Well, here we are on the new forums. I've only had a few hours to look at them yet, but provisionally I hate them
I'm sure they'll revealt them selves as awesome or at least not too onerous to get used to.
I do hjave anothe review ready, anyway. I wish it could be a fandabydozey ultra awesome 5-starrer to counterbalance my really very strong 'bleh, do not like' reaction to the new forums, but it's not quite that uber
It IS, however, plenty fun enough for a play. Go on, do it.
Any spelling mikstake etc- i'm sorry, but the new forums won't let me see a preview (if I can, please domeone tell me howe), so thrrrppp. The URL fopr Tommy, likewise I don't see an easy way tom add it.
The Doctor Returns, Arc ID 1152, by @FredrikSvanberg. Very Long (4 mediums, 1 unique map). Heroic, lvl range 35-54. It’s ‘recommended for 30+, so I’m taking Tommy Atkins
my lvl 31 MA/SR scrapper through it.
The description says that the Player will be helping ‘The Doctor’ to stop Crey’s latest insane plot. Sounds good!
“I’ll tell yer this – the Future takes some getting’ used to...the present, I mean. See, I was born in 1920, an’ I’m still only in me twenties. Ter me, all this stuff is still like really weird an’ futuristic. Still, I’m slowly getting’ used ter it. I got the email in me flat about a month ago, an’ it’s quite useful, I must say. trouble is, I gets a lot of spam ‘cos I’m not too good at the internet yet, ‘an I dunno aboiut all these virus windows and stuff…spam…ha, back in the War, spam was jus’ somethin’ we ate! No, not the Rikti War, I missed that…World War II, I mean…
“Yesterday, though, I got an email which was very interestin’. it was from someone called The Doctor, askin’ for help. I replied, an’ The Doctor got back ter me right sharpish, tellin’ me that Crey was up ter no good. What’s new, I ‘ear yer arsk, eh?
“Accordin’ ter the email, they was plannin’ ter use the Mission Archotect ter ‘copy’ its users, or somethin’. I confess, I am not what yer’d call a technical genius, so a lot of the details sort of swam over me ‘ead, but I was about ter go an’ ‘ave me usual Sunday mornin’ trainin’ session anyway, an’ The Doctor’s ‘proof was in the form of a visit ter a specific mission in the system. I figured I might as well ‘ave a looksee…
[I like the use of my SG name! Second time I’ve encountered that! Nice setup, the use of ‘Your Computer’ as the contact is cool too.]
Mission 1: Enter the Hacked Mission
“So I gets meself down ter the Kings Row AE building, an’ logs inter the mission that The Doctor supplies. Inside, I’m in a Council ware’ouse, just right fer a warm-up…I takes a stroll in, an’ I says ‘allo ter some council geezers on the way…
“After a few scuffles with some ‘hoverbots an’ the like, I finds that young bird from Faultline…Fusionette, that’s the girl…she’s bein’ ‘eld prsoner by some people who look out of place among the Council…I think they’re avatars of the MA staff! They take me fer a rogue program! Cheek! I ‘ave ter take ‘em down, I’m afraid. I ‘ope they ain’t too sore when they wake up!
“Fusionette’s pleased ter see me, but confused – she thought she was doin’ this sim solo! So did I!
[Ha! I love it. I freed Fusionette, and then her ‘I thought I was solo in this mission’ line gave me a sort of little twist in my assumptions. Fusionette’s
not a simulation? She’s another customer of the AE? …or is she? …hmm…]
“Any’ows, it’s nice ter ‘ave ‘er along with me. We make a nice little team.
[and it
is nice. Tommy can handle all this easily by himself, at least so far, but I’m not one of the ‘wah, allies stealin’ my rewards’ mob, so as long as they don’;t act like knobs, allies have a thumbs up from me. This map seems to be keeping Fusionette’s well-documented craziness in check]
“We fight our way through a few dozen Council soldiers, like a well-oiled duo…an’ then…
[Woah!]
“…an then…in a big storage room, we find another Fusionette! Looks identical ter the girl with me! The new one’s a bit different, though, in that as soon as she sees me, she starts hurlin’ those energy blasts at me! Charmin’! I ‘as ter doge abaht somethin’ mental! After we put the Fusionette double or whatever it was down, another one pops up! An’ another! An’ after them two was done with, another one! It was like a bloody chorus line of Fusionettes!
[lovely. not too many of them, all in that last room, well-balanced challenge for Tommy, with ‘my’ Fusionette helping. They spawned as yellow lvl 35 heros, btw. Did I mention I’m at challenge lvl 1? I do ALL my runs at this challenge level. Nice mission.]
