Zaphir
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Posts
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Joined
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Just a minor note: I'm currently doing some major editing on "To Dream of Nothing" that'll both make the story flow a little better and remove a lot of unnecessary backtracking (based on PW's, GlaziusF's and earlier reviews). I'm also shifting the arc's level range to 20-29 in the process.
Update: All done. All that remains is some prettifying (which I'll probably delay until I get some feedback on the new version of the arc) and maybe some minor errors. Go crazy!
-- Z. -
Does this mean it won't be verboten to refer to the "Freakshow" in a COH storyarc anymore?!
Seriously though, good news... assuming it's not to be done "Soon™"!
-- |. -
People used to care about AE storyarcs. If you look at arcs created before mid-2009 (even the bad to mediocre ones), they typically have a lot of plays. Publish a story arc now and you're pretty much guaranteed to get zero plays unless you solicit plays aggressively... even if it's a great arc. Dev's choice or HOF is *it*.
That still doesn't prove that there's a demand for them *now*, mind. Xanatos may be right: that period in '09 was just a period of "shiny" until the AE experience grew stale.
Consider this, though -- a lot of people run the same content (typically "not-so-great" content, ie newspaper/radio missions; tips are better, but the repetition still applies) over and over. You can get the same rewards in AE while playing better content. Why not put the several thousand "good" story arcs* in AE to use instead?
-- Z.
* Yes, the big caveat is that you need to be able to find the good content amidst the thousands of abandoned experiments, broken farms, and just plain bad arcs. Blah blah Sturgeon's Law. If the search interface was overhauled (and maybe the rating system too), this could be possible via favorites lists, recommendations, etc.... this has been discussed a lot of times on these forums already. -
Mostly instrumentals here, since those work best as background music IMO.
The Coldest of Wars - something like this for the first two 'spy' missions this one's for the last mission, obviously
-- Z. -
And now for the last arc-with-less-than-10-plays:
(Preface: I don't play farms normally, though my SG had some fun playing an all-boss farm with some relatively tough customs and amusing dialogue back in the day -- it was a good way to gauge our power level. Of course now that arc is all-but-unusable with the xp nerfs on custom groups without the full minion/lt/boss setup. Sic transit gloria mundi.)
Played Arc #518075: Crisis at Talos Towers by @PW on the same MM as in the prev. post (level 34 thug/pain).
Gameplay: First spawn is *very* close to the door, but I was able to summon my pets before all hell broke loose. Was a very frenzied encounter actually, since I triggered a captive and a rescue objective with the attached ambushes right at the entrance to the first room. Later on I was one-shotted by a Conflagration (LT, I think) at 80%ish hp with my pets on guard mode - didn't see that coming! I hit the ticket cap at the very end (mission completion bonus).
Design: Much more subdued cop look on the contact, quite the culture shock after Twoflower's arc! I kid. Map choice is a bit weird with the demonic/arsonist paraphernalia, but I can't think of a better map.
Story: Minimalistic, but that's the intention as I understand it; and it does have that frenzied 'go go go!' atmosphere. I'd probably add pseudo-glowies with interaction text only (no clue text, it'd break the flow). Stuff that'd enhance the drama or add depth to the zone: a whiteboard from a company meeting, a hastily-opened safe, bits from the Rikti dropship (maybe a bomb the player has to disarm/blow up), etcetera. Maybe add a time limit?
Ideas for the 'egress': You could have $name call on other heroes / etc to help rescue the hostages while $heshe valiantly holds up the only cross-beam that's preventing the entire building from collapsing (sub in other possibilities depending on player's archetype/powersets) a'la Sabin and the collapsing house in Final Fantasy 6. It's silly, but hey - comic book plot.
Overall: I liked it, though it was mean on my non-IO'd mastermind (I died! Twice!). Will give it a whirl again later to see the changes.
-- Z. -
Played Arc #517859: Crime is Art and Art is Crime by @Twoflower on a level 34 thug/pain MM (which meant I had to resummon my pets every mission /cry) at 0x2 with bosses on.
