Venture

<QR>

Yes, but not all of them at once.

Pfft. We have more friends than they do.

It's like Emperor Caligula making his horse a Roman Senator.

Yes, and we all know how that turned out....

Sorry, not buying it. The characters in the SF stop Reichsmann for their own reasons, not for Arachnos and Recluse, and you certainly don't need the title to be safe from retribution. Most characters who run this will have already betrayed the patrons and they're still breathing.

Still, I think that if someone is trying to tie their custom group into the background of an existing one then they really need to get the lore straight.

I most vehemently concur.

Or you can tag it with [NCMA] and be on your merry way.

Just FYI, I pay zero attention to those tags. I have no idea what any of them mean and I don't care to find out.

One of the ARBITERS?

I had the same reaction. Arbiter status is supposed to be granted to those whose loyalty to Recluse, personally, is beyond reproach. Completing this SF isn't even close.

Let’s up it to 11! – I could do without the sexist jokes in the one mission and would love more and different descriptions in the customs (especially the last mission's group)

Thanks for the feedback, and the good words. And yes, I'm @DFH on Test. Someone swiped my global just to irritate me. (Then they PMed me saying every time they opened their mouth everyone jumped down their throat, because they thought it was me. Never step into the devil's shoes unless you're ready to walk a mile in them....)

I knew Act III would irritate some people, but felt it was necessary to make the point. Yes, it's sexist, but consider the source -- you should be laughing at them, not with them.

I do have some extra space (about 15%) and I'm still deliberating on where to spend it. I think a good chunk should go to making some custom Minions for the third act, both to add variety and cut down on the amount of Psi damage. If I can I do want to spice up some of the /info panels.

With some amount of careful testing on multiple maps, you can produce an objective chain that consistently spawns in a linear manner for the player and that doesn’t require backtracking. It IS possible.

It is not, because you do not control the player's actions. If the player misses a trigger or deliberately skips to the end of the map he will have to backtrack to find the trigger and then backtrack again to complete the new objectives. Arguably this is the player's fault for not being thorough or trying to take a short cut but now we're in "punishing the player for not playing correctly" territory.

Well, if you see Azuria as Dullard Queen of the Tedium People and think that her canon voice reads like a 1,200 mg a day Thorazine addict who’s lost the will to live, then you were bang on with that voice.

Ambiguous, are you claiming she is not written in character or not? I've reviewed her text on ParagonWiki and I think she is. Ditto for the Legacy Chain.

God, no. Change the ‘there are bodies everywhere!’ sentence, that’s all. Make it a strike force of Legacy Chain or sth. You have this ‘My writing SAYS something is so, to hell with the actual stuff the player encounters!’ attitude.

You aren’t very flexible, Venture.

I'm not flexible? You are arguing that writers should be limited to what the game can actually portray. The entire purpose of the text is to describe things that it can't.

I thought you were into RP, and yet you seem to have no regard for the difference between IC knowledge and OOC. The average player doesn’t even need that entry popup spelled out for him at all – the Nav instruction would do. The character, however, has just entered what looks like an empty modern office building, and there is absolutely no sign that anything is amiss. No noise, no fights, nothing.

Because there can't be. (Unless, again, I want to fill the place with corpses -- and then get complaints that they're in body bags.) Thus, the text sets the mood.

I guess every time an RPer (e.g.) describes his character as wearing a piece of jewelry or such that doesn't show on the avatar he's out of line, since you can clearly see that he's not wearing it. Emotes lacking animations must likewise be forbidden.

With enough testing, Player Runaraound can be minimised if not avoided altogether.

Not until the game becomes a side-scroller.

Yeah, cos nothing says ‘Quality arc!’ like a 3-star rating after 58 plays.

Your (rather obviously vindictive) reviews are the worst ones my arcs have received. And those are still three-star reviews, since you couldn't credibly one- or two-star either. Reviews and comments have otherwise been consistently good. I don't pay too much attention to the rating system because it is too easily griefed. Too often when I post a bad review I almost immediately get a string of lowball ratings. (When the MA database was copied to Test, where zero-star ratings have been removed in i15, all three arcs jumped to 4 stars.)

But the point you’re referencing here wasn’t about clue order, it was about the mission complete clue that’s supposed to be Cinovars speech arriving when Cinovar was nowhere near me.

Right, because it's completely impossible that the character might walk over and talk to you after the mission! Are you actually this literal-minded?

If Cinovar hasd been defeated before that clue drop, it would have been even more incongruous.

Cinoval. If you're going to complain about typos and attention to detail try living up to your standards.