“After the last one wad defeated, I thought it was time I got out of there. I returned ter reality, an’ used the computer in the AE lobby ter check my email.
“A few back –and-forth messages from The Doctor explained more. He..she…whoever…wasn’t alive…digitized, livin’ in the guts of the interweb an suchlike! Wow…anyway, the Fusionettes in that mission were sort of copies of the original that Crey were makin’ ter use fer various nefarious purposes, as they do, yer know. They needed stoppin’! They always need stoppin’, o’ course. But that’s OK, stoppin’ villainy’s what I does best.
“Anyways, the nextr step was ter get inter another mission, an’ do some fiddlin’ with the gubbins and what ‘ave yer, ter get me some ‘admin priviliges’…I guess that’s somethin’ like the free parkin’ the Lord Mayor o’ London ‘as, maybe…whatever, this mission that The Doc ‘as ‘acked is called ‘testing for bugz’
Mission 2: Kill all bugz lol!!1
“This mission was infested with bugs…weird lookin’ spider guys with extra arms on their backs. I ‘ates spiders! Anyway, after a while I found some of ‘em pickin’ on a Crey Paragon protector…I was all ready ter leave em’ to it, but ‘e spoke ter me, told me ‘e was a pal o’ the Doctor’s. I let ‘im out an’ ‘e tagged along fer the ride…
[odd choice for an ally, considering we’re up against Crey?]
“Me an the protector went fer a wander through the office that was the settin’ fer this mission, findin’ a big ‘ole in the floor leadin’ ter some caves, an’ ‘ad quite a fun tikme of it kickin’ the bugs about on the way. I found the ‘back door’ that the Doctor ‘ad stold me about, an’ whipped out the post-it note with the instructions I’d copied down…an’ just 40 minutes later, I ‘ad me some shiny new admin privileges!
[This mission was an OK bug-hunt, fine for some XP-hoovering, but a bit short on exciting content I’m afraid. The map itself is not huge, but big enough to have made me expect something more, especially after the surprising multiple Fusionettes in Mission 1]
“When I got out an’ checked me email again, I ‘ad a message from the AE – My account ‘ad been upgraded! Nice.
“The Doc’s got more fer me ter do, o’ course. Rescuin’ some of the geezers what ‘ave already bin digitized an’ stored by Crey, fer starters. The Doc tells me ter expect some resistance this time…no fears, ‘ere!
[Hm. I read the briefing for the next mission, and I was expecting a real-world break-in until the last sentence, which directs me to the data-stream again to be sent to ‘a virtual representation’ of the file storage. It’s seeming slightly odd to be using my admin ctatus and fighting ‘extra security’ inside n AE representation of a real-world place? BTW, Perhaps ‘file archive’ would be a better choice of name for the type of facility I’m assaulting?]
Mission 3: Search the File Storage
[I’ve capitalized your mission titles here, but in game they aren’t. I personally prefer Capitalization of the main words in a title. here, too, it would add another difference to the uncapitalized Mission 2, which is supposed to be someone else’ s crap PL mission or something, I think.]
“So this virtual thingumajig looks like a sewer. A sewer fulla Freaks! They must be the extra security they’ve hired. I could do wiv a workout, so I ‘ave some fun…
[I like beating up Freaks, so I clear as I go…]
“There’s a big Freak in charge, ‘es well surprised ter find me punches can hurt him. ‘E ain’t surprised fer long, though. After that, I ‘ave ter look for the compressed files…the first one I find is Fusionette! She couldn’t ‘ave got out of that warehouse mission! There are some AE admin types guardin’ ‘er…I sort them out and free the girl. She’s a bit confused so I tell’s ‘er ter scarper.
[It isn’t totally clear in the first mission that she doesn’t get out, so it was a little surprising to find her here]
“Next up…its Positron! Blimey! ‘E says the last thing ‘e remembers is bein’ asked ter look at the system before it was opened ter the public! ‘E’s bin in their fer months!
[Fusionette and Positron both spawned in that same large last room, which is good. I have to backtrack quite a lot to find Faultline, the third. He’s the last objective.
“Usually, where Fusionette is, ‘er boyfriend Faultline is, I figure, so I ‘ave a quick superjump around the place one last time before I leave, just ter make sure, like. An’ bingo, there ‘e is, in another chamber, bein’ guarded by some AE admin geezers. After I sorts ‘im out, ‘e goes racin’ off, an I finish off a few more Freaks before turnin’ the lights out on my way out.
