Lazarus

Well with that settled.

All of my arcs feature at least one custom. Here are the ones with the most.

"The Amulet of J'gara" (#1709) is for levels 25-33 and contains 9 customs. They are only present for the 2nd half of the story.
"Of Futures Past" (#254599) is for levels 45-50 and contains 12 customs throughout, including the contact.
"The Portal Bandits" (#3326) is for levels 45-50 and contains 17 customs, 12 of which will be seen in all four missions.

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It's funny that thanks to being able to buy the exact rares and uncommons I need I've taken to hoarding common salvage and selling off everything else for 10 inf a pop. Most of the racks in the base and personal vaults are crammed with commons as a result.

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That's odd, I do the exact opposite: hoard everything except common salvage. Common salvage, at 8 tickets per random roll, is just incredibly easy to generate on demand whenever I happen to care.

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Because for every occasion where I get the exact common I want on the first few rolls there are several occasions where I can roll it dozens of times and not get it at all. Especially annoying when the "random" roll gives you the same two items you didn't want over and over and over.

With those odds I have a better chance of just running a couple paper missions and getting it from a drop.

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Change FFG to operate the same way. A click power that summons a targeting drone looking thing that hovers around you and provides a dispersion bubble buff. Only this would have something like a 60 duration and a 120 recharge, requiring the player to invest in recharge to perma it.

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No. Just no.

If other squishies can have toggles that provide mezz protection without detoggling upon being put to sleep anymore (Force Field, Sonic Resonance) then nerfing Force Field Generator is just a dick move. They don't have the danger either that the FFG can be destroyed, which does happen in fights where powerful AoEs are being used by enemies, especially in AV fights when the Trapper has to get in close to redeploy Poison Trap and Trip Mines.

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I just noticed I have more posts than BaBs and Positron!
BaBs: 1477ish
Posi: 1599ish
Me: 1679ish

HAHAHA! Eat it! I winz the internetz! Yeah me! I beat Posi and BaBs!

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<- Post Count

Meh, slacker.

As for post count transfers, they didn't do it when CoV beta ended so I doubt it would happen this time. I had about 6000 more that could have been added to this count here.

And we do have the "Canon" and "Non-Canon" tags for a reason.

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But I like my name.

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Then don't change it.

It's funny that thanks to being able to buy the exact rares and uncommons I need I've taken to hoarding common salvage and selling off everything else for 10 inf a pop. Most of the racks in the base and personal vaults are crammed with commons as a result.

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this goes doubly when trying to do something wacky like put together a team in the RWZ, where sidekicks aren't much of an option thanks to it being a hazard zone.

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Not to mention the annoyance of being unable to search for players on the other side while in RWZ. You'd think the Devs would have allowed the search tool to scan both sides when in a co-op zone.

We know it can do it, for the first month when CoV went live Search brought up Heros and Villains at the same time.

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Critics need to learn to give MA authors the benefit of the doubt, like they would with dev created stuff.

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Nonsense. The Devs are the professionals here and we're paying for their work, they should be held to even higher standards.

There is a current bug that prevents allies from staying put. You used to be able to use "Do Nothing" but they will still follow you anyway. Those set to "Wander" also have a tendency to suddenly start following you and Escorts will not exit the mission either upon reaching the door.

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1. Custom Content: I will only give a maximum of two stars for any cannon related MA Arc

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Do everyone a favor and don't play missions that list having a standard enemy group in it, then, if you hate them so much.

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Good luck with that.

Venture is being misquoted, actually. He has no problem with customs, he uses quite a lot of them himself. His issue is with arcs that have tons of customs and a really weak or non-existent plot that are little more than custom character showcases. I've seen a lot of those myself, it especially disappoints me when the critters don't even have descriptions either.

It's very easy to make lots of custom characters, it's not easy to make them interesting and in my opinion it's even harder to take stock critters from the game and still make an interesting story with those because of the "been there, done that" effect.

