CoHMR Aggregator (a review thread)

@GlaziusF

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

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Huh. No description on the contact. Even if they're rather perfunctory I'd still like one.

I wonder if this is the sort of thing Neutral alignments were made for. I mean, the Vanguard works on a similar principle of "save the world, also for moneys and the power".

Oh hey, flooded Boomtown! ...and we have to find something here. Joy.

Populated by slag heaps.

And Coralax.

Oh! And "real Coralax". Looks like stone/earth assault and some kind of psyker as the minions. Ah, and an earth/thorn.

...even though that earth armor is probably supposed to be "sea floor", I can't help but think ice armor would work better.

Is this what I'm looking for is on the south island? Nope, just a diary in a sea chest. Someone stopped being coral but now they can't stop Calystix. I'll file that away for later.

A recolor of Metal Shift is hanging out, talking about how we shouldn't fight the encoralation because the next bloom is going to grab us anyway.

And Calystix himself makes a guest appearance. ...joy.

Oh hey, Scrapyard's here. And on my side, wreckin' faces.

Doc Buzzsaw as... a custom EB psi-blaster Coralax? Huh.

Well, it is up to the north island after all. No clue for this coral crown, though.

My contact talks it up, which makes not getting a clue all the weirder.

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I go talk to the Legacy about borrowing a book, but Freaks in the shaper cult have already invaded. Including some kind of elec manip/psy lieutenant.

You should be aware that battles can start and spout their dialogue a long time before the heroes actually get there, so having one side ask for help is going to be a little premature.

Looks like the same Metal Shift reimagining from the first map is leading the raid. ...and they've already made off with the book we needed. Peachy.

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Oh, I was expecting a Freaked-up warehouse or office, but the abandoned hospital is okay. I see another custom Freak, an elec control/empathy "nurse".

I pop the Legacy custom from the last map, and... the Sea Witch? She may be a custom, I don't think she's a boss in this level range, but she looks the part.

I rescue some Scrapyarders, who are real people with their own names and ambitions. But you should be aware that the game picks the singular objective for a multiple that you've stacked up pretty arbitrarily - it's telling me to rescue Fearlun even when he's already in my party.

Oh hey, no, Doc Buzzaw's just an EB Coralax. She's throwing urchins around, and there's no powerset that does that.

The Freakshow have helpfully written down their plan for world domination.

...or not, says my contact. Calystix did this somehow. I guess he knows what whiteboards are.

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Apparently the plans are a lot more detailed than the clues gave rise to. My contact's extracted the precise location of all these spires.

Weirdly they're guarded by some kind of fish creatures instead of Coralax or "natural" Coralax as I might have expected. Are they on loan from some other arc? The name seems familiar.

Oh hey, a Coral Guardian as an actual boss. That's rare. There's some kind of wicked pop-in here so I don't actually see him the first time through.

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Oh. Barracuda's been hiring us. Like, future Barracuda after she gave up her coral powers and realized she'd be doomed?

Time travel is so tricksy at times.

Oh dear, this cave. This cave is very atmospheric but it's always half-empty of normal spawns because most of them are plot, though objectives still show up in the dead zones.

I spring Barracuda, and only now remember that I'm carrying along the crown from the past in the future.

In fact, Barracuda, two spires, Calystix, and the book I'm looking for are down the "Maw of the Leviathan" passageway, leaving the remaining objectives down the normally empty "Eye of the Leviathan" passageway.

That includes my contact, who I rescue as the last objective. Shame, I wanted to see her real power.

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Storyline - ***. Morality's kind of hard to nail down, isn't it? For me, this is how it works: there's a line between hero and villain. Vigilantes are willing to cross it for a good cause. Rogues aren't willing to cross it without one. An arc really doesn't deal with an alignment without the line getting crossed, one way or the other.

Barracuda's arguably acting like a rogue here, but beating up anarchists and Legally Distinct From Deep Ones doesn't exactly strike me as vigilante behavior. Really I'd call this Neutral, under the Vanguard definition of the term. But if the forums have taught me anything it's that everybody's got their own position on this.

It's clear enough what needs to get done in the missions and what effect that should have on the overarching plot, but the connection between missions is a bit more tenuous and I feel a bit more like an oblivious hired gun than is really comfortable. My contact sums up the plot development after a mission, but it doesn't actually seem to have any relation to the things I did or the clues I picked up during the mission. I've picked up a rather ornate and notable crown? The cult Freaks are actually only headquartered in this one chopshop and will respond to a show of force by backing off? I've found the location of the infectious coral farm? The contact narration says so, but the clues and the dialogue in the mission itself, while consistent with the plot, don't necessarily move it along.

Design - ***. The missions are generally set in very appropriate environments, though the abandoned hospital as the chopshop isn't the choice I'd have made. The wide variety of canon and custom enemies are all very well done, both visually and thematically powers-wise. And using the first mission as kind of an informal preview of the notable opposition is a touch I haven't really seen before.

But that runs the risk of backfiring a little. Somebody, like me, who wants to see how much above their weight they can punch and/or is interested in seeing what they have to say, may well have three knock-down-drag-out fights in the first mission with the big threats you get help for later in the arc. Kind of takes the edge off. Putting some representative bosses in might work a little better, because it's not like the fights in the first mission really matter outside of player interest in having them.

And while the customs are certainly distinctive and generally sensical, they're kind of overloaded. Each one gets maybe a single-digit number of spawns to show itself off, barring patrols which tend not to respect multipliers and just cough up three minions, and the fishmen and "true" Coralax are just kind of clumped together in the last mission with one or two helpers to aid in vigorously shredding them. They make for some nice visual variety but I didn't really get in enough fights with them to get a sense of their capabilities, which is a real shame given the effort that went into them in the first place.

Gameplay - ***. If I had to make a list of mission maps that were great for flavor but generally bad to play through, Flooded Boomtown, Abandoned Hospital, and Leviathan Cave would all be near the top. Boomtown is sprawling with a lot of places to hide glowies, the hospital makes the labyrinthine office maps even more cluttered and there's only one variation on it and it doesn't make a very good sort of headquarters because there are big gaps between spawn points, and the Leviathan Cave has some kind of heavy custom scripting so that only a small fraction of it actually autospawns, though objectives will show up in otherwise deserted stretches.

The customs aren't punishing by any stretch of the imagination, but the maps themselves can be rather draining, especially Leviathan Cave, which seems like a great location for a finale but often just sputters out, the final objective tucked in some desolate corner.

Detail - ***. Reiterating my complaint from the storyline section, there are a lot of things that apparently happen in missions, because they're called out in the debriefings, but we don't really get the clues that would support the assertions our contact is making.

