ArrowRose

Originally Posted by GlaziusF

@GlaziusF

Running on a high-40s brute who needs a couple bars. DB/Fire running on diff2 for actual bosses.

—

This really sounds more like Ouroboros material here. Especially since, uh, if this is so important, why keep it on ice for 7 years?

It makes sense if a time traveler recently intervened, though.

I’m getting kind of a cheeseball 80’s era vibe off the custom villains. Maybe because they’re led by the evil supercomputer from Captain Planet.

Really getting a cartoony vibe off this whole state of affairs, actually.

—

Hmm. Well, congratulations, you’ve got the second blue cave I’ve ever seen in all the Architect missions I’ve ever played.

…are there other lieuts than the dark miasma guy? I only seem to see him around.

You know, if the ALL was hoping this would never be found, you’d think someone in the mission would have said something to that effect.

—

Why does she want a book when the world is full of treasure? Why indeed, contact. Why indeed.

Man, if that’s not a line leading into a Very Special Episode I don’t know what is.

Liberty doesn’t have a “you lost me” text, which is nice to have on a map that’s slightly uneven like this outdoor one.

Fighting what looks to be a custom group that’s some DE mixed with a splash of Rularuu - are you using specific DE or the random spawner? If it’s specific DE, you should probably be using the random spawner because there are some DE (I noticed some Deathblossoms and Granites) who don’t give experience but still drop inspirations. Maybe they’re special trial spawns or something?

Anyway, the boss lady is a pretty nice fight — though if she had elec armor as her aura suggested the anti-knockback part of it didn’t seem to be working. But I have one suggestion for her powers. PLEASE drop Carrion Creepers. They stay up for a huge amount of time, even when the caster is dead, and never stop spawning little vines. I was five spawns away when I finally got the clue drop for her defeat.

—

Awwwww, not Red Atlas. Even though glowies are easy to find, bosses and allies like to hide in broken-walled chambers with smoke on top.

And the main enemy group is a bunch of high-level enemies, some of whom come from entirely different dimensions, thrown together for what the mission briefing as much as admits is no good reason.

Statesy, I know where the glowies are in Red Atlas, but just saying “near the building” doesn’t mean much. I’m surrounded by buildings! Some of them have fallen over! You can say “near the ruins of City Hall” and that’ll work out fine!

…oh, wait, this is modern-day Statesman jumped by these mooks? Not future implicitly-depowered Statesman? Last time anything held Statesman down it was an entire evil dimension.

—

So, last mission.

I really wish this custom group had another lieutenant. Stuff is packed so closely here that a hostage spawn has the very real possibility to put me up against more Fearsome Stares than I can carry Break Frees.

The stormer hostage is on the edge of a cliff. Because she’s running Hurricane even though she’s captured her guards are being blown down to the level below, and I have to act fast to wipe out the last one because his pathing back up only puts him not in range of Hurricane for about two seconds.

What can I say about the stormer? There are maps that ally stormers are good in. This is not one of them. Between the uncontrolled knockback and the sheer cliffs I wound up clearing out most of the valley even though absolutely no objectives were there, just because the stormer galed something down, all the allies chased it, and because of tornado/lightning storm/runners another group down below was alerted, and so on, and so on.

Her earth control primary doesn’t necessarily bring that crazy knockback under control.

Given how much the nav bar wanted me to find Statesman, I was expecting something broken like extreme inv/extreme SS from the last boss. His actual powerset, I didn’t really need Statesey to make much of a dent in his health bar.

Also, he gets flattened against the forcefield at the back of the graveyard by a gale in fine old Wile E. Coyote fashion.

—

Storyline - ***. And… that kinda encapsulates my feelings about the arc in general and its story in particular. I can’t take it seriously. But I don’t know if I’m supposed to. I would not be surprised at all to find that this is a bedtime story being told to Rose Jones, a 7-year old girl somewhere in Paragon City with a sparkly pink poster of Ms Liberty on her wall. It operates under its own brand of dream logic, which is the best way I can think of to explain MAL, an evil guy who sits around doing evil things and takes away the costume and swords from Rose Jones in the future so she’ll never grow up to be a superhero. (There’s a guy who’s got a hate on for Statesman and put together his own band of nefarious no-goodniks and born malcontents in order to hand him his big red butt in a sling. His name’s Lord Recluse. And even if MAL has himself a time machine, he feels a little less than menacing next to our unfriendly neighborhood spider-man.) But if I am just a bit part in a bedtime story, I’d like a contact who reflects that. Princess Bride-style, maybe?

Design - **. The lack of a second lieutenant in the custom group leads to waaaaayyyyy too much incoming fear. Most of the maps are pretty quiet as far as dialogue is concerned - the patrols don’t talk, and even allies don’t speak up when they get separated from you. And acknowledging that the future group is just a random mishmash doesn’t really make it any less a random mishmash. Here’s an idea for free - in the future there isn’t any native life on this Earth. Visitors come to scavenge from other dimensions - the Rikti and Axis America and Praetorians and Rularuu and Psychic Clockwork and another dimension’s Nemesis - but generally they don’t fight because there’s way more planet than any one group can salvage from.

