PoliceWoman

Thanks much for trying Talos Vice! I'm really glad you all liked it and your commentary was very fun. I liked how excited y'all were about getting in the Ferrari and "my god! I'm in an episode of Miami Vice!"

11/12/2009

On Tuesday night, the sponsor of the Player Choice Awards tracked me down and tried to give me the prize money for it, which was 50 million influence for winning two categories. I am insanely rich, though (well...in-game, anyway), and I knew this prize money was coming out of his own pocket, so I didn't really feel right about taking it. He was obviously going to be disappointed if I didn't take something, though, so I took 10M and asked him to use the other 40M for a future MA contest; I suggested perhaps "Best New Author".

After that I ran off and helped with banners in Atlas Park. As Police Woman (50 AR/dev blaster), I already had the badges, but I was in Atlas Park just as it was starting, so I thought, what the heck. I did get 2 merits for dropping the Greater Aspect, and a compliment on Police Woman's costume from someone who saw me at Wentworth's.

After that I switched to Thunder Girl (48 elec/SR scrapper) to join a 3rd hero respec (the one with Rikti). This was a full team but light on support (just one kin controller) but we did fine anyway. The final mission defending the reactor against the Rikti was a bit dreary; with our very high DPS we obliterated each wave of Rikti in seconds, then were left to wait several minutes for the next wave. While waiting around our poor kin's grandparent kicked him off the computer, so he ended up having to log off and didn't get to finish the trial. We ended up finishing in 1hr 9mins.

With the new City Traveler ability, I decided to go ahead and use Thunder Girl's new respec to drop hover; so now she has Combat Jumping and Fly for travel powers. This is the build I have planned for her, though I'm missing almost all the high end stuff (the number of slots in each power is right, but the purple recipes are all wishful thinking - currently have SOs sitting in those slots as placeholders):


Thunder Girl I16: Level 50 Magic Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Electrical Melee
Secondary Power Set: Super Reflexes
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Blaze Mastery

Hero Profile:
------------
Level 1: Charged Brawl T'Death-Acc/Dmg(A), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx(3), T'Death-Dmg/Rchg(3), T'Death-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(5), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), T'Death-Dam%(7)
Level 1: Focused Fighting LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(7), LkGmblr-Def(9), LkGmblr-Rchg+(19)
Level 2: Focused Senses LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(9), LkGmblr-Def(11), LkGmblr-Rchg+(19)
Level 4: Agile LkGmblr-Def/Rchg(A), LkGmblr-Def(11), LkGmblr-Rchg+(13)
Level 6: Swift Run-I(A)
Level 8: Thunder Strike Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(13), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(15), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(15), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(17), Oblit-%Dam(17)
Level 10: Practiced Brawler RechRdx-I(A)
Level 12: Combat Jumping DefBuff-I(A)
Level 14: Health Numna-Heal/Rchg(A), Numna-Heal(21), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(21)
Level 16: Fly Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(23), HO:Micro(23)
Level 18: Chain Induction Hectmb-Dmg(A), Hectmb-Dmg/Rchg(25), Hectmb-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(25), Hectmb-Acc/Rchg(27), Hectmb-Dmg/EndRdx(27), Hectmb-Dam%(29)
Level 20: Stamina P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(29), P'Shift-End%(31), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(39), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(42), P'Shift-Acc/Rchg(50)
Level 22: Quickness Run-I(A)
Level 24: Dodge LkGmblr-Def/Rchg(A), LkGmblr-Def(31), LkGmblr-Rchg+(31)
Level 26: Build Up HO:Membr(A), HO:Membr(33), HO:Membr(33)
Level 28: Kick HO:Nucle(A)
Level 30: Tough Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(A), Aegis-ResDam/Rchg(33), Aegis-EndRdx/Rchg(34), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(40), Aegis-ResDam(40), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(42)
Level 32: Lightning Rod C'ngBlow-Dmg/Rchg(A), M'Strk-Dmg/Rchg(34), Erad-Dmg/Rchg(34), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(36), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(36), Erad-%Dam(36)
Level 35: Evasion LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(37), LkGmblr-Def(37), LkGmblr-Rchg+(37)
Level 38: Weave RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(39), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(39), RedFtn-Def(40), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg(42), RedFtn-EndRdx(43)
Level 41: Char BasGaze-Acc/Hold(A), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg(43), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(43), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(46)
Level 44: Fire Blast Apoc-Dmg(A), Apoc-Dmg/Rchg(45), Apoc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(45), Apoc-Acc/Rchg(45), Apoc-Dmg/EndRdx(46), Apoc-Dam%(46)
Level 47: Fire Ball Ragnrk-Dmg(A), Ragnrk-Dmg/Rchg(48), Ragnrk-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(48), Ragnrk-Acc/Rchg(48), Ragnrk-Dmg/EndRdx(50), Ragnrk-Knock%(50)
Level 49: Lucky DefBuff-I(A)


I ended up dropping leadership pool and picking up fighting pool (for tough and weave). I also lost one of my single target attacks, Havoc Punch, but I'm trying to get enough recharge to make my single-target attack chain Charged Brawl/Chain Induction/Charged Brawl/Fire Blast. In return I got to fit Fireball into my build, which makes the trade seem well worth it.

My melee and range defense are both soft capped right now, but my AoE defense is still kinda poor (down to 26%, partly because I'm missing some of the IO sets for +AoE DEF, partly because I pushed Lucky to level 49). Still, I'm liking this new build a lot so far, and I'm especially enjoying the amount of AoE carnage that Build Up/Lightning Rod/Fire Ball/Thunder Strike puts out.


On Wednesday night I played Pyre Woman (16 fire/SS tanker) on a Sisterhood fire team for a few missions, getting to level 17 before the team broke up. After that I tinkered with my old Axis and Allies story arc a bit. I've been trying to replace custom mobs with recolored standard mobs, to reduce the file space the arc is using, in order to make room to add some more stuff to the arc to make it more cool. After playing with that a bit and doing a little testing, I called it an early night (been doing overtime at RL work, which has been keeping me tired).

Received a review from Sister_Twelve. Her opinion of it was rather lukewarm, which, thinking about it, is justified. This arc has been on my back burner for some time and hasn't been updated in awhile. Being my earliest effort, I wrote it when I knew a lot less about story arcs. Also, the earlier controversy on its subject matter kind of put me off promoting the arc, or even looking at it, for awhile.

But looking at it again with what I know now, I feel like there are things I could do to make it better. So I'm planning to generally overhaul the story arc, to use some of the newer Mission Architect features and to try and improve the story overall.


