The Continuing Adventures of Pro Payne

Reminder: All arcs with mini-reviews here are awarded 5 stars in game, regardless of the score reported here.

A Hero in Need...is a Friend Indeed! (#375018) (5 stars)

This one is an awfully fun little adventure. You [CENSORED AT THE AUTHOR’S REQUEST]

Likes: “Feels” low level, so mission accomplished! Yet it also feels like I did something important (just not world shattering), so, still, mission accomplished. Nice [CENSORED].

Dislikes: Nearly every custom mob was giving a flat 75% XP, even though, given the level max for the arc, if they were set to custom, and given exactly the same powers most of them would be giving more XP. (For what it’s worth – and I’ve tested this – if you weren’t aware of this, it turns out XP is based on exemplared level, not ‘native’ level, so you don’t have to worry about custom settings ‘shortchanging’ high level characters who want to play – well, unless that was not WAI, and the latest patch ‘fixed’ that…)

Very good, very fun, very well done arc.

Score: 4.83

Damage Limitation (#447945) (3 stars)

A hero is delivered dead to the doorstep of Hero Corps, and I’m recruited to find out why. The problem is that I find nothing but confusion. The basic facts of the arc I get … Crey’s set up a ‘support group’ with the actual intent of rooting out disloyal employees. And my main target is apparently one of the Nuclear 90, only he’s managed to remove his ‘nuclear core’ (or disable it). And Crey isn’t willing to get directly involved, so they hire on a large number of (level appropriate) villain groups to do their dirty work, and give them plausible deniability. So, anyway, I rescue the hero in danger … keep my contact from quitting (wait, …*what?*), and … um… and the arc’s over. And I can’t pin anything on Crey.

Likes: The mission briefings are well written, and I have no trouble figuring out exactly what I need to do to complete each mission… but…

Dislikes: First, and relatively minor – the arc needs an editing/proofreading pass. No biggie; I’ve got at least one that does too. More to the point: I missed something along the way; I’ve spent at least half the arc having no idea what’s going on. I get the impression the author wanted me to notice something subtle that would tie everything together. Or maybe he didn’t, and figured only an idiot wouldn’t see the obvious connections. Problem is, I didn’t. So either I missed the reference. Or I’m an idiot. Or both. None of the options help me enjoy the arc more, though. And whatever I missed, it was pretty critical to linking together the parts of the arc and helping them to make sense.

Don’t get me wrong – it’s not that the story is wholly incomprehensible. I get a lot of the major points about what’s going on. It’s just there’s connections that need to be made, that I’m missing. Either I missed a critical clue (which is possible), or several critical things are in the in-mission dialog (which is often not a good idea). And just about everything else (basic design, the detail in the clues, etc.) is above average, at least.

Score: 3.417

Holding Down the Fort (#379065) (5 stars)

The situation is grim indeed. Recluse has activated his Web, rendering the Freedom Phalanx powerless. The city’s highest level heroes are now in Grandville, trying to stop him. So it’s left to the low level heroes to ‘hold the fort’ while the higher ups are gone. The arc’s both fun, and a neat take on both the ‘heroes lose their powers’ theme that a lot of arcs have (thanks to Aeon’s second challenge), and the ‘what’s going on elsewhere while these task forces depicting major battles in the City of Heroes world are happening’ motif that a few arcs like to explore (Fred’s “Striga Isle” arc comes to mind, but that’s not all.)

Likes – Well written, good pacing. Interesting (and very story appropriate) way to introduce low level heroes to some of the higher level factions. I was very happy the author left out the Eyeballs in his custom Rularuu group.

Dislikes – Not many. I thought it could have used a few more clues (what can I say? I like clues). The Natterlings apparently have a bug that causes them to not give XP (just the minions; the lieutenants seem to give XP just fine). Really, not much to complain about.

Very solid arc.

Score: 4.53

Past Echoes of Tomorrow #379399 (4 stars)

The arc is basically an origin story for both Fusionette and (after a fashion) the Nuclear 90 – and I actually found it to be a very well done story. Overall, the arc’s very high quality, but with a few caveats that keep it from crossing that bridge from very good to excellent.

First, and most important, the author (and perhaps a friend or two) really need to go through a serious editing pass; not just of the text (although there really are a fair number of typos and grammatical errors in the arc), but actually play through the missions, making notes of everything that isn’t ‘working as intended’ (for example, check to make sure all of the needed objective text is there, so you don’t get the default text that appears when it’s missing).

Two, although more of a nitpick, the arc is making heavy use of some unique maps. In and of itself, that’s not bad. *But* some of these maps are actually rather long. It really kind of throws off the arc’s ‘pacing’ – albeit only a little.

Third, the intro to the fourth mission seems to be a weak point in an otherwise very entertaining story: there’s no mention of exactly how the Hellions got the list of the Nuclear 90. It’s literally like ‘the plot requires them to have the list now, so WHAM, they’ve got it.’ This is pretty easy to fix, though – ironically, if Numina seems just as surprised as me that they got the list (and is curious as to how), that makes it clear that there is a “real” way they obtained the list, and (kind of) foreshadows I might figure it out in the mission. For that matter, though, how does Numina even know they’ve got the list?

…Fourth (and related to two), Atta’s map?! Oh dear lord I hate that map. But, you *did* instruct the player on exactly how to get to the final objective if they want to bypass most of the map. For what it’s worth, I did *NOT* rescue civilians that were ‘out of my way’ – frankly, they’d need to have individual clues/rescue text as a ‘reward’ to make it worth the effort. They’re just random civvies with the name Nuclear 90 that all say the same thing; just not enough motivation to hunt them down in this huge, densely populated map. (And one final nitpick regarding the map – if we’re all level 10, and it’s early in our careers, *and* we’re experiencing the ‘birth’ of the Nuclear 90, then shouldn’t Atta not have been defeated yet in the in-game chronology? So where is he?)

Is that really how Numina ‘died’? If it is, that’s pretty cool (and I need to pay more attention.) And the last mission is pretty cool too – it seems to imply I’m responsible for putting some of those Midnighter Club exploration artifacts in their ‘proper places.’ Neat touch.

So basically, I think it’s a very good arc with some extremely good ideas – it just needs some work to really unlock its potential.

Score: 4.365

Talos Vice (#338380)

Okay, in the interest of fairness, with apologies to PW, whom I have the greatest respect for as an excellent author, I’m going to exclude this arc from this category. Why? I’ve already given it a (well deserved, IMO) first place vote in a category that I think fits it a bit better.

(Completely forgot to post this two days ago – the last batch of ‘mini-reviews’ from the Player’s Choice arcs; I didn’t get to the custom groups).

Time for the Comedy arcs; these work a bit differently, since for this category I’m grading more for “do I think the arc is funny” versus the way I’d normally score arcs. Thanks to time constraints, each “mini-review” will only be one or two sentences.

Comedy is subjective, and so an ‘absolute’ ranking seems off-base; instead, the very first arc I play will automatically receive a “5”. The next arc is rated relative to that (6 if funnier, 4 if I didn’t think it was as funny). The next arc works the same way (although I’ll try to take *both* previous arcs into account). So the “score” is completely relative: the numbers themselves are meaningless beyond letting me compare one arc to another.

(As before, all arcs get 5 stars in game. I don’t intend to give them a ‘out-of-game’ star rating here.)

Captain Skylark Shadowfancy and the Tomorrownauts of Today! (#337333)

A funny, well-constructed arc. Really reminded me of ‘Fallout in space’ – a satirical take on the 50s vision of the future, but with plenty of dark undertones. Favorite Parts: The references to vacuum tubes, punch cards, and other archaic computer tech. Least Favorite: I hate flying villains in large, cavernous rooms, when I’m a predominantly melee character.

Comedy “Score”: 5 (It’s the first arc from the category; see above)

Drakule vs. The Werewolf Bikers From Hell (#340316)

Satire of Underworld, and of modern vampire and werewolf “lore” in general. Lots of genuinely funny stuff here. Favorate Parts: Ashton. The descriptions on the mobs, especially the vampire ones, are very funny. Least Favorite: That point where the werewolf boss hit dull pain.

Comedy “Score”: 6 (It was close, but humor being the subjective thing it is, I found it funnier than the previous arc.)

The Ghastly Secret Of Dreams (#386861)

Full of a lot of silly, but (IMO) clever humor. Very hard call, actually. I found the previous arc more funny, but this one felt equally funny as the first – so it gets the same score. Favorite Parts: The silliness is clever enough to be funny. Least Favorite: Honestly, the self-depreciation about Dev’s Choice. Not saying the author doesn’t make a good point – just that it’s the one part of the arc that doesn’t really add to the comedy value.

Comedy “Score”: 5

The Ms. Manners Task Force (#416951)

Ms. Manners’ greatest foes have escaped the Zig, and are angling for revenge. The arc is a (fun) cameo-fest for a large number of the author’s previous (and entertaining) characters, along with some dev characters as well. Favorite Part: The fight with manhandle. IMO that was gutter humor done very well. Least Favorate: Some of the map choices seemed a bit odd (the Zig escape being in a sewer seemed odd. I know why it’s there – hard to place objectives correctly on the actual Zig escape map, and it’s not like a canon arc – the Freakshow War – doesn’t do exactly the same thing, but it still struck me as weird), but that’s about it. Suggestion – Find a way to squeeze in Blappy and/or Bright Angel!

Comedy “Score”: 5.5 (Found it to be a bit funnier than Skylark and ‘Dreams’, and had the funniest single moment so far, but I thought Werewolf was more consistently funny throughout.)

Outbroken (#379017)

Coyote has been laid low by exposure to the ‘contaminated’ mutagen, and you must take his place. In doing so, you uncover the dark past of another member of the “Outbreak” team, and work to return him to the “light.” Favorite Part: It’s a very good arc – well constructed. A bit silly, but kind of a neat idea overall. Least Favorite Part – Coyote’s random bouts with Tourette’s Syndrome. I get the idea (and it’s part of the story), but it just seemed ‘off’.

Comedy “Score”: 4 (Don’t get me wrong – I actually like the arc. I thought it was clever, and very well put together. And I found several parts light hearted, for lack of a better word. But I didn’t actually find it funny.)

Too Clever by Half (#378944)

Von Grun’s Latest Scheme backfires, with comedic results. Favorite Part – The devouring earth quoting scientific theories/principles. Least Favorite Part – Would have preferred for the optional objectives in mission two to be marked as such.

