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This is perfect. You mention the amount of time using the character's voice yet it is highlighted in a different color for the player. You can probably do the same with mission 2. While some people will have out of character warnings underneath the text (it's the author's choice), you can also mention that you have timed missions in the overall arc description for when they search for the arc.
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Originally Posted by Scootertwo
I'm going to put you as close to arrest point as possible, you should have about half an hour before the Longbow show up on the scene."
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That was the problem. Had I known to clear the map first, it would have been a piece of cake.|
Originally Posted by Zamuel
the main part of my strategy was clearing the ENTIRE map before I pressed the "allies nao" button. Plus, it took failing once to figure out a better strategy.
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However, I would not alter the mission to say "clear the map first."
Arc# 92382 -- "The S.P.I.D.E.R. and the Tyrant" -- Ninjas! Robots! Praetorians! It's totally epic! Play it now!
Arc # 316340 -- "Husk" -- Azuria loses something, a young woman harbors a dark secret, and the fate of the world is in your hands.
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I highlighted it for these purposes. I added the forth wall breaker under the mission intro text in big red letters.
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Originally Posted by Zamuel
This is perfect. You mention the amount of time using the character's voice yet it is highlighted in a different color for the player. You can probably do the same with mission 2. While some people will have out of character warnings underneath the text (it's the author's choice), you can also mention that you have timed missions in the overall arc description for when they search for the arc.
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ScooterTwo: your first arc.
Like Zamuel, I tend to cringe at time travel. 
TYPOS, SPELLING, GRAMMAR (trying to omit that which Zamuel already pointed out):
MISSION 1:
Mission briefing:
"Don't be alarmed the anyone you see" is awkward. "the" should probably be "that."
MISSION 2:
Mission briefing:
"a hero showd" should be "a hero showed"
"if they had succeded" should be "if they had succeeded"
"what you desribe" should be "what you describe"
"worst of the damge" should be "worst of the damage"
The phrase "What would she do if she saw what you describe the was like when I brought you back?" is awkward. I'd go with "What would she do if she saw what you described to me?"
Empathic Eve dialogue: "Names Eve nice..." should be "Name's Eve. Nice..."
Post Mission Briefing:
"It's a very long story one I don't time to tell right now" should be "It's a very long story. One I don't have time to tell right now."
"Alot" should be two words.
"...died that night it was my greatest failure" should be "...died that night. It was my greatest failure."
"are you still willing?" should be capitalized.
Mission 3:
Mission Briefing:
"I need you to rogue for me." should be "I need you to go Rogue for me."
"the address, she live at" should omit the comma
"steal thier files" should be "steal their files"
Mission 4:
Mission Briefing:
"valuble" should be "valuable"
"this fire thats is" should be "this fire that's" or "this fire that is"
"I need to risk yourself again" should be "I need you to risk yourself again"
COULD NOT COMPLETE MISSION 4 (see below)
Story issues:
Time travel. Please don't take it personally; it's really not my cup of tea. The idea of going back in time and seeing a situation and knowingly altering the past is probably avoidable by not going back in time in the first place. I think my character, as a hero, at about the time the contact was telling me to go back in time and rob a police station would have said, "This is your problem, lady. YOU fix it." And then I'd have thrown her out a window. 
Contact appearance -- contact is blind, but is wearing clear glasses. Either go with no glasses or dark glasses.
DIFFICULTY / MECHANICS ISSUES
Missions 1 and 2 -- overuse of Confuse powers. I'd change the standard bosses into another power set and save Confuse powers for the boss at the end. In mission 2, due to my difficulty settings, every encounter had a boss with Confuse. After rescuing Empathic Eve, these encounters became "Defenestrator stands around and takes damage while the ally does all the work."
Mission 4 -- could not finish the mission. I think the problem you're having with getting glowies to spawn is that the map does not support three glowies + three hostages. Check the limitations of the map and cut out what you need to.
Also, I would bump Hell-Cat down from an Elite Boss to a standard Boss. She made the end of the mission too easy.
Arc# 92382 -- "The S.P.I.D.E.R. and the Tyrant" -- Ninjas! Robots! Praetorians! It's totally epic! Play it now!
Arc # 316340 -- "Husk" -- Azuria loses something, a young woman harbors a dark secret, and the fate of the world is in your hands.
