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Is this really a big problem? I do mention it in the intro text briefly, but I just prefer Council as an enemy group and I would use "council base - on fire" if it was available. But there's only 4 indoor on fire maps that I know of (hellions, skulls, arachnos base, arachnos warehouse).
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I don't consider it major problem, but it's certainly noticeable.
It's the first mission and not much is understood going in, so it adds a dream-like quality to the mission and arc as a whole. From a player's perspective, they've talked to a magical flame, been magically transported to the base, and seen members of one group try and put out the fires in another group's base. It gives it a surreal quality which is not a bad thing especially if you're going for that atmosphere. Otherwise, the only reason to have the Council in there is your preference to the group.
Just my thoughts on it.
-Galth
Review
Gnomish Madness
ID: 30204
This was a pretty fun little mission. I liked the character designs, although I'm not sure about using Talasorian weapons for the robots, but that's me. I might've made one of the robots more robot-looking, a sorta unfinished look, again me.
A little overboard on the warning to squishies by having it in both the briefing and a separate clue, one place should be enough (probably the briefing).
The Assassin Gnome, despite his info, didn't seem stealthy. I undestand not giving him ninjitsu, but you probably want to update his info.
Doctor Dinglebelly - Stop Doctor Denglebelly - Defeat Deinglebelly. Pick a spelling and stick with it 
.
-Galth
Loved Matchstick Women, great choices all around there.
Here's a short (one-mission) arc from me:
Arc Name: Females for Hire
Arc ID: 106098
Faction: Either
Creator Global/Forum Name: suedenim
Difficulty Level: Medium/Low
Synopsis:
What you see is what you get... with Females for Hire!
Meet Paragon City's fastest-growing all-girl, all-stereotype mercenary group. Studies have shown that over 95% of all mercenary hiring managers are men... so Females for Hire consciously plays to male stereotypes of "action girl" operatives, while maintaining top-notch professionalism.
You're playing with fire... with Females for Hire! From Independent International Pictures. Rated PG.
Estimated Time to Play: Short, single mission.
Fun new custom group, a bit of mystery, a bit of humor. Very loosely inspired by this wonderfully cheesy radio ad for a '70s B-Movie.
You also might check out (both 1-mission):
93431: The Big Roundup: Facing off against a Wild West supervillain group, The Rustlers.
97404: Secret Identity Experiment: Purposely very short and very easy (tried specifically to make the opposition as weak as possible), mainly to try out what I think is a fairly funny little storytelling trick. Hopefully amusing.
Here's a short 2-mission arc I dreamt up while bored at work last week:
Arc Name: A Voyage Fantastic
Arc ID: 81829
Morality: Neutral
Factions: "Recycled" Hydra, Elementals. High level range.
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Stalemate
Difficulty Level: Easy to average. Mission 2 has EB/AV.
Synopsis:[/b] (Humoristic homage) - The Rikti ambassador is sick with an unknown bacterial infection. Your placement agency has just recommended you to Dr. Scott Wachhorst for an experimental technique you'll be perfect for.
Estimated Time to Play: 2 missions, approx. 20 minutes solo.
Other details: Inspired from the movie Fantastic Voyage, in case it wasn't obvious already. Intended to be tongue-in-cheek. Re-use of existing critters kept cost under 13%.
I will review in turn anyone who generously takes the time to review mine, and post back here.
█ Players Guide to the Cities
Thanks for the review.
I've been playing with the Assassin gnome, and you are right, he's not being stealthy as I wanted him to be. I may combine him with your unfinished robot idea, and make him an in joke about him not being stealth, and maybe make a body part or two a bit robot skeletal. If I describe it right, it would make for a funny bit. Something like "He's supposed to be stealthy, but something is obviously not working quite right in that regard."
As for the names, it's Dinglebelly. I thought I had squashed all the misspellings, but looks like I have more squashing to do.
As for the warning, I added the briefing warning first, but wanted to be more subtle there so as not to ruin the surprise for those who do not want to be ruined. The other was added so I could be a bit more explicit, in a way that is easier to ignore than the briefing. Basically, most like the ending, but I was getting a small number of complaints from solo squishies. The warning is a way to not tone down the ending, but let those with potential problems know the easy solution.
