Mirror_Man

Well, if you're really out of arcs to review...

I just submitted my "Galactic Protectorate" arcs to cohmissionreview.com, so once they're up I'd greatly appreciate a review of one or all of them.

The arcs are designed for Level 40-50 Heroes or Villains (the arcs themselves are all labeled "Neutral"), are all three missions long, and while they were designed to be more or less stand-alone, there is an overarching plotline which would be best understood if you played them in numerical order.

While the custom enemies can be challenging, so long as you've set your difficulty so your Hero/Villain is equal to only one or two characters, you shouldn't have any trouble with any of the arcs.

The Arc ID#s are in my signature; if you decide to run even one of my "Galactic Protectorate" arcs, I look forward to your feedback.

Saturday, I'm not sure what your stance on "multi-arc" stories are, but I'd like you to consider my "Galactic Protectorate" series. Each arc has been designed to be more or less "stand-alone", and while "The Galactic Protectorate - 01" is more of an introduction than anything else, I'd be interested in what you thought of it, even if it's the only arc in my series you decide to play. Of course, if you enjoy the premise set up in the first arc, nothing's stopping you from checking out the others.

The Arc ID# is in my signature; it's designed for Level 40-50 Heroes or Villains (the arc itself is labeled "Neutral"), so I'd probably suggest using your Level 50 Brute. The arc can be quite challenging if you've set your difficulty too high, but as long as your difficulty settings are set so your character is only equal to one or two heroes/villains, you shouldn't have any problems.

Anyway, if you decide to run through any of my arcs, I look forward to your feedback!

Well, there's the Lord Recluse from Universe COV-117 who ALMOST took over all of Paragon City, though his plan backfired and he only succeeded in getting all of Arachnos destroyed before...

Oh, wait. MA arcs don't count?

Never mind.

Hey Scientist_16, I don't know if you're accepting suggestions for "zero-star worthy" arcs to run, but if you are, I'd like to suggest "Be the Sidekick!" (Arc ID#: 298348) by @Noctis

A big thanks to Coulomb2 for bringing this arc to my attention back in November, this one-mission long arc brings players all the excitement of, well... being a sidekick. It's short, filled with spelling/grammar errors, and has some unintentionally hilarious dialog (in what little dialog there is in the arc, anyway). Probably the most impressive thing about the arc is that it actually has a chained objective.

Anyway, you might want to quickly run through it to see if it qualifies for one of your "zero-star worthy" reviews. Just a suggestion!

(By the way, I like your avatar; that's Meiling from the Touhou series, right?)

Thanks for the great review of my sixth "Galactic Protectorate" arc, Coulomb2! I'm glad you enjoyed playing it, even if you were frustrated with some of the details.

Interestingly enough, the Planetary Pelvises were just recently "re-enlisted" to the 7th Division; before Issue 17, there wasn't enough file space to include as many minions as I had originally intened, so I had to (temporarily) cut them from the group when I first published the arc. Before the latest issue hit the live servers, I actually gave more members of the 7th Division Pain Domination to compensate for the loss of the supoprt, but that actually made the 7th Division MUCH more difficult than it's current form, so I'd say it's probably for the best. It's actually because they're the main support minion within the 7th Division that I gave them the name "Planetary Pelvis"

I like your suggestion concerning Crimson's "death scene", and I probably will take your advice and change around the first mission to make that scene more workable. To be honest, I felt that the first mission outro was kind of awkward and barren to begin with when I first wrote the arc, so I'll try and find some free time this week to re-write it. Thanks!

To be honest, Colonel Tamora's appearance in the second mission is SUPPOSED to come as a surprise (although the objective list would give it away...); you ARE invading the 7th Division's primary planetary base, after all. However, I can understand how Tamora appearing "out of the blue" as she does could be jarring to the player, which is why I wrote her dialog and "defeat clue" the way I did. The fact that you were surprised at her initial appearance is, as some Devs might say, "working as intended"

