Manofmanychars

I got a post for you, forums.

Oh, it's a little mispeeled. *spellchecks*

Latest update:

-Removed Short Circuit from Zappers. I figured between the Edisons and the bosses, there was enough end drain.

-Altered the text (mainly in the souveneir) a little to add some ambiguity on a certain point.

Quick note, my arc's number has changed from 311775 to 314798.

Personally, I think people should be more willing to post feedback in the threads for arcs they'd played. This increases a good thread's visibility for the devs (they specifically said they get a lot of hints as to what arcs should be looked at for Devs' Choice from the boards). Also, it allows for anyone, even non-reviewers, to express ideas on how to improve the arc. Also, if an arc is interesting enough, fans could even ask the creator questions about the arc's development process.

Call it hubris if you want, but if I didn't care about what people thought of my work, I wouldn't be calling for feedback on it. I want people to care about how I thought up the stuff I used in my MA arc, that's why I made it to begin with. I enjoy it when people tell me how great my work is and want to know how it was made, and when someone doesn't think it's so great, I change whatever needs to be changed until either they like it, or enough of a majority likes it that I can safely assume they're part of that "everyone" that I can't please all the time.

Well, if that's the case, you could always play my MA arc. Go, it'll be fun, I promise, I've worked on every little thing to make it an enjoyable arc for anyone. Oh, and leave feedback on the thread so I may improve the arc.

Okay, villain time!:

-Mind Master (Mind/Psi Mutant Dominator): Complete Monster, Karma Houdini, For the Evulz, Moral Event Horizon (he has a summer home there), High Octane Nightmare Fuel, Mind... Violation (and he doesn't limit himself to minds), More than Mind Control (after creating this guy, I started to worry about my own mental wellbeing), Card-Carrying Villain (to the point where, in an RP thread in the CoV beta, I was able to write stuff for him that would have resulted in severe Internet Backdraft for anyone else)

-The Bonecruncher (now known as The Pulverizing Pugilist for very tropey reasons, SS/Inv Natural Brute): Feigning Intelligence (hence the name change, but he doesn't devolve into Shlubb and Klump English), Blood Knight (he was initially sent to the Zig for picking a fight with Back Alley Brawler for the fun of it), Boisterous Bruiser, Friendly Enemy (you just need to survive a fight with him first), Villain Ball Magnet (he just likes punching tough-looking people, is that so wrong?)

-Ninja Jim (Ninja/Energy Tech Stalker): Contrived Stupidity Tropes (just pick one and it probably applies, he was a small-time thief who tried robbing a government compound, and through an accident wound up trapped inside a robot suit with ninja themeing, but he'd gotten disoriented, so he thought his mind had been transferred into a robot, and was stuck inside it for nearly six months), You Fail Biology Forever (he never questioned the fact that his new robot body needed to eat, sleep, breathe, and use the restroom, or how any of it was accomplished), Punch Clock Villain (he's uncomfortable with anything bigger than robbery), Harmless Villain, Not so Harmless (whenever his suit goes on auto-pilot and starts slaughtering folks), Villainous BSOD (how he usually feels after the previous trope is invoked), Powered Armor, Instant Awesome Just Add Ninja (averted big time, this guy is about as far from awesome as possible)

-Dr. Thermite (Fire/Thermal Sci Corruptor): Mad Scientist, They Called me Mad (his whole motivation, although he deserved it), You Fail Biology Forever (he gave himself his powers by infusing his blood with mercury and then getting struck by lightning, hence the "They Called Me Mad" bit), Magikarp Power (his actual abilities just allow him to raise the temperature a whole lot, but he invented the Thermite Gloves in order to harness that heat as flames)

I'll do my masterminds later, since I have one for each primary.

I don't think he's a liar so much as I think he's an egomaniac of the worst kind. He doesn't realize that intelligent, sane people could disagree with him on anything and be in the right.

