Arc 1472 - Hearts on Fire
Rating: *****
First and foremost, I did this arc on a non-50, non-purpled brute. If I was in the 10-15 range, though, I'd have done it for the XP, not just for the sake of reviewing. Why? Because it's a bloody good arc.
This arc is gated to be the kind of thing you would actually encounter in a low-level villain range. The individuals involved are reasonably accomplished (10-15) members of low-level street gangs. If I found this arc as a little unlockable character amidst Port Oakes' bevy of repeated stuff, I wouldn't be surprised. The arc calls you a hero at one point, which, upon completion, makes more sense. Despite being basically an origin arc of a villain, the arc steers mostly clear of mary sue-ism. As a hero, however, you do arrive pretty much constantly too late to 'do anything.' I did it with a villain, which to me puts a nasty cast on events - letting two gangs destroy one another with minimal influence seems very appropriate to me.
The arc is clue-light, and by that I mean, like, two clues. That's actually not a problem - the story is told very succinctly through NPC dialogue and made very clear without a clue to beat you over the head. It's also quite short - pleasantly so, there's no real dicking around to get to the point of the plot.
I could go into in-depth analysis, but due to the arc's short, sweet nature and low level range, it doesn't need it. Just run it. Any character with a big inspiration tray can solo it quickly and enjoy the dialogue. Like an afternoon special or an anime OAV, it's easier to experience it - and I recommend you do. And like most of the anime I like, there's a rather bitter darkening of tone, but not one you weren't warned about. The arc deals with themes that an adult will recognise and understand as will a younger player - without making anything too explicit.
Balance-wise I'd say the arc is pretty much perfect. There's nothing in this arc that pulls it out of a level range, there's no unreasonable NPC additions, and well, they're hellions. Everyone deals with Hellions. It reacts to the difficulty as you'd expect, and there's no massive sprawl of bossery to deal with.
Arc 1814 - Science is a Harsh Mistress!
Rating: ****
The arc starts by using an established NPC and throwing out the comical premise of Go, Hunt, Kil Mad Scientists. I love me some Morally Ambiguous Doctorates, so I loaded it up and gave it a run.
It's a simple, one-mission collect-em-up, and everyone in it is different and interesting. It's a fun arc, it's funny, and it's worth the time it takes to do. It's not a repeater - not something I'd be doing regularly for tickets - but it's a real laugh and worth the time to focus on.
Most significantly, however, the arc contains something I want to steal. Not a big deal, but I think it's a mark of a good piece of architect design should inspire those who create to steal. It's not a big deal 5-star everyone-should-try style mission, but it's a real laugh to the fans of Mad Science.
Something that this arc does really well, and that I'm very happy about is that the arc packs a lot of character ideas, with clear and distinct personalities into one mission. There isn't any filler here - there's just things to do. This mission, in one mission, succesfully compacts the kind of collection story other writers would try and do in four or five missions, and instead does it all in one.
This is a very well-crafted arc and eschews the pitfalls of an arc that could just be about 'look at my stuff.'
Arc 33034 - The Descender
Rating: ****
I've done this arc before - I did it on D-38, my SS/Fire brute. Knowing that this arc is 'supposed' to fit in the level 20-30 range, I instead changed to Operative Gallows, a Bane spider. Gallows is in the right range to earn XP for the arc, and more importantly, isn't actually well-built. He has a knockback protection IO and a bunch of commons. And that's all. So I wanted to attack this arc on its own terms.
Originally, the arc was good on a conceptual level, but lacked punch to make it enjoyable as an arc in its own right. There was also something that really bothered me in that the arc used Captain Mako as its contact, and then failed to really capture the Mako-ness of Mako. The actual real Mako, as it were. I then said so in Venture's thread, and made myself feel like an idiot for realising it wasn't a 'everyone review stuff' thread, and that's why we're here now.
So, the author, good sport that he is, went back and took what I said to heart, and now this is his second run at things. So let's see what's what.
