Venture's Reviews II: The Nightmare Continues

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Well I was reading this post and had to comment on a couple of points MrCaptainMan makes:

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he ‘equipment to confiscate’ turns out to be those huge science probe things. Not sure how I’m going to take those away, tbh., they won’t fit in my pockets, that’s for sure...



Well what small piece of tech equipment available in the MA do you suggest? They all seem rather large don't they? There is NOTHING small from what I remember so how could he pick something that doesn't exist?




He doesn't have to find another gloiwe to use. The glowies are simply Mcguffins to get a plot point across. He could have simply said 'examine and disable'. As it stands, the player is being asked to remove 4 pieces of machinery that each stand over a mans height. Which is silly.

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Ok, suspend your disbelief for a second and imagine the glowie is 1 foot tall. Or the character places a teleport beacon on the 8 foot tall device and teleports it out. It's his story and he wants you to remove the objects so just do it! Maybe if Venture feels it's a issue he will slightly modify his arc to accomodate you and others who might feel this way.

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Finding the last silent kneeling citizen on an outdoor map is horrible. We have big shiny glowy captured animations for a reason.



What reason would the captive have to be glowing?





Rikti isolation fields? The writer can use the writing to lessen any tedious nonfun stuff for the player. This plotpoint was to find hostages. it wasn't necessary that I fly around an outdoor map for ages because the elements Im looking for are difficult to find.

In one of my arcs, I had a pile of bones as a glowie to find on the Eden map. it was horrible, and testers rightfully complained. I changed the pile of bones to something really large, and altered the writing slightly to compensate. The writer has the final word on what goes into his arc. The players are free after the fact to give their opinion.

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I understand what you are talking about, but that's part of the story isn't it... finding the hostages? I think they wouldn't be sending up flares to advertise where they are holding them do you? But again I do understand what you mean, from a gameplay point of view. Finding objects/people can be frustrating at times. I myself am a very patient person and like to "immerse" myself in the story. If something takes time, but is worthwhile (rescuing hostages) then I am willing to do it. A pointless collection mission on the other hand really bothers me!



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Mission 3. Briefing. Another mangled idiom. “wrap up some loose ends.” – I checked that ‘tie up loose ends’ was the correct form of the idiom as I thought, and found a possible source for Venture’s problem; one of the tvtropes.com contributors also makes the same mistake.



Wrap & Tie have the same meaning, there is NOTHING wrong with him saying that. If he wants to use one word in place of another that's his perogative. And what he wrote makes perfect sense.





Wrap and Tie don't have the same meaning (try to wrap your shoelaces), but what you mean is that they act in the same way in this fixed phrase. Getting an idiom or a fixed phrase wrong is akin to making a spelling error IMO. You are free to disagree.

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I do disagree.

Definition of Phrasal Verbs:

wrap up
To bring to a conclusion; settle finally or successfully

tie up
To impede the progress of; block

"To tie up loose ends" idiom means :
(idiomatic) To deal with the minor consequences of a previous action; to tidy up, finish, or complete.

So does not "wrap up loose ends" mean exactly the same thing?

So his use of that phrase was correct. A writer does NOT need to use exactly the same idiom to get the same meaning across. Writing would be very boring if we used the same fixed phrases to express ourselves, don't you think?

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My first body gleans this system message: ‘This is the body of a Malta operative, gunned down by other Malta operatives.’ So does the second. And the third… Why anyone bothered to put them in bodybags in the midst of a shootout isn’t explained. The fourth does drop a clue, however, and some of the others do also. Not all of them. Some must be there for flavour, but they just seem a timesink to me.



Again... what other graphic could he have used to convey a dead body? Please let me know. A real body? Not an option that I see in the MA. Bones? Well how did the flesh get stripped off the bones? Coffin? Well if you have an issue with a compact storage device like a body bag, I'd hate to see your issue with a large coffin!





Again, the writing can be used to workaround the limits of the MA. You seem to think I'm criticising purely the glowie choice, when the fact is he's done what we all do - chosen a glowie AND written some plot to refer to it. The glowies are limitied. The writing is only limited by the writers imagination and skill (and somehwat by the profanity filter lol). I'm supposed to accept that in this frantic shootout I'm too busy to read one email even though I'm stealthed, yet the very people who are doing the frantic shooting can find the time to put the dead into bodybags (including the dead of their enemies!). The glowie isn't to blame for my incredulity; the writing is.

