[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
For those of you who don't see anything threatening about a bunch of fairies
[/ QUOTE ]
Anyone who doesn't see anything threatening in a bunch of fairies, doesn't know much about fairies... 
[/ QUOTE ]
Or hasn't seen me on a night out with 'the boys'...
[ QUOTE ]
Anyone who doesn't see anything threatening in a bunch of fairies, doesn't know much about fairies...
[/ QUOTE ]
"Up the airy mountain, down the rushy glen..."
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
For those of you who don't see anything threatening about a bunch of fairies
[/ QUOTE ]
Anyone who doesn't see anything threatening in a bunch of fairies, doesn't know much about fairies...
[/ QUOTE ]Correct me if I'm wrong, but iirc they don't call them the "Fair Folk" because they're particularly nice... but to avoid the risk of offending them.
#Arc 48617, "Tower Demolition"
tl;dr: 5 stars. Offenses: No Souvenir, typos.
Since this arc is warned to be difficult and contain AVs, I used the Mastermind; this turned out to be a bad choice this time, more on this later.
Your contact is Dr. Light, I mean Dr. Brian K. Roberts, an author insert (the arc is full of them) who needs you to assist his agents in investigating a mysterious spree of destruction in Paragon City. The most recent attack was traced to a Crey facility. Crey being Crey, they're not letting anyone investigate, and would rather silence witnesses and do their own investigations.
You're sent to help Brigadier Leon Tasker, another of the Author's characters and an AR/Devices Blaster, to poke around anyway. The goals are to rescue an Ally (Leon Tasker) and a Captive (a Technician), on an Abandoned Lab map full of Crey. (Sidenote: The Author should consider making a custom Crey group with mobs from the Paragon Protectors faction included in it, for variety from the Tankfest.)
The Technician gave you a brief description of someone wearing powered armor, and the lab showed signs of smashing damage and electrical damage (I have no idea what electrical damage looks like, myself, but I'll take the author's word for it). Hm, smashing, electricity... Sound like anyone we know?
Yep, Dr. Roberts sends you after the Freakshow next. PPD have already been sent there, but they don't want to lose any more men to the aggressive Freaks, so that's where you (and another author insert) come in. Your goal is to meet up with Do Lo Might, a Something/Stone Melee Tanker who hits a little too hard, recover some bodies (one dead cop, one dead Freak), and beat up the Boss, who is a Sonic Freak named LoL Laz0r.
Turns out the Freaks were attacked too, hence the Freak in the body bag. LoL Laz0r tells you the attacker had dark gray and red armor, kinda like "those Spiders". Could it be an Arachnos operative? That's exactly what Dr. Roberts wants you to find out next.
You're sent to arrest Black Scorpion, who conveniently enough is out on an operation at the moment, though the map is an Arachnos Base map for some reason, regardless. On the way you pick up two more of the author's characters, Eleven and Adam Dennison (Black Dwarf). I'm not entirely sure what Eleven's powersets were, because the map was small and Black Scorpion was around the corner - don't see much through Gang War. One of them was Martial Arts, I think. Anyway, Scorpion went down easy enough (one of the weaker EBs/AVs in the game).
Scorpion doesn't know anything, and was actually trying to figure out of Longbow's got a new powersuit that they used to attack Arachnos with - you're not about to go beat up Longbow as a hero, so the trail seems to be cold. Until, conveniently enough, one of the Dunelm Group's archrivals, Senshu Hitoku (Hidden Tyrant in Japanese?), has contacted Dr. Roberts.
An Arachnos base is under attack by someone he believes is related to the attacks, and he's asking for help from his archenemies. Being a comic book world, said archenemies naturally agree to help, because it's the Good thing to do. Anyway, the attackers are Werewolves and Council(?) Vampyri, from a faction called "The Court".
The goal is to defeat the AV, The Blood Countess. So this is an insert from The Court of The Blood Countess, a RPVG on Union. I have no idea what powersets The Blood Countess was meant to be, because my pets and the three rescuable allies (DB/SR Senshu Hitoku, Energy Blast/Energy Manip Iron Works, and Claws/Something Steel House) overwhelmed her in seconds, despite conning as an AV. I saw a Dark Blast or two fly, though.
Anyway, it turns out the Countess has opened some Sealed Evil In A Can in the form of Impervium Tower, a crazy evil robot built by Dr. Roberts' former student, Dr. Wily, I mean Neil Christopher Wilson. Dr. Roberts thought that the robot had been "buried at sea", never to be seen again. But this is a comic book world, nobody ever stays dead. Not even Uncle Ben.
The map is the burning Perez Park map, full of more Court werewolves and vampyri. Bass, I mean Zero, I mean Impervium Tower spawned not far from the entrance, Super Strength/Electric Armor Archvillain.