Now, the first good thing this arc does is tie itself to the canon. Mako is shameless about the Leviathan, and is equally shameless about the fact you're dealing with his patron arc. There is a brief moment of worry in my mind - this character is 20-30, but is chasing someone in the 40-45 range? - but I have a suspicion about how things can go. So we'll see what we see as the arc unfolds.
The arc has what I think a good concept behind it. It deals with the clean-up of a 'third option' conclusion to the Mako Patron Arc (where the Destined One, rather than just kill or be killed by Mako, ran away). It's mostly good - there's still some polish necessary, though!
Some minor details: Mish 2, because the arc is limited to 20-30, is now against Thorns in that dread range. If you're bad against Spectral Demons? You're going to hate this. That said, it's one mission, and it's not a whole arc. Plus, the mission is stealthable.
There's a nice turn, which I won't give away. This works out really well for the feel of the arc, like you're skulking around and hiding your true intentions. How this eventually works out gives a nice feeling of verisimillitude.
The latter part of the arc was very frustrating but only because I kept crashing - nothing to do with the arc itself. In the fourth mission, there's fighting going on, and not just in one or two places, but in dozens and dozens of bursts. This is really good, since it means that you don't have a big, open-air space where people are quietly standing around waiting for a plucky villain to come along and boot them in the face. This gives the place a feeling of dynamic reality. There's a real feeling of an event rather than just a place. And of course, the dialogue furthers the storyline - in the fourth mission, more information is brought to light, and I found myself eager to see how the conclusion runs.
Mish five is the one that I find the most awkward. Because, the thing is this arc can't really be fit into the continuity of a character. This arc ends the career, this arc concludes very finally with a clear... well, it's a conclusion.
Overall: Good use of maps, clever use of the mechanics for the game, and decent dialogue plagued by editorial errors and a story that might not make a huge amount of sense at the end, since it has to fall under either All Just A Dream or you retiring the character outside of its level range. Good story with a lot of scope, but unfortunately, seems to push a bit too hard at what this architect can be used for. A good story in its own right, and well-enough executed... but not something you can weave into part of the life of a character, really. Probably works much better if you're already level 50 (though it asks the odd question of why you're downlevelled for the early half of the arc...)
Also, the souveneir is a gigantic wall of text.
Are you taking requests?
#2409 - The Mystery of the MAGI vaults. Azuria has contacted you to help her stop the thefts from the MAGI vaults.
#68054 - Out of the gutters. Left for dead, you swore that you were through with being a victim (alt villain beginning story)
Well, I'd appreciate an indepth review of the arc in my sig, 2409. It is geared for heroes and lower level characters, so I understand if it's not what you might want to play right now going by your opening post.
#2409 - The Mystery of the MAGI vaults. Azuria has contacted you to help her stop the thefts from the MAGI vaults.
#68054 - Out of the gutters. Left for dead, you swore that you were through with being a victim (alt villain beginning story)
(QR)
I suppose at this point I will shamelessly ask for a review on my first arc: "The Fan Club." Its ID number and description are linked to in my sig.
It's a Heroic arc, keyed for the 24-35 span though, so that might not be quite your cup of tea. But looking at the very in-depth reviews you've made thus far, I can only hope for some good feedback.
Now I'm gonna have to work on a Villainous arc though.
Head of TRICK, the all Trick Arrow and Traps SG
Part of the Repeat Offenders
Still waiting for his Official BackAlleyBrawler No-Prize
If you're leveling up a hero then "Dream Paper" and "Bricked Electronics" will work well up to 20. "The Bravuran Jobs" should work in the high 20s villainside - it boosts you up to 30 for a couple later missions but that shouldn't be anything you can't handle.
Up with the overworld! Up with exploration! | Want a review of your arc?
