Bombshell_Blonde
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Posts
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Joined
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Quote:@MetalBritches LOL Cute!Originally Posted by MetalBritches
I love the idea, but it sounds eerily similar to how Kevin Smith described what a super hero movie would be like if he wrote and directed it. I believe it was in "Too Fat For 40," but I could be wrong. Basically, he describes Green Hornet and Kato leaning on the Black Beauty, smoking and talking. Some bad guy "shows up" off-screen, so they go take care of it, again off-screen, and come back to their cigarettes. "So, where were we?"
Personally, I would watch that.
And thanks to the person for posting a link to this thread on the CoHTitans forums, it's much appreciated. ^.^
For the virtual space and chatroom, you can count on Bombshell Blonde to visit every once in a while.
Myridean -
Once again, one of my beloved virtual communities will be scattered to the four winds. City of Heroes/City of Villains, as of Nov. 30, 2012, just a few days after my birthday. I'm not ashamed to say that it carried through some very tough times in my life off and on these past eight years and I would really hate for it to be discontinued, especially since the reasons are not justifiable enough. If there's a will and there is, I believe that there is a way to save it.
This sorrowful news that hit me almost a week ago brought me back to the day where we lost Uru Live. Like NCSoft, Ubisoft had decided along with Cyan that it wasn't financially viable as a source of profit. But what they didn't realize that in the few short months that we had created a family and this online virtual interface using avatars gave to us so much more than just entertainment. For some, Uru Live gave them back their sense of freedom as this video so aptly conveys.
GoG Mysterium 2004 presentation
I can't say for sure that when Cyan Worlds saw this video that it was the deciding factor to bring about Until Uru, a solution that enabled us to once to gather in a virtual cavern several months later for the next following two years before GameTap recognized its significance. Even though it was shut down again after a little more than year, Cyan launched its own servers once more and Myst Online: Uru Live is running to this day for new and experienced players alike, dependent on the kindness of others through donations.
Just like the wonderful collaboration of the Guild of Greeters who created this video for the 2004 Mysterium in Toronto that was so well attended, our CoX community needs to demonstrate that this game after 10 years, including its years in Beta, that it is more than just entertainment, it is also part of our way of life. We need something like this video to demonstrate this fact and hope against hope that NCSoft still has a heart to see that City of Heroes/City of Villains is worth so much more than just figures on a spreadsheet.
Myridean2k4
aka Bombshell Blonde/Mountainess II/BladeMatrix and so many others on Virtue
@Jewel -
Quote:My cave map design is the one they first used for the Shadow Shard. The building maps are oddly sparse as well as the police station map I used for the third mission. The only one not affected is the final mission.Originally Posted by Lazarus
Are these caves maps? I've been noticing that some of the brown cave maps are oddly empty, both in AE and outside of it.
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I've been experiencing and getting reports of a few bugs that my new arc, "A Daughter's Path of Thorns" is encountering. As you know from the other thread, these bugs were not present as the arc was tested thoroughly by myself and was run through by two reviewers from this forum as well as a half dozen of my friends on the server.
The new feature to require players to leave the mission through the exit instead of leaving it normally is not included properly in timed missions. Once the other objectives are completed, it states mission completed, the clock stops and is removed but then tells players to find the mission exit. I was hoping that it was just one more thing to do before the clock ran out. I've removed the new feature as it seems to just be a minor annoyance for the 2nd 3rd & 5th missions.
The huge problem is in my last mission though. The Advanced Mission Objective to protect defendable objects is not working properly AT ALL. Although the objects can be defended by eliminating the spawns that are present when you encounter the object, the subsequent ambush which used to be practically on top of you now takes a very long time to happen even after players are given notice that the object is now safe. Secondly, upon triggering the encounter for the enemies to start acting upon the defendable object, ie. destroying it, the total number of objects to be defended in the nav window increases by one and secondly, once the encounter is finished, the number doesn't decrease from the initial total of defendable objects. So, the player doesn't know how many objects still need to be defended and secondly, when the last defendable object objective has been completed, it doesn't trigger a mission complete. Players have to either abandon or quit the storyarc altogether losing out on a crucial clue, in this case, of the initation arc to get their promotion within the SG.
