Arc is in my sig below.
Would love to know after the last patch if it's too hard or not. I designed it to be a challenge so I hope I accomplished that.
Afterall the vast majority of the Dev content is mind numbingly easy so hopefully mine is a departure from that.
Thanks!
[ QUOTE ]
By all rights, to get it right I would need looney tunes as well as serious. It's not exactly an easy thing to mix at all. Of course the old man will be completely serious about this because he lost his realm to this absolute randomness.
I'm getting the idea one thinks Chaos would of simular lines of The Joker but it's not quite like that. Some stuff that's coming from this thing could be harmless. It is completely disorray, un orginized. Something effected might turn out like the joker, or you could end up with some form of super hero out of it.
[/ QUOTE ]
No, I was thinking more along the lines of Chaos from the Warhammer universe (mainly the PnP RPG, the MMO watered it down quite a bit). Bat-*blip*-crazy? Check. Random and wacky? Check. Scary, even horrifying, as all get out? Double-Check.
Chaos can be weird without being toon town.
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Originally Posted by eltonio
This is over the top mental slavery.
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[ QUOTE ]
I have a hard time with dialog; it takes me a long time to write and what sounds good to me might or might not sound good to everyone else. If anything particularly stood out, let me know what it was and I'll see if I can improve it.
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I don't remember specifically... but some of the dialog was a little cheesy. Again, I'm being nitpicky at this point, but it was just off a bit.
[ QUOTE ]
The ambushes on the end boss spawn at 3/4 and 1/2 health (the second spawn is larger, though). There should be time between them, but ambush arrival time can vary a lot depending on just where they spawn. I could move the last ambush to 1/4 health, but then I'd be worried that sometimes the boss would be killed before the reinforcements even arrive.
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Maybe change where the ambushes spawn then, make the first one in back and the second in middle or something so there is a little more time between when they arrive. Having them both show up within a matter of seconds meant we were surrounded and quickly went down without hope. Spacing them out for even another 15-20 seconds would have been enough for us to get a handle on the first group before the larger second one arrived.
We were killing the boss pretty fast that first time around, because we had his own guards attacking him too (Confusion FTW!)
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I wasn't sure how to handle Brass's starting conversation, since there's no way to tell if the PC has worked with him before. In my early drafts, I tried to be ambiguous, but it felt rather awkward. Having him (re)introduce himself seemed like the smoother of the two evils to me.
And I know the arc takes a little while to get going, but I felt that a ramp up worked best for story, both in terms of plot and feel. I tried to make the early missions short to compensate. I hope that worked, and at least it sounds like it wasn't boring.
[/ QUOTE ]
The second mission send off is where I started becoming interested. There were some nice touches (the watermelon). And the plot, of course, was interesting and kept me guessing on what was a simulation and what was acting on it's own almost to the end, so that was good.
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Hmm. Ambushes can be glitchy, but those may be spawned patrols rather than actual ambushes. I'll see if I can make a clearer distinction between the two.
Actually, did you mean mission 3 (the Council base) or mission 4 (Aeon's office)? Mission 3 is pretty uniform, so I think you may mean mission 4. 4 has, IIRC, three glowies which can spawn mobs, only one of which is an ambush. I was trying to add some variety, but it sounds like I need to make things clearer. There are no escaped holograms there, just stuff Aeon was working on.
[/ QUOTE ]
Yes, that was the mission. We were thinking "why are there suddenly clockwork running around here?" and things like that. It seemed odd.
Overall, as I said, I really did like it.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by eltonio
This is over the top mental slavery.
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[ QUOTE ]
Maybe change where the ambushes spawn then, make the first one in back and the second in middle or something so there is a little more time between when they arrive. Having them both show up within a matter of seconds meant we were surrounded and quickly went down without hope. Spacing them out for even another 15-20 seconds would have been enough for us to get a handle on the first group before the larger second one arrived.
We were killing the boss pretty fast that first time around, because we had his own guards attacking him too (Confusion FTW!)
[/ QUOTE ]
Heh, poor boss. He needs a stricter hiring policy. I'll see if I can prevent this from happening.
[ QUOTE ]
The second mission send off is where I started becoming interested. There were some nice touches (the watermelon). And the plot, of course, was interesting and kept me guessing on what was a simulation and what was acting on it's own almost to the end, so that was good.
