MrCaptainMan

I'll be there!

I was having an uncharacteristic dearth of inspiration this morning for two hours trying to roll up some new toons, so i gave up (the final straw was realising i'd forgotten to change my placeholder origin - after exiting the tutorial. A fallen angel with a Science origin? Oops. ) and left it aline. Sure enough, on my way to work a neat idea popped into my head.

I'll sort him out this evening. Might not be able to get him joined until sat, but i'll definitely be in.

Eco

And moving swiftly on, another lowbie villainous arc, this time its

Mercytown: The One With All The Fish, Arc ID 6017, by @frija (Tangler on the forums). Tagged as a comic horror arc, very Long (3 unique, 2 medium maps), lvl 1-10. It’s marked as ‘for lvl 1s in mind’, so maybe I’ve overshot, being lvl 6 now after Clave’s arc, but if this gets me a few more levels up I’ll be a very happy villain indeed. Looking forward to it. It has 322 stars and 4 plays as I start, so it’s obviously got its fans. Off we go!

“Aha, I see that my incredible genius as a dangerously unsafe crazed scientist is starting to spread out across the Isles…I’ve just been approached by a Russian technician of some repute here…Dimitri Krylov is his name. He is desperate for my help in investigating some strange underwater creatures…hmmm, underwater creatures, yes…with an army like that, I could RULE THE WORLD!!! I shall work with this foolish Balkan, and use him for my own selfish ends, and then…AHAHAHA, THEN I SHALL CAST HIM ASIDE LIKE AN OLD SOCK THAT’S BEEN USED BY A TRAMP FOR 50 YEARS AS A SPIT-COLLECTOR!!! AHAHAHA MMWAAHAAHOOO, I’M LAUGHING!!! YES, I’M LAUGHING, CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW, MOTHER? CAN YOU???!!!

Mission 1: Investigate The Coralax Colony

“This is the location of the colony of these ‘Coralax’ monsters that Dimitri gave me…it seems they have emerged from their aquatic hideaway and are moving into Darwin…good, good, that will make getting a specimen all the more easy…

[The map for this is the low-level mercy Island one used for Kalinda’s very fist mission, I believe – a neat parallel to the canon progression]

“HAHA, these watery critters are no match for the red-hot power of my mighty magma mountains! They may be denizens of the Ocean, but I, VEI 8, control the very heart of the planet itself! TREMBLE, FOOLS!!!!



[After a few short fights, I capture a fine specimen ]

“Come, hideous beast of the green deeps, you belong to me now!”

[As I lead the boss to the exit, she mentions a book, ‘the Book of the Deep’, and how it must not fall into the hands of the ‘land-dwellers’. We then exit. A fun opener, fairly easy. The voice of the captive struck me as a little off (“Not you again!” for the rediscovered dialogue for example), but no complaints really. Great start, in fact]

“Dimitri is happy to take the specimen for me for safekeeping for a while, but the brainless yokel isn’t interested in the Book of the Deep. Buffoon! Doesn’t he know that every strange alien culture living secretly in humanities midst has its own dark esoteric tome, bulging with the secrets of how to enslave them to the reader’s will! It’s Dealing With The Devil 101! I think I’ll have to attain said tome for myself!

[Dimitri does let on that an archaeologist by the name of Dr Henry Veidt has a similarly named book. That’ll do!]

Mission 2: Steal The Book

“Hmm, I’m too late, perhaps! The apartment building where this archaeologist lives appears to be suffering from extreme damp! The Coralax might have got here before me! Damn, DAMN I SAY!!! RRAAAAAGHH!!! I’d best leave! …No! Wait! That’s just what they’d want me to do, ahhahaha! AHAHAHAA! The FOOLS, they thought to trick me, ME, I who have answered the very riddle of the Sphinx itself! Why, the answer is A MAN!!! Two legs in the morning, nine legs in the afternoon, 27 legs and an elephants severed phallus at suppertime, Mrs Miggins, MWAHAHAAA!!! I shall have my revenge on these inbred sea-devils! OH YES, JUST SEE IF I DON’T!!!

[After a little rant, I move into the building. It looks very atmospheric, I must say]

“What’s this, what’s this? We’ll have no shouting here! Die, you dribbly degenerates!



“Hmm…a woman lies incumbent! If I rescue her, she shall be indebted to me…the first of many, no doubt. Ah yes, women…with an army of women, I COULD RULE THE COSMOS!!!



[VV, the archaeologist’s vivacious wife, doesn’t hang around to become one of VEI’s army. She asks him to rescue her husband and then makes her escape]

“Aha, I spy a working computer. I shall ransack its digital innards for useful information. Information is power, according to the bible, and with information, I shall REIGN SUPREME!!!

