OzzieArcane

I'll just throw it out there but feel free to ignore it if it sounds to hard or long. But the "task force" in my sig usually takes less then 2 hours unless you end up with some major roadblocks for team reasons. It has 9 AVs and 4 EBs. I've tried to make it a challenge but not irritating for teams to play. I did my best not to pick super huge maps. Most of them are pretty straight forward where you shouldn't accidently miss a boss or anything like that.

It also seems to be the most enjoyed out of my arcs since it's the only one with more then 22 votes. It's at 45 and still an overall of 4 stars. Most of those ratings are from people who I don't know running it.

The other day, I was arguing with someone about how dull and boring MA farms were. Then behind me I heard the unmistakeable voice of the MA (Nevermind that it doesn't have a voice)

"That's a shame Mr. Arcane"

Next thing I know, I wake up and I'm a girl! WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!

I intended to get to a few of these today. But I have a massive headache at the moment. Hopefully it'll be gone later. I intend to get at least Trademark Infringement and a Close Encounter late tonight.

You make the minimum level 50. Auto SK only brings people up to the minimum level for the arc.

What I'm wondering. Is what the heck is level 40+ that he feels needs to be in the same story arc as Vahzilok? The higher level Banished Pantheon maybe?

I've decided to try my hand at a review thread. But a couple of things to take care of first.

1. I know I'm not the best reviewer in the world. I have trouble picking apart people's arcs like some reviewers do. No matter what you will get a rating out of me, but you may not get the level of detailed criticism some other reviewers can offer. Chances are you won't get lower then a 3 unless your arc is complete garbage.

2. I don't intend to put a limit on how many ARCs can be submitted, but there may be times when I go days without writing a review. You accept that I won't always be plowing through Arcs like mad. I have things aside from MA and CoH in general that I feel like doing in my free time.

3. Tell me whether you want your review here or in a PM to avoid spoilers.

4. You can get your arc elevated in importance level by doing one of two things. Submitting an arc that fits the desired mission types I want for my characters(Listed below) or play and leave feedback for one of the arcs in my sig. You can also do both.

Characters I intend to use
Ultimo Girl (Level 50 Willpower/Super Strength Tanker) - Mainly interested in save the world style arcs. But she'll generally be used to run anything that doesn't fall in one of my other level ranges.

President Evil (Level 50 Ninjas/Dark Mastermind) - He's an evil business man who wants to rule the world. He considers Crey and Circle of Thorns enemies since he sees them both as rivals. Interested in villainous arcs that involve experiments or that pretend to benefit the player.

Lady Zelara (Level 24 Night Widow) - President Evil's wife, always looking for a way to prove herself. Interested in challenging missions whether they be an actual challenge or just intended to be a challenge from a story perspective.

True Gentleman (Level 15 Trick Arrow Defender) - Mainly interested in missions involving robots or non powered human enemies (Gangs, Soldiers, etc.). Think of him as Green Arrow or Hawkeye in a business suit and top hat.

Sila Silkskin (Level 20 Radiation/Sonic Defender) - She's a Genie who can scream your head off. Interested in magic style stories.

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Since even with custom names/descriptions I've already seen they'll get me complaints of "Why is there Council/5th Column here?"

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People will complain no matter what you do. Create your arc the way you want it and however it makes you happy. Don't pay too much attention to what everyone else thinks. You'll never satisfy everyone.

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I understand that much, but if it's a complaint that I can address. Why not do so?

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For level 40+ you could use Council Empire, they look more like generic military guys and less like Council.

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That idea I already had, since they look like Malta with Council Masks.

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I just wanted to get this out there.

Like the Subject says, its what I think each AT's role in a team should be:

Tanks should aggro the mob to them and try to keep the aggro from most people, especially the Defenders

Defenders should stay around the tank, focusing their buffs around them. However, if the mob begins to crumble away from the tank, the Defender should focus on the Blasters.

