Dr. Aeon's Holiday Present

Stuff - the saga continues!

Arc ID: 15984
Length: Medium (two mishes)
Morality: Vilainous

The cutest arc in the game!

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The Widow's Dark Hand - leader of Faux Pas
Champion Server
Tee Hee!

I'm also looking for feedback outside of the regular people I play with, so if anyone else wants to give it a go, please do.

Reflections of Your Desire
Arc #315097
Morality: Neutral
Faction: Reflections (duh), Soldiers of Rularuu, Circle of Thorns, a couple spoilerish cameos, a batch of custom EBs
Your global/forum name: @Electric Eddie
Difficulty Level: It's soloable on +0@1 standard hero/villain (the EBs get downgraded), but you may need a higher level character
Recommended Team Size: For the story, go solo. If you want to see what the EBs are capable of, a small group of threeish on +1@2-3 standard heroes/villains works. Large groups kinda ruin the feel (and hilariously enough, actually make it a bit harder).
Typical duration: 30 minutes to an hour (4 missions)
Arc Synopsis: The Reflections are starting to do things... odd things. This takes place entirely in the Shadow Shard, ending in the bizarre Garden of Memories.
Link to a more info/comments thread: Looking for feedback (#315097: Reflections of Your Desire)
Miscellaneous Notes: This is a story-driven arc. The final boss in the first mission says 'Hero', but it's closer to a boss. If you have trouble hitting the obelisks at the beginning of mission 3, give it a few seconds; they'll always become hittable.

"Go. Fight."

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MA Arc #315097: Reflections of Your Desire (custom characters, canon related, drama, story-driven arc): The Reflections are starting to do things... odd things. This takes place entirely in the Shadow Shard, ending in the bizarre Garden of Memories.

Gah, soooo many arcs! *tosses his in*

Heroes No More
Arc ID #: 36861
Morality: heroic
Level : 45+
Difficulty: hard

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-STEELE =)


Allied to all sides so that no matter what, I'll come out on top!
Oh, and Crimson demands you play this arc-> Twisted Knives (MA Arc #397769)

Name: Fashion Apocalypse
Arc ID: 14840
Creator Global Name: @Vinique
Synopsis - A quick and easy arc starting with breaking a dumb blonde out of the zig.
Difficulty Level: Easy
Number of EB/AVS – 0
Level Range – 1-54
Story Type – Comedy
Mission Count: 3
Estimated Time to Play: 15-30 minutes

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Name: Crown of Iron, Heart of Steel (Part 1)
Arc ID: 236933
Morality: Hero
Level: 35+
Enemies: Customised Nemesis, Custom
Description: Portal Corps is always discovering new worlds. The most recent discovery, Victoria XIII and it's people, need your help against the Imperial Army and their Emperor.

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The Strange tale of Silent Witness
Arc ID: 345908
Length: Long (4 missions)
Morality: Neutral
Enemy Groups: Circle of Thorns, Carnies, Custom Group

A remake of my first MA arc. Status protection recommended!

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The Long Road Back
Arc ID: 340454
Length: Very Long (5)
Morality: Villainous
Level Range: 10-20
Groups: Vahzilok, Outcasts, Arachnos, Custom


@Sister_Twelve

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The Mansion
Arc ID: 76661
Length: Very Long
Morality: Neutral
Enemy Groups: Custom Group
Description: You've been hired to investigate a biotech facility. What horrors wait inside?


@Kojiden

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Name: The Host With the Most
Arc ID: 4182
Creator Global Name: @Lycantropus
Synopsis - A twisted tale of revenge... and fruit pies. This arc promises a hint of nostalgia for late 70's-80's comic book fans!
Difficulty Level: Medium
Level Range – 5-40
Story Type – Humor/Nostalgia
Villain Groups – Family, Custom Group, Security Guards
Mission Count: 5

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"I play characters. I have to have a very strong visual appearance, backstory, name, etc. to get involved with a character, otherwise I simply won't play it very long. I'm not an RPer by any stretch of the imagination, but character concept is very important for me."- Back Alley Brawler
I couldn't agree more.

Arc Name: Can You Win The Internet?
Arc ID: 85544
Author: @twelfth (easiest way to find it)
Length: "Very Long" (4 mission; maps are small to med)
Morality: Neutral (with chewy, nugatey heroic flavor, and approved by redsiders)
Description: Betty The AI needs your help to save the internet from digital menaces both within cyberspace and the real world!

