Lazarus

For me to give a single-mission arc more than 3 stars it has to be DAMN good or very clever. There is only so much story that you can cram into a single mission and most of the single mission joke arcs are not very funny at all anyways.

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What you need to do is work up a credible facsimile of Dark Watcher as a new custom character. Then give him powersets that you think fit.

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I tried to do that once but gave it up as I had no idea what powers Hard Case would have and didn't want to have the possible annoyance of then being proven totally wrong someday if he does get made into a combatant. I was guessing Dark Scrapper but cut him out of the arc as while it was a fun idea to beat info out of him for the story it didn't really add anything to the plot to justify it.

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But if that ever happens couldn't you just swap out the combatant for your custom? It's not like you can't edit an arc after you put it up.

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Well considering the unlikelyhood of ever getting a Dev Choice, I guess you're right. Anyways, he didn't add anything to the story so it wasn't worth spending time on.

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Geocities is closing

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Wait, Geocities is still around?

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How many times can we beat this dead horse with the same damn sticks?!

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Until they break and rot away. Then we just cut down some more trees.

Well my Trollop isn't big and intimidating but can still hit like a truck, I had to nerf her a few times for her appearance in my arc "The Portal Bandits". Even though she is Mace/Willpower and has Quick Recovery I still took Fitness for Swift, Health, and Stamina. More Regen and nigh-unlimited endurance suits my little juggernaut of destruction, especially when end-hungry toggles like Tough and Weave are added into the mix.

You're going to be seeing a lot more of them. Due to time constraints the Full Reviews (which can take up to 2 hours to do properly) will only occur for requested arcs and special cases. Quick Reviews are for those "hey I found a cool arc that other people might like as well" situations.

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6: Unpublish all non-Developer's Choice arcs - This is the only fair way to make the field level again after the revisions are made to the rating system. DC arcs would be DC regardless, and thus wouldn't need to be unpublished. Everyone would be able to republish their arcs immediately, giving them a fresh start on the new rating system.

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You can take my 200+ ratings and 4-star average from my cold dead hands.

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What you need to do is work up a credible facsimile of Dark Watcher as a new custom character. Then give him powersets that you think fit.

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I tried to do that once but gave it up as I had no idea what powers Hard Case would have and didn't want to have the possible annoyance of then being proven totally wrong someday if he does get made into a combatant. I was guessing Dark Scrapper but cut him out of the arc as while it was a fun idea to beat info out of him for the story it didn't really add anything to the plot to justify it.

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I would say its the ticket nerf more than anything else. Why do a longer arc if you are going to max out on tickets? The benefit we had before with the extra ticket bonus that increased as the arc went on is basically worthless now.

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This is wrong. The ticket cap is per MISSION not per ARC. A longer arc will, by definition, net you more tickets on average than a shorter one.

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They should have made it explicit that longer arcs have greater ticket bonuses. People also need to stop confusing "arc" with "mission" and thinking that it is 1,500 tickets for the entire arc when it is 1,500 per mission inside the arc. The cap is reset with each mission. Reading comprehension is so poor these days.

As for the cap, the only time I've passed 1,500 in a single mission was on a 4 man team in a mission with over a dozen objectives and even then we only missed out on 50 tickets at most according to the overflow badges (which work when you're at the mission cap too, so that makes them a bit easier to get now I guess).

Another Quick Reviews installment!

Arc ID: 8925
Arc Title: Forget the Rose, Send Me the Thorns
Author: @Hydrophidian
Morality: Heroic
Length: 3 missions
Description: The Oranbegan mage called Baktaxus has vital information that could save the world from imminent destruction! He's willing to give you the information... but only if you do a little favor for him first...
Quicky Review: Baktaxus indeed knows of a threat to the world, but won't help you unless you help him hook up with Maub the Succubus first. Well, the world does need to be saved so I help the old man out and he tells me where to find the Doomsday Device. After a fight with some of the most deliberately generic villains ever the world is saved but it seems that Baktaxus triggered a minor apocalypse in the meantime, in the form of Maub's ex-boyfriend. Fortunately they both help me stop him and the world is saved twice in a single day. I rate this one highly for absurd situations and amusing clues and dialog. It sets out to make you laugh and it delivered on that front.
Rating: *****

