Hercules

I'd like to submit my latest arc for review.
Disclaimer: I realize there is a problem with fluctuating level ranges between missions, which I fully intend to fix with the next patch, when they allow us to explicitly specify the range. I used almost solely Croatoa factions, so I think the devs got a few of the level ranges wrong. The arc is intended for a low to mid 30's character.

I'd also like your opinion on the last chapter, whether I've stepped over the line into a possible copyright violation.

Arc Name: Tales of Croatoa: A Rose By Any Other Name....
Arc ID: 178774
Morality: Heroic
Factions: Red Cap, Ghosts, Cabal, Custom
Difficulty Level: Moderate to Hard. Mission 5 has EB/AV.
Synopsis : Patrolling in Croatoa one night, you notice a little girl wandering aimlessly on the edges of a cemetery and decide to stop to help. Experience a tale of love, sorrow, and betrayal as you attempt to unravel a mystery. (SFMA)

Must be nice to have that problem, now if I could just get ONE player to try my latest.

They'd have to base the number on the arc length. Otherwise, eventually, we will have a 1 mission dev choice arc, which would be farmed to death for merits.

I played through the first chapter. Just a few points:
- The inserts you have in a couple lines are distracting from the sentence structure. "*a slow creepy smile crosses mako's face*. I'd move them to the end of the sentence and perhaps change them to another color.
- You have a number of spelling/capitalization/punctuation errors throughout the first mission
- An AV ally is a bit overkill. Edit: Not sure, but there might be an EB version of GW.
- I'd break out the patrols and give each one different text. Nobody wants to hear the same comedic text repeatedly.
- I found a note at the end. Yet the popup says Psyche "told me" where to find Castle.
- The mission objective said "Kill All", but the mission ended when I defeated Psyche. It's possible she might have been the last mob, but if not, I'd make the objective text "Defeat Sister Psyche". I'd avoid kill alls whenever possible.
- Sister Psyche telling fish jokes? Um, ok. Might want to put a disclaimer that not only is this a comedy arc, but also somewhat cheesy comedy.

This arc has potential, just needs some polishing.

I've just recenty completed an arc where it would have been nice to have a "Kill 50" required objective. As it is now, you can only select "Kill All", which tends to get people annoyed.

Suggestion:
- Add a new kill X objective type. The number to be killed is settable via a drop down box ( i.e. 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 )
Note: This number would require edits to ensure it is valid for the selected map (on heroic for a solo player). For example, a small map may not spawn 50 mobs.

Well, if you like canon mobs like Redcaps and Cabal, you can try out my arc:
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat....=1#Post13501559

I'd suggest waiting until the low 30s though - that's the level range that it's designed for.

I have so many on my hard drive. Here are a few of my favorites:

Hammer Time!

Kneel Before Me!

The King

The Only Good Injun...

My Personal Favorite of All Time ... Nemesis!

Rikti Invasion

It's Babs .. and Babs?

Something looks a little out of place here ... I14 Beta

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Arc Title: Fog of War
Arc ID: 138914
Description: Fantasy gamers have been hacking the Mission Architect system, and AeonCorp is hiring you to help repel the hackers and get to the bottom of the disturbance. Deliberately designed as a humorous spoof of fantasy games. The final mission includes two standard Elite Bosses, so squishier toons may need a teammate or two. I also recommend that this arc be played by characters level 40 or higher.

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I just ran this arc with my Level 49 Plant/Storm Controller. Very well balanced mobs, with one exception I'll get into later.

No glaring spelling or grammar mistakes, except for 1 line in Chapter 4 ( below ).

Chapter 1:
I have just a minor quibble with the mob names. You seem to alternate between prototypical Race/Class names, such as Dwarven Gunner or Gnomish Tinkerer, and other names such as "Holier than Thou". For example, If you wanted to stick with the humorous names, Dwarven Gunner could have been "Irish Brogue-Speaking Dwarf", to make fun of the Irish accents that most fantasy games seem to stick on the dwarf race.

