I think Hell-o-Ween has my #13579 on his list.
I've got three others finished now.
26420 is a Villain arc for 20-30/35 that I expect to do poorly since there are two defeat alls and 3/4 of the missions are on a ship, but the story pretty much requires it.
75249 is a neutral arc for the 8-20 crowd.
101011 (stupid lag) is a gameplay tutorial for level 1/2 on up. Lousy story really, but that's not really the point of this one. The NPC's explain pulling, Buffs, and Anchors in the first mission. From there it moves on.
I'm open for a review on any or all of them.
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.
Arc Name: Uniocracy of Gray Taskforce- Parts 1 & 2 out of 7
Arc ID: 106017 and 109495
Morality:Villainous (Prolly should be Heroic...lol)
Creator: @Thunder Cat HOooo
Length: Short and Medium
Level Ranges: All Levels!!
Difficulty: Hard (you decide lol)
Alright, the queue so far looks like this:
84420
77928
91789
2622
4384
70210
73207
26420
106017
I'll blast through some of these tomorrow.
I would like to request the following for review:
The Broken Chain[/color]
Arc ID: 81378
Faction: heroic
Difficulty Level: available 1-50, medium difficulty (EBs and an AV)
Synopsis: The Legacy Chain has been compromised since its inception when one of the founders, the pure and idealistic Adrastus, was overcome by shadows. Now, centuries later, Adrastus is trying to wipe out the Chain and they need your help to stop him (low level friendly, team recommended, EBs & AV)
Estimated Time to Play: 4 missions, 45-60 minutes
Thanks. The "team recommended" thing is mostly for lower levels. At higher levels it should solo fine.
Sermon
@sermon
One of Six, Cannibal 6
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Arc #26931, "The Balance of Power Part I"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: weak theme, overpowered ally
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I haven't enough time to comment on everything, so I'll summarise: I very much appreciate you taking the time to do this, Venture! I definetly agree with several of the points you raised, and I'll be sure to look into fixing most of what I CAN fix.
Thanks a bunch for the review. 
Arc Name: Alliance: Alien
Arc ID: 77277
Morality: Heroic
Creator: @Goldwalker
Length: Long (Though most of the missions are pretty quick)
Level Ranges: 30-54
Difficulty: Normal
Synopsis: The Rikti are kidnapping kheldians. They're up to something that should probably be stopped.
This arc feels to me like it needs polish somewhere, but I can't figure out where. So I would appreciate a review.
Enjoying every AT in the game.
Remember the Golden Rule: Skill > Build
Leader of the True Blues on Liberty
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Synopsis: The Rikti are kidnapping kheldians. They're up to something that should probably be stopped.
This arc feels to me like it needs polish somewhere, but I can't figure out where.
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Well, I would probably start by asking why a heroic mission would be somewhat ambivalent about whether kidnappings should be stopped or not. 
I should mention that all of my arcs are free for any reviewer that wants to sharpen swords to review, if they so choose (I'm always looking for feedback). Just keep in mind that the Scrapper Challenge mission is just a bunch of stuff that happens to kill you; Bug Hunt is a vengeance story: mine against the devs for bugging my arcs so many times in closed beta; and Secret Weapons is the arc I actually wrote a serious story for (which is why its both amusing to me and disturbing at the same time that it has a slightly lower rating than the one with the talking mito and the lunatic boss fight).
[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.)
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I'd love to get some detailed feedback on my arc:
Arc Name: Matchstick Women
ID: 3369
Missions: 3
Level range: 1-54, but post SOs recommended
Description: A story driven arc following a group of women arsonists that you have been led to by a mysterious flame. One standard diff AV/EB at the end.
Nice detailed reviews so far here.
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Reposting for anyone else here doing reviews. From page 10 @ 50 posts per page.
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Since the RIP are up to no good, and are cops, I made the assumption that they would oppose the Legacy Chain, who are good guys who wear armor and carry weapons. I have run afould oif cops a few times in RL while wearing armor and carrying weaons...but that's a story for another time. Besides, as stereotypical brutal cops, they need no excuse to bust a few heads.
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You actually can't make them NOT fight. The Chain and RIP are hard coded to be hostile to each other, much like Longbow and any villain groups are.