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Arc ID: 169114
Arc Title: Seeking Men
Author: @Fatare
Morality: Heroic
Length: 5 Missions
Description: You put your name in the personals. Or someone else did! Etiehr way, it came out kinda... botched. Now several villains are after you. And not in the usual way!
Quicky Review: Madeline Casey contacts you since the Paragon Times didn't have your number. Seems that some joker put a fake personal ad in the paper with your name on it and by accident the line that read "Villains need not apply." is missing the "not" part. This leads to a hilarious sequence of events where one villain after another vyes for your attentions. Good writing and funny dialog make this a very memorable arc aimed at female characters.
Rating: *****

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Arc ID: 176460
Arc Title: Just Say "No" to Dihydrogen Monoxide!
Author: @Mukinsanus
Morality: Heroic
Length: 3 Missions
Description: The Council has gone to far! They are planning to use Dihydrogen Monoxide, a substance so deadly that the most sane villain groups won't touch it, to further their evil ends! They must be stopped.
Quicky Review: Just when you thought that old water joke got old and died, someone brings it back and manages to make it funny again through the use of silly clues and dialog.
Rating: *****

I think many of the problems I had with this story is that it requires the player to read, and read, clues over and over again each mission and remember bits of dialog from 2-3 missions back. Otherwise things get confusing fast. There is simply a lot of information being presented, almost overwhelmingly so.

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A Midnighter Patrol has some dialogue that leads you to believe that they were/had been in contact with 'the base'. It might have been that you missed the Patrol or might have missed that dialogue while in battle.

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Never saw that once. My big complaint was that I was automatically fighting Midnighters for no reason that I could discern. That is why I automatically assumed that Derek was lying.

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As to 9 pillars being excessive - given what you learn what these pillars really are, do you think it is a wise decision for a world to put all their eggs in one basket?

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Well technically they already are all in one basket if all 9 of these pillars were in a single cave and destroying them brought about the end of the world.

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Point taken, there is the camp that will not need Derek's assistance to take Garik on, the camp that does not like to work with Allies and/or the occasions that an Ally gets 'stuck' causing the player to leave them behind. Dialogue has been changed to cover those situations without compromising the story.

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Actually, the complaint was that Garik was too busy talking to the ally than me. Remember that the player should feel like the star of the story, not a guest character. It's a common complaint that led me to rework a lot of my allies in my own arcs.

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I15 seems to say that one may have the ability to just check off the powers you want - if so then Indominatable Will will definately be there.

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You had better put a "Controllers/Dominators need not apply" warning on the arc then because you will have a lot of pissed off mezzers rating you down for making an ummezzable boss. Remember that a boss has 4 points of Mezz protection by themselves, Indomitable Will will add 10 more points of protection on top of that. Since Indominatable Will protects against every mezz type there is in the game you will be making all of those powers nigh-useless against him.

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Aaron warns the player in the opening dialogue of this mission that the CoT will try to stop the both of you. It ties into the enemy motivations -they are not going to lie down and let the heroes truimph without a fight....at least that ambush is not set on Hard;-) Player ignores warning at their own peril.

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That warning won't do anything for someone who has to enter the mission without their pets, who relies on their pets to survive, is being attacked before they can set up, and will be attacked again upon re-entering the mission if they died at the door and had to go to the hospital. It may be a Heroic arc, but remember that any AT could be playing your arc.

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Question: I have toyed with the thought of having Kilcarsadur spawn in the very room you dispel the channelors. Too much of a nasty surprise or to be expected since you just destroyed all his plans?

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Considering that I had already popped my inspirations before clicking the last Channeler and was waiting to activate Domination, I was a bit annoyed really that he didn't spawn there and that I had to go hunt him down as quickly as possible.

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NOTE: this behavior ONLY seems to happen with the Melee class as that I have seen this lock-up occur in several other MA story arcs that even Statesman is not immune. I have not seen this behavior in Range character allies.

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Yes, the bug is with Melee only. I don't know what is keeping the fix from coming.

