Eva Destruction

Just got a common and an uncommon from Lambda...not exactly sure what more I could have been doing to "participate more," since as a Scrapper all I can really do is piss things off and kill them, and I was doing that. Unless damage done by Shield Charge doesn't count because it's a pseudopet or something dumb like that. And unless participating includes being attacked, you wouldn't get bonus points for grabbing aggro either.

Oh, the one where they confirmed we won't be able to use AE to make our own incarnate trials? Yeah, I pretty much figured that. That isn't a "straight answer" any more than "no, you'll never be able to use the base editor to make custom maps" is a "straight answer."

Something the devs seem to fail to understand, is that if you set the maximum at 24 people, many many many people will refuse to start without 24 people. Even if that means standing around for an hour finding those 24 people only to fail ten minutes in.

I am bored of the BAF already, after two failures, one crash-out and two successes. I have seen how little of a contribution I actually need to make in order to succeed, and have no interest in doing it again. Lambda, I haven't actually finished yet, although I came very very close with only seven people, so I'm convinced it can be done with eight in which case everyone's contribution would be crucial. That interests me more. Not enough to do it every day mind, and I don't see my squishies contributing much from their position as Munitions Warehouse Floor Inspector, but I figure at one Lambda a week, I should have Interface and Destiny unlocked on at least a few characters by...September maybe? Just in time to get the new grind for the next slots? This is assuming I can find people to run with who haven't gotten everything unlocked yet and don't just want to rush through for their empyrean merit, since at some point I'd like to get the shinies on something that isn't a Scrapper or Brute and can't just run into the next mob and hope other people follow.

The arc: The Invasion of the Space Ape Armada #356628 (4 stars, 8 plays)

Played with Dawnrazor, 34 Kat/Inv Scrapper.

In case anyone has been living under a rock for the last two years, I would like to announce that the AE search engine sucks. I logged in, set the search parameters my level, not completed, four stars, medium, long and very long, looking for feedback and final. Then I hit the Random button. And hit it again. And again, and again. Arc after arc with 1-54 custom groups, level ranges all over the place, Extreme everything, and so on and so forth. I finally picked this one because it doesn't have Extreme anything, the author has narrowed down the level range of the custom group to 30-54, and it has space apes.

My contact is The President, who informs me that one Admiral Silverback has grown tired of waiting for us to surrender the Earth and has launched an invasion. From space. It's up to me to stop this invasion, and find some of the invaders' landing pods so we can take the fight to them. Seems simple enough.

I walk into the Steel Canyon map, with the objectives "Defeat captain Kirgh, Defeat Captain Packardt, Captain Janewa." Cute. The Space Apes themselves look pretty neat, with a variety of powers, none too hard, and brief bios that explain what they do. I destroy the landing pods (for science), the captains make some Star Trek jokes when I fight them, but other than that the mission doesn't have any detail to it.

Well my destruction of the landing pods was helpful after all, as D.A.T.A. used the flaming wreckage I brought back to bounce a graviton particle beam off the main deflector dish or something like that, so we can find one of their assault landers, steal it, and pull an Independence Day on their mothership. Off I go to steal a spaceship.

Aaaand, D.A.T.A. does want to go all Independence Day on the mothership, but the President wants me to just convince the space apes to leave the old fashioned way: by beating them up. Mr. President, I think I like you. I'm after Captain Ookcher this time, heh. One of the minions hits me with Drain Psyche....ack, get it off, get it off! I defeat Ookcher and his little dog too, and steal the ship.

Now it's time for me to assault the mothership, and this time I do have some extra objectives, in the form of some bombs that the military wants me to plant, and some space ape tech to steal. Ah, and there's Captain Cisquo. Again though, very light on detail, and it's a pretty big map this time. And the reason the space apes invaded in the first place is in Admiral Silverback's bio, and nowhere else, which is too bad, because it's kind of important.

Considering the publication date of the arc, I'm guessing the author used up their file size on the customs, and didn't have room to add more detail. With only 14 plays across all their arcs, I wouldn't blame them for not caring enough to update when the file size limit was increased. It's too bad, because what's there is amusing if you like Star Trek jokes, the customs are well done, and there is an actual story behind the invasion, which the arc could really have used the extra space to tell. As a spoof comedy arc, it could be a five star arc, but as it stands I can't really give it more than a four.

Yeah, I was getting the "your power looks recharged but really it's not" lag in a nearly empty RWZ.