Purple Lovin's highly sarcastic review pit
By
Armsman,
Posted on: 2009-05-12 09:04 in Mission Architect
Sure, I'll play along. Made some modifications to my arcs recently, and I'd like to know how they panned out. I've got "the Revenge of Hro'Dtohz" (1356, lvl 45-50, suggested minimum: 40) and "Hunting the Dark Dragon" (2922, lvl 40-50, suggested minimum: 35), details for which can be found in the feedback thread here.
For soloability, I recommend the first, though a team will get the more rarely-seen spawns more often (and thus bigger rewards). The second is technically soloable too, since it can end two ways, but if you want the second ending, you'll probably need a team to defeat the 'final boss'. 
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
welcome... to HELL! ha ha ha ha ha! the review business is fun...
give mine a run, but i do warn you... there are a lot of glowies and such, but they are not primary objectives. just figured i would give you a heads up since this is one of your annoyances.
Do YOU have nightmares about the Vahzilok? Can't sleep because you failed to defeat that Boss over and over again? Do you let your teammates down because you run away from Malta sappers? Do clowns make you have an anxiety attack? Try HERO Therapy (TM)! Start Today! 4 EASY sessions! (1EB,1AV allies provided)
Please give this arc a try... you probably need to. Only 5(!) easy payments! You will not regret it!
*Small print* Failure to complete this arc may result in impotence, baldness, general ridicule from children, a lessening of EXP earning potential, and an overall decline of self respect. For further details contact ridiculous girl. Money will not be refunded under any condition.
global: ridiculous girl
Hero Therapy! (TM) - 119228
welcome to donut world - 1233
i ran the arc #167567: "Curiouser and Curiouser" with my lvl 50 tank on tenacious, despite it being a villainous mission. it is a very well written arc, filled with details and quite funny too. i like taking my time and looking at the details that people have bothered to put in and you have bothered. i guess i should run the other one, the one before this one. but since this one had no plays i felt sorry for it and gave it a run. it was worth it. i enjoyed the custom group too. they were well equipped... i also liked the little subliminal message on the computer download.
nice job. this arc gets the Ridculous Seal of Approval! (TM)
all i have to say in closing is... "Time to fry some sausages!"
global: ridiculous girl
Hero Therapy! (TM) - 119228
welcome to donut world - 1233
Mission 119228: Hero Therapy
Hero Therapy, I regret to say, is quite good. I regret this because I was hoping to start the reviews off by hurling buckets of sarcasm at some poor slob's work. Ah well, I'll do a search for 'furries' after. 
The plot has you taking a series of trips into your own mind, to conquer your phobias and mental blocks. The concept isn't a new one- Psymon Omega's arc does this, among others- but as I said in my 1918 bestseller 'The Elements of Style', "Copying other people's ideas is just like using your own, only easier."
The missions take place across four unique maps. The 'Mother Mayhem hospital' one fits especially well here. Playing that one always reminds me of the Nova Prospekt level in HL2, although you can't summon antlions here. Still, though, that is kind of a good thing. Since you have an unlimited supply of antlions, it almost makes no sense to engage the Combine directly; it's invariably better to hang back and save your health and ammo. You'll need every bit of both for that one part where you're trapped in one area and an endless swarm of Combine come at you. Granted, you get three gun turrets, but they get knocked over very quickly. It took me about five tries to get past that part. Despite the uneven difficulty, I give the Nova Prospect section four of five stars, because of the genuinely creepy atmosphere, and the overall-
Oh wait, I'm reviewing Hero Therapy. Right.
Anyway, there are four levels, which play out pretty much the same. The end boss of each level becomes your ally in the next, a nice touch. The dialog is a mix of funny and serious, both of which are well written. There are dozens of non-required glowies just for atmosphere. The mobs are a mix of assorted regular ones and glowing 'dream' ones, which leads to my only complaint about this arc (besides no antlions). The minion level mob uses Kinetics. Six stacked Siphon Speed is no fun, as are minions using AoE heals. Control powers on minions = bad.
Since giving stars is cliche, I'm going to rate arcs using zero to five red FAILs. Despite the slowing minions and missing antlions, this is a great arc that gets zero FAILs. Nice work!
RATING:
Mission 1356: The Revenge of Hro'Dtohz
Because this has such a low mission number, this mission was most likely written during I14 beta and copied over, like my first one was. Because of this, I had high hopes for this arc. It goes without saying that people who play on Test are smarter than the average player. I mean, we're willing to go without earning anything, and endure bugs, just to help make the play experience smoother for everyone else. Where would we be without beta testers? (I played Anarchy Online day-of-release. 'nuff said.)
