Another Quick Reviews installment!
Arc ID: 8925
Arc Title: Forget the Rose, Send Me the Thorns
Author: @Hydrophidian
Morality: Heroic
Length: 3 missions
Description: The Oranbegan mage called Baktaxus has vital information that could save the world from imminent destruction! He's willing to give you the information... but only if you do a little favor for him first...
Quicky Review: Baktaxus indeed knows of a threat to the world, but won't help you unless you help him hook up with Maub the Succubus first. Well, the world does need to be saved so I help the old man out and he tells me where to find the Doomsday Device. After a fight with some of the most deliberately generic villains ever the world is saved but it seems that Baktaxus triggered a minor apocalypse in the meantime, in the form of Maub's ex-boyfriend. Fortunately they both help me stop him and the world is saved twice in a single day. I rate this one highly for absurd situations and amusing clues and dialog. It sets out to make you laugh and it delivered on that front.
Rating: *****
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Arc ID: 169114
Arc Title: Seeking Men
Author: @Fatare
Morality: Heroic
Length: 5 Missions
Description: You put your name in the personals. Or someone else did! Etiehr way, it came out kinda... botched. Now several villains are after you. And not in the usual way!
Quicky Review: Madeline Casey contacts you since the Paragon Times didn't have your number. Seems that some joker put a fake personal ad in the paper with your name on it and by accident the line that read "Villains need not apply." is missing the "not" part. This leads to a hilarious sequence of events where one villain after another vyes for your attentions. Good writing and funny dialog make this a very memorable arc aimed at female characters.
Rating: *****
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Arc ID: 176460
Arc Title: Just Say "No" to Dihydrogen Monoxide!
Author: @Mukinsanus
Morality: Heroic
Length: 3 Missions
Description: The Council has gone to far! They are planning to use Dihydrogen Monoxide, a substance so deadly that the most sane villain groups won't touch it, to further their evil ends! They must be stopped.
Quicky Review: Just when you thought that old water joke got old and died, someone brings it back and manages to make it funny again through the use of silly clues and dialog.
Rating: *****
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Another Quick Reviews installment!
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quick reviews are cool.
With minimal reading time invested, gives nice insight as to whether I'd want to play these arcs. (and in all 3 cases, I'm gonna add them to the list)
Thanks Lazarus.
You're going to be seeing a lot more of them. Due to time constraints the Full Reviews (which can take up to 2 hours to do properly) will only occur for requested arcs and special cases. Quick Reviews are for those "hey I found a cool arc that other people might like as well" situations.
Sorry for the lack of updates. I've gotten caught up in leveling a new character and frankly, most of the arcs submitted here are not lowbie friendly. That and I wanted to get in my favorite arcs before outleveling them, plus I needed the merits.
Since I've hit a point where I have run out of contacts just shy of level 25, I might as well run The Bravuran Jobs.
Arc: The Bravuran Jobs
Arc ID: 5073
Author: @GlaziusF
Morality: Villainous
Number of Missions: 5
Description: The tiny nation of Bravura rose after the Rikti War. It claims an ancient ruling dynasty, but is famous more for its military prowest. Sounds like your kind of place, and they're looking for freelancers.
Rating: ****
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Character used: Raikou Shingai, Level 24 Electric Melee/Dark Armor Stalker
Difficulty: Tenacious (Diff 2)
Level for Arc Playthrough: 24
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Mission 1:
I meet up with the contact, Lloyd Frederickson, who is recruiting superpowered help for his country. He tells me that the Contessa has taken an interest in me and wishes to see my skills in action. As long as the money's good, I'm in.
I was sent to follow the Contessa's motorcade, which was ambushed by Wyvernn agents for reasons unknown. According to the intro pop-up, I followed them to this industrial park, which I recognize to be in Mercy Island. I dispatched the guards outside and snuck into a warehouse to extract the Contessa.
Contessa Bravura certainly dressed well for travel in the Rogue Isles. Turns out that the armor suit was not just for show as she followed me despite my hidden status and fought back when we were ambushed on the way to the getaway vehicle.
After the mission was over I figured out that this was all a setup, that Wyvernn had been paid to detain her so that I could beat them up.
Mission 2:
The next mission confuses me a bit as I don't know if it is set in Bravura or not. Regardless, for some reason the Legacy Chain have abducted some Bravuran farmers who were conducting harvest rituals. They also somehow took the Harvest Spirit, Mazapegul, who often demonstrates his powers by making gems from raw earth. Hmmm.
Ok, I get it know from the previous mission debriefing. Lloyd mentioned the embassy helicopter and reading from the paper out loud often. He's reading while I'm within earshot during my visits to the embassy. So that's how he's handling plausible deniability.
The fields of Croatoa stand in for the fields of Bravura in this mission. Legacy Chain are everywhere and somewhere there are 4 farmers to rescue, if I should wish. Also there is a Legacy Chain boss to confront, if I should wish. What I definitely wish to do is meet the Harvest Spirit.
I freed the farmers and beat up Archivist Parker. According to his notes, something is concentrating the Earth's vital energies beneath the crop fields. I then found Mazapegul, who appears to be a Red Cap.
Upon freeing him, the spirit clears up a spell that the Legacy Chain were casting, revealing three warding spires that I need to smash. Even the description on the spires lampshades it with a "how did you miss this?" comment.
As useful as Mazapegul was, I had to ditch him in order to find the spires in a decent amount of time on this large map. At least he didn't complain about me leaving him. Upon smashing the last spire the mission ended and according to the clue, Mazapegul changed into his true form and then used the fragments of the spires to make some rough gems as my reward.
Mission 3:
A new day and a new newspaper. Today a Sergeant in the Bravuran Military has staged a coup and is raiding one of the Contessa's laboratories. Thinking that if I go in and save the lab, no one will notice if a few things go missing at the same time...
The Bravuran Military look pretty good, but I was surprised to see the Contessa here until I realized that it was a LT unit in the military. Apparently the Contessa doesn't have a unique model!
Of the required objectives there are three test subjects to rescue, and the first one that I came across was a Rikti. A short time after freeing him I got a surprise ambush. No speech at all, they just arrived out of nowhere. Very annoying for a Stalker when you're already in the middle of a battle.
However, upon freeing the 2nd Test Subject I realized what had happened. When this one ran off, he went past a group and got attacked despite fleeing and not fighting back. Somehow this sent aggro back in my direction. Apparently these are not Captive Details but Allies set to run.
However, apparently the Defendables that I saved to have silent ambushes. I ran into such a team on my way back out of one room. After that I left the rest of the optional defendables alone.
What annoyed me most was the Bravuran Military itself. Here we had Minions with Thermal and Kinetics, LTs with Sonics and Shields, and a Mastermind Boss. Not only was it annoying for my archetype, but it seems excessive for a level 20-30 group. I could see this being very annoying for a team, especially when the Mastermind Boss and all his henchmen ends up being hit with Siphon Power from a nearby minion that I had to ignore because the Shield LT was a more important target for assassination.
Mission 4:
A group of Italian dignitaries are visiting Bravura but have decided to bring their own bodyguards instead of making use of the local military police. This mission also bumps me up to level 30, somewhat annoyingly as I dislike uneven level ranges.
Arriving to steal from the hotel safes, I find out that the reason for that is that the visiting guests are...Carnies. They also seem to be harassing the hotel guards.
The glowies in this mission are a bit odd. Treasure chests instead of safes, and the one that triggered the arrival of the Ring Mistress (Duchess Benezzia) at the front door was a mystic portal for reasons that I don't understand.
Apparently the Duchess was trying to raid the hotel and embarass the Comte Bravura somehow. I still don't get why this was going on and didn't find out any of this until after defeating the Duchess.
