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...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....
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I think they mean Random Events Plot.
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That's actually not what that means. What it means is that the story isn't much more than foiling a villain's plans, or the opposite for villains. I also wouldn't call it a sin, it's just that if you're judging a plot, one with character development and meaning is stronger than one without it.
Maybe Venture should explain it in his signature or something, this question gets asked so much.
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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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I've been playing it with my ss invuln brute, and I've been kinda worried about the difficulty but haven't had any feedback about it before.
I had some trouble killing the custom bosses, but usually not a lot. I can dumb it down though. Herr Z especially, I dont understand him.
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I think they mean Random Events Plot.
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That's actually not what that means. What it means is that the story isn't much more than foiling a villain's plans, or the opposite for villains. I also wouldn't call it a sin, it's just that if you're judging a plot, one with character development and meaning is stronger than one without it.
*
Maybe Venture should explain it in his signature or something, this question gets asked so much.
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I assumed that the term had its own definition in TVTropes, but searching for it gave me the link I posted and two other links about Aesop and Spoof Aesop. By way of elimination, I figured the Aesop links were not relevant.
If you're right however, wouldn't Venture simply say something like: "No character development", or "No meaning to the story"? Just to keep things short and clear? 
On the other hand, if it truly were Random Events Plot, I guess Venture would simply say that and use the TVTropes link... 
I believe that a Kheldian Gold Standard should be based on SO's, and for anything above that... there's Platinum!
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
D'oh, actually, I now notice that Venture did answer that question, somewhere on page 37,ish, so I'll quote it for people who missed it the first time like I did:
Venture Said:
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A story is "just a bunch of stuff that happened" if it doesn't have any kind of moral, theme or character development to it at all. Humor is an acceptable substitute, as long as it is actually funny. Of course that's subjective.
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This makes sense, though it sounds like it might be tough to avoid for SOME stories I'll keep it in mind... Sorry to retread old ground!
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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.
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As so often happens on these boards, Arcanaville had a great answer a few pages back in this post.
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.
I'm sure, and I'm also aware that it's a mess. In "The Envoy of Shadow" Akarist says that the ruling body of Oranbega was called the Circle of Thorns even before the pact was signed, when it was after the pact that the Envoy gave them the first Thorn Blades. Either Hell was taking advantage of aggressive branding or it's a slip.
The Thorn Tree should not be out where it is, agreed. Maybe it's not the Thorn Tree but a Thorn Tree, planted more recently to take advantage of the Mu power source. Personally I get the feeling that the CoV team either did not even bother to read the existing lore in a number of places, particularly as regards the Circle, or had and didn't care that what they were doing didn't jive with existing canon.
As for how long the Oranbegans have been in the Isles ruins...the war ended 14,000 years ago. So yeah, they've had some time.
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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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.
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As so often happens on these boards, Arcanaville had a great answer a few pages back in this post.
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On the CoX boards, we don't have Simpsons did it, we have Arcanaville didn't.
Thanks! 
I believe that a Kheldian Gold Standard should be based on SO's, and for anything above that... there's Platinum!
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
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As for how long the Oranbegans have been in the Isles ruins...the war ended 14,000 years ago. So yeah, they've had some time.
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Yeah, but as far as I could tell, the war left them without bodies. It wasn't until Zoira came along in the 1800s that they finally were able to achieve corporal form again.
Then again, like you said, canon is a mess with the Thorns.
Mine submitted
I Will Dance On Your Grave (Arc 92630)
A voodoo priestess asks you to help her stop a voodoo bocor (Grave Dancer) who has allied with the Skulls (custom Skulls group). They are kidnapping people to turn into zombies. You must rescue the innocents, stop the raids, find Grave Dancer and defeat him.
Lvl 1-50, no EBs or AVs, soloable, 5 missions
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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.
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As so often happens on these boards, Arcanaville had a great answer a few pages back in this post.
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I should point out that whether something is sufficiently well connected and has a sufficiently strong point is at least partially subjective, so its impossible to guarantee avoiding this problem in the mind of any one particular reviewer.
However, one thing I *can* recommend to avoid the charge of "just a bunch of things that happen" is to not actually *make* just a bunch of things that happen.