Because The Revenge of Hor'Dtohz has EBs, (which _was_ pointed out in the mission description, thanks!) I used my 50 Dark/Elec Brute. This does seem like an odd combination, but it works out well. I was going for a buzzsaw build, but gave it up when I realized that it would require farming for 4-5 LotG. Even with Midnight Grasp in the attack chain, the DPS is still quite good. Of course, given that many purple sets give a 10% global recharge, maybe...
Sorry, got sidetracked. Anyway, The Revenge of H'roDuhz...
1) You go into caves to rescue Vanguard from Rikti. Nothing special, except that you get a Rikti ally.
2) Serpent Drummer needs to be rescued from the Rikti. You get both Rikti and Malta allies. Here, a problem arises. S.D. is found at the end of the mostly linear cave system. He needs to be led to the exit. Dra'gon spawns between you and the exit. I attack Dra'gon. S.D. attacks Dra'gon and is killed. Mission FAILed.
This is not a critical FAILure because a hero spawns to 'save' S.D., and the dialog catches it properly. Still, it looks like getting the 'you win' ending would be difficult.
3) On the King's Row outdoor map, kill two guys, then kill a third guy who spawns after you kill the first two guys. Lots of other guys, including EB Heavy Assault Suits, for those who can't get enough Rikti smashin' fun. A bit time-consuming if you just want to zip though.
4) I liked this one. It uses an outdoor RWZ map, on which you have to defeat all four Riders, but you get a LOT of allies: two Rikti and two Malta, plus some more Malta who don't follow you, plus the turrets that come with the map. Oh, and one of the Malta says he has a 'surprise' for you, but I couldn't find it. Personally, I'd be worried if a Malta leader said he had a surprise for me. It would probably _look_ harmless, like a box of donuts or a DVD set of History Channel documentaries, but when eaten/watched it would program you to be a Malta sleeper agent, to be activated upon hearing a code phrase. Anyway, the Riders weren't too hard to defeat as EBs, although I suspect Famine will be difficult for those without end drain protection.
5) Kill Hru'Dats. You get some Vanguard allies, but for some reason they're just minions and an Lt., who didn't even make it to Her'Ditz, not that they would have made a difference. There's a plot twist at the end which I won't spoil here.
Overall, The Revenge of Houn'Dogs is a good, challenging arc with just a few small bugs. I like the concept of having people who are usually foes being allies. Overall, I give it only half a FAIL.
Rating: FA
I'm always happy to see more reviewers, especially ones that put their own spin on their reviews. I'd like to volunteer my own arcs for this thread. Both feature AVs/EBs, so I'd recommend running them with the Brute (If you don't mind being called a hero in the first one, anyway). However, one AV/EB is optional in Blitzkrieg and you wil have help with the other two. Take that how you will. If you must run one, though, Soldiers of Fortune is slightly less popular.
Title: Blitzkrieg
Arc ID: 3416
Creators Global Name: @Mekkanos
Level Range: 45-50
Synopsis: A simple investigation into Malta Group activity turns into a fight for the freedom of heroes everywhere as you uncover the sinister Project: Blitzkrieg
Story Type: Serious/Action (Hero oriented)
Mission Count: 5
Estimated Time to Play: 1-2 hours depending on how fast you go through
Title: Soldiers of Fortune
Arc ID: 4431
Creators Global Name: @Mekkanos
Level Range: 30-35
Synopsis: Battle two ruthless mercenary groups for an ancient item of power alongside some unusual allies!
Story Type: Serious/Action (Villain Oriented)
Mission Count: 5
Estimated Time to Play: 1-2 hours depending on how fast you go through.
I can't access CoH/V for a while to play your arcs but I promise I will run one of them as soon as I get the chance!
EDIT: I have run Two Girls At Once and sent my review in-game! It was goofy fun, like I expected, but had some flaws that drew it down a bit. For instance, there didn't seem to be a lot of compass text besides the default that lists the objective's name. There's also the issue with the fact that some rather large assumptions are made about the player, which I suppose is inevitable in some cases. The fourth mission was particularly awkward, though. It took me a second to figure out that the hologram that the intro text is referring to is the Pocket D arena's hologram generator (Is it ever stated anywhere that the arena maps are holographic? I suppose it's a reasonable assumption to make). That and Silver Mantis' oddly presented censored dialogue made that mission a little off.
That said, I had fun playing the arc. The fact that you essentially have multiple people who chime in as the briefing goes on is quite amusing and the custom group is fun to fight. I will be checking out the sequel soon.
EDIT2: I ran the other one and enjoyed it quite a bit as well. The custom group from the first arc making a return without so much of a mention is a little odd but other than that, I'd say it was pretty well done. I personally don't have much issue with this one, other than the fact that the plan is ridiculous. It was entertaining overall.
