Venture

- Sky Raider hostage guards in Mission 2 now clean their guns which will hopefully make them stand out more.

The problem is that all the battles on the map are agroing the hostage guards. This isn't too much of a problem if the guards are killed by the NPC fighting, it's just a bit anticlimactic as the player sees objectives being completed for him. If they're not killed, though, then they're still not going to be animating and/or may have run a distance away from the hostage.

While the huge amount of fighting is very dramatic, you might need to cut down on it a tad.

Reminder: I am not taking requests for reviews at this time. I'll post when I am again.

Replies to a few things:

I have to disagree with you on this one - I played this arc and had a blast! I was on my Dual/Regen Scrapper - all i had to do to the Mito was stay above him (i have fly) and used my Black Wand Vet power to kill him, his ranged attacks were not very powerful and with my Instant Heal he was dead long before its timer was up - the mission after the Mito was also great with a lot of suprise twists - i might suggest if you dont have one of the vet ranged attacks you try buying the revolver temp power - if your not in Melee he is a piece of cake!

Either the Mito is supposed to be a serious threat, in which case it's Killer GMing, or it isn't, in which case there's no point to it. I've talked to several who did go past this mission and discovered an even worse encounter in the next one. The author used the Akarist AV model, which is bugged -- even as an EB, I hit it with a Peacebringer in Light Form using 10 small reds and its health barely moved. When the reds wore off I couldn't hurt it at all. Add in several huge ambush waves just to rub salt in the wounds. The retort here will be that the mission provides an ally. My reply is that the player is supposed to be the center of attention, not the author's characters.

I gave it 5 stars for creativity. wonderful flavor text (if you bothered to read it) and actually making me have to find creative solutions to the problem!

I did read it. It was OK.

I see no harm in disclaimers, but i would hardly say you CAN'T complete it without ranged - I know several tanks and even scrappers with the right build that probably could.

I doubt it. The END drain on the mito's aura is huge -- as in, I clicked a large blue and was able to attack once before running out of END again, with Elude (and its +recovery) running. It actually debuffs your total END by 33%. There's also a huge fear effect, which I don't know if even a set with Fear protection can withstand. It can be broken by BFs but that means bringing a bunch of those. I don't think anything but a Dark Armor (the only set I can think of with both END drain and fear protection) could even try.

Brad, have you read some of the content in game?

I agree that there's some bad stuff in the official content, but why on earth would we advocate anyone use it as a benchmark? Certainly we want Architects to do better than those of the official missions we all hate?

Dispari's Hollows arc is better than the current content from Wincott.

"David and Goliath" is a Mary Sue arc I one-starred on Test and haven't bothered with again on Live. I'd take the existing Wincott material over it.

And then there's canon. If you use States or a known NPC are you raising red flags? Are you better off just being original?

Extensive use of custom mobs says, to me, that the author is covering up for a weak or nonexistent theme with eye candy, that the mission is "just a bunch of stuff that happened". I'd much rather see a good story told within the canon than a mediocre action movie told with custom mobs.

I'm not sure why you're complaining about things being too tough if you're playing on Challenge Level three or higher (which I assume is the case since you were exed to 49). I ran this mission solo at Heroic with an electrical blaster, as I recall, and while it was not trivial to best the Loup Garou and the Mito, it wasn't all that hard (i.e., no visits to the hospital).

Loup-Garou was not challening at all. I walked up to it, hit a lot and eventually it died, just like every other mob in the game. It was tedious. AV/EBs already have a big pile of hit points; adding defensive sets makes them a lot worse. Double so if you use Regen or Willpower (essentially the same thing) as either can boost the mob's regen to a point where some builds are incapable of generating enough DPS to damage them. You need some level of Bosses, EBs and maybe AVs to give the player a satisfying fight but it's very easy to put in too many and turn your mission or entire arc into an unfun sitzkrieg.

The way i handle it in both Through the Looking Glass and my joke one Three Stars was to fill each mission with rescuable allies of boss or higher rank, but make them un mentioned and optional.

If your arc is so difficult that you feel you have to do this, you should really think about making it easier. Allies should only appear when the story demands them. If an arc is of nominal difficulty but turns out to be too much for a particular soloist that player already has a "get an ally" option -- he can recruit a team (even during an AE arc.)

I do have to say here that she will either be a complete chump to fight or one of the most annoying time wasters ever. Right now the MA seems to have a problem with /Devices on custom foes. They tend to stand there doing nothing but use web nades and caltdrops.

(I'm only going to discuss some technical points in the review of my arc.) I didn't have a problem with Bluehawk's AI when I fought her with either my Scrappers, Mastermind (Bots/Storm) or Peacebringer. She did malfunction as described in Act III as an ally. I'm aware of the problems with Devices but it is the best fit for the character, a basic Action Girl. Ninjitsu would be nice but a) it's bugged to hell and back (you do NOT want to fight an EB with it unless you like getting Crane Kicked for about 3500-4000) and b) the +Defense and heal would make her a lot tougher. I expect the devs will fix the AI issues with Devices in another patch or three. If not I'll think about what else I could give her. MA/AR might be interesting.

Ja'Dar is now an AV/EB (I cannot for the life of me remember what the actual renamed model Venture is called and to lazy to look it up)

Hro'dtohz. I didn't really want to use two AVs on the same map but there is no Rikti "Chief Soldier" type EB avaiable and I didn't want to use a Heavy.

