Venture

Arc #1579, "The Council's Long Con"
tl;dr: 4 stars. Offenses: low challenge, some unusual spawn choices

Alberto Galdi wants you to help the Council "persuade" scientists from other factions to join up. Not by kidnapping, since that makes them poor researchers at best, but by conning them into thinking it's their idea to join. The first briefing says this is the second in a multi-arc series, but that's neither here nor there for my purposes.

Act I calls for you to sabotage a Sky Raiders force field prototype. Galdi tells you that you can probably just slip in and do it, but when you get there you decide to make it look like a smash and grab, which is a bit of powerposing. You have to find the prototype and 6 piles of loot.

For your next trick Galdi wants you to trash a Sky Raiders base, destroying all their expensive equipment and Jump Bots. This will force them to spend more money repurchasing gear and less on research. There are three Jump Bots and 8 pieces of equipment to trash. The Sky Raiders have some amusing comments about their gizmos ("Oh no! Amelia Escobar is here to steal our internet!"). At least one of the targets is...not what you'd expect.

For Act III, Galdi arranges for you to take on Colonel Duray, leader of the Sky Raiders. He's more than happy for the chance after you've broken all their stuff except for their great spiffy prototype...which unbeknownst to him (but beknownst to us) isn't going to work. Galdi is hoping after you beat him up, he'll take out his frustrations with you and the money problem by slashing the budget of the researcher who built the prototype. You're warned that even with a sabotaged weapon Duray won't be a pushover. The map is the outdoor factory map, meaning finding Duray can be a headache if you don't have flight, stealth or both. Duray for some reasons spawned as a Jump Bot, not the AV, and called in two ambush waves his health went down. (Nit: " That fool Amelia Escobar will rue messing with the Raiders once he gets a taste of our new invulnerable forcefield.")

In the finale everything has gone according to plan. The scientist, Dr. Katu, has been transferred to the Engineer division of the Sky Raiders and has already sent a coded message to the Council asking to defect. You're sent in to extract him. Unfortunately you are too late: Katu has been turned into a robot. OK, not really, but he spawns as a hostage Jump Bot, a non-combatant. He spawned literally right in front of the door for me, not very challenging...but springing him triggers a new objective, to defeat a prototype Jump Bot. Katu doesn't want any of his research to be left behind. The prototype is an Assault Rifle/Force Field Boss and calls in at least one ambush wave. You only have to defeat it, though, not its whole spawn. Galdi congratulates you on a job well done, expressing hopes that Katu will hold up under the more extreme pace required by the Council.

The arc has a lot of good writing in it. The pacing is a bit soft. An actual appearance by Duray might not be a bad idea. A custom EB could be used if the AV isn't desired; it will scale to Boss difficultly on CL 1. If nothing else his spawn should be changed to a Skiff.

Arc #2409, "The Mystery of the MAGI Vaults"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: "just a bunch of stuff that happens", one mission almost designed to fail

Azuria is tired of the poor track record MAGI has in artifact retention. She wants your help in stopping what she thinks is an inside job. The first part is for you to retrieve an artifact for her to put in the vaults...with a tracking spell. The mission caps at level 14. You have to search an Oranbega map for one of three glowies containing a suitable artifact.

Act II takes place two days later. The Hellions have stolen the artifact and taken it to a Galaxy City warehouse. Azuria wants you to smack them around for information, and get the artifact back if you can. I settled for just beating up the Boss, who said "Doctor F" had found a buyer for the artifact with the Warriors.

This worries Azuria, who doesn't want to see the Hellions agent get greased for trying to pass off what is essentially a fake. You're warned that the next mission is timed and has a difficult mob. You're not warned that the time limit is 15 minutes.... Fortunately it's a very small map, the "speakeasy" map. "Eris", a Dual Blades/Illusion Control EB, is there as the Warrior's artifact expert. You have to save "Doctor F", the Hellion's fixer and defeat Eris. At about half health she spawns a wave of "Nightchild" mobs, a mix of Dark Melee and Archery mobs with Dark Armor. Once you get him out Doctor F lets you know that "Cinder" is the one running the artifact scam and gives you the location of his current hideout.

Act IV is pretty obvious: go after Cinder. Cinder turns out to be a custom Boss, Fiery Melee/DiedTooFast, and won't talk after you beat him. His posse isn't quite so tough, though, and one of them tells you they get their info from Annie Dee, Cinder's girlfriend. Annie Dee, according to Azuria, is one of MAGI's researches. MAGI Fails Background Checks Forever. Azuria tells the PPD to pick her up....

...and instead she picks up some artifacts and high-tails it to some caves in Perez. You get to go in after her. This comes with a dangerous-mob warning. The caves (blue caves, yay...) are full of Bat'zul mobs. Annie's soul has been consumed by one of the artifacts she stole, making her Axe Crazy and giving her a demonic appearance. She was a Claws/DiedTooFast EB and may have summoned an ambush wave, or a patrol may have blundered in...not sure. When she falls she says "help me". Azuria says there doesn't seem to be any trace of her left but they'll keep trying to save her, and hopes she was their only leak.

This is a fairly average arc. It doesn't have any egregious faults, though Act III would be pretty easy to fail for a lot of builds. The arc's browser info does say this but designing to fail rubs me the wrong way.

Edit: typo

Arc #8713, "Ragnarok: Twilight of the Gods"
tl;dr: 4 stars. Offenses: problematic mobs

Odin offers you a chance to join the Einherjar, his honored warriors, while still alive, if you can earn it. It's not really clear why I'd want to, but OK.... First test is to beat a Valkyrie. I spotted the Valkyrie quickly enough on the Croatoa map...she was mauling an Einherjar patrol. I'm guessing this is the "eternal battle" aspect of Valhalla.... She was a Dual Blades/Willpower EB. It quickly became obvious I couldn't outdamage her regen on the Widow I was using, which is not surprising. I gave it a second try with a few red inspirations, didn't help much. I was tempted at this point to just pull the plug -- Willpower EBs are not a good sign -- but I decided to give it another chance and switched to Venture/Virtue. Incidently, there is something like an EB warning after you accept the mission, but it really doesn't make sense here. If I'm being tested for worthiness shouldn't I have to fight without allies? Anyway, it took a while but she finally snuffed it.

Odin next wants you to do battle with monsters, specifically Fenris, Hel and Jourmagund. Jourmagund is identified as being the Leviathan and having sired snake-men upon Stheno, which really doesn't work for me, but moving on... The mission takes place in the Leviathan Cave map, of course. You are to defeat Hel and Fenris. You get a small army of Einherjar LTs to help. Hel is a Necro/Dark AV, Fenris a Claws/Willpower AV (sigh...).

