GrinningSpade
-
Posts
1767 -
Joined
-
Me and Lithrei met at the MA this afternoon and we decided to run a few arcs. We did my Love Spurned arc first (Lithrei was curious about it, I am to scared to show it
).
After that scary run we choose a random 4 star arc.
The Paradox Raid #67566 by Echoslaid. A nice interesting arc to play for a dedicated evil wicked person who can stomach fighting on (his own) bad side in the 2nd Great War. Nice tidbits about English Soldiers as well. Worth checking out if you got a villain 30+. -
Not only your issue, it happens to me as well. Very irritating.
-
Quote:TO, DO and SO are very good named categories because it tells us what power levels to expect in an arc. Everybody will agree that the difference between Training and Double Origin enhancement means that the power of the toon will improve drastically. The same thing happens when you start slotting SO instead of DO enhancements. To only say low, middle and high does not give the same information as the terms DO and SO are knows servers wide.Originally Posted by Sumericon
I would agree with the above poster that use of the word Epic is a bit of a misnomer. Potential confusion could be averted by renaming those categories to something more appropriate ie. Low-Level, Mid-Level, and High-Level. -
Quote:I played a bit on the german server Zukunft and found the people there to be helpful, friendly and very very polite. I amde some friends there but they went away to other games so I brought one of my toons i liked best to Union.Originally Posted by Daimyo_Shi
I strangely favour the idea of have access to the Euro servers for NA players and NA to the Euro, mostly because I want to play on the German server and not know what the hell is going on.
And now the fun starts for real, because on that toon the language settings are all skewed. have is english and the other half remains german. Whenever I join a team my teammates all get confused madly. Always fun to see their reactions.
Ps.
About the topic. I want more servers to play at. 4 is not enough. I need those NA servers. -
Oh this time again?
Oh well.
I would not mind a server list merge. To bring the EU servers into the NA fold. We love to have more servers to play on. Especially better populated servers where now and then you get invited by completely strangers, such a novelty.
I have opened a MA account for those moments that I just feel like teaming. Any teaming, preferably PUG's. Bad PUG's, Oh dear you got to be kidding PUG's, Wow we are zooming through those arcs PUG's or stop making those jokes, my stomach hurts from laughing PUGs. For quality solo gaming and well organised TF's I stick to the EU for now, where I have the toons, the vet perks and the inf to buy the good stuff.
-
Quote:Or Worst Dressed .............Originally Posted by Clave_Dark_5
So we'd just be voting on their name, or would this be a costume contest as well, power set and design etc. or what? "Best dressed" catagory?
In that case, I may have a winner.
-
Quote:I would imagine that most of the Arachnos Operatives are ambitious backstabbers. Most of them are in my view not content with being just a soldier. They want to do the job as fast and impressively as possible and claim, as much credits as they can. Gaining promotions and power while they move up at the ladder to greatness. I think that a series of non Destined VEAT arcs of ambitious nasty individuals can be very interesting. Perhaps something to incorporate in the new VEAT arcs?Originally Posted by Eva Destruction
Not necessarily breaking free from Arachnos, but some indication that you are a free-thinking operative and not just another mindless red shirt. A player villain should have some ambition of their own. If you choose to pursue it as a member of Arachnos, that's fine, but even at low level there should be some indication that you are not content to be just another soldier.
-
Anyone else experiencing continuing conn loss? 3 times in a row atlas park. 3 times in a row logged out. Anyone else experiencing this problem?
-
Uhm no I see nothing new except a nice cossie? It is common knowledge that Tyrant = Evil Statesman. You see something new then?
-
Quote:I agree that it is to easy and to fast to hit 50. Personally I don't mind as I am to much an altaholic to level fast even now but to people who love the challenge of leveling and getting great goodies I can understand why they get bored easily with this game. However such persons could hit 50 in less then a month earlier when the xp curve was a lot steeper. Would they have stayed so much longer with the more challenging level curve that it really matters customer wise? I am not sure.Originally Posted by Venture
Yes, leveling is too fast, yes, the game is too easy, and no, the entrenched user base will never admit either even while they're wondering why the game isn't growing any more.
-
Not a bad idea.
Let's take it further. What about pop ups appearing when you click on certain items? For example on the inspiration dispenser "Take freely but please restock when you can" or on the computer you could leave a message to other sg members. -
These sound like great ideas. The having my own paradise haven/island of doom where people have to worship me, build statues in my honor and I can relax and think about future projects. Sounds like fun.
I also love the discover your own clue and build from the clues your own adventure idea. Problem is how do you avoid outgrowing them? For example if you beat up a hellion and he tells you what his boss is planning an dlater on you hear from a malta what for artifact they want to steal, then it doesn't make much sense that these two clues belong to each other. Only solution I see to that is talking to other heroes/villains and share the clues so you can complete your recipe, In other words, we need another wentworth blackmarket thing for that. -
343643 The secret of nutripaste
I liked this arc. Bering a grunt on the Rogue Island is hard work and it is about time that we are being appreciated here! Good briefings and debriefings. Amazed that the marshall manages to be so polite to a mere grunt despite all this crisis and many others he is faced with. This shows that Arachnos cares.
