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

And today's a two-fer with

Is That A Club In Your Pocket Or Are You Just Happy to See Me? 374975 by @FredrickSvanberg

A Hero Loses His Power: DJ Zero, the contact, has lost his power as a plot by the Wailers wanting his dimension controlling powers. They had an agent convice DJ Scratch - who was guest DJ'ing at the time - to play a tape that zapped his powers away. In the end you retrieve the tape and play it backwards to restore his powers.

Appropriate for the Level Range?: Yes, it was doable, but Red Caps can be quite difficult, especially since they work around the no-boss difficulty. Snaptooth also shows up twice, but mission completes after his first death, so you don't have to defeat his EB version to exit, and the second time he's optional.

The Arc as an Arc: It was a good bit of fun, with a bunch of nice little easter eggs and funny dialog, especially between DJ Zero and Sister Psyche.

As usual, tweets below.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA Running Is That A Club In Your Pocket Or Are You Just Happy to See Me? 374975 by FredrickSvanberg, Aeon's 2nd challenge
Bubbawheat #CoHMA Contact is DJ Zero of Pocket D, he's lost his powers and all the big names are stuck in Pocket D unable to help. Is it Snaptooth?
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: While looking for Snaptooth, I see redcaps coming out through Cauldron portals?
Bubbawheat #CoHMA Bah, stupid redcaps.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Redcap bosses are tough, luckily there's no ceilings and I can fly.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA I don't know if they changed things, but I'm freely attacking the cauldrons without going for the defenders first.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Snaptooth has arrived! Now where is he?
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Not bad - soloed EB Snaptooth. Not too tough out of melee range.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Sister Psyche is contacting us mentally. Parsley! Red Caps invaded Pocket D and no-fight rules don't apply to them.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: They take some random hostages to Croatoa, and we're off to save them.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: A black and white - physical War Witch is up front to come help me.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Ganymede tells me that it looks like DJ Scratch is the one behind this whole mess.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: An interesting and fun mix of characters recognizable as hanging out in Pocket D.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Off to fight DJ Scratch in the burning Hellions map. But instead, he's being attacked by his own Hellions.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Ambush! The place is being overrun by Wailers!
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Bah, I didn't know wailer bosses rezzed. I defeated the Blue Meanie once, but the rest of them got me before I could again.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Don't have exact totals, but only got about 1 bubble of XP for the whole arc.

Quick review time on another entry that I've been told is soon for the chopping block as soon as they have a new arc ready for prime time.

Possession #379393 by @ArwenDarkblade

A Hero Loses His Powers: Hero, Villain, Rogue, what have you. It is a barely known hero named Mr. Mysterio, actually a quite recent hero who you find out has lost the stone that is the source of his power, which you then find out that he stole from the Midnighter club and so you have to take it right back from him again. An interesting concept, but looking at the strictest sense of the rules, he's not much of a "known" hero at this point in the story.

Appropriate for the Level Range?: Absolutely, nothing to report here, was a quick and easy set of three missions with non-difficult yet varied enemies.

The Arc as an Arc: The story was interesting, but the arc felt a little rushed. As in I really rushed through it. The second mission had some chaining, but it was pretty simple. Also Mr. Mysterio is mentioned to be working for someone, but that thread is simply left hanging at the end. There could definitely be more to this arc, but the point is more or less moot as the author let me know that they are unpublishing it as soon as their next arc is ready to be published, since this arc didn't win or place in the contest.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA And another one tonight: Possession #379393 by ArwenDarkblade
Bubbawheat #CoHMA Contact is Azuria, and she's asking me to check on a new hero, Mr. Mysterio who's been going after the Hellions when his signal cut--
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Hey, wasn't I just here? (burning Hellions map, used in M3 of Fred's arc I just played)
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Mr. Mysterio had the source of his power stolen - a jewel. He gave me a key for Azuria to divine a location for me.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: The key goes to the Midnighter Club (have to watch that first step), which does not bode well.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: The Stone of Cassandra? I thought I was looking for the stone of Mr. Mysterio?
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Found the stone, and had to rescue Mysterio once again. Now off to negotiate with the raid leader. Aren't I the one raiding?
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: "negotiated" with PsiBorg who told me that Mysterio stole the jewel for his boss, then decided to be hero for a day instead.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Nice payback joke by Azuria " What kind of organization are they running there, when their vault is so easily compromised?"
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Off to fight Mysterio this time, and possibly his boss, along with some Skulls.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Place is practically empty except for the occasional Skulls patrol.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: That was it? pretty anti-climactic just fighting Mr. Mysterio and then we're done.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Seems unfinished, especially mentioning that "Mistress Vex" is still out there. Would have liked to have seen her in this arc.

Thanks again for the feedback. The plot with Mysterio's boss was supposed to be left hanging for a future storyline, but then I kinda lost interest in the story.

The story felt rushed because I was changing it up until the last minute. In fact, I was going to make further changes and then got the tell from Dr. Aeon that he had played it. >.<

Now that you've reviewed it, though, I may go revisit it and see what I can do to beef it up. I had some ideas already, but hadn't taken the time to implement them. Had I known you were doing this I would have.

