City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

The Ridiculous Girl Arc Review-O-Rama

Alyiah

By Alyiah,
Posted on: 2009-05-01 06:08 in Mission Architect

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]

As I think about it, I'm wondering if perhaps my character just sucks. Ashley's my first high-level Blaster, but I remember some conventional wisdom from a couple years ago, that Blasters become the most sucktastic archetype in the mid-to-late 40s. Like all the other archetypes catch up and surpass them in damage-dealing, but they can all take a punch, while the Blaster still can't. And come to think about it, I've been having a lot more trouble soloing Elite Bosses on regular missions too.

So it might be more that the game hates high-level Blasters than any problem with your arc as such.

I'll definitely give it a try on Heroic, or maybe with a different character, though.

[/ QUOTE ]

i have not played a high level blaster in ages. the original ridiculous girl is a fire/fire blaster. but i brought her to 50 ages ago and then took a three year break. my AR/DEV blaster is the first blaster i have gotten that high since RG. so i do not remember what it is really like at the high levels. that might be that case though. i have been mostly testing with the mid 30s group of toons that i have. when i took SS with my blaster i accidently aggroed her while i was laying the first trip mine. i did not even get one of those off. it may just be the build too. who knows... but i would grealy appreciate it if you played all the way through and came back and told me how it went.

it is funny though with the high level toons... i get grief from high level scrappers on the last boss often. that he is too hard, but it is predominately the high level scrappers that say this. i think people just get so used to playing a certain way that when the boss exploits their particular weakness they are very surprised. this is why i really like the MA system. we can get creative with the custom groups and if you fail to keep on your toes for new combination of powers, you are going to be hit hard. i was also thinking that it is never a good idea to get in a long distance shooting match with a EB level blaster...
RG

global: ridiculous girl
Hero Therapy! (TM) - 119228
welcome to donut world - 1233

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]

i have not played a high level blaster in ages. the original ridiculous girl is a fire/fire blaster. but i brought her to 50 ages ago and then took a three year break. my AR/DEV blaster is the first blaster i have gotten that high since RG. so i do not remember what it is really like at the high levels. that might be that case though. i have been mostly testing with the mid 30s group of toons that i have. when i took SS with my blaster i accidently aggroed her while i was laying the first trip mine. i did not even get one of those off. it may just be the build too. who knows... but i would grealy appreciate it if you played all the way through and came back and told me how it went.

it is funny though with the high level toons... i get grief from high level scrappers on the last boss often. that he is too hard, but it is predominately the high level scrappers that say this. i think people just get so used to playing a certain way that when the boss exploits their particular weakness they are very surprised. this is why i really like the MA system. we can get creative with the custom groups and if you fail to keep on your toes for new combination of powers, you are going to be hit hard. i was also thinking that it is never a good idea to get in a long distance shooting match with a EB level blaster...
RG

[/ QUOTE ]

I just played it again on Heroic, and was glad I did - this is a really great arc, one of the most creative I've seen!

As far as difficulty, the downgraded Secret Shame wasn't much trouble, though the geography of that final room can be a little tricky. Tough to get a sniping angle to draw her out of it, but that ended up being largely unnecessary. The allies ended up Wound up using the trip mines on the Red Cap bastards while my allies mostly kept SS pinned down in the room.

The still-an-EB at the end wasn't much trouble either, for whatever reason. I did have to rapidly gobble some green Insps at one point to survive, but managed OK.

The "accidental aggro" thing reminds me of one oddity I've run across, which is that escorts like the Therapist can't find you if you're using stealth (I tended to turn it on anyway in the final battles and to heck with whether he could see me or not! )

 

Posted

i am back! london was a load of fun! i did get banned from the UK for 6 months. again. this is the second time! BAAAAANNNED in the UK... i was BAAAAAAANED in the UK... they hate me there... but how ridiculous is that? HAHAHHAHAHA!

but anyways... i will be starting up the rewiews again sometime soon. i will take new submissions again too. these arcs are the ones in my queue to play and review. if i am forgetting anyone let me know...

Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black Arc #161629
Kung Fu on the Loose Arc ID: 77533
Ashley Porter and the Gorilla War Arc ID: 130809
Return of the Three Fold King Arc 163274

global: ridiculous girl
Hero Therapy! (TM) - 119228
welcome to donut world - 1233

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
i am back! london was a load of fun! i did get banned from the UK for 6 months. again. this is the second time! BAAAAANNNED in the UK... i was BAAAAAAANED in the UK... they hate me there... but how ridiculous is that? HAHAHHAHAHA

[/ QUOTE ]
Well, it serves you right for your radical views.

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Well, it serves you right for your radical views.

[/ QUOTE ]

well, from a country that brought us monty python, you would think they would be more tolerant of ridiculous people. i was even incognito, i tried to look normal...

this is the second time they have banned me, i cannot decide whether i should be annoyed or amused.

global: ridiculous girl
Hero Therapy! (TM) - 119228
welcome to donut world - 1233

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
I'm not sure I want to know -- but maybe I do -- what gets one banned from the UK these days....

[/ QUOTE ]

ok long story short. i live in france under a tourist visa grey area. (this is the boring part...) the schenen visa zone falls in the european union, but there are several EU countries that are outside the schenen visa zone. UK, republic of ireland, romania, switzerland and bulgaria. in the schenen you can get a 90 day tourist visa. but, allegedly, you must leave the zone for 90 days. (this is where it gets interesting again...) so i have been living in france for the past 2 years, almost. every three months i hop out to some non schenen zone country for a week or so. once back to the US, once to north ireland, once to turkey, london several times, etc. the time that i went to north ireland, the belfast immigration gave me the third degree. they did not like my visa shennanigans. but hey... if the french immigration stamps me in each time, i get another three months. they. don't. care. but the belfast immigration officer must have been having a bad day. he called me an "immigration risk" and banned me for 6 months from returning. i eventually returned, but they have been giving me trouble each time. they cannot let it go. same thing again. they look at my passport, which is almost full again, and try to figure out my movement patterns and ask me what do i do, how long, how do i support myself, etc etc etc. my answers never seem to satisfy. i am a travel bum supporting myself with the us gi bill working on an online masters degree and i have been out and traveling for the past 3 years. not the conventional life... but since the french keep stamping me, i am not technically breakng any rule. they still do not like it... the funny thing is that they hate it, but keep letting me in. lecturing me that if the french do not let me in, they would send me back to the UK. that is why they are worried.

ok that was not so short after all... really it cracks me up. because even though they threaten and ban me, they still let me in. just a stern lecturing. but being banned a second is just not so punk rock anymore... i was wondering if they were going to go for something longer. oh well in 6 months i will probably go back. i think i am growing accustomed to their faces...

global: ridiculous girl
Hero Therapy! (TM) - 119228
welcome to donut world - 1233

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
*sings* And IIIIIIIIIII wanna beeeeeee Anarchyyyyyyy.

Wow, that's convoluted.

[/ QUOTE ]

welcome to my life...

Arc #161629: Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black Arc

i played this with obvious girl, my lvl 32 MA/SR scrapper on heroic.

things that i saw and observed while i was playing.

missions one
maybe have clue with the notebook? ah, the notebook clue comes at the end of the mission...
the exit pop up is a little redundant.

mission 2
with the nav bar clue "why are the freakshow here?" it seems to indicate searching all the bodies...
you could give the noise tank a name...
in the crushifier clue it says "deliability' is this on purpose? probably a joke...

mission 3
the mission accept text is "he wrote down an address..." which makes no sense for accepting a mission
ok i am really confused now. who is pete? is he robert anderson? ooops it would seem so... the pwzinator description calls him robert anderson.

mission 4
is the shadow paragon protector the same as the paragon protector elite? in the PP elite description it mentions the other, but falls under the crey group. maybe it is just a confusing description.

mission 5
the ambassador's description kind of implies an escort, though he just runs away.
and what is chavez? an ally? she has not done anything except follow me around. is she on passive? i say leadship powers briefly, but that is all she display or assisted.

ok this is a pretty well written, obviously well edited story arc. i really liked it. it is very content rich and complicated. sometimes i wonder if i can complain if something is too complicated. there were couple of nit picks from an otherwise very nicely done arc.

