Dr. Aeon's Challenge: A Player's Perspective

re: Sister Twelve - any and all discussion about the Aeon Challenges is fine, just looking to liven up the thread a little. Continuing my hot streak, I played Zaphir's

To Dream of Nothing #374644 by @Celestial Nemesis

Today Positron is talking to me because all the high level heroes have lost their powers. Us lowbies seem to be the only ones unaffected since we only recently came into our powers. And slowly, through these four missions, I and two other lowbies - Sunstorm and Heavy Metal - find out about a scientist infected with a Nictus combining who's a wannabe Dr. Brainstorm and tapped into the combined power net to grant themselves power while robbing everyone else of it.

The Supers Lose Their Power: In this arc, everyone with any sort of stronger powers completely lose them, whether they are natural, technological, or any other origin. The only ones who retain their powers are those who have only minor power. The entire arc is set up as sort of a mystery where you discover who is behind this anomaly and eventually stop them.

The Arc as an Arc: I really enjoyed this arc, the only thing that suffered somewhat, and this will vary from person to person, but there was just too much text. I will say that it was all quite good reading, there was just a lot of it, so much that if I forgot to check one of the longer mission end clues, I would be a little confused about some of the things talked about for the next mission. I'm not saying to get rid of it all, but I think you should look at condensing things here and there, as well as making sure you're not leaving out any important info in just the contact dialogs.

Appropriate for the Level Range?: I had absolutely no problems with the difficulty. Starting with mission 2 nets you two helpful allies, one more damage oriented, and one more support oriented. But I think even without them I wouldn't have had many problems, and with them I didn't have any. I think I died once total, but I could even be wrong on that count.

Edit: my twitter notes below in order.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA To Dream of Nothing # 374644 by @ Celestial Nemesis aka Zaphir, entry in Aeon's Second Challenge.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: A global outbreak is robbing superheroes and villains alike of their powers. News at 11:00.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Very interesting busy text. Alternatively, someone's life story in mission begin clue.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: The life story was of Alfred Patrick, fan of Dr. Brainstorm and person I'm looking for. Guessing he did it by mistake, or not.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Council is here placing explosives. Uh oh.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Some interesting set-up clues. Doesn't tell me much yet, but is piquing my interest. Must continue later though.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA Continuing To Dream of Nothing. M2: chasing after a rogue Council agent suspected to have absconded with the scientist from M1.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Another great busy text, must remember to check them all.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: This anomaly is called N-3, reminds me of Purification by Coulomb2.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: There's lots of text everywhere in this arc. Reminds me of a Glazius arc. Mostly interesting, but just a lot of it.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Hello family! Also, I must have stopped on the way to stop some Hellions - that's why my allies aren't waiting at the door.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Nice, all 4 glowies are in the same room.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: One of the glowies lost the Nictus it was holding. It's identifier? N-3. Nice build up of the mystery so far.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Heh, Family boss defeat text - I get it, the word of the day was 'humiliation'.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Positron does a little sum up of the story so far, and I'm after the weakened Nictus. Also seems to set up a cluster** of groups.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Another very interesting busy text - Positron theorizing about the so called "Null Effect" and noting a flickering of its effects
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Walk in to the safehouse and hear Council soldiers and smell burning flesh. That's never a good sign.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: wow, lots of optional stuff lying around here - 12 memoirs, 3 students, and an optional boss. Only need the rogue council agent.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: I keep getting a little confused about how the next mission comes about based on contact text, until I see the mission end clue.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: The students I'm finding are charred bodies, work of the Nictus.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Found an enthralled brawler, <Thralls of Nihil>, recolored 5th column, bio says he's "unarmed except for a pistol." that's armed.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Found the rogue agent. He's all sickly looking and lying on the ground with other council looking down at him.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Trying to decide if I want to try and find all the optional glowies now that I lost my countdown or just exit.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: just grabbed four that were nearby, some interesting optional info and a couple non-infos.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Stop the Nictus, save the world.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: The animation that worked so well in Storming Citadel is a little annoying on this arc.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Aww, can't talk to Posi while speedboating to the cargo ship. Still 3 interesting busy texts are better than 0.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: found a nictus boss named Blackshift, clue says there's a couple more before destroying the crystal to lure Nihil out.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Whoops, let one of my allies die.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: objective completion texts have nice little notes about where I should look for the next task.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: I was worried with the small orange warning, but Nihil is just a boss. Whew.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Defeat text describes destroying a null engine that's not actually there. Could be a player objective?
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: And everyone has their powers back, and a very long souvenir summing up the whole arc. Great arc.

Thanks for the review, glad you hear you liked it!!

Good call pointing out the M3 objective test ('find the agent' was a bit metagame-y), I changed it. Nihil is indeed an EB (scales down to boss with no-bosses), but I set him to standard/standard so even as an EB he doesn't really overwhelm the player + allies. As for the Positron bug, it is annoying; I was surprised when I first saw it, but by that point I had the story all planned out with Positron as the contact. Maybe someday we'll be able to set animations for our MA contacts!

The arc does indeed suffer from 'tl;dr' / wall-of-text syndrome, and I've been wracking my brain trying to find a way to optimize it without simplifying the story; the fact that my writing style is super wordy and I'm not a native English speaker doesn't help.

