MrCaptainMan

Ewa - excellent idea.

WN - LMAO

Eco.

And the Batcat/Catbat Affair was revealed as a Fake Forum Cartel hoax sometime after it was first discussed. I'm pretty sure we never had a redname comment on the forums about it, and i doubt you'd get an FC member to admit to being involved now.

Eco

I agree broadly with your suggestions, D, but i'd limit it to 1 new DC every month, or even every 2 months if necessary. I wouldnt want 'no time' to be an excuse. And 'd also leave all current DC arcs as is. I lose nothing by Sumericon et al having their DCs. They could amend their guidelines with 'from now on, all DC eligible arcs must be...' abd i'd be happy to let the early ones stand. Harryhausen sfx aren't jurassik park, but i wouldn't take his Oscar away.
I'd also be happy with a much smaller nber of DCs with every issue. 3 would be plenty. For me, clearly promised and delivered X is what i want. The size of X is secondary. It can be enlarged later perhaps, when the 'new' DC system is up and working.

Eco

Hm. I like the premise of this. It'll be a while as i'm quite busy, but i've made a note and will play through them both. In fact, i might bot get roubd to them till all 4 are up, but i'd actually prefer to plY them all through in sequence anyway.

I dont watch Lost or 24 week-by-week anymore either lol - I wait for the dvd box sets to come out. I'm willing to be patient, er, because i'm so inpatient

eco

I dont want to comment on the quality or lack of same in the DC arcs because i havent played many of them -i did set out to play them all back when i only had The Exho published, but after i'd done 3 or 4 with no response to my feedback i decided my time would be better spent playing arcs where i'd get some to-and-fro, and maybe a reciprocal play for The Echo. The DC arcs must get thousands of plays, so i can see why they dont reply.

What i do find odd however is simply why tgere arent more DC arcs appearing. It looks like they're not playing AE arcs at all?

Eco

I played 'Of Mentors and legacy' on my 50 en/en blaster. Some brief comments and a few fun pics:

It starts with a simulation of Freakshow tech – goes wrong however – leads into some mysterious machinations of the menders. Its a fairly long arc, and it seemed a tiny bit too long at times. The mobs used were excellent fun to fight, and the story kept me going, although it was a little confusing in places.


Demon Master...and yes, I'm wearing a tux...

V nice use of CoT with Dev Earth pets. v cool atmosphere to the future portrayed.


Cool pets.

Gripes: Prisoners on mission 3 could maybe do with an animation that makes them stand out a bit more…chained objectives in mission 3 slightly annoying.

Edge has an awesome rescue animation in the last mission

Chained objectives again a little annoying in the last mission - I loved the allies in this one though, I dawdled through it cos watching them fight was such fun.


I rescue Philip with a Nova.

One negative is that I wasn't completely sure what the Big Bads plan actually was until I read the souvenir.


3 against the demon master

Overall, a fun arc that could maybe do with a teeny bit of trimming. I rated it 4 stars.


Philip goes mental on the Big Bad.

Eco.

EDIT: It strikes me that I should elaborate on my gripes. By trimming I meant that some of the missions use longish maps which i felt were unnecessary, and in a few missions the nav says 'do 3 X' or what have you, and when you've done that, you get 'Do Y', and then ''Do Z' after that. I was thinking I was on the last objective, and then there was another one. These are fairly minor negatives, though.

Polish.

She played WoW for over a year, but ten minutes on the costume creator of CoH and she forgot all about that game lol

EDIT: Incidentally, the computer shops here in Poland have WoW, WaR, Guild Wars, LotRO, they had Conan, even Hellgate: London, but never CoH.

Eco.

She's great.

And soon, the pitter patter of a 2nd account will be heard throughout my flat!

Eco

ps she's european.

Pps ooh, i appear to have managed to ditch my _NA tag

Just want to say I'm being a bit lax for a reason - I'm doing 5 arcs in a row and i'll post the reviews all at the same time. So cheers for patience etc.

Eco.

