MCMs 5-Star Reviews!

Am I the only one who suddenly hears the GI Joe theme in their head from looking at Tommy's costume?

Tommy: " GI Joe? GI flaming Joe? Do I look like a bloody Yank? Do i fight like a bloomin' Yank? Do I sound like a flippin' Yank? Gordon Bennet, I've 'eard it all now! Don'tget me wrong, I 'ad some good mates from the US durin' the War, an' I've made more since, but I'm as British as Fish and Chips, mate, and don't you forget it!"



Eco

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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

Thanks for the review and the feedback, MCM. I very much enjoyed your review style.

I've been considering a map change for the first mission, after previous feedback from those who disliked it. I wanted a map with a lot of roads for obvious thematic reasons, so as yet I haven't changed it, but I'll have a look around for other maps I could use.

Your feedback about making the bosses more visible is very useful - I'll have a look at the emotes and find something visible from a distance that also suits them.

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Originally Posted by MrCaptainMan_NA I got to the point where I was considering it bugged, sent you a PM in game (your inbox is full btw)

I got one feedback comment from you inside MA, saying you had played the arc, but if by "PM" you mean that you sent me a /tell then I doubt you'd have been able to get through to me anyway as I'm on the EU servers. To my knowledge we can't send cross-server tells to the NA servers (or receive them). I'm not sure why it said the inbox was full though - maybe it's a stock response (or maybe there's a @Lord Mayhem on the US servers as well who hasn't played in a while but has a full /tell buffer).

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Originally Posted by MrCaptainMan_NA [OK, I think I know what happened. Either I missed it the first time cos it was up on a high gantry (and first, I met the clue telling me to go check out the tunnel for Archon Rogers, so I didn’t really explore this area much), or it didn’t spawn till after I met the ‘false Rogers’. Either way, it’s a quite big map to backtrack on a toon with no travel power, so you might want to think about that.]

I think you missed it. It should spawn from the beginning. What you describe did happen to me once in testing and to a friend who tried it post-release, but not since - luck of the draw I think - we all miss glowies from time to time. Sadly I can't control the glowy placement as precisely as I would like - some of those office maps have messed up spawn points too (i.e. stuff designated "middle" showing up in the first or last rooms).

I've had to change that map once already after my initial preferred choice developed a regular "hole in the world" that players could fall through. The existing map is one of the few remaining that works and has enough placement points to fit all the objectives, but I'll think about changing it. Sadly some of the smaller office-to-cave transition maps do lack some of the more interesting room layouts and/or lack sufficient mob/item-placement points for this mission's needs.

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Originally Posted by MrCaptainMan_NA [I have to say, I don’t like that mission title. it’s too flippant for the tone of the rest of the mission

Compared to the (intended) comedy accent on the 5th Column boss in the Coralax mission it didn't register to me as too flippant, but I'll definitely think about changing it.

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Originally Posted by MrCaptainMan_NA [phew another big map, this ] [really big lol]

Yeah, I know some of the maps are long - the arc was paced that way mainly for selfish reasons - so that my friends and I could get a fresh L1 character to L7 solo purely on this arc, ready for 3 newsies/pbands and a mayhem/safeguard to get them to L10, so that we could avoid the tired/old existing newbie content. I also tended towards larger maps because I hate zoning so much (my zone loading times seem to be getting slower by the month...). Honestly one of the problems I have with Dev-created newbie content is that sometimes the maps are so small it barely seemed worth the time it took to get into them, the mission was over so quickly.

But I will re-assess the maps I used for the 1st, 4th and 5th missions.

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Originally Posted by MrCaptainMan_NA [I LOVE Captain Blackheart and First Mate Bolo, they were a lovely little surprise at the end of the mission ah, except it wasn’t the end lol ]

Yeah I was going to write an entire arc based on Spectral Pirates at one stage, but gave up on the idea after getting feedback from some players saying they hated fighting the pirates most of all on this arc. I guess it depends on powersets - I tried to include a variety of low level factions on this arc - ones that players don't face often in the usual newbie content - so that everyone had a chance to face enemies that were easy for them as well as enemies that were tough for them. Can't please all of the people all of the time, I guess.

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Originally Posted by MrCaptainMan_NA [That last bit, with the escort and then the ambush triggering with the arrival at the exit, was a bit anticlimactic. Here’s a suggestion – make the map smaller, and have Rogers rescue trigger a few (or a lot if you want) Council patrols in the map, plus an ambush to deliver the ‘hold it, he’s ours!’ dialogue. Then, the escort will be a ‘running the gauntlet’ affair instead of a silent free run if the Player’s been clearing on the way in. Making the map smaller will avoid fatigue, doing it on that map would have tired me out I think. I was ready to finish it when I found Rogers.]

Noted. Archon Rogers was originally set to "betray on arrival" at that door, but I couldn't get that to work reliably and it ended up bugging the mission, so I re-wrote the arc to have the Council hunting him and just put in an ambush. I also wanted the players to have time to read the clue from Rogers before being hit by the ambush, hence leaving it until the exit door. This also gives players the option to just exit and escape if they hate ambushes - and I understand many players do from the feedback I've had on my other arcs (where I've toned down many of the ambushes - against my own preferences, because I really like ambushes as I find that they liven up an encounter and add challenge).

I do understand what you mean, though - I don't like rescue/kidnap missions on large maps at the best of times and I should have avoided it here - this is one occasion where intent and story should bend to accommodate gameplay, so I'll revisit it when I have time and try to find a better/smaller map and a different/better ending.

I do like the spawning patrol idea and had considered it (I have used it on my other arcs), but it does use up spawn points on the map that static spawns would otherwise use, which can make a map seem very sparsely populated on the initial runthrough (and I really hate maps with lots of empty space - it just kills an arc for brutes in particular).

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Originally Posted by MrCaptainMan_NA OK, overall, Top banana. I went from lvl 5 to lvl 8 during your arc, so that was cool. Pluses: I liked the story, there were a nice selection of different mob groups to fight, and the map choice was fine. Captain Blackbeard was awesome, I’d be happy to see him again.

I'm glad you enjoyed it. On the whole this arc was more influenced by xp-gain pacing and gameplay than story/theme, unlike both of my other arcs (which are very story/lore-heavy), so in that respect it did the job it was created for.

Sadly at the moment I feel the MA is in flux with the Devs removing so many mobs/maps without notifying us, so I am struggling to justify the cost of buying extra story slots (i.e. paying the Devs for the "privilege" of making more content, when they've delivered so little mission content themselves in the last few issues...) until the MA stabilises. Plus I lack motivation to devote another 30-50 hours to planning, writing, creating and testing another arc since my magnum opus (my 3rd arc, id: 220049) has seen so little play since I published it a couple of months ago (when compared to my first two arcs), especially as the typical MA audience seems more interested in farms or single missions.

I'm planning to wait and see how I16 & GR changes both the playerbase's attitudes and the Devs' intent towards the MA before I consider paying to write any more content for it. If things improve then I'll certainly think about wheeling Captain Blackbeard out again, probably in a pirate-centric arc.

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Originally Posted by MrCaptainMan_NA [Please don’t be offended by my apparent dismissal of the contacts briefings. Ragtime’s running the show, mostly]

I'm not I've probably been playing villain arcs for too long, hehe. I don't mind that style of contact briefing - I find it more characterful than most of the hero-side contacts, anyway - and it was intentional in this case (yes, it is supposed to be King Midas inside the car, and from the lore I've always thought of him as quite a haughty character even though we never actually meet him in-game).

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Originally Posted by MrCaptainMan_NA Negative: I really didn’t like the contact. His dialogue was well written and typo free, but to me it didn’t gel with a hero. I’ve been trying to work out what ‘neutral’ means, recently, and I’m not happy with it, tbh. My heroes don’t want money for their actions, and villains don’t want to either be told what to do or to do ‘good’.

I must admit I have had previous feedback on this arc about the contact not suiting very heroic players, but then on my whiter-than-white heroes I always stick to only "heroic"-tagged AE content anyway. This arc is deliberately flagged neutral so that anti-heroes can do the mission (as well as villains) and several of my heroes are anti-heroes so it didn't seem odd to me - I figured that RP-motivated players of very heroic characters would probably avoid it because of the neutral tag.