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Uh huh... well I can't remember this part that well from when I played the arc, but I don't see the problem. There is a frantic shootout...bullets flying everywhere.. .and your calmly reading emails without a care in the world because your invisible? Wow... bullets don't care that your invisible do they? Now you are right in the sense of game mechanics you are safe, but if you actually immersed yourself into the character you were playing, I don't think he would be so glib about his safety in that situation... do you? You are incredulous that they would put the dead into body bags? Why? Is not Malta organized and professional, would they not clean up after themselves? Also civilized people do take care of enemy dead don't they? Maybe Malta had "stealthed" personnel doing body bag duty? After all if it's ok for your character to be perfectly safe... LOL! As for incredulity, do you not have an issue with a different point... why do all the bodies of people killed in the game just disappear? He was trying to show dead bodies and the only way to do that in the MA is to use a glowie... 2 out of the 3 choices would make no sense. So he used a bodybag glowie( something a modern military unit would have), so that there would be something for you to search. Whether the information they provided moved the story ahead or not I can't remember.

Respectfully,

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Qr - your suggestion of a teleport beacon is exactly what I'm trying to say. An easyvway to avoid any need to suspend disbelief. Perfect.

I disagree with your points about the loose end thing, but it's only a minor point.

As for the other stuff, I think a writer should try to avoid if he I'd she can any player wrinkling their forehead because of odd things. There was no firefight. No bullets were whizzing past me. I wouldn't have to suspend my disbelief if the writing didn't tell me things which contradicted my experience.

Eco

Eco

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MArcs:

The Echo, Arc ID 1688 (5mish, easy, drama)
The Audition, Arc ID 221240 (6 mish, complex mech, comedy)
Storming Citadel, Arc ID 379488 (lowbie, 1mish, 10-min timed)

The MA is far from perfect. The fact is, even the "Official" CoH arcs are full of things that require you to suspend disbelief far worse than the "problems" Eco picked nits about in "Blowback."

When I first read Eco's alleged review of Venture's arc, I'd fashioned a rather lengthy rebuttal that included most every point later made by others. Then I stopped and decided to assume he was being deliberately snarky - parodying Venture's reviews by being unbelievably critical of small points. In my opinion it was a poorly done parody, but a parody nevertheless.

Then came the inane rebuttals to the people that *did* choose to reply to him. I'd love to believe that even those rebuttals are part of some misguided attempt to continue parodying Venture, but even I'm not that gullible.

This simply goes to show that one man's treasure is another man's trash, and it hammers home how bad the five star rating system is. With people like Eco, the farmers, and the griefers making up a large part of the rating public, good material is doomed to suffer from unfair or deliberately malicious rating. You can't tell me that Venture's "3 star" rating on "Blowback" isn't a result of that.

The system still has a long way to go, not only in fixing the rating system, but in adding MA content and technology that will give us the tools to create missions that don't require so much suspension of disbelief - such as the ability to actually create bodies that stay down or ways of giving multiple descriptions to multiple objects created in a single collection event.

For now, we have neither, so we do the best we can. Those of us with a fair understanding of that willingly suspend disbelief when a creator does his best. Others write bad reviews on someone else's review thread.

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The SOLUS Foundation - a Liberty and Pinnacle SG

"The Consequences of War" - Arcs # 227331 and 241496

tl;dr - If someone's going to complain about the body bags then they're going to have to take it up with the ESRB. Pretty much all of the "dead bodies" blueside are represented by body bags in the canon missions. It's a game mechanic. It would never have occurred to me to think of them as literally bags that the villain has taken the time and trouble to stuff a corpse into.

I assume "nip" is a "profanity" because it refers to drinking alcohol. Someone really needs to just turn off the damned profanity filter. If they simply don't have the time to go through it, then post the word list to the public and let us nominate words to remove from it. In fact, I'm going to post that in the suggestion forum.

I haven't played the arc and can't comment on any other aspects of the arc or review.

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tl;dr - If someone's going to complain about the body bags then they're going to have to take it up with the ESRB. Pretty much all of the "dead bodies" blueside are represented by body bags in the canon missions. It's a game mechanic. It would never have occurred to me to think of them as literally bags that the villain has taken the time and trouble to stuff a corpse into.

I assume "nip" is a "profanity" because it refers to drinking alcohol. Someone really needs to just turn off the damned profanity filter. If they simply don't have the time to go through it, then post the word list to the public and let us nominate words to remove from it. In fact, I'm going to post that in the suggestion forum.

