Venture, I would welcome your review/feedback on my first arc: The Incursion (MArc#37783).... if you get time that is. Thanks in advance! 
Thanks very much for the review, It's the type of feedback I was looking for, and appreciate it.
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Arc #70210: Is it Live or is it Memory-X?
Rating: 3 stars
The short of it: Decent plot with a few issues, annoying custom enemies, problems with mission design
Plot Overview
The 5th Column are robbing a bank, and Citadel has asked you to stop them. You arrive on the scene and dispatch the soldiers, who are being led by a Wolfpack Mk II robot. One of the guards drops an encrypted 10 GB flash drive. (Yes, it's that specific) Citadel is unable to fully decrypt it, but from what he was able to extract from it, he is able to discern that the 5th Column are attempting to build a new highly advanced AI system called Memory-X, and the flash drive contains the schematics for it. Your next goal is to go to a Crey computer research lab, where an experimental AI is being developed. The 5th Column are going to strike there next, and it is your mission to destroy the AI before they can steal it, and obtain a copy of some decryption firmware that is being developed at the lab. After fighting through both Crey and 5th Column forces, you manage to find the firmware and destroy the mainframe. Upon decrypting the flash drive fully, Citadel discovers that apparently the 5th Column has already built Memory-X but lost it, and is now trying to build another one to find and correct the problems with the first one.
With scans made by Positron, Citadel is able to direct you towards an abandoned lab which may contain clues to Memory-X. When you arrive, you find that the lab is not abandoned, and in fact is crawling with 5th Column forces. You're able to find the data that you came for, and surprisingly, you find Citadel being held captive by robots within the base. Citadel claims that he hasn't sent you on any of your previous missions. As it turns out, the previous Citadel was a fake. Memory-X had kidnapped Citadel and replaced him with a replica version as part of its plan. The real Citadel is able to discern from the data you collected that Memory-X's purpose was to create replicas of all of the world leaders to bring the world under complete 5th Column control. However, the AI has rebelled against its masters and is now working towards its own ends. After scanning for the energy signatures of the battle droids that you encountered in the lab, Citadel pinpoints some of the robots at a new Portal Corp. Facility, and asks you to check it out while he consults with Statesman. He gives you a bio-scanner designed to pick up life-signs so you can find if there are any hostages inside. When inside, you find the President of the United States and Statesman captured by the robots. The robots are preparing to teleport them to a facility where they will be replicated, and upon learning of your intrusion attempt to destroy the mainframe which houses the co-ordinates. You successfully prevent that from happening, and rescue the hostages. However, it turns out (not surprisingly) that Statesman is a replica.
Memory-X's base is located underground on the moon, and Portal Corp. is capable of teleporting you there. Citadel says that he has found a reliable way of determining who is real and who is a replica, and the Freedom Phalanx will sort out the world leaders who have been kidnapped and not with the help of the United Nations while you go to the moon base. On the moon base, you rescue the hostages that Memory-X has held there, including Back Alley Brawler. With his help, you destroy the mainframes that house Memory-X, and the Master Builder droid that he downloaded himself to, ending its threat. Upon your return to Earth, Citadel informs you that the Freedom Phalanx was able to find the world leader replicas and destroy them, and thanks you for saving the world.
Mechanics
The first mission is on a 15 minute timer, and the contact doesn't tell you that until after you accept the mission. Bad move, made even worse by the really short timer. The specific amount of time isn't a big issue, as it's a really small CoV heist map. However, how small the map is an issue, as the final boss runs at low life, and if you don't have knockback resistance, the amount of KB that higher level 5th Column have will ensure that he escapes. The mission is a defeat all, but that's not a huge deal considering how small the map is.
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That was something I was mulling over in the mission design (whether to state it was timed in the opening contact text, or wait until after the mission was accepted and opted for the latter because I felt it 'ramped up' the drama to have it sprung on the player - and if you really do hate timed missions, you can always drop; and if they're reading the details before selecting the Arc itself (something I always do anyway, but other folks may not); it shows the first map is timed). So, this was a deliberate choice on my part; but I completely understand why folks may not feel it's a good one. As to the shorter time limit; if there was any 'travel time' involved, I might up it to 30 min.; but here I wanted to convey a sense of urgency; and honestly, I think there's no problems with the possibility of a 'Hero' sometime actually failing (and on the missions where failure is possible; I've still written te resulting contact text in such a way that the story and mission continues logically; and doesn't 'beat up the PC' as it were just because there was a 'road bump' of sorts. The story and missions go on, and as long as you complete the final mission, you win/save the world. Personally, I wish we had the ability (and hell the regular missions the Devs create) to ALLOW for actual branching so you could send someone down a slightly different path if they happen to fumble a bit; as always 'winning' at everything gets boring (imo). But I tried to include failure as an option, but thagin, that's me.
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In the next mission, you have Crey and 5th Column facing off, and it looks like the 5th Column are the main enemy with Crey on Rogue. However, it looks like the author made a couple mistakes with the details, because I would often see groups of Crey killing each other. There are too many fake computers in addition to the real one. Finding the right glowie in this mission is a major pain. The map is also the Crey cloning lab, which doesn't make sense considering the story. The lab is supposed to be developing software, not bio-engineering humans.
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I chose the map because I liked the overall layout (it's one I hadn't seen used a lot); and I did like the layout in the final room, where the last objective always spawns; and it's Crey, and a new research facility; and since Crey always need their Paragon Protectors; any Crey research facility would have Clone tanks no matter what they were working on. 
As to the number of fake Glowies, cutting them back is probably a good idea as of the comments I've received from the few folks who have bothered to send any, it's also an issue they've mentioned.
As for the Crey sometimes attacking each other, it happens if one of my Crey Patrols encounters one of the Crey/5th Column Combats. I think it may be an MA bug because I have checked the faction settings and neither the Patrols nor the Battle Groups are set as Rogue; but if I can figure out what's causing it, I'd definitely like to correct it.
