Arc Reviews 3: The Final Dimension
By
Alexander81793,
Posted on: 2009-04-13 21:28 in Mission Architect
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I never talk about invention enhancements. I talk about a cube. It's too bad you're not a comic book buff as it seems you missed the entirety of the parody. Not your fault, of course, just unfortunate.
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You never specifically mention Invention Enhancements. However, the Arbiter says something along the lines of "making Inventions without salvage." I'm not sure what that could possibly refer to but Invention Enhancements. Even in CoH lore, inventions aren't actually made with Salvage. Just enhancements are.
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Not sure what other group I could have used in their place, the hero side is a little limited for heroic groups, and story-wise I didn't want to use the custom group for all the missions. As far as failing the mission, I haven't had much complaints on that end. Obviously, in a group I don't think she ever gets away, but solo stalkers I can see having a problem.
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Well, someone somewhere once said (maybe Talen Lee in her review thread, I think, maybe) that there are certain groups that are so overused in the game that you'd better have a really good story for them, else the boringness of the group will end up seeping into the story. I don't know who else you might use, but maybe a custom group would be more interesting.
As for the difficulty of the mission, it didn't bother me too much, I was just noting it as an occurrence.
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I've found difficulty to be one of the most subjective things in the game. I've had a few who couldn't get past the first mission and others who don't have a problem. I'm just sorry that the story wasn't compelling for you.
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Maybe. My scrapper is pretty weak, overall. But a couple of Lucks got me through each fight.
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Ouch! No story and no personality. I guess those hours of tweaking dialogue and making sure each EB had their own voice failed me miserably. Maybe the clues and souvenir weren't as fleshed out as I'd hoped. As this is all subjective, I can't really take much issue with anything except for calling it a "magical cube"; they're scientists, so no magic.
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Sure, each EB has their own "voice". That doesn't give them personality. Or at least not one that is really displayed enough to make it meaningful. Most of them have 10 lines of speech, tops. Almost all of it are variations on typical "I will beat you/You fight well, but not enough/Maybe you're better than I thought/I can't believe you beat me" stuff.
There's a reason that most arcs in the game do not deal with multiple EBs or AVs. At least not ones where you're supposed to build up an antagonistic relationship with them. The ones that do tend to be the longer arcs. With 5 EBs and only 5 missions tops, you don't build up a relationship between the player and the bad guys.
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I wished you had provided an example as I try to keep the grammar as clean as possible; especially since my proof-reader friend apparently missed them.
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I always misuse the term run-on sentences. You didn't ACTUALLY have run-ons, you just had long, meandering sentences that suffered from a lack of direction. I could probably go back in and find a few if you really want me to.
Just a note, as of this point, I am not going to be taking any further review requests for the time being. I'm going to run through all the rest in the thread, as well as any re-reviews people asked for. Once those are finished, I'm taking a break for a while.
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Arc Name: Facing Chaos
Arc ID: 105163
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Aracade
Difficulty Level: Easy/Moderate
Synopsis: An old king that has seen his world end learns the cause of its destruction is being drawn to this world. Unwilling to see another world fall he calls for the help of the heroes that protect it. (Level 40+)
Estimated Time to Play: 45 to 90 minutes
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4 out of 5 stars.
Run with my 50 BS/SR Scrapper.
King Odilian of the Realm of Dragons tells me that a being he calls Chaos, which caused the destruction of his world, may have come to Earth. He has no direct proof, but wants you to check it out.
To start off, he sends you to investigate a cult that supposedly worships Chaos. The cult ends up being a custom group with CoT and Mu mobs. You're supposed to find a Member of Chaos. It turns out to be Riki Tiki Taly, a "Weapon of Rip Van Twinkle".
King Odilian confirms that RTT was who you were going after. Rip Van Twinkle, apparently, is a woman locked into a "world of chaos" who apparently exists only to kill. The King takes the information to Longbow. But when he's there, he witnesses several Longbow arguing and a good portion storm out.
Something similar happened on his world before it was destroyed and he fears it means Chaos's influence has already spread. You're asked to go find them and warned they'll attack you if they're under Chaos's influence. Inside, you find the Cult of Chaos trying to turn several Longbow members (hostages to rescue) as well as hostile Longbow.
You also encounter Seeds of Chaos: Dark Swan's Shadows, Arachnoids, Devouring Earth, Tuatha, Hydra Spawn, and Darkwolves. Leading them is a "dragon-like" monster called Firada which is a Fire Blast/Fire Armor boss. Apparently, these are Longbow, warped by Chaos's power.
The King says the same thing happened on his world, though he never realized they were human. With his suspicions confirmed, the King sends you to take down part of the Cult. He warns you you might need help, so sends his youngest daughter along to aid you, promising she is a healer.
