CoHMR Aggregator (a review thread)

Train_Wreck · 06-09-2009 03:45 PM

Thanks for taking a look at the arc. I'm sorry about all the map/bug issues you had... I've honestly never had any problems like that with the arc.

I've actually toned down the martians once, and they have been nerfed a tad more. The Lts. should no longer have aim, voltaic sentinal, or whatever the end drain power is.

The text for the civilians should be fixed in the ant mission now, thanks for catching that.

I would have added better minion text, however, I am at the file size cap.

Once I15 drops, I will revisit the entire arc for tweaks.

Thanks again,

TW

My Arcs:
Unbearable Funk #3573
Tale of the Creatures From Another Forbidden Planet #97983

My Deviant Art Page

Citizen_Razor · 06-09-2009 06:17 PM

If you don't mind, check out my arc, #195149, "The Horsemen Chronicles (Part I)."

I just posted it on the CoHMR site, and the thread for it is here:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat....=0#Post13598333

Thanks!

Play my MA arcs!

Tracking Down Jack Ketch - ArcID #2701
Cat War! - ArcID #2788

GlaziusF · 06-09-2009 07:53 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks for taking a look at the arc. I'm sorry about all the map/bug issues you had... I've honestly never had any problems like that with the arc.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, it was a couple of fringe cases. The boss close to a destructible wouldn't be much worry with a normal boss, and I've already reported the embedded glowie as a bug, with /whereami and /loc results, so if it wasn't in the queue to fix it is now.

I'm really most concerned about the level of Energy Armor on the minions, because energy drain takes off like half a blue bar and will never miss. And since they don't have melee powers they will fire it off if they ever touch you.

GlaziusF · 06-09-2009 08:22 PM

[ QUOTE ]

If you don't mind, check out my arc, #195149, "The Horsemen Chronicles (Part I)."

[/ QUOTE ]

I'll keep it in mind once it actually shows up on the site. But for now I have two people to play and two days to play them in, and then two more arcs for the following days. The future's looking so determinate I want to keep scalars far away.

And tonight's leadoff iiiiiiis: Trademark Infringement (2220). Verdict - ****. Review on MA Forums Thread.
Tonight's random CoHMR arc: Looks Can Be Deceiving (137657). Verdict - ****. Review below in this thread.

GlaziusF · 06-09-2009 11:02 PM

@GlaziusF

Running a low-40s DB/Fire brute, on diff 2 so bosses is bosses, and this is the arc that gives me Mission Engineer.

---

...lookin' kinda evil there, miz nurse lady.

Aw man, it's the asylum?

Back in the day when lowbies actually fought Vahzilok, one of the missions was supposed to be set in a hospital and it was a blue-carpeted office and, y'know, that seemed okay!

It doesn't have to be the asylum.

Hmm. If the clear all in this mission is really "clear the last room", then you need to change it to be that. Maybe call it the administrative offices, and mention in the popup they're on the top floor?

Hoo boy. If I'm gonna be seeing this guy again can he please get a different color scheme than dark red and powder blue?

---

Hmm. Okay, standard pump a guy for info. Rather bare warehouse overall, just him and the captive.

But I get what I need (though maybe you should change that boss objective to "boss only", Lenny spawned in one of those little corner rooms with the catwalk and half his boss spawn was half the guys on top the catwalk, who never even noticed me beating him down.

---

And now for a rush on the cargo ship! The blaster buddy spawns right up front with no escort - not sure if you wanted that. Why does he tell me to go left? That only works in text adventures!

3 supply crates to look for here... and... a WHOLE bunch of red herrings among them. ...identical red herrings. At least mix 'em up a little?

Hmm. It's a bit ominous that these supplies are never described. Makes me wonder if somebody decided to buy the kind of medicine with side effects including green skin and monosyllabic speech.

I meet up with Lenny about halfway through the ship and he pretty much confirms my suspicions.

---

Wow, mission 3, you are exactly what I was planning on doing when I got those supplies off the cargo ship.

...also your accept text breaks the frame like a Troll trying to hang a picture.

(in general I advise very objectively written accept text so that any humor or other information you want to put in there can be read by everybody on the team running the arc.)

Somehow the mission setup reminds me of a certain map...

Ding ding ding! Hi, invention tutorial.

With Focus Chi and an escort of healers and buffers the boss is pretty brutal but nothing I can't take.

I'm a little more concerned about somehow not recognizing superadine when I'm taking it off a Family cargo ship but being able to pick it out when I'm at the clinic.

Maybe it was somehow camouflaged and the nurses have been stripping the packaging away to check that vials didn't get broken in transit or whatever?

So what am I looking at here? A splinter faction within the Family? Did I walk into a power grab in the first few missions there?

---

...yeah, I'm sure Auric won't have gone round the bend from one too many doses of Supes.