My arcs: Dream Paper (ID: 1874) | Bricked Electronics (ID: 2180) | The Bravuran Jobs (ID: 5073) | Backwards Day (ID: 329000) | Operation Fair Trade (ID: 391172)
Venture may have reviewed two of them, but I still want my arcs to get as much feedback as possible. They're 1684, 1992, and 2595.
Issue 16 made me feel like this.
Warning: This poster likes to play Devil's Advocate.
Arc 3615 - Dark Dreams
Rating: ** - Corrected error
This is the first arc I've been asked to review, which automatically puts me on the backfoot, slightly cautious. After all, what if I think it sucks? I'm going to have to tell someone who asked me my opinion that they've made what I see as a big gift-wrapped turd. I resolved to steel myself and continue as I have, so, here we go:
First thing first, I like the map - it's one I know, the 'infested office.' Then I find I have to rescue a hostage... and I have a named character to rescue nice and early in the map. I consider this to be a typical example of a player creating an arc where you get to meet his character... and I'm a little worried about that. It often doesn't feel like anything but an addition for addition's sake. So, I shake him off and go looking for the mission objective.
The enemy group was solid but unimpressive, but they don't seem to be grotesquely unfair. Sonic blast and dark armour appeared to be part of it, and they were semi-transluscent, which is neat, when you have glowing eyes to go with it. They remind me of a less-elegant version of the Isz, from the Maxx, possibly because they're dark, small, and expectantly menacing. Since it's a hero arc, the fact these guys are pretty much murder on any dominator is probably less of a problem.
Between the opening of the first mish (get hero really early on) to the conclusion there's a big stretch of Nothing. There's a few patrols of the custom enemy that don't do anything or say anything. Perhaps using a smaller map would be a good idea? Or maybe make more patrols or sighted spawns that do or say things. Then, it's lead the guy all the way back... to fight a boss at the fore of the mish. I dont' dislike the structure, but it feels like a bit of a waste of space.
If you don't find the bad guys themselves interesting and fun to fight, if you don't know and already like the hero buddy, if you don't know the motivation behind the bad guys and if you don't really look for a reason to care, you're not going to find this arc very fun. I didn't get very engaged by it, and therefore, the arc fell somewhat flat. It feels like a 'family and friends' arc - if you know ShockRiot, it's a decent start.
The thing is, the author tells me this is their first arc, and it's something they want to work on. That strikes me as good - it's much better than some 'first offerings' I've seen and there's a much clearer sense of the things the author can do with the tools. The mission is structured well - get a buddy early on (not something I'm overly fond of, of course), fight through stuff, get to the goal, run back and find something new along the way back. Then, you escalate a little, and the next mission fulfills the same process. Get buddies, kill bad guy.
Overall, it's a competent but unexciting arc. It's not bad. It's not like I actively want the author to scrap it and start over. But it's nothing special. Hum-drum. Boilerplate. Exactly the kind of thing you would expect of someone starting out. The plot itself has a good idea - it's just not executed in a hugely compelling way at this point. Absolute best stuff about the arc is the idea behind it, and the map choice. Beyond that, the whole thing feels very rushed, which I don't think works for the style of slightly creepy, comic-horror. It's almost like I feel like I picked up a normal comic book in the middle of a plot arc - everyone else seems to be someone I 'should' know, but I don't.
While the first mission attempts to stretch too little stuff across a big map, the second mission tries to cram too much stuff in one spot. This is made worse because the map is awesome, but it's very tedious to hunt around it, looking for stuff to actually fulfill the mission objectives. After an hour of searching, I quit the arc and gave up. I'd done all the objectives, but one, but I just couldn't find it - despite having killed everything in the map!
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An Aside: This is one of the problems of 'custom factions,' and part of why I'm so dubious about their purpose in an arc. To make them diverse and interesting, you wind up eating a lot of space, and a lot of mental time. Once you've got your custom faction designed, it seems the creative juices peter out - leaving people without the stamina to go out and make the full story.
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The maps are good but not for what they've been asked to do, the enemy faction is well-constructed but nothing interesting is done with them, and the NPCs are present but oddly extracted from their environment. Then, possibly due to bugs, it all ended in frustration.