Comedy “Score”: 5.4 (Basically, I found it equally funny as Ms. Manners – since, for voting purposes I had to choose one or the other for 2nd place, I ‘ranked’ them using the only remaining distinction I could think of; of the two arcs, which had the single funniest moment, in my very subjective opinion. So, basically, Manners ended up scoring a very narrow victory over this arc.)

Frankly, all of these arcs were quite good, and it was difficult choosing the funniest pair. I could probably play through all of them again in a week, and have a different opinion as to which two would have gotten my votes.

Hey mate. If you're up for 'em I have another few arcs. Take your pick. There are a couple of villain arcs you didn't get to last time (The Bravuran Jobs, Backwards Day) and a new hero arc appropriate for a level 50 (Operation Fair Trade).

Great little thing you're doing here! I'd like to offer my latest arc up for your last slot. Its ID is [#479013] and its name is The Rise of the Immortal King - A Tale of the First Invasion. Global is @Vid-szhite.

It's designed to be soloble, but it's a 35+ Strike Force Mission Arc. There's an AV fight in each of the last two missions, as well as an optional Elite Boss and a non-optional Elite Boss. I suggest that you turn off AVs, but I solo'd it with AVs and everything on my 26 SS/Inv Brute, even if it took heavy insp use, so if you feel comfortable with your level of power, you can leave AVs on, which results in the best overall experience.

I also request that you do it last. I still have a couple bugs I just remembered that I need to fix later tonight. Do note that none of the mobs are designed to flee except for a couple of Lieutenants in the third mission, but for some reason, the AVs in the last two missions still like to run away when they get low on health. I can't do anything about that, I'm afraid.

I don't foresee you having any problems if you can solo AVs without any help. It's designed such that my Emp/Psi could solo it with AVs off.

To Reign in Hell (Arc ID#448234, 4 stars, 5 stars given in game)

Sometimes, after a long, hard day of scheming it’s a lot of fun to just head over to the AE building and engage in a bit of fantasy.

Ah, here we have an author who’s programmed some sort of post-apocalyptic adventure. I’m intrigued. If I like it, and it gives me at least one idea that I could take into the real world to strengthen my eventual plans of conquest (and ascent to godhood), then I’ll reward you with the few measly tickets you’ll get from a positive rating, while I walk off with whatever the missions have given me.

Not fair, you say? You deserve more if I truly enjoy your VR fantasy?

Too bad. Take it up with my lawyer. His name is Mr. Energy Transfer. And he likes to put his Total Focus into burying all who would challenge his favorite client under a Barrage of Gloom. Which, incidentally, is exactly what will happen to you if I’m *not* impressed.

…

It’s two years after a series of solar flares just scoured most life from the surface of the planet. I’ve been hanging out in an Arachnos bunker, waiting for solar activity to return to normal (and, no doubt, filled with thoughts of everything I can accomplish in a world devastated by nuclear fires that have wiped out most of the competition). Yeah, yeah, I know – no mention of nukes. It’s the sun we’re talking about here. Powered by nuclear fusion. So it’s an apt description of the situation. Deal with it.

I’ve emerged from my bunker, and, as I wander across the blasted landscape, I spot a discarded TV that seems to be picking up a signal … from somewhere. I’m not totally sure about where or how the TV is getting power, and (as I just said), I *really* can’t tell you where that signal is coming from, but the TV is broadcasting a news report from two years ago.

Sun acting up… need to evacuate… blah, blah, blah. Get to the point, TV. Ah, there we go. I need to restore power to the communications grid, and reactivate the radio tower. Makes sense. In a world like this, being in command of all available communications is a definite plus. Let’s get started, shall we?

There wasn’t much to challenge me in the ruins of Grandville, so I promptly entered what was once Recluse’s Tower, seeking to power up the place, and get the radio tower online. The place was in lockdown mode when I entered, but it didn’t take long to find and override the source of the lockdown. That same terminal gave me a checklist of ‘repairs’ (or, really, diagnostics) I needed to do to get the place operational.


Listen up, Tower! “Arbiter” Perturbation has arrived!

I found the diagnostic computer for the secondary reactor first – but it wasn’t much help. The secondary reactor was completely submerged, and not functional. I found the primary diagnostic nearby, but it just reported all systems nominal. It looked like I needed to transfer as much power as I could to the Radio Tower, and I’d need to head down to the Power Distribution Center to do that.

Note: This seemed somewhat confusing. Here’s why: I’ve got a primary and secondary reactor. The secondary tells me it’s not working, and I need to transfer power to the Radio Tower. The primary tells me it’s working okay (and seems to indicate almost everything else here is working on some level too) – which implies it’s putting all it’s got into powering the radio tower. Um, but then why do I need to transfer power? It makes it seem like I’m diverting juice from the Radio Tower’s primary reactor to the Radio Tower. I figure the issue is something like the Primary powers the communications grid, and the secondary powers the actual building systems. But with the secondary offline, the Primary is getting power diverted to building systems, which means there’s not enough juice to fully power the communications equipment. So I need to tell it “to heck with the lights, AC, running water, and auto-flush toilets – just power up the friggin’ comm. grid.” If that’s the case, then it’d help to add a clue to help explain that.

Further in I locate the robot coordinating the security drones for the tower. Oddly, it takes to quoting Shakespeare while I beat it down. Must be some sort of corruption in its cliché inhibitor circuit caused by exposure to the solar radiation.

Luckily, the Tower Guardian robot happened to be Guardian-ing the very computer I needed to transfer all power to the radio tower. Doing so activator some more defense drones, but nothing I couldn’t handle. I pounded the little metal cockroaches to slag, and then left the tower to begin “step two.”

Note: The robots that ambush you after you redirect the power have their dialog all separated by hyphens… unfortunately that’s doing some really wonky things to how it displays in the chat window (including text just being lost off of right side of the window) – I get that you’re going for “effect through punctuation,” but, unfortunately it doesn’t accomplish its intended goal if half the text gets lost in the process. It looks like you tried to add manual breaks, but that won’t work well since different players have the chat windows scaled differently…

Also…

Another Note: Okay … it’s now clear the reactors power *all* of Grandville; again, either that isn’t mentioned before the end of the mission, or I just missed it. If it’s there, and pretty clear, that’s my mistake. If not, you might want to consider spelling that out more clearly.

…

Hmm, that strange TV had another message for me. The signal it was picking up seemed to be goading me to head back to the tower and reactivate (and patch into) the Arachnos satellite system.

Made sense – I’d restored communications, but they wouldn’t do me much good unless I had a foolproof way of figuring out exactly what was going on in what was left of the world, without having to rely on reports from useless thugs who happened to have stumbled across a walkie-talkie. I needed a more “big picture” kind of thing…

Once I returned to the Radio Tower, I found Arachnos wasn’t quite as “defunct” as I’d assumed. It seemed an Arachnos detachment was attempting to take control of the tower, and I got an idea that I was what prompted it.

A nearby cell had detected my efforts to redistribute power, and Arbiter Daos had sent these troops here to restore the power grid to its original settings, and also deliver a strange, almost alien-looking device.


The whole “pretend I’m an Arbiter” scam didn’t work too well on these guys…

For a moment, some sort of … alien? … signal coming from the device seemed to be messing with my mind – trying to convince me that I was in the grip of some illusion, and attempting to transmit a “new reality” into my brain. I destroyed it before it could succeed, and continued with my mission.

Note: At the moment, it seems pretty clear that I’m somehow under TV’s influence, and this device was trying to restore my “right” state of mind. But we’ll see where the story goes from here.

I cleared out the Arachnos, and established an uplink to the constellation of satellites over the area. Most didn’t work, but one showed me that there was something very unusual happening in Bloody Bay: half the island was covered in what appeared to be the canopy of a single, huge alien tree. And the whole place was surrounded by an unhealthy-looking energy field.

Oh, and I also decided to link WSPDR’s television broadcasts into the communications grid – anyone trying to access the grid would only see my favorite TV programs playing (yet more indication TV is exhibiting some sort of hypnotic control over me.)

Even knowing that it was something I probably *shouldn’t* do, I just couldn’t resist the urge to watch more TV. Perhaps it could link together some of the clues I’d found in the Radio Tower. Interestingly, the shows that were on gave me the idea to explore a ruined mansion on the east side of Grandville.

Notes: I never could get a good visual of how the whole thing with the octagon was supposed to work. Was it that the octagon ‘laid out’ over Bloody Bay, if transposed over a similar scale map of Grandville, would center on the house I was exploring? But why would I know to center the thing on the east side of Grandville? Or was it not a regular octagon, and drawing lines from opposing sides didn’t intersect in the middle? (Although, if it’s not regular, the lines from opposing sides wouldn’t all intersect in the same place anyway – at least I don’t think they would.)

The mansion belonged to a mad scientist, and was being investigated by the Legacy Chain (apparently another survivor of the solar flares). It was good they were there, too. Not only did they satiate my growing boredom by giving me a target for my violent impulses (there’s only so much TV you can watch, after all, before you have to take a break to engage in the mindless violence the TV encourages), they were also all too happy to blab what they’d been learning after I finished beating them up.

Apparently, the flares had been no accident, and this mad scientist, Dr. Itelet, had been attempting to contact a powerful entity from deep space, intent on harnessing its power. He was aided by the ghost of a Reginald Sarkin. In fact, while exploring the mansion, I’d been encountering Sarkin’s astral projections, which, seemingly unaware of my presence, were keen on blabbing even more secrets to me as they flitted about.

It would seem that the Shiva Meteor was but a small aspect of an extremely powerful (pan-dimensional?) entity “based” around a distant star in a distant galaxy. The Shivans were merely the entity’s “fingers” (kind of like the Orz, from Star Control 2, I guess). Perhaps using the Meteor as a ‘gateway’ or conduit of some sort, Dr. Itelet had somehow prompted this entity to trigger the solar flares.

I was getting a better picture of what was going on, but there was still a lot left to do.

Note: It did bother me a bit that the star map ‘pinpointed’ a star in a distant galaxy. In general, real star maps only depict stars in our own galaxy (and even then, only as they appear in our sky – although a star atlas would certainly show where they were in space). Either way, the bottom line is complete star maps (or star atlases) frequently only show fairly nearby stars – and almost never chart star locations beyond our own galaxy. In fact, even our best telescopes can only pick out the very brightest stars in even nearby galaxies. Almost nobody else would complain about that, but it’s one of those things that, as an astronomer, I get annoyed at (since it implies a lack of understanding of the sheer scale of a galaxy, or the vast distances between them: a complete star atlas of the Milky Way, for example, would have more than 100 billion stars. In order to make it big enough so that the stars didn’t all crowd on top of each other, the chart would have to be more than 300 km to a side. And depicting even the closest giant galaxy to ours at the correct scaled distance and to the same level of detail would require the map to be 7500 km to a side…)


Here’s a tip, Sarkin. Helping to summon something called the “Destroyer of Worlds” to “the world” was probably not your brightest move.