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*GAH!* I just took a look at the height slider on the bosses and it was maxed out. It wasn't suppose to be maxed out.

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Yeah, it's doing that again. I also noticed that when I used "Load Self" it reset the slider to the minimum when the character I was loading was much taller than 4 feet.

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*The bosses are suppose to be visibly a bit bigger ("they're bigger and that's why they're in charge"-type logic). While colony insects do often have various members who vary in size fairly greatly with in the same species, it sounds like they are just too much visibly bigger. (causes a fracture in the suspension of disbelief needed in any good story)

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Yeah, she was much too big. She's a queen so already I'm basically beating up her babies but the size difference makes it look a bit silly.

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*You have to defeat the boss in order to get her "Dragonfly Tags". This is never mentioned in the mission briefing and it should be, as it is important. The Tags represent physical proof that you were aboard the ship. I thought it was handled with a Clue drop, but that clearly isn't sufficient as it is After-the-Fact.

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Proof for what reason? Magent Network certainly knows that I was there. Was it proof for all the other Crick'cK?

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*If getting back to the mission exit was an available triggerable Mission Objective Option, I would add it to the mission. If you can tell me how, I am all ears.

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Simplest way is a Boss Detail set to appear at the front of the map, set to be required, and set to appear after another objective is completed. That way you face them on the way to the entrance (which you would tell the player in the objective). Maybe move the Queen boss there and have her spawn after you plant the bomb with the message that she's going to personally see that you don't get off of the ship?

Changes made to "The Amulet of J'gara":
* Changed the color scheme on the Avatar of Balance. Kept getting complaints that she looked too similar to the Avatar of Initiative. I don't get how unless some people have very bad video card but they got their request.

/stamps the arc with his Seal of Approval

This arc carries the Lazarus Seal of Approval!

Arc ID: 12774
Arc Title: That Mysterious Buzzing Sound
Author: @Red Zero
Description: Three days ago, The Magent Network spotted a small asteroid that was projected to intercept the Earth. what has the Network concerned is that, while the asteroid did not break upon hitting Earth's atmosphere, no trace of where it landed has been located yet.
Rating: ****

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

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Mission 1:
Scarlet Seven informs me of the asteroid that approached the Earth more like a spacecraft on a course for atmospheric braking and how they never found the impact site after three days of searching by air. There are also a number of locals in the area complaining about hearing a constant buzzing sound in their ears. We can all see where this is going.

Scarlet Seven's briefing is very...dry. The dialog could use a bit livening up there, or is she supposed to be a robot?

I arrived at a farmstead outside Croatoa and immediately heard some people talking nearby in the barn who turned out to be insectoid aliens. The Crick'cK have landed.

I rather like the design of the group and they do have a theme that is reflected in their appearance, powers and descriptions. However, the Tar Beetles just don't look like they belong at all to me. They're much too big and brutish compared to the other small, graceful looking creatures. The boss that I defeated was a bit overly large as well.

After rescuing three civilians and defeating the boss I heard about a Colony and was informed through clues that I found an interesting cave in this area. Very interesting as it's obviously artificial.

Mission 2:
After informing Scarlet Seven of the invaders she has it declared a priority to determine their origin and intent. She makes some references to Omega Class Clearance (which I already have, BTW. Who doesn't know what the Rikti really are by now?) as well.

I went down into the caves and rescued Maggie Hayes at the entrance, who both needs her dialog looked over and has no explanation for being down there to begin with. Se seems to exist to only give me a clue about hearing the Bugs talk about how "there hairless apes were of no concern during the last survey."

The author has commandeered a Rikti cave to serve as the Bug lair and I'm starting to notice that these critters could be very annoying for a squishy to fight. In a single battle I noticed the following stacked on me: 2 Impales, 2 Rings of Fire, and 1 Char hold.

I cleaned out the caves of Bugs and found a communications device, which ended the mission. My only complaints here are: this map is rather annoying to a defeat all as there are a lot of hidden places for the Bugs to spawn in and how did I know to look for a communications device to begin with? It'd be better if the objective was more vague about the alien tech that I'm supposed to collect as I'm supposed to be coming in with no knowledge of what I might find.

