1 to 50 in MA: Part II (suggest arcs)

Try these arcs:

DO levels:
Forget The Rose, Give Me The Thorns
Nuclear in 90: The Fusionette Task Force

SO levels:
The All-Seeing Eye
Operation: Discredit
Astoria in D Minor
Axis and Allies
King Amenhotep
Wholesale Soulsale

Well, Whack-a-Mole #2711 is 1-54 (custom bosses -> Lts & EB -> Boss), though I've tested it with a level 8 dominator and was able to complete it. One more week for the Halloween Edition, afterwards it will be updated once again, not exactly sure to what though. Maybe Thanksgiving? Look out! It's a turkey Mole!

Also, Ctrl + Alt + Reset! #137561 is 15-30, since you mentioned accepting arcs you've played on other characters.

You've inspired me to try this after I reach 50 on my 2nd brute (42 now, so I may begin as early as next week)

Future's End
255895
Level range: Mostly 5-14, except for one 11-14 mission.

My contact is once again Mirror Spirit, and this time, it's being assumed I've run both of the previous arcs. She gets right into the story, doesn't bother with the exposition, and refers my adventures with Talshak.

So the Future Skulls are in our time, from a timeline that no longer exists because I stopped it, and "something" is trying to prevent us from interfering with them. She says we need to be subtle and avoid direct confrontation and blah blah blah so I pull out something sharp and pointy and go do some investigating, Scrapper style.

My informant is a Circle mage, currently being held captive by some Skulls. Once I disrupt their holding spell he decides we will all die...so why is he casting Fortitude on his Skull "captor?" Perhaps something other than a boss detail would be more suitable.

What he tells me after I beat him up is rather disturbing, and somewhat out of place for this level range. I didn't know the Circle were summoning ancient Oranbegans. I won't learn this for another 20 levels, so how does Bonesnap know not only what the CoT are, but also where to find the spells used? Mirror Spirit's explanation for how an ordinary Bone Daddy can cause this much trouble is a nice touch though, and reminds me of a friend who accepted a bet to get a petless Mastermind to 50.

I beat him up again, even though he tries to escape, thus getting him out of the way. Although it sounds like he was planning to get himself out of the way anyway, so I'm sort of wondering why I didn't just save myself the effort. This is how many times I've beaten him up now? This mission doesn't have much in it other than Bonesnap, it could probably be combined with Mission 1 without losing anything.

My next task is to go take out some Legacy Chain who have supposedly turned to the dark side, all the way in the Rogue Isles. The fact of a newbie hero getting to the Rogue Isles on the word of Mirror Spirit isn't explained. The Legacy Chain are all over the Hollows, maybe the evil ones should take over one of their bases there?

I walk into a fight between the good Legacy Chain and the bad ones, and run into an allied group of those winged guys that died before I got there in the first arc. Wouldn't the Legacy Chain question the orders of their now-evil leader, seeing as he had clearly wandered over to the dark side? "They're held by some spells" is a bit of a cop-out, since so far we've been dealing with magical summoning, not magical compulsion. Also, seeing as they are dedicated to combating evil magic, wouldn't they suspect that just such evil magic might have corrupted their leader? And the dialogue implies that I deliberately killed him; not very heroic, I should perhaps be going after whoever decided a level 11 (dev-created) boss should have a pet and chain knockback.

He does manage to tell me how the Future Skulls are getting to our time though, and again it's up to me to stop them. Again there are unanswered questions: If they're just spirits possessing people, how do these people turn into Future Skulls themselves? If they can come back in time, why don't they go back to before I stopped them in the first arc?

This mission has an odd technical issue as well, as the spawns are bigger than they should be on +0/x0. Two lieutenants at once, with Shadow Fall and Twilight Grasp are a pain to fight. Very Scrapper-appropriate, if not particularly heroic, boss defeat text on the Bonesnapper. Ah, ok so the Legacy Chain were possessed. Which makes the possessed Skulls turning into Death Skulls make even less sense, and doesn't quite jive with the assertion that not many had gotten through.

Ah, ok, now the Death Skulls make sense. The final mission is rather anti-climatic, since I've already fought two of the brides and I don't learn anything I didn't already know.