I wish people would even play my arc. And post feedback in my thread for it. I even have what I'd call my "ideal" version up on Test (using the new Custom NPC power selection options). I just want to know how to make it perfect. I mean, I think it's pretty good, but I'm not qualified to call it perfect (since I made the arc). I won't rest until it's the most awesome MA arc ever created.

Ah, Touhou. The poster child for Continuity Lockout.

Okay, I'm just going to list Jack's good and bad points, and I'll try to keep my seething hatred for him and all his works under control.

Good:

-He did develop and refine a lot of the stuff that makes Co* what it is today, a lot of basic stuff at the core of the game.

-Everyone may have hated ED at first, but it's actually turned out to be okay, and I guess it's not bad.


Neutral:

-The Global Defense Nerf and the Control/AoE nerf. The GDN was going way too far (as evidenced by the fact that many of its changes were partially rolled back in later issues to be less extreme), and the Control/AoE nerf sucked all the fun out of being a Gravity Controller (unlike other controllers, all Gravs had going for them was Gravity Distortion Field, though I guess they get a lot more benefit out of Containment...). Okay, I'll call this one even.


Bad:

-All the broken promises. This ground has been covered already.

-He really, really hated regen. Yeah, it was overpowered, but he nerfed it until it was barely better than SR (this was before SR got buffed).

-In retrospect, all of his "can't be done" talk sounds more like "I don't feel like allocating the resources that I think would be better spent nerfing you some more," considering that all the things he said can't be done have been done.

-The plane speech (I think he was talking about playing the GBA installment of Castlevania, but that was just my inference). It wasn't just the idea he expressed (which I didn't agree with, I think it should be 1 player=1 boss), it was how condescending he was. It gave me a really good idea as to what sort of person he is. He probably rationalized our dislike of his changes as a lack of understanding about his "art," and thought that if he talked to us as though we were five years old, we might finally get it through our thick skulls. He couldn't conceive that we might actually have a thought-out, rational reason for not liking his changes, that wasn't possible. He was Jack Emmert, perfection incarnate. And an ego like that isn't fit to run an MMO.


In all honesty, it's not that I hate Jack, it's that I don't respect him. He seems like the sort of person who wouldn't understand what you're getting at if you told him you disagreed with him. He just doesn't comprehend anyone else's wishes but his own. If anything, I feel bad for him, because he's in the worst possible business for a guy like him. Even as a single-player game designer, I think Jack would do better. But for MMOs, you need to know when to listen to feedback.

Now availible on Test Server: Two Great Tastes (I16 Open Beta version)!

Changes:

-Steam Freak Ruffian has decided that throwing boulders is dumb when you have a gun. He's refocused his energies into learning how to throw a great big Haymaker punch.

-Steam Freak Striker has smartened up and quit using those Shuriken-like bits of metal as projectiles. However, not only has he developed a naster Cobra Strike technique, but he's also learned how to overclock his implants to output more force (he calls it "Focusing his Chi").

-Steam Freak Tank's gun was finally noticed by the laws of physics, and he lost the ability to shoot fire out of his blunderbuss. He has not figured out any way to compensate for his loss, but he figures he's already pretty tough without that non-thematic eyesore.


Tell me what you think so I can polish the changes for Live. Also being considered, but not yet implemented:

-Should your ally for the last mission betray you after beating the boss?

When I used battlecries, I went with the classics.

"Evil, meet my (weapon/power of choice). (weapon/power of choice), MEET EVIL!"

"GARBAGE DAY!!!"

"Stand back, I'm going to try SCIENCE!"

"Pay attention to me!"

"Don't try this at home, kids! Even though it'll make you popular!"

"Play my story arc!"

