Venture

Arc #1614, "Don't Rain On My Parade!"
tl;dr: 4 stars. Offenses: short, overpowering ally

Statesman asks for your help in rescuing hostages from an Arachnos raid, the Phalanx being busy fighting another raid. The victims are all members of the Phalanx's fan club involved in planning the annual parade, which Recluse wants stopped. The first fan you rescue is "Sh'rignok Destroyer", an alien that tried to take over the city in the 60s only to get hit in the head a little too hard by Statesman. He's now a Phalanx otaku, and a SS/Shield ally. His costume is a real eyesore but that's appropriate for the character. I then rescued "Jane", a computer geek:

[NPC] Jane: Looks like my rescue is here. Oh poo, it's not one of the Freedom Phalanx... My blog weeps...
[NPC] Jane: Pretty good job I guess. Have you ever considered applying to be a part of the Phalanx?

(My character thinks the Freedom Phalanx is a threat to society...she's lucky she's a non-combatant.) The next two were a little kid and an old former PPD officer. The mission exit popup says they managed to steal a piece or two of your costume...not very thrilling in my case, as I was using a street clothes slot.... In the debriefing Statesman tells you the fan club asked them to make you a member, and that they humored the club members but they're not looking for more members. Boo hoo. (Of course, I have "reserve member" status whether I want it or not.)

All in all, a funny one-mission arc. The ally is a bit much (maybe make him an LT) and the writing could maybe be generalized a bit more.

Arc #12669, "How to Survive a Robot Uprising"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: Killer GMing, "just a bunch of stuff that happened"

Another unusual Contact, this one is...a box of junk named /Hide. It claims to be a shapeshifter. The arc description (in the database) says you're sent to it by Citdel during an investigation of strange behavior on the part of Paragon's artificial intelligences. It also says the arc is "solo unfriendly", which leads me to a digression I expect will go over like a lead balloon, but I'm sticking to it.

Arcs that are designed to kill solo players are broken. Writing "TF" or "not meant to be soloed" on the label does not make it not broken. The Mission Architect system does not allow you to gate your work by team size, meaning it is intended to produce content for standard groups. That includes groups of size 1. If you've got a job to design a passenger airplane and you submit a design for a cargo airplane, then you've failed, no matter how cool your cargo plane is or whether you wrote "this is a cargo airplane" on the cover. If and when the system is upgraded to allow us to gate arcs by team size then you can up the ante. If someone games the system to let them solo an arc that requires (e.g.) four players it's their problem when they get smeared. Until then, unsoloable arcs are just killer GMing. The "reward" for killer GMing is having people not read your story because they quit and one-star you. Yes, I know the Ouroboros pseudo-TFs do the same thing. They're broken too. Bad behavior is not legitimized just because the developers engaged in it. Back to the review.

The first mission is on a warehouse map. I immediately ran into level 54 reflection versions of Council robots. This is a new one for me, as I'm using a level 50 character on Unyielding...not sure how the author got level 54 spawns. Plowing through the bots led me to "Archimedes' Lever", a level 54 EB assigned to the "Shameless Self-Insertions" faction. This is not a good sign. The Big Bad turned out to be a Freedom Phalanx Cataphract, which I believe explains the level issue...that doesn't spawn lower than a 54, I think, thereby allowing the author to lock the whole mission to that level.

The Cataphract had some blue goo in it (grey is the customary color for evil nanotech, but that's a nit), which /Hide traces to an Arachnos base for you. In theory a microwave pulse has already destroyed the blue goo. Entering the base it's clear this did not work, as I ran into a patrol of robots chatting about what they're going to do after the humans are all dead. PPD and Rikti Drones are added to the mix here, along with some customs...a "Drone Coordinator" LT (Bots/FF) and a "Repair Bot (Electric Blast/Pain Domination). I picked up a Bane Executioner ally and moved on. The Big Bad was OV3RDR1V3, a custom (Bots/something...died too fast). The /info says he was the result of a mistaken attempt at assimilating a helmetted Freak. The mission-complete Clue says the "Virals" are going to try to sterilize the Rogue Isles by taking over the Arbiter Drones.

