[ QUOTE ]
As far as the Nemesis angle goes, like you said, I was going for an Ocean's Eleven style story. In the Ocean's series, things never go perfectly for them. Yeah, David Lake made a serious mistake there, but something had to happen to mess it up. Nemesis wanting revenge for stealing from them seemed like it worked to me. If you've got another suggestion as for how things go wrong, I'm all ears.
[/ QUOTE ]
See the idea is sound, its the execution. Like I said I can't see anything short of a total rewrite to fix things....for example:
Mission 1: Steal the plans to Hayato's lab. But say they steal something else as a diversion too so as to not tip off Hayato.
Mission 2: Steal some theft aiding device from either Skyraiders or Goldbrickers or another theif group. (setting up the revenge senario).
Mission 3: Break the guy out of the Zig but make it actually feel more of a riot. Throw in boss encounters (which are not required goals so no nav bar text for them) with ambushes tied to them....give it a chaotic feel. Doing it here gives you a nice beat em all up mission to go with the theft ones.
Mission 4: The kidnapping. Use a nice samll office and make them escorts without ambushes. Forget the scientist as a foe...just a simple kidnapping. With Hayato have him turn on ya at the door saying enough is enough or some such crap and proceed to fight you. Use a clue or his dialogue to show he is a hero, or even do it in the mission debriefing.
Mission 5 is the actual robbery. Make this one slightly chaotic as well. This is where the Skyraiders or Goldbrickers or any other thieves you had picked for mission 2 show up again (giving us time to forget we messed them over) They know about your job or suspect it ect and they want a cut. They will fight for that cut. Also to give the Oceans 11 feel and include the guys from previous missions have them get captured because the rival thieves messed up your plan. So you need to rescue each of them. Then you have to do their job for them because they are hurt, scared, distracted whatever, just have them leave. Make each goal a triggered event with alot of ambushes to give the chaotic feel.
This will require ALOT of testing becuase it has a serious risk of being tedious in making you run back and forth alot. Keep it to around 2 goals with no more than 2 triggered goals I would say. Just make sure you have alot of ambushes patrols ect to keep the action going on the backtracking.
[ QUOTE ]
I will change the bots to energy assault. You're right, the end drain is too much.
[/ QUOTE ]
In large groups it can be yes. KB can be too sometimes but there are alot more ways to overcome that.
[ QUOTE ]
As far as the amount of allies, how can I do an Ocean's Eleven style heist without them? I see your point about how powerful they are, though. I'll address that.
[/ QUOTE ]
One ally is good, two is pushing it....the rest just don't need to be there. Think back on the Remake of Oceans 11, everyone has seperate jobs to do. They don't all meet up until they are escaping, which can be done in the mission debriefings.
[ QUOTE ]
(Side note, the Rikti's name is based off of Vincenso Peruggia, the man who stole the Mona Lisa, keeping with the heist angle.)
[/ QUOTE ]
Ahh...did not get that.
But let me bring something up here I didn't go into detail in my review. All the heist members are very special. This is keeping in the Ocean 11 concept. Problem is they are all special in context to the game as well. Rikti thief, Freak mutant ect ect. Why not make them just special people. Highly skilled with maybe a special power here and there. This will keep the players special too. Which was a huge problem in the arc, I felt like a hired gun without a brain. Give the players a job only they can do.
Edited to include: This is a review on the current published arc, which is diffrent then the one I played originally.
Arc 45503 (now 67087)
Through the looking glass
Length: 5 missions
Foes: Rikti
Level Range: 45-50 (with one mission locked at 41)
Contact: Unnamed Mirror Spirit avatar
Rating: UNRATED (as I was unable to complete it each attempt)
TL-DR
Pros: Interesting concept
Cons: level jumping, very difficult (sorta), brickwall foe.
Sadly I cannot give a full review of this arc due to my being unable to complete it. But I will discuss what I was able to finish.
Specific Review:
The idea of an alternate world where things are diffrent than our own is an oft used yet still mostly interesting plot. The problem is that in the first mission you are just tossed into the mix without explinations as to your relation to the story. Are you a native of Earth X, did ya use portal tech, ect. The text indicates in the first and second missions that you are already involved in the story yet the debriefing on mission 2 says its not yiour world. That was confusing to me. Also many bosses are renamed but info text indicates the original or is blank.
