[u]The Portal Bandits[u]
Comments: I seem to remember running this on test, or am I mistaken, I remember the fellow with the hat, Iron Samurai 
However it's still as wonderful as I remember it, the custom critters aren't overboard and are rather well done visually I haven't seen the final mapset used much, it was refreshing, though I'm hardly traveled. Nothing frustrating about this arc at all from my perspective!
Rating: Five Stars
I also hereby endorse this arc for anyone looking for a good time! o.ob
Playing "The Amulet of J'Gara"
and for the first time, typing thoughts as I go along.
so, likely to be spoilers galore.
initial thoughts: looks like nice consistent level ranges. like that. and good to see missions in lower ranges.
like the idea of exploring Midnighteer activity in Croatoa. Good to see them out and doing stuff in areas of mystic activity.
dialogue nitpick: in the mission sendoff for the first mission, the second paragraph needs breaking up, I think. the second sentence is "I hope the Redcaps didn't get them", the third is "Be careful out there." seems disjointed, the first two sentences in the paragraph are talking about the 2 midnighteers, then the last sentence tacked on is wishing caution on the PC. It's like a jump to new paragraph without a break.
First Mission.
Hm. Circle of Thorns in Croatoa? unusual. not really one of their centers of power, and they don't have much affinity or influence over the forces there. I'm assuming this should be our first sign something is amiss...
freed first hostage. looks like some chained goals. good, that's always nice for unfolding a story inside a mission.
bah, Luis D'Artier is just a minion? He dies at first bunch of Tuatha, even though I had aggro locked down. He dives into melee anyway and dies to AEs. Kinda worthless as an ally and I feel a little less heroic losing him, even if out of my control.
found Sitrix. the Tuatha delivered the Midnighteers to CoT for a reward? Hm. Seems a little unlikely and out of character. The Tuatha are supposed to be noble warriors cursed into bestial bodies. Mercenary work for Circle seems odd. Maybe better if they were manipulated by Circle spell guiding their bestial urges or something? Or maybe the Circle lied and claimed they could
free the Tuatha from the magics of the Red Caps.
And the mix of the fae magic of Croatoa and the demonic wizardry of Circle still seems odd to me.
mission debrief nitpick: Buck says "How curious?" I don't think you want a question mark at the end of that, just a period.
Mission two
Circle of Thorns map. thanks for picking a small one.
Mission debrief
"You knew they were on their way? I don't blame you for not being able to warn us earlier, but we have to do something about it immediately!"
so, Buck, hanging out in Croatoa, finds out about the attack before the hero fresh from interrogating the enemy about their plans? makes the trip into underground city seem a little useless. and Buck's line seems to belittle the hero's efforts.
maybe instead go with Buck saying "What? Planning an attack on the club? Let me check in with a quick divination. You're right, they are already there!"
after all, if the Club could get a message out to Buck during the attack, wouldn't the Club have lots of allies on the way to help? You'd think the Circle / Mindskewer would block outgoing messages to prevent calls for help.
Mission three
Cool! An excuse to use the Midnight Club map on heroside.
another minion ally. well, kept the empath busy, now that a teammate has joined me.
oh, and why was Mindskewer able to get the Circle into the Midnight Club? clearly, in game
canon, it's not something the Circle could do on their own. What is so special about Mindskewer that she makes this possible? What's her edge before she gets the amulet? Midnight Club is a pretty secure place, or the Circle would have raided it years ago.
Mission four
interesting twist.
in the mission briefing, I advise using a different color for the character internal thoughts, rather than itallics. would stand out better as different text from the words of Mindskewer (as Buck)
LOL. after the empath put Clear Mind on the Avatar of Initative, she ran off ahead of us! Appropriate!
mission debriefing: Buck says the player hero looks shook up. might want to re-phrase. 1) makes assumption about internal reactions of hero and how they show it externally. and 2) would the character look shaken after recovering their Strength, Balance and Initative?
Perhaps a more effective approach: have Buck comment on how shaken the Circle mage was upon being released from the link. Mention how a demon-pact-making master of dark magic was shivering like a scared child. that should get across how rough the experience is, without dictating to the player how their character would react.
When writing an MA arc, the story is under your control, leave the emotional reactions to the player or the RP choices of the character. (in my humble opinion)
overall, very good arc. Well above the average I see out there. Needs some clean-up on some plot points (Tuatha motivation, how does Mindskewer do this?), but overall is solid, and the twist for mission 4 is well executed. Enough above the general standards of what's currently out there for me to give it 5 stars.