Okay, so it turns out my Mastermind can't solo an AV that has mez protection, and is pretty much immune to slows. Every time I dented the guy, he rocketed off into the sunset, only to return after his health had regenerated and debuffs worn off so he could oneshot one of my pets. Heck, oneshotting aside, this guy's Lightning Field was ticking for over 200 damage thanks to Rage. NOT RECOMMENDED FOR MASTERMINDS.
I've beaten this arc before on a lower setting, on my Brute, though, and you get a fairly standard happy end.
There really isn't anything wrong with this arc. There's no Souvenir, and there's a few typos (Rouge Isles), but overall the story is solid, consistent, and well written. The author inserts didn't steal the spotlight from the player at all, mostly providing (somewhat unnecessary) backup against the various bosses in the first 4 missions, and some witty banter.
The last mission will be hard. It's a generic Kill The Boss, but the boss is tough, and you don't get any Allies. You are warned, though, in red text no less, that you should definitely bring help
All things considered, one of the best self-insertion focused arcs I've seen so far. Doesn't hit you like an Ego Arc at all.
You are quite right Col. 
Golden-Phoenix - Lvl 50 Fire/Fire Tank
Oodja Nikabolokov - Lvl 50 SS/WP Brute
Baby-Phoenix - Lvl 50 Peacebringer
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could Chuck Norris?
While I can think of several things that are decidedly wrong with it, would you be willing to give my arc Psychotrauma (Arc ID 1914) a whirl when you get the chance, Col?
I'm constantly tweaking it, to try and tidy up what I see as the weak points in it (for what it is), but an honest review would be vastly appreciated.
The wisdom of Shadowe: Ghostraptor: The Shadowe is wise ...; FFM: Shadowe is no longer wise.
; Techbot_Alpha: Also, what Shadowe said. It seems he is still somewhat wise 
; Bull Throttle: Shadowe was unwise in this instance...; Rock_Powerfist: in this instance Shadowe is wise.; Techbot_Alpha: Shadowe is very wise *nods*; Zortel: *Quotable line about Shadowe being wise goes here.*
I finally finished my arc, and am now ready for critique.
ID: 98789 "What once was, will be again"
Arc is designed for high levels, and there are AV's in the last mish. I still consider it soloable with low rep.
All feedback is greatly appreciated.
My main toons on Union:
Majer; Dark/Dark Corruptor
Caitlin Calathea; Plant/Thorns Dominator
Davallia Fejeensis; Empathy/Archery Defender
My arc:
ID 98789, What once was, will be again.
Just wanted to say I really enjoy reading your reviews, Blitz. Great work.
I really appreciate the glowing review you have given there Col. I have to be honest here I have not been online much since the arc was published because firstly building the arc over an intense three days burnt me out and I could not bring myself to get back into the game. After this review I do have a renewed passion to get back online and make a start with my villain and neutral arc ideas I also have.
Ill offer a detailed response to the review now although there is nothing really I can argue with if you have given me 5 stars. Most of the points you have brought up seem to be bugs that Ill probably flag up with game support.
[ QUOTE ]
Your contact is Dr. Light, I mean Dr. Brian K. Roberts
Dr. Roberts' former student, Dr. Wily, I mean Neil Christopher Wilson.
Bass, I mean Zero, I mean Impervium Tower
[/ QUOTE ]
You would think I would take offense to these remarks throughout the review but actually I was LMAO at them. Most people that helped me with beta testing also mentioned quite a bit of similarities with Mega Man although assuring me that it was not a bad thing. The irony is that I cant admit to been influenced by Mega Man because even though I was aware of the games existence, I did not own or even play any of the Mega Man games as a result of not being allowed a console in my childhood (We were strictly a Commodore 64 and Amiga 500 household). I have only purchased Mega Man 1 and 2 on my Wiis Virtual Console in the last year, after I had already rolled the three cyborg characters in CoH. I can see why people would see a connection between the two but I can assure you that I am no way influenced by Mega Man. Its still charming to hear though, hehe.
[ QUOTE ]
(Sidenote: The Author should consider making a custom Crey group with mobs from the Paragon Protectors faction included in it, for variety from the Tankfest.)
[/ QUOTE ]
This came up in beta testing with other people and I thought I did have this sorted out so possible bug here. There will still be Tanks but the only Lts should be ether sharpshooters or PPs and bosses should be nothing but PPs. Ill get this flagged up unless anyone has any suggestions I could try out.
[ QUOTE ]
Your goal is to meet up with Do Lo Might, a Something/Stone Melee Tanker who hits a little too hard
[/ QUOTE ]
Do Lo is Stone/Stone. I was forced to turn off most of the Stone armour powers available to him as AI will simply not turn off rooted to move around between mobs. Do Lo for me represents things I would like to see implemented into the MA in the future. Selecting specific powers in a powerset for critters for one, so that they can access all powers that you feel is suitable while dropping though which might not be suitable or simply make the critter unworkable. The other thing being able to allow more detailed specification of critter level depending on aspects such as challenge level and number of team members.
