2 Responses

1. Glazius Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   @GlaziusF

   Since this seems to need a formidable solo character, running this on a mid-40s DB/Fire brute. All bosses no AVs 2 villains at +1.

   —

   Ah, Eris. How many people only know you from the Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy? Probably too many.

   DJ Zero’s dialogue ends with “Could you do me a solid and check the orchard from where they came?”

   While, uh, grammatically correct to never end a sentence with a preposition, “where they came from” is modern casual usage, and it’s hard to imagine DJ Zero being very far from modern casual.

   Also he should say something about popping a portal open for you, because he does that thing on a regular basis.

   Hmm. Seems like a pretty monolithic custom group. Arch/TA minions who occasionally drop a flash arrow on you and pop Aim, DM/Regen lieutenants, DM/Kin bosses, with annoying Siphon Speed action.

   Nothing notable in this mission aside from a glowie… which then chains into three destructables. Locations don’t work too well in an outdoor map, so now I run around looking for stuff to break.

   And that chains into a boss fight.

   Looks like Extreme Stone Melee with buildup/Dark Armor. Seismic Smash and Tremor hurt. A lot.

   Unbuilduped, Seismic Smash does over 1000 damage, with 35% smash resist on my part. Combined with the ticking aura that’s a oneshot.

   Just insult to injury when he pops Soul Transfer for an unavoidable stun and then tags me with Seismic while I’m reeling.

   (sorting through the clues after the battle, the objective that drops the feeling of dread should be dragged to be before the crate-busting and boss fight.)

   —

   Ah, discord. Time to safeguard a bow.

   Weapon rack, looks like a standard destructible. I know an ambush is coming so I insp up.

   Strangely, on approaching the bow I get a clue drop about how I lost my memory of something, which is echoed in the mission-complete clue. I’m betting that was like a phantom captive or ally or something when the bow took damage?

   —

   Now to seek the legendary ointment. Mmm, panacea.

   Back to another outdoor map, looks like.

   The same woods map as the first mission.

   The boss is some sort of spines… I don’t know. No visible armor. Was she actually pain dom?

   I don’t even get a bit in the system text for taking her out, let alone a clue.

   I roam around the map for a good while before finding an urn down a side forest passage, tucked away at the very end.

   Bit frustrating, but at least I have the magic goop I came for.

   —

   Oh dear. A solid parade of bosses? That’s actually terrible for XP these days, with the reduction. You can’t have known about it at the time, of course.

   But while it was soloable with a few hiccups until now it’s veered into terrible territory.

   Especially since all the bosses are DM/Kin. Can’t hit anything, no powers recharge, enemy damage stacked up to the heavens.

   “Wait 30 minutes for the mission to auto-fail” is not a reasonable option. “Find a team” is not a reasonable option.

   A solid parade of DM/Kin bosses is not a reasonable opposition.

   Eros comes free. Limos (DBlast/Miasma with Blackstar) follows. Eris (Broadsword/shield AV downgrade) is next up.

   I get her down to a pixel of health, and then time’s up. Can’t carry enough lucks to not die and insights to actually be able to hit her.

   —

   Storyline - ****. And DJ Zero gets Eros out anyway. Pretty serviceable story, delving more into the movers and shakers of Grecian myth than the existing one(s). There was a bit of something that didn’t seem to go anywhere with my odd amnesia concerning the second mission. Maybe it’s spelled out in the actual ending, though absent console commands I’m probably not going to see that.

   Design - ***. I was kinda expecting the Roman caves or Eleusis at some point, not the same outdoor woods map twice. Rather a pain to find glowies and other objectives, at least it can be - the enemies really need some kind of particle aura or notable animation to make them stand out. And for the last mission, springing Eros should be the last link in the chain, not one of the first, since I really have no reason to stick around and beat down anyone when he comes free.

   Gameplay - *. I was only able to survive the last mission through the liberal application of temp stealth and Nectar, and even then I was just a bit short of actually beating it, even with a Shivan fruitlessly trying to pound on Eris. The “special bosses” were a good step up from the rank and file, though the Stone Melee one from the first mission was entirely unreasonable. Overall the custom group seemed pitched to be frustrating, all debuffing accuracy with the bosses peeling off damage and attack speed to boot. And I’ll say it again - a last map full of all bosses isn’t rewarding anymore, and given the incredible self-stacking capable of /kin bosses with, say, Transference, Siphon Power, and Siphon Speed, it’s just not reasonable to throw a solo at it — or a team for that matter, unless that team stacks enough defenses to never be hit or enough lockdown to hold down bosses forever. And if that’s the case then the normal mix of enemies would be more rewarding than solid bosses. They about came up to minions on the reward scale.

   Detail - ****. Everything’s reasonably done, though the various powersets on display may or may not be related to the description of their related enemies. Then again, the description may not relate to anything the game can model.

   Overall - *. Not an average. Would have been good fun without the nigh-impossible final mission. Saying “don’t run the arc” isn’t reasonable, as especially given the recent changes to XP for groups with missing ranks, a normal spawn for a good team would be a better payoff than just solid bosses. I counted 8 customs (3 in the custom group, 3 sub-bosses, Eris and Eros) and not much text, so you could, if you wanted, put together another minion/LT/Boss arrangement and use that enemy group for a mission, then mash ‘em both together for the final.map.

   Posted on November 17th, 2009 at 9:18 pm

2. Blue Rabbit Says:

   Thank you for the analysis.

   I wrote it and tested it on a Mind/Emp Controller with basic IOs and didn’t find it very challenging, but I guess the holds and the stealth make quite a difference.

   On the Bow mission you were supposed to have fought a Boss (Lethe) with Mind/Illusion powers who is the Greek spirit of forgetfulness and oblivion (much like the river Lethe) in the cave of Hypnos. This was written prior to the roman cave maps coming into game, hence why I went for the blue caves.

   As for the outdoor maps, well, they’re supposed to be orchards, nothing much I could do there.

   The final mission was indeed intended to be tough and as the whole arc was written before all the changes done to the AE (the ID is in the low thousands); it was never about the XP or lack thereof but rather difficulty

   I will do a couple of adjustments to the final mission group based on your feedback.

   Thanks for running through it.

   Posted on January 9th, 2011 at 7:43 am