Eva Destruction

Yes, smaller maps have lower caps. The big maps have a cap of 1500. I manage to usually exceed the cap set to +1/x6 with bosses.

Nice use of the vine pattern PowerStream....*yoinks*

The character I was given is Nathanial Raven, a Spines/Dark Scrapper (fun with power customization, yay!) His bio:

Cracking Skulls
#115935
Level 1-14

Only a brief review here, since I write these as I go along and I kinda forgot to take notes with this one.

A solid introductory arc to the Skulls, where Dawnrazor met an old friend (or well, maybe not a friend, actually he tried to kill me last time too) and learned a bit about Superdyne and the Skulls' death obsession. Unfortunately the arc can't seem to make up its mind as to what kind of mood it wants to evoke; I'm assisting in a police investigation, which is fine, and this aspect works well (bonus points for not needing to defeat all because the police will come clean up what's left...except this time they actually do), but the tone within the missions varies from humorous to downright creepy, so I'm not entirely sure what kind of reaction I'm supposed to have. A more consistent tone would really improve immersion for this arc. I vote for creepy.

*****

Future Skulls
#4727
Mostly level 1-14, Mission 2 is 1-15, like that one scratch on your brand new coffee table that looks so ugly but to get rid of it you'd have to sand the whole thing down and refinish it....or just manually set the mission to cap out at 14.

Mirror Spirit has seen a vision of a ruined future, the cause is...the Skulls. Yeah yeah, they're small-time NOW, but she's divined that they're on a path that leads to destroying the world. She's not sure what they're up to though, so it's up to me to find out.

Walk into the hideout, not too surprised to find it a mess. Blah blah blah ritual, blah blah blah sacrifice, blah blah blah can't stop us...uh-oh, sacrifice? Not this time pal. I beat up the head Skull and go find what Mirror Spirit wants me to find...and it's not pleasant. I think the next time I see a leather-bound book in a death-obsessed gang's hideout, I am NOT going to fondle it to see if the leather feels "like no kind of leather I'm familiar with." It's made out of people. They're all made out of people. I already know this before I even pick the thing up so I'm gonna keep my gloves on so as not to leave fingerprints on the evidence.

Well according to Mirror Spirit it's some kind of Frankenritual, something that'll awaken Merulina, which would be bad, if it works, and will end badly even if it doesn't. I sort of wonder how the Skulls have heard of the Coralax, let alone Merulina...they're more into 'Dyne and necromancy, not so much slumbering ancient goddesses, but anyway...off I go to investigate that piece of the puzzle, while the Mirror Spirit calls in her other friends to go talk to Azuria.

Hmm, nice architecture. How did it get under Paragon City? Shouldn't fish-dudes be living in a dank moldy cave like all the other monsters? Maybe one of those caves that are all over the Hollows, which is the only place they hang out that I have any business being in?I'm also not quite sure how Mirror Spirit figures they were under a spell, since they were acting like Coralax normally do. Also not sure why I don't tell her about the not-Coralax I fought.

And now I have to go to after the Skulls do what they are going to do and find out what they did, and once again "it's magic," except if they screw it up, I could go poof. Such easy access to such powerful magic, letting me go into the future and all, which would normally be reserved for powerful villains who go through all kinds of effort to acquire the ability, and such an important mission to trust to a newb like me.../em checks shirt...nope, not red, phew. You know Mirror Spirit, you're a mystical vision sort, maybe you could get some of those Midnighter friends of yours to just focus this vision thing a bit, let me get into your head and poke around the future that way...just a thought.

Wait, these aren't Skulls! They're...Future Skulls! Very Skully. Also, slightly monstrous, in that misshapen, no-longer-human kinda way. (Or at least the first few I run into are that way. As I proceed further, most of the Future Skulls turn out to be repaints. This is good, as it means most of them are appropriately wussy, and the customs aren't too bad in such small numbers.) My information-giver was suitably creepy, but didn't tell me anything about what Merulina had to do with it, or what was up with those other guys the skulls were fighting and beat up before I got there.

Huh? So it was a dream? Why wasn't I told it would just be a dream, that would have made me feel better about going in...

So now Mirror Spirit and her friends can find the ritual, so I can go stop it. Because they can't. Everyone else is inconvenienced or dead, and it's up to little ole me to save the world. Again, check for red shirt. Nope, all good. Ok. I'll go save the world. I find it somewhat convenient from a story perspective that all the big bad heroes are out of action, leaving the big heroics up to the lowbie.


Nefarious rituals can always be spotted by that tell-tale green glow.

Overall, the plot was appropriately Skullish, and it started out appropriately lowbieish, but then toward the end got a little too epic too fast. The explanation for why I personally had to go stop the Skulls from destroying the world at level 8 was rather contrived. However, despite being part of a trilogy this arc did have a conclusion, albeit with a "....for now" leaving it open for the sequel.

*****

So yeah, Dawnrazor is now level 8. Divine Avalanche, how I love thee. Also, the ticket vendor will now sell me salvage, so I bought two Pangean Soils with the tickets I've accumulated so far (that's over 1000 tickets by level 8) and now I have 4 million inf.

