CoHMR Aggregator (a review thread)

Miss_Freeze_NA · 06-26-2009 10:02 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Tonight's arc - The Hero Who Loved Me (232417). Verdict - *. Review on MA Forums Thread.

[/ QUOTE ]

Nice arc griefing there dude.

1 star?? That's not a fair rating at all and you know it. You're either illiterate, looking to grief people's arcs or just plain dumb.

We ran this with our SG last night and it was a lot of fun... more than 99% of the other crap that's in the MA. The story had depth (a couple of layers to it), interesting things happening and it kept us all guessing. I for one am looking forward to where it all leads.

And learn to write coherently. As a reviewer, your posts are very painful to read.

GlaziusF · 06-28-2009 10:55 AM

The chronicles of the stupid illiterate griefer continue! (Flu fights hard, BUT HEROES FIGHT BACK.)

Today's first stupid illiterate grief victim: Celebrity Kidnapping (1388). Verdict - ****. Review below in this thread. DAMN YOU, great thread defunctening!
Today's next random stupid illiterate grief victim: (random tosses me a repeat) Escalation (6143). Verdict - ****. Review on MA Forums Thread.
Today's next next random stupid illiterate grief victim: Blood For Roses (161399). Verdict - ***. Review below in this thread. Mo' defunct arc threads, mo' problems.

GlaziusF · 06-28-2009 12:09 PM

@GlaziusF

Runnin' this one on my high 30s icer/axer/tanker. Diff 2 for ~goodfights~.

---

Willy Wheeler has a brilliant plan! How many things could not go wrong?

...well, the prison yard's full of Longbow and PPD but no actual rioters. There's one thing!

Oh wait, there they are. Took a little moving in to trigger the dialogue.

I'm gonna see what happens if the escort bites it, so I'm going to leave most of these guys for us to "take out together" and if she goes down, welp.

Nice prison scrubs on her. I half expect to see a Zig logo on 'em.

Ah, but as broken up as the prison yard is, it's murder to try and path an ally through it. Fortunately most of the infighting has culled the numbers topside so I don't have to worry about her deciding to jump a fence and land in the middle of five angry dudes.

---

Ah, heist movies. What crazy little twist will lead to the unraveling of this whole operation? Does a concerned Longbow Eagle fan call in his entire regiment?

Oh, the Freakshow decided to come in and go crazy. That's okay too!

You know, ordinarily I would throw a fit when SS customs start raging, but in this case how could he not! (but seriously, no rage please)

This is gonna be a fun debriefing, I can tell right now.

Huh. It's actually here. No tracers, explosives, or dye packs? Who knew Hollywood could deal square?

Willy, you are one coldhearted sunova. And I mean that in the best way.

---

Oh, hello there empty warehouse. You're not suspicious at all.

Oh, hello there Family boss. Oh, wait, you're a custom. Man, I could hardly tell you apart.

Crud! Hello, ambush photographers!

Hoo boy, looks like a lot of people decided to sneak in during that fight.

Paris, honey, I'm sure if you asked your good buddy TV that question he'd set you up.

Lois Watson. You're not... YOU ARE. Oh good lord, how many freakin' people are going to be waiting at the door?

Less than expected, actually. I was kinda expecting the bum and Unbelievable Man to show up to ruin the party.

---

Storyline - ****. So why didn't the bum and Unbelievable Man show up to ruin the party? (aside from maybe arc size limits) I was all set up for the crazy escalating showdown you get at the end of certain heist movies, but it was all just a bunch of cops.

Design - *****. A shame you can't equip NPCs with cameras, but other than that, fitting use of maps and an understated but solid design on the customs.

Gameplay - ****. Little irritations in running the first escort over all that broken terrain and watching her trip on rubble and fallen guard towers. Maybe just make her an ally and have the rescue spawn a Longbow Warden fanboy back near the chopper who flew in to make sure Paris was alright?

Detail - *****. No complaints here. Pretty solid work on the customs, even if they're only a few fitting lines.

Overall - ****. I went back and forth on this, but overall, I was disappointed, just a little, to see the arc making promises it didn't keep. Dammit, I wanted to finally see what Unbelievable Man looks like!

GlaziusF · 06-28-2009 04:06 PM

@GlaziusF

Runnin' on a high 30s ice/axe tanker. Diff 2 for ~goodfights~.

