CoHMR Aggregator (a review thread)

GlaziusF · 04-29-2011 12:31 AM

@GlaziusF

Running this on a mid-20s Peacebringer, +0/x2 with bosses on.

---

Oh hey! Hello there forgotten canon contact. I always like seeing this sort of thing.

Some gold miners have gone on strike and the Family is being brought in as strikebreakers. Well, cant have that in this city.

Ordinary Family stomp with a few Scrapyarders to rescue, and a boss hostage who tells of demon things in the depths.

---

And now we go to punch them, as is only right and proper.

The demon things, I mean. Not the depths.

Stock Fir Bolg, a banshee whos a little sonic blaster, and an ice knight boss, so far...

Also mace ogre lieutenants, knife-wielding goblin and kicking Satyr minions, and a plant/thorns minion. You should be aware that plant/thorns has the unique feature that all its powers debuff defense for a decent while, precipitating a cascade into always getting hit.

Anyway, various miners are worked to death (or nearly so) or killed by caprice. Obviously these are less than optimal working conditions.

Some kind of spider priestess is leading things up in the end chamber. Her name is InvalidStringReplacement so you might want to have a look into that.

Critters with twin offense sets, too. Axe/sonic minotaurs, and a fire melee/elec melee boss. ONE offense set is actually enough for full XP on most critters, if you turn custom on but leave the powers unchanged.

critter failed validation and melted into a goo? If thats an MA error message its a much better one than just having somebody turn into a 5th column automaton.

Well, theyve found some jade thingy thats probably important.

---

And now based on whatever it is theyre raiding the Midnighters.

Boss in here is a necro mastermind, which is problematic because if a large number of those henchmen connect they can floor your accuracy.

...bother. Get wiped by the (accidental?) Protean Hydra who peels off my flight and resists knockback, and I wind up outside the map when I come back. Self-destruct was made for times like these.

Anyway, I spring the last Midnighter, who informs me of some researcher, and combined with the bosss earlier rant about the Jade Prison seems to indicate that these characters are planning to drain the Midnighters through the arcane connection.

---

Now, on to the end boss! Theres a warning about Queen Mab who I guess is the optional AV fight mentioned in the description...

Oh. Oranbega. Man, theres no room to steer clear of anything here, especially in the Oranbega called Oranbega, which is all twisty corridors and not much else.

Hmm. The Duchess is a storm/ice EB. Even a Shivan doesnt really help, and shes right near the start, because there arent a lot of places for things to spawn on this map. The problem is that cold comes with a giant slow and storm comes with more, so if enough connect then your powers turn into little dots and you cant get away.

Flanking the end room, and in probably a total coincidence, are a fire melee/elec melee and necro/dark boss from the custom group, who appear to have MORE powers than the named bosses of the same type I fought earlier in the arc! At least I know the earlier necro boss never pulled out his Lich, but the Lich is the key to the overwhelming -tohit of necro.

In quick succession I break the altar and free the prisoner, and then head back to the entrance. No sign of the AV, but since Ive picked up a Living Armor I dont really look too hard for fear hell decide to run off and find her and then Ill get pasted.

Perhaps she wasnt actually here at all? Then again just because were taking her granddaughter to safety is no reason for Queen Mab to hold anything back...

---

Storyline - ****. Not until the end do we find out what actually went on here. On the one hand this is kind of typical of hero arcs which start with a mysterious happening and then work to get to the bottom of whats going on. On the other hand, we spend this entire arc doing the right thing basically completely by accident.

Well, aside from saving the miners. That was the right thing done deliberately, but stopping a hostile takeover of an entire villain faction kinda overshadows that. I cant come up with a way off-hand for the story to be rewritten so that we know what were getting into, as nobody whos involved with this thing is very liable or able to tell us whats going on in advance.

Also, Faerie Gold is kind of a nice title, very evocative, but it stops being relevant when the actual plot picks up.

Design - ****. Theres a lot of variety to the enemy group, both visual and terms of powerset, but its all pretty easy to make sense of. I understand the cramped mining caves, but that particular Oranbega map is far too constricted and spawn-restrictive to really work as a final boss location. Also you should be aware of the spawn bug in the stock Midnight Club map where a character can zone in just behind the door and fall out of the skybox. You could probably just use the CoV offices as those fit the Midnighter fronts pretty well.

Gameplay - **. But even though the power sets make sense thematically, they dont combine into a very good experience. Consider the other enemy groups present around this time: Sky Raiders, Family, Warriors, Freakshow. The new annoyance is the Devouring Earth, and their big trick is fragile control powers on a minion. The fairies end up being way too high-test for the level range theyre supposed to be used at. Watch out for:

Control powers on a minion. There are often a lot of minions in any given spawn and they can surprise you.

Debuffs on a minion. Again, there are often a lot of minions, and debuffs can stack up quickly.

Overabundance of to-hit debuffs or slows. Not being able to do anything because you have no power icons or cant hit just leads to a sitting-around-waiting-for-death scenario, and nobody enjoys those.

Two attack sets. The easiest way to give a critter the right number of attacks is to select the standard mix you want, then switch the enemy over to custom and take away powers until youre just at 100% XP or slightly below. You will always be over 100% XP even if youre taking two attack sets at standard. Critters start every battle with all their attacks recharged so a large number of attacks means a big alpha strike.

Detail - ****. Apparently the weirdness in this arc is part of an overly aggressive filtering system. Said weirdness aside, everything was pretty decent to look at, though with the large number of clues they could stand to be set apart by mission, as often the clue window opens in the middle of a previous missions clues when you have a lot.