[The Instructor dialogue is identical for Posi, Faultline and Fusionette. Another nice little Clear for Tommy, but I didn’t like the map much, it’s a little bit fiddly, and a sewer seems a bit arbitrary for the Storage facility. As I was playing it, especially when I freed Posi, I realized that the arc reminds me a little of Tad Williams Otherland books, which I rate highly]
“The Doc was pleased that I’d freed Positron, but time was tickin’, an’ there was another job fer your truly.
Mission 4: Find an Interface Node
“The Doc wants me ter enter the ‘eart of the AE admin system. I’ll be tryin’ ter find an ‘interface node’, whatever that is, so
s I can shove a virus or somethin’ up the AE’s jacksie. There’ll be plenty of virtual ****-kickin’ ter do as well, no doubt.
[Timed mission – 60 mins. Came with a warning before the mission accept, which is great]
“The place is swarmin’ with AE technicians an’ repair specialists an’ allsorts! I stretch me fists an’ feet a bit, even though I’m on the clock.
[I love the technicians helmets, in fact the whole custom group looks great for the AE technical and admin staff. The Phantom Army explanation in the bios of the Technicians is very neat]
“I found a good few potential nodes, but those Ae security geezers were right on the ball. The Doc’s program keot getting’ stopped before it woulc upload properly…
[There’s quite a few interface niode glowies to click, eh?]
“After a few attempts, they must ‘ave got wise, cos an alarm goes off an’ a ‘uge group of techs shows up ter give me what for. I give it back to ‘em…
[Lovely ambush that.]
“I keep goin, deeper inter the system…
[Nice linear map this]
“And eventually I finds the right node…
[no clue for this, the system message explains its been uploading. I was waiting for an ambush from an earlier node, so after the mission copmpleted I had a nice little fight. Incidentally, there were other nodes still left after the mission complete; clicking them resulted in the ‘failed upload’ message, but its worded as though I haven’t uploaded anything successfully yet.]
“An’ job done!
“Outside, The Doctor contacts me from inside the AE itself. There’s one more thing ter do. Clean the system of any track I might ‘ave left of meself.
Mission 5: Wipe Out Your Tracks
“The Doctor was goin’ ter put me into a normal mission, an’ then I’d ‘ave ter find two AE agents an’ nick the access codes ter a backdoor passage ter the gubbins of the system, where I could do me spring cleanin’. Sounded very complicated ter me, but The Doc assured me it’d be a piece o cake…
“Once inside the mission, I see Crey agents everywhere. They give me some stick, so’s I show ‘em some manners.. After a few rooms full, I finds a big cheese spoutin’ off at me, an’ we ‘as a bit of a tussle. ‘E gives up a passcode before ‘e disconnects…
[this is an office-to-cave map]
“In one room there’s a great big ‘ole ion the floor – I drop down ter find another head agent an’ a mainframe of some sort. I drops the agent, she gives up another passcode, and then I wipes the files off the mainframe…
[beating up the mainframe wipes its files…I think a collectible would work better]
“All I gots ter do then is delete the backup files, which should be around somewhere…
“An’ in a big cave, I found ‘em…on another mainframe. I cleaned the room of AE techs first, then took me time deletin’ the files. Clean as a whistle!
“I exits, an’ The Doc thanks me fer…’ang on, what’s ‘appened? the Doc’s thankin’ me fer stuff I ‘aven’t done! Eh? My copy did some stuff, saved the world or some such? [scratches head]…I’ll never get all this modern stuff, if I lives ter be a hundred!
[end]
Hm…I’m afraid that that didn’t grab me by the goolies, that arc. Overall, I find it right on the cusp of 3 and 4 stars.
I’ll go with the negatives first. I found the ‘virtualisation’ of missions 4 and 5 to be confusing; I couldn’t see why I wasn’t doing a real-world mission instead. I confess I didn’t realize that I was supposed to be a copy of Tommy until the end debriefing. Also, the maps sometimes seemed arbitrary.
The pluses: The writing was free of typos or grammar errors, all the bios and system messages were used, and care was obviously taken when writing it. The maps were mainly of good size and with minimal or no backtracking. I loved the customs, and fighting them was a lot of fun. I cleared all on mission 4 and 5, just for the fun of fighting them.
And with that, I’ve answered my 3/4 conundrum. The story isn’t fireworks, IMO, and there could be some more objectives or something to spice it up, but the AE is all about the fun, isn’t it, and I did have a lot of fun. 4 stars.
Eco.
The FAQ linked up at the top, next to your User CP (which is where you'll perform many of the things you asked about) is actually pretty detailed about how to do what.
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