Recent changes:

* All "Boss" objectives changed to "Only Boss required" (at the suggestion of Sister_Twelve).
* Changed from "Looking for Feedback" to "Work in Progress".
* Arc-as-published was at 100.1% memory usage (apparently the result of code bloat from cumulative patches). As a result, I needed to cut some stuff to even be able to republish. I decided to try replacing some custom mobs with recolored standard mobs.
* Replaced the Russian soldier with an assortment of recolored Council Empire minions.
* Replaced the Russian political commissar with a recolored Paragon Police Psi-Cop lieutenant.
* Added some recolored Crazed minions (renamed to "Partisan") to the Russian forces, for variety. I think these scruffy guys actually look pretty good fighting alongside the regular Russian soldiers on the Stalingrad map.
* Added a recolored Council Empire lieutenant to the Russian forces, as a "Russian Sergeant"; though I'm thinking I might try to give him a more Russian-sounding name like "Starshina".
* Replaced the American soldier and American sergeant with recolored Malta operatives (NOT the sapper or gunslinger though). They're admittedly too futuristic looking, but the Malta tactical operative has the right shape helmet, and recolored in green looks very "green army man".
* Added a recolored Private Security Guard lieutenant as an American lieutenant; not quite sure if he works, he still looks pretty rent-a-cop.
* Added a recolored Paragon Police Psi-Captain boss to the Allies as a French officer, and changed General Weygand to use this model. The ludicrously high military cap and the sleeve stripes just seemed to make this work.
* Wrote a brief bio for the repurposed Crey Security Agents in the Secret Service faction (previously they had the default Crey bio).
* Reworked the Wehrmacht faction; instead of including all 5th Column, now it only includes the guys that look like actual soldiers (no robots, wolves, or vampires); renamed most of them also. This makes them look much more uniform, but now they're almost boringly homogenous; I'm kinda waffling on whether to add back the robots, wolves and vampires, for the sake of diversity.
* The increased use of recolored Crey, PPD, Crazed and Council Empire mobs made me change the arc's level range to 40-44. (I figure this is not significantly worse than 40-50 since even exemped to 44, you will still have all your powers.)

All these changes actually decreased my memory usage from 100.1% to 81%, while actually increasing the number of actual models that my custom factions are using (especially the Red Army group). I cut 4 custom models and added back probably two dozen recolored standard mobs. Reusing standard mobs also increases the net exp gain in the story arc (due to the exp penalty for custom mobs "standard" powers). On the downside, I now have to overlook a few visual oddities (PPD badges, anachronistic Malta gear, etc).

It feels like a good trade-off so far, though; especially because it now gives me some room to make more changes. I'll try to make some screenshots of the recolored mobs and post them later on.

11/10/2009

Last Saturday I played Lt. Mary Sue (16 emp/AR defender on Triumph) on a team of Mission Architect fans doing AE story arcs. I joined the team during the tail end of an arc whose name I didn't catch, then played through Old Dog, New Tricks, which was the origin story of a police dog that gets mutated into a superhero. This was a cute idea but the story didn't really grab me; I rated it 3 stars.

After that I played Thunder Girl (46 elec/SR scrapper on Liberty) on a speed LGTF (took 23min 56sec) and Yuki-Onna (50 ice/cold corruptor) on a speed RSF (was a little messy with more deaths than normal; took 32min 10sec, got a Nucleolus).

After that I played Pyre Woman (12 fire/SS tanker) on an 8-player Sisterhood SG fire-themed team, doing missions in the Hollows. I think I crowded out the tanker who was on the team before I joined; she was mostly trying to pull, while I was aggressively jumping into mobs and taunting them onto me (with 2 thermal controllers, my lethal resist was at the 90% cap, so I was fearless). In hindsight, this was probably rude of me especially as the other tanker left the team soon after. In any case, we ran through the Defeat Atta mission, which is a huge tunnel map full of Trolls that got everyone multiple levels. Pyre Woman finished that mission at level 16.

Later on, Star Amethyst (44 dark/ice defender) was messing with costumes at the Founders Falls icon; I came up with a new one I rather liked, with jet black skin and purple ornamentation; I was trying for an "exotic energy being" sort of look. While at the tailor, I got invited to the Founders Falls hero respec (the one with Freakshow) with a team of

1 tanker (will/?)
2 scrappers (?/shield, ?/regen)
2 defenders (rad/?, dark/ice)

This was relatively straightforward and we finished in 1hr 14mins; I took the respec for the sake of the badge. This also got Star Amethyst to level 45. While on this respec, someone recognized my global and remembered PvPing regularly against Police Woman in Siren's Call, years ago. He told me that I was the only AR/dev blaster he respected, because I "didn't rely on TP foe and trip mines" (this was one of the main "cheesy" things dev blasters did back then). That was really nice.

After that, Star Amethyst did a speed LGTF (finished in 24min 7sec), then Thunder Girl did a speed ITF (took 21min 49sec) which got her to level 47. At level 47 I was able to slot a level 50 Numina's IO that I had lucked into as a drop earlier on, giving Thunder Girl a set of 3 Numina's in Health for an extra +1.88% max HP. I went ahead and slotted a few Luck of the Gambler (DEF/END) IOs into Agile, Dodge and Lucky; I already had the LotG (DEF/+global rchg) in these passives, so this gave me three sets of 2 LotG for a net +30% regen.

I then finished soloing Kashira (29 db/ninj stalker) through An Arachnos Slumber Party, an AE arc with an interesting concept (you're invited to a slumber party held by a bunch of female Arachnos minions) but I felt the plot needed a lot of work; I gave it 2 stars. After finishing the arc, I joined a pickup villain team doing Halloween stuff, and we killed Eochai (two or three times), Ghost of Scrapyard, and fought off a Zombie invasion; this got Kashira to level 30.


On Sunday, I played Psychic Woman (27 rad/psy defender) on a 7-player LEGION/Sisterhood team running Croatoa missions, which got Psychic Woman to level 28. After that, I joined the Sisterhood Sunday Event; the Sisterhood SG had decided to run through my Teen Phalanx Forever! story arc, which was totally awesome. We had 15 players altogether, and ran two through the story arc. I was nervous that a lot of the fun stuff (in clues and briefings) might get missed on a big team, but a lot of people seemed to like the story, so I was pretty happy. This got Psychic Woman to level 29.

Later on I played Thunder Girl on a pickup Manticore TF, with a team of:

3 scrappers
2 defenders (both emp/*)
2 controllers (*/kin, */cold)
1 tanker

This TF was buggy as all heck. Almost right away we started running into level 40 Paragon Elite Protectors, which were +5 to us (exemped down to 35 for the TF). The cold controller immediately quit after running into these; we could kill the level 40 PPs, but he felt it would take too long for him.

