MrCaptainMan

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Captain Jack Sparrow!

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LOL though I totally love jack sparrow, I'm not sure he's actually a bad person or completely selfish during his run through the three movies.

One movie character I can think of who does 'win' in a movie despite being apparently thoroughly self-serving and even murderous, is the protagonist in The Last Seduction.

Oh, and Keyser Soze (sp) of course.

Eco


Eco

Some folk like to whinge about how their villains don't feel 'bad' enough or how they're fed up of being Lord Recluse's stooge.

I was wondering about what sort of storyline endings these types would like to see, which got me to thinking about villains in books, movies, other games, and also to some extent reality.

Can anyone think of examples in other media of villains being evil and winning through at the finish?
Behaving badly and either getting away with it or being rewarded for it in RL seems to happen fairly often (serial killers getting away with it for decades or even not being caughtc at all, company CEOs willfully mismanaging and getting huge pension payodfs etc), but I'm not sure I'd describe those as narratively satisfying.

Any ideas?

Eco

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I've received some feedback that a stalker was unable to solo Maiden Justice in the final battle despite several attempts. Unstoppable seems to be the cause; I really think she'd be fine if she just didn't have that power.


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/raises battered head from the dirt 'bleh, that's me...'

Don't change the mob from Mauden Justice-she's a perfect thematic fit. It's more than likely my fault, I'm no hardass combat Titan.

I'll try again now you've added friendly ambushes -that's an awesome way of solving the problem, and also fits the theme v well too I think - summoning more minions to crush the plucky heroine Neath the jackboots of the Reich!

Great arc.

Eco

My feedback thread on my arc The Echo got purged, so here's a new one.


The Echo

Arc ID 1688

Description: A forgotten name from the past returns...Can you foil his terrible plan? [recommended for SOLO LVL50 HEROIC play, STORY-FOCUSED, VERY STORY-HEAVY, not very challenging at heroic setting. If you don't like reading clues, you're not going to like this arc ] [SFMA - Story Focused Mission Arc]

Time to complete: 1-2 hrs.

Contains NO defeat alls, most missions are stealthable, and its easily soloable. I recommend keeping your clue window open in the last mission.

As you may infer from the explanation of SFMA in the description, this was the very first arc to use the SFMA tag!

A simple kidnapping leads the Player into a web of intrigue with a face from the past at its heart. Why has a hero thought long-dead returned, and what terrible event has driven him to the awful plan he has put into action?

Contains a sequence of FIFTEEN chained boss fights, vital for the narrative process lol.

Some of the feedback I've received for The Echo:

"Loved it. Good story with a sense of humour thrown in. I thoroughly enjoyed it"

"I thought it was just a so-so arc until the very end, when everything tied together in an unforgettably heart-wrenching way.... I don't think I'll forget this arc. 5 stars, no question."

"Awesome, just awesome. Easily some of the best writing I have seen so far...If I could give you 6 stars I would!"

"Wow. Only the second time since I have been playing CoH (4 yrs) that I have felt really moved."

"It's a six star story far as I'm concerned... "

"Very well written. Trying to find the bosses at the end was a problem, but I can't think of a solution either. Good job, 5 stars."

"Damn, that's an evil ending. I don't know whether to praise you or slap you. [5 stars]"

"Very well-done arc. The dialogue was great, both the jokes and the serious part."

"Your villains have fat butts. Nyah nyah. 1 star."

The Echo, Arc ID 1688.

Feedback welcome.

Eco.

I so often play really enjoyable story-focused arcs which grip me and have me smiling all the way through, and then, in the last mission, out comes an EB who I cant solo.

Is the MA capable of making an arc thats a challenge for a team and also a challenge solo, but beatable by both?

I design myarcs for solo players, and i state that clearly in the descriptions.

Does anyone who has experience with setting their arcs for both teams and solo have any comments?

Eco.

QR - So this arc gives ZERO 'rewards', and he reported it as a farming arc? What was he accusing it of farming? Fun? "This arc provides too much fun per hour". What a tool.

Eco.

QR - I just played Speeding Through Time. iMission 3 was one of the most entertaining missions Ive played yet. Simple concept, hilariously realised. The costume's great, the red electric effects really add to the mayhem. Big grin on my face all the way through. HA missed the point here I feel by about a zillion miles.

The rest of the arc could do with some polishing of the story, maybe, but it's a 4-starrer in my book.

Using the mechanics of the MA in original ways like this should be lauded, not pooh-poohed because 'i'm not in control of the action' or 'I don't like red'.

Top banana, Geek.

Eco.

Does anyone think:

2 care...

what?> Think care? what does that mean?

Eco.

It's obviously magic nuclear powered zombie steam from the future. I don't know what all the fuss is about.

