Shifting through time! In-character reviews!
By
airhead,
Posted on: 2009-05-26 17:23 in Mission Architect
Getting closer to the mid levels, ever so slowly getting close to level 20 where I will take a short break and do the two faultline arcs that will get me "Entrusted with the Secret" and official access to Ouroboros. (with reviews to accompany) I've done a few unofficial missions already, though one of them was unsuccessful. Also, I'd appreciate any comments here, as I've been doing a lot of unsolicited reviews it's feeling awfully lonely in this thread, and while I enjoy writing these for myself, it's always nice to know there's others enjoying them as well. Then, I'll be ready to take on some more full custom arcs, as long as there's no difficult AVs without helpful allies. Until next time!
I keep checking your thread to see what's up, so don't lose hope just yet. I know my arc hasn't been played yet because you're too low to really hold your own in there. When you get into the 30's or so, I think you'll get a lot more suggestions and interest since you'll be cruising through the level ranges that most of us have written for.
I enjoy this thread. It demonstrates what can be done to create a unique and consistent play experience for your toon, and also highlights the challenges faced when trying to do this.
It's also a source of excellent reviews. Exploring content not marketed by the forum regulars is also interesting to me. As the reviews accumulate, I get a sense of how effective blind searches can be. What kinds of words have you searched for? How do you pick from the results of the search?
Arc: 379017: Outbroken See all your old friends in the Outbreak Tutorial sequel!
Arc: Coming Soon: The Incarnate Shadow Shard of Fire and Ice Mender Rednem needs you!
Massively.com opinion poll: Please Help Save CoH!
Thanks, that's a good point Airhead, I think I will try and remember to list how I found the arc. Typically, it's been by searching with "my level" checked (since i15 went live) and either "temporal", "time travel", or occasionally "mender" or "Ouroboros", and the oft misspellings "Oroboros" and "Orobouros", etc. Once I searched for "Excel" for a different reason and found a few "X and Y's excellent adventure" arcs which I intend to come back to.
As for which arcs I choose, it's often more of a case of which arcs I skip over. Often it just comes down to personal preference: five defeat all missions? No thanks. Extreme minions, extreme lieutenants, extreme bosses, and extreme archvillains? No thanks. I check over the description and if it sounds interesting, that's the one I play.
And as for what information I use for the reviews: I occasionally take some notes, though most mechanical notes I only write in the /tell box, and most of the rest I write from memory. This is why I tend to forget a lot of character and contact names here and there. If I forgot it between the time I played and the time I write the review, you didn't do a good job of making that character memorable. Although I do occasionally go back to pick up a name if I liked the character but forgot for other reasons, as long as the name is easy to get back to.
Arc Name: Ouroboros Chronicles: Evolution of a Hero, Part one.
Author: @Neon Flash
ID# 23284
Moraility: Heroic
Level Range: 5-40
Description: Join Mender Cassandra on a foray into Ouroboros temporal archives, and behold the first big adventure of the mutant supergroup known as the Evolution Club- and in so doing, the origins of the hero Neon Flash
Played at: level 19
How I found it: Searched my level for "temporal", this was the fourth mission. The first two had AVs and the third was the Jamie Salladon Task Force (see above)
Neon Flash
My contact today is Mender Cassandra. Apparently one of the overlooked menders hiding in the ne'er talked about Ouroboros archives. And today I must have hit the lucky jackpot because I get the opportunity to check out one of these time archives. As she explains it - many times through the course of her three discussions with me - since this is only an archive, I can interact with everyone there, but it will have no effect on the actual timestream. And this important event that I get to see is the origin of Neon Flash and a couple other members of the mutant supergroup: The Evolution Club. Well, not exactly the origin, but one of their early missions where they got in a little over their heads dealing with the Family, and a couple of their more unique bosses.
Whiz Kid
It seems a little odd calling this an "archive" that I can interact with since my interactions completely invalidate what actually happened as I go through and rescue Neon Flash, Whiz Kid, and another one whose name wasn't very memorable. Together we defeated Stanley "Mo' Bucks" Monella and his henchman. Afterwards, Mender Cassandra thanks me for helping the Evolution Club though this confuses me as I wasn't really helping if this was all merely an archive. Until next time!
Ally whose name I forgot.
Three Stars: Good.
Henchman whose name I also forgot.
Arc Name: An Excellent Adventure
Author: @Vox Populi
ID# 1700
Moraility: Heroic
Level Range: 1-54 - custom group
Description: Rescue famous historical figures from throughout time kidnapped by Rufus the Rogue Mender!
Played at: level 19
How I found it: Searched for "Excel" looking for Excel Saga arcs out of curiosity, saw several "X and Y's Excellent Adventure" arcs and noted to check back for them later. This was the top of the list in my level range.
Today, Mender Roebuck has me twirling my mustache as he informs me of Mender Rufus's defection from Ouroboros, going rogue and kidnapping various figures from history to rewrite it willy nilly. So it's my job to go in and rescue them all and return them to all their proper timelines.
A Pirate and a Caveman walk into a bar...
Note to self, don't touch if I want to keep my hands.
So I enter his base and find myself beset by warriors from various timelines: Amazons, Pirates, Cavemen, Vikings, and more. And the hostages are also from various timelines and locales: Abraham Lincoln, who turns out to be quite the scrapper, Napolean Bonaparte, and Sigmund Freud who both run off as soon as they're rescued, Genghis Khan and Joan of Arc who also come along for the ride, though Khaaaaan seems a little out of place compared to the others. And we all team up to take out Mender Rufus and get him ready for mender prison.
Mender Rufus
With everyone back in their rightful places, Mender Roebuck thanks me for a job well done though he mentions that it all might seem vaguely familiar. It must be time for him to head back to his shop on the floating rock. Until next time!