the first occured last. your last mission is a timer mission. several problems occured in that mission. one is due to the patrols, all the allies with exception of officer chavez were alone by virtue of the wanderering friendly patrols. i just sort of ran into them randomly. i was not looking for them, though i see you mentioned them in the brief. i am guessing that chavez is very injured and that is why she did not do anything but passively follow? but the main problem is that i got chavez, i got the decoy, i eventually found all the allies, i killed off everyone, but still could not complete. this is a problem with a timed mission. i could not figure out what was the last objective was... was it a person? was it an object? i went everywhere. i eventually gave up and let it time out while i did other things. this ended with me failing the mission and the arc i guess... pretty downer for ending of the story. i guess that is what you wanted but it still sucks to fail like that. i have no idea what the final objective was and in a huge mission map like that did not help.

with such a complicated story with numerous clues, which i read, i am still not sure if it all makes sense. maybe if i had not failed the mission it would have all loose ends would be tied up but i do not know. one thing i do look for is original justification... why am i helping this guy? am i just walking down the street and this freakshow that claims to be reformed asks for help with his buddies? it is kind of a stretch for me. unfortunately i cannot reliably analyze the story, since it got cut off. seriously, i am a bit burned with having failing a mission arc because i could not complete the timed mission. it is one thing to fail a mission and then move on to the next one despite the set back. but to set up a player to fail the entire arc? that is a quite a gamble...

despite the big problem that i pointed out, it is a very well done arc and fairly complicated story. people will like that if that is what they are looking for. i did not rate your arc, how can i rate an arc that i failed? it was such a downer ending to a long and interesting play. i did like it. it was worth my time.

global: ridiculous girl
Hero Therapy! (TM) - 119228
welcome to donut world - 1233

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]


missions one
maybe have clue with the notebook? ah, the notebook clue comes at the end of the mission...

[/ QUOTE ]

It's at the end of the mission due to the length of the clue. Blinky clues are limited to 300 characters, mission complete clues allow 1000

[ QUOTE ]

the exit pop up is a little redundant.

[/ QUOTE ]
It's mostly there for people who missed the clues.

[ QUOTE ]

with the nav bar clue "why are the freakshow here?" it seems to indicate searching all the bodies...

[/ QUOTE ]

I didn't think of it that way. I think I might reduce the number of bodies in case people think you have to search them.

[ QUOTE ]

you could give the noise tank a name...


[/ QUOTE ]
Once you name it, you start getting attached to it...also people might assume he's important, which he isn't. He's there for flavor.

[ QUOTE ]

in the crushifier clue it says "deliability' is this on purpose? probably a joke...

[/ QUOTE ]
Yes it's on purpose. He thinks he's tougher, smarter, and cooler than he really is.

[ QUOTE ]

the mission accept text is "he wrote down an address..." which makes no sense for accepting a mission

[/ QUOTE ]

It's supposed to be you reminding the contact about the clue you found in mission 1. I guess I'll have to reword it.

[ QUOTE ]

ok i am really confused now. who is pete? is he robert anderson? ooops it would seem so... the pwzinator description calls him robert anderson.

[/ QUOTE ]

Doh! Yes, Pwnzinator is Pete, I guess I got his first name wrong in the bio. Gonna have to change that. The first mission clue also mentions both Pwnzinator and Peter Anderson.

[ QUOTE ]

is the shadow paragon protector the same as the paragon protector elite? in the PP elite description it mentions the other, but falls under the crey group. maybe it is just a confusing description.

[/ QUOTE ]

Blame the devs for that one. It's a stock PP elite. I had to pick a Crey boss that spanned the entire level range of the arc, the two PP elites are the only ones available.

[ QUOTE ]

the ambassador's description kind of implies an escort, though he just runs away.


[/ QUOTE ]

Since you can't choose the spawn placements on an outdoor map, I didn't want to make him an escort and risk having him spawn on the opposite end of the map.

[ QUOTE ]

and what is chavez? an ally? she has not done anything except follow me around. is she on passive? i say leadship powers briefly, but that is all she display or assisted.

