Operation Oedipus: Glory of our Empire notes.
General:
- Yes, there are Sophocles references everywhere. It seemed fitting given the content of his plays, until I started running out of character names.
- Yes, the arc title is a reference. To what I won't say.
Mission 1:
- The encrypted database isn't meant to be there in the middle. No matter what I set its spawn flag to it keeps showing up there.
- The map isn't small, but I chose mostly because the Front-marked room is really easy to find glowies in.
Mission 2:
- This is a four-level map, but all of the levels are very small and it finishes with the convenient conference room.
- Every time but one I tested this the bosses spawned apart. One time they spawned stacked. If it happens again I'll have to change the map.
Mission 3:
- I know there's a hell of a lot of glowies. That's why they're so quick, and all neatly in one big open room. Besides, a crapton of explosives seemed a good way to get across that Vasiliy is a very angry man.
- If Theseus spawns in the middle, it makes for a great fight, with both sets of Titans coming in and beating the crap out of themselves and him. If he spawns in the hallway it ruins the effect, but that spawn seems rare.
- One test the Titan ambushes spawned in groups of six. Epic, yes. Fun, no.
Mission 4:
- A lot of back-and-forth. That's why I chose the smallest possible appropriate map.
- There's no way to have you take Vasiliy to a console, so outside will have to do. I considered having the main console objective become active after freeing Vasiliy, but then you'd have to go all the way back to the door afterwards. If I figure out a neat trick, I'll change this mission.
Mission 5:
- This is supposed to be you versus a massive Malta facility packed to the gills with dangerous men. Since I couldn't actually increase mob occurence, I opted for craploads of big ambushes. It works a little better, since it gets across the idea that Malta is actually a competent paramilitary organisation.
- The security console has a habit of spawning wherever it feels like spawning regardless of tags.
- The bombs in the reactor room are a nuisance, but it was the only place that made sense that didn't spawn the damned things in the wall. Again, I kept them to one room to make it less enraging.
- There are objectives everywhere because I thought it'd make this feel more like a big thing. It does, but not as well a a higher mob density would have.
- Yes, those are all-Sapper mobs. Only four on the entire map, and three of then you can sneak past. I thought a patrol that poses a genuine threat to any player would make this feel like a facility Malta is very serious about protecting. More to the point, a Sapper Plant without buttloads of Sappers would be thematically ridiculous. If they are genuinely too hard, I'll find a workaround.
- I know Laius is only a boss. Normally that would be a letdown for the last mission of an arc, but considering he has an all-Sapper spawn around him and two rather large ambushes, making him an Elite Boss would probably just be cruel.
- There was originally a point to using the Hero lab specifically, but space limitations made that problematic. Instead I spread that plot point across both arcs.
General:
- Yes, the names are much less appropriate. Sophocles only wrote so many plays.
- If you play this arc first Malta's reaction seems almost insane. It'd make more sense if it came straight after, say, a Crimson arc. If I can think of a way to write that in without wrecking it for the ones who did play Glory of our Empire I will. I don't think I'll be rid of the problem of why the hell you'd trust Vasiliy that much that fast, though.
Mission 1:
- I know, the glowie is wierd. I can't find a reliable way to make a better one spawn in the right spot.
- It's supposed to be a Malta airdrop. The idea sort of gets across, but not really. I'd pay cash moneys to use the Commando entrance animation for them here.
- I didn't really want to make players defeat a boss, but there's no option to force you to leave by the entrance and I don't want people just immediately exiting.
Mission 2:
- The MAGIC TRANSLATOR convention annoys me, but I suspect actually having them speak Korean would be more annoying to players.
- I would pay cash moneys for the ability to use a Warburg map for this.
Mission 3:
- I'm still tossing up all the details of how many objectives the player should have to complete. Making them spend more time on the map gets more of the 'what have I done?' thing across, but too long and it'd smother any emotional impact under piles of seethign tedium.
Mission 4:
- The Marchand map is perfect for this, except that the jerks took away the helicopter.
- I'm still tossing up how powerful your allies should be. Even though they're optional, it'd be easy to turn on too many and turn what should rightfully be a real challenge into a cakewalk.
- More crappy wall-spawning glowies. It only happens every few plays, but it's not fair to even one player that after slogging their way through eight other missions they'd still not finish the story. I'm pulling this arc until I can fix it.
Arc 371631, Operation Oedipus: Glory of our Empire, @Arkhon von Evilsatan
A solo-friendly drama with complex mechanics - I'm sold already! It's a Malta arc, with a warning that it is "grim". Five missions, with medium, large and unique maps. I'll be helping Vasiliy to take down the Malta, but it sounds like I may have to make some tricky moral choices. EBs, Extreme EBs, and Custom-powered enemies.
