Lazarus

[ QUOTE ]
I for one plan to make my auras as annoying as possible and hang out at Wentworths with all of them on.

edit: while 3 boxing.

[/ QUOTE ]

You go right ahead as long as the Devs put in an option to disable custom colors when rendering power effects so those who don't want to see them don't have to.

I remember seeing some of this in beta. I was in a CoT mission and they were doing things like reading scrolls and holding torches.

The only indoor map I know of where Front/Middle/Back is broken is the President Marchand's Office map that was added for issue 15. Makes it rather useless really as your endboss can spawn anywhere across 4 floors no matter what you set him to.

Very well put.

I actually started one of these a few times in the RP forum, they don't tend to last more than a few days sadly.

Heroes:
Iron Samurai - We Can Rebuild Him, Katanas Are Just Better.
Tectonia - Action Girl, Powered Armor, Genius Cripple.
Zetumsei Mitsukai - Action Girl, Dual Wielding, Lady Of War.

Villains:
Anna Nethema - Dark Action Girl, Cursed With Awesome, Our Demons Are Different, Noble Demon, The Beserker, Good Old Fisticuffs, Rapid Fire Fisticuffs, Determinator.
Cobalt Stinger - Dark Action Girl, Gadgeteer Genius, Artificial Limbs,Beam Spam.
Naga Obsura - Dark Action Girl, Lady Of War, Humanoid Alien, Lizard Folk, Cultured Warrior.
Kathode - Dark Action Girl, Cat Girl, Lightning Bruiser.
Vikki Vandale - Dark Action Girl, Cute Bruiser, Ms. Fanservice, Drop The Hammer, Badass Lolita.
Brimstone Mephit - Dark Action Girl, Our Demons Are Different, Playing With Fire.
Raikou Shingai - Dark Action Girl, Shock and Awe, Cute Bruiser.
Amanita Infernis - Dark Action Girl, Playing With Fire.
Winterkill - Dark Action Girl, An Ice Person.
Menshenbrecher - Dark Action Girl, Glass Cannon.
Mindskewer - Dark Action Girl, Master Of Illusion.

I can think of at least one Five Bad Band arrangement.
The Big Bad: Anna Nethema
The Dragon: Kathode
The Evil Genius: Cobalt Stinger
The Brute: Vikki Vandale
The Dark Chick: Naga Obscura, Raikou Shingai

Arc ID: 123721
Arc Title: Saints and Sinners Part Two: Blood is Thicker than Wire
Author: @Arashi
Description: A search for a mission woman sets you against a web of enslavement and coercion.
Rating: ****

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Character used: Raikou Shingai, Level 39 Electric Melee/Dark Armor Stalker
Difficulty: Tenacious (Diff 2)
Level for Arc Playthrough: 39

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Mission 1:
Interestingly the contact has changed for part 2 of this trilogy. I don't know if the author changed the contact for all 3 parts of if it's just a different one for each chapter. I have no idea who Faith Rayner is however, so I assume that she is likely a player character of the author.

Ok, so Faith is the network security consultant for the PPD and tells me that Meg Mason from the previous chapter told her about me. She tells me that normally she handles a different section of the city and that her sister, Hope, would be handeling this section. Problem is that Hope has been missing for a month and the PPD cannot find her. The PI that she hired vanished as well.

She waited this long to call in a hero? Anyhow, I head out to check out Hope's office for clues.

Of course the Brotherhood of Steel is hanging out inside the office. Gee, I wonder how they breached the PPD's network in the previous chapter?

I decided to ghost this mission and noticed along the way a critter I had not seen in the previous arc, a cloaked Minion called a Scout. I decide to attack to find out just what he is, turns out it's Archery/Ninjistu. Not to threatening on a Minion.

On the next floor I found a clue, Hope's day-planner, of which the last entry was a trip to a night club about a month ago. Nearby I found Linda, Hope's roommate, being held captive by the Brotherhood. Fortunately I don't have to lead her out.

Linda tells me that she was talking on the phone with Faith about the hero (me) who was coming over. Right after that the Brotherhood showed up and wanted all of the stuff that Linda was going to show me. Apparently they have her line tapped.

The last clue I found was a diary on a bookshelf (why it was in her office I have no idea) with a photo of the twins inside. Not sure what relevance that has, if she's identical to Faith than I don't need a photo of her to know what she looks like.

Mission 2:
So I'm off to Club Mosiac to speak with the club manager.