Just commenting on some of the Circle lore here:
Oranbega is only in Paragon City, the underground cities you go to in the Rogue Isles, I believe, are the ruins of the Mu civilization. At least I'm fairly certain, I'm a bit rusty on my CoV lore. In any case, it's not Oranbega.
This is correct. They look the same because the Mu and the Oranbegans both come from a common culture so they have similar architecture.
Exactly what the Mu ruins in the Rogue Isles are is still up for grabs a bit. Some parts of CoV seem to claim the Isles are what is left of Mu itself. Others say they were an outpost. The latter is more likely to be correct given references in the earlier CoH material.
Also, it doesn't say anywhere that someone has to be of Oranbegan descent in order to become a CoT mage.
Also correct.
In fact, there are no people of Oranbegan descent, as because of the pact they made with Ermeeth to destroy the Mu continent, they all became ghosts, so Polyantha saying that you can't become a true member because you don't share their bloodline doesn't make any sense.
The pact was with Hell, not Ermeeth. Ermeeth (Prometheus) is the god who taught Tielekku's magic to humans. It's not clear in the canon how Tielekku felt about that (an old Paragon Times article suggests she wasn't down with it, but in-game text indicates the ancient Oranbegans still venerated her) but Tielekku's other student (and Ermeeth's former squeeze) Hequat (Hecate) objected most vehemently.... The Circle cut the deal responsible for their current status with the Prince of Demons, through the Envoy of Shadow.
It is not stated anywhere that all Oranbegans agreed to the pact though that is the default assumption. This is a bit of ambiguity I play with in "Chains of Blood".
But I was sure you had to have the Mu Bloodline to become a Circle mage. I could be wrong, though.
It is implied in various places that the ability to wield magic is tied to the body, not a metaphysical quality of the soul. Thus, when looking for hosts, CoT magi will naturally look for ones with strong "magery", and such people are likely to have Mu ancestry. However, contrary to what a lot of players have assumed, it is not the case that everyone in the City universe who can wield magic has Mu ancestry. It's the most likely case, but the devs did leave wiggle room for people with other ideas for their characters' backstories.
N.B. since, again, the Mu and the Oranbegans came from the same homeland (Atlantis?) that what exactly constitutes the "Blood of Mu" is also ambiguous, and something I play with in my arc....
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"
So I got this in a PM today (name redacted)....
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You know, subjective feedback is only helpful when you actually offer some "I think this can be done better this way" feedback too. Oh, and thanks for ignoring my questions, that was a really nice finger of you.
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Just for the record...it is not my job to write your arc for you. I may choose to make a suggestion if the issue is somewhat peripheral and has some fairly obvious fix, but much of the time the problem is too central to the arc and requires real authorial decisions. Those are up to you.
As far as replying to questions, I try to, but sometimes I have to put that off for a bit and play catch-up later. I do have a life outside of this game, and frankly after reviewing an arc I've already spent a good amount of time on someone else's work. If I invest the time to enter into a full dialog with an Architect then I'm either not spending that time getting to review other peoples' arcs or I'm spending more time than I should in City, which I probably already am anyway.
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 don't think you owe the author any follow-up Venture. Some may consider it a false analogy, but published critics in periodicals don't respond to a director, producer, or studio's questions or arguments when they review a film. Frankly, if the author isn't ready for criticism, constructive or no, he or she shouldn't put his or her arc up for review on this thread.
Ask for a review, but it is what it is. Don't become hostile because one critiques your arc and you aren't pleased with the outcome, demand answers, etc.
If your queue isn't full already LaserJesus, I have an arc that I hope you will enjoy:
Arc Name:Go Go Chromatic Rangers
Arc ID:40686
Faction: Villainous
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Kong Fuu
Difficulty Level: Medium
Synopsis: Show a bunch of Sentai-style do-gooders how things are in the Rogue Isles
Estimated Time to Play: 30-45 minutes
Arc #2142, "Ninja Crimewave"
tl;dr: 4 stars. Offenses: bad pacing, tedious hostage escorts
Coyote calls on you to stop a bank robbery in progress. There is supposed to be another hero on the scene but it's expected he'll need help. When you arrive, you find the bank under attack by the Crescent Clan Ninja. (None of which use Ninjitsu due to the bug. Some do have Super Reflexes though, so goodbye stealth.) You have to rescue Kid Samurai (Katana/Willpower combatant but not ally, takes off on his own, has a bad attitude) and the bank manager, and defuse a bomb. The manager tells you the ninja didn't take anything, they just set the bomb and waited for heroes to show up. Rescuing the manager (I think) triggered an ambush, which arrived just after I had disarmed the bomb and completed the mission. Coyote tells you the Crescent Clan used to be part of the Tsoo but their leader got power-hungry and split off. Then more calls start coming in....
