Pro Payne: From 1 to 50 in M.A. (suggest arcs!)

News to me as well. When was that added? :S

How about a bonus Pro Payne review for the week? I’m actually amazed I managed to squeeze another one in.

First, the usual – feel free to skip ahead if you’ve seen this a million times:

Pro Payne is not currently accepting submissions, since the current queue is probably enough to get me to 50.

Here’s the current queue:

349034 A Taste for Evil
350877 The Greater Good
350522 Fear And Loathing On Striga
352400 The Union of the Mask
349298 The Better Part of Valor
355068 The Galactic Protectorate - 06
1044 The Empire – One Alliance
302196 Waddle's Revenge
346904 Against the WickerWork Khan!
292389 Tales of Cimorera, Vol. 2 (will jump queue at level 49.3)
254599 Of Futures Past

And now on to…

The Hero of King’s Row (Arc ID#230187, 3 stars)

Pro Payne (who in this arc is pretending to be a level 13 hero, so he’s actually buffed from the previous arc!) is contacted by Doug, a student from Paragon City High School. Doug is friends with the student council officers from PCHS, and is concerned that they haven’t been to school or answered any text messages or been in contact with anyone for several days. Doug’s Dad works for the Cell Phone company, and put an (illegal) trace on their cell phones. As I’m concerned for the kid’s safety, I choose to overlook that little issue, and learn from Doug that all of the cell phone signals are coming from an abandoned office building.

I head over there, to find the place is a hideout for the Hellions. Very early on I locate a hero named the Emancipator. He’s been captured by the Hellions and isn’t really up to the task of taking them on. I rescue him, and make a note of the fact that he doesn’t seem to be registered with the city (which actually seems a little unrealistic – not that he isn’t registered, but the timing of the clue: I don’t quite buy that I would know this just yet; moving that information to the debriefing text, or the end of mission clue might be better since it would then be a reasonable assumption that I had taken the time to look up Emancipator’s registration and found nothing).

In any case, Emancipator, being a minion (which is good – I greatly prefer allies to be minion or lt. class so they don’t ‘steal the show’ from me), and utterly lacking common sense, charges after a runner, heading straight into a large group of Hellions and getting himself one heck of a beatdown. Well … looks like Emancipator will be spending the rest of the mission in the hospital.

Anyway, I do find all four of the student council officers, but, oddly, they don’t appear to be hostages. They actually seem to be making deals with the Hellions. They dutifully act as though I’m rescuing them – but I don’t buy they were really in trouble in the first place. This news surprises Doug too. Time to get to the bottom of what’s going on here.


Hmm. The Student Council Treasurer seems oddly nonplussed by her capture by the Hellions…

Rather abruptly, the Hellions attack the King’s Row Community Center, setting it on fire. Doug’s girlfriend and several others are trapped inside, and he begs me to rescue them. I, of course, agree, and head in.

Oops! Apparently it’s good that I have time for one more mission before work, because this one was a surprised timed mission – I’ve got 30 minutes to finish it. As always, I’d recommend putting some sort of clear warning the mission will be timed before you “accept” it – some players (like me) like to “preview” what the next mission will be about before signing off, and surprise timed can result in failing the mission if (unlike today) we can’t stop and complete the mission. (As a note, the only exception is the very first mission of an arc – some players don’t like for that one to be surprise timed either, but it doesn’t bother me because you can just restart the arc without having to replay any of its content.)

Shortly after arriving, I find the Emancipator again: and now he’s apparently gotten considerably more experienced (he’s lieutenant rank now), and is able to survive for pretty much the whole mission. As we work our way through the burning building, rescuing innocents, we eventually come across none other than the student council President. Based on his boasts, he evidently paid off the Hellions to start this fire – and did so for a rather dark reason: he’s a racist and can’t stand the thought of a place where minorities can intermingle with “the master race” (his). Apparently, he’s also a rather strong boss, with buildup (ugh!) and allies in the Council. (Note: Genuine question: is the Council actually racist? Granted, I know that their origins are in racist roots, but it almost seems like the 5th Column would be a better fit as the President’s backers. At the time the arc was published, I’ll grant that the Column wasn’t operating as openly in Paragon, but they are now, so the author may want to consider it as an update).

The President tries to run away – it’s fairly early in the fight, so I’m not at all sure if he’s actually trying to escape or is just spooked at how quickly I was injuring him, but I do defeat him.


You, sir, are really lucky you’re not operating out of Galaxy City. I’d hate to see what the Back Alley Brawler would do to you after hearing the stream of @#!$ coming out of your mouth.

What’s a little perplexing is that Doug seems absolutely mystified as to what’s going on – he keeps acting as though he has no clue as to why the President would do what he’s doing, and why the Hellions would burn down the rec. center. The problem I have with that is the plot is pretty clear as to what’s going on right now: the President is a racist with ties to the Council, and hired the Hellions to burn the place down because he hates the idea of … well, I already said it in the preceding paragraph. It seems at the very least like the mission debriefing should be written so that if Doug starts out confused, that I explain to him what’s going on, rather than ‘playing along’ (as though I’m also confused – which I’m not)…

In any case, now we have a set of GPS coordinates to investigate (President Racist Pig had them). Doug is acting pretty mystified as to what’s going on, so I tell him that we’re going to go there and check them out. I suspect that we’re going to find a Council base, so at the very least we might find out who the Council mastermind is, and why they’re backing a bunch of super-powered high school kids.

That’s when Doug congratulates me on figuring out he’s the Emancipator. Wait. WHAT?! Did I miss something? I need to go back and read through the text again…

…the only thing I can find is that my response indicates I think Doug will be coming with me to the coordinates. Which is actually not how I originally interpreted the “we’re” in the sentence (I thought I was just being inclusive, since he’s technically part of the investigation), I didn’t think I was actually inviting him to put on his duds and come along!

Anyway, once in the Council base, I overhear Council goons bragging about how brilliant Archon vonBrunn and his plan is, and quickly realize all four student council officers are here. I quickly find Emancipator – who is now a boss-class ally. Man, this guy levels up way faster than I do. As I seek out and defeat each student council officer I’m able to piece together more details of the plot. Apparently, the Council somehow learned that the whole of the student council were racists, and were recruiting them into their ranks. Burning down the community center was their “initiation” – and evidently part of a Council plot to start a crippling race riot in King’s Row once word gets out that the whole incident was a hate crime. I have no idea yet if the author’s intent here is to paint the whole thing as racially motivated (e.g. the Council are doing this because they’re a bunch of racist bastards) or if this is a more sinister plot where the Council is taking advantage of the kids’ racism (e.g. they want to create anarchy and lawlessness in King Row so that they can more effectively strengthen their presence there) – I’m hoping it’ll be more clear after the final mission.


Well, Mr. Council ambusher, the main reason I’m not thinking of the children is because they seem to be doing such a good job of beating me to within an inch of my life.

(Note: It is striking me more and more that there are some fairly pronounced conflicts with some of the game’s canon here. One, the Council has never struck me as racist – at least in the way presented here: I have little doubt the Nicti whom they are allied with are the very definition of racist, seeing themselves as beings superior to all humanity and us as tools to be dominated and controlled. They’ve struck me more facists bent on world domination, but not necessarily given to committing racially motivated crimes out of disdain for minority groups. On the other hand, as I mentioned before, the 5th Column much more directly evokes thoughts of Nazism, which naturally brings to mind their “master race” rhetoric – which is why they seem a better fit to me. But also, low-level Council initiates, according to their mob descriptions, are generally not super-powered individuals – they’re ordinary people interested in joining who have been given guns and basic training and tasked to see how long they can survive on the front lines. That actually seems to fit the student council very well – but if that’s true, I really don’t think they should be extreme bosses. It seems like it would fit a whole lot better if they were mostly minions, with perhaps the President being a lt., at most – perhaps he’s the only one that has been loyal long enough to have gotten a few injections of super-soldier serum. In other words, just because they are central to the story, they don’t have to be powerful bosses – especially when you no doubt have a “real” boss – vonBrunn – waiting in the wings.).

Ah … Doug’s final mission briefing makes it very clear that the Council are a bunch of racist hate mongers who are doing this just because they don’t like minorities. Oh well. As I enter the mission, I get a pop-up stating that Statesman is walking up to a podium, his head hung low. Also, the mission start clue is labeled “Emancipator’s Eulogy” (Note: I see two issues with this – one, the author has essentially made it clear that Emancipator has died before the mission has even begun. Also, some extra text making it clear that the clues being delivered in the mission are actually happening after the mission is over might help put them a better context. For example: “After your mission was complete, you turned on the TV. Statesman … etc., etc. As you listen to Statesman’s message, you reflect back on what you found at the Council base.” Now the whole mission is really set up as a “flashback,” and the clues you get throughout ‘fit’ a bit better.)

Speaking of which, within the base I find members of the student council of just about every conceivable high school across Paragon City. With the defeat of each high school’s (seriously overpowered) president, occasionally with an ambush of overpowered student council representatives, I get another clue that continues Emancipator’s Eulogy. This method of unfolding the eulogy is an interesting one – but seriously. Every student council president of every high school in Paragon City is a racist, white supremacist, hate-mongering clone?! Really? Really? That’s just taking it too far – no way I can suspend disbelief enough to buy that…


Pro Payne is utterly shocked at the sheer number of high schools throughout his city that are controlled by white supremacist scum.

I finally come across Archon vonBrunn, whose diabolical plan was to subvert all of the student councils in Paragon City (it’s rather distressing how successful he was). That seems to have been a rather good call on the Archon’s part, as fighting the jerk has made it painfully clear that he and his pathetic Council soldiers are soft, squishy weaklings compared to the awesome might of a collection of teenagers. (I’m being serious: the Council were not more than the expected level of challenge – but the student council members were more or less wiping the floor with me: it’s rather stunning the number of inspirations I had to go through to beat them.) My point? It totally throws off the feeling of legitimacy for the members of a shadowy, highly trained paramilitary organization to actually be weaker and easier to defeat than the teenagers they are trying to subvert. I’d strongly recommend reducing most of the student council members to standard settings (I mean geez, one build-up boosted kick from one of boss-class presidents did more than four times the damage than the worst hits the Archons that spawned in mission could do). Trust me on this – believability is far better than full XP rewards. Mind you, I’m not suggesting you remove “base” powers that would make them worth nothing – but the student council should not be tougher opponents than the actual Council. And, like I said, make most of them minions, with maybe the presidents as bosses (although I’d throw out the whole all of Paragon’s high school councils are racist angle all together), and fill out the rest with their Council handlers.

The end of the story comes when I track down Emancipator’s body, stuffed into a bodybag and thrown into a forgotten corner of the base. Clicking on it brings up a blank progress bar, fills in two clues, and ends the mission. The clues are just more of the eulogy – no indication or story behind Emancipator’s death beyond the implication that he tried to assault the base and was killed in the process (which really does seem odd, given that his extremely rapid increase in power throughout the arcs makes it unlikely the Council would so rapidly and definitively kill him).

Pros: At the base of it, there’s a good story idea here, and it’s obvious work has gone into the design of the arc. The author has chosen a powerful theme (racism and hatred), and that alone really has some potential. The fundamental idea behind the final mission is a good one, although I think it needs more work to execute properly – I assume the mission is supposed to feel more like a flashback I am remembering as I watch Statesman present his eulogy. There are good ideas, and a good start; it’s the design and execution that needs some work.