What Venture is saying is: lots of custom characters doesn't automatically make an arc good.

And by saying that he likes stories being set in canon he is not saying that he doesn't like customs at all, you can make an arc almost entirely out of customs and still have the story set in the CoH canon.

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Bug: you have several customs who are in the All Custom Characters group.

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As far as I can tell they're fine when I edit the arc, so this one is stumping me right now.

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Check the properties of the characters themselves, not their details in the arc.

Also I have an announcement: I will not be taking any new submissions for critical reviews for the next two weeks. Feel free to submit to the quickie review queue. I'll remind you when I start taking critical submissions again.

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

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Because they're being animated by energy from Bat'Zul instead.

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Brutes and Tanks follow a similar axiom. Tankers have better defenses and more hit-points with, initially, a similar damage output. So in the beginning of a tank/brute standoff the tank would be winning. As the fight progressed, however, the brute's fury would come into play more, balancing the fight out again.


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Not to mention also that a Brute can be buffed up to the same Def/Res caps as the Tanker while also having a much, much higher damage cap.

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I'm sorry, but you don't play redside very often. Since when do brutes NOT herd?

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For the last 4 years? On most teams, herding makes missions take LONGER anyways. A real Brute tears through spawns so fast that gathering them up is a time waster.

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In fact, is there really any reason not to just use the regular Hellions group in mission 1? You can change the group name of the Corrupted in the boss detail text settings anyway. That would probably fix the bug outright.

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I think the ones over level 14 won't spawn if I do that. I'm gonna try fiddling around with it.

On another note. I'm actually kinda surprised, you're the only person who didn't complain about the custom 5th Column.

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Probably because of that throwaway line about them being used 5th Column uniforms and some of them actually being former 5th Column.

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QR - And you lot lol? What is this, a game of 'No, You!'?

Eco.

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I'm going to follow his advice for once.

/ignore MrCaptainMan

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I think a somewhat softer touch would actually further your own cause in some cases.

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The funny thing is that people say this and yet, like Simon Cowell, Venture's reviews are still insanely popular in comparison to everyone else's.

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As for the levels. You may not have noticed this, but if you go into the group editor the Hellions are 1-20. If you grab them as the enemies for the map itself however it only lists their regular level. So I made a custom group so they could go all the way to 20 and you encountered a bug that I've only seen on one of my playthroughs. Normally it'll spawn the higher level ones, but sometimes it's like it gets confused and won't spawn them at the right level. The Damned boss spawned at the right level though because there is a version of him I specifically picked that is labeled 10-20.

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I noticed that since the Hellions are not listed among the factions in the description that the first mission must be using a custom version of the group. Are you sure that you grabbed the level 10-20 critters and not some of the 1-14 ones? Also, using Random Minion, Random LT, and such tends to create these bugs, it's what caused the bug where Family were not spawning at all in the 30-40 range.

In fact, is there really any reason not to just use the regular Hellions group in mission 1? You can change the group name of the Corrupted in the boss detail text settings anyway. That would probably fix the bug outright.

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Why was the Raid Leader, Psycho Falcon, only a Lieutenant?

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Unlike the other villains present. He's just an underling. If it were a higher level arc, he'd probably be a boss while they'd be elites. But since it's level 10-20 I didn't think he should be as tough as the others.

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It just seems rather anticlimatic that I dealt with so many bosses from the other factions on the way through the mission only to find that the Raid Leader was only a LT.

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Might be neater to use the Superadine Lab destructible, the one that glows and gives you a little recovery boost when you stand near it.

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I did, but correct me if I'm wrong. Didn't the destructible items get a massive nerf hammer? I know I had to reselect them all recently during an edit.


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You did have to reselect them, but they didn't actually remove them. The only destructible that was removed was the Generator.

