Venture

Personally I thought Legion looked interesting. Maybe it will suck, maybe it won't. It reminded me of The Prophecy, which I liked (avoid the sequels, though), especially in that it looks like the archangel Gabriel is the bad guy again. Recent filmmakers have had it in for him....

As for "The Fight of Angels", I decided to give it a look (having only seen the tail end of Glazius' review), found the first mission to strongly resemble kicking dead whales down the beach, and gave up without rating it. From the first mission I'd say it looks like junk.

AFAIK, all spawns are allocated when the map initializes, even if they "really" don't appear until triggered. Thus, no points should be re-used.

I've entered "Splintered Shields" (#253991) for Best Hero Arc and "Two Households Alike" (#126582) for Best Canon Arc. I don't think I'm going to bother entering the other catagories.

A dev assigned to the Architect system? And who says only that Other Game offers a personal arch-enemy....

They are supposed to be available as of the most recent patch. I hadn't actually looked so maybe the patch notes were wrong....

Thanks for the review! Loved the photo captions.

I've posted a handful of replies in the arc's thread so as not to derail this one.

Tangler posted a review to his thread. Replying to a few points:

I have several characters on Triumph on both sides (see signature link), but they're all guilded.

Feel free to shoot me a tell though (@Venture) if you need/want more bodies.

Arc #227331, "The Consequences of War - Part I"
tl;dr: 4 stars. Offenses: gameplay issues, minor anachronisms, incomplete

Reviewed on: 10/7/2009
Level Range: 40-54
Architect's Keywords: Challenging, Canon Related, Drama
My Keywords: same
Character used: GI Jane/Virtue
Difficulty: +1x2+B-AV

Lazon, a being seemingly composed of intelligent solar plasma and head of the "SOLUS Collective", asks for your help. Two of the Collective's members, including the second-in-command, have gone missing investigating Rikti activity and now the Rikti are jamming communications. The arc appears to be set during the first invasion, though that isn't as clear as it could be from the browser info and isn't given in the briefing. The mission-begin clue in Act I helps. In any case, off you go into the sewers, to find two heroes, destroy five bombs (strategically placed under high-profile targets) and take out the Rikti officer in charge. "Captain Superior", the aforementioned second-in-command, stays put when rescued to deal with reinforcements. The other super, "Billy Bad Boy" (Martial Arts/Super Reflexes LT), was way in back behind the Rikti Boss, who inconveniently hit me in the back with what looked like two ambush waves. You salvage some of the parts from his armor which might have a translator device in them as he spoke a little English during the fight. (The Rikti in this arc all talk in non-alphanumeric Unicode characters, which is very sharp-looking but can annoy people on low-end machines.) Clearing the place out doesn't do much for the communications problems, but Lazon does get a signal through telling you the bombs were placed to take out military and supergroup bases. When you return, Lazon tells you he's send Superior and Billy to round up other SOLUS members in person since communications are still unreliable and he'll have something for you soon.

That turns out to be a strike at the jamming problem. Lazon's identified what he thinks might be the source of the jamming. You're to meet up with two more heroes, Energy Blastion and Empathy, who are to cover you while you try to hack into the Rikti network with some software he gives you. The action takes place on an abandoned office-to-caves-to-Rikti base map. The two heroes spawned behind all the computer consoles, and had bios that basically said "dead meat". Hacking the network only nets you a small file.

The file does turn out to have a solid lead on the locations of the Rikti jammers, but that's not your next assignment. Lazon was going to send the parts of powered armor you salvaged from the Chief back in Act I to Rebecca Brinell, but her position in Galaxy City has come under heavy attack. Vanguard forces are getting overrun so off you go to back them up. You're to rescue Brinell and recover any data she's compiled on the Rikti's jammers. The SERAPH lab is all shot up when you get there (abandoned lab map) with ongoing battles between Vanguard and Rikti (the Vanguard all died long before I reached them, so I'm not sure what kind of models they were -- the contemporary ones would be out of place). Recovering the jammer data triggered a sizable ambush (two Mentalists, three Drones, one or two others) which flattened me. The battles were set large enough to spawn extra Bosses, too, so I had more than a few tight spots to deal with. On rescue Brinell runs off to help with the Vanguard wounded and tells you she'll make the armor parts her priority. Unfortunately when you call in, the other shoe drops: the jammer file was a diversion, and the SOLUS base is under heavy attack.

