Lazarus

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Interestingly, while you had trouble with your dominator, Glazius played a brute for his review and felt the group was too easy. There is balance there, though I wouldn't rule out more future tweaking to the VALs.

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The only problem really was the Dispersion Bubble. MA critters use the Player version, which is quite stronger than the regular critter version, especially in that it provides magnitude 10 protection to holds and stuns. That is on top of the mag 3 inherent protection that bosses and mag 2 that LTs have, so you can see why a Dominator or Controller who lacked an exotic mezz like confusion (which I had) or fear would be very annoyed. Also since the anti-toggle dropping code applies to critters as well, even if I could hold the boss the bubble would not drop and unlike regular game critters she starts with the bubble already up when I get there so I don't have any chance to get the drop on her. The only other option is sleep, which then would make using AoEs impossible.

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The only thing I can really say in the realm of criticism on the plot is the fact that you never see Cobalt Stinger, who's mentioned a few times in the arc. I don't know if he/she's not in the arc due to space concerns, but it'd be nice for him/her to be in there.

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She's not there for two reasons, lack of space and because Traps is not available as a set in MA. However she is the contact for arc #254599, "Of Futures Past", which takes place at the same time as "The Portal Bandits" and overlaps it in a few spots.

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Missions that are more challenging than standard content while not being just outright mean are one of the hardest things to pull off in AE. I know this from personal experience.

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Yep, I've been balancing and rebalancing this group since issue 14 beta. And then came issue 15 I added several more critters and rebalanced it all over again. I like groups with a lot of variety, which is why there are 12 core members (6 minions, 4 LTs, 2 Bosses) and then a special boss and the AV. There are some more that didn't make the cut whom I'm saving for a later arc.

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Nice touch on the third mission where practically all of the enemies were doing the dance rave animation.

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Came in response to complaints about the enemies not having enough personality.

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In fact, it seems to have become the new 'fight defensive', since I've not noticed allies/escorts set to it actually run off far from the player like they used to.


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It doesn't happen as often now but it still does. I was testing and aggressive does lead to better ally behavior, especially with meleers, but still sometimes they will just take off into the next spawn.

Escorts on the other hand stay on Defensive, I don't want to annoy players by turning a failable objective into an aggro-magnet.

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I could see someone coming up with a fabulous concept requiring one of the hero or villain epics, and they just have to get them unlocked fast because they are too anxious to implement it.

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Except that they never got to 50 to begin with and won't have a clue how to play with that epic character who was designed for someone who had already played a normal AT to 50.

So when did the Devs say they'll add the option to disable custom power colors on the client-side?

"MacGuffin Delivery Service" is back up and running. I don't know why it took a full day after that patch that broke destructibles to affect my arc, it sure as hell wasn't invalid last night when I last checked.

Ok, turns out that "Of Futures Past" had the same bug, except it wasn't even flagged as invalid to begin with.

I just have to ask it, why? Just what the hell do you plan to do with that character after getting to 50 in such a short time and skipping over 90% of the game's content?

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It is a known bug (well, known in the forums at any rate and I have bugged it myself). It acts as if the objects have to aggro before you can attack them. So far I haven't seen it happen if the object is guarded, only when it is solo. I've also heard you can initially damage the object with AOE or damage fields.

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I saw this myself the other night. Was wondering why I couldn't AS the item so that the explosion could give me a head start in the fight and it turned out that I had to attack the surrounding group first.

Sounds like Mercedes saves all her good arcs for the heroes, "Dead Man's Deck" rather sucks for something that just gives a copy of the Ring of Pain for a temp power souvenir.

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BTW, anybody have some devastating combos? I'm looking to build the opposite of a farm -- something that's tough to me to solo with my various characters.

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Play arc #3326, "The Portal Bandits", and maybe you'll get some ideas.

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Broad Sword isn't a re-skin of an existing Stalker set, unless you think it's the same as Ninja Blade simply because it uses a sword.

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Ninja Blade is just Katana renamed, and Katana is just Broadsword with shorter recharges and lower end costs and damage.

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And before issue 2 they had the same animations as well.

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Want a group of Trick or Treaters who don't attack and just wander... Need to see if MA will let me do that.

