Arc 1438 - A Jaunt Into Dataspace
Rating: ***
The funny thing with these mission architect arcs is that, now I'm playing lots of characters across their level ranges, they're all levelling up. This means that I actually pushed really close to the end of this level range on one character. Instead of soloing this one, I and my wife took this arc with Laurel (Katana/Dark scrapper) and Knight Rain (Storm/Dark defender). Very different perspective on events, lemme tell you.
The arc isn't too long, and while it features a defeat all against a custom enemy group, the explanation is reasonably acceptable. You need a sample, and a sample can't be gleaned from a few key entities. It'd be nice if we could have a 'defeat the majority' function, but that would lead to thorough people finishing up in the first 51% of the map.
The story then wends on to what has become something of a typical story; the Doctor wants you to do some technological frippery and remind you that yes, the entire AE system is nothing more and nothing less than a free-to-play MMO with sinister intentions, which is, I suppose, what the devs are going to do with it ('Ahah, it was all a nemesis plot!'), not something I want to be reminded of. It's like poking a sore. It also puts a face on the Doctor, something I find myself reluctant to enjoy. I kinda like the image of the Doctor as a faceless, remote hacker - and if she's giving herself a face in cyberspace, then she's gotta be really damn hot, as seems the way of girl geniuses. Or am I wrong in that a girl who is capable of representing herself any way at all might possibly embellish the truth a little?
While the plot unfolds predictably and enjoyably, none of the contact dialogue particularly stood out to me as being exceptionally good; it seems the best dialogue was saved for the second mission, which had me and my wife laughing quite hard.
On a mechanical level, things get a bit ugly. The custom enemies are a problematic; in one case they're a pack of dark blast-kinetic corruptor-things. The opening alpha would make Dark Regen not hit, and would then be followed up by a damage-sapping debuff alpha. That's nasty stuff and required more caution than a scrapper with defender backup expected. Too much? I dunno. My wife plays pretty casually by comparison to me, so while I felt it was an overly-dangerous bad guy, and she found it very frustrating to play through, I can imagine a genre of players who explicitly want the bad guys you have to split up.
A good, solid arc, with a spectacular highlight in the second mission that unfortunately doesn't take the rest of the arc's lead and continue getting better.
Eclipse Over Paragon (64609) is based on the Path of Darkness arc. A Tangle in Time (2622) is also story-driven, so feel free to try these two out.
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Arc # - Name: #2050 - The Outcast Outcasts
Rating: ****
When I first heard about the Mission Architect coming over the horizon, one of the ideas I had was using it to fill in holes in the badge-verse. Making arcs where heroes could fight Longbow, heroes could fight Goldbrickers, and where Villains could fight Outcasts, all leapt into my mind. I recommend more people look into this, by the way. These blank spots in the game continuity are rich with fodder for possible additions to the game.
This arc is a good demonstration of what painting in existing space in the game can do. The Outcasts are one of the only mutant groups in the game, and one that drops off, sharply, at level 20 after being the most important thing in the world for most Hollows-like folk. Frostfire defines a lot of lower-level characters... and then, boom, nothing. You don't encounter later Outcasts, or even former outcasts. I feel that's one of the waknesses of the Outcast myth arc. Surely they could show up villainside somehow?
Well, Xaphan produced a really good explanation for this. The arc is sensibly offered by a good contact; it deals with the Outcast s and explores their themes and their concepts well, and uses interesting, diverse maps.
So, perfect arc, right, right? Wrong. Unfortunately, because the arc is so solid in a lot of ways, the places where it falls down are all the more maddening. Outcasts are highly homogenized as it is, so homogenized bosses make things worse. The dorky outfits and dialogue work well enough, but on the other hand, there's this awkwardness about it...
The arc is a really strong 4, and a little polish is going to push it into the 5 category.
[/ QUOTE ]I had originally wanted the bosses to just be replacements for the current bosses. I had designed them to be, more or less, dressed up versions of the existing Outcast bosses (within the limits of the system, of course). Their outfits are similar to the original bosses, but cheesed up a bit. I had actually originally intended to remake the entire group like this, for the later missions, but that ended up taking up too much space, and just wasn't practical.
Unfortunately, I didn't think of them as being unique characters (as that wasn't my design from the beginning). So when I used them as end mission bosses, I wrote them all the same... thugs that wanted to be heroes. So you're right about them being very generic, because they ARE.
So I'm going to fix that.
The existing custom bosses will remain, but will only be seen in random spawns. The end of mission bosses will be redone with new costumes, maybe new powers, and a unique backstory and character for each. I'll try my best to have each one sound different, too, though I admit that character dialogue isn't my strongest point.
