Venture

Arc #13579, "Falling Through the Cracks"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: Shoot the Shaggy Dog ending, typos, lack of polish, weak theme

Reviewed on: 3/1/52010
Level Range: 20-29/20-29/20-29/25-35/3-54
Morality: Heroic
Factions: Warriors, Family, Crey, Custom
Architect's Keywords: Easy, Solo Friendly, Drama
My Keywords: same
Character used: Jessica Ballantine/Champion
Difficulty: +0x2+B-AV

THE SKINNY: Maggie Watson (no bio) needs your help in dealing with her kid brother Ernie, who is a hero wannabe. Ernie gets into a variety of troublesome encounters over the course of a year, which you bail him out of.

WHAT WORKS: An NPC shows a bit of chivalry by honoring you with some aid after you defeat him. There is a theme but the arc doesn't do much with it. While I'm normally not fond of discontinuous level ranges in this case the arc has a good excuse for it.

WHAT DOESN'T: The dialog is uninspired and the arc lacks polish in general. There's a potential Rocks Fall Everyone Dies ambush in act III. A custom faction in act IV has no descriptions on its mobs, which are turned up a bit much.

WHAT STINKS: The arc has a Shoot the Shaggy Dog ending (yes, the kid dies, as if you couldn't guess).

ANYTHING ELSE? Watch out for mobs that resist stuns in act IV, and mobs that see through stealth in acts IV and V.

VERDICT: Somewhere in here there is a five-star arc trying to get out. For now, it's only a three.

Try "Psychophage", #283197. It's been up for a while but doesn't get many plays since it's a) deliberately bad in storytelling terms and b) deliberately built to kill teams.

Arc #61013, "The Invasion of the Bikini-Clad Samurai Vampiresses From Outer Space"
tl;dr: 5 stars. Nits: "just a bunch of stuff that happened" (but comedic), some problematic ambushes

Reviewed on: 3/14/2010
Level Range: 5-25
Morality: Heroic
Factions: Lost, Custom
Architect's Keywords: Solo-Friendly, Non-Canon Story, Comedy
My Keywords:
Character used: Jessica Ballantine/Champion
Difficulty: +0x2+B-AV

THE SKINNY: Ed Wood needs your help in stemming off a threat so horrible as to defy description...either that or he's making a bad movie again, we're not sure which...OK, we are. Wackiness ensues, largely involving actors that can't quite remember their lines.

WHAT WORKS: The dialog and (most) /info panels are fall-down funny.

WHAT DOESN'T: Retasked Banished Pantheon mobs have stock descriptions. Bosses tend to have ambushes that are more than a bit large for a comedy arc.

WHAT STINKS: The real Ed Wood's work...but nothing in this arc.

ANYTHING ELSE? Just a heads-up, the custom mobs are pretty much immune to stuns. This really ruined Jess' day, as she depends on stuns to stay alive.

VERDICT: Hilarious, recommended.

Arc #1379, "Axis and Allies
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: "just a bunch of stuff that happened", some overpowered mobs

Reviewed on: 3/13/2010
Level Range: 40-44
Morality: Villainous
Factions: Custom
Architect's Keywords: Non-Canon Story, Rule the World
My Keywords: same
Character used: Jessica Ballantine/Champion
Difficulty: +0x2+B-AV

THE SKINNY: Schadenfreude (no bio, evidently the female precursor to the current Vampiri by that name also seen in another of the author's arcs) wants your help in preventing the Nazi's defeat in World War II via Ouroborus. Your first task is to violate the Hitler Time Travel Exemption principle and take him out, which surprisingly works. You Keep What You Kill, so A Stupid Jetpack Hitler Is You! Next comes a romp through some famous WWII battles and a showdown with Statesman and Maiden Justice for the win.

WHAT WORKS: The author uses a number of historical references, most of which are sound (see below). The repurposing of custom mobs is pretty creative.

WHAT DOESN'T: Schadenfreude refers to Hitler as "Shicklgruber" at one point, which is a popular misconception. There are a few Boss and EB Masterminds that also call ambushes, which is a bit much, and the Russian generals, between their own powers and supporters, have a ton of control and slow effects (the monitor showed -190% Recharge at times). This really ramped up the tedium.

WHAT STINKS: Nothing.

ANYTHING ELSE? IMO, Hitler should not have been superpowered...you should have to fight everything this side of the Archangel Michael to get to him, but once you do he should go down in one shot. Making the player his replacement doesn't really serve the plot at all. Unless the PC is a military or political genius it doesn't really produce better results than leaving Hitler in charge. (Of course, in reality replacing Hitler with anyone wouldn't have helped. Germany couldn't have won with any aid short of divine intervention.) Better, I think, to have Himmler or Goering step up (having Rommel do it would be vaguely annoying to many, I think, which would almost make it worth doing) and declare the PC to be the "Hero of the Fatherland" or such. There is no real theme to the arc, and it's hard to come up with a means to add one.

