Arc ID 351572 - For All the Wrong Reasons (Aeon's Challenge)

"For All the Wrong Reasons..."
@Samuraiko
Arc ID: 351572

Tags: Drama, Challenging, Save the World

"Heroes are desperately needed to halt a potential invasion of Primal Earth by the Praetorians. But 'if the cause be not good, the king himself hath a heavy reckoning to make..."

The Dark Watcher sends the hero(es) through a high-level 5-mission arc that touches on the upcoming expansion GOING ROGUE. Are you willing to take on a task that might not be as clearcut as you'd hoped?

*****

Feedback as a whole is always greatly welcomed. My REAL concern, however, is making sure that the last mission is as bug-free as possible - 18 out of 20 times it was fine. The other two, the mission had to be reset.

Thanks in advance to anyone who playtests this.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

Last mission everything spawned alright for me.

Maybe it's just because I'm a jerkass, but I never really felt like I was doing anything bad. Spoilers incoming, for those who haven't read.

There were two potentially evil things I though the player had to do. Kidnap Dominatrix as bait, and remove Anti-Matter's hope of being cured. I felt a bit pang of guilt as I fighting Dominatrix (Hey, I left your dimension peacefully), but not so much, as she was talking about taking out a resistance cell right before I fought her.

The other thing seemed to come out of now where. Looking back, I can see the hints, Posi and Dark Watcher dropped a few hints about being trapped in armor, but nothing from Anti-Matter himself. I guess if I knew going in the last mission that I was going to destroy his hope of becoming free, it'd feel a bit more 'evil for the greater good', as it was, seeing that bit was almost a non issue.

I'd suggest maybe during the Anit-Matter fight, sneaking a line in there about "Domi, I've almost fixed myself, soon we can be together for real" (ANd if it's there, forgive me). The other would be to have the player realize they may need to delete everything Anti-Matter's worked on. I never connected his hope to fix himself and destroying his databases until it was too late, and it didn't really feel like 'evil for the greater good'. If I knew going in that everything, personal journals, personal projects, etc, it might make the choice hit home a bit more.

Re: spawning properly, good. Now up to 19/21.

Re: 'evil for the greatest good' aspect and the hints about Anti-Matter, I will see about tinkering with it as the deadline is Wednesday. Thanks for the feedback!

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

I've done some tweaking on the arc, if you're one of the later comers to this post!

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

And before I forget my manners, thanks to those of you who've sent me some really good feedback about the arc off the forums. You guys were right, and I think the arc runs much better now!

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

I enjoyed playing this arc and liked the overall story. I ran it with a level 41 Claws/Ela/Blaze scrapper. In mission 1 I also had a 47 Ice/Elec/Earth tanker and a 34 FF/Psi defender. Ran at difficulty +1 / x4 / Bosses / No AVs.

The pacing and premise of mission 1 worked for me. My one suggestion for this mission would be to make sure all the ally rescues (including the original escort) are very noticeable. Running over that map looking for everyone is tedious. Posi stood out big time and I liked that. I wish the others had been as easy to find.

Mission 2 was fun. Our tanker went to bed, but a level 50 Emp/Elec/Elec joined us, so we were still a three man team. It almost felt like Dominatrix might be considering changing a little; it was uncomfortable kidnapping her.

Mission 3 was nice and brief. I have to admit, I like it when a plan comes together and actually works out.

Mission 4 is a bit of a stretch. There are very few characters I play who won't take some joy in beating on Longbow, but at the level this arc is intended for, we have probably seen a few other ways to extract information and erase a memory or two. A Crey arc comes to mind, not to mention that Vanguard probably has a few members who might be able to help and considering who the contact is, we could probably get the authorization needed. On top of that, any personal connections our characters may have break the premise of this mission (for example, our FF/Psi defender had a background which indicated that they could have handled this). I guess we could get a more specific reason why it has to be Kalinda, though.

It is also a bit contrived that Longbow just happens to have Kalinda ready for our taking. Honestly, just heading to the Rogue Isles and kidnapping her so that she can be forced to work for us seems plenty dark for the greater good (especially with all we have done so far and what we have yet to do) and more plausible.

Mission 5 feels like going to an Anti-matter base. I love the chained objectives, it worked really well for me. The final clue as I destroy his personal files is well done. Why do I need to fight Tyrant? By the time he spawns, my work is done. I am all about thumbing my nose at him as I step through portal tech we have, but he doesn't. I do not mind beating him up, but I'd like a reason for it to be required (or it can just be an optional thing).

As an aside, ironically, this arc features some great enemies for Electric armor to fight. Carnies Psi, Nrg, Sm, Le, End drain are all things Electric does well. Domi's minions do a lot of Nrg. AM and AM's minions are almost all Nrg; there was a point where with double bubbles and Fort I was still at -48% defense, but my health bar wasn't moving anyway. Neuron's minions and Tyrant, a lot of Nrg.

Good suggestions overall, and thank you! This is one arc I keep trying to refine and improve, and you've given me a couple of ideas to implement. Cheers!

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

My thoughts are posted in my 'One a Day' thread.

I was writing while you posted.