Reintroducing Arc# 15095: "Check... and Mate"

Arc Title: Check... and Mate

Arc ID: 15095

Creator Global/Forum Name: Global @ARH; AngryRedHerring

Suggested V/H/N: Heroic

Faction(s): La Scacchiera (custom), Insaniacs (custom), Family

Difficulty Level: Hard , 45+ enemies

Synopsis: A two-bit psychic thief who was run out of Paragon City in traction has returned with a chip on his shoulder and the power to take revenge.

My old Checkmate thread has vanished into the ether, so here's a new thread and a revivfied arc, thanks to new architect tools! This is meant as a team-play story arc; while the first four missions can be soloed, that last one is still a nightmare. I've only managed to finish it solo with my 50 Illusion/FF and 50 MA/SR, so fair warning.

Have fun and all comments welcome!

Arc 15095, Check... and Mate, @ARH

Awesome poster, actually makes me want to play this arc! Unfortunately it's a challenge arc for teams, so utterly unsuitable for me. Still, I'll give it a start with my level 50 mind/forcefield controller with 30+ purples.

Okay, as a hero, I despise my contact already. He gets way too much pleasure from the pain of others. And now I have to run the poor, unfortunate, perhaps non-violent villain out of town again? Better me than the nasty Pulverizer.

Mission 1. I gaze across the cargo ship. The enemy is very interesting - Italian made layman-friedly. I decide to rush this one, as it's timed, but the cry of a forklift driver as I teleport overhead catches my ear. I go back and rescue him. So now I'm hooked.
The Torre, resistant to mind control, are a good challenge.
The big-bad in the first mission was pretty tough! Took everything to bring him down, then he got back up again. Despite me zapping him all the way, he made it to the exit at the far end of the ship. Seemed to have some major build-up, despite being only a boss (I'm on level 1 difficulty). These things concern some reviewers, but for a team challenge, and an optional objective, it seems fine to me.

Mission 2. Woah. Lots of goals, but in the end, I only had to destroy the amplifier? Odd. I went back outside to find one of the cargo boxes, but destroying it gave no extra clues, so I exit the completed mission.

Off to the third mission. I didn't realize this one was another indoor-outdoor map! Cool.
No shortage of ambushes! One included a Torre, which made for a pretty tough ambush. Got me a map, and saved the fool Pulvis.
Destroyed the objective, and on to the next mission.

Ooh, mafia! They dress as badly as the ones state-side. No sleek, Italian suits here.
I rescue a girl. But the plan's changed? Checkmate is no longer planning to control Paragon City from his Italian island? Not sure why, but we're back to the city then.
Incidentally, why am I immune to the mind control? Do I have something in common with the girl from the last mission?

Off to Skyway to take on the big bad. Fifth mission! Everything has to hit the fan here. My contact is swearing less now, might have expected it to get worse.
Awesome group here, the Insaniacs! Lots of variety in names.
A LOT of of running around, sequential hunts on a vast map. The finale better be worth it. And as the last amplifier appears, I defeat the big bad's sidekick with the help of Pulvis. For a lieutenant, he's extremely destructive. I did the tanking, it worked well. And now for the big bad! Gotta find him first.
Okay, round 1 went to CM. Mind control ignored my Elusive Mind and a break free. Pulvis is still alive, and perhaps most of the ambushes have already arrived, so round 2 should be close. Nope, I confused all the ambushers, but Pulvis was too busy doing silly lie-on-the-ground animations to help. He died almost before he got up. Had to wait 25 minutes for my accolades to return. But I'm not doing enough damage here to take him out within one minute, so probably pointless. Definitely need a Shivan stick to defeat this AV.

Okay, the AV just gave himself a 2142 point heal. Forget it. A good arc for 4 of 5 missions. I tried to solo a team mission in any case, so I won't vote. Poster is still good.

Cheers, airhead

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Thanks very much for the review, Airhead. In particular, thank you for expressly not griping for not being able to solo an arc that's marked as not being a solo arc.

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Originally Posted by airhead Okay, as a hero, I despise my contact already...

Heh heh. GOOD! I wanted the player to be looking at this guy, going, "Dude. That's not funny." And I wanted him to be a different person when it was all over.

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The big-bad in the first mission was pretty tough! Took everything to bring him down, then he got back up again. Despite me zapping him all the way, he made it to the exit at the far end of the ship. Seemed to have some major build-up, despite being only a boss (I'm on level 1 difficulty). These things concern some reviewers, but for a team challenge, and an optional objective, it seems fine to me.

Did he really have Build-Up? I thought I nerfed that.

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But the plan's changed? Checkmate is no longer planning to control Paragon City from his Italian island? Not sure why, but we're back to the city then.

It's the Captain's assumption that Checkmate is going to run things from Giannutri. But everything Checkmate says to you indicates he's coming to Paragon-- he wants to see chaos of his revenge first-hand, especially when it comes to the Pulverizer.

However, I will say that there are points where my story glosses over certain details more than I would like. The main reason for that was that as I was writing the story, I was quickly running out of mission file space; while I deleted some details to make more room, I hit a wall where if I deleted any more details, I was crippling the arc as far as I was concerned. So text entries began to get shorter-- for example, that's the reason the mission briefing for the final mission is so hurried and short. I think I was around 99.6% at that time, so I just went "AAAH everything's EXPLODING get OUT THERE!".

Now, though, due to various patches and not to any changes I made, my mission file size sits at around 94%, which is more than enough room to flesh out the story with some more text entries. The trick with this for me is that I have to find those spots. I've already done a couple I've found, but I'm very much in a "forest for the trees" situation: I've played through this thing SO many times, I'm so familiar with it, that my mind unconsciously fills in the holes with things that I know, but haven't conveyed to the player.

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Incidentally, why am I immune to the mind control?

A good example of something that may need to be explained better. First off, you're an experienced superhero, so you're not unfamiliar with mental attacks. Secondly, you first experienced the signal when it was its weakest, and have been fighting it off in every mission since then-- you've built up a resistance to, and an awareness of, its effects. And lastly, you're certainly not immune to the mind control once you're face to face with Checkmate (unless your powersets give you that resistance).

...You're the first person to have asked that. I'd been wondering when someone would...

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Do I have something in common with the girl from the last mission?

...Mmmmmmmmaybe...

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Fifth mission! Everything has to hit the fan here. My contact is swearing less now, might have expected it to get worse. Awesome group here, the Insaniacs! Lots of variety in names.

You're also the first person to see the new Insaniacs (pretty sure yours was the first play since I revamped them). There used to be only 4; Bob, Carol, Ted and Alice. Then came THE WONDERFUL ADDITION to the mission editor-- the ability to rename and re-bio in-game enemies. I remember that being one of the first things I asked for, as did several others, when MA went live, and I have to give the devs a big thankyouthankyouthankyou for that.

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I defeat the big bad's sidekick with the help of Pulvis. For a lieutenant, he's extremely destructive.

Well, he IS the Pulverizer.

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Cheers, airhead

Thanks very much for all the notes. They really do help in finding those things I need to tweak.