[/ QUOTE ]
That is indeed good. :-)
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Yes, that was the mission. We were thinking "why are there suddenly clockwork running around here?" and things like that. It seemed odd.
[/ QUOTE ]
The Clockwork are hunting the Ally you free in the mission; they spawn when you free him. His dialog and /info should imply why, but it may be too hard to catch that. I'll try to clarify it a bit.
Thanks again for taking the time to comment, Smurch!
-D
Darkonne: Pinnacle's (unofficially) mighty Dark Miasma/Radiation Blast enthusiast!
Be sure to check out this mighty Arc:
#161865 - Aeon's Nemesis
I've got a story-focused lowbie arc I'd like to offer up for review. I think I've got it pretty well polished, but ... maybe not. I want to make another arc, and I suspect getting feedback on the first may inspire me.
The arc I'd like to submit is "A South Side Story," #49035. It's limited to levels 5-14, and written for blueside play at levels 10-14. The intention was to give a player something fresh to do after they've done the second safeguard in KR, and to provide an arc that is more challenging than the canon arcs of the same level.
In "A South Side Story" only the bosses are custom. The other foes are standard Skulls, Hellions, and Lost.
The description is:
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Det. Rachel Torres, head of the PPD's Gang Unit, needs your help! You'll be working with a Skull known as "Teardrop" to quell gang violence in Kings Row.
[/ QUOTE ]
Now I know playing at low levels isn't everybody's cup of tea. In fact, one of the first comments I received on "South Side" was "MOAR LEVELS!" 
A few of the players also said the story in "South Side" is too complicated. So I set about making a second arc in which I kept the story simple and the level range unlimited.
So here's the deal: if the level restrictions of the first arc make it unappealing, the second arc is available, even though it is not polished to the same degree as the first. I'm happy to get a review on either one!
The second arc is "Hall of the Dancing Tsoo," #76764. It has unlimited range for xp and there are no level bumps to contend with - in other words, it's all custom mobs. It was designed to provide moderately challenging play for heroes level 3-8.
The description reads:
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Derek Amberson, the coordinator for new heroes of Natural origin, has learned of a plan by the Tsoo to extend their reach into Galaxy City. Who will stand up and oppose the Tsoo?
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Thanks in advance, and I hope whichever arc you choose is fun! 
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Arc #92630: I Will Dance On Your Grave
Rating: 3 stars
The short of it: Some of the custom enemies are well balanced, others are annoying, NPC text seems lackluster, a lot of outdoor maps
Final Thoughts
Even though the dialogue isn't stellar, and it has some annoying enemies and in my opinion annoying maps, it wasn't a chore to play, and I had some genuine fun with it. It's not an arc that I would say "Go play this now", but I definitely wouldn't suggest against it either.
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Thanks for the review
I do agree that the constantly arriving too late is annoying - I have been trying to work on a way to keep Grave Dancer's plot going without the player failing.
I'll look at the dialog, but just based on "it seems flat" I don't know what that really means. I probably do write it too grammatically correct (without contractions and such).
The Summoner Zombies are necro/dark armor. They have one dark attack. So they shouldn't be that bad for stacking dark.
I don't know if you have said what difficulty, level and type of character you are playing. I make my arc for heroic - I assume that playing at higher level of difficulty will make it difficult and that is the player choice. If it is tough at heroic than I may need to tweak it.
I like outdoor maps - I wish some were smaller. I am not messing with maps again until at least issue 15 - I had to pull the burning forest from mission 3.
Mission 3 is all style (it was much cooler imo in the burning forest). I recognize not everyone will like it. What I really need is functioning spawn placements so I can set the ally to be near the start and the boss to be somewhere findable. I do come from AC where missions required searching and looking around - not the very simple WoW or CoX you go along a linear map and find the boss at the end.
Now when I do searches on outdoor maps I usually fly around - I don't slog through everything. Maybe I'm assuming something players do that they don't. Also it occurs to me that Sun Dancer can't fly - I'll change that.
Sun Dancer is fire/thermal. He should buff you - which is his major function. I didn't want him to be more powerful than the player. He shouldn't be doing much with his control powers.
I will throw this in if anyone feels like reviewing it.