One thing I'm noticing in the arcs I play is that in some cases, it seems pretty obvious that the author essentially wrote a bunch of different missions, with whatever maps they thought would be cool, whatever bosses they thought would be cool, and whatever objectives they thought would be cool. Then they attempted to sprinkle "plot-dust" on them, to try to connect them.
For example: mission one is in Orenbega fighting demons. Mission two is in ruined Atlas Park, fighting 5th Column. Why? Because in mission one the boss says he was sent to invade our dimension from an alternate reality in which I guess the 5th Column are planetary arsonists.
The contact gives no clue the story is heading in this direction, and for that matter the contact doesn't give much of *any* reason for going to Orenbega in the first place. The contact is just a device to send you to mission one, and the boss in mission one (specifically, his dialog) is just a device to get you to mission two.
It was (it seems to me) to be *implemented* as just a bunch of stuff that happens, that someone then tried to solder together. If nothing else, try to avoid doing that because it has a tendancy of being often obvious.
Two questions I think the author should ask themselves while reviewing their mission arcs:
1. When the contact says "Accept my mission" pretend to be the player and say "and if I don't?" If you don't have a good reply, something's wrong.
2. When the contact says "Accept my mission" pretend to be the player and say "what's the point?" If you don't have a good answer, same thing.
Lastly, it helps if everyone in the mission arc is actually participating in the same story. If the mission arc is about recruiting the player to stop the latest bunch of Nemesis plots, and one of them has a Nemesis LT poisoning the special burrito sauce at El Mexicano, and then the next one sends you to stop the bombing of Atlas Park, well it might make sense to you, but its likely to be perceived as a random bunch of things strung together, even if there exists a plot device to connect the events together.
A *really* skilled author can make something that initially *appears* to be a random bunch of stuff that later *is* connected in ways that make perfect sense in retrospect. But this is by no means easy, or likely to strike all readers equally validly. If you fail, you'll probably fail directly into the deepest hole of JABOSTH.
[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.)
ok LJ, I made things generally easier. Herr Zerstoerung is not going to one shot people anymore and should go down more smoothly. Der Kommandant is no longer /rad, he's devices, though honestly that guy seems to be a cinch no matter what I do to him. Heh.
Fixed statue name just because, and Stahlfaust no longer has ET or TF unfortunately. He does however retain buildup, since his hardest hitter is now bonesmasher. His elec armor is unchanged, since he will currently NOT pop PS for whatever reason and would be too easy on a lower difficulty. Elec armor EBs are not hard, it was really his ET that made him too strong. I also made a change in the powerset of the last boss, which you did not reach.
Most importantly, you no longer fight 5th Column. You're up against the Wehrmacht. I had to make sacrifices in the US Military to get in the file space, but it should be fairly balanced and I do like that idea a lot more.
All in all, I decided that balancing the arc around my IO'd ss/invuln was not a good idea. Hopefully it's not too easy, but if you feel like finishing it you should have a smoother ride :]
Yeah, but as far as I could tell, the war left them without bodies. It wasn't until Zoira came along in the 1800s that they finally were able to achieve corporal form again.
"The Library of Souls" shows that the Circle was body-napping people way before Zoria showed up...that's only when they started operating anything like in the open again.
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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ok LJ, I made things generally easier. Herr Zerstoerung is not going to one shot people anymore and should go down more smoothly. Der Kommandant is no longer /rad, he's devices, though honestly that guy seems to be a cinch no matter what I do to him. Heh.
Fixed statue name just because, and Stahlfaust no longer has ET or TF unfortunately. He does however retain buildup, since his hardest hitter is now bonesmasher. His elec armor is unchanged, since he will currently NOT pop PS for whatever reason and would be too easy on a lower difficulty. Elec armor EBs are not hard, it was really his ET that made him too strong. I also made a change in the powerset of the last boss, which you did not reach.
Most importantly, you no longer fight 5th Column. You're up against the Wehrmacht. I had to make sacrifices in the US Military to get in the file space, but it should be fairly balanced and I do like that idea a lot more.
All in all, I decided that balancing the arc around my IO'd ss/invuln was not a good idea. Hopefully it's not too easy, but if you feel like finishing it you should have a smoother ride :]
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I will give it another attempt when I get the chance.
More than I could ask for, ty.
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Yeah, but as far as I could tell, the war left them without bodies. It wasn't until Zoira came along in the 1800s that they finally were able to achieve corporal form again.