[The PC yields some illegal software. I’m not sure what its relevance is yet. I explore further. The maps quite large for this level I feel]

“Gah, these pesky bottom-feeders are getting on my wick! Oho? Another computer…ah yes, this is more like it! A Tarot card! I’ll take this as a sign…of something! Signs and portents are like manna to a fruitbat like myself! It obviously means something deep, you see, and ‘deep’ begins with the letter ‘D’. AND SO DOES ‘DEPART’! AHAHAHA!!!

[That’s odd. I haven’t found the archaeologist, but the mission ended with a search of a third computer glowie, which according to the clue is his desk, and the clue says that the book’s already gone but there’s a tarot card here, slightly singed. Luckily, VEI 8’s crazy, so he’s happy enough to leave, but I’m a bit perplexed as to why finding a slightly singed tarot card in the desk should make me convinced that the book is nowhere else in this huge building.]

“This idiot Dimitri may be a fourth-rate scientist, but he’s a useful source of information. The tarot card belongs to a Hellion gang leader, he says. He must have the Book of the Deep! That book belongs to me! I will have this upstart Hellions intestines for hair-extensions! MWAHAHAHA!!!

Mission 3: Find the Duke’s Hideout

[‘The Duke’ is the Hellion boss I’m looking for. The Hellions are having a big party tonight; maybe I can find out where The Duke is from someone there]

“Pah. Dancing! What a waste of time and precious bodily fluids! If I had my way, dancing would be replaced by a scientifically ordered progression of bodily movements, categorized according to erg-use, muscle distention, speed of head shake and volume of music, labeled from ‘ultra-mild sway’ up to ‘explosive whole-body dislocation’! But these fools just prefer to ‘go with the flow’!

[The warehouse rave map’s a good one, eh? I start to mop up the Hellions.]

“Yes, tell me, demon! Tell me EVERYTHING!!! …and your girlfriend too, come on, vile nymph, spill the Heinz!!!



[lol a few mobs in the map divulge ‘secret’ information upon defeat, but although it’s not the info I’m after, it is quite funny]

“I grow tired of these witless partygoers! It is time for me to release the full extent of my wrath upon this whole misbegotten island! Once I have defeated this last petty crook, I shall unleash my full fatal fury on the world AND THE WORLD SHALL DIE IN SHRIEKING AGONY!!! – Oh, wait, this one’s talking sense!

[One of the Hellions finally gives up the location. ]

“I have the location. It is but a simple matter to force the cretin Dimitri to mark it down on a map for me. Soon, I shall have the Hellion, and when I have the Hellion, I shall have the Book, and when I have the Book, I shall have the means to command an army of bibbly-bubbly sea monsters, and with them I SHALL RULE THE WORLD AHAHAHA!!!

Mission 4: Get the Book and Notes

[The entry popup for this mission is highly amusing]

“Fire, fire, everywhere! I’ll be adding to the heat soon, I’ll wager!

[I’ve got 8 objectives now; I need 6 more journals as well as the Book apparently. I don’t know why]

“Aha, I see a hostage! I think this must be the archaeologist, the search for whom I abandoned after finding that Tarot card! Lucky for me he was already here, or else I’d have wasted my time! Burn in molten cages of solidified fire, puny Hellions!

[I release the archaeologist, and he runs off after warning me not to open the Book]

“Come, puny ingrates, bow before my magmaic might! Oho? Books, in this house of unintelligence? I don’t mind if I do!

[A bookshelf reveals a journal of Henry Veidt, the archaeologist. There are more to look for, and together they tell the tale of the Book. I continue through the building (which is the Hellion burning map). Eventually I find Duke Mordrogar, the Hellionn Boss]

“Here, is my apotheosis! DIE, HELLION, DIE!!!



[It’s a close thing, to be sure. His fire holds vs my lava holds lol. I eventually win, though, and then all I have to do is find the remaining journals and exit …if I’m brutally honest, I think this mission could do without the journals. I don’t think they add much and they make for a lot of wandering about. It’s quite a hard map to find glowies in, with the foggy haze everywhere. I’d try to find another way to get the info over]

“Finally, I have the Book of the Deep. Dimwit is babbling some rubbish about destroying the colony of the mer-folk, but I shall not listen to his brainless warblings! I shall travel to this colony, and I shall use the Book to bind them to my merciless will, and then, THEN, THE WHOLE WORLD SHALL KNOW MY NAME, MWAHAHAHAAA! Dimwit, you worthless peon! Lead me to the colony, I command you!