You manage to get a signal through for the next act's briefing, and it's bad: Lazon sent the SOLUS rookies and their mentor into the basement thinking they'd be safer, but the Rikti have swarmed over the whole building and now they're cut off. Everyone else is either drawn away or pinned down, so it's up to you to save them. There's a whole bucketful of objectives, including at least nine hostages and a Rikti Boss. The mentor turns out to be "Commissioner G", former police commisioner Wayne Gordon (cough). The kids, unfortunately, are not all right: two of them are wounded, one requiring an escort out, and the rest are dead. The Boss turns out to be an Elite Boss, a Heavy Assault Suit (anachronism, these weren't used until the second war).

The debriefing for act IV and briefing for act V combine; you are to head upstairs and help with the rest of the fighting. Commissioner G has beaten you up there somehow (actually he snuffed it in act IV for me). The final battle takes place in the Hellion burning office map. There are two Rikti Bosses to defeat (typo: they are both named "Field Captains"), one of which gets a large ambush wave, and Hro'Dath, who as the name implies is an AV using the Hro'Dtohz model. He gets an ambush wave too, and since you have to fight in a shoebox this was not very enjoyable for a squishy. There are a number of dead heroes (optional glowies), Commissioner G as an ally and Lazon as a rescue (he is losing containment and has to flee). The arc closes with you and Captain Superior surveying the burning debris of what was the SOLUS HQ and Superior vowing revenge.

The arc does have a theme, though I didn't feel that it was fully explored. You can tell this is only a "part I" (I expect Energy Blastion and/or Empathy buy the farm in part II). G's name is a darling that really ought to be killed. There are too many ambushes (exacerbated by the indecipherable Rikti speech) and more than a few places where I felt the difficulty was upped gratuitiously. A little fine-tuning would improve this a lot.

The university lobby -- where the invention tutorial Contacts live -- is available now? Or is that just part of the "storeroom" map where you fight the Council during the tutorial?

I'll probably nominate some more later when I've had a chance to check my records for level ranges and such, but for now:

• "Aeon's Nemesis" (#161865) for Best Comedic Arc; funny, but serious enough to not overplay its joke, and probably the best Nemesis plot in the game
• "Teen Phalanx Forever!" (#67335) for Best Mid-Level Arc; fudges the level range a bit but this is the best fit for it

I thought everyone was skinnier than Americans.

Thanks for the review. Apologies for the late reply.

I've posted a more detailed reply in the arc's own thread.

Replying to Police Woman's recent review of the arc:

---

Thanks for the review. Apologies for the late reply.

A few notes:

I originally thought "him" was maybe Operative Kobushi, but later I figured out that it was meant to be me ("him" and "he" threw me as my character is female).

Using $himher will almost certainly fail, so I just assumed the Longbow didn't know exactly who was inbound.

I examined a couple of the glowy boxes, which were labeled as optional objectives. They don't seem to do much, but they have some text in the chat box about smashed drug ampules. Maybe they should additionally give a clue?

I didn't think it was necessary to give a Clue, since it would just reiterate what you'd already read. I assume that if the player is stopping to click on Clues he's not being shot at and will have a chance to read the results.

Though it does make me wonder, is drug enforcement actually within Longbow's jurisdiction? (I wouldn't think so, but they're something of Ms Liberty's private army, so probably could do anything she wants them to.)