The third mission of this arc was the hardest to "balance" correctly, and I'm still not entirely sure I've got it right. To be honest, this is one of those situations where I would LOVE to have an option in the AE system to start a timer AFTER the player's completed a certain objective, rather than having it start once they've accepted the mission. My intention with the last mission is to give the player enough time to defeat General Lucius, but not enough time to disarm all the bombs. The problem is the time limit. From your review, it seems like you were just barely able to defeat General Lucius before the time ran out (which I'm gald to hear), which would suggest that I should lengthen the time limit. However, PoliceWoman, who reviewed this arc before you, was not only able to defeat General Lucius TWICE in the last mission, she also disarmed 40 of the bombs before the timer finally ran out (and was able to get at least two screen shots of the last mission, too!). Granted, I'm not saying either you or PoliceWoman are indicative of the "average joe player", but the next "time increment" allowed in the AE system that's above 15 minutes (the last time I checked) is half an hour. To me, that seems like more than enough time to not only defeat General Lucius (which I want the player to be capable of doing), but also disarming all of the bombs (which I'd rather the player not be capable of doing). This isn't because I enjoy creating unbeatable missions (I don't, just in case you were wondering), but because I felt that this was the best way to portray this part of the "Galactic Protectorate" storyline. The destruction of the resistance's main base was necessary for the plot I have in mind to continue, so I could either: A) have the player successfully complete the last mission, then tell them in the last mission outro "no, you didn't REALLY save the base, it still blew up", OR B) have the player ACTUALLLY fail to save the Freedom Fighters in the last mission. I felt the latter had a greater impact when I originally tested the arc, so that's the route I decided to go. Now all I have to do is find a "one size fits all" time limit for it.

Besides, players could still probably disarm all of the bombs in the 15 minute time limit on an 8-person team.

I'm glad to hear you plan to play through the "Galactic Protectorate" series again (with a different character? On a team?), as I've updated several of the arcs since you've reviewed them, so it wouldn't COMPLETELY be the "same old, same old" to you. And yes, I am working on "The Galactic Protectorate - 07" between fixing/updating my previous "Galactic Protectorate" arcs and actually playing the game. If all goes well, it should be ready to publish in June, but I'll be sure to let you know if something comes up to push that date back

Anyway, thanks again, Coulomb2!

Congratulations on finally achieving the goal of your project, Coulomb2! And on one of my "Galactic Protectorate" arcs, no less!

There's been a lot of debate lately over just how the reward system in AE should work, and while I've done my best to stay out of the fray, I will say that it's because of reviewers like you, who spend a lot of time and effort creating and reviewing MA arcs, which make the community and the system something worth contributing to. I know the constant re-tooling of AE rewards must have been hard for your project, and I'd just like you to know that I appreciate it.

Congrats!

Nice work, PoliceWoman! Although this isn't the first "list" of level/theme arcs made in this section of the forums, the way you've sorted each "section" out using non-AE contact images is (in my opinion) a nice touch and should be very helpful to visiting forumites looking for an arc to play

Also, thanks for putting my second "Galactic Protectorate" arc on your list It's nice to know you enjoyed one of my arcs enough to include it alongside the many other noteworthy arcs here.

Well, I personally thought the NCSoft videos fell flat in terms of comedy, though I do have to give them an "A" for effort.

I thought Dark_Respite's video was pretty good for a fanvid, though I do have to admit I've seen so many jokes using the "Mastercard formula" that it's become a bit stale.

Though, when it comes to fanvids, I'll admit that I'm probably spoiled by Nico Nico Douga. When you have people making videos like this or (if you've got a fast connection and an HD monitor on your computer) this, it kind of hard for other fan videos to measure up.

Luckily, I had some free time today, so I decided to take the chance to run your arc, Bombshell_Blonde

Now, I had an "official" review thread some time ago, where I'd post full, in-depth reviews of other people's arcs. The thread ran on a QPQ (quid pro quo) system, which meant that I'd ask someone requesting me to review one of their arcs to review one of my arcs first; this system is used by many reviewers in this section of the forum. However, I've been too busy with RL concerns to maintain it, so I closed it down several months ago. I'm still hoping I can re-open it some time in the near future, but right now I just don't have enough free time to keep up with the demands of such a thread. I just hope my schedule clears up in time for Issue 17

Anyway, I sill like to give quick, (hopefully) useful feedback to new members of the AE community, and I'll admit I was impressed with your arc, Bombshell_Blonde. Most new authors to the MA system who request feedback in this section of the forum have interesting ideas for AE arcs, but they're generally applied in an "amateurish" fashion (mostly because of the author's lack of experience with the AE system). However, your arc showed an above-average knowledge of AE mechanics, had almost no spelling/grammar mistakes, and had a plot which flowed incredibly well from beginning to end. If I didn't know any better, I would've thought that this arc was made by a veteran of the AE system, not a new author.

There are, however, some nitpicks which I'd like to point out. First of all, I was impressed that you included background information on the contact for the arc, as well as titles for each mission within the arc. This is usually overlooked by new authors to the AE system, and it's small details like this which go a long way to making an AE arc look "polished" and complete. However, the titles (and subtitles) for each mission were of the same font size and color as the mission dialog, which made it seem to "blend in" with the rest of the text. You may want to consider making the font size of the mission titles larger and/or making the font of the mission titles a different color so they "stand out" for the player.