I'm a published amateur comic book author: www.ericjohnsoncomics.com
******MA Arcs****
Arc 5909: "Amazon-Avatars"
Arc 6143: "Escalation" (Nominee: Architect Awards, Nominee: Player Awards, and Dev's Choice!)
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freed first hostage. looks like some chained goals. good, that's always nice for unfolding a story inside a mission.
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Actually just use of the Plural Nav Text. Sitrix is at the back of the map all the time.
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bah, Luis D'Artier is just a minion? He dies at first bunch of Tuatha, even though I had aggro locked down. He dives into melee anyway and dies to AEs. Kinda worthless as an ally and I feel a little less heroic losing him, even if out of my control.
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Limitation of the Midnighter Group itself. Buck also told you that they can teleport the Midnighters out, once the magic masking their location is dispeled so he didn't die. He was however trying to lead you to where they took Jeremiah deeper into the cave and wanted to help his comrade.
Anyhow, your mileage will vary. I never had trouble keeping him alive even when playing a Scrapper.
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found Sitrix. the Tuatha delivered the Midnighteers to CoT for a reward? Hm. Seems a little unlikely and out of character. The Tuatha are supposed to be noble warriors cursed into bestial bodies. Mercenary work for Circle seems odd. Maybe better if they were manipulated by Circle spell guiding their bestial urges or something? Or maybe the Circle lied and claimed they could
free the Tuatha from the magics of the Red Caps.
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I wanted to leave some things vague in this arc, but I could add more if people are going to insist on having everything spelled out for them. Really the Tuatha's motivation is irrelevant in the long run.
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And the mix of the fae magic of Croatoa and the demonic wizardry of Circle still seems odd to me.
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I guess. To me magic is magic.
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so, Buck, hanging out in Croatoa, finds out about the attack before the hero fresh from interrogating the enemy about their plans?
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I cannot portray the travel time, but the idea was that the raiding party left just before you got to where Jeremiah was being held and that by the time you got back to Buck the raid was already underway. I guess I should just assume you are traveling instantly instead.
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after all, if the Club could get a message out to Buck during the attack, wouldn't the Club have lots of allies on the way to help?
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He does tell you that more allies are on the way but that the Midnighters inside need help now so that is why you go in alone.
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why was Mindskewer able to get the Circle into the Midnight Club?
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From the information she dredged out of Jeremiah's mind, as you were told in the clue he gave upon rescue. Villains get in with even less effort in Darren Wade's arc.
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LOL. after the empath put Clear Mind on the Avatar of Initative, she ran off ahead of us! Appropriate!
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Amusingly, the Avatar of Initiative is an Empath. I should see if NPCs are finally using Thermal correctly as I never liked having to use Emapthy.
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mission debriefing: Buck says the player hero looks shook up. might want to re-phrase. 1) makes assumption about internal reactions of hero and how they show it externally. and 2) would the character look shaken after recovering their Strength, Balance and Initative?
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Assuming they did recover them before the battle, those were optional objectives (hence the different text color). Also Buck is wholly unaware of that whole physic battle thing, as far as he knows the fight with Mindskewer took less than a minute from what was witnessed by the backup that arrived just as you fought her.
Now, let's see what I can do with all of this.
Changes made to "The Amulet of J'gara":
* Fixed some grammatical errors.
* Added some story elements to explain the plot better. The Tuatha de Dannon's motivations are revealed.
* Reworded the mission 2 debriefing a bit.
* Reworded the mission 3 briefing a bit.
* Reworded the mission 4 debriefing a bit.
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freed first hostage. looks like some chained goals. good, that's always nice for unfolding a story inside a mission.
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Actually just use of the Plural Nav Text. Sitrix is at the back of the map all the time.
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Ah. Makes sense. Although, it might be nice to have Sitrix spawn after freeing Luis. Since Luis is first mention of Sitrix's name. *shrug* Works just fine this way.
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Anyhow, your mileage will vary. I never had trouble keeping him alive even when playing a Scrapper.
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In restrospect, it might have been because I was playing on higher difficulty, and with map spawned for two people (my teammate had to afk for real life stuff for most of mission).
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I wanted to leave some things vague in this arc, but I could add more if people are going to insist on having everything spelled out for them. Really the Tuatha's motivation is irrelevant in the long run.
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True. The Tuatha aren't very central to the plot.
But, the offhand "payment" remark from Sitrix just seemed to suggest that the Tuatha were acting different than their usual behavior. To me, it was anomaly that begged explanation. You are probably right, most people won't care, and I'm just being picky.