"The Library of Souls" shows that the Circle was body-napping people way before Zoria showed up...that's only when they started operating anything like in the open again.
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Ah. It's been three years since I ran that arc. So I must not remember that part.
Arc #91897: The Oblivion Lens
Rating: 2 stars
The short of it: Custom faction with annoying powers, plot issues
Plot Overview
Azuria tells you that a recent raid by the Legacy Chain on a Circle of Thorns stronghold went badly, and that they need to be rescued. Upon entering, apparently only one Legacy Chain member, Arcanist Sullivan, survived. After you rescue him from his captors, you both continue on to defeat the head mage, who is carrying a dark lens of an unknown purpose. Upon your return to Azuria, she says that MAGI will take a look at it. A few days later (apparently) she talks to you again, saying that everyone at MAGI collectively shrugged in regards to the lens. The only thing they could find were references to it in a tome by an ancient German sorceror, which explained that it was something called the Oblivion Lens, and it opens portals to an alternate dimension called the Nachtwelt. Since nobody at MAGI (including Azuria, who's supposedly one of the most skilled sorcerors in the world) could figure anything about it, they charter a boat to send it to Europe so a scholar there can look at it, instead of saving time and money by flying the scholar to Paragon City. Big surprise, the boat is now dead in the water and not responding to radio transmissions. You are teleported (wait, what? Why didn't they just teleport the scholar there and save a ton of time?) to the ship to find that it is overrun by shadow monsters who look like the pictures from the tome. (though I don't really ever recall being shown the tome) After killing the creatures, you can't find the lens.
After you return to Azuria with the bad news, she tells you that the creatures are called Nachtkrieger. She says that she may know some people in the Midnight Club who might know something that can help. Unfortunately, she was wrong. The midnight club, though they have mastered time travel, can't figure out anything about this mysterious lens. Apparently the only person in the world who can figure it out is a man who calls himself Tophat. Tophat is a wizard for hire who has apparently worked for every villain group on the planet. He was too greedy with the Council, however, and they are now going to break his kneecaps. The Legacy Chain wants to pay you back for helping with the Circle of Thorns, so they come along with you. When you're teleported into the base, the teleport screws up and the Legacy Chain are scattered across the base. You find them battling the Council, and eventually rescue Tophat and bring him out with you. Tophat is able to divine the location of the lens, which has somehow ended up in the Rogue Isles. Lord Recluse won't let heroes into the isles, but apparently is willing to let you in to retrieve the lens. You do, and Arachnos soldiers clean up the remaining Nachtkreiger.
Tophat has also provided MAGI with the rituals required to deactivate the lens, and they perform it at an FBSA stronghold. Nobody thought to guard the mystics, however, as the lens summons more Nachtkreiger which begin slaughtering them. Azuria tells you that only the altar needs to survive for the ritual to finish, and you head off to stop the Nachtkreiger once and for all. The leader of the monsters, named Nachtkreiger Herr is there, and after battling him and protecting the altar, the lens is deactivated and the threat of Nachtkreiger invasion has passed.
Mechanics
I ran through this mission with my level 50 Kat/SR Scrapper and my level 38 AR/EM Blaster. The SR scrapper had absolutely zero problems dealing with any of the enemies. My blaster however, did not fare so well. The main problem with the custom faction is the fact that both minions and LTs have dark miasma. Actually, even if it was just the minions I'd still have a problem. Dark Pit is like caltrops from hell, and when you have 2 or more on you, and don't have some sort of slow resistance or good defense, that -res will tear you apart. I would take out the dark miasma minions for sure, and while I'm not sure what you have for a boss, maybe the dark miasma would be best saved for a boss instead of LTs to make sure that ridiculous stacking only happens on large teams, which would be better equipped to handle it. Aside from that, the map for the 5th Column mission seems a bit big for what it does.