The next mission doesn't go in that direction, though. Instead you're sent ot a Malta cargo ship full of Titans that have gone berserk. The first spawn point consisted of four Zeus Titans obliterating a bunch of Malta mobs. I hit Elude and wiped them out. It then became evident that pretty much every spawn on the map was multiple Zeuses, so I hit stealth and flew past everything. Before I found whatever it was I was supposed to do, the mission completed. I can only assume that one of the battles destroyed the objective. I did find a Malta hostage, which I freed even though the mission was over. He ran for the door, with a release message saying he was "going for reinforcements" and I "might want to wrap this up quickly", so I just clicked out.

Next up: Portal Court, as it looks like the Virals are trying to reach machines in other dimensions (including, say, Tau Delta 8-7, which is overrun by Nemesis Automatons). You're warned that the PPD and Nemesis are already on the scene. (You're also told that Citdel is staying out because the Virals can take over any AI. Good thing they never noticed my character has a symbiotic one. Likewise the Contact assumes your character knows little or nothing about computers or AIs. Really should write for the general case.) The mission is actually the "Portal Lab" map, not the outdoor map. Praetorian and Nemesis robots get added to the mix here. The Big Bad is a berserk PPD Enforcer, which had two or three friends...I lost count. You've got two PPD Quantum allies possible on this map, but one of them spawned behind the Big Bads. I pushed on to see if there were any Clues on the map but didn't find any.

Last mission takes place in a warehouse, objective is to destroy all three parts of the "Perfect Machine". I managed to get killed by converging patrols when one of them flatlined my END from behind. There are some more Shameless Self-Insertions available as allies, all Boss level: Energon X (Energy/Energy, I think), Flashpoint Zeo (Fire Melee/Aura), and Sergeant Allerdyced (MA/DA, I think). There weren't any significant fights. After destroying all three mainframes, a fourth part, a "Laptop Case" spawned somewhere but I never got to see it...I think one of the allies greased it. It taunts you by asking if you've ever heard of offsite backups. /Hide assures you this is an idle threat, that the signal used by the Virals is too distinctive to hide. To quote one of the early hackers (can't remember the cite right now) "never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon stuffed full of tapes hurdling down the freeway".

There's some good writing in the dialog, but the repeated attempts to stuff the mission full of Instant Death are tiresome. (And the only time I died was due to blind stinking bad luck, not from throwing a battleship at me.) Level-locking the first mission at 54 is just wrong: anyone trying this below 50 is going to get greased. I'd recommend toning it down so people will actually play through it and read the good writing, instead of getting frustrated and quitting.

Arc #12285, "Small Fears"
tl;dr: 5 stars. Nits: annoying escorts, multiple AVs, possibly disturbing models

The Contact, an "Oracular Urchin", tells you that something is coming for Paragon's children, implying that it is somehow associated with whatever is happening. The map is the "flooded office" map, and the first mobs I fought were a "Monster Under Bed" (Claws/DA), a "Bully" (small boy model, SS/Invul) and a "Mean Girl" (small girl model, looked like Psy Blast/Mind Manipulation). I don't know how well the idea of having the player beat up little kids is going to go over. The first hostage (who refused to leave the map, probably not the author's fault) also had a "Hallway Monster" guarding him, an Axe/Shield. There are total of three hostages that have to be escorted out, including your Contact, on a multi-story office map...yeah.

The Urchin tells you that whatever sent the fear creatures after the kids is still out there and sends you to find it in the second mission. You're sent to another office map, with more of the Monsters and brats, where you find a clue telling you that Mother Mayhem must be nearby. Sure enough she's in the sewers under the building, evidently hiding from "her"...whom is taken over Mayhem's asylum. Whatever is there, it's too much for the Urchin to take when he tries to scan the asylum...so off you go.

The Asylum map has the Monsters from before, plus Mean Girls who now look a lot less human (and, I think, have changed from Psy/Mind Manip to Psy/Mind Control), and some "Closet Monsters" that are very nicely done (Fire/Something). We also get "Dark Clown" LTs with Katana/Illusion; these actually look worse (in a good way) than my character Mr. Pagliacci.... And the Bullies have "evolved" too, less human models and SS/DA now. The Big Bad is "Phobia", a Dark Blast/Dark Miasma AV. I had some trouble here at first due to auras off her goons interuppting Aid Self. All that ended when I hit Elude. Ambushes are triggered as Phobia weakens, consisting of both Mayhem's mobs and Phobias, which are hostile to each other. Upon her defeat you get an ambush including Mother Mayhem herself (I think...might just be a triggered spawn), whom I managed to take down before Elude crashed (she spawned at +2, too). Defeating Mayhem and her guards ends the mission.

