Focused Feedback: The Freakish Lab of Dr. Vahzilok (Villain Story Arc, Level 30-39)

[Piecemeal]

2 hours ago, csr said:

On my Rogue the level 35-39 Range is called "Criminal" rather than "Captain".

 

After accepting her first mission Doc Buzzsaw says "No, my young friends are better served as a distraction, but they won't know that."  This means it would be in the interest of her "young friends" to serve as a distraction.  Which I doubt is the intent.  Perhaps "No, my young friends would better serve [...]" would be a better phrasing.

 

The second paragraph here starts "He and his cadre [...]", but the only direct reference to Cortex is in the mission title, it might be better to avoid using a pronoun and refer to him directly here. "Cortex and his cadre [...]" also has a better sound to it to my ear.

Doc Buzzsaw, being the amoral scientist, is sending some Freaks in... knowing their only purpose is to serve as disposable distractions to the Vahzilok. She's not-so-subtly painting a picture for how she values their lives, in that they don't know they're going there to do whatever, and if they die, oh well 😄

 

The second bit is a good point and I'll update it. And the typo typo.

[csr]

In Dr. Vahzilok's dialog in the Zigg (on the page starting "Doctor Vahzilok is obviously agitated", 2nd white paragraph) he says "You've taken my genius plans [...]".  "Genius" is actually a noun, though it's sometimes used in informal speed as an adjective as it is here.  Still I think "ingenious" would probably be better.  Anyway, it just seemed off to me in the middle of Dr. V's wordy rant.

[csr]

I think the arc is excellent.  Lots of great dialog.  It seems more straight-forward than the hero-side one.  Which is both a plus and a minus.  The hero arc is definitely more challenging than usual.  The villain arc is on par with many of the EB heavy arcs you run into red-side.

Edited November 5, 2020 by csr

[Jimmy]

Build 3 - November 7th, 2020

 

New Story Arc: The Freakish Lab of Dr. Vahzilok (Villain, Level 30-39)

A notorious and well-admired sociopath of the Rogue Isles has put out a straight-forward distress call through the Broker network, asking individuals of highly dubious moral constitution to save her neck in the name of Science. Doc Buzzsaw is being stalked by a notable ne'er-do-well and the price on her head is significantly less than the value of preserving it. Villains of level 30 and beyond should seek her out in Sharkhead Isle, in the usual place, and relief will wash over you after the discovery that her attachment to bank accounts has disappeared in the face of her mortality, as an added bonus.

• Contact: Doc Buzzsaw, Sharkhead Isle
  • Listed in Ouroboros under Captain (Level 35-39) > The Freakish Lab of Dr. Vahzilok (27.02)
• Chronologically this arc takes place after the Hero arc above
• This arc features new maps, new environments, two new enemy factions, a prison break, new badges, several intricate missions with new spawn behaviours and a very, very cryptic poem

Changes in this build:

• Mission 1

  • Cortex will only talk to the task owner

• Mission 3

  • Solved the issue of Pierce spinning around and leaving the crate she was on behind, while still sitting.

[CrudeVileTerror]

I may have done an oopsie.

 

Mission 2 of this arc.  Pierce didn't make it through the elevator ride, and the body faded away, but the mission doesn't seem to have a fail condition for this scenario.

[CrudeVileTerror]

I had to go AFK for a while after making that post, and I came back, defeated all the PPD around the elevator top and bottom, and then found this . . . 

It's been trying to attack me the whole time.  The glowing gloves are all that I can see, though, and they're not animating beyond an idle "walk" animation (near as I can tell, at least).

[VileTerror]

ummm . . . 
I may bear some more bad news.  Sorry.

[CrudeVileTerror]

She's a bit twitchy, though it seems to take quite a few minutes between twitches.

 

 

Edited November 8, 2020 by CrudeVileTerror
Previous post's file attachment artefacted in to post.

[Drakwatch]

After completing the arc today with my mastermind, I must say, very well done! Awesome writing, cool villains and enemies, and fun set pieces. I think I like this arc more than the hero-side arc. I didn't come across any bugs, however I did take note of a few thoughts as I played. Spoilers below:

 

Mission 1

1. This seems to be a running theme - the Freakshow fights on this mission are long over and the dialog has been expended before you can even make it to them. It would be nice to have them start talking / fighting when you're within earshot.

2. First ambush gets caught at the closed gate.

Mission 3

1. Everything mostly worked as intended! The final room was a challenge, the small size made it easy for my pets to aggro the entire room. After a few trips to the hospital, I managed to take down all the enemies.

2. Rikti Eidolons spawning inside the tubes makes them difficult to target initially.

Final Mission

1. Freaklok diversion team dialog happens all at once when you first enter. I didn't even get to see them fight after talking with Piecemeal! Kinda disappointing because they look so cool. I know they are fighting Longbow in the yard, but I can't target them and see what's goin on. I must see more of the Freaklok!