[Dimitri ‘explains’ to me what I’ve annotated in the Book and the journals – It’s nice you’re trying to put control into the hands of the Player, but Dimitri still seems to overshadow me a bit in terms of directing the arc. Perhaps you could dispense with his voice here, and have the Player take over somehow? Italics describing the Players actions, maybe? Anyway, to cut a long story short, we know where the colony is. Dimitri’s going to come along and help]

Mission 5: Destroy the Colony

[The map is one from the Cimeroran set. I start to explore]

“Yes, yes, MWAHAHAHAAA!!! Now, at last, I shall find my true route to domination over the land – through the forces of THE SEA, AHAHAHA!!!

[While I’m ranting, I guess, Dimitri must have run off ahead, because I find him a little ways ahead carrying a captured Coralax]



“Ah, Dimwit, you have already procured a specimen for me, good, good…Let us dispense with these other samples…yes yes, my foolish friend, go on, attack them…I shall cover you from the rear…heh heh…

[Dimitri drops like a stone in the first fight. He’s utterly rubbish; no chance of him stealing any XP lol. A bit too weak, in fact – I was taken by surprise by his death]



“Ha! Now that that idiot gadgeteer’s out of the way, I can proceed…Onward – TO VICTORY!!!

[I move through the caverns fighting the Coralax as I go. It’s good fun.]



[ The Nav has a massive shopping list of objectives to achieve; among them the mysterious ‘destroy the Book in a barrel of acid’…I thought I needed the Book for my nefarious needs…

[er, lol my apologies. I’ve just reread the clues and briefing. I think I was letting VEI 8s take on it carry me away lol. I have to destroy the Book in order to stop the Coralax from…doing something bad? Hmm…Let’s see what transpires]

“…What’s this? Aha, the archaeologist…He’s no concern of mine…I’ll let him die…hmm, but maybe he has useful information…

[I release Henry Veidt (since it’s a Nav Objective, and discover that his wife has been transmogrified into a Coralax. He vomits before running away]



“Well, he wasn’t much help! The fool shall be first on my list for the vaporization vats when I rule the world! Onward! I need to find the leader of this slimy civilization, so that I can use the esoteric magicks entombed within this mighty tome to ensnare them to my malign will!

[I explore further, and encounter the Coralax I kidnapped earlier. This time she’s not a captive, she’s a Boss Encounter, and very hard to defeat, which seems incongruous since last time she just came with me meekly, and also she’s been tortured by Dimitri during her time with him (Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that he let her go with a tracking device attached in order to find the location of the Coralax Colony – I like this little method of getting the location of the Colony very much, but if it was somehow introduced as the Player’s idea, it would work a lot better for a Villainous arc), and so I’d think she’d be a pushover. She kills me, in fact, which annoys the hell out of me after the mildly challenging fights I’ve been enjoying so far. I hosp, and trudge back to her.]

“DIE, vile aquatic witch! DIE!!! There, that’s died her good and proper!

[I carry on. Eventually, I find a large room with quite a lot of objectives crammed into it.]

“Aha, here, at last, my terrible plans shall surely come to fruition! Let me see, what’s in this Book…Hmm, it appears to be written in some kind of ancient indecipherable script! Luckily, I am a certified genius at ancient writings! Why, I once unraveled the very meaning from the hitherto inunderstandable Scrabblings of Bratwurst the Illiterate, Moron-Emperor of the Kingdom of Gorm! So…read it upside down, ignore every fourth letter…assume that weird little mark that looks like a blood clot is an ‘e’…Yes! It’s as clear as mud! I must destroy this altar in order to bind the Cursed God of these foul monsters to my soul! AHAHAHA!!! I am seconds away from UNMATCHED POWER!!!



[I smash the altar to bits, and am ambushed for my troubles ]

“Ah yes, they sense my approaching subjugation and attack in desperation! FOOLS!!!! DIE!!!!

[I dispatch the ambush and destroy the altar. The clue that drops tells that VEI 8s ‘deciphering’ aside, the altar’s destruction prevents the release of Meluria, the god that the Coralax were trying to release to take them to victory over the land-dwellers. There are still some objectives to perform, however; I have to plant 4 bombs, destroy the book in a barrel of acid, and defeat the leader.]

“Hmm…well, I’ve destroyed the altar…I wonder when the god will turn up to prostrate itself before me in obeisance…any minute now, I expect…



“Hmm…maybe there’s some more information in the Book…ok…holding the Book up to the light to read through the pages…ignore anything that has more than two lines…treat all pictograms of headless corpses as synonyms of ‘yummy!’…OK! I have it! Obviously, the god cannot manifest until the spells of binding have been fully realized by transforming them into gas! Now then…how can I dissolve the Book somehow…aha! There’s a handy barrel of acid over there! How fortuitous!