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The third mission takes place on an abandoned tech map, and you have to find 4 computers in a sea of fake ones. It's not as bad as the first mission, but still annoying. Citadel spawns after you find the 4 correct ones, and he spawns as the AV version instead of the Pet version. I would switch him to the pet one. This map is also a defeat all, but here it's much more of a big deal considering that the map is a larger size. After you rescue Citadel, patrols of 5th column spawn, meaning you have to hunt all of them down in the random areas they pop up at. Considering that this mission is an escort, the defeat all can just be taken out. Even if you stealth the glowies you're going to have to fight things as you haul Citadel back anyhow.
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The 'Pet' version of Citadel is a nice suggestion if it's now possible, when originally created this arc on the Test server (and it's the version I put on live once I had bought the needed MA 'extras'; as I spent most of beta testing and refining it); the 'Pet' version wasn't available as a selection on Citadel - if it is now, and doesn't lower the overall level range; that's a change I'll definitely make. As to the number of 'fake' computers; there were 6 'fakes' for a total of 10 click objects (including the 4 you need) so on that score I personally don't see that as a 'sea'; but obviously your's (andother people's) milage may very.
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The fourth mission uses a portal corp map, not really any problems with the map itself. Really, the only two problems with this mission that I can think of involve the President. First, he's not set to non-combat, but is a person, meaning that he'll run into fights and begin brawling people. He should be set to non-combat. Also, right after killing his captors, the defend object appears. Based on the clue you get when you return him to the door, it sounds like it should spawn after you haul him to the door.
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Making the President a 'combatant' was a very conscious decision on my part (and IMO, for any 'escorts' I think the non-combat oprtion shouldn't be available as IF a villian group decided to go through the trouble of kidnapping someone, they wouldn't just let them walk right out with you (leaving them alone as they fight you) - and especially with the story I was telling here - so the fact you can effectively set that in CoH really strains the 'suspension of disbelief' beyond even comic book level (imo). Thus I will never set an escort as 'non-combat').
Plus, I again liked the idea of the player deciding if he/she should take the President back first, or continue with the mission with him in tow, because again, if he's defeated, the mission fails.
As for the President's clue and when it appears I WISH I could have it spawn on his rescue (the point where you defeat the group surrounding him and 'free' him); but the clue is only allowed to be spawned after the escort is completed. Also, I needed a Portal Corp map (only 2 available ansd the second one really didn't fit)for the story and it's one of those wierd maps where VERY OFTEN stuff you set to spawn in 'Front' ended up in the 'Back'. (I tried to have The President' spawn in te Front area, thinking most players would lead him out first - but due to that MA bug I moved The President to the Middle).
As for spawning the last mission objecive when The President is first rescued; If I had waited until The President's full escort out was completed to spawn it - then the Player (in most cases) would also have to defeat the fake Statesman because (in most of my playtesting with friends) we often found Statesman first, or near The President; or the group decided (even hough he was a combatant) to drag The President along thinking they could prtect him; and defeating my 'Fake Statesman' was not something I wanted to make a pseudo-requirement depending on circumstances, EVEN THOUGH in testing, I found my Level 50 MA/SR scrapper and Level 41 SS/IMVB Tank could defeat him 90% of the time. The two groups I ran through in testin ALSO decided to hand Statesman his butt; but again, although I do enjoy having a chance at failure; defeating a 'surprise EB/AV' level foe (and no, I wasn't going to announce the 'Fake Statesman' prior to it happening because it was supposed to be a 'surprise' part of the mission, even though I'm sure many players might be thinking that's what may happen, and it is a cliche, but hey, we ARE taliking a comic book story here ).
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The 5th mission takes place in one of the Rikti Caves, a pretty big one. I didn't really have a problem with the size, as it was the last mission. In my opinion, your last mission has the freedom to be rather large. However, there are far too many non-essential boss spawns, and the bosses themselves are really annoying. Even if you decide to grab Back Alley Brawler (he's non essential to the mission) he doesn't help much as the bosses are all masterminds who summon 5 robots, meaning BABs will inevitably start beating up a protector bot or something.
The custom group has a few problems. The aforementioned bosses are a bit too much. Bots/Devices, with what appears to be hard/standard. My scrapper had no issues with them, really, but my all-human peacebringer was having major problems. First, they'd immobilize him, and plus the protector bots would just wreak total havoc on him with their forcefields, seeker drones, and stuns. A squishier character is going to have major problems with these guys. The LTs just plain have too many powers. One of them is Forcefield/Energy Blast. The energy blast is definitely on hard, as they have energy torrent, but I'm not sure what the Forcefield is on. Regardless, they have force bolt, dispersion bubble, and aid self. On my peacebringer it was just constant knockback, and I couldn't even hold them to stop it due to the dispersion bubble. The other LTs are Axe/Elec Armor, axe is on hard, not sure of the elec armor. I will tell you however that they were annoying as all hell to kill, even on my scrapper. My peacebringer eventually just skipped all of these whenever he could, because since he only uses energy it was like fighting someone with unstoppable running constantly. Lastly, one of the minions uses Electric Blast/Electric Manipulation. The end drain from these minions was incredibly brutal, thanks to the custom critters using the same power effects that players do, and the fast recharge of charged bolts and electric fence. Even with conserve power on, my Peacebringer's end was floored practically the whole time.
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Actually, none of the minions are on 'Hard'; and the only LT set on Hard (secondary) was the 'MB Battle Droid' (Axe) LT; and I may dial him back as he does tend to eat squishies; but that said; I've always been upfornt and stated if you're more a support class you'll need one team-mate; and I've steamrolled with a Tank/Defender and also a Scrapper/Controller duo (and all this on 'Unyielding' difficulty). The MM bosses are 'Standard'/'Easy' I believe, but yeah MMs are just plain nasty; but I like presenting a challange; and most people I've played this with ignore the MM bots and just pile on him. I steamrolled through all five missions during testing with my Robot/Traps MM; (also on the second highest Villian setting), and actually yours is the first comment I've had saying the Custom Group is a bit too hard, but it's definitely an issue I'd love more feedback on because I am trying to stradle the fine line between challenging and pain in the butt (but again that's me.
