Arc #2409, "The Mystery of the MAGI Vaults"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: "just a bunch of stuff that happens", one mission almost designed to fail
Azuria is tired of the poor track record MAGI has in artifact retention. She wants your help in stopping what she thinks is an inside job. The first part is for you to retrieve an artifact for her to put in the vaults...with a tracking spell. The mission caps at level 14. You have to search an Oranbega map for one of three glowies containing a suitable artifact.
Act II takes place two days later. The Hellions have stolen the artifact and taken it to a Galaxy City warehouse. Azuria wants you to smack them around for information, and get the artifact back if you can. I settled for just beating up the Boss, who said "Doctor F" had found a buyer for the artifact with the Warriors.
This worries Azuria, who doesn't want to see the Hellions agent get greased for trying to pass off what is essentially a fake. You're warned that the next mission is timed and has a difficult mob. You're not warned that the time limit is 15 minutes.... Fortunately it's a very small map, the "speakeasy" map. "Eris", a Dual Blades/Illusion Control EB, is there as the Warrior's artifact expert. You have to save "Doctor F", the Hellion's fixer and defeat Eris. At about half health she spawns a wave of "Nightchild" mobs, a mix of Dark Melee and Archery mobs with Dark Armor. Once you get him out Doctor F lets you know that "Cinder" is the one running the artifact scam and gives you the location of his current hideout.
Act IV is pretty obvious: go after Cinder. Cinder turns out to be a custom Boss, Fiery Melee/DiedTooFast, and won't talk after you beat him. His posse isn't quite so tough, though, and one of them tells you they get their info from Annie Dee, Cinder's girlfriend. Annie Dee, according to Azuria, is one of MAGI's researches. MAGI Fails Background Checks Forever. Azuria tells the PPD to pick her up....
...and instead she picks up some artifacts and high-tails it to some caves in Perez. You get to go in after her. This comes with a dangerous-mob warning. The caves (blue caves, yay...) are full of Bat'zul mobs. Annie's soul has been consumed by one of the artifacts she stole, making her Axe Crazy and giving her a demonic appearance. She was a Claws/DiedTooFast EB and may have summoned an ambush wave, or a patrol may have blundered in...not sure. When she falls she says "help me". Azuria says there doesn't seem to be any trace of her left but they'll keep trying to save her, and hopes she was their only leak.
This is a fairly average arc. It doesn't have any egregious faults, though Act III would be pretty easy to fail for a lot of builds. The arc's browser info does say this but designing to fail rubs me the wrong way.
Edit: typo
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"
Arc #1579, "The Council's Long Con"
tl;dr: 4 stars. Offenses: low challenge, some unusual spawn choices
Alberto Galdi wants you to help the Council "persuade" scientists from other factions to join up. Not by kidnapping, since that makes them poor researchers at best, but by conning them into thinking it's their idea to join. The first briefing says this is the second in a multi-arc series, but that's neither here nor there for my purposes.
Act I calls for you to sabotage a Sky Raiders force field prototype. Galdi tells you that you can probably just slip in and do it, but when you get there you decide to make it look like a smash and grab, which is a bit of powerposing. You have to find the prototype and 6 piles of loot.
For your next trick Galdi wants you to trash a Sky Raiders base, destroying all their expensive equipment and Jump Bots. This will force them to spend more money repurchasing gear and less on research. There are three Jump Bots and 8 pieces of equipment to trash. The Sky Raiders have some amusing comments about their gizmos ("Oh no! Amelia Escobar is here to steal our internet!"). At least one of the targets is...not what you'd expect.
