Arc 6143 "Escalation"

Title: Escalation
Arc ID: 6143
Creator’s Global Name: @FemFury
Difficulty Level: Medium
Synopsis – a meeting with minor, underestimated supervillain leads to a bigger problem.
Number of EB/AVS – 1 EB, 1 AV
Story Type – basically serious. standard superheroics
Mission Count: 5 (but many small or short maps)
Estimated Time to Play: often under half an hour. only possible holdups are searches in first map, and the final fight.

Note – playing around with a theme in quick series of missions, and trying to make a villain with character development and a twist.

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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!)

"Escalation" got a review from Police Woman.

boy, do a I have a lot of spelling and grammar issues to fix!
PW is a great proofreader.

Police Woman gave it 4 stars!

link to review (spoilers within)

Police Woman's review of Escalation

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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!)

Some additional thoughts on Escalation after sleeping on it.... (spoilers)

One of the problems I had was that there are an awful lot of Lashion robots but it didn't feel like they really did much except act as speed bumps on the way to the main event, facing off with Lashion/Escalation. You do have a few robots guarding hostages in the bank mission and the final Atlas mission; I think it would help to give them a little dialog, albeit in robot-speak. Maybe a patrol here and there with more robot-speak; in later missions they can say something that implies that Lashion has specifically programmed them to search for and beat up the player. Just something to make the various non-Lashion mobs seem a little more lively.

I very much liked the idea you had for the optional glowy poster board with defaced pictures of the player on it, to show how much Lashion really hates the protagonist. This whole arc is really about Lashion's grudge match with the player.

I kind of would've liked the player to have some hand in locking Lashion in her last body, preventing her escape; maybe having discovered a "De-Escalation" chemical or something. But having Escalation defeated by her own hubris is also very classic, so that works too.

Finally, I think you need a rad/rad version of Dr. Lashion somewhere named "Nuclear Escalation". She can exposition that she got these radiation powers after a respec (err, radiation exposure) in Terra Volta.

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@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!"

Based largely on Police Woman's excellent feedback, I just stayed up to 5:30 in the morning editing Escalation.

after about 5 hours of writing and tweaking and testing and re-tweaking, I have now Published the newly fleshed out arc.

Added lots of little details here and there. And since I think I accomplished my goal of being *able* to tell the story the first time through without clues, I've now added clues, just for extra flavor, or for those who like the summary after some missions.

If you play it, hope you enjoy! (Warning: that final fight is still a toughie for some ATs and powersets. I did re-test and beat the EB on every AT though. Still, if you aren't an accomplished "soloist" best to get a team.)

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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!)

I ran this arc a while ago and though I haven't played the newest version, I did enjoy it quite a bit the first time - the theme was very solid and the missions had a very nice progression to them.

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Thanks for the kind words, Chesire!

The main plot and the major fights are the same as in the older version you played. The new version simply adds a few items for flavor. Some optional glowies in Misison 4 to make the mad scientist lab more of a mad scientist lab. Optional objective in Mission 1 to give more explaination of the first plot of the villainess. Optional stuff for flavor, basically. And to flesh out the depth of the missions a little.

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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!)

Venture reviewed Escalation

lots and lots of spoilers in the review.

Venture's Review of Escalation, Arc #6143

He had a few nits to pick which I'll look at if I can tweak things to improve.

overall he rated it 5 stars (that feels good)
and I guess my pull quotes are him saying:
"The arc has a good theme and the characters are well-written."
and
"In any case, it's a great arc, recommended. "

Thanks to Venture for the review. I know he's a picky reviewer who doesn't give out 5 stars to just everyone.

(and I should give thanks again to Police Woman, who's previous review found a lot of typos which I fixed well before Venture got to my arc.)

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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!)

I have to admit I was quite excited to see that the revised Escalation got such a good review. I totally will have to re-play it sometime, just for fun.

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@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!"

[ QUOTE ]
I have to admit I was quite excited to see that the revised Escalation got such a good review. I totally will have to re-play it sometime, just for fun.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm really flattered you'd like to re-play it.