Their putative mission is to fight Arachnos. That, to me, would include interfering in smuggling to and from the Rogue Islands, almost all of which either directly or indirectly supports Arachnos (it's either being done directly by or for them, or in majority of other cases, the smugglers are paying their fare to Recluse.)

I think I instantaneously got "An apology" clue upon entering the mission; I think this was meant to be awarded when I found Livingston, but maybe was immediately awarded because he was an ally who didn't have any guards.

The latter. He is set to spawn up front, and sometimes he'll spawn right near the door and sometimes further in. Nothing I can do about it really. He should give the Clue on approach but the system takes "approach" to mean "on the same map".

Defeating him also ends the mission, giving me the "Livingston's Story" clue, where he admits some (?) of his men are dirty, re-selling confiscated drugs and such. But he wants me to give him "a little more time" so he can do his own investigation. Yeah, right.

I find it interesting that no one has bought into Livingston's story at all (or at least hasn't said they did). Given WMD's previous appearance I'd expected at least some people would give Livingston the benefit of the doubt at this point. It would not be a stretch, given her prior portrayal, for WMD to do as Livingston says and just indict everyone involved with no regard for the facts. Of course, act III would quickly settle the matter so it's not a big deal.

I thought this was an ambush at first, but I think it just happened to spawn right on top of my head. Or maybe it was a boss AND an ambush or patrol; they had several lines of dialog.

It is a Boss and a Patrol, the latter present to throw off some dialog as a triggered Boss doesn't get any lines on appearance. There was a reason why I didn't use an Ambush here but I can't remember it now....

The PPD are actually Friendly spawns, not Allies...they only get involved if the Knives actually come within agro range.

My only objective is "Hack into the base's network", but this was actually something Dietrich asked me to do only if I couldn't find Livingston; this immediately gives away the fact that I'm not going to find Livingston here (unless he somehow gets triggered later)

After Acts II and III I figured a lot of people would be expecting a triggered surprise.

Is there really a "process" for turning into a Longbow Ballista? I've never heard of such a thing, I thought they were just supers of various sorts that volunteered to join.

Longbow uses a variety of processes to create its Officers, Wardens and the Ballistae. Longbow Warden #7, which is basically a baby Ballista, is described in its /info as being created using technology gained from the Rikti and other energy-using adversaries. I could have sworn "Kings of the Sky" explicitly stated Ballista-1 was a prototype but no matter.... The idea of Longbow manufacturing supers should be upsetting to a lot of people in the canon, but it's not too surprising that isn't covered anywhere.

Dietrich says she gets orders "from the Joint Chiefs", but I don't think this is strictly correct - to my knowledge, Longbow is an organized militia, and not a branch of the US military at all.

Longbow gets training and supplies from NATO (it's in the background page), so I'd expect the US military has some influence over them. Even if it's just "bring him in or the deal's off and you lose our support".

Mission entry popup: "So are two rogue cops" - is this meant to be Kobushi and Livingston? Neither one are, strictly speaking, cops.

Matter of perspective. Longbow to me is more a SWAT team on steroids than a real army and Arachnos Operatives fulfill a variety of roles in the canon, some of which are more or less law enforcement.

Objectives: "Defeat Operative Kobushi" is among my objectives, but based on the background story so far, I'm not terribly clear on why this is necessary.

If Kobushi hadn't already been shivved you'd have had to fight him...it should have been clear from his first two appearances that he wasn't particularly interested in anything you had to say. Kobushi is not a hero. He's not a particularly nice guy. He made it all the way to Executioner rank in the Bane Spiders; you don't do that unless you've gotten your hands dirty. He's just got a very different idea of what "survival of the fittest" means than Recluse and the rest of Arachnos.

The mission is full of "Malta RDF", who seem to be custom characters representing advanced Malta mecha and upgraded sappers (!). They seem to be ALL custom characters; consider mixing in some standard Malta minions to make them feel a little more authentically Malta?