---

Oh hey, it's Lars the Immortal! Sup buddy! How's that blown-up MegaMek doin' for ya?

Okay, go to a place and spy on somebody. Can do. But... uh, what place? This front company, right? Not like some offshore data processing facility?

Eh, whatever, I'll figure it out.

Hmm. Protip: Clues that come from collections will drop after the first element of the collection is collected, not when you've collected all the elements in the collection.

(does "collect" even look like a word anymore?)

Thanks for the summary of what I just did, mission complete clue. Want to tell me what all I found when I was poking through these records? No? Okay then.

Y'know, if this place is a front office there should really be some civilians somewhere. Maybe being "protected" by Council or something. Or maybe have some Council pacing around talking about their boring office jobs.

...some Council saying anything wouldn't be remiss, actually. Place feels like a dang tomb.

---

Ah, so here come the civilians. Good deal, good deal. Now... why aren't you telling me what you found, Lars? I can handle the truth, I promise!

Okay, let's go save some... um. "only armed troops", you say, intro text? There are civilians to save here, right? They're right up in the nav bar!

System text when you accomplish an objective also displays after you've accomplished any objective, not the aggregate, so the system tells me I found all the civilians when there are still some left.

...heh. I was thinking "wouldn't it be awesome if the spy shared a name and description with the mook janitors", and he does, on both counts!

Aw man! I gotta run him out through this whole empty building, without so much as an ambush to say hello?

Yep. Yep, I do.

Ah, so that's what Lars didn't want to tell me.

---

...y'know, it'd suck hard if I was screwing up somebody planning to go double agent. You checked this with anybody, Lars?

Alright then, off to go plant an axe in the face of justice.

...why do the villains patrolling the cargo hold not think the lady I have to wax is even here yet? Hmm.

Well, she's here, alright. Out of curiosity I let her drop me.

Yeah, about what I thought she'd say. Why am I axing her questions again?

Right, right, orders is orders. Okay, let's see if she runs.

She does! ...probably because of all the slow and knockback, though, considering it's DEEPER into the cargo ship.

And the Council there obligingly whittle her down.

Um, what?

I guess this was a setup all along? For her?

Anyway, I jump in to deliver the coup de grace and feel rather bad about myself.

---

Okay, let's see who was telling the truth, here.

Oh, that's interesting. The patrol is talking about a traitor! I wonder if it's anyone we know.

Two patrols saying identical things. I get a little tetchy about that.

Why hello there security chi- whoa there you're an EB with Focus Chi. Not cool. Man, dude looked like a Galaxy in this weird cave light. Back from hospital again.

Man. Ice armor with a couple lucks does NOTHING against Focus Chi. Kinda depressing.

The ambushes are appreciated, they help keep Energy Absorb topped up.

Hrm. The system text on Hawkins' defeat seems to be something he should be saying.

Man. It's a sad day when people trust Council intelligence over the word of a hero.

Ah well, it's put us on the right path to the denoument, so no complaints.

---

The... lab. Oh-Nictus-fragment-boy, this might not end well.

"We have something to show you." Twist the knife, why don't you.

...huh. Okay, that was completely unexpected. Fighting this doctor guy who came out of nowhere, right about the second floor. He's up on a third-floor balcony, meaning my ally's falling off the edge trying to get up to him.

He says "I'm too important to be captured" but I'm pinning him to the ground pretty regularly... and then either he fires off something (EM Pulse?) that drains my end and stuns me, or I get careless, hit an empty tank, and get held by Choking Cloud when Wet Ice drops.

And then he bolts. Exitward. And by the time I chug a break free and follow him down the crazy narrow winding path, he's already reached the elevator.

And then I see the loading screen.

...what?

I had no idea this guy was even here, there was no indication I should stop him from getting away, and now the mission's wrecked?

Bull! At the most I figured this was to make him an "optional fight", since he seemed to be Extreme Rad Blast (opening with Atomic Blast)/Extreme Rad Emit.

The fail text even assumes I'd found the transformed dude, when nothing of the sort happened. Was the doc supposed to spawn in the back, then? Looks like the weirdness of map positioning might have bit you in the underneath there.

