I'd like to put these two up for the chopping block:
Arc Name: A Tangle in Time
Arc ID: 2622
Faction: Thorns, PPD
Length: 5 missions
Morality: Heroic
Creator: @jjac
Difficulty Level: Easy/Medium
Synopsis: In an Oranbegan ruin, untouched for hundreds of years, lies a fragile relic that can bend the very rivers of time. Your mission is to tamper with it.
Arc Name: Eclipse Over Paragon
Arc ID: 64609
Faction: Council, Custom
Length: 5 missions
Morality: Heroic
Creator: @jjac
Difficulty Level: Medium
Synopsis: The Council threaten to turn Paragon into their own Warwolf Factory! Stop their plans and crush their furry legion!
Arc #12669, "How to Survive a Robot Uprising"
tl;dr: 4 stars. Offenses: Killer GMing, "just a bunch of stuff that happened"
This is a re-review. When my queue clears I'm going to set up a policy on re-reviews, which I haven't quite decided on yet.
I'm only going to discuss changes from the previous review. Search upthread if you want to read that.
The first mission is no longer level-locked at 54. The Cataphract has been replaced with a Vanguard HVAS, which managed to drop me with one Energy Barrage (7.5% chance to hit...). There are a few HTML errors in its description.
Act II makes it more clear that the Virals' plan to take over the Arbiter Drones never made it past that base. Act III makes it more clear that you don't have to fight the Malta or Titans at all, just get to the glowie. An additional Clue lets you know /Hide is lying to you.
The briefing for Act IV now contains a disclaimer for PCs who use or are AIs. The entry pop-up says you can't let your doubts about /Hide concern you now with so much at stake, which is fair. The bots inside make more mention (IIRC) of "testing" and refer to you as "the final variable". I had better luck with the PPD ally spawns but I don't know if that actually means the author changed their spawn areas at all.
Act V uses a smaller map. Two of the three initial objectives spawned up front. I believe they have more substantial ambushes attached to them now. Also, I believe the Repair Bots have been turned up to Extreme/Extreme on their powersets, making their END drains a lot worse. Really, Sappers are less troublesome. The arc still has a The Usual Suspects Ending which might actually be more annoying to some now, as you know about halfway through that you're being played with and can't do anything about it.
I've bumped it up a star, but it does have much the same problems as the earlier version. It's just a bit more playable now.
Current Blog Post: "Why I am an Atheist..."
"And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained/As we did in the days when Victoria reigned!" -- T. S. Eliot, "Gus, the Theatre Cat"
Hmm... it might help if you were more clear on what you didn't consider 'just a bunch of stuff that happened', Venture; after all, just about anything could have that accusation levelled at it.
Thanks for the heads-up, I'll see what I can do about the misallocated HTML tags- they seem to be frustratingly inconsistent as to how they work.
Interestingly, some of the changes you noted either weren't changed (the dialogue about testing and you being the final variable is identical- I don't remember changing it at at all), or were changed in the opposite direction from what you thought- the Repair Bots actually had their difficulty turned down, from Extreme/Extreme to Hard/... I think I left Pain Dom on Extreme, but I'd have to double check.
Unfortunately, I seem to be left with the choice between 'pathetic pushover' and '... okay, I'm dead in two shots', which is the difference between 'normal' and 'hard' on boss-level electric blast. *grumble*
I'm thinking of changing the spawns slightly in the final mission- fewer pure-custom spawns. Hopefully that will drop the annoyance factor a bit. I'm assuming the 'killer GMing' now primarily refers to the final mission, since I think I caught most of the other ones you mentioned (including fixing the PPD ally spawn-points in the fourth mission)?
Thankfully, you didn't run into that aggravating bug in the final mission where the last objective doesn't spawn- after some back-and-forth with the GMs, it turned out that I had too many things slated for 'middle', which apparently borked something and made the mission uncompleteable. Here's hoping that that means it's fixed >.<
SPOILER (for my own arc...):
Right, so what would I have to do to avoid 'the Usual Suspects Ending' problem? Bearing in mind that I was planning that ending from the start, and there are hints (which are apparently too subtle) scattered throughout... from the very first mission onwards!.. that /Hide knows more than he should, and might not be fully in control of his own actions (to the point that I used the characteristic *click* of the perfect machine taking over one of its minions in /Hide's dialogue in one of the briefings).