Inside, you quickly find several Firada with normal groups, some Cultists defending an altar (misspelled "alter"), and some monsters being sacrificed. You also find a "Chronas' Shadow", I believe supposed to be a "fake" version of the Cult leader. You eventually do fight Chronas, a Fire EB (I'm not sure which fire sets he used. I think maybe Fire Blast and Fire Control).
When you beat him, apparently Chaos rips his soul out. Oddly, I never encountered the King's daughter in this mission, despite looking around for a while.
Now you're sent after Rip Van Twinkle. She appears early on in the mission, surrounded by Knives of Artemis and Malta for some reason. She's a Claws EB (no purple triangles) and when you beat her, two Guard Beast objectives spawn. They are both called ******, a Fire Melee/Ice Control boss. They weren't too tough.
With them beaten, you have to go beat Rip for good. She appears to be a MA/Archery EB this time (still no triangles). She hit Build Up and Aim and one shot me. Second time she did it again. Third time, I turned on Stephanie Peeble's Ring and used tome Sturdies. I took her down this time, though she did put a beating on me.
With her beaten, you witness the Chaos energy flying off and all the people transformed turn back to normal. The King thanks you and gives you a crest to remember him by.
In all, I enjoyed the arc. I thought the plot was fairly strong and the missions made sense. The enemies were good as well, though a few of the mobs added to the custom groups (Malta and Knives) were odd choices.
But it still felt a little... I don't know, lacking. The world shattering nature wasn't played up nearly enough, I thought. Despite the bad things happening, it never really seemed truly eminent. I think maybe because the enemies are just retreads of villains already used as opposed to custom mobs or anything.
Plus, the last mission fell a bit flat for me. Fighting Rip wasn't really the epic conflict I wished it was (despite the two deaths, those were due more to the overpowered nature of Build Up and Aim on custom mobs than anything else). Of course, the MA is limited here. You can't really make a Ruladak or anything.
Also, the names were a little off. Rip Van Twinkle and Riki Tiki Taly don't sound threatening.
Honestly, the arc was more a 3.5, but I felt generous so rounded that up to 4 instead of down to 3.
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Here you go, more fodder to be fed into the review-o-matic cannon for violent expulsion all over the forums. Please feel free to tear both of these apart, as I'd like to get the most constructive criticism possible so I can improve these arcs to their full potential. Thanks in advance!
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I ran this one already. The review is on page 9, I think.
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Here you go, more fodder to be fed into the review-o-matic cannon for violent expulsion all over the forums. Please feel free to tear both of these apart, as I'd like to get the most constructive criticism possible so I can improve these arcs to their full potential. Thanks in advance!
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I ran this one already. The review is on page 9, I think.
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Yikes, my bad, man. There is a second arc to try out now, though, that fleshes out the story of the Ideality in better detail (#103737). It's in the post above, so if you still feel like running it, that would be awesome. And I thank you for your earlier feedback.
This is a rereview of DeviousMe's arc #2922. This is gonna be a lot less in depth and just touch on the changes.
3 out of 5 stars
First off, the first mission map has been replaced with a shorter one. I think it's gone a bit too far on the small size, though, as most of the dragons are all in the same room. Plus, it's less linear, so I fought Rollister before I even found the dragons.
The dragons haven't been changed, which I still don't like, but I doubt Devious and I will agree on the merits therein.
The second mission is still on the Thorn Tree map, which is fine, as the story calls for it. There's more exposition on just why Malta is helping out Dark Dragon (it makes it explicit that DD took out the Thorns for the Malta).
Third mission is still in the Warburg base. I do think this one is unnecessary, since it could really be any Malta base. And as someone else once said, when everything is special, nothing is. Nothing much seems changed with this mission.
Fourth mission seems to imply DD wants to steal the subs this time (I can't remember if this was included in the original version I reviewed. I don't remember it though). Also, Mako is swapped for Scirroco. There's some extra story here about DD taking out people who could summon him again, though it seems a bit weak. I mean, technically there's nothing stopping the Thorns from summoning him AGAIN. Or from other mystics doing it.
Final mission is in the Faultline dam still. You're once again presented with the choice of "let him go" or "go get him". Again, I can't see why anyone would choose to let him go. There seems to be no downside to capturing him, since DD is still clearly a villain and he has been using the player as a stooge, incentivising the capture.
There's some effort at the end through DD's dialogue to make letting him go seem more palatable, but I think at this point it's too late.
