8993 Seldom Told Tales - Statesman and the Atomic Soldier
48156 Seldom Told Tales - That Castle Fella
I could care less about getting stars, but I enjoy telling a good story, and specific feedback would be most appreciated.
I'm currently worried they're a little too easy, but would like someone's take before tweaking the difficulty. The statesman arc is missing descriptions on signature bosses (don't know how I forgot those!) but I'll be adding those soon (Next couple days)
Thanks in advance!
The Scrappers' Guide to Dark Melee | Kheldian Binds and Strategies
Arc Name: The Empire - One Alliance
Level: 40+
Publish Number: 1044
Description: Inter-dimensional warfare. Political intrigue. Odd alliances. Stop the invasion. This arc is appropriate for solo and team play.
Length: 4 missions. 1 big map. 3 medium maps. 1 Kill all. 30-60 minutes, depending on team.
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.
Name: Marked Man
Alignment: Villainous
ID:3463
Levels: 40+
Description: After you steal a gemstone, it's immortal guardian marks you for death. Find a way to take him out or be destroyed.
Length: Long, 3 medium missions, 1 large.
Enemies: Custom Enemy Group, Circle of Thorns.
Note: One required Elite Boss. Not very difficult though.
I hope you enjoy.
Name: Rave Against the Dying of the Light
Alignment: Heroic
ID: 14910
Levels: 48-50
Description: Help the Carnival of Light survive against the onslaught of the Praetorians!
Length: 1-2 hours
Enemies: Various Praetorian groups.
Notes: Two EBs, not terribly difficult. In fact, I beefed up to the second one in fear it was two easy after running it with a friend.
48156 Seldom Told Tales That Castle Fella
I had some trouble running this arc as the server was very busy causing
some lag and DC issues. I ran the first two missions with ease on a lvl 41 Earth/Kin but the second mish loaded bugged and only nine Obelisks loaded forcing me to quit the arc. I decided to wait until after midnight to restart, which turned out well, but i loaded a lvl 50 Ice/Ice blaster which turned out to be a bad idea on the third mission. OK All that aside, here is the review.
48156 Seldom Told Tales That Castle Fella
RATING: 4 Stars
Overview: I enjoyed this arc very much. Overall it is very written. The custom critters look good and the maps added to the overall storyline. It is coherent throughout. There was not really a single thing "bad" about this arc. I would definitely go back and run this again with a team if I was ever "looking for something to do".
Mission 1: I loved the look of the Demons. They fit perfectly in the CoT theme and were not too easy and not too hard.
Mission 2: My gut reaction was "ten" that sounds like a lot, turned out to be fine. I forgot how hard yogurt donkeys hit and when a patrol wandered
into another obelisk group i was fighting i found myself in trouble fast. I tried one of stock cure alls: BU, Blizzard, blue, PFF but I found myself dead before i could even eat the blue.
Mission 3: It was almost impossible to keep Castle alive. Mimes were tough, but really fell for ice patch. Castle kept running right up to them and died before the fifth Mean One was even dead. I actually had to turn the diff down or else it would have taken me forever to get through that mish.
Mission 4: Great map choice. EB was fun to kill. Nice to fight demons of all different powers (storm, ice, etc).
Why not a five? Contact Mindbender was very well written and fleshed out, but his text was a little too long for me. I would have preferred a little less to read there. Twenty mimes seemed like a lot to me. Even for a full team (the way this arc should be played) twenty was too many, I feel 10-15 would have been better. I was slightly disappointed that there wasnt a slight twist at the end. I was expecting/hoping that "Elba, i mean Melba" would actually turn out to be named Joanna or something. Or actually turn out to be Castles girlfriend not the contacts.
Good job!
Arc # 45525 - Effrego Quartus Parietis
Levels 1-50,
It shows up as a Long arc but I didn't use any particularly large maps, so it shouldn't be TOO long.
Thanks in advance!
1285 Training Day, pretty please. It shows up Very Long, but many of the maps are small and there are no defeat alls.
[ QUOTE ]
48156 Seldom Told Tales That Castle Fella
I had some trouble running this arc as the server was very busy causing
some lag and DC issues. I ran the first two missions with ease on a lvl 41 Earth/Kin but the second mish loaded bugged and only nine Obelisks loaded forcing me to quit the arc. I decided to wait until after midnight to restart, which turned out well, but i loaded a lvl 50 Ice/Ice blaster which turned out to be a bad idea on the third mission. OK All that aside, here is the review.
