Kyksie

Wasn't this in the Nightstar map? That one sometimes glitches. There are special spawnpoints atop the buildings, which are flagged for use only in the Nightstar mission, but sometimes the game flakes out and puts normal objectives there.

New Heroes of Paragon - 42432 I still have Cranebump's Vahzilok arc to write (spoiler: it's good) but I'm jumping the queue here because this is seriously one of the most awesome arcs EVER. The contact is "Super Captain Man", a kid who idolizes Paragon's heroes and likes to play hero himself. You've been assigned to him by some child outreach program which suggests that he really does have super powers himself. One of his friends has lost a doll which may or may not be magic, so we join him in a warehouse filled with Hellions, meet some of his other friends and find the doll. Then we rescue more friends from bullies and have a meeting at the secret base, then discover the doll is cursed, and invade a demon Hellion headquarters to remove the curse. First of all, the kid NPCs are just adorable. The dialog is well written, and their costumes are clearly kids' work. He wields a broom. Each map also has dozens of non-required glowies for atmosphere, and many have decorative NPCs as well. There's loads of clues and villain barks, many of them funny. I do have a few nitpicks, the most notable being that the whole arc is locked at level 20. A few of the custom mobs are missing descriptions and a few maps have Objective Overload. And... ummm... the "bully" NPC group is the second arc is cute, with "Kicking Bully" and "Vicious Bully", but "Knife Bully" really doesn't belong. Knives kinda escalate stuff from 'bullying' all the way to 'attempted homicide'. Maybe replace it with "Annoying Bully" whose sonic attacks are cutting insults, or "Yellow Water Bully" with squirt guns and water balloons. (jeez, it's just food coloring, get your mind out of the gutter). Minor quibbles aside, this is one of the best arc I've played here. Everyone go play it now.

I think a distinction needs to be made between edgy and edgelord. The former is a just bit out there, while the latter feels the need to hammer home the fact that he's further out there than everyone else. The first person's character is a shy goth with clove cigarettes, an eye twitch, and some barely visible scars on her arm that she doesn't talk about; the latter is the rape child of Hitler's occultist son and a vampire demon succubus from hell, and now she's a pain goddess who feels the pain of everyone nearby which causes her demon tattoos to burst into flames causing her even more pain. And she smokes clove cigarettes too. The former can be fun in manageable doses, the latter is best backed away from. They'll get bored in a month and move on to WoW.

This, or maybe just have objectives appear on the minimap. Unfortunately, there are at most a dozen people on Resurgence who use AE for anything other than farming or yiffing, so any actual code changes are very unlikely.

Believe it or not, I may have been personally responsible for this one! Back on the Live server, I had an AE review column in the forums, Purple Lovin's Highly Sarcastic Review Pit, wherein I review all manner of arcs in a highly sarcastic manner, a tradition carried on to this day. One of the arcs was "Is it Live or is it Memory-X?", by Armsman, who doesn't appear to be on Resurgence. The arc was generally good, but it had a few time-wasting elements, including a hostage who has to be led all the way across the map to the exit. I sarcastically pointed out that in the time I had wasted, I could have written a full AE arc entitled "Mynx's Furry Adventure", in which Mynx tracks down and battles Bobcat, then they team up to take down Nemesis, then Mynx invites Bobcat over to her place for sardines and milk, and then... you get the idea. Sadly, my hypothetical arc was rejected three times. A few weeks after posting that, I was in the AE reviewing yet another arc, and overheard an NPC saying "This is the third time my mission 'Statesman's Furry Adventure' was rejected for violating the terms of service". I suppose this might have been a coincidence, but I'm betting that some Cryptic employee saw my post and took inspiration. Then, a bit later when Statesman was killed in Who Will Die, they deleted almost every reference to Statesman in NPC chatter, and that snippet became "Mynx's Furry Adventure". P.S. I should warn you, if you haven't been to the Wayback Machine before, clicking on the link above will cost you several hours of your life. But then, this sentence is at the bottom of the page and the link is way up there, so most likely you're clicked it already, which means you are reading this sentence in the future. So, tell, me... does humanity survive global warming? Do I really need to give up plastic straws?