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I don't care about your character. Or your friends. Or your friends' friends.
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I feel I should respond to this. While I agree with the sentiment, I should point out that these arcs are naturally going to involve characters you've never heard of, so there's nothing really wrong with using your own characters for those spots. After all, you should write what you know. As long as they don't dominate the story, I see nothing wrong with using them.
Issue 16 made me feel like this.
Warning: This poster likes to play Devil's Advocate.
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I don't care about your character. Or your friends. Or your friends' friends.
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I feel I should respond to this. While I agree with the sentiment, I should point out that these arcs are naturally going to involve characters you've never heard of, so there's nothing really wrong with using your own characters for those spots. After all, you should write what you know. As long as they don't dominate the story, I see nothing wrong with using them.
[/ QUOTE ]Ah, so here we draw me out to expand on them.
By and large, most players in role playing games don't actually make interesting characters. They make enjoyable ones. Most of the time, the characters lack the kind of engaging hooks or the depth of a proper literary character, especially since they're components of a 'game' that has success and failure mechanics. With that in mind, it's actually very possible to make a good, fun, RPG character, who is utterly unengaging in an actual story.
So, if your arc is 'Beat up guys with my character,' or 'help my character through his origin story,' or worse, 'Watch my characters' important story arc where you help out despite having never met him before,' it's going to almost certainly suck. I know I'm playing cynically here, but it's something I find infinitely more likely than stumbling upon the next work of distilled genius here. if you put your friends' characters in a story because they are your friends then they might as well not be there. An NPC in a story arc should be there to facilitate the story. If they're there to facilitate the badly-designed enemies, you probably have a problem too - it's a sign that you've probably made the arc or the enemies badly.
I enjoy both giving and receiving detailed, honest feedback, so I'll submit my arcs for review. I look forward to your playing either or both, as may suit your preference.
Arc Name: Cutthroat Competition
Arc ID: 10171
Creator Global Name: @Frozen Northman
Faction: Storyline is for villains. Vahzilok as allies, Circle of Thorns and Custom Critters as enemies.
Difficulty Level: Can be soloed, as allies have been inserted to help with the big final mission. Level range is roughly 15-22. Of course, the CoT can be annoying at this level range, so solo support-class types at lower levels may have difficulty.
Synopsis: A simple task from the Facemaker to round up a batch of live organ donors swiftly escalates into all-out war with another faction for the limited resource pool of innocent victims.
Estimated Time To Play: Four missions, runs from 30 minutes to an hour solo on Difficulty level 2.
Link to Feedback
Arc Name: A Tooth For A Tooth
Arc ID: 10173
Creator Global Name: @Frozen Northman
Faction: Storyline is for villains. Enemies include the Midnighter's Club, Trolls, and Custom Enemies.
Difficulty Level: Initial feedback suggests that a team is advisable. The final mission auto-scales to levels 15-20, and includes a Hero and a customized Archvillain. (Both of whom would scale to Elite Boss level on solo or for low difficulties, but that could still be a rough challenge for certain characters.)
Synopsis: A centuries-old dwarf seeks to rebuild his power and influence in the modern age, taking vengeance as he does so. Elements of Scandinavian mythology are incorporated.
Estimated Time To Play: Mission 1 is lvl 14-33, Missions 2 and 3 are lvl 1-54, and Mission 4 is lvl 15-20. The first two missions should go by pretty quickly. Missions 3 and 4 will take some more time to get through.
Link to Feedback
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Well, I wasn't going to do something like this, but when I read your list of Personal Judgments and found my Arc involved none of them I decided to throw my hat in the ring.
The story arc is "Romio and J'Let", ID 3291, and contains Nemesis and Rikti. I'm personally interested in honest and brutal feedback, as this arc has received a lot of revisions (thanks to Steelclaw's help, play City of Oz, great arc of his!) that I think have really improved it.