There were at least three times that I can think of that /Hide hints that there's more he wants to share, but backs off from saying (or pulls a last-second word swap).
Don't forget, also, that it was /Hide himself that sent you off to find the clue that he was lying (which the dialogue box says flat out...)
And, of course, there's the machine's persistent reference to you as 'the variable' and testing you and all this being an experiment...
I already feel like I'm edging uncomfortably close to the line between this being a mild twist ending and me beating you over the head and screaming 'HEY LOOK! IT'S NOT WHAT YOU EXPECTED!!!!!'
And as to 'you can't do anything' about being played..? Uhm, what options, exactly, could I offer? Branching dialogue or missions aren't possible, and the majority of heroic characters probably wouldn't just go 'screw the global-level danger, nobody makes a fool out of me!' to ram /Hide's words down his throat and demand an explanation.
Really, saying that my note about there being too much at stake for your doubts about /Hide be a problem is fair and then turning around and complaining about not being able to do anything about being 'played' is kind of a mixed message; one paragraph, you're saying 'yeah, okay, that makes sense', and then the next you're telling me 'that thing I said makes sense? It sucks, and you shouldn't do it!'
Oh... and did you re-read the whole souvenir? The beginning is identical, but I rewrote some of it to make it clear that /Hide was doing his best to act in good faith, but the perfect machine's external control was often preventing him.
Ergh... sorry >.<
It's just frustrating and confusing- this is something I put a good deal of effort into rewriting, and it being dismissed with the exact same offhand phrase as previously, with you apparently not even seeing the changes I put in (which I have a hard time believing, considering how incisive your criticism is in most other areas) leaves me feeling that you're taking the re-evaluation considerably less seriously than I took the re-writing.
Anyways, your time is, as always, appreciated- thank you for re-doing it (I honestly hadn't expected you to get to it so soon); your input helped me tighten it significantly the first time around (at least, I'd like to hallucinate it did -_-
, and I'm hoping that a bit of clarification on this second run will help further.
"A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head." Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates
MA Arcs: #12285, "Small Fears", #106553, "Trollbane", #12669, "How to Survive a Robot Uprising"
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Unfortunately, I seem to be left with the choice between 'pathetic pushover' and '... okay, I'm dead in two shots', which is the difference between 'normal' and 'hard' on boss-level electric blast. *grumble*
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Have you tried setting both the primary and secondary to Electric Blast? You get twice the attacks, which can be a nice stepping stone in between difficulty levels.
Players' Choice Awards: Best Dual-Origin Level Range Arc!
It's a new era, the era of the Mission Architect. Can you save the Universe from...
The Invasion of the Bikini-clad Samurai Vampiresses from Outer Space? - Arc ID 61013
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Unfortunately, I seem to be left with the choice between 'pathetic pushover' and '... okay, I'm dead in two shots', which is the difference between 'normal' and 'hard' on boss-level electric blast. *grumble*
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Have you tried setting both the primary and secondary to Electric Blast? You get twice the attacks, which can be a nice stepping stone in between difficulty levels.
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Hmm... that's a thought, Aliana. Although it does detract a bit from their supposed nature as Repair Bots :/
I'll think about it, thanks 
"A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head." Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates
MA Arcs: #12285, "Small Fears", #106553, "Trollbane", #12669, "How to Survive a Robot Uprising"
Arc #1285, "Training Day"
tl;dr: 2 stars. Offenses: many plot holes, surprise EB/AVs, spelling errors, "just a bunch of stuff that happened"
Detective Morgan of the PPD's Vanguard Liason Office wants your help in tracking down a "Docter Armington". An apparent typo in the first briefing is not a good sign. Armington has taken an Officer O'Leary hostage. Morgan tells you if there's nothing to bring back to make sure he's not suffering, and reminds you there's no such thing as a brutality charge in his unit. Um, yeah.
The warehouse you're sent to is filled with custom-faction bots. O'Leary has been turned into a cyber-zombie Claws/SR EB (no warning, but nice job on the model). Defeating him spawns a new objective: "Rip Armington a new one for what he's done." Um, this is a Heroic arc, right? Armington is another EB, Bots/FF, and may try to run when low...I'm not sure. On defeat he says "Teleport activate!" but the defeat text says you can rest easy knowing a monster has been taken to justice...um, which is it?