The Crescents start hitting businesses all over the city simultaneously. Coyote dispatches you to cover a nearby jewelry store. This is a fairly short run, you have to clear the store map and find one glowie, containers of poison gas. The other heroes find similar things, nothing stolen but bombs, gas, etc. Kid Samurai, however, has not checked in.
In Act III, Kid Samurai has tracked the ninja to a nearby state park, which the ninja have now set on fire. Coyote wants you to help him and has sent another hero ahead. This one has a "get a team" warning on it. That appears to be for the Greater Oni EB (Fire Control/Storm Summoning), which wasn't all that tough. You also have to rescue Kid Samurai (typo in objective: "Saurai"; at least he follows you this time, albeit on aggressive and still with a bad attitude), Flower Knight and three civilians...who are escorts. On an outdoor map. Yeah. The mission pretty much becomes a clear-all because of this. One of the hostages does have some information for you. She overheard them talking about a "Xing Chao", an informant they wanted to kill. This act was pretty tedious, frankly.
Coyote tracks down the informant in Act IV. It turns out the crime wave was just a diversion for the Crescent Clan's efforts to find him. That's a bit "non-covert" for ninja but that's Lampshaded back in Act I so I'll roll with it. The police are taking him to testify before a grand jury even now. Coyote is of the opinion that the man is probably a Tsoo member planted in the Clan to sell them out, thus using the legal system to destroy their competition, but that's neither here nor there. Kid Samurai and Flower Knight are already on the scene but Coyote expects the Clan's leader will send his best to whack the informant. He wants you there as well. Your objectives for this one are to find both allies, 3 hostages, the informant, secure the evidence and defeat "Madame Xu"...no, you don't get overtime for this. What you do get is tragedy: you find Kid Samurai has been killed by the Crescent. Thankfully, none of the hostages are escorts. The Big Bad is a Psychic Blast/Martial Arts.
Indictment in hand, you are sent after Doctor Wu, the clan leader, in Act V. Flower Knight is on board again, out for blood after Kid Samurai's death. This mission is kind of a let-down after the previous two...it's on a short casino map, you basically just run in and beat him down. He's a Ninja/Dark Misama EB, can be problematic because of the fear.
If 3.5 stars was an option I'd have given that, but I erred on the side of mercy and went with four. There really isn't a theme, the pacing is off, the writing could use polish in places and act III is just plain tedious...but the Architect does pull off Kid Samurai's death well. The bad attitude may be annoying but it does connect you to the character.
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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Just commenting on some of the Circle lore here:
Oranbega is only in Paragon City, the underground cities you go to in the Rogue Isles, I believe, are the ruins of the Mu civilization. At least I'm fairly certain, I'm a bit rusty on my CoV lore. In any case, it's not Oranbega.
This is correct. They look the same because the Mu and the Oranbegans both come from a common culture so they have similar architecture.
Exactly what the Mu ruins in the Rogue Isles are is still up for grabs a bit. Some parts of CoV seem to claim the Isles are what is left of Mu itself. Others say they were an outpost. The latter is more likely to be correct given references in the earlier CoH material.
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Are you 100% positive about this? Thorn Isle, at least, seems like it would have to be Oranbega. Or at least have been the Circle of Thorns possession for quite a long time. After all, the very thing they get their name from comes from the giant tree growing there.
Additionally, there are certain arcs that paint the Circle as having been in the ruins beneath the Rogue Islands for a long time. I know that part of it is supposed to be Mu/Muvian in origin. But it seems like it almost certainly must be partially Oranbegan in origin too.
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But I was sure you had to have the Mu Bloodline to become a Circle mage. I could be wrong, though.
It is implied in various places that the ability to wield magic is tied to the body, not a metaphysical quality of the soul. Thus, when looking for hosts, CoT magi will naturally look for ones with strong "magery", and such people are likely to have Mu ancestry. However, contrary to what a lot of players have assumed, it is not the case that everyone in the City universe who can wield magic has Mu ancestry. It's the most likely case, but the devs did leave wiggle room for people with other ideas for their characters' backstories.