I haven't played the arc and can't comment on any other aspects of the arc or review.

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the 'nip' thing probably refers to nipples. the profanity filter is ridiculous sometimes.

AS for the rest, I notice from Ventures Blowback thread (didn't see that before, apologies) that he's removing the decoy bodybags. That's something we agree on anyway. There's also nothing wrong with a 3-star rating imo. I said it was nearing a borderline 4 even if I thought it was a dull story. Did nobody notice the positive things i said? If ratings were the only things important about our opinions, all the review threads would be simply 'Arc XXX, The Title: 4 stars' and nothing else.

Threadjacking ventures review thread wasn't what I had in mind, I just wanted to offer a balance to the 'ventures great at spelling, grrammar and syntax therefore he is God of Reviewers' gushing post before mine. I'll not steal any more of his airtime, as it were.
Eco.

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MArcs:

The Echo, Arc ID 1688 (5mish, easy, drama)
The Audition, Arc ID 221240 (6 mish, complex mech, comedy)
Storming Citadel, Arc ID 379488 (lowbie, 1mish, 10-min timed)

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I assume "nip" is a "profanity" because it refers to drinking alcohol.
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the 'nip' thing probably refers to nipples. the profanity filter is ridiculous sometimes.

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I actually think "nip" is considered an ethnic slur.


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Threadjacking ventures review thread wasn't what I had in mind, I just wanted to offer a balance to the 'ventures great at spelling, grrammar and syntax therefore he is God of Reviewers' gushing post before mine.

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I think it's perfectly legitimate to do this. I, myself, thought it would be fun to check the creative output of the people who are doing reviews of other's work, and consequently created the Who Reviews the Reviewers? thread. So far I've found some good stuff, and some..not so good stuff.

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@PW - Police Woman (50 AR/dev blaster on Liberty)
TALOS - PW war journal - alternate contact tree using MA story arcs
=VICE= "Give me Liberty, or give me debt!"

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When I first read Eco's alleged review of Venture's arc, I'd fashioned a rather lengthy rebuttal that included most every point later made by others. Then I stopped and decided to assume he was being deliberately snarky - parodying Venture's reviews by being unbelievably critical of small points. In my opinion it was a poorly done parody, but a parody nevertheless.


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I thought it was a well done parody. I LOLed a number of times while reading the post.


Jail.Bird

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Jail.Bird

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I assume "nip" is a "profanity" because it refers to drinking alcohol.
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the 'nip' thing probably refers to nipples. the profanity filter is ridiculous sometimes.

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I actually think "nip" is considered an ethnic slur.

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Yes, 'nip' is banned for the ethnic slur, not for any other reason. But, since most people reading this thread had no idea why it was banned, I think it's pretty silly to ban it for that reason. Most people under age 40 have probably never heard it used as a slur. Anyone under 30 would certainly not know about it. Since most people playing the game fall into the <40 crowd, at least, it seems to be a useless word to worry about. There are many more reasons to use it than as a slur.

It's the PC mentality these days, that seems to be completely out of control, that drives up the number of words that are added to the 'banned' list. If anyone did use it as a slur, I'm sure someone would report it, and, it could be easily handled that way, instead of completely banning an otherwise harmless word.

/jumps off soapbox

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No AV/EBs Deal with The Devil's Pawn-207266 Slash DeMento and the Stolen Weapons-100045 Meet the Demon Spawn-151099 Feedback

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Anyone willing to make an issue out of body-bagged corpses, when by level 45 they must know perfectly well that such are a euphemism mandated by the game's Teen rating, is either literal-minded to the point of unreasonableness or deliberately trolling.

In neither case do their criticisms bear close examination.

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Current Blog Post: "Why I am an Atheist..."
"And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained/As we did in the days when Victoria reigned!" -- T. S. Eliot, "Gus, the Theatre Cat"

Qr - way to miss my point, venture.

Eco

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MArcs:

The Echo, Arc ID 1688 (5mish, easy, drama)
The Audition, Arc ID 221240 (6 mish, complex mech, comedy)
Storming Citadel, Arc ID 379488 (lowbie, 1mish, 10-min timed)

He's not making an issue about the body bags. What he's got a problem with is their presentation in the plot.

