City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

Venture's Reviews IV: The Search for Part III

Aces_High

By Aces_High,
Posted on: 2009-07-01 15:15 in Mission Architect

 

Posted

Arc #149323, "Toys from Heck: The Penny Preston Taskforce"
tl;dr: 4 stars. Offenses: "just a bunch of stuff that happened" (but comedic), balance and design issues, weak dialog and plot

Reviewed on: 7/7/2009
Level Range: 40-54
Author's keywords: none
My Keywords: Challenging, Custom Characters, Comedy
Character used: Venture/Virtue

Penny Preston, the Mutant vendor, needs your help. Berserk dolls have captured most of her class at a circus field trip (typo: "an"). You have to go in and rescue them on one of the outdoor Carnie maps. Your enemies are all custom mobs, minimum-height "dolls" of various lines: construction worker, soldier, Bar^Hmbi, knight (LT only I think). Watch out for the "Sargent Smmitty" and "Bridal Bambi" models which have control powers. There are five hostages on a fairly large outdoor map so this may push some players' tedium buttons. One of the hostages is a Carnie, who confesses that they were in on it: "some creepy guy" came to them with a plan to kidnap a bunch of rich kids using the dolls, but he double-crossed them and took the kids for himself. There are also two teachers to rescue, one of which tells you most of the kids got away but the dolls made off with Tiffani and Mark, a bus driver and a cop who begs you not to tell anyone he was captured by dolls because it will make him a laughing stock. The Carnie gives you the address of the doll factory, so that's your next lead.

The address takes you to a large warehouse map with the dolls, Crey and Carnies all slugging it out. I spotted at least one instance of friendly fire (Crey defeating other Crey), which is an easy mistake to make with so many factions on one map. Penny has sent one of her friends ahead, that being (of course) Penelope Yin, who I found all the way in the back with nothing useful to say (typo: "littlethings"). There's also a desk with a bunch of overdue bills and collection notices addressed to one "Emil Silverstein" and a few Bosses to deal with, including a fire-type Paragon Protector Elite and a Master Illusionist.

Your next stop is the city's Hall of Records to find something on this Silverstein guy. This is a short mission on an office map full of Crey, who are trying to destroy the records you need. Fortunately mobs suck at destroything things in AE missions, because the file cabinet spawned in a fairly small room with about twenty assorted Tanks. On completion you find partially-destroyed records that only say Silverstein used to be a Crey employee.

It's a thin lead, but you decide to check out the Crey facility Silverstein worked at in the hopes of learning more about him. This is another short one on a tech lab. The Carnies are already there, probably looking for the same thing you are. There are two clues, one you get from a scientists captured by the Carnies (typo: "I'vehad") and one from a computer, plus a mission-end clue, that all pretty much the say the same thing: Emil Silverstein worked for Crey, where he created a new line of toys. Management nixed the line on the grounds that they were too old-fashioned, but then took the designs and started producing "updated" versions. Emil responded by stealing the prototypes and designs and trying to start his own company, which got crushed like a bug and sued to hell and back by Crey. Among all this you get an address in Kings Row for one of his warehouses, which is now your only lead.

And just in time too, as when you get back Penny tells you she's been informed via the grapevine that Tiffani's parents have received a ransom demand. You get a bring-friends warning on this one, even though Penny is going to get Penelope to help out again. The action takes place on an abandoned tech map, not a warehouse as expected. There's an (optional) Master Illusionist to take down, who complains that you're getting in the way of their revenge, Penelope to rescue (saved for last as usual), the two kids and finally The Toymaker himself, a Robotics/Radiation Emisison AV...who was standing next to a Crey Scorpinoid Boss, both with attendant spawns. If that arrangement is deliberate it's a bit much. I just said "screw it" and pushed the You Lose button (Elude). Then I went back for Penelope, the end.