Four Stars. Recommended.
Lincoln Lincoln, I've been thinkin'...
Freud thinks I may have a problem with my mother... but I don't have a mother?!
More allies than you can shake a time travelling stick at.
Got to level 20, got a second costume slot, went to Faultline... and didn't realize that I can't get introduced to Doc Delilah without having run Jim Temblor first. Anyone know if running some radios in Faultline will get me introduced? Or if there's any other way to get introduced?
Note: the arc numbers below are just random numbers picked below 1,000 which is the starting number for player arcs in AE.
Arc Name: Lost and Found
Author: Montague Castenella
ID# 586
Moraility: Heroic
Level Range: 10-50 - Lost/Rikti, Circle of Thorns
Played at: level 20-21
How I found it: Reaching level 10, Montague Castenella contacted me.
So, I decided to stretch my legs, figuratively speaking and venture out into the real world, also figuratively speaking. I've heard about this Midnighter Club through a few of my contacts, but they were all working with me on a purely unofficial capacity, so I decided to seek this organization out to become a member.
My databases tell me that I need to become "Entrusted With the Secret" before they will allow me to enter their Ouroboros, and access to all sorts of time travel. That is my ultimate goal... for now. I understand that meeting with one Doc Delilah would be the easiest way to become a part of this secret organization, unfortunately I don't have the correct access as she only refers me to Penelope Yin and Yin doesn't want to talk to me either. Instead I decide to go through the Midnighter Club itself and talk to Montague Castanella in the Steel Canyon Library.
He first tells me the haphazard tale of one Percy Winkley who apparently gets himself kidnapped a lot, and has done so once again. It's up to me to rescue him from the Circle of Thorns who are not a whole lot of fun to fight at my current combat level, especially with all of those ghosts roaming about. Afterwards, it's time to check in on some Lost and a Rikti boss: Ci'dion as well as downloading some information from four computers. Apparently downloading information from Rikti computers means grabbing some soft crystals, grabbing a net of more crystals, taking a vibrating orb of electricity, and I think I broke the last one as it spilled a bunch of green mucus all over. And Ci'dion isn't very talkative, merely mentioning that he doesn't like magic. Well, me neither so we have one thing in common at least.
After I defeat Ci'dion my next task is to rescue Argot'BurWat from... Ci'dion... in what appears to be the exact same building. So, why wasn't I able to just do this the first time around? Once again Ci'dion isn't very talkative, he just whines about being defeated by me last time. Next up it's a meeting with Lady Jane of the Dawn Patrol who is in over her head with some Circle of Thorns. I rescue her and she joins me to clear a path to a treasure chest containing a vial of Hero 1's blood from after he had become... altered. Which if my data is correct is something that you don't normally find out until dealing with Lady Grey in the higher security levels.
Finally, it's time to do some walking and talking. Hitting up Argo'BurWat, Azuria, and Montague to collect the final ingredients which I have to take to a university to combine into a Lost Curing Wand. And finally it's time to test it out, which involves going to Perez Park and finding a group of Lost and curing one of them only to be attacked by all of their previous teammates. After curing enough of them, I'm granted the password to get into the Midnighter's Club and am introduced to the contact Mercedes Shelton which according to my information has access to "the secret". So it's now only a short matter of time before I will have access to this "Ouroboros".
Three Stars: Good.
Arc Name: The Dirge of Chaos
Author: Mercedes Sheldon
ID# 587
Moraility: Heroic
Level Range: 20-30 - Freakshow
Played at: level 21-22
How I found it: She was standing in the front lobby of the Midnighter Club.
After making my way into the Midnighter Club for the first time, I am greeted by one Mercedes Sheldon. She starts by telling me about a Troll Rave that has erupted into chaos... well moreso than a typical Troll Rave, and there appears to be a large number of Freakshow behind it all. When I get there, it's more like it's all freakshow. Ok, I take it back, there is one troll raver that wants to join the fight even though he's a couple levels lower than the rest of the map. After freeing some of the ravers, I take a little time for myself.
Even a time travelling robot needs to take some time for himself on occasion.
Returning to Mercedes and she tells me that this sounds like one of the artifacts that she used to own, but recently went missing. Maybe she should meet up with Azuria, they sound like they have a lot in common. Anyway, this Dirge of Chaos is a cassette recorder, whatever that is, that creates chaos obviously enough. Also, she notes that one Amanda Gates was seen with the Freakshow in Talos Island and it's up to me to beat some information about their hideout. After a lot of busted heads and no results, finally the thirtieth Freakshow opens up with some information about a Killdozer and Amanda Gates.
While I'm at the base, I find a crumpled up piece of paper that happens to be a map with several circles and all of them crossed out except for one. How convenient. And when I finally find Killdozer and am about to get all the information from him, his vocal amplifier shorts out before he can tell you the most important information. How convenient. But I find enough clues here to figure out for myself what is going on. Amanda is plannning on broadcasting the Dirge of Chaos across the airwaves to plunge Talos Island into complete chaos and pick up the pieces afterwards. I call Mercedes and she agrees with me, so I go to take out Amanda and the Dirge of Chaos, which is actually a trapped demon inside this cassette player.
Another warehouse, and more freaks. Floor after floor of freaks before finding Amanda Gates cowering before a released Dirge of Chaos. I destroy the Dirge's avatar, and bring Amanda along with me to take her to the authorities, battling and avoiding waves of Freakshow trying to free her.
Three Stars. Good.