Question: I don't play red-side. Who is Dr. Forrester? Maybe a little background...

Chapter 2:
The "Knight of the Living Dead" died before I ever found him. Not sure how you'd fix that, other than making him a bit tougher?

There was no interaction text from the Rikti, like "Query: Goblin Trickster? Another: Nemesis Construct?" I guess you could say the same about the first chapter.

Chapter 3:
PoW means "Prisoner of War" to me. I realize you were trying to make a spinoff on World of Warcraft with a slight variation, but PoW just doesnt work - at least not for me. It's possible a veteran might get a little offended.

Chapter 4:
Wording: "... and that should get us prepared ....
Maybe: " ... help prepare us ...."
All of the patrols have the same text. I'd limit to 3 patrols or less if you're out of space. The same text over and over gets old.

Dead Man Talking: "Hospital transport ... for one .. Dr. Aeon"
Ok... I guess that means Dead Man Talking is Dr. Aeon in disguise? That one had me just a little confused.

Chapter 5)
I appreciated the backup for Dr. Aeon, but poor Snaptooth didnt survive the Minotaur. Cute dialog from the Minotaur, but if you need additional space, that might be one mob that could go.

The Dr. Aeon ambush needs text. I hate getting popped from behind with no warning. Maybe: "Defend Dr. Aeon!" at a minimum.

As I explained in-game, the Plant Control power set on one of your mobs is problematic. The game has a bug that seems to be confusing my plant control powers with the enemies powers. After winning one fight, every time I used any root power, the enemy carrion creepers kept spawning on my rooted areas. You might want to consider using another power set until the Devs resolve it.

Overall, a very nice arc. Good job.

Interesting arc. I ran this with my 49 Plant/Storm controller on Heroic and didnt have too many difficulties.

- First of all, spelling & grammar... I encountered quite a few errors. if you want me to, I can list them in another post or PM. Otherwise, I'd suggest running a spellchecker and getting someone to proofread for you.

- Chapter 1: You have text recommending that I bring friends, due to the number of mobs. I'd get rid of text that is usually inserted due to an AV/EB. i had plenty of time left running this with a controller.

You mentioned that this used to be a villainous arc. The text stating "keep whatever you want", appears to be a remnant of that. You need to have a heroic reason for doing missions. Either that, or put in the description that this is geared more toward the "anti-hero/mercenary" type hero.

- The text from Charles reminds me of "Charlie's Angels", a popular 1970s/80s TV series. Just curious if that was the inspiration?

- Why would I follow instructions from a faceless man over a computer terminal? The reasons given, that some nameless customer wants to save some villains from demolition seems a bit lame. Why not hire someone with a siren and loudspeaker, rather than a hero?

- Chapter 1 and Chaper 2 are repeats, just with different villain groups.

- The Boss names are just random characters, as opposed to the usual "Leet Speak" names encountered in the game. Ignore this if that was the joke intended. The arc seemed to be half serious/half humorous, and it was hard to differentiate.

- I'm sure you've seen this in a 1000 reviews. I'd avoid doing the Kill All.

- The contact throws the first "Idiot Ball" ( and repeats in each chapter). Venture's terminology, not mine. Again, I don't know if you intended this to be a joke, but I'd ham it up a little if you did. Something like: "More than likely ramblings from the rattling you gave them, no? You trust me? Right? I wouldn't do anything to deceive you. Really!"

Repeat this advice wherever the contact tries to convince you that "he really had no idea why something just happened".

Chapter 2:
- "... they are remains of an old group...". Um, remains? Again, ignore me, if this is an intentional play on words. Otherwise, I'd use "remnants".

- The send off could use a bit of work. Some of the wording is a bit awkward.

Chapter 3:
" ... we know as well as a few other gangs ...". I'm a hero, I'm not in a gang.

- the mission description led me to believe that I was doing another clear all. That changed to "click all glowies" upon entering the mission. Regardless of humorous intent, the mission description should describe what you're actually going to do.