Mission 1: A simple beat a boss and rescue a hostage. Minor notes in this. I don't understand the map choice. The Steel Canyon by the tram map. The briefings gave me an out in the woods feel but the mission was in the middle of a city....a city showing no signs of the war that is said to be raging. Next is the nav text didn't indicate who was a boss who was a rescue, or that there was a rescue, I honestly thought it was two bosses I was after.
Mission 2: You are sent to rescue Lord Recluse himself. Ok, little odd but ok. He is being guarded by Dragon of the Rikti (renamed). Then you need to fight another Dragon to complete your goals. These are EB/AV foes and you do not have a warning as to them in the mission. The second one proved to be harder than the first as Recluse fell fairly quick to him leaving me alone and inspirationless (used them on the first Dragon). On my scrapper I did ok, My corr went down hard, it took many many many deaths to get past this guy (corr uses SO's). my dom didnt even dent him so tests with the dom were out.
Mission 3: You are level locked to 41 here...no range just level 41. The list of goals was huge, find 3 hostages and fight 3 big bads. This mission is a mess honestly. Every hostage is a extreme setting Merc MM so you end up with an army running behind you (even found a hostage not on the rescue list who was a thug MM which meant gang war too). I thought this was overkill untill I found the AV. He did not scale down he was an AV. Being locked at level 41 meant that My scrapper was underpowered and not built to take on AV's. The massive allies couldn't dent the AV, and ended up aggroing the two other big bads, two more Dragons EBs. Corr faired a bit better actually hurting the AV with debuffs but after the third death I figured It just wasn't worth it.
I hit a wall I was unable to climb sorry. I did not rate the story as I was unable to complete it. A team shouldn't have issues but solo there was no way to do it. The way I review an arc is I stop at every spawn check it out, read all i can then move to the next. If I was to run with a team they would either have to be willing to stop at each mob and wait or I would have to change my review style. I don't find either appealing so someone else will have to review this one.
[ QUOTE ]
Ahh...did not get that.
But let me bring something up here I didn't go into detail in my review. All the heist members are very special. This is keeping in the Ocean 11 concept. Problem is they are all special in context to the game as well. Rikti thief, Freak mutant ect ect. Why not make them just special people. Highly skilled with maybe a special power here and there. This will keep the players special too. Which was a huge problem in the arc, I felt like a hired gun without a brain. Give the players a job only they can do.
[/ QUOTE ]
You've got a good point. However, I'm not comfortable taking everyone out. It's not my intention to make the missions a total cakewalk or to make the player seem unimportant, instead to give the feeling that you're a supervillain working with other supervillains. As I said before, thanks to my writing it kind of on the fly, I more or less made the Technopath entirely pointless to bring along with the plan. He's totally on the cutting room floor. I'm going to go with just the angle of getting past the doors and planting the device.
I'm going to keep the Chameleon, and my gut tells me to stick with Nemesis, to keep up with the fact that in order for things to be [censored] when you get inside, the enemies will have to have gotten in before you did, and Nemesis is pretty much the only villain group with the means to do that. I would change the plot to say that the security AI only needs visual and vocal confirmations of the two of them, so Automatons would be able to open the doors.
I like your idea of the first mission entailing stealing the plans. I'm going to use that when I redo the arc.
As far as the head researcher being a fight, I question the logic that in a superhero setting, a brilliant engineer and scientist (for instance, on who could help invent free energy) is a completely helpless victim if they devotes their talents to good, while scientists who use their powers for evil usually have powersuits or armies of robots (at least in the CoX universe). Wouldn't an inventor in Paragon City create devices that would grant tjem powers so they wouldn't be perpetually kidnapped?
However, that's just me explaining my logic. I understand your problem is more of a mechanical one than it is a thematic one, the problem being too many boss fights. I suppose it does needlessly extend the arc.
So here's how I think I'm going to go with rewriting it. The story structure is going to be more or less what you posted, because it does flow better than the one I have now. That's what I get for writing on the fly. We'll call that last one a rough draft.