In the next mission you are to go after Loki himself. Odin warns you that in Loki's prison "friends may enemies and enemies may be friends". What happens next is exactly what you think: you go in, rescue a "hostage" from "traitors" who needs to be escorted out...now, who could he be, oh, I don't know, could he be...SAT^H^H^HLOKI? Yep! Fortunately the Architect avoids throwing the Idiot Ball here: a large ambush of Einherjar shows up and if you're smart (I was) you'll back off and let the "hostage" tank it himself. He's only an LT and dies quickly. You "fail" the mission and get a popup saying you actually succeeded. Unfortunately in the debriefing Odin reveals that Failure Is The Only Option: after you left one of the other Einherjar freed Loki (typo: "disception").

Now that Loki is on the loose Ragnarok is near. Loki, Hel, Fenris, Surt and Hymir all have to be defeated, and Odin can't send the gods in to do it because that will trigger Ragnarok. Surtur is a Fire Control/Fiery Aura AV; fortunately he does not get Rise of the Phoenix. This was nevertheless a very annoying fight because he was surrounded by Granites, the Devouring Earth LTs that drop +resist eminators. You've pretty much got to clear them out first. Next up was Hel, who didn't do very well. The next one I found was Hymir the Frost Giant, who appeared to be an Icy Assault/Cold Domination AV. Neither he nor Fenris lasted all that long, though I did burn Elude on Fenris. That just left Loki...though the nav bar said "Defeat Fenris". Earlier on I bypassed a "Mr. Locke" standing around with a bunch of Malta. I did thumbtack his location just in case.... His /info basically said Definitely Not A Trickster God. A Valkyrie EB Ally had spawned next to him, so I set her free first. Unfortunately she promptly tore off and attacked a previously-unagroed spawn of ghosts. Locke's guards included a pair of Hercules Titans, which merged into a Zeus. Locke himself was a Mind Controller...not sure of the secondary. I burned Elusive Mind to deal with the unpositioned attacks. He summoned another wave of Malta when he got low, but by then Elude was back up so I hit that and finished the mission. In the last debriefing Odin tells you the monsters are imprisoned again and Ragnarok delayed for another thousand years.

This is a pretty good arc. I particularly note the way the Architect gives the player a chance to dodge the Idiot Ball. It would have gotten five stars out of me if not for the Willpower EBs.

Arc #34452, "Future Foretold"
tl;dr: One star. Offenses: legion, read the review.

The Architect of this arc has requested that I review it without divulging the plot. After due consideration I decided to honor this request this one time. In the future I will not. In future reviews I will discuss whatever details I think are necessary to give readers an accurate review. If you don't want spoilers don't read my reviews; if you don't want your arc spoiled don't ask me to review it.

The first problem is that the arc is listed as "Neutral" but the Contact is an Arachnos Arbiter, who addresses you as if you're a typical villain. The second problem is that that Act I briefing continues the narrative from the Info listing in the database. I chose to bail at that point and swap to a villain, my Widow (Amelia Escobar/Virture). The first mission is timed and contains an AV with no clear warning. It has a Clue that doesn't have any text (there is a mission-end Clue with hardly any text). The map contains multiple placed Boss spawns, one of which was pretty much on top of the Big Bad.

The second mission continues in this vein. Multiple Boss spawns (all large) with an implied escort so I didn't stealth it (it turns out it wasn't an escort). Adding to the misery, the Bosses are all PPD Khelds with Longbow backup so I had to deal with -Defense too. Act III brings Malta into the picture (no explanation) and has two mandatory EB allies just to ensure you don't get any tickets or XP.

The last mission calls for you to destroy Recluse (and explains what Malta was doing there after the fact). You get Stateman as an ally. I don't really care at this point if the Architect considers that a spoiler. I just ran around stealthed and let Statesman kill everything.

Frankly, there is nothing to spoil. The plot is a bare skeleton and completely transparent. There is hardly any text or writing at all. It does have a theme, so I can't hit it for being "just a bunch of stuff that happened". The problem is it doesn't do anything with it, really. There is just no there, there.

You did I think miss an important story point I think: Bright Angel was the good one and Blappy was/is evil. The fact that no one can see this simple fact drove Bright Angel mad. The brainwashing explanation just continues that misinformation.

No, I got that. I did say Bright Angel went Axe Crazy.

Arc #2019, "Have a Blap, Blap, Blappy Day Kids!"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: poorly written canon character

The Television says Blappy, Paragon City's most beloved superhero kids' show host, is missing, and must be found before her 4:30 show time. Berle, an executive at WPAR, may know something, so off you go. The station's offices are filled with Nemesis troops when you get there, and you find a discarded DVD with footage of Blappy, an executive and Nemesis (or a Fake). Berle is an Assault Rifle/Willpower Boss and tells you on defeat the Blappy show is as good as cancelled. On your return, the Television says "Not another Nemesis plot! I hear TVs clicking off all over Paragon!"

In Act II the Television has determined the footage on the DVD was shot at a warehouse often used on the series "R.I.P.s". Blappy's sidekick Bright Angel has gone ahead but hasn't reported back, so you're to go in after her. This being a Nemesis plot I turned the gain up on my Idiot Ball Radar.... The warehouse is filled with Freaks and other groups, including Arachnos and Elder Snakes. On her rescue, Bright Angel just runs away, saying "Blappy is evil and I am NOT a sidekick!" (Her info complains her action figure sales are only 15% of Blappy's.) One patrolling Jaeger says "I am through with Nemesis! That guy has more failed plans than the government!" The target Boss is "Junkyard Dog" (Boss, Super Strength/Invulnerability) and his "Canine Cabal" guards, whose info implies are the product of Crey's less than ethical animal research. Also along for the ride was an "Injudicator" (Mace/Shield) android, built by a mad doctor named Four Eyes. One of them dropped a Clue, an access card for the Injustice Legion's headquarters. (The Injustice Legion is a VG on Triumph; Four Eyes and Junkyard Dog are listed as members. I'm assuming at least some of the rest of these characters are author/author's SG inserts.)

The Television slips a little in the Act III briefing in which you're sent after the Injustice Legion, whom have stolen Blappy from Nemesis: "The access pass you found should let you onto the set, er warehouse where Blappy is being held." IdiotCon 3 and rising.... Bright Angel is supposed to meet you there and "not go all after school special on you this time". The warehous is filled with Injudicators and Junkyard Puppies (also SS/Invul), which are said to be "more of Junkyard Dog's innumerable spawn"...I Do Not Want To Know what he's spawning these with. Bright Angel has a question mark after her name (IdiotCon 2...) and is an Icey Assault/Ice Control Boss who says "Let's bring Blappy to justice once and for all!" Okaaaaaay.... Upon clicking a computer glowie, the mission objective changes from "Free Blappy" to "Defeat Sis Boom Ba", whose password you need to decrypt the email you just found. "Sis" is a berserk ex-cheerleader, Energy Melee/Regeneration Boss. She did pop Instant Healing on agro but only being a Boss I was able to outdamage her regen. Once decrypted, the email turns out to be an initiaion for the Injustice Legion's newest member, Blappy, at a new location due to hero meddling.