I'm not sure the contact really has the grounds to be speculating "oh there has to be some method of control" or whatever. Besides, this is a functionary whose boss has just been exposed as a double-dealing traitor to Paragon City and the Hippocratic Oath. Show some emotion!

...then again maybe I'm working for a third party in the power struggle. Time will, I suppose, tell.

Well, Auric seems to be completely intact. Pleasant surprise. The mission's pretty empty up until the last room, and then the fun starts. Mind Control is actually not so bad if you pack a couple break frees like I tend to for running MA missions, and it ONLY being on the boss is a huge help.

Unfortunately the "ally ambush" that spawns on Bambi's defeat runs right into the same geometry that confounded her backup squads and gets torn apart. infighting is so ugly...

---

Storyline - ***. Modestly interesting storyline with a minimum of people acting like idiots. But, uh, problem here. Serious problem here. There is no known cure for Superadine addiction. Every hero in Paragon City who's ever hit the hospital is going to be jonesing hard and pretty ineffective in the field. That's the elephant in the room at the end of the arc. I dunno, maybe make the third mission clues like a crate, a lab, and a desk or something, put 'em together and get Bambi's blueprints for "cooking" superadine into a mild power-booster that also makes people more susceptible to mind control?

Design - ****. Aside from that dang Asylum, good use of maps overall. The customs actually have variant models, which is an appreciated touch. But missions 2, 3, and 5 are all pretty sparse. 3 needs some variation in the padding crate descriptions, 2 and 5 need some more active spawns, kinda like the ones that showed up in the first mission.

Gameplay - *****. Pretty solid here. Some difficulty spikes with the two boss fights, but that's what boss fights are for. Just pack some break frees to the final countdown.

Detail - ****. Fitting, but sparse after the first mission. About the only optional objective I could find that meant anything was a second run-in with Lenny on the cargo ship.

Overall - ****. An arc that starts strong in incidentals and detail but fades a bit as it goes on, with an underlying plot that doesn't exactly jibe with the canon.

Gameplay -

DreamMistress · 06-10-2009 01:55 PM

Thanks for the review.

Based on your feedback it looks like I need to change some of my dialogue/mission text to clear up the story a bit. Your one big plot hang-up seemed to sort of ruin the whole thing for you, and your interpretation wasn't exactly what I'd intended. Close but not exact. Trying to not put in spoilers, but of course anyone who reads the review won't be surprised by any twists and turns. I'm bummed that you saw everything coming; other feedback I've gotten was from people who were surprised. Or perhaps they were just humoring me.

Unsurprisingly, a few of the little things that bugged you, like the "I went left" and the red herring clues, were SG in-jokes. Yes I realize that those can be annoying in MA arcs, but I hope mine aren't overdone. You certainly don't have to have to know any of us to appreciate the story. Oh, and Auric is a "real" hero. Had to have him in his classic costume.

I also agree that it would be good to add some patrols to a couple of missions to make them feel a little more dynamic. I don't remember having much room left in the file, but surely I can fit a couple more things in, like patrols and alternate red herring clues in mission 3.

I didn't really envision the arc to be run solo, despite the fact that it is story-driven, and so when it is run solo and low-difficulty I can see that some of the missions would feel sparse. Patrols would definitely help that. It's much more fun when you have huge groups of baddies to fight, especially the customs.

I'm glad you liked the customs and the bosses. I wanted them to be difficult without being impossible, and I'm proud of them. It seems so easy to overpower custom mobs.

As for the asylum, yeah it's annoying to move around in, but the atmosphere is so great. I've always had a love/hate relationship with that map for that reason. And hey, it doesn't have Malaise camping the door, so it can't be that bad, right? I think a lot of people hate that map because of who usually inhabits it. I've been hoping for a generic hospital mapset for the MA; if nothing else I could use it in mission 5.

Oh, and yeah, the contact does look evil, which is totally unintended. I hate that the MA contacts are uplit; I think that glowing pedestal obscures and/or ruins pretty much every costume I've seen standing on it. Not really sure how to get around that, unfortunately.

I like your idea about having the final boss perhaps use the "medical supplies" to concoct her own creation. Will have to revisit that part of the story . . .

I appreciate the feedback. It's always useful to see what different people take away from things; some of the things that you liked have been previously unnoticed, and some you didn't like have been hits.

Hopefully some other people will run through and offer their opinions as well. Thanks for playing!

GlaziusF · 06-10-2009 03:44 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I'm bummed that you saw everything coming; other feedback I've gotten was from people who were surprised. Or perhaps they were just humoring me.

[/ QUOTE ]

Something had to be up. The Family aren't the type to just be jerks to people. There's no percentage in running medical supplies, and if there WAS you wouldn't hit a dang hospital for 'em. Not actually getting a clear description in the third mission is what finally threw up the flag for me, though.