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"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi

Characters

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...I just wanted to offer a balance to the 'ventures great at spelling, grrammar and syntax therefore he is God of Reviewers' gushing post before mine...

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[gush] For the record, I ran Police Woman's "Axis and Allies" arc last night and found it just as good as Venture's. Her grammar, spelling, and syntax were spot on, as was her grasp of the technical aspects of the MA, her story-telling ability, and her research -- making her just as qualified to give her opinion on other arcs. [/gush]

See, I'm an equal-opportunity gusher. Now we have both a god and a goddess of reviewers!

Seriously, I wasn't elevating anyone to deity status. Feel free to exaggerate as much as you like if it soothes your bruised ego. Again, just pointing out qualifications that he has, and many others do, that may make his (and their) points a tad more credible.

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The SOLUS Foundation - a Liberty and Pinnacle SG

"The Consequences of War" - Arcs # 227331 and 241496

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...I just wanted to offer a balance to the 'ventures great at spelling, grrammar and syntax therefore he is God of Reviewers' gushing post before mine...

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[gush] For the record, I ran Police Woman's "Axis and Allies" arc last night and found it just as good as Venture's. Her grammar, spelling, and syntax were spot on, as was her grasp of the technical aspects of the MA, her story-telling ability, and her research -- making her just as qualified to give her opinion on other arcs. [/gush]

See, I'm an equal-opportunity gusher. Now we have both a god and a goddess of reviewers!

Seriously, I wasn't elevating anyone to deity status. Feel free to exaggerate as much as you like if it soothes your bruised ego. Again, just pointing out qualifications that he has, and many others do, that may make his (and their) points a tad more credible.

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I know, I'm not trying to say he totally sucks as a writer. His arc had a plot and dialogue and wasn't a farm. It was miles better than a lot of the crap out there. It could have been much better, is all I was saying.

Eco.

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MArcs:

The Echo, Arc ID 1688 (5mish, easy, drama)
The Audition, Arc ID 221240 (6 mish, complex mech, comedy)
Storming Citadel, Arc ID 379488 (lowbie, 1mish, 10-min timed)

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...I just wanted to offer a balance to the 'ventures great at spelling, grrammar and syntax therefore he is God of Reviewers' gushing post before mine...

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[gush] For the record, I ran Police Woman's "Axis and Allies" arc last night and found it just as good as Venture's. Her grammar, spelling, and syntax were spot on, as was her grasp of the technical aspects of the MA, her story-telling ability, and her research -- making her just as qualified to give her opinion on other arcs. [/gush]

See, I'm an equal-opportunity gusher. Now we have both a god and a goddess of reviewers!

Seriously, I wasn't elevating anyone to deity status. Feel free to exaggerate as much as you like if it soothes your bruised ego. Again, just pointing out qualifications that he has, and many others do, that may make his (and their) points a tad more credible.

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Agreed on all counts.

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Together we entered a city of strangers, we made it a city of friends, and we leave it a City of Heroes. - Sweet_Sarah
BOYCOTT NCSoft (on Facebook)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/517513781597443/
Governments have fallen to the power of social media. Gaming companies can too.

Arc #123675, "The Lost Choir: Chapter One: The Old Testament"
tl;dr: 1 star. Offenses: incomplete

Reviewed on: 6/15/2009
Level Range: 1-54/40-54/40-54/35-54/1-54
Character used: Agent Cerulean/Justice

I'm not sure how this ended up in the Neutral queue when it's labeled Heroic and opens with " It is always good to see an upholder of the law like yourself." Hello, Soldier of Arachnos here...moving on... Abbas John of the Church of Yeshua Electus (faux Christians) needs your help. Their churches were all destroyed during the first Rikti invasion, and the new chuch they've been building in Salamanca is having problems with the local critters. You're asked to intervene. The entry popup is not quite Daniel 11:30-32 as it claims (it's Daniel 11:31, as far as I can tell). You have to rescue five workers from Tuatha on the Croatoa endgame map. Spawns are packed in tight so this was actually fairly tough, given how hard Tuatha hit and the defense debuff on their Quicksand. One of the rescued workers said he heard one of the Tuatha talking about a "choir", which puzzles John.

John's research leads him to contacting the Vanguard, who tell him the Rikti world for "council" could be translated as "choir" and directs him (and thus you) to a Rikti base that might have a lead. Cue another not quite Bible passage (says Nehemiah 1:8-10, appears to be Nehemiah 1:11). You're to take down the base leader (a Magus named High Priest Fara'sii..."Pharisee"?) and look for clues (a computer with all the working parts yanked out and covered with runes and symbols like an altar). Since the Rikti killed off their gods millennia ago this is interesting, to say the least.

