CoHMR Aggregator (a review thread)

Tonight's arc: a rereview of Ctrl-Alt-Reset (137561). Verdict - Still ****. Review on MA Forums Thread.

I fixed my oversight from before. Sorry about that. Both arcs should be on CoHMR as soon as the editors add them.

Well, it looks like part 1's gone through, so tonight's arc is Redoubt Operations #1: Fires Over Kalago (1297). Verdict - ****. Review in MA Forums Thread.

I've just added "Why We Fight" (253990) and "Splintered Shields" (253991) to CoHMR. I probably won't bother to add "Psychophage" (283147) as it's deliberately bad.

Thanks for the opinions Gladius. I've read through the review and there are some interesting ideas in there. If I can figure out a way to implement some of those ideas I'll do so. I hope you give #2 a try in the near future.
PS. #3 is probably where the big "gotchas" will occur. Assuming I can get the MA to do what I want.

@GlaziusF

Dropping a rereview on this one with a level 40 ice/axe tanker, diff 2 for EA swarms and boss fights. Not putting it in the usual update structure because there's no score for this one. For reasons I explain at the end I think that's the fairest thing I can do.

---

Playing through this arc again, I'm reminded of why the rating really suffered in the end. Really, it felt like dying the death of a thousand cuts. A bunch of little tiny annoyances that all piled up on top of each other.

Part of it is that there's a fine line between being lighthearted and rolling on the Random Conversational Interjections Table. I look at something like "Why do I stand before you, asking for your help? Perhaps it is because I like her name. Perhaps I grew bored of standing in Atlas Park. Perhaps there is more to her than meets the eye. But I digress..." and I can't think of what it adds to anything. In fact it takes away. Ms. Liberty, by saying this, sets up the expectation in me that she's not sending me out for the obvious reason -- a child has been kidnapped and this threatens the future of Paragon City.

I wasn't questioning the premise until she started doing it, and now I can't stop. My stupid brain doesn't care that I'm not supposed to be taking this seriously, I can't stop, any more than you can stop thinking of a polar bear in a red convertible.

Weren't there heroes seven years ago? Why can't they stop this? Did time travelers do it in the first place?

"My sources tell me that she is hidden in an abandoned office.' That... doesn't narrow anything down. Is that where the time portal is going to drop me? Then put the mention of the abandoned office and the time portal a little bit closer together.

Strangely enough the villains holding the Liberties are completely silent, but I think the second pass has given me a better understanding of my reaction to the villain group.

They're basically all terrible shallow little-kid peculiarities, stuck in a time capsule and left to marinate until they reach evil adulthood. And I find that horrifying. Mostly because they're all still so human.

If they were more inhumanly shaped - faceplates or less form-fitting armor - and presented as the abstractions they're supposed to represent - maybe MAL's androids/spirits of evil or something along those lines - I wouldn't have this creeping sense of dread that I was slaughtering my way through the vanguard of Pleasure Island.

Also the agent needs an armor type that doesn't boost her perception as Willpower does. Maybe Inv? She just takes off on her own because of a combination of the larger perception radius and the close quarters of the mission.

---

So more weirdness from Liberty: "It seems like only yesterday we spoke. OK, maybe it was yesterday, or maybe, just moments ago?" Again. I don't think too much about how time passes for the contact. But when the contact calls attention to it, that makes me wonder why.

And another round: "for I strongly believe, that changing the past, can affect our future." First, it doesn't need the commas. Second... isn't that what I just did in the first mission?

In the mission sendoff text she apologizes for making me time-travel, like it's some kind of a surprise. But the briefing talks about going back to seven years ago. And I get another vague location, "the cave on the beach". Is that where the portal will dump me out? Then say that explicitly.

...this is some of what's giving me the impression that I'm actually inside a bedtime story. Rose Jones only knows about one abandoned office and one cave on the beach, so the indefinite article makes sense in her context.

But the mission is in MY hero's context, the context of someone who went patrolling around Striga Isle, and that's like half caves on beaches. (also patrolling inside Dark Astoria for BaniPan masks, which pretty much kills your fear of the dark)

In this mission, Liberty's near the front of the cave, which is alright, but the one glowy that completes the mission is one room later, and there are like three otherwise featureless rooms after that.