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Story
The overall plot is a decent one, but it has issues. First off, in the first two missions Citadel says that he was built by the 5th Column and that they will take control of him if he goes with you. I really hope this is foreshadowing the fact that he is the fake Citadel that was created by Memory-X, because Citadel wasn't created by the 5th Column.
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Actually, when CoH was in beta and for the first few months the 'lore' started he was originally created by the 5th Column. That was retconned by the Devs when the 5th Column was replaced with 'The Council' (/barf); and it's one of the reasons I don't try to claim this as a 'current' canon arc (and also on of the reasons I like to use the 5th Column because IMO, their removal and retcon of a lot of the in-game story regarding them was one of the low points for me in CoH - although from a European marketing standpoint (and BTW, my father is of German decent, so I'm aware opf the supposed issues) I understand why it was done, even though the majority of German players didn't care for the change either).
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Another issue is that the plot, while it makes sense, is pretty hard to follow. After playing through it with 2 separate characters, I had to run through part of it a third time when I sat down to write the plot overview and drew a complete blank as to how the transition between the plot of the first three missions went. After playing it again, it made sense, but barely. Things need to be made clearer.
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That's the first comment of this type I've had regarding the story itself; (and the other 3 comments I recieved to date all liked the plot as presented); and if you're willing, I love to hear what aspects you found unclear or hard to follow so I could take a look at trying to fix that issue.
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Also, a minor nitpick, but the Flame Protector that spawns claims that he has a powersuit, when Flame Protectors have demon faces under their helmets. After they use a certain power their demon heads are visible. If you really do want him to be someone in a power suit, there is a Paragon Protector Elite that uses fire powers that you could use instead.
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You're refering to my Crey Nework Administrators (and I was rather miffed the Devs removed the 'drink coffeee' animation from their list during beta; but I left them the way they are (Demon Mask and all) because I work in IT as a Network Admin; and often (including the folks who help me test this arc as I was developing it) said, "Hey, don't people look at you as a devil/demon at times (a fact I can't deny); and "don't you sometimes flame people on boards and in your network group meetings (another fact I couldn't deny); thus if you look at all the dialog text I had for these MOBs - the flamingh suit (and demon face) worked on a certain level - and hell, even in comic books proper, there have been 'demonic' loooking power suits; and what I picked is part of the standard Crey MOB group. So while I do completely understand this comment and nitpick; they are the way they are in the mission for a reason (Mission 2 is where I tried to interject a bit of humorous dialog across the board; and if you do work in IT at some level, you might (or might not) get a small chuckle, or groan at the dialog). That said, I will at leat see what the 'Paragon Protector Elite' MOB you mention looks like and how it fights.
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Final Thoughts
With some improvements, this arc could be turned into a pretty good one. The plot isn't a bad one, just hard to follow at places. The custom enemy group does need work, however.
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So again, thank you VERY MUCH for the detailed review; I only wish I could get more feedback like this; and if you willing to follow up here or via PM as to what parts/elements of the plot/story you found unclear hard to follow on your first run through, I'd love to hear that so I could look to making improvements in that area.
As for your minions, I actually didn't state that any were on hard. In fact the only one I have a little bit of an issue with is the electric one, only due to the end drain, mainly the electric fence. It spams incredibly fast and has a 20% chance of -100% end recovery. Perhaps electric melee instead of manipulation?
Are you sure that the forcefield guys don't have hard level energy blast? I remember specifically that they used energy torrent, which i believe is only available on hard difficulty.
The main problem with the robots mastermind bosses is the protector bots. Frankly, the fact that bosses and higher summon up two of them bothers the crap out of me. The stacking of the forcefields and all the seeker drones can really mess someone up. That's really the only issue I had with those. On the AV the bots are fine, considering he's a final boss fight. Like I said, I didn't have a single problem running through
As for the paragon protector elite, it's pretty much the regular Paragon Protector with a cape, and it fights similarly to the burn protector, though it's definitely stronger. (it has inferno.) Like I said, it's only a minor nitpick.
However, in regards to Citadel being built by the 5th Column, I still don't think that's correct. I doubt I have my original Bastion TF souvenir sitting around, but I think you have it a bit backwards. In the Bastion TF, the 5th Column had gotten their hands on Bastion's schematics and were using them to improve their robots. As far as I can remember, Bastion was built by a superhero.
And as far as the story being hard to follow, I really can't place my finger on it. Maybe it's just a bit too convoluted. It's like the further I get in the story, the more details I forget about earlier on in the story. Like for instance, when I was in the last mission, I tried to remember why I had even gone to the portal corp lab in the first place, and I completely drew a blank. Of course now that I've run through it again and wrote it down in a review, I remember. I'm not sure exactly what you could do to fix it, besides making the clues clearer on exactly what is going on, so if someone forgets, they can just look back through their clues.
^^^
Thanks again Laser, that actually does help (as I want to look over the clues and see if I can weave them together a bit better); as to Citadel, I now have to see if there's any old CoH site with his original 'lore'; since I honestly thought (and I could very well have a bad memory) that in his original discription, he had been developed as 'soldier' for the 5th Column, but encountered/fought or someone in the FP and was self-aware enough to decide he didn't want to be a pawn of the 5th Column any longer, left and became a Hero. Either way, I did want to try and remain 'faithful' to the original characters origin, so I have some lore hunting to do.
For my own Reference:
Are there any City of Heroes/Villains arc that avoid JABOSTH, preferrably avoiding the idiot ball?
Since the protagonists of the story are the Player Characters which are effectively chipers, the only "development" that can really be done is with the NPC characters.
Most of the City of H/V Story arcs seem more like backstories to the various factions and areas in the game.
"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)
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For my own Reference:
Are there any City of Heroes/Villains arc that avoid JABOSTH, preferrably avoiding the idiot ball?