[ QUOTE ]

As for the asylum, yeah it's annoying to move around in, but the atmosphere is so great. I've always had a love/hate relationship with that map for that reason. And hey, it doesn't have Malaise camping the door, so it can't be that bad, right? I think a lot of people hate that map because of who usually inhabits it.

[/ QUOTE ]

I hate that map because it's a) visually distinctive but b) has only one layout. So when someone's thinking up MA missions, they tend to go "oh, the asylum was cool, I'll use that!" and if you run upwards of 100 arcs like I have you get to know that place off by heart. That and the Ruladak caves. So I end up running a map where I know exactly where I have to go but where getting there is frustrating, in both cases.

[ QUOTE ]

Oh, and yeah, the contact does look evil, which is totally unintended. I hate that the MA contacts are uplit; I think that glowing pedestal obscures and/or ruins pretty much every costume I've seen standing on it. Not really sure how to get around that, unfortunately.

[/ QUOTE ]

It was actually more the scowl on her face that did it for me.

GlaziusF · 06-10-2009 06:46 PM

Tonight's leadoff arc: Escalation (6143). Verdict - ****. Review on MA Forums Thread.
Tonight's random CoHMR arc The Amulet of J'Gara (1709). Verdict - *****. Review on MA Forums Thread.

Citizen_Razor · 06-10-2009 06:48 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

If you don't mind, check out my arc, #195149, "The Horsemen Chronicles (Part I)."

[/ QUOTE ]

I'll keep it in mind once it actually shows up on the site. But for now I have two people to play and two days to play them in, and then two more arcs for the following days. The future's looking so determinate I want to keep scalars far away.

[/ QUOTE ]

No worries. I just checked and it's up on CoHMR now.

http://cohmissionreview.com/2009/06/...t-i/#more-1203

Get around to it when you can. The arc's kinda stalled at the moment, really, as I can't make any of the major improvements I want to do until Issue 15 arrives.

Play my MA arcs!

Tracking Down Jack Ketch - ArcID #2701
Cat War! - ArcID #2788

GlaziusF · 06-11-2009 08:52 PM

Tonight's only arc: The Horseman Chronicles I (195149) Verdict - *. Commentary on MA Forums Thread.

Citizen_Razor · 06-12-2009 02:53 AM

Sorry the story didn't work out for you. Still, thanks for the feedback. I'll take them into consideration and hopefully make the story better.

Play my MA arcs!

Tracking Down Jack Ketch - ArcID #2701
Cat War! - ArcID #2788

Armsman · 06-14-2009 12:33 AM

Would like to submit my arc for review (it's been up on the CoHMR site for awhile ):

]Title: Is it Live or is it Memory-X?
--------------------------------------
Story Arc ID: 70210
Authors Global Chat Handle: @Armsman
Length: Very Long (5 missions)
Alignment: Heroic
Type: Story-Focused
Groups: 5th Column, Crey, Custom Group
Has: Bosses; AV (Scales to EB based on team size/difficulty setting).

Story Description: The 5th Column is building a device to control the world. Can you save the world from TOTAL DOMINATION?! (Hey it worked to get my Villians and Vigilantes pen and paper RPG group interested back in the day.)

Designer Notes: The Arc can actually be soloed by most Scrapper (Level 50 MA/SR), Tank (Level 41 SS/INV) and MasterMind (Level 39 Robot/Traps) builds. My level 41 Gravity/Force Field Controller made it through mission 3 solo with no issues, but starting getting defeats in mission 4; so if youre a support class or a blaster, you probably need a team-mate. This arc is actually based on an adventure I ran players through in the Villians & Vigilantes pen and paper RPG a number of years back. I was surprised at how much of the original flavor I was able to keep in adapting it to fit in the CoX universe. There was only really one element I couldnt include due to MA limitations.

It has already had a few reviews here; and one posted review to date on the CoHMR site; but I've just finished doing a major update to it based on the feedback I've gotten to date.

I have:
--------
- Tightened the 'Contact' text; and some 'Clue' text across the arc (No one's really mentioned a specific problem with it per se; but I've had a few feedbacks saying the story is convoluted in areas, so I've tried to do things to make it less so. Also, grammar hounds should no longer see an 'over use of the semi-colon' in this Arc; (which was mentioned to me more than once on a couple of previous reviews and feedback comments.)

- Done a major re-work of MA mission 4 so that a Clue that helps explain an objective better in terms of the overall story appears at a more appropriate time, so that those players interested in following what's occuring and why it's occuring, can (hopefully) better understand what's going on; and where the Objective came from.

So, I'd like to get some more feedback on the Arc as to how it plays now after doing all that. So, if you do want to be able to follow the story, please read the various clues that pop up.