Given that in story terms Do Lo is still a rookie I am almost tempted to knock him down to LT level except that in an 8 man team with larger mobs would be more useful at boss level. In sense I have that issue with all the inserts in the arc whether to have them as Bosses or Lts so not to overshadow the players while not being an unnecessary weight on the team by being useless. Advice from others would be very much appreciated on that matter.
[ QUOTE ]
You're sent to arrest Black Scorpion, who conveniently enough is out on an operation at the moment, though the map is an Arachnos Base map for some reason, regardless.
[/ QUOTE ]
Looking at a bug here as going back to the editor it is still set as a Longbow base as intended. Ill flag this with support.
[ QUOTE ]
I'm not entirely sure what Eleven's powersets were, because the map was small and Black Scorpion was around the corner - don't see much through Gang War. One of them was Martial Arts, I think.
[/ QUOTE ]
Was aiming for the true form of Eleven which would be a fire ball throwing martial artist straight out of fighting game. I had tried tweaking as much as I could to get the balance right but must be a case of the two just not workable for a MA critter.
[ QUOTE ]
Anyway, Scorpion went down easy enough (one of the weaker EBs/AVs in the game)
[/ QUOTE ]
Would the Lv 54 version of him that I have now unlocked be better suited here or would that overshadow the final boss fight do you think?
[ QUOTE ]
Until, conveniently enough, one of the Dunelm Group's archrivals, Senshu Hitoku (Hidden Tyrant in Japanese?), has contacted Dr. Roberts.
[/ QUOTE ]
Col once again shows his sharp knowledge of the Japanese language! 
[ QUOTE ]
The goal is to defeat the AV, The Blood Countess. So this is an insert from The Court of The Blood Countess, a RPVG on Union. I have no idea what powersets The Blood Countess was meant to be, because my pets and the three rescuable allies (DB/SR Senshu Hitoku, Energy Blast/Energy Manip Iron Works, and Claws/Something Steel House) overwhelmed her in seconds, despite conning as an AV. I saw a Dark Blast or two fly, though.
[/ QUOTE ]
Ill first explain in a DVD extra, behind the scenes type way how Liz Bathory came into the arc. Impervium Tower ended up getting invited in the The Blood Countess VG at a time when I was still trying hard to be more involved in the RP scene. Considering that there was so few RP VGs around at the time and given the obvious gothic nature of the VG, it seemed a good fit.
However these day I cant commit to anything on the RP scene because RL matter are always getting in the way, intentionally or not but I still sometime fire up Impervium Tower and catch up with Liz with whats going on. When knowledge of the MA was out and everyone know it was coming, Liz had already had ideas for arcs based around the VG and was keen to use toons of VG members.
So I was asked if he could use Impervium Tower in any arcs he created based around The Court, with permission to use his Liz Bathory character in exchange for anything I did and I agreed. I felt it was only fitting that VG members help each other out with stuff and knowing that I had always intended Impervium Tower be the main focus of an arc, this deal meant I could use a potential AV boss that is significantly relevant to Towers backstory.
My original intentions were to use a custom Court group of vampires, werewolves and zombies of original design which when coupled with the Necro/DM Master Mind AV would have healing powers spamming quite a lot justifying the need of 3 decent allies to take the AV down. However adding the custom mobs at this point pushed the file limit way over so I had to stick with making a custom mob containing the in game vamps and wolves for the desired effect.
It seems though that by doing this the AV is too easy to take down. Looking at the setup I am tempted to demote Hitoku to a simple rescue and leave, knocking the ally count to two and maybe changing Lizs powersets considering that mobs will already be around the toon so no need for the MM spawning so I can add something else to make the AV not drop as quick. Do you think that would be much better or again would I end up overshadowing the final boss fight?
[ QUOTE ]
There's no Souvenir, and there's a few typos (Rouge Isles)
[/ QUOTE ]
Not surprising from me really. No matter how many times I proof read I always still miss spelling and grammar errors. I shall break out the fine tooth spell check comb on it. There is a souvenir set up on completion but I hear that this is a common bug which has already been flagged by a number of players. Here is the text anyway so you get to see what I wrote in it.
Impervium Spike
This spike made from Impervium, was snapped off during battle from the head of the technological monster known as Impervium Tower.
You fought the metal beast after assisting The Dunelm Group, under the direction of it's Director, Dr Brian K Roberts, in following Impervium Tower's path of destruction around Paragon City and the Rouge Isles. There was no motive to its attacks and no one group of either side of the hero or villain spectrum were specifically targeted. It was just pure, unjustified violence towards anyone unfortunate enough to run into, which is really only to be expected from such a maniacal creation.
While you were successful working with members of The Dunelm Group during the investigation, you could not help them in the final battle with Impervium Tower. Yet despite easily defeating The Dunelm Group and everyone else aiming to take down the brute, you managed to prevail against the odds to the extent that you managed to break a piece of its armour in your winning blow.
