Rapulis

I think it saves it but it doesn't recall it. I had a costume for a woman in a nightgown saved, but the first version was four feet tall and I had to change the height from that on each variation I made to populate my mission, but that could have been an error unique to MA.

But, I've found that Hellions are all roughly 6 feet tall, so if you go find one of them to stand next to, you can guess off that.

I was only referring to an effect that would last for the duration of the mission of the arc, nothing permanent or long-lasting, and not with the intention of making you another character.

Think about all the situations in which a hero or villain would not logically be allowed to retain their uniform. Any situation where the character is in custody, of any group be it Paragon City, Arachnos, Captain Underwear and the Under There All-Nite Shoe Store.


And it'd be nice to be able to reenact that old trope about how if a superhero goes out for a night on the town, something horrible will happen that will require them to be a superhero.

I was actually thinking that the costume change could be a decision within each mission that contained one, as in "This mission contains a temporary costume change, would you like to allow?"

There's a lot of ways to phrase this suggestion, so I apologize if my searching missed it being requested previously.

I think it'd be awesome if we could effect the way the player's characters looked once in our missions, it could be an optional feature and I don't mean like turn all of them into fluffy bunnies or anything, but allow us to create a "uniform" for each of the body types, changing the shoulder piece, belt, torso, pants, shoes and so on and so forth but having the scales, skin colour and head/hair untouchable.



I've got numerous ideas for storylines that just wouldn't work with the player starting out in a superhero suit, and it's kind of tacky to suggest players go use a tailor so they can better immerse themselves. Examples include prison breaks, civilian situations, Detective stories, and player origin stories.

The only two issues I can think of is that with some of the more inventive costumes, they rely on things other then skin colour and head/hair to define the character's "natural" state, but I think those would be rather rare, and it would be optional. The second would be the potential for players being forced into gender biased clothing, clothing not respectful of RPers, or literally changed into another person's character, but those stories could easily be rated poorly and if too over the top in regards to the first thing, reported.

I understand that it could be a great deal of work, and it is something that does not occur in the developer created content, but I think anything that promotes storytelling is beneficial to the MA.

REVIEW

I’m a level 16 Scrapper, Dark Melee/Regeneration, set on Tenacious.

Mission 1

Liked the mission introduction, it was in-depth and described the issue well, but despite the fact that I am no one to talk, I found the presence of your Global name in the story to be a bit off-putting, particularly the accented letters. Contact’s design was nicely done, but the cigar struck me as odd. Clicked on the entrance, went inside of a small empty base. Found a computer with Airhead’s file on it.

“Singlehandedly embezzled the company of”

I think you meant “Single handedly embezzled the company out of” but I could be wrong, I'm not the best English speaker, especially considering I don't speak any other languages.

Found a few patrol guards in the hall, defeated them with ease, broke a lever that had spawned in the hall. Airhead and two Leut Ratters spawned in response, I went to fight them and got beat down hard in just a few seconds, used an Awaken and tried again. Mission Complete.


Mission 2


Nice use of the word “arcology” and another good mission introduction, entered the mission and a five-man patty greeted me, no dialogue though. I think the map is one of the orange hotels, not a huge fan of them because of the numerous random dead-end stairwells but it fits. Wander around until I reach the second level, no more plot progression so far. Boss “Matron Holicapo” stares at me from down the hall, Matron is a feminine term, so I’m gonna assume that it’s a she despite the Huge body type. Matron hits me once, gets me to half, so I try to run but I’m stunned so I get hit a second time and decide to lay down for a while. Wake up a little while later in the hospital and make my way back. I get back, stealth and decide to find out if she’s a required fight. I see two nice destructable objects with good bios once I pass her by, a definite plus. I find the third floor elevator and pop on up. I find a box quickly and get his records from it, nicely written. Mission Complete

But I wasn’t quite sure why the mission ended or why I should go to the clinic, I thought I was finding Airhead to save him from Rat Race? How did his records qualify as him? Why assume that a mentally handicapped child would know enough to go to the clinic where he was born? Why assume he had run away if that was indeed what I was doing? Why not check with Penelope Yin?


Mission 3


The day job joke was a good one, but the space was kind of wasted on the offer, although, understandably since Rat Race didn’t have anything to do with the mission, but that is the problem with the current contact system, so it’s acceptable. Entered the mission, I was instantly attacked by five Void Hunters and three Medics on account of the hunters being a patty, stepped outside the room, healed up then went back in, the hunters had wandered off and I was left with the three medics. The medics were tough as nails to defeat on account of them endlessly healing each other, I got one down when the patty came back so I stepped outside again, healed up and stealthed. As a side note, the sheer number of patties was a bit off-putting.

I got to the third floor and hacked two terminals, both getting me in trouble. Another quick trip to the hospital and then I rushed back up to the third floor, found a middle-aged nurse this time. She’s got three on her but she’s wedged next to the path of a Medic patty.

