Jophiel

Ah, excellent. It's not that I'm against SG mode and can appreciate needing to pitch into the Prestige kitty on occassion to pay the rent but my chest emblem was a pretty major part of my costume and I was distraught (well, as distraught as I can get over it) to see it converted to some other symbol.

I didn't think to ask at the moment in SG and then didn't want to sound whiney about it if there was already a simple solution.

Thanks!

Can I be in SG mode without the costume change?

The MA is nothing short of brilliant, hands down. Ever see those surveys which would plot what type of gamer you are? You had the Advancement types who played to gain skills, levels, etc and get to the top of their class, the Explorer types who wanted to see and experience new things and a low level "lost temple" was worth more than an endgame generic monster. You had the Social type who was just as happy sitting in zonewide chat as they were actually "doing" something and... you had the Creator archtype. The ones who want deep crafting systems and when people click on their Calico Leggings, it should say "Crafted by Starrydawn Moonwolf". The ones who want equipment dyes and to build their own house.

If you're primarily a Creator archtype then the MA is designed to feed you and keep you in the game because you won't find anything like it elsewhere in the major MMORPGs. Better yet, having the Creators tinking their happy hearts out in MA means that the Advancement types get to collect xp & tickets for rare items (even ignoring farming), the Explorer types get a wealth of new arcs to experience and the Social types get more grouping opportunities and the joy of a bustling Atlas Park AE building (along with the costume contests and all that).

It doesn't need to appeal to YOU to create arcs (and, if we assumed every archtype was equal, there's a 4:1 chance it won't be your cuppa tea) but it makes one class of player happy and, thusly, gives all the rest more content should they desire it. Brilliant.

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As for the Skulls Bandana, it's a souvenir in the game.

http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Skulls_Bandana<br

[/ QUOTE ]Well, I sure can't argue with that. I feel your pain on the "Cavatina to force a 1-14" angle. Maybe one or two missions have a Skull/Clockwork/Outcast who can fill that role as a placed Boss encounter.

Should all go according to plan, I intend to do Simple Minds (70801) tonight. Was going to do it last night but the "Very Long" tag didn't mesh with my other plans of tinkering with my own arcs. I'm going to try to squeeze in Welcome to Atlas Park (206036) as well since it's a short one. All things subject to change, of course.

Excellent news and that'll be the first change I make

This almost makes up for losing my MA badges.

Almost.

Ok... not really. But it's still good news.

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I must have tested the mission five times, tweeking things here and there, and without fail, the "middle" object spawned on the fourth floor of the map and the "back" object spawned on the second floor.

[/ QUOTE ]I just had someone review an arc I did and express disappointment that the final collection item was right near the beginning of the last mission. I thought maybe I had the soawns set to "Any" but... nope. It as set to "Back" and just decided to spawn on the 2nd floor of a 5 floor building.

Revisions made to this arc:

-- Made sure that object spawn points were set to "Back" where appropriate.
-- Changed Mission #3 considerably. Moved Council into a more appropriate dwelling and gave them a boss who must be defeated before the plan can come to fruition.
-- Added some flavor encounters to Mission #4. Moved the boss encounter to "Middle" to help ensure that players will come across him even if he isn't required. Unfortunately, it seems that I can't make a "collect" objective conditional upon some other objective (i.e. can't make the collect only spawn once the boss is down).
-- Some tweaking of patrol/ambush sizes to increase the difficulty a touch.

I may give the dialogue a going over but, beyond that, this one'll be about where it is until I15 and I'll take it from there. Overall the reaction I've gotten in game has been very positive so I think it's getting to where I want it to be.

I'll start off by saying thanks for the run through. It's unfortunate that a quirk seems to have appeared for your trek through my arc.

I'm exceptionally surprised that the mission ended with the collect item right near the front. It's set to be in the rear of the map and I've had it appear on the 4th floor but never on the 2nd.

I've noticed strange item clumping in the first mission as well. Maybe I just need to set everything for the rear of the map. I had hoped to get more of a front-middle-rear situation but it doesn't seem to be working.

I had imagined the story taking place in Paragon City given the inclusion of MAGI. If it makes you feel better, I see that "Lily" chick walking down the streets all the time Although, I would hope that even Nerva has emergancy services for when things catch on fire

Council Base coulda-shoulda-woulda been a Council Base but I liked the shortness of the one I had selected. I hate those long tunnel bases. Still, you have a valid point.