Also, most of the missions in your arc are both timed and require the player to defeat all the enemies to complete the mission. When making a timed mission in the MA system, it's considered a "rule of thumb" to warn the player of the exact time limit in the mission intro dialog, before the player accepts the mission. While the maps were usually small enough for both the time limit and the "Defeat All" objectives to be trivial, there are many posters in this section of the forum who just plain hate "Defeat All" missions (luckily, I'm not one of them).

More specifically, in the 2nd mission, there's a small problem with the clues. You have the player plant both bombs and Carnival of Shadows' masks throughout the Legacy Chain base, with the clues telling the player that they've planted "all the bombs" and "all the masks", respectively. The problem is, the 2 clues pop up after the player has planted the first bomb and the first mask, so it doesn't really "fit". This is a small (but admittedly annoying) problem when you make multiple instances of the same objective in the AE system, but the solution is simple: just re-word the clues to something along the lines of "you've planted the first bomb/mask", and work from there.

Finally, I noticed that there a several points in mission and NPC dialog where you have a character perform an action (for example, Bombshell Blonde's dialog in the fourth mission contains the action "pauses as she reads") in "text form". You might want to consider making these "actions" more "subtle", rather than just telling the player what the character is doing. For example, in Mission 3, when the contact "clears her throat", you might want to consider changing it to "ahem" or something along those lines. With the aforementioned dialog by Bombshell Blonde, perhaps change "pauses as she reads" to "..." to indicate an actual "pause". However, I'll admit this point is very nitpicky and really up to the player's preferences.

In any case, I thoroughly enjoyed the arc and honestly think you should seek further opinions on it by the other posters in this section of the forum. As with all feedback, feel free to take or leave any of my suggestions; it's your arc, after all. As for my official rating:

5 Stars

A truly masterful first arc, hopefully just the first of many. If your first arc was this impressive, I look forward to seeing what you're capable of producing as you gain more experience and skill in the MA system. Nice work, Bombshell_Blonde.

It's always nice to see new posters in this section of the forum; the AE community is small, but (for the most part) I've personally found it to be supportive of new architects.

Unfortunately, Bombshell_Blonde, the AE community is a bit divided right now regarding a recent change to certain AE story arcs' rewards, so you might not find as much support as you usually would in the community. I suspect, when Issue 17 rolls out (providing some much-needed updates and a new reward system for AE arcs), the community will experience a resurgence of interest which will hopefully bring many new authors and players back into Mission Architect.

In any case, I'll try and run though your arc either by the end of the week or this weekend and give you some useful feedback. There are also many other reviewers in this section of the forum who can help you, but again, it's kind of a turbulent time in the community, so you might want to wait until after Issue 17. Personally, I don't care that much about rewards when it comes to Mission Architect arcs, so I won't hold it against your arc if I'm not raking in XP.

Oh, and welcome to the AE community!

Oh boy.

Alright, first of all, I have to congratulate you (as well as anyone else who might have aided in creating the trailer) on designing and executing an incredible promotion for your arc. I'm sure there are many AE designers (including myself) who would LOVE to have the time and resources to make a promotional video like this. It certainly helped convince me to give your arc a try.

Unfortunately, I wasn't as impressed with the arc itself. Now, I didn't officially rate your arc (as it's obvious you've put a lot of effort into creating and promoting this, and I didn't want to ruin that with a low score), so I'll just go over what I thought worked and didn't work in your arc. Of course, it's your arc and it's ultimately up to you whether or not you decide to change anything, so feel free to take or leave my advice as you see fit

The most glaring flaw I found (which recurred throughout the entire arc) were numerous spelling/grammatical errors in the mission briefings and dialog. I didn't keep track of all of them, but the biggest offender seemed to be the rampant use of apostrophes where they weren't needed. Now, there might be a story-related reason for this I'm missing (and I only say that because it occurs so frequently it might be intentional), but if there isn't then it's a large enough problem to detract from the overall experience of the arc. Apostrophes are usually used to denote possession (though that's far from their only use), but you tend to use them even when pluaralizing words. For example, (and I'm pretty sure I'm paraphrasing here), when you say "demon's in the street's", it should be "demons in the streets".

