I'll throw my hat into this ring if anyone wants feedback on their arcs. Fair warning: I nitpick.
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I'll throw my hat into this ring if anyone wants feedback on their arcs. Fair warning: I nitpick.
[/ QUOTE ]
Fair enough, that said i repost the details of mine since it might have been missed.
ID: 45503
Through the Looking Glass by CuppaLLX
The Arc tells the story of a alternate world where the Rikti won the invasion of 2004, this world only has fraction of the heroes of Earth Prime and things are desperate. Right now I'm still balance testing the difficulty but i will be editing it to enhance the story as i tweak it to perfection.
Keep in mind while the story is not polished it is COMPLETE. so keep that in mind.
Also if you do a search for story by my user name you can try the 4 arc version (its the rough form but some people might find the last mission (5) to much and want a quick end) and a 1 mission joker that i made just for fun. I'll be polishing and perfecting TtLG 5-Part version and 3 Stars based on feed back but not TtLG 4 part version.
AE # 67087: Journey through the Looking Glass - Save the World
LLX VirtueVerse! - Check out my crazy Toons
This is the size of group that we have balanced AVs for, 6.
-Positron 06/07/06 07:27 PM
Reminder: I am not taking requests for reviews at this time. I'll post when I am again.
Replies to a few things:
I have to disagree with you on this one - I played this arc and had a blast! I was on my Dual/Regen Scrapper - all i had to do to the Mito was stay above him (i have fly) and used my Black Wand Vet power to kill him, his ranged attacks were not very powerful and with my Instant Heal he was dead long before its timer was up - the mission after the Mito was also great with a lot of suprise twists - i might suggest if you dont have one of the vet ranged attacks you try buying the revolver temp power - if your not in Melee he is a piece of cake!
Either the Mito is supposed to be a serious threat, in which case it's Killer GMing, or it isn't, in which case there's no point to it. I've talked to several who did go past this mission and discovered an even worse encounter in the next one. The author used the Akarist AV model, which is bugged -- even as an EB, I hit it with a Peacebringer in Light Form using 10 small reds and its health barely moved. When the reds wore off I couldn't hurt it at all. Add in several huge ambush waves just to rub salt in the wounds. The retort here will be that the mission provides an ally. My reply is that the player is supposed to be the center of attention, not the author's characters.
I gave it 5 stars for creativity. wonderful flavor text (if you bothered to read it) and actually making me have to find creative solutions to the problem!
I did read it. It was OK.
I see no harm in disclaimers, but i would hardly say you CAN'T complete it without ranged - I know several tanks and even scrappers with the right build that probably could.
I doubt it. The END drain on the mito's aura is huge -- as in, I clicked a large blue and was able to attack once before running out of END again, with Elude (and its +recovery) running. It actually debuffs your total END by 33%. There's also a huge fear effect, which I don't know if even a set with Fear protection can withstand. It can be broken by BFs but that means bringing a bunch of those. I don't think anything but a Dark Armor (the only set I can think of with both END drain and fear protection) could even try.
Brad, have you read some of the content in game?
I agree that there's some bad stuff in the official content, but why on earth would we advocate anyone use it as a benchmark? Certainly we want Architects to do better than those of the official missions we all hate?
Dispari's Hollows arc is better than the current content from Wincott.
"David and Goliath" is a Mary Sue arc I one-starred on Test and haven't bothered with again on Live. I'd take the existing Wincott material over it.
And then there's canon. If you use States or a known NPC are you raising red flags? Are you better off just being original?
Extensive use of custom mobs says, to me, that the author is covering up for a weak or nonexistent theme with eye candy, that the mission is "just a bunch of stuff that happened". I'd much rather see a good story told within the canon than a mediocre action movie told with custom mobs.
I'm not sure why you're complaining about things being too tough if you're playing on Challenge Level three or higher (which I assume is the case since you were exed to 49). I ran this mission solo at Heroic with an electrical blaster, as I recall, and while it was not trivial to best the Loup Garou and the Mito, it wasn't all that hard (i.e., no visits to the hospital).