More shop talk with Vanguard reveals these Rikti are a Restructurist offshoot that believes the Rikti have to reconnect with the gods to have any chance of victory. They're being hunted down by the other Restructurists so you get to try to rescue their high priest.... Off to more Rikti caves. Today's Biblical almost-quote is Genesis 50:16-18 (actually part of Genesis 50:17). Between hot Rikti on Rikti action, you have to rescue two Vanguard LTs (maybe more, they're optional) and High Priest Sadu'sii ("Sadducee", rivals of Pharisees). Sadu'sii warns that religion is necessary for a society, that without it "the Soaring One" invades, and if the Soaring One reaches a world, all life ends.

John's discussions with Sadu'sii are a bit of a disappointment in the next act. The theist Rikti don't know anything about the Tuatha attack. Sadu'sii does implore John to look into the Spirit Realm the Tuatha hail from, though. This "Soaring One" is supposedly a being that feeds on sentience but can be driven off by faith, and its "Infinite Eyes" may have already infiltrated the Spirit Realm. You're sent to one of the "spirit world" Croatoa maps, where yhe popup quotes Job 38:11-13 when it means Job 12. There's a Tuatha to rescue, who tells you the "Infinite Eyes" drove off the Redcaps but then enslaved the Tuatha themselves. The "Infinite Eyes" are little white imps with Sonic powers (Blast, maybe Resonance too, they died fast) guarding three "Dimensional Tendrils" you have to destroy, along with a Boss, The Eye of the Beyond. When the Eye goes down you're struck by images of flying creatures destroying churches and altars and a seething mass flowing into Paragon City....

...which starts happening as soon as you get back. You're off to defend Atlas Park from one of these attacks. Exodus 9:16 is labeled as Exodus 9:15-17. "The Lost Choir", a faction made up of various mobs with angelic appearances and names (B'nai Elohim, "sons of god", Melakh Elohim "messenger of god", etc.). There are "Seraphim" everywhere (Psychic Blast/Fiery Aura Bosses) with largish spawns; the B'nai are healers so nail them first. (Same for the Ophanim, "wheels", described as guards of the throne of god.) The Big Bad, and your target, is "Nephalim" (that's plural, by the way..."Naphil" is singular, IIRC), a Fire Blast/Invulnerability AV/EB who is the son of "Xhantranos". The debriefing narrates Nephilim exploding on defeat and you passing out; the story continues in arc #136959.

In one sense, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is not a complete story, being that it is part I of VII. However, it is a complete story in the sense that it contains a beginning, a middle and an end, and it answers all of the questions it raised itself. A reader would not feel cheated if he did not go on to read the other six parts. That is simply not the case here. This arc does nothing but raise questions that it then does not answer -- for instance, how is it that the Rikti, who threw religion under the bus thousands of years ago, are on top of this divine threat when human religions, mystics and psychics are evidently caught flatfooted? Maybe this is answered in a subsequent story but that's just not good enough; it should have been answered here. This arc is, at best, precipitating event and rising action with the other three parts of Freitag's Triangle missing in action. Making your story fit into the space provided is part of the craft of writing. However much people may wish we had more than five missions and 100K to work with, we do not. It is the task of every Architect to get his story to fit into that space which is something this story does not do. Graded by the standards every Architect project is expected to adhere to, this arc is a failure.

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Current Blog Post: "Why I am an Atheist..."
"And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained/As we did in the days when Victoria reigned!" -- T. S. Eliot, "Gus, the Theatre Cat"

Honestly, I expected a bad review. I knew you would raise a stink about the whole 3 parter thing, but in all honesty, cramming this into one arc just would not work. But hey, to each his own. Frankly, I like the trilogy system. It gives the player a chance to choose if they want to move on with the story, or just skip it. I do have an idea brewing for an arc that is sort of a sister story to this one, which will also be three parts. I do hope to make this next one a little more episodic though.

Thanks for the thrashing though!

P.S. I have no idea how that ended up in the neutral queue.

P.P.S. I pulled those quotes right out of my copy of the Bible, but seeing how there are so many different translations I could see how the mix-up occurred.