The writing on this is really three star quality, but I bumped it to four for humor value. It did get a chuckle out of me at times. There is no theme and not much of a plot. There are some design and balance issues as well, particularly the faction issues in act II. Penny's dialog is vaguely annoying as she basically repeats everything your character is supposedly thinking. It could use some improvement.

Current Blog Post: "Why I am an Atheist..."
"And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained/As we did in the days when Victoria reigned!" -- T. S. Eliot, "Gus, the Theatre Cat"

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Arc #149323, "Toys from Heck: The Penny Preston Taskforce"

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for the review

 

Posted

If I can indulge in a little self-promotion, I was interviewed for this week's edition of the City Scoop.

Current Blog Post: "Why I am an Atheist..."
"And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained/As we did in the days when Victoria reigned!" -- T. S. Eliot, "Gus, the Theatre Cat"

 

Posted

Grats!

You came across well in that, I wish you good traffic on both threads and arcs.

...and thanks for the oblique reference, negative though it may have been. Sorry to have disappointed you. I'm actually starting to scratch my head about how to improve the arc without gutting elements others have liked.

Story Arcs I created:

Every Rose: (#17702) Villainous vs Legacy Chain. Forget Arachnos, join the CoT!

Cosplay Madness!: (#3643) Neutral vs Custom Foes. Heroes at a pop culture convention!

Kiss Hello Goodbye: (#156389) Heroic vs Custom Foes. Film Noir/Hardboiled detective adventure!

 

Posted

Arc #143017, "Digital Transition"
tl;dr: 2 stars. Offenses: "just a bunch of stuff that happened", almost no plot, no characters to speak of

Reviewed on: 7/8/2009
Level Range: 40-54
Author's Keywords: none
My Keywords: Save the World, Sci-Fi
Character used: Agent Cerulean/Justice

The arc opens up with an email from "TheComputer@dev.null", telling you Television is taking over the Rogue Isles and Paragon City, and listing reasons why you would want to stop this whether you are a hero or villain. This is a very brute-force opening. If you "Click Here To Learn How" to stop Televsion, you're told to salvage what's left of Radio. You're sent to an abandoned office to find 2 parts, talk to "Lieutenant Nielsen" (who turned out to be a PPD robot ally) and defeat "BoomBoxx", a Noise Tank with at least one ambush wave. When you bring the parts back to your laptop, the Computer access them and brings Radio Free Opportunity back to life.

In the followup, Radio sends you to Psychic Clockwork Earth to retrieve a psychic transmitter from a Clockwork Prince. This will protect you from Television's mind control, it says here. This is the usual ruined-city map, there's one named Boss to find (small nit: there were lots of other Princes, no reason given why I had to take down this one in particular), and there's an optional "freedom fighter" to speak to, which turned out to be a Longbow SpecOps Ally. I didn't find it until after I'd already completed the mission by taking out the named Prince. I can't imagine why I'd want to drag a Minion-level Ally all over this map.

The briefing for the next mission says I'm partially protected from Television's mind control now, but Television is preparing to make some new broadcast that will cement its control and I have to stop it. Accepting gives you a 30 minute timed mission (no warning) on a tech map using PPD and Vanguard (who see through stealth). Fortunately there were only a few Vanguard spawns and a patrol near the entrance. Deeper in there were three transmitters to destroy, one glowie and the "Avatar of Television" to defeat, a Mind Control/NotSure Elite Boss. You do that, get a very perfunctory final debriefing, the end. The souvenir is a brief blurb saying one or your Contacts traced the emails to somewhere in Brickstown. That could mean...well, practically anything.

The one good thing I can say about this is the author did a decent -- not terrific, but decent -- job with Radio's dialog. That's it. The rest of it has almost no writing of any kind, no plot to speak of, no real characters or dialog, etc. There are a few lines that I think were supposed to be funny, which weren't. The PPD and (particularly) Vanguard have no real place in this and appear to have been used because they have cool costumes. The arc looks like someone did maybe the first 20% of the work in making an arc and stopped.