The other problem I found with the arc were the lack of details which normally help "flesh out" arcs. The contact for the arc has no description; the main custom enemy group (while designed quite nicely in my opinion) all have the same copy/pasted description; some of the recolored standard enemies have their default descriptions, which makes them seem out of place amongst the other "legions of Hell"; you seem to have left some of the objective text boxes in the mission creator blank, leaving ambiguous objectives in the objective window of the missions ("Igneous" instead of "Defeat Igneous", "4 Demon Eggs" instead of "Find/Destroy 4 Demon Eggs"); and there wasn't a single clue throughout the entire arc. Finally, after I had finished the arc, there wasn't even a souvenir to remember it by! All of this may seem small, but from my experience this all adds up to give an arc a "polished" feel which really makes an impression on players who run it.

That being said, I really liked the design of all of the custom and recolored enemies, even if I didn't find the story all that gripping. I particularly liked the design of "God's Gift", the contact for the arc, and was a bit disappointed that there weren't other "angelic"-designed custom characters in the arc.

If I had rated this arc, it probably would have only gotten 3 stars. If you're only planning on playing this arc with friends / people you've met in-game, I'd say it's fine to leave it as it is. However, if you're planning on having many people in the AE community play through and rate this arc, there are many reviewers in this section of the forum who can probably help you out a lot more than I can. Then again, like I said before, it's ultimately up to you what you do with your arc; whatever you decide, I wish you good luck!

Thanks for reviewing the third arc in my "Galactic Protectorate" series, Mychyl! I'm glad to see your still enjoying the story, even if you're starting to find it a little confusing

One the main goals I had when designing the Galactic Protectorate arcs was to create a story that wasn't "black or white" like many of the storylines in the main game. I labeled the arcs "Neutral" for good reason, as the apparent moral ambiguity of both the Resistance and the Galactic Protectorate will be brought up a lot throughout the course of the arcs.

Hopefully some of the confusion you felt in this arc will be cleared as you continue to play the arcs, and more of the plot is revealed. I'm glad you're enjoying the amount of detail I put into the arc; hopefully, the clues in the coming arcs will answer some of the questions you have about what's going on "behind the scenes"

Anyway, I look forward to your review of "The Galactic Protectorate - 04"!

Thanks for reviewing the second arc in my "Galactic Protectorate" series, Mychyl! I'm glad to see you were more satisfied with this installment

Thanks for pointing out the typo in the first mission, I'm actually surprised that both myself and the other reviewers who have played my arcs missed that. However, I'm a bit surprised to hear that the Base Commander used "Build Up", since I didn't assign that power to that particular character. I'll have to double-check his powers when I get the chance

Anyway, I'm glad to hear that the story's keeping you interested. I look forward to your review of "The Galactic Protectorate - 03"!

I'm always looking for feedback on my "Galactic Protectorate" arcs, and I would be very interested in seeing how the experience differs for an RP Supergroup as opposed to the usual individual reviews I've gotten thusfar.

Now, I'm not entirely sure if my arcs match your criteria, so let me go down your "preferences list":

- Be Heroic
My arcs are all labeled "Neutral", and there's probably more than one occasion throughout the arcs where your SG members will be doing things that are more "gray" than "white", but I think that, overall, my arcs tend to lean much more towards" heroic" acts than "villainous" ones (but then again, I'm probably biased)

- Accomodate a Team Experience
Based on the feedback I've gotten, the general consensus regarding the custom enemies in my arcs is that they are challenging, but nowhere near the "impossible" levels many other custom enemies are. Admittedly, however, most of the feedback is coming from my own personal experience and people who solo'd the arcs, so I'd be interested in seeing how the experience changes for a 6-8 person SG team.

- Occur within the CoH Setting
The "Galactic Protectorate" arcs all take place in an alternate Paragon City with most maps being "ruined" locations of the usual districts of Paragon, so if by "CoH Setting" you meant "doesn't take the player to World War II Europe or a fantasy-themed land", I think you'll find this fits the criteria.

- Be Story Focused
In spades. Note, however, that while most of the "Galactic Protectorate" arcs are self-contained, there is a linear overarching storyline, so if your SG decides to run one (or all) of the arcs, it would be best to run them in numerical order.

- Not be a Downer
For the most part, yes. Only one (maybe two, depending on your point of view) of the arcs end on a downer, but most of the others end on a pretty triumphant note. Of course, different players might interpret the events of the arcs differently, which is something I'm also interested in seeing.

- Mid to High Level
All of "The Galactic Protectorate" arcs are for level 40-50 Heroes or Villains, with enemies being between Levels 40-54. As long as all of the SG members in the team are within the level range, you should be fine.