Since I'm adding a lot of new characterization and dialog, I won't have the new version up too soon, but I hope to have it done before the end of the week. Thanks for the feedback! 
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The arc isn't too long, and while it features a defeat all against a custom enemy group, the explanation is reasonably acceptable. You need a sample, and a sample can't be gleaned from a few key entities. It'd be nice if we could have a 'defeat the majority' function, but that would lead to thorough people finishing up in the first 51% of the map.
[/ QUOTE ]
If I could design this any way I wanted, this would be a plain square white room with a single mannequin that provided just enough challenge to be interesting, and the "hidden patch" would be an odd-colored patch on the wall or something.
Sadly, the closest thing to "plain white room" is the Tech tileset, and that would make the first two missions too similar.
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The story then wends on to what has become something of a typical story; the Doctor wants you to do some technological frippery and remind you that yes, the entire AE system is nothing more and nothing less than a free-to-play MMO with sinister intentions, which is, I suppose, what the devs are going to do with it ('Ahah, it was all a nemesis plot!'), not something I want to be reminded of.
[/ QUOTE ]
I was kind of going for "the Architect is more or less what it seems, except it lets the Doctor send you into Crey servers". As in, *you're* actually the one using the Architect for nefarious purposes against *Crey*.
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The custom enemies are a problematic; in one case they're a pack of dark blast-kinetic corruptor-things. The opening alpha would make Dark Regen not hit, and would then be followed up by a damage-sapping debuff alpha.
[/ QUOTE ]
Argh. Enemy balance is the bane of my existence in this arc. I can solo it just fine, on a Storm Defender (I'm reminded of a /tell I got from someone in Beta, the disbelief evident: "You gave my arc 2 stars because you couldn't solo an EB with a Stormie...?"). And sadly my SG are all excellent players who become an unstoppable force of nature when teamed up, so they're useless for establishing the actual difficulty of an arc.
As to writing the Doctor, I was going for a "computery" voice, not entirely "artificial" but someone's who's been living as data for a couple years now and it's starting to reflect on her. I guess I could design her a more fancy avatar? Possibly replace her with a different hacker who I can write any way I like as long as I do it consistently?
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While the plot unfolds predictably and enjoyably, none of the contact dialogue particularly stood out to me as being exceptionally good; it seems the best dialogue was saved for the second mission, which had me and my wife laughing quite hard.
A good, solid arc, with a spectacular highlight in the second mission that unfortunately doesn't take the rest of the arc's lead and continue getting better.
[/ QUOTE ]
Thank you very much. That's plenty of food for thought, and maybe I can make this arc even better.
Character index
Arc 87974 - A Witchy Welcome
Rating: ****
We're going to touch now, hopefully tastefully, on the subject of titillation. See, I am a fan of breasts, and it's probably not to anyone's great surprise that, as a fan of breasts, I've become awfully enamoured of the Magic pack stuff. So when I did this arc, it was half as a fun romp through custom mobs and half getting to ogle the really nice new costume pieces.
The arc's premise is simple; a bitchy cabal leader wants to establish her coven in the Rogue Isles, and is hiring you to help out. Part of my enjoyment of this arc comes, I think, from the ridiculous nature of the contact; she's petulant, bitchy, high-strung and very much a classical villainous sorceress. It might be an homage, it might be for comedy, but for whatever reason I found myself laughing to myself as I did her arc.
Character really was the driving force. The arc doesn't push the engine to its limits, but it does have a clear tone of character, for the NPCs (whose dialogue is almost always awesome), and for the little things, like the dialogue you get clicking glowies. Some of these glowies seem to serve no purpose but for badge credit (and that's good, it gives the badgers more reason to do this kind of thing without making obvious farms), but you should click them all anyway because the author has made them really funny and enjoyable. Also, interrupt yourself just to see that text.
There was some stuff in here I actually found really fun. There are minions capable of stealth, which means they have amazing AoE defence - defence that means normal AE strategies have to adjust. You can't just Flashfire, then kill, you have to pay attention to who comes out after the flashfire. The defeat-all had a purpose behind it that was explained in the mission briefing. This isn't a hero doing something with police backup, it's a villain doing something to prove a point, which I see as a good use of the technology.
There are two problems I see with the arc at this point. The map choices available in the arc all feel very clearly like a section of Paragon City, which feels out of place since it's a Villain arc. The outdoor maps available redside might serve better, but this is a minor, stylistic thing.
Second, the arc feels like it should be somewhere around the 30-40 range, not the 30-54 range. I like the arc, but I couldn't help but feel this kind of business is more the work of the 30-40 characters, the kind who are able to establish things, fight off alien invaders, make beachheads, and force people to pay attention to them. Unfortunately, since the arc features carnies...