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In fact, the Possessed Scientists are explicitly stated as not having the Blood of Mu and yet are obviously capable of magic.
I've always played it that the Blood of Mu means that the possession is more likely to produce good results. You can become more powerful by getting a good old Mu Blood Body, but that's not gonna happen if you're in a clunky generic brand.
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Arc #2142, "Ninja Crimewave"
tl;dr: 4 stars. Offenses: bad pacing, tedious hostage escorts
Coyote calls on you to stop a bank robbery in progress. There is supposed to be another hero on the scene but it's expected he'll need help. When you arrive, you find the bank under attack by the Crescent Clan Ninja. (None of which use Ninjitsu due to the bug. Some do have Super Reflexes though, so goodbye stealth.) You have to rescue Kid Samurai (Katana/Willpower combatant but not ally, takes off on his own, has a bad attitude) and the bank manager, and defuse a bomb. The manager tells you the ninja didn't take anything, they just set the bomb and waited for heroes to show up. Rescuing the manager (I think) triggered an ambush, which arrived just after I had disarmed the bomb and completed the mission. Coyote tells you the Crescent Clan used to be part of the Tsoo but their leader got power-hungry and split off. Then more calls start coming in....
The Crescents start hitting businesses all over the city simultaneously. Coyote dispatches you to cover a nearby jewelry store. This is a fairly short run, you have to clear the store map and find one glowie, containers of poison gas. The other heroes find similar things, nothing stolen but bombs, gas, etc. Kid Samurai, however, has not checked in.
In Act III, Kid Samurai has tracked the ninja to a nearby state park, which the ninja have now set on fire. Coyote wants you to help him and has sent another hero ahead. This one has a "get a team" warning on it. That appears to be for the Greater Oni EB (Fire Control/Storm Summoning), which wasn't all that tough. You also have to rescue Kid Samurai (typo in objective: "Saurai"; at least he follows you this time, albeit on aggressive and still with a bad attitude), Flower Knight and three civilians...who are escorts. On an outdoor map. Yeah. The mission pretty much becomes a clear-all because of this. One of the hostages does have some information for you. She overheard them talking about a "Xing Chao", an informant they wanted to kill. This act was pretty tedious, frankly.
Coyote tracks down the informant in Act IV. It turns out the crime wave was just a diversion for the Crescent Clan's efforts to find him. That's a bit "non-covert" for ninja but that's Lampshaded back in Act I so I'll roll with it. The police are taking him to testify before a grand jury even now. Coyote is of the opinion that the man is probably a Tsoo member planted in the Clan to sell them out, thus using the legal system to destroy their competition, but that's neither here nor there. Kid Samurai and Flower Knight are already on the scene but Coyote expects the Clan's leader will send his best to whack the informant. He wants you there as well. Your objectives for this one are to find both allies, 3 hostages, the informant, secure the evidence and defeat "Madame Xu"...no, you don't get overtime for this. What you do get is tragedy: you find Kid Samurai has been killed by the Crescent. Thankfully, none of the hostages are escorts. The Big Bad is a Psychic Blast/Martial Arts.
Indictment in hand, you are sent after Doctor Wu, the clan leader, in Act V. Flower Knight is on board again, out for blood after Kid Samurai's death. This mission is kind of a let-down after the previous two...it's on a short casino map, you basically just run in and beat him down. He's a Ninja/Dark Misama EB, can be problematic because of the fear.
If 3.5 stars was an option I'd have given that, but I erred on the side of mercy and went with four. There really isn't a theme, the pacing is off, the writing could use polish in places and act III is just plain tedious...but the Architect does pull off Kid Samurai's death well. The bad attitude may be annoying but it does connect you to the character.
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Thanks for the review. I've been debating about whether or not to pull this down or fix it up a little bit. I think I'll do some work on the third mission, change the escorts to releases, and see how it does.
Arc #2150, "Win the 2009 Freak-lympics"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: tedious outdoor object hunt, problematic mobs, "just a bunch of stuff that happened"
Dreck offers you a chance to prove yourself as a villain by joining the 2009 Freak-lympics. As a villain arc I ran this with my 34 Widow. The first event: the speed steal. You have 15 minutes to collect four glowies in a jewelry store map, then deal with a Boss spawn. The store is guarded by custom Security Guard mobs, all of which are Mace/Willpower Lieutenants. The boss is "Detective Volt", an Electric Blast/Manipulation Boss who calls more of the LTs when low. The customs hit very hard.