- Canon Related
As I mentioned above, the arcs take place in an alternate reality, so while the arcs don't "violate" canon, many signature characters have different personalities/backstories due to being "alternate" versions of the heroes you're used to. As long as you treat the setting of the arcs like you would any other alternate dimension (like Praetoria), I don't think you'll have a problem.

- A Light and/or Humorous Delivery (but not Out-and-Out Goofy)
Unfortunately, while there are some light-hearted moments/dialog throughout the arcs, for the most part the Galactic Protectorate arcs are pretty serious (at least I like to think so; several players have given me feedback saying otherwise ). I hope this doesn't deter your SG too much

- Stuff the "A List" heroes might consider "beneath their pay grade"
I'm... not entirely sure what you mean by this. If you mean high-level heroes stopping muggings in the street, rescuing cats from trees, etc., there's really none of that in these arcs. I supposed you could say "investigating one of the many dimensions the A-List Heroes don't have the time to investigate themselves", though

Anyway, each "Galactic Protectorate" arc is 3 missions long, so maybe you could run one or two arcs just to see if they're the right "fit" for your SG, and then decide if you want to run the rest? Even if you decide to run just one of the arcs, I'm grateful for any feedback your SG can provdie

Thanks for your review of the first arc in my "Galactic Protectorate" series, Mychyl I'm glad to see you enjoyed it (for the most part, at least)

There are 8 different minions in the "0 Division" of the Galactic Protectorate, so I'm a bit surprised you kept running into Equator Engineers. And no, the Equator Engineers don't have Transfusion (it's not a required power for minions with Kinetics, fortunately)

I'm glad to hear you're eager to play the next "chapter" of the Galactic Protectorate series, and it seems you've hit the plot of the next arc right on the head

I hope "The Galactic Protectorate - 02" lives up to your expectations once you've gotten to it!

Based on your original post in this thread, Mychyl, I take it you'll accept "series arcs", but will only do one arc of the series at a time, with each following arc falling to the bottom of your queue, correct? That's fine with me, as every arc in my "Galactic Protectorate" series was designed to be more or less stand-alone, anyway

You can find the names and Arc ID numbers for my "Galactic Protectorate" series in my signature. Now, the arcs DO follow a linear plotline, so if you decide to review my arcs, it would probably be best to run them in numerical order, otherwise you probably won't be able to follow the overarching story

Also, the arcs are all high level (designed for Level 40-50 Heroes or Villains, labeled "Neutral"), and the enemies can be quite challenging in large groups. As long as you're not running the arc on too high a difficulty, you should be fine, but I would definitely suggest running the arcs with a solo-friendly character

Anyway, if you decide to run my arcs, I'd appreciate any feedback you could give me.

Thank you, PoliceWoman, for being the first player to review "The Galactic Protectorate - 06"! The feedback was greatly need and I appreciate it.

In the first mission, "Raid Leader" isn't the usual name of the custom boss (lieutenant to you, being on default difficulty), it's the instanced name I gave the boss needed to complete the objective in case any teams ran this arc. I did the same thing with all of the "base leaders" since "The Galactic Protectorate - 02"

I had actually planned to put some backstory in this arc (in the form of clues) explaining why Agents Crimson and Indigo weren't in their signature colors, but this arc is "bursting at the seams" in terms of file size already, so I had to cut it

In the second mission, the computer terminals are hidden in coffins in order to appear inoccuous (it is a graveyard, after all). Hence why they're listed as "hidden terminals". Also, General Lucius was gathering information on the Dark Heart in order to further empower himself and his troops, which is why the computers have information regarding it, how the Dark Heart fell into Lord Recluse's hands, and the subsequent fall of Arachnos. This is all explained in the clues, but it looks like you didn't collect all of them

The design of the final mission was not something I came to lightly. I know many players hate "designed to fail" missions, but the destruction of the resistance's main base was necessary in order for the plot of "The Galactic Protectorate" arcs to continue. I tested the arc MANY times, but no matter how I wrote it, having the player succeed in disarming all of the bombs (or otherwise stop the 7th Division) only to tell them "congratulations, but the main base was destroyed anyway" in a text box just didn't have the same impact as having the player ACTUALLY fail to stop the bombing. The most difficult part was timing the mission: I wanted to give the player enough time to defeat General Lucius, but not enough time to disarm all of the bombs. Overall, I think 15 minutes fit that goal pretty well, though I can understand how some players might be "put off" by the final mission.

Oh, and one more thing... this wasn't the last arc in "The Galactic Protectorate" saga I don't want to reveal much about the next "chapter", but suffice it to say, neither the resistance nor the heroes are "all dead"

I'll be sure to request another review from you once I've finished "The Galactic Protectorate - 07"!