Overall - ***. The combat is what really drags this one down. The custom group is pitched very high relative to other groups at its level. Correct that and you should be good.

PoliceWoman · 05-11-2011 05:29 PM

For your consideration:

Fusionette Incarnate (arc 497003)

http://cohmissionreview.com/2011/05/...tte-incarnate/

@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!"

theHedoren · 05-12-2011 08:31 PM

If you're not too busy, I would greatly appreciate a review of "The Fractured Dreamer" (Arc ID 498588, CoHMR page, forum page)

"Dreamer" is actually based on an arc you reviewed almost two years ago. Based on your review (and a handful of others) I decided to just tear the old arc down and rebuild it from the ground up. I think it's much improved, but I'd love to hear your opinion.

Rise of the Copper Legion (#60280; with soundtrack)
The Fractured Dreamer (#498588; with musical theme)

"Now Leaving: Paragon City": original composition for the end of CoH

GlaziusF · 05-16-2011 08:12 PM

Tonight's arc: Fusionette Incarnate (497003). Verdict - ***. Review in MA Forums Thread.

My current queue:

The Fractured Dreamer (498588)
Random reviews are currently on hold. Due to the overeager text censor I can't be sure that any random arc I encounter isn't going to have inexplicably replaced text or characters in it.
I'm still open to reviews by request, for anything you know is working.

If anybody wants in, the instructions are in the first post. A part of these instructions, perhaps pertinent to this post: I always vote 5 in-game, as it seems a bit uncouth to ask people to jump through hoops and then bomb their rating.

Something that isn't in the instructions but could stand to be said: CoH Mission Review isn't my private site. It's not even my site. Anybody's welcome to leave a review on anything, and it hardly has to be as long as the critical monstrosities I find myself putting out now and again.

SupaFreak · 05-18-2011 05:10 PM

If you get to a night with nothing lined up and seems like randoms are in order, I would love a re-review of what I pray is a vastly improved Black as Midnight that you reviewed quite a while back.

I highly respect your opinion and reviews (I now playtest at +0/x2 w/Bosses) and a great amount of what you said altered the design and layout.

I would love to put a "Final" stamp on it, but there a few new experiments within I'm toying with and would like to know if they absolutely Fail or if they're okay. (psst, no shivans this time)

Thanx in advance...

GlaziusF · 05-19-2011 10:37 PM

Tonight's arc: The Fractured Dreamer (498588). Verdict - ***. Review in MA Forums Thread.

My current queue:

Black As Midnight (482914)
Random reviews are currently on hold. Due to the overeager text censor I can't be sure that any random arc I encounter isn't going to have inexplicably replaced text or characters in it.
I'm still open to reviews by request, for anything you know is working.

If anybody wants in, the instructions are in the first post. A part of these instructions, perhaps pertinent to this post: I always vote 5 in-game, as it seems a bit uncouth to ask people to jump through hoops and then bomb their rating.

Something that isn't in the instructions but could stand to be said: CoH Mission Review isn't my private site. It's not even my site. Anybody's welcome to leave a review on anything, and it hardly has to be as long as the critical monstrosities I find myself putting out now and again.

theHedoren · 05-19-2011 11:52 PM

Thank you for your review of "The Fractured Dreamer"! I had some follow-up responses, which I posted in the arc's forum thread to avoid cluttering up your thread too much. Suffice to say that I now have some (possibly) good ideas for improving my story.

I did have one disappointment, though. As with another arc, I'm in the process of writing some theme music for "Dreamer". I told myself I'd be finished before your review was done, but you beat me to it! Ah,well....

Thanks again for the feedback!

Rise of the Copper Legion (#60280; with soundtrack)
The Fractured Dreamer (#498588; with musical theme)

"Now Leaving: Paragon City": original composition for the end of CoH

GlaziusF · 05-24-2011 10:52 PM

Tonight's arc: Black As Midnight (482914). Verdict - **. Review in MA Forums Thread.

My current queue:

Random reviews are currently on hold. Due to the overeager text censor I can't be sure that any random arc I encounter isn't going to have inexplicably replaced text or characters in it.
Reviews period will be on hold for about a week as I'll be out of town, but I'm still open to reviews by request, for anything you know is working.

If anybody wants in, the instructions are in the first post. A part of these instructions, perhaps pertinent to this post: I always vote 5 in-game, as it seems a bit uncouth to ask people to jump through hoops and then bomb their rating.

Something that isn't in the instructions but could stand to be said: CoH Mission Review isn't my private site. It's not even my site. Anybody's welcome to leave a review on anything, and it hardly has to be as long as the critical monstrosities I find myself putting out now and again.

Bleak_Wanderer · 06-01-2011 05:28 AM

GlaziusF -

Whenever you have time, I would love to have a review. My arc should be new-filter compliant, so I don't expect you'll encounter any problems.

Arc is:
Arc Name: An Epic Tale: Clown Capers
Arc ID: 501562
Faction: Family, Custom
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Apolinus
Difficulty Level: Low. Soloable.
Levels: 25 - 30
Synopsis:
El Presidente, the head of the El Presidente Investigation Corp (EPIC), has hired you for a simple job: Find dirt on a Burger Clown, a major multinational burger chain opening a franchise in Paragon City. Like nearly every story in Paragon, all is not as it seems at first.
Estimated Time to Play: ~ 1 hour (3 missions)

Forum thread link:
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=261968

COH Mission Review link:
http://cohmissionreview.com/2011/05/...-clown-capers/

My debut arc: "Nothing to Worry About Nothing to Worry About [SFMA][HLMA][CFMA][HGMA] ID # 500325

My second arc: An Epic Tale: Clown Capers ID # 501562 Arc Forum Thread (Feedback/Reviews/Constructive Criticism Welcome)

Drakmarth · 06-03-2011 04:44 PM

For your consideration:

An Uncivil War: Preclude ID: 415877

and thanks in advance.