As an arc on it's own, this needs far more exposition. As a conclusion to a trilogy, it leaves too many loose ends. What is up with those winged guys, and what is this "Seeker" they speak of? A mysterious ally is fine, but I learn absolutely nothing other than that they are on my side. I feel the "Wizard did it" explanation was overused as well. Bonesnap is described as a savant at summoning, but how does that help him get his hands on Zoria's spells? Furthermore, "summoning" is generally taken to mean calling up weird entities, not bringing objects from the future. And I'm pretty sure the Pillar of Ice and Flame does not work that way. And how is it that his abilities are only now being blocked, and no one thought to block them before?

The author mentioned somewhere that he constantly updates the arcs based on feedback, and unfortunately it shows; this one is most recent, has the fewest plays, and has the most issues. Aside from the CoT boss being friendly to his "captors" and that weird spawning issue with mission 4, it's all plot points. This arc could really use some smoothing out, get rid of anything not directly relevant to the overall storyline rather than trying to handwave it with "it's magic," and clean up the canon issues. Oh, and fix that level range.

The Tangled Weave
Arc ID: 338575
Level: 1-10
Keywords: Canon Related, Ideal for Teams, Complex Mechanics
Description: Find out more about how Arachnos works behind the scenes in the Rogue Isles to make Project Destiny come to fruition. Recommended for Widows and Soldiers of Arachnos as an alternative VEAT arc.

The Secret of NutriPaste
Arc ID: 343643
Level: 10-20
Keywords: Canon Related
Description: One of Dr. Aeon's greatest inventions is NutriPaste. Made to the highest standards of nutrition under quality-controlled industrial conditions, Dr. Aeon's NutriPaste is an inexhaustible and inexpensive food-source for the people of the Rogue Isles. At least that's what it says on the tube.



I don't know if you've changed your mind on exemplaring since we got the SSK system and get to keep powers up to 5 levels above our combat level, so I included the 1-10 arc in here. I hope you'll enjoy one or both of these.

The Tangled Weave
ID # 338575

This arc is billed as an alternate to the canon VEAT arcs, which apparently are lame. My widow is all of level 16 and I don't remember anything of the starting VEAT arcs except that I got to have a real costume, so I have no basis for comparison. We'll see how this arc stands on its own merits.

My contact is Kalinda, and right away she sends me to flush out a traitor within Arachnos. I walk into an Arachnos base, and am pleasantly surprised not to find a bunch of Arachnos shooting at me. They're quite friendly actually. I upload the fake data, and a bunch of hostile Arachnos show up, thinking I'm the traitor. My Arachnos friends are having none of that, and help me out. I can see why Jenkins got demoted, but I'm not sure Arachnos would use so generic a rank as Private. It doesn't sound evil and spidery.

Returning to Kalinda, I find that that plot has thickened. I'm now mixed up in Arachnos inter-faction rivalry. Ah, I get it, I'm still a member of Arachnos at this point right? Perhaps that should be spelled out right from the start. No matter, the traitor has been found, and someone else will track him down in a canon mission.

And now for something completely different: Snakes. Except I'm supposed to negotiate with them. I'm not sure how or why Kalinda managed to set up a truce with them, since she's sent countless lowbies out to exterminate them.

Ok, now I see what you're trying to imply here, but my canon discontinuity sense is still tingling. For one, why would Arachnos be actively assisting the Snakes? Tolerating them is one thing, but I just can't picture Arachnos deliberately keeping them around. For another, this still totally contradicts in-game material, I had to go to ParagonWiki and read the Snake info there. Some hints at this info within the arc would be good.

And now it's time for me to clear out some Infected. Aside from fighting for our amusement, they are a health hazard. What with Mercy Island being full of broken-down tenements and open cesspools, I'm not entirely trusting of Arachnos's health and safety regulations, but I'm a loyal soldier, so I do it. After a run-in with everyone's favorite exposed-brained mad scientist, I gather some Infected for study, although leaving them chained up in there might not be a good idea if Arachnos is going to release poison gas into the area.

And now it's time to foil a hero's pathetic attempt to infiltrate our glorious organization. Of course, those annoying Longdork pests are involved. The heroine's villainous identity is appropriately lame; she should blend right in. I destroy the longbow base, and am rewarded with a classic action movie pop-up.

What with the heroine rambling about Project: Destiny, I expected that this would be the part where I decide I want in, and hand Kalinda my resignation. But no. I'm off to meet with Dr. creed again, because an evil organization can never have enough mad scientists. I walk into an icky green fog, wade through a mass of Creed's assistants (recolored Vahz), rescue "Mr Geist," and finally try to recruit Dr. Creed himself.