I wouldn't be surprised if this arc was close to capacity given the heavy presence of customs, but if that was the case and clues were cut for space, to be recapped at the contact? I wouldn't choose to put the information on the contact who is withholding information from the hired gun.

Overall - ***. An arc that takes steps to put on a very good show, but also one whose strengths are in many senses working against it. The scenery is well-suited to the story, but the maps themselves often don't play very satisfyingly. There's a wide variety of well-realized customs on offer, but none of them show up often enough to get a really good sense for how they operate. After every mission the contact takes special care to spell out and reorient the plot, but many times she draws on information not obviously present in the missions, and it doesn't make much sense that she should be taking special care in the first place.

First, many thanks for the detailed and thoughtful review. I can't tell you how appreciative I am of the effort to put this together. It gives me a much needed new perspective on it and is incredibly helpful.

I have a few responses to some of the things you said and will include those below in no particular order. I'm not expecting a response, just clarifying some of my decisions and why I made them for better or worse.

MOBS
Coralax: It occurred to me that the Coralax we see are always hybrids. The "true" Coralax therefore must be a little different. I had considered using ice like you suggest, as it is water of course, but the thing about coral is that it only lives in warm waters. Coral reefs (and in my mind, therefore Coralax) are made up of millions of little creatures -- sort of a legally-not-a-coral-Shambling-Mound, if you will.

Virtea: Virtea were a late addition to the story really, yet one of the best parts of it I think. (Originally I had no customs, then started peppering them in.) The Virtea are only ever mentioned in the Coralax canon descriptions as a deep sea race the Coralax enslaved. I did move the few ice powers I had originally assigned to custom Coralax to the Virtea and considered making more ice virtea but in the end that seemed unneeded.

Freaks: The Freakshow have metal sticking out of them, and the tanks are missing part of their torso. No matter how cyber-punk that all is, it takes some major medical "hacking" to do that kind of bod mod. The only clue we get about who actually does any of this is from the Meat Doctors who appear on one island. So, since this is the right level range for them, I wanted to address that and set it all in the hospital. It's also why I added in the Bone Nurse, Juice Nurse, and Juice Doctor. I have had a few people say they expected a Freak map in M3, and I understand why, but I hoped the unexpected helped.

Allies: Faerlun was just a chance to try earth assault out and shields back when they were new, and yes, Sea Witch is custom.

MAPS
I try to carefully select maps as they set the mood and atmosphere of the entire experience. I think you are right on the money when you say that that strength of three of these maps is also a main weakness of the arc.

MISSIONS
M1: Flooded Boomtown: A wonderful map for my purpose if it were only a tenth of the size. It helps establish what you are trying to prevent. It was so devoid of personality though, I had the idea of seeding it with some of the big guns from later arcs, which also helps establish who you are up against. (This was in response to feedback from @Backfire who said not one mob said one thing on he whole map). Scrapyard and his ghost buddies help show the state of humanity too if you are a big explorer--which you are. Truthfully I never thought anyone would try to solo an EB or AV at this level, and of course they are not objectives, but I hear your point. I had considered adding some Virtea patrols in here, but decided there should be some surprises late in the game so left them where they are.

M3: Mayhem's Asylum: I used the hospital for the reasons I mentioned above. Unfortunately a lot of arcs want the mood it sets, or the space of a hospital, so what was a fairly unusual map when I put this arc together is now terribly overused and familiar. I could switch to a freak map but that seems expected and not in keeping with what I was after really.

I fixed that stacking objectives thing. Thanks for pointing that out!

M4: Primeva River: This was one of the things that inspired this arc. I remember playing this map in game with Longbow swimming around and wondering why the heck Longbow would be in the water and not flying above it. I used this map to give a place for Coralax to be in the water. The Virtea came later.

If I could make this the final map and mission I would, but you can't have allies on this map, or much of anything really, and Calystix is a bit much to solo (for most anyway ).

M5: Leviathan Cave: I hear you loud and clear. While I am willing to bear the burdens of the maps in 1 and 3, I hate the Leviathan myself. I had replaced it for awhile with some Cimeroan caves. Calystix has been around apparently since Roman times, so maybe he likes Roman-columns-that-appear-to-serve-no-structural-purpose in caves. A few of those maps even include the "pool room" where you can actually swim--a nuance that would be lost on everyone though--wish I could get him to spawn in the water.

The thing is though, the Leviathan Cave "is" his cave. It's almost hard to picture it used for anything else. Like the Freaks who appear in the hospital, if I had him in the Roman caves, everyone would ask why I did not use the Leviathan map. So, I reluctantly put it back in as the most appropriate place for him to be...

MOTIVATION
Calystix: Calystix wants what he always wants, to raise the Leviathon and punish humanity, and is generally going about it in his typical way. His new approach of an airborne coral spawn that sort of virally transforms people to Coralax Hybrids is the new twist to the story though.

D0C C0R4L and Sl4G H0Rn: They got coralaxed and either do their mater's bidding or are genuinely enamored of their transformation and the cause. I am not sure it really matters.

Contact: Elizabeth Bouchet: I understand your issue with the contact knowing as much as she does and revealing as much as she does when she does not reveal your employer. She balances the info -- she doesn't want to scare you off, but she does want to engage you with what she thinks will be motivating factors for you. She knows a lot about Coralax since she work for Barracuda. It would be hard to make some of the info she imparts discoverable in mission, and even then, I have decided that clues cannot be relied upon as so many players just don't read them, so I relied heavily on exposition. Not to say that I can't make some improvements in there… BTW, she is psychic manipulation/dark armor (just mind probe and drain psyche--hold some aggro but not be too offense oriented)

Barracuda: I decided that the deep secret Barracuda maintains is that she does not want to be Barracuda. Ultimately she would prefer to be human and go back to her roguish life of treasure hunting. She performed terrible acts as Barracuda at first because she was controlled by Calystix. She broke free of that (somehow long enough to stay away) and eventually resigned herself (publically) to playing the role of villain to stay out of prison, find an ally in Mako, and make the most of her strange lot. As a treasure hunter, she is a bit of a selfish opportunist, but not down right "evil". She would like to overthrow Calystix but can't get close to him without being taken over. She does not want her weakness (able to be controlled) to be known widely and does not want to share her real desires to be human within Arachnos for fear of being kicked out before she is ready to go. She needs the Coral Crown to protect herself from being controlled by Calystix, but can't go get it in the future because he is there and may control her. She also doesn't want to alienate the Legacy Chain because she believes she ultimately may need to appeal to their good nature to for help to transform her back to a human. So she hires someone who they will work with--someone like you--whose good reputation will get you in the door and whose desire to see right and goodness done will carry you to the end.