I don't know if that's even mathematically possible, at least on a solo map and when he's actually using his secondary.

Not everyone will have your encyclopaedic knowledge of canon lore.

Everything referenced is found in-game, not dug out of web pages or the like. By level 41+ the player should have basic knowledge of the canon.

So, let's add this up...you didn't complain about any plot flaws or holes. You didn't claim it was "just a bunch of stuff that happened", or that I threw the Idiot Ball at anyone, or about canon inconsistencies or established characters being out of character. I didn't powerpose the player unacceptably or show him as being used as pawn or anything like that. Your complaints are that you disapprove of the manner and order in which clues are delivered, I used some locutions you don't approve of but aren't actually incorrect, there were a few typos that dozens of people either didn't notice or didn't think were worth mentioning and I used text to describe things that couldn't be shown in game.

Did I miss anything?

Hm, I get the impression you've not been to Warburg much then - because there's indeed much more to that facility than just R&D.

I have. I certainly hope you're not conflating the Web and the missile system with the Malta base.

As for the Malta base, in the normal game it's presented to be a (and actually, I haven't found anything to the contrary that it's the)major staging area for Malta heavy-hit operations headed into Paragon.

It is not. It is nothing but an R&D facility. It is only ever mentioned in the LRSF; everything written about it can be found on the SF's ParagonWiki page. I used it myself in "Blowback" because I wanted the Big Bad to grab some advanced weapons for the Fight Scene. It has been dropped in the newest version (on Test), both because the map rapidly became overused and because of spawn issues.

And Venture, that arc is no more Mary Sue than yours. Actually, it's a lot less because it revolves around the fact that the Big Bad doesn't have a lot of power (not to mention the character's not my creation).

Power does not correlate to Sueness. Bella Swan in the early Twilight books is nowhere near the most powerful character in the series but she's a Mary Sue nonetheless even by my standards, if the author quotes on her Wiki page are accurate. TVTropes would (and does) call her an Anti Sue. Sueness is a quality of gravitas, not physical (or metaphysical) power.

(Let me point out here that I'm going by the commentary on the Twilight books, since I wouldn't touch one with somone else's hand.)

I did say "borderline" because I couldn't find any evidence you played the character at all. As for whether you created it, that's not really a factor in my estimation. Adoption counts.

Just to go over a few of the less petty objections....

The other one (Eva) is the same, except in purple. I guess from their identical costumes they’re maybe part of some bigger group or something.

Actually it's because they're twins.

Incidentally, if I played this as Venture has said he does in the past, blasting through it and reading all the clues at the end

When did I say that?

Anyway, she can’t stay to help me ‘defeat the kidnapper’, which is what the Nav now tells me to do.

There are no triggered objectives. I don't like them, they make the player run all over the place so I try not to use them.

He did shout out for aid whilst he crumbled to the floor on my second shot, but alas it wasn’t an ambush.

He says "Ermeeth, protect your humble servant!" Ermeeth is one of the gods venerated by the Circle. I'm not sure why anyone familiar with the canon would think that was a literal cry for help.

He drops a book, which apparently is a family tree encyclopedia, only Magic.

The Blood Tome is introduced in one of the level 30-35 Circle compound tasks hero side, and referenced in Mu'Drakhan's arc redside.

says the Azuria Robot in a dull monotone in my debriefing.

I tried to match the character's established voice as well as I could. If you feel I didn't do so that's one thing. If you're complaining that I wrote Azuria as Azuria, that's another.

Blood Redeemer Esiliaaargh is the Boss Fight this time. Another very nice costume, but a bit monochrome. Nice tattoo he’s got though

...and a bit later...

I find Blood Redeemer Beliastios, who’s got the exact same costume as the other Boss Fight blokes, except it’s blue whereas the first one was gray and the second one was yellow. Or possibly green. I’m noticing a trend here. Venture might be color-blind, perhaps (This isn’t an insult, I’m serious – if so, fair enough and nice way of avoiding any color-clashes)?

Circle magi are pretty uniform in their robes; I don't see why that wouldn't carry over to the Redeemers' coven. The color choices match the branches of the Circle of Thorns magi each Redeemer came from. Orange for Agony, Green for Madness, Blue for Ruin, and Black for Death. The only reason these mobs exist in the first place is because the Arch-Magi models were tedious and unfun to fight.

Ah, here he is. Rescue captive, examine final body (which means that that initial ‘there are bodies everywhere’ entry popup was referring to…eight bodies. Maybe venture’s had more experience with quantifying corpses, but I wouldn’t use ‘everywhere’ until we’re talking 20 or 30).

