Lazarus

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1) A. Nethema invariably slaughters all her guards with Blazing Aura before I can get at her. Unless and until they fix allies turning on their damage toggles, I think toning her down to Standard armor won't affect her survivability too much.

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Rather a minor issue, the only reason she even has guards is because if I set her to single some wierdness occurs where you get her clue the moment you enter the mission.

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2) The primary custom faction is a race of snake-people. Why do they have hair? There are a whole ton of interesting crests to be had in the costume designer, go to town!

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Because they're not snake people.

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3) I kinda felt like I was a bystander to a storyline that you'd cooked up involving either your characters or people in your SG and VG. I felt that way because everyone who had a role in the story, including the contact, was a custom character. Maybe this is just an unreasonable reaction on my part, and I haven't got a ready way to fix that since there's no reason ordained by the plot to invade somebody else's base. But it still bugged me.

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Yes, it's a cameo heavy arc and I don't deny that at all. Frankly I don't see what difference it would have made if I created random characters from scratch and can't think of what else more I can do to make you feel more important. It's flat out said from the beginning that the contact called you in for this arc, not that you're some random hero who walked by. The Allies don't act condescending towards you either. Also, when are we NOT invading villain bases for flimsy reasons?

Anyhow, the allies are just there to help out soloers and really small teams. The arc is designed more for teams and the contact warns you before every mission with an AV, in bright red text. I'm pretty much done even listening to that sort of complaint on this arc for that reason.

Check all the critter and group files. You may need to delete the group and reform it, then republish the arc to get it to stick.

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Is it common to get bad ratings without feedback?

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Yeah. The causes of this are Ratings Griefers and people who have no backbone and think that since because feedback is not anonymous that means that if they tell you they 1-starred you that you'll immediately run over and 1-star their arc out of revenge.

Either tell me what you thought was wrong with my arc or don't leave a rating at all.

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We had one... and it kept wobbling on and off the HOF thanks to be mathematical implausibility of a 4.5+ average.

[/ QUOTE ]I would argue that we had one that kept wobbling on and off because a lot of people truly didn't feel it deserved 5 stars

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I heard quite a bit about that on some of my channels when I logged on last night just after it fell out of the HoF again. "That was HoF material?"

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Basically play on Heroic if you want AV's to be EB's.

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Unless you select a character that is hard coded to be an AV. If you look at the dev created AVs, there are some that show level ranges as for instance (52-52). That will spawn as an AV no matter what your reputation is set at.

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The rest will spawn as EB for a soloer at less than Invincible, or for a team or three or less set below Rugged and so forth.

I just stay on Tenacious all the time myself so I'll always have bosses. EBs won't turn into AVs there except for those exception mentioned above.

Changes made to "MacGuffin Delivery Service":
* Managed to find a similar warehouse map where the patrol spawns work properly. The previous one was not obeying the Middle setting for patrols at all. Carnies should never spawn in the back room from now on.

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Something I'd really like to see to alleviate this issue is being allowed to pick a particular spawn point for your objectives. I'm not talking about exact coordinates, but perhaps an actual list(simple numbered dropdown would be fine) of all available spawn points in the map, so that we can place our boss or glowy or patrol or whatever at that same location, every time.

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The downside is that this will be yet another thing to take up file space in an already crowded 100KB.

Changes made to "MacGuffin Delivery Service":
* More combat dialog added to bosses.
* Mister Wolfe now spawns after Amanita is rescued. This was to avoid issues of the Carnies spawning before the player had freed the ally.

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Very cool, I have a need for grouping hostages too. After setting up a grouping like that is there any way to restrict another objective to only show once all of the people are rescued?

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Unfortunately, no. Multiple objectives can chain from one completion, but not vice-versa.

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If only, that would make one of my missions work much better.

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The herald is actually meant to be Haley, not Irine, though I can see how you would interpret it as the latter since her costume changes quite a bit and ends up resembling Irine's a lot (The tipoff is meant to be her height).

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Maybe my perception was messed up in the cave, but I thought she was taller.

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The original plan WAS actually to alternate from a shiny office to an abandoned one (I know you suggested it in reverse, but the reason for this is the shiny "clean" office would give a feeling of artificiality while the abandoned one in the last mission would be what it really looks like),

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I was wondering if there was a Dark/Light world thing going on like in Silent Hill, where the environment would suddenly get dark and ruined and monsters would appear, only that the office only looked ruined and filled with monsters because of the delusion you were under.