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so, Buck, hanging out in Croatoa, finds out about the attack before the hero fresh from interrogating the enemy about their plans?
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I guess I should just assume you are traveling instantly instead.
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I wasn't suggesting there be instant travel time. I got the feeling that the Player was supposed to be "hot on the heels" of the raiding party, because, after checking in Buck, you are the first of all the Midnight Squad's allies to be able to to respond.
Events are timed differently than I was visualizing.
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why was Mindskewer able to get the Circle into the Midnight Club?
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From the information she dredged out of Jeremiah's mind, as you were told in the clue he gave upon rescue. Villains get in with even less effort in Darren Wade's arc.
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Well, I guess we visualize the level of Midnighteer security differently. Darren Wade's mystical help and insight into the inner workings of the Midnight Club are a major enabler in the Thief of Midnight arc. My interpretation, I thought the point of that arc was largely to build up Darren Wade as a huge threat to the Midnight Club, because of what he knows.
Personally, I would think the Midnight Club has dealt with telepaths before. I was thinking Mindskewer had a particular technique, or her telepathy bypasses mystic defenses.
*shrug* minor plot point.
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mission debriefing: Buck says the player hero looks shook up. might want to re-phrase. 1) makes assumption about internal reactions of hero and how they show it externally. and 2) would the character look shaken after recovering their Strength, Balance and Initative?
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Assuming they did recover them before the battle, those were optional objectives (hence the different text color). Also Buck is wholly unaware of that whole physic battle thing, as far as he knows the fight with Mindskewer took less than a minute from what was witnessed by the backup that arrived just as you fought her.
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But if Buck says "you look shaken", doesn't that assume the player *didn't* do the optional objectives?
Perhaps it's my background with GMing tabletop RPGs. It just seems bad form to me to to dictate to a Player what their Character's emotional reaction is. May just be my personal hang-up.
All in all, as I said, a very good arc which I rated highly. I only sought to give you my particular perspective on things that need clarification for *me*. Others may not have my concerns.
Based on the way you phrased these lines
"if people are going to insist on having everything spelled out for them"
and
"I guess I should just assume you are traveling instantly instead."
it gave me the impression that my comments irritated you.
If that was the case, it wasn't my intent. I did enjoy the arc, but figured I should nitpick a little in the interest of construtive critique.
I'm a published amateur comic book author: www.ericjohnsoncomics.com
******MA Arcs****
Arc 5909: "Amazon-Avatars"
Arc 6143: "Escalation" (Nominee: Architect Awards, Nominee: Player Awards, and Dev's Choice!)
Changes made to "The Amulet of J'gara":
* Toned down the Claws set on the Pain Elemental. She was a bit too good at dealing pain.
* Added a mission between the Midnight Club raid and the final showdown. The big reveal is much less abrupt now.
* Changed the contact to Percy Winkley. He makes a bit more sense, especially in how he's standing right next to the Midnight Club door in Croatoa and Buck Salinger isn't.
Changes made to "The Amulet of J'gara":
* Changed the color scheme on the Avatar of Balance. Kept getting complaints that she looked too similar to the Avatar of Initiative. I don't get how unless some people have very bad video card but they got their request.
MacGuffin Delivery Service review (arc 1567)
Premise seems to be that you steal an item that is a hot potato that every villain faction wants to take back from you. Stated level range is 35-40 red side; I played a 19 db/ninj stalker.
The "Your Laptop" contact is kind of cool.
Mission 1
Briefing: A little confusing as it seems to start me in the middle of the story, saying that it's been a few days since I stole a statue and it's now a big deal. It doesn't actually pose any sort of mission briefing, it's more like an "In the previous issue" recap of imaginary events. Perhaps this is a narrative trick.
Second part of briefing: OK, definitely a narrative trick, my first mission is in fact to steal this statue that I "previously" acquired, relative to the first part of the briefing. Interesting.
Mission entry popup: "if not non-existent" is awkward due to the double negative. Maybe rephrase to "maybe even nonexistent".
I like the mission title, "Rob the Pawn Shop" and the objective of "Find Something Interesting". Sounds fun!
The multiple safes with a variety of "loot" are very fun. You might consider putting them in the clue journal so the whole team can see the messages (if it's not just one person), though there's a lot of them so this might be spammy, and they aren't that relevant to the plot (I assume). So maybe not getting clues for them makes sense too.
"You found a couple gold bricks!" should be "You found a couple of gold ingots!"