(As a side note, the rates I got on the arc are a bit... rhapsodic. All but three votes are 5 with positive feedback, and then there were two anonymous 1-stars and a 3-star who said the arc is indeed too wordy for its own good. :P)


thanks again,

-- Z.

Today brings a bit of lightheartedness to the competition when I played

The Spider Without Fangs #379248 by @TheDeepBlue

My contact today is Operative... 867-5309? No, that's not right, must check my twitter notes... A Ha! Operative 647-8725, she works for Arachnos and has a severe case of bad attitude. Which is explained later in the arc (and will be spoiled here for those who like a good mystery). She wants me to retrieve a random magical artifact from the Legacy Chain but won't tell me what it is or what it does, but boy will she be pissed if I don't come back with it. And boy does she stay pissed for these five missions until I finally get it. Legacy Chain moved it to a different warehouse, they transfer it to Longbow custody, and I have to make a pit stop at Arachnos to get Longbow information, I have to stop some Longbow patrols, and I finally get what I was looking for, and then some.

The Villain Loses Her Powers: Ok, time to let the cat out of the bag, the contact turns out to be Ice Mistral. Throughout the arc, you find out piece by piece, in a pretty good flow of information, that Ice Mistral got drunk at a club, hooked up with a guy that turned out to be a Paragon Hero, he took her mantle and is holding it more or less hostage to try and redeem her as a hero. Sound funny? Well it is. And this arc throws a lot of pieces of humor here there and everywhere along the way. With humorous situations, non-required glowies, and just the situation itself, it's a pretty fun romp throughout.

Appropriate for the Level Range?: Yes, the Legacy Chain had given me a few fits in an earlier arc, but this one had a better choice of bosses and no difficulty problems for me at all.

The Arc as an Arc: This was a fun little mystery ride. It had a good variety of somewhat uncommon (Legacy Chain) and common (Arachnos/Longbow) enemies, a good number of patrols - not too many to worry about clumping up - but enough to add some interest. And I enjoyed the humor spread throughout the arc. My only downside was the contact, but I've been told that she's fairly representative of Ice Mistral in game, and I wasn't too fond of using the red text in the briefings instead of bold. I expect it for warnings or important information, not emphasis.

Edit: As usual, as-I-go tweets below in order.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA The Spider Without Fangs # 379248 by @ TheDeepBlue, entry in Aeon's second challenge
Bubbawheat #CoHMA My contact today is Operative 647-8725, but I don't think her name is (Jenny).
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: My contact has a very commanding tone and I'm supposed to get a random artifact from the Legacy Chain because she said so.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Patrol walks by talking about working with Longbow and leaving someone to rot. Interesting...
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: A fake defendable dangerous artifact right in the front.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Some funny non-required artifacts laying around, like a mummified Hitchiker's thumb.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Looks like boss Radiant Cadogan might be guarding the artifact.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Cadogan had the artifact transferred to another location very quickly, and before I got there. I'm worried about the reaction...

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: The author likes to highlight somewhat useful lines in red... and the occasional joke or random word.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Still not a big fan of brow-beating contacts, especially villain ones.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: But she did know where this other Legacy Chain base was, and is "graciously" letting me go get it, and no payday until it's done.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: An arachnos huntsman Operative Sergej is sitting in front of me, that can't bode well.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Legacy ambush sounds like Gomer Pyle in my head "Sounds like someone's fighting over there" well goooollly"
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Nice meta-humor, found essentially a single experience point, an elusive object for level 50s.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Totally expecting something to happen, there are too few enemies around.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Found a longbow Agent Lewis. Seems suspiciously set up just like the last mission.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Agent Lewis told me that my contact is... A VILLAIN! *Gasp*, Oh wait, I knew that already...and I'm really looking for her power.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA A Ha! *spoiler* My contact is http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Ice_Mistral though bio says nothing about a mantle, but not a big stretch.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA Now I've got to infiltrate an Arachnos base to get tracking info on Longbow, who now have Ice Mistral's Mantle.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3:Found the base commander, and the computer but no info on Longbow. Looks like it was removed, or my contact's messing with me.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: The info was removed... by Scirr...oh crud. Yes, that's the name displayed over his head. Especially funny when he starts talking
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Scirr...oh crud tells me that I need some leverage, or my contact will kill me when she gets what she wants.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Fought some Longbow squads at Mercy Beach and rescued Ice Mistral trying to fight off Longbow with a rusty pipe wrench.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Also snagged a pic with me and Misty, not useful on its own, but might be able to combine with later stuff for leverage.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M5: Infiltrating the Longbow Sub to get the mantle "for real this time". Also, destroying some medi-ports for good measure.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M5: Fought off two <Paragon Heroes> and found a Polaroid of Ice Mistral dancing at a club with one of them. Now to upload it...
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M5: So Ice Mistral got drunk, unknowingly hit on a no-name hero, took him home, and he sped off with her source of power to save her.