- I loved the two ambushes - I'm assuming you had a normal mob as the trigger for the first one. The text "Our forces need help... again?" cracked me up. I'd really like to know how you did the chained ambushes.

- Some of the text spoken by the Freakshow and 5th seemed to be switched. You might want to check that.

Chapter 4:
- How do I know that the PPD is remotely accessing the terminal? Does it flash up on the screen "PPD remotely accessing"?
- Nice custom mobs and descriptions, but I still wasnt sure what a Psion was. "Charlie's Minions" might have been a better group name. If you did intend to model this after Charlie's Angels, it would have been cool to make the minions look like them instead.

- You had Klang as the Freak ally. Dang, I was hoping for Bob.

- This was the first time I ever encountered an ally ambush. Very nice, although Charlie went down way too fast when they arrived.

Overall, a nice arc, although there appears to be remnants of the switch between heroic and villainous alignment.

I've created a banner page for the arc:

Banner Image

Enjoy!

Arc Name: Tales of Croatoa: A Rose By Any Other Name....
Arc ID: 178774
Morality: Heroic
Factions: Red Cap, Ghosts, Cabal, Custom
Difficulty Level: Moderate to Hard. Mission 5 has EB/AV.
Synopsis : Patrolling in Croatoa one night, you notice a little girl wandering aimlessly on the edges of a cemetery and decide to stop to help. Experience a tale of love, sorrow, and betrayal as you attempt to unravel a mystery. (SFMA)

Note: This arc is intended to be played by someone in their low to mid 30s ( i.e. when you'd normally be playing in Croatoa ). Due to obvious errors in faction level ranges in MA, if you play at higher levels, your mission play level will fluctuate. (which can be a little annoying )

Any comments or constructive criticism will be appreciated.

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hey guys, don't want to be pushy, but it looks like my arc's been skipped twice now (my most recent post was a repost with a rating for a different arc) so i would appreciate it if someone could give it a try. That being said, if you don't want to play it, that's your choice, I just don't want it to be forgotten again.

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Welcome to the club... I think my arc is a couple dozen pages back by now.

What I'd like is the option to have a quick view for maps.

Let me click a button that takes me into the map, completely empty of mobs, so I run through and see what it looks like from the inside. Currently, we have to pick a map, pick an enemy group, then actually play the arc and fight our way through the map to see it all.

Of course, inside the map, you'd need an "Exit" button.

Currently, we have the option to set the inactive text for the captive and for the capturing enemy group. The order for this text appears to be random, sometimes the enemy comes first - sometimes the captive.

What I'd like to have is a list of back and forth dialog. It can be limited to 5 or 6 entries, if thats a concern.
Example:
1) Enemy: "Tell us where you hid the uber artifact of doom!"
2) Captive: "I will never tell you where I've hidden it! Never!"
3) Enemy: "We will inflict untold suffering on you!"
4) Captive: "Do your worst!"

To do this, you'd need a list of items as opposed to the current enemy and captive text boxes. Each list item would have a radio button to indicate "captive" vs "enemy", as well as the text box to indicate what is being spoken.

The current system is somewhat clumsy and text being spoken out of order limits its usefulness.

I would really like the option to add a prologue to certain chapters. Occasionally the chapter either needs an opening introduction that isn't the contact speaking to me OR contains some text that the contact needs to say BEFORE I accept the mission. Breaking it out into a separate section would help so much vs trying to jam it into the top of the mission intro.

How I envision it working:
1) An additional 1000 character prologue edit box is added to each chapter in the editor. (optional text)
2) Also, in the editor, a single line "Prologue Next" text box that contains the link text at the bottom of the prologue page.
2) If you add text to the prologue, playing the game will show the screens in the following sequence:
A) Prologue ( with the "Next" link at the bottom ).
B) Mission intro ( as it currently does, with the "Accept" link at the bottom )
C) Mission Sendoff ( as it currently does )

I've played about half of the DC arcs. Some of them are fairly good, but I haven't run into any where I've felt an overwhelming desire to repeat play.