Mission 3:
Scarlet Seven has confirmed my Omega Level clearance and filled me in on a bunch of stuff I had figured out already on my own. The Bugs plan to take the Earth and the Magent Network has detected a large ship orbiting Jupiter. I'm taking a ride up there in a spaceship (We got flights to Jupiter now? Cool!) and have 45 minutes to investigate it. That Red Alpha guy that Scarlet has mentioned a few times is accompanying me.

There are a lot of objectives on this ship for 45 minutes, I hope that this Arachnos Base map that the author used is not very large. I rescued Red Alpha, who turns out to be a Bots/SS Mastermind but only summoned the Battle Drones. Then I rescued the first of two Assault Bots. Apparently I'm going to have a total of 6 Allies for this mission. It makes me wonder why the author didn't simply make Red Alpha Extreme Bots, then we'd have Protector Bots and their bubbles and Seeker Drones, which would be a bit more useful in my opinion. I also don't know why he needs Super Strength, like a Robotics Mastermind needs Knockout Blow.

The author also made the glowies take a LOOONNNGG time to click. There is no reason to be making this take more than four seconds unless it's simply to annoy the player.

With the ship secured and under my control I learned from the computer archives that this slower-than-light cryocolony ship has been on it's way for 20,000 years now (geez, how far away was that planet they started from and how slow were they going?) and that the warships escorting it were lagging behind by a couple years.

Mission 4:
The Magent Network is figuring out what to do about the colony ship and incoming warships when the original scouting party that I captured earlier has broken out. I need to stop them from getting word out to the incoming warships.

I was wondering when somebody would finally use one of the police station maps. I quickly defeated all of the detainies, though I didn't recognize this boss at all. It'd help continuity more if she was the same one from the first mission.

Mission 5:
The battlecruisers have been determined to be 1.5 light years out and I'm being asked to take a ride out there in our own spaceship again and get aboard to place and arm a Nuke. Wait, there are two ships, so how does boarding one and blowing it up take out them both? Anyhow, I have 15 minutes to do it. Here we go.

Kudos to the author for knowing that a nuke detonating in vacuum won't do much of anything. Apparently Red Zero is going to plant the nuke on the other ship. Red Alpha is here to help me again along with the two random Assault Bots.

So wait, I have the defeat the Captain as well? What about having to escape after setting the bomb? Shouldn't security be waiting for me at the airlock as I try to escape?

I'm informed that Red Alpha didn't make it (wait, he was right there with me) out of the ship in time and was lost in the explosion. I guess the author wanted to have some sense of tragedy for the heroes.

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The Verdict:
Not bad, not bad at all. I'd like to see the Tar Beetles redesigned as they don't fit in very well. I'd also wonder why Red Alpha doesn't summon all of his robots and instead having two random Assault Bots to find. The final mission could be a bit more climatic, aside from the really short time limit I never felt like I was in any danger. The rest of my comments can be seen above. 4-stars.

And now for the first installment of Lazarus Quick Reviews! I was playing through the list of Medium-length [SFMA] arcs and figured that I might as well post my thoughts on some of the ones that I found.


Arc ID: 13107
Arc Title: Of Sound Body and Mind
Author: @Mr. Mud
Morality: Villainous
Length: 3 Missions
Description: The lawyer of the late Frank LaRusso, better know to every supervillain in America as the mob boss 'Knuckles', wants you to help execute the late mobster's will, to make sure that all the right beneficiaries recieve what they deserve.
Quicky Review: This was a fun romp for a high-level villain that features some fun dialog and custom mobsters, like the zombie mob boss who's arm I kept as proof that I had taken him out. It did have some power-balancing issues with the bosses (which the author is already aware of and fixing) but otherwise it was nothing that couldn't be soloed by all villains. The ending was easy to see coming but then again it'd have been just as obvious if the twist had not occured, so it all works out.
Rating: *****

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Arc ID: 60197
Arc Title: Becky's Revenge
Author: @New Age Ronin
Morality: Villainous
Length: 2 Missions
Description: Becky the Tarantula Mistress needs a little bit of villainy to help take down a rival. That rival's name? Fusionette!
Quicky Review: The scary thing is how well the author got the character of Becky. Expect walls of text in their briefings and debriefings, along with a lot of funny moments and dialog from Faultline and Fusionette.
Rating: *****