((I wanted to go into a little more detail, thinking back on the arc, I think it deserves an extra half-star. I thought it was great that my character put the clues together to find the final map by himself instead of having it handed to him by the contact like most of the previous dev arcs. The biggest downside is it's just map after map after map of freakshow, which I know some people like, but I got a little freak fatigue before the end. And I know it doesn't have time travel in it, but it was required to get Mercedes's second arc for Entrusted with the Secret))
FYI, the Midnighter Club only allow you access to Cimerora at Lv35. To get to Ouroboros at Lv25, you need to do Doc Delilah's arc *or* have somebody open an O-Portal for you and grab the exploration badge in Ouroboros.
Doc Delilah's arc is 20-24, so you can get to it now. However, I believe you need to talk to Jim Treblor first, who will then send you to Doc Delilah.
Play my MA arcs!
Tracking Down Jack Ketch - ArcID #2701
Cat War! - ArcID #2788
Jim Temblor won't introduce you if you've outleveled his arc at level 20, but Mercedes Shedon's second arc "The Magic Man" which is 20-30 also awards Entrusted with the Secret, which is next on my list.
Arc Name: Temporal Anomaly
Author: @Crazyman UXB
ID# 134013
Moraility: Neutral
Level Range: 1-54 - 5th Column
Description: Go back in time and save someone you've already saved?
Played at: level 23
How I found it: Searched for "Temporal" at my level, this one had 0 plays, 1 mission, and no customs. I was in the mood for something quick.
My contact today is Technician Naylor. Although he sounds like he has completely lost his trademark accent. Anyway, he tasks me with saving... himself in the past. At least, his past and my future, as it's something that's already happened to him but is about to happen to me. Difficult to explain, but I understand it completely. He doesn't explain why he needs to be rescued from the 5th column, but it's just a quick mission so I'm not too worried.
Two point five stars: Ok.
(The voice of Technician Naylor was way off, the premise was pretty basic, though I rounded up on my voting because the return popup and dialog was very enjoyable.)
Arc Name: The Magic Man
Author: Mercedes Sheldon
ID# 590
Moraility: Heroic
Level Range: 20-35
Played at: level 23
How I found it: Mercedes gave me this after I completed her first arc.
Mercedes found out through Amanda Gates about someone calling himself The Magic Man. This is the one who stole the Dirge of Chaos originally, and he has other artifacts still. Somehow the Tsoo must know where he is, so that's who I decide to pick on to get some information.
I'm led to a warehouse of Tsoo and overhear them mention something about the Family being involved. Mercedes fills the rest in that Jimmy the Preacher has some information that needs pulled out of him in one way or another. This then leads me to a Cargo ship in Striga where I'm supposed to find Mickey "The Magic Man" Maloney.
Unfortunately all I find in this ship are more Tsoo and Family fighting each other. Though the Tsoo Sorcerors have no qualms against healing the Family they were fighting moments ago. And leaving empty handed, The Magic Man taunts me though pop-up. Coming back to Mercedes, she realizes that he must have The Devil's Timepiece. This timepiece shifts the wearer through time, although it is PURE EEEEEEEVEEEL!!! Mercedes thinks that is why I haven't fought him before now. I fight him, win, but then he goes back in time and avoids me instead. It's time to end this game of cat and other cat once and for all, somehow.
So I actually come face to face with Mickey Maloney. He's not too much of a threat, but when he's almost defeated he calls for help from... Micky Maloney. And when I've almost defeated him, he calls for help from... Micky Maloney and the Magic Man. But after that, his watch stops working... for some reason. Mercedes once again fills me in that the watch stopped working because of the paradox he created by being in the same place at the same time where he already was. But now he's gone for good, or as long as any villain is gone for.
Four Stars: Recommended.
Arc Name: The Fracturing of Time
Author: @Tahlana
ID#: 171031
Moraility: Heroic
Level Range: 25-54 (1-3) / 41-54 (4-5)
Description: A mysterious entity has sought you out to help save a doomed world. When all goes awry, it is your task to repair the Fractures forming in Time but to do that you must first confront yourself (Very surreal Science Fiction with an unconventional story and some philosophical elements)
Played at: level 23
How I found it: It was an early request, and I feel I'm high enough level with SOs to take on more full custom enemies and the occasional up-scaling as long as there's no EBs+
(Note: I'm sorry but I've forgotten the names of the aliens, though they all have very good custom models. From the enemy dragon looking mobs, to the high tech aliens, to their echoes. Although I feel like the echoes were the weakest designs with the fewest variations, and you see them through most of the arc)
My contact today is The Essence of the Void and he has a tale to tell my about an alien race whose world is about to end, being attacked by a group of dragon aliens. You are tasked with activating a device that will transcend all of the aliens into pure conscious energy, except those that are here with you fighting the enemy. (This is obviously a caveat to explain why the allies aren't turned into energy, though you could just have it be either time delayed, or a slow process, and change the clue to reflect it) The scientist gave me instructions on how to use it, as only an "outsider" is able to make it work correctly. And finally I defeat the World Destroyer.
When I get back I find that there is a problem with the aliens and their transcendence into pure energy. I can be sent to the edge of the void so I can interact with them and find out what the problem is. When I get there, I see the aliens, although they are mere echoes of themselves, and they are quite angry. Apparently the transcendence didn't fully take as many of them were unable to let go of their previous existence completely and by holding onto the part of the world, they were not able to fully transcend and are now stuck inbetween in a tortuous existence and want revenge against me, and everyone else.
My contact now tells me that these echoes are creating fractures in time in order to completely unmake time itself. So it's up to me to go back to the edge of the void and destroy these crystalline fractures in time before something unbearably bad happens.
Unfortunately, this isn't enough, the echoes are creating bigger and bigger fractures in time. So I have to go deeper into the void, but before doing that, I must relinquish my ties to this world or else I will myself become an echo. My contact disagrees with this course of action, but I am dead set, hopefully not literally. I am in a vision of a destroyed world where I must relinquish my Mind, my Hope, and my Love. While the second two are easy to relinquish for myself, the representation of my artificial mind is difficult for me to give up. They also remind me quite of bit of my mysterious contact, which reminds me, I have been having dreams of my contact for weeks even though I have never met him before.