Loup-Garou was not challening at all. I walked up to it, hit a lot and eventually it died, just like every other mob in the game. It was tedious. AV/EBs already have a big pile of hit points; adding defensive sets makes them a lot worse. Double so if you use Regen or Willpower (essentially the same thing) as either can boost the mob's regen to a point where some builds are incapable of generating enough DPS to damage them. You need some level of Bosses, EBs and maybe AVs to give the player a satisfying fight but it's very easy to put in too many and turn your mission or entire arc into an unfun sitzkrieg.
The way i handle it in both Through the Looking Glass and my joke one Three Stars was to fill each mission with rescuable allies of boss or higher rank, but make them un mentioned and optional.
If your arc is so difficult that you feel you have to do this, you should really think about making it easier. Allies should only appear when the story demands them. If an arc is of nominal difficulty but turns out to be too much for a particular soloist that player already has a "get an ally" option -- he can recruit a team (even during an AE arc.)
I do have to say here that she will either be a complete chump to fight or one of the most annoying time wasters ever. Right now the MA seems to have a problem with /Devices on custom foes. They tend to stand there doing nothing but use web nades and caltdrops.
(I'm only going to discuss some technical points in the review of my arc.) I didn't have a problem with Bluehawk's AI when I fought her with either my Scrappers, Mastermind (Bots/Storm) or Peacebringer. She did malfunction as described in Act III as an ally. I'm aware of the problems with Devices but it is the best fit for the character, a basic Action Girl. Ninjitsu would be nice but a) it's bugged to hell and back (you do NOT want to fight an EB with it unless you like getting Crane Kicked for about 3500-4000) and b) the +Defense and heal would make her a lot tougher. I expect the devs will fix the AI issues with Devices in another patch or three. If not I'll think about what else I could give her. MA/AR might be interesting.
Ja'Dar is now an AV/EB (I cannot for the life of me remember what the actual renamed model Venture is called and to lazy to look it up)
Hro'dtohz. I didn't really want to use two AVs on the same map but there is no Rikti "Chief Soldier" type EB avaiable and I didn't want to use a Heavy.
One serious question I do have for you Venture is about how Spectre spawns in the first mission. Do you think the mission would be significantly improved if he were to spawn in the Middle region instead of the Back where Sizwe is in the hopes he doesn't spawn on top of anyone?
Absolutely...spawn him in Middle or Front, since you have to take the PM out the player is almost certain to run into him.
I've debated this but didn't think the way he sometimes spawns right on top of you was a deal-breaker.
Thanks to bad luck I was down about 60-70% of my HP before I realized there were new mobs on the map. A squishy might have been killed instantly.
I don't know why Kali Erinyes spawned as an AV for you in one mission and an EB in the other. In both instances she's the same custom character who is an Arch-Villain.
She did downgrade properly in Act IV but in Act V had no PToD.
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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What, complain about someone reviewing my arc? Of course not! Go ahead.
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Remember you said that.
Arc #34398
Furry Menace
Length:3 Missions
Foes: Custom, PPD Detectives
Contact: Officer Paul (custom)
My rating:1 Star
TL-DR
Pros: Can be played by any levels.
Cons:Lacking story, typos, disjointed uninteresting custom foes, last mission takes forever
Full Review:
Mission 1: You are told by Officer Paul that the Furries are robbing a bank and that you shouldn't laugh. Now it took me a minute to figure out what was meant by Furries (as I understand it they are people who dress in animal costumes for fun). The mission intro dosn't tell you this you have to figure it out on your own.
So you jump into the bank to find the oddest collection of foes(not in a good way). Two of which are problematic.
Crowd Pleasers are Soldier/Ar (I think) as a minion these can be plentiful on large teams and end up being too difficult.
Guardian Paws are /Devices. As i said before right now /Devices are not working well in the MA resulting in alot of webnades and caltdrops and nothing else. They were luets so they don't appear as often but still problematic.
Anyway you head to the vault and protect a briefcase? I know the MA has limits as to what you can put in as protection items but this hurt immersion alot.
