Zaphir

Thanks for the play, Coulomb2 -- glad to hear ya liked the arc! Some minor comments below

Just updated the arc today after feedback (thanks to Eva Destruction and GlaziusF!). Without giving away too much:
- Made enemies in M2 more varied and dynamic.
- Added more enemies to the custom groups, hopefully psionics won't hate me as much now.
- Made some description changes to the M2/M3 customs to make the shift a bit more obvious.
- Changed M2 and M3 [de]briefings to make the story flow a bit better.

Future changes on the backburner:
- Make another objective mandatory in M1: waiting for feedback before I try this.
- Change M4 debriefing text: I want to see what others think of the current one first!


-- Z.

Thanks for the review (and nice portal reference )!

In M2 both 'controllers' are supposed to be accompanied by the same robots who make up the main enemy group of the mission -- gonna double-check Sesq, though now that you mention it, it may be worthwhile to give her a different group of minions. I had the idea of using two different groups of enemies in front/back with a mixture in mid by using force-spawn techniques and a base 'empty' enemy group to make the distinction more clear. Another idea I had would've been spawning (optional) copies of the bosses after the originals are defeated, but there's no way I'm writing up that many lines for Sesq v2..v10!

Very good call about differentiating between robots in M2 and M3 -- in M3 the names are probably fine as they are, but in M2 I could probably just switch some descriptions and names around so the ghost in the machine / matrix / etc thing is less obvious.

The basic weakness $name is trying to exploit in M3 is that the memory transfer process is very resource-heavy and prone to crashing if invoked multiple times. It's implied that other heroes might've gotten to the same spot as $name, but they failed because they couldn't / wouldn't reach into their subconscious to assist them (and Crey only do the process on one hero at a time). Most of the other heroes got Crey enough data during the office building section so this phase wouldn't be needed.

Regarding the end in M4: I figured IF did that bit sometime during his 10 years in the machine, it's just that the panic button was never used before... you're right that using the Doctor would be a better option here, though players who haven't played the appropriate arcs may not recognize who it is (maybe it'll just add mystery instead of being annoying though).

Re the custom group in M4: there actually *are* LTs in the group (crey sharpshooters), but they never seem to spawn. XP seems to be ok, though... and it kinda works better this way, to be honest.


Thanks again,

-- Z.

[aside: I personally prioritize Arc Club arcs by the number of plays -- single-digit ones go first!]

For my second arc, I played #525356: Agent of the OSS by @PW, same setup (lv42 thug/pain MM +0x2 w/bosses).

Gameplay: If "Project Dragon" was all about kung-fu fightin', this was all about beating up Nazis. It's pretty good in that respect, though I encountered an annoying situation in M2. Right after I summoned my pets, all hell broke loose inside the casino; Heinrich said 2 lines at the same time as a soldier and Monica saying 2-2 lines each. A few seconds later I was hit by an ambush throwing an AOE that faceplanted my minion-level pets immediately and I also bit it before I could get up from the knockback. After I zoned back in, Monica was half-dead and died before I could get another set of pets up and running and save her (I tried gang war, wasn't enough), so I failed the mission right there. This may be my own fault for playing at 0x2, but I usually don't have problems like this. Something to look into, perhaps?

Design: Aside from the M2 issue, the only 'problem' I found that in M3 it was quite easy to avoid fighting the Doktor, which was a bit anticlimactic to me (maybe you're not supposed to fight him, though).

Detail: I think the overall detail level was quite good, though the start of M1 (the outdoor part of the map) was a bit too barren/static. Maybe add some patrols and/or mix up the stuff the guards say with various (possibly cheesy) German words here and there?

Story: Oh man, Nazis and time machines... I'm suddenly reminded of Freedom Force vs. the Third Reich. The story was solid and connected well to exiting COH lore (word to Herr U, der Unbekannt!); I also liked the ending.


Overall: A good bit of Nazi-bashin', if a bit short.


-- Z.

Played Arc #514570: Terra Mystika: The Nexus by @Lord of Storms on a level 42 thug/pain MM at 0x2 with bosses on.

General: I spotted a few run-on sentences and such -- recommend an editing pass. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful, as I'm not a native speaker myself :P I did send you a list of typos I've spotted.

Gameplay: Overall it was mostly easy with some challenging parts (as expected from my diff settings). Akarzetal's ambush was surprisingly tough, I had to burn half of my inspiration tray to live through it -- this isn't a bad thing, mind! The custom enemies/allies were fine. Consider making Gaius' "defeat boss" objective in M3 complete after only killing the boss (instead of the entire group), as the engineers like to run away a lot.