[/ QUOTE ]

She followed you? Doh, I had her set to not move. (also, she is now a he.) I'll have to recheck that. Her animations make it clearer that she is wounded and can't help you. All she does when you rescue her is call in longbow backup.

[ QUOTE ]

the first occured last. your last mission is a timer mission. several problems occured in that mission. one is due to the patrols, all the allies with exception of officer chavez were alone by virtue of the wanderering friendly patrols. i just sort of ran into them randomly.

[/ QUOTE ]

They are supposed to be unguarded. They chose to show up to help. All these guys have had to be rescued before, I was trying to avoid the "Why do you keep getting captured?" running gag.

[ QUOTE ]

i could not figure out what was the last objective was... was it a person? was it an object? i went everywhere. i eventually gave up and let it time out while i did other things. this ended with me failing the mission and the arc i guess... pretty downer for ending of the story. i guess that is what you wanted but it still sucks to fail like that. i have no idea what the final objective was and in a huge mission map like that did not help.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think maybe I should change the nav text there to "find the backup assassin," make it clearer that you are in fact looking for a person. The fact that he seemed to fail to spawn....that is problematic. I'll have to test this some more, to see if this is one of those flukes (I have seen triggered boss objectives fail to spawn on other people's missions), or if it happens with any regularity. I haven't had anyone else complain about failure to complete. So you may have been hit by a random "failed to spawn" bug.

For the record, no you are not supposed to fail. That is why the timer is an hour, plenty of time to search the map. I did want to have a timer, to give it a sense of urgency, but still make it reasonable so as to make for better gameplay. And as for the size of the map...unfortunately it's the only map that is a recognizable part of Paragon City, allows the rescues and allies, and doesn't have a stupid meteor in the middle of it.

[ QUOTE ]

one thing i do look for is original justification... why am i helping this guy? am i just walking down the street and this freakshow that claims to be reformed asks for help with his buddies? it is kind of a stretch for me.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's kind of a tangent of the reformed Freak storyline that started with Westin Phipps in CoV and got revisited in the scanner missions where you save the reformed Freaks working at the Pwn Shop from the villain of the week. I'll see if I can rework the intro text to at least make him seem more nonthreatening. Yeah, the idea is pretty much that he needed a hero and you were available.

Thanks for your input. **goes back to tweaking**

Edit: I have no idea why the Longbow ally would have followed you. I just checked, and he is still set to "Non-combat" and "do nothing," which in testing made him stay in one spot and alternate between the two "oooh, I'm hurt" animations.

Eva Destruction AR/Fire/Munitions Blaster
Darkfire Avenger DM/SD/Body Scrapper

Arc ID#161629 Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black
Arc ID#431270 Until the End of the World

 

Posted

Name: Kung Fu on the Loose Arc ID: 77533

i played this arc with obvious girl, my MA/SR scrapper, on rugged and with the locksmith of love, my ILL/RAD controller, on heroic.

ok this is a great little kung fu arc. it is nice, simple and stright forward. if you are looking for a martial arts arc you got a good one going here. it is a little on the short side, but that is hardly a quibble.

i do not have much to say in the negative. one thing is that first map is a little buggy. the burning forest variant was pulled for several reasons. one of them was appearing and disappearing mobs. this map has it a little too. i had one occasion with a group appearing right in front of me out of nowhere. it was not much of a problem but it occasionally happens with a boss. the bad guys were a little difficult but not unfairly so. i liked the looks and the combinations. too bad i did not see any of the bosses. this would be a fun arc to play with a scrapper team.

otherwise it is a nice neat little arc and it was highly enjoyable to play with my MA/SR scrapper. i could not take the EB with her on rugged, so i reran it with my ILL/RAD troller and took him on heroic. i really enjoyed this arc. good luck with it.

global: ridiculous girl
Hero Therapy! (TM) - 119228
welcome to donut world - 1233

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]

Doh! Yes, Pwnzinator is Pete, I guess I got his first name wrong in the bio. Gonna have to change that. The first mission clue also mentions both Pwnzinator and Peter Anderson.


[/ QUOTE ]

i figured that was the case. it just got me for a minute there.