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Liez!!! Your global is @Teh Hippeh. In all seriousness, if you hadn't mentioned "Power of Magic" I might not have found it due to that. I ran the first two arcs in the series. Attempted the third but, erm...it's not for lowbies. I entered at level 11ish and the enemies were level 20. You'll probably need to directly set the mission parameters to something narrower. Still, I might run it tomorrow with something higher level.|
Originally Posted by TehHippeh
My global is tehHippeh, same as here.
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Overall the story worked well. However, the first arc in the series had a crucial difficulty problem--multiple EBs. Having an EB at the end of an arc is fine but having them in the middle, especially since this is a lowbie arc was a bit jarring. I did notice the team recommendation after the fact so it's up to you if you want to make these changes. I'd sort of argue for downgrading 3K Kelvin to boss status.
The next mission had Frostfire who was rather annoying to solo since he summoned pets. When I died, I deliberately street swept until I leveled and then went to face him which was still quite hard. However, there may be canon issues with using Frostfire that might possibly make using a custom better. Since he essentially "went Rogue" but I believe the end of the Hollows had him attempting to clean up his act, I'm not sure if he'd still be the head of the Outcasts.
Your custom Tsoo looked nice but ALL of them lacked bios. Intriguingly, your custom Hellion LT had a bio but the custom Hellion Minion did not. It seems like they'd have the same bio based upon the story.
ARC 1
Mission 3: Azuria says "Upon his death he left it to me for safekeeping. What? Why are you laughing...?". While it took me a moment to get that it was an Azuria joke, someone not wise to that might mistakenly take it as the player disrespecting the dead. Perhaps, I'm a good example since I'm still sorta new and getting the fact that it was poking fun at Azuria losing things (and thus you wouldn't trust her for safekeeping) wasn't instantaneous. Instead of having the player laughing, perhaps it should be changed to "Why are you looking at me that way...?" This would also fit in with her followup comment that affirms that it's an Azuria joke.
Mission 5: Due to the way the battles worked, they wound up helping with the objectives since the destructables conned as enemies to some.
"Adrastos rose in power within the Warriors through his skill with blade and single-minded approach toward killing the gang's enemies. He is a hulking figure of a man, and enjoys nothing more than cleaving folks with this axe. His name translates to something like "one who is not inclined to flee." Yeah, it pretty mst looks like it fits." should be "Adrastos rose in power within the Warriors through his skill with blade and single-minded approach toward killing the gang's enemies. He is a hulking figure of a man and enjoys nothing more than cleaving folks with this axe. His name translates to something like "one who is not inclined to flee." Yeah, it pretty much looks like it fits."
I don't know if the group name of the custom lowbie Warriors should actually be Low Level Warriors...
ARC 2
This had a smoother increase of difficulty in comparison to Part 1. Plus, I wound up with random catgirl assistance for the second half of this arc. Plus, you had an intriguing surprise for me since I didn't know there was a Skyway map in the MA.
Contact seemed a bit goofier than Azuria. Don't know if you intended that...
"Sueradine Lab Emitting Chemicals" seemed a bit of a mouthful for the destructable name and should be Superadine. In its descriptive text, "In the prescence of this lab, you can't help inhaling a whiff or two of the chemical seeping into the building. You may feel a slight increase in energy if you are affecting by such things." should be "In the prescence of this lab, you can't help inhaling a whiff or two of the chemical seeping into the building. You may feel a slight increase in energy if you are affected by such things."
Mission 4
"You have defeated <spoiler name removed...>. Although he was not the primary objective, you needed defeat him to ensure he did not prevent you from destroying all of the Rage cannisters." should be "You have defeated <spoiler name removed...>. Although he was not the primary objective, you needed to defeat him to ensure he did not prevent you from destroying all of the Rage canisters."
You had at least one more spot where "canisters" was misspelled but I apologise for not noting where.
Hope I caught all of the typos but you didn't seem to have many. I do have one final nitpick, the title. Only the first arc seemed to involve magic (though I need to run part three for certain) and I was picking up more of a gang war conspiracy vibe with part one being somewhat magic based and part two being about drugs.
