Arc 245042 - The Next War on Drugs - w/ incentives

Arc Name: The Next War on Drugs
Arc ID: 245042
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: @anachrodragon
Difficulty Level: Easy/Low Level (AutoSK to 18-20ish, but intended for lowbie/teen heroes)

Synopsis: Street crime and drug trafficking are on the rise in Paragon City, and Back Alley Brawler wants your help to fight back. Learn about the history of the War on Drugs and investigate new threats.
Estimated Time to Play: 40 minutes (5 missions but most are small maps and very quick. Some optional objectives that may add additional time)

I wanted to make something that was steeped in canon, and yet try for a tad grittier than the normal fare. It involves Back Alley Brawler, with a lot of history on the original War on Drugs, and some new issues with organized crime. I like how it turned out, but I'm looking for feedback from you guys to tell me if it works or not.

(Note: One mission in the middle of the arc is entirely story-driven with no mobs. I promise it's quick, but I thought I should warn people that this is definitely a story focused arc, rather than an XP-heavy arc)

Anyway, even though this is a serious arc, I couldn't resist throwing in some easter eggs. So I'm going to turn this into a contest. Find all the stupid easter eggs and send me a PM, and I'll enter your name in a drawing for an as yet undecided prize (something small or silly I'm sure) at the end of July.

Here are the questions that must be answered correctly. All answers are found somewhere in the arc (some obvious, some not so much).

Why you never see female trolls?
What color is Councilman Bryant's suit?
What is Sergeant Graham's wife's name?
What is Freezing Mantis's favorite DVD?
What is Sergeant Graham's badge number?

Also, because I'm still trying to bribe you folks to play my arc, if you play mine, I'll play one of yours. Just play my arc, and then post on this thread and let me know about one of yours that you'd like me to play. I'll give you feedback either in your thread for your arc (if you link to it), or via PM, or via in-game MA feedback. I don't play every single day, but I'll do my best to play your arcs if you play mine.

I ended up running this twice because the first time I was duoed and there was a lot to read but I didn't want to slow us down too much. So I went back to read the clues at a more leisurely pace.

Mission 1 was pretty straight forward with the hostage near the front. We did two of the optional tasks since they were on the way or just afterward.

The last sentence of the Mission 1 debriefing felt a bit clumsy and could be split into two sentences.

The Mission 2 introduction doesn't need quotation marks in the Blue Steel line. You could have something like "I told Blue Steel that you can handle this on your own."

In the navigation bar the mission heading is "get to the warehouse" but you are already in the warehouse at the start of the mission. So it really just needs to be "search through the warehouse" or something similar.

And since a cell phone is mentioned by BaB before and after the mission, you might want to mention finding it in the mission clue or even a separate glowie.

Some of the objectives in Mission 3 really did not work for me. Would a Hero or Heroine really be doing the kind of forensic work attributed to them in this mission? Especially an 18 year old girl who I had run it the first time? Threw me right out of the story, sorry.

Mission 4 send off dialogue from BaB should be "...deliver a smackdown" not "issue some smackdown." And your search action dialogue gives away the result of the search. Maybe have the player just rummage through the boxes and then read the clue when it's done.

Mission 5's Navigation window reads "4 locations to search for clues." It might be simpler to just say "4 clues to find."

Overall I enjoyed running this arc. Some of the history lessons provided by BaB in his briefings were a bit too long for my taste and the transitions from one mission to the next could be tightened up a bit. But the basics are there, they just need a bit of polish.

My arc is in my sig if you want to take a run through it.

Thanks for the feedback! I'm glad you enjoyed it overall. I will go through and clean up some of the dialog as you suggested. I'm not going to change its text-heavy nature, but I might add an additional warning in the description if I can fit it in.

I just played your arc and enjoyed it. I'll send you a PM as I don't want to clutter this thread with reviews.

Hi, I enjoyed this arc. It was nice to once again have my street-level hero engage in some street-level heroics.

Mission 2: The fact that these were security guards (I presume from a private firm) kind of threw me. I don't know if rent-a-cops would be so cavalier about the dead body lying right near them. Or that they wouldn't know who hired them.

Mission 3: This mission was basically farmer kryptonite, bute I liked it. It felt like I was actually investigating a crime scene. I thought the flavor text from the NPCs was particularly nice.

Mission 4: Freezing Mantis killed me. As in, made me laugh. His lame flailing was no match for my Martial Arts.

Overall a quality arc. Mention also should be made of the choice of maps, which were very suited to the crime-scene investigation story.

Anyway, would you play Threefold Rule (197183)? Thanks.

Awesome! I'm glad you enjoyed it. It sounds like your hero is exactly the type of character I was thinking about when I wrote it--the hero who gravitates toward fighting old fashioned street crime, more so than interdimensional threats, aliens, time traveling bad guys, etc...

On the security guards, I had a dilemma in that I didn't want to use Family until the very end. I needed something generic, and I didn't want to create custom mobs, so the security guards are what I wound up with. I agree they're not perfect. Maybe I can give them some dialog or something to help it fit together more cohesively.

On mission three, I'm really glad you liked it. I went into this with the expectation that some people would hate it, but I hoped that enough would like it that it would balance out. Also, as my husband reminds me (he works as a chemical analyst, not forensics though), nothing that you find there would be in any way usable in court. There's simply too much sloppiness, tampering, and unauthorized access; it would all be thrown out. That's fine though, because noticing the sloppiness is part of the point, which I hope comes across. And really, I doubt a hero would want to handle things in court anyway.

On Freezing Mantis, I knew he would be no match for your superior fighting style. If you ever happen to run it again, see if you can find his secret DVD collection.

I will definitely play your arc tonight, and give you feedback. Do you have a feedback thread? Also, I should say that I played your Dead and the Damned a while back and enjoyed it.

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I will definitely play your arc tonight, and give you feedback. Do you have a feedback thread? Also, I should say that I played your Dead and the Damned a while back and enjoyed it.

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Oop, yup! I should have posted a link to the thread. You'll find it here. Glad you enjoyed TDatD!