Bubbawheat

Today's review is for Tangler's

A Penny For Your Thoughts #348691 by @Frija

Another Yin contacts me, this time it's Penelope. It seems that all the Clockwork have just up and stopped moving and she'd like me to check out the Clockwork King's (CK's) lair. When I get there I find a bunch of non-moving clockwork, as promised, as well as a handful of Vahzilok digging around looking for stuff. When I do find CK, inert as all the others, I kind of pass out.

Since Penelope is psychic, she can still communicate with me as I find myself in the Astral Plane, finding my way into the mental realm of CK, where he is his dashing human self, protecting his Clockwork Princess, Penelope Yin. Even though I am in his mental realm, I am beset by Tuatha de Dannon led by a creature named Woolagump who is also after the princess.

Seeing this through my mind, Penelope realizes that CK is turning inward. Seeking solace in his own mind rather than face the outside world. The problem is that his mind is forgetting about the rest of himself, and he will soon not be able to recover. So she asks me to journey deeper into his mind to unlock his memories and jog him back to reality. In this version of the story, CK and Penelope knew each other when they were young, but CK moved away at some point, and Penelope never made the connection.

Evil for the greater good: Again, there is a choice made in the final mission that connects to the design of the contest. This arc is a little harder to pinpoint it as exactly good or evil. This is the last chance to break CK free from his mind and back into reality. The thing that this arc forgets to mention is that CK is an Archvillain, of course most people know about this already, though this arc paints him very very sympathetically. So for some people, freeing him is not doing evil at all, but a heroic deed, saving a sympathetic creature from a horrible fate. The other choice is to let him remain trapped, freeing the world from an Archvillain by doing evil through inaction in not using your powers to save someone in need. Unfortunately, I personally feel that this is too loose of an interpretation of the intent of the contest, as it never "feels" like I'm doing an evil deed, at least not when trying to save CK.

The arc as an arc: I really enjoyed the storytelling and mechanics in this arc. There's tons of flavor throughout this arc, from the inert clockwork in M1, to the entertaining clockwork in M2, to the long chained trip through CK's memory in M3 - one of my favorite story-centric missions to date. It has a great feel and pacing to it, using a very small map with chained glowies and hostage rescues to excellent effect. Unfortunately, this is one I decided to write up before playing through a second time to get both endings. I got the "success" ending, saving the archvillain, though writing this up is making me want to play through again already and will probably edit in another few sentences about the other ending tonight or tomorrow.

I really enjoyed this one. Good luck in the contest!

I'd be interested in this as well. My name's the same there.

escorts "complete" when rescued, not when escorted so that doesn't work either. My best solution is to add some grey-con enemies to defeat. Obviously won't work in every situation, but it's one way to go.

Burnt Matchstick is on every server except freedom. All a different AT, different yet similar costume, different origin with matching bio, and all fire/fire (or thermal). I've done a few remakes of a character on a different server for whatever reason, but the original is pretty much just sitting there until I get full enough to have to delete them.

Review posted in my new thread. I felt it was a bit rushed, and ranked about 3 stars (taking a note from Glazius and rated a 5 becuase I did enjoy it though).

While not inspired to create an arc for the first two Dr. Aeon's Challenges, I was intrigued by the overall concept and was looking for a new project fore reviewing. So I decided to start playing through the challenge arcs and writing my own thoughts and feedback for them. I have been reviewing them at how well they accomplish their own challenge goal, as well as how they are as a whole, regardless of the contest. There will be spoilers in this thread, so don't read if you don't want to be spoiled. Also, thanks to Hammerstar and Tangler for collecting a list of the first challenge entries so I didn't have to.

