twelfth

Well, I can select them in the "Add a Boss" detail, but I can't use them to form a new custom faction. Just curious about why/if that is.

I was trying to build a custom faction of custom critters for an arc and realized that I would like it to have the Paragon Heroes (the ones from the bank mish) as the bosses (in order to save space and still get full XP on the spawns). So far as I saw, you can't add them or the RI Villains to any custom faction.

Kinda a bummer, anyone confirm this? Do we have any rationale for this, or is it a feature that is coming Soon(tm)?

Lo upon a day in i14, I accidentally put in my contact (who was specifically a "person" type critter) as an ally in one of my missions. The critter had a brawl-type attack regardless.

Okay, sorry, I'm stupid.

For everyone's reference, here's Heraclea's guide to the i16 XP changes.

Hera, I don't want to make theories without facts, so would you mind posting how you designed your custom faction and critter, just so we can have a little idea of what you're working with? Also, thanks for doing a little research for us here.

Yeah I got this a few days ago after the most recent patch, /bugged it, put a line in the bugs forum. Nothing back yet on it.

Although it's not a build and mechanics issue, I'd generally recommend against Choking Cloud. The hold is spotty and isn't great if you don't have Overpower to pump it up (which is why it's not bad for Controllers). Of course slotting it with pure purples might change your experience, but I think you'll find in play that it just causes too much aggro that you can't control and you'll have the brute trying to bail you out more often than not.

Also, Fallout isn't a bad team-oriented power, but the question becomes: how often are you going to rely on having a fallen teammate to cast it on?

Don't have Mids here to look at the set bonus, but I'm sorta surprised to see the Numina proc in radiant aura. Usually fits in health for the constant bonus, right?

I found this yesterday on Virtue as well. Put in a thread here and /bug-ged it. So far no response from any redname but this has apparently happened before to Citadel and persisted for a while.

CS indicated that it was logged as a bug at this point. *shrug*

It cannot be slotted.

Well, even still, swift+quickness+sprint+NR might be sufficient for a choppy "natural" version of superspeed

I'll probably be using it for windsprints on missions for my toons w/o Swift

Now all we need is a Girly Run or maybe the Run-Around-Flailing animation that all of the civvies do through both Paragon and the Rogue Isles.

edit: castle was my first...after redname.

Also, payday cannot get here fast enough. *drools*

*Deleted for not needing to totally pound the point into the ground.*

It actually even affects the mission briefing thumbnail when you click on Facemaker to get your costume mission (which is how I noticed it to begin with). I didn't check the thumbnail in the mission menu from the nav-bar dropdown.

Found this texture error in Cap this morning. Had another player zone in and confirm it just wasn't on my machine. Looks like the face texture or whatever is rotated 90 degrees.


From one side...


On other side.


Glenda in the same area looks fine.

Also checked Boris the Russian (nearest other contact), no problem. No problem with the other tailors in Cap either.

Just an FYI.

Gratz to the winners, I saw a lot of good arcs in the 3rd and 4th place ranks that I had forgotten about.

Thanks to Doc Aeon too for rednaming the thread so maybe a few other forumites might catch these awesome arcs.

Yeah, balancing the final boss is something I'm still struggling with.

Well, given that the rest of the arc is not heavy of OMGUBER challenge, I think it being "easy" (i.e. not a freaking beatdown) is fine. I got a good fight out of my second stab at it (once I actually activated bosses) - and I realized that on my second run I was actually using SOs in my enhs (rather than the DOs I had back on my first run). Most folks in this level range won't have the benefit of SOs (or the extra powers from Exemping down).

I think the boss is just about right, particularly if you are spawning his group with more surrounding critters. Also, the boss trigger sounds just about right, good choice there.

Ugh, the POINT I was getting to is the fact that this is a short, fast Arc. Putting in a more challenging EndBoss might drag the pacing down and subject it to a sudden and wrenching (and unnecessary) Difficulty Spike. I'd say stick to Boss/EB and MM/SS (rather than WP), even if you want to bump SS to "normal" diff.

Simply one of the (if not THE singular) best arcs out there. It deserved Dev Choice from the beginning.

And from what I hear, Chesire's other arcs make this one seem positively shiny and NOBLEBRIGHT.

Hindenburg: Why would I take super-jump AND superspeed travel powers? I can see potential for both hasten and combat jump, but...yeah.