It's that time again, and from what I've heard it seems like I get to see the more serious side of LaserJesus's writing in

Holding Down the Fort #379065 by @LaserJesus

The Heroes Lose Their Power: This one is all handled in the sidelines. Lord Recluse's Web Machine stole all the power of the Freedom Phalanx and so all the high powered, but lesser known heroes are all battling him in the Rogue Isles while the lower powered heroes like myself fill in at Paragon City. While the arc is good, as far as the guidelines of the contest go, this explanation is a little too far off on the sidelines, and aside from the reason why the contact needs me specifically is the only impact it has throughout the whole arc.

Appropriate for the level range?: Yes, I only had a few deaths, and that was from multiple spawns being close to each other.

The Arc as an Arc: Aside from the contest specific nit-pick, I thought the arc was totally solid. Lots of interesting things going on, nothing too difficult, bits of his trademark humor showing up here and there, all in an interesting story and a well developed contact personality.

As usual, tweets below in order.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA Running Holding Down the Fort # 379065 by @ LaserJesus
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Contact is Detective Freitag who tells me about Recluse's Web Machine keeping the big name heroes occupied.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: The Council are after a museum, heroes are already on the scene, more information in mission begin clue dossier.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Dossier highlights the Dagger of T'Loltec c/o The Midnight Club, as well as highlighting Council Vamirii, Galaxy, and Warwolves.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Ran into some random Freakshow guarding No Mind, a <Paragon Hero>
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: And Banished Pantheon guarding another hostage? What's going on here?
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: So of the artifacts of interest - according to the curator/hostage - The Dagger and Portal tech are gone, but the painting's ok.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA Continuing Holding Down the Fort # 379065 by @ LaserJesus, at least one more mission anyway.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Frietag thinks the BP stole the dagger, but Polar Shift may have been kidnapped through mediport hacking.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Also, nice bit of flavor about a blackout while heroes are doing a respec in the Terra Volta reactor - Rikti version.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: popup says the dim lights are glowing red, look blue to me.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Also, another mission begin clue dossier with info about some Crey mobs that I'll be fighting.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: There's some <infected> in here, they seem to have escaped in the blackout.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: This map and/or the patrols/battles seem to have a lot of double spawns to take me down. Have to watch myself more.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Burnfire? I thought I was looking for Polar Shift.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: So Crey were analyzing the <Infected> and wanted to use an array of Heroes to battle/test their abilities.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA Continuing Holding Down the Fort # 379065 by @ LaserJesus, re-finished M2 after it crashed on me a couple days ago.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Rescued Polar Shift and come back to hear about the Crey being pulled into paddy wagons.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Little flavor in the beginning about the big battle going on in Rogue Isles. But our next concern is the Dagger of T'loltec.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: The dagger was taken by the BP to summon a big bad demon.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Though by the compass text, "Stop Demon Summoning" I feel like I'm trying to stop i17 from coming out...
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Not much in these caves besides Tiki masks and the hostage groups.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Found the dagger, but there's blood on it. Now I must use it to banish the demon.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: That's another thing I don't like about caves - all the paths are empty, but the big rooms are all clumped together.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: This arc seems to do a good job of giving the impression that the city and isles are in constant chaos.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Council were the ones that stole the old portal technology but brought out Rularuu from the Shadow Shard instead of Council world
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Compass text "Save the World" All in a day's work, I guess.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Why aren't the Natterlings giving any XP? Brute's only giving 12 XP @ lvl 12.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: The <U.S. Army> seem to be prevailing over the Rularuu pretty well.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Found an unexpected crystal anomaly.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: I feel like I'm slowly becoming a soldiers Mastermind...
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: First pass, no final glowie. Turning speakers up and trying again.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4:Found the comp tucked away in a little corner on the top floor. Portals secure, world saved, and the other front is over too.

Running an arc from a favorite author of mine with warnings to keep it spoiler free

A Hero in Need... Is a Friend indeed! #375018 by Wrong Number

The Hero Loses His Powers: In this arc, your contact Statesman, has lost his powers but you have to keep it hush hush. He's slumming it in Kings Row because that's where he was when he lost his powers, and the most common heroes around are those of your level, which would be best to avoid arousing suspicion. I liked this touch, and you subsequently check three of the most likely causes for him, but it doesn't quite end there.

Appropriate for the Level Range?: Once again, I had no problems at all with the difficulty on this arc. The final mission had some customs, but nothing too difficult.