MA Arc - Gnomish Madness - #30204 - A short, silly little story.
Ms. Tempest - Lvl 50 Storm/Elec Def (577 badges)
Maiden Dark - Lvl 50 Dark/Dark Corr
Moonlight Maiden - Lvl 50 Warshade
Sister Leortha - Lvl 50 Emp/Rad Def
Puffball - Lvl 50 Inv/SS Tank
Triumph Server
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submitted for your consideration...
Arc Name: Madness And The Minotaur
Arc ID: 90124
Faction: neutral
Difficulty Level: 35+
Synopsis: This is a short, 2 story arc set in Greek mythology (using a custom enemy group). Defeat the Minotaur and his minions in order to save the beautiful damsel from being sacrificed and stop history from being rewritten.
Feedback welcomed and appreciated in order to create an enjoyable story.
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I enjoyed this for the most part. I thought the custom group was a bit of a mixed bag. I didn't think that Storm fit the Titan that much, and it was a little annoying (the first encounter, first attack was a tornado that knocked me forward into the middle of the group) The human characters were a little bland, but the non-humans I thought were much more interesting visually. I think you might be better suited to just use some of the standard Cimeroran traitors along with your non-human critters. The bones were kind of a nice touch in one way, but I'm undecided. There were a lot of them, and they were all non-required, and didn't have a whole lot of flavor after the first couple. In my opinion, they felt like clutter. The story could use a bit more refining as well. It's an ok start, but feels almost like an outline of a story. The "maze" in the second mission didn't feel much like a maze at first, since it was a straight line, but then I hit the maze-like room and had a hard time finding my way back out of it. Oh, and played as my 38 Trick Arrow/Psi defender on a 4/5-man fairly well balanced PuG.
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32158
Letterman and the Debbies. The bank heist.
Its my first test run and I've for 4 stars. Its for the Villains. Just a simple bank robbery. Two Heroes (bosses) are waiting for you.
The heroes are based on a pair of short stories I wrote on the boards before COH even went Beta. Back then we heard about a power set that could summon beings-but we had no clue what could be summoned. Letterman can summon Debbies: Super strong cheerleaders. He could fire electric bolts from his cane. Silly concept, but it was a blast to write.
I have no comments, so I've got no idea what I could do to improve it. small map, quick run.
any feedback you can give me will be great!
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This reminds me very much of the movie Sugar and Spice, if fact I thought it was a spin off of it until I came back and re-read your description. Anyway, it was a fun little romp. the cheerleader designs were fun, a perfect use of energy melee, though it did bit me once or twice. Playing as a lvl 38 Trick Arrow/Psi, duoing with another Trick Arrow/Archery by the way. Boss name is misspelled with only one "t". The dialog was funny, the jumping jacks were a hilarious and unexpected bonus. Very fitting. I agree with what Galth said about the grammar:
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Entry popup: "Is a bank/ Rob it! Duh." punctuation and grammar problems.
Exit popup: "Congrads!..." Is this spelling on purpose?
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I'd like to submit 103594 - A Close Encounter which is an all level friendly, one mission "sneak and peek" to find 3 objects with an optional hostage situation.
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I played this with a pretty well balanced 5 member PuG on my lvl 38 Trick Arrow/Psi defender. We ploughed through the fairly generic soldier enemies like they were butter. The glowies were pretty standard and didn't really have much information to them. I completely missed the hostage as I think we obliterated the group so quickly I didn't see any text about it. You have the outline for a good mission. I think your soldiers need some work to make them more interesting and a little (I can't believe I'm saying this about someone's custom enemies) more challenging - just don't go overboard. Remember, it takes the developers a long time to design an interesting and well balanced enemy group. If you're going to use a custom group, give the readers a reason why you're fighting soldier group #103594 instead of the Crey or the Council or Arachnos. Give them more story. Add a boss with some dialog as to why these people are after the alien. Good luck!
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Loved Matchstick Women, great choices all around there.