Since the protagonists of the story are the Player Characters which are effectively chipers, the only "development" that can really be done is with the NPC characters.
Most of the City of H/V Story arcs seem more like backstories to the various factions and areas in the game.
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Vernon Von Grun springs to mind. He's a high level villain contact. I've noticed that CoH arcs tend to be more about the villain group while CoV arcs tend to be more about the contact him/herself.
Current Published Arcs
#1 "Too Drunk to be Alcoholic" Arc #48942
#2 "To Slay Sleeping Dragons" Arc #111486
#3 "Stop Calling Me"
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For my own Reference:
Are there any City of Heroes/Villains arc that avoid JABOSTH, preferrably avoiding the idiot ball?
Since the protagonists of the story are the Player Characters which are effectively chipers, the only "development" that can really be done is with the NPC characters.
Most of the City of H/V Story arcs seem more like backstories to the various factions and areas in the game.
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Vernon Von Grun springs to mind. He's a high level villain contact. I've noticed that CoH arcs tend to be more about the villain group while CoV arcs tend to be more about the contact him/herself.
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Forget about Vernon, it's almost like mentoring Doctor Horrible.
Although a common gripe villain-side is often "You're just a hired thug/lackey for all of your contacts because all you're doing it putting their agenda forward."
"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)
Arc #73207: Beyond the Door
Rating: 2 stars
The short of it: Not really much of a plot, bad placing of objectives, overpowered ally
Plot Overview
A Vahzilok Mortificator named Dr. Keh Davyr (should probably be K. Davyr to sound at least a little less made up) wants you to find a person who he claims is a friend, Dr. Westman. Davyr says that Westman has gone missing, and the only person who knows his whereabouts is a woman named Dr. Calvin, who has been kidnapped by monsters. Upon entering the sewer where she is held, you run into a man named Hands McCoy who is apparently working for a Lady Talvik, who is apparently after Dr. Calvin for some reason. Upon seeing you he decides that you must be eliminated, though he runs after deciding that fighting you is not worth his time. The monsters are reanimated corpses, Frankenstein-style, but not Vahzilok's variety. You rescue Dr. Calvin from the monsters, and she tells you where Dr. Westman is hiding.
You go to Dr. Westman's lab, only to find that it is the site of a battle between the monsters and Lady Talvik's followers. The place is littered with the bodies of people slain by the monsters, one of which being Westman. You return to Davyr with the bad news, and he decides that besides his desire to study them, they are too dangerous and must be destroyed. He asks you to go to the lab, find any research notes you can, and blow the building up. Inside, you meet up with Hands McCoy again, who explains that Lady Talvik wants these monsters dead, so he will aid you. You plant the bombs, collect the research and leave.
Davyr explains that he was only using you the whole time (Wait, I was supposed to believe that his goals were somehow noble?) and that the Talvik were apparently some form of Vampire clan. But everything's ok, since the research was incomplete, and Davyr can't create Westman's monsters.
Mechanics
All of the maps are random, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. However, on my second playthrough of the arc, the correct body (the body you need to find is one of quite a few bodies) spawned practically right after the mission door. Considering it's the only objective in the mission, it really should be in the back. Also, in the third mission I had a similar situation with the EB that was required to kill, but since that wasn't the only objective it's less of a problem.
Hands McCoy is just plain too strong, as an enemy and especially as an ally. His willpower is set to hard, making him practically unkillable, and he's an EB. Thankfully in the first mission he wasn't a required objective, and ran as soon as all of his minions are dead. In the last mission, though, he was a required ally to save, and as an EB was just plain overpowered. With his RTTC taunt aura, he was like a pocket brute with constantly full fury. The EB I had to fight in the mission was laughably easy with the help of the ally, even on my level 38 blaster.
The custom enemy groups, however, were fairly well balanced, the only problem being that one of the lieutenants has ninjitsu, and you rarely run into it.
Story
There's not really much of a plot here, and what there is of one only makes sense if your character is retarded. The plot says neutral, but a hero wouldn't willingly hand over people and research notes on zombies to a Vahzilok doctor, and a villain wouldn't do a mission that professes to have altruistic intentions. I realize that he's paying you, but Davyr professes to be doing this out of a noble purpose. It's a catch-22, his 'ulterior motive' is so blatantly obvious as to not really even be ulterior, but by trying to hide his intentions, however poorly, makes it nonsensical for a villain to be doing the story.
The whole vampire clan angle at the end of the arc felt tacked on. Even this is supposed to be some kind of series of arcs, at the end Davyr said essentially "Oh, by the way, there were some vampires there."
Final Thoughts
The ally needs to be much less powerful, I would suggest turning down both of his powersets and making him a boss. It's not like you're fighting an incredibly powerful AV, as the big powerful monster was only an EB, and his sets weren't even turned up that high. The story needs a lot of work, right now it's just a barebones framework for some fights.
Arc #26420: Now Hiring
Rating: 2 stars
The short of it: Hardly a plot, and what is there makes no sense, missions that feel like fluff, annoying custom enemies
Plot Overview
A man named Mr. McCord has offered you a job to procure for him a ship. The ship is currently in the hands of the Council, and he wants you to take care of that. You arrive on the ship, and the council are fighting off an invasion of Sky Raiders. You clear everyone out of the ship, and upon your return, McCord tells you he needs a crew. You go to a warehouse and beat up all the Scrapyarders there, presumably telling them that they work for Mr. McCord now.
Now Mr. McCord wants you to manage the ship as it takes it's cargo. Upon your arrival, you find that the Sky Raiders are attacking yet again. You destroy the remote navigation computer and defeat the captain that is leading the raiders, securing the ship. After a radio call to Mr. McCord, he tells you that the ship is now 2000 miles south of the Carribean, and that they are probably going to try and attack the ship again. A different crew of pirates attacks this time, and have planted bombs on the ship. After destroying the bombs, you find out that Mr. McCord is there (somehow) and he is destroying the ship for insurance money with you on it. After defeating Mr. McCord, he swears to get his revenge on you.
