GrinningSpade

A contest for the best Mission Architect. Great Idea!

Only for Americans however. Stupid laws, grumble, grumble.

But presenting it as THE BEST MA HAS TO OFFER is offensive in the extreme.

Back to the topic.

It is not the fact that the Dev's remove certain items in and from the MA. They got their reasons but the very least they can do is give us an update. So the Architects can adapt their arcs accordingly. It would be even better if they could avoid removing things altogether, because we lose good arcs (I don't care about the bad ones) that way. A shame as not every author is still in the game.

Yes that is very annoying indeed. I think we can say, that souvenirs work badly. Or get thrown in the trash bin every time your loved one cleans the house. Just like in the real world.

I am of course fully in support for server list merging. Especially since all benefits of playing on an EU server (like having maintenance at a convenient time instead of in the middle of the afternoon) has been taken away. Leaving only the inconvenience of having less servers and only depopulated servers to play at.

• 5th Elemental (Focus on Custom Characters in arcs)
• Airhead
• Aisynia (QPQ)
• Beach Lifeguard
• Bubbawheat (In Character, Time Travel themed)
• Citizen Razor
• GlaziusF (Read first post for details)
• Grinning Spade (Trolly) (Concentrating on Villainous content)
• JadKni
• LaserJesus
• Lazarus (semi-QPQ)
• Master Zaprobo (In Character)
• MrCaptainMan
• OzzieArcane
• PoliceWoman (QPQ)
• Red Warlock (Focus on CoH neighborhood stories)
• Tangler
• Talen Lee
• TerminusEst13 (Focuses on BAD arcs)
• Venture

Review sites

• City of Guides - Mission Architect
• CoH Mission Review
• Mission Architect Advanced Search Site
• Choosing the right reviewer: This lists most of the currently active reviewers and gives a short synopsis on their style of reviewing in order to help you choose who you want to review your arc.

Note: QPQ = quid pro quo: Play and rate/give feedback to the reviewer first in order to get a review on your arc, some are more lenient on this than others. Also, tends to have a shorter queue.

Also, some non-QPQ have more than one reviewer with some not accepting new submissions, check the most recent page for up-to-date information.

Semi-QPQ means that the reviewer only requires it for longer, in depth reviews and not for short, quick reviews.

Why we Fight
ID#253990

How to summarize?


Trolly commented like this: “Statesman, bad bad man. Make world go kabloomy. Now there are Spiky Haired Cannibal Mutants and they smell. Better smash them quick! Lord Recluse would have done better says the big plaques! Sister Psy looks fat, eats to much chocolate! Ghost Widow not fat, she ghost. If she not Ghost then all man gone. Trolly hates man but some are nice. Mako is scared of mean catgirls. Teehee. Cat eat Fish. Big Nemesis Plot, but Trolly smash the obviously real Nemesis who looked very confused.”


This was a fun arc with tiny cannon tidbits sprinkled all over the place. Best part for me was the first mission where it was shown what had happened if Lord Recluse had not taken control over the Rogue Islands and made a bid for the Nuclear Power at Warburg. It almost felt plausible if seen through a propaganda glass.


The second mission overdid the propaganda bit. It was too obvious, yet scary when you realize that such propaganda has been made in the past and been successful to. This part lost every credibility when Sister Psy was setup as a chocolate addict. I think it would have been better if she could explain about why the heroes wanted to use these chamber in the first place and why they used a chocolate factory to do so. A small improvement would be to give each chamber's guard their own conversation. Perhaps explaining their nefarious plot?


The third mission detailed about why Ghost Widow should not be resurrected. No idea why they would need to make that into a propaganda item. The mission itself was okay with a nice looking fraction of woman Arachnos soldiers complaining about how they missed the man for their technological skills. What was less obvious was why Lady Bella had removed all the man in the first place and what those vampires had to do with it.


The last mission was pure golden. A Nemesis plot succeeding. Resulting in catgirls all over the place. A horror beyond horrors. From a propaganda viewpoint however. Having Black Scorpion cry out Mommy is wrong. Mako being scared of Tuna loving cats made me smile though. Beating up a Nemesis who was completely lost in trying to figure out which subplot he was trying this time was a nice touch.


Conclusion,
It is a nice arc but imo there is room for improvement. I consider it time well spend however and it made Trolly happy since she realized that lacing Superadine with Chocolate makes you strong and taste delicious.

Help Trolly to go strong and mean.


When Issue 14 started, I wanted a character that would level on AE content alone. I created a toon that would be able to handle most challenges as there seemed to be a fondness to throw in Archvillains at every corner. Thus Trolly was born, a SS/WP brute. Since then I have soloed her up to level 30. Goal is level 50 preferably with nice IO sets.Using only what AE provides for sustenance and enhancements.

Who is Trolly? In her own words:
“Stop using those big words! Speak normal English. I am not stupid, it's just that I have trouble with my concentration lately.

What I am? Can't you see silly? I am a girl troll, green skin, horns but I still got my hair. Superadine makes me strong. Strong enough that I broke Jimmy's neck.

Who is Jimmy? He was my lover until he forced me to sleep with men. To make me quiet he gave me drugs. It worked until he gave me the wrong one. The one that made me strong, made me angry. So when he got angry at me again, I broke Jimmy's neck. It did snap and he looked like a dolly.