Current Blog Post: "Why I am an Atheist..."
"And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained/As we did in the days when Victoria reigned!" -- T. S. Eliot, "Gus, the Theatre Cat"

 

Posted

Arc #185895, "Battle for Mercy Island"
tl;dr: 2 stars. Offenses: "just a bunch of stuff that happened", poor dialog, plot and gameplay issues

Reviewed on: 7/8/2009
Level Range: 1-14/5-15/1-14/5-15/5-14
Architect's Keywords: Solo Friendly, Canon Related, Drama
My Keywords: Same
Character used: Amy Sunflower/Virtue

First off, there's just no excuse for that level range. The entire arc could be set to 5-14 or 15.

Longbow agent Major Anderson is recruiting heroes for a big operation. On acceptance you're told the operation is to liberate the people of Mercy Island. This looks like a job for a level 15 character! Your first mission is to help secure the LZ. This is a defeat-all with a Boss (named Damned) but it's on the ultra-tiny Mercy Docks map so it's very short. On return you're told Longbow troops with hero support have taken key locations all around Mercy. Anderson tells you to "grab some chow" before your next run.

When he calls you later, things have taken a turn for the worse. They've run into heavy resistance and the troops that were supposed to take out the Fort Darwin airstrip were delayed. You're getting that job. This is another defeat-all with a Boss on the Arachnos Flier map used in Burke's first mission. The boss, "Anika Francis", is ranting about how "It was not Kalinda, it was the mystical threads of cosmic everythingness that brought me to rescue you from the snakes who would likely have devoured you by now." Um, yeah. Her powers were GotHeld/AndDied, though she ranted about lightning and thunder so maybe she was some kind of Stormie. She does call a wave of Red Hands as she's beaten down. The Clues and debriefing narrate troops pouring into Mercy, with a mention of a possible Positron sighting.

Anderson next wants your help because...no, I'm not making this up...the Skulls are going to back up the Arachnos troops, and that's a big problem.

Yeah.

On acceptance you're told to hit a warehouse the local Skull leadership is meeting at. There will be five leaders to take down and "there will be lots of Skulls in the warehouse, maybe more than any one hero or small team of heroes can handle." Right. When you get in the map, there are 3 leaders to defeat, per the nav bar ("1...2...5!"), plus a "Widow Princess". There are also some optional glowies and captives to release; completing either set triggers an ambush. Widow Princess turned out to be an Archery/Devices Boss/LT (I missed with the first hold, she got a shot off, and she had Targeting Drone up) with some fairly inane dialog (typo: "you're" for "your"; typo in her clue: "unit" for "unite"). On that note, the Skulls are voiced entirely wrong, they sound like Trolls: " Ima gunna collect me some cape bounty fro the spidaz! Git the guns boyz it open sezon on capes!" On your return Anderson tells you they're getting hammered; the debriefing narrates you seeing another hero (author insert) come in cursing Ghost Widow and carrying an unconsious Valkyrie (!) and someone else you can't identify.

For your next assignment Anderson wants you to hit an Arachnos base to raid their computers for any useful intelligence. There's a surprise (optional) Boss in this one "General of the Dead", who might have been a Necromancy/Dark Miasma Mastermind (typo in his clue: "it's" for "its"). You just have to find the right computer (I found one fake, might be more). The files you recover include data on Arachnos operations around the world, including Paragon City. Just the thing they'd leave unencrypted in a low-security base in a war zone....In the debriefing, all hell breaks loose as Recluse, Statesman and other heroes start duking it out in the skies over Fort Cerberus.

The last mission is a withdrawal from Mercy as the Arachnos counterattack is too strong. The Freedom Phalanx is said to be buying time for the Longbow troops and heroes to escape. You're asked to secure an Arachnos submarine base so some troops that have been surrounded can use it to escape. This is a defeat-all on the submarine base map, which is odious enough, but throws in a Ninjitsu Boss (Two-Blades Tommy) and then when you find the required glowie another Boss spawns back near the entrance just in case you haven't run around enough (Wulf the Viking, looked like War Mace/Shield). The last debriefing is a typical thanks along with a mention that Positron and Synapse both want you to run their TFs. As if.

