Lazarus

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Incidentally, "Chains of Blood" is technically the first volume of a trilogy. I'm not sure I'll ever bother to write the other two; that's a lot of work for alternate continuity. To date no one has complained that it is in any way an incomplete story.

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Having played it, as far as I am concerned it is a complete story that doesn't need any continuation if the author does not desire to write it. It's like Star Wars: A New Hope, Back to the Future, or Pirates of the Carribean: Curse of the Black Pearl, you don't need to watch any other installments to feel satisfied. Very unlike the 2nd and 3rd part of each of those trilogies which require seeing them both and seeing them in order to get the full story.

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I avoid arcs that are explicitly labeled as parts of a trilogy. Very rarely can someone really keep a single story running for 15 missions (and more often than not those trilogies are 15 missions long). In most cases where I did play the first part it became apparent that the same story could have been told in only 3 missions.

I don't mind connected arcs where a dangling plot thread is resolved in another. Sequel hooks are ok, but I hate cliff-hangers.

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how would you feel if both parts were published at te same time, so the waiting for the resoluion took only as long as it took you to activate the next arc?

Eco

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You really need to learn to read.

Nowhere did I say that the issue was with waiting for a new installment. Even if all three parts are up at once I am not likely to even begin it. I'm talking about playing 5 missions only to be told that I have to play 5 more just to get any answers, and since it is a trilogy the 10th mission will most likely tell me that I need to play another 5 missions to get the answers.

I'm reviewing one for a friend right now who got in before I added my "no multi-arc stories" rule. Since it was submitted under the old rules I'm playing it but I did part 1 over a week ago and have yet to find time to do part 2. By then I'll probably have forgotten what part 1 was about and have little clue what is going on in part 2 if it assumes that I played part 1 recently and remember all the details.

Amusingly I have seen some creations of mine that didn't bother my Scrapper (who only uses Uncommons and few Rare sets) at the same time curbstomp a friend's purpled-out Brute. There is no metric for this sort of ranking, way to many variables.

This AI attack bug is appearing in Dominator Assault sets as well. It seems to happen most often if you engage the critter in melee right away. For example, if I aggro a Fire Control/Fire Assault critter from range, he will use all his powers. But if I ran up and melee him right away, he totally forgets most of his powers and just chases me around spamming Incinerate. He is set to Ranged pref, I already checked that.

Katana is glitching as well, doing the "spam one attack over and over" thing.

Also I wonder if the high-level critters not using their Stone Armor is related to the ally toggle-dropping problem that is happening after level 48.

I avoid arcs that are explicitly labeled as parts of a trilogy. Very rarely can someone really keep a single story running for 15 missions (and more often than not those trilogies are 15 missions long). In most cases where I did play the first part it became apparent that the same story could have been told in only 3 missions.

I don't mind connected arcs where a dangling plot thread is resolved in another. Sequel hooks are ok, but I hate cliff-hangers.

Another thing is that if you have a required boss in that last room as well, defeating them often overrides the "Defeat All in Last Room" part.

The Dev Choice arcs mostly demonstrate that the Devs picking them have some lousy tastes IMO.

I don't really like any of the heroes, especially the Freedom Phalanx. Bunch of Mary Sues in general.

Scirroco is my favorite of the signature villains and mostly because not only is the the well-intentioned extremist type but he also is the only one who acts civilized. The rest all are brutish and/or petty, while Scirroco shows that being a jerkass is not a requirement for being a villain.

It's missing something.

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I'm surprised that there is another one, I figured that Dev Choice was on hold until after i15 went live because of how many arcs would break

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I assume by "break" you're just referring to critter changes? Because DC arcs don't get invalidated like other arcs do when there are changes to maps and the like.

Although, this latest DC arc *is* invalid, so that's pretty interesting in and of itself.

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They can't go back and fix their customs. Also they cannot update their arcs and fine tune them with the new tools in issue 15 MA. If it weren't for the uproar with the previous change to the Standard power selections we probably wouldn't have found out about the upcoming Custom option until i15 beta started, the news was broken on that to calm people down.