And returning to my contact confirms that he is in fact a part of my essence, trapped in the void and lost in time. Now free from time I must absorb all of the larger fractures in time before the world is unmade in no ones image. As I search for these fractures, I see the echoes are still here, although their grip on reality is fading fast. I am also aided by the essences that I had previously released, appearing to me now as the one who was, the one who is, and the one who will be. After destroying the last fracture, I return from the void, my essences returned to me.
I return and my contact isn't exactly happy to see me return, as that means that he will still be trapped forever. But before I leave, I take him back into me, becoming whole once again and saving my essence from eternity.
Four stars: Recommended.
(I really liked this arc's story as something different than normal. It has a real sense of self-sacrifice which is the ultimate heroic act. Unfortunately it can't be a true sacrifice as nothing really changes after the arc to your character. So that means that it has to come back to normal at the very end, which felt a little off compared to the rest of the arc. Also, the echoes which you fight the most often, seem to have a small group, as I only saw 1 of each minion, lieut, and boss. I understand this is probably due to size, with the live aliens (1 mob), the enemy aliens (3? mobs), the essences (1 mob), and the echoes (3? mobs) If you do have room I would suggest one more minion and lieut of the echoes. If you do happen to have more than one live alien, you only need one.)
Arc Name: It's just a Jump to the Left...
Author: @Aphrodite
ID#: 83476
Moraility: Heroic
Level Range: 1-54
Description: Even the simplest of tasks get thrown into turmoil when time travel is involved...
Played at: level 23
How I found it: Searched for "Time Travel" at my level and the title caught my eye towards the bottom of the first page as I'm a RHPS fan, though I skipped an earlier RHPS reference that "May include: Archvillains"
**Time Loop #5**
My contact today is a colorful magician named Magnifico, and he would like me to retrieve an object from some Arachnos in an abandoned Longbow base. Though I'm not sure why they are in a longbow base instead of just being in an Arachnos base, I mean, they've got plenty of those lying around. Anyway, he's old and starting to creak so he can't go by himself, but he's more than willing to tag along, despite my attempts at a protest. When I find him, he's reading his magic book trying to fend off some Arachnos. I rescue him and together we find the crate where the object was supposed to be, but it's not there. Strange.
So while he's scratching his head, he decides that the best approach is to go back in time, just a few hours, to when he knows for sure that the object is there. I'm not sure quite how he knows though. So we go back in time and everything seems just the same as last time, except everything also says "Again." at the end. I rescue Magnifico once again, and find the crate, this time the object is actually in it, though he won't let me see what it is. How ungrateful!
Ah, back to the present once again. But Magnifico's not quite done with me yet. Apparently he's a little lazy and also not quite that smart. He realizes that we created a time travel causality (my words, not his). e.g. the fact that in the future: point C, we traveled back into the past: point A, and took the artifact, it wasn't there in the present: point B. So he wants us to go back to point A and prevent ourselves from stealing the artifact so it will be there in point B and we won't have to travel back in time at point C. Got it? Good! Yet again it's time to rescue Magnifico, as his time travel spells don't seem to be exact enough to keep us together. We find past Magnifico and defeat him, much to his consternation, I'll leave you to figure out who I'm talking about. And we check the object to make sure it's still there.
Ah, the troubles with time travel by an amateur. When we come back, his object vanishes. Apparently he figured out something wrong in the process, he pops back to his past self for a quick conversation and tells me that he and himself have decided that we need to go back in time to stop ourselves from going back in time to stop ourselves from taking the object when we went back in time. Confusing? For you maybe, but I find it to be perfectly clear. Wrong, but clear. And my thoughts are proved to be correct as I find myself not in the Arachnolongbow base, but in the ruined Atlas park, surrounded by angry and confused Magnificos. I smack around the Magnifico with half a clue and we go back to the present once again.
Now he finally realizes that all this time travel nonsense isn't cutting it and the person we really need to go after is @Aphrodite. That's right, the author of this story arc. Despite her claims that she will just unpublish the arc, I go after her anyway. To spite me, she sends me into Oranbega to find her, and when I do she confesses that /Willpower is what she normally uses, but is overpowered in AE, and her supergroup was the one that convinced her to place herself in the arc so that makes it better.
Coming back to Magnifico whose arc is still up, but he got a sense of satisfaction, and a realization that he doesn't need some object to make himself famous once again, he is content with the powers that he already has.
4.5 stars. Quite Recommended!
(I honestly didn't have much hopes for this arc after starting the first mission, but the names of Magnifico and the nav bar text got funnier with each loop, as well as Magnifico's contact dialog. I was also expecting more Rocky Horror references based on the title, but the only references are the title of the arc, and a couple of the missions. This arc hasn't been updated since I15, and I think a little polish would go a long way in making this a fully fledged 5 star arc.)
would love to have some more submissions, the only requirement is that there's time travel in some form in it. I've got SOs so I should be able to handle most custom mobs, and even auto-sk'ing to some higher level enemies. I'm still wary about Archvillains, even downgraded to EBs, but willing to try if there's some good help, or they're not too difficult.
I'll keep my eye out for suggestions since I think this thread is really interesting.
My arc is still probably best attempted once you get some more levels under your belt since there's a fight against a dev-created EB that you won't have any assistance for. The character isn't too much of a pain, but at 23 you may not have all the defenses you need to stand up to them.
I think once you hit the 30's you'll have smooth sailing through just about all the rest of the content out there. It's just getting over that hump while following your rules that's the problem.
