Honest Lazarus's Discount Reviews!

Arc ID: 69759
Arc Title: The Natural Earth
Author: @AegisWolf
Morality: Heroic
Length: 4 Missions
Description: You were sent to another world to fight against the Rikti, but soon your mission becomes a quest to save this world from a menace risen from it's past.

Quick Review

Arc ID: 70801
Arc Title: Simple Times
Author: @Justice Blues
Morality: Heroic
Length: 5 Missions
Description: Talshak has called you in to handle a small problem in Kings Row. Nothing major, just the same old, same old. At least, that is what you both though.
Quicky Review: While it does pretty well as a standalone arc, it just doesn't seem to work as an installment in the "Future Skulls Trilogy". Particularly as they don't show up until the very end and are revealed to have been behind it all, but some other group could have easily been in their place. As such, it is connected rather weakly to the series and doesn't feel like a true installement that progresses a multi-arc story.
Rating: ****

Is your critical review queue still closed?

Thanks for the review Lazarus. You are right that the connection to the other arcs is fairly weak, but that was deliberate. (And it was originally much weaker, which was a big mistake some other reviews and in game feedback helped get me past.) The idea is if you have played the first arc, you find out that the Future Skulls are active in the present, with major plans, and will have to be dealt with. But if you have not played the first arc, you get a glimpse into the existance of an offshoot of an established gang that is playing for major stakes.

Trying to balance plot progression for the over all story with keeping the interest of players that have not done the first arc is hard. As I said, I originally went too far (the MacGuffin didn't disappear until the 4th mission and no Future Skulls at all until the 5th) but the changes improved the story and having to make them improved the writing, IMO. I am open to making more changes, but I don't want to go too far the other way and tie this arc too closely to the first one.

Arc ID: 6017
Arc Title: Mercytown: The One with all the Fish
Author: @Luminyx
Morality: Villainous
Length: 5 Missions
Description: Trouble brews in the waters surrounding Mercy - will you be able to defy an ancient goddess and her people, all while enduring the insane ramblings of a mad scientist?
Quick Review: Pretty amusing and Doctor Krylov is made of win. However I think he could stand to be bumped up to Lieutenant for the last mission, or at least give him Power Shield so that he stands a chance against the Corolax. Also some color highlighting would be nice on the arc and mission titles, as well as making it easier to tell which parts of the dialog are supposed to be myself thinking instead of the good Doctor talking. Also the third mission has been hit with the spawning bug and it's full of almost nothing but identical Hellion Girlfriends, that ought to be fixed as well as all the bombs in the fifth mission being in the same room.
Rating: ****

Thanks for the review. This is the second time someone mentioned the gf spawn oddity, is there a known fix for this?

Quickie Review

Arc ID: 341194
Arc Title: Signal:Noise
Author: @The Cheshire Cat
Morality: Heroic
Length: 5 Missions
Description: Dark Astoria has been completely abandoned - as if everyone just up and left in the middle of whatever they were doing. But there has to be SOMEONE still around out there - and they might need your help.

Quick Review:
Well the ghosts in the first mission caught me off guard, I didn't even know I was being followed until I checked my map and saw something catching up to me. I don't even know where I picked them up. The only thing more surprising was when they suddenly turned on me.

Then you just had to make it worse with the creepy mannequins. The Tech computer in the 2nd mission looks out of place, shouldn't it be a desk computer? Um... those mannequins were not there last time I went through this floor. I also wonder if the Tall Man is a shout out to the Phantasm films.

Ok, just what was Adamastor even doing there? He was also strangly easy to beat on a Dominator.

And now we enter the Twilight Zone with the Tall Man as the host. I don't understand at all why I went there to the cave and killed the only survivor I had found so far. No clue for doing that either.

The 14 boss fights in the final mission got old fast for a squishy. If I was meant to defeat everyone anyway I'd rather have had a normal defeat all and a few talking bosses.

Oh I see, there was another trick to come right after it.

This one started really good, but it lost a lot of momentum midway through.
Rating: ****

Since you seem to like Sky Raiders, can I get a quickie?