Finally, I've noticed that there are fewer spawns overall in the missions. I was wondering if anyone else had noticed this too?
I know Technical issues like Wentworths/Blackmarket and the like, have more priority but issues like this makes it difficult for authors to trust their content is still playable after an issue release. I'm still advertising the arc as part of my recruitment drive but I'm giving them the heads up that the last mission is bugged and they're getting the promotion anyway. Still, it does take away from the enjoyment of players' gameplay when they encounter problems like this. I'm now getting an average of 4 stars now instead of the 5 I was receiving prior to Issue 17's release. -
Heya! Just a wee reminder that today's the last day to get your comments/complaints/ on receiving feedback before I unpublish the arc and make the rest of the necessary changes to it. I'll post here with the new arc ID when it comes back up in its final version probably on Wednesday/Thursday.
In the meantime, I just want to thank my friends and the reviewers here on board for helping me bring the best of both my storytelling abilities to this endeavour. I've learned quite a bit and hopefully all the best practices and lessons learned can be applied to my next storyarc to making it bigger, better and more epic than before for my group members and those who love to play MA storyarcs.
So far, with the cumulative running stats over 10+ reviews/feedbacks in emails/numerous tells, I'm running on average of 4.5 stars out of 5.
After I'm done posting up the arc and getting the group running up to speed with SG & coalition wide events, I'll be sure to come back to enjoy some of yours.
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Quote:That's probably a very smart idea.Originally Posted by Mirror_Man
That's fine; I've played all kinds of arcs, from origin stories to light-hearted parodies, so if your goal with your arc is to promote membership with your VG, you're definitely off to a good start. However, all published AE arcs are cross-server, so unless you've got mulitlple "versions" of your VG across all the servers, you might want to include WHICH server your VG is hosted on, so players who are anxious to join your VG will be able to find it. I'll be looking for more during the coming week.
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Quote:Well, once this one is finished, I agree with the Quid Pro Quo system so I don't mind playing yours and reviewing it. It gives me a sense on what a veteran player can do with the architect system as well as another fresh pair of eyes to see what can be improved. Will you be changing any of your arcs to implement any changes to your storyarcs with the improvements in I17? If you like, I can check one of yours out.Originally Posted by Mirror_Man
Luckily, I had some free time today, so I decided to take the chance to run your arc, Bombshell_Blonde
Now, I had an "official" review thread some time ago, where I'd post full, in-depth reviews of other people's arcs. The thread ran on a QPQ (quid pro quo) system, which meant that I'd ask someone requesting me to review one of their arcs to review one of my arcs first; this system is used by many reviewers in this section of the forum. However, I've been too busy with RL concerns to maintain it, so I closed it down several months ago. I'm still hoping I can re-open it some time in the near future, but right now I just don't have enough free time to keep up with the demands of such a thread. I just hope my schedule clears up in time for Issue 17
Thanks Mirror-Man, I'm wanting this to be as good as the official content in the game. My goal is not just to entertain but motivate people to join my group. Hopefully, my members when they join can give me feedback and suggestions on how to improve from storyarcs, base design and fiction.Quote:Anyway, I sill like to give quick, (hopefully) useful feedback to new members of the AE community, and I'll admit I was impressed with your arc, Bombshell_Blonde. Most new authors to the MA system who request feedback in this section of the forum have interesting ideas for AE arcs, but they're generally applied in an "amateurish" fashion (mostly because of the author's lack of experience with the AE system). However, your arc showed an above-average knowledge of AE mechanics, had almost no spelling/grammar mistakes, and had a plot which flowed incredibly well from beginning to end. If I didn't know any better, I would've thought that this arc was made by a veteran of the AE system, not a new author.
Simple enough, I did both for the titles in a nice pale green.Quote:However, the titles (and subtitles) for each mission were of the same font size and color as the mission dialog, which made it seem to "blend in" with the rest of the text. You may want to consider making the font size of the mission titles larger and/or making the font of the mission titles a different color so they "stand out" for the player.
