Over 20 Billion Inf to Commission some Arcs
By
Acoustics,
Posted on: 2010-03-08 19:40 in Mission Architect
Current standings:
1) Score - 80 #283197 - Psychophage
2) Score - 70 #38769 - Breathless Nights
Eligible for March 1 billion but not tested:
#15819 - Mantisman Task Force
#386861 - The Ghastly Secret of Dreams
#4234 - Clubbing Nightmare
#364346 - 7662: The Nemesis Task Force
I got to test two arcs today. I enjoyed my time testing them which means that my competition has already been a success. I'm interested in fun and blowing up teammates and I got that through two arcs.
I have no super-defined system for rating arcs. I don't plan on making one. I'm pulling these numbers out of thin air. General goals are to leave room so I can somehow rank the arcs and generally give people a vague idea of how much room for improvement. I'll also be changing my ratings of previously reviewed arcs for seemingly no reason. As I experience more arcs I will likely get a better idea of where to place arcs on the scale. Also, some things with quick changes will be re-scored without further testing if it's small etc.
I suspect I'll give some arcs a zero. Zero simply means I left before finished and you need to fix something up before I consider it. If I walk into a mission full of longbow Nullifiers --> zero. If all the enemies are MMs with gang war --> zero. If the difficulty is outrageously high/low --> zero. If there are no enemies --> zero. I'll tell you why I left and explain "this means you arc is unplayable for the manner of play I wish to have. That doesn't I think they are bad arcs nor worthless it simply means they don't fit this contest. There are some dev choice arcs I'd zero.
These reviews contain notes that I wrote while on the fly in a mission. I'll try to clean stuff up and add thoughts after but most important are my thoughts as I'm in the mission.
I'm running every arc at +2/x8 regardless of my team unless otherwise specified. I try to give you a general idea of the team I was on.
Reviewed Arcs:
Score - 70 #38769 - Breathless Nights
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Score - 80 #283197 Psychophage|
Enemies that attack while you zone into first mission -- not fun 1 Scrapper was only melee toon. 2 Other 50s besides me. Two level 1s. Two 35s. I rate this team slightly below my random team's average. I died a few times. We flew through it. Good balance on difficulty. A little too much mez/annoying effects. Perhaps tone down their AoE damage