cranebump

Thanks much! I'd probably go with the newer ones.:-) (Though of the long forms The Bleed has gotten good responses..)

Okay gang, in honor of it snowing TWICE here when spring is supposedly on the way (and it being wash day all. day. long.), we bring you four arcs. One review by request, another to piggyback on a previous run that gave a good report, and 2 "back pages" entries (FYI: back page entries are SFMA arcs buried deeper in the listing "soil," often needlessly. You get just one low-star review, that arc can be shoved away forever, due to one person's subjectivity [or just plan shitty mood]). We'll be perusing those regularly. Anyhoo, here's what we got: Dhahabu Kingdom and the Indelible Curse of Hate [ID: 60044] by @ZamuelNow (author and board sig) A transdimensional blueside adventure that places you in the role of ally to Queen Auri of the Dhahabu. You travel to her dimension to combat a terrible curse that plagues her people (including her husband, Aurus). Cleanly crafted. Neatly written. There’s a spider king here, but not quite the one you know (don’t worry-he’s almost friendly). Clever reskinning of in-game critters, plus some nice customs (pack some purples, fyi). A challenging penaultimate mish – not always a great idea to dive in, as I found out. You might faceplant, but it IS doable, trust me. PLAY IF: You like mishes with a magical angle, some interesting (and sometimes very tough) foes, strong scripting, and an unforgiving sorcerer boss with some scary-ass minions (I speak of the penultimate mish here). A solid, radiation-tinged Seal of Approval that comes with this WARNING: the debuff is real, my friends. Proceed with caution if you run solo, and above default settings (specifically 0/+4, as I did–you wouldn’t expect that to be difficult, but hubris-boy here found out otherwise).:-) Takes From Beyond the Fog: The Rook’s Gambit [ID: 49351] by @Lockely (author and board sig) Another extradimensional blueside offering, except that the bad guys are coming here. You’re working with superhacker Mark Freeman (a nerd who calls other nerds “nerds”) to investigate the sudden appearance of a new gang in Faultline. One thing leads to another, and you’re suddenly in a “Fixx.”:-) Well, so to speak. Between Mark, PortalCo, and, of course, (mainly) you, you fend off another pesky threat from another timeplacespace. Nods to Lewis Carroll everywhere (more than a nod – an actual hand-waving, Hey! That’s Lewis Caroll, man!). Contact has some real personality. Lots of nice customs. An optional Giant Monster, if you’re feeling Red-Queen-haughty. Nicely scripted and competently designed (which is clearly shown by making full use of the "AP in flames" map). A bunny-eared Seal from the Mad Cranebumper. PLAY IF: You like the type of tone an LC-steampunkish romp holds. OR: you want to kill a GM. OR: you’re in a “save the world from freakish Wonderland things!” mood. VIEW THIS ARC ON TWICH RIGHT HERE. The Ghastly Secret of Dreams [ID: 45185] by @Poltergeist Prince [board sig: @Clave Dark 5] [NOTE: I did not recognize this as Clave's work until I did a little digging on what else the author had done. All I can say is...I should have known...):-) It all started with…getting abducted by aliens…Yup. That’s how it starts. A few somewhat dim “Bulbs” intercept your mediport signal, beam you in, strap you down, and start doing an illegal “dreamjuice” operation (as you are informed by Officer Slook [rhymes with nuke {which makes a brutha think, Why not just spell it Slueke or Slyook, or even Sluke, or something?”}]). What follows is something to not ever take seriously, as you plumb the “ghastly secrets” the story presents (which includes the author’s “ghastly” admission that they’d like a Dev’s Choice someday [for the merits, man!])*. After dealing with Rikti lawyers, mashup reptile creatures, and your own birthday party (during which you prove you are Paragon's biggest douche bag), you eventually make the world a safer place for our slightly, -- and waveringly -- sentient species (or perhaps just for yourself and your juice-filled brain). Cool little alien customs, and use of some iconic maps. Strong design and execution. Loads of personality. Played for laughs, all the way. A red-nosed Clownbump Seal of Approval (go ahead…squeeze it). PLAY IF: You’re looking for a COMPLETE diversion (this includes the admitted diversion from a coherent plot [yet another “ghastly” secret revealed in this story]), OR: play if you REALLY REALLY REALLY want to destroy a whopping big case of toilet paper (I always have…ahhhhhh..FINALLY!). *P.S. They did and DO have a Dev’s award: The Dance-Off That Saved Christmas ID:44962] Infection From the Isles [ID: 40915] by @TwoFistedKid [boardsig unk] A (mostly) lowbie arc that puts you in touch with Longbow “early in your career,” where you square off against Arachnos, which is plotting to bring the Infected to Paragon City. Along the way, you smash Spiders, Stricken and Rippers (oh, my!), hit up Matt Burke, and run into good ol’ Doc Creed (not the Apollo type). A straightforward run, as such missions (by their very nature) tend to be. Emulates that lowbie feel really well. That said: the yo-yo from Mish 1 (L9) to M2 (L40), then, later, knocked down to L4 (Mish 4), gives you a bit of whiplash. Unnecessary whiplash, as this entire thing is doable where 3 of the 5 mishes land – L9. It’d be very well worth it to fix that up. A pending Seal of Approval, because it’d be unnecessarily tough actually running a lowbie through it, due to the upper level, mish 2 hop. Everything else is competently done (in some cases, cleverly done, as was the use of the Defend Object mechanic [as a non-required objective] to cause ambush waves. Bet your ass, I’m stealing that one]). PLAY IF: You want to run your Heroic lowbie against some Rogue Isles villains. If the level range were straightened out, it'd fit right into the game.