Television claims this is Blappy attempting to pull a sting on the Injustice Legion. That remains to be seen in Act IV as you're sent in to help her in a 30 minute timed mission on a Council map. As it turns out, Blappy (Ice Blast/Energy Manipulation Elite Boss) really hates children and is tired of everyone interpreting everything she does as heroic. Bright Angel has gone Axe Crazy as well and changed her name to Sideshow Sally (still a Boss). You also get to deal with Wrong Number, a Dark Blast/DiedTooFast Boss. Sure enough at the end, Television says that the Injustice Legion brainwashed Blappy and Bright Angel was behind it all along!

It's a cute arc, and the inserts aren't objectionable. Television is written way off, though. It simply talks directly, not through television shows as it does in its canon arc. I'd bump it up another star if the writing on the Contact was improved.

Arc #4727, "Future Skulls"
tl;dr: 4 stars. Offenses: minor plot issues, a bit heavy-handed, possibly annoying maps

Mirror Spirit has had a premonition of Skulls implementing some plan that leads to destroying the city. She has called upon you to investigate. The first lead takes you to a Skull hideout. (I dropped my difficulty to CL2 for this and used my second build as the level range caps at 14.) The map is a version of the burning Hellions map I hadn't seen before. Bonesnap (Boss) is present but not required. You have to search some bookcases to find a tome the clue describes as "disturbing".

You don't get to find out what you discovered until the Act II briefing. The Skulls have decided that the best way to cause lots of destruction is to waker Merulina, the "goddess" of the Coralax. It's not really clear why they want to do this, as random destruction has never been a big thing for the Skulls. In any case, they've devised a ritual to try it and while Mirror Spirit can't tell if it will work, she is sure that it will be Bad if they try. She's got the Midnight Squad working on the ritual and wants you to hit a Coralax cavern to look for clues. The map is a Cimerora cave map. Almost immediately I ran into "The Guard" (one of Calsytyx's pets, a Boss) saying "Can't have it!". Whatever "it" is...is not here. There are several glowies to search but not yield anything productive.

For Act III it's time for an act of desparation...Mirror Spirit has made arrangements with the Midnight Squad to use their Aspect of the Pillar to send you to the future she witnessed in her premonition in the hopes of finding out what happened. The map is the flooded Boomtown map. I quickly found a "Bride of Death", described as "filled with darkness, forced to kill to stay alive". She was a Dark Blast/Dark Armor Boss and on her death she thanked me for stopping her. In a Clue she tells you when and where the ceremony took place and gives you a dagger charged with magic.

The Act IV briefing contains a narrative about you waiting for the scrying results, followed by Mirror Spirit telling you that they've found the target near Salamanca and you have to be there to stop it -- any who try without your aid will fail. Neither she nor any of the Squad who helped her can go as "something dark" fought their efforts, draining them all and killing some. This is a bit heavy-handed, as I think we can expect the player will want to finish the arc by this point and if he doesn't he's not. You are also warned the mission is timed, though you aren't given the exact time limit (1 hour) pre-acceptance. The map is one of the Croatoa maps. You have to defeat Bonesnap and rescue two hostages, both familiar: Penelope Yin and Yanamari (from the Bonefire arc). Both women complain their powers have been drained. Bonesnap is now a custom Boss, Mace/Dark Armor in a bone motif costume. He was a bit of a pushover; it might be a good idea to turn up his powers a little or even promote him to Elite Boss. On completion Mirror Spirit tells you she will stay alert for more possible threats from whatever power the Skulls were contacting, as she doubts it will be satisfied with only one attempt at destruction. The story has a sequel in #70801, "Simple Times".

I had good luck with spawn placements on the two outdoor maps, but I could easily see those maps becoming major annoyances if the spawns aren't as conveniently located. The Croatoa map is moody but geographically too far from where the devastation is supposed to take place -- I'd recommend using the coastline instance from Talos. And Act IV's briefing lays it on a bit thick. Otherwise it's a pretty good arc.

Arc #19226, "City of Oz pt 1"
tl;dr: 2 stars. Offenses: not funny, not self-contained, humor arc with EBs.

Dorothy Galewind, transported to Paragon City by a freak tornado accident in a poppy field, needs your help finding her friends. She's sure they didn't just ditch her because she's too cute and perky. They were planning to go see the Lizard of Odd together. First on the list is Flarecrow, who is guarding his farm from invaders. The farm is a Croatoa map, of course, and the invaders are crow people. Queens (LTs) are Plant Controllers, not sure of secondary, Minions are Dark Melee/Dark Armor or Sonic Blast/Sonic Resonance. The Elite Boss is "Murder Master", Dark Melee/Dark Armor, whose info consists of an overblown equivocation between "homicide" and "gang of crows". Flarecrow is an escort.

Next up (I'm skipping a lot of the jokes here because frankly, they're not all that funny), you are asked to save the Aluminium Lumberjack from Rust Eaters. When you try to tell Dorothy aluminium doesn't rust you get more of those unfunny jokes. The gist of it is to show that Dorothy is an idiot. You are following her orders. Remainder of proof left as an exercise for the reader.... The Rust Eaters were sufficiently uninteresting that I don't even remember what attacks most of them used. The Rust King had some dialog that was almost cute.

The story is continued in part 2, the author feeling that he shouldn't have to "compromise" his work to fit all five missions into one arc. Um, yeah. I'll get to the rest later....

Arc #3615, "Dark Dreams"
tl;dr: 4 stars. Offenses: short

Longbow Field Agent Emerson ask you to respond to a 911 call saying an office building has been taken over by some kind of shadowy creatures. The building is surrounded but Emerson doesn't think the people inside can wait for backup to arrive. You are told to look for the person who placed the call, Harold McNiel. Upon entry the nav bar lists him along with "Hannah" and "Micheal" (sic). The map is the flooded office map. Mobs are "Shadow Dreams", a variety of imps and fairies mainly with Dark Armor and an offense set. Hannah and Micheal are straightforward rescues; McNiel is an escort, and his release triggers the spawn of "Twisted Oak", a Thorns/Dark Armor Lieutenant, out front, whose defeat is required. The debriefing says that the CSIs couldn't find any of the creatures you defeated, but did find traces of "shadowmatter" indicating they'd been there.

The briefing for the second mission says that McNiel's son Set has Phenomenal Cosmic Power and it's his fears that have created these shadow critters. Sister Psyche was able to make brief contact with Seth and claims there may be something influencing his fears. Emerson sends you back out after Seth, warning you to "be careful out there". The mission takes place on the Mother Mayhem map. The "something" is Malaise (Praetorian)...for some reason, his PToD never turned on so it wasn't much of a fight. The Shadow Beast, the strongest manifestation of Seth's fears, was a Super Strength/Dark Armor AV, and its PToD were working fine. It wasn't cranked all the way up to Extreme, though. Seth's hostage group doesn't spawn until Malaise bites it. If you find him before finding the Beast (I didn't) he'll help fight as an Illusion/Empathy EB. Emerson tells you afterward that Sister Psyche is going to block Seth's powers until he's old enough to learn to control them. Given her track record in editing peoples' brains I'm not sure that's a good idea.

