Lazarus

I guess it's a pretty good sign when people are spending more time criticizing my spelling and grammar than the actual gameplay and mission design.

While it was posted before, this arc has undergone some major revisions.

Arc Name: The Portal Bandits
Arc ID: 3326
Faction: Crey, Rikti, Nagan Hegemony
Morality: Heroic
Difficulty Level: Medium-Hard
Synopsis: A mysterious group has invaded a Portal Corp lab and sealed themselves within. The PPD has been unable to get inside and a hero is needed to enter the lab, defeat the invaders, and discover their intentions. (AVs/EBs with optional allies. Lots of custom enemies. [SFMA/HLMA])

Summary of Arcs Reviewed Thus Far
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Arc ID - Title - Author - Rating
================================================== ===================
57352 - The All-Seeing Eye - @Steele Magnolia - 5 Stars
2595 - The Extadine Lab - @Vanden - 5 Stars
40783 - The Stream of Time - @Silent Spy - 2 Stars
11102 - Merulina Awakens! - @Neuronia - 3 Stars
33034 - The Descender - @MrSquid - 4 Stars
61013 - The Invasion of the Bikini-Clad Samurai Vampiresses from Outer Space! - @Aliana Blue - 5 Stars
1237 - The Storyteller: Sabrina's Tale - @Redbone1 - 5 Stars
2180 - Bricked Electronics - @GlaziusF - 5 Stars
1501 - Heroic Rescue - @Robzilla - 3 Stars
72475 - Passing Notes - @Aracade - 1 Star
75386 - The Knights of Rularuu - @Vanden - 5 Stars
41565 - Astoria in D Minor - @The Cheshire Cat - 5 Stars
2922 - Hunting the Dark Dragon - @AcidZero - 2 Stars
84420 - Death to Disco! - @Wrong Number - 4 Stars
28450 - The Doom That Came to Paragon City - @Tokamak - 4 Stars
47143 - The Galactic Protectorate - @Unknown Hero - 3 Stars
74617 - Quoth the Raven - @Sroxah - 4 Stars
60280 - Dr. Dave and the Copper Legion - @theHedoren - 4 Stars
31817 - Death by Candlelight - @HalcyonHaze - 3 Stars

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Vanity Arcs - We know you have a Villain or a Hero. That's nice. So do we.

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Did anyone tell the Devs?

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Yes, running bosses will cause failure if they make it to the exit, or the elevator, if it's a multi-floor map.

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If required for completion. Interestingly you can set a non-required boss to run and you can chase him down the elevator and all the way to the exit.

Anyway, even if you make some "impossible" mission that you expect people to fail, always write the success dialog. I've played a few arcs that ended with such a mission, won, and the jerk contact didn't even acknowledge my victory because apparently the author didn't even think that someone might be able to pull it off.

Changes made to "The Portal Bandits": LOTS!
* Nagan Duelist and Nagan Talon are now flight capable.
* Nagan Brawler changed from Martial Arts/Energy Aura to Martial Arts/Archery.
* Nagan Centurion removed. Was too hard to balance and the group didn't really need 2 bosses.
* New Minion, the Nagan Roboticist (Bots/EA).
* All Nagans now have detailed descriptions.
* Naga Obscura removed from mission 1. Replaced with a regular Nagan Engineer boss.
* Kaon removed from mission 1.
* Missions 1 and 3 have more clues now to give background on the Nagan group.
* A few more "setpieces" added to mission 1.
* Vikki Vandale, Anna Nethema, and Iron Samurai reduced to Elite Boss rank.
* Tried to fix up as many plot holes as I could.
* Rewrote the souvenir.

If you have played this arc already I ask you to please run it again. I want to be sure that it's a more enjoyable experience overall.

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It's the archetype, he needs the rage from the previous fight to carry over to the next, I assume. I haven't played a brute.

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Brute Fury is a huge damage bonus and the AT has a base damage that is low to begin with, so with the fast rate that it decays, stopping for 10 seconds could mean the difference between +150% damage or +50% damage. Domination for Dominators is not quite a bad but if you don't have it up around 90% when you get to that boss, you can't start the fight with Domination mode active and it's going to be either a long drawn-out boss fight or one where you die in seconds.

Of course knowing that the mission had 18 bosses, I would never take a Dominator in. If I had gone in with one and didn't know ahead of time about the 18 bosses I would be pretty pissed to tell the truth as Domination has a recharge time and I'd run into boss after boss before it's ready again.

Regardless, even when reviewing an arc I play through it like I normally do, full throttle with the NPC Dialog Tab open to catch what they say. I'm not going to stop to read clues unless the NPC dialog implied that they just told me something important, or it was a glowy that I already had to stop for, or something big enough happened that I felt the need to stop and take notes immediately. Otherwise I review all the dialog and clues at the end of the mission and compile my notes for that mission.