Mechanics
The first mission is a defeat all on a ship map. I can't stress enough how aggravating those are. Thankfully it's just against Council and Sky Raiders, who die rather easy, especially since the Sky Raiders pretty much get killed every time by the Council.
The second mission is yet another defeat all. This time in a warehouse against Scrapyarders. The warehouse is small, but there's absolutely nothing to this mission except beating up Scrapyarders.
The third mission is against Sky Raiders, with a few battles between them and allied Scrapyarders. The first objective is to destroy a computer mainframe, after which a Sky Skiff boss spawns which you have to defeat.
The fourth mission is where the custom enemies come in. They're called Pirates TNG, the minions are a Medic, an AR/Pain Dom, and Marines and Gunners, which from what I could tell, both were AR/Devices. I could be wrong though. The LTs were Petty Officers, Mercs/Willpower, both seem to be on standard since I didn't see any spec ops, and Chief Petty Officers, who were Dual Blades/Willpower, both of which I believe on hard. I know for a fact the Willpower was on hard, because they had RTTC, making them hard as a Boss to kill, at least for my Scrapper. My Blaster couldn't even kill them due to the high amount of attacks and high regen. At first there are 6 bombs to destroy, which are destroy object details. After that, Mr. McCord spawns. He's Elite Boss rank, Energy Assault/Energy Blast, both of which I want to say are on hard, though I'm not sure of the energy blast. On my Scrapper he fell in no time flat, but on my Blaster, there was no winning. At range, I would get pummeled by a huge amount of ranged attacks, including a snipe which took 3/4 of my life in one shot, and if I tried to get up close to stun him, he would stun me first with bonesmasher and drop me to the ground pretty quickly. Frankly, if you want him to have energy blasts and energy melee attacks, just make him energy blast energy melee. The amount of ranged attacks he has is incredible, especially for an arc that professes to be designed for solo around level 30-35. Speaking of being supposedly 30-35, The missions with Scrapyarders cap at 30, so that's disingenuous.
Story
Frankly, the story is just not good. First, it plays out like a bunch of radio missions, and second, parts of it make no sense. How did Mr. McCord get an insurance policy on a boat that I stole from the Council? Also, the clue claims it was from 4 months ago. If that was the case, then how come the arc wasn't only 1 mission: plant bombs on the boat? How did Mr. McCord get to the boat so fast when it was 2000 miles south of the Caribbean? Which, by the way, is impossible, considering that 2000 miles south of the Caribbian sea is the middle of South America. But that's nitpicking.
Mr. McCord's plan makes no sense whatsoever, unless his big plan was to kill a bunch of council, scrapyarders, sky raiders, and the player, and even then it makes no sense. Seriously, if he had an insurance policy on the boat 4 months ago, it should have already paid out, since the boat was in the hands of the Council, therefore meaning it was stolen from him.
The first two missions really don't have any worth the the story, since there is no dialogue in them, except for in the first one which consists of:
Council: "You're not taking this ship!"
Sky Raider: "Yes we are!"
Why were the Sky Raiders even after the ship in the first place? What was the Council transporting on the ship? There's no story in any of these. It's just places with people who need to be beaten up.
Final Thoughts
I gave it a 2 star rating instead of a 1 star, because while I don't recommend the arc, it's not unplayable. Still, for an arc that claims to be story focused, there needs to be a lot more story.
Arc #106017: The Uniocracy of Gray TaskForce Pt.1
Rating: 1 star
The short of it: Horrible writing, overpowered EBs, annoying custom group
Plot Overview
Xelif Benzen (who is apparently an ex-Freedom Phalanx member) is plotting to use an Item of Power to recreate the universe, and his ex-lover Hawkstarr has contacted you to stop him. Xelif Benzen's group, called the Unicracy of Gray have attacked the Freedom Phalanx headquarters and stolen new power armor that increases the wearer's powers greatly. You need to go to the Freedom Phalanx warehouse where they are keeping the power armor, retrieve it, and find out any information you can about the Item of Power. You go to the warehouse, defeat the Equalizerz, and return with the power armor. Hawkstarr tells you that they are attacking a longbow base to try to weaken Statesman's power base for the upcoming war between the Uniocracy of Gray and the Freedom Phalanx.
Mechanics
There's only one map, and it's not a warehouse or a Longbow Base. It's the rikti caves map that extends from the abandoned lab map, and it's huge. Not only is the map huge, the mission is a defeat all. There's I belive 5 elite bosses that you need to kill, all of which have one or both of their powersets on extreme. Thankfully I was playing my level 50 scrapper and was able to defeat all of them with liberal use of inspirations, elude, archmage, and geas, but anyone who isn't level 50 and armed to the teeth with IOs or HOs and accolades is going to find it nearly impossible to kill all of these guys. The custom group has quite a lot of enemies. I took down a list of all the ones that I fought and their powersets.
Minions
Fire Control/Sonic Blast
Pain Domination/Radiation Blast
Claws/Energy Manipulation
Storm/Archery
Lieutenants
Psychic Blast/Dark Melee
Martial Arts/ Willpower, willpower on hard
Martial Arts/Ice Armor
The Claws/Energy Manipulation minions were probably the only one of these things that wasn't annoying, mainly because they hardly ever used their energy manipulation. Seriously, guys, don't put willpower on hard. A custom enemy with RTTC and Fast Healing will have roughly 200% regeneration when it gets into melee range, in addition to all of it's resistances and increased health. Just don't do it. I don't think a single enemy was on standard.
There were 15 weapons racks to collect, and once you collect them all an ambush that I believe was set on hard spawns. There are also some ambushes after some of the EB fights.
Story
The writing is so terrible it makes my eyes bleed. Here's a few samples of the NPC dialogue:
[NPC] Gray Multa'Shieldark: How could this happen...I Love you Xelif...you have big chocolate!!!