Cons: Most of my thoughts on where the arc has problems are in the “journal” above. But to summarize: First, there are canon issues – a villain group is presented with motives that don’t quite seem to fit them. Again, I might be wrong, but I just haven’t seen a whole lot in the game to convince me the Council is given to committing hate crimes simply because they want to hurt minorities – I can see them doing so in a manipulative way to further some sort of ulterior motive in keeping with their philosophies of world domination, but not just because their rank and file are steeped in some sort of racist philosophy. In fact, the idea that a driving force behind the Council is to promote the utter, inherent supremacy of one race over the other isn’t something that I’ve seen as the driving force behind their story arcs – unless you count the near certainly that their Nicti allies likely consider the whole of the human race as utterly inferior (but that is not the way this arc is presented). That’s an easy fix, though: the 5th Column would fit far better in this role – perhaps not perfectly, but much better.

Second, there are balance issues. By and large the members of the student council are completely superior to their Council equivalents, which just doesn’t fit at all. I really do think that toning them down in a big way, even to the extent of making them mostly minion class, with Council handlers filling out the upper ranks of their “group,” would work best.

Third, there are issues with the writing for Doug – he seems more confused in the middle of the arc than is realistic, and there was that seemingly out of the blue reveal he was the Emancipator. As I always say, perhaps I was just being particularly dense today, but wow that one just seemed to come out of left field.

Fourth, the final mission, where it is revealed that just about all of the student councils in Paragon City are actually populated by racist bastards, is just too much. Trust me: just one student council is enough to preserve the theme that racism is despicable. I certainly felt righteous justification beating the tar out of the original student council – I don’t need to be drowned under a tidal wave of racist teenage student council clones to drive the point home.

There are other more minor issues as well (surprise timed mission, no real story behind Emancipator’s death, especially given his stunning rise in power as the missions progress, etc.), but hopefully this will give the author something to work with.

Again, I want to stress that there’s real potential here for a great story with strong emotional impact. But as-is there’s still a lot of work on this arc that needs to be done. I hope this has helped.

Score: 2.5

I imagine it’ll be next week sometime when I get the next one finished. Assuming, of course, real life doesn’t get in the way.

I’m genuinely surprised, and pleased, at having had more time then I expected for Pro Payne updates and reviews. Not sure how long it’ll last, but I’m certainly eager to take advantage of it while it does.

Pro Payne is not currently open to submissions. I’d imagine it’s almost guaranteed that the rest of my queue is more than enough to get to 50. And here it is:

350877 The Greater Good
350522 Fear And Loathing On Striga
352400 The Union of the Mask
349298 The Better Part of Valor
355068 The Galactic Protectorate - 06
1044 The Empire – One Alliance
302196 Waddle's Revenge
346904 Against the WickerWork Khan!
292389 Tales of Cimorera, Vol. 2 (will jump queue at level 49.3)
254599 Of Futures Past

And now for Pro Payne’s latest adventure.

A Taste For Evil (Arc ID#349034, 4 stars, 5 stars given in game.)

I’m faced with the intimidating visage of Marshall Brass, who has ordered me to obtain a sample of Nutri-Paste™. Or at least I think he has – I need to check to make sure. (I’m kind of tired, and I probably should have been paying more attention.)

In any case, it’s pretty clear fairly early in the mission (which has exemplared me down to level 19 – so hey, at least I’m slowly getting progressively more powerful again) that a challenging setting is starting to lose its luster (two progressive defeats by the snakes are the catalyst). So I head off to the Field Analyst to set my difficulty down to +0/x1 – now perhaps I can just enjoy the story without seeing how quickly I can burn through my 4 million or so patrol XP. (Seriously, it’s more an “interruption” in the story thing rather than any real fear I’m ever going to have debt. I’d have to die more than a hundred times…)

The new setting won’t really help with the first mission, but it’s pretty short anyway. I’m in a burning building inhabited by Snakes, where I find Dr. Aeon who directs me to head to a fridge containing my own helping of Nutri-Paste™. It doesn’t take long to find the sample – along with a room of Snakes guarding eggs – which I destroy, although the objective text in the chat window sort of hints at the fact I wasn’t supposed to do that. No biggie, though – I’m not penalized for doing so.

(Ah, and a quick re-check of the mission briefing dialog reveals my original task was to field test the Nutri-Paste™, including orders to report to Dr. Aeon for further instructions – which explains the first mission. Except for the snakes. I wasn’t totally clear on what they’re doing there, or why all of this was happening in a burning building.)

Apparently, given that I’m a loyal Soldier of Arachnos, Marshall Brass doesn’t feel inclined to explain anything to me – he just orders me into my next mission, and I dutifully obey (I would have liked more explanation as to what’s going on, but I do admit that it’s at least plausible that I’d just be ordered around without a lot of exposition on why I’m doing what I’m doing). He next sends me to secure a sample of the previous research data so that I can deliver it back to Aeon – before Arachnos decided to use me as a field test, they were already testing the Nutri-Paste™ on university students and vagrants. Evidently, the Vahzilok have an interest in the research data as well, since they are already where I’ve been sent, looking for the same data. Based on what a defeated Eidolon told me, some of those eating the NutriPaste™ have actually developed superpowers. Interesting.

(Note: Naming the Eidolon ‘Esophagus’ was a cute touch.)

Brass was pleased that I had obtained the report, and reminded me to tell him immediately should I notice any side effects of the Nutri-Paste™. In the meantime, as a reward for doing such a good job my next assignment was going to be a cushy one (yeah right): guard duty. Brass informed me he was waiting on Aeon Corp’s “go” to order the distribution of the Nutri-Paste™ to stores all over the Isles, and all I needed to do was guard the warehouse where the supply of the stuff was stored.

Naturally, the warehouse was on fire when I arrived, and the place was crawling with Luddites convinced the Nutri-Paste™ was evil and needed to be destroyed. I managed to fight them off, but not before they torched all of the Nutri-Paste™ containers. And the Raid Leader bragged about this only being the beginning of a Luddite uprising again Aeon Corp. Needless to say, Marshall Brass was rather displeased with the destruction of the Nutri-Paste™, and heaped the blame squarely on my shoulders. Sure it wasn’t my fault, but what am I supposed to do about it? File a complaint? With a heavy sigh, I see what he intends for me to do to clean up this mess.


Wow. That is a lot of burning Nutri-Paste™. Brass is not gonna be happy… (and, in fact, he wasn’t.)

Brass quickly informs me that Aeon Hydroponics is under attack by the Luddites, who are planning on crippling Aeon Corp’s ability to make the stuff. My mission: stop them, and find out what I can. When I arrive, I find that the Luddites have already murdered the lab’s staff and collected the body bags near the entrance. As I move through the lab I defend several ‘production elements’ of Nutri-Paste™ from Luddite destruction. Specifically, I protect several canisters of base ingredients, along with two Stasis Tubes. Oddly, the description for the canisters imply they are filled with genetically engineered ingredients, but the Stasis Tubes still state they are for holding humans in suspended animation for medical tests rather than indicating how they are used in the production of Nutri-Paste™. Oh. Never mind.

(There are also some containers lying around that hold taste samples of the Nutri-Paste™. Some pretty funny stuff, actually.)

After his defeat, the Luddite leader informs me that stopping them here won’t really help, since they’re also going to destroy the factory that makes Nutri-Paste™. I think I can guess what Brass will be having me do next. When I report back to him, he promptly makes my expectations reality. Time to head to the factory and defend it from the Luddites.

To save the factory, I need to defeat the three Luddite saboteurs, destroy their three caches of explosives, and find Dr. Aeon and escort him safely from the premises. It’s on the large, outdoor factory map (the one where you rescue the 3 PTS workers in the main game) and is a pretty straightforward hunt for all of the mission objectives. It takes just a little while, but I ultimately save the factory, and Dr. Aeon.


I vaguely remember something about Aeon wanting me to stay awake as long as possible during my vivisection. Don’t think I’ll be signing up for that one…

One oddity was that Brass mentioned Aeon’s security might be there too – and that they jealously guard their secrets, so they’d likely be hostile. I did see a few battles between Luddites and Goldbrickers, so I presume the Goldbrickers are the security – is this actually the Goldbricker “candy factory” referred to in the bonus clue from the last mission? Seems internally consistent to the story, but I don’t recall the Goldbrickers working for Aeon (or being hired on by him as security).

In any case, the factory was saved, Nutri-Paste™ could be distributed to the Rogue Isles, and Brass congratulated me on a job well done.


Only one more to go!

And now I was off to level up. Only one more level to go to the end of the project!

Pros: This is a very good example of a straightforward, simple arc that does a good job of telling a simple, direct story. Sure, I like the convoluted arcs with complex and interesting to follow stories, but it is fun to play through an arc were you don’t need to be taking notes to follow the plot. The arc’s got good mission design overall, especially for an arc that’s trying to be straightforward to play (as I believe this one is) – the missions are fairly short overall, either due to small maps, or larger maps with objective types that would allow you to search out the objectives and quickly complete the mission should you so choose. By and large, the difficulty level is exactly what it should be, and strikes me as well balanced for the VEATs the arc is targeted at (with one possible exception listed below). It’s a solid effort.

Cons: The most obvious are mentioned in my walk through, but, to summarize, the Snakes and the burning building in the first mission seemed out of the blue – I totally missed what was going on there; I’m not sure if it was because I missed something in the mission, or if it just wasn’t there. If the snakes are supposed to be there, then why is the Paste being stored in a burning building? If they were attacking, why does the mission imply their eggs “belong” to Arachnos? Were they trying to recover their eggs? Also, the Gold Brickers seemed an odd choice for the ‘security’ – like I said, internally consistent, but odd in the grander scheme of things.

The only time I questioned the difficulty was in the Arachnos ‘warehouse’ – there were a lot of placed bosses in that mission, especially for a relatively small map. Probably not an issue for a Wolf Spider, but for a more melee-oriented Widow the possibility of two bosses close together aggroing at the same time is real, and could make for a rather quick defeat in the 10-20 level range.

The only other ‘con’ is really the ‘dark side’ of what the arc does well. The flip side to a straightforward, direct arc is that it’s very difficult to make it stand out, so to speak. Although I couldn’t give much advice on exactly what to do, I did get the feel that adding some more detail would improve the arc (for example, more serious clues mixed in with the ‘joke’ clues that tell you more about what Nutri-Paste is – and it wouldn’t hurt to make Marshall Brass a little less terse; granted, I know you’re an Arachnos Soldier, not a Destined One, but the clipped nature with which he speaks to you seems a bit off when compared to the way he’s presented in game. He’s not chatty, but he is more, um, ‘conversational.’) And one somewhat unexplored avenue would be to do a bit more with the whole “side effects” angle – I think the author’s got a good handle on subtle humor, and a few reports to stumble across and a thing or two added to the mission exit text (with Brass making appropriate comments) could add a lot of additional flavor to the arc. Put intended.

