MrCaptainMan

I will get onto Blitzkreig soon, Mekkanos, but I'm anticipating a combat-heavy hard run on it, so first i wanted to do something a little lighter. Apologies for the sidetrack.

Eco.

QR - One thing I've found useful when thinking about this is to change my nomenclature. I now refer to arcs and slots instead of stories and arcs, as there's is some prejudice (justified, maybe), and the phrase 'multi-arc' can turn people off from the start. A 'multi-slot arc' still informs what it is, but describes it as a single arc, which I think is sometimes a better way to think of them.

Eco.

QR

Commander Kira might find The Echo suitable Arc ID in my sig). It's heroic Alignment, and the contact will be calling you 'hero' during it, but I would definitely class it as an investigation/mystery type of arc. The last mission is mechanically a bit rough, but I've received good feedback on the story.

Eco.

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Well, looks like I'm up next... Let's hope my arc performs all right...

Also, as a side note, I ran Kiss Hello Goodbye a while back and enjoyed it quite a bit. It's always cool to see some arcs that are completely different from the usual CoH/V fare.



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yes, it is, and when it works, as KHG did admirably despite the minor mechanical hiccups I encountered, it's awesome.

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I managed to keep the "Big Bad" from running, so I feel pretty proud of myself.

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cool! I think it's a strength of the arc that players want to go for it there, even though it's optional. It shows the engagement with the story.

Eco

I don't avoid multi-slot arcs, and there are enough players who share my view to make a viable audience I think.

I try to judge each arc on its merits. I've played some crap single-slot arcs and some good multi-slot arcs.

Eco

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Thank you, thank you, thank you very much for you review. You definitely pointed out some things for me to clear up, and I certainly appreciate your choice not to give away all of the twists.

I'm not going to give a bigf itemized counter-critique: I am happy to get the 4 stars and I can't really fault where you caught me out in most places. I'm not sure what to do about Old Fossil's dialogue in Mission 4: that will take some thinking.

As far as the [big bad] getting away; well all I can say is, it made sense for the character and the story, and they are entirely catchable if you are ready for it. Of course, you aren't necessarily supposed to be ready for it.

I am actually a fan of failable missions, but I can understand if others aren't.

All in all, thanks for the review, and as soon as I can afford it I will be buying more slots to hopefully do some more stories in various styles.

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I look forward to playing anything else you do.

One more note on that [Big Bad]: she was literally on a sliver of health when she hit the door. On reflection, it wasn't the running away that made me 'gah!', it was the successfully running away lol. If she'd have spawned at Back of the map, I'd quite probably have experienced and succeeded in an exciting 'chase down the villain' sequence instead.
I'm not going to argue against 'villain runs at X health' uses-they are another element of storytelling and can often add a dynamic tense element to a confrontation with an enemy. But I'd give the playr as much time as possible to get more hits in as they do run.

I mentioned your title to my friends in the pub last night btw, and there was immediate general consensus that it's a corking noir title

Eco

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Qr - gah! STOP nerfing us! Don't you want me to buy another account?

Emo

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Lol I just noticed my typo.

Eco.

Kiss Hello Goodbye.

That Is My Favourite MArc Title Ever. It’s awesome. Kiss Hello Goodbye. Kiss Hello Goodbye. Just saying “you do that again, you can kish hello goodbye, shweetheart’ in a Humphrey Bogart accent makes me giggle. I’m slapping an Unremoveable Titanium Star on thjis one for just its title.

Kiss Hello Goodbye, Arc ID 156389.
Very Long, 4 unique maps and one small, Neutral Morality.

I’ll taks the Dirty Promise in for this I think. I’ll even go change her costume into something a bit more Femme Fatale for it.

Hm…Usually, Film Noire has male protagonists. This arcs description warns it’s going to ‘hijack your character’s inner monologue’, so I’m interested in seeing what happens…

And so I start.

Lol the briefings straight into Noir narration, and the contact is a dame in red who causes Dirty to say things like ‘She took a hesitant breath, and I was jealous of the air.’ – Fantastic. I wouldn’t Kiss her hello goodbye!

Niggles - Typo ; Unnecessary space in front of the first $Name, I’m not enamored with the Star Wars reference, and the contact’s name is a bit dull, unless later events provide more info on this. Finding a really classic-sounding femme fatale contact name would be diamond.

Mission 1: Ask a few questions

An Aside, here, As Is My Wont:

The question of Capitalization In Titles is one I think of sometimes (not a lot lol). Is it best to have a title like this ‘The quest for pumpkins’, or this, ‘The Quest For Pumpkins’? My own personal preference is for the latter, but I’d say that consistency was more important. If every title is capitalized, fine, if none are, that’s good too. Mix and match and you’re Pedant Baiting.

Oh, that goes for Nav instructions too.

Back to the mission. I have to find the dame’s kid sister, and the first mission sees me going to ask some of her ‘friends’ where she might be. Classic Noir startup so far.

The entry popup to the casino needs a …at its end, IMO. I like the past tense use; it mirrors the voiceover of a noir movie. Its such a shame we cant use sepia, isn’t it?

…hm…maybe I can turn my monitor to B&W?

OK, I’m now playing in black and white. Wow, that’s weird. The speech bubbles are a bit too washed out to read them easily (LMAO this is not a criticism!). Luckily I’ve got the chat bar anyway.

