Eva Destruction

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MA created the 4th edition of DnD.

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We're supposed to insinuate that MA did bad things, not good things.



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MA made people think the 4th edition of D&D is a good thing.

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MA made people irrationally fear anything new.

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MA made people equate "not wanting to spend hundreds of dollars on new books" with "irrationally fearing anything new."

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MA made people forget that this has happened at least 4 times by now.

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MA made people remember, and refuse to do it again so soon after 3.5.

Also, MA built this quote pyramid.

And, it built this city on rock n' roll.

MA is directly responsible for every bad thing to come out of the '80s.

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MA created the 4th edition of DnD.

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We're supposed to insinuate that MA did bad things, not good things.



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MA made people think the 4th edition of D&D is a good thing.

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MA made people irrationally fear anything new.

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MA made people equate "not wanting to spend hundreds of dollars on new books" with "irrationally fearing anything new."

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MA created the 4th edition of DnD.

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We're supposed to insinuate that MA did bad things, not good things.



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MA made people think the 4th edition of D&D is a good thing.

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QR - People, IGNORE Venture, do not feed the troll! He will never be 'gracious' or offer 'a somewhat softer touch'. Other people's feelings mean nothing to him, and he's said as much on numerous occasions.

Eco.

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Actually, I agree. Maybe if all the people who call him a troll at every opportunity ignore him then we can stop having so many arguments around here.

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Absolutely. And if he could stop trolling in threads like this, then everybody would be happy

Eco.

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I thought you had him on ignore. So why do you care?

I personally find it hilarious that some of the people who criticize Venture for "having to get the last word in" and "not letting things go" are just as guilty of it themselves.

The villain clockwork are different though. Somehow I don't think the Clockwork King wants his clocks saying *Bzt Zlll*

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MA stole my baby's diapers.

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MA stole my baby.

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If you're a villain with world-domination tendencies, then disposing of Hitler and correcting his mistakes so that you rule the Nazis and, ultimately, the world makes perfect sense.

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Only if you strip all moral sense from that statement and treat it strictly as a military wargame. Otherwise no... just no.



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If you strip all moral sense from that statement the arc would be flagged "neutral." It isn't. It's flagged "villainous." Which means evil.

And just because you have a problem with the morality of the arc doesn't mean it throws the idiot ball. Complaining that an arc doesn't explain why a villain would allow themselves to be "forced" to take over the world is like complaining about all those heroic arcs that don't explain why you would want to save the world.

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I wouldn't be surprised if Custom Critters in general were to get reduced rewards.

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That's an idea they could work with, since they seemingly insist on allowing all-Lt and all-boss maps.

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Yeah, a terrible idea since people just farm standard mobs.

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It's a terrible idea because custom critters that are NOT used for farming are often more difficult than standard critters, especially at lower levels. They have too many attacks, and the secondary effects of said attacks are insanely powerful in some cases and don't scale by level.

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Hero Version
Villain Version

Each person you speak to tells you a short story, unless you're the same origin as them then which they'll tell you a lot more. Overall when you look over all of the extended stories they all imply that every origin owes it's existence to magic.

What a crock.

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I basically took the whole thing as "none of these people know what they're talking about," after the mutant contact flat out invalidated some people's concepts with the whole "no mutants before they split the atom" garbage.

[/ QUOTE ]Invalidate concepts? How about invalidating the entire theory of evolution? Kinda a big deal, especially since said theory is how mutants as a concept arose in the first place.

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Depends on your definition of "mutant" I guess. I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt on this and assume they're only talking about the kind of mutation that gives you superpowers.

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Hero Version
Villain Version

Each person you speak to tells you a short story, unless you're the same origin as them then which they'll tell you a lot more. Overall when you look over all of the extended stories they all imply that every origin owes it's existence to magic.

What a crock.

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I basically took the whole thing as "none of these people know what they're talking about," after the mutant contact flat out invalidated some people's concepts with the whole "no mutants before they split the atom" garbage.

You can't change the powers or costumes of standard enemies. You can only recolor them.

You can however add standard enemies to a custom group, or create a custom group made up entirely of standard enemies.

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Treating everything as "just a simulation" when many arcs could easily fit into the game world lessens the impact of those arcs, IMO.

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I understand that, and you're free to look at them that way if you want. Two of my three arcs fit into canon, or so I like to think. But canon also describes every single arc in the AE as a simulation. So that can't really be called a cop-out, because according to canon of the game itself, it's the truth.

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Yes, it is a simulation, because it has to be. There is an unspoken contract between the author and audience though, in many cases, that we will treat the simulated mission as a real mission. If the arc says the bad guys are hiding out in an office building in Steel Canyon, we will pretend we're going to an office building in Steel Canyon...not a datastream in Kings Row.

However you want to look at it, "it's just a simulation" is not an excuse for sloppy storytelling.

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Erm.
Sorry, but AE arcs are all simulations. Period.

Doesn't matter whether you pretend they're real or whether the author writes that they're real; lore-wise, every single one of them is a simulation.
Sure, it's nice to act like they're actual missions given by actual contacts, but that doesn't mean they are.

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Yeah and the whole "AE is all a video game" is a cop-out to explain how all the various arcs people create within the canon world can contradict each other. It was my understanding that the general consensus is that arcs are to be treated as if they were "real" unless they are obviously set outside the CoH multiverse, flagged "non-canon" or the dialogue indicates that the arc is a simulation.

