2 Responses

1. Aracade Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   In my opinion, it is a good story arc.
   Nice storyline, simple and understandable.
   The Custom mob is a pain but generaly on a simular grounds as Cricle of Thorns are meaning doable but can get tough real quick if you don’t pay attention.

   I’d say check it out. You may like it yourself.

   Posted on March 23rd, 2010 at 7:33 am

2. Glazius Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   @GlaziusF

   Running this on a mid-20s Peacebringer, +0/x2 with bosses on.

   —

   Oh hey! Hello there forgotten canon contact. I always like seeing this sort of thing.

   Some gold miners have gone on strike and the Family is being brought in as strikebreakers. Well, can’t have that in this city.

   Ordinary Family stomp with a few Scrapyarders to rescue, and a boss hostage who tells of demon things in the depths.

   —

   And now we go to punch them, as is only right and proper.

   The demon things, I mean. Not the depths.

   Stock Fir Bolg, a “banshee” who’s a little sonic blaster, and an ice knight boss, so far…

   Also mace ogre lieutenants, knife-wielding goblin and kicking Satyr minions, and a plant/thorns minion. You should be aware that plant/thorns has the unique feature that all its powers debuff defense for a decent while, precipitating a cascade into always getting hit.

   Anyway, various miners are worked to death (or nearly so) or killed by caprice. Obviously these are less than optimal working conditions.

   Some kind of spider priestess is leading things up in the end chamber. Her name is “InvalidStringReplacement” so you might want to have a look into that.

   Critters with twin offense sets, too. Axe/sonic minotaurs, and a fire melee/elec melee boss. ONE offense set is actually enough for full XP on most critters, if you turn custom on but leave the powers unchanged.

   …”critter failed validation and melted into a goo”? If that’s an MA error message it’s a much better one than just having somebody turn into a 5th column automaton.

   Well, they’ve found some jade thingy that’s probably important.

   —

   And now based on whatever it is they’re raiding the Midnighters.

   Boss in here is a necro mastermind, which is problematic because if a large number of those henchmen connect they can floor your accuracy.

   …bother. Get wiped by the (accidental?) Protean Hydra who peels off my flight and resists knockback, and I wind up outside the map when I come back. Self-destruct was made for times like these.

   Anyway, I spring the last Midnighter, who informs me of some researcher, and combined with the boss’s earlier rant about the Jade Prison seems to indicate that these characters are planning to drain the Midnighters through the arcane connection.

   —

   Now, on to the end boss! There’s a warning about Queen Mab who I guess is the optional AV fight mentioned in the description…

   Oh. Oranbega. Man, there’s no room to steer clear of anything here, especially in the Oranbega called “Oranbega”, which is all twisty corridors and not much else.

   Hmm. The Duchess is a storm/ice EB. Even a Shivan doesn’t really help, and she’s right near the start, because there aren’t a lot of places for things to spawn on this map. The problem is that cold comes with a giant slow and storm comes with more, so if enough connect then your powers turn into little dots and you can’t get away.

   Flanking the end room, and in probably a total coincidence, are a fire melee/elec melee and necro/dark boss from the custom group, who appear to have MORE powers than the named bosses of the same type I fought earlier in the arc! At least I know the earlier necro boss never pulled out his Lich, but the Lich is the key to the overwhelming -tohit of necro.

   In quick succession I break the altar and free the prisoner, and then head back to the entrance. No sign of the AV, but since I’ve picked up a Living Armor I don’t really look too hard for fear he’ll decide to run off and find her and then I’ll get pasted.

   Perhaps she wasn’t actually here at all? Then again just because we’re taking her granddaughter to safety is no reason for Queen Mab to hold anything back…

   —

   Storyline - ****. Not until the end do we find out what actually went on here. On the one hand this is kind of typical of hero arcs which start with a mysterious happening and then work to get to the bottom of what’s going on. On the other hand, we spend this entire arc doing the right thing basically completely by accident.

   Well, aside from saving the miners. That was the right thing done deliberately, but stopping a hostile takeover of an entire villain faction kinda overshadows that. I can’t come up with a way off-hand for the story to be rewritten so that we know what we’re getting into, as nobody who’s involved with this thing is very liable or able to tell us what’s going on in advance.

   Also, “Faerie Gold” is kind of a nice title, very evocative, but it stops being relevant when the actual plot picks up.

   Design - ****. There’s a lot of variety to the enemy group, both visual and terms of powerset, but it’s all pretty easy to make sense of. I understand the cramped mining caves, but that particular Oranbega map is far too constricted and spawn-restrictive to really work as a final boss location. Also you should be aware of the spawn bug in the stock Midnight Club map where a character can zone in just behind the door and fall out of the skybox. You could probably just use the CoV offices as those fit the Midnighter fronts pretty well.

   Gameplay - **. But even though the power sets make sense thematically, they don’t combine into a very good experience. Consider the other enemy groups present around this time: Sky Raiders, Family, Warriors, Freakshow. The new annoyance is the Devouring Earth, and their big “trick” is fragile control powers on a minion. The fairies end up being way too high-test for the level range they’re supposed to be used at. Watch out for:

   Control powers on a minion. There are often a lot of minions in any given spawn and they can surprise you.

   Debuffs on a minion. Again, there are often a lot of minions, and debuffs can stack up quickly.

   Overabundance of to-hit debuffs or slows. Not being able to do anything because you have no power icons or can’t hit just leads to a sitting-around-waiting-for-death scenario, and nobody enjoys those.

   Two attack sets. The easiest way to give a critter the “right” number of attacks is to select the standard mix you want, then switch the enemy over to custom and take away powers until you’re just at 100% XP or slightly below. You will always be over 100% XP even if you’re taking two attack sets at standard. Critters start every battle with all their attacks recharged so a large number of attacks means a big alpha strike.

   Detail - ****. Apparently the weirdness in this arc is part of an overly aggressive filtering system. Said weirdness aside, everything was pretty decent to look at, though with the large number of clues they could stand to be set apart by mission, as often the clue window opens in the middle of a previous mission’s clues when you have a lot.

   Overall - ***. The combat is what really drags this one down. The custom group is pitched very high relative to other groups at its level. Correct that and you should be good.

   Posted on April 28th, 2011 at 10:59 pm