Tangler
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Posts
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Joined
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Not that I know of, though if you need a base to start with, we already know that Marshal Brass is decked out in one of the wolfspider derivatives.
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Quote:Not that I can recall. You might want to look at setting where the ambush will spawn from if you haven't already.Originally Posted by Supafunkadunka
Definately not. I'll fix this. Probably misplaced a text line from the defenders. Does the defensable object quest work right? When I solo'd it I never seem to get waves of attackers, and was worried that either the task was glitched, I had set something wrong or that the waves were spawning too far away. -
Quote:So what's up with this rule?Originally Posted by Bubbawheat
Best Custom Group
- You may only nominate custom groups used in your own arc(s).
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Quote:Thanks for the replay!Originally Posted by brophog02
I ran through it again.
Mission 1 and 2 I feel the same way as before.
Mission 3 was definitely helped, imo.
Mission 4: Timer seems about right (still not excited about that being the mechanism, but at least now if you have your settings set for enough people you can run around and kill things while it burns off). However, I released the fractures on a run this time and they put a serious hurting on CWK. I thought he was pretty easy without them, but he becomes pretty much a joke with them.
Overall, the arc still seems far too easy.
Mission 1 felt the same? That's really odd, since that was the mission that had the most significant increase in mobs.
I totally agree with you about not being happy with the current fail mechanism. I've been trying to find a more elegant solution to force a mission fail, but outdoor maps are buggy when it comes to rescue objectives, which is really the only other mission fail objective I would consider, as the 'defend an object' objective is pretty borked.
Admittedly, I created the allies as I assumed EB CK would be just as hard as custom EBs which just wasn't the case in practice. I've decided to leave them in nonetheless though, for those who are fighting CK on higher settings or even as an AV. -
Quote:Just finished playing the arc. I've just read your above post and I have to say, for someone who is still new to MA this arc is overall very well made. More detailed comments are below, ignore if you want to avoid spoilers:Originally Posted by Supafunkadunka
Looking for feedback on mine before submission, if someone would be so kind.
CLAN DESTINY
Arc ID: 349053
Level: 30+
Length: Long
Keywords: [open to suggestions here]
Enemies: Rikti, Freakshow, Devoured Earth, Longbow, Custom
Description: Heroes are always supposed to do the right thing, but what happens when "the right thing" is a choice between two evils? When the line between what is the greater good and the necessary evil become blurred, morality is put to the ultimate test. What will you decide?
I'll be honest, I skipped over this arc initially after seeing the rather generic title and description, and really only gave it a try seeing as how you did took the time to look at mine. The description could definitely be more specific on what the arc entails, especially when you consider almost every arc that is going to be submitted are going to have the line 'a choice between two evils' somewhere in there.
I thought you were going to pull out the Rikti Freaks for the first mission, but seeing McGrimm was certainly a funny surprise. I especially liked the part about his cybernetic skull, as it reminded me of that old 'head of Vecna' joke.
Usually when I encounter an "Aha, you've been fooled all along, hero!" moment I groan, but I think you have succeeded in avoiding that in this arc. The foreshadowing was more 'innocent' and could have been taking either way, avoiding the usual player bludgeoning. It also helped that the villain was written so dastardly well.
Was the alien generator supposed to speak? It looked like a misplaced line.
Nice use of animations where they were present, the digging DE and lotus floating EB helped to drive home the details.
The custom villain group had a definite retro vibe, though given the pics I have seen of your hero and your user handle, it looks to be a recurring motif.
There was something about the group and its leaders I found particularly distinctive in their personalities and motifs, I could definitely see them as rogues in Timm's Batman-verse.
I think you really need to drop the web-grenade from one of your minions, they're about as annoying if not more so than caltrops.
The ending was well... kind of anti-climatic. I was kind of expecting to have a showdown with the main villain after the mission where the arc actually ends, or at least recover the mcguffin. I would highly recommend looking into making the ending more 'fulfilling'.
Edit: I forgot to add, I really did not feel convinced about the group's 'insurance' against the Rikti. I don't deny that it sounds powerful, but with something like that in their hands I doubt the Rikti would let them walk away with it either.
Oh, and the titles could do with some formating, maybe in bold with a bit of highlight. -
A big update:
- Lots more combat added in all missions.
- Final mission now reduced to 15 minutes. I was hesistant to bring it down so low, but after several play tests where I took the time to read all the clues thoroughly and battled it out on 'heroic' settings, I will say it should give plenty of slack, as well as adding a sense of emergency for those wishing to suceed (and not bore out those who wish to fail).
- Fixed some grammar and typos.