So right now why give any new DCs at all instead of waiting until after issue 15 when people can take advantage of the new features?

And the arc being unplayable is interesting as well. Did the devs play it a long time ago, finally decide to DC it, and then just do it without testing it again first?

Exploiting the ability to get the extra arc slots on Test Server for free, I'm put up a new arc that I'd love some feedback on.

Arc ID: 225397
Arc Title: Of Futures Past
Morality: Villainous
Length: 5 Missions
Description: Cobalt Stinger needs an enterprising and reliable villain for a series of well paid jobs. Meet otherwordly people, travel through time and the multiverse, and discover some interesting things about your employer. Apply within today! [SFMA/HLMA] (This arc runs parallel to arc 3326.)

This arc is designed to run parallel to "The Portal Bandits" so expect to see a few familiar faces along the way. There is one EB in the first mission who is totally optional.

Arc ID: 225397
Arc Title: Of Futures Past
Morality: Villainous
Length: 5 Missions
Description: Cobalt Stinger needs an enterprising and reliable villain for a series of well paid jobs. Meet otherwordly people, travel through time and the multiverse, and discover some interesting things about your employer. Apply within today! [SFMA/HLMA] (This arc runs parallel to arc 3326.)

I'm surprised that there is another one, I figured that Dev Choice was on hold until after i15 went live because of how many arcs would break and they knew everyone would want to play with the new features and would be mad if they couldn't because their arc was locked for editing.

But in general DC disappoints me. I really wonder what their selection criteria is as many of them were chosen way back in i14 closed beta and honestly are not that good really. I've played a lot of SFMA arcs and seen many that overshadow the Dev Choice arcs by a large margin in terms of writing and design. As such I've given up on DC arcs.

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they said they would be looking into arcs that are generating buzz, and I've lived in this Stories and Lore section of the forums and have never even heard of this new Dev's Choice arc, when there are quite a few arcs floating around that are getting consistently rave reviews from everyone that's played them.

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Yep, I've never heard of it either.

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* Allies and Escorts will have their defensive toggles running when captive, but once rescued will turn those powers off. This is odd as they go through the animation of turning the toggle on while it is switching off.

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Today saw some new behavior with this one. Ran the arc at level 45 and the allies did keep their toggles on. Played it again at 50 and the went back to dropping their toggles upon rescue.

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I have yet to encounter an arc where *not* using a defeat all would have at all hurt the suspense of disbelief.

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In one of my arcs, player heroes working with the PPD get word that villains have overrun a nearby office searching for a particular person. I could have made a captive rescue the mission complete criteria, but would heroes (and the police) simply arrest one group or room full of bad guys and leave the office workers to deal with the rest?

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Likewise, if the Midnight Club has been overrun by villains and have already defeated the Midnighters inside, why shouldn't you defeat all of the villains?

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Last I played MA (2 years ago?) Eagle's Claw had a small chance to triple-crit after Placate. That alone was reason enough >.>

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And Thunderstrike still has a tendency to double-crit when from Hide or after a Placate. Entire spawn go bye-bye!

Yeah, if you want to tie a custom group into the history of an existing one you really need to study your CoX lore and keep your facts straight and concepts logically consistent.

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But in my second arc in the first mission, I require that you defeat all guards on the arachnos flyer pad before stealing the flyer... The space is tiny and the idea of being able to take off without killing all the guards first seems to be the wrong way of thinking about it. It seems entirely justified to me and not a difficult or time-consuming task. The only way I'm going to change it is if I find out that particular map is bad about stuck critters you can't reach... which would be my luck actually.

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My only Defeat all mission is in the Midnight Club map. If someone cannot handle a defeat all in that tiny area then they have bigger problems.

On my first run we ended up killing the kooshballs one by one while someone tanked Romulus.