I love the emerald parakeet as the MacGuffin; wondering if it's a reference to the Maltese Falcon. The new objective of "You heard someone...Dispose of any witnesses" is nicely phrased, also.
Red Viper's dialog is excellent.
"The Emerald Parakeet" clue says that some Family men came in the back door; I went back there and did see them, but they didn't seem required for the mission, so I left without fighting them, which seemed to be in the spirit of the mission. Though, this seems to violate the "Dispose of any witnesses" objective that I had previously.
Mission 2
Briefing: continues to refer to events in the past tense, but it's kind of a neat way to tell the story. Now I need to go fence the Emerald Parakeet.
In the mission: It's cool how there's all these other villains in the warehouse who are NOT actual enemies, and are treating the shop as neutral ground.
I like the setup with the Family and then the Carnies coming after the item. Very cool.
"Amanita Explains" says "Security didn't even hear it, apparently since they never came, that bunch is fired today for sure!" -- awkward phrasing and punctuation. Suggest "Security didn't even hear it, apparently, since they never came. That bunch is fired for sure!" Also I think Amanita should more clearly explain that she can't take the parakeet off your hands now, due to the fighting -- it isn't made clear enough that you can't fight these thugs off, then still fence the parakeet to her.
"Fight your way out of the warehouse" is kind of an ambiguous objective though... as a stalker I thought maybe I could just stealth out of the warehouse easily enough, but I was sure that wouldn't complete the goal. So I wondered if it was a defeat all? I eventually found that defeating Mistress Ruby's group was sufficient. I think "Defeat Carnie leader" would be clearer, but have to admit "Fight your way out of the warehouse" sounds more cool.
Debriefing mentions the Carnies were after the statue, but forgets to mention the Family was also after it.
Mission 3
Briefing: very cool explanation. "That guy you sold it to is certainly mad, but that's the least of your worries" should be "That guy you sold it to was certainly mad, but that was the least of your worries", to fit with the past tense you use everywhere else in this briefing. I think "You had picked up a clingy MacGuffin!" doesn't quite scan either; maybe "The Emerald Parakeet seemed somehow cursed!"
Second part of briefing: First sentence is awkwardly long, suggest you separate into two sentences, changing "you needed to go and get some knowledge on magical things and the best place for that was" to "you needed to go get some knowledge on magical things. The best place for that was".
Not quite sure what the point of the Obelisks are, I clicked some of them and it didn't count as a book to examine and didn't give me any info.
Mistress Belle: "These mages got to know something" should be "These mages have got to know something".
The names of the various books you find are quite fun.
Mission 4
Briefing: This briefing has trouble keeping its tenses straight; I think you want it all to be in the past tense. "You would have kicked yourself if you could" is a little awkward, suggest rewording as "You felt like kicking yourself".
"realized that it is the same kind" should be "realized that it was the same kind"
"It's going to be hard to go back there" should be "It was going to be hard to go back there".
"You'd have to find another" should be "You had to find another".
"everyone needs to know" should be "everyone needed to know".
I like the massive number of intra-villain battles between many different factions inside the mission, and their dialog. Found a couple of 3-way battles even. It really gives a chaotic feeling and helps convey how many different groups want the parakeet.
Had some Ink Men say "We'll teach you women some respect!" while fighting a group of 2 (male) Iron Strongmen. Not a huge deal, just a little weird.
The map was quite huge, but using my cheaty stalker powers I snuck by all the battles and put the parakeet in the box; the computer didn't seem required (never did find it) despite it being in the objectives list.
Debriefing: "As none of them had the same explanation for what it did it probably did nothing" .. should have a comma after "what it did". "Macguffin" should be capitalized "MacGuffin", for consistency with everywhere else you use that word.
The last line and the souvenir are a nice final touch. "somehow aways comes back" should be "somehow always comes back".
Overall
I thought this was a fun arc with a cool premise. Normally, I would complain that the story never reveals "what's the deal with the parakeet", but the story makes it quite clear that the Emerald Parakeet is purely a MacGuffin, so this didn't detract from the story too much. Adding a few more hints as to the origin and purpose of the Emerald Parakeet might be nice though.
I thought the set up of the pawn shop robbery and the fence mission were both very clever, and I love the feeling of the huge rogues gallery of villains coming after you throughout the story arc.
I gave this story arc 5 stars.
@PW - Police Woman (50 AR/dev blaster on Liberty)
TALOS - PW war journal - alternate contact tree using MA story arcs
=VICE= "Give me Liberty, or give me debt!"