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Quote:Ah that is a good catch, I've just taken the name to have been chosen for gender neutrality.Originally Posted by twelfth
Nope. Without explicitly spelling it out, here's the search I used over at Paragon wiki to verify what I suspected. EDIT: Don't click the link unless you want the reveal SPOILER'd
The best part of this is that I played a female toon, didn't even blink at the name.
Edit: I would also concur with Cheshire Cat to add a 'Rosebud' moment in the end debriefing or souvenir for those of us who are not familiar with the material. It seems to be a pretty important part to avoid all the head-scratching by the end of this arc, too important to just leave it as a knowing wink for those in the know. -
Spoilers below:
Quote:Are you talking about Automated Villainy? That's certainly an interesting way to interpret it, but then that only applies to one of the 'truths' shown, as well as making everything just the more confusing.Originally Posted by twelfth
Which is what this arc does, but the player/PC doesn't realize that they are a very specific "somebody else" thinking they are your PC until the very end. I would argue that someone with a really decent recollection of canon will be able to figure out the twist within the first paragraph of the first mish. I didn't, but I was able to confirm it after going to Paragon Wiki. -
Quote:Well I'm not sure about multiple endings, but it presents multiple interpretations on what the player considers to be the 'truth'. It does lean towards accepting the 'your crazy' angle as the truth however, as a lot of situations just had your characters attacking patients and co-workers out of mania. I'd be scared and incredibly wary if I started seeing people that looked like Freakshow and Automatons, but acting on that visage would push me into accepting the 'crazy'. Now, if I slowly uncovered a plot that the Freakshow were really there to loot the place, or that the Automatons are now obviously apparent after 'lifting the veil' on the other hand...Originally Posted by PoliceWoman
I actually would argue that the story arc does have multiple endings. In fact, I'm trying to tell two different stories in this arc: one from the POV of the player, and one from the POV of the contact. But maybe I'm not doing an effective job of communicating this? What was your impression, if I may ask? Is there something I could do to make this work better for you?
Granted, I don't actually have the player "make a choice" in this arc for good or evil. Ultimately, the player is stuck on the rails, and I'm hoping that those rails "make some sense" from the POV presented for the player. (But if it doesn't, I'd like to improve it.)
The main choice that I hope to present to the player is: which of the two stories should she believe is what REALLY happened?
The problem I found on the hijacking, especially at the end where my hero finally does the deed (avoiding specifics for spoiler reasons), was that I felt that I was just taking a backseat to my hero's actions, and so had far less of an emotional stake in the events that were happening. So as to whether the rails 'make some sense' to the player, I'd say it doesn't for me, as seeing my hero wildly flailing about from the start broke any notion that this was my character, as it may for a few other players as well. If you're sticking to the on-rails thing, maybe it would be better to have the hero experience the events by living through somebody else, like what was done in Sabrina's Tale.
The rules only state that *a* hero must do evil, not necessarily the player's hero, though some may argue over that still. Personally I think Dr. Aeon is going to be pretty lenient on what meets the requirements though, as otherwise we're going to end up with a lot of entries disqualified at this rate, as so far I've seen plenty of entries where people are already agreeing or disagreeing if said entry meets the requirements. -
Thanks for the comments, those are some great pics btw.
Spoilers in my next comments:
Quote:Yup, I'm all too aware of this. Trying to add more action in the 1st mission is proving to be surprisingly tricky, as I'm still trying to figure out a way to add more enemies that don't end up fighting the 'sleeping' Clockwork.Originally Posted by Supafunkadunka
2) Easily soloable. Again, too much so. There was no real challenge here. More fighting won't take away from the story.
I'm happy to hear you think that.Quote:Originally Posted by Supafunkadunka
3) Very good story. Started off as kind of a fluff comedy piece and then flipped around in Mission 3 to become darker and more personal - though somehow it didn't seem so abrupt.
4) Great dialogue. Penelope was funny and well done, and CKs made sense and changed slightly as the mission grew more serious in tone.
By not doing anything you indirectly help to 'kill' CK, which opens up questions of morality, particularly on whether the idea of 'mercy deaths' is moral. If you believe you are doing nothing but good by doing something that many would find questionable, then I would like to think I have succeeded in 'having the hero commit acts of evil for the greater good'. I may just be naively hopeful though, so if I am wrong by all means correct me.Quote:Originally Posted by Supafunkadunka
5) As it pertains to Dr. Aeon's Challenge, I don;t think it meets the theme very well. The challenge was to force the hero to do something evil for the greater good. In this arc, we are given the option of doing something good for the greater evil, or doing nothing for the greater good. Really, after Mission 3 I felt like doing nothing would be better for the world AND CK, so it didn't feel like I was doing anything evil at all.
I'll have a look on speeding up the fail objective too. -
Quote:I solo'd the minotaur on my lvl 31 fire dom fine, it took a few purples and waiting for unstoppable to drop, but I didn't find the added challenge to be too much of a hassle.Originally Posted by PoliceWoman
Hmmm, I've actually been wondering if this Minotaur was too hard.