The Arc as an Arc: I enjoyed this arc. It had a little bit of a slow and predictable buildup, but the twist was pretty good with a nice shot of double meanings to the first few missions.

edit: Tweets below in correct order

Bubbawheat #CoHMA Running A Hero in Need... Is a Friend Indeed # 375018 by @ Wrong Number, 2nd Aeon Challenge. I've been warned against spoilers so...
Bubbawheat #CoHMA ...here goes nothing. M1: Title is ...required Prudence and Speed, I sense a rhyming thing going on here.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Contact is Statesman, the big guy himself, and... it's a secret.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: State's powers are gone and no one can know (you won't tell anyone, right?) I like the lowbie explanation on this arc too.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: So 3 artifacts have appeared in Kings Row recently (why a hero this level is trusted - won't arouse suspicion) bet it's the 3rd.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Ruh-roh "MA Door Invalid". Hopefully it's because I had this one open before i17 went live.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M1: Found Fredrick doing some chant and asking himself why before beating me into the pavement and not telling me about the urn.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: "An Evil Breed" wonder which mission is "A Noble Steed"? Picking up an idol from a German Leader's mistress. The Council have it.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Council Leader's name is "Zamuel" Both he and "Fredrick" are MA authors. Don't think any group would name a leader "Bubbawheat".
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: Second verse, same as the first, only in reverse. Found the idol, off to defeat the boss.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M2: "She's taken Zamuel's package". I did not touch anyone's "package" thank you very much.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: At least Statesman admits he should have looked at the list backwards. Off to Backfire the Hellion and a Bat'Zul computer?!
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Hello old friend - Burning Hellions map. Thankfully the mobs by the door did not rush in while I was AFK.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M3: Round three - still boss and object, this time in either order.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: "Plant the seed"... ewwww... The comp did it! And States is back to normal... but there is 2 more missions to go...
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Meeting States for new task force in Kings Row... noncombat mission maybe? Always enjoy those when done well.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M4: Ooh, the detectives are not painting a pretty picture of what happened. I think I understand what the big spoiler will be.

Bubbawheat #CoHMA M5: What a tweest!
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M5: There's a message left for me on a tape player. Luckily they forgot to shut the record off and got some info from the very end.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M5: Interesting, there's 4 optional glowie clues that help figure out which destructible is the correct one to destroy.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M5: Found 2 clues to wrong answers, and one destructible that was also a wrong answer.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M5: And found the clue for the wrong answer I just destroyed.
Bubbawheat #CoHMA M5: Correctly bypassed the other 2 wrong answers and destroyed the correct answer. Bye bye final boss.

Bubba,

Thanks very much for the kind words. Happy you enjoyed the arc and thanks for carefully avoiding the spoilers.


WN

P.S. - You are correct about Fred, Zamuel and Backfire's names all came from MA Super Team members. I went through the roster and looked for names that I thought might work for the intended groups. I just couldn't figure a way to fit a Bubbawheat in.

Could i get a review of my arc Bubbawheat? Please? - I would like some plays and feedback. It's a psuedo-origin arc.

"Shades of Yesterday"
Arc ID 403020
Author: @3Mile

"An adventure through fictional history as you help the immortal hero Tactigon explore his clouded memories to identify the source of his curse and the true identity of the villain who cursed him."

5 Missions total on small to medium maps, no defeat alls, multiple objectives most missions. Difficulty is medium but I would recommend a small team for the last mission. Total time with a small team should be 30 to 45 minutes for the entire arc.

Running close to the end, though I hit another snag and couldn't finish

Edit: Got a PM from the author saying he adjusted the difficulty, so I went back and did finish it.

To Save a Hero #373341 by @Smash-Zone

The Hero Loses His Powers: My contact lost his powers months ago, he used to be a superhero and has SERAPH working on a cure for him so he can return to the skies and fighting crime. Though things started getting a little murky about his true identity when I had to quit.

Edit: Seems that it was only his cure that was tampered with, though I'm curious as to why he started acting odd before he got the cure.

The Arc as an Arc: I can't really comment on this since I didn't get the whole story. But mission 2 stands out as an really great attempt at a street sweep simulation. The map is the streets of Kings Row, complete with many of the mobs that would normally hang out there, complete with Clockwork stealing scrap metal, Circle of Thorns casting spells on civilians, and Vahzilok wandering around. (and Skulls as the default enemy group)

Edit: Mission 3 is a defeat all on a small/medium map which some people don't like, but I found tolerable, and mission 4 was a fairly large cave map where I had to do quite a bit of searching to find everything. But the story holds up fairly well, and the custom critters are still difficult, but not frustratingly difficult. I still died several times, but I always felt like I was thiiis close.

Appropriate for the Level Range: Unfortunately, when I hit mission 3, which is a defeat all on a map with full custom enemies with stuns and web grenades, I had to give up after several deaths. Every group gave me difficulty, and as a solo Dual Pistols/Dark Corruptor, I died on every group of 3 or more, and almost died even on groups of two, and I even cheated on the requirements of this project that I set for myself, I'm fully DO'ed out, and level 12. And with enemy groups scaling for teams, I think many teams would also have a difficult time with this mission.

Edit: still a bit on the tough side for the level range, but there was much improvement and the adjustments to the group were pretty good to make things easier without sacrificing too much XP in the process. My biggest qualm currently is one of the minions still having web grenade. Slows hurt a lot when you only have a few attacks.

Tweets below in correct order.

#CoHMA Running To Save a Hero # 373341 by @ Smash-Zone, from Aeon's 2nd challenge.
#CoHMA My contact today is Roland Warlatts, a distinguished looking gentleman who according to his bio is a hero who lost his powers.
#CoHMA M1: Roland tells me his sob story about losing his powers months ago. Luckily SERAPH is working on a cure, but their stuff got jacked
#CoHMA M1: Off to track down the unknown thief to an abandoned mine.
#CoHMA M1: And the mine has some Legacy Chain inside.
#CoHMA M1: Sounds like this may be a case of a reluctant thief. Let's see where this goes.
#CoHMA M1: Found the supplies, though the thief warns of an upcoming evil tracking SERAPH's progress.