Giggle.

But enough about my boring past. Now I do what I want. Smash if I don't, love if I like and I like you. Ever dated a strong girl like me? “

What is she looking for? Nice arcs for the upcoming Villain/Hero. She is dim enough to do a bit of heroic work as well. Don't overdo with challenging Custom Mobs. She is a tough girl and doesn't mind a tussle now and then. But even with all that Superadine racing through her body she gets the message once she has been send to the hospital a few times.

She likes nice stories, a good laughter, plot twists, clever use of AE mechanics, things that makes your skin crawl. Some spare Superadine would be nice to

What she dislikes is annoying opponents (like customs with dark/dark in every combination to reduce your to hit chance to 0) and annoying maps (the Atlas destroyed map is a prime example).

What does she don't mind? Language. My grasp at English is not of the sort that I am able to nitpick at grammar and the like. Unless it is very bad, she won't notice tiny mistakes.

Will she play every arc you put in here? That is the idea, unless she has played it before which is a distinct possibility since I have looked at the existing reviewer threads and picked up more then one interesting arc.

Do you need to play my arcs before I do yours? No. But by all means, give them a shot if you like.

Minus the PvP, adding Badge hunting and you could be playing like me.

How about we stop discussing if you must play an arc 3, 4 or 5 times? Point is that you submit an arc that is just real good and you want to share it with everybody you know.

I know I did and do with this one:

ID: 115174
Author: Igor Blimy
Morality: Villainous
Title: Verner von Grun's Extraordianry Extradimensional Excursions

I played it once and got creamed by the baddies. After discussing it with the author, I played it again because it was that good. Then he said, he added the souvenir I and others had demanded. So I jumped the gun and did it again. I even did it later with some pals to show of how much fun this arc was.

The first time I played it, I nearly fell of my chair with laughter. Later plays reduced it to smirks. The author managed to write the already colorful Verner and improved upon what was known and manages to create another endeavor worthy of the antics of Verners original arc.


Let me add another one I consider a must.

ID: 1444
Author: Days
Morality: Heroic
Title: Twisted Tongues
What happens when you mix the Freaks up with an English Professor? One of the best arcs ever. English to put Americans to shame, Freaks to arrest for the xp minded, a touch of Drama plus a nice humorous plot to boot. If you havent played this one. Highly recommended.

Don't forget the Arcs in Croatoa. Those are quite decent as well.

I know how you feel playing on the EU servers. I am this close to moving to the US servers myself. I second what Dr Mechano said about the need to merge the server lists. I also would not mind of merging some depopulated servers for that matter as well.

About finding great story arcs. The best arcs can be found on the red side (villains). Best part, those story arcs start at level 1. For example, when you choose Burke as contact, the next contact he got is a mad scientist who make you feel depraved and evil. We also got a radio as contact. A must!

Go to the red side, you know you want to.

Just got booted after the 5th Global connloss in 5 minutes. somebody replace the hamsters please.

Tested this a bit.

Mm is an extreme eb droid summoner. He is always tohe last to get rescued.

First test 0 extra allies. He summons all his droids
2n test 1 extra allies (minion), He summons all his droids
3d test 2 extra allies (one boss, one av), He summons nothing
4d test 2 extra allies (both minions), He summons tier 2 droids.

Nice idea Bubba. I might add to this list next time I stumble upon a nice enough underplayed arc.

Tried a few of the ones you metioned and there are indeed a few nice finds in there.

I always assumed the flash to be something unintentional. If it is not then I fully agree, get rid of it.

I am not to fond of respeccing. A lot of hassle to get rid of one or two erroneous build flaws. A respec where you can alter only thsoe parts that offend you would be something that may make me reconsider using those dozens of unused respecs I have.

I like the idea.

Yes, it would be convenient to have allies to be as well behaved as my thugs. Often I tried to tell them not to bother or go away. But do they listen? Not a chance. Because they are who they are and not one of your trusted henchman (who can be obnoxiously stupid sometimes as well).

In short, they are allies, not pets. Inconvenient as it is, it feels right that we cannot tell them what to do.

But Vanden, oh you adressed that one.

But Vanden, hmmm ok you are covered here.

But......

Bah, I am all out of buts. I like this idea. Make it so.

Woman are less inclined to adopt a criminal lifestyle based on random violence. Not having a lot of testosterone has its advantages . For the few that are interested choosing an organization that is more female adjusted like the knives of Artemis sounds like a better idea then joining random streetgang where you will have to fend of fellow gang member Casanova's.

On the Rogue Islands however I can see why woman want to join a gang. If you don't belong to a gang, then you are just prey in a land filled with predators.

I feel sorry for you Captain. I remember those good old days but now I must hunt purples and try to play those dreadful Kheldians. I wonder if it would not have been better never to have hit the big 50.

Welcome to the club of ex-vets without 50's society.

On low population servers, joining such a channel is a MUST. Today on my server, with only 76 people online we ran two sister psy's tf for example. At the same time as well. I know that as soon as I logon that someone will start another tf pretty soon.

So check out those channels and find out which one is the happening place.

On Union that is Sals Badgehunters, on Defiant, Defiant Events.