Maybe I should find an all-boss mission where you're fighting against, um, time traveling bandits from the past or something.
I keed I keed
Hmm.. I might have a little something I threw together one day I was bored
Arc Name: Technological Advances
Arc ID: 266163
Faction: Villain
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Crystalblue
Difficulty Level: Easy-Medium (levels 33-45)
Synopsis: Mender Tesseract has a (slightly villanous) plan to save Earth, and somehow it involves helping Nemesis & the Freakshow strike a famous deal.
Soon you're not just up against the Heroes of Paragon City but also figthing Steampowered Tanks and an entire Rikti Invasion, with the existance of the Menders themselves at risk.
Estimated Time to Play: Short-Medium (3 Maps)
I already know it has the following shortcomings:
Setup:
- Yes! It IS a villain mission because we ARE helping the bad guys
- Tesseract COULD have chosen to gain results helping good guys too you know!
Mis.1:
- Some missed opportunities of extra jokes with the cameo characters
- Not the right map (didn't have the original mission available to check)
- I went with (and tested on) a map I liked instead and will probably stick to it
- The customs WERE made specifically for this mission, I'm not flaunting alts
- Bosses ARE just meant to be Lts. and I do know Boss groups are a little spread out
Mis.2:
- Somewhat dialogue poor (Mis.3 too but there it's more OK)
- Yes 'Doble Brothers' not 'Dalton Brothers' - check names on Wikipedia
Mis.3:
- Pacing problem - it IS the climax but doesn't feel like it compared to Mis.1
General:
- Level range due to rescued peoples level, level around the mission it reenacts
- Level-adjustments is canon in Mender-missions, and at least it doesn't jump
- Can give people that "So now I'M the *****??!?" feeling <- censored, same word Venture uses in connection with throwing certain balls.
- I hope the Souvenir to some extent mitigates this
Fixes:
- Changed spelling of hopefull -> hopeful (it just LOOKS so wrong)
- Added non-mandatory canon clue to Mis. 2 to liven it up (why only 300 chars?)
- Changed "Hapless Costumer" to "Hapless Customer" - Seems he didn't sell costumes after all
//AtCbM// www.crystalblue.dk
Victory - Mare,Dagger of Pain,Keep,Hogun and Bloodpetal
The Keep-Arcs: 164260, 188373, 192610, 196090 and funny side-chapter 218575.
Mender-Arc: 266163
Quote:
Thank you for playing and reviewing the arc and I'm glad you enjoyed it. As for the ending, since ultimately I felt I couldn't really make it any more dark without violating the player's character, this was as close to a full sacrifice as I could get.|
Originally Posted by Bubbawheat
Arc Name: The Fracturing of Time
Author: @Tahlana ID#: 171031 ... (I really liked this arc's story as something different than normal. It has a real sense of self-sacrifice which is the ultimate heroic act. Unfortunately it can't be a true sacrifice as nothing really changes after the arc to your character. So that means that it has to come back to normal at the very end, which felt a little off compared to the rest of the arc. Also, the echoes which you fight the most often, seem to have a small group, as I only saw 1 of each minion, lieut, and boss. I understand this is probably due to size, with the live aliens (1 mob), the enemy aliens (3? mobs), the essences (1 mob), and the echoes (3? mobs) If you do have room I would suggest one more minion and lieut of the echoes. If you do happen to have more than one live alien, you only need one.) |
I would love to add more characters to all the factions if I had room but unfortunately the arc is at 99.89% capacity. I tried to make each character significant in its appearance and description for the story.
*Note: I've just finished going back through this thread and embedding select screenshots in all the previous reviews that had screens associated with them, as well as editing them for size and many times for dark lighting
Arc Name: The Luxury of Time
Author: @Novanaut
ID#: 89989
Moraility: Neutral
Level Range: 1-54 custom
Description: Time becomes a loop...Time becomes a loop...Time becomes a loop... A group known as the Order of 8 has pulled various scientists and heroes from their places in history, using limited time travel technology, in advance of a plot to control all space and time. You must help stop them.
Played at: level 23
How I found it: searched my level for "temporal" and scrolled through for something to catch my eye. This arc had 2 ratings with a 1 star average, but the description mentioned a time loop more or less so I thought I would give it the benefit of the doubt.
My contact today is Escher's Ghost, who looks just like the mission architect hologram. He tells me about a group called the Order of 8 who are pulling scientists from time for some reason and I'm being enlisted to help stop them. My nav bar is a bit of a boring mess with not much to go on, but I find a glowie, rescue one scientist from no one and attack another scientist. Although I mostly just sat back and watched my ally scientist take out my enemy scientist. Their names sound quite familiar as real scientists, but I'm not always familiar with what they are known for.
One of the Order of 8, a Mixer.
Afterwards, I return to my contact and he reveals that the order are after another scientist although they haven't quite gotten him yet, so I am to go retrieve him before they do. And once again I find some glowies, rescue this new scientist, and together we fight yet another scientist.
Finally I am after the mastermind behind the Order of 8 who has a secret sidekick this time. And now when I go back, I am face to face with Miyamoto Musashi. I take him along to fight another samurai from the past while I sit back and watch, before going after the leader of this order. Unfortunately, just before he is defeated, he calls for back-up. One of the reasons that he has been going back in time is to create superpowered clones of these figures from history and now all of them are coming to attack me. With all of this back-up, and me with only Musashi, as powerful as he may be, we are no match for this group and I must return to Escher's Ghost empty handed.
Two stars: Unbalanced and Incomplete.