Arc ID: 232308
Arc Title: Sky Kings' Ransom
Author: @Most Definitely Skary
Morality: Heroic
Number of Missions: 2
Description: A bad decision leaves a Rikti War veteran turned hero-hunting criminal vulnerable. Will you bring him to justice, or will a darker fate claim him? ( 20-24 [SLMA/SFMA] A foray into Sky Raider lore. High level mobs are non-combat. )

Arc ID: 232308
Arc Title: Sky Kings' Ransom
Author: @Most Definitely Skary
Morality: Heroic
Number of Missions: 2
Description: A bad decision leaves a Rikti War veteran turned hero-hunting criminal vulnerable. Will you bring him to justice, or will a darker fate claim him? ( 20-24 [SLMA/SFMA] A foray into Sky Raider lore. High level mobs are non-combat. )
Quick Review:
The first mission has a bug where the Storage Case spawned right on top of the Injured Warrior. This happens on warehouse maps often since some of those spawn points overlap. Ok, did you remove the Engineers for some reason? Hmm, nice twist with Ransom, though it was odd that he spawned directly behind me after I had examined the bodybag.

Does it's job well as a quick mini-arc. The only things that need work are the spawn placements. I don't see any point to removing the Engineers though, Sky Raiders are already easy enough to fight as it is.
Rating: *****

Nope, must be something bugging out, Engineers are definitely in. Gotta test it m'self.

[edit] Tested. Engies spawned properly.

Just a quick review for my arc:

Arc ID: 299507
Arc Title: The Fall of Rapture
Author: Aristocras
Morality: Heroic
Number of Missions: 5
Description: While walking through Portal Corp. you notice a message that has gone unread on one of the computers. And it's from an alternate dimension. One called Rapture.

Quick Review:

Arc ID: 338380
Arc Title: Talos Vice
Author: @PW
Morality: Heroic
Length: 3 Missions
Level Range: 12-20
Description: An 80s instrumental blares as the camera pans over scenes of Talos Island: windsurfers on the water, the Talos statue, shoppers in Wentworth's, bikini babes, sports cars racing down the Argo Highway, a speedboat bouncing on the waves. A title card appears over the waters racing below: TALOS VICE.
Quick Review: While it seems odd that the arc is actually set below the level of Talos Island and features few of the enemies indigenous to that zone, it was still a fun bit of nostalgia for anyone who is familiar with Miami Vice and 80's TV shows in general.
Rating: *****

Arc ID: 337333
Arc Title: Captain Skylark Shadowfancy and the Tomorrownauts of Today!
Author: @The Cheshire Cat
Morality: Heroic
Length: 5 Missions
Level Range: 30-34
Description: Join the Tomorrownauts as they battle against the nefarious Baron Doomsday and his legion of Doomsday Droids! Marvel at the great ocean we call OUTER SPACE! Strap on your jetpack and get ready for a completely accurate glimpse into the WORLD OF TOMORROW!
Rating: *****

================================

Character used: Tectonia, Level 34 Earth Control/Earth Assault Dominator
Difficulty: +0/x1/Yes Bosses/No AVs
Level for Arc Playthrough: 34

================================

Mission 1:
Red is quite overused in the mission text, this is always a peeve of mine as it really should be reserved for things like AV warnings. Amyhow, off to the Moon I go!



The Generators were using the Mainframe model, better fix that bug. The completion text for the computer also has a typo. Unfortunately due to the layout of the map, I ended up finding all the generators, computer, and defeated Baron Doomsday without coming across any of the captured Tomorrownauts. I eventually found them after clearing the map to see if there were any other neat surprises, like the mysterious Observer.


We will rock you!

But the Fear Ray was nowhere to be found!

Mission 2:
On noes, the Baron's true plot was to get captured so that he could gain entry to Tomorrownauts HQ! We must secure the UNIVAC!



Huh, two of those creepy Observer aliens. Not suspicious at all, nosiree.

Of course it was all a trap set by the dastardly Baron Doomsday! Now Void Hunters are overruning the base and I need to find a terminal to find out what happened.


Don't flip out too much, Baron Doomsday.

And the creepy Observer is following me now.

Ok, getting annoyed here. Where is this damn terminal, I've been all the way back to the beginning of the map. Finally found it after my 2nd trip back to the front of the map and now I have to fight this "Overlord" after my domination bar has run dry.

Mission 3:
Well the annoying glowie hunt in the previous mission took a lot of the wind out of my sails, let's see if the third mission can address that.

Enough with the red text already!

Looks like the UNIVAC is infested with giant mutant spiders, how did this happen? Regardless, Tecy makes them go squish!