Here's a short (one-mission) arc from me:
Arc Name: Females for Hire
Arc ID: 106098
Faction: Either
Creator Global/Forum Name: suedenim
Difficulty Level: Medium/Low
Synopsis:
What you see is what you get... with Females for Hire!
Meet Paragon City's fastest-growing all-girl, all-stereotype mercenary group. Studies have shown that over 95% of all mercenary hiring managers are men... so Females for Hire consciously plays to male stereotypes of "action girl" operatives, while maintaining top-notch professionalism.
You're playing with fire... with Females for Hire! From Independent International Pictures. Rated PG.
Estimated Time to Play: Short, single mission.
Fun new custom group, a bit of mystery, a bit of humor. Very loosely inspired by this wonderfully cheesy radio ad for a '70s B-Movie.
You also might check out (both 1-mission):
93431: The Big Roundup: Facing off against a Wild West supervillain group, The Rustlers.
97404: Secret Identity Experiment: Purposely very short and very easy (tried specifically to make the opposition as weak as possible), mainly to try out what I think is a fairly funny little storytelling trick. Hopefully amusing.
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After a burst of inspiration, I turned this into a 3-mission arc, number 110723.
Queue as listed, not necissarily the order they will be played:
17523: A little RnR
39392: Intellectual Property Theft (reviewed)
100483: "a precious gift..."
81141: The Island of Misfit Heroes (updated)
99836: Attack of the Cliches (reviewed)
37636: The Missing
30204: Gnomish Madness (left feedback, reviewed)
106098: Females for Hire
81829: A Voyage Fantastic
Thank you for taking the time to play through my arc and offering your feedback. It is appreciated and I will be making some changes based on your comments.
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I didn't think that Storm fit the Titan that much, and it was a little annoying (the first encounter, first attack was a tornado that knocked me forward into the middle of the group)
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I chose storm as one of the power sets because the father of the Titans is Uranus (Father Sky in Greek mythology), but I have made a slight change to them.
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The human characters were a little bland, but the non-humans I thought were much more interesting visually. I think you might be better suited to just use some of the standard Cimeroran traitors along with your non-human critters.
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You're right, the humans are somewhat bland compared to the non-humans and 2 are actually quite similar. So I've decided to eliminate one of them.
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The bones were kind of a nice touch in one way, but I'm undecided. There were a lot of them, and they were all non-required, and didn't have a whole lot of flavor after the first couple. In my opinion, they felt like clutter
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There are actually 14 piles of bones scattered throughout the map. I chose 14 because in the story of the Minotaur, the Athenians had to send 7 men and 7 women to Crete each year. They aren't needed in order to finish the mission. They were added more as a visual. I do understand that having so many of them could be annoying when they aren't needed, so I have reduced the number.
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The "maze" in the second mission didn't feel much like a maze at first, since it was a straight line, but then I hit the maze-like room and had a hard time finding my way back out of it.
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I agree with you 100% on this. I had originally used a different map, but people complained that it seemed too large. Unfortunately, the map choices that I felt were fitting are limited and I hope the devs release some different maps for us to use.
Again, thank you for the feed back and constructive criticism.
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I'd like to submit 103594 - A Close Encounter which is an all level friendly, one mission "sneak and peek" to find 3 objects with an optional hostage situation.
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I played this with a pretty well balanced 5 member PuG on my lvl 38 Trick Arrow/Psi defender. We ploughed through the fairly generic soldier enemies like they were butter. The glowies were pretty standard and didn't really have much information to them. I completely missed the hostage as I think we obliterated the group so quickly I didn't see any text about it. You have the outline for a good mission. I think your soldiers need some work to make them more interesting and a little (I can't believe I'm saying this about someone's custom enemies) more challenging - just don't go overboard. Remember, it takes the developers a long time to design an interesting and well balanced enemy group. If you're going to use a custom group, give the readers a reason why you're fighting soldier group #103594 instead of the Crey or the Council or Arachnos. Give them more story. Add a boss with some dialog as to why these people are after the alien. Good luck!