[ QUOTE ]

I think maybe I should change the nav text there to "find the backup assassin," make it clearer that you are in fact looking for a person. The fact that he seemed to fail to spawn....that is problematic. I'll have to test this some more, to see if this is one of those flukes (I have seen triggered boss objectives fail to spawn on other people's missions), or if it happens with any regularity. I haven't had anyone else complain about failure to complete. So you may have been hit by a random "failed to spawn" bug.

For the record, no you are not supposed to fail. That is why the timer is an hour, plenty of time to search the map. I did want to have a timer, to give it a sense of urgency, but still make it reasonable so as to make for better gameplay. And as for the size of the map...unfortunately it's the only map that is a recognizable part of Paragon City, allows the rescues and allies, and doesn't have a stupid meteor in the middle of it.

[/ QUOTE ]

yeah the problem with setting an actual timer where you can fail is that people can and will fail. you even put in the fail text in case of such an eventuality. you can do urgency without a timer. that way you would remove the possibility of complete failure as happened to me by fluke. an hour is a reasonable amount of time, but people can and will fail as i have so experienced. it is your arc and you can keep it that way. but you are going to get some pretty strong negative reacations if people fail completely, especially when it is not their fault.


[ QUOTE ]

Edit: I have no idea why the Longbow ally would have followed you. I just checked, and he is still set to "Non-combat" and "do nothing," which in testing made him stay in one spot and alternate between the two "oooh, I'm hurt" animations.


[/ QUOTE ]

when i would leave her/him behind she would lie down and do the lost text. but if i came back she would get up and follow but do nothing. must be an ally bug. i am not on right now, but can you not make him a captive that just stays? or was it because of the text that he has that you choose to do it this way?

otherwise it was a great mission. good luck with it...

global: ridiculous girl
Hero Therapy! (TM) - 119228
welcome to donut world - 1233

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]


yeah the problem with setting an actual timer where you can fail is that people can and will fail. you even put in the fail text in case of such an eventuality. you can do urgency without a timer. that way you would remove the possibility of complete failure as happened to me by fluke. an hour is a reasonable amount of time, but people can and will fail as i have so experienced. it is your arc and you can keep it that way. but you are going to get some pretty strong negative reacations if people fail completely, especially when it is not their fault.

[/ QUOTE ]

I figured that most people, if they can't find him in an hour, would just quit anyway. BTW I ran it again myself, and he spawned just fine. So you might have been hit with a fluke failure to spawn, which as I said I have experienced myself with other people's missions.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

Edit: I have no idea why the Longbow ally would have followed you. I just checked, and he is still set to "Non-combat" and "do nothing," which in testing made him stay in one spot and alternate between the two "oooh, I'm hurt" animations.


[/ QUOTE ]

when i would leave her/him behind she would lie down and do the lost text. but if i came back she would get up and follow but do nothing. must be an ally bug. i am not on right now, but can you not make him a captive that just stays? or was it because of the text that he has that you choose to do it this way?


[/ QUOTE ]

Captives run off as soon as you rescue them. That is why he is an ally, he can barely stand up, so how can he run? I reset his settings, and he seems to stay now.

For the record, if you succeed it's implied that he lives. I might actually take his death out of the failure text as well, I wanted to have some serious consequences for failure without flat-out killing a canon NPC. I might also have to rewrite the text to make it clearer that you still mostly foiled the evil plan of evil, so it's still a partial success.

Eva Destruction AR/Fire/Munitions Blaster
Darkfire Avenger DM/SD/Body Scrapper

Arc ID#161629 Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black
Arc ID#431270 Until the End of the World

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Name: Kung Fu on the Loose Arc ID: 77533

i played this arc with obvious girl, my MA/SR scrapper, on rugged and with the locksmith of love, my ILL/RAD controller, on heroic.

ok this is a great little kung fu arc. it is nice, simple and stright forward. if you are looking for a martial arts arc you got a good one going here. it is a little on the short side, but that is hardly a quibble.

i do not have much to say in the negative. one thing is that first map is a little buggy. the burning forest variant was pulled for several reasons. one of them was appearing and disappearing mobs. this map has it a little too. i had one occasion with a group appearing right in front of me out of nowhere. it was not much of a problem but it occasionally happens with a boss. the bad guys were a little difficult but not unfairly so. i liked the looks and the combinations. too bad i did not see any of the bosses. this would be a fun arc to play with a scrapper team.

otherwise it is a nice neat little arc and it was highly enjoyable to play with my MA/SR scrapper. i could not take the EB with her on rugged, so i reran it with my ILL/RAD troller and took him on heroic. i really enjoyed this arc. good luck with it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thank you for playing and reviewing my arc. I appreciate the note regarding the burning forest version of the first map used - I will have to keep an eye on it, but so far so good.