As a counterbalance my first/debut arc (id: 84285 "A Mythos of Mystical Mysteries"), while also neutral (being a "save the world" kind of thing), is slanted more towards heroes, and the contact for that is Faathim the Kind so he's not condescending at all - and of course I've had villain players telling me that arc is not villainous enough

Of course you can't write a mission to suit absolutely every player or character as tastes and RP-motivations differ. While I started out wanting to write neutral arcs to serve the widest possible audience, I did consciously decide after this arc that I would stick to only "heroic" or "villainous" as I think it yields better results by being less ambiguous (and is easier to write too!). Consequently my 3rd arc (id: 220049 "Overshadowed by History") is completely heroic and it's the arc I'm most proud of out of my three. You might prefer it, but because its final mission is L45+ it fell outside of your guidelines for what you wanted to review in this thread (as does my other arc).

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Originally Posted by MrCaptainMan_NA It’s this disparity that knocks my rating down from 5 stars to the 4-stars I eventually gave. The contact aside, I had a ball doing this arc. I’ve said before, if I find myself Clearing All when I don’t have to, just because I’m having so much fun, then you’re definitely doing something right.

Thanks. That seems very fair. In fact in some ways I'd rather get 4 stars than 5 stars - I've had much more success looking for good stories in the MA by searching the 4-star stuff than the 5-star (I'm wondering if a lot of the 5-star stuff gets there and stays there based on author popularity/fame more than the actual merits of the arc itself).

Thanks for the review - some great feedback and as a bonus I really enjoyed reading it too!

Queue now:

Love's Labours Lost 242292
Dream Paper 1874
Redoubt Operations #1: Fires over Kalago 1297
Bricked Electronics 2180
Et In Arkadia Ego 281575
Trademark Infringement 2220
Old Dog, New Trick 81318
Silver Aged 280017

After that lot, I've decided to run a few of the more famous arcs that I haven't run yet, by some of the 'names' here in our forum. I've made a list, and I'll PM the individuals concerned before in case they've got any objections to me running their arcs.

So no more submissions for the time being please.

Eco.

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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

Sorry I've been lax with the runs lately, I've had a bit of a grim time in my personal life and it's been hard focus on the game. Hopefully a corner's going to be turned soonish, though, and i'll get back into the swing of things.

Eco.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

Dream Paper, Arc ID 1874, by @GlaziusF. Very Long (1 small, 3 medium, 1 large maps), heroic. Lvl 11-20. 252 plays! 4-stars as I start.

Description tells of the Lost on a breaking-and-entering spree that leads to a ‘disquieting conclusion’. I’ll be taking my lvl 14 TA/Arch Defender Robin Copperfield in to this one.



“I never really minded the Lost, you know. I saw them preaching in the streets, of course, but I just left them alone and they seemed like a bunch of harmless idiots. TV sets on their heads, and wastepaper baskets on their shoulders…I mean, come on. That changed last week though. I got a call from a mate of mine, Alfonse. He’s a bicycle courier, and he knows quite a few people around the City. Useful guy, and quite sweet too. He sounded frantic on the phone, said his apartment building was being invaded by Lost. I couldn’t have that, could I?

Mission 1: Clear the Lost out of the Singer Lofts

“His building did have an infestation problem, all right. There were two of them right there in the front hall. I tried to reason with them at first, maybe find a peaceful resolution, but they weren’t listening to my arguments, so I whipped out me bow and they soon got the point. Ha, see what I did there? They got the point? You know, arrows, point? …look, when I’m from, the height of comedy’s a man hitting himself in the face with an inflated pig’s bladder, okay?

Anyway, after that I decided it was best to stick ‘em first, and ask questions afterwards. I cleared out the first floor, first…found a nervous Outcast being held prisoner…I let him go…found some old boxes piled up here and there too, full of loot the Lost had snatched from the apartments…

[is this supposed to be a sort of run-down place? The maps quite clean etc.]

“…on the third floor I found something interesting…a broken jar with some kind of drug packets, looked like. I didn’t have much time to check it out in detail, cos I had some more Lost to deal with first. Whilst I was seeing them off, Dickhead appeared…sigh…Dickhead’s this dark fairy thing, won’t stop bugging me, likes to pop up whilst I’m fighting and ‘help’. I can’t stand the thing; it’s like a giant mosquito. That’s why I call it Dickhead…

“Anyway, it looked like Dickhead was here for the duration…I carried on into the building…there were more stashes of loot, more Lost...and I found an old granny being given a bit of a roughing…after freeing her, I had her tag along in case there were any more that I’d somehow missed on my way up…

“…and a few more Lost in the atrium, and it looked like the building was clear…it was weird, they’d piled up quite a stash of stuff, but the little jar seemed more important to them…I wondered what that yellow-white powder was…

[A little less time to search the boxes would be nice, and it’s too big a map for a Clear All, IMO]

“Alfonse was wondering too…he said it was Granny Yan’s medicine! Which turned out to be a batch of Class A nose-candy after a pal of his at the Copshop had had a gander at it. Intriguing…and the paper it was wrapped in was a clue to an old warehouse that the Tsoo had been spotted near…

[A small wording point: ‘Some of the paper that powder was wrapped in is stuff I scraped up for Grandma Yan,’ – Your use of ‘scraped’ jars for me here. It doesn’t collocate well enough with ‘paper’. I’d ditch that sentence completely, and just go with ‘some of the paper wraps were made from order forms…’ or sth]

Mission 2: Take Out the Tsoo Drug Lab’s Boss

“The warehouse was, as they say, a ‘hive of activity’…looked like I’d got there just in time…I think they were getting ready to scarper…

[lol I realize on this mission that Tsoo are not the mob group for Robin. Caltrops, those irritating throwing stars, the sorcerors…]

“Phew…it was hard going, that warehouse…those damn caltrops really get up my nose…and I HATE sorcerers. Bloody sods won’t just sit still and take an arrow in the arse….

[ I died. The mobs I’m encountering at challenge level one are mostly yellow and orange conning, lvl 16 groups of 2 or 3 enforcers, sorcerers, ancestor spirits. They’re hard work for Robin and because of the linearity of the map, it’s a de facto clear all]

“Before I got to the loading dock, which was where all the major hubbub was coming from…

[If I’m supposed to be heading for the loading dock, why didn’t I just enter from the rear lol]

“…I met a Tsoo with a clipboard, arranging the getaway…Since he was after a sharp exit, I gave him a few pointers…sharp…pointers? …ah. never mind…

[God, these enforcers are so annoying lol. That noise as the shuriken hits you is really irritating, ‘chhwoo!’, and then they throw their caltrops and the slow and –jump hits me, and I’m reeady to throw sth at the screen. grrr.]

“After a long time and a forest full of arrows, I got to entrance to the loading dock, and a big Tsoo called Stalking Tiger tries it on. Turns out he’s that old woman Yan’s grandson! I took him to pointy town, and whilst he was dabbing at his various bloody leaking holed with a bit of cotton wool he told me that the drugs inside the paper was just a herbal painkiller, not harmful or addictive unless taken by the crateful. Oops. Then I heard someone shouting about a falcon or something from back inside the warehouse. I was too tired to investigate, though, and I still had to clear out the loading dock for good measure, before heading out to report back to Alfonse…

[after that trawl through all the Tsoo on the map, I’m perplexed and quite dispirited to be forced to clear out the last room as well, when the Boss spawned on the balcony by the ramps before you even get to the loading bay proper. The Outcast patrol that spawned at the boss’ defeat didn’t appear, but I read their dialogue in the NPC chat.]

“Alfonse wasn’t too happy that the Tsoo lead was a dead end. He started babbling, frankly. I couldn’t understand what he was rabbiting on about. He said it was his fault, he’d got the jar from some people who were going to throw it out? I think the kid was losing it…

[er, I’m as confused as Robin is I’m afraid. I think that Alfonse is hiding something from me, but either I’m too dense or he’s too subtle for me to be sure. Granny was also a bit coy abt something earlier. Its all very missable, however.]

“Luckily, round about then, The Lost attacked a police lab, the very same police lab that was currently testing the medicine and the paper it was wrapped in. Must have been a highly specialized lab, that, cos Alfonse deduced that they could only be after the paper. Not the medicine, the paper. I felt sorry for the poor mad kid, so I headed over to the lab to see what I could do to help…

Mission 3: Free the Police Lab from the Lost

[I was hoping for a police station, tbh, after the first two long clear all experiences, but here’s a tech lab map. I hope it’s not too big]

[Are any of your maps set to Random?]

