Focused Feedback: Issue 27 Finale - Piecemeal's Personal Story

[The Curator]

Piecemeal Issue 27 Finale

'A Second Chance At A First Impression' - Issue 27 Finale: Personal Story, Piecemeal

A strange, archaic and outdated device in the Rikti War Zone has been asking for you by name. If you are ready, you will step into the shoes of Paragon City's newest and most notorious villain as she comes face-to-face with a situation that (for once) she cannot handle. The amount of humble pie she consumes as a result has yet to be accurately calculated.

A new take on the Personal Story, you and your teammates will be forced to assume to the identity of Piecemeal as you navigate a reconstructed simulation of her experience trying to circumvent the protocols in the Paragon City teleport grid - an event that sends her from one place to another uncontrollably before placing you in the heart of a burgeoning apocalypse. Carefully reconstructed from her 360-degree sensor tech and optical recordings by her M.C. of Information, Bile, you will engage in a bit of banter before witnessing the horror hands-on in this Abomination Simulation.

Enjoy some of the canonical reasons for notorious changes, and a heaping bathtub full of foreshadowing!

 

• CONTACT: Pay Phone
• LOCATION: Rikti War Zone, /thumbtack 3230.6 0.1 -513.9
• ALIGNMENT / LEVEL: Any - Level 50
• OUROBOROS / ARC: Hero of the City / Made - 27.95

[Taxes]

I really enjoyed the design of this mission. Top notch! A few minor notes:

 

• The dialogue speed for the cutscenes and NPCs conversing with each is a tad too fast. I consider myself a fast reader, but it felt a bit frenetic to me. Perhaps add about another 1-2 seconds pause before the next person's line.
• Some of the NPC caption text is unreadable in the chat box (half black gradient, see screenshot).
• There was a marker on the map at one point for an "incapacitated hero" but for the life of me I could not figure out how to get onto the building where it was. Piecemeal doesn't have travel powers, and there didn't seem to be anything nearby to use to get to it (there's a fallen building that I thought might work, but it's too steep to climb). Luckily it's not needed to progress. See screenshot.
• The first map marker for "access the arena matrix" is at the bottom floor of the AE building, which kind of misleads you from where you really need to go (into the arena).
• Should this mission reward a badge? I feel like all the other personal story arcs do, maybe I'm misremembering.

 

[The Caretaker]

For the incapacitated hero, look for designated areas that seem to have wispy orange energy and floating rocks. There be low gravity wells there to aid in the jumping puzzles.

 

A badge was designed for this today.

[macskull]

Ah finally, the arc that generated the quote in my signature!

[Taxes]

1 hour ago, The Caretaker said:

For the incapacitated hero, look for designated areas that seem to have wispy orange energy and floating rocks. There be low gravity wells there to aid in the jumping puzzles.

 

A badge was designed for this today.

 

Oh interesting... good to know, but I'm not sure how I was supposed to figure that out without just trying random things. 😆

[lemming]

28 minutes ago, Taxes said:

Oh interesting... good to know, but I'm not sure how I was supposed to figure that out without just trying random things. 😆

That's the way.   At some point, we'll probably have a note in the wiki for few different spots he does spawn.   Last I checked, all the spots were accessible, but that was pre-beta.  (At least the spots where you could trap yourself are fixed. 😉 )

[Crimsanotic]

The arc won't start unless you click "find contact" and teleport to it. Just talking to the phone gives a message implying the arc hasn't been unlocked.

[The Caretaker]

You need to have completed the new Buzzsaw arc to play this mission. That's missing from the notes and I'll ask the Curator to adjust.

 

That's an oversight on my behalf. My bad.

 

If Open Beta has access to badgegrant, it's

 

/badgegrant mission_i27_buzzsaw

 

 

[Crimsanotic]

Three different people (including myself) weren't able to walk up to the phone and start the personal mission unless we teleported to it from the find contact window. I could start the mission from the phone this way without the badge and another had the badge but still needed to use find contact. At the time all of us were hero/vigilante characters.

 

I was able to walk up to the phone and start it on a rogue character with the badge.

On that same character, though, there wasn't any indication that I *could* do that other than me knowing it exists, so I would suggest it appearing in contacts.

Edited January 22 by Crimsanotic
typo

[Super Atom]

I had the badge from buzzsaw and couldn't speak to the phone as any alignment. This too was solved by using the "find contact" and teleporting to the phone, then i was able to get it.

