Live Feedback: Issue 13 : Story Arcs & Missions
By
Aisynia,
Posted on: 2008-12-03 17:18 in Developers' Corner
Yep, that's the one.
Same mission, same thing, except after Lt. Alston defeated my dark/dark corr he left as quickly as he'd appeared and I was able to return from the hospital and complete the mission with no further difficulty.
Subjective Feedback:
Cimerora Story Arcs:
I completed the hero missions with my level 44 WP/Fire Tank solo on Tenacious. The Ghost Widow arc was tough and I barely made it through. The story isn't enough of a draw for me to try it with other ATs that I know will have a tougher time with her. The arc felt like those impossible mini villain arcs that say "I hate hero x go commit suicide trying to defeat him/her". The ambushes were a surprise and fun twist.
The Malta arc was more fun but not spectacular. I think it is more balanced for various ATs.
I played the villain Cimerora arc solo with a Rad/Dark Corruptor on villainous. It went well but the purple EB at the end was a bit much. Again the story seemed weak.
Midnight Squad arcs:
I haven't played the villain one. I just finished the hero one using a Plant/Storm Controller. I played solo on heroic. I liked the stories and the challenges were fun. Some of the fights were tough but nothing was impossible. The second arc was especially good.
I liked the third arc too but have a minor complaint about the ending. I expected another ambush but for some reason I defeated Hector and nothing happened for about a minute. I was searching for a straggler thinking I had missed someone when warriors popped in around me and just after I won the mission a second group dropped in beside me and killed my character so I hit exit. 
The finale needs tweaking.
People have commented on the settings used. I have no complaints. It was nice to have ship missions and the "Atta" caverns were a nice change of pace.
I will certainly play the Midnight Squad arcs again.
Objective Feedback:
I did the Villain Midnight Club arc "Dead Man's Deck" via Ouroboros Flashback on my Lv50 Stalker.
After it was done, I didn't get the souvenir, and it's still marked as "unfinished" in my Ouroboros list. I did get the 3 reward merits and the temporary power, though. And yes, I called in after completing the final mission.
Play my MA arcs!
Tracking Down Jack Ketch - ArcID #2701
Cat War! - ArcID #2788
Objective: There were no hints towards the Coming Storm in the new Cimerora arcs (the arcs that included time-travel).
Additionally, at no point did two of the major magical enemy groups (CoT and BP) make an appearance. The Tsoo only had a minimal presence which makes The Warriors the only magically 'inclined' group to drive the plot (hero side).
Subjective: While there was nothing that said there HAD to be clues in these arcs it feels like it was a wasted opportunity to further hint at the Coming Storm, especially since I'm not seeing any further time travel in I14 (and so no further opportunities for hints).
The new Cimerora arcs didn't really seem to make Cimerora any more interesting. Sister Airlia's second arc was the only one that made the area seem three dimensional. Though, I did like the way Daedalus' and Sister Airlia's first arcs intertwined.
Though I did like how her speech pattern changed ever so slightly depending on if she was talking to a hero or villain Mercedes Sheldon's arcs failed to forward any of the Midnight Club 'lore.' Heck, there are already two established members of the Midnight Club that have an interesting background: Kadabra Kill and Sigil. It seems like this magically focused group is more concerned with non-magical groups. While, in reality, all of Sheldon's arcs were because of magical artifacts (is Azuria's inability to keep track of anything catching?) that the villain groups involved have consistently been non-magical (including I12's arcs) makes it seem like we're just as much 'a part of' the Midnight club as we are 'a part of' Ouroboros.
The Carnival was a perfect choice villain side and I think that that one was the most enjoyable arc for me (continuity issues aside 
).
I've done The Daedalus arc, and the Mercedes Sheldon arcs on both heroside and villainside; haven't gotten to Airlia yet.
I agree with what some others have said, Daedalus's missions seem a little bland, and it really makes no sense for all these modern villain groups to suddenly show up in ancient Europe. Time travel should not be such an easy thing for people to get ahold of.
As for the Midnighter arcs, I can't help but notice the severe contrast between heroside and villainside. Heroside, the arcs were very enjoyable, and there were enough missions to go around. I especially liked the Magic Man, I thought that boss fight was really well done.
But villainside? I can barely call that an arc at all. A 10-person hunt mission, a mission inside one of those tiny casino maps, a fed-ex, and one outdoor instanced mission; what the hell? That's like one-and-a-half missions worth of content there, and it's not even well-written. I mean, seriously;
"A magical deck of cards has been sold to a member of Longbow. No wait, it's a fake. The Carnival has the real deck. You get it back. The end."
Wow. Riveting. So, what, the Carnival is going to unleash the deck's awesome power to take over the world?? No, they just sort of... have it. They have it, and you need to get it back because,... it doesn't belong to them. That's it. They don't even really say what exactly the deck is supposed to do at all until after you get it back, and then, it.. just casts some sort of curse. That's it.
Whereas heroside, you've got:
-A magical cassette player that causes anyone who listers to it to break into total chaos; the woman who has it is attempting to cause world anarchy.
-A magical watch that lets the holder stop and rewind time as much as he wants, even letting hm completely undo his own defeat on multiple occasions.
-A magical crown that makes the wearer a master tactician and strategist; a Warrior boss has it, and is using it to take control of the entire faction.
So what the hell? Heroside gets three whole arcs worth of awesome stuff, while villainside gets 1.5 missions worth of blah? What gives?
Why does heroside, which already has tons of content available, get a buttload of shiny new missions, while villainside, which is in desperate need of new content, barely gets anything?
Now, I'm not one of those people who are convinced that the Devs hate villains, but with crap like this going on, I can't help but feel they might be somewhat biased.