[lol works for VEI 8!]

“…Aha, AHAHA, YES, YES, I CAN FEEL IT, I CAN FEEL THE MIGHTY PRESENCE OF THE GOD OF THE DEEPS, THE TITAN, THE INVINCIBLE PONDEROUS GOD OF THE WATERY DEEPS, TREMBLE, EARTH-DWELLERS, FOR THE KRAKEN WAKES!!! …any second now…any second…

“Hmm…well patently my plot cannot have failed. That would be preposterous! It probably needs a bit longer…for the yeast to rise, or something.... While I’m waiting, I’ll just polish off this last Coralax, and maybe blow the place up for good measure before I leave…



[The High Priestess’ dialogue talks about the suffering Meluria (The Meluira I’ve just prevented from coming by smashing up the altar) will bring me, and also talks of the Book as though it hasn’t just been dropped into an acid bath scant feet away from her. She also spawns an ambush at half health, and if I hadn’t luckily leveled at the High Priestesses demise, the ambush would have killed me. That would possibly have caused the old me to ragequit, tbh. The new me would put it down to Life, and finished it anyway lol. All that remains are the bombs.]

“1 bomb…2 bombs…3 bombs…and 4! There. Now to make my escape in my new submarine and wait for the Coralax God to manifest as my all-powerful yet utterly subservient slave! MWAHAHA! Soon, soon! …It can’t be long coming, surely…

[Exit. Dimitri’s debriefing is very nice. He hands over a huge wedge of cash and a ticket to Port Oakes, which is a nice touch at this level. And his final words are great]

I did have fun on this arc, in general, especially at the start and towards the end, although I do have some reservations. The opener was really good, the Coralax are a great mob group to fight, and Dimitri is an amusing contact with great dialogue. I did however feel that the maps are often too big and not linear enough, especially in Mission 2, which I felt dragged a bit. The sidetrack to the Hellions was a little disappointing since I was enjoying the Coralax so much, but I do like the warehouse rave map and the squealers were funny. The last mission’s initial sight of the Nav window chock full of objectives was a bit daunting; I think you could use a little Less Is More, and trim the arc of some of its chaff.

That’s all easily rectified, and in any case is just minor technical stuff. My biggest negative is that the plot doesn’t feel very villainous – It felt like I was Saving The World, or it would have done had VEI 8 not taken his own stance on what was happening. My Heroes could have done this arc without any real conscience problems. My villains mostly want more scheming and power-grabbing and stuff like that.

I think that if I’d have played it through without VEI 8s narration, I’d have rated it 3 stars, based on a 5 with a star removed for the technical ‘faults’ and another removed for the relative lack of villainy. However, I’m rating based on Amount of Fun Had, and I’m loving my new alt more and more with every level and with every barmy idea he has. I rated this arc 4 stars.


I’m at lvl 8 after doing both of those arcs, btw, and I’ve got 1030 tickets. Quite happy with that

Eco.

I just started a new alt, with a powerset combo I’ve never tried before. Meet my new Earth/Earth Dominator, VEI 8:



(VEI 8 was lvl 2 when I started, but I spelled Grun wrong in his bio, so I had to reshoot the pic)

I had planned to have a short break from the review thread after my Tubby marathon, since it does take a lot of effort. However, I saw a comment in another thread from Clave Dark 5 about his meant-for-lowbie villainous arc, and Tangler (who was kind enough to review The Audition in his review thread here) also has one fit for VEI 8, so I thought I’d power up Word while I was doing them and see if anything occurred. A mini-review can’t hurt, eh?

Day Job Hell: A Villain’s First Day Job, Arc ID 322480, by @Clave Dark 5. lvl 1-10, villainous, Long (2 medium, 2 unique maps). Description says it’s a ‘touching and somewhat humorous’ tale of your villains first steps as a true villain in the Rogue Isles. Just 6 plays and 4 stars as I start. So, let’s see what VEI 8 makes of it…

“By all the saints, I thought I’d never get free of that blasted Zig! What kind of sick world do we live in where a man gets locked up for simply grafting a giraffe’s neck onto a man’s body, anyway? I mean, I put his original head back on, didn’t I? Well, here in the Rogue Isles I’ll surely be lauded as the incredible genius that I am! HAHAHA, yes, yes, here, here I shall be able to continue my work! Firstly, I need a laboratory. Hmm, it seems I must put my unimaginable intellect to use and earn myself a name in these Isles…

[The contact is one Fats Squalor, a seedy sort who runs the Mercy Island Sewer Works. He needs someone to go into some caves, collect some snake guano, and fumigate the caves with snake-b-gone. ]

“Pah, that these hands, these hands that have injected boiling liquid nitrogen into the veins of one of the Crown princes of Europe and been warmly shaken for it, that these hands should be reduced to such lowly endeavors! Still, needs must when Lunatic Science drives, AHAHAHA!!!