TIDBITS
Water: Do you remember that poll 100 years ago on the forums when the devs asked us to vote for other zones? I voted for the Moon and Underwater thinking the change in physics would be a nice nuance. I have always wanted to believe the Coralax and Virtea were in place to help take advantage of that Underwater wish of mine, but it's probably all in my head. Regardless, where there is some water, I wanted to set the Coralax in it, and that is Flooded Boomtown and that Primeva map.

Time Travel: The whole "saving the future in the future" is a bit overwrought in this, but it came from my desire to let this arc work in your character's history even if you encounter Barracuda later, so that you don't feel like she should be your best bud. It opened up a way to use that Boomtown map too.

IN CLOSING
Thanks for taking the time for the detailed review. I was surprised that the story, ideas, or customs did not edge me up to one four somewhere in the list, but I am also glad the stars are not handed out willy-nilly. If anything of mine ever gets a 5, I know it was not awarded without careful consideration and will carry with it a weighty significance.

Unfortunately, I am not sure there is a great deal that is actionable, except maybe working on the Contact text and making a few things more discoverable. But I will noodle on it and see if I can improve any of it, though as you say it's "strengths are in many senses working against it." And I don't want to remove its strengths.

I look forward to future reviews and will have even more arcs that can benefit from your detailed attention soon!

I have been pondering your feedback. Obviously, I can't strip out certain elements as they are an integral part of what makes it good, as you point out. Removing changes the experience and eliminates part of what's solid about it. Based on that I can only improve it in a few small areas.

Clues: you mentioned not being able to discover enough on your own. It's an important point. I had gotten feedback from the ae story team many moons ago that I had had too many clues in it, but I think I let the pendulum swing too far in the other direction and have too few. So i am willing to cut--perhaps too much.

Size of mission 1: Eryex suggested I use escorts in mission 1 to help make the glowie more easily discoverable on this vast map. I am considing a bunch of unique unguarded ghosts, ala scrapyard's pals. They all that is left of humanity, and they want to help you undo the event that got the world to this state and lead you to the crown. It personalizes the experience and reinforces the need for the character's action. I may give that a go and see if it helps with mission 1.

Mobs: it's really interesting to me how much you value fighting the mobs and getting a chance to try them out. I didn't want to overpopulate my mobs around--but I really appreciate that for you, experiencing them is a highlight that you felt cheated of. I think one thing I could do is include the Virtea in map 1, but i worry that spoils the nice inclusion later in the mission. I can add more Bosses there, as you suggested.

In the end, I can't overcome the maps, and the maps are an integral part of it, but I can try to improve the experiences in them, and in the story. I wanted to make sure you knew your feedback did not fall on deaf ears, and I am looking for ways to improve it...

I am really looking forward to your thoughts about The Serpent Beyond the Horizon. My one review on commission review for it fared better than save the diver, and I think overall Serpent is stronger--though ymmv.

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Minor updates--Tried and applied the ghosts in M1, switched out the hospital for the freak-lympics map and its sitting well. Still considering the Cimeroran caves in place of Leviathan map for improved play...

The requestening continues.

Tonight's arc: A full review of Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend (114284). Verdict - ****. Review... lower in this thread? Seriously? I'm surprised you haven't got your own feedback thread for all this.

My current queue:

• A review of The Serpent Beyond the Horizon (515140)
• Reviews for The Doctor Returns (1140), Arena (456200), The Murders in the RWZ Morgue (452144), Et in Arcadia Ego (525441), and Project Dragon (522067), starting no earlier than April 19th.
• A re(re?)review of The Fractured Dreamer (498588)
• I'm also open to reviews by request, for anything you know is working.

@GlaziusF

Running this on a mid-20s ice/fire dominator, +1/x1 with bosses on.

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So Desdemona wants us to pull an old-school heist, like we did back in the day before we were going to Paragon City all the time. Sure, why not.

The bank is completely empty! ...except for some Outcasts who want to play hero.

Seriously, completely empty. No free loot, just some spilled greenbacks and inflation in these parts is ridiculous.

Leave it up to Outcasts to try to be heroes in the Rogue Isles. ...but what happened to the diamonds?

Ah, says the clue, the bossman is keeping them safe from villains.

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So we're going to kidnap notable up-and-coming celebrity Desdemona the Glint and see if the Outcasts are dumb enough to play hero again.

...oh. It's Longbow. They're always dumb enough to play hero.

For some reason Desdemona spouts off as soon as I enter the building? I don't think that's you necessarily; I've been noticing that early activation happening a lot with contacts lately.

Apparently the Outcasts are setting up their own little republic in desolate Bloody Bay. That's just so precious. But they're not above hitting the Rogue Isles for capital, which puts them in direct competition with us.

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Scenic Bloody Bay, huh? This will be interesting.

Ah, the Crash. Close enough. Heh. The entry clue's getting clever. I like it.

I drop a Circle mage and then a custom Outcast Brick-style boss. Apparently, says the mage who knows the winning side when he sees it, what the Outcasts horked weren't real diamonds in the first place, but power crystals with Circle are willing to trade for diamonds 1-for-1.

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Desdemona... offers to send her servants into the cave ahead of us, and passes us a magic amulet. That'd make a good mission start clue. I expect I'll infer from context what "servants" means.

Seems pretty quiet in here so far, aside from some silent Outcasts.

Bal-Thoom. ...a spectral demon. Perhaps Desdemona hasn't been co-opted by the Circle, but this guy looks pretty stock.

...there's a Shivan down here. That'll be fun. Apparently the Outcasts have sort of domesticated it. ...and hidden the key to a treasure chest inside.

So what's in the chest? The crystals I came for? Why, yes. Yes, they are. And my spectral buddy isn't turning on me, so there's that.

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...and the Circle want to make a trade for them. In a cemetery. At night. How many ways can THIS go wrong?

Well, the Outcasts could crash the place, for one.

They could be led by some kind of meteor man, for two, though he needs a boss description.

Meteor man keeps Shivans as pets. Hoo boy. But he goes down. And then the CoT boss shows up to make the trade.

Oh, this is clever. He points to the patch of earth where the diamonds are hidden but it's up to us to grab them. ...though he seems to think that fighting the meteor man was optional when it was the trigger to spawn him in the first place.

Anyway. Diamonds. FINALLY. Some days gainful employment almost seems worth it.

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Storyline - ****. This is that particular class of heist movie where the runaround after loot actually pays off in the end, where everyone's shaded grey to black, which is definitely in-feel with the Rogue Isles.

The one thing I think it's missing is a genuine third-party perspective on the Outcasts and what they're trying to accomplish. I mean, yes, their delusional attempts at heroism are ultimately futile, along with the callow self-righteousness they pretend is "justice", but there's a certain class of villain who thinks that about everyone and in the course of this arc we generally contact them exclusively.