---

In the name of ACTUALLY seeing the end because I'm curious, I pass through the whole thing again. Observations time 2:

The agent is a random janitor. Kinda a nice touch, but it still stinks having to break flow and get him back through a cleared area to the door. Why bother? I mean, the OTHER janitors presumably get out just fine.

Liberty's Edge spawns deeper in the cargo ship this time, and wackiness ensues as she slaughters the end room, apologizing for taking them all out. Really, set her to Enemy faction rather than Rogue, otherwise you get things like this happening.

MAN. I must have been lucky taking that guy on the first time. I get him on the ropes, and then he pops Focus Chi and two-shots me. Several times. Can't even bolt away because his shuriken's doing a thousand damage.

...also the terminals say I'm "cownloading data". Moo, baby.

You don't need to put periods after your objective names. They get commas after them already.

...why is the HIDDEN FAILURE OBJECTIVE talking about robots? He's rad/rad, and I was expecting him to be a robots mastermind.

Great Moments in Ally Range Buggin': my ally staring determinedly at a destructible for several seconds while Head Splitter (the only thing with range to hit it) recharges.

Ah, and the happy couple is finally together. Man, given the wreckin' machine this guy is, you probably intended for him to be sprung before the doc, rather than the other way 'round, yes? Maybe you should look into chaining those objectives.

Kind of a shame the destructibles only had their default description. I wanted some Councilicious flavor text.

Not sure what it means when the GROOM wears white, but eh, it's a crazy world of lovers in this crazy world.

---

Storyline - ***. It's a messed-up world where people trust Council intelligence more than a hero. I would have at least liked the option to spare the hero begging me to stop hitting her about the head and shoulders with a plasma axe. (maybe if you capture her, she's out on bond for insufficient evidence or whatever, and the arc's written with her free.)

Design - *. That's pretty much entirely for the surprise failable mission objective. I have no way of knowing what objectives are required for mission complete and what objectives aren't without the author indicating it to me somehow. Having all that fightin' go to waste and not even catching a glimpse of the guy I was going after really left a sour taste in my mouth. (It doesn't help any that apparently I was supposed to engage him AFTER springing the wolf, but the map didn't exactly make that an option.

Gameplay - ***. Backtracking over an empty office, getting shredded by a Chi Focusing EB, trying vainly to hit a rad emission EB when the toggle's up... I'm not counting replaying the entire arc in this, but I got plenty frustrated even without it.

Detail - ****. With the exception of those generico breakables in the last mission, this was pretty well done.

Overall - ***. Rounding up here because it looks like the tremendous arc-stopping problem I had in the last mission can be cleared up pretty easily, through better objective placement, better warnings to the player, or both.

GlaziusF · 06-29-2009 02:58 PM

Ah, wonderful. Flu went away but a nasty head cold snuck in behind it. Having trouble thinking very clearly.

But I am clear enough to come up with this: because of the changes in I15 some people may be changing published arcs, to a greater or lesser degree. I know I'll be working on developing a couple of things. So I'm going to put this on hold for a week, to give people a weekend to work on their arcs in. Anybody new that comes in gets tossed into the random pool, as usual.

Ashcraft · 06-29-2009 03:29 PM

Well, my arc finally got into the COHMR and It's already been tweaked with new update fixes so you can run that one if you feel up to it.

COHMR link

A Guide to Champion Drama
My Videos
Ashcraft been published.

El_Furioso · 06-29-2009 05:59 PM

Hi all,

Now that Issue 15 has been pushed to the live servers, Ive been making changes to the CoHMR mission submission form to reflect the new MA arc settings including mission status, level range, and in-game keywords. The new form is up and running, but still needs a bit of visual tweaking. While Im working on getting it all spruced up, please let me know if you run into any issues with submitting missions; the visual changes shouldnt affect the forms functionality, but I just want to be safe.

If you already have a published mission and want to add some of these parameters, drop a quick note to admin (at) cohmissionreview dot com with Issue 15 Updates: {Your Story Arc ID here} in the subject header. Well get your mission updated ASAP.

Thanks!

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

EminentDomain · 07-01-2009 06:28 AM

Title: A Monumental Occasion
Arc ID: 243619
Length: Long (4 missions)
Morality: Heroic

Synopsis: An archeologist has asked Atlas University's help in obtaining 3 ancient artifacts for research. But what it turns out being is a scavenger hunt with a twist. Three allies will help you along the way, with a possible Arch-Villain in the last mission.