I've not yet had an AT who used the Fighting Pool, so I'm iffy on that but could probably spare some testing once I get in that range.

In general I'm more interested in getting my primary's powers (yes, including the snipe - although I'm not always interested in the t9 and I don't see myself getting Atomic Blast at this point). Other recommendations?

I'm gonna throw in here. I recently took a claws/wp to 50 and pretty much loved every second of it. It's not probably not top tier and I really don't care. I played it, and I continue to play the stalker 'cause it's fun. Because it's versatile.

Solo, I'm doing hit and fade, or stick and move a lot. I go in, BU & AS, maybe use focus for knock up on the primary target or troublesome secondary, and shred shred shred until things are dead or things don't go so well for me and then I bail.

Teaming...wow. The crit's stack up constantly. And there's nothing like throwing a BU'd shockwave into a huge mob from hidden status and watching a wave of orange numbers and "CRITICAL!" blot out the screen. Pure glee. Not to mention as often as not I've been the last person standing in a group - throwing what passes for soft controls (KB, K-Up, Placates, etc). This isn't even to get into being able to stealth missions (and particularly for myself, since I've got TP friend - bank mish's best friend).

I like stalkers because while they're a melee class, they aren't a freaking meatshield on autopilot. You have to think, you have to pick your targets, and you have to keep on your toes. Sure, you can stay in the mob brawl and "Scrap" your way out in most occasions. I don't mind the challenge and I'm not thinking "oh gee I'm only geting eleventy-six point twenty-foo DPS - my scrapper does better" (not to mention that until GR comes out its not like you have a choice to play a stalker on blueside, or a scrapper redside). I'm playing to have fun, and I've found that the stalker provides that in spades.

My scrapper, on the other hand, annoys the hell out of me. The scrapper might mathematically do more damage or hit crits with a more consistent basis, but I simply don't like playing the scrapper because it doesn't speak to me. So my scrapper is a low-priority toon for my playtime (maybe once or twice a month), while I come back to my stalker several times a week.

Also, Stalkers as parasites? Get over it. We're a LONG way from the old lolstalker days.

Gonna bump this 'cause I've got a way lowbie rad/elec. I've done rad/ corrs before (at least to the mid 30s), so I'm pretty comfortable with it - But corrs are obviously not Blasters.

I wouldn't say that I'm intentionally going for Blappy, but rad/ on redside tends to be pretty in-you-face (it always feels like it has a shorter range in play, even if the numbers don't always support that) - so I feel like doing some Dynamic Blasting is probably where I'm headed.

Present questions:

1. Aim - I didn't take Aim on my corr because it just wasn't necessary as yet. I know Aim tends to be YMMV for corrs, but curious if people felt that +ToHit (and some +dmg) would be necessary on a set that automatically gives slight -Def on every primary power (and can be slotted for more -def). On my Ice/EM Blaster, Aim is usually what I use for dmg and acc buffing when BU is on recharge. With a rad/ blaster, which would you guys recommend?

2. Lightning Field - Skippable? I've been highly suspicious of PBAOE damage auras. With a Blaster, this seems to scream AggroMagnet. I solo a fair amount, so I'm not likely to have the aggro management around to assist. Plus, looks like an unnecessary end hog that doesn't even give back End.

3. Lightning Clap - Skippable or delay until later? I don't mind the crowd control, but at 20 it doesn't look like the hawtness & I'll probably be working toward Stamina in this lvl range.

In case anyone cares, I've got two Achilles Heel procs ready for the toon, planning on sliding those into Neutrino and possibly Irradiate.

Talos Vice

Played this on my Psi/Mental blaster Lady Burlesque, who was 21 on the first attempt and 24 on the second attempt. The first run I did was at +0/x0, and I did a later run at +1/x0 with bosses. I chose Lady B as her RP background is that she was a hero in the 80s who later retired after the Rikti War. But here, let her tell you:



So I figured that this little jaunt could be pasted into her canon background. As such, this meant that I had to get a suitably South Beach outfit for her. God help you, here it is:


Teased-Out Blond Hair, Check. Mirrored Aviator Glasses, check. Neon Pastels, Check. Hypercolor fabric, check.

So, since Lady B has been made-over totally radical to the max, let's get this party started.

