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Venture

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  1. Venture
    Is it really that onerous to have to make a mouse click to read a Clue?

    Oh, and cutscenes in MA? No. Just no.
  2. Venture
    The closest I have to a detective story is "Two Households Alike" (#126582), which is really more of a police story. "Splintered Shields" (#253991) has also been compared to a police story, one focused on an Internal Affairs division.

    I'm a fan of detective stories myself ("The Simple Art of Murder" should be required reading for prospective Architects) but haven't written anything like that for MA because I'm not sure it would really work well. Despite their superficial appearance, good detective stories are not about the crime but are about the detective, and hijacking the PC is an unforgivable trespass.
  3. Venture
    He was de jure optional perhaps, but he spawned within agro range of Pohsyb for me....
  4. Venture
    Arc #390921, "Arena"
    tl;dr: 4 stars. Offenses: overpowered mobs, affected dialogue

    Reviewed on: 4/3/2010
    Level Range: 40-54
    Morality: Villainous
    Factions: Generic, Freakshow, Arachnos, Paragon Police
    Architect's Keywords: Complex Mechanics, Drama, Romance
    My Keywords: Challenging, Complex Mechanics, Drama
    Character used: Jessica Ballantine/Champion
    Difficulty: +0x2+B-AV

    THE SKINNY: You're asked to work security at the World Championship "gladiator" fights at the Giza. Wackiness ensues as the match has become politicized...and that's not counting the behind-the-scenes skullduggery.

    WHAT WORKS: Amanda Vines' dialogue as the Contact is great. Most of the NPCs speak in rhymes or near-rhymes which may be disconcerting until/unless you get the references, which I'd accidentally guessed when I heard of the arc. There's an interesting mechanical trick in act IV, which I haven't figured out yet.

    WHAT DOESN'T: A substantial part of the plot is contained in your orders, which are delivered via Mission Start Clues. While the big CLUE floaty really should suffice it would probably be a good idea to mention in the briefings that you should review your orders. "The Arbiter" in act I has Sands' bio but not his name; he should either be called "Arbiter Sands" or get a new bio, IMO. Amanda's story is tied up as far as the facts are concerned but still feels as if it lacks closure.

    WHAT STINKS: The Arbiter Sands model used is the one from the STF; on agro it dropped two LT Drones and four Minions, which is a bit much. And you get to fight him twice. Having the plot depend on Arachnos giving the player orders to take out an Arbiter stretches credulity; it might be best if the Arbiter were replaced by a more neutral custom Judge or Referee. Act V is a tedious slogfest against multiple EB/AVs; in addition to Sands you have to deal with an upgraded Krylov (who simply refused to die thanks to Willpower; took multiple trays to wear him down), Castle and Pohsyb.

    ANYTHING ELSE? Using Castle and Pohsyb is a bit cheeky, I'd say, but if they don't mind.... Krylov's dialogue in act V gets cut off in his word balloon but displays in full in the window. The arc does a reasonable job of recapitulating the plot of Chess (in one of its incarnations, at least; Chess has been rewritten more times than Soviet history) though again, having the characters speak in lyrics may be taking the homage a bit too far.

    VERDICT: It was heading for five stars until act V, which pushed it down to three. I bumped it up one 'coz I've always liked what I've heard about Chess in all its various incarnations even though I've never seen any of them.... (I do have two songs from it in my library; "One Night in Bangkok" and "I Know Him So Well".) Tuning the combat and text would help immensely.
  5. Venture
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    Ah, Arachnos warehouse. I would expect more "redside office".
    This is something I keep meaning to change -- all references to "office" to "warehouse" -- and never get around to doing. I'm doing it right now. :P

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    Won't that make it harder to get anywhere, or is this going to be an "anyone acting without explicit orders will be shot"-level alert?
    It's going to be a "protect the important stuff and who cares about the rabble" alert....