Thanks for the review, PoliceWoman.
Changes made to "MacGuffin Delivery Service":
* Various spelling and grammar fixes.
* Moved all of the book items in mission 3 to the last room in the back of the map. This is now the Library that the new mission intro pop-up mentions.
* Added some more non-required collectables, a destructible, and a bonus boss fight to mission 3. All non-required, just there to add extra flavour.
Review of The Portal Bandits"
Im not much of a reviewer, my eye for detail isnt that great, but for what its worth, here it is.
Soloed this on a level 50 fire/fire blaster with set IOs in most powers.
The first mission started out pretty good, an alien race invading Portal Corps, cool. The custom group was pleasing to look at and their powers were good. Not too tough, not too soft. Lots of knockback from the Powerfist line of enemies. Boss was tough.
The chaos at the start of the second mission was really enjoyable, and all the fights along the way. Again, the boss was tough. I became overwhelmed quickly. I wouldnt change anything about it though.
Third mission went ok, it was fun to think the place was a secret base. The custom ally was pretty cool, although I neglected to rescue her on purpose just to see if I could handle the EB.
As for the EB, it seemed she ran too often, she went down the ramp and refused to come back up, enabling me just to stand there and shoot her. I went down, however, and she splattered me all over the wall. Extremely powerful melee attacks, but thats why shes an Elite Boss.
I was kind of confused about what this mission meant in regards to the story. I cant remember why I was in the base, or even why the aliens were there. It could be something simple, but this seemed out of flow for some reason, like something was supposed to happen, but didnt.
Fourth mission was too long. When I found out how big the map was I decided to skip through almost all of it. The EB here ran way too often, it seemed she didnt want to engage in combat. I was standing right near her attacking, but she still wanted to run. This made the fight extremely easy; she was the only boss that did not kill me, wasnt even close. The minions around her were more of a threat.
The overall story was pretty good, a bit confusing on some points. The custom group had a nice overall concept: Costumes, biographies and attacks. The dialog was well done and the clues were very nice.
The souvenir was kind of rough to read, it was a fairly big paragraph with only two sentences in it. It just looked like the first sentence could have been cut down into three. Not sure I agree with what the actual souvenir is, but its your story.
Was a fun arc, I recommend it.
I just ran the MacGuffin Delivery Service arc on my Bots/Traps MM and it was a blast. First off, I have to say thank you for not tossing in a bunch of custom bosses. Sure the character I ran it on could have handled them but too many people toss them in for no good reason and it limits how accessible an arc is. The whole story was amusing, lighthearted, and generally fun. I especially liked the second and fourth missions.
About my only real moment of annoyance was the "find multiple glowies in Oranbega" mission. I hate looking for glowies in that place with a passion. But at least it was a straightforward (for Oranbega) map... I'm hoping you picked it deliberately and it wasn't just good luck on a random selection. And at least the "red herring" glowies were amusing. I didn't ding you on the rating since it was justified by the story and was still fun. I just hate the place. 
(One quick note for any arc builders out there wanting to place a "looking for magic item or book" mission... the Midnight Squad does have a ton of that stuff, and their home is a lot less annoying to raid. 
)
Overall, it was a fun arc and I enjoyed it. I gave it five stars.
Cascade, level 50 Blaster (NRG/NRG since before it was cool)
Mechmeister, level 50 Bots / Traps MM
FAR too many non-50 alts to name
[u]Arcs[u]
The Scavenger Hunt: 187076
The Instant Lair Delivery Service: 206636
Oranbega is a much easier place to get into that the Midnight Club, story-wise. Anyhow, I went through nearly a dozen maps before settling on that one, since it has no trick portals and very predictable spawn points. No matter which direction you take at the start, both will lead you to the final room where you need to go. I also gave you big hint as to where the books were kept, so the majority of the map is just there for those players who enjoy exploring it.
I've been checking out some of the new MA features in issue 15 and there will definitely be some changes coming to my arcs. I haven't republished them on Test yet, but I can tell you a few that I am planning.
* Use of Custom power settings to further tweak the custom critters.
* Anna Nethema, Iron Samurai, and Vikki Vandale will be most likely downgraded to Bosses.
* The more efficient storage in issue 15 means a lot of details will be added to flesh out the stories better.
* Might be seeing some new Minions, Lieutenants, and even Bosses in the Nagan Hegemony faction.
Stay tuned, I might have some of the updated arcs published on Test soon for those who want to check out how they change and give me feedback on what works and what doesn't.