GlaziusF · 06-15-2009 07:23 PM

Busy, busy weekend. But I'm back on track!

Tonight's leadoff: Too Many Bunnygirls! (101165) Verdict - ****. Review below in this thread.
Tonight's random arc: Through Rose-Tinted Glasses (101681) Verdict - ****. Review belower in this thread.

GlaziusF · 06-15-2009 07:24 PM

@GlaziusF

Playing on a high 30s ice/axe tanker, diff 2 for that crunchy boss fight experience.

---

Hmm. This is positing that MA is actually doing some "in-world" stuff, and the bunnygirls have a physical presence.

Well, whatever downs your watership.

Hmm. Are the gunner lieuts wearing white maid tiaras, or is that just my fanboy eye.

...oh god that casting animation. IMPROPER CONTEXT. IMPROPER CONTEXT!

Yeah, good luck photoshopping somebody who's COVERED IN ICE WITH A PLASMA AXE. Still, if that photog can pull this off it'll be a sight.

---

Ah, cornball science. Is there no corn so corny that you won't ball it?

Classic fake-german warning sign on the machine.

Hey, it's that guy from that corrupted arc!

And once again, the tabloids are at fault.

---

Cheesy tabloid bosses.

Cheesy B-movie scientist!

Cheesy use of deceive on a lieutenant or above to permaconfuse but if it's a photographer they have to have Flash! (you can fix this in I15 right?)

...but even if this is a comedy arc, why not start smashing up presses? At least toss off some notional explanation as to why you can't.

---

Storyarc - ****. Why not smash the presses? That's about it, really, it's an amusing light comedy.

Design - *****. Good use of maps, good flow of objectives, great design on the customs, especially the fur coat on the fashion plate.

Gameplay - *****. I stock break frees. So the illusion boss wasn't too too frustrating.

Detail - *****. Top shelf here. Great humorous descriptions and nice detail on all the little incidentals.

Overall - ****. Yeah, it might seem a little unfair to round down, but I'm a little bummed about not being able to grossly abridge freedom of the press. I guess doing that might need way more arc space than you have, but hey, I invaded a supposedly law-abiding print company, why can't I take the next step?

GlaziusF · 06-15-2009 10:04 PM

@GlaziusF

Running this on a high 30s ice/axe tanker, diff 2 so bosses is bosses.

---

...I gotta say. Stealing stuff from a senile old lady is not much far up from the whole baby - candy scenario.

Prying valuables out of the jaws of mad Arachnoids is really more my bag.

---

Hmm. And now this looks like some kind of command center. Not surprised Arachnos boosted the technology. And doesn't every villain want their own ancient doomsday device, to have and hold and extort ransoms with a lot of zeroes in them?

---

So here I go! Though I'm probably going to be working from a position of weakness figuring this all out...

Oh. DNA-keyed explosives. Yyyyyeah, that might be a passable death weapon.

Also the Longbow ambush on the boss should probably be enemy faction - mine came from a place where there were still Arachnos spawns and the spiders graciously took them down for me.

Hooboy. Giant flier hanger. Very atmospheric. Not good for finding glowies. For Arachnos bases it's important to pick a map.

Marchand's DNA. I wonder.

---

Heh. Yep. Time to get some blood.

...though why is Black Scorption expecting Manticore? Is Arachnos bugging retirement homes now?

Wait. It's Arachnos. Of course they are.

Anyway, I dodge around him easily enough.

Heh, and Longbow's hanging on the same grapevine. This is amusing.

I like the map filling up with ambushes on your way back, makes it interesting.

Hmm. It's a little wishy-washy to just say I did one thing or another. Maybe just say I'm going to decide after I get the superweapon? Getting rid of this guy too soon would tip my hand.

---

And now it's a final showdown -- oh, hi there red guy with bow. Your innate bow accuracy isn't much match for my defense.

And the Arachnos guy in charge is... just a Bane Spider? Kinda anticlimactic, given that he's in the "boss room" and Manti is frontloaded.

Aw. Foiled again by decay. Damn you, entropy!

---

Storyline - ****. The final map goes out with a bit of a whimper all told. I don't even see why I need to defeat either of the guys there, if there isn't an actual connection through Project Ragnarok. Maybe they're both operating jamming devices and the mission exits with a clue about how once the jamming went down there was still no signal, and you found half a severed conduit in the cave walls or something? And the storyline doesn't need to be definite about the fate of Philip Wallace, either. Maybe telling Elspeth that "you don't know" is what pushes her to realize you're you.

Design - *****. Plenty of incidental detail to liven things up. Nice use of a rarely seen map type, at least blueside and the first four-fifths of redside. Customs for the civilians in the arc looked the part.

Gameplay - ****. The usual run-of-the-mill frustrations. Some of that was just me fumbling around the dark caves trying to figure out what was a passageway, some of it was me fumbling around a giant open room in the Arachnos base.