@Drakmarth & @Drakmarth2

Avatar by S. Wall

#415877 - An Uncivil War: Preclude - Looking for Feedback

GlaziusF · 07-13-2011 07:26 PM

Oof. That was a long hiatus. Sorry about that. Work had me running.

Tonight's arc: An Uncivil War: Preclude (415877). Verdict - *****. Review in MA Forums Thread.

My current queue:

An Epic Tale: Clown Capers (501562)
Random reviews are on hold indefiniely. Due to the overeager text censor I can't be sure that any random arc I encounter will actually function as originally intended. Text, enemies, and entire enemy groups can be replaced depending on what the censor objects to.
I'm still open to reviews by request, for anything you know is working.

If anybody wants in, the instructions are in the first post. I've recently made a few clarifications to it. A part of these instructions, perhaps pertinent to this post: I always vote 5 in-game, as it seems a bit uncouth to ask people to jump through hoops and then bomb their rating.

Something that isn't in the instructions but could stand to be said: CoH Mission Review isn't my private site. It's not even my site. Anybody's welcome to leave a review on anything, and it hardly has to be as long as the critical monstrosities I find myself putting out now and again.

Drakmarth · 07-14-2011 04:57 PM

Thank you for the review on An Uncivil War: Preclude and for the actual 5* rating overall. I'm glad you enjoyed the storyline as it was the major aspect aside from the customs that I went back to again and again over the last year.

I'm glad to have submitted it as you raised valid points not brought up by other players (hence why I have had it as a Looking for Feedback for so long). More details in the MA forum thread soon.

@Drakmarth & @Drakmarth2

Avatar by S. Wall

#415877 - An Uncivil War: Preclude - Looking for Feedback

GlaziusF · 08-29-2011 08:52 PM

So yeah. Return of Revenge of the Son of Long Hiatus 2: Daily Grind Harder.

I think it's been a month since I initially played this arc, so if anything's changed since then let me know and I'll give it another once-over.

Speaking of things that have changed, have you taken all your arcs back and made sure the glowies you want in the back actually say "back" because it actually works that way now?

I know, I can't get over it either.

With nothing left in the queue I'll start up the random arcs again. If I encounter something that looks like the censor went nuts, I'll just send a message to the arc author and break off.

Tonight's arc: An Epic Tale: Clown Capers (501562). Verdict - ***. Review in MA Forums Thread.

My current queue:

Random reviews! Due to the overeager text censor I can't be sure that any random arc I encounter will actually function as originally intended. Text, enemies, and entire enemy groups can be replaced depending on what the censor objects to. In that case I'll message the arc author and call it a night.
I'm still open to reviews by request, for anything you know is working.

If anybody wants in, the instructions are in the first post. I've recently made a few clarifications to it. A part of these instructions, perhaps pertinent to this post: I always vote 5 in-game, as it seems a bit uncouth to ask people to jump through hoops and then bomb their rating.

Something that isn't in the instructions but could stand to be said: CoH Mission Review isn't my private site. It's not even my site. Anybody's welcome to leave a review on anything, and it hardly has to be as long as the critical monstrosities I find myself putting out now and again.

GlaziusF · 09-24-2011 05:45 PM

Sigh. This is starting to get ridiculous. At least nobody's expecting a review from me, right? Random arcs incoming!

Previously played:

Tales of Cimerora: Of Feathers And Fur (12647) Verdict - ***.
Dhahabu Kingdom and the Indelible Curse of Hate (367872) Verdict - ****
The Fractured Dreamer (498588) Verdict - ***
Is it Live, or Is It Memory-X? (70210) Verdict - ***

Tonight's arc: Krusaders Adventures (475115). Verdict - ***. Review in MA Forums Thread.

My current queue:

Random reviews! Due to the overeager text censor I can't be sure that any random arc I encounter will actually function as originally intended. Text, enemies, and entire enemy groups can be replaced depending on what the censor objects to. In that case I'll message the arc author and call it a night.
I'm still open to reviews by request, for anything you know is working.

If anybody wants in, the instructions are in the first post. I've recently made a few clarifications to it. A part of these instructions, perhaps pertinent to this post: I always vote 5 in-game, as it seems a bit uncouth to ask people to jump through hoops and then bomb their rating.

Something that isn't in the instructions but could stand to be said: CoH Mission Review isn't my private site. It's not even my site. Anybody's welcome to leave a review on anything, and it hardly has to be as long as the critical monstrosities I find myself putting out now and again.

GlaziusF · 10-14-2011 09:08 PM

Another ridiculous time interval, another random arc.

Previously played:

Enter Japes (96001) Verdict - *.

Tonight's arc: In Search of Lost Time (44588). Verdict - ***. Review below in this thread.

My current queue:

Random reviews! Due to the overeager text censor I can't be sure that any random arc I encounter will actually function as originally intended. Text, enemies, and entire enemy groups can be replaced depending on what the censor objects to. In that case I'll message the arc author and call it a night.
I'm still open to reviews by request, for anything you know is working.

If anybody wants in, the instructions are in the first post. I've recently made a few clarifications to it. A part of these instructions, perhaps pertinent to this post: I always vote 5 in-game, as it seems a bit uncouth to ask people to jump through hoops and then bomb their rating.