Once you defeat the group surrounding it ambushes come...mine had 3 of the Crowd Pleasers which meant I was fighting 6 foes instead of 3. Little too much at level 9.
Once you clear the ambushes a boss appears behind you.
Robot Rodent, a...you guessed it...Bot/Devices Boss. This worked better...sorta. The bots attacked you while the boss dropped nade after nade, made the fight tuff but managable.
You go back to Officer Paul and NOW he tells you what the Furries are. Sadly its not interesting.
Mission 2: Officer Paul tells you the Furries are attacking a Furry convention in a casino (the Tiki Room). He said you will need back up so he will be there before you.
Its a defeat all in a small map. It takes no time at all but included a clue with some odd animal noise code.
Officer Paul take the code to be broken and its off to...
Mission 3: Paul says the Furries have poisoned the water supply turning every one in the area into Furries. You have to go in and clean it up. He will join you again.
This mission was a grueling time waster of a mission. Your goals are:
6 Barrels of infection
6 Police to hook up with (authors wording not mine)
6 Rescues
4 Recruiting sermons to disrupt
and 2 Internet rallies to break up
All on a large Kings Row outdoor map. I almost quit but figured this is a review tuff it out. Turns out not all of those are actually required but which are and which are not I have no idea.
Now this mission is where I get the feeling the author a:didn't test or b:assumed we as players knew something.
As I ran around...and around...and around...I ran into a new foe called Kungfu Kitty. First thing she does is hit BU then procede to beat me into paste...quick trip to the hospital, grab some insp, she goes down. Seems each Internet Rally has one of these.
You run into PPD detectives on patrol who procede to attack you (why is that, didn't Officer Paul tell them I was coming, didn't they see Officer Paul standing right next to me?).
Then you find the police you are to hook up with have been turned into Furries and they tag along helping...sorta.
After using the Safeguard jetpack I find the rest of the goals and exit.
Paul lets me know that most but not all of the Furries are back to normal hinting we could see them again.
Personal Thoughts: Sadly there is only one thing I can say good about this mission, and thats how it is open to all levels. I can't even say its acceptable at all levels because some ambushes or spawns can prove way overpowered with the MM set in them.
The costumes were just so mishmash to me. I know the author was trying for this look but instead of making the Furries feel like genetic accidents they feel more like a colorblind 2 fingered tailor designed them.
The powersets the Furries had didn't always make sense either.
The story has nothing original in it.
But worst of all was the mistake (that I find very common) to load up a mission with massive amounts of goals.
It seems the author was going for humor but any jokes fell flat to me anyway. Fursecution? He also dropped a hint which went nowhere (that I could find) when Officer Paul let the word 'Valentes" slip.
As for improving the arc...I dunno man...so much I disliked...redesign the foes, give the plot meaning and ...a plot, scrap the last mission for something better like stopping them before the poisoning in a small sewer map. If the author can redesign things I would be willing to give it another go and re-rate.
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One serious question I do have for you Venture is about how Spectre spawns in the first mission. Do you think the mission would be significantly improved if he were to spawn in the Middle region instead of the Back where Sizwe is in the hopes he doesn't spawn on top of anyone?
Absolutely...spawn him in Middle or Front, since you have to take the PM out the player is almost certain to run into him.
I don't know why Kali Erinyes spawned as an AV for you in one mission and an EB in the other. In both instances she's the same custom character who is an Arch-Villain.
She did downgrade properly in Act IV but in Act V had no PToD.
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Looks like I've been editing my post while you've been replying to mine Venture. In any case I made changes to several places in the arc in response to the feedback, listed here,including spawning Spectre in the middle instead of the back and toning down Kali Erinyes some.
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I see no harm in disclaimers, but i would hardly say you CAN'T complete it without ranged - I know several tanks and even scrappers with the right build that probably could.
I doubt it. The END drain on the mito's aura is huge -- as in, I clicked a large blue and was able to attack once before running out of END again, with Elude (and its +recovery) running. It actually debuffs your total END by 33%. There's also a huge fear effect, which I don't know if even a set with Fear protection can withstand. It can be broken by BFs but that means bringing a bunch of those. I don't think anything but a Dark Armor (the only set I can think of with both END drain and fear protection) could even try.