This arc made me think of a Monty Python sketch, which is never a good thing unless the Architect was going for comedy...Mr. Neutron. The skit goes on and on about how dangerous Mr. Neutron is and how the world's militaries are bombing everyplace he could possibly be and the ending is supposed to be this huge special effects extravaganza...that we don't get to see. We don't see any of it. This arc has the same problem. The arc writes checks it can't cash, trying for too grand of a scale. In addition, the arc has no real theme -- I suppose you could make a case for "fighting against hopeless odds" but I don't buy it. It strains credibility past the breaking point to suppose that such low level heroes are having success in the operation when the big guns are getting nowhere or falling in battle. Typos abound (I tried to list them), the dialog needs work at best and the plot has some serious issues in places (Arachnos is going to get help from the Skulls? And we care?) This one needs work, badly.

Current Blog Post: "Why I am an Atheist..."
"And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained/As we did in the days when Victoria reigned!" -- T. S. Eliot, "Gus, the Theatre Cat"

 

Posted

Here's an update on the queue. Now that the lowbie queues are clear, I have closed them; I am no longer giving priority to those arcs. I'm still separating by faction since I get so many more Heroic arcs.

---

Hero: 137705, 171149, 161797, 179354, 59147, 15988, 1036, 55715, 37636, 17006, 174368, 60280, 178774, 100306, 181244, 91644, 167493, 149765, 191775, 4824, 171031, 242442, 227331, 41646, 77311, 81043, 67087

Villain:

Neutral: 177826, 67356, 1296, 176180, 215257, 207827

+++Rerun: 106553

Current Blog Post: "Why I am an Atheist..."
"And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained/As we did in the days when Victoria reigned!" -- T. S. Eliot, "Gus, the Theatre Cat"

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Level Range: 1-14/5-15/1-14/5-15/5-14

First off, there's just no excuse for that level range. The entire arc could be set to 5-14 or 15.


[/ QUOTE ]

I'm really trying not to threadjack you anymore, but I couldn't resist this one since it seems to be a technical rather than stylistic matter.

Why does it matter if the whole arc isn't set to exactly the same level range? Are you worried about level 15 characters getting XP in one mission but not the next? IMHO there's no real difference between fighting at level 1 and getting auto-SKd up to level 5, so I'm assuming it's the upper level that matters to you...

And for a while things were cold,
They were scared down in their holes
The forest that once was green
Was colored black by those killing machines

 

Posted

Now that MA gives the option to manually set the arc's levels, it really helps the overall polish of the arc if it's in a consistent level range -- it just looks less choppy.

Not one of the arc-breaking issues, certainly, but easily one of the first visible signs of the author's attention to detail.

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

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

 

Posted

Uh oh, my demise is soon to come "1 Star. Offenses: Just down-right offensive."

Apparently, I play "City of Shakespeare"
*Arc #95278-Gathering the Four Winds -3 step arc; challenging - 5 Ratings/3 Stars (still working out the kinks)
*Arc #177826-Lights, Camera, Scream! - 3 step arc, camp horror; try out in 1st person POV - 35 Ratings/4 Stars

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Now that MA gives the option to manually set the arc's levels, it really helps the overall polish of the arc if it's in a consistent level range -- it just looks less choppy.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm afraid I still don't get it. If I'm a level 1, I don't really care if I'm fighting other level 1s at my natural level and then get auto-sk'd to level 5 to fight level 5s - there's no appreciable difference in combat mechanics between the two, let alone the fact that I probably won't be level 1 for long anyway.

At the upper range, if I'm level 15, I have a choice between fighting -1s (low level enemies not scaling) every other mission, or not getting XP at all (due to exemplaring), or only getting XP every other mission. Among the three choices it's not clear to me that any of them is preferable to the others. Maybe capping at 14 is the best option just to make it clear to 15s that they shouldn't be playing the arc if they care about getting XP, but that's a subtle point.

