Baler

I've expanded A Close Encounter ID number 233720. You ran it when it was a single mission and expressed interest in running it again if I expanded on the story. So if you still feel a need for the familiar, I'd appreciate any comments you might have.

Hi PW, I ran your Celebrity Kidnapping arc and left a comment for you.

My arc is A Close Encounter
Arc ID: 233720
Length: medium
Morality: Heroic
Description: An under-funded and short-staffed government agency needs your help with an investigation.

I ended up running this twice because the first time I was duoed and there was a lot to read but I didn't want to slow us down too much. So I went back to read the clues at a more leisurely pace.

Mission 1 was pretty straight forward with the hostage near the front. We did two of the optional tasks since they were on the way or just afterward.

The last sentence of the Mission 1 debriefing felt a bit clumsy and could be split into two sentences.

The Mission 2 introduction doesn't need quotation marks in the Blue Steel line. You could have something like "I told Blue Steel that you can handle this on your own."

In the navigation bar the mission heading is "get to the warehouse" but you are already in the warehouse at the start of the mission. So it really just needs to be "search through the warehouse" or something similar.

And since a cell phone is mentioned by BaB before and after the mission, you might want to mention finding it in the mission clue or even a separate glowie.

Some of the objectives in Mission 3 really did not work for me. Would a Hero or Heroine really be doing the kind of forensic work attributed to them in this mission? Especially an 18 year old girl who I had run it the first time? Threw me right out of the story, sorry.

Mission 4 send off dialogue from BaB should be "...deliver a smackdown" not "issue some smackdown." And your search action dialogue gives away the result of the search. Maybe have the player just rummage through the boxes and then read the clue when it's done.

Mission 5's Navigation window reads "4 locations to search for clues." It might be simpler to just say "4 clues to find."

Overall I enjoyed running this arc. Some of the history lessons provided by BaB in his briefings were a bit too long for my taste and the transitions from one mission to the next could be tightened up a bit. But the basics are there, they just need a bit of polish.

My arc is in my sig if you want to take a run through it.

Thanks very much for the play through and review. And the character POV was very entertaining, extra thanks for that.

[ QUOTE ]
Good evening, my name is Alain-gah!…Aaaiiieeghghghrrruuurghh….NNGGGGGG!!!!!…ahhhh …why, you little swine…ugh…aarghh…why, I’ll…hmmmf..grhhh…ahhh…hang on let me turn this thing off it’s getting in ….aaeeeeiii…the-”


[/ QUOTE ]

Freaking hilarious I think these may be some of the best reviews going.

[ QUOTE ]
I was a bit confused by the lack of any information about your SUI – we can now give our contacts information, this would be a good place to put sth about the SUI maybe?

[/ QUOTE ]

I will have a look into this, I have more info on the SIU in her bio, which was not readable. Maybe now it will be so thanks for the tip.

[ QUOTE ]
The ‘accept’ line is ‘always a pleasure working with you Major’. There should be a comma before ‘Major’, but more importantly, I haven’t met her before, so this jarred for me.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, I think I'll drop the "Always" since the prior knowledge thing had occured to me too.

[ QUOTE ]
I enjoyed that mission, but you should know that the lab tech and the two computers both spawned in the first room on the right by the stairs. I had a little look ahead, and noticed that there were some elevators leading to another floor. There was no need to go up there as I played it. I’m quite happy to have small maps, especially when the story elements are not huge too, as they are here, but I thought I should point it out in case you didn’t realise

[/ QUOTE ]

I purposely set the objectives for the front to speed things up for the player, ideally (which is how it's spawned for me testing) the lab tech is just before the elevators. I liked getting semi-ambushed from behind coming down the ramp and focused on the 'vators.

[ QUOTE ]
one who was not naked as the rest were

[/ QUOTE ]

Unless something really drastic happened with I15, they're wearing differently coloured, shiny, tight jumpsuits.

[ QUOTE ]
do they all have /regen?