Design: Very good costume design on all customs and the contact, kudos. Good map choices on most missions, though M2 baffles me a bit -- why use a derelict office building instead of a base or warehouse map? I'd personally refrain from putting words into $name's mouth in briefings (even if it's saying something reasonable that the player would *probably* say). The extra info in the 'busy' text was a nice touch, but a bit abrupt -- maybe add a bit of introductory text, such as "Melinda tells you a few things about the Nexus" in italics / in a different color as the first line?

Detail: I recommend adding some text to Zephandal in M1, right now he's just a mute punching bag. Even generic "die, meddling hero!!"-style lines would be fine. I found that M2 was "just hanging there", adding some extra info/flavor about the Alliance (optional clues, optional bosses, patrol speech) would've been very nice. The chaos rifts were sometimes enemies and sometimes friends, and they also had mute doppelgangers with them -- maybe add some speech to the 'gangers (even if they can't speak, emotes would be nice)?

Story: Interesting story, I liked it... good backstory too, I especially appreciated the M2 'busy text' background as a Hungarian *grin*. I really liked the last mission, even with the MA restrictions being as they are. It was a bit too easy to figure out the solution, as one of the previous clues contains all the information the player needs to make an accurate guess. Maybe require the player to combine knowledge from multiple clues to find out the answer?


Overall: A strong arc, though it could benefit from more flavor / details.


-- Z.

Thanks for the play, glad to hear you (mostly :P) liked the arc! And thanks for the ingame notes too, will change Psyche to Numina.

Level range: It is an issue, yeah. I wanted to make an 'end-gamey' arc with possible incarnate power usage, and the reused stock enemies were mostly 40+ themselves. It's also a "sort of sequel" to my 'Coldest of Wars' arc, which was 40-45. Unfortunately I find that enemy group level restrictions are really painful when trying to design an arc (the same thing applies to 'To Reign in Hell').

Sappers: I figured Crey would be willing to spend some serious time/effort to steal/copy/research a copy of the Malta 'hero-incap' gun... this is a deviation from canon, though there's always the "they aren't using it on the streets because it's a research prototype" copout.

Mystery: Yeah, I wanted the player to figure 'almost everything' out by the end of M2 (I didn't want them to hold the idiot ball) and have some strong doubts by the end of M1 if they explored everything. The doc is also overconfident at this point, since they've been "doing this thing" for 10+ years without getting caught... hopefully that explains why he isn't trying too hard.

I'll consider making the memory crystal objective mandatory, though I hate glowie hunts in outdoor maps in general (the main purpose of the optional 'escort' objective is simply to put the mandatory glowie objective on the player's map). Any suggestions about that?


Thanks again for the review and suggestions!

-- Z.

Unfortunately there aren't too many villainous story arcs to begin with, and most of them are 'safe' arcs with the player working for some villain group ('safe' meaning they'd fit any villain's character concept).

The only ones I know of that fit your criteria are Twoflower's DIY arcs, as you mentioned -- though I remember playing 'Quid pro Quo' (82369) and 'Until the End of the World' (431270) being about 'proactive villainy', ie. your character doing stuff on their own instead of being asked/ordered to. I also remember the 'Bravuran Jobs' (5073) story arc having a Latveria theme, but it's - again - the player working for the bad guys instead of being proactive.


Sorry I couldn't be of more help,

-- Z.

Wow, awesome -- I'm honored! Glad to hear you all enjoyed the arc. Now it's time to look at getting some purples for my warshade... *shifty eyes*

Many thanks to the Legion for organizing this contest -- I think this is a great way to support AE authors and highlight arcs for others to play, especially with the AE search interface being as it is.


(also, thanks for the comments -- good catch on the Galaxy City reference, I think it's time to update some of the arc text!)


Thanks again,

-- Z.

Speaking of arcs with interesting combat situations, I just finished another arc last week that hopefully qualifies:

"The Astral Prison", ID #524278, heroic, level 40+

All feedback on the arc is welcome!


-- Z.
(No spoilers, but there's an optional objective in M1 that is 'intended to be failed'. Can you prevent that from happening? )

Thanks for the review, glad to hear you (mostly) liked the arc!

You touch on an interesting point -- making combat feel meaningful and have a sense of tension can be as important as story (in fact, when playing a story arc with a large group, it IS more important than story).