2. Escorting Bile from the Zig was easy enough, although the ambushes feel pretty overwhelming when you first exit into the yard. Perhaps sending the Freaklok to the sewer entrance of the Zig to help out, or have the ambushes spawn as you make your way through the yard would be helpful.

 

Overall, very fun and straight forward. Made me really want to see more of the Freaklok! Here's hoping for more missions with them in the future.

Edited November 8, 2020 by Drakwatch

[csr]

I ran this on the same Necro/Elect MM (switched to Rogue) as I used for the hero arc.  Now at level 30 (31 for the final mission).  The only added power was Assault.

 

The arc was rather rough on this guy, as I had trouble controlling the pets.  It's been a while since I played Zombies, and I had some old binds that weren't leashing them well.  But even when I had things fixed, the Zombies took off and I lost bodyguard a LOT.  The bees in the Kraken sewer were one culprit.  The Immature Paragon Protector clones' gas clouds in the Hopkins mission were even worse.  Naturally, in the hero arc, these very same zombies were quite happy to bathe in the fires.  But one dead Mini PP and 5 out of 6 of my pets were out of the fight for several seconds.

 

I died twice, partly due to poor play on an unfamiliar MM with old binds, and partly due to critters that just aren't friendly to melee pet MMs.  Both times were in the Kraken room in Mission 3.  I probably would have been fine had I cleaned up my binds before that and been more cautious.

 

On the final mission I forgot to take Bile to his arms locker and he got stuck in the elevators exiting the lower level.  He just kept entering the 'vators and coming right back out on the bottom level.  I exited the mission and came back and he was at the top of the elevators.  I had to repeat that at the bottom of the 'vators.  After that I was able to lead him back to the locker and then out.

 

Really, the only complaint I have is that it would be nice if Bile followed more closely.  When he's a non-combat pet, he seems to be easy to lose.

Edited November 9, 2020 by csr

[RubyRed]

I replayed this today, and I can say it's in a much better place now. I had a lot of fun with it. Some remaining observations:

• The snipers don't really work in the second mission. I appreciate what you were trying to do here, but having them rooted in place makes them a non threat during the encounter. This works much better in an open area like the radio tower in the final mission. Maybe try something different to get the same "surprise" effect but not have the snipers completely neutered by simply walking down the hall?
• Most of the ambushes throughout the missions are much more tolerable now, though I'm still not a fan of the Steal from Crey mission. The set of ambushes that comes during (and several minutes after) you fight Hopkins is excessive. That's just my opinion, though.
• The "get Bile to the DropZone" objective marker is in the wrong place.
• This is a really long story arc... it took me like 2 hours to finish it, and I did speed my way through some of the missions. Maybe it should be split into two? Just a thought.

Anyways, great stuff. I look forward to playing it on live.

[Jimmy]

Release Candidate 1 - November 13th, 2020

 

New Story Arc: The Freakish Lab of Dr. Vahzilok (Villain, Level 30-39)

A notorious and well-admired sociopath of the Rogue Isles has put out a straight-forward distress call through the Broker network, asking individuals of highly dubious moral constitution to save her neck in the name of Science. Doc Buzzsaw is being stalked by a notable ne'er-do-well and the price on her head is significantly less than the value of preserving it. Villains of level 30 and beyond should seek her out in Sharkhead Isle, in the usual place, and relief will wash over you after the discovery that her attachment to bank accounts has disappeared in the face of her mortality, as an added bonus.

• Contact: Doc Buzzsaw, Sharkhead Isle
  • Listed in Ouroboros under Captain (Level 35-39) > The Freakish Lab of Dr. Vahzilok (27.02)
• Chronologically this arc takes place after the Hero arc above
• This arc features new maps, new environments, two new enemy factions, a prison break, new badges, several intricate missions with new spawn behaviours and a very, very cryptic poem

Changes in this build:

• Adjusted several hostages to not die

• Arc marks as compete when you obtain the souvenir

[Khellendrosiic]

A triple EB ambush while the previous Elite Boss was still at 25%? Is this story arc supposed to be completed by people leveling up or only by those flashing back with full IO kits?

 

I had to drag them back outside to get my wandering boss-laden ally patrols to help DPS them faster than they could murder me. And then had to run back to grab the escort. Not a lot of fun.

[Piecemeal]

1 hour ago, Khellendrosiic said:

A triple EB ambush while the previous Elite Boss was still at 25%? Is this story arc supposed to be completed by people leveling up or only by those flashing back with full IO kits?

 

I had to drag them back outside to get my wandering boss-laden ally patrols to help DPS them faster than they could murder me. And then had to run back to grab the escort. Not a lot of fun.