Old Paragon Dance Party map, filled with Brotherhood, Club Manager held hostage at the back. Turns out that the Brotherhood are taking "recruits" from the club and that the manager has to keep it quiet or her family dies. After freeing the manager I have to find the Templar and arrest him with judicious violence.

Mission 3:
So now that I know where the "recruits" are taken, I head down to the abandoned hospital in Boomtown. Interestingly, Faith tells me that the Club Manager has no family, but yet is thouroughly convinced that she does.

Along the way while freeing the captives, I found Dr. Hanson. He was being held captive as well and told me about the enforced loyalty implants that they had been forcing him to put into the recruits. The clue also tells me that he mentioned something about working on a device that blocks signals to cybernetics.

For no apparent reason, the Clinic Boss that I need to bring in is an Elite Boss. This is made even more annoying by the damn Stalker Placate Bug that plagues PvE still. Gotta love an EB who continually ignores your attempts to Placate.

Mission 4:
Ok, so now Faith tells me that she and her sister are Cyberpaths and can somehow control machines with their minds. Gee, I wonder why the Saint kidnapped Hope?

Ok, so while Dr. Hanson holds the patent on the device that he mentioned, since most of the research was funded by Crey they confiscated it after Dr. Hanson disappeared. Since we don't have time for him to make another one, I got to go steal it from Crey.

Well so much for ninjaing the mission, the glowie spawned in the middle of a big crowded room of Crey.

Mission 5:
So this Inhibitor device will break the signal between the Saint and Inquisitor and all the other Brotherhood members. Also I find out from Faith that Inquisitor is Hope. Wait, how did she find that out and when? And apparently Faith is coming along for this one. Gee, where was the backup with the previous damn EB?

Ok, so apparently Faith leeroyed off into the map when we entered. Ok, go ahead and keep them distracted while I do the real work. Didn't want you breaking my cover anyway. Eventually I came across Faith 3 floors in but continued past. Not finding anything in that suspiciously empty dead end corridor and expecting the Inquistitor to spawn there, I went back and found the placement location for the Inhibitor in a different part of the floor.

Yep, the Inquisitor spawned right where I expected her to, and she is Radiation Emission set to Hard apparently due to the Choking Cloud around her. I decide to go back and get Faith, at least she can be a decoy when the Inquistor's aura breaks my Hide.

Ok, the Inquisitor has some errors. Not only is there a typo in her description, but she also has some lines out of order.

The Inquisitor: I will not fall, even if you use my traitor sister!
The Inquisitor: Sister... I have... a sister?

Huh?

So the chapter is over and Faith says that Hope will make a full recovery, as well as that the Saint's ability to increase his numbers will be crippled without her. Apparently Hope is going to be the contact in the next chapter as Faith said that she wants to speak with me. That was a fast recovery.

================================

The Verdict:
While it is the same length as the previous chapter, it does lack a lot of the padding that the first one had. There weren't really any redundant missions, though the maps one missions 1 and 4 could have been smaller. The EB in mission 3 doesn't have any apparent reason to be an EB instead of a Boss.

Four stars. My issues with the custom group in the previous chapter still apply and the story is a bit longer than it needs to be. There are also a few instances of big plot details coming out of nowhere, like the identity of the Inquisitor at the start of mission 5, who was not even mentioned before the clue at the end of mission 4.

I only got to the RWZ AE when I'm going to run a co-op team with friends, otherwise I do all my work in Founders Falls or Sharkhead.

[ QUOTE ]
I think what feeds some of the frustration is that with all systems like this, there's a certain amount of Inertia built into the system. Once an arc gets over a certain number of plays, it's probability of getting more plays goes up because it appears "good". It may be good, don't get me wrong, but when people are looking, they go "oh.. wow, 300 people played that and it's averaging 4 stars!" where they might look at another, just as 'Good' that's only got 20 plays at 4 stars.


[/ QUOTE ]

And getting that inertia started takes a lot of luck. You can spend weeks polishing you arc and promote the [censored] out of it, plugging it multiple times a day on the MA channels, in broadcast in the busiest zones of the busiest servers, and even get a poster made and featured in the City Scoop, yet still some arc you'd never heard of that looks like it was made in a few hours suddenly zooms up to hundreds of votes while yours continues to sit at a few dozen.

And once it has that inertia it tends to keep going, and going, and going. And it is damn frustrating and makes one wonder why they even bothered to put in all that work.