There are TacOps and Gunslingers in the Malta RDF. The entire point of the faction was to provide alternatives to some of the more annoying Malta units. The Neutralizer units are a lateral revision to the Sappers. They deal more damage and they have a Siphon Power debuff, but their big END drain is on a much longer recharge. (They also might have gone to 0 XP in today's patch...I'll have to look into that.)

I also ran into "Omega 12 4-9-0", a Malta boss; I think his name is ever so slightly wrong for a named Malta. Normally they are named something like "<Random Word> <Random Color> #-#-#".

There are plenty of exceptions: Ocelot Male Alpha, Kitty Kat Bravo, others. I had envisioned the existence of Omega cells numbered 1 through 17, each one immediately subordinate to a Director (Omega 17 not having much to do these days, of course....)

On the other hand, mission 2 required some backtracking that didn't seem strictly necessary for the story

It was necessary mechanically. I needed Kobushi to be on the Rogue faction so he'd be hostile to any surviving Longbow spawns. That meant putting him in the Front zone and the triggered Arachnos patrols in the Middle and Back zones so they (hopefully) won't meet him and cause another "friendly fire" incident. I really wish we had more robust faction controls but I don't see that happening any time soon.

Most people haven't objected to the backtracking. A lot have found the fight back out to the front of the ship better than the fight in.

It's a good story overall, though, and my gripes weren't all that substantial. I gave this story arc 5 stars.

I'm glad you enjoyed it. I think this is my best one to date with "Two Households Alike" a close second.

Thanks for the review.

It's interesting to see what humor elements work and don't work for various people. Two reviewers were completely turned off by the catgirls. For you it was the chocolate that fell flat....

Arc Name: "Splintered Shields"
Arc ID: 253991
Length: Long (5 missions)
First Published: 7/7/2009 04:35 PM
Morality: Heroic
Level Range: 45-54
Description: An Arachnos agent makes a daring raid on Paragon City...business as usual, one might think. Or is it?

I saw this too. I'm waiting for some kind of official announcement on the company site with details...e.g. whether or not you must be present to win, how many submissions are allowed, submission guidelines, etc.

My only villain arc to date is "Why We Fight" (#253990), which is (mostly) targeted above Trolly's current level. In-character she'd probably buy right into the propaganda....

I don't think any of my other arcs are terribly appropriate for the character, but feel free of course; they're listed in the link in my signature. Except for "Psychophage" (#283197) which is not appropriate for anyone.

Falls into the Not Blood Likely catagory. They don't want people to be able to make missions that stuff AVs (or even Bosses) up front by the door out of fear that it would be abused the way Barracuda was in "The Cult of the Shaper".

Personally I think the difference between tickets and regular drops would make this not such a big deal, but there it is.

I know that I'm rarely replaying a AE Story Arc more than twice because there's simply too much potential content to find on the AE system.

We have a winner.

I'm not likely to start replaying many arcs when there's so many I haven't played even once yet.

Escalation
Arc ID: 6143
Morality: Heroic
Level range: 21-50

Actually this is the only arc other than my own I think I've played three times...twice for reviews and once to squishy-test it out of curiosity. And it's a five-star work I'd class as an exemplar.

Arc #242442, "Pentarchy of Punishment"
tl;dr: 2 stars. Offenses: "just a bunch of stuff that happened", plot issues, unconscionably garish mobs

Reviewed on: 9/28/2009
Level Range: 15-54/1-54/1-54/41-54
Architect's Keywords: none
My Keywords: none
Character used: Venture/Virtue
Difficulty: +2x5+B-AV

Not only is the level range all over the place, but the architect's blurb brags about every mission having a challenging EB in it, with two in the final mission. So that's appropriate for a level 1 character, really?

Anyway.