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Thanks again for spending the time to review. It has been a while since I had some critical eyes play these through. |
Originally Posted by Zamuel
Liez!!! Your global is @Teh Hippeh. In all seriousness, if you hadn't mentioned "Power of Magic" I might not have found it due to that. I ran the first two arcs in the series. Attempted the third but, erm...it's not for lowbies. I entered at level 11ish and the enemies were level 20. You'll probably need to directly set the mission parameters to something narrower. Still, I might run it tomorrow with something higher level.
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The level problem is a very useful thing to know, thanks. The idea was that the Family would be about the right level range after playing both arcs. If you did that and were 11, I may have to think about some things. Or just make the level range more specific. This is even more of a factor with the upcoming XP changes in the architect.
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Overall the story worked well. However, the first arc in the series had a crucial difficulty problem--multiple EBs. Having an EB at the end of an arc is fine but having them in the middle, especially since this is a lowbie arc was a bit jarring. I did notice the team recommendation after the fact so it's up to you if you want to make these changes. I'd sort of argue for downgrading 3K Kelvin to boss status. The next mission had Frostfire who was rather annoying to solo since he summoned pets. When I died, I deliberately street swept until I leveled and then went to face him which was still quite hard. However, there may be canon issues with using Frostfire that might possibly make using a custom better. Since he essentially "went Rogue" but I believe the end of the Hollows had him attempting to clean up his act, I'm not sure if he'd still be the head of the Outcasts. |
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| Your custom Tsoo looked nice but ALL of them lacked bios. Intriguingly, your custom Hellion LT had a bio but the custom Hellion Minion did not. It seems like they'd have the same bio based upon the story. |
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ARC 1 Mission 3: Azuria says "Upon his death he left it to me for safekeeping. What? Why are you laughing...?". While it took me a moment to get that it was an Azuria joke, someone not wise to that might mistakenly take it as the player disrespecting the dead. Perhaps, I'm a good example since I'm still sorta new and getting the fact that it was poking fun at Azuria losing things (and thus you wouldn't trust her for safekeeping) wasn't instantaneous. Instead of having the player laughing, perhaps it should be changed to "Why are you looking at me that way...?" This would also fit in with her followup comment that affirms that it's an Azuria joke. |
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ARC 2 Contact seemed a bit goofier than Azuria. Don't know if you intended that... |
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| Hope I caught all of the typos but you didn't seem to have many. I do have one final nitpick, the title. Only the first arc seemed to involve magic (though I need to run part three for certain) and I was picking up more of a gang war conspiracy vibe with part one being somewhat magic based and part two being about drugs. |
I agree with everything you pointed out. Thanks again for the play and review.
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What other enemies are in that arc? I ask since I know Family scales down pretty low. There must be some other enemy in that first mission that's jacking up the scaling.
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Originally Posted by TehHippeh
The level problem is a very useful thing to know, thanks. The idea was that the Family would be about the right level range after playing both arcs. If you did that and were 11, I may have to think about some things. Or just make the level range more specific. This is even more of a factor with the upcoming XP changes in the architect.
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According to my settings I have:|
Originally Posted by Zamuel
What other enemies are in that arc? I ask since I know Family scales down pretty low. There must be some other enemy in that first mission that's jacking up the scaling.
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1. 5-40 (Family)
2. 5-40 (Family)
3. 1 - 54 (Custom Mobs)
4. 14 - 33 (Family with an ally that caps at 33)
5. 20 - 40 (Freaks and Family)
I had thought that one mission did not control a whole arc but maybe it can. Have to check those settings.
I just have to post this because it made me laugh. A complaint from my mission:
COMPLAINT: Elitist mission that states Victory is better than Virtue and it's offensive to those of us that choose to make Virtue our home server.
NO ******* DUH!!! It's a JOKE mission. FFS, Virtue, grow a pair and quit being whiny ******* that need their ***** wiped. 
So Viv...your presence means you'll be joining us in our goal of improving the Architect's offerings? Here's a pair of overalls and a crowbar. I expect to see you out there bright and early. 
Typos fix'd before you posted I was in the middle of editing when you played it. 3 stars 
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See I can tell you didn't read it. If you payed attention the first mission is simply supposed to be just go and watch. You are not "supposed" to be able to interact with anything. I hate to spoil anything but the damage is already done the second you say yeah show me the story. If you play part II you you find out that wasn't anything you could do.|
Story issues: Time travel. Please don't take it personally; it's really not my cup of tea. The idea of going back in time and seeing a situation and knowingly altering the past is probably avoidable by not going back in time in the first place. I think my character, as a hero, at about the time the contact was telling me to go back in time and rob a police station would have said, "This is your problem, lady. YOU fix it." And then I'd have thrown her out a window.