One serious question I do have for you Venture is about how Spectre spawns in the first mission. Do you think the mission would be significantly improved if he were to spawn in the Middle region instead of the Back where Sizwe is in the hopes he doesn't spawn on top of anyone?

Absolutely...spawn him in Middle or Front, since you have to take the PM out the player is almost certain to run into him.

I've debated this but didn't think the way he sometimes spawns right on top of you was a deal-breaker.

Thanks to bad luck I was down about 60-70% of my HP before I realized there were new mobs on the map. A squishy might have been killed instantly.

I don't know why Kali Erinyes spawned as an AV for you in one mission and an EB in the other. In both instances she's the same custom character who is an Arch-Villain.

She did downgrade properly in Act IV but in Act V had no PToD.

It's handy as a way to keep things straight, to be honest. And if you're an arrogant blowhard like me it lets you pass your opinion and people will come to you to ask you to tell them what you think.


I, of course, intend to become City's answer to J. J. Hunsecker.

[ QUOTE ]

cut to a man working at a 1950's newspaper office
J. J. Hunsecker: You don't even know who I am!


[/ QUOTE ]

Arc #1297, "Redoubt Operations #1: Fires Over Kalago"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: "just a bunch of stuff that happens", gratuitous custom faction, some plot holes, problematic mobs

You're called in to help out "Redoubt": Robotic Extradition and Defense Operational United Nations Batallion Taskforce. Whee, Fun With Acronyms! People, you don't need to figure out what the letters in your SHIELD Expy's name stand for. The military assigns wacky names to things all the time. I think they have people on the payroll for that. Anyway, Robotic?

Moving on....

Nick Fu^H^H^H^H^H^H^HLieutentant Gilgamesh needs superpowered help in Kosn^H^H^HWakan^H^H^H^H^HKalago...OK, I'll stop now (but really, I hope we have a strikeout format code on the now-approaching-vaporware new forums)...a small nation in Africa. A new vein of Impervium has been discovered (um, I don't think that's actually an ore but we'll go with it...) and it's caused the already-unstable political situation to hit the fan. The Separatists have used Sky Raider mercs to kidnap the Prime Minister; you're going in to get him out. He's being held on a ship. Yep. You're capped at 34 for this.

On the (correct, as it turned out) assumption that I'd have to escort the hostage out, I cleared the path instead of stealthing past everything. Rescuing the PM immediately dropped a level 35 EB ("Spectre", Claws/Devices) and several friends on my head, including a bubbler just in case you're a squishy and were hoping to use controls to survive. I didn't last long, they didn't last long in the rematch. The EB did trigger two ambush waves as his health dropped. His defeat clue specifies that he telports out with an And Your Little Dog Too speech. The new players are from the "Mechanius Imperium", which from the bios is a Rogue Robots type outfit. Gilgamesh doesn't mention them at all in the debriefing, which I thought was a bit strange.

For the second mission, Sky Raiders are fighting Imperium forces in the capital with civilians caught in the crossfire. Your job is to rescue the civilians. Again, you're capped at 34. The map is total chaos with spawns of Sky Raiders and Imperium at each other's throats everywhere, which is very dramatic but makes it practially impossible to tell what's a hostage keeper and what isn't. I got dirtnapped once by a massive spawn of both, aided by prodigious amounts of -Defense...the Imperium gets Rad/Rad LTs starting with this map. I had to clear most of the map to find the hostages, who thankfully were not escorts.

And...whups! Two of the hostages you rescued were actually Cylo^H^H^H^H...yeah, I know, I said I'd stop...Imperium impersonators. "Morrigu" and "Alecto", who kind of did stand out last mission in a Definitely Not A Villain way, were actually two halves of "Kali Erinyes" (author insert), some kind of gestalt bot which is now teleporting troops into the base Redoubt was using to safeguard the Prime Minister. This one has a "bring a team" warning (though it's not highlighted, which is a nit) and is timed at 90 minutes, which you are not told before acceptance. You're still capped at 34. Kali is an Extreme/Extreme Dark Melee/Invul AV, and yes, she pops Unstoppable. It took three tries but she eventually went down. I'd expect her to be pretty difficult for anyone who's actually in this level range and/or doesn't have a strong build. The debriefing thanks you for saving the base for its tactical position and never mentions that you saved the Prime Minister's life.

The last battle is a strike at the main Imperium base. You have to take out their teleportation capability so they won't be able to reinforce their offensive in this region. Despite the lack of a "bring a team" warning, both Spectre and Kali Eryines are back for seconds. For some (unexplained) reason Kali is only an EB this time, not an AV, and was much easier to take out. You get a typical congrats from Gilgamesh. It's never really explained what the Imperium was doing there, other than being something other than a canon faction for you to hit.

The arc does have some problems in terms of gameplay, to wit: the Rocks Fall Everyone Dies ambush in act I and the turbocharged AV in act IV. There's a lot of -Defense being thrown around which may make this arc problematic for some builds, especially if you're actually within the level range and not autolevelled down. The storyline isn't horribly flawed but it does have some points that aren't as well explained as they could be, lacks a theme and uses custom versions of a lot of things that could be done just as well with existing factions and canon lore. (For instance, why invent Kalago when we've already got West Libertaria, another African country having Sky Raider issues?) I think it would benefit from some more work.

Honestly folks...this is an MMO. How high a standard do we want here?

How high can we get?

Then...we raise the bar.

