Eva Destruction
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The Secret of NutriPaste
#343643
My contact is Marshall Brass and he wants me to save some hostages from the Luddites. They claim they've discovered the secret of NutriPaste, and are demanding a WSPDR reporter come and spread the word throughout the isles. Brass is worried that they might actually know something. I have 30 minutes before they start executing people, which seems a bit cold for this group, especially Amanda vines, who is known for speaking out against Aeon.
I sneak in disguised as a reporter, presumably so no one will associate me with Arachnos. The pop-up tells me Amanda slips by me...kinda confusing since Brass told me she's in there, and I still have to rescue her. I also rescue Dr. Shelley Percey, and find a list of NutriPaste ingredients providers on the Luddite leader...considering Percey's line of work, I'm starting to believe the old joke might be true. I do think the Luddites are a bit more cold-bloodedly homicidal here than they should.
Marshall Brass doesn't know what NutriPaste is made of either, and he wants me to find out. My first stop is a ship bringing some cargo from Port Noble. Well the ship belongs to...guess who? I walk into the middle of a mutiny of their Troll slave sailors, pick up some trolls who can't swim and decide to help me instead, and uncover a sinister zombie fertilizer-Superdine ring. The captain doesn't know what NutriPaste is made out of either, but he can tell me who he was selling the zombie fertilizer to...and, uh oh. If my modem hadn't been acting up that boss fight would have been a fun use of mechanics.
Now I'm off to Aeon Hydroponics, where they grow giant-sized food like in that Simpsons episode. Apparently by using zombies for fertilizer. Ewww. Here is what the Rogue Isles Protector has to say about Aeon Hydroponics:
"Aeon Hydroponics pretends to grow giant-sized foods to better the world, but that's just a front. Everyone knows it's actually a cloning farm."
Yeah. Eww. Anyway, the lab is now full of Luddites who are getting more and more with the cold-blooded murder. Hehehe, the safe word is banana. Fruits and vegetables. Yeah, I can live with that. It's all fruits and vegetables, albeit genetically modified ones. Marshall Brass isn't buying it though. It's too...not-sinister.
Ooh ooh, now he wants me to smash Aeon's stuff. Oh, sorry, right, I'm supposed to teach him a lesson, about bribing or tricking or coercing Arachnos troops to be loyal to him, and not rat him out to Arachnos. And, oh yeah, I'm supposed to try to find the secret ingredient too.
And now I know how he gets those Arachnos troops to be so loyal to him. Hey guys, they say video games are bad for you...I do find the recipe though, but it's coded. Brass can crack it though....
Aw crap. Stupid Luddites. I was about to find out the secret ingredient you jerks! Aeon's private security sucks, so I have to fire them too, as well as get rid of the Luddites. Not sure why Brass thinks he has the authority to fire them, since they work for Aeon, but anyway....all I can say is Brass better have the recipe decoded by the time I get back.
This NutriPaste Plant looks a lot like the PTS. Same architect? One of the NPCs' dialogue acknowledges this though, so I'll go with it and just assume they're making the NutriPaste in that big warehouse building over there. See, now this is why I took a travel power on a character that won't be doing much traveling: big outdoor map. Five objectives. Find, kill, rinse, repeat, done.
Ok, I saved the NutriPaste plant, now tell me the secret! You jerk, you're not going to tell me, are you? Oh, um...never mind. You just did.
So, what we have here is less an arc about NutriPaste and more about the Cap au Diable soap opera. Will Brass confront Aeon about his cheating ways? Will the head of Aeon's security force come out of his coma? Is Amanda Vines really Martin Henri's long-lost daughter? Find out next time on All My Spiderlings. As such it's not bad. It's another behind-the-scenes of the canon villain arcs, but unlike the first one in the series, there is more of a story connecting them all. Even though the revelation isn't unexpected, the ride is enjoyable.
I did have a problem with the extremely bloodthirsty portrayal of the Luddites here. They hate the PTS, they hate Aeon, they hate Arachnos, but executing non-combatants? That seems out of character. The other part I had a problem with was the final EB. Not that he was difficult, but that he was there. He has never been seen, fighting him should be an arc all on its own. Instead, he comes out of hiding just because I beat up one of his goons? It's not like I'm actually threatening his deal with Aeon, since Aeon pretty much does whatever he wants anyway. One more rather minor issue: repeating objectives are repeating. Giving repeating objectives unique dialogue makes missions more interesting.
*****
Dawnrazor is now level 15 and sitting on 3630 tickets. So I'm going to roll a few.
