Venture

I posit that Kid $Name works in more cases than $Name does.

I don't care if it works in more cases than not; it doesn't work in enough cases to warrant not using it.

My first attempt at this post was eaten by the "form no longer valid" bug, so now not only do I want to throw physics books at people but I also want to strangle the author of this forum software...anyway....

Another comment to leave this off on, some people (namely Venture) have expressed disbelief of the automatons due to steam power being incredibly hot. That can simply be explained by the outer parts of the robot having a cooling system, making them show up as normal body temperature for an infrared camera.

While I still don't have time to go over everything in detail, this makes me want to throw physics books at people.

Cooling systems do not make heat "go away". You can't actually "cool" things. "Cold" is not an energy or a force, it is the absence of heat. A cooling system is really a heating system that makes something else hot in part by taking heat away from something you don't want to be hot. The air conditioner in your window is not cooling your room; it is heating the outside air, sucking heat out of your room to do it. The ice in your soda is not cooling your soda. The soda is melting the ice, losing energy to do it.

If you've got a Nemesis automaton with a steam engine in it, using lots of heat to make steam and keep it hot, that heat's got to go someplace. You can't just "install a cooling system" to make the machine put out only as much heat as a human body. If Nemesis technology is Exactly What It Says On The Tin, as the writers insist, then the only place for the heat to go is the environment around the robot, meaning not only would it stand out like a sore thumb on any kind of heat or IR sensor, but it may not even be too comfortable standing anywhere near one. If, on the other hand, Nemesis is using the same kind of Applied Phelbotinum as the rest of the world's super-science and superhumans in general (the customary favorite at least since Marvel's OHOTMU, being "extra-dimensional energy sources"), we're back to "Nemesis technology only looks archaic but is really cutting edge", only it's not described that way. It would mean that DATA, Aeon, etc. would easily be able to tell from examining it that the steam parts were useless cosmetic affectations and the real work was being done with the usual tricks, but instead the writers insist on:

1) Steam power
2) ????
3) Profit!

It's not cool, it's just bad writing and there's no justification for it.

One other thing to keep in mind. When you are editing characters in a published arc any other person playing your arc and trying to load a mission with those custom characters will crash to the desktop.

Uh, what? Anything you do isn't supposed to have any effect on people already playing your mission -- everything should be loaded for them already.

Rather than make people grovel over two threads, here's a list of all the arcs I've given four or five stars to, assuming I didn't miss any.... N.B. that arc numbers are taken from the reviews; I have no idea if any of these have been taken down or republished under other numbers.

5 stars: "The Horrible Mr. Caractacus", #10721; "Small Fears", #12285; "The Fan Club", #5898; "Karmic Exchange", #47550; "All in the Family", #128109; ":: 24 Hours ::", #171693; "Escalation", #6143; "Teen Phalanx Forever!", #67335

4 stars: "Tomorrow Belongs to Me", #10855; "A Hero's Halo", #1992; "Don't Rain on My Parade!", #1614; "Soul Train: Origins", #9590; "Paracon", #1684; "Nobody of Consequence", #7780; "Bricked Electronics", #2180; "How to Survive a Robot Unprising", #12669; "Dark Dreams", #3615; "Future Skulls", #4727; "Ragnarok: Twilight of the Gods", #8713; "The Council's Long Con", #1579; "The Council's Good Graces", #1571; "Ninja Crimewave", #2142; "Celebrity Kidnapping", #1288; "Heaven's Not Enough", #15381; "A Flame That Burns Bright", #112548; "The Outcast Outcasts", #2050; "A South Side Story", #49035

For my Family arc "Two Households Alike" (#126582 on Live; #22641 on Test, parts of these notes apply to the Test version), I wanted each of the two families to have a few custom units to add a little variety. I went a little farther with the Bianchis, giving them their own sub-faction to show they were more progressive than the norm for cosa nostra. The Bianchis have not only made men, but made women as well, the Streghe (Witches)....

(Critter files are the i15 versions, usable on Test only currently.)

Bianchi Strega ("witch") -- Picture Critter file

[ QUOTE ]

Vittorio Bianchi is fairly progressive, especially for a Family Don. Progressive enough to recognize the value of allowing for the possiblity of made women, especially after his chemists tweaked 'dyne to produce a version that had slightly different effects on women. Inspired by the Arachnos Fortunata, the Bianchis have their own cadre of psychic women bolstering the ranks. Their powers don't have quite the finesse or subtlety required to be good psychic interrogators but they get the job done.


[/ QUOTE ]

Bianchi Maga ("sorceress") -- Picture Critter file

[ QUOTE ]

The most talented of the Streghe are promoted to the ranks of the Maghe, the distaff equivalent of a Capo or "captain" in the Bianchi family. Perfect gender equality has yet to be achieved, but the Bianchi men have long ago gotten over any issues they may have in taking orders from women.


[/ QUOTE ]

Katrina Bianchi (unique Boss) -- Picture Critter file

[ QUOTE ]

Katrina (do NOT call her "Kat") is the Bianchi's one and only magaregina -- "witch queen", equivalent to an Underboss -- thus far. As might be imagined, for a woman to earn her own territory in the Family she would need power, ambition and ruthlessness, not necessarily in that order. Katrina has all three to spare. She relies on her highly-developed psychic powers rather than fisticuffs in battle.


[/ QUOTE ]

Knives Mercenary (non-unique Boss) -- Picture Critter file

[ QUOTE ]

When the Streghe need a little extra firepower but want to keep things "girls only", to whom else would they turn but the Knives of Artemis....


[/ QUOTE ]

The Knives Mercenary has turned out to be pretty nasty, as you might expect. Ninjitsu no longer gives the obscene stacking damage buff, but her opening shot does get double damage. Usually she tosses a Throwing Knife for about 350 plus DoT, which is good for about half your HP at level 29 (the arc's maximum). There's one placed in Act V so expect to blow a Respite or two straight off....

Any of mine would work for this, but "Two Households Alike" (126582) is probably the best fit.

Getting back to the real reason I posted, does anyone know about the use of vacuum tubes in modern, real-world techonology? I thought sure someone would bite on that hook when I mentioned it . . .

I don't have time now to reply to everything or for lots of detail, but the MiG-25, built by the Soviets back in the 70s, did have a tube-type radar set. This was for two reasons. The secondary reason was the MiG-25 had heat problems, mainly because it wasn't much more than a chassis welded to a pair of overpowered jet engines, and the tube-type circuitry was less susceptible to overheating than semiconductors would have been. The primary reason was because the Soviets couldn't keep the outlying bases the plane would be stationed at supplied with semiconductors, but there were always lots of vacuum tubes lying around. I've heard it said the tube-type circuitry was less vulnerable to EMP but I don't think that's really true, and not much of a reason to use it in any case.

At the time American intelligence thought the MiG-25 was a highly agile advanced air superiority fighter. When we finally got a look at one (a Soviet defector flew a brand-new one to Japan) it turned out to be fairly low-tech brute-force engineering, intended to blast into the upper atmosphere ASAP and unload its missiles at high-flying recon planes like the U-2. It was impressive in some ways -- IIRC a MiG-25 still holds the record for highest altitude attained by a jet under its own power -- but not nearly as scary as our analysts had thought.

The use of vacuum tubes wasn't some kind of low-tech high-tech brilliance. It was really meatball engineering. Which is why contemporary military jets still don't use tubes.

I disagree. Kid $name is brilliant.

Missed this somehow...the problem with it, in this case, is I was using a kid superhero character. Ursus Minor, on Freedom. He's not a "kid" version of an adult super, he's a child superhero in his own right. Calling him "Kid Ursus Minor" doesn't make sense at all.

While the "Kid" appellation is cute, it doesn't work in all cases. The arc works just as well without it.

This one I can actually answer... based on Posi's official history on the main COH site,

Interesting, these pages went up with no fanfare or announcement of any kind....

The Kim Kellerman thing. To be blunt, there isn't a Mirror Spirit in the MA.

There is in issue 15....

We also have a pretty good idea about what radiation does, after over a century of study (and quite a few fatalities). And to the best of my knowledge, it does not give you superpowers, or allow you to change your existing ones, or accelerate your metabolism, or... well, any of those other things that it does in comics.

You may notice the "exposed to cosmic rays" type origins have fallen off in comics in the last 20-30 years or so.

People are willing to suspend disbelief when it comes to radiation because radiation affects genetics (badly, in real life, but still) and genes touch on the whole "hidden powers of the brain" schtick that unfortunately too many people really do believe in in real life. This makes it easier to swallow. It's not a question of whether or not it's possible that radiation could do the things it does in comics; it's a question of how much do you have to suspend disbelief to overlook it. Characters using radiation to alter human metabolism are invoking wacky science that doesn't really exist but it's easy to see how it could. Someone building (e.g.) a steam-powered robot that can pass for human and somehow doesn't scream DEFINITELY NOT A NEMESIS AUTOMATON to a heat sensor is breaking most of the laws of physics, starting with the laws of thermodynamics. Steam-powered robots that fool telepathic aliens with technology centuries more advanced than ours...no. Just no.

The following changes apply only to the version on Test, incorporating Architect features from Issue 15 that may not go live.

The arc's ID on test is #22649. The following alterations have been made.

<ul type="square">[*]Some balance changes to the Redeemers; took Psychic Shockwave away from Esiliaar, gave Drain Psyche instead; Xanos loses Shadow Fall but gains Fearsome Stare.[*]Cavanaugh has Giant Fly Trap now; good luck getting it to stay with you though....[*]Now that we can legally add mobs below the arc's level range, battles between the Circle and Legacy Chain added to acts I and II. Given the level disparity it is likely the player will only hear them and never see them.... Legacy Chain corpses removed from Act II.[*]Act II moved to a small specific office map instead of random medium. This was necessary to add the aforementioned battles. Captor/hostage text for Keeper Randolph slightly altered as well.[/list]
If you're checking out i15 I'd appreciate feedback on the changes. Thanks in advance!

The following changes apply only to the version on Test, incorporating Architect features from Issue 15 that may not go live.

The arc's ID on Test is #22648. The following alterations have been made:

<ul type="square">[*]Enigma Silver 6-3 is now Robotics/Force Field, now that I can do that without having to give him Detention Field.[*]Bluehawk Avenger loses Eagle's Claw and Flamethrower, gains Crippling Axe Kick and Full Auto.[*]Civilian hostages in acts II and III now use the Random selection. Currently this also picks from unique models; General Aarons has been getting in a lot of trouble lately....[*]Decoy bodies removed from Act IV. There are now battles between Malta and Malta Splinter Cell still going on when the player arrives.[*]Rikti transport stabilizers removed from Act V...if we ever get to use the Assault Portals I may add them back.[/list]
If you're checking out i15 I'd appreciate feedback on the changes. Thanks in advance!

Well if you don't like it you SHOULD raise a stink about it.

I think I just did.

Your influence could serve to tip the devs into doing something about it.

At this point I don't think anything could be done to these TFs that isn't a superficial change. There just isn't time.

&lt;QR&gt;

I was really hoping you would review the I15 task forces on the I15 threads so the developers would have a detailed and thoughtful basis from which to correct them. Your reviews are topnotch.

The devs aren't going to correct those arcs, or even admit that they need correcting. To them, this is what the game is supposed to look like. That's why they keep doing it over and over. They think stories with seven different alternate versions of a character that wasn't interesting enough to warrant the original incarnation are cool. They think the players, hero or villain, should be portrayed as a bunch of cut-rate amateurs easily deceived by the flimsiest of pretenses. They can't understand why our heroes might not want to join the Freedom Phalanx, or even understand that they've portrayed the Phalanx characters are arrogant, unlikeable jerks at best and sociopathic fascists with delusions of godhood at worst. They can't fathom why players chafe at having their villians lick Recluse's boots, or why our villains don't aspire to take their "rightful places" as Recluse's favored underlings, or why the VEAT storyline is beyond absurd, or even that Arachnos is a complete joke of an organization (as Mr. Tow recently expressed better than I could.) They think Nemesis is a brilliant invincible mastermind and not a bumbling fossil with a 150 year track record of failure whose plans only get as far as they do because people around him do not merely catch the Idiot Ball but actually buy them from Costco by the crateload at discount rates. And I can't even imagine what they were thinking when they decided oft-requested features like player-designed content and flashbacks should be married in the canon to obvious villain plots.

The proof of all of this is the fact that, again, they just keep doing it. Look at the buildup we got over these TFs and look at what was delivered. They think this is what "the villains should be doing villainous things and feel more active in the cause and effect of the events that would unfold" looks like. We're supposed to be applauding now, and if the devs could understand why we're not they wouldn't have done this in the first place.

Which, of course, is the real tragedy. The sad truth is that players would be better served by ignoring the developers' content and sticking to Architect missions. I've reviewed (and frankly, written) better arcs than the new villain SF and haven't reviewed that many that were worse. There's no point in doing detailed reviews of either of the new TFs because the devs don't get it and don't want to get it, or they'd have gotten it a long time ago, and nothing can stop these festering abominations from oozing onto the live servers in any case. It's far too late in the development cycle for any meaningful changes. They can't even pull the plug and not publish them because they'd have to justify billing the development time to i15's budget and not delivering anything.

Failure Is The Only Option.

Can you explain "a bunch of stuff that happens" a bit more?

"Just a bunch of stuff that happened" means the story has no theme or moral to it. It's nothing but a meaningless string of events. It's just about some guys doing some stuff you don't like so you clobber them to make them stop. The plot doesn't say anything or teach anything, making it suitable for use by any of the most vapid Saturday-morning cartoons.

Recluse, on the other hand, is looking at things from a Darwinist/anarchy angle...

That's a canard though, as Westin Phipps adequately demonstrates. If Arachnos was truly interested in "survival of the fittest" they would neither help nor hinder people trying to climb out of the gutter. Instead they do their best to smack everyone down.

They're just bullies with a bad excuse for poor behavior. And if the Rogue Isles are a slum while Praetoria is a seeming paradise, it's because Tyrant is a better arch-villain than Recluse. Recluse is a short-sighted moron whose own inadequacies should have tripped him up decades ago were it not for his script immunity.

Actually it is, amongst a litany of sins.

Arc# 128109, “All in the Family”
tl;dr: 5 stars. Nits: NONE

RE-Reviewed on: 5/29/2009
Level Range: 21-30; author recommends 25-30
Character used: Eva Knight/Champion

This is a re-review. I'll only be commenting on changes from the version originally reviewed.

The first act now has some patrols that tip you off to the fact that a Longbow agent works at the building, explaining the high security and massive PPD response, instead of an anonymous tip being responsible for Hanna's capture. Hanna now says she was busted before she could get anything, but does know where the inspector in charge of the case is heading, as before.

References to the Family as a "Robin Hood" organization have been purged. Coreleone is said to have had some very misguided ideas about the Family, which eventually led him to turn to Longbow.

I let the old folks escape this time just to see the other ending, even though Eva would have shivved them for the lulz...I took out Agent McCain on the way in just for laughs. Raffaelli tells you how angry Barzini is, but there are no threats thrown your way. He says Longbow has gotten his parents into hiding and he's going on the lam himself, but he doesn't expect to get away, that he'll be caught, tortured and killed.

All the flaws in the original arc have been repaired. I upped my rating to five stars. This arc is highly recommended.

The original review is preserved below the line.
-----------
Arc# 128109, “All in the Family”
tl;dr: 4 stars. Offenses: Did Not Do The Research, plot holes

Reviewed on: 5/2/2009
Level Range: 21-30; author recommends 25-30
Character used: Mother Night/Virtue

Vincenzo Raffaelli has been asked by his superiors to “take care of” some troublesome witnesses to a recent Family heist. He's been promised a promotion to consigliere if he does. I don't think that's the way wethey normally do it here in Jersey but it sounds passable for CoH. He thinks this job is going to require a lot of work and feels a villain would be more reliable than his usual crew. You're told up front the job is going to require killing and isn't for an “honorable” villain. The first step is to rescue the operative who was looking into the witnesses for them, Hanna the Ghost, whom we may remember from the last review.

You're sent to an office map with PPD mobs. Yes, Ghost and Equalizers...fun. There's one PPD Boss, and Hanna who needs to be escorted out. The Boss calls one ambush, you get one when Hanna is sprung and another right on your heels as you hit the door. Hanna unfortunately doesn't have the information any more, her notes having been confiscated by an Inspector Rosa Hadley. You'd think someone in the information business would have a bit of a memory, but, moving on.... She also implies that Raffaelli has no idea what he's doing.

Hanna's leads on Hadley take you to a warehouse being used by her PPD Family task force as a safehouse. Raffaelli thinks at least one of the witnesses may be stashed there as well. You are to kill Hadley and any witnessess. The witness turns out to be Giovanni “Lucky” Scalia, a Super Strength/Willpower (I think) Boss. His dialog indicates he knows Raffaelli is after him. Hadley is an Assault Rifle/Devices Boss who summons one wave of PPD, so expect stacked control effects. Unfortunately the information is not here either, Hadley has uploaded the files to the PPD network. You do get a name from her paper notes and from Scalia, Marcello Corleone (movie reference collision!). When you tell this to Raffaelli, along with Scalia's identity, he freaks out a bit.

Here, the plot pulls something of a Wall Banger. Raffaelli tells you that both men are ex-Family members. Corleone is said to have joined Longbow but Scalia was supposedly allowed to quit. No one quits organized crime. Ever. I might believe that someone defected to Longbow and was thus too well-protected to take out, but nobody just quits. They might be allowed to “retire” in some way but the only way out of cosa nostra is feet first. I'll chalk this up to Did Not Do The Research and move on.... You are sent to track down Corleone and find out what he knows. Raffaelli starts making noises here like he's looking for the door too, which does not bode well for his future.

Once inside, you quickly meet Mario Barzini, a Family Boss and ally. On being sprung he informs you that the Family is aware of Raffaelli's vacillations and that you are to eliminate the witnesses regardless. Failure to do so will be extremely unfortunate for you. A laptop belonging to Corleone has files revealing the heist that precipitated all this took place at Raffaelli Imports and all four witnesses are connected by a single individual. Hmm, now who could that be.... Corleone is a Longbow Warden, Martial Arts type. After his dirt nap you find a photograph on him of a young couple, obviously in love, and probably not long for this world.

Sure enough, Raffaelli identifies the couple as an old picture of his parents, the ones who were robbed. He's now stuck between two unpleasant alternatives: kill his parents or get rubbed out himself by Barzini and friends. The finale is a 30 minute timed mission in which you get to decide whether or not Raffaelli's parents live or die. He begs you to let them live, that he'll leave the Family himself and go underground. I didn't. I stealthed the majority of the base (passing an Agent McClain....) and took out both parents, Minion class mobs. Raffaelli actually gets his promotion, realizing he has nowhere else to go now.

This is a potential five-star arc, but it has some problems with its plot. There's the aforementioned bit about someone quitting the Family. The “anonymous tip” in the first act stands out as a seeming Chekhov's Gun violation. One obvious answer might seem to be that Raffaelli himself called it in, but that grinds up against the later reveal. Another problem is that Hanna, who is supposed to be a serious operative, conveniently catches the Idiot Ball by not being able to remember four names. Of course, that's because if we get the names in Act I the arc peaks too early. Raffaelli's promotion rubs me the wrong way but that's largely because of the difference between what a consigliere is in real life and what one is in City. If it were me I'd put a note in the success debriefing that his body is found a few weeks later.... There are a few references to what the mob used to be, an organization formed to protect powerless workers, but it hasn't been that for centuries and no one seriously tries to describe it that way any more. Aside from these problems the writing, particularly the dialog, is excellent. If the plot issues were corrected this would be a stellar example of what the Architect system is capable of.

Reviews are likely to be scarce while I tweak my arcs to account for issue 15's changes. I've been getting requests to review the two new TFs but frankly I don't see a percentage in that. Having run the villain TF and from what I've heard of the hero one, both need to be rethought from Square One and that is simply not going to happen.

Or, maybe not, as AE on Test is down again, so I guess I'll hop over to Live and run one or two there.... :-P

&lt;QR&gt;

If I may be so bold....

This, incidentally, supports the idea that he was once a roboticist. He'd presumably need some sort of medical training to enact and survive such a procedure, such as studying neuroscience to help create models of A.I.

The Clockwork King is not being kept alive by some technological means. He is alive because he will not die. His own psychic power is sustaining his brain. Yes, that's violating the laws of physics but around here this is "two for flinching".

Speaking of Rikti, the Rikti Magus states that they "mastered magical arts stolen from the Circle of Thorns." How does that work? I was under the impression from a different story line that magic is hereditary thing. You're a descendant of the right people or you can't do it, period. Does this mean that they're Rikti equivalents of descendants of Mu?

Read "Division: Line" more closely. The Rikti Magi are Lost converts with Mu blood.

Doctor Vahzilok's Abominations, the stitched together corpses he starts using from 11-20, say that they're made up of fallen heroes. Likewise, the Greater Devoured of the Devouring Earth say that they're made up of the biomass of heroes. How do they get the raw materials? Isn't pulling you to a hospital before you die what the medical beacons are for?

Medicom always works for us because we have script immunity. If (e.g.) something blows your head off in one shot, or the beacon gets damaged, you're screwed.

Speaking of the medical beacons, why does Lord Recluse hand those things out to the Destined Ones? I understand the gameplay reason, but it's kind of hard to weed out the weak if the worst you can do is slow them down.

Script immunity again.

Grandville would be spotless, with neat rows of identical soulless buildings where citizens dressed neatly in what might as well be uniforms proceed orderly to their mandated occupations, then go home and watch approved entcom before going to bed for the prescribed amount of sleep before getting up to do it all over again.


Pretty much a description of the most terrifying stronghold of evil I've seen in any MMO: Sanctus Seru back in EverQuest's Luclin expansion. The place made you feel like you'd get guardkilled if you stepped on the grass.

"Welcome to Sanctus, such a perfect town...."

The following changes apply only to the version on Test, incorporating Architect features from Issue 15 that may not go live.

The arc's ID on test is #22641. The following alterations have been made.

<ul type="square">[*]There has been an undocumented change in the calculation of file size (word through the grapevine is custom critters are now stored more efficiently). As a result, Diablo has gotten his imps back.[*]Assistant Chief Bishop now has "About this Contact" text. We just have to wait for the patch that lets people read it. :-P[*]The "Bianchi Streghe" faction now has a custom non-unique Boss, a "guest appearance" of sorts.... N.B. it is now possible to flag a mob to never auto-spawn; I decided to keep a separate faction for the chicks anyway. Streghe and Maghe still spawn as part of "Bianchi Family".[*]There is now a "Mission Start" clue in Act IV giving players a short briefing on Diablo Navarra.[*]The Bianchi in Act V are all Streghe faction.[*]Some small balance changes made. Maghe now have Psychic Assault primary and Martial Arts secondary with Range preference. Katrina no longer has Psychic Shockwave but gains Drain Psyche. Federico loses KO Blow but gains Foot Stomp.[*]Small text fixes here and there. I inadvertently used an old local file to republish on Test so old typoes may have crept back in. I'm pretty sure I've nabbed them all...again.[/list]
If you're checking out i15 I'd appreciate feedback on the changes. Thanks in advance!

In general, the idea behind steam in these instances is that some brilliant-insane person has discovered a way to get it to work in impossible ways according to conventional belief.

Yeah, we get that, I just don't buy it.

It could be like the clockwork king with psionic puppetry dressed up, it could be magic, it could be the reality bending madness of the creator.

Not only are none of these tropes invoked, as you allude to do so would be to repeat the Clockwork King. Do we really need two brains-in-a-jar riding around in brass robots psychically animating other brass robots? I don't think so.

Annilation of antimatter with matter to power a craft amongst the stars that can push itself apparently across the galaxy by using a warp field to reduce its mass, does not come across very different to me.

All that uses hypothetical physics that doesn't really exist to the best of our knowledge, but it's easy to suspend disbelief to accept that it could be science we just haven't discovered yet.

Steam engines, on the other hand, are something we know really, really well. The theoretical limits to the technology are understood and extremely strict. Believing in Nemesis' technology is tantamount to belief in magic, and if that's the way they want to go with it why the facade? Declare Nemesis to be a technomage who likes steampunk and have done with it.

You may want to put off any changes for a while. There's a lot of new MA stuff on Test. Among the changes, you'll be able to custom-select what powers a mob gets from each of its sets.

&lt;QR&gt;

Various replies:

Various notes on Nemesis technology

It is explicitly described as steam-powered in a number of places, ranging from old base salvage descriptions (still available in the CH window and on ParagonWiki) to character /info panels to mission text. It's not cold fusion and it's not using steam just for show.

No, superhero stories aren't allowed to do completely stupid things just because they're superhero stories. The stories still work if you do things right.

This sounds like the character Fujin from Final Fantasy 8; the author may be using an Expy or homage to that character.

I have never played any games in that series and don't intend to. If there's supposed to be something important in the plot of "Gamble for Oakes" that hinges on the player recognizing Fujin it was lost on me.

The original enemy group was a bunch of custom robots who were way too powerful for the level range. Noted for future editing. Sorry you didn't like Igneous. Hydra were overly powerful in other ways and I wanted something "alien" looking.

The problem with Pumicites/Igneous are they're resistant to immoblization and run like the wind. This makes them problematic for anyone who relies on range to stay alive.

The Letter was a bad idea in retrospect.

True of the canon instances as well....

Out of curiosity, was it at least clear WHY there were multiple versions of the adversary?

Nope. Not in the least.

I'm aware of what the trope means, but I confess I'm having problems imagining how it applies. Care to elucidate?

Arbitrary rules of time travel are never explicitly stated but applied or not as convenient for the plot. If the Big Bad can multiply incarnate, why not send himself back to the same event forty times? Because then he'd win. Why go after Galaxy Girl at these obvious crisis moments instead of putting a bomb under her bed or poisoning her coffee a year before the mugging? Because it would work. If the Menders can track this guy at all why can't they track him to his origin, determine his identity or stop him before he even starts? Because there'd be no story.

And so on. This kind of thing is pretty much unavoidable in any time travel story.

The law enforcement criticism surprised me, but that's my Longbow prejudice showing. I don't think of them as "law enforcement". They're a bunch of arrogant, supercilious bastiches acting as Ms. Liberty's private army.

While I agree with you that Longbow is an illegal private army engaged in an unconstitutional private war, the fact is that in canon they're treated as being part of law enforcement. There is only one mission in which Longbow comes into conflict with heroes and in that mission the player is the instigator.

I am not sure what I can do to address this problem, though; I am hesitant to lower the allies too much in power, for fear that it will make the AV/EBs unsoloable, which I think would be a worse problem than the AVs/EBs being a little too easy.

Don't throw the entire Phalanx at each mission, save that for the last.

The ideal solution would be for AVs to downgrade to EBs exactly when EBs downgrade to Bosses, but for reasons I don't understand, it doesn't work that way.

Elites downgrading to Bosses is something that was only instituted for Architect. It doesn't happen in regular missions. It doesn't happen under the same rules as the AV downgrade because the difference in power between a Boss and an Elite is much smaller than the difference between an Arch Villain and an Elite.

Regarding the story dissonance when the player character is already a teen hero, I agree this is a problem, but unfortunately I have no good solution to this with the tools that we are given. Currently I always just use "Kid $name" whenever I'd normally use "$name" to signify your "teen" status, but this doesn't always work (especially if your toon is already named something like Kid Valkyrie).

Just don't do it. There are as many instances of kid sidekicks without "kid" or "lad" names as there are with: Batman/Robin, Green Arrow/Speedy, Captain America/Bucky, etc. Just have the arc note at the start it's assumed your character is a teen hero, with or without an explicit adult mentor.

131780 is Neutral (Some might consider it Villain), and minimum level is 30, although best to run it at 40 as the last mission had a level 41+ enemy.

I see from the author's thread that it was changed recently, which might explain the discrepancy. I'll run it in its proper place in the sequence but with an appropriate character.