The_Cheshire_Cat

Quick update: I had to change the last map in Beating Heart of Astoria because apparently the one I was using no longer accepts escorts or collections or anything else because the map doesn't even show up when I pick it.

It should still be functionally the same, but the new map is a bit... noisier.

Thanks! Only took about 2 weeks for someone to decide to run it! I'll give it a once over with the feedback you gave me, anyone else who wants to give it a go feel free!

Bumping, because nobody's played it yet. Surely someone can give it a go and tell me what they think!

Not really related to my Astoria arcs, but for anyone who's tracking this thread, I've got a new arc up, with its own thread here.

I'm giving this its own thread since it's not related in any way to my other two arcs, which are sort of themeatically similar.

Anyway, new story arc! It turns out one of the many, many portal corp scientists you've rescued is actually a robotics expert, and he wants your help in testing out his new android! Will you teach it how to be a good AI so it won't go berserk and kill us all? We would really appreciate it.

Keywords: Origin story, Drama (It's very light drama; I just can't rightly call it "Comedy" because it gets more serious towards the end), Challenging.

This arc is significantly more difficult than my other two arcs, both of which were meant to be soloed. This one, you're probably better off in a team since there are a few EBs which you don't get any ally assistance on. The last mission is also very difficult, but not because of the mobs - don't get angry if you end up failing it, the story is intended that it still works with either resolution.

Only about one person has run it besides me so far, so if you give it a go, please give me as detailed feedback as you can - normally I test it alongside people until I'm happy with the result before I publish, but since I was writing this for the Cape's Robotica event I wanted to get it out a bit quicker than my usual standards allow.

I ended up getting an idea pretty quickly and wrote the whole arc in a day, so here's my arc for the event:

Ignition of the Machine
Arc ID # 318983

Bear in mind that like, one person besides me has run it so far, so if anyone wants to give it a whirl early, I could use some tester feedback.

I'm not posting to nominate an arc, but I think this thread should probably be cross-posted into the MA: Stories and Lore section as well. I can't speak for everyone but I know that I rarely ever come to this forum (Since I see this one as being more about the technical aspects of the MA which I don't really have any trouble with) while I go to that one a lot more frequently.

Robots specifically? I've had an AI based idea kicking around in my head for a while, hadn't really thought about it much but this might be a good excuse to see if I can work under a deadline.

I'd like to put a request in your queue for a review of:

Astoria in D Minor, 41565
@The Cheshire Cat

I ran Celebrity Kidnapping ages ago but that doesn't really count so I'm giving the Flower Knight TF a go right now.

*edit* finished! Sent my feedback via in-game.

And I'm now back. And nobody posted or noticed I was gone. I suppose I would probably have had to have actually DONE something recently to warrant attention... but c'mooooon!

That said, rather than making this a COMPLETELY pointless post, some random thoughts:

-How would people feel about an arc where you're intended NOT to fight the mobs? i.e. not that the mobs are all tagged as friendly, but where they're meant to be easy to evade/outrun and too much of a pain in the *** to bother trying to kill?

-Also considering doing an "Infected run amok" arc. Pathologic and Prototype have had me thinking about the whole disease outbreak angle. I think I could make an interesting story out of that (Though it's probably been done a bunch of times already, will need to check).

Anyone have any interesting NON horror ideas they feel like tossing me? I like horror/bizarre but I don't want to get stuck on a single track as a writer.

Most of the threads are arc review threads or arc announcement threads - neither of which are very conducive to discussion beyond the authors of the relevant threads.

That said, what is there to talk about really?

I don't know about all of you but my arcs have always been good. Yep. Not like I went back and made sweeping changes after publishing no matter how "done" I thought they were at the time.

A note for anyone leaving feedback in-game: I'm currently away from home for about a month so I won't be able to read any comments left on my global until I get back. Just in case someone asks a question or something, I'm not ignoring you.

I hate that this stupid thread is the most active one on the forum.

Reviewers: Snark is not automatically funny. Most of the time it just comes off as being petty and mean.

Writers: Get thicker skin. If you ask someone to review your stuff you can't complain if they don't like it.

Bump for a new forum!

[ QUOTE ]

4. A random note – today I looked online and found that Astoria in D Minor was missing! I hope Cheshire Cat is just doing some reworking and wants to resubmit or something. It’s one of the best arcs on MA.

[/ QUOTE ]

I didn't take it down, I'll check online just to be sure, but it's possible you just had "Arcs I've already played/rated" checked off.


*Edit* it got invalidated by the destructable object bug that keeps resetting them every patch. Fixed now.

A lot of people asked me how I did the last mission in "The Beating Heart of Astoria", so I guess that qualifies (There's lots of other fancy stuff as well but people only seemed to notice that one).

Info is in my sig.

Some maps have the locations swapped. Try setting it to spawn in the back, or the middle, to see if it pops up in that spot.

The Beating Heart of Astoria got a mention from Venture in the City Scoop Interview. He says he didn't much care for it but it must have made an impression considering he only mentioned one other arc by name.

Huh, it's supposed to scale them down. I guess I'll just set the minimum for that mission back to 25.

Changes to Mission 5 are pretty much done in Astoria in D Minor, so giving the thread another bump.

The middle ground is you don't check off either box.

Not technically a new arc, although I did retool it a bit (Mainly the last mission) in I15.

Astoria in D Minor, arc ID 41565 (Info is also in my sig)
Level range: 20-29
Description: A horror arc dealing with survivors trapped in Astoria after "The Event".