The Dunelm Group will live to fight another day and they show you the greatest respect and appreciation for all your efforts. Dr Roberts felt that you should keep the broken piece of Impervium Tower as a souvenir.
Just as The Dunelm Group's warrior Eleven does, keep this as a "Trophy" to display somewhere important to you. So that you can look at it and remind yourself of another hard fought victory. . . . .and so would be enemies can look at it and become fearful of you and your power, ensuring that they think twice before they challenge you.
[ QUOTE ]
The author inserts didn't steal the spotlight from the player at all
All things considered, one of the best self-insertion focused arcs I've seen so far. Doesn't hit you like an Ego Arc at all.
[/ QUOTE ]
Even though I have said I am willing to look at their level set ups again I am glad you felt this way even on their current settings. Indeed the arc is a way of introducing myself and my characters to a wider audience but I would have taken them out or the entire arc down if they undermined player characters.
Again though Col I appreciate reviewing my arc and giving it 5 stars and I would welcome further advice on elements that can still be improved on.
I know, I know.....I am a horrible and insane perfectionist!
Credit goes to FrankyT49 for animated avatar
List of toons on Union Handbook
Leon Tasker: "Dunelm Group! What is your profession?"
Dunelm Group: "OOOOORRRAAAAH!"
Great works, Col.
I still pity you, although lots of free time often results in things like this God Speed.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Zwillinger
GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Captain_Photon
NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.
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A new request!
Through Rose-Tinted Glasses - ID 101681
Villainous, 40-54
Elspeth Wallace is a senile old lady. Elspeth Wallace knows many secrets. Elspeth Wallace thinks you're Manticore... wait, what? This could be weird... but profitable. (2 Signature AV/EBs)
"The Hamidon is a what what of what?" - Brian the mission guy.
Arc #63175, "Trouble in the Music Business"
tl;dr: 4 stars. Offenses: "Just a bunch of stuff that happens", annoying mobs, needs a good proofreading by a native English speaker.
Used my default toon again - no exemping involved, and no mention of AVs.
Your contact is Detective Fish of Brickstown. He tells you he's got a bad feeling about a local club called "The Golden Crab". There've been a lot of "troublemakers" in the general area, and two cops that went to investigate have gone missing. Your job is to go fetch, and look for anything suspicious.
The map's the Rave map. The enemies are a semi-gratuitous custom faction of what appear to be dancers, with a somewhat wide variety of powers, but not to the point of being overly random. Lots of mezzing though, and almost everything has an armor set (willpower or invulnerability), so it's probably not going to be very easy for everyone. Certain Lieuts have Terror and Confuse.
You have a ton of goals here. Recover a policeman's body, search for clues, optional body bags and pictures(???) to search, and you have to "talk" to the Barman, who is a somewhat frustrating boss due to having Unstoppable for no good reason. You have to talk to him with your fists, naturally, since everyone at this rave has apparently turned into a murderous lunatic.
One cop's in a body bag, the other one's still breathing, and a captive - no escort, which was nice of the author. The clue you're looking for is in/behind a picture frame - a small device which you instinctively shut off. This is implied to stop the ravers from being stark raving mad (sorry, couldn't resist), and stop the itching in your ears that began as soon as you entered.
The detective, deeply troubled by the loss of one of his men, next sends you to investigate another nightclub. Except it's actually a casino. Though the map looks more like a garage. There was a gambling table, though.
The mobs are custom-made Bikers, which appear to use various combinations of Martial Arts, Assault Rifles, Traps, and Thugs. Oh so very, very, many Thugs. Luckily they seemed to be low-difficulty. The map's pretty small, and your only goals are to loot a trashcan for a list, and a picture on the wall for another device.
As this seems to be more widespread than the detective originally thought, he sent some other heroes to search for clues. One of them managed to find something to help decode the list, which pointed out a certain warehouse you're sent to investigate, alongside said hero.
The hero, Cyrene, is a rescuable ally who seems to have... hummed her guards into submission until your arrival. Turns out she's Sonic Blast/Healz0r, and I certainly appreciate a good Fortitude. The Souvenir later goes into somewhat unnecessary lengths to describe how attracted you feel to this awesome character, which makes me suspect author insertion. Together, you destroy crates of these sonic emitters, and take down the leader, a Thugs/Invulnerability. Yes, he has Unstoppable, what were you expecting? A short fight against a normal human? He threatens to sue you into the ground as you smash his face into the floor, since you don't have a 'warrent' [sic].
He dropped a notebook, which the detective decoded to find mention of a meeting the next day. Cue timeskip, and you and Cyrene team up again to arrest all those responsible. The detective says he's not allowed to tell you there's Paragon Protectors on the scene. Whoops.