The mission texts are apparently an item of opinion. I've received a lot of feedback from people saying they loved them and, obviously, that's not a universally held opinion. I've been playing with the various text bits trying to ensure that the central plot doesn't get lost.

In any event, I thank you again for your opinions and wish the item placements hadn't quirked out on you since that seems to have played a role in your disappointment.

Edit: As for overall difficulty, you're probably right. I've walked through it in testing on my Defender which isn't exactly the sign of an exceptional challenge. I may add in a couple boss type spawns along the way (where appropriate, obviously) and perhaps up the difficulty of some of the patrols/ambushes. That plus trying to force the glowies further to the rear should help make it more of a challenge.

I gave this arc a review in my Lowbie Thread.

For a change of pace, I ran my lvl 11 MA/LR scrapper through The Horseman Chronicles (#195149) today. I still intend to continue Plan A but I can't spend every CoH moment listening to the "Crssshh Sssshhh Scwssshh!!" of my DB scrapper. It was only after the fact that I saw that Citizen_Razor started a thread describing how he's going to change the arc. Well... too bad! I already played it so nyeah!

Cutting right to the chase, I gave this arc four stars. It had a pretty solid story but suffered a little along the way. The arc starts with a representative of the Horsemen asking you to help them out. It seems that a feller from the Praetorian alternate universe is trying to open a portal between our worlds and, naturally, we'd get the short end of the stick on it. To avoid this, the first thing he does is send me off to fight some Vahlizok (or however its spelled) in a sewer. My character is rightfully sceptical that the best way to save the world is by conducting sewer sweeps. But, as it turns out, there's bad guys (well, worse-than-usual guys) down there and they're collecting various tchotchkes which will allow them to open the afore mentioned portal. Rather than go through it mission by mission, you can pretty much sum it up as "Bad guy wants a thingy, you need to stop the bad guy from getting the thingy... bad guy gets the thingy."

This is really the flaw in an otherwise well executed story arc. Each mission is identical to the point where I felt as though Cavatina & I were "Sam the Sheepdog" and "Ralph Wolf" from the old cartoons. The ones where they start the short by punching in and greeting one another, conduct some hijinx against one another and... before the big boom can come, the whistles blows, they punch out and and say "See you tomorrow, Sam." "See ya tomorrow, Ralph." This was also a detriment because you run into a main bad guy again and again and, by mission #3, I knew "Ok, have 2 greenies and a break free and this'll be cake". The story advanced but the missions felt largely the same.

Beyond that, there were some minor flaws such as that I don't think Skulls own bandanas, The Bad Guy asks if I didn't learn my lesson last time (erm... I beat you last time, hence us being in Mission #2) and my female hero overheard a thug saying they "were warned about him" (hint: use $himher).

I don't want to sound too critical though because I enjoyed the story and felt I had it largely pieced together before the contact filled me in (I was close but on a slightly different track). With some more variety in the missions, this would have been a five star arc. With a weaker story, it would have been a three (no major errors but nothing exceptional). I trust that the revisions Citizen_Razor has planned will push it upwards rather than downwards

Oh, and this was a pretty long arc to play straight through. I think, in total, it took me a touch over two hours.

I'm going to cut off suggestions here for the moment just so I can get organized and have a chance to run through these & see where I'm at level-wise.

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I understand the mechanics for having long flowing gowns or robes doesn't work, apparently, but that is only becaus they design everything to be worn by every AT and powerset. SO of course its impossible for an MA/ Scrapper to perform kicks etc wearing something like that..

[/ QUOTE ]A long skirt/dress slit up the side could still work and seem reasonable.

Agreed with the rest -- more leg options, please.

I've played Future Skulls before (at your recommendation via the SDMB) but I haven't played the sequel. So I'll have to fit that one in.

I played Captain Dynamic and wavered on the cusp between four and five stars throughout, eventually flipping a mental coin and deciding on five stars. The uniqueness of it tipped me over. At first I was a little put off by the idea of having to watch "prequel" videos to get into it but they were short & amusing (the three videos combined are about 12 minutes long) and I can't claim that you didn't warn people right in the synopsis.

So, anyway, Mission #1 was extremely fast and funny if you wanted the videos and probably confusing and frustrating if you did not. It would not make for a good farm

#2 was more traditional in approach but amusing nonetheless. I liked the costume changes. #3 started to fall apart a little for me... Were the messages legit and CS was writing "Loser"? Were they faked? Were they in recycling bins because they were printouts or were they supposed to be Windows Desktop "recycling bins"? Ultimately it didn't matter towards completing the mission but wondering about it detracted from the flow. Also, I completely missed the ally the first time around and don't know if he spawned behind me and I missed him or if I just somehow missed him when running through. If I hadn't been beat down by medieval moralistic robots and forced to run through the ground level again, I never would have found the guy short of some confused backtracking. I did enjoy the various "hacks" in the UI.