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    Also I don't quite buy his justification. Recluse isn't going to round up Oakes and then flood the facility with a deadly neurotoxin because then he'll be too mad to do anything but seethe?
    As fun as that might be, it would mean Recluse would have to admit that he got played for a sap. Instead, Amanda Vines will read a prepared statement about how the recent "surprise combat readiness drill" went off without a hitch with all bases exceeding requirements and, quietly, security forces in Oakes will be reaaaaaly interested in Ramiel for a while.

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    Actually that would, alternatively, explain why he sounds so detached. He's not actually personally invested in this. Christmas is something other people would enjoy so he's going to give it to them.
    Bingo. Thus the "whatever else hoi polloi do" comment.

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    What did the files help with? Inserting the agent, since they didn't know who was working there? Stopping the trucks from being destroyed because the system isn't up anymore to process form 543/K, "Demolitions Ash Disposal Form"? Erasing all shipping manifests so the inside guy can spin a line of bull about why they can't destroy them?
    Once the mole (working at some administrative facility) could identify where exactly the stuff was, both physically and in the system, he just had to edit the scheduled time for the stuff to be destroyed. (Of course, as I've said earlier in the thread, I expect the stuff would have been kept around anyway until the workers at the yard had a chance to cherry-pick it for themselves.)

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    No inside guy in evidence, though.
    Non-combatant, and not even at the impound yard.

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    I was hoping I'd get to defend some trucks in this mission.
    I'm pretty sure I'd have to use an outdoor map to use trucks, and I'm not sure there's one that would fit.

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    Based on the chatter around Mercy, it seems like Recluse suffers the underclass to live mostly because desperate people can occasionally do something interesting.
    He lets them live because, to quote Ted Knight in Caddyshack, "the world needs ditchdiggers, too". Someone's got to do the dog work, and what fun is "rule by the fittest" if you don't have rabble to lord over?

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    Mostly because there's a decent amount of plot to be had in missions 3 and 4, but the complete lack of anything separating the plot events means it all hits in one solid and largely indigestible wad. It's given me an appreciation for how the generally mentally undemanding process of chewing through the rank and file can create some time to think about what's going on.
    I'm still debating repopulating the base for act IV.

    Thanks for the review!
  6. Venture
    I don't think of the gameplay in "Psychophage" as challenging. I think of it as tedious. "Challenging" would require that it be something you could fail, and you can't, unless you never had a chance of succeeding in the first place. Otherwise you can just throw yourself at it again and again, chipping away until you finish.
  7. Venture
    Apologies for the delay in reply; RL stuff distracted me.

    Thanks for the review of "Two Households Alike", and the top rating. I've put my reply in the arc's thread so as not to derail this one.
  8. Venture
    This is a belated reply to Mychyl's review of the arc.

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    I like the fact that, even though they're obviously reskinned Family, they have unique group descriptions. Might do well with a little variation, but that's more nitpicky than anything.
    The arc is at 99.87% space used. If/when we get the increase then perhaps I could fiddle with the text. I'm not sure what I'd change here, though. Maybe put in more behind-the-scenes nuggets about the families.

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    Come around a corner, and see one of the goons hitting on his captive. OK, maybe not THAT much progress.
    That was a Poletti, the family that doesn't allow women.

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    Just noticed, only one of the Families is actually a reskin. The Polettis are custom appearance as well, just... highly similar. The women, of course, are completely unique but fit in well.
    Both Family sub-factions are primarily reskins. The Bianchis are reskinned in blue with the Underboss model with the hat and no Capo Muscle unit. They gain the Streghe (Minion) and Maghe (LT) custom units and the named boss (Katrina), all of which (along with the custom Knives Mercenary boss) also go into the Bianchi Streghe sub-faction. The Polettis have all the usual Family Minion and LTs and the bald Underboss reskinned in red, plus the Battatori (Minion) custom unit and the named EB (Federico). They had a named LT as well but it was pulled for space.