Seth's powers are oversold a bit in the second act, and it could use a stronger warning as to the AV/EBs. Other than that this is a pretty good short arc.

Arc #32865, "The Audacity of Hope: Episode I - Rise of the O"
tl;dr: REPORTED. Offenses: over the top political commentary

I'm not sure if this is supposed to be parody, or if it's just disturbing. Rather than try to paraphrase it, here's the first briefing....

[ QUOTE ]

The Audacity of Hope: Episode I - Rise of the O
primera parte

Housing prices have plummetted, along with the stock market. Citizens bear the brunt of double-digit unemployment and shrinking retirement savings. All this is against the backdrop of spiraling health care costs and substandard public education.

However, all is not lost, Venture. Legend tells of another savior, known simply as O, who was also sent down to Earth. But, he was not sent to our Earth. Rather, he was sent to another dimension to save the humans there from being enslaved by The Machines. I need you, Venture, to journey to this Machine World and help O defeat The Machines. Once his work is completed on that Earth, he will be free to come and save our Earth.

He has recently been captured by The Machines. Once you reach the Machine World, your first mission will be to free O and search for any clues about The Machines.


[/ QUOTE ]

Um, yeah.

The Contact is a Banished Pantheon mask labelled "Prophet". It's actually annoying to click on, as the bounding box is small and bobbing up and down behind the avatar. The map is an Arachnos lab, and the mobs are a mix of the various robotic mobs in the 40-50 bracket (nit: Tarantual units are used, which are actually cyborgs. So are Titans, but arguably any human intelligence in their brains is gone) Unfortunately a very high number of the mobs spawned as Quantum units throughout the arc -- good thing I didn't use my Peacebringer. There are two glowies and a hostage to rescue. The glowies give Clues describing the VR and resistance from That Movie. The hostage, who looks like That Guy, gives you the following clue:

[ QUOTE ]

Once you rescued O, he reveals some information regarding an organization he created, called JEEDDI. All members must adhere to the five core principles: Justice, Education, Economic Development, Diplomacy, & Infrastructure. He offers you a chance to join JEEDDI.


[/ QUOTE ]

Um, yeah.

The briefing for the second mission has a subtitle in kanji with no translation, which makes me want to hit the report button. The Prophet tells you the Resistance in the Machine World is slowly getting cornered, and " A fellow JEEDDI member, known as the Governator, has been captured by The Machines." Um, yeah. The accept text tells you the Governator is a machine that has rebelled against the Network...'scuse me while I get my hip boots.

Act II's map is an outdoor ruin. Heard from a patrol near the entrance:

[NPC] Spiderling: I'm so angry. I couldn't get reimburshed for my oil change.
[NPC] Fire Tarantula: That's odd. I thought our health insurance covered routine oil changes.

Enough, already.

There are four bombs to plant and one hostage, no escort. On rescue, the Governator tells you he has located the signal tracing facility the Network is using to hunt down the rebels.

Act III, another mission with a foreign language title, has you join the Governator to save the strike team attacking the signal tracing base (Portal Corp map). Four hostages, four devices to destroy. More political commentary from the patrols, which is past tiresome. The first hostage you rescue tells you the team walked right into an ambush, implying a leak in the Resistance. The Governator spawned in the last room of the map, making not very useful.

Act IV continues the commentary: the leak in the resistance is...W. Right. You have to meet up with the Governator to protect the energy core of the Resitance's base, which is now under attack. The map is the PTS outdoor map, and you have to search for three needles in this haystack: the reactor core, a Clue (W's journal in which he writes about betraying humanity) and the Governator, who techincally releases as your ally as soon as you enter the map but in reality was nowhere near the core. I didn't bother picking him up to drag him over. Protecting the core is no big deal.

Between Acts IV and V the Governator snuffs it, sacrificing himself to buy the Resistance more time to escape. We get a quote from O delivering a eulogy for the Governator that I'm sure I've read someplace else (I tried to find a TVTropes entry for eulogies but didn't find anything that fits), and then the new assignment: team up with O to take down W. The map is one of the short ruined tech maps from the Faultline arc. All of the mobs are copies of W (who is a copy of That Guy). O is an AV, Firey Melee/Regen. "The Real W" spawns as a Boss at first, but on defeat respawns as an EB and then again as an EB. The Prophet tells you afterwards with W out of the way, O will soon complete his work in the Machine World and will then be able to save our world.

I can't wait.

The author clearly put a lot of work into this. That's the problem, this is really beating the joke to death. It's also, I believe, against the rules. The author is very creative and should keep at it, but stay away from politics. I reported the arc as a possible violation without rating it.

What you should've done is report it for content, since it blatantly uses characters from a cartoon show.

If I ever watched the cartoon it came from, I would have. But I had no idea.

A brief aside...I stumbled over The Rise and Fall of Dethklok ELITE HARD EDITION UNBEATABLE, arc #4027, while searching for the pulled arc mentioned above. It was only two missions so I decided to check it out. Long story short: the second mission is full of EBs, 18 of which are required for completion. Two of the AVs have Dark Armor on Extreme, meaning they have Soul Transfer. That said I was able to clear a spawn of four of them, which is as bad as it gets, so it's not unbeatable. It's just much more trouble than it's worth. If you really want to beat it just to torque off the author, bring ranged attackers...none of this crap can fly.

Oh, and yes, I zero-starred it.

Arc #9028, "The Rise of Evil Part 1"
tl;dr: 1 star. Offenses: Wall Banger, problematic mobs, surprise timed missions

Right off the bat my hackles were up, as this arc is capped at 14 or 15 for all missions and contains an AV warning in its info.

The Contact, one Evelyn Monroe, offers to cast a spell that will let you witness the story of a girl who could have been the greatest of heroes. Of course, she bungles the spell and you're actually sent into the past. You find yourself on the villain cape mission map, which is full of PPD Lietenants (no Minions, they're all LTs) saying "our lives for the Mother!" You have to "question" three leaders, who are CoT Madness Mages. This mission was a real pain thanks to low ranged Defense at that level. Just to make matters worse the Madness Mages all come with four LTs for guards, which get Fortitude cast on them. And because half the map is patrolling you have to deal with adds. Assuming you actually put up with all this you get a Clue, a piece of paper with writing you can't read. Evelyn is all up in arms now because you've changed the past. She says the paper contains the spell the Circle mages were going to cast.