[/ QUOTE ]I don't know about the version available in MA, but FWIW, the Raid Version of the blue mito has an aura with mag 7 fear/33 endurance drain/75% recovery debuff, an attack with mag 7 fear/20 endurance drain/20% recovery debuff, 300% melee/aoe defense, and 70% defense debuff resistance.
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt
- Sky Raider hostage guards in Mission 2 now clean their guns which will hopefully make them stand out more.
The problem is that all the battles on the map are agroing the hostage guards. This isn't too much of a problem if the guards are killed by the NPC fighting, it's just a bit anticlimactic as the player sees objectives being completed for him. If they're not killed, though, then they're still not going to be animating and/or may have run a distance away from the hostage.
While the huge amount of fighting is very dramatic, you might need to cut down on it a tad.
Current Blog Post: "Why I am an Atheist..."
"And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained/As we did in the days when Victoria reigned!" -- T. S. Eliot, "Gus, the Theatre Cat"
[ QUOTE ]
(I'm only going to discuss some technical points in the review of my arc.) I didn't have a problem with Bluehawk's AI when I fought her with either my Scrappers, Mastermind (Bots/Storm) or Peacebringer. She did malfunction as described in Act III as an ally. I'm aware of the problems with Devices but it is the best fit for the character, a basic Action Girl. Ninjitsu would be nice but a) it's bugged to hell and back (you do NOT want to fight an EB with it unless you like getting Crane Kicked for about 3500-4000) and b) the +Defense and heal would make her a lot tougher. I expect the devs will fix the AI issues with Devices in another patch or three. If not I'll think about what else I could give her. MA/AR might be interesting.
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I gave her a third go and again she spent most of the fight tossing nades and caltdrops. Sure she threw a kick or two but no where near enough to make it interesting. I do agree any Armor set (especially Nin) would make her more difficult than you want her to be. Still as it stands right now.../Devices is a problem just as MM minions or /Nin anything.
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The problem is that all the battles on the map are agroing the hostage guards. This isn't too much of a problem if the guards are killed by the NPC fighting, it's just a bit anticlimactic as the player sees objectives being completed for him. If they're not killed, though, then they're still not going to be animating and/or may have run a distance away from the hostage.
While the huge amount of fighting is very dramatic, you might need to cut down on it a tad.
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I'll take a look. I'm not entirely sure the enemies in the battle aggro enemies outside the battle objective. I could be wrong about it but I swear I've seen them fighting right next to a hostage group and the hostage group doesn't engage. And I've yet to be so lucky as to have the battles free a hostage for me in the times I've gone through it.
In either case though I'll see how it works now and if it's still a big problem I'll change it. I just would really hate to have to cut down on the number of battle objectives in that mission.
Just as an FYI, the only real problem I've experienced with the hostages in this mission is that they get on their knees and put their hands on their head, often hiding themselves behind a sky skiff. I can't really change that though. 
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Extensive use of custom mobs says, to me, that the author is covering up for a weak or nonexistent theme with eye candy, that the mission is "just a bunch of stuff that happened". I'd much rather see a good story told within the canon than a mediocre action movie told with custom mobs.
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While I can agree some use custom foes to spice up a weak story is annoying using the same foes I have spent hundreds of levels fighting can be boring.
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(I'm only going to discuss some technical points in the review of my arc.) I didn't have a problem with Bluehawk's AI when I fought her with either my Scrappers, Mastermind (Bots/Storm) or Peacebringer. She did malfunction as described in Act III as an ally. I'm aware of the problems with Devices but it is the best fit for the character, a basic Action Girl. Ninjitsu would be nice but a) it's bugged to hell and back (you do NOT want to fight an EB with it unless you like getting Crane Kicked for about 3500-4000) and b) the +Defense and heal would make her a lot tougher. I expect the devs will fix the AI issues with Devices in another patch or three. If not I'll think about what else I could give her. MA/AR might be interesting.