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Thanks for the critique. The original version of this mission had Malta as the main baddies and three Knives of Artemis patrols which was actually pretty challenging. Doubly so since it was actually meant to be stealthed as much as possible. When I decided I wanted it accessible to lower levels I made the Eagle's Talons easier so the level 10ish wouldn't get slaughtered. The clues are deliberately vague to build a sense of continued mystery which still needs to be answered and freeing the hostage is required now which adds a bit more info.
I am working on expanding to a multi-mission arc.
I am hoping this arc could get some face time, I ran out of time working on it (My leave ends and I return to Duty with the Army today :/) but here goes:
Arc ID: 110733
Arc Name: Roleplayer Renegades
Length: 2 Missions
Enemies: Custom Mobs (LAIRE Extremists)
Level Range: 1-54
Difficulty: Easy-Medium (depending on AT, difficulty setting and build - most AT's and builds should breeze through the mobs.)
Specials: None - no AV's/EB's. 1 LT upgraded to boss.
Custom Mob Information: All mobs set to Standard difficulty at creation and Easy for special encounters. Main AT = BS/Shield Scrapper. Minor AT's: Psi/Archery, SS/Regen
Arc Synopsis: A group of Live Action Roleplayers goes on the rampage, hinting at a mysterious Game Master and a large scale plan (Initially was going to be a 5 story arc, but I decided that with my time constraints 2 would be good to introduce the custom mobs and tease at the story).
Warning: My writing skills are very rusty.
Hopefully I didn't flop too horribly on it
This is a great thread. I'll be working my way through these short missions this weekend.
I'd love some honest feedback on my mission. ArcID 29900: Trouble at ParaCon!
(not to be confused with the other ParaCon mission. also separate feedback thread here if you're interested.)
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Time for bed (for me) but Bubba, I will give your arc a try tomorrow.
If you run out of stuff you are most welcomed to give mine a try. It does have 2 EBs so you might want to to run it on the lowest rep level to get them as Bosses.
A Little RnR (17523)
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Ran through part of this tonight, will probably run through again with another character next time I'm on. I noticed on the first mission there were several spelling/grammar mistakes. Mostly extra words. Take some time and proofread. Was on a small team of 4 trollers/defenders with my 38 Trick Arrow/Psi defender. I liked the custom group. It had a good variety of different powers without having any of the annoying ones, and not being too easy either. Custom group could also use some descriptions.
Played through a second time with my lvl 39 fire/fire Brute on 2nd difficulty. The group was a bit more difficult solo, died a few times, but once I got my tactics down, I was fine. The first mission had some spawns in some odd places on that map, which made it harder since it was a defeat all. It might have been tied to the patrols. There was one group on one of the roofs, and one group in a back corner behind the buildings. Didn't happen the first time around on the team, which is why I think it was caused by the patrols, they wandered around and found a weird hidey hole to stop at. Good use of dialog throughout though, I would add some as clues as well since dialog can get scrolled past quickly. I suppose that's why it's a good idea to use both dialog and clues, since one or the other is easily missed by different people. The second mission felt like it was a surprise timer. You use some color already, so it wouldn't hurt to emphasize the timer in the description. I feel like the story could use a bit more fleshing out. You give the basic information, but a little more flavor could be added as well.
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The bones were kind of a nice touch in one way, but I'm undecided. There were a lot of them, and they were all non-required, and didn't have a whole lot of flavor after the first couple. In my opinion, they felt like clutter
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There are actually 14 piles of bones scattered throughout the map. I chose 14 because in the story of the Minotaur, the Athenians had to send 7 men and 7 women to Crete each year. They aren't needed in order to finish the mission. They were added more as a visual. I do understand that having so many of them could be annoying when they aren't needed, so I have reduced the number.
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That sounds like a great concept that the player never knows about, unless they're up to date on the story of the Minotaur. It's not a bad idea, but it should be explained somewhere why there are 14 of them. You could also break them up so it's not 14 of the exact same clue, but maybe 6-7 generic bones that mention they are from men, 6-7 generic women, and one or two that has the clue about the bones as a whole. Give some reward for extra effort.