At the end of this, I'm still not sure how it is a VEAT arc. My understanding is that the VEATs are Arachnos soldiers acting independently, but throughout this arc I'm doing what Kalinda says. There is no indication that I might have plans of my own, that don't involve doing what Arachnos tells me to. I am never acting on my own initiative, I am never discovering things Arachnos doesn't want me to know. And a VEAT, I would expect to be doing that.

The canon tie-in in the first two missions is a very nice touch. Kalinda's voice though, falls flat. She's far too brusque, not her mystical yet condescending self. Her dialogue is rather sparse as well, not much in the way of exposition. Since there are no clues, I'm relying on NPC dialogue and her briefings, and what I end up with is a string of "do this, do that." It truly is just a bunch of stuff that happens.

What you have here is a great framework for an alternate VEAT arc. Now just thread an actual "how I decided to stop doing everything Arachnos says and think for myself" story through it all, and you'll have yourself an arc.

The Lazarus Project
#124906

The premise is that new heroes are disappearing, and it's all a Vahzilok plot. My contact is Detective Freitag. He informs me that all the heroes were investigating a particular sewer junction; this is why I never join sewer teams. He wants someone to find them and find out who sent them there, someone with a little more experience...although the arc is level 1-20 and so is suitable for a brand new hero.

I enter the sewer, and of course it's Vahzilok. The nav bar says I have 4 hero remains to find, and one hero to rescue...how do I know they're dead? Perhaps it should say "5 heroes to find" instead. I find them all right...stuffed into refrigerators. The clues are nicely done, and from that I get the impression that the Vahz are trying to build a better Eidolon. They just haven't ironed out all the kinks yet. I'm also a little bit concerned that they were keeping a Katana Scrapper's brain on ice....

While I was in there, I learn that heroes were sent by a Dr Summers...a doctor with a spotless record of course. I am now sent to bring her in. Freitag's warning about the private security sounds a little contrived here. Some more nice clues, proving her connection to the Vahz and explaining why she's involved with them. Turns out she's not the only one either.

Freitag tells me the location where she was supposed to meet with the Vahz was in her records, but I didn't find it...maybe add another clue where I find it, or have the location come from the interrogation of Dr. Summers. Some of the dialogue in here is a little odd, coming from the Vahz zombies who are stupid and will stand there doing nothing while I destroy stuff that is supposedly important. And much to my chagrin, I discover that whatever problems they were having in creating a better Eidolon, they've been worked out enough to build one that shoots fire.

Hmm, I am told I found three recovery tanks, but I only found two. I fought one Lazarus Eidolon, and that means there are still two out there. I find out another disturbing little tidbit about Dr. Summers, and then I find that the Vahz are breaking her out of the police station. I guess she hasn't paid them yet. She's long gone, but there are still police officers to rescue, and another of the Uber-Eidolons to beat up. Ugh, did he have to be mind control? Mesmerise and Dominate are eminently spammable. His "she's already being taken back to the lair" attack dialogue also smacks a bit of "let me tell you our evil plan before I kill you."

The chain-mezzer is disillusioned and bitter after his defeat, and all too willing to turn on his former associates. Now it's time to shut down the Lazarus project.


Well ONE of us is gonna have to go change.

I find out what the last two dead heroes were used for, but where did Dr Summers get sonic powers? All the other Lazarus Eidolon powers have been foreshadowed. And I never did find out why they couldn't do Energy powers. Maybe a clue somewhere should explain that.

Aside from those nagging loose ends, the story is well-done. There's some good writing in the clues, and the investigative tone makes the player character central to taking down the Vahzilok plot. The plot itself is rather disturbing, especially as the arc progresses and the true depths Dr. Summers is willing to sink to in her desperation become evident. On the downside, the contact dialogue is a bit flat; I realize most heroside contacts are about as interesting as watching paint dry, but a little personality won't kill him. The other little nit comes in the first mission, where it is assumed that the player character is more powerful than the newbies who are going missing, but the arc starts at level 1. Perhaps consider artificially setting the range to 5-20.

Edit: And Freitag needs a bio.