You should move this glowy in the front room, it spawned in a hard to see spot and I almost missed it entirely.

Seems to be a lot more of these Observers now. How ominous.

It also seems that Baron Doomsday, like Drakule, always needs defeating.

Mission 4:
So apparently the UNIVAC itself is somehow creating the wormhole that is allowing the Nictus to invade the Earth and destroying it would leave us defenseless as it runs our entire defense network. Time to learn an important less about single points of failure, boys and girls!

However there is an alternative and it involves visiting the Flesh Temple on Deimos. Tomorrownauts, roll out!

And here I was expecting the author to use the Johnny's Hell map again.

It isn't long before I met the Cult Leader. Ah Cheshire Cat, you never fail to bring the creepy. Are all these Galaxies supposed to be cult members? I've seeing a lot of them and very little of this cult.



Defeat the Meat Golem, who could that be I wonder?



Time to find out what these Watchers are up to, a bit annoying that I had to backtrack to find them rather than them appearing in the same room as the Meat Golem.


Overseer mounting stand not included.

Finally some answers. I'm out of here, if the Baron really is somewhere I can't be bothered to backtrack through this long map to find him. It would have made more sense for him to have appeared along the way to begin with.

Mission 5:
Of course now the Baron has really done it and Nictus are invading the Earth en masse. It's time to put an end to this once and for all!


Have spacesuit, will travel.

If you have room you might want to replace some of the patrols in these missions with separate ones that have different dialog. It gets repetitive fast hearing the same lines over and over.

Now that I picked up Captain Shadowfancy and a couple of robo-buddies, it's time to beat down Baron Doomsday and I see that he has taken a level in badass since the last time we met. Giving him Dark Regen is a bit extreme as he healed over 1000 HP just off of one target!



Regardless the Tomorrownauts triumphed and broke the Baron's control of the Nictus. Still, a Tomorrownaut's job is never done...

================================

The Verdict:
This was a very fun arc, though it is not without it's flaws. Fortunately most of them can be easily addressed with the exception of the Void Hunters who will give any Kheld player a fit once they see so many of them.

The screenshots from this most recent review really makes me think I need to do more research on map selection. Mine seem so boring now

Anyhow, if you have time/inclination, I could use some help. Still n00bing it, but trying!

CLAN DESTINY
Arc ID: 349053
Level: 30+
Length: Long
Keywords: [open to suggestions here]
Enemies: Rikti, Freakshow, Devoured Earth, Longbow, Custom
Description: Heroes are always supposed to do the right thing, but what happens when "the right thing" is a choice between two evils? When the line between what is the greater good and the necessary evil become blurred, morality is put to the ultimate test. What will you decide?

Arc ID: 347683
Arc Title: The Wentworth's Thanksgiving Day Parade
Author: @Djinniman
Morality: Heroic
Length: 2 Missions
Level Range: 30-54
Description: Wentworth's Thanksgiving Day Parade has been a beloved Paragon City tradition for decads, but this year, it's in danger! Save the holiday, meet interesting Paragon City denizens, and battle some unlikely enemies in this short, solo-friendly comedic arc.
Quick Review: Apparently Nemesis thinks that he's the most qualified to run the parade this year, after all his men look like a marching band to begin with. The author definitely had fun making this and I had fun playing it.
Rating: *****

*Blows dust off of his AE equipment.* Hey, just need a quickie review here. Thanks in advance. ;-)

Arc ID: 339643
Arc Title: The Seeds of Chaos
Author: @Ashcraft
Morality: Villainous
Number of Missions: 4
Description: Requiem has summoned you for a special task. He has given you no more than a polite invitation and grand promises but his call seems to draw you in, regardless...

Mini Review, meaning it was meant to be a quick one but grew too large. Was poking around with the random button again and saw something with quite a number of plays and a 4-star average, so I thought I'd take a look.

Arc ID: 58816
Arc Title: Stealing Science
Author: @Savannah Nightwolf
Morality: Heroic
Length: 5 Missions
Level Range: 1-54
Description: Dr. Aeon is up to something again. This time, he's stolen the basis for his work, and is now attempting to modify it for his own use. Can you discover what he's up to, and stop him?