I’m Hidden, so I have a sneaky-sneaky look around the place. There’s a low-life called Slick Willie and a big goon…who’s an EB! (optional. According to the description, so that’s nice for hardcore players and poltroons like meself).

And the Ebs conning white, so he shouldn’t be too much of a problem J

Slick Willie’s conning white, too…as are ALL the mobs. Maybe my B&W idea needs a rethink lol.

My first attempt at Slick Willie was a walkover…for them. The custom group is quite tasty in a group, even though they’re all conning white…

Second attempt is much better, because I take some care about it lol Just as Willie fell, the EB noticed all the commotion happening 3 metres away (er…) and ran over to have a go. I figured I’d stay to see what he was like, so I summoned my Widow and have at him. We were doing pretty well, as it happens. He was SS/inv, maybe? It was quite a long fight, and I got him down to a sliver but then I had to do some kiting and the casino was a bit enclosed for that sort of thing lol and I got overwhelmed by the other mopbs. Not a huge problem, but I wonder, did you try any other maps for this? For immersion purposes, it would be better if the EB wasn’t within sight of me beating on Willie. He did in fact support the immersion by noticing me beating up his partner, but he’s listed as optional, so you might get people thinking he’s forced ion them.

2 large niggles: Exit popup says ‘A new superdrug on the streets of my city? Not if I could help it.’, but I’m a mercenary who doesn’t really give a monkey’s about that. The line could be considered as not neutral. And worse, Gorilla says ‘That all you got, boy?’ during the fight. I know he’s a big dumb galoot, but I’m a sexy bird in a dress and high heels, so…you win a FWM

The rest of the dialogue is great – Liked the MJ line esp

The info I gleaned from the bust gives me my lead to the next mission. Back with the Dame, I decide to go back to full color because my eyes are starting to go wonky. In the briefing for Mission 2, ‘A ship that had paid off the right people would slide quietly up to the docks,’ would be better as ‘With the right people paid off, a ship could slide quietly…’, I think. Ships don’t pay.

You’ve got two uses of ‘legit’ in the sendoff briefing. A quick trip to thesaurus.com could provide a synonym for the second one, especially since the first is spoken by you and the second by her. Tiny differences in modes of speaking can help differentiate characters from each other.

Apologies if this seems petty, btw Lol

Mission 2: Search the cargo

Ooh, it’s the first outdoor instance in CoV map! Yay!

Nav instruction reads ‘suspicious crate’, when it should read ‘Use a verb’ My preferences are becoming obvious now, eh?

I can see the crate from the boat, guarded by some Rogue Fortunatas from the ‘Mad Science’ faction. There are also more goons around. The Mad Science faction has a standard bio. I placate the crate and destroy it, since its not a clicky and nothing seems to be attacking it. Verbs Are Our Friends

I get a mission complete message, but I have a look around for the optional boss. Its gorilla again, so in case I need to kite, ill wipe out the other mobs first. As I search, I find an optional kidnap victim. Her Descriptions a bit borked, it says ‘as Ms Chesterfie' but doesn’t finish. Perhaps her name field isn’t large enough?

Hmm…the kidnappee gives me some information that’s quite useful, but its optional. If I’d not been looking for the EB I wouldn’t have found her.

Gorilla goes down this after a satisfactory amount of nicely balanced fighting.

The debriefing has another extra space after $Name (and an extra space after the period there too). When you use $Name, $Class etc, you don’t need to put spaces in front or after, just use it as though you were writing your own character’s name, for example.

Mission 3: Inspect the cargo

I’d got the number of a truck leaving the scene of Mission 2, and the contact had located the warehouse it was bound for.

I LOVE the dialogue and bio for the Old Fossil, and check it out – its an Ally that actually tells the player to leave him behind. Nice.

I lead the Old Fossil over to Gorilla, who’s fairly close, and they get it on. Unfortunately, Gorilla beats him down by the time I’ve finished off Gorillas attendant goons (BTW, the guards with the shotguns looked great). When Gorilla turns on me, I Placate and run deeper into the warehouse, looking for the kid.

I find her, held hostage by some goons, and her bio gives me a Magical Infodump. I know, I know, I said upstairs that MIs in bios were ok now, but this one specifically says ‘It made a lot of sense except for one thing: according to Ligeia, [something] had [happened] [sometime].’ – I haven’t rescued her or spoken to her, and she hasn’t said her rescue dialogue etc yet. I’d move that message from the future to her rescue clue, maybe?

Her guards dialogue ‘We should off her, like I said in the first place.’ Would be a very slight improvement?.

With her rescue, the mission completes. She’s a boss though, and her dialogue suggests that I could lead her off for some fighting (perhaps against gorilla) if I wanted to. Nice to think of that.

I take her for a stroll thru the base and we beat up some goons, and then I leave.

The Exit popup says Old Fossil is speaking to me, which is odd since he’s either dead or at the hospital. I’d have much preferred the exit popup to continue with my internal monologue. They’re great when you do those.

The Dame has some kind of [wossname], but I have a Mcguffin so that’s all right. Brilliant. There’s a Mcguffin! Haha.