This is a badge challenge fight, and there's no shame in getting help. 🙂

 

You might be one of the few who had all the badge and souvenir requirements without knowing that you were spawning a bonus fight. If you can keep Bile in the fight, he's helpful - bonus if you can buff him. I'd probably take out Wolfie first. If Bile drops, you don't fail the mission, you have to retrieve him elsewhere, and he has at least one backup unit with him. This is a tough fight, for sure. You can certainly do it if you know it's coming.

Sometimes, you read a comic, and the protagonist gets caught off their footing. But they almost always prevail. Don't give up!

[Lines]

It feels really tight now! Ran into a problem in the last mission, though, which I feel like could come up frequently:

 

Spoiler

Firstly, I got the 'Treason on the Brain' clue when I sighted Cortex just after exiting max security. It describes already beating Cortex and the dialogue that's about to happen.

 

Secondly, if you cancel out of Vahz's dialogue on the last window, when Vahz changes up his animations (possibly others, that was the only time I thought to try), you then can't resume it and are locked out of the fight with Cortex. If it's in the realm of fixability, it would be good if the dialogue could pick back up from there.

 

Didn't prevent me from finishing the mission, though.

 

Edited November 14, 2020 by Lines

[Khellendrosiic]

On 11/13/2020 at 11:48 PM, Piecemeal said:

This is a badge challenge fight, and there's no shame in getting help. 🙂

 

You might be one of the few who had all the badge and souvenir requirements without knowing that you were spawning a bonus fight. If you can keep Bile in the fight, he's helpful - bonus if you can buff him. I'd probably take out Wolfie first. If Bile drops, you don't fail the mission, you have to retrieve him elsewhere, and he has at least one backup unit with him. This is a tough fight, for sure. You can certainly do it if you know it's coming.

Sometimes, you read a comic, and the protagonist gets caught off their footing. But they almost always prevail. Don't give up!

Badge challenge? I think I got the badge the moment I bumped into Manticore, not after I managed to win the fight.

 

And wouldn't it be more expected for people to not know what they're getting into? I mean, it certainly wasn't an insurmountable challenge but at the time I had been avoiding grabbing Bile (and thus continuing the mission) in order to go back and explore the prison cell areas I had bypassed previously. If I could suggest anything it would be to predicate the big 'optional' fight's appearance on after the player has gotten Bile his arm back. That was when the additional Wyvern mooks spawned, so I don't think it'd be hard to include the ambush as well.

 

I'm not really arguing against an EB ambush, anyway. I know it exists elsewhere. It's just that /three/ of them was an unwelcome, unprecedented surprise.

[Lines]

On 11/14/2020 at 3:23 AM, Khellendrosiic said:

A triple EB ambush while the previous Elite Boss was still at 25%? Is this story arc supposed to be completed by people leveling up or only by those flashing back with full IO kits?

The requirements to unlock that fight make it pretty unlikely that someone will be below the arc's max level and then accidentally happen to do it without knowing about it.

 

They'd pretty much have had to beeline through the particular arcs that trigger it, switch sides and then do this arc straight away. It could happen, but probably very rare.

Edited November 18, 2020 by Lines

[Jimmy]

Release Candidate 2 - November 21st, 2020

 

New Story Arc: The Freakish Lab of Dr. Vahzilok (Villain, Level 30-39)

A notorious and well-admired sociopath of the Rogue Isles has put out a straight-forward distress call through the Broker network, asking individuals of highly dubious moral constitution to save her neck in the name of Science. Doc Buzzsaw is being stalked by a notable ne'er-do-well and the price on her head is significantly less than the value of preserving it. Villains of level 30 and beyond should seek her out in Sharkhead Isle, in the usual place, and relief will wash over you after the discovery that her attachment to bank accounts has disappeared in the face of her mortality, as an added bonus.

• Contact: Doc Buzzsaw, Sharkhead Isle
  • Listed in Ouroboros under Captain (Level 35-39) > The Freakish Lab of Dr. Vahzilok (27.02)
• Chronologically this arc takes place after the Hero arc above
• This arc features new maps, new environments, two new enemy factions, a prison break, new badges, several intricate missions with new spawn behaviours and a very, very cryptic poem
• This story arc currently awards 20 merits for completion, and an additional 20 merits for the first completion
  • These values will be adjusted in a future update to line up with other content when we have enough data to calculate the average playtime for this arc

Changes in this build:

• Bonus merits awarded one-time have been corrected
  • 20 Merits for arc completion (Always)
  • 20 Merits for first time earning the arc's badge
    • This is a temporary bonus for i27 release until we get enough data to set a proper end-of-arc merits reward number based on completion time datamining)
• Mission 1
  • Cortex should not be able to succumb to murder anymore. For real this time.
• Mission 3
  • Pierce has given up on sitting down to inspect the Rikti tech.
  • The desk should only be interactable after the Kraken and the bees are defeated.
• Mission 5
  • Cortex clue should be granted after defeating him, and coming into proximity of him after he goes into the cell.
  • Dr. Vahzilok should speak with you up until the point you start fighting Cortex.