Also, the enemies are still way powerful. I did this with a Rad/Rad defender partner this time and the last room destroyed us utterly. Like we dropped in 5 seconds from the alpha. We eventually managed to do it through the use of tons of temps (I had to pull out Amy, use two Nectars to confuse some of the enemies off me, I died once, the Def died twice, I used up an entire full Inspiration tray).
The changes in the story did help somewhat. Dark Dragon's motivations and the motivations of the various enemy groups were made clear and there's far less "bad guys acting stupid" now. I still think the "Arachnos base" mission feels a little bit tacked on with only a weak reason for both DD and the player to go there. And I still find the choice at the end to be a no brainer for any character who is supposed to be a hero; no hero would not go try to arrest a Space Pirate who nearly got them killed and had proven to be a manipulative [censored]. And I still think that the unique maps are overused.
Still, it was a real improvement over the prior version.
Arc Name: Saints and Sinners Part One: The Order of Steel
Arc ID: 118104
Morality: Heroic
Faction: Custom, Freakshow
Missions: 5
Difficulty: Medium-hard. Should be soloable, recommend either mez protection (at least KB) or controls.
Synopsis: A police raid spirals out of control as a new threat emerges from the shadows of Paragon. ((Two EBs, allies provided for last mission only.))
Arc Name: Saints and Sinners Part Two: Blood is Thicker then Wire
Arc ID: 123721
Morality: Heroic
Faction: Custom, Crey
Missions: 5
Difficulty Level: Same as above.
Synopsis: The search for a missing woman exposes a web of enslavment and coercion. ((Two EBs, ally provided on last mission only.))
While running the first before the second isn't critical, the second makes references to your actions in the first and assumes you know some of the basics about the Order.
Pinnacle
Heroes
When in danger, or in doubt; Run in circles, scream and shout.
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Just a note, as of this point, I am not going to be taking any further review requests for the time being. I'm going to run through all the rest in the thread, as well as any re-reviews people asked for. Once those are finished, I'm taking a break for a while.
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As I said, I'm not taking further review requests.
The Siphon review (arc 113294)
Premise seems to get power via magical means. Level range was mostly 15-24 red side; I played a 4 ss/will brute, mostly because I wanted to level this character up; I was auto-LK'd up and hoped for the best. (I did find the acc debuffing CoT ghosts were especially nasty for her.)
The contact is just a desk. The arc has the interesting idea that you're really coming up with all these missions from your own plotting.
Mission 1
Briefing: "I" decide to steal some artifacts from a museum warehouse.
Nice description on the book. I thought it was neat that the missing ring triggered having to find a rival thief.
Found Lendaro; as a ruin mage he was really hard for my level 4 brute (my fault - I know this is supposed to be level 15), but I managed to pound him down after being held and immob'd a lot.
Debriefing: very nice debriefing where you puzzle out what all the stuff you stole does. I like it. Of course, the CoT stole the only really good thing already, it seems.
Mission 2
Briefing: so I go to steal the ring from the CoT who stole it. Not a bad briefing.
Having both the mission title and the mission objective be "Find the ring" is a little repetitive; I suggest you mix it up a little. Maybe make the mission title "Steal ring from Circle", while keeping the objective "Find the ring".
Interesting dialog from the CoT where they argue over whether to destroy the ring, or whether the ring will save them all. Oh my, I arrive on the scene and 2 CoT have killed another CoT. I guess their disagreement was violent!
Found and beat up Sardax. His dialog made me think of Gollum; I now have his precious, his "dearest ring".
This mission seemed a little on the simple side, it seems like a stealthy person could've just come in here and beat up Sardax and nothing else.
Debriefing: I like how it references that the CoT were fighting over it. Wow, the debriefing really does make it sound like The One Ring.
Mission 3
Briefing: So now I have a list of ingredients to acquire for a magic ritual. The briefing tries to be cagey about what a "being that feeds on the life of another" is; but wouldn't a Council vampire be an obvious answer? Not sure I buy how the briefing has me wondering what could possibly satisfy this condition.
Found several "Spirit Thorn" glowies with a progress bar with no text on it.
This mission seemed pretty tedious, searching Oranbega and clicking many false glowies.
Cleared everything I could find, clicked every glowy, mission still wouldn't complete. Logged off and reset.
Going back in again, after clearing most of the mission I did find the right glowy to get the "empty thorn". A new objective to defeat Sardax was generated from this, though I'm not quite sure why; Sardax wants to find and defeat me to take the ring, but I don't really have any burning need to defeat him, it seems like I could just leave? Went ahead and found Sardax and defeated him. The new, bearded version of Sardax seems pretty cool.
Mission 4
The desk .. I mean, I... exposition about how a vampire actually won't work for this ritual, and "I" come up with the idea that I need a Nictus.