The Eve of War - 41583 Another arc where the player is a mid-level Resistance fighter, working with Belladonna Vetrano to help topple Tyrant's oppressive regime from within. Interestingly, the events here take place alongside the canon campaign; first the player captures guards to facilitate the attack against the BAF, then gathers information on Seige and Nightstar, then tracks down Duray. In the aftermath of the main protagonist's raid on the BAF, you head to the Shadow Realm to disconnect Nightstar's batteries or something, then into the sewers to rescue Vanessa DeVore. This is an innovative method of storytelling that works well here. The Eve of War is another excellent arc, with great writing and missions that are just long enough. As before, my only gripe is that being reduced in level is a bit annoying. Granted, the level reduction ties in with the story, however this arc throws two EBs at you, often having them appear right in front of you after completing an objective. They were beatable with the aid of some purple candy, but still arc authors need to be careful when pairing level reduction with tough mobs. Still, this is yet another chapter in an excellent story.

There are some ways to creatively get around that. For example, in a mission I just reviewed, the player rescues an AI. Later, the player is fighting some robot foes, who say "Hi, this is the AI, I'm hijacking the robot's voice synthesizer", and use that to deliver dialog. Failing that, you could just start the mission with a pop-up clue that says "Luminary follows you into the warehouse" or something. Then you fight a required boss, which gives you a clue, which reads "Luminary kneels next to the fallen Freakshow and examines his implants" or something.

After reading the thread about 'review etiquette', Kyksie has decided to try her hand at unsolicited reviews. I hit the random mission button five times, rerolling any arcs that were clearly no-story farms. After playing each arc, I sent a comment to the author. How did it go? Let's see. The Heart of an Automaton - 36759 This starts out well, with the player tasked by Number 204 to rescue a self-aware AI. We bust into an office and find the AI in a 'military grade chassis' and lead her out. Then we need to speak to Archon Burcholder, and by 'speak to' we mean 'clobber'. Along the way, we encounter a handful of robots, and the AI hijacks their voice systems and talks to you, which is an amazingly innovative way to deliver exposition without being obviously exposition. Unfortunately, the arc is not complete - many of the details for mission 2 are placeholders, and it ends abruptly after that. The author has not responded yet. Rescue Dr. Vargus and Defeat the Grim Ghost - 13986 A Girlfriend From Hell named "Hot Stuff" tells you the Skulls are trying to get into scientific research, and have therefore kidnapped a doctor, making it incumbent upon you to rescue said doctor. Only one mission, this is barebones, but doesn't have any spelling errors or major flaws. No word back from the author. Enter Tiwwwtle - 23788 A contact with no costume or bio says only "22". Accepting the mission sends you to a city map filled with CoT, with the objective "42323". At first it looks like a standard farm, but... here's the twist... one of the Behemoth Lords is named "Josh". The author has not seen fit to respond. Foul Ball - 27751 I rather liked this one. The owner of the "Paragon Knights" baseball team asks for your help because his players are rioting! We discover that the owner bought a Muzak machine or something designed to give his players an edge, but he bought a cheap one that only plays Enya, or something. This writing is a bit sparse and there's a few spelling errors, but overall this tells a good story. No word from the author yet. Arachnos Invasion in Faultline - 41757 Jim Temblor (the hero Faultline) tells me that Arachnos are invading Faultline (the place), which I already guessed from the title. He tells me that he got separated from Fusionette during the fighting, can you find her? Kyksie heads out to Faultline (the place), which is under attack by level 54 Arachnos. No Fusionette, but we find some clues which lead us to Steel Canyon, where we find clues leading to a warehouse, and... um... Sadly, the author has not yet written back.

BTW you can also reset your ratings by unpublishing and republishing.

OMG I'm actually wondering if MMO Tycoon is a good game.

