The Destroyer of Worlds (arc 352820)

Now that I've gotten some feedback on The Destroyer of Worlds, I thought I would start a feedback/arc update thread.

The Destroyer of Worlds
Arc ID: 352820
Morality: Heroic
Level range: 15-25 (mostly)

In the closing days of WW2, the War Department asks mystery men to recover secret weapons stolen by the 5th Column from a captured U-boat, to be delivered to a top secret research facility.

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I ultimately decided my original idea for Dr Aeon's Challenge was too flawed to submit. Very late in the contest cycle I thought of a new idea to address this challenge, and so I wrote this arc in the last 2 days of the contest. I ended up publishing this arc at literally the last minute; 12/09/2009 11:59pm according to the AE interface. As a result, I submitted it with no player feedback to speak of, which certainly makes it less than polished. So, feedback would be appreciated.

Some designer notes:
- I wrote this over the course of 12/7 to 12/9, so it was a real rush job.
- This arc takes only 33% of the allowed arc space, but I feel it still has a pretty good amount of content.
- The 15-25 limit is somewhat artificial, to match the level range of Shivans in mission 2; the enemies in missions 1 and 3 actually spawn from level 1 to 50, but I wanted to make the level ranges somewhat coherent. The last mission is 50-50, which is a huge jump, but it isn't, strictly speaking, a fighty mission, so hopefully is forgivable.
- I started naming this arc "Destroyer of Worlds" and stuck a "The" at the beginning at the last minute. Still not sure whether "The Destroyer of Worlds" sounds better than "Destroyer of Worlds".

Influences:
- Dr. Aeon's Challenge, obviously. I really have issues with the whole "do evil for the greater good" idea anyway, because I have a hard time justifying that for a hero. I mean, "the ends don't justify the means" is something that was pounded into my brain from an early age, so how can you reasonably "do evil" in the name of good? However, I believe the action taken by the player in the final mission is evil (because innocents die), and yet justifiable. This caused me to realize that I'm not nearly as objectivist as I thought. Between this and my first try at the Challenge, I found the concept behind this contest to be extremely thought-provoking.
- J. Robert Oppenheimer and his famous quotation from the Bhagavad Gita. I searched and searched for a translation that matched his quote and couldn't find one. I think he made it up! And yet it's the most famous line from that text, at least in the English speaking world. His words gave me the arc name, obviously, and I tried to use significant quotations for mission entry popups in general. Which might be a little too ostentatious, but I really liked the Sense of Importance that quoting scripture conveys.
- Fat Man and Little Boy, the movie about the Manhattan Project. I originally had mission 2 depicting the same accident depicted in the movie, where Dr. Slotin ("Merriman" in the movie adaptation) accidentally nearly starts a chain reaction; in real life and in the movie, the scientist dies of radiation exposure, but in the story arc, I had Shivans appear. However, I felt it would be too disrespectful to Dr. Slotin (considering he died of this accident) and reading the CoH lore on Shivans, they really come from meteor fragments and not generic radiation exposure. So I reworked it to use the Roswell meteor instead; Roswell is in the same state as Los Alamos, and this fit the story better. I did get a player who left feedback to the effect of "the Roswell incident was in 1947, so this doesn't work with your timeline" -- good catch. I have to plead artistic license, for the sake of making mission 2 more cool; I just have to include Shivans in a story called "The Destroyer of Worlds", after all! (The movie took the same artistic license, as the incident they depict is after the war too; I know that doesn't excuse me doing it too, but just saying it anyway.)
- The Golden Age Secret of the Paragon Society (by @Wrong Number). I don't steal any of her plot points, but playing her arc had gotten me into a Golden Age, Nazi-busting state of mind.
- The story of German submarine U-234, which I thought was just freakin' cool, and I felt that it gave me a perfect lead-in to get the player character involved with the story.
- I met Edward Teller once in 1982 and he was really cool. Someone left me feedback saying "The way you wrote Dr. Teller's accent is way over the top!" ... heheh, it's really not .... Dr Strangelove was based in part on him, after all.
- Someone who I won't name (to avoid getting this post modsmacked) was relentlessly campaigning against my Axis and Allies arc earlier this year, for depicting the Nazis winning WW2. One of his suggestions was to write another story arc that let players play on the Allied side instead. So, this arc's for you, crazy internet stalker!