Design - ****. There really isn't an Architect map that works as EXT. BLOODY BAY, but the Crash is probably as close as you're going to get to the aesthetic. Same with the little ring of Moth Cemetery for EXT. BLOODY BAY GRAVEYARD (presumably it's in Bloody Bay, they've got 'em there and all that). Overall the maps are as good as you could hope for, given the story, and they don't really play badly or anything.

Opposition is largely stock and sensible, but there are a couple of customs in the super Lead Brick from mission 3 and the meteor man from the final mission. The problem is that they look alike. Or rather that they're both running the entire panoply of earth armor toggles. Maybe give one or the other shield defense with an earth shield instead?

Something else you may want to consider: stuff shows up pretty much at random on outdoor maps, so it's entirely possible to drop the meteor man and see the glowy pile of diamond rubble before ever finding the Circle mage who tells you about it. Is it possible not to turn on the glowie until he's led to it?

Gameplay - *****. The handful of outdoor maps have very clear objectives, and the normal maps clear in a decent clip too. Everything moves along at a workable pace and the enemies are stock and far from punishing. Goes down smooth.

Detail - ****. There's some great humor to be had if you pay attention to the details. The arc certainly doesn't take itself too seriously.

But the meteor man's got a stock Architect boss description, so you may want to check that on him and the other Brick boss, too - can't remember what his was. And there's a bit in mission 4 where I'm not entirely sure that my contact hasn't gotten thorned and is using me as a patsy, mostly because Desdemona pulls out a schtick she's shown no evidence of before and the help that shows up is a stock CoT spectral demon - at least you might be able to rename it as a generic ghost thing and maybe crack a joke about how ghosts can look like anything but they always decide to look like a big clawy dude with no legs.

I realize the villainside brokers are perhaps the bare-bonesinest of all the contacts in the game, and it's certainly possible they may have powers above and beyond their network of connections which we can use for a modest finder's fee, but the amulet and the ghost come out of pretty much nowhere without even a mission start clue to explain their presence.

Overall - ****. A simple exercise in heistonomics that plays well and has a little room to grow.

Thanks for the review!

The Outcasts as heroes builds on a throw-away comment some early CoH contact makes where he mentions that the Outcasts are in Boomtown handing out fines for traffic violations to citizens. Nowadays we have Frostfire going rogue so many times it's hard to keep track, so I don't think it's a stretch to imagine that some of the other Outcasts want to do something similar.

I will have to check the info for the bosses, I was pretty sure they had descriptions when I made the arc. Might have been lost in a patch somewhere. I might fiddle with their powers too.

The confusion about Desdemona handing out ghost helpers comes from me trying to switch contact on you for that mission; it's actually the CoT mage who does most of the talking and provides the amulet to control his ghost servants. I tried to make it clearer with different colored text but I suppose it could be improved.

The requestening continues.

Tonight's arc: A full review of The Serpent Beyond The Horizon (515140). Verdict - ***. Review lower in this thread.

My current queue:

• A review of Rularularian (529832, not on CoHMR yet)
• Reviews for The Doctor Returns (1140), Arena (456200), The Murders in the RWZ Morgue (452144), Et in Arcadia Ego (525441), and Project Dragon (522067), starting no earlier than April 19th.
• A re(re?)review of The Fractured Dreamer (498588)
• I'm also open to reviews by request, for anything you know is working.

@GlaziusF

Running this on a high-40s ice/axe tank, +0/x2 with bosses on.

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Going back to Cimerora to investigate a raid by the Egyptians and possibly reveal the origin of the Snakes? Sounds good man.

He passes off a translation amulet that would make a lovely mission start clue.

...wow. Yeah, for some reason all the captives in missions are activating their spawns at mission start. That really dumps a lot of text into the buffer in a case like this.

Anyway, ordinary Egyptian warriors. And flame mages. And a priestess with mind control and Terrify.

Oh. And trick archers who can multistack the giant defense debuff that is Oil Slick. It's also a little bugged in Architect in that you can light it up to hurt yourself, but the enemies can't.

The lieutenant ninjashashins also pack Blinding Powder, which is a more reasonable confuse than the mind or illusion powers in that can't be permanently applied, but still a pain.

Also roaming about once I get back outside: serpent Egyptians in small patrols. They guard some of the outside captives. The Priestess in charge is also wavin' around Terrify.

Well. Miss SIs Past Blast Psyche is missing. This can't be good.

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The contact remarks that we've got serpentines here but they're not much like modern Snakes. While he tries to work out what the heck, we're to get busy saving Solaris.

This cave sure looks like the modern Snakes!

And these dudes guarding the captives sure look like the modern Elder Snakes! Is our contact supposed to know about them? Because they did poke up in the Rogue Isles for a while.

There are also bits and bobs of lore floating around in scroll urns. Maybe a few too many. There's like half a dozen of them. This seems like information that might be better-suited to being dispensed by the contact somehow, as it's all either background or important plot revelations.

Also a Mu... servant of Hequat, judging by the description. So it probably shouldn't be Arachnos-aligned in its enemy group.

Oh. No. It is actually Arachnos-aligned, says my contact. Apparently Arachnos have time-traveled back here too? Huh.

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Whoa. Arachnos have kidnapped Sister Solaris? Where'd you pick up on that, o contact? I sure picked up a lot of info but the Mu didn't say anything and that was really the only source for that tidbit.

At least he's coming along to deal with whatever's running the show here.

Some Arachnos patrols are talking about infiltrating Romulus's army in the past, to some end.

I also hear "Arachnos Vipers"? The hey?

Oh. Genegineered Snake infiltrators.

So I clear out the end room, travel all the way back to the entrance to fight the last boss (a villain-class Fortunata who likes to run her mouth to Beckyeqsue orders of magnitude), and then... head back to the end room to set the destruct code? Are objectives really so sparse on this map?

I mean, I can appreciate the shed skin as ambience, but not if it's getting in the way of spawns to this extent.

So Sister Solaris wasn't in this base either?

...ah. We went after the wrong Mu. That... might make sense? I wasn't aware they actually had much of a beef with Cimerora though.

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No speculation from the contact as to why they've got her, either. Just discussion on how these Mu probably haven't... started their great civilization yet? The what? Ermeeth vs. Hequat kinda played out at the dawnatime. By Cimeroran times the Mu had reduced the Oranbegans to spirits.

Anyway, these tribal-lookin' folks (in the tiny Pantheon cave) include boss mages who summon voltaic sentinels, which are basically incorporeal sappers with how aggressively their autoattack saps your blue bar.

I drop Hequat, who just wanted to see how much fight I had because she's apparently counting on me to drop the Snakes and... indirectly lead the Mu to glory? Somehow? All seems like a bit of a runaround to me, but what do I know of the ways of goddesses and their prismatic paticle effects.