Story
The problem with missions where "A simple thing becomes something huge" is that you have to ask yourself if you really need the simple thing in the first place. Here, the Circle of Thorns mission seems completely extraneous. It's never described why the Circle even has the Lens in the first place, or what their plans were with it. In fact, the Circle never even shows up again after the first mission. The arc would be pretty much exactly the same if the first mission was the tanker mission. The 5th Column arc also seems pretty unnecessary, if you consider the multiple plotholes. I'm sorry, but I cannot be expected to believe that the entirety of MAGI and the Midnight Club can't figure out anything about this lens, but some random guy who learned his powers from Arachnos' Mu troopers could. Like I mentioned earlier, Azuria's said to be one of the most highly skilled mystics in the world, and the Midnight Club has mastered time travel. And if they did need to bring in an expert from Germany, they could use their fancy teleportation instead of shipping the dangerous artifact on a boat. And finally, Arachnos would never let a hero come in and grab such a powerful artifact. He'd take it for himself and try to get Scirocco and Ghost Widow to figure out how it works. Not saying that he'd succeed, but he'd at least try. And how did the lens end up in the Rogue Isles anyhow? Too many dangling plot points and not enough explanation.
As a side note, $name is used too much in some of the contact dialogue. Towards the end of the arc I felt like Azuria had tourette's syndrome and her tick was to say my name.
Final Thoughts
The premise isn't terrible, just poorly executed. With some rewrites to fix the plotholes and cut out the fluff, it could turn into something good. However, right now it feels like nothing in the arc had any real purpose at all. The Dark Miasma critters need to be fixed, but otherwise the custom group isn't bad.
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Arc #91897: The Oblivion Lens
Rating: 2 stars
The short of it: Custom faction with annoying powers, plot issues
Plot Overview
Azuria tells you that a recent raid by the Legacy Chain on a Circle of Thorns stronghold went badly, and that they need to be rescued. Upon entering, apparently only one Legacy Chain member, Arcanist Sullivan, survived. After you rescue him from his captors, you both continue on to defeat the head mage, who is carrying a dark lens of an unknown purpose. Upon your return to Azuria, she says that MAGI will take a look at it. A few days later (apparently) she talks to you again, saying that everyone at MAGI collectively shrugged in regards to the lens. The only thing they could find were references to it in a tome by an ancient German sorceror, which explained that it was something called the Oblivion Lens, and it opens portals to an alternate dimension called the Nachtwelt. Since nobody at MAGI (including Azuria, who's supposedly one of the most skilled sorcerors in the world) could figure anything about it, they charter a boat to send it to Europe so a scholar there can look at it, instead of saving time and money by flying the scholar to Paragon City. Big surprise, the boat is now dead in the water and not responding to radio transmissions. You are teleported (wait, what? Why didn't they just teleport the scholar there and save a ton of time?) to the ship to find that it is overrun by shadow monsters who look like the pictures from the tome. (though I don't really ever recall being shown the tome) After killing the creatures, you can't find the lens.
After you return to Azuria with the bad news, she tells you that the creatures are called Nachtkrieger. She says that she may know some people in the Midnight Club who might know something that can help. Unfortunately, she was wrong. The midnight club, though they have mastered time travel, can't figure out anything about this mysterious lens. Apparently the only person in the world who can figure it out is a man who calls himself Tophat. Tophat is a wizard for hire who has apparently worked for every villain group on the planet. He was too greedy with the Council, however, and they are now going to break his kneecaps. The Legacy Chain wants to pay you back for helping with the Circle of Thorns, so they come along with you. When you're teleported into the base, the teleport screws up and the Legacy Chain are scattered across the base. You find them battling the Council, and eventually rescue Tophat and bring him out with you. Tophat is able to divine the location of the lens, which has somehow ended up in the Rogue Isles. Lord Recluse won't let heroes into the isles, but apparently is willing to let you in to retrieve the lens. You do, and Arachnos soldiers clean up the remaining Nachtkreiger.
Tophat has also provided MAGI with the rituals required to deactivate the lens, and they perform it at an FBSA stronghold. Nobody thought to guard the mystics, however, as the lens summons more Nachtkreiger which begin slaughtering them. Azuria tells you that only the altar needs to survive for the ritual to finish, and you head off to stop the Nachtkreiger once and for all. The leader of the monsters, named Nachtkreiger Herr is there, and after battling him and protecting the altar, the lens is deactivated and the threat of Nachtkreiger invasion has passed.
Mechanics
I ran through this mission with my level 50 Kat/SR Scrapper and my level 38 AR/EM Blaster. The SR scrapper had absolutely zero problems dealing with any of the enemies. My blaster however, did not fare so well. The main problem with the custom faction is the fact that both minions and LTs have dark miasma. Actually, even if it was just the minions I'd still have a problem. Dark Pit is like caltrops from hell, and when you have 2 or more on you, and don't have some sort of slow resistance or good defense, that -res will tear you apart. I would take out the dark miasma minions for sure, and while I'm not sure what you have for a boss, maybe the dark miasma would be best saved for a boss instead of LTs to make sure that ridiculous stacking only happens on large teams, which would be better equipped to handle it. Aside from that, the map for the 5th Column mission seems a bit big for what it does.