Maybe I should have just started another thread on this topic. If the topic isn't settled in the next post I'll do that.

And for a while things were cold,
They were scared down in their holes
The forest that once was green
Was colored black by those killing machines

 

Posted

What's the big deal? It's just personal preference. Venture likes a contiguous level range. So do a lot of other people. Others couldn't care less. Venture's just putting down his opinions on...well, I guess it's not paper, but you get the idea.

"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi

Characters

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Villain:


[/ QUOTE ]

I would love a review of my latest villain arc.

Arc #: 246604
Title: Mecha Mutiny: Quatrexin's Quandary
Recommended Level: 22-32

It's difficulty is meant to be on par with regular arcs at those levels.
I honestly think this is my best shot at having an arc of noteriety. I am very pleased when I play it. I really want to polish this one to maximum shine and would appreciate any and all help.

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
I'm really trying not to threadjack you anymore, but I couldn't resist this one since it seems to be a technical rather than stylistic matter.

Why does it matter if the whole arc isn't set to exactly the same level range? Are you worried about level 15 characters getting XP in one mission but not the next? IMHO there's no real difference between fighting at level 1 and getting auto-SKd up to level 5, so I'm assuming it's the upper level that matters to you...

[/ QUOTE ]

It's bloody annoying to have your level shift between missions, is what.

What shall claim a Sky Kings' Ransom?

PPD & Resistance Epic Archetypes

 

Posted

There are two cases where this happens: one is where you get auto-SK'd to different levels, and one is where you get auto-exemplared to different levels (or go between being natural level and exemplared).

I'm just trying to confirm that it's the latter that people care about, because other than vast shifts in level ranges (when critters might pick up extra abilities), I can't think of why anyone would care about the former.

And for a while things were cold,
They were scared down in their holes
The forest that once was green
Was colored black by those killing machines

 

Posted

I think it really is just an issue of polish. I assume it's not the sort of thing anyone would lose a star over, but Venture's right: The tools to correct something like that exist now, and there's no reason not to take advantage of them. It's not a big deal, but it just looks sloppy.

Arc ID 181244 - Waves of Chaos
Arc ID 260113 - One Tough Cookie

 

Posted

Thanks for taking the time review my story arc. Sorry you didn't enjoy it.

Unfortunately, since it is a semi-canon arc that is set in the era of the breakout, it cannot really be a success.

In addition, I have seen battles on Mercy Island involving Longbow and Skulls. I used that as an example of conflicts that should exist on the Island.

 

Posted

A rebuttal regarding the "Digital Transition" review. I debated whether to put this in its own thread, but in the end I felt it should be in the same thread as the review that spawned the reply. In case anyone wants to discuss this further, I have made a separate thread for that purpose.

When I first read the review of my arc, I was wondering where I went wrong. A 2-star review was lower than the ratings the arc has received as a whole (it has fluctuated between 3 and 4 stars on the servers since it was published), and it even got two different 5-star reviews (here and here) in review threads on this board. Granted, different reviewers have different opinions, but I have enjoyed most of the arcs I've played based on reviews from these threads.

Then, upon closer reading of the thread, I realized that the review seems to suffer from QRS - "Quick Review Syndrome". For example, while "Lieutenant Nielsen" uses the PPD robot model, it is explained in the character info (which I know the reviewer reads, as he's docked other arcs for not having that information on NPCs) that the Lieutenant is actually piloting the robot remotely. Likewise, plot elements are relayed through statements from the foes you encounter as well as conversations with NPCs. Boomboxx has incorporated the Radio's speakers into his body, the named Clockwork Prince is the leader of that area's clockwork (and thus has the only transmitter powerful enough to block Television's influence), the freedom fighter is there to give plot info and a small amount of help for characters that need extra assistance against the boss, etc. If the reviewer's definition of plot is having NPC allies and escorts spoonfeed information instead of having the player pick up on the plot from multiple sources, then I plead guilty. I expect the player to actually listen to boss/ambush text and read the briefings to pick up on the plot.