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    Hm... OK, I understand the Bianchi women having psychic powers (it's explained in their descriptions, so I get that), but why MA? Especially when a group of three of them start tossing shuriken my way... a bit odd. >.>
    I wanted them to have a melee secondary (except for Katrina, who's grown powerful enough to no longer need to get her hands dirty). MA fit better than anything else, IMO. Yeah, the shuriken are annoying but you can't take them out.

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    Wait, what? Freakshow? Are things so boring around Paragon that they needed to crash this little Family dispute?
    Do Freakshow actually need an excuse?

    b34v1s: Dude! All these guys are shooting at each other!
    b0lThe4D: Cool!
    b34v1s: So, who do we shoot?
    b0lThe4D: EVERYONE!
    b34v1s: heh heh heh heh

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    No, he wants to follow me. But not to be led out. I... I don't get it. Is he some kind of sidekick now?
    Ally, though he's only an Underling and "dies" easily (but gets better in the debriefing). He's one of the "Loyalist" models from the Mender Tesseract SF. If we ever get Dual Pistols I might try to remake him as a Minion, if I have space.

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    And now I get to go arrest what sounds very suspiciously like a personal-villain-in-arc plug. But whatever, personal villains fall down too.
    Diablo Navarra isn't one of my characters, or based on any of them. I will admit that he pushes the Mary-Sue-ness envelope, which is why I'll probably never use him again. (I briefly considered using him in "Splintered Shields" but quickly discarded the notion.)

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    The addition of a Knives sister to the madness is... interesting, to say the least. Apparently, they really ARE for hire to more than just Malta. We just... never get to see that?
    There's at least one canon arc in which the Knives are working for someone other than Malta. Of course, it's a Longbow agent, which makes less than zero sense....

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    Round the corner, and I see Flame Devils and Flame Imps. I can only assume these were originally supposed to be the old fire imps (before they changed it in AE, due to people abusing them). Once DS goes live, using those henchmen might work, if you're not too attached to the current ideal; what you have now works quite well, as well.
    No, they've always been customs. I've been on the fence as to whether or not to delete them. They were only added in the first place because it wasn't possible to have Diablo spawn by himself on an empty map when this was written. I've kept them because people seem to like them, even though they really don't make much sense.

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    As I said before, there were a couple things I *might* change, were I you, but overall? This is quite possibly one of the best arcs I've ever seen in MA.
    Thanks!
  9. Venture
    Both of my VEATs and one other villain will go Rogue. None of my heroes will be side-switching at all.
  10. Venture
    Quote:
    I'm just curious if there are any arcs or missions which feature characters or situations which might seem familiar but which take place with CO* assets.
    #126582, "Two Households Alike".
  11. Venture
    Replying to various points:

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    I'd like to see more Heroside about the Legacy Chain... they have some great potential for GOING ROGUE, too (we're on the side of Light, but we'll MASSACRE you if we think you're abusing magic).
    #4829, "Chains of Blood"...unapologetic Jossbait, but it's the direction I'd go in with the Chain.

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    I haven't checked for any Penny Preston arcs, but I'm sure they're out there, too.
    Arc #149323, "Toys from Heck: The Penny Preston Taskforce". Not one of mine but I did review it.

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    Akarist too was stolen from MAGI's custody. And though not because of a villain, there is also that Divining Rod thingie that Skipper LaGrange gives you in Croatoa.
    A person is not an object and can't be thrown into a vault for security. There is no evidence that Skipper's artifact was ever in MAGI's possesion in the first place; what is said only indicates that he's not supposed to have it. Presumably the City universe has laws regulating dangerous artifacts, just like gun control laws.

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    Is it coincidence that the respec NPCs for heroes and villains (at least the original before Sawyer was added) both have wolf related names? Jack Wolfe / Arbiter Lupin
    "Lupin" is a false cognate; the word in question is "lupine". A lupin is a flower. While it wouldn't surprise me if CoV's writers fell into the linguistic tar-pit I thought Arbiter Lupin's name was a Shout Out to the "Dennis Moore" Monty Python skit, in which a "gentleman bandit" steals lupins from the rich to give to the poor. The villain respec trial, of course, involves players stealing from a plant.