The other possibility I had thought of was that I had become a zombie or monster but still believed I was normal and that was why the people were attacking me. (Like that HP Lovecraft short story where a guy arrives at a party and wonders why people are running and screamed, then finds a mirror and sees that he's become a zombie.) Though in that case it'd make more sense if their dialog made it sound like they saw me as a monster, but clearly they didn't.

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Archetype Used: Brute
Level: 22
Powers: Electric Melee / Electric Armor


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Just for the record, you did notice that this was a level 35-40 arc, right?

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Right off the bat, I notice that the Contact I talk to isn't a Contact per se, but rather your character's own laptop. This is a personal pet peeve of mine (and alot of other players on the boards, based on what I've read), in that having your laptop tell you your own "thoughts" regarding each mission can be immersion-breaking if those "thoughts" don't match what my character might actually think.

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Funny, I usually get the complete opposite comment on this. The laptop is only recording the story, the idea is that you are your own contact.

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Alright, where's that ambush? Checking the compass reveals you have to "take care of any witnesses". What witnesses? Oh, the Tsoo, who seem to have appeared in the main area of the map. Defeat the few Tsoo who have appeared, mission complete.

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Hence why the objective changes to "You heard something." so you know to check the front of the shop. There is bosses instead of ambushes for the reasons that:
1) Filling the map with ambushes doesn't stop the normal spawns from occuring, breaking the empty map trick.
2) You can do it with patrols, but you cannot make a patrol a required defeat.

There is also a non-required family spawn in the back after defeating the Tsoo, but because Unaware text is bugged still, you probably didn't hear them when they entered.

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Alright, apparently I've set up to sell the statue I've found to my "usual contact"... whom I've never met before. But alright, let's just say this woman's one of my many contacts whose name I've simply forgotten.

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That's the idea.

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So, get to the back of the warehouse, and... it's filled with Family. Apparently, the same Family who own the Pawn Shop I stole from. So, I fight a few groups, take them down, and... the Carnival of Shadows shows up. Huh.

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No way to stop them from spawning in the back right now, they are actually set to Middle. Anyway, Mr. Wolfe's clue tells you that the Carnies were the buyers of the artifact.

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Alright, so I take down a couple Carni- whoa! My contact springs up from nowhere and starts kicking (censored)! OK, that's random but kind of cool.

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Somehow you missed both a green-skinned girl in a bright red trenchcoat on the floor and the Family guys guarding her? I don't mean to be insulting, but do you happen to be color-blind?

Anyway, I've added some inactive dialog to her, so she's not entirely unconscious, and set the guards to do an animation that makes them even more obvious.

I wish I could make it so that the patrols don't appear until after both the Family boss is down and she is freed, but alas.

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Anyway, my compass tells me to get out, so I work my way back, take out a Carnie boss, and mission complete.

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Yep, fight your way out.

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I enter the mission, and... Oranbega map. Now, I know there are ALOT of players who would quit the Arc right here, but fortunately, I don't share their hatred of Oranbega. There are also alot of players who would quit the Arc if they saw even 1 Spectral Demon floating around, but I'm not one of those players, either.

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Bravo to you, I'm getting sick of pansies who whine about CoT and Oranbega.

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Except one glowie was a CoT Magic Well, but the global chat message said there was a book in it... well, it's just a small detail.

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I checked this, no magic wells in that map at all so I don't know what you saw.

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But, with everyone fighting over getting the statue, I'll be able to slip in, put it back, and get out without anyone noticing me!

...Or not. I enter the mission, and right off the bat, I'm facing down the Paragon Police. Moving past them, I see that, indeed, EVERYONE is after this little statue. The Tsoo, the Carival of Shadows, the Family, all in combat with the Paragon Police. On a side note, the NPC dialog in this Arc continues to the be most well-organize dialog I've seen, even if the dialog itself is mostly generic threats and declarations. Anyway, after fighting through a whole bunch of bosses and wiping out twice, I decide to just run past all the fighting mobs and reach the required glowie at the end. I put the statue back in it's case, mission complete, Arc done.