#CoHMA M2: My accept text says "Post-haste" Who says that? Off to catch some unknown mercenaries who again stole the stuff (read: customs).
#CoHMA M2: Skulls? Surely they aren't the "villains never seen before", maybe they're just supposed to be populating the Kings Row map.
#CoHMA M2: Found a group of CoT trying to steal the soul of a civilian... is purse snatching an available hostage emote?
#CoHMA M2: Also a group of Vahzilok roaming around, nice way to capture the feel of Kings Row, but needs just a bit more.
#CoHMA M2: Previous statement redacted. Was just in a slow part of the map, found several more CoT, Vahz, and Clockwork.
#CoHMA M2: Found the <unknown> mercenaries who promptly gunned me down.
#CoHMA M2: Ahh, don't you just love overconfident villains who act so surprised when you defeat them?
#CoHMA M2: Just caught the mission begin clue with more detailed info on contact's power loss. Nice.
#CoHMA M2: Note to self: If you're a member of a secret organization, memorize your base location, don't carry around a map.

#CoHMA M3: My contact's mad as hell and is not going to take it anymore. Well, through me at least. Time for a defeat all...
#CoHMA M3: Sword Masters are really tough. There's a reason why most people don't use custom groups in a low level arc.
#CoHMA M3: Crap, had already forgotten this was a defeat all....
#CoHMA M3: Yeah, dying on every spawn of more than 2, which is almost all of them. Also crashed, calling it a night.

Down to my last non-dev choiced, non-unpublished arc from the contest with

Dereliction of Duty #373571 by Dying Breath

The Hero Loses His Power: *spoiler reminder* My contact is Call of Duty who is a great and selfless hero who hasn't been seen around much lately, and he's calling upon a villain (me) to help him get out of the hero game for good. At the end I find out that his enchanted chains that give him his power no longer work for him because he's not as selfless as he once was, which is part of their enchantment. As far as premises go, I think this is the most original and interesting one of all the arcs I've played in this.

The Arc as an Arc: Unfortunately, the mechanics of the arc are all fairly simple. The first two missions only have one objective on a small map, and some of the plot threads come out of nowhere (hello, Flambeaux). But it wasn't a bad arc by any means, just needs a bit more polish to help bring out the interesting story.

Appropriate for the Level Range?: No problems at all on this front, mostly fighting Council and Longbow with Flambeaux as a sort of end boss.

As suggested by someone, I found a reversing program so I can list my tweets in chronological order:

#CoHMA Playing Dereliction of Duty # 373571 by @ Dying Breath, last non-dev choice Aeon's 2nd contest nominee for me to play.
#CoHMA Contact's name is Call of Duty, very stately looking. Bio says he has ties to the Rikti war and Citadel, but hasn't been active much.
#CoHMA Was confused, contact started off being confrontational, then I realized it's a villainous arc. Always forget to check first.
#CoHMA Very interesting premise so far. He's a Hero that wants to retire without being pestered by would-be heroes and villains.
#CoHMA So he's hiring a villain to help him fake his death so he can live a quiet life with his wife and start a family.
#CoHMA M1: Infiltrating a Council base to plant some info. Keeping me in the dark about the specifics so far though.
#CoHMA M1: Quick mission, he had me upload his true identity into the Council's computers, apparently to draw out an attack.

#CoHMA M2: The info was "discovered" by Call's hero friends. His wife is now being protected by Longbow, and I'll "kidnap" her.
#CoHMA M2: Another fairly simple mission, with a couple patrols and an ambush to spice things up.

#CoHMA Dereliction of Duty # 373571 M3: Placing wife's personal effects around a new Council base, some bombs to destroy them, and get out.
#CoHMA M3: Love the popup "Another Council base in a cave, how many of these things are in the city anyway?"
#CoHMA M3: Placed the evidence in a body bag, and placed the bomb. Triggered a couple patrols, and now to unlock the doors for the heroes.
#CoHMA M3: Unlocked the doors through a computer terminal. Maybe now that you can force an exit, that would be a better choice?

#CoHMA M4: Another great popup "There's only one way to be sure, but you don't have access to orbital nukes..."
#CoHMA M4: The final piece of the plan. Arm some bombs, Duty comes in and gets "exploded", also to take care of Flambeaux who's been nosy.
#CoHMA M4: Killed Flambeaux who suddenly figured out the plot before she died, and got the source of Call of Duty's power, which I can't use
#CoHMA M4: I can't use it for the same reason he hasn't been able to use it, it only works for those who are totally selfless.

And now on to the runner ups, this time it's

A Heartbreak Breaking Story # 378511 by @ Arctic Princess

A Hero Loses His Powers: At least I think he does, this is another one I ended up quitting out of frustration right at the very end. But Danny, one of the Nuclear 90, was captured by the Council to have experiments performed on him, and I'm guessing that it leaves him powerless at the end, and his teammates all got killed.