Now that the arc file bloating issue is fixed, I've gone ahead and published a new draft of "The Portal Bandits" on test, ID 22800. Sadly I didn't get to show you how things performed under the previous version of Custom, and hope that the new one arrives soon once they change some things like moving the extreme attacks out of Standard for bosses. Still, I'd like some feedback, especially on the four new customs present in this draft.
I added three new members to the enemy group:
Nagan Radiologist (Radiation Blast/Radiation Emission Minion)
Nagan Gravitist (Gravity Control/Kinetics Lieutenant)
Nagan Psionicist (Psionic Assault/Pain Domination Boss)
Also added a bonus optional boss to mission 3:
Raikou Shingai (Electrical Melee/Dark Armor Boss)
Also lowered Anna and Vikki to Boss rank, as well as taking Entropy Shield and Build Up off of Naga Obscura. Also reduced Iron Samurai to boss and took away Build Up.
These existing enemies gained some extra powers:
Nagan Archer - Poison Gas Arrow
Nagan Duelist - 1,000 Cuts
Nagan Shockfist - Jacob's Ladder
Nagan Roboticist - Repair
I didn't get around to writing much new dialog, so anything new that you hear is just a placeholder.
If you do play it, be sure to include what AT, level and powersets your character was so that I can put feedback on the critters into focus.
Changes made to "MacGuffin Delivery Service" (Live):
* The Family encounter in mission 1 is now required. Too often people were missing them entirely due to the buggy Unaware text and wondering what the debriefing was talking about.
* Changed the mission success pop-up and debriefing to reflect the above change.
* Fixed the book clue in mission 3 that was exceeding the bounds of the title box. I don't know why they allow a clue title to be so long if it will not display properly anyway.
I'm giving 1709 a shot: The Amulet of J'gara
I like how the contact seems genuinely interested in getting my help. Contacts are often a foregone conclusion.
So I'm off to find two folks.
4:33pm: enter mission 1.
4:43pm: return to contact.
M1 return: second paragraph ends with '?.' Third paragraph, first sentence should be 2 sentences.
Second mission - the Squad have a lock on their member, which I am to believe (from last meeting with the contact) that it means they can get him out. But they still need me to go in there? Is there something I'm not being told here? Should I trust my contact? The send-off says a little differently, that he is still hidden.
Nice, colorful mission titles!
4:47pm: enter mission 2.
Aaah! Circle of Thorns map. I've hit several big ones today. From the map resolution, this is hopefully very small. (Phew, it is)
Polentes is a bit different for a CoT name, but it works well. A bit of a mixture, really. Cooked on a skillet...
Nicely written clues in this. I better get back fast to the contact, the Midnighters are already under attack!
4:57pm: return to contact.
And I get that annoying bug where the cursor disappears and every mouse move causes a toon move. The only way out I know is /quit, back in a minute...
5:03pm: enter mission 3.
And the Nav objective was for more than I needed to do. Very curious! I think there was one baddie left.
5:07pm: return to contact.
It was a curiously easy finish to the main plot. I am left wondering what I missed. Indeed, turns out I should be wondering...
5:09pm: enter mission 4.
Bookshop looks really beat-up, like from a children's book.
Escape! The Nav seemed like a concealed 'escort' goal, that would capture my return to the entrance if I took my ally. But no, it was a concealed... kill guard? Or kill-all? Strange. But in line with the strangeness of where I am now.
5:19pm: return to contact.
M5 intro: were you stand -> where you stand
5:21pm: and into the final mission!
Working through, found my allies, oh dear! Ran into big-bad. Lost one ally, but scraped back after fleeing briefly, two allies lived to see us win.
5:32pm: and I'm out!
Slightly slower than the advertised 30-45 minutes, but if I hadn't been taking notes that estimate would be spot-on.
Overall, I enjoyed this a lot. Good story progression, well written, very good attention to detail. My confusion (apparent in places above) was always short-lived. I didn't get emotionally attached to any characters, just a bit of build-up of aggro towards the bad guy. But I'd recommend this to anyone looking for a mid-level heroic arc.
Cheers, airhead
Arc: 379017: Outbroken See all your old friends in the Outbreak Tutorial sequel!
Arc: Coming Soon: The Incarnate Shadow Shard of Fire and Ice Mender Rednem needs you!
Massively.com opinion poll: Please Help Save CoH!
Thanks for playing, now to clarify some things.