Thomas McKenna, a nanotech researcher working for Crey, needs your help. His daughter has been infected with some inactive grey goo and unless McKenna turns over all his research, it will be activated and kill her. He's not about to do that and wants your help in obtaining the cure by force. McKenna is not forthcoming with the details of who exactly is responsible, meaning there's a high potential for deception down the line, but moving forward, you're sent to a Rogue Arachnos lab to meet with the poisoner's agent. That turns out to be "Melissa Mayhem", an Assault Rifle/Invulnerability EB whose bio says she's a former Vanguard sniper gone bad. She mentions working for someone named Maxwell in her approach text; that name is expanded to Maxwell Machiavelli in her bio. On defeat she gives up a vial of blue goo and a map of the Rogue Isles with an island off the coast of Grandville circled.

Unfortunately, the vial turns out to be only one-fifth of the cure. (Interesting that McKenna is able to figure that out so precisely.) You're off to the island on the map in the hopes of finding more. The island turns out to be a city map (the entry pop-up lampshades the discrepancy) filled with 5th Column. Why they're there, I have no idea. Your target is "Thomas Terror", a Broadsword/Shield EB. Terror gives up a vial of yellow goo and another mention of Maxwell. Evidently we're not supposed to know his last name yet even though it was in the other chick's info box.

Act III is said to take place as you're traveling back from the Isles to report your success to McKenna. If that's so then why did I get a debrief...oh, never mind. Your ship (I fly and have five or six zone teleports, but whatever) is attacked by pirates, which you must repel. Unfortunately, most of the damage these pirates deal is to your eyes, as they are the Pirates That Don't Have Any Fashion Sense:



Yeah. I'm not even going to begin to catalog all the powers these guys had, most of which didn't make much sense.

This act did make me break a sweat, though, as the Pirarate Captain Bosses were Super Strength/Invulnerability with Rage, and one had the poor graces to spawn next to "Mi So Fu" (I'm not going to touch that), the Martial Arts/Super Reflexes (I think) EB. On her defeat she admits that she only served Max because he defeated her in combat, and now that you've defeated her she feels no obligation to him. She gives up her portion of the antidote and a map to Max's island hideout before vanishing in a puff of smoke. When you get back to McKenna (which you already did...oh never mind...) his daughter's condition had deteriorated and may be charitably described as "horrible".

So, it's time for the Fight Scene. The last act takes place in the Striga Base map used in the Lazarus TF filled with Malta. You have to dispatch "Suzanne Spectre", whose dialog indicates she's an unwilling servant of Max, and then take on Max himself, a Mercenaries/Electric Manipulation EB. He's about as well-dressed as the pirates, lampshaded in his bio; I was too busy to get a screenshot. He gives up the last two vials of the antidote, the girl is cured, the end.

The arc has no theme and almost as much internal logic. Enemy groups appear and disappear without rhyme or reason, seemingly the result of random encounter tables. The pirates in act III are just terrible, though (except for the Bosses) not problematic in terms of powers. Most of the plot makes little or no sense: why divide up the antidote or Max's forces (put all your eggs in one basket and protect that basket!), if he's got all this firepower couldn't he have done better than poisoning McKenna's kid, McKenna's working for Crey so it's not much of a win to let them keep his work...et cetera. I gave it an extra star for not being as bad as "Blight" but this one needs a lot of work.

It is difficult enough for me to find the time to run the arcs in my review queue; I certainly don't have the time to run arcs other than my own more than once. (My own I re-run every issue to look for new bugs.)

"Chains of Blood" and "Blowback" are about things like the price of expediency and redemption. There's nothing about either that absolutely requires the use of any of the groups or specific mobs I used.

The reveal regarding my version of the Legacy Chain's origin in "Chains of Blood" would require the Chain and (less so) the Circle being present in the story but that can be thrown under the bus without affecting the real story. The story itself wouldn't change. Just the stuff that happened would.

Everyone else on the other hand wants to see their characters advance and experience new content, not have to choose between one or the other.

I'm sure that's true, but what people want and what's good for the system are, as is almost always the case, two entirely different things.