In Act II, you learn that O'Leary survived the battle and now has control over his new body. The scientist responsible is adapting the nanotechnology that was used on O'Leary ("Lockgear") for battlesuit use. Hmm, nanotech that warps people body and mind developed by a mad scientist now being adapted into Vanguard battlesuits? What Could Possibly Go Wrong? You're asked to oversee a transfer of the equipment. Once on site the objectives are to retrive 5 components, rescue O'Leary (down to Boss) and defeat Armington again. The enemies on this one are Freakshow, with a patrol of the custom drones tossed in for color. Armington is back with a bunch of Freaks for guards; when you start beating on him he hits you with a threat we don't often see in City: "I will make you MY MONKEY BUTLER!"
Yeah.
When Armington gets low on health "Michael Faraday" spawns, a Dark Blast/Dark Miasma AV with machinegun-toting "Cultists" and Energy Blast/Dark Armor "Cultist Ascendant" LTs, the latter's info saying they've been upgraded with Lockgear. They spawned Rocks Fall Everyone Dies style. Even the Contact doesn't know who Faraday is. In Act III you're sent to bust up some of Faraday's cultists in an effort to learn more about him. The mission takes place on an Arachnos lab map, with an Arachnos raid in progress. Heard at entry from a Cultist: "Faraday will whipe this world of life!" Um, yeah. You have to search various computers until you find a Clue stating that Lockgear was invented by one of Faraday's cultists and given to Armington in the hopes that it would end up in Vanguard's hands. Sure enough, Faraday now has control over both Armington and O'Leary, so for Act IV you and Morgan have to recover the Lockgear nanotech before it goes all grey-goo on everyone. Somehow, though, the mission takes place in a sewer. You have to destroy three objects. O'Leary and Armington are present but don't have to be fought. Morgan is supposed to be available as an ally, but spawned in the last room.
For Act V you get a letter from Faraday taunting you into a final showdown. This being a comic RPG you're not allowed to call in an air strike. The match takes place on a small sewer map. It turned out O'Leary was available as an ally but he was behind Faraday and behind some geometry so I didn't see him until well after the fighting was over. Faraday spawns as an AV/EB again and calls multiple ambush waves as he dies.
The plot does not make sense in a lot of places and there are more than a few spelling errors. It also assumes the player is a graduate of the Harry Callahan Police Acadamy. This needs a lot of work.
Current Blog Post: "Why I am an Atheist..."
"And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained/As we did in the days when Victoria reigned!" -- T. S. Eliot, "Gus, the Theatre Cat"
It's 4 AM here and I'm bushed after doing four reviews, so I'm putting off replying to most of this, but just to touch on a big point:
Right, so what would I have to do to avoid 'the Usual Suspects Ending' problem?
Don't have one.
And as to 'you can't do anything' about being played..? Uhm, what options, exactly, could I offer? Branching dialogue or missions aren't possible, and the majority of heroic characters probably wouldn't just go 'screw the global-level danger, nobody makes a fool out of me!' to ram /Hide's words down his throat and demand an explanation.
This is why.
The players are already being railroaded by the linear format. Railroading them again by sticking them into any kind of Usual Suspects, Kobayashi Maru, Catch-22 or other choiceless screwover is twisting the knife in the wound.
The Usual Suspects Ending works for the trope namer because the movie plays fair with the audience. Unless you have a room-temperature IQ who Keyser Soze is should be clear from the opening act, which tells you what you need to know about the rest of the movie. The characters are screwed but the audience is in on the joke. Here, the two are one and the same.
Really, saying that my note about there being too much at stake for your doubts about /Hide be a problem is fair and then turning around and complaining about not being able to do anything about being 'played' is kind of a mixed message; one paragraph, you're saying 'yeah, okay, that makes sense', and then the next you're telling me 'that thing I said makes sense? It sucks, and you shouldn't do it!'
What I said was, "might actually be more annoying to some now"; some people may react even more negatively to what you are doing because the character knows he's being played and isn't allowed to even try to do anything about it. Different people are going to react in different ways. Personally while I still think it's obnoxious I think it's less obnoxious than a compete Butt Pull where you're told after the fact that you were had. Other people may go the other way.