For Act III, Galdi arranges for you to take on Colonel Duray, leader of the Sky Raiders. He's more than happy for the chance after you've broken all their stuff except for their great spiffy prototype...which unbeknownst to him (but beknownst to us) isn't going to work. Galdi is hoping after you beat him up, he'll take out his frustrations with you and the money problem by slashing the budget of the researcher who built the prototype. You're warned that even with a sabotaged weapon Duray won't be a pushover. The map is the outdoor factory map, meaning finding Duray can be a headache if you don't have flight, stealth or both. Duray for some reasons spawned as a Jump Bot, not the AV, and called in two ambush waves his health went down. (Nit: " That fool Amelia Escobar will rue messing with the Raiders once he gets a taste of our new invulnerable forcefield.")
In the finale everything has gone according to plan. The scientist, Dr. Katu, has been transferred to the Engineer division of the Sky Raiders and has already sent a coded message to the Council asking to defect. You're sent in to extract him. Unfortunately you are too late: Katu has been turned into a robot. OK, not really, but he spawns as a hostage Jump Bot, a non-combatant. He spawned literally right in front of the door for me, not very challenging...but springing him triggers a new objective, to defeat a prototype Jump Bot. Katu doesn't want any of his research to be left behind. The prototype is an Assault Rifle/Force Field Boss and calls in at least one ambush wave. You only have to defeat it, though, not its whole spawn. Galdi congratulates you on a job well done, expressing hopes that Katu will hold up under the more extreme pace required by the Council.
The arc has a lot of good writing in it. The pacing is a bit soft. An actual appearance by Duray might not be a bad idea. A custom EB could be used if the AV isn't desired; it will scale to Boss difficultly on CL 1. If nothing else his spawn should be changed to a Skiff.
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"
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Arc #1579, "The Council's Long Con"
tl;dr: 4 stars. Offenses: low challenge, some unusual spawn choices
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Thanks for the review.
I think your two problems are due to the newest patch. I thought I fixed the problems last night, when another reviewer pointed out similar issues, but it seems they didn't take or something.
Anyway, in the latest patch, Colonel Duray was removed from the list of selectable enemies for the Sky Raiders. Instead, it defaulted him to a Jump Bot. Kaku was originally a Engineer, and they got removed too, so he got defaulted to a Jump Bot as well.
I thought I fixed it last night by turning Duray into Captain Castillo and Kaku into a Porter. But either I did it with my local file or didn't hit republish right or it didn't take or something.
I've gone back and fixed it. Anyway, the challenge would have been somewhat higher with Duray as opposed to a Jump Bot and even with Castillo it should be bumped up somewhat.
Thanks for the review.
TBH, I'm not really sure about your 'just a bunch of stuff that happens' claim - each mission does progress logically on from the next, and the WTF ambush in 3 is forshadowed a bit in the mission text.
Mm... hadn't thought about Annie failing a background check - I just assumed she'd gotten involved with Cinder after starting work with MAGI. If I can add something about that in without it being too clumsy I will.
And Azuria's main concern about Doctor F getting greased is that right now he's their main lead. (Though the failure text allows the story to progress).
As with Talen's review (who also agrees with you on rating), the one thing is that I'm not sure exactly what I could do to improve it. There's no really clear points to work from.
Quick note: Re Blue Caves. They're not randomized - there will be no layer cake.
#2409 - The Mystery of the MAGI vaults. Azuria has contacted you to help her stop the thefts from the MAGI vaults.
#68054 - Out of the gutters. Left for dead, you swore that you were through with being a victim (alt villain beginning story)
Since I'm here, I'll save Venture the trouble. When he says "bunch of stuff that happens" he doesn't mean that it doesn't make any sense, he means that there's no theme or moral to the story. It's like the difference between a story where Superman fights Lex Luthor's new kryptonite powered robot and a one where Superman's morals are tested by wanting to kill Darkseid to end his evil forever, but ultimately doesn't because his personal code of honor prevents him from murdering someone.
I ran the Magi Vault arc yesterday and really liked it. I did get killed in mission three, but the map was small enough that I was able to get back in and wait for them to thin each other out a bit.
I just accepted that Magi uses the same background checking service that every agency on 24 does. 
That really wasn't a sticking point for me.