The arc is intended for higher levels. No EBs or custom critters, but it does have some of the tougher spawns from the devs. I am worried it might be too difficult, although it didn't seem any harder than standard fare to me. I like the story, or else I wouldn't have written it, but I am a better oral/interactive storyteller than I am a writer (I feed on other peoples ideas, social critter that I am). The custom group is just a mix of Malta and Knives, so they will spawn together.
Arc Name: The Empire - One Alliance
Publish Number: 1044
Description: Inter-dimensional warfare. Political intrigue. Odd alliances. Stop the invasion. This arc is appropriate for solo and team play.
Length: 4 missions. 1 big map. 3 medium maps. 1 Kill all. 30-60 minutes, depending on team.
Why Blasters? Empathy Sucks.
So, you want to be Mental?
What the hell? Let's buff defenders.
Tactics are for those who do not have a big enough hammer. Wisdom is knowing how big your hammer is.
If you're taking requests, I wouldn't mind someone taking a shot at my arc #44007 (I think) called "A Distant Rumbling". It's 3 missions, 1-54, average difficulty, no defeat all, 3 factions of custom enemies, each mission has a boss though the first one is optional.
I'm a bit concerned about the difficulty of the final boss at higher levels and difficulties/full teams.
So, I'm feeling like a bit of an imposter here.
You see, the arc That I'm submitting for review here isn't mine, per se, but the brainchild of my 13 year old brother, with extensive help from me. please pardon his typos.
Storyline name: The Seeds of Yggdrasil
by @WhiteArrow
Faction: Neutral. this is a general "save all of reality" thing. imitation Midnight squad to let it be 1-54, and custom enemies. (+brief battle with ppd nad giants)
Difficulty level: Soloing possible for confident players, and to help with the last Extreme boss (entered as arch villain, but keeps being played as elite boss) he added in about four allies. unfortunately, these often end up being a massive pain to find in the EXTREMELY ruined atlas park. seriously, I don't know WHAT my brother was thinking using that thing. Council robots, cool as they are, have no place in this story.
Synopsis: The Frost Giants are attempting to steal and plant the only three seeds that the World Tree Yggdrasil ever grew, and thus recreate reality as a desolate, Icy wasteland. STRONG Norse mythological overtones here, with some artistic license taken.
estimated time to play: 4 mid to long missions, with two annoying outdoors and one somewhat confusing indoor. Midnight squad base.
Please either post responses here or E-Mail to Whipslinger@gmail.com.
also, if anyone reading this is interested in a massive collaborative effort to make a massive overarching event, please go to this site.
http://z11.invisionfree.com/AiL/index.php?showtopic=198
can you say "Rikti War 3?"
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I don't care about your character. Or your friends. Or your friends' friends.
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I feel I should respond to this. While I agree with the sentiment, I should point out that these arcs are naturally going to involve characters you've never heard of, so there's nothing really wrong with using your own characters for those spots. After all, you should write what you know. As long as they don't dominate the story, I see nothing wrong with using them.
[/ QUOTE ]Ah, so here we draw me out to expand on them.
By and large, most players in role playing games don't actually make interesting characters. They make enjoyable ones. Most of the time, the characters lack the kind of engaging hooks or the depth of a proper literary character, especially since they're components of a 'game' that has success and failure mechanics. With that in mind, it's actually very possible to make a good, fun, RPG character, who is utterly unengaging in an actual story.
So, if your arc is 'Beat up guys with my character,' or 'help my character through his origin story,' or worse, 'Watch my characters' important story arc where you help out despite having never met him before,' it's going to almost certainly suck. I know I'm playing cynically here, but it's something I find infinitely more likely than stumbling upon the next work of distilled genius here. if you put your friends' characters in a story because they are your friends then they might as well not be there. An NPC in a story arc should be there to facilitate the story. If they're there to facilitate the badly-designed enemies, you probably have a problem too - it's a sign that you've probably made the arc or the enemies badly.