EDIT: My mistake - I completely forgot to click on Brass and read the debriefing (I hadn't yet submitted the score in game because I'd been working on the review). Apparently I was given the placebo, which is why I never had any side effects. Not exactly what I had in mind with the above comment (and I do still think the arc would benefit from just a bit more development of this - I actually can see the character wondering about a few 'placebo effect' symptoms). However, after giving in some very careful thought, I do think this would, in all fairness, have been enough to slightly upgrade my score - so I'll be changing my in game rating momentarily.

In summary, the arc struck as solid, but it’s directness and simplicity potentially keep it from standing out – something that only a few more additions could easily fix, I think. From the standpoint of a score, that translates to practically nothing to deduct, but conversely, not a whole lot of things to lock onto as ‘above average’ to increase the score as well (although there were some). With just a little bit more, I wouldn’t hesitate to give this five stars in game (and, as I do have a few VEATs that will probably get more play when this project is over, there’s a very good chance I’ll be revisiting this arc – and the author’s other VEAT arc – in the future).

(EDIT: The above statement is largely specious at the moment, since I did up the arc's score for the reasons stated above, and it has now been given five stars in game.)

Score: 4.045

I’m secretly hoping the next arc in the queue will allow me to retain my natural level (or at least not take me below 44) – but we’ll see.

Thanks for the review.

A few people have commented on that first mission. I think it's pretty obvious that the lab is under attack by Snakes trying to recover the eggs that have been stolen, possibly to be used as ingredients in the NutriPaste. I don't want to spell out that they are used as ingredients, it's more fun to make people guess.

Dr. Aeon is of course used to his laboratories being invaded by hostiles and on fire, and is also the typical absent-minded mad scientist who doesn't pay much attention to his surroundings when he's thinking about something else. He merely mentions that he could have defeated the snakes himself if he had remembered to recharge his power armor last night.

I think the conversation between the snakes and Dr. Aeon when he's rescued explains most of it. Maybe I should try to make it more clear.

It would appear that I ended up more or less simultaneously finishing two reviews, so here we go!

Of course, a very brief overall update:

Pro Payne is now four bubbles into level 49. My *guess* is that the first third of the remaining queue will get me to 50, and the rest will be a chance to finish out the project while enjoying Pro Payne in all of his level 50 glory.

Of course, Pro Payne is no longer open to submission, as I’m simply finishing out the remaining arcs in his current queue. Speaking of which, the remaining queue is:

292389 Tales of Cimorera, Vol. 2*
352400 The Union of the Mask
349298 The Better Part of Valor
355068 The Galactic Protectorate - 06
1044 The Empire – One Alliance
302196 Waddle's Revenge
346904 Against the WickerWork Khan!
254599 Of Futures Past

*As promised, this one has jumped the queue, as I passed 49.3 while playing the second arc in today’s pair of reviews.

And onto the first review for today (the second will be in a post right after this one).

The Greater Good (Arc ID#350877, 4 stars, 5 stars given in game)

Based on the arc’s premise, and the first mission’s briefing, I’m going to assume that I’m going to be playing the role of a character the author is envisioning, rather than really playing it as Pro Payne. I’ll be honest – I’m not wild about doing that, but considering Pro Payne’s basic premise, the fact that I’m using M.A. as a fantasy engine to play a story about someone else is not an unreasonable stretch, so I’m going to see where it goes.

Apparently, this version of Pro Payne has been getting increasingly disillusioned with ‘standard’ hero work, and is seeking to do his utmost to really help those truly in need: the poor, and the downtrodden. He has been having many a conversation with his former mentor, and through these conversations has been recommended as a possible candidate for an organization called ‘The Greater Good.’ The organization’s representative, Angela Goodheart (groan), is going to put me through a field test. There is a nearby bank whose primary client is a Mr. Richman – an archtypical miser who uses his money only for his own good. Angela wishes for me to steal his money and give it to her, so that it can be distributed to the needy (or so she says). Sort of a forced charitable donation, I suppose. I would think I’d feel a little odd about doing something like this, but in the vein of playing along, I’ll give it a go.

The bank is protected by Longbow, who comment on the fact that they’re getting awfully sick of the growing number of heroes they’re having to defend the bank from (!). I dispatch the Longbow guardians quite readily (wow it’s nice to be back up to my native level – I’ve even returned the difficulty to +1/x2), and crack three safes full of Mr. Richman’s money. At least I think it’s his money – I only have Angela’s word to go on, and I’m not sure I trust her. Actually, I don’t trust her at all right now.

Oddly, in one of the safes I find a note telling me to “seek the greater good.” I’m honestly not sure what to make of that yet – it occurs to me that perhaps the whole test has been staged (although that doesn’t quite explain the Longbow comments), but I just don’t know enough yet to know what’s going on.


One of the few times Pro Payne’s been a hero in MA, and a bank robber at the same time…

(For what it’s worth, I haven’t made up my mind yet as to whether or not I like the story, but it has captured my interest for now. I’m genuinely curious to see where this goes.)

Angela now informs me that the leader of the Greater Good has been incarcerated in the Zig – after being framed for crimes he didn’t commit, of course – and needs to be freed. I agree to do the deed, even though something in the back of my mind tells me I shouldn’t be quite so willing to do what I’m doing. Something about Angela’s smile, though, makes me feel “at ease” – like it’s okay to do doing what I’m doing. (I think this improves the story, since it implies that there is an element of mind control here and makes it more palatable that my character would be doing these ‘out of character’ things. Basically, it’s easier to swallow that I’d be doing what I’m doing because I’m being subjected for a form of suggestion – instead of my character just being a naïve idiot.)
In any case, the Zig is patrolled by PPD, whom I must fight to release Mr. Worthington (the Greater Good’s leader) from captivity. The mission itself is straightforward – I battle my way across the Zig yard, to the jail cell, and free Worthington.


You know, technically police drone beams are supposed to teleport me to the Zig. That must be while they don’t seem to be doing that much to me…

All the while, I do overhear strange comments that hint that some members of the PPD seem to think they have no right to hold Worthington here, while others – most notably his guards – regard him as “slime” and taunt him with threats that he won’t ever be getting out. Worthington’s description does imply that he has the ability to “charm” others into doing what he wants them to (something that Angela seems to be capable of doing too). I also find a note crumpled up in his cell warning me that “all is not as it seems.”

Okay, interesting so far, and I’m liking the arc a little more now that I’ve been given an “excuse” for my character to be acting so “out of character.” I do find myself wondering if this is going to be a straightforward “the Greater Good is actually evil, and are using mind-powers (which I will subsequently break free of) to control me” plot – or if they really are going to turn out good, and some sort of outside influence is manipulating me into thinking they’re not on the up-and-up. (At this point, the former would be somewhat clichéd, but considerably more believable – but again, we’ll see where this goes.)

I return to Angela for the next task – she wants me to kidnap Mr. Richman’s daughter, Nikki. I break into Richman’s mansion; the billionare has connections with the Family, and so the Family act as guards for the mansion. Once inside, I poke around a little, looking for clues while I work my way to the back of the mansion to find and kidnap Nikki. While most of what I rummage through isn’t useful, I find two more notes. The first is a now familiar “crumpled note” letting me know that the truth is out there. And the second is in a Sherlock Holmes book, that basically calls my attention to the detective’s philosophy of “eliminate the impossible, and whatever remains must be the truth.” Once I kidnap Nikki, Angela informs me that I’ve now ‘proven myself’ and will be inducted into the Greater Good.

(Note: I liked the design of this mission; good use of chained objectives placed in a way to avoid backtracking, as long as you were reasonably thorough searching through the ‘mansion.’ And Nikki’s design was great – she really did look like a little girl rather than a miniature adult. It’s a shame I didn’t get a screenshot – but she ran away too fast after her rescue, which I didn’t mind since it meant I didn’t actually have to escort her back. On a technical note, I would recommend changing her to a non-combat follow for while you remain in the mission – it makes more sense for her to have to stick near you until you exit because you are kidnapping her.)

In any case, Angela tells me it’s time for my induction ceremony, and gives me her business card. Without further ado, I agree to be “inducted” into the Greater Good.

After entering, I note that the party seems strangely muted (actually mentioned in the mission entry pop-up). Angela’s card had a key, and I make my way past several party goers to a locked desk. Within I find an envelope with a detonator, and another note telling me to find and read a file on a computer. It’s very clear from the clues that Angela is the one who has been leaving them (there were a few “note locations” throughout the arc that seemed a bit unrealistic to me, but I’ll talk more about that in a bit), and I make my way past several other groups of partiers to the computer’s location.


Good news guys! If you need your tea re-heated, I’m your man!

Once at the computer, I download the file and determine that Mr. Worthington has created the Greater Good as a means to support his own greedy goals. He has a near supernatural ability to permanently brainwash people (given enough time, apparently), and has chosen to subvert heroes in his organization – the brainwashed heroes believe they are acting for the Greater Good, even though they are rarely truly doing so (yeah, they are often targeting not-so-nice people, but their actions are not so much helping the helpless as increasing Mr. Worthington’s fortunes and prestige).

Because the brainwashing can’t be undone, I’m going to need to arm a series of bombs to destroy the building and everyone gathered there – in effect destroying the Greater Good. Of course, I need to stop Mr. Worthington first, which I do. He attempts to use his mental powers to brainwash me, but fails, and I defeat him. On his body, I find a note detailing an assassination list – apparently Mr. Worthington would like his subverted heroes to kill those on the list; no doubt some are probably evil, but I’m sure there are others that have just gotten on Worthington’s bad side (never mind the fact heroes don’t normally go around assassinating people).


The climactic battle between Mr. Worthington and Pro Payne!

(Note: It might help bring the story full circle a bit stronger to find your mentor – mentioned in the first mission – here too. The interaction between him and me that forms the backstory that leads me to the arc in the first place at least hints that he introduced me to the Greater Good because, unfortunately, he’d already been brainwashed and subverted by them. Killing your mentor because you don’t have a way to save him would factor into the arc’s story pretty nicely, I think.)

I backtrack through the mission, arming bombs, and fighting off ambushes intended to stop me. When the last bomb is armed, I leave the building and hit the detonator, killing everyone inside, and wiping the Greater Good out. Angela, apparently, survived – the end of the story has her flashing me that same smile that seemed to put me at ease before when I was doing some questionable things. Hmm … perhaps her attempt to use an empathic power to help ease my conscious about what I’ve just done?

Pros: The basics are very well done – it’s clear the author put a lot of work into the arc: the mission briefings are excellent quality: well-written overall with interesting use of colors, titles, and all of those other bells and whistles, and without overdoing it, or highlighting inappropriate things. While I can’t really say the design of the first two missions was “inspired” – they were at least average in the sense that there were no bugs, bad design decisions, or anything of that nature. And the third and fourth missions really shined – interesting structure, and good use of the mechanics. In spite of the fact there were aspects of the story I didn’t exactly care for, I do believe the author successfully achieved the theme they were going for, and, to be honest, the story did hold my interest: I was curious to see where it was going. While the design of the customs didn’t exactly “jump out” at me – they did strike me as appropriate to the story, and they were well-balanced (meaning not overly challenging compared to standard mobs at that level).

There was something else that I really did like about the arc – most of the Aeon’s 1st Contest arcs I’ve played had you committing one evil act at the end of the arc. This is one of a minority that basically had you doing evil things for the greater good for the entire arc. Some folks might consider that a bit over the top, but I actually liked it.