Mini Review:
---------------
This arc had the promise of a fun story, but ultimately is marred by a lot of little things that added up fast. First off, while the contact has a description it doesn't tell us anything about her ("daughter of..." is meaningless if we don't know who the mother is anyway) or why we're working for her and following her orders. Secondly, the arc is set to be 1-54 for no apparent reason, which not only screws with the "arcs my level" option in the AE search but also makes no sense as if this is supposed to involve Crey and the Revenant Hero Project then why should any hero under level 30 be playing it?

The custom character inserted into the second mission has no point in being there since he gives you a safe combination (how did he get that and not get the safe contents anyway?) and then just run off instead of helping you. It would have made much more sense to have cut him out entirely and have the custom boss guarding the safe first instead of spawning after the safe is opened. I get the feeling that these cameos are meant to be more for the benefit of the author's supergroup than the player, since so little info and characterization are given.

Now the third mission is supposed to be in an office, but Tech Computers are used for glowies instead of Office Computers. While this is a nitpick, it's still a valid one as it does screw with the immersion a bit seeing glowies that just don't look like they fit on the tileset being used. I figure that the author may have originally used a Tech Lab map but thought that the player may have gotten sick of them by now.

Speaking of things to get sick of, why does mission 3 have so many damn computers to check if only two of them even matter? Why is the data on two separate computers anyway and why do I have to check them all to complete the mission? Arrg!! It's not like we get extra badges anymore for clicking X amount of glowies. It'd also be nice if the clues told me something specific about what was in the research files. Those little tidbits go a long way towards building atmosphere.

The Aeon Hero dialog is also confusing me. The attack dialog gives the impression that I am fighting a different person each time, but the defeat dialog implies that I am fighting the same person each time. Which is it? Also, since there are so many different Aeon Heroes now it wouldn't hurt to give them each a slightly different description to reflect this.

So it turns out that the DNA sample that I got in mission 2 shows that the Aeon Heroes were cloned from someone I don't know anything about but I'm spoken to like I'm supposed to be shocked or something. I'm pretty sure now that this was written specifically for the author's friends and SG-mates.

Now in mission 4 suddenly the Council and Nemesis want Aeon's hero clones. How did they even find out about them and why do they want them when they never showed interest in the original Revenant Heroes that they are based on? This just feels like a flimsy excuse to throw some more bad guys into the group.

Well it didn't take much time for the mainframe to get destroyed (and it had to be defended why? who steals data by smashing the computer?) so I never got to see this Mark VI Aeon Hero. Regardless, the entire mission felt like it could be removed without having any effect on the story, and since the arc continues anyway, it doesn't.

Wait a minute, now it says in mission 5 that Crey and Nemesis tried to stop Dr. Aeon? I thought Nemesis was there to steal the info, no destroy it, and there was no Crey in that 4th mission. Major plot hole.

So the hero who was cloned has finally showed up as an ally. If she was this important and not the contact, then why wasn't she the contact instead?

And then I /ragequit. Why? It had something to with there being 5 destroy computer objectives, each defended by an all-boss spawn of Aeon Heroes. The all-boss patrols of Aeon Heroes didn't help either. On top of that was another "Defeat Aeon Hero" objective.

The ragequit is why I didn't rate this arc. Up until this point I would have given it a 4, with all the stuff I listed up to the 4th mission being the things keeping it from being a 5. But with the fifth mission I just couldn't be bothered anymore to complete the arc but it wouldn't be fair to blast it with a bad rating over something that can be fixed pretty easily.

---------------

Rating: NOT RATED

Coulomb requested a playthrough of this arc that had been written for the Dr. Aeon contest.

Arc ID: 352381
Arc Title: Purification
Author: @Flame Kitten
Morality: Heroic
Length: 5 Missions
Level Range: 35-45
Description: The monsters of the Devouring Earth have been strangely quiet, but that changes with a sudden attack on an office building. Soon you find yourself embroiled in a desperate struggle for the survival of the human race.

Mini Review:
---------------
The arc is off to a good start but the first mission has a number of conceptual and gameplay issues. First off is the objective overload, the compass window is crammed with a LOT of things that need to be done right from the beginning of the mission. Two of the three hostages have to be lead out, which is not bad for the one who spawned in the first floor, but the one who spawned all the way up on the 5th floor added some annoying fake length to the mission. Then there were the clues, one of which was a destructable that was just a slightly different version of the other barrels that I had to destroy. Which brings me to the barrels, I always found it rather stupid that to stop an outbreak of disease/mutagen/poison gas I am supposed to smash the container open? Wouldn't it have made more sense to have a glowy that gets "deactivated" by the player removing the trigger mechanism or having it teleported away to some containment area?