[The nav instruction contains ‘2 captive technicians’ – a verb would be nice]

“Once inside, I set off to investigate, sticking Lost on the way. In a huge room a little ways in I freed a technician who said something odd about the paper, about how he couldn’t look away when he looked at it…

“Then I helped another guy, who also rambled about paper…

“And then I saw a sheet of blank paper stuck to a computer console, so I looked at it. As you do. It was some kind of psychic paper, I guess, because even though it was blank, I saw a picture of Steel Canyon in my head.

[That glowie – computer console. The chat text does sort of describe its the paper stuck to it you’re looking at, but why not use a bulletin board?]

“On the next floor, I found a safe, containing lots of paper. I grabbed it all for, er, safekeeping...

“Finally, I rescued another technician, who told me that it was indeed psychic paper…on my way out, I met a few platoons of SWAT going in. Luckily they didn’t see the reams of psychic paper stuffed down my top…

“Alfonse let me in on where he’d got the paper from in the first place…a youth hostel…he didn’t explain the connection to the Lost, but told me he’d get back to me once he had some more info…

“A little while later, we had a lead. A troll had dropped off some more paper to the youth hostel. The police had tailed him to a cave, and that was where I was headed next!


Mission 4: Talk to the Troll Paperboy

“The cave complex was big. I made my way in, dealing with any trolls I came across, searching for clues. After a while I found some interesting looking rocks.

...

“I also found some superadine capsules and a ledger. I grabbed them all, maybe Alfonse or someone he knew could cook up some sort of clue from them. Whilst I was in there, I also had a fight with a troll leader and interrogated the troll delivery boy. He told me where he’d got the paper from…some guy called Blaloch…

“Alfonse was surprised at a Troll wanting to go straight, but happy that we had a lead to maybe put an end to this. The paper was coming from a warehouse. Shame it wasn’t a shop, then I could’ve made that joke about the guy who bought a paper shop, and you know, it blew away?

“Anyway, I headed over to the warehouse to check it out…

Mission 5: Investigate the Warehouse


[‘9 printing supplies to collect’ – you like to pile it on, don’t you? ]

“I went through the warehouse as fast as I could, sticking Lost, collecting evidence and destroying machines. It was a psychic paper printing press, well; it was before I got there. Afterwards it was a load of smoking wreckage.

“And then I met this mysterious Mr Blaloch. He attacked me, I think he was under the influence of the paper, because after I’d subdued him he sort of came round and acted nice. He didn’t really know anything wither, unfortunately. Oh, Hubert the Troll paperboy was in there too, but he looked as though he could handle himself so I left him alone…

[I didn’t fancy adding more aggro to the situation, since I was doing ok on my own anyway]

“Alfonse was pleased that Blaloch was ok, but that was it as far as this case went. No idea who was responsible, or why they had made the paper, or, well, or anything…I tell you, I’m not going to consider that day seized.”

[end]

Hmm. I tried three times to get into this arc, and the first two times I had to give up. The first two missions were too hard for me, too long, and I just wasn’t having fun. I tried with a lvl 16 FF/grav troller too, and it was the same. Maybe something in a patch was messing things up, but I didn’t find a single white-conning mob those first two attempts. I’ve had some personal problems recently, so my mood in general has been a bit muted, so maybe that contributed.

The third attempt I decided to calm down and take it slowly and just run one mission per session. That helped negate the sense of ‘trawl’, but it’s not how I like to play tbh. The third time I did find white-cons, but there were still far too many Headmen and Ancestor spirits for my liking lol

Pluses: I got loads of XP during it. Started at lvl 14, finished at 16. There’s no bad backtracking that I noticed. All the appropriate text fields have been filled out, searching bars, object descriptions etc. The were no impossible objectives or EBs or Player-killer ambushes etc.

Negatives: I felt that maps 1,2,3 and 5 were too big, especially since without any stealth they were essentially clear alls for Robin. I got a sense of padding from the whole arc, tbh. Also, the plot was very confusing to me (For example, what was the Outcast 'falcon' comment for?), and the end non-resolution was an anticlimax.

Sorry I couldn’t be more positive. It’s a technically problem-free arc, with plenty of stuff to read and mobs to fight, its got a varied selection of objectives, but it just didn’t grab me I’m afraid. I rated it 3-stars

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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

Well, first off, I hope you can get yourself into a better mood soon, man. Malaise sucks, and I'm not talking about the purple swirly guy.

Quote:

I got loads of XP during it. Started at lvl 14, finished at 16. There’s no bad backtracking that I noticed. All the appropriate text fields have been filled out, searching bars, object descriptions etc. The were no impossible objectives or EBs or Player-killer ambushes etc.

Well, that's basically the intention of the arc: to tell a decent story in maps big enough to level on.

Quote:

I felt that maps 1,2,3 and 5 were too big, especially since without any stealth they were essentially clear alls for Robin. I got a sense of padding from the whole arc, tbh. Also, the plot was very confusing to me (For example, what was the Outcast 'falcon' comment for?), and the end non-resolution was an anticlimax.

Well, a worse way to say "no backtracking" is "essentially clear all", innit? I tried to put in maps with corners you could cut - and yes, all those maps are selected. At least, they are now. Realized I'd discarded the changes to specific maps sometime shortly after I went into the editor to check on the pacing.

I basically made the arc assuming that you'd have fun fighting the stuff in your way. It's definitely "padded" in the sense that a lot of the maps are larger than necessary, with sensible extra features poured in so they don't seem too empty.

One of the things I try to go for, because I don't really see a lot of it in the canon, is a sense that there's more going on in Paragon City than is strictly related to the things your hero's currently interested in. Mission 2, where you interrupt some shenanigans (I've put a bit in the exit popup about that), and mission 4, with a bunch of optional investigative bits about the Trolls, are the more obvious extensions of that.

Obviously I picked some groups your defender and controller had trouble with, and it didn't help any that the RNG wanted to make life miserable for you too.

Redoubt Operations # 1: Fires over Kalago, Arc ID 1297, by @Andromeda. Very long (1 small, 1 unique, 2 medium maps). 48 plays, 4 stars as I start. Description tells of Impervium deposits in Africa sparking tensions. An organization called Redoubt is asking for help from superhumans. There’s a link to a ‘Virtueverse’ link. I put that in inverted commas because up until I googled it 10 minutes ago, I had no idea what the Virtueverse is (hit my 57 month vet badge this week folks ). For anyone out there who doesn’t know what it is, it’s a ‘library of fan created original content for the City of heroes MMORPG virtue server’, according to the ‘about’ section on http://virtueverse.com. So it’s an RP thing, then

Now, although my home server is Freedom, I’m not averse to the odd bit of roleplaying. I popped over to its site to see if there was anything I needed to know to better enjoy the arc, but it warned me that it was basically a huge spoiler article. It was related to a few more articles, namely one

on a specific character’s timeline,the fictional Southern African country Kalago, the organisation Redoubt,the bad guys page, and a wikipedia page on the chichewa language.

After seeing all that without reading it I am in somewhat of a conundrum. Do I play through and then read, or read first and then play, or just play?

I opted to start playing, and if I was getting into any difficulty, then I knew where to go for a chichewan phrasebook or the shoe size of Emperor Surtr or what have you.

Oh, the arc is lvl 20-35, so I’ll be using Tommy Atkins, my lvl 31 MA/SR scrapper.



“Africa. The last time I was in Africa was durin’ the war. No, not that war, the WAR. World War II. Before I ended up ‘ere, o’ course. Yeah, I did a bit of me service in Africa. Course, that was North Africa, in Tobruk on Operation Crusader. Never bin back…until last week…

“A mate of mine at the UN, Paddy O’ Toole, put me in contact with a Lieutenant Commander Gilgamesh of a UN sub-organisation called REDOUBT. Stands for a mouthful, an’ no mistake. Peacekeepers, they say they are. Needed a bit o’ superhuman muscle ter ‘elp ‘em with a problem in Southern Africa…seems some country in the interior discovered Impervium deposits, ‘an…well, where there’s bubble there’s trouble, as me mam used ter say. The Prime Minister ‘ad bin kidnapped by a bunch of Sky Raider mercenaries workin’ fer a Separatist group.