Couple observations:

It might be I'm SURE it's fine in default mode. And I did finish it. FYI: I multi-faceplanted in my OWN recently completed arc. That was higher settings, as well. Since teams will run like that, though, I imagine it will be a fair challenge (I'm speaking of your arc and mine here). Plus, it's not like my tank is completely optimized like some of the master builders here. Main thing is the writing is clear, the objectives fall into place well, etc. It's well-engineered, which is what you want, as a baseline. Everything else is fiddly bits here and there.

Running it right now, and will provide write up in my reviews section soon. Couple things: there's a missing carriage return on the intro screen (space between paragraphs). And I don't think it's necessary to repeat the accept text each mish (in blue, top of page). If you want to keep that, though, I'd change the Accept text to just "Accept," and have the blue text appear on the next screen to indicate what the PC actually said. It's a minor thing, but it is noticeable (to me, anyway). Everything else is well done so far (only on M3). (Speaking of: REALLY great placement of objectives and writing on that mish. I did NOT disturb the treasure.:-) (I can vouch for the groups in M4. TONS of debuff. Entire groups of nothing but bosses. I'm not squishy, and I'm having to think about pulling.)

See above for the REAL reason.

I do. But it pains me to beg.:-) I did just receive 5 new slots. But spending 3 to produce 7 mishes just…it hurt to think about. So I just couldn’t do it.

Athletic run+sprint. Sometimes one or the other, depending. I tend to like IO sets that grant +Movement, simply because being slightly faster feels so semi-boss:-)

Well what you call random we call by name. Or so Rickie sez:-)

Just tested with aL29 SS/Invul tank, who uses primarily DO's. Cruised, save for my usual END issues. Boss fights required some INSPS, but it was fairly easy. Now to try with a squish.

Newest arc is done. At least until people run it and show me everywhere I screwed up.:-)

Bounty on a Mutiny [L25-29, Villainous] After stealing Protean's funds*, you set up a new base with a special device that puts you in the employ of Operative Feliz, who's looking to root out Arachnos traitors -- a prime opportunity that comes with...complications. *See Leonard's arc Good Villains Never Die You may view this arc on Twitch, right here. Design Notes: In a nod to our favorite supporter of SFMA work, @LordRassilon (aka Twitch's superheroic film-buff and all-around-nice-Canadian [yeah...that sounds redundant, doesn't it?]) Mollymauk, we present a play on classic film, with mish titles from one of our fav musicians (and also a Canuck) Bruce Cockburn (though we just couldn't find a place to use If I Had a Rocket Launcher**). Began as a prospective "branching arc," wherein you played through, then chose which arc to proceed to. Realizing it costs arc slots to actually do that, settled instead on a turn of events, putting YOU in the driver's seat (well, sorta...this IS AE, y'know). Main test mode run: used an Inc Tank, running at 0/x8. I actually got my ass handed to me. Quite a few times. I suspect if I had a bit of backup (or could, you know, get INSP drops in test mode), this wouldn't have been the case. Nevertheless, if you run at higher solo settings, you have been warned. At this level range, it might be a bear (you can never tell, with different AT types and such). Definitely LF feedback, and will resume additional runs with different ATs, checking on how it plays out at default settings. It looks like it may be typo free, but no prmoises.:-) **not to worry - some of the bad guys have them.:-) Spoiler stuff, for afterward, if anyone's interested:

Well, since nobody dropped this one:

I ran it in Beta. I thought it was really well done. And yet...I didn't give a sh*t about what was happening, because it wasn't me (i.e., my character). I could perhaps also say that of other personal story mishes (Brawler's, The Center, etc.). But those mishes are MUCH less involved than this one They're short and sweet, so it didn't bother me to step into someone else's shoes for a brief cut scene. This wasn't that. At all. I found it...a bit much. Again, from a straight design/story perspective, it's excellently done (though I'd like to give @Ankylosaur or @Darmian [or any number of other great authors]) the same tools and see what they could do with them). Frankly, due to the length alone, it felt a bit self-indulgent to have me run as someone else's toon for that long. If not for the lore ties/foreshadowing (which I'm currently clueless on, as well), I'd call this a vanity arc (albeit a really well-done one). Perhaps if I school myself on the story more -- as well as run the final version -- I'll be more appreciative of the arc in its entirety. All that said, I encourage others to play it, simply to enjoy the design elements. They're pretty impressive, and the story is well-executed. It all bodes well for future arcs (and the new, present ones, of course).

The only character I've taken that on is Major Viktory. Somehow, it just seemed appropriate.:-) (Maj is at L40 now. I'm not finding it adds much, to be sure, but I do activate it, after I've downed an LT or better. My END's okay, atm, but every little bit helps.)

That AP map has SUCH potential. I was using it at the beginning of an arc in the Mobius storyline. I finally abandoned it after getting some feedback from @TerroirNoir and @Zhym (among others), running it myself (again) afterward, and seeing how right they were. At this point, I figure it's a good map for boss fights/rescues, provided the bosses have some good animation as a "tell" (aura that stands out; floating captured animation, etc.--same things you mentioned, above). Even so, the visibility thing really is an issue, even in those circumstances. If you can make it work, more power to you. But, in keeping with the whole "path of water" thing, I've found myself sometimes working in reverse to fix an issue (that is, modifying the narrative to fit the design mechanism, rather than the other way 'round). Again, whatever works. When I run it, I'll mainly be focused on solid, clear narrative, and competent design. For me, if the former is good, I'm fine with a few elements that are, for lack of a better term, "annoying."

Planning on a run of @Lockely's arc, along with a dive into the pack pages for SFMA that have been overlooked. Just FYI: if you're a designer that's had some notoriety (or awards), I won't be jumping into your older stuff. But I will pass along some recs to @LordRassilon, for his Monday twitch stream.

Destroyed AP map IS a toughie. I haven't run this yet, but was planning to for next set of reviews.

For sure. Wish I could run those on something other than a Dom. Feel the same way about Arsenal (unless I’ve got that wrong?)

Small moves, bruthas & sistahs of the SFMA. Small moves.:-)

Store attached to a warehouse maybe? Sucks, though. The store and police station maps just don't have much utility. You plan Yin, and they're just packed with bad guys. You go to design a mish, and can't do anything with it. Being able to use any of the maps with prison cells -- actually putting prisoners in them -- would be SO nice. Alas...

The only one I don't like is the one where you pass into the room full of demon-summoning circles. I always forget the way back out.

Servers back up. And so...it begins...

Ain't no Farma like the one I got. Oh, no they don't come BEH-tah...!

Now, now - two things can be true at once.:-) Or the former can be the reason for the latter! BWAHAHAHAHAHA! (No dog in the fight here, actually - I really just wanted to share the story about my pothead roomies)