Mission 1: Steal the plans to Hayato's lab. However, I think that having David Lake pay off another villain group to come in and wreck the place is a better way to go to cover up the theft than just stealing something else as well. Ironically, Freakshow are probably the best villain group to do this, they're more or less the only villain group past the Outcasts and Trolls level who would smash things up just for the heck of it. The main reason I think this would be a better move is because I really don't want two missions where the main enemy is security guards, due to how vanilla they are.
Mission 2: Steal the EMP device from the Sky Raiders. As I'm sure most of us know, spoiler alert in case we don't, Nemesis bankrolls the Sky Raiders. This means that it's not too much of a logical jump that Nemesis would get involved down the line. As far as the reasoning, Nemesis is a brilliant engineer and won't be outdone by Hayato's research group, and wants to steal the research for himself. If I went that route, I would change it from a code that has to be stolen from someone's head to a combination that needs to be gotten from a computer which you need a brilliant hacker to get. Either that, or (and I'm leaning this option for simplicity's sake, also not to spoil the Nemesis/Sky Raider connection for anyone who's not aware) I could just leave the mission the way it was, but remove Red, keep V'zenzo but make him a non-combat character, and make the base leader a capture instead of a boss.
Mission 3: Replace the person being broken out with the Chameleon, make the riot more epic. Lt. Peridot doesn't help you inside the mission, instead he's used as a handwave to explain why you're not implicated in the jailbreak of the Chameleon by covering up your involvement.
Mission 4: Like you suggested, make the boss fight a kidnap, remove the Chameleon since you would have met him in the jailbreak, and leave Hayato as the boss fight. I'm going to turn him down to boss status as well. Change the dialogue for the mission intro and return to say that you were going to have to kidnap Hayato as well, but him turning up and being a skilled fighter was a surprise, and also a time-saver because you now have both of them at once.
Mission 5: I'm not entirely sure what I am going to do here, but I have a rough idea. Bring along Red, and only Red, as an ally, but have him be totally optional, just in case you want some extra help with the boss. (Who I have changed to Energy Assault/Electric Armor, neither on extreme) Put in the Chameleon (who would obviously have to be there since you needed him to get past the doors), put in the two automatons (which would now just be bosses with Assault Rifle with the nemesis rifle model) who would need to be defeated because otherwise they'd ruin your plan, after all, you're trying to destroy it, they're trying to steal it. In fact, I could put in a defendable object being the EMP device which the enemy faction is trying to destroy in order to be able to get the free energy research out of there unharmed. This of course would be told to you by the demolitions expert that you would have to rescue.
Sorry, I don't mean to take up your time discussing back and forth the editing process, but I really do take this kind of feedback seriously and try to improve my work accordingly.
OMFG! It's the second (or, uh third?) coming of LaserJesus!
yeah when it got unpubished do to a error appearing from the recent patch (the 3rd mision became invalid) something happened and it got deleted so i had to restore a older less polished file...
I'm goin to write out my text in work forst as i go back and try to re edit things
quick question, since LR is a AV and miss 3's Mag'gan is a AV you think it would work better to switch Meg'gan in 3 with Zen'rath in mission 2?
AE # 67087: Journey through the Looking Glass - Save the World
LLX VirtueVerse! - Check out my crazy Toons
This is the size of group that we have balanced AVs for, 6.
-Positron 06/07/06 07:27 PM
Hello Arc creators.
We know everyone has different styles to creating. Some make huge dramas of epic portions. Some do little skits.
I can be both, but I like doing the skits and keeping things light and fun. By no means do I have a ROFL story like Ronin, but I think my Arc "Little Guys" #1250, will get a chuckle out of some.
So while you check out MA, take a little time to check out my arc. I could even make suggestions on other arcs to play that i have found to be funny or good.
[ QUOTE ]
Arc #2180, "Bricked Electronics"
tl;dr: 4 stars. Offenses: "just a bunch of stuff that happened"
Marc Freeman wants you to check out the store he bought an old cell phone at because there's some suspicious data left on it. (He kind of talks down to the player at this point, which is not a good idea...yes, some characters have a room-temperature IQ and thing the TV remote has imps in it that change the channels, but some are geniuses who invented their own nanotech-based symbiotic AIs.) Level cap for this one is 20 (19 for me). The shop is being robbed by Goldbrickers when you get there, and the owner is not in...the schedule you find shows he wasn't supposed to be in today. You do get his contact information.