Name: The Heart of Artemis
Arc ID: 162423
Length: Long
Morality: Villainous
Description: Greek Mythology speaks of a legendary artifact known as The Heart of Artemis. You stumble upon items that lead you to believe it may be re-forged. But, the advantage you may gain from doing so, is something no one will let you have.
Intended this to be easy but with the Malta in there you should try it with at least a lvl 22. I intend to make a TF version of this so any constructive comments would be appreciated.
Things I would like to know: What do you think of the custom mobs?, does the "action" involve you in the story?, Is what is happening clear? Did you like my informative text in the intros? Did you get a good feel for each of CANUCK's agents?
This is my 2nd arc, so if anyone feels like giving my first Arc (in my sig) a review, you are most welcomed to do so.
Char Site | My DeviantArt
Global=@Thornster
As for mission 3, it's not so much the problem of "Oh dear, I have to search for something, whatever will I do," the problem is that so much stuff is going on that it's incredibly hard to find Grave Dancer. You've got ghosts floating in giant green fires, you've got numerous destructible objects sitting around everywhere, etc. The only clue as to Grave Dancers' location is that he is surrounded by drummers. I'd suggest giving his surrounding foes a more obvious animation, one with graphical effects.
For difficulty, I was playing on challenge level 4, as my scrapper is fairly powerful. The stacking of dark miasma was coming from the LTs, which is bad enough.
As for the dialogue, the problem is a lack of emotion. At some places this is because the dialogue seems stilted due to short sentences, other times it's due to wrong choice of or lack of punctuation. I said myself in my review that it's hard for me to say how to fix something like this, as me fixing it for you would become me writing your arc for you.
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Heh, poor boss. He needs a stricter hiring policy. I'll see if I can prevent this from happening.
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Erm, I hope you can't! If you give him guards with Mez protection, you're going to make life miserable for a dominator. We were a confusion-heavy duo, me with Mass Confusion and her with Seeds of Confusion, so Confusion is one of our mainstays.
Considering dominator DPS is, shall we say, a touch below the average, we probably weren't outperforming corruptors or brutes even with the confused guards.
Besides, it's so much fun to be able to turn a foe's friends against him.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by eltonio
This is over the top mental slavery.
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[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Heh, poor boss. He needs a stricter hiring policy. I'll see if I can prevent this from happening.
[/ QUOTE ]
Erm, I hope you can't! If you give him guards with Mez protection, you're going to make life miserable for a dominator. We were a confusion-heavy duo, me with Mass Confusion and her with Seeds of Confusion, so Confusion is one of our mainstays.
[/ QUOTE ]
Oops. I shouldn't have written those two sentences back to back. I meant that I was amused at the BBEG's problem, and also that I would attempt to prevent the time-on-target ambush issue.
I don't mind you beating the BBEG to death with his own henchmen. Though I do sympathize with him; I tested a custom Illusion critter of mine with my Fire/Dark Brute, and it wasn't pretty. Confuse was very, very tough on the poor Brute.
-D
Darkonne: Pinnacle's (unofficially) mighty Dark Miasma/Radiation Blast enthusiast!
Be sure to check out this mighty Arc:
#161865 - Aeon's Nemesis
I would like to throw ArcID 170506, "Threads" to the lions here. Rip it apart for me.
Alignment Heroic
Soloable? Probably
Level Range any possible but SOs+ reccomended
Custom bosses, one EB
[ QUOTE ]
I will throw this in if anyone feels like reviewing it.
Name: The Heart of Artemis
Arc ID: [will add it when I get home] (@Thornster should bring it up)
Length: Long
Morality: Villainous
Description: Greek Mythology speaks of a legendary artifact known as The Heart of Artemis. You stumble upon items that lead you to believe it may be re-forged. But, the advantage you may gain from doing so, is something no one will let you have.
Intended this to be easy but with the Malta in there you should try it with at least a lvl 22. I intend to make a TF version of this so any constructive comments would be appreciated.
[/ QUOTE ]
I was looking for a villainous arc, so I ran through this with my level 37 Crab Spider. It went pretty smoothly, and I enjoyed it overall. My comments below (which will include spoilers in case anyone wants to avoid them).