“They were keepin’ ‘im in a cargo ship in a place called Kbamba bay. Prime Minister Sizwe was in that ship, an’ I ‘ad ter get ‘im out. Fair enough…Gilgamesh couldn’t ‘ave read me file very closely, ‘e seemed ter think I wasn’t used ter extraction missions…I’d soon put ‘im straight…

Mission 1: Rescue Prime Minister Sizwe

“After a long, dull plane flight, I was chucked out over Kbamba Bay at 20,000 feet. Makes my eyes, water, does free-fall. Still, it’s quicker than usin’ a chute, an’ over water there’s no need really…keepin’ an eye on me target ship was the difficult bit. After I’d ‘it the drink, I surfaced and swam ter the ship…a quick shimmy up the anchor chain an’ a little bop on a guard’s noggin’, an’ I was in…

“I squatted on a gantry an’ ‘ad a dekko at the interior of the ship…



"Raiders everywhere…sneakin’ through was goin’ ter be difficult. Fightin’ me way through shouldn’t be too ‘ard, though – there’s only so many bad guys you can fit on a ship, after all…I took a deep breath an’ piled on!

“You ever bin on a picnic with jam sandwiches, an’ the news gets out ter every bee in a ten mile radius that grub’s up? That’s what I felt like. It was nuts! They must ave bin getting’ danger money for this lark, cos they weren’t bein’ shy about ‘avin’ a go, I can tell yer. I usually goes fer the engineers first, before they can activate those bloody force field generators, but with this amount of goons it was difficult even pickin’ em out of the masses! An’ with the bloomin’ teleporters jumpin’ in and out addin‘ ter the chaos, mostly I just kept me ‘ead down and biffed anything that was close…

[Awesome fun!]




“I worked me way through the ship, buildin’ up a sweat, an’ after wadin’ through a sea of Sky Raiders, I found the PM. ‘E was in a spot of trouble, looked like. I soon ‘ad ‘im out of it. Once the bad guys were snoozin’, I checked ‘e was ok, and we started ter make our way back ter the exit…

[The PM says ‘did you hear that?’ to give a heads up to the ‘Enemy Infiltrator’ spawning back on the way, but I’m not sure exactly what ‘that’ is lol.]

“We jogged back through the ship, but soon found our way blocked by some newcomers…geezers in purple armour, either robots or armoured humans, I’m not sure…but they were in our way. I told Sizwe to lie low while I dealt with em. They were a bit tasty, I don’ mind admittin’, an’ half way through the fight a load of their mates turned up! It was a bit dicey for a while…



[Yikes! The initial spawn wasn’t too bad, but then the ambushes arrived! I had to leave the PM there whilst I retreated to recover. I didn’t die, and Tommy loves ambushes, but it felt slightly wrong in terms of the plot to leave the Prime Minister there while I ran off. Technically, they could have grabbed him and had it away on their toes before I got back. Not much you can do about that, though. I’m not suggesting removing the ambushes, anyway.]

“…but not too dicey. After that, it was a short jog to the exit, and the extraction team took Sizwe off me ‘ands…

“Gilgamesh said that the purple blokes were members of a group called The Mechanius Imperium…how come bad guys always choose the stupidest names for their gangs? With a header like that, you’ve gotta expect an Emperor somewhere, right? Self-proclaimed, I bet.

“Anyway, Gilgamesh was worried about the civvies in Kalago’s capital, Lilongsa. Seein’ as ‘ow I was already near, I offered ter go an’ lend an ‘and…

[The briefing etc could make a little more of the fact that I’m already in Kalogo; it seems to suggest that I’ve left there?]

Mission 2: Save the Citizens of Lilonga

“Gilgamesh gave me a file on the Maniac Imperium, as I call ‘em, an’ it turned out they were robots. The group sees itself as an ‘emergent nation of AIs’, it said in the report. I didn’t think much of their diplomacy so far.

“Lilongsa was a madhouse. Gunfire, the screams of energy weapons…the Redoubt heli swooped in low and dropped me off in a position on the edge of town…I ‘opped over a wall and jogged down an alley, then popped me ‘ead out…and ran into a patrol of the purple robot blokes engaged in a full on barney with some sky raiders! Straight into it, as usual!

[oops lol. I saw three mobs a little way away, thought I had CJ on, leapt at them, and SJed way over them and into a massive battle between the MI and the SR!]

“So there I was, neck deep in rampaging robots and the bloody Sky Raiders. I was spoilt fer choice fer targets! The raiders were easy enough, buncha woofs the lot of em. Those robot buggers were a bit ‘arder ter deal with, but, well, when yer bin through D-Day…

[That fight was fantastic. It felt like Rikti Invasion, the sheer number of mobs around me. I was hovering around a quarter health for the last half of the fight. Great fun]

“After that, I took a breather and surveyed what I could see of the city…it was a warzone…I could see a civilian off towards the central square; hiding from the battle…I loped down the slope and into it again, fighting my way to her through the marauding machines and the mercenaries squabblin’ over the territory…bloody bastards, the both sets…why can’t people be left alone ter live their lives, eh? Some little country wins the geological jackpot, gets a chance ter make summink fer itself, an’ the jackboot ‘ordes comes crawlin’ outta the woodwork. Makes me bloody angry…this robot ‘nation’…no home country of its own, so it thinks it can just take one from someone weaker, eh? Not if I’ve got anything ter say about it…

“When I got near to the civilian, I nodded to ‘er ter stay down, an’ cleared an area around ‘er. When she was relatively safe, I ‘ad a think about what ter do with ‘er…I couldn’t take ‘er with me, it was too dangerous. I told ‘er ter keep ‘er ‘ead down, an’ I’d try ter clear a bigger area…those bloody metal sods ‘ad got me right wound up, I’d be ‘appy ter put a dent in their army…



[Tommy’s angry enough to Clear All, and I’m having enough fun to stick with it too.]

[On a more serious note, the rescuees stay where they are after the rescue. I know there’s an issue with hostages on outdoor maps, but it still looks a bit odd for them to calmly stand hands on hips after rescue with more mobs in sight. Maybe you could do something with their dialogue and animations that would help?]

“Street by street…yard by yard…through the shattered ruins of people’s ‘ouses…me fists pounding metal, me knuckles bleedin’, the stink of oil an’ the screech of servos…they found out what ‘appens if yer mess with one of Monty’s boys!

“…I rescued more civilians that afternoon, but not enough…the damn robots and the raiders didn’t care about the civvies in the way of their bloody fight…

[The battles that are spotted around the map are great, but I wish the trigger distances for them were shorter; often I’d see them happening in the distance but they’d be over by the time I’d fought my way to them. Have you filled the map with as many as you can? Is it possible to trigger more from rescues?]

“Eventually, I stood, pantin’, atop a pile of mangled metal an’ dead raiders, sweat drippin’ off me brow an’ blood drippin’ off my fists…this district of Lilongsa was reclaimed…

[I enjoyed that mission, but I think the atmosphere of a city under total attack could be enhanced if the briefing/debriefing made a little more reference to other heroes and/or Redoubt rescuing other civilians in other sectors of the City. I rescued I think 6 civilians, which is a little small scale for what I think you’re trying to suggest. Top fun all the same]

“After that I sat in a medical tent whilst a medic bound me poor knuckles…but I didn’t ‘ave a very long rest. Gilgamesh was on the blower; two of the civilians I’d rescued weren’t civilians at all, but Imperius robots. Two ‘alves of a gestalt wossname, ‘e said. I didn’t pay much notice, tell the truth…I was knackered. But I was the closest superhuman ter the firebase where they were, and they’d started teleportin’ in more Mechanius troops. That firebase was where the Prime Minister was…Well, it wouldn’t ‘ave bin the first time I’d ‘ave rescued a prime Minister twice in one day…time was pressin’, so I got me skates on…

Mission 3: Reclaim Redoubt Firebase 572

“Bloody ‘ell, this was a tall order…I ‘ad 90 minutes before the timelock on the base central core opened an’ the Metal Empire forces could swarm the place. I ‘ad ter get ter those two agents who were teleportin’ the troops in…I wasn’t sure ‘ow many floors there were, an’ there was no way I could sneak through…I ‘ad ter plow me way through them, one punch at a time…So I buckled down an’ started plowin!