[/ QUOTE ]
Probably need to repurpose that bit then. The idea is that he starts to geek out about "digital" being "analog" with a threshhold applied and how he can pick this stuff out because he can actually interpret the analog part of things, but you didn't show up to hear him rant about his mutant power.
[ QUOTE ]
The Boss summons at least one ambush wave to support him, and adds a "3 gas cylinders to destroy" objective with no explanation. (His defeat clue just laments all the trash falling into his base and hopes the Zig is cleaner.) Addition of this objective effectively turns the mission into a defeat-all and makes you run the map twice. Not appreciated. In the debriefing Freeman calls JJ and asks why she sent you into a Council base without warning. Her answer was "why didn't he just turn his cloaking device on?" Freeman notes he has to talk to her about what kinds of tech the average person has. (Venture actually has a stealth IO...in the other build. Wouldn't have helped, of course.)
[/ QUOTE ]
Ah, need to tweak the mission popup text then. It's implied a bit too obliquely that you're "questioning" the Archon because you think JJ set you up to get jumped by the Council. She didn't actually think a Council base was worth mentioning because, again, cloaking device.
But the Archon's inactive speech mentions the nerve gas, and so does the order he barks when he gets down to half health. I think I may have had a patrol talking about it as well? If not I probably ought to. Wondering how you missed the first two, though.
I could probably put the Archon in the middle and stick the nerve gas in the back, but then there's the chance people could run into the Archon before the patrol that talks about the gas. Eh, guess I'll just have to take it then.
[ QUOTE ]
I was going to criticize the plot here for implying that there was enough time following the Rikti War for unclaimed property laws to kick in, but a quick trip to Google determined that the state assumes control of unclaimed bank accounts after 3 years in most case in Rhode Island (and NJ, as it happens...I thought it took much longer. Wonder if this has changed lately. Enough digression.)
[/ QUOTE ]
Well, even if it was something like 10 years, the arc posits that in the wake of the Rikti War the city froze all seizures of unclaimed property, even the ones where there were just a few months left on the timer, because people had more important things to do than check up on their bank accounts.
[ QUOTE ]
Or soon enough, as it turns out. Act V's briefing tells you the heist is going down: a bank is scheduled to bring out abandoned safe deposit boxes for transfer to the state, and the Goldbrickers have used a virus to send off an email cancelling the extra security. (This is tossing the Idiot Ball at minor characters, as no security outfit worth working with would fail to show up just because of an email.)
[/ QUOTE ]
I'll see if I have some space to talk about it rerouting communications, too, so that the Goldbrickers answer the phone/have access to the passphrase/whatever. Or maybe say that it didn't work forever, but it passed the smell test long enough for them to get into the bank and start working. The idea is that in your average crazy-pressure situation such as follows from being a private security firm in Paragon City a spoofed apologetic email ("sorry, half the staff have been kidnapped by ninjas") isn't going to raise as many red flags as a Troll planting some rebar in the building's power box.
[ QUOTE ]
The ending is somewhat anticlimactic as you don't really get told what the plan was...it's inferred that the Goldbrickers needed to retrieve the money in that account because the increased attention being paid to unclaimed accounts revealed it, but that could stand to be made more explicit.
[/ QUOTE ]
I'll have Wodesten ranting about the pressure of the op, then, in addition to Freeman spelling that out at the end.
I figured you'd have worked out whose money that is and why the Goldbrickers want it so badly, though, unless you're just pretending not to for review purposes.
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)
RE Laserjesus
[ QUOTE ]
Sorry, I don't mean to take up your time discussing back and forth the editing process, but I really do take this kind of feedback seriously and try to improve my work accordingly.
[/ QUOTE ]
I don't have a problem discussing things more but lets do it in PM so as to not derail the thread.
RE Cuppa_LLX
[ QUOTE ]
quick question, since LR is a AV and miss 3's Mag'gan is a AV you think it would work better to switch Meg'gan in 3 with Zen'rath in mission 2?