In the briefing for Act II, Evelyn says that in the original history a hero showed up and one of the magi killed the sacrifice before she could be saved. Her solution: send you back to the past again. I heard a voice saying "Good, we can do more damage that way".... 30 minute surprise timed mission in Oranbega, two Bosses visible from the door...um, yeah. You're supposed to "save the Vessel" and defeat "The Priest". The Bosses all go on about giving their lives to "the Mother" as you beat on them. Your Contact is present in her old hero ID, a Psychic Blast/Empath EB. Every spawn point is a Boss, but once you have the EB it doesn't matter since she can likely solo the map. "The Vessel" is a hostage that needs an escort, and when you complete the mission you get a Clue saying you have a "feeling of unease" and think something went wrong even though you saved her. Evelyn is actually mad at you for saving the girl...she was supposed to die, and her death was part of the reason why Evelyn gave up being a hero. So why hasn't the present...oh, never mind.

Next, she wants you to steal PPD files from just after the ritual concerning Helena, "The Vessel". She says it would draw too much attention if she were to ask for them. So why don't I...oh, never mind. The file is found in a safe...um, yeah...and says that the address Helena gave burned to the ground in a fire believed to have been set by Hellions. Act IV is a trip to the burning building, in an attempt to grab Helena and bring her Back To The Future. I could go into more detail but the only meaningful thing is that Helena is a Fire Blast/Gravity Control EB escort and when you get her to the door, the mission ends but she turns on you. I beat her up anyway. Unfortunately, Failure Is The Only Option, as the exit popup says you weren't able to get her out. Evelyn gets pissy with you because you saved people from the fire (you can't NOT save them, they're unattended escorts).

Since you obviously haven't polluted the timeline enough, Evelyn sends you back one last time to grab Helena about a month before the fire. I heard a voice saying "Choke on that, causality!".... This is another surprise timed mission, 45 minutes. You're back on the villain cape mission map and "The Lady" is an AV/EB escort. Once again, when you get to the exit she turns on you. This time I wasn't so lucky and couldn't rez back in, since the mission was already complete. Evelyn just throws her hands up in defeat (and tells you she can't send you back to when all this started because if you met yourself it would create a time paradox that would destroy the universe.) There's a note telling you that the story continues in arc #9036.

The flaws in this story defy enumeration -- almost nothing makes sense. There might be a decent story in there trying to get out, if all the time travel codswallop was removed. There are game balance issues as well, such as the all Lieutentant spawns in Act I and Bosses everywhere in Act II. Despite my better judgement I am moving on to the second part.... Edit: or not, it appears to have been pulled.

Arc #16338, "Neutrality and Brutality"
tl;dr: ZERO stars. Offenses, Wall Banger, annoying mobs

Arbiter Daos tells you it's time return the favors Arachnos has done you (like shooting at you constantly and trying to manipulate you into a doomed plan for conquest they already know will destroy the world). The UN has withdrawn the Rogue Isles' status as neutral territory and is heading in to "restore order". (Typo: "nuetral".) You're being called upon to repel the invaders. Act I takes you to Mercy Island. The "Marshalls" are all Robotics/Devices and turned up high enough to have Targetting Drone. This means scads of pets, high ToHit and you get webbed to the ground and buried in Caltrops so you can't move. I was playing this with my 33 Widow and died twice on the first two spawns. The Minions are also turned up high enough to have Photon Grenades, just in case there are any squishies around looking to be permanently stunned.

For Act II, the briefing is framed in such a way as to powerpose you into suggesting to Daos that Arachnos frame the UN forces for blowing something up, presumably a baby milk factory or the like. Actually it turns out to be a large warehouse full of Longbow. You have to hit five glowies, four bombs (the small ones) and a computer. Daos tells you afterwards that Ms. Liberty is already complaining to the UN about the unprovoked attack because no one in the City of Villains would ever frame anyone.

But wait, there's more...your next task is to infiltrate a Marshalls base and send a coded email from their system to Vanguard that will convince Vanguard the Marshalls base is actually a Rikti installation. Um, yeah. The map is a large tech map filled with Marshalls; you just have to find one glowie but good luck using stealth to do it. Afterwards, Vanguard catches the Idiot Ball and starts demanding that the Marshalls stand down.

In Act IV, the Marshalls have been discredited as a wave of Plot Induced Stupidty sweeps over the world. The last few of them who won't turn themselves in are holed up in a warehouse being attacked by Longbow and Vanguard. Your job is to slip in and plant a virus on one of the Marshalls' computers so Arachnos can penetrate the UN's computer network because cutting off a rogue unit's security clearances and such is unheard of. I mostly had to fight Marshalls; seemed only one spawn of Vanguard managed to survive out of the other factions. Because of all the NPC fighting every time you come across a spawn of Marshalls they've already got bots out. You only have to click one glowie but again, good luck trying to stealth to it.

Wall Banger plot + annoying mobs = 0 stars.

I think someone else probably got skipped, because I never requested a review.

Odd. I've been posting the queue every few days for a while now and while there were a few typos spotted no one's complained about being dropped....

Arc #12798, "It Does a Body Good?"
tl;dr: 2 stars. Offenses: weak plot, problematic mobs, "just a bunch of stuff that happened"

Detective McLord calls on you to free hostages being held in a health store chain's warehouse by "an unknown group". The bad guys are Pugilists, a mix of Super Strength, Energy Melee and Martial Arts mobs. Lieutenants have Energy Melee with BuildUp and Invulnerability turned up high enough to have Unyielding and Dull Pain, essentially making them Bosses. You have to free several hostages, unfortunately the counters for these are improperly formatted in the nav bar. The completion Clue says you find bottles of pills labelled "Ripped" on the defeated Pugilists.

McLord sends the pills to a lab for analysis...and promptly loses contact with the lab in Act II. When you arrive at the lab (small tech lab) the place is full of Malta. The mission is a clear-all with one glowie. Chatter from patrols implies that Ripped is a Malta supersoldier drug, which is confirmed by the Clue: Ripped is a mix of caffeine, opiates, epinephrine, steroids and superadine (it says here).

Next, McLord traces the boxing gear worn by the Pugilists to a gym that housed a drug ring a year ago, specializing in performance enhancers. Act III is a short warehouse map with Pugilists, one glowie and a Pugilist Boss, Super Strength/Kinetics, uses Rage. On defeat the Trainer says "Rick" has all the chemicals he needs and soon the city will be "fitter than ever". Malta is also still interested in the drug; clicking the glowie triggers a Malta ambush (I just clicked out).

Finally, in Act IV the Pugilists plan to spike the punch at "Fitness Fun Day", an event held by the city to promote health. McLord expects Malta to show up as well. (He talks as if he's never heard of Malta before...dude, they spawn about fifty feet in front of you in Peregrine....) The mission takes place on the commercian Carnies map. Main spawns are Pugilists with Pugilist/Malta battles (which the Pugilists seem to get the better of). There are three hostages (case typo: "civilian") and six barrels of drugs (glowies, case typo in completed text: "you have secured the chemicals"). The map has way too many inconvenient places for the barrels to spawn, and all the battle scenes spawn with Pugilist Bosses so they're all over the place. You get a perfunctory congrats from McLord at the end.

This is a fairly bland arc with a plot right out of the level 10-15 bracket and some mobs dialed up to 11. Malta's involvement in the story is gratuitous and almost comical -- the Pugilists are strictly small-time amateurs and Malta can't handle them. If the interlopers were Skulls or even Family it would make more sense, but those mobs are going to be way too difficult for that level.

I'd like to be able to reproduce the situation where my bosses become too tough and the allies die too quickly (I've seen that comment before, but can't seem to make it happen myself yet.) so I was wondering if you could let me know what level you were playing at, team size, difficulty setting, what archetype you used, powersets..?

I was solo, playing my 50 Claws/SR on CL4. (Venture/Virtue, follow the link in my signature if you want to see the build in Mids'). This is a heavily setted/purpled build. Some of your mobs are turned up high enough to have BuildUp, which gives mobs a waaaaaay bigger +ToHit than it does players. You have some of their defensive powers turned way up too, particularly Tyr Ant. Putting defenses on a Boss or higher makes them very much harder to defeat, doubly so when you use Regen or Willpower on high settings.

As for why some of the allies died so fast, it was because they were low-ranking mobs. A Minion-level ally standing next to a Boss that tosses off a Whirling Sword is probably going to drop dead.

Just thought I'd add: You clearly put a lot of thought into your reviews, so I think it would be a good idea to provide a little more info in the in-game review message. Not everyone you randomly select for your reviews will be a forum reader.

I haven't randomly selected anyone since the first three or four reviews. Everyone arc I've reviewed since has been by request of the author. Presumably that means they're reading the forum.

Arc #1665, "Ant Attack"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: irritating mobs

Coyote wants you to investigate strange goings-on at Janice Street. (Nit: contact name is "Contact Hologram".) The bad guys are...ants. Flamboy Ant, Insignific Ant, Ramp Ant, etc. Cute. Ants have a variety of melee attacks and some of them are winged. The mission takes place on an outdoor city map with just "Find out what's going on" in the nav bar. This may mean a lot of grovelling over the map. There are a number of human hostages, all optional, but the objective is Clarivoy Ant, who is being held hostage by other Ants out of jealousy. Clarivoy Ant tells you that Tyr Ant has (I think) imprisoned Queen Luxuri Ant and is wasting the hive's supplies in partying. They've come to the surface to scavenge for food.

In Act II the university calls Coyote and says the antmen are breaking into their basement. This would be Bad, but it seems they have some fusion batteries down there, and it would be Even Worse if the ants try to open them. The map is, of course, the invention tutorial map. Immediately upon entering I was hit by a Broadsword/Shield Boss "Serge Ant" with BuildUp that skewered me. He also had status protection and Against All Odds, screwing up Aid Self, and on top of all that had the indecency to run when he got low on health (and I couldn't stop him, since he can't be knocked down). You also have to deal with "Radi Ant", a Broadsword/Pain Domination Boss. There are three glowies to check, one of which has the fusion batteries.

While you were at the university, though, Clarivoy Ant escaped...but his tunnelling led the scientists to the hive. Act III has you go into the hive to rescue Luxuri Ant and restore her to the throne. I immediately picked up an ally, Gall Ant, one of the drone class Lieutenants. He didn't last long, but the next ally was Vali Ant, a Boss. The Queen is an Elite Boss but she doesn't follow you into combat after being freed. You also get Defi Ant (Minion, dies on impact), Uncompli Ant (Boss, the healZ0r kind) and Clarivoy Ant (Psychic Blast/Pain Domination). Tyr Ant turned out to be an Archery/Regen EB. He popped Moment of Glory and Instant Healing on agro, so the first 60 seconds or so of combat weren't very productive. Defeating him ends the mission, even though he rezzes instantly. (I was half expecting to find Tyrant, the Praetorian down there....) Coyote tells you the Queen has sent a Represent Ant to City Hall to handle negotiations with the city and promises not to steal any more.

It's a cute little arc that doesn't overplay its joke, but some of the mobs are turned up too high, particularly Tyr Ant. And I suppose it would be too obscure to have one of the human hostages shout "Them! Them!"....

... I just realized that we're critiquing Venture's reviews. This is all getting rather meta.

Par for the course for lit-crit, AFAIK. Deconstructionism should set in next week.

Arc #47550, "Karmic Exchange"
tl;dr: 5 stars. Nits: very tight timing on last mission

FULL DISCLOSURE: The author of this arc is a member of my SG and someone I've gamed with online for several years. This is why the arc was allowed to jump the queue, but that is the only slack I'm (consciously) cutting it. Actually, just to ramp up the difficulty a bit, I ran it with my 35 TA/A Defender David Moonbow. All of the missions go up to 50, but the floor jumps around a bit between 30 and 45.

Elizabeth Bertinelli asks for your help. It seems her husband Michael, a bush-league super codenamed Corpus Rasa, is having trouble accepting her recent death. She has some minor magical ability allowing her to stay on this plane but she either can't reach him or he isn't listening to her. He's trying to find a way to bring her back to life. He's already stolen information from the Vahzilok and is now trying to infiltrate Crey. Liz wants you to save him. His powers are low-grade shapeshift (takes half an hour to change form) and telepathy (barely better than acute insight), so he has no combat ability. The map is a standard tech map and you just have to find the hostage, no escort. Liz thanks you for saving him and hopes he'll put aside his plans to bring her back.

Of course, he doesn't. With the information he stole about Project: Revenant, Corpus Rasa has decided he's on to something and is now trying his luck with the Circle of Thorns. Liz is afraid he's going to use something like their soul replacement process to restore her to life, so off you go after him. In the accept text she tells you that she was killed on their wedding night and Blackthorn, the villain responsible, is in jail. On entry to Oranbega, you hear Circle mages bickering with each other over who the shapeshifter is and whether or not there's more than one. You only have to find one glowie, unfortunately for me, it spawned right next to an Arch-Mage of Agony. It took three deaths to get him dragged far enough away to let me click it. At my best I couldn't get him below 60% health. The Clue tells you that Corpus Rasa now knows how the Circle substitutes one soul for another and has stolen one of their sacrificial daggers. Liz is convinced her husband is prepared to sacrifice someone to resurrect her now, and firmly believes it would be wrong to do so.

And it looks like she's right. In Act III Corpus Rasa has taken over a Family warehouse by impersonating one of its leaders and ordered the goons to kidnap a mystic for him. You're sent to rescue the mystic. Liz says that her husband has gone too far now and has to be stopped, even if you have to take him down, but implores you not to be too hard on him. This mission scales to 45-50, which is a bit unusual for Family...no surprise factions though. You take down "Vinnie Vertuno" a.k.a Corpus Rasa (LT, Gravity Control/Invul, he is using some stolen gadgets) and free the hostage, but the Clues say that even as Corpus Rasa is being taken away something doesn't add up....