VERDICT: It's better than your average shooting gallery, but a shooting gallery nonetheless.

I've forgotten about this thread and missed a lot, but just to hit a recent point:

Most people don't want to see screenshots of my characters, and the link has some other bits as well, such as power sets, bio, a brief blurb and in some cases build information (mostly out of date, I kept hoping they'd get the Vault working. Of course CO's developers were able to do all this for me automatically but I digress.)

And my site doesn't even have a hit counter.

Arc #155618, "The Devil Went Down to Paragon"
tl;dr: 1 star. Offenses: "just a bunch of stuff that happened", disjointed level range, undeclared timed missions, Killer GMing

Reviewed on: 3/13/2010
Level Range: 35-54/1-54/15-21/1-54
Morality: Villainous
Factions: Vanguard Shield, Custom, Bat'zul
Architect's Keywords: none
My Keywords:
Character used: Jessica Ballantine/Champion
Difficulty: +0x2+B-AV

THE SKINNY: "Harbinger", who looks to be some kind of demon (and is eventually revealed to be the Devil himself) offers you the Devil's help in defeating your nemesis, Booster Blue (whom I've never heard of, but let's just play along for now...). Of course this means giving the Devil your soul. Getting your soul back requires enlisting the aid of "Johnny Daniels", a fiddle player who once...oh, you heard this one.

WHAT WORKS: It's nowhere near as pretentious as "Blight".

WHAT DOESN'T: Booster Blue's /info says he's the younger brother of Booster Blue...um...oh, and he's "bringing sexy back"...right. A Clue you're supposed to get in Act III is actually given in Act II. Act II is actually labeled Act III for that matter. The author consistently misspells "yutz" as "yuts".

WHAT STINKS: Acts II and III are timed with no warning at all. None of the mobs in the custom "Hell Inc" faction have descriptions and they all look the same. Mobs have piles of obnoxious powers, including AVs with both BuildUp and Aim.

ANYTHING ELSE? The last mission uses the Ruladak map, the one with about ten feet of visibility. Some people don't mind this, most seem to hate it.

VERDICT: Where are Tom, Crow and Mike when we need them?

Arc #316340, "Husk"
tl;dr: 2 stars. Offenses: "just a bunch of stuff that happened", Killer GMing, semi-undeclared timed mission, poorly written canon character


Reviewed on: 3/12/2010
Level Range: 35-54/40-54/35-54/5-54/5-54
Morality: Neutral
Factions: Circle of Thorns, Freakshow
Architect's Keywords: Challenging, Save the World, Horror
My Keywords:
Character used: Jessica Ballantine/Champion
Difficulty: +0x2+B-AV

THE SKINNY: Azuria loses something from the vault; film at 11. This time she's so incompetent she doesn't even know what was stolen until you retrieve it: a book. Following up on the theft leads to stopping ritual sacrifice of co-eds, one of which is a "husk", a body born without a soul (so to whom am I speaking?). This makes her susceptible to possession. Wackiness ensues.

WHAT WORKS: I got a new weekly high score in Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook thanks to all the downtime in this arc.

WHAT DOESN'T: Azuria's voice is way off. Hostages in act II are mostly named after characters and actors on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Act III uses the Midnighter's Club map which is not only absurdly overused but bugged; I got dropped out of it on one entry. Act IV is timed but the warning in the briefing is easy to miss. This is particularly egregious since act IV isn't the last mission, meaning it doesn't really matter as far as the story is concerned whether you succeed or fail.

WHAT STINKS: The level range, which is worth -1 star off the bat. Just to make matters worse I got green and blue cons on the first map. All of the Bosses have excessive spawns: Boss, 2 LTs, 2 Minions at the stated difficulty, with no clear reason why a spawn that size was needed. The arc's first Big Bad appears to be Mind Control/Fire Blast, giving her an insane attack chain and controls and attacks that bypass positional Defense. The second has Fiery Aura turned up high enough for status protection. The final AV is named Ia R'l'yeh and his info says: " His name is unspeakable. Where he comes from is unknown. He wants to eat your children." Really. Oh, and he's Fire Melee/Dark Armor and could kill Jess in two hits.

ANYTHING ELSE? The arc is almost completely devoid of any actual horror. Most of the Clues are superfluous. The plot doesn't really make any sense; it's never made clear why it's so important for the Circle to have a "husk" for this ceremony, or what they were really planning (unleashing Things Man Was Not Meant To Know to destroy the world is not really their style).

VERDICT: An exercise in tedium devoid of any real point. Skip it.