The problem it does have though is that it drops an EB at the very start of the arc without warning, which certainly sets off alarm bells to me whenever I play an arc blind. So one possible improvement is to mention that this mission will contain an EB and that it's a one-off, for those like me who would otherwise take it as a cue to expect even harder encounters due to rising action.
You weren't the only one, I was pretty confused too when I heard what was the required theme. I think I was able to curve around the issue fairly well in my own entry (shameless promotion in 3..2..) in A Penny For Your Thoughts, where I gave the player the choice in deciding which ending was the 'happy ending'.Quote:Originally Posted by PoliceWoman
My fundamental problem was that I couldn't see how a story could force a hero to "do evil" without "taking their character away".
From the few entries I have played, they have all featured multiple endings barring yours actually. Though that's not surprising, since if you have to force the player to commit some evil, you could at least give the player some say as to what kind of evil he's committing, which leaves more room for debate. You could let the player go on a manic spree, or resign himself to his fate, and thereby committing some other grave injustice. It's definitely one way you can take your arc to improve it, though you'll also need to make sure your choices are as 'fair' as can be, so the player doesn't feel cheated by his options.
The player highjacking could be relieved with some Gordon Freeman style silent protagonist: not necessarily leaving the player as a passive observer to what's going on around him, but with his lines and actions less defined and unspoken.Quote:Originally Posted by PoliceWoman
Is there something that you'd suggest to try and "relieve" things?
There is also the multiple endings, which I have already talked about. Though I would also suggest to work in that Ship of Theseus paradox as part of your two endings. It was a neat little idea, though it didn't really go anywhere in the arc iirc.
Well those are my suggestions, feel free to pick on them, and take or leave whatever you like. -
Update: More combat added in mission 2, seems like the only place I could add it in without setting off the temperamental AE system.
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Just finished playing it. I'm not really a fan of script style format, but that was more of more of a minor issue compared to the other things in this arc. As for the bigger issues, well...
I'm not sure what to say. Your post indicates that you are clearly aware of the many fouls you were committing while writing this, and yet I can't see any attempts made within the arc to relieve some of that. I would honestly suggest you do something about that if you still plan on making revisions, though it'd have to be a fairly big re-write.
As the arc currently stands, whether you as the author thinks this is worth holding onto as is, or as a player whether you will enjoy this arc, will largely come down to whether you thought Blight was a good arc or not. -
Just finished playing, my thoughts below:
I could see where this arc was potentially heading from the first clue. It didn't detract from the arc a lot mind, but I am unsure if you intended for the reveal to show up sooner, rather than later.
The humour and references where present were nice touches, and were placed well so as not to clash. I ended up googling the nursery rhymes as most of them went over my head.
I'd recommend you do a bit of formatting for your titles and subtitles, setting the title to bold and a colour highlight, and just a colour highlight for your subtitle for example.
Also, I would say try and avoid using the tiny text. Maybe use highlight and italics to denote actions instead. For the bit where your contacts whispers (I think he's whispering?) it was more suitable but again, maybe think about putting the speech in brackets, in italics if need be, or just describe that your contact is whispering.
Other than that though, it was definitely a cool arc. It really shows that you've put a lot of effort into it. -
Thanks for the comments.
I've been sitting on the fence whether I should add more combat, but now you convinced me to see if I can add some more. -
Quote:That makes more sense, though I couldn't tell that it was the Clockwork King speaking.Originally Posted by FredrikSvanberg
I decided to have the Clockwork King talk through his minion because he wouldn't have a prepared written statement to give you at this point, and it was important enough for him to deign to speak with a filthy hero in order to save Penny.
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Just finished playing this arc, I couldn't resist after having just finished my submission that deals with the Clockwork as well.
My thoughts on the arc, please skip if you want to avoid spoilers:
Mr Yin does have that Phipps thing going. It looks to be an unfortunate side-effect of MA always making characters taking that dominating stance, and the lighting that always shines from above for that campfire spooky effect.
I found the Clockwork to sound pretty out of character, they usually don't speak all that much, and even when they do, it isn't fluently but oddly enough, in that classic robot-speak style (I say oddly, as I think the robo-speak clashes with their background).
The arc definitely gets abrupt a few times. I know it's final now, but I really think this arc could do with some additional pacing.
I found the whole situation in mission 2 to be pretty amusing, I was wondering what was going on as I kept running backwards and forwards looking for Penny.
In the end I picked saving the other girls. As heartless as it is, I can at least count on the King won't be trying to 'dismantle' Penny any time soon. And who knows, I may even get a Mr Yin TF out of it to save Penny back.