[ QUOTE ]
If it was Dev intervention, I truly hope it was a process applied equally to all arcs. Like the wonderful no-zero-stars on Test.

[/ QUOTE ]

Whatever it was, it's not the stripping of 0-star ratings that occurred on Test. I've looked at my arcs and others that are considered 5-star on test after that fix and they're still 4-star on live.

[ QUOTE ]
its ratings would seem to indicate that I'm not alone.

[/ QUOTE ]

Because popularity equals quality?

I have yet to meet someone who actually likes that Footsteps arc, and I play on Virtue even.

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

[/ QUOTE ]

None.

The Ally Toggle Dropping Problem:
I've made some progress on this one. Turns out that it is only happening above level 48, when I ran the same mission with a level 48 toon none of the toggle-dropping behavior that my 50s saw occurred.

Here is a list of the sets that I tested in this mission and their behaviors when the allies were rescued:
Dark Armor (Loses Toggles upon rescue)
Energy Aura (Sometimes keeps, sometimes loses.)
Invulnerability (Sometimes keeps, sometimes loses.)
Electrical Armor (Sometimes keeps, sometimes loses.)
Dark Miasma (Loses Toggles upon rescue)
Firey Aura (Loses Toggles upon rescue)
Willpower (Loses Toggles upon rescue)
Ice Assault (Turns on Chilling Embrace only once aggroed, enemy also does this)
Cold Domination (Keeps Toggles)
Devices (Loses Toggles upon rescue)
Sonic Resonance (Loses Toggles upon rescue)
Force Field (Loses Toggles upon rescue)
Storm Summoning (Loses Toggles upon rescue)
Stone Armor (Loses Toggles upon rescue)
Ice Armor (Loses Toggles upon rescue)

So far Cold Domination is the only one that I have seen that never drops it's toggles. Ice Assault is an old one in that it only turns the toggle one once aggroed.

Powers not being used at all:
* Ice Control critters are not using Chilling Embrace or Arctic Air. (Allies)
* Fire Control critters are not using Hotfeet. (Allies)

AI Issues:
* Ally critters hit with perception debuffs, such as Smoke Grenade, don't just lose the ability to see enemies, they also appear to lose the ability to see the player as well. I found that when they had smoke on them, they would stop following me. Even worse was that they didn't say their stranded dialog either during this time, so I kept losing them without realizing it.
* Did Escorts get even more blind with this 6/24 patch in general? In a later mission with no perception debuffs in use I had a bunch of trouble keeping an escort following me. She also keeps holstering her assault rifle, when before this patch she kept it out and ready the entire way to the exit.
* It seems that Electric Armor is not effected by the bug where level 50 allies and escorts drop their toggles once rescued.

[ QUOTE ]
With the exception of a few, now rarer, simultaneous disarm bombs missions

[/ QUOTE ]

Of which no new ones have been introduced heroside in over 4 years and none existing villainside at all. Why the Devs never just removed them I don't know, our old content really needs a revamp.

[ QUOTE ]
Portal Bandits

[/ QUOTE ]

Did you play it on live or on the test server? Not only is the test server one in a state of flux with the new additions I am testing out, it also has several new custom enemies that the live version lacks.

[ QUOTE ]

“…friends you can all upon.”
“I've heard quite about you...”


[/ QUOTE ]

To be honest I don't consider those to be much in the way of typos, they're more in the line of speech mannerisms. If I make all the grammar perfect it sounds too artificial, so I tend to just write the way I expect them to talk.

[ QUOTE ]
In the first mission the seven allies seem to be in defensive mode. As a dominator that controls the entire spawn before entering combat they just stood around doing nothing.

[/ QUOTE ]

They have to be in defensive mode, an ally in aggressive mode is a recipe for wipes as they will have a much larger aggro range and tend to bring enemies onto you without warning. Also Ally AI is very buggy right now, even more so on Test.

[ QUOTE ]
I couldn’t do anything to the Giant Monsters, but it was fun watching them trounce around Atlas Park destroying Rikti in the process!

[/ QUOTE ]

That was the idea. Few things seem more post-apocalyptic than giant monsters wandering through the ruins of a downtown area like it is normal.

[ QUOTE ]

I don’t know what it was about your storyline, but by the last mission I felt bad if Cobalt’s Mom even got hit.

[/ QUOTE ]

Kind of odd as you're being paid to rescue a woman who dealt with a traitor by simply killing everyone rather than actually finding out who it was.

