA. Maybe someday, though....

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Again, the writing can be used to workaround the limits of the MA. You seem to think I'm criticising purely the glowie choice, when the fact is he's done what we all do - chosen a glowie AND written some plot to refer to it. The glowies are limitied. The writing is only limited by the writers imagination and skill (and somehwat by the profanity filter lol). I'm supposed to accept that in this frantic shootout I'm too busy to read one email even though I'm stealthed, yet the very people who are doing the frantic shooting can find the time to put the dead into bodybags 9including the dead of their enemies!). The glowie isn't to blame for my incredulity; the writing is.

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I respectfully disagree, especially in instances with dead bodies. There's only so much that a writer can do to convince someone that they're actually looking at a corpse -- when the object absolutely cannot be an actual visible corpse.

I've run into this myself. I have one mission that takes place during an invasion of the city. Players need to rescue several innocent citizens, but at least two civilians weren't so lucky. Now, I'm fully aware that two-thousand-year-old magical automatons wouldn't stop to lay out a body bag properly, but I felt I needed that particular plot element to help the mood. I hope that -- as I myself do with other arcs -- players will suspend a little disbelief and ease up on the Fridge Logic.

It's been a while since I've played Venture's arc, so I can't remember the specific plot points of the mission in question. But it seems to me that a few casualties would be necessary in an indoor firefight, if only to add a little instance of flavor.

As far as the email bit, it strikes me as an attempt to create some kind of immediacy in the scene. Why should I stop what I'm doing and read through some random emails, especially in the middle of a deadly shootout in the midst of a covert militant group?

Idioms are great and all, but not everyone uses each phrase identically. Even without the limitations of the MA, individual Contacts might just have a quirky way of paraphrasing.

And since I'm not an actual horticulturalist, I'm not sure what the best way of de-budding is. Maybe it's nipping or pinching, or maybe it's snipping with scissors.

In any case, I don't find anything wrong with whatever amount of wrapping or snipping Venture may or may not be using. I usually focus on plots over semantics.

Grats, and welcome back!

"Local Stories" are stored as files in your computer; you can transfer these to any other computer to edit them. As far as other accounts, I don't think there'd be any problems, so long as any unlockable content in the mission has been unlocked for both your accounts. Not sure, though....

"Published Stories" are stored in the MA server, and are only editable by the account that published them.

Patch notes are your friends.

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<ul type="square">[*]All Captives in Mission 4 were changed to Allies, so they should now be able to run away when you rescue them instead of just standing there.[/list]
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...and they've now been switched back. Seems like it's the "Civilian" model, but neither Captives nor Allies will do anything remotely interesting. No emotes, no flee-ing, nothing. It worked in tests, but... I dunno, MA has issues.

Since they both do nothing equally, I'm using Captives again -- if only to avoid Stealth-repression.

As far as I know, the real world has yet to discover any methods of time-travel, so there's no way to know how actual time-travel works. If it even works at all....

And even if it does get discovered someday soon, there's no outside point-of-reference from which to examine the overall effects. It would solely come down to the traveler's experience, and how would he know if he was in an alternate timeline or not? Maybe he's been removed from timelines in general, and so gets to retain his memories of how things "should be". Or maybe he's actually in a branching timeline due to his own meddling.

There is no right answer, only conjecture.

There doesn't have to be an actual rulebook, but the behind-the-scenes rules and guidelines should at least be consistent.

Or even pretend to be consistent.

Is the hostage non-combat?

"If only it had worked -- you could go back and not waste your time on it."

To whomever it may concern:

I am indeed still here, and do intend on continuing this thread. For now, at least, it seems the real world is laying it on thick -- when I finally manage to log into the game, I often don't have the energy or focus to do a proper review.

But fear not! I still have five arcs in my queue (including the new one from Emansor) and by all means intend to finish them.

Unless Comcast decides to spazz out on me again....

Thanks for your patience!



Oh, and my current queue is: 119228, 12669, 29262, 100045, 131780, and that's not counting a re-review I promised. In case anyone was worried.

Thanks for your feedback!

Frankly, I continue to find this arc riddled with problems, and in need of a serious re-write. For example, I really don't need the office mission and the cargo ship; I'll probably combine them and add something in between the Carnies' intro and the final AV fight. Just an example. Lots of stuff can and will be re-tooled when I find the energy to do it.