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Hey Bubba,
Can you give #39392, Intellectual Property Theft: Save the Secrets of the Architect System.
Thanks!
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Now called "Developer Distress" which I think it a better title. It's a pretty funny concept, nice use of $archetype. Pretty simple overall and not a whole lot to comment on. My only gripe, and it is completely minor, is that 5th column is a quite overused MA villain group just because it's practically not used in the regular game anymore. Other than that, pretty solid mission. Enjoyed it! Oh, played as my level 19 Fire/Thermal controller.
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Hey Bubba,
Can you give #39392, Intellectual Property Theft: Save the Secrets of the Architect System.
Thanks!
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Now called "Developer Distress" which I think it a better title. It's a pretty funny concept, nice use of $archetype. Pretty simple overall and not a whole lot to comment on. My only gripe, and it is completely minor, is that 5th column is a quite overused MA villain group just because it's practically not used in the regular game anymore. Other than that, pretty solid mission. Enjoyed it! Oh, played as my level 19 Fire/Thermal controller.
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Thanks Bubba! I originally had a custom group, but I was scolded for being a parody so I went with a stock group and the 5th have always been one of my favorites.
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Letterman and the Debbies...
I did this one because unlike most of the others that have been posted it was actually short. One mission.
Entry popup: "Is a bank/ Rob it! Duh." punctuation and grammar problems.
Exit popup: "Congrads!..." Is this spelling on purpose?
Debbie Prime dialog: "I broke...A NAIL!..." the pause between "broke" and "a nail" seems unusual, implying that she wasn't sure what she broke, an arm, a chair, no a nail. Also, I've found that you don't need dialog at every 1/4 health for bosses; it's even a bit much on EBs as the dialog tends to scroll right through and you miss most of it. Besides which, you reused a line with Debbie Prime anyway, "I'm so going to tell...". For bosses, I'd generally go with 3 lines of dialog total, but it's up to you.
No info for your custom characters. It's something I always read, so I'm a little disappointed when I don't see it; even though it's only one mission. I know many people never read em.
Ambush at the end is a little tacked on, but I see those all the time and is somewhat appropriate for a bank job.
In general, I liked most of the dialog, and the mission itself. Nothing I've listed is terribly hard to fix, so good job.
-Galth (Might do some more 1 missions tomorrow)
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Thanks for the review. Will fix.
I needed feedback like this.
Thanks!
If you're still taking missions, I'd like to suggest #114776 "The Land Before Time-and-a-half". It's a fairly short 3 mission arc. Contains all custom critters and some humor.
Thanks, I'll be playing your arc shortly!
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ArcID: 81141
Title: The Island of Misfit Heroes
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I didn't get very far into this one. Playing as my 39 Fire/Fire Brute I was just getting hammered constantly, with the Ninjitsu and the Broadsword just taking me out within a few seconds. I saved Cpl. Arizona but he didn't help much at first, but he did end up helping a little bit. After 5-6 deaths I gave up. I will try again with my 50 SR scrapper before totally calling it quits.
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Thanks for trying and please note I have re-published the arc and it is now #104496. I had suspected that the hard setting may have been too much for overall enjoyment of the arc but wanted to hear a little more feedback on it. They've all been edited down to standard , which I think might make the arc more accessible to more toons and lower levels. In this vein, I also knocked the ninja archer down to AR/dev because, well, she really was just brutal. I'd love to hear how your fire/fire fares under the new settings.
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Ran it again tonight with my 39 fire/fire brute and I enjoyed it much more than last time. Still had a few hairy moments. Notably having 5-6 stacked web grenades on me occasionally, and opening the last door in the first mission letting loose the clusterbuster of mobs coming after me. But never had to hospital, so it wasn't anything major. Also, the second mission is funny, but so awful at the same time with the blinding. It's almost so far out there that I would recommend re-tooling the story a bit in the first and last mission and it would make a great villain arc. That's just a little bit too sinister for a neutral arc. I also hated the forcefields as the final boss. With only 4 points of KB protection, I was getting knocked on my butt every attack from him. The two strong allies were very helpful in that battle, though they are a bit much for the rest of the mission. Overall though, I had a real good time playing it. I enjoyed the story, thought it was quite entertaining, and enjoyed fighting the mobs for the most part.