Current Blog Post: "Why I am an Atheist..."
"And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained/As we did in the days when Victoria reigned!" -- T. S. Eliot, "Gus, the Theatre Cat"
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It's 4 AM here and I'm bushed after doing four reviews
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You're a crazy man, Venture 
But a dedicated one. Those of us of a more plebiean nature appreciate your efforts
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Right, so what would I have to do to avoid 'the Usual Suspects Ending' problem?
Don't have one.
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... which leaves me with a rather pedestrian retreaded robot-romp with a moderately amusing contact (and a lot of abruptly extraneous hints that something's not quite right with your contact) 
I suppose I could try to make it clearer that this is a 'to be continued' situation. Neither the story of the perfect machine nor /Hide's are finished just yet. I'm going to have to delete something, though... I'm quite literally at the 100% mark- even a single letter more would put me over the limit.
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And as to 'you can't do anything' about being played..? Uhm, what options, exactly, could I offer? Branching dialogue or missions aren't possible, and the majority of heroic characters probably wouldn't just go 'screw the global-level danger, nobody makes a fool out of me!' to ram /Hide's words down his throat and demand an explanation.
This is why.
The players are already being railroaded by the linear format. Railroading them again by sticking them into any kind of Usual Suspects, Kobayashi Maru, Catch-22 or other choiceless screwover is twisting the knife in the wound.
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I suppose part of the problem I'm having is that this particular 'choiceless screwover' isn't really any different than any other mission you accept in City of *. It's all 100% linear; there's an implicit agreement between the author and the player that the author will do their best to respect the player's character, and the player will, well, play, and presumably in the process allow suspension of disbelief to compensate for whatever flaws are forced by the game engine.
Yes, your character is being played; if the player is paying attention, though, there are a lot of hints that something's not quite right, although I tried to avoid anything that would make the average person throw up their hands and go 'okay, right, unless you come clean, I am SO out of here!'
I mean, you're (presumably) in this mess as a hero, contacted by DATA to do some investigative work; in theory, you should be able to compensate for a contact that's being less than honest with you. It's more 'playing along' than 'being played'. Or at least that's how I tried to imply things were going- without knowing exactly what character it is that's running it, there's only so much I can do.
Or is the onus entirely on me to lead the player by the hand through a plot that's perhaps slightly more complex than the Mission Architect can really handle? I've already tipped my hand further than I'd prefer with the blatant '/Hide is lying' clue in mission three; as I said, there's no shortage of hints that something is up with /Hide scattered throughout his dialogue.
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The Usual Suspects Ending works for the trope namer because the movie plays fair with the audience. Unless you have a room-temperature IQ who Keyser Soze is should be clear from the opening act, which tells you what you need to know about the rest of the movie. The characters are screwed but the audience is in on the joke. Here, the two are one and the same.
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As you can probably tell, I'm not seeing how I'm not playing fair; all I want to ask of people that play the arc is the excercise of some reading comprehension and the same suspension of disbelief they give when playing any other arc.
I guess the big question for me here is "Is this a problem because it's a poorly done Usual Suspects Ending, or because it's a Usual Suspects Ending at all?" Because if it's the former, I want to do what I can to fix it. If it's the latter, then I can accept it as a personal preference rather than an inherent problem.
"A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head." Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates
MA Arcs: #12285, "Small Fears", #106553, "Trollbane", #12669, "How to Survive a Robot Uprising"
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Arc #1152, "The Doctor Returns"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: some plot holes, Tomato In The Mirror ending
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How can a trope be an "offense"? I thought they were tools. At least it should say "cheap Tomato in the Mirror ending" or something like that. Sorry, I'm nitpicking on the nitpicker. Oh, I'd like to know what the plot holes are so I can try to plug them.
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The mission has some clever writing, but the Tomato In The Mirrior ending is cheap and likely to rub people the wrong way. (Besides, what if "you" just abort the arc at that point?)
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Well, the players can decide that this was just some fun and games without real consequence, or they can decide that their copy actually did leave the original version behind. Nobody else is ever likely to find out. The Doctor could perhaps convince someone else to reboot the system to cover her tracks after the copy left, but that's not really important.
I don't think we should have to write arcs based on the possibility that someone might not finish the story - it would be quite impossible to take that into account for every story we create.