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    Praetoria isn't an evil mirror world of Primal Earth.
    Praetoria is a goatee universe with a few token-minority exceptions thrown in to try to refute that fact. The overwhelming likelyhood for any given canon character is that their Praetorian counterpart is an evil twin.

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    Unless I'm lore-confused again and the Coming Storm was the return of the 5th... I don't know any more
    "The Coming Storm" is both overused and underused. Underused in that it was thrown in and neglected; overused in that the devs throw it back in every once in a while, which only has the effect of ensuring that what they ever do with it, if anything, won't have a snowball's chance in hell of living up to expectations.
  12. Venture
    Saying Cimerora is "not totally historically accurate" is like calling a nuclear explosion "noisy".

    Cimerora is one of the few elements in the canon that could be improved by being declared a Nemesis plot.
  13. Venture
    Quote:
    She's still the last person in the chain of custody, so far as all the lost artifact storylines seem to record.
    All one of them. The only item actually stolen from MAGI in any arc is the Wheel of Destruction.
  14. Venture
    Quote:
    We're saying that it's weird that an ancient Nictus named Romulus and a modern Warshade also named Romulus aren't related at all, because all the lore and backstory tools are there to create a believable and viable connection.
    The Nictus wasn't named Romulus. The Nictus that merged with Romulus Augustus was, if it was anyone we'd seen in canon before and the writers want to choose the most obvious (and cheesy) option, most likely Dirge of Entropy, the one that would later merge with Ridolfo Uzziano, a.k.a. Requiem.

    As for whether similar names are enough to create a "viable" connection...well, that's where we came in.
  15. Venture
    Quote:
    Or whoever was writing the Cimerora arc just forgot that there was another Romulus mucking about.
    It would be the other way around. Romulus Augustus (Augustulus) was part of the "Path of the Dark" lore from the start. He's explicitly mentioned in the 35-40 arc "A Path Into Darkness". This was mangled/retconned/co-opted into the Nictus storyline in issue 3, and eventually grew into the Cimerora historical defilement. The use in CoV is the second use.

    Since it is painfully obvious to me that the CoV team either didn't bother to review the existing canon or did and just didn't care about contradicting it, I don't see any compelling reason to link these characters at all.
  16. Venture
    Why is it a "screw up" if the name was used twice? "Romulus Augustus" is a historical figure, although we're pretty sure he wasn't involved with space aliens. "Romulus" is the name of one of Rome's founders in one of its origin myths and as a result is a not-uncommon name.

    Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, and a world in which all characters with similar names were somehow related or connected to each other would be far more unusual than one in which some people happened to have similar names but were otherwise unrelated.
  17. Venture
    Quote:
    What purposes does it serve to have them be two different guys?
    What purpose does it serve to have them be the same?
  18. Venture
    Smurphy, an announced feature for i17 is the availability of Giant Monsters. Do you want/not want to see these in your arcs?
  19. Venture
    I'm pretty happy with all of them outside of "Psychophage", but I still think the Big Bad of "Two Households Alike" (#126582), Diablo Navarra, came out the best:

  20. Venture
    Feel free to review any of mine (@Venture), but just to put in a concrete request: Two Households Alike, #126582. Hasn't been reviewed in a while. It has a CoH Mission Review page and a forum thread. Feel free to post your review here or there.
  21. Venture
    Quote:
    for all we know their HQ was in Crey's Folly near their factories (eastern map area) or wherever the Crey lab was that polluted the area (per official site) and has been abandoned/relocated now (personally I like to think their HQ was that huge twin-tower skyscraper in the southwest corner of Tangle Town, though I have no evidence for it).
    Er, how do we know this? The lore only says a Crey facility got bombed, not their HQ.
  22. Venture
    Thanks for playing "Psychophage" and the brief review. I've posted some extended comments in the arc's thread so as not to derail this one. I'll just say that I'll be yanking Sonic Dispersion off the Suppressors tonight. I have to replay everything anyway to vett them against today's patch.
  23. Venture
    Smurphy ran "Psychophage" as a candidate for his 20 billion inf MA contest and gave a brief review in his thread. I'm posting replies to his comments here so as not to derail.

