ICF_Zombra

The "burning forest" map had the same thing happen. Poof. Great dramatic backdrop for a final battle, too; lotta arcs rug-pulled.

Hoping they will be fixed and reintroduced promptly.

Gotcha, thanks guys.

I almost wish my arc had been invalidated instead of changing the final climactic battle in a burning forest into ... a surreal dream of disappearing mobs and illusory matter in the labyrinthine underhalls of 'Arachnos Park'.

At first I thought it was just a fluke, but its incidence is increasing. I select an arc that looks interesting, hit 'Play' and 'Accept', and nothing happens. No contact appears, the AE emblem doesn't appear on my xp compass, nothing.

I guess it's because patches are making these arcs invalid or something, but I'm wondering if it might be something else, something with a workaround. It's hard to find arcs that yell out, 'Z, you want to play me!', so it's disappointing when I actually can't play them.

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The Bane branch is designed for melee combat. It's signature is the ability to deliver critical hits from Hidden status. Banes even have the ability to deliver an "Executioner's Strike" if you use Shatter while Hidden. Ranged attacks don't crit from Hide so only taking them would severely hinder your ability to do what Bane's do best; kill things.

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Strongly agree that skipping Cloaking Device or Shatter is flat out gimping yourself, the same way that a petless Mastermind is gimped. If you're the kind of guy who likes running a petless MM or a Stalker without AS or suchlike, then go for it and good luck to you, but you're not fooling anybody into thinking you're a substantial representative of your AT. This is not the "rare but effective" build you're looking for.

That said, there is more to Banes than Executioner's Strike. While you're never really going to shine as a ranged fighter, the blasts do give you something to do after your big, beautiful alpha, or if for whatever reason getting in close isn't convenient. You certainly shouldn't skip them just because they don't directly fit into your Stalker Jr. lifestyle. You're not a Stalker, after all. A melee-centric Bane is certainly natural, but I could actually see taking just Shatter and Cloak and focusing on range for the rest of it. You might not be quite as efficient, but going in for the ES and then retreating to shoot over your teammates' shoulders could work.

Personally, I like Mace Beam and Mace Beam Blast, and find Mace Beam Volley to be kinda lackluster. I don't think I've tried Poisonous Ray (though this thread is giving me second thoughts!). And my Bane isn't high enough for Crowd Control yet, so I can't comment on how that power might affect range vs. melee strategies.

Every time I write an arc, I find myself having to dumb down my story because the contact is locked from mission 1 through mission 5.

It works fine for some kinds of stories, of course, but the narrative possibilities would open so much wider if we could use new characters to bring new information and direction to the players during the course of a story. I want the contact to get kidnapped. I want the contact to show up mid-arc and betray the player. I want someone else to appear with information the original contact couldn't know about. And so forth.

I realize that there are certain kludges available now, such as making the contact a bulletin board or something, but these are pretty darn limiting as well.

Another idea is to give him a different role in every mission. Maybe you rescue him in the first, then he's a 'Fight Defensive' ally in the next, then in the third he becomes a 'Run to Door' ally with no enemies surrounding him (you meet him, he gives you some info, and then runs off). Then in the 4th mission you fight him. OK, maybe not ... but maybe

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That's the devs. If you don't like [farming], ask them to stop.

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I thought that was exactly the point of this thread. Raising the issue to the devs and other players.

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See, thats the thing. They already KNOW about it.(devs)

Nothing new is being said in this thread anymore. Really, nothing new HAS been said.

The Devs know about everything thats going on in this game, and to think they dont is preposterous, ridiculous, bizarre, incredible, outrageous, shocking, impossible, extreme, crazy, excessive, absurd, foolish, ludicrous, extravagant, unthinkable, unreasonable, insane, irrational, monstrous, senseless, out of the question, laughable, exorbitant, nonsensical, risible, asinine, cockamamie

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Well, I think you may be overstating the case a bit But, yeah, obviously they are aware of it on some level. I do think that the volume of discussion does help to illustrate how many people feel strongly about it. It does sort of defeat the argument of 'everything's fine, nothing to see here, just shut up and play', which I'm not accusing you of supporting, but does seem to be one of the arguments out there against any further dev action.

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That's the devs. If you don't like [farming], ask them to stop.

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I thought that was exactly the point of this thread. Raising the issue to the devs and other players.

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The one thing you blankers seem to forget is that blanking normal content is something that is basically private in nature. (This is true to a certain extent when playing a MA blank mission, as long as you aren't spamming messages for blank teams)

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Putting a blanking mission on the MA system puts your behavior on public display. Sort of like running on field during a Yankees/Red Sox game wearing nothing but your Nikes.


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What may be acceptable behavior in the privacy of your home is not acceptable in other settings

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Amazing how general that is. I can just as easily substitute roleplaying in there. It even makes better sense

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It does? Because roleplayers are not only constantly spamming broadcast, but doing stuff that's even more invasive to other people? I wasn't aware that they even did part 1, but I'm all ears about part 2.

I think if you want to please both soloers and groups, a variant on Lycaeus' system might work: a carefully tuned custom group and minimal use of EBs and AVs.

If even the minions are somewhat challenging, a Heroic soloer still won't be taking on more than a couple at a time. They should at least be able to kite boss spawns and pare it down to a manageable "hero vs. boss only" battle. But a big group getting to that boss spawn will find an army of respectably tough opponents. The only problem with this system is that the bosses themselves won't last long, but with a big group of PCs they won't anyway, will they?