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Running past them all is the idea right from the beginning. All the boss fights are optional and as a Brute you should have had no trouble zipping past all the battles. Even squishy toons do it fine.

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That aside, it's a fun, light-hearted Arc that I would recommend to other players.

Final Score: 4 Stars

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Yay.

Arc ID: 41565
Arc Title: Astoria in D Minor
Author: @The Cheshire Cat
Description: A mother with a lost daughter. An alien investigating fascists. A disturbed hero trying to save people any way he can. Dark Astoria makes you question what you're willing to do to survive. 20-29, horror arc. Solo Friendly. Note: In mission 4, that's not a bug. You'll know what I mean.
Rating: *****

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Character used: Zetsumei Mitsukai, Level 50 Dual Blades/Dark Armor Scrapper
Difficulty: Tenacious (Diff 2)
Level for Arc Playthrough: 29

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Mission 1:
I've always liked Dark Astoria, even if it's the poor-man's Silent Hill. That zone just had atmosphere and style, shame the Devs seem to have forgotten about it.

So when I saw an arc set in that zone, I just had to try it. The contact is a two-way radio, assumedly found in the street inside the zone. A woman on the other end calls for help, her daughter is missing and she's trapped at 121 Romero Street. I'm on my way.

I enter the building, which is surprisingly clean looking. I assume that this arc takes place right when the "event" happened and the zombies arrived. I find Irene Benson in the first room, surrounded by zombies and trying to hold them off with a revolver. (Nice use of the Amanda Vines model, the headset is a nice touch.) She flees after telling me about her daughter and giving me a photo of the girl.

The objective tells me to find the security computer and see if I can find the girl in the footage. I go off to search for it. It's right up the stairs and upon using it I find that there is another hero in the building, one who looks like a Warshade.

(Slight nitpick, but maybe irrelevant. If this story takes place right when Astoria turned into Dark Astoria, like I'm assuming, then that means it takes place well before Peacebringers and Warshades became known to the public.)

I fight past a number of Banished Pantheon and come across some Unusually Small Zombies. Yes, that's what they were called and boy were they small.

I find the Hero at the end of the office map, his name is Event Horizon and he's surrounded by Pantheon and Council. I free him and he tells me that he doesn't know anything about the girl but knows someone who may be able to help and askes for me to accompany him to the exit.

(Now his description says that he is here to investigate Council activity in Dark Astoria. If it's already called that then it's been Dark for some time, so shouldn't this be an Abandoned Office map?)

Now it's really unfortunate that Warshades aren't actually in the Mission Architect, and it means that Event Horizon cannot help me at all when I get ambushed by Council on the way out. Interestingly, the Council Commander says "The warshade can get us out of Dark Astoria!"

I ran into another Council Commander near the exit who said the same things. Maybe change their dialog so they have different lines?

Anyhow, I get Event Horizon out and he refers me to his contact, Schism. Time to pay him a visit.

(I hope that Event Horizon is a placeholder for when Warshades do get added, the escort doesn't add much to the mission right now.)

Mission 2:
Now this map fits Dark Astoria, the Mother Mayhem Hospital. I find Schism at the door, fighting zombies. After helping him out, he offers to help me find Haley Benson but only after I help him search the hospital for survivors (7 of them).

Schism is aggressive and disturbing. How many heroes do you know who wear blood-stained shirts and barbed wire?

The search doesn't start out good when I find a bodybag only 10 feet from where Schism was. Fortunately the next person we come across is alive and does mention seeing a little girl somewhere inside the hospital.

Soon I find all 7 surivors, although some didn't survive, and Haley as well. Both Schism and I lead the young girl out. Of course she runs right off into the fog, calling for her mother and we lose sight of her.

Mission 3:
I get on the radio again and Irene tells me she is nowhere near me and that Haley could not possibly have seen her and run off to meet her. She then tells me to find her and Event Horizon as well as he has something important to tell me.

I follow Haley to a nearby graveyard, nicely filled with Pantheon, and search for her.

This mission starts to get annoying. I did a search tabbing for allies, find no trace of her. I try looking for a boss but find dozens, all with the same names (Ritual Leader, Dig Leader). And they all have the same dialog as well.

Eventually I find a body bag down in the trench area. It's Haley, and the wounds were not made by zombies...