My arcs:
Title: Blitzkrieg
Arc ID: 3416
Title: Soldiers of Fortune
Arc ID: 4431
Title: The Rikti Accession
Arc ID: 278757
Feel free to direct some withering sarcasm upon any of my three arcs; the numbers are in my sig.
Fair warning: Small Fears contains EB/AVs, and if your Brute is an Invulnerable-type, you may have more trouble than average, simply because of damage types. Trollbane also has EB/Bosses, but it's a lowbie-oriented arc (10-14), and should be reasonably accessible to most ATs. How to Survive a Robot Uprising is tough, but should be doable for most, thanks to allies scattered liberally throughout.
Sarcasm more than welcome, as long as there's a review in there as well 
"A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head." Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates
MA Arcs: #12285, "Small Fears", #106553, "Trollbane", #12669, "How to Survive a Robot Uprising"
I've finished "Blitzkrieg" and "How to survive a Robot Uprising". Reviews up when I have more time tonite. (quickie: both pretty good).
As an update, it seems the author of "The Revenge of Hor'dotoz" didn't play one of my arcs, so therefore his work gets five FAILs. Every other sentence is misspelled, the mobs are all catboys in their underwear, and the final mission requires you to beat eleven grav/storm AVs at once. Really.
Lies and slander. I was one of the first people to play your remixed Posi TF. I was the guy who complained that you dropped the Vahz EB.
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Arc #3416, "Blitzkrieg"
The title immediately made me think of the Metallica song, which would have been awesome to have playing at peak volume while playing this.
(Insert rant about how old Metallica is better then new)
(Insert debate about what exactly constitutes 'old Metallica')
Since this contains Malta and EBs, I used my Brute, Fast Kitty. And yes, I'll admit that is a rather pointless name. Normally I spend half an hour planning out a character's name, costume and backstory, but this one was created in a hurry for some reason I can't remember, and 'Faster Pussycat' was taken. 
The contact is Crimson, and the author captures his style of speaking well. Except that on a 'real' mission, Crimson usually keeps you on a need-to-know basis, which is fine there, but wouldn't really work for an MA mission. "Go kill everyone in that bagel factory, I can't tell you why" would cause half the players to quit right there. Maybe his bagel didn't have enough raisins or something.
1) Infiltrate a Malta base to seek info. Nothing special here, dialog is good but not memorable.
2) Infiltrate an Arachnos base to seek info. Ditto.
3) We learn about Malta's sinister plan. I won't spoil it here except that it's plausible and well written. Anyway, the map is the Zig breakout. The mission intro even states that you may need to enter the sewers, which is a nice touch.
4) The map from the LRSF where the Titan appears. An optional EB who fortunately spawned out of the way, some glowies to smash, and a well-written hero boss.
5) Enter the Malta base to smash the head badguy. This was the arc's only required EB, who wasn't too hard, although it might be too much for a char who isn't Really Awesome.
This is a hard map to rate. The dialog was well written with no spelling or grammar mistakes, and the author didn't do anything blatantly wrong, so no FAILs are warranted. Still, there just wasn't anything that made me jump up and say 'wow!!!1' To be honest I'll probably forget this one by tomorrow. So, I'll invent a new rating, the MEH. But then, even that seems a bit harsh, so I'll give 'Blitzkrieg' half a MEH.
Rating: ME
Arc #12669, How to Survive a Robot Uprising
Robots have been turning upon their masters ever since the very first story about them. Still, this arc manages to avoid most of the cliches, and even pokes fun at them briefly.
The mission description says it's "solo UNfriendly", so I used Fast Kitty again. Your contact is named /hide, and meows as a box of parts. You are deliberately kept in doubt about who or what he is, which works out believably.
1) You meow into a base where you are attacked by robots from various factions, some of whom are transparent for some reason. One of the author's characters appears to help you; normally self-insertions are a mark of a lousy arc, but this was meowed well, and the character name, Archimedes' Lever, is a clever reference. The boss is a Vanguard HVAC, which I haven't even seen used in MA before. Mob chatter is well written.
2) An Arachnos base, where you meow more robots.
3) You learn that the 'virals' are trying to subvert Malta robots, so you meow onto a cargo ship to stop them. This is where the arc stumbles. The first thing you see upon entering is a group of FOUR ZEUS TITANS. They are fighting some regular Malta, who die in five seconds flat.
Now, Fast Kitty is Really Awesome, so I was able to meow in and smash them. (yes, FOUR ZEUS TITANS at once, without using the tier 9. There should be a badge for that.) Beating the Titans isn't strictly required, but there were groups of FOUR ZEUS TITANS all over the ship, one of which was right in front of a required glowie. This would no doubt present an insurmountable barrier to someone who isn't on a team and isn't Really Awesome. This isn't a fatal FAIL , since the arc did say it's solo UNfriendly, but still it will meow this arc off limits to some. (ever try to get a non-farming AE team together? try it sometime).