Arc #7780, "Nobody of Consequence"
tl;dr: 4 stars. Offenses: The Usual Suspects Ending, surprise EB (optional), plot holes

The author specifically requested feedback on the use of status effects in this one, so I decided to run it with my level 29 Corruptor Mother Night. She's slightly under the level range of some of the missions but that shouldn't be a problem.

The Contact, Loomis, a Tsooish guy is looking for a chance to make a big score and earn some rep with Arachnos. He has a lead on a recent theft from an Arachnos base, which he's passing on to you so you can recover what was stolen and split the reward with him. The mission calls for you to search 6 containers and defeat a Big Bad, "Inspector Lamont" of Crey Security, who says as you approach that someone has been stealing from Crey. The Inspector was an Electric Assault/Electric Armor Boss, and a bit of a handful for me thanks to ElecA's energy resists. None of the crates have the items you're looking for.

Loomis next tells you that several factions in the Isles have had tech thefts lately that smell of inside jobs, but are suspected to be connected in some way. He's identified some guys at a Council base he thinks might know something and wants you to interrogate them. The cook tells you that the group was started by guys who used to be in Crey but got tired of the danger in the Isles. The courier tells you about a private server the group is using for communication, and something about "Myriad leading them all back home". And the mechanic admits he's part of a network of Minions of various groups that are stealing from their employers because they're tired of being mistreated. The author does kind of powerpose you here, describing you as beating the information out of these guys, but it's a Villainous arc and that's acceptable.

Your next task is to raid an abandoned Crey facility believed to house the private server. The base is filled with custom "Perpetrators Unknown" mobs with names like "Anonymous Bowyer", "Anonymous Blade", etc. This is where life started to get "interesting" as there were Willpower and Super Reflexes mobs in the mix with the +perception to see through my Shadow Fall. Coming around a turn on the first level I spotted "The Undestined", a +1 Elite Boss whose bio implies he used to work for Black Scorpion. He wasn't in the objective list, but he had a Willpower mob standing next to him...I decided to try my luck. He turned out to be a War Mace/Electric Assault and managed to take me out when I got him to about 10%. I converted some greens, rezzed and got him on the rematch. I ate a second death later on taking on a double Tenacious spawn, which I attribute to operator error. The clues in this base, aside from the server, include personell files from various groups indicating which members have been disciplined lately and a Crey file on a "Myrna Mathers", who was Oswalded by Crey and eventually ended up in the Isles, then vanished with "important genetic information".

Loomis works over the server and finds a ton of information about "Myriad" and her plan to get a bunch of disaffected Minions out of the Isles and back home, hopefully with pardons. The briefing has a good bit about the plight of Myriad's faction, but, of course, you're sent to bust her at a meeting with Longbow. She's carrying a lot of information about the major factions which should be worth a bundle. The mission takes place on a ship map -- on VU2009 players are starting to complain about these becoming too common, probably as a result of hero-only players who don't know how common they are redside using them. I don't mind them that much myself as they have high ceilings and let you fly past a lot of spawns you don't feel like dealing with if the mission isn't an escort or clear-all, which this one didn't appear to be. I did spot Inspector Lamont early on as what seemed to be a possible ally but using her would have required clearing the way to Myriad. Myriad herself was an Ice Blast/Plant Controller EB; I was doing well until I ran out of BFs and got chain-held. She was back to full health when I returned with a better inspiration loadout, but I won the rematch. She gives a good The Reason You Suck Speech as you beat on her. Her approach text lets you know that Loomis is betraying her.

In the debriefing Loomis apologizes for playing you, saying that he was trying to leverage his own pardon and that he didn't give away any information about you. It's not really clear who he is getting this pardon from, seeing as how he sent you to bust up Longbow. I'm guessing the idea is that the player is being sent into a trap at the freighter, which doesn't really make sense. If he wants a pardon from Longbow the best way to do that is to stay with Myriad. Sending you to work against her efforts then feeding you to Longbow puts him on the outs with Myriad so if she wins, he's screwed, and if you beat the trap he's really screwed. Maybe there's another player in the mix the author didn't make clear -- it would really suck for Loomis if it was made obvious to the player that he's been in negotiation with Malta the whole time.... The arc does have a The Usual Suspects Ending, which is problematic. I didn't feel as though I'd been thrown the Idiot Ball. I think if the plot was cleaned up the last-minute betrayal could work. The story does have a good theme to it.

As for the status effect issues the author was concerned about I can't say there was a real problem until the last battle, and that's manageable with inspirations.

For the record: I play on Unyiedling. I normally do not use my vet powers on review runs, since lots of players don't have them. @Green Dwarf did immediately reply to my comment telling (not asking) me to reconsider on the grounds that the mito would die "in five hits from ranged, Nemesis Staff, Blackwand..." I refused on the grounds that many players do not have vet attacks. There is no "challenge" involved in putting in a mob that simply can't be defeated by people who don't have ranged attacks. He got in my face and I put him on ignore.

Now my arcs are getting voted down without comment. Of course, maybe they deserve to.

Anyway.

I want to remind people that I am not currently adding arcs to my list. I've got way too many to go through now. If you want to request reviews from other people in this thread then feel free, of course, but I won't be responding to requests aside from these periodic reminders. I will post a notice when I am accepting requests again.

Ah, that's not documented. I'll keep it in mind. :-)

WARNING: DO NOT PLAY
Arc #2007, "The Green Brew"
tl;dr: 1 star. Offenses: Killer GM

Green Dwarf (author insert) needs you help in creating the perfect....