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Things I would like to know: What do you think of the custom mobs?, does the "action" involve you in the story?, Is what is happening clear? Did you like my informative text in the intros? Did you get a good feel for each of CANUCK's agents?
[/ QUOTE ]
I liked the custom mobs. The Lieutenants were the least themey of the bunch, but they were still fun. The bosses weren't over the top powerful, and they were still clearly more dangerous than the lesser mobs.
I think the /info for the CANUCK CRA-Zs was a bit too detailed, though. They often included a lot of personal details that felt out of place in someone's resume, and sometimes crossed into telling rather than showing. I think you could still convey a sense of personality with a shorter, more career oriented style. That would be more in keeping with the traditional bios. It might also be better to focus on fewer of the CRA-Zs. They kinda crowd each other out when they're all present in the third mission.
On the story, I understood what was happening, but I do think the beginning was too abrupt. We find some odd relics that we were not expecting. Yet almost immediately after finding them, Scratch learns about a Malta project they could be used for, where and what other items we would need to complete that project, and even has some idea of who would be trying to stop us. That transition is too rushed. We either need to know more about the Hand of Artemis project going into the arc, or to figure it out slowly over the course of the arc.
Also, while I understood what I was trying to do, some of the components needed for the Hand of Artemis were very confusing. Why does it take a Rikti microchip to create an ancient, mystical artifact? Why would I expect to randomly run across a Dark-powered hero on a random mission? I think these components need a little more background information on just why they're needed.
I did like what the Hand of Artemis did, though. The ultimate tracking device is a neat idea that still feels appropriately powerful. It fits with the huntress theme of Artemis, and is a perfect object for the Malta Group to obsess over. The only problem with it is that it doesn't seem like it has anything to do with the story of Artemis trying to renounce her divinity that was mentioned before mission 2. So I liked the end of the story, but I felt the beginning needs some work.
On the subject of the [informative text] portions of the mission intros, I don't think they worked well. The information was clearly germane to what was going to happen, but I'd rather find a way to convey that information without it feeling so out of place. Either work bits of it into Scratch's dialog at appropriate points, or present it as a single background blurb at the start of the arc. This may just be a personal preference on my part, but they didn't help the story as presented.
A few other details I noted: in mission 2, Capitaine Quebec's unaware dialog included "$name" directly, rather than substituting the name of my character. Not sure how that happened. I found some of the unnamed NPC dialog a little awkward: it didn't sound like something the character would have reason to say out loud.
Anyway, this isn't really a formal review, but hopefully it will help.
-D
Darkonne: Pinnacle's (unofficially) mighty Dark Miasma/Radiation Blast enthusiast!
Be sure to check out this mighty Arc:
#161865 - Aeon's Nemesis
Submitting my arc so that Venture can review it:
Arc ID 64859
Name: The Calling of the Cult.
Creator: @Misho
Morality: Neutral
5 Missions long, map 1-2-4 are small 3-5 are unique and medium to big.
Length according to MA descriptor: Very Long.
Aprox. Length from previous players' runs: Not so long.
Custom Group.
EB/AV included.
Party recommended altho' not needed.
Looking for constructive criticism.
Thank you very much for your feedback. I took my reply to the arc's thread just so the conversation can continue without polluting this thread.
Char Site | My DeviantArt
Global=@Thornster
It's my birthday so I thought being humbled by reviewers would be a good present to myself . My 3 arcs form a trilogy mostly because my use of custom groups filled up my arc files too darn quick. The middle arc is a single mission but I warn that if you can't find all your objectives remember that there is an indoor portion to that map.
I tested the arcs solo with my Ill/TA troller and also duo'ed the first 2 with a L28 tanker and an auto-sk'ed blaster with no problems so it should be challenging but doable by all *crosses fingers*.
*points down at sig* I hope you enjoy 'em.
My 50s:
Prime Minister MA/SR Scrap - Protector
Captain Hit-Guy DM/Reg Scrap - Freedom
Prime-Minister ILL/TA Troller - Freedom
Ultimate Minister Inv/SS Tanker - Freedom
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Well, I asked on a popular global channel for my home server what people would like in an arc. The general response was something villainous and a well-written story. The first part of their requests was easy; just select villainous for the morality. The other part...well, that's where it all falls into the hands of others. I dared to play with CoX canon, and one might say the "idiot ball" is tossed from the get-go. The ultimate goal can't be accomplished...EVER! But this is about story-telling, and I'm hoping folks will have fun with the idea.