[A little way into the cave, I find Jim, one of Fats’ friends, and some Guano Monsters!]

“By the crazed mind of Newton, these fecund freaks are animated blobs of guano! With an army of these, I COULD RULE THE WORLD!!! After I’ve dealt with them, I’ll take a few scrapings for experimentation later.



[I proceed through the cave with Jim. There are plenty of glowies, lots of guano patches, some canisters of snake-b-gone to release, and I even find an old pitcher. The flavor text and bios are wonderful.]

“Aha, here’s the king of the Snake-Poo creatures! Time to perform an experiment! …Let me see…take one monstrous malformed excremental beast, add molten lava from the very bowels of the Earth, mix thoroughly, and…BOOM! Marvelous! Just as I expected, a crapsplosion of epic proportions!



“And what’s this? A box filled with CASH? MUHAHAHA!!! I can use this filthy lucre to fund the creation of an Empire of Bonko Science! Ah yes, YES, YES, AHAHAHA!!!

[I do indeed find a box filled with cash, apparently from the cash register of a jewelry store by the receipts amongst it. Jim and I fight our way through the rest of the map, until the repurposed Hydra making up the guano monsters are all dealt with. Top fun.]

“Bah, bah, and THRICE BAH! My ‘employer’ has taken all the cash! I will mark him down for retribution. Someday not to far hence, he shall awaken to find that his brain has been replaced with a Black Forest Gateaux! For now, I shall have to accommodate to his needs…which means more sewer-running!

Mission 2: STDs are running rampant!

[the ‘STDs’ mentioned here are ‘Sewer Tuatha de Dannan’ ]

“Right, where in this crapulent miasmic hole are the foul ogres I must dispatch?

[I enter the sewer and explore]

“What’s this? Some kind of horrific amalgam of man and beast? It’s patently been assembled in a rank amateur’s lab. Head of a wolf, fur of a marmoset…mmm, I’d better free it from its oafish troll guards!



[After freeing ‘The Ron-Ster’ I check out the mysterious crates that fair litter the place]

“Hm, these crates contain nothing more than ordinary sewer pipe! …But I, I who have dreams that would make Satan himself blush with incredulity, I could fashion these pipes into a device capable of transforming the world’s cheese supplies into…ambulances! AHAHAHAHAA!

“Hold, tiny metal clockwork robots! By Kopernikus’ tighty-whites, what incredible mind conjured these wonderful creations? Why, with an army of these, I COULD RULE THE WORLD!!!!! Onward, my repulsive dogfaced friend, let us delve deeper into the mysteries of this foul pissoir!

[In the lowest room, I encounter a Tuatha being menaced by some clockwork.]

“Scientific wonders though they may be, I feel that smashing them into tiny little bits would make an excellent experiment right now…Now then my horned associate, what do these metal soldiers fit in to this conundrous compuzzlation?

[The Tuatha chief explains that his people had been sold into slavery by Fats, the rotter! With that, the mission ends, and I exit – to find that Fats has fired me! how rude! He mentions a RI sewage workers party he’s preparing, and that sets off an idea for revenge in VEI 8]

“How dare that sweaty slob treat me in this manner! ME, I, who crouch on the shoulders of the giants of Science, screeching obscenities and urinating into their ears because they are but children mewling in the crib of invention compared to me! Why, I once discovered a completely new musical note by transforming an E sharp into a smell, feeding it backwards through a rancid alligator snout, transmogrifying it back into an octave and then adding reverb and the sound of a florists head exploding underwater! What did Einstein ever do to match that? Revenge shall be mine! MAHAHAHARR!

Mission 3: Destroy Fats’ Home’Office

“Hm, it seems that Fats’ lair lies in the dockyard district of Mercy…a fine location for my laboratory-stronghold, this would make…all the seawater I could want, for gold-extraction purposes, and a near infinite supply of slatterns and dropouts that no-one will notice the disappearance of…why, with an army fashioned out of alcoholic deckhands and disease-raddled sluts, I COULD RULE THE WORLD!!!