Heroes:

-Knuckles (SS/Inv Natural Tanker with no relation to any Sega characters at all): The Mafia (but not The Family), Boisterous Bruiser, Heel Face Turn (of course, not much of one when you consider he was formerly part of The Mafia that don't do Nothin'), Determinator

-Briar (Energy/Energy Magic Blaster): Heel Face Turn (from the CoT), The Atoner, Energy Ball, Teleporters and Transporters, Squishy Wizard

-The Contaminant (Rad/Rad Science Defender): Omnidisciplinary Scientist, Science Hero (hence his manly square jaw), I love Nuclear Power, Power Incontinence (his suit holds it in and makes it safely usable), Phlebotinum Overdose (attempted and failed, it's what gave him his powers), Corrupt Corporate Executive (our very own Countess Crey ordered the previous trope invoked), Dying Like a Bat (he was not only working for Crey, but also developed the item that he was almost killed with), Conspiracy Theorist (to the point where people start to wonder if his powers might have affected his mind)

-The Detective (Grav/FF Mutant Controller): The Virus (got his powers from a mild dose of the same goop that turns ordinary people into The Lost), Private Investigator, Born in the Wrong Century (well, decade, he'd be more at home in the '20s and '30s, mainly because that's the decade he seems to think it is), Jive Turkey (he speaks only in slang from the aforementioned time period, and doesn't seem to realize how strange it is), Mind Over Matter

-Haywire (Claws/Regen Tech Scrapper): Artificial Limbs (unwilling, he got trapped under a defeated Clockwork Prince courtesy of a careless hero, and it went from there), Body Horror (the immediate result of the previous, but apparently The Clockwork King Thought of Everything, so it worked out okay), Split Personality (apparently, the Prince's CPU survived the unwilling merger, and didn't take well to interfacing with a human mind), Heroic Sociopath (the Clockwork persona, known as Haywire), Cursed with Awesome (the human side would rather not deal with all this), Nanomachines (non-grey goo variety collects loose scrap metal to repair the metal that covers his body, thus being a form of regen)

I'll do my villains later. Geez, that took a long time.

Well, I remember all those special titles, that was cool. You guys should all have them again (and when you do, try and see if you can get my "Minister of Awesome" title made official, the community dudes don't seem to give awards out to CaH/V posters, you have to, like, make a guide or something ).

No, really, I've been calling myself the Minister of Awesome for years, now, I've even codified rules and regulations for it and stuff (scattered throughout the various posts and threads of CaH/V). I even had my own thread for a while.

Arc Name: Two Great Tastes
Arc ID: 311775 (I think... if it isn't, PM me, but I'm, like certain it is)
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: @ManofManyChars (I'm a twofer!)
Difficulty Level: I mostly play Masterminds. I have only played this arc with Masterminds. I'm not qualified to judge this part, but I've been told by others that it's not super-hard.

Synopsis: Maxwell Christopher has you investigate something, yadda yadda mission descriptions etc. Basically, you're fighting and/or investigating my custom group for this arc. They're a crazy combination of Nemesis and Freakshow, I got the idea from the immortal line, "I assure you, my good man, Nemesis is most certainly 'down with the street.' Word up, my homie, as it were."

Estimated Time to Play: An hour, tops, and that's if you're wasting time. It's only four missions, and the maps aren't too big.

Link to More Details or Feedback: My sig has a link to the arc's thread. Post all your feedback/questions there, or PM me if you're really shy. I especially love questions, because I like to tell people about how I come up with my ideas, because it makes me feel like a real video game designer (which I will be in a few years, anyway, but I like getting the early taste).

Yeah, I can say it does get tiring to see all the farm arcs in MA. You guys should totally play my story arc instead (located in my sig), it's meant to be fun, rather than profitable (not that it isn't profitable, I mean, it gives out a decent number of tickets, it's not like you don't get anthing for playing and stuff, it's just not designed to be ultra-profitable)! I'd compare it to something like Bionic Commando (NES), where the story isn't so much what drives it as the content itself (did that even make sense?).

Go play it, I don't even have one playthrough yet (after three days!)! I'm reduced to just plugging myself in every thread that's even tangentially related to the theme of my arc, that's how bad it is. Maybe it's the farmers scaring everyone away from AE that are killing my arc. Yeah, that makes my post relevant, I guess.

Can a Minister of Awesome get a quick review up in here?