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Also, the second mission is funny, but so awful at the same time with the blinding. It's almost so far out there that I would recommend re-tooling the story a bit in the first and last mission and it would make a great villain arc.
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But... it's a good blinding. You cannot have a blind superhero movie without a blind superhero, right? 
Sorry, it's the Bruce Campbell fan in me.
Thanks for playing and I'm glad you had a good time.
Chill.
============
50's: Jennifer Halloween, DM/DA Scrapper; Black Peet, 50 DM/WP Brute; Siansha, Soldier; Miss Terie, Elec/Dark Corrupter
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Here's one of my arcs, submitted for your (or anyone's, actually) review:
The Missing
ArcID: 37636
Level Range: 1-50
No. of Mission: 3
Difficulty: Medium
Synopsis: What starts out as a missing person case turns into something more sinister.
Notes: Story-focused. Mystery. Solo-friendly, with only one EB. An ally is also provided.
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I really enjoyed this arc. It's my favorite so far from this thread. It has a great story with a great twist and really had me interested towards the end. It's not faultless though. In your first two mission briefings, the contact mentions that there are two possible locations and he's going to check out one while you check out the other. It feels unnecissary and repetitive. Also some of the clues have too many short, uninteresting sentences, I think that's also a small problem in the early mission briefings. The arc really starts to come into focus as soon as you see the objective at the end of the second mission. As soon as I saw it, I was like "That's odd, what is that doing there?" And when the dialog popped up, that's when you had me. Unfortunately, it took one and a half missions to get there. My suggestion is that you need some more emotional connection. I'm not sure what, but something to get you involved in the story a little bit earlier. I also enjoyed the ending, but it just didn't feel like there was enough of a connection to really make the ending pop the way it should.
If you do end up tightening the story up some more, be sure to let me know. I absolutely enjoyed it, I'm glad you didn't use unnecissary custom groups, used Council instead of everyone's new favorite group the 5th Column, and used Family instead of a random custom mob-themed group. The bosses were well designed and seemed well balanced. I played as a lvl 27 fire/fire tanker on a team with another tank and a peacebringer.
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I've got a three mission arc, broad strokes is Malta's up to no good and you have to stop them. There's a custom EB in the third mission, not a "challenge" EB but still respectable. I also included an ally optional rescue in the EB mission to hep with the boss.
Arc number's 100483, title is "a precious gift..."
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Ran as a lvl 27 fire/fire tanker with another tank and a peacebringer. It was surprisingly refreshing to fight some Malta after some of the tough custom enemies. Though in the end, the sappers did start getting on my nerves, though I only had one death myself, and I think my teammates fared the same. I kind of like the descriptive text, though I think yellow stands out too much. You should use a more subtle tone like light green and/or italics. The bosses were pretty good choices, nothing over the top. I also think you went a little over the top with the contact's condition, especially at the end. Which I also wasn't too clear if he just fainted or if he died. Either way, you should put a little capper on the end, either mentioning that he'll be fine once he comes to, or something about his death. It was a very abrupt end. I would give a bit more feedback on the story, but it's somewhat unmemorable.
I'm sorry, but I actually played "The Missing" right after this arc and that one stands out in my head much more than yours. One of the downsides of playing with a team is that I don't have time to write down notes, and I want to move on to the next arc to keep things moving. I don't remember anything especially bad, but there also wasn't anything extra memorable. Take that as you will. I might give it another try sometime. Let me know if you update it.
Glad there is a place for short arcs finally.
Here is my review.
Stop the Scrapocalypse #103094
This is a one mission Arc that centers on the premise that soloing Scrappers have gone feral. Soloing their way thru every mob until there are only 5 left. You are there to help Longbow ring them in. It's tough, they are EBs, but fun. I didn't mind dying. The writing is whitty, but I feel the author kinda got lazy at the end. Only 3 of the 5 scrappers have a history.
Overall, worth a play!