Controllers should stay in the back, and both hold the mobs by the tanks, and work with the scrappers by using their pets and single holds to "clean up the edges" of the mobs

Blasters stay in the back with the Controllers and do most of the damage dealing. Enough said

Scrappers role is to both to "clean up the edges" with the Controllers help and to protect the Controllers and the Blasters from the aggro that the Tank cannot hold.

If you have any comments, positive, negative, off topic or even in spanglish, all shall be welcomed!

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It's good to know that after 5 years someone finally figured this out. Now we can all start playing the game for real!

I'm working on a villain group that several of my story arcs will focus around. They're kind of a homage to groups like Cobra, Hydra, Kobra, AIM, and Big Fire. Their intended level range is 25-54.

I want them to have the mixed military feel you get with groups like the 5th Column and Council. So at the moment I'm mainly using customized versions of the Council's 25-54 troops and a few of the Malta guys at the higher levels. There are some monsters and a few custom enemies mixed into the group for various reasons. But I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions for something that has less of a uniform look then Council or 5th Column. Since even with custom names/descriptions I've already seen they'll get me complaints of "Why is there Council/5th Column here?"

I'll give it a look next time I'm on. I think I 5 starred it anyhow even back then because all the fast food references were cracking me up.

You know, for awhile none of them had the ally or rescue hostage options either.

The arc in my sig isn't a single mission. But it does have a lot of AVs spread out through out the 5 missions. There is a total of 9 AVs and 3 EBs in it.

Thanks for the review and yeah I know this mission needs some fine tuning from another review I got as well.

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“So finally, its time to get it on with the Big Evil crew on their home turf. This dilapidated base is where the Boss, the human Succubus – nice name…where she hangs out, along with various supplies I have to dismantle.”

[Another small map. I’m really glad you picked small maps for the most part for this.]

“And once I’m in, it’s a doddle to find the bits and deal with them. The Human Succubus is a tasty bit of skirt, unfortunately she’s what we call FBM – Fit But Mental. I have to put her down”

[er..she’s in a different villain group? There’s a typo in her clue ‘she was defeat’ should be ‘she was defeated’. She’s another easy fight]

“Well, that’s that sorted. I think I did some good today.”

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Just a little bit I wanted to comment on. She's part of a different group because it's a group within a group. She's part of their elite top 10 which she was hinting at in her clue saying "There are 9 others just like me". I guess I could make it list her as part of Big Evil anyhow but I was more thinking about how like the main signature heroes are Freedom Phalanx or Vindicaters rather then "Longbow".

I try to stick to small maps in most my arcs. Especially low level ones, because I know it's hard to get someone to sit through an entire arc that's 4 or 5 missions long. If it were only 1 or 2 missions I'd probably go with some huge maps.

I am in the process of trying to address some of the other issues you mentioned though.

You both make some good points and thinking about it I really do need to go back and add more info in. After writing my task force I got overly used to avoiding using things to save space because that thing had so many custom mobs in it.

The 5th Column enemies were used for two reasons. To save file space and because you can't make custom enemies that have a military feel like they do. They should have had custom descriptions though unless that messed up. I realized a little bit ago maybe adding red to their costume was a stupid idea though since the higher level 5th wear red and black.

I'm sorry about the destructable objects having default descriptions. I know last time I went in to edit the arc, they were all set to no object and when I reselected them it didn't occur to me to double check the text that was attached to them.

I played
Poi, Demonology, and Everything I Learned From Hellions
Arc ID: 164235

Mission 1: Maybe I'm just reading too much into it. But the "If it's for Ms. Liberty" thing in the accept text made me feel like I was accepting it because I think she's so pretty. Which could be weird if I were using a female. But then maybe you ment it as a doing it for a hero who you respect kinda thing, which might not work too well with the whole "She's too young to be a leader" thing she has going. Not saying it needs to be changed, just something to think about.

I just wanna say. I hate outdoor maps... a lot. But I'll forgive it since there isn't much any other way to imitate a street hunt mission in the MA. But I gotta say, it looks a little weird seeing an alter sitting on the street corner, maybe you might wanna think about binding that clue to a different objective?