Thanks for the review and the feedback, Eva! I'm actually somewhat "written out" as I just posted an update to Pro Payne's thread, but I did want to address some of your points (albeit briefly):

Freitag needs a bio.
Agreed. This is an oversight I need to correct for *most* of my arcs since they added the option in. Hopefully I'll find the time to do it in the near future - I keep putting it off because my plan is to just sit down one day and spend most of a whole 'session' making tweaks to my arcs. (No, that's not an excuse - it's more an explanation of the reason why you shouldn't take the apparent lack of changes in the arc as evidence I'm just ignoring the feedback...)

Summers has sonic powers.
Actually, it never occured to me that the player would assume the heroes in the first mission were all of the ones that had been "harvested" - still that does strike me as a reasonable assumption; I haven't decided for sure, but there is a chance I'll add another one in there to explain the sonic powers.

"Heroes to find"
Good point! You have no way of knowing they're dead, and it does address another comment I got about the "wall of objectives" in the first mission - believe or not I just couldn't think of how to do that; kind of embarrassing that it has such an easy fix.

Why no energy?
This one's a Catch-22; the reason the energy powers don't work is related to the basic premise of the story: my own notes for the story go into more detail that what's in the actual arc. Here's the situation: although it's only hinted at in the arc, my 'premise' is that an Eidolon's powers are related to the animation process itself, not the original powerset of the heroes incorporated into the Eidolon (why would only rad and dark heroes ever be made into Eidolons?) - so I just 'invented' the non-canon notion that the incorporation of hero organs gives an Eidolon the potential to have superpowers, but the actual powers that tend to manifest spontaneously are 'dark' (because the reanimation coupled with the necrotic nature of an Eidolon's tissues naturally focuses negative energy) and 'radiation' (since presumably radiation treatments are used in the reanimation process for a variety of reasons). The Lazarus projects seeks to modify Eidolon design to unlock access to the "real" powers the incorporated heroes may have had (although note that they are often given to people that *didn't* have superpowers to begin with) - but energy powers directly conflict with the negative energy that naturally infuses an Eidolon, which is why this "early" version of the process hasn't figured out yet how to make energy powers work (at least without them being corrupted from raw energy into radiation). The issue is the whole premise, while partially consistent with canon, certainly isn't game canon, and so the reason the Eidolons have dark and rad powers is only hinted at so that I don't have to potentially *directly* conflict with canon by spelling it out. But without it spelled out, it's harder to directly explain why energy powers aren't working correctly. I do plan on expanding on that, but I want to come up with a way to do it that I'm happy with...

Level 5+
Good catch - that makes perfect sense.

Thanks again!

Hi, thanks for playing The Herald, and for the review. Gratz on your level! You've been helpful in pointing out a few areas where more clues and info would clarify some of the chained events and other goings on. It's a fine line to tread where I want to give enough info to get the player to the next step, but not give away too much and steal the thunder of the later reveals.

You were right that this is a "small fish in a big ocean" story. At level 10-14, you're still fairly new at the hero game, so you're not going to be saving the world quite yet, but through the clues and dialogue throughout, you get a glimpse of the larger story to come. Since you were able to pull that out of the story, I'd say I was fairly successful in that regard. This is the introduction arc where you enter the mystery while events are already in progress and you're involvement is mostly reactive.

Some of the finer points could use some polish. The chained events in the final mission have been problematic with the way they spawn. Perhaps changing the map itself will be just what it needs to fall in line.

On this note:

IN A WORLD where Dawnrazor is going from 1-50 in MA, her next arc is....

Bricked Electronics
#2180
Level range: 8-20, 1-20, 1-20, 8-20, 8-20....what's up with that? A holdover from an earlier time, like stirrup pants and sweatshirts with shoulder pads? Looks just as bad...

My contact is Mark Freeman, who, as it turns out, is a mutant who can talk to computers. He's found a "ghost" in a cell phone and wants me to check it out. Oh, and while we're at it, he wants me to help test his new system for digitizing case files. I get a nice clue to this effect, with some gibberish at the end, and head off to find out who sold this cell phone.

Well I don't find the owner or anybody else, but I do find some goldbrickers in the middle of a crime spree. Not much useful out of them either, but I do get some leads. I find out where the shop is getting their used cell phones, for one thing, so I run off to check it out.

It's full of clockwork, along with some mysterious robots made out of scrap electronics, and charging stations made out of the same. I do find some old cell phones, but rather than being taken apart by the clockwork, they've been repaired. Even weirder, they appear to be taking orders from a teenage girl. Oh, that's why they're not taking stuff apart. Ok.