After all, I'm seeing how well the arc PLAYS as much as how it tells a story. I seek a balance between the two, so an arc that is all story but slow boring gameplay and tedious bosses is not going to be much fun in my mind, while an arc with great gameplay but now story can still be very boring unless it has a very good gimmick going on.

Now I wonder if we are going to need yet another set of [Tags] for Story Heavy and Story Light, as it seems we have differing ideas of what SFMA should mean.

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If i started telling you a joke by telling you the punchline, it would eventually make sense, but the experience might not be as good as telling it the normal way.

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Maybe it's just me, but I tend not to read the clues I get in a mission until it is already over. I don't have time really to stop and read every time I get one, especially when playing a Brute or a Dominator.

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Dude, if you're going to drop that much text on a player, just go ahead and write it up as a story and post it in the Fan Fiction section. And I say that as a writer and a mission creator.

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That's what I told him when I decided to not review his arc. Obviously it's not for everyone.

Change the Electric Minion to a LT. Electric is too annoying to give to something that will spawn so often.

No, those who appear as "Hero" are apparently coded specially for it.

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I can't figure this one out. I have created a slew of custom critters and made sub sets for minion/Lt, Boss, etc. How do you name the subsets so that the villain group name is correct when you play the mission? For example, if my master group is called XXX, and I use a subset of XXX_minions, the critters have a group name of XXX_minions when I test the mission.

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Because as far as the game is concerned they are all separate groups and you can only assign one group to be the one that appears on the map. Any other groups have to be added with patrols, ambushes, boss details, etc.

I wonder why you did this instead of just putting them all in the same group like how all other enemy groups function. You're just making things harder for yourself.

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You might try making them patrols rather than allies. They will then ignore the player and act independently.

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If I add 20 Patrols, this *suppresses* the normal spawning of baddies. For example, after setting up patrols to be triggered on the glowie, upon entry to the map there were almost no baddies present.

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Well so do allies if you add 20 of them. They use the same spawn points.

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Try putting text in both singular and plural. I've seen plenty of optionals showing, including one arc where the savvy creator made the optional navigation text in light blue to distinguish it from required objectives.

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Yep. Put the text in both boxes and it will show up whether it is required or not. The blue highlighting is just to make it stand out as something different as writing (optional) for multiple objectives can eat up a lot of room.

Tonight I was looking to get a little XP and decided to embark on a MA Dumpster Dive. What that means is that I delve into the 0-star area and look for anything that might be remotely interesting. I came across one with a rather nice title and interesting description, but also noticed that it had 4 ratings and a 0-star average. Well, I got curious and wondered just how bad it could be.

Turns out that it wasn't that bad. In fact, with some fixes it could be rather good. I present to you...

Arc: Death by Candlelight
Arc ID: 31817
Author: @HalcyonHaze
Description: When MAGI encounters powers they are ill-equipped to handle, they seek out someone of extraordinary power and skill to get the job done. Someone...like you!
Rating: ***

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Character used: Brimstone Mephit, Level 44 Fire Blast/Dark Miasma Corruptor
Difficulty: Tenacious (Diff 2)
Level for Arc Playthrough: 44

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Mission 1:
Azuria has called me to look into the matter of four missing MAGI members who were exploring a part of Oranbega but have not reported back. Azuria is concerned as she cannot locate them even on the spiritual plane.

I enter a small Oranbega map and am surprised not to see a single CoT, instead a large number of custom mobs from a group called "Fireskull Hegemony". As you can expect, they wield a lot of fire, as well as some rusty katanas and red hot shields. Rather nice designs for them all, the author put some work into it.

I explore the map and find both a burned spellbook and the four piles of ash. This is not good.

Mission 2:
Azuria informs me that these creatures are the masters of the plane of fire and that the Circle were foolish enough to try to summon one of them. The Fireskull used it as an opportunity to open a path into our dimension and are attempting to invade.

I enter a Cimeroran ruins cave and right ahead see the Raid Leader that I am here to defeat. I doubt that the author wanted him to appear so close to the door so I'll chalk it up to a miss-setting of the options. He's a boss that I hadn't seen in the previous mission, some demonic fire elemental. Fluffy (my Dark Servant) and I make short work of him and he does have a couple ambushes that come to help him, but he died to fast for them to help.

However, it appears that this was just a diversion.

Mission 3:
Azuria tells me that the Fireskull have begun appearing in the city sewers, rather than spreading out from Oranbega. This confuses me a bit as then I wonder why the 2nd mission was in a Cimeroran cave rather than an Oranbegan map.