48156 Seldom Told Tales That Castle Fella
RATING: 4 Stars
Overview: I enjoyed this arc very much. Overall it is very written. The custom critters look good and the maps added to the overall storyline. It is coherent throughout. There was not really a single thing "bad" about this arc. I would definitely go back and run this again with a team if I was ever "looking for something to do".
Mission 1: I loved the look of the Demons. They fit perfectly in the CoT theme and were not too easy and not too hard.
Mission 2: My gut reaction was "ten" that sounds like a lot, turned out to be fine. I forgot how hard yogurt donkeys hit and when a patrol wandered
into another obelisk group i was fighting i found myself in trouble fast. I tried one of stock cure alls: BU, Blizzard, blue, PFF but I found myself dead before i could even eat the blue.
Mission 3: It was almost impossible to keep Castle alive. Mimes were tough, but really fell for ice patch. Castle kept running right up to them and died before the fifth Mean One was even dead. I actually had to turn the diff down or else it would have taken me forever to get through that mish.
Mission 4: Great map choice. EB was fun to kill. Nice to fight demons of all different powers (storm, ice, etc).
Why not a five? Contact Mindbender was very well written and fleshed out, but his text was a little too long for me. I would have preferred a little less to read there. Twenty mimes seemed like a lot to me. Even for a full team (the way this arc should be played) twenty was too many, I feel 10-15 would have been better. I was slightly disappointed that there wasnt a slight twist at the end. I was expecting/hoping that "Elba, i mean Melba" would actually turn out to be named Joanna or something. Or actually turn out to be Castles girlfriend not the contacts.
Good job!
[/ QUOTE ]
Hey thanks for the review!! 
I was worried about mission three in particular. I was really worried that not enough would spawn for a solo player, but from what you said they're spawning juuuuuust plenty. I'll tone back the amount of mimes to fifteen. That, and I'll turn up Castle's difficulty. I had to tone his character back several times during testing because he kept killstealing on me! At one point he would defeat two of three mobs to a spawn, and it got very annoying. So the combination of reducing the count by five and upping Castle should shorten that one completely.
Mindbender Jones can be wordy. I'll tone back his old man rants, as well.
One specific question, if I may: One of my concerns with this arc is that players on teams would be left wondering what the heck was going on, so I added summaries from the AE staff in the mission entry popup. Helpful, annoying, or clicked away immediately?
Thanks again for the review! I'm really happy you liked it!
EDIT - Almost forgot - Why not a five? Ran out of space! Those custom groups take huge chunks out of 100K! 
The Scrappers' Guide to Dark Melee | Kheldian Binds and Strategies
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
48156 Seldom Told Tales That Castle Fella
I had some trouble running this arc as the server was very busy causing
some lag and DC issues. I ran the first two missions with ease on a lvl 41 Earth/Kin but the second mish loaded bugged and only nine Obelisks loaded forcing me to quit the arc. I decided to wait until after midnight to restart, which turned out well, but i loaded a lvl 50 Ice/Ice blaster which turned out to be a bad idea on the third mission. OK All that aside, here is the review.
48156 Seldom Told Tales That Castle Fella
RATING: 4 Stars
Overview: I enjoyed this arc very much. Overall it is very written. The custom critters look good and the maps added to the overall storyline. It is coherent throughout. There was not really a single thing "bad" about this arc. I would definitely go back and run this again with a team if I was ever "looking for something to do".
Mission 1: I loved the look of the Demons. They fit perfectly in the CoT theme and were not too easy and not too hard.
Mission 2: My gut reaction was "ten" that sounds like a lot, turned out to be fine. I forgot how hard yogurt donkeys hit and when a patrol wandered
into another obelisk group i was fighting i found myself in trouble fast. I tried one of stock cure alls: BU, Blizzard, blue, PFF but I found myself dead before i could even eat the blue.
Mission 3: It was almost impossible to keep Castle alive. Mimes were tough, but really fell for ice patch. Castle kept running right up to them and died before the fifth Mean One was even dead. I actually had to turn the diff down or else it would have taken me forever to get through that mish.
Mission 4: Great map choice. EB was fun to kill. Nice to fight demons of all different powers (storm, ice, etc).
Why not a five? Contact Mindbender was very well written and fleshed out, but his text was a little too long for me. I would have preferred a little less to read there. Twenty mimes seemed like a lot to me. Even for a full team (the way this arc should be played) twenty was too many, I feel 10-15 would have been better. I was slightly disappointed that there wasnt a slight twist at the end. I was expecting/hoping that "Elba, i mean Melba" would actually turn out to be named Joanna or something. Or actually turn out to be Castles girlfriend not the contacts.