That Paragonwiki page is pretty lacking on actual information about the mantles of the four winds. The established canon for it I believe is really only in badges and Scirroco's backstory. There's an order of monks called the Order of the Four Winds who give out mantles based on the four cardinal winds and others. Scirroco has one (that he stole), Levantera and Borea both have one, and Ice Mistral has one, though it doesn't seem that she has one of the cardinal winds. When she was given hers, it caused her to go insane with rage and she became a villain.

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Order_of_the_Four_Winds

Thanks for the review, BW! I'm glad you liked the arc.

I'm really liking this style of reviewing, it's much easier and fun to do. Shorter paragraph style review with overall comments, and tweets following the minutia of the arc written as I go. And my next victim is already dead, so it's time to hold

A Wake for Dead 6 #379160 by Clave Dark 5

This arc uses an interesting narrative device that is rarely used in the MA, the bookend/flashback. My contact is Meter Rabbit, known in Clave's earlier arcs as The Rabbitual Criminal. He's lost his powers and reformed while still in the Zig doing meter repair work, from all the mayhem missions going around. The arc is based around your character or Meter Rabbit telling stories about a hero known as Orange 6 while he was alive, and Dead 6 while he was dead, which didn't stop him from doing heroic work. It's a unique device, and I commend the effort, but personally, I felt it left parts of the experience lacking. Notably the sense of direction, most of the mission briefings just set up the story and ask you to tell it, but don't actually tell what you're supposed to do.

The only other problem I had was it did get a little bit confusing with the character of Dead 6 and the flashback nature of the missions. Mission 1 is about the first time my character met Dead 6, Mission 2 is about when Rabbitual Criminal had a run in with Orange 6 which is played by my character in this flashback. Actually, my character's perspective shifts within the mission. It starts out as Rabbitual Criminal's experience placing his crate, then 3 more objectives pop up (unfortunately, I missed two of them due to being completed by Rogue or Ally patrols) and I fight Rabbitual Criminal as a boss who refers to me as Orange 6. Mission 3 is where it gets a little confusing, it's a flashback to just after mission 2, but it refers to my character working with Dead 6, and it reveals how Dead 6 died, or Orange 6 died, or both if Dead 6 found peace by showing my current character how he died, and I'm confused again. Basically, Dead 6 is an ally in this mission and leads you to a large explosive. You realize it has already been disarmed, and you find an imprint of a body in the dust where the small explosive detonator had exploded. Dead 6 lies down in the imprint and you realize that's how Orange 6 died. And the final mission has your character remembering how you took revenge on the Council who placed that bomb.

The Villain Loses His Power: In this arc, it's your contact Meter Rabbit, who went by the name Rabbitual Criminal while he was a villain (and has appearances in at least two of Clave Dark 5's other arcs). It's something that happened outside of this arc for the most part, and he doesn't get his power back, though you do destroy (or remember destroying) the cause of his power loss. It is a unique device for the challenge, but it felt like a minor sidenote to the main Orange 6/Dead 6 storyline.

The Arc as an Arc: As mentioned above, the bookend/flashback device is unique, but can be a little off putting to some people, especially with the occasional lack of direction and self-completing objectives. But the overall meat of the story was very interesting and engaging. I liked Dead 6 as a character even though he wasn't much of a talker, and I really liked how his heroic sacrifice was handled. I'm just not sure about how it was presented.

Appropriate for the Level Range?: Absolutely, I didn't really have any problems with the difficulty at my level. I had a couple close calls with a double spawn of Council, and the final boss with his Fire Blast, but I prevailed without deaths (other than one caused by inattention).

On to the tweets.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA A Wake for Dead 6 # 379160 by @ Clave Dark 5, yet another second Aeon's Challenge arc. Probably only time for 1 mission though.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA Contact is Meter Rabbit, formerly known as Rabbitual Criminal, and yes I have fought him before.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA I like the little editor's note about where we saw the contact last, very comic-book-y.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Ahh, a flashback. And I finally read the title right, before I read it like "Left 4 Dead" with a random sequel number at the end.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA But it's actually an arc about a villain named "Dead 6" and his subsequent "Wake" after he has died, for real apparently.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA Anyway, back to the M1 flashback - It's set up that I'm telling Meter Rabbit about the time I first met Dead 6.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA Oops, alt + tabbed back to a dead body at the front door of the mission. Guess I should have been quicker.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA Ok, back to the ghost hunting with me and Dead 6, who despite his name is actually a hero like *ahem* me...
Bubbawheat #CoHMA Dead is kicking butt and not even bothering to take names. Ok by me, keeps me below 10 longer.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA Rescued a random citizen named Julie, and Dead was very quiet the whole time.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: This time Meter Rabbit is telling the story about when he first ran into Orange 6 (Dead 6 before he died)
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: very empty office building, except for that hole in the ground... haven't I been here before?
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Kind of funny, the office is empty, and all the guards are hanging out in the caves.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Dropped off the crate and had 3 dialog type objectives pop up. Then a couple NPC lines of dialog got me back down to 1.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: And the role of Orange 6 will be played today by: me! And Rabbitual Criminal as a boss tells his story as you beat him down.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: And here's where the power loss comes in - Rabbitual Criminal lost his powers, but there was a fire in the hospital...