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Just published the arc I'll be submitting. If anyone does play it feedback will be great, as I'll make changes based on suggestions before submitting it as it gets closer to the deadline.
A Penny For Your Thoughts
ID: 348691
The arc thread can be found here. Please do comment if you do play it.
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A Penny For Your Thoughts
Author: @Frija
ID: 348691
Tags: Non-Canon, Drama
Morality: Heroic (obviously)
Desc: As all of the city's Clockwork suddenly fall inert, Penelope Yin has a bad feeling as to the fate of her reluctantly accepted guardian brain-in-a-jar, the Clockwork King. A speculative short-arc on the Clockwork King.
This is my first (published) attempt at a drama piece, and my first try doing something like this with established characters, so I'm doubly interested in what do people think. I won't be submitting this arc till it gets closer to the deadline, so all feedback will be considered to improving this arc before the final 'cut'.
I may just be naively hopeful here, but if anyone does play it I'd also really appreciate it if you could post here with your general thoughts, as well as answering a few questions I am interested in knowing:
1) Should there be more combat, or do you think it has enough?
2) Did you find the final mission too easy/hard/just right?
3) Should the time limit be shortened/extended/leave it as it is?
4) Did you think a convincing argument was made for picking either choices?
5) And just for fun, which choice did you make? -
A well deserved arc indeed, grats FemFury.
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Oh hey, glad to hear you enjoyed Mercytown.
I was tempted to give each arc a review too given how I pretty much played all of them, but even if it was just a short review I think it would have ended up being too time consuming for me.
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I think going standard is fine or rather, the lesser of two evils here. Better to have mobs that still give okay xp and are manageable, than ones that give normal xp but requires everyone that isn't a melee AT to rest after every fight.
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Customs will give you reduced xp unless their powersets are set on hard/hard or extreme/extreme (I forget which) as well, the penalty can be especially bad if you chose to custom pick their powers.
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And that's the 1st batch finally done. Thanks to those that submitted, and to those that have been following this thread. I'll make a start on the 2nd batch sometime in the future.
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Glory of Moment
Author: @MowDownJoe
ID: 328789
Tags: Challenging, Ideal for Teams, Canon Related
Morality: Heroic
Glory of Moment is an arc that explores a possible origin to the Malta’s shape-shifting operative known as Moment, delving into how a meta-human would come to be working with a meta-fearing group like Malta in the first place.
Your contact is Crimson who approaches your hero to ask for help in taking down Moment, whose shape-shifting abilities he perceives to be a particularly large threat to national security. Crimson is aware that Moment is just starting an operation as he speaks but is unable to find out anything else, and so he asks your hero to raid the Malta base over in Warburg for information on Moment’s operation, allowing your hero to catch him in the middle of the act. Crimson hands your hero a briefcase to store any Malta files, and in 60s spy fiction style it’s also rigged to explode if mishandled. It’s an eccentric habit of Crimson in this arc, where he even gave my hero an exploding pen drive later.
Tragedy on top of tragedy: the toll of being a Titan has left Joe to slurr all of his words with randoms Ls, including his own name.
Malta show off their new 'eyes in the back of their heads' technology.
After the mission, your hero discovers that Moment is in the process of infiltrating Longbow, but for what ends you’ll find out later in the arc.
This arc has two plots going on; one being about Moment’s origins, and the other about finding out what Malta are after from Longbow. In the end the advertised plot of revealing Moment’s origins are but a sub-plot to the plans against Longbow, which is disappointing given the combination of the origin plot being the one I was more interested in, that it was the plot that was advertised, and because the Longbow plot wasn’t all that unique compared to the origin plot anyway.
The arc goes downhill in the final missions. The penultimate mission reveals Moment’s ‘true origins’ but bizarrely both Moment and Crimson comment about how disappointing the reveal is, which when I read it felt like the author was apologising with the way the arc turned out, and lampshaded it. Though not completely sorry, or just having run out of ideas on how to tie this arc up but knew it has to be ‘epic’, the final mission has you running through a defeat all with the Malta group. To be fair the map used is a small one, but as if to counter that your hero is also required to defeat 3 EBs as well. I ended up dieing to each of the EBs, and had to resort to stocking up on medium insps at the ticket vendor for each fight.
You ain't kidding.
The arc would have been better just by swapping the final mission with the penultimate one so it ends on Moment’s origin reveal, or better yet just play down the Longbow plot altogether. That said the arc didn’t really pull me in anyway, and not due to the ‘disappointing’ reveal either. If anything I could have seen that reveal be pretty neat with some good, flavourful writing, which this arc lacks. There’s actually a lot of text in this arc, but most of it needs more focus and impact, if not trimming.
Final Verdict: Play up to the penultimate mission, and then just skip the last.
2.5/5 Stars