Dalghryn

It's been ages since I've posted here. I've still been playing, but time just hasn't been what it once was. Coulomb, you said everything I wanted to say, to everyone I wanted to say it to, so well, I'll just thank you. Everyone, I know Consequences of War and Casualties of War are probably pretty distant memories, but they're great memories, and proud for me. YOU are the reasons for those memories. Thank you, everyone. You are all the best.

I got a couple of e-mails out of the blue from CoH players praising me for Consequences and Casualties. ...as if I already hadn't been crying enough. I can't believe it's all just going to go away.

Thank you, everyone, for all the comments and support. Best of luck to each of you. Maybe we'll all find a home like CoH someday.

Gratz PW!

Congratulations!

Best of luck to you and your son, Wrong Number!

Congratulations!

I haven't had my coffee, yet. Thanks, Zamuel.

Here's a list of the 2009 Players Choice Award winners less "Tales of Croatoa," a previous award winner, and my two arcs (I've had my coffee now and re-read the rules ). These are all long-time classics:

The Invasion of the Bikini-Clad Samurai Vampiresses from Outer Space! #61013 @Aliana Blue
Teen Phalanx Forever! #67335 @PW
One Million Eyes #71933 @minimalist
Celebrity Kidnapping #1388 @PW
In Poor Taste #259920 @Wrong Number
The Next War on Drugs #245042 @anachrodragon

Congratulations everyone! Excellent additions to what is hopefully a grand tradition. Great job, as always, Bubbawheat!

Thank you all for running Casualties of War and your kind comments and wonderful suggestions. The holiday season and other things have kept me away from both the game and the boards, so this was a great late Christmas present. I promise I'll look at all the suggestions very closely.

A couple things right off the top of my head...

All the Vanguard in the 2nd mission are supposed to be allies. If there are any that aren't, it's a mistake in arc "programming" and I'll be looking for it.

I'll take a look at the bodies in the 4th mission and see about acting on the suggestions made.

I'll probably change the boss in the 4th mission as well, more than likely making a custom since the the other stock Rikti bosses are either a) too easy, or b) anacronistic.

Headed to the game to check out where the arcs are. Hopefully the changes will be in place the next couple of days. Thank you again -- very much!

I'm not at all trying to be disrespectful, but I think there may be a conflict in what the original premise of this thread was and the most recent "assignment." I look forward to the opportunity to play and offer feedback on other people's arcs when time permits.

"When time permits" is the key phrase. I'm lucky to have enough time just to hop on and run a mission. It took me a couple of nights, minimum, to run the arcs I've run. Putting togather a group, any group, and running an entire arc is simply not in the cards. If I had time to put together a group, it would only be a group of SG mates, since I never get to play with them. Pugs are out of the question for a variety of reasons for me.

I don't know if I speak for anyone else in any part, but that's my take.

Please, PLEASE don't take offense, Bubbawheat. I appreciate your efforts tremendously! I just wanted to explain.

"Consequences of War" was also one that bit the big one in the last few days. A three, four, and a one or two, all without comment, knocked it back into four star limbo to waste away with its sequel, "Casualties..."

Given that it'll probably take a half dozen fives in a row to put either of them back, I think I'll just shrug and walk away from the AE for now. It's become obvious that, despite the efforts of Wrong Number, Bubbawheat and others, the powers that be simply don't care. The battle's just not worth fighting any longer.

I'm having far too much fun with Dragon Age, and far fewer headaches. You guys have fun. I'll be lurking.

I finally got around to running The Murders in the RWZ Morgue #452144 by @FredrikSvanberg today.

Pros: It was one of the very few one mission arcs I've run that I enjoyed. Very well written.

Cons: I've been playing Dragon Age for about sixty hours and the controls are all bass ackwards in CoH.

Okay...maybe that's not Fred's fault, huh?

So, what IS Fred's fault? Unlike a few other well-intentioned players, I didn't have a problem with the chained objectives. I thought they were well done and easy enough to follow. There's no way a one mission arc could be this effective without them.

I think the only problem I had has been mentioned before, though. Besides playing Dragon Age while I recuperated from my hand surgery, I've watched all two-and-a-half seasons of Castle, so I've become an expert on murder mysteries. My wife and I always bet on which of us can follow the clues to the real murderer quickest. There's always a variety of choices, which makes it something we can invest in. She almost always beats me to the punch, by the way.

Anyway, I think this arc could be improved by adding the Rikti diplomat and perhaps a Longbow contact or something early on and providing some kind of reference that more strongly suggests - to the player character, at least - that it *is* a mystery, instead of a chain of objectives leading to a reveal you didn't have the chance to see coming.

It would probably require expanding the arc to at least one more mission, however, which may defeat Fred's purpose in wanting to create a single mission arc. If so, maybe a little more dialogue, or a couple of more confusing clues?

In any case, just my two bits. I enjoyed it, and still feel it was worthy of five stars. Thanks, Fred.

Edit: I just read the previous posts (would have helped earlier, huh?). Since expanding it another mission isn't an option (understandably so), scratch that suggestion. Since the contact is so anti-Vanguard, maybe an inside-the-mission Vanguard contact catches you right off and suggests that the Agent may not be 100 percent or something? Good arc any ways.

I think it would be perfectly acceptable. Maybe you could create a couple that have dialogue, just to add to the comedic entertainment value, and have the rest just wandering about.

Um... Epic? <looks hopeful and jumps up and down with his hand waving> Pick me, pick me!