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Arc #24926, "The Ambitions of Small Men"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: poor dialog, too many allies, weak theme

Reviewed on: 6/16/2009
Level Range: 10-20/10-20/10-20/20-20/5-54
Character used: Amy Sunflower/Virtue

Your Contact for this one is a Skull, Brittle Bones. It seems a group of Hellions has gone Axe Crazy and is tearing up a neighborhood between Galaxy City and Kings Row. Not only are they out for blood, they're turbocharged. "BB" knows if he takes his people into the streets it's just going to get a lot more people killed so he's looking for hero help. In return he promises to keep the Skulls out of Galaxy City. That's not much of a deal, frankly, but then your typical superhero would almost certainly want to shut these Hellions down in any case and if there aren't any Skulls to bust at the same time at least the job will be easier. It's out into the streets onto a city map to defeat a "strange Hellion" and rescue four Gravediggers, which are LTs with Thugs. The Hellions on this map appear to be the arsonist types usually found in Steel Canyon. The "Frightening Hellion" was a Boss (meaning Elite normally) with Energy Blast and Ice Blast powers; he dropped me almost instantly. I combined some insps and rezzed as my allies took him down. He turned out not to be the target though. That was a "Strange Hellion" LT with Electrical Blast/GotHeld. Then it was just a matter of grovelling over the map to find the last hostage, dragging a small army around. The net effect of the allies was to ensure I got practically no experience or tickets...I got 3 tickets bonus on finding the last hostage.

BB says he's agreed to hold off the violence as long as you're making progress but says you aren't doing that yet. I feel like reminding him I can bust him for breathing while wearing gang colors, but instead take the next mission, which is to look for clues. You're sent to a police station where the popup says you can pick up some gang files from the safe. The map was almost empty except for a Mook Hitman, which I took out before opening the safe. That, of course, triggered more Mooks. I have no idea what they're doing all the way out here, but moving on.... When you clear the spawns you get a Clue saying the Mooks were hired by one of the Strange Hellions to trash the place.

The files say the new Hellions are part of the "Infernal Posse", led by Hell Breaker out of a warehouse in Galaxy City. Off you go, but Your Hellion Is In Another Castle: Hell Breaker is gone, leaving another upscale Hellion named Ash Bringer (Fire Melee/Radiation Emission Boss/LT, I think). After his beatdown Ash Bringer tells you they bought an empowering ritual and the components to perform it from the Warriors, but didn't know that it wears off, which he thinks is why you were able to beat him. On your return BB tells you about a club out in Talos he knows the Hellions sometimes go to.

The club, the old PDP map, turns out to have Infernal Posse, Outcasts and Warriors on it. I was immediately hit with one spawn and three patrols on entry, which I survived only by burning just about my entire tray. Hell Breaker turned out to be a Stone Melee/Storm Summoning EB/Boss with two guards, and very annoying as he kept me slowed by 50% and healed his guards. The Warrior responsible for selling the ritual, Widsith, was a Dual Blades/Willpower Boss/LT with one ambush wave. Unfortunately Hell Breaker tells you "your (sic) too late" as he's sent his best men with the treasure hunters that sold Widsith the materials in the first place. They're going to a site on the coast where they'll all be permenently empowered, making them the strongest gang in the city (or so he thinks).

So, for the Fight Scene, you're sent to the Talos coastline outdoor map to find 10 Hellion hostages and defeat one (custom)...Circle of Thorns Boss, but we saw that coming. The hostages are all allies, so once again, kiss rewards goodbye. Oh, and you have a 60 minute time limit. Yay. BB holds up his end of the bargain but says this doesn't make you friends and if he catches you on his turf "it's $archetype breaking time". Kid, I just wiped out the people YOU were afraid of....

The arc does have a theme, though it doesn't do much with it. The dialog needs a lot of work. BB in particular has way too much attitude for a gangbanger in his position. There is really no need to include so many allies. They really cut into the rewards.

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Current Blog Post: "Why I am an Atheist..."
"And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained/As we did in the days when Victoria reigned!" -- T. S. Eliot, "Gus, the Theatre Cat"

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Anyone willing to make an issue out of body-bagged corpses, when by level 45 they must know perfectly well that such are a euphemism mandated by the game's Teen rating, is either literal-minded to the point of unreasonableness or deliberately trolling.

In neither case do their criticisms bear close examination.

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Translation: "One of your points is partially wrong, therefore your entire argument is wrong."