The next event is the 500 yard smash. You are sent to the Skyway map to destroy objects. There are 18 assorted objects which makes this map fairly tedious. You also have both Synapse and Mynx, but they are optional targets (I took both out), along with a Galaxy Archon ally (whom I ditched).
The twist comes in Act III. One of the team leaders, K1L0HURTZ, has "ideas" about his future if he wins. Dreck doesn't want that to happen. You, being a non-Freak, can intervene without it coming back on him. You're sent to the "Blow Longbow to Hell" event in St. Martial. This takes place in the Longbow officer's club map. The target is a Noise Tank, and about the entire map agroed on me instantly. It took most of my tray but I pulled it off.
Act IV is an all-out assault on Atlas Park. Your targets are the Security Chief, the Activist, Azuria, the Hero Corps Field Analyst, Henry Peter Wong, Ms. Liberty, and "the New Hero". As you can imagine there's some humorous dialog mixed in here. Wong is a Merecenaries/Invulnerability Boss. The Analyst is a Super Strength/Willpower Boss and took forever to wear down. Dropping him spawns a Freak ambush determined to keep you from winning. Azuria is a Dark Blast/Dark Miasma Boss. The Security Chief is a hostage held by Freaks and an escort. Ms. Libery was almost impossible for me to defeat. I blew almost an entire tray three times and won by the skin of my teeth the fourth time.
Then...the mission turned out to be bugged. The "new hero" was not to be found anywhere. I searched the whole map, defeated every mob, freed the Rikti Magus ally I bypassed earlier (I skip allies whenever possible)...no luck. There was no way I was going to fight Ms. Liberty or the Analyst again so I bailed on the arc.
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 ]
Arc #2150, "Win the 2009 Freak-lympics"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: tedious outdoor object hunt, problematic mobs, "just a bunch of stuff that happened"
Dreck offers you a chance to prove yourself as a villain by joining the 2009 Freak-lympics. As a villain arc I ran this with my 34 Widow. The first event: the speed steal. You have 15 minutes to collect four glowies in a jewelry store map, then deal with a Boss spawn. The store is guarded by custom Security Guard mobs, all of which are Mace/Willpower Lieutenants. The boss is "Detective Volt", an Electric Blast/Manipulation Boss who calls more of the LTs when low. The customs hit very hard.
The next event is the 500 yard smash. You are sent to the Skyway map to destroy objects. There are 18 assorted objects which makes this map fairly tedious. You also have both Synapse and Mynx, but they are optional targets (I took both out), along with a Galaxy Archon ally (whom I ditched).
The twist comes in Act III. One of the team leaders, K1L0HURTZ, has "ideas" about his future if he wins. Dreck doesn't want that to happen. You, being a non-Freak, can intervene without it coming back on him. You're sent to the "Blow Longbow to Hell" event in St. Martial. This takes place in the Longbow officer's club map. The target is a Noise Tank, and about the entire map agroed on me instantly. It took most of my tray but I pulled it off.
Act IV is an all-out assault on Atlas Park. Your targets are the Security Chief, the Activist, Azuria, the Hero Corps Field Analyst, Henry Peter Wong, Ms. Liberty, and "the New Hero". As you can imagine there's some humorous dialog mixed in here. Wong is a Merecenaries/Invulnerability Boss. The Analyst is a Super Strength/Willpower Boss and took forever to wear down. Dropping him spawns a Freak ambush determined to keep you from winning. Azuria is a Dark Blast/Dark Miasma Boss. The Security Chief is a hostage held by Freaks and an escort. Ms. Libery was almost impossible for me to defeat. I blew almost an entire tray three times and won by the skin of my teeth the fourth time.
Then...the mission turned out to be bugged. The "new hero" was not to be found anywhere. I searched the whole map, defeated every mob, freed the Rikti Magus ally I bypassed earlier (I skip allies whenever possible)...no luck. There was no way I was going to fight Ms. Liberty or the Analyst again so I bailed on the arc.
[/ QUOTE ]
Thanks for the review. I think I'll tone down a couple of the mobs, and since another person reported mobs not spawning on the map, I'll change Miss Liberty and the New Hero to optional objectives, since those are the ones that haven't spawned for people.