Good job!
[/ QUOTE ]
Hey thanks for the review!! I was worried about mission three in particular. I was really worried that not enough would spawn for a solo player, but from what you said they're spawning juuuuuust plenty. I'll tone back the amount of mimes to fifteen. That, and I'll turn up Castle's difficulty. I had to tone his character back several times during testing because he kept killstealing on me! At one point he would defeat two of three mobs to a spawn, and it got very annoying. So the combination of reducing the count by five and upping Castle should shorten that one completely.
Mindbender Jones can be wordy. I'll tone back his old man rants, as well.
One specific question, if I may: One of my concerns with this arc is that players on teams would be left wondering what the heck was going on, so I added summaries from the AE staff in the mission entry popup. Helpful, annoying, or clicked away immediately?
Thanks again for the review! I'm really happy you liked it!
[/ QUOTE ]
Yes helpful.
I would love some feedback on "Heaven's Not Enough" (15831) if you get a chance. It says very long but it should take about an hour. It also says 7 ratings but at least two of those were from 5 star farmers.
Here are my arcs...I've posted them for others to review, but none have been reviewed yet, though.
Arcs: (Feel free to review whichever you choose.)
Name: Secret Origins(Tech): The Snake Women of Epsilon V
ID: 42221
Level: 1 - 5
Name: The Internet is for Crime
ID: 53385
Level: 30+
Name: Witches and Warriors
ID: 53006
Level: 41+
Name: Win the 2009 Freak-Lympics
ID: 2150
Level: 40+
Name: Ninja Crimewave
ID: 2142
Level: 30+ (You can get XP from level 1 and up, but there are EBs, so not recommended)
------------------------------------------------------------------
Author: @FemFury
Level Range: 40+ (with a brief lower level in first mission)
Subject: A mystic artifact threatens to return ancient goddesses to the world.
5909 - Amazon-Avatars
Notes: This is the one I most hope for hearing feedback on. Very story oriented. I typed a lot of text for this one, and I'd love to have more people read it.
----------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------
Author: @FemFury
Level Range: 1 to 50
Subject: An encounter with a minor discounted supervillainess brings greater danger than expected.
6143 - Escalation
Notes: My goal with this arc was to create a memorable opponent.
First mission has some running around, every other map is a small, quick one.
----------------------------------------------------------
I'm a published amateur comic book author: www.ericjohnsoncomics.com
******MA Arcs****
Arc 5909: "Amazon-Avatars"
Arc 6143: "Escalation" (Nominee: Architect Awards, Nominee: Player Awards, and Dev's Choice!)
The Empire One Alliance 1044
Rating: 2 Stars
By the description I knew this was going to be a very difficult arc and I didnt want to die twenty times. So I loaded this on easy mode a lvl 50 Invul/EM tanker on Heroic. Boy I am glad I did.
Overall this arc starts off great and then slowly sinks into too long too boring. Although it was great to see the Knives of Artemis in a MA arc, fighting them while fighting Malta is just not fun.
Mission 1 had a great map rarely seen in Cox. Play was fun and easy, dialogue was good.
Mission 2 was a medium council base with several objectives. Still fun and good, but getting tired of every single boss, ambush and glowie having some long winded thing to say. Dialogue slowly going downhill.
Mission 3 was starting to get ugly and I wish this was the last mish. It is just my opinion of'course, but fighting a gunslinger while standing on six caltrops is not a fun challenge for me, its just stupid. I dont mind a mish with both KoA and Malta but in the same mobs? No. And the same ambush mobs NO NO. Betty was of no use as she commited suicide 30 seconds after being freed by blowing her self up on a generator she herself destroyed. No lowering of rating there, as that's just bad AI.
Mission 4 UGGGH. Way to many objectives for a fourth mission IMO. If this arc was three mishes maybe. I didnt understand why there were so many objectives, if there had been a reason in the storyline (I doubt) it was lost on me before entering. Ally again was useless, he got lost after second mob. Im not sure why he was there.
Why not a five? This arc is too long and difficult. Its one of those arcs that you know if you ran it with a team people would be quitting left and right. Storyline starts off well, but goes downhill. Too much dialogue during missions. Mobs in mish 3 were not fun to fight. Map for mish three wrong IMO (odd since the other maps were all perfect for what was happening). Overall way too many objectives and too many ambushes. Allies were useless.