Name: To Be Incarnate
Arc ID: 162898
Length: Long
Morality: Villainous
Description: There's an old VEAT in town, and it's your chance to become one! (Note: This arc contains an AV. While it has been "squishy tested," it is not necessarily "solo-squishy approved.") *
Suggested Level Range: 30+
Estimated Difficulty: Moderate
* Please Note: I tested the arc with a level 31 Blaster and a level 31 Mastermind, and both were able to get through the entire arc soloing. The level ranges, however, are 1-54 for three of the missions, and 40-54 for the last - all because of ONE character I added in the finale.
*sigh* Like all computer systems, MA doesn't do what you want it to, just what you tell it to do. 
Anyway, I hope folks are entertained by the tale, and constructive feedback would be appreciated.
+Gamron, (AKA: A-N)
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Okay...A few folks have played the above arc, with one person actually handing out a rating...just one...and it was 5 stars, which was VERY nice. Another person that played it gave me the highest praise of telling me it was nice to read a story that wasn't wall-to-wall spelling and grammar errors; this person said it was wonderfully written, and, again, I consider that the highest praise of all...
...but that particular person said that the conclusion of the story was obvious. This comment came after a major rewrite of the story, as Venture would likely have said the old version threw "the idiot ball" after accepting mission 3. As it is, after accepting mission 4 in the rewrite, I used Venture's phrase in the actual narrative to let the player know the idiot ball has been thrown full-force at the player's head. Still, my critic said they had it figured out by mission 2, and...Well, the purpose of the story is to entertain; it's not about the acheivement of the impossible goal that's stated from the very start. But if the story is killed by mission 2, I'm wondering if it's worth keeping it published.
As stated in my original post, I'd appreciate folks giving it a whirl and giving me constructive feedback. Rather than rate it low because you didn't like one aspect or another, send me feedback via this thread or a PM on this site with suggestions as to how it can be improved. Then, should I edit in various suggestions, play it again, and THEN rate it as you see fit. In other words, give me a chance to fix it before you throw me to the rating wolves. (Crazy idea gets the 
emoticon.)
My advanced thanks to those willing to lend me aid on this tale. And please...Be well.
+Gamron (AKA: A-N)
"The acquisition of any knowledge is of use to the intellect, for nothing can be loved or hated until it is first known."
Leonardo da Vinci
N.B. I typoed the arc ID on "Celebrity Kidnapping"; it is #1388, not #1288. Mea culpa.
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"
Putting my arc up for grabs, have at it:
Title: The Day I Tried To Live
Arc ID: 131780
Morality: Neutral (Might lean more to the Red side of things)
Difficulty Level: 40+ Medium, -40 hard
Synopsis Live the story of the contact. A tale of his downward spiral filled with self destruction, rage, desperation and a hint of love. It's the story of a Hero and a Madman.
Number of EB/AVS 2 EBs, the first EB mission has a good ally that is not needed to complete the mission. Don't miss him, he really helps.
Story Type Serious.
Mission Count: Five
Estimated Time to Play: I have no idea...Probably more than an hour.
Note Only one kill all on a small map (second mission). The level range is wacky because of the groups I used, two missions are 30-54, two are 40-54 and one is 41-54. Also, throughout the missions are hostages that don't need to be rescued, but might make more sense to the story overall. Custom group has not been tested a lot.
Arc has A LOT of text.
Constructive criticism always helps.
WWE vs Pro Boxing
174269
Crazed fans have taken hostages from both sports. It is up to you to rescue the likes of Mike Tyson, Andre The Giant, Oscar De La Hoya, Etc.
[ QUOTE ]
WWE vs Pro Boxing
174269
Crazed fans have taken hostages from both sports. It is up to you to rescue the likes of Mike Tyson, Andre The Giant, Oscar De La Hoya, Etc.
[/ QUOTE ]
Review:
Length: Very Short
Three Stars
Change all the celebrity names as fast as you can, these are clearly trademarked properties, and you should use parodies instead.
Tested/reviewed with my 50 Kin/Engergy/Mind Defender.