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I'd like to add to this and also second the sentiment but maybe not the exact wording. I don't think there's anything wrong with using your own character in an arc if A: The arc isn't entirely about that character and MY character really has no impact on the plot, B: The character is interesting enough that I don't mind them showing up a lot, and C: (And this is the big one), the arc does not assume I already know who you are. I realize Talen already said all that but I'd like to toss in my own two cents.
A lot of the time when I see people use their own characters, it seems like they have these big elaborate backstories written out in their minds, but they don't quite know how to express that to people who don't know their characters. So I end up having a bunch of names of people and groups thrown at me, and all the storyline NPCs seem to think these people and groups are a really big deal, but I have no idea who they are and no idea why I'm supposed to care.
I realize it's difficult to express all the stuff you've written with the character limits presented by the MA, but you can at least get across the important things. For instance: When you give me the name of an enemy group, maybe throw in a sentence that sums up their thing, like "This bank is under attack by the 5th column! I thought that insane neo-nazi army had disappeared for good after the war..." That's not a great example (Especially since you CAN assume the players at least know who the base groups are - describing them is the devs' job, not yours :P), but you get the idea - tells you who they are and sums up their history in one sentence. Almost anything can be summed up in one sentence, and if you can't, then the thing is either too complicated or you need to learn how to simplify better. If you want to go into more detail, you can; if the arc is meant to focus on that group/person, then you build on them as the arc goes on. You just don't have them keep showing up and the NPCs all go "Oh no, it's group/person X again! Run!"
For those of you who watch Zero Punctuation, Yahtzee said it well in his Dead Space review: "You can't just tell me how sympathetic a character is, you have to characterize them first." I think a weakness in my arc is the fact that the characters that are meant to be sympathetic don't get much characterization (Although someone posted a great suggestion in my thread which I really wish I'd thought of myself), but the arc is more about the atmosphere and the themes rather than the characters, so I let it slide. If I was writing a character driven arc (Which is what I want to try next), I absolutely would not let myself publish it until I felt like I resolved that issue.
Anyway. I've rambled on quite a bit here. I think I'm going to stop.
Astoria in D Minor, a horror arc. Arc ID: 41565 - The Beating Heart of Astoria: A Play in Five Acts. Arc ID: 170547 - Ignition of the Machine, a story with robots. Arc ID: 318983
Captain Skylark Shadowfancy and the Tomorrownauts of Today. Arc ID: 337333 - Signal:Noise, where is everybody? Arc ID: 341194
@The Cheshire Cat - Isn't it enough to know I ruined a pony making a gift for you?
12 second horror stories - a writing experiment.
Captain Skylark Shadowfancy and the Tomorrownauts of Today. Arc ID: 337333 - Signal:Noise, where is everybody? Arc ID: 341194
@The Cheshire Cat - Isn't it enough to know I ruined a pony making a gift for you?
12 second horror stories - a writing experiment.
Arc 5898 - The Fan Club
Rating: ****
This time, I busted out Operative Gallows. Common IOs with a small quality-of-life bit of power-up. Performance would be slightly better with SOs, but I didn't want to spend my time racing around getting the 'right' IOs. Bought up my standard payload of inspirations - 3 purple shields, 3 greens, 3 blues, and 6 reds - and decided to wade in. One of the reasons I like Gallows is that he can stealth.
First things first, I find myself immediately fond of the contact. A clear, distinct authority figure who's asking you, as someone with the ability to help to do so, I don't immediately suspect I'm going to get dicked over, I'm not being talked down to, and I'm being treated as part of an established, reliable community of crime-fighters with a proven track record. This is what I'd expect, at level 25-35, so it feels good.
Mission one says 'Do A and B' and after doing A and B, the mission doesn't complete. That's a little annoying. Can there be a better way to make it clear that there's more to be done? Well, either way - I dealt with things in a radial circle around the boss and eventually got a mish complete. So far, standard - but there's the seed laid by Goal B. So I'm interested. That's good.