I arrive in the sewers with three magical Foci that Azuria gave me, prototypes designed to help block the Fireskull incursion into our plane. I see with annoyance that this mission is also a defeat all.

I drop the first focus into a barrel, apparently to keep it hidden and get an ambush of Fireskull saying that they can feel their power fading. I dispatch them and continue onwards to find the other two foci locations.

This map is fairly large and annoying in that is has a part where it splits into two long tunnels that go far. I find the other two Foci locations down one tunnel and fight two more ambushes, but because this is a defeat all I have to backtrack looking for some stray one that I missed. By this point the Fireskull are outliving their welcome.

It'd be better to use a small map and make only the three foci needing to be placed the objective that ends it. Just explain that once the third one is placed the Fireskull cannot stay manifested in our plane or something and let the mission end.

Azuria informs me that the foci did work as hoped and that other heroes are planting them in other locations, but...

Mission 4:
A group of Fireskull made it to the surface. Good thing Paragon City builds tend to be rather non-flammable, aside from those couple in Steel Canyon.

I travel to an office building where the Fireskull are camping out and am not surprised to find it already ablaze. I love this map, by the way.

Annoyingly, one again there is a boss at the beginning, practically right in front of the door this time. The author needs to check their spawn points again. It took much longer for Fluffy and I to kill him this time as he had a Thermal LT nearby who Fire Shielded him right at the start.

I see that there are four more bosses on this map, plus a "Warlord" and it might be defeat all again. On a map this small the defeat all is not a big deal, but the 5 bosses plus the Warlord are overkill.

At least the Warlord turns out to only be a named boss and not an EB. As the Warlord fell he mentioned something about a Sovereign. I felt that the Warlord appeard too early and should have been in the back room on the second floor.

Mission 5:
Azuria tells me that the Fireskull are wiped out in Paragon City, but the rift between the planes is still open and she suspects that the Sovereign is the one keeping it open. So she gets the plan to have me take a CoT soul prison crystal back to that place in mission 1 and use it to yoink the Sovereign into our plane, weakening him at the same time, so that he can be defeated and trapped within the crystal. I'd say it's the best plan she's ever come up with.

It's not entirely the same map as mission 1, unless the crystal placements are not always the same in these sort of maps. I find the altar in the first room and there is no indication that this is a defeat all (finally!) but to be on the safe side I clear the immediate surrounding rooms in case this Sovereign is a marathon man.

I click the glowie but don't see the Sovereign anywhere, so I go to look for him. He's in the big temple room at the back of the map, a fitting place for a battle. He's also an EB. The description did warn about one, but the author needs to add a "bring friends" warning to the mission briefing. Even Positron said that a major main reason that arcs get passed up for Developers Choice is because of people not including that warning.

Now this guy was a tough fight for someone with Fire Blast. He was Fire Aura for sure but I couldn't really tell what his primary was. He used a few fire blasts but I kept him at range so well that I never saw him melee. With Darkest Night from both me and Fluffy he could not hurt me much but boy did he take forever to whittle down. I found out that he was Extreme Fire Aura when he used Rise of the Phoenix, but thankfully the mission was already considered complete. The author might still want to consider turning him down to Hard instead of Extreme. I had to eat all my inspirations and use Force of Nature as endurance was the main problem in such a long battle.

Azuria informs me that the soul prison crystal is being sealed away and that the remains of that spellbook that originally summoned them has been destroyed. She also said that the Mayor owes me a big bonus.

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The Verdict:
I can see why some people bailed on this arc, though giving it zeroes was a bit mean. It certainly does have flaws but they are all addressable. I consider this arc to be a fixer-upper, fix the flaws and it can be quite good and enjoyable.

The most annoying thing about the Fireskull is that the author created a minion with hold powers. Really that sort of thing should not be used on minions as they can spawn in large numbers even when solo and quickly stack holds on the player. Holds on LTs and bosses are ok, but on minions it can be downright aggravating. I'm sure one of my Brutes would never notice it, but if I hadn't had a cone Fear power, stealth, a pet, and two holds on this Corruptor then I'd never have made if through the arc. Aside from that one minion, the rest of the group is not bad at all really. The Thermal LTs can make fights really long and annoying for a Fire-using character, but then again these ARE fire elemental creatures that we are dealing with after all.

I think that with the Fireskull Hegemony rebalanced a little, some changes to the design of missions 2, 3 and 4 (Cimeroran cave makes no sense in Paragon City, no defeat all in 3 and a smaller map, less bosses in 4), and the EB toned down a slight bit this can be at least a 4 star arc. Mission 2 could use something more to keep it from feeling redundant. Adding some more details like maybe a CoT mage to tell you what happened in mission 1 or some trapped office workers in mission 4 to rescue and it could even move up to 5. For now it's a 3-star arc, it has promise but is still in need of some work.