Eco

Qr - I gave long been in favour of reducing TF minimum starting reqs. If every TF could be started by two players, it would allow those of us who for whatever reason have difficulty grouping to experience as much of the TFs as we could handle. I personally wouldn't be wanting to solo any TFS - I duo them with my SG-mate (if they are duoable that is). Scaling them down would be a bonus, but as the system stands at present, since a TF can be continued with just the 2 active members, it seems inconsistent to force a minimum starting number that's higher than that.

Eco

Qr - the Red Blur thing sounds like it might be great- I have no problem sitting back and being entertained for one mission out of five. I'll give it a go tonight

Eco

it would add options for MA designers if during timed missions, we could set clues to drop at certain timepoints in the countdown. This would be useful for obvious things like "Attention: Tis facility will self destruct in T Minus 15 minutes...' but I'm sure that we'd see ingenious uses for it, too.

I don't know how hard this would be to code.

Eco.

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I like to have control over the things i am responsible for. I never choose a random map for a mission in an arc I'm designing, as I can't be sure that my objectives will spawn where I intend them to.

What are random maps good for?

Eco.

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In a well-designed and implemented system, random maps would be of equal quality to to hand-designed maps. That is, all the spawn and collection points would be well positioned, there would be an equal number of each type of spawn points in all front, middle and back areas. If this were true, then there wouldn't really be any advantage to using fixed maps and you could always use random maps.

However, you are making an unwarranted assumption about using a specific map. Since there are usually multiple spawn points of each type in each area, you are not necessarily guaranteed any particular spawning pattern. Just because in your tests it happened to fall out in some way that suited you doesn't mean that it will for everyone running the mission.



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I know, but using the same map each test reduces the amount of variables i have no control over. I can test one map 20 times, but if i used a random map in a series that contained 10, I'd have to test the mission 100 times to get a similar level of 'knowing' how the mission would tend to pan out.

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In I15 the spawn points will be displayed on the maps, so that will give us more information to work with. However, as we've seen time and again, each patch involve changes to the maps. Most of these will be bug fixes and additions (new spawn points in areas that are under-represented now) that we want. But this will change the way your mission spawns, and can "break" it.

Like most things, however, one man's bug is another man's bug-fix. Given the nature of software, it is wisest not to make missions that depend on details that you have no control over.



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Yes, that's what I meant in my OP.

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Many people (myself included) are trying to make missions that perform in ways the system is not intended to. We're trying to achieve dramatic effects by staging and sequencing.



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Me too. Triggers are my friend (and, sometimes, my woe lol).

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When things don't work out or change we curse the incompetence of the devs, but we're trying to build something they haven't designed for. But in many cases the fault is our own for trying to shoehorn something into a system that isn't meant to handle it. If you can't figure out a way to make it work, you need to change what you're doing and implement something the system can handle.



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I'm not sure what you mean here. Are you referring to me specifically when you use 'you', or is this the general 'you' as in 'people'? I'm doing fine with sequencing and control etc, thanks.

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For future development the devs should consider that in dramatic missions positioning is often the wrong model. What we really care about is the timing and ordering of the spawns, not their locations. For example, I don't care where the ally is in a mission. I just care that the team encounters the ally first. Similarly, I don't really care where the boss is, just that the team gets to him last.

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I totally agree. This is what I spend most of my design time working on. 'Where' is nice, but 'when' is often vital to the way a mission's storyline progresses.

Eco.

QR - I'd actually prefer it be a real money transaction thing, tbh. It would help weed out the non-serious. An unfortunate side effect would be that it would also weed out the serious but less financially wossname players.

Eco.

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On test server, the removed badges blink on and off repeatedly. It's quite strange. lol

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Ooh - They're obviously GHOST badges!



Eco.

QR - I played this a while ago, and i thoroughly enjoyed it, and to be perfectly honest I didnt know that Disco Demolition Night was a historical night when I did. As far as I'm concerned, the in-jokes and references aren't all that hardcore nichework at all. Disco and its tropes and characteristics are fairly well-known in popular culture, at least in my experience. I felt that the arc flowed well, had a variety of objectives, wasn't too long, and had interesting, amusing and well-balanced customs. The writing is good and the authors preference for telling a story and not pandering to the tickets/inf crowd is clear. This is exactly the type of arc the MA is designed for.

It looks like you didn't have much fun playing it, Glazius. Which is a shame, but then, Disco isnt for everyone...until they realise that it actually is, baby!

Eco.

EDIT: The more I think about it, the more I realise that this arc was FUN to play. Knowing about exactly what Carter looked like etc is irrelevant. So often, I find myself wading through dull as ditchwater arcs for a mission and a half and then quitting with a /facepalm. Not this one. It's all about the Fundom, dudes!

How about this PSU?