Ten rolls later, I have a Karma: Knockback Protection (cha-ching) and a bunch of crap I throw on the market for 1 inf. Crafted the Karma, since the selling price is double that of the recipe, when it sells I'll have around 20 mil. Not bad for level 15. -
Quote:They are, they just set them to be unavailable until you reach a certain level, even if you have all the required badges. They should have done this with villain accolades from the get-go, or if that was too difficult or time-consuming to code, added Insider or Wise Guy to the requirements. Instead, they put a list of badges on a dart board.Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill
Though I agree with Eva's comment: - the situation is still far more palatable than when you had to have the 5-hour-in-Siren's badge, etc. That, even as someone who *does* occasionally enjoy PVP, I felt was unfair and not well thought out. Explore badges at least can be done - even with someone else in the zone - rather quickly. I don't think even level-gating is a legitimate reason any more with the SSK/no level restrictions. (I don't think they're affected by that any more heroside, at least.)
"Hey, let's have this accolade require people to spend five hours in the one zone where people will get annoyed at you for spending five hours!" This after six months of "I hate PvP" and "Get the badgers out of our PvP zones!" and "Get the PvPers out of our badge zones!" threads. Then again, this is from the same people who thought being rewarded for sucking was a good idea, and that a character was actually likely to take 10 million points of damage during regular play. -
Quote:It's PvE content put into a PvP zone in an attempt to ATTRACT people into PvP. The only part of it that could be considered coercion are the badges or plaques required for the villain accolades, when heroes do not have these requirements. (Yeah blah blah blah, I know full well how easy they are to get, I object to the requirement on principle.)Originally Posted by Obscure Blade
No, it's PvE content put into a PvP zone in an attempt to more-or-less coerce people into PvP. Yet another reason why I don't like PvP in this game.
You played without Shivans and Nukes before the PvP zones were introduced, you can play without them still. -
Quote:Yep. All that crap is grey to them, no XP.Originally Posted by Dispari
So... you're saying Batman, Superman, Green Arrow, or Booster Gold would watch a lady getting mugged and say "Meh, he's not attacking ME!"
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Quote:Is this some kind of double entendre a la "getsome"?Originally Posted by LISAR
Are you...hitting on me?
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Quote:Bring it!Originally Posted by LISAR
They are lucky if that's all I do.
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Quote:Well then I guess you're not one of the people the OP was referring to, since it would have been immersion breaking for you to run from him.Originally Posted by LISAR
I always attack the NPCs who take pot shots at me. I find it very immersion breaking not to.
This is assuming that it's not immersion-breaking for you to run around collecting radioactive rocks so you can release a minion of a world-devouring entity upon your unsuspecting foes. -
Quote:So if you're running through Founders Falls and a sniper takes a pot-shot at you, you hunt him down and, er, arrest him, right?Originally Posted by LISAR
I'm pretty sure if Batman was scouting out a crime scene and some new person shows up and tries to punch him in the head that's not what he would say...or Superman...or Green Arrow...or Booster Gold...could someone name a hero would would do this?
Batman has to beat up the new villain because he's probably somehow relevant to the story. Your villain who just attacked me in Bloody Bay is not. -
Quote:*Batman gets in the Batmobile and drives away*Originally Posted by Nightphall
When a thread like this was posted a few years ago, I saw something that went like this: (Or at least what I can remember)
Batman: Joker, leave me alone, I don't want to PvP.
Joker: LMAO
Joker: Come back here and PvP meh!!!! -
Quote:Collecting Shivan Shards is also an officially sanctioned purpose of Bloody Bay. The Shivan Shard nav bar shows up as soon as you enter the zone. There might as well be a big sign that says DO THIS MISSION.Originally Posted by Zamuel
ERP isn't Pocket D's officially sanctioned purpose while PvP is the purpose of a PvP zone. Granted, it could be argued that ERP might make more sense in Pocket D than other places and you'd be somewhat wrong to interrupt a well known and preestablished ERP event but it's not a stated purpose.
It could also be argued that Pocket D's purpose is mostly RP-related, since it's not good for much else outside seasonal events. Now if other people using the zone for one purpose well within the design intent of the zone is interfering with your use of the zone for another purpose well within the design intent of the zone, does it not make sense for you to leave, and come back later when those other people are gone? -
Quote:I think you glow green when you have one, don't you? So other people know you have one and that they can take it from you if they kill you. Or is that just after you get the codes? I haven't gotten a Shivan in a while.Originally Posted by Ironblade
I think I missed something. If you are collecting meteor fragments and a player kills you, don't you LOSE a fragment? So, am I mistaken in my understanding of the game mechanics, or are you simply lying when you repeatedly state that fighting and losing costs you nothing?