Bubbawheat #CoHMA Continuing A Wake for Dead 6, M3: remember when Dead 6 and I saved everyone in the hospital, but Dead 6 got all the credit... jerk.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA And it's the mayhem hospital (of course) with Council roaming around.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Nav bar is no help, title "You followed Dead 6" objective "Dead 6 lead you to this". Makes me think this quals for 1st chal too.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: It seems Dead 6 only has 2-3 attacks, but boy do they pack a wallop when they land.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: That's it? Dead 6 pointed to a barrel and we're done. So, he's part Golden Retriever?
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: So that's how Orange 6 died. He pulled the detonation device off the large explosive and it went off, killing him but no big boom

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: So the bomb was meant for my contact, and one last doodleydoot to when "I" took out Sprack.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Had a little trouble with a double spawn of Council, but it was nothing my Gemini Pistols couldn't handle.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: destroyed a crystal, with the crystal echoing Meter Rabbit's bookend meta-comments "Ooh a crystal? What was that".
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: I see Archon von Sprack. Classic mad scientist look with black cape and red gloves/boots. He's jumping up and down like a madman.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Sprack packs some serious firepower - pun intended - but I eke out a victory!
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Meter Rabbit realizes they used the power robbing device on him, but he's happy. But was M3 Orange 6 or Dead 6 dying?

I loved A Wake for Dead 6, I think it made me feel for the characters so well I didn't really think much about the whos and whats of the mission viewpoints or structures. Dead 6 is one of my favourite MA characters, which is pretty good praise considering he's so silent (in fact, he's completely silent, isn't he?)

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."

Now that I'm done with requests, I had to figure out what I wanted to play next. I went through all the arcs and gathered how many plays, how many missions, and what they were rated at (and listed on the front page as well) For my next arc, I chose the one with the fewest plays with only 2 plays and rated 5 stars, here's

The Return of Doctor Null #379045 by PeterPeter

This is yet another case of Positron contacting me to do some work for him, and yet again he still has the exploding animation bug, and this arc is another one that tries to ignore it. Positron has me investigating a break in at Cooke's Electronics where some Outcasts have a list of high end stuff that they're trying to get for someone called Doctor Null, which isn't a good thing.

The Hero Loses His Powers: The arc starts out simple enough, me going it solo to check out some Outcasts. Things are starting to look more serious, so Positron comes along and wipes the floor with Mission 2's Vahzilok, but then he gets overconfident and is zapped with a power draining device that removes his anti-matter powers, and mission 4 reveals that this power drain will eventually kill him. And mission 5 is the inevitable climactic fight with Doctor Null, with a drained, but still kicking Positron coming along as we fight every group under the sun (at this level). I thought it was a really nice story arc centered around the theme with a fairly standard plot structure.

The Arc as an Arc: The arc started out a little bit too slowly for my tastes, with the first mission feeling too much like a standard radio mission, and mission 2 has Hero level Positron along for the ride and pretty much wiping the floor with the Vahzilok which ramp up so the first half of the map is lower levels. And both of the missions have rather childish insults hurled at poor Positron. Things don't really start getting interesting until mission 3, where Positron loses his powers. There's still the occasional jab at him, but things in general get more serious and more interesting. I always love non combat missions like Mission 4 here, but there could be more things of interest thrown in. And mission 5 is a great mission with a big mix of enemy groups coming together with each having their own motivations, though Doctor Null seemed to show up too quickly and also silently.

Appropriate for the Level Range?: Yes, I did die a couple times, but it was due to ill preparation, or from getting aggro from multiple spawns. It was a nice mix of enemy groups throughout the arc, although there wasn't much reasoning why there were so many different groups kind of working together, or working independently for Doctor Null.

This arc started off slow, but turned out to be a pleasant surprise, well worth a look. As usual, twitter play-by-play below, in order.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA The Return of Doctor Null # 379045 by PeterPeter, entry in Aeon's Second Challenge. Picked because it has 2 plays and 5 stars.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: My contact is Positron (complete with his explosive animation bug) and I'm taking out some Outcasts at Booth's, standard stuff.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: nothing much going on yet, a funny patrol walked by, but just looking for the boss in the sewers.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1 Taken out by Redrock - Stone Armor Outcast - and his minions. Phooey.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: some childish humor and Posi bashing as I take out the boss this time. They dropped a high tech shopping list too.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA Continuing The Return of Doctor Null # 379045 by PeterPeter from a few days ago.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: The list of components is half taken care of, Posi looks where the rest can be found and *bam* robbery in progress.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Posi decides to join me this time and heads out first.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Hmmm... Vahzilok. Wonder what they're up to.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Heh, Posi's getting rather impatient waiting for me. I wonder if he feels the same way waiting for people to finish his TF?
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: These spawns seem unusually large, but also low level (conning green and blue), letting Posi take some out while I tweet.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Another first grade shot at "Poopsitron", but also calls attention to it, asking if there's a first grader's brain in their skull
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Defeated Stitches, turned out to be a rad on rad fight.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: They got the parts, and Doctor Null has his device at the top of a building in Hellion's territory. Posi goes in, and I distract.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Even though he says he'll be at the end of the map (or top) this time, still making me feel a bit like a minor player.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Found Positron, I get the feeling he got the power sucked out of him, as he's feeling "so weak..."