4) You enter Portal Meow and fight all sorts of Praetorian robots, like Seige's RAM series, Nightstar's SPECTRA robots, and Neuron's Electrodes. Good variety here.
5) Time for the Final Showdown, where you are meowed by _three_ of the author's character's (the minion group is Shameless Self-Insertions 
), yet there's no Big Baddie. A mistake? I don't meow. The mission meows off with a nice souvenir.
Rating this one is hard... it's fun and challenging if you're Really Awesome (or on a good team), but unplayable if you aren't. Since you were warned about the difficulty, I'll give it just half a FAIL .
Rating: FA
[ QUOTE ]
Arc #3416, "Blitzkrieg"
The title immediately made me think of the Metallica song, which would have been awesome to have playing at peak volume while playing this.
(Insert rant about how old Metallica is better then new)
(Insert debate about what exactly constitutes 'old Metallica')
Since this contains Malta and EBs, I used my Brute, Fast Kitty. And yes, I'll admit that is a rather pointless name. Normally I spend half an hour planning out a character's name, costume and backstory, but this one was created in a hurry for some reason I can't remember, and 'Faster Pussycat' was taken.
The contact is Crimson, and the author captures his style of speaking well. Except that on a 'real' mission, Crimson usually keeps you on a need-to-know basis, which is fine there, but wouldn't really work for an MA mission. "Go kill everyone in that bagel factory, I can't tell you why" would cause half the players to quit right there. Maybe his bagel didn't have enough raisins or something.
1) Infiltrate a Malta base to seek info. Nothing special here, dialog is good but not memorable.
2) Infiltrate an Arachnos base to seek info. Ditto.
3) We learn about Malta's sinister plan. I won't spoil it here except that it's plausible and well written. Anyway, the map is the Zig breakout. The mission intro even states that you may need to enter the sewers, which is a nice touch.
4) The map from the LRSF where the Titan appears. An optional EB who fortunately spawned out of the way, some glowies to smash, and a well-written hero boss.
5) Enter the Malta base to smash the head badguy. This was the arc's only required EB, who wasn't too hard, although it might be too much for a char who isn't Really Awesome.
This is a hard map to rate. The dialog was well written with no spelling or grammar mistakes, and the author didn't do anything blatantly wrong, so no FAILs are warranted. Still, there just wasn't anything that made me jump up and say 'wow!!!1' To be honest I'll probably forget this one by tomorrow. So, I'll invent a new rating, the MEH. But then, even that seems a bit harsh, so I'll give 'Blitzkrieg' half a MEH.
Rating: ME
[/ QUOTE ]
Thanks for playing my arc! I'm glad that you thought it was good, at the very least. I'm a little saddened that you thought it was forgettable but I guess I shouldn't expect everyone to be floored by the arc. I'm honored that you came up with a whole new rating just for my arc, though.
My arcs:
Title: Blitzkrieg
Arc ID: 3416
Title: Soldiers of Fortune
Arc ID: 4431
Title: The Rikti Accession
Arc ID: 278757
[ QUOTE ]
Arc #12669, How to Survive a Robot Uprising
Robots have been turning upon their masters ever since the very first story about them. Still, this arc manages to avoid most of the cliches, and even pokes fun at them briefly.
The mission description says it's "solo UNfriendly", so I used Fast Kitty again. Your contact is named /hide, and meows as a box of parts. You are deliberately kept in doubt about who or what he is, which works out believably.
1) You meow into a base where you are attacked by robots from various factions, some of whom are transparent for some reason. One of the author's characters appears to help you; normally self-insertions are a mark of a lousy arc, but this was meowed well, and the character name, Archimedes' Lever, is a clever reference. The boss is a Vanguard HVAC, which I haven't even seen used in MA before. Mob chatter is well written.
2) An Arachnos base, where you meow more robots.
3) You learn that the 'virals' are trying to subvert Malta robots, so you meow onto a cargo ship to stop them. This is where the arc stumbles. The first thing you see upon entering is a group of FOUR ZEUS TITANS. They are fighting some regular Malta, who die in five seconds flat.
Now, Fast Kitty is Really Awesome, so I was able to meow in and smash them. (yes, FOUR ZEUS TITANS at once, without using the tier 9. There should be a badge for that.) Beating the Titans isn't strictly required, but there were groups of FOUR ZEUS TITANS all over the ship, one of which was right in front of a required glowie. This would no doubt present an insurmountable barrier to someone who isn't on a team and isn't Really Awesome. This isn't a fatal FAIL , since the arc did say it's solo UNfriendly, but still it will meow this arc off limits to some. (ever try to get a non-farming AE team together? try it sometime).