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the Squad have a lock on their member, which I am to believe (from last meeting with the contact) that it means they can get him out. But they still need me to go in there? Is there something I'm not being told here? Should I trust my contact?
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It amazes me how people keep missing the detail that is mentioned in the briefings for both the first and second missions: something is blocking the spell that serves as their version of the medical teleport beacon that the players use. That is why you never have to escort either man out of the mission or worry about him getting beaten up, you were told that once you free them from whatever spell is keeping them captive they can be teleported out.
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Polentes is a bit different for a CoT name, but it works well.
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It's a stock CoT name actually. He appears quite often in Paper/Scanner missions.
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Escape! The Nav seemed like a concealed 'escort' goal, that would capture my return to the entrance if I took my ally. But no, it was a concealed... kill guard? Or kill-all? Strange. But in line with the strangeness of where I am now.
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Since we don't have a "Return to Entrance" objective in MA yet, sticking a triggered boss fight at the entrance was the closest I could get. Defeating the Pain Elemental is all that is needed to end the mission.
The rest of the spawns that trigger are my attempt to do something that the game does not support and change the appearance of the mobs inside the mission to reflect your realization of what is going on. Whether you started seeing through their "glamour" or if they simply dropped the masquerade after the reveal is for you to decide.
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Slightly slower than the advertised 30-45 minutes, but if I hadn't been taking notes that estimate would be spot-on.
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That estimate is out of date but I cannot edit the original post. It was determined back when the arc used to be only 4 missions long, it was stretched to 5 to fix a major pacing issue between the Midnight Club and Final Showdown.
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I didn't get emotionally attached to any characters
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I've never understood this comment when it comes up. Do people actually get attached to NPCs in this game, really? Maybe I'm just a cold-hearted [censored].
Changes made to "The Amulet of J'gara":
* Fixed some typos and clarified some plot details.
@GlaziusF
Playing on a high-30s ice/axe tanker, diff 2 so bosses is bosses. The endless cycle of earning Mission Engineer and switching to an alt begins anew.
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Hrmmm. "I have something I could use your help with, a pair of Midnighters have not reported back for several hours now. Would you mind checking it out?" The "it" is kind of missing an antecedent. Maybe just "a pair of Midnighters went out to explore a cave, but haven't reported back for several hours now". That gives the "it" something that isn't a person to latch onto.
Hmm. Looking over the mission complete clue, the game calls the Tuatha "Dannan", not "Dannon". "Dannon" is a brand of yogurt.
...I think I may call them the "yogurt deer" from now on.
After all that the obelisk is probably just part of an ancient bathroom wall or something. "Akarist the Grey makes the girls sigh."
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Ah, Oranbega.
...not much to say, really, other than spectral lords still show up at this level and annoy the living daylights out of me.
You'd think that after how many years of paranoia the Circle wouldn't want to bargain with suspicious people, but I guess Darrin Wade's name carries some weight, even with them.
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It's rather convenient that the obelisk just happened to be talking about the one important artifact in the Midnight Squad.
...man, they make 'em scrawny, don't they. Poor captive guy looks like he needs a sammich.
The Living Armor, not so much.
In fact he just kind of rips the boss up while I'm trying to get rid of a spectral. Maybe I should have left him in place. Que sera sera.
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"Have you found the him yet?" Percy's bug text needs fixing.
...ah, interesting. A shop full of pumpkins. (maybe it should be CoV abandoned office? I recall those were more orangey, fits Croatoa better)
Oh, now that's an interesting way of going about it. I thought this seemed a bit empty.
Hmm. Clues need a bit reordered: minion, lieutenant, Midnighter, Circle guy. I think the only way to do that, though, is to reorder objectives, which you may not want.
Also the way you made distinct names bugged the NPC text for one of 'em. I realize it's a bit much to ask, but if you invent some way to name them (would a pattern like "Eight Grasping Shadows" work?) then you don't need to worry about making the same name show up three different ways.
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...okay, ancient soul-devouring horrors do not go "nom nom nom".
...okay, so if all these allies are part of me, why do I not get any XP for stuff they kill on their own? Aren't they me? I DEMAND A SPECIAL EXCEPTION. Also there is no Avatar of Sarcasm who non-combat follows you around making pithy remarks whenever you lose track of him.
Could you maybe make Initiative /therm? I don't think Thaw boosts perception (and therefore ally aggro range) the way Clear Mind does.
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Storyline - ****. There's no reason for that obelisk to describe the amulet of J'gara, unless this is one of those shonen goon powers that only work if you tell the other guy how it works first. Maybe have 'em find out about it because Mindskewer mentions going after a recent acquisition and that's the most notable one?