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Purely technical note on /Dev: based on testing, the AI is slightly tweaked from beta, and /Dev critters do not always "lock into" spamming web grenade (as in: use nothing else). But they still spam it even while using other attacks often, and still can get "temporarily" locked in, then break out of the cycle.
I would expect AI improvements to be ongoing, slow, and unpredictable in schedule, but that's just my own opinion for whatever its worth.
[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.)
I think a player playing around with a Custom factions is GREAT. It's going the extra mile. If the arc itself is covered in typos, bad grammar and nonsensical missions...alright, that's not impressing me any since that completely shoots my opinion of the author's Creativity.
WHY use this wonderful creative tool the devs gave us to make mundane, fought 'em a million times story arcs I say. If someone has done a Luddite arc i'd be all over it. They're practically a custom faction since they're so utterly unused by the Devs.
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Honestly folks...this is an MMO. How high a standard do we want here? Most people aren't going to be putting weeks tweaking their arcs. If the story is good, the mobs acceptable in challenge and the whole is engaging it should be noted by both players and Devs.
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Why should an average mission the author didn't spend a tremendous amount of time on be rewarded with 5 stars?
The bar for a Hall of Fame should be higher than "the author spelled all the words correctly, and the enemies weren't terrible".
To me a pretty good story is a three star story- I don't grade on a curve because I'm worried about hurting someone's feelings.
With regards to Green Dwarf's story, the plot synopsis reminds me strongly of a low level mission in WoW where dwarven brewers send you around the zone collecting this and that for their special stout, and an enemy you can't defeat without ranged attacks is terrible design, period.
The Nethergoat Archive: all my memories, all my characters, all my thoughts on CoH...eventually.
My City Was Gone
I don't think that the requirements for HoF need to change, I simply think that comments should be required if you mark any arc less than a 3, and that those comments should be annonymous.
It's frustrating when you see 5 people in a row give you 5 stars and then someone give you a 2 or less. Either they're just crapping on your parade or they think it could be improved. If they really think there's something to improve, they should be required to tell you.
If anyone wants to go ahead and review any of my arcs, I'd be really appreciative. I'm always looking for more feedback, since my goal is to make a good arc, and if there are areas that can be improved upon, I'd love to make those improvements.
The villain arc is apparently solo-able by most people, I had someone run through it as a blaster and not have a difficult time. The other two, however, are probably far less soloable by some builds.
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I don't think that the requirements for HoF need to change, I simply think that comments should be required if you mark any arc less than a 3, and that those comments should be annonymous.
It's frustrating when you see 5 people in a row give you 5 stars and then someone give you a 2 or less. Either they're just crapping on your parade or they think it could be improved. If they really think there's something to improve, they should be required to tell you.
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Here, I'll show you what you'll see a lot of if they start requiring comments:
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...
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People who want to comment already do, and you can't strong-arm the rest however hard you try.
The Nethergoat Archive: all my memories, all my characters, all my thoughts on CoH...eventually.
My City Was Gone
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[ QUOTE ]
I don't think that the requirements for HoF need to change, I simply think that comments should be required if you mark any arc less than a 3, and that those comments should be annonymous.
It's frustrating when you see 5 people in a row give you 5 stars and then someone give you a 2 or less. Either they're just crapping on your parade or they think it could be improved. If they really think there's something to improve, they should be required to tell you.
[/ QUOTE ]
Here, I'll show you what you'll see a lot of if they start requiring comments:
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...
[/ QUOTE ]
People who want to comment already do, and you can't strong-arm the rest however hard you try.
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That's definitely what we'll start seeing a lot of. I think that requiring a comment will help a certain percentage of the current no-comment crowd realize there's a reason for comments, though.
Arc #29825, "Shadowlight: Part I"
tl;dr: 2 stars. Offenses: "just a bunch of stuff that happens", weak plot, semi-surprise EBs
N.B. this arc needed to be republished, changing its number...it did not jump the queue.