To focus on one particular comment ("The PPD and (particularly) Vanguard have no real place in this"), those two groups were used because the broadcasts from Television were taking over law enforcement. Clues to this were given by both Lieutenant Nielsen in the first mission ("We were supposed to go in as a group, but the others stopped to look at a news report on the TV."), the Ally Rescued text at the end of the first mission (Lieutenant Nielsen said the officers stopped to look at a news report on TV. Few things are higher priority for the PPD than finding a Freakshow hideout. Where did the other officers go?), and the patrol of Vanguard in the last mission ("Did you see that new special on the Military channel?"). The lack of mention of any of these plot elements in the review combined with the "no plot" comment leads me to believe that either the reviewer was rushing past these things, or was just having a bad day.

There are also some unreasonable expectations from the reviewer. The inclusion of a timed mission is implied by the introductory text for mission 3 ("You must stop the broadcast before the program ends, or everyone will be under Television's control!"). I accept the criticism and will make the inclusion of a timed mission clearer, but I feel the timed mission didn't appear completely out of the blue. Also, while I'm not sure how many NPCs the reviewer expects to interact with in a typical mission, I included more text and characters than you get in normal CoX missions. I have to wonder if he would give most live CoX missions one or two stars (if so, why's he still playing?). Finally, the "just a bunch of stuff that happened" tag was expected, given how poorly defined that trope is (badly enough that someone had to compile all the comments that have been made about it to come close to figuring it out). I happen to disagree with the use of that trope. Like a joke, if you have to spend a long time explaining what a trope means...it isn't a good trope.

Given that I've played several other arcs in this thread (and previous threads) by this reviewer, and several have less plot than my arc without getting docked for that in the review, I can only conclude that the reviewer was having a bad day or had some sort of axe to grind. Also, my arc is only three missions, and meant to be completed in under an hour (I've playtested it solo in as little as 20 minutes). The goal was to have it be short, interesting, and enough of a challenge to be fun without being frustrating. To compare it to literature, my arc was a short story...but the reviewer seems to be asking for "War and Peace" (to use a term that others have debated in this thread).

As a final note, the boss at the end of the last mission is Mind/Illusion. As difficulty wasn't mentioned in the combats, I'm assuming that combining those two powersets didn't make the final fight too tough.

 

Posted

Well, Venture seems to be the toughest-to-please of the bunch. He's been watching TV and reading comics longer than most of us have been ALIVE, so he's going to be harder to please.

That said, it does seem that he missed piecing together some clues. I'll have a go at the arc myself to see if the annoyance is justified =)

(if it makes you feel better, Venture rated my arc ONE star but never mentioned it as being a JABOSTH... So take that how you will)

-STEELE =)


Allied to all sides so that no matter what, I'll come out on top!
Oh, and Crimson demands you play this arc-> Twisted Knives (MA Arc #397769)

 

Posted

Arc # 106553, "Trollbane"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: plot issues, overpowered mobs

Reviewed on: 7/11/2009
Level Range: 5-14
Character used: Iphigenia/Protector

This is a re-review. The original review is pasted below. I'm only going to go over changes from the original.

For starters, the level range is now an even 5-14 throughout.

The briefing in act III is slightly altered so that Numina's discovery of Circle magic appears before acceptance. It's still not really clear why you're acting in advance of her full findings. The Baron's clues attempt to handwave why his counterspells aren't useful, which is not entirely convincing. Act V is even more annoying than the last time I played this, since I was CL2 and had to deal with three +1 Elites and a +1 Bone Daddy. Also, it appears Act V is now a defeat-all, something I don't remember from the last version and which doesn't appear in my earlier review. Since the battle details are large enough to spawn Bosses on CL2 this moved the tedium level up to "kicking dead whales down the beach". To add insult to injury, after killing everything the mission still didn't terminate. There were no objectives left in the nav bar so I don't know if there was a mob that fell outside the map or an objective didn't trigger, or what. The briefing did imply that Back Alley Brawler was going to come with you but I never found him. In any case, after three extra passes through an empty map I gave up as I simply wasn't going to go through killing those Elites again.