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Agreed - They are generically provided. HOWEVER, you CAN go into the description and change it IF you so wish. The game mechanics allow that. Can you leave it that way. Yes, absolutely!

BUT would it not FURTHER spice up your story if they did have slightly different descriptions????

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To me and everyone else I've asked it sounds rather irrelevant. If it had been the same Mage showing up every single time then there would definitely be a point to doing it, but not for three different ones. There is only so much room in the arc files so you have to chose what details are important and which can be discarded. This one goes into the discard bin.

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I really did not explain well on that one either ...So let us backtrack. The other corridors have no other statues left....having some dialogue there relating to that fact in that encounter further places the character, villains IN THAT particular story map. Use what is IN the map to add a little flare to the story. Just as an example - you go in to rescue a slimy lawyer who is named Chris Jenkins. In office building map you find a flyer advertising his services (which by the way in Steel Canyon right above the Midnighters Club there IS a big billboard advertising his services)

All I am trying to point out is that one CAN use the map environment to further enhance the experience. Am I making any sense with this or am I failing to explain again?

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It was clear in the first place, but does a quick mission in a small map need dozens of glowies around doing nothing (which is what the extra statues would be) that are not used for furthering the plot? Consider it Conservation of Details again.

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I understand it is all an illusion....HOWEVER when I read the description of Salinger starting to talk normally, then he stops, and shutters and a voice takes over my first interpretation is that he is being Possessed.

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Here is the exact dialog from the arc file.

Buck suddenly stops talking and his face twists into a ghoulish smile before he lets out a terrible laugh. He begins to speak again, with Mindskewer's voice!

I don't see how you get the impression that he is possessed. It's pretty clear that it is Mindskewer giving you some false hope and having a laugh at you.

12 customs is the most I was able to fit into a 4-mission arc.

After taking several minutes to compose myself, because some of your feedback infuriated me with how petty and irrelevant it was, I'll take some time to explain a few things.

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I wonder if you have him set on Defensive or Agressive?

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Yes, he is on Defensive. All that changes is the aggro-radius of the ally so he still will attack on his own if he gets close. Don't worry, he gets teleported out if he is defeated once freed from the hold spell, as Buck tells you in the briefing.

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The lack of personalized right click info on each of your CoT Mages Sitrix, Polentes, and now Nomaris makes them all seem generic.

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They ARE generic! They are just three Agony mages with no background whatsoever, with their names pulled from the list at the bottom of this Paragonwiki entry. They are generic names used by the game for CoT bosses who appear in Paper and Scanner missions, where they don't have backgrounds either. I even asked around in the MA Arc Finder channel if anyone thought this was a big deal and no one did.

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Since they are Mages who supposedly are intelligent they all would not delve in the same EXACT powers so I find it odd in the story sense why one would have three that are the same.

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Because that is the only CoT boss that fits entirely inside the level range of the arc. Of course three Agony Mages are going to have the same powers.

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One ally you rescue happens to be a Living Statue. I know the mechanics of why you placed the Living Armor in there as an Ally to assist. Still I found it odd that CoT would not destroy it - especially since you wander the corridors and there are NO other Living Statues there. It leads you to believe that they destroyed the rest.

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It is only possible to fit 4 details in that map, period. What happened to the rest of the statues? Heck if I know. Why are they trying to capture this one? Maybe they want to study it. Not everything needs a tidy explanation.

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if the player NEVER LEFT and this is all in the player's head as she states in her dialogue, then why would she need to "possess "Salinger? In the beginning mission 4 dialogue it clearly shows he is first speaking of his own free will.

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Because it is all part of the huge illusion, consider yourself trapped in some epic Hold/Sleep spell this entire time. Mindskewer probably thought it was a fun way to mess with you and start a monologue. Sounds like it totally flew over your head. I can't account for everything nor do I intend to try to make everything extremely simple to understand.

Buck even says in the debriefing that you were in there for a pretty short time. That fourth mission takes place within a moment of seconds.

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But you also MUST explain clearly in the dialogue that THIS Salinger is nothing more than a manifestation so people do not feel that the Idiot Ball is played.

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No. I'm tired of dumbing things down more and more and I've hit my limit. If someone is really that dumb then let them be confused.

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Avatar of Balance had what I believe are kinetic powers.

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Nope, Gravity Control/Dark Miasma with both sets turned down to Standard.

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The physical look of Strength is pretty evident but not sure why Balance and Initiative look the way they do....

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Well how should they look to you? I'm trying to make things as faceless as possible without resorting to some silly looking Illusion Decoys.