The phones I found still don't give Mark anything definite, but now we know where they came from, so I head to the source to try to find more of them. Huh, why would someone just drop garbage into a Council base? "If you kids don't cut that out I'll turn on the gas!" You know, you really shouldn't be holding Nemesis up as a role model, might as well aspire to be the bad guy in a Saturday morning cartoon. And kid...when I find you I am going to slap you.

And now we're back to the Goldbrickers and their plan. You know, just because your cellphone takes pictures, doesn't mean you have to take pictures of everything, all the time. Let this be a lesson to all you shutter-happy picture-takers out there: it can come back and bite you in the posterior.

Aww, poor little goldbricker with his outdated cellphone. I bet it doesn't even play MP3s. Ok kid, maybe I won't slap you. They're so cute when they're on my side. All the clues I found come together, and now we know exactly where the goldbricker heist is going to go down, and when.

Only one thing left to do, and that's to stop it. I'm not sure why exactly I have to stop it before the PPD show up though; isn't stopping bank robberies part of their job? Kid, if you're so smart, can you make your robots not block doorways? And I foil this particular plot, but the true mystery of the goldbrickers continues...

Overall: Tightly plotted, great use of detail to keep the story moving and keep the missions interesting. Excellent dialogue and characterization, even on throwaway villains whose sole purpose was to get their butts kicked by me. Some nice insight on a little-developed villain group, that raises more questions than it answers of course, and bonus points for pulling off the near-impossible task of making a heroside contact actually interesting. The beginning-of-mission clues were especially nice, as an in-character way to keep the story straight and sort through Mark's rambling, although it would be nice to get some mention at the end of how he feels about the results of my testing. Excellent arc overall, just clear up that level range, ok? And maybe consider cutting back on the pets in the final mission.

And now, for a very special episode of 1-50 in MA. Dawnrazor guest-stars on a TV show!

Talos Vice
#338380
**Disclaimer: soundtrack not included with arc.**

PLACE: Talos Island
CONTACT: Detective Croquette, in a Ferrari to match his suit.
TIME: Must be the '80s.
"Her name is Rio and she dances on the sand..." I hate Duran Duran. Time to take out my annoyance on a Troll drug ring. But first...I need to go slip into something less comfortable.

One trip to Icon for a powder blue suit later, I arrive at the warehouse. The police are already on the scene, and it's not going well for them. Someone must have tipped the trolls off to the raid. Not going well for the Troll leader either...apparently too much 'dyne kills your fashion sense as well as your brain. On his lawyer's advice, he sings like a canary; someone did indeed tip them off, and now we know where to find him.

"If you fall I will catch you/I'll be waiting..."

PLACE: A seedy nighclub.
TIME: Still the '80s.
"How does it feel/To treat me like you do..." Ahh, that's better. At least the music is decent, even if the place is full of low-lifes and scumbags.



The acid-washed jeans alone are cause for arrest...

Then they start shooting. The usual assortment of single moms and college students working as scantily-clad dancers are far more forthcoming with the information....aw man. Nothing more despicable than a crooked cop.

PLACE: Paragon Bay.
TIME: For the requisite chase scene.
"Once I ran to you/Now I run from you/This tainted love you've given..." I take a speedboat to the Family docks, rather disappointed that nobody tries to shoot me on the way, and I don't have to dive from the exploading boat and roll onto the dock...Here we go, the big score. And the big shoot-out...just like the Family to bring guns to a swordfight. The villain of the episode falls, cursing my name. Cut to commercial.

THE PLACE: Courtroom.
TIME: For the episode wrap-up.
VILLAIN: I'll be back, Dawnrazor.
ME: I'll be waiting.

Fade to black, cue end credits.

Overall: The most fun I've had in MA in a long time. The script format, the bad outfits, the homages, the scene descriptions...everything. It all comes together to make a truly excellent and unique arc. It also goes to show that you don't necessarily need five missions to tell a complete and well-rounded story.

****
I have one arc left in the list before level 15, and I don't think it'll be enough to get me there. I'm going to need at least one more, or I'll have to throw Dawnrazor to the mercy of the Random button.

Level 15 ? Perfect for the single mission 'Rule of Three - Finale' I have. #1984

Its a revisit of how I think the final mission of the Posi TF should be.

There is an EB, and it is the one from the TF, with all the caveats that brings.