Something that isn't in the instructions but could stand to be said: CoH Mission Review isn't my private site. It's not even my site. Anybody's welcome to leave a review on anything, and it hardly has to be as long as the critical monstrosities I find myself putting out now and again.

GlaziusF · 10-14-2011 09:09 PM

Playing this on a mid-40s ice/axe tanker, +0/x2 with bosses on.

---

Using Architect as a simple interactive historical sim? Yeah, good luck with that, professor. Most of the good historical figures are copyrighted already.

Well, let's mow down some soldiers and figure out why their AI is stuck on MURDER MODE.

Oh hey. Imperius's boys! I can't recall if you ever go up against them. Maybe once for Ghosticus Widowcles? They're spouting suitable infotainmenty dialogue.

Oh, here's someone who got mislocated. Look, Lord Byron, I realize that Zeus probably illegitimately fathered half of antiquity but you shouldn't take that as a personal challenge.

Anyhow! He drops a rather anemic clue on rescue, but it's just the first mission.

---

In fine holodeck fashion, now Napoleon has gotten loose and is waging a war of conquest.

Oh hey, the Aztec pantheon got banished? Yeah, I can see it.

Anyway, Napoleon is here going all dual cavalry sabers, and his escort looks distinctly Prussian, with a sprinkling of Gilbert and/or Sullivan.

Huh. He spawned in the very first room, taking him out completed the mission, but I had three anachronisms yet to find. Let's go looking.

Oh. Just a few more out-of-place historical figures. Nothing clue-worthy.

---

And now for the scientific method! Nothing like a live trial.

I guess these mobsters are native to the sim? The translocated programs show up later, and then there's the fun of finding randomly-appearing targets on an outdoor map. One of them is Dr. Lovelace, who does a spot analysis of what's going wrong.

The AIs are trying to learn, and that's overwriting various parts of their programs.

---

So now we're probably going to investigate this phenomenon and--

Oh. There was a "who's Jack the Ripper" simulation, and it turns out that everyone is! At least Killerman is still only Killerman.

Some nice work doing blood-soaked period costumes here. Not really much more to say than that -- feels like a bit of a sidestory to the whole thing.

---

Anyway, it's time to shut this whole mess down.

From the Dean's master console.

While she's studying Oranbega.

...it wouldn't be so bad but I'm pretty sure the navbar is telling me to kill everything in here, which is terrible to do in Oranbega.

The Vlad I was warned about is a very credible nobleman who wants to introduce my face to his mace.

And oh dang Genghis Khan. Good thing I can give him the chilblains.

And then it's over. Good bits of the souvenir: apparently two semesters' credit is the most generous accolade the university can bestow. Life-threatening scenarios come and go but bureaucracy is forever. Bad bits: it mentions the Third Reich, and I didn't really see any Column on my little jaunt through time.

---

Storyline - ***. Mission 4 kind of jumps the rails here. Immediately after getting a lead on what exactly might be causing the AIs to go kill-crazy, we have to "put out a fire" by neutralizing a berserk simulation. Just like we did in the first mission. Except there aren't any actual anachronisms on offer and nothing in the mission plays into the overarching plot of finding out what's causing these berserks and stopping it.

It would actually work out much better as an intial mission to the arc, as its plotline is the least complicated of any of the missions.

Other than this strange lull in pacing, the story is a serviceable excuse for a bunch of cross-temporal punchups, and that's really all you need.

Design - ***. Map choice was generally sound. Enemy group choice was well-done, both in terms of highlighting obscure canon enemies and designing distinctive and appropriate customs.

But mission 2 parks Napoleon right in the front door, pretty much ensuring none of the other interesting anachronisms ever need be seen. Mission 4, while the customs are very well done visually, replaces most of its standard spawns with patrols, which have a much less variable mix and don't seem responsive to hero multipliers -- the upshot of which is that instead of interesting mixes of minions, lieutenants, and the occasional boss, the only thing I see in mission 4 are the same three minions, over and over again.

And the justification for the cumbersome defeat alls in the first and last missions are flimsy at best. All the AIs need to be disabled for the simulation to be shut down? Heck, for something that purports to be a computer simulation there's very little in the way of actual computery bits. A console here and there that needed to be interacted with, rather than just wiping everything out, would have been a good completion condition. Call it enabling administrative mode or whatever.

Gameplay - **. Defeat all in the Cimeroran caves is a bit of a pain due to how labyrinthine they are. Defeat all in Oranbega is a bit of a pain because enemies can spawn or get stuck behind geometry. Not untargetable, but they're too far out of the way to engage with the normal spawn and generally you can't catch them with a casual tab around. The hands room is particularly bad for parking a single minion in one of the side pools. The outdoor mission in the construction yard may as well be defeat all for how randomly things are scattered -- with no distinctive animation to pick them out, the only way to find them is to sweep around and pound tab to look for stragglers.

None of the enemies are keyboard-snappingly difficult to defeat, but there's potentially a whole lot of boring dead air.

Detail - *****. Great attention to detail, well worth poking around and checking descriptions to see what you can find.

Overall - ***. This arc has a lot of good individual pieces, particularly in the costume design and description of the historical enemies. Where it unfortunately falls short is in the way the pieces are put together into missions and the missions tell a story.

Zaphir · 10-15-2011 02:18 PM

Yo,

I've just finished a new arc (mostly inspired by playing way-too-much Psychonauts after the September update; BTW, everyone should play Psychonauts if they haven't already!).

Arc # 524278 - "The Astral Prison" (level 40-54, heroic)

I haven't posted it to CoHMR yet since it's sort of in a v0.9 state, and I'm not sure I want to inflict that on the world right now. OTOH, I'd like some 'in-development arc feedback' on it (public), if possible!