Treating everything as "just a simulation" when many arcs could easily fit into the game world lessens the impact of those arcs, IMO.

The Ally 2s will not show up until you have completed the Ally 1 objective. So yes, you have to free both Ally 1s.

The "go to next objective" option takes you through the objectives in the order in which you placed them, regardless of where they appear on the map. If you want the player to encounter the Ally 1s first, you will have to set them to "front" or "middle" and set the Ally 2s to "middle" or "back." Then make sure the map you are using actually treats "front" "middle" and "back" properly.

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I just happened to also review and 5-star a Venture arc, an arc on my todo list for a while now, despite the fact that I find Venture's posts are often insensitive, which makes them unconstructive (maybe it's personal, he looked at one of my arcs, didn't like it, found one mission "horrible" without explanation, but on the other hand it wasn't a formal review). But I played his arc, and it was okay. I figured, being objective might even soften his approach! Well, not now, since I just spelled it out. Anyway, I disclosed this because...


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The author's reviewing style has nothing to do with the merits of their arcs. People who low-rate Venture's arcs because they don't like him or his reviews are right up there with people who 1-star other people's arcs because they want theirs to be on the front page.

It's good to know some people are more mature than that.

Are any of the bosses triggered events? The patrols and ambushes might push those out.

Has anyone tried the workaround of creating a custom group out of standard Family mobs? Does that work?

It is happening because i15 broke the Family, at least in the 30-40 range. They simply don't spawn.

Minions from custom groups can be used as bosses. Standard ones, no.

To make him spawn alone you have to set the enemy group to "empty," which unfortunately only seems to work if the mission enemy group is also set to "empty."

Adding a URL to the description would be ok, since they often contain out of character commentary. In the actual arc though...yeah, I find it's immersion breaking. Either way, a thread for your arc in the Stories and Lore forum with a link to the soundtrack would be a good idea.

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While the rating of the arc drops. Law of Averages has already taken hold.

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It's funny actually, because near the start of this thread, the arc had over 90% 5-star votes, and nearly a hundred votes. Once the 'forum cartel' folk latched on, it all of a sudden got hit with a bunch of 1 and 2 star votes that have been coming in in bursts. But not before, and the arc had literally been around months, and hadn't been advertised at all. My supergroup has 4 active players, and my coalition has another 6-8, so I know those prior masses of 5-star votes weren't from them. We're a small crew.

The lesson here is, don't dare upset the Forum Cartel because apparently they've got connections. :P

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Or, you know, whenever something is hyped as THE BEST THING EVAR there will inevitably be people who are severely disappointed that it doesn't live up to the hype.

And, when people look at THE BEST THING EVAR with a critical eye they will find flaws that they may have previously overlooked.

And, when an arc is on the first few pages it will inevitably get 1- and 2- star votes that it wouldn't otherwise have gotten, for whatever reason.

Or, it could all be a Forum Cartel plot.

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Q) Why does Ms. Liberty have a Katana?

A) That's Hero-1's sword, that she normally wears at her waist. In game lore, she refuses to use it, instead holding on to it, awaiting Hero-1's return.

Since you can't add it to a custom costume, and she is a little, well, out of it, I thought it would be fun to have her swinging it around at foes. Used Katana since it has a rusty model (dragging a sword THROUGH buildings can't be healthy for it) and it mentions this in her custom mob description as well.

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From the Paragonwiki entry on Ms. Liberty (most likely copy/pasted from somewhere official):

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The sword Ms. Liberty carries is the fabled Excalibur, which Hero 1 entrusted it to Miss Liberty while he journeyed to the Rikti homeworld with the rest of the Omega Team, and she passed it down to her daughter. Although she cannot wield the sword, Ms. Liberty carries it at her side waiting for the day when Hero 1 returns.

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So 1: It's Excalibur. Swords with names generally don't rust. Since in the CoH universe this is most likely THE Excalibur, it should be a broadsword.

2: It's not that she doesn't want to use it; she can't use it. Swords with names are sometimes funny like that.

"Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black" (in my sig) is a level 41+ arc, with an involved story, much of which is told in clues so the whole team can read it, and some humor. It's five missions, but only the final map is big. No defeat alls or Oranbegas, no AVs or EBs. It contains Malta, which may present a challenge for some teams but can still be handled solo or with a smaller team.

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Except it isn't. It is different for the MA, but as Venture pointed out, they already did this on Buffy, right down to the "which scenario is more plausible?" dialogue.

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Forgot about that one, but you are correct. I thought of the DS9 episode that was a very similar plot. I am not sure which of those came first, but I know I saw the DS9 one first myself and thought Buffy ripped the idea off. Actually, I think this plot may have been a Twlight Zone or Outer Limits, but can't swear to it.

In any case, it was very well executed and enjoyable.


WN

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Yes, you're right, DS9 did it before Buffy. I wouldn't be surprised if Twilight Zone or Outer Limits did it before that.

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I'm just saying that if you pin the level ranges, you get this problem across the whole story arc instead of just some missions.

If a player brings a level 30 character into an arc that says every mission is 40+ he has no one to blame but himself.

Personally I wish we could gate arcs by level instead of having lower-level characters autoleveled. I had someone send multiple tells complaining about the difficulty of "Two Households Alike" because he brought a level 17 character into a level 20-29 arc. I'd rather maybe lose a few extra plays than have people bring characters that are too low into my arcs.

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Some people can handle higher-level arcs. Having more arcs available to play is good.