After finishing the first mission (a Defeat All), we talked to Manticore and immediately got THE SAME mission - another Defeat All Crey at the very same door. This was pretty weird, but we decided to go ahead and do it. After clearing the whole map (including more level 40 PPs), we completed the mission a second time; talking to Manticore again gave us the same Defeat All Crey mission, though. At this point it seemed pretty futile and most of us quit (including me).

Later on Sunday night, I played Blackout Girl (27 elec/elec brute) on a red side Trick-or-Treat team in Grandville. This team was pretty light on support (mostly brutes and stalkers) and I found I died a lot; I ended up having to turn off my AoE damage aura to reduce the aggro I was generating. Nevertheless this got Blackout Girl to level 28, where I took Energize, the new electric armor heal. I've only tried it a little, but it seems really nice so far; a decent sized heal followed by a period of regeneration.

Finished the night playing Mega (50 SS/will brute) on a 1st villain respec. Our team was 4 brutes, all various flavors of superstrength. Despite having no support characters whatsoever, we blitzed through the respec in 11min 43sec with no problems. (I think all 4 brutes were loaded with IO set bonuses, so it was very hard for any of the enemies to significantly hurt us.)


Monday night was pretty exciting as I got the City Traveler badge (60 months veteran reward). This lets me take travel powers at level 6 without any prerequisite; I haven't used this yet, but I'm thinking I may respec some alts to take advantage of this benefit. Police Woman also idled in Cimerora long enough to get the Cimeroran badge and the Time Lord accolade.

I played Thunder Girl (47 elec/SR) through another speed ITF; one of our controllers went linkdead in the last mission, though, so the team agreed to wait until he got back before finishing the TF, so that he would get merits. We still finished in 29mins 3sec.

After that I joined a pickup team doing the Hess TF; the leader seemed knowledgeable but some of the team members hadn't done it before, which led to some confusion in the last mission as several team members were trying to rush the giant robot while the leader was pulling Archon Burkholder. Despite this we still finished in a fairly decent 33min 40sec; this got Thunder Girl to level 48.


In other news, the results of the Mission Architect Player Choice Awards were announced; two of my arcs, Teen Phalanx Forever! and Celebrity Kidnapping, both won in their categories. Celebrity Kidnapping was a bit of a surprise as I totally thought another arc, Forget the Rose, Send me the Thorns (which is awesome, btw) was going to walk away with it. Another of my arcs, A Warrior's Journey - The Flower Knight Task Force took second place in its category. This was a really strong showing and I was quite happy with it.

Thanks for running this contest, Bubbawheat! It generated a lot of enthusiasm for Mission Architect and let a lot of people (including me) try some nice story arcs they hadn't heard of before.

Congrats to everyone involved.

Sorry for the long delay - been keeping busy with other stuff.

An Arachnos Slumber Party review
Arc ID: 335317
Keywords: Custom Characters, Comedy
Morality: Villainous
Level range: 25-30
Warnings: High villains at low levels, enemies with custom powers

The concept is to attend the first ever "Arachnos Slumber Party", described as a fun filled evening of snacks and entertainment. The contact is Kalinda. I played a 29 db/ninj stalker.

Mission 1
Briefing: Nicely formatted. The contact says she knows I've been invited to this slumber party, which she hasn't been invited to (do I detect a hint of envy?), but she knows something bad will happen there (because Kalinda is, after all, psychic). She wants me to spy on the party for her, and to "check their battle readiness" to make sure that pillow fighting isn't somehow dulling their combat skills.

I like the mission title, "Check the combat readiness of the party planners"; it's got a neat synthesis of militantly serious and silly.

This mission presupposes that you've been invited to the slumber party; may I suggest that you give a "start of mission" clue, that represents the party invitation? It would add some background detail, as well as giving you an opportunity to introduce the party planner(s) and give the player an idea of what to expect.

Inside the mission, I find a glowy box of "Party Supplies" which I click to satisfy one of the mission objectives. The Party Supplies seem pretty innocuous though (chips, dip, ammo and music ... well, ok, maybe ammo is not, but it IS Arachnos) and I don't think I learn anything of importance to the plot, so while I like the glowy and the clue, I'm not sure why it should be considered a "required" objective.

I found Susan, a custom Arachnos looking person, who I suspect is a party planner. I think you might want to give her an Arachnos rank to maybe seem more authentic as an Arachnos soldier; maybe "Operative Susan" or "Trainee Susan" or something. I like the animations that Susan and her guards have, it does look appropriate for a party planner.

Fighting Susan, she says:

[NPC] Susan: You seem pretty strong

...which should have a period at the end. This line is also a little plain, could maybe more interesting. The other lines are okay; though if you want this to be a comedy, they could perhaps be more funny.

Defeating Susan didn't seem to be enough to complete the objective of testing their readiness; I ended up having to clear the whole map (though it was small, so not too bad). No one else had any lines though; I think the mission could be improved by adding some static spawns or patrols with some dialog talking about the slumber party.

Having finished the mission, while I liked the university map as a choice, the mission didn't feel enough like a slumber party. I'm actually not quite sure what I've accomplished here; it feels like I beat up a lot of girls who were innocently planning a party. It's a villainous arc, but I didn't beat up the girls to gain money or power or anything; this kind of makes me feel like a bully. Is this really your intent? I kind of thought you meant for the player to sympathize with the girls holding the slumber party -- but if this is the case, maybe you shouldn't have to fight them. Perhaps you could rescue them from some Longbow who are trying to bust up their party planning, or help them steal party supplies from a shop, or something.

Mission 2
Briefing: the contact says she doesn't know anything more, but she wants me to attend the party and "keep my eyes open". My motivation for doing this seems kind of weak so far; I think it would be better if Kalinda explained a little more about why I'm doing this, and/or perhaps if there were some sort of clue in the previous mission that implies something shady is going on. Right now I am not sure why I'm doing this.

"Enjoy the party events" seems a fun mission title; I also like the objectives, which sound pretty fun. Though I think "Stop unholy summon" feels a little out-of-place compared to "Pillow fight"; also, it seems like a huge spoiler for what's actually going to happen in this mission. May I suggest you rename it something a little more innocuous-sounding, like "Play with ouija board" or "Tell ghost stories" or something like that -- then when you actually try to do that objective, it turns out it's really an unholy summoning.

Map selection: this office map doesn't really seem festive enough for a slumber party; also, too brightly lit. Maybe the Carnie themed warehouse would work better? (Not sure if that's available though.) It's also suspiciously large and empty.