[The Mercy Sludgeworks map is one of my favourites. I have a little confession to make here. I couldn’t find the glowies that the Nav was instructing me to find, so I cleared the map and then sent a tell to Clave, and reset the arc. Played it through again to mission 3, same thing. Once more I reset and once more, no glowies. On the fourth attempt, I clicked a door in desperation…and lo and behold, in I went. I didn’t realize there was an inside bit to this map until today! Haha what a noob! I’m glad I persevered, though]

“Hm, this area is infested with those clockwork robots…the FOOLS will be scrap after I’ve finished with them!



[After clearing the clocks from the outer courtyard, I enter the building]

“Oh yes, this will do nicely as a base of operations for my Empire of Insanity! It’s got everything I could possibly need! …Chairs, ground, air…






“Aha! What’s this? Fats’ safe…I wonder what goodies I can find in here…



“Ooh, blackmail gold! He’s billing his employers for the pipe he’s selling to the clockwork! I can use this to force him to fund my dangerously impractical and world-threatening experiments…or just get him killed, aha…

[There’s a small clockwork ambush then, and after that…]

“Right, I think a small detonation will soon put the Fats in the fire, haha, ahahaha, AHAHAHAAA!!! AAAIIIEEE!!! HAAIIEEE!!!!! OOOHYAAAAA!!!!

[After I set the bomb, I exit]

“…Right, now that I’m clear of the area, I have merely to wait…hang on, that sludge tank looming over my future base…I’d say its pressure-differential stance threshold was approximately 7.71 giga-oogs…the bomb I just set had a yield of around y to the power flambé kiloblondes, carry the bacon, so that means…oh dear…sludge tsunami in three hours! Looks like I won’t be using Fats’ old base after all. Not to worry. I’ll just pop these incriminating papers in the post. And now for the Crème de la Crème Brulee on the Nigella Lawson Quadruple Chocolate Cake of my revenge – literally! I shall destroy him utterly at his own party! AND, AHAHAHA – I shall use his own witless stooges to bring about his pitiful downfall. Years from now, AHAHAHA, years from now, Fats Squalor will look up from the gutter through his one remaining eye as he weeps, steaming in the salty effluvium leaking from his septic bladder, and remember the day he belittled VEI 8!!!

Mission 4: Crash the Party

“Typical of such a filthy scoundrel, he’s organized his party in the sewers! The FOOLS!!!!! After my smelly underworld endeavors, I know these corpulent warrens like I know the unstable elements in the Mendeleev Scale!

[A sewer’s not what I would have expected for the party, but VEI 8’s not bothered lol]

“Ah yes, first I must make contact with that canine cretin the Ron-Ster and Fats’ brainless lackey Jim! They’ll be easy to fool into aiding me…

[I soon meet up with the two allies]
“Ahaha…yes, fight, my minions, FIGHT, YOUR LIVES ARE WORTHLESS!!!…These foolish idiots are doing my bidding as though they had drunk of the very sputum of Bacchus himself! And I should know, for I once distilled it from that mighty inebriate Titan’s drool!

[The two allies are a little too handy, so after a few fights to gauge that VEI 8’s doing ok on his own, I leave them behind. The mobs are repurposed Infected, used as ‘Sewer Workers’. There’s an amusing reason why the sewer workers are ‘such goobers’ in their bio. They are exactly what I like to fight at this level i.e. easy lol]






“Wait, what’s this? Another costumed criminal? Hmm, now comes the moment in every World-Conquering Mastermind Genius Supervillain where he must make a momentous decision! Should I destroy this possible future rival now, or give some mild concession now, in order to fool him into a false sense of complacency from which he will be easily lulled to his TOTAL AND UTTER DOOM YEARS HENCE!!! AHAHAHAHAAAHHH!!!!

[The Rescue Captive objective here (This arc is littered with little additions to aid early badge-gains, one of it’s many good points. A new player coming to it is going to find lots to love about CoH. It shows that the MAuthor has thought about this aspect of a new players career) is the Rabbitual Criminal, who I (me, not VEI 8) have met before in another arc. Cool ]

“I shall warn this one not to eat the cake. I shall need powerful allies to both aid me in my meteoritic rise to the heights of Infamy, and to betray when I have risen far. MWAHAHAAA!!!

“Ahh…at last, Fats Squalor…Now, NOW TASTE THE VITREOUS FLAVOUR OF VENGEANCE!!!

[The last room reveals why they chose a sewer for the party – it’s the Doc Vahzilok map – awesome.]

“Before Fats arrives, I shall add the ‘special’ cake to their buffet table…ha…ahaha…AHAHAHA…MWHAAAHAAA!!!…And now, to give Fats a thrashing before I make my perfect escape!