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...the Carnival of Shadows seemed out of place to me. Perhaps improve on why they want the missing girl, or how they know about her. I saw the dialogue about them wanting 'The Fountain', but it just felt like 'Ok, go fight Carnies now'.

The last mission claims that the missing girl…became the Carnival of Shadows overlord? How and why was this able to happen?

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The general idea was based on the idea that Vanessa DeVore needs a constant source of energy to keep the Carnies under her power. An "unstoppable fountain" of psionic energy seemed like just the ticket, so her minions go in to retrieve the poor girl. But Josephine's powers were too much and she easily overcame the Carnies (who were already psychically compromised by Vanessa's constant presence). Most of this is only vaguely hinted at, though. I'll see what I can do about this in the re-write.

I am glad, at least, that the AV wasn't crazy-hard. As for myself (a casual gamer with a Fire/Fire Blaster main), I usually need at least one ally to bring her down.

Again, thanks for the feedback!

And PS:
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I zone into… A blue cave map and the nav bar says I need to rescue Dr. Widemore or something. I open the map and see it’s been half cleared, then I see three people come running toward me to the exit. Mission complete. I guess I somehow zoned into someone elses mission? Very strange.

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Did this really happen? O.o

Sitcoms seem like a bad example to use here. Most of them are absolutely JABOSTH, only existing to provide humor based on scenarios with no greater thematic plot. There are exceptions, of course, but most will tell their joke-of-the-week, then reset the stage for next weeks escapades with little-to-no effect on the rest of the series.

No need to get snippy. Not all of us play VEATs on any regular basis.

Nah, I was wondering, too. But it's likely that I don't want to know.

I happen to like Nemesis. (Well, except for the Snipers, but that's for different reasons. ) Steampunk is fascinating to me; where in other genres do you encounter titanic airships or clockwork automatons, all powered by something as innocuous as steam? And on top of that, it's a fun aesthetic concept, too.

Sure, even in pure fantasy fiction I prefer some level of technical consistency. It has to sound like it could work, even if I don't understand all the physics or advanced technology required. I'm not going to put the game on hold so I can stop and think, "So, if I were to build a steam-powered firearm with excellent durability, no extreme heat discharge, and no bulky external power supplies, how would I do it?"

I remember reading a long time ago that every story is allowed at most one "gimme" concept -- a concept that the reader may have trouble believing, but is still willing to accept for the sake of the story. Every concept afterwards has to be based on the "gimme" without introducing new impossible ideas, or the story rapidly spirals out of control.

In an environment as large as the CoX universe, each villain group is practically a story of its own. And while some groups use more gimmes than they're allotted, many are reasonably within my limits. Okay, I can accept that something is making elemental monsters out of gemstones or fungi. I can accept that there's a famous singer who made a deal with demons to get his fame. I can accept that an ancient sorceress managed to implant her essence into a ceramic mask and is now using a modern-day pawn to psychically control her own army of soul-gathering circus minions. I fully expect to relinquish some reality in exchange for entertainment.

I'm sure many would disagree with me, but I'm certainly willing to suspend some disbelief in exchange for the shiny.

Custom power sets are practically moot, according to the latest patch notes.

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All Custom power selections now require all powers from the Standard power selection for that rank.

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If this is the direction they're going in, petless MMs have no chance. Regardless of rational arguments.

Is it a coincidence that Blue Dragonling (my fire/fire blaster) is my most aggressive character? Perhaps that's all a cover....

Especially if I'm reviewing, I will take time to examine each custom character's bio. Re-named standard NPCs, not so much.

While the absence of detailed description text isn't an arc-breaking problem, it's one of many personal touches that really make a MArc stand out.

I managed to take her down with a lvl 50 Arch/Dev blaster -- it was a bitter struggle. But I definitely found it near-impossible with my own Fire/Fire blaster.

Just one more thing to add to the Could-Be-Fixed-in-i15 list. Seems to be a growing trend these days....

If I think about it, I can kinda picture my "Copper Legion" arc as a silent film.

In any case, honest review + new feedback + interesting format = sign me up!