I do believe that EBs scale down to Bosses on solo/Heroic, so putting in EBs actually should be no problem. AVs scale down to EBs, which may be a bit much for a typical soloer. So actually putting EB final fights should be fine.

Lycaeus' ally suggestion is also very well taken. A single ally makes a huge difference for a soloer, but a group will scarcely notice them. The challenge here of course is to make allies that fit well into the story and add interest while, most importantly, not stealing the thunder of the solo player.

Really I think it's a mistake to try to compromise by building arcs that please all playstyles and team situations.

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Simple trick to making a player feel his character is truly part of the Arc. First mission don't mention the character by name at all, other than maybe letting the contact use it.

Second mission have patrols uset the $name in their dialogue.. have the lt's start using the $name in attack dialogue.. etc etc..

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Ooh, I like it. A lot. Adding to bag of tricks. Thanks

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How would moving the farms to Galaxy make people do the galaxy content though? if anything that means people would simply roll galaxy, blitz past galaxy levels in seconds and never see the content.

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I believe the idea is:
* People who want to farm will farm anyway.
* New players have a strong tendency to start in Atlas.
* The majority of farm broadcast will be out of sight from the majority of new players
* New players therefore may be more inclined to get a first impression as a game to be played for the journey

I will likely be on tonight after midnight EST. If anybody else can make it we can try to recruit locally.

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Making an arc based on your character instead of the good of the arc is a major cause of bad arcs.

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I do believe most professional writers would disagree with your views. A great story is made by great characters. Period. A good plot helps, but characters can compensate. The plot can never compensate for poorly developed characters.

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It may be obvious, but it should be said: a good story will have both. Great characters alone cannot cover for a tedious, shallow, or unconvincing plot. I'd actually say that, in the medium of MA, a great plot does not even need great characters - the player is going to provide a character that they're going to like better than everyone in the arc anyway, and even "off the rack" NPCs are already well developed. We all know who the Freakshow and Circle of Thorns are, and why they are interesting (or why we hate them) ... the point is that a brilliant story idea involving these factions will please discerning players even if the enemy bosses are no more inspired than existing bosses with custom names.

Weak!

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"Boy, I sure hope things work out for Mrs. Evil," "Yeah, it was great working with her at Widow School."

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Zombra, do you mind it I actually snatch that line? I find it amusing and can work with some of the other corny lines I have pop up at parts.

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I'd love it if you did

If we get an expanded description field I wouldn't mind a credit - "Additional dialogue by @Zombra"

The point is that it's a "hidden" detail if you can't read Greek - and if you can, it's ruined anyway

Hahaha.

Great advice dug.

In my new arc (#129684: Cavallo, the Colossus, and the Charm of the Sorceress), the PC villains steal an ancient amulet from where it was buried by Greek sailors. When they have it, ghosts attack and yell at them in Greek. The text looks very cool and ancient.

I *hope* no one understands what it would say translated, since I simply ran babel fish on gripping input text like YO DUDE DO NOT STEAL THAT AMULET.

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But it shouldn't be that weird for an Evil Corporation to have scientists, security guards, and guys in suits wandering around.

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I completely agree, but as SlickRiptide said, when you put Crey agents into your arc, you are putting Crey agents into your arc.

I understand that you picked some guys who were "generic looking", and that makes sense. You just gotta accept that Crey are not generic - at least, many people will not take them as such. I wouldn't.

Taking out the Night Widows? Actually that seemed like one of the stronger links in your group's story - Mrs. Evil was a Widow, so she has "sisters" she can call on, right? Try this: in an early mission, put in a NW patrol with a little text saying, "Boy, I sure hope things work out for Mrs. Evil," "Yeah, it was great working with her at Widow School." Then no one will question Widows working with EI. Patrols with dialogue are a great way to tie your units into the story. You'll have to make a separate custom group with only Widows just for use with that one patrol, but it will add a lot of credibility and use almost no space. If anything I'd get rid of Artemis because 1) people hate them and 2) Widows are plenty good enough as "lady ninjas".

OK, so to sum up as BRIEFLY as possible, your group has:

Ninjas, magical tattoo warriors, werewolves, robots, demons, Crey agents, Arachnos agents, Artemis agents, Chimera agents, and more.

You overdid it.

Leaving aside the fact that there is really no concept or unifying theme here whatsoever (they're not even all "Evil"!), the fact that you use distinctive units from established, insular groups with their own specific agendas completely demolishes any illusion that these guys are all working together. OK, I can buy that EI would hire Artemis mercenaries, and maybe Arachnos would ally with them (though not "work for" them), but Crey don't "loan out" their agents and Chimera are freaking crimefighters!

If you don't have room to plausibly explain how EI got all these crazy people to work for them, trim some out or accept that your arc makes no sense. Note! Accepting that your arc makes no sense is fine - tailor your text to reflect that, so that it makes sense that it makes no sense, if you see what I mean. But don't expect people to just natively buy into the idea that your mastermind has a firm hold over every group in the game.

Oooh, interesting. Thanks!

Is this still screwed up? I remember Castle saying something about, "Just make sure they all have ranged attacks," but it makes me sad.

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the other servers do need a boost

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They really don't. If you love the Freedom server so much, make characters there. It's that simple.