Warehouse map. There's four bosses, one of which seemed to be an optional Paragon Protector Elite, which can be painful. The others include the same Thugs/DieFasterDamnYou guy with the seemingly electric-fist-proof suit yuo beat up in the last mission, a Thugs/Sonic guy in a suit, and a Crey Scorpion Tank, implied to be the scientist behind the sonic emitters. No EBs or anything, so pretty straightforward.
In the epilogue, you learn that the two suit-wearing guys were trying to devalue the clubs (ravers going on murderous rampages would certainly do it) so they could buy them, and Crey were trying to find a sound frequency that'd turn normal people into obedient supersoldiers. Well, anything's worth a try to a comic book mad scientist. Personally, I find the easiest way to turn people murderous is to force them to listen to Nickelback songs, but...
Naturally, Countess Crey has already prepared a story for the press about how an unfortunate rogue agent has been wasting company resources. Of course, the press is stupid and eats it all up, but props to the author for getting Crey's usual response to heroes meddling in their affairs accurate.
It's a fine arc. The English is pretty bad at some points, and could use a professional proofreading for both spelling and grammar. The mobs are a bit too durable - the minions in mission 1 really should lose their armor sets, and the bosses don't have any sane reason to have Unstoppable, unless "Barman" is a superhero name like "Iron Man". Sidenote, a superhero with the superpower to serve a nice cold beer whenever someone needs it would be wicked awesome.
The plot could use a little bit of development, though. It lacks impact. The fact that crey were trying to make people into soldiers is only briefly alluded to in the epilogue, and the problem is resolved somewhat rapidly - comparing proportions, you spend a little too much of the arc figuring out what's going on, and not enough fixing it. Sure, it's implied the other heroes on the case disabled the other devices, but then was this really that critical of a matter? Seems the detective had enough helpers to spare that the problem was fixed even before you punched out the culprit.
Also, might want to cut down on the admiration of Cyrene in the souvenir.
Ah, OK, I'll bite.
Cancelled in Three
ID: 34608
Morality: Neutral
Soloable: Should be OK throughout
Mob Level Range: 40-54
Elite Bosses/Arch-villains: One of each. Will both be EB or AV depending on your difficulty level and size of your team.
Missions: 3
Can you save Paragon's comics fans from being turned into mindless, drooling fanboys?
Cancelled in Three - MA ID #34608. Please play and comment! Top 10 placing in Projectionist's MA contest!
Arc #79274, "Collared by the Maestro"
tl;dr: 1 star, do not play this arc. Offenses: Stretching out an unfunny joke everyone is sick of by now for 5 missions, Idiot Plot, contact makes you want to punch him in the neck, typos, overly durable mobs, Cardboard Prison.
Default to Brute, as usual.
Your contact is a guy named Bluedarky, an obvious author insert due to sharing names with the author's global. He says "Nice to see you again" (I've never met the guy in my life) and mentions a group of catgirls have taken over a warehouse in Paragon City.
...Catgirls.
There's a gazillion "GO KILL CATGIRLS XDDD" arcs out there. It's not funny. It might have been funny the first few times. It's long since stopped being funny. It's stupid. It's one of the most unoriginal dead horse gags you could come up with for an arc, and there was no need to stretch it out for 5 full missions. I repeat - it's NOT FUNNY ANYMORE. Catgirl arcs are a dime a dozen.
Taking a big manly sip of coffee to brace myself, I told myself I'd endure this and do a full review, though, so I clicked "Accept" against my better judgement. The contact says catgirls are common in Paragon City (lololol) but this case is suspicious, and he's sent Amanda to scan their minds (which is totally not an unethical breach of privacy).
The map is a generic warehouse - hope you like them, because the entire arc is full of them. Who needs variety, every mission also uses the same custom enemy faction as well, to make it even more monotonous.
And the repetition doesn't stop there. The catgirls all wear black outfits that looks like underwear from a fetish shop. However, their hair and faces are all the same. Clones have never been this disturbing. Unfortunately, they all look the same in the sense that they all have straight black hair and slanted eyes. Yeah, that might be taken the wrong way by players of Asian origin (there are surprisingly many both in the US and EU).
The mobs have some variety in powersets - naturally, the obvious Claws/SR is present. Unfortunately this also extends to minions, so fighting them isn't particularly fun (Deflect Deflect Deflect), especially because some of them have Dark Blast to debuff your accuracy. Others just have Dark Armor tuned up high enough for Mez protection.
Amanda is Psi Blast/Super Reflexes and cons as a Boss. After clearing the warehouse of catgirls, you find a collar off one of them (just one?), which you take back to your contact for study. However, your contact is Too Dumb To Live, and promptly puts the collar on Amanda to see what it does.
*EARTH-SHATTERING FACEPALM*
After band-aiding my forehead and rubbing my sore palm a bit, I resumed the arc. Turns out Amanda was kidnapped from the test facility by the catgirls. Cool security, bro. Bluedarky mentions he'd help you save her, but he's busy saving the city from certain doom. Way to make the player feel important! You need to beat up more identical catgirls and escort her out - she doesn't help you this time because the collar is blocking her powers. Nicely done, Bluedarky. Bringing her to the exit triggers an ambush which you don't have to fight, because the mission is complete.
