2 Responses

1. @Dream Mistress Says:

   After some large-team testing and feedback, I’ve turned the final AV down to an EB, and made another little tweak or two that should make her easier. She’s still going to be tough, but now hopefully you won’t need two rads, a sonic and a storm on your team . . .

   Posted on May 3rd, 2009 at 11:05 pm

2. Glazius Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   @GlaziusF

   Running a low-40s DB/Fire brute, on diff 2 so bosses is bosses, and this is the arc that gives me Mission Engineer.

   —

   …lookin’ kinda evil there, miz nurse lady.

   Aw man, it’s the asylum?

   Back in the day when lowbies actually fought Vahzilok, one of the missions was supposed to be set in a hospital and it was a blue-carpeted office and, y’know, that seemed okay!

   It doesn’t have to be the asylum.

   Hmm. If the clear all in this mission is really “clear the last room”, then you need to change it to be that. Maybe call it the administrative offices, and mention in the popup they’re on the top floor?

   Hoo boy. If I’m gonna be seeing this guy again can he please get a different color scheme than dark red and powder blue?

   —

   Hmm. Okay, standard pump a guy for info. Rather bare warehouse overall, just him and the captive.

   But I get what I need (though maybe you should change that boss objective to “boss only”, Lenny spawned in one of those little corner rooms with the catwalk and half his boss spawn was half the guys on top the catwalk, who never even noticed me beating him down.

   —

   And now for a rush on the cargo ship! The blaster buddy spawns right up front with no escort - not sure if you wanted that. Why does he tell me to go left? That only works in text adventures!

   3 supply crates to look for here… and… a WHOLE bunch of red herrings among them. …identical red herrings. At least mix ‘em up a little?

   Hmm. It’s a bit ominous that these supplies are never described. Makes me wonder if somebody decided to buy the kind of medicine with side effects including green skin and monosyllabic speech.

   I meet up with Lenny about halfway through the ship and he pretty much confirms my suspicions.

   —

   Wow, mission 3, you are exactly what I was planning on doing when I got those supplies off the cargo ship.

   …also your accept text breaks the frame like a Troll trying to hang a picture.

   (in general I advise very objectively written accept text so that any humor or other information you want to put in there can be read by everybody on the team running the arc.)

   Somehow the mission setup reminds me of a certain map…

   Ding ding ding! Hi, invention tutorial.

   With Focus Chi and an escort of healers and buffers the boss is pretty brutal but nothing I can’t take.

   I’m a little more concerned about somehow not recognizing superadine when I’m taking it off a Family cargo ship but being able to pick it out when I’m at the clinic.

   Maybe it was somehow camouflaged and the nurses have been stripping the packaging away to check that vials didn’t get broken in transit or whatever?

   So what am I looking at here? A splinter faction within the Family? Did I walk into a power grab in the first few missions there?

   —

   …yeah, I’m sure Auric won’t have gone round the bend from one too many doses of Supes.

   I’m not sure the contact really has the grounds to be speculating “oh there has to be some method of control” or whatever. Besides, this is a functionary whose boss has just been exposed as a double-dealing traitor to Paragon City and the Hippocratic Oath. Show some emotion!

   …then again maybe I’m working for a third party in the power struggle. Time will, I suppose, tell.

   Well, Auric seems to be completely intact. Pleasant surprise. The mission’s pretty empty up until the last room, and then the fun starts. Mind Control is actually not so bad if you pack a couple break frees like I tend to for running MA missions, and it ONLY being on the boss is a huge help.

   Unfortunately the “ally ambush” that spawns on Bambi’s defeat runs right into the same geometry that confounded her backup squads and gets torn apart. infighting is so ugly…

   —

   Storyline - ***. Modestly interesting storyline with a minimum of people acting like idiots. But, uh, problem here. Serious problem here. There is no known cure for Superadine addiction. Every hero in Paragon City who’s ever hit the hospital is going to be jonesing hard and pretty ineffective in the field. That’s the elephant in the room at the end of the arc. I dunno, maybe make the third mission clues like a crate, a lab, and a desk or something, put ‘em together and get Bambi’s blueprints for “cooking” superadine into a mild power-booster that also makes people more susceptible to mind control?

   Design - ****. Aside from that dang Asylum, good use of maps overall. The customs actually have variant models, which is an appreciated touch. But missions 2, 3, and 5 are all pretty sparse. 3 needs some variation in the padding crate descriptions, 2 and 5 need some more active spawns, kinda like the ones that showed up in the first mission.

   Gameplay - *****. Pretty solid here. Some difficulty spikes with the two boss fights, but that’s what boss fights are for. Just pack some break frees to the final countdown.

   Detail - ****. Fitting, but sparse after the first mission. About the only optional objective I could find that meant anything was a second run-in with Lenny on the cargo ship.

   Overall - ****. An arc that starts strong in incidentals and detail but fades a bit as it goes on, with an underlying plot that doesn’t exactly jibe with the canon.

   Gameplay -

   Posted on June 9th, 2009 at 11:01 pm