Critical Review:

Arc ID: 250480
Arc Title: Gangs United
Author: @Ozzie Arcane
Length: 4 Missions
Morality: Heroic
Description: An underground organization is attempting to unite several gangs from Paragon City under their banner in preparation for their evil plot. Can you stop the combined forces of the Hellions, Trolls, Vazhilok, and Gold Brickers before they get their operation off the ground?
Rating: ***

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Character used: Anna Nethema, Level 50 Dark Melee/Fire Aura Brute
Difficulty: Tenacious (Diff 2)
Level for Arc Playthrough: 20

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Mission 1:
So the contact is someone who may or may not be a nut who thinks that the Illuminati are plotting against Paragon City and asks me to look into it. The first thing Scothew here wants me to do is crash a meeting between some mysterious group and the Hellions. Since we often beat them up just for loitering and jaywalking this is not an unreasonable request.

Hmm, the arc is letting me be level 20 but Hellions cap at level 15. That is a lot of grey I see ahead of me. However there are a few "enhanced" Hellion bosses who are level 20, the Corrupted they are called. That's a fancy Nictus broadsword you have there, son.

Ok, if the objectives say that I need to defeat 2 enhanced Hellions, then why are there half a dozen of these guys hanging around and only certain ones who have the same name as all the others count?

Ok, how did you managed to get those two bosses standing next to each other and having a conversation? Was that just luck that they spawned right next to each other? How come the Damned and the Hellions with him were level 20 when the rest of the map is full of 15s?

Seems we have a spawning bug here of some sort.

Also, why does President Evil have that much info in his description? Should I really know anything about this guy already?

Mission 2:
Anyhow, seems that this Big Evil group is going to be meeting with the Trolls as well and the Damned in the previous mission told me where to find them.

Umm, why are the Trolls hanging out in an arachnoid cave instead of their usual kind? What is an arachnoid cave doing in Paragon City to begin with?

So this time I get ambushed by Vahzilok rather than Trolls, hmm...

Oh dear, a Troll just got ice powers. At least there actually are 3 of him this time instead of "Defeat a random 3 of whatever".

It doesn't seem as if you're using a lot of customs so you probably have a lot of space. It wouldn't hurt to instead use multiple boss spawns and give each one some different dialog to make it less monotonous. You can still use the same plural and single objective text across all of the boss details.

Once again the Big Evil boss gives a bit more info than I probably need. Shouldn't the thing about being a robot be revealed in a clue upon their defeat?

Mission 3:
Apparently Big Evil has some beef with the Family and are sending their own goons to attack them. Except the only ones here that are connected to the Family are the Trolls, not the Hellions and Vazhilok is independent.

The arising Vahzilok zombies at the front door were pretty cool, but the Reaper doing the arise thing needs some dialog. In fact, all of the special spawns need some dialog, this mission was rather boring without any chatter.

Dunno why you bothered making the Zombified Hero really, he didn't do anything that a Luminous Eidolon doesn't already do and they are already known to be zombified heroes.

Also once again there is a spawning issue, the Family I rescued who followed aorund to help me are only level 15.

Ok, it makes no sense for that Goldbricker boss to have a device to control the Clockwork. You know why? Because all the Clockwork in Paragon City are directly animated by the psychic powers of the Clockwork King, they do not actually function as robots at all. The only exception are the ones in Cap Au Diable, which are being animated by the energies being siphoned off of Bat'Zul by the PTS.

Why was the Raid Leader, Psycho Falcon, only a Lieutenant?

Mission 4:
So now I'm hitting Big Evil at their base of operations, which is surprisingly run down looking.

The computer terminal is missing all the interaction text.

Might be neater to use the Superadine Lab destructible, the one that glows and gives you a little recovery boost when you stand near it.

Is Human Succubus supposed to be so much taller than everyone else in the mission? Looks rather odd.

No actual conclusion and no souviner, blah.