The First Challenge: "Evil for the Greater Good"
A Penny For Your Thoughts ID# 348691 - Reviewed (Dev Choiced)
A Tangle in Time ID# 2622 - Reviewed... a while ago
Clan Destiny ID# 349053 - Mini-reviewed
Cloudy With a Chance of Zombies ID# 352369
The Cost of One Life... ID# 350641
Curing the Castaways ID# 352723
Diversionary Tactics ID# 347791
Evil By Inches ID# 349967 - Reviewed
For All the Wrong Reasons ID# 351572 - Reviewed
Judge, Jury and Crimson ID# 352363 - Reviewed
Nevermore ID# 352030
One Too Many Lines Crossed ID# 347205 - Reviewed
Operation: Charybdis ID# 346845 - Reviewed
Out of Place ID# 350577 - Winner, Reviewed
Purification ID# 352381 - Reviewed (Dev Choiced)
Task Force Mutternacht ID# 349522 - Reviewed
The Greater Good ID# 350877 - Reviewed
The Union of the Mask ID# 352400 - Reviewed
Turg Fiction: IX ID# 351787 - Reviewed
When the Bough Breaks ID# 345863

The Second Challenge: "A Super Loses Their Power"
Bad Voodoo #373659 by BeyondReach
Dereliction of Duty #373571 by Dying Breath
A Heartbreak Breaking Story #378511 by Arctic Princess (Dev Choiced)
A Hero in Need... Is a Friend indeed! #375018 by Wrong Number
Holding Down the Fort #379065 by LaserJesus
Night Calls The Weaver #375420 by Sister Twelve - Winner
Outbroken #379017 by Airhead
Past Echoes Tomorrow #379399 by ArbiterFabulous
Possession #379393 by ArwenDarkblade
The Return of Doctor Null #379045 by PeterPeter
The Spider Without Fangs #379248 by TheDeepBlue
Storming Citadel #379488 by MrCaptainMan
Suppression #374481 by ArrowRose
To Dream of Nothing #374644 by Zaphir
To Save a Hero #373341 by Smash Zone
Too Clever by Half #378944 by Samuraiko
Two Tickets to Westerly #374002 by PoliceWoman (Dev Choiced)
Unfair Trade #373846 by Lazarus
A Wake for Dead 6 #379160 by Clave Dark 5

The Third Challenge: "Going Rogue"

Arena #456200 by FredrikSvanberg - Reviewed
The Cave #459590 by Tangler - Reviewed
A Clone of Your Own? #453091 by Bubbawheat - Reviewed by GlaziusF
Duplicity #85847 by Soul Storm - Reviewed
The Icari #458576 by Mirror Man - Reviewed
Interdimensional Headache #459592 by @Nebulhym - Reviewed
Kill or Cure #459581 by Samuraiko - Reviewed
Legacy of a Rogue #459586 by Liquid - Reviewed
Papers and Paychecks #298290 by PoliceWoman - Reviewed
Repercussions #458165 by TsumijuZero
Rogue Transmission #456663 by Shadestorm
Shattered Psyche #459601 by K'aji
The Sinister Song #454892 by Ashcraft - Reviewed
Splintered Shields #253991 by Venture - Reviewed
Turg Fiction: IX ID# 351787 - Reviewed (for first challenge)
Unfair Trade #373846 by Lazarus - Reviewed
The Vengeful Heart #454861 by @Jinkobi - Reviewed
A Very Special Episode #457506 by Wrong Number
The Vigilante #395861 by ArrowRose - Reviewed
A Wake for Dead 6 #379160 by Clave Dark 5 - Reviewed (for second challenge)
When Madness Reigns Over Reason #452196 by MrsAlphaOne - Reviewed
Who Dares Wins #454805 by Zaphir - Winner, Reviewed

Unpublished Entries
First Challenge
A Clockwork Romance ID# 344816
The Better Part of Valor ID# 349298
The Destroyer of Worlds ID# 352820

Second Challenge
Is That A Club In Your Pocket Or Are You Just Happy to See Me? (unpublished) by FredrickSvanberg

Oh, and by the way, I'm just posting this as a member of the Scoop. I don't run anything or make any final decisions, I'm just an article writer. I'm just a little bit closer to the info than most others here.