Mission 5:
The opening for mission 5 is a bit wierd and even your character acknowledges it in their thoughts. Lloyd is flat out letting you know that security will be gone for fifteen minutes today during a temporary bank closure. Does he really want you to raid the vaults or is it an obvious trap?
I decided to go for it even though the Nav Text makes it apparent that this mission is purely optional. However, if this is the minimal security that is in the bank, how big is the normal contigent?
I'm really starting to hate those Vulcan Cadets. Minion healers suck almost as much as minion kineticists.
I get to the vault and find that there really was gold. The objective changes to fight my way out and as I reach the lobby I find the Contessa waiting for me in her brand new suit of power armor, telling me about how I had just collected my hazard pay and that my last job was to help her test out the new suit.
It wasn't that rough of a fight, but was a bit dicey as I had to spend my initial assassin strike on another one of those damn Vulcan Cadets. Those girls are bad enough at dragging out fights with LTs, much less Elite Bosses.
The souvenir was a simple bronze medal from the Contessa and a recap of the entire arc.
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The Verdict:
While it is a good arc for the most part and rather creative I only give it four stars for a few reasons. First there is the level range issue, it may seem spiteful but it really annoys me when level jumps occur for no good story reason. If the arc is designed to be played between the levels of 20-30, make sure that every mission is like that. There is also a lack of a upper cap in some missions, so if I had been playing a 50 I'd be bouncing all over the range.
Mission 4 rather fell flat and added almost nothing to the story in my opinion. I think that one needs to be reworked a bit.
Ambushes need to have dialog to announce that they are coming.
The Bravuran Military is rather overpowered for a 20-30 group. It is especially annoying for a Stalker as rather than one or two annoying foes that are priority targets, it is more of a roulette as every one of them can be a serious threat. While some players will appreciate the challenge, others will be annoyed and frustrated that they need kill all the minions in the spawn while dodging that boss that they could not attack right away as the rest of the mobs will just keep healing and buffing him.
For a villain arc, it is rather unfriendly to the Stalker AT in general. Especially because of the custom enemies.
The quest for XP continues on Raikou, so I'll run another requested arcs before I outlevel it entirely.
Arc: Teen Phalanx Forever!
Arc ID: 67335
Author: @PW
Morality: Heroic
Number of Missions: 4
Description: The Teen Phalanx is on a recruitment drive, and they've extended an invitation to a teen version of your hero to try out! Do you have what it takes to be on Paragon City's premier teen supergroup?
Rating: *****
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Character used: Raikou Shingai, Level 24 Electric Melee/Dark Armor Stalker
Difficulty: Tenacious (Diff 2)
Level for Arc Playthrough: 24
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Mission 1:
Coyote greets me as the teen sidekick of my assumed hero character and informs me that he is in charge of recruitment for the Teen Phalanx and that I'm being invited to try out. Normally this would involve a danger room simulation but for some reason I'm to be field tested instead while the Teen Phalanx takes on Doc Vahz. Talk about a trial by fire!
So after some helpful tips about dealing with the Vahz from Coyote, I venture down into the sewers to catch up with the team and find them to be scattered. The first one I pick up is Manticora, the daughter of Manticore and Sister Psyche and possessing of a mix of their powers. Just like her father, she is quite snippy and cocksure. Kid Valkyrie, Citadel XP, and Back Alley Boy were a lot nicer though.
Citadel explained to me that women were going missing after using an online dating site. Then a man I found being held captive told me that he had been sent to the complaint department and dropped a magazine ad for mail order brides. The fact that the address was "The Facemaker" didn't make this look any better.
It was a bit annoying that with each ally I picked up, spawns would be dying before I could even get an assassin strike lined up. All four were bosses though that is necessary as LTs would die quite easily with all this aggro. Things got pretty dicey during the Doc Vahz fight but we won out in the end.
Geez Doc, you gave your Brides claws and didn't think that something might go wrong with that?
With the mission complete, I've been voted in as a full member of the Teen Phalanx. Yay!
Mission 2:
Turns out that The Clockwork King has been on a rampage and I didn't know because Manticora "forgot" to give me one of the team communicators. Anyhow, I head to the scene right away.
According to the briefing, which included some tips on fighting the Clockwork, the King has taken Penny Yin hostage. That had to happen sooner or later.
The mission is in the final map from the Synapse TF, the Hall of the Clockwork King. I've always liked this map and surpised to have not seen anyone use it until now. I link up with the other four members of the team like last time and freed Penny, which summoned the Clockwork King himself. At some point looking for him I lost both Manticora and Penny, apparently they have no Stranded text so I never noticed where it happened and ran into the King before I found them again.
Mission 3:
It's funny how the daughter of Manticore has a crush on the son of Statesman. Anyway, they're off making up or something and everyone else has to cover her monitor duty shifts at the Teen Phalanx base. Tonight is my turn to handle it for a couple of hours.
The 2 hour countdown begins and I am appaled at the terrible condition of the base. Along the way to check the monitor I peeked into the lockers of the rest of the group and gained some more insights to their personalities. (Nitpick: I think you meant that BaBy's locker should contain a matched pair of "Dumbbells".)
I clicked on the monitor, which took a long time but it was fitting in this case. So long that I returned to hidden status while waiting for it. Of course this caused some Freakshow to break into the base. Bad news...for them.
I wonder how long the author has been waiting to use that line. I was disappointed that the Freak Tank didn't have a name though. After defeating him I got a new objective to meet up with Val, who apparently had just arrived. She wanted to know who had been going through her stuff, I blamed it on the Freaks.
Next BaBy showed up and needed some backup. Upon freeing him Clamor arrived, annoyingly right on top of us. After taking her down she confessed to be hired to hit the base by a Mr. V of the Council. Gee, I wonder...
Coyote informs me that Statesboy told him that Cora never showed up and that Citadel XP is also missing. Uh oh.
Mission 4:
We got a message from XP and traced it to Striga Island. I traveled there to meet up with the group at an abandoned Council base that was of course, not abandoned. Instead it's filled to the brim with Rogue Robots.
I found Val first and then rescued XP, who informed me that Mr. V was not Vandal (as I had guessed) but Citadel Vista! What sort of evil fusion of Citadel and Council tech is this?
Apparently he looks like Vandal, so it seems that I was partly right on my guess. He was also standing between us and Manticora, so I had to take him on with just Val, XP, and BaBy. Cora can sit on the sidelines for this one, serves her right.
With that all done, Coyote informs me that my hero needs more of my time as a sidekick now, but that I will remain a reserve member of the Teen Phalanx and to keep my communicator as a souvenir.
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The Verdict:
Well this was a fun romp for a lowbie character, despite it's few annoyances. The level ranges can be annoying, especially as you're in the group for too short of a time to explain why the enemy threats escalate so fast. I suppose for some ATs, like the one I played, it can be annoying to have 4 kill-stealing allies. Still the story is fun enough to accept it. The dialog is pretty good as well and full of fun jokes and references. I give it 5-stars.
Title: The Day I Tried To Live
Arc ID: 131780
Morality: Neutral (Might lean more to the Red side of things)
Difficulty Level: 40+ Medium, -40 hard (just a guess)
Enemy Groups: Crey, Rikti, Custom Group
Number of EB/AVS 2 EBs, the first EB mission has an ally that is not needed to complete the mission, but will help with the fight. The second EB is required to finish the mission, no ally help provided.
Story Type Serious.
Mission Count: Five
Estimated Time to Play: I have no idea...Probably more than an hour depending on how you play it.
Synopsis Listen to the contacts tale; experience the story of his life, a tale of a downward spiral filled with self destruction, rage, desperation and a hint of love.