Arc #84420: Death to Disco!
Rating: 3 stars
Pros: Fun premise, amusing dialogue, well balanced custom group.
Cons: Doesn't go far enough with the premise, first map too long for the small amount of objectives.
Plot Overview
The Go- I mean, Deity of Rock has called upon you to repair the time stream and save Rock and Roll music from death at the hands of an insane scientist named Dr. Disco Fever. Dr. Disco Fever has hired another mad scientist named Dr. Sauer from Crey to go back in time with him to 1977 to brainwash President Jimmy Carter into liking disco. This will lead to the national anthem being set to a disco beat, and disco becoming the main style of music everyone listens to, leaving rock music to fade into obscurity. Sauer has kidnapped Jimmy Carter and brought him to an abandoned laboratory to enact Dr. Disco Fever's plan. Going through the mists of rock you find yourself in the lab, and tear through Sauer's Crey goons and rescue the President. Sauer himself thinks the plan is absolutely ridiculous, and is only in it for the money.
The Go- I mean, Deity of Rock congratulates you, but Dr. Disco Fever is still at large. Now you must go to the Disco Demolition, an event where rock fans destroy large amounts of disco 8 tracks, cassettes, and records, where the evil doctor plans to make his final stand and destroy rock music forever in order to retain his status as the king of the dance floor, instead of becoming a low wage janitor at the Crey Corporation. He is on the scene with an army of disco fans who have been given the same super-serum that he stole from Crey to receive his own powers. You lead the rock fans to victory, destroying the crates of disco music and defeating Dr. Disco Fever and his evil scheme.
Mechanics
The first mission takes place in an abandoned lab map. 3 floors, though none of the floors are too big. Unfortunately, what's small for a floor of a lab map is still pretty frickin' big. There are two objectives, rescue Jimmy Carter and defeat Sauer, who both spawned in the last room all three times I played it. (I played it 3 times because I went to bed after the first two times and then ran through it again real quick to refresh everything in my mind.) The map while not massive-huge by any means, still feels big and empty with only two objectives that spawn in the last room. The map could stand to be smaller or have some more objectives in it to liven the place up a bit. The enemies on the map are Crey, with the only custom enemy being Sauer, who is a boss that uses energy blast/electric blast, which I believe are both on standard, though energy blast may have been on hard. Not a hard fight for either of the characters I ran through with (Level 50 Kat/SR scrapper and a level 31 Crab Spider who needs enhancements bad) though the end drain did make me wheeze a bit on my spider. Not a huge deal though, popped a couple blues and solved that problem.
The second mission is an outdoor forest map, specifically the one that's always used for the Shadowhunter missions. It features two custom groups, one of Disco fans, and one of rock fans who are your allies. All of the enemies seem to be on standard difficulty for all attack sets. The minions of the disco group are Disco DJ, an AR/Dev, Disco Granny, a TA/Archery, Diva, a Sonic/Sonic, and Kung Fu Fightin, an MA/SR. Lieutenants are Disco Prince who is Katana/SR? I think? I actually can't remember. Disco Queens are Ice Blast/Elec Blast. If there are custom bosses for the faction, I didn't see any. Some of the enemies have fly, which can be a problem on outdoor maps, but since it's not a defeat all it's not that big of a problem. On the map there are 5 crates of disco music of assorted types to destroy. After you destroy all of the crates of one of the types, not really sure which, but it doesn't really matter, Dr. Disco Fever spawns. Dr. Disco Fever is a boss with Gravity/Elec Armor, with Gravity set to hard. Not sure how high the elec armor is set, but probably either standard or hard. As both the characters I did this with had status protection, he didn't put up much of a fight. On the map are also battles between rock fans and disco fans. The rock fan group seems to only have one custom NPC in it, a Battle Axe/Inv minion, however the rock fans always got the upper hand on the disco fans. I think I saw one of them die once in my 3 times through the mission.
If I have anything at all to say about the second mission, it's mainly the same problem with the first mission, there's not really much happening here. Sure, there's a couple battles, but they end about as quickly as they start and the rock fans just end up standing there, and the place just doesn't feel as chaotic as it should. I'd up the ante by adding a couple patrols of both rock fans and disco fans, maybe another battle or two if you have the room in the mission for it.