Design - *****. It irks me a little that the bosses are the teensiest out of all the customs. But that's really the only problem I have with the design. Everything else works very well in the service of the story.
Gameplay - *****. The optional allies did take care of a lot of the worst fights near the end, but most of that was my own bumbling around not engaging.
Detail - ****. Seriously. Ancient soul-devouring horrors do not go "nom nom nom". Also a little stilted grammar in some mission intros.
Overall - *****. It was pretty solid on test, and it's only improved.
Up with the overworld! Up with exploration! | Want a review of your arc?
My arcs: Dream Paper (ID: 1874) | Bricked Electronics (ID: 2180) | The Bravuran Jobs (ID: 5073) | Backwards Day (ID: 329000) | Operation Fair Trade (ID: 391172)
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Could you maybe make Initiative /therm? I don't think Thaw boosts perception (and therefore ally aggro range) the way Clear Mind does.
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I'd have to run some tests and see if they fixed the way Allies used Thermal. The reason she is Empathy is because the AI is a retard when it comes to applying thermal buffs and forgets to re-apply them, assuming that it ever applies them in the first place. Empathy didn't have those issues.
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It irks me a little that the bosses are the teensiest out of all the customs.
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The sliders are being wonky again, she somehow got "downsized" on a recent republishing.
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Seriously. Ancient soul-devouring horrors do not go "nom nom nom".
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Says you.
Changes made to "The Portal Bandits"(TEST SERVER):
* Testing new Science Line minion, Nagan Entropist (Ice Assault/Ice Melee).
I just ran the "MacGuffin Delivery Service" this afternoon on my lvl 39 magic DB/will tank, solo. Now, I understand why so many people have given it rave reviews. It was a lot of fun. There's a lot of humor mixed in that had me trying to finish the maps even after I got the 'mission complete' exit button, just to see if there were any more chuckles to find.
I started the arc on tenacious, but when I hit the CoT, I got creamed by a very large group of mages and behemoths waiting for me near the entrance. I decided to lower my difficulty to heroic for the rest of the arc. I was also a little more cautious about moving in to the fray without assessing the situation a bit more carefully. That did the trick. I had no more problems with the rest of that mission or the others. I don't usually do villainous arcs, but this one was definitely worth the slight deviation in my character's usual 'heroic' personality. It actually had a great moral to it that should make any villain think twice about stealing something that doesn't belong to them. 
I did find some text problems in a couple of places. In one of the mission intros (can't remember which, 2 or maybe 3) this line seems like it was edited, but it got a bit messed up in the process. "You knew that that to the next group of villains who came to take it from you weren't going to buy that explanation." I think it's supposed to read something like this, "You knew that the next group of villains who came to take it from you, weren't going to buy that explanation."
In the CoT mission there's a glowie that has this one, "You don't know how long you've been starring, but you do have a headache now." Also, the interaction text for it says, 'Starring..'. Both of those should be 'staring'. I didn't notice any other text problems, most of it seemed just fine. Very good formatting for titles, etc., too.
Overall, it's a very well polished arc. I had to give it 5*s. Great job.
No AV/EBs Deal with The Devil's Pawn-207266 Slash DeMento and the Stolen Weapons-100045 Meet the Demon Spawn-151099 Feedback
I hate the AE textboxes, they are so damn buggy that I'm writing all my stuff in notepad now. I found the typos you pointed out and fixed them.
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I hate the AE textboxes, they are so damn buggy that I'm writing all my stuff in notepad now. I found the typos you pointed out and fixed them.
[/ QUOTE ]That's what I've been doing, too. It looked like it was one of those annoying cut/paste errors that places your pasted text somewhere other than where you intended it to go. I really hope they'll do something about the NON-functionality of the text editing system in MA. It's driving me nuckin' futz! 
No AV/EBs Deal with The Devil's Pawn-207266 Slash DeMento and the Stolen Weapons-100045 Meet the Demon Spawn-151099 Feedback
[u]The Amulet of J'garra[u]
)I was fully drawn into the plot, and I'm not too sharp on my magic related things 
The last mission was a highlight, very few are able to pull off the situation presented with out it being silly or not general enough that ANYONE playing it is pulled into the reality. Well done ^_^ I enjoyed the final line, a nice button on the entire situation all things withstanding. 
Comments: (Spoiler free version, cut from the feedback I sent
Rating: Five Stars