I've been playing a bunch of AE arcs and learned some things.
Map variety makes a huge difference in fun - but makes arc less coherent.
Playing a 5 mission arc where each map is very different - outdoor city, orabenga, cimmeroran tunnels, office, arachnos - makes it much more fun. Each mission feels very different.
But it does strain arc coherency. If the arc already felt confusing - this made it much worse. But if the arc felt coherent and made sense - it wasn't a problem.
Varying enemy groups - makes arc more fun, but too much variance kills plot. Having a bit of variance here breaks things up - and it makes it feel more "realistic". It feels like the story is in the world, rather than this narrow setting with just one group. But if more than half of the missions have a different group - the arc loses the plot. Having 4 missions of different groups than saying "It's really this group" doesn't make me think it is that group - it just feels random.
Style really matters - having a Japanese feel, or a medieval feel, or seemingly any different feel really makes the arc more fun. Standard superheroes if so common. Of course if everyone made Japanese arcs it wouldn't be special anymore.
I've been playing a bunch of AE arcs and learned some things.
Map variety makes a huge difference in fun - but makes arc less coherent.
Playing a 5 mission arc where each map is very different - outdoor city, orabenga, cimmeroran tunnels, office, arachnos - makes it much more fun. Each mission feels very different.
But it does strain arc coherency. If the arc already felt confusing - this made it much worse. But if the arc felt coherent and made sense - it wasn't a problem.
Varying enemy groups - makes arc more fun, but too much variance kills plot. Having a bit of variance here breaks things up - and it makes it feel more "realistic". It feels like the story is in the world, rather than this narrow setting with just one group. But if more than half of the missions have a different group - the arc loses the plot. Having 4 missions of different groups than saying "It's really this group" doesn't make me think it is that group - it just feels random.
Style really matters - having a Japanese feel, or a medieval feel, or seemingly any different feel really makes the arc more fun. Standard superheroes if so common. Of course if everyone made Japanese arcs it wouldn't be special anymore.