I find Schism, now hostile and accompanied by Pantheon. I take down the insane hero while he rambles about saving people from fate.

Mission 4:
I give Irene the bad news over the radio, but she drops her radio and vanishes. Still in the cemetery, I decide to investigate a nearby mausoleum that was not open before...

Ack, it's the Ruludak cave. At least this time it's rather justified, with being entered from a cemetary and the entry blurb printed in a rather foreign yet evil looking text. It really looks like a descent into hell right now. Lots of Pantheon hanging out down here.

Partway through the cave I run into some more of that "black speech" and know I'm coming upon something. Seems it's a battle I missed and according to the NPC Dialog tab it was between Pantheon and Coralax. Interesting.

A little further in I run into a creature called "The Great Clown", who looks like Schism, only even more disturbing. During the battle he claims that I not only killed him, but Haley as well.

Next I come to "The Great Herald", a demonic version of Irene Benson. She tells me of something coming, that will make angels of us all.

More black speech up ahead. Finally I come to the big room at the end of this tunnel. In the center of it is...a phone. Also there is a portable lab, that gives me a message that invokes more Silent Hill feelings.

Unable to click on the phone, I destroy it. Upon which I get a message...from my own answering machine. It's Event Horizon, trying to get a hold of me and telling me to get Irene and Haley out and... It's best if you read it for yourself.

Mission 5:
With no idea of what had just happened, I leave the mausoleum and find the radio. I get a call from Event Horizon. He heard my report on what happened with Haley and Schism, and tells me that he needs to meet me and tell me that thing I was supposed to hear from him 2 missions ago.

I don't like the sound of the send off message, "You will understand what you have become."

The same office as mission one, and a entry blurb mentioning how it never occurred to me before how nice this building looked compared to the rest of Dark Astoria.

This time the building is filled with civilians, armed with rifles and anything they could improvise. They and the PPD were fighting zombies, shouting to keep them away from the children. Then they attack me.

The weird thing is when they see me, shout "Hey, a hero! Over here!" Then attack me while asking why I'm attacking them when they attacked first.

Finally I find Event Horizon, in Black Dwarf form this time. He attacks and as I fight him and he talks about how I now see monsters as people and people as monsters and... well he stops talking when I am forced to kill him.

After leaving I try the radio one last time, only to get that gives me that message from the cave, over and over and over and over...

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The Verdict:
I can tell a lot of players will have a hard time swallowing that ending. At least now a few things make sense, like how shiny the office building was at the beginning, though I think it might add a bit more to the effect if the building was abandoned and ruined in mission 1 and then all intact and clean in mission 5. The civilians dialog maybe could make a bit more sense, but I'm not quite clear if they saw me as I see myself, or as something else. As for the Unusually Small Zombies...

A five star rating from me doesn't mean perfection, but it does mean that I highly recommend that others play it. 5 stars it is.

I'm going to finish this day with a double-feature. First a review that was requested, and then another that was not but of which I want to share with you anyway.

Arc ID: 75386
Arc Name: The Knights of Rularuu
Length: 4 missions
Author: @Vanden
Synopsis: Who would've thought that one of those endless Malta missions would turn up something like this? (1 AV, not recommended for weak soloists)
Rating: *****

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Character used: Vikki Vandale, Level 50 War Mace/Willpower Brute
Difficulty: Tenacious (Diff 2)
Level for Arc Playthrough: 50

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Mission 1:
Already warned by the description, I grabbed my usual EB killer character and went to meet Justice-Guy.

Already I like him, he recognizes me a big "hero" right away and wants my help. After mocking Crimson and Indigo without mentioning them by name, he askes me for some help again the Malta Group. He has two bases to deal with and wants to save some time.

Justice-Guy lets me know that he's going to clear out one base while I take the other. I used a similar set-up in Portal Bandits, I like seeing it used by others and it makes more sense than a hero just sending you on errands. He also says there will be another hero to give me a hand. Let's do this!

I also liked the little lampshading in the mission blurb about how Justice-Guy called me bro despite Vikki being a girl.

I find Serras, the ally, right in the front room, but oddly she runs off out the front door rather than helping me, saying that she senses that Justice-Guy is in trouble. Hmm...

I found the data files and went to look for the base commander. Along the way I found something even more odd, a friendly Carnie Ring Mistress who Serra somehow sent to help me. Interesting.