I’m going to try to avoid spoilers from now on, because the twists are nice and the arc deserves it. Its time for some answers, but I get KOd (coshed from behind, classic), and wake up in an arachnos base. The entry popup is a nice surprise in the way it presents my decision to investigate.

Mission 4: Where is [someone]?

The Nav instructions are good. I set off into the base…

…and it all goes to pot.

I’m Hidden, remember? I encounter Old Fossil, and he’s having a battle with some arachnos. He’s talking to them whilst they fight him, telling them to stop resisting and tol ead him to [someone], and I stop to watch. I’m thinking ‘wow, this is great!’ when I see he’s getting a bit low on health. So I AS one of the arachnos and he finishes the other one off. I’m ready to lead him in further, when he turns to me and WHAM – straight in the kisser. Total WTF moment. Before I can react, I’m faceplanted and he runs off.

He’s a Boss now, obviously, not an Ally,and he’s against me. I read his dialogue back and parse it as if it was directed at me, and it makes sense. It’s really unfortunate that it transpired the way it did, though. I don’t know if this is a commmone thing or not, but if I hadn’t helped him, the arachnos would have killed him, possibly before I got there too.

So a quick hosp, and back in.

I find [something], and it doesn’t make Dirty Promise happy. Then I find a [device]. Ew. That’s gross lol. Its clue has a typo, ‘into it's component’ – it should be ‘into its component’ as the possessive pronoun ‘its’ never takes a possessive apostrophe.

Finally I find another clue,which clears the mystery up a little more, and I’m out.

There’s a giant No in the debriefing, ‘my heroing license’, when I’m not a hero. Change the morality to Heroic if you don’t want consistency complaints.

The plot is also getting me a tiny bit confused now. The Dame has changed sides, apparently, but I’m not real clear when or why. The last line in the debriefing is nice, though.

I think that Mission 4 could do with one or two more obvious clues (not necessarily actual Clue Drops, maybe some extra dialogue perhaps or sth) as to the frame-up that’s happened. There was a mention of sirens in the entry popup, which was nice, but at the end I wasn’t totally in an ‘I’ve been framed’ mindset.

So to

Mission 5: Have a grand old party

Inside, I was expecting Doc Vahziloks map, but instead it’s a dirty Faultline tech base, which is great for the setting. I find [the EB], and smile and nod sagely at the bio, which explains a lot more of what’s been going on, including why the contact’s name is what it is

Then I sneaky sneaky further in, and find the things I’m looking for. I deal with them fairly easily, and its mission complete time. The EB is optional, but I feel this is necessary, so I go looking for backup…I’m sure it’s around somewhere…
Hmm….no backup. Ah well, I’ll have a go on my own then. Uh-oh, She’s an MM. In I go.

And you know, I’m doing alright! My blinding powder confuses quite a few of her minions, who sort of help, and I get her down to a sliver…and then she REALLY pisses me off by running away.

I’m sorry, but that absolutely blows massive chunks. Minus a zillion stars for giving me a nice wham-bang-kapow EB fight and then yanking it away just as I was about to win. She spawned right by the entrance too, so I didn’t have enough time to get more than 2 hits in on her before she was out the door.

What a downer of an ending

There’s another mention of ‘My heroing license’ in the debriefing, and ‘erasiong’ too. The debriefing as a whole is definitely not neutral, IMO. It’s heroic.

OK, so my last moments were a downer, but what do I think of the whole arc?

I’m a big fan of noir, and as I said, I love that title. I think the arc started off Awesome but Lost Its Way a little towards the end. The gag with the Dame and her effect on me may come over as a little odd for players with female toons (though I personally don’t have any idssues with same-gender stuff), so perhaps you could have some kind of arched-eyebrow ‘she isn’t my usual type’ comment, which would cover more bases.

The customs fit the theme, and I liked that you had chose some appropriate idle animations. The Big Bad fights along the way were fun for the most part too. It’s a double edged sword, making EBs optional – it enables folk to ignore them if they don’t like ‘hard’ fights, but there’s the danger that the experienced content will then be thinner. On the whole, I think you made the right decision.

Mechanically, most of the arc worked well, but there was that big Whoops in Mission 4 with Old Fossil. That was a head-scratcher, and it really put the kybosh on that mission for me. When I went back in, I couldn’t find him either, so I guess he must have been offed by the arachnos in the base. After that, Mission 5 needed to raise my spirits a bit, but as it happened I stealthed the two [doodads] and then failed to defeat [the Big Bad].

By the end, the plot threads are all cleared up, and everything is known, and it does make a fairly classic noir plot with a CoH spin. It’s not perfect, but I think that if Mission 4 and 5 had not given me those two speed bumps my mood on finishing would have been much better.

And a player’s mood on finishing is the mood he or she is in when the rating’s done, isn’t it?

What to rate Kiss Hello Goodbye? I’m torn, to be honest. The title (oh, that title), the setup, the plot, the atmosphere (more internal monologue, please! ), all say 4-stars to me, but the Old Fossil hiccup, the end fight boss-escape and minor typos etc say 3. We can’t give 3.5 stars, however, so I have to choose, and I’m going to choose 4 because my best friends back in town after a long absence, it’s nearly the weekend, I’ve possibly got a date tomorrow, and…

It’s called Kiss Hello Goodbye.

I told you, I love that title.

Eco.

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And that's all I got to say about that.