Arc ID: 311775
Arc Title: Two Great Tastes
Morality: Heroic
Level Range: 40-54 (but soloable for any character from 30 up)
Length: Long (4 Missions)
Description: In this slightly silly (and if I dare say, perhaps even Pythonesque) romp, you're charged with investigating a meeting between Nemesis and the Freakshow, only to discover that it's all too literal! It's cyborgs galore as you beat down the latest steam-powered contraptions of the world's most "down with the street" criminal genius!

I have a thread for the arc linked through my sig, for feedback and questions (like, "How did you come up with such a brilliant idea, you handsome devil?"). It's also got info on the arc, if you want to arm yourself with knowledge prior to playing it (it isn't necessary, but it can be fun, I was able to get more colorful in my custom mob and arc descriptions than I was in-game). If there's anything that needs changing, let me know, I want my arc to be ultra-perfect (I won't rest until I'm either Hall of Fame or Devs' Choice).

Well, when I evaluate an arc, I use the same scale as the best reviewers ever, X-Play (I've never had a major problem with any of their reviews, they seem to give a fair score, no matter what subjective things they say in the review). I'll give a little more detail on my system than they do, though. Of note is the fact that I try not to let how esoteric the premise is (i.e., Star Trek, Doctor Who, Obscure internet memes) affect the score, since in a highly-populated MMO, any premise can get a fanbase.

5- Amazing, does everything right. These are arcs that I'd recommend to everyone. At this point, most of them are currently sitting in the Devs' Choice or Hall of Fame section, anyway, so my opinion of them doesn't really matter.

4- Great arc, but there's some flaws. Maybe there are a bunch of typos, or maybe the enemies are a bit too powerful. Maybe the story (in a clearly story-based arc, of course, I'll allow gameplay-heavy arcs to have your basic excuse plot) is poorly-written, or the design of the custom mobs is bad. Or maybe the arc feels derivative and/or unoriginal. Whatever the reason, I just don't think the arc is perfect, but I still think it's a great arc. Generally, I disapprove of arcs of this quality or less being flagged as "Finished" ("Looking for Feedback" or "Work in Progress" should be used until the arc is absolutely five-star material), and will comment as such.

3- A decent arc, but it has flaws. It could be any number of the above in tandem, or it could be a deeper problem. Maybe the premise is flawed ("Why am I trying to defend the wedding of Manticore and Statesman?"), or the custom mobs are ugly and have powers obviously chosen to make them hard. Whatever it is, the arc is playable, and usually enjoyable if you don't focus on the flaws, but I wouldn't recommend it until you'd played through all the 5s and 4s.

2- It's not good, but it's still an arc. Usually every aspect will be subpar, but there will be redeeming qualities. Maybe every one of the five missions was an outdoor "find ten glowies" mission with poorly-designed (custom)/chosen (non-custom) mobs, but the writing was charming, or something. I wouldn't recommend these arcs to anyone, but I wouldn't warn anyone against them, either.

1- Horrible. Every aspect of this arc is failure. Pure farms, "all-boss" missions, and just plain badly-made arcs get this score. I may go out of my way to tell people that this arc is bad, and to avoid it. Generally, these arcs are so beyond hope that I won't even comment for the author's benefit. I especially hand these out to "stories" that try to be "gangsta" by liberally throwing around racial epithets beginning with "N". Generally, any arc that uses only premade enemy groups (not just the enemies themselves, but their group) is mostly immune to this score, because at least the enemies won't suck. Of course, if you stick the Knives of Artemis in Oranbega for five missions, I may just decide to hunt you down and staple the one-star score to your forehead.

Less than 1- These arcs are so bad that I wish that I could give zero stars. "All boss" farms featuring KoA in Oranbega will get this. I will not only one-star the arc, I will immediately hop on the appropriate thread for doing so and publicly decry both the arc and its creator, cursing them with every word. These arcs are the equivalent of Barbie Horse Adventures.