Reviews so far:
- Bubbawheat's review: "This seems like a pretty unique take on the challenge's premise, using historical facts....If that's not the definition of evil for the greater good, I don't know what is.....the final mission is very well done that had me literally saying 'Now *that* was cool.'"
- Venture's review: "Did Not Do The Research, underdeveloped, assumes too much about the player....the arc isn't nearly evil enough for Aeon's challenge, or...really evil at all....game play is good enough, but the arc does have a lot of problems that detract from it. "

I played this arc, and I enjoyed it. The references are quite cool, and while not quite 'evil for the greater good,' it's still an enjoyable arc.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

Changes

Changed story title to "Destroyer of Worlds" (was "The Destroyer of Worlds") .... been waffling over this, think I've decided that the title sounds better without "The" at the start.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bubbawheat I've got to rescue the scientists, shut down the experiment, and destroy the meteorite. (going against my feedback /tell and suggesting it be called "Meteorite shard" since it's much smaller and different looking than the Bloody Bay meteorites we're used to {even though they're incorrectly called meteors in game, meteorites are meteors that have entered the Earth's atmosphere})

Renamed this object to be "Meteorite Shard" (formerly "Meteorite"). Reworded description to describe it as "a fragment of a meteorite that fell to earth near Roswell, New Mexico". This should hopefully satisfy the complaint that it doesn't look like the meteors in Bloody Bay.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Venture The weapons turned out to be a box of "yellow dirt" labeled U-235 (which confuses you because the sub it came from was U-234), a disassembled Me-262 jet (the arc says it would have changed history if it had been deployed; in real life the 262s racked up hundreds of kills but went into service too late to matter), and a Hs 293 guided missile (again, the text implies it was never used, but it was).

Changed the text of these clues to be:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Me 262 Jet Fighter This crate contains a disassembled fighter plane. But this is no ordinary aircraft: it's a jet-powered aircraft. Incredible! You had heard stories of these "jets"; supposedly the Germans didn't make many, but they flew rings around Allied pilots and scored hundreds of confirmed kills.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hs 293 Guided Missile This crate contains a disassembled bomb. But unlike most bombs, it has a rocket engine and remote radio controls that could steer it! You've heard stories of these German "smart bombs" taking out Allied shipping. This appears to really BE one!

I reworded the mission 1 debriefing to match; relevant passages changed to:

Quote:

Originally Posted by General Groves A jet fighter plane? Outstanding! Those Me 262s have been tearing our flyboys up; having one for our eggheads to study will be a big help. A rocket guided bomb? Huh! I had heard of those being used to take out our ships. We'll definitely learn something from that.

This should hopefully address the complaint of historical inaccuracy.

Quote:

Originally Posted by minimalist [Tell] 2009-12-15 16: 31:52 Message From @minimalist : Feedback on Architect Mission The Destroyer of Worlds: Nicely done overall, good use of maps, and the last mission has a bit of pathos, but it seems like the moral dilemma could still have been played up a bit more. Minor points: either the radiation clouds or civilians should be 'Rogue' (if allowable) so the radiation horribly kills them off. Also, 'bimbo' might be anachronistic (M3, the clue from defeating Schadenfreude)

In the final mission, the radiation clouds are indeed "Rogue", while the civilians are "Enemy". If they get close to each other, the radiation should totally fry the heck out of the civilians. I spent an unhealthy amount of time testing & watching to make sure they would do this.

I suspect you're right about "bimbo" being an anachronistic term. After a little research (and suggestions from MA Arc Finder) I changed this clue in mission 3 to call her a "crazy kraut chippy" instead.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuraiko [Tell] @Samuraiko: Feedback on Architect Mission The Destroyer of Worlds: Nicely done, and kudos for excellent historical research! One suggestion - maybe (if it's available) the Villa Requin airfield map for mish 3? Just a thought... all in all, VERY cool.

I would love to have a better airfield map; the one in Villa Requin would be great, or I'd take the one in Cap au Diable, or the one in Striga Isle. I haven't been able to find any of these in the AE interface though; the Mercy Island landing pad is the best match I've found. If anyone knows of a better map to use, I'll happily switch.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FredrikSvanberg [Tell] 2009-12-16 12: 16:36 Message From @FredrikSvanberg : Feedback on Architect Mission The Destroyer of Worlds: I like the quotes from the Bhagavad Gita. Not so sure about the Manhattan Project hanging out in a 5th Column base. That is either really offensive or really funny, or both. Last mission didn't impress me that much. I almost laughed when I heard the radiation say "boom" and "kaboom". Personally I think it would have been better if the last mission had us simply plant a bomb with a timer, and then we wouldn't have to worry about getting away in time either. And we could have fought some japanese soldiers too

Huh, you're right about the map choice. I had wanted an underground base for Site Y, so used a 5th Column base, but I think you're right that the 5th Column symbols are really out of place. I changed mission 2 to use a Council base with the same layout; hopefully the Council heraldry will be less distracting.