If the definition of "just a bunch of stuff that happened" is really no moral, then I'd think that would describe the bulk of the game content. There are very few arcs that I can think of that take a moral stand on anything. "Smoke and Mirrors" would be one that does, and that's part of what makes the story so engrossing. The rest of the arcs though, even the really popular ones, seem to fall into the JABSTH category.
In my own arcs, the two I have listed both have a moral element to the story, though one has it pretty hidden. The others I have planed don't. Then again, I don't know that a good story has to have a moral message.
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.
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If the definition of "just a bunch of stuff that happened" is really no moral, then I'd think that would describe the bulk of the game content. There are very few arcs that I can think of that take a moral stand on anything. "Smoke and Mirrors" would be one that does, and that's part of what makes the story so engrossing. The rest of the arcs though, even the really popular ones, seem to fall into the JABSTH category.
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Technically it's "no moral or theme". And Venture has mentioned that he'd very much like to be able to rate (quite harshly) the official content as well.
I think it's mostly a question of "does all this activity tie together in any meaningful way, or are we just putting out fires?"
Personally the "just a bunch of stuff that happened" thing doesn't bug me as much, but it's Venture's thread, so he gets to impose his opinions.
Current main:
Schrodinger's Gun, Dual Pistols/Mental Blaster, Virtue
Avatar: Becky Miyamoto from Pani Poni Dash. Roulette roulette~
I would like to submit the following arc for review, once you have the time to look at it
Story Title: Hay fever hits Heroes hard
ID#98079
Length: Long
Levels: 25-47 / 40-54 (I apologize for that, but Devouring Earth are pretty broken when it comes to lvl ranges)
Alignment: Heroic
Creator Global Name: @Captain Denmark
Description: "The Devouring Earth are about to unleash a terrifying weapon that has the potential to render all heroes powerless. Bring plenty of tissues if you try this arc..." (Note: This is for all you suffering from hay fever!)
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Mission Count: 4
Estimated play time: 30-60 minutes
I was suffering from hay fever the other day and got inspired to do this to get my revenge. So if you suffer from running nose, watery eyes, sneezing etc, take a look at this arc. Fight Birch, Hazel and other enemies you loathe and hate! 
Member of Top Ten since 2005
Arc 98079: Hay Fever hits Heroes Hard
Arc 53357: Family Business is not Men-only
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Personally the "just a bunch of stuff that happened" thing doesn't bug me as much, but it's Venture's thread, so he gets to impose his opinions.
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I know I have seen Venture 4 star some arcs where he also states that the arc is "just a bunch of stuff that happened". So while it is an offense, it is not a terrible one.
Why Blasters? Empathy Sucks.
So, you want to be Mental?
What the hell? Let's buff defenders.
Tactics are for those who do not have a big enough hammer. Wisdom is knowing how big your hammer is.
I know you're currently swamped with arc review requests; but if/when you have a chance, I'd like to get a review of my first arc:
My Arc info (Works all the way through Level 54 so no auto-exemplaring whatsoever ):
Title: Is it Live or is it Memory-X
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Story Arc ID: 70210
Authors Global Chat Handle: @Armsman
Length: Very Long (5 missions)
Alignment: Heroic
Story Description: The 5th Column is building a device to control the world. Can you save the world from TOTAL DOMINATION?! (Hey it worked to get my Villians and Vigilantes pen and paper RPG group interested back in the day.)
Designer Notes: The Arc can actually be soloed by most Scrapper, Tank and Matermind builds (I tested my characters through it). In testing, my Gravity/Force Field Controller made it through mission 3 solo with no issues, but starting getting defeats in mission 4; so if youre a support class or a blaster, you probably need a team-mate as I got feedback a Tanker/Defender duo made it through fine.
This arc is actually based on an adventure I ran players through in the Villians & Vigilantes pen and paper RPG a number of years back. I was surprised at how much of the original flavor I was able to keep in adapting it to fit in the CoX universe. There was only really one element I couldnt include due to MA limitations.