[The fight with Fats is AWESOME, and as he falls I get the Architect X badge. How cool is that?]

“Now that he’s been beaten into unconsciousness, I have one more ace in the hole, heheh…

[hm, kind of intriguing about this objective that’s appeared – although I DID see the reference to it in the briefing for this mission, so don’t take that as a complaint.]

“Here’s where I stashed that pitcher I found earlier…All I have to do is make a quick call to Longbow…there, that’s done, and now I smash the pitcher, and teleport out! WAHAHAHA SCOTT FREE! Haha, those fools Ron-ster and Jim will take all the heat for wrecking the party, whilst I am free to continue my scientific experiments! Yes, my experiments…hmm…first, I’ll need a laboratory…which will require funding. Yes…I guess I’m going to have to find another job, now that I’ve just blown up my boss’s office, killed most of his workforce, beaten him up and gotten him and his friends arrested…

[Ah, yes, the pitcher, of course. I DID find it on my way to the last room (btw, the map is nice and linear), but it gave me the ‘you cannot complete this objective yet’ message, and then I forgot about it! You might want to put a ‘now to return to where I stashed my ace in the hole earlier’, or even outright mention the pitcher, after fats’ defeat. I loved the way that after smashing the pitcher (It’s a shame we can’t have a pitcher as a destructible object, that’d be another badge credit for this arc), the Longbow ambush arrived, and I felt compelled to exit without defeating them so they could arrest Ron-ster and Jim after I’d left!]

[End]

Absolutely marvelous starter arc. I Went straight to the MA building in Mercy after exiting the tutorial, so it really was VEI 8s first job.

Pluses: Loads to do, great map choice, I felt aggrieved at first at having to scrape up snake guano lol, and then was delivered what I wanted – the chance to take control and sic it to the contact. There’s lots of badge-progress to be made, the mobs are varied enough to be interesting and perfect for this level. I especially should point out that the entry popups, flavor text and text in general is all very funny.

Negatives: There are a lot of glowies to click in missions 1 and 2. They are all optional, I found, but you might want to make it clearer that they are optional, for the benefit of folks who don’t care for badges. And I might not be the only player who’s dumb enough to not realize that Mission 3s map has an indoor section.

5 stars. Wicked. Best lowbie arc I've played for ages, and I really couldn't have expected a better starter arc for VEI 8.

Eco

I'm well up for this! I'm in europe, so sat noon for east coast USA is 8pm here, so i can join you for 4 or 5 hrs at least. I'll get working on some toons on triumph.

Yay!

MA goodness!

Eco

Its exactly because i want the players to see them that i'm bothrring eith all this.

My custom group initially had 2 minions, 2 lts, no bosses, but i changed one of the lts to a boss to not fall foul of the stupid partial XP rule.

My solution is this: i replicated the boss as a lt. So now my group contains 2 mibions, 2 lts and a boss that is identical to one of the lts but probably wont be seen by anypne if the arc is played as intended. I dont have enough memory to add enough boss encounters to simulate the old lt spread.

Stupid. And wasteful. Sort it out, Devs.



Eco

I'm trying to fiddle with my arc The Audition in order to give the custom groups minion, lts and bosses so that players will get normal XP. I'm getting my hair off, tbh.

One group used to have 2 minions and 2 lts, all 4 of which had different costumes. I changed one of the lts to a boss, and thought that would do it. I'm testing the arc, and the boss just isn't spawning. My arcs been specifically designed for solo play. How can I get the boss to spawn?

Eco.

Awesome. You're obviousky the 'go-to' gal for MA mechanics, Eva!

eco

Is it possibleto engineer a map populated entirely by friendly mobs? I think there's a mission in Blight like this, isn't there?

Eco

Er, who's Arakhn? I haven't done any new TFs since the Cim one was added. Is she from a new TF?

Eco

I'm the player who didn't realise there was an interior section to that map-i'm assuming that the glowies DID spawn the first three times, but as they spawn inside, i just didnt see them.

Eco

This really pisses me off. One of the main mechanical tricks of my arc The Audition relies on rescued Ally objectives just staying where the are and repeating one animation. At present, sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. If the damn MA tells us that's what they'll do, they should do it. The Devs should find another way to stop the farmers exploiting, not screw the storytellers every time.

Eco.

Witam! If you're on Freedom ever, at European times, and you want any advice/help/chat/inf from a non-PLing non PvPer, my global is @MrCaptainMan

Eco.

