Venture

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  1. Quote:
    The system has a habit of not uploading changes to an already published arc, although since only I, and maybe 3 other people judging from various forum posts have run into this bug, there doesn't seem to be enough data to generate a fix or pinpoint a problem.
    I've heard from lots of people who have run into this. I have too.

    You have to refresh the browser after uploading any changes to an arc (including, AFAIK, creating it). Otherwise if you open the arc for editing again you get the old version.
  2. *has Clark taken out and hung for the cold-blooded murder of the English tongue*
  3. First, thanks again for the fixed audio file, and the good review.

    The last Big Bad is supposed to be an AV, subject to difficulty level and scaling. I have no idea what you have to do to get AVs to spawn as such now -- it may be that you have to have "Fight AVs as AVs" selected in the leader's difficulty regardless of team size.

    Normally I wouldn't throw in another one of my arcs so soon but since you say you're low, I just filled out a form for #126582, "Two Households Alike".
  4. I was able to get the archive to play in RealPlayer; both iTunes and WMP choked on it. The file appears to be over 10.5 hours long. I picked spots at random and found a very choppy track of my arc's review ("Splintered Shields") at about the 9:15 mark. It sounds like you guys (and your PUG-mates) liked it.

    Edit: the volume was very low as well, had to max out my system volume to hear it.
  5. Arc Name: "Two Households Alike"
    Arc ID: 126582
    Length: Long (5 missions)
    First Published: 4/28/2009 01:52 AM
    Morality: Heroic
    Description: Feuding families, star-crossed lovers...you've heard this story before. The ending sucks. Maybe you can blue-pencil in a better one.
    Forum Thread: Link

    Notes: I blatantly swiped the idea from an entry on the TVTropes page for Take a Third Option - which one should be obvious if you read the page. The title, along with most of the Act titles, is from Romeo and Juliet. There are a number of Shout Outs and such in this one, which I'm not listing for now.

    This arc has gone through a number of changes before settling on the current one. It originally used all custom mobs for the two Family sub-factions, but now they are largely composed of the stock Family mobs recolored and with new backgrounds. The Bianchi family has a "Streghe" sub-faction composed of made women, including a unique female underboss equivalent. The Streghe use a slightly different version of superadine tailored for women; it does give then some enhanced physical attributes but mainly enhances psychic powers. The Polettis only have one custom Minion, the "Battitore" (beater). Diablo Navarra keeps his army of imps for now but with the new ability to have empty maps and Bosses spawn with no guards I may do away with them.
  6. Venture

    New Cape Mission

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Jetpack View Post
    I was really hoping the cape mission would go away finally.

    The concept of gating a cape at lvl 20 was dumb to begin with, so this would have been a good time to get rid of it.
    Yep.

    Between the LGTF revelations, the Alpha-Omega anniversary and the plethora of ways for level 1 characters to have capes in defiance of game lore that says they can't, it would have been far better for the cape missions to just go away.
  7. Thanks for the review, and the good marks.

    Regarding your confusion, the arc does not claim that anyone with the capability to wield magic has Mu blood. It claims that every human being can be said to have "Mu blood" because all humans -- indeed, all terrestrial life forms -- have common ancestry. The arc asserts that the demons got the better of the Circle (and specifically Akarist) by using the term "Blood of Mu" metaphorically to refer to those capable of using magic. They tricked the Circle into signing its own death warrant. After all, no one beats the devil. The sequel, if I were ever to write it, would have Akarist as the Contact directing the player(s) in an effort to retrieve the original contract so he could prove it was fradulent. The finale (with <REDACTED> as the Contact) would be about, ah, getting the case heard in the relevant court.... In any case, this is why the Redeemers' ritual did not and never can work: they are taking entirely the wrong approach.

    The second problem seems to be some confusion about the canonical contract between the Circle and Hell. The demons aren't obligated to kill everyone with Mu blood. They're not obligated to do anything at this point. They've already delivered their end -- they gave the Circle the power to fight back against the Mu. The Circle is obligated to kill everyone with Mu blood as the price for that aid.