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While it does provide an explanation for the insane backstory the devs saddled the Architect with, I'd rather just pretend the backstory doesn't even exist, frankly.
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So would I, but this gave me an opportunity to make a story about The Doctor so I ran with it.
Winner of Players' Choice Best Villainous Arc 2010: Fear and Loathing on Striga; ID #350522
After doing a few reviews and playing a great many MA arcs I have come to the conclusion that
My Arcs Suck. Hard.
I currently have two published and I am going to be doing some major rewrites to them. In the meantime Venture you can remove the one arc of mine from your queue (27136). If I can correct the problems I will re-submit for review (knowing I have to wait for you to be taking more requests AND being put at the bottom of the queue).
Thank you.
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That said, I'm still not accepting new arcs. I've got 30-40 to go through. I took a break last night to work on my own stuff (in the sig) but now it's back to the queue.
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*****If anyone else knows the answer to the question found below, feel free to chime in.*****
This is Mrs. Spoon (posting here with Mr. Spoon's permission since our COH account is a shared account), Venture what arc did you Edit and Republish? I have a character going through your arc 4829 and have only completed 2/3 of it three days ago but have not had time to get back to it.
Here is the interesting question: If you Edit and Republish your story while a team or person running solo has only completed say 3 of the 5 missions, does that Edit & Republish kick the players out? Will the players have to start the arc all over again or will they be able to just pick up where they left off?
I have done a key word search to answer this question but no luck yet.
My arc is currently being play tested by a team of 3 (2 friends and hubby) and I am now seeing flaws with the story build under this team play that I did not see before. I REALLY want to edit it now but I don't want to do that if it will prevent them from completing the story arc without starting over again.
My Arc: The Power From Out Of Space, ID# 64800
Mrs. Spoon's Arc: Shades of Betrayal, Acts of Salvation, ID# 59147
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Here is the interesting question: If you Edit and Republish your story while a team or person running solo has only completed say 3 of the 5 missions, does that Edit & Republish kick the players out? Will the players have to start the arc all over again or will they be able to just pick up where they left off?
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As I understand it once you start an MA arc it is set. You keep the current arc regardless of changes made to the original. This is from arcs friends have edited while I was playing them.
I am not sure about arcs that get unpublished due to GM decisions or patch updates.
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Here is the interesting question: If you Edit and Republish your story while a team or person running solo has only completed say 3 of the 5 missions, does that Edit & Republish kick the players out? Will the players have to start the arc all over again or will they be able to just pick up where they left off?
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Positron mentionned at one point that if you depublish an arc while someone is running it, the person still gets to finish the arc. I'm guessing that means any person running the arc gets their own temporary copy of it. Which in turn would mean that if you edit an arc while someone's playing it, they can keep playing the old version of the arc and finish it if they like, but they won't see your changes unless they finish/drop the arc and then start it again.
Character index
What I think might be happening with that is that if someone is on your arc WHILE you are actively editing it, the changes you make to the arc won't go "live" until that person finishes the arc... I think?
Certainly, they won't change "on the fly"... but MAN that would be AWESOME.
"Heh, think the arc is too easy? Here, have a couple hundred Knives of Artemis to play with!"
-Esch
"I swear you could fling a man hole cover across the street and hit more notes than 90% of those idiots on American Idol" -Desmodos
"Every time you post I feel like I been hit with a fist full of smart! Thanks." - Volken re: Sucker Punch
Arc #36984 V'kta A'cha Vox'm
<QR>
First, the current queue: 1009, 8774, 8787, 8795, 1665, 12798, 16338, 9028, 9036, 32865, 3615, 19226, 19231, 19238, 4727, 2019, 34452, 8713, 2409, 1579, 1571, 1531, 18145, 38226, 2922, 1356, 26931, 2142, 2150, 42221, 5299
Replies to various points:
Hmm... it might help if you were more clear on what you didn't consider 'just a bunch of stuff that happened', Venture; after all, just about anything could have that accusation levelled at it.
Asked and answered upthread a bit. To reiterate, an arc is "just a bunch of stuff that happened" if there is no theme or moral to it. Humorous arcs get a bye here as long as they're actually funny. While I cite this offense fairly often there are a lot of arcs I didn't cite for it so you shouldn't have too much trouble finding good examples. Needless to say I don't think my arcs are guilty of it; feel free to call me on it if you disagree.