[lol 90 minutes, and the briefing seems to suggest that it’s going to be a Clear All…Once I’m inside, the Nav instruction is to Defeat a boss and then Defeat Remaining Enemies…I’m clearing as I go anyway, but I wonder how much time I’ll have. From the looks of the map it’s not a big one]

“As I fought me way onward and upward through the base, I played the wheelbarrow game…yer know what that is? It’s a game ter make borin’ work go by faster…say yer got a hundred bricks ter move, an one wheelbarrer, that takes 20 bricks. Yer load it up, and move the 20, and while yer on yer way back yer think ter yerself ‘alright, I’ve moved 20 out of 100, which is a fifth of everythin’an’ I’ve got 80 left, which means I’ve already done a quarter of what I’ve got left, an’ if I does what I’ve already done, namely another 20, then I’ll ‘ave 60 left, which is only 3 times as much as what I[‘ve done already…’ – yer get me now? All that thinkin’ takes time, yer see, an’ before yer know it there’s another 20 gone, an’ you ‘ave ter change all the maths, an
that takes more time…

"Anyway, while I was deckin’ them metal bastards, I was thinkin’ ‘it takes me around…4…5…6 seconds ter take out one of these metal gits, so that’s 12 a minute, an’ I got 90 minutes left, which is just over a thousand…I ‘ope there ain’t more than a thousand of ‘em in ‘ere’…”

[The maps not too big at all…on the third floor, after about 15 minutes, I find the EB. I’m glad of the generous time limit now, because she takes a few trips back to the vendor for inspirations…]

“I finally emerged from the last elevator to find the main mare and her company tooled up and ready for aggro. The door was there, tickin’ away…She was a big bird, this one…and packed a wallop too…Still, as Benny ‘ill says, I like em big! She was a bit of an ‘andful, but I gave ‘er a spankin’ in the end…I ripped one of ‘er arms off, an’ was about ter beat ‘er about the face with it when the bint teleported away! Then, though, polishin’ off ‘er mates was easy peasy…well…relatively…After that, I just let meself slide ter the floor an’ wait fer the doors ter open…maybe there was a cuppa on the other side of the door…

[Quite a hard fight, that. I’m wondering if there’s going to be a Big Bad in the end mission that’s worse than Kali…if there is, I might have problems ]

“Well, there was a cuppa, thankfully, an’ I needed it after that bird’s little love taps, but it was awful, and at any rate, the Redoubts techies were all over me like a rash askin’ question’s an’ naggin’ me fer intel. I directed ‘em ter the wreckage of the bird’s arm…then I ‘ad a kip.

“An hour later I was woken by Gilgamesh. They’d been able ter isolate a location from somethin’ in or one the arm, it seemed. The location of the Animaniacs base. An’ they wanted me ter go in an’ close it down fer good…there was a teleport node in there that’d need smashin’ inter bits, fer starters, an’ the leaders of this assault too. In fer a penny, eh?

Mission 4: Thwart the Mechanius Imperium Invasion

“Underground. That’s where the base was…under flamin’ ground. I’m built fer caves, me, on account o’ bein’ so short. I made me way in, an’ almost immediately bumped into that bloke from the ship.



“‘E was a bit put out ter see me, an ‘is mood got worse when I smashed his face in! ‘E called fer ‘elp, the big pyjama, so I smashed their faces in too. I’d only bin in there fer 20 seconds! Gordon Bennet!

[lol I had to use all my inspirs up on that ambush, but it was worth it. Rather an unexpected event so close to the entrance, but not unwelcome.]

“I ‘ad a little stretch after that, an carried on…the mechs got a bit thin on the ground fer a while, which was nice, but then I found a cavern with some of ‘em torturin’ a sky raider. I’m no friend of mercenaries, but ‘e was a human, I guess, so I sorted him out. ‘E offered ter ‘elp me, but I left ‘im behind whilst I scouted ahead. In a huge room, I found the teleport node thing. I tell yer, those tinmen did NOT want Tommy ter smash up their toy…waves of the little buggers kept swarmin’ inter the room…fist fodder, they were…



[actually, the ambushes would have been a killer but for the happy fact that the node was conning purple (lvl 35), and so I was easily able to take its destruction slowly, and so not get all the ambushes at once. Higher levels who can one or two-shot the node would get all the ambushes at once, which might prove a handful. As it was for Tommy, each ambush was just right. The fights were tense but not too hard.]

"With ‘er teleport gzmo in bits an’ one of ‘er arms missin on account o’ yours truly, I was pretty sure that that bird would be more than peeved at me…I set out ter see if I could make ‘er day a bit worse…

“…and sure enough, when I found ‘er, she ‘ad a look on ‘er face like a bulldog chewin’ a wasp. I went back ter the Sky Raider an’ asked if ‘e’d like ter give ‘er some payback, ‘an ‘e was in like a shot. We made our way back ter where she was, and the both of us went at her at the same time…

[I’ve got a full set of inspirations, and Captain Klink. Hopefully, he’ll be able to tip the scales…]

“What a pain in the jacksie that metal bint was! ‘Er lost arm didn’t seem ter worry ‘er none. It was ‘ard goin, really. Klink put up a good shuftie, I gotta be fair, but it was touch an’ go fer a while…when she started flaggin’ she called fer her mates, an’ we ‘ad ter retreat around the corner so’s we didn’t get swamped. Once she was back on ‘er own, though, it was just a matter of time…



[Klink did help a lot, but I had to be careful to let him take the agro off me, and he also needed a bit of management cos he’s only a lieut. The ambush looked set to wipe us out tbh, but I think we were saved by pure luck; she seemed to stop attacking us for a little while, and I took care of the ambush whilst she sort of stood there. Odd.]

“Well, that was that…the Redoubt squads flooded in, an’ Klink was carted off ter be interrogated. With the Mechanius fought off, Kalago looked safer. The Raiders withdrew from the place too. With a little bit ‘o luck the country could get back on its feet again…an’ I could go ‘ome…for an actual proper cup of tea…”

[end]

Right. This is a good solid arc that gave me a load of fun, basically.

Positives: The Sky Raiders were perfect for Tommy, really, and your customs could have been designed with him in mind. The customs also look really nice and their bios are detailed. The maps were well received and the objectives were appropriate. All the various text fields are present. I especially liked Missions 1 and 2.

Negatives: There were a few very minor typos here and there. Kali was a little bit annoying, taking just a very little bit longer to down than would have been perfect. And the civilian evacuation mission needs a bit of tweaking IMO.

Overall, though, a solid arc that Tommy and I enjoyed very much. I’ll be playing the next one on the basis of this.

I thought about what rating I felt it deserved for quite a while. The arc, as I said, was very enjoyable to play. However, the story itself, and the writing that delivers it is not quite up there with the stuff that has really grabbed me by the balls and/or the heart, and so I couldn’t grant a 5 I’m sorry.

If we could rate out of 10, it would be on the cusp of 8 and 9, and I’d be moaning about not being able to rate out of 20.

As it is, I gave it 4 stars because although the playing was funfunfun, the feeling wasn’t totally there.

Suggestions: I think mission 2 is where you could really sink the Player into the personal disaster of a city of civilians under attack. Those hostages you rescue are a bit faceless tbh, and giving them more emotionally engaging dialogue could really make it stand out more as an emotional experience as well as a great gaming one.

Eco.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

So my queue is now:

Bricked Electronics 2180
Et In Arkadia Ego 281575
Trademark Infringement 2220
Old Dog, New Trick 81318
Silver Aged 280017
The Tubbius Trilogy Digitally Remastered

After that, I'm planning on running a few that I want to or that have been recommended by others.

Eco.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

Thank you very much for the review MCM. I'm taking a look at those points now to see what can be done to improve upon them. Either way I'm glad you enjoyed playing this one. I imagine subsequent arcs will probably pique your interest more since the purpose of this arc is mainly to introduce Redoubt and the Imperium to players to show who they are and what they do.

MCM, is there any news of what happened to the review of Love's Labours Lost? It was first in the queue, now it's not even mentioned.

Bricked Electronics, Arc ID 2180, by @GlaziusF. Very Long (2 unique, 3 medium maps). 292 plays, 4 stars as I start. lvl range 8-20, heroic. I’m going to take in a little-used toon of mine, Vince Vector, an Ill/Sonic Resonance Controller, lvl 9.


Hopefully I’ll get some juicy XP out of it.

“A hacker called Mark Freeman got in touch with me after my last gig, waving a mobile phone around. He wasn’t after my number; he’d found a ‘ghost’ on it. He’s a mutant, can talk to machines, he says. he didn’t say exactly what this ghost was, only that it was ‘nasty’. He asked me if I had a few hours to spare to help investigate, so after I’d sorted out 17 of the groupies, I had a quick shower and woke him up. He wanted me to check out the shop where he bought it….