[/ QUOTE ]

The melee types are Willpower and SR with an Empathy support minion. I didn't want them to be too hard for lower levels but not pushovers either.

Thanks again. But I have to say I'm disappointed that the souvenir didn't elicit a comment from Al considering his TMI reveal about his buttocks.

Synopsis - An under-staffed and under-funded Intergovermental agency needs your help at a classified crash site.

Heroic orientation

Length - 4 missions (including one defeat all) on small maps.

Level 20 and up recommended for anything above Heroic difficulty setting.

If you have a bit of time to run a fairly short arc, I'd love to hear your thoughts, good, bad or indifferent.

Thanks in advance

[ QUOTE ]
The alien clue in the first mission suggests the alien disappears, but he's still standing there... I don't know if the MA can demonstrate this. Perhaps there's something in the list of Animations that could apply on Rescue (or else have him run off?).

[/ QUOTE ]

I did change the freed alien animation to kneel like the mission 3 lab tech who does run away. Maybe the outdoor map is responsible by having no exit?

[ QUOTE ]
The second mission glowie search remains the same. The last one was high on top of crates, and doesn't make any particular noise or glow.

[/ QUOTE ]

I know it has the default glowie hum. I tried to find a bigger crate but couldn't find them in the Ticket Vendor's unlockable inventory list. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks for the re-run. I can't promise I'll track down all those missing periods but I'll try.

I want to post a quick, unsolicited testimonial for Airheaded Editorials.

I asked Airhead to run my MArc and he came up with a lot of good points for me to ponder as well as finding pesky typos and spelling mistakes that I missed. I made some changes based on his review and I think the story is better for it.

If you want a second set of eyes to check over a story you wouldl't go wrong asking for an Airheaded Editorial

Thanks Airhead

Wow, that's some fast service. Thanks very much for running my arc. You've given me some good food for thought. And found a few pesky spelling mistakes, here I thought I'd done pretty well finding them. As for the missing periods at the end of some sentences, that was on purpose. Didn't really feel they were necessary but I can see how they can stick out.

I do identify who the Major works for in her bio but it appears I'll have to add that into the first briefing.

Sorry you had trouble finding that crate. Do you play with sound on? I tend to use the sound of the glowies to help with finding those occasional hidden gems. And the powersuit is mentioned in the body bag clue from the first mission.

[ QUOTE ]
Note that my acceptance phrase is a little small-minded, perhaps I can act more heroically.


[/ QUOTE ]
It's meant to be more good-natured ribbing just like the previous "You'll be buying me more than coffee..." acceptance line.

Thanks again, I'll let you know when I've made the changes.

Would you put my arc into the queue when you get room? I think it will meet most if not all of your criteria.

A Close Encounter - 233720

Snoopy shoulda been punted after his second faceplant since y'all weren't courteous enough to drop with him so he could leave.

Good job. You've taken jackassery to a whole new level.

Wow. I can't imagine why anyone would take offense.

The ITF I'm currently on with my Protector SG is paused for the second time and will be finished tonight. I think we're closing in on 5 hours with the last mission left. Of course 5 of the 7 man team have never run it and 3 of them are SKed up so we are going for the EXP.

It really is fun doing it with rookies. I was trying to co-ordinate ahead of time with the teammate who had done it once before so I typed in team chat "How do we want to handle the..." and then sent him a tell "giant robots" so I wouldn't spoil it for the new guys. Seconds later the team hits the corner and they're all "whoa" and such. Pretty much made the glacial pace worth it.

[ QUOTE ]
they've missed the ... Patriot badges

[/ QUOTE ]

Interestingly the third character I ever made, 51 months ago, just got the Patriot badge today at level 36. Logged on to get the Fifth Anniversary badge and notice the rent was overdue.