Note One kill all on a small map (due to the plot). The level range is wacky because of the groups I used, two missions are 30-54, two are 40-54 and one is 41-54. Also, throughout the missions are hostages that don't need to be rescued, but might make more sense to the story.
Custom group has not been tested a lot.
Arc has a lot of text. It was written about my main character and adapted to fit in the MA, but you dont need to know who it is to grasp the story.
Be as critical as possible. Constructive criticism of course, but still, dont hold back.
I'd love a review of my first arc... most of my in-game friends have moved on to other games so I've not gotten much feedback.
Arc: The Scavenger Hunt
Arc ID: 187076
Author: @StrykerX
Number of Missions: 5 (first two very short, only Defeat All is in a police station)
Description: The Freakshow are having a scavenger hunt for items belonging to prominent members of various do-gooder organizations. Collect them all to win the prize.
Note: This arc is designed for lower level villains. It caps out at 30 due to the inclusion of Legacy Chain and Wyvern, uses mostly standard enemies, and has no EBs or higher. It's made to be similar in difficulty to standard lower-level "beat up the boss" missions so it should be easy to solo.
Cascade, level 50 Blaster (NRG/NRG since before it was cool)
Mechmeister, level 50 Bots / Traps MM
FAR too many non-50 alts to name
[u]Arcs[u]
The Scavenger Hunt: 187076
The Instant Lair Delivery Service: 206636
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Character used: Raikou Shingai, Level 24 Electric Melee/Dark Armor Stalker
Difficulty: Tenacious (Diff 2)
Level for Arc Playthrough: 24
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In my experience, Stalkers are much stronger against single powerful targets than multiple weak ones. I think you might have had an easier time of things on diff 3.
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After the mission was over I figured out that this was all a setup, that Wyvernn had been paid to detain her so that I could beat them up.
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It's kind of interesting how every reviewer comes up with their own conspiracy based on what's going on in the first mission. I didn't intend any of it, but the Rogue Isles are steeped in intrigue.
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Of the required objectives there are three test subjects to rescue, and the first one that I came across was a Rikti. A short time after freeing him I got a surprise ambush. No speech at all, they just arrived out of nowhere. Very annoying for a Stalker when you're already in the middle of a battle.
However, upon freeing the 2nd Test Subject I realized what had happened. When this one ran off, he went past a group and got attacked despite fleeing and not fighting back. Somehow this sent aggro back in my direction. Apparently these are not Captive Details but Allies set to run.
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No, they're captives. I just checked.
Not that I'm saying they wouldn't get attacked, but they're all set up as captives.
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However, apparently the Defendables that I saved to have silent ambushes. I ran into such a team on my way back out of one room. After that I left the rest of the optional defendables alone.
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Unfortunately I can't do anything about that. Defendable objects always spawn an ambush when you attack the guards and currently there's no way to give the ambushes any text.
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The glowies in this mission are a bit odd. Treasure chests instead of safes, and the one that triggered the arrival of the Ring Mistress (Duchess Benezzia) at the front door was a mystic portal for reasons that I don't understand.
Apparently the Duchess was trying to raid the hotel and embarass the Comte Bravura somehow. I still don't get why this was going on and didn't find out any of this until after defeating the Duchess.
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Yeah, the last glowie's a safe now.
As for why the Carnies are in a foreign country throwing a "party" and brainwashing people... well, they're Carnies. That's how they get their jollies.
Also, they really are Italian nobles.
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While it is a good arc for the most part and rather creative I only give it four stars for a few reasons. First there is the level range issue, it may seem spiteful but it really annoys me when level jumps occur for no good story reason. If the arc is designed to be played between the levels of 20-30, make sure that every mission is like that. There is also a lack of a upper cap in some missions, so if I had been playing a 50 I'd be bouncing all over the range.
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Well, no. If you were a 50 you'd be 30 for the first 2 missions and 50 for the last 3. I really think that the level 30-40 carnies they put into CoV are good marks for a 20-30 villain who's been SKed up.
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Ambushes need to have dialog to announce that they are coming.
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Every ambush that can have dialogue does have dialogue. I hope they introduce the ability to put dialogue on the ambushes for defendable objects sometime.
Up with the overworld! Up with exploration! | Want a review of your arc?
My arcs: Dream Paper (ID: 1874) | Bricked Electronics (ID: 2180) | The Bravuran Jobs (ID: 5073) | Backwards Day (ID: 329000) | Operation Fair Trade (ID: 391172)
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In my experience, Stalkers are much stronger against single powerful targets than multiple weak ones. I think you might have had an easier time of things on diff 3.
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Your mileage will vary. Raikou has multiple cone attacks and fairs better against an extra minion around her level rather than foes that are +1/+2 levels to her. Especially in the pre-IO set stage.
But that has little to do with my issue. It was that at this low level I had a group to fight where instead of "Ok, that one critter can be a serious problem and needs to die first" it's that there were multiple critters which were equally threatening. That BS/Shield, gotta take him out or he'll stomp me. But I need to do it in one shot or the Thermal will heal him and the Kin will buff him while debuffing me. If I take one of them out first, then I have the LT to deal with still.
It gets worse in the boss spawn, where that LT was present plus one of every minion, around a type of boss which is hell for Stalkers already. It just seemed a a bit too much for a group in a mission meant for level 20-30 characters. Also keep in mind that people may be playing the arc while leveling up instead of being malefactored into it and won't have all IOs or even SOs yet.
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Unfortunately I can't do anything about that. Defendable objects always spawn an ambush when you attack the guards and currently there's no way to give the ambushes any text.
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I never used destructibles myself, so I wasn't aware of that.
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Well, no. If you were a 50 you'd be 30 for the first 2 missions and 50 for the last 3.
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My argument still stands then. If an arc is meant to be played for 20-30, then every mission should limit the player between those.
Quick Review Time!
Arc ID: 137561
Arc Title: Time Loop
Author: @Bubbawheat
Morality: Neutral
Length: 4 Missions
Description: You're stuck in a time loop and you must find your way out. You're stuck in a time loop and you must find your way out. You're stuck in a time loop and you must find your way out.
Quicky Review: A minor case of "nice job breaking it hero" leads to a humorous Groundhog Day situation. Well worth playing through!
Rating: *****
I'd like to submit mine for this:
#4824 - The Legacy Chain Task Force
Heroic alignment
Four missions for levels 45-50
Enemies: Circle of Thorns, Longbow, Mother Mayhem's minions, custom
A Legacy Chain agent has followed a mage to Paragon City and seeks your help to take him down, but it appears he's not telling you the whole story. Stop the summoning of the Demon Kings before it's too late, and help lead a broken team of heroes to redemption. Team recommended for final EB/AV and several optional EB/AVs.
Arc: The Scavenger Hunt
Arc ID: 187076
Author: @StrykerX
Morality: Villainous
Number of Missions: 5
Description: The Freakshow are hosting a scavenger hunt for objects belonging to prominent do-gooders. Trash the forces of law and order to win the prize.
Rating: *****
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Character used: Raikou Shingai, Level 29 Electric Melee/Dark Armor Stalker
Difficulty: Tenacious (Diff 2)
Level for Arc Playthrough: 29
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Mission 1:
The arc begins with a Freak tank named Mistah Khaos explaining the contest in a very straightforward fashion. The goal is to obtain five objects that belong to prominent do-gooders and bring them back for a gold medal and a fistful of cash! Of course I'll need t watch my back as other villains will be trying to get in on this as well. Raikou, being the greedy little Stalker she is, signs up in an instant.
First item on the list: Beat up the Chief of the Rogue Island Police and take his distinguished service medal!