Mission 1: Investigate Davids Cellular

“The shop was open, but when I got inside, something wasn’t right…I hate musak in shops, but when some young acne-ridden knob’s got bloody Green Day playing’s when I really get angry. This time all I could hear was…jetpacks. Hmmm, there’s something there…Bat Out Of Hell did it with motorbikes, maybe I could do something with jetpacks…

“Anyway, I had to check this place out, so I wandered into the store proper, humming the riff from the Sweet’s Blockbuster…always gets me in the mood for a fight, that…na na na na-na-na, na na na na-an-na…

“First thing that caught my eye was a bulletin board with the staff schedule on it. The owner wasn’t working today…then I heard talk from out the back…yep, the place was being robbed…NA-NA-NA-AAAAAAA!!!

“In the back room I spotted the thieves…Golden-garbed geezers with jetpacks. There were 5 of them. I sang a little song and 2 of them became my bestest friends. Pretty soon they were all eating dirt. I found a copy of a newspaper called the Rogue isles Protector on the leader...

[Short, atmospheric mission. V nice.]

“After the cops had come for them, I headed back to Mark. He knew who the golden dudes were – Goldbrickers, high-tech burglars, basically, from the Rogue Isles. The manager of the store gave us the location of the warehouse that the spooky mobile phones came from, though, so that lead was still hot. Well, warmish…I got in my corvette and drove over for a look…

Mission 2: Investigate the warehouse

“The warehouse was quiet from the outside, but once I’d pried the door open, the unmistakable noise of Clockwork assailed my tender lugholes. Pfff, bloody clockwork…I bet the Clockwork King’s a Kraftwerk fan…

“The clocks in that warehouse weren’t alone; there were other weird little robots too. Luckily, none of them were too hard to handle…I found a few crates of stuff, including a bunch of mobile phones that had been repaired…and then I found something more interesting. A sort of charging station…I think it was for the clockwork, though I hadn’t seen them use anything like this before…I dismantled it to be safe, and carried on…

“In a corner of the warehouse I encountered a hefty robot built from old meteorological components, it looked like. He was a sturdy old thing, took some time for me to break him up…

[I do like these custom robots; they’re very nice indeed. Their ‘bzzt-chhhh- dialogue is nice, too]

“Finally, after a few more crates of perfectly serviceable gadgets, I found
the one responsible. And it’s a young girl in a baseball cap. On backwards. She set the robots on me, the clockwork too.



“When they were bits, she told me her name was JJ and she mea culpa’d to designing the bots in the warehouse and ‘scrounging’ the phones and stuff for repair. She wasn’t a bad kid, I think. She was just making good use of the stuff that she found. Things that the everyday folks left behind, she said.

“Mark agreed with me, and figured her talents could be better used by the PDD droid maintenance division. She told us that the phone had come from a cave system connected to some vents to the upper air…probably someone had just dumped the phones down a vent to get rid. Mark was getting some Goldbricker vibes off the phone, but not enough was coming through. I had some spelunking to do, it seemed…

Mission 3: Find Mark some fresh discards

“As soon as I was inside, I knew this wasn’t an ordinary cave system. There were creates piled up near the entrance I’d used. Crates with Council markings on them. The overhead lights and hum of distant generators sort of gave it way, too…I ventured in with a degree of caution. Those Council blokes are Euro-pop fans if ever I saw one.

“A few minutes down the first tunnel I encountered some Council. They weren’t too hard to deal with. In the next chamber, though, I met some Clockwork…after I dealt with them, I found a large crate, stuffed with old bits and bobs. All high-tech, none of it working.



“Another crate revealed more of the stuff, and then a few levels down I heard some Council soldiers talking about someone called ‘Targus’…Deeper into the base I went…



[Not entirely sure why I’m looking for the base leader when my mission was to collect some gizmos for Mark, which I’ve done now, but XPs XP, I guess ]

“In a deep hideyhole, I spotted the base leader haranguing his men. He seemed a bit narked at the junk being dropped down into his base through the airshafts. What justification he had complaining about stuff being dumped into his illegal secret villainous base, I’m not sure. At any rate, his cover was ganked now, and I fancied messing with his head…

“His men soon became my adoring fans, and set about him with abandon. During his humiliation, he ranted about backup, and then about gas of some kind. His backup just joined the party, and after they were all sorted I reckoned I’d better go look for this gas he was threatening to use…

[Suggestion: Use a more linear map, put the Boss at Middle, and the gas cylinders at Back to avoid any ‘ah, the boss, here’s the end-oh, there’s more – and I’ve got to backtrack’ ennui]

“Back up another tunnel, I found the gas; three cylinders guarded by Council technicians…they were getting ready to release it, it looked like, so I jumped in and strutted my stuff. A few minutes later, the cylinders were in bits and the gas had harmlessly dispersed. It needed to be mixed and released in a certain way to be lethal. Lucky, that, eh? Two things bugged me, though. One, those clockwork, and two, how could the kid get the stuff out without the Council noticing?

[Nice encounter, that. The clue explains why its safe to blow up the canisters, and all three spawned in the same room. Enjoyable end to the mission]

“Well once I’d got back to mark, and he’d got back to the kid, one mystery was solved. She had a cloaking device! That would have been handy. Mark had got some more vibes off the stuff I found, too. Goldbrickers. Plus he’d got a location for them from the junk. He wanted me to grab some tech from them…

[er…I’m afraid I’ve sort of forgotten why I’m actually doing all this. He found a mobile phone with something ‘nasty’ on it, right? Hopefully. we’re still looking for whatever that is.]

Mission 4: Evict the Goldbrickers!

“Waiting for me just inside the building was a duo of Goldbrickers scratching their heads over one of JJ’s robots. As I approached, it started to activate itself, and by the time I’d finished off the proles, it was ready to assist me.

[really nice animations on the Flange Ally. I ran off to see what his Lost animation was, and its spot on. However, freeing him didn’t remove the ‘Find JJs package’ Nav Instruction]

“With the robot’s help, I fought my way through the building, and nabbed a laptop I found in a room. Before I shut it down, I had a quick gimmer at the files. Something about relecting the president…



“Another floor, anther room…another of JJs little helpers, it looked like. he gave me a package from JJ – a mobile phone/PDD radio combo. That was nice of her…He would also come in useful, I hoped, in a scrap. We found the Base boss in the final room, with another two laptops which I grabbed after I’d sorted him out. Three laptops should be enough for Mark, I reasoned, so I exited the building.

[The last two laptops were in the final room with the boss, and the chat message for both of them said ‘One down..’ etc. The last one especially was incongruous, as in fact there were three down by that time. I’m also a tiny bit confused about there being two of her robots there to help me]

“Mark had some breaking news a little later. The Goldbrickers were robbing a bank, and luckily Marks voodoo deal with the laptops had let him in on it. Trouble was, JJ was there too. And the PDD were going to be there in 15 minutes. I had no time to waste!

Mission 5: Stop the Goldbricker Heist!



“The banks alarms were already wailing by the time I got there. JJ was in trouble. I dealt with the goons hassling her, and then she was able to rustle up some mechanical assistance. The two of us swept through the bank and the Goldbrickers, until we’d reached the Vault and the main bad guy. With just minutes to spare, we put him on the ground and were practicing the moonwalk when the PDD showed up.

[lol 15 minute timer, I didn’t have much time to type there Standard bank robbery mission, quite tense, good fun. Unfortunately, the Boss clue didn’t make much sense to me, or the Deposit Block clue. The exit popup tells me what they were after, but I didn’t go ‘ahh, of course’ when I read it.]

“After the goons were carted away, I checked back with Mark. They were after a specific account, apparently, one that hadn’t been touched in decades, but there the trail wentdead. Still, we did save a lot of money for the City, and JJ now had a good job with the PDD. Sometimes, a small victory is enough.”

[end]

OK, that was a fairly easy arc, combat wise. Vince leveled on it, which is nice. I was a bit surprised it ended like that, though. It didn’t really answer any of the questions it raised. I’m not totally sure what it was about, tbh. Mark finds a mobile phone with ‘something’ on it, which led to the shop, which led to JJ, who led us to the council cave, which gave us the Goldbrickers base, which gave Mark…the ability to cotton onto the bank heist…which struck me as a lovely tense finale that then made me go ‘gah’ by leaving the question of who the Boss was ranting about etc. it’s possible I’m missing something, though?