Cons: The other one of the author’s arcs that I’ve reviewed leads me to believe that the author is most comfortable with having a kind of “fairy tale” theme to their arcs; that’s not really my cup of tea (at least for arcs set in the modern day), but I did make every attempt to approach the arc from the standpoint of: “okay, I don’t really like this style of storytelling, but do I think the author did a good job of telling a story using this style?” And, frankly, I felt they did. What does that mean – if you’re a curmudgeonly sort who just can’t get past things not written to your specific tastes (and you don’t like fairy-tale type stories), you should give this arc a pass, but otherwise I do think most folks will enjoy playing the arc, even if it’s not your favorite style. That said, here’s where I think some of the weaknesses in the arc came into play:

The basic premise, at least as I understand it, doesn’t seem to be held consistently through: at the beginning I felt as though the expectation was I was filling the shoes of the author’s character, but by the end I felt as though it really was supposed to be my character playing the arc. I also thought the pacing of the story seemed just a little off – I really had some trouble buying how quickly I was willing to do the first evil act (a bank heist); I feel as though something a little more morally grey would be a better “intro” mission, then followed by a bank heist. On a related note, the end just seemed a little too abrupt, almost like I was wanting just a tad more story development there … something about the arc had me feeling there were just too many loose ends and unexplored avenues in the arc. Finally, I did have some technical issues with those notes – I liked the idea overall, but never could buy exactly how Angela was getting some of them where they were (the big standout is in the jail cell, although the safe I was stealing Mr. Richman’s money from was a close second; the other note locations didn’t seem nearly so implausible.)

To be honest, individually, each of these struck me as fairly minor; to me, they weren’t the difference between the arc being good or bad. They were the difference between the arc being the best it can be, and simply being good.

One final issue I had: it seemed odd to me that Angela, who almost certainly would have been just as brainwashed as the other heroes, would not have felt the need to “sacrifice herself” for the greater good, lest she, in her altered mental state, fall under the sway of some other villain.

So the final verdict? In spite of some of the things I saw as flaws, I definitely liked the arc overall – it was fun to play through and kept me interested throughout. From a technical standpoint the arc is very well done, and from a story standpoint, I think there’s a good story in that could certainly benefit from some tweaking.

Score: 4.425

And right on to the second review for today…

Fear and Loathing on Striga Isle (Arc ID# 350522, 5 stars)

(Potential spoiler, so skip this paragraph if you haven’t yet played the Ernesto Hess task force, and don’t want details of it spoiled – heck, you probably shouldn’t play or read about this MA arc until you’ve played that T.F. if you don’t want *any* details of the T.F. spoiled…)
As you play through the Ernesto Hess task force on Striga Isle, there are numerous hints dropped that Hess’ ulterior motives are not quite as pro-Paragon as you’ve been led to believe. Sure by working with him you stop a terrible plot to loose a giant robot into Atlas Park, but you also learn that he is probably an Arachnos agent, and probably interested in stopping the plot because it would interfere with Lord Recluse’s plans for Paragon City.

So this arc begins with your VEAT, who is currently under suspicion for possible tampering with the Destined Ones list, assigned to Striga Isle, under Hess’ command. It is a few days after a group of heroes destroyed the plans for the Mech Man invasion, and Hess has been doing what he can to salvage the technology (and equipment) that went into the giant Mech Man. He has been making use of a very small, low key security force in an attempt to prevent detection by heroes, or any other group on Striga.

Unfortunately it appears the Sky Raiders have somehow gotten wind of the project, and launched an attack on the base – my job is to secure the base’s research, rescue the research team, and find out what the Sky Raiders are up to. The data are located on three computers, and, although there are three rescuable scientists in the mission, defeating the lead Sky Raider (a Captain Rodriguez) is enough to fulfill the requirement to protect the science team. I also learn from Rodriguez that he overheard about the project at a local bar – and, because he was working on a giant robot project of his own – had decided to steal the technology. Since his superiors knew nothing of this little “side project” of his, I decided to hire his force as additional guards for the base.

Hess was pleased at the move, provided Rodriguez could be trusted to honor the contract, and directed me to head down to the Mermaid bar (where Rodriguez had heard the rumor) for a little R&R.

Of course, Hess’ idea of R&R was exactly what you’d expect. He was rather displeased that Old Lady Peebles (owner of the Mermaid) was spreading rumors. Peebles’ rumors were directed at throwing a wrench in Council plans, but they were also getting in the way of Arachnos’ aims on Striga as well. So Hess wanted me to pose as a Council soldier and destroy the place. Easy enough – I sauntered into the bar, beat up the patrons (including one of the heroes who had helped take out Archnon Burkholder a few days ago), and stole a whole month’s worth of proceeds. On the way out, I gave Peebles a nice “facist” display, and headed back to Hess. With the bar closed temporarily there weren’t going to be any new rumors floating around, and the Council was going to get blamed – meaning nobody would yet suspect Arachnos involvement.


Members of the Family intermingle with Striga Island heroes, all served by a Tiki Spirit bartender.

Now it was time to put a stop to the damage that had already been done. With the news of Burkholder’s defeat already out, and the Council in disarray, every Tom, Dick, and Harry villain group was going to be rushing to fill the power vacuum – and the resulting chaos was not going to be good for Arachnos’ plans…

Apparently, several villain groups were gathering in the nearby bog, trying to broker power deals to keep the Council down while dividing up the island amongst themselves. They had found some way to keep the hordes of Banished Pantheon zombies at bay, which would make them difficult to get to. Hess’ assignment was simple: throw a giant wrench in the negotiations by killing all the negotiators, and then destroy whatever wards were keeping the zombies at bay (for good measure).

Getting through the ring of zombies surrounding the bog was harrowing (but left to the mission pop-up) – once inside I defeated a Family, Sky Raider, and Warrior negotiator, and then destroyed three warding altars that were keeping the Pantheon out of the meeting area. Naturally, once the altars were destroyed, the zombies moved in – I would need to defeat the zombies’ master in order to escape.

I was rather surprised to see their master was none other than Stephanie Peebles. The old woman was dressed up like a witch of the cabal, but apparently was really only getting her zombie-controlling powers from the witch hat she had picked up somewhere. Peebles certainly had a predilection for locating powerful magical artifacts. She was using the powers of the hat to control the zombies, and once she was dead, the zombies once again lost all cohesion, and wandered aimlessly back into the environs of the bog.

Hess was impressed with my work, and promised me more challenging assignments in the future. He informed me that I would be taking advantage of another hero-created situation. Apparently, while I had been busy warding off the bids of other villain groups to take control of Striga, that very same hero group that took down Burkholder struck another powerful blow to the Council by defeating Arakhn. As Arakhn was once a follower of Arachnos before her defection (Really? I didn’t know that – was that for the benefit of the story, or is that part of the game’s canon?), Hess feels as though she could easily be subverted again – at least temporarily – if an Arachnos Soldier were to come along and show her the weakness of her current position.

So I entered Arakhn’s base, defeated her lieutenants, while recruiting some Arachnos deep cover agents of my own, and then located and faced Arakhn in combat.

(Side Note: Interestingly, while my allies were boss-class while ‘captured’, once freed, they downgraded instantly to lieutenant rank; and, for the record, I am set to fight bosses at full strength. Furthermore, when one of them was defeated, he actually changed into a werewolf! He was still “friendly” – but no longer counted as an ally and would no longer follow me around. Neither bothered me – but I figured the author might want to know, in case that isn’t ‘behaving as intended.’)

The fight was surprisingly challenging (for some reason, Arakhn was a custom-made look-alike with hit-debuffing dark powers), but I prevailed just the same – and she agreed to move forward with her plans to secure power within the Council, while remaining at least allied with (and complient with) Arachnos.


Your feeble attempt to hide from your enemies with a disguise that looks almost exactly like your original costume does not fool me!

I had performed beyond Hess’ expectations, and it was now time for me to leave Striga and return to the Rogue Isles. Hess had placed Captain Rodriguez in charge of security - all I needed to do was board the ship and sail home. Hess almost seemed sad to see me go (Honestly, the mental image of him sadly but proudly saluting me for a job well done as I head to the docks was actually oddly poignant, especially for a villain arc. Well done…).

AS I boarded the cargo ship, Wyvern agents streamed on board, accompanied by the same five heroes that had been causing so much trouble on Striga during my stay. They promptly captured the ship’s crew, and had already defeated most of the Sky Raider security by the time I got into the action. In order for the cargo ship to escape, I was going to need to defeat the five heroes. (In the process, I also managed to free most of the crew from capture.)


There’s something very amusing about having a Sky Skiff fighting alongside you.

Not surprisingly the heroes proved tough opponents (especially Ms. Shock), but ultimately I prevailed, and we made it the rest of the way back to Sharkhead without further incident.

Pros: Naturally, this arc is above average (at the very least) in some of the “basics” that I look for – quality of the mission briefings, the mission design, and whether or not the clues are well-written and used effectively to advance the story. The design of the missions here really stands out: the goals are clear cut, and the mission pacing is excellent. But where the arc really shines is the overall story: The story dovetails very well into the canon. It’s a very neat exploration of Arachnos attempts to infiltrate Striga, and I very much liked how the arc’s story runs “parallel” to what the heroes would be ‘accomplishing’ on Striga while you’re there. Related to this is the VEAT theme in the author’s arcs: create reasonable things for VEATs to do, to “fill in” gaps in the official content, and have them doing things you’d expect Soldiers of Arachnos to actually be doing! The arc does this well.

While I typically wouldn’t mark down an arc for focusing on a single villain group (one would hope not – as many of mine do…), I certainly do appreciate arcs that incorporate a wide variety of villain factions, and have them interacting with each other as well as you. This arc also does that very well.

Cons: For me, there was only one part of the arc that seemed “off” – the fact that it was Stephanie Peebles armed with a magical witches’ hat controlled the horde of zombies converging on the bog where the villain meet was. I’ll grant I could see a way to make that plausible (I presume that hat is just one of several odds and ends she’s gathered over the years, and she’s not really a member of the cabal, or the Banished Pantheon) – but that didn’t keep her appearance from eliciting a “Her? Really?” type of response. Not a big deal, and I seriously doubt the author would ever feel a need to change that, so I won’t even attempt to brainstorm “alternate ideas.”

And that’s about it. Very well done!

The final synopsis: in my opinion this is the best of the author’s VEAT arcs so far. I think the added “seriousness” really elevates over the second arc, and the more substantial connection between the missions in the arc elevates it over the first arc – and don’t get me wrong, I did think the first two arcs were well done (except for what turned out to be a bug in the first one; but that’ll get revisited by another character and re-rated some time in the future). But this one is one I think every VEAT should play as part of following the VEAT storyline (or rather, as a very worthy, VEAT-compatable, alternative from pretending to be just another Destined One).

Score: 4.875

That it for now! Stay tuned next week for more of Pro Payne’s adventures!

Thanks very much for the review.

Okay, how about an “end of the week” Pro Payne update!

Pro Payne’s not taking submissions. But you knew that.