[/ QUOTE ]
Honestly the fact that there are EB's and AV's everywhere make the mission grind to a halt. Make them bosses until the final fight IMO.
But if you wish to discuss further lets go to PM
Arc 1992
A Hero's Halo
Length: 3 missions
Foes: Marauder's Fighters, Soldiers of Rulauru, Custom
Level Range: 45-50
Contact: Powerthrust (custom)
Rating: 3 stars
TL-DR
Pros: Quick arc, Allies of LT rank
Cons: Annoying foes, uninteresting story.
Overview
Powerthrust asks you to help him find out why he has a halo and figures the best way to do this is track down others who have a halo and ask them about it. He is going to question a bunch of off duty heroes and asks you to see Catscratch Fevah. Cat is fighting off Marauder's minions in an office and once you rescue her she aggrees to tell you about the halo if you help her take down the lead Marauder. It's not hard and she does hold her end of the bargain.
She has no idea where she got the halo either just that she noticed it first on the ski slopes in Pocket D last christmas. This is the same info Thrust gets from the others he asks.
A little investigation reveals that the halos are made of metal from the Shadow Shard and that a signal is projected from them. So it's off to the Shadow Shard. Oddly Thrust feels a little under the weather.
In the shadow shard you find ghostly versions of well known heroes that immediatly attack you as well as recievers for the signals to investigate.
After dispatching the ghost versions and gathering info on the recievers you head back.
The situation gets very serious as the halos are found to be stealing the souls of heroes. It's become epidemic as those heroes you faced and many more are in critical condition in hospitals.
Back to the shard to shut the soul stealing down. This time Powerthrust is coming along despite feeling ill. You find more powerful Stolen Essence versions of heroes including one of Thrust himself. Defeating them releases the stolen essence and destroying the soul sucking maching puts an end to this vile plot.
Specific Review
The plot just could not hold my attention here. A story about another character costume? Sorry but it's uninteresting. Couple that with logic flaws and annoying bosses and the arc just sank. That said its not a bad arc. There is nothing that made me go "I am upset to see this' Just was bored if that makes sense?
Mission 1: A simple mission, nothing stands out as good or bad. I did like that the ally in the mission was a LT rank meaning it helped but didn't overshadow the player. As a minor note, the heroes just accept how a strange glowing thing just appears above their head and no one thinks to look into it? A little immersion breaking.
Mission 2: The cave felt too big, long stretches of nothing. Also the mission briefing made the plot transparent here. As a side note, The story just jumps quickly here. It goes from 'hmmm whats this thing' to 'WTH its sending signals' (gets worse in last mission)
Mission 3: The story makes another huge jump here. First you were wondering what the halos were, then you find out its a Rularu plot and now its 'OMFG they are stealing our souls!!!' Just seems to esculate at a very fast rate. The bosses in this mission are just plain boring to fight. They have higher rankings for powers, especially armors, making the fights tedious. When one popped unstopable I just went into autopilot. It didn't affect the rating but it didn't help it either.
I gave it three stars because there wasn't anything that felt wrong with the arc. I have no idea how to make this story interesting to me but to make the gameplay more fun try exploreing some of the MA features. include more clues, Triggered events, ambushes ....something that can hold my interest. And please tone dwon the bosses armors.
it should be noted that the arc has many heroes in it (I don't think they are all the authors but may be the authors friends). The use of them isn't in your face and dosnt hurt the story to me. But for those who are tired of the inclusion of authors toons be aware.
It's a short enough arc that if changes were made I would be willing to give it another go and re-rate.
If you wish to discuss my review lets keep it in private as to not derail the thread.
next Up: 38226
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat....=5#Post13333290
Take a look and tell me what you think!I like the story (of course I DID write it! lol) and think that I did a good job on the AE arc. Let me know!
Venture,
Whenever you have the opportunity please review my arc. Slice and dice it as appropriate, if I can improve it I would like to.
57352 The All-Seeing Eye (heroic, 5 missions)
Together we entered a city of strangers, we made it a city of friends, and we leave it a City of Heroes. - Sweet_Sarah
BOYCOTT NCSoft (on Facebook)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/517513781597443/
Governments have fallen to the power of social media. Gaming companies can too.