Ta' in advance,

-- Z.

GlaziusF · 11-14-2011 06:53 PM

Somewhere something changed. I know I used to be able to play CoH more than a few hours a month.

Anyway, here's an in-development review of "The Astral Prison", below in this thread.

My current queue:

Random reviews! Due to the overeager text censor I can't be sure that any random arc I encounter will actually function as originally intended. Text, enemies, and entire enemy groups can be replaced depending on what the censor objects to. In that case I'll message the arc author and call it a night.
I'm still open to reviews by request, for anything you know is working.

If anybody wants in, the instructions are in the first post. I've recently made a few clarifications to it. A part of these instructions, perhaps pertinent to this post: I always vote 5 in-game, as it seems a bit uncouth to ask people to jump through hoops and then bomb their rating.

Something that isn't in the instructions but could stand to be said: CoH Mission Review isn't my private site. It's not even my site. Anybody's welcome to leave a review on anything, and it hardly has to be as long as the critical monstrosities I find myself putting out now and again.

GlaziusF · 11-14-2011 06:55 PM

@GlaziusF

Running this on a level 50 stone/ice tank, +1/x2 with bosses on.

---

Well, that's one way to start out a game: with amnesia, in a giant artificial environment, apparently having assumed the party escort submission position.

And I've got a psychic radio buddy! Those are always fun.

Ick, ghosts. At least I don't have to defeat them, but they love to rain down screaming necrotic doom from halfway across the map. Apparently they're some kind of fake human, as I find another humaniform, illusion/energy, as an incidental silent boss.

I encounter several conflicting accounts of how I wound up here, and a friendly humaniform who points the way to the energy source. He talks about dying if they go near, and I take this to mean some kind of escort behavior. Better head for this glade and WHY HELLO THERE BABS.

Oh. Oh, phew. That was just his idle animation. I thought I was about to get pelted, but he's friendly.

Whatever power source is in this place, the ghosts don't want me getting near it. That can't be good for my long-term prospects.

---

Then again, right now I'm fighting my way through hordes of them anyway. A pack of robots right now, who are apparently under control of some robot master.

Hmm. Project Locke. I find some information on the process - worryingly I seem to be stepping through the first couple of stages.

Upstairs I find a chattyface who seems to be the earlier robot's opposite number, though I figured she'd be accompanied by mages or something instead of, apparently, alone.

Also Falcon gets in touch with me and confirms my suspicions from earlier. He thinks Crey's taking me to use as another Protector template.

---

Invisible Falcon and my creepy psychic radio buddy are now trying to get my back against what seem to be the increasingly transparent ploys of the Crey program. Interestingly, though, they don't seem to be telling me to do anything different, necessarily.

If it weren't for Dr. Pretendo trying to improvise, I could easily buy this being a con coming the other way, as this is a cosmic-level arc and it's plausible for any hero at this level to be part of or at least aware of the exposure of Crey's nefarious business practices.

Room one I find a security program, near an aspect of myself who appears to be a demon clone. Well, this just got easier.

Of the remaining four suppressed aspects of myself, three do nothing and one decides to throw its lot in with Crey and attacks me. Thanks for the vote of confidence, guys. But once Praetoriana is clear they all jack themselves in and overload the system.

---

And then I wake myself.

Oh hey, some nice little Protectors. Custom bitty flame models, and some weapon elements too. I break some vital testing apparatus on my way up to bring the project lead to justice, and fight through Protectors coming back down.

And with one final assist from IF, I escape.

---

Storyline: The first two missions and the briefing for the third are all pretty nicely done. Things are plausibly deniable for the first two missions but when the ball drops in the briefing for the third it doesn't come out of nowhere. The ending's alright too - a straight-up punch-up that's a nice cooldown after all the more abstract earlier missions.

(Though having the assist from IF at the end does feel a bit odd. It's true we don't get a lot of information about him, but he never struck me as much of a computer hacker, especially as compared to, say, Mark VI or Dr. Friedkin, to name a few other potential ghosts in the machine.)

I did lose the plot for the third mission itself, though. There's basically three threads I'm aware of at the time: what Dr. Pretendo is telling me to do, what that's actually doing for Crey, and what IF and the voices in my head want me to do to escape. It's clear that I'm doing what the third party wants to do in the third mission, but what I'm not sure of is how I came to be able to do it. Has Crey just left vital testing apparatus in the simulation this entire time and hoped I wouldn't be able to interact with it? If not, how did I actually get to the place where it was being held? I could see maybe this being some kind of last resort - they only really modeled the park and the office complex in addition to the control chamber - but it still feels rather arbitrary how I got there.

Design: The first three missions could be absolutely anything and the last mission is a Crey lab. Not much to get wrong from a map choice perspective. The first three missions could have absolutely anything for enemies, and you do alright with the ghosts and the custom in the first mission, but the giant swarm of robots starts to wear a little. They make good enemies for the third mission, but you could stand a little more variety in the second mission. Like giving Ms. Chattyface any troops at all.

The custom protector minions make a nice alternative to the 7th-gens and their desparation defenses, but was I just unlucky with spawns or are there no lieutenants in the group at all? I think they dock points for that.

Gameplay: The only mission with any backtracking puts in a decent selection of stuff to get in the way while you're doing it. I was never really frustrated or waiting too long. Aside from that the opposition's largely stock and when it isn't stock the customs are reasonable.

