MrCaptainMan

Fair point, LJ, and I see your point about the last mission of my arc specifically. It's a good example of what happens when a player plays it at a higher difficulty than +0 x1. There's nothing i can do about that, is there, apart from put an entreaty in my description.

Eco.

I find it maddening when I get comments about my arcs relating to how difficult a certain part is without an accompanying explanation of what difficulty they were played at.

I don't know for sure, but i suspect that putting 'Please play at X difficulty' in the description will only net you a minority of players who will change their difficulties (if they need to), as people are generally lazy (the trip to a Field Analyst can be too much trouble to go to) and also think they know better than a MAuthor how an arc should be approached. As V said in another thread, "I wouldn't change my difficulty settings for my mother".

The general view from those that play an arc at a different setting from the main setting that its tested at is that an arc should be balanced to cater for EVERY difficulty; I'm no expert at the MA, but I suspect that this is extremely difficult if not impossible in some cases, especially where Customs are involved.

Until we can gate our arcs to only allow access for toons set at our required difficulty levels, we have to put up with negative reactions from players who don't want to meet us half way.

Putting a warning/request in your descriptions, if you have space, IMO can only be a good thing, as there are some players who will take heed and alter their difficulties before playing your arc. I'm one of these people, for example. I view doing this as akin to ensuring I've got a good source of light, a handy glass of wine and no loud noises distracting me before I relax in my easy chair with a good book on a sunday afternoon. If my neighbour chooses to read the same book standing up by the light of a Zippo whilst his children have a Who Can Scream The Loudest competition in the same room, then I won't be surprised if his reaction to the book is not as positive as mine, even if the novelist has not explicitly written 'please read this in a well-lit, quiet place for best effect' on the cover.

Eco.

the costume creator must have got a lot more liberal with the latest patch!

Thanks for the support, Fred, but I don't think there's any point beating a dead horse, so to speak. LJs been gracious enough to respond in some detail to my queries about his review.

Some of his points do have definite merit, now that I think of them more. He's right in that I intend the Monitor to be a Lt, so I should make him one and risk the 'Boss too easy thrrpp' reactions from the Hardcore Crowd, or at least reduce his settings to standard/standard.

I can't complain about his reaction to the comedy in the arc:

That's simple taste, fair enough.

I think that the main reason why the arc received such a low rating is here:

That's the point at which a Player rates, of course. Being in the throes of a livid rage isn't the best time to make a distanced summation of a whole arcs merits (or lack of), but when it comes down to it, its his rating to do with as he wishes. Still, at least it didn't elicit a 'meh'.

LJs not the first person to comment on the harshness of the exit popup lol.

His review has actually given me cause to look at the arc again and make some changes, but perhaps not in a manner which would assuage that rage in the highly unlikely event of a replay. I'm going to attempt to eliminate anything which allows the player to claim they wouldn't have, or couldn't have, killed the Monitor (LJs right, the current simple explanation that the M had messed with the teleport network is weak), and also look into better explaining why indeed a man who the arc takes pains to portray as a hero would force another hero to kill him (I think it's more a case of accidental death than murder) Although I do point out at various points in the arc that he is mad, I need Players to not question his actions.

So there we go. Thanks again, LJ. If all my 1-star reviews were like this, I'd be happy Lol.

Eco.

Rolls up appropriate toon in readiness for PW's next epic, and preps macro for "lvl 37 MA scrap w/blue anime hair lf same for AE"



Eco.

On this we are in absolute agreement. One of the things I wish we MAuthors had more control over is the one thing we have very little control over - the Player lol. I'd love to be able to have a solo-only arc, as I really only aim my arcs at the solo player, being largely a solo player myself. Likewise, I'm sure, there must be folks out there who perhaps get "Too hard!" tells from soloers trying their 'recommended for teams!' challenging arcs and wish they could stop soloers from getting themselves into waters deeper than the writer intended. I'd even go further, tbh, and welcome the option to gate arcs by AT and Faction as well.

I agree that of course that having the ability to enter any arc gives the Player the right to play any arc, but I'll continue to steer clear of arcs that contain warnings or entreaties to bring a team, and I'll remain hopeful that there are other players like myself who take the advice/suggestions contained in the descriptions as they are meant (at least, i assume this is how they are meant); to improve the Player's experience. After all, I can take my lvl 2 defneder into one of your high level arcs, but if i complained it was too hard, I think your disclaimer would indeed carry some force among a reasonable audience.

But you make a fair point here, I concur.