Thanks for marking another minion up to lieutenant, though, makes things much smoother.

And now I think I see what you're trying to do with these entry/exit popups. Usually they're rather objective but these feel more like Ms. Liberty buzzing me on a comm channel. Kinda throws off the expectation.

There's also this weird obsession this mission has with gold and silver. It's in the briefing, in the system text, in the clues, and it's always both of them together. It's especially weird since there actually isn't any of either. There are a lot of things that treasure can be.

---

Let me digress for a bit here on the topic of accept text. One thing I've seen in a lot of MA missions, not just this one, is people "getting cute" with accept text - making it more than just an objective statement of the primary mission goal or goals. This doesn't work for a couple reasons. First, only the person running the arc can see the accept text. It doesn't get added into the info splotch the way the briefing and sendoff texts do. Second, everybody accepting the mission is agreeing to do what an objective statement of the mission goals implies. Not everybody is going to agree with a fancy accept text.

"the world is full of treasure" really rubs me the wrong way. I put out fires and bring peace to the dead and save people from losing everything they have to the mob and I don't care if I never get paid, because I'm a hero.

I get the feeling this story isn't "for me". Really on some level I'm wondering if it's for Ms. Liberty, since she's going all "why am I asking you this?" and "do you think maybe this will change the future?" and "why is she going after a book?" I know I'm supposed to take this lightly, treat it like a children's storybook, but I can't do it on my own. You have to help me.

I mean, maybe Ms. Liberty's making a storybook for this sick kid and she wants me in playing a sort of sidekick/helper, maybe because the kid saw me on the news and went wow, so we're off making a bedtime story with Ms. Liberty doing narration. And I'd be okay with that. AS LONG AS SHE TOLD ME.

As it is, I am putting this mission through my default "I am a hero on a mission" filter, and it just doesn't fit.

So, framing rant over. I probably won't mention briefings again, since I don't expect them to change significantly in tone from what they have been. Now is time for mission.

...yeah, some of the Deathblossoms and Granites are still doing the thing where they don't give me any experience (but still drop inspirations), despite me being the only one to do damage to them. Might want to check into how the group's constructed.

Something else turning the MAL minions into stylized figures might help with: they all look alike. I know there are differences in hair and costume styles and all, but what it boils down to from where I put that camera is "black bodysuit, red-lined cape" with the one exception of "white bodysuit, white cape".

Hmm. If the system text is explicitly calling out finding a note on the boss, then the objective should complete when the boss is defeated, so I get the note right when I drop her.

Still no "you lost me" text from the allies. (or the one in this mission, anyway) That's kinda important. I can't just keep the minimap open to see whether or not the little green arrows have stopped moving.

---

No "you lost me" from Statesman either.

His appearance and dialog make a lot more sense this time around, though his letter should probably come before the swords on the clue list, just because he's supposed to be encountered first.

Lampshading the villains as just a bunch of random dudes still doesn't make them any less a bunch of random dudes, especially since some of them are from other dimensions (RAM, Circuit, Rularuu).

---

Last mission - noticing very few gales from the stormer. Yay.

MAL has the same cast aura as the hostages. Statesy doesn't have one at all. This seems like a bit of an oversight.

---

As this is a re-review, I think I can get away without actually dropping a score on this. My impressions aren't much different from what they were the first time around, though now I understand a bit better why I had them.

I disagreed violently with the framing device. That just drags everything else down. It digs into me every time I click on the contact, and it brought my opinion of everything down - the storyline that used it, the designs that supported it, the gameplay that followed it up, and the details that reinforced it.

I can't pretend that I like the framing device and go what if, because that's one small step away from going "what if I didn't actually care about all the things I complained about" and that way lies madness.

Gameplay is slightly less frustrating than last time, though running around trying to found someone with the "wrong" visual cue on that giant map is the same as trying to find someone with no visual cue at all.