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Arc ID: 37636
Arc Title: The Missing
Author: @Shadow-Rush
Morality: Heroic
Length: 3 Missions
Description: What starts out as a missing person case turns into something more sinister.
Quicky Review: I've seen a lot of "slice of backstory" type arcs, but this one is more notable for having a sad ending and advancing the character in the present. The author does insert himself as an ally in the final mission but doesn't steal the spotlight from the player. He could be a bit tougher though, Leiutenant-rank allies tend to die easily and aren't much help in Elite Boss battles.
Rating: *****

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Arc ID: 4983
Arc Title: Suffer the Children
Author: @Angerdog
Morality: Heroic
Length: 2 Missions
Description: A group of orphans has vanished en route from Westin Phipps Haven House to St. Laurie's school for orphans in Nerva Archipelago. Investigate the disappearance. (Note: Enemies are challenging. Not Recommended for Solo Play.)
Quicky Review: This mini-arc has promise but needs a lot of polish. The author has a custom group with some nice visual designs (and a healthy dose of body horror in mission 2) but nearly all of them lack descriptions and they need some serious rebalancing. The first mission was all minions and a EB (no warning on that and no real reason for one instead of a Boss). The second mission had minions and LTs but there was a serious overabundance of electricity and endurance drain. The ending answers no questions and is quite clear that it doesn't intend to. Well, sometimes the mystery is more interesting than any answer could be anyway.
Rating: ***

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Maybe I should also point out that the character fits best in serious stories But I'll check all these out. Thanks guys! And keep 'em coming, forums!

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Arc 1709 "The Amulet of J'gara" features some monsters as you reach the end. For levels 25-33.

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Anyhow, I wonder how much of the issue is due to all the "Complete X Mission" badges that the Devs put into the MA system. With there being dozens of those badges going from 10 missions to 100 missions and then X missions that are Heroic, X that are Villainous, etc... it's no wonder that short arcs get played so much more often.

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The badges really should have been based on individual missions completed, not storyarcs.

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Meh, I'm at about 90 arcs played, and I've done about 50/50 short vs long arcs. Those badges are nowhere near unattainable. Unlike some of the test badges, not to mention the ones for playing HoF arcs. Also, your auto-complete "missions completed in test mode" badge farm will count toward the "play x heroic" or "play x villainous" badges if you set it to the proper alignment.

Besides, all the "Want it NAO" badgers already have played some published auto-complete badge farm 100 times and are probably busy trying to kill a bazillion guys in test mode.

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Probably? They certainly are.

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Perhaps the Devs will allow a filter by # of missions in stories...

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Right now it's called Very Short (1 mission), Short (2 missions), Medium (3 missions), Long (4 missions), and Very Long (5 missions). It's not always accurate but it works rather well.

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everyone does sewers when you start a new toon.

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<sarcasm>We had sewers in Mercy Island all this time and nobody told me?</sarcasm>

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Short arcs with story content is the way to go. Make it farmable, and you will have two audiences.

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Anyhow, I wonder how much of the issue is due to all the "Complete X Mission" badges that the Devs put into the MA system. With there being dozens of those badges going from 10 missions to 100 missions and then X missions that are Heroic, X that are Villainous, etc... it's no wonder that short arcs get played so much more often.

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Yeah I did an arc that had 2 allies that were EB's. My character only served to lead them around while they killed everything.

It was bad.

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Then don't pick up the allies, case solved.

Allies are always optional. If you can't beat the arc without them, then bring friends.

And if you're going to have an EB and throw in allies, if you make them less than a Boss then you should not have bothered as they're simply going to die during the EB's alpha strike.

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After some humorous exposition, you go into Oranbega to raid the Circle's library, which is a bit cliche, but oh well. You are reduced to level 40 for this, which is unusual, because CoT and Carnies both go to 50.

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Because the Tsoo only go to 40 and nobody likes an arc with crazy level ranges jumping up and down so I make everything fall into the same level range. After all, I'm the guy who will take off an entire star for unjustified level jumps.