The first mission is pretty small and simple, set inside one of the police station maps and Chief Wiggins is not far from the door. Deciding to play it safe and expect some ambushes, I cleared out the lobby first so as to have a clear escape route.
And I was right, Chief Wiggins did summon some more RIP to back him up. With him down the mission was completed and I went back to see Mistah Khaos. He tells me to hold onto the medal and sends me after the next item, which is...
Mission 2:
A trophy owned by Captain Harris of the Paragon Police Department! Mistah Khaos warns me before I go that I'll probably need to clear out the station before leaving to make sure that they don't get to call ahead and cut off my escape boat at the port.
A slightly different police station map this time, set in Kings Row and full of PPD SWAT. Gonna have to be more careful here for sure. I cleared the station of PPD and found the trophy, which for some reason was a big vase, sitting in front of the armory window before the elevator.
I grabbed the trophy and then had to deal with Captain Harris on my way out. I noticed from the clue that the trophy was awarded to him for marksmanship, uh oh.
Well I guess it was a very accurate grenade launcher, though I was expecting him to maybe be a custom rather than a standard PPD SWAT Boss. Neverless, I took him down and noticed that he called for backup but never saw an ambush.
Mission 3:
Mistah Khaos tells me that I'm in the lead and that the next item is the bow of one of the leaders of Wyvern. They're hiding out in a ship down at the docks, which means the dreaded boat map.
Now I don't mind the boat map myself really, it's just that it is a bit overused. I do wonder why they are hiding out here though and get the impression from the dialog that it is a temporary hideout for a mission that is about to begin. I also see from the objectives that I need to defeat someone named Furio, who turns out to be a Brute waiting for me in the middle hold with the idea of beating me up and taking the items that I have for himself.
Now I don't see any reason for Furio to be a required objective and tested to see if he was by skipping him and taking out the Wyvern Leader first. Indeed it turned out that he was required. I'd recommend making him optional since it doesn't make much sense to force a battle with him if I can simply avoid him. It's also very odd that I knew he was there the moment I arrived on the boat as well, not much of an ambush then.
I also wonder why he is hanging out in a spawn of Wyvern. Shame that we cannot make Bosses spawn alone, but it would make more sense to put an appropriate villain group around him instead. Another possibility would be to make him an escort instead (optional of course) who is set to betray you at the door. Just an idea.
Amusingly, right as I was about to assassinate him I saw a Wyvern patrol wander in and aggro both him and his two Wyvern accomplices. I already knew from his description that he was Energy something, but this way got to see that he was Energy Melee before fighting him myself.
Furio hits hard as he has Total Focus, but appears to be set to Standard (no Build Up) and had no visible secondary so was probably Standard Regen. Overall he was not a very difficult fight, nicely balanced I think.
Mission 4:
After making fun of them a bit, Mistah Khaos sends me to retrieve the fourth item: a necklace worn by a magician of the Legacy Chain.
The mission is a straight up office building with the single objective of finding the Legacy Chain leader. Along the way I came across a number of destructible artifacts as well which were all optional. The artifacts were all the same though and each had the same dialog, a little variety would be nice.
Searching the office, I came across a bodybag that contained the still-warm corpse of the leader, sans necklace. Seems a little odd that the killer was nice to bag him up but I can't think of what else the author could do other than stuff him inside a trunk and hope that I thought to check it.
I continued further into the office looking for the killer, who turned out to be a woman named Black Amelia. Looking at that Shadowfall surrounding her and noticing that she was a Hard-level Dark Miasma critter, no wonder she was able to get around undetected by the rest of the Legacy Chain. I took her out as quickly as possible before she could debuff me signifigantly.
Mission 5:
Last item, a Longbow Officer's rifle and I got a sub ready to take me to one of their underwater bases. Mistah Khaos also gave me some bombs to use for blowing up the base. Not part of the Scavenger Hunt, but it is too good an opportunity to pass up.
Not much to say about this mission, it was very simply to plant the two bombs and defeat the Longbow Office. His dialog was funny though.
I turn in all five item to Mistah Khaos for the gold medal and prize money. The final debriefing was rather good and interestingly shows that the Freakshow aren't quite a dumb as they often appear.
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The Verdict:
The arc is very solid, not much that I can see that needs improvement aside from Furio in mission 3 as him being a required battle didn't make sense. Also the author should look at tightening up the level ranges, nothing that affected my character on this run but it could be annoying for someone at the upper and lower ends of the range. Overall I give it 5 stars.
Review this for me please
Arc Name: Red Typhoon
Arc ID: 4912
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: @mm3squints
Difficulty Level: 40-53
Number of Mission: 5
Estimated Time to Play: 30 min-2 hour
Synopsis: Tension rises after N. Korea launches a missile. Nuclear war may happen can it be stopped?
Link to More Details or Feedback: Can be soloed, but best if team played
MA Arc:
Red Typhoon 4912
Akhdar Blood Arc: 247198
[ QUOTE ]
Now I don't see any reason for Furio to be a required objective and tested to see if he was by skipping him and taking out the Wyvern Leader first. Indeed it turned out that he was required. I'd recommend making him optional since it doesn't make much sense to force a battle with him if I can simply avoid him. It's also very odd that I knew he was there the moment I arrived on the boat as well, not much of an ambush then.
I also wonder why he is hanging out in a spawn of Wyvern. Shame that we cannot make Bosses spawn alone, but it would make more sense to put an appropriate villain group around him instead. Another possibility would be to make him an escort instead (optional of course) who is set to betray you at the door. Just an idea.
Amusingly, right as I was about to assassinate him I saw a Wyvern patrol wander in and aggro both him and his two Wyvern accomplices. I already knew from his description that he was Energy something, but this way got to see that he was Energy Melee before fighting him myself.
Furio hits hard as he has Total Focus, but appears to be set to Standard (no Build Up) and had no visible secondary so was probably Standard Regen. Overall he was not a very difficult fight, nicely balanced I think.
[/ QUOTE ]
Doh! I thought I'd gotten him to spawn alone. I'll tinker around with it some more... if I can't get him to be alone I'll give him a minion or something. I made him required to represent him cornering you on the boat, but I may switch him to spawn on the Wyvern boss' defeat. Oh, he's actually Energy Melee/Energy Blast, but he's set to Melee so he'll only blast if you fight him at range.
[ QUOTE ]
Searching the office, I came across a bodybag that contained the still-warm corpse of the leader, sans necklace. Seems a little odd that the killer was nice to bag him up but I can't think of what else the author could do other than stuff him inside a trunk and hope that I thought to check it.
[/ QUOTE ]
I actually saw a skeletal remains clickie in another custom mission that I'm going to swap it for... looks more like someone incinerated by negative energy anyway.
As far as the level ranges go, they're as tight as I know how to make them. The two police maps have no room for any level-limiting spawns like rescues or destructible objects, and the enemy groups involved in the arc have a slight difference in level ranges (some are 20-30, some 21-30, some 20-29).
EDIT: I've changed the custom bosses to each spawn with a custom group of minions instead of the map default (I really, really wish you could set a boss to spawn solo 
). The minions are custom critters but should be fairly weak... if anyone has trouble with them please send feedback because they're only there as flavor. I also switched the body bag to a pile of bones and made Furio spawn after you defeat the Wyvern boss.
Cascade, level 50 Blaster (NRG/NRG since before it was cool)
Mechmeister, level 50 Bots / Traps MM
FAR too many non-50 alts to name
[u]Arcs[u]
The Scavenger Hunt: 187076
The Instant Lair Delivery Service: 206636
[ QUOTE ]
Oh, he's actually Energy Melee/Energy Blast, but he's set to Melee so he'll only blast if you fight him at range.