Only because you have run out of arcs on your queue, and I'm always looking for feedback for my recent changes, I was considering asking for yet another re-review of Matchstick Women, but I looked back at your previous reviews and realized that I still haven't changed (much) your biggest gripe about the arc - the contact text, and I don't intend to. But if you have nothing else, or it comes up on random, I wouldn't turn down feedback on the new mission 2. Also Whack-a-Mole has a new version which is quite different than your last runthrough if you wanted to re-review that one.

Long story short:

New forums broke the formatting.

Changes were planned for an off-site host (and still are).

Snow Globe (editor in chief) became extremely busy with school.

Snow Globe has stepped down due to taking a break from the game.

We still have writers, and other people willing to run things, but we still need time to get the off-site host fully working. Not sure of the timeline, but things are still in motion, and the Scoop will be back eventually.

Oh wait, I remembered where I could find the ID of the other one. We played

Diversionary Tactics #347791 by Hammerstar

Matchstick Women #3369 by Bubbawheat

Still eligible, most custom groups are only in one arc, there's one custom group in the awards that's only in one mission. It's really all about getting more arcs more plays, so read the rules, take some screenshots, and post them in the thread!

Had fun tonight (maybe a little too much fun - see below), don't have the arc numbers, Lithrei should have those, but thanks for playing through Matchstick Women. Glad everyone enjoyed it!

Saw a thread about people writing letters in character as if they were part of the Omega Team. i.e. the suicide team that stopped the Rikti in the first invasion and put their letters in the time capsule that was recently opened. I wrote one as my Blaster Burnt Matchstick - Emily Metzer (not the one from my Matchstick Women arc). Here it is.

From Burnt Matchstick aka. Emily Metzer (My hero version, not my MA villain version)

I've got a best custom group contest going on through the month of December over in the Stories and Lore section. Complete with lots of screenshots and great character designs. I know there's a lot of great costume designers here that probably rarely set foot in the S&L forum, so I thought I'd let you guys know about this too. Check it out

It would be great if they had this option:

When choosing the Hero skin: Positive rep appears blue, Negative rep appears red.

When choosing the Villain skin: Positive rep appears red, Negative rep appears blue.

I can't remember how long ago you played it, but Matchstick Women #3369 has been going through a lot of changes recently, including a brand new mostly non-combat mission. Feel free to check it out again.

Matchstick Women #3369

These women are sought out and recruited by a mysterious cult leader named Emily Metzer. Young girls and women who might just be showing signs of their affinity for fire talents are promised a place where they belong, with others like them. But once there they are in for a bigger surprise. They are subject to horrible trials that are supposed to bring their powers to the fullest potential, but leave them burned and scarred, unable to return to a normal life.

Keywords: Themed, Detailed backstory


Initiating a new recruit within the ring of fire




Hanging out at basecamp


Fire in the distance


Their leader


The healer, watch out for them!

Matchstick Women #3369

Looking back at that bio, her body is flame-blackened, but just doing a darker skintone would be a-ok.

Refs currently making the world tour of the Art forums..., but I also really like this idea. The controller I think would be best suited for world travel, though I could see the blaster travelling as well (even though she can't [see that is] *ba-dum*).

I like sticking with Player's Choice because of the voting process. The players choose the winners. I plan on continuing this from month to month, with different categories and different nomination processes each month (unless I come across something I like the best). Also: I greatly encourage everyone to play through as many arcs as possible, that's really what the whole point of this is. But this time around, I want to keep things different and interesting. If you know of a great custom group that you'd like to nominate, contact the author and convince them to enter. Show your support for them in this thread, nominate a character from the arc. Good luck to everyone, and remember to have fun!

Also, MA play overall has been on a downtrend. Even the new dev choice arcs don't seem to be getting as many plays, though it is important to note that there are a lot of Dev Choice arcs added in a shorter amount of time, so the plays are more spread out, but it still seems like overall they are getting less plays than a few months ago.