Unfortunately, this arc was originally in the 5-10 level range, so I didn't dare put in anything that could put squishies at a disadvantage. For example, defensible objects are good fun on a char that can handle it, but getting a normal spawn + a hard ambush's worth of mobs on a level 4 defender is probably not going to go over well. That said, my test characters had some tense moments in mission 3 (warehouse) when one of the allies spawned in the center of the big room, and reaching them triggered 3-4 spawns at the same time.

Good point about possibly including a different enemy group, though... and M3 does lend itself to it in a way. I'll look into it.


Thanks again,

-- Z.

Going to toot my own horn here as well -- if nothing else, getting some more plays and/or criticism on my new arc would be awesome.

For Your Consideration:

The Astral Prison -- Arc ID #524278
You awaken in a strange world with (convenient) amnesia and a massive headache. Solve a mind-bending mystery across dimensions to escape this psychic deathtrap!

Eligible for 'best hero arc'. 'Best group design' is a stretch, but who knows?!


-- Z.

Arc Name: The Astral Prison
Arc ID: 524278
Faction: Heroic, *maybe* Vigilante.
Level range: 40-54
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Zaphir
Difficulty Level: Easy to moderate. Mostly stock enemies, no AVs/EBs. There are some tougher normal enemies (no sappers or anything silly like that) and somewhat challenging melee-oriented customs.
Synopsis: You awaken in a strange alien world with a terrible headache and no recollection of the last few... hours? days? years?
What are you doing here? Who - or what - brought you to this place? And, more importantly, how can you escape... the Astral Prison?
Estimated Time to Play: 45 minutes, maybe more if you do all the (optional) objectives and read all text.
Link to More Details or Feedback: Arc thread

Remember -- it's all in your head. Or is it?

You awaken in a strange alien world with a terrible headache and no recollection of the last few... hours? days? years?
What are you doing here? Who - or what - brought you to this place? And, more importantly, how can you escape THE ASTRAL PRISON?

I'll toss my very first arc and First Loser of the 2010 Jan MA Awards into the ring:

#299972 - The Coldest of Wars (hero 40-45)
It features Crey, dastardly supervillains from the 1960s, and... ice cream!

I've just tested it to make sure it works -- had to make a few fixes to customs and whatnot.


-- Z.

Yo,


I've just finished a new arc (mostly inspired by playing way-too-much Psychonauts after the September update; BTW, everyone should play Psychonauts if they haven't already!).

Arc # 524278 - "The Astral Prison" (level 40-54, heroic)

I haven't posted it to CoHMR yet since it's sort of in a v0.9 state, and I'm not sure I want to inflict that on the world right now. OTOH, I'd like some 'in-development arc feedback' on it (public), if possible!


Ta' in advance,

-- Z.

Thanks all for the input. I messed around with my brute a bit, and... yeah. It's just... not there. My freakin' rad/sonic defender feels more efficient at killing stuff. Objectively it's not THAT bad, but I can't let go of the EM glory days

I'll probably end up rerolling him into titan weapons when that set comes out. Leveling is a lot faster nowadays, so I won't be missing those 44 levels on him!


Thanks again,

-- Z.

I think at this point it's obvious that people just don't play story arcs unless explicitly solicited, or if the arc is very visible (dev's choice, HOF, first few pages of search). This was not always the case -- yeah, we don't have "official" numbers, but back in early-mid 2009 story arcs did get played quite often*. NB: there were quite a few farm arcs in the system back there, too. So what changed? Here are the scenarios I could think of (from all viewpoints):

1. "MA is so 2009"
MA was 'the new shiny thing' back then, and everyone wanted to try it out. A lot of people created arcs as well, at a higher throughput than nowadays (my august '09 arc had an ID of almost 300000, newest arcs in oct '11 have IDs in the 500000s). As with all shiny things, this petered out, people got bored of the entire thing and trickled away from MA. Nowadays only farmers (minority) and hardcore 'MA story enthusiasts' (smaller minority) care about MA.
My take: This is certainly plausible, and I think at least part of the overall issue. It's also not something that can be helped, unless the devs promote playing MA missions in some way (see STO: reward for playing 3 different player-created missions a day).