Zero plays? The arc presents Malta in a dry and serious tale. That is two reasons why it won't be everyone's cup of tea. Unfortunate, since it is very well written throughout. But if it's not going to be fun, it needs to be spectacular. Hint at something more than "piles of Malta". It needs to be heroic. But if you want a Punisher-style arc, perhaps call it 'Neutral'. A villain might find as much reason to go after the Malta, and do it without scruples.
Mission-wise comments below. Perhaps you know @Venture, he has a Malta arc that pushes a remarkably similar envelope.
Cheers, airhead
Nice contact. Very spy-movie feel. Contact description: just so happens -> just happens. Four objectives are described to me. Off I go! The entry pop-up assumes I haven't taken the fight to Malta before, but I'm level 50, and I have.
Gadget Clue says gadget stored in King's Row. But my locker-contact is described as "Atlas Park station".
Camera footage clue assumes I'd avoid something as "not worth it" - I'm a hero, I tend to overreach on crime as a matter of principle.
Mission 2 return also mentions King's Row station.
Mission 3 send-off: neccesity -> necessity ; commander your see -> commander you see. Go in, bash stuff. Nav says "4 Defeat the Malta Commanders!" - might be nicer as "4 Malta Commanders to Defeat!". The ambushes get a bit repetitive. I don't understand why Malta have 4 separate always too late, ambush defense plans, instead of one sensible plan.
The return message has my faceless contact making light of drowned innocent bystanders. As a hero I need a separate reason to keep working with him. In any case, those ambushes found the end of my patience. I didn't get inside mission 4, but I suggest you change the mission 4 accept text, to indicate I am not helping Vasiliy, but instead removing a threat to Peregrine Island.
The mission send-off suggests I am to blow up a building, which will take out a programmer. That's not heroic. Better send in the PPD, or a different kind of hero.
Arc: 379017: Outbroken See all your old friends in the Outbreak Tutorial sequel!
Arc: Coming Soon: The Incarnate Shadow Shard of Fire and Ice Mender Rednem needs you!
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I made this arc vaguely intending to recapture the feel of the Crimson arcs, but take it further. I tend to prefer the more grim storylines, and this is just an outlay of that. I wrote this more as the thing I wanted to write than for a wide audience because otherwise it's hard to justify spending a fair few hours on it. Sure, I can make heroey stuff, but there's already so much of it in the game.
I made the arc selection 'heroic' because neutral would suggest to Villains that it's going to work with their characters. It'd be hard to justify why most villains even care about Vasiliy's ruthlessness, and those with genuinely complex characters I ca't help because there are just far too many potential motivations.
I changed the locker names around. It seems weird for a spy-type guy to use one drop point, but you're right, it's weirder for a contact name to just be wrong. I'll fix those up unless I can think of something more creative.
The first mission popup was more my thinking. In the game, I don't recall blueside if you ever actually make a plan to proactively attack Malta, mostly doing so in reaction. I'll try to make that more readily visible.
That clue's one of a few. It's hard to try and make it obvious that Malta is a pack of outright bastards without either forcing a character reaction or going into detail. I don't like going into detail, because imagined horrors are always going to be more insidious. Still, maybe I can take out the explicitly forced character reactions for something vaguer.
The ambushes are post-defeat because I figured it might be too hard for characters not specced out to be able to take out a boss, a big spawn, and a 3/4 health ambush. It does feel off, but I think making players repeatedly lose in the end room of one mission would probably be more annoying. This is my first experience with Architect, so if you have any ideas of how to do this better I could really use the help. Maybe I should playtest with my Energy/Thermal corruptor. If he can solo it, anything can.
Much of the point of this arc and the followup is that Vasiliy is not a nice guy at all. He's got his revenge kick, and he doesn't give a damn who gets in his way and what he has to do to get it. He's as monomaniacal in the pursuit of this as the Malta leadership is in their defense of what they see as right. The idea is that this is supposed to become more and more obvious as you play through the arc. The player is working with him only because he represents a genuine chance to do damage to Malta. I don't want to proscribe how far the character will agree with Vasiliy because every character will be different, and there's no mechanism in the game for the character to decide enough is enough. Still, if it's not obvious that the hero is only doing this because it's a rare chance to hit Malta, then I need to rewrite some things. Was there much in the way of specific dialogue that made you feel like your character was doing something they outright wouldn't, or was it just a general feeling?
Hi Uber,
Sounds like progress, so I'll definitely try this arc again soon.
Regarding the ambushes - perhaps some might be more timely than others. One at barely-hurt, one at half-hurt, one "too late", and one even without an ambush. That would take the predictability out of it 
My character was wiped every time in any case, since I wasn't playing well (lag, or late night, my x2 hero setting, or most likely just sheer incompetence). It is a long way back from the hospital to floor with the four leaders. Hmm. You might even cut it to three, unless there's a story reason for four. I don't recall getting new critical information in each set of combat dialogue.