The Party Fortunata and Party Widow mobs do look fun. Minor nitpick: they both have the "wolf spider" helmet, but should have a "widow" style helmet (like the one Kalinda wears) instead. The Arachnos-logo tattoo is a nice touch though.


Party Widows getting drinks

I found a couple of them guarding "Jenny", a Tarantula hostage. In Jenny's description, "subject to several mechanical experiments" should be "subjected to several mechanical experiments". The Party Widows were hostile to me and I ended up fighting them, though I'm not quite sure why this is necessary (they even say "No need to fight" in their dialog), though defeating them and "freeing" Jenny does seem to achieve the "snacks and drinks" objective, as well as giving the "Best in your cup" clue; not quite sure what "Best in your cup" means, maybe "Yummy Coffee" or something would make more sense. I also think that eating popcorn with coffee sounds kind of weird. Depending on the type of party you think this is (I'm still not quite sure), maybe either cocoa and cake, or beer and potato chips, would make more sense. You could also make the snacks & drinks into some sort of clicky? Either that, or make it more clear why it's necessary to kill the two partiers to get coffee.

Ran across Lakesha, a hostage with no guards. I think she was just there for color, which is a nice idea; she maybe should say something more interesting though. "Hope you're enjoying the party" seems a little too generic. I also ran into a friendly Party Widow (hostage with no guards); she seems more fun, mostly because she's in a dancing animation which I think works better for the "party" atmosphere than Lakesha's notepad animation.


It's just not a party unless you have an unholy ritual

Found the Party Fortunata conducting the unholy summon; initially I thought the Witch was a hostage, so I attacked the Party Fortunata, then the Witch attacked me (turns out she was really a boss). The Witch's dialog does kind of hint at this. I kinda wish the partiers with the Witch had some dialog further hinting at the fact that the Witch is mind controlling them, but I guess they are really guards that are part of the Witch's spawn, so can't get their own dialog.

Deeper in the mission I encountered Bertha, a night widow doing jumping jacks. Defeating Bertha satisfies the "pillow fight" objective, but ... this really didn't feel like a pillow fight, because, well, neither Bertha nor her helper nor I used pillows (I mostly stabbed her with swords). The only hint that it's an actual pillow fight is Bertha saying:

[NPC] Bertha: We're about to pillow fight MY way!

...but I really think this isn't enough to give the "feeling" of a pillow fight. I'm not sure there IS a good way to get across the idea of a "pillow fight" with the animations available. Perhaps you could get something approximating pillows by customizing war maces and/or shields though; and the pillow fight mobs should probably be wearing pajamas for a costume.

Found the "phone" for the prank phone call, which has a silly joke for the progress bar text; I think it would work a little better if this joke were about telephones or prank calls; currently, it's about a refridgerator so seems not relevant. Anyway, the phone call completes the mission while spawning a Rogue Isles Police ambush (I guess I prank phone called 911). I think it might be a little funnier to prank phone call a "serious" AV - for example if I called up Black Scorpion and told him that Jenny had a crush on him (which would tie in with her characterization so far), and in the clue you could have Black Scorpion yell, "What? WHO IS THIS?" and then I could hang up and giggle while Jenny dies of embarrassment.

At the end of mission 2 it seems I've done several party-related activities, but I'm not sure it actually accomplished anything in the end. So I'm not quite sure what to make of this mission.

Mission exit popup, "Everything has went great" should probably be "Everything went great" or "Everything has went well".

Debriefing: seems awfully short. Should have some more text here. I'm not sure Kalinda would really say "Excellent work" when all I did was hang out at a party; I think she expected me to find something out?

Mission 3
Briefing: Apparently the party is still going on? I actually thought mission 2 was the whole of the party, so the mission ending was also the end of the party. But if that's not the case, you should make it more clear at the end of mission 2 that the player is walking out of the party early, in order to report in.

So now Kalinda has visions of "infighting" at the party, so she wants me to stop it. This seems odd because I didn't notice anyone fighting while I was at the party in mission 2 (except for me - I seemed to fight everyone; most notably, I ganked two partiers just for a cup of coffee). The previous mission should perhaps contain hints of the trouble to come in later missions. It seems like, since I was actually there, I should have better information about what's happening than Kalinda does.

Kalinda also says I should "squash false rumors". If there are false rumors going around, I think you should have some of the partygoers uttering some of the false rumors in the earlier mission, to foreshadow this.

I got the "Ongoing Gossip" clue; not quite sure when I got it, maybe as a mission begin clue. It does have some juicy rumors in it, so is kind of fun.

I found Jenny the tarantula and rescued her from some partiers who were teasing her; this quashes one of the rumors. I like the "Web of comfort" clue, but this seems to contradict the "Ongoing Gossip" clue which appears to specifically exclude Jenny from the rumors to clear up.

Likewise rescued Bertha and Lakesha. I have to say that the rumors that Bertha is using Superadine, and that Lakesha is going to betray the partiers to the Vahzilok, are not as funny as the rumor about Jenny. Since it's meant to be a comedy, perhaps they could be made funnier.

Also Lakesha's guard says:

[NPC] Party Fortunata: You're gonna betray us all to the Vazilok!

Freeing Lakesha triggers a new objective of "Stop the party crashers", but I haven't gotten any clues or dialog referring to party crashers, so this new objective seems mysterious. Perhaps you should add some clues indicating that people are crashing the party now.

I did find some Freaks nearby; defeating them completed the mission. Their dialog is a little generic; could be made more specific to the fact that they're party crashers and hopeful future students. Also, one of them says:

[NPC] Freaky Tank: Oh it's on like popcorn!

...which didn't make sense to me; maybe it's just an expression I'm not familiar with, though.

Mission 4
Briefing: Kalinda reveals here that the Freakshow, under interrogation, gave the location of a base. It might be a little nicer if the player finds this out via a Clue, after beating the Freakshow, rather than having the contact tell her (would make the player seem more involved). So I'm sent to go after this base.

The reasoning for Kalinda sending me to this base feels a little weak, though...some Freaks crashed the party that Kalinda wasn't even invited to, so now I need to stop them? Needs a bit more motivation, I think.


Freaky fangirls

Inside the mission: the customized Freaks ARE kind of neat looking. You might consider adding to the Freak fangirl descriptions something along the lines of "She's a Freaky kind of girl....the kind you don't take home to mother". The mission title and mission objectives do sound fun.

One of the Freak fangirls here says:

[NPC] Freaky Juicer: We party soooo much better than those Arachnoobs.

...which is fine, except why did they crash the Arachnos party then?

Deep in the mission I find "Disgruntled Susan", who is apparently the answer to the "Who is behind this?" objective. She has some resentful dialog as I beat her up. One of her lines:

[NPC] Disgruntled Susan: You aren't any fun

...needs a period at the end of it. Defeating her and her Freak fangirl guard finishes the mission and the arc.