But we now know where the main Temple of Apep is, and also the location of Sister Solaris. ...at least I think we do. Still no clue about the map.

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Oh hey, the Spirit City (vaults of mu? I seem to remember the map was labeled wrong). Here I was just expecting the big Snake temple.

Nothing much new here. Rescue Solaris, put down the priestess trying to use her to ascend, defeat the Stheno rename who talks about Stheno setting off to the west.

When we get back my contact tries to pretend we had something to do with that. Stheno setting off, I mean, But it seems she was long gone by the time we were there.

Also Stheno's kind of a Greek name for an Egyptian cultist.

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Storyline - **. So shortly before playing this arc, I worked my way through the Dark Astoria incarnate arc, which included a stopover in Cimerora. Say what you will about the mission design there, the plot was pretty engaging. And I opened this arc figuring, hey, the Talons of Vengeance have snake-ladies waving around very familiar weapons, the mythological Stheno had cause to be revengeanceful, maybe this'll be a nice piece along those lines. Not that I'm judging this arc against my own blind impression of what might go on, but the Cimerora arc does end with a reminder of the relative chronologies of Cimerora and Oranbega/the Mu.

Ermeeth and Hequat had it out over the proper role of magic sometime before the conventional dawn of civilization. The Mu ran off, and Hequat raised up a continent for them to build an iron fortress and harden up. Only Merulina was using the land at the time and she summoned the Leviathan to push Hequat's face in, which was subsequently bound in the caves that are now beneath Sharkhead Isle, suggesting that the Rogue Isles are the shattered remains of Mu. Cimerora shows up during the conventional Roman Empire, thousands of years later, as presumably would Stheno and the Egyptian pantheon. This isn't to say there can't be some remnants of ancient Mu that are forming a cult to Hequat around this time, but the dawn of the Mu civilization itself was a long, long time ago.

Even taking my contact at his word for what's gone on in the arc, the links between the missions aren't very clear, beyond the map to the cult base that links missions 1 and 2. The Mu took Sister Solaris (and we know this how?) so we head for the Arachnos base, but she's not there so the contemporary Mu must have her (and we find them how?) only they've sent her to the main temple of Apep (which is where?) and Stheno's gone west when we get there (why exactly? Was she afraid of us or is three high snake priestesses one high snake priestess too many?).

Design - ****. Three custom groups at play here - the Apep cultists and the bridge between them and the Elder Snakes, and the Mu tribalists. All of them look very nice and have pretty sensible powersets, and most of the maps are a decent fit for the plot as presented.

The only real issue I have is that hybrids and Elder Snakes feel like steps down from the initial cultists of Apep, who throw around fear and confusion and thus present more of a challenge.

Gameplay - ****. I've got a little issue with glowie placement. In the Snake caves they're a bit crowded into the initial few rooms. In the Arachnos base they appear only in the one back room, forcing you to run the mission front to back twice to accomplish all the objectives. I don't know if that's choice on your part or just glowie availability for the maps themselves, but either way, giant concentrations of glowies can be kind of overwhelming to have to process all at a go.

Detail - **. There are a whole lot of clues in this arc, and either the important ones, the ones that would establish the links between missions, got lost in the shuffle or never showed up at all. I picked up clues for Arachnos plots that don't matter and Egyptian goddesses who never show up, and a decent amount that restated the action and dialogue we already saw, which can be helpful for bringing a team up to speed on things they may not have seen.

But in all that flood of information, the actual thread of evidence leading between missions never surfaces.

Overall - ***. The big obstacle here is the plot. It isn't clear how one mission flows into the next, and the narrative itself contradicts the relative timelines the Mu and Cimerora operate on in canon.

Well I am pleased that I got a couple of 4 stars in Design and Gameplay. For the most part the issues here are easy ones to rectify.

As to story, well, I think that is due to my, perhaps wrong, interpretation of a vague canon piece--when the Mu civilization was on Mu island. And as to details--specifically transitions--I can improve those where they are wanting.

As before, I am not expecting a response, I just feel I owe an explanation of why I did what I did, for better or worse...

DETAIL
You point out that there are too many clues, and I can appreciate that position, though it does stand in stark contrast to the feedback of too few details in the last arc you reviewed. But I understand that you felt you had too much optional info and were missing the critical info.

To be fair, most glowie clues are optional, I think placement is totally random usually, and for players that are not into reading every last word, they can be easily skipped. The transitions are not always in the clues.

For those that are into reading everything, I had hoped the clues would add extra flavor, but I think in your case they overwhelmed you or were not clear. The ones in M2 relate mostly to the multiple roles of Hequat through the ages, which I'll explain later, and the ones in M3 are there to give extra justification to having an Arachnos base in Cimeroran times--if the base was only for the purpose of researching the Snakes, it would make it seem a bit of an extravagance? (Why not just transport the Snakes to the present to research or spend more time in Mercy digging them out?) It is for much more than the story at hand.

TRANSITIONS
Part of your criticism was that the transitions were difficult to follow because of the flavor info. I tried to make them clear, but as a professor once told me, if you want your reader to notice something, say it three times, and I did not do that. I can easily improve this, but I thought I should list them here as they were when you encountered them.

M1: The transition is a map found on the General, and Humphrey explicitly refers to you finding that.

M2: Both the high priestess and a patrol refer to the Snake's ships being waylaid on the way back from Cimerora and Solaris being taken by the Mu. I think I will have your ally say that as a clue as well since you missed these dialogs.

Also you discover as a clue with the rescued Mu adept, the map to the Arachnos base.

Obviously a bit of misinterpretation on Humphrey's part as to which Mu to go after, but like you he did not suspect any ancient mu.

M3: This transition is a real problem as the way to get the clue is an optional glowie. I was working from the premise that Humphrey is with you, and while the glowies are optional, he always takes the option when you don't and could fill in for things you may have chosen not to investigate.

One of the clues explains that Arachnos is observing a nearby cell of Mu, and so since you knew the Mu took Solaris, you are to conclude you should investigate that--Humphrey explains it too, but I appreciate that it is important to actually find it yourself, so that's easy to fix and just make the glowies required.

M4: Hequat takes you to the map which tells you exactly where to go and Humphrey refers to it. It's true it does not have a clue, only dialog and chat window notice, but it seemed clear to me. Perhaps it was not?



TIMELINE
It seems like one of your issues beefs with the story was that Hequat should not be here. You believe (and are probably right) that she raised the island of Mu from the sea long before the Romans. (I have not found something that specifies when this happened specifically.) She was never part of the story as I started, it was only after I researched some other stuff that it seemed like she fit in.