4) You enter Portal Meow and fight all sorts of Praetorian robots, like Seige's RAM series, Nightstar's SPECTRA robots, and Neuron's Electrodes. Good variety here.
5) Time for the Final Showdown, where you are meowed by _three_ of the author's character's (the minion group is Shameless Self-Insertions ), yet there's no Big Baddie. A mistake? I don't meow. The mission meows off with a nice souvenir.
Rating this one is hard... it's fun and challenging if you're Really Awesome (or on a good team), but unplayable if you aren't. Since you were warned about the difficulty, I'll give it just half a FAIL .
Rating: FA
[/ QUOTE ]
Heh... I find it kind of funny that you mention the very first robot story at the start of this review- once I get more slots one way or another (I'm an eternal optimist, but I'm mostly expecting to have to pay for 'em ), I've got a sequel to How to Survive a Robot Uprising in the works, called "Robot Uprising Redux" (or... "R.U.R."? Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, knowwhatImean, knowwhatImean?)
Anyhow- to respond to some of the stuff you mentioned- the first mission robots are all actually Council 'bots, in reference to the "Rogue Robots" mini-arc in the lower thirties, blueside. Unfortunately, Council robots cap off at level 35-ish, but, thankfully, they have Shadow Shard Reflection counterparts. I decided that the transparency was a minor price to pay for being able to use the mobs I wanted, heh.
As to the major reason (or at least the one you expounded most upon) that you consider my arc unsoloable... the contact specifically tells you to avoid the Malta Titans, which is quite doable with any travel power... in fact, if memory serves, there's only one group you can't avoid with Sprint alone. Also, if you're willing to drop your difficulty level (anathema on a Brute, I know ), it's even squishy-able- I did most of my testing on my (sadly purple-less) Blaster.
As to the last mission- the *whole thing* is supposed to be the climactic battle. There's no 'final boss fight' because, well, a) I'm planning a sequel, and b) the mastermind behind all this isn't really a combatant. And there's three of my Shameless Self-Insertions because I've found that, even with all three, they die depressingly easily to my custom critters- apparently, I'm better at creating mobs than I am characters
Anyhoo, I'm glad you enjoyed the arc and didn't get too frustrated with it; after the amount of tweaking I had to do to get that one even halfway playable, I have a hefty new respect for our devs that have to make missions that are playable by anyone, and can't just use a warning flag to try to avoid pissing people off >.O
"A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head." Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates
MA Arcs: #12285, "Small Fears", #106553, "Trollbane", #12669, "How to Survive a Robot Uprising"
I ran:
------
[ QUOTE ]
#83920: Two Chicks at Once
Moderately challenging, for level 40+. Has two EBs, but you have allies for them. Dialog written for villains.
[/ QUOTE ]
and was preped to give an in depth review; but after running it - "I enjoyed it and found it fun." sums it up. Nice custom 'Hero' group; liked the lighthearted story and what you did with switching chars in contact dialog, etc. It's the second 'Villian' arc I've liked out of the 25 or so I've played on the MA.
(And although what little inuendo there was was very tame and fairly light - I am surprised you didn't go for Two Girls, One Cup..Err Calendar type of title. )
So, that done; I'd like to request a review of my MA Arc:
b]Title:Is it Live or is it Memory-X?[/b]
--------------------------------------
Story Arc ID: 70210
Authors Global Chat Handle: @Armsman
Length: Very Long (5 missions)
Alignment: Heroic
Type: Story-Focused
Groups: 5th Column, Crey, Custom Group
Has: Bosses; AV (Scales to EB based on team size/difficulty setting).
Story Description: The 5th Column is building a device to control the world. Can you save the world from TOTAL DOMINATION?! (Hey it worked to get my Villians and Vigilantes pen and paper RPG group interested back in the day.)
Designer Notes: The Arc can actually be soloed by most Scrapper (Level 50 MA/SR), Tank (Level 41 SS/INV) and MasterMind (Level 39 Robot/Traps) builds. My level 41 Gravity/Force Field Controller made it through mission 3 solo with no issues, but starting getting defeats in mission 4; so if youre a support class or a blaster, you probably need a team-mate. This arc is actually based on an adventure I ran players through in the Villians & Vigilantes pen and paper RPG a number of years back. I was surprised at how much of the original flavor I was able to keep in adapting it to fit in the CoX universe. There was only really one element I couldnt include due to MA limitations.
After the 5/5/09 patch; I had to pick a different map for Mission 2; and they got rid of my favorite 'captured (Energy Field)' animation; AND I had to re-tune my Custom VG; so I am really looking for any feedback you're willing/able to give (Although I hope one day that the Devs do re-instate the map I had to replace as it worked really well).