Interestingly, some of the changes you noted either weren't changed (the dialogue about testing and you being the final variable is identical- I don't remember changing it at at all)
It is entirely possible that I just didn't hear it the first time. Even combat dialog from must-defeat mobs might be missed if things are too chaotic. If it's really important to the plot it needs to go in Clues or Contact text.
I'm assuming the 'killer GMing' now primarily refers to the final mission,
And the map full of Zeus Titans. Even if you don't have to fight them -- builds that can't finesse their way past the whole map are in for a world of pain.
Oh... and did you re-read the whole souvenir? The beginning is identical, but I rewrote some of it to make it clear that /Hide was doing his best to act in good faith, but the perfect machine's external control was often preventing him.
Yes, I did. It doesn't really bear on the problem. No amount of apologetics is going to cover for this. If you tip your hand during the arc then you're almost certainly throwing the Idiot Ball. If you save the reveal for afterwards you're mocking the player by reminding him that he has to dance to your tune no matter what. It's a no-win situation. Just don't do it.
... which leaves me with a rather pedestrian retreaded robot-romp with a moderately amusing contact (and a lot of abruptly extraneous hints that something's not quite right with your contact)
This is getting back to the "just a bunch of stuff that happened" problem. If there is nothing to the story but the reveal that your Contact was a fraud then that's bad.
I suppose I could try to make it clearer that this is a 'to be continued' situation.
There is nothing stopping people from doing multi-arc stories, but every "volume" has to stand on its own.
I suppose part of the problem I'm having is that this particular 'choiceless screwover' isn't really any different than any other mission you accept in City of *.
Many of which make players want to neck-punch someone. The official missions commit a multitude of sins; you shouldn't assume something is OK to do just because an official mission did it.
I mean, you're (presumably) in this mess as a hero, contacted by DATA to do some investigative work; in theory, you should be able to compensate for a contact that's being less than honest with you.
"Compensating" for a dishonest Contact, in most player's minds, means "disembowel him and find someone else to work with".
If this was a tabletop game, players confronted with /Hide's duplicity would immediately try to Take A Third Option. If the players try to go Off The Rails and the GM won't let them, they'll probably be upset and they'll probably be right.
For my part, I wouldn't take orders from a Contact whom I knew wasn't trustworthy. Any damn thing could be at the end of that rainbow: get duped into destroying the world, helping a villain conquer the world, unleash the Rularuu, DOGS AND CATS LIVING TOGETHER.... You can't play games with "the company". The players have to be certain that their employers aren't going to use them as pawns, sell them out, set them up or otherwise jerk their chains. Forcing me to go along with an untrustworthy Contact just because the format allows you to do it is playing in bad faith.
Or is the onus entirely on me to lead the player by the hand through a plot that's perhaps slightly more complex than the Mission Architect can really handle?
Look, I'm not trying to be the Voice of Doom here or anything, but your plot is not that complicated. It's "just a bunch of stuff that happens". If this is just a small part of a bigger picture then why does the small part have to be five missions long?
I guess the big question for me here is "Is this a problem because it's a poorly done Usual Suspects Ending, or because it's a Usual Suspects Ending at all?" Because if it's the former, I want to do what I can to fix it. If it's the latter, then I can accept it as a personal preference rather than an inherent problem.
It is the latter, and I think you are going to find most players echo Talen Lee's sentiments: "Aren't there enough arcs where the player is a complete blundering idiot?"
Oh, I'd like to know what the plot holes are so I can try to plug them.
Whatever the Doctor does from inside the system is meaningless; Crey can always take the entire system down and reinstall from the offline backups. Then she has to do the whole thing all over again, and sooner or later she'll get caught. In any case, once word got out that the Architect system could be used in this way, no sane person would ever use it again regardless of any assurances from any agency, up to and including manifestations of the Divine. The story doesn't actually do anything to resolve the problem in the canon behind Architect Entertainment; it actually makes it worse by proving the worst expectations are justified.
I don't think we should have to write arcs based on the possibility that someone might not finish the story - it would be quite impossible to take that into account for every story we create.
In the general case if the player chooses to abandon an arc it can be safely assumed the Contact gets someone else to do it instead. In this case that's problematic.