Marked Man 3463
Rating 5 Stars
I ran this arc with a lvl 50 Thugs/Poi MM on diff 3.
Overall this arc is just pure gold. This is exactly why I wanted to start reviewing arcs people submit. There is actually not one bad thing in this arc. It is all good. IMO this deserves Dev Choice, HoF and all villains should play this arc. This arc should be included in the regular gameplay as it is much better than a lot of CoV PVE stuff.
Mission 1 Heavy looked great. Other custom characters looked ok, but they were fun to kill.
Mission 2 killing the "Controller" robots MM was great fun. Arnold didnt need to be led out (THANKS).
Mission 3 suddenly this easy arc gets tough. I felt it coming so it was a pleasant death. Orth'ack was a pain in the [censored], but I finally let my pets go and kill him without me standing there for him to heal off, then he finally died. Great epic battle. I breathed a heavy sigh of relief when the near dead pets trotted back to me.
Mission 4 Kill H'sol. I anticipated a large map and I was happily surprised.
This arc deserves 5 Stars because the contact is great. His dialogue is interesting, not long winded and matches his look.
The enemies are difficult, but not ridiculous. This arc feels fast even though its actually 4 missions; a rare and wonderful thing. The enemies are always fun to kill, but you must stay on your toes. Best of all I felt evil. More so than in most of the regular CoV PVE play.
Great Great job!
Thank you so much 
Alrighy, I know you said you'd rather review short arcs with few ratings, but I could really use some actual feedback for "Hunting the Dark Dragon" (details here, as well as in my sig) since thus far I've only gotten a single feedback message.
I'd really like to know what people actually think of this arc and their opinions on how I could improve it, but withoout feedback, that's very hard to do. I'd really appreciate if you could give it a go.
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Thank you very much for your time. I will keep your comments in mind (well, more probably I will re-read them a bunch of times) as I rework the arc to lessen the tedium and bring some more cohesion to the story.
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.
Rave Against the Dying Light 14910
Rating 4 Stars
This arc was run with 2 lvl 50 Ice Blasters on diff 1.
Overall this is a solid, fun playable arc. Missions feel fast and exciting and the enemies are fun to kill. I would definitely go back and run this arc again with a larger team. Storyline is straight forward and well written.
Mission 1 is a good fun stock mission that is found throughout
CoX. I love this map.
Mission 2 is the best mission in the arc by far. Trainers were tough and fun to kill. Fighting alongside Ghost Widow was great.
Mission 3 is another very good mish that feels very CoX.
Mission 4 was fun as well and fighting alongside Vanessa DeVore was great. There is one slight typo here, one of the freed Harlequins says "$name!" you need to separate the $name from the !, "$name !" for this command.
The characters and their dialogue in this arc were good and straight forward. Mission objectives were clear and maps were usually small. Enemies were tough and fun to kill. All good things.
Why not a five stars? I felt like I was running another stock CoX arc. It didnt feel new and fresh. Ghost Widow was definitely the high point and the last two missions didn't quite match up to that excitement. There were probably too many helpers in the final battle. Granted I was on a very easy setting, still Vanessa and her helpers made a big dent in Mother Mayhems health bar. I was teased with fighting Tyrant, but he never showed up. That was a big disappointment.
Good job!
This is my first attempt at an arc and it's kind of silly but...
Arc Name: Save the Music
Arc ID: 16460
Creator Global Name:@Arsenic's Rage
Length: Medium-3 missions
Definitely can be soloed, but I've heard it gets real rough at the highest challenge level. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!
I could use a review, Not sure if Server is an issue,
Server: Justice
ARC ID: 67098
Story length: Very long.
Author: @Imperialist
Enemy: 5th, Arachnos, and Custom.
Difficulty: Hard
I have tested this solo but had to use a few Luck insperations to help me finish it.
Thanks
Great job so far Dragonslay. I really appreciate people like yourself, Talen, Venture and Lazerus for taking on such a massive task. If you find time to check out my arc, i would love the feedback.
Arc Name: Carebears kidnap PvP
Arc ID: 11548
Morality: Neutral
Creator: @Ignicity
Difficulty Level: Solo or Group Orientated
Arc Description: A morbid tale of sadomasochism, betrayal and hilarity for your own personal entertainment. Attempt to rescue whats left of PvP and seek vengeance on those responsible for this heinous act. Contains AV/EBs. Don't be a Carebear. Turn up the difficulty!