The Arc as an Arc: It was pretty interesting, though with a lot of death in it, not as much as The Most Important Thing, but still several dead bodies.

Appropriate for the Level Range?: Not for squishies at least, everything was ok until the last mission with a defeat all crawling with several difficult custom council enemies that appeared to be Pulse Rifle(Robotics MM)/Martial Arts lieutenants with knockback and stuns. I could barely take them on without dying, and they would often walk in on me while fighting other groups leaving me absolutely no chance. Then a stroke of bad luck came when I crashed with 2 left to defeat. Sorry, but I'm not slogging through that again just to read the last paragraph.

As-I-go tweets below.

#CoHMA Playing A Heartbreak Breaking Story # 378511 by @ Arctic Princess, 2nd runner up in Aeon's 2nd Challenge.
#CoHMA Contact is Henry Peter Wong, a low level hero liason.
#CoHMA M1: I'm dealing with a missing member of the Nuclear 90 who was last seen going after some Skulls who may not actually be Skulls.
#CoHMA M1: Looks like I'm on the burning Skulls map, no sign of enemies yet.
#CoHMA M1: Vahzilok? What are they doing here? And I found the missing guy's cell phone.
#CoHMA M1: There's a Lady Stitch gloating over the defeat of some Lieutenant.
#CoHMA M1: Rescued a Skull member and found evidence of some military guy helping the Vahzilok. Time to investigate.

#CoHMA M2: My next lead is a warehouse that's only active at night. Going in during the day to see if I can find anything.
#CoHMA M2: Found the body of Cybershock, the Vahz already harvested his more useful cybernetic parts.
#CoHMA M2: I think I see who the Lieutenant belongs to, hello <Council>
#CoHMA M2: Defeated Lieutenant Morriccone who told me that Danny is already in the hands of his superiors. Also found another dead body.
#CoHMA M2: Results of the "rescue" mission: 3 dead heroes, and one taken somewhere else, though likely still alive.

#CoHMA M3: Off to a Council base in Steel Canyon to hopefully rescue Danny with the help of Officer MacReady from Outbreak.
#CoHMA M3: And down I go against some nice looking custom Council, or specifically <Council Laser>
#CoHMA M3: I died (from AFKiness) and when I came back I found a bunch of friendly <Crey> standing around?
#CoHMA M3: Geez, those <Council Laser> are tough, even just as a group of 2.
#CoHMA M3: Was thinking that tactics is what it's all about, took on 3 council + 2 <Council Laser> and won, then 2 more <Council Laser> won.
#CoHMA M3: I don't think my computer likes this arc much either, my game just crashed.
#CoHMA M3: Had 2 mobs left to defeat, and now I have to run the mission all over again. No thank you. Sorry.

And yet another one for today, amazing what you can accomplish when you're not feeling good.

Two Tickets to Westerly #374002 by @PW

The Villain Loses His Power: In this arc, Roy is a member of the Skulls who wants to quit and live a quiet life with his girlfriend Nadya (your contact), but things don't quite go as planned as he gets sold out to the Circle of Thorns, then his old gang kidnaps his old lady as payback. Another unique premise along the lines of Dereliction of Duty, only with better overall storytelling.

The Arc as an Arc: Very good as always from PW, strong characters, solid writing, and an interesting story.

Appropriate for the Level Range?: Yes, I did have a little difficulty on the last mission due to several spawns bunching up on each other along with the boss, even at the slightly bumped up level 12. But once I got them separated it was a difficult, but not frustrating fight.

Tweets below as usual.


#CoHMA Playing Two Tickets to Westerly # 374002 by @ PW, first runner up in Aeon's 2nd Challenge.
#CoHMA Contact is Nadya, girlfriend of Roy who got mixed up with the bad crowd, aka. The Skulls.
#CoHMA M1: Roy was going to quit the Skulls, but hasn't been heard from since. And his gang name is "Bonebreaker".
#CoHMA M1: Busted up a Dyne lab and broke up a drug deal, still no sign of Roy...
#CoHMA M1: I think it's funny that on both Dyne Labs, the guarding Skull yells at me when I start destroying it, but doesn't attack me.
#CoHMA M1: Knocked some info out of Totenkopf who told me Roy already left and was last seen with a geek friend named Joe.

#CoHMA M2: Nadya's already got the two titular train tickets to Westerly, where her family is, and it ticked at Roy for not calling.
#CoHMA M2: I guess Joe is some kind of LARPer roaming around in the Steam Tunnels. Wonder what that translates to for me to fight?
#CoHMA M2: Some CoT Thieves and Assassins, a <Warrior> fighter, and some undead roaming around fighting them.
#CoHMA M2: Fought Joarxes who told me that he took Roy to the CoT to help get rid of his darkness powers, and got to join CoT themselves.

#CoHMA M3: Nadya's all but given up hope now that Roy's with the Circle of Thorns, but I sure haven't.
#CoHMA M3: Lots of missing persons here, but no sign of Roy yet...
#CoHMA M3: Rescued Roy who had the Dark powers taken out of him, but of course, they weren't going to stop there.

