Kyksie's Dojo

[Kyksie]

Of Guns and Asa Ronan - 41018

 

The level range is 5-15, so Kyksie called up a friend of hers, Scarlet's Web. A low-level Arachnos operative, Scarlet often finds herself short on money for Drenched Donuts and Crunchyroll, so she takes on some odd jobs for extra cash. Their good friend Billy Heck tells her that a Marcone weapons smuggler has gone missing, so the family either wants their money back or his head on a platter, or both. Scarlet ventures boldly into the sewer, and finds the smuggler and his buddies chopped up into little pieces and stuffed into Major Flanders boxes.

 

One of his henchman, Anastasio, was not among the Mobster McNuggets they found, so the Family wants a word. The PPD have him in a safehouse, so Scarlet kicks the door down and fights some members of a custom group, the 'Stingers'. Pressing on, she spots an unusual sight at the end of a corridor...

 

 

...what could that be?

 

 

The hallway ends in a sheet of darkness black as midnight. Scarlet carefully holds a hand nearby, and feels nothing; no sound, no breeze, no heat. It's like a rift has been torn in the world. Squinting, she sees within the faint echoes of a desolate realm; rocky outcroppings scoured by an alien breeze, wisps of dust in shapes almost human.

 

 

Gritting her teeth, she gasps and dashes through- and at once is standing in another room in the safehouse, but with a gaping hole in the floor. Shaking off the unearthly chill, Scarlet lowers herself into the tunnels below, finds and captures Anastasio, and drags him kicking and screaming through the unholy barrier and back to the surface.

 

What follows is almost anticlimactic: we find out that someone with the ability to duplicate himself is behind the attack. Scarlet captures him, then takes him to the Marcone don for a sit-down, but he breaks free and summons more clones, so we pummel him. The clones are rather difficult at level 10; Scarlet soon found herself eating inspirations before every fight and resting afterwards. The mysterious assassin is Asa Ronan, and it turns out he and the don have history, but at least we get paid. All that pales compared to the few terrifying seconds spent in the place between worlds, where time, space and death merge into one.

 

Of Guns and Asa Ronan is another very well written arc, chronicling the chilling depths one might claw though as part of ones struggle to earn snack money.

 

Edited June 13, 2021 by Kyksie

[Kyksie]

Snakes From the Isles - 41022

 

The level range for this arc goes down to 10, so I call Scarlet's Web again. The contact is Agent Hahn, of Longbow, who tells me that some snakes are attacking an office building in Atlas, go check it out maybe? Scarlet arrives, and finds that the office is, in fact, under attack by large mutated snakes. She joins up with Agent Mila, and... hmmm, why is that cop attacking me? I mean, yeah, I'm an Arachnos Soldier, wearing an Arachnos uniform and snacking on Spiderling Scout cookies as I fight, but... wait, now a businessman is hostile to me as well?

 

Pressing on, Mila and Scarlet discover that the office has a huge hole in the floor of one of the conference rooms, right next to the boardroom table with "Have that hole fixed, mmmmkay?" memoranda for next weeks meeting. In the tunnels below, we fight more snakes, and Agent Dupre... who shouts "I obey my master" and attacks? This leads me to suspect that the snakes possess some form of mind control. My suspicions are confirmed upon meeting the snake leader, Mesmer, whose eyes glow with unearthly energy as he focuses his mind. Scarlet freezes, her eyes glassy. Her hands move of their own accord, unbuttoning first her top, then her-

 

Whoops! Sorry, I must have gotten this confused with the other arc I was reviewing, Malaise's Mind Control Harem. Here, the player is immune to the snakes' mind control for some unspecified reason. We pummel the snake leaders and return to base. Seeking information, we meet up with Mongoose and pay his bar tab in exchange for information. Evidence suggests that Arachnos is behind it, so we raid an Arachnos base where mind controlled troops are dancing to flutes. Then we raid an airbase, and finally infiltrate the Snake caves to defeat the leader.