Once I left the ‘haunted’ mansion, Sarkin told me more – although most of it matched what I’d expected. Itelet had managed to contact the Destroyer of Worlds … the fundamental “core” entity behind the Shivans. He intended to control it, but it bested him, and took control of his body, fleeing to Bloody Bay. Once it got there, the flares began and “the Earth burned.” Thankfully, the Legacy Chain had just now destroyed the shield, so we could head to Bloody Bay and confront the Destroyer directly.

That left the question of how exactly I’d get to Bloody Bay, what with none of the helicopters or ferries being functional any more – but Sarkin gave the answer: he’d use his magic to teleport me there.

You know, all this was really working out in my favor – the Destroyer had done in almost everyone who could have stood against me, hopefully at the cost of a *huge* personal expenderature of power that would leave it weak and vulnerable to my attack. If I could wipe it out, I’d likely be one of the most powerful beings left alive on the planet. That’d certainly make any attempts to become the undisputed lord and master of the Earth considerably easier. I’d have to thank the Destroyer for doing me a favor while I was rending it limb from limb.

Note: The wording gets a bit hard to follow in the briefing – it sounds as though the Destroyer put up the shield, then the Legacy Chain arrived on the scene and destroyed it. The moment that happened, the flares began. But I suspect (as indicated above) you mean that the Destroyer got to Bloody Bay, put a shield up, and then (while protected by the shield) ‘did its thing’ to destroy the world. Now, two years later, the Chain figured out how to bring down the shield, allowing us to get to Bloody Bay.


Upon arriving at the tunnel network under Bloody Bay, Perturbation engages in a favorite pastime: destruction of valuable property (that isn’t his).

Sarkin teleported me into a cave network just below the huge tree that had taken over Bloody Bay. From the sound of it, a massive attack was underway on the surface, and the vermin spilling into the tunnels just supported that. I had to fight through a number of Legacy Chain, Arachnos, and Wyvern – but, not surprisingly, most of those in the tunnels were the Shivans.


Got Shivan?

I found Sarkin a bit further into the cave, and he made it clear I needed to destroy the central root of the tree. I did so, and summoned an entity called Armageddon in the process. I have no idea if the creature was some sort of guardian, or a more concentrated manifestation of the destructive energy flowing through the dying Shiva Tree. Whatever it was, it was extremely angry, and not convinced I was any sort of threat to its plans.

Big mistake. On its part.

For something that wiped out much of the Earth, Armageddon didn’t offer much of a challenge. Maybe my theory about its previous activities weakening it greatly was correct? Whatever. Too bad for Armmie.


In a desperate gambit to win a losing fight, Armageddon fires a blast of radiation at a very sensitive area. Thankfully, Perturbation’s Energy Aura deflected the shot, saving him from a lifetime of falsetto talking.

With Armageddon returned to the primordial ooze, there was very little left to stand in my way. I had control of the best surviving communications grid on the planet. Not to mention the few remaining spy satellites in orbit. And, at least for the time being, I didn’t have some sort of phenomenally powerful cosmic entity trying to destroy my potential acquisitions.

Things were looking up…

Stuff I Didn’t Hate: I really liked both the story and the premise (the story being the actual events depicted in the arc, and the premise being that the arc was post-apocalyptic). In particular, I really liked the expansion of the backstory about the Shivans, the tie-in to the cataclysm that nearly destroyed the Earth, and the whole idea of the overall Shiva entity manifesting as a huge alien “tree-thing” in Bloody Bay. The design on the custom boss at the end was well done too: it certainly gave the correct impression of a “special” Shivan. The interaction with the TV was well done, although I did find myself critical about a certain aspect of how TV ties into the story (which I’ll discuss in the next section). While the mission design itself wasn’t particularly noteworthy (that’s not an insult – I simply mean that there aren’t a lot of terribly complex mechanics expertly pulled off; which is fine), they are certainly well paced, put together in a logical way, and where chained objectives are used, the author has used them well (for example, by making good use of front, middle, and back to prevent the chained objectives from making the player have to do an excessive amount of backtracking).

Perturbations: There are parts of the story that have an oddly ‘unfinished’ feel to them, as though the author was starting down one path, and then switched down another midway through. This was most notable with TV’s place in the story. The arc seems to start with the impression that TV is trying to take control of you, convincing you that serving its agenda will advance your power (whether or not that’s true remains to be seen). You seem to fail at an early attempt to break this control – and then, well, that’s it. It’s as though TV wins, is now in control, and it’s time to move on to the “real” story in Bloody Bay. But that ends up making the whole interaction with TV seem like a loose end never tied up. Finally, at the end of the arc, it’s as though TV was just helping you keep your sanity, rather than trying to control you (which seems at odds with what struck me as more ‘sinister’ undertones involving the TV earlier). I’d say a second, if considerably milder, example is the role Arachnos plays – the sub plot that Arachnos is still around and trying to re-assert its power doesn’t seem to go anywhere: again, midway through the story it just feels like that sub plot is abandoned, and we now focus on the Legacy Chain and the situation in Bloody Bay.

In other words, if I had to characterize what felt a bit ‘off’ to me: the arc actually felt somewhat like two shorter (if related) arcs I played back to back.

Suggestions: As always, these are just things that come to mind … take the ones you like, ignore the ones you think are silly:

1. Consider removing the aspect of the story that makes it seem like the TV is controlling you – *keep* the TV (it’s done well), though.

2. Perhaps consider making Arachnos a bit more active in the last two missions.

3. It did seem odd that a level 25 villain would have the power to challenge something that can destroy worlds. I presume that destroying the ‘root’ greatly weakened it, or perhaps it was greatly weakened by causing the flares – either way, I do think it’d help to explain a bit more clearly in the story how it’s possible for you to stand a chance against the end boss.

4. Related to three, and a very rare suggestion for me (I almost never suggest making something harder), but Armageddon just screamed AV to me, so I was a bit surprised he was an EB. Granted, I *do* understand making him an AV gives him the purple triangles, which makes even the EB version more difficult, so it’s kind of a Catch-22, but it really felt to me like he should be an AV.

So, in Summary, it’s a very good arc. I liked the premise. I really liked the story (with the caveats mentioned earlier).

Score: 4.347

Thanks for playing "To Reign in Hell", glad to hear you enjoyed it [understandable caveats aside]! Just dropping a few comments...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coulomb2 Another Note: Okay … it’s now clear the reactors power *all* of Grandville; again, either that isn’t mentioned before the end of the mission, or I just missed it. If it’s there, and pretty clear, that’s my mistake. If not, you might want to consider spelling that out more clearly.

Yeah, this isn't explained too well -- as I understand it, the Radio Tower is basically the centralized heart of Recluse's empire (and, by extension, Grandville), so its reactor/power distribution building in fact controls power distribution for the entire zone except for smaller backup reactors and the like. The character is actually diverting power from all other Grandville areas (including the Arachnos bunkers, cue next mission) to use the comms grid (which would normally be powered by reactor #2).

Also, good catch on the robot hyphen thing (I never noticed it, but now that you mention it, it could be very different depending on chat window setup, resolution, etc), I'll probably just put a space after every 3rd word or so.

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Notes: I never could get a good visual of how the whole thing with the octagon was supposed to work. Was it that the octagon ‘laid out’ over Bloody Bay, if transposed over a similar scale map of Grandville, would center on the house I was exploring? But why would I know to center the thing on the east side of Grandville? Or was it not a regular octagon, and drawing lines from opposing sides didn’t intersect in the middle? (Although, if it’s not regular, the lines from opposing sides wouldn’t all intersect in the same place anyway – at least I don’t think they would.)

Man, I suck at describing visual puzzles. :P I envisioned something like this

Code:

  ____,
 /           - 
/                 |  
|                 |        -
...
|                 |                [...] X
...
|                 |        -
|                 |  
\            -   
 \____ ,

ie. the 'right' side of the octagon is much 'thinner' and if you extend the lines the top-right and bottom-right sides are on (on a world map that has both Bloody Bay and Grandville on it), they will eventually intersect at the X where the house in Grandville is located.

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Note: It did bother me a bit that the star map ‘pinpointed’ a star in a distant galaxy. In general, real star maps only depict stars in our own galaxy (and even then, only as they appear in our sky – although a star atlas would certainly show where they were in space). Either way, the bottom line is complete star maps (or star atlases) frequently only show fairly nearby stars – and almost never chart star locations beyond our own galaxy. In fact, even our best telescopes can only pick out the very brightest stars in even nearby galaxies. Almost nobody else would complain about that, but it’s one of those things that, as an astronomer, I get annoyed at (since it implies a lack of understanding of the sheer scale of a galaxy, or the vast distances between them: a complete star atlas of the Milky Way, for example, would have more than 100 billion stars. In order to make it big enough so that the stars didn’t all crowd on top of each other, the chart would have to be more than 300 km to a side. And depicting even the closest giant galaxy to ours at the correct scaled distance and to the same level of detail would require the map to be 7500 km to a side…)

Yeah... I figured those star maps would be partial maps of distant galaxies (more like sketches really), mapped by Sarkin during his astral-space adventures (handwaving alert!); I probably should've worded this better. I'll clarify it in the clue text.
[aside: I did consult an astrophysicist in my SG about the entire sun-turns-into-a-blue-dwarf doomsday scenario, but I didn't ask him about starmaps. :P]

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Note: The wording gets a bit hard to follow in the briefing – it sounds as though the Destroyer put up the shield, then the Legacy Chain arrived on the scene and destroyed it. The moment that happened, the flares began. But I suspect (as indicated above) you mean that the Destroyer got to Bloody Bay, put a shield up, and then (while protected by the shield) ‘did its thing’ to destroy the world. Now, two years later, the Chain figured out how to bring down the shield, allowing us to get to Bloody Bay.

Yep, you are right -- I'll clarify it in the briefing.