The Crey Hazmat guys look pretty cool anyhow and weren't annoying at all. Wait scratch that, some minion just stunned me with Beanbag.

The 2nd mission is better with the objectives at least until I suddenly go from checking one mainframe from having to download four separate files from separate terminals. Since the clues from most of the terminals are nearly identical, they could have easily been reduced to a single clue rather than having the player click 4 terminals in one room.

The 3rd mission was non-combat for the first half, before DE and Crey overran it. Who knew that scientists could kung-fu fight? Also got stomped when 2 patrols and a big Crey ambush converged on me at the same time I was fighting another spawn. Therefore I ended up finishing the mission backwards.

Not much to say about mission 4, other than that I never found this hero that was mentioned to be in there and if there is space left it would be nicer if the three sick prisoners were not identical with identical lines. Since I never found SpeedBolt it makes the 4th mission debriefing rather weird. Apparently he had some important clue, so he should have been a required objective in that case. Otherwise the debriefing should be rewritten.

Ok, so in the fifth mission I see that this was meant to be part of that "Evil for the greater good" contest that Doc Aeon held. Except it doesn't really work here. The reasoning is that the cure for the DE version of the disease will kill 99% of the human population, because 1% of them have natural immunity. Crey didn't use the disease when they made it as a anti-Rikti weapon because it'd kill 1% of the human population. Problem is that the cure for the DE version will kill 1% of the population (those with the natural immunity) while saving the other 99%.

Well the obvious choice is to distribute the cure. 1% mortality rate? That's probably stricter than the FDA standards on most medicines!

But the wording for the fifth mission is really confusing about how I'd supposed to go about it. When I finally do enter the mission apparently what I'm supposed to do is deliver SpeedBolt to Crey for detainment, or are they going to kill her? The wording makes little sense and I'm not sure just what the author is trying to convey. Especially since not distributing the cure would be the evil choice as it would kill off 99% of humanity.

So I deliver SpeedBolt to Crey (why did it have to be Crey instead of Longbow or something? Is this the "evil" option and they're going to kill her?) and then release the cure into the water system.

I think the main reason that this falls flat is that I'm killing off one percent of several billion people. Maybe it if was 20% or so then it'd have some real impact.

Rating: ****

Arc ID: 25622
Arc Title: Teh Freakshow Artz Klub
Author: @Geveo
Morality: Heroic
Length: 2 Missions
Level Range: 20-54
Description: The Freakshow have attacked Paragon City's annual festival of the arts. Surprisingly, no one was injured, but the Freaks kidnapped several people and escaped. Brace yourself, it's time to battle Teh Freakshow Artz Klub!
Quick Review: This is one of the best arcs that the random button handed me in a long time. It does what it set out to do pretty well, which is to kill some time in an amusing manner. The writing was well-crafted with no obvious grammatical errors and keeps your attention, plus there are a number of optional objectives for those who like to explore. There was one custom boss at the end and he was easy enough to solo. The only things I could suggest would be a bit of color highlighting in the mission briefings and a description for the contact himself.
Rating: *****

Thanks for the mini-review, Lazarus! I appreciate the feedback! It came as a pleasant surprise: I’m typically mostly interested in people playing my arcs and letting me know whether they liked them or not – I know full well giving detailed feedback on an arc is a lot of work, and can be quite trying if it ends up being an arc you didn’t enjoy (as seems to be the case here), so I really appreciate the work you put into this.

Let me answer some of your questions and address a few of your concerns, and then I’ll get out of your hair.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lazarus Coulomb requested a playthrough of this arc that had been written for the Dr. Aeon contest. Arc ID: 352381 Arc Title: Purification Author: @Flame Kitten Morality: Heroic Length: 5 Missions Level Range: 35-45 Description: The monsters of the Devouring Earth have been strangely quiet, but that changes with a sudden attack on an office building. Soon you find yourself embroiled in a desperate struggle for the survival of the human race. Mini Review: --------------- The arc is off to a good start but the first mission has a number of conceptual and gameplay issues. First off is the objective overload, the compass window is crammed with a LOT of things that need to be done right from the beginning of the mission. Two of the three hostages have to be lead out, which is not bad for the one who spawned in the first floor, but the one who spawned all the way up on the 5th floor added some annoying fake length to the mission. Then there were the clues, one of which was a destructable that was just a slightly different version of the other barrels that I had to destroy. Which brings me to the barrels, I always found it rather stupid that to stop an outbreak of disease/mutagen/poison gas I am supposed to smash the container open? Wouldn't it have made more sense to have a glowy that gets "deactivated" by the player removing the trigger mechanism or having it teleported away to some containment area?

I’ve opted to make the second “escort” into a simple rescue – the map just won’t consistently spawn him near the entrance (regardless of my settings). It seems a little inconsistent to me, but I’m hoping most people playing the arc after this will appreciate why I’m okay with making the one that spawns near the entry a true escort, while the one that keeps spawning on upper floors a simple rescue.

Okay, I fully admit I’m just capitalizing on that particular cliché regarding the barrels (although the idea is you’re destroying the virus, not “breaking open the containers”) – I would have used a clickable, but I really wanted DE guarding it. I certainly don’t have any fundamental issues with one of them looking different from the others (it was just supposed to represent a larger collection of the barrels, so there’d be an “explanation” as to why that was the only time where a trace of the agent was left behind – because there was so much more collected together in the first place) – I’m going to have to think about that one; it didn’t occur to me that would be a source of irritation.

I’ve done what I can to further pare down the objective list, though.

Quote:

The Crey Hazmat guys look pretty cool anyhow and weren't annoying at all. Wait scratch that, some minion just stunned me with Beanbag.

I’ve removed Beanbag from both the minion and boss version. The only reason it was there is so that both would be worth full XP, instead of 75% - but I’d made a mental vow that if so much as one person took offense to getting stunned, I’d remove it since I couldn’t think of a terribly logical reason why a Hazmat person would be toting around a gun capable of firing beanbags anyway.

Quote:

The 2nd mission is better with the objectives at least until I suddenly go from checking one mainframe from having to download four separate files from separate terminals. Since the clues from most of the terminals are nearly identical, they could have easily been reduced to a single clue rather than having the player click 4 terminals in one room.

You’re probably right about that, but there are a few things buried in that information that would be lost that I’d rather not be (including a very subtle astronomy-related clue to any astronomy fans out there). As a compromise, I made the interact times for all of those terminals considerably shorter.

Quote:

The 3rd mission was non-combat for the first half, before DE and Crey overran it. Who knew that scientists could kung-fu fight? Also got stomped when 2 patrols and a big Crey ambush converged on me at the same time I was fighting another spawn. Therefore I ended up finishing the mission backwards.

Originally, the scientists were set up to have no powers at all. Turns out that when you do that, they default to having what’s in the standard versions of their set. So I took away all but the very first power – that helped, but it did leave then able to kung-fu fight (which I found at least a little less jarring than them use superstrength punches, or wipping out assault rifles or pairs of pistols). After you made this comment, though, I got to thinking: hey, some of the Crey scientists use laser rifles, so maybe giving them the pulse rifle power from the Robots set would be more acceptable than kung-fu. We’ll see – I just hope that there isn’t code in M.A. that returns to them the ability to summon robots (which I removed).

The only real way that I’m aware of (at the moment) to do the whole ‘no fighting at the beginning’ thing is to take up all of the available “slots” with mission details – like patrols and boss fights. As much as I would have loved to fill the mission with boss fights that actually use a minion for the “boss”, you can only do that with custom mobs – and I wanted the D.E. to be major players in the attack. What I’ve done is reduce the number of D.E. patrols, and replace them with a few “boss” details with Crey Hazmat minions acting as the bosses. That should at least reduce the number of patrols, and decrease the chance of getting mobbed.

I also removed all reference to “getting to the exit” – that should at least help with the feeling that you are doing the mission backwards if you end up dying and going to the hospital.

Quote:

Not much to say about mission 4, other than that I never found this hero that was mentioned to be in there and if there is space left it would be nicer if the three sick prisoners were not identical with identical lines. Since I never found SpeedBolt it makes the 4th mission debriefing rather weird. Apparently he had some important clue, so he should have been a required objective in that case. Otherwise the debriefing should be rewritten.

The part that spells out the fact that SpeedBolt is at the hospital, and NOT at the prison is in the briefing (I checked, and I didn’t accidentally forget to leave it out – it’s definitely there). I’ve now highlighted it in yellow, and made the phrase that says she’s at the hospital (as opposed to the prison) bold (in addition to highlighted).

You’re right about the space issue. I just don’t have room (especially with some of the other edits) to make the sick prisoners separate. But there’s a larger issue: even if I did change this from one detail to three, to make the prisoners different, I’d have to make one a minion, one a lt., and one a boss. It’s probably just personal preference, but I’d rather have all three sick prisoners look like they “con” the same, rather than look different. Eventually though (when we get the expanded space), I’ll be able to change that (since I’ll have the space to create multiples of each rank).

Quote:

Ok, so in the fifth mission I see that this was meant to be part of that "Evil for the greater good" contest that Doc Aeon held. Except it doesn't really work here. The reasoning is that the cure for the DE version of the disease will kill 99% of the human population, because 1% of them have natural immunity. Crey didn't use the disease when they made it as a anti-Rikti weapon because it'd kill 1% of the human population. Problem is that the cure for the DE version will kill 1% of the population (those with the natural immunity) while saving the other 99%.

I think you just mean “the DE version of the disease will kill 99% of the human population” (as opposed to “the cure for the DE version”) – the whole rest of the paragraph you wrote is consistent with that.

Quote:

Well the obvious choice is to distribute the cure. 1% mortality rate? That's probably stricter than the FDA standards on most medicines!

That was the intent – although I’m cognizant enough of some players not liking their characters to be forced to take a certain action with moral consequences that I at least wanted to give the player the option of not distributing the cure (without having to just quit the arc).

But since the point of the challenge is to commit an evil act for the greater good, I wanted to make sure that “Mission Complete” required you to actually commit the act (murder 67 million people, and – most likely – kill a fellow hero), while “Mission Failure” was choosing to commit an even more evil act that isn’t for the greater good (although that’s my view of it – I can’t guarantee that’s how anyone else would take it). From a design standpoint, that made sense to me.

Quote:

But the wording for the fifth mission is really confusing about how I'd supposed to go about it. When I finally do enter the mission apparently what I'm supposed to do is deliver SpeedBolt to Crey for detainment, or are they going to kill her? The wording makes little sense and I'm not sure just what the author is trying to convey. Especially since not distributing the cure would be the evil choice as it would kill off 99% of humanity.

I struggled with exactly how to make it clear – but at least as is it was clear enough for you to nail it. Still, I’ve already proofread and re-wrote that part several times – I assure you I’ll be continuing to think of how to make it more clear.

With one exception: both choices are evil. I’d make the argument that killing 67 million people who would not have otherwise died is evil. I’d also argue killing over 6 billion people when you had the means to prevent it is evil. But that was spelled out in the challenge: you have to commit an evil act. The design idea was if you want to succeed at the mission, choose the evil act that’s actually for the greater good.

By the way, I don’t mean any of this as argument – if you didn’t get it you didn’t get it, period; it seems utterly pointless to try to argue that you should have gotten something that was confusing to you. I’m just explaining what was going through my head (and stating that I’ll still give thought as to how to better explain what’s going on).

Quote:

So I deliver SpeedBolt to Crey (why did it have to be Crey instead of Longbow or something? Is this the "evil" option and they're going to kill her?) and then release the cure into the water system. I think the main reason that this falls flat is that I'm killing off one percent of several billion people. Maybe it if was 20% or so then it'd have some real impact. Rating: ****

Crey’s been a pretty major player in the storyline – and they’re the ones that actually know what’s going on since they developed both the disease and the cure. I didn’t make it Longbow because they’re extremely minor to the story, and it would have required space I didn’t have to concoct a reason for them to suddenly know exactly what’s going on and what’s at stake – I’m not saying I couldn’t have added that in, but, frankly, I thought the story was already complex enough; I didn’t really want to add to that.

I didn’t want to make it 20% because that just struck me as completely unrealistic (the cure kills those immune to the disease, but making 20% of the population immune struck me as, well, unrealistic – my understanding is that gene-conferred disease immunities are usually only present in a very small percentage of the population).

However, you do raise the point that if someone focuses on the 1%, rather than just how many people 1% is that they may not comprehend just what they’ve done – I added another clue that tries to put this into perspective (basically, it spells out just how many people will die, and tries to confer to the player just what it means to kill 67 million innocent people) – hopefully that’ll help prevent the next player from thinking killing 1% of the human population is “no biggie.”

Thanks again very much for the unexpected review! I appreciate the feedback, and I hope some of the changes I’ve made will make the arc a better experience for the next player!

So tonight I went poking around looking for a new arc and stumbled upon this.

Arc ID: 335733
Arc Title: The Dark Side of the Moon
Author: @Hallucinogen
Morality: Heroic
Length: 4 Missions
Level Range: 40-54
Description: Thwart the plans of a hero's evil twin and save our world from invasion!

Mini Review:
---------------
First mission needed a better hook in the intro rather than "no time to talk, go do something for me." Could also use some more NPc dialog, maybe some patrols. Instead of three scientists who say the same thing and give the same clue, you could use three different scientists with different clues or make only one scientist required (the one with the clue). The ambushes that the boss calls are much too big, had over a dozen robots on me by the time he went down. It was amusing seeing a battle between two Gravs, but Dominator beats Controller in this case.

Time for some Praetorian shenanigans. I don't see anywhere in the clues or dialog where he called himself Mooncipher, that's a bit of a plot hole. At least there is a good reason for Moonscribe to not be appearing inside the missions so far, the old "we need to split up and search every possible location ASAP" excuse.

Truefeather was right at the door, making this one of the quickest rescues of all time. Seems that she doesn't want to leave though and has powers of her own so she joins me to beat up Mooncipher and some guy called Steel Eclipse. Hey Truefeather, Fort me, not the Singularity!

Ok, things get even weirder when Steel Eclipse turns out to be Steel Equinox and he's friendly. I guess the comment at the start of the mission about this feeling like some weird soap opera was accurate. However, Mooncipher is now an AV instead of a Boss for no apparent reason other than because I have two boss-class allies with me, not that they were of much use since his Singularity kept knocking them around and distracting them while I did all the work.

Seems that the story is moving a bit past wife stealing and into Mooncipher causing general chaos just to make Moonscribe's life misreable. I'm not sure exactly where all these other fake Moonscribes are coming from, but the real one has decided to join me for this mission. However, it does make things strange in that the PPD are hostile to me as well right from the start when it should only be him that they're trying to detain. I haven't even done anything yet and already I'm being charged with aiding a criminal, strangely they're saying this to the Neuron robots running around. Why does Mooncipher have access to these guys anyway? Ah, that finally gets addressed here after I defeat him.

Mooncipher is also back to being a plain boss and the first I come across, really he should just stay that rather than moving up and down in rank between missions. I also get the impression that these other Moonscribe copycats are inside joke cameos, as their dialog implies that I should be able to figure out who they really are. Ugh, once again I come across a custom boss with Hurricane, this one is really annoying as unless you have +perception you cannot see him until you get pretty close, which is a pain if you're flying out an outdoor map trying to find the required objectives. On the plus side, at least the impostor with the hurricane was a plain ol' Nemesis fake rather than another in-joke. Oh that silly Nemesis.

Anyhow, Moonscribe now has his name cleared and it's time to stop whatever it is that Neuron sent Mooncipher here to do. It is a bit funny that if it hadn't been for Mooncipher's inability to keep a low profile we wouldn't have had any advance warning of this at all.

Now I got the impression from the briefing that Neuron himself was supposed to be attacking Atlas Park, but when I zone in I only see the objectives to find Moonscribe and Mooncipher. Once again the random spawns place both of them within spitting distance of the entrance. Perhaps one of these objectives is a trigger, especially as there are so many allies scattered over the map. Not sure why the author used the Atlas Park meteor map instead of the other one with the arachnos flier.

Turns out that Mooncipher has pulled a sudden Heel Face Turn, too sudden to be honest. I'm going to keep an eye on this guy incase he pulls a betray while we fight Neuron, who has suddenly been spawned.

I take a trip around to see the other allies and it's a bit extreme. Neuron is a Praetorian after all, but having 4 boss-rank allies is pretty overkill for fighting a single AV. Once again the ambushes were overkill as well. I'm on only +0/1x here and having over a dozen robots tripping overthemselves to get to me while I pound Neuron into the ground.

Rating: ****