Detail - ****. Everything fit together well, but I expected more than stock descriptions for the stock bosses who popped up filling plot-important roles. Not so much for the signature characters.

Overall - ****. The fight with Manticore doesn't seem necessary and the handling of the kidnapping tried to pretend something definite had happened when it could just as well have gone without.

GlaziusF · 06-16-2009 06:22 PM

Tonight's arcs!

The leadoff: Return of the Revenge of the Son of Drakule Part 2: First Blood (84543). Verdict - ****. Review below in this thread.
The random: Dirk's Ravens (43104). Verdict - ****. Review below in this thread.

GlaziusF · 06-16-2009 08:23 PM

@GlaziusF

Running on a high 30s ice/axe tank, diff 2 so bosses is bosses and everything else comes out normal.

---

Man, Death is just Dracula's best brosef for life. They hang out in his crazy chaos dimension and trade tips for turning into crazy abominations with obvious weak points.

But you know, okay. Let's see what this temple looks like.

These are disturbingly conventional ruins. I suspect shenanigans.

Well, at least all the altars are close to each other. Dethe heard of feng shui but thought it was some kind of crazy dance.

He's very upfront in his dealings. I like that in a personification of the inevitable destruction of the universe.

The fight gets a bit rough after I accidentally mow down some of his minions, giving EA less to draw on, but it's a good fight. And I get some information.

So there's an Elukard. I can see why he's so angry. It sounds like he's made of clay.

---

...I was only joking, next mission's accept text. But it was an obvious joke.

Man, does Ashton's new look give him Aim or something? Maybe it's just bad luck that he hits through my ice.

Anyway.

He may be a cyborg vampire, but is he a SPACE NAZI cyborg vampire? I guess that's something for installment 3.

Ah, so that's how Junior did it. Cybernetics! Go go modern technology! Try and crash a computer with a holy relic, can't be done.

---

Whoa. So this is the arachnoid labs. Excellent choice, sir.

So. Burst damage from like Total Focus does terrible things when it gets lucky. But I manage. The ambush helps with end refill/defense boost.

But... there's something weird here. It feels a little empty. Drakule's even less terrifying than he was the first time.

---

Storyline - ****. In the second mission of the arc I kill the mastermind. In the third mission I kill his hardwired robot creation. It's like, the actual thinking person behind this is gone. This is the mess he left behind. I AM A JANITOR. That doesn't work for me. Why not swap the two?

Design - *****. Can't fault this. First use of the arachnoid labs I've seen in MA and it's pretty great.

Gameplay - *****. While I died a couple times to the bosses they were fair deaths and I made it through what remained just fine.

Detail - ****. Needs more cheesy killer cyborg movie references.

Overall - ****. A sequel which follows possibly a classic pattern. It branches out a bit from its original plot, but with the novelty gone the old scenery just seems empty.

GlaziusF · 06-16-2009 09:47 PM

@GlaziusF

Playing this thing on a high 30s ice/axe tanker. Diff 2 so I get some boss fights.

---

Oh boy. Fighting Longbow.

Nah, it's not your fault, we really need another hero-type group that shows up at all levels, is all.

Nice custom dude. Nice attempt at distractoglowies, but the comps I was looking for showed up in the first two rooms. I clicked anyway and had a laugh.

...okay. That's kind of interesting. Wonder how the contact's going to react to this.

---

I'm not surprised he's suspicious. Alright, then. PRISON BREAK!

I did love this map the first time through, and it's not bad on the replays either.

Hmm. So I'm expendable, eh? Alright, I think I know what the final boss is going to be, here.

---

Crey. I'm getting a bad feeling about this. A genetic duplicate-y kind of feeling.

Ooh, chaos coming in the door. For some reason the Crey seem to be handing the customs their [censored].

Oog. Yeah. I am not relishing this debriefing. It's going to be ugly.

Nice work with the agent blocking the path back to the door, but check his alignment - some of his Longbow were firing at the wandering patrols that silently spawned.

---

Well, that's certainly not an ominous setup.

Is this gonna be the damn asylum?

Oh. Oh, no. This is gonna be awesome!

Let's trip the psyche fantastic!

Ah, the stages of grief, or whatever the technical name is.

And they actually show up in order! Either the mission is being considerate or there was a lot of time spent tricking the placement.

...oh dear. Yes, that's a reasonable response from the last phase there.

So I wonder what all that did. Ah well, Onyx was mindblasting right there with me and if there was a problem she would have said something.

---

Well, things seem to have been handled alright... but while I was gone from the land of the living apparently things have gone far, far south.

Might as well try to help this guy. He needs to have a face-to-face with his daughter at least.