I don't see any reason to change my rating. None of the balance issues have been addressed and the changes to the plot didn't really close the holes.

* * * * * *
Arc # 106553, "Trollbane"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: plot issues, overpowered mobs

Reviewed on: 5/17/2009
Level Range: 5-14/5-14/10-14/5-14/5-14
Character used: Amy Sunflower/Virtue
Back Alley Brawler calls upon you to help deal with a surge in Troll violence. Something is killing them off and they're lashing out at random, this time at a Skull 'dyne lab. On entering the burning Skulls lair you sense something mystic nearby.... As soon as you enter you come across Trolls and Skulls slugging it out. I didn't have to bother with Seeds of Confusion until the pack thinned down a bit. During the fighting you can hear some of the Skulls say "that ectoplasmic idiot got loose and attacked the Trolls!", which dovetails nicely with the remains of a necromantic ritual found after the shooting stops. It looks like the Skulls have whipped up something they couldn't quite control.

The carnage continues in Act II as one of the Trolls managed to grab a list of addresses at the last fight. He'd already passed it on before being arrested, but Brawler "convinces" him (with a stern look) to blab about the ones he remembers. You're sent to the first one on the list, which is almost certainly where the Trolls will go first. Brawler also gives you a "superball" from Numina that will lead you to anything mystical at the site. Once again, Skulls and Trolls are duking it out...but I also heard a bark from "The Crimson Fist". He turned out to be a Boss (on Heroic, meaning he should "really" be an EB), Energy Blast/Mental Manipulation from the looks of it. His info points out he was a Midnighter who died during the Rikti war and really shouldn't be walking around now. The ectoplasmic residue the Fist was composed of dissolved upon its defeat, and a little farther in there was a coffin with the Fist's real name, John Knox, on it. Brawler has to think about what you've found.

What you found was actually enough to scare Numina. She won't talk about it until she's sure of her findings. For some reason that isn't really clear waiting for that isn't an option. Brawler sends you to Oranbega, saying that if he goes personally it would trigger a massive reprisal from the Circle. There just doesn't seem to be any reason for you to go either, but, it's in the script, so.... After you accept Brawler tells you that Numina thinks there might be answers there, which is still kind of vague and probably should get moved up front anyway. He also fills you in a bit on Knox's history which is a matter of canon. Oranbega offers the usual Circle smackdown, along with a "Baron Schwarzeherr", Necromancy/Dark Miasma Boss and self-proclaimed elite necromancer. He won the first match thanks to a lag spike. After a retaliatory beatdown, he gave up a list of rituals the Skulls stole from him, spells intended to summon spirits of anger. This explains why whatever they've called up, using Crimson Fist's remains as a focus, hates the Trolls.

For Act IV the Skulls are out to summon another ghost, this time from a graveyard in Kings Row. Brawler wants you to take care of it while he deals with Troll reprisals in Skyway. He also tells you Numina put the scrolls you were given in the "please steal me" section of the MAGI vaults, booby-trapped with incantations that will destroy every zombie within half a mile. When you hit the streets in Kings Row, the Trolls are on the warpath...and so is the Illustrated Woman's ghost as an Illusion Control/Pain Domination Boss. I might have taken the first fall if I hadn't gotten shot in the back by an ambush wave. On her defeat you get a Clue saying you took a photo of her to show Brawler, presumably assuming your character doesn't know who she is from history (which most should, IMO), and another saying one of the Skulls gave up the name of the one in charge of this project, "the Bonemason". Brawler's response to the photo is to go beat more information out of the Baron. Um, yeah.