The bosses will spawn for a group of three (from my testing) and make things....much more interesting.

Thanks again!

Go Team Venture!

 

Posted

Ashley Porter and the Gorilla War, 130809

i ran this mission with tired of it ALL, my level 33 AR/DEV blaster, on heroic.

a couple of things that i saw as i ran this...

mission 1
no descriptions on any on the custom group.
when interacting with the metal drum no interaction bar text

mission 2
problem with your unique map. this happened to me too. if they the devs pulled that map then it would default to the first on the list. have a feeling that is what happened here since it is not an appropriate map for the story. i am pretty sure this mission has nothing to do with the portal corp or an alternate atlas park...

to make matters worse the clue was buried in the geometry. i was lucky to find it.

mission 3
no accept mission text only accept

alright.. this is a nice and perfectly random mission arc. that does not mean that it is not well written. it means that it is a well done and well scripted, though a bit ridiculous, story arc. i like random and ridiculous. i saw nothing in the way of spelling errors and such nonsense so this has obviously been thoroughly scrubbed. it makes full use of the holodeck concept, by way of being in a past time of history and not making use of time travel. which i have no problems at all. it is a bit different since most others try to make an appeal towards such themes, rather than just bypassing it all and presenting a story. i liked the use of maps and you had great costumes on your custom groups.

there was one major problem. you probably have not played this in a while, because i encounterd this same problem several weeks back. someone complained that a door on one of my maps did not work. the problem was that map was an outdoor map. it was the burning forest map, which the ddevs removed because it was problematic. by removing this map it did not invalidate the arc, it just defaulted to the first map in the list. it is some alternate altas map, that you access through portal corps. this obviously had nothing to do with the story. to make things worse, the blinky was buried in the geometry of one room. i could barely see a bit of it after i followed the sound in a noisy portal room. luckily i could get it and complete the mission. you will need to go back and replace your map. this does affect your story drastically and may affect people completing because this is a very large map too.

the other problem you have is lack of details. the first mission lacked any descriptions. this is probably due to your custom groups taking up most of your memory space and not being able to flesh out things. while you have a good story, little details make a world of difference. you have descriptions for your gorillas, thankfully. but little things like banging on the drum to end the first mission has no interaction text. a little detail like that adds a huge amount of character to a good story. it can make a good story great.

i really liked this story. it has a couple of problems, but i do not think that they are too big to ruin the story. nor would they take much time to correct. i like random, especially korean speaking lobsters. needs some work, but could be great.

global: ridiculous girl
Hero Therapy! (TM) - 119228
welcome to donut world - 1233

 

Posted

Dang, thank you for pointing out the problem with the 2nd mission. It did indeed use the "burning forest" map.

When they did the latest patch, I noticed that the arc wouldn't load, but went in and just changed a bit of text, which made the arc "OK" again. Should've tested that.

As you have guessed, I'm pushing right up against the file size limit, so each and every addition of flavor text has to be accompanied by a deletion from somewhere else.

Off to revise... Anyway, glad you mostly liked the arc, and check out the movies it was based on, if you like!

http://www.tmunderground.com/watch/6...ersary-Special,-Part-One
http://www.tmunderground.com/watch/f...he-Gorilla-War

 

Posted

I just fixed the bad map, and was able to squeeze in a little more flavor text, including interaction bars.

I wish I could fit more character text in. The main ones lacking anything now are the Blackhorse Squadron regulars, though the Bosses each have individual text.

Did the Lobster Man give you much trouble? Appropriately difficult, not too hard? Did you fight him with Ashley's help?

