JamieB

Necro, I had the same problem finding teams, and then I started using the Mission Architect chat channel as well as the Defiant Architects one (MA channel also available on Union, I think). The MA channel seems to be relatively light on spam and the best place to find content-running MA teams, from my limited experience.

I bow before your might, Master!

Great review, both your writing and the points you made - lots to mull over and I'll definitely implement as many of your auggestions as will fit in my remaining 3.5K

Right...

In the interests of keeping the Master from unleashing hell on some poor unsuspecting Architect, I humbly submit "Cancelled in Three", now re-engineered following Leese's review with rather more squishy-friendly mobs, and with all-new dialogue for the final boss.

The Master may deign to take an interest in the following information, which may be of use in his investigation:-

Arc Id: 34608
Morality: Neutral (The Master's insights into whether this arc is sufficiently Neutral would be most welcome).
Level Range: 40-54
Missions: 3 (incl. 1 Defeat All, no timed missions)
AVs/EBs: 2 (if the Master investigates alone, I would expect them to pose a mild challenge, but I'm certain they shall bow before his robotic might)

The hook: When Walt Kurtzberg, a Paragon City comics industry insider, informs you that your comic is to be cancelled, you must investigate why — and stop yourself being "Cancelled in Three"!

Notes: I would hope that the Master engages his humour chip before commencing his investigation. Failure to pre-activate the humour chip may result in dangerous levels of tedium. If the Master detects any elements of the missions which cause his humour chip to malfunction or otherwise deactivate, this humble supplicant would be grateful if the Master would inform him so —*even if it is the last thing this humble supplicant hears!

Also not leaving!

I'm Jamie, on Defiant primarily, usually found helping to blaze through TFs with one of my two beloved VEATs; failing that, taking my blaster ever-slowly towards as many freaking badges as I can get, and - very occasionally - remembering that I have a bunch of alts who need a little love. I also like to pimp my MA arc —*for example...

Ah, I dunno if my gentle ribbing is coming across the right way, but thanks for your answer, Dave - lots to ponder on there

Obviously I now have to make an MA arc where Shakespeare and Dickens team up to gank your toon :P

"Ped", yes, I'm an idiot. I seem to be posting that waaay to many times today. Sigh.

Dave - your mind-blowing pimping posts aside, could you give a champing-at-the-bit would-be designer any tips on how to get people to try your arcs out? My beloved "Cancelled in Three" is still languishing at 45 plays

Models with more, or less, than two legs.

Hope this is still going when I get home from work, I need half those badges!

Happy Birthday, CoX. It's been a blast! (And a stab, a hold, etc etc)

You're welcome!

One thing that might help is making the global channels a bit clearer - I'm a 36 month vet and it took me two bloomin' weeks to find the Mission Architect channel, which it seems I should've been using all along to find MA content (as opposed to farming) teams.

That still isn't massively useful for complete newbies, but tweaking the 'Defiant Channels' sticky might be helpful nonetheless.

Donna - Soldiers of Arachnos respeccing works a little differently to usual; you need to respec your powers up to level 24, at which point you then start respeccing again from level 1 but this time with your SoA-path powers unlocked.

IOW pick whatever you like up to 24, and then start to respec again with your final build - TK Blast should then be available at level 1.

All very true, 3dent, all very true. I particularly like the post-MA folio of King Lear which ends thusly:

Albany:
The weight of this dumb arc we must obey;
Where are the glowies? This mission is ****!
The EBs killed the mobs, the glowies suck,
You'll never see the HOF — tough luck.

I'm an idiot

Ahem. To slightly change the subject: Shakespeare walks into a pub, and the barman goes "Get out, yer bard"

*getting my coat*

"BTW - Is Shakespeare's work considered great because it was written well when first published or because it's had hundreds of years of tinkering to improve it?"

Wait, what? I know there've been some slight tweaks — notably converting archaic to modern English, depending which version you read — but there haven't been *that* many changes since the early folios.

Something like the OED or any other non-fiction book that *does* get updated a lot might've been a better example :P

I'm not sure what you're trying to get us to do, there, JD. Could you go through it one more time for us hard-of-thinking types?

I think we're making more or less the same point, Bovine.

I'm not discounting the possibility of a well-written MA arc where one's toon is not central to the story, simply stating that from my own experience, I have yet to play such an arc. If any leap to mind, by all means please post 'em here or in the recommendation thread, and I'll be happy to revise my preconceptions

I cordially disagree, Bovine; movies and sports are a passive viewing experience where the viewer of necessity cannot be directly engaged in the action; MMORPGs require the player to, er, play (PL monkeys notwithstanding).

To be fair, the above doesn't contradict your point that it is possible to construct a story so well-written that the player *not* being the focus of it doesn't matter...

...But from personal MA experience most of those kinds of stories (frequently toon-origin type stories) are simply NOT well-written enough for it not to matter.

Further, a couple I've played (and low-starred) consist almost entirely of the contact directly insulting your player for the entire arc's duration, which is not a massive incentive to play the arc to completion (to say the least).

I very much enjoyed this one:

"Whatever Happened To The Cockroach Crusader?"
by @AlEwing
Arc Id: 67280
Language: English
Alignement: Hero
Length: 4 Missions (two failable)
Difficulty: solo (with decent soloist) or group (for squishies and to avoid failing mishes)
Enemies: Custom and Freakshow, at least two EBs
Description (author's own): Something is deeply wrong with Roachman, the Midnight Manhunter of Paragon City. Ever since his arch-nemesis, Day-Glo the Flourescent Man, died falling from the Atlas statue, Roachman's been getting grimmer and grimmer. When Day-Glo returns from the dead, Roachman's the only one who could possibly stop him. But Roachman's vanished from the face of the earth...

My thoughts: Extremely well-written arc with a great (perhaps a little too foreshadowed) twist, smart dialogue throughout and one custom villain group likely to put a big smile on the face of any Silver Age comics fans. The EBs are pretty tough (especially Day Glo, who two-shotted my purpled-out Widow O.o) but nonetheless rewarding. The final mission makes a quite inspired use of one of the cave transition maps, to boot. Five stars from me!

Thanks so much, Leese - I really want to make this a mish that's funny, rather than tiresome, so I'll massively dial down the mobs on mish 2 - especially the /EA ones (I didn't really get that EA is kind of not like the player version, ie quite effective even set on Standard (which it is)).

Also, I'll have a look at Nemmie's dialogue again. I understand that BWA-HA-HA-IT'S ALL A NEMESIS PLOT is probably annoying even by now but I hope you'll agree that the treatment of it is OK...

Would love for you to take another look now I've done a fair bit of tweaking (with invaluable testing assistance from Xemulas).

Massively obliged to you for running through!

Perhaps briefly, but with users able to add comments there and a current base of users who seem to be interested in high quality missions, "OMGFARM!!!ONE" by @ExamplePurposesMadeUpIdiot will likely not go too long without getting the beating it hypothetically deserves.

Might be a busy week or two for the site's mods, tho'.

Leese- it might make more sense to apply IC comments to the more lore-based missions and/or arcs; trying to make IC stuff fit with the more comedy / off-topic sorts of arcs is pretty much making a rod for your own back and adds the weight of needing to be creative to the already-quite-tough job of writing a constructive and smart review. But hey, its your sandbox, play in it how you like