I was on the fence on this one between four and five stars. I decided to err on the side of mercy. The mission has good atmosphere, good writing and some good looking mobs, especially The Closet Monsters. The negatives are the annoying escorts, multiple AVs in the last mission (but then, it is a short arc, and if Mayhem isn't an ambush you'll at least have time to recuperate before taking her on) and the child models, which may be disturbing to some. I'd recommend making them less human from the start.

Edit: published wrong version, had some omissions

Queue as of this moment: 12285, 12669, 1614, 1033, 2085, 9590, 9584, 1462, 1684, 5898, 7662, 2007, 7780, 1074, 1297, 14826, 20696, 6999.

Arc #1992, "A Hero's Halo"
tl;dr: 4 stars. Offenses: problematic mob

Powerthrust, whom I take to be the author's character (and really not, um, well-named, for Virtue anyway....) wants your help in figuring out where his halo came from. The author has a note explaining this in the initial briefing. He sends you to talk to another character who suddenly obtained a halo, Catscratch Fevah, who is off fighting a Praetorian incursion. The mission pop-up asks why the people you need to talk to always find their way into combat just when you need them, something I'm sure we've all wondered.... When you find her, the Praetorians (Marauder's boys) are mocking her for being a catgirl..."Stupid cat mongrel! We get enough of you back home!" Which, of course, they do. After cleaning up the mess, Catscratch tells you her supergroup mates noticed the halo while she was on the ski slopes at the chalet last winter. Powerthrust gets the same story from other heroes he's talked to.

After a conversation with Tina Macintyre, he found that the halos are made from a metal common to the Shard, and they're sending and receiving some kind of signal from there. They've traced to signal to several spots, one of which you're sent to investigate. You're supposed to find three signal sources. The first thing I found was "Screaming Weenie", a Fire/Sonic Boss, whose /info makes you think something isn't right. Next up were "Shortstop", a Mace/something and "Quantum Cowgirl", an Archery/Kinetic, then finally "He Who Watches", a Broadsword/Mind Control. All of these were "reflection" forms.

The result of your investigation is that the halos are part of an "essence-draining network" that is effectively stealing the souls of heroes wearing them. The guys you fought on the second map were the reconstructed versions of the real heroes, now under Rularuu's control. Powerthrust's coalition is mounting an attack on the network, and you and Powerthrust are sent in to take out one of the sites. You're warned up front that some of Paragon's more power heroes may have reflections guarding the site. First one was Z-Spec, a DB/Regen. Powerthrust himself was spawned next, as an LT ally. Unfortunately, his stolen essence was not only an EB, but an Super Strength/Invul, which dropped me in two hits. I was OK with the author insertion until this. I ended up having to use Elude to down the EB. Other hero reflections were Valence Bond (Rad/Rad), Fusionette (battle cry: "Aggro! Rularuu!"), Frozen and Furious (Ice Melee/Icy Armor), and Arcora (Dark Melee/Fiery Aura). In the end, of course, the essense theft is stopped and the halos turned into harmless costume parts.

The arc has a good sense of humor and doesn't have anything too difficult, except for the Powerthrust EB. Super Strength customs are problematic because they get Rage, which gives a long-duration high value buff to ToHit and damage. And of course, lots of people will welcome an opportunity to smash Fusionette's face, though personally I never had a problem with her.

Arc #14826, "The Final Nemesis"
tl;dr: One star. Offenses: Wall Banger plot, Killer GM, "just a bunch of stuff that happened" (or actually, didn't happen)

The arc opens with General Hammond asking you to stop a Nemesis attack on a Rularuu stronghold. This immediately puts me at DefCon 4, as asking the player to help one villain group against another is an easy way to throw the Idiot Ball. This is doubly true when one of the villains is Nemesis. The mission itself is a Rularuu cave. I didn't actually run into any Rularuu mobs, though I did hear some of them barking from battles and such...the Nemesis mobs must have killed them off. There is one Clue, a device "to draw together and consolidate one's mind", which has a fairly obvious purpose if you know your Shadow Shard lore.