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Quote:Bolded for emphasis. There is nothing in the warnings for the PvP zones that says you must actually fight another player, just that you must accept the risk of fighting another player. Those players accepted the risk. They chose to deal with it by avoiding the other player.Originally Posted by InfamousBrad
If you want to do that, you can only do so if you expose yourself to the risk of fighting a player from the other side. Don't want that? Do without Shivans. That's how the game is designed.
Now if they had not accepted the risk, if they had stood there and insisted that you not attack them because they were only there for the temp power and didn't want to PvP, then I would have no sympathy for them. But they did accept it. They acknowledged that they were in a PvP zone, you were within your rights to attack them, and chose to avoid the fight in the only acceptable way within the context of the intended function of the zone: by running away.
Again, you didn't decide to PvP. You decided to accept that you might come into contact with other players who wished to PvP with you.Quote:You wouldn't because you hate PvP? Look, you decided to PvP when you ignored the loud, shouting, blaring, flashing PvP alert siren. The decision to not PvP should have been made at that point; that's the way the game is set up, the way it's designed.
What if you and your friends felt like RPing in Pocket D? You go to Pocket D for your RP session, and find out that it's full of ERPers who are trying to involve you in their activity, which you are not interested in. Their activity will possibly disrupt your activity; it might not, if they keep their chatter in team chat or tells, but it will if they start talking in local or broadcast. You don't want to be involved in their activity in any way....why wouldn't you leave?Quote:Somebody brought up ERP. Unfair comparison, because I can give reasons why I don't think ERP is fun. But even if I accept the comparison, this would be like going into Pocket D during an announced ERP event, walking up to a crowd of people at the event, and then running away and fleeing Pocket D as soon as they typed something to you. Why would you do that? -
Quote:AR/Dark. Before IOs, I simply did not have the single-target damage required to take most of them down before I ran out of breakfrees and blues. And if they popped Overload I was done.Originally Posted by Sarrate
May I inquire what kind of Corruptor you have? I don't have many villains (I do have a 50 Dark Blast/Rad Corruptor, though), but I've played a fair share of support characters, so far I think they could all solo most EBs with a tray of insps, but without Shivans/HVAS. (My Sonic/Elec would no doubt be the weakest at it.) My Dark Miasma / Rad Defender was able to take out Anti-Matter, despite his def debuffs and stuns (Cosmic Burst) using just inspirations.
I didn't need one for every single one, no. With others, I technically didn't need one, just if I wanted to win within a reasonable time frame without dying multiple times. The 40+ villain-side AVs generally do more damage than the 40+ hero-side ones. Some you can stay out of melee with and do ok, but with some it doesn't matter, as they either do massive damage at range, have ranged mezzes, or are like Synapse and Mynx and come melee you anyway.Quote:Could they take out Noferatu using just inspirations? That I'm not sure about, but I'm somewhat surprised that you needed a pet for every AV post 40, villain side. (To be fair, I haven't seen all the 40+ villain content.)
Now of course, some characters I have can take out these guys relatively easily. Which is why my problem isn't with the existence of these AVs, it's with the fact that they're spread out throughout redside content. This is exacerbated by the fact that in some cases the AV is there for no real story reason other than to make you fight an AV. -
Quote:You can always leave the zone and go do something else, and come back later when there are no villains in the zone.Originally Posted by InfamousBrad
So, they're getting Shivans. We're still talking "fight you can't lose" territory here, practically, in both cases. So what they're doing is putting off recharging their Shivan Shard for 24 hours or more so they don't have to put it off for 15 or so seconds? How does that make sense?
People with no experience in PvP have no way to gauge whether or not they can lose. And from their viewpoint, what kind of villain instigates a fight they can't win?Quote:But more to the point, didn't they sign up for this game to feel like superheroes? What kind of superhero runs away from a fight they can't lose? -
They're probably getting Shivans. They're doing it because there are no villains around to bug them. As soon as a villain does bug them, they assume the villain is a PvPer who will follow them around and keep them from getting their Shivan, and since they won't be able to get what they came for, they leave. They're probably not even checking your level, they just see that you're a villain who attacked them.
Yeah, they have nothing to lose from trying to defeat you, but they have nothing to gain either, if they don't enjoy PvP. -
Quote:Shivans require entering a PvP zone, and HVAS require participating in a mothership raid. While they are viable tactics for people who don't mind getting them, they shouldn't be required.Originally Posted by Sarrate
There is also the option to drop Shivans and/or HVAS on them, as well. Defenders in particular will turn those pets into killing machines.
