Bubbawheat

Happy Birthday!

This week was Player's Choice, and I picked the Customs category. We played

Dhahabu Kingdom and the Unfathomable Nightmare of Sand #453511 by @Zamuel and his sand kingdom customs with a group name that is very nice and thematic, but foreign sounding, so I don't remember it. You get a hint of them in the first mission, but you will see them best in the fourth and final mission.

Next we ran the first mission of

The Vengeful Heart #454861 by @Jinkobi where we fought <The Crush> which is his futuristic group with lots of varations on the theme.

And finally we ran

Against the Wickerwork Khan #346904 by @Clave Dark 5 where we fought <The Wickerwork> which I hope I'm not spoiling things too much when I say they're samurai themed wooden-looking clockwork.

And we didn't get to them, but make sure you play

Evolve or Die #411446 by @FredrikSvanberg to see some higher level and more dangerous <Outcasts>.

And The Golden Age Secret of the Paragon Society #344596 by @Wrong Number to see her custom fifth column group. This one is also nominated in best Heroic arc, so be sure to keep that in mind as well. And the customs don't show up until the 5th mission so stick with it!

The one thing that no one wants to mention. There is one good reason why you can't buy Incarnate Shards with AE tickets:

You can get AE tickets legitimately without playing the game at all.

Aside from the exploits, this is the reason I believe you cannot and will not be able to buy Incarnate Shards with AE tickets.

Best Comedy votes:

1st: Captain Skylark
2nd: Too Clever By Half

Eliot Lefebrvre reviewed the arcs from forum regulars in his latest Mild-Mannered Reporter article here: http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/12...tect-overload/ and they were all favorable reviews.

The Golden Age Secret of the Paragon Society (#344596)
Author: @Wrong Number

A Clone of Your Own? (#453091)
Author: @Bubbawheat

and

Too Clever by Half (#378944)
Author: @Samuraiko

check it out!

Geez, this forcefield defender isn't doing hardly any DPS!

*kick*

Hey! Why are we dying so much more now?

Here's mine, she's pretty low level though, below 20 I believe. Cerulean Strike. And she no longer has the messed up skirt.

Well, if you want to get people that are famous in their own little corners of the forums:

Caemgen has bought enough art to overtake... well maybe a large corner of Thor's Assassin's gallery.
And Christopher Robin has orangified nearly every recent art thread.
Bubbawheat will probably end up being the last person in the Mission Architect forums... oh wait, he already is.

That is one of the most infuriating things I've seen that shows that the sorting function wholeheartedly stinks. How in the world can an arc go from 925 plays and 5 stars, the very first arc (non DC/GA/HoF) and after probably 1-2 votes get knocked down to page 21 for 4-star rated arcs? That makes no sense whatsoever!

And I just realized that the default sort order for all arcs goes like this:

Guest Author
Dev Choice
Hall of Fame
5-star arcs
unplayed arcs
1-star arcs
2-star arcs
3-star arcs
4 star arcs

Really? Really? I mean, really?

The level range you pick only determines which recipes are available. The actual level of the recipe is based on your character level, or the highest available level for that recipe, whichever is lower. So any recipes that go all the way to 50 will be given to you at 50 when using your level 50 character, no matter which level range you rolled at.

Flames huh? I dunno, that might be pretty hard for me to pull off...

>.>

<.<

>.>

Honestly, I generally liked it, but I didn't like any of the songs at all. I thought they were dumb and felt forced. The characters and story were all fun, but I just really didn't like the songs at all. And I'm a big fan of the Disney Princesses, I even remember going to see Beauty and the Beast in theaters when I was fairly young, and my daughter now enjoys them.

Also, I was thinking what is a good range for allowing a 2nd go around at the club? My thought was either 6 or 8 weeks *and* Silver level or higher membership. At 6 weeks, then Necrotech Master would be eligible to get back into the pool next week. Anyone else have opinions on this? Also, I thought the 2nd shot would get 1 less chance at the roll than others.

Sounds like many people might have been scared off by the challenging looking warning tags for the enemies, and others might have just been busy with i19. For me, it was a little of both. We're coming into week #6, and still getting some new members. Welcome Doctor Gemini. If you have an arc you want in the pool, be sure to post it here. Also congratulations to The Hound on your third playthrough which upgrades you to Silver Level Membership. PM or global /tell me the level range of a silver ticket recipe roll, otherwise I will send you a level 50 next week through gleemail.

This week, I'll be showing you exactly how I do the roll, just in case anyone was wondering. Also, if you have an arc that's not listed, be sure to post it so it can be in the roll for next week.

1, 2 Coulomb2 - The Blue Devils
3, 4 Dalghryn - Casualties of War
5, 6 The Hound - Spawning Chaos
7, 8 Tubbius - Hammer and Sickle
9 Wrong Number - Special Episode
10 Eva Destruction - End of The World

And the random roll is: 2 So this week's arc is:

"The Blue Devils" (ID#468738)

It's a brand new arc, with only two plays so far. It's five missions long, and is intended as a "starter" arc (all missions are levels 1-5).

