Arc ID# 98943 "Invasion on Earth BX1132!"
By
AngryRedHerring,
Posted on: 2009-04-21 09:57 in Mission Architect
2 posters?
HAX!
...
OK, this arc deserves two posters.
bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonner-
ronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenth ur-
nuk!
[ QUOTE ]
2 posters?
HAX!
...
OK, this arc deserves two posters.
[/ QUOTE ]
...I just got that image in my head, and couldn't get it out any other way. 
UPDATE!
"Invasion on Earth BX1132" has now been fully tweaked to work with the latest patch.
One main issue still remains: Allies who are supposed to fly currently do not. This is a bug with the last patch, and I'm just waiting for it to be fixed (along with a lot of other folks).
And thanks to all of you guys who have been playing "Invasion". I'm the proud owner of a shiny new Designer badge thanks to you. I've received so many nice comments; just about every time I log in, somebody makes my day with a fresh tell. You guys rock.
...Also, I am currently working on the sequel, "Revenge of the Vh'kiir: Invasion on Earth BX1132 2!" Coming Soon to an Architect Entertainment building near you.
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Check... and Mate (poster) - Arc ID# 15095 (comments)
Invasion on Earth BX1132! (poster 1) - (poster 2) - Arc ID# 98943 (comments)
Global @ARH
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Fixed the image links broken by the forum move, and put the images in the OP. More tweaks to the arc, thanks to more options in the Editor! (Hoorah for text customization of standard enemies!)
And still working on "Revenge of the Vh'kiir"! Was hoping the ally fly bug would be fixed by now, but... ah well.
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Check... and Mate (poster) - Arc ID# 15095 (comments)
Invasion on Earth BX1132! (poster 1) - (poster 2) - Arc ID# 98943 (comments)
Global @ARH
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/07...ureBanner2.jpg
Just a heads-up: as the ally fly bug was fixed some time ago, what was once a seriously neutered arc is robust and frisky once again! Hoorah! (Should have posted on that a long time ago).
Also, somewhere along the last few patches, one of my enemy choices became invalid, and may have prevented folks from playing this arc. I noticed (and fixed) that today.
And finally, after a 3 month hiatus from CoH, I'm back and tweaking things again, and the sequel to Invasion on Earth BX1132 is just about finished. I have some text tweaks to do, making sure all bios are present, etc., but I should have those done in not too long. More details soon!
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Check... and Mate (poster) - Arc ID# 15095 (comments)
Invasion on Earth BX1132! (poster 1) - (poster 2) - Arc ID# 98943 (comments)
Global @ARH
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/07...ureBanner2.jpg
Doing a proper review of this for the CoHMR Aggregator thread.
@GlaziusF
Todays experiment involves my high-40s ice/axe tanker, +0/x2 with bosses on. And IIIIIIICE STOOOOOOOOORM.
---
Doc needs a description now that you can do that.
Anyway, thats some good mad science we got going here. Punch aliens in their collective faces at no risk to this dimension? Sure, we all would!
So... energy-blasting minions with shield defense who stay at range, and a mix of psiblast/emp, fireblast/thermal, and radblast/invuln(?) lieuts. ...who also stay at range.
And some bosses from the dimensional factions as alien warbeasts, which is a good repurposing.
Anyway, the boss is a fireblast/grav hybrid, who calls in some nice ambushes and screams about monkeys touching him. Clearly this Earth has never developed the devastating countermeasure known only as the wet willie.
On returning... a blinking light? ALIEN NANOMACHINES ARE INVADING MY BODY?
Ah. No. Probably a Tamagotchi or something.
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So next mission were going to Forrester Australia to CHANGE OF PLANS ALIEN INVASION.
Looks like it was some kind of... dimensional beacon.
And the aliens are here! Looks like they brought warbeasts and... Plan 9 From Outer Space. A necro commander summoning zombies. His ambush runs into a leftover Council battlegroup and gets dismantled by an Archon, which suggests perhaps a flaw in this plan.
Oh. It seems theyve called home. Er, this universes home. And judging by these garbled transmissions we are about to become tasty meat snacks.
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Hes broken down in the face of the imminent destruction of Earth. Time to go headbutt the problem and see if that solves things. Or maybe IIIIIIIICE STOOOOOOOOORM.
Hmm. The boss Brutes are called Subterranean here, but they were Silicon in earlier missions.