[ QUOTE ]
If I've added right (and I'm sure Arcanaville will correct me if I haven't....) I've reviewed 25 arcs so far with an average rating of exactly 3 stars.
[/ QUOTE ]
3.0 with review ratings as they stand. 2.96 if you had known how to rate a zero initially.
Ratings breakdown for first 25 ratings:
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>
Rating #
1 4
2 5
3 6
4 7
5 3
</pre><hr />
Insufficient data for statistical analysis, except in two areas that I won't comment on lest I accidentally influence the review process. Maybe after the first 100 ratings, assuming Venture doesn't kill himself first.
[Guide to Defense] [Scrapper Secondaries Comparison] [Archetype Popularity Analysis]
In one little corner of the universe, there's nothing more irritating than a misfile...
(Please support the best webcomic about a cosmic universal realignment by impaired angelic interference resulting in identity crisis angst. Or I release the pigmy water thieves.)
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
If I've added right (and I'm sure Arcanaville will correct me if I haven't....) I've reviewed 25 arcs so far with an average rating of exactly 3 stars.
[/ QUOTE ]
3.0 with review ratings as they stand. 2.96 if you had known how to rate a zero initially.
Ratings breakdown for first 25 ratings:
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>
Rating #
1 4
2 5
3 6
4 7
5 3
</pre><hr />
Insufficient data for statistical analysis, except in two areas that I won't comment on lest I accidentally influence the review process. Maybe after the first 100 ratings, assuming Venture doesn't kill himself first.
[/ QUOTE ]
... Arcana you scare me sometimes.
Do you plan on doing Math Theory or something? XD
Well, I suppose you're right Arcana, we'd need to have at least five results in each category to do a proper Chi-square analysis of equal distribution of ratings per rating category...
"I swear you could fling a man hole cover across the street and hit more notes than 90% of those idiots on American Idol" -Desmodos
"Every time you post I feel like I been hit with a fist full of smart! Thanks." - Volken re: Sucker Punch
Arc #36984 V'kta A'cha Vox'm
Venture and/or Hell_O_Ween--or anyone else who wants to write a review--my wife and I (same account) would like a once-over on our arcs. Give us the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. We can take it (the PC is new enough that we'll resist punching in the monitor 
):
My wife's - Arc #59147 "Shades of Betrayal, Acts of Sacrifice".
Mine - Arc #64800 "The Power from Out of Space".
My Arc: The Power From Out Of Space, ID# 64800
Mrs. Spoon's Arc: Shades of Betrayal, Acts of Salvation, ID# 59147
At this point my queue is down to 4 missions, I will take the next 6 requests for review now.
Arc 38226
If you teach a man to fish
Length:2 missions
Foes: Coralax, Scrapyarders, custom
Level Range: 25-30
Contact: Dr Barlow (custom)
Rating: 3 stars
TL-DR
Pros: Uses canon, quick, mild humor
Cons: Nothing exciting in the arc
Overview
Dr Barlow, a scientist for a super-soldier creation group, wants you to retrieve Mako's tooth that was knocked out in the fight between Mako and Scrapyard. Currently its in the care of some scrapyard loyalist so you must break in and steal it by force.
Once you give the tooth to Barlow he is able to clone a weaker but more passive version of Mako. But there is trouble, the Coralax have invaded the lab and if they are not removed they will destroy all the hard work. To ensure it goes well Barlow puts on his power armor and lends a hand.
It's going well till you see the cloned Mako who immediatly attacks you.
When the dust settles you find out that the cloned Mako was sending a telepathic signal out calling the Coralax to help him. Barlow leaves you wondering if the real Mako has this ability as well.
Specific Review:
There is nothing wrong with this arc. Nor is there anything really special about it. It is a simple 2 parter that hints at canon and lets you beat alot of foes up. The inclusion of Dr Barlow as an ally seemed wasted but it didn't hurt anything.
Mission 1: The clue on the tooth is slightly funny, but otherwise nothing special in this mission.
Mission 2: Man they clone things fast. One patrol drops a nice hint and the cloned Mako is ok (looks to be the standard lizard costume). The mission debriefing fills you in on things you may have missed but again nothing special here. As a side note, how DO security cameras detect a telepathic signal?