Would the player actually enjoy having 20 or 30 glowies to click on, none of which actually did anything? Or should there just be a few bodies to set the mood and take it as read? Moot point, they were removed weeks ago in the Test version, now that I can put Legacy Chain models into the arc without borking the level range.

Belastios’ notes ‘elaborate on what you already from the Chain's papers.’ – come on Venture, this is schoolboy error stuff. 57 plays and no-ones pointed that out? How many you got in your SG, 56?

Two.

There’s a lovely animation on the release of the Arch-Tellus (Legacy Chain geezer who’s mission is ‘the same as yours’ – what, to find the Arch-Tellus?), but his costume isn’t up to the usual standard. The helmets a bit big, he looks like he’s borrowed his big brothers helmet for the day.

His costume is based on the Legacy Chain's standard garb. Much of their costume is available in the editor but some key parts aren't, particularly the unified shoulder and chestpieces. I did the best that I could and I've gotten many compliments on the similarity, actually. The version on Test uses a different helmet design, though, a half-helmet with faceplates so you can actually see the character's face. Unfortunately, the animation you liked isn't currently playing on Test.

You can’t just push info at Players without giving them some explanation of why their character knows it. And it’s not brain surgery, this:

‘The office building seems quiet, but the distant sounds of [fighting/earthmoving/Titans servomotors/Freak Techno music] tell you that the [bad guys] are already breaking through into [the guy you’ve come to help]’s underground base.’

would solve the problem of me knowing there’s bad guys up ahead even though I can’t see anything upon entry.


It's not brain surgery to the point that the average player doesn't need this spelled out for him. Oh, I'm sorry, that was one of the more petty complaints. I'll move on....

…hm, the book glowies are on random placement, perhaps, because I encounter them out of order. This might not bother some players, but as far as I am concerned ™ , things like this detract from a sense that the arc has been made with care.

They are placed front, middle and back on a map that honors those locations. That's the best I could do at the time since collections couldn't be triggered. i15 does allow triggered collections but there are issues with that, and as I said above I don't like the idea of potentially forcing the player to run back to an already-cleared part of the map to pick up a new objective.

Into a big cave, and The Elder Cinnamon is waiting. Oh, yes. He’s got medieval leather togs, groovy shoulder studs and a great helmet, and his EYES ARE SHINING! He looks awesome. I hope he’s got a big mallet, that would be perfect.

Again, Cinoval's costume is a modified version of the Legacy Chain uniform.


I believe that clues should appear in the clue list as much as possible in the order that the player encounters them in the mission.

Clues are placed in the list in the order in which their associated details are created. Since the order in which you create details affects their spawn, it is not always possible to neatly align both the order of placement and the order clues will appear in the list. Fortunately, the vast majority of players couldn't care less so it's never mandatory to do so.

Woohoo! No mallet from Cinovar – He’s en/en, just like MCM! haha, awesome. Just call us the Knockback twins!

Energy Blast/Dark Armor, actually. There are some bugs with allies and toggles, particularly on Test. I'm not sure if I'm going to change his secondary if this isn't fixed by the time i15 goes live.

I doubt you can do that exact thing here, cos it’s all Magic, but you should be thinking about as many variables as possible. Every single forehead-wrinkle you can anticipate and prevent will pay you back in ratings.

No one cares. No one but you in any review of my arcs or anyone else's arcs that I've read has gotten their panties in a bunch over the order in which clues are given or whether or not something is in a mission-end clue instead of inside the mission. It seems the vast majority of players understand that for a variety of reasons Architects don't have a lot of control over this and are willing to fill in the gaps on their own without needing to be hand-held.

So the Redeemer’s are back again. Didn’t I defeat them earlier?

Circle of Thorns mages are disembodied spirits that abandon their bodies on defeat and move to new ones. This is Circle 101. I don't think it's appropriate for a level 41+ arc to brief the player on basic mob knowledge.

and there’s mention of the Mu, who I see from paragonwiki are a CoV faction (So YAY for those players who know the stuff you’re obviously supposed to know before you play this).

The Mu are first introduced in the hero level 35-40 arc "The Envoy of Shadow", which has been in the game since issue 0. They are expanded upon in CoV. The Mu, BTW, are mentioned in "Chains of Blood" all the way back in act I and a few times thereafter. Again, this is basic canon information.

The challenge level was unfortunate in that as everything was so incredibly easy to defeat (apart from the EB which was half a challenge), there was no excitement to be had from the combat either.

I don't design arcs intended to kill anyone who didn't blow over a billion inf on his build.