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Arc #1579, "The Council's Long Con"
tl;dr: 4 stars. Offenses: low challenge, some unusual spawn choices
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Thanks for the review.
I think your two problems are due to the newest patch. I thought I fixed the problems last night, when another reviewer pointed out similar issues, but it seems they didn't take or something.
Anyway, in the latest patch, Colonel Duray was removed from the list of selectable enemies for the Sky Raiders. Instead, it defaulted him to a Jump Bot. Kaku was originally a Engineer, and they got removed too, so he got defaulted to a Jump Bot as well.
I thought I fixed it last night by turning Duray into Captain Castillo and Kaku into a Porter. But either I did it with my local file or didn't hit republish right or it didn't take or something.
I've gone back and fixed it. Anyway, the challenge would have been somewhat higher with Duray as opposed to a Jump Bot and even with Castillo it should be bumped up somewhat.
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For the record, something I discovered the other day, for anyone else having a problem with changes not taking: Autosave is the devil. Alot of the time, changes you make will be saved to the autosave file and not the one you're clicking on when you go to edit. So watch out for that.
Has been killed by the DoT on Throwing Knives and proud of it.
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For the record, something I discovered the other day, for anyone else having a problem with changes not taking: Autosave is the devil. Alot of the time, changes you make will be saved to the autosave file and not the one you're clicking on when you go to edit. So watch out for that.
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And that was probably the issue, as I turned on autosave a few hours prior to fixing that arc.
Arc #1026, "To Hell and Back"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: bugged mission, possible death trap, weak theme
Yes, this arc is jumping the queue. It's pohsyb's, he asked me to review it. Yes, red names get professional courtesy, deal with it.
What they don't get is mercy.
Poh Poh, a Fire Imp and clearly an unreliable one, has a job for you. He wants you to stop a girl from going to Hell. His master wants the girl; Poh Poh seems to think the girl is going to take his place. The first task is to get a key from the Circle of Thorns that will get you to Hell. This mission has a level range of 25-35. The first thing you find is Rachel "your typical biker chick seduced by an evil demon lord", according to her info. She tells you on the way out that you have to "gaze into the abyss" to find the key. "The abyss" turns out to be a portal glowie that when clicked...summons 7 Boss demons. Rachel, it seems, already made off with the key. Because of the small map size some of the Bosses are bound to end up uncomfortably close to one another. Defeating them all is optional, but you do have to destroy the source of the Void spawn...which did not spawn. Oops. The mission does warn you that this happens sometimes on entry. On the second try the "source of the void spawn" did spawn. It was the cauldron object, fairly easy to destroy and didn't appear to summon any ambush waves.
For Act II you are sent to a "bad place" Rachel used to frequent...a biker bar (speakeasy map). Technically you only have to click one glowie and don't have to fight anything. Realisitically you will be attacked as soon as you enter the bar, by so many Thug/Devices Bosses that my client turned into a PowerPoint emulator. They are hostile to each other so you don't have bust every head in the place but you will get hit with a lot of firepower. Once everything was dead I picked up the glowie, which was Rachel's sketch pad. It had a sketch of the demon lord Menloth with little hearts around it and another sketch of a chapel.
Poh Poh knows what chapel she's drawn and sends you there for Act III, telling you to stop the wedding and not to say anything about his involvement to his master, whom we can assume is Menloth. The wedding takes place on an Oranbega map with Biker and Demon Wedding Guests. The Bikers are Thugs MMs with Gang War...which does not expire with the caster's death. Demons are Fiery Melee/Fiery Aura. Your objective is to take out the reverend, a Dark Blast/Dark Miasma Boss who spawns right near Menloth. There's nothing said about Menloth having to survive, and I don't think it's even possible to have that as an objective yet, but I played along and didn't target him. After the Reviled Reverend snuffs it you get a new objective, to beat up Rachel, who is now looking much more demonic. Both she and Menloth are, I think, Fire Blast/Fiery Melee, Boss rank. Her defeat clears the mission. Poh Poh is happy that he has the master all to himself now. Um, yeah.
