Mobius Final Arc ready for testing.

[cranebump]

 

Bunkered myself in the writing shed for a few days and knocked this out. If you've played the whole thing, I am hoping it will be a satisfying capstone.

 

Vaya con Guacamole.

Crane

Edited December 29, 2020 by cranebump

[Kyksie]

 

This arc is the final chapter in an 18-arc epic saga, wherein the "Pachiderm" traps the badguys in a "Mobius Strip", but that attracts the attention of the "Dagon" and the "Pale Queen", and there's a big and burly knight named Anguin, and... there's a lot of stuff, is the takeaway here. It's like the time when you were fourteen and got foisted on your great aunt for the afternoon, and after filling you full of Chex Mix and cheerwine, she sat you down in front of the tube with her to watch her 'stories', which you couldn't understand because you didn't know the eighteen years of backstory, like how Becca used to be married to Chester but he cheated on her with Lurleen but she was really one of Janice's alternate personalities, who was secretly married to Brad, who was really an alternate personality of Sergio but also he... well, you get the idea. It's like starting a book at the last chapter.

 

Anyway, the player arrives in ruined Faultline (with a cute injoke), meets up with Agvine (who is big and burly) and here we run into the arcs biggest problem... Objective Overload.

 

In the first mission, the player meets with Mr. Burly, then meets another guy, then clicks a glowie, then clicks another glowie, then clobbers a guy, then clicks three glowies, then rescues another guy, then rescues another guy, then defeats an EB, then rescues another guy. That's enough objectives for an entire arc in the first mission. Each objective does not appear until the previous one is complete, and this takes place on a wide open map, which means the player is going back and forth, and back and forth, and back and forth. Also the map has patrols, and more patrols spawn when some objective are complete, and many have mez powers. The four other missions don't have quite as many objectives, but there's still a lot.

 

So, after meeting up with about a dozen people and taking them to the Cryptic Lounge for a socially distant toga party, Anguen decides we need to meet the Watcher on High. The player ventures into a Rikti base and and reverses the power leads on their generator, which causes them to join you. Then off to Frostfire's Frozen Wonderland to take down Cruella de Vil or something, then into the "office with a slight air quality problem" map to send people to hell. This map has three tough EBs who spawn one after another, which can be a problem since the player is reduced to level 35. My 35 Blaster got completely obliterated; I tried it again with Spider-Kitty, a fully tricked out Crab Spider who eats AVs for breakfast, and still had to eat a handful of insps to win. Yes, that's right, I slogged through the first four missions TWICE to write this review. This should give you some idea of the lengths I go to provide quality AE reviews for my readers, and should not be taken to mean that I spend sixteen hours a day in front of the computer playing CoX and swilling Night Train, honest. Finally, after Angueuin dies of cholesterol poisoning, we meet the Watcher on High, who is really Statesman smoking a joint, which has expanded his consciousness to encompass the universe or something.

 

This is a hard arc to rate. The writing is extremely high quality, and there's a LOT of it, with plenty of clues and details. There are quite a few custom groups, with varied powers and costumes, and all have bios. However, the Objective Overload makes it a poor choice for someone looking for a quick mission before dinner, and the difficulty makes it hard for soloists. In summary, this arc is suited for teams who appreciate a deep story and have a lot of time to spare, most likely members of an RP supergroup. But then, those people have no doubt already made up their minds to play this arc, thus making this review completely redundant.

 

Edited January 3, 2021 by Kyksie

[cranebump]

Thanks for giving it a run. For the record, I ran it with a L32 tank with IOS. Like you, I had to pop Insps for some parts of it. I ended up doing minor nerfs on the three end bosses (each of whom is connected to previous arcs the character has run, if players run the whole meta-arc, which is a tall order). I would agree with your assessment that players who prefer story will appreciate it (especially since there are plenty of cookie cutter arcs they can breeze through). You play to your strengths. Mine’s narrative and metaplot. Because of that, jamming in the story given MA’s limitation requires me to make certain concessions.

 

Which leads me to my main disagreement with you about mission #1. You talk about “time wasters” a lot in your reviews (as if there’s a specific number of objectives allowed?). And, while I won’t defend someone plopping in 12 glowie# where 3 will do (guilty), some choices we might make are driven by what pushes the story along. More simply, we have to use what the MA gives us. For example, in the first mission, above, each early glowie is followed by a clue drop so that I can include dialogue and information for the player. If the damned clue box were bigger, or I could spawn text on screen in a substantive way, I’d use fewer of these. But, it’s not, so I have to extend the narrative over multiple blocks. The number of objectives is determined by plot (one of them adds the Dagon spawns, which are sent by the BB to stop the player). 

 

As for “running back and forth,” most of the glowies are on the lower level of the map, with the bosses spawning on the middle level. Well, usually. If I could sticky things in their places, I would. MA doesn’t allow me to do that. It took many runs just to get things where they are now. Wish I had more control over that, but I don’t. Well, not much. In short, I attempted to group these in the same map “regions” (upper, middle, lower). I was limited to spawn points, because (if I recall correctly), FL Echo doesn’t have wall spawns, so, I’m sharing floor space with NPCs. I ran that mish a LOT. Sometimes it spawned like a dream (albeit you go from back to front after grabbing Angevin). Even when it didn’t, finding stuff was pretty easy. Map isn’t that big, really. 

 

Overall, I feel your assessment is fair, as to what kind of players would want to play it. Typically, there’s not much evaluation of the narrative, which is on par for your style (which I think makes my arcs suffer in these reviews, because my strong point is narrative—substance over style, for good/ill).  Even so, thanks for taking the time. Twice. That’s a big commitment, because it is not a short arc. As for follow up, Arc is still in test mode. Instead of a tank, I’ll try a squishy to test bosses again. It should be doable, after all. 

 

Appreciate the time and the review, 

Crane

Edited January 4, 2021 by cranebump