Arc ID 329000 - Backwards Day

Arc Name: Backwards Day
Arc ID: 329000
Faction: Circle of Thorns, Slag Golems, Family, Freakshow, Custom Group (villainous allignment)
Creator Global/Forum Name: @GlaziusF/GlaziusF
Difficulty Level: Medium/Hard
Synopsis: Unfortunately, the final ritual failed. The ultimate knowledge was lost forever, and Diviner Maros held prisoner in the depths of time. ...at least, that's what he's telling you. As far as you know, that hasn't happened yet. Maybe you can make the future go your way?
Estimated Time to Play: 60-90 minutes
Link to more details: CoHMR entry
Promotional Copy:
[ QUOTE ]
IN A WORLD where tomorrow always follows today, one man has put the playlist of his life on shuffle. His name: Diviner Maros. His mission: ultimate knowledge. His invaluable companion: YOU!

Dig for ancient treasure, conduct arcane rituals, and travel into the Vaults of Time to fight pasts that never were and futures that should never be! But be wary -- Maros never told you it was BACKWARDS DAY (329000). (rated MLMA -- for villains 25-30)
[/ QUOTE ]
Notes from the author:
This one has a very specific gimmick to the mission briefings. No, they're not all written backwards. For the most part they're perfectly readable. But you'll want to bug Maros before you step into the mission...

And unfortunately that means you'll miss out on some of the effect if you're running as part of a team.

You could have warned us. You could have said that this is an arc not suited for the intellectually challenged. Not suited to play when you are drunk, stoned, sleepy or dead. And not playing it with a superadine addicted former Troll who while enthusiastic was a very confused girl at the start, midway and end of the arc. She showed me the souvenir and claimed that she had a great destiny ahead of her. Then she dropped out stoned cold as she had found a new stash of superadine somewhere in the arc and had to taste it.

Oh boy, as if she wasn't enough trouble to begin with. You try telling a green hulking girl who can wring your neck when she gets angry, that she should not pay attention what mysterious timekeepers tell her.

This arc is seriously complicated and you have to pay attention to the clues to even try to understand what and why things are happening. I think I got it, well some parts of it anyway. Thrown in for good measure are some other clueless persons who also seem to have stumbled into this nightmare thing, makes you feel less lost actually.

Its got clever dialogue (even with explanations what is going on for the dumbfounded of us), engaging enemies from various fractions with special attention to the swat equalizer who you learn to hate anew, unique maps (never saw the last one before), lots of special attention in descriptions, clues and extras. Absolutely not recommended for teams as they will miss half of the goodness.

Backwards Day is one arc that I wished I had a little more space for.

And now I do!

So what's this extra space got you?

• More variety in the shards of shattered time
• Bright primary colors to break up and highlight Maros' blather
• Optional objectives now actually exist
• You can investigate every element of the undone futures, not just the notable bosses
• And probably more I've forgotten about

If anybody's tried to play this recently, it seems like a patch drastically scaled back the available locations in the mission 3 map and as a result the arc doesn't work anymore. So I've picked a new map. I think the new location works well, though it's not as tightly thematically tied as the old one.

The Timekeeper was recently visited by copyright lawyers claiming one of his minions infringed upon the trademark for "Splinter". He attempted to claim prior art by being a timeless force as old as the universe, but they would have none of it.

The name has since been changed. He apologizes for the inconvenience.