[JAMMan0000]

Enjoyed the arc. Excellent story telling. Felt a little lost a times, but figuring out what to do was part of the fun. Thanks HC!
Oh and I really like the RWZ base overhaul. Its massive. That must have taken a ton of work. Looks like a great place to build more content around now 🙂

Edited January 22 by JAMMan0000

[The Caretaker]

2 hours ago, Crimsanotic said:

Three different people (including myself) weren't able to walk up to the phone and start the personal mission unless we teleported to it from the find contact window. I could start the mission from the phone this way without the badge and another had the badge but still needed to use find contact. At the time all of us were hero/vigilante characters.

 

I was able to walk up to the phone and start it on a rogue character with the badge.

On that same character, though, there wasn't any indication that I *could* do that other than me knowing it exists, so I would suggest it appearing in contacts.

This is a weird problem and I'll look into it. 

[The Caretaker]

On 1/22/2024 at 3:29 PM, Crimsanotic said:

Three different people (including myself) weren't able to walk up to the phone and start the personal mission unless we teleported to it from the find contact window. I could start the mission from the phone this way without the badge and another had the badge but still needed to use find contact. At the time all of us were hero/vigilante characters.

 

I was able to walk up to the phone and start it on a rogue character with the badge.

On that same character, though, there wasn't any indication that I *could* do that other than me knowing it exists, so I would suggest it appearing in contacts.

 

On 1/22/2024 at 3:50 PM, Super Atom said:

I had the badge from buzzsaw and couldn't speak to the phone as any alignment. This too was solved by using the "find contact" and teleporting to the phone, then i was able to get it.

 

This should be solved in the next patch - I had some erroneous flags set in the contact.

[KaizenSoze]

Overall nice mission.

A few notes:
The NPC is a bit fast, especially with the slang.

Text is hard to read with default setting.

This door looks off.

 

I can clip right into the door.

Edited January 24 by KaizenSoze

[MsAligned]

agreed, caption text extremely difficult to read, essentially the top half of each line is missing, but that is common, always been like that and they have never shown any interest in QoL items.

I found the mission boring.  Always seemed like I was just wandering around until the mission changed to do something else, never felt I like I did anything to complete anything.

[twozerofoxtrot]

  

On 1/23/2024 at 10:51 PM, The Curator said:

CONTACT: Pay Phone

• Accessing this story arc requires having completing Doc Buzzsaw's newest arc.

• Those missing it can use /badgegrant mission_i27_buzzsaw to unlock it.

 

 

Does not seem to be WIA.

I logged into my pre-existing Arse/Traps Controller (lvl 35, Rogue) and was able to TP to contact from the "Find Contact" window, "talk" to the payphone, select the mission, Mission Teleport (power) to it*, and then enter.

I have not yet completed Buzzsaw's arc (*I actually detoured to Buzzsaw, picked up the arc, and then Teleported from there).

 

[The Caretaker]

20 hours ago, twozerofoxtrot said:

  

 

 

Does not seem to be WIA.

I logged into my pre-existing Arse/Traps Controller (lvl 35, Rogue) and was able to TP to contact from the "Find Contact" window, "talk" to the payphone, select the mission, Mission Teleport (power) to it*, and then enter.

I have not yet completed Buzzsaw's arc (*I actually detoured to Buzzsaw, picked up the arc, and then Teleported from there).

 

 

You're right, because the Contact Finder can actually override any requirement settings on the Contact if some foolish developer flags it to be visible there. Once you teleport to contact the deed is done.

 

Shoutout to studying the Television contact to figure out this one.

[Doc_Scorpion]

On 1/28/2024 at 8:09 PM, The Caretaker said:

You're right, because the Contact Finder can actually override any requirement settings on the Contact if some foolish developer flags it to be visible there. Once you teleport to contact the deed is done.

I popped out of a mish door in the RWZ, and the white circle with the ziggy-zaggy explosion star around it popped up on my map.  Clicked on it, followed my nav ring, and it took me right to the contact.  This character has not previously done the Doc's arc and does not have the Patient Zero badge.

[The Caretaker]

On 1/30/2024 at 2:49 AM, Doc_Scorpion said:

I popped out of a mish door in the RWZ, and the white circle with the ziggy-zaggy explosion star around it popped up on my map.  Clicked on it, followed my nav ring, and it took me right to the contact.  This character has not previously done the Doc's arc and does not have the Patient Zero badge.

 

This may have been because of OTHER flags on it. Like IssueOnZoneEnter, which will be removed next patch as well.