It has its moments, but it also has problems. Whatever problem is causing the triggered objective on the first map not to spawn is clearly proving to be harder to track down than hoped. Act II is too close quarters for that kind of spawn, doubly so with Boss Masterminds. It needs some work.
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"
AVs Gone Wild
102332
Its a 5 small open map arc. with glowie in front part of mish. With all the AV/EB in back(depending on size and difficulty lvl of team is you could get EB's). The purpose like any fight club fights optional, so u wonder around maps and see if there any one u want 2 challenge. If so step up to them, there eager for fight. 3rd map has statesman & lord recluse along with closest friends. Plz take time and read dialog and scenery.map enemy is babes in bikinis which are all minions, had gone wild in the name so why not....ehh! but if you get EB's and want AV's just raise difficulty lvl
Arc #1571, "The Council's Good Graces"
tl;dr: 4 stars. Offenses: no-closure ending
This is actually the arc before #1579, "The Council's Long Con". The arcs ended up in my queue in reverse order somehow, and the Architect never pointed it out to me. So it goes. This whole arc is in the 15-19 range.
Alberto Galdi, once a powerful Archon but now a recruiter thanks to an injury, offers you a chance to get in good with the Council. For your first task he asks you to go to a warehouse, wipe out everyone and grab anything you find and bring it back to him, no questions asked, as a display of trust. The "warehouse" is a Council base (the low-level map). You find five crates of weapons and some shipping instructions. Galdi tells you afterward that the Council does have traitors from time to time and needed to be sure you'd follow order without question to wipe some out.
It turns out the base was shipping large quantities of quantum weapons to another base in an area that doesn't have Kheldian problems. Galdi wants to know what's going on. An inspection would tip off whoever is behind the scam, but if a villain shows up to trash the place they'll probably just blame Arachnos. Of course, you're actually going to be looking for clues. You have to find two glowies amidst many decoys and defeat the base commander. You find evidence implicating the base commander in the smuggling of quantum weapons to bases in Paragon City. Galdi, however, says the commander may not have even known that he was doing anything wrong...which won't keep him from being punished, of course.
Act III, the finale, sends you after the Archon who recruited that commander, who was formerly a 5th Column member. This is a standard Council base map. You only have to defeat the Archon and his spawn; he takes a cyanide pill on defeat so you don't get to question him. He does let slip during the fight that he's not the one in charge of the scheme. Galdi tells you the trail is now cold, though, and whoever is running it won't move again any time soon. He gives you an unofficial Council patch and says you can consider yourself an ally of the Council.
The ending is somewhat unsatisfying as there is no real closure. Yes, it's part of a series but every "chapter" has to stand on its own. (And as it happens, the next chapter doesn't really build off this one.) It does have good writing and gameplay.
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"
Arc #18145, "The Fuhrer's Fury"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: morality issues, "just a bunch of stuff that happened", gratuitous faction
Note: the next arc in the queue was #1881. That is not coming up for me. If you own it and can get this straightened out I'll move it back to the front of the line.
Zaxo Stryker (author insert) wants your help in reclaiming Delta Zeta 24-10, a.k.a. Axis America, from the Nazis. First he wants you to steal the co-ordinates from Portal Corp. Um, yeah. He promises to talk to his friends and get the charges dropped for your assault. Yes, it says Heroic on the label.... The mission uses the Portal Corp tech map and only requires you to find one glowie. I don't know if there are any fakes because the first one I found was the right one. I clicked out without having to fight anything (so, zero reward....)