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The allies MIGHT even be a bit overpowered

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Any weaker and they become useless. Anything less than Boss-rank dies in seconds. They're also optional, that is why the text is a different color for them. Even pohsyb used the blue nav text to denote optional objectives in his MA arc.

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If I recall she was an EB - that might be EB on Solo....on Team Play it might go back up to AV which then would appropriately be a challenge for group play.

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She's an Archvillain in this fight.

Arc ID: 60280
Arc Title: Dr. Dave and the Copper Legion
Author: @theHedoren
Description: An expedition to Cimerora uncovers and ancient wepaon that threatens to destroy all of Paragon City if it falls into the wrong hangs - and it does, naturally.
Rating: ****

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Character used: Zetsumei Mitsukai, Level 50 Dual Blades/Dark Armor Scrapper
Difficulty: Tenacious (Diff 2)
Level for Arc Playthrough: 50

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Mission 1:
I haven't seen many arcs in MA so far involving Cimerorans and this one has both them and the CoT. Also the title was quite catchy, so I walk up to Dr. Dave Diaz and talk to him about his expedition to Cimerora. By this he means the ruins, as he is apparently not in with the Midnight Squad like I am. Anyhow, one of his assistants has vanished in the ruins and he asks me to join the search party in finding the missing Heather Glass.

I arrive in the caves and hear someone talking and walking about in the distance. I set off to investigate and find... living Cimerorans!

This is a most curious development. I fight my way through the cavern and find Heather, who apparently has some magical powers of her own, which come from an old Viking bracelet according to her description. She was taking notes about her captors and didn't quite want to leave. Regardless I escorted her to the exit.

Upon getting her to the exit, she gave me a long clue about how a man named Praenuntius ruled Cimerora before Imperious. This man was so paranoid about being overthrown that he sacrified his own son to the god Mulciber (Vulcan) and crafted an army of metal men. However, he died before completing the army and it was hidden away by his successor.

That doesn't explain all the Cimerorans being there, however.

Mission 2:
Dr. Dave fills me in on the Copper Legion, whom he believes is a relic like the Terra Cotta Army of Emperor Qin, not a mystical fighting force of golems. He know believes that the Circle of Thorns may know where it is and asks me to check out a possible location.

I feel like I missed something here. He says that they found information in Cimerora that tells them this, did that happen off-screen or did I miss something in mission 1?

I travel to a CoT library in Oranbega and set off to search 6 bookcases for 2 books. It's a very small Oranbega map and I quickly find all six bookcases, but none of them have the books. However, the book-keeper arrives and I fight him and upon his defeat he tells me the location of the Copper Legion. He also warns me that I'm not the first to inquire about it, and that it cannot be commanded by just anyone.

Mission 3:
Dr. Dave is happy to find that we now know the location of the Copper Legion but learns that the Midnighter Club is under attack by men in green armor and that Heather Glass is trapped inside.

(This marks the second time so far that I have seen the Midnight Club used, the first being by myself.)

I enter to find that the Midnighters have left the club and sealed the doors, so it's just me and the raiders now, who happen to be the Copper Legion themselves. I see Heather early on but remember that she is only a LT and a bit squishy so I leave her for last and clear out the club first.

The Copper Legion is pretty cool looking and have neat abilities, but I have one complaint: don't give Energy Transfer to bosses! That guy opened the battle with it and hit my Scrapper for over 1500 damage. It also seems odd that they are vulnerable to fear, but that is not a reason to run out and give them Extreme Willpower either.

I finish clearing out the Copper Legion, grab a bunch of Cimeroran tablets, and rescue Heather.

Dr. Dave upgrades his theory from "cultural relic" to "divine army" and tells me that the tablets, once translated, tell how to control the Legion. However it is not possible to take command of it without defeating their current commander.

Mission 4:
Suddenly the Copper Legion begins invading Paragon City and am I needed to help get trapped civilians out of Steel Canyon before Longbow can go in and clear the Legion out. Fortunately I don't have to actually lead the civilians out and somewhere in this zone is a hero named Pyralis who can help me.

These SS/Elec Blast LTs get annoying fast when in large spawns due to all the end drain. The Voltalic Setinel is a bit overkill as well. The game seems to be taking sympathy on me and keeps dropping blue inspirations.

I don't know what purpose Pyralis serves really other than to drop a clue. He spawned in the very back and I found all of the citizens before running into him. When I found him, he dropped and clue and the mission ended.

Anyway, he says he detected some sort of magical signal and that it if can be stopped or blocked, then perhaps the Legion will shut down.