#CoHMA M4: Roy's old gang took Nadya in retaliation, he wants to take them on alone, but I'm not letting him go down like that.
#CoHMA M4: TZ's a zombie MM, pretty rough first round, we'll see how well the second round goes.
#CoHMA M4: How the heck did I manage to get attacked by five other Skulls plus the boss?
#CoHMA M4: Rescued Nadya and all's well. Escorted them to the train station just in case.

And so my project comes nearly to a close playing the last arc on my list, and winner of the challenge,

Night Calls The Weaver #375420 by @Sister Twelve

The Hero Loses Her Powers: This is actually very close to the idea I had which never actually became an arc. The Weaver was a great hero in her prime 50 years ago, but sacrificed her power during the first Rikti Invasion, which you find out through articles you read spanning the course of her career over the course of this arc. Your mission is something that she predicted 13 years ago, and is ready to see it through to the end.

The Arc as an Arc: This arc is extremely well written with in depth characters and an involving storyline that really makes your character feel like part of the plot without putting too many words into your mouth. Of all the arcs I played from this challenge, I agree with this one as the winner.

Appropriate for the Level Range?: Mostly. The fire control custom boss in the third mission gave me a few fits, but that's just one boss through the whole arc, and a single break free won the fight for me. And the fourth mission has a large number of patrols that can easily bunch up if you're not paying attention.

#CoHMA Running Night Calls The Weaver # 375420 by @ Sister Twelve winner of the 2nd Aeon's Challenge, and my last one left to run.
#CoHMA Contact is Donna Wright, an elderly heroine past her prime once called The Weaver and leader of a supergroup.
#CoHMA This is interesting, the contact doesn't have much of a presence yet, I only hear sirens and catch wind of a bank robbery.
#CoHMA M1: I wonder if this is a subtle pun " You picked the wrong time to stick your nose in!"
#CoHMA M1: The Hellions stole some stuff from my contact's safety deposit box. I guess I'll be hitting her up for info.

#CoHMA M2: Donna aka The Weaver lets me in and tells me what's going on kinda. Something's leading the Hellions do open a gateway.
#CoHMA M2: Also really like the flavor mission begin clues, old articles from The Weaver's past.
#CoHMA M2: I'm looking for Juan Escobar, I wonder if he's related to Pumpkin Escobar?
#CoHMA M2: This arc seems to confirm my feelings that the Dev's have a tendency to pick arcs with grisly deaths in them.

#CoHMA M3: The Circle of Thorns mean to summon an Avatar of Kali, something The Weaver stopped 13 years ago, sacrificing her team to do so.
#CoHMA M3: It's kind of funny that Dr. Aeon suggested using mobs not normally seen, but the winner is filled with lots of Hellions.
#CoHMA M3: Hello half-dozen Circle of Thorns waiting on the other side of the door to kill me.
#CoHMA M3: Yikes, Robert Ridge is pretty tough as a fire controller, or I suppose Dominator.
#CoHMA M3: Second round with a break free got me through, would have been tough without one though.

#CoHMA M4: skipping contact, heading straight to university and hopefully, the hostage.
#CoHMA M4: Fire Melee is much easier to handle than Fire control at this level. And he sure liked to brag about defeating Donna.
#CoHMA M4: The Weaver completed what she started 13 years ago, buying me enough time to be able to find the child and hopefully, save her.
#CoHMA M4: As much as I like all the mission begin articles, it feels like reading them is shoehorned into the narrative.

#CoHMA M5: Rescued the girl, though she seems awful matter of fact " They... killed my mom and dad... can we get out of here please?"

Dr. Aeon's 2nd Challenge Closing Thoughts

I played 20 out of 22 known arcs, with my Dual Pistols/Dark Miasma Corruptor on Justice, for a total of 81 missions, which brought me from level 5 to level 15.2.

The Hero or Villain Loses His or Her Powers: In most cases this happened through someone or something stealing their powers. Of the few notable exceptions, two of them ended up being picked as Dev's Choice. In the winning arc, Night Calls the Weaver, the Heroine is at the end of her career and had sacrificed her powers only a few years ago during the first Rikti Invasion, and she is calling on you to help out with something from her past that has finally come to fruition. In the runner up, Two Tickets to Westerly, a member of the Skulls is trying to ditch the gang to lead a normal life, and has to get rid of his powers in the process. And another notable one to my eyes, Dereliction of Duty has a Hero whose enchanted powers come from his selfless devotion. He has become less selfless as he wants to start a family, and asks a villain to help him stage his death so he can lead his own normal life.

There are other arcs that take this conceit as a mere aside and have their story pretty self contained while putting the meat of the constraint into the sidelines of the arc. In some cases, this could have hurt their chances for winning even if it was a great arc. Most notably in A Hero in Need... Is a Friend Indeed, where the power loss ends up being [spoiler deleted], as well as Holding Down the Fort, where the power loss has no real relevance to the mission at hand. Both are excellent arcs, but when you stick to the letter of the contest, they're just a little bit too far off course.