Debriefing: I like that Kalinda realizes that her prediction of trouble at the party turned out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy, that's rather elegant. In this debriefing, "wonderously" I think should be "wondrously" or "wonderfully". "I'll send my recommendations out to any other slumber parties held in the organization as long as you are in attendance" doesn't quite make sense -- perhaps you mean, "I'll recommend that all other slumber parties are required to have you in attendance" or something similar.

Overall
I like the overall slumber party concept; Arachnos is such a deadly serious organization that juxtaposing them with a girly slumber party seems like it could have some potential. I liked the recurring characters and how they were used; I had actually been wondering why Susan never showed up in the middle missions, until I ran into her at the end.

However, I do think the plot could use work; the various things Kalinda sends the player to do seemed rather weakly motivated. Sometimes I was fighting the partiers and sometimes I was trying to interact with or help them, which left me unclear on whether I was supposed to be a happy slumber party attendee, or a mean bully that is trying to ruin the party. (I probably beat up more of the partygoers than the Freak party crashers actually did.) IMHO, the story would be stronger if you more clearly define whether the player is friends with the partiers (and thus should not attack them, instead maybe rescuing them from party crashers) or enemies (in which case ruining the party makes sense, but stopping the other party crashers would not).

The overall plot of the arc could stand to be tightened up a bit also; I'm not quite sure it makes sense to beat up the party planners at the beginning (though this is how Susan becomes disgruntled, it doesn't quite make sense why the player is doing that), and I kind of think the party itself should be in a single mission, rather than split over two missions.

I think Kalinda's connection to the whole slumber party story feels rather distant, since she wasn't even invited to the party and has no knowledge of it other than having a vaguely uneasy feeling about something happening in the future. I'd suggest that you either more closely tie her into the story, or use one of the named Party Widows as the contact.

Also, Susan's "drive for petty revenge" didn't quite add up though -- why would she take revenge on the Arachnos partiers (presumably her friends, since she was a party planner) and not directly try to take revenge against me, the person who beat her up? Susan is depicted as a very junior member of the Arachnos organization, how is it that she has all these Freakshow working for her?

In terms of story, I wonder if it might make more logical sense if a named Party Widow were your contact, and the Big Bad guy were someone like Clamor or Crash Cage or Ice Mistral, who was miffed over not being invited. This might be too much of a change to your original concept though; it's up to you.

The "pajama" costumes for the Arachnos partygoers were pretty funny, but I think you need some more funny dialog and clues to help support the comedy.

Anyway, with these various problems in mind, I felt I could only give the arc 2 stars; I do think it needs a bit more work. Sorry about that!

---

My queue is currently:

@Mr Squid - The Descender #339222
Zaphir - The Coldest of Wars #299972
The_Cheshire_Cat - Captain Skylark Shadowfancy and the Tomorrownauts of Today #337333
@Djinniman - arc to be named later
Bubbawheat - Matchstick Women #3369 re-review

Changes made:
* Rearranged order of clues to be a little more logical.
* Made a custom group to replace Family. This contains standard Family and Marcone mobs (basically the same mobs as before), but all the Marcones have been relabeled as regular Family.
* Since I was making a custom Family group anyway, I went ahead and pastel-ized and day-glo-ized them. (They might be a little too garish now. After playtesting, I had to change the one in the peach-colored suit back to a normal color because it was just too ugly.)
* Removed Heightened Senses from Croquette, to reduce his aggro radius (at the suggestion of @Most Definitely Skary).
* Removed Tsoo from the Perps group. I originally included them because they are a "Talos" group, but several players have commented that they seem out of theme for the setting/time period. (Wondering if I should remove Freaks for the same reason; but no one has left feedback about having a problem with them, yet.)
* Improved standardization of naming scheme for Perps group (Stunner Chief is now Freak Stunner, Crusher is now Warrior Crusher, etc.).

Thanks a ton for all the feedback so far!

Wow, just found I can drag & drop objectives in the mission architect MMI now ... is that new? I could've sworn I tried to do that once before and it wouldn't work.... that makes reordering objectives immensely easier.

11/6/2009

On Wednesday night I played Pyre Woman (3 fire/SS tanker) with the Sisterhood fire-themed team. Turnout for this was much bigger than I expected; about 20 players met up behind City Hall. We formed up into 3 teams just in time for a zombie apocalypse to hit Atlas Park. Waves and waves of zombies assaulted us all, and I was really pleased I had taken Blazing Aura (an AOE damage aura) as one of my earliest powers.

After the zombie apocalypse got burned down, we did a bunch of door missions in Atlas Park and King's Row, also doing the Atlas and KR safeguard. I felt surprisingly tanky for a low level character; I was the only tanker on the team and was able to survive taking alpha strikes. Though truthfully this has a lot more to do with the fire/emp and fire/thermal controllers that were on our team, than anything else. I also managed to avoid the END problems plaguing the rest of the team by the simple expedient of...not taking many attack powers. My attack chain so far is: Taunt-Jab-Brawl-Jab-Brawl. Blazing Aura is most of my damage, and with lots of fire scrappers and fire blasters, our team wasn't hurting for DPS. Our team ran for about 3 hours and ultimately got Pyre Woman to level 12 and DOs.


Thursday night, a friend invited me to a Master of the Dr Kahn TF. I was asked to play a debuffer, so I switched to Rain Dancer (50 storm/archery defender). Our team was:

2 tankers (stone/?, inv/?)
3 defenders (TA/archery, storm/archery, dark/dark)
1 controller (fire/rad)
2 blasters (fire/nrg, nrg/nrg)

We pretty quickly failed the MoDKTF as a squishy died to loose aggro while fighting the AV in the first mission. We decided to quit and try again. Despite the fact that it was the dark defender who died, the trick arrow defender wasn't really into TA that night and decided to switch to a kin/rad defender. The second try went very smoothly, and Reichsman died surprisingly fast (normally his massive HPs makes it a tedious grind), probably due to the massive amount of debuffs. Finished in 35min 5sec and got the MoDKTF badge.