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An Aside: One of the things that I've found is that some arcs start with 2-3 missions that are inconsequential to the plot, so as to provide artificial build-up to Mission 4-5. The problem is, this means the opening of a story is boring and unsatisfying. It's wasting space. this arc is a good example of a solid introduction, even though it does something I don't like, which also relates to pacing.
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An Aside: Mission one features an Elite Boss. To me, Elite Bosses feel like they should be the kind of thing you build up to. Having one straight out of the gates can be disheartening. Now, by the 35-50 bracket, I can see Elite Bosses having a home in everything, being used as big, hard impressive bruisers who lead normal squads... but that's an issue of escalation. So, two steps forward, one step back.
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Mission 2 starts and I find myself briefly bothered. There's no connection to the first mish. The idea of 'here is the stuff that's on my plate, help me with it,' feels a bit skewiff. Now, I assume, ahead of time, that there's going to be a point to it - I make the basic assumption that because this is part of a plot arc, there's a connecting therad between the missions. The problem is, in character Graves is just assigning work that is seemingly unconnected. The question then becomes: Why is he doing that to you? It has the feeling of playing bad-guy whack-a-mole.
This is a minor concern, and it's very much my personal view for how NPCs should view characters as they level up. If it had been five or ten levels earlier I'd see it as very standard operating procedure. By the mid-20s, I'd like to see my character, as connected to the police service, as a specialist called in for 'big jobs' - ie, something that can't be solved in one mission, as it were - or short-term emergencies. If there's emergency upon emergency, it can dilute the feeling of urgency.
Okay, enough [censored] about something meaningless.
The obvious connection shows up and reinforces itself. I find myself, briefly, wondering if the darker assumption I have is in fact, totally justified, and I hope it's not. I mean, not every writer's the kind of [censored] I am, are they?
Mish 3 is a defeat all. I sigh, my shoulders slump, and I resolve myself. It's a shame - if the mission didn't have that darn 'defeat all...' it'd probably be a pretty much flawless arc for me. The small stylistic differences, the manner in which people focus on the characters, it's very interesting. So making a mission tedious - well, maybe it won't be a problem for other people with better, more effective builds, or faster internet connections. I know I found it quite a chore to kill all those DE spawns.
All told, it's a very, very strong four, with just a few things that could easily be put down to personal taste that keep it from being a five. Catch me on a better internet connection day and I'd probably jack it up to a 5.
I'm really looking for some feedback for my arc, so I would like to submit my arc to you for consideration as well.
Arc ID: 38226
Name: If you teach a man to make a fish
Faction: Neutral (Features the Scrapyarders, the Coralax, and a custom boss)
Difficulty: Easy. I was able to solo the arc on my level 6 (bumped up to 20 & 25 in the missions) Invuln/SS Tanker. There are only two missions, neither of which use long maps (Both are on the smaller end of medium). The second mission is a kill all, but the map is nearly entirely linear, so defeating everything in your path should suffice.
Synopsis: The UN-run GENE Project attempts to clone Captain Mako for use as a super-soldier
A link to the arc also appears in my sig.
I'll be honest... I'm a review [censored]. I love hearing them, even if it's a sound thrashing of my arc.
Therefore, I'll put up my arcs on your list to review, if you don't mind.
The one I really actually would like to have reviewed is titled the Council's Long Con and is ID 1579. There's also the Council's Good Graces, ID 1571, which is technically a lead in to 1579 but isn't necessary to play first, and the Sad Story of Silas Gritch, #1831, which is unconnected to the other two.
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You crazy people with three arcs already.
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Not our fault you're slow. 
What do you mean "already?" We've had weeks since I14 went into open beta.
Issue 16 made me feel like this.
Warning: This poster likes to play Devil's Advocate.
Since it works so well for Venture and I honestly want something to keep track of what the hell I'm doing, I figured I'd start one of my own threads rather than kludge up other people's.