When you promise no wipes and start taking people's money, that's a launch. You can call it an "open beta" or a "late beta" or a "foonting turlingdrome", it's still a launch.

Relics of a New Age Part 1 - Regnum Lux - 41637 A well-dressed man of mystery named Wesley is working for "Enos Childs", (probably a reference to the Children of Enos, although there's no one by that name in a the lore) is offering a bunch of low level Arachnos scrubs a chance at unlimited power, who can resist? At his request, we infiltrate an abandoned Arachnos base, but the wifi password isn't written down anywhere. Fortunately, the base has a time portal, so after distracting Portal Corps and stealing a flux capacitor, we travel back in time to 1967 to steal Lord Recluses's mojo capture one of his techs, Gordon Welch, and bring him back to the current year. Gordon gives us the password and happily joins our team upon being shown the wide variety of internet porn available in 2021. This is another great arc, with excellent writing, lots of clues, and no time wasters; as before, my only nitpick is that being reduced to level 15 is a bit annoying. Personally, though, I'm not too fond of stories that use time travel to solve a problem, simply because time travel can solve *any* problem, often to the point of rendering the current conflict irrelevant. The player could have planted a backdoor in the system back then, or prevented Marchand from being assassinated, or even assassinate Stefan Richter before he became Lord Recluse. Or better still, just travel back to 1938 and buy a copy of Action Comics, take it back here and sell it for a billion, and buy your own abandoned base. The author does mention that we're trying to avoid changing the present, but there are plenty of ways around that, such as traveling to GenCon in '93. Still, all things considered, this is another awesome arc.

IMHO, the fact that you can 1-star or 5-star an arc without playing it should tell us that the star rating system is doodoo.

You peeps have pretty much covered the bases already. OP, you're not 'reviewing' arcs so much as 'picking arcs at random and telling the author what you think', and that's not going to end well on the average. One might say that anyone putting an arc up is asking for a review, but in practice that's not how it works.

Big Magic Blowout - 41612 1) A bit low on funds after dropping a few notes at Big Alex's Tokeville, Kyksie scouts around for odd jobs, and is contacted by "Eddy Demonalo", which isn't foreboding at all. He tells her that a demon lord is bothering him, and to get rid of it we need... souls? And to get them, we need to... go to a Family drug party and murder them all? "Sure, no problem!" Kyksie chirps. She ventures boldly into a warehouse rave and kicks a few dozen Mafiosi to death. Yep, it's a defeat all. Upon returning, Eddy congratulates her on killing "hundreds of men with wives and children", really. 2) Oh dear, their souls have all escaped. Kyksie goes to a cave and kicks ghosts. Great, another defeat all. 3) Now, time to "bind" the demon lord. Into another cave, where we kick the EB demon lord Katsu into submission. There's a custom group, with four or five types. 4) Whoops, things have gone a bit sideways, and the demon lord has split into lots of little demons, and we can't have that, now can we? Kyksie arrives in Atlas Park, and kicks NINE more EB Demon Lords... and then a tenth spawns, with boss allies. 5) And now Eddie has devoured the demon lord's power and is a demon lord himself. MY OH MY WHAT A SURPRISE!!! I DID NOT SEE THAT COMING!!! No, actually that's sarcasm, I saw that coming as soon as the arc began. Kyksie heads into the sewers and is reduced to level 20, (supposedly the mission author has since fixed this) kicks Eddy many times, and stuffs his soul into a handy-dandy soul disposal receptacle which the Atlas Park Municipal Planning board thoughtfully included in every sewer, bus stop and subway station. Big Magic Blowout has big problems. First, it's very time waste-y, with two defeat alls and twelve EBs. The writing is decent, with no spelling errors, but the morality is a bit odd, and by 'a bit odd', I mean "completely off the rails". The arc is written as Vigilante, but flat-out murdering dozens of guys goes way beyond Vigilante stuff, yet the player cheerfully does as she's told. Worst of all, the player is forced to carry the Idiot Ball, working for someone who is clearly evil, but again the player blindly obeys.