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Love this busy line "When you come to think of it, everyone who has the courage to walk the streets of Paragon City is a hero."
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Off to visit Dr. Boyd with powerless Positron, wonder what I'll find when I get there...
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Aah, I enjoy a nice little non-combat mission. Boyd found that Posi's condition is worsening, and will be terminal.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Though the rest of the office was pretty empty, could use a little extra people walking around doing stuff.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M5: good lines in the dialog here. "I'm all alone here" Accept text: "No, you're not" "I'm just a man wearing metallic long johns."
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M5: So we're taking out Doctor Null, just me and powerless Posi. And first I see Khashtak? A CoT mage. Hmm...
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M5: A big mix of enemies, Family guarding Posi from the <PositronTF> group, and Trolls all around.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA De-Powered Posi looks like he's using Super Strength, at least a couple of attacks.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M5: Posi's also a Boss-> Lieut instead of a Hero, so there's a chance he could die here. Though luckily it's not a pass/fail mission.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M5: Ran unexpectedly into Doctor Null, with an Arachnos guard. He was quiet at first, but still claims victory. For now...
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M5: But through his notes, Dr. Boyd thinks he can make a cure, arc ends on a happy, though technically uncertain note.

Thank you very much for taking the time to run through it and write such a detailed review. Some of the questions you had are things I could answer, but obviously I didn't get the answers into the arc where they belong. For example, Doctor Null was recruiting villains while he was in prison. The large variety of enemies is meant to represent the many villain groups who are willing to cooperate with Null in order to bring Positron down.

My goal was to have the player start out feeling annoyed by the way Positron treated them like a second class hero, and then feel some satisfaction as Positron grew to respect them. Sounds like I was in the ballpark, anyhow.

Thank you. I'll see what I can do to spice up the first mission. I did start slowly on purpose, but that was probably a mistake.

Played this one a few days ago. Lucky I can refresh my memory. Next up on my plate is an arc that will likely go away shortly after i17 hits, according to the author. Here's an

Unfair Trade #373846 by @Lazarus

The Villain Loses His Power: This conceit comes straight out at the beginning, the contact's bio actually which I typically look at first. You need to know who you're working with after all. Maxwell Hauser got sent to the Zig, the one with the power suppression field around it apparently for added security measures. Well, when he was released, his powers didn't come back, and he needs my help to get them back. Or get some new ones from a couple heroes that got him sent there in the first place.

Appropriate for the Level Range: Yes, it was difficult in places for me, but never frustratingly so. And it was always close enough that I felt that if I had played differently I wouldn't have died at all. But I did die several times through the course of this arc, and I'm now at the top of the level range for these arcs.

The Arc as an Arc: This was a fun arc. Nothing too deep, or too complicated. I liked a lot of the pop culture references in here, like Clerks and Office Space. I also liked the use of the <Paragon City Heroes> and the plot in general was quite fun. I did expect a betrayal at the end, which never happened thankfully, but I never did really sense much motivation for working this hard to get this guy's power back - almost always the hardest thing in a good villainous arc.

As usual, tweets below in order.


Bubbawheat #CoHMA Unfair Trade # 373846 by @ Lazarus, entry in 2nd Aeon's Challenge, going away when he finishes his next arc.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA Contact is Maxwell Hauser, his powers suppressed in the Zig but didn't come back later. The power to wake people in the morning?
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: I'm off to break in to Atlas bank and get his safe deposit box, he gave me a video scrambler for good measure too.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA Security Captain dialog references Clerks. Me likey.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Fought off Flambeaux and Polar Shift after grabbing the loot.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Turns out he has a grudge against those two, and also needs a superpowered donor to get his powers back. #TwoBirdsOneStone.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Automatons? TPS Reports? What kind of sick game are you playing here?
Bubbawheat #CoHMA continuing Unfair Trade M2: I'm dying quite a bit, but I feel like it's because I'm not giving it my full attention.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: got the video from the mainframe of Polar Shift and Flambeaux fighting before I got there. I guess I could use it.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Ugh, so tired of the hospital teleporter workarounds. But we've got Outcasts helping us trap the two heroes.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Not too bad of a mission, a couple Outcasts helping me take out some PPD and the two heroines.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Now he's getting his powers back by taking theirs, I have a strong suspicion that he's going to test them out on me.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Maxwell Houser is now calling himself Maxwell Demon, the procedure worked! I thought he would have went with Max Power.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Found Flambeaux, she tried to throw a rock at me. Also a bunch of Longbow are here, for some reason.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Having 2 bosses follow me around is nice, except when they decide to stand around for a while.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Some final patrols and a boss on the way out, but I was wrong on the betrayal. Fun little arc.

Next up is

Too Clever by Half #378944 by @Samuraiko

Starting with this arc, I will be tracking my xp gains due to the recent patch. I'm currently 9 arcs into the challenge, and not quite to level 11, having started at level 5. This arc netted me around 800 XP @ lvl 10, solo, default difficulty, 3 missions. 1st mission was mostly non-combat, and 2nd mission I found the single objective very quickly.