I'm looking mainly for feedback/critique since this is my first attempt at MA.

PoliceWoman · 07-01-2009 03:14 PM

Thanks for the review! A few responses below. I've largely tried to accommodate your suggestions.

I also had to heavily revise some of my mobs; Prisoners getting removed from MA really put a crimp in things, and then I ran into some bug where Family won't spawn in the level 30-39 range. So now I've got a lot of "Convict" custom mobs and "Family" custom mobs, that I've tried to make look like Prisoners and Family. (Yeah, it's a horrible waste of arc space, but I couldn't come up with a better solution.)

[ QUOTE ]
You know, ordinarily I would throw a fit when SS customs start raging, but in this case how could he [Terry Wheeler] not! (but seriously, no rage please)

[/ QUOTE ]

I didn't mean for him to have Rage, but he might've ended up with Rage somehow as a result of patches with powerset tinkering. As of I15, I made him a "custom powerset" boss, and he definitely shouldn't have Rage now.

[ QUOTE ]
Lois Watson. You're not... YOU ARE. Oh good lord, how many freakin' people are going to be waiting at the door?

Less than expected, actually. I was kinda expecting the bum and Unbelievable Man to show up to ruin the party.

Storyline - ****. So why didn't the bum and Unbelievable Man show up to ruin the party? (aside from maybe arc size limits) I was all set up for the crazy escalating showdown you get at the end of certain heist movies, but it was all just a bunch of cops.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm actually totally going for the "crazy escalating showdown at the end of a heist movie" feel here. A fight against a Family boss, then a map full of PPD spawning behind you, two Paparazzi ambushes, a custom PPD boss and two "reporter" bosses weren't enough, eh? How greedy.

I originally added Lois Watson and her sidekick Jimmy just as a throwaway gag (and also to split up the two Paparazzi ambushes so they won't both hit at once), but you've motivated me to actually make an Unbelievable Man boss for you to fight on the way out. He spawns after Lois threatens you with "You'll be sorry when Unbelievable Man hears about this!"

I only made him a boss instead of an EB or AV (though a real Unbelievable Man maybe deserves that stature) because fighting Unbelievable Man isn't meant to be the climax of the arc; he's really just Yet Another Speed Bump in the way of getting Paris out of the building (and into the hands of the reality TV executives).

I didn't add the Bum to the final scene because I didn't think he really had strong enough motivation to show up there. I could maybe throw in another ambush of Vagrants, wanting to get even? I'm already throwing an awful lot of stuff at the player in this mission though.

[ QUOTE ]

Gameplay - ****. Little irritations in running the first escort over all that broken terrain and watching her trip on rubble and fallen guard towers. Maybe just make her an ally and have the rescue spawn a Longbow Warden fanboy back near the chopper who flew in to make sure Paris was alright?

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, the whole point of the first mission is that you're kidnapping her, so you need to Get her to Da Choppa. I sympathize with the leading people over broken terrain thing (Allies seem even more stupid than usual since I15 hit) but the Zig map is definitely the right one for this mission.

[ QUOTE ]
I went back and forth on this, but overall, I was disappointed, just a little, to see the arc making promises it didn't keep. Dammit, I wanted to finally see what Unbelievable Man looks like!

[/ QUOTE ]

Heheh, your wish is granted. You're lucky I had tons of arc space left ... I've had to add 6 custom characters since I15! But Unbelievable Man is there now.

And he's taunting you. He's DARING you to come in after him. He doesn't think you have the guts to take him down!

@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!"

Dalghryn · 07-01-2009 04:41 PM

Whenever you can get to it (or them if you're really feeling generous), I'd be honored if you'd take a look at "The Consequences of War" as noted in my signature.

Even if you can't get to it, thanks very much for your time and work. I really doubt the MA would have nearly the quality story's it has if it weren't for the number of people willing to review.

The SOLUS Foundation - a Liberty and Pinnacle SG

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

GlaziusF · 07-01-2009 06:40 PM

[ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
You know, ordinarily I would throw a fit when SS customs start raging, but in this case how could he [Terry Wheeler] not! (but seriously, no rage please)

[/ QUOTE ]

I didn't mean for him to have Rage, but he might've ended up with Rage somehow as a result of patches with powerset tinkering. As of I15, I made him a "custom powerset" boss, and he definitely shouldn't have Rage now.