Story
I'm not going to lie, I'm a fan of silly humor, so the concept of the arc had me excited. Helping the Deity (haha word filter, you silly [censored]) of Rock stop disco from taking over the world? Count me in! However, the promise of silliness only really holds up with the Kung Fu Fightin minion who sports a martial arts gi and an afro, Dr. Disco Fever who looks like he jumped straight out of a 70s dance club, and Dr. Sauer whose dialogue is great. ("You can't possibly care about this nutty plan!") The Deity of Rock is kind of disappointing in appearance, simply being a big, muscular man in a leather jacket and pants with big sunglasses. I personally would have gone for a more Glam Rock or Hair Metal look instead of a Heavy Metal look for comedic value. In addition, I think the rock fans should have a couple other minions. Considering the timeframe is the late 70s, punk rock fans and glam rock fans would make great additions to the current heavy metal fan minions that you already have. Give them thematically appropriate costumes and powersets.
In general, while I see the potential for this arc to be really funny, it's currently not actualizing that potential. The arc needs more energy, and more dialogue in the missions. Throw in a couple patrols to say some funny lines in the missions, especially the first one. The return dialogue that the Deity of Rock gives could use some more pep to it as well, as it currently is, he more or less just says "Good job" when you come back. Definitely some room for some jokes there.
Final Thoughts
With some work, this could be a really funny arc that's short and to the point. As it stands right now, it's a solid arc that got a few chuckles out of me, Sauer's dialogue in particular was good.
Arc #77928 Heroes at War - 1944
Rating: 1 star
Pros: German enemies actually speak German
Cons: Huge outdoor maps with hard to find objectives, ridiculously powerful custom enemies, minor plot issues
Plot Overview
Alright, I have to be up front about this. I didn't finish the arc. Not for a lack of trying, however. I'll get to that later. However, I can't do a full synopsis like I usually do. The plot however has your hero travel back in time to help out in key battles of World War II, where the German forces have superpowered soldiers of their own.
Mechanics
The custom bosses are quite simply too hard. I'm not even talking AVs bumped down to elite bosses, I mean regular bosses that are one-shotting my level 50 SR scrapper who's fully slotted with hamidon enhancers with a 60 something percent chance to hit.
Every mission that I played (I got to mission 3 before I couldn't go any further) took place on an outdoor map. The first one was the coastal map with the ridiculously huge island in the corner. Not too far in, I see the boss I have to kill, Herr Zerstoerung. I run in to attack, and he instantly uses rage and hits me with knockout blow, killing me practically instantly. I die a total of 3 times against Herr Zerstoerung before I finally kill him, which took me far too long due to the fact that his invulnerability was also on extreme difficulty. I'm fairly certain it took about as long as it used to take me to solo an archvillain back around Issue 2. Keep in mind that he is Boss rank. After all that work, now I just have to find and rescue an American Sergeant. After a bit of searching through the huge map, I find him tucked in a corner.
The second mission takes place in the burning forest map filled with battles between 5th Column and American soldiers, where my only objective is Rally at the statue. I assumed that it was a defend object detail, and I was correct. 5th column soldiers are standing around a hero statue named Rally at the statue. I dispatch them and the ambush, and my objective is now Defeat Derr Kommandant, who spawned nowhere near the statue. After searching through the confusing and smoky map, I find Derr Kommandant, an elite boss. Just from looking at him I can tell he's extreme radiation, since he has choking cloud on. Reading his description also tells me that he's a mercs mastermind, that I correctly guessed was also on extreme. He wasn't as bad as Herr Zerstoerung, mainly because he doesn't have anything like KO Blow to use on me, and because this time I used every purple and orange in my insp tray before running in. He spawns an ambush of 5th Column when he gets to 75% health, and judging from my NPC dialogue tab he apparently spawns an allied ambush at 50% health of American soldiers, though by the time I killed Derr Kommandant they still hadn't shown. They probably aggroed on 5th Column soldiers before reaching me.
