What will a MA arc need to gain 5 stars?

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And to drag this topic screaming back onto topic here's a US post on how to get 5 stars

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Curse you Carni! I'd been keeping that thread back as my private help towards becoming a half-decent mission writer - now any old fool can have the same help thanks to you!



Or alternatively - yup, I agree. Decent thread with some decent tips for those wanting to write arcs in MA.

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By my mohawk shall ye know me!
my toons
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I will mostly use MA for very extreme build tests

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I had some thoughts on how (not to) design custom factions, but I was overcome with a strange urge to turn it into a fanfic.

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I really should do something about this signature.

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Oh I agree that they aren't neccesarily needed and can be tedious, but I was coming from the jumping off point of Calamity stating Any arc that has 5 kill-all's in a row will get blasted by me! which seemed a little too harsh.

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I really do dislike kill-alls and we'll all be scoring arcs depending on what we like. Someone who hates nemesis will have a hard time convincing himself that a high score is justified even if the arc has been masterfully put together. It's human nature and I'd say the number of people who can prevent their own feelings affecting their judgement are tiny.

Having said that, I wouldn't jump on someone for the occasional kill-all but five kill-alls's in an arc of 5 missions? No thanks.

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I'd imagine that I'd build up to a kill all. You start with investigations (find clues), you end up having to shake one or two people up for information, before the final conflict where you have to take out the entire base to prevent the spread of whatever it is that you're stopping.

Then again, you may just be instructed to leave no prisoners/survivors by your contact for the whole arc. Depends on what the story is, I suppose.

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"Idealism is such a wonderful thing. All you really need is someone rational to put it to proper use." - Kerr Avon

Myopic Aardvark on Twitter

If anyone can stop the Taliban from taking over the world its gota be CoX.

Cave mission maps from Cimerora and your normal CoT caves where peeps would be doing Kill alls, rescuing Prisoners of War and preventing bombings of office buildings. Before the final showdown, taking out Bin Laden and his crew of Kamikaze suicide bombers

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I'm going to give him ^^^ five stars, just because I don't know whether he's serious or not. (Are you Trey Parker?)

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"Idealism is such a wonderful thing. All you really need is someone rational to put it to proper use." - Kerr Avon

Myopic Aardvark on Twitter

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Someone who hates nemesis will have a hard time convincing himself that a high score is justified even if the arc has been masterfully put together.

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Hmm, that didn't make much sense but it seemed ok when I read it this morning...must be Sunday! Anyway, what I meant to say was people who dislike Nemesis wouldn't like to be on an all nemesis arc and may well mark accordingly. Which brings me to another point, do we get to add a proper arc description that people can read before deciding whether or not to try it out or is it a 'get the first mission before knowing what we've let ourselves in for' game?

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To get five stars from me, a mission will need to include a good idea with competent execution.

The good idea can be anything from a great story to an original premise to high comedy value to an interesting enemy group. Then it should be well executed, simply meaning that it's enjoyable to play through, without any seriously frustrating or irritating errors.

I'm looking forwards to seeing missions that are designed to play like they were real in-game events as well as missions that are designed to play like they were in-game video games or training simulations. Both types will be great so long as there's clear demarcation. I'd love to see some plausable stories that fit with the ongoing theme and history, and I'd also love to see some stories that simply work the virtual reality angle and let our characters play survival-horror, fantasy, or science fiction games that are totally unrelated to the continuity of the in-game world.

I can't wait to see what people use the architect to do!

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