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    I died before I even zoned. Not good. Possibly due to team stupidity.
    This has never happened to me. I don't think it can without someone pulling a spawn to the door early.

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    Force Multiplier Enemies = potentially too hard. I think Sonic Dispersion probably should go. Stacked Resistance makes fights take too long. I like the difficulty of the fights but Multipack rooms became very tough but do-able. Quite fun except for massive +Resistance. The enemies don't die as quickly as I like when multiple Suppressor bosses are next to each other.
    I'm taking Sonic Dispersion off the Suppressors. I'm glad the "Force Multiplier Enemies" gave you a hard time, though, as that's what I intended of them. Both factions were designed around stacking debuffs and exotic damage types over S/L.

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    Huge amount of ambushers from many sides wiped us in mission 2. Lots of dispersion bubbles. Maybe it was Patrols... multiple.
    They had to be patrols. There are only two ambushes in act II; one when the proper container is found and one when the (optional) named Boss hits half health.

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    Mission 4 Going about the same. The Omicron are good. The bosses with Tier 9s could be annoying but we had no problem with it.
    Someone says the AV TPs - I did not notice the AV teleporting. If the AV teleports that would be annoying and not fun. I get mezzed on the AV ambush. We wipe. I think the team woulda been fine if I had a BF. Not sure on how I feel about the Mez. There wasn't much of it but there was just enough to make some spots really troublesome. Probably just need to know to use Break Frees.
    The AV did not teleport. Custom mobs can't teleport, it's not available. If he warped through the geometry or something it's a first, I've not had any issues with that map. I deliberately gave him control effects (Terrorize, Confuse) that would require even melee ATs to need Break Frees.

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    Needs some spice, some more action of some kind. Some more unique encounters. Something special.
    The arc is butting up against the size limit, so there's not much I can do in that department, sadly.

    For the benefit of anyone who might be tempted to try this, some more on the arc's litany of sins (mostly not of interest to Smurphy):

    • The arc was created in response to this thread, which opened with a gratuitous swipe at me. It stopped them cold.
    • As noted above, the custom critters were designed to kill teams. Soloists, especially ones with high Defense and good -Def resist, can probably handle it with nominal difficulty if they don't crank up party size. Large spawns, though, will produce lots and lots of stacked -def, -tohit, -resist....
    • The arc is essentially a Crey/Rikti arc in drag. The Contact is a thinly-disguised Expy of Countess Crey (lampshaded in act I's opening Clue which says she started the company with money from her deceased husband's estate). The Omicrons use a mix of psy powers and blades, just like the Rikti (further lampshaded by the Big Bad, who uses the old-school Rikti sword and mocks human speech). I did that deliberately to see if the instigators would pick up on it (they didn't) and to lampshade the fact that any story set in a mainstream superhero setting could easily be recast using City factions. (Thus casting aspersions on the supposed "need" for custom mobs.)
    • In keeping with the tendency of bad arcs to use Meaningful Anagram names for Contacts, the Contact's name with her middle initial (which you don't learn until act III) is "Diana X. Stadov", which anagrams to David Xanatos. It would have been nice to have made her plan a Xanatos Gambit but that's hard without branching missions. I suppose I could have thrown in a line somewhere revealing that even if the player hadn't gone along he'd have ended up fighting the Omicrons anyway as they'd come after him to get a sample of the X-Omega nanovirus.
    • Other Gargoyles references: named Bosses Hudson, Lennox and Vogel and the Lexington Memorial Hospital, mainly thrown in to provide hints for the above.
  24. Venture
    Honestly, nothing looks terribly exciting.

    Hopefully I'm wrong.
  25. Venture
    I just put "The Christmas We Get" (#356477) into the system a few days ago. It's a seasonal arc, but then it's important to keep the holiday spirit alive all year long.