Regarding the more general comments:
- The main role of TV I envisioned is that it has already 'taken control' of the character by the time the arc starts ['taking control' referring to the same kind of soft mind-control TV does in its canon questlines]. I tried to nudge the player towards this (without revealing it) via the entire 'stuck in the bunker with nothing but food/drink/a lot of movies to watch for 2 years' description in the M1 begin clue. I also assumed that the late Arbiter Apolis was a sort of 'assistant' to TV. In the end, the TV doesn't really mind the character gaining power -- the TV has already 'won' by broadcasting itself everywhere by the end of mission 2, and surely the character has proven useful for future endeavors.
- Good catch on Arachnos. The original [v0.9] ending of the arc involved Arachnos wresting power back, and the player becoming a zero once again. GlaziusF pointed out in his review that it's really not a "player-friendly" plot, so I switched it up -- Arachnos abandons the Isles (which is really not much of anything after the disaster anyway, with most of it underwater) and moves on to an undisclosed location instead.

Suggestions:

Quote:

1. Consider removing the aspect of the story that makes it seem like the TV is controlling you – *keep* the TV (it’s done well), though.

I can see where you're coming from, but this is too tightly built into the story at this point. :/

Quote:

2. Perhaps consider making Arachnos a bit more active in the last two missions.

I'll probably beef up their presence in M4, maybe add some banter to make it clear that they are 'not retreating, just advancing in a different direction'.

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3. It did seem odd that a level 25 villain would have the power to challenge something that can destroy worlds. I presume that destroying the ‘root’ greatly weakened it, or perhaps it was greatly weakened by causing the flares – either way, I do think it’d help to explain a bit more clearly in the story how it’s possible for you to stand a chance against the end boss.

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes! I agree, and I would've made this a 40-50 arc if it wasn't for... Shivans being locked to 15-25. :/ The way I try to go around it is hinting how severely the villain is already weakened:
- fighting the various villain groups topside; he teleports back down when he senses...
- ...Shiva's roots being severed
- his avatar getting destroyed in the "Kali's Scythe" arc that runs parallel to this one -- I tried to avoid falling into the multi-arc story trap, so he just says something to the effect of "those meddling heroes in Paragon just destroyed my avatar too!"
- being ganged up on by the Nictus, the Freakshow and who-knows-what-else during the fight itself.

Regarding his AV status: I seriously considered it, but it could end up being very painful for a squishy (even with the help of the Nictus and Sarkin). It's not off the table yet, though.


Thanks again for the feedback!

-- Z.

And now for the next installment in the Continuing Adventures of Pro Payne!

Krusaders Adventures (Arc ID#475115; 3 stars)

Today’s adventure starts with my decision to access the Krusaders ‘autonomous expert system.’ While in the process of checking my clearances (evidently it is assumed my supergroup is in a coalition with the Krusaders or a similar ‘allied’ setup), it receives a priority emergency message. The winter horde is attacking Skyway city. My help is needed!

The computer tells me that a member of the Krusaders, the ‘ice alien’ Krystal, is already on the scene. I head over to Skyway, track her down (the computer’s ‘clue’ as to where to find her really helped cut down on the time involved in doing that). Once I found her, she told me that some sort of artifact was spurring on the attack of the Winter Horde – we needed to find the artifact and destroy it.


Fire vs. Ice – The Eternal, Epic Conflict.

Note: When she’s first wounded she says something to the effect of ‘lucky for me I’m resistant to cold attacks.’ The problem is that it’s very likely she’ll deliver that line right after jumping down to a lower street level, which doesn’t make much sense. It’s best to put dialog that implies she’s under enemy attack no ‘higher’ than at 75% health entry – it’s hard to get a boss down to 75% just from random falls, so it’s much more likely she’ll say that line in the middle of a fight, which (I suspect) was your intent.

Naturally, I scoured the map for a bit with Krystal in tow, but didn’t really find the artifact until I returned to the area near where I rescued her (if that’s pretty typical for this map, you might want to have Krystal mention that it should be nearby, or something similar).

Comments: To be honest, the first mission is kind of boring – there really isn’t much of a story yet (Krystal’s report is the only clue, and it’s two lines long). There’s actually not much to do, and a rather big map to explore. What this mission could really use is a lot more detail. I’d suggest thinking of several optional ‘details’ to spread around the map to help make the mission into more of a story. Giving a few of the patrols some dialog wouldn’t hurt either (you should still leave most of them ‘silent’ or the mission will spam the player with identical walls of text, but a couple of patrols, each with different things to say, would really add more flavor to the mission).

Once the artifact was destroyed, I returned the rubble to the AES. It promised to start studying it, and this rather tersely ordered me to Mercy Isle to deal with a snake attack (I think I needed to rescue someone, but I was somewhat taken aback by how pushy AES had suddenly become; you think it’d be programmed to be a bit more polite, rather than bluntly ordering me around. I’m not even a Krusader, for gosh sakes…)

Heroes aren’t exactly welcome in the Rogue Isles, so I thought it wise to stay concealed until I got to the Snake cave. Once inside, I fought my way through a small number of snakes before finding the Krusader who was already sent here to help: an archer named Golden Shaft.

Evidently, Golden Shaft was trying to rescue a captive when he was caught, because a very large group of Snakes was guarding them both (actually just both spawns right on top of each other). The captive remarked that the Snakes had captured another captive further in – one that, for some unexplained reason, they appeared to be considerably more interested in. We set out to find her.


Hmm … you know, Golden Shaft actually looks just a little bit like me. Not in any sort of ‘long lost brothers’ kind of way. It’s just … well … he has my smile.

A bit further in I stumbled across a giant snake egg; although I was more keen on defeating the Snakes guarding the thing, Shaft took it on himself to nuke the egg, bringing a whole horde of angry Snakes down on us. After that little debacle, I had him wait at the entrance while I explored the rest of the nest solo.


I don’t care if PETA objects – I’m turning you all into boots! (Groan … could that joke have *been* any lamer?!)

I did find the second captive (Note: You can add some more flavor to the mission by given them actual names, but that’s just a minor suggestion). She really couldn’t offer up any reason why they were more interested in her, so I headed further in.

I found a stone altar near the back of the nest. Even attacking it seemed to enrage the Snakes – but they calmed down and lost interest in me the moment I destroyed it. I was beginning to sense a trend.

If I was right, pretty soon I’d be getting a report of another attack, and would find another artifact driving the attacking criminals to madness…

And lo and behold, no sooner did I deliver the smashed remnants of the Snakes’ artifact to the AES, I got a report that a sea platform just off Sharkhead Isle had come under attack by Sea Monsters. Hmm … the Rogue Isles again. I’m thinking if the next attack is also in the Isles, I’d best break out the Evil Pro Payne costume, just to blend in a bit better.

Once at the platform, I quickly gathered that the ‘Sea Monsters’ were actually Hydra. The AES had told me to be on the lookout for Guardian – another Krusader, and the first on the scene.

I slinked through the Isles, made it to the platform, and proceeded to rescue the three captive workers who didn’t escape the initial Hydra assault. I also found Guardian. The workers begged me to save their foreman, which I did. That was a good move, since the foreman was able to confirm my suspicions – the attack had started when they’d dredged up an artifact that had driven the Hydra into a frenzy.


Today, the Rogue Isles owe Pro Payne much – for his efforts here have saved them from being overrun by hordes of stinking sewer beasts.

I could only hope that it wouldn’t be too long before AES figured out the link between these artifacts.

While the computer thanked me for delivering the crushed Hydra artifact, it didn’t yet have an answer for me. Instead it presented me with another alert – the Tuatha were attacking in Croatoa, and had kidnapped a mystic. I was told to meet a blaster named Protector there, rescue the mystic, and put down the threat. I figured that meant find the artifact that I *knew* had to be there getting the Tuatha all riled up, and destroy it.

Turns out I was wrong. While I went to the “Caves of the Tuatha” and found Protector (who seemed to have odd issues keeping up with me), I found no evidence of an artifact. Instead, I located the mystic, and escorted her safely out of the cave: apparently, the mystic’s abductors had ‘picked her up’ and then delivered to the Tuatha. I wasn’t sure why she’d been either (1) abducted, or (2) delivered to the Tuatha, but she gave me a very obvious clue as to who her original abductors were – her description fit the 5th Column to a tee.


A rare moment where Pro Payne has inadvertently fought dirty – this Tuatha will not forget the burn for a long, long time…

And so the pieces came together … the AES had made the ‘leap’ in assuming the 5th Column were behind the artifacts in the other three attacks, and cross referenced a spectroscopic materials analysis with shipping logs from known 5th Column strongholds (I guess to see where the raw materials that went into the artifacts had been shipped to?). In any case, I had little doubt that if I headed over to the stronghold, I’d find out what the Column was up to (and why they needed to kidnap a mystic and deliver them to the Tuatha in addition to all of this artifact nonsense…)

Oh … and a whole mess load of Krusaders would be there to help me. I suspected that meant I had a major fight on my hands.

I arrived at the 5th Column stronghold and wound my way through halls full of red and black clad fascists, rescuing members of the Krusaders along the way.


Looks like this job’s going to need a team of eight!

By the time I found a computer that held the ‘master plan’, I’d recruited a veritable army of Krusaders. Which, evidently, was actually *part* of the master plan. I hacked a computer terminal, which somehow activated the PA system. In classic, cheesy 60s villain style, the mastermind of the whole evil plot taunted me – telling me that I’d fallen for his evil scheme: to wear down the Krusaders with these rapid-fire attacks (“rapid fire attacks” = setting artifacts to cause other villains to ‘swarm’, creating problems the Krusaders would be all too eager to solve) before luring them here to finish them.

It took some searching, but ultimately we located the Arch-Villain (who, thankfully was reduced to Elite Boss status for me – although, to be fair, I actually wonder if I could have taken him as a full AV given the sheer amount of boss help I had). Honestly, I’m not normally a big fan of excessive ambushes, but with all the hero support, it worked pretty dang well – the fight rapidly degenerated into a rather entertaining free-for-all with my allies fighting off hordes of 5th Column goons while I tried to defeat the AV (whose name was Flotsam, by the way).


Luckily, Pro Payne narrowly dodges a deadly blast of lightning from Flotsam. The fact the Arch Villain is currently on fire is a sign the fight isn’t going all that well for him.

I don’t think I need to tell you we won. Flotsam went down, his plot foiled. The Krusaders heaped accolades onto me for my invaluable help in bringing the villain down. I bid them farewell, and moved on to the next thing… (which will apparently take a while, since it looks like the next couple of reviews will feature Perturbation.)

Note: Without a doubt, the last mission was the highlight of the arc – deliberate or no, my normal objection to high difficulty (or excessive) ambushes in the midst of deadly boss fights was more than satisfied by the very large number of allies available to take the heat off. And by the AV fight I’d already ditched nearly half of ‘em (not intentionally – I was just to lazy to go back and fetch them when they got snagged on scenery). I honestly think the first step to improving this arc will be to make the earlier missions as engaging as the final one.