For Act II, Zaxo has jury-rigged a portal in his supergroup's base for dimensional travel. "Don't worry, it's been tested." What Could Possibly Go Wrong? You're to explore the area since it's been ages since anyone has been to this dimension. You end up on the outdoor factory map filled with custom Axis mobs (one class of LTs, the 9th Squad Meta, has no /info). These include healers (Pain Domination) and buffers (Kinetics). The Power Armor variety have Invulnerability turned up high enough for Unyielding. so kiss control effects goodbye. Your objective is the Axis leader and any information he has. The first Boss I ran into, a Fire Melee/Fiery Aura, was not the leader. The leader was General Gerard, a Martial Arts/DiedTooFast. He carries orders in German from someone named No. 163.
Zaxo translates the orders and for Act III, sends you to the staging area those troops came from. You are told "Kill them all. Don't give meany of that goody goody talk either. We're dealing with murderers and the worst scum I've ever met." Um, yeah. Amidst the slaughter you find a kid who ratted out a possible resistance cell in his neighborhood.
In Act IV Zaxo has found an Axis training base. He can't take it out himself so he wants you to team up with him and destroy it, saving the children imprisoned within. Zaxo spawns frontloaded and has no /info, apparently as Assault Rifle/Energy Manipulation. The first child you find is already indoctrinated so you kill him...yeah. No. 163 turns up again...wasn't I supposed to have killed every...oh, never mind. There are five actual children you don't have to kill.
For the big finish, Zaxo has found the "Cryogenitic Storage" facility where the Fuhrer is being kept. I looked, there's no trope for Hitler On Ice for some reason.... Zaxo is accompanying you to destroy the freezing equipment, thus killing the Fuhrer and demoralizing the Axis. He spawned frontloaded, he also despawned frontloaded as he pulled a Fusionnette and snuffed it in the first room. All of the control units also spawned frontloaded. Blowing up the control units gives you a new objective, Defeat The Fuhrer...what a surprise. The Fuhrer is an AV, "the world's strongest metahuman" but now weakened after 40 years in cryogenic suspension. He's a Dark Melee/Dark Blast, both turned to 11, and calls one ambush wave that showed up about 10 seconds after he kissed the linoleum.
This is a fairly middle-of-the-road arc. It has a hatful of new mobs, none of which are necessary or add to the story in any way. Axis America mobs are available, as are 5th, of course. Hitler and Nazis in general are the low-hanging fruit in any case. Heroes that stay anywhere near the straight and narrow will chafe at the morality issues. There is no real theme and not much of a plot; there is little or nothing connecting one mission to the next. It's basically five missions of beating up Nazis with new models.
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"
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Arc #1571, "The Council's Good Graces"
tl;dr: 4 stars. Offenses: no-closure ending
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This is actually a better rating than most have given that arc, which surprised me. I figured the non-ending would annoy you more than it did most.
And, yes, I knew that would be an issue from the start. I can't really think too much of a way to "fix" it. Well, I mean, I can. But it'd require a big rewrite that I'm not too eager to do at the moment.
I didn't mention it was the "prequel" to the previous arc you reviewed mainly because, as you mention in the review, #2 doesn't really follow on #1. My general design is to eventually create a full mission chain for the Council, including things like Strike Forces for the various Council AVs, essentially as an alternative to Arachnos. So not all of the stories will be connected.
Thanks again for the review.
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Arc #1026, "To Hell and Back"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: bugged mission, possible death trap, weak theme
.
Yes, this arc is jumping the queue. It's pohsyb's, he asked me to review it. Yes, red names get professional courtesy, deal with it.
.
What they don't get is mercy.
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I played the Arc in Open Beta twice, once with my Primary Blaster, and the other with my Primary Mastermind.
I'm sorry to hear it got bugged getting ported over to Live, but I personally thought that the theme was fairly strong. The Possible Deathtrap though is very accurate. I played this both time on Challenge Level 4 and my Blaster squeeked through Act II just barely without having to go to the hospital ward. My Defensively Heavy Mastermind, held on for longer than I thought going it, but I still had to make one trip to the hospital. Both times pretty much emptying my insperations tray. But don't get me wrong, I thought it made for a good mission.