Your Contact this time is an Aspect of the Pillar, labelled "Time Crystal". It tells you that an organization of time-travelling thieves called "Shadowlight" is stealing artifacts from the past. A raid has been tracked down and you're being sent in to defeat its leader. The Shadowlight mobs are golems named after chess pieces. The "Pawn Axeman" model was minimum size, I actually overlooked the first one. The only thing you find is an unimportant silver ring...the raid leader, an LT, tells you they've already moved the artifact.
For the next mission, the crystal says that interrogation of the captured Rook from the last run has led "them" (whoever "they" are is not explained at this point...watching out for the Idiot Ball...) to a Shadowlight fortress where you should be able to swipe records of their raids. This was a straightforward glowie hunt on a tech map, which seemed a little out of place for the magical-themed faction (the mobs are mostly golems). This one had a "Bishop Illusionist" Boss using Illusion/Pain Domination. The debriefing says that the artifacts recently stolen shouldn't be dangerous to you, and that if you were powerful enough to retrieve the data you should be powerful enough to retrieve the items. This doesn't really follow....
For the next mission you are told to take on a Knight of Shadowlight who has one of the stolen items. You are told after accepting the mission that you might want to get help. The Knight is currently meeting the Circle of Thorns for a deal. He turned out to be a Boss, Electric Blast/Electric Manipulation, I think, and not difficult at all. The Clues tell you he had the "Orb of Tesla" you were sent after, and an amulet that may have been the one stolen back in the first mission. If there was anything bigger on the map I didn't find it.
For Part IV you are sent after "Robin Hood's Bow", which is currently in the hands of another Knight. You are also told that "they" can't get the location of the Shadowlight time portal out of the last Knight you captured because our laws prevent them from using torture to find out. Um, yeah. You are again warned to bring a friend. The mission takes place on the "burning forest" map, and again, the target is just a Boss, TA/A this time. In the debriefing the crystal says "they" will "extreme rendition" the Knight you just captured. Um, yeah.
In the finale, after waterboarding fails to get any useful info out of the last Knight, you are sent after "Arch Bishop Fianchetto", who is using Da Vinci's Code^H^H^H^HPen to draw up plans for all kinds of Bad Things. Fianchetto is said to be one of the big cheeses in Shadowlight and the constructor of the Gate you've been looking for. You're also told to bring a friend, again after accepting, and to destroy any supplies (there are 6 of them, destructable objects). Immediately on entering I was hit by an Electric Melee/Electric Armor Boss that dropped me in two hits thanks to BuildUp. It went down quickly on the rematch. Fianchetto was a Bots/Electric Blast EB, spawned at +2, and didn't last long (he only ever summoned the Assault Bot). His dialog was less than stellar:
[NPC] Arch Bishop Fianchetto: Faster, faster! King Staunton wants this thing finished within the month.
[NPC] Arch Bishop Fianchetto: Venture, You've just saved me the trouble of having to find you.
[NPC] Arch Bishop Fianchetto: Surely you can do better then that.
[NPC] Arch Bishop Fianchetto: You realize your chances of winning are only 3% I hope.
[NPC] Arch Bishop Fianchetto: Did I say 3%? I meant more like 0%!
[NPC] Arch Bishop Fianchetto: Your starting to make me angry...
[NPC] Arch Bishop Fianchetto: How could this happen? We were going to be the rulers of time...
Mostly said while he was looking at the ceiling.
The Crystal thanks you for capturing the Arch Bishop and says "For all we know you may have prevented the end of the universe. Then again, you may have just recovered some artifacts. Who knows? We shall see that the pen is returned to its rightful place." Um, yeah.
The arc is fairly mediocre, lacking in theme or any kind of gravitas. The Shadowlight faction is poorly explained. Many of the mobs are said to be golems, and the faction has a clear interest in magical artifacts, but the maps and last mission all imply a technological faction. The people you're working for are even more obscure, setting up the possibility for a big Idiot Ball toss later in the series.
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 are told after accepting the mission that you might want to get help.
[/ QUOTE ]
Is that really a big deal? It's not like you're stuck with MA missions taking up a slot if it turns out you can't beat them.
Issue 16 made me feel like this.
Warning: This poster likes to play Devil's Advocate.