So, with that to start, I’m sorry to say I had some issues with this one. But first, let me start with the good.

Pros: From the standpoint of gameplay, that last mission was fun. Yeah, I had a lot of allies sharing the glory with me (read, “stealing my valuable XPs”), but I’m level 50, so who cares? I liked ‘em, and they seemed to have a lot more personality than in the earlier missions. In a sense, the author was true to their goal of putting together an arc that follows the stated format (see earlier in the thread) – seemingly unrelated missions each featuring a hero of the Krusaders supergroup. Only at the end do we find that the ‘adventures’ are related, and the mastermind behind the plot is uncovered…

…and now comes the criticism. Brace yourself – take it in small doses, and realize I want this to be helpful, not a bummer. (And remember, I’m not an expert in making anything good – I can just offer ideas, and hope they give you ideas for improvements.)

Cons: I’ll move to specifics in a bit. But for now, the general ‘gist’ of my criticism – the first part of the arc feels ‘phoned in’ – the ‘chapters’ are basically the same mission repeated three times. But that’s not needed to establish the finale. After all, the archvillian’s stated goal was to ‘wear down’ the Krusaders with a rapid-fire series of ‘crises.’ But nothing says each crisis has to be a repeat of the previous one - It’d be so much more interesting if they weren’t all the same ‘crises.’ IMO, each ‘crisis’ should be a story in its own right, and weave into them some clues that hint at a common source to what, on the surface, appears to be disparate problems.

The fourth mission struck me as the weakest point – it’s only purpose seemed to literally be to link the first three missions to the 5th Column, explaining where that fifth mission was coming from. But there didn’t seem to be any real background, beyond the 5th Column seeming to give the Krusaders random busywork just to wear them down.

To a lesser extent that was also a problem with the early appearance of the Krusaders – for an arc that is supposed to ‘introduce’ them (or at least give you a chance to adventure along side them), they don’t seem to have much personality until the final mission. Granted – some of said personality was probably lost because of the fact they typically never got hurt, but expanded rescue dialog, more fleshed out rescue ‘clues’ and perhaps even running comments from patrols or optional objectives (which, as I’ve already mentioned would really do a lot to make the first four missions a lot more interesting) would really help bring the Krusaders alive.

As far as making the first more missions more interesting, consider this: four villain bosses have been scheming to cause problems. Each has been slowly working on a ‘master plan.’ But each is missing a key ingredient to their plan. If some ‘benefactor’ was to deliver that ‘key’ to each villain at the same time, the Krusaders would have some major “fires” to put out – and all at the same time.

A “cold” villain wants to freeze Skyway City solid. He’s made a deal with the Winter Horde, and gathered large numbers of minons, but to really pull of the plan, he needs the Snow Pearl – a seemingly minor artifact in MAGI possession that could greatly increase the cold powers of the Horde. But a group of mysterious assailants attack the MAGI vaults and deliver the Snow Pearl to the villain. You have to help Krystal get it back – while searching for clues as to how the villain got his hands on it (revealing that he’s got a ‘mysterious benefactor.’)

Meanwhile, a horrid biological catalyst has been delivered into the hands of a nest of Snakes in the Rogue Isles. Golden Shaft has been covertly fighting the Snakes in mercy for a long time, and is very concerned about rumors of this drug, which makes the bites of the Snakes far more effective at mutating their victims into more of their kind. In the process of helping Golding Shaft destroy the stores of the catalyst, you also find evidence that links the delivery of the catalyst to whomever delivered the Snow Pearl to the “cold” villain earlier that day.

… and so on. Make each mission *distinct* - each one is a new story, with a Krusader who has been researching the problem for some time (makes them more deeply invested in the story), and your participation helps each Krusader uncover the fact that each ‘plot’ was missing one key ingredient – which seems to have been conveniently delivered to each group in rapid succession.

By the end, the Krusaders have tracked down the location of whomever has been ‘enabling’ the other villain groups – and have headed to the base to put a stop to it, only to find that it’s a trap. Giving each villain group the exact thing they needed to move ahead with their plan was really only intended to give the Krusaders some major problems to solve, using up their resources, while simultaneously directing them to this final location so Floatsam could hit them full force while they were still “depleted”, and eliminate them once and for all.

I hope that it’s clear that what I’m suggesting is no so much a re-write – as a major ‘expansion’ of your idea; a chance to flesh it out with a lot more detail (something I think the arc could really benefit from) to get the player involved and engaged.

At the moment, I think the arc needs a lot more, but hopefully my suggestions will get your imagination fired up on story elements you could use to really beef up the arc!

Score: 2.745

It’s a little late (been a very busy week), but better late than never, eh?

A Clone of Your Own? (Arc ID#453091; 4 stars, 5 stars given in game)

Here I am, just minding my business downloading some “conquer the world in only 90 days for FREE” type apps on my phone, when I get a notification that some moron has posted on my “maskbook” page. Now here’s what you need to know. My “friends” through any social networking site fall into two categories – people who I only “friended” so that, if need be (or I got bored) I could hunt them down and pummel them just to pass the time, and people who might be potentially useful to me, and may need to occasionally be hunted down and pummeled to remind them of the importance of volunteering to do things to help me out.

Consequently, I don’t get a lot of messages on maskbook, since most of my “friends” have learned that said message BETTER not be a waste of my time, or a savage beating will be in their near future.

Now, normally, I usually have a feel for when I’m about to get a message, since I’ve got an *actual* network of contacts to keep me informed (so, in a sense, the maskbook crowd is just there as a way to give lackeys the chance to curry my favor by telling me about things that, thanks to my real contacts, I was already tipped off about). But this time, the message was completely out of the blue.

Fortunately, it was a slow day, so it wouldn’t be too much of an imposition to track down this loser and pulp him. Imagine my surprise when said message claimed to come from me. Now, typically, future-me (whom I’ve put down in that Crey lab more times than I can count) doesn’t post messages to me on maskbook, so I figured there was something else going on. With the help of my aforementioned contacts, I tracked the message down to some guy named Dr. Mephit. Mephit was about to have the amount of time it takes me to get my knuckles all cracked and loose prior to the mandatory beating to explain what was going on.


Mephit, immediately before the mandatory beating.

Mephit was apparently working with a bunch of Freakshow on some science project. They’d had a major breakthrough, but then the lead Freak (a ‘pretty smart guy’) learned about the message, and had freaked out, stolen his half of the research, and fled into the sewers.

This was very understandable, as I was having a very similar reaction to learning about the same message – only it wasn’t about to lead to my fleeing into the sewers. It was about to lead to Mephit getting shuffled off this mortal coil… but I figured I’d better find out what I could (and perhaps turn the situation – whatever that might be - to my advantage) before the killing spree began.

Mephit made me an offer. One, he promised me things would be clearer once I went after the Freaks to recover the research. Two, he also offered me a boatload of money. Time would tell if it would be enough to convince me to practice a bit of anger management. He also made some vague references to “familiar faces” and “me being the right one – ‘for the job’” (suggesting he’d originally intended to ask if I was “the right one,” which I really didn’t like the sound of).

So I headed off into the sewers to figure out what was going on.

Note: It just occurred to me – you know what would be really great? How about a “mission accept” clue that details what that maskbook message actually said – I do remember thinking it odd that the content of the message never shows up anywhere. While not vital to the actual plot, it does strike me as a very useful ‘flavor’ detail.

I didn’t have to go far for things to start making a little more sense. Just inside the sewer entrance, I found a very flawed-looking clone of myself. The flawed copy appeared to have my physical prowess, but none of my control over energy – the thing was trying to cut me with blades, and spent some time trying to go all kung-fu on me. It went down fast. What worried me is that the Freaks were calling it “Bad Clone #1” – which suggested there were more.


I agree with your naming scheme here, Freakshow, as this is an exceptionally bad copy of me. Plus, it is puking – a lot. Perturbation, in general, doesn’t do that.

I headed further into the sewers, and located a second clone. It seemed to be better constructed than the first, and commanded an array of radiation-related powers. I didn’t know if whoever made this thing had gotten a better command of giving him my energy-related powers, or if the thing was somehow naturally radioactive. Not that it mattered – I wasn’t about to let it live. I still had one more clone to hunt down.


No, *I’m* the EVIL version. You’re just the soon-to-be-dead version.

Note: In the interest of noticing little details – how do I know there are three clones total I need to hunt down? The first clue points out there’s at least one more, but nothing about calling this clone #2 (or the clue) hints to more. It’s not a terribly big deal (and the map may not accommodate it), but if there’s a way to hint there’s yet another clone down here, I’d put it in. (The reason it’s not a big deal: I still haven’t found the research notes, so it is believable I’d just stumble across #3 too).

I found the last clone deeper in the sewers, near the stolen research notes. He was a better copy than the others – but, much to my chagrin, seemed to have psionic powers and ‘netherworld’ defenses. The latter was a plus (not a good defense against my energy-based powers), but the former almost made me wonder if this clone was constructed with me in mind: psychic powers are my worst weakness. It made me wonder if those clone was constructed with the intent on having a copy capable of killing me.


No, idiot. *I’m* a Brute. If you’re throwing around psychic blasts, I don’t know exactly what you are, but you’re not a Brute. But don’t worry. Soon there won’t be enough of you left to worry about what you are…

Note: I’m well aware all three clones just have random powers – but it is interesting how these random powers can be worked into the story…

I now had three good reasons to kill Mephit where he stood. But I also had three reasons to keep him alive. One – I suspected only he could decode his research notes (which looked more like child scrawl to me). Two, I got the impression it was the Freakshow making these clones, and I doubt I’d come across their leader (none of them seemed terribly smart) – so I needed Mephit’s help to find him, so I could shut down this cloning operation for good. And three – I stood to earn a lot of resources by allowing Mephit to live (for now): not only his money, but, perhaps later I’d have the opportunity to raid his lab and take all his stuff for myself.

After returning with his notes, Mephit made it clear that he was simply hired to perfect the cloning technology – he wasn’t responsible for ‘procurement’ of the DNA. So it was really the Freaks who were the reason it was *my* clones running around the sewers. Make no mistake, Mephit would pay for this. His thinking should have been “You got *Perturbation’s* DNA? No way am I cloning that! He’d kill me if he ever found out.” But at least he’d get to live a little while longer while I focused on those in need of more immediate punishment – the Freaks who’d made the horrible, horrible mistake of stealing my DNA with the intent of using it to clone me.

