I'll jump in on this, Venture. You seem to have an analytical mind much like mine, so getting a second pair of eyes to look at stuff from a point of view that closely resembles mine is probably a good idea.
You're of course free to pick any of the arc sin my sig, but the ones I really could use an analyses of are "Hunting the Dark Dragon" and "the Revenge of Hro'Dtohz" - in that order of priority, so if you just want to hit the first, that's fine by me. 
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Arc #9590, "Soul Train: Origins"
tl;dr: 4 stars. Objections: annoying outdoor mission, problematic ambushes, disconcerting level range jump
This is an "origin story" which means my Mary Sue radar is turned up to max gain from the start. The Contact tells you up front that she's telling you her origin story so at least you have plenty of warning if this isn't your thing. In the first mission, you are sent to the rave at which Soul Train's boyfriend revealed he was a Skull drug dealer and nearly broke her jaw. "Someone" broke up the rave, and for our purposes that someone is you. You have to rescue her and fight him, a Super Strength/Martial Arts Boss. He spawns, I think, two ambush waves as you beat him down, which means you'll probably get them both at once. You'll be autolevelled to 13 here.
In the next mission, which you are warned is timed and "going to be close", you intervene in an incident at Soul Train's job the next day. She worked at a physics lab and was caught in a Lost/Rikti attack (autolevelled to 30). You have to rescue her and restart five shield generators before an experiment starts in 30 minutes. There is a bit of a slip in the hostage dialog where two Rikti speak in normal english. This was due to me being at the top of the level range, though, where Lost spawn as Rikti. It might be a good idea to just have the hostiles say nothing here. In any case, I stealthed past most of the mobs to get to the glowies, rescued the hostage...and then the mission exit popup said that someone had botched the intel, there was a sixth generator you didn't know about so the shields stayed down. Soul Train was blasted by the "Muon Extraction Matrix" and hospitalized for a few days.
For the third and final chapter, Soul Train describes how she felt after the accident, then says she was asked by Detective Freitag to come in and sign the complaint against her ex-boyfriend. When she arrived, she was told that her ex had made bail and was out gunning for her. She went home with a police escort to pack and get out of Dodge, only to be jumped by Skulls...which is where you come in. Unfortunately this mission takes place on the instanced Kings Row map, with you autolevelled below travel powers. You get to grovel over the map to find the hostage, then grovel over it again to find the triggered spawn of the boyfriend. (I cheated and used my purchased Raptor Pack to scout from the air.) It also has the same ambush problem as the boyfriend's last appearance, though he also spawns an "ambush" of PPD (which never made it to us). This mission is where Soul Train's Energy Blast/Kinetics powers finally manifest. In the debriefing we find out that one of her blasts hit the ex-boyfriend too hard, paralyzing him for life, giving the character some Comes Great Responsibility motivation.
In terms of the story, this is a good example of an origin story that avoids Mary Sue-ism. Soul Train is a spectator for most of it and not the main player when her powers do kick in. That outdoor map is fairly annoying, though. I'd recommend changing the story to have her duck into an abanonded building, and cut down or lose the ambushes attached to the boyfriend character. The level jump in the middle is annoying too...it might be better to use another faction in the same range as the Skulls.
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"
Current queue: 9584, 1462, 1684, 9898, 2007, 7780, 1034, 1297, 14826, 20696, 6999, 1472, 2180, 16108, 1152, 33034, 12669, 1285, 1009, 8774, 8787, 8795, 1665, 12798, 16338, 9028, 2036, 32865, 3615, 19226, 19231, 19238, 4727, 2019, 27136, 34452, 8713, 2409, 1579, 1571, 1881, 18145, 38226, 2922, 1356
So I'm going to be busy for a while. :-)
If you asked and it's not on the queue, PM me.
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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Current queue: 9584, 1462, 1684, 5898, 2007, 7780, 1034, 1297, 14826, 20696, 6999, 1472, 2180, 16108, 1152, 33034, 12669, 1285, 1009, 8774, 8787, 8795, 1665, 12798, 16338, 9028, 2036, 32865, 3615, 19226, 19231, 19238, 4727, 2019, 27136, 34452, 8713, 2409, 1579, 1571, 1881, 18145, 38226, 2922, 1356
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Fixed for you. That's 5898, not 9898.