Boy, Web Green 2-9-3 likes to shout. Anyway, I take him out while he mentions something about Site 421.

Some more amusing dialog from Justice-Guy and then it's off to the next mission.

Mission 2:
Justice-Guy is going to raid another Malta base and he doesn't think he can do this one alone, so he asks me to come along. I agree and we're off.

I quickly find Justice-Guy in the first room having a standoff with some Malta, as well as Rularuu killing Malta in their own base. We're off to find out what's going on here!

The Malta leader provides no info other than trying to run and abandon the base, but I come across something new, a Rularuu Obliterator. He seems to want to escape the base, making me wonder how he got here to begin with.

Searching a computer terminal reveals that Malta was doing portal experiments, ahhh...

Mission 3:
Portal Corp investigates and finds that Malta somehow opened a portal to a part of the Shadow Shard that normally cannot be reached. A large number of human natives were also found in there and I've been asked to help get them out. Sure, why not?

How hard can it be? Pretty easy in this case.

Justice-Guy is going to take one location while I handle another. The mission is a straightforward rescue of 5 hostages in a cave map (the nicer kind of cave you see in the Shadow Shard), one of whom tells me something about "The Bane". This map has a few more of the new Rularuu too, I rather like their designs, even if they are more humanoid than the regular Rularuu.

So apparently the Bane is a general of Rularuu and was trapped in his own little section of the Shadow Shard along with his troops.

Mission 4:
Rularuu have invaded that Malta base again and this time it looks like Bane came with them. Off to save the world, again!

The moment I enter I find Serras being held captive and free her. This time she decides to hang around (nice since she's Emp/Psi) and around the corner I find Justice-Guy. Having these two rather makes combat more frantic as they aggro and drag you around, but I don't mind being on a Brute. I need the Fury anyway.

Unfortunatley, they are both LT rank so quickly I found I had to rein them both in. We rescued a scientist who told us that we needed to activate the dimensional stabilizers inside the lab and that there was one other scientist further inside.

Kind of odd by the way that this is supposed to be the same lab yet is a different map entirely. I guess it was bigger than I had thought.

We find the second scientist who tells us something bad. Bane didn't just come through the portal, he made it even larger and now it's self-sustaining. He's ripped a whole right through the dimensions. Oh boy.

I'm disappointed that I don't see more of these new Rularuu, maybe the custom group can be reweighed somehow to make them more common.

On the third floor we find Bane, standing right by the control console for the dimensional stabilizer. This guy has the looks that match his name for sure.

I also see that he is Axe/Shield. I hope he's not Extreme/Extreme too like in my previous review, I may have backup this time but they're not very sturdy backup.

Yep, he appears to have Extreme Shield Defense and my two allies were killed 5 seconds into the battle. So begins the clash of the titan and the world's smallest troll. After a lengthy battle Bane drops and I run over to the console, activate the dimesional stabilizers and purge the Rularuu from the lab.

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The Verdict:
So far Vanden is 2 for 2. There is not much that can be found to be wrong in this arc, and it does provide some interesting surprises. I would have liked to have seen more of the Bane Rularuu, maybe the group can be weighed to provide more of them as they were a bit uncommon for an arc that was featuring them so heavily. The allies provided were nice and helpful, but in the last mission I'd recommend making them Bosses. In my experience LT allies in EB fights are so flimsy as to be almost useless. Considering how long it took to kill Bane, I don't think two boss allies would be overpowering. I'm sure less sturdy players would appreciate it as well. 5-stars.

The latest patch broken something. I'm getting other reports in of various glitches in my arcs. I'll take a look at them all ASAP.

Ok, found that the setting on the Vanguard vs Rikti battle somehow got changed. Vanguard are back to being friendly again.

I checked MacGuffin and the Desk is a Desk, the Altar is an Altar. Not seeing any of the goofiness that was reported.

[ QUOTE ]
...

[/ QUOTE ]

I saw that whole post before you pulled it. If I wanted to be a jerk I could go back a bit and repost it, but I won't.

Chill out, dude. Very few authors manage to make a good arc on their first try. I'm sure that if you ask anyone here who got a good review they'll admit that their arc went through a lot of rewrites and modifications before they got to be anywhere near "good".