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I know that many SGs are creating SG-specific MA arcs, but for the arcs to earn tickets for people playing them they must be published on an individual's account. This uses up one of that person's arcs, and makes the arc visible to anyone, including non-SG members.

Instead, how about allowing designated SG members to post SG-specific MA arcs on the Mission Computer and Oracle items in their bases? That way the arc would not use up one of an individual's arc slots, and would only be usable by SG-members.

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I'm not opposed to the idea of running arcs in the SG base. However, as someone not in a SG, the idea of you getting extra slots when I'm limited to 3 .... sorry, I can't support that idea. It has to count against whomever publishes the arc.

Arc Id: 131430
Title: The Starfare Chronicles: First Contact
Length: 5 missions
Morality: Heroic
Difficulty: Moderate to High, depending on level and build. Designed for 40+.
Synopsis: This is a Star Trek homage arc (with ideas from a number of other series thrown in ). An alien empire is about to invade Earth, prompting the Starfare Alliance to send aid. Will you assist their representative, or hope some other hero stands against the coming invasion?
Warning: There is an Arch Villain at the end, so don't attempt to solo unless you have a very strong build.

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What event?

Hmmm, so you like "kill all" missions that much? Thats typical of most of the missions that contacts have outside their arc.

Sounds like you need to stick to radio missions.

Thought of one more thing .... you have a contact named Baxtacus ... which just cries out for a few evil IRS agents somewhere in the arc.

Cool arc... just a few suggestions and comments:

Mission 1:
- The opening arc says I'm talking to this guy to "save the world". Hmmm, makes me wonder why a CoT would even be talking to me ... he is a villain after all. Maybe a little more of an intro about how I even heard of this guy and why I'm meeting with him.
- Way too many "!". Almost every sentence!!!!!
- ".... cramp a lot of plans ...", I guess that's something like crimping plans?

Chapter 2:
- One of the mission objectives is "Find a clue". You passed up an opportunity to have "Get a Clue" as an objective? Very disappointed.
- Almost every mob had a control power...
- The AV was a Lieutenant, maybe that was an intentional joke - I just wanted something a bit tougher.

Chapter 3:
- Banished Pantheon chatter: "... it's going to be the us...". I'd take "the" out.
- I was really expecting Chris Jenkins to be the demon, oh well...

Overall, plenty of enjoyable humor. The final chapter really cracked me up with all the npc chatter. Actually, I was thinking "where is the Nemesis plot" angle, when I finally ran into the Nemesis patrol. Just a little polish and I think this could be a top tier comedy arc.

Hmmm, Robin Hood...

Has anyone else run into this? I'm able to edit a custom mob just fine, changing text or costume pieces. But once I click the final arrow to save the changes, the client locks up. ( forcing me to terminate the app and relog in )

This is getting to be extremely annoying that mobs in my arcs, at this point, are unchangeable.

I had hoped you would review the other arc. I'll be the first to admit this arc is not polished, although not quite the complete disaster you've painted it to be. I've ran several groups through it and most found it enjoyable.

mission 1

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-save what remnant? how is he here? how are we getting to his world?


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Save the remnant of his Freedom Phalanx forces that he's already described ...

The same way we get to any dimension - through a portal corporation portal. Not wasting space on something that is already game canon...

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-the time bomb has the original rikti description... can't that be changed?
-in the dialogue for the unknown soldier the period needs to be in the quotes. he has no description.
-with Nuclear Adam, one nuclear does not need to be capitalized. no description either
-are the rescues randomly distributed? i found them all in about the same area...
-no clues?


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A lot of the complaints about missing descriptions will be found in all of my arcs. I write the story first - descriptions come later - if I have room under the 100k limit. I've tried blanking out the generic descriptions - it doesnt work.

The rescue locations are random.

No clues - not needed in a simple search and rescue.

mission 2
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-is there an east germany if the war never ended? maybe eastern Germany?


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Very odd, I had removed this and republished. I'll guess have to do it again...