Gameplay - ***. Pretty much down to the stormer adding 10 minutes of clearing in the valley by galing somebody off the edge and everyone chasing. Twice.

Detail - **. The smallest mook in MAL’s army of evil has a longer bio than MAL himself. That just ain’t right. Minions get a couple lines, the master has a history. A lot of the interactible objects are missing interrupt and completion text - the portal in the outdoor map has an empty interact bar. And Ms. Liberty flips back and forth between earnestly begging for my help in the pre-mission and snapping at me for not having finished yet when I bug her. It got to the point where I wondered if I was doing something nefarious for a villain wearing a clever disguise.

Overall - **. A simple story that really needs a better framing device, and some tweaks to make a more evenly weighted custom group and a less frustrating final mission.

Originally Posted by LaserJesus

Well, I'm not reviewing those, you see. Such missions would definitely get a 1 star from me if they did. The low rating was mainly for frustration factor. The last mission really did me in on that front.


I have an arc that has a Boss level Manticore in it as an ally, and he easily survives a protracted fight with an EB that summons thugs and ambushes. A Boss level Statesman would still have quite the survivability, but not as much ridiculous damage. The same would go for the custom allies. I realize that defensive toggles love to drop when allies are rescued, but they still benefit from auto powers. Liberty Rose and Agent Liberty are both Willpower, if I recall, meaning that they benefit from the increased hit points, inherent resistance to all kinds of damage, and increased regen rate.

Agent Liberty even managed to die somehow during the last fight, presumably from drawing extra aggro, and rezzed herself. You could easily do the same for Liberty Rose, if her not dying is your main concern. Besides, her "dying" isn't really dying, if you take into account the medical transporter. In the last mission she's become a registered hero, and thus would have access to that. Besides, it's not so much their survivability that is the issue. I have no problem if allies are popping all kinds of tier 9 powers and self rezzing. It's mainly the high level of damage output. The allies had quite a lot of high damage powers, and both Agent Liberty and Liberty Rose had a build up power. Even one of the allies can make the player feel like they're not needed.

As far as saving them last, in doing my reviews I try to make sure that I'm seeing everything, including how powerful an ally is. Simply a matter of being thorough and seeing what people playing the mission could experience.


I understand completely, but as I'm an example of, they can get incredibly frustrating. It's not so much the fact that there is an enemy with a fear power, it's the fact that I ran into a lot of them, especially on the outdoor map where it can be hard sometimes not to aggro another group. Making them Boss rank would mean that they would show up very rarely, making it so the fear power doesn't show up enough to get aggravating, and yet keeping the enemy still in the arc and intact.


That wasn't so much of a negative point, just a note about a particular point that made me scratch my head.

All that said, I'm coming up on the end of my queue, and I've been thinking about going back and playing the arcs that I've reviewed and posting an updated rating and a quick notation of the changes and how I feel about them. Nothing too detailed, more of an addendum to my previous review. As I look at this as both a place to give constructive feedback as well as a review, it seems good to give a new take on things that have been updated. A 2 or 3 star may have moved up in rank, and if it has become better, than people reading my review thread should know.

Originally Posted by ArrowRose

I would love it if you would play my arc :
In Pursuit of Liberty - ID 221702.

Originally Posted by Lynx_Nordique

Arc No 292579

Title: The Fengshui and the Shadow play

Synopsis: A known enemy group brings a new threat from 18th century China.

Originally Posted by Sir Burnagain

I have two arcs that need some love. I suggest playing them on challenge level one because they have no minions in them and some tough bosses along with EBs. I hope you enjoy them!

To Save The World - Arc ID #6861
The Pirates of Paragon - Arc ID #139580

@Sir Burnagain

Originally Posted by LaserJesus

All that said, I'm coming up on the end of my queue, and I've been thinking about going back and playing the arcs that I've reviewed and posting an updated rating and a quick notation of the changes and how I feel about them. Nothing too detailed, more of an addendum to my previous review. As I look at this as both a place to give constructive feedback as well as a review, it seems good to give a new take on things that have been updated. A 2 or 3 star may have moved up in rank, and if it has become better, than people reading my review thread should know.

Originally Posted by GlaziusF

Well, I know how gutpunchingly hard you can make customs in the MA. When I walked into the final mission and the navbar said getting Statesman as an ally was highly recommended.

Originally Posted by MrCaptainMan_NA

I'm always pleased when someone plays The Audition, but i dont know what your max play number for this is. The IDs in my sig. Its 6 missions long.

Eco

Originally Posted by LaserJesus

In Pursuit of Liberty
Arc ID: 221702
Author: @Gypsy Rose


Short Version
A whimsical tongue in cheek story that was marred by overpowered allies and annoying enemies.

Originally Posted by JadKni

We meet up with an older Little Liberty, now Liberty Rose Jones, who is an EB. Should she be this strong at this stage of her career? Maybe a boss would be more fitting.