The Villain Loses His Power: This is the first arc I've played where I wasn't entirely clear about this part of the arc. Basically, Vernon von Grun was running an experiment to give intelligence to Devouring Earth, Dr. Aeon came to oversee his experiment and there was an explosion. Ultimately the device drained Dr. Aeon's intelligence and gave it to the DE instead of using the artificial intelligence that Von Grun had set up. But the question is whether you consider Aeon's brain power to be part of his super power, or his power armor/power gloves to be part of his super power (which he still has, as you fight him in the third mission).

The Arc as an Arc: Aside from that detail, I had a really good time playing this arc. It is very fun and very funny, from Von Grun's contact dialog, to the hyper intelligent DE roaming around the first mission. It's even great to see several optional self motivated villainous objectives in missions 2 and 3 aside from what your contact is asking you to do.

Appropriate for the Level Range: Totally, there were a small handful of custom scientists guarding destructibles in M1, who were de-powered enough that they gave no XP. Some longbow, some skulls, and Dr. Aeon who wasn't too difficult for me in the chosen incarnation.

Laugh with me now! Hah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!

Bubbawheat #CoHMA Time to see if the MA changes start affecting me, playing Too Clever by Half # 378944 by @Samuraiko, 2nd Aeon challenge.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA my contact is Vernon Von Grun, mad scientist to the stars.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA Laugh with me now Aha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: So Von Grun is trying to make extra-intelligent DE, Aeon came to watch, and Von Grun wound up unconscious. Let's see...
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: I enter the mission and bladegrasses are talking scientific jibber jabber. (not to be confused with mumbo jumbo)
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: They also seem to be pacifists... so far.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Found a sample that escaped from inside its box. I think it's the one with the hunched back.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Found a sample still inside its box, contentedly spouting jibber jabber regardless of the box, and guarded by a scientist sansbio
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Go up another elevator and get hit with a wall of science talk.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Turns out Aeon also got knocked out and crawled away on his own.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Hmm... so I think I know what went wrong with the intelligence modifier, but I haven't told myself what that is yet.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Current xp total: 0, though I don't think the latest patch affected that any.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: So the intelligence modifier didn't use the AI, it used Aeon's... I, and left him a blathering idiot wandering around for longbow
Bubbawheat #CoHMA to track, and for me to get that information from them, by any means necessary. And I like any means.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Ooh, I have 16 acts of wanton destruction to commit. I wonder if it's mandatory.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Found the boss quickly, mayhem and destruction will have to wait. XP total: 91 (2 minions and 1 boss->lieut @lvl 10)

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Aeon's wandering around Mercy and I have to find him, and leave no witnesses. I wonder if it's the small Kalinda's arc map.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Ahh, the burning Skulls map. This shouldn't be too big. Also seems like there's fighting ahead of me.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: I thought Aeon was supposed to be the powerless one, but he still seemed quite energy/energy to me. Just without a mind.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA was quite a good time... for SCIENCE! Laugh with me Bwah-hah-hah-hah-hah. XP total for the arc ~ 800 @lvl 10 solo, default diff.

I'm glad you liked my little arc! I will be revamping it once the new issue hits, since now we'll be able to lead escorts to stuff instead of just to the door, but the basic premise will be the same.

Re: my arc, yes, Dr. Aeon's "super power" is his brain power. He doesn't QUITE have his gloves in M3 (I had to rebuild him without them), though he does still have ONE energy punch and ONE energy blast. (Hence him shouting "No fair! If I only had high-powered tech energy throwing gloves to beat you! Or power armor! Yeah!")

Did you actually commit the various acts of wanton destruction? If not, you should.

And I have to say, writing von Grun (and the mindless Dr. Aeon) were just an absolute riot. When I nearly made my husband spew seltzer water all over his desk, I knew I had it right.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

Next up is one that I've been looking at for a while, another fun arc from Airhead, it's somewhat of a sequel to Outbreak, the hero tutorial. It's

Outbroken #379017 by @Aehaed

The Hero Loses His Power: This is another one that takes a somewhat roundabout way of looking at this concept. *Spoiler reminder* According to this arc, Sergeant Hicks from Outbreak has been working with Paragon City Police since the Rikti war. Actually, he was working with Arachnos back then as Hixagon where he lost his powers somehow during the war and decided it was safer to go to Paragon City and stay away from Arachnos where survival of the fittest is the norm, and he was no longer one of the fittest. But this happened a long time before the arc takes place.

There's also another thread that could possibly satisfy the condition. Coyote starts out this arc being infected by some Rikti mutagen which is why he asks you to fill in for him in his tutorial duties. But I never got the impression that Coyote had lost his powers, he was just sick and needed treatment.

Appropriate for the Level Range: Yes, though I did have a little trouble with the Coralax defendable object ambushes in mission 3. Also, the final mission does rely on a "trick" for it to be totally soloable. It has a 15 minute timer and an empty map except for a single AV->EB and a half dozen glowies. I gave the EB just a short try with very little headway. I then started clicking on the glowies, which I assumed one of them was tied to the mission complete. But I had to lure the EB away first so I could get a clear shot at them. Instead, they summoned Arachnos Proximity Bombs (Cruise Missile). A rare mob that is unselectable and explodes when near a target for extreme damage. It only took a few of them to knock out the EB without any help from me. No XP, but very interesting tactic.