[/ QUOTE ]

Perhaps that comment would make more sense if you know that a certain monologue from "On The Waterfront" was also in the final scene of "Raging Bull"?

Still busy tweaking my own stuff out - boy, this level scaling stuff doesn't half work like you think it does, am I right?

Clave_Dark_5 · 07-01-2009 08:24 PM

Me again, I have another arc now that's burning a hole in my pocket:

Rikti Drones and/or Council Hoverbots Blow Up Real Good!
ID#243443
Single Map
Duration: Short
There's currently a bug that makes Rikti drones and Council Hoverbots blow up repeatedly when defeated - instead of going "boom!", they go "Boomboomboomboom!" It's like the Fourth of July! Come join the fun and bring as many friends as you can! Nothing but drones, hoverbots and two destructibles.

(easy, ideal for teams, comedy)

Be sure and play it before they fix the bug! Obviously it doesn't pay well in tickets but the fun is infectious, much more than I would have thought myself. 5 plays so far, 5-stars. I've submitted it to CoH Mission Review webite so it should be up there soon.

GlaziusF · 07-06-2009 07:23 PM

Welcome back, everybody!

I'll probably only be playing one arc a night, as there are still some things I try to tweak now and again.

Tonight's spotlight: The Trifecta Task Force (164681). Verdict - ****. Review below in this thread.

GlaziusF · 07-06-2009 09:02 PM

@GlaziusF

Running on a high 40s spine/regen scrapper, diff 2 for ~goodfights~.

It's nice that Mission Engineer is so easy now, I can just run these missions on whoever I want!

---

Oookay, kind of an odd intro, all told.

I generally expect a mission intro screen to tell me something about what I'm supposed to do, and the briefing fills in details after that.

Well, the patrols are filling in some more. THE MINDWEB HAS YOU. Or something like that.

Eheheheheh. "Synapse! Scout the crash site!"

Oh, that's an interesting assist. But really, they didn't do much. Between me and Miss Sis Psyche, dude bit pavement.

Still, I have to give him points for effort.

Oh god, crazy roaming spirits in search of a host body. I'm sure that there might be some villain group somewhere that this guy would NOT be able to find "recruits" in.

This is gonna get ugly.

---

Hmm. Same setup again. It doesn't seem accidental. I really do like to know what I'm getting into, and it's not like you're running close to text limits on the mission intro text.

If Different Trifecta is going to talk in Different Text Color, he should talk in it all the way through the briefing and the bug text.

Ohhh dear. Looks like he's not just satisfied with bringing Mayhem Psychos to the party.

Uh, protip. The stock Psycho Clocky is actually from an alternate universe and his stock description makes mention of it.

I'm pretty sure I didn't just step sideways into Epsilon Tau 27-2 here.

Well, congratulations on the balanced customs, the psycho clocks kicked their [censored].

Oh. It's a hostage so large it's indistinguishable from the scenery. That's new.

I realize that's supposed to be Psycho Babbage, but given the size of the ceiling in here it actually looks like some support pillars came to life and are rambling around.

Kind of a neat effect, really.

---

Heh. Okay, modestly interesting gimmick for number 3's briefing here.

I sneak into the mission and I think a patrol blows up the first restrictor. Fortunately that's just a warning one and I manage to defend the second.

It's a little worrying when the cops hit me with AoEs as I'm trying to clear out the psychic gremlins.

Hmm. Looks like Sister Psyche doesn't trust me. Thanks for that, glowie. But I wonder where she's been, all this time.

---

The special custom bosses are pretty keen. It's nice that they're in the same rough colors as their text.

...but the clues are making me worry.

Yep, yep, worry confirmed.

---

Oh _ho_. That's an interesting last boss. Makes the third mission a little more understandable.

It's not the last boss.

Now THERE's an interesting... wait, what? That's not the last boss either?

Oh, THERE's the real deal, finally. Hate that end drain but I had some luck with blues dropping, so I guess it works out in the end.