Ther's a third thing, which I wouldn't call a problem as much as I'd call it a stylistic difference; I'm not a fan of using NPC support to balance difficult challenges. Talking with the author about it, she assured me that their purpose was to assist squishies. Considering it, I know I had fun using a shivan shard as an empath, watching a Fortitude'd shivan wreck house, and so I felt this was reasonable.
A great fun arc, with a lot of character to offer. Go forth and enjoy.
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Arc 1438 - A Jaunt Into Dataspace
Rating: ***
The arc isn't too long, and while it features a defeat all against a custom enemy group, the explanation is reasonably acceptable. You need a sample, and a sample can't be gleaned from a few key entities. It'd be nice if we could have a 'defeat the majority' function, but that would lead to thorough people finishing up in the first 51% of the map.
[/ QUOTE ]
Sorry to barge in here, but you can do this without a defeat all. You can set any custom enemy to be a boss, not just the boss factions. So just put in an "X examplars to scan" objective and have some lieutenants or even minions "leading" boss groups.
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)
So you can make a minion a boss...? that's interesting. And useful.
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So you can make a minion a boss...? that's interesting. And useful.
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Custom only though.
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So you can make a minion a boss...? that's interesting. And useful.
[/ QUOTE ]
Custom only though.
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On test I made a mission where an Aspect of Rularuu got bored and sent you out to kill a Rikti Monkey. The Rikti Monkey was the leader of the boss group and was a plain old "Small" from the standard Rikti. I haven't tried it on Live yet.
Aegis Rose, Forcefield/Energy Defender - Freedom
"Bubble up for safety!"
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Arc 1438 - A Jaunt Into Dataspace
Rating: ***
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[ QUOTE ]
It also puts a face on the Doctor, something I find myself reluctant to enjoy. I kinda like the image of the Doctor as a faceless, remote hacker - and if she's giving herself a face in cyberspace, then she's gotta be really damn hot, as seems the way of girl geniuses. Or am I wrong in that a girl who is capable of representing herself any way at all might possibly embellish the truth a little?
[/ QUOTE ]
If you're willing to try a different take on the same basic premise (erm...even if you don't really *like* the premise...):
Arc Name: The Doctor's Aide
Arc ID: 51539
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Oro Liquido
Difficulty Level: Three missions are 30-54, one 40-54 (Protector). Custom EB in final mission.
Synopsis: Crey is close to unleashing a devastating computer program. Your goal is to aide the hacker known as 'The Doctor' in putting a stop to them.
Estimated Time to Play: 1 hour? Three medium, one large size tech maps. None are defeat all.
Suggestions:
Super Packs Done Right
Influence Sink: IO Level Mod/Recrafting
Random Merit Rolls: Scale cost by Toon Level
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Arc 1438 - A Jaunt Into Dataspace
It also puts a face on the Doctor, something I find myself reluctant to enjoy. I kinda like the image of the Doctor as a faceless, remote hacker
[/ QUOTE ]
BIG SPOILERS!
The Doctor is dead - she uploaded herself to the crey systems before her death. I always got the impression that when she was alive she was one of the old school computer geniuses - so in her 50s or 60s when she died (doesn't mean that she wasn't hot at some point, just that she was an older lady when she died)
#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)
Putting my arc up for review.
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Arc Name: The Island of Doctor Moreau
Arc ID: 99893
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Silent Spy
Difficulty Level: Medium
Synopsis: The crazed Doctor Moreau has been kidnapping innocent civilians and bringing them to his island to conduct horrible experiments on them that transforms them into anthropomorphic animals!
Estimated Time to Play: Medium length, three missions. 30-60 minutes or less.
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50s: Silent Spy - MA/Regen Scrapper | Tinkerhell - SS/Inv Brute | Extrasensory - Psi/Men Blaster | Ana Cruz - DP/PD Corruptor | Sara Thunderbird - Elec/Elec Scrapper | Pinstrike - Spines/SR Scrapper | Cold Feet - Cold/Cold Blaster
@Silent Spy, Champion Server
I was just thinking about a Dr. Moreau arc myself gotta check it out. Maybe I'll do a villainous one.
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I was just thinking about a Dr. Moreau arc myself gotta check it out. Maybe I'll do a villainous one.
[/ QUOTE ]Oh, and don't think you've gotten out of your review.
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Oh, and don't think you've gotten out of your review.
[/ QUOTE ]
I've been checking for it frantically all day. I'm on the edge of my seat.