((This arc has promise, there is some genuinely good writing here and there, as well as good character designs and outline of a story. The group is fairly well balanced, I had difficulty at times, but with the right tactics I was able to defeat them proper. Unfortunately all of the glowies had no text at all. No progress text, completion text, or clue, only a name. The EBs throughout the missions were interesting matchups between the ally EB and enemy EB, with the ally EB always being slightly stronger, I have some great screenshots of the two samurai battling it out which I will be showcasing right below this paragraph. But, the four EB ambush at the end was uncompletable solo, and difficult in a team. But this could very well be an error in judgement and the architect was expecting an ambush of one random EB and just never tested it. Also, I noticed that the random enemy groups almost always were grouped in one of two different patterns.))
The two face off (Miyamoto is on the right, and a "Holder" is being held behind them)
The first blow.
Retaliation.
Preparing for the final blow.
Arc Name: Destined Champion of the Multiverse
Author: @Purple Badger
ID#: 128476
Moraility: Heroic
Level Range: 1-54 custom
Description: Destiny itself has chosen you to become its champion to protect the peace of the multiverse. Quest to discover the cause of the destruction of the Interdimentional Task Force, a group which had dedicated itself to the protection of the multiverse.
Played at: level 24
How I found it: Was a submission PM'ed to me early on.
My contact today is Deegan, an ex-member of the Interdimensional Task Force, and I say ex not because he quit, but because the TF is no more. He is currently tracking down Champions like myself from various universes in order to help him and the remaining IDTF to stop a group of as yet-unidentified enemies that are attacking them. And these enemies have found them now through the powerful energy he used in the spell to track me down. Deegan asks me to rescue him, which is odd as he's still standing in front of me, I wonder if he's actually currently somewhere else and seeing people come for him, or if he is going in on his own and expecting to get caught. Either one would make a bit more sense.
Lizards and Blue Robots.
Anyway, I get there and the place is overrun with Lizards, and there are several groups of Blue Robots wandering around. I eventually find and rescue Deegan and he thanks me for rescuing him from the Blue Robots, though he never mentions the Lizards that were hanging around at all. How odd. Anyway, he tells me that the spell he used to transport me to where the Blue Robots were has now bound me to them through Destiny, as part of his destiny magic. And he is now able to transport me to wherever these Blue Robots are, even though he himself does not know where that may be.
Blue Robots, or possibly the Blue Man Group.
My next mission for him transports me to another time and dimension, Deegan tells me where I am after I get there, though he should have also mentioned that he updated my nav computer with his scans showing five computers in the area and a boss: Cyberzombie. I also run into an interesting character named Koji who was being attacked. He tells me about a system of nanites that could be used for mind-control which have their research stored in one of the computers here.
Koji, beset by one of the Blue Robots.
Next up, I'm sent to yet another unknown universe through the destiny magic, and am filled in when I get there. The place is overrun by monsters of all shapes, sizes, and sorts. I deduce that they are being controlled using the nanites found in the previous dimension, and Deegan later confirms my suspicions. I also find and free a Cleric who helps me in return to fight the leader of these blue robots, named Milon, who escapes. Later, Deegan tells me that he used to have a student named Milon, but he died recently. I think we all know that this is not a mere coincidence. I also happen upon a dimensional portal, which must be what they are using to travel dimensions, and we can use it as well to catch up with them more quickly.
Examining the dimensional portal.
Once again, I'm sent following the Blue Robots to yet another dimension with more mind controlled monsters. This time I meed up with Magical Girl Nekochan, what an interesting universe she comes from. Together we once again find and defeat Milon, but instead of escaping, he chose to activate his self-destruct. But Deegan is unconvinced that he is gone, and tells me the tale of when Milon died in a mystical explosion, ripping his soul from his body. We realize that his soul transposed itself in this robotic body, and there's no reason to think it can't happen again. This time we need to capture Milon so his soul cannot escape again.
Nekochan, she's magic!
Finally, we must go to where Milon is now and capture him. There are no more mind controlled monsters, but many blue robots around. I eventually find Milon who, when struck down had become even more powerful than before, or something like that. But with some perserverance, I was able to subdue him and end his reign of terror, trying to control the other multiverses in the name of the IDTF instead of protecting them as was their original plan. The multiverse is safe once again, until I might be called upon once again.
Three stars: Good.
(Thinking back on this mission, I don't remember if Cyberzombie in mission 2was surrounded by the Blue Robots as minions or not. I originally thought that he was a part of the Blue Robot group, but now I think that he was a part of that world and was being attacked by the Blue Robots. If that is the case, it should be made clearer, and have him surrounded by minions of that world, maybe Banished Pantheon or something similar. Just remember that if you use a standard group, you should try to normalize your level range throughout your arc as much as possible. I guess it would also make sense that the Lizards in the first mission were also residents of the first universe, it's just not made clear anywhere in the story, and they use 2 custom enemy slots which would be better used to diversify the Blue Robot group themselves, as they appear in all 5 missions and are very boring with only 1 minion, lieut, and boss)
Many thanks for the in-depth review! You have given me some very excellent feedback, so thanks! I see that I definitely have some improvements that I can make, especially in the area of making things more clear.
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The intent was that he was communicating with you as a magically/telepathic projection; i.e. he wasn't actually there. I thought I had communicated that in the mission text, but it looks like I hadn't. I'll have to fix this.|
Originally Posted by Bubbawheat
Deegan asks me to rescue him, which is odd as he's still standing in front of me, I wonder if he's actually currently somewhere else and seeing people come for him, or if he is going in on his own and expecting to get caught. Either one would make a bit more sense.
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Originally Posted by Bubbawheat
Anyway, I get there and the place is overrun with Lizards, and there are several groups of Blue Robots wandering around. I eventually find and rescue Deegan and he thanks me for rescuing him from the Blue Robots, though he never mentions the Lizards that were hanging around at all. How odd.