So would I, but this gave me an opportunity to make a story about The Doctor so I ran with it.
I think we can do stories with the Doctor that don't open more cans of worms than they close.
Current Blog Post: "Why I am an Atheist..."
"And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained/As we did in the days when Victoria reigned!" -- T. S. Eliot, "Gus, the Theatre Cat"
Pains me to ask, but I'll take any criticism available before I use my other two arc slots. You don't pull any punches, so I could use your opinion.
Arc Name: Brokering the Brickers
ID: 37724
Synopsis: A rising star amongst Rogue Isles brokers has had her most precious commodity stolen: information. She has specifically contacted you to chase down the thieves and get her data back.
Be sure to read the clues/souvenir, and if you're up for some entertainment, mission 2's extra clues as well. Writing's my main concern here, although if you have some opinion on the EB and later AV, feel free to say so.
Virtue: The X-Patriots
Characters include Firewinter, Olive Branch, Maltese Spider... and more!
@Firewinter
Arc 37724: Brokering the Brickers
Arc 128109: All in the Family
[color= yellow]Arc Name: The New Freaks in Town[/color]
Arc ID: 72852
Morality: Heroic
Factions: Custom, Freakshow
Level range: Mission 1 is 1-45, Mission 2 is 1-50
Synopsis:There is word around the city that there is a new villain group in town and are planning an attempt to overthrow the Freakshow. That's bad new for the Freakshow by far, but it could turn out bad for all of us. You must make sure this doesn't happen and prevent an all out gang war.
I'll take any criticism I can get 
hey quick question, since pubised arch ar limited to 3, and i assume this is account level what about locals? can i swap out missions between local and publish so i can have more then 3 in a broad sense or is local similary limited
AE # 67087: Journey through the Looking Glass - Save the World
LLX VirtueVerse! - Check out my crazy Toons
This is the size of group that we have balanced AVs for, 6.
-Positron 06/07/06 07:27 PM
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hey quick question, since pubised arch ar limited to 3, and i assume this is account level what about locals? can i swap out missions between local and publish so i can have more then 3 in a broad sense or is local similary limited
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AFAIK Local is unlimited so you could swap out arcs if you wanted; bear in mind though that unpublishing an arc will lose all ratings on that arc.
Thanks for the review Venture! Always nice to get feedback.
Couple of things though:
In terms of the tediousness found in missions four and five, there is really little I can do to alleviate it in mission four at least. I was going for scale there, and I think I pulled it off. However, this also means that it gets annoying to run around the map constantly searching for the EB's. On the fifth mission however, I put in the abyss wells as a means of letting the player set their own difficulty. I remember running through the arc with a group of people who just decided to hit all the glowies as they came up to them and let the rest sort itself out. I played with this on a few of my test run-throughs, and the way the five AV's spawn in the last room is such that you can easily fight one while leaving the other four unaggroed.
As for the overachieving NPC's? Well ya got me there. That was something I worried about when this review was coming up. But there was a design decision behind it. I'm going to repost something I posted in Lazarus's thread about the same issue
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This was another design decision. You see, in my opinion, the most villainous feeling mission in the game is "Defeat Romulus the Warshade" from Psymon Omega. Right before this mission you get a void rifle to help during the fight. So you walk in, whip out your void rifle and force feed Romulus Nictus energy. It's not even fair. Every shot takes off about 1/5th of his health AND knocks him back, and by the time he gets back up, you shoot him again! This to me felt incredibly villainous since there was no sense of honor at all. You don't even try to be fair. So I tried to replicate this feeling with the Virtea bosses, and having them do most of the dirty work for you. It helped reinforce the image that they could easily help you take over the world I think.
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That being said, I still think I'll tweak it so the EB's spawn surrounded by bosses, and the Virtea bosses no longer self rez. Ill run through the arc again just to make sure that I didn't go too over the top though.
As for the ending? Well you got me there, but I honestly have NO idea how to change it to make it fit into a character's canon. I mean, where do you go from there? "The Leaders of Arachnos recognize your badassery and agree to leave you alone as long as you don't sic your army of sharkmen on them"? I think the ending works fine as it does, as long as people realize everything in the MA is non-canon. Especially seeing as how the canon itself goes out of its way to show it is non-canon.