Sure enough, Act IV opens with an Arachnos raid on the Zig. Liz is afraid Corpus Rasa will break out in the confusion and might take Blackthorn with him. She wants you to keep Blackthorn imprisoned, at least, so Corpus Rasa can't murder him. Blackthorn spawned front-loaded for me on the Zig breakout map as an Energy Blast/Illusion Boss...only it wasn't him. It was an illusionist named Miss Mirage who took Blackthorn's place so Rasa could make off with him, disguised as one of Blackthorn's old allies. Rasa had actually arranged the Arachnos raid before you busted him by impersonating Daos himself. (To be fair, it's not as if your typical Arachnos cell is manned by the sharpest tools in the shed. "I, Arbiter Daos, your leader, will speak now about my, Arbiter Daos's, plan. My villainous, villainous plan. Question the plan at your peril. Uh... any questions?") Mirage is helping Rasa because Rasa has promised to use his resurrection gizmo on her dead husband; she's more than willing to stay imprisoned to bring him back. Liz is distraught...because her husband's plan will work. She'll be brought back to life exactly as she was. The only catch is someone else has to die.

Liz manages to track her husband to a warehouse full of Carnies, and she Does Not Want To Know what he shapechanged into to get them to help...but he's got Blackthorn and the machine ready to go. You only have 15 minutes to destroy the Karmic Exchange Chamber...or will you? The briefing contains an "inner monologue" in which you wonder if this is all that bad, a machine that will bring good people back to life by killing bad ones.... Act V takes place on the Carnie Party Warehouse map; you have to destroy the Karmic Exchange Chamber and take down Corpus Rasa, who is now an EB using Gravity Control/Invul and has a fairly sizable spawn around him. I stealthed the map (which has Carnies, and Family and Circle out for revenge) and took out the chamber, but couldn't take down Corpus Rasa in the time left, eating four deaths trying. Presumably this means he's able to repair the chamber and finsh the transfer...the mission fail debriefing tells you that Liz feels herself being pulled back to her body and begs you not to try to use the technology yourself, since you may have learned enough to build one in your investigations.

The timing on the last mission is very, very tight and may give low-damage builds like the one I used problems. However, you are told in advance. I could have gotten help or cut my difficulty (I was on CL2; cutting to 1 would have made him a Boss and a much easier kill). The author tries something ambitious in giving the character a moral choice at the end which causes the arc to bump up against some of the system's technological limits. Act V could end with just the destruction of the chamber, but that would potentially mean Rasa is still on the loose with the means to make another. The timing could be longer but then choosing to let it run out would be more annoying. About the only change I'd suggest is downgrading the Arch-Mage in Act II to a regular Circle Boss.

Though I think Venture might've been talking about Sam Peters, who again, isn't the origin story of one of my own characters. Next time, don't be so quick to label something, Venture.

I said it felt like an origin story, not that it was an origin story. I did try a Google search on the name but didn't find anything likely off the bat.

I stand by the review. Fearghas has asked me to dequeue the other arcs in the series, so I will.

Arc #1009, "The Legacy of Joe, the Longbow Eagle"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: You Can't Fight Fate, undeclared AV/EBs, deceptive Contact, plot issues

Dr. Lloyd, an experienced time traveller (gaaaah...time travel and transparent reference...), needs your help in the past. There's a long diatribe on temporal mechanics that basically serves to remind you that you don't actually have a choice. The goal is to ensure someone named "Joe" becomes a Longbow Eagle. The first task is to travel to 1964 and destroy a crate containing several copies of the movie Casablanca, thus ensuring that Joe's parents will meet. To do this you have to fight the Chronologists, a custom faction of "anti-Menders". The factin includes mobs with Controller abilities and at least one with SR, making stealth problematic. The mission is a glowie hunt, you just have to find the right crate. Afterwards you are told that because you destroyed the film reels Joe's father did not go to the movies that night and therefore did not die in the fire that broke out at the theater. If we can't change history then how do will know what would have...oh, never mind.

The next task is to steer "Joe" towards a career in the military. To do this you must travel to WW I (yes, it says the first one) to prevent the 5th Column (eh?) from kidnapping a "Francois Ghails" whom they believe to be the first true mutant. This is supposedly to disprove the theory that mutants began appearing after the atom was split. That theory Fails Game History Forever in the first place so I'm not sure what the point of referencing it here is. Worse, we're told Ghails isn't even a mutant. The mission takes place on a St. Martial map with 5th Column and Chronologists (hostile to each other). Ghails is a simple hostage with no escort. Lloyd explains afterwards that Ghails was part of a long chain of events culminating in the creation of the G. I. Joe toys, which our "Joe" played with as a child.

The next mission sends you to an abandoned hospital in 1997. You are told you won't have to worry about the Chronologists, but Ouroboros will be involved...along with Arachnos. You have to re-arm any weapons you find, take out the Arachnos Weapons Expert and take down a Mender to ensure he can't travel back and undo what you've done. The mission uses the Mother Mayhem map and is level-locked to 40 (for no clear reason). The "Weapons Expert" is a Bane Executioner with a large spawn who managed to drop me with a 1030 point crit. The Mender is...Lloyd. Lloyd is a Broadsword/Ice Armor and is either an AV or has his defenses turned up high enough to give status protection, and also comes with a large spawn of guards. Lloyd tells you on your return that he was once a Mender and that was when he learned that history can't be changed. The explanation for the mission is that a band of Freakshow would find the weapons and go on a rampage with them, which Joe would see on the television. The news report would motivate him to join the military.

For Act IV, you have to save a woman from a Carnies party, so she'll get drunk celebrating with a guy who works at Agincourt, causing him to order too many jetpacks the next day, leading to Joe having a spare one to pick up when Caleb attacks two weeks later. The warehouse map has large-scale battles between Arachnos and Carnies, including Bosses. There's a placed Boss too, a Dark Ring Mistress, but you don't have to defeat her. You just have to find the hostage, no escort.

In Act V you have to save Joe from an Arachnos ambush. This ambush includes Black Scorpion, "the villainess Aki-Ran", the Chronologists with a lead Surveyor who has to go, and takes place in a Malta base. You're told Indigo and Crimson are around somewhere too just in case you need help...why do two AV-class characters need my help...oh, never mind. You're told all this after you accept the mission, too. The map is a tech map with all the various factions at each other's throats. "Surveyor Lars" was a Boss, looks like Electric Blast/Kinetics. He tells you you're being used (again...) and asks if you're working for Ouroboros or "Suffusion". Aki-Ran turns out to be a Ninja/Pain EB working for the Carnies. She claims during the fight that Sister Psyche is responsible for her current psychological problems (which, hell, may even be true). The map is stupidly easy with Indigo and Crimson along. In the debriefing you're told that Joe would be the only Longbow agent to stand with the Freedom Phalanx as they pushed back a large wave of Arachnos villains, earning him a medal from the city, which inspired someone named Sam Peters to take up arms against Malta in a fight in which only you have a larger role to play.