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Just put them in a patrol and set it to "Ally".

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If there an Ally they won't attack me - but will attack all the rest of the enemies right?

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That's what Ally means. "Rogue" is the setting on which they will attack EVERYTHING.

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How do you get a thread "stickied?" This one could really use that treatment.

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PM one of the moderators.

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The same people have been on the front page for months! They still havent been voted down just because it's the 1st thing people see when the page opens. It's like going to the supermarket, people buy more item's that are eye level then on the bottom shelf

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They can't be voted down because unlike a Hall of Fame, a Dev Choice arc is permanently 5-starred.

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It isnt fair for everyone else. Giving everyone a chance to have their mission as a dev's choice. I see nothing wrong with this idea.

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Try finding someone who does like it other than the few people who got lucky and are DC'd. Most of them are from way back in closed beta of issue 14.

They should have it just display a few random DC and HoFs, like others have suggested. Also letting us change our search defaults would be nice so we don't have to keep doing it every time we log on or switch toons.

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Why are we wanting to make an easy process more complicated? There are global channels for anything and everything that work way better and faster than any menu feature the devs could come up with. All you have to do is ask.

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<sarcasm>Because we know that everyone and their brother is on the same global channel and that global channels allow an infinite number of people.</sacarsm>

Something as simple as a Team leader having a "Looking for More" flag that they can set would go a long way. When searching for players, filtering out all the ones who are already on teams would help a lot as well so you don't have them burying all the people who are not teamed.

Critical Review:

Arc: Matchstick Women
Arc ID: 3369
Author: @Bubbawheat
Number of Missions: 3
Description: Follow the trail of fire to it's tragic source. A mysterious flame shows you the story of a cult of women arsonists and their crazed leader.
Rating: ****

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Character used: Raikou Shingai, Level 42 Electric Melee/Dark Armor Stalker
Difficulty: Tenacious (Diff 2)
Level for Arc Playthrough: 42

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Mission 1:
First time I've seen someone use a Rikti computer as the contact. Oh wait, it's A Mysterious Flame. For some reason it compels me to check out an abandoned Arachnos base. No wait, it...

Oh screw it, I'm not even going to try and describe the briefings. Go play it yourself if you want to know what they say.

Anyhow, now I'm inside a burning Arachnos base for some reason and the first thine I come across is hostile Council wearing fire extiguisher packs. My objective is to put out the fire and along the way I ran into the Council fighting some Arsonists.

What are fire hydrants doing inside this base?

Anyhow, I saw a few of these Matchstick Women along the way but only a few. I finished the mission and didn't get any clues as to why I was here to begin with.

Mission 2:
So I'm back to watching the Mysterious Flame do it's thing again. Now I have to save some women from a fire.

At least this map isn't on fire as well, instead I'm in the ever-popular northeast corner of Steel Canyon.

Geez, what power did you give these bosses that is taking nearly all my health in a single hit?

Anyhow, one of the bosses told me that the leader of the cult is crazy, and one of the women I rescued turned out to have fire powers of her own and was targetted by the cult for that reason.

Mission 3:
So here I am in another burning building, probably this time to find out who Emily, the Matchstick Leader, is and what she is up to.

So why is this Emily cowering in fear when I get to her?

Anyhow, that's all over with and I have no idea how I got pulled into all of it or why to begin with.

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The Verdict:
I honestly can't say much here. I can't find much wrong with this arc but at the same time I didn't have that much fun. Anyhow, take a look at your critters. Most of them are around the same height, so it looks odd that Choking Matchsticks and Emily herself are 2 feet taller than everyone else. Also, there is too much fire. Seriously, cut back on some of the attacks on those critters, the fire damage stacks so fast that anyone who is not fire armor is going to be losing health fast. Especially with those bosses who could nearly one-shot me despite having 35% resistance to fire.

Final rating: 4 stars.

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The "extra data" would be pretty inconsequential even to a modem user running at 36K.


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Until they visit the market and all the usual spamming that occurs there. Compared to that the first mothership/Hami raid is going to melt some copper.