Dialogue like ‘The other leaders bade me hold my tongue’ makes me groan out loud because it’s produced completely deadpan.

The Legacy Chain characters are scripted to match the way other Legacy Chain characters in the canon speak. If you feel I did not do so adequately then that should be the substance of your complaint. If I did, then you are complaining that the characters are written correctly.

Kudos for resisting the urge to put your own characters in the last mission, although there really wasn’t any special need for them in the first one either as far as I can see – the rescuees could have easily have been characters created originally for this arc.

I included them to show what I considered to be an innocent usage of one's own characters in an MA project, and because the plot illustrated a small detail of their background. Their appearance has drawn no complaints and very few comments at all.

Also they were completely ignored after the debriefing of mission 2.

They are mentioned in the acceptance text for act III, actually. Their part in the story is over by then. It might be fair to observe that you can't both complain they are Mary Sues and unimportant.

Oh, and I spotted this posted while I was writing:

Who the heck 1-starred this thread? Yeah MCM, you're definitely being stalked by someone who's got beef with you.

I don't "star" forum threads.

But why? Saying something is the objective of a mission doesn’t answer the question of why. How does having the Thorn Tree advance the Malta Group’s goal of putting superhumans under government control? That’s the question I think you need to answer.

The arc is at least a borderline Mary Sue (the character is on the author's "whitmoorewiki" page; I was slightly more forgiving than you were), but in his defense "Operation Weedkiller" is the first part of the third villain respec trial. The reference here is basically a joke. I've never done that trial myself but on the chance that the Thorn Tree map was a reference to the trials I looked it up on ParagonWiki.

Your position is clear, at least, even if you cannot (or simply don’t want to) justify it with a reasoned argument to support your opinion.

I could just say it's a matter of aethetics, which it is, and therfore not subject to debate, but as it turns out that's not necessary. I review stories. A story has a beginning, a middle and an end. It has the five parts of Freitag's Triangle: precipitating event, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement. That's in the general case, at least. I actually have an arc on Test that doesn't fit that pattern ("Why We Fight", #225399) but it's something of a comedy and thus deserves a little wiggle room. A vetting of my reviews will show that I do grade comedies on the curve, at least as long as I thought they were funny. Humor is, of course, completely subjective. Enough digression, though. An arc that does not have the requisite components of a story and lacks a valid artistic reason for such omission is a failure. "It didn't fit" is not a valid artistic reason.

I heartily agree with you, which is why if there’s any natural justice in this life, we will never see a 15-mission Venture story.

I'm pretty much satisfied with the reviews my arcs have gotten. Even people with an axe to grind can't credibly grade them below three stars.

Incidentally, "Chains of Blood" is technically the first volume of a trilogy. I'm not sure I'll ever bother to write the other two; that's a lot of work for alternate continuity. To date no one has complained that it is in any way an incomplete story. I do have an idea for a multi-arc storyline intended to replace the VEAT train wreck and I might just go through with that when we can purchase additional slots.

You throw criticism at huge sprawling epic self-indulgent overblown arcs and it sounds fair enough, but conveniently ignore the fact that not all stories of over 100kb will be the Heaven’s Gates that you try to cast them as.

I have played a number of arcs labelled as "Part I" or somesuch. Not one of them has left me wanting to see Part II, never mind Part VIII. I really don't want to play 39 acts and then find out in act 40 it's a Shaggy Dog story.

There are more TFs in the game with more than 5 missions, and even disregarding those, the normal arcs (which I would say mirror what we make in the MA more) are predominantly over 5. Even taking the same timeframe as your TF examples, of arcs introduced since, say, Croatoa, the predominant arc-length is over 5.

Eva has already refuted this (your reply is unconvincing). For the record, were I the editor I would have 86ed the Your Princess Is In Another Castle missions in Agent G's arc (that is forgivable once per story, and was already used in Jim Tremblor's part) and the history-editing device (which is not necessary and like almost every other form of time travel causes more problems than it solves).

In response to what feeble points you contain in your insult, neither of my arcs contain any of my player characters, one of my arcs fits fine in the 5-mission limit of one arc, and I laugh in the face of anyone who tries to claim that The Audition is a Magnum Opus.

That was a generic "you", as the <QR> at the top of the page did indicate the message was not a reply to any particular person. If you've decided the shoe fits, of course....

Absolutely charming, as ever, Venture. Have you played my arcs, or is this just your default unpleasant state coming through again?

I have not, nor am I likely to at this point.