Once Mephit saw the notes, he was chagrined to find that the Freakshow ‘scientist’ had doodled all over them – somewhat distressing that the doodles really made about as much sense to me as the actual notes… if Mephit had actual talent, writing it down in a way that made sense was certainly not his forte. On the up side, though, they made sense enough to him. He frantically told me they (the notes) were not all there, and that the ‘smart Freak’ must still have them. He surmised the smart Freak and his lackies were deeper in the sewers. He offered me a nice fat bonus to go in after them and get the rest of the notes. Given that I was already hell-bent on hunting down and visiting unfathomable torrents of pain on that particular Freak for daring to make copies of me, the extra cash was just gravy. Well … very tasty gravy that slightly increased the odds I might allow Mephit out of this one alive. (Note: Okay, Mephit didn’t actually offer me a bonus, but, personally, I think he should. If you’re role playing the arc from the standpoint that revenge is your motivation here, more money is just gravy. If you’ve got a more ‘rogue’ mindset here, then the fact you keep getting paid for the job is itself motivation. The bottom line – you gotta admit, Mephit offering you more money only helps to motivate a villain/rogue character to continue the arc! And you don’t really have to change much – Mephit can easily offer the bonus ‘up front’ as part of the rest of your pay “on the way out.”)

Into the sewers I went. And then deeper – I found the “lab” where the Freaks were working on their cloning project. It wasn’t a lab at all – just more sewers … sewers that I’m sure the Freaks had pulled cloning equipment into. But I did find clear evidence they were working on more clones. A found another defective version of myself – apparently the cloning process basically robbed it of just about all of its powers, so it had commandeered a small army of robots to help it fight its way out of the lab before the Freakshow terminated it. Frankly, I was happy to kill the thing myself.


Defective clone Perturbation and his army of wussy robots tries in vain to figure out exactly where *real* Perturbation is. It’s hard to land a punch if you can’t see the target…

The “lab” turned out to be at the very back of the sewer junction I’d entered. There I found both a clone pod that contained a (still-child-aged) clone of me, and a rack of lab equipment being used to perfect the cloning process. I destroyed both, but while in the process of obliterating the child version of myself (distasteful, but far preferable to a potential ‘date’ here in the Isles thinking I ‘get around’, and therefore treat me with the general disinterest reserved for heartless villains who ‘get around’ – which is exactly what I am – but that’s not the point) I was also attacked by the Freak who was masterminding the whole operation. He was an odd-looking one who called himself the ‘5mart 1’ and didn’t like to stay dead, but he was nothing I couldn’t handle. (Note: As much as I liked the whole ‘Wily Freak’ thing – especially after I watched your video review and thereby got the reference, I do this the new name is a much better fit to the arc. Just thought you’d like to know…although after finishing the arc, I’m thinking it was this way the first time, and I just didn’t remember).


And now the Smart Freak prepares to get his just desserts. (Little did Perturbation know that he was so hopped up on Excelsior that he just refused to stay down, even through multiple beatings.

Note: “These are not all of the notes, that smart Freak…” (2nd mission briefing) is a comma-splice. It should be two separate sentences: “These are not all of the notes. That smart Freak…” (or at least a semicolon).

I also found the best clone yet – the thing looked just like me, although I was a little shocked to see him summon in a bunch of undead (wow, what an unfortunate roll for the random power choice here). It didn’t really matter – I’d have to kill him soon enough, but, just for my amusement, and since his countenance didn’t horribly offend me this time, I figured I’d let him tag along for a bit – at least until I got out of the sewers. Note: I’ve got to say, given the progression of the arc up to this point (and the fact I don’t have to actually fight him) I think it’d make perfect sense to set this particular ‘ganger’ to have my native powers.

Oh, and I also found a bunch of files on ‘smart Freak’s’ iPhone. I wouldn’t have suspected a thing until I found a reference to ‘favorite sea mammal’ (for those that haven’t played the arc, Mephit is positively obsessed with experiments involving sea creatures, so this was a clear reference to him). It looked like ‘ol Doc Mephit had lied to me. It was he who’d provided the Freaks with the DNA all along. I didn’t know yet where he’d gotten it, but I did know that that made him a dead man.

Even as I approached the doors to Mephit’s lab, I could hear the nutcase whipping up his minions into a frenzy. The notes I’d gotten for him earlier were really all he needed to get his operation up and running again. That extra crap he’d sent me after was little more than an attempt to get me killed before I found out the truth about his role in all of this. That he was even boasting about it loud enough for me to hear it all before I even barged through the lab’s front entrance made it clear he was confident the Freaks would be able to finish me off.

He was about to pay dearly for that mistake. (Note: That’s not exactly how it happened, but, you know, consider it as a viable idea for even more fleshing out of what is turning out to be a much improved arc!)

I wasn’t terribly surprised, but upon entering the lab I found *hordes* of ‘Mephits’ wandering around the place, with orders to shoot on sight. So it looked like I’d be fighting a small army of the Doc’s own clones to put an end to this little project of his.


Ironically, the real Dr. Mephit is the only one *not* shooting at me…

Very Important Note: I love the idea of using Mephit as the basis for the clones – but *hate* that it is a group full of lieutenants, with no bosses or minions. My god man, there’s got to be enough room to at least add a minion and boss version so we don’t take that -75% XP hit. Granted, that’s a real quick fix – but you know what would be even better? Design a bunch of mobs (of *all* ranks – dear Lord, can’t stress that one enough) that look like Mephit has been splicing himself with sea creatures – boy would that really fit into the arc! But, still – seriously – failing that, at least fill out the group: make the minions ‘flawed’ by making them very thin, and perhaps a bit on the small side. Make the lieutenants larger and more robust (you don’t even have to change the basic costume elements), and the bosses even bigger than that. A couple of tweaks to descriptions, and you’ve got a whole set of mobs that’ll award normal XP. Heck, at the very least just adding exact replicas (of minion and boss) rank, down to their powers, even all with the same name, is better than -75% XP. (I’d guess only the bosses would be worth lower than average XP if they didn’t have additional powers over the lt. versions). Sure with that very last option you’d likely get a few players complaining about there being no differentiation between ranks, or ‘there’s no “in game” reason given for why some clones are minions, others lts., and others bosses. But I’d be willing to wager that, even with the complaints, that’ll go over a lot better than large numbers of lieutenants that offer about half what a minon would each. Yuck.

That said, I do want to stress that the basic idea ends up being pretty striking, visually – I’m set to 0/x5, so I was wading through literal hordes of Mephit clones … frankly, the further I got into the mission, the more I considered that if you wanted to keep all of them completely identical (across ranks) there would certainly be a certain visual appeal to that.

I found 5smart1 in the lab … although now he *was* calling himself ‘Wily’ (hmm … was it always like that and I just didn’t remember it from last time); like me, he’d come seeking revenge. I cut those plans short, considering that they might interfere with my own aspirations of revenge.

Then, I fought through vast hordes of clones…

To find Mephit himself. I opted to keep him alive for now, in return for telling me exactly where the files on me were. I then fought through more hordes of clones to get to the computer holding them…

I located the last remaining research files – most of them were Mephit’s gibbering nonsense (I suppose it’d be fair to say it was actually brilliant research – but all rendered in Mephit-ese that made it almost wholly incomprehensible to any sane person), but I did find a reference to the “original source of the DNA was destroyed” while “a perfect clone was successfully created, but escaped.” Bah! I refuse to believe I’m just a clone of some ‘original’ Perturbation! It is no doubt a trick by Mephit – he’ll be made to pay!

Note: As when I played the arc before, I actually really like this twist. It answers the ongoing question of how Mephit got my DNA in the first place without actually answering it. More specifically, it actually answers how he got the DNA in a way that I would have no memory of…

There was only one last thing to do in the lab, before it was time to go back, fetch Mephit, and deal with him. Mephit had created another “perfect” clone of me, and I needed to make sure it was destroyed.

I’d say there’s something kind of surreal about killing a copy of yourself, but I’ve done it more times than I can count, so it was really more like ‘business as usual.’


Oh, I don’t think that’s quite true, oh ‘Perfect Clone’ – considering that you can’t seem to hit me, and I’m having absolutely no trouble beating the tar out of you.

With the clone taken care of, I tied Mephit to a rather large bomb, and blew up the lab. That took care of the very last ‘issue’ – making sure Mephit understood the horrible depth of his mistake in trying to clone me (and in daring to plant evidence to suggest I was really just an escaped clone all along). I should mention nothing about killing Mephit or destroying the lab is actually in the arc.. I just added it to make the story more consistent with the previous writeup.

Things I didn’t Hate: I have no doubt that cleanup work (and ‘polish’) has been done since I played this arc for Arc Club, and as a whole it has had a positive influence on the arc. The arc is fast-paced, the story is complex enough to be interesting, without being overly convoluted. There’s a neat twist at the end. And there’s more: this time around I felt as though my character’s motivations matched what I was doing in the arc better. Even the first time around, Dr. Mephit’s ‘quirks’ were entertaining, and that hasn’t changed. Arbitrary scoring systems aside, this time around the arc had the ‘feel’ of a very good arc, with just a few things that still bothered me, that kept it from an ‘actual’ rating of 5 stars (it, obviously still got 5 stars in game).

Now, to be honest, I’m not sure how much of the ‘changes’ were actual improvements to the arc (I’m *sure* there were several), and how much were the mission objectives showing up in a more fortuitous order (Examples: the cloning pod in mission two still didn’t seem to have an objective tied to it – but this time around ‘5smart1’ was in the back of the room, so the mission finished after I’d destroyed the pod, which gave the illusion of the mission objectives flowing better; granted, I might have just missed the objective, but I honestly don’t remember seeing one. Another example: in the third mission I’d found the files before offing my clone, so there was no reason to suspect ‘in game’ that if I went back down, I’d find Mephit there spoiling for a fight – so although it left a ‘loose end’ feeling to the story, that was somehow less jarring than have a boss fight with a major NPC after the mission completed; which leaves you wondering why he isn’t a required objective?)