Arc Name: Time’s Maelstrom
Arc ID: 182874
Morality: Heroic
Author: @Armory1
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I’ve mentioned before how easy it is to get time-travel wrong, with so many chances for loose ends and convaluted storylines. What @Armory1 presented for my consideration is an example of how to do it right. Or at least, as right as the time-travel genre can be.

The Menders of Ouroboros are tracking a disturbance in the timestream, and they think they know exactly what’s at the cause of it. It seems that a future version of Manticore has leapt through ten years of time to get to our present day, and he’s using a method unknown to the Menders. This worries Mender Silos, who says that inaccurate or imperfect time-travel can be disastrous to the timestream. He wants me to find future-Manticore and escort him to Ouroboros.

Future-Manti’s time-travel method was indeed imperfect, as it dropped him into a Freakshow warehouse and left him disoriented and helpless. But his own discomfort is nothing compared to the Clue-bomb he drops upon his rescue.

A mere ten years from now, a supervillain named Maelstrom manages to seize control of the North American Aerospace Defence Command (aka: [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norad]NORAD[url]. He swiftly launches several nuclear warheads, devastating both Paragon City and the Rogue Isles. With the USA’s nuclear arsenal at his command and most of the world’s superhero population decimated, Maelstrom and his group (Death’s Hand) become the de facto rulers of the world.

Though most of the Freedom Phalanx is killed (including a future version of me!), Positron and Manticore manage to survive. Since the only person ever to defeat Maelstrom was future-me, Posi and Manti decide to go back in time to fetch me. And since they can’t access Ouroboros themselves, they fashion a crude portal device from Posi’s armor and a damaged Ouroboros crystal.

Here’s where it starts to get complicated. As it turns out, Maelstrom’s future is from an alternate time stream, containing events that would never happen in our own stream (often called “the Main”). According to Silos, time streams branch off of the Main quite often, but they don’t re-merge, especially after a longer period of time passes. When Posi’s device sent Manticore from an alternate stream back into the Main, he ends up forcing the streams to align -- in other words, he “brought his future with him.”

Since the Menders have no control over the merging, it instead becomes crucial to stop key events from taking place in the hopes of preventing a global catastrophe. The Menders have found a cryogenics lab containing the frozen body of businessman Martin Langstrom. In the Main timeline, Langstrom dies when the facility is hit by a powerful storm. But in Manticore’s timeline, storm + cryo technology + latent mutant powers = the storm-powered villain Maelstrom. Silos believes this a key point to alter the timestream, so I am sent in to remove frozen Langstrom before the disaster.

But Luck doesn’t seem to like me. The time distortions are interfering with Ouroboros technology, making time-jumping inaccurate at best. When I arrive at the cryo lab, the storm has already hit and Langstrom already has his powers. I defeat him this time, but the empowering cannot be undone.

Silos is understandably upset by this, but he has a more pressing concern. As the new future timestream becomes clearer to the Menders, they learn that Maelstrom will not only conquer to world, he will discover Posi’s makeshift time machine. He will then use the machine to collapse all potential timelines back into the Main, making his timestream the only timestream and eradicating all chances of his defeat. As Silos says, Maelstrom will rule the United States, then the planet Earth, and finally Time itself.

But there’s still a chance. See, when Maelstrom’s groupmates find the device, they decide to test it first. Which means that Maelstrom’s top mind (a villain called PsiLord) will be traveling into the past where he is vulnerable. And so, doing what I do best, I fly in and foil PsiLord and several key members of Death’s Hand. PsiLord is now trapped in the past, and will never manage to perfect Posi’s time machine. Time, at least, is safe.

However, there’s still the matter of nuclear chaos and the deaths of millions of innocent people at Maelstrom’s hand. For want of a better option, Silos agrees to undertake Manticore’s original plan and send me to defeat future-Maelstrom before he completes his incursion on NORAD.

Thankfully, the Menders are regaining accurate control of their Pillars and are able to send me directly into NORAD’s headquarters during Maelstrom’s attack. With the help of future-Manticore (who impatiently tagged along) and several USAF officers, Death’s Hand is defeated and the apocalypse is averted, thus preventing Positron from ever creating the time machine, thus separating all timestreams and preventing damage to the Main. Mission accomplished

…or so I thought. Silos is pleased with the re-balancing of the timestream, but Posi’s machine still exists in the alternate future, and its very existance is still a threat to Time. Also, it would mean that the Menders’ previous attempts to map causality are useless, and future catastrophes could appear with no warning. My final mission is -- using Ouroboros’ safer technology -- to travel to the alternate stream and destroy Positron’s machine. Sure, I would be condemning that timeline to Maelstrom’s ruthless rule, but the rest of the timestreams would be safe.