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Thank heavens.

Eco.

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Wow dude, seriously? If you have a personal beef with someone take it to PMing him instead of clogging up his review thread. I'm sure you don't like it when people shove crap in your thread. Show the guy the same common curtasy.

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Thanks for the step-up, but Venture's entitled to respond to criticism of his arc. My first critique of a Venture arc (Blowback, Arc ID 4643) was in fact made in his own thread, so protesting against him responding against my comments in mine would be unfair.

But thanks for the defence, though

Eco.

Its a good question, I think.

From a Players perspective, some people tend to moan whenever 'rewards' are removed from the game. That's a metareason why inf drops in the MA.

Can we come up with an ingame reason for the MA dropping inf?

Perhaps the techs at AE datamine their databases of played arcs and note which heroes or villains have succeeded in certain arcs. 'beating' the more difficult arcs would engender higher levels of 'hey, Excruciating Man beat that uber arc in an hour yesterday!' etc, and there's your inf.

Removing inf from the MA would also cause problems with those arcs that use the 'real person tapping into the hologram feed and reroutibg the AE array for use as a real-world teleporter' device. For thos arcs, the places and nobs encountered aren't simulations but real.

Eco

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With some amount of careful testing on multiple maps, you can produce an objective chain that consistently spawns in a linear manner for the player and that doesn’t require backtracking. It IS possible.

It is not, because you do not control the player's actions.



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Chum Bucket Casino map. Set a wall safe collection object. Set a Defeat Boss objective to trigger when the Wall safe objective is completed. There. That’s a chain with consistent sequencing and no backtracking.

‘But that map’s got just one room!’ I hear you splutter. It doesn’t matter. I just made and tested that idiotic tiny mission to illustrate that binary statements with no modifying adverbs are often easily refutable. I said that it was possible to produce ‘an objective chain that consistently spawns in a linear manner for the player and that doesn’t require backtracking’, and you said ‘it is not’. It’s your rigid sticking to absolutes like that that dooms your arc to mediocrity. And what’s awfully sad IMO is that I don’t believe you’re even sticking to your position because it’s a universal law as you claim. You just cannot ever admit you’re wrong, or even modify your stance with politenesses like 'i see your point, but...'.

It IS possible to produce a map with a consistent sequence of objectives, and I’m not even talking about chaining them, necessarily. If they are for example in a fairly linear map and obvious to see or highlighted in some way – the glowing green gas cloud being a good example (and no, I'm not suggesting using this ALL the time) – then players are quite likely to do them in the intended order.

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Well, if you see Azuria as Dullard Queen of the Tedium People and think that her canon voice reads like a 1,200 mg a day Thorazine addict who’s lost the will to live, then you were bang on with that voice.

Ambiguous, are you claiming she is not written in character or not? I've reviewed her text on ParagonWiki and I think she is. Ditto for the Legacy Chain.



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Stop banging on about whether or not she’s IC or not lol. She sounds like an eighties 16kb chess computer in your arc.

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God, no. Change the ‘there are bodies everywhere!’ sentence, that’s all. Make it a strike force of Legacy Chain or sth. You have this ‘My writing SAYS something is so, to hell with the actual stuff the player encounters!’ attitude.

You aren’t very flexible, Venture.

I'm not flexible? You are arguing that writers should be limited to what the game can actually portray. The entire purpose of the text is to describe things that it can't.



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Not the entire purpose, surely, otherwise you’re outlawing text to describe stuff that can be seen. One of the purposes of the text is to describe things that the game can’t portray, but not when it directly contradicts to such an extent. If I put ‘This office building is empty, silent’ as the entry popup in a cave map, you’d rightly lambast me for bad writing because I’m not in an office, I’m in a cave.


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I thought you were into RP, and yet you seem to have no regard for the difference between IC knowledge and OOC. The average player doesn’t even need that entry popup spelled out for him at all – the Nav instruction would do. The character, however, has just entered what looks like an empty modern office building, and there is absolutely no sign that anything is amiss. No noise, no fights, nothing.

Because there can't be. (Unless, again, I want to fill the place with corpses -- and then get complaints that they're in body bags.) Thus, the text sets the mood.



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Sure, and the mood is Mild Bafflement followed by ‘ah,fuhgeddit’.

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I guess every time an RPer (e.g.) describes his character as wearing a piece of jewelry or such that doesn't show on the avatar he's out of line, since you can clearly see that he's not wearing it. Emotes lacking animations must likewise be forbidden.



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As far as I’m concerned™, these sorts of RP are absolutely fine.

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With enough testing, Player Runaraound can be minimised if not avoided altogether.

Not until the game becomes a side-scroller.



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Here you go again, ignoring words and contradicting yourself as a result. You, Venture, already try to minimise Player Runaround, you’ve said that’s why you don’t use triggered objectives. Perhaps you confused the concept with minimalise?

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Yeah, cos nothing says ‘Quality arc!’ like a 3-star rating after 58 plays.

Your (rather obviously vindictive) reviews are the worst ones my arcs have received. And those are still three-star reviews, since you couldn't credibly one- or two-star either.



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I didn’t one or two-star it because it was, as I said, worth three stars IMO. If it had been much worse I would have given it the rating I felt it deserved.If it had been much better I would have given it 4 or 5 stars.