His remaining queue:

352400 The Union of the Mask
349298 The Better Part of Valor
355068 The Galactic Protectorate - 06
1044 The Empire – One Alliance
302196 Waddle's Revenge
346904 Against the WickerWork Khan!
254599 Of Futures Past

And now, on to today’s adventure…

Tales of Cimorera, Vol. 2: From Tartarus with Love (Arc ID#292389, 5 stars)

This arc started out with Imperious contacting Pro Payne and directing him to investigate the ruins of an ancient temple of Vulcan. Romulus’ troops were gathering there, and Imperious wanted to figure out what was going on.

While there, Pro Payne found several things that looked like they might not be all that great for Romulus to get his hands on – a schematic for a “clockwork wolf”, a recipe for a special alloy, and an intricately constructed bronze clockwork ‘eye.’ He also found an underground vault that appeared to have been emptied of whatever it was holding.

While in the temple ruin, Pro Payne battled Romulus’ Envoy, and found that the traitors had been sent here on the orders of a powerful general named Aulins Rutilius Lapithus – they were spearheading some sort of secret project.

It didn’t take long for Pro Payne to get an idea of what that project might be: Romulus’ troops attacked the home town of Servius (Daedalus’ assistant from the first volume of the arc), and their forces appeared to be bolstered by a large number of mechanical automatons.

Pro Payne rescued Servius and helped fend off the attack. From Servius he learned that the name of the alloy the attackers were seeking (whose formula was found in the temple) is Triton’s moss. But, after defeating the general leading the attack, Pro Payne learned that Triton’s moss was only used for a certain, very specific automaton – one that had not yet been brought into the fray.


In desperation, Pro Payne runs under the Silver Colossus, hoping the mechanical monstrosity will Cleave its own legs off…

Seeking a large supply of the alloy, Romulus’ forces, bolstered by the automatons, assaulted the Temple of Neptune; Pro Payne was sent to defeat the attackers and drive them from the temple.

To some extent it was already (a little) too late. Aulins’ followers had managed to create two Gold Colossi using Triton’s Moss gathered from the Temple, but with the aid of several of Neptune’s tritons (whom I rescued) I was able to defeat both Colossi. That was enough to draw out Aulins, whom I defeated as well. With his last breath, Aulins bade Ixion and Juno to forgive his failure … interesting.

According to Imperious, Ixion had been imprisoned in Tartarus after trying to abduct Juno, the queen of the Roman pantheon (Note: You’ve got several instances in this mission where roman is lower case – I think it’s supposed to be capitalized.) He must have somehow escaped, and was responsible for the automaton army – Romulus was not so much behind this plot as he was lending some of his troops to aid a “fellow traitor.” If Ixion could be drawn out and defeated, then Cimorera would once again be safe (at least for the time being).

Imperious had a plan: have Sister Solaris impersonate Juno to draw Ixion out. Once out in the open, we could then combat and defeat him. Of course, it was going to take more than just dressing up in a costume – Solaris needed an item of clothing that would be able to radiate the “signature” power of the goddess. I was sent to the Temple of Juno to get just such an item – a veil that had once been worn by Juno herself. The high priestess there told me that Juno wished to test my worthiness before granting me the veil – I had to prove myself by defeating a beast Juno had sent.


You’d think Juno would be a little more picky about the decor…

I located the beast waiting for me next to Juno’s altar. I defeated the monster, which pleased Juno. I was instructed to pray at Juno’s altar and request the veil (which I did). In response Juno “unlocked” a magical container and bade me take her veil.


Hey rather attractive priest-lady! Are you impressed yet by my ability to beat up shapeless mounds of semi-gelatinous goo sent as a test by your goddess?

(Note: This was actually a pretty cool little “non-combat” mission!)

The ploy worked very well – Sister “Juno” Solaris entered a cave at the fringes of Imperious’ Empire to meet with Ixion. Having successfully drawn him into the “open” she returned to the cave entrance (concocting a story about needing to go answer a request from her son or something – note: the author may want to have a glance at her introduction dialog; it didn’t *quite* make sense to me.). After my arrival, we joined forces and then headed to the back of the cave to face Ixion, and sent him back to Tartarus.

I have to say, “Juno” was indispensable in this fight – the shields were very handy for reducing Ixion’s ability to drain out my endurance, and her damage output was not so overwhelming as to shift me out of the spotlight. That’s saying something, given that she was an elite boss. One change I would make is to state plainly in the briefing that the mission includes an Archvillain. Now, before the author gets indignant and (rightly so) states that he *did* warn about the presence of an AV, let me state that this is just a minor quibble but the warning states that the mission contains an Elite Boss/Archvillain (presumably referring to Ixion), and set your difficulty accordingly. But what’s really going on is the mission contains an Archvillian, and if you set your difficulty accordingly, the AV will be an Elite Boss instead. So I’d *only* refer to him as an AV in the warning – it avoids any potential confusion that might lead a less experienced player to think, with the proper settings, that Ixion could actually be reduced to mere Boss status. (And yes, there *are* players playing high level arcs that can get confused about that – I’ve got the comments to prove it.) Not something I counted off for – just a suggestion.

In any case, with Ixion defeated, the automaton armies could be laid to waste, and Cimorera was again safe – at least for the moment.


Poor, poor Ixion. He comes to this cave to see his one true love, who isn’t really his one true love, who feeds him some trumped up “I’ve got to wash my hair tonight” style excuse, only to lead another guy inside (in tights no less) to beat him up.

Pros: I don’t think I could point out exactly why, but I really enjoyed the story here. I really felt like I’d been transported to a place in the distant past where myth came alive – and, I don’t know, the whole story really had a very cool “mythic” feel to it. I can’t quantify it any better than that. Very well done. (I will point out that all of the “standard” stuff I look for was here and well done, and that’s important – the fact that the briefings, clues, and mission design didn’t have any significant shortcomings really let me get engrossed in the story.)

Cons: The biggest one: there are still balance issues with the custom group, in my opinion. That the author has correct all XP issues is a very good move, but I do feel as though the customs could still use some tweaking.

First off, I don’t object to the overall difficulty of the group. This arc is clearly in the 41+ range, and you expect groups to have varied and challenging powers in that range. But there were some specific power choices that the author might want to at least reconsider.

First, I would suggest the author reconsider giving high end kinetics powers to minion-class foes. In and of itself, having minions that can speed and damage boost bosses with very high damage attacks is annoying, but not game breaking. But there are two “mitigating factors” that just push this over the edge. The first is the fact that there are only two possible minions in the group, so even at minimum difficulty, almost every single group has a minion in it that can not only suck your endurance dry with a single attack (transference), but also boost the damage output of some awfully deadly lt’s and bosses, the former having the ability to actually debuff damage resistance! Oh, and then they can speed boost them as well, which just ups the odds your poor melee-based character will have a very difficult time chasing down lt’s zooming around the map taking some rather high-powered potshots at you. Second is the fact that there are only two available minions in the group – so nearly every single spawn has Crows in it. Some more than one. If you’ve got room, I’d consider adding as many more minions as you can, just to reduce the number of Crows that spawn into every group. If not (which is the most likely case), maybe change out kinetics with the standard “dark blast” set, and tack on life drain (to fit their description).

Which brings me to those lieutenants. The “Toxotes” (I’m probably misspelling them) were nothing short of vicious. You’ve got a foe that can attack at range, debuff your damage resistance (which stacks awfully well with the Crows’ ability to boost everyone’s damage), and then really drive the point home (no pun intended) by nailing you with Rain of Arrows (which is basically the arrow set’s nuke. On a lieutenant! Oh my word. And that doesn’t count them hitting me with oil slick (the whole igniting it on fire thing didn’t bother me so much since I’ve at least lot top-notch fire defense), to ensure their Crow-induced speed boosts could let them stay safely out of range as I slowly trudge my way out.

A word also on the bosses – I didn’t specifically “count off” for them, because, at least in principle you can avoid them (although be aware of the fact that by the time most people playing solo characters reach this arc’s level range, they will have upped their difficulty, and the bosses [i]will[/b] appear.) But “cleave” is the highest damage attack in the axe set (and one that I don’t *think* is required for a boss to give XP)! Even with 35% smashing/lethal resistance, damage boosted cleave was doing in excess of 700 damage – and since that damage boost was actually coming at the expense of me doing damage (and then add on the further reduced damage from the invincibility set with dull pain active), and you’ve got a boss that made me very happy to have Rise of the Pheonix. (You’d be amazed at how often I simply used that powers’ ability to make me un-touchable to finish off a Silver Colossus).

Yes. I know. You’re sitting there thinking “why didn’t I just reduce the level of difficulty?” After all, I love my mother and really *would* reduce my difficulty for her if she asked me to. Two reasons. One, until the devs make it easy to change difficulty in MA by putting Field Trainers (or Fortunatas) actually in AE buildings, you’ve got to allow for the fact the average player just doesn’t want to go out of their way to change it – especially if they’ll then need to change it back to start the next (easier) arc. And two, like I said before, once you get to the really high level range – in my opinion – you need to count on combat-oriented solo characters not routinely playing on +0/x1, and adjust arc difficulty accordingly.

Is it a fatal flaw in the arc’s design? Absolutely not. Will it annoy some players (who tend to be a stubborn lot about tweaking settings regardless of what authors suggest) – I think so. If you’re okay with that, so be it. If not – well, hopefully some of these suggestions will help.

So, in summary – very good arc overall. Great story, with my biggest gripe being the difficulty of the custom group.

Score: 4.625

Grats in advance on 50! Hope it was fun for you.

First, I would like to thank you for rerunning my arc after the XP was fixed. The amount of "work" and details that goes into your reviews is really impressive. You basically reviewed my custom group as well and that is extremely helpful for me.

I am planning a rework of that group once I17/GR hits. I am especially counting on the doubled file-size, as that would remove all the problems of my first arc (that is sitting at 99.99% file size) and help this one since I will be able to add more diversity to my minions. I hope I'll be able to find a way to keep kinetics on the crows as it fits them greatly, at least thematically. But dark powers are a good idea as well, I just need to play around with it!

Anyway, thank you again for the great and extremely helpful review here. I can't believe you're so close to 50...so soon...! I am really going to miss reading your reviews...No plans on leveling up a dual pistols or demon summoning character in AE only?

Did you think Pro Payne was gone? Nope! Just busy with real life stuff (and yep, it’ll likely be at least two weeks before I can put together the next review, but then there *should* be a period where I can likely finish up the project relatively quickly at the beginning of summer.) And I’m not a big fan of updating my thread with “I don’t have anything of substance to post, but I’m still alive.” So if you missed the “adventures of Pro Payne in MA,” here’s the next installment! If you didn’t, well, you probably aren’t really reading much of this thread anyway!

Here’s Pro Payne’s remaining queue. Pro Payne is not open to submissions – he’s already got plenty of arcs to get to level 50 and finish his level 1 to level 50 in MA project.

349298 The Better Part of Valor
355068 The Galactic Protectorate - 06
1044 The Empire – One Alliance
302196 Waddle's Revenge
346904 Against the WickerWork Khan!
254599 Of Futures Past

The Union of the Mask (Arc #352400, 5 stars)

The story begins as I am contacted by Nemesis himself, who quickly indicates he is not interested in a conflict and promptly shows me a disturbing image on one of the Architect computer consoles. It shows a hero in a desperate battle, ambushed by villains. Trying to escape the carnage is a young woman pushing a baby stroller. A hail of gunfire kills them both. Nemesis informs me the woman and the baby were the hero’s spouse and child. He also tells me that I’m the only one who can stop a disaster in the making.