COOL! Flame Wars! CRUSH! Gold Spammers! CLEAN! up pr0n! DEFEAT! the one eye-stabbingly, hair-pullingly, groin-explodingly frustrating adversary CoX NEVER lets you fight!! BEHOLD! Grotesque overuse of Exclamation Points!!!11!!

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"...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 would love for you to play and give feedback on my arc:

Name: In Pursuit of Liberty
Arc ID: 344916
Creator Global Name: @Gypsy Rose

NOTE: I have 2 arcs with this name. If I am lucky enough to get picked, please play the new one with the arc ID posted above.

Thanks

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@Gypsy Rose

In Pursuit of Liberty - 344916
The Vigilante - 395861
Suppression - 374481 - Winner of The American Legion's February 2011 AE Author Contest

I will put in my arc # 159032 Freaklympics. It can be played solo, but is designed to be a villain Strike Force kind of arc.

Two notes in case I get picked:
- Please give attention to the clues and souvenirs.
- The second mission is designed as a variant gameplay kind of mission. The timer is short and the number of glowies excessive, in order to promote a chaotic rush through the map where the team engages the enemies as little as possible.

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"Null is as much an argument "for removing the cottage rule" as the moon being round is for buying tennis shoes." -Memphis Bill

Name: Destiny Denied: Circle of Thorns
Arc ID: 225813
Creator Global Name: @Flafty
Synopsis - The villains of the Rogue Isles are always being tested to see if any are worthy of being the Destined One. Some make the cut, but what of those who do not? This is a prototype story arc for those looking for a patron outside of Arachnos. Works in parallel with/opposition to Ghost Widow's patron arc.
Difficulty Level: Solo Friendly
Number of EB/AVS – 2
Level Range – 40-54
Story Type – Drama
Villain Groups – Circle of Thorns, Malta Operatives, Arachnos, Paragon Police
Mission Count: 5
Estimated Time to Play: About an hour

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**GUARDIAN**
Assault Ohm - Elec/Sonic Corruptor
Deadly Ohm - Elec/Will Brute
Invisible Ohm - Elec/Eng Stalker
Master Ohm - Elec/Elc Dominator

Oh hey, I checked the forums early enough for once.

Arc 4077: Attack of the Space Gremlins!

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Do you UHVU?
Orpheus Initiative | Parts Unknown
League of Misfits | The Reciprocators

Arc 7452: The Daimyo Awakening

Title: "The Daimyo Awakening"
Description: "In the rural town of Kokwu unknown forces are gathering. Are these forces new or echoes of the past?

Five missions with challenging customs but no 'defeat all' objectives. An AV battle includes a Hero to assist.

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185502 Who Killed Snow Globe? a mini mystery
Can you solve the crime?
Neutral

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Arc 185502: Who Killed Snow Globe? a mini mystery Put together the clues to solve the case!

Arc 22832: And Hell Hath No Fury (extreme)
Will you be the key to the Knives of Artemis' survival? or the instrument of their destruction?

I suspect I'm breaking the rules, as I think it might be well after 5pm PST, but oh well. I'm not some kind of time-knower.

Arc No: 116365
Name: Night of the Skulls
Intended for: Heroic.

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Black Starbeam - The Reciprocators

Making money, not earning it.

Just for reference, the 5pst deadline is most likely because that's when Dr. Aeon's work day ends. So... his list is probably finalized by then.

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Most likely, but I didn't have an easy way at hand to check the time in PST.

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Black Starbeam - The Reciprocators

Making money, not earning it.

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Orc&Pie No.53230 There is an orc, and somehow, he got a pie. And you are hungry.
www.repeat-offenders.net

Negaduck: I see you found the crumb. I knew you'd never notice the huge flag.

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Black Starbeam - The Reciprocators

Making money, not earning it.

I read that first post wrong. Guess that's what I get for not checking in on the forums yesterday. Hey, we were busy at work. Sue me.

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Justice Blues, Tech/Tank, Inv/SS
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Fighting The Future Trilogy
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Hello everyone!

My random number generator has chosen Delusional Illusions by BigMoneyHustla.

Before starting, I'd like to refer to the first feedback post I made, as a lot of what was said there can be applied to this arc as well:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...08#post2345408

There are four major points of feedback I'd like to give regarding the arc. As with the last one, the feedback is going to remain general so that it can be something that everyone can apply to their own arcs.


1) Text Color and You

Starting off, one thing that was very noticeable in this arc was the attention given to making the dialog look fresh. Almost each bit of text had some sort of color to it, all put in the appropriate places so that the color wasn't "just there" for show. This made the story of the arc easier to read and digest, while avoiding the "wall of text" syndrome.


2) Contact Dialog and Tone

One thing that can be problematic is the dialog you have for your contact. Many times it can feel that the contact is talking at your character and not with your character - an example here being the difference between a teacher giving a student a homework assignment and two researchers trying to figure out a problem. The former is a person telling someone else what to do; the latter are two people figuring out a problem together.

This can be difficult to pull off, given that it's easy to fall into the trap of the contact talking at your character. One way you can pull this off is through the "Accept" dialog option in Architect. Putting in something that a character would say can help give the illusion that you're actually in a conversation - even if you're only saying one line, technically.

Here's an example of a before and after with specific dialog in BigMoneyHustla's mission:

Before
"The Messenger's message was very vague. Carnies have some psychic powers, and their Illusionists love messing with people's heads. They also happen to be having a dance party. A dance party you happen to have an invitation to. Go check it out.

Accept Option: Go Dancing!

The dance party is being hosted by the Master Illusionist Ruby. This is going to be a tough fight, I suggest taking some inspirations along. Hopefully, we can get some answers from Ruby."

After

"What the Messenger told you was very vague...now we all know that Carnies have some psychic powers - nothing like mine, of course - and they do enjoy messing with people's heads...

I think our best option would be to find some of these Carnies to figure out what exactly is going on.

Accept Option: Can you get me any information on this dance party?

Right, the invitation you received. Give me one moment...I can easily break through the Carnie mental barrier...

Aha! There we go. It looks like the dance party is being hosted by someone named Ruby. She'll be the person you'll want to go after to get some answers.

Good luck $name, I'll stay here to try to ward off more Carnies from going to that party."

As we can see, the after option feels more like Sister Psyche and the character are solving the problem together. Another thing it does is add to the tone of the contact, which is a crucial aspect to story telling. You can have it feel like you're having a back and forth conversation with your contact, but if that contact's dialog feels generic, it'll make the mission feel generic.

In this example here, we added some side comments regarding how Sister Psyche might feel about the Carnies. It may not give the player any hints towards what's going on in the mission, but it adds flavor to the contact to make them come alive. You'll also want to avoid having your contact refer to you as your archetype or mention inspirations - these sorts of things can ruin the immersion a player might have while playing the story, as it reminds them, "By the way, this is all just an imaginary story in a game."


3) Designing Outdoor Missions

Outdoor missions in our game can be difficult to design - walking into a large one with just one goal on it will lead to most players letting out groans of frustration. Given how the system works, there isn't a way that you the designer can designate where the objective will spawn as you can in an indoor mission.

In order to avoid giving the player the feel that they're hunting through the map, you'll want to try to bring your outdoor map to life, so that the player has the feeling that there are things going on while they're looking for this objective. These are great places to put in side objectives that give more clues to what's going on with the story - killing one group to find a clue would give the player incentive to actually fight their way through the mission until they find what they're looking for, instead of just running around waiting to see either the appropriate dialog box or the sound of a glowie.

Most of all with outdoor missions, try to avoid multiple objectives that trigger off of each other in larger maps. Certain outdoor maps, like in Croatoa, can be fine as they're not too big, so there isn't a lot of backtracking going on. But in the city ruined map, for example, if the player has hunted down the objective only to find another one pop up, it can be enough to drive them crazy.


4) Proofread Your Arc!

One of the biggest things that can bring an arc's quality down is grammar. You can have an arc that has brilliant design, something that will blow people's minds away, but if the grammar in that arc is littered with mistakes, it'll cause the entire arc to collapse on itself. It's always good to give yourself a day or two away from the arc when you're done with it. Let it sit for a while before you proofread it, or else you run the risk of your mind inserting what should be there since it's still fresh in your mind.

Once a few days have passed, read the content of your arc out loud to yourself. It's important that you say everything out loud, as the mind can place in missing words without you even noticing it. You'll also be able to see if any of your sentences are clunky and need smoothing out.

After all of this, it always helps to have another pair of eyes look over your arc. This can be done in the form of feedback from other players. All of this combined can help you really perfect the grammar in your arc.

I hope this feedback for the arc can be helpful to everyone who reads this. As I've said in the past, this feedback isn't meant to give the arc a rating, but to point out parts of the arc that can be improved upon to help it be the best arc possible.

Until next time, Architects!

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