I was in the bath just now, happily looking at my 4 nominations and feeling all proud and glowy inside, and then I realised something which may mean that The Audition should be disqualified from the Best Multi-Part Arc Category.

Some of you may remember posts I have made in threads discussing multi-part arcs and slot use in general. Some Players hold that an 'arc' as a unit may not be longer than the current MA maximum missions per arc slot, ie 5. I'm very happy that the initial fervour of the MA forums has died down somewhat (and I'm including my own rather more strident comments here too : ), and nowadays we all seem to get along with each others various attitiudes to things like arc length and defeat alls and whatnot without any silliness, but I still hold the same views. When it comes to The Audition, I have always been at pains to stress to Players and especially sometimes to reviewers that it is ONE arc that happens to have 6 missions in it, and not a two-parter in the sense that, say, CoW is. Dalghryn's fine arcs are decidely separate entities. CoW part 2's first mission, to take one example, is denominated as Mission 1. The first mission of The Auditions second slot is Mission 4 of the arc, and I've even changed the titles of the two 'parts' in order to make this clearer. I have always encouraged Players to play all 6 missions in order in one session if time allows, and to NOT bisect them with another arc inbetween playing both parts.

It would be hypocritical of me, I feel, not to mention this now that The Audition is up for winning a prize for Best Multi-Part Arc. I'm of course overjoyed that it's been nominated, and I'm not so holier-than-thou to actually remove it outright from consideration. It depends really on what exact definition 'Multi-Part' has here. If the judges decide that I've hoist my own petard with all my 'But it's ONE arc, dmmit!' posturing, then I've got no problem or argument. It's also possible that this post will get the same 'pff, whatever, two arcs, two slots, it's all the same' response I often get lol.

But i felt I had to bring it up anyway, in the interests of fairness.

Eco.

I've just checkd my arc The Audition in light of its nominations for Bubba's Player Awards thread, and to my great dismay i found that Mission 1s objectives had lost an important trigger point. Your 'enjoyment' of it may therefore have been somewhat damaged. My apologies.

Stupid MA

Eco.

I'm heartily sick of a new patch screwing my arcs up. If I'm happy with an arc, I'd like to be able to lock it so that it cannot be edited and cannot be borked because of a new patch. They can dothis with DC arcs, yes? Please give MAuthors the OPTION to use this. Add a load of 'WARNING! LOCK ARC AT OWN RISK' warnings to it and a dozen 'YES, I'm SURE!' button=s to click to get there, if necessary, but anythings better than having to redo a load of stuff EVERY time a new patch comes out.

Eco.

I have some nominations too.

Best Mid Level Arc - Polar Emergence neutral Government User Interface Network (PENGUIN), Arc ID 29205, by @Tubbius

Best High Level Arc - The Fracturing of Time, Arc ID 171031, by @Tahlana

Best Comedy Arc - In Poor Taste, Arc ID 259920, by @Wrong Number

Best Short Arc - Celebrity Kidnapping, Arc ID 1388, by @PW

Best Multi-Part Arc - The Consequences of War, Parts 1 and 2 (Arc Ids 227331 and 241496 respectively), by @Dalghryn

I'll put my nominations for Best Lowbie and Best Serious up in a few days.

Eco

Wow, you were a bit harsh on Blappy with the rating there, I thought I can't wait to see what you consider a five-starrer

I like your 'brief, with screenies' style, but I think you could perhaps work on your screenshotting a little. The pic of WNs bio, for example, would have been a lot nicer if poor old WN wasn't hidden behind a pillar. Although I know it's hard to grab good pics sometimes during combat.

Eco.

I got some positive rep today, and I'm going to shamelessly quote the comment that came with it:

"Bwahahaha.... I LOVE the way you write The Psystem - easily the funniest thing I've read all week!"

Thanks very much, whoever you are. It's reactions like that that keep me writing this thread, as well as the awesome fun I have playing thru the arcs of course.

Eco.

I'm not taking any submissions right now, as I'm playing some arcs just for fun and reviewing ones which strike my fancy rather than on request.

I've actually had my eye on your arcs for a while anyway, Aisynia, but I'm slightly cautious about your gfs because of your warnings that they are challenging. Your own arc was tested on a blaster, i believe, so I'd probably be inclined to run that one for my thread.

In any case, I still have a little list of arcs to do down in front of my screen, and it's got 6 arcs on it already. It'll be a while before my queue is empty.

Eco.

EDIT PS, the first time I saw the pink sentence in your sig, In read it as 'check out my girlfriend's ars*'

Pretty good, R. Shame you couldn't keep to the syllable-count, but good stuff all the same.

Eco