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| Contact appearance -- contact is blind, but is wearing clear glasses. Either go with no glasses or dark glasses. |
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DIFFICULTY / MECHANICS ISSUES Missions 1 and 2 -- overuse of Confuse powers. I'd change the standard bosses into another power set and save Confuse powers for the boss at the end. In mission 2, due to my difficulty settings, every encounter had a boss with Confuse. After rescuing Empathic Eve, these encounters became "Defenestrator stands around and takes damage while the ally does all the work." |
Again the choice of that particular boss is essential to the story considering who the main Villain actually turns out to be. This is an off shoot of established real world Mythology. Sorry the Succubae stay hence the Emp being there she will put CM on you.
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| Mission 4 -- could not finish the mission. I think the problem you're having with getting glowies to spawn is that the map does not support three glowies + three hostages. Check the limitations of the map and cut out what you need to. |
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| Also, I would bump Hell-Cat down from an Elite Boss to a standard Boss. She made the end of the mission too easy. |
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No, I read the story. |
Originally Posted by Scootertwo
Typos fix'd before you posted I was in the middle of editing when you played it. 3 stars
See I can tell you didn't read it. If you payed attention the first mission is simply supposed to be just go and watch. You are not "supposed" to be able to interact with anything. I hate to spoil anything but the damage is already done the second you say yeah show me the story. If you play part II you you find out that wasn't anything you could do. |
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*spoiler alert* Again the choice of that particular boss is essential to the story considering who the main Villain actually turns out to be. This is an off shoot of established real world Mythology. Sorry the Succubae stay hence the Emp being there she will put CM on you. |
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| Actually it can support a lot of things. People are too easily distracted. the only thing you have to do to complete the mission is get her out. Every thing I mean everything else, I cannot stress this enough, IS NOT NECESSARY. So I added the line in the send off dialogue. "Focus on the task at hand" I guess thats why they called the badge poor impulse control. |
Arc# 92382 -- "The S.P.I.D.E.R. and the Tyrant" -- Ninjas! Robots! Praetorians! It's totally epic! Play it now!
Arc # 316340 -- "Husk" -- Azuria loses something, a young woman harbors a dark secret, and the fate of the world is in your hands.
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Actually there are only 11 succubae in that map.| Look, I'm not worried if you change stuff or not. The Emp. Defender following me around used Clear Mind twice during the whole mission, plus I had to get to her first. There were about 20 Confuse using MOBs in that mission (a small map). I stood around most of the mission unable to attack anything. If that is your intent for this mission that's okay, but it's not fun to play. |
10 Acolytes and 1 Priestess.
I've spent some time this week re-editing my main arc "Plunder Enlightening" (#50882).
It is a vehicle for my custom enemy group, the Sanguine Sailors, a well-rounded and diverse crew of pirates with 13 different mob types, individual costumes and power selections. The arc is 3 missions, fairly simple rescue captive or defeat boss encounters. Any comments on how your character handled the group or suggestions for improvements on the mission text would be appreciated. The arc is aimed roughly at levels 12-38, but open to 1-50.
If 3 missions is too long or pirates aren't your thing, I have a single mission encounter called "The Baryonic Cell" with a group of rogue Portal Corporation scientists aimed at higher levels, again with a score of individual mob types/costumes and powers. Just in case you were wondering, "BC" is the boss, not a mission ally =p
I will make time to be on Victory later in the afternoon/evening, I would love to run through these missions with some other people. I've playtested both extensively, but rarely grouped.
@ScooterTwo, None of us are trying to put down anyone's missions. From my own experience, a few stricter critiques/reviews allowed me to improve the quality of my arcs which led to more positive reviews. The concept of a darker tale for a heroic mission is novel but I think some of the gameplay elements are detracting from the story instead of adding to it. The succubae should stay but reducing the number would help make the mission more tolerable for some ATs. Testing stuff with a Stalker allows me to ignore some enemies which is both good and bad. Concerning the optional objectives in the other mission, you can actually change the color of the text for these so it's more noticable. Also, this is one time I'd actually add a timer to push the player to leader her out quickly. Testing and fine tuning will determine how long it should be.