[NPC] Gray Sho'Gaia: I am soooo uber!! who want some of this?? Didn't think so...Hahahahahaha!!
[NPC] Gray Gaio De Auro: You can't this big chocolate!!!! Get off of it now!!!! You Beoshes!!!!
[NPC] Gray Blizzo'Frio: You want a piece of me? No one is going to keep me from delivering these goods to Lord Xelif..Atk!!
The NPC descriptions follow the same vein. Some of them even have emoticons in them.
As for the plot, this is only part one so I can only judge it based on this mission alone. The plot seems to be run-of-the-mill stop the world from being destroyed, but judging from the NPC return dialogue's hints to the next mission, it seems like it's going to be more mindless fighting against overpowered enemies.
Final Thoughts
I would suggest people give it a play to read the hilariously bad descriptions and dialogue, but the enemies are ridiculously overpowered.
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Arc Name: The Clockwork Crusade
Arc ID: 126073
Faction: Arachnos, Vahzilok, Council, Clockwork
Creator Global/Forum Name: @YanYan
Difficulty Level: Easy to Moderate, designed to be solo able by any AT
Mission Levels: 1-20
Synopsis: Hero Corps has asked you for some unique help. Seems the Clockwork are making some strange attacks against other villains. They've asked you to 'assist' them under cover.
Estimated Time to Play: 30 Minutes to an Hour.
[/ QUOTE ]
I'm uh, just going to leave this here. There are Four missions, two defeat alls, and hopefully I've polished the story enough. If anything, I just need more feedback on it. Thanks in advanced
I want to feel your wrath LaserJesus. If you have any time, my arc is always up for consideration by any reviewer. Info is in my sig.
I want to feel your wrath LaserJesus. If you have any time, my arc is always up for consideration by any reviewer. The arc is 2595, The Extadine Lab.
Issue 16 made me feel like this.
Warning: This poster likes to play Devil's Advocate.
D'oh, we picked the same text for our posts, Obsidius! One of us is gonna have to change them before we go out.
Issue 16 made me feel like this.
Warning: This poster likes to play Devil's Advocate.
[ QUOTE ]
Arc #26420: Now Hiring
Rating: 2 stars
The short of it: Hardly a plot, and what is there makes no sense, missions that feel like fluff, annoying custom enemies
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Thanks for the review. I have to be honest in that there are a few things in it I take exception too, but on the whole I guess it comes down to my failure to make it clear.
I would like to clear up some of the sequence of events for you. The ship was McCord's from the start. His plan was to hire the Raiders to scuttle the ship, but the Council got to it first. That was the comment in the opening briefing about there being another group that he didn't really trust.
The goal of the second mission was to gather a crew. A group of warehouse workers seemed a reasonable choice. I missed the level cap though.
The Third mission was an attempt by the Raiders to complete the contract they failed to do in the first mission. They knew where the ship was, so it wasn't unreasonable for them to think that getting it to the Caribbean was a stretch.
The last one was McCord's actual army, sent in to do the job right. The ship being 2000 miles south of the Caribbean wasn't a mistake. It was an outright lie.
The two things I wanted to do with this arc was to see if I could create a balanced custom group. And to see if I could pass off a contact that is underhanded and deceitful from the start, without making it seem that way until the last minute.
It turns out there was a third, unintended thing that got tested.
I'm sort of surprised you had that much trouble with the custom group though? What was your difficulty set to? I ran it with a Brute, a Scrapper, and a MM, without much trouble on the first setting.
What I really don't get is the "Defeat all" hate. Ships aren't that big, and the warehouse was the smallest, most direct map I could find. Is simply having a mission goal listed as "defeat all" such an issue? I could see it in the Atta Cave or those big office, or cave maps. Would the advise be to just completely avoid the use of the Kill all option in every circumstance? No exceptions? If so, then what alternatives could there be in the first two missions where the ultimate goals were to capture a ship and capture the crew?
At any rate, I do appreciate the your taking the time to try the arc and write this up. I knew it wasn't my best work going in.
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.
Depending on the map, a "Defeat All" takes a frustrating amount of time. With cargo ships, a single mob could be hiding inside one of the open containers or behind a stack of crates, requiring the player to backtrack and scour the entire map thoroughly.
People seem to fall into two categories here. Either (a) they outright refuse to play Defeat Alls, or (b) they'll go along with it if there's a very good reason. Many would much prefer a workaround of some kind.
Not having played your arc, I'm not sure about your plot requirements. But maybe for the Scrapyarder mission you could have the player go in to defeat the group's leader? Sometimes taking out the top dog is all the underlings need to know who's in charge.
Rise of the Copper Legion (#60280; with soundtrack)
The Fractured Dreamer (#498588; with musical theme)
"Now Leaving: Paragon City": original composition for the end of CoH
And I've personally used two Defeat Alls in my arcs. I was able to scrap one (due to an overdue insight).
The other is in the Midnighter Club, an extremely tiny map with no places to hide. And almost all mobs are defeated while completely the other objectives, anyway.
Rise of the Copper Legion (#60280; with soundtrack)
The Fractured Dreamer (#498588; with musical theme)
"Now Leaving: Paragon City": original composition for the end of CoH
Frankly, if you use Defeat All, there's no need for other objectives, since they'll all be completed in the course of defeating all the enemies (except for glowies of course).
Issue 16 made me feel like this.
Warning: This poster likes to play Devil's Advocate.
[ QUOTE ]
I would like to clear up some of the sequence of events for you. The ship was McCord's from the start. His plan was to hire the Raiders to scuttle the ship, but the Council got to it first. That was the comment in the opening briefing about there being another group that he didn't really trust.
The goal of the second mission was to gather a crew. A group of warehouse workers seemed a reasonable choice. I missed the level cap though.
[/ QUOTE ]
Oh, I realize the reason inside of the plot for the first two missions, don't get me wrong. However, the first two missions themselves really only served as intermissions of violence between mission briefings. The missions themselves didn't add anything to the story, and didn't increase my enjoyment of the story. Hence, the missions felt like fluff.