There is one thing I want to raise as regards the robots: they were designed more as variant enemies within their respective groups than complete groups in their own right, so cherry-picking the lot of them means that a character who does primarily lethal or psionic damage will find themselves doing half or less than half damage against the bulk of opposition I realize this was canonically done in the Rogue Robots mini-arc but that doesn't make it any better.

Detail: I think part of the problem with my losing the plot between missions 2 and 3 is that the enemies are exactly identical as far as descriptions go. In mission 2 they kind of make sense as minions of the taciturn robot, and I suppose you could argue they get a more sinister cast to them in mission 3. But if mission 2 is inside the simulation and mission 3 is running around backstage, it would help establish the separation if there were different enemies in the two missions - if not different in actual composition, then at least different in names and powers.

Overall: The general shape of what's going on is fairly clear here. The twist itself is well set up from the start, and there's some good design work here, especially with the custom protector squad in the last mission. But the actual process by which the twist pays off is a bit murky, though fortunately there are a lot of ways that could be corrected: clearer narration, varied opposition, even just altered descriptions.

Zaphir · 11-14-2011 11:07 PM

Thanks for the review (and nice portal reference )!

In M2 both 'controllers' are supposed to be accompanied by the same robots who make up the main enemy group of the mission -- gonna double-check Sesq, though now that you mention it, it may be worthwhile to give her a different group of minions. I had the idea of using two different groups of enemies in front/back with a mixture in mid by using force-spawn techniques and a base 'empty' enemy group to make the distinction more clear. Another idea I had would've been spawning (optional) copies of the bosses after the originals are defeated, but there's no way I'm writing up that many lines for Sesq v2..v10!

Very good call about differentiating between robots in M2 and M3 -- in M3 the names are probably fine as they are, but in M2 I could probably just switch some descriptions and names around so the ghost in the machine / matrix / etc thing is less obvious.

The basic weakness $name is trying to exploit in M3 is that the memory transfer process is very resource-heavy and prone to crashing if invoked multiple times. It's implied that other heroes might've gotten to the same spot as $name, but they failed because they couldn't / wouldn't reach into their subconscious to assist them (and Crey only do the process on one hero at a time). Most of the other heroes got Crey enough data during the office building section so this phase wouldn't be needed.

Regarding the end in M4: I figured IF did that bit sometime during his 10 years in the machine, it's just that the panic button was never used before... you're right that using the Doctor would be a better option here, though players who haven't played the appropriate arcs may not recognize who it is (maybe it'll just add mystery instead of being annoying though).

Re the custom group in M4: there actually *are* LTs in the group (crey sharpshooters), but they never seem to spawn. XP seems to be ok, though... and it kinda works better this way, to be honest.

Thanks again,

-- Z.

GlaziusF · 12-15-2011 08:10 PM

Another ridiculous time interval, another random arc.

Previously played:

Blood for Roses (161399). Verdict - ***

Tonight's arc: Praetoria: The Coming Storm (169598). Verdict - ***. Review below in this thread.

My current queue:

Random reviews! Due to the overeager text censor I can't be sure that any random arc I encounter will actually function as originally intended. Text, enemies, and entire enemy groups can be replaced depending on what the censor objects to. In that case I'll message the arc author and call it a night.
I'm still open to reviews by request, for anything you know is working.

If anybody wants in, the instructions are in the first post. I've recently made a few clarifications to it. A part of these instructions, perhaps pertinent to this post: I always vote 5 in-game, as it seems a bit uncouth to ask people to jump through hoops and then bomb their rating.

Something that isn't in the instructions but could stand to be said: CoH Mission Review isn't my private site. It's not even my site. Anybody's welcome to leave a review on anything, and it hardly has to be as long as the critical monstrosities I find myself putting out now and again.

GlaziusF · 12-15-2011 08:12 PM

@GlaziusF

Running this on a max-level spine/regen scrapper, +1/x2 with bosses on.

---

Alright. So Mynx is sending me to scout out Praetoria by... beating the snot out of everybody in sight. She's not that good at stealth, is she?

(Quick note about the funny accept text you've got there - only the mission accepter can possibly see this. If this is an arc that likes teams, you may want to break it out into a briefing, which at least teammates can see.)

The enemies are "Crossbow", a worthy construction from a time before the IDF, but I was actually kinda looking forward to wrangling with them in architect.

Oh, this is disquieting. Jonin dropping blinding powder. Does that have a to-hit or is it automatic? Either way it's a long-duration stacked confuse. And dominators with plant control, with cascading defense debuffs, and radiation defenders. Radiation toggle debuffs don't actually wear off in the hands of the Architect.

You've got some kind of messed-up power selection or something in the files, as I'm seeing some proteans stomping around.

But the "Crossbow" are pretty nice visually, all having junior versions of Tyrant's armor on.

...oh, this is interesting. Apparently with confuse on me, Mynx (unconfused) thinks I'm an enemy and preferentially targets me. Would explain why I'm melting so quickly.

After plowing through Going Rogue a couple times it seems odd to be getting "introduced" to the IDF-equivalent and the resistance. I mean, I could understand needing an introduction, but it's not exactly the level of vital intelligence to be parceled out in clues.

---

Nice repurposing of a neighborhood as leveled.

Not-so-nice: needing to find a random thing in it, and then needing to find a random thing in it again.

Just plain weird: even though her name is Dominatrix, I guess automatic updates to the enemy model mean that she shows up in the description and kill text as Praetor Duncan.

---

And now I punch Siege to serve as a distraction.

Huh. The opening text scroll suggests someone came through a portal, but the operative I rescue is from not-Arachnos. Are we letting them stage their operations out of Portal Corp or the Vindicator base or something?