I personally gave it 5 stars then, but I can see where someone else would rate it 4 stars or possiblely 3. There is a morality/ethical dilemna question I did have at the end with what your character has to do and does, but that will largely be dependent on the player.
Arc #38226 "If You Teach a Man to Make a Fish"
tl;dr: 2 stars. Offenses: borderline Wall Banger
The UN's GENE program attempts to clone Mako...evidently to correct the world's shortage of psychopathic amphibian killing machines. The level range on this is 20-30 for the first mission and 25-31 for the second...since it was short I didn't both changing builds.
Anyway...Act I opens with Dr. Barlow of GENE (Genetic Enhancement for Neutralization of the Enemy...this is a UN project? Genetic warfare?!) asking you to retrieve some of Mako's teeth, lost during his fight with Scrapyard. You are to get these teeth by beating up the Scrapyarders...in a Neutral morality mission....okaaaaay. I managed to stealth the map and got the tooth while only slicing up a few members of the resistance.
In Act II, Barlow tells you they've created a weaker, controllable version of Mako. Right. Fortunately, we don't have to wait to see What Could Possibly Go Wrong, as the Coralax have attacked the lab. You have to recover some glowies, meet up with Barlow (Energy Blast LT) and clear out all the Coralax on a two-level tech map. Of course, the Mako clone has gone^H^H^H^Halready was Axe Crazy and has to go too. Barlow tells you the clone was emitting a psychic signal the Coralax homed in on and wonders if the real Mako has that ability as well. He gives you the tooth as a souvenir since his superiors don't want him working on this project any more. I can't imagine why.
This one's a borderline Wall Banger.
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"
I'll throw one onto the pile here:
Jenkins's Guide to Super-Villainy
Arc ID: 84008
Faction: Villainous
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Circuit Boy
Difficulty Level: Missions #1-3 1-50, Mission #4 20-29; easy to medium difficulty
Synopsis: Tired of Kalinda prattling on about searching for the "Destined One"? More than just a mercenary gun for hire? Tired of exterminating snakes for Mongoose? Not thrilled to be Doctor Creed's lab assistant? Want to know how to become a real super-villain? Jenkins has just the guide for you!
Estimated Time to Play: 4 missions, 60-90 minutes
40062: The World's Worst PUG
84008: Jenkins's Guide to Super-Villainy
230187: The Hero of Kings Row
No H8 - 08.04.10
@Circuit Boy - Moderator - Pride global chat channel
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Just wanted to note that one of the reasons why so many missions (Architect and canon) have no "moral or theme" and are "just a bunch of stuff that happened" is that it is very difficult, if not impossible, to write such a story for literally thousands of characters. Done poorly, it can run into power-posing and/or snap a player right out of the story, even make them quit rather than continue.
Consider a familiar question for heroic types: "What would make you break your code vs. killing?" The problems are obvious right off: some heroes don't have such a thing in the first place, and those who do have different thresholds, different answers to that question. If you present me with an arc where one of my more Silver-Agey heroes snaps and wastes a Smug Snake in front of TV cameras, because the clue or mission debriefing says so, that's it - I'm done. I probably won't rate it down because I'm not vindictive that way, but I will not be finishing or recommending that arc.
So, how do you make a story that isn't JABOSTH without taking away a player's control of their character or making assumptions that will probably be wrong at least half of the time?
My characters at Virtueverse
Faces of the City
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Just wanted to note that one of the reasons why so many missions (Architect and canon) have no "moral or theme" and are "just a bunch of stuff that happened" is that it is very difficult, if not impossible, to write such a story for literally thousands of characters. Done poorly, it can run into power-posing and/or snap a player right out of the story, even make them quit rather than continue.