I played the "Beta" of Magic Legends, and it was terrible. I'm putting "Beta" in "quotes" because it was basically "Here it is, there's bugs but start giving us money anyway". Crummy graphics, poorly optimized, and the gameplay managed to be too simple and too complex at the same time, a goal many bad games strive for but few achieve. It's really sad how far down the toilet Cryptic has slid in the past 20 years.

Damnatio Memoriae - 41140 Belladonna Vetrano is the contact, who tells us that Cole is moving forward with his plan to finally capture and eat the Smurfs. Calvin Scott went to Enriche factory, so Kyksie follows him, and find that the factory has construction equipment lying around. Then Kyksie goes to a black site and kicks stuff, then she kicks more stuff, and more stuff, then a grand finale against an Olympian Guard in the statesman lava room, although the guard is only an lt. Finally we find Calvin, who has uncovered proof that Enriche Classic is the exact same as New Enriche. Once again, another great arc with copious writing, lots of clues, and no time wasters. My only gripe is that being reduced to level 24 is a bit annoying. I started to run this with Kyksie, but had to stop because she had only two attacks. I ran it with my fire blaster, Guy Montag, who refused to write this review for some reason.

Most people don't admit to having read Empowered. "Uh... it was on a... friend's coffee table and the wind blew a page open. Yeah."

Pretty good. Because it's written for the heatwave contest, I won't review it myself.

Bumping this thread thanks to the people in another thread, who experienced the problem on their machines as well, so it's not my files that are corrupted.

It's a farm.

I played this on the Live server, it's pretty good. Well written, doesn't bog down. BTW, it's kinda bad etiquette to respond to a two year old post unless you have a real important reason.

HEAT WAVE - 41276 A thick, stifling heat has settled over the Rogue Isles. Snakes bask in the sun, Goldbrickers are only robbing air conditioner shops, Marcone capos frolic on the sandy Port Oakes beach. In his tower at the heart of Grandville, Lord Recluse gazes at the sweltering city beneath him, hatching a plan so cruel and vile that... ...sigh. As most of you have guessed by now, this is not a serious arc, mostly because I'm completely incapable of writing anything that's not humorous. This arc is actually a test. When the Live servers shut down, I saved the textfiles for my award-winning trilogy of AE arcs, re-reading them daily in hopes that CoH would come to life once more. When it did, I tried to upload and re-publish them here, but something weird happened. The arcs all have Lord Recluse as a contact, and his costume appears corrupted. I tried using different versions of Recluse as a contact, and all had the same problem. I posted seventeen times on the bug thread, and contacted the GMs via PM, Discord, snail mail and telegraph, but no response. Since it's possible that my local files were corrupted somehow, I created this mission as a test. Please take a run through, and let me know whether Recluse appears correctly on your client. Heck, you don't even have to play it, just open it up and take a look.

A bit barebones, but no major flaws. Mildly creepy at at the end.

Pentarchy of Punishment - 41032 The contact is a nanotechnology researcher, who tells us that badguys have infected his daughter with a nanotech poison, and will activate it unless he gives them his nanotech research, but he won't do that because they could do a lot of evil stuff with the research. Except that if they know how to make nanotech poisons that activate on command, they already know quite a bit, what more do they need? Ah well. Kyksie ventures into an Arachnos base filled with Rogue Warburg troops and kicks the EB boss, "Melissa Mayhem". She has a vial of antidote, but it was only on fifth of what's needed. Wait, if there's an antidote, why can't the scientist create it? Ah well. Melissa was also carrying an address of an island where we find the second boss, then pirates attack your ship led by the third boss, who in turn has a map leading to a volcanic island base where the Big Boss and also one other sub-boss are waiting. Congrats, the daughter is saved. Pentarchy of Punishment is one of those arcs that's not really bad but not really great. The writing is bland but plausible, the EBs are challenging but not too hard, and there are several funny touches sprinkled in. On the downside, there's a few spelling errors, no contact bio, and one boss is a bit of a stereotype.