It dpes have a couple escorts; but the maps aren't that large. and, lastly - A slight majority (60% to 40%) of the feedback I've gotten recently say it's 'hard' (although you do have Allies here and there); so I'f you want to use your 'Brute' go ahead.
Thanks.
[ QUOTE ]
Thanks for playing my arc! I'm glad that you thought it was good, at the very least. I'm a little saddened that you thought it was forgettable but I guess I shouldn't expect everyone to be floored by the arc. I'm honored that you came up with a whole new rating just for my arc, though.
[/ QUOTE ]
Uh, what arc?
Seriously, if the devs had inserted this among Crimson's regular missions, no one would think it wasn't an Actual CoH Mission.
[ QUOTE ]
Heh... I find it kind of funny that you mention the very first robot story at the start of this review- once I get more slots one way or another (I'm an eternal optimist, but I'm mostly expecting to have to pay for 'em ), I've got a sequel to How to Survive a Robot Uprising in the works, called "Robot Uprising Redux" (or... "R.U.R."? Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, knowwhatImean, knowwhatImean?)
[/ QUOTE ]
Nice, although only .001% percent of the people will get it (except those who have read this column, of course).
[ QUOTE ]
Unfortunately, Council robots cap off at level 35-ish, but, thankfully, they have Shadow Shard Reflection counterparts.
[/ QUOTE ]
Clever.
[ QUOTE ]
As to the major reason (or at least the one you expounded most upon) that you consider my arc unsoloable... the contact specifically tells you to avoid the Malta Titans, which is quite doable with any travel power...
[/ QUOTE ]
I saw that. However, there is one group of FOUR ZEUS TITANS that was standing directly in front of the desk glowie. Since all stealth suppresses when you _begin_ to click a glowie, you pretty much need to defeat this group.
Now, I'm willing to bet that at least half of all players who _have_ a 50 can beat one group. Any tier 9 defense power should be enough. Dominators should win if Domination is up. A good Stalker could possibly take out one Titan with BU+AS, run and repeat. Those with a defense based powerset can just go right for the glowie. Masterminds, of course, can just send their robots toe-to-toe with the titans. Non-robot MMs will get killed, but they're used to it by now
Oh yeah, that reminds me of another nice touch; at one point the dialog addresses the possibility that the player has robots, or even is a robot. Cool.
Actually, that's the first time I've seen or heard of the glowie popping out right behind a group of baddies- most of the time it's in some irritating location that's impossible to find, but not guarded >.<
And the 'allowing for the PC being a robot/AI' is something I had planned on, forgot, and then got yelled at by Venture for when he reviewed it
And yeh, I know that there's only a tiny fraction of the people that'll get the R.U.R. reference- it's more in there for my own amusement than anything else (well, that, and it's fun to find little things like that). I threw in a fair number of robot-references into this arc, although I tried to keep them appropriate to what was going on, but they're there if you keep your eyes open (and are as big a nerd as I am )
"A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head." Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates
MA Arcs: #12285, "Small Fears", #106553, "Trollbane", #12669, "How to Survive a Robot Uprising"
I'd get the R.U.R. reference, but hey.
Talk about bad glowies. One of my missions has glowies in one of those Oranbega maps, and there's a very rare but existent chance that glowies will spawn within range of those random crystal spawns.
Which makes the mission potentially impossible, though the chance is so low I just crossed my fingers and kept it as is.
(Here's hoping we can place stuff specifically, some day)
[ QUOTE ]
(And although what little inuendo there was was very tame and fairly light - I am surprised you didn't go for Two Girls, One Cup..Err Calendar type of title. )
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I was actually worried that it was too risque as is, although no one has complained so far. Even so, it probably has no chance of becoming a Dev's Choice, although that's hardly an issue right now. 'Curiouser and Curiouser' is even more blue in a few places, but then, no one's playing it :-( 'Two Girls, one Calendar' would be... interesting. (I've already seen a 2G1C reference in one arc already).
"Two Chicks at Once" was intended to be an Office Space reference, although I found out afterwards that the actual quote is "Two chicks at the same time". :-(
Arc #70210: Is it Live or is it Memory-X?
Since this arc was listed as soloable, I used my titular warshade, Purple Lovin'. Although not as Awesome as my others, this is my badge character, so I try to do whatever I can with her. As far as I know, she has the most badges of any Warshade in the game (672 at last count). Of course, having the most badges of any Warshade is like having the highest deckchair on the Titanic, but I digress.
On the way to the mission I saw a Peacebringer named 'Pinkbringer', which I found disturbing for some reason.