Re: the last mission, I don't think there is a mechanism for planting a bomb with a timer; if you know of one, let me know. Ideally I'd like to have the player flying a bomber and dropping the bomb, but there's no good way to do that either.

Regarding actual opposition, I didn't want foot soldiers because the real Enola Gay wouldn't have faced any of those. The real Enola Gay didn't run into any Japanese fighter planes either (Imperial Japan was running low on aircraft fuel by this time and would no longer scramble to intercept smaller allied formations) but I did actually try to reflag some Longbow Chasers as "Mitsubishi Zero" aircraft and have them attack the player. I didn't feel like this worked, though, because you can't actually repaint the Longbow Chasers another color, so they look like...Longbow Chasers. As a result, there isn't anything to fight (at least initially).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jail.Bird [Tell] 2009-12-16 20: 28:09 Message From @Jail.Bird : Feedback on Architect Mission The Destroyer of Worlds: I would lose the second mission as the Roswell "incident" (which I think is total hokeum but, this is a super hero universe) happenned in 1947. I thought Teller's accent was a little over the top. I guess my question to you would be was this supposssed to be tongue in cheek or not? If it wasn't then there are a bunch of errors that need to be corrected.

You're totally right on the Roswell incident occurring in 1947, but I really wanted a mission showing the Manhattan Project itself, and Shivans seemed the most logical thing to give the player to fight. This admittedly messes up my timeline a little, but I want the Shivans and the Manhattan Project scientists in the arc so I have to plead artistic license.

I would've liked a mission that illustrated the Trinity test, but could not figure out any way to depict that in a believable and fun way.

I originally wrote all of Teller's dialog "normal" (no accent) but then remembered what an outrageous accent he really had, so ended up going back to modify it to sound more accented. It is over the top. He was...an over the top sorta guy.

The arc is not meant to be "tongue in cheek" but perhaps some elements may seem so (the wacky Nazis, the low tech super science, etc.). This maybe creates some dissonance in tone with the final outcome of the arc. I'm not quite sure how to resolve that.

More changes:

* Changed souvenir text to drop the leading "The" from the arc name, to match the earlier change in the arc name.
* I decided the Bhagavad Gita quotes were a little too ostentatious in the mission entry popup dialogs. I moved the quotations to be captions on the mission briefings, which matches the more commonly accepted practice for Significant Quotations used in story arcs.
* Wrote a new mission entry popup for each mission, describing environmental conditions instead (also matching the more commonly accepted practice).
* Some rephrasing of mission 1 briefing to let it still fit on a single page, even with the addition of two lines of caption.
* Rewrote Dr. Teller's dialog in mission 2 to be more "normal" (removing the strong accent). After pondering it some, I think Jail.Bird is right, the outrageous accent makes his dialog too cartoony.

For my part, I was questioning WN's earlier assertion that "the President already made the decision since it was ultimately his to make and not yours." The idea that a soldier who is "just following orders" bears no responsibility for the acts he performs has been largely discredited since WW2, though it does seem to come up again and again. Based on her later reply, I do think WN agrees that some orders are OK to obey and some are not. This is, IMHO, a key point; the soldier executing his orders does bear responsibility for his actions.


Regarding the ethics of dropping the bomb, this has been a huge subject for debate ever since it happened. There's a pretty good article on the debate over the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Wikipedia which I encourage anyone interested in this subject to read. It presents arguments both for and against the act as being ethical.

Here's a few excerpts from that article:

FOR

As I read it, Wrong Number's point is that the order to drop the atomic bombs is qualitatively different from the order to commit genocide. I agree completely.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki were military targets. An order to bomb a legitimate military target cannot be compared to an order to massacre helpless civilians. The Japanese government knew that civilians living in cities of military importance were at risk; we were already bombing them. Japan's leaders knew the war was a lost cause; they chose to refuse American demands for surrender. Those leaders decided those civilian lives were acceptable casualties. When the enemy decides a cause is worth dying for, it is the duty of our military personnel to oblige them. One million enemy civilian casualties, women and children included, are worth less than one drop of American blood.

The simple fact is there are no rules of war, and all talk of "war crimes" is nothing more than a thin veneer of legitimacy applied over a seething mass of revenge. War is uncivilized behavior and as such necessarily rejects all rules, laws, treaties and other artifacts of civilization. The only good thing about war, to quote one James Tiberius Kirk, is its ending. Given that casus belli requires that the enemy be the aggressor in strategic terms, the least amount of force that brings a war to a rapid conclusion with the least loss of American life is a just and necessary response.