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Powers not being used at all:
* Robotics Critters are not using Repair to heal their robots.
* Regen Critters are not using Reconstruction.
* Pain Dom Critters are not casting Enforced Morale.
* Pain Dom Critters are not using Soothing Aura.
* Thermal Critters are not casting Fire Shield. (Allies)
* Thermal Critters are casting Forge once and never again. (Allies)
* Thermal Critters are casting Thaw once and never again. (Allies)
* Thermal Critters are not casting Warmth. (Allies)
* Thermal Critters are not casting Cauterize. (Allies)


[/ QUOTE ] I want to comment on this one.This is for custom critters and any already dev created critters. I recent did an arc with a critter, I think she is one of the tfs as an ally, but she had speed boost. The thing is she only used it on who ever she was tied to upon rescue or if someone drops her by getting to far from her and reacquires her. She also only buffs the pets of that person who has her. I did a test on this and surprisingly she did buff an ally's Vet Pet but didnt buff the ally or any of the other mastermind pets but she buffed the person she was tied to and their pets. I been studing critter AI for a while now and it seems to be set to ignore everyone but the person they are tied to and their pets and any Vet pets. Giving speed boost to the pets was kind of wrong considering it doesnt help them in anyway when the rest of the folks are struggling to get by pre-stamina.

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Interesting, except in the case that I tested these under I was the only player in the mission so there was no one else to be linked to. The Thermal never healed me or herself and never put fire shields on me, the only thing she did was give me Thaw and Forge once the moment I rescued her then never re-applied them no matter how long I sat around waiting.

In the case of the Pain Dom, I've watched their behavior as both enemies and allies and those two powers were never used once on anyone. Soothing Aura is really obvious especially as it is a toggle aura.

AI Issues:
* Allies with Melee powersets are still having issues where they suddenly don't want to use melee powers and will stand just outside of melee range and either go entirely idle or spam their one ranged attack.

I've started a new list of AE Critter Bugs.

The purpose of this list is to compile a single list of all bugs involving the AI and Powers of Architect mission critters. By all means continue to submit the reports through the official threads and ingame using /bug, but it also helps to post it here so we can have one place to see all of them.

I'll start us off. The information inside the parentheses indicates a special case, such as the behavior only occurring with ally critters and not enemies. Otherwise it is assumed to be a universal bug.

Also make sure that these powers are available to the critter at the level and rank you are testing them on. Refer to these lists if you are unsure. Remember that right now Custom is bugged, so to be sure that the power is actually usable by that critter check if it is available when set to Extreme.

Powers not being used at all:
* Robotics Critters are not using Repair to heal their robots.
* Regen Critters are not using Reconstruction.
* Pain Dom Critters are not casting Enforced Morale.
* Pain Dom Critters are not using Soothing Aura.
* Thermal Critters are not casting Fire Shield. (Allies)
* Thermal Critters are casting Forge once and never again. (Allies)
* Thermal Critters are casting Thaw once and never again. (Allies)
* Thermal Critters are not casting Warmth. (Allies)
* Thermal Critters are not casting Cauterize. (Allies)
* Energy Aura Critters are not using Overload.
* Electric Armor Critters are not using Power Surge.
* Trick Arrow Critters are not using EMP Arrow.
* Shield Critters are not using Grant Cover.

Powers not working correctly:
* World of Pain only buffs the caster when used by a critter, despite being a PbAoE team buff.

AI Issues:
* Martial Arts Critters have a tendency to get stuck using the same attack over and over.
* Super Strength Critters have a tendency to get stuck using the same attack over and over.
* Allies and Escorts will have their defensive toggles running when captive, but once rescued will turn those powers off. This is odd as they go through the animation of turning the toggle on while it is switching off.

I also have a problem with Slash being a former boss in the Outcasts. Take a look at their roster over on ParagonWiki, no one without elemental powers moves beyond minion rank. Everyone LT or higher is a mutant with elemental powers, not weapons. It just isn't consistent with the existing group that he is supposed to have an origin in.