Just remember that you came and asked for feedback and you got feedback. What you do with it is up to you.

Anyhow, only one ambush ever had dialog and that's the one on Dr. Kindred. The one on the Refrigerator had no dialog. Also as for ambushes in the Ruludak caves, those can spawn so far away that you are out of range for the dialog and they seem to come out of nowhere in that fog.

There is very, very rarely a good reason to use that Ruludak map. This story definitely didn't justify it's inclusion, it only made an annoying mission even more annoying.

Arc: Passing Notes
Arc ID: 72475
Author: @Aracade
Number of Missions: 3
Description: Open one chest and strange things hover in your future --Recommended Level Range: (30 - 50) -- Archvillian.
Rating: *

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Character used: Naga Obscura, Level 50 Ninja Blade/Energy Aura Stalker
Difficulty: Tenacious (Diff 2)
Level for Arc Playthrough: 50

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Mission 1:
Amusingly, the contact takes the form of a large chest, inside which I found a letter. Not so amusingly was being informed that I was somehow poisoned by chaos itself, which means that even being a robot or an alien will not protect me. Damn!

Even worse, I won't recieve the antidote unless I go and steal some of Ghost Widow's hair. Not sure how I'm supposed to steal non-corporeal hair, but I'll play along for now.

I step into a tech lab filled with Arachnos, odd as I was expecting an Arachnos lab. My objective is to find a strand of hair, so I guess I might not have to fight Ghost Widow after all. I go on searching the lab until I find a strange looking man named "Dr. Kindred". Oddly, his group is listed as "Paragon Defenders", so what is he doing here with Arachnos?

Upon aggroing he says some odd stuff about "returning his beloved to life." Huh? What does this guy have to do with Ghost Widow?

Annoyingly, killing him did not finish the mission. Seems he has no real reason to be here. The search goes onwards. I find a refrigerator upstairs that contained a preserved sample of Ghost Widows hair. Mission complete.

I will also state for the record that as a Stalker, I really hate ambushes, especially ones with no dialog to announce their approach.


Mission 2:
I place the hair in the chest and recieve another letter. Wait, I was in a different reality in that last mission? Huh? This story makes no damn sense.

Now I have to destroy some seeds, that are alive and dangerous. Ok, sure. By the way, have I been cured of the "poison" yet or what?

Oh JOY! A mission to defeat two bosses in the Ruludak map! This won't take long at all! And it's filled with Werewolves, Arachnoids, and Winter Horde oh my!

I want to stab the author at this point.

Soon I come across some bizzare looking Elite Boss named Alice, who is Archery/Sonic. Dr. Kindred was Sonic/something as well, what is it with this author and Sonic powers?

At least Alice proved to be a rather easy EB, but now this meant I had already used my tier-9 Defense this early in the arc and might not have it for the next boss, who will probably also be Elite. I also picked some "pink shard" up off of Alice. So where are these seeds? Was Alice one?

Oh look, I passed a Red Cap. I hate Red Caps. I'm so glad I am invisible.

And I ran all the way to the end of this damn map without seeing this other boss. Had to backtrack 1/3 of the way before I found him in this blasted fog.

I slaughter this EB easily (he was Ice Control/Fire Assault?) and can pretty much ignore his UNANNOUNCED ambush thanks to having Power Surge up again. I grab some "blue shard" and leave.

Mission 3:
Once again the new note tells me nothing really, except that these shards will react to the ghostly hair somewhere in the next mission and that will somehow stop chaos. The letter even flat out refuses to tell me why the heck I am doing this. Oh, it also says that it hates me.

Was I ever given the damn antidote or is that supposed to happen in the last mission?

Oh, upon accepting the mission it finally tells me that I will get it after this mission.

Carnies and Arachnos, lovely combination. Oh, Vanguard as well!

I run through this twisting cave map to the last room. I see a glowie that is probably the Antidote. I also see the required EB (Gardava), but oddly another EB in this room (Rip Van Twinkle) who is not required.

Gardava is a Axe/Shield EB, and quite obvious an EXTREME one. This means she popped her tier-9 right when I attacked and I was doing almost no damage for over a minute straight. Eventually I got her down to 1/3 and Power Surge crashed. I got back before she regened to 1/2 and took her down a lot more easily without her tier-9 defense on.