 

Snakes From the Isles is a nice fun arc. There's a few minor spelling errors and some custom mobs are missing descriptions, but if you want to see Black Swan, Bobcat, and Diablolique wearing nothing but-

 

Whoops! Sorry!

 

Edited June 17, 2021 by Kyksie

[Kyksie]

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.

Edited June 20, 2021 by Kyksie

[merrypessimist]

Thank you for your feedback, Kyksie.  

[Kyksie]

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.

 

[Darmian]

2 hours ago, Kyksie said:

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.

 

Apologies for the level reduction, but in writing these (The Spark of the Blind and Damnatio Memoriae, as well as a Loyalist trilogy) my goal was to have missions a Goldsider could continue on with when they cap out of Neutropolis at level 20 but before taking either the Rift missions or going to First Ward. Thanks for running it. 🙂

Edited July 1, 2021 by Darmian

[Kyksie]

 

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.

 

 

Edited July 8, 2021 by Kyksie

[Take One]

4 hours ago, Kyksie said:

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 it too and while I agree that this is the case, I just considered it a comedy trope and actually enjoyed it. on the whole I did play on an unusually high difficulty for me, so much of my enjoyment came from trying to figure out what combination of inspirations I would need to bring to overcome the obstacles, and also that I had to use incarnate powers I usually forget that I own. The story was predictable but at least it was internally consistent, we learned things on the way and deployed that information to reach a final victory, so I'd say we grew as characters. Even if we had to carry the biggest idiot ball known to hero-kind.

[Kyksie]

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.

 

 

 

[Kyksie]

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.

 

Edited July 17, 2021 by Kyksie

[Darmian]

4 minutes ago, Kyksie said:

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.  

 

Less is more, as they say.

[Take One]

I really like Fusionette too. Maybe I should play that arc.

 

I have now tried to finish mission 2 three times, but the third clue just can't be found. I have killed everything except the two AVs (even though I wasn't supposed to kill anything), I have created a macro for targeting "clue" and scoured the map, but it's just not there. Three times I have found the first two clues almost immediately, the third is not there. How???

Edited July 22, 2021 by Take One

[Kyksie]

 

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.

 

[Darmian]

4 hours ago, Kyksie said:

 

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.

 

Thanks for the run, @Kyksie. I've scaled one of those EBs back to a boss.  Can't make it TOO easy, LOL.

 

Between those three and their accompanying Loyalist counterparts that's an extra 30 missions slotted on to the end of Praetoria.  I've got more Goldside stuff planned but there'll be a little break from that for a while!

Edited July 20, 2021 by Darmian

[Ankylosaur]

I had a big issue with the onslaught of Olympian Guards too - even on the improved version. But I tend to probably make my stuff too easy with allies and the like. 🙂 

Edited July 20, 2021 by Ankylosaur

[Darmian]

1 hour ago, Ankylosaur said:

I had a big issue with the onslaught of Olympian Guards too - even on the improved version. But I tend to probably make my stuff too easy with allies and the like. 🙂 

Seriously though!  OLYMPIAN GUARDS = TOUGH!

 

 

[cranebump]

(Sheepish voice) I enjoyed fighting the guards...:-)

[Ankylosaur]

Just to be clear 

Quote

 a big issue

wasn't that I disapproved - just that I died a lot. 🙂

[Kyksie]

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.

[Kyksie]

On 7/19/2021 at 9:07 AM, Take One said:

I really like Fusionette too. Maybe I should play that arc.

 

I have now tried to finish mission 2 three times, but the third clue just can't be found. I have killed everything except the two AVs (even though I wasn't supposed to kill anything), I have created a macro for targeting "clue" and scoured the map, but it's just not there. Three times I have found the first two clues almost immediately, the third is not there. How???

 

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.

[Take One]

2 hours ago, Kyksie said:

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.