1) Stop the Fifth Column from robbing a bank. Normally a defeat all with a 15 minute limit would make me drop the arc right there, but on a really small map it doesn't make much of a difference. Some of the mobs were level 48 for some unknown reason. Funny exit popup.
2) Enter Crey base to stop 5C troops from getting stuff. The map is filled with Crey/5C battles, with both sides hostile to you as well. Mob dialog is funny.
One thing I have a problem with, is that in addition to the glowie you have to click, there are also a dozen decoy glowies. They add only a little to the story while making the mission take longer to complete. It may not seem important, but assuming I click five fake glowies at four seconds each, that's twenty seconds of my life wasted. I could have spent that time hiking, watching the sun set over the ocean, reading a-
Eh, who am I kidding, I'd be surfing the net for furry pr0n. (or worse, using the MA to _make_ furry pr0n.)
3) A lab filled with 5C, where you have to click four glowies... which are hidden among more fake glowies. Then you free a hostage (I won't spoil the Plot Twist here), and then, escort him back to the exit. More time wasted that I could have spent making an arc where Mynx encounters her Praetorian counterpart, Bobcat, and subdues her after a fierce struggle. Then, they discover that Nemesis is behind it all, so they track him down together and foil his plans, after which Mynx invites Bobcat over to her place for sardines and milk. Since Bobcat can't get sent back to her own dimension until tomorrow, Mynx invites her to spend the night, and then...
(ehem) sorry, got sidetracked. Anyway, there's also a nice reference to 2001: A Space Odyssey, which I thought no one under 40 would get, but now that I think about it, "How to Survive a Robot Uprising" made reference to the same thing. Either 2001 is more of a cultural icon than I thought, or we're all really old.
4) You learn more about the nefarious plan, and go to a Portal Corp lab to rescue some hostages, Statesman and 'the president of the united states', and escort them to the exit. Folks, if you have to escort hostages back across a map, that's pretty much the same as a kill-all, and kill-alls are bad, mmmkay? By now, I could have written "Mynx's Furry Adventure", debugged and published it, had it banned, filed a protest, reposted it under a slightly different name, had that banned, started a new account and posted it again, had my IP forever banned from CoX, then started a new business selling virtual fursuits on Second Life. Oh, the President hostage is set to aggressive/combatant, but he's only an Lt., so you have to babysit him so he doesn't get killed.
5) Here, we get a a preview of the long-awaited moonbase! Granted, it looks just like a Rikti base, but what did you expect, a new tileset? Here, we rescue 5 hostages, which were named 'Hostage' with generic text, but blessedly did _not_ need to be led out. Then smash some glowies, rescue Back Alley Brawler (?) and defeat Master Bater, who was an EB but not too hard.
After exiting the mission, I saw a character named 'eatmewhileimhot', which I found... disturbing.
Is it Live or is it Memory-X? is a well written mission with a good story and a some funny bits, hampered by some time-wasting parts. One FAIL out of five.
Rating: FAIL
Arc: #85544: Can You Win the Internet?
Here's a quick unsolicited review, just to act as a threadbu... er, I mean, cuz the arc is so great it just has to be reviewed! I won't bother to list the missions, just suffice it to say that this is really funny. I mean really, _really_ funny. The joke density here is at least as high as my arcs; only Zubblygunabbly's 'Running of the Bulls' scores higher. Some of the humor requires knowledge of internet memes, but we all spend a few hours each day reading Fark and Something Awful, right?
The only problem comes in the last mission, which uses Void Hunters as minions. For a Kheldian, this is VERY VERY BAD. I was able to win by sneaking through most of it, and using Dwarf + accolade powers to beat the boss, but most Kheldian players will come up short.
Can You Win The Internet? gets four FAILs if you play it with a Kheldian, zero if you don't. Since I'm the only player in the whole game who uses a Kheldian nowadays, that averages out to zero. Nice work!
Rating:
Well since you already gave me feedback on "The Portal Bandits" when you asked me to do "Two Chicks at Once", I'll submit a different arc and run one of your other ones in addition.
Arc Name: MacGuffin Delivery Service
Arc ID: 1567
Faction: Family, Tsoo, Circle of Thorns, Carnies, Freakshow, Council, Paragon Police
Morality: Villainous
Level Range: 35-40
Difficulty Level: Easy-Medium
Synopsis: A routine late-night pawn shop robbery turns into a major ordeal when you pick up a mysterious little statue that everyone seems to want for themselves. You don't know what it does, why it's so important, or why you can't seem to just get rid of it.
Oh... huh. Just noticed the caveat about 'playing your missions first', which I don't think I've done.