I got really, really tired of having to run to Bloody Bay every other day when my Corruptor got into the 40s, because of all the EBs I couldn't solo and couldn't avoid. Of course this was before IOs and before mission drops, so now I wouldn't have as much of a problem, but still...
One thing I have learned from playing literally hundreds of AE arcs is that you can tell a good and compelling story without having an AV at the end. Using an AV is just an easy way to make the final mission seem climactic. Sometimes it suits the story, sometimes it's just cheap and lazy. It's especially cheap when the AV is an established character who will just be rescued by Blue Steel five minutes later, so your defeating them accomplishes absolutely nothing. -
Quote:And the recipes you get will be better in general, since ticket rolls are weighted and random drops are not.Originally Posted by Clouded
AE might be inferior in terms of EXP/INF gained (even though I gained 7 bars of exp over 5 missions in AE running 2 arcs at level 36), but it's SUPERIOR for obtaining set recipes.
I can run solo for hours running non-AE arcs and obtain only a handful of set recipes, but after 2-3 arcs in AE I can walk away with 20 set recipes easily. After turning in tickets, of course.
You can also generate recipes that cap out at lower levels, many of which are highly desirable. -
Quote:Four stars is currently horrible only in the context of getting your arc seen. It's more of a search engine problem. Five-starred arcs get random plays, four-starred arcs rarely do. Every four-star rating you get means that you need another five-star rating to stay at five stars, and keep your arc visible to the general public.Originally Posted by Grey Pilgrim
Some people rate arcs here at 3 and 4 because they liked it as well. But getting rated as such can be seen as a failure in the current system. I know I get down when I get my arc 4-starred, as I know how people view ratings in game. But a 4 star should be a good thing, shouldn't it?
And that doesn't even go into people sabotaging others, etc. I'm not sure what the workaround is, either. How do you get people to recognize that three or four stars is okay, and to know such ratings means that your arc is probably okay?
Arc players recognize that four stars is a decent rating. I think a lot of authors do to. But the search engine puts that arc behind any arc recently published by someone with a second account.
There are reviewers. They don't do it for money. The problem is that most people don't read the forums and will never read their reviews. Most people will simply do a random search, and will be immediately pointed in the direction of the Dev's Choice arcs, and those few arcs that have managed to get to five stars and stay there, then see a bunch of stuff that was mostly five-starred by the author's friends before they see an arc that is genuinely well-done, but might have been subjected to vote griefing or might simply not appeal to some people's tastes.Quote:To put a longish post short, I don't know that there is any workaround for AE. This is the issue whenever you have a large amount of content being put out for a limited amount of viewers. Some things will get noticed, others won't. Workarounds could be a better search system for the AE, and an actual reviewer of story arcs. Only problem is you can't make much money reviewing things, either. 
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Quote:AV soloing is expensive and may require sacrificing performance in the AoE-centric "regular" game, and gives lousy rewards for the time invested, that's why few people do it.Originally Posted by Another_Fan
It needs to be fun first. It has to be able to appeal to a larger population than either the old PvP or the current PvP. If it is something that is felt that should be hard, and on a par with AV soloing, or GM soloing it will attract similar levels of participation.
I suppose it would help the ten or so people who actually read the thing. For about two issues, until it becomes outdated.Quote:It also wouldn't hurt to have a tutorial instead of the popular "You have walked into a pvp zone, get ready to be attacked"
The point is really the "clear goal." If bashing other players is the way to accomplish that goal, then you bash other players, but the be-all and end-all is not beating other people up.Quote:Originally Posted by GavinRuneblade
Create a mechanic whereby a new player is put on a team through no activity of his/her own (such as in WoW's battlegrounds) and matched against a team of equal size with a clear start point, stop point, and goal. Let them bash each other to bits. This is fun for new players, this gets them to come back. Wander around the zone and getting ganked by people better than you in large groups convinces them to never come back.
I'd be willing to bet that most players simply don't get enough enjoyment out of beating up other people to make it worth their while.
I can get XP anywhere. You need a better reward than that.Quote:Originally Posted by Aura_Familia
Only if both sides get xp. Flag capturers a Large amount. Flag losers a smaller amount. Maybe a mission bonus and a 1/2 mission bonus scaled to your individual level (or sk level if they like).