---

Storyline - ***. It's a good storyline with a simple twist in the middle to keep it interesting, but frontloading the text in four out of the five missions so it's basically "Hi there! (accept mission)" leaves a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. I realize there's practically no difference at all but I still like to know what I'm getting into.

Design - *****. No complaints here. The custom group and the various guest bosses look very much like psychic energy beings. while still being distinguishable enough from each other... well, the minions look exactly the same, but other than that they're fine.

Gameplay - ****. When the big dogpile from all three mind shards happened in the final mission, I was sure I'd reached the last boss. Hunting around for the real thing afterwards just felt like a bit of an anticlimax.

Detail - ***. Check your stock descriptions and make sure they fit the thing you're trying to portray - this also goes for the Mayhem Psychos and the Crazed. You can edit stock descriptions for the members of custom enemy groups now, so take advantage!

Overall - ****. Rounding up on this one. Needs a little more polish and maybe some text tweaking, and a little different structuring of the final mission so the final boss fight actually feels like an end boss fight. But overall, solid work.

Ashcraft · 07-06-2009 10:07 PM

First of all, awesome review. Had no idea you could edit stock character descriptions now. This opens up a new can of worms for this MA. Good catch on the color break on the busy dialog too. Now for some quick explainations and response questions.

[ QUOTE ]
Oookay, kind of an odd intro, all told.

[/ QUOTE ]

I spent a lot of time trying different text for the first three missions. The story is very odd and I didn't want to shove too much info down the gullet of the reader all at once. The 'what am I doing?' feeling is intended because the other way feels like the voice-over to a cheesy sci-fi movie.

[ QUOTE ]
I sneak into the mission and I think a patrol blows up the first restrictor. Fortunately that's just a warning one and I manage to defend the second.

[/ QUOTE ]

I WISH I could reproduce this. They never even look at the restrictors when I've played it. In the first version this mission was a moral choice, you could save the items or stand back and watch them blow up. I'm really curious what happened in your run to actually get them to attack the things for once.

[ QUOTE ]
When the big dogpile from all three mind shards happened in the final mission, I was sure I'd reached the last boss. Hunting around for the real thing afterwards just felt like a bit of an anticlimax.

[/ QUOTE ]

I tried to make a final mission that was different from normal arcs and other MA arcs. Do you think switching the two boss fights would work better?

A Guide to Champion Drama
My Videos
Ashcraft been published.

Shagster · 07-07-2009 10:31 AM

[ QUOTE ]

Today's next random stupid illiterate grief victim: (random tosses me a repeat) Escalation (6143). Verdict - ****. Review on MA Forums Thread.

[/ QUOTE ]

My reply to GlaziusF's review is finally posted in the thread for Escalation arc:
Reply to GlaziusF review of Escalation

Thanks again to Glazius for the review!

I'm a published amateur comic book author: www.ericjohnsoncomics.com
******MA Arcs****
Arc 5909: "Amazon-Avatars"
Arc 6143: "Escalation" (Nominee: Architect Awards, Nominee: Player Awards, and Dev's Choice!)

GlaziusF · 07-07-2009 12:32 PM

[ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
Oookay, kind of an odd intro, all told.

[/ QUOTE ]

I spent a lot of time trying different text for the first three missions. The story is very odd and I didn't want to shove too much info down the gullet of the reader all at once. The 'what am I doing?' feeling is intended because the other way feels like the voice-over to a cheesy sci-fi movie.

[/ QUOTE ]

All I'm saying is, you could probably break off half the post-accept text and jam it in the pre-accept without really ruining too much. You don't need to go into reasons, even.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I sneak into the mission and I think a patrol blows up the first restrictor. Fortunately that's just a warning one and I manage to defend the second.

[/ QUOTE ]

I WISH I could reproduce this. They never even look at the restrictors when I've played it. In the first version this mission was a moral choice, you could save the items or stand back and watch them blow up. I'm really curious what happened in your run to actually get them to attack the things for once.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think in the course of hitting a patrol that came right up to the door to say hi I may actually have poked myself close enough to the device to aggro its guards by proximity and then immediately retreated, as you do when lining up melee cones.

All I really know is, by the time I saw the PPD shooting the device it was already in the smoldering scrap phase.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
When the big dogpile from all three mind shards happened in the final mission, I was sure I'd reached the last boss. Hunting around for the real thing afterwards just felt like a bit of an anticlimax.