Mission One:

First off, PW's formatting and text are really outstanding. Perfect for what we're going for here - which is interesting because as I recall, Pink is not one of the dropdown color selections. So this did require a little know-how or research. The text format is that of a screenplay, with the PC placed into the appropriate spots. The Contact is Detective Croquette, one of the Talos Island contacts - who was already an Expy for Don Johnson's Detective Crockett.

The mission send off gives a clue immediately, which is a flashback to a discussion between the PC and Back Alley Brawler. I believe this establishes why the PC is getting involved in a police investigation, or to foreshadow that things are not as they seem in the Talos precinct. It's a nice way to contextualize the action as well as providing another opportunity to make nods toward television tropes. For me, I've spent most of the last few days imagining the conversation between Lady B and BABs, and how the two got to talking. I imagine it was a date. Why not? It isn't like he's got a romantic interest in canon.

In any case, the mish runs us to a warehouse, where it seems that the Dyne bust has gone awry. There's a cute little cameo by Sargeant Stevens, whom forum goers and others might recognize as a younger Police Woman.

Lady B: Cute girl, but she really doesn't have the fortitude for this kind of work.


Hey! That cop just stole my look!

As we go on, we discover further hostages, Detective Basinns and a Detective Wexler.

Eventually, I came upon this curious scene.


They had to tone down the violence for primetime television.

I'm sure there's really nothing to be done about this, but it was a little odd to see that the trolls and the cops were within slapping distance of each other and still weren't hitting each other. Plus, it does lend itself to the gunplay-happy tone of the original series. Croquette is an ally, and a Petless MM (he's thugs/WP?) it seems - which is a good use of the Custom Character tool, as my having an ally who is customed without basic powers won't hurt any XP. I would have liked to have had Basinns as well, it would have made sense to have the two working together. But, as I recollect, Tubbs was sort of second string most times in the original series. Perhaps we can consider the PC as being the Special Guest Star on this episode of Talos Vice.

In any case, we bust up the Dyne ...uh...bust. The dialogue here is nothing special, but it doesn't have to be. The mission completion clue narrates a typical police interrogation scene and suggests that we'll be infiltrating a nightclub next. Oh, I sense the rave map coming up.

While the dialogue isn't much to talk about, the accompanying narration is rather evocative. Special attention is paid to describing the soundtrack of each sequence, which not only provides a clever bit of mood - but is also consistent with the original series.

Mission Two:

So, we're going to the Sindicator's Club. I don't know if this is a reference to the Vindicators or a pun on a "Syndicate". Something tells me that this place wouldn't be unknown to Lady B.

Croquette and Lady Burlesque enter the club. Burlesque notices a girl dancing with two trolls.

Lady B: HEY! That's my costume!
Lady Bewbesque: Back off, honey, this is my table.
Croquette: Lady, we're not here for this.
Lady B glares at her parodied self.
Lady Burlesque: You're going to go home. You're going to take off that outfit, and then you're going to become a nun. Forever.

Lady Burlesque (VO): ...And that's how I accidentally created one of my archenemies, the "Bad Habit".

Color me wrong. Not the rave map. This is the Freakshow Warehouse map. Meh. Okay.

This mish has some issues and unfortunately, they are nitpicky. These are actually canon issues given the timeframe and what has been pieced together as an ingame timeline. The problem being that some of the people in this mish are anachronisms.

According to the information I checked on Paragon Wiki, the Tsoo aren't founded until well into the 1990s, and the first reference I could find to the Freakshow was around 1995. Finally, Mynx was born in 1982, which would make her like six or seven by the time this would be happening, so it might be a little odd for there to be a Mynx-themed dancer at the club. Ms. Lib could be written off as referring to her mother, so that's not a really big deal. Since that's two Vindicators referenced, I guess the club is named after them. Again, not sure if this jives with the canon, since Ms Lib apparently did not found Longbow itself until after the first Rikti War - and I don't really know when the Vindicators were founded but I'd have to assume it was after that.


This really didn't distract me from the mish itself, but I provide this for the sake of completeness and detail. It's perfectly reasonable for "Kitty" to be just a generic catgirl costume, although at present she's clearly intended to reference Mynx.