[/ QUOTE ]
Ah, it's a bit hard to tell as right now the Devs goofed up and gave Energy Melee blue energy blasts (instead of red) for the ranged attack, so I couldn't tell the difference as he only blasted once.
I figured his secondary might be Regen as when set to Standard it has only passive powers. That's what I used on my Nagan Roboticist and Engineer so that they would focus on being Masterminds rather than spamming their secondary powers. Plus there was an issue with the Protector bot having Dispersion Bubble and it stacking with Energy Aura when the Engineer used to have it.
[ QUOTE ]
As far as the level ranges go, they're as tight as I know how to make them. The two police maps have no room for any level-limiting spawns like rescues or destructible objects, and the enemy groups involved in the arc have a slight difference in level ranges (some are 20-30, some 21-30, some 20-29).
[/ QUOTE ]
Good thing we're finally getting level range settings in Issue 15.
Quick Review!
Arc ID: 179648
Arc Title: The Self-Improvement of Sophia Schwartz
Author: @Malimar
Morality: Villainous
Length: 4 Missions
Description: A low-ranking member of the Freakshow wants your villainous assistance to build herself into an unstoppable killing machine.
Quicky Review: This arc was pretty amusing. The contact, who was referred to you by Doc Buzzsaw, offers to give you hot tips on a series of opportunities to steal various good from different groups in exchange for you keeping whatever she cannot use. This leads to a finale where you help her make the big move up the ranks while making a profit at the same time. While the first three missions are mostly glowy hunts, the glowies themselves contain many amusing clues and the writing makes this arc stand out.
Rating: *****
Arc: The Case of the Late Richard Faraday
Arc ID: 181165
Author: @Awesomus Prime
Morality: Villainous
Number of Missions: 5
Description: When one of Detective Morgan's men is taken hostage by the Freakshow, an old enemy emerges wielding a new and devastating threat to humanity.
Rating: ****
================================
Character used: Anna Nethema, Level 50 Dark Melee/Fire Aura Brute
Difficulty: Tenacious (Diff 2)
Level for Arc Playthrough: 50
================================
Mission 1:
This is by far not the first time that I've had a contact address me by name, but it is the first time one has recognized my super group as well. Nice touch there as he mentions working with them in the past and that I came highly recommended. Detectice Morgan informs me that Officer Bruce O'Leary has been taken hostage by the Freakshow and that there is generally a 24 hour window in this situations for a safe retrieval.
It's been 12 hours, so I've been called. I do wonder why they didn't call earlier but that is a minor detail. Anyhow, seems that the Freakshow managed to pull of an ambush on the SWAT team and I'm needed to help clean up the mess. Detective Morgan also mentions a Dr. Armington who has set himself up with the Freaks recently.
By the way, you spelled Dreck wrong a few times.
I enter the Freakshow warehouse and hear some Freaks talking about the new Doctor right away through use of a destructible object in the form of a rather inconspicuous rusted oil drum. Another nice touch, I like these sort of details.
Not long afterwards, I ran into O'Leary, or at least what had become of him. This was when I realized why the names sounded familiar, I've played this arc before, or at least an earlier version of it.
O'Leary is a cyborg Elite Boss and not in control of his faculties, in fact he even begged for forgiveness as he tried to kill me. I put him down after a tough fight (perhaps too tough) and continued onwards to find the man who had done this too him, Dr. Armington.
I fought through more Freakshow and ran into the first of group called the Faraday Cult. These appear to be transhumanists who have been modified using nanotechnology and they were talking about converting the Freakshow to their cause. I put them down before they could begin their recruitment drive.
Past them I found Dr. Armington, whom I notice is set to ally like a hostage or escort. When I defeat the Freakshow around him however, something rather interesting happened. The mission ended, an ambush of Cultists appeared out of nowhere, and Dr. Faraday ran away while telling the ambushers to cover his escape. Rather creative!
During the debriefing Detective Morgan tells me that the doctors are already doing what they can for O'Leary and that it concerns him that Armington was negotiating with the Freaks for their drug Excelsior (would have been nice if that was in the dialog during the mission). He also tells me that he wants to look into this name Faraday and will contact me again soon.
Mission 2:
Detective Morgan asks me to come down to the lab and see O'Leary. He informs me that the doctors found the same nanomachines in his body and that a signal being broadcast from somewhere was being used to control him. They were able to jam the signal, for now, and are working on a way to remove the stuff without killing him in the process.
I enter the lab and immediately see that it has been overrun with Cultists. However, O'Leary is right in front of me, being held captive by the Cultists, and is friendly this time. I free him and around the corner we found Detective Morgan as well. He doesn't fill me in much, but I can see from the Nav Window that I have 6 Researchers to rescue and a Raid Leader to defeat, so we set forth.
Both of my allies are aggro hounds, constantly running ahead of me and I realize why when I notice the Super Reflex auras. You might want to make sure that they don't have enhanced perception. They are also a bit overpowered as EBs, regular Bosses would probably have done well enough.
We cleared out the lab and saved all the researchers, one of whom informed me that the nanomachines were actually a technological virus capable of spreading from person to person. Apparently they believe that the version infecting O'Leary has the "contagious switch" turned off or absent completely.
Mission 3:
Detective Morgan has managed to track down Armington and has asked me to bring him in. He also fills me in on Richard Faraday, an end-of-the-world prophecising darkity-dark type villain who died back in the year 2000. Hung himself when his prophecies didn't come true.
Well we know that nothing tends to stay dead in this universe.
I entered an abandoned lab and came across a Cult boss who mentions that they will take care of Armington once the transaction is completed. Rather ominous and that boss was a pain to fight, hits pretty damn hard with that axe. Also on this floor were some of Armington's androids, the Alpha Men Prototypes.
On the next floor I ran into some more Alpha Men Prototypes as well as some Cultists discussing how once the virus is mixed with the Freak's compound it will be ready to distribution. I am really not liking the sound of this.
I'm also not liking how the Alpha Men Prototypes are all Lieutenants, no minions at all. This become very frustrating in the battle with Dr. Armington on the last floor.
Here is the problem, Dr. Armington is a Bots/Force Field Mastermind, surrounded by LTs who are all Claws. Not only if the Force Field part redundant as the Protector Bots already cast bubbles on him and cast their own Dispersion Bubble, but it leads to the Doc spamming Force Bolt and Repulsion Bomb over and Over and OVER AGAIN! 8 points of knockback resist didn't do jack to stop this nonsense and I was dead simply from being knocked on my rear repeatedly. After rezzing and eating a bunch of Break Frees I ws able to withstand the constant knockdown spamming long enough to defeat Armington, who told me that he would talk as long as I kept him safe from Faraday.
Anyhow, Armington gave up the transmitter frequency for the signal controlling the nanobots (Wouldn't we have known this frequency already? I thought Morgan said that the issue was that the signal was encrypted. Even that though wouldn't stop us from triangulating it and finding the transmitter though.)
Also, he claims that Faraday has risen from the dead.
Mission 4:
From Armington we have the location of Faraday's hideout in Boomtown, but he may have gotten word from Armington (why would he tell him that he told us?), one of his robots, or one of the Cultists that Armington squeeled and that we have only a couple hours to raid the place before he packs up and moves the operation somewhere else. Anyhow, both Morgan and O'Leary are coming with me on this one.
I entered the abandoned office building and saw the first of 6 objectives, a Nano-Virus Control Computer. After smashing that I found Detective Morgan and two more objectives, Viral Bombs. You know, it may just be me but smashing a bomb containing a virus sounds like a rather bad idea.