Here is a terrible secret about the Skyway City overpasses: there are about four functional Z-levels to this map, and you will never, ever see more than one of them unless you use the map in Mission Architect.

...and unheralded by anything but an ambush, Siege's defeat chains into finding Neuron.

My ally is a bit flaky in this map. Sometimes she'll space out and need to be re-acquired.

Finally I work my way through the multiple levels and find Neuron.

---

Oh. So the not-Arachnos are staging in this dimension. That... sets an interesting precedent, though I suppose it's only fair given the Praetorians try and get themselves beachheads over here. Anyway. Planting bombs now.

You should know that if you have multiple copies of a single objective, the very first one gives the objective-complete text and any associated clues. Doesn't play well with setting up a surprise.

---

And a final showdown. There are quite a few optional bosses called out in the navbar, but any bosses in the way of Recluse and his half-dozen summoned dudes aren't really optional.

Judging by the lack of mementos though, the fights are really just for the thrill of the combat, which isn't a bad reason overall.

I like the justification for the time limit, but I come in under it with pretty much no trouble, thanks largely to Recluse and his six summoned dudes.

---

Storyline - ****. This may be a little personally biased, but I like what's going on here. There's the couple of Praetorian arcs, and then there's the giant Incarnate trials, and there's not much in between the two. A story about the Vindicators hooking up with the Resistance is a pretty good bridge between these events.

Well, the actual Resistance. Not Arightnos. Praetoria starts with Marcus Cole killin' his old war buddy and goes from there, though some Arachnos luminaries do show up in the underground. But it's hardly fair to take points off for something you didn't know about at the time of writing.

If you're revisiting this, of course, I'd like to see the Resistance in the rewrite, but Praetoria-as-mirror-Earth was a common enough guess back when that was all we saw.

Design - ***. Chained objectives can be very tempting if you want to present events in a certain order. The problem is that it's not always possible to ensure the player encounters those spawns (or spawn locations for unspawned encounters) in the proper order, especially on outdoor maps.

So when you've got a story in a mission that depends on certain things happening, especially when the mission map doesn't lend itself to a linear narrative, consider if they really have to happen in the provided order. Do we really need, for example in mission three, to pop the agent from Arightnos, then defeat Siege, then drop Neuron?

I have to drop a good word for the enemy costume design. It does some nice borrowing from Tyrant's major elements to create a much more credible personal guard than the Destroyers used to be. Now, of course, there's the IDF, but that's beside the point.

Gameplay - *. I will give the customs this: nobody's got crazy burst offense or impregnable defense. Those are just pains to go up against. Unfortunately there are some other pains laying around. Radiation defenders with persistent debuffs. The plant/thorn dominators whose every power debuffs your defense, making it more likely that a followup is going to hit and debuff your defense, making it more likely that a followup is going to hit... it's just a bad scene. Smoke flash from the ninja mastermind's minions is a new one, though. That's a decent-duration confuse that may well turn your intended-to-be-balancing-factor ally against you as well. The oni is enough of a challenge, with the rain of fire scattering your ally and fire control powers that charge fast enough to stack status effects even through Integration.

The chained objectives on outdoor maps aren't much fun either. They can show up literally anywhere and the only way to find out where is to scour every corner of the map or kill enough of the map's population that you may as well have scoured every corner. And the Skyway map undergoes a startling transformation under the architect's spawner, turning from a simple corridor of highway into a corner-snooping nightmare on four z-levels.

I should drop a good word for the concept of the last mission is good in spirit - one big brawl with some side fights if you feel like it - and fortunately Recluse spawned near enough to the back that I only had one side fight to worry about before I made it all the way.

Detail - ***. Detail was serviceable. Crossbow could have used some kind of individual detail, more than just the archetype and history, kind of along the lines of the power descriptions that Longbow Wardens get.

I don't want to talk too much about detail because given how much of the plot has changed since this arc was released, a giant amount of it may need to change.

Overall - ***. In short, a good concept for an arc that seems to be more about fights than about really exploring plot space, and that's fine. Even lip service to a non-Trial interaction with Praetoria and the Resistance is novel enough to hook me. But some of the powerset choices have possibly unintended difficulty consequences, and the outdoor missions frustrate as outdoor missions so often do.

Using the same plot in the current game storyline would mean a completely different NPC selection, both for enemies and for some allies. Most of the customs would have to go, unless you wanted to pass them off as some kind of new Imperial development, like their own Paragon Protector program.

GlaziusF · 12-28-2011 10:21 PM

Another ridiculous time interval, another random arc.

Previously played:

The Sinister Song (454892) Verdict - **.
A Spanner In The Works, Part One (336662) Verdict - **
Captain Skylark Shadowfancy and the Tomorrownauts of Today (337333) Verdict - ****
Might Makes Right: The One With Tin Hats (5213) Verdict - ***.
Why We Fight (253990). Verdict - ***.

Tonight's arc: Love's Labors Lost (242292). Verdict - **. Review below in this thread.

My current queue:

Random reviews! Due to the overeager text censor I can't be sure that any random arc I encounter will actually function as originally intended. Text, enemies, and entire enemy groups can be replaced depending on what the censor objects to. In that case I'll message the arc author and call it a night.
I'm still open to reviews by request, for anything you know is working.

If anybody wants in, the instructions are in the first post. I've recently made a few clarifications to it. A part of these instructions, perhaps pertinent to this post: I always vote 5 in-game, as it seems a bit uncouth to ask people to jump through hoops and then bomb their rating.