Your second arc had some positives and negatives but the negatives made it problematic. Having an Elite Boss that runs can be a headache. It fits with the story but from a gameplay perspective it's bad since the maps chosen make it vastly too easy for her to get away. This is a situation where using clues to expand upon things (like "she eluded you but you got the file") would add to the story. In a different story you could change the map to something indoors with a moderate amount of space from the spawn to the door to allow running but such maps would not work for your story, sadly. I will admit that while failing allowed me to see the Failure text, I actually stopped the arc after the second mission and will return to it at a later time.
I like that while it may be "too little, too late", the contact is now willing to forgo her reputation to get this sorted out. Shows a bit of character development. Also, things seemed to be progressing a bit smoother in the plot. The player is trying to get details to see if she can be cured or at least contained. I am curious to see how it works out in the end.
I'd suggest you do a quick run through on a few different ATs to see if you notice any quirks in gameplay or anything you catch in the story that you didn't when the arc was first made.
TYPOs
Mission 1
"So, <player name> just cant leave it alone can you?" should be "So <player name>, just can't leave it alone can you?" <- comma placement and adding an apostrophe
The Lady's bio
"Is this the same girl you save from the Circle? Something is happening to her She's changing or being changed. What happened to her?" should be "Is this the same girl you saved from the Circle? Something is happening to her. She's changing or being changed. What happened to her?" <- Added periods
Failure text
"she Got away from you. But the Police called in SWAT and Longbow and caught her exiting the building. She was sent to the Zig. We are working with imcomplete information. We need her file from the Zig." should be "She got away from you but the Police called in SWAT and Longbow and caught her exiting the building. She was sent to the Zig. We are working with incomplete information. We need her file from the Zig." <- capitalization, removed period, fixed misspelling
Success text
"Well according to you, you beat her. According to the old File the cops were able to get her to hospital. Fortunately for you the cops think it was a rival gang. She was sent to to the Zig and thats where her file stops. We are working with imcomplete information. We need to get more information about her. She has stopped being Helena and now is this Lady. I fear we may be losing Helena." should be "Well according to you, you beat her. According to the old file, the cops were able to get her to hospital. Fortunately for you the cops think it was a rival gang. She was sent to to the Zig and thats where her file stops. We are working with incomplete information. We need to get more information about her. She has stopped being Helena and now is this Lady. I fear we may be losing Helena." <- capitalization and comma, fixed misspelling
Mission 2
"What has happened to poor Helena?. She has killed innocent people and assaulted Police detectives. She was captured and sent to Zigursky Prison, with her power I know she didn't stay long. She's done horrible things.... maybe the Accolytes succeded. We need more information, The police report ends with her being sent to the Zigursky Prison. This is out-of-hand I can't afford to save face anymore. I have to go through offical channels. I called a friend of mine that works at the Prison to see if he could send me a copy of her file. He told me that it had gone missing. It was during one of Recluse's recuiting operations. Recluse is good about destroying files. I need you to go back to the Zig and stop those files from being destroyed. Maybe you can find something that belonged to her? With that maybe I can divine a way to stop her from realizing her full potential." should be "What has happened to poor Helena? She has killed innocent people and assaulted police detectives. She was captured and sent to Zigursky Prison but with her power I know she didn't stay long. She's done horrible things.... maybe the Acolytes succeeded. We need more information. The police report ends with her being sent to the Zigursky Prison. This is out-of-hand I can't afford to save face anymore. I have to go through official channels. I called a friend of mine that works at the Prison to see if he could send me a copy of her file. He told me that it had gone missing during one of Recluse's recruiting operations. Recluse is good about destroying files. I need you to go back to the Zig and stop those files from being destroyed. Maybe you can find something that belonged to her? With that, maybe I can divine a way to stop her from realizing her full potential." <- mild rewordings, fixed misspellings
The Failure text is mildly confusing: "The Lady's Squad managed to destroy the files but not before you nabbed it yourself. A little devious but I admire your focus on the objective. I'll need time to see if this information help me divine The Lady's intentions." Consider rewording it so that it's more clear that she destroyed all the files but her own file, which you figured out a way to secure.
@Baryonic_Cell, The Baryonic Cell was simple yet fun. The mobs seemed decently balanced for normal play as a custom newspaper/radio mission. Your EB wasn't an EB so I don't know what happened there. Lab Security had the generic default text. Also, your mission finale could stand to be longer with a bit more resoluting than the two line message that's there.