After that, I was soloing a bit in an AE story arc when another friend asked me to join a Statesman TF. I was initially asked to bring a kin or an emp, but I don't have either of these high enough to do STF, so they said, fine, bring damage. So I played Thunder Girl (45 elec/SR scrapper) on a team of:

3 scrappers
1 tanker (stone/nrg)
3 controllers (2 rad, 1 kin)
1 blaster

We did fine until the final mission. Our initial strategy was to simply rush the 4 patron AVs and beat them in a mass melee; but we had a team wipe doing this, after which we switched to clearing the area near the patron AVs and pulling them one or two at a time, which worked better. Against Lord Recluse, we pretty quickly destroyed the red tower, but after that our tanker somehow died against LR and we had a team wipe. After regrouping, we killed the yellow tower and the tanker died again (no idea how this was possible with both red and yellow towers down; the tanker said LR was still hitting for 1500s) and we had another team wipe. Even with all the towers down, Lord Recluse still seemed to be doing freakish amounts of damage. It took a really long time for us to kill him, too; though it didn't help that one of the rads went AFK during the LR fight and never came back. (Not sure what was up with that.) Despite everything we managed to beat Lord Recluse and complete the STF in 1hr 30mins. Thunder Girl hit level 46; this is the first time I've finished a STF while below level 47, and as a result I couldn't take an SHO reward. I got 37 merits, which isn't as bad as I thought.

Finished the night doing some marketeering and crafting, slotting 3 Performance Shifter IOs into Thunder Girl's Stamina power, for a +1.88% max HP bonus.

11/4/2009

Last Thursday I solo'd Thunder Girl (44 elec/SR scrapper) through a bunch of radio missions involving Council, which eventually got her enough Council War Wolves and Vampires to get the Atlas Medallion accolade.

After that I played Strong Woman (40 inv/SS tanker) on an Imperious TF organized on Sisterhood channel. Our team mix was:

3 tankers
3 scrappers
1 defender
1 bane

Once I joined the team and realized we had 3 tankers, I offered to switch to something else, but the team leader wanted to just start the TF, so that's what we did. With a tanker/scrapper heavy team, we were a little slow but took very little damage. Finished the ITF in 1hr 20mins.


On Friday night I joined a Master of the Dr Kahn TF organized on Sisterhood channel. The team leader asked me to bring a debuffer, so I played Spacegirl (50 mind/rad controller). Our team mix was:

4 scrappers (one dark armor, 3 regen)
2 controllers (ill/rad, mind/rad)
1 defender (kin/rad)
1 tanker (inv/SS)

This TF went very smoothly. Of note: in the mission where you meet Invincible Reichsman, the team leader asked the squishies just to zone out and let the tanker and scrappers knock out the various portals, to reduce the risk of Invincible Reichsman 1-shotting a squishy. A miscommunication caused a couple of us (including me) to think we were done with that mission and could zone into the next one -- but boarding the train deposited us in front of Invincible Reichsman. Fortunately we were able to zone out again before dying.

In the final mission, the team leader asked everyone to stay back from Reichsman except for the tanker; even the scrappers, who weren't allowed to melee Reichsman at all (for fear of his nasty AoE). Instead the scrappers and one rad were directed to pounce each of the pokemon AVs as they emerged, killing them quickly; while the tanker kept Reichsman busy, and the other rad kept debuffs on Reichsman. This looked a little boring for the scrappers, but was very safe and eventually won us the MoDrKTF badge. Total TF time was 56min 48sec.

After that I played Mega (50 SS/will brute) on a speed Lady Grey TF (29min 6sec) and a speed Imperious TF (24min 55sec); then Thunder Girl solo'd the psychic Clockwork King (as an EB) for the Emancipator badge, and did another speed Imperious TF (22min 48sec). Finished the night playing Mayday (50 fortunata) on a speed Lady Grey TF (23min 31sec).


On Saturday, Thunder Girl joined up with a group that beat up a Halloween Jack-in-Irons and fought a zombie apocalypse.

I also played Arrow Girl (36 archery/dev blaster) on an Imperious TF. This team had lots of TF regulars, and the team leader made a crude comment (too explicit to repeat here) about how awesome the team was; I made an (unprintable) joke in reply that made everyone boo. (I guess you had to be there.) Anyway, this got Arrow Girl to level 38. I coudn't figure out what power I wanted at 38; not sure whether Gun Drone is worth it.

After that I played Kyrie Eleison (39 bs/inv scrapper) on a Positron TF with a team mix of:

3 controllers (rad, fire/kin, ill/cold)
2 tankers (stone/elec, fire/fire)
2 scrappers
1 blaster (ice/ice)

We had a wipe in the Rollister mission when the team got split up (I was following the stony tanker ... everyone else went a different way) and another wipe against Dr Morben due to getting split up. Otherwise the TF went fine, finishing in 1hr 57mins. This got Kyrie to level 40 (yay for exp while exemping) and the Task Force Commander accolade.

After that I played Mega (SS/will brute) for a Deadly Apocalypse in Cap au Diable, where I got all 5 badges; this was nice, because it can be hard to get enough villains to do this event on red side.

I played Star Amethyst (42 dark/ice defender) on an Imperious TF with a team of:

1 peacebringer
2 defenders (rad/*, dark/ice)
1 blaster
1 scrapper
1 controller
1 brute
1 corruptor

I had joined because the rad defender, a friend of mine, asked me to; but this was really more of a pickup TF. On the first mission we had a team wipe at the altar where two Nictus cyst crystals had spawned near Sister Solaris. Neither the brute nor the scrapper seemed to really want to tank, and so the rad defender and I (as dark defender) ended up doing most of the tanking. This sorta-worked. I ended up pulling all the generals and AVs in mission 3 using teleport-and-run tactics. This worked for the generals and EBs, but got me KO'd when I tried it on Romulus and Requiem. They still came down when I pulled them, they just made sure to kill me before turning to the rest of the team. Anyway, despite these antics we made it through the ITF in 1hr 32mins, getting Star Amethyst to level 43.

I went on to play Star Amethyst on a Sisterhood team where we beat up psychic Clockwork King AV twice, Bobcat AV once, and did the Doctor's Ally badge mission. This got Star Amethyst to level 44.