[ QUOTE ]
There isn't a trainer in Eden, nor is there a trainer in Crey's Folly or Boomtown. The Hollows and Striga Island shared the unique distinction of being the only hazard zones with trainers in them until the Faultline revamp was done.

[/ QUOTE ]

And the Hollows has a hospital too now, doesn't it? I guess that leaves Striga with the distinction of being the only Hazard Zone with a Trainer and two TF contacts but not a hospital.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Cat ears!

[/ QUOTE ]

Almost everybody makes a catgirl at one point...

[/ QUOTE ]

If you really look at the fine print, it's required in the EULA that you make at least one catgirl.

[ QUOTE ]
Starting a new character, for me, is like an investment. New characters are NEVER fun to play, so I have to grind through a whole lot of boredom to get to the fun part... assumign the character IS fun to play which sometimes they aren't. So starting a new character is a gamble for me. I have to invest a whole lot of time getting them to the point where they're fun to play, in the hopes that said fun materializes. Often it doesn't and I'm left feeling like I wasted my time and I never play that character again.


[/ QUOTE ]

Same here, I cannot just make a character on a whim and play them for a couple dozen levels only to find out that I never liked them to begin with. I also need to come up with a good name, costume, and background right from level 1, otherwise I run the risk of "Well, this character actually did turn out to be fun but now I hate the name and have to spend money on a rename token and hope that I can get a decent name."

And yes, a bad name has before caused me to shelve a character for over a year and almost delete it until a name purge finally freed up the one that I wanted to begin with. A bunch of new costume pieces to finally give it a decent look helped a lot as well to get me back into playing that toon.

Powers not being used at all:
* Neither Minions or Lieutenants are using Cloak of Darkness from Dark Armor.

[ QUOTE ]
Or you can tag it with [NCMA] and be on your merry way.

Just FYI, I pay zero attention to those tags. I have no idea what any of them mean and I don't care to find out.

[/ QUOTE ]

That tag will be rather obsolete anyway in issue 15 as there is a keyword for non-canon arcs. Still, I think that if someone is trying to tie their custom group into the background of an existing one then they really need to get the lore straight.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
... Bad eyes her newest Object of Hate: the Positron TF.

I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit - its the only way to be sure. Of course, this will involve multiple strikes on Steel, Atlas and Skyway as well, but any collateral damage is worth wiping this TF off the map - permanently.

[Yes we did finish.... gawd what an unenjoyable endurance-test. Take away my Unyielding and I become very grumpy indeed....]

[/ QUOTE ]have you done a shard task force? i know posi is bad, most of the launch ones are bad, but have you done a shard tf?

A lot of it comes from the original concept of tf's, they were designed with the pnp gamer in mind, as something for people to do over several nights in a fairly static group, well, things change, pugs and badge groups happened, and the redside and subsequent bleuside tf's start being compact, fun and concise. There are those who like the old tf's, much like some pine for the old hami raid, i personally feel the old tf's and particularly the shard tf's are about as fun as getting my male exclusive bits slammed in a car door, but hey.

[/ QUOTE ]

I actually like the shard TFs. They can be a pain in the [censored] with a PuG, but they're great with a bunch of folks that do them often or know what to expect.

I realize the irony in my statement, as that's what people say about the Positron TF but ultimately I find that it doesn't matter how small the team is or how experienced when it comes to Posi, it's never fun for me.

[/ QUOTE ]

They still could stand to have 1/3 to 1/2 of the missions removed. It would make almost no difference to the story since so many of them are redundant and cases of "sorry, but your artifact is in another cave."

Oh for crying out loud!

[ QUOTE ]
Another minion that was Martial Arts/Super Strength was only ever using either hurl or shuriken.

[/ QUOTE ]

I had that occur. I set myself to be Invincible while testing a MA/SS boss and counted her using Storm Kick on me 15 times before then using Haymaker a dozen times.

[ QUOTE ]
It's super boring and super annoying.

if you just want the badge for some reason, run it with the minimum # of players. Smaller spawns make it somewhat less awful.

But yes, it is way up on the list of badly designed junk that needs to be replaced.

[/ QUOTE ]

I was annoyed when they changed TFs to always spawn for the number of players joined instead of online, as the few times I have gotten that badge for Task Force Commander was by having some friends form a small Posi team with some characters that they didn't plan to play for a while and then I would solo it.