<QR>

a) As far as I am concerned, every arc is required to stand on its own. Handing me an arc to review that isn't a self-contained story is fast-tracking yourself to a one-star review.

b) Before setting out on a ten or 15 (never mind 40) act epic saga, Architects should first prove they can produce a five-act arc actually worth playing. Most of the people I see trying to write these Bataan Death March arc series can't.

c) The devs did not pull the five-act limit out of their nether regions. You may notice that all of the recent TFs have been five acts. This is about the one-sitting limit for most players.

d) Real writers work within limits. They hear editors say things like "your story was cut from four column inches to three, tighten it up, we're on deadline" or "the focus groups thought it was too long at 500 pages, cut it to 350" all the time. Having a hissy fit because your character's magnum-opus origin story doesn't fit into five acts or 100KB is just demonstrating you should be kept away from the system in the first place.

e) Occasionally there are exceptions to general principles. You, however, are not one of them.

If you don't mind visiting Test, #225399 "Why We Fight" is something of a comedy arc, as an Arachnos Arbiter uses the AE system to show citizens the Dire Consequences that would befall the world without the wisdom and benevolence of Lord Recluse....

I don't really have an issue with Dev's Choice. Hall of Fame is another matter.

Really? I know I did that in my arc, and it was still working as of a week ago or so.

I've never been able to do it.

Thank you for the feedback.

The entry pop-up says I hear Legacy Chain in the distance - what exactly does that sound like? Do they have a particular battle cry or something that could be mentioned instead?

They're mentioned in the pop-up because, as you noticed, you're not too likely to actually see them in combat. Given the level disparity they tend to spontaneously combust when the battles trigger. Of course, they're supposed to.

Arch-Tellus - color scheme seems a little dull, even by Legacy standards.

Earth mage, earth colors.

Cinoval says he'd have freed himself eventually - but he's not actually captured (or at least, not guarded).

Current bug -- custom critters are running their toggles while captured. Then not running them when rescued. Cinoval's Death Shroud is killing his captors well before you get there.

Perhaps make Xanos a little tougher. Cinoval finished him without my help.

That's why Xanos spawns in the middle and Cinoval in back.

Cinoval is a powerhouse (AV) for thematic reasons: in Act V, he does not have to die. He could defeat the Redeemers, even all of them at once. It just wouldn't do any good in the long run.

Final Clue doesn't seem to make sense - I did what followers did not? I drove the Envoy back to the Pit rather than let it spread its evil? Not in this arc I did not.

He says "you and your fellow heroes of Paragon" or somesuch, recognizing that it may not have been you personally if you chose not to run "The Envoy of Shadow".

After defeating the altar, it says I signal for a teleport retrieval. Yet my Nav still says I have 3 Redeemers and an Entity to defeat - perhaps they should be optional?

I could see making the Redeemers optional, though it's not the way I'd go with them. The Avatar of Hequat has to be taken out, though. Hequat's re-entry into the world would be <spengler>Bad</spengler>.

Overall, the characters aren't as interesting as in Blowback. Part of this is perhaps the number of characters.

Probably because the arc is more about the factions than the characters. I wanted to show my take on the Legacy Chain's origin (they don't have one in the public canon) and what I thought was an obvious "gotcha!" in the Circle's pact with Hell.

Arc #225318 (TEST), "The Knights of Rularuu - I15 edition"
tl;dr: 4 stars. Offenses: "just a bunch of stuff that happened", somewhat trite

Reviewed on: 6/22/2009
Level Range: 45-54
Character used: Test/Eva Knight

Since I was checking out arcs for people on Test I let this one jump the queue. The arc's ID on Live is #75386.

Justice-Guy (no, really, and yes, author insert) has a problem: he's doing Crimson's missions. OK, it doesn't say that, but that's his problem: he's working with a "government spy type" who constantly has Justice-Guy meeting with his partner (Indigo, of course) and it's really tedious, etc. So he wants your help. Your first task is to clear out a Malta base. He's arranged for a friend of his, Serras, to meet you there. She spawned front-loaded...and left as soon as I freed her, saying she sensed Justice-Guy was in grave danger. She's called a friend of hers to cover for her here...egads. Serras' friend turns out to be Rebecca...a Carnie Ring Mistress (spelling error: "route"). The hits just keep coming. Rebecca claims to be out from under Vanessa DeVore's control...OK..... Despite the nav bar saying "Clear Out Malta Base" you only have to find their computer files (encrypted) and take out the leader, a Tac Ops Commander. Justice-Guy didn't have much luck with his target...

...so he asks you to help him assault it again in act II. The base turns out to be under attack by some custom mobs attached to the Rularuu, which were pretty much wiped out before I got to them. The Big Bad was an "Obliterator", Broadsword/Shield Defense Boss, which gave me a tense moment before snuffing it. The one glowie was a computer revealing Malta was doing illegal portal experiments at this base. Um, duh?