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Reviews and comments have otherwise been consistently good. I don't pay too much attention to the rating system because it is too easily griefed. Too often when I post a bad review I almost immediately get a string of lowball ratings.



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You have my sympathy on that score. That’s low behaviour IMO

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(When the MA database was copied to Test, where zero-star ratings have been removed in i15, all three arcs jumped to 4 stars.)



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…gratz?

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But the point you’re referencing here wasn’t about clue order, it was about the mission complete clue that’s supposed to be Cinovars speech arriving when Cinovar was nowhere near me.

Right, because it's completely impossible that the character might walk over and talk to you after the mission! Are you actually this literal-minded?



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You sound much more human when you’re exasperated, Venture. I think it’s the contractions thing. Add a few contractions to Azurias dialogue, and she won’t sound so much like HAL before his meltdown.

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If Cinovar hasd been defeated before that clue drop, it would have been even more incongruous.

Cinoval. If you're going to complain about typos and attention to detail try living up to your standards.



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I was complaining about typos and attention to detail in arcs, not in threads. But my apologies for not remembering the correct spelling of Cinoval.

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I don't know if that's even mathematically possible, at least on a solo map and when he's actually using his secondary.

Not everyone will have your encyclopaedic knowledge of canon lore.

Everything referenced is found in-game, not dug out of web pages or the like. By level 41+ the player should have basic knowledge of the canon.

So, let's add this up...you didn't complain about any plot flaws or holes. You didn't claim it was "just a bunch of stuff that happened", or that I threw the Idiot Ball at anyone, or about canon inconsistencies or established characters being out of character. I didn't powerpose the player unacceptably or show him as being used as pawn or anything like that. Your complaints are that you disapprove of the manner and order in which clues are delivered, I used some locutions you don't approve of but aren't actually incorrect, there were a few typos that dozens of people either didn't notice or didn't think were worth mentioning and I used text to describe things that couldn't be shown in game.

Did I miss anything?


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Yes. You missed the most important thing of all. I think Chains of Blood is horribly, terribly, painfully dull. It is a flat arc, it has no soul. When I play Ghost In The Machine or The History of Statesman or Axis and Allies or even a simple one-mission Grab n Defeat story like Death to Disco above, I can sense the passion behind them. Chains of Blood gives me no such impression.

Eco.

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In my experience of this so far, I'd say that most maps are actually consistent, even if they're consistently wrong lol

it's annoying that we have to do this extra work, but just think of the teeth-gnashing we'll go thru if (when?) they fix all the spawn points and our missions are then all wrong again!

Eco

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You mean all the teeth-gnashing YOU will have to go through. I make sure I pick maps where front is front, middle is middle and back is back.

If they fix all the spawn points I will just have more maps to choose from.

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Lol yeah, you're right. Could you tell me the maps you use, so I can note them for future use? I really should make a list lol.

Eco.

Tubbius,

I am going to be alternating the requested runs with selected arcs that I've done before and would like to spotlight for various reasons. The Tubbius Trilogy is one I can include. I'm a bit slow however so it might be a while.

Eco

Qr - gah! STOP nerfing us! Don't you want me to buy another account?

Emo

Qr when I settle on a map for a mission, the first thing I do is a test run for back, front and middle spawns for each type of objective Im going to use in that mission. Eg I'll set a collection called 'front' to front, another called 'middle' to middle, and one called 'back' to back. I do this with all the types of objective because sometimes you'll get for example back collection spawning in the middle but back captives spawning at back.

Once I've set these up I run through the mission 8-10 times and nite down the places the objectives have spawned. Mapping out the correct places to set spawns before I start building my missions helps no end in dealing with objective order and clue order.

In my experience of this so far, I'd say that most maps are actually consistent, even if they're consistently wrong lol

it's annoying that we have to do this extra work, but just think of the teeth-gnashing we'll go thru if (when?) they fix all the spawn points and our missions are then all wrong again!

Eco

QR - I also keep thinking of 'The Rise of Rock' as an arc title...

Eco.

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FULL GARY GLITTER.

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Oh yes, I hadn't thought of this (even though GG wasn't strictly Disco, was he?. Can we give males huge platform boots? there's a sort of bony skull boot that looks a bit like those seventies moon boots...

Eco.

Bing Bong.

Here I go with an arc that differs from the previous two I’ve looked at so far (not counting the mini-nod to ‘Death to Disco’) in a few ways. Firstly, whereas I know and love both Venture and Wrong Number with all my heart (and I think you can see that coming across in my posts on their arcsJ), of Mirror_Man I know little. I am also diving headfirst into a multi-slot arc (or is it a multi-arc story?) for the first time. It’s called

The Galactic Protectorate – 01 Arc ID 47143

Neutral, so I’ll use MrCaptainMan, my 50 En/EN Blaster. 3 missions, a variety of objectives. Descr says that an ‘alternative-reality Synapse’ is asking for my help, and also contains those funny double-bracket jobbies that RPers use (someone correct me if I’m wrong). So, I’m maybe looking at an alternative-canon space opera with catgirls!

OK, /em I’m not worthy, My apologies, that was a cheap and hackneyed jibe at Rpers, the catgirl crack. I’m actually quite partial to a spot of roleplaying myself, only the PnP kind.