[ QUOTE ]
Arc #158678 “The Secret of Area 51”
tl;dr: 1 star. Offenses: Killer GM, Wall Banger

Reviewed on: 5/16/2009
Level Range: 41-54
Character used: Venture/Virtue

[/ QUOTE ]

I actually played this arc because I was taken in by the title where "Area 51" meant "Sci Fi" in my mind. Wrongo. And when I was sent to "rendevous" with Synapse I assumed that meant "meet up and join" not get my [censored] kicked before I could react by an AV level foe. I just quit at that point.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I'd like to submit 103594 - A Close Encounter which is an all level friendly, one mission "sneak and peek" to find 3 objects with an optional hostage situation.

[/ QUOTE ]

I played this with a pretty well balanced 5 member PuG on my lvl 38 Trick Arrow/Psi defender. We ploughed through the fairly generic soldier enemies like they were butter. The glowies were pretty standard and didn't really have much information to them. I completely missed the hostage as I think we obliterated the group so quickly I didn't see any text about it. You have the outline for a good mission. I think your soldiers need some work to make them more interesting and a little (I can't believe I'm saying this about someone's custom enemies) more challenging - just don't go overboard. Remember, it takes the developers a long time to design an interesting and well balanced enemy group. If you're going to use a custom group, give the readers a reason why you're fighting soldier group #103594 instead of the Crey or the Council or Arachnos. Give them more story. Add a boss with some dialog as to why these people are after the alien. Good luck!

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for the critique. The original version of this mission had Malta as the main baddies and three Knives of Artemis patrols which was actually pretty challenging. Doubly so since it was actually meant to be stealthed as much as possible. When I decided I wanted it accessible to lower levels I made the Eagle's Talons easier so the level 10ish wouldn't get slaughtered. The clues are deliberately vague to build a sense of continued mystery which still needs to be answered and freeing the hostage is required now which adds a bit more info.

I am working on expanding to a multi-mission arc.

A Close Encounter has a new Arc ID number - 107888

I'd like to submit 103594 - A Close Encounter which is an all level friendly, one mission "sneak and peek" to find 3 objects with an optional hostage situation.

Comments on Matchstick Women - I liked the design of the custom baddies and loved the use of the hostage effect, it made them stand out nicely. I was surprised at one point when the hostage I'd rescued walked by me later and started a fight. On the downside however, I'm not a fan of the "purple prose" that was used in the contact dialogue. That and the repetitive nature combined with a number of spelling mistakes had me gritting my teeth by the end.

But from a pure playability standpoint I very much enjoyed the arc.

[ QUOTE ]
2) Spring Fling: I'm guessing this is a repeat of before, but *shrug*, I'll just sit back and let those that missed the previous events benefit. No harm to me.

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
Outside of the Pocket D, and in conjunction with the live Wedding event, players will find new Hero and Villain contacts in Atlas Park™ and Mercy Island. Sela Vermont, wedding coordinator of Manticore and Sister Psyche, sends Heroes on a special wedding gift reconnaissance mission while Zev Scalamore, under direction of Arachnos, enlists Villains to do his dirty work.

[/ QUOTE ]

I assume this part of the Event will be on the regular servers for the entire timeframe of the Spring Fling. So there is a bit of new Spring Fling content.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
What the heck is Wacky Races?

[/ QUOTE ]

Not as good as some people are selling it.

But nice catch to the OP.

[/ QUOTE ]

Blasphemy!

It was even better then the Laff-a-lympics.

Also, Dick Dastardly has always been in my top ten of favorite villains.

[/ QUOTE ]

Him and Snidely Whiplash are tied for my top villain of all time slot.

Oh sure they aren't *GOOD* at being villains.

But hell if they aren't classic <,<

I suddenly have the urge to create a female character that ties men to railroad tracks now... >.>!

[/ QUOTE ]

The Boris Badenov Appreciation Society wishes to be havink a word with you Squirrel.

And bring the Moose with you.

Interviews/Q&A with the writers.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/ne...em.cgi?id=8952

There are previous interviews in the archives