2. "Sturgeon's Law corollary"
90% of everything is crap. This includes MA story arcs AND farms, and is easily verifiable by playing 10-20 random arcs -- preferably ones that have zero plays. Players don't want to risk wasting a lot of time on bad content, so they stick to playing things on the front pages, which happen to be DCs, HOF arcs, and mostly highly-rated farms. Using search to find story arcs around a certain theme is likely to point you at old / broken / never-updated / just-plain-mediocre story arcs.
My take: The interface is really one of the core problems of MA (more on this later). Relying on a forum post (as much as I think PW's forum thread is an awesome resource) is unfortunately NOT a solution. Most players don't read forums at all, or only read announcements.

3. "Your storyarc sucks"
MA story arcs on average are just bad compared to official dev content, and authors have an inflated sense of their worth. Players would rather play 5 newspaper missions or i1 contact missions than a player-created arc. MA story-focused arcs also have too much text, enemies can be too difficult compared to the reward, etc..
My take: This is just plain not true IMO. Even 'just good' (4-star) mission arcs are FAR better than most of the early COH content and generic newspaper missions even if I'm only looking at the XP payout and annoyance levels (again, play Maylor's Carnie arc for comparison). A lot of the story arcs I've played are better than most tip missions and newer content as well.

4. "Path of least resistance"
Some players like to farm/PL through the game for reasons of their own (which I'm not disputing -- everyone can play the game as they want, it's their $). Right now MA is the best option, since you can tailor missions to farm/PL with almost zero downtime and a handy inspiration vendor. For some it may even be fun to create the best / most optimized map / enemy setup combination capable of producing the most tickets and inf/xp per minute. This results in a lot more farms being created, especially since each issue brings nerfs/buffs with it and farms being easy to create (remember that the farmer community is currently much larger than those who play MA story arcs).
My take: This is why banning farms is NOT a solution. If it's not MA farms, people will farm freakshow missions or the Television mission with a gazillion enemies in it. There'll always be several optimized builds and mission setups for getting 1-50 in a day or less. The payout will be lower and downtime will be higher, but there will always be farm/PL content.

... and as with all similar discussions in the last 2 years, the outcome is the same: the only acceptable 'fix' is overhauling the entire rating system/search interface. I won't repeat all the various suggestions here in detail, or the redundancy in the forum database will make the MA forum collapse into a black hole... but things like seeing what arcs friends played, favorites lists, 'if you liked this, you might like x/y/z' suggestions, changing to a like/dislike (or just like) system, etc etc.


-- Z.

* This is based on data from my own arcs (a mid-2009 arc, an early 2010 challenge arc, two late 2010 'normal' arcs, a late 2010 challenge arc BEFORE and AFTER it won and got Dev's Choice). However, if you search for 3-star arcs (aka mediocre/average and low-profile), order by # of plays, and note the creation date of each arc, you'll see the same thing.

I've found tons of great teams on the Virtue LFG Beta channel -- three of my characters (level 20ish, level 30ish, level 50 -- exemplaring of course) have gone from nothing to an almost-complete task force commander accolade in a week! Timing is definitely an issue, though. Euro evenings (US early afternoons) are definitely a lot more quiet than Euro before-work mornings (US late evenings). There's a lot more activity during weekends as well, obviously.

If you want to run the WST, tuesday/wednesday is probably a good bet for finding groups.


-- Z.

Whoa, this thread got way uglier than it should have (from both sides).

I was in that team as the warshade... you can see me killing a magmite lord in the combat log /flex. I do think the OP was getting picked on unfairly... but I also disagreed with him quitting before the end of the mission 2 (at that point I assumed it was a "ragequit"; now it looks like he was kicked, which does change things a bit). I think the only thing I said in chat after that point was a sigh, which was related to the situation itself and not any of the participants. I stayed, switched to black dwarf (which I'm terrible at using, mind you), we finished the SSA and that was that.

Honestly, that entire run left me sour, and I exchanged a few tells with the stalker from the group afterwards who felt the same way. FWIW Nalrok, I understand and agree with your frustration, but I don't think this incident is worth this much drama (that I'm now contributing to... meh).

Thankfully, on a brighter - and much more important - note pertaining to the topic of this thread: all the other PUGs I've been in have been awesome -- so far I'm impressed with the Virtue community overall. The global channels for finding groups have been working out great for me! So don't give up.


-- Z.

This is also relevant to my interests. I have a level 44-ish EM/fire brute (my old main) monthballed since before i7, and I've been considering giving him a try.

I read that there was a big energy melee nerf -- how severe was it? Could an EM character with SOs/basic IOs tank effectively in groups / do solo missions at 0x4+ / solo EBs/AVs / pvp (lol)? I assume I could farm up several billion tickets with him if nothing else due to the fire aura secondary...