Head of TRICK, the all Trick Arrow and Traps SG
Part of the Repeat Offenders
Still waiting for his Official BackAlleyBrawler No-Prize
Yep, it's written the right way on the list.
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"
Thanks Venture.
The level jump on the second mish IS annoying, especially with Rikti at the top of the Lost range. I may end up creating a custom group to lock it to a specific range (preferably down low) altho' someone told me they got nothing but Eremites on that map.
As for the outdoor map, I really did want to make it an "All Come" gang situation, almost a riot. I did NOT want to make it a clear-all (that would be cruel and unusual punishment), and there's an optional rescue that spawns some police patrols to help clean up the mess (and add some cops vs Skulls flavor.) The ambush code IS rather buggy - I wanted there to be a big rumble against the hero and the still-shaky Soul, but then have the cops swoop in and bust it up at the end. Originally Arvin spawned independently of Soul, but that made it possible to get the script 'wrong' - for the ending to work, Soul HAS to help you fight the boss.
I'll continue to polish it (hopefully some of the coding gets cleaned up as well) - it's one of the few lowbie-friendly missions, so I'm getting some good ratings on it.
"City of Heroes. April 27, 2004 - August 31, 2012. Obliterated not with a weapon of mass destruction, not by an all-powerful supervillain... but by a cold-hearted and cowardly corporate suck-up."
Arc #9584, "The Delilah Pact"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: Xanatos Gilligan, annoying mobs, plays lose with a canon NPC
This is a villain arc, but the Contact is Hardcase so it may not count.... Hardcase asks you to bust up a Circle of Thorns ritual. You're given a flask of potion to use on each of the five altars, but after clicking on the first you get a Clue saying he either didn't give you enough or you used too much. Being a villain you just smashify the last one. At this point I heard a voice saying "klaatu...barada...*COUGH*" The CoT surrounding it say something about "summoning their consorts"....uhhhh....
Needless to say Hardcase isn't happy with you when you get back, and tells you to come back later for your fee. When you do he says things have been quite and perhaps you've gotten lucky, but in the meanwhile before paying you he wants you to grab a ruby formerly owned by Madame Bathory from Kings Row. The Big Bad on this map is a PPD Kheldian. During the fight he calls for help, but I heard the barks of Carnies, which were evidently hostile to the PPD as none of them actually made it to my location. Naturally the SOB rezzed so I had to smack him down twice. The glowie spawned near the entrance but I went on to clear the map anyway for tickets. The mission end clue has a Carnie kiss you with promises of more to come. I was playing Konoros at the time, so, Squick. Hardcase says this means you triggered the ritual instead of disrupting it and calls you "an absolute moron when it comes to magic...worse than Azuria."
Hardcase next sends you, reluctantly, to a Crey installation where they're summoning demons as part of the Protector project. Early in the mission I picked up (ahem) Tango Vixen Sierra, a Knives of Artemis Boss. (Nit: that's a Malta name, not a Knives name. Knives Bosses are all named "Sister" something...and they'd eviscerate anyone who tried to stick them with "Vixen" anywhere in their handle, I think.) Tango appears to know you...very well. After defeating both of the demonic Protectors, and encountering some more non-hostile Knives, you get a Clue saying that one of the Knives says "if you think we're formidable now, wait until you see what we've in mind for you next"
Attempting to get to the bottom of your newfound popularity, Hardcase sends you after some artifacts currently in the hands of the Legacy Chain. This means a cut to level 29 for the next mission. Each time you find one of the three items an "ambush" of friendly Blood Widows spawns. At the end, one of the Widows kisses you, and the Clue states that it feels just like the earlier kiss from the Carnie. Hardcase confirms in the debriefing that none of these women are what they appear to be.
