Arc 4643: "Blowback"

(QR)

Ah, here this thread is. I've been meaning to post in it for some time and been unable to find it. Here's a bit of feedback I couldn't fit in the tiny textbox we're provided.

Venture: I'm not sure BlueHawk Whatsername's being imprisoned makes sense. Judging from your commentary on other arcs on these forums and the content of "Blowback" itself, you believe the game world should operate in a more-or-less realistic way.

With that in mind, legally, I think Bluehawk would have a very strong case that she was acting under duress (the text mentions implants, among other things), which would mean she lacked the necessary mental state to be found guilty of any crimes with which she could be charged.

She was not mind controlled. She was manipulated into consenting to work for Malta (including accepting the pain implant) but she did consent. An unfriendly DA could have built a case against her and an unsympathetic jury could have convicted her.

Ultimately, as the souvenir says, she was not charged. She testified against Malta and was placed into WitSec (with an easter egg). Crimson is a spy, not a prosecutor, and couldn't foresee that she'd be able to get a deal. Her fate counterpoints Enigma Silver 6-3's: they both knew they'd crossed the line but while he couldn't face what he'd done she could. He tried to run from the consequences of his actions but couldn't. She faced the consequences and received forgiveness.

The changes listed above have all gone live now, plus:

<ul type="square">[*]Neutralizers are now Electric Assault/Kinetics. They have Transference, which is a big END drain but it's on a long delay. I'll be keeping an eye on how these work out...in testing they seemed less annoying than Sappers.[*]Acts IV and V now take place on maps set to Empty and stuffed with battles and (V only) patrols. This should help ensure that mobs that are supposed to be hostile to one another will actually fight.[/list]
As always, feedback welcome.

Small change: added two new Titan units. The Theseus (LT) and Perseus (Boss) are lightweight human-sized units, cheaper and easier to deploy in urban areas.

Recent updates:
<ul type="square">[*]Changed the appearance of Malta Enigma Silver units slightly.[*]Added a "Robotics Commander" LT (Bots/FF) to Malta Enigma Silver, deleted the Hercules[*]Deleted the Zeus as well[*]Theseus Class Titan now uses Icy Assault/Energy Aura[*]Perseus Class Titan now uses Fiery Assault/Energy Aura[*]Above changes also propagated to the Malta RDF faction in "Splintered Shields"[*]Small text edits[/list]
Recent comments (names redacted):
<ul type="square">[*]"Well written. Liked the exploration of the psychological stresses inside Malta. Some quick nits: the clue says the final fight was in a Malta robotics facility. I assume that's left over from a previous version, since final fight in Steel Canyon. Also, there's the bit where Crimson says "Nah...this isn't a Nemesis plot." Love the reference, but, personally, using "nah",not sure that fits Crimson's character voice, which seems measured and non-casual to me. Maybe: "Heh. No. This isn't a Nemesis plot." "(I fixed the souvenir. I like Crimson's line the way it is.)[*]"definitely need a team, pref. with a healer." (Player was a bit surprised to hear the list of squishies I'd tested the arc with, many under level 40)[*]"Another excellent arc. Not quite as good as Splintered Shields but 4 stars." [/i][/list]

Pro Payne just published a review of "Blowback" in his thread. Replying to some of his comments:

Quote:

I saw the choice of rank for some of the big bads to be a bit off.

I felt that making 6-3 a regular Boss after the player had been chasing him for four missions was anticlimactic. I felt that Ja'Dar needed to come back bigger and better as well to illustrate his outrage at Malta's apparent betrayal. There is a bit of backstory here that is only hinted at in Ja'Dar's /info: in his human life, he was a college friend of 6-3. The idea of using Rikti as a foil was precipitated by 6-3 finding out what became of his old friend after the war. I didn't elaborate on that because I felt that especially in a Malta arc the player shouldn't quite know everything about the antagonist's plan. This is, though, why he's so outraged at the perceived backstab. If there was a usable Elite Boss version of the Chief Solder I'd have gone with that, but my only options were a reskinned Hro'Dtohz, a Magus or a Heavy. The Heavy was too impersonal and I couldn't see suddenly making him a Magus (and didn't want to make him a Boss Magus in act II). 2-0 was just a regular Gunslinger Boss because there was no reason for him to be any tougher.

Quote:

I do think the author has done a very good job of designing “upgraded” Malta, but I found myself thinking they didn’t quite match the visual feel of the normal Malta units. Frankly, I thought they seemed a little too thin, trim, and athletic for Malta: I know that’s very nitpicky, but it was surprisingly noticeable when you see them side by side with the “regular” Malta soldiers.

Regular Malta are wearing baggy military clothing. I wanted to portray a more upscale look. I think, especially after all the years Malta has been operating, they should start fielding troops that look more like Arachnos/Hydra/etc. and less like they'd just raided a clearance sale at a military surplus store. This is an artistic choice so either it works for you or it doesn't.