Obviously, I don’t trust Nemesis – but fighting him isn’t worthwhile, since I seriously doubt it’s the real Nemesis who has made contact with me (sure, the contact doesn’t say “Fake Nemesis”, but I suppose I’m likely facing a remote-controlled Fake, rather than the real thing).

In any case, Nemesis tells me that the government has been tracking the activities of supers since the Rikti Invasion – and has compiled a detailed list of all known metahumans and their families. A short while ago a hacker (now dead, according to Nemesis) stole the list and, realizing its value, attempted to sell it to a variety of criminal concerns, who have now banded together in a plot to (effectively) destroy the city’s heroes by killing everyone they hold dearest. Nemesis wants me to put a stop to this, referring to the plan as monumentally stupid.

I note that Nemesis is right – this plan is far more likely to drive the city’s heroes to take off the “soft gloves” and go for the blood of every villain group in Paragon.

While I’m sure Nemesis has an ulterior motive, and that it probably won’t be good for me, I do agree that this plot must be stopped. He does give me the location of a hard copy of the list – it is in the hands of the Council, with Arkahn leading the operation. He informs me that three of the world’s best ‘cyber heroes’ are at work destroying all online copies of the list – in response the villain groups who have the list are attempting to save hard copies, and I only have a brief window of time to destroy these copies before the attempt to spread the list around all of villain-dom goes low-tech, with Xerox machines and paper memos becoming Paragon’s new worst nightmare.

I infiltrate the Council base, destroy the hard copy of the list, and defeat Arkahn for good measure. I also learn that the Council had arranged the list in alphabetical order. What was odd about that is the fact that in the video I saw, it was Jane Simpson who was murdered – why would whomever was working down the list skip all the way to ‘S’?


Pro Payne discovers Arkahn masterminding the Council side of the operation.

In any case, Arkahn boasted that there were far more “agencies” involved in this plot than just her and her Council goons. That wasn’t really news to me, so I returned to “Nemesis” to see what was to be done next.

Nemesis let me know that there were at least four other copies of the list left – but the digital versions were almost totally neutralized. All that was left for the “cyber-warriors” working in tandem with me was to infiltrate the Arachnos Network and destroy any copies of the list there.

The next target was the Circle of Thorns – while there were some among them who wished to remain low key and operate from behind the shadows, one faction, led by a powerful archmage named Westlian (likely I’m misspelling the name), favored swift and decisive action against the city’s heroes for all of the plots that had been foiled. As one of the Thorns’ inner Circle, simply taking the archmage down would itself be a victory for Paragon’s heroes (the true leaders of the Circle rarely show their faces, after all).

I ventured into a section of Orenbega and did battle with the Circle. It didn’t take long to locate the list, and I found Weskelan as well. Much to my chagrin he turned out to be steeped in cold magics (he must be the Circle’s “Ice Thorn Caster Arch-mage”). I fought a long and hard battle against him. As he stacked frigid attack upon attack, I was slowed to a mere crawl, hoping that as my available attack buttons dwindled (all “spent” attacks were taking forever to recharge) the next attack would defeat him. Alas, the Critical that would have saved the day never arrived, and, badly injured, Weskelan opted to flee. Unable to move at more than a snail’s pace, and my final parting ranged shot insufficient to score victory, Weskelan quickly got away, boasting that he would make known to every man, woman, and child on earth the names of the city’s heroes (and their families).


Weskelan’s relentless use of cold slows Pro Payne to a crawl, allowing his escape, and the utter and complete failure of the mission, and the arc as a whole.

My efforts were for naught. Weskelan escaped. Based on the story thus far (and Nemesis’ response to my failure), it seemed pretty clear to me that the rest of the struggle was futile. My failure ensured the dissemination of the knowledge in the list could not be stopped.

What would happen next was now out of my hands. I could only hope the city’s heroes would forgive me – and that the carnage that would ensure as some of their number retaliated for the deaths of their families would not be as bad as Nemesis predicted.

It was over – I had failed.

Note: Very interesting story premise, but the story doesn’t in any way appear to be set up to “continue” should you fail one of the missions. All of the dialogue, including the mission fail text, strongly implies that even one misstep, in effect, means the overall goal of the story arc has failed and the bad guys “win.” There’s actually very little motivation to continue. Normally, I'd simply exit the arc at this point - either leaving it unrated, or giving it a lower rating than I normally would. Two changes the author might want to consider:

One, I *strongly* recommend making it so that Weskelan (or any of the other AVs you have to fight) doesn’t flee. Weskelan in particular is problematic, since he can also slow you to a crawl, making it virtually impossible to stop him the moment he attempts to escape. While the fact he runs doesn’t directly conflict with the story – it doesn’t really help it either: in effect it’s just there to piss the player off.
Two, it almost seems from Nemesis’ debriefing text, that the author genuinely didn’t think anyone would ever really fail the mission – and, as such, it gives absolutely no motivation to continue the arc. In fact, the next mission is offered as though nothing ever happened, and there’s almost no point in continuing with it, since you get the distinct impression that your efforts are now useless. Even something as simple as Nemesis berating you and saying “Very well, this time I shall personally see to it that Westlian and his copy of the list are ‘removed’ before it can get out. But my capacity to make up for your failures is very limited. I doubt I can provide assistance of this sort again.” (Or whatever works there). At least that gives a reason to continue the arc. Yeah, the player will still be annoyed, but there is now a reason to continue playing through the story.

(“False History”) Although Pro Payne failed the arc, no doubt leading to carnage as angry heroes retaliated against villains striking at their families, for purposes of completeness he’ll continue on with the remaining missions as though the second mission hadn’t been a failure.

There were still three more copies of the list to destroy, and, after a rather philosophical discussion about the ramifications of what would come to be should I fail (ironic, given that I *did* just fail), Nemesis let me know where the next portion of my mission was to be.

Countess Crey seemed aware of what would come to pass should her fellow villain groups act on the information in the list – and thought that when the city’s heroes exacted vengeance for the deaths of their families, the citizens would turn to the Paragon Protectors as the only remaining “trusted” source of security.

I assaulted the Crey lab where their copy of the list was held. I destroyed all of the Paragon Protectors present, and also eliminated Crey’s primary guardian there – an attempt to reverse engineer Citadel that was named Bulwark Mark II. Of course, I found Crey’s copy of the list, and destroyed it. Only two more copies remained.


Even though all is lost, Pro Payne will pretend that it isn’t. Here he breaks into a safe to confiscate Crey’s copy of the list.


Bulwark Mark II calls down a plague of robots in its attempt to stop Pro Payne, but ultimately our hero prevails!

Nemesis had one of them – and was quite clear on the fact that his “end game” was to be the only one with a copy of the list. While I did actually believe him when he indicated he had no intention of using the list in the same manner the other villain groups did, I still thought it best to do anything in my power to get it out of his hands. But we had other business to attend to – the next copy of the list was in the hands of the Family, guarded by Bloody Vicious.

Into the offices I went, defeating every Family goon I could find and securing their copy of the list. Bloody Vicious was … well, bloody freaking vicious (but that wasn’t worth “points off” – I’m quite used to high level custom elite bosses being able to mop the floor with me, especially if I’m low on inspirations, which I was). I was not a fan of the fact that he clearly attempted to run. He was remarkably hard to take down, even with only a sliver of health left, and it looked like I might yet fail this mission two – but I did just barely manage to defeat him.

I’m definitely not liking the fact the EBs run when low on health. The timer, and the very well written story is, IMO, creating ample suspense. I know the fact that the EBs run is also supposed to invoke suspense, but it’s really just annoying, and not a lot of fun.

Ah, apparently when he mentioned five copies of the list, Nemesis wasn’t counting his own. According to the ArchVillain, it was Marshall Brass and his rogue Arachnos who had the final copy, and Brass had started to suspect something was wrong since none of the other villain groups had “called in” to indicate they were ready to execute the plan (i.e. kill every family member of a hero they could find). So Brass had taken rash action – he’d launched his own attack. Only a handful of “hero family members” were threatened, but it would quickly become much worse if Brass realized how close the plan was to collapsing and decided to make several more copies (and escape).

Nemesis had most likely anticipated that I would attempt to stop him the moment I dealt with Brass, so before he gave up Brass’ exact location I had to promise to do a favor for him – unspecified – at some time in the future. I agreed, knowing full well he’d be gone before I returned.

The battle in the streets was extremely rough, even with the help of the PPD and (ultimately) two of Paragon’s heroes. In spite of Nemesis’ warning to ignore those threatened by the rogue Arachnos, I couldn’t simply let them die – so I did end up clearing much of the map before taking on Brass.

Brass happened to spawn in the midst of a rather large group; the sheer size of the group turned out to be the biggest hurdle for the fight – Brass was refreshingly easy, all things considered (and compared to some of the other EBs in the arc). As the battle progressed, he attempted to upload his copy of the list to satellite – but the attempt failed as the signal was intercepted and eliminated by one of the trio of super-hackers that had already been helping me (since the end of the first mission).

Of course Nemesis was gone when I returned, with only a note telling me that “what had happened here was the logical outcome of the life I choose.”

Pros: I found the story to be extremely engaging, and well-written. The story is mostly carried by the mission briefings, but they are top-notch. It was easy to believe it was Nemesis I was dealing with, and I had no trouble “letting myself” grudgingly work with the ArchVillain to fulfill a “greater good.” The arc made excellent use of clues to further the story as well, and, except for the last mission, had fast-paced play, and a real sense of suspense. Even given my complaints, I think this is a very good arc, and well worth a play.

Cons: Really, these are just a summary of the notes I made in the writeup above. Having missions players can fail is always risky, but not bad in and of itself. However, all reviews here are just a matter of my opinion, and I’m of the opinion that one of the most infuriating ways you can fail a mission is when the “big boss” runs. Even worse is when there’s no “in arc” way to account for why the story is even going on – in this case, the premise was even one failure and all bets are off. And when you do fail, no “reason” for why you can recover from that failure is given – so why bother to continue to play? I did because I was doing a review. If I hadn’t been, I’d have probably quit out of the arc, and either left it unrated, or given it a lower rating than I did (since, by completing the arc I was able to “grade” it as a whole, rather than ending on the sour note of the failure). This arc does appear to make use of encounters set to something other than easy. It’s just my opinion, but I only use those settings for arcs I don’t intend for public play (or at least my use of them for my ‘public’ arcs is very, very infrequent) – for public arcs I assume the player is going to ramp up their difficulty to whatever they consider to be comfortable. Since that’s often just at the cusp of what will lead to lots of defeats, ramping up the difficulty in the arc editor has a compounding effect: an encounter that would have been at the difficulty level the player is looking for is now considerably harder. Do that for only one or two encounters in a mission, and the player may be forgiving. Do that for just about all the encounters, and the mission kind of bogs down. To be fair, the mission is set up so that you don’t have to deal with those encounters – but in practice the earlier missions force you to be wary of not clearing large parts of the map. Why? Because the author has set the EBs to run (or enough of them that you can’t take for granted whether or not your current foe will or won’t) – and the only hope you usually have is if the EB doesn’t have the opportunity to run through a whole lot of other groups on the way to the exit.