I was grossly dissapointed with what new villain "content" I have seen, I'm hoping Sister Airlia provides a little better.
Two wrongs don't make a right. However, three rights make a left.
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Seek. Find. Rularuu.
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I agree with all of the previously noted criticisms.
For myself, I'd have to say:
Objectively, I think the new missions show that NCsoft mission designers still don't use all the tools at their disposal to create interesting missions. We're lucky when they put one or two clever wrinkles in an arc.
Subjectively, I feel this practice causes the game to lose a lot of its luster.
NCsoft must have some sort of reason for doing things this way, as it has been like this since I joined in spring of 2005. I remember complaining about it to an in-game friend after I'd been playing for a month and being told "The game is still new. Give the devs a chance to make it better." Well, years have passed and the quality of the new missions is nearly identical to the old ones. The only real difference between a scanner mission and an arc mission is that the arc will eventually give you merits.
It's as though the devs are A) designing strictly for the average ten year old, or maybe B) giving mission designers just a day to develop and turn in each arc. I don't know what it is that limits the story telling, but from what I can see it must be in the way designers are asked to work and not due to technical limitations.
The Magic Man arc and the Warriors arc each took tiny steps in the right direction, but more could have been done. The tools used by the devs that helped those missions (IIRC) included putting the mission objectives in the ambushes (Warriors) and creative use of a foe (the time-traveling Magic Man). The Daedalus arc was disappointing and possibly of lower quality than some of the 2005 content.
I like virtually all of the other aspects of the game - art, zones, powers, ATs, enhancements, costume generator - but the mission design / story telling aspect blows and it always has. The tiny dribble of content we've received in the last year, and the quality of it, highlights this weakness. I have to question the senior developers' basic intentions with mission design and perhaps even the HR department's method of hiring for the position. Bottom line: I wish we were getting better results.
Sorry to be so negative, but really it is just this one area of the game that is to me so obviously lacking, and I wish the shortcomings in this area would be addressed. It seems pretty clear to me how to fix it. I've presented my ideas on how missions could be made better in other posts and in PMs but the suggestions have gone nowhere. As the game presently exists, there isn't an arc or TF I wouldn't want to see replaced with an improved version, including imaginative player favorites such as the TV arc.
I'm looking forward to Architect so I can see if better missions can be created even with the limited toolset we'll be given.
The Magic Man story arc should award the "trusted with a secret" (Ouroboros Portal) badge.
Most of the content I felt was quite ho-hum, but I loved the last mission of "The Magic Man" story arc. Very interesting way to handle the situation, and the final battle had a uniquely epic feel because of its originality.
"Always remember that you're unique -- just like everybody else."
What is this "Magic Man" arc you folks are mentioning? I did a search for "Magic Man" at Paragon Wiki and couldn't find anything. Who gives the arc, or what zone are they in? Thanks!
On the general subject of i13, I find that the devs seem to dislike using or altering maps too much. I wonder why there aren't more or varied maps used - either in layout or tileset. I mean, there's the waste processing tileset from the early infected mission for villains which is never seen again. There's the drug lab tileset from, IIRC, a Troll mission which we never see again.
I really want to see our heroes bust into a room and see a bunch of Council troops sitting at tables in their mess hall. I want to storm into a Carnie shower 
What about a Nemesis production line?
I believe they are referring to one of the Story Arcs given by Mercedes Sheldon inside the Steel Canyon Midnight Club entrance. You might not have been in level range for her to offer the missions so can find them through Ouroboros.
It seems like there's plenty of arcs and content to get to 50 a couple times without doing the same things unless i'm missing something; I see no reason to focus more on 45-50 content that doesn't apply to other level ranges such as 1-10 or 35-45.
A no attack "Group-Friendly" Defender is like a "Team Friendly" basketball player who won't dribble, run, or shoot, under any circumstances. "I'm a PASSER."
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It seems like there's plenty of arcs and content to get to 50 a couple times without doing the same things unless i'm missing something; I see no reason to focus more on 45-50 content that doesn't apply to other level ranges such as 1-10 or 35-45.
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The key phase in your comment is getting to 50. Once there, there is nothing else to do. Some of us like playing our 50s and want more to do or do not want to play an alt. To keep folks paying to keep playing, they need to have more content at the end of the game. If I have a lvl 50 hero or villian, I should expect some new content once in a while to play with out flashing back to the mission at a lower lvl of play to play the new content.
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It seems like there's plenty of arcs and content to get to 50 a couple times without doing the same things unless i'm missing something; I see no reason to focus more on 45-50 content that doesn't apply to other level ranges such as 1-10 or 35-45.
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The key phase in your comment is getting to 50. Once there, there is nothing else to do. Some of us like playing our 50s and want more to do or do not want to play an alt. To keep folks paying to keep playing, they need to have more content at the end of the game. If I have a lvl 50 hero or villian, I should expect some new content once in a while to play with out flashing back to the mission at a lower lvl of play to play the new content.
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Here's the problem; many players are so proficient with running through content that they can complete any new stuff the devs put out in a matter of days, if not hours.
How do you create new content which has the ability to stay fresh for a decent amount of time, and how do you put out new content frequently enough w/o getting repetitive?
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Subjective: The "rescue Ghost Widow" mission of the Sister Airlia story arc seems very easy to fail.
[/ QUOTE ]Do you mean the mission titled "Deliver the Tabula Scutum?" or is there another after that, when Ghost Widow gets her stupid butt in trouble again?
I just tried rescuing her, and ran into a +3 Elite Boss. I'm 37, on Villainous difficulty level, and well... that seems a little excessive.
/bugged