... I guess it would also make sense that the Lizards in the first mission were also residents of the first universe, it's just not made clear anywhere in the story. |
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Originally Posted by Bubbawheat
My next mission for him transports me to another time and dimension, Deegan tells me where I am after I get there, though he should have also mentioned that he updated my nav computer with his scans showing five computers in the area and a boss: Cyberzombie.
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The cyberzombie thing I don't actually want showing up in the nav bar. It's a non-required mission objective, and one you aren't supposed to know about at the beginning of the misison. Looking into it, it looks like I can remove the text in the nav box just by deleting the text in the editor; something I wasn't aware of before. I'll definitely be making this change.
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Originally Posted by Bubbawheat
Thinking back on this mission, I don't remember if Cyberzombie in mission 2was surrounded by the Blue Robots as minions or not. I originally thought that he was a part of the Blue Robot group, but now I think that he was a part of that world and was being attacked by the Blue Robots. If that is the case, it should be made clearer, and have him surrounded by minions of that world, maybe Banished Pantheon or something similar.
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Bubbawheat
I guess it would also make sense that the Lizards in the first mission were also residents of the first universe, it's just not made clear anywhere in the story, and they use 2 custom enemy slots which would be better used to diversify the Blue Robot group themselves, as they appear in all 5 missions and are very boring with only 1 minion, lieut, and boss
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I'll think about the boring-ness of the blue robots, and see if there's anything I can do about that given my space requirements. Your opinion seems to be that having only one lizard type and more blue robot types is preferable to the current situation. I can see if I can possibly squeeze another one or two blue robot types into the mission. Or I can get get rid of some lizard types to make room. Or, if nothing else, I could make the existing types a little more different from each other.
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Originally Posted by Bubbawheat
Also, you should think of more interesting names for them.
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Originally Posted by Bubbawheat
M2: How did the spell bind me to enemies he knows nothing about?
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Originally Posted by Bubbawheat
I like <monsters>, though you can now rename them if you want.
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An interesting thing about that particular enemy group is that it and plays looks way differently at level 10 than it does at level 30 than it does at level 50, since the types of monsters that are level appropriate at those levels varies. So it was supposed to be a huge mishmash of mostly unrelated monsters for you to fight.
While I'm on that topic, the worlds you encountered were supposed to be derived from:
- Nowhere in particular, but some sort of no-tech world with aggressive lizardmen. If this game had non-humanoid dinosaurs, that's totally what you'd be fighting instead, but I had to improvise.
- Shadowrun
- Dungeons & Dragons
- Anime
- Nowhere in particular, but some sort of hi-tech base on some world
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Originally Posted by Bubbawheat
Extreme minions, extreme lieutenants, extreme bosses, and extreme archvillains? No thanks.
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Was this your experience with the mission? Was it at a good difficulty level? Did this warning give you reservations about trying the mission? Should I add some orange text or something in my mission description stating that, despite the extreme enemies, it has been designed to not be too difficult, or something?
One final question. One concern I have is that I might be too wordy with my mission text. What are your thoughts on this?
In conclusion, thank's a lot for running my mission. You have given me some excellent feedback with which to improve it. Thanks again, and I'm glad you enjoyed it.
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I'm guessing that the extreme bosses and EBs in the warning apply to the allies in your arc, you might want to mention that in the description. With the ally in each mission, I had no trouble as a grav/kin controller on Heroic difficulty. I died once or twice on the final AV downgraded to an EB, but all the previous bosses didn't kill me as far as I remember. I didn't get a chance to see any of the non-required bosses as I was running on Heroic, which is another reason to possibly drop a Lizard boss and add a blue robot minion. A good goal for a group spanning all 5 missions with somewhat limited space is 3 minions, 2 lieuts, and 1 boss.|
Originally Posted by Purple Badger
Was this your experience with the mission? Was it at a good difficulty level? Did this warning give you reservations about trying the mission? Should I add some orange text or something in my mission description stating that, despite the extreme enemies, it has been designed to not be too difficult, or something?
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Also, I think renaming the standard mobs, even though it might take a bit of work, would help sell the fact that you are on another dimension, and not just fighting the same old mobs just grouped differently than you are used to. Also, you don't have to lock yourself into the 1-54 level range, a good range with lots of customs is 25-54, especially since you do have an AV without any allies, which is hard to take down solo without SOs for most builds.
As for the mission briefings, depending on my moods I read it less closely than I should. It might be a little wordy, but you do have a lot of explaining to do. Also, I might move some of the setup for the next mission into the mission sendoff text since you can't go back and re-read the mission pop-up. As it is, the mission briefing and sendoff don't really say very much about where you are going next.
Arc Name: A Temporal Disaster: Part One
Author: @Stordarth
Arc ID#: 97135
Morality: Heroic
Level Range: 1-54: custom/council
Description: A routine jaunt for Portal Corps turns out to be a far more complex and dangerous task than anyone could have imagined... *The clues are essential for understanding the story*
Played at: lvl 24-25
How I Found it: searched for "Temporal" at my level. This arc was last on the list with 0 plays.
My contact today is a scientist working for Portal Corp who tells me about his colleague who went off portal hopping on his own and seems to have gotten himself in over his head. I suppose that a time travelling robot like myself would be happy to oblige his request for assistance. Especially as he seems to not want to risk any other members of Portal Corp in this operation. I am about to go into dictionary mode when I see that the minions are all temporal entities in this dimension and they're not happy at all that I am here. I suppose they don't tend to like any visitors. Anyway, I find the trapped scientist and rescue him, although it seems as though he can handle himself quite nicely with an army of robotic minions and a force field device.
Up close and personal with a temporal demon.