As an aside, the last mission also suffers quite a bit from the “ally penalty” – but that isn’t the fault of the author, and is hopefully something our devs will fix very, very soon.

So the final verdict? This arc, IMO, had so much going for it that it really did barely eek out a “natural” five-star rating in spite of the things that detracted from the fun. The score, for what it’s worth, would have been even higher without the aspects that I didn’t care for. As is, the arc is excellent quality – so the things I didn’t like were really only the difference between the arc being what I thought of as excellent, and what would have make the arc “among the best I’ve played.” (Kind of like there’s a difference between getting an A on a test, and it being “one of the best performances I’ve ever seen on a test.”)

Score: 4.545

Thanks for the in depth review of the arc. It has been quite some time since I took another look at 'Union' other than small corrections for typos and so forth. When I wrote the arc, I was really under the gun time-wise, (it was my entry for Dr. Aeon's first contest and while I was designing it, I was also working about 50 hours a week), and there were quite a few things that I probably didn't think through.

I think I was guilty of doing all three of the 'cardinal' sins with this one... time limits, defeat alls and running bosses, which may be a contributor to why this particular arc has seen so few overall plays. I am going to take a look at the arc again to see whether it's feasible to eliminate one or more of these things... or at least to do as you suggest and give the player a reason to continue if or when he reaches a defeat condition.

I don't think that the capacity for defeat is necessarily a bad thing. I think there are two ways to look at MA in general... as either a gameplay device or as a narrative device and I think how one distinguishes between the two is a pretty important component on whether to include failure conditions. If one views it as a gameplay device, then including failure conditions adds an edge to the game aspect. However, if one views it primarily as a narrative device, then the element of possible defeat certainly remains... but only on a meta level.

What I mean is that, there is certainly the possibility that the character might fail within the construct of the story, but if there are no failure conditions in the mission itself, then the game presumption is that the player will always finish the mission and therefore there is no real game possibility of failure.

In an action movie, for example, within the story, there is the possibility that one of the criminals might shoot the hero somewhere along the way and the story might end in failure, but ultimately the 'script' requires that he succeed because it is written that way.

I am not sure whether or not if I take away the possibility of defeat away from the arc that it would take away what makes Union a suspenseful arc or whether or not it is simply the writing that buoys it at this point.

Ultimately, I think that I will, at the least, remove the flee responses from the boss characters. Thus far, from the limited number of plays it has receives, the fleeing bosses seem to be the most odious element of the arc to the players. Your own review supports this. I think most can buy the time limit and most can also buy the notion that they have to defeat everyone in all of these cells or the result will be disastrous. The idea that the boss characters would run away to preserve their copies of the list seems to be the toughest 'sell.'

At least in game play terms.

Again, thank you for taking the time and I am glad you seemed to have enjoyed playing it.

Still reading, here, and eagerly waiting your play of PENGUIN Part 2.

Allow me my characteristically terse replies. I've got papers to grade and all, but I do very much appreciate the responses and would like to reply...

Sister_Twelve: For what it's worth, I thought the story absolutely carried it. That was some of the best writing in mission briefing and debriefing dialogue I've seen. *That's* the way I think Nemesis should talk. And it says something that your "cardinal sins" (for the most part) didn't bother me in the least. Timed missions? No problem - I knew they were coming. Defeat alls? Not an issue - they made sense, and you used small maps that made completing the objective just second nature to normal mission play. The "biggie" was exactly what (apparently) your other commentors pointed out - I don't think I can name a single player who thinks the fact our foes run is actually fun. Realstic perhaps. But not fun. Tack that onto a foe that you need to make the mission a success ... and, well, ugh. And (as mentioned) I'd be in favor of setting any mission details that aren't at easy to easy. Beyond that, I do want to let you know that I most certainly did enjoy playing through the arc. Even when I was pissed at the design decisions. Well done!

Tubbius: And I look forward to getting to your arc!

(It'll still be next week before I have any hope of hitting the next arc...)

At the end of today’s arc, Pro Payne is a mere fraction of a bubble away from 50. After more than a year, my goal of getting a character from 1 to 50 on MA content is almost complete (and I have no doubt Pro Payne will hit 50 next week when I pick up the next mission in his queue). My original goal was to compare the experience in MA to that of the canon arcs, with the most basic question being “is the rate of advancement, and the relative power level of your character based on your relative wealth and enhancements remotely comparable with a character leveling up outside of MA?” That’s really two questions – the first is one that I cannot answer. I had no idea how much time, energy, and effort would go into effectively chronicling Pro Payne’s journey – and it’s fair to say in the process I’ve lost any sort of perspective as to how fast or slow his advancement really “felt” – it felt grindingly slow, but a lot of that is all of the time spent here, writing updates to the thread, rather than playing the character. I can honestly say that in terms of wealth and “enhancements”, though, he’s every bit as strong as any “average” character I’ve played through the game.

I’ll of course have more observations to make once the project comes to a close (after all, I do have some post-50 arcs to review, which will be a great opportunity to actually enjoy this character I’ve spent a year with as a level 50 hero).

Speaking of those arcs, Pro Payne’s remaining queue is:

355068 The Galactic Protectorate - 06
1044 The Empire – One Alliance
302196 Waddle's Revenge
346904 Against the WickerWork Khan!
254599 Of Futures Past

(I do find it rather fitting that, apparently, I will hit level 50 while playing a Galactic Protectorate arc. The significance is that that series is the closest thing to a long-running coherent story I’ve had during this year long experience; with LaserJesus’ Drukule series being a close second.)

And now, on to…

The Better Part of Valor (Arc ID#349298, 3 stars – unrated in game)

I’d gotten a “request for help” from a Lt. Suzanne Bernhard. She told me she’d been on the trail of some high-tech robberies that seemed to be linked to Arachnos, in spite of the fact that the Spiders really had little reason to go after the equipment that was being stolen (presumably having plenty of it already). Even more odd were reports that the robbery victims had been attacked by large “monsters.” Lt. Bernhard had been consulting with a colleague of hers who had worked many Arachnos cases, and had, in the process, been pointed to a warehouse they were known to be operating out of. Suspecting that things were about to escalate beyond her ability to handle them, the lieutenant asked if I would investigate the warehouse for leads in her place. Naturally, I accepted.

The warehouse was certainly an Arachnos base, but I was expected (sort of) – in fact, there was an ambush waiting for me. Based on what the ambusher (a Fortunata Mistress) was saying, the officer Lt. Bernhard had been working with was crooked, and had set up the ambush to remove her from the picture when she went to investigate the warehouse. Unfortunately, they weren’t planning on running into me instead; it was a hard fight, but I broke through the ambush, and hunted down the crooked cop (an officer “Cantor”, I believe).


Wow. Officer Cantor appears to have better equipment than I do. That’s a paddlin’…

After teaching Mr. Dirty Cop a lesson in why it is unwise to cross a superhero, I searched the on-site network for the location of a base in Crey’s Folly that the Arachnos here had referenced several times. Evidently, they were doing experiments involving something called “Venom II,” and the project lead, a Dr. Karansky, had actually injected himself with the serum. Apparently, after that, all hell had broken loose. Arachnos’ stake in all of this was to cover up both the problem, and the research. (At least that seemed to be their stake in it at the moment.)

Editor’s Note: The story’s off to an interesting start, with good use of patrols who, in my play through, were spaced far enough apart as to not just spam me with a massive wall of dialogue (not always the author’s fault, but there are steps that can be taken to minimize that, and it’s at least possible the author did so). I was just a little confused at the beginning as to what exactly was going on. It took me to the point where I was doing my writeup of the first mission to figure out that the ambush was for Lt. Bernhard and I’d shown up instead – perhaps a clue dropped by the boss would clarify what was going on a bit. Granted, it’s all there in the dialog, but it can be easy to miss it in the heat of combat, and a clue would clarify the situation.

It didn’t take long for Lt. Bernhard to get a warrant to investigate the lab in Crey’s Folly. It did turn out to be a Crey lab, and Crey actually dispatched a contingent to meet me there and assist my investigation. The lab itself had devolved into chaos – there were Devouring Earth monsters roaming about, along with a large number of Arachnoids. Arachnos was there as well, lamenting the fact the Arachnoids had “gone rogue” (at this point in the story I’m not totally sure what that’s all about). And, finally, Crey rounded out the contingent. Thankfully, they were on my side, and helped me to battle my way into the lab. The rest were both hostile to me, and each other (although the sheer combat strength of the Arachnoids pretty much assured that it didn’t take long for them to be pretty much the *only* things left in the lab).

In any case, once in the lab, I sought out whatever research records, and other evidence, I could find. I found a cross between a Devoured and a human (Note: that struck me as very odd way to describe it given that the Devoured are just mutated humans – but by the end of the mission I gathered that the “reversion” had taken a Devoured and partially changed it back into a human; still, I’d recommend finding a way to change the wording in a way that doesn’t conjure the idea of a Devoured having been “crossed” with a human. Perhaps even calling it a “human caught midway into being mutated into a Devoured – or are you looking at the opposite: a Devoured partially returned its original human form?”), a wide variety of chemicals that appeared to be aimed at giving those injected powers – or simply mutating them into something else entirely, and a deranged record from Dr. Karansky complaining about how foolish his superiors were not to see the potential breakthroughs inherent in the lines of research he was pursuing.

The research materials were certainly focused on mutations, or, to a lesser extent, things that would introduce massive physical change in the recipient while granting great power. There were notes on the Arachnoids and the Devouring Earth – both known to incorporate humans mutated into monsters in their twisted ranks. I was definitely onto something.

Lt. Bernhard did a background check on Karansky, determining that he was a once promising medical doctor who had disappeared after a scandal involving providing steroids to athletes. He resurfaced in the Rogue Isles, working with Arachnos for a while, but, for some reason, had then returned to Paragon. In any case, it seemed like he was now going to be the problem of Longbow and the PPD – at least until Bernhard sent me an urgent text message (about three weeks later) telling me she’d been kidnapped while visiting the offices of her sister Corinne.

Bernhard wasn’t hard to rescue, but I also found a Webmaster Hamon there, guarded by some pretty seriously mutated … things. Hamon offered to help me access some sensitive files on a computer in return for escorting him from the premises, safe from arrest by Longbow (who were closing in on the building to arrest Hamon).

Hamon lived up to his word, providing me with lots of useful information, taken from the Arachnos ‘net (at least I think all he was doing was using a normal office computer to access the Arachnos network – I can’t think of why Connie Bernhard’s office would be storing a bunch of Arachnos files on their computers).