TYPOs
"The prototype has a tracking device embedded, so we know where it is, however it is a well defended facility. Which is where you come in. We need you to destroy that prototype, <player name>. The former employees in the research facility are all law-breakers now so you may arrest them, or whatever it is you do, if you like, but do not leave that prototype in working condition! Don't worry we can make a new one, they however, cannot." should be "The prototype has a tracking device embedded, so we know where it is. However, it is a well defended facility. This is where you come in. We need you to destroy that prototype, <player name>. The former employees in the research facility are all law-breakers now so you may arrest them, or whatever it is you do if you like, but do not leave that prototype in working condition! Don't worry, we can make a new one. They however, can not."
"[NPC] The Baryonic Cell: Tresspasser detected. Initiating response mode." should be "[NPC] The Baryonic Cell: Trespasser detected. Initiating response mode."
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While I liked Plunder Enlightening, the arc as a whole felt like it was missing something. A bit more exposition on the pirates' goals might help. This leads into a few specific things with the story. Azuria seemed...off. Her text was a little dry to the point of being out of character. I'm almost thinking of saying that the pirates need to steal something from MAGI for canon reasons. The story starts off in St. Martial. All parts of the Rogue Isles are considered a separate country from the United States so telling the player to go there is mildly illegal. While technically, it's still illegal even if you're recovering stolen goods, the police would be more willing to turn a blind eye.
"Shaun Claude" is spelled "Shawn Claude" in several parts of the story. Your choice on which one is correct. I'm almost wondering if he should be an optional Ally in the second mission.
Sanguine Plunderer, Thief of Hearts, Sanguine Fletcher, Sanguine Pillager, Captain Magdalena are all using the generic default text. This is especially bad for Captain Magdalena since her sister has a full bio and Maggie is a required boss objective.
Sanguine Scout's bio seems more like a clue you would find than an actual bio. I need to run this on a different AT to get a better idea of enemy variance and will comment more on that later.
With mission 1 and 2 being outdoors, you really should add inactive text to Shaun Claude's captors and to Captain Magdalena and Captain Angelica. This makes finding them a little easier and allows more story and personality to be displayed.
Captain Bloodmist seems to not be a boss for some odd reason. Plus he seemed to be lacking resistance since he was surprising easy to gank and I had to rerun the mission. Text for him and clues for both him and treasure chest would be best.
Mission 2
"You interrupted the Sanguine Sailors in the middle of a shakedown. They seem to have got they information they needed, they are on the move again, this time heading for the mainland at Croatoa." should be "You interrupted the Sanguine Sailors in the middle of a shakedown. They seem to have gotten they information they needed. Now they are on the move again, this time heading for the mainland at Croatoa."
Mission 3
"This is a very powerful artifact. I'll keep it safe in the M.A.G.I. vaults. Thank for your efforts hero." should be "This is a very powerful artifact. I'll keep it safe in the M.A.G.I. vaults. Thanks for your efforts $name."
Zamuel, your comments are well and duly noted.
The mission text is something I've struggled with a bit. I'd tried going for a more complicated plot, but adding allies or battles tended to put awkard level caps on the missions, and those outdoor maps amazingly do not allow collection points. I've tried other maps, but visually the pirates looked better in St. Martial than say, an office or sewer setting.
I agree that adding inactive text to required NPCs in the outdoor maps is a must. I'd originally had some, but they were cut in editing.
As far as boss/EB scaling, I had noticed that it wasn't scaling predictably. Sorry to hear you had the same result, I'm at a loss for how to specify what the NPC will spawn as, any tips would be appreciated.
I quite like the idea of the pirates stealing the artifact from the M.A.G.I. vaults, it would help set up the story much better, and keep in the Azuria mission tradition. I think that might help me spice up Azuria's text more, as well. She was rather dry, since I'd re-edited the older story down to the basics. I'd originally involved an optional ghost pirate ally, but the NPC would artificially scale down the mission so he was dropped from the story. Same deal with the Croatoa map, I'd intended for some minor Red Cap interference but didn't want to fix the mission at level 25. A scene with the pirates looting a pawn shop run by Mooks was similarly dropped.