...beer.

That's probably worth at least four stars immediately from the frat members.

Your first stop is Oranbega, to retrieve some magical water from one of its springs. Guarding the place is "Sinadria", one of the Dwarf's exes, who spawned frontloaded. At first glance she looked like a Succubus EB but is actually a custom with a lookalike costume (well done), a Claws/Couldn'tTell. I ended up needing to use Elude as the fight got pushed into the next spawn down the corridor. This was a small map and the glowie spawned about in the middle.

Your next task is to retrieve some special barley from a Redcap-infested field in Croatoa. Upon entering the map the nav bar instructs you to find "Alsae", who turns out to be a Grain Nymph ally (Boss, Plant/Thorn). Rescuing her triggers the spawn of the real target, Redcap Boss Iron Heel. Unfortunately this means you have to grovel over a large outdoor map again, and even if you choose to ditch the ally your stealth is blown off. Upon completion Alsae gives you a sack of barley and "another present to remember her by", If You Know What I Mean.

The next ingredient is hops...from Praetorian Earth. The nav bar says "Find the Alpha Wolf and assert your dominance"....um....riiiiiight.... Taking him out triggers the spawn of EB "Loup-Garou", a Super Strength/Regen. Thanks to the current AI silliness the first thing he did was pop Instant Healing, meaning the first 60 seconds or so of beating on him just didn't count. After a effort roughly akin to felling the mightiest tree in the forest with a herring, he bought it.

Next up was a trip to Eden for yeast. You are warned to bring END insps and to stay out of melee range...nice thing to say to a Scrapper. I also noticed going in that this mission is level-locked to 50, which actually EXed me to 49. The objective target is, I kid you not, a gorram Blue Mitochondria. I did try to fight it but, as a Scrapper, that was just not happening. At this point I bailed out of the arc and one-starred it. If zero was an actual option I'd have used it.

You're doing a great job with these reviews, Venture.

Thanks!

You should ask him to review your Taskforce.

Actually I've played it many times as it's a good go-to TF for merits, if you keep your team size down. Three people is really all you need. I would be lying if I said it didn't have problems, of course. It really shows its age and as the first TF heroic players are likely to encounter it really, really ought to be completely pulled out and redone. It is mechanically too problematic and its storyline really doesn't work with the current state of affairs. Right, these lowball factions are going to go off and attack the Faultline Dam...which is now a Longbow fortress. For their next trick, they'll re-enact the Bay of Pigs invasion with an encore presentation of the defense of the Alamo.

Pre-release I had planned to do an arc that could serve as the storyline for a revamped Positron TF. I haven't done it because as I originally conceived of it I'd need to be able to rescale existing mobs in terms of level range and rank. (Specifically I'd hoped to use some Devouring Earth as EBs or AVs at the 10-15 level.) I could make it work using custom mobs but I'd rather hold off for a while and see what the future holds for the Architect.

I'm also toying with the idea of a better VEAT storyline, but the most likely candidate for my third slot will be a humorous villain arc. (My current projects are 4643 and 4829, in case anyone wants revenge. )

Arc #5898, "The Fan Club"
tl;dr: 5 stars

Captain Graves of the PPD asks for your help in dealing with increased Council activity. The warehouse you're sent to has a standard Council Boss to defeat and one hostage to rescue, a small kid, "Tim Bucklen" wearing a mask who claims to be a member of your fan club. This is not a good sign.

The next mission involves a Devouring Earth raid on a biotech company. You're sent in to rescue the hostages. You're capped at 33 for this one. You get to rescue "Carol Drake" here, another fan club member who tells you this was all Tim's idea. So, not a good trend....

Sure enough, the next mission starts with multiple reports of missing children, all members of the YourNameHere Fan Club. The police also get another "anonymous" tip claiming the Devouring Earth at the last raid manage to sneak off with a few containers of chemicals. This mission, still capped at 33, is a defeat-all on a warehouse map with four^H^H^H^Hthree hostages. You find "Bart Lindsay", Carol again (who tells you the DE have taken Tim away...you find his tattered mask stuck to a crate) and "Preston Kent", all of whom have finally had enough of the Fan Club.

Needless to say, finding little Timmy becomes a priority. Graves tells you the techs have traced his cell phone to a cave complex. The cell phone itself is in a Clue close to the entrance. Timmy himself is found further in, as a hostage...a Devoured one who runs away when freed.

It has a Downer Ending, but this is a great arc, recommended.

Arc #1684, "Paracon"
tl;dr: 4 stars. Offenses: short

This is a one-mission humor run. You're asked to save a bunch of cosplayers at an unspecified convention from a Clockwork attack. I recognized some of the cosplayers (Leeloo, Indiana Jones, Phillip J. Fry, Dr. Manhattan); others, if they were supposed to be references, went past me. One of the cosplayers is actually a low-level off-duty hero who allies with you (Psy/Kinetic); she snuffed it fairly early on.

It's good for a quick laugh.

Current queue: 1684, 5898, 2007, 7780, 1034, 1297, 14826, 20696, 6999, 1472, 2180, 16108, 1152, 33034, 12669, 1285, 1009, 8774, 8787, 8795, 1665, 12798, 16338, 9028, 2036, 32865, 3615, 19226, 19231, 19238, 4727, 2019, 27136, 34452, 8713, 2409, 1579, 1571, 1881, 18145, 38226, 2922, 1356, 26931, 2142, 2150, 42221, 5299

I'm declaring my queue to be full for now. I'll start accepting more requests when I've made some headway on the current batch.

Arc #1462, "Foundation 2.0: The First Op"
tl;dr: 2 stars. Offenses: Cardboard Prison, surprise EBs, "just a bunch of stuff that happens", bland

DJ Pheonyx is trying to restart a group called "The Foundation", which was forced to disband due to increased publicity. His problem is that their R&D branch "The Warehouse" went rogue before the breakup and now they're after something. He wants you to get there first. The first mission takes place on the flooded office map, which is starting to become a bit overused. You end up recovering a "strange formula". The Warehouse agents are fairly well-done "men in black" types with AR/Devices powers. They use the supersoaker AR though, which kind of detracts from the look, I'd say.

You are next sent to meet a Dr. Herbert Ingles, a scientist Pheonyx used to work with who can interpret the formula. He's now working for Crey and a likely target for The Warehouse. Rescuing requires a) defeating Viktor, a MA/Regen (I think) EB (there is no "difficult enemy" warning in the briefing) and b) escorting the hostage out a multi-level tech map. Viktor drops the name "Heimdall", whom you are later told is the guy who got Pheonyx into the Foundation in the first place and has now gone rogue.

For the next part, you have to recover files on other formulae the Warehouse is creating. These drugs are part of the Psion Adjustment formula, which are so dangerous that being exposed to people who have taken the formula can induce superpowers. Um...OK.... You're also warned that Viktor didn't stay locked up for long. Pheonyx joins you on this mission, a Fire Blast/Fire Manipulation EB. You have to find the files for the formula, then find an "upload server" to transfer the files to the Foundation (why don't I just leave with them?), beat Viktor again and after he snuffs it, beat Frank Heimdall. Heimdall is an Electric Assault/DiedTooFast EB who keeps mentioning a "Villain Zeta". Zeta is evidently the head of the Warehouse, said to have been subjected to all three Psion Adjustment forumlae. He's also broken out both Viktor and Heimdall. I think this transcends Cardboard Prison...Tissue Prison?

The last mission requires defeating all three EBs and, for that matter, everything else on the map. Zeta turns out to be a Mind Control/Energy Blast AV, and is said to teleport out on defeat. You get a generic congratulations message in the debriefing.

The arc is below average. The plot is fairly bland, "just a bunch of stuff that happened" with some minor flaws in it. Pheonyx is evidently an author insert; Viktor might belong to a friend of the author (I'm not sure). I wouldn't catagorize either as being problematic though. It could be cleaned up by saving the EBs for the end and cleaning up the plot a bit.

But yes, there is that sense of leading the player down the garden path. I suppose I could go for Taraxius or Tartikoss instead, if this breaks Hardcase's canon though.

You have Hardcase's character down pat except for the bit at the end. Rather than swap him for a different Contact I'd suggest a small change: make it so he just sends you to face Lilitu (still blindly) and just lets the chips fall where they may with no bargain invovled. That way he's not making a deal with her, he's just letting the situation resolve itself.

Arc #9584, "The Delilah Pact"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: Xanatos Gilligan, annoying mobs, plays lose with a canon NPC

This is a villain arc, but the Contact is Hardcase so it may not count.... Hardcase asks you to bust up a Circle of Thorns ritual. You're given a flask of potion to use on each of the five altars, but after clicking on the first you get a Clue saying he either didn't give you enough or you used too much. Being a villain you just smashify the last one. At this point I heard a voice saying "klaatu...barada...*COUGH*" The CoT surrounding it say something about "summoning their consorts"....uhhhh....

Needless to say Hardcase isn't happy with you when you get back, and tells you to come back later for your fee. When you do he says things have been quite and perhaps you've gotten lucky, but in the meanwhile before paying you he wants you to grab a ruby formerly owned by Madame Bathory from Kings Row. The Big Bad on this map is a PPD Kheldian. During the fight he calls for help, but I heard the barks of Carnies, which were evidently hostile to the PPD as none of them actually made it to my location. Naturally the SOB rezzed so I had to smack him down twice. The glowie spawned near the entrance but I went on to clear the map anyway for tickets. The mission end clue has a Carnie kiss you with promises of more to come. I was playing Konoros at the time, so, Squick. Hardcase says this means you triggered the ritual instead of disrupting it and calls you "an absolute moron when it comes to magic...worse than Azuria."

Hardcase next sends you, reluctantly, to a Crey installation where they're summoning demons as part of the Protector project. Early in the mission I picked up (ahem) Tango Vixen Sierra, a Knives of Artemis Boss. (Nit: that's a Malta name, not a Knives name. Knives Bosses are all named "Sister" something...and they'd eviscerate anyone who tried to stick them with "Vixen" anywhere in their handle, I think.) Tango appears to know you...very well. After defeating both of the demonic Protectors, and encountering some more non-hostile Knives, you get a Clue saying that one of the Knives says "if you think we're formidable now, wait until you see what we've in mind for you next"

Attempting to get to the bottom of your newfound popularity, Hardcase sends you after some artifacts currently in the hands of the Legacy Chain. This means a cut to level 29 for the next mission. Each time you find one of the three items an "ambush" of friendly Blood Widows spawns. At the end, one of the Widows kisses you, and the Clue states that it feels just like the earlier kiss from the Carnie. Hardcase confirms in the debriefing that none of these women are what they appear to be.

For the last mission, Hardcase sends you to rob a bank as your payment, saying he's also figured out how to break the curse you're under. When you get to the target, though, you suddenly find yourself in the Croatoa "under the tree" map with an objective "Defeat your Hostess!" The Hostess is, of course, Lilitu, Queen of the Succubi. This resulted in a terribly annoying fight, because a) Succubi have a 38 second Placate on a 30 second recharge, and b) they can't hit me (52% Smash/Lethal Defense, others in the 30-45% range.) Break Frees don't break Placate, so I end up standing around waiting for them to either hit me or miss with the Placate. Anyway, you have to beat Lilitu and clear the room to end the mission. When you do so you get a Clue saying a broken ruby falls out of your pocket and a portal back to the real world appears. In the debriefing Hardcase says you were supposed to stay with Lilitu, who had promised you would live as her cherished pet. "Don't look at me like that...if you hadn't set all this in motion by blowing up an artifact I wouldn't have had to throw you under the bus."

The writing on this one is good, but it rubbed me the wrong way. It doesn't so much throw the Idiot Ball as much as it powerposes you into being a Xanatos Gilligan. I also didn't like the idea of Hardcase actually making a deal with a demon. It's been shown in the canon that he has no mercy for demon summoners. Still, if you're willing to overlook being manipulated you might enjoy the arc.

Yep, it's written the right way on the list.

Current queue: 9584, 1462, 1684, 9898, 2007, 7780, 1034, 1297, 14826, 20696, 6999, 1472, 2180, 16108, 1152, 33034, 12669, 1285, 1009, 8774, 8787, 8795, 1665, 12798, 16338, 9028, 2036, 32865, 3615, 19226, 19231, 19238, 4727, 2019, 27136, 34452, 8713, 2409, 1579, 1571, 1881, 18145, 38226, 2922, 1356

So I'm going to be busy for a while. :-)

If you asked and it's not on the queue, PM me.

Arc #9590, "Soul Train: Origins"
tl;dr: 4 stars. Objections: annoying outdoor mission, problematic ambushes, disconcerting level range jump

This is an "origin story" which means my Mary Sue radar is turned up to max gain from the start. The Contact tells you up front that she's telling you her origin story so at least you have plenty of warning if this isn't your thing. In the first mission, you are sent to the rave at which Soul Train's boyfriend revealed he was a Skull drug dealer and nearly broke her jaw. "Someone" broke up the rave, and for our purposes that someone is you. You have to rescue her and fight him, a Super Strength/Martial Arts Boss. He spawns, I think, two ambush waves as you beat him down, which means you'll probably get them both at once. You'll be autolevelled to 13 here.

In the next mission, which you are warned is timed and "going to be close", you intervene in an incident at Soul Train's job the next day. She worked at a physics lab and was caught in a Lost/Rikti attack (autolevelled to 30). You have to rescue her and restart five shield generators before an experiment starts in 30 minutes. There is a bit of a slip in the hostage dialog where two Rikti speak in normal english. This was due to me being at the top of the level range, though, where Lost spawn as Rikti. It might be a good idea to just have the hostiles say nothing here. In any case, I stealthed past most of the mobs to get to the glowies, rescued the hostage...and then the mission exit popup said that someone had botched the intel, there was a sixth generator you didn't know about so the shields stayed down. Soul Train was blasted by the "Muon Extraction Matrix" and hospitalized for a few days.

For the third and final chapter, Soul Train describes how she felt after the accident, then says she was asked by Detective Freitag to come in and sign the complaint against her ex-boyfriend. When she arrived, she was told that her ex had made bail and was out gunning for her. She went home with a police escort to pack and get out of Dodge, only to be jumped by Skulls...which is where you come in. Unfortunately this mission takes place on the instanced Kings Row map, with you autolevelled below travel powers. You get to grovel over the map to find the hostage, then grovel over it again to find the triggered spawn of the boyfriend. (I cheated and used my purchased Raptor Pack to scout from the air.) It also has the same ambush problem as the boyfriend's last appearance, though he also spawns an "ambush" of PPD (which never made it to us). This mission is where Soul Train's Energy Blast/Kinetics powers finally manifest. In the debriefing we find out that one of her blasts hit the ex-boyfriend too hard, paralyzing him for life, giving the character some Comes Great Responsibility motivation.

In terms of the story, this is a good example of an origin story that avoids Mary Sue-ism. Soul Train is a spectator for most of it and not the main player when her powers do kick in. That outdoor map is fairly annoying, though. I'd recommend changing the story to have her duck into an abanonded building, and cut down or lose the ambushes attached to the boyfriend character. The level jump in the middle is annoying too...it might be better to use another faction in the same range as the Skulls.

Arc #2085, “In Her Own Image”
tl;dr: 2 stars. Offenses: Mary Sue, plot holes, annoying EB, “just a bunch of stuff that happened”

Commander Amazing asks you to investigate a break-in at Servanta Technologies, one of his “patrons” (I.e. it’s his company). The break-in is the work of the Knives of Artemis. While I’m not going to mark down for it, this is a faction that should not be used, or used sparingly at best, until the devs get around to doing something about it. The Caltrops are just absurd, and they’re even worse now that you can’t fly high enough to avoid the damage on a lot of maps. Plus, and a lot of people don’t seem to know this, all Knives have boosted perception, making them trouble for characters that use stealth.

The first thing I ran into was the ally Amazing tells you about in the briefing, who is one of the author’s characters. “Dead-Eye Eagle” is a TA/A, and according to his captors, a “D-card member” of the Justice Guard. You eventually find that the Knives were after the plans for “C.A.T.A.L.I.N.A.”, an android. You’re told afterwards that the android’s creator was fired ages ago and there’s no clear reason for the Knives to be interested in it.

The briefing for the next mission tells you that the only villain known to have interest in the Catalina project is her creator, who is now known as Dreadnot and holed up in Grandville. Amazing wants you to investigate a Malta base they’ve very coincidentally gotten data on. You’re to find their “client database” and optionally deal with an unknown super who’s been spotted on the scene. That super would be Charles Psion, another one of the author’s characters, whom you may remember from his earlier arc. He’s a DB/WP EB, spawned at +2, meaning it took a year and a day to cut him down. His defeat Clue implies that he doesn’t really have anything to do with this and was just “in the wrong place at the wrong time”. Um, yeah. The Clue you were sent to find says Malta’s client is one “Cathy Lena”. At least the Contact points out that’s “the worst false name I’ve ever heard” in the debriefing. You also have to snuff the Boss, a standard Master Gunslinger.

[NPC] Agent Gator: You may still surrender now and I will spare you!

Said during the fight, while he was flat on his back with ¼ health. Obviously just a flesh wound.

The briefing for the next mission tells you that “Cathy” has only been traced to an online spam war on the forums for “World of Freedom Phalanx, that game everyone’s been talking about”. Um, yeah. You’re also told that the Malta contract has been traced to an Arachnos base in Boomtown. Amazing complains that no one ever patrols there, “though Statesman did want to put me as a training contact there”. Um, yeah. You get a warning that you may need help and that there will be an ally available. You’re also told that Arachnos has formed a “special special unit” to take down Commander Amazing and his group at all costs called the Society of Evil. Um, yeah. Amazing can’t go himself because he’s needed in the RWZ for a mothership raid. The ally is “Sixty Second Man”, an Electric Blast/Electric Manipulation Boss with no description. The map’s EB is “Doomspot”, which looks to be a character belonging to one of the author’s friends, a Bots/DiedTooFast. He did say “I have not yet begun to fight!” at about 1/8th health. I’d have replied “Maybe you should think about starting?” if I wasn’t solo. (Or, “Well, don’t bother now....”) The Clues say that the orders for whatever’s going on are coming from Catalina 6.7 herself, which you are told in the debriefing is Dreadnot’s AI. It goes on (in a near wall of text) to tell you that the base you just splashed has been bringing cargo in through Independence Port thanks to some bribes to the Port Authority. Amazing assures you he’s got the PPD on that and whoever is responsible is going to jail...um, yeah.

The next mission sends you to the warehouse Arachnos has been using in IP, after one of Amazing’s friends has beaten the information out of the bribed official. You’re warned that if Catalina herself is present you’re in for a major fight, as she adapts to your attacks, which of course she doesn’t because the game can’t do that. (Typo: “the ability our military could with this was limitless”.) Entering the warehouse I was almost immediately attacked by “Catalina 5.7”, which looks like another one of the author’s friends’ characters. She was a MA/Regen EB, meaning once again it took forever to wear her down. More Catalina models filled out the place, incling a 1.1 Claws/SR (I think) and 2.4 Sonic/Sonic. Later on you run into Catalina 5.9, one of the author’s characters. This one is a Claws/SR, on Extreme I believe. I didn’t need Elude but this is starting to convince me the new form of Focused Accuracy isn’t worth having. The Clues tell you that the purpose of the warehouse was to amass an army to infiltrate the city in some manner that isn’t clear. So why are the supplies being delivered to the warehouse and then moved someplace where the army isn’t? Oh, whatever.

For the next and final mission you are sent to deal with Catalina 6.7, the most advanced model that even Commander Amazing can’t deal with due its krypt^H^H^H^H^Hmagic components. She turned out to be a Super Strength/Electric Armor AV/EB and another one of the author’s characters. She did get in a few lucky shots but went down in the first match (no Elude), ending the mission. Of course, she uploads her self out before you beat her. The debriefing makes some guesses as to what was going on (probably relating to the author/SG’s RP), tells you Catalina fried the body before transferring out and thanks you.

While not one of the more egregious cases, the arc is essentially a Mary Sue. You are constantly being told how special and important the author and friends’ characters are, and how they’d deal with this themselves if they didn’t have more important things to do. Psion's appearance is doubly gratuitous, since not only is he an Somewhere underneath it all is an OK story trying to get out but right now it looks like a "Justice Guard" story guest-starring the player. Catalina 6.7's power combo is likely to be annoying for a lot of builds, particularly due to the autohit END drain backed up by Lightning Field.

Come back with a number, please, I'll never remember to search for it.

If I don't reply to a request for a review it means I missed it somehow. If I'm going to reject a request I will say so. I don't do that kind of passive-aggressive crap; I have my parents for that....

So if you asked for one and I didn't add it, remind me in a PM.

1034 is on the list, right after 7780.

Replies to a few points:

Also, it seemed a bit weird to me, after some thought, to essentially pat the kids on the head and tell them 'okay, toddle along now, I'm sure you'll be fine running all alone through the demon-infested remains of your school'.

I think most people take it as read that rescued hostages take the route you cleared to leave, or that you "really" escorted them out, or they hide in a closet or something. The point is not making the player grovel over the tedious parts. Kind of like how the game doesn't make your character go to the bathroom every few hours.

Also, the 'little' kids are more than six feet tall

They were minimum-size models for me, until they changed to the less-human versions on the last map.

Not quite what I intended. If I could have the Cataphract at 50, I would.

I understand the frustration but you've got to play it as it lays. If what you want to do doesn't work or only works pathologically then it doesn't matter how cool it would be if it did work. It's got to go. Kill your darlings.

It's a reference to the Rogue Robots mini-arc you can get from either Merisel Valenzuela or Allison King in the early thirties in 'canon' CoH.

I remember the arc. I said it was a nit.

Actually, they're what I use when I don't have a plot reason for someone to be there beyond 'I need an ally for difficulty reasons'.

I didn't grade off for them because they weren't Mary Sues or even close, but difficulty is not a reason to include an ally...it's a reason to reduce the difficulty.

Ooookay, apparently the dialogue on that one was problematic- I thought I'd made it explicit in the introductory text that you just have to kill a destructible object, but you're not the only one to misinterpret what's said.

No, I got that, it just doesn't change the fact that there was a gang of three or four Zeus Titans every couple of feet. If the player can't finesse it somehow he's going to get splattered.

Also, (and I know I spelled this out in the dialogue) you only have to kill the named boss.

Again, I get it, but there's still two or three Bosses standing next to him.

.. you didn't read the mission souvenir, did you?

No, I didn't, it was late and I forgot to check for one. I would have docked you another star if I had. The Usual Suspects Ending is not appropriate for this format. It's too easy. The player has no choice but to take the Contact at face value, especially when, as /Hide does, he profers bonafides (the Crimson reference).

Which might suggest that I am not, in fact, actually trying to kill you?

No, it just says that you failed. I'm using a fairly extreme build (Venture/Virtue, my main...click the Virtuvian for the build, which is not a wish list, that's what he has) so there hasn't been too much in MA arcs I couldn't handle. (I usually use Starfall to test my own stuff.)

Though I'm quite certain that I know what Kevin Spacey's Character is talking about in The Ref now in regards to the Restaurant Guide of New York, I'm curious on the term "Idiot Ball" in regards to this review.

Idiot Ball. Any time I use a phrase in caps like that, search TVTropes for it (like the earlier reference to The Usual Suspects Ending).

Whats going on during the entire process is you are running a distraction for whatever the villain is doing in the meantime. Perhaps I need to spell this out, I was hoping people would be able to pick up on that.

No, we got it. That's the problem. The player is an obvious dupe. As Talen says, you never do this to the player.

You won't always know the entire story behind everything

This is almost always done poorly. Doing it in an interactive format like this is a near-certain recipe for a bad reaction. People do not like feeling like they've been played.

We still don't know the entire reason behind the MA to begin with or the ITF's impact.

And if you may have noticed, an awful lot of players don't like either fact. The devs make mistakes too. The "professional" arcs are rife with Mary Sues, Idiot Balls/Plots, a few Wall Bangers and other pathological tropes. Don't assume that just because they did something it's OK for you to do it too.

Venture, you're the kind of reviewer I'd love to get to look at my stuff, but I know you're so absolutely backlogged now that I'd feel like a heel asking you to review mine.

I'm going to be running lots of player arcs whether I'm reviewing or not. Feel free to ask me to run yours, just post the numbers here or PM me. I'm not going to give myself carpal tunnel or spend my whole life running arc, I promise.

Also, while I'll be posting my reviews here exclusively, at least for now, I don't claim to "own" the thread. If someone else wants to add reviews, jump in.

Finally, the current queue: 2085, 9590, 9584, 1462, 1684, 5898, 2007, 7780, 1034, 1297, 14826, 20696, 6999, 1472, 2180, 16108, 1152, 33034, 12609, 1285, 1009, 8774, 8787, 8795

Arc #1033, "The Wool Over One's Eyes"
tl;dr: 1 star. Offenses: surprise timed mission, clear-alls on large maps, throws the Idiot Ball

Charles Psion, a self-described freelancer who does "a bit here and there, for the profit", wants you to clear out a office full of Freakshow. After you accept you find out that it's a one-hour timed mission and there's an artifact his client wants recovered. The safe the artifact is supposed to be in, though, only triggers an alarm and ambush, and the Freaks talk as though they've been "set up". Psion doesn't offer any explaination for this, doesn't even address it, which implies that you're going to be passed the Idiot Ball.

The second mission is much like the first. This time a warehouse scheduled for demolition needs to have some Fifth Column cleared out of it and some crates have to be destroyed. Why do they need to be destroyed if the building is going to be blown up? No time limit on this one. Again, the objective is a dud as the crates are empty, and the 5th complain that they've been set up. (There are some Council fighting them too, but I never actually saw them, only heard them.) You can pretty much see Psion dribbling the Idiot Ball at this point.

Last map is another warehouse, this time you are to clear it out (enemy unspecified) and seize a weapon shipment. You're also told there's a hostage on the premises. The weapons turn out to be holograms. The warehouse has Freaks and 5th on it, fighting each other. The hostage is implied to be Amanda Vines, which puts her a little outside her usual bailiwick, but at this point that's the least of the offenses. At least she's not an escort. A few Council ambushes get triggered along the way. Like most clear-alls on large maps, it ended with me grovelling over the map looking for the last mob wedged into the geometry someplace. In the final debriefing, Psion tells you you've "proven a wonderful distraction"...and here's your complimentary Idiot Ball.