Ta' in advance,


-- Z.

Are the allies stock mobs or customs? Some stock mobs are natural cowards. For example, Wing Raiders run/jetpack all over the map as soon as they're hit, but Captains stay and slug it out.


-- Z.

I overhauled the arc rather severely after comments from several reviewers (especially PW).

Short-list of changes:
* Level range is now 20-29. This way those who play the arc will actually have access to significant / fun powers instead of being locked to level 15. Also, Galaxy-class enemies are in this level range, which is a Good Thing for obvious reasons.
* M4 custom group remade to fit the level range, hopefully with more variety. Also changed the 'normal' Council enemies into a custom group without Galaxy units.
* The entire power-null subplot was nuked from orbit. I made the mistake of using 'The Origin of Power' arc as canon, while it's... not really. The subplot also made things clunky and confusing, especially in M3.
* Contact changed to a PPD Detective (Martins from SC). Most of the scientist-y/Nictus-related flavor text was either scrapped or redirected to Sunbeam. The main premise was also updated to helping the PPD with an unsolved kidnapping case that somehow turns out to be much more serious than anticipated.
* A bit more characterization for the two allies. I could only do this in [de]briefings, so don't expect miracles! Still, it should help in reducing the number of "wtf are these two idiots doing in my mission" moments.
* M1: the Council now more explicitly say what it is they're looking for exactly. Also added some early foreshadowing.
* M2: One of the allies actually comments on the Nictus tubes. Also updated the end clue to be more immersive.
* M3: Audiologs removed (it just doesn't work without manual spawn control). Added some optional clues instead so the player can infer what really happened. Also changed the ending to be a bit more heroic.
* M4: Heroes are now able to approach the ship via MacGuffin (I'm not proud of this solution, but I really can't think of anything better -- please advise!). Some chaining removed - first boss spawns immediately along the two allies, second boss is guaranteed to spawn in middle, third boss is (hopefully!!) guaranteed to spawn in the back. Shadow cyst was removed due to being a general chaining PITA.
* Souvenir was also redone, and the arc was moved to "looking for feedback" from "final".


-- Z.

Oooh, oldschool storyarc discussion. Rant time!

Yesterday (actually 2 days ago) I had the in-retrospect-insane idea to try out a random 'classic' story arc through Ouro that I haven't played yet.

I chose the first one that came up, which was Harvey Maylor's Carnie arc. Started off with a few standard missions (though with a lot of zone hopping; almost no two subsequent missions were in the same area - this was actually a pattern for the entire arc). Not much in the way of clues or anything, just a kill-all and a rescue.

Then suddenly - bam, 'defeat 65 carnies'. Now, carnies spawn in only one zone heroside (Peregrine Island), only in some relatively small sub-zones, and they almost always spawn in small groups (~1-3). I was playing through Ouro, so I couldn't take a random mission to kill some carnies. Okay, I did this in two installments (had to clear out a lot of other enemies from the possible carnie spawn points as well), but at this point most of the time I had spent on the arc was just downtime and annoying street sweeping.

Malta mission, blah blah, no biggie, then two kill-all missions (one of them on a large outdoor map) and some back-and-forth with Sister Psyche. Finally we're getting to the "meat" of the arc, missions on the psychic plane. I expected this to at least take part in one zone, but apparently the doors to the psychic plane in Vanessa's head were all scattered inexplicably across the city, as almost all missions had entry points in different zones, including hazard zones like boomtown. I also had to do some occasional backtracking to Sister Psyche in IP. Some of these 6 missions were glowie/captive hunts, but two of them were kill-alls. Kill-alls on huge outdoor maps! Sad face. Oh yeah, one of them had an AV too (so you were supposed to do this with a group... I soloed it because rad/sonic defenders are overpowered etc; also, it was downgraded to an EB because I can't be bothered playing anything above 0x1 on a defender).

Standard kill-all mission in warehouse coming up, then it's time to do street sweeping again -- 50 carnies! See above, though this time I got lucky and did this in under an hour. After that, it's time for the final showdown: another standard warehouse mission with an AV in the end. Woo, 49 merits for ~4-5 hours of half-play half-work!

...

So yeah. I'm fairly sure all of the MA mission arcs I played so far (even the mediocre ones) are better than this, even just purely on the basis of 'levelling effectiveness' and 'lack of arc-induced frustration'... as long as they don't have badly-designed custom groups that give zero xp/inf.


-- Z.