Story
The problem with missions where "A simple thing becomes something huge" is that you have to ask yourself if you really need the simple thing in the first place. Here, the Circle of Thorns mission seems completely extraneous. It's never described why the Circle even has the Lens in the first place, or what their plans were with it. In fact, the Circle never even shows up again after the first mission. The arc would be pretty much exactly the same if the first mission was the tanker mission. The 5th Column arc also seems pretty unnecessary, if you consider the multiple plotholes. I'm sorry, but I cannot be expected to believe that the entirety of MAGI and the Midnight Club can't figure out anything about this lens, but some random guy who learned his powers from Arachnos' Mu troopers could. Like I mentioned earlier, Azuria's said to be one of the most highly skilled mystics in the world, and the Midnight Club has mastered time travel. And if they did need to bring in an expert from Germany, they could use their fancy teleportation instead of shipping the dangerous artifact on a boat. And finally, Arachnos would never let a hero come in and grab such a powerful artifact. He'd take it for himself and try to get Scirocco and Ghost Widow to figure out how it works. Not saying that he'd succeed, but he'd at least try. And how did the lens end up in the Rogue Isles anyhow? Too many dangling plot points and not enough explanation.
As a side note, $name is used too much in some of the contact dialogue. Towards the end of the arc I felt like Azuria had tourette's syndrome and her tick was to say my name.
Final Thoughts
The premise isn't terrible, just poorly executed. With some rewrites to fix the plotholes and cut out the fluff, it could turn into something good. However, right now it feels like nothing in the arc had any real purpose at all. The Dark Miasma critters need to be fixed, but otherwise the custom group isn't bad.
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Thanks for the critique. I actually laughed when I read your part about "why didn't MAGI just teleport the gem." I honestly didn't even think about that.
The plot holes are glaring, and annoying. To only defend one of them, Tophat is a specialist in darkness based black magic. The Midnighters and MAGI are not specialized in black magic (such as summoning conquering armies from another dimension) nor darkness based magic. Tophat is, and that is why he's being consulted.
The other plotholes are pretty inexcusable, and I'm going to try to rework them based on your feedback, and that of others. I might switch the cargo ship to a warehouse where the lens is being stored.
Other feedback has been actually complimentary of the Arachnos and Council missions. The initial mission against the Circle of Thorns might get changed, but I'm having a hard time figuring out what to change it to. Do you have any suggestions?
If I were to suggest anything about the first mission, is not to remove it, but instead leave it as is and change some later missions to get the Circle more involved in the story. Why did the Circle have the lens? What are their plans for it? Maybe they're trying just as hard to get the lens back as you are to find it and stop it.
The Council mission seemed out of place to me because I can't see why Tophat is necessary. However, with the Arachnos mission, like I said it would be more Lord Recluse's MO to try and take the thing for himself if it ended up on his island. Instead of having Arachnos be your ally, make Arachnos soldiers be rogue in the mission. Have some battles between Arachnos and the Nachtkreiger, a patrol with some dialogue about finding the lens, and maybe drop in a non-essential Arachnos Commander or something.
Arc #42221, "Secret Origins (Tech): The Snake Women of Epsilon V"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: tedious glowie hunts, plot issues, powerposing
This arc purports to be an "in-game origin story" for low level heroes, with the ceiling running between 5 and 20. It also says it makes a lot of assumptions about your character, making me skeptical. I ran it with Venture on his second build at CL2.
The initial briefing from Your Pointy Headed Boss casts you as a stereotypical computer nerd working at Architect Entertainment. YPHB says holograms are showing up in the wrong missions and wants you to fix it NAO. You enter a tech map and see the following in the nav bar: " Locate the Spare Parts, 35 computers to check, Find the Bug".
Yep.
The map is empty at first until you click on the spare parts, which you use to "MacGyver up" a weapon. Then various lowbie mobs start patrolling the place. You have to check all35 computers. "The Bug" turns out to be hostage Hank Carter, who claims to be a US Space Force astronaut projecting his hologram from Epsilon V. He asks if you have any kind of communication device but seems to run out of power before he can abuse your cell phone much. You tell YPHB that it's fixed.