Understand I was not (since I wrote this 6 months ago) privy to the DA incarnate stuff (and am still not really as I have not played it). It sounds like a lot is revealed there related to all of this. So bearing in mind that I knew none of that, let me explain why I drew the conclusions I did and included her...

Hequat is a goddess of magic, goddess of the Mu. The Oranbegans and the Mu fought 14,000 years ago or so and...

The Oranbegan histories say that Mu'Rhakmet and his followers fled across the sea. The Oranbegans assumed that they had returned to the old lands of their goddess, and this assumption would lead them to disaster. For what they did not know was the Hequat had provided a new land for her people. An island risen from the sea, an island that she would call Mu. (Pasted from http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Mu)

And, you point out the raising that island caused the big fight with Calystix because he and Merulina's worshippers were getting along very nicely beneath the sea right there, before Hequat came along. Now, when did this happen? It's hard to say, but...

The first records of a priest called Calystix date from ancient Rome, where a Legion discovered an ancient temple to a Cult of the Shaper. This cult was led by a high priest called Calystix who ordered the townspeople to slay the Legion. The soldiers were nearly overcome, but they won and put the temple and the town to the torch for their abhorrent practices. (Pasted from http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Calystix)

So, extrapolating a little, Calystix shows up in Roman times, because that is when he is displaced from his home by Hequat. Ergo, the Mu island was raised in Roman times. (I believe now that this is inconsistent with the lore you got from DA).

But where was Hequat in between being expelled from Orangbega and raising Mu? Well, I supposed the reason the Oranbegans thought she went to the lands of the old goddesses, is that she did--for awhile. I mean the Mu civilization couldn't have lasted for 10,000 years or so, probably 1 to 2,000 tops which gives a displaced goddess a lot of time to kill before she raised Mu island. So she spent time gathering minions throughout the ages appearing different to each group from Babylonian to Sumerian to Egyptian civilizations, etc…

Even within a pantheon there is evolution of gods and their roles and in Egypt there was "evidence" (ahem) Hequat was around. The priestesses of Nekhbet were called muu (mothers) and wore robes of Egyptian vulture feathers. (Hequat wears white feathers). Heqet, the goddess of fertility, has a similar name and her persona eventually evolved into Isis I believe -- the goddess of magic, her Greek counterpart is Hecate, the goddess of magic. There were muu funeral procession dancers too in Egypt. So it seemed likely that somehow tied up in all this, Hequat spent several thousand years, building followers, maybe in different aspects, before founding her Mu civilization and fighting Merulina, etc.

It takes some stretch of the imagination, but a lot of history gets lost in 14,000 years, so there is room to interpret and put my own spin on it, and that is what I did. Kind of like the devs took the Cretan Minotaur and stuck em in Rome as a race instead of an individual--so too are some lines blurred for convenience here.

On top of all of this, we know that Snakes have a sort of Egyptian styling, based on costuming, and Grecian background, based on history (Stheno is the sister of Medusa), so it all seemed like this Mediterranean-civilizations-thing would work well together.

STORY
So, Hequat, bored of travelling around every few thousand years, and seeing another civilization start to fall (Egyptian) and her worshippers dwindle, decides to cut her losses in the Mediterranean and wants her worshippers to move west to uninhabited ground. For whatever reason, (conflicts of the gods) her Mu hunt or follow the Snakes. So to end the final thing holding her group to the area, she wants to wipe out the snakes in the Mediterranean to spur her followers to seek out the remaining ones at (what we now know as) Mercy Island. Once at Mercy, she will raise the island of Mu, and Calystix will get all po'd and head for Rome for some weird reason.

But Hequat is so weak, because her minions are so few, that she doesn't even feel like she can take the Snake leaders head on. Instead, when the Snakes abduct Sister Solaris, and you start nosing around, she concocts her plan to turn the tables on the Snakes and abducts the already abducted Sister Solaris from them, moving her to the main temple instead of their little cave base, and luring you there.

I totally get that this does not fit with your understanding of the canon, and quite likely with the actual documented stuff we get to see--but that is the story for better or for worse. Hequat did not raise Mu island right when they were kicked out of Oranbega in my interpretation, but much later. And if you are willing to accept that, (which I totally understand you are not) it makes for a good story.

MAPS
I thought the Snake Arachnos base worked well. It's not too big and does have the snake skins. You do have to run back to the base entrance because the person you fight just arrived at the entrance. And you have to run back to the control room, because the self destruct is set in the base control room. A tiny bit inconvenient, but all realistic enough and a pretty small map to have to travel the length of.

MOBS
I have read your reviews of other arcs before and based on your feedback to others about avoiding voltaic sentinels, I meant to and thought I had! I'll strip that out. And Oil Slick Arrow is just something that seemed mighty appropriate to the era--more so than any other TA secondary. Oh and lastly, I can tone down the "human form" mobs, e.g. removing fear and confuse to be more in line with the Snakes they evolve to.

IN SUMMARY
I really appreciate your detailed review! I received some fours for design and game play, which please me. (This was the first time I created my own groups from scratch, so I was nervous about appropriate balance--I have some tweaks I should make, but no major criticism).

As to two stars for detail I have some very actionable things to make the transitions more obvious. For most, I suspect your issue with too much detail is overcome by the fact that it is mostly optional already, for those that don't want it. As to transitions, I can expand and further reinforce those.

As to the two stars for story, well, the plot is built on my interpretation of a somewhat wide-open 14,000 year timeline that may have had more structure put to it since I wrote this. I could strip out Hequat and the Mu fairly easily I suppose. I'll ponder that, but in general it makes for a good story as is, and may even be able to be squeezed into the current timeline with a little imagination. If I had not gotten such positive feedback in general from others that have played it, I would be more prone to dash my interpretation I suppose.

I eagerly await your review of Rularularian. As it plays with canon, I don't have illusions of how liberties I may take with something vague in there will sit with you. It's likely my explanations for nebulous hooks in canon may clash with your sense of things or with something much more tangible. Still, I remain optimistic. If nothing else, for what it's worth, I hope you enjoy your time in my stories, even if just a little!

Let me elaborate on the timeline as I understand it. 14,000 years ago the Mu worshippers of Hequat try to impose their vision of magic on the Circle of Thorns. Following their shameful loss in round 1 is the raising of Mu and the binding of Leviathan... and not much later than this is round 2, where the Mu rain electric death down on Oranbega from their skyships and the Circle tap into demonic power to win the war, refuse to pay the price for it (finish off the innocent survivors) and get reduced to spirits, the stragglers of the Mu blending into the burgeoning mass of humanity and giving rise to nigh-on every magic user in existence. (Some of the Circle think they should try to pay the price and they have among other things a demon book that can trace your ancestry back to those times.)