Corsair 550

Eco.

The I14 badges they're removing-when exactly will they be removed from our characters?

If the can remove them while we're offline, then my stupid plan doesn't work.

BUT-if the badges are removed the instant that I first login after i15 goes live, then all I have to do is not login, and Ill still have them! Forever!



Eco

QR

OK, so after failing to defeat Silver Mantis on my stalker (I hope you got my long forum PM) even with Ice Mistrals help, I figured i owed you one more attempt, so I tried again on my 50 en/en blaster. I dont normally like playing Villainous arcs on my heroes or vice versa, but here we go.

A minor quibble - Sometimes Ice mistrals dialogue has speech marks inside her speech bubbles.

The SM fight was hard, died twice, but SM went down eventually.

Next mish..hm, no warning opr explanationn of miss liberty (hang on- it says Miss liberty in the nav, but the mob is Ms Liberty) being here? - one thing-having the allies spawn so close to the start makes it a defeat all, basically. i left them there and got to miss liberty and had to come back for them.

Your custom LB are funny and well-balanced imo.

Right, the Ms Liberty fight. didnt go well at all Im afraid. She's much too hard for my blaster. i waded in with the two chicks giving support and Liberty killed me in short order. I came back and started the fight again and she kiilled me again, but I had RotP so rezzed and left the chicks to it. She killed Ice Mistral and then I just hovered above them watching SM and ML slug it out. It took SM about 5 mins to kill her, and it was really really boring for me.

It's a damn shame, cos the humour is good, the rest of the arc flows well and apart from the minor typos here and there (easily rectified), its a great arc. But those EBs ruin it for me. The Silver Mantis fight was horribly unpleasant, and the Ms Liberty one was tedious and i felt basically superfluous.

Now that I have finished it, though, i can go back to my Stalker and do the sequel.

Eco.

I want more slots too please. I'd be willing to pay up to 20bucks per slot.

Eco.

I like to have control over the things i am responsible for. I never choose a random map for a mission in an arc I'm designing, as I can't be sure that my objectives will spawn where I intend them to.

What are random maps good for?

Eco.

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Is this arc already published?

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I had 2 arcs up. One I pulled as it had a non-spawning objective and so was uncompletable, but the other, the one in my sig, is still published and playable, despite being at 106% according to edit.

Eco

QR - It was my birthday yesterday, and i went out with my friends and got quite pissed . When I got home at 4am, I sent an email to support about a problem im having with my arc. Re-reading it today, its surprisingly lucid and calm. I tend to type really slowly and carefully when i PUI - that email probably took me an hour to type out lol.

Its texting drunk thats the killer for me - not so much what I say but who I say it to. Bit of a /facepalm moment this morning lol.

Eco.

QR - Here's my opinion, for what it's worth.

I think the idea of a video review is excellent.

However, your first review I think suffered in a number of ways.

You didn't come across as being very well-prepared. A scripted introduction to your character and preferred playstyle would have set the scene better, and also a rundown of the description page and possibly a clearer outline of what the missions entailed.

You didn't take very long to read the briefing, but maybe you are a speed reader. In any case, the resolution of the screen is too small for us to see the briefing text, so you should have given us a verbal overview of what the mission was about. 'So, essentially, nemesis says that something is something, and he wants me to investigate a cargo ship to find out something' for example.

Once in the mission, you should have commented more on the aspects of the mission rather than banging on about your brute so much. You didnt mention how the nav instructions came across, what you thought of the entry popup, you didnt stop to check whether or not the custom mob had any description, or make any comments about his costume or dialogue. You're supposed to be reviewing an arc, not advising us on why to choose Willpower Brutes. One of the problems i have with reviews by Brutes is I think that the AT encourages fast play and discourages pausing the action to examine a plot point or mob costume during the game.

The glowie incident was unfortunate. I viewed your video in fullscreen mode, and i could hear it quite clearly in the middle room. it seems from the video that you had some music playing; perhaps you should turn this off when reviewing so as to give the arc your full attention, and then there will be less chance of you missing something important. On your first pass back towards the front of the ship I thought i spied the glowie flash past, and then when you returned it was quite clearly visible to me. When you're looking for a glowie, jumping around all over the place isnt the best way to do it imo. Admittedly, the glowie was one of the smaller ones, but as a reviewer, you should give the arcs you're reviewing more benefit than others. You should have started it again to make sure before issuing your potentially damaging assertation that there was a 'mission-breaking' design flaw in it.

I also echo other suggestions to edit out the loading screen unless you can fill the dead air with useful commentary.

I look forward to your next review.

Eco.

EDIT: I don't want you reviewing mine, however. its got a cargo ship map, so you'd hate it

Right. Ill aprove an increase in the budget. Thanks for the advice.

Eco.