Here are some thoughts about the missions. First thing is my response to the briefing. 'Accept' is adequate but a bit boring.
Mission 1
Nice to have the Luddites appearing as an faction here. They are such an underused faction.
Amanda Vines dialogue looks to be a bit of. I thought she was more cheeky like that. More a thing like. “Sigh, couldn't you have waited a few more minutes? I nearly had a scoop here. Yes, yes, I know where to go now, I will wait outside like a good nice reporter.”
Not much dialogue in here. I was expecting the Luddites to preach more. Is it possible to make the hostages more unique or are you running out of space?
Mission 2
Nice little jibe at the blue side here. Striga Island? Isn't that a little rock near the Paragon coast? The appearance of Tommy one Eye was a nice touch as well.
However it was unclear what was happening. Dialogue with the mutiny happened in the last compartment of the ship. It took me awhile to understand what was going on. Especially since I was attacked by both factions despite me having a few friends of one of the factions on my side. That was a bit confusing. The fight with the endboss (missing bio) was a nice one and I really wonder how I managed to survive that one! Clever and plausible use of AE mechanics there. A shame that all the glowies and slave to be freed are just copies. Would be nice if they were unique.
Mission 3
Luddites on a rampage. Lots of secondary optional objectives one of which resulted in me facing the nastiest ambush I can recall when trying to make them stop smashing a containment unit. I hope this is a bug because I was assaulted from multimple sides with what looked like multiple hard ambushes. A bit much on a soloing soldier because despite excellent soldier training I went down fast. And had to visit the hospital to get my revenge.
Mission 4
Me on a rampage. Straight forward mission. No big surprises here. Which was odd after the last two missions but nothing wrong with a change of pace.
Mission 5
Luddites, Gold Brickers, Arachnos, oh my. This one was fun for me, because my toon is a Midas Sponsored Soldier of Arachnos. To show LR that he cares. So the Marshall gave me a nice loyalty test here. Would be a good thing here to show the optional objectives in the header I think, because I was confused that disabling the explosives did not count towards the final objective. It was a tough fight against the endboss and I had to use every inspiration to beat him. It was touch and go there. I would have loved a bit of help from my comrades. Patrols are not the same (btw why no dialogue for my colleagues appearing here?).
This mission was a bit frustrating because one of the objectives was up on one of those ramps and it took me a lot of time to find him. Didn't help that one of the minions spawned 100 yards further away and even more up!
But the debriefing was a bit of a downer. No word about what the secret is. Of course, a grunt like me do not have the need to know. But still, after all the hoopla, the Luddites wanting to destroy it, him wanting that recipe for more control over Arachnos, I would have expecting more. Even if it is a remark like this.
Your contact looks very smug as if he can't wait to confront somebody. When you ask him about the secret he looks at you sternly: 'What recipe? Somethings are better forgotten soldier.'
All in all, I really liked this one. Excellent work. -
Quote:I agree with Eva here. Allow Authors to vote for themselves.Originally Posted by Bubbawheat
Author voting: I allowed author voting, and it didn't cause any upsets, but it did have the possibility to. If I stick with a 2 vote system, I thought one better possibility is to assume every author would vote for themselves for first ignoring any other factors, and allow them only one second place vote.
Quote:The nomination process: I wanted to avoid allowing authors to nominate their own arcs which I thought would create a massive flood of arcs that I wasn't prepared to take on. But this nomination process created the problem that a few of the arcs were by authors who are no longer active, so it really didn't matter to them whether they won or not. Also, many of the authors didn't know they were nominated until towards the end of the process (my fault for not better notifying them as I should) One thought is to have authors post their arcs for qualification in one thread, and have players choose nominations from the qualification thread in a second thread. That might be a little convoluted though. I think that the TO and DO range should be narrowed down to 1-11 and 12-21. This would represent more the nature of Training levels and Double Nature Enhancement levels (Though with the DO range you could wonder about level 20, the level that most people get Stamina). Epic levels could be 41+ Representing the access to Epic Powersets.Quote:The categories themselves: There was a bit of conflict over the level range categories. One of the TO arcs, which ended up winning, contained an AV in it, which many thought were too tough for a TO range arc, but many others thought differently. Also, in the so-called "Epic" category, some felt that Blap Blap Blappy Day had a disadvantage because it was not "epic" in feel, even though it covered the level range.
Maybe we should add best drama and best cannon arcs category. However I was glad to have finished the current categories.