If I hadn't seen the videos, this would have probably been a low three just because it wouldn't have made sense. Having seen them, it should have been a solid five minus the problems I had which lowered it to a 4.5 (mainly because I don't know where the fault lies for the ally placement) and, 4.5 not being a rating option in game, I went with the full five stars.

Fun and unique but definately a niche market.

If you haven't, I suggest you read this excellent Guide to Custom Critters. It has a lot of information about appropriate powersets, how not to overpower your critters, etc.

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If I wanted a grind, I'd go play Everquest.

[/ QUOTE ]Amen. I've already played the mindless "Ok, let's kill another three frogloks... and other three frogloks... and another three frogloks... and another three frogloks... Is it time to start killing Juggernauts yet?" game once. To hit closer to farming, I've already done the AoE bard kiting thing for nights on end (well, way back before it was nerfed).

Yawn. I still want rewards for my effort, but I'm happier these days with something with a touch more depth.

The Fireside Poet - Rated Five Stars

Played from just shy of lvl 7 to just shy of lvl 8. As always, using my DB/Regen scrapper.

Let me start by saying that I think this arc has been reviewed here before and, if so, it shows because this was a pretty tight arc. My main criteria for any arc are two questions: "Is it interesting enough to keep me going?" and "Is it challenging without being an exercise in frustration?" To the first question, it was a "Yes" with enough interesting plot turns to make me want to find out what happens. To the second question, it was another "yes". Because this arc uses only Skulls, it doesn't suffer the risk of Custom Critter breakdown.

The main thrust of the plot is that you're sent to investigate a Skull break-in job and learn that they've moved from their usual petty crimes of shaking down pedestrians and trying to break into streetlight poles into darker and more sinister crimes. Naturally, this has all involved upset including (as you learn) even some of the Skulls. Someone's leaving poetry clues as well. It turns out that the Fireside Poet is hiring the Skulls as muscle as he works towards his own goals. The MA synopsis promises "horror, sadness and revenge" and it delivers.

Most of the plot and clues worked well. I was slightly startled at the end of the first mission (wasn't expecting that!) and loved the concept of the Icarus plot. I was appropriately manipulated into feeling empathy for the villain even as I knew he had to go down.

My few issues with the plot were that I didn't know if the potry was supposed to mean anything to me or if it was just throw-away verse for mission flavor. I didn't attempt to write it down or construct the couple parts together so, at the end, I didn't know if I had missed anything or not. Beyond that, my only gripe was the airfield office being another standard law firm/stock broker/city council/whatever office. I guess that couldn't really be helped since there may not be a more appropriate map but... well, I don't know what could have been done better there with the tools provided so no points docked. Just took me a little out of the moment. Also, maybe a little flavor text injected into mission #2 would have been nice; it was largely silent.

Beyond that, this was an obviously polished bit of arc-work that I'd happily recommend not only to anyone with a lowbie to level but to anyone looking for a good story oriented MA adventure. I should have kept better track of my run time but I think it was between 60-90 minutes for the entire arc.

Juggling submissions into what I hope is a good leveling range, I plan on hitting:

Fireside Poet
Capt. Dynamic
Horseman Chronicles
Trollbane

In that order, seeing what level I'm up to and then either trying Dream Paper or else holding off to fill in the holes with any new arcs. Really just depends on how I'm progressing.

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Council in a warehouse - regular stuff. Curiously, two glowies appear very close to the entrance. I blast my way through to the third. Not much dialog going on, but clues are well described.

[/ QUOTE ]First off, thanks very much for the kind words. I was a little worried that the story as a whole would make sense to me in my head but not seem coherant to the player.

About Mission #1, I has the same thing happen once. I assume it's because I used the small warehouse so the spawn points are fairly packed. I intentionally chose Maps #1 & #3 to be small because I was forced into using the only office map in the MA that has both a normal and an "abandoned" look, which is a "Large" map. In a perfect world, I would have been able to use mediums for all 4 but, since the Council bits were just to drive the story along, I made them intentionally quick. It's a story about the bombing, not really a story about Council.