Mission 3, Bluedarky has managed to pinpoint the mastermind mobilizing the army of catgirl clones, and sends you to arrest him. He mentions Amanda, still collared, who rushed ahead upon hearing of this, and asks you to find her, too. She's starting to sound like Fusionette... (one of the mission entry pop-ups Lampshades this).
Again, you beat up some catgirls, rescue Amanda (who can fight again for some reason), and fight the Maestro of Mayhem, who turns out to be some creepy old guy in a tux and top hat, hanging around skimpily-dressed teenage asian catgirls... Squick. He's Energy Blast/Energy Manipulation, and cons as an Elite Boss. Your contact warns you about his this guy is second only to Nemesis in deception, and is so charismatic he can make nearly anyone see his point of view. Yeah, right...
The Maestro promptly escapes from jail, and Amanda transforms into an evil catgirl and runs off. Bluedarky says he'd love to help you get her back, but he can't stand to see her in pain...
*Rubs temples.*
Next mission is yet another warehouse full of catgirls, one of which is Amanda (now with straight black hair and slanted eyes...), who cons as an EB and whose powersets are now Claws/Something. She spouts some lines of implied loyalty to the Maestro (eww) during the fight, then thanks you for freeing her as she drops unconcious.
Final mission, you get to fight the Maestro again. Bluedarky says he'd love to help out, but he has to stay with Amanda. I suppress my desire to punch my monitor - it isn't easy. I'd much prefer if the guy just shut the hell up instead of specifically pointing out to me how damn useless he is.
Anyway, this is pretty much a copy-paste of mission 3, minus the ally, so I'm not even going to bother describing it. Scroll up.
In the epilogue, Bluedarky says the Maestro probably won't stay in jail for long, which doesn't surprise me based on how the rest of the arc is written.
Playing this arc made me feel dirty. I apologize for the harsh words, but it's really that bad. The catgirl gag has been done to death. Even before i14, catgirl gags were rampant. The fact that the mob design implies that all catgirls are Japanese, and all Japanese people look the same, didn't help, and could be seen as offensive.
Minions with armor sets are just unnecessary, especially if they -all- have it. Defense and scaling resists. There's a difference between "challenging" and "tedious". The ToHit Debuffs made it worse. I did have Insights though. At least the EB was Energy Blast/Energy Manipulation, which means he'll go down fast.
The writing is terrible. Your contact is a grade-A moron, which is evident from as early as the beginning of mission 2. Just as people don't like to be bossed around by idiots clearly several times stupider than them in real life, people don't like it in games. The plot itself relies on everyone being mentally challenged, and due to being based on catgirls, doesn't really have any redeeming qualities.
Seriously, I don't even see how you could fix this, aside from unpublishing it forever. The whole idea was stupid and unfunny to begin with.
Oh no the tide is turning, withdraw your arcs while you can!
He's turning evil! Ruuuuuuuun!
sanctuary! sanctuary!
[ QUOTE ]
Oh no the tide is turning, withdraw your arcs while you can!
He's turning evil! Ruuuuuuuun!
sanctuary! sanctuary!
[/ QUOTE ]
Nooo, sounds like the perfect time to put mine up for reveiw.
Please review my arc Col. Arc ID is in my sig.
Oh fine I can resist no longer...I'll add to your ever growing pile Blitz
87733
"A Few Cards Short of a Deck"
A nice 3 mission arc to explain the origins of the Mystic fortune powers - heroic
Arc #23256, "The Viral Army"
tl;dr: 4 stars. Offenses: Typos, luck based timed mission, really nasty AV.
Normally I'd use my MM for an arc with AVs. However, you are warned about timed missions, and my MM doesn't have a travel power. My Brute has Super Speed and a stealth IO, though, so I'll be using that.
Dr. Steve Sheridan informs you that Dr. Leona Logan, an elderly woman scientist, had been presenting her work on some sort of virus that stimulates cell-growth - until a bunch of mercenaries broke in, took her hostage, and promptly let the virus loose into the building. Sheridan gives you an anti-viral shot before sending you off to the rescue.
The map is an office, full of custom enemies of the Gundown's Army faction. They look like more flamboyant versions of Nemesis Soldiers, and come in a small variety of powersets - Assault Rifles, Devices, some have Maces and Shields with a big G on them. Bosses have Mercenaries/Martial Arts.
You have a few goals here - close the virus canister to prevent further leakage (somehow the mercs didn't think getting infected would be bad for them), rescue Dr. Logan who's set to spawn in Front, and defeat Gundown. Gundown was rather annoying to fight - his powersets are Mercenaries/Devices, and he kept spamming Smoke Bombs, making me unable to fight back. I converted some of my stash of respites into insights and beat him into the floor.