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
I just fixed the bad map, and was able to squeeze in a little more flavor text, including interaction bars.

I wish I could fit more character text in. The main ones lacking anything now are the Blackhorse Squadron regulars, though the Bosses each have individual text.

Did the Lobster Man give you much trouble? Appropriately difficult, not too hard? Did you fight him with Ashley's help?

[/ QUOTE ]

i hate to counsel this but... you would be amazed at how much space one custom toon takes up. maybe 5-6%? i had the same problem in one mission arc, but rearranged my toons a bit and took one out, that freed up 7%, which is a significant amount of space. it is worth considering.

i do not remember the shellfish causing me too much problems. i was playing on heroic, so that is no surprise. i did have the ally help. he did not go down too fast, but was not that difficult either. it was fine in my opinion.

it is fine, but i like the details that people blowing through miss. it is the AE missions that have detail that i appreciate the most. it is not always necessary, but it is icing on the cake. otherwise your mission is really good.

global: ridiculous girl
Hero Therapy! (TM) - 119228
welcome to donut world - 1233

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]

i hate to counsel this but... you would be amazed at how much space one custom toon takes up. maybe 5-6%? i had the same problem in one mission arc, but rearranged my toons a bit and took one out, that freed up 7%, which is a significant amount of space. it is worth considering.


[/ QUOTE ]

Unfortunately, I've already gone through several rounds of this, and think I've cut down about as far as I can without hurting the story and/or flavor more. I already had to cut the Red Army down to a single type of minion Soldier, replace custom Ilsa Kopf with a not-entirely-right pre-generated civilian, had to lose the Gorilla Shaman and Alpha Gorilla boss....

I could cut the Blackhorse bosses, but that'd mean losing a lot of the flavor of an all-girl Blackhawk-esque group. Likewise, I could cut the Blackhorse Mechanic, but I'm reluctant to do so, as I like her visual, which is distinct from the "combat" Blackhorse, and it's fun having her running around bopping people with wrenches.


[/ QUOTE ]


[ QUOTE ]

it is fine, but i like the details that people blowing through miss. it is the AE missions that have detail that i appreciate the most. it is not always necessary, but it is icing on the cake. otherwise your mission is really good.

[/ QUOTE ]

I love the little details too, and the story is actually packed with oddball little references that about 5 people will get.

Anyways, I'll continue to see what I can shave off here and there. Thanks for all the feedback!

 

Posted

Hi Ridiculous Girl,

I've posted a comprehensive review in your thread for Hero Therapy! (TM).

If you could take a look at either of the arcs in my sig (I'm particularly hoping for feedback on Queen of the Jinn, but I'm not picky), it'd be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Hi Ridiculous Girl,

I've posted a comprehensive review in your thread for Hero Therapy! (TM).

If you could take a look at either of the arcs in my sig (I'm particularly hoping for feedback on Queen of the Jinn, but I'm not picky), it'd be much appreciated. Thanks!

[/ QUOTE ]

thank you for the review, it is always greatly appreciated. i will comment back there. i will probably do the queen of the jinn because it is newer, and i am assuming less plays. then i will post the review here and in your thread if you wish. i might be able to get to it today, though it is a beautiful day and is definately a beach day. maybe later...

global: ridiculous girl
Hero Therapy! (TM) - 119228
welcome to donut world - 1233

 

Posted

Arc #140298: Queen of the Jinn

i ran this arc with the queen of ful tribe, my level 50 mace/shield tank, on tenacious (challenge level 4).

a couple of observations and things that i noticed as i was playing.
mission 1
not really a complaint, but why is the clue jar different from all the others?
doesn't unleashing the djinn kind of go against common sense? not the smartest move, but i have to to complete the mission.
the jinni's clue says " but they would not hear my pleas. ot until you..."

mission 2
all the djinn have the same descriptions...
what are they doing in the midnight club?

mission 4
is there a reason that all the jinn are LTs?
is there another hero, or is it a wild goose chase?

mission 5
where is the jinn that i rescued twice? it would be nice to have help in this map...