[ QUOTE ]
I'm sort of surprised you had that much trouble with the custom group though? What was your difficulty set to? I ran it with a Brute, a Scrapper, and a MM, without much trouble on the first setting.
[/ QUOTE ]
My level 50 scrapper had no problems on difficulty level 4, which is what I always run him on, since he's slotted with practically all HOs, and is a scrapper. My blaster, I run on difficulty level 2. He's the one who had some problems, but only with the chief petty officers, due to them having RTTC, and the elite boss, since he had so many ranged attacks.
My issues with the plot is that no matter how I play out his plan in my head, it doesn't make any sense. I figured the two possible scenarios were that A: He was trying to get the insurance money or B: He is trying to kill me. If he's trying to get the insurance money, then he doesn't really need my help if he's got the Sky Raiders on the job. And even if the Council stole it out from under the Sky Raiders, then he would get the insurance money.
However, if he's trying to get the insurance money, then why is he getting a crew? I mean, he was trying to have the sky raiders scuttle it earlier. If getting the crew was to lend a sense of legitimacy and make it not look like fraud, then shouldn't that have been the first mission?
Then we come to the third mission, where he wants me to stop the Sky Raiders from taking the ship. Again, if the plan is to get the insurance money, then he should have just let the Sky Raiders do it, and not had me on board.
Then we come to the fourth mission, where he shows up to stop me himself and blow up the ship with me on it. Here's where I really think that he's just trying to kill me, and trying to do it in the most roundabout way possible. The only problem is, I haven't done anything to make him want to kill me, and if he's getting paid to do it, the story arc doesn't say.
That's more or less the problem. Nothing is really explained all that well. Now, I like to think that I'm a pretty smart guy, but even if I'm dead wrong and I'm a completely average person, I should be able to figure out your plot by what is in the story arc, not by having you explain it to me afterward.
Arc #4370: Operation Pitcher Plant
Rating: 3 stars
The short of it: Mostly balanced custom group, decent plot
Plot Overview
A Dr. Engles has received a report that a supervillain group known as the League of Mayhem has attacked a Portal Corp laboratory to steal the plans for a portable dimensional portal generator, and has asked you to stop them and retrieve the plans. On site, you run into Morrigan Le Fae, Cyberix, Superianna, and their mercenary minions. After finding the plans and defeating the League of Mayhem, you find that it was all supposed to be a trap, but they failed. Upon your return, Dr. Engles informs you that a city councilman has been kidnapped and is being held hostage by the League of Mayhem. Obviously, this is another trap, but a life hangs in the balance, so you go to rescue him. On site are two more of the League of Mayhem's villains, Steel Locust and Gamma Emitter. As you are leading Councilman Harris out of the building, Gamma Emitter ambushes you along with 5th Column soldiers. After his defeat, Gamma Emitter explains that a 5th Column soldier named Olberst Olbrech has hired the League of Mayhem to kill you.
Dr. Engles explains that Olbrech is about to try and make an escape because of the League's failure to kill you, and that in an hour he will have gotten away. You rush to an abandoned warehouse, and confront him. During the fight he rants that he came back in time to seek revenge for you defeating him in the future. Defeating him and ending his plans, you return victorious.
Mechanics
The custom enemy group is rather well balanced. The two minions are Energy Blast/Empathy and Assault Rifle/Martial arts, and the Lieutenants are Energy Blast/Energy Manipulation and Assault Rifle/Willpower, which was thankfully set to standard. Being solo, I didn't see the bosses, however, Morrigan Le Fae, Cyberix, and Steel Locust were all boss rank and were in the League of Mayhem custom group along with the minions and LTs, so on a team they will spawn as the bosses in regular mission spawns. Since they all seem to be unique characters and not just named versions of the League of Mayhem bosses, I strongly suggest moving them to their own group apart from the mercenaries. Also, the battlesuit lieutenants and the medisuit minions looked practically identical, the only difference being height and their body sliders. I would suggest giving the battlesuits a different color scheme to make them easier to differentiate in a fight.
The first two maps felt a little long, the first because lab maps are always huge, and the second, while not excessive, felt a lot longer due to the escort.
The third mission, while it does state before the mission that it is a timed mission, it didn't register with me when I first read through the intro text. I suppose this is my fault due to the way I read, but I would suggest making the warning a different color than the rest of the text so people who read fast or people who just skim will see it for sure.
Story
The plot isn't spectacular, but it is well written, aside from typos and little grammar errors. Nothing big enough to make you not enjoy it, however. The characterization of the custom bosses I thought was very good. Overall the experience was a positive one.
Final Thoughts
I wanted to give this a 4 star, but some of the problems I pointed out earlier, like the unique characters being bosses in the same group as the minions, knocked it down just barely to 3. However, this is definitey not an arc I would suggest against playing.
since there seems to be no formal way of asking for a review, i will just post and hope that i will get one...
one warning... there is mission scaling in this. this is thematically driven. please make sure you can scale down as well as up.
Do YOU have nightmares about the Vahzilok? Can't sleep because you failed to defeat that Boss over and over again? Do you let your teammates down because you run away from Malta sappers? Do clowns make you have an anxiety attack? Try HERO Therapy (TM)! Start Today! 4 EASY sessions! (1EB,1AV with ally help)
Please give this arc a try... you probably need to. Only 5(!) easy payments! You will not regret it!
*Small print* Failure to complete this arc may result in impotence, baldness, general ridicule from children, a lessening of EXP earning potential, and an overall decline of self respect. For further details contact ridiculous girl. Money will not be refunded under any condition.
Arc: Hero Therapy! (TM)
Arc ID: 119228
Author: Ridiculous Girl
Number of Missions: 4
global: ridiculous girl
Hero Therapy! (TM) - 119228
welcome to donut world - 1233
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I would like to clear up some of the sequence of events for you. The ship was McCord's from the start. His plan was to hire the Raiders to scuttle the ship, but the Council got to it first. That was the comment in the opening briefing about there being another group that he didn't really trust.