For the last mission, Hardcase sends you to rob a bank as your payment, saying he's also figured out how to break the curse you're under. When you get to the target, though, you suddenly find yourself in the Croatoa "under the tree" map with an objective "Defeat your Hostess!" The Hostess is, of course, Lilitu, Queen of the Succubi. This resulted in a terribly annoying fight, because a) Succubi have a 38 second Placate on a 30 second recharge, and b) they can't hit me (52% Smash/Lethal Defense, others in the 30-45% range.) Break Frees don't break Placate, so I end up standing around waiting for them to either hit me or miss with the Placate. Anyway, you have to beat Lilitu and clear the room to end the mission. When you do so you get a Clue saying a broken ruby falls out of your pocket and a portal back to the real world appears. In the debriefing Hardcase says you were supposed to stay with Lilitu, who had promised you would live as her cherished pet. "Don't look at me like that...if you hadn't set all this in motion by blowing up an artifact I wouldn't have had to throw you under the bus."
The writing on this one is good, but it rubbed me the wrong way. It doesn't so much throw the Idiot Ball as much as it powerposes you into being a Xanatos Gilligan. I also didn't like the idea of Hardcase actually making a deal with a demon. It's been shown in the canon that he has no mercy for demon summoners. Still, if you're willing to overlook being manipulated you might enjoy the arc.
Current Blog Post: "Why I am an Atheist..."
"And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained/As we did in the days when Victoria reigned!" -- T. S. Eliot, "Gus, the Theatre Cat"
*chuckles* I had a feeling you'd not go for that one as much.
And for some reason the collection clue in the first mish is screwed up, you're supposed to be told you 'ran out of magic ju-ju' at the fourth altar, not the first. So I'll have to place seperate items, and HOPE that the placement of #4 is close to the back of the map (spawning #5).
But yes, there is that sense of leading the player down the garden path. I suppose I could go for Taraxius or Tartikoss instead, if this breaks Hardcase's canon though.
The main idea came about when I ran into a Knives arc, and I got to thinking, people HATE these girls SO MUCH... what if I flip it around and make them your allies? And it kind of grew from there. But I'll fix Sierra's name. I did think that Malta hired them, and would thus assign callsigns to them, but... yeah.
And... originally the final map was the Leviathan cave, but during testing I realized it was Just Too Damn Big! and fighting nothing but succubi to get to Lilitu would get me griefed. So I switched to the smaller map.
"City of Heroes. April 27, 2004 - August 31, 2012. Obliterated not with a weapon of mass destruction, not by an all-powerful supervillain... but by a cold-hearted and cowardly corporate suck-up."
But yes, there is that sense of leading the player down the garden path. I suppose I could go for Taraxius or Tartikoss instead, if this breaks Hardcase's canon though.
You have Hardcase's character down pat except for the bit at the end. Rather than swap him for a different Contact I'd suggest a small change: make it so he just sends you to face Lilitu (still blindly) and just lets the chips fall where they may with no bargain invovled. That way he's not making a deal with her, he's just letting the situation resolve itself.
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 #1462, "Foundation 2.0: The First Op"
tl;dr: 2 stars. Offenses: Cardboard Prison, surprise EBs, "just a bunch of stuff that happens", bland
DJ Pheonyx is trying to restart a group called "The Foundation", which was forced to disband due to increased publicity. His problem is that their R&D branch "The Warehouse" went rogue before the breakup and now they're after something. He wants you to get there first. The first mission takes place on the flooded office map, which is starting to become a bit overused. You end up recovering a "strange formula". The Warehouse agents are fairly well-done "men in black" types with AR/Devices powers. They use the supersoaker AR though, which kind of detracts from the look, I'd say.
You are next sent to meet a Dr. Herbert Ingles, a scientist Pheonyx used to work with who can interpret the formula. He's now working for Crey and a likely target for The Warehouse. Rescuing requires a) defeating Viktor, a MA/Regen (I think) EB (there is no "difficult enemy" warning in the briefing) and b) escorting the hostage out a multi-level tech map. Viktor drops the name "Heimdall", whom you are later told is the guy who got Pheonyx into the Foundation in the first place and has now gone rogue.
For the next part, you have to recover files on other formulae the Warehouse is creating. These drugs are part of the Psion Adjustment formula, which are so dangerous that being exposed to people who have taken the formula can induce superpowers. Um...OK.... You're also warned that Viktor didn't stay locked up for long. Pheonyx joins you on this mission, a Fire Blast/Fire Manipulation EB. You have to find the files for the formula, then find an "upload server" to transfer the files to the Foundation (why don't I just leave with them?), beat Viktor again and after he snuffs it, beat Frank Heimdall. Heimdall is an Electric Assault/DiedTooFast EB who keeps mentioning a "Villain Zeta". Zeta is evidently the head of the Warehouse, said to have been subjected to all three Psion Adjustment forumlae. He's also broken out both Viktor and Heimdall. I think this transcends Cardboard Prison...Tissue Prison?