Positives: Nice choice of maps (my Mission 3 comment aside), I really liked the bookending it with two short maps/missions. That shop was a great opener. I loved JJ and her robot customs. ‘Flange’, the name of one of the customs, is also a euphemism for a particular part of a lady’s anatomy where I’m from, too, so that gave me added chuckles. The variety of standard mobs was spot on, they didn’t cause Vince any ‘grahh’ moments, and I could see myself upping my virtual team count after I16 on this, as more of them would have been great.

Negatives: The story struck me as a bit confusing, and the non-resolution at the end dismayed me somewhat. Missions 1 and 2 were nicely building me up to something, I felt, but after that things went a bit pear-shaped. And, er, why is it called 'Bricked Electronics'? Is this some slang I've not heard of?
I rated it 3 stars.

Eco.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

Generally whenever I've heard the term bricked it's specifically dealt with some sort of electronic device with updateable firmware. If something happens to the firmware, such as losing power in the middle of a flash update, where upon the device can't resume any basic function it's referred to as bricked.

I don't know, you caught most all the subtleties of my arcs. Maybe you were just too dense that particular day.

BTW, I still haven't forgotten your story for the SOLUS Foundation website. It'll get there someday, I promise.

El In Arkadia Ego, Arc ID 281575 by @FredrikSvanberg. Very Long (3 unique, 2 medium maps). 5 plays, 4 stars, lvl range 41-50. This is a little high, but I’m taking my lvl 37 Emp/Sonic Defender Soundman in. We’ll see how the auto-exemp does. There are no warnings for AVs or Ebs.



The description talks of dreamworlds and a tale of ‘old grudges and new friendships forged in a dream’. It’s an evocative description that already has me hoping for good things.

Off you go, Sound!

“You know, when I was on the road with Yes back in October 72, one night in Cambridge I crashed out after a heavy swarfega session and had a really zany dream about an army of mifters trying to framp my tingler. That was the last time I dabbled in ‘the feeg’, and I think the last really weird dream I had…until last night. I’d just drifted off after a light supper of Angus Black Cheddar, marmite, and molasses, when I started to see a vague shadowy figure coalesce out of the ether, like. In my dream, that is. I knew I was asleep because I could feel my toes. In RL, I can’t, cos the ends of my boots are too tight.

“So this figure, he wanted me to help him. Said his name was Conrad, he was a conduit of some sort between Arkadia, a world of dream, and the real world. He worked for the Dreamlord, but was having a bit of trouble. Some weird creatures were planning to invasde the Dreamworld, and he needed me to find the Dreamlords physical body in the ‘real world’…

“OK, so I sort of knew I was dreaming, but it felt like one of those lucid dreams that George Harrison wrote about in his biography ‘No, I Am Not The Bloody Walrus’ that the Beatles used to have after a big night on the Brasso. I wasn’t feeling tired…er, in my sleep, so I figured go for it, eh?

Mission 1: Visit the Midnighter Club

“You ever had one of those dreams where you like wake up out of it, get dressed etcetera, leave for work or school or your AA meeting, and then you wake up again and so you know that the first waking up was in fact still part of your dream? This was like that. It felt so real! I ‘woke up’, got had a shower, ate breakfast, listened to the first side of the White Album for inspiration, got my costume on, and headed off to the Midnighter’s Club, which is where Conrad had told me I might find some leads. Crystal clear FX, this dream had, I tell you!”

[lol I’m pretty sure that as written, the Player is supposed to actually really wake up after the briefing, so he’s in the real world. The erroneous impression Soundman has that he’s still dreaming is not the fault of the writing ]

“Wow, I’ve never seen oak paneling that realistic in a dream before. It was like, like real! it felt like wood, looked like wood, even close up when I crossed my eyes till they hurt, you know, like they do if you cross them too hard…ow, even the pain of crossed eyes was like real in this dream! And that oak paneling! It even tasted like real wood. There was a hard blodge of gum stuck under a desk on the upper floor. Seeing as how this was just a dream, I scraped it off and chewed it for a bit, just to marvel at the clarity of this Land of Nod. Brilliant!

“But as impressive as the feeling that this was all real was, it was an empty dream, it seemed. There weren’t any Midnighters there…I made my way deeper into the club…

“A little further in, I did find someone. Percy Einkley…and a few ghosts…theya ttacked me, so I gave them a bit of grief. After I’d rescued him, Percy told me he hadn’t seen the Dreamlord, but that I could take some Dreamsand from the Clubs stores. Dreamsand! That stuff sounded right up my nose, so I set off to find it!

“In one of the storerooms, I found an urn with some crazy-looking sand in it. I scooped out a few large handfuls and stuffed it in my socks, as well as doing a few lines of it just in case, and then all hell broke lose. Hideous apparitions beset me from all sides, is how I’d describe it if I was a more poetically minded sort. Instead, I’ll just say that a bunch of glowing crazy see-though dudes jumped me. There was no end to them, it seemed, so I started to fight my way back to the exit…then I realized that I was dreaming, so the exit was as simple as me waking up! I stopped fighting and chanted my ‘wakey wakey’ mantra, which goes like this:

‘wakey wakey, everyone open-eyes,
wakey wakey, here comes the sunshine,
don’t be sleeping, time for a wakey-time
get your BLEEP-ing, **** out of bed!’

“I chanted that a few times, but had to stop because the ghoulies were giving me a right pasting, so I fought my way into that room in the Club that looks as though the Fellowship of the Ring might pop in for a curry, you know? And in there was a really fit bird, and somehow I knew that she loved computer games and Doctor Who…and she was wearing a pair of dungarees. I was compelled to attack…

“After she had bitten it, I returned to the real world…haha, only joking. See, I was wise to this dream-within-a-dream stuff now…I wasn’t sure exactly what happened, to tell the truth, but Conrad was talking to me again, so I must still have been dreaming. He tried to give me some waffle about me being awake, but I wasn’t having any of that. If I was awake, how come I didn’t have any recollection of getting the bus back to…wherever we were now, eh?

[Actually, I am now a little confused too lol. I think that I’m supposed to be awake, but there wasn’t any interim message telling me where I’m supposed to be. If the first contact happened while I was asleep, maybe I’m back at my…flat, base, wherever my bed is? Anyway, the Dreamsand lets me ‘see creatures from your dreams even though you're awake?’, says Conrad…which produces some interesting questions about where exactly dreams are physically located. Incidentally, I really enjoyed Mission 1. There was a nice eerie empty atmosphere at the start, I’m generally a fan of ther Midnight Club map anyway, and the sudden attack of the shard reflections came at exactly the right time. Great opener.]

“Conrad was in desperate straits, as is the wont of people generally in need of a bit of heroism. The Dream Palace was being invaded by, er, invaders. Well, they don’t call me ‘Soundman, Defender of Dreams’ for nothing! …they don’t call me ‘Soundman, Defender of Dreams’ at all, actually, but after this escapade, they very well might!

Mission 2: Defend the Palace

“The wuzzy-woozy thing happened again, and I was transported through the mists of unreality to the Dram Palace, in its guise as a filthy hovelistic abandoned office block…I could faintly hear otherworldly music, so I knew this was the right place…well, wither that or I’d crashed a dive squatted by a bunch of Hawkwind fans…

“Conrad was waiting for me inside the Palace, and cutting a dash in a fine replica ancient roman outfit. Nice hairy Mohawk on top of his hat, too. We did the high-five, and set about the place with gay abandon, sorting out the dream warriors where we found them. King Lou proved a handful, incidentally, but Capital Q was easy…hello? Am I too hip for the room? Whoosh, over heads, eh? Never mind…

“After clearing the bad guys, we bumped into a nasty surprise – a Carnival Mistress! She was cackling about orchestrating the invasion, and mentioned someone called The Hedonist! What a name! Conrad must be afraid of women, because he kept rushing off out of the room. She was a hard-faced slooze and no mistake. it took me an age to get her on her back. But eventually, she went down like a mighty oak in the forest, subdued by the Woodsman’s huge chopper…



“Conrad was pleased, especially now we had a lead as to where the Dreamlord was – The Carnival of Shadows. They were partying down in Morpheus Heights, he said…

Mission 3: Crash the Carnies’ Party

“After a very realistic dream of traveling through ther city to morpheus heights, I dreamed I arrived in the are. There were Carnies everywhere, and a few civilian captives too... I wondered whether the Carnies were as difficult to deal with in my dreams as they were for me in reality, so I wandered up to a few who were taunting a civilian. I soon dreamed that I was waking up in the hospital. After I’d dreamed my way back to the area, I decided to dream that I was invisible, and avoid any more conflicts if possible. The civilians were only figments of my dreaming imagination, after all, so I didn’t have to actually worry about them…

“As I quartered the area, looking for the Dreamlord, I saw a few high-level Carnies pontificating about their plans. I steered clear of them, and after a detailed search, I found the Dreamlord!