Next, you get a call from Hank, who wants your help in freeing his ship from an energy field. His Tech Guy gives you instructions for turning the AE system into a teleporter. What Could Possibly Go Wrong? You head back into the machinery to make the adjustments...only to find Clockwork all over the place. After dealing with them and adjusting four machines, you use a terminal to look up the US Space Force. You find a reference to them on a conspiracy theory website (which includes a 9/11 reference, which should probably be deleted -- doubtful the attack took place given the divergence between City and real history). You sneak back to work while YPHB deals with an irate hero who thinks the missions don't give enough rewards.
While YPHB is distracted you call Hank back, but get Ernie the Tech Guy. Ernie tells you about the Snake Women that have the ship trapped and says he can teleport you right to their computer core now so you can just shut it down. What Could...yeah. You find yourself in a Snake cave map full of Snake Women, customs with Claws and Energy Blast attacks. The Claws attacks shred your Defense pretty quickly (even on an SR...you have very little -Defense resist at that level). The last room has Snake Men, standard Snake models (complete with standard /info, making them stand out). Then I lost conn and had to do it all over again. 
In the cave you find an insect person hostage that runs away after being freed and some Rikti technology. This part's a little problematic for two reasons: one is that the Rikti are not space aliens, of course, and the other is that your character recognizes the Rikti tech because "it's been all over the internet after the war" when actually information on Rikti technology is very tightly controlled. When you return to earth (how?) you decide to use the captured tech to become a superhero yourself. Hopefully you won't get caught using illegal Rikti tech.
While you're doing this you get another call from Hank, who tells you they've found there's a shield around the computer core, so you'll have to take that out before you can be beamed into the core. Why any sane person would go along with this is beyond me, but once more unto the breach.... You land on the surface of Epsilon V (Talos coastline map) where the Snake Women are slaughtering the insectoids (case error in the bones: "THis...") Snake Infantry show up on this map with Robotics. You have to find and destroy six generators. This is a pretty wretched mission if you don't have a travel power. Since it's capped at 10 you won't unless you have a temp. On your return to earth you are afflicted with righteous indignation over the Snake Women's slaughter of the insectoids and resolve to do something about it.
For the finale Hank beams down to meet you at the computer core. Unfortunately, YPHB follows you into the teleporter and ends up somewhere in the caves as well. You have to find them both, plus take out four energy field generators. Both the Computer Core and YPHB spawned frontloaded for me. Hank was a Robotics/Willpower and spawned behind all four generators, meaning he was completely useless. There's a Snake Queen and Royal Consort deeper in but you don't have to fight them. The last call you get from Hank reveals that you were travelling in time as well as space.
The writing is cute in a lot of places, unpolished in others. The Rikti technology angle is best dropped, frankly. The arc powerposes your character heavily. It does disclose that on the label, of course, but it still limits the arc's appeal to those who don't mind such things.
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 #42221, "Secret Origins (Tech): The Snake Women of Epsilon V"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: tedious glowie hunts, plot issues, powerposing
This arc purports to be an "in-game origin story" for low level heroes, with the ceiling running between 5 and 20. It also says it makes a lot of assumptions about your character, making me skeptical. I ran it with Venture on his second build at CL2.
The initial briefing from Your Pointy Headed Boss casts you as a stereotypical computer nerd working at Architect Entertainment. YPHB says holograms are showing up in the wrong missions and wants you to fix it NAO. You enter a tech map and see the following in the nav bar: " Locate the Spare Parts, 35 computers to check, Find the Bug".
Yep.
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In all fairness, you should point out that the computers are set to take 1 second, and that the map is a very small tech map, making the computers all clumped together in just a couple of rooms. None of them are difficult to locate, they're all out in the open and directly on the path to the end of the map. The whole mission would take even the slowest player no more than 5 minutes.
Just don't want anyone to get the wrong impression and think that it was more complicated than it is. Otherwise thanks for the review.
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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.
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As so often happens on these boards, Arcanaville had a great answer a few pages back in this post.
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On the CoX boards, we don't have Simpsons did it, we have Arcanaville didn't.
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I was wondering when someone would mention The Simpsons.