The last mission requires defeating all three EBs and, for that matter, everything else on the map. Zeta turns out to be a Mind Control/Energy Blast AV, and is said to teleport out on defeat. You get a generic congratulations message in the debriefing.
The arc is below average. The plot is fairly bland, "just a bunch of stuff that happened" with some minor flaws in it. Pheonyx is evidently an author insert; Viktor might belong to a friend of the author (I'm not sure). I wouldn't catagorize either as being problematic though. It could be cleaned up by saving the EBs for the end and cleaning up the plot a bit.
Current Blog Post: "Why I am an Atheist..."
"And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained/As we did in the days when Victoria reigned!" -- T. S. Eliot, "Gus, the Theatre Cat"
I'm sure Venture is busy, so if anyone wants to review mine, feel free:
2142
2150
42221
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But yes, there is that sense of leading the player down the garden path. I suppose I could go for Taraxius or Tartikoss instead, if this breaks Hardcase's canon though.
You have Hardcase's character down pat except for the bit at the end. Rather than swap him for a different Contact I'd suggest a small change: make it so he just sends you to face Lilitu (still blindly) and just lets the chips fall where they may with no bargain invovled. That way he's not making a deal with her, he's just letting the situation resolve itself.
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I changed it so that he had no clue where you went, but then figures out it was Lilitu that snatched you into her realm.
He still thinks the character's a blundering fool when it comes to artifacts, but has grudging respect for them giving Lilitu a shiner to match her eyeliner...
"City of Heroes. April 27, 2004 - August 31, 2012. Obliterated not with a weapon of mass destruction, not by an all-powerful supervillain... but by a cold-hearted and cowardly corporate suck-up."
Aren't there enough arcs where the player is a complete blundering idiot?
<QR>
I know your busy, but when you can...
Arc Name: Magic, Mystery, and Mayhem
Arc ID: 5299
Faction: Heroic; Custom (With CoT splash in one Mission) Villains and Ally
Length: 4 Missions, All on Small to Medium maps
Creator Global/Forum Name: @travlr / MrTymer
Difficulty Level: Medium, I'd say. Some amount of Mezz. 2 'Boss' and 1 EB in Missions 3 & 4. Soloable for most ATs, though I'd pack a extra BF or two...
Synopsis:
You would think being a hero in Paragon City would prepare you for all sorts of Criminals. But robbers dreesed like they belong in a Magic Show? Seems that the Midnighters don't think it's so entertaining. Think you have what it takes to match wits with The Mystery Magician?
Estimated Time to Play: I'd say about a hour
Link to More Details or Feedback:
Link to thread in this forum. Feedback is welcomed. I know the Arc can be tough on the lower levels, but please give it a try.
Thank you for the time...
@Travlr (Main) / @Tymers Realm (Test) 
Current queue: 1684, 5898, 2007, 7780, 1034, 1297, 14826, 20696, 6999, 1472, 2180, 16108, 1152, 33034, 12669, 1285, 1009, 8774, 8787, 8795, 1665, 12798, 16338, 9028, 2036, 32865, 3615, 19226, 19231, 19238, 4727, 2019, 27136, 34452, 8713, 2409, 1579, 1571, 1881, 18145, 38226, 2922, 1356, 26931, 2142, 2150, 42221, 5299
I'm declaring my queue to be full for now. I'll start accepting more requests when I've made some headway on the current batch.
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 #1684, "Paracon"
tl;dr: 4 stars. Offenses: short
This is a one-mission humor run. You're asked to save a bunch of cosplayers at an unspecified convention from a Clockwork attack. I recognized some of the cosplayers (Leeloo, Indiana Jones, Phillip J. Fry, Dr. Manhattan); others, if they were supposed to be references, went past me. One of the cosplayers is actually a low-level off-duty hero who allies with you (Psy/Kinetic); she snuffed it fairly early on.