I would like a review for my arc, if possible. It's finished, but I'm still gathering feedback and/or bug reports before creating a promotional thread for it. It's my first arc and I'm not a native English speaker, but don't hold back.
Arc # 299972, "The Coldest of Wars"


Thanks in advance,

-- Z.

Tonight is a re-review of Vienna Rising (286563). Verdict - **. Review lower in this thread.

@GlaziusF

So here's a rereview, since the original edition of the mission was a mistakenly uploaded beta version with many, many things wrong with it.

Running with the same character on the same difficulty, calling out notable changes with big comments in one block at the end.

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M1 briefing: "You tried to reists but my will was stronger" -- this is troubling for two reasons. First, it's spelled "resist". Second... yay arc where I'm a mindless meat puppet. Ah well, blades swing the same whatever happens.

M1 contact-bothering text: "Your rewards will be great, I guarentee it!". "Guarantee".

M1: I still don't know what the person I'm supposed to run off with looks like.

M1: Also still bugs me that Longbow are calling Helen Drake "the woman". They know her husband's name.

M1: Heh. Yeah, this time the outdoor map picked the kidnap point that's less than 100 yards from the truck. Not even any enemies in the way.

M2: Ah, midnighters. Nothing like losing a handful of powers in the middle of an arc to make a body feel loved. At least it's pretty much the shortest possible map.

M2: Ha! One of the midnighter idling animations is drinking tea. That's just wonderful.

M2: So... what was in the other chests? Were they empty? Did they have fenceable artifacts? Do I not care because I'm a demon meat puppet?

M3: The arc description doesn't say defeat all, so I'm hopeful. Oh! It's just an oranbega crawl. ...but doesn't this put the last three missions inside Oranbega? I'll see, I'll see.

M3: One of the notable features of Oranbega is that it loves cramming assist spawns around blind corners.

M3: The fight with Escalus is interesting because the room is basically a blind run in with plenty of support, the ambush adds a nice wrinkle because Logbow's got good support at this level. But exit clue? It'd be more satisfying if I wasn't the meat puppet of a demon king.

M3: I'd like to see some poor doomed Circle talking about how they sealed off the relevant portion of the cave.

M4 briefing: It's spelled "impregnation". Honestly I would rather never have corrected anyone's spelling of that word.

M4: Once again, the NPC who supposedly wants to talk to me just bolts for the door.

M4: Uh, exit clue? I'm being dominated here. My will is not my own. You'd think she'd want to do something about that.

M5 accept clue: Could you just put the enchantress in the mission and have her pass on the buff?

M5: Vienna spawns down a little side-passage near the beginning. You can't see the particle effects until you step into the room and it's a very missable turn. (also Vienna's rescue clue has no title)

M5: . . . and the Dark Hellgod is right down the hallway from her? What?

M5: And as soon as he went down, Liberty Belt Ms. Liberty spawned in right on top of me. Whacked my health down with undodgeable giant damage. DIdn't really get a chance to do much because my system was choking on a) all the patrols spawning in and b) like 5 copies of identical dialogue.

M5: . . . IT'S A JAIL MAP?!

M5: And she's blocking the path to the books, too, since I've been everywhere else. Time to combine everything into lucks and burn a Shivan.

M5: ...she runs. Thank the lord she's not a required objective. But I don't even get an insp out of the whole mess? Good luck slowing her down, I mean.

M5: ...and because of all the portals, Vienna gets caught up trying to go through one and her AI just runs her back and forth forever.

M5: . . . why are Longbow the ones guarding the books? Because they think it's actually the girdle of Aphrodite? (it's got a default description on it) I mean, wouldn't the same enchantress who briefed Escalus bother telling the HEROES what was up with this whole affair?

---

Storyline: *. So what's worse than a story that paints you as a dominated demon puppet? A story that forgets you're a dominated demon puppet halfway through. (What am I supposed to think? My will's no match for his, I'm going all "yes master of course master" and he's praising me like a dog that did a particularly difficult trick, possibly involving ramps.) This is yet another arc that ends on a destructible object going poof. It doesn't even summon in any ambushes or anything. After what was supposed to be a tough boss fight, winding it down that way just feels like a letdown.