Arc #1567, "MacGuffin Delivery Service"
tl;dr: 4 stars. Offenses: "just a bunch of stuff that happened" (but comedic), tedium overshadows the comedy at the end

Reviewed on: 3/12/2010
Level Range: 35-40
Morality: Villainous
Factions: Generic, Family, Circle of Thorns, Paragon Police, Tsoo, Carnies, Wailers, Nemesis, Longbow
Architect's Keywords: Solo Friendly, Complex Mechanics, Comedy
My Keywords: Solo Friendly, Comedy
Character used: Jessica Ballantine/Champion
Difficulty: +0x2+B-AV

THE SKINNY: You steal a statue of a bird from a pawn shop and find out the hard way that just about everyone else in the world wants it. Just to make things more fun, the statue is indestructible and cursed. It always returns after you get rid of it. You have to raid Orenbega to find a means of disposing of it, which involves a visit to MAGI complete with a cast of (seemingly) thousands.

WHAT WORKS: Act II has a very clever setup with friendly NPCs that have dialog as you approach. The comedy works more often than it doesn't; some of it is too low-key.

WHAT DOESN'T: There's a Rocks Falls Everyone Dies type ambush in the first act, though technically it's after the mission completes so you can just click out. Another one hit me in act II and that one couldn't be avoided. The only stock Family Boss at this level is the Consigliere with Singularity pet, which are just wretched for squishies.

WHAT STINKS: The last map is way too big and overplays the joke. You can stealth it (I think) but that guts your XP and ticket gains.

ANYTHING ELSE? Act III has mid-level Circle of Thorns, meaning you get to fight some of the most despised mobs in the game. It does say that on the label though, so if it bugs you, stay out. I faceplanted more often than I would have liked but I did bring a sub-level character into the arc. Because of the enemies used the arc is probably best played by something with status protection (of course, what isn't.)

VERDICT: Good, but could be great if it was tightened up.

My take on DXP weekend, and this hasn't much to do with how the game overall is doing, is that I'm more convinced now that the devs must be at least considering server merges.

Sure, Virtue and Freedom were in the yellow the whole time, but I was playing on Champion, and it was dead. I hardly ever saw other players. I could walk into Wents' in Talos and find a whole one other player at prime time. When I made the new DP Blaster there was no one in Outbreak. I had the place to myself until I was halfway through Isolator.

For me that would be #4643 "Blowback" and #4829 "Chains of Blood".

Got a play on this out of the blue yesterday; comment (name redacted):

• M1 had cool mutants but otherwise didn't do much for me; good clues, but hunting for them on outdoor map was a little dull. M2: Cyberzombie machines over-the-top but amusing. Liked Psyche's dialog. Shouldn't this have children to rescue? M3: So politically incorrect; should not find this funny, yet I do. Bella & Edward gag got me also. Nice sparkles. M4: Made no sense? Would've liked more explanation of lolcatgirl plot. Dialog very good though. Overall: 4 vignettes, minimal connecting plot? Had fun though.

Unfortunately there's no room for children in act II. Maybe if the size increase comes in...but then I'd be tempted to use the room for more variety in the existing custom factions.

#4643 "Blowback" 68.14%
#4829 "Chains of Blood" 80.88%
#126582 "Two Households Alike" 99.87%
#253990 "Why We Fight" 99.14%
#253991 "Splintered Shields" 83.59%
#283197 "Psychophage" 94.87%
#356477 "The Christmas We Get" 43.86%

"The Christmas We Get' and "Splintered Shields" are probably the best arcs I've written to date, with "Two Households Alike" close behind. "Psychophage" is easily the worst, as it was deliberately written to be bad.

I'm not sure if it's even possible to hit the file size limit on text alone with no custom mobs; if you even try you'll hit the "tl;dr" wall first. "Households" could probably be improved by removing some of its custom mobs. None of these arcs could be improved by adding any. Neither will anyone else's arcs, as custom mobs are nothing but window dressing. I can think of a few features that might warrant an increase in the limit but we're not getting any of those and even if we did people would only use the space for more customs anyway. The new limit isn't going to improve any existing arcs and will probably make a lot of them much, much worse.

I wouldn't change my difficulty settings to play my mother's arc.

Arcs are supposed to function in the general case. That means any number of players from 1 to 8 on the difficulty of their choice.

• Abandonment of even the pretense of game balance with the new difficulty settings
• Static world and abandonment of storylines; granted that many of them should be abandoned thanks to....
• ...poor writing. Yes, there are a few rubies in the mountain of rocks but it seems that every time the devs deign to add new content, they dump more rocks on the pile. The new expansion takes a long-awaited feature and ties it to one of the least imaginative plot devices in comics history: the goatee universe (and please, do not insult my intelligence by claiming "it's not a goatee universe")
• The market is a wretched hive of scum and villainy, and those are its good points; horrid implementation broke in all the ways anyone with a grade-school education in economics predicted and it's not going to be fixed
• Gameplay feels slow and dated compared to the competition

...just for starters, off the top of my head, and in no particular order.