In we go!

Wow! I didn’t realize Synapse was so short!…hold on, DJ Zero was quite short too, wasn’t he…

…nah.

Synapse says ‘Hello? Can you hear me? See me?…’ and bingo, we have smile from me already. The gag here is that the alternative-reality Synapse has wwooowee-oo-ed his frequency transbobulator (I made that up) into the AE’s system, and is using it to communicate with me.

A little aside here, As Is My Wont:

Earlier we had the AE building as the Halls of Rock and Roll and the contact hologram was not a hologram at all but a flesh and blood deity (or whatever deities are made out of…ectoplasm and stardust, maybe), and here the AE building is the AE building but the ‘contact hologram’ isn’t strictly what canon says it is either. It’s not being generated by the simulation software anyway. I For One, Approve. It’s AE brand-stretching, is what it is.

Back to the briefing, and there’s more! The AE array has been reprogrammed to act as a ‘gateway from your world to mine’ says Synapse! Marvellous! I love it when writers get me away from the ‘you are on the holodeck’ wossname.

I eagerly jump into the gateway, looking forward to

Mission 1: Liberate the Captives

Ooh. Alternative Atlas isn’t looking like a good place for a CC right now. Rubble, fire…

I’ve got 4 people to save, according to the Nav instructions. I even know what their names and job titles are. Magical Infodump in action!

…I patently have to relax my perhaps unreasonably strict approach to Nav instructions. We can’t have every mission starting with ‘investigate’ and then have all the objectives triggered from that. This case is a good example of what Venture said about stuff like this ‘setting the scene’. It would be silly to expect Synapse to reel out a list of every individual I’m to rescue here, only to have it repeated in the Nav. In Synapse’s briefing, he did in fact say ‘There are some important people who need to be rescued ASAP’, which pretty much covers it I guess. So re-re-rewind! !PmudofnI lacigaM

Likewise, the bios of the customs in an arc often contain lots of OOC info about their faction, as here, where the bio of an ‘Agony Agent’ goes on abt sb called ‘Lord Cosmic’ (Woo! He’s COSMIC! ) and stuff. It’s quite a long bio. Thinking more about it, I realize that I actually like interesting bios with faction info in them, so I’ll categorically state here and now that Magical Infodumps in bios Are OK In My Book (within reason).

Aha! I find my first captive to rescue, and the captors have kindly encased him in a gigantic green glowing cloud of gas that’s visible from space. Plus 5 stars and a bag of jelly babies for marking him out for me.

The captors don’t put up much of a threat to my Blaster, and their bios suggest what their possible powersets could be, so I know to go for the Mastermind first, for example. The captive thanks me, and the flavor text makes me think that we’re dealing with an ‘earth under alien occupation’ style affair here.

Ronberry’s dialogue is a tad ho-ho for someone who’s being levitated in a huge poison gas cloud J

With the rescue iof the last captive, a clue drops. It’s a discarded newspaper dated several years in the future. Now I experience a slight FWM - Is this the future of this alternative earth, or is this alternative earth temporally a few years ahead of my earth, or what?

All will be no doubt revealed.

I use the gateway to return to the Kings Row Ae building and use the privy, check my text messages, have a look at the view from the balcony outside and stock up on inspirations before sauntering over to where Synapse is waiting for me.

…that illustrates a [small] problem with using the MA to make arcs set in the ‘real world’ of Paragon and its reality rather than the nested reality of the AE’s more usual virtual environment. With a ‘normal’ arc that’s purportedly a fiction created by a hero or villain or NPC, these gaps between missions can last for ages if necessary and you can just say that the simulation is on hold. Right now, however, MCM;s stanign around in the KR AE building picking his nose whilst I type this, and alt-Synapse might be getting a bit irritated.

Someone unbelievably pedantic and OCD about stuff like this might suggest putting an ‘Oh, sorry, I thought I’d lost you there…’ at the start of the next briefing to circumvent this, but that way lies madness, surely

Lol that’s not a serious suggestion. I’m just musing out loud about the meta-ness of the MA

BTW, it seems that the ‘several years in the future’ means that my contacts earth is ahead. The newspaper clue could be slightly tidied to be clearer. ‘..dated several years into the future from your point of view, looks…’

The entry popup for

Mission 2: Infiltrate the Communications Hub

uses ‘appears’ a bit too much for my liking, but that’s minor compared to the Pedantic Frothing At The Mouth I do when I see ‘Find Computer, Find Computer, Find Computer, Destroy Mainframe, Destroy Mainframe, Destroy Mainframe’ in the Nav instructions.

The Arc ID – ah crap, I forgot to put the Arc ID at the top.

Hm…did I do it for the others? …Nope, I’ll rectify that. Sorry.

Right, back to this Nav mess. I don’t want to insult you, but it’s possible you don’t know how to make multiple objectives with the same Nav instruction.

If they are for example collections, set the Plural Nav description to ‘[nouns] to [verb]’ and set the Singular Nav descr to ‘[verb] the last [noun]’

So yours would have ‘Computers to Find’ as the plural, and ‘Find the last Computer’ as the singular. The MA will put numbers in front of the plural Nav instruction until there’s only one left and then it’ll switch to the singular.