Appropriate for the Level Range?: This is something I'm not sure how much it factored into the winning arcs, along with something else Dr. Aeon suggested in the original post - putting in enemies you don't commonly at this level. Because of this suggestion, I fought a lot of Legacy Chain, and a few other less common enemies. But funnily enough, the winner ended up using mostly Hellions and Circle of Thorns. There were a total of three arcs that I quit due to difficulty, and one I went back to and finished after an update by the author. One of those arcs was a runner up in the contest, though I admit that it was difficulty combined with an untimely crash that made me not finish it.

Overall Quality of the Arcs: This is one of my happiest reasons for choosing to complete this project. Almost all of the arcs I played were well above average, and over half I would rate at 5 stars without being overly generous. There was a lot of well polished, interesting, and fun arcs and I'm glad that I decided to start, as well as complete this project.

Closing Thoughts: I'm not sure if Aeon will make another challenge anytime soon, and I know that some people are soured on the idea as many of these arcs didn't get played as much as they had hoped, and they might not agree with the winners and runner ups, but I hope he does make another one and I hope it comes out with as many good arcs as this one did.

Aeon's Winners:
Night Calls The Weaver #375420 by Sister Twelve
Two Tickets to Westerly #374002 by PoliceWoman
A Heartbreak Breaking Story #378511 by Arctic Princess

Bubbawheat's Favorites:
Night Calls The Weaver #375420 by Sister Twelve
Two Tickets to Westerly #374002 by PoliceWoman
A Hero in Need... Is a Friend indeed! #375018 by Wrong Number
Holding Down the Fort #379065 by LaserJesus
Too Clever by Half #378944 by Samuraiko
Past Echoes Tomorrow #379399 by ArbiterFabulous

Thanks for all the work you put in doing this series of reviews. It was very entertaining and fun to follow!


WN

I'm glad my arc "Too Clever By Half" was one of your favorites, and thank you for so thoroughly playing and reviewing everyone's arcs. Reading your tweets while you play is one of my not-so-guilty pleasures.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

Thanks for playing it, Bubba. I'm glad that you seemed to enjoy it. I, (obviously ) didn't get the same thing from Dr. Aeon's original post that you did. I didn't think that he necessarily wanted to see factions at lower level than normal, just that he wanted elements in the story to be different than what you would see in CoX. I thought that I accomplished that with the narrative structure... that the story was actually told in a sort of 2nd Person perspective rather than the normal 1st person - Narrator voice that the contact normally assumes.

At any rate, I think you've done a great job with this project. (I was really disappointed when you did the switchover from the arcs from the first contest to the arcs from the second because my entry into the first contest would have been the next one reviewed. ;p)

Thanks again. It is always great to be told you did something well.

While I did complete all the available arcs from the second challenge, there's still some left hanging from the first challenge, and I haven't fully decided what my next project will be in the MA, so I decided to run

Union of the Mask #352400 by @Sister Twelve

Evil for the Greater Good: I felt that this arc hit this part of the challenge fairly weakly. Your contact is Nemesis who is mostly toying with you and involving you in a discussion about morality, and ultimately you walk away owing him a mob-like "favor" to be called in on at some time in the future.

The Arc as an Arc: The writing was pretty solid, but there were several things that I personally didn't like very much. The first four arcs are all very similar to each other with the difference being each has a different enemy group to fight. Each one is a defeat all, has several silent patrols which don't seem to accomplish anything other than possibly getting behind you while you're searching for the last few mobs to defeat (though last objective feature alleviates that concern somewhat), has a single glowie, and has an AV as a boss, which is usually a challenging custom mob. I was successful on each map with plenty of time to spare, though I was playing a softcapped MA/SR Scrapper who still died to a couple of the AV->EBs (see below). A shame, as I enjoyed Night Calls the Weaver so much.

Another thing is that it assumes quite a bit about the player, like that she has a family. This wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that a very popular origin story for heroes is that their family was already killed which is why they became a hero in the first place (unless they became a villain instead). This is also part of the conceit of the plot, that the deaths of superheroes' family members across the city will cause many of them to go crazy and go down a path of villainy, which may happen in some cases, but I would suspect not the majority. Of course, it is all subject to the fact that the information is coming from Nemesis in the first place, who isn't exactly a trustworthy source of information.

#CoHMA Union of the Mask # 352400 by @ Sister Twelve - contact is Lord Nemesis, and opens with a cry for help, and second guessing...
#CoHMA M1: A video of a super's family getting killed. And Nemesis claims info about a list getting leaked with personal info on all supers.
#CoHMA M1: Uh oh, timer's going, better get back to the game.
#CoHMA M1: Defeat all, including Arahkn, all within 30 mins? No sweat. Also, thank you I17's last objective finder.

#CoHMA M2: Off to fight the Circle of Thorns and destroy one of the last four copies of the list - as long as Nemmie's hackers work right.
#CoHMA M2: Another 30 min timer, better get back to it!
#CoHMA M2: All this talk of family does nothing for the many many heroes out there who have no family.
#CoHMA M2: Defeated Weskelan from <long custom group name I don't remember> along with lots of CoT. Hope these aren't all defeat alls.