Here's a short list of things to bear in mind when you read my reviews; specifically, the ideas I have behind my opinion of arcs...
- There is (Almost) Never a good reason for a defeat all.
- There is no excuse for not using a spell-checker.
- I don't care about your character. Or your friends. Or your friends' friends.
- There are other archetypes than scrappers.
- There are enough arcs where the player is presumed to be stupid.
- Custom monsters are not necessary for a good arc
- Level ranges are good things.
I'll expand more on these if people wind up giving a damn. In the mean time, on to the reviewing process. By and large, I'm doing these reviews on a character I want to earn XP on, killing two birds with one stone. At this point, that character is a SS/Fire brute. I did some arcs on my soft-capped night widow, but his general imperviousness meant that I sometimes felt like I was ignoring elements of the story.By and large I'm not in this for challenge. I'm looking for story, for narrative, and for character. I'm interested in exploring the established lore, of seeing new directions for the content we have. There's going to be a bias, of course.
I have played a lot of City of Heroes in the past three years. I have fought Longbow regularly. I have fought Arachnos regularly. The later game have been in my experience, a cavalcade of rikti, longbow, and arachnos, with the devleopers creating whole arcs that seem to do nothing but fixate on these pet groups in that level range. Therefore, if your arc is about Longbow, Arachnos, or the Rikti, it had better be a very interesting very new take on things.
On the other hand, I've also dealt with too many players who think 'It's a nemesis plot,' is an actual plot. The Xanatos Gambit is a difficult thing to write well, and more often than not, it requires the protaganist to be an *****. Some peoples' characters are idiots; mine aren't, most of the time, so I feel quite incensed when the game forces them to be so.
So. I'm looking for story driven stuff; I'm looking for conceptual stuff. Ideally I wanna see old friends and other enemies used well, I want to see character and creativity. And if it gives me stuff to fight that are good and enjoyable? All the better. We'll see how we go.
I'll be favouring villain content where I can because I think that villains are harder to write for, and therefore, you're more likely to see well-formed ideas there.
I'll also be trying to produce advice or suggest changes or improvements if I think they can be useful. My general scoring system is thus:
***** - This arc is of the quality of the better arcs in the game itself. Not too short or too long, uses something creatively, makes the enemy groups feel appropriate. Motivations and character voice are both clear and engaging. Good use of maps, well-balanced content. This is the kind of arc that doesn't just leave me with a big smile on my face but makes me want to play it again.
**** - Good, but obviously, not great. Something's off - an established character doesn't behave properly. Maps are repetitive. Motivations are a bit daft, players have to be a bit stupid. 4 stars typically means it can be easily shifted to a 5 star with refinement.
*** - A solid, workhorse arc. The problems that most readily keep an arc from going past this point is being a tired concept, or being repetitive. If your arc could be three missions, and instead, it's five? If there's a lot of stuff that Just Happens? If you rely on treating my player character like a tool? This is probably the best you can hope for.
** - Ugh. This is where the edge of suck comes in. This is when you blame it on a nemesis plot. This is when you make your self-insert character my constant companion. This is when the focus of the plot is something other than the person playing it. This is when you make greivous assumption about characters, use existing characters badly, or waste the player's time with plot cul-de-sacs.
* - See me after class. This would indicate spelling errors, bad grammar and formatting, terrible dialogue and just generally a sucky arc. Ironically, such arcs can be quite fun if you ignore the text. I wouldn't be surprised if the arc was a hoot to play, smashing faces and whatnot - but I'm here for story arcs, not for shooting galleries.
No Stars - This arc isn't complete, isn't formatted properly. Note that this is a mark I reserve for arcs that are incomplete. If an arc is bad, it warrants one star.
So. I'm not going to be fair and I don't intend to be meek. I'm going to tell you what I think and I'll try to not belabour that. If your arc sucks, I'll try to tell you why. On to the reviews.