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The custom enemies are a problematic; in one case they're a pack of dark blast-kinetic corruptor-things. The opening alpha would make Dark Regen not hit, and would then be followed up by a damage-sapping debuff alpha.
[/ QUOTE ]
Argh. Enemy balance is the bane of my existence in this arc.
[/ QUOTE ]
Small update: I changed the Energy Blast/Sonic Blast minions in the first mission to Energy Blast/Regen, and the Dark Melee/Dark Blast minions in the second mission to Dark Melee/Regen. /Regen on Standard gives Minions slightly better regen, recovery, and Stun resistance - it's the closest you can get to "does nothing".
I also updated the description to say "small teams beware", because it seems that no matter what I do, teams between 2 and 4 are going to have a lot of trouble.
Character index
4336 - No Honour Among Thieves
Rating: ***
The reason most movies end well is because years of cinematic science have taught people that the last part of the movie is the part that people remember the most vividly. You can have eighty-five minutes of crap and if the last five minutes represent a good enough twist or a clever enough idea the audience will wander out crowing to themselves about how the first eighty-five were neceessary to make the last five. Nonsense, but whatever.
This is why a well-written, well-plotted arc with a cool idea and good use of maps can still have a player tearing their hair out because it involves hunting a glowie all over the [censored] of some map that's entirely appropriate and yet really annoying. Of such an arc I speak now.
The plot is almost perfectly positioned; it falls in a good level range and uses enemies that should be relevant. It puts a degree of forward momentum on the player and makes them the focus of the storyline without calling upon the people around him to treat him (or her, of course) like an idiot who'll do whatever they bark at him. It does use a more British tone of voice for the contact - Lieutenant Chalmers - than I remember him having in the game. Despite that, I found it quite entertaining and fun, and I wouldn't mix up Chalmer's dialogue for anyone else's.
However...
Oh, you just knew this was coming, didn't you? Look, the arc uses an enemy group which deserves attention, it focuses on a reasonable addition to the game lore (not that I think it's entirely appropriate), and it makes sense and handles its storyline well. The mechanics of this arc are what let it down. There's an important boss with funny dialogue who can be accidentally killed before you get to him, there are a pair of surprise-but-not-required AVs, and there's a mission on a oh-god-why-this-map map that had me and my wife wiping out routinely. The level of nooks and crannies for mobs to get lost on, or patrols to get confused by was far too high, which really broke flow. As did the dying a fair bit.
There's one thing that a vanishingly small number of players have a means to deal with as a power, and that is blindness. If you want to try and deal with it, you have to use yellows, which are not part of a typical inspiration loadout. Just want people to bear that in mind.
The arc doesn't need polish at this point, it needs some refinement. There's some great stuff in this arc and I really do recommend people give it a shot. All the most annoying elements are in the last mission, and all the EBs are optional. On the other hand imagine how much better this arc could bloody be if it didn't have these problems. Also, the level range jumps. It shouldn't bug me, but it does.
Also, it was nice to see 'Honour' spelled correctly.
Respectfully submitted:
Jenkins's Guide to Super-Villainy
Arc ID: 84008
Faction: Villainous
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Circuit Boy
Difficulty Level: Missions #1-3 1-50, Mission #4 20-29; easy to medium difficulty
Synopsis: Tired of Kalinda prattling on about searching for the "Destined One"? More than just a mercenary gun for hire? Tired of exterminating snakes for Mongoose? Not thrilled to be Doctor Creed's lab assistant? Want to know how to become a real super-villain? Jenkins has just the guide for you!
Estimated Time to Play: 4 missions, 60-90 minutes
40062: The World's Worst PUG
84008: Jenkins's Guide to Super-Villainy
230187: The Hero of Kings Row
No H8 - 08.04.10
@Circuit Boy - Moderator - Pride global chat channel
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4336 - No Honour Among Thieves
Rating: ***
[/ QUOTE ]
Thanks for the review Talen, it's very appreciated. I find your assessment both fair and useful, and I'll definitely follow up on some of your suggestions to smooth things out. In fact I find it a positive review even though you only give it 3 stars, because you enjoyed the story and the technical is just a PITA to get right.
I want the final mission to remain on that map and to remain challenging. When you win I want you to have a feeling of success, and if you lose I want you to feel that your loss was fair, and hopefully you feel challenged to try it again. Combined with mechanical details of missions and the architect itself, this will probably hold it back.
Interestingly that much-reviled map was the initial impetus for the entire story. I wanted to give it a chance to shine by building something that highlighted it and played to its strengths.