Maybe my arc wasn't griefed. Maybe the two people that rated me a one and sent my arc into four star oblivion actually disliked the arc that bad.

What chaps me about the recent development, and what lends me to believe that my arc (and many others in the five star and four star limbo) is not deserving of such low ratings (below a three) is the fact that I and those others have spent a considerable amount of time getting feedback from authors and players that have all contributed to making the arc solid - both story-wise and technically.

Call me arrogant, but I have a really hard time believing that an arc that has been compared quite favorably to the best developer content by dozens of arguably qualified critics can recieve a one or two star rating with any intent but griefing. Maybe the game play was too difficult or too easy for your tastes. Maybe the story wasn't one you prefer. Solid arcs that have been well-written, repeatedly critiqued and improved, and have been recommended for DCs several times over are not the SG run-up arcs some of the commenters are using as arguments to suggest they weren't griefed.

A solid arc is a solid arc, and shouldn't be subject to a precipitous fall based on the ill-will of a couple of players, regardless of their intention.

At least we can agree that the systems simply flawed. We'll have to agree to disagree about the rest.

Arc ID: 453091
Arc Name: A Clone of Your Own?

Hmm... I always like a good take on me fighting myself. That mechanism was a great addition to CoH, and a great addition to the MA. That said, as much as I've been a fan of Bubba's other work, this one seemed a little incomplete or rough around the edges to me.

I get the distinct impression that the good Doctor Mephit and my character are supposed to have met before. If so, I don't recall where. I do have senility issues that might account for it, but maybe using the first mission' begin clue to recap the circumstances (either as they happened in the past in game time or as the arc claims they happened if it's just an arc assumption) might flesh out the relationship a little and make it seem less jarring.

Since it's mentoned that our character can expect to find more clones because of what the first one was named, how is it that we know the clones' leet names? We know they believe they're our character (in my case, Spandex Dreamer) because they say so, but nothing is said that gives us their designated names.

I'm also curious as to why the clones had the wide variety of power sets they had. The masterminds drove me nuts, but that's probably just a personal quirk on my part. The Freaks involvement seemed weakly explained, and the Crey at the end seemed tacked on - though having Crey involved in any cloning scenario makes perfect sense given Revenant Hero and all.

I appreciate the fact that the arc was only three missions long. But, I feel as if it could have been fleshed out a little more, with more explanation given to some of this stuff -- either through the use of expanded text opportunities in the first three missions, or by expanding it one mission.

There were a few punctuation/grammer issues that jumped out at me, and I jotted a couple down:

Mission #1 Intro - "Since there is added risk involved." is a fragment.

Mephit's Files Clue - "Pages and pages of awkward handwriting..." is a fragment.

Return Success Dialogue should read - "...additional notes. You stand there, quickly..."

I'll definitely re-run this one after it's been fine tuned. Thanks, Bubabawheat.

Since my second arc, Casualties of War, just got griefed, you're down to one less five star with over 100 plays.

HoF needs revisiting, rating system needs to be revised, farms and dead wood need to be cleared out, DCs need to be more active, content choices that the devs can use need to be made available... Sometimes I'm not sure why they even bother with the MA.

Don't mind me, just ticked off and ranting.

Yeah, I figure that's the case. Since I have always agreed with the need for a change in the rating system, I don't feel hypocritical for being irritated at it now.

In any case, Casualties of War hasn't had quite as much scrutiny, especially since I re-did a couple of missions, so I see it as a sign. The only reason I didn't ask for it to be the MA Club arc to start off with was it's the second of two parts. Seeing as how it worked out okay for Laz, though... may as well.

Bubbawheat, would you please replace Consequences of War with Casualties of War (241496)? It just got knocked off of the five star list. Two runs with no tickets. Which translates to two runs rated two stars or less. No comments, of course.

Either I was griefed and could use some five star love, or I need input as to why the arc suddenly became a one or two star arc after having been a five star with so many people.

Sorry for the rant, but I'm a little peeved.

Welcome aboard, Paladin.

I'm sure this has been addressed before, but we all know how bad the search feature works, so...

I just bought a new computer running Windows 7 64 bit. I reinstalled CoX in the Program Files Folder (supposedly the 64 bit folder) rather than the Program Files x86 folder (the 32 bit folder). Does it matter, and if so, is it in the correct folder or not?

Also, I have a quad core system now. Is there anything special I need to do to make CoX run better, or does it matter? Thanks in advance.

Finished the last two missions of Breaking the Barrier and rated it five stars. Regardless of the four star minumum rule, I would have done so anyway. Unlike some people, I don't require that an arc meet my exact criteria for perfection to get a five. While I had some problems with a few things, it was as well written as some of the dev-created work, with better chain mechanics. That should rate a five in my book.

That said, given the problems I've had with similar issues with my two arcs, I understand the difficulty in finding a balance when trying to establish difficulty. Even among our small group of members in this thread there is an obvious difference in opinion on this. As a person that favors story over mechanics, I can live with "kill steals" and such if the story warrants it. Others may not be able to live with it.

Now that I am done, however, I will still stick by my earlier assumption that it could stand to be more challenging, both for the sake of mechanics as well as for the sake of the story. The Aeon clones could all stand to be bosses, and with the amount of help available, it just seems like the player character was almost extraneous in places.

Had I upped the ante myself, I'm sure I could have made the challenge on my own, but I tend to think that, when you're setting up an arc for upper level characters, using upper level villains like Aeon, the challenge should be there from the beginning.

But that's my opinion, and I respect that Lazarus' opinion may differ.