Mission 5:
Dr. Dave decides to go on the offensive and send me to where the CoT said the Legion was located in hopes that the controlling mechanism is still there as well. Both Dr. Dave and Heather will be waiting for me at the Legion's catacombs and that I should gather whatever allies I need (you might want to highlight that line and move it to the first part of the briefing since it sounds like a AV warning.)

First I have 7 "vertices" to search for and disable, the first 2 I come across are in a room that also contains and ally named "Sun Coyote". Turns out that's Dr. Dave himself and that the Vertices are amplifiers for the mystical signal. I also find another surprise, Malta.

I then find Heather Glass, aka "Glass Dragon". Both have rather nice costumes, Glass Dragon is rather cute as well. Interestingly she is now Boss-rank, I guess Sun Coyote must be her mentor.

I disable all of the Vertices and set off to find and defeat the Commander of the Copper Legion. While searching for him I get the impression from the Malta patrols that he is not one of their members. It took a while to find him as for some reason he spawned all the way back at the entrance of the map when the last Vertice was near the back.

The Commander of the Copper Legion is none other than Moment, the Malta shapeshifter from the World Wide Red arc and he has taken the form of Scirocco. With the help of Heather and Dave I take him down. It wasn't much hard but I could have done without that Malta ambush and the Sapper they brought with them in the middle of the battle.

With Moment defeated we have obtained the keystone that allowed him to control the Copper Legion and it has now become harmless and inanimate again.

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The Verdict:
The story is very solid but it does have a few flaws: squishy ally in missions 1 and 3, plot hole in mission 1, ally who appears too late to help in mission 4, excessive end drain from LTs, and a somewhat overpowered boss. I still recommend playing it but can't quite give it 5 stars unless those issues are addressed, especially the LT and Boss. Kudos on the Malta surprise at the end and using Moment as the endboss.

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I'm a bit disappointed that of all the groups where Rikti are slaughtering Ravenheart, that the group nearest the captive should somehow emerge victorious. Strange, and something that hadn't happened during any of my test runs. Probably just a freak accident, but I'll keep an eye out for it.

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I ran into a similar issue in "The Portal Bandits". In mission 2 the Crey kept killing the Nagans, especially as they could run into nearby Crey mobs and get help. When I changed it around and made the Nagans the primary group and inserted Crey through battles the opposite occurred and decided to write it into the story that Crey was trying to hold out for backup. This only happened for solo runs though, when a team went in and caused LTs and Bosses to spawn it was Crey that got owned big time.

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This is a great idea, and something that I will likely be adding, if I can make enough space in the file size to fit another boss with his own dialog. This would be a good place to insert another Magus and give the feeling that there's some kind of connection between the Rikti and magic in this arc.

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I do like seeing the Maguses, they are very much underused. The idea is what I used for mission 1 in Portal Bandits, which was originally a defeat all, until pohsyb recommended that I just make it so that only the boss is required and explain that defeating her sends the minions into a panic and triggers a retreat.

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The clue for the vial explains that attempts to destroy it were futile.

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I missed that then.

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Would you believe I ran out of file space and totally forgot about this until you mentioned it?

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Been there myself.

Arc ID: 74617
Arc: Quoth the Raven
Author: @Sroxah
Description: When the Rikti attack the offices of a brilliant evil genius, you are called to help. What is the meaning of the mysterious sudden attack, and why are the Rikti involved? All these questions and more are answered in the tale known as: Quoth the Raven.
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:
The contact for this arc is a man dressed in pseudo-roman armor named Sumannus, second in command of the villain group Ravenheart. Already I'm expecting the cameos to flow, but there's generally nothing wrong with that.

Gregory Husk, the Raven King, sent a distress call from his office, talking about a Rikti attack, and so far none of the members of Ravenheart who were sent to investigate have reported back. Therefore, Sumannus is calling in the aid of an outsider, me. Of course as a villain I will be paid.

I arrive at a suitably trashed office and immediately run into the Rikti. I come across a number of glowing trash cans and search each one for clues. Annoyingly, the author has cranked up the interact time on them all. This is especially annoying for a Brute, as it means each search is going to waste even more of my Fury.

Fortunately by the second glowie I find the reason for the attack, a part of a map that was stuffed inside. A sizeable Rikti ambush comes running to try and take it from me.

I find a tunnel dug into the floor, I wonder if the Rikti came up through that or if they dug it after the attack. Down inside I find Gregory Husk, who apparently was caught unprepared. Indeed his description mentions that he was in his lab, hence the lab coat, and unarmed. I escort him out past 3 Rikti ambushes and he remarks that next time he will be ready for them.

I go back to find the Rikti Magus I have to defeat and hop down the rabbit hole again. This time I go further and find a Rikti base underneath this office. Interesting.