The details of round 2 is mostly information from the Envoy of Shadows arc, which also includes a bunch of demons getting the Circle to summon the titular archdemon by wiggling their fingers spookily and talking about Hequat. Akarist is mortally terrified she might be coming back, as she and Ermeeth have both been out of the loop, and Akarist doesn't say anything about her participation in the war - Hequat may well have returned to her own Spirit City shortly after giving the Mu an iron fortress to forge floating ionic doom out of their raw hatred.

Diviner Maros's Leviathan arc also puts Calystix at 14,000 years ago, in some of the records of the sealing of the Leviathan in ancient Mu that the Legacy Chain have collected.

But let me see if I understand things correctly. At the start of the arc, Stheno has already left for the modern-day location of the Rogue Isles. The events of the arc are just wiping out the remnants of the Egyptian Snakes so the Mu will go west.

So... there never is an answer to the question of why the Snakes are in Mercy Island in the first place? That's kind of the entire reason I was interested in the arc to begin with.

Oh, I see, so the Oranbegan defeat of the Mu rebels, the rise of the Mu island and civilization, and round 2 all completed say, by 10,000 years ago, and then everyone headed east to Europe Asia and Africa and west to the Americas from the Rogue Isles/Mu island to have magic blooded Mu babies. My view of Hequat wandering around for awhile laying low and spreading mu-ness and directly rebuilding her worship-base for a few thousand years before finding a home does not fit that it's true.

As to the Snakes, I am surprised that you did not get that part.

Being persecuted for their worship of Apep, the Egyptian god of the underworld, chaos, darkness, and death, and for their transformation to his aspect, they headed west to find him. They sought the mythical island where he lived, Bakhu.

Humphrey speaks of this...

Did you hear Sysus speak of another group of Gorgons fed up with being persecuted and led by Stheno? Sysus said they headed west, "towards the mouth of Apep." So they probably have already found the Rogue Islands.

Heading west, in search of the serpent beyond the horizon, they found Mercy island instead.

And the rest, as they say, is fictional history...

But it sounds like, for you, making the transitions clearer (which I have done) and replacing the Mu with some other group persecuting the worshipers of Apep (which I have not done) would clear up the whole story. In fact, if I just removed Hequat and had this Ancient Mu cult thinking the Snakes knew the way to the old island of Mu and wanted to spur the migration, that would fit with your understanding of the canon...

One key thing here that came out loud and clear too is that the Mu bit is all a bit of a distraction from the main Snake story, which was not my intent either--so I may need to tone that down in some ways.

I'm even considering pulling them out all together--all those animal head costume pieces provide a lot of potential for Bast and Ra/Horus, etc. to make some sort of cameo and their followers to be the one driving the Apep-worshipping snakes out of Egypt. I've not come up with a great way to do that yet, and unfortunately there is a dearth of maps that seem to fit what I am considering so I may just change who Hequat is, like you suggest.

(Oh and speaking of Maps, I took another look at that Stheno map you mentioned and it has the same problem as Freak-lympics, and Marschand's Office and the like in that it has no "back." The room I'd want to be the "back" has 0 spawn points for anything--making it kind of useless.)

I've made some improvements based on your feedback already, and will definitely pull out all the stuff that indicates this happens before the Mu island is raised from the sea as it sure does seem like the timeline does not align.

Thanks again for the review--it's helpful to have such a detailed discussion about it.

As to Sister Solaris, she is the Macguffin of the story really--not the best motivator, but something to drive you forward besides Humphrey's interest.

The requestening continues.

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

My current queue:

• A review of Rularularian (529832)
• Reviews for The Doctor Returns (1140), Arena (456200), The Murders in the RWZ Morgue (452144), Et in Arcadia Ego (525441), and Project Dragon (522067)
• I'm also open to reviews by request, for anything you know is working.

Thanks so much for taking the time to review "The Fractured Dreamer" again! I knew this was the second batch of notes for this particular arc, but I'd forgotten that you also reviewed TFD's first incarnation a few years ago. This means I have to thank you even more.

I've had a handful of reviews for my arcs -- less than I would like, but that's AE for you -- and none of them have been more influential than yours. It was partly due to your original feedback that I finally decided to delete the first arc and start again from scratch. It was the details you pointed out that helped me close plot holes and tighten the story of the new arc. And it was a single sentence that inspired me to add one more mission to change the entire tone of the finale.

(Also, the arc's new direction inspired me to compose -- in my opinion -- my best music yet. )

I'm proud of where "The Fractured Dreamer" is now. It's definitely my best work in this game, and probably my favorite work overall. That may or may not be saying much, though.

Reviews and feedback these days are sporadic at best. I know there are some dedicated reviewers still running through the system, but no one keeps it going as thoroughly as you do. You do good work, and I hope you realize how helpful you really are.

. . .

. . .

... I also hope the cornball rhetoric doesn't undercut my intent. <_<

The requestening continues.

Tonight's arc: A review of Arena (456200) Verdict - ***. Review in MA Forums Thread.

My current queue:

• A review of Rularularian (529832)
• Reviews for The Doctor Returns (1140), The Murders in the RWZ Morgue (452144), Et in Arcadia Ego (525441), and Project Dragon (522067)
• I'm also open to reviews by request, for anything you know is working.

Thanks for the review of Arena.

Krylov's missing dialog in mission 1 is probably due to certain hostages saying their lines as soon as the mission loads - he's supposed to talk.

I'm also pretty sure that the Arbiter fight in the last mission is optional but I could be wrong. All you should have to do in that mission is fight Castle and everything else should be optional.

If I am not being too selfish by asking for additional reviews, can I add Condemning Croatoa and Robolution to your queue? Both are sitting at 4 stars and I would love your insights to help me improve them.

Condemning Croatoa is up on on Cohnissionrefiew already and Robolution will be...

Funny story. I've been too busy playing the game normally to venture into Architect. Maybe time to shift focus a little.

Tonight's arc: A review of Rularularian (529832) Verdict - ****. Review below in this thread.

My current queue:

• A review of Condemning Croatoa (245534)
• Reviews for The Doctor Returns (1140), The Murders in the RWZ Morgue (452144), Et in Arcadia Ego (525441), and Project Dragon (522067)
• I'm also open to reviews by request, for anything you know is working.

@GlaziusF

Running this on a high 40s ice/axe tanker, +0/x2 with bosses on.

---

So. A team was traveling to a new weird part of the Shadow Shard and the vine snapped behind them. Sounds like the kind of stuff I wish they'd done more of with the Shard. Let's see where they wound up.

Ah. They went to ground and activated a portal beacon. Fair enough - wonder if any of the Shard maps even made it into Architect?