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hey quick question, since pubised arch ar limited to 3, and i assume this is account level what about locals? can i swap out missions between local and publish so i can have more then 3 in a broad sense or is local similary limited
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AFAIK Local is unlimited so you could swap out arcs if you wanted; bear in mind though that unpublishing an arc will lose all ratings on that arc.
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still its the only way to resonalbly create several multi arc task forces so i kinda have to deal with it
AE # 67087: Journey through the Looking Glass - Save the World
LLX VirtueVerse! - Check out my crazy Toons
This is the size of group that we have balanced AVs for, 6.
-Positron 06/07/06 07:27 PM
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hey quick question, since pubised arch ar limited to 3, and i assume this is account level what about locals? can i swap out missions between local and publish so i can have more then 3 in a broad sense or is local similary limited
[/ QUOTE ]
AFAIK Local is unlimited so you could swap out arcs if you wanted; bear in mind though that unpublishing an arc will lose all ratings on that arc.
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still its the only way to resonalbly create several multi arc task forces so i kinda have to deal with it
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You can totally re-edit an existing arc, but it's a real pain, and you could end up losing all your progress.
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Oh, I'd like to know what the plot holes are so I can try to plug them.
Whatever the Doctor does from inside the system is meaningless; Crey can always take the entire system down and reinstall from the offline backups. Then she has to do the whole thing all over again, and sooner or later she'll get caught. In any case, once word got out that the Architect system could be used in this way, no sane person would ever use it again regardless of any assurances from any agency, up to and including manifestations of the Divine. The story doesn't actually do anything to resolve the problem in the canon behind Architect Entertainment; it actually makes it worse by proving the worst expectations are justified.
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I could go on and on about how The Doctor makes sure to make sure that her presence within the system can't be compromised but I think I've already got too much text for these missions and I don't think it would be worth it. I might have an idea on how to plug this particular plot-hole though. I'll look into it. The story certainly does something to resolve the worst problem, i.e. Positron's completely uncharacteristic approval of the MA technology. At least in my opinion. You have however pointed out something that I will need to clarify, and I will try to do so.
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I don't think we should have to write arcs based on the possibility that someone might not finish the story - it would be quite impossible to take that into account for every story we create.
In the general case if the player chooses to abandon an arc it can be safely assumed the Contact gets someone else to do it instead. In this case that's problematic.
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The Doctor keeps mentioning that she has other people working for her, helping her out with hacking and other things. If the fourth timed mission is failed, for example, another user uploaded her file from a different location, with the player's admin account. The player can be replaced but it is inconvenient and The Doctor is in fact trying to tie up the loose end of this rogue copy running around in the flesh in the most humane manner possible.
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So would I, but this gave me an opportunity to make a story about The Doctor so I ran with it.
I think we can do stories with the Doctor that don't open more cans of worms than they close.
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Almost certainly, but this is the can of worms I decided to focus upon.
Winner of Players' Choice Best Villainous Arc 2010: Fear and Loathing on Striga; ID #350522
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hey quick question, since pubised arch ar limited to 3, and i assume this is account level what about locals? can i swap out missions between local and publish so i can have more then 3 in a broad sense or is local similary limited
[/ QUOTE ]
AFAIK Local is unlimited so you could swap out arcs if you wanted; bear in mind though that unpublishing an arc will lose all ratings on that arc.
[/ QUOTE ]
still its the only way to resonalbly create several multi arc task forces so i kinda have to deal with it
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You can totally re-edit an existing arc, but it's a real pain, and you could end up losing all your progress.
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not of you building several "task forces" composed of more then 5 missions
AE # 67087: Journey through the Looking Glass - Save the World
LLX VirtueVerse! - Check out my crazy Toons
This is the size of group that we have balanced AVs for, 6.
-Positron 06/07/06 07:27 PM
"A Tale of Two Cities, Part One: The Mageguard of Oranbega
Arc ID: 78117
Missions: 5
Description: Diviner Maros has come to you with a mission: Safeguard the Circle of Thorns against an incursion from another dimension. He pays well, but what is this wily Seer's real agenda?
My attempt at writing Diviner Maros. I want to know how I did! Also my first major experiment with a custom group, I'd love to hear about that, too. The first of three planned arcs: does anyone want to see more? This needs testing and review!
Has been killed by the DoT on Throwing Knives and proud of it.