Gameplay: I hit the ticket limit in M2 and M3... there may be a stricter ticket limit patched in with I21, though. Liked the optional objectives in M1 (and the way they were handled). More arcs need to do this, including my own! /shifty_eyes
Design: I gotta say, I dig the sparkly art cop look. The contact's voice is pretty neat too, I especially liked the busy text for M3. I spotted a few typos - sent them along in the ingame comment.
Story: Good overall premise, especially the cackling-villain-style finale. Minor nit - Sabine's dialog is a bit terse with abrupt full stops (esp. in the intro), but that may be just for style -- in that case, it's fine.
Customs: Liked them a lot design-wise. Power-wise, I think the astronaut's no-dying power (moment of glory?) is a bit much on a LT. The greek archer's blinding arrow is halfway there, but that one's counterable with yellows. The bosses were surprisingly tough, especially Teddy... his self-rez is brutal!
Overall: Great arc, though it may be a bit unforgiving on squishies.
-- Z. -
Same here. It only started with I21, too...
Usually the game freezes on a loading screen, but I've had occasional lock-ups during gameplay as well. No obvious pattern, and the only way out is to force-close the app and relaunch.
-- Z. -
Wow, thanks for the exhaustive review and criticism! I chose this arc because I consider it my weakest work, and I'm trying to find ways to improve it. It was also made when I haven't yet realized a few important (IMO) things:
- "less is more" -- I definitely agree about overall verbosity, and will try to cut down on that.
- "show, don't tell" -- I tried to tell a parallel story in M3, and it doesn't work out so well unless the player hunts down every glowie and spends ~10 mins reading after the mission.
- "ambushes aren't a good tension-builder" -- I'll probably keep the ambushes where the player is guaranteed to have 2 allies and scrap the rest.
The basic premise of this arc (and I think one of your biggest complaints) was the global power net talked about in the "Origin of Power", and how Nihil was able to manipulate it at a primal level... affecting all beings who have been in contact with the net for a longer time (ie. "not newbies"), and conveniently excluding the Nictus. Now that I think about it, that unified power theory thing doesn't really make a lot of sense. In my defense, I was young (a whole 2 years) and impressionable then...! Good call about Positron though... just gotta find someone who's all smart and sciencey and stuff.
Minor notes re the individual missions:
M1
- There are 3 terminals to start, and the 4th one pops up after the Zovir fight. I put them in the same collective objective group, so if you missed an optional terminal, you'll have "2 terminals" at that point. I'll probably just put the 2nd terminal in its own group.
M2
- Agreed about the clues, they're kind of in a vacuum. Will redo them.
- The two allies were working on their own 'leads', but Posi found that the character's lead is much more promising/important, so he reassigned them. They're sort of meant to feel like PUG members, minus the 'omg hael me' stuff
M3
- The journals, sad as it is, probably have to go. A System Shock 2-style email/voicelog setup just doesn't work with COH's clue system.
- BR-008 originally did the lie-down animation; problem is, a rescue captive event always ends with the captive running off. I had to make him an ally, which switches him into the stand stance. No better way to handle this, unfortunately.
M4
- The placement was a last-day [literally] kludge, since for some unknown reason 'back' boss spawns bugged out half the time, making Nihil nowhere to be found, so I could only use front/middle.
Looking forward to comments from others as well -- don't hold back, I can take it.
-- Z. -
Just played 'Whack a Mole! Incarnate Edition! Lambda Sector' (#508837). I've not played the previous Whack a Mole arc/s, so the concept was new to me.
Gameplay: I thought the navbar quest objective thing (like an arcade game's score display) was pretty ingenious. Map choice was good too, the flat layout works well for the second chain of objectives.
Design: I snickered (sometimes laffed, and once ROFL'd) along with the riffs on the LFG queue / Incarnate trials. The little quips about the "faceless zerg" aspect of LFG trial groups were amusing too. For the genuine LFG experience, you'd need proximity bombs halfway across the map occasionally exploding and redlining / killing the player... you can't really do that in AE though. /sadface
Story: Not really... but I didn't expect any
Overall: I think every 50 should play this arc once. We can probably all relate to the wonders of LFG and the incarnate system! (to be fair, my experiences with LFG were a bit more positive -- OTOH I am one of those people who doesn't "get" the point of the incarnate system, but this is a rant for another day)
-- Z. -
Arc #374644 - 'To Dream of Nothing', by @Zaphir.