    Hequat appears because of the failed ritual's references to the Blood of Mu in the sense of her followers. She is a bit of a random event but I felt the arc needed a big finish. The very early versions back in i14's beta used Baphomet; when I found out Hequat was available (under Arachnos for some warped reason) I felt she was a much better fit.
  8. Quote:
    Time travel doesn't HAVE to be a cop out. Used cautiously and creatively it can be an excellent story-telling device.
    I have been reading science-fiction and fantasy almost as long as I've been alive (I'm 46) and I have never seen a time travel story that was not either a) hackneyed, b) riddled with logical flaws, c) an excessive exercise in Gumping or other forms of historical abuse, or more commonly d) all of the above.

    "The City on the Edge of Forever" almost makes it. This means unless you can outdo Harlan Ellison and/or D. C. Fontana (who was largely responsible for the episode people actually saw), we don't need you.
  9. Why is time travel a cop out?

    Because time travel is always a cop out. It never makes sense and causes more coherency issues than it solves.

    So the ITF, Ouroborus, and alternate realities, which deal with a split in timelines from altering the past are also out?

    Ideally, yes, but the devs love time travel so we're stuck with it.
  10. "Splintered Shields" (#253991) is 45-50; both "Blowback" (#4643) and "Chains of Blood" (#4829) are 41-50.
  11. Quote:
    PS Anyone else think that Tags will be next?
    We can but hope.
  12. You've already got one of mine in the pipeline for whenever the next show ends up being....
  13. Quote:
    We're quite fond of our socialism up here, by the way
    Well, you can have our share of it, then.
  14. Quote:
    The clue in mission 1 is linked to the Superadine; freeing Croquette shouldn't have a clue at all. Perhaps these happened in close succession though.
    Nope, got it on freeing Croquette. I hadn't even found the boxes yet.

    Maybe it's a new bug.
  15. Arc #338380, "Talos Vice"
    tl;dr: 5 stars. Nits: short, some technical flaws, weak theme

    Reviewed on: 11/13/2009
    Level Range: 12-20
    Factions: Trolls, Family, Custom
    Architect's Keywords: Solo Friendly, Drama, Mystery
    My Keywords:
    Character used: Jessica Ballantine/Champion
    Difficulty: +0x2+B-AV

    According to my files, this will be my 150th review. I gave it to Police Woman since she's the second best reviewer around here.

    As a homage to Miami Vice, this arc is written in "screenplay format":




    This means putting words in the PC's mouth but the PC's "lines" are pretty generic so this can be overlooked. The most serious offense here takes place at the very end and I think only the most die-hard roleplayers would even consider balking at it.

    Detective Croquette, working in league with Back Alley Brawler, needs some hero backup for a major drug bust in Talos. Someone has vastly increased the amount of 'dyne being brought in and that's got to stop. Your first bust takes place at a Troll warehouse. (Croquette notes that Talos isn't usually Troll turf but this is where they're organizing to bring the stuff into Skyway.) As soon as you enter it's clear the bust has gone bad. There are Trolls everywhere and most of the cops on the scene are dead. One, a Sergeant Stevens (who looks familiar), tells you the Trolls were lying in wait and the cops never had a chance. Croquette's partner Basins is present as a hostage, as is a Detective Wexler. Croquette himself is a Boss-level Ally, Dual Pistols/Willpower (his release Clue, though, reads like the collection-complete Clue for the 'dyne crates). A mission-end Clue narrates the Troll leader giving up the location of the guy who tipped them off about the raid.

    That location is "Sindicators", a seedy nightclub staffed with women in very skimpy superhero-ish spandex. The patrons go for their guns when you and Croquette arrive. The first, "Libby" (who looks like who you think she looks like) tells you she's seen the Troll meeting with Family wiseguys after you've dealt with her "admirers". There's another dancer named "Kitty" (ditto), whose release merely triggers an ambush, Croquette again as an ally, and the snitch who ratted out the raid to the Family...Wexler. The mission-end Clue narrates the two of you getting Wexler to roll on the Family, revealing where and when they're bringing in the next big shipment, along with Croquette getting a bit overenthusiastic.

    Time for the Fight Scene: you and Croquette head to the scene, a "smuggler's cove" on Scylla Island (bring friends warning). The map is the Mercy dock instance, so it won't take long to find and destroy the drug shipment. That, however, brings out the drug lord Cavalleri, an Elite Boss, Thugs/Willpower (no RTTC or stat protection though, so not too bad). He calls one sizable ambush wave as he falls.


    Since everyone has guns, Jess goes for her gat.

    The ending Clues, pop-up and debriefing narrate Cavalleri and Wexler's fates.