This is confirmed in the briefing for the second mission, in which Hammond tells you that Nemesis is trying to re-unify Rularuu himself. (It's too bad you can't change Contacts easily; this part should be delivered by Major Exposition....) The mission takes place on a Rikti base map; you find evidence that Nemesis is going to deploy dozens of the "psionic attractors" at a "Nexus" point where Rularuu's energy signature is strongest. You also find notes on negotiating with dieties, with Rularuu at the top of the list. In a typical Nemesis arc this would mean you now know what Nemesis is NOT trying to do.

The next mission Hammond sends you on, which is predicated on the assumption that the plans you found in the last mission are legit, requires you to take out all the aspects of Rularuu. The first one I ran into was "Aloore the Watcher", who inconveniently spawned at +2. He appeared to be a Rad/Rad and despite firing off Aim to start got dropped like a bad habit. Next up was "Uuralur the Mirror", also a +2, appeared to be a Mind/Illusion Controller. This was very annoying thanks to the stupid non-positional attacks and multiple Fears, but with two BFs and Elusive Mind I got through it. Next up were Faathim and Ruladak, who turned out to be within agro range of each other thanks to some Watchers. I died twice fighting them, the second time due to insane amounts of lag...I had to stand there watching Faathim heal back to full as none of my commands were going through. On the third try they were dropped like bad habits. Faathim was Psy Blast/Empathy; Ruladak a Super Strength/Energy Blast. Lanaruu was a bit of a pain due to heavy END drains. (All of these were +2 spawns...I didn't wait for Elude to recycle on Lanaruu.) "Kuularth the Greedy" was next, also a +2, and he dropped me in one shot with Shadow Maul (14% tohit, rolled a 5). He used Dark Melee and Spines powers, potentially giving him two BU's if he'd ever hit with Soul Drain.

Once he was down I came around the final turn just in time to hear Nemesis (AV/EB) congratulate me for catching the Idiot Ball. How...totaly expected. Nemesis' REAL plan (so he says) is to destroy Rularuu, causing the Shadow Shard to collapse. Since the Shard touches all other dimensions they'll all collapse with it, and with Nemesis standing at the convergence point all versions of him will merge into a single being. The numerous absurdities in this plan are left as an exercise for the reader. The last aspect of Rularuu was "Chularn the Cruel", which I had to defeat to end the mission despite the fact that doing so would now be beyond idiotic. He was a Psy Blast/Force Field; if he used Detention Cage on me, he missed. He did repel me a lot though it didn't do him much good. Despite having "defeat all enemies" in the nav bar, the mission ended when Chularn snuffed it.

For the fourth map, Hammond (who is suffering from the effects of the dimensional merging that isn't affecting you for some reason) sends you to the "Agony Hall" map to fight "Nemesis Prime", the new godlike version of Nemesis. This is a custom mob with Energy Blast and Force Field, and it summons waves of Fake Nemesis Bosses to attack you during the fight. This might matter to a build that doesn't have Elude. After the EB fell I stuck around to clean up the attack waves, which required running away a few times to let Elude recycle (which would not have been necessary if I'd gotten better inspiration drops from the ones that fell). I counted 15 of them after the mission was done. In the debriefing Hammond says you were "shielded by the Nexus"...um, yeah, so what happened to the alternate versions of me that...oh, whatever...and that defeating Nemesis Prime pushed the Jolly Candy-Like History Eraser Button, so everything is back the way it was and neither Nemesis nor Rularuu remember what happened.

Um, yeah.

What we're left here is a plot with the same structure as "The Eternal Nemesis", an arc that makes most players want to puch the developers in the neck, only this time you have to beat eight AV/EBs before being told you've caught the Ididot Ball. Then you get to fight another AV/EB that drops waves of Bosses on you. The arc has no theme and no consequences. Yep, that's a one-star.

I've put arcs people have requested (that they gave numbers for) into my queue, which now has 11 arcs in it so it may be a while before I get to you.

If the City Scoop folks want to reprint my reviews, they're welcome to.

Some rather nice reviews so far Venture. I'm honestly surprised. You've always struck me as being a pretty strict grader when it comes to these sorts of things.


Funny, I thought I was being strict...I shall have to raise my standards...:-)

Arc #1702, "Vicarious Vision"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: mangles continuity, some annoying maps

This mission purports to be a historical mission covering the Warburg crisis during the Cold War. The Warburg missiles were removed in 1982, so you have an immediate problem when you see your Contact...a Ballista. Longbow didn't exist at all in 1982 (created in 2005), and the Ballistae in particular are a recent invention.

The first mission calls for the rescue of a Soviet ambassador...on a large warehouse map. Hostage escorts on large maps are not what a lot of people want to see. The Contact goes on to make some more historical errors: he identifies Malta as an affiliated military branch of the CIA (Malta's existence wasn't known until it was revealed in-game, and it was never affiliated with the CIA or any government), and it identifies Roger Vrabel as head of the Titan program (Titan was shut down in 1967, Vrabel may or may not have been dead in '82 -- in one of Crimson's compound tasks the player finds a personality recording of Vrabel made in 1981, and it is implied that it was made just before his death).

The second map asks you to rescue some supers from a Malta cargo ship, and look for evidence. It has an embarassing typo as the supers are assigned to the "FSBA Scouts" faction...that's "FBSA", Federal Bureau of Super-powered Affairs. Both of the supers have to be escorted out, so you get to run all over the map three times, at least, and both talk as though they were conscripted by the CIA/Malta, a practice that ended in 1967. The "evidence" is some files, but you don't get to read them because there's no Clue. The third caps you at 44 and brings the Circle of Thorns into the picture. The Circle wasn't publicly active in 1982. That could be fixed by putting the desired Circle mobs into a custom "Mysterious Mystics" faction, demonstrating that even though the player knows who he's fighting, the character doesn't. (A similar trick could be used with Malta...I'd recommend leaving out the Titans and Sappers, both of which the faction only developed recently.) What's a bit more problematic is that a Clue shows Recluse is openly dealing with the Circle, which really shouldn't be happening yet. (The Circle stayed in hiding until the Rikti broke into Oranbega.) Belladona Vetranno puts in a pre-death guest appearance; she's the wrong class (Fortunata, should be Night Widow) but that's a nit...she may have respecced, after all....

The last map has you enter a cave system to defeat a number of named mobs, destroy some control terminals and recover launch keys. The plot is a Thirty Xanatos Pileup: Malta is trying to use the Arachnos missiles to nuke the USSR, Arachnos wants to launch a strike on America and the US and USSR are trying to stop both. One of the named mobs, "Helix Jaguar" was taken out by a patrol or nearby battle or such well before I found him. Another was "Moment"...whose existence, again, was only suspected until the "World Wide Red" arc. He was using Ice Blast/Mind Manipulation, giving him a nuke and two BuildUps...not good. At some point (I didn't notice exactly when I got the Clue) you find a letter from Vrabel to Neil McIntosh that doesn't gel with the canon in ways already addressed for the most part.

The mission doesn't have any overly-obnoxious custom mobs in it, and it's reasonably fun if you just look at the action. The plot, unfortunately, is a mess. It's not beyond salvage though.

Arc #10855, "Tomorrow Belongs to Me"
tl;dr: 4 stars. Offenses: bugged mobs, semi-gratuitous faction, throws the Idiot Ball, "just a bunch of stuff that happened"

This is another one with an unusual Contact: a desk. Actually it's labelled "Telephone", with the voice on the other end being Manticore. This does let the author pull a switcheroo about halfway through.

The first mission is pretty straightforward, using the "Council Warehouse" map normally only used in the early Mutant missions. Things start getting hairy in the second mission, which is where the "Fifth Column Special Projects" mobs start showing up. This adds healers, psi damage and unfortunately some very buggy Ninjitsu mobs, which really should have been changed out at least until the bugs are fixed. These mobs are likely to be particularly troublesome for squishier builds when teamed with the aforementioned healers. The Special Projects sub-faction is semi-gratuitous; adding the buggy ones pushes it over the edge. Another small issue with this map: it has some optional "bio vat" targets that can spawn in bad locations, blocking tunnels and such. This mission is also where you get tossed the Idiot Ball when you find the "body" of Sister Psyche...right after being told about the cloning experiments that went on at this base. While the player technically doesn't catch it, Manticore starts doing free throws with it, and having the Contact catch the Idiot Ball is pretty much the same as having the player catch it.

The third map does have a cute bit of dialog:

[NPC] Raserei Ubermenschen Rocket: So... I guess I can ask now. The big room, with all the water tanks in it? What's that for?
[NPC] Biotheker: You know, I have no idea? I guess it's meant to ... cool something?

I'm sure we've all wondered that.

The third map also marks the first appearance of Messergeist, the arc's main AV, who is DB/Ninjitsu. Since she was a downgraded AV I wasn't able to KD her. Twice she oneshotted me, bypassing the anti-oneshot code thanks to DB's DOT attacks. She also brutally cut down the EB ally Swan after killing me the first time. Theoretically it is possible to have Sister Psyche along as well when you face her, but that wasn't a possibility given the spawn I had to work with. The fourth and final map has some of the Freedom Phalanx join Manticore for a pick-up game with the Idiot Ball, and requires taking down three AVs, one of which is Nosferatu. This map cuts your level to 44 for reasons that aren't clear, which turned off my Aid Self. Wehrmachtsengel, a Fire Blast/Electric Armor AV, is also problematic, as mobs with tier-9 attacks are opening with them. I engaged his group, took down the Ninjitsu LT and was instantly killed by Inferno, which somehow had 95% ToHit. On the rematch I ended up having to burn Elude thanks to multiple healers joining the action.

The dialog is very good, and the plot is decent though it doesn't have any real theme or point to it...except that it does kind of require the characters fall for an obvious trick. If I can presume to make suggestions, I'd fix it by having the heroes see through the fairly obvious trick and changing the funeral ambush to a heroic trap that doesn't quite go off as planned when the 5th show up with more force than anticipated.

Arc #10721, "The Horrible Mr. Caractacus"
tl;dr: 5 stars. Nits: weak theme, no souvenir

This is a pretty solid arc. The Contact, P. D. Caractacus, is very well-written in an unusual format for City, presenting himself as a servant. He first offers you a chance to defeat an angel, claiming it will eventually get in your way. Caractacus appears in the mission to fight beside you but is not really necessary, as the target is only a Boss.

For the second mission, he suggests a raid on the heavens themselves -- but to do that, you will need to consume the essense of a fallen angel. Thus you must make a detour to hell for a match against "Rhiomekh the Despised", a Dual Blades EB, uncertain of the secondary. Rhiomekh speaks entirely in his own language during the fight, a nice touch. You must then obtain the necessary ritual from the Midnighters' Club. This mission is a bit annoying as it causes a sudden level drop to 29. There is a Succubus ally available but not required, if you want it.

Your next and final "opportunity" is to attack the realm of the seraphs. This is an outdoor Croatoa map with four EBs. The first one I found, "Judge Charokiel", a Mace/ElecA, got lucky and dropped me in three hits. Very annoying since I'd burned a large red up front...his good luck continued on the second try, routinely managing to hit against a 20% chance. The second EB, "Acheluma", went quickly. Her powers looked like Archery/Ice Melee...not sure of the second, could have been Manipulation or Assault, but all she used was Ice Sword. Next up was "Rezekiel", who attacked with Fire Melee and died far too quickly for me to tell what the secondary was. The final EB, "Meriqual", used Katana and Sonic Blast, and also didn't last very long. It might be a good idea to bump up one of the seraphs to AV status, maybe with an increased power setting.

My only real complaint is that the arc has a weak theme, bordering on "just a bunch of stuff that happens". I didn't deduct for that because within the context the author chose to work in, it would have been difficult at best to do anything stronger without powerposing. Caractacus' dialog is excellent, and the angel custom faction is very well designed.

Now, if only Caractacus gave you Mumford and Pooley's Original Gentleman's Relish recipe in the souvenir....

Arc #2693, "Black Sunrise"
tl;dr: 2 stars. Offenses: no descriptions on custom faction Minions/LTs, gratuitous violation of canon, gratuitous new faction, throws the Idiot Ball, "just a bunch of stuff that happens"


The arc posits that the "Knights of Malta" are actually a hero group that is somehow "hiding" inside the Malta Group. This is at odds with the established continuity and doesn't really gel with history, not that any of the in-game history on the Knights is the slightest bit correct in the first place. You are first sent to fight Rogue Arachnos to recover the arming codes for a nuclear weapon currently in the Malta Group's possession.

The second mission of this "Heroic" arc requires you to clear out a Longbow base -- defeat all. Um.... Moreover, the /info on a "Knights of Malta" Boss hostage says that the Inquisitor class of Knights ensures the loyalty of all members using mind control technology stolen from the Malta Group (which is just called "Malta" throughout, it seems, to add some ambiguity). These are the good guys? I expect to find out by the end of this that I've caught the Idiot Ball.

The third mission is a clear-all in a Cimerora cave map against Malta to recover the warhead. Note that at this point you will be providing the Knights with both a nuclear weapon and the arming codes for it.... The fourth mission calls for you to fight Longbow again in a 30 minute timed attempt to rescue technicians. The timer is because the bomb is armed and counting down to detonation. Since the game can't kill you if you fail this is a pretty poor dramatic device. Also, you are informed that the Knights intend to keep the bomb. This mission also includes one of the author's PCs, Sierra Foxtrot 7-4, assigned to a faction named "Black Sun" that hasn't been introduced to you yet. She is an MA/Shield who hit me with a 1600 point Crane Kick followed by a 1400 point Crippling Axe Kick, which needless to say I did not survive. She folded like a busted flush on the rematch.

The fifth mission explains that Black Sun is a special division of Longbow created especially to deal with the Knights...um, yeah. It also sends you to fight Sierra Foxtrot 7-4 again, along with her boss Echo Tango 8-3, and to destroy a bunch of objects. In exchange for you doing this the increasingly less Heroic Knights of Malta will release some bureaucrats they were going to indoctrinate. This map has custom Black Sun mobs that lack /info. Foxtrot's dialog during the fight:

Sierra Foxtrot 7-4: No! I'm not filling out those requisition forms again!
Sierra Foxtrot 7-4: Paperwork...damn...you...

Um...yeah.

The Black Sun mobs themselves aren't too annoying, consisting mainly of some Blaster and Defender sets. The "Photon Guardians" do have Energy Aura with its autohit END drain, though. Echo Tango 8-3 is a Dual Blade/Sonic Resonance AV, which is kind of an odd combo...the EB versions didn't fare too well against my main, a heavily setted/purpled Claws/SR Scrapper.

While the ending doesn't rub your nose in it, it does feel as though you've caught the Idiot Ball. You end up giving a nuclear weapon and its arming codes to a clandestine group that uses mind control on its members and was preparing to do the same to hostages, and requires you to clear Longbow bases to do it. This sounds like a Villain arc, except it's labelled Heroic and makes references to the PC being a hero at times. It needs a lot of work.

Arc Name: "Chains of Blood"
Arc ID: 4829
Length: Very Long (5 missions)
First Published: 4/8/2009 08:54 PM
Morality: Heroic
Description: A (very) non-canon story about the Circle of Thorns and Legacy Chain.

Arc Name: "Blowback"
Arc ID: 4643
Length: Very Long (5 mission)
First Published: 4/8/2009 08:42 PM
Morality: Heroic
Description: Malta and the Rikti learn that the enemy of my enemy is my enemy, and a Malta officer learns that you can't retrace your steps after you've walked off a cliff.

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Great, now I'll have to redo two of the custom mobs in "Chains of Blood"....

...J/K, it's no trouble. I expect I'll get this by purchasing the box.

I went ahead and alphabetized the list so far, and tried to make the genre headings stand out more. Remember to add your arcs in alphabetical order.

I did. Then someone decided to alphabetize on "the".

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Magic
--------
The Amulet of J'gara - Heroic
Chains of Blood (5492) - Heroic
*

Mystery
--------
Blowback (18575) - Heroic
Dream Paper -- Heroic (13030)
Dream Paper 2: Restless Sleep -- Heroic (16797)
Dream Paper 3: Broken Dreams -- Heroic (13064)
*

Military
--------
*

Comedy
--------
The Great Chicken Caper of '09 - Heroic
*

Comedy/Drama
--------
Cause of How Some Silly Stealed My Wings - Neutral
Lawyers of Ghastly Horror - Heroic
How to Survive a Robot Uprising - Heroic
Attack of the Space Clowns (18749)-Neutral

*

Crime/Gangs
------------
The Bravuran Jobs -- Villainous (16809)
*

Classic Super-Hero/Super-Villain
--------------
*

Mythology
----------------
Anactoria's Descent Into the Underworld - Villainous
The War of Fate: Betrayal (19698) - Neutral
*

Character/Supergroup Origins
----------------
Birth of a Fossil - Heroic
*


Horror
---------
Small Fears - Heroic
*

Holiday
---------
*

Sci-Fi
--------

Adventures of the Space Marines --- Neutral
Adventures of the Space Marines 2 ---Neutral

*
Un-themed Survival/AV/Time Challenges
-----------------------
The Meatgrinder - Neutral
*

Historical (Realistic)
--------------------
*

Historical (CoH Lore)
-------------------
*


Drama
-------------
*


Misc. Adventure
----------------
The Portal Bandits - Heroic
*

Global Domination
----------------
*




[/ QUOTE ]

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm sure I'm not the only mission creator who ignores the "official" backstory (with all its gaping holes) and just treats the MA as an interface, a means of getting our stories out to other players.

You're not. All of my arcs are written assuming that the actual Contact is giving you a mission. AE, as far as I'm concerned, does not exist.

And I agree that the backstory is wretched. I can't imagine any of my characters being stupid enough to use any technology created by either Aeon or Crey, and I can only assume at this point that the devs are deliberately messing with our heads by describing AE as such.

Arc Name: Blowback
Arc ID: 18575
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: @DFH (on Test)/Venture
Difficulty Level: 5 missions, contains AVs in final mission
Synopsis: Malta and the Rikti learn that the enemy of my enemy is my enemy, and a Malta officer learns that you can't retrace your steps after you've walked off a cliff.
Estimated Time to Play: 5 missions, medium maps
Link to More Details or Feedback: Forum thread, my MA page (very WiP)

Edit: arc number change, had to republish

Arc Name: "Chains of Blood"
Arc ID: 5492
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Venture/Venture (@DFH on Test)
Difficulty Level: contains EBs, one AV/EB.
Synopsis: A (very) non-canon story about the origins of the Legacy Chain and Circle of Thorns
Estimated Time to Play: 5 missions, medium-length maps
Link to More Details or Feedback: http://tinyurl.com/dlezs8, forum thread

How about letting us finally get account based storage like all the other MMO's have.

Doubleplusungood. We have more than enough (i.e. "any") shared storage in SG bases now.

The mathematical probability of this happening pre i13 to 2 people would have been astronomical! The only logical explanation is enemies’ recipe drop rate has changed.

I can't say I've noticed any change in A and B drops.

Bit of a funny story here. I started my Fire/Shield Scrapper Ghostblaze on Infinity when i13 rolled out. Our SG there didn't have any Halloween salvage racked but I really wanted to get a second costume done by the time he had Fly. The Dark shield, while very nice-looking, has a huge "contrail" effect that makes it difficult to see where you're going when flying or in narrow tunnels. So I did something I don't normally do: I transfered a million from my main on Virtue via the CH so Ghostblaze could buy his salvage.

Just as I turned it in, someone announced a costume contest in Atlas starting in five minutes. I bolted over...and took second place, a cool 3 million inf prize. Go figure.

But as if that wasn't enough, on Sunday when I visited Serge to get my level 20 costume mission, I took out some green Outcasts that agroed on me when I landed...and the last one dropped a level 18 Steadfast -KB. Which sold for just over 10 million after fees.

I've gotten a number of other set drops, both A's and B's, on the characters I've been actually playing (mainly Ghostblaze, and my main on Virtue, for whom I'm working on an alternate build). I can't say I could see any difference in drop rates. As for the probability that you would both be skunked, it's really not all that unlikely. Streaks like that are inevitable.

Your point? You have a lot of guys too, and feel differently then i do? Shocker. We don't matter.

Then why all the ranting?

Let me break it down for you, and this will go over like a lead balloon but it's the truth: the fact is you don't really like making new characters. You like having them. If you liked making them you'd enjoy the process, not look for ways to cut it down as much as possible so you can get the result.

Me, I enjoy both. I like having well-built characters but if I didn't earn them, what's the point? Short-cutting the process is like cheating at solitaire.

Yeah, don't cheapen it by PLing or getting mad loot for a buddy, but does it really hold water after 4 years and nearly 20 lvl 50 alts?

Have you looked at my web page?

Your point was if an MMOG did provide people what they wanted it would go out of business. My point is O'rly ?

What's the career length of your typical *ahem* provider?