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-is this side mission of finding the daughter really necessary? why now? kind of an odd coincidence...


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Necessary? No. But I don't hold to the philosophy that side stories are necessarily bad. I've seen it in a number of canon arcs. I felt this established more rapport with the contact.

mission 3
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-no clue for mission 3?


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It is not necessary to have a clue in every mission.

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-no descriptions for any character
-your zero has the original skyraider skiff description.


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Space limitions again.

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-convenient that statesman had a chameleon suit


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Just tieing this arc into existing game canon. The chameleon suit was used in an arc to fool the Freakshow. And yes, I believe Statesman would be very aware of it & contact the appropriate people to acquire one. Sam is his equivalent in the other dimension, so I think States' would be highly motivated to help out.


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-why should that prevent Japanese forces on american soil? it was just one raid disguised as a German...


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Agreed. I had planned to add "I have 15 other Heroes doing the same thing at other sites...", but again at 99.9%, space issues. This is definitely one text change I have to work in there ... somehow.

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chapter 4
-mission brief their is spelled wrong
-you need to change arachnos to the arachnos and make the second sentence plural. otherwise it sounds like a person rather than an organization. now i am confused. is arachnos a person? since the raiders are asking an arachnos agent where is arachnos...?
-why is it a defeat all in such an enormous map?


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I dont recall it being that huge a map, but I'll take another run through. I thought I had already changed all the Arachnos references to Recluse - guess I missed a few.

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not one of your custom characters have a description, with exception of uncle sam's short one. none of your destructible objects has anything different in their descriptions. for example the time bomb in the first mission has still has the original rikti bomb description, which thematically makes no sense at all. tons of cool custom toons running around do not make up for these simple details.


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You know, a number of reviewers make a big deal of these descriptions, and to be honest, I've never bothered to look at one all the time I've played the game. Just not that important to me. I'm betting 90% of the game population would say the same. If I have extra space after implementing everything, I have no problem with adding a description, but I'm not sacrificing story text for descriptions.

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the next major problem is the story line. you have five missions, they are almost all unconnected,


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With the exception of his daughter's rescue, this statement is incorrect. This is a war story - he is sending you into battle where you're needed most. Sorry you dont like a story where battle plans are made due to circumstance and opportunity.

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the dialogue needs a lot of work. it is very clichéd and standard. it seems to come from all the bad war hero movies. for example...

[NPC] Shogun Taganaki: I knew you German dogs were not to be trusted! Prepare to die.
[NPC] Shogun Taganaki: The Empire will soon dominate the world.
[NPC] Shogun Taganaki: You cannot hope to defeat me.
[NPC] Shogun Taganaki: What? This is not possible.


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I love those war hero movies. And yes, I was going for that kind of dialog. A bit corny? Yep - just like I wanted it.

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your 4th mission is the worst. you have an enormous map and it is a kill all. this is a huge no-no for a lot of people. to make matters worse it is an arachnos base which makes for a lot of nooks and crannies for bad guys to hide in. i do not even think it made sense for the story to kill all. not really sure why i have to rescue people either. or that one was an ally and the other was just a captive.


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I'll look at the map once again - didnt take that long to complete either solo or on a team.

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this arc was all over the place. you frame the Germans with an attack on a Japanese base and that stops all Japanese operations on american soil?


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No, that stops Japan from joining Germany on American soil. Are you going to allow an ally into a theatre when you suspect they might be on the verge of betraying you?

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you stop two top generals and that turns the tide for the battle?


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If the Germans had assassinated MacArthur and Patton, you think that might have had an influence on the outcome of the war? I think it would have been a huge blow to American morale and might have turned the tide.

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this arc needs some major revisions. it has potential, but as it is now i feel it is a mess.

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Sorry you didnt like it. I will be making some changes when, and if, they increase the cap limit. I'll see about making some of the text changes mentioned. As far as it being a "total mess", guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. No, not a Devs choice, it's just a fun arc with a lot of fun custom mobs - and I don't intend to make too many major changes.