In the judging process we eliminated arcs that were nominated for more categories. This gave us more arcs to nominate but it also meant that arcs lost a chance of winning a category they were nominated for. I am curious what everybody else thinks of this ruling. Should we allow double or tripple categories per arcs next year or not?Quote:Anything else to discuss, feel free. I'm interested in your thoughts and opinions to help make the MA a great place for authors! -
Congratulations to the Winners.
A big thanks to Bubba for organizing this Award.
Thanks to everyone who voted, we made this Award possible! -
Quote:I would, but then somebody decided to nominate it for a public judging panel of which I am a part. Where I am asked to vote for the best. This arc is NOT the best by my book and I express my opinion about it. If you don't like that, don't read my post.Originally Posted by Lazarus
Then you should have kept your mouth shut in the first place.
-
That arc was a great disappointment. Especially after the first briefing which set the mood rightly. It did not follow up and we abandoned it in the 4th mission. It felt as if the author stopped caring about his arc after mission 1.
-
Quote:Don't worry, I saw that AV and skipped the arc. I am adamant in my belief that that arc should not have been nominated. You disagree with my view and that is fine. We do not have to agree on everything. The arc has been nominated, it stands a good chance of winning in its category. So you are not alone in your view either. I don't see a reason to continue discussing this in Venture's review arc anymore.Originally Posted by Lazarus
The arc is actually levels 10-20. It falls into "TO Range" because a) Bubba set the cutoff at 15 but didn't specify that it had to have a max of 15 and b) it is soloable just fine at level 10, which is inside that 10-15 range. It wasn't difficult enough to be placed into the 15-25 range instead, which I had a different nomination for anyway.
If you thought that an arc with a minimum level of 10 which contained EBs and AVs was suitable for a level 6 then the problem is somewhere else, likely inside your head. -
Quote:Never heard of cells?Originally Posted by DumpleBerry
It's a good thing the seven or eight "resistance," "anarchy," and "freelance" people can't get organized. Otherwise the Loyalists would have no challenge finding and helping you. Not that you provide much of a challenge anyways.
-
Quote:A shared first place perhaps? If that is what the votes say, listen to the votes.Originally Posted by Bubbawheat
Currently a tie for the TO arcs. Need more votes if you haven't voted yet, either that or help me figure out how to handle a tie-breaker.
-
Quote:Teaming, it gets worse. Because in a full team of 8. Your level 10 troller will face level 13 mobs. Guess what happens to a lowbie team then?Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
Whoever thought it would be a good idea for a massively multiplayer online role playing game to have a holiday event that encourages teaming was nuts.
[sarcasm]
ToT is just too dangerous for lowbies, leave it to the GROWNUP's.
Something feels wrong about this, is'nt halloween meant to be a holliday for the little uns? Nah, must be me. In ParagonCity only the High Levers are cordially invited.
[/sarcasm] -
Quote:Mindless? Listened to the propaganda news channel to much? Or is it the drugs they spike your food with? Keep dreaming and don't think what will happen when your walls of tranquility shatter and you see the world for the first time through your own eyes.Originally Posted by RadDidIt
There is no power but Loyalty. Woe to the defenders of mindless violence when the boot heel of Praetoria's brave forces come to squash you like the insects you are!
One power, one goal.
Hail Emperor Cole! -
Quote:Those are as I said, MY standards. Standards that come from designing 1 and playing multiple dozens of lowbie arcs. Your standards may differ.Originally Posted by Irresponsible
Why does it have to be that way? Isn't one of the main advantages of the MA system to do stuff that you don't get in the rest of the game? Frankly a lot of the low level Dev content is too easy anyway.
If you want, there are thousands 1-54 arcs with all the Extreme AV's you might crave for. But when we have a category named TO range arcs, then that category gives expectations (to me at least). Therefore I judge them as I think TO arcs should be judged. Using a level 6 unenhanced scrapper. Normally seen as an AT capable of soloing pretty well.
That said, nothing is wrong with making a 1-15 level arc filled with Extreme AV's to challenge people who like that sort of thing. But don't label it as anything else but challenging unless you like 1 stars. -
Quote:I disagree with you then. TO arcs should be as difficult as existing Dev content. They should be soloable and accesable to veteran gamers and newbies alike. And when it says 1-15 then yes it should be doable by a level 6. In fact it must be doable by a level 1! AV's do not belong in the TO category and that arc is automatically disqualified by my standards.Originally Posted by Lazarus
Level 6 may be a stretch, but if I could solo this at level 10 without any enhancements or temp powers at all then either you were playing some really weak solo build or are just a pansy. That's my honest opinion.
Yes, that is how I played it when I discovered it and that was before it had any warnings at all. I still decided to nominate it because I thought it was fun and interesting enough. -
You could try "Blackmarket wants you" See my signature for the correct ID.
It is villainous, designed to be soloable, and it should have plenty of stuff and people to interact with.
However, I realize that the story is a bit on the thin side. But from the reactions I am getting, most people seem to like it enough to award me an average of 4 stars. So you might give it a shot, though I would recommend Mercytown for when you want a really good story.