[/ QUOTE ]

I tried to make a final mission that was different from normal arcs and other MA arcs. Do you think switching the two boss fights would work better?

[/ QUOTE ]

You could just shift the dogpile to the actual final boss. Maybe bump Sister Psyche up front, then fill the map with clones and put Big Red in the back?

Ashcraft · 07-07-2009 02:06 PM

Ah, ok. I understand what you are saying now. I'll definately be tweaking this arc tonight. :-)

I worked on it a bit last night. All the stock characters have new info now and the ambushes in mish 1 and 5 have been tweaked to be a bit more interesting.

A Guide to Champion Drama
My Videos
Ashcraft been published.

GlaziusF · 07-07-2009 07:23 PM

Tonight's arc: A Father's Iron Will (198952). Verdict - INCOMPLETE. Take a look below, Kem.

Unfortunately it's too late to pick up another one. Aheh.

GlaziusF · 07-07-2009 08:21 PM

@GlaziusF

Running on a high 30s archery/energy blaster, diff 2 for ~goodfights~.

Went and got a Shivan anyway.

---

The opening crawl's a bit of an infodump. I mean, heroes just trawl the police band all the time looking for random people getting kidnapped.

You can probably give a background on the kidnap victim in the accept text.

Oh hey, Super Tsoo. I especially like the shadow guy who's on fire.

I... I haven't really got good concepts of some of these guys. Or any of these guys. There are some plant part people and some Attribute Lotus people and some minions with build-up, somehow. And they all have about one line of description apiece, which doesn't really help me form images of them and their powers and why they have them. I mean, I get that a villager from out of Mongolia is using swords. But Talsorian blades?

The cluelessness is kind of painful, especially since I'm apparently supposed to know this syndicate, or at least the clues are written as if I do.

The boss pops Build Up and wrecks my ally in about three seconds, and me shortly thereafter.

Oh, wait, that was probably Conserve Power. He just got rather lucky with Shadow Maul.

Three times.

Four times.

Five times.

And... the Rikti are involved in this. Somehow. At least I get fireworks.

Standard Plural Objective Warning: a plural objective that drops a clue drops it when you complete any single part. I don't have enough watch to piece together after one dustbin.

Also the navbar seems to be using default descriptions for several objectives - just the name of the captive/ally/boss.

---

And - wow, yeah, two mission arc.

Oh.

Ha.

Okay, so there's this thing where if there's a faction with just an EB in it that EB substitutes for everything.

Including minions.

So, uh, I think you want to sit down and redo some of this anyway, given the larger file size I15 has given you to work with, and when you do so give the EB an escort that isn't from his own villain group.

Because no way am I going to be able to take down three EBs, even with a Shivan.

One it's done, drop me a line, and I'll finish up the arc.

KemLi · 07-08-2009 04:37 AM

Well first off I appreciate you checking out the arc and I'm sorry it wasn't to your liking. I'm at the point in game, where almost everything can be steamrolled, so that influenced me, but I will be going over it to tweak the nav texts and such.

Yes I agree to the info dump part, but that was part of the point, that the world goes on while your hero does their own thing, so sometimes you do come into the middle of things and to different types of missions, that's what an extended scanner mission feels like to me anyway.

As to the multiple nature of the enemies, my original idea was Asian freakshow (limited to modern day China and Japan) but not limited to tech enhancements.Hence the type of blades, since they're modern day folk, not really from old school villages.meh. Regards to the minions with build up..some powers I got stuck with, but I avoided that where possible, the only boost that should have been happening was where the minion using hide, gets a crit. off.I made sure to just have 1 major mezzer and 1 guy to withstand holds, I tried to balance it out.But, I'll check into it again since the patch.

Granted I was a little surprised that you used a blaster , but I used two myself in testing it (lvl 4 and lvl 50), I wasn't too bothered. I'm not sure if you used inspirations for the ending EB in the 1st mish, but I sorta think that's a given if you're a squishy versus an EB. Yes he's a brickhouse, but he's can be KBd,slowed etc like no tomorrow. Granted my view is a tad skewed, because debt has lost it's meaning after all this time, but I was aware of that, and I did try to make him beatable, yet still a brickhouse type. As you know it's challenging building mobs that can pose a threat for all ATs..but I'll look at him again .