[found him fairly close to the entrance, actually ]

“I made short work of his three guards, and led him to safety…he told me that ‘The Hedonist’, who I guessed was someone important in this crazy dream, was once the Conduit, that role of course now filled by Conrad.

“Talking of whom, Conrad was delighted by my rescue of the Dreamlord, but by now the mirror between dreams and reality had become smashed into a zillion pieces, at least in my head, because he started talking about the Dreamlord needing to ‘return to the Dreamworld’, when of course I was patently still dreaming, and so presumably already in the, or at least a, dreamworld. it wasa very realistic dream, I’ll give it that…

“Anyway, the Dreamlord needed his Dream Armor to get back into the Dreamworld, was Conrad’s line, and who was I to argue?

Mission 4: Restore the Dreamlord’s Power

“This Dream Armor was being held in the dream of an old warehouse. By the Carnie. This was going to be another invisible dream, I reckoned…

“The warehouse was infested, so I vanished from the ken of mortal man, and tiptoed through the place until I found the Armor. Just 2 dream Carnies to deal with, and then the Armor was mine for the taking. I dreamed myself back to, er, the mysterious place where I was doing all the communication with Conrad etcetera, and gave the armor to the Dreamlord. He put it on, and it was a definite imnprovement over the shambolic collection of rags he was wearing before, and then he went ‘poof’ and disappeared.

“And as he did, Conrad beckoned me further into dream, beseeching me forsooth unto help him fight off the Hedonist, who had invaded with Nightmares and sundry! There quite literally wasn’t a moment to lose!

“Taking a moment to prepare myself, I let my jaw slacken, felt drool pool =ing on my slumbering chin, and sank deeper, deeper into the Realms of Nod…

Mission 5: Save The Dreamworld

“The Dreamworld was a bit smaller than I’d anticipated, but dreamy enough I guess. Conrad was easy to spot, and once I’d freed him, we set off to seek The Hedonist. Who was, luckily wnough, preening himself just ver the next hill. With Conrad doing his usual fight and run tactics to confuse the enemy, we soon made lomng work of The Hedonist! And once he was shelved, the Dreamworld was free!

“Conrad was very thankful, as is the wont of folks generally after they’ve been on the receifing end of some heroism, and then…I woke up! It had, of course, all been a dream!”

[end]

A fun enough romp. I felt that it started off really promisingly and then faltered a little in terms of plot, but the playing of it was fine. The dreamworl/RL mission split suffered IMO from not being clear enough as to where exactly I was when I was talking to Conrad in the Real World. I was definitely dreaming when I first met him, but after the dreamsand, where was I? Was I in my flat with Conrad sitting on the edge of my bed? I’m also not entirely sure who the Dreamlord is supposed to be. Is he a human who moonlights as the Dreamlord in dreams, is he a dream being who can manifest in reality, or what?

Your souvenir does explain everything, but I think a souvenir should remind the player of what he’s played, not make him go ‘Ahh, so that‘s what was happening!’. Also, I can’t remember Lord Ego from the arc although he’s mentioned in the souvenir.

I’m glad I was able to stealth the Carnie missions, Sound’s not up to them. I’d have liked to see more missions actually in the Dreamworld tbh.

Suggestion: Either amend your text/briefings/dialogue to clarify what’s happening in terms of the RL/dream thing, or somehow put all the missions in the Dreamworld.

I rated it 4 stars, but I think that if I hadn't had had invis, I'd have had a much less easy time of it and the rating would have suffered. Which illustrates the effect that a Player's power choices can have on a rating.

Eco.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

Thanks for your review.

I deliberately wanted to blur the line between real world and dream. That is why it's not more clearly explained. This is of course a "bad idea" since it may mean that nothing that happens in the story actually happens, which makes the story pointless - according to some people. However, since the dreamworld in this case is almost as real as the real world, the story actually happens no matter where it takes place.

I can explain this though: when you first meet Conrad it is in one of your own dreams. After you get the dreamsand you can talk to him anywhere since the sands lets you interact with creatures who exist in dreams while you are still awake.

Lord Ego is the Dreamlord's name. I used it in a few more places earlier but edited it out when it turned out to be confusing. I must have missed removing it from the souvenir. As for who the Dreamlord is supposed to be: he's a character of mine on Virtue. This is not exactly his origin story but it introduces some of the concepts and ideas I use when I play him.

Thanks again for the review. I'll consider making the distinction between dream and real world clearer, even if I personally think it's just clear enough.

Trademark Infringment, Arc ID 2220, by @Wrong Number. Short (1 medium map), lvl 25-54. 466 plays, 4 stars as I start, so it’s obviously doing something right. I have in fact played this before, a long time ago, but not for a run, so here we go with Scoop Malloy, my lvl 26 inv/superstrength Tanker:



“Hey Red, how’s it going? I gotta great little story for ya, it’s a cinch fer the front page! Check this fer a headline: ‘Loopy lawyer Loses Cool – Scoop Malloy Saves the Day!’…what? …well ok, I’ll leave the headline up to Hendricks. But this is a big story, I’m tellin' ya! One of the Trademark lawyers at the paragon trademark office went nuts an’ started handin’ out Trademarks to any two-bit villain that applied! I headed over there to 'conduct an interview'!

Mission 1: Take Down Trademark Lawyer

“That office was swarmin’ with wannabe villains! Now they had their own trademarks, they could act with impunity without bein’ held back by trademark suits from the real villains! Plus of course, Paragon would likely attract the vengeance of the big shots from outta town who’d no doubt be less than impressed with some bums calling themselves ‘The Funny Man’ or ‘Ten pin’ tryin’ ter muscle in on their look and lifestyle. They hadda be stopped!

[The customs are all parodies of various trademarked villains, and are close enough to be recogniseable with a little thought, but far enough away in looks and name to not actually be in any danger of really falling foul of the law. As such, they’re funny. Fighting them is fun, too.]





“I worked my way through the first floor, rescuing an office worker on the way. The Lawyer had gone mad it seemed, an’ had called himself ‘Copy Cat’, she said!



[I think my personal favourites are ‘Wierdo’ and the ‘Red Gremlin’]



“A legal secretary being menaced by ‘Miss Meow Meow’ and ‘yellow Head’ was on the next floor…and more of the do-badders…



“Next, I rescued a receptionist, and then all that was left was the crazy lawyer…assisted by his henchmen…the All American Shield…



“Did they have no shame? I went at ‘em like a breezeblock o’ pain!



“The evil legalistic lunatic and his misnamed minions were no match for Scoop, Red, it was a walkover! I took him down and had a coffee. So, whaddayathink? Front page?

“…really? ah, well, how about the sec…ah, well, how about thir…four…ok, page 17 it is. Yeah, yeah, I already had my advance this month. See ya later, Red.”

[end]

A short fun mission that contains customs that are fun to fight and amusing to read. It does what it says on the tin, in short. The only thing stopping me from rating it 5 stars is the fact that the customs repeat themselves. I met Sumac and Ten Pin first, and as it was only a single mission, I entertained the happy thought that I would be seeing dozens of individual parody villains. There were a good few mobs in the custom group, and I’m not sure how many is the maximum number of individual mobs you can fit into one mission due to memory constraints, but having multiples of the villains kept it from being perfect considering the fact that the narrative seems to suggest they should be individuals rather than 'ranks' in a group. I rated it 4 stars.

Eco.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

Cap,

Thanks for the review. Being only one mission and all customs I put a ton of time into the design of the customs. There are 15 individual customs in the mission. Being that you played it solo the bosses from the two custom groups likely did not spawn. So you should have seen around a dozen different characters. If you did not, you got a bad spawn for some reason which, though rare, can happen. I just checked and the arc is 99% full. I respectfully ask that you rerun or just take a stealthed toon through and check to see how many characters you see. If the only thing holding you back from 5 staring turns out to be a limitation of MA.....five star me baby!

WN

P.S. - Did you notice that each hostage had their own bio too?