Design - **. Yeah, uh... when the climactic boss fight leaves me a little bit dinged up and then the nuisance hero pastes me in three shots? Guess who doesn't seem like that much of a threat. Also this is coming down for stuff that's probably just normal RNG variation, which may seem unfair, but part of your job is to make sure you're using maps and allocating objectives such that the RNG doesn't park the captive 100 yards from the door in a straight line over open terrain, or put the trigger for a whole mission down a missable side passage, or put two chained boss fights in close enough proximity that the player's getting mauled by the second boss right after the first one drops.

Gameplay - ***. It was all going so well up until that last map, too. But unavoidable boss death followed by the sudden realization I'm in a damn JAIL MAP often offends.

Detail - ***. Generally solid spoiler-free work here, though there are some places I noted down where I'd like a little more detail or at least not a default description.

Overall - **. It's definitely an improvement on the first draft, but the changes broke almost as much as they fixed.

Just as a note to anyone interested I thought I'd make it known that Redoubt Operations #2: Wrath of the Imperium is finally up on CoHMR now

Thanks for re-looking at my arc. I have some questions and comments:

Quote:

Part of it is that there's a fine line between being lighthearted and rolling on the Random Conversational Interjections Table. I look at something like "Why do I stand before you, asking for your help? Perhaps it is because I like her name. Perhaps I grew bored of standing in Atlas Park. Perhaps there is more to her than meets the eye. But I digress..." and I can't think of what it adds to anything. In fact it takes away. Ms. Liberty, by saying this, sets up the expectation in me that she's not sending me out for the obvious reason -- a child has been kidnapped and this threatens the future of Paragon City.

The reason for this, was in fact that it was for more than the obvious reason. Ms. Liberty is Little Liberty's aunt. The reason that she doesn't come out and tell you, is that the idea behind the arc is for you the player to discover what is going on as you play.

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Weren't there heroes seven years ago? Why can't they stop this? Did time travelers do it in the first place?

In my arc as originally written, missions 1 and 2 took place in the present day. At the beginning of mission 3, Ms. Liberty told you that 7 years had passed. Two separate reviewers had a BIG problem with time passing between missions in an arc. I found this odd because I have read many books where years pass between chapters. So, my question is would it make the arc better if mission 1 and 2 were present day and 7 years passed between mission 2 and 3?

Quote:

They're basically all terrible shallow little-kid peculiarities, stuck in a time capsule and left to marinate until they reach evil adulthood. And I find that horrifying. Mostly because they're all still so human. If they were more inhumanly shaped - faceplates or less form-fitting armor - and presented as the abstractions they're supposed to represent - maybe MAL's androids/spirits of evil or something along those lines - I wouldn't have this creeping sense of dread that I was slaughtering my way through the vanguard of Pleasure Island.

Hmm.. Shouldn't villains be horrifying? I won't change the look of the villains, as that is what most people liked best about the arc. In fact don't all real life monsters look human? And yes you are right, that is scary.

Quote:

Also the agent needs an armor type that doesn't boost her perception as Willpower does. Maybe Inv? She just takes off on her own because of a combination of the larger perception radius and the close quarters of the mission.

Thanks for this input. I wondered why she did this as I have her set to fight defensively.

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In the mission sendoff text she apologizes for making me time-travel, like it's some kind of a surprise.

A joke....

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In this mission, Liberty's near the front of the cave, which is alright, but the one glowy that completes the mission is one room later, and there are like three otherwise featureless rooms after that.

I have no control over this. Liberty was placed at middle. The treasure I placed at the end. I agree it is stupid. A bug maybe?

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Thanks for marking another minion up to lieutenant, though, makes things much smoother.

I agree, thank you for your original input.

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And now I think I see what you're trying to do with these entry/exit popups. Usually they're rather objective but these feel more like Ms. Liberty buzzing me on a comm channel. Kinda throws off the expectation.

I did this because, if you are not the team leader, you can't see what is going on in the 2nd brief screen and the debrief screen.

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"the world is full of treasure" really rubs me the wrong way. I put out fires and bring peace to the dead and save people from losing everything they have to the mob and I don't care if I never get paid, because I'm a hero.