Clicked the glowie, got the antidote. Didn't bother with the other EB and left.

No explanation in the last debriefing. Felt like I wasted my time.

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The Verdict:

This is a definite example of a 1-star arc. The story doesn't even try to make sense and throws EBs at you for no good reason in the 2nd mission, and has an extreme EB in the last mission using some sets that are quite overpowered for an EB at those settings. The choice of maps is pretty bad, especially mission 2. The choice of bad guys makes no sense either, if you're going to try to recast existing enemies into a custom group give some explanation for their appearance. Otherwise just make your own customs. However, with how poorly these EBs were balanced, an entire faction of customs might well make the arc even more annoying.

I recommend you go back to the drawing board on this one. This does not even feel like an arc, it feels like three random missions chained together.

[ QUOTE ]
As with any of the tools we've been given: the author will have earned whatever star rating he deserves.

We can set up "hard" spawns around hostile escorts, multiple hard ambushes on a single boss defeat, rooms full of invisible enemies all of whom have mez protection, stacked +DEF enemies, and any number of abuses. People who want to make unbeatable, annoying, 0-star-worthy missions can already do so. What makes you think simul-glowies would make things any worse?

[/ QUOTE ]

Because it's still possible to beat those on your own. Simul-Glowies on the other hand...

I'm not ragging on ya, I'm just getting annoyed lately at people sometimes acting like every contact used has to be one of the big easily recognized ones.

I have reposted this guide at Paragon Wiki. I'll be updating it with info on Willpower, Dual Blades, Super Reflexes, Electric Melee, Electric Armor, Shields, Mace, Axe, and such as I get time to do so.

The arcs in my Sig are all story-based, but since...

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I would like to hear about good arcs that you have played and rated well that are NOT YOURS.

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Then you want to take a look at my arc reviews thread, where I do detailed reviews of arcs I find and ones that are brought to me by request.

Here's one right off the bat: The Storyteller: Sabrina's Tale (1237) by Redbone. If you want story, this one has a lot of it.

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That, too, would be a welcome alternative. It would certainly enable one to create a number of visually similar enemies with slightly different sets of powers. For instance: two minions, one Mace/Invulnerable and one Mace/Regen.

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It would save a lot of space for some types of groups. For example, I have one where all the minions have the same body style and secondary set, all that changes is their primary set and costume hair/texture/colors. It'd be real nice but probably unlikely to happen if we could make it so 1 critter file contains all the them and save some space because a lot of redundant info is not being repeated. However it will probably be too much of a pain to program for.

Otherwise, it'd be nice if a critter file could contain multiple costumes. We have a lot of bosses in the game who have alternate costumes available when we place them as boss spawns and are randomly chosen when spawned regularly. I'd love it if I could do something like Crey and do female and male versions of the same minion with the same name and powers, but it appears that in their case the Devs also do it with totally different critter entities.

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I will state for the record that if I ever see those damn things in a MA mission it's going to get insta-1-starred.

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Like any tool, one must know when and where to use it, and importantly, when not to. There's nothing inherently wrong with simul-click objectives as long as a) they make story sense, and b) they're not overused.

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A lot of authors still can't be bothered to warn you that their arc contains EBs. What do you think people's response will be when unannounced Simul-Click Glowies start showing up?

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New advanced objective: simul-click objectives.

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I will state for the record that if I ever see those damn things in a MA mission it's going to get insta-1-starred.

Being able to click buttons behind expanding menus is a nasty bug in itself. I've had a number of occasions where I also managed to somehow click a button inside a collapsed menu and screwed up the settings of a detail.

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Introduction: Is... kind of nothing. It strikes me as a, 'Hello, now go get the stick' Type start.

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The arc is meant to start like it's business as usual.

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And judging by the greeting... This guy is an actual contact? Because I have no idea who he is.

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Yes. I'm getting the impression by now that a lot of people who ask this question never went into Croatoa to do anything other than farm the Katie Hannon TF with someone else leading and never ran the Croatoa arcs themselves, as Buck is the last guy in the chain and the one whom through you need to go to unlock the TF. He's also the only Midnight Club member aside from Percy Winkley in Croatoa, which is where this arc is supposed to take place. The arc does assume you've joined the Midnight Squad by now.