Think about it, the client will not be able to know who you will be coming across and always preload the data ahead of time. Therefore you'll be sent all that extra data EVERY time anyone uses a customized power.

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Getting Broadsword isn't what I would call getting shafted

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Another lethal set that's almost a carbon copy of an existing Stalker set while everybody gets something completely different? Yeah I'd prefer Fire Melee for Stalkers. Even Ice Melee would do it.

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QFT

Most CoV contacts only introduce who comes after them, not those on the same tier as them. Which leads to annoying situations like level 40-45 Grandville where you crappy contacts like Terrence Dobbs blocking your path to fun contacts like Doc Forrester. Even worse you cannot get him from a Mayhem mission, after you choose the three contacts in the first tier (Dobbs, Phelps, and Korol) the broker simply stops offering contacts, and Korol won't introduce you to Forrester either!

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It's hard to get excited over an issue that contains no new content.

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'Other features to be announced.'

I remember plenty of other Issues where people have said 'there has to be more than this', but this is the first time I've seen them actually SAY so.

So, we know for a fact there's more to I16 than two eagerly anticipated player-demanded features and a whole heap of power proliferation.

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No, they've said 'Other features to be announced.' in many other issues. The thing is that the initial press release has the vast majority of the features and the stuff announced later is minor in respect.

And let me be the first to rain on the parade: I hope there is an option in the graphics settings to turn off custom power FX and just show the standard ones.

Two reasons: I know I'm not the only one who won't care for pink dark melee and what not, and there are still a lot of people on slow connections who won't enjoy the increased lag from the extra data that will be sent to them when someone uses a customized power.

Changes made to "All Consuming":
* Removing the battles from the back room was not an option as it'd make it mostly deserted, so I removed the ambush from the Walking Corpse boss instead.
* Added a clue to the coffin in mission 1.
* Fixed up the dialog in missions 2, 3, 4, and 5.
* Fixed some typos in missions 2 and 4.
* Redid all the Legacy Chain vs Pantheon and Midnight Squad vs Pantheon battles in mission 5. Each has unique dialog now so now you will at least hear them even if they lose before you get to them.
* Reduced the number of Altars in mission 5 to 1 and gave the surrounding group some dialog.
* The Pantheon surrounding the Corrupted Husks, the Altar, and the Ritual Spirits consists only of Shamans now.

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Want a group of Trick or Treaters who don't attack and just wander... Need to see if MA will let me do that.

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Just put them in a patrol and set it to "Ally".

"All Consuming" is what happens when I skip the days/weeks of testing and revising, instead writing an arc in a single afternoon and then sending it up the flagpole to see who salutes.

I wrote and published it on Sunday afternoon, then revised it on Monday night. What you played is only the 2nd draft really, so it's expected to have some errors and plot holes.

The Banished Pantheon is not an easy group to write for. While the lack of in-game lore does leave a lot of empty canvas, it also places a greater burden on the author who tries to flesh them out. Sometimes you have to make some big leaps and risk making assumptions that could turn out to be totally wrong in the future.

Anyhow, it is known that the Banished Pantheon study superpowered beings. Their chief god Lughebu demands it of them and they are often looking for powerful beings to sacrifice in their continuing attempt to awaken the sleeping god who lies buried beneath Moth Cemetery in Dark Astoria.

Now the Shivans are another form of undead, so the idea for this arc was that the Pantheon was studying how to control the Shivans for their own uses and even empower their own zombies with the same abilities. However that was not enough for the story, so I decided that the next idea they got was to use these creatures to tap into the vast power of Shiva and use it to awaken the sleeping god. That is why it becomes to critical to stop the ritual at the end.

And yes, I did make it so that one of the powers of the Corrupted Husks is to turn the dead into Shivans. That is the explanation for what happened with the crew of the cargo ship. Originally it was the Sky Raiders doing the smuggling but that made little sense, so I changed it to that they decided to hijack the ship and instead released the Corrupted Husk onboard and created that whole mess. If it were not for them then this whole Pantheon plot may have not been discovered until it was too late.

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[*]Removed Mending Mitochondria from Devouring Earth enemy group.


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*giggles*

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CAN YOU FEEL ZE SHADENFREUD?