It's good for a quick laugh.
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 #5898, "The Fan Club"
tl;dr: 5 stars
Captain Graves of the PPD asks for your help in dealing with increased Council activity. The warehouse you're sent to has a standard Council Boss to defeat and one hostage to rescue, a small kid, "Tim Bucklen" wearing a mask who claims to be a member of your fan club. This is not a good sign.
The next mission involves a Devouring Earth raid on a biotech company. You're sent in to rescue the hostages. You're capped at 33 for this one. You get to rescue "Carol Drake" here, another fan club member who tells you this was all Tim's idea. So, not a good trend....
Sure enough, the next mission starts with multiple reports of missing children, all members of the YourNameHere Fan Club. The police also get another "anonymous" tip claiming the Devouring Earth at the last raid manage to sneak off with a few containers of chemicals. This mission, still capped at 33, is a defeat-all on a warehouse map with four^H^H^H^Hthree hostages. You find "Bart Lindsay", Carol again (who tells you the DE have taken Tim away...you find his tattered mask stuck to a crate) and "Preston Kent", all of whom have finally had enough of the Fan Club.
Needless to say, finding little Timmy becomes a priority. Graves tells you the techs have traced his cell phone to a cave complex. The cell phone itself is in a Clue close to the entrance. Timmy himself is found further in, as a hostage...a Devoured one who runs away when freed.
It has a Downer Ending, but this is a great arc, recommended.
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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You're doing a great job with these reviews, Venture.
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You should ask him to review your Taskforce.
We should probably point out to the people drawn here by Posi's post that he's currently full up and not taking requests, in case they missed it earlier.
Issue 16 made me feel like this.
Warning: This poster likes to play Devil's Advocate.
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You're doing a great job with these reviews, Venture.
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You should ask him to review your Taskforce.
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That would be cruel.
To Venture.
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Arc #5898, "The Fan Club"
tl;dr: 5 stars
It has a Downer Ending, but this is a great arc, recommended.
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I want to say thank you very much for the review and kind words. I honestly didn't think you'd rate it so highly.
A note on the level capping: It really should be in the pre-33 range all the way. I need to work on mission one to cap it there. This'll allow it to fit better into the established canon: in that range the Devouring Earth are still somewhat of an unknown and their threat value is being explored.
Again, thank you!
Head of TRICK, the all Trick Arrow and Traps SG
Part of the Repeat Offenders
Still waiting for his Official BackAlleyBrawler No-Prize
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You're doing a great job with these reviews, Venture.
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You should ask him to review your Taskforce.
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Ouch.
You're doing a great job with these reviews, Venture.
Thanks!
You should ask him to review your Taskforce.
Actually I've played it many times as it's a good go-to TF for merits, if you keep your team size down. Three people is really all you need. I would be lying if I said it didn't have problems, of course. It really shows its age and as the first TF heroic players are likely to encounter it really, really ought to be completely pulled out and redone. It is mechanically too problematic and its storyline really doesn't work with the current state of affairs. Right, these lowball factions are going to go off and attack the Faultline Dam...which is now a Longbow fortress. For their next trick, they'll re-enact the Bay of Pigs invasion with an encore presentation of the defense of the Alamo.
Pre-release I had planned to do an arc that could serve as the storyline for a revamped Positron TF. I haven't done it because as I originally conceived of it I'd need to be able to rescale existing mobs in terms of level range and rank. (Specifically I'd hoped to use some Devouring Earth as EBs or AVs at the 10-15 level.) I could make it work using custom mobs but I'd rather hold off for a while and see what the future holds for the Architect.
I'm also toying with the idea of a better VEAT storyline, but the most likely candidate for my third slot will be a humorous villain arc. (My current projects are 4643 and 4829, in case anyone wants revenge. )
Current Blog Post: "Why I am an Atheist..."
"And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained/As we did in the days when Victoria reigned!" -- T. S. Eliot, "Gus, the Theatre Cat"
I would appreciate a review as well:
City of Oz pt 1, 2 and 3.
IDs are in my sig. Thank you.
My mind wanders so often you've probably seen its picture on milk cartons. - Me... the first person version of the third person Steelclaw