Something that isn't in the instructions but could stand to be said: CoH Mission Review isn't my private site. It's not even my site. Anybody's welcome to leave a review on anything, and it hardly has to be as long as the critical monstrosities I find myself putting out now and again.

GlaziusF · 12-28-2011 10:23 PM

@GlaziusF

Running this on a max-level stone/ice tanker, +1/x2 with bosses on.

---

So a flashback in MA to the Rikti War. The first mission is pitched as some kind of escort, but my target pops free immediately on entering the map and there's no escort target - you can actually do escort targets now, and they're really helpful, especially on outdoor maps.

Regardless, this escort seems to be kind of a moot point, since the heroes have all been shepherded away by the Rikti. Though there are still wounded to heal.

---

Wounded Rikti, which doesn't go over well with the Vanguard, but they grudgingly accept the idea.

And then the Rikti storm the base to rescue their prisoner.

He's feeling helpful, though. This seems like another sensible place for an escort, but I'm loath to recommend those as they're still a bit bugged.

---

Vanguard base round two! There's a boss just inside the door who's been picked from an enemy with a maximum level of 39, so he's very very gray.

Freeing Dr. Langstrom on the first floor... completes the mission? How strange. I'll head upstairs to see what goes on.

No, there doesn't seem to be a Rikti upstairs. I have no idea if this is intended or not.

Apparently it is! But he was in the navbar and there wasn't so much as a clue that indicated the mission should have completed early.

---

And now the doc decides to sneak onto Omega Team. ...because the Rikti she rescued was taken back to the Rikti home world?

Or is coincidentally in the staging area?

Anyway, I rescue the doc and the Rikti, but even with it following after me the objective's still in the nav bar. Curious.

Oh. It's Ajax. Completely unheralded. Freeing him does complete the mission though.

Also he's called Ajax in the mission but Apex in the debrief. (Apex is a completely different dude, helped out War Witch and such.)

---

And now for the payoff that kicked off this arc in the first place.

Apparently my contact's sister is actually a mind-controller working for the Council. But there's something wrong with her MA definition, as she shows up as a level 39 Wolfpack robot, though the clue that drops on her defeat seems to indicate more of a pistolero.

...for some reason this last mission was supposed to be real? That's kind of a weird direction to take, as it doesn't really add much of anything. Ah well.

---

Storyline - ***. It all made a decent amount of sense up until the reveal that the final mission was something I did five years ago but somehow didn't remember. Up until then there's been a decent flow to the story with the final mission set up as a coda, and actually writing me into the story doesn't seem to have much purpose.

There isn't really a lot that can top the last days of Omega Team as a draw, so writing me into the story doesn't help a lot on that front.

Design - *. For all that I talk up how appropriate escorts would be, they're still plagued by bugs. An escort will always stay at the location you dropped them off - you can't create, like, waypoints or anything with them. So for point-to-point escorts with noncombatants, they work fine, but anything else needs consideration. Wanted to get that up front because it's important.

The opposition is stock here, with apparently three customs - my contact with and without lab coat, and the end boss, who as I noted has something wrong somewhere and shows up as a giant robot. I don't take points off for that, since the system has shifted under existing arcs so radically.

But the mission objectives don't match up very well with what I'm actually asked to do in the mission. Mission one asks me to pick up an escort and find a hero. The "hero" is actually a boss fight with Rikti. They're mentioning a hero, but there's nothing to connect them and no reason not to look elsewhere for something that seems relevant to completing the mission. Mission three puts the rescued Rikti in the navbar but the mission completes after freeing the doctor - deliberately, as the Rikti isn't there, but in the absence of some clue or indication to the contrary it seems wrong, especially when the doctor shows up on the first floor. Perhaps some glowie later on might indicate where the rescued Rikti was subsequently taken? Mission four has a completely unheralded hostage rescue objective - the Rikti ally mentions hostages but his name is still in the navbar when he does this.

Overall, especially given how flaky the Architect can be at the best of times, it's better to err on the side of overly explicitly conveying what the player should be doing.

Gameplay - ***. The first mission is a blind hunt on an outdoor map, and the two missions that have inconsistent objectives seem a little more interminable than they might otherwise be.

The opposition is stock and entirely reasonable, but wondering what exactly will complete the mission makes the whole exercise a lot more tense than it needs to be.

Detail - ***. There isn't much custom description needed. What description exists is serviceable and concise. The problem is that clues don't show up very consistently as the missions progress. If the mission isn't proceeding as the original briefing might have indicated, a clue is a sensible place to deliver that sort of course correction.

Overall - **. What drags this arc down is the persistent mismatch between what the briefings and navbar indicate needs to be done and the actions that I have to actually take to complete the mission. Fortunately this is easy to fix, but it really torpedoes my enjoyment of the arc.

GlaziusF · 12-31-2011 06:51 PM

Another time interval, another random arc.

Tonight's arc: To End All Wars (65963). Verdict - ****. Review below in this thread.

My current queue:

Random reviews! Due to the overeager text censor I can't be sure that any random arc I encounter will actually function as originally intended. Text, enemies, and entire enemy groups can be replaced depending on what the censor objects to. In that case I'll message the arc author and call it a night.
I'm still open to reviews by request, for anything you know is working.

If anybody wants in, the instructions are in the first post. I've recently made a few clarifications to it. A part of these instructions, perhaps pertinent to this post: I always vote 5 in-game, as it seems a bit uncouth to ask people to jump through hoops and then bomb their rating.

Something that isn't in the instructions but could stand to be said: CoH Mission Review isn't my private site. It's not even my site. Anybody's welcome to leave a review on anything, and it hardly has to be as long as the critical monstrosities I find myself putting out now and again.