The goal of the second mission was to gather a crew. A group of warehouse workers seemed a reasonable choice. I missed the level cap though.
[/ QUOTE ]
Oh, I realize the reason inside of the plot for the first two missions, don't get me wrong. However, the first two missions themselves really only served as intermissions of violence between mission briefings. The missions themselves didn't add anything to the story, and didn't increase my enjoyment of the story. Hence, the missions felt like fluff.
[/ QUOTE ]
Ahh, okay. I understand that then. Point taken.
[ QUOTE ]
My issues with the plot is that no matter how I play out his plan in my head, it doesn't make any sense. I figured the two possible scenarios were that A: He was trying to get the insurance money or B: He is trying to kill me. If he's trying to get the insurance money, then he doesn't really need my help if he's got the Sky Raiders on the job. And even if the Council stole it out from under the Sky Raiders, then he would get the insurance money.
However, if he's trying to get the insurance money, then why is he getting a crew? I mean, he was trying to have the sky raiders scuttle it earlier. If getting the crew was to lend a sense of legitimacy and make it not look like fraud, then shouldn't that have been the first mission?
Then we come to the third mission, where he wants me to stop the Sky Raiders from taking the ship. Again, if the plan is to get the insurance money, then he should have just let the Sky Raiders do it, and not had me on board.
Then we come to the fourth mission, where he shows up to stop me himself and blow up the ship with me on it. Here's where I really think that he's just trying to kill me, and trying to do it in the most roundabout way possible. The only problem is, I haven't done anything to make him want to kill me, and if he's getting paid to do it, the story arc doesn't say.
That's more or less the problem. Nothing is really explained all that well. Now, I like to think that I'm a pretty smart guy, but even if I'm dead wrong and I'm a completely average person, I should be able to figure out your plot by what is in the story arc, not by having you explain it to me afterward.
[/ QUOTE ]
That all comes down to my failure to explain it properly. For the record, I never expected this to get good marks. I'm used to a much different style of writing.
His plan was to have insurance policies on the crew as well. That's why he needed them, and I thought there was text to that effect at the end. The Sky Raiders were put in to limit the levels in the first mission, so their explained purpose was to be the first group that was hired to do the job the player is actually doing. The player was the one set up to take the blame for it all.
I was hoping a review would highlight the problems, but I'm a little surprised at what they turned out to be.
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.
[ QUOTE ]
I was hoping a review would highlight the problems, but I'm a little surprised at what they turned out to be.
[/ QUOTE ]
That is probably a common thing. If your arc has problems you see or expect, you have likely already fixed them yourself.
I know all three forum reviews I received were very helpful and I am much happier with my story and pacing now. Other people pointed out the problems I didn't see or didn't want to see.
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.
[ QUOTE ]
Mechanics
The custom enemy group is rather well balanced. The two minions are Energy Blast/Empathy and Assault Rifle/Martial arts, and the Lieutenants are Energy Blast/Energy Manipulation and Assault Rifle/Willpower, which was thankfully set to standard.
[/ QUOTE ]
First off, thanks for the review.
Secondly, yeah, I was very careful to make sure I went with just standard Willpower... I wanted those guys to be tougher, but not to give them the full gamut of Willpower nastiness.
[ QUOTE ]
Being solo, I didn't see the bosses, however, Morrigan Le Fae, Cyberix, and Steel Locust were all boss rank and were in the League of Mayhem custom group along with the minions and LTs, so on a team they will spawn as the bosses in regular mission spawns. Since they all seem to be unique characters and not just named versions of the League of Mayhem bosses, I strongly suggest moving them to their own group apart from the mercenaries.
[/ QUOTE ]
Ack! Yeah, that's something I'll fix when I get home tonight. There are bosses of each type of mercenary as well.
[ QUOTE ]
Also, the battlesuit lieutenants and the medisuit minions looked practically identical, the only difference being height and their body sliders. I would suggest giving the battlesuits a different color scheme to make them easier to differentiate in a fight.
[/ QUOTE ]
Hm... fair enough. I'll monkey with their appearance when I get home... I don't want them to be *too* dissimilar, but I get your point.
[ QUOTE ]
The first two maps felt a little long, the first because lab maps are always huge, and the second, while not excessive, felt a lot longer due to the escort.
[/ QUOTE ]
Again, fair point. I may monkey with this some tonight... especially the second map.
[ QUOTE ]
The third mission, while it does state before the mission that it is a timed mission, it didn't register with me when I first read through the intro text. I suppose this is my fault due to the way I read, but I would suggest making the warning a different color than the rest of the text so people who read fast or people who just skim will see it for sure.
[/ QUOTE ]
Ooh, yeah... good idea. I'll figure out how to do that tonight.
[ QUOTE ]
Story
The plot isn't spectacular, but it is well written, aside from typos and little grammar errors. Nothing big enough to make you not enjoy it, however. The characterization of the custom bosses I thought was very good. Overall the experience was a positive one.
[/ QUOTE ]
Thanks. I'm especially pleased you liked the characterization of the villains. I'll look into squashing more typos and grammar mistakes tonight, hopefully.
[ QUOTE ]
Final Thoughts
I wanted to give this a 4 star, but some of the problems I pointed out earlier, like the unique characters being bosses in the same group as the minions, knocked it down just barely to 3. However, this is definitey not an arc I would suggest against playing.
[/ QUOTE ]
About what I expected, to be honest. Thanks for the feedback, and I'll work on cleaning the arc up. (also, it will be useful for my next arc involving the League of Mayhem)
Vila: Why don't you go?
Avon: You are expendable.
Vila: And you're not?
Avon: No, I am not. I am not expendable, I'm not stupid, and I'm not going.
Gan: I'll get the guns.
- Blake's 7, Horizon
<QR>
Just to put a date on it, I'm going to be off reviewing until after the 5th at least -- that's the end of the semester.
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"