On the next floor I heard some PPD fighting the Cultists ahead. I also found an odd thing, a PPD Guardian being held captive that ran away once freed. That made no sense.
With the last of the viral objectives destroyed it was time to find O'Leary and take down Richard Faraday. Fortunatly he was on the 3rd floor but tucked into a loop that made him easy to miss.
On the last floor we found Faraday and he was as darkity-dark as described, a Dark/Dark Corruptor AV apparently. After a brutal battle in which he even summoned reinforcements he went down but didn't seem to concerned with his defeat.
According to Detective Morgan, Faraday arrived at the Zig and immediately resisted arrest. Then the strange thing happened, when the responded with force, he suddenly went powerless and let himself be killed. Nobody knows why.
================================
The Verdict:
This arc has improved a LOT from the version that I remember playing a month ago, but it is not without its faults. There are some inconsistencies in the writing as well as a few things that make little sense, as well as a number of spelling errors. The Alpha Men are annoyingly an all Lieutenant group, which makes no sense and is just poorly balanced when they swarm you. The Elite Boss fights are also very annoying as one is overpowered and another has powers which are simply aggravating. The allies are also a bit overpowered as well. I'm not going to comment on the lack of lower limits on the level ranges as issue 15 will allow the author to easily fix that issue in due time.
Overall I give it 4 stars. With enough fixes and polish it can easily be 5.
I'm going to tone down Armington and the Alpha Drones will be moved to minions. Also I'm going to reduce Ally O'Leary to a boss. Once i15 goes live I'm going to tailor alot of the missions 'signature characters' to have more specific powers and I'm going to set the range as a level 45-50 TF.
You're right, Dt. Morgan is AR/SR so I might change him to AR/Regen or AR/WiP if he dies too much.
As for the signal triangulation I did handwavium that as "we can't find the source", but you're right that there's no good reason.
And thanks for the name of Excelsior, couldn't find it anywhere and it was driving me nuts that I didn't name the drug.
Thank you for the excellent review, I'm going to make some edits now before other reviewers hit it. Feel free to play it again sometime to see if you like the changes. I really appreciate the kind words.
For anyone who read my criticism guide, yes I did violate my own suggestions.
Oh and in case you've any suggestions, the PPD hostages were supposed to be named "Future test subjects" and all be swat guys, but they keep spawning as awakened. I had to axe the dialogue for space costraints but wanted to beef up the last missions enemy count to show that this is a hub of activity.
Edits made, removed the PPD hostages all together.
Arc: The Power from Out of Space
Arc ID: 64800
Author: @Dr. Spoon
Number of Missions: 4
Description: Strange energy is coming from somewhere and is transforming people. Is it dangerous, or can it be harnessed?
Rating: **
================================
Character used: Anna Nethema, Level 50 Dark Melee/Fire Aura Brute
Difficulty: Tenacious (Diff 2)
Level for Arc Playthrough: 50
================================
Mission 1:
So I am contacted by a Dr. Stanislau Steele (shouldn't that be Stanislaw?) and informed that he was studying a peculiar energy signature that was coming from a nearby pub. He doesn't say how he found it or why it may have been coming from there to begin with. Anyway, the CoT has attacked the pub, kidnapped some people, and took the source of the signal, which apparently was a magical artifact.
So I follow the signal to Oranbega and begin the rescue and recovery mission at hand. The objectives are simple, free 5 citizens and find the artifact. Will do!
Unfortunately, the mission is pretty boring. The hostage details have nearly no unaware or attack dialog, and the hostages themselves say nothing notable. They all drop clues that appear to be utterly meaningless and the Death Mage at the end of the map knows nothing of an artifact. Also the map was poorly chosen and has trick portals, just getting through the one that takes me to where the boss and last two hostages were kept took 6 tries before it sent me to the correct destination. Not off to a good start.
The Doc says that the energy signal vanished while I was down in Oranbega. He'll get back to me after consulting with Azuria and Positron.
Mission 2:
So the signal has reappeared and is stronger than before. Of course the Doc wants me to go and retrieve it. I enter a tech lab and find out right away that I have 5 citizens to free again, with no explanation as to why or how I know to do so before even opening the door. It's full of Crey and I've annoyingly been dropped to level 45 for some reason.
It's the same hostages all over again, saying non-sensical stuff when rescued as before. No clues at all this time, not even at the end. The short long story, all 5 of them are developing super powers and Crey was hoping to use them to make more Paragon Protectors. No artifact, again.
The Doc has come to the conclusion that the five people are the actual source of the signal. Good thing that they're all planning to register as heroes.
Mission 3:
Well, they did register as heroes and formed a new group called The Seekers. However, they are burning through security levels at an alarming rate and the Doc still wants to find out the source of that energy. He says that our best lead is among the Freakshow, though he doesn't tell me why. It'd be nice to know WHY I'm being sent to beat up some random villains. At least I'm back up to level 50.
The objective doesn't tell me anything but to "find out if they know anything useful." Thanks, how specific.
So I run through the mission, ignoring most of the mobs and hoping that it is not a defeat all. I did overhear some Freaks somewhere mentioning Crabs and Dark Crystals. qwGreat, Nictus!
I found the Freak Boss and beat him up. Interestingly for someone who claims to have been given Nictus fragments he was a Sonic Tank instead of a Shadow Tank. He tells me that for some reason the Nictus want to keep feeding power into the 5 new heroes until they explode or something like that.
The Boss's attack line was situationally amusing. Saying that he wants to see "Anna Nethema fall from grace" is only tempting fate when dealing with a character who has horns, wings, a tail, and is on fire.
The Doc concludes like I did that it's the Nictus but has no idea why they would be doing something like this.
I have a theory that involves a certain Warshade power called "Unchain Essence."
Mission 4:
The Doc tells me that when before he could only detect the Seekers when they were all gathered, now they each have enough power to be detected individually. He sends them along with me to destroy the machines that the Nictus are using to channel power into them before they hit critical levels.
The Doc also tells me to be wary of how they might react to the possibility that doing this will strip them of their new powers.
I enter the mission and see no objectives for the Seekers, unless this Fluxtube that I have to defeat is one of them. I also see 5 machines to destroy. Then I see something that would royally piss me off and cause a ragequit if I was playing a Kheld...every damn mob is a Void Hunter! This is a very serious error! You did play test this mission, right?
Anyhow, I found the Seekers along the way. I don't have much to comment on them other than that they were all standing around unguarded, apparently just staring at the Void Hunters who were just standing around waiting for someone to beat them up.
I defeated Fluxtube easily enough with their help, then realized that I had missed a machine. I backtracked without them and found it, ending the mission. No ending clue, I had to backtrack through the NPC dialog to figure out Fluxtube's intentions. Apparently he wanted to create some supers and see if they were fit for Nictus fusion. I wonder why he had to create them from scratch though when there are so many in the world already.
Well, the good news is that while the energy is gone, The Seekers didn't lose their current powers.
================================
The Verdict:
So what was the point here? Why were the Nictus making normal people into superhumans just to make new vessels rather than using existing supers? What was the point of all the clues in the first mission? Why am I sent to beat up Freakshow without being told why they are our best lead? Why the heck is the last mission all Void Hunters! You should have realized that the Nictus group uses them for Minions and LTs when you tested them. I have a feeling that this arc should have used a different villain group at the end or at least have waited for Kheldian to be allowed in the custom critter creator. The most I can give is 2 stars for the lack of important details, poor map choices, lack of clues when they would have helped, and a final missions that would earn nothing but anger from a player using a Kheldian character.
You make some good points. I'm planning on changes when I15 comes out since you mentioned "more efficient storage" as one of the features. I'm just under the file size limit right now and can't add more dialogue, descriptions or custom critters. Yet. Some specific responses:
[ QUOTE ]
Dr. Stanislau Steele (shouldn't that be Stanislaw?)