Mission 2: Feels a little odd with Ms. Liberty being so worried about Hellions. Even weirder that she felt Statesman needed to be called in. Even if they're going to blow up a building, I find it hard to see her wanting to drag the Phalanx into a battle with the Hellions. Maybe having her want you to contact Longbow would make a little more sense. After all, they're her own private army.

Nice to see a map that I almost forgot existed. But Ms. Liberty getting beat by Hellions feels even more unbelievable then some of the previous dialogue and it's really the only thing that feels out of place in this mission. Maybe give the Hellions a custom enemy as a "Mercenary" that's their to take care of heroes for them? Or maybe something like a 5th Column Krieger, they go from 1-54 and it even says in their description that they work as mercenaries. Just need something, to explain away that problem because it just feels out of place for a high ranking signature character to have trouble with Hellions.

Overall Rating: 4 Stars. Would be 5 if some things didn't just feel so out of place. But it's definately nice to have something different to do at the pre 10 levels.

I too am kind of sick of seeing Dev's Choices fill up the first page. Especially since now they changed the default search options so they'll still show up even if you voted on them unless you change the search options.

Here's a thought, they always have the Dev's Choice tag. So they'll come up if you search Dev's Choice. So why not have the arc show up on the front page for about a week before making it so you have to search for Dev's Choice to get them? Having them show up on the front page by default almost defeats the purpose of being able to search for Dev's Choice missions.

Thanks for the review. The Frost Giants were supposed to be enhanced Trolls(I think I put that in their description). Since they had ice powers I was trying to give them another mythological name to go alongside Trolls.

And as for the Goldbrickers, there was a Boomer boss in that mission that made reference to having a device that could "Control those pests" meaning the Clockwork since he was surrounded by them. But that might have been easily missed in the chaos occuring in that mission. I noticed a lot of the objectives near the beginning of that map end up clumped together where you could lose track of what's being said.

As for the Abominations speaking. That's kind of a flaw of things like Patrols/Ambushes. You have no control over what unit will be in it and do the talking. Most times I've seen those groups talk it was a Mort or Reaper doing the talking.

All in all thanks for the feedback though and I will attempt to address some of those errors as soon as I have the chance.

I thought it was like that because they realized it was annoying having a half dozen contacts you'll never complete before you outlevel them.

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When *I* think of super science stuff, I instantly think of Mr. Fantastic, Galactus, The Watcher, Elders of the Universe,

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Mr. Fantastic ok, but the others aren't science. They're Cosmic.

Hmmm. Mad Scientist costumes. Guess I can redesign Smiley Virus' outfit.

HA. Are you kidding me? That would just add to the issues caused by the boss farmers and exploiters.

Am I the only one who when they read this topic had "DO NO PURSUE LU BU!" pop into their head?

Low level arcs you say? I got one that needs some feedback.

Arc Name: BE Prologue: Gangs United
Arc ID: 250480
Author: @Ozzie Arcane
Morality: Heroic
Length: 4 Missions
Level Range: 10-20
Enemy Groups: Hellions, Trolls, Vahzilok, Custom
Description: An evil organization plots to bring several gangs together under their banner. Introduces a villain group I intend to use in future story arcs.

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there have been a few that suggested that I make the arc auto level to 50 to allow mixed level teams to play it.

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Personally I wouldn't do that. People have gotten too spoiled by this auto SK feature.

You arc clearly wouldn't have gotten to HoF status if it was really necessary.

I midaswell toss my newest arc in here. I'll try to play one of yours as well when I have time.

Arc Name: BE Prologue: Gangs United
Arc ID: 250480
Author: @Ozzie Arcane
Morality: Heroic
Length: 4 Missions
Level Range: 10-20
Enemy Groups: Hellions, Trolls, Vahzilok, Custom
Description: An evil organization plots to bring several gangs together under their banner. Introduces a villain group I intend to use in future story arcs.