Huh. Some mercs as escort buddies. That's nice.

No clues this mission, but some weirdness: Rularuu cultists who call the existing refugees a "lost tribe" and take on the powers of aspects of Rularuu, including some slaver guy we've yet to be exposed to.

---

Doc Huxley sums up what we should really have picked up from clues, but it's an alright narrative.

...though for some reason the narrative makes me wonder if I've secured the precious cargo in my hat.

Anyway, as the mission wears on we find that these guys actually booted Nemesis and Rikti invaders out of their part of the shard, and they're kind of resentful of Paragon City for not getting there sooner.

They may be planning an invasion, or just very very curious.

---

Looks like it's the invasion option.

...also this is weird. From Sara Moore's story these people are refugees from the first Rikti War. But she's a third-generation Sharder. I always figured them to be those people from the first Superadine experiments who slipped into an alternate dimension (when Lanaruu "broke the world", as that's the first recorded event in their history), but I'm trying to figure out why I think that.

The running fights are pretty nice, but I think you may have things balanced the wrong way, as Longbow are spawning Wardens and cleaning house.

Anyhow, it seems like these guys got pulled back in time trying to escape the Rikti, so they've had a few dozen years to get their resent on.

---

Well, hey. Nemesis Shard base after all.

To sign a truce.

I... wonder what's going to go wrong. Nice details in the base as I'm trying to put off clicking for as long as possible.

Ah, it's just gonna get jumped by Wisps, as happens now and again.

Finding them in the overworld is a chore, however. Maybe they need some kind of visible animation. Like the psychic hold on the minions? (Also the Overlords aren't tagged as soldiers of Chularn like the minions.)

Huh. They call their grand overlord "Hero". That's an interesting title.

---

And this one may have drunk too deep of the Madness. Fighting through some other bosses who summon appropriate shard beasties, I get to the old Tyrant cave. Good place for a boss fight, and I manage to pick off one of the Rikti heavies before my buddies start a fight with...

Oh hey, Hero 5 is Hero 1. He pops Unstoppable but I'm hardly hurting for help.

I take some time to examine the monuments of Heroes past and the aspects of Rularuu before I punch out.

---

Storyline - ****. About the only thing I'm kind of iffy on is the origin of Paragon City people in the Shadow Shard. There's the Superadine experiments (though again, no idea why I think that) or just the possibility that these are the "casualties" of Rularuu's initial incursion into this dimension, before he was banished to the Shadow Shard.

The only reason this kind of grates is that given the kind of high-test arcane power that went into Omega Team, somebody had to recognize what the Shadow Shard was, and I can't think of many scenarios where breaking the seal on the prison of a guy who eats dimensions, or dumping a bunch of civilians on the doorstep of a guy who eats dimensions, is the better option.

I mean, maybe I'm wrong here. Maybe knowledge of the Shard died in the original Rikti attack on the Midnighters. It certainly didn't survive to the current day with the destruction of Omega Team.

Design - *****. Some really great work with the custom enemies here, lifting names from the custom weapons for the minions and drawing on the extant pantheon for inspiration on the powers of higher-up characters.

The repurposed Nemesis base ties into the plot pretty nicely, and the caves are caves you'd find in the Shadow Shard, if not terribly interesting in themselves. The arena for the final battle was distinctive and well-justified.

Gameplay - ***. Tracking down multiple objectives on a large outdoor map with absolutely no indication of where they are is never much fun. Since these objectives are actually enemies you could give them some kind of distinctive animation to aid in visibility - the map has such uneven terrain that just jumping around and pounding tab is likely to miss something over or under a rise.

The final map, while definitely thematically appropriate, runs into the same problem as the end of the Cimerora incarnate arc - multiple challenges that need your team of allies to overcome, but if something goes awry and you lose a teammate, succeeding challenges get harder and kind of snowball. Allies tend to pursue flying minions and generally engage when you don't want them to, so making things even more chaotic with ambushes (multiple ambushes? not sure) just ratchets up the pressure.

I'd suggest maybe making the notable opposition in the last map elite bosses with large entourages who don't call for help.

Detail - ****. Thankfully for my eyes, the spectrum of color on offer in briefings doesn't get too dark to tell apart from the text outlines. Gradually adding to the briefing as allies come into the picture is a nice touch.

Not so nice are the return of this author's old friends, bullet-point briefings and extraneous clues. I still have a preference for summing up an investigation in an opening or closing clue, rather than in bullet points in a brief or debrief. I guess because at least a little, bullet points punch through the fourth wall, and briefings are supposed to be a little more conversational. The altars in the last mission are a pretty nice example of extraneous clues - yes, it's interesting to read about how these people view the Aspects of Rularuu, and we'd certainly get that information from examining these altars... but they're in the boss chamber. The same one where we shepherded our herd of allies up against two heavies and the end boss. At that point learning about these things doesn't really inform the progress of the arc.

They don't necessarily torpedo things, but they're a little disappointing.

Overall - ****. The arc goes to a place I've rarely seen and does something interesting there. What really drags this down is the run-and-seek session in the Nemesis shard base and the excessive pressure of herding allies through the last map. The rest's up to style.

Thanks so much for the detailed review! I was pleased with how Rularularian came together, and I am glad you mostly enjoyed it.

I agree that Mission 4 takes a dash of patience as you hunt for wisps. I am taking a tiny indulgence here as it is the only chance the player has to see the Rularularian in their "native" terrain, and the only map available for it. I went with the floating animation on the wisps as you never see them standing on the ground in-game, and am hopeful that their orange glowiness coupled with the overlord's huge size generally helps players to pick them out. I am pleased you liked the optional glowies in this same mission in the Rularularian base--per your stream of consciousness.

As to optional glowies elsewhere, I understand why they don't sit well with you. I put them in to explain additional logic or add additional flavor for the rare person that may want such things, and because of that, I keep them optional. Those that have no interest can skip them altogether. Unfortunately, yours is the one use-case where this does not work--you read everything even when you are not interested. So while I hear your concern, I am not sure it is a common issue.

Bullets are another style element I like to use--it's true. I try to write them conversationally, and just think of them as a special type of punctuation--and I prefer them to a series of semi-colons or staccato sentences. I picture them as being a list that someone is talking through while maybe counting off on their fingers. People do talk that way after all.

These are style elements that I am sure you will encounter again if you continue reviewing my arcs, so unfortunately I must caution you to prepare for further disappointment.

As always, thanks for the great and thorough review. Your perspective is always helpful, and I have already made some changes based on your feedback. Presuming you are still willing, I look forward to your future reviews of Condemning Croatoa and Robolution.

(Incidentally, I submitted Robolution to cohmissionsreview almost a month ago I think and it has yet to appear.)

Thanks again!