[Arcalian]

So I just finished this arc not realizing that it was new.  I'd only ever done Doc Buzzsaw once before, and only her first mission.  So I did this one by dribs and drabs over the last few days.  In the final mission, I couldn't get Cortex to say anything, and the person I was playing with likewise couldn't get a peep out of Dr V.  I figured he might turn on me, but he did nothing but stand there.  Going through the thread, I get the impression the Freaklok were supposed to help, but they didn't, either.  Not really complaining about bugs, just wanna know waht all Dr V and Cortex would've said.  Though I'm glad I didn't wind up fighting Manticore!  Yikes!

[Piecemeal]

13 hours ago, Arcalian said:

So I just finished this arc not realizing that it was new.  I'd only ever done Doc Buzzsaw once before, and only her first mission.  So I did this one by dribs and drabs over the last few days.  In the final mission, I couldn't get Cortex to say anything, and the person I was playing with likewise couldn't get a peep out of Dr V.  I figured he might turn on me, but he did nothing but stand there.  Going through the thread, I get the impression the Freaklok were supposed to help, but they didn't, either.  Not really complaining about bugs, just wanna know waht all Dr V and Cortex would've said.  Though I'm glad I didn't wind up fighting Manticore!  Yikes!

 

After Bile is free, Cortex is looking at Dr. V - and only the team leader can talk to Dr. V. This is how the conversation chain runs.

 

Dr. V bugs out about the situation and demands Cortex kill you to redeem himself.

[Piecemeal]

Quote

 

Dr. Vahzilok does a double-take and then leers at you with wild eyes.

Quote

Yes! The brilliant Dr. Demetrios Vasilikos.

Dr. Vahzilok looks you over for a moment.

I'd imagine I'd have more data on a specimen such as yourself if you were a threat. No matter, stop wasting my time, insect!

Dr. Vahzilok has a sudden change of attitude and disposition, and looks like he is suddenly aware he's in a jail cell for the first time.

I don't know who you are or what you want... but since you're here, then you must free me! You recognize the gravity of my work. Death looms around every corner! There is so much work left to be done! Get me out of here! Together we can fight to end the ultimate flaw of the human condition! We are Vahzilok! We will prevail!

Quote

Doctor Vahzilok takes a deep breath and calms his demeanor significantly. It's like a switch flipped in his personality - the excitable doctor has been replaced by a stand-in brimming with calm intent and poise.

Oh, who's that? Is that Cortex? Cortex old friend, you've come to save me! Is this your doing? Did the Eidolons succeed in inflitrating this wretched zoo?

Cortex shakes his head and informs Dr. Vahzilok that he nearly lost his life during the power grab trying to restore the Vahzilok to order. He had to sell his soul to Buzzsaw, and Dr. Pierce, to get things back in order.

Hah! HAH! My genius knows no bounds. I knew allowing Buzzsaw to live outside my purview would reap untold benefits! And Pierce did exactly as she should have, keeping the operation in limbo until the right opportunity presented itself! This new Vahzilok army will be capable of such great triumphs!

Quote

Doctor Vahzilok's full body shudders at those words.

What do you mean, absorbed? Where are my loyal pupils?

Quote

Doctor Vahzilok is obviously agitated, waiting for an answer.

Cortex recounts the insurrection within the ranks while Dr. Vahzilok has been locked away - how Newt, Salamander, Malady and Pathogen tore each other apart while Dubstitch and Raverobber took advantage of the chaos. And then how trying to quell it nearly killed Cortex while Pierce was trying to play sides from the shadows.

I see. And then you sold your soul, and my work, to Buzzsaw, who in turn has taken my benevolent research and set it loose within a group of drug-addicted meme-spouting morons!

You've taken my ingenious plans and thoroughly putrified them with your stubborn sense of pride and preservation! You should have just died nobly, and the Freakshow wouldn't be running riot with technology of mine that should NEVER have seen the light of day! That research was for me, for us, when the time was right! Now you've saved yourself only to bring death down all around us!

You're dead to me, Cortex! This death I will not prevent! The only thing that could even help me consider forgiveness is if you kill this brigand for Hero.gender=male his|her treachery and blasphemy, and get me OUT OF HERE! You owe it to me!

 

[EmperorSteele]

 

...does $his/her not work for Devs like it does in AE?

[Glacier Peak]

24 minutes ago, EmperorSteele said:

...does $his/her not work for Devs like it does in AE?

Is Huge identified in game as male? This whole time I thought it was a third gender! 😅

[Arcalian]

Thank you, sir.