Mistaken Identity (arc 349473) Dr. Aeon's Challenge (maybe)
By
Circuit_Boy,
Posted on: 2009-11-29 03:54 in Mission Architect
Oh, dear. PW is entering. All hope is lost! 
I'll try find some time today to give this a whirl 
Just finished playing it. I'm not really a fan of script style format, but that was more of more of a minor issue compared to the other things in this arc. As for the bigger issues, well...
I'm not sure what to say. Your post indicates that you are clearly aware of the many fouls you were committing while writing this, and yet I can't see any attempts made within the arc to relieve some of that. I would honestly suggest you do something about that if you still plan on making revisions, though it'd have to be a fairly big re-write.
As the arc currently stands, whether you as the author thinks this is worth holding onto as is, or as a player whether you will enjoy this arc, will largely come down to whether you thought Blight was a good arc or not.
A Penny For Your Thoughts #348691 <- Dev's Choice'd by Dr. Aeon!
Submit your MA arc for review & my arcs thread
Quote:
Thanks for trying it out.|
Originally Posted by Tangler
I'm not sure what to say. Your post indicates that you are clearly aware of the many fouls you were committing while writing this, and yet I can't see any attempts made within the arc to relieve some of that. I would honestly suggest you do something about that if you still plan on making revisions, though it'd have to be a fairly big re-write.
|
I'm open to making revisions and feedback in general. Even "this arc commits too many unforgivable transgressions."
My fundamental problem was that I couldn't see how a story could force a hero to "do evil" without "taking their character away".
Is there something that you'd suggest to try and "relieve" things?
@PW - Police Woman (50 AR/dev blaster on Liberty)
TALOS - PW war journal - alternate contact tree using MA story arcs
=VICE= "Give me Liberty, or give me debt!"
Jeez, I'm RP above, if you're in this contest I might as well not have just published mine.
Ship of Theseus paradox is a great one though.
"...his madness keeps him sane.": My Profile on VirtueVerse
Can You WIN the Internet? MA Arc #85544
Inhuman Resources - At Work with IE #298132
Task Force Mutternacht #349522 <-- 1st AE Challenge
I tried to review this for you, but got my Ill/Emp butt handed to me three times by the Minotaur on the first mission. I'll try again if I can get a group together.
Quote:
Hmmm, I've actually been wondering if this Minotaur was too hard. For some reason it doesn't scale down to a boss at low difficulties. I kind of like the Minotaur for thematic reasons (you can see what this mission is meant to be an analog of, it gives me a good mission name to put in the nav tool, and I like the dialog the Minotaur utters), but maybe it needs to be nerfed to an easier enemy.
|
Originally Posted by Supafunkadunka
I tried to review this for you, but got my Ill/Emp butt handed to me three times by the Minotaur on the first mission. I'll try again if I can get a group together.
|
@PW - Police Woman (50 AR/dev blaster on Liberty)
TALOS - PW war journal - alternate contact tree using MA story arcs
=VICE= "Give me Liberty, or give me debt!"
Well, in fairness, I'm not exactly a 1337 solo spec over here. For someone who actually has any business soloing the mission, it might not be so bad.
I did like the Minotaur though, up until the point he cracked my head open with an axe.
After some misguided tinkering with repainting a Warrior Maiden Follower boss to look like a minotaur (THAT sure didn't look good), I came up with a slightly more elegant solution: I made the hostage into an ally, instead. She buffs force fields (increases the player's survivability) and does psychic damage (which the Minotaur has no resistance to at all, even when it goes into god mode), so is actually a big help. This let me keep the Minotaur as the level boss for this mission.
I playtested with my 50 AR/dev blaster with the self-imposed rule that I could use no inspirations to win the fight. Seemed to work fine.
@PW - Police Woman (50 AR/dev blaster on Liberty)
TALOS - PW war journal - alternate contact tree using MA story arcs
=VICE= "Give me Liberty, or give me debt!"
Quote:
I solo'd the minotaur on my lvl 31 fire dom fine, it took a few purples and waiting for unstoppable to drop, but I didn't find the added challenge to be too much of a hassle.|
Originally Posted by PoliceWoman
Hmmm, I've actually been wondering if this Minotaur was too hard.
|
The problem it does have though is that it drops an EB at the very start of the arc without warning, which certainly sets off alarm bells to me whenever I play an arc blind. So one possible improvement is to mention that this mission will contain an EB and that it's a one-off, for those like me who would otherwise take it as a cue to expect even harder encounters due to rising action.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by PoliceWoman
My fundamental problem was that I couldn't see how a story could force a hero to "do evil" without "taking their character away".
|
From the few entries I have played, they have all featured multiple endings barring yours actually. Though that's not surprising, since if you have to force the player to commit some evil, you could at least give the player some say as to what kind of evil he's committing, which leaves more room for debate. You could let the player go on a manic spree, or resign himself to his fate, and thereby committing some other grave injustice. It's definitely one way you can take your arc to improve it, though you'll also need to make sure your choices are as 'fair' as can be, so the player doesn't feel cheated by his options.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by PoliceWoman
Is there something that you'd suggest to try and "relieve" things?
|
There is also the multiple endings, which I have already talked about. Though I would also suggest to work in that Ship of Theseus paradox as part of your two endings. It was a neat little idea, though it didn't really go anywhere in the arc iirc.
Well those are my suggestions, feel free to pick on them, and take or leave whatever you like.
A Penny For Your Thoughts #348691 <- Dev's Choice'd by Dr. Aeon!
Submit your MA arc for review & my arcs thread
Quote:
This seems a fair criticism. There actually IS an EB in the last mission also, but it downgrades correctly to a Boss at low difficulty levels; I have no idea why the Cimeroran Minotaurs won't do this, and I think you're right, this warrants adding an EB warning to the first mission briefing. I don't think the last mission necessarily needs an EB warning, as it downgrades correctly, but I could be persuaded otherwise.| The problem it does have though is that it drops an EB at the very start of the arc without warning, which certainly sets off alarm bells to me whenever I play an arc blind. So one possible improvement is to mention that this mission will contain an EB and that it's a one-off, for those like me who would otherwise take it as a cue to expect even harder encounters due to rising action. |
Changed mission 1's send-off message to:
Quote:
|
M: Sometimes I would go back in time to Ancient Rome to help the people there... Larson: Back...in time? M: Yes, that's what I said. While I was there, I rescued a girl from a Minotaur. You'd be surprised how tough those mythological monsters can be. Larson: I...see. |
Quote:
| From the few entries I have played, they have all featured multiple endings barring yours actually. Though that's not surprising, since if you have to force the player to commit some evil, you could at least give the player some say as to what kind of evil he's committing, which leaves more room for debate. You could let the player go on a manic spree, or resign himself to his fate, and thereby committing some other grave injustice. It's definitely one way you can take your arc to improve it, though you'll also need to make sure your choices are as 'fair' as can be, so the player doesn't feel cheated by his options. |
Granted, I don't actually have the player "make a choice" in this arc for good or evil. Ultimately, the player is stuck on the rails, and I'm hoping that those rails "make some sense" from the POV presented for the player. (But if it doesn't, I'd like to improve it.)
The main choice that I hope to present to the player is: which of the two stories should she believe is what REALLY happened?
Quote:
| The player highjacking could be relieved with some Gordon Freeman style silent protagonist: not necessarily leaving the player as a passive observer to what's going on around him, but with his lines and actions less defined and unspoken. |
Quote:
| I would also suggest to work in that Ship of Theseus paradox as part of your two endings. It was a neat little idea, though it didn't really go anywhere in the arc iirc. |
Thanks a ton for the input.
@PW - Police Woman (50 AR/dev blaster on Liberty)
TALOS - PW war journal - alternate contact tree using MA story arcs
=VICE= "Give me Liberty, or give me debt!"
I know I PM'd you a lot of things, but I almost think that this Arc doesn't need multiple endings. This is a weird little story where the PC sort of knows more than the player and the narrator. It's subtle - but there's a lot of doubt about what is happening...
You know, if what is going on is what I think is going on - this Arc sort of becomes metafictional within the conventions of MA itself. After arcs like "Astoria in D Minor" and "The Doctor Returns" (two arcs which sort of dealt with similiar themes although with a different focus) - we've come to expect the PC to be unreliable, but we as players have come to implicitly trust the MA interface and narration as an impartial interpreter of what is happening in the story. I like that this arc may be playing with that. It's an advanced storytelling device and not easy to pick up on casually.
As for the Ship of Theseus theme...I think it's a great theme, a fun paradoxical thought exercise - but I think maybe it should be explored more fully in another arc. I think you should stay on target here with the contest challenge. I'd rather recommend either removing the reference (because it really isn't brought up again), or sewing it into the other themes a little more seamlessly.
"...his madness keeps him sane.": My Profile on VirtueVerse
Can You WIN the Internet? MA Arc #85544
Inhuman Resources - At Work with IE #298132
Task Force Mutternacht #349522 <-- 1st AE Challenge
Quote:
Well I'm not sure about multiple endings, but it presents multiple interpretations on what the player considers to be the 'truth'. It does lean towards accepting the 'your crazy' angle as the truth however, as a lot of situations just had your characters attacking patients and co-workers out of mania. I'd be scared and incredibly wary if I started seeing people that looked like Freakshow and Automatons, but acting on that visage would push me into accepting the 'crazy'. Now, if I slowly uncovered a plot that the Freakshow were really there to loot the place, or that the Automatons are now obviously apparent after 'lifting the veil' on the other hand...|
Originally Posted by PoliceWoman
I actually would argue that the story arc does have multiple endings. In fact, I'm trying to tell two different stories in this arc: one from the POV of the player, and one from the POV of the contact. But maybe I'm not doing an effective job of communicating this? What was your impression, if I may ask? Is there something I could do to make this work better for you?
Granted, I don't actually have the player "make a choice" in this arc for good or evil. Ultimately, the player is stuck on the rails, and I'm hoping that those rails "make some sense" from the POV presented for the player. (But if it doesn't, I'd like to improve it.) The main choice that I hope to present to the player is: which of the two stories should she believe is what REALLY happened? |
The problem I found on the hijacking, especially at the end where my hero finally does the deed (avoiding specifics for spoiler reasons), was that I felt that I was just taking a backseat to my hero's actions, and so had far less of an emotional stake in the events that were happening. So as to whether the rails 'make some sense' to the player, I'd say it doesn't for me, as seeing my hero wildly flailing about from the start broke any notion that this was my character, as it may for a few other players as well. If you're sticking to the on-rails thing, maybe it would be better to have the hero experience the events by living through somebody else, like what was done in Sabrina's Tale.
The rules only state that *a* hero must do evil, not necessarily the player's hero, though some may argue over that still. Personally I think Dr. Aeon is going to be pretty lenient on what meets the requirements though, as otherwise we're going to end up with a lot of entries disqualified at this rate, as so far I've seen plenty of entries where people are already agreeing or disagreeing if said entry meets the requirements.
A Penny For Your Thoughts #348691 <- Dev's Choice'd by Dr. Aeon!
Submit your MA arc for review & my arcs thread
SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER
Quote:
I disagree. I think the arc leans towards the objective reality being what occurs in the action of the arc, rather than the briefings. Think about who is authoring the "transcripts" that are used for the briefings. Wouldn't it behoove them to "tweak" the "official record" to make things look worse for your character?|
Originally Posted by Tangler
It does lean towards accepting the 'your crazy' angle as the truth however...
|
Quote:
| ...seeing my hero wildly flailing about from the start broke any notion that this was my character... |
Quote:
| If you're sticking to the on-rails thing, maybe it would be better to have the hero experience the events by living through somebody else.... |
"...his madness keeps him sane.": My Profile on VirtueVerse
Can You WIN the Internet? MA Arc #85544
Inhuman Resources - At Work with IE #298132
Task Force Mutternacht #349522 <-- 1st AE Challenge
Just finished it ...
Realy like this one. Original and fun.
The Minotaur was killer
Nice work.
Sharkbait
@Drowning Samurai
Currently playing
The Drowning Samurai (Villains)
Sugar Calavera (Hero)
After reading twefth's post and doing a bit of checking on paragonwiki myself, I get what you were going for now, though it went over my head when I ran it because I don't know the lore very well. It's pretty obvious in retrospect, but what might help is to use the souvenir to make it more explicit - one thing I forgot to mention in my review is the souvenir was exceptionally short (though I just assumed you hadn't finished writing it yet).
I guess an example I could point to for what to do with the souvenir is my own arc "the beating heart of Astoria" - though my arc is meant to be taken a lot less literally than this one, I used the souvenir to kind of go "so yeah, you're probably confused by this point: here's what the arc was about"
Well, better than that, obviously, but you get what I mean.
Anyway, I think the suggestions I made in my review are all still relevant, but I do kind of like what you were trying to do with the arc, now that I understand it.
Astoria in D Minor, a horror arc. Arc ID: 41565 - The Beating Heart of Astoria: A Play in Five Acts. Arc ID: 170547 - Ignition of the Machine, a story with robots. Arc ID: 318983
Captain Skylark Shadowfancy and the Tomorrownauts of Today. Arc ID: 337333 - Signal:Noise, where is everybody? Arc ID: 341194
@The Cheshire Cat - Isn't it enough to know I ruined a pony making a gift for you?
12 second horror stories - a writing experiment.
Captain Skylark Shadowfancy and the Tomorrownauts of Today. Arc ID: 337333 - Signal:Noise, where is everybody? Arc ID: 341194
@The Cheshire Cat - Isn't it enough to know I ruined a pony making a gift for you?
12 second horror stories - a writing experiment.
Quote:
Woot, someone remembered my old arc!
|
Originally Posted by twelfth
After arcs like "Astoria in D Minor" and "The Doctor Returns" (two arcs which sort of dealt with similiar themes although with a different focus) - we've come to expect the PC to be unreliable, but we as players have come to implicitly trust the MA interface and narration as an impartial interpreter of what is happening in the story.
|
Winner of Players' Choice Best Villainous Arc 2010: Fear and Loathing on Striga; ID #350522
Spoilers below:
Quote:
Are you talking about Automated Villainy? That's certainly an interesting way to interpret it, but then that only applies to one of the 'truths' shown, as well as making everything just the more confusing.
|
Originally Posted by twelfth
Which is what this arc does, but the player/PC doesn't realize that they are a very specific "somebody else" thinking they are your PC until the very end. I would argue that someone with a really decent recollection of canon will be able to figure out the twist within the first paragraph of the first mish. I didn't, but I was able to confirm it after going to Paragon Wiki. |
A Penny For Your Thoughts #348691 <- Dev's Choice'd by Dr. Aeon!
Submit your MA arc for review & my arcs thread
Quote:
Nope. Without explicitly spelling it out, here's the search I used over at Paragon wiki to verify what I suspected. EDIT: Don't click the link unless you want the reveal SPOILER'd| Are you talking about Automated Villainy? |
The best part of this is that I played a female toon, didn't even blink at the name.
"...his madness keeps him sane.": My Profile on VirtueVerse
Can You WIN the Internet? MA Arc #85544
Inhuman Resources - At Work with IE #298132
Task Force Mutternacht #349522 <-- 1st AE Challenge
Quote:
A month or two ago, someone in my SG was actually going to write a MA arc for RP purposes that had a plot pretty much identical to that old arc. I nudged him toward it.
| Woot, someone remembered my old arc! |
"...his madness keeps him sane.": My Profile on VirtueVerse
Can You WIN the Internet? MA Arc #85544
Inhuman Resources - At Work with IE #298132
Task Force Mutternacht #349522 <-- 1st AE Challenge
Quote:
Ah that is a good catch, I've just taken the name to have been chosen for gender neutrality.|
Originally Posted by twelfth
Nope. Without explicitly spelling it out, here's the search I used over at Paragon wiki to verify what I suspected. EDIT: Don't click the link unless you want the reveal SPOILER'd
The best part of this is that I played a female toon, didn't even blink at the name. |
Edit: I would also concur with Cheshire Cat to add a 'Rosebud' moment in the end debriefing or souvenir for those of us who are not familiar with the material. It seems to be a pretty important part to avoid all the head-scratching by the end of this arc, too important to just leave it as a knowing wink for those in the know.
A Penny For Your Thoughts #348691 <- Dev's Choice'd by Dr. Aeon!
Submit your MA arc for review & my arcs thread
Great feedback so far! Thanks a ton for all the comments.
I kinda like that different players read different meaning into "what really happened" in the story. Which is weird because I personally usually get annoyed by stories where I don't really understand what happened. (Maybe this a growth opportunity for me. )
Here's my "To Do" list so far, based on feedback:
* Try to reduce the number of scripted lines given to the player in briefings. (Tangler's suggestion; to reduce player hijacking.)
* Revisit Ship of Theseus paradox or cut it entirely. (Tangler's suggestion to revisit; twelfth's to cut.)
* Write a better souvenir that explains what's going on. (Cheshire_Cat's suggestion; Tangler concurs; both urge spelling out the bits of obscure CoH lore that are being referenced.)
* Make the story arc less derivative of Blight. (At least 3 people mentioned Blight in connection with Mistaken Identity so far. I guess this means I need to play Blight.)
* Consider making the player not immediately reject the world view initially presented by the contact? (Cheshire Cat's suggestion; may help distinguish story from Blight.)
* Horror story doesn't seem horrific enough. (Cheshire Cat's observation.) Increase sense of dread? Thought about this some ... I am not sure this will work, ultimately. The player character isn't in a horror story, not exactly; certain other characters in the story arguably are, though. It's not meant to be obvious who the "monster" is in this story, really. If that makes any sense. Maybe I should just unflag the "horror" keyword; is it really a "drama" or "mystery" maybe?
* Adjust Mission 1 exit popup to reflect that it's not unusual for CoH characters to not have heard of Cimerora. (twelfth's suggestion.)
* Give Mission 3's boss a customized bio to better explain where he fits into the story. (twelfth's suggestion.)
* Rename Barbie in Mission 4 to have a less distracting name. (Seemed to confuse Cheshire Cat.)
* Lay more groundwork for why BAB is in Mission 5. (Seemed to confuse twelfth.)
* Tie minotaur in Mission 1 into the story? (twelfth was convinced it had symbolism ... I should add some!)
* Add more mobs to Mission 2. (Cheshire Cat's suggestion; mission was too empty.) I originally had security guards staffing this mission, but thought that I wanted it to be a sneaky learning-stuff mission, and fighting guards would distract from this. Perhaps some creepy night staff at the hospital is in order, though...
* Add more combat. (FredrikSvanberg's suggestion.)
@PW - Police Woman (50 AR/dev blaster on Liberty)
TALOS - PW war journal - alternate contact tree using MA story arcs
=VICE= "Give me Liberty, or give me debt!"
I wrote a much better souvenir. It's completely different than the old one, and it explains the story from the player's POV (it's going in the player's souvenir log, so I felt like it HAD to be from the player POV), though I tried to add some text at the beginning and end which hopefully will leave some doubt as to whether it is the "true" version of what happened.
I tried to add more hints as to the identity of the person the whole story arc is alluding to, but I didn't want to just put "YOU'RE THIS GUY! GET IT?!" so it might still be too subtle. If someone reads the new souvenir sometime who hadn't previously been spoiled on this story point, let me know what you think.
I also added a little epilogue material for "What happened after you escaped the hospital" that I hope is a positive addition.
The souvenir text is now 2996 characters, and I had to cut a lot of text to squeeze it down to that. I hesitate to post the actual text here, though, as it is pretty spoilerific.
This bloats my arc size to 48.33%, but it feels worth it.
@PW - Police Woman (50 AR/dev blaster on Liberty)
TALOS - PW war journal - alternate contact tree using MA story arcs
=VICE= "Give me Liberty, or give me debt!"
Changes due to player feedback:
* Updated mission 1 exit popup to reflect that the player could potentially rationalize that the doctor wouldn't know anything about Cimerora. It is now:
Quote:
* Updated mission 5 exit popup to better integrate with the souvenir. It now portrays the player escaping the hospital in more of a confused state than triumphantly victorious. The text is now:| After you finish your story, Dr. Larson seems a little nonplussed. He acts like he's never heard of Cimerora. Hmm. Maybe his security level isn't high enough? The Midnight Squad does play it pretty close to the chest with that sort of thing. |
Quote:
|
You've stopped the Nemesis plot! But something bad happened to Sister Solaris. Or was it Sister Psyche? You're...not sure. Everything seems hazy as you stumble outside. Why are the police surrounding the hospital? You hope Sister Psyche gets back soon. She'll make it all better. You hope. |
* Added a "Janitor" character to mission 2 to make it feel less empty. He then reappears in mission 3 as an optional hostage. I used a PTS worker as a Janitor model, put him in the "Bell Medical Center" group, gave him the Flashlight animation (would've preferred Spray Paint but wasn't available for this model) and rewrote his description to be:
Quote:
| A janitor from the local cleaning service, he whistles as he works. It sounds like he's whistling the theme song to the CSI TV show, an old song by "The Who", but it's so off-key that it's rather unnerving. The name "Steve" is embroidered on his uniform. |
Quote:
|
Janitor: *tuneless whistling* .... Janitor: Whoa! Oh, it's you. Thought you might be that freak Mike. .... Janitor: I'll have this mess cleaned up in a jiff. .... Janitor: Don't mind me. Just cleaning up. |
In mission 3 I gave him the dialog:
Quote:
|
Freak: You missed a spot over here. Janitor: Why you guys gotta make a mess of the exercise room? .... Freak: Hey! What do you think you're doing? Janitor: Dayum! .... Janitor: Uh, don't mind me. I'll have this mess cleaned up in a jiff. |
* OCD compelled me to add Synapse to the Nemesis hit list discovered in mission 4, and a Synapse hostage that you rescue in mission 5. Gave him the dialog:
Quote:
|
Nemesis minion: All nonessential personnel must be removed. Synapse: You're not removing me that easily! ... Nemesis minion: It's "M"! Look out! Synapse: Hot damn! ... Synapse: I'll run for help! Then we'll have this mess cleaned up in a jiff. |
Quote:
|
This appears to be an autonomous robotic vacuum cleaner. It occasionally emits peculiar whirring and clicking noises, but it's a completely ordinary cleaning robot. Or IS it? |
Up to 51.58% disk usage now.
@PW - Police Woman (50 AR/dev blaster on Liberty)
TALOS - PW war journal - alternate contact tree using MA story arcs
=VICE= "Give me Liberty, or give me debt!"
Changes made:
Ambience/Symbolism
* Added 2 more glowies to mission 2 with suggestive clues.
* Now you have to search the medical library to find the password to hack into Larson's computer. In the library you find an antique book where the description of the "trepanation" medical procedure is lovingly underlined. (Motivated by Cheshire_Cat's suggestion to make the player think that this doctor isn't someone you would want as your doctor.)
* You also have to search the nurse's desk to find the silver key that unlocks the file cabinet. (Admittedly not as horrifying, but, hey, it's a Lovecraft reference.)
* Reworded the mission entry/exit popups to describe the player as having a terrible headache that grows worse as the arc progresses, making it hard to think and hard to see clearly. (Hopefully supports the idea that what you are presented as seeing and thinking isn't necessarily rational.) (Also links to the other patient complaining to the nurse of his terrible headache.)
* Reworded a debriefing to have the doctor express concern about a swelling in the patient's brain. (To match the "headache" plot thread and hopefully making the player worry that this arc is leading up to the player character getting trepanated.)
* Adjusted the dialog and descriptions of minor characters to increase the parallelism between the various missions.
* Added reference in the souvenir to the "medical transcripts" being used to help incriminate the player. (Inspired by twelfth's questioning who was writing these transcripts and what their motivation was.)
Hoping this all helps increase the "sense of dread" a little. Still not sure if it's enough. I don't think I can do a total rewrite in the time remaining, so I'm doing smaller changes, to do what I can.
On the bright side, after working at the arc details and making the ultimate resolution a little less crystal clear in my mind, I don't hate this story nearly as much.
Boss descriptions
Multiple people suggested I should write bios for various bosses; I ended up writing custom descriptions for:
* Minotaur
* M1K@3L
* The Boss?
* Lt. Larson
* Back Alley Brawler
* Synapse
Game mechanics
* Hoping the extra glowies linked to other glowies in mission 2 will make that mission's gameplay more interesting. (May require some backtracking but it's a small map with no opposition.)
* Added an ambush after you rescue the Nurse in mission 3. (Fredrik wanted more combat; Back_Fire felt having the Nurse as an ally was disappointing when nothing was left to fight)
* Added a note in mission 5's debriefing to read the souvenir. (A little immersion-breaking, but Back_Fire felt that most people would miss the extra story in the souvenir otherwise.)
Copyright violations
* Changed references to the CSI TV show, "The Who" and Roomba, to all be more generic, to avoid breaking the copyright violation rule.
Does this really satisfy the conditions of the Challenge?
* I've had multiple people question whether this story satisfies the condition of "doing evil for the greater good". They have some pretty good arguments, too.
* The original challenge is a hard problem for me to resolve because I personally don't believe evil actions can be justified by good results.
* My original idea was that the player would do something that she thought was good (from her PoV) but, in the absolute sense, the action was evil.
* In another sense, I guess I am saying "To do evil actions in the name of the greater good, you'd have to be crazy."
* Does this really satisfy the challenge? I'm not so sure now. It's been interesting to think about, though.
@PW - Police Woman (50 AR/dev blaster on Liberty)
TALOS - PW war journal - alternate contact tree using MA story arcs
=VICE= "Give me Liberty, or give me debt!"
Mistaken Identity
Arc ID: 349473
Keywords: Non-Canon Story, Horror
Morality: Heroic (allegedly)
Level range: 40-54
5 missions, but all are on small maps (except one tiny map).
Description: A trip to the hospital proves more eventful than expected.
AE warnings: Elite bosses, Enemies with custom power selections
Author warnings: Mind games. Hijacks your character. Forces you into deeds that may be construed as "evil", depending upon interpretation.
----------------------------------
So this is my attempt at Dr. Aeon's Architect Challenge. I originally didn't want to write a story for Dr. Aeon's challenge at all, because I don't believe the ends justify the means, and "Write an arc where a hero must do evil for the 'greater good'" implies that for me.
Unfortunately, this story idea got stuck in my head, as a way to avoid "the ends justify the means" and still satisfy the "must do evil" condition. It's been stuck in my head for nearly a week now. I've been up all night writing this arc in an attempt to exorcise it.
I kind of hate this story, even though I wrote it. It isn't the type of story I normally like at all. It's also my first attempt at a horror story.
I'm still not sure if I want to actually submit this arc to the contest. It's published now, though, and I'll leave it up until at least the deadline. If I get generally positive feedback, I may end up submitting it. If I get generally negative feedback, I'll probably unpublish it, maybe even delete it.
Some trivia:
* This arc commits nearly every mortal sin for a story arc that I could think of: time travel, hijacking the player character, Xanatos Gambit plot, etc. With any luck, the critics will declare this the Worst Story Arc Ever and either generate me some free publicity, and/or make me feel justified in deleting it.
* Elements of this arc came from me reading a pop philosophy book and getting weirded out by the Ship of Theseus paradox.
* This arc has 5 missions, custom characters, clues, briefings, debriefings .... and only uses 45.4% of the allowed disk space. It IS possible to write a complete story in the space we're currently allowed.
Feedback would be welcome.
@PW - Police Woman (50 AR/dev blaster on Liberty)
TALOS - PW war journal - alternate contact tree using MA story arcs
=VICE= "Give me Liberty, or give me debt!"