Looking at my time spent online would be misleading, since I'm not wasting time on travel, but on the other hand I am spending time writing up these reviews while playing. I have played four arcs, totaling 17 missions, and I'm level 8.5. Would I be higher level if I'd done dev-created content? Probably. On the other hand I have 4 million inf, which is far more than I would have made running official content.

Next up: Part 2 and 3 of Future Skulls.

The bosses will count as being there for XP calculation purposes, even if a player never encounters them. As long as they are capable of spawning (not set to "don't auto-spawn") the group will give full XP.

If you want to make sure a player sees them (and why wouldn't you, you went to the effort of making them) place a few as optional objectives.

Well it can be used to good effect yes. The annoyance factor depends on a lot of things:

How big is the map? A small map is easy to populate, but a big map full of patrols might cause a bunch of patrols to cluster up and all hit the player at once.

What is the level range? A higher-level arc can get away with more boss details than a lower-level arc.

For that matter, are you using custom critters? Because then you can use lieutenants and even minions as boss details.

Causing some of the patrols to trigger off other objectives is a good idea, especially if you set them to spawn in an area the player has already passed through, to reduce the chance of running into multiple patrols at once. And bonus points for triggering spawns off an escort, leading one through empty space is so boring.

Escort enemy groups can be set to Rogue, this will result in an escort who is hostile upon rescue, but will give no XP upon defeat (probably because they can be set to Passive so you can defeat them with no risk).

You can get a single boss by setting the map enemy group to Empty, and setting the boss enemy group to Empty. Of course then you will have to populate the rest of the map by hand, using boss details and patrols. Very annoying.

I'm having a lot of fun playing with contrasting colors. You can get some neat effects with sets like Energy blast and Electric Assault, going with combos like green and pink, blue and yellow, purple and cyan, etc.

I'm loving my red and gold Dark Melee, and I've also done a costume with purple and blue Dark Melee to go with my Nictus shield.

There are quite a few missions like this.

Set the map to "empty" and just add bosses and patrols set to "ally."

Dear CoH:

Who designed your new high heel options? This person has obviously never worn high heels in their lives, or looked at a woman in high heels. The heel is too far back on the foot, not centered to take the wearer's weight properly. Those things'll snap off the second you leap over a three-story tenement. And that shape, and the height of the heel...that my friends is the kind of high-heeled shoe worn by a woman who is being forced to wear heels and can't wait to take them off.

And since your new heels stink, the original stiletto needs to acquire all the textures it's missing, and the thigh-highs need textures, as well as patterns that are actually made for thigh-high boots and don't just look like the other boot patterns stretched out.

Also, dear CoH, while I understand the need to limit potential exploits in the MA, any change you make can have unintended consequences. The MA is full of bugs, and getting fuller every patch. You went to all this trouble to develop this feature and people who use it are annoyed because it won't work the way it's supposed to from one issue to another. Please fix the bugs. Like, yesterday. Or at least acknowledge they exist.

Dear CoV:

Arachnos sucks. They are too lame to work for and big annoying cheaterpants suckyfaces to fight. Longbow are also lame, and boring besides, and I no longer feel like getting shot by beanbags and -res grenades just because Uncle Recluse wouldn't give Ms Liberty that pony when she was six. I quit.

Sincerely,
Eagerly awaiting GR.

Technically there was. There was a guy on Champion who had an old mission from way back, that got hit with a bug during some patch or other, that replaced the mission's enemies with Rularuu. Every once in a while he'd run an eyeball farm so lowbies could unlock the weapons.

So yeah, if you knew someone who had a mission like that you could get the weapons at level 2.

Ghost Widow or Silver Mantis?
Redside demands equal representation in silly forum discussions! Or we'll come to your house when you're not home and wreck up the place.

Edit: Besides, Arakhn is wearing a mask. Laaaazy.

Edit again: And are Clamor's fishnets stapled to her legs? What happens when they get a rip? How does she get into fishnets in the first place with a giant claw for a hand? Inquiring minds want to know.

Keep eyeing that Fire/Energy if you want the full blaster experience. Good AoE, good Single-target, good at range and in melee, big explosions, capable of Making Things Die Mega Fast or of drawing massive aggro and faceplanting you in seconds...ah, fun times.

The first thing you need to know about Blasters is: Kill them before they kill you. Take Build Up and Aim as soon as they become available, get Fire Ball and Fire Breath, and prepare to melt giant mobs of enemies in seconds. The low levels should go by pretty fast. Once you get up into the higher levels and settle into your Blaster playstyle you can start figuring out what you want to do with IO sets and stuff.

A possible fix for your custom Crey: Use your customs, then add "random" minions, lieutenants and bosses from the regular Crey faction. This is what I used for my custom Crey (also done because the all-tank spawns are annoying, and also called Crey Security, incidentally) and have not had any greys showing up that I know of.

What Lazarus described is also what happens with the problematic tech maps.