[/ QUOTE ]
I swear I've seen both spellings, but I'll double-check.
[ QUOTE ]
and informed that he was studying a peculiar energy signature that was coming from a nearby pub. He doesn't say how he found it or why it may have been coming from there to begin with.
[/ QUOTE ]
Hmmm. I was trying to avoid the "wall of text" problem in briefings, but I can add more.
[ QUOTE ]
They all drop clues that appear to be utterly meaningless
[/ QUOTE ]
Guess I was too subtle here. The clues connect (mostly) with their rescue dialog and with the themes of the heros they become. I'll see if I can make it more obvious.
[ QUOTE ]
Also the map was poorly chosen and has trick portals
[/ QUOTE ]
Trick...you know, in all my play testing, not once did one of those portals send me anywhere but to their "other side". Foo. Gotta find a better map. Shame, as I like the "cathedral" as an ending room.
[ QUOTE ]
find out right away that I have 5 citizens to free again, with no explanation as to why or how I know to do so before even opening the door.
[/ QUOTE ]
This is my ignorance of some of the nuances of the objective-triggering stuff in MA. What do you propose? Perhaps a glowie near the beginning that triggers the objectives? I can't put it in the briefing since Dr. Steele doesn't know they're there.
[ QUOTE ]
It's full of Crey and I've annoyingly been dropped to level 45 for some reason.
[/ QUOTE ]
Sorry about that. I find Paragon Protectors annoying, so I put in a Power Tank, and they max at 45. I may make the whole arc 35-45 once I15 comes out.
[ QUOTE ]
No clues at all this time, not even at the end.
[/ QUOTE ]
Guilty as charged. I'll see what I can come up with. One per person is too much, but one summary for all five is appropriate I think.
[ QUOTE ]
He says that our best lead is among the Freakshow, though he doesn't tell me why. It'd be nice to know WHY I'm being sent to beat up some random villains.
[/ QUOTE ]
Again I'll see what I can add.
[ QUOTE ]
The objective doesn't tell me anything but to "find out if they know anything useful."
[/ QUOTE ]
Another candidate for at least one glowie, methinks.
[ QUOTE ]
I found the Freak Boss and beat him up. Interestingly for someone who claims to have been given Nictus fragments he was a Sonic Tank instead of a Shadow Tank.
[/ QUOTE ]
A conceit on my part. His name and attack dialog are a reference to a song, so I thought Sonic appropriate. I'll change it.
[ QUOTE ]
I have a theory that involves a certain Warshade power called "Unchain Essence."
[/ QUOTE ]
I'll have to research that on ParagonWiki or somewhere. I've never played a Kheldian (though I've teamed with them). Might give me some info to flesh it out more.
[ QUOTE ]
I enter the mission and see no objectives for the Seekers
[/ QUOTE ]
Again, I could use some advice on how to do this here. I initially had them as required objectives, but it cluttered up the nav window. And technically they're not required. What I wanted was a single "Meet up with the Seekers" objective, but couldn't find how to do it.
[ QUOTE ]
every damn mob is a Void Hunter!
[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah, not really what I wanted either. My original conception for this whole arc was that Soldiers of Rularuu were behind it, not Nictus, but I couldn't find anything above bosses in the list for the Big Bad Guy, and couldn't justify a humanoid as that. This will be changing in I15 if I have the space to make a custom group. Or should I make it Shadow Freaks (are they separate), do you think?
[ QUOTE ]
I defeated Fluxtube easily enough with their help
[/ QUOTE ]
How was that fight? I've had trouble balancing it, where my intent is that it should give a "yike" moment, but not otherwise be that difficult.
[ QUOTE ]
I wonder why he had to create them from scratch though when there are so many in the world already.
[/ QUOTE ]
Okay, I'll see if I can flesh that out more as well. The thought was that if this experiment works, they could grab as many normals as they need, take them back to homeworld, grow their power and inhabit them from there, without each having to come to Earth to find a host.
So, major wrench-work in the future. Thanks for the review.
My Arc: The Power From Out Of Space, ID# 64800
Mrs. Spoon's Arc: Shades of Betrayal, Acts of Salvation, ID# 59147
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Also the map was poorly chosen and has trick portals
[/ QUOTE ]
Trick...you know, in all my play testing, not once did one of those portals send me anywhere but to their "other side". Foo. Gotta find a better map. Shame, as I like the "cathedral" as an ending room.
[/ QUOTE ]
Taking a look around, there are other CoT maps with that cathedral room that don't have multiple portals. The Medium section has a few that I know of.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
find out right away that I have 5 citizens to free again, with no explanation as to why or how I know to do so before even opening the door.
[/ QUOTE ]
This is my ignorance of some of the nuances of the objective-triggering stuff in MA. What do you propose? Perhaps a glowie near the beginning that triggers the objectives? I can't put it in the briefing since Dr. Steele doesn't know they're there.
[/ QUOTE ]
Perhaps move the boss to the front of the mission and have the hostages trigger off of him?
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I found the Freak Boss and beat him up. Interestingly for someone who claims to have been given Nictus fragments he was a Sonic Tank instead of a Shadow Tank.
[/ QUOTE ]
A conceit on my part. His name and attack dialog are a reference to a song, so I thought Sonic appropriate. I'll change it.
[ QUOTE ]
every damn mob is a Void Hunter!
[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah, not really what I wanted either. My original conception for this whole arc was that Soldiers of Rularuu were behind it, not Nictus, but I couldn't find anything above bosses in the list for the Big Bad Guy, and couldn't justify a humanoid as that. This will be changing in I15 if I have the space to make a custom group. Or should I make it Shadow Freaks (are they separate), do you think?
[/ QUOTE ]
I've taken a look into the Custom Group editor and in the Freakshow group there is Shadow Freak (Minion), Shadow Juicer (Lieutenant), and Shadow Tank (Boss). The thing about these critters is that in the normal Freakshow group they are programmed not to auto-spawn (a new feature we get in i15) so that the only appear in special mission details. However, you could pull them into a custom group, say "Shadow Freaks", and use them as the primary group for that mission.
These Freaks only spawn from 30-39, so you might want to consider that to be the final level range for your arc when you're finished.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I defeated Fluxtube easily enough with their help
[/ QUOTE ]
How was that fight? I've had trouble balancing it, where my intent is that it should give a "yike" moment, but not otherwise be that difficult.
[/ QUOTE ]
With 5 Bosses backing me up he was nothing special, to be honest. If I had been alone I'd be in for a rough time as I saw that he's Extreme Dark Miasma when the Dark Servant appeared.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I wonder why he had to create them from scratch though when there are so many in the world already.
[/ QUOTE ]
Okay, I'll see if I can flesh that out more as well. The thought was that if this experiment works, they could grab as many normals as they need, take them back to homeworld, grow their power and inhabit them from there, without each having to come to Earth to find a host.
[/ QUOTE ]
I suppose it does make some sense when said like that. Still, I think you need to research Kheldian lore some more before polishing up the story.
[ QUOTE ]
So, major wrench-work in the future. Thanks for the review.
[/ QUOTE ]
You're welcome.
Arc: Fate & Destiny
Arc ID: 140129
Author: @Cap'tain Amazing
Number of Missions: 4
Description: A Mender asks you for a favor that eventually leads to a very important lesson, but not directly for you.