I find the Magus and defeat him. Not only does he recognize me and is surprised to see me here, but he is also saying that "The soul: Is ours". I also found a black feather stuck to the back of his battle armor.

Mission 2:
The Rikti have attacked again, this time at the Ravenheart home base. They have planted bombs and Sumannus is asking for my help again. He acknowledges that I might not care about this at all, but I will be rewarded handsomely.

The bombs are planted in a sewer that runs beneath the base and somewhere down there is a Ravenheart ally that I am to find as well. It is a defeat all, which does make sense but hopefully the map is not too large and twisty.

These Rikti aren't playing. I was expecting some little glowie bombs and was instead faced with the dropship kind. Fortunately they are not as hard to smash as those bombs.

I see some battles with Ravenheart members, but they died pretty quickly most of the time. The exception was when I found Talon, who was oddly already rescued and there were some Ravenheart nearby. I can only assume that the battle spawned next to the hostage and that they took out his captors.

However, Talon has a bug. Once rescued he ran off and told me that he grabbed this item off of a Rikti before he was captured. However I didn't receive a clue or see any text telling me what it was that he gave me.

I found all the bombs but had to backtrack all the way to the beginning to find that last Rikti, who was wandering around and possibly part of some lost patrol.

This mission is straightfoward but could do with a smaller map. 6 bombs might be a bit excessive considering their size and implied yield. Another suggestion, maybe put a Raid Leader in the last room and change it so that the objectives are the bombs, 1 rescue, and defeat the leader and his guards. Then you could say that after destroying the bombs and taking out the leader that any remaining Rikti fled for their lives.

Mission 3:
Sumannus now tells me that Husk has tracked down the mission map piece (had I forgetten that we were looking for one or was that what the mission clue in mission 2 was about?) and is paying me to retrieve it for him. He tells me that CoT are also in the area but nobody knows why.

I enter a nice, spacious cave (notice how nobody uses blue caves in MA arcs?) and hear some battle dialog ahead. The Rikti and the CoT are both fighting over a Soul. Whether this is the name of the artifact that I am here to retrieve (nav says artifact, briefing said map) or if they were talking about a literal soul, I do not know. Yet.

By the time I arrive it seems that the CoT are whupping the Rikti. The caves lead into a Rikti base.

After searching the base the first major thing I ran into was a Death Mage named Arch-Mage. This might take a little while.

And it did. I hate running into these Archmages, they're pretty much stealth Elite Bosses. After a while he went down and mentioned something about failing the Dread Priestess. He dropped the third map piece, the second must have been in that clue I never got in mission 2.

In another room I found a magical looking box and inside was a vial containing the soul of a Circle priestess (how did I know that anyway?) Apparently the Rikti were trying to destroy it, probably because they hate all things magical except for those Maguses, and the CoT came to stop them. A clue informs me that the completed map shows where the Rikti got it from.

Mission 4:
Sumannus recognized the vial as containing the soul of the Dread Priestess and fills me in on her. Probably should have had the vial be unknown until this part, since it made little sense that the clue says that I already know what it is when I found it.

So apparently this Priestess has found the Raven King in the past and this vial was a phylactery of sorts, it held her soul so that she would be immortal as long as it was intact. The Raven King was after it but also were the Rikti, for reasons that I still don't understand. The map, which is now intact, shows where the Priestess has been hiding all this time.

Um, why do I have to go and defeat her? Why not just smash the vial and destroy her that way? Or would doing so just make her mortal and still require her physical body being killed? Some explanation would help here.

Anyways, I'm being paid to go and defeat her down in Oranbega so off I go. Sumannus tells me that the Raven King will meet me there.

Ok, now that I'm inside it tells me to destroy the Dread Priestess' soul at the altar. Still I think some explanation in the briefing would be beneficial.

Suprisingly, I find an altar in the first room I come across. I presume that clicking it will summon the priestess, possibly to my location, and I have not found the Raven King yet. I decide to not consider those things and click it just to see what happens.

Boy it takes a long time.

Interestingly the opposite happened. The Dread Priestess appeared somewhere deep inside the map and Gregory Husk spawned right next to me instead. Yay, forcefields! I just hope he doesn't spam Force Bolt.

Well, he does use the annoying Force Bubble and his bots generate knockback, but in these cramped corridors it's not such a huge deal as there is only so far that he can push them away and none are getting stuck inside walls.

Then he puts someone into Detention Field. Hmmm...

We get to the last room and find the Dread Priestess, whose description tells me that she was once a member of Ravenheart. I see also that the author is a fan of the magic booster pack.

Then I noticed that Greg was gone. I found him on the otherside of the map, apparently he didn't follow me through that portal, despite being right next to me, and took the long way instead. I went to find him and returned to the boss room.