I cleared the "hostage" Libby, and just assumed that was the end of the mish - but then noticed that I was now required to find some Family goons to beat up. This required me to backtrack all the way to the beginning of the mish - not a big deal since its a short map. Just making sure this was working as intended. Libby doesn't give us a whole lot of extra information, though, so her clue is sorta meh.

Croquette, whom I had freed earlier in the mish (and he still can't hit anything), follows me back to the beginning where a pair of Family goons are waiting. They have the Talos PD's leak standing nearby, whose identity is really no surprise.

Mission completion clue again captures the tone of the original series, complete with good-cop, bad-cop sequence. I did like the idea of Lady B pulling the despair-enraged Croquette off of the mole with a short, potentially sympathetic phrase.

Lady B: Lay off, Croquette. You tried the vinegar, now let me try the honey.
Croquette: Five minutes, Burlesque. Then I go in there and when I'm finished, I don't know if there's going to be enough of him left to testify.
Lady B: That's four minutes, forty-five seconds more than I need.
Lady Burlesque puts on her sunglasses.
The Who: "YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

Croquette: What was that noise?
Lady B: I...don't know.

Mission 3:

Short, short mission. Takes place on the Mercy Island Dock mish map, which on my difficulty resulted in less than 10 individual critters. Like another commenter, running up the pier puts me right in front of the boss. On my initial run, he spawned as a orange-conned boss. I don't think I ever saw his powersets. On that initial run, I snuck around and took out the periphery mobs and grabbed Croquette again. I'm not entirely certain I needed him for the difficulty level I was on - I don't think the boss even spawned his pets.

On my initial run, I felt this is the "weakest" mish in the arc, though. It just goes too fast. The map makes sense in that the write up sort of requires use of the speedboat, which means that there should be a pier or waterside battle - but the whole thing is over too quick. I don't know if there's another map choice that could be made. Maybe the extremely short office map from the blueside tutorial, or perhaps another short interior map. Seems like there should be a little more of the protracted gunplay shootout to mesh it to the source material.

Well, regardless, the battle did bring me this delighful screencap:


He's a sharp dressing cowboy cop. She's a sassy and provocative model. They fight crime. WITH BREAKDANCING.

My second run on this, when the EB was actually an EB, was much more satisfying. I'm glad I did get Croq first, as the EB now had plenty of time to spawn his pets. A lower level toon might have more trouble with this for certain, as I had the benefit of lvl 20 powers and some light AOE control (the EB pulled out all his pets: thugs, enforcer, and arsonist at once; no gang war thank god). I only died because of the ambush, and only then after the mish was complete. I also liked that the Dyne stash spawns to the side (the front?) and the EB is now further back in the map. I think the way you have it now is in a finalized state.

Conclusion:

Well, it's Talos Vice. It's the War on Dyne. If beating the bad guys once and for all was going to be easy, we would have already won by now. I feel a little troubled that we never really learned why the mole had sold out, or that we didn't get to battle Mr. Frost -- but maybe that's something to be dealt with in Talos Vice Season 2.

All in all, this is a great, fast-paced, very simple mish. Good for low level content, just before the SO stage. Nothing's really all that difficult at standard difficulties. Definitely not intended for anything more than a duo, trio at the most. The maps are just simply too small and action too short. A good portrait and tribute to the classic 80s TV series, pretty much hitting all the marks. As I mentioned, I would have liked to have seen Basinns a few more times or to have him as a backup ally - but it really wasn't necessary. Alternatively, we could have swapped them between the mishes. It's not required, by any means, but Basinn's walk-on makes him seem like even less a presence than if he hadn't been there at all.

I think this is the kind of mish that anyone can spend about an hour or less on and be pretty satisfied with it. I ran it 5 stars, everything functional (even if the mechanics are pretty basic), and action kept momentum throughout the arc. I think it succeeded in recalling the original series, and is accessible even if you don't know the series by anything more then reputation.

As far as the canon issues go - I noticed that you wanted to put in Manuel Ruiz in the arc. In his Paragon Wiki article (and his contact info text), it mentions that he fought a group called the "Brothers of Doom" that were prevalent in the 80s. I'm sure this arc is nowhere near maxed out, so maybe you could do a small custom group to replace the established groups that are anachronistic. Again, this certainly isn't required - no one says that your arc has to stick anywhere near the CoX timeline (being as it is probably of arguable accuracy). Just wanted to give you a heads up.