Got the nurse’s number, apparently I’m a horn dog and didn’t know it. I rush down the three floors to the lobby and find the orphan in the middle of them. There’s roughly thirty odd thugs surrounding him and I suddenly regret my choice of stealth.

I start clearing them out, it’s slow going but nice XP. I get him free eventually and escort him the two feet towards the door, he screams something about his parents as he charges off into the depths of the laboratory, was that intentional? It was strangely comical. New clue as Mission Complete dings.


Mission 4

Nice mission text again, still voicing Rat Race’s character well. Typo in popup box, I think, it mentions “victim of” when I think it means “victims” but I may be wrong. Great text otherwise though, nicely done.

Freed Airhead, simple enough. Found a landmine, I can’t attack it, says invalid target and it’s not a glowie, I think it might be a problem later. Got defeated by a group of Ratters. Quick trip back, I accidentally stumble across one of his parent’s, I’ll have to fight Ratters to save her though so I contemplate just leaving her there and teaching Airhead to live off the metal barrels of the land. Decided to try to free her so I could escape and never see another rat again, got defeated again. I decide to buy five respites and five Rages from the inspiration vender so I can make it through. I found another landmine, I could attack this one. I have to say, the fact that it isn’t related to the mission and the clue associated with it are just fantastic, it always seems like a missed opportunity in Heroic missions when there’s the potential to do good within the storyline, but no mission related option to actually do it.

Found Pha, an elite boss, he was guarded by four Leut Ancestral Spirits, I think I honestly got one-shotted. It’s a quick defeat and a quick run back. He’s right by the entrance, so it’s not a problem. I lure one Leut away, smack him down quickly then pick up another. Two of four down. Wandered too close, beat down again. I’m beginning to feel bad about myself at this point. I constantly play on Tenacious without issue, and this arc I’ve just been bad. I walk back in, get all three again, back to the hospital. I think the nurse flirted with me, sure, it’s a desk but it’s got curves. I run back in, anger all three but escape to try again. I try again.

You’ll never guess what happened next.

That’s right, me and the desk ran away to Taco Bell, I never wanted to see another rat again that hadn’t been properly cooked. We’ve got adorably newly born chairs and I’ve been retired since then.

Okay, not really, she’s barren and it isn’t funny. I went and bought 8 Sturdy. I charged in, activated them and killed both Leuts then died horribly when they wore off. Imagine my embarrassment when I had to explain to my two imaginary chairs that we weren’t going to have enough money to feed the hogs, and them ones that got the fever, well, thems had to be separated then shot. My head hung low and my debt at a record high, I had one last plan. He didn’t agree to leave if I did the protest emote, so I was planless and dead again.

I bought 8 Rages and, I was quite happy to get him to half before he sent me back to Taco Bell.

I tried it again and I didn’t even punch him this time. I think he’s laughing at me now.

Did I say Taco Bell? Make that Taco Hell! She won’t stop complaining about how much time I spend with Pha! She just doesn’t understand me! I caught one of the chairs listening to Deathcab For Cutie. I didn’t know what it was and I related to the music, does that make me emo? I don’t understand anything any more, I sent the chair to go live with the Lost so he could learn some responsibility.


I bought a bunch of random of random ones now, I have to kill this man, he’s insulted my invading country skills for the last time.

I entered the mission and then minimized it when a thought occurred to me, a pat of rats beat me to death.

A pat of rats? Am I still making sentences? Oozy rats in a sanitary zoo?


This is impossible for me, I give up.


End Of Arc

Individual Sections on a scale of 1 to 9, with 9 being the best and 1 being the lowest.

Characters: 6\9

You seemed to have a nice grasp on the voices of both leads, and Pha was a nice if slightly plain villain.

Character Design: 7/9

The designs of Rat Race and Airhead were quite nice.

Enemies: 6\9

I didn't really enjoy fighting the Ranged Ratters, but that may have just been my AT, and both types seemed a bit strong, but again, that may have just been me, and it is a fault with the AE that most custom characters are overpowered by nature, regardless of powersets.

Enemy Design: 5\9

Given the lack of beastly elements to use, I think the Ratters were fairly effective, if a bit generic, but it's hard to find elements that work together with those beastly elements.

Plot: 8/9

Although the transition between two and three were a bit haggard in my opinion, it was very nicely written and lacking in language errors for the most part.

Missions: 7/9

I really cannot mention enough how great the idea behind the secondary objective in mission four was, and I really suggest that other authors take note of it. I have played a lot of missions, and even other games where in the middle of a war-zone or slave ring, you're forced to stay focused on the objective and unable to do anything to help the people that aren't in the description of your mission.