PS: Shameless plug, play my arc! The thread for feedback is in my sig (you can also read about the arc there to learn more)! It's a semi-funny arc with a bit of an excuse plot, but it's mainly to showcase the strange and awesome idea I had for my custom mobs.

Review my arc, I finally transferred it from Test (and worked out a couple of text bugs I'd left in since the first version somehow). It's kinda wacky, my custom villain group is strange, fun, and designed to keep you on your toes without being really hard. If you see any flaws at all, be sure to point them out, whether they detract from the score or not (I'm trying to make my arc worthy of Hall of Fame or Devs' Choice, or one, then the other). Also, feel free to post additional questions or feedback in the associated thread, located in my sig (there's also detailed info regarding my enemy group, if you want to know what they're about beforehand, but you don't have to).

PS: The arc is, in fact, ideal for soloing, because I have no clue how tough my custom mobs are in large groups, but I have my suspicions.

Maybe you could review my arc? It uses some custom enemies as central to the plot, but you also fight the established villain groups upon which my custom group is based. It's a very tongue-in-cheek story arc, and you should go in expecting it to be less than serious (I even went so far as to flag it as "comedy," but that's subjective, I guess). I recommend soloing it with a character that has all their staple powers (usually level 32), but the arc's level is 40-54 (mainly because of some of the "canon" critters I included, though I would strongly urge low-level characters to not play my arc, unless they want a challenge).

Some other tips, based upon my custom group's most common tactics:

-Bring blues (one minion type and the sole boss type have Short Circuit, and one of the two Lts. has Power Sink).
-Have Stun protection (Of my custom minions, one has beanbag, one has taser, one has Jab and Handclap, and another has Martial Arts moves but not Cobra Strike, while one of my Lts. and the Boss have Beanbag).
-Yes, the boss type has Tesla Cage, but it's only him (and he doesn't have Ignite, so that's good).
-Be ready for occasional caltrops (my custom group has five minion types, one of which uses 'trops).

-There is a custom AV at the end (EB for small groups), but I don't think he's much more powerful than your average AV/EB (I'd compare his EB form to a moderately more powerful all-electric Longbow Ballista with ranged capabilities that he prefers not to use). However, if he's too much for you, you have a very powerful ally for that fight (you can ditch him somewhere if you want to go it alone), and while he has both Electric Blast and Melee, he DOES NOT have the following moves: Voltaic Sentinel, Lightning Rod, Build Up (or whatever EM has), and Aim (basically, he doesn't have any self-buffs, summons, or the broken teleport move that would be a horrible thing to give to an AV). However, he does have every other move from both sets (he's set to Melee, though, so I only see him use Thunderous Blast very rarely, I'd be more worried about Thunder Strike if I were you).

Above all, YMMV, just be careful. I think I balanced my group pretty well for midhigh-high level characters (but take that with a grain of "I mainly play Masterminds, who are the Easy Mode of Co*" salt), so you should do okay (or at least you should be if my custom mobs are working as intended). Good luck.

PS: Please post feedback in my thread, especially if my mobs are too powerful (I want my arc to be no more or less challenging than an in-game story arc). Specifically, if you can, post which power you think is making them too powerful, and suggest a move to replace it.

Well, you could always try my arc, Two Great Tastes (detailed info in the thread my sig links to), it's a little out there, and it's based primarily off a meme to begin with (specifically, "I assure you, my good man, Nemesis is most certainly 'down with the street.' Word up, my homie, as it were."), but I happen to think (and I've gotten a couple of concurring opinions) that it's engaging, and provides a challenge without being too diffucult (though I'd solo it if I were you, I don't know how my custom NPCs fare against large groups).

PROTIP: Keep your stun protection up, I noticed that I have a LOT of stun (and stun procs) in my custom group (and more than a little sleep, though almost all of the sleep is from low-percentage procs, so I doubt it will ever be a problem).

EDIT: I'd also recommend you have at least your seventh primary power before playing the arc, a smooth attack chain is probably a good idea for my arc, it's definitely not for low-level characters.