Eva Destruction

#329000 Backwards Day 25-30

Why I chose it: Recommended somewhere.

Another villainous arc, this time I'm working with Diviner Maros, who is to the timey wimey ball as a hyperactive ferret on caffeine is to household pets. As the title suggests, the story is told backwards. It works out pretty well, although a bit confusing (well duh, it's Maros), with some nice custom work, although it isn't really villainous except for some extraneous little comments here and there. This would be a good candidate for the new "Rogue" flag.

#318983 Ignition of the Machine 25-32

Why I chose it: I played it months ago, and wanted to check out what kind of updates it's had.

And now for something completely different....this time I'm a hero. So heroic in fact, that I'm asked to be a good influence on a "baby" android. This arc has excellent characterization, and it's a very sweet story, plus it has robots and robots are cool. The clues and dialogue are all very well written; the story is written to be very personal to the player without making a whole lot of assumptions.

So, kick the AE baby and don't team with them anymore.

PLd idiots have existed long before AE, they will continue to exist regardless of what is done with AE. Avoid them and move on.

Any SG that will immediately accept you as a member, knowing nothing about you, will accept anyone and isn't an SG you want to be part of.

My SG is small. It will always be small. We have maybe fifteen active members, on both sides on two servers. We only invite people if we've played with them and enjoyed the experience. We ask people to stay in SG mode until 25, and consequently have more prestige than we know what to do with. The bases aren't oversized mazes, but they have transporters, a medbay, storage, crafting, and yes, a garden in one of them.

We simply do not care if we're a "top group" (whatever that means) or not. Nobody grinds prestige, we don't have to listen to inane chatter in group channels, everybody pretty much knows everybody else, we don't annoy people with broadcast spam and blind SG invites, I have made some in-game friends and had way more fun playing with them than some random PuG, I can pick up a Photonic Weapon if I need one in a pinch, and I can get to Perez from Founder's Falls without zoning a million times.

You can do it the way you described, using a custom minion or lieutenant for the "defeat a boss" detail. Unfortunately you can't use standard minions or lieutenants.

Patrols work as well, except soloers might run into a problem if a few patrols bunch up in one spot.

The "Stop 30 Fir Bolg" mission, much as some people hate it, is a good example of interesting mission design. I've run it solo, I've run it with teams, I've only failed it when it was bugged and all the waves came at once.

The "Protect the Henges" mission is another one, although the implementation is a bit too easy I think. As is the Terra Volta reactor...actually make that WAY too easy (although I understand why it is easy, since it's intended for people who screwed up their build). I would like to see more missions like the reactor, only, you know, challenging.

Other missions that try to encourage playstyles besides "smash everything" aren't so good. Keeping hostages and objects alive doesn't work so well when you're on a team or on a high difficulty, since they don't get any tougher, and escortees are stupid and will run right into a pack of Nemesis and get AoEd into oblivion. The final mission of Levantera's second arc also doesn't work so well; every time I've run it with a team they've waited by the door while I grabbed all the blinkies and completed the mission, then they TPd me back so we could kill everything.

Encounter that presents an interesting divergence from the norm: the Hamidon encounter in the LGTF.

Encounter that does not: Reichsman.

Encounter that does: The first mission in the ITF. It is a survivability challenge, as the ambushes can easily overwhelm the tank's aggro cap, and you don't need to kill them, only survive long enough to get what's-her-face to the altar.

Encounter that does not: Romulus himself. Bring enough damage and -res to overcome the healing fluffy, you win through the old formula of buff up > taunt > debuff > kill (apply heals and refresh buffs as needed). I'm not entirely sure what the devs were trying for here, but we beat it through brute force as usual.

Encounter that does: The phalanx. Again, you must only survive the robots long enough to kill the computer.

Encounter that does not: Eight AR/Dark clones. If they debuff your damage enough, will you actually heal them if you manage to hit?

I don't like the level-up arrow flashing at me, so even on a team I'll take a minute to stop off at the trainer between missions. I don't go buy the enhancements unless it's very very convenient, I need to sell anyway, or the team has called a break.

It's $name.

Also $target, $archetype, $level, $origin, $supergroup (note that if the player is not in an SG it will say "No Supergroup" and look weird), $heshe, $himher, $hisher, $sirmam.