NEW Guest Author Arcs Feedback Thread

I haven't played Grossman's arc yet (it's on my to-do list), but the other two are fun and better than the last round of guest authors, I would say. The problem with the "lolbat" one in the last round was it was too specific of humor. I got a lot of the jokes, but I wasn't a fan of the comic going into it, so I feel like I didn't really get much out of it.

Rooster Teeth's approach felt better in their MA videos than the actual MA.

Lackey's and Hickman's felt good to me. I do hope they fix up the typos in Lackey's arc, as I was a little surprised to see those. Otherwise, the humor and story were pretty good, there (though sometimes pop culture references, rather than jokes from the story, can be a shortcoming).

Hickman's arc does have more challenging foes, I guess, but I did enjoy that. Maybe the stealth mobs in the last arc could have been warned about more, but I was able to adjust okay... and you can usually hear them when they're close and reacting to you anyway. Heh, the Spines/Fire boss in the 3rd or so mission was a little harsh, between her and the mob around her, the they did too much damage for me to react in time with my MA/Regen Scrapper (I did find after reviving). The lieutenants with the electrical powers are probably the most troublesome for melee types. I believe Power Sink is auto hit (it is for Elec Blasters, anyway), so them firing that off was just killer on my Scrapper. He normally isn't hurting for end, but if I didn't kill those things in a few hits, he was out of endurance, which is never fun.

It also enjoyed the challenge of so many mobs with mez protection, but it is rather frustrating that some accepted tactics in game are flatlined by these (can't knock them down, hold them, etc. even if you do identify them first... you just have to drop them first, which keeps the encounter have only one approach). So I guess I enjoyed the challenge, but I would have liked some of the trickier mobs not to have mez protection, so I had some more options with them.

Storyline was excellent for Hickman's... I enjoyed it as a story, and would replay it again... I would say it's up there with some of the better arcs in CoX... which is saying something (and some of those dream creatures are just funny and crazy).

Just finished Troy Hickman's arc.

Overall, the story was alright. Sometimes it seemed a bit heavy-handed on the dramatic tone, and then the pun-filled enemy names seemed a bit out of character with the tone of the story. Other than that, nothing too bad.

Some of the custom enemies though, I've got a laundry list of things to point out. The Greco-Robot lieutenants don't give any XP. What was taken away? I can't really think of a mace or shield power on standard that is too much. Was it the throwing knives?

Some of the custom enemy factions were giving out heavily reduced XP for not having a full group. The last mission's enemy group in particular only had one kind of minion, and a particular nasty minion to have an entire group built out of. All ninjitsu? Any character without perception is going to see absolutely no enemies besides Nachtmusik's group, and the enemies seem to have the full compliment of dual blades powers.

Cabar-rage is going to infuriate any character that uses fire powers. 90% fire resist, healing, and the self rez. I personally don't have a problem with self rezzing enemies, but if a fire user finally whittles down her health, and she gets right back up that's going to be a hair tearing out power. Fiery Aura on bosses is just plain mean. The build up doesn't really help things either.

I'd personally suggest removing Nachtmusik's psychic wail. The custom critters' AI just treats it like it would any other PBAoE power and uses it whenever it wants, instead of at a set time like any other enemy in the game. (Including custom enemies with nova, blackstar, and thunderous blast. Any other nova-style tier 9s will be used whenever by a custom enemy. It's weird like that.) I don't have a problem with novas on custom enemies, but the unpredictability of it makes it annoying. At least if it always fired at like 25%, you'd know that if you're fighting a tough enemy with a blast that something may happen at 25%, instead of suddenly getting slammed with a huge attack out of nowhere.

Despite that laundry list of gameplay issues, it wasn't an unenjoyable playthrough. I definitely enjoyed the puns even though they seemed to not really fit in (Bloody Holly was pretty damn clever), and shameless self promotion is always something that gets a bit of a chuckle from me.

Hmm. I guess I would have enjoyed it more if it were straight comedy instead.

Arc 369271, A Little Night Music, @Troy Hickman

I thought I'd give this one a go, since Troy seemed to like my faint praise on another topic. So I'm going where faint praise is appreciated.

The arc description starts with a very brief four hundred and twenty-four words about the author. He's been around the block nine times, and he has heard of City of Heroes before. A vast number of other dodgy characters are also listed - each no doubt diluting @Troy's arc profits. I also learn that the story was piped into MA from Indiana. Oh! And Nachtmusik has been piped in by the Fifth Column, and he stole Jimmy Preston. So the arc is afoot! Perhaps it's a fallen arc. I deduce the author has a habit of taking little boy Jimmy hostage.

The arc has four unique maps and a medium one. The per-mission objectives are simple: gather, gather, rescue, rescue, boss-only. But it still sounds huge, so I'll stick to the highlights (which means typos, the secret thrill of the OCD player). Although this is a 'canon-related' arc, All five missions feature custom groups. There's also AVs, Extreme Bosses and custom-powered enemies. Third times' a charm, so I am also warned about: custom characters. And horror.

I decide to use one of my custom heroes for this one, to stick with the theme. Citadel is my contact, and I'm off to save Jimmy from the REMisphere. The story is well written, introductions, send-offs, returns and busy messages. Accept text: unto the breech -> unto the breach (it could be a pun, but where is the context? Unless... Citadel and Jimmy? C'mon, he's an android) The pop-up, and Citadel's earlier words, do assume I'm human. In my case, that's fine, but I believe some players also play from overseas. The custom group makes for an excellent change-up from conventional Fifth Column. Sentinels are hard to mez, which forces me to think. I collect some kit, and go after the big-bad. I find... her. Of course. She has a couple of sentinels, and it's a great battle. But I win. Return message says, "Prepare yourselves" - but I'm alone.

Second mission intro: break-string 'or at<br>least' Hi ho, off to the dreamscape I go! Hihohiho description: dwarves -> dwarfs (for correctness, but it's your call whether you think it breaks the pun) I don't understand why I am searching for this particular box from the moment I arrive in the mission, perhaps it could be a bit more vague in the Nav.

Third mission intro: first paragraph is missing a period. That could be a pun of itself, but... no. This is PG-13. It's monster time! The nav tells me what to do. Twice. Which makes me suspect my computer will crash just before I'm done. Another awesome custom group, my favorite so far. But aren't these critters acting 'rad-ly' rather than 'rad-ley'? (name, description and Clue). Given that is the primary entendre.

Fourth mission. Caba self-rezzed, but I'd already done my rescue so the mission is already over. The only pun that didn't grab me - the guys with top-hats. Their puns were French, yet they looked, and were, English. Perhaps that's the joke, but it seemed like an error.

Fifth mission. The map is huge for what it contains, but still fitting. Perhaps the Nerva map would be more compact. I love the invisible baddies - but I have personal force field. I imagine others would find this frustrating. Oh ah... and his support team was especially scary, until I realized they're only lieutenants this time. It takes a bit of planning, but I lure the escorts away. Nachtmusik is also a good challenge, but eventually I win. He says, "Assist me, my creations" - but nothing comes. Perhaps a buggy critter?

Overall, this was a good romp. It felt like developer content. While not as memorable as the greatest of MA stories, it was worthy of being part of the game's canon (that's not given lightly). It was easily the best Guessed Author arc I've played (well, of three then). A very good challenge, and I return the favour by writing in grey text.

Arc: 379017: Outbroken See all your old friends in the Outbreak Tutorial sequel!
Arc: Coming Soon: The Incarnate Shadow Shard of Fire and Ice Mender Rednem needs you!
Massively.com opinion poll: Please Help Save CoH!

Ha! Thank you, airhead, I enjoyed that very much.

Regarding the "Assist me, my creations," that's because there was originally an ambush there, but I think it has been pulled for space (in fact, I seem to recall someone else mentioning it in one of the early reviews of the arc, so I think it was there for a brief time).

Played through Night Music a second time solo since the previous time was in a group. The /elec enemies in Mission 2 ARE quite nasty. While I like the concept of an endurance drain enemy, instead of a slow sap it's a huge crash on an enemy that's not one per spawn. Might have to change either the primary or secondary there. There's also a more subtle problem that's not noted. On a large group, having enemies with auras/capes on an outdoor map can cause huge lag on some computers. Either removing the aura or only having it on a group that shows up less (bosses, EBs, etc) is usually the best remedy there.

Everything else seemed pretty balanced and I enjoyed the story. Might want to do a little formatting on the misson objective but that's not a huge requirement.

If there's enough memory for another custom foe, the energy drain problem can be somewhat alleviated by creating another wolf with other power and throw it into the custom faction. That way they'd be half the number of end drainers per spawn. How about a Wolf Ganger?

A quick note for the end sapping foes in both the 1st and 2nd missions: Neither Energy Drain, Power Sink, nor Lightning Field are standard powers for any critter rank. Critters will still give XP without them.

Same goes for all Mezz Protection powers.