Wow. And I almost don't make it on time. I jump through the map, my ally radar pinging on some captive operatives and battles going on, free him at the back...

Targeting Drone boosts perception, which means it boosts aggro radius, and he didn't want to break off a fight to come follow me. It's due mostly to runners moving in fortunate directions that I was able to get him to the exit with seconds to spare. If he'd aggroed one or two more groups it wouldn't have been possible.

Can you boost the requirement just a little bit? 15 minutes isn't unreasonable and will probably prevent this mission from failing because of bad luck.

---

Storyline - ***. Feels rather severely truncated, honestly. This guy spends all the time building a private army, it gets to fight one skirmish in the lobby of a Crey building, and then suddenly it's in shambles and the Freedom Corps are raiding his HQ? Also, what happened to the other two colors? What was this unit that got lost during the first Rikti War?

Design - *****. Great custom work pretty much all around. The customs are pretty well done, what little I saw of them. Maps make good sense, and you didn't fall into that old asylum trap.

Gameplay - ****. I spent most of that last mission dreading that my ally might run into a knot of mans and chain aggro himself beyond any hope of exfiltration.

Detail - *****. Nicely proofed text, bonus descriptions on everything, even some enjoyable extra bits scattered through the missions.

Overall - ****. An arc that does a lot of good things, but that tries to cram ideas too close together. Is this maybe a 7 or 8 mission arc that got pared down to 5?

El_Furioso · 06-16-2009 10:24 PM

Just wanted to pop on here and thank Glazius for the great reviews. They're informative, and always give me a good laugh.

El Furioso - Inv/SS Tanker .:. Chlorostorm - Plant/Thorn Dominator {Virtue}

Proud member of the Repeat Offenders Network

City of Heroes Mission Review .:. MA arcs submitted and reviewed by the CoX community

GlaziusF · 06-17-2009 08:45 PM

Man, I'm starting to run out of submitted arcs.

Tonight's leadoff and only arc: Is it live, or is it Memory-X? (70210). Verdict - ***. Review below in this thread.

GlaziusF · 06-18-2009 03:54 AM

@GlaziusF

Running on a high 30s ice/axe tanker, diff 2 so bosses is bosses.

---

A bank job. It's never as simple as a bank job. TIMER ON.

Oh man, self-aware robots? Didn't they try to purge the impure biologics from the ranks and follow the will of the Master Runtime last time?

Well, no wonder this guy took a dive, they were trying to run him off a flash drive.

---

Man, I know I shouldn't think this way, but what the color highlights really make me think is that Citadel's playing Mad Libs in his head.

Also, prevention never works. It heads off the plot, and we can't have that.

Standard Battle Advisory: Battles can start without a hero anywhere nearby. Battle dialogue should take this into account.

Also, way too many duplicate battles. Just put one noisy one at the start, one noisy one maybe in the middle, and fill in the rest with quiet battles.

Hmm, duplicate network admins. Both of mine were triggered by battles ranging too close to them.

...I come up an elevator to see Crey fighting Crey? Are they around patrolling the place listed as Rogue faction or something?

This mission works fine with a Crey base enemy group and the occasional battle featuring Fifth Column.

---

Oh, hi new enemy group. You're interestingly named.

Hi, my contact. ...wait, what?

Hi, long unnecessary road out of the mission that isn't much fun to take because I emptied it searching for glowies on the way in!

Uh, clue text, should you be assuming that I know who the real Citadel is?

---

....wait, what? Does Nemesis know these guys are stealing his schtick?

...well, one of his many schticks, anyway.

Wondering why fake (?) Citadel was tipping us off to those places.

Hmm. You'd probably be better off with a generic President, put in to prevent the arc from becoming dated.

...aw man, another escort through an empty map?

And Statesman tries to kill the President. Well, that explains how they managed to "capture him", at least.

---

Alright now. TO THE MOON, Alice.

Oh sweet Christmas, three special boss fights in three consecutive intersections? All of whom use exactly the same canned patter as the first boss from the bank job?

Man, they're showing up all over the place. SO BORING. NOTHING CHANGES.

Also if you pick a random civilian hostage I think it'll pick from a small pool that includes Tsoo artists. I was running into them left and right.

And the boss just seems to be a slightly upgraded version of the same boss I just fought like 20 of.

He doesn't even seem that concerned about being beaten down.

...why do I feel like Real Actual Citadel and Master Runtime v2.0 are still out there somewhere?

---

Storyline - ***. Feels like a half-hearted combination of Rogue Robots + Automatic Villainy. And there's one development that's particularly suspect - Fake Citadel sending me in to rescue Real Citadel. You'd think this thing's left coprocessor would know what its right coprocessor was doing.

Design - ***. Good maps, acceptably powered customs, but they all looked exactly alike, which is a pain when picking out a priority target, and having half a dozen spawns on a map that dump the exact same thing (or the three exact same things) into your NPC dialog bar is, at the very least, overkill.