Done.Quote:Also, most of the missions in your arc are both timed and require the player to defeat all the enemies to complete the mission. When making a timed mission in the MA system, it's considered a "rule of thumb" to warn the player of the exact time limit in the mission intro dialog, before the player accepts the mission. While the maps were usually small enough for both the time limit and the "Defeat All" objectives to be trivial, there are many posters in this section of the forum who just plain hate "Defeat All" missions (luckily, I'm not one of them).
It just makes sense for a villainous arc to wipe out everyone as anyone left alive would be a witness to the crime being committed just because of the nature of the maps and the enemies involved.
I've just taken the clues out as it was just repeating what was mentioned in the mission briefing. The last thing I need is to be repetitive. I was hoping more that the clue gets picked up on the last instance and not on the first.Quote:More specifically, in the 2nd mission, there's a small problem with the clues. You have the player plant both bombs and Carnival of Shadows' masks throughout the Legacy Chain base, with the clues telling the player that they've planted "all the bombs" and "all the masks", respectively. The problem is, the 2 clues pop up after the player has planted the first bomb and the first mask, so it doesn't really "fit". This is a small (but admittedly annoying) problem when you make multiple instances of the same objective in the AE system, but the solution is simple: just re-word the clues to something along the lines of "you've planted the first bomb/mask", and work from there.
Is there a way to create multiple chat bubbles for the text? It's like I want my NPCs be in mission or out of mission to be able to take a breath, relax, even change emote actions. One thing, I haven't discovered although you could help is there a way to make the contact move to make him/her more alive?Quote:Finally, I noticed that there a several points in mission and NPC dialog where you have a character perform an action (for example, Bombshell Blonde's dialog in the fourth mission contains the action "pauses as she reads") in "text form". You might want to consider making these "actions" more "subtle", rather than just telling the player what the character is doing. For example, in Mission 3, when the contact "clears her throat", you might want to consider changing it to "ahem" or something along those lines. With the aforementioned dialog by Bombshell Blonde, perhaps change "pauses as she reads" to "..." to indicate an actual "pause". However, I'll admit this point is very nitpicky and really up to the player's preferences.
There's a second one that will be in the works very soon after I get settled in with the new membership that will focus on those to become the highest rank in the group of Priest/Priestess who will be leaders/mentors to the newer members of the group. I'm hoping that with this arc, they can be more like SFs/TFs where you require to have so many people to join and play the arc with the team leader to help him/her get his/her credentials. Those who also participate with the team leader since they will have the souvenir and when they reach level 50 and have attained the other criteria, would also be eligible for leadership.Quote:In any case, I thoroughly enjoyed the arc and honestly think you should seek further opinions on it by the other posters in this section of the forum. As with all feedback, feel free to take or leave any of my suggestions; it's your arc, after all. As for my official rating:
5 Stars
A truly masterful first arc, hopefully just the first of many. If your first arc was this impressive, I look forward to seeing what you're capable of producing as you gain more experience and skill in the MA system. Nice work, Bombshell_Blonde.
Thanks to you and GypsyRose, as well as a few friends who have played the arc so far, I've got some good feedback and I'll be taking more until the end of next weekend before I close the thread. In the meantime, those who would still like to review the arc, please take note that the arc ID number has changed. It's now 399944. I had lost all ratings and comments when I had unpublished the arc so I could make the appropriate changes to it. It was running for five ratings on average of five stars. Fortunately, the stars don't matter at this point, it's whether you felt motivated enough to seek membership with the Daughters of Lilith after playing the arc.
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Quote:Actually, when I designed it I wasn't thinking of how much XP the player would get. In fact, some of the mission objectives wouldn't give you xp to begin with like defending or collecting objects. I did find that there was no mission bonus at the end but they would get some tickets at least. The focus was to create an initiation ritual that would get more challenging but not mind-numbing grinding.Originally Posted by Mirror_Man
Unfortunately, Bombshell_Blonde, the AE community is a bit divided right now regarding a recent change to certain AE story arcs' rewards, so you might not find as much support as you usually would in the community. I suspect, when Issue 17 rolls out (providing some much-needed updates and a new reward system for AE arcs), the community will experience a resurgence of interest which will hopefully bring many new authors and players back into Mission Architect.