Rating: *****
================================
Character used: Anna Nethema, Level 50 Dark Melee/Fire Aura Brute
Difficulty: Tenacious (Diff 2)
Level for Arc Playthrough: 50
================================
Mission 1:
The contact is Mender Lazarus and after assuming that I've heard of Ouroboros, he tells me about how Portal Corp is starting a program to monitor the dimensional timelines with their help. Well why not? It's not as if Ouroboros is a well kept secret to begin with.
So after signing up he tell me about how a little known hero named Jeremy Servanta is being targeted by assassins back at the time when he first became a hero. For some reason Jeremy is important to the timeline, which timeline I am not sure of, and Mender Lazarus asks me to go back and prevent the assassination.
I arrive at the northeastern corner of Steel Canyon and see that the place is overrun with 5th Column. My only objective is to find Jeremy so I set out to do so.
I found him without much trouble, in a corner of the map and being cornered by...ghosts! I defeated the ghosts and freed Jeremy, who was still in civilian attire, and found that one of them dropped a piece of rock that has the same texture as my Ouroboros tablet. Wait, what tablet? I guess the author forgot to mention that (maybe a mission start clue in issue 15?), but regardless Mender Lazarus confirmed that it was part of an Ouroboros device.
Mission 2:
Mender Lazarus informs me that shortly after I rescued him, Jeremy did register as a hero in Atlas Park. However, the ghosts have appeared again and are invading the park. It's up to me to stop them again.
He also tells me that the Shivans don't even exist in this dimension (so was it a different dimension in the first mission or is this a divergent timeline now?) and that Statesman is a bit...different. He also tells me not to expect help from any heros in that dimension as it is not as heavily patrolled as in my dimension and that the ghosts will only be visible to me due to my dimension-hopping nature or something.
Sure enough, the civilians in Atlas Park are totally oblivious to the presence of the ghosts. I ignore the Arachnos Flier on this map and strike out to find their leader, mostly by hoping around until someone speaks. I find the leader's group and dispatch them gaining another piece of stone as a clue, as well as some observations on how stale and lifeless Atlas Park seemed in this dimension.
After taking out the leader the rest of the ghosts faded away and I returned home to speak with Mender Lazarus. He has a theory now about what is happening but is not sharing it until he investigates it some more.
Mission 3:
I come back and Mender Lazarus tells me that he's been researching the stones that I found but needs me to look into another disturbance taking place a few years after my last trip. Apparently something really bad happened, so he wants me to find out what occured as well as locate a hero named Dark Lightning.
Something big happened all right, because Atlas Park is in ruins. As I'm an outsider, just about everything here is hostile to me, from Arachnos to the PPD but for some reason Longbow is flagged as friendly. I start hunting for clues, which is annoying on this map but fortunately the glowie has spawned right behind the City Hall. It is a trash can with a newspaper scrap inside, hastily documenting a battle between Statesman and Lord Recluse. My objective has also changed to finding Jeremy. I assume that Dark Lightning is his hero name.
I find him not far away, being cornered by ghosts again and his description says that he is a low-rank hero but now one of the last in the city. Upon freeing him I learn that he was attempting to reach the MAGI vault inside the ruins of City Hall, where a sample of water from the Well of the Furies is kept.
Mender Lazarus has come to a conclusion about what is happening and will tell me everything after I perform one last task for him.
Mission 4:
After agreeing to the task, Mender Lazarus fills me in. The stones are Ouroboros portals, how the ghosts got them he still doesn't know, but they have been attempting to use them to go back in time and stop Jeremy's rise to power. It appears that after the deaths of Statesman and Lord Recluse, he used the Well of the Furies to increase his power and rebuild Paragon City. Of course the power went to his head and now am I going to revisit the dimension and see what has become of that world and put an end to Dark Lightning.
The entire city is in ruins again and the ghosts are hostile as usual. I also find out just what dimension this is finally, Alpha Upsilon 24-2. Why does that sound familair?
Well, not all of the ghosts are hostile, there was a talking patrol of friendly ones. Maybe they're flagged wrong.
I travel the map and find Jeremy, now known as Warlord Servanata, lamenting the destruction of his world and not seeming to realize that it was his fault. He is annoyed by the ghosts, but unconcerned for no one can hope to match his power.
Until I arrived.
During the battle there were ambushes of friendly ghosts, trying to take advantage of the battle and strike at the man who had killed them all. Unfortunately a lot of them spawned far away and got caught up in the hostile spawns and never made it to the battle. After defeating Jeremy, I recieved the final chuck of the Ouroboros tablet from the ghosts and found Jeremy's journal, documenting the last of his days. I decided to leave it with his body and return home.
Mender Lazarus explains to me how these events had to play out, as tragic as they were. Soon in the future a certain hero will visit this dimension, fight the specters, find the remains of Jeremy and his journal, and recieve a grim reminder of how much power can corrupt.
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The Verdict:
This arc serves as a very nice tie-in to this Tina Macintyre arc. It does have a few typos and plot holes that need to be addressed, but otherwise there is not much more criticism that I can give. 5-stars.
I think many of the problems I had with this story is that it requires the player to read, and read, clues over and over again each mission and remember bits of dialog from 2-3 missions back. Otherwise things get confusing fast. There is simply a lot of information being presented, almost overwhelmingly so.
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A Midnighter Patrol has some dialogue that leads you to believe that they were/had been in contact with 'the base'. It might have been that you missed the Patrol or might have missed that dialogue while in battle.
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Never saw that once. My big complaint was that I was automatically fighting Midnighters for no reason that I could discern. That is why I automatically assumed that Derek was lying.
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As to 9 pillars being excessive - given what you learn what these pillars really are, do you think it is a wise decision for a world to put all their eggs in one basket?
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Well technically they already are all in one basket if all 9 of these pillars were in a single cave and destroying them brought about the end of the world.
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Point taken, there is the camp that will not need Derek's assistance to take Garik on, the camp that does not like to work with Allies and/or the occasions that an Ally gets 'stuck' causing the player to leave them behind. Dialogue has been changed to cover those situations without compromising the story.
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Actually, the complaint was that Garik was too busy talking to the ally than me. Remember that the player should feel like the star of the story, not a guest character. It's a common complaint that led me to rework a lot of my allies in my own arcs.
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I15 seems to say that one may have the ability to just check off the powers you want - if so then Indominatable Will will definately be there.
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You had better put a "Controllers/Dominators need not apply" warning on the arc then because you will have a lot of pissed off mezzers rating you down for making an ummezzable boss. Remember that a boss has 4 points of Mezz protection by themselves, Indomitable Will will add 10 more points of protection on top of that. Since Indominatable Will protects against every mezz type there is in the game you will be making all of those powers nigh-useless against him.
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Aaron warns the player in the opening dialogue of this mission that the CoT will try to stop the both of you. It ties into the enemy motivations -they are not going to lie down and let the heroes truimph without a fight....at least that ambush is not set on Hard;-) Player ignores warning at their own peril.
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That warning won't do anything for someone who has to enter the mission without their pets, who relies on their pets to survive, is being attacked before they can set up, and will be attacked again upon re-entering the mission if they died at the door and had to go to the hospital. It may be a Heroic arc, but remember that any AT could be playing your arc.
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Question: I have toyed with the thought of having Kilcarsadur spawn in the very room you dispel the channelors. Too much of a nasty surprise or to be expected since you just destroyed all his plans?
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Considering that I had already popped my inspirations before clicking the last Channeler and was waiting to activate Domination, I was a bit annoyed really that he didn't spawn there and that I had to go hunt him down as quickly as possible.
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NOTE: this behavior ONLY seems to happen with the Melee class as that I have seen this lock-up occur in several other MA story arcs that even Statesman is not immune. I have not seen this behavior in Range character allies.
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Yes, the bug is with Melee only. I don't know what is keeping the fix from coming.