WoW actually did get this right, through the battlegrounds. You must PvP to get PvP stuff, some of which is helpful in PvE. You gain tangible progress toward this stuff just for showing up. So since you're there, why not participate to the best of your ability? Why not try to win, since you gain more progress if you do?
And no, I am by no means suggesting that PvP stuff should be untradeable like in WoW. I think that being able to accumulate credit toward an IO that currently sells for hundreds of millions, if not billions, of inf would be enough of an incentive for enough people to make the system worthwhile. -
Without looking at other people's answers:
Quote:Do Yellow and Green Inks even exist in the same level range?Originally Posted by Fury Flechette
Quiz question #1:
In the following group, who would you attack first?
a) Tsoo Sorcerer (healer, hurricane, foe hold)
b) Tsoo Green Ink Man (melee stun)
c) Tsoo Yellow Ink Man (ranged sleep)
Assuming they do.... If I have a ranged mez, I hit the Sorcerer with it, then take out the Yellow while staying out of melee range of the Green. If I don't have a ranged mez, I shoot the Sorcerer to make him teleport away, take out the Yellow then the Green. When the Sorcerer comes back I Nemesis Staff him, he will heal first so he won't have time to get his hold off before the minions are dead.
One- or two-shot the Embalmed to keep him from puking on me. Then take out the Mort, the -rech is killer at low levels. He should go down fast enough to keep him from rezzing the Embalmed. The Murk I would attempt to mez or KB from range while I fight the Mort.Quote:Quiz question #2:
In the following group, who would you attack first and why?
a) Vahzilok Mortificator (ranged -slow, revive fallen cadavers, hard hitting melee attack)
b) Vahzilok Embalmed Cadaver (explodes, dumb AI)
c) Vahzilok Murk Eidolon (downgraded from a boss to a Lt, Midnight Grasp, Opressive Gloom)
Assume you're a level 11 blaster, and have build up but not aim. The Lts con yellow while the Embalmed cons white. -
Quote:Agreed. This is why I have a problem with the prevalence of AVs in newer content. People who can't solo EBs don't really have an option other than to wait for a mission drop, they can't pick and choose content to avoid them.Originally Posted by Fury Flechette
This.
The game should not be dumbed down to the extent that even one of the weaker defender variants can easily solo any EB. -
Yep, that's about it. For some people, it's still about the journey.
So, slightly off-topic, if I'm leveling in AE, what are the best levels to roll my tickets if I'm going to be selling most of the results? Multiples of 5? Multiples of 5 +3 for people who wish to exemp? -
Quote:He can and does miss. I've soloed him with an /SR Scrapper, had to use the Wedding band or a few oranges to mitigate that damage aura but his two-shotting attacks do miss.Originally Posted by InfamousBrad
I've eaten enough purples to be at 60% def(all) or higher and still had that expletive-deleted damage aura of his hit me, every tick. On that same character, I was at 75% res(all), effectively, from bodyguard mode, and had him two-shot me with back-to-back melee attacks. And yes, this was with him as a +0 elite boss, in my case in the "Rise of the Council" arc in Ouroboros.
I did finally solo him on the fourth try, but it took a Shivan and all three Warburg nukes. And it was still a close fight. Yes, in my opinion (and I submitted this as a bug report when Ouroboros was in open beta), Nosferatu is more than "a tad" over-powered.
If I were doing it over again, I would skip the medium purple inspirations I was using and replace them with enough orange inspirations to hit the damage resistance cap; it's apparently flatly impossible for him to miss.
Really, any squishy who lets him into melee is asking to die a quick and painful death. He is far less nasty at range, just remember the breakfrees. (Does he still have Dominate? I remember getting him down to 1/4 health once with a Blaster and running out of breakfrees.)
Reichsman isn't tough, he's just tedious. Big difference.Quote:Originally Posted by Aura_Familia
Yep. One word: Reicheman.
(Yes, I know I spelled it incorrectly. Don't care.) -
It's weird, but I find myself giving most of my heals a greenish tinge. Just like my Build Ups are all reddish.
I think the most important thing when customizing a buffer is not to make the persistent ally buffs too obnoxious or obtrusive. I don't care if Warmth isn't green, as long as I'm not covered in blinding white fire the whole time I'm teamed with you. I find overly obscuring buffs distracting, they're screaming "Look at me!" when you're supposed to be looking at the fight. -
Brutes are like Scrappers on crack. Very much soloable. Your biggest problem with Elec Melee is sub-par single-target damage, which might make EB fights take a while, but they'll still be doable. On the other hand, once you get your survivability up to where you can add a few fake teammates, Build Up + Lightning Rod at full Fury is frickin' sweet.