Homer: Save a guy's life, and what do you get? Nothing! Worse than nothing! Just a big scary rock.
Bart: Hey, man, don't bad-mouth the head.
Marge: Homer, it's the thought that counts. The moral of the story is a good deed is its own reward.
Bart: Hey, we <got> a reward. The head is cool.
Marge: Then... I guess the moral is no good deed goes unrewarded.
Homer: Wait a minute. If I hadn't written that nasty letter, we wouldn't've gotten anything.
Marge: Well... Then I guess the moral is the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
Lisa: Perhaps there is no moral to this story.
Homer: Exactly! Just a bunch of stuff that happened.
Marge: But it certainly was a memorable few days.
'I don't like the look of it at all,' said the King: 'however, it may kiss my hand if it likes.'
'I'd rather not,' the Cat remarked.
'Don't be impertinent,' said the King, 'and don't look at me like that!' He got behind Alice as he spoke.
'A cat may look at a king,' said Alice.
Is that where I got that from? I don't even remember that episode....
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 #5299, "Magic, Mystery and Mayhem"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: problematic mobs, "just a bunch of stuff that happened", no closure
Agatha Deserie, Cabal member and Midnighter, asks you to help investigate the theft of magical antiques. The entry text on the first mission was "It seems quiet...too quiet". Ouch. The first mobs sighted were "Magical Assistant" (typo in /info: "preform") Minions and Trained Assistant Lieutenants. Minions come in Martial Arts/Willpower, Energy Melee/Devices and Illusion/Super Reflexes; Lieutenants are Dual Blades/Super Reflexes and Psychic Blast/Illusion Control. You can pretty much forget about stealth. There was an embarassing outcome of the random spawn system: the Lead Assistant (Gravity Control/Super Strength Boss) was shouting for his goons to "find the antique", which was in the safe five feet behind him. The item turned out to be a set of manacles used by Bombardi, a stage magician in the late 19th century. You have to find those, rescue two hostages (no escort) and defeat the aforementioned Big Bad. All the crooks claim to work for the "Mystery Magician".
Agatha determines the Magician's next target in Act II, a museum exhibition of stage magician props from about 100 years ago. You are sent in to safeguard it. You have to recover four of Bombardi's props, rescue two hostages (one of them a hero), secure 2 antiques (protect glowie objectives) and take down "The Radiant Glinda" Owens, Heist Ringleader (Mind Control/Psychic Blast). The hero is Bowen Alacard of the "King's Legacy" supergroup, a Gravity Control/Kinetics Boss. There are also a few Circle of Thorns patrols to deal with.
Ms. Owens, as it happens, is a new arrival to Paragon City. She was touring the country which makes Agatha think she may have been associating with this "Mystery Magician" before her arrival. Agatha wants you to check out the nightclub she recently appeared at. You only have 30 minutes for this (stated before acceptance) as it's expected the Mystery Magician will try to cover his tracks. There are a few of his goons on the scene when you arrive, but when you retrieve a Clue from a dressing table the Magician himself spawns, a Necromancy/Gravity Control Boss. He calls at least one ambush wave during the fight and runs at 25% health, it seems. He didn't get out, but you're told that he managed to slip away anyway. The Clue is a note giving a time and place for a meeting, perhaps at his hideout.
Act IV is the Fight Scene: you head to the Magician's hideout to take him down. Glinda has escaped and presumably joined him. On arrival you also get tasked to rescue Bowen Alacard again and recover 5 stolen antiques. Both Alacard and the Magician spawned frontloaded, but defeating the Magician just causes him to respawn elsewhere. Defeating him the second time clears the objective, but his defeat Clue says that whoever was inside his clothes turned to smoke and dissipated, so you Never Found The Body. Alacard got wedged in the geometry early on. Agatha turns all the stolen stuff over to the Midnighters' even though no one can figure out why any of it was of any interest in the first place.
The arc suffers from not having any closure. The player never finds out why the antiques were worth stealing, who or what the Mystery Magician really is or why the Circle of Thorns got involved. At least some of these questions really ought to be answered. The mobs are problematic as well. Not only is stealth pretty much a lost cause, there are enough control effects being thrown around to potentially overwhelm a melee's protection. The respawning Boss trick was cute and thankfully not overplayed.
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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...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....
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I think they mean Random Events Plot.
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati