Citizen Razor's Attempt at a Review Thread
By
Armsman,
Posted on: 2009-07-11 15:38 in Mission Architect
Wow, bet you're wishing you hadn't "treated" yourself now Razor. 
If he's going to randomly pick my arc apart for whatever reasons, I feel I should at least be given the courtesy to justify my choices and the content and nature of the arc, is all
I edited my earlier post to reflect that it was the second mission (my fault, I didn't make it clear that I played through the first mission again to get to the second mission). In any case, the screenshot is right there. It says "Miss Liberty" in my version.
Futhermore, regarding the quarantine thing, the issue isn't that I left it to go to the AE building. The issue is that by the time the contact tells me I'm in a quarantine, I've already left Atlas Park *twice* -- once for an entire week. At that point, it's kinda too late for the quarantine to work. The cat is out of the bag, so to speak.
As for the ending, in order for the ambiguous ending to be successful, the hero needs motivation for *both* endings. That's why it worked on that Buffy episode. On one hand, she's a superpowered being with a tight circle of friends in the "fantasy" world, but boy does her love life sucks and she has the weight of the world on her shoulders. But on the other hand, in the "reality" world, she's a mental patient but her parents are alive and not divorced. Buffy had to choose to say goodbye to her parents forever when she opted to remain in the "fantasy" world.
Here, the player doesn't have such a choice. Let's see, I can choose to be a super-powered being who gets to smack around villains and fly around Paragon City while teaming up with other superbeings and fight Lord Recluse, or I can choose to be a mental patient who maybe ... MAYBE ... will be allowed to return to "real life" but only if I take my medication regularly? Well, geez, that's kinda an easy choice, isn't it? There is no hard choice for my hero to make.
Ultimately, what you did was ambitious. You tried to do something very different with the MA, and I think that for the most part you pulled it off very well. Most people will, and have, enjoy it immensely. It's something that hasn't been done before in MA, as far as I'm aware. Unfortunately, not everybody is going to share the same reaction. People bring their own views, likes, and prejudices to the table. I just happened to have seen that same story done before, down to many plot elements being the same, and that affects how I view the story itself.
I mean, if somebody wrote a MA arc about a prince of a feuding royal family, all of who have their own powers, whom gets involved in a power struggle in a faraway land that is slowly falling apart to chaos; a lot of people might love the story and enjoy it, but I'd dock points because of the similarities to Roger Zelazny's "The Amber Chronicles" series even if the architect had never heard of Zelazny before.
Play my MA arcs!
Tracking Down Jack Ketch - ArcID #2701
Cat War! - ArcID #2788
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Ultimately, what you did was ambitious. You tried to do something very different with the MA, and I think that for the most part you pulled it off very well. Most people will, and have, enjoy it immensely. It's something that hasn't been done before in MA, as far as I'm aware. Unfortunately, not everybody is going to share the same reaction. People bring their own views, likes, and prejudices to the table. I just happened to have seen that same story done before, down to many plot elements being the same, and that affects how I view the story itself.
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This is poor reviewing form. If you are judging a story on things external to that story, then you aren't judging the story on its own merits. You're bringing a personal bias and things having no bearing on that actual story into the equation, things the writer has no control over, which is, frankly, unfair.
A reviewer should judge a story on its own merits. That's the whole point of review, to present a resonably fair and unbiased look at 'did this story succeed in what it was attempting to do', not 'does this story cater to my personal bias'.
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Futhermore, regarding the quarantine thing, the issue isn't that I left it to go to the AE building. The issue is that by the time the contact tells me I'm in a quarantine, I've already left Atlas Park *twice* -- once for an entire week. At that point, it's kinda too late for the quarantine to work. The cat is out of the bag, so to speak.
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After the first mission, you're not placed in quarantine because they don't know what has happened yet. Furthermore, since you show no signs of the Blight, there would be no reason for them to suspect anything was amiss. Nobody is placed in quarantine after the first mission since they don't know what the Blight IS.
After the second mission, you've exposed yourself to the Blight - again - and now that they know what is going on, they quarantine you that time, to be safe, in case you WERE infected on your second foray into atlas.
Since you were fine the first time, there's no reason to assume you would have spread it, given how quickly everyone else deteriorated under it, if you had been infected it would have already shown. (Admittedly guilty - this part is somewhat inferred but they mention in dialog the speed at which it spreads and manifests) The contact mentions he is putting you in quarantine after this mission because of that exposure - they want to be safe, since they've seen what it is now, so they lock everyone involved away in the quarantine.
At the start of the third mission, it mentions that while you were in quarantine, it escaped, and spread anyways, and that they're letting you out of the quarantine only because 1) the infection is already fully contaminated the area they need to send you to, and 2) because you don't show any signs of infection, heroes are in short supply, and have experience dealing with it, you're the best remaining person they have available for their last desperate stab at a cure. This is again, all pretty much explained through the mission dialog.
I don't see anything here that really contradicts a reasonable course of actions a person might take in that situation.
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A reviewer should judge a story on its own merits. That's the whole point of review, to present a resonably fair and unbiased look at 'did this story succeed in what it was attempting to do', not 'does this story cater to my personal bias'.
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OK, let's look at the story itself.
In Mission #1, the contact asks you to "neutralize" a biological attack on Atlas Park. You do so, except one of the canisters has sprung a leak.
You come back a week later for Mission #2. You find Atlas Park a wasteland full of zombies, including Ms. Liberty. You kill her. You then inform the contact, who then put you in a quarantine because you came into contact with the blight.
In Mission #3, you find out that this blight has spread all over the world because Synapse got infected with it and ran everywhere with it. Since the quarantine is now useless, the contact sends you to Captain Mako, whose people made the biogen in the first place, in order to find / create a cure. All of a sudden things go weird.
In Mission #4, you find out that you're a mental patient with extreme delusions of grandeur. The contact is your doctor who is trying to get you to take your medication. You take it and roam around the hospital, finding out stuff about yourself.
In Mission #5, you begin to suspect this is a trap, so you palm the medication and start fighting the doctors in an attempt to escape the hospital. You also fight the contact, who you believe to be a noted supervillain, and you break free. The story arc ends with your contact switching between begging you to continue to take your medication and taunting you about his plot.
The ending is left ambiguous as to whether you're actually insane or not.
Here's the problem. You want the "fantasy" part of the story to be rooted in the real "CoH" world (hence your complaint when I mentioned "yeah, I'm not in a quarantine, I'm in the AE building). But it's not the real "CoH" world.
You tried to set up a situation where it may or it may not be a "Nemesis Plot" but it is so CLEARLY a Nemesis Plot. If the fantasy world was real, as you have set it up, then the blight is in full effect and most of the Freedom Phalanx is dead. Except the last time I stopped by Atlas Park, Ms. Liberty was still there training newbies (and PL'd MA babies). Clearly the "fantasy world," as you set it up, is not real.
The only possible conclusion is that this was indeed a Nemesis Plot, and the canister that you "neutralized" had a powerful hallucination agent put there by Lord Nemesis to get you "off the board," so to speak. So you hallucinated the "blight" and all of Mission #2.
It stands to logic that if Mission #2 was a hallucination, so was Missions #3-5. That explains the Clockwork King appearance in Mission #3 and all of the hospital stuff in Mission #4. The "medication" that was given to you before mission #4 was more of the hallucination agent. Only when you stop taking the "medication" do you return to reality and see through Lord Nemesis' tricks.
There's nothing ambiguous about this story at all. It's a Nemesis Plot. If I was truly schizo, then I would've returned to the "blighted" land to continue my paranoid fantasy, except I didn't. On that aspect, the "ambiguous" ending failed.
I'm done with this story arc. I think I've done a more than sufficient job of explaining why this wasn't a 5-stars story arc for me, and only a 3-stars arc. You don't have to like my reasoning, or even agree with that, but that's one of the dangers of opening your story arc up to the public. You'll get people who love it, you'll get people who absolutely hate it, and you'll get people who are "meh" about it. As long as it works for the majority of people, which your story apparently does, that's all that matters. It just didn't work for me.
Play my MA arcs!
Tracking Down Jack Ketch - ArcID #2701
Cat War! - ArcID #2788
Wow, you...uh... got the theme and 'only logical' conclusion of elements pretty much entirely wrong.
If anything, the arc does everything in its power to suggest that it's not a Nemesis plot. In fact, Solemnise in all likelyhood is simply Solemnise. You seem to obsess about this hallucingenic agent, and that right there is where you're making a huge mistake. That's only one interpretation of what's going on, and it's a pretty weak one to boot.
The whole sort of point is that you're sharply pulled from what you know to be 'acceptable' into a BLATANTLY impossible situation, and then from there, ripped violently into another equally impossible situation. The whole idea is that by the end, you should be questioning if atlas, Blighted atlas, the medical institute, and the asylum even exist, if they do, what ones do, and who is and is not telling you the truth. It also mentions right in the arc, if Solemnise is to be believed (and you SHOULD question him and his motives!) then you've had hundreds of different superhero fantasies before this one and Blight is just the most recent one you have thrown yourself in. It stands to reason they'd be disjointed, if you are, in fact, crazy.
Interpreting the whole thing as some laughable Nemesis plot is both missing the point, and taking the laziest, least imaginative route to solving the dilemma. It also only looks at it as 'the only (semi) happy ending is the only true ending' which is seldom the case in horror to begin with. Not all endings are happy.
I agree, it doesn't work for you, that's cool, and you have done an admirable job of stating your reasons, I just feel I have an equal right to justify my reasons as well. 
Thus is the nature of man. Born to bicker :P
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The whole sort of point is that you're sharply pulled from what you know to be 'acceptable' into a BLATANTLY impossible situation, and then from there, ripped violently into another equally impossible situation. The whole idea is that by the end, you should be questioning if atlas, Blighted atlas, the medical institute, and the asylum even exist, if they do, what ones do, and who is and is not telling you the truth. It also mentions right in the arc, if Solemnise is to be believed (and you SHOULD question him and his motives!) then you've had hundreds of different superhero fantasies before this one and Blight is just the most recent one you have thrown yourself in. It stands to reason they'd be disjointed, if you are, in fact, crazy.
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I know I said my previous post would be the last one, but I had to address this point.
If that was your point, then as far as I'm concerned, you failed. Sorry.
The "blight" is a BLATANTLY impossible situation? My toon's already defeated a Reichsman who was able to draw in energy from many dimensions' version of Marcus Cole. He's also prevented Lord Recluse from drawing in the powers of most of the world's powerful superheroes. His very first mission was to contain an outbreak of a contaminated virus. He's visited dimensions where the Nazis won World War II, where an eviler version of the Freedom Phalanx rules, and where an insane god slumbers. If he has been involved with all of those BLATANTLY impossible situations, then an outbreak of a fast-moving that creates zombies is, well, just another day at the office for him.
The problem isn't that the Blight is "blatantly impossible." The problem is that it drastically changes the status quo of Paragon City, thereby marking it as a "false adventure" when you regain your sanity and providing us with an easy point of "well, this is where the 'insanity' begins."
Another flaw in your premise is that my toon has had hundreds of different superhero fantasies before "Blight." The problem is, before "Blight" my so-called superhero "fantasy" was fairly consistent and the internal logic was solid. I didn't go to a ruined earth, then back to a world that was perfectly safe with no explanation whatsoever, then have a completely new arch-villain to fight the next day, then end up in a completely different city. If it is indeed a "fantasy" then I've had *one* long, consistent fantasy. Heck, the hospital itself reinforces that, by having the doctors and nurses call me "Citizen Razor" to "play along with me" and make mentions of Paragon City, the Freedom Phalanx, and Lord Recluse. A person with many different disjointed fantasies would have memories of different cities, different scenarios, and different events, many of which would be contradictory with each other. Although "Citizen Razor" might be the one constant in all of my fantasies, the nurses and doctors would never be able to know which fantasy world I had just emerged from and wouldn't refer to anything from Paragon City. After all, I could've just visited Metropolis, or the Marvel New York City, or Mars.
Dr. Nemesis might tell me that I've had many different fantasies. But if I don't remember them, then I have no reason at all to trust him. In fact, the only aberration in the memory of my "fantasy" is the events of "Blight."
If everything else is consistent except for that one aberration, then it stands to logic that it's the only one that isn't real. It isn't real because it's a hallucination. Therefore, everything after that point also isn't real until I regain my sanity.
I'm only "insane" for Missions #2-4.
You might've tried to make it so that it's "possible" my character is crazy. But if you look closely at how it's set up, it falls apart. You make too many assumptions about the character (the whole "many, disjointed fantasies" thing, for starters) that isn't true.
You might've intended for my toon to question if everything is real or not, but ultimately the only thing you did was reaffirm that the CoH-verse is real (for my toon) after all and that I was caught up in a failed Nemesis Plot.
If you want to make my toon question whether Paragon City is real or not, then you need to change the "Blight" and change it into something that won't drastically change the status quo of Paragon City. That one event is what firmly places the whole adventure into the "just a hallucination" camp. If the Blight itself isn't real, then everything after that isn't real either. If you set up a scenario where something *could* be real in regards to Paragon City, then everything that happens afterward *could* be real, and your "ambiguous" ending is actually ambiguous. As it stands right now, it isn't.
Play my MA arcs!
Tracking Down Jack Ketch - ArcID #2701
Cat War! - ArcID #2788
The fact that you -repeatedly- insist you're perfectly sane on the 5th mission means that I've succeeded in this arc far better than I could have possibly imagined. Your chains of half logic to justify it actually make me outright giddy. "I'm not crazy! It's all an elaborate Nemesis plot! It HAS to be! The status quo must remain!"
..awesome
Or that I see a plot hole that you're refusing to acknowledge. "No, my ending is perfect! It must be! Many people like it and have highly rated it!"
It's not perfect. There are problems with your ending, problems that I've pointed out. You can fix them and strength the story and make the story truly ambiguous, or you can stubbornly cling to it and let the story remain merely a Nemesis Plot. I showed you many of the places where your premise fell apart. It's up to you.
Honestly, IMO, your story arc is the MA version of "The Matrix." Highly popular, good word-of-mouth, lots of people think it's deep, but it's really just a story full of dime-store philosophy slathered on nifty special effects where if you think about the premise for even a little bit, it completely falls apart.
Play my MA arcs!
Tracking Down Jack Ketch - ArcID #2701
Cat War! - ArcID #2788
I think you're reading way too deeply into things, dude.
I think you're reading way too deeply into things, dude.
You cannot both claim that your arc is making some kind of philosophical statement and that people are reading it too deeply.
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"
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Wow, you...uh... got the theme and 'only logical' conclusion of elements pretty much entirely wrong.
If anything, the arc does everything in its power to suggest that it's not a Nemesis plot. In fact, Solemnise in all likelyhood is simply Solemnise. You seem to obsess about this hallucingenic agent, and that right there is where you're making a huge mistake. That's only one interpretation of what's going on, and it's a pretty weak one to boot.
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Just because it's an interpretation the author didn't intend doesn't make it invalid.
The Nemesis at the end of Mission #5 insists that the world has been wiped out by the plague and is his for the taking. Whether he's an actual Nemesis robot pretending to be Dr. Solemnise or a hallucination of your character, his words are definitely contradicted when you finish the arc and step outside the AE building. It's a jarring transition that cuts off whatever lingering feelings of uncertainty could have otherwise remained.
(Of course, I personally find that a *good* thing, because it means I can leave the entire mess behind me and assume my magical-construct-of-hatred-imbued-with-angelic-power is running through AE stories to try to widen her scope of emotional reactions.)
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The evolution on the debate around Blight kind of pains me. I haven't yet played it (it's next on my queue) but it sure looks like what happened is that lots of not-so-critical players played and enjoyed it, and when the buzz mounted, suddenly a whole other level of scrutiny was applied to the arc.
I found in my own stillborn review thread that I was shifting between review modes. In one mode, I would highly rate the author on the basis of creativity and effort, because compared to the vast majority of badly-sketched and incomplete arcs, it was pretty good. But then an author would tickle me enough to start comparing the work to published fiction or some of the better canon, and suddenly little flaws that I'd otherwise overlook became jarring.
Witch, I hope you take all the review feedback with a grain of salt - because, after all, every reviewer brings personal bias, it's unavoidable - but also with an open mind and a dose of humility. Some of this feedback brings up valid points that can be used to make the story stronger for the 10% of the playerbase who might care deeply about a particular angle, without damaging the enjoyment for the 90% who already liked the story.
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
"You cannot both claim that your arc is making some kind of philosophical statement and that people are reading it too deeply."
Why not? South Park does this like every week.
Mind4EverBurning: Don't worry, I have my grain firmly in hand. I see City of Heroes as basically The Tick Online, people who go this overboard into deconstructing everything into their own personal logic systems to this extent kinda scare me. Demanding everything follows their own exacting demands and 'realism' in a game where you fly around in spandex shooting lightning is kinda silly to me, and seems a waste of energies better spent just enjoying the game for what it is.
Suspension of Disbelief only goes so far. Just because someone can shoot lightning doesn't mean that all logic goes out the window. Even though we bend the laws of physics to fantastic degrees they still for the most part apply. Just because the premise is fantastical doesn't mean that things don't have to make sense at all.
Lazarus, most of your 'logic' problems were addressed in the other thread, and pretty much boil down to you either intentionally or accidentally ignoring mission dialog, or just personal opinion - "you didn't make an NPC called Marcus Cole this mission falls apart" etc. I mean, if you want to get this nitpicky on the arc, I hope you're at least this nitpicky with all arcs to keep things fair.
All you've done is outright ignore the points brought up or twist them around to make it look like the critic is making unreasonable demands of you.
I won't be answering any more posts here on this topic, let Citizen Razor's thread get back on topic.
Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend #114284
By @FredrikSvanberg
Description: A story of love, death and betrayal which will bring you from the heights of Aeon Citys penthouse apartments, to the irradiated catacombs of Bloody Bay. You must deal with a new group of heroes trying to clean up the Rogue Isles in this moral and emotional rollercoaster ride!
Number of Missions: 5
Level Range: 15-20
Character Im using: Wolfpack Blunt, Lv12 Spines / Willpower Stalker
Challenge Level: 1
Although Wolfpack Blunts a few levels below the level range, I decide to use him. Hes a Stalker so I should be able to handle this, but Im playing this on Challenge Level 1 just to be on the safe side. This is, so far, the only lowbie villainous story arc that Ive been asked to review.
The contact is Desdemona the Glint, one of the newspaper mission providers in Cap au Diable. She wants me to steal diamonds. I wonder if I should switch to my female Mastermind toon, but shes only Lv11. I decide to stick with Wolfpack Blunt for now and agree to rob diamonds. Desdemona wants 30% of the cut.
I enter the mission ... and its empty! Its like somebody called in a bomb threat. The objective is to get the ice. I head to find the diamonds ... and ahh, theres a lone Outcasts boss there. Apparently Ive walked into a trap. The Outcasts boss wants to capture me so that they will be on the news as heroes. I make Ice Age (Lead Freezer) into a popsicle. After I do so, Outcast spawns appear everywhere. I dont see any glowies, and this is a small map, so I start slaughtering Outcasts right and left. When I clear the map, the mission is over and theres no diamond for me. Bummer. Ice Age informs me that they took the diamonds to their secret base.
I return to Desdemona sans diamonds, but Im not entirely empty-handed. I do grab a few moneybags out of spite. She is not pleased and allows me to keep the money I stole. She then comes up with a brilliant master plan to get revenge on the Outcasts. She will spread rumors that I am going to kidnap somebody famous. When the Outcasts show up to stop me, Ill humiliate them. Sure, why not?
[ QUOTE ]
So the plan is real simple, no? First I tell everyone you are going after young, hot, trendy, beautiful celebrity girl, to kidnap, or kill, or worse!
[/ QUOTE ]
This should be you are going after a young, hot ...
[ QUOTE ]
Then you can ask them where my diamonds go,
[/ QUOTE ]
Should be Then you can ask them where my diamonds went.
Ahh, Desdemona *herself* is the hot, beautiful, trendy celebrity girl that I am to kidnap. I see. Sure, why not? I enter her penthouse and I am impressed with how loaded she is. I ponder kidnapping her later. But first, the Outcasts and the diamond. My objective is to kidnap Desdemona the Glint.
While on the way to find Desdemona, I find a random Longbow Nullifier. I have no idea why hes there, but I make him engage the emergency teleportation beacon anyway, just out of sheer spite. I then find Desdemona, who is surrounded by various Longbows, and I kidnap her. The objective is now to find the Outcast hero.
Backtracking, I find Firezone, an Outcast Lead Scorcher. He goes down quickly to my mighty Assassins Impaler attack and now I have some kindling for my fireplace. The missions over.
After I torture Firezone, he tells me that the Outcasts are coming to the Rogue Isles to do what the so-called heroes wont. I wonder why theyre trying to be heroes when theyre villains in Paragon City. This part needs some more clarification.
In any case, theyve taken over a few blocks in Bloody Bay and are protecting the people there against the Freakshow. Firezone also informs me that they will sell the diamond and use the money to help the Bloody Bay denizens.
[ QUOTE ]
!t's true,
[/ QUOTE ]
Should be Its true.
In any case, I return to Desdemona to see how our master plan is proceeding. She claims that Longbow showed up first and she couldnt get hold of me in time. When I inform her of the Outcasts hideout in Bloody Bay, she warns me that its bad news.
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But you got good information from mangled Outcast, no?
[/ QUOTE ]
... from the mangled Outcast ...
[ QUOTE ]
before you go rushing off like the angry bull in arena.
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... angry bull in an arena.
Desdemona then informs me that everybody is rushing over to Bloody Bay to steal the diamond. Oh noes! We cannot allow that to happen! She doesnt know where the Outcasts are hiding, but tells me to just look for where all of the fighting is taking place.
[ QUOTE ]
I have arranged transport with Arachnos flyer.
[/ QUOTE ]
... with an Arachnos flyer.
I enter the mission. The objective is to find a clue. Theres a joke in there just begging to be let out, but I have nothing. I see the Golden Giza in the distance, but write it off as my mind being affected by the cosmic radiation. I wander around and find a Circle of Thorns boss named Teremax who is blabbing something about getting their crystals back. I shove some crystals up Teremaxs bottom. After I treat him like a high school boy dunking on LeBron James, Teremax begs me to come back to him after I defeat the Outcast guardian and we shall discuss business. Like Id help those CoT pansies?
Now the objective is to find the Outcast guardian. I wonder what elemental name Ill see next? I havent dealed with a Lead Brick or a Lead Shocker yet, so Im guessing itll be either Electric Arc or Stonehouse. Im wrong. Its The Cthonic. It looks like a Lead Brick reskinned with red (ruby?) stones. It doesnt matter, as I make him personally acquainted with his brothers rubble and gravel.
Defeating Cthonic reveals the entrance to the Outcasts base for me. Its a tunnel underground. Teremax then tells me that I am so clearly his master and god, and he has a deal for me. If I get the crystals for him, hell exchange them with *real* valuable diamonds. The crystals are worthless and only meaningful to the CoT.
I head to Desdemona to discuss this shift in plans. Shes all for it. Personally, I wouldnt do it, but Desdemona is blinded by the shiny so I go ahead and do it anyway.
I enter the Outcasts base. The objective is to find the crystal and to destroy all would-be heroes. I guess I have to kill all of the Outcasts then. I hope this map isnt too big.
I find a locked chest. I guess I need to find a key for the locked chest. I backtrack and run into a Shivan named Jiggles. Its an Elite Boss. This is gonna be an interesting fight. By using my bag of Stalker tricks, I manage to take Jiggles down.
[ QUOTE ]
From the shivan's gooey remains you pull the key to what looks like a chest.
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That sentence is awkward. Id change that to ... you pull what looks like the key to a chest.
In any case, I now have the key. I guess its time to kill all of the Outcasts on the map. I find kill-all maps to be annoying, unless its on a tiny / small. Just a personal preference. Ah well. In any case, after I defeat all of the Outcasts in the map, I open the treasure chest and get the evil magical voodoo crystals.
I meet up with Teremax again, who tells me to meet him at a cemetery (which is misspelled cemetary throughout this arc) to exchange the crystals for diamonds. Desdemona is cautious about this whole deal and tells me to be careful.
[ QUOTE ]
Just promise me you will be careful, yes?
[/ QUOTE ]
You will sounds overly formal for Desdemonas tone as presented throughout this arc. Id change it to youll.
Anyway, I promise to be careful. Ill be extra careful to inflict maximum damage when inserting my spine-bananas through Teremaxs body after he tries to betray me.
I make it to the Cemetary and the objective is to exchange the merchandise and to find the raid leader. I find Teremax surrounded by some Outcast goons and free him. When I free him, asks me to lead him to the exit, which is kind of tricky to do on an outdoors map. After I do so, he actually *gives* me the diamond. Im flabbergasted. The CoT mage actually kept his word?!?
In any case, I now need to find the Outcasts raid leader. I find a custom mob named Tunguska. Hes all green and orangey. His bio says that hes spent too much time in Bloody Bay and that the radiation has changed him. While I fight Tunguska, he goes all emo on me and begs me to kill him. I oblige. Mission is over.
I return to Desdemona and give her the diamonds. She is so excited that she puts out. Score! The story arc is over.
Final Summary: While the story arc was overall decent, I dont think I ever saw an explanation as to why the Outcasts suddenly wanted to be heroes. I suppose you could argue that Frostfire used to be a hero before becoming a villain, but that doesnt mean that the Outcasts are full of borderline hero/villains. Theyve always been a fairly villainous group.
There were other instances where the motivation of the characters didnt really jibe with the CoH lore. Why did Teremax simply exchange the crystals for the diamonds? I mean, even if I did smack Teremax around, he should still be trying to figure out a way to betray me in the end so that Id have to forcibly get the diamonds from him. Also, my villain has fought the CoT many times. I doubt Id be so willing to just hand over some powerful voodoo crystals to them merely to get diamonds so I can score with Desdemona.
Finally, I dont think Desdemonas voice quite matched her in-game voice. Here Desdemona came off as a flighty, ditzy bimbo. I mean, sure, shes a little bit flirty, but she doesnt throw herself all over you as she does in this story arc.
Other than those, the missions were well-designed and I enjoyed playing through it. Although it was set to Level 15-20, my Lv12 Stalker didnt have any problems soloing it. The tone and mood of the story arc was well done and I never felt overly frustrated, not even during the kill-all missions. The objectives were clearly laid out, and lore problems aside, the story arcs internal logic was consistent.
My rating: 3 stars
Play my MA arcs!
Tracking Down Jack Ketch - ArcID #2701
Cat War! - ArcID #2788
Thanks for the review.
I guess I'll use some less obscure lore the next time - the precedent for "heroic" outcasts is a well-hidden CoH "secret". The explanation for these heroic outcasts however is right there on the bottle: these Outcasts are breaking off from the rest of the gang and trying to become actual heroes. By doing so they have crossed your plans, and you have decided to crush them - or Desdemona has, if your character lacks such motivations.
Your helpful spelling tips were wasted on Desdemona, she insists on speaking like that. At least when I'm writing her. She also wishes to remind you that the Longbow in her building were there for the same reason as the Outcasts - they had heard the rumours she had spread and figured they would protect her, despite her protests. She told you so after you were done with the mission.
Thanks for noticing "cemetary", nobody else did. I'll fix it, eventually.
I suppose convention demands that Teremex tries for a final attempt at treason but on the other hand I'm writing him and I decide whether it's his style or not. He's an ancient highly intelligent wizard who sees a chance to get what he wants in exchange for something he doesn't care about. Why should he attack someone who already beat him once?
Once again, thanks for the review.
Winner of Players' Choice Best Villainous Arc 2010: Fear and Loathing on Striga; ID #350522
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I guess I'll use some less obscure lore the next time - the precedent for "heroic" outcasts is a well-hidden CoH "secret".
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Do you mind pointing out that story arc to me? I honestly don't remember it. It might've been something I played years ago or skimmed through.
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She also wishes to remind you that the Longbow in her building were there for the same reason as the Outcasts - they had heard the rumours she had spread and figured they would protect her, despite her protests. She told you so after you were done with the mission.
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Yeah, I made a note of that. But at the time I first entered the mission I didn't know why Longbow was there (and really, at that point, the player shouldn't know until they find Desdemona anyway). That aspect of the story made sense to me.
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I suppose convention demands that Teremex tries for a final attempt at treason but on the other hand I'm writing him and I decide whether it's his style or not. He's an ancient highly intelligent wizard who sees a chance to get what he wants in exchange for something he doesn't care about. Why should he attack someone who already beat him once?
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If you don't succeed at first, try try again? :-) It just didn't seem like CoT's style to me. And from my character's perspective, it isn't wise to just give CoT some crystals that they could then later use against me, all for some shiny diamonds. It might make sense for Desdemona, but it doesn't make sense for my character.
Play my MA arcs!
Tracking Down Jack Ketch - ArcID #2701
Cat War! - ArcID #2788
Gemini (5/21 6/21): Its time to revisit a little history this week. Be sure to bring your reading glasses, and your sidekick. You will find Ms. Liberty in Childhood Horrors #5369 by @Xenite Blackthread
Description: The story of Ms. Liberty and the feud between Lord Recluse and Statesman as it is exposed by the player when Lord Recluses recent scheme, to exact revenge through Ms. Liberty and every other Hero in Paragon City, is discovered! Can you and your team stop the diabolical Mind-Web Virus?
Number of Missions: 3
Level Range: 45-54
Character Im using: Citizen Razor, Lv50 Invulnerability / War Mace Tanker
Challenge Level: 2
The next part in my AE Horoscopes series of reviews. The contact is Ms. Liberty. Just a note, but I read the Web of Arachnos novel that was published a few years back, so I do know a little bit of that CoH lore. Anyway, lets see how this story arc goes. Im making note of the fact that the description mentions your team so this might be difficult to solo.
Mission #1. I enter the story arc expecting an epic battle with Lord Recluse or something like that. Instead, I get a random radio mission featuring the Council where I need to save some guy who used to be a Lost. Huh. Very well. I have 3 data terminals to find and a hostage to free. After I free the hostage, I am informed that I need to find the Council boss that has the cipher key for the data terminals I just hacked into. I find the boss, who is some whiz hacker kid, and basically the Council is working with somebody called The Overseer. Ms. Liberty takes the data and gives it to Positron.
Mission #2. Apparently the Overseer is now mucking with the emergency hospital beacon. At this point Im completely confused. This story arc has absolutely nothing to do with the description that was provided. I check the AE information to make sure that I didnt accidentally click on the wrong mission. #5349. Childhood Horrors. Yep, its the right mission. Huh. Whatever. I have to destroy three Dampening Devices. Arachnos goons are protecting them, so maybe theres *some* connection to the story description after all. After I do that, I am told I need to find Positron. Once thats done, I now need to defeat the Overseer and learn about his plans. Call it a hunch, but I think the Overseer is Lord Recluse.
I fly all over the map trying to find this Overseer. Nada. I then proceed to clear the map of enemies. Finally I find Overseer ??? hidden waaay back behind a building. He mentions something about the Mind-Web Virus so finally theres some connection to the description. Its one of the Crab Spider bosses. Not surprisingly, its not the real Overseer. When I defeat him, he tells me he captured one of my friends and that she has some alarming news for me. Huh? Okay.
Now the objective is to find my ally. So yet again I have to fly all over the map. *sigh* At least Ive already cleared the map. Its Sister Psyche. I free her, and now I have to escort her to the exit? On an outdoors map? *sigh* At least its one of those maps with a truck. I bring Sister Psyche to the truck, and finally this mission is over. I am told that Ms. Liberty is in a coma due to the Mind-Web Virus. Oh noes! Cowardly is misspelled in the mission exit pop-up. Apparently the Overseer planted the Mind-Virus Web into the hospital emergency beacon system, and when Ms. Liberty was defeated in another battle she got infected with it.
Mission #3. Ms. Liberty created a mind-lock with me? Umm, why? Wouldnt it make more sense for her to create a Mind-Lock with somebody she works with everyday, like, say, one of the Vindicators? But lucky me, I was chosen! Positron warns me that its likely no one can save Ms. Liberty. Of course I ignore this warning. Sister Psyche tells me that Ms. Liberty has erected powerful shields around her mind and that it has something to do with a childhood memory. Ahh okay.
I enter the mission and theres a lot of objectives. 6 objects of power to find, locate the flittering shadow, and defeat Ms. Libertys shadow. Thats a mouthful and a half. The mission is on an Arachnos map and is full of ... vampire bunnies? Umm okay. Im just going to rush through this mission as fast as I can.
Basically, Lord Recluse gave Ms. Liberty some book about vampires, and Statesman gave her a stuffed bunny, and those two things somehow morphed into vampire bunnies that were patrolling Ms. Libertys mind. Yeah, I dont get it either. In any case, I defeat Ms. Libertys Shadow, free Ms. Libertys Mind, and meet the rest of the objectives. This mission is over. Ms. Liberty is happy to be back. Story arc over.
Final Summary: Lets see. Where to begin? The first mission had very little to do with the arc and was basically a random radio mission. The second missions chained objective meant a frustrating run all over the map trying to complete the mission. The third mission doesnt fit CoH canon. Lord Recluse and Statesman were feuding a LONG time before Ms. Liberty was born. They used to be best friends, but grew apart shortly after they both got their powers from the Well of Furies. This happened in the period between World Wars I and II, a long time before Ms. Liberty was born. Theres no way Lord Recluse was even a part of her childhood. Basically, this story just doesn't make any sense at all.
My rating: 2 stars
Play my MA arcs!
Tracking Down Jack Ketch - ArcID #2701
Cat War! - ArcID #2788
First off, that's not the first mission, it's the second. Secondly, I don't know what version of my arc you're running but I fixed that months ago. A SG-mate pointed it out when I first made the arc.
I went in RIGHT NOW to see if I'd missed it. Seriously. Are you just messing with me now? I know this arc is all about mind-screwery but really now.
http://rhodox.sidemoon.net/temp/libertywhat.jpg