My first computer gives a clue containing some info about ‘first contact’ and a weather forecast ‘Moderate to severe planetary resistance is expected’

Hey! I’ve just noticed that the Galactic Protectorate are all women! What? Lol

I find the first Mainframe, labeled ‘Mainframe 2’ – I don’t know if you’ll find this tip useful, but if you don’t want to have a number after objects with the same name, name the first as is, then for the second one add a single space after it, and add 2 spaces after the third one, etc. The MA won’t let you name more than one objective with identical names, but if you add spaces after the name they’ll be different as far as the MA is concerned, and ingame they’ll look the same because spaces are invisible!

Ah…oops, maybe I should’ve stayed ingame after the mainframe got blown up and not typed this. Ambush! Lol RotP to the rescue!

The object guard dialogue says ‘one of our sensors just detected something’, so obviously the galactic protectorate has access to hyper advanced ‘thing detectors’ of some kind. The guards call for help as soon as I attack, ‘Engaging enemy! Requesting backup!’ but the ambush spawns when the mainframe is destroyed, some time later, saying ‘Request received! En route to your location!’ They’re assumedly using some hi-tech radio, not lighting signal fires on hilltops in sequence like the men of Middle Earth, so you need to tweak that dialogue a tad.

OK, I’m getting a bit tired now. I think this maps about done, but I’m close to calling Huge Map Syndrome. There are computers to check that aren’t required objectives that give flavor – the ones marked ‘Progress Report’? I like them, actually, they’re cool. The required clues are deadly dull, though. Base codes, base co-ordinates. They’re the equivalent of Keys in Doom.

Luckily, I was right. One more mainframe and the mission’s over. I exit.

Mission debrief from Synapse contains a typo ‘thougt’ and a wrong collocation ‘to begin a major comeback’ – it’s ‘make a comeback’.

Another typo a little while later, ‘my comrade, Matnicore.’

I’m also a little confused about the arrangement Statesman has made with lord Cosmic. Statesmans off on a jolly at the intergalactic Council or something., right? Lemme check that clue again.

Aah, I see. Yeah, it sort of makes sense. Now I’m assuming that Statesmans offworld held prisoner somewhere. Classic ‘friendly’ occupation. Like Russia and Poland after WW2 sort of thing?

Mission 3: Save Manticore!

I have just 30 minutes to save Manticore and do some typing (no, really, it’s a mission objective). Better get on with it, I guess.

[plus quintrillion stars for having exclamation mark in nav instruction]

If I wasn’t stealthed, I might be having difficulty doing this in 30 mins. But then again, I’m using up my stealth-saving time by typing this out aren’t I?

I do some actual ingame typing as my first objective.

I’m not joking, look ‘You begin typing out the false report...’

And then it’s off to find Manticore.

Ouch, those Comet Commanders hit hard.

I find Manti, Nova his guards, and he thanks…[Synapse! How rude!] and runs off after telling me he knows where a general’s base is. Mission over.

The debriefing tells me that a corner has been turned, the humans can start their counter-attack, the trumpets rise in volume, etc. I think you should put the arc ID for part two in that final debrief after a few lines in red or something, in some more of those funky RP double-brackets if you like. Theh people can just rush straight to the search window with the numbers fresh in their mind after being sucked into to your vividly realized totally fleshed out no-detail-overlooked universe…

…pfff, that’s about as nasty as I can get about the Galactic Protectorate I’m afraid.

I enjoyed it in a middling sort of way. You’ve obviously got a story to tell, and the villain group is extensive. I counted 9 different customs. Their uniforms were varied but featured the same symbol and style, their powersets were also varied and in groups they gave some challenge (though nothing really dicey).

Mechanically the arc was ok, nothing experimental going on. I’m very glad you put the green glowing gas on the captives in Mission 1. I Like A Well-Ordered Clue List, too, and yours was a bit out of order.

My biggest negative is that what happens in it isn’t very epic, for a story about an alien race enslaving the Earth. I rescued 4 civilians, who told me where to go for mission 2. in mission 2 I got some more directions, which were then shelved for mission 3 and the rescue of Manticore. There wasn't even a Big Bad to fight!

Now here’s an important…thing. If I was a member of the Every Arc Stands Alone Brigade, I might FAIL your arc here because on its own it, it doesn’t have much internal cohesion. I’m not, however, and I wonder how it would stand up if it were simply the first three missions in a longer arc. If I don’t have to view mission 3 as the End (or even An end), maybe Missions 3 and 4 and 5 will seem like a Middle, if you get my drift.

So I’ll have to play the rest of it, won’t I?

I won’t rate it right now, I’ll write down now on my little pad what I think it deserves if the rest is crap, middling or great, and then at the end I can rate all three with the same brush. Multi-slot arcs FTW, ticket-wise, eh?

I will say this, however. You’re already sailing towards the Isle of Bloat, even with just 3 missions and with the fairly small number of objectives you have in each one. I think it’s a combination of knowing there are another 2 segments to go and the manifold customs in the Gal Prot – they make it seem larger. Could you at least use smaller maps? Less travel time in Missions 2 and 3 would make a world of difference.

And I’ve still got an eye out for some catgirls

Eco.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Can you put my heroic arc in the queue?

Arc ID# 195202
A Bad Hand from a Worse Dechs
4 missions, no defeat all, one EB (on diff 1 will be a boss, I think)

Yeah, I know it's in my sig, but I might change that...

