Lazarus

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When creating a Custom Boss and choosing the “Same as Boss” setting, the accompanying mobs will be the default Villain group of the mission in general. To circumvent this issue, you can use the Custom Tab for the accompanying mobs, and select the Custom group that the Custom Boss is in.

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How is that news when it has been happening off and on since MA was put in? You're better off just explicitly defining the enemy group for every boss detail anyway since they breaks, gets fixed, breaks, gets fixed, breaks...

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There is a villain accolade which you can only get by completing timed missions in sequence - one starts when you finish the last. You cannot go back and re-do it via Oro, you have to get it done right the first time. I would scream seven bells of murder if I was a badger that lost that chance because of inept communication skills of the staff of this company.

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It's a badge, not an accolade, and you can fail one of the timed missions and still get it.

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Wait a minute, I just realized any enhancement to the core game will have to wait after GR, as GR is a boxed set. If they made improvements to the core game in it (ie how combat works) then those who didn't buy GR wouldn't be able to play anymore

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...no, they'd just have to download a new patch like it's always been.

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Yep, you didn't have to buy CoV to be able to enter the PvP zones. You did originally need to for using SG bases but that was a marketing feature.

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What toons are you planning to change colors on, why, and which color?

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None.

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What about for AE creatures?

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None. And I hope there will be an option to disable custom power colors so I will see everything normally no matter what people set them to be. I rather like being able to quickly tell what powers are being used by the visual FX, so having it be obfuscated is not a benefit to me.

Considering that so many of the "highest-rated" arcs are blatant farming missions, I don't see that as a good criteria to be looking for.

Writing this as I go.

Mission 1:
Nice intro, the simulation thing works since this is supposed to be reliving the past. However cut down on the colored text. For starters, I don't need the words Architect Entertainment pointed out to me and having them in dark green text when the background I am seeing the window against is green to begin with just makes the dialog harder to read.

As for the enemies, I like the costumes but am finding Electrical Melee and Armor to be a stretch for not only a human but a minion as well. I could maybe buy the melee on a Lt but not the Armor bit. There are also too many of these guys, seems like it's trivially easy to get lightning powers with Filipino Martial Arts. This end drain is also encouraging me to grab the electric brute. I have Stamina AND Quick Recovery yet am running below 50% end much of the time here.

And yes, there are way to many slows. I'm starting to wish I had brought Kathode (Elec/Elec Brute) instead of Vikki Vandale (Mace/Willpower Brute) for this. Siphon Speed is one of the most annoying debuffs in the game and lasts long enough that I'm easily running into another spawn and getting it stacked on me even more. Also be slowed and then dealing with running critters who have Quickness is another annoyance. Guro Kulog also overdoes it with the Freezing Rain.

By the way, the Kapitan's group was listed as "All Custom Characters".

Oh joy, Quicksand now as well. It's not like Vikki is taking any noticeable damage but she is getting annoyed with all the SLOWS.

Mission 2:
Pro-Tip: Reserve red text for warnings that the arc contains archvillains and/or elite bosses. Don't use it just to draw attention to the name of the group I'm fighting.

Hmmm, empty map.

Ah, there's Guro Dahon. Why did she summon Thugs? Ok, so the description makes sense, but I don't get the Dark Armor part. She also tried to use Dark Regen, which fortunately missed. Annoying power to put on a boss, you just want this battle to take forever? At least she didn't have Soul Transfer.

I just realized that this Earth Control guys have Unyielding as well. That's rather crappy as you created a LT mezzer who will need quadruple-stacked Holds to lock down. Prepare for the angry tells from Dominators and Controllers.

Why did this room fill with Arachnos right after I freed Guro Niyebe?

So that is why the front room was so empty, why did you feel the need to fill it with so many spawns of Arachnos?

Mission 3:
Once again, misusing the red text. Unless Filipino Vengeance is the name of an archvillain it has no business being highlighted in red.

Third abandoned office map in a row, this has gotten monotonous. What's also monotonous? Running into multiple spawns in a row with nothing but these Electrical minions in them. Why didn't I get to learn how to wield lightning when I was a kid? Seems everyone can do it here.

Oh great, a Stone/Stone Boss who lacks Stone Armor but has Rooted. I heard Doms and Controllers are getting together for a torch and pitchfork group discount.

Hmmm...
[NPC] Guro Magsasaka: A blow like that will not break my armor.
[NPC] Guro Magsasaka: Ah, I see your strategy now. You're not trying to break my defenses, are you...

Not sure what he meant there, but I certainly broke something of his with repeated bludgeoning by a baseball bat wielding Troll loli.

What, no clue for defeating him?

The Verdict:
Nothing wrong with the writing, aside from there being a LOT of Arachnos coming out of nowhere in mission 2 when I'd be expecting just a few spawns based on what I read in the briefings and debriefings. Most of the problems are in the critter design. I understand that balancing customs is hard, just look at how much work I had to do with "The Portal Bandits" and it's 17 customs. Some of it is just gameplay annoyances and others are a case of "why do they have that power of all things?"

Most I can give to it right now is 4-stars.