The 3 star rating is due to being a baseline mission. Nothing wrong to drop the rating nothing special to increase it. perhaps more (and funnier) jokes can improve this arc to the higher ratings.
Over the next few day I am fairly busy so may only complete one review a day (if that).
My current queue is:
46405, 6536,53131,17702
Well, if either Venture or Hell wouldn't mind, I'd definitely like my arcs reviewed. If I had to pick one, I'd pick Soldiers of Fortune because I think it needs the help a little bit more. If you can do both, though, that would be great!
Title: Blitzkrieg
Arc ID: 3416
CreatorÂ’s Global Name: @Mekkanos
Difficulty Level: Medium
Synopsis: A simple investigation into Malta Group activity turns into a fight for the freedom of heroes everywhere as you uncover the sinister Project: Blitzkrieg
Number of EB/AVS: 3 (One is optional and you will have help with the other two)
Story Type: Serious/Action (Hero oriented)
Mission Count: 5
Estimated Time to Play: 1-2 hours depending on how fast you go through
Title: Soldiers of Fortune
Arc ID: 4431
CreatorÂ’s Global Name: @Mekkanos
Difficulty Level: Medium
Synopsis: Battle two ruthless mercenary groups for an ancient item of power alongside some unusual allies!
Number of EB/AVS: 1 (You will have help in the mission, but they are fairly weak so they may not be alive when you get to the EB/AV)
Story Type: Serious/Action (Villain Oriented)
Mission Count: 5
Estimated Time to Play: 1-2 hours depending on how fast you go through.
My arcs:
Title: Blitzkrieg
Arc ID: 3416
Title: Soldiers of Fortune
Arc ID: 4431
Title: The Rikti Accession
Arc ID: 278757
[ QUOTE ]
At this point my queue is down to 4 missions, I will take the next 6 requests for review now.
[/ QUOTE ]
Of Mentors and Legacy
By: Aliana Blue
Arc ID:1589
Style: Standard
Focus: Story
Difficulty: Medium
Number of Missions: 5
Number of Elite Bosses: 0
Number of Arch Villains: 2
Publication Date: 2009-04-04
Level Range: 35 - 54
Alignment: Heroic
Number of objectives1: 16
Published? Yes
Server: Live
2 AVs but you'll have help! There's an outdoors mission I am not too sure about and also the flow of the last mission with the helpers - they're kinda important plot-wise, but they shouldn't upstage the hero. Also worried about the possible presence of an idiot ball there
Thanks!
Players' Choice Awards: Best Dual-Origin Level Range Arc!
It's a new era, the era of the Mission Architect. Can you save the Universe from...
The Invasion of the Bikini-clad Samurai Vampiresses from Outer Space? - Arc ID 61013
The second is already in Venture's cue, but I'll submit both to Hell_o_ween.
71523 A Madman's Vengeance - Slighted supervillain, and noted cybernticist Dr. Samuel Armington has been handed over to the PPD one time too many, and now he'll take his revenge on a world that does not respect him... no matter the cost. [Author's Note: Arc connects with events in #1285; Many non-required 'flavor' objectives]
1285 Training Day - When one of Det. Morgan's men is taken hostage by an arms dealer turned mad scientist, a new threat to humanity emerges from the aftermath in the form of a new and dangerous weapon wielded by a madman with the powers of a deity. -- Level 20-50
If it hasn't been queued yet, I'd like to plug "Dr. Dave and the Copper Legion" again. (#60280)
Rise of the Copper Legion (#60280; with soundtrack)
The Fractured Dreamer (#498588; with musical theme)
"Now Leaving: Paragon City": original composition for the end of CoH
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Arc #2180, "Bricked Electronics"
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Not that I expect Venture to play it again, but revisions complete. A rundown:
Mission 1: Mark now gives you a quick and straightforward rundown of how his mutant power works.
Mission 2: Success dialogue is a little more explicit.
Mission 3: The Council base is now like unto a scorpion: head up front, toxins in the back. A patrol mentions Targus's gas and he drops a logbook describing it, instead of a rant on base hygiene.