I'm giving all of my old (and never-played :P) arcs a once-over, so I'm very open to suggestions -- all input welcome.
Looking forward to playing your arcs!
-- Z. -
Yeah, the only 'real' Kheldian in MA that I can find is Sunstorm the hero (iirc); he's a huge pain to fight too!
Kheldians in my arcs are in human form with glowy eyes and a blaster set (dark blast for warshades; energy blast isn't bad for peacebringer wannabes). I also wish there was a way to get 'real' khelds in MA, but alas.
-- Z. -
Not my arc (obviously), but try #147898. My guildies used to rave about it and we occasionally plowed through it on an alt team (on +2 x8) to check our team's 'power level'.
Caveat: it's one of those old all-boss farms, so your XP gains will be negligible.
-- Z. -
Congrats!! Well deserved.
I remember playing its arc back at this original release and it became one of my faves right away. What can I say -- I'm a sucker for the 80's
-- Z. -
Levelling in AE is always fun. I played a fortunata to level 40ish just playing arcs from PW's thread (occasionally mixing it up with a DC or random search)... it was good times. I just went enhanceless at the start and made my own IOs from tickets at 20/30/40 (could have probably stretched that a bit out).
As for the inevitable shameless plug: as long as you're low-level, "To Dream of Nothing" #374644 could use a few plays... it has received zero since Dr. A's second contest back in early '10. I'm definitely looking for feedback on that one still!
-- Z. -
Thanks for playing "To Reign in Hell", glad to hear you enjoyed it [understandable caveats aside]! Just dropping a few comments...
Quote:Yeah, this isn't explained too well -- as I understand it, the Radio Tower is basically the centralized heart of Recluse's empire (and, by extension, Grandville), so its reactor/power distribution building in fact controls power distribution for the entire zone except for smaller backup reactors and the like. The character is actually diverting power from all other Grandville areas (including the Arachnos bunkers, cue next mission) to use the comms grid (which would normally be powered by reactor #2).Originally Posted by Coulomb2
Another Note: Okay … it’s now clear the reactors power *all* of Grandville; again, either that isn’t mentioned before the end of the mission, or I just missed it. If it’s there, and pretty clear, that’s my mistake. If not, you might want to consider spelling that out more clearly.
Also, good catch on the robot hyphen thing (I never noticed it, but now that you mention it, it could be very different depending on chat window setup, resolution, etc), I'll probably just put a space after every 3rd word or so.
Man, I suck at describing visual puzzles. :P I envisioned something like thisQuote:Notes: I never could get a good visual of how the whole thing with the octagon was supposed to work. Was it that the octagon ‘laid out’ over Bloody Bay, if transposed over a similar scale map of Grandville, would center on the house I was exploring? But why would I know to center the thing on the east side of Grandville? Or was it not a regular octagon, and drawing lines from opposing sides didn’t intersect in the middle? (Although, if it’s not regular, the lines from opposing sides wouldn’t all intersect in the same place anyway – at least I don’t think they would.)
ie. the 'right' side of the octagon is much 'thinner' and if you extend the lines the top-right and bottom-right sides are on (on a world map that has both Bloody Bay and Grandville on it), they will eventually intersect at the X where the house in Grandville is located.Code:____, / - / | | | - ... | | [...] X ... | | - | | \ - \____ ,
Yeah... I figured those star maps would be partial maps of distant galaxies (more like sketches really), mapped by Sarkin during his astral-space adventures (handwaving alert!); I probably should've worded this better. I'll clarify it in the clue text.Quote:Note: It did bother me a bit that the star map ‘pinpointed’ a star in a distant galaxy. In general, real star maps only depict stars in our own galaxy (and even then, only as they appear in our sky – although a star atlas would certainly show where they were in space). Either way, the bottom line is complete star maps (or star atlases) frequently only show fairly nearby stars – and almost never chart star locations beyond our own galaxy. In fact, even our best telescopes can only pick out the very brightest stars in even nearby galaxies. Almost nobody else would complain about that, but it’s one of those things that, as an astronomer, I get annoyed at (since it implies a lack of understanding of the sheer scale of a galaxy, or the vast distances between them: a complete star atlas of the Milky Way, for example, would have more than 100 billion stars. In order to make it big enough so that the stars didn’t all crowd on top of each other, the chart would have to be more than 300 km to a side. And depicting even the closest giant galaxy to ours at the correct scaled distance and to the same level of detail would require the map to be 7500 km to a side…)
[aside: I did consult an astrophysicist in my SG about the entire sun-turns-into-a-blue-dwarf doomsday scenario, but I didn't ask him about starmaps. :P]
Yep, you are right -- I'll clarify it in the briefing.Quote:Note: The wording gets a bit hard to follow in the briefing – it sounds as though the Destroyer put up the shield, then the Legacy Chain arrived on the scene and destroyed it. The moment that happened, the flares began. But I suspect (as indicated above) you mean that the Destroyer got to Bloody Bay, put a shield up, and then (while protected by the shield) ‘did its thing’ to destroy the world. Now, two years later, the Chain figured out how to bring down the shield, allowing us to get to Bloody Bay.