 

I did look at the map from all kinds of angles, even flying up high to check things from above, but yeah, it's possible that it might have ended up there - I didn't spend as much time looking at rooftops as everywhere else.

[Kyksie]

Garden of the Will - 42520

 

The contact is Pavel Garnier, and FBI agent charged with making Perez Park an actual park again (which seems a bit odd for the FBI, but eh). We infiltrate a Skull lair and retrieve an undercover agent, who has evidence telling us the the Vahzilok are up to no good. But then, as a rule the Vahzilok generally are up to no good. What about all those thing that the Doctor promised, like an end to death and disease and eight zombie arms for everyone? I wouldn't mind a few extra arms.

 

Anyway, next we bust into the park and stop the Vaz from injecting Hellions and Skulls with some weird serum, them discover that the Vahzilok have a new leader called the gardener, and the serum was supposed to make people grow leaves or something, which wouldn't be nearly as useful as extra arms, unless it's hot and you need shade. We pummel the gardener and put and end to his schemes, making Perez Park a wonderful place for children to frolic, except for all the Clockwork, and Circle of Thorns, and the Kraken.

 

This is another well done arc; as usual, my only gripe is the low level cap. Sorry for taking so long to post the review... it's just that "well done but not incredible" arcs don't leave me with a lot to work with. The best reviews are for stuff that's at an extreme; absolutely amazing or completely awful. AE authors, if you're putting the finishing touches on an arc and you don't think it's a masterpiece, please do me a favor and make it terrible. Spelling errors, glowie hunts, catboys in their underwear, that sort of thing.

 

 

[cranebump]

Damnit! I forgot the freakin' catboys! My extreme competence bit me in the ass again!:-)

 

(thanks for the writeup).

[Kyksie]

I Sing of Arms and the Man - 42617

 

Working double shifts as head of security at Big Al's Tokeville, Kyksie finds herself short on spare time lately. Hearing about a new AE that needs to be reviewed, she calls her friend Mystress Yiffstress, but she's busy yiffing. Stoner Dude is off doing, um, stuff, Mr. Neutron was eating ice cream, and Spider-Kitty went right to voicemail. Sighing, Kyksie scrolls down her address list and reluctantly calls the name at the bottom.

 

 

"You come before me now," Imperious intones, "seeing me girded as for war. That is a truth known to the gods, and-"

 

"Girded?"

 

"Aye. And by the gods, I shall see the Usurper driven from this land-"

 

"So you're, uh, wearing a girdle?"

 

Imperious blinks. "Nay, I wear my ancestral armor to honor those who stood before me. A triumph will be needed, the dead honored-"

 

"So the girdle is under the armor? That must be kinda uncomfortable."

 

Imperious sighs. "Just go punch some people, okay?"

 

Purple heads into some caves to rescue Imperious' loyal slave, Tullio. I'm not sure how a slave can be loyal though. Maybe Imperious has a really good medical plan with no HMO. There's a nicely done custom group, and the cave has lots of clues and decorative glowies. He brings back a tablet with a 'battle sign' or something. Then we go to another cave to capture an ex-gladiator named Crixus, who agrees to help. We then go to the temple and free more gladiators with Crixus' aid. At the end, Crixus demands the dental plan in addition to medical and paid leave, but Imperious refuses, so he attacks, but that ends the mission so it doesn't matter.

 

This is another good arc, with lavish writing and clues, and no time wasters. A tiny nitpick is that the difficulty is a bit uneven; the boss of mission 2 is a boss who will not scale to an lt, while the boss of the last mission is an lt and you have an EB ally, making it effortless.

 

[Darmian]

2 hours ago, Kyksie said:

the boss of the last mission is an lt and you have an EB ally, making it effortless.

Well, it being Cimerora and all, I've had the "pleasure" of playing guide to a small team who took it at 4/8, and you kinda need that ally if anyone decides to do that!

 

The intent behind this (I hope it came across) is: What if the Cimerorans behaved like historical Romans? Or at least what we're told they were like.