Consider a familiar question for heroic types: "What would make you break your code vs. killing?" The problems are obvious right off: some heroes don't have such a thing in the first place, and those who do have different thresholds, different answers to that question. If you present me with an arc where one of my more Silver-Agey heroes snaps and wastes a Smug Snake in front of TV cameras, because the clue or mission debriefing says so, that's it - I'm done. I probably won't rate it down because I'm not vindictive that way, but I will not be finishing or recommending that arc.
So, how do you make a story that isn't JABOSTH without taking away a player's control of their character or making assumptions that will probably be wrong at least half of the time?
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You make a good point about forcing your character to behave in a certain way, and that seems to be something that Venture dislikes as well; in many reviews, he's criticized the writer for making assumptions about a player characters motives/morals/background etc.
However, that doesn't preclude having a theme. To go back to your example, if an arc gave you the option to defeat a boss (implicitly killing him) or to let him run away and fail the mission, that could allow the arc to explore a theme without necessarily assuming anything about the player. So, as you say, trying to use the theme "what would make your character break their code vs. killing" would be very difficult (though perhaps not impossible) to do in the confines of the Architect. On the other hand, it wouldn't be very hard at all to write an arc that explored a similar theme, like "is it ever justified to kill a villain" by, say, using an NPC as the character having the moral crisis.
You're right in saying that avoiding JABOSTH is a very tricky thing to do, especially in a system where no assumptions can be made about the protagonist. However, I think Venture's right in placing such a big emphasis on this, because I believe it's critical to writing a good arc. The easiest way to do this is to look at your story and ask youself: "what question is this story asking?" If you're asking a question, you've got yourself a theme. If you answer the question, you've got yourself a moral. If you're really not asking anything, then you've got JABOSTH.
None of which is to say that you always have to have a theme or moral. A comedic arc or an "action movie" arc can usually get by without them. However, you can't write something like that and then expect it to be taken seriously. On the other hand, if you're really trying for drama, then a theme is an integral part of that.
Ultimately, it all comes down to maintaining a realistic and focused grasp on what exactly you're trying to accomplish with your arc. Honestly, if everyone just did that, there are a lot of arcs that would be vastly improved. If an arc feels loosely connected, disjointed, or chaotic, a lot of times it's because the writer didn't have any goal beyond "I want to write a good arc." When you click that New Arc button, you should imagine someone asking you: "What is this arc's reason for being, and what makes it so special?" If you don't have an answer for that, then you need to think about it some more.
Well, I know the reviewers are swamped and may never get around to it, but I'd like to toss my mission into the pile for review:
Arc ID: 40686
Name: Go Go Chromatic Rangers
Alignment: Evil
Approximate Runtime: 30-45 minutes
Notes: 4 missions, 1 Kill-all, 1 EB/AV Fight
Description: Stop a world bending attack by some colorful heros
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Arc #38226 "If You Teach a Man to Make a Fish"
tl;dr: 2 stars. Offenses: borderline Wall Banger
The UN's GENE program attempts to clone Mako...evidently to correct the world's shortage of psychopathic amphibian killing machines.
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"I will make Nature's most perfect killing machine into a robot for no apparent reason" - Sealab 2021
"Steady as a mountain, attack like fire, still as a wood, swift as the wind.
In heaven and earth I alone am to be revered."
- Motto on the war banner of Takeda Shingen (1521-1573)
Thanks for the review. I had been concerned about the difficulty/annoyance of the various enemies. I've been tweaking, but since the latest patch it has become non-editable, reading at larger than before. Hopefully that will get fixed soon.
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If I'm being tested for worthiness shouldn't I have to fight without allies? Anyway, it took a while but she finally snuffed it.
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The idea here is that you prove some worthiness just by battling Einherjar in Valhalla, so some decide to join up with you as you go along.
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This is a pretty good arc. I particularly note the way the Architect gives the player a chance to dodge the Idiot Ball. It would have gotten five stars out of me if not for the Willpower EBs.
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Thanks. As soon as the inflation bug clears up I intend to make them less annoying.