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The Verdict:
I'm going to have to borrow Venture's favorite phrase for this one, "just a bunch of stuff that happened." The story is barely existent and seems to just be a series of shallow cameos for the author's characters and/or SG mates. Not that it is a bad thing to do cameos, I do it all the time, but these characters have barely any background or characterization. They're simply not interesting and neither is the plot, which doesn't make a lot of sense in many parts either. I think it would help if the author studied up on the game lore a bit more before making any edits.

For now this is a 3-star arc. Just too many errors and too weak of a plot to be worthy of any more than that.

Well that was one of the better Nemesis plots I have seen. The contact was hard to put up with and I was ready to quit by mission 2. I'm level 45, not level 20, so show some damn respect!

I don't do arcs in the order I receive them, I see whichever ones are in the range of the character I am playing at the time and play those. Tonight it's a character who is level 43 so arcs that give XP there are getting played first.

I really wanted to get Shadow Meld tonight, could have just been playing papers instead and gotten it faster. Lowbie arcs can wait another day.

I was taking so many notes during this quick one that I decided to turn it into a mini-critical review, on the house.

Arc ID: 227331
Arc Title: The Consequences of War: Part I
Author: @Dalghryn
Morality: Neutral
Length: 5 Missions
Description: On mMay 23, 2002, the Rikti invaded Earth. During the war that followed, tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers, and heroes sacrificed their lives to save Earth. Over 200 heroes made their ultimate sacrifice on the same day. This is their story.
Rating: *****

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Character used: Raikou Shingai, Level 43 Electric Melee/Dark Armor Stalker
Difficulty: Tenacious (Diff 2)
Level for Arc Playthrough: 43

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Mission 1:
Nice touch on making the Rikti language un-translated except for the Rikti boss, apparently translators were not standard issue at the time. Ally placement in mission 1 is weird, I found Capt. Superior but he spoke as if Billy was already with me when Billy was actually in the last room with the Rikti boss. Suggestion: Use quotes in clues that are supposed to be spoken dialog from NPCs.

Mission 2:
Why were the Rikti holding Empathy captive carrying wooden crates?

Mission 3:
Nitpick: you don't give someone a directory, it's not a physical object. That would only make sense if I was accessing the files remotely and you told me which directory they were in. Doesn't mean the same thing if I'm supposed to be carrying them back to Lazon.

I like the old-school Vanguard troops. Wouldn't hurt if you turned down the interact time on all these glowies.

Mission 4:
What the heck is up with the allies in this mission? Lazon is at the door but runs off to do who knows what. I find Penthouse in an out of the way place and she does follow. However Commisioner G, who is standing RIGHT NEXT to the Rikti Heavy, runs off and says something about helping Penthouse. Umm dude, Penthouse is right here... oh wait, she just aggroed the Heavy and got stomped. Thanks for leaving me to solo this thing, jerk.

Mission 5:
I wish we had more building burning maps, cause this one really doesn't fit with the theme of the arc.

How did Hro'Dath get through the doors without ripping the frame out of the wall? Anyhow, it was interesting that he was much easier to defeat than the Heavy Assault Suit in the previous mission.

It wouldn't hurt to make the bodybags optional in this mission and the previous one. Tracking them all down got rather annoying.

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The Verdict:
Pretty good romp that was, though it has some issues that need addressing. Nothing really major, mostly little nitpicks and a few annoyances. 5-stars overall.

Quick Review:

Arc ID: 246459
Arc Title: Illpracticed Malpractice
Author: @Zamuel
Morality: Villainous
Length: 1 Mission
Description: Fed up with the audacity of the medics in the Rogue Isles, a law firm hires you to kidnap the Chief Resident so he can't escape being sued for shoddy treatment in the hospital.
Quicky Review: I never realized that villains hated the Rogue Isles health care, apparently being instantly brought back from the verge of death with hardly a scratch is just not good enough treatment. Anyhow, the mission was nothing special really and most of the jokes were not funny anyways. Escorts in the psycho hospital map are annoying as there is so much scenery for the escort to get caught on and there were too many glowies that did nothing when I only needed to find two clues.
Rating: **