Based on any additional feedback, I might change Mission #1 to a slightly larger map which would let me add slightly more flavor text along the way.[ QUOTE ]
Perhaps a popup on exiting the first mish could remind me of this greater objective.

[/ QUOTE ]Easily added, thanks for the tip. Again, I want to make this about you, not Council, so this could help keep the story on the rails.

I'll have to take a look at that, then. I just made the critter in question as a boss and someone sent me feedback saying "LOL @ No EBs.. you mean except for [mob name]! But I was playing at [something] level so maybe that's it."

I'll doublecheck it. It's not intended to be an EB.

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Tonight's leadoff mission was going to be "standing within the mists" but it hasn't popped up on CoHMR yet. Maybe tomorrow.

[/ QUOTE ]Yeah, I saw that CoHMR additions were slowed down for the weekend due to real life stuff.

I should note that, according to one feedback I received, my "Boss" is an EB higher difficulty levels. I had marked the mission as no EB/AVs not knowing that it would upgrade the boss mobs. I didn't want to change & republish since I had already submitted it under that arc number.

I'm planning on playing my young Twin Blades/Regen scrapper through AE missions rather than through "official" content for the time being just for the heck of it. I have other "mains" who run around Paragon City so this is more of an unwinding character for "Log in, hit the AE console & have at it" fun.

So, that said, I'm currently at lvl 6 and on the cusp of 7. If you have an arc you'd like me to take a ride through, post it and I'll give my opinions. I'm really looking for missions that won't shift my level so no 35-50 arcs. Should I get enough response to where it's necessary, I'll restrict it to the first 5 arcs at a time. I'm assuming I won't level more than once an arc (and probably much less than that) so that should keep me somewhere between lvl 7-12 before I move on to the next set.

Post away with your arc # & any other info yu think will be helpful. I'm planning on staying Heroic unless something changes my mind and don't much care if it's a hero or villain arc since I don't have anything vested in my character's "lore".

I played through it on a lvl 6 Twin Blades/Regen scrapper. Ultimately rated it four stars.

Mission #1 was short & sweet. I'm not sure if I missed any fight dialogue between the Hellions & Skulls since, in all instances except one, the fight was over before I arrived. A minor criticism: soooo many glowies. I know they weren't required but the constant thrum in the small area...

Mission #2: This was my favorite mission. Sadly, Officer Card faceplanted part way through but, all things considered, it was just as well for him. Also, he seemed to love chain web-grenading Hellions more than actually fighting them although I don't imagine that's something under your control as an AE designer. The boss mob reveal at the end was good.

Minor Mission #2 Criticism: One Hellion sees me and says "they'll make a good sacrifice." I'd change it to "$Heshe will make a good sacrifice."

Mission #3: This is where it all started to fall apart for me and for one simple reason: Custom mobs that would beat me into a fine red paste in 3 hits. It quickly went from "challenging" to "I'm spending more time staring at the loading screen than I'm spending playing the game" in short order.If I was at a level where I was incurring debt, I would have quit your mission because I probably died 7-8 times on this map and it was always from orange con Lts beating me into the dust. Maybe more abilities would have helped me but, since this is a lvl 1-14 arc, I was playing it with what should have been an appropriately leveled character.

That aside, my Mission #3 minor criticism were that the altar guards all had identical conversations.

So, all in all four stars. The main plot was nothing too new but the subplot with Card's kids added enough depth to not discount it as another generic "stop the evil". If the custom mobs were toned down enough to where I wasn't spending half the mission in the AE Medical Lab elevator, I would have given it a full 5/5.

Unfortunately, I'm going to need to hold off on reviewing these as both said in their descriptions that they are group oriented and rather challenging. I have a squishy Defender I usually play and tend to solo so it didn't seem that I'd be able to give you a very helpful critique.

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Well I just have one question. If those people are so good at creating compelling and dramatic stories, why aren't they writing professionally whether it is novels or movie screenplays?

[/ QUOTE ]I've known plenty of considerly talented people who don't work professionally because, to them, it's just a hobby or creative outlet which takes a back seat to the rest of their life. Writing professionally enough to make a living is a tough gig to break into and, for some, they'd rather keep it a fun hobby rather than turn it into work.

I'm not speaking for myself -- I have no illusions that I'm exceptionally talented. But making the test "how come you're not a professional?" is just silly.

I'll be glad to give them both a shot although you'll have to wait until tomorrow at the earliest since I'm going out tonight. Feel free to give mine an honest whirl whenever works out for you.