    This is an entertaining homage. It does have a few small gaffes. The Marcone mobs used in a number of places should probably be relabeled as generic Family, since the Marcones are pretty much a Rogue Isles bunch. There's the seemingly-misplaced clue in Act I, and in Act II both Libby and Wexler spawned well in front of Croquette and Kitty, making about half the map optional. While the arc does have a who-do-you-trust theme going on it doesn't do much with it, and it would probably benefit from another act or two. These are small complaints, though, and the arc is recommended for anyone looking for an early-level police arc.
  16. Quote:
    This statement strikes me as odd when coming from a place where anonymous aliases are used nearly 100% of the time. Is being anonymous in the UserCP really that much different than being anonymous while hiding behind a screenname?
    There is a profound difference between anonymous and pseudonymous.
  17. Quote:
    Society already does that. We deliberately sell sticky note, pens, markers, project boards, ect. If anyone wants to write out racial slurs and super glue them to you car your options are to either call the authorities, try to ignore it, or escalate till authorities get involved on their own.
    So we should repeat the mistake?

    In any case you'll notice this kind of thing doesn't happen a whole lot, considering the size of the population. Even the remote possibility of being caught in the act (with the likely clobbering to follow) is usulaly enough to deter the kind of coward who does things like this.
  18. Quote:
    Venture, if you can't control where your own eyes go, then I feel very sorry for you.
    I'm an extreme speed reader; if I look at a page with words on it I'm going to pick up most of them almost instantly. In any case, "just don't look at it" is puerile. Freedom of expression principles protect expression that might be considered offensive but not that which is deliberately hurtful. It is the intent behind such expression that indicts it, and that exists independently of whether the victim is hurt by it or even reads it.

    Quote:
    Also, the comments were only anonymous to YOU, not the mods. The mods could see the names of everyone who left every comment.
    Great idea! Let's create a society that deliberately includes a method for mean people to lash out at others anonymously, and the only way the victims can obtain redress is to petition an already overworked and largely ineffective government for protection! Sign me up! </sarcasm>
  19. Quote:
    Also, people only have the power to offend that YOU give them. For example, let's use the comedy scifi show Red Dwarf. They made up a "swear" word, "smeg".
    Actually, they didn't.

    As for the rep system: everyone has a limit to their patience and the rep system pole-vaulted over mine. I don't normally have a problem with verbal abuse since I can easily overpower the vast majority of would-be raconteurs but the rep system allowed people to say things they'd never have gotten away with in the forums and do it anonymously. There was no way to "not look at it" since the comments were always right there every time you opened your CP, so you couldn't run, couldn't hide and couldn't make it stop.

    The system should be turned off completely. It serves no practical purpose, is nothing but a magnet for abuse and is not worth the effort to administrate. If you have something to say to someone, say it. If you're not willing to put your name to it and say it publicly then it's not worth saying in the first place.
  20. Quote:
    Show me on the use-case diagram where the bad man touched your game.
    Fixed. Management-compliant software design uses UML now.
  21. Quote:
    Call me crazy, and I know there are exceptions to this, but I don't expect a new player's first instincts to be "Must. Level. Fast. How do I do that?"
    It is the first thing the typical MMO player thinks of, actually.

    If you give people a button that will instanly level-cap them complete with top-of-the-line gear and such, most MMO players will press it. Then find out there is nothing to do and blame you for ruining the game by giving them the button. This is why "more flexibility is always better" is completely false.
  22. Quote:
    The rep system is still very much in play we just tweaked it a bit
    Please finish the job and delete it entirely; it serves no useful purpose.
  23. Quote:
    They must be able to fire a lot of bullets and use different ammo types...so flintlocks and their ilk are out.
    Crush if you must, but in a world with Nemesis retro-tech already firmly established there is no a priori reason for this restriction. Any decent super-scientist or technomage or the like should be able to come up with pistols that look like flintlocks and outperform modern weapons; no reason to tell the would-be pirates they're stuck with modern hardware.
  24. picks up gauntlet

    I'll be in touch.
  25. Quote:
    Or is there anybody else that thinks this game feels a little too fast and 'easy to beat' for someone that doesnt have altitis and hasnt played every single bit of content already?
    Yes, leveling is too fast, yes, the game is too easy, and no, the entrenched user base will never admit either even while they're wondering why the game isn't growing any more.