Why the hell anyone would weant to use an OS that won't let you play CoH is beyiond me. I've got a brand new rig sat like a paperweight next to my old rig, useless till i can collect a copy of XP from my local store this week. the Vista I foolishly bought for it is now in a reverse tug of war with same shop, as i want to return for a refund and the shop managers being an ***.

Eco.

I'm having a really slow time loading into AE missions in KR on Freedom. It took like 3 minutes to load.

Eco.

Loading Ae missions is taking a really long time since I16 hit. Like a few minutes long. Am I alone in seeing this?

Eco.

EDIT: ah, this should be in Technical. I'll put one there. Ignore this thread.

The title contains my question.

Eco.

MrCaptainMan was an NPC of mine when I GMed Games Workshops superhero PnP RPG Golden Heroes back in, er, 1985.

Finally seeing him actually 'in the flesh', as it were, 20 years later (he was my first toon and my first 50), was awesome

Eco

Sky King's Ransom has been in my sights for a while, as it happens. i really like the page for it with the cool poster etc.

Eco.

Atm i've just started the Tubbius Trilogy (5 arcs) and after that I'll be doing 5 or 6 arcs I picked myself. I'm not really taking any formal submissions (lol listen to me with me 'formal'!) right now, though feel free to suggest sth if upu like. Timewise, I doubt i'll be able to start anything nrw for a good few weeks, possibly even a month.

Eco

Shameless self promotion time, folks!

Bonus points for spurious connections between reasons and the poster referred to!

Since theres no-one above me, ill start with:

Venture should play my arc The Echo because: i'm well mellowed out by RL and i thibk i could even take a critical beating with equinanimiwossname!

eco

Incidentally, after I've done the Tubbius Trilogy, I'll be running arcs by such Forum Celebs as Eva Destruction, Venture, and Airhead!

Watch this space!

Eco.

Silver Aged, Arc ID 280017 by @Lazorman. Very Long (2 unique, 1 large, 1 medium map), Heroic, lvl 30-54. This is sold as a ‘campy, fast-paced, light-hearted, comic-themed’ arc, so I’m taking my lvl 35 fire/rad controller The Robot from Uranus in.



This arc had 104 plays, and 5 stars as I entered, which is pretty good. I have high hopes

“GREETINGS, HUMANS! I…AM THE ROBOT FROM…URANUS!!! I HAVE TRAVELED HERE TO YOUR BLUE-GREEN PLANET TO ASSIST YOU IN YOUR ENDEAVORS AGAINST THE FORCES OF DARKNESS. MY PLANET ORBITS AROUND THE SAME SUN AS YOURS, HUMANS, AND SO YOUR FOES ARE MY FOES! THE ENEMIES OF EARTH ARE THE ENEMIES OF URANUS!

“I CROSSED THE ENDLESS VOID BETWIXT OUR TWO ORBS BY MEANS OF MY STELLAR CONVEYOR DRIVE. THIS IS BUT ONE OF THE MANY WONDERS URANUS OFFERS. ANOTHER IS THE ABILITY TO SEE FUTURES YET UNFOLDED, PRESENTS STILL FORMING, PASTS THAT WERE NEVER BORN, TO LEARN FROM THEIR FAILED INCEPTIONS…PASTS SUCH AS THIS ONE, CONCERNING A STALWART HERO OF YOUR EARTH, AND HIS LOYAL SIDEKICK…REST YOUR CHINS ON YOUR FISTS, HUMANS, AND CONSIDER…WHAT IF THE ROBOT FROM URANUS HAD BEEN CAPTAIN SILVERSTREAK’S SIDEKICK, THE DYNAMITE KID???!!?!?!

“Spencer Silverman…an old man rocks on the porch of the Old Langsyne Retirement Home, just another forgotten gray member of society past…or is he? Sit down a while and pass the time with him, and you might come to know him as more than just a wrinkled old man in slippers and a blanket…you might know him as Captain Silverstreak, the founder of the Silver Age Supergroup The Justifiers! Listen, and let him tell the tale of how he and his sidekick The Dynamite Robot from Uranus saved the City from the Baron of Bizarre!

Mission 1: Save the City from the Baron of Bizarre!