Regarding Vasiliy - it was only at the end there that I decided I would not work for such a person. Specifics were in my last post. There wasn't a general feeling, so if you tweak my acceptance string and other motivation text to be more about civic duty (protecting Peregrine etc), that just happens to align with Vasiliy's request, then I'd do it. It was never a general feeling, I thought the arc gave me good motivation otherwise.
I go back to the 'spectacular' feeling - I'm just hoping for something unusual. If it's all Malta, it's a bit tedious. I didn't try the last two missions, so I could be very wrong. But if there's a non-Malta twist, I suggest you hint at that early on (even the arc description). If the combat is too much like Crimson's arc, then people might just go play Crimson's arc. As examples (not expectations), Venture's arc had a Rikti connection, and he even came up with some "R&D Malta" members that played a bit differently.
Normally I don't care too much about combats and just go with the story, but the combats affected me here. So I'm not entirely consistent, and this is all just one player's opinions
Cheers, airhead
Arc: 379017: Outbroken See all your old friends in the Outbreak Tutorial sequel!
Arc: Coming Soon: The Incarnate Shadow Shard of Fire and Ice Mender Rednem needs you!
Massively.com opinion poll: Please Help Save CoH!
Right, so the only real major obstacle was the acceptance dialogue. I don't blame you, because I do the same thing. I can rationalise doing things in an arc I otherwise wouldn't, but it's distracting to have to.
This is a lead-up to the next arc, which is the one I really wanted to write but couldn't make fit rationally into one arc. There's only two of four missions that even have Malta there, and in one you don't actually have to fight them. Originally I wanted to stick a whole stack of weaker heroes into the Malta bases to fight, both for some variance and because it really bugs me that despite half the purpose of Malta being to co-opt heroes, you never even see one. I got one into this arc and planned to make it a whole team, but space is really tight given it's a five-mission arc and I've gone heavy on the objectives AND the dialogue. I'm hoping the possible space boost with GR is a reality, because it'll make that possible.
If it is really a nuisance I'll try to work some more in, but there's only so many groups you can have working with Malta without a whole lot of justification. Knives are easy, but they are never a way to make things less annoying.
Thanks for the help, anyway. It's much better to have someone else's opinion for fixes since it's easy to get enormously biased when you've put a lot of effort into something.
Right, I redid both and fixed up everything that occurred to me. No major shifts in Glory of our Empire, just objective rejigging and dialogue improvements. It shouldn't have taken that long, but the thing developed a bad habit of reverting to the first build every time I logged off somehow.
Day of Infamy is working, with significant changes but nothing substantiative. I ended up removing the pass/fail mechanic in the last mission since there was no way to resolve it well. Also, that damned Marchand map is the ultimate writer trap. It's so perfect for a dramatic final confrontation, and yet so very broken. Right now at least one of the bosses spawns on the roof every time, and if I can make that one the only compulsory one I'll be happy. All signs point to no. I know the map in mission two is a bit off, but the 5th Column HQ was giving me hell with glowie spawns. At least the giant robot room actually looks something like a missile silo, albeit with lava.
It'd be very helpful if I could get some comments on the arcs, since these were my first
AE efforts. Right now I don't actually know that much about making an arc work.
If there's one thing this board's taught me it's that you're never going to get an arc well-known without blatant advertising, and this board certainly seems to be the place to do it. I'll post up my new arcs here, with a few notes. If you've played one of them and have any comments or criticism, please post it in here. Also, if you want me to play one of yours, I can do that. I won't rate an arc save as a 5, rather, I'll just point out what I saw as weaknesses and suggest some improvements.
Also, these two arcs are my first experiences with creating using the Architect system, so be gentle.
Arc Title:Operation Oedipus: Glory of our Empire (part 1 of 2)
Arc ID: 372767
Factions:Malta
Morality:Heroic
Length:5 missions (part 2 4 missions)
Level Range:41-54
Synopsis:Malta's made a dangerous enemy. A man called Vasiliy says he knows how to take down the most dangerous organisation in Paragon City, and he needs your help to do it. Is it possible, and will it be worth the cost? (warning: grim)
Arc Title:Operation Oedipus: Day of Infamy (part 2 of 2)
Arc ID: 375443
Factions:Malta
Morality:Heroic
Length:4 missions (part 1 5 missions)
Level Range:41-54
Synopsis:Malta's been hurt, but desperation makes for a deadly foe. Will you do what it takes to finish the job, and can you trust a man out for revenge at any cost? (warning: grim)