I liked the mission contact's appearance. "Lady Gaga." Her dialogue was not well thought out however. A simple style of speaking is fine, but hers was inconsistent. The misison synopsis is not complete sentences, but could be spoken dialogue. It passes, assuming the rest of the style of this contact's speech is consistent. "Put a hurting on those fans." Fans? That seems....wrong somehow. Maybe change them to 'Crazed Fans' or 'Fanatic Fans'.
Mission One.
Outdoor map (woods). Some people hate these. I don't. Info text on custom mobs was generic. The fans were fun to beat on, but took a lot of punishment from my defender's attacks. Soloing this made the pace slow, and I died once when I drew too much aggro and my heal missed once (this happens with solo kin defs somtimes). At the end, there are a couple of Rikti whose info reads that they have infiltrated Arachnos (what Arachnos?). I really enjoyed that the 'wife' customs were Lts. This was fun to play, and squishie friendly (only mezzed once and I cleared the map).
This is my first review, I hope it's helpful.
[ QUOTE ]
Putting my arc up for grabs, have at it:
Title: The Day I Tried To Live
Arc ID: 131780
[/ QUOTE ]
Played this with my kin/nrg/mnd 50, paired up with a AR/Dev blaster. A third member of our team quit at start.
Several times throughout the missions we see the contact (Red) as he relives emotional moments from the storyarc and evolves into a more terrible entity. An interesting technique for carrying the story, definately different and well conceived.
Mission 1
Crey. A map we've seen a lot before--this plays like a published mission. Experiencing the 'life' of the contact is nifty in theory, but this mission seemed very ordinary.
Red's dialogue really takes it up a notch, and then down a notch in the monologue between missions 1 and 2. First he blames them--then the diety--is this an attempt to bypass the language filters? It seems like bad writing at first, but a few more missions seem to make this clear as the protagonist's madness.
Mission 2
Oh boy. More Crey. And a defeat all in a typical Crey base map. Contact dialogue is still really inspired, but I am not sure whatever he is talking about is reflected in the story.
Mission 3
Rikti. In a base/cave/rikti map that is supposed to be a ship's interior. Interesting use of map, even though this seemed tedious, it got more interesting as the arc went on due to glowie placement. Nice use of rikti.
Mission 4
Finally--some custom mobs! And these are a pleasure to fight, interesting powersets, groups are built like player groups, and should not be understimated. My sidekick and I were defeated a few times in this mission, and it was unclear how to get the special guest star to spawn, but this was a fun mission. Large xp drop due to pet/ally, but he was helpful in aggro managment.
Mission 5
A finale that delivers, rounds out the story and is interesting. Interesting map, nice and short. Boss fight was fun
After the long grueling missions 1-3, missions 4 and 5 are much more interesting and save the arc from being too much like a standard contact series of missions, however the early missions are very typical of published content. Very exceptional story dialogue helps a lot. Ultimately, the player(s) are not the protagonists of the story, but active observers to the life of Red, and the early missions are balanced well.
Hello to you all. I have 2 arc's I would really appreciate some feedback on. Both have custom critters from a new villian group I created. The first arc is called "Meet The Icerya" arc# 176180 the other one is called "How it all began" arc # 31822
I would really like to have some people try out my arc's, and get some feedback on them. It is so hard to get people to try other peoples arc's unless they are a farm mish.
I put alot of thought, and research into the names, and look of my custom critters. I also put alot of dialouge in the story, and in the info section of the critters themselves. They have descriptions, and so does the custom contact I made for the first mentioned arc. The contact even has a new group, and story lore to it.
Please check them out, and let me know what you think.
Thanks
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[ QUOTE ]
Putting my arc up for grabs, have at it:
Title: The Day I Tried To Live
Arc ID: 131780
[/ QUOTE ]
Played this with my kin/nrg/mnd 50, paired up with a AR/Dev blaster. A third member of our team quit at start.
[/ QUOTE ]
Thanks for playing and reviewing my arc, I appreciate it. It gave me a few ideas on what to change.
I've been trying to get someone...anyone...to review this arc for nearly a week now. So far the only person who has ever played it is me. And my alts.
Arc Name: Truth in Paragon
Arc ID: 216693
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Draconek (Forum Name: jdinflames)
Difficulty Level: It's set for easy, but it has a few customs in there...so medium. My stories are all "intended" for solo play.