EDIT: Sorry, I just noticed the post of yours saying that your queue was full and to hold requests until after you finished. Feel free to /ignore me.

[/ QUOTE ]

No problem Dechs, i'll make a [one-off!] exception for you since your title is such a glorious groaner of a pun

Eco.

[/ QUOTE ]

If you like puns, you'll love the contact.

What can I say, I'm a pretty punny guy!

At least I haven't told my eskimo joke yet.

[/ QUOTE ]

What's your Eskimo joke?

Eco

[ QUOTE ]
Can you put my heroic arc in the queue?

Arc ID# 195202
A Bad Hand from a Worse Dechs
4 missions, no defeat all, one EB (on diff 1 will be a boss, I think)

Yeah, I know it's in my sig, but I might change that...

EDIT: Sorry, I just noticed the post of yours saying that your queue was full and to hold requests until after you finished. Feel free to /ignore me.

[/ QUOTE ]

No problem Dechs, i'll make a [one-off!] exception for you since your title is such a glorious groaner of a pun

Eco.

A discussion in another thread prompted sone thought about the nature of information delivery in the MA. I had sort of vaguely assumed that generally, MAuthors (and Players) treated clue drops etc in much the same way as I. Now, however, I'm wondering if this is the case, and I thought it night make for an interesting discussion.

I'd like to define some terms before I set out my own view/approach, to avoid if possible any misunderstanding.

Player = human playing the game we call City of Heroes.
Character, char, toon, hero, villain = er, the character lol. Not the human controlling him/her/it.
Clue = the in-game events known as 'clues' which appear as text boxes in your clue window.
Info = the information conveyed to the character or the player by means of a clue, an entry or exit popup, Mob dialogue, a system message, or any other MA text delivery mechanic.

My own approach to info transferred during an arc is broadly based on the thinking that the character should be learning the info at roughly the same time as the player. Further, the info can be considered learned by the character roughly at the time the clue or other info delivery mechanism appears.

Anyone have any ideas or comments, or use any unorthodox methods of delivering info to player or character?

Eco

Qr it seems that in order to not piss off the audience, when presenting an arc that spans more than one slot, Time is going to be a deciding factor, and also clarity in the descriptions.

It's also clear ghat for some people, using more than one slot per story, no matter how short each segment is, is an automatic red flag. Such is life!

Eco

Fair enough, aura.

Out of interest, do you avoid as a matter of course canon arcs thatyou cannot compete in one sitting?

Eco

And as a special Free Gift, here’s a quick review of ‘Death to Disco’ (minus ten thousand stars for no exclamation marks!!!) by @Lich-King.

Its Medium length, 1 map, heroic morality, and the description says that DJ Zero wants me to save reality from a fate that’s WORSE than total annihilation (plus a good few thousand stars at least, for this lineJ). Yikes! I’d better get on that immediately…after I’ve had a bath and logged back in with MrCaptainMan.

Ahh…clean, fresh, an hour left before work…Can MrCaptainMan save Reality from a fate worse than total annihilation?

It looks like all he has to do to succeed in that is Fight a Boss, Collect Something, and Defeat All Enemies…hmm…

Ah well, nothing Ventured…

Wow. I didn’t realize DJ Zero was so short, what with only having seen him hovering up there before.

The briefing is amusing enough, but I think needs a hyphen in the word ‘trans dimensional’, and sets up what looks to be a simple Standard Get n Defeat mission.

Mission 1: Make Sure Disco Stays Dead.

There’s no time travel involved in this one, the fate worse than total annihilation is simply Disco music becoming popular again. The briefing also points out that I don’t have to actually Defeat All, just the Boss and his entourage, so plus a handful of stars for thinking of the little children-uh, I mean thinking of the player who might have noticed that Defeat All in the mission listing.

It’s the rave warehouse map, and a large-ish entry popup tells me I can hear Gloria Gaynor music (I’m not bothered that it’s actually the standard techno music I can hear…hmm, I guess I could mess with the sound files and replace that sound file with ‘I Will Survive’…that would be awesome…plus ninety-nine stars for making me think of that)

Hm. Minus infinity stars for the fact that after typing that paragraph, I switched back to CoH to find myself facedown on the floor!

LMAO it DID say ‘patrol’ in the description, so its my fault. Have your stars back because I’ve got RotP.

Bio for East Side Hustler has a typo ‘He make speak softly’. The Disco Wizards customs are nicely designed, and their bios are long and amusing. Their powersets reflect their names; Disco Inferno is Fire, for example.

On the way to the final room I find some crates and a wall safe etc. They contain various disco records I have to confiscate. The clues are amusingly written.

The Big Bad isn’t very Big (yellow conning Boss) but his fighting dialogue is great and his bio is v funny. With relative ease I mop up his guards in the final room and the mission ends.


This little arc is like…how can I put it? If it was a radio mission, people would be saying ‘Have you played that Disco Radio mission? Good fun, isn’t it?’

I can’t find anything horrible to say about it at all bar the very minor typos. I was half expecting some kind of farm, but instead I got a nicely written humorous time-filler that did the job it set out to. 4-stars.



Wow, how about that? Two lots of Disco goodness for the price of one! Awesome!



Eco.