I am not sure what you mean here, so I will explain. There are all sorts of treasures in the world, and "gold and sliver" isn't at least in my view, true treasure. To me, true treasure is always found in people and what they have to give. The idea here, was in fact a mock on greed, and yes sadly I have encountered some very greedy COH players.
My intent was not to offend you, or imply that you the player are greedy. It was in fact a mock on greed, and if I recall, I stated that you are a hero and for you thanks is enough.

Quote:

I get the feeling this story isn't "for me". Really on some level I'm wondering if it's for Ms. Liberty, since she's going all "why am I asking you this?" and "do you think maybe this will change the future?" and "why is she going after a book?" I know I'm supposed to take this lightly, treat it like a children's storybook, but I can't do it on my own. You have to help me. I mean, maybe Ms. Liberty's making a storybook for this sick kid and she wants me in playing a sort of sidekick/helper, maybe because the kid saw me on the news and went wow, so we're off making a bedtime story with Ms. Liberty doing narration. And I'd be okay with that. AS LONG AS SHE TOLD ME.

The intent of this arc is for you to uncover what is going on as you play. The idea is that you uncover exactly who Little Liberty is as you help her find her destiny. If Ms. Liberty told you all of this, it would defeat the point of the arc. I truly wish I had more space, because then in the wrap up of the arc, I could explain way more. I will see what I can do, but I am currently sitting at 99.8 space usage.

Quote:

...yeah, some of the Deathblossoms and Granites are still doing the thing where they don't give me any experience (but still drop inspirations), despite me being the only one to do damage to them. Might want to check into how the group's constructed.

I have looked at this but will look at it again. I get XP. The point of the arc is definately not XP, otherwise I would write a farm. The idea was to make a magical garden. I don't know why you got no XP though. Odd...

Quote:

Something else turning the MAL minions into stylized figures might help with: they all look alike. I know there are differences in hair and costume styles and all, but what it boils down to from where I put that camera is "black bodysuit, red-lined cape" with the one exception of "white bodysuit, white cape".

This I won't change as this is what everyone else liked best. I am glad you noticed the similarty. All use anarchy chest symbol, all have the same cape symbol. This is part of the theme. Each has a unique bio with powers and costume to match.

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Hmm. If the system text is explicitly calling out finding a note on the boss, then the objective should complete when the boss is defeated, so I get the note right when I drop her.

It does. Perhaps, you did not defeat the surrounding group?

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Still no "you lost me" text from the allies. (or the one in this mission, anyway) That's kinda important. I can't just keep the minimap open to see whether or not the little green arrows have stopped moving.

I am not sure which mission you are referring to here. In mission 3 there are no longer any allies. I will check all the other missions (1, 4 and 5).

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His appearance and dialog make a lot more sense this time around, though his letter should probably come before the swords on the clue list, just because he's supposed to be encountered first.

Can I control the order? I had him give a clue about the location of the swords because they always seem to be in the same place and lots of people had trouble finding them.

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Lampshading the villains as just a bunch of random dudes still doesn't make them any less a bunch of random dudes, especially since some of them are from other dimensions (RAM, Circuit, Rularuu).

They were chosen to be random and also for visual effect. PW suggested, keeping more to a futuristic theme. I will look into this.

---

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Last mission - noticing very few gales from the stormer. Yay.

Again thanks to your input and I agree Yay!

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MAL has the same cast aura as the hostages. Statesy doesn't have one at all. This seems like a bit of an oversight.

He had one, it keeps getting lost .

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I disagreed violently with the framing device. That just drags everything else down. It digs into me every time I click on the contact, and it brought my opinion of everything down - the storyline that used it, the designs that supported it, the gameplay that followed it up, and the details that reinforced it. I can't pretend that I like the framing device and go what if, because that's one small step away from going "what if I didn't actually care about all the things I complained about" and that way lies madness. Gameplay is slightly less frustrating than last time, though running around trying to found someone with the "wrong" visual cue on that giant map is the same as trying to find someone with no visual cue at all.

I am not quite sure what you said in the above quote. Clearly you don't like something about the interaction with Ms. Liberty I take it?