Found Archon Irohei; he had decent dialog as I pounded him and stole his soul and stuff. Not sure why killing him spawned a "Defeat Sardax to escape!" objective though. Maybe needs more explanation for why. I mean, how'd he even follow me here? The briefing seemed to suggest I thought up this plan on my own, so not sure why the CoT would think to come to a Council base. Do I have to beat Sardax every mission? Or maybe the One Ring "calls" to him somehow.
I had cleared most of the base, and ended up having to search the entire base again to find Sardax, which was a little annoying. Not sure there's a good fix for that though.
Mission 5
On to performing the ritual. I found the place to plant the thorn, which triggered the altars to spawn. When I get close to the altar, the mob guarding it says "We must keep Mega from completing his ritual..." but Mega is a female character; use $hisher.
Destroying the first altar gave me the "A blockage!" clue, which says "Though you have destroyed all the artifacts...Someone is blocking it!" But I haven't destroyed all the artifacts, I've destroyed only one, and I don't have a mission objective for defeating a new mob. I think you wanted this clue to be awarded after destroying the LAST artifact, but it was given on the first one. You can maybe work around it by chaining 3 destroy objectives together instead of using one objective with a count of 3, though that would mean the player having to do more searching.
Destroying the third altar did give me "Eliminate the interference!" as a new objective. I beat up Carthix and got the "Stupid mage" clue, which has a great name. "the rewards too great" should be either "the reward's too great" or "the rewards are too great".
Booo, smashed the spire and still didn't get the promised cosmic power. Now I have to search for what happened to the energy.
Although the linked objectives are cool, the size of the map makes it kind of annoying to have to search over and over again for the next objective each time.
Found the Demon Manifest, after clearing most of the map. He was actually quite hard to notice. Can you maybe make him more visually distinctive? As an EB I think he should be easier to notice; perhaps consider making him taller, or giving him a glowing or fiery aura?
Demon Manifest beat me up on my first solo attempt, but it was a close thing, and I managed to get him on my second attempt (it helped that he was still wounded from my first try). His dark debuffs and dark heals were quite nasty for me, but I *did* manage to get him, as a level 6, so his difficulty is probably fine.
Debriefing: Well, seems I didn't get the cosmic power I was promised, but did get "some" of the power. I guess that'll have to do.
Overall
It was a decent story arc, with good writing style and good use of clues. There were very few characters though, aside from the Gollum-like Sardax, who was decently portrayed. Gathering the various ingredients for the ritual was a little less exciting than I would've liked; it felt more like filling a shopping list or scavenger hunt. The triggered objectives were implemented well but I found myself re-tracing my steps a little too often on maps; perhaps use smaller maps, or otherwise try to set up objectives so the newly spawned ones aren't far from where you trigger them? It was a little disappointing that the ritual never delivers on the promised "ultimate power", though I suppose it would be pretty hard to portray that in MA. Overall I felt the story was good, but never fully grabbed my attention and there wasn't ever a crowning moment of awesomeness. I gave the arc 4 stars.
@PW - Police Woman (50 AR/dev blaster on Liberty)
TALOS - PW war journal - alternate contact tree using MA story arcs
=VICE= "Give me Liberty, or give me debt!"
I tried to make a 5 mission arc and i worked very hard on it and well it took me 3 days of game play to "finish" the lot line, the Character creations, the maps, without inputing any objectives....long story short i had a 2.02kb story....and there was no way for me to shorten it because every little detail mattered. I then tried to split it into two 5 mission arcs by expanding the original at its half way point....Well it ended up being three arcs in the end and when i went to publish it i ran into numerous Level range errors... ok Dr. Aeon, (40-54) in a mission thats (40-54) whats the error? well i abandoned this arc in game but still have my "skeleton" on my computer. and i am also wondering if anyone plans to make an AE gizmo out of game like Mids did for arc set up... that will be importable into the game.
Here you go, more fodder to be fed into the review-o-matic cannon for violent expulsion all over the forums. Please feel free to tear both of these apart, as I'd like to get the most constructive criticism possible so I can improve these arcs to their full potential. Thanks in advance!
Arc Name: The Ideality - Part 1: A New Foe
Arc ID: 42436
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: @parhaius
Difficulty Level: Average
Level Range: 1-54
Synopsis: A mysterious and hostile new group is seizing territory all over Paragon City - but for what purpose?
Arc Name: The Ideality - Part 2: An Ideal Plan
Arc ID: 103737
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: @parhaius
Difficulty Level: Above Average (AV at end)
Level Range: 1-54
Synopsis: Ideal's cybernetic thugs return to Paragon City in force. Will the work of just a few heroes be enough to stop their nefarious scheme?