I had the chance to run through it with a full team the other day. These were mostly casual players, they managed the fighting quite well but barely communicated at all, and did not appear to read the mission popups or nav bar. I purposely didn't lead the team (quite unusual for me) instead choosing to watch how they approached the mission. It was with a certain level of satisfaction that I watched us fail the final mission, knowing that it was due to lack of organization and communication.
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The arc doesn't need polish at this point, it needs some refinement.
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How do you distinguish polish from refinement? You're saying that the text is fine, but the mechanical details need to be worked on?
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Also, it was nice to see 'Honour' spelled correctly.
[/ QUOTE ]
I've only had one feedback saying "honor doesn't have a 'u'", immediately followed by "Sky Raiders are Lame. Your story is lame." Makes me wonder why the person pressed the Play button at all.
Polish is taking something that's good, and making those parts of it that are good great. It's highlighting text, it's using mission popups creatively, it's making sure dialogue times and paces right. Refinement is the process whereby you take the core idea that lies underneath the story and get the crap off it.
Talen_Lee, I read your opening post it this thread and would like to submit my arc for review as I do feel it's something you might like as it's story driven, has old friends and old enemies, etc. Even if you fail the missions where that's possible, I've written the contact responses in such a way that th story continues and you can still 'win' in the end.
With that said, here's my arc info:
Title: Is it Live or is it Memory-X
-------------------------------------
Story Arc ID: 70210
Authors Global Chat Handle: @Armsman
Length: Very Long (5 missions)
Alignment: Heroic
Story Description: The 5th Column is building a device to control the world. Can you save the world from TOTAL DOMINATION?! (Hey it worked to get my Villians and Vigilantes pen and paper RPG group interested back in the day.)
Designer Notes: The Arc can actually be soloed by most Scrapper, Tank and MasterMind builds. In testing, my Gravity/Force Field Controller made it through mission 3 solo with no issues, but starting getting defeats in mission 4; so if youre a support class or a blaster, you probably need a team-mate. This arc is actually based on an adventure I ran players through in the Villians & Vigilantes pen and paper RPG a number of years back. I was surprised at how much of the original flavor I was able to keep in adapting it to fit in the CoX universe. There was only really one element I couldnt include due to MA limitations.
Request withdrawn.
40062: The World's Worst PUG
84008: Jenkins's Guide to Super-Villainy
230187: The Hero of Kings Row
No H8 - 08.04.10
@Circuit Boy - Moderator - Pride global chat channel
Respectfully Submitted:
"Every Rose..."
#17702
Intended for lowbie villains (levels 1-10)
5 missions
Intended as a tutorial/introduction, it is an alternative for new players who want to join the Circle of Thorns, rather than Arachnos. Not a deep, intense story by design, intended to work for either stealthers or smashers, solo or for teams
No Elites
It has been reviewed before, but I'd like your opinion as well. This version has been modfied from previously reviewed versions due to feedback.
I hope you have fun!
Story Arcs I created:
Every Rose: (#17702) Villainous vs Legacy Chain. Forget Arachnos, join the CoT!
Cosplay Madness!: (#3643) Neutral vs Custom Foes. Heroes at a pop culture convention!
Kiss Hello Goodbye: (#156389) Heroic vs Custom Foes. Film Noir/Hardboiled detective adventure!
*laughs* This just in: Player asks for review, is told he won't get a review, puts me on ignore. 
I'll post more shortly. What a day.
Arc 2050 - The Outcast Outcasts
Rating: ****
When I first heard about the Mission Architect coming over the horizon, one of the ideas I had was using it to fill in holes in the badge-verse. Making arcs where heroes could fight Longbow, heroes could fight Goldbrickers, and where Villains could fight Outcasts, all leapt into my mind. I recommend more people look into this, by the way. These blank spots in the game continuity are rich with fodder for possible additions to the game.
This arc is a good demonstration of what painting in existing space in the game can do. The Outcasts are one of the only mutant groups in the game, and one that drops off, sharply, at level 20 after being the most important thing in the world for most Hollows-like folk. Frostfire defines a lot of lower-level characters... and then, boom, nothing. You don't encounter later Outcasts, or even former outcasts. I feel that's one of the waknesses of the Outcast myth arc. Surely they could show up villainside somehow?
Well, Xaphan produced a really good explanation for this. The arc is sensibly offered by a good contact; it deals with the Outcast s and explores their themes and their concepts well, and uses interesting, diverse maps.
So, perfect arc, right, right? Wrong. Unfortunately, because the arc is so solid in a lot of ways, the places where it falls down are all the more maddening. Outcasts are highly homogenized as it is, so homogenized bosses make things worse. The dorky outfits and dialogue work well enough, but on the other hand, there's this awkwardness about it...
The arc is a really strong 4, and a little polish is going to push it into the 5 category.