Mission 4: I think a patch reset the allies in this, they all displayed as being in the front with no listed enemy group guarding them (I guess the game defaulted to Brickers, fortunately). Pared it down to 2 allies, each in a different map zone to minimize the chance of overlap.
Mission 5: Attempted to make the electronic intrusion sound more serious than a single email to the wrong source. Wodesten is now rambling because of the pressure instead of narrowly psychotic, and the success dialogue provides a little more information and sadly 100% fewer Spelunky jokes.
I think it's still not completely obvious why the Goldbrickers are showing up but it should be easier to work out.
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)
I don't think my two are in a queue yet.
13579 & 26420, the first is more of s story based thing while the second is more of a go at a standard city type mission arc.
My first short story (detective fiction) came out in Jan-2012. Other stories and books to follow, I hope. Because of "real writing". COH was a big part of that happening.
I've finished my 3rd arc today, and would love for someone (Venture, Hell_O_Ween, anyone really) to review it.
My previous arcs were always very serious. This one is still very story-driven, but it also leans a bit into fun and and some comedy. I hope someone will give it a try.
It's a tale I've penned down as:
Arc Name: Pandas vs. Rikti
Arc ID: 68930
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Shadow-Rush / Shadowrush
Difficulty Level: Medium
Level Range: 30-50
Synopsis: In a parallel universe, Earth is populated by sentient pandas. They've been invaded by Rikti, and they are losing. Using an ancient device to interface with our Architect system... they are asking for your help.
Notes: Story-Driven. Adventure. Some comedy. Solo-friendly. Only one EB. Also fun for teams.
Estimated Time to Play: 45-60 minutes
Passing Notes
by @Aracade
Arc ID: 72475
Lenght: Long
Morality: Neutral
Recommended Level Range: 30 - 50
Enemy Group says Custom but that is only partly true.
Three Missions
I really need to find out what happened to my copy of Microsoft Word...
And here comes the inevitable defense of my arc, of course. Not that I'm trying to convince you that it's good, just my reasoning for doing the things that I did.
For the first mission, you're not the first one to bring up the parts about the first mission with the longbow and the family boss. That's something that's a definite change. I'll probably just remove the family boss altogether, and change the dialogue of the prisoners to something more akin to them wondering why you're working with Longbow.
As far as the Nemesis angle goes, like you said, I was going for an Ocean's Eleven style story. In the Ocean's series, things never go perfectly for them. Yeah, David Lake made a serious mistake there, but something had to happen to mess it up. Nemesis wanting revenge for stealing from them seemed like it worked to me. If you've got another suggestion as for how things go wrong, I'm all ears.
Mission 3, it's true, it is a large map. Unfortunately the office mapset doesn't lend itself well to short missions, which I actually wanted this to be. I'll see what I can do about that. As far as Thomas Hayato goes, I tried to imply that he's a superhero's alter ego. I suppose that I didn't do a well enough job of that.
I will change the bots to energy assault. You're right, the end drain is too much. As far as the Nemesis automatons not adding to the story, I have to bring up the point again that the Nemesis angle was to add to the fact that something needs to go wrong with the heist, or else after the first three missions it would essentially end with David Lake saying "Everything went according to plan, we set the EMP, stuff's erased. Here's your pay, goodbye." Which if I saw something like that in another arc I'd feel no sense of closure at all. The last guy, honestly I don't mean for him to be that bad. I'll see what I can do about that.
As far as the amount of allies, how can I do an Ocean's Eleven style heist without them? I see your point about how powerful they are, though. I'll address that.
(Side note, the Rikti's name is based off of Vincenso Peruggia, the man who stole the Mona Lisa, keeping with the heist angle.)
EDIT: Oh crap, I just had a Fridge Logic moment here (man we are TV Tropes kind of people in here aren't we) about one of your off-hand comments.
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As a minor note, why couldn't the Technopath just make the bots stop attacking? This broke immersion badly.
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A better question is why have the Technopath around at all? David Lake has you steal an EMP device and you have ways to get past the security locks on the entrance. Really, the Technopath does absolutely nothing to add to the plan. I blame myself missing this plothole on working on this arc in small increments and forgetting my own plot. Looks like you might get your complete re-write after all.