“The sleepy little town of Sliepiton was being attacked by Baron Bizarre and his Bizarro Gang! The perfidious potentate had recently incarcerated Captain Silverstreak and I in his Puzzlebox of Doom…but that’s another story! We had of course escaped, and Captain Silverstreak had had gone on ahead to scout, while I., the Dynamite Kid, emerged a little after. Imagine my surprise when I found myself to be stuck in the body of a metal man from the planet of Uranus!



“It must have been some terrible after-effect of the Baron’s Puzzlebox! I hoped my mentor would still recognize his plucky sidekick underneath the fiery steel carapace that I now, hopefully temporarily, inhabited! I set out to find the Captain…

“The Bizarro gang were running amuck in the town, and as soon as they saw me they attacked! My new ultra-telluric form appeared to have dominium over the element of fire, I could summon flaming creatures from the very air. I did so; they set about the loony mobsters with alacrity! I also enveloped the zany gangsters in conflagrations of flaming doom as I moved through the town. Some ordinary citizens were in trouble; after helping them, I learn that the Baron had been confusing them with his malevolent Sound Waves. Using sound, that most friendly of sensory input, as a weapon! The devil!



“After I’d rescued a few citizens, I spotted the Captain in a fight with a few of the Bizzaro Gang! I rushed to his aid, and luckily, he recognized me! Together we fought off the Gang, and then confronted the Baron of Bizarre himself! He tried to confuse us with his abominable Sound Waves, but luckily, the Captain used his Captain Silverstreak Earplugs, and we were victorious! Hooray!



[lol wonderful mission]

[and after the debriefing…]

“The defeat of the Baron must have broken the Puzzlebox Bizzaro-morph or whatever had turned me into the Robot from Uranus! I could feel it wearing off, fading away, fuzzy-wuzzying into the future…for some reason…

“FROM THE PAST THAT NEVER WAS…TO THE PRESENT STILL FORMING…I MET THE HUMAN KNOWN AS CAPTAIN SILVERSTREAK IN A PLACE WHERE OLD HUMANS WAIT FOR THEIR END… THIS DAY, HE TOLD ME OF AN OLD ENEMY OF HIS, A LORD DARKNESS, LONG-SINCE DEFEATED BY THE GOOD CAPTAIN, INCARCERATED IN A SECURE FACILITY. LORD DARKNESS WAS DUE TO BE THAWED FROM HIS CRYOGENIC SLEEP AND TRANSFERRED TO THE METAHUMAN CORRECTIONAL FACILITY KNOWN AS THE ZIG. WITH SHOCKING COINCIDENCE, HOWEVER, BEFORE HE COULD TELL ME MORE, THE NEWS BROKE THAT LORD DARKNESS HAD ESCAPED, AND WAS ATTACKING A CREY FACILITY. ANOTHER SUPERHUMAN, GRIMDETH SPATTERBLUD, WAS EN ROUTE, TO KILL HIM. CAPTAIN SILVERSTREAK GAVE ME A SILVERTRACER, AND I ZOOMED TO THE SITE TO HELP.

Mission 2: Find Lord Darkness

“THE CREY BASE WAS IN A SERIOUS CONDITION…LORD DARKNESS HAD OBVIOUSLY STARTED WREAKING HIS REVENGE. I ACTIVATED MY INFERNO-FEET AND MY COMBUSTO-SHIELD, AND SALLIED FORTH!

“LORD DARKNESS HAD SWEPT THROUGH THE BASE LIKE A WIND. EVERYTHING WAS DESTROYED. A FEW SCATTERED CREY PATROLS TRIED TO STOP ME FROM INVESTIGATING, BUT THEY WERE NO MATCH FOR MY FIRE MINIONS!



“IN THE DEEPEST CHAMBER, I ENCOUNTERED GRIMDETH. HE WAS ABOUT TO IMPALE SOME CREY PERSONNEL. I MERELY CHOKED THEM INTO UNCONSCIOUSNESS INSTEAD. HE WAS NOT POLITE.