Gameplay - ***. Escorting dudes back to the door over a giant stretch of empty mission is just a timewaster, and fighting like 10 copies of the exact same boss with the exact same dialogue in the final mission bored me to tears.

Detail - ****. Solid job technically, but I would have liked to see non-stock descriptions for the stock bosses/special objectives, like the Wolfpack robot leading the assault in the first mission. Obviously it's not acting like a normal model.

Overall - ***. A modestly large plot hole, frustrating sections of the gameplay, and 15 lines of dialog spam on entering some missions all dragged this one down together.

PoliceWoman · 06-18-2009 07:01 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Man, I'm starting to run out of submitted arcs.

[/ QUOTE ]

Feel free to poke at my story arcs if you like - I'd be happy to get a few CoHMR reviews. I hadn't submitted them earlier because I think you've actually already run through them all before, so it'd probably be unfair to ask you to do them again. But if you are needing more things to do, they have all changed to some degree (some more, some less) since your first run, and they are all on CoHMR.

I originally started off not really wanting to use CoHMR, figuring the site wouldn't get updated enough and would be redundant with the in-game rating system. But lately I've kinda bought into the concept; it seems like a site that is more useful if more people use it. Certainly this thread has contributed to moving me towards this opinion. Thanks!

@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!"

Armsman · 06-18-2009 10:22 AM

[ QUOTE ]
@GlaziusF

Running on a high 30s ice/axe tanker, diff 2 so bosses is bosses.

---

A bank job. It's never as simple as a bank job. TIMER ON.

Oh man, self-aware robots? Didn't they try to purge the impure biologics from the ranks and follow the will of the Master Runtime last time?

Well, no wonder this guy took a dive, they were trying to run him off a flash drive.

---

Man, I know I shouldn't think this way, but what the color highlights really make me think is that Citadel's playing Mad Libs in his head.

Also, prevention never works. It heads off the plot, and we can't have that.

Standard Battle Advisory: Battles can start without a hero anywhere nearby. Battle dialogue should take this into account.

Also, way too many duplicate battles. Just put one noisy one at the start, one noisy one maybe in the middle, and fill in the rest with quiet battles.

Hmm, duplicate network admins. Both of mine were triggered by battles ranging too close to them.

...I come up an elevator to see Crey fighting Crey? Are they around patrolling the place listed as Rogue faction or something?

This mission works fine with a Crey base enemy group and the occasional battle featuring Fifth Column.

---

Oh, hi new enemy group. You're interestingly named.

Hi, my contact. ...wait, what?

Hi, long unnecessary road out of the mission that isn't much fun to take because I emptied it searching for glowies on the way in!

Uh, clue text, should you be assuming that I know who the real Citadel is?

---

....wait, what? Does Nemesis know these guys are stealing his schtick?

...well, one of his many schticks, anyway.

Wondering why fake (?) Citadel was tipping us off to those places.

Hmm. You'd probably be better off with a generic President, put in to prevent the arc from becoming dated.

...aw man, another escort through an empty map?

And Statesman tries to kill the President. Well, that explains how they managed to "capture him", at least.

---

Alright now. TO THE MOON, Alice.

Oh sweet Christmas, three special boss fights in three consecutive intersections? All of whom use exactly the same canned patter as the first boss from the bank job?

Man, they're showing up all over the place. SO BORING. NOTHING CHANGES.

Also if you pick a random civilian hostage I think it'll pick from a small pool that includes Tsoo artists. I was running into them left and right.

And the boss just seems to be a slightly upgraded version of the same boss I just fought like 20 of.

He doesn't even seem that concerned about being beaten down.

...why do I feel like Real Actual Citadel and Master Runtime v2.0 are still out there somewhere?

---

Storyline - ***. Feels like a half-hearted combination of Rogue Robots + Automatic Villainy. And there's one development that's particularly suspect - Fake Citadel sending me in to rescue Real Citadel. You'd think this thing's left coprocessor would know what its right coprocessor was doing.

Design - ***. Good maps, acceptably powered customs, but they all looked exactly alike, which is a pain when picking out a priority target, and having half a dozen spawns on a map that dump the exact same thing (or the three exact same things) into your NPC dialog bar is, at the very least, overkill.

Gameplay - ***. Escorting dudes back to the door over a giant stretch of empty mission is just a timewaster, and fighting like 10 copies of the exact same boss with the exact same dialogue in the final mission bored me to tears.

Detail - ****. Solid job technically, but I would have liked to see non-stock descriptions for the stock bosses/special objectives, like the Wolfpack robot leading the assault in the first mission. Obviously it's not acting like a normal model.