The Dread Priestess is Dark Blast/Dark Armor. Shame she had Oppressive Gloom on because it made such a nice costume near impossible to see until we was dead. In all it was a pretty easy battle with Greg backing me up. She wasn't to happy to be feeling pain all of the sudden, so apparently smashing the vial simply made her mortal again.

I exit and get a "nice job" from Sumannus but no mention of my payment. Where's my money?

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The Verdict:
Despite the feeling that this was an arc made for the author's villain group, it still had a pretty solid story. It was confusing until the last mission due to that missing clue, so the author needs to look into that. The briefings had a few typos and could use some more info as well. The second mission could stand to be shorter and not a defeat all as well. Gregory Husk was a helpful ally but could also be annoying, especially for a meleer. I'd give it just over 4 stars, but needs some polish to get to 5.

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I'm almost sick of Hellions and Skulls at this point. Why doesn't anyone use low level stuff from red-side? Snakes, RIP cops, Mooks, etc.

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Because hardly anyone writes villain arcs to begin with. Those that do get made tend to be "blow up the universe for fun" and what not.

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It's to my understanding that using the "Plural" options for click and destroy objectives (such as computers and mainframes) essentially prevents you from assigning unique results for each objective. For example, I have an ambush triggered for each individual "destroy mainframe" objective. But if I were to change that objective to just a single mainframe repeated 3 times, they ambush would only come once the player has defeated all 3 mainframes. If this is wrong, please correct me, but that's how I interpreted it.

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It's a bit tricky, but you can assign the same plural text to different details. Anyway, have you tested that because I remember that when I had a mission with a hostage set to appear multiple times and an ambush detail set to it, each hostage rescued triggered an ambush. I don't know if it's the same for destructibles.

Otherwise you might want to just put a single mainframe in the last room and use the multiple computers for the clues along the way. Doesn't quite make sense to destroy mainframes before you use the terminals to get data off of them when you think about it, assuming they are connected to the mainframe.

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I'm not sure whether you mis-read or I mis-typed, but that's not the dialog I meant to write. I don't think I ever had Synapse say he owed Manticore for his life, and when you rescue Manticore, he says that he owes Synapse again, not you.

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I certainly did read that, so you might want to check it. I took those notes right when they happened.

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There were 7 computers total in the 2nd mission: 3 required, 4 non-required. Those 4 non-required computers give a bit more information on the first contact between the Heroes of this reality and the Galactic Protectorate. You must have missed it because you were stealthing through the mission.

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Even though I stealthed, I thought I checked every corner and kept an ear out. I think you should make them required or condense them down onto less computers as it doesn't make much sense to me to make information about the titular group so easy to miss.

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See, this is where the different preferences of the playerbase REALLY begin to show. Of all the feedback I've gotten on the mission, only 1 other reviewer thought the Galactic Protectorate was too hard. 4 players didn't mention the difficulty of the enemies, and 3 actually said they LIKED the harder mobs and "enjoyed the challenge", like Beach_Lifeguard on this page (scroll down a bit) Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

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They weren't "hard" solo, what I'm trying to do is extrapolate for what could happen when a team goes into it and you see all these status effects and debuffs stacking from increased mob counts. I ran into similar issues with my own group in "The Portal Bandits" and was trying to save you a bit of trouble.

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And also, Energy Dancers aren't set to "Extreme", they're set to "Hard".

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Just took a look in MA for myself and confirmed that, so I stand corrected. I also notice that Hard gives Energy Melee LTs Build Up (it's Extreme for Electrical Melee). I'd recommend putting them on Standard, it'd only remove Build Up but leave all the attacks in place. Definitely drop the Energy Drain, that one is going to cause a lot of grief and honestly is a power that nothing below Boss or EB should have.

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The Verdict:
This arc was obviously designed to be a short, comedic romp and it mostly delivers on that. I still have a few nitpicks, like how did all those Crey get back to 1977 and how did Dr. Disco Fever hire them? Why didn't any of those followers of his appear in mission 1 at all? Some of the powers of the Disco followers were a bit random and didn't seem justified at all.

I'll still give it a 4 for fun but not something I'd run again or share with friends often. With some more polish it might bump up to a 5.

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Thanks for the review. Though your biggest bone of contention was fully explained. I am guessing you did not read Sauer's origin as it explains why he and his Crey team are there. The Deity of Rock is just reiterating what you already should know.


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I did read it, I just didn't think it explained enough, like how he and the Crey team went back in time as last I checked Ouroboros doesn't let us go wherever we want. Maybe add a clue that makes it a bit more clear was all I suggested.

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But everybody poops!

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Speak for yourself.

I 'use' a litterbox

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So what do you do in that litterbox?