I've had two goals in writing it:

One, I've tried to write it with the idea that it can serve as the very first arc the newly created character of a more experienced player can play (much like "Learning the Ropes" it's intended as alternate low-level content, but this time it features a custom group so even the foes won't be the standard low-level foes.)

Two, it's an attempt to create a balanced, but very low level custom group, using the custom XP system. In other words, the mobs basically have the bare minimum powers I could give them and be worth 100% XP (or close to it) at level 5. Obviously because they're custom mobs, they are harder than dev mobs at that level would be.

Offering up your arc before checking out the vids first? Very brave.

Join me against a common foe!

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Vote # 495
Defenders +
Tankers -
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Defenders 16
Tankers 96
Dominators 28

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Vote # 486
Defenders +
Dominators -
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Defenders 18
Tankers 95
Dominators 27

Welcome to my newest project: On Your M-Arc - Video reviews. I am always accepting requests, and always looking for feedback. Check the "coming soon" at the bottom of this thread to see how long of a wait there will be. I estimate 2-3 weeks per video.

You are free to request an "On Your M-Arc" video review which is a 5-10 minute audio review backed by video clips recorded from your arc and background music chosen to hopefully fit with the theme of the arc somehow.

You can also ask for a trailer for your arc which is about a 1 minute teaser for the arc based on the actual arc, the backstory, or even just the feel of the arc. I may decline the trailer for my own reasons.



AE Trailers

Signal: Noise #341194 by @The Cheshire Cat

Hammer and Sickle of Paragon City #351727 by @Tubbius

Small Fears #12885 by @Wall of Knight

Rise of the Blood Countess #3705 by @Elizabeth Bathory

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

Drakule vs. the Werewolf Bikers from Hell #340316 by @LaserJesus

Against the Wickerwork Khan #346904 by @Clave Dark 5

Fear and Loathing in Striga #350522 by @FredrikSvanberg

Golden Age Secret of the Paragon Society #344596 by @Wrong Number

Talos Vice #338380 by @PW

On Your M-Arc

On Your M-Arc #15 - The Howard Zaine Trilogy Author's Cut with special guest @Evangel

On Your M-Arc #14 - Fear Incarnate #522392 by @Solas

On Your M-Arc #13 - Kill or Cure #459581 Author's Cut with special guest @Samuraiko

On Your M-Arc #12 - Do It Yourself Doom Army Project #410418 Author's Cut with special guest @Twoflower

On Your M-Arc #11 - Crafter's Cafe #487283 Author's Cut with special guest @Backfire

On Your M-Arc #10: Small Fears #12285 by @Wall of Knight

On Your M-Arc #9: Operation Oedipus: Glory of Our Empire #372767 by @Arkhon von Evilsatan

On Your M-Arc #8: Storming Citadel #379488 by @MrCaptainMan

On Your M-Arc Q & A #1

On Your M-Arc #7: The Rise and Demise or Otherwise of Tekna Logik #402506 by @Coolio

On Your M-Arc #6: The Rogue Vahzilok #405340 by @Lone Superpower

On Your M-Arc #5: Fear and Loathing in Striga #350522 by @FredrikSvanberg

On Your M-Arc #4: Cole In Your Stocking #474611 by @Venture

On Your M-Arc #3: Talos Vice #338380 by @PW

On Your M-Arc #2: City of Ho Ho Ho, or A Claus in Paragon #18775 by @Tubbius

On Your M-Arc #1: A Clone of Your Own? #453091 by @Bubbawheat

Whack a Mole #2711 by @Bubbawheat - a pre-On Your M-Arc video.

Coming Soon

Trailers - 2011 Player's Choice winners (4), Zamuel's Dhahabu series, Fear Incarnate

On Your M-Arc: Author's Cut - Wrong Number

More Q & A: Submit questions here

Thanks for watching!

I'm with Wrong Number, I feel like I'm almost alone in this channel as much as I try things to help promote the MA. Some things haven't been as successful as I'd hoped, others have been more successful. I still hope for more dev activity, because that's the ONLY way to really get players re-involved in the MA. On every other forum, the MA is a joke about farms and exploits.

Even so, I'm slowly losing hope on this front. More and more people are leaving this niche, and it feels like it's going the way of PvP and bases.

Funnily enough, many of the characters I play the most, Burnt Matchstick, I can't play as a defender yet, but I regularly play the tanker and dominator versions.

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Vote # 484
Dominators -
Defenders +
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Defenders 19
Tankers 94
Dominators 27

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Vote # 472
Dominators -
Defenders +
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Defenders 23
Tankers 93
Dominators 24

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Vote # 468
Defenders + My last vote for the night.
Dominators -
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Defenders 23
Tankers 92
Dominators 25

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Vote # 466
Defenders +
Dominators -
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Defenders 21
Tankers 93
Dominators 26