The Arc as an Arc: I thought the story was quite interesting, and there's a lot of humor throughout. Coyote is infected with a mutagen that basically gives him Turett's Syndrome, while Hicks is choosing increasingly odd places to hold a new tutorial mission for new heroes. Things are kept interesting, and the story end with a bit of intrigue with the introduction of Hicks' back story. I had quite a good time with it.

As usual, as-I-go tweets below in order. Along with some XP tracking which I realize is hard to gauge if it's due to a short mission, or due to the patch, or a combination of both.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA Playing Outbroken # 379017 by @ Aehaed aka Airhead
Bubbawheat #CoHMA My contact is Coyote, and this arc is advertised as a sequel to Outbreak, the Hero tutorial, of sorts.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: So, Coyote has gotten infected with some Rikti mutagen and is acting oddly, and asking me to fill in for him in the tutorial.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: First, I'm off to help Officer Hicks track down a missing deactivated Rikti Drone.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Faultline map, with officers talking outside, and some contaminated inside, mix of lvl 1s and lvl 10s.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: there's some <Balconi Family> here too, wonder what they're up to?

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Best mission pop-up ever! I'm on Grandville beach map, as Hicks went portal hopping looking for a new tutorial zone. Odd choice.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA Oh yeah, current xp total for mission one: 150.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Some Coralax are wiping the floor with the SWAT officers here.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Tried defending a Medicom station, and got handed by the defendable ambush + regular spawns + a couple stragglers.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Took a little while, but found the two drones down on the beach.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: XP total for mission 2: 330

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: now they're trying to make a tutorial using a different conflict. Wonder what's next?
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Ok, now they're trying to make a tutorial in the RWZ. They so cwazy! Though I bet it has something to do with Coyote's sickness.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Found a room to the side with a couple inactive glowies and a deactivated drone. Wonder what I'm going to do with them.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Some more fun in here - patrols of funny <New Heroes>, a Rikti Goat (hordeling), and I accidentally reactivated the drone.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: XP total for mission 3: 150

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: I'm off to find Officer Hicks once again, but nothing else to go on so far. He certainly is acting awful weird though.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Now I'm in an Arachnos base. Hmmm...
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Great line from first Arachnos boss " An eye for an eye, eh? Lucky for me, a spider has many!"
Bubbawheat #CoHMA Hmm... A room with a whole bunch of glowie computers. Though I'm only here to "Find Hicks".
Bubbawheat #CoHMA That was a bust, all the computers were password protected. And I'm a fighter, not a hacker.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: *Spoiler* Found Hicks, aka Hixagon, the Rikti mutagen restored him to his former superpowered villain self.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Though, for some reason he's a rescue rather than a boss.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Next up was to save Dr. Miller, the one that's been treating Coyote and RUN to the exit. Though I didn't see any ambushes/patrols
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: XP total for M4: 700.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M5: I'm supposed to lead Hixagon into a trap, I've only got 15 minutes, and I'm warned to bring along some [break frees]. Fun?
Bubbawheat #CoHMA I think purples would be better idea than break frees.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA *Spoiler* Ok, that was pretty sweet, all those glowie computers summoned proximity mines that took out Hixagon in short order.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA Though it was cool, it ended up netting me 0XP for mission 5. No biggie.

Thanks Bubbawheat! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

It's great to get feedback. This is incentive to get this arc cleaned up.

On the XP, I'm not sure what to do, perhaps I should just wait. I have a bunch of rescues and optional defendables. They should not cut xp, since they aren't allies. If they do, that would be a nasty bug that should have a high priority to be fixed. I have one ally in mission 4, but it's a very short mission. If the ally provides buffs, I've never noticed it. He mostly just kill-steals, until he betrays you, all for the sake of the story.

Although you enjoyed it, I think I need to try to have the player care more about the characters (a challenge in any storytelling). Ultimately, the story needs to carry the player along despite the quick-but-low-xp explosive final mission. I had a bunch of ideas to implement before I got 1-star griefed on the fourth play; I gave up on the arc as I didn't expect anyone to ever find it again after that. Except that you did, bless you. And a couple of silent others too. Now at 7 plays

Arc: 379017: Outbroken See all your old friends in the Outbreak Tutorial sequel!
Arc: Coming Soon: The Incarnate Shadow Shard of Fire and Ice Mender Rednem needs you!
Massively.com opinion poll: Please Help Save CoH!

I'm partially just posting the XP for my own curiosity. It's not just about the allies patch (the first ally doesn't count btw) It's also informed by small maps, and the fact that for this character I'm avoiding as many mobs as possible to avoid as much XP as possible short of completely turning it off. That's partly how I've done 10 arcs and only gotten 6 levels out of it.

Back on track with the next arc from AbiterFabulous, here's

Past Echoes Tomorrow #379399 by @Equation

Supers Lose Their Powers: The supers in this case are the Nuclear 90, having some process done to them to remove their powers and set their hearts on overload, creating a small nuclear explosion if not treated - and the only treatment several of them found was from Dr. Vahzilok - which was to remove their heart and place it in a vat of coolant. This arc also serves as a pseudo backstory to Fusionette, showing her penchant for superheroism as well as reckless behaviors.