Synopsis: Paragon is a violent city, and it's up to you to clean it up! This story is built for all levels, and is an introduction to other storylines that I am currently working on.
Estimated Time to Play: Less than 1 Hour
Link to More Details or Feedback: Feedback in game or on here via PM would be amazing, as this is my first story arc
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Name: Aeon's Nemesis
Arc ID: 161865
Length: Very Long
Morality: Villainous
Description: "You've heard a rumor that Marshal Brass is looking for someone to test a secret feature of the Architect system."
[/ QUOTE ]
I ran it with my wife, me on my level 37 Mind/Ice dom, her on her level 34 Plant/Thorn dom.
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Hooray for feedback! And from Dominators, too. +10 bonus points for you, sir!
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Overall, I liked it. Mostly my complaints are nitpicky more than serious, I won't go into them at this time, but I'll just say you may want to revisit some of the dialog here and there.
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I have a hard time with dialog; it takes me a long time to write and what sounds good to me might or might not sound good to everyone else. If anything particularly stood out, let me know what it was and I'll see if I can improve it.
[ QUOTE ]
The only WTF moment we really had was the multiple ambushes on the end boss. They seemed like they came at the exact same time and we were overwhelmed and had to hospital. On the second time back we used those guys to build domination and then fought off the boss... barely. I used almost a whole tray of insps to do it, but we did it. I don't think I could have soloed it. We ran on Challenge Level 3, however. On challenge level 1, I might have been able to solo it, although those ambushes still may have swamped me. If it's possible, space them out a little more is my advice.
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The ambushes on the end boss spawn at 3/4 and 1/2 health (the second spawn is larger, though). There should be time between them, but ambush arrival time can vary a lot depending on just where they spawn. I could move the last ambush to 1/4 health, but then I'd be worried that sometimes the boss would be killed before the reinforcements even arrive.
I'm not sure which is the better option here. How fast were you killing the BBEG on his own? I'll have to see what works best for the most people.
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Otherwise it seems well balanced for Doms. It was challenging, but not a faceplant marathon. The custom critters seemed about right in balance, especially to the standard mobs.
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That's good to hear. The last patch seems to have removed the Defiance effect from AR critters. :-)
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The story wasn't bad, either. The initial set up was kinda weak and since my char had already worked with Martial Brass, the introduction broke versilimitude, but it picked up from there and I was engaged throughout.
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I wasn't sure how to handle Brass's starting conversation, since there's no way to tell if the PC has worked with him before. In my early drafts, I tried to be ambiguous, but it felt rather awkward. Having him (re)introduce himself seemed like the smoother of the two evils to me.
And I know the arc takes a little while to get going, but I felt that a ramp up worked best for story, both in terms of plot and feel. I tried to make the early missions short to compensate. I hope that worked, and at least it sounds like it wasn't boring.
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We had some glowies that obviously spawned an ambush (heard the dialog) but they never showed. Also some of the enemy groups chosen for ambushes in mission 3 seemed... odd. I wasn't sure if they were really ambushing (and if so... why?) or if they were escaped holograms or something. It was never very clear.
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Hmm. Ambushes can be glitchy, but those may be spawned patrols rather than actual ambushes. I'll see if I can make a clearer distinction between the two.
Actually, did you mean mission 3 (the Council base) or mission 4 (Aeon's office)? Mission 3 is pretty uniform, so I think you may mean mission 4. 4 has, IIRC, three glowies which can spawn mobs, only one of which is an ambush. I was trying to add some variety, but it sounds like I need to make things clearer. There are no escaped holograms there, just stuff Aeon was working on.
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Again had some nitpicky moments here and there but overall I found it to be a good arc. It just needs a little polish.
I rated 4 stars.
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Thanks so much for trying it and giving me a report! I'm very happy that you liked it, and I'll see what I can do to improve it further.
Meanwhile, everyone else is still welcome (nay, encouraged) to try it for themselves. The more the merrier, in fact. I only ever tested this solo, so I'd be curious to hear how it handles large groups.
-D
Darkonne: Pinnacle's (unofficially) mighty Dark Miasma/Radiation Blast enthusiast!
Be sure to check out this mighty Arc:
#161865 - Aeon's Nemesis