Eco

Do you see no place in the MA for arcs specifically designed narratively to tell the story of a single Player's adventures, Venture? In the world of comicbooks, I imagine that a Spiderman story would look ridiculous if he were replaced with the Avengers, for example, even if the Green Goblin had another 8 copiesof himself added to each frame he was in

Eco.

Ouch!

There's no need to be so hurtful, is there? That 'if you care' strikes me as being as unnecessary as you say the live fire excercise is later on.

Yopu do have a point about the killing being sort of avoidable as the current system stands. I think I need to do MORE forcing to avoid Players wriggling out of it. I'll consider ways to implement this.

I haven't played all the humor arcs here, but I'm pretty sure that all of them also involve violence that's more brutal than hitting people on the head with inflatable bananas. Life is both humorous and tragic, in my experience. I'm happy that you do admit that your sense of humor may just not gel with the humor in my arc, however. Other players have found it hit the spot, so yea, you're right, mileage may vary.

[quote]


The Crey live fire exercise is completely unnecessary. The level range is 40-54, any hero by this point will know that Crey are a bunch of dicks and villains who will not "understand if you ask nicely" and in fact will shoot all intruding superheroes on sight, whether they're there to investigate or there to stop other villains from raiding their lab.

[quote]

This is a Crey Archive facility, it's supposed to be a decidedly non-combat oriented place. The 'live-fire incursion excercise' is supposed to be funny. Heck, I think the entry popup is one of the funniest bits of text in the arc. Sorry you didn't agree.

The 15 Freak Bosses are, again for humorous effect, from different parts of the globe, there to attend 'the Conclave'. When you've got 15 Freak bosses to fight, I thought it worthwile giving them individual 'voices' to spice up the route. It also IMO serves as contrast to the increasingly dark monologue from the Monitor that's delivered via the clues after each Boss. I wonder, did you read the clues one by one, as suggested in the briefing, or all at once. For that matter, out of interest, what AT/Powerset were you running it at? Pacing yourself is important if you want to get the most from an arc's narrative, I feel.

One man's 'tedious' is another man's "slow-burn steady drip of clues had me on the edge of my seat, anxious to get to the next Boss to hear what the Monitor had to say next", as one piece of feedback put it. 15 Bosses in a row is indeed a big number, but the limited clue length per Boss forced that many on me. And that's after editing; originally there were 26 bosses

What difficulty were you playing at? The description was written way back (see its publish number for exactly HOW far way back lol), and said 'recommended to play at lvl 50 at HEROIC DIFFICULTY setting. Obviously that's OOD now, thanks for makeing me realise - Ive altered the description now. If you play it at the default difficulty, each boss spawns as an lt with ONE additional minion. I made the boss fights 'entire encounter needed' so that when people are fighting their way through them, they don't leave the minions behind and then have extra minions to distract them when they're looking for the next boss - in short, if you're playing it right, if you see a spawn, its the correct next objective. I note you say nothing about my chat comments written to HELP the 15-boss fight process go easier for the player. That's a little unfair of you, IMO. I do understand that a long sequence like this can be a trudge, so I tried to make it as easy as possible under the circumstances. The map is also now set to 'empty' so there aren't any more Freak spawns in the shiop at all. The entire map will therefore contain exactly 32 mobs in total; 15 lts, 16 minions and 1 boss. They spawn in order from the entrance to the ship to the back, so backtracking is minimised, and the chat comments warn you when a cross from 'front spawn' to 'middle spawn' etc is happening. The Monitor hits the deck in about 4 - 6 attacks when I play it its intended difficulty setting.

Thanks v much for noticing this. You're absolutely right, I hadn't set ray to 'no autospawn' (cos it was written back when we couldn't do this and I neglected to change it.

'Absolutely nothing' surprises me, I have to say. Apart from not liking the humour, the 15-boss mission or the forced killing of the Monitor, surely the rest of the arc is at least competently designed? I haven't skimped on bio fields or chat messages or the briefings etc. My custom group the Crey Librarians really had zero to offer you? How about their look?

1-star seems awfully harsh, to me.

I'd ask you what you thought about the Monitor's monologue on its own as a piece of writing, but it's been a very long time now, so your recollection is probably just of the Freaks.

Still, thank you for taking the time to play it through. Might I suggest that if you'd like to play any of my other arcs, please at least consider dropping your difficulty to the default. All my arcs are designed to be played at that setting.

Regards,

Eco.

LMAO awesome.

Eco