The third mission takes place on the absurdly mammoth destroyed city map of Psychic Clockwork King fame. My three objectives are to defeat two bosses, and rescue one captive. The first one I run into is a boss named Stahlfist, who is beating down some American soldiers and smack talking them in German as he kills them. Well, I head in to fight him. I learn quickly that he's Energy Melee, guess what difficulty. Energy Transfer difficulty. He didn't even have build up active, he must have used it on the American soldiers. Regardless, he energy transfers me, with no damage buffs on him, for over 1900 damage. He's also electric armor, so even if I somehow could manage to survive such an assault, since once he uses buildup I'm toast even through my high defense even if that last one was a lucky shot, it would take me forever to kill him once he uses his tier 9 power, all through which I'm going to have built up energy transfers and total focuses being used on me. So I quit there to prevent myself unnecessary stress.
Story
I really like the fact that the enemies actually speak German. I can only read a little bit of German, so I'm not sure if the NPC dialogue is syntactically correct, but the fact that they're not speaking English was nice. However, while I realize the 5th Column are awesome, I really wish people would stop using them in WWII arcs that take place in Europe. I know I'm being nitpicky here, but the 5th Column's name comes from the fact that they were insurgents on American soil who performed a sneak attack on Paragon City during the war. The 5th Column never fought in any battles in Europe during World War II. Also, the presence of warwolves, vampyr, and robots in World War II makes me go absolutely nuts. If you are going to use the 5th Column, make a custom group with only the soldiers in it, and call their faction Wehrmacht or something.
Final Thoughts
I really wish I could have gone through and played the entire thing, but the custom bosses are just far too difficult. They need to have their powers turned down so none of them have build up, and extreme difficulty should be saved for very rare cases.
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However, while I realize the 5th Column are awesome, I really wish people would stop using them in WWII arcs that take place in Europe. I know I'm being nitpicky here, but the 5th Column's name comes from the fact that they were insurgents on American soil who performed a sneak attack on Paragon City during the war. The 5th Column never fought in any battles in Europe during World War II. Also, the presence of warwolves, vampyr, and robots in World War II makes me go absolutely nuts. If you are going to use the 5th Column, make a custom group with only the soldiers in it, and call their faction Wehrmacht or something.
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What a neat idea! I'm totally going to steal this concept (rebranding the 5th Column guys as Wehrmacht) for my Axis and Allies story arc.
It was neat reading this review, even with the issues with the bosses being too hard. I had been thinking I needed to make a "help the good guys win WW2" arc to balance out my "help the bad guys win WW2" arc, but sounds like someone's already done it!
@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!"
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I really wish I could have gone through and played the entire thing, but the custom bosses are just far too difficult. They need to have their powers turned down so none of them have build up, and extreme difficulty should be saved for very rare cases.
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Just an aside to this, Laser- in some cases, that would either shut out entire powersets, or utterly cripple the bosses, since they have it even on hard difficulty, and most 'normal' bosses are, frankly, jokes (and this is speaking as a squishy, mind).
"A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head." Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates
MA Arcs: #12285, "Small Fears", #106553, "Trollbane", #12669, "How to Survive a Robot Uprising"
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Just an aside to this, Laser- in some cases, that would either shut out entire powersets, or utterly cripple the bosses, since they have it even on hard difficulty, and most 'normal' bosses are, frankly, jokes (and this is speaking as a squishy, mind).
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Oh, I'm aware. I think it was a mistake on the part of the developers to give NPCs build up at all. Considering that bosses and higher can easily out damage players if they're given strong enough powers, giving them build up, aim, and rage is just plain wrong.
And as for bosses being jokes, yeah? So? If the intent is to make the enemy strong, the enemy should be made as an EB or an AV, not given horrifically strong powers.
I'm really enjoying reading these reviews. Definitely giving me more ideas for arcs to play when I get the chance this weekend!
I have a question about the reviews, from Venture, or other... this may be answered somewhere in the thread, that I missed, but, how does one avoid the sin of "just a bunch of stuff that happened?" Does that basically mean that the events don't seem connected to each other? Does that mean what initiated them was uninteresting? I'd like to avoid this because it SEEMS bad but I don't know how it's defined.
While people are posting arcs, I'd love to ask for reviews (from any) on mine, #72945 "Ye Old Faire." Honestly I think its biggest weakness is a sorta weak name and info blurb because it has been fairly fun for people so far.
I guess I'll submit mine again. It's my first arc, so it's not the greatest.
Arc Name: Beyond the Door
Arc ID: 73207
Faction: Custom
Synopsis: Enter the realm of madness. Save Dr. Westman before it's too late.
3 Missions, Doesn't seem to take very long.