Dr. Logan is safe and Gundown behind bars, but Dr. Sheridan's got something else to worry about - the rest of Gundown's men are releasing the virus into Steel Canyon, and you're tasked with... destroying their cars, for some reason. I'm sure it helps to contain the virus, somehow. You're warned in advance that you'll have 10 minutes after accepting. The mission is full of hostile civilians who have begun to replicate into evil clones, including an optional boss who died too fast for me to identify his powersets. The normal mobs all have Willpower - hope you're not a stealther, because they have high perception.
Sadly, this mission really demands a longer time limit. It's the villain cape mission map. Your goals are to destroy 3 cars and defeat the boss; the boss is a generic Gundown boss, Mercs/MA, and defeating him causes him to blurt out "You'll never find the canister we hid in the garbage dumpster!". Oops. This spawns a destructible dumpster as an objective. I only found one of the three cars in time, so I failed the mission. The fact that this map has decorative non-destructible cars of its own didn't help.
Regardless, Dr. Sheridan next sends you to rescue Dr. Logan, again - it turns out her exposure to the virus has caused her to begin replicating herself, and her clones have become evil and taken over her lab. You'd think she'd have seen this coming, being the scientist researching this virus, and quarantined herself or something...
Upon arriving, you notice the clones... aren't quite done perfect yet. They look kind of icky, and have disturbing powerset choices - imagine a beige-brown veiny slimy humanoid thing that either sprouts spikes of bones and hurls them at you, or one that just grabs a big old bone from its body and starts using it as a war mace.
You have 15 minutes (it is not said why, but you're warned anyway) to rescue Dr. Logan and destroy the replication capsules. Actually, there's three Dr. Logans to rescue - you're supposed to find the right one. They're all Super Strength/Invulnerability, and the two wrong ones turn on you upon being escorted to the door. Luckily the tech lab map used was very small, so I managed in about 5 minutes.
Now, who else was affected by the virus? Oh right, Gundown and his men. Naturally, the Zig is in chaos due to suddenly being overpopulated by soldiers in questionable green-and-yellow outfits. You're sent to clear things up. On the way to the cells, you bump into Gundown's treacherous clone (I hate Smoke Grenades so very much) and a Bane Spider Executioner, wondering where Jenkins is as they're here to bust out some villains amidst the chaos. Nice touch of flavor there. Gundown is a non-escort ally (the mission ended when I rescued him though) and tells you the whereabouts of the hideout of his boss, being angry over betrayal.
The final showdown between you and Thought Block, the mastermind behind this plot, takes place on another tech lab map. It's populated by every possible type of clone you've seen so far. You have an optional objective in destroying a psychic booster which has allowed Thought Block to mind-control the clones so far - doing this spawns some allied patrols of clones in the mission, not terribly useful.
The boss, Thought Block, is an AV (scaled down to EB for me) who looks like a cross between Fu Manchu and Leader, in a questionable turquoise outfit. He turned out to be Mind Control/Illusion Control - after I was utterly destroyed, I stocked up on Breakfrees, Insights and Lucks, and took him down in the rematch. Not an easy fight, a truly evil powerset combo...
The story ends somewhat awkwardly in terms of closure. Thought Block is locked up, presumable somewhere where his powers are suppressed. And the clones? Apparently they just have to live on as normal people. Well, normal aside from having a hundred or so others just like them. And our dear little Earth was already overpopulated...
The arc's not bad, really. Some of the plot elements were questionable, such as the mercenaries' total disregard for their own well-being (exposing themselves to the virus), and Dr. Logan not realizing that being exposed to the virus would be a bad thing, despite being the scientist researching said virus. Needs some creative tweaking, there. The car-destroying objectives in mission 2 were somewhat random, could probably be replaced with a glowie hunt where you get rid of leaky canisters of the virus. And increase the time limit! It's an outdoor map full of custom mobs!
I liked the boss design, his costume was like something out of old comic books, exposed brain and Fu Manchu beard going together well. Though Mind/Illusion is always an insane pain to fight, at least it matched his appearance and powers pretty well. In fact, most of the custom mobs were done well, and the author even makes fun of his own silly costume designs for Gundown's soldiers. Aside from the high-WP mobs in mission 2, and the final AV, nothing in this arc should be overly tough.
Worth playing, definitely, though bring a lot of insps or some friends for the final fight, you'll need them.
If you could fit my arc in at some point I'd appreciate some feedback Col...
"Corruption of the innocent" ID#106143
Heroic morality. (Just a quick note, the maps are all random)
Thanks in advance.
"Don't go away mad, just go away..." The best line Clint never said.
#406785 - Assisting the PPD
Thanks for the Review Col.
A few things I can look into and fix.
Damn Word for not helping me properly with the grammar. 