Hope you enjoy the changes. Your feedback really helped me flesh things out, especially the 4th mission and the lab details. First mission also has a little more sense of what's the initial "caper" going on.

Thanks again, and good luck with the epic final fight when you do the arc again!

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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 list = Spoilers!

*Changes made this morning (5/23)
-Added 2 new computer glowies (optional) in the lab in Mission Four.
The clues from these, along with the dialogue from the "lesser" clones in Mission Four, should give a clever player some hints about Escalation's research, so that the ending in Mission Five can seem a little less Dues Ex Machina. (I'm agreeing that Venture had a point there).

*Changes made between Police Woman's reveiw and Venture's review
-added a destructible object in Mission One, to show what Dr. Lashion's intial plot for her "caper" is. (Optional goal)

-added some looting robot minions in Mission One, to give a sense of more happening than just playing whack-a-mole with the Not So Good Doctor. (Optional goals)

-added an additional optional glowie in Mission Three, to show the danger to the police in the station a little more. (Optional goal)

-Added 3 "boss" fights to Mission Four, to give some extra dialogue for the lab raid, hopefully for more insight into the character of Dr. Lashion / Escalation. (Optional goals)

-added lots of optional glowies to the Lashion Lab in Mission Four, to make it more "lived in", and to have some more clues to hint at things. Also, a destructible cloning tube (also optional)

-tweaked the dialogue of one optional hostage in Mission Five, directly implementing a Police Woman suggestion.

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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!)

[ QUOTE ]
Venture reviewed Escalation

lots and lots of spoilers in the review.

Venture's Review of Escalation, Arc #6143


[/ QUOTE ]

My response to Venture's review, in his review thread, is here:

Shagster's thanks and response to Venture's review

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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!)

I just got done playing it. Apparently I did the newest, most improved version. It's really good. I enjoyed it a lot.

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"OK, first of all... Shut Up." - My 13-Year-Old Daughter

29973 "The Running of the Bulls" [SFMA] - WINNER of the Mighty Big Story Arc Contest !
- The Stellar Wind Orbital Space Platform

[ QUOTE ]
I just got done playing it. Apparently I did the newest, most improved version. It's really good. I enjoyed it a lot.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for playing and rating my arc!

I appreciated the tells you sent while playing through.

And I was impressed you soloed the final fight on a blaster. Not easily done.

During my playtests, I did solo through the whole arc on each archetype, my blasters had the toughest time.

Thanks again!

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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!)

I gave it another run-through myself, this time on Mr. Pagliacci/Virtue (28 Dark/Psy Defender). The changes were all for the better.

Now Escalation can stew over being sent to jail by a clown.

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Current Blog Post: "Why I am an Atheist..."
"And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained/As we did in the days when Victoria reigned!" -- T. S. Eliot, "Gus, the Theatre Cat"

[ QUOTE ]
And I was impressed you soloed the final fight on a blaster. Not easily done.

[/ QUOTE ]
I managed it with my Archery/Energy blaster last night...though I was defeated once before returning to finish the job. Probably would have been easier if I had the Flight pool instead of Jumping. Escalation has one heavy-duty ranged attack that was doing around 900 points of damage, so I'd just trigger Aid Self immediately afterward and be back at full health by the time her attack recharged. My character isn't a defense build, either...about the only boost I have is the global +3%.

The main problem was dishing out enough damage - even with Build Up, Aim, and Surveillance to help, it took a while to wear her down.

Good arc. There was a missing 'a' in the final briefing, but otherwise I couldn't find a single problem with it. You gave plenty of warning about the difficulty in the later missions, so I can't fault you for that.

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I also gave Escalation another run through. Love the improvements; I increased my rating to 5 stars.

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@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!"

[ QUOTE ]
I also gave Escalation another run through. Love the improvements; I increased my rating to 5 stars.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yay! Thank you!

Can I quote the revised rating as your "review rating" when I put together my "movie poster" ?

Wow, "Esclation" is sitting at 99 reviews, and it's been oscillating between 4 and 5 stars last few times I've checked. Must be right at 4.4 or something...

