#191775: How The Other Half Lives

Arc #191775
How The Other Half Lives
by @JKCarrier

Is this the beginning of a beautiful friendship, or the worst babysitting job ever? Vanguard and Arachnos have agreed to exchange representatives, so each can see how the other half lives. Your job is to take a rookie Fortunata under your wing, and give her a taste of the hero's life. From the sewers of Paragon to the stronghold of the Rikti, it's going to be a bumpy ride!

A story-focused, solo-friendly hero arc for levels 43-54.

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<center><img src=http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk218/NCNiviene/City%20Of/otherhalf.jpg></center>

The introduction is solid enough, although the premise is laughable - I hope I don't have to take this arc seriously. Would it be possible to find a more plausible reason for an exchange - even a simple hostage exchange, or some mother wanting to try to rehab her Arachnos'ed daughter? But that's okay, I won't be so serious from here on.

Her name is Becky. Any relation to Becky the Tarantula Mistress? Seems a little confusing, but admittedly my villain canon is weak. She's also level 50 (like me), whereas the mission subtitle mentioned a level 1 arachnos... again, I'm probably taking this too seriously.

Your New Sidekick Clue: entusiastic -&gt; enthusiastic

Becky's been doing some filing, in a high security place (albeit RWZ, which is joint hero-villain). Interesting.

Good choice of medium sized maps - not overlarge, a good change from the small maps that start to become very familiar.

And, hah - Becky was as trustworthy as I expected. Becky's AWOL, and now the plot seems serious. I'm using evidence from Rikti security tapes that perhaps they didn't check themselves - sounds like pretty low-tech security, like an ATM machine or a 7-11...

So now the Vanguard are my enemy too? Did they get Berserkified? I see the gadget is "all-purpose". But I manage to sleep them, clear the Rikti, and move on. At one point the Vanguard fled, but wasn't attacked by other Rikti he passed. I think this is a weakness in the Battles of AE, that you can't have a Rogue faction in a battle. Not a big deal here.

I clear out the objectives, and I'm done!

So I just need to clear up the other half of the student exchange. Whoever thought this was going to work? And indeed, it worked out particularly bad. But I get to take out Becky and Miss F in the same arc.

Becky says thanks for letting her play sidekick - wasn't aware she was a good-guy in that last mish, since I ran by her. But it did make sense in the end.

I guess I figured tarantulas were cyborgs, not just suits, and so the original Becky fortunata confused me.

Overall, an interesting story and characters. Becky was more capable than expected, Levantera was a lot more foolish than expected, and the hero-hostage was fairly much on target as the ally that causes too much knockback. I think I had to suspend a lot of belief to get through this, which would be fine if it was a bit sillier overall. It weaves a winding path between drama and farce. But solidly written, almost no typos that I found, and a great poster.

Thanks! //airhead

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Thanks for checking out my arc! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

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The introduction is solid enough, although the premise is laughable - I hope I don't have to take this arc seriously.

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Yes, the premise is deliberately kind of silly. I do have a tendency to mix funny and serious stuff...I can see where that might be a turn-off if you're expecting it to be all one or the other.

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She's also level 50 (like me), whereas the mission subtitle mentioned a level 1 arachnos... again, I'm probably taking this too seriously.

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The conceit is that you've sidekicked her, so her level matches yours. That's right, she's not just an Arachnos agent, she's a dirty Powerleveler!

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Your New Sidekick Clue: entusiastic -&gt; enthusiastic

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Ouch, good catch! I'll fix that.

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I'm using evidence from Rikti security tapes that perhaps they didn't check themselves - sounds like pretty low-tech security, like an ATM machine or a 7-11...

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The Base Commander has some dialogue where he's chewing out his soldiers over the lousy security, so they're at least aware of the problem.

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So now the Vanguard are my enemy too? Did they get Berserkified? I see the gadget is "all-purpose".

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Yes, everyone in the base is going berserk. I should probably make that clearer.

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At one point the Vanguard fled, but wasn't attacked by other Rikti he passed. I think this is a weakness in the Battles of AE, that you can't have a Rogue faction in a battle.

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Yeah, I had to fudge that a little. For the Battles, I put Rikti vs. Vanguard. But for the regular spawns, I made a custom group that had both of them in it, so those will only attack you instead of each other.

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Becky says thanks for letting her play sidekick - wasn't aware she was a good-guy in that last mish, since I ran by her. But it did make sense in the end.

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In the last mission, Becky's not set to follow you. The idea is that she just gives you the security codes to let you get further into the base. Since you can't make locked doors in AE, I set it so that rescuing her triggers the final boss objective. Admittedly, it's a bit of a kludge.

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I guess I figured tarantulas were cyborgs, not just suits, and so the original Becky fortunata confused me.

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You're right, she's been turned into a cyborg since you last saw her. I talk about it a little in the clues and the souvenir at the end.

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Becky was more capable than expected, Levantera was a lot more foolish than expected, and the hero-hostage was fairly much on target as the ally that causes too much knockback.

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I'm glad Becky worked out...I was worried that she'd be too squishy as a Minion (there wasn't a Lieutenant-rank Fortunata at the levels I needed).

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It weaves a winding path between drama and farce. But solidly written, almost no typos that I found, and a great poster.

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Thanks again, I really appreciate the detailed feedback. You might enjoy my other arc, 99458 -- it's more of a straightforward drama.

You can read Venture's review of "How The Other Half Lives" here:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=134124

He gave it 3 stars. I can't really argue with anything he said, but I did want to explain the thought processes behind some of the things I did in the arc:

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The comedy really didn't work for me as it relies too much on throwing the Idiot Ball.

Understandable, it's a form of meta-humor that not everyone is going to appreciate. Being able to see where things are going is meant to reward the people who actually take the trouble to read all the clues and dialogue.

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There are problems with the use of canon as well: Becky (according to her speech in "Von Grun's Redemption") volunteered to be a Tarantula Mistress

Indeed, that line of dialogue was what inspired the arc in the first place. Even allowing for the fact that Becky is highly enthusiastic and a bit dim, it still seemed incredible to me that anyone would volunteer for such a thing. So I cooked up an alternate scenario, with the implication that she just tells people she volunteered, because she doesn't want to admit she got busted (and yes, I recognize the irony of balking at the dev's unlikely scenario, while perpetrating several of my own. ).

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and having Fusionette behave like this wasn't really credible either.

Perhaps not...another bit of meta-commentary there. I was thinking about how players tend to grumble and roll their eyes as she turns up captured for the umpteenth time, and how annoying it is to manage her as a "pet" in various missions. Running with the idea that the characters likewise treat her with that kind of open contempt, it seemed to me that she might start to resent it after a while. Throw in a week's worth of propaganda/brainwashing by Arachnos, and I could see her jumping the fence (although as you note, she's not exactly deeply committed, and it doesn't take much to bring her back around).

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There are also issues in the third act with factions that should be hostile but aren't

That's a fair cop. I struggled with that, and finally just went with the best approximation I could manage. I'll take another look at it.

Thanks for the review!

ReclusesPhantom gave "How The Other Half Lives" a 4/5, saying "The arc was fun to play through, very solo-friendly and had a good and lighthearted storyline."

You can read his whole review here:
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...54#post2327854