Regarding the more general comments:
- The main role of TV I envisioned is that it has already 'taken control' of the character by the time the arc starts ['taking control' referring to the same kind of soft mind-control TV does in its canon questlines]. I tried to nudge the player towards this (without revealing it) via the entire 'stuck in the bunker with nothing but food/drink/a lot of movies to watch for 2 years' description in the M1 begin clue. I also assumed that the late Arbiter Apolis was a sort of 'assistant' to TV. In the end, the TV doesn't really mind the character gaining power -- the TV has already 'won' by broadcasting itself everywhere by the end of mission 2, and surely the character has proven useful for future endeavors.
- Good catch on Arachnos. The original [v0.9] ending of the arc involved Arachnos wresting power back, and the player becoming a zero once again. GlaziusF pointed out in his review that it's really not a "player-friendly" plot, so I switched it up -- Arachnos abandons the Isles (which is really not much of anything after the disaster anyway, with most of it underwater) and moves on to an undisclosed location instead.
Suggestions:
I can see where you're coming from, but this is too tightly built into the story at this point. :/Quote:1. Consider removing the aspect of the story that makes it seem like the TV is controlling you – *keep* the TV (it’s done well), though.
I'll probably beef up their presence in M4, maybe add some banter to make it clear that they are 'not retreating, just advancing in a different direction'.Quote:2. Perhaps consider making Arachnos a bit more active in the last two missions.
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes! I agree, and I would've made this a 40-50 arc if it wasn't for... Shivans being locked to 15-25. :/ The way I try to go around it is hinting how severely the villain is already weakened:Quote:3. It did seem odd that a level 25 villain would have the power to challenge something that can destroy worlds. I presume that destroying the ‘root’ greatly weakened it, or perhaps it was greatly weakened by causing the flares – either way, I do think it’d help to explain a bit more clearly in the story how it’s possible for you to stand a chance against the end boss.
- fighting the various villain groups topside; he teleports back down when he senses...
- ...Shiva's roots being severed
- his avatar getting destroyed in the "Kali's Scythe" arc that runs parallel to this one -- I tried to avoid falling into the multi-arc story trap, so he just says something to the effect of "those meddling heroes in Paragon just destroyed my avatar too!"
- being ganged up on by the Nictus, the Freakshow and who-knows-what-else during the fight itself.
Regarding his AV status: I seriously considered it, but it could end up being very painful for a squishy (even with the help of the Nictus and Sarkin). It's not off the table yet, though.
Thanks again for the feedback!
-- Z. -
Thanks for the review! You're right in that this arc is more 'bland' (it's kind of on purpose, it's meant to be an introduction for the entire setting)... I'll look into adding some more flavor and cutting down on wall-of-texts a bit.
Regarding the explody sun juice: it's there between the lines (prof Harmont's calculations in M3), but never explicitly said. Basically, not-Itelet couldn't keep up with the energy required to keep turning the Sun into a blue dwarf, so he just called the meteor down to Earth to deal what he hoped would be the final blow against Paragon City. Yeah, he has a Shivan-bone-chip the size of Lichtenstein on his shoulder when it comes to Paragon. I'll probably make this a bit clearer in his dialogue (and/or via other details in the last mission, see next paragraph)
Good suggestion about mixing it up in the last mission (or rather breaking into two). The current - admittedly clunky - way the mission is set up does result in a lot of annoying back-and-forthness. With the split, there wouldn't even be a need to backtrack and detonate the bombs, the first mission could autocomplete when the last bomb was set.