After that simple rescue, I find out that an unrelated event with the Coucil has happened, and they could use my assistance to recover some stolen technology. The probability of this event actually being unrelated is 4.28 billion to one, and as I follow the tracking system to their base, my thoughts are confirmed as these temporal beings have begun attacking the Council as well in order to destroy the stolen technology. And I am also tasked by my nav computer to save Archon Visor (why is it that *this* is the name I remember from this arc?)... for some reason. He runs off when rescued, not even thanking me, but also curious as to why these demons just up and attacked his base. According to him for seemingly no reason at all.
Is there a reason why he's just calmly standing there?
After retrieving the technology, it appears as if my contact's colleague has once again gone portal hopping on his own, requesting for no backup whatsoever. This of course means that my contact wants to send me in as back up. And once again, there are lots of temporal demons... in fact, this is very similar in mechanics to the first mission. And for some reason, I have to defeat all of them. Whew, I'm in for a long day. Oh, and I only have an hour to do it... for some reason. I wonder why I'm doing this again? 37 minutes and 12 seconds later the graveyard is clear. And why were they in a graveyard?
Hello again, and no he's not held, he's floating.
Finally, it's time to go speak with someone at Atlas park, as these temporal beings seem to be after anyone who is attempting time travel and erasing them from existence in order to prevent the manipulation of the time stream by those other than themselves. And who do we know that is very fluent in time stream manipulation? Oroborous, and instead of going to Oroborous itself, which I don't officially have access to yet, I'm going to meet one of their members at Atlas Park. But why Atlas? Oh why of course, because Atlas conveniently has a habit of being destroyed in alternate timelines. And why yes, I am now in an alternate timeline in a destroyed version of Atlas Park. And there is a mender which I have never heard of before here for me to rescue, as well as several Temporal bosses, including Temporal Prime. Hopefully he doesn't transform on me.
Mender steampunk. No that's not his name, but that's what I call him now.
And you know what I find out after all is said and done? The scientist I rescued all those times while he was off portal hopping, is the one behind everything. He's even masterminded my involvement for shifting the focus of the creature's attacks away from him while he gallivanted off through space and time. But of course there is no retribution other than the to be continued sign hanging at the end of my contact's speech.
Two point five stars: Ok.
(The minions looked pretty good, although they all looked too similar to each other. There was some use of auras, but they were too subtle to notice much difference, and they are all a dull grey color without any color outside of the subtle auras around a few of their eyes. The objectives in each mission could use some variations, there were a lot of defeating the temporal bosses, especially in the last mission, and they all used the same animation. The timer and defeat all in the third mission were completely unnecessary and unexpected, there was no story reason for either of them. And to top it all off, there was no conclusion to the arc. The bad guy got away scott free, unless you decide to play the next arc. Having a two parter is ok, but there needs to be conclusion at the end of this arc. This is a first play, so there's plenty of room for improvement if the architect ever decides to come back to this arc. I suppose this is one disappointing thing about reviewing arcs that aren't submitted to me: many of these arcs are just abandoned arcs. Both by the architects that will never come back and make improvements, and by the players that will never really see them unless they get stumbled upon through the search function as I have done. Even showcasing them in this thread hasn't gotten any of the lowered played arcs any extra plays. Oh well, at least I enjoy writing these and taking screens, and at least some people are enjoying reading about my adventures. Hopefully I will eventually get to 50 playing all these arcs without having to tread through the ones I know will be just awful, which I already found one and quit after the first spawn of three mastermind minions in the first mission of a five mission with defeat alls on every one. Man, this just turned into one long rant, oops. Anyway, next up is CrystalBlue's arc which I'll try not to forget about again, then onto Oroborous - officially!)
Arc Name: Land Before Time-and-a-Half
Author: @Karl Rove Man
ID# 114776
Moraility: Villainous (Though it feels more Neutral)
Level Range: 1-54
Description: Somehow it's not very surprising when you're favorite portal jockey, Technician Naylor, appears as a hologram in the AE building. Take a trip back in time (and then over in time) as you test his latest form of inter-dimensional travel!
Played at: level 18-19
How I found it: Searched for "time travel" at my level, saw the completed checkmark and realized I had reviewed it on my other thread before and was curious if any changes had been made. Only minor dialog changes if any.
Cavesman, though a little hard to see. I have stealth now so I should be able to get some better shots without needing my holds.
My contact today is Technician Naylor being extremely excited about discovering a way to tap into the AE hologram interface and use his portal to send you to another time and dimension at the Architect Entertainment building. In this prehistoric era, there is an ancient version of our Statesman referred to as Cavesman who is surrounded by a large number of reptilian humanoids.
Paper jam this!!
After defeating Cavesman I return to Naylor who informs me that defeating the greatest mammalian humanoid in that era caused a large shift in their dimension's timeline. Now he would like me to check out the other dimension in the current timeline to see what sort of havoc I had wrought. And pick up a computer virus that should create a bit of trouble in this dimension as well. It seems that instead of the mammalian humanoids evolving, the reptilian humanoids evolved instead and are busy recreating a scene from Office Space about the printer. I find the computer and grab the virus, and even though I'm finished here, I stop by to take out the office boss, hey I'm sure they could use a bit of time off. At least the ones not recouperating in the hospital.
Pip pip, cheer-i-o, now get back to work or I'll eat you!
After getting a little useful virus from this dimension, Naylor decides to go a little soft and wants to help these reptilians. He finds that they are being paid unfairly by a bunch of 5th Cavemen Troglodytes. It's time to introduce the concept of a union to them and get them their time-and-a-half. So, I free several of the reptilians, tell them about the wonders of unions, and send them on their way to a better tomorrow. Their tomorrow at least. I return to Naylor and leave him with his virus and sense of accomplishment.
5th Cavemen
Four Stars: Recommended!
Now smile for the camera!