Portal Corp gets into the action next, examining the Malta base. They find that not only did Malta tap into the Shadow Shard, they tapped into a part of it that's cut off from the rest of the dimension and can only be reached by going through our dimension. There are people trapped there, like everywhere else in the Shard, and you're sent in to try to rescue some of them. You're sent to a caves map to rescue five hostages, each of which gives you a little bit of the history of the Shard, which is not quite consonant with what I know of the canon (but Shard canon isn't all that rigid to begin with). As Justice-Guy summarizes in the debriefing, the new mobs are the personal army of Rularuu himself. A "general" called the Bane tried to lead them in an effort to free Rularuu but only succeeded in breaking the Shard even further, creating the pocket dimension you're dealing with now.

Time for the Fight Scene: the Bane breaks through the portal in the Malta base, smashing it and leaving behind its own "tear" in the fabric of space. Not good. You head in with Justice-Guy and Serras to deal with the incursion. There are two scientists to rescue, one of which triggers a new objective (i15 feature) to activate a "dimensional stabilizer" that will close the Bane's portals. The Bane turned out to be a Battle Axe/Shield Defense AV/EB which killed me instantly on agro but only because the two AI morons agroed it while I was low on health from taking out the Obliterator that was parked in front of it. I combined some insps, rezzed, and took it down without hitting Elude.

The plot is fairly generic and lacks a theme. And I'm not really sure why anyone would think the Rularuu need custom mobs -- frankly, they're about the only faction in the game that's actually scarier than just about anything the players could create in the Architect. The arc's dialog is well-written, though (Justice-Guy is annoying but he's annoying in-character) and the new mobs do have a look that's consistent with the existing Rularuu.

Schadenfreude, the initial contact, remains 5th Column (since she is from the present day).

Schadenfreude is the name of an AV in the two new (wretched) TFs in i15. I know it sucks to lose a good name, but you might want to consider changing this.

I'm sorry, my hands are kind of full with other things right now.

Update on the queue:

Hero: 57352, 149323, 137705, 171149, 161797, 179354, 75386/225318, 59147, 15988, 1036, 55715, 37636, 17006, 174368, 60280, 178774, 100306, 181244, 91644, 167493, 149765, 191775, 4824, 171031, 122569, 227331, 41646, 77311, 81043

*Villain: 153720

Neutral: 175675, 156389, 143017, 177826, 67356, 1296, 176180, 215257, 207827

Hero 15-20: 108375, 195149, 185895

Villain 15-20:

Neutral 15-20:

Rerun: 106553

"75386/225318" is because the arc's author has requested that I review the version on Test for i15 if I get to his arc before i15 goes live.

I am closing the Hero queue as of now. I will continue to accept arcs that fit into the other catagories, but I am not accepting any more Hero arcs above level 20 until the list thins out.

The Snakes faction has a huge level jump in it. It doesn't actually cover the entire range. Anyone entering that mission over about level 20 is going to run into level 45+ Snakes. I didn't note that in my reviews and probably should have.

You could fix this now by including a faction or mob that only spawns at 45+, or by flooring the mission at level 45 in i15. If you intend to preserve the current level range the Snakes have to go.

Arc #163274, "Return of the Three Fold King"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: "just a bunch of stuff that happened", some plot issues, trite

Reviewed on: 6/18/2009
Level Range: 5-54/1-54/1-54/1-54/1-54
Character used: Venture/Virtue

Dr. John Cramer has placed an ad in the Paragon Times looking for a super's help, and you've answered. He's identified the resting place of the "Runestone of El", a Lemurian artifact. Unfortunately, so has the Circle of Thorns. Somehow I don't think it would take them so long to dig it out that he'd have time to get help from a newspaper ad as opposed to, say, calling the Midnighters or MAGI, but moving on.... It turns out there aren't a whole lot of Circle left because the Lemurians have mostly killed them all. These are a custom faction of lizard guys with a variety of powers, mainly Dark, Fire and Broadsword. The map Boss is an Ice Control/Storm Summoning (error: his info says he's seeking "the mace"); he has the Runestone already. You solve this in the usual way. On your return Cramer admits he held back the existence of the Lemurians and on top of that, he's actually a super himself, the Midnight Falconeer. Unfortunately for him his powers come from a Lemurian artifact and thus aren't effective against Lemurians. This makes the "ad in the paper" thing even more egregious as if he's a super himself he should have far better ways to ask for help. The arc also gains the complications of an untrustworthy Contact. Moving on, he claims that he needs four of these runestones to prevent the return of the "Three Fold King", the Lemurian war god. This will let him break the shield around the Three Fold King's temple.

The second stone was last known to be in the possession of the Tuatha, and Cramer expects the Lemurians are there taking it now. You have to beat them to the punch by beating up the Tuatha leader and stealing the Runestone yourself. Ummm...OK.... You're sent to a large outdoor Croatoa map to find Elegor the Brazen, a Tuatha Boss who managed to hit me for about 2000 points in about four seconds. He didn't do nearly so well in the rematch, with a bunch of unintentionally-funny dialog, constantly telling me how I can't hurt him while he's flat on his back. I finished mugging him for his valuables and returned.

The third stone is in the hands of the Legacy Chain and sure enough, the Lemurians are ahead of you. They've already seized the building and taken hostages. It's an office map with a few Rescue details and one glowie, no Boss and didn't take very long. The Legacy Chain hostages are civilian models due to the level range issues I had when using them -- you'll be able to use sub-level models for hostages without screwing up your level range next issue. They don't seem to know anything about the Lemurians, which is a little odd, but no big deal. In addition to another runestone you get a map off one of the Lemurians.

The last stone is in a Rikti base that's been taken over by Arachnos. The base held a number of artifacts the Rikti were studying, presumably in their efforts to understand magic. The Lemurians are already there...negotiation with Arachnos for the stone rather than fighting, and potentially discussing an alliance. Cramer notes that such an alliance would be Bad and wants you to take out the leaders on both sides as well as retrieve the stone. You've got two Bosses to beat (Tarantula Queen, Dual Blades/Willpower) and a few glowies to chase down on a Rikti base map. With the last runestone in his possession, Cramer is able to break the shield around the Lemurian temple.

Time for the Fight Scene: you're sent to an Oranbega map to defeat the Three Fold King. He was a War Mace/Energy Aura Elite Boss...I never saw PToD's come up so he evidently wasn't a downgrade. Since he spent most of the fight on his back he wasn't all that interesting. Cramer thanks you, the end.

The arc has a few plot issues, none of them terribly major, but it also lacks a theme and is not terribly creative. It resembles a run-of-the-mill Zelda knockoff. As a result..."it ain't half bad/it ain't half good, neither".

Arc #181165 "The Case of the Late Richard Faraday"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: "just a bunch of stuff that happened", typos, some plot issues

Reviewed on: 6/18/2009
Level Range: 20-54/1-54/1-54/1-54/
Character used: Venture/Virtue

This is a re-review of an arc originally published as #1285 "Training Day". The original review is appended below the line.

Act I now opens with Detective Morgan asking you to help recover Officer O'Leary from the Freakshow. There's an account in the acceptance text of how the operation leading to his capture played out and a warning about a "Dr. Armington" being involved. The various "bad cop" tropes are gone. O'Leary appears to be Claws/Regeneration EB this time with one of the Cultists for a guard; there are some other Cultist spawns present as well. Armington is technically a Rescue detail; he's negotiating with the Freakshow when you arrive and after you beat them ("freeing" him) an ambush wave of Cultists spawns to "cover his escape" as he runs. The debriefing has info from Freakshow 101 in orange text (typo: "thier").

Act II now has you accompany Morgan to the facility they're treating O'Leary at. Most of the info is in the acceptance text again (typo: "optomistic"). The Cultists are already there with hostages, one of which tells you the nanotech the Cultists use is a virus. OK, and this building that is full of people using the stuff is not quarantined...why? Morgan does tell you in the debriefing that O'Leary's nano wasn't weaponized; presumably this was true of the stuff infecting the Cultists but that needs to be spelled out here.

Act III is now a mission to go get Armington. Morgan gives you a little info on Faraday, who's been mentioned by the Cultists a few times (typos: "abotu", "dispursed") and is supposed to be dead now. The map is an abandoned tech base full of Cultists, augmented by a few new models with more nanotech. A Cultist Ascendant's approach text says they're planning to dump the nano into a shipment of the Freak's Excelsior (typo: "compount"). Armington is a Robotics/Devices Elite Boss; he rants a bit as you beat him up then on defeat gives up the location of the transmitter that controls the nanovirus and Faraday's location. This is repeated in the exit popup just in case you didn't get it the first time. Morgan is sceptical about Faraday being alive; this guy is a Paragon City cop, right?

Act IV is the Fight Scene: Morgan and O'Leary accompany you to Faraday's hideout. This is a 90-minute timed mission with an AV warning (typo: "swat", should be capitalized and/or punctuated). You have to take out six "virus bombs" (is it really a good idea to break these things?), the control computer and Richard Faraday, Dark Blast/Dark Miasma AV/EB. There are several Boss level Cultists to deal with as well, but it's a pretty straightforward kill-the-Big-Bad run. The souvenir points you to a second part but this arc does stand on its own.

The arc is improved from its earlier incarnation but still has issues. There is no theme, there are some plot holes (noted above) and more than a few typos. It's serviceable but not much more.

* * * * * * *

Arc #1285, "Training Day"
tl;dr: 2 stars. Offenses: many plot holes, surprise EB/AVs, spelling errors, "just a bunch of stuff that happened"

Detective Morgan of the PPD's Vanguard Liason Office wants your help in tracking down a "Docter Armington". An apparent typo in the first briefing is not a good sign. Armington has taken an Officer O'Leary hostage. Morgan tells you if there's nothing to bring back to make sure he's not suffering, and reminds you there's no such thing as a brutality charge in his unit. Um, yeah.

The warehouse you're sent to is filled with custom-faction bots. O'Leary has been turned into a cyber-zombie Claws/SR EB (no warning, but nice job on the model). Defeating him spawns a new objective: "Rip Armington a new one for what he's done." Um, this is a Heroic arc, right? Armington is another EB, Bots/FF, and may try to run when low...I'm not sure. On defeat he says "Teleport activate!" but the defeat text says you can rest easy knowing a monster has been taken to justice...um, which is it?

In Act II, you learn that O'Leary survived the battle and now has control over his new body. The scientist responsible is adapting the nanotechnology that was used on O'Leary ("Lockgear") for battlesuit use. Hmm, nanotech that warps people body and mind developed by a mad scientist now being adapted into Vanguard battlesuits? What Could Possibly Go Wrong? You're asked to oversee a transfer of the equipment. Once on site the objectives are to retrive 5 components, rescue O'Leary (down to Boss) and defeat Armington again. The enemies on this one are Freakshow, with a patrol of the custom drones tossed in for color. Armington is back with a bunch of Freaks for guards; when you start beating on him he hits you with a threat we don't often see in City: "I will make you MY MONKEY BUTLER!"

Yeah.

When Armington gets low on health "Michael Faraday" spawns, a Dark Blast/Dark Miasma AV with machinegun-toting "Cultists" and Energy Blast/Dark Armor "Cultist Ascendant" LTs, the latter's info saying they've been upgraded with Lockgear. They spawned Rocks Fall Everyone Dies style. Even the Contact doesn't know who Faraday is. In Act III you're sent to bust up some of Faraday's cultists in an effort to learn more about him. The mission takes place on an Arachnos lab map, with an Arachnos raid in progress. Heard at entry from a Cultist: "Faraday will whipe this world of life!" Um, yeah. You have to search various computers until you find a Clue stating that Lockgear was invented by one of Faraday's cultists and given to Armington in the hopes that it would end up in Vanguard's hands. Sure enough, Faraday now has control over both Armington and O'Leary, so for Act IV you and Morgan have to recover the Lockgear nanotech before it goes all grey-goo on everyone. Somehow, though, the mission takes place in a sewer. You have to destroy three objects. O'Leary and Armington are present but don't have to be fought. Morgan is supposed to be available as an ally, but spawned in the last room.

For Act V you get a letter from Faraday taunting you into a final showdown. This being a comic RPG you're not allowed to call in an air strike. The match takes place on a small sewer map. It turned out O'Leary was available as an ally but he was behind Faraday and behind some geometry so I didn't see him until well after the fighting was over. Faraday spawns as an AV/EB again and calls multiple ambush waves as he dies.

The plot does not make sense in a lot of places and there are more than a few spelling errors. It also assumes the player is a graduate of the Harry Callahan Police Acadamy. This needs a lot of work.

The only thing I really didn't like from a design standpoint was all the hostages saying the same thing. It reduced them from "people in need of rescue" to "plot device to get the player to the right place at the right time," IMO.

Considering these are normal people suddenly put at risk of death, the only thing any of them should be saying is some variation on "AIEEEEEEEEEOMG WE"RE ALL GONNA DIEAIEEEEEEEE!", not pausing to toss off a well-scripted bon mot.

Ultimately they are just props. They're not characters, their only role is to get rescued and leave. They're there in lieu of a defeat-all requirement so the player has to engage the map and doesn't just cherry-pick the main objective without requiring that he hunt down every last mob stuck behind a rock or the like. I don't see need or point to dress them up beyond that.