Lady Arete on Unionhandbook
My Excel Badge tool
Feel free to review either or both of the arcs in my sig. The Tsoo one needs a bit of work so if it's a choice between one or the other give Dry Land Bones a go first
Arc #74519, "Valley of the Harpies"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: Short, "Just a bunch of stuff that happens", nasty mobs, no EB warning, glowie hunt on huge outdoor map, no custom mob descriptions, typos.
Used the Brute as the default one again.
Your contact is Julia Pria from Cimerora, who somehow seems to know that far in the future (your present), Harpies will invade Paragon City out of lack of food. Only, the way she's speaking makes it seem like she lives in Paragon, in our present. Very odd. Anyway, they're lead by the three sisters of myth, Aello ("storm swift"), Celaeno ("the dark") and Ocypete ("the swift wing"), and you've got to stop them.
Sure enough, Kings Row is under attack by harpies. They've scattered the remains of their victims around, so you're going to have to clean those up in addition to killing Aello (harpies are apparently acceptable targets for heroes to kill). Unfortunate choice of map, as it's a bit huge to look for five tiny piles of bones.
The Harpies look somewhat inaccurate, considering the original myths described Harpies as simply winged women - these mobs look like monstrous lizard-women with wings and claws. If anything, they look closer to Sirens (ugly bird-woman-monsters with seductive voices). They also don't have descriptions. Powersets vary - minions are either Claws/Sonic Attack, or Claws/Sonic Resonance, which means resistance-based (or squishy) toons can quickly be overwhelmed by incoming damage. The Lieuts are Claws/Pain Domination.
Aello is a Dual Blades/Storm Summoning Elite Boss, which is appropriate for her name and will make her incredibly annoying to fight for melee ATs or Masterminds. Both powersets turned up to max, so expect no mercy. I had some insights on hand so I beat her the first time. Took me a while to find all the glowies on the huge map, but I got the Assassin badge in the process.
Next up we have Celaeno, who's been tracked down to a cave under a shop. The map is one of the office-to-caves maps, full of harpies. Pretty straightforward defeat-boss mission. Celaeno, sadly, isn't exactly "straightforward" - Dark Melee/Sonic Resonance. She debuffed me a bit, hit Soul Drain, and before I could expect anything she killed me with Shadow Maul. I popped my godmode the second time and managed to take her down. You receive an irrelevant clue which uses a wrong name for her, strangely.
Finally, Ocypete needs to die. You're warned that she's the most brutal Harpy known to man. The map is a rather well-chosen Snake Hatchery map, a cave full of eggshells. In the final room we have Ocypete, who indeed turns out to be brutal, but not in the sense you'd expect.
Illusion/Kinetics. First three fights I just died horribly. Illusion is just -mean-. She could stack enough Terrorize through 2 breakfrees and 4 lucks to make me shiver. The Confusion was nasty the first few times, too. After messing about a lot and an insp restock run, I took her down, and got another flavor clue with a wrong name attributed to the Harpy. You get a rather boring one-sentence congrats from your contact and the arc's finished.
Bland. Bland bland bland. The idea is fine, I can appreciate a good play off mythology. After all, mythology plays an important role in the CoX storyline. However, it basically amounts to "bad guys are doing bad things, go beat them up", nothing better than a radio mission. It lacks a moral or strong theme. It's also short, and thus provides no background on the Harpies.
The mobs, in addition to lacking any description, are problematic. The minions stack a LOT of -resistance, and also have some -defense in Claws - more casual players might get shredded a lot in this arc. The healer Lieuts seem an unnecessary extra annoyance. I'd keep the Sonic Resonance to the Lieuts and give the Minions something easier. Also, the name of the Lieut mobs is in plural.
In its current state it's mostly just a "Go, hunt, kill" series of missions, with a glowie hunt thrown into the first mission just to be annoying. It's perfectly salvageable though, and if the story were (somewhat heavily) expanded upon, it could become something defnitely worth recommending to others. It's anything but easy, though.
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The car-destroying objectives in mission 2 were somewhat random, could probably be replaced with a glowie hunt where you get rid of leaky canisters of the virus.
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Your reviews are very good Col., but I do think you have a tendancy to miss the point/joke sometimes...
I really should do something about this signature.
Harpies? Bugger.
*goes back to drawing board*
I would say that in terms of how they looked they were probably more influences by Clash of the Titans (at least mine are) than true myth. (although the Wikipedia article, along with most Fantasy RPGs I've played over the tears seems to regard them as half bird & half woman)
Excellent reviews Col, honest and well written. I wish you'd stop linking to TVTropes though, I keep wandering off and getting distracted (TVTropes is like catnip to me).
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Your reviews are very good Col., but I do think you have a tendancy to miss the point/joke sometimes...
[/ QUOTE ]Entirely possible. If that was a reference to anything, it went over my head.
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For those of you who don't see anything threatening about a bunch of fairies
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Anyone who doesn't see anything threatening in a bunch of fairies, doesn't know much about fairies...
I really should do something about this signature.