So, off to run Positron's remixed TF. My (in)famous stream-of-semiconsciousness reviewing is at your service- you're getting my thoughts pretty much as I get them
MISSION ONE:
City of Gyros. Right. I'm having flashbacks to Saul Rubenstein's Discount Task Force >.>
Hellions... okay. *shrug*
Wait, why is Posi doing that weird monkey-walk thing? Is that something you did, or some bizarre Architect glitch? Odd... even though I logged out and came back (for nearly a day... I actually have a life right now, something that is taking some getting used to ), he's still doing it o.O
Hyper-accelerated metabolism... oy.
MISSION TWO:
Package... m'kay... y'know, this really is reminding me very strongly of "Saul Rubenstein's Discount Task Force" (think it was Ascendant that wrote it?)
Hrm... well, at least it wasn't Oranbega :/
That was a short little mission... and Posi's still monkey-walking >.>
MISSION THREE:
Ah, yes... the requisite swipe at Azuria-loses-things. Sorta funny, but it's been done.
Wait, I'm fighting Skulls? Why? Azuria sends you after the Hellions, normally... and the sudden level-drop is a bit disorienting >.>
Hrm... the interplay between the clues and the other text is cute, but I'm finding that if the humour is falling a bit flat (which it is, for me- not necessarily your fault, but...), the arc really doesn't have a lot to fall back on. Plus I just woke up, so I'm not feeling especially funny >.O
Also, why couldn't Azuria handle the Skulls... isn't she supposed to be a powerful sorceress?
MISSION FOUR:
Aaaaand level limited again. Kind of jarring.
The wand clues aren't even trying to be funny?
Heh... "Hedge Mages". Although isn't that usually "Hedge Wizards"?
Oooookay, the silver wand joke was a bit tacky >.<
... Anti-Rogaine? Oy.
MISSION FIVE:
Yah... I'm not really talking to Positron, even though I'm talking to Positron? I get it, it's just a bit... suspension of disbelief, y'know?
I hate trying to find stuff on this map >.<
Hrm... yeah.
So, overall: I suspect I'm just not cut out for humour arcs. Since the particular style of humour didn't appeal to me that much, the whole thing felt a bit pointless- Hellions, Skulls, and CoT. Whoop-de-flippin'-do. I think it could benefit from some... no, make that a lot more enemy chatter- you can pack in a lot more jokes that way, and the 'funny' of the whole thing doesn't hinge on Posi being a narcissitic twit.
The arcs are short and clean- not too much extraneous faffing around (although some optional glowies with more jokes would be good)... but there wasn't a lot of substance to it. I guess my final word is "Needs more funny".
"A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head." Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates
MA Arcs: #12285, "Small Fears", #106553, "Trollbane", #12669, "How to Survive a Robot Uprising"
Alright, I've finished my review of "Two Chicks at Once" that you had requested. I'll run "Curiouser and Curiouser" soon as payment for your review of "MacGuffin Delivery Service".
Oh and Vikki Vandale was pleased at being Miss December.
Since reviewing arcs seems to be the latest thing, I'm going to hop on the bandwagon with my own review thread. To carve out a niche for myself, I'm going to try for the maximum amount of sarcasm possible without melting the forum. This does NOT mean that I will be more critical than the average reviewer; I'll try to be as fair as possible. Maybe even MORE fair; sarcasm becomes dull when you use too much. I'm quite happy to lavish praise on a well-written arc, and save my scathing wit for those who deserve it.
Anyway, the review criteria are:
Soloability: I'll do most of this with my oh-so-powerful Warshade. (sarcasm) If it has an AV, hard EBs, or it's otherwise hard, just say so and I'll use a Brute instead. If my Brute can't beat it on difficulty level 3 (full IO sets with some purples), it's too hard. FAIL.
Spelling and grammar: I won't pick on one or two mistakes, but if it looks like a 6th grader wrote it, FAIL.
Excessive time wasters: please, no kill-alls, no maps with 28 glowies, no escorting a hostage through five frakkin' floors to the exit.
Story: I realize we're not all Shakespeare, but if the storyline consists of "hey hero there are some hellions in that warehouse go kill them"... FAIL.
And oh yeah, you hafta play one of my arcs. Post a quickie review on this thread, doesn't have to be a lot, just enough to let me know you did it.
#1945: Positron's Task Force: the Remix
Suitable for any level, no challenge at all. Dialog written for heroes.
#83920: Two Chicks at Once
Moderately challenging, for level 40+. Has two EBs, but you have allies for them. Dialog written for villains.
#167567: Curiouser and Curiouser
The sequel to Two Chicks at Once, although you don't have to have played it to follow the story. Moderately challenging, for level 40+. Has 3 non-required EBs. Dialog written for villains.
Don't worry, your opinion of my arcs won't affect the review.
Really.
Honest.