Atlas of the Ancients

[lemonade]

This seems easy, it better get harder. I want battles!!

[Toropiusu]

Buy this special mallet for 1000NC, then every day you can fight Inflatable Balthazar using it to win a reward! Beat Inflatable Balthazar 5 times in a month, and you win a special bonus Neocash item!

[Siniri]

Buy this special mallet for 1000NC, then every day you can fight Inflatable Balthazar using it to win a reward! Beat Inflatable Balthazar 5 times in a month, and you win a special bonus Neocash item!

That'd almost be worth it if you got to bash inflatable TNT with it. Or the NC mall.

[lemonade]

Buy this special mallet for 1000NC, then every day you can fight Inflatable Balthazar using it to win a reward! Beat Inflatable Balthazar 5 times in a month, and you win a special bonus Neocash item!

That is stupid, seriously.

[Flipsyde]

This "puzzle" insults our intelligence.
They might as well just have a button that says "click here to win"
and you click it and it says "Wow, You won!"

LOL That was great.

Buy this special mallet for 1000NC, then every day you can fight Inflatable Balthazar using it to win a reward! Beat Inflatable Balthazar 5 times in a month, and you win a special bonus Neocash item!

What a waste of NC. *facepalm*

[Mxytdvc]

Ugh, this plot is pretty bad so far.......the writing makes me cringe, I don't even bother to read it since it makes my brain hurt (that, and I'm so used to reading manga that I'm in the habit of reading online comics RtoL instead of LtoR and sadly, if you read the comic in this style it gets better.....).

....I sure hope it gets better fast.....

[Siniri]

I'm so used to reading manga that I'm in the habit of reading online comics RtoL instead of LtoR

Glad I'm not the only one with this problem.

Maybe after they're done with the Halloween stuff it'll get better? Not that there really seems to be all that much work they have to do for Halloween... just grasping at straws.

[ChaosShadow]

Fourth chapter up. No plot steps, looks like.

Writing's still atrocious. Art's no better, and frankly I think it degenerates badly on the second page, especially the last panel. Ick.

I know I originally said that I'd prefer it if they just gave us plot installments instead of shoving in unnecessary non-puzzles, but given how poorly this is being executed, I think I want unnecessary non-puzzles just to give me something to do. Older plots -- I'm mostly thinking Meridell Wars I and II, since that was almost exclusively plot-comics for a month and then an explosion of war and lesser plot comics between enemeis -- could pull this off because, while they aren't masterpieces, they were at least entertaining and decent. This is just the saga of a group of people futzing around, spouting bad dialogue, and doing nothing of real consequence.

Worse yet, there was a completely legitimate riddle in this one; again, just like the last one, they could have given us the clue -- turn to the seasons or whatever -- and ended the comic there so we could traipse off to Faerieland and figure out what it meant. Again, not exactly a lot of brainpower involved, but it would have been something, it would have been better than this comic, and it would have felt like we were contributing something to the story, like it has been for every other puzzle-centric plot.

(Well, it's hard to call it puzzle-centric, seeing as it's almost distasteful to call these puzzles.)

What. Is. TNT. Thinking.

[Katdragon]

What. Is. TNT. Thinking.

I think that you're giving TNT unncecesarry credit. They obviously aren't thinking. Or if they are, it's "Oooh, look at my animated cartoons!" and "Oooh, how much cash can we make from making everything NC based?".

I'd almost welcome the Lost Desert find-a-scroll at this point. At least I'd be doing something.

[Siniri]

At least chapter 4 was better than chapter 3. Chapter 2 ended in a cliffhanger with them about to be attacked by a monster, and then they were suddenly saving a random person from drowning, who didn't appear in the next scene transition. At least here they discussed going to Faerieland before going there, and didn't escape the monster off-screen.

[Flipsyde]

I think they are stalling a bit. I wouldn't be surprised if things pick up a bit in November and end just near the end of the month so that they can then focus on the December holiday season.

[Siniri]

I think they are stalling a bit. I wouldn't be surprised if things pick up a bit in November and end just near the end of the month so that they can then focus on the December holiday season.

I wonder if they'll do the late-November AAA game challenge thingy that they have done the past couple of years. If so, they might try to wrap this one up before that -- though they have done DD and a plot simultaneously in the past.

I personally care more about quality than speed or even quantity. So if they want to drag it out forever to make actual puzzles, I won't mind.

[Daze]

NC Challenge FAQ:

10. Is there a deadline for completing the Atlas of the Ancients NC Challenge?

Yes, you must complete the quests by December 2nd. Quest Tickets will be available for purchase until November 30th.

So it seems the plot will end by December 2.

[Karnatu]

BUT that's for the NC Challenge, so the actual plot will probably be a bit longer. At least it'll be running for another month + some days. So far I haven't bothered doing any of the steps thanks to my new Windows that doesn't have macromedia flash player. So when you click on the comic does it link you to another page? If so can someone please give the links?

[Daze]

News is up, but no new plot step.