#CoHMA M3: Nemesis really likes his monologuing... blah blah blah *ducks steam powered rifle blast* I mean, 'you were saying, Mr. Nemesis'.
#CoHMA M3: Another 30 mins to go and me busy chatting/tweeting away. Silly me.
#CoHMA M3: Nemesis warns of 'going rogue', though I haven't done anything bad, or have reason to. And warns of other heroes pushed too far.
#CoHMA M3: Lots of Paragon Protector minions running around. And custom robotics MM with lots of defense, got sapped by voltaic tank :P
#CoHMA M3: Now I just have to find and destroy Crey(g)'s list.

#CoHMA M4: Sounds like I'm going after Family now. Also note that Nemesis also has a copy of the hero registry list, flaunting it in my face
#CoHMA M4: Wow, in the time for me to [Focus Chi] and [Dragon's Tail], Bloody Vicious has one miss, and 3 hits, killing me.

#CoHMA M5: And Nemesis becomes the Godfather - "there will be a time when I ask of you a favor..."
#CoHMA M5: And the final (aside from Nemesis's) list is in the hands of Marshall Blitz. Is that longbow? I guess I'll find out soon.
#CoHMA M5: No, he's Arachnos, right? Big clusterbuster of Arachnos and PPD fighting each other here, with heroes and civilians too.
#CoHMA M5: and horrible xp :P
#CoHMA M5: Marshall Blitz is another custom in his own group who has the unfortunate combo of [build up] and [total focus].

Ah, well, not everyone is going to enjoy everything that you write. Thanks for taking the time to play it even though you didn't seem to enjoy it. It's hard to do much with the review story-wise, simply because most of the things you indicated you disliked were things other reviewers have indicated they really enjoyed. You're right in saying the arc does make some assumptions, but unless you write every arc completely neutral to the fact that the player is playing a character, almost every arc is going to be essentially about the narrator of the story... ie the contact... or about characters that appear inside the arc.

I've always felt that with notable exceptions, the vast majority of the dev created content is very sterile for that reason. Is an arc like Union of the Mask going to resonate with every player? Probably not. Especially with players of characters who raise the objection you raise... ie, 'but my character doesn''t have a family!'

With Night Calls the Weaver, I probably did as much or more of this, especially since I wrote the arc in second person and the arc is essentially about the player's character, although I tried to put as few words in the player's mouth as possible and tried to make the player's responses as 'neutral' as possible or tried to phrase the responses in such a way as to allow the player to apply whatever inflection he or she chooses to apply to them.

I will freely admit that this style of arc creation is not going to appeal to everyone. Venture would likely 1 star every arc I write for this reason alone. He would call it powerposing and, to a certain extent, he would probably be right. But there is an essential difference between writing a scenario for this sort of game device and having the freedom to have your player sitting across the table from you.

If you are going to do it, you need to resolve yourself to writing scenarios that really don't have much to do with the player's character at all except in a sort of philosophically generic way that might apply to anyone who calls himself a hero... in other word, in my opinion at least, resign yourself to constantly writing sterile material that is only sold on its plot content. And occasionally you might write a really good plot, but for the most part, you're going to run into a lot of player dissatisfaction because the players of this game have seen this sort of thing for years and are already disenchanted with the material coming out of MA anyway.

Or else you write content that appeals to the widest possible portion of the player base possible. No not every character has a family. No, not every character even cares about his or her family, but by and large, the majority of people in the world do and the loss of that family would be devastating to them. All writing to a certain extent presumes that the reader will either agree with the premises established in the story or else that reader will probably dislike the story.

You appear to disagree with the premise that the wholescale slaughter of nearly every hero's family simultaneously would result in a lot of those heroes going off the deep end looking for revenge and that the collateral damage from the event would be extreme. Hence you didn't really buy into the story. The vast majority of the players who have played it appear to believe that this premise is a pretty likely outcome of the hero's failure. Unfortunately, I can't change you not buying into the overriding premise of the story, so there is just not a lot that I can do to really 'sell' this story to you.

At any rate, hopefully you'll play some more of my arcs in the future, (assuming I write any more), and hopefully those stories in the future will have premises that are easier for you to buy into and the voice of the narrator and dialogue of the player's character, (assuming I give the character any), will be easier for you to identify with.

It's just one of those things. I could definitely tell that the writing itself was very strong, it just didn't connect with me. It felt too much like Nemesis was over-monologuing (and continued on even into the mission begin clues), even though my character did a few words in edgewise. I also had a problem with the AV difficulty, even though I managed to clear all the timed defeat alls with over 10 mins to spare, even while occasionally chatting on globals.

You also mentioned via global /tell that you removed the patrols - I think it would help more if you reduced them to one and added dialog to help give a little extra life in those earlier missions. It was the combination of patrols on a defeat all *and* the fact that they were silent.

And I didn't mention it, but I thought the last map was a great touch, even though it was a little late for me to see all the flavor. I could tell it was there and what I did see was nice.

Honestly, it was just a lot of little problems, many of them personal pet peeves, that just added up the wrong way for me, and I do consider you a "go to" author. I may not play all your arcs up front, but I'll keep my eye out.