Stuff that Perturbed me: There are certainly enough improvements (including improving the flow of the story) to warrant the higher score (4 stars, with 5 given in game rather than the original 3 with 4 given in game), but there are still things that were missing from the first play through that are still missing. A lot of the details are in the writeup, but for me, the main things that stood out were the following:

(1) While the text of the message to yourself isn’t important to the plot, it was a detail that it felt like it should be there (very minor thing),

(2) After watching the author’s video review, I did get a kick out of learning why ‘5smart1’ goes by ‘Wily Freak’ – but man did I think it was odd that his name got changed from mission two to mission three without a lot of development in the arc itself – there’s nothing really in the briefings or the clues about that (again, minor, but still something that, for whatever reason, kind of bugged me),

(3) The ‘unmarked’ mission objectives (although it’s very possible this isn’t even a problem). The only one I know about for sure is the cloning pod (the arc’s made it clear a major goal is to destroy everything having to do with my clones – so why wouldn’t a pod with a baby version of me be a required objective)? Forgive me, though, if I just totally missed the objective – I distinctly don’t remember there being one, but I might be wrong. To a lesser extent, if Dr. Mephit really did spawn ‘behind’ me in mission three, I’d have no way of suspecting. (That might be gone – it just seems like that would be a very good way to end the arc – you’ve defeated your clone, and now it’s time to put Mephit down once and for all).

(4) From a story perspective, the fact that my business with Dr. Mephit does still feel rather unfinished, still. It feels like there needs to be an actual, final confrontation with him – or at least some hint as to his fate by the end of the arc (or in the souvie). The last I saw him this time around he’d basically just told me to go upstairs.

(5) And, of course, the one-rank custom group for mission three. In my opinion, from a design standpoint, there’s just no reason to do it this way. Even if the minion and boss versions were completely identical to the lt. versions in the game, the fact that large armies of ‘Mephit’ wouldn’t all con the same color (which, I admit, did have an odd visual appeal) is *far* less objectionable to getting only 25% experience for anything. I really would highly recommend putting in a fix to that…

Overall, this time around the arc certainly felt improved over the first time – and I have no doubt some of those were actual changes and fixes from the first time around. But I can’t help shake the feeling that at least part of the feeling of the arc’s improved pacing and flow came from better luck with how things spawned in (I happened to get to the clone pod first this time; I didn’t have to backtrack to find the files after defeating my perfected clone, and so, if Dr. Mephit was there, I never had a hint there was a ‘climactic’ fight waiting for me after the mission was over.)

So basically, it’s a better arc this time around, and a good, entertaining arc overall; plenty to like, with just a few things to bother me (although one is a big deal that I don’t think the author should ignore).

Score: 4.15

BTW, what level did you play the arc at? I did throw in a bunch of additional standard bosses, lieuts, and minions (Banished Pantheon, Hydra, etc) mixed in with the Mephit clones, but I might have missed a level range hole.

A couple more comments and questions now that I have a bit more time. First, I'd like to say thanks for the feedback and suggestions, I'm glad you liked it.

2 - I tried to put a little bit of dialog explaining that. I liked the l33t name 5mart 1, but I also liked throwing in the super-obscure reference to Dr. Wily. I suppose I could keep the l33t name in both places and put the reference into the bio.

3 - This is mostly a personal quirk of mine. I like having a singular objective in the nav bar, but I had two objectives that I see as "flavor" objectives. So my solution is to make one of them unmarked and optional, and tie the objective to the other one. If you know it's there, it might seem like it should be required, but if you don't know it's there, would it be missed?

The others are good points and I'll think on them for when I get around to an update.

Alright, back on schedule this week!

Today, it was time for Perturbation to accept...

The Bravuran Jobs (Arc ID#5073, 5 stars)

I’d been hearing stories that some nobility in exile from a small, but wealthy, nation was looking for freelancers in the Rogue Isles. I wasn’t sure of the whole story, but it didn’t some as a surprise to me when I was approached by Lloyd Frederickson, who offered me a job protecting the Contessa of this nation of ‘Bravura.’

Since it was going to be at least a few days before all of the groundwork for my next major scheme was in place, I actually had nothing better to do, and the money was way out of proportion for the job. You never knew when couple of million (and the gratitude of a small country) could come in handy to finance certain grandiose aspects of my master plan. Plus, being a ‘bodyguard’ meant I’d probably get to beat people up.

The job was to escort the Contessa’s motorcade to an appointment she had ‘elsewhere’ in the Isles. Since she had many foes, she was sure to be attacked. As it turns out, I didn’t even get there until after she’d been kidnapped. The culprits were Wyvern, which made me suspect she was probably wanted for war crimes or something, but could only be brought to justice through vigilante action. Not that I cared – I like to think of myself as a provider of equal-opportunity beatings, and it didn’t matter to me who was going to get the smack down today.


Clearly, Wyvern has invested a lot of resources into capturing the Contessa. Too bad it’s *still* not enough.

Note: I was actually pleasantly surprised that I did just fine at my current “easy” difficulty setting of 0/x5, even exemplared down to level 29. I was expecting to have to ramp down the difficulty at that level, but Wyvern, at least wasn’t terribly difficult.

It wasn’t hard to find the Contessa. I managed to “convince” her kidnappers to remand her to my care. And then started to escort her out of the warehouse district where they were keeping her.


Well, he mentioned everything but the part where Wyvern would decide to not play nice once I ‘rescued’ you and flat out try to kill you.

At that point, Wyvern decided to play nasty, coming in from a hidden location behind a cargo crate. Apparently their orders were “assassination if capture proved impossible” as before I could accomplish much of anything, they filled her with so many arrows that I suspected her corpse would actually have more empty space than internal organs.

Fortunately my villainous assets include at least one cloning lab. I took what little remained of her body, used the tissues as a basis to clone a near-perfect replica, and headed back to Lloyd to report a mission accomplished (and feed him some story about how I thought it necessary to lay low for a few weeks to lose Wyvern’s tail). He whined a lot about ‘being worried sick’ and ‘I should have at least tried to contact him to keep him in the loop’ and whatnot. Since I hadn’t been paid yet, I decided to tune him out rather than kill him. Eventually he stopped his complaining and got to the point.

Note: Ah, the downside of having it set to 0/x5 is that the Contessa’s feeble lieutenant rank pretty much ensures she’ll go down to the Wyvern ambush. Personally I don’t think it’s wise to have her set to be involved in combats. Yeah, there’s probably not much threat if you’ve got someone playing the mission solo – which is very likely. But boy I’d say you have a team playing, and you are noticeably upping your chances to have four or more rather annoyed players right at the start of the arc.

(Oh, and obviously the BS about cloning her isn’t in the arc at all – the arc actually just has her personal guards sweep in and finish the job I couldn’t. It kind of makes the rest of the arc pointless since why would anyone in their right mind ever hire *me* again if I so spectacularly fail to prove my competency right off the bat. But the story must go on… and the failure dialog does at least make it clear that the Contessa was at least impressed enough to figure I was worth retaining.)

In this case ‘retaining’ was little more than declaring me ‘friend of Bravura’ and allowing me to hang out with the Countessa and her court. She didn’t really have much for me to do right off the bat. But that was okay, since (“meanwhile”) my idiot minions had messed up a vital part of ‘the plan’, which meant that I had a few more weeks to kill while they cleaned up their mess (plus the added time that would come after they’d gotten that particular project up and running again while I was searching for a cadre of more competent minions to replace the current crop, who, tragically, would be meeting with a series of fatal ‘accidents’ after fixing their mistakes).

I digress. While I was in the midst of my down time, hanging out with the Bravurans, Lloyd was kind enough to point out an article in the paper where the Legacy Chain had decided to interfere with the ‘Harvest Ritual’ in Bravura. I didn’t really care much about Lloyd’s claims that it was just a harmless ritual that was part of the local belief system. It could be the “ritual of the sacrifice of 1,000 doe-eyed, innocent, street urchins” for all I cared. What was important is that the ritual called on some sort of ‘nature spirit’ that could pull gems out of the ground. As there are any number of doomsday devices that make use of rare gems, this was certainly something worth looking into. So I took a chopper over to Bravura to confront this gem-popping nature spirit and “convince” it to give me a “donation.”

On the way there, I did note that the Contessa had given me some sort of ‘holocard’ with a message. It was some sort of cryptic drivel about how much fun it would be to rake in armfuls of gems (no kidding, ‘tessa), and how the nature spirit cold see things I couldn’t. It didn’t make a lot of sense to me, but at least the Contessa did seem to have taken a liking to me. Good. That meant the extra ‘programming’ I’d had my scientists put into the clone was working. Having the Contessa in my pocket could prove very lucrative indeed.

The Bravuran farmland was flat out crawling with Legacy Chain. They’d captured several farmers, babbling accusations about their participation in a vile ritual. I freed them, hoping for a reward, or at least some information about what was going on here – but got nothing. What a waste of my time. If the farmers hadn’t wisely fled the area, I would have probably offed them just out of spite.


Not that I really care, but I must admit I’m not clear on why exactly a bunch of farmers worshipping a gem pooping nature troll has your tights all in a bind…

The nature spirit was a bit more helpful. He made some sort of ‘magical’ adjustment that allowed me to see a trio of previously invisible ‘spires’ that I needed to destroy to put a halt to the Legacy Chain’s ritual.

Oddly, the spires seemed to radiate a ‘normalcy’ that was (evidently) toxic to the raw magical power infusing the land. My guess was the ritual would rend the magic from the land entirely – probably killing anything magical (or that used magic) in the area. At least that’s what I gathered from the Chain’s blather about ‘giving their lives’ to end the ‘abomination’ here. I wasn’t worried about myself (well, maybe a little – after all, some of the relics I’ve collected over the years, and actually use from time to time, are magical), but if they purged all magic from these fields, I would likely be out several million in gems. That just wasn’t going to happen.

So I destroyed the spires, and the nature spirit turned the stones from the destroyed spires into gems. I was a tad irked at the relatively small number of them, but it wasn’t that hard a job, so I let it slide.

Crud. Even travel time included, I’d really only burned a bit more than a day. I’d have to see if Lloyd had anything else worth my interest.

The next Bravuran job that caught my interest began with an insurgent action: a Sergeant Frazzani had staged a raid of one of the Contessa’s mountain labs. There were sure to be valuable items of experimental technology within for me to salvage. And even taking my planned looting into account, ‘rescuing’ the lab from the Sergeant’s men was bound to make the Bravuran higher-ups happy – sure (in my version of the arc) the Contessa was a clone programmed to be loyal to me, but it didn’t hurt for those loyal to her to see me as a powerful ally, rather than a potential threat. Plus, as an added perk, I would get to face off against the Bravuran military – potentially useful should it ever become more expedient for me to just take the direct approach and crush their little country into the ground.

Note: Sadly, I completely forgot to take any screenshots in this mission. Oh well.

I did find the Bravuran army quite able to hold its own. They were far more reminiscent of Arachnos – with quite varied abilities that can present quite the challenge in large groups – than a typical military force. Not that that surprised me – small and wealthy implied they’d be investing a lot of money in their standing army, and it showed.