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You are told after accepting the mission that you might want to get help.
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Is that really a big deal? It's not like you're stuck with MA missions taking up a slot if it turns out you can't beat them.
[/ QUOTE ]I think it's a style thing. "You should bring friends" should be in the mission briefing, not in the sendoff.
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt
Well dang, didn't realise I had mis set the police patrols, fixed.
Many of the jokes are ribs on the furry community, so if you didn't get them... you are probably better off for it! I've played through the entire arc on level 2, and in a six man group, and we managed ok, though it helps to remember to focus on the masterminds rather than their pets. Is it really overly hard? Might consider changing the Guardian Paw off of devices, as the webnade fury can get annoying after a while.
Thanks for the review though! I will be tweaking the arc to make it easier to understand.
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The way i handle it in both Through the Looking Glass and my joke one Three Stars was to fill each mission with rescuable allies of boss or higher rank, but make them un mentioned and optional.
If your arc is so difficult that you feel you have to do this, you should really think about making it easier. Allies should only appear when the story demands them. If an arc is of nominal difficulty but turns out to be too much for a particular soloist that player already has a "get an ally" option -- he can recruit a team (even during an AE arc.)
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The problem is that the people i hang with have been with the game since beta or are all purpled out. So to be fair i add in some extra allies to find since m own slant on reality is biased.
Also i like Guild Wars
and in the case of both of my mentioned missions it was actually logical to add allies.
For TtLG your litterly taking back a world, the allies world, but rikti control. Would you sit back and watch if some alien from a parallel earth swooped in to clean up the Rikti War Zone without you?
And for '3 Stars' you have to fight 3 Imperious, 3 Tyrants, and 3 Statesman
I mean why WOULDN'T Lord Recluse, Requium and romulus get in on the action?
AE # 67087: Journey through the Looking Glass - Save the World
LLX VirtueVerse! - Check out my crazy Toons
This is the size of group that we have balanced AVs for, 6.
-Positron 06/07/06 07:27 PM
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I think a player playing around with a Custom factions is GREAT. It's going the extra mile. If the arc itself is covered in typos, bad grammar and nonsensical missions...alright, that's not impressing me any since that completely shoots my opinion of the author's Creativity.
WHY use this wonderful creative tool the devs gave us to make mundane, fought 'em a million times story arcs I say. If someone has done a Luddite arc i'd be all over it. They're practically a custom faction since they're so utterly unused by the Devs.
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Personally I agree. While I won't be lenient in reviewing an arc just because it has custom foes, if it's using the same common factions I've fought for years now then the story is going have to have to try extra hard to impress me. Especially is the arc is mostly Longbow or Arachnos.
As for David and Goliath being a Mary Sue arc, I don't see how it would have been any better if Dispari had made up some random new troll AV instead. Heck, I wonder if Venture would have even made such a comment if he hadn't known Tanya Atta was one of Dispari's PCs. I got similar comments from him on test and wonder what he would have said if I had instead denied it when he asked if a AV in one of my arcs was one of my PCs.
As for David and Goliath being a Mary Sue arc, I don't see how it would have been any better if Dispari had made up some random new troll AV instead.
If nothing was different but the name of the AV, it would still have been bad writing. It just wouldn't be a Mary Sue, at least not as I define it.
Heck, I wonder if Venture would have even made such a comment if he hadn't known Tanya Atta was one of Dispari's PCs. I got similar comments from him on test and wonder what he would have said if I had instead denied it when he asked if a AV in one of my arcs was one of my PCs.
I did not know Tanya was one of Dispari's PCs until I played the arc. The writing made me suspect a Mary Sue, pushing the Awesome Button (Ctrl-X on my keyboard) confirmed it and I threw in a search on Google just for good luck. I don't recall the particulars in your case -- your arc must have been less annoying -- but I'm sure it went much the same way. The question was pretty much pro forma. It is really not that hard for a diligent reader to tell when an author has an unhealthy attachment to a character, plot device or other such "darling".
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"
Both of the arcs in my sig could use a good flogging, particularly the villainous one. I'd love to get them close to as perfect as possible.