Now, here’s a good place to mention one of the arcs defining qualities: the final mission has a timer of 15 minutes, making failure possible. This effectively gives me a choice: I can destroy the time machine -- as well as their last hope -- or I can do nothing, which saves their timeline but creates an unknown future with unseen consequences. I ran the arc two times, just to see both possible endings.

”Victory” Scenario: The Main timeline continues as it would have before the whole debacle, but the alternate stream is beyond saving. Silos tries to console me, saying that I was “an agent of nature, ensuring that Time’s flow continues organically.” He also throws the age-old expression that “true heroes must make difficult choices, and great sacrifices.” I’ve brought about an immeasurable amount of good, but must live with the consequences.

”Failure” Scenario: I return to Silos, who is practically livid. Thanks to me, “The future has been changed.” The remainder of the Main timeline is now uncharted; if the future contains some terrible disaster, we would be unable to stop it until it was too late.

Honestly, both endings have their merits, and I can’t decide which one I like better.

But this is just one of the arc’s impressive points.

Definitely worth mentioning is the way time-travel was handled. As long as you pay attention to Clues and Silos’ dialog, it’s easy to stay informed on the intricacies of the plot. The author’s explanations of timestreams made implied analogies to a plumbing system with terms like “the Main” and referring to time “leaks”. This was extremely helpful in wrapping my head around the concept. Also, time-travel has its limitations and consequences, an idea that is crucial to the storyline.

Even with something as abstract and convaluted as multiple timelines, the author leaves nothing to chance, including the possible reactions of the player regarding the arc’s outcome. He made it very clear that I had the final decision. Not many arcs do that, instead trying to predict a players one reaction.

The custom mobs are well designed, with interesting character traits and simplistic (in a good way) costume designs. Of particular mention is the character “Multitude”. In both appearances of the Death’s Hand group, every single Minion mob is a division of Multitude, a villain who can split into an indeterminate number of duplicates. This is played with humorously, as many duplicates have trouble remembering their “number”. Also, this is the most entertaining justification I’ve seen for a Defeat All. I would also point out the custom Positron in the final mission, with incomplete armor and a scaled-down difficulty to match.

As far as problem points, I had issues with the map selection in Mission 2. I understand that Mother Mayhem’s hospital is meant to represent a storm-ravaged lab. To me, it seems woefully low-tech, something unfitting for a cryogenics facility. Possibly one of the Abandoned Tech labs would be better suited…?

I was also displeased with the two timed missions. Only one was announced beforehand, and even then it was in the mission’s Sendoff text -- which defeats the purpose of a warning, as I’ve already committed to the mission. IMO, time-limit warnings should always be in the Intro text, but AV warnings can be in either Intro or Sendoff. Don’t get me wrong: the final timed mission was fiercely appropriate for the plot, but a little heads-up would’ve been nice.

Short list of other stuff:<ul type="square">[*]Mission 4: Might be a bug, but the custom soldier Allies belong to the group “All Custom Characters”[*]M4: Manticore has no “left-behind” text. I usually like to know when my Allies have abandoned me mid-mission so I can be prepared for upcoming Bosses or AVs.[*]Mission 5: Typo: Intro text: “seperate”- should be “sep[u]a[u]rate”[/list]Overall, an excellent arc with tremendous levels of detail and forethought. The plot is virtually airtight, barring a few quick “Why can’t you do it yourself?” moments from me. Well-written characters, an appropriate challenge level, slightly reading-intensive, good pacing. 5 stars.

<ul type="square">[*]Tales of Croatoa: A Rose By Any Other Name.... by @Silvers1 (#178774)
A touching (yet haunting) story of a family torn apart. (Heroic)[*]Time's Maelstrom by @Armory1 (#182874)
By far the best time-travel arc I've seen. Ends with a well-executed moral dilemma. (Heroic)[*][ZQ] Power Play by @Sumerian (#187269)
A brilliant arc about feuding scientists. Written in First Person perspective, and casts the player as an intelligent villain.[/list]