I have played many arcs where the contact gives extremely long boring speeches which I hate. In fact, they have bored me so much, I could barely read them. Still, I looked past that to the obvious effort that was put in the arcs, I have rated them 4 stars.

Given that I don't want Ms. Liberty to spell out everything. Given that I want you, the player to figure things out, is there anything specific that would make her or the framing less annoying?

On a positive note, I am glad the gameplay was less frustrating. That is definately in part due to suggestions from you.

Thanks

Tonight's arc: The Coldest Of Wars (299972). Verdict - ****. Review below in this thread.

@GlaziusF

Alright, let's see how soloable this is. Level 37 ice/sound controller, running on diff 3 for the real boss fights.

---

Oh boy, it's Evil Corp Crey!

A method of rapidly producing superhumans? You mean besides the Paragon Protectors they have running? Okay, maybe this is "before" we know about the clone lab and Invisible Falcon and all.

So the security chief had one too many HR seminars about the dangers of passive aggression and now mistakes it for the real thing? Is that what I'm seeing here?

Ah, I kid because I love.

Some nice distracto glowies in here and the real prize is pretty nice too.

So this IS before the Paragon Protectors were outed. Okay.

---

Ooh. It's nice to get the city on my side.

But this is screaming for a timed mission here.

...sweet Christmas that's a giant navbar crammed full of a lot of text. You know how to condense disparate objectives into a single plural - you did it in the first mission. Really it needs to be done here too.

Huh. Interesting. He thinks we're working with one of Crey's rogue projects.

They found ancient buried cryopods and started researching. Well within the scope of Crey.

Ohhhh, this is gonna be some cheese. I'm getting Fallout vibes, just in the retroculture.

Would you like some irony? This character's a Nuclear 90 organic snocone machine. Her name is "Snowcone IX", which means what you think it does.

---

Ahaha, oh dang. WHEN RETRO FOODIES KILL.

Okay, let's see where this goes.

...Royal Overlook. I dislike this map. There's just so much territory to cover and so many weird alcoves to hide things. 8 of 'em is pushing it.

Feel free to get all Don Martin with the sound effects. It's kind of weird to see sensible words coming from an inanimate object.

Aaaand 40 minutes later the last machine goes down. That was just an energy sapping mission. So much running. So much rezzing Freakshow.

---

Time to bust a bunker, then.

Ah, the ol' atom bomb countdown. I feel like one a' them double-naught spies.

The prole sword is pretty hilarious.

But I have to ask, is there any reason the last two missions are locked to higher levels? If you have guest captives they don't have to dictate the level of the mission.

The first two bosses are pretty interesting mixes to contain and drop, but the final room is so small that the end EB aggros onto me as soon as the collection's complete.

Ice control/Ice armor. That's a mix that'll slow you down to a ridiculous degree if you get close into it and can't step away because you're moving too slow.

Shivan charge, away! And I'm still almost wiped when my pets turn on me due to Arctic Air going off, but we all survive... somehow. Really given how much slow you're pitching at people with ice control's targeted powers you may want to ignore Arctic Air and consider a more "pure defense" armor set like energy armor. Nothing like staring at multiple bars full of tiny, tiny icons.

...um. Wow. Thanks for beating most of the salient plot points with a misshapen hammer, final debriefing. I know what I just did! I WAS THERE! You don't have to be all "oh my who expected the Red Menace wasn't the cold war tragic", I heard 'em rant while they got whittled down! And Russia was kind enough to provide intel on these yahoos so they're probably over the Cold War, just a little!

I mean, okay, maybe it's a weird parodically-intended cheeseball moralization, but the tone is just off-putting.

---

Storyline - ****. I really hate to do this, but that final debrief was a record scratch at the end of a smooth, smooth mixtape. Peeling back the paint and calling out the events in the arc for being nonsensical and unexpected, even if they WERE nonsensical and unexpected, disperses the comfortable fog of retro camp, revealing a jagged abyss of broken contrivances.