Karansky was planning an attack on the Fortunatas at Mercy Island. Three weeks ago Lt. Bernhard had told me that when Karansky had first surfaced in the Rogue Isles, he was seeking membership in the Fortunatas, but had been rejected because this was before they were accepting men into their ranks. Based on the files Hamon had given me access to, Karansky had instead been recruited to work on Project FURY, developing drugs that would help the Soldiers of Arachnos meet their peak potential. Karansky had wanted the drugs he was working on to be a regular part of the Arachnos regimen, but the others he was working with wanted them to be used far more sparingly – for example, as a way to help wounded Soldiers recover faster. Evidently, Karansky’s frustration at Arachnos was getting a bit out of hand – he’d returned to Paragon City to continue his research, and (for reasons that I could only attribute to revenge) was now ready to strike back at those in Arachnos who had dared stand in his way. Since, evidently, he was particularly annoyed at being denied membership in the Fortunatas, destroying them would be (in his mind) a good way to make his point.

In any case, I kept my promise, and let Hamon go. He made it clear his next task was to protect the Fortunatas that were about to come under attack on Mercy Isle – I figured I would probably soon be helping him with that.

Editor’s Note: I’m liking the arc overall, but there are aspects of the story that really seem pretty murky to me at this point. I’m not clear on what Perfectly Plastic (or Corinne) has to do with any of this yet – if anything. Or what Webmaster Hamon would be doing there. Or even why it was necessary, from the standpoint of the story, to insert a three week break in the action. At the moment this is just part of the running commentary, but I’m hoping that some of these loose ends will be tied up by the end of the arc…

Oh! Hmm … according to Bernhart, Connie was actually kidnapped. And since Dr. Karansky is prepping to attack the Isles, his minions must have dragged her back there. I guess.

Editor’s Note: I’m supposing the reference to Connie’s kidnapping was part of Lt. Bernhart’s dialog as I rescued her in the last mission; I’m pretty sure it wasn’t among any of the clues I saw. In general, I’d strongly recommend that anything that is important to the plot (which, among other things, includes stuff that is being mentioned in mission briefings “like I should know about it”, and is a major motivator behind what my contact wants me to do) be put into a clue, rather than (I guess) in mission dialogue. It’s amazingly easy to miss dialogue, but a clue can always bring you up to speed. And all of that is assuming I’m right about having missed it in the dialogue.

So anyway, Bernhard, working with Hamon, let me know that a safehouse had been set up in the Rogue Isles for my use. Once there, I tagged some of Karansky’s monsters, and trailed them to an Arachnos base where they were attempting to set up a chemical attack aimed specifically at the Fortunatas in the base. Evidently the drug had a particularly nasty effect on “users” with psychic abilities – and Karansky was interested in exploring this effect in more depth. In other words, he’d found something that could really give the Fortunatas grief, and wanted to watch it hurt them. Sometimes even the best minds among us can be awfully, awfully petty.

I made my way into the base, disabled the gas canisters set to release the drug into the ventilation system, and rescued a Fortunata being held captive by Karansky’s mutants. In return for my help, the captured Fortunata told me that I was fated to defeat Karansky, but I may be faced with some morally grey options in the process (Dr. Aeon’s first Architect Challenge, I presume?).


When you are a Fire Scrapper playing only in MA, creative use of your blue bar to power your Tier 9 is just a must. In this case, though, the Fortunate One is fortunate indeed, as I am waiting for Rise of the Phoenix to recharge, and (as you can see from the timer), just don’t have the time to wait. This defeat actually required a trip to the hospital. (No worries, though, I did complete the mission.)

With Karansky’s plot against the Fortunata’s foiled, it was now time to stop his attempt to ‘infect’ the population of Grandville with this Serums. This would also be my chance to save Connie; Bernhart warned me that the attack would be coming from the Grandville beaches, and that the Arachnoids and Dr. Karansky’s followers might be using secret cave networks to move men and materials around. At first I thought that might be a reference to look for hidden tunnels if I was faced with mission objectives I couldn’t get to – but ultimately my searches of the map proved fruitless, and I concluded the author was simply using that as a way to explain how new objectives could appear out of nowhere.


Pro Payne has assumed his characteristic position. Unwisely, Constance has decided to taunt him, not realizing that that little, wonderful button that gives him fifteen seconds of uninterrupted kick-assery is ready to go.

In any case, I quickly found Connie, who had been injected with the serum and was now a mutated monster under Karansky’s control. I defeated her, and then moved to defeat Karansky himself, and two ‘crystals’ that contained his serums (presumably to be dissolved into the water supply or ground up and spread via wind currents). One of the crystals actually spawned inside a rock – fortunately my flame aura and PBAoEs could still affect it.


Karansky prepares to order the SLDF to make a series of jumps out of the Inner Sphere, to parts unknown. No, wait. That’s Kerensky. And not even this game. Still this guy’s got a whole group of followers patterned after animals. Only in this case, it’s a bit more … literal.

Next, for some reason that really didn’t make a lot of sense to me I had to rescue two more crystals from attacking members of Karansky’s faction. Originally I thought it was just one, but for some reason a little white ‘2’ suddenly appeared next to the huge green objective text – then quickly vanished again along with a message telling me an Arachnoid had defeated the crystal. (I did manage to fight off whatever ambush was heading for my crystal.)

I had no idea why I was defending the crystal, or why they were now being attacked. The mission didn’t fail or end, and I couldn’t find anything else on the map. I figured I’d try to give the mission one last shot (this time with XP turned off and the diff. turned all the way down to speed things up – the XP was off because I’m almost to 50, and it just struck me as ‘artificial’ to double up on this missions’ XP; I was curious to see where – which arc – I would hit 50 without needing to do ‘replays’ due to bugs).

On the second attempt of this mission, the 2nd “enemy” crystal didn’t spawn inside a rock, and I was able to successfully “save” the two “ally” crystals. But the mission still wouldn’t complete. With no idea what to do next, I quit out of the arc, and will move on to the next one. In game I didn’t rate the arc – but I do feel I have enough information to be able to give it a tentative “non-in-game” rating.

Pros: The story’s got some real potential; with some hefty clean-up work, I think this could be a very good arc. I did like the story tie-ins to canon, and I do have to admit that I’m something of a fan of good “mad-science” stories. I rather liked the customs, and there really was something about the opening of the arc that really grabbed me.

Caveat: Some, although not all, of the issues I had with this arc can probably be blamed on when it came up in the queue – I very well might have played it when the author was in the process of making some I17 related changes, and hasn’t had a chance to totally debug everything. For that reason I’m trying to make a clear distinction between literally what I’d be rating the arc right now if this was the final version, and the potential I think the arc has. The “game breaking” bugs are accounted for in the score, but since I didn’t rate it in-game, the score here is pretty meaningless. But the bugs came late enough that I did feel like I was able to see most of the arc, and had plenty more to actually “grade” that wasn’t related to technical problems.

Cons: The most obvious ones are the bugs that kept me from finishing the arc. But that aside, I felt the arc really needed to tighten up the writing (and story). While it’s not at all unusual for many arcs to begin with the player kind of “in the dark” as to what’s going on, there were just too many things that seemed out of left field for me in this arc. I suspect the biggest error here is “dialog reliance” – if it’s really important to the plot, it’s best to put it in a clue, since it can be very easy to miss something critical to the plot in dialog. But I do get the distinct impression there were some cases of the author figuring “what’s going on here is so clear that explaining it to the player will just make them feel like I’m insulting their intelligence, so there’s no need for me to put any more explanation in.” My response: please, feel free to insult my intelligence.

While I did get the Karansky plot (mostly) – and that was a solid part of the story – there was plenty that I just didn’t follow, or (to put it bluntly) see why it was part of the story. What is Connie’s role in all of this – why was she kidnapped? Was it just to bring Suzanne back into the story? Everything with the office building and Connie almost seemed like it was there to explain why the author inserted a three week “break” into the storyline. I’m guessing all of that was to give Karansky time to set up the attacks that occur later in the plot, but, to be honest, without that break – or the whole Connie subplot – I would simply have assumed that at the point where I got involved Karansky was already almost ready to make his move. In other words, at least right now, it seems to me like the Connie subplot is there to explain something that doesn’t need explaining.

And what’s with the allied crystals? While I’m almost positive that the idea is that if I “defend” them, I will have control over whatever monsters are made using them. But why the heck would I want to do that – is the idea that I could use these monsters to launch an attack on Grandville? But wouldn’t I mostly just be killing the poor folks confined to the slums? I’m just not sure why I’d choose to take control of Karansky’s monsters (plus, I got the impression his natural psychic abilities were helping him control them as a kind of ‘hive mind’ – but I don’t have psychic abilities; while it’s really a minor nitpick, it does seem like an oversight, albeit one I could explain away by simply saying Karansky’s monsters were impressed with my strength). And it made no sense to me why those same monsters would be attacking the crystals just because Karansky was defeated. It would seem to make more sense to me if it was Arachnos leading those attacks – they have a much more obvious reason to want to see those crystals destroyed.

What it boils down to is that by the end of the arc, the plot was just not making much sense to me. Since some of it might have been explained by completing the mission the issue may not be quite as severe as what it seemed like when I quit out of the arc – but at the very least what I’ve written here will give the author an idea of what I was wondering as the arc drew to a close, so he can make a judgement call as to whether or not the mission debriefing and any remaining clues explain enough of what I was confused about.

In summary, the arc’s got a good start, and seems to really have a good foundation in place for a very interesting story – but I did think that there was still a lot of work that could be done to tighten the story, and make things clearer to the player (including some elements that, if removed, might accomplish exactly what I’m talking about – giving the arc a tighter, clearer story).
One final, minor nitpick (didn’t factor into the score): every so often the mission objective in the compass window would show up as huge, highlighted lettering. Is that supposed to indicate urgency? An extra important objective? It didn’t necessarily seem to me that the objective was unusually important. Oddly, it felt more like the author’s response to previous feedback: After arrest crooked cop, you need to access the computer. But some moron player arrested the cop and was genuinely surprised the mission didn’t end, and somehow completely missed that the objective had changed. So he or she quit out and told the author he didn’t know what to do after arresting the cop. So the author’s response was “you idiot, why don’t you actually do what the objective says and ACCESS THE DANG COMPUTER!” Baseless (and likely wrong) speculation aside, the massive increase in font size for some of the objectives did (obviously) strike me as … odd.

Score: 2.83 (Note, however, that with some work – and likely repeated testing – to quash some of the bugs – assuming they *are* bugs, and also some TLC to tighten the story, especially in the latter half of the arc, this arc would have netted a five-star rating.)

I thought I would take a brief respite from the arc I'm currently playing through (The Galactic Protectorate - 06) for a rather poignant announcement (well, for me, anyway).

As of today, after one year and a little over three weeks, Pro Payne has met his goal: he has advanced to level 50, having played exclusively in Mission Architect (with the exception mentioned many times before of the "bare minimum" play through scanner and safeguard missions to get the temporary powers). So although there's certainly some "wrap up" to do - not the least of which are the remaining reviews in my queue - the Pro Payne project has officially met its goal.


Ding!

A few facts:

To get here, Pro Payne has played approximately 190 MA story arcs, totaling about 750 missions. He's been online for 2696 hours, although, to be fair, I do think a fair amount of that was him parked in the MA building while I was writing the reviews I've posted to this thread.

A special thanks to all of the players who suggested arcs, and, even more so, to all of the players that have participated in mission architect.

Cheers! (Certainly not the last you'll see of Pro Payne here, but today is definitely the 'terminal' milestone in the project.)

Wow has it already been that long? Gratz!

Supergratz!