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What shall claim a Sky Kings' Ransom?

PPD & Resistance Epic Archetypes

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Honestly, I expected a bad review. I knew you would raise a stink about the whole 3 parter thing, but in all honesty, cramming this into one arc just would not work. But hey, to each his own. Frankly, I like the trilogy system. It gives the player a chance to choose if they want to move on with the story, or just skip it. I do have an idea brewing for an arc that is sort of a sister story to this one, which will also be three parts. I do hope to make this next one a little more episodic though.

Thanks for the thrashing though!

P.S. I have no idea how that ended up in the neutral queue.

P.P.S. I pulled those quotes right out of my copy of the Bible, but seeing how there are so many different translations I could see how the mix-up occurred.

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I actually enjoyed it Mr. Squid. I ran it last night after I saw Venture talking about it in a global channel.

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Paragonian Knights
Justice Company

[ QUOTE ]
Frankly, I like the trilogy system.

[/ QUOTE ]

A trilogy is a set of three works that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or three individual works.

If each piece can't be seen as a single work, then it's not a trilogy, it's just a Part or Chapter of an unfinished work.

For it to be a true trilogy you have to make it stand on it's own. I can't tell about your arc as I myself have not played it, but this is an offense I see a lot lately. Many seem to think "trilogies are cool" and go out and make 3 chapters that can't stand on their own and try to pass it as a Trilogy. Although not as annoying as one-shots that become successful and suddenly the author claims he always had a trilogy in mind, though... but now I'm derailing so I'll stop.

---

[ QUOTE ]
Noticing the AV was hostile I attacked and killed it; it never fired back. Then I clicked on the glowie and got Mission Failed.

[/ QUOTE ]

I keep reading this, and I keep failing to understand how it's possible to set this up in the MA. I might run the arc just to find out.

---

And for a while things were cold,
They were scared down in their holes
The forest that once was green
Was colored black by those killing machines

The AV could have been a required ally or escort, with the guards set to "ally" and "single?" In order for something not to fight back, it would have to be an ally or escort, I think, and if the guards are allied then the guy they're guarding is hostile. There is usually a bit of a delay between failing a mission and getting kicked out, time enough to grab a blinky.

Or clicking the blinky triggered an escort of an unguarded Rikti monkey in a room full of snipers?

---

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

[ QUOTE ]
The AV could have been a required ally or escort, with the guards set to "ally" and "single?" In order for something not to fight back, it would have to be an ally or escort, I think, and if the guards are allied then the guy they're guarding is hostile. There is usually a bit of a delay between failing a mission and getting kicked out, time enough to grab a blinky.

Or clicking the blinky triggered an escort of an unguarded Rikti monkey in a room full of snipers?

[/ QUOTE ]

Missions that fail on death don't fail until the body's faded away, for whatever reason.

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Up with the overworld! Up with exploration! | Want a review of your arc?

My arcs: Dream Paper (ID: 1874) | Bricked Electronics (ID: 2180) | The Bravuran Jobs (ID: 5073) | Backwards Day (ID: 329000) | Operation Fair Trade (ID: 391172)

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Frankly, I like the trilogy system.

[/ QUOTE ]

A trilogy is a set of three works that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or three individual works.

If each piece can't be seen as a single work, then it's not a trilogy, it's just a Part or Chapter of an unfinished work.

For it to be a true trilogy you have to make it stand on it's own. I can't tell about your arc as I myself have not played it, but this is an offense I see a lot lately. Many seem to think "trilogies are cool" and go out and make 3 chapters that can't stand on their own and try to pass it as a Trilogy. Although not as annoying as one-shots that become successful and suddenly the author claims he always had a trilogy in mind, though... but now I'm derailing so I'll stop.

[/ QUOTE ]

The Matrix

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Apparently, I play "City of Shakespeare"
*Arc #95278-Gathering the Four Winds -3 step arc; challenging - 5 Ratings/3 Stars (still working out the kinks)
*Arc #177826-Lights, Camera, Scream! - 3 step arc, camp horror; try out in 1st person POV - 35 Ratings/4 Stars

Neither of those would work anyway. I tried. Allies and Escorts can't have allied guards, my snipers totally ignored the unguarded escort, even after I went and picked him up, and captives with guards set to "ally" and "single" will start out hostile but turn friendly as soon as you walk up to them.

Now I'm curious too. Also curious how you got a guy who didn't fight back.

---

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