“HE LEFT. THERE WAS NO OTHER SIGN OF DARKNESS, BUT I DID DISCOVER WHAT HE WAS LOOKING FOR. THE PACIOFIER MACHINE…A MYSTERIOUS DEVICE CAPABLE OF DULLING THE SENSES OF HUMANS, AND POSSIBLY ABLE TO CONTROL THEIR MINDS AS WELL. WE HAD DEVELOPED THIS TECHNOLOGY CENTURIES EARLIER ON URANUS. HOWEVER, WE HAD BANNED IT AS IMPOLITE. I SCANNED THE REMAINING DEVICE, AND EXITED THE BASE…

[The exit popup tells me I put a tracer on Grimdeth as he ran off. maybe you could put this info in the green text for his actual encounter, as it jars a little to learn this after the mission.]

“FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS I WAITED FOR CAPTAIN SILVERSTREAK TO GIVE ME A NEW LEAD. HE WAS MONITORING GRIMDETH’S PROGRESS AS HE TRIED TO LOCATE LORD DARKNESS. ON DAY 4, SILVERSTREAK CALLED FOR ME. GRIMDETH WAS IN AN OFFICE BUILDING, IN TROUBLE!

Mission 3: Defeat Darkness

“THE OFFICE BUILDING SEEMED COMPLETELY DESERTED…BUT I HAD ENCOUNTERED SEEMINGLY EMPTY BUILDINGS BEFORE, ON URANUS…THEY OFTEN MEANT CERTAIN DEATH…I TROD CAREFULLY…

“WITHIN MINUTES I WAS PROVED RIGHT AS AN INDIVIDUAL I THOUGHT TO BE A HERO ATTACKED ME. AFTER BEATING HIM OFF, I WAS ASSAULTED BY A LONGBOW AGENT AND THEN A VANGUARD SOLDIER. SOMETHING WAS MESSING WITH THEIR MINDS.

“FURTHER INTO THE BUILDING, MORE ATTACKS FROM PREVIOUSLY FRIENDLY FOLK PROVED MY HYPOTHESIS, AND THEN I FOUND GRIMDETH, SHAKING LIKE A TINY HUMAN BABY CONFRONTED BY SATAN HIMSELF DEEP IN THE ABYSS OF HADES. HE HAD BEEN GOT AT WITH SOMETHING HE CALLED THE ‘ANGSTOFIER’. HE MIGHT HAVE BEEN WEARING A BONNET, HE WAS THAT USELESS.



“I FREED HIM FROM THE ZOMBIFIED POLICE AND FREAKS THAT WERE TOYING WITH HIM, AND THEN CONTINUED. I HAD TO DESTROY THAT MACHINE OR THE ENTIRE WORLD MIGHT BE DOOMED. AND IF EARTH IS DOOMED, URANUS IS DOOMED!

“I FOUND THE ANGSTOFIER, AND STARTED TO DISMANTLE IT AS IT ATTEMPTED TO ATTACK ME WITH MY OWN FEARS, INSECURITIES AND DOUBTS. LUCKILY, ON URANUS, WE BANNED FEAR, DOUBT AND UNCERTAINTY 78 EARTH YEARS AGO, AND SO I WAS SAFE. URANUS KNOWS NO FEAR. WITH THE DIABOLICAL MACHINE DESTROYED, PARAGON, THE WORLD AND THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE WAS SAVED FROM CERTAIN DOOM…FOR NOW…

“BACK AT SILVERSTREAK’S RETIREMENT COMPLEX, HE INFORMED ME THAT HE HAD LOCATED THE WHEREABOUTS OF DARKNESS. IT WAS TIME TO FINALLY DEFEAT THE MADMAN!

[Silverstreak gives me his helmet, to protect me from Darkness’ Angst machine, but it just doesn’t fit with Robot at all…so I’ll just ignore that I guess lol]

Mission 4: Stop Robert von Darque’s Plan!

“SILVERSTREAK WAS IN CONTACT WITH ME THROUGH RADIO AS I ENTERED THE VILLAINS SECRET BASE. IN ORDER TO DEFEAT VON DARQUE, I NEEDED TO SHUT DOWN SOME POWER NODES, THEN DEFEAT HIS HENCHMEN, AND FINALLY HE’D SHOW HIS FACE.