The arc hammers you repeatedly with the idea that You Can't Fight Fate. In that case why not just go home and grab a cold one? The undeclared AV/EBs are annoying as always. I'm left with the feeling that this is someone's origin story and that the player is a Xanatos Sucker. The plot asks more questions than it answers and straightjackets the player. It says in its info field that it is "episode 1"...I'm not motivated to try out episode 2.

The Akarist model is simply insane. I don't think it's properly downscaling as an EB. My 50 Peacebringer, who is almost entirely slotted with sets and HOs, burned 10 small reds at once and went at him in Light Form. His health barely budged, and when the reds wore off, she couldn't outdamage his regen.

The Arch-Magi models have the same problem to a lesser degree...not much less in the case of the Arch-Mage of Death. I ended up taking them out of "Chains of Blood" and replacing them with custom Bosses. Hated to do it but too many people were giving up over how long it took to wear down the Arch-Magi.

<QR>

First, the current queue: 1009, 8774, 8787, 8795, 1665, 12798, 16338, 9028, 9036, 32865, 3615, 19226, 19231, 19238, 4727, 2019, 34452, 8713, 2409, 1579, 1571, 1531, 18145, 38226, 2922, 1356, 26931, 2142, 2150, 42221, 5299

Replies to various points:

Hmm... it might help if you were more clear on what you didn't consider 'just a bunch of stuff that happened', Venture; after all, just about anything could have that accusation levelled at it.

Asked and answered upthread a bit. To reiterate, an arc is "just a bunch of stuff that happened" if there is no theme or moral to it. Humorous arcs get a bye here as long as they're actually funny. While I cite this offense fairly often there are a lot of arcs I didn't cite for it so you shouldn't have too much trouble finding good examples. Needless to say I don't think my arcs are guilty of it; feel free to call me on it if you disagree.

Interestingly, some of the changes you noted either weren't changed (the dialogue about testing and you being the final variable is identical- I don't remember changing it at at all)

It is entirely possible that I just didn't hear it the first time. Even combat dialog from must-defeat mobs might be missed if things are too chaotic. If it's really important to the plot it needs to go in Clues or Contact text.

I'm assuming the 'killer GMing' now primarily refers to the final mission,

And the map full of Zeus Titans. Even if you don't have to fight them -- builds that can't finesse their way past the whole map are in for a world of pain.

Oh... and did you re-read the whole souvenir? The beginning is identical, but I rewrote some of it to make it clear that /Hide was doing his best to act in good faith, but the perfect machine's external control was often preventing him.

Yes, I did. It doesn't really bear on the problem. No amount of apologetics is going to cover for this. If you tip your hand during the arc then you're almost certainly throwing the Idiot Ball. If you save the reveal for afterwards you're mocking the player by reminding him that he has to dance to your tune no matter what. It's a no-win situation. Just don't do it.

... which leaves me with a rather pedestrian retreaded robot-romp with a moderately amusing contact (and a lot of abruptly extraneous hints that something's not quite right with your contact)

This is getting back to the "just a bunch of stuff that happened" problem. If there is nothing to the story but the reveal that your Contact was a fraud then that's bad.

I suppose I could try to make it clearer that this is a 'to be continued' situation.

There is nothing stopping people from doing multi-arc stories, but every "volume" has to stand on its own.

I suppose part of the problem I'm having is that this particular 'choiceless screwover' isn't really any different than any other mission you accept in City of *.

Many of which make players want to neck-punch someone. The official missions commit a multitude of sins; you shouldn't assume something is OK to do just because an official mission did it.

I mean, you're (presumably) in this mess as a hero, contacted by DATA to do some investigative work; in theory, you should be able to compensate for a contact that's being less than honest with you.

"Compensating" for a dishonest Contact, in most player's minds, means "disembowel him and find someone else to work with".

If this was a tabletop game, players confronted with /Hide's duplicity would immediately try to Take A Third Option. If the players try to go Off The Rails and the GM won't let them, they'll probably be upset and they'll probably be right.

For my part, I wouldn't take orders from a Contact whom I knew wasn't trustworthy. Any damn thing could be at the end of that rainbow: get duped into destroying the world, helping a villain conquer the world, unleash the Rularuu, DOGS AND CATS LIVING TOGETHER.... You can't play games with "the company". The players have to be certain that their employers aren't going to use them as pawns, sell them out, set them up or otherwise jerk their chains. Forcing me to go along with an untrustworthy Contact just because the format allows you to do it is playing in bad faith.

Or is the onus entirely on me to lead the player by the hand through a plot that's perhaps slightly more complex than the Mission Architect can really handle?

Look, I'm not trying to be the Voice of Doom here or anything, but your plot is not that complicated. It's "just a bunch of stuff that happens". If this is just a small part of a bigger picture then why does the small part have to be five missions long?

I guess the big question for me here is "Is this a problem because it's a poorly done Usual Suspects Ending, or because it's a Usual Suspects Ending at all?" Because if it's the former, I want to do what I can to fix it. If it's the latter, then I can accept it as a personal preference rather than an inherent problem.

It is the latter, and I think you are going to find most players echo Talen Lee's sentiments: "Aren't there enough arcs where the player is a complete blundering idiot?"

Oh, I'd like to know what the plot holes are so I can try to plug them.

Whatever the Doctor does from inside the system is meaningless; Crey can always take the entire system down and reinstall from the offline backups. Then she has to do the whole thing all over again, and sooner or later she'll get caught. In any case, once word got out that the Architect system could be used in this way, no sane person would ever use it again regardless of any assurances from any agency, up to and including manifestations of the Divine. The story doesn't actually do anything to resolve the problem in the canon behind Architect Entertainment; it actually makes it worse by proving the worst expectations are justified.

I don't think we should have to write arcs based on the possibility that someone might not finish the story - it would be quite impossible to take that into account for every story we create.

In the general case if the player chooses to abandon an arc it can be safely assumed the Contact gets someone else to do it instead. In this case that's problematic.

So would I, but this gave me an opportunity to make a story about The Doctor so I ran with it.

I think we can do stories with the Doctor that don't open more cans of worms than they close.

Thanks for the feedback.

Ja'Dar and Enigma Silver 6-3 should be on Rogue faction. I'll double-check that. I'd downgrade Ja'Dar in Act V to an EB if I could but as I've said there's no suitable model. I think 6-3 needs to stay an AV, which unfortunately means soloing Controllers/Dominators will always have issues.