Overall - ***. A modestly large plot hole, frustrating sections of the gameplay, and 15 lines of dialog spam on entering some missions all dragged this one down together.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hi GlaziusF, I want to thank you for taking the time to do a fairly detailed, honest and fair review. As to the Citadel rescue mission being a plothole, my story rationale when creating it was this:

The 'Fake Citadel' (controlled by Memory-X), enlisted your help to stop the 5th Column from creating a second identical A.I. to (they hope) regain control of the original Memory-X A.I. (And I have the Memoy-X computer modules you're destroying in Mission 5 revealing this fact in the dialog they spout). By the end of the second mission, you're completed this task for Memory-X; and thus on the third mission, it's sending you to a place where it has some of its own forces (and it knows the 5th Column is searching there too); and Memory-X expects you will die at the hands of the 5th Column or it's own minions (hence the ambush too); or you'll be captured and he can substitute a controlled copy of you as well, thus tying up all loose ends.

Again, I realize this is a game and your character should survive the trap, defeat the lackeys 99.99% of the time, (and even if you fail mission 3, I have dialogue in place that allows the story to continue with your character still the 'lead'); but imo, storywise the overconfident Memory-X does believe its lackeys will indeed capture or kill you when you go on that particular misson.

As for the other technical aspects you raise:

- WolfPack Robot in Mission 1: I'm so close to the file limit, I didn't think changing the stock description was worth it. The dialog the Robot spouts should be a tipoff, BUT it is still

- Battle Group(s) dialog in Mission 2: Once I15 goes live, I should be able to create a 3rd silent Battle group, and make that the majority patrol, but atm, I'm too near the file size cap.

- Crey Patrols engaging other Crey Units: I've bugged it as I can't figure out what triggers it (and it's sporadic, some runs it happens, others it doesn't); but I don't have any Battles set to 'Rogue'; the Battles are all 'Both Are Enemy'; the Crey Patrols are 'Enemy'; and the IT Managers, etc. that pop when you finish the one Collection are all 'Crey' - so I figure it must just be a AE Critter A.I. bug.

-Repetative Boss Dialog: Well, they ARE still controlled Robots, so I honestly feel making them 'more independent' would be 'out of character' (and there a 4 roaming Bosses in Missions 4 and 5 of the Arc that can show up anywhere; so the fact 3 of them appeared in succesive corridors is just bad luck with the Random Number Generator).

- Random Civilians who are 'Tsoo Tatoo Artists'. Originally, I picked one stock Civilian as the 'Hostages' in Mission 5 and on Feedback more people thought I shoud use the Random setting. I've hemmed andhawed over this but am sticking with it because hell, if you were an A.I. trying to control the World more covertly, why wouldn't you take both good and 'evil' citizens? As to the evil ones you rescued - Everyone saved is going to the Main Portal Corp. facility, and any Citizen 'criminal' would be arrested on the spot.

- Overuse of highlights: Guilty as charged (This Arc was developed over the open beta of I14, and I nfigured I'd test everything). It is a very valid criticism; but hey, I was at least diliberately consistent with the color scheme; and imo, it's too much work to go back throuh all that Text (Contact, Clue and otherwise) on the Published Live version; and I don't want to Unpublish/Re-Publish and lose all the ratings and plays to date; so the 'mad lib' highlight will stay. I just won't go overboard in any future Arcs I do.

But, again, thanks for taking the time to give my Arc a go, and a balanced, fair, and detailed review.

Jophiel · 06-18-2009 10:40 AM

[ QUOTE ]
I don't want to Unpublish/Re-Publish and lose all the ratings and plays to date; so the 'mad lib' highlight will stay. I just won't go overboard in any future Arcs I do.

[/ QUOTE ]You can republish changes without unpublishing and losing your ratings/arc #. Just FYI (I didn't know that at first).

Armsman · 06-18-2009 11:20 AM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I don't want to Unpublish/Re-Publish and lose all the ratings and plays to date; so the 'mad lib' highlight will stay. I just won't go overboard in any future Arcs I do.

[/ QUOTE ]You can republish changes without unpublishing and losing your ratings/arc #. Just FYI (I didn't know that at first).

[/ QUOTE ]

But once publshed, when you make changes, you have to do them directly in the MA editor, you can't make changes to the original local MA arc file you used to first publish without unpublishing and then re-publishing the arc.

If I could do that, I'd be able fix errors and make other changes quicker by using a word processor to find and replace. With only the MA editor available to use after Publishing, you have to manually eyeball everything, and making major changes is tedious to say the least; although I do understand the reason why, once published, they don't want you allow you to just make changes to a file and then re-upload it. Doing that would allow players to easily swap one type of arc for another; and in effect give something a rating it didn't 'earn'. By making the update/change process tedious, they pretty much assure that only updates and chenges will be made; as opposed to a complete arc swapout.