Thanks again for the review!
-- Z. -
'Ey there!
I'd like to see you take a shot at "To Reign in Hell" (448234). It's a quirky villainous post-apoc adventure with a whole lotta Television!
Thanks in advance,
-- Z. -
Sorry for not giving too many nominations -- most of my choices were already seconded. That's what I get for replying too late!
Heroic/Vigilante: Damage Limitation by @AP #447945 (this one is a level 15-19 arc, but I think it fits this category better... feel free to move it to lowbie if you want)
Comedy: seconding Captain Skylark Shadowfancy and the Tomorrownauts of Today! by @The Cheshire Cat #337333
-- Z. -
Threads like this make me a sad panda... not just because of what's being said, but what is behind it.
I'm going to echo Bubbawheat. Why is 'AE == farm' accepted as fact for some/most people and the actual stories ignored entirely? There are hundreds of awesome story arcs out there (putting most 'official' story arcs to shame, IMO), and most of them never get the chance to be played. Some authors might pour hundreds of hours of their time and creativity into creating a great arc that will get ~5 plays in a year, if that. Ask people in the AE building if they want to run a story arc and you'll get some blank stares, if that. But create a farm and watch the numbers soar!
See this thread (stickied, even!) for over 140 high-quality arcs. Nominate and vote in http://www.tinyurl.com/2010PlayersChoice for this year's Player's Choice awards. There's a huge wealth of great content out there in AE, even if most players don't care about it.
The Mission Architect is one of the most unique and awesome tools on the MMO scene currently. It needs to be improved and expanded, not scrapped.
somewhat dismayed,
-- Z. -
I've made some updates to the arcs.
"Scythe of Kali":
* I've discovered that Hydra give only half xp (or so) compared to other critters. This is perplexing, since they're not really easier than a hellion or <insert_lowbie_critter_here>. Maybe their xp was nerfed because of the Hydra farms of yore?
* To deal with the xp issue, I've created customs to replace the recolored Hydra (used the bio-organic look as an approximation). They're all melee, and I tried to avoid nasty sets that give -def or -res. Minions should be giving 100% xp, LTs and bosses above 80% (didn't want to go higher, since that would've required taking some annoying powers on them).
* Changed some text all over to reflect the change and the humanoid looks of the 'Scythe of Kali' group.
* Slight tweaks to the rescue mission: instead of an ambush, patrols spawn in after the rescue event. This'll hopefully make the rescue a bit more exciting than 'slow-run-to-the-exit'.
"To Reign in Hell":
* M1 and M2 use smaller, no-elevation maps. Clue text in M2 clarified.
* M4 features slightly different enemy groups / conversation, hopefully the rescue and patrol events make more sense now.
* Ending of the arc (last mission debriefing, exit text, souvenir, some ingame text_ overhauled, it is much more player-friendly now.
Take care of your bottlecaps,
-- Z. -
For now I went with the original design: player "wins" and takes over... though there is not much to rule in the first place with the entire underwater thing. Arachnos is reorganizing and biding its time -- also probably not really thinking about the Rogue Isles as a high-priority investment (again, the whole underwater thing). It might not be as canon-friendly, but it's an alternate universe demmit!
I figured I could have a later arc from the Arachnos POV with the player assisting Arachnos in defeating 'some annoying upstart who thinks having the TV on your side somehow entitles you to rule the Rogue Isles'.
-- Z. -
Thanks for the feedback, glad you enjoyed it!
Good call on the annoyance factor of the first 2 missions; I'll look into changing the maps (originally the objectives were a bit different for M2, but I don't think such a big map is warranted now).
Regarding the ambiguousness between "the Isles are underwater" vs "they were barely touched": this isn't explained properly in this arc (oversight). The sunpocalypse was followed up by targeted meteor showers hitting hero bases / hideouts and population centers all over the world; the Rogue Isles weren't hit, however. In the end, most everyone is screwed in different ways:
- Paragon City: mostly in ruins, main staging point for the Shiva v2.0 invasion (see other arc)
- Rogue Isles: most of it underwater
- Other areas: to be determined when I write more arcs in this setting (yay, proactive retcons!)