Anyway, theres a nice burst of particle effects around a professor who claims to have found some more different aliens who hunt down these aliens, so lets see what we can do to help him out. He escorts back to the entrance, fortunately cleanly.
And then I scoop up some bosses and sweep up more enemy elite bosses and throw down with the alien leader as he calls in ambushes of normal dudes and warbeasts who run into the patrols of bosses and its all one crazy melee.
Though maybe I need another flight of bounty hunters in between the aliens and warbeasts, because seven or eight of those bad boys do tend to outnumber my horde.
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And now its time to bend Dr. Forrester into a pretzel until he agrees to stop messing around with alternate dimensions.
His cadre of scientists are basically a mix of possessees and scientist reflections, which are a reasonable mix.
And hes an AR/Dev sort with a ludicrous magenta gun. Hey, Dr. F! Time for IIIIIIIIIICE STOOOOOOOOOORM.
Frank is presumably out at roller derby with Mother, so Dr. F gets a few good whacks and cries like a baby.
The souvy could stand to be a bit better of a recap of the arc, but its not bad.
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Storyline - ****. Straightforward but simple sci-fi excursion with a generous dose of mad science. The only slight down point is Dr. Pennyweight, who kinda comes out of nowhere.
Just off the top of my head? Hes not a respected anything. Hes considered a crackpot, because hes made contact with the alien bounty hunters but nobody believes him because they dont talk to anyone else as kind of a cosmic joke, since Earth is way too much of a backwater to be interesting otherwise. But now that the little green men have made landfall, hes got an actual reason to get in touch with them and so he rings you up or otherwise provides an opening clue for the third mission.
Design - *****. Great work on the enemy visuals. Very distinctive, good integration of stock mobs. Map choice isnt too relevant here and there arent many incidental details but the story doesnt really need them.
About the only thing Id suggest is giving the tank suits the Huge mesh but keeping the tiny head. Just for laughs.
Gameplay - ***. Not for mission 3 necessarily. Thats the arc climax and a right slobberknocker. More for... well, the enemy group in general.
Ive talked about the problems of purely ranged minions before. They tend to turn combat into more of a mop-up affair than a proper scrum - especially these guys, who can turn on their rocket boots and pelt you from range. And the AOE powers in this game are costed with the assumption that youll be hitting about three things with them, on average, so a combat where nothing can be AoEd seals off most of your impressive powers, unless you like seeing an empty blue bar.
Especially on outdoor maps, which generally dont have much in the way of arbitrary cover or corners to pull by line of sight, fighting purely ranged enemies is a chore. Especially for missions like this one, with a focus more on effects and perhaps even combat than on plot or suspense, its important that combat is at the very least not an impediment to working your way through a map.
Giving the minions an energy punch and telling them to get into melee would have eliminated all of the frustration I felt, especially on mission 3, which is a lot of seek-and-find on a sprawling outdoor map.
Detail - ****. Enemies and other mission features are generally worth examining, and the contacts fun to talk but not hard to understand. A proper recap of a souvenir would push this one over the top.
Overall - ****. Its a fun if slightly arbitrary plot, but the combat is what really drags this one down.
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)
Thanks for the review! I'm going to make a couple of tweaks based on your comments, particularly getting the minions to close to melee range more often.
As regards Dr. Pennyweight; he does have a bio that explains who he is (British sci-fi fans are more likely to figure out the reference), and his rants when you find him explain why he is there. The only reason he "comes out of nowhere" is because up until that point you had no reason to encounter him, nor had he any awareness of what you were involved in-- it's all been you and Forrester until that point. He's just a hostage that you free that turns out to be able to help you, and I don't think I'm shattering any comic book formulas there.
However, I guess I should point out that the last time I really put in work on my arcs was before the allowable file size was doubled. Even as only a 4 mission arc, under the old file size constraints I was constantly forced to trim text. I'm really looking forward to fleshing out all those things I always wanted to.
I hadn't messed with this arc in almost a year-- my wife and I bought a house last summer, and I've since had a whole new set of priorities. But just last week I dusted it off and played it through to make sure everything was working, and BAM a couple of days later here you come, giving it its first playthrough and review in a long time. That was nice. 
But doggone it, I thought I had ferreted out every last "Subterranean" reference. Haven't had the time to dig around for that yet. *le sigh*
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Check... and Mate (poster) - Arc ID# 15095 (comments)
Invasion on Earth BX1132! (poster 1) - (poster 2) - Arc ID# 98943 (comments)
Global @ARH
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/07...ureBanner2.jpg
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