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Quite a likely explanation, I've kept my eye on 'runners' for some time now, otherwise they can end up somewhere obscure and you end up having to kill all just to find which was the one thug who was supposed to be guarding the boss you just whooped.

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That why in MAs I set it to only require the boss and not the entire spawn in situations where a runner could go off and hide. Only exception is when the boss spawn in contained in a room they cannot escape, like one entered from an elevator.

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Also, a lot of people don't know that you can right-click a blinky to see what it is, so yeah, I'd second the notion of having a warning in the activation bar.

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I remember a mission where someone has set the interact text on a blinky to say "You really don't want to click this".

Changes made to "MacGuffin Delivery Service":
* Family spawns are fixed! Had to get creative with custom groups but found out that it was the "Random Minion", "Random Lieutenant" thing that was screwing up spawning.
* Carnies should be spawning below level 40 for Hero players now.

Changes made to "All Consuming":
* Redid the 2nd mission. Picked a better warehouse map and staffed it with Warriors, who aren't all that happy with Mindskewer meeting with the Banished Pantheon in the back.
* Replaced Totems with Spirit Masks.
* Redid the Avatar of Lughebu's dialog in mission 4 and edited Mindskewer's dialog in mission 2 to foreshadow the ending better.
* Added some flavour glowies to mission 2.
* Changed the briefing to mission 3 and added some colored warning text.
* Added battles between the Banished Pantheon and Legacy Chain to mission 4.
* Added success pop-ups to all missions.

According to my critter power lists Speed Boost is only used by MA critters at level 12 and above.

But anyways, be careful with that power. If you want a speed buff that is not nearly so insane consider Accelerate Metabolism from Radiation Emission.

Oh crap, somebody just pointed out something I missed: Totems are level 25-30, not 20-29. Sorry to anyone who ran into a purple boss while solo, apparently MA does not scale him down properly.

Causes a bit of an issue now as Totems are one of my favorite bosses but Shivans stop at 25. I don't like the idea of making the entire arc 25-25 either.

Oh heck no, I had to use Custom to take Speed Boost away because the first thing the critter always did was SB the entire spawn and when they decided to run they didn't just run to the next room, they ran clear across the map.

The only way that critter would not be using SB is if you're playing the arc at a level below that which critters gain access to that power.

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It goes away if you let them KO you.

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Doesn't help you at all if you didn't kill the Wizard already, he'll be happy to reapply it when you get back. Plus the trip back from the hospital gets really old fast.

The story is not nearly good enough to put up with that garbage.

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That space could be better used for something like moar turrents.

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Nevar enuff turretz.

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Now, a Defeat All mission where the enemies have Ninjitsu?

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That's just plain abusive.

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Well if you make a group for these Story MA missions, make sure to tell people its not a farm beforehand or you will be constantly loosing people mid missions.

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It's depressingly hard to get people to join a non-farm AE team, especially with this huge list of good arcs I've built up through my reviewing.

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You know, with all the people saying AE killed the game, I always wonder why they don't team up with each other or form SGs or put each other on their friends lists or ANYTHING.

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Well there is more than one server for starters. Not everyone wants to move, assuming they could all agree on one to begin with. Also despite having a common disagreement it doesn't mean that they all want to hang out together.

Anyhow, last couple weeks I've only gotten invites when a) I'm already logging off or b) during a time when I may need to AFK without notice. The later is going to last for quite a few more weeks while my sister recovers from her knee surgery.

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The reason I want to do this is because in my mission the player will walk into an abandoned warehouse and find nobody, but when they get to the back room they'll see an ally being held captive,


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Stop stealing my ideas!

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You can see what power set any enemy has on the right side of the sreen when you choose them from the enemy group.

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He's asking about a critter who is not available in AE. He wants to recreate him but doesn't know what his powers are.

Sorry, I haven't played the STF is so long that I cannot remember what his were. Try looking him up on ParagonWiki.

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No, absolutely no need to fill them unless the mission can actually be failed.

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Otherwise you're just wasting precious file space. If you mission can be failed then the Errors prompt will remind you to add Fail dialog. Otherwise don't bother.

Maybe if you stopped calling it a farm and started using the word tutorial.

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-Major deduction for the Vanguard Sword enemy group. They ruin the arc they're featured in. They're annoying to fight and they have a stupid gimick with their Curse.

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I hate that g'damn curse. It's the reason why I'd rather use Oro to skip Guassian and go to Dark Watcher.

That debuff cuts your end in half and lasts seemingly forever. Of course Vanguard is happy to sell you that "Curse Breaker" for FIFTY Vanguard Merits, which is a lot if you don't do raids thanks to the pitiful drop rate in regular missions. And then it only has 5 charges, even solo at least one of the missions in that arc has more than 5 bosses in it.

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Drakule Armageddon 5: This Time, It's Personal!

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So parts 3 and 4 have pre-emptively been retconned out of existence?

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For some maps, if they fix them.

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Fixed that for you.

Thanks for the feedback. "All Consuming" was written, tested and published in one afternoon and boy does it show. I just wanted to get some feedback to see if it was even worth spending more time on.