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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!)

[ QUOTE ]
I gave it another run-through myself, this time on Mr. Pagliacci/Virtue (28 Dark/Psy Defender). The changes were all for the better.

Now Escalation can stew over being sent to jail by a clown.

[/ QUOTE ]

oh, man, a clown? That's gonna burn her ego, big time!

You just signed up for double the normal number of hate letters from the Zig each week, I think.

Thanks for taking the time to check out the changes.

I think I'm at the point where I give out just enough hints without "giving away the ending" on Escalation's final fate.

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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!)

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
And I was impressed you soloed the final fight on a blaster. Not easily done.

[/ QUOTE ]
I managed it with my Archery/Energy blaster last night...though I was defeated once before returning to finish the job. Probably would have been easier if I had the Flight pool instead of Jumping. Escalation has one heavy-duty ranged attack that was doing around 900 points of damage, so I'd just trigger Aid Self immediately afterward and be back at full health by the time her attack recharged. My character isn't a defense build, either...about the only boost I have is the global +3%.

The main problem was dishing out enough damage - even with Build Up, Aim, and Surveillance to help, it took a while to wear her down.

[/ QUOTE ]

I know what you mean, both about flight making it easier, and wearing her down.

I took her on with both my blasters on Justice. Sgt. Ironside is IO'd out for big defense, but the lack of flight meant running around like a maniac trying to avoid melee. Didn't help that Assault Rifle's lethal damage stinks against Invulnerability resists. Serapha Wrathsong, on the other hand, flew above and whittled her down with Sonics. Had to burn a lot of purples and greens though. I think it's a good thing the final fight happens on a open, outdoor map. More tactical options.

Sounds like a lot of people are having epic fights with Escalation, which is great. I know my grav/rad controller Dr. Continuum had one of the most challenging and sastisfying victories of his career against her. Took me a long time running around and trying to slowly kill her with smashing damage. As I stressed out, one of my SG mates asked what I was up to that was so intense and I was like "Nearly getting my butt kicked by an NPC of my own creation, and loving it!". Helps that with Dr. Continuum, it was superhero scientist vs. supervillainess scientist.

I suppose that since "Esclation" is an odd mix between a "Story Arc" and a "Challenge Arc" for some, I may be minimizing my audience. But, I think the diffifculty at the end is well justified by the storyline.

[ QUOTE ]
Good arc. There was a missing 'a' in the final briefing, but otherwise I couldn't find a single problem with it. You gave plenty of warning about the difficulty in the later missions, so I can't fault you for that.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for pointing out the missing "a".
And glad you liked it even with the tough fight at the end.
Seriously, good job beating her with a blaster. It isn't easy.

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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!)

Minor typo changes only on 5/25/09

*fixed destructible object dialogue in Mission One, changed "Rogue Island" to "Rogue Isles"

*added the word "percent" to numerical data in computer glowie clue in Mission Four (had tried to use "%" before, didn't go through)

*added a missing "a" to mission briefing for final mission

additional typo fix in afternoon

*fixed extra "up" in Mission briefing for First mission

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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!)

Escalation got a review on COHmissionreview.com

it was a good review, and the reviewer was smart to emphasize the difficulty of the end fight.

http://cohmissionreview.com/2009/05/...tion/#comments

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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!)

Escalation was reviewed by Lazarus

Lazarus reviews Arc 6143 - Escalation

4 Stars.
He didn't like difficulty of final fight.
Or effects of multiple devices minions in Mission 4.

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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 6/2/09

-changed naming scheme on critters for 4th mission a bit

-experimenting with alternate emotes for "surrounding spawns" on Mission One, to try and make Dr. Lashion easier to find.

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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!)

Got artist Rob Banbury to make a flier for "Escalation"

Hopefully, will be posted in the forums by Community rep soon. But, for anyone who wants a sneak peek:
Flier for Arc #6143 - Escalation

and much thanks to Rob. For those who like the looks of his art, his Deviant Art page is at:
Rob Banbury on DeviantArt

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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!)

That's an awesome looking promo poster good stuff!

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@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!"