Now as to the 2nd mish and the multiple EBs, I think I did too good job on Dragon if it sorta scared you off heh. I actually really, really underpowered Titan, as my rationale was that he lost some power when he split himself( and battle wise, he's a pushover if you pull, which is my default choice as a blaster for EBs.)
Again, he can't stand KB, you can knock him and those bots around like paper.

Regards to the Rikti involvement, not so much. Their involvement was limited to one of their abandoned bases being re-purposed. Since that didn't seem to be clear, I'll probably have another look at the writing.I had to rewrite so much early on, due to making space, I may have forgotten to write that back in. Granted, initially the map choice was due to it being a transitional map, so as to give players some differing environments to battle and space considerations since I knew it'd end up being a 2 mission arc, but I've grown into the idea and my sentimentality sorta locked me into it at this point , heh.

Anyhow,again, whilst that's my explanation of the choices, I'll have another look at it, see what I'm comfortable with tweaking and try you again.Thanks again for your time and I'm sorry you didn't have fun with it.

Pinnacle & Virtue:
A bunch of Heroes - Alpha Team, Legion of Order.
A bunch of Villains -Black Citadel , Pinnache.

GlaziusF · 07-08-2009 07:58 AM

[ QUOTE ]

Now as to the 2nd mish and the multiple EBs, I think I did too good job on Dragon if it sorta scared you off heh. I actually really, really underpowered Titan, as my rationale was that he lost some power when he split himself( and battle wise, he's a pushover if you pull, which is my default choice as a blaster for EBs.)
Again, he can't stand KB, you can knock him and those bots around like paper.

[/ QUOTE ]

My issue is not so much with having to fight one of him as it is with having to fight three of him at once.

Because his escort is drawn (bugged, probably) from the same villain group he is, and he is apparently this group's only member, he is escorted by more of himself.

I mean, if you think that's a reasonable challenge, I'll go back and give it a whirl. But I think it's a bug.

KemLi · 07-08-2009 08:17 AM

Ah well yea, it's actually by design, frivolously explained if you trigger the dialogue.It's sorta the end result of that wee hint about Caitlin's DNA.I wanted the punch of an AV without actually having an AV..heh..so the number of Bosses or EBs in the group scale by difficulty and team size.
Given the length of the arc, I decided to make the end result of him succeeding evident , on a small scale, to represent the danger if he had fully completed his wacky plan..But, I'd rather you not just go back for the reviews sake, so I'll have another look at the arc and see what I can modify. Thanks for the response though

Pinnacle & Virtue:
A bunch of Heroes - Alpha Team, Legion of Order.
A bunch of Villains -Black Citadel , Pinnache.

GlaziusF · 07-08-2009 10:57 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Ah well yea, it's actually by design, frivolously explained if you trigger the dialogue.It's sorta the end result of that wee hint about Caitlin's DNA.I wanted the punch of an AV without actually having an AV..heh..so the number of Bosses or EBs in the group scale by difficulty and team size.
Given the length of the arc, I decided to make the end result of him succeeding evident , on a small scale, to represent the danger if he had fully completed his wacky plan..But, I'd rather you not just go back for the reviews sake, so I'll have another look at the arc and see what I can modify. Thanks for the response though

[/ QUOTE ]

An EB is the punch of an AV without having an AV. Since it's what AVs turn into for solo heroes.

Dude and his other selves just kind of spawned blocking a passageway right at the start of the map, and according to the nav bar, I was supposed to beat him. (Or at least it had his name in there, which made me think he was a required objective.)

Three simultaneous elite bosses (because this is what it can turn into with a bad pull) are far, far tougher than one AV scaled down.

KemLi · 07-08-2009 01:55 PM

I understand the point you're making. I do, I think I just wanted to include that danger in the pull too heh, plus it just sorta fit the story.Mind you, I had toyed with the ideas of changing his group diff. to Medium and busting him down to regular boss level, so I'll have to consider that.Also, he's set for the middle of the map spawn, so that I will have to look into.
Thanks again.

Pinnacle & Virtue:
A bunch of Heroes - Alpha Team, Legion of Order.
A bunch of Villains -Black Citadel , Pinnache.