As you note, the Enigma Silver/Rapid Deployment Force (the name I use for them in later arcs) units aren't really any tougher than regular Malta and might be a little weaker. The point wasn't to make Malta tougher; it was to make Malta less annoying. Neutralizers deal more damage than Sappers and have a damage debuff, but their big END drain is on a long timer. Even if you get tagged you can pop a blue and stay in the game (as opposed to having the new END drained before you can use it). Robotics Engineers can't have their summon interrupted but the bots aren't as nigh-indestructable as the turrets and they obediently die when their owners do. Theseus and Perseus Titans hit hard but don't have obscene lethal resists or control effects. The backstory is that Malta wants less expensive but lighter and faster units for field actions, keeping the heavy, expensive stuff for guarding installations and consolidating gains and such. So far the reaction to them has been pretty positive overall.

Quote:

not to mention that I did honestly find it a bit hard to believe that the Malta would go all the way from lumbering hulks of mecha to sleek, slender androids in one upgrade.

Intermediate models weren't fit for deployment.

Quote:

Related to that – the new Malta units did seem a bit “out of the blue” (no pun intended). I certainly readily bought the concept behind why they were there in that first mission, but I did find myself thinking that maybe a bit of foreshadowing in the mission set up would help to “introduce” them a bit better.

I could have sworn I had updated Crimson's briefing to mention the fact that Enigma Silver was an R&D cell, warning the player that he might run into unfamiliar Malta agents, but I just looked and it's not there. It must have been eaten by the update bug when I did it. It's fixed now.

Thanks again for the review, and the good marks!

I tweaked this arc again just a bit. I updated the Perseus and Theseus Titans with Praetorian Clockwork costume bits, replaced the random hostages in acts II and III with unique ones, moved act V to the Boomtown Construction map and used Gyrfalcon for Enigma Silver 2-0. It bugged me a bit that the regular Malta troops only had a Boss heading them up while the other two armies had AVs.

I tested the changes with my main, a 50 KM/SR, set on +1x2 with a secondary build using only SOs and no Incarnate abilities and Gyrfalcon wasn't too obnoxious. If I get complaints I'll change him back.

Review Blowback

43 Dom

Deaths 6 all on EB's

This arc starts well. Your custom group is actually more fun to fight then the standard Malta with their gun turrets that don't give any exp or die when their summoner dies or well...sappers. The dialogue is well-written and very cannon. Then around mission 4, you forgot what you were doing. By mission 5, you have so many EBs/AV's hanging around that the mission becomes impossible. I know what you are thinking. This could arguably be a group mission arc or a task force but you fail at that. You see a task force will have EB's and AV's spread throughout the arc not just in final mission. Task force are also have dialogue acknowledging that you are a team and not just a single person.

You have created an arc that starts out solo friendly and then becomes a team arc at the end. In doing so, you do not cater to anyone. Teams will find the first few missions boring while solo people will find the last mission impossible. Another thing is you need to do is space out boss encounters and never ever put a boss in the front part of a mission. Titans are a prime example of this. They were spawning as Lieutenants for me. They were difficult to kill because I am a dominator. I need to warm up for a few fights to build domination.


I think you need answer the question. Who is this arc for? Then spend some time either building it as

A) A solo friendly arc with no EBs and possibly some more allies and pets to fight with in the last mission. If you do keep the final bosses, please add some Vanguard super pets to fight alongside you to make this easier.

or

B) A task force arc with more EB's in the beginning and text a dialogue written to acknowledge that more than one person is fighting in the arc.

I rated this arc a three. Up until mission 5, this arc was getting a 5 star rating. You dropped the ball at the last mission and really pissed me off. Sorry but difficulty curves need to be curves not walls.

Thanks for playing the arc, and for the review.

We are, however, going to disagree on this for a few reasons. I don't ever include allied NPCs as "difficulty compensators". I only use them when I feel the story requires them. (I briefly considered having the player find Bluehawk's body in act III but decided it played better if she lived.) If a player finds a mission too difficult he can get far better help than an NPC by asking another player.

That brings us to the AV/EB issue. As I said above I cleared this mission with a KM/SR Scrapper using only SOs, Incarnate powers deactivated and on elevated difficulty. (Prior versions were cleared with a Peacebringer, a Defender and a Corruptor, the latter two way below the arc's level.) As far as I'm concerned that makes the arc "not too hard", though if other people with melee characters don't get similar results I would reconsider. I do not consider non-melee ATs to be solo material, and that applies double to Controllers and Dominators. Those ATs are heavily dependent upon status effect powers, meaning that if I were to scale arcs to suit them I could never use anything with PToD's or status protection and would probably want to shy away from mere EB's as well. I do have arcs that fit that criteria but again that was because the stories involved did not demand heavy-duty opposition. Those arcs, as a result, are little more than speed bumps for melee ATs. Conversely, there is nothing so difficult in "Blowback" that it couldn't be duoed, and I have a hard time believing that a twosome would be "bored" by the rest of the arc.

The arc itself has the usual system warnings as to what it contains, and the specific missions that contain EBs or AVs have the usual bring-friends warnings in their briefings. It is up to the player, based on his own experience with his own character(s), to decide if he needs help. Trying to limit the spectrum of mission difficulty to "weakest solo builds" and "full teams" only is not productive.

A recent comment: