4 Responses

1. DKellis Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   The second custom group has only the one minion type and one Lieutenant type, which makes their presence on the large maps repetitive. The first custom group (the Frost Family), in contrast, seems more fleshed out, but is used in only one mission.

   Speaking of which, the mission with the Frost Family didn’t seem to serve much purpose.

   The final boss (didn’t get to see if he was a natural EB or downgraded AV) is tough enough to destroy the NPC ally quite easily. Rise of the Phoenix may be too much.

   The ending contact dialogue was a bit overdone. Consider toning it down.

   Posted on April 28th, 2009 at 3:20 pm

2. @spatch Says:

   Appreciate the feedback. The arc pushed right up against the memory cap at 99.99%. I created several minions and lts. for the second custom group, many of which had to be cut to get under the memory cap. I’ll consider cutting from the first custom group, and adding to the second, since the second is arguably more important to the story line. Thanks for that suggestion.

   I like the final boss, but admit I had reservations about RotP. I’ll have a second look at the build, and consider removing that.

   In terms of toning down the concluding dialogue, could you give a specific example of what was overdone?

   I’m a little surprised at the ratings, only 2s and 3s, except a 4 on detail. Also, your feedback didn’t include any comments on what you felt worked, and what was positive.

   Posted on April 28th, 2009 at 7:28 pm

3. BCguy Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   Nice attempt to incorporate existing CoH lore into your mission, particularily lore that has only been hinted at ‘around the edges’ so to speak. Nice custom groups, particularily the last custom group. Challenging, without being over-the-top hard. You might want to consider additional details or mob types for your custom groups (of course, only if you have the memory space!). Otherwise, I thoroughly enjoyed the arc.

   Posted on April 30th, 2009 at 11:22 pm

4. Glazius Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   @GlaziusF

   Running this on a high-teens Peacebringer, old Heroic difficulty with bosses on.

   —

   Investigating the dark history of Spanky Rabinowitz. Yeah, this is something I’ve been wishing the canon would do for a while. Time to… uh… investigate ancient city records.

   FOR JUSTICE!

   And apparently, for sticking it to the Circle of Thorns.

   Why they’re here I don’t know. I find some old records but the clue says they’re unremarkable, and now there’s a boss I have to defeat.

   I guess because having the CoT poking around city records is a pretty bad idea.

   The boss is called “Burning Sulphur’, which is rather odd as a name for a stock CoT boss — I was expecting some kind of custom villain. Using a generic CoT-style name like the ones you get from paper missions for CoT bosses isn’t a bad idea.

   Anyway, now I know what old-timey radio programs Spanky used to listen to. Uh… go me?

   —

   Now it’s time to meet a random Family boss and hope he knows something useful about Spanky?

   Because… decades later, somebody might know that?

   I work my way through the cargo ship, seeing a lot of spawns of one lieutenant. I wonder why the Frosts specifically have custom enemies. (AR/SS minion, DB/SR and SS/MA lieuts) I mean, Sebastian Frost heads up the Family, and they certainly exist over a decent level range.

   Villainside, anyway. You might be able to make a custom group renaming Marcones to Frosts or whatever.

   Anyway, after I laser the boss enough he says that… Spanky used to buy off the Frosts to keep civil.

   Not exactly earthshaking, that.

   —

   And the Circle broke in and stole a map to Dark Astoria. Okay. That’s a thing they do, certainly.

   There’s a Ruin Mage in here I need to drop and a… Soul Seductress? Different from the Succubi the CoT usually call up, I suppose? Some other party interested in Spanky’s soul.

   You know, I thought that thing would have shuffled off to Buffalo by now.

   Anyway, two guys down, with only the map left to find.

   …and only the Behemoth portal room to find it in.

   Mommy.

   Oh lord it’s RIGHT NEXT TO ONE.

   Die. Die. Die. Die. Chug lucks. Die. Die. Chug more lucks. Die.

   FINALLY click the glowie.

   So, reading over the clues, Spanky Rabinowitz was… an ancient soul of immense power.

   And he decided mayor was a step up?

   —

   Going to Moth Cemetary to find it overrun by…

   Minions: claws/kin, fire blast/fire manip, mind control/fire control

   Lieutenants: elec blast (with Aim)/psy blast, dark blast/dark armor?

   Not a very reasonable mix for someone who isn’t even in SOs yet.

   The “boss” here is the elec blast lieutenant. Not exactly complaining, even had a nice animation to help find it, but I beat two bosses in the last map and one lieutenant in this one?

   —

   Last attempt to save the departed mayor’s soul…

   Oh for the love of little green apples, it’s the Ruladak cave.

   This works well for the Rularuu because all of them GLOW. It’s just a pain to navigate otherwise.

   Also stumbling into controller minions is pretty much the opposite of fun.

   I try and rescue the ally for some help but they’re vulnerable to control sets too.

   Oh! Hey, it’s Yamanari, or whatever that name was.

   But getting ambushed by controllers over and over again means I die over and over again.

   The boss is a fire blast/fire armor elite boss with Aim. …yeah, pulling the Shivan out for this one.

   So that’s Spanky’s grand bargain. Didn’t want to sell his soul, so the demons gave him a reason — the fog in Dark Astoria.

   —

   Storyline - **. The end revelation is kind of a let down. We come all this way, fight that monster of an end boss, and… in the end all we can do is hear the truth. There’s nothing we can actually do for Spanky. The first two missions are pretty much pointless distractions that don’t really tell us anything notable about the guy — things only start with the theft of the map in mission 3, and I don’t know what I did in mission 4 that helped my contact read the map. Probably nothing.

   I could say a few things about Spanky and Dark Astoria, but frankly the continuity is a bit snarled. It’s possible to untangle it by making some assumptions, but that’s neither here nor there. One part of it that I thought would be appropriate to address was the fate of the Moiraine, a ship that left port without being christened by Spanky, as was the style at the time. It was swallowed up by fog and never seen again until it showed up all green, translucent, and spewing ghost sailors.

   Design - **. The new enemy groups seem a bit… unnecessary. The Frost family already exists. It’s just the Family. And whatever new group you designed to be the custodians of Spanky’s soul… why not just the Banished Pantheon? They’re based out of Dark Astoria already.

   Also, enemies with two melee sets or two ranged sets are bad enough, but two control sets? On a minion? Ow. And the claw minion had access to Transference, which is just a kick in the blue bar.

   The missions really need a narrower level range. Just to establish the power level of a character who’s supposed to confront everything. I played the entire arc except the last mission at my natural level, which I think was a bit out of whack.

   Gameplay - *. Managing the control minions was a bit of a challenge even when I could see them. The last mission with its literal blind curves was a nightmare. The only way to see many of the customs was through the targeting recticle.

   The adventure I had trying to click a glowie right in front of a Behemoth portal wasn’t exactly pleasant either.

   Detail - ****. Even though the story was a bit of a letdown, the detail throughout was solid and believable. I wasn’t confused or misled by anything.

   Overall - **. The anticlimax ending, overpowering enemy sets, seemingly unnecessary customs, and overly broad level range all drag this one down.

   Posted on March 10th, 2010 at 12:14 am