Arc Length: Long. Between 30 minutes to an Hour to complete.
I wouldn't mind two arcs being reviewed. One is my arc, 5381, " The Unborn Conspiracy: The Council of Thorns ." It's four missions long, which I know you said you'd rather avoid, but the first, second and finall mission are both able to be done fairly quickly. All in all the whole mission takes a medium team about an hour.
It's a story driven arc so read the details, but includes both custom and ingame villains, and isn't some sort of "vanity arc" for one of my own characters. Hopefully you'll enjoy it.
The other would require you to roll a new hero, since the arc is called " Speedy's Low Level Hero Training Service. ." It's a five mission arc meant to replace the boring drive of sewer runs and still get you from level 2-10 fairly quickly. I think it's witty and light hearted, and the final mission is funny. Lets just say you're fighting b-grade actors trying to convince you they're the freedom phalanx. :-) This one probably should be run by a team though to really replace the "sewer run" aspect of speed levelling though.
Would love your take on these arcs.
Effrego Quartus Parietis 45525
Rating 3 Stars
I ran this arc with a lvl 50 Stone/Stone on diff 3 with a large team of heroes. Diff was lowered for final mish.
Overall this is a fun, although very tough TF. There are some interesting and intriguing elements to the story early on, but the storyline losses focus in the later missions. There are Ritki, Freakshow and Arachnos to fight, but it felt like thousands upon thousands of Arachnos and some of my teammates and I were like 'more Arachnos'. Maps were not too big and were appropriate to the storyline. This arc feels like a TF, not necessarily a bad thing.
Mission 1 the story of Jeremy and why we need to save him is intriguing.
Mission 2 Dreck AV was very fun to kill and not overpowered.
Mission 3 Yikes this is ugly just very ugly. Huge waves of Arachnos alongside custom EB MMs lead to several team wipes. Rogue Scientist surrounded by all those Arachnos was just too hard for my taste. Even with liberal amounts of clear mind (to avoid the perma blinded) and pulling (to avoid avoid fighting 30 Arachnos while pounding MM bosses) this is just a very tough mish. Several of my teammates were frustrated.
Mission 4 was good as I never get tired of fighting Lord Recluse. However, what the hell those cheerleaders had to do with the Jeremy story was lost on me, although I am pretty sure there was no reason.
Overall it was fun and I love fighting custom EB MMs, just not when they are surrounded by dozens of Arachnos.
Why not five stars? Mission 3 is just too difficult. Team wipes cannot be avoided and thats not a good thing. The storyline goes downhill around mish 3/4 as the fourth mish feels just tacked on for no reason.
Passing Notes
by @Aracade
Arc ID: 72475
Lenght: Long
Morality: Neutral
Recommended Level Range: 30 - 50
Enemy Group says Custom but that is only partly true.
I have been reading the forum posts by Venture and Talen_Lee regularly looking for good fun arcs to play and it has inspired me to do the same.
I am starting from scratch here. If you would like your arc reviewed please post below and I will review it. State the level of difficulty.
OK the disclaimers:
1) I would prefer to review arcs that have not been reviewed yet or have only been reviewed a few times. To give those arcs some starting feedback.
2) There is never a good reason for a defeat all. If you have more than one defeat all in your arc, expect it to get a lower rating.
3) Large maps are for missions with a lot of objectives. Dont make me run around an empty map for ten min looking for a mob.
4) I love a challenge. I have rated arcs 5 stars even though I died twice on the final boss and could not complete the arc. However, a challenge and purely ridiculously obscenely overpowered are two distinct things.
That's about it. I love the MA overall and I want to be the guy that finds the next hall of famer.
I will be brutally honest. I will run hero and villain content. I will solo most reviews, but will team others. Hero content may be run on a variety of characters, however, please note if you want your arc reviewed villainside there is a 95% chance it will be run solo by a Thugs/Poison MM.
I am biased to medium length arcs, but I will run any length. I have no bias at all for either custom critters or stock enemies.
I will review short bare bones arcs or long story arcs, but beware very bare bones and very story heavy arcs may get a lower rating. I dont really care about spell checking, but dont give me L33T speak.
I will tell you what I like and what I dislike in every review. I will suggest improvements, but obviously these are my opinion only. If you agree that changes are needed and you make major revisions I will rereview it on a faster lower difficulty. I run most MA content on Rugged with a lvl 50.
Go For It!