Appropriate for the Level Range?: Yes, I did have slight problems with the main antagonist which you fight several times, but adjusting my tactics won out with only one death per encounter - or less. Vahzilok are also occasionally tough in their automatically larger than normal groups.

The Arc as an Arc: I really liked a lot of stuff in this arc, it's very well written with the exception of the occasional typo, with several interesting arcs playing out throughout the story. The Fusionette arc - meeting her as a simple hostage named Annette all the way to seeing her take on her infamous Fusionette costume at the end (though thankfully, she doesn't actually accompany you with her wild ways). Numina as your contact is very well written and treats you as a hero, but also as a hero of the appropriate level. And The Red Threat has his own arc as the main antagonist, it all weaves together in a very satisfying way. There are also a few minor quibbles with some of the mechanics, and some might not like Atta's cave, but he does provide a map. Be sure to check this arc out with your lowbies... well once the ally XP fix hits - it's a real killer in mission 4.

As usual, tweets below in order.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA Running Past Echoes of Tomorrow # 379399 by @ Equation aka @ArbiterFabulous. Entry in Aeon's 2nd challenge.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Numina comes to me and asks for help "But I'm only Security Level 5?!" (Psst, I'm actually up to 10 now, but I won't tell her)
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Really liking the tone of Numina's dialog so far, has me interested off the bat.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Off to stop a robbery, aka a prologue to something greater! I can tell it's important, because of all the exclamation points!
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Something odd going on in the vault, let's go check out what these Outcasts are up to.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: So Shock! actually had lost his powers and I didn't even fight him. I think Outcasts shouldn't recruit people with pacemakers.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Now the Hellions are acting strangely, and five heroes sent to investigate haven't returned. Also hinting at Nuclear 90?
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: It's the five floor green fog map, though the briefing did warn of the five floors beforehand. This will prolly be it for tonight
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: And my guess is confirmed by Hot Pink, of the <Nuclear 90>.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: I wonder if Spark! was also one of the Nuclear 90 before joining the Outcasts...
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Rescued a young Fusionette.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: He was talked about as a spirit, but he looks pretty corporeal to me. Still 2 heroes lurking about as well.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: This Mysterious Figure is quite tough. let's try this again.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Black Eye? I'm pretty sure I rescued him. Did he not rescue, or is it a typical MA bug?
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Yep, stupid bug, hits my Matchstick Women arc as well, found Lady Tomorrow on floor 3.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: total xp for this mission: 800 @lvl 11 (forgot to check for M1) time for unconsciousness to take me 'till tomorrow.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA Continuing Past Echoes of Tomorrow # 379399 by @ Equation / @ArbiterFabulous

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: I hear about possible Nuclear 90 victims all over the city, and some have turned to Dr. Vahz, and so must I.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Annette who will become Fusionette is guarded by an embalmed cadaver, if that's not an accident waiting to happen.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Zombies are much easier when I remember to load fire ammo.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Dr. Vahz couldn't save the heroes that went to see him. He did, however, save their hearts. You know, for later.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA @ArbiterFabulous Yes, the letters from each of the heroes I met in M2 are a nice touch.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: They gathered up all the Nuclear 90, but the Hellions managed to kidnap some of them and take them to... Atta's Cave.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Also, it's mentioned that I've been chosen... "For some reason." Never hurts to cop to the randomness.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA continuing @ArbiterFabulous's Past Echoes of Tomorrow once again, here's hoping to finish the last two missions tonight.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Atta's cave with 30 Nuclear 90 (all named "Nuclear 90" so far, except for a Fusionette up front) to rescue, all optional.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: I can tell random civilian was used for the Nuclear 90, since I know that group includes Tsoo tattoo artists for some reason.
ArbiterFabulous @Bubbawheat Did you like the clue you get from Fusionette?
Bubbawheat @ArbiterFabulous #CoHMA M4: Nice, I hadn't checked that one out yet. Let's see how well those directions hold up (tedium was starting)
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: The other problem with "random" civilians: I've seen the general with the cigar about 5 times already.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Oh, and the recent XP change hit this mission HARD. 3 xp for a minion @ level 11.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: 18 bottles of beer on the wall, 18 bottles of beer. Take one down, pass it around...
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Fusionette's directions worked like a charm, when I actually followed them correctly. Though my first wave was unsuccessful.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: And the mysterious figure is down. Want to finish arc, but also want to see if I can handle Ultra Mode... Will finish tomorrow!
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Turns out he's the Red Threat, the cause of Numina's see-through-ity. Wonder how close all of this is to canon.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M5: Finally going to finish this one. Numina goes off to finish the Red Threat, but doesn't want me to come, except a day later...
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M5: And her "house" is the Midnighter Club, which is a bit buggy by the way. Sometimes that first step drops you off the map.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M5: And the Red Threat surrounds himself with Spetsnaz commandos.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M5: Disrupted the objects needed for the Red Threat's resurrection, all quite interesting.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M5: A nice little souvenir for a wrap-up, as well as some author's notes. Though with the current XP, I don't see anyone going 5->10.

Ooh, halfway done 11 down, 10 to go!