- Underground zones / other dimensions / etc: safe, but all persistent portals were taken out by EMP
As for the ending... well, that's neither here or there. Actually it's both here AND there.
The original design indeed had $name take over the bits of the Rogue Isles that were still aboveground, leaving $himher to rule over... not much. However, I felt really bad about wiping out Arachnos like that (Recluse always has a plan, after all), so I figured they'd lay low for a while and gather their strength in their secret underground bunker network / extra-dimensional safehouse / insert-plot-device-here, then take back what remained of the Isles by force. From that POV, the player character is really nothing more than a slightly annoying unruly pawn.
However, I can see the merits of option #1, and it's definitely more fun for the player. I'm just iffy about getting rid of Arachnos 'right away'... maybe I'll just have them write off the Rogue Isles as a loss and reorganize somewhere else in the world.
Thanks again,
-- Z. -
Thanks everyone! This was a great challenge with a lot of inspired and creative entries -- I'm really grateful.
Err... I'm not good at the Academy speech thing, so I'll fast-forward to the "special thanks":
- Bubbawheat and GlaziusF for their reviews and advice on how to improve the arc.
- FredrikSvanberg, Lord of Storms and Wrong Number for great feedback.
- The MA Arc Finder channel for giving further feedback and helping me with my silly lore-related questions. ("hey guys, how do I speak Rikti?!", "can Red Caps exist outside Croatoa?", etc.) I recommend everyone join this channel -- whether you are looking for new arcs to play or are trying to get feedback on arcs of your own!
- My SG for providing invaluable testing input and encouragement. Thistletoe is the bestest editor/proofreader guardian angel in the world, btw! *hides*
- Last but not least, Dr. Aeon himself for organizing the challenge! In my opinion, the Mission Architect is one of the greatest and most unique game features on the MMO scene as a whole. Turning player creativity into content for other players to enjoy is just awesome-o.
There are a few references and easter eggs scattered all over the arc (this is a personal vice of mine... along with long-windedness *cough*), but I'll spoil the most obscure one -- the similarity between the names of the 'end boss' and a certain general on the Pandora's Box MUD is NOT a coincidence.
Thanks again,
-- Z.
(I'd also like to thank the academy)
-
'Ey,
If your queue is getting empty and you want to get your post-apoc on, I'd really appreciate a review on my first two "Scorched Earth" post-apocalyptic COHverse arcs. They're basically done, but didn't get too many plays so I am kind of stumped about improving them. I experimented some with alternative storytelling / narration methods in the villainside arc, so that could especially use a good evisceration.
"Kali's Scythe", heroic, levels 20-25. ID: 445456 COHMR: http://cohmissionreview.com/2010/10/kalis-scythe/
"To Reign in Hell", villainous, levels 20-25. ID: 448234 COHMR: http://cohmissionreview.com/2010/10/to-reign-in-hell/
The arcs share a thread: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=239269
Note that the two arcs are in the same setting, but they don't form a multi-arc story (in fact, they take place at approximately the same time, lore-wise).
Thanks in advance!
-- Z. -
Added feedback by the MA Super Team (see first post). Thanks for playing the arc and giving feedback!
A slight aside about the 'lots of text' issue (it has come up 3 times now): all of my arcs are pretty text-heavy, it's a blessing (or curse)... actually it's probably because English is not my first language and it makes me want to have everything sound fancy. I make use of the 'exposition as begin clue' technique pretty heavily in my other arcs as well. I tried to make it so that reading clue text (along with enemy descriptions) is optional, ie. the story remains "intact" if the player only reads the [de]briefings.
There was also the problem of presenting the character the player is "possessing" (it's a first-person arc after all... haven't seen many of those). I could not really find ways to reveal enough information about the captain via ingame mission text, so I had to stick to clues (begin clues have a 1000 char limit). Is there another way to do this that doesn't cause the "wall of text" effect?
Feedback/comments welcome as usual,
-- Z.