Make Story Arcs easier to obtain

Ive been playing a hero duo recently, and like to play through story arcs so that both characters get reward merits at the end.

I didn't expect it to be so hard!

Zone story arcs are great, such as Croatoa or the Rikti War Zone - approach the contact and go. Apart from Stephanie Peebles, you get the missions in order and can run through them in synch.

However, the older arcs from regular contacts are an absolute nightmare! Typically the contact gives you a couple of test missions, then the story arc once you've completed one or two. These test missions are invariably different ones for the two characters, and sometimes the story arc never appears - it seems very hit and miss. You often end up playing as many pre-amble missions to get to the arc as there are in the arc itself.

I've been willing to put up with it, because its just me dual boxing, and I'm very patient with myself. One character gets the first story arc mission (indicated by the book), I'll then let the other one catch up, assuming they ever get the story arc or dont outlevel the contact in the process.

However, I can't see this level of cooperation existing between members of a small pickup group, or even some SG members.

It would be nice to be able to team up with a stranger or two, compare contacts, and do Ashwin Lannister or Colleen Nelson or whoever, and both get merits. The way these are currently set up, starting a task force would be much easier and quicker. Either that, or everyone just does the leader's mission and only the leader gets merits, which isnt ideal or fair.

My suggestions:

1) Get regular contacts to give out a fixed 1-3 missions (say the badge missions liek Spelunker or War Wall Defender) before the story arc rather than randomly deciding.
2) Define a fixed order for Stephanie Peebles arc while you're at it.

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While I would love to see the old contacts revamped, it seems like a lot of work with little return, so I wouldn't expect it to be high priority.

In the meantime, there is a way to do the arcs with all the missions in the same order for all characters, and everyone getting full merits at the end: Flashback.

Even better, only the leader has to have outlevelled the contact to start the mission. Like a task force, everyone must meet the minimum level requirement, and if they aren't high enough level to be auto-exemplared, they will get XP, just as if they were doing it normally.

This may not help with your dual-boxed duo, as they are probably the same level, but it would help for PUGing.

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@Roderick

Yeah, it really is incredibly irritating. My wife and I run into the same problem on a regular basis. The sending you all over the place sucks too. I rarely start doing story arcs until I get to peregrine island. They're less irritating that way.

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I wouldnt mind the old story arcs being meshed with the police radio missions. Maybe add a third mission option that lights up when a story arc becomes available. Make it so if you do x number of missions, an arc automatically becomes available through whatever contact gives it out. So the text would read something like

"(Contact name) Is looking for a hero to help with some trouble relating to the (mob name)"

And have the yellow book icon next to it.

So, sort of a combination of the way blueside and redside do story arcs. Make it so you CAN do it the old way, contact to contact, or you CAN do it through the police radio/newspaper, or you Can do a combination.

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Jay Doherty: Yes, there was this one night that I was ready to go home but had to drop the browns off at the super bowl before I left for home. While on the throne it hit me. I stayed for a few more hours and that why we have the pain pads in the game.