Bubbawheat

Does it count if you never actually *buy* any art?

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

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

To Save a Hero #373341 by @Smash-Zone

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tweets below in correct order.

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

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

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

I'm an active member of the small AE author community and we often have discussions with each other wondering why some arcs get a lot of plays and other really great arcs sit unnoticed by casual players. I know that any member of the forums doesn't exactly qualify as a casual player, but I thought this forum at least has a lot more people that are at least a casual AE player.

So, I ask you, when you decide to stop into the AE building, how do you decide which arc to play? Do you look at the first couple pages and pick a short arc? Do you search for something you're interested in? Do you look through the descriptions or just the titles? Or, do you do a little research and pop into the AE forum and look for something to catch your interest? Or do you search for the current farm trend?

Try the Ocho, he's usually good like that.

will give me an excuse to level my VEAT I transferred over.

This is becoming extra popular nowadays. I hope to be around, I've done that TF once I believe. And of course would be bringing my fire blaster as usual. If we do need 2 teams are we going to recruit PuGs to both do Mender Silos (since you need 8), or have one team do something else?

Ooh, I better get started on this. Need some good inspiration. Lucky I have this next week off work, so I should have time to work on something and throw some teasers up here.

I think I'm going to need a change of pants.

If I am a winner, I permit NC Interactive, Inc. and NCsoft Europe Limited to use my name, likeness, photograph, hometown, and any comments that I may make about myself or this contest that I provide for advertising and promotional activities. I also certify that I am at least 13 years of age and am eligible to participate in this contest.

when the leader clicks the new team task...
...when any teammate enters the mission...
...when any teammate zones anywhere...
...when any teammate joins the team...
...when any teammate leaves the team...
...when any teammate sneezes...

In other words, I'd love to have your personal checkpoint not disappear whenever any team oriented thing happens.

I may be biased (see: location) but Gen Con sounds like a good idea to me.

Wow, that looks great. I hope the professor liked it as much as I do. Really nice.

Oh come on now, we have to get this thing right, it's:

12 Zombie Drummers Drumming
11 US Servers
10 Winter Lords a Leaping
9 Ladies /em Dancing
8 Lusca Tentacles
7 Phalanx TFs
6 Mastermind Pets
5 Nemesis Plots
4 Arachnos Patrons
3 Fire Imps
2 Dual Weapons
And an object stolen from the Magi Vault

If I am a winner, I permit NC Interactive, Inc. and NCsoft Europe Limited to use my name, likeness, photograph, hometown, and any comments that I may make about myself or this contest that I provide for advertising and promotional activities. I also certify that I am at least 13 years of age and am eligible to participate in this contest.

I guess I should have checked both threads first. Sign me up, we may have enough for 2 moonfires! One blue and one yellow?

Sounds like we may have enough for two groups tonight, I've been enjoying these as well and hope to make it again tonight.

$1.49 for gas? I think I'm moving to the Rogue Isles!

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

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

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

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

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

edit: Tweets below in correct order

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks everyone for coming out, had tons of fun. Sorry to those that couldn't get in due to our full team, will absolutely be doing this again sometime.


Left to right:
Catalina Blaze as Swan, Burnt Matchstick (Bubbawheat) as Polish Princess (Jophiel), Doctor Omen (Ironik) as Feral Kat, [front] Warrior Mage Luna (DemonCaller) as Fenian Girl (Caemgen), [middle] Orange You Special (Dark Ether) as Burnt Matchstick (Bubbawheat), [back] Planet Girl as Bayani, Bayani as Planet Girl, Lounge Crooner (Jophiel) as Ms. Frost (Dark Ether).

And some epic widescreen shots of the battle scene.

Since the voting's over, I felt like posting a few more thoughts on all the entries.

Shia/Pyronympho - I really liked how the construction paper cutouts looked. It produces some clean lines and I was surprised at the level of detail and line control you both had. But the humor value of Pyro's won me over a bit more, I think it was the different sized eyes that put it over the top for me.

Frost - Regardless of the quality of the work itself, this one most captured the spirit of kindergarten, aside from Caemgen's non-entry which I think would have been near the top of this very close race.

Scooter/Bubbawheat - These were the two 3-D pieces which we haven't seen any of before now. As a kid, I could never do anything with play-dough and you did pretty well considering.

Christopher Robin - The sidewalk chalk piece - this really shows your usual style using really rough materials. The only downside is it's a little harder to realize the scale of the piece at this angle.

Lousy Day/Juggertha/Tartyrsauce - These are the more rough of the crayon pieces, and shows how hard it is to get good details with them, even from talented artists. Of these, I can see why Tartyr's got the low end of the totem pole, as it's a sketch compared to a full piece, and it looks just like all his other sketches, which is actually a good effort with crayons, but it doesn't stand out as being either kindergarten themed, nor does it compare to...

U-Naught/JohnnyKat - these two pieces which are very high quality pieces using crayons, which the above works show how hard that is to do. Both of these have a very high level of detail, and while I feel that U-Naught's catches the kindergarten mood the best, JohnnyKat's is definitely the most impressive for the amount of detail.

Psh, heroes :P

I like to make my prediction whenever I see one of these posts. With the addition of Vigilantes and Rogues, I'm pretty sure there will be a complete overhaul of the team search window, and hopefully they will take a lot of these things into consideration.

Ok, matchups here. More are always welcome, just come dressed as someone recognizable, either from the art forum community, or an in-game signature character.

1. Bubbawheat -> Jophiel's Polish Princess(refs)
2. Planet Girl -> Bayani (refs)
3. Bayani -> Planet Girl (refs)
4. Dark Ether -> Bubbawheat's Burnt Matchstick (refs)
5. Jophiel -> Dark Ether