Design - ****. Needs an end map where the final boss isn't going to spawn standing on your shoulders, and a final boss who's a little less inclined to make you stare at your power bar for half a minute while things start recharging. The customs are nice, even if the two baseline robot minions are a bit superficially similar. And there's a nice variety of objectives, though they often crowded out the navbar. The glowies in mission 2 can all stand to be condensed and the nav text in mission 3 could stand to be a bit less verbose.

Gameplay - ***. That end boss and the interminable hunt for converted soft-serve machines are the major drags here.

Detail - *****. The detail was pretty much top-notch all the way round, though.

Overall - ****. A less introspective debriefing and a less sprawling outdoor map would both be big helps here, and the final boss's powers and spawn mechanism would benefit from some tweaks as well. But overall this is a good piece of campy superhero action.

Thanks for the input! Precisely the sort of feedback I was looking for. I'll go ahead and fix it up. [edit: probably tomorrow -- going out of town in a few hours]

Some notes:
- The arc is supposed to be a precursor to the 'real' Janet Kellum arcs (the data you find in the Crey compound foreshadows it). I didn't find a way to tell that without breaking the 4th wall, though.
- About the 3rd map, I am sort of in a bind; the story just doesn't really have the sense of urgency without an outdoor map, and RO was the least-annoying one I could find that still passes for a Paragon City map. If Martial Flush didn't have the earthquake things, I could've used it as some kind of suburb, but noooooo... anyway, I'll reduce the number of glowies a bit. (I admit that when soloing this, I just jetpacked around the map until I heard a glowie alert, then swooped down, killed it, moved on) I think the map is level-locked due to the Freak boss; I wanted to make sure that high-level chars still get xp, so I had to get the boss with the 40-54 level range.
- Ah, the last boss. Originally she had a more offensive second set, I just wanted to keep her alive long enough for people to read the banter. But yeah, ice armor is probably a bit much, I'll change that. I can also move the collection to the start of the zone (it currently has a 'middle' spawn point, but still keeps spawning in the last room, grrr), though that risks spawning it before the captive. I really don't want a bigger map, since large maps with kill-alls make me want to stab things.
- The debriefing: my original intention was to make the entire arc be a sort of "mental time travel", with themes and characters that just don't make sense to a 21th century person, thus the "illusion-shattering" bits and [intentionally cheesy] moralization at the end. Still, I should probably edit that, since it was getting too wordy there, anyway...


thanks again,

-- Z.

I would like a review of Arc# 300379 (A Twist of Destiny). It is posted on CoHMR and the forum post is linked in my sig. It should be noted that this arc is set for level 1 to 15.

Thanks

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frosty_Femme I said "ur" which is not a word. It's a sound dumb people make when you ask them to spell out "you are".

GlaziusF,

I am not asking for you to like my arc, clearly that would be pointless. All I am asking is that you be fair. You gave me 2 stars on details. Here is your quoted criteria for that rating:

** - The absolute minimum text to not raise errors. No clues, even for things I'm supposed to have picked up or conversations I'm supposed to have heard. Custom enemies aren't described, there's no interaction text for glowies, enemies and objectives have default descriptions.

OK

- I had lots of clues
- My custom enemies were all described
- One glowie was missing interaction text and this was fixed. All the rest had them.
- No enemies and No objectives have default descriptions.


So, even by your own criteria my arc deserves more than 2 stars on details. I challenge you or anyone else to justify a 2 on detail, given my arc and your stated criteria.

You clearly don't like my arc.

All I want is for you to be fair. You provided me so much valuable input which I am grateful for. Please re-review my arc and rate it. I realize you don't care for the arc, but I would really value your honest fair input, looking at each of the categories that you specified in the start of your thread separately and rating each according to what you stated. As an aside, perhaps you will like it better now. I considered every bit of the feedback you gave me seriously and incorporated much of it.

You have every right to rate any arc in whatever way you choose. The truth is, all of the ratings come down to opinion and personal taste. But, I was so happy when I saw your thread because based on what you stated in the first post, I believed that I would get a separate fair assessment of each element. I think that is really valuable. That is all I am asking for. If I didn't value your input, I would not have pursued any beyond the original review.

Again, please re-review and rate.

Thank you.