I tested my skills against many a group in the mountain lab. It required some strategy beyond the simple ‘take out whatever nearby target Tab highlights’ (hunt out and kill the vulcans first, then focus on the masterminds) – but was certainly within my capabilities. Eventually though, I felt I learned all I could as to how to effectively face them down. Since they were present in the lab in large enough numbers to make attempts to recover technology futile (a result of my settings – I have little doubt if set to a lower difficulty those optional objectives would be easy enough to complete), I opted to simply free the test subjects and kill Frazzani (i.e. the bare minimum needed to complete the mission).

Notes: Honestly, the clues did a good job of making it seem like I made it out with an impressive cache of technology – even without the optional objectives. So while it’s a safe bet I missed out on some flavor clues, I found the mission itself to be just fine, game-play and story wise. As mentioned, I did fight a large number of Bravuran military spawns. They certainly keep you engaged, but once you figure out the best strategy for defeating them they suffer from the safe problem most custom groups do (and, frankly, “complex” groups like Arachnos) – you certainly increase your survivability, but it is matched by only a minimal increase in the rate at which you can actually defeat each spawn. In short: figuring out how to defeat a new group with very little danger to yourself is a fun challenge (and was here). But once you’ve figured it out – you can divide them into two categories. The ones you can mow through with little time and effort (which encourages me to actually fight through missions), and the ones you can’t (which encourages me to skip fights looking for mission objectives – or anything else that’ll advance the story). In any case, the Bravuran army falls soundly into the latter - so after I’d had my fill of them, it was time to just quickly complete the mission.

I honestly think that’s exactly what the author intended in designing the custom group (and there are hints to that effect in the mission briefings/debriefings), and I have absolutely no problem with that design for a custom group. But if, for some reason, the author ever did want to alter the group to slant them more toward that first category (e.g. to encourage players set to higher difficulties to still fight all the way through the mission), I’ll state the obvious: removing the heals and the buffing powers would slant the group toward the first category mentioned above. Again, though, to be clear, I’m not suggesting that as a good change – just noting it for posterity.

Anyway, Bravuria had a bunch of Italian nobles over. The newspaper article Floyd was reading editorialized on the importance of good relations with this “Italian contingent” being slightly marred by their refusal to entrust their valuables to the care of the Bravurian Guard. Plus they were really becoming a major imposition for the hotel staff. I got the distinct impression Floyd was hoping a freelance villain would abscond with said valuables, thereby reinforcing the importance of foreign dignitaries trusting in Bravurian ‘homeland security.’ I figured that was worth my time.

Well, at least until I learned the Italian contingent was a bunch of Carnies. Still, they were easier targets than the Bravurian army, so who was I to complain?

The Contessa’s obligatory holo-card hinted at insiders who’d help me complete Operation: Rob the Carnies Blind. I found her, but she didn’t actually last terribly long (often lieutenants exposed to hordes spawned for 5 players don’t), but, you know, it’s the thought that counts. Oh, and the loot. That counts too. And the Carnies had plenty of it, stored in great big steamer trunks scattered liberally about.

After a bit of searching (and some smashing in of Carnie masks) I located a wall safe that contained valuables belonging to the “Duchess” – the leader of the Carnie contingent here. As it happens, the Duchess had been out having a good time, but returned to the hotel soon after I took all her stuff. Since I really couldn’t be sure whether or not she had something of value on her person, I decided it was high time to go introduce myself.

And my how the Duchess had quite the entourage! Three Ring Mistresses (the Duchess included) and support staff. I decided it would be quite wise to wrap myself in the magics of my Demonic Aura before my grand entrance.


Sorry lady. No matter how many times I type, ‘Okay, if you’ll back off I will to’ in chat, you keep trying to kill me. So, no, I’m not going to just ‘stand aside and let you shine.’

The Duchess was quite “entertained” by my presence. Well, if by entertained you mean “on the receiving end of a savage beating.” Hey, it was entertaining for *me* - and that’s what really matters. With little else to do, I departed the hotel, horde of loot in hand.

Floyd was all too pleased that I’d dealt with the Carnie matter, and did provide some insight as to Bravura’s wealth – it seems many factions have made the mistake of thinking the small nation weak and come here to cause trouble. Invariably they are driven off by the nations powerful defenders, and forced to leave behind all of value they brought with them, thereby increasing the nation’s coffers with plenty to afford further ‘upgrades’ to Bravura’s defenses.

And once again I visited Floyd as he read aloud Bravura’s newspaper. This time the article he focused on was somewhat surprising. It flat out told me that the Central Bravuran bank was defenseless while in the midst of a ‘shift change’ of sorts (of their security). The sheer volume of loot I could steal staggered the mind. And, oddly enough, Floyd had also mentioned a massive portal device they’d just had installed here in their Rogue Island “embassy.”

Obviously it seemed as though Floyd was practically begging me to teleport into the bank and steal as much as I could carry out. While I wasn’t clear on exactly how to teleport back to the Rogue Isles, I figured it was worth the risk for the sheer amount of loot I could get.

Floyd was kind enough to let me know I had 15 minutes before the security forces returned. I wasn’t sure exactly what he was up to, but it didn’t matter – I had a bank to rob.

As I suspected it was an obvious trap, and one with a clear purpose. The Contessa wished to field test not only her army’s ability to repulse the attack of a full fledged supervillain, she was also interesting in testing a prototype personal suit of powered armor.

The battles with the Bravuran soldiers went as expected – I’d already learned how to effectively deal with them, although I was sure in defeating them I was providing the Contessa with valuable intel as to the techniques a superpowered villain tends to use (and potential areas of improvement for her soliders).


Contessa’s Notes: “Hmm … so the secret to Perturbation’s fighting style is that he repeatedly punches targets in the face until they lose consciousness. Ah. I think that won’t be too hard to replicate.”

Also as expected while the loot in the vaults was impressive indeed, it was clear it was but a small fraction of the nation’s true reserves. The Contessa clearly intended this as a direct test of my abilities, and the loot was merely my hazard pay for letting her and her forces attack me.

What the Contessa couldn’t have anticipated (at least before starting work on the armor – which must have been before I was ever put on ‘retainer’) is that choosing to have the armor generate power blasts was not an effective way to stop me.


If by ‘superlative’ you mean ‘none of your energy blasts have a chance of landing’, then yeah, it’s going to be a superlative fight.

Perhaps her next prototype will have a more varied set of attack methods? Who knew, but it would not be me she’d face off again. I’d gotten all the ‘capital’ that I’d need for the near future from Bravuria, and my minions had finally gotten my own schemes back on track.

Well, with one exception. Clearly my techniques for programming clones had some kinks to work out – the Contessa had succeeded in completely overcoming my subliminal obedience and loyalty protocols, and re-asserted her native personality. Ah well.

Stuff I didn’t hate: This is the first arc I’ve played in quite a while that I would characterize as “charming” – which is quite something for a villain arc. There’s plenty of humor in the arc, much of it centered around your character’s single-minded pursuit of loot. The missions are introduced in an interesting way (Floyd dropping hints at opportunities for you based on stuff he’s reading in the Bravuran newspaper), and the two main contacts are well developed (Floyd through the briefings, and the Contessa through the holocards that introduce missions two through five).

Of course, related to the holocards, clues are well-written and (IMO) used in all the right places in the arc. And while the overall mission design doesn’t have much in the way of innovation, that doesn’t stop them from having excellent pacing and remarkable attention to the little details (dialog, what you see when you click on a glowie, mob descriptions, etc.)

Finally, the custom group is well designed; the wide variety of powers (including ally buffs) makes them a cut above other groups in that level range in terms of difficulty, but they certainly don’t go overboard. And, as an added plus, different mobs have very distinct visual appearances, which makes it very easy, at a glance, to identify the mobs that you should target and defeat first.

Perturbations: Really only three things even stood out, and both are relatively minor. First, The Bravuran Jobs isn’t really a story arc per se – it is far more reminiscent of the stand alone missions doled out by a contact out side of their assigned story arc. Sure, they’re thematically related, but they’re not really telling an overall story. To be fair, that’s not really a bad thing (heck, I’ve got an arc that does that too), and doesn’t really need to be fixed, but if at any point the author felt like making the connections between the missions stronger it would be easy enough: perhaps a few clues linking a previously completed mission to the current one (e.g. the gems you got in mission two include a few very rare varieties that are particularly useful in powering the technology you steal in mission three), or forshadowing later missions (finding schematics for a suit of powered armor that appear to be slated for modifications apparently meant to counter some of your abilities in mission three, or a guard patrol in the same mission gossiping about some Italian contingent that’ll arrive in a few days).

Second, and completely a matter of opinion – but this really struck me as more a ‘Rogue’ arc than a Villain arc. Obviously the arc was published before you could even flag an arc as Rogue or Vigilante, but it certainly felt a lot more roguish to me.

Third, the only actual mission design element I disagreed with is that the Contessa is killable in the first mission, and even that comes with a serious caveat. I absolutely acknowledge that there’d be almost no chance that she’d die with a solo player on a low difficulty setting, but the fact that her rank doesn’t really scale up at higher difficulties, or on larger teams (which even I must admit is not really the arc’s audience) greatly increases the chance she’ll die in those circumstances. And, ironically, the nature of the opposing group really gives them impression that when she goes down, she’s DEAD. For some odd reason, punches, kicks, blasts of stuff, even gunfire somehow doesn’t suspend the belief that ‘oh, she just lost consciousness, and needs to mediport out.’ But ‘archery’ is unique in leaving visual evidence of damage delivery in the target: it’s really hard to think the Contessa could possibly have survived the barrage when you literally see dozens of arrows sticking out of her. Sure, it’s pretty unrealistic to think she’d survive eighteen gunshot wounds, or being shredded by ice bolts, or felled by direct hits from twenty consecutive fire blasts, or whatever. But the game just doesn’t draw in the bullet holes, or leave her a charred pile of ash – it does draw those arrows, though. Yeesh.

To be fair, I do think I see the author’s intent in making her a combat escort. It makes it clear that she’s willing to get her hands dirty and do things herself, which makes it easy to accept that she’d be willing to later don a suit of power armor and face you in battle (not that it was actually hard to buy that).

But again, all of these are very minor, in my opinion. The author can easily ignore all of them (and probably will – there are valid counter-arguments to each point I made); it’s already an excellent arc.

And that, of course, is the final verdict – this is a very good arc!

Score: 4.792

Okay. Good to know it works about as intended.

Also that's a nice collection of arcs you got in your signature there. Shame if someone was to... comment on them. HINT HINT.