Capt. Bloodmist has been tough to balance. I'm somewhat glad to hear he was a bit of a pushover, he was set to Extreme in earlier versions and could be quite a bear to deal with for some ATs. He would take out my level 50 regen scrapper easily, but my level 36 elec/elec blaster could take him out quickly. I've noticed sometimes that he can spawn in earlier missions if the difficulty is ramped up. I'm not sure how to avoid that, short of specifically classifying them as an AV, which I wanted to avoid to ensure a solo player or small team could finish the arc. Balance-wise, the only thing I'm worried about is the two sister bosses (Magdalena and Angelica) being too tough for lower levels with their MC/Grav sets. I was aiming for something along the lines of the mezzing bosses of The Lost, but cute.
Thank you also for pointing out the typos. I forget now what I wrote for the Sanguine Scout's bio I'll have to check that out, I noticed last night several of the NPC bios could use editing.
The lackluster finale text is the end result of the rather simple set-up of the missions to start with, I'll have to consider that as well. Thanks again for running the arcs, I'm glad you enjoyed what you did in them. I was on for awhile last night, about 6:30 - 8pm PST, but missed you. I did get your in-game message though.
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This looks siggable.|
Originally Posted by Vivace
NO ******* DUH!!! It's a JOKE mission. FFS, Virtue, grow a pair and quit being whiny ******* that need their ***** wiped.
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I need to get off my butt and write an MA arc one of these days...
Agua Man lvl 48 Water/Electric Blaster
"To die hating NCSoft for shutting down City of Heroes, that was Freedom."
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Go into your group, select Bloodmist, and right-click Do Not Autospawn. He will only show up when officially set as a boss objective. Do the same for Magdalena and Angelica if needed. Also, make sure your in-mission difficulty option is set to Flat instead of Staggered or Back Loaded for mission 2 and 3. That might be affecting spawn levels for places with bosses.|
Originally Posted by Baryonic_Cell
I've noticed sometimes that he can spawn in earlier missions if the difficulty is ramped up.
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I had never seen that St. Martial map before but it seems to be one of the better outdoor maps and works well for your objective. Pity that the Golden Giza can be seen because otherwise I'd just tell you to pretend it isn't St. Martial. Considering your pawn shop idea, perhaps you should use bank map to pretend it's the MAGI vault. Then your arc could progress as vault theft -> St. Martial investigation -> Croatoa -> cave.
In some ways, I'd suggest limiting the level range. A more narrow level range will make balancing a bit easier. Speaking of which, your mobs seemed fine but you could probably stand to either change one or two (they are sort of repetitive) or remove one or two in favor of more arc space. I'll try to run it again in order to get a good idea of who should or shouldn't be changed. Could you PM me a list of what the minion and LT powersets are for your mobs?
Zamuel...would it be possible for you to somehow Highlight the changes tot he typos.
The problem I have with my text is I can't see the typos anymore. and when I look at your changes it's a bit of strain to find what is different.
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My bad. What color choices would work best for you? I know that having differnt forum settings affects text and background colors. Same question goes for everyone else, are there any color preferences y'all would suggest to make typo fixes and other things easier to fix?|
Originally Posted by Scootertwo
Zamuel...would it be possible for you to somehow Highlight the changes tot he typos.
The problem I have with my text is I can't see the typos anymore. and when I look at your changes it's a bit of strain to find what is different. |
Also, I was thinking, in Mission 2 of your second arc you just might be able to keep the running aspect of the Lady if you remove the ambush. Unique mechanics ARE nice but it takes a bit of fine tuning. The ambush caused a team wipe at the exact moment she had enough damage to start running and my load times are way too slow to try to go to the hospital, re-enter the mission, and then kick her in the head to stop her.
Any color should work for me I use the villian skin so it's all good. as long as the typo fix is different from the rest of the text..
Can I ask one favor for those helping to fix these arcs. don't rate them until after the author says they are fixed.
Part was 5 star averaged now 4.. meaning someone 3 starred it
And I realize that I have a different concept of fun from others... part two is supposed to be more challenging..and in honesty it's part of the story to fail.
It's not supposed to make the heroes feel all warm and fuzzy. It's to see how far they will go to save what they percieve as an innocent. not everything is a comedy. Meaning they all lived happily ever after. Sometimes stories are tragedies where the "good guy" dies and thats it.