well i really liked this arc. it is extremely well written, well paced, and has a good progression of events. given the precision of the editing given for the review of my arc i would have been very surprised if i found more than one or two oddball typos. i found one, listed above. it is very readable and creates a nice mythology incorporating other mythologies. the writer has excellent command of the story and it shows. i loved the selection of maps. i am still trying to figure out what the last map is since i have only seen it in one other arc and i love it.

there were several things that did pop up that i wondered about and that i feel detracted a little from the story. i will take them in the order that i encountered them or thought about them...

the first is the releasing of the jinn. this is one of those elements that goes against your common sense. i had hoped that i could complete the mission without having to destroy the container. alsa, i could not. mainly because since i have no idea what it contains and i know that when i do it i am literally letting the genie out of the bottle. just like in the last mission i had to open the one container, even though i knew that it would be trouble. but i had a choice there. the first time i had no choice but to do something that i knew was stupid. a lot of people would rather not do something that they would avoid otherwise. personally i think this is the weakest element in the whole story. was it really necessary to rescue him to drive the story?

the mission in the midnighter's club is interesting, but i really felt there was no real justification for it. i do not recall for any reason for them being there given. it is just a mission... you save percy, you get some information, but the why is never really answered. why are they there? to what end? is there a purpose that i missed?

in the 4th mission is were the field opened up and where i really encountered the jinn out in the open and in numbers. i ran this on tenacious where i would able to see larger groups of bad guys. i quickly found out how hard they were. why are they all LT's? this made it a lot more difficult in the first place. also the combinations of powers were lethal. even with my OWTS running anything more than 4 orange LT enemies i would have to start gobbling inspirations. with 6 enemies it was very hazardous. snowstorm, ice storm, steamy mist, crush, siphon power, etc... was a nightmare. with a large team i could easily see quick team wipes. i was playing a level 50 tank, i should be able to take some damage. but if i start having gobbling down greens with more than a small handful of bad guys i would have to start saying that they are overpowered. playing with a squishy would be terrible. i know you caution going with a solo toon, but you have to remember that probably a majority of your players will be solo. same thing in the last mission. once i started encountering the jinn princes, i would have to hit OWTS just to take one solo purple boss. it was a slugfest. if encountered a prince with anymore than one or two others, i died and fast. i ran when i saw that it was three bosses on the ambush, not something that a tank does very often. the final boss was not a problem, i took down though it took a while and after i had seperated her from her guards. she was fine, everything else was a bit on the strong side and in a team it would be a nightmare. you have a great story to tell and you want it to be challenging, but i think a little toning down would be a little necessary. make it too challenging, you will lose people despite it being a great story.

the last two comments are interelated. in the outdoor mission you mention that there might be one or two heros around. you do highlight the one, which may be a hint. but due to the difficulty of the bad guys i quickly started searching for the allies. i found one. i cannot remember off hand, but is serfafina available as an ally or is that your attempt to reproduce her? i was not sure because my memory was failing me at that point. she was not that helpful as an ally though, though that may be out of your control. unless she is your creation, then maybe you could up her powers. to make matters worse, that is such a huge map and it is difficult to find any other ally. if they are available that is... is there another ally? if not that is a pretty cruel move... because moving around with a moderate strength ally through a huge map filled with overpowered bad guys while looking for another ally that may or may not be there is a bit frustrating. i eventually gave up after one medium sweep through the map, trying to avoid groups any larger than 4. the boss went down with out too much trouble. which leads me to the next question... why not use the jinn that you save as an ally in the last map? he would have been most helpful going through that map. allies are always optional, but for me it would make sense for him to be there to help, just to repay helping him twice. he could more central a character, but as of now he is peripheral. i wonder why?

this is a great arc. i feel it could be better. you need to ask who your audience is. the difficulty of your custom group may reduce the number of playing and completions. it is a great story. but if it is too difficult not enough people are going to be able to appreciate it. i am not asking you to make it easy. i am just asking that you reconsider your choice of making all the custom group LTs and bosses. also make sure that they do not have so many mez/debuff powers. otherwise, nice job! i really enjoyed the story.

global: ridiculous girl
Hero Therapy! (TM) - 119228
welcome to donut world - 1233