Our test run with two level 10 corrs running at default difficulty level produced 13 pips (one level & a few bars) with 350 AE tickets (average for each player). The good news is that if they succeed, they'll be promoted in the group with increased access to services, ie. salvage storage.
Thanks MirrorMan, I appreciate it and I hope you like it. If not, let me know where I can improve.Quote:In any case, I'll try and run though your arc either by the end of the week or this weekend and give you some useful feedback. There are also many other reviewers in this section of the forum who can help you, but again, it's kind of a turbulent time in the community, so you might want to wait until after Issue 17. Personally, I don't care that much about rewards when it comes to Mission Architect arcs, so I won't hold it against your arc if I'm not raking in XP.
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Heya!
ArrowRose aka @GypsyRose had seen my arc and invited me to these forums. The storyarc, is in its 2nd draft form and I'm looking for feedback before I start announcing it to the general players, especially with I17 to be released on the live servers in the near future. And speaking of I17, I'll probably go back and incorporate a few changes that the MA's improved system is offering as well.
I've gotten some good feedback already but more couldn't hurt. It's my first arc.
Thanks!
(PS - I've posted in the other thread here as suggested in the reviewers' threads somewhere).
@Jewel
A Daughter's Path of Thorns
Arc #402224
Morality: Villainous
Faction: Hellions, Legacy, Midnighters, Security, Police and Luddites, custom bosses
Your global/forum name: @Jewel / Bombshell_Blonde
Difficulty Level: Designed to be challenging if played solo. A little easier with a team. The idea though is that the team leader is going through a set of trials/challenges to be passed. However, all team members will receive the souvenir clue at the end of the arc.
Recommended Team Size: 1 preferably 2
Level Range: Minimum 10+ Recommended level range: 10-15
Typical duration: "Very Long" - 1-2 hours (5 missions)
Arc Synopsis: An initation/orientation rite of passage to be eligible to join the RPVG, the Daughters of Lilith, an elite Circle of Thorns coven. The storyarc involves the preparation of summoning and binding ritual with challenges along the way.
Warning: The subject matter contains material that may not be appropriate to all players. -
It's for the mature subject matter and following ESRB Ratings, it requires the player to be 18 years and above. My character as she started out as a villain has had to deal with topics that are inappropriate for children and even, IMO, for youth.
This character who is Jule's father is no exception to this rating. -
I'm thinking of a few hours each week to start to see how well it goes around 7-10pm EST approx. Which days I'm not sure as of yet but right now most weekdays are open. This storyarc will probably start sometime in late September after I finish Jule's current storyarc.
Most storyarcs for me last about 4 months on average give or take the development. So, during the past year and a half, I've been RPing her on both sides of the game, there's been a few.
For more information, generically, you can access her profile on VirtueVerse -
(I said it was a guess. I can't read Dumpleberry's mind :P)
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(Ask Dumpleberry, he started. - My guess would be is that it's an OOC thing since this forum section is a predominately IC area)
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(Because I don't want to exclude RPers on non-Virtue servers )
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Looking for a RP challenge?
For my next storyarc, I'm looking for someone over the age of 18 to play Jule's (Bombshell Blonde / Julie Johnson) father. They can play him on either hero or villainside (any origin/AT) and I don't mind if it's played by a male or female RPer as long as they are comfortable with some mature subject matter.
For those who are RPing on other servers beside Virtue, the successful RPer will receive initial infamy/influence support if they are making the transition from another server to play this character.
I'll probably start this storyarc in the fall and will be an ongoing role until whatever outcome.
If you're interested send an email to bombshell dot blonde @ hotmail dot com or an ingame email to either of the characters above for more details.
Ciao!
@Jewel