The result of his extreme rendition is a massive Circle offensive in Founders, leaving you to deal with the real problem: the Bonemason is leading the Skulls and more of the ghosts in an attack on the Hollows. It turns out he doesn't care about the Trolls in particular, he just needs lots of deaths to turn the Hollows into New Dark Astoria. Brawler and the Phalanx have to face the Circle, leaving the city's fate in the hands of a hero under security level 14...OK.... You get a bring-friends warning after accepting. Once again, the map is full of Skull-Troll battles. Your objective: four Skull leaders, the first of which is the Crimson Fist again. He inconveniently spawned at +1 too, but I dropped him in one try. The Illustrated Woman took three, and a full tray each time. This mob is way overpowered. Illusion and Mind Control need to be avoided until the Confuse powers can be dropped...at a +1 spawn she was able to keep my Controller permanently unable to attack as soon as the BFs ran out with Deceive alone. Next up was the Bonemason himself, who also spawned as a +1 Boss. This one was Necromancy/Dark Blast, meaning he has Dark Blast, Gloom and (probably) Siphon Life twice each -- think about what that means for his attack chain. It took about half a dozen tries, a full tray of insps each time, to take him down. The last of the Skull leaders was Tombstone, a regular Bone Daddy. The briefing is a typical congratulations from the Brawler, and a note from the author about the in-game monuments for John Knox and Mina "Illustrated Woman" Horne.

The arc has a good story up until the end, when Brawler decides to go street hunting in Founders' instead of dealing with a potential city-destroying threat. If the Contact is going to be someone so prestigious then either the threat has to be dialed down or its magnitude needs to be sprung on the player during the mission so there's no opportunity to call in the big guns. The trip to Oranbega in Act III is kind of wedged in as well. Finally the arc really has too many Elites for one that caps at 14...as in, any. There are only a few Elites at that level in the stock missions and they're pretty vanilla mobs. Custom Elites are way, way more nasty. On the plus side the mission does work well with the canon.

Current Blog Post: "Why I am an Atheist..."
"And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained/As we did in the days when Victoria reigned!" -- T. S. Eliot, "Gus, the Theatre Cat"

 

Posted

Yeeeah... sorry 'bout that, Venture.

I've been re-writing and reworking my arcs in the order that I originally wrote them, and Trollbane was the last. With my limited time, I haven't actually gotten to it yet- I made some quick changes when i15 hit (trying to insert BABs into the final mission, for one), but haven't tested them or even looked very closely at things.

I doubt that I spent more than five minutes on my Trollbane thus far, rather than the several hours of rewriting and testing that the others have been subject to, and which this one will also go through once I have the time.

Apologies for wasting your time- the reason things don't seem to have changed much is, well, they haven't. Although if the final mission is now a defeat-all, that wasn't my doing... I suspect the mission is badly bugged by my attempted insertion of BABs, but I'm really not certain, since, as I said, it hasn't been tested (or changed particularly). I did ask you to hold off on it for now :/

"A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head." Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates

MA Arcs: #12285, "Small Fears", #106553, "Trollbane", #12669, "How to Survive a Robot Uprising"

 

Posted

That's not the battles. Boss spawns are borked right now, and show up even on CL2 solo.

No, it's the battles. The same thing happens with Large battles in "Blowback" and "Splintered Shields". I left the battles at that size in those because those are 41+ and 45+ respectively; at that level a player should be able to handle a few extra Bosses here and there. (I also squishy-tested both with characters way under the designated minimum successfully.)

I am aware of the change (or bug, they still haven't said) that allows Bosses to show up at party size 2 now (which is what CLs 2 and 4 simulate), but that's a completely different spawn pattern. One of these "superfluous" Bosses will appear with exactly one Minion for a guard.

Current Blog Post: "Why I am an Atheist..."
"And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained/As we did in the days when Victoria reigned!" -- T. S. Eliot, "Gus, the Theatre Cat"

 

Posted

I certainly hope the Bosses being equal to 6 minions is WaI(4 minions 1 Lt on a standard CL2/4 spawn = 7 minions and now = 1 minion and 1 boss) I like having bosses in my unyielding missions.