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While that might be a good story for fiction, this is a game that you're creating content for. People playing the game are playing heroes to feel, you know, heroic. While playing PnP games, my group would see this. A GM would set up a mission for failure (pretty much no matter what the players did, it was the story to fail to be resolved the next mission) and it usually left a bad taste with the group. It's good from a storytelling perspective, but bad for a group's enjoyment for the evening.|
Originally Posted by Scootertwo
Any color should work for me I use the villian skin so it's all good. as long as the typo fix is different from the rest of the text..
Can I ask one favor for those helping to fix these arcs. don't rate them until after the author says they are fixed. Part was 5 star averaged now 4.. meaning someone 3 starred it And I realize that I have a different concept of fun from others... part two is supposed to be more challenging..and in honesty it's part of the story to fail. It's not supposed to make the heroes feel all warm and fuzzy. It's to see how far they will go to save what they percieve as an innocent. not everything is a comedy. Meaning they all lived happily ever after. Sometimes stories are tragedies where the "good guy" dies and thats it. |
This is the feeling I get with what you're trying to do. You're telling your story, but you're messing with the heads of the players by setting up a "sucker's bet" for missions that are designed to fail. It's a good thing to tell a good story, and there's one in here, but keep in mind that some people are not going to share your vision and aren't going to like this style of story to play in a game.
I did play another arc yesterday where a very short mission was set up to fail (although, the player has a pretty fair chance at succeeding). The dialogue afterwards was actually pretty hilarious and it got immediately resolved in the next mission, so I let this slide. (GAH...was just checking for the arc # and I think I tossed it.
)Another thing to mention is that a huge complaint I see on the forums regarding content in this game is that the players feel like they're playing second fiddle to the core heroes (Statesman, Positron, etc.). This is especially evident on the CoV side where you're indoctrinated into a villainous organization and the contacts frequently talk down to you and treat you like dirt. This is also something I've tried greatly to avoid in arcs that I've done. There were missions in your first arc where you "succeed" in the mission and come back to be berated by the contact, and I think this is a negative. It fits in your story, but it doesn't necessarily fit in the tone of the game.
There are some stories like this I would like to do, but this medium is very limited with what you can do and convey, so I've simply chosen to rework them. I think this is the wall you're running into.
Again, this is your story and I can only offer advice, but you should also understand that there will be people who do not like this style of story (you say this yourself) and will probably not rate it with 5 stars.
Arc# 92382 -- "The S.P.I.D.E.R. and the Tyrant" -- Ninjas! Robots! Praetorians! It's totally epic! Play it now!
Arc # 316340 -- "Husk" -- Azuria loses something, a young woman harbors a dark secret, and the fate of the world is in your hands.
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It FELT like 20. |
Originally Posted by Scootertwo
Actually there are only 11 succubae in that map.
10 Acolytes and 1 Priestess. |
I checked this out again yesterday, and either there is a bug with Clear Mind or it doesn't work quite the way I thought with Confuse.
If I got confused and she used Clear Mind, it would override over the top of the Confuse and cancel it out.
If I had Clear Mind on me, and I got hit with Confuse, the Confuse would overwrite the Clear Mind and take effect.
I even checked the icons...Clear Mind -- 9.1 protection versus Confuse.
The Confuse powers - -3.0 Confuse Protection
And I only had one instance of Confuse on me, so Clear Mind SHOULD have worked. I'll send Castle a PM to check on this.
Again, I would simply advise to tone it down. Maybe make the Acolyte's "lesser Acolytes"?
Arc# 92382 -- "The S.P.I.D.E.R. and the Tyrant" -- Ninjas! Robots! Praetorians! It's totally epic! Play it now!
Arc # 316340 -- "Husk" -- Azuria loses something, a young woman harbors a dark secret, and the fate of the world is in your hands.
mission 5 " Keep your mind on the task at hand, we are trying to stop the greatest evil from being unleashed on the world. Let's hope you can get to her before the police do. I'm going to put you as close to arrest point as possible, you should have about half an hour before the Longbow show up on the scene."
I'm not sure what else to do here accept to break the fourth wall and put in something at the bottom of the intro or send off text "Warning this mission will be timed!"
Also the rest of the typos are fixed and added custom "hellions" to mission four so they scale properly. I think I'll add them to mission five too just so it doesn't get woncky on the scaling.