I really enjoyed it and I rated it 4 out of 5 stars. I didn't take points off based off any of the difficulties I faced, since most likely they were my fault. Albeit without experiencing the fifth mission, I can't really make any suggestions for improving it beyond smoothing out the transition between two and three.

I know you expressed displeasure with the playing side, but couldn't you stack all the hostages like you intended with the exception of one of them, then attach a clue "Betty Alpert told you see saw someone she didn't recognize being taken by the Council" for example, to one of the stacked hostages, and then after the unknown fellow is freed, the objective you want accomplished last can spawn.

It'd be a bit obtuse, but most people would probably finish freeing the others first, particularly if the loner had a tougher crowd around him, and it's ensure the completion of at least a few of the hostages, since given the presumably large number of hostages, the chances of the first hostage saved being the spawner would be relatively low.

I didn't test this, but it sounds like it'd work to me.

But the servers are down...


EDIT - My apologies, Server Status is a big liar and I'm not talking to it any more.

How is that missing your point though? If you care about your missions, you'll test them despite the lack of rewards, simple as that. There are only downsides to publishing an incomplete or flat-out bad arc, and to individuals that value this game, that outweighs the thirty odd tickets they might get.

I've got two arcs published right now, I'm working on a third and I've probably played through the first levels of those two at least a hundred times, and they don't even have any clues or timed events, I just wanted them to be as close to perfect as I could get. The first mission in my second arc was tested as every single bank, jewelry shop, pawn shop and casino map before I settled on the University basement after testing several other random small maps. If I have a strength as an author, I want it to be my writing but the tools the MA offer us are invaluable and should be cherished, but most importantly used as intended.

Thank you very much for the input. I'm not sure why they were stuck as lieutenants, I've got them set as bosses, it wasn't anything intention, it must be some trick I'm not getting, sorry. I'll try to make it flow smoother and increase the difficulty of the bosses.

Very Doh! I completely forgot to change his group, thank you very much for pointing that out.

BTW, I'm in the middle of the first mission for Paragon Maids right now, it's been great so far, awesome job.

I would appreciate it very much if someone with some free time would attempt my Albatross arc listed in my signature, I'm curious about how effective it is. I'll happily review the next mission posted.

[ QUOTE ]
I've been running 0 star missions almost exclusively, as there are so many, and there obviously must be more than a few in there that are really good. Here are a few tip-offs to ones that should be skipped:

1. The mission summary is blank or full of mis-spellings
2. The mission summary says just "kill all <blank>" or "farm mission"
3. The mission contact wasn't chosen (just the generic green hologram)
4. The mission summary is all about some popular movie, comic book, or TV characters (Last night, I helped Luke Skywalker fight Darth Vader in one mission.)
5. The mission summary goes into GREAT detail about some kind of fantasy society at war with some other fantasy-type faction. I've found that the more background that needs to be explained BEFORE even starting the mission, the more convoluted the mission becomes. ("Wait, what am I trying to do again? Is that the guy, or is it the other guy who I need to watch out for?")

[/ QUOTE ]


I was just trying to play a mission called Full Life Consequences, it had a description that said something along the lines of "u are John Freemans, Gorden Freemans brother and one day you were on a computer" I didn't recognize the names so I decided to give it a try. The first mission was a boss on a Croatoa map with invincible zombies in lab coats, and that's when I recognized the name as the lead character from Half Life. I quit out of the mission, reported it and marked it with 0 stars, gave a comment like "Why make the mission impossible? Why commit copyright infringement?"

He responded a few minutes later and we had this exchange

"its not impossible you're clearly just bad"
"and nothing is copyrighted just similar"
"tears elsewhere please"
"Gordon Freemon is a copyrighted character, similar isn't worth a pinch of salt."
"its a fan fiction youtube search full life consequences before you rage to me"
"thats why I have gordEn, learn 2 read"
"Ah, I see, I'm just going to go enjoy some missions with Batmen from Gothem."


Frankly, I'm just really disappointed in people for it. It was the first example I had seen of blatant copyright infringement. I'm hoping anyone that reads this will go and report his mission as well, we don't need another company trying to sue City Of Heroes.

I was thinking about this the other day, I like the idea, but naturally, it would be a lot of work for the developers and it wouldn't be "useful" in any technical sense. In response to the issues that Memphis Bill pointed out, it could be restricted to the city zones only, water could be made to cast a sort of debuff that would remove the vehicle if the player entered it, and as for strafing, players bothered by the way it looked could just not do it, or the developers could simply take that ability away while driving.

The thing about it is that it wouldn't be a replacement for super speed or any other power, the only way it would work properly in my opinion would be for the vehicles to only move slightly faster then a non-enhanced player with Sprint on. If it moved at Super Speed speed levels, it would look silly and completely eliminate the point of being able to drive on the road with the NPC vehicles, since you would be so much faster.