[I really like the radio contact effect here]

“THE BASE WAS TEEMING WITH MIND-CONTROLLED HENCHMEN.

“I ALSO ENCOUNTERED GRIMDETH, UNDER THE EVIL SPELL OF THE DEVILISH MADMAN! HE ATTACKED ME. I WAS FORCED TO VIOLENTLY SUBDUE HIM

“DURING A STRUGGLE WITH A SQUAD OF DARKNESS’ FORCES, I WAS SUDDENLY ASSISTED BY A COMPADRE OF SILVERSTREAK! SYREN LASS, NOW SILVER-HAIRED BUT STILL GOLDEN-VOICED…



“WITH HER HELP, I ISOLATED THE POWER NODES TO THE VILLAINS SYSTEMS, AND THEN FOUGHT OFF AN AUTOMATED AMBUSH…

"DEEPER INSIDE, SYREN LASS AND I WERE SHOCKED TO BE ATTACKED BY AN INDIVIDUAL CALLED C4 WINTER…DURING THE FIGHT, HE REVEALED HIMSELF AS NONE OTHER THAN SILVERSTREAK’S OLD SIDEKICK, THE DYNAMITE KID! HE MUST HAVE BEEN BRAINWASHED BY DARKNESS TOO!



[This is a reference to Bucky, yeah? The Winter thing?]

“WITH A HEAVY HEART, I RENDERED THE DYNAMITE KID INNEFECTUAL, AND WE CONTINUED INTO THE BASE. IN THE FINAL CHAMBER, WE FOUND THE MEGA-ANGSTIFIER…AND MANGLED ITS INNARDS UNTIL IT WAS ONLY CAPABLE OF SENDING OUT EXTREMELY SHORT-RANGE WAVES…THAT WOULD DO UNTIL WE’D DEFEATED LORD DARKNESS HIMSELF, WHO WAS GLOATING LIKE AN INSANE CACKLING MADMAN AT THE FAR END OF THE ROOM. WE RUSHED HIM, AND LAY ON! HE FOUGHT HARD, BUT TO NO AVAIL. WE PREVAILED. JUSTICE PREVAILED. URANUS PREVAILED.



“AS HE LAY, RECOVERING, SILVERSTREAK WARNED THAT HE WAS AN IMMORTAL BEING, AND THAT WE NEEDED TO FIND A WAY TO RESTRAIN HIM QUICKLY. WE DRAGGED HIM OVER TO HIS MEGA-ANGSTIFIER, AND AS HE TOUCHED IT HE LET OUT A GREAT SIGH OF APATHY. HE HAD BEEN HOIST BY HIS OWN PETARD, AS YOU HUMANS SAY. HE WOULD TROUBLE THE FORCES OF GOOD NO MORE.



“IN GRATITUDE FOR HELPING, CAPTAIN SILVERSTREAK MADE ME AN HONORARY LIFELING MEMBER OF THE JUSTIFIERS. AN HONOUR INDEED, FOR ME, AND FOR URANUS!

[end]
Overall, this was fun to play, no question.

My favorite missions were the first and the last. However, the first mission being a reminiscence led me to believe (as you can see from the direction that Robot’s narrative took) that the whole arc would be set like this. I was quite looking forward to that, after the first mission. But of course the rest of the arc isn’t set in the past. I’m not sure the ‘actually, now that I think of it, you don’t remind me of the Dynamite Kida after all’ thing works, I’m afraid.

The last mission was excellent, I loved that there was a nice mix of objectives, Syren Lass was a lovely surprise, it was all good.

The missions in between the first and last were enjoyable enough, but Mission 3 especially could do with some pzazz to make it memorable.

If I’m brutally honest, the title (love the title) and the quality of the first mission led me to expect something greater than what I actually met in the rest of the arc. However, the last mission is golden, really, and during the whole arc, I pretty much cleared all in every mission because I was having fun, and at the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about.

I rated it 4-stars.

Eco.