Later on Saturday, I burned a free respec for Mega (50 SS/will brute), trying to move slots and IOs around to increase her defense. This is the build I'm working towards (I have most of it, still missing a couple IOs though):

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.601
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Mega I16: Level 50 Mutation Brute
Primary Power Set: Super Strength
Secondary Power Set: Willpower
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Presence

Villain Profile:
------------
Level 1: Punch KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(3), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(3), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), P'ngS'Fest-Acc/Dmg(5), P'ngS'Fest-Dmg/Rchg(7)
Level 1: High Pain Tolerance Numna-Heal/EndRdx(A), Numna-Heal/Rchg(7), Numna-Heal(9), ResDam-I(9), ResDam-I(29), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(29)
Level 2: Haymaker KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(11), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(11), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(13), P'ngS'Fest-Acc/Dmg(13), P'ngS'Fest-Dmg/Rchg(15)
Level 4: Fast Healing Mrcl-Heal/EndRdx(A), Mrcl-Heal/Rchg(15), Mrcl-Heal(17), Mrcl-Rcvry+(17)
Level 6: Swift Run-I(A)
Level 8: Knockout Blow KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(19), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(19), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(21), Mocking-Acc/Rchg(21), Hectmb-Dmg/Rchg(23)
Level 10: Indomitable Will LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 12: Combat Jumping LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 14: Hurdle Jump-I(A)
Level 16: Rise to the Challenge Numna-Heal/EndRdx(A), Numna-Heal/Rchg(23), Numna-Heal(25), Numna-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(43)
Level 18: Rage HO:Membr(A), HO:Membr(27), HO:Membr(27)
Level 20: Quick Recovery P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(25), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(31), P'Shift-End%(43)
Level 22: Mind Over Body RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(33), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(33), RctvArm-ResDam(50)
Level 24: Super Jump Jump-I(A)
Level 26: Hurl Apoc-Dmg(A), Apoc-Dmg/Rchg(34), Apoc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(34), Apoc-Acc/Rchg(34), Apoc-Dam%(36)
Level 28: Heightened Senses LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(31), LkGmblr-Def(31), LkGmblr-Rchg+(33)
Level 30: Stamina P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(42), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(43)
Level 32: Foot Stomp Erad-Dmg(A), Erad-Acc/Rchg(39), Erad-Dmg/Rchg(40), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(40), Sciroc-Dmg/Rchg(40), Sciroc-Acc/Rchg(42)
Level 35: Taunt Mocking-Taunt(A), Mocking-Taunt/Rchg(36), Mocking-Taunt/Rchg/Rng(36), Mocking-Acc/Rchg(37), Mocking-Taunt/Rng(37), Mocking-Rchg(37)
Level 38: Kick KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(39), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(39), KntkC'bat-Knock%(42)
Level 41: Tough RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(46), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(46), RctvArm-ResDam(46)
Level 44: Weave LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(45), LkGmblr-Def(45), LkGmblr-Rchg+(45)
Level 47: Provoke Mocking-Taunt(A), Mocking-Taunt/Rchg(48), Mocking-Taunt/Rchg/Rng(48), Mocking-Acc/Rchg(48), Mocking-Taunt/Rng(50), Mocking-Rchg(50)
Level 49: Health Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A)
------------


This gives Mega standing-around stats of:

Lethal res 52.13%
Lethal def 37.39%
Neg def 31.91%
Fire def 32.54%
Global Rchg 45%
Regen 1.71%/sec (no enemies in range)

....which I thought was not bad at all. I'm not at the cap for resists, defense, regen or max HP, but I have a good amount of each of those, giving Mega layered protection that I think works really well.

I did end up buying a Hecatomb (DMG/RCHG) recipe from the Black Market for 200M infamy, which I think is the most expensive thing I've ever bought. But it seemed a good deal relative to the other prices I saw. I also spent 1800 AE tickets on 3 Silver recipe rolls and got an insanely good draw of:

1 Luck of the Gambler (DEF) Black Market=25M
1 Luck of the Gambler (DEF/END) Black Market=25M
1 Numina's Convalescence (HEAL) Black Market=50M

That's a yield of 55K per ticket, which is crazy good. I didn't sell these, though, as I figure I can actually use them.


On Sunday I played Blackout Girl (25 elec/elec brute) on a 3 player LEGION team running door missions in St Martial; then, a little later, I played Snow Devil (13 dark/storm corr) on a 4 player LEGION team running door missions in Sharkhead, which got Snow Devil to level 15.

Star Amethyst joined another pickup Imperious TF, this time with:

3 tankers
1 stalker
1 scrapper
1 brute
1 defender (me)

I was a little worried about being the lone support character on the team, but the other characters were mostly pretty tough; they took some damage but it wasn't too much to handle. The team was kinda slow but steady and we finished the TF with no problems (didn't catch the time though).

Later Sunday I played April Fool (50 thug/TA MM) on a Deadly Apocalypse event, getting all the Halloween badges.


On Monday night I played Schadenfreude (50 AR/pain corruptor) on a speed Recluse SF. We had some unexpected deaths fighting the Vindicators and Freedom Phalanx due to very spiky incoming damage; couldn't figure out what was up with that. It kept me busy trying to spam heals on people though. Finished in 36mins 9sec and got an Enzyme SHO.

Schadenfreude went on to do a Deadly Apocalypse event in Cap au Diable, picking up the 5 new badges.

After that, I played Thunder Girl on a speed Imperious TF, finishing in 27min 44sec; of note, I got a Numina's Convalescence (HEAL) recipe as a random drop during the TF.


Tuesday night, I played Dreamwind (33 storm/psy defender on Triumph) with a 7-player team of Demolition Girls SG, running through Sabrina's Tale, the "arc of the year" from HeroCon. I initially groaned at the whole undead romance thing, but ultimately it was a pretty neat story with good writing. I gave it 5 stars.

In preparation for a fire-themed team that the Sisterhood SG is starting, I created a new alt: Pyre Woman, a newbie fire/SS tanker. Emerging from the character creator into Atlas Park, I found myself immediately in a Deadly Apocalypse. Joining up with a banner team, I beat up Halloween Eochai and all the banners and the Greater Aspect. This got Pyre Woman to level 3 with all 5 badges from Halloween banners, and 4 reward merits. Seemed like a good start!

Way to go, Cheshire Cat!!

Personally, I find the impact of the space limitation varies depending on the type of story I'm telling.

If I'm telling a mostly in-canon story, I usually use a lot of standard PvE enemy groups and standard PvE mobs, with just a few custom mobs mixed in. A story like this usually is only 60-70k (for me - your mileage may vary) at initial publication. Over time, feedback may cause me to add stuff that makes the arc grow a little; I kinda like having the extra room in such cases. Teen Phalanx Forever!, Celebrity Kidnapping, Papers and Paychecks and now Talos Vice all followed this model.

Coming in at only 60%-70% of the arc space let me handle weird stuff later in the story arc's life cycle - for example, I had enough space to add six custom models to Teen Phalanx in response to player feedback. Some of these I think improved the arc a lot, e.g. Vahzilok Brides and Clockwork Adventurers; but some of the space I utterly squandered just because I had space to burn; I used 18% of my arc space on a single ambush in the final boss fight just because I could. (Though I do think that gag ambush is pretty funny.) Similarly, Celebrity Kidnapping I had to completely re-implement the Prisoners faction after it got removed from AE, then had to add lieutenants and bosses to both my custom Prisoners and my Paparazzi faction after the exp nerf hit.

If I'm telling a mostly non-canon story, however, nearly every enemy is a custom model. A story like this ends up taking 120k on my initial draft (for me - your mileage may vary), then I have to mercilessly cut stuff to make it fit under 100k. Axis and Allies and A Warrior's Journey: The Flower Knight Task Force both followed this model, for me.

For arcs like this, I'm often forced to choose between keeping briefing/debriefing/clue/dialog text or custom models. And while it's currently popular to consider Venture to be wrong about everything, I have to agree with him on this subject: when presented with this choice, I will generally prefer to keep written text and cut the custom model. Your mileage may vary (I already see other responses in this thread where people chose the other route), but personally, I choose text over custom model because (a) I feel my arc gets a lot more bang for buck out of 6k of text (whether briefings, clues, dialog or souvenir) than 1 custom model, and (b) writing that text is way harder! So it's a bigger loss (to me) to cut it, than the custom model.

Having an arc initially publish at 99.9% makes it more difficult to respond to player feedback; I can only add something new if I cut something else. This is kind of unhappy because player feedback often helps immensely, so if you can't leverage your feedback to make your arc better, you're missing a big opportunity. For example, I'm constantly getting feedback on Flower Knight TF that I should make Black Scorpion and General Mako different models; or make a custom models for Scirocco and Ghost Widow; but I basically can't do anything in this area due to space limitations. I did have to make a custom model for Lord Recluse after publication, because too many people found his standard model to be immersion breaking; but to make space for him, I had to cut one of the other lieutenants from my custom enemy group, which reduced that group's diversity.

On the other hand, being forced to ruthlessly cut a story arc down to the bare basics has some value to it, as it makes you trim down useless and irrelevant fluff. For example, in my Axis and Allies arc, I originally wanted a mission where Nemesis tried to assassinate the player (for being a rival world conqueror). But, AE is probably a better place for me not having implemented this idea.

Anyway, re: the space increase, for me personally, it probably won't help my "canon-related" arcs very much, since I was already coming in pretty far below the space limit. I probably wouldn't change most of them; maybe I'd add one more custom model.

The "non-canon" arcs would probably benefit a lot though as they're already so squeezed on space; I could add a lot of stuff I was originally forced to cut. For Flower Knight TF, a few extra samurai models maybe, a special model for each patron AV, etc. Would this add a lot to the story? Hmm, well, maybe not. But it'd still be nice.

The danger would be for the next "non-canon" arc I write (if and when I write another) -- I'd want to try to force myself to cut my story arc to fit within 100k or 120k, rather than have my initial draft be a bloated 250k then have to cut down to 200k. This would be something of a matter of discipline. Probably not everyone would be willing or even want to do this, but from experience, I'm finding it's a lot nicer to start a story arc with some space to grow over time.

Not sure if I had a point with all these ramblings, but here they are anyway. I don't seem to have hit the hard cap on forum post space yet.

I'm somewhere in-between on this topic. While, functionality-wise, increasing the allowed disk space should strictly be an upgrade, I do think there is something to be said for editing one's work to make it more effective.

Here's my best analogy for this: your story is at a restaurant and needs a certain amount of "food" (disk space). The Mission Architect interface serves you one plate (100K disk space) of food. Depending on your story, this may be just enough food, or maybe too much to eat, or maybe you're still hungry afterwards.

Suddenly, Dr. Aeon declares that dinner portions are being doubled. Now you get two plates (200K) of food! That's great, right?

How much food do you end up eating?

Some people had enough food already. Maybe they don't eat any more.

Some people were still a little hungry. They eat a little from the second plate.

Some people feel they have two plates in front of them, so they NEED TO EAT IT ALL. Even if they didn't really need it -- even if they feel kinda bloated at the end -- even if they were ALREADY a bit overweight -- they have 2 plates now, so why would they waste it?

The "healthy" choice is to eat just as much food as you need -- then stop. But if you just look around in a typical restaurant - most people don't do this.

tl,dr: More space is nice, but be careful that you don't end up bloating your story arc with filler missions or irrelevant details that don't support your story. Edit your story so it stays trim!

Now pardon me while I go get a snack, writing this post made me hungry....

Changes made as a result of feedback:

* Mission 2

- Added an ambush whose sole purpose is to utter the line "Say hello to my little friend." (At the suggestion of The_Cheshire_Cat)
- Added a patrol just to make the place feel more lively.

* Mission 3

- Rearranged objectives slightly to try and improve gameplay.
- End boss is now triggered from destroying the dyne shipment. (To address problem reported by 2 players that the end boss was the first thing they encountered.)
- A new clue is added to the dyne shipment as a result. (To address problem reported that there aren't enough clues in final mission.)
- Increased end boss's spawn from "Easy" to "Hard". (To address 2 comments that the final fight was too easy / did not involve enough gun battles.)
- I actually had 2 people say that the end boss as an EB/AV seemed about right, while end boss as an Boss/EB seemed too easy; but I believe both were exemped down, so I'm waiting on a little more feedback before I take the step of bumping the end boss back up to an EB/AV.

I think I gained about a dozen extra plays for Teen Phalanx Forever! as a result of the Architect Awards nomination, which was really nice. I admittedly had a couple advantages over the other nominees; Teen Phalanx was first on the list, and is also listed pretty high on the default Architect Entertainment search, both of which probably make it a little easier for a casual MA player to find.

Great job Shadow-rush Pandas vs Rikti is terrific fun.

I changed Sergeant Stevens' hairstyle to "Long 2" for the 80s "big hair". I tried many combinations of shoulder pads but couldn't find any that didn't look utterly ridiculous, so left those off for now. I did keep her in the "police" shirt as she's meant to represent a uniformed cop (while Croquette, Basinns and Wexler are "undercover").

I do like how the updated Kitty looks. (Trashy, admittedly, but ... she's supposed to be.)

Still haven't figured out a good place to insert the "Police Chief: You're a loose cannon, Croquette!" speech; there may not be a good place for it.

I did add a clue that the final Big Bad drops on defeat, a vignette where he threatens a dire revenge and you basically blow him off. (To address the lack of clues in the final mission.)

Changed the superadine shipment from the "medical equipment" graphic to "wooden crate". This does seem to work better.

I played around with costumes a bit based on Olantern's suggestions, and came up with the following:



Sergeant Stevens ("summer" uniform)

I was also tempted to go with an all-tan uniform, which is pretty common in the south too, but thought the light blue outfit was more striking. I'm not quite sure about the cap though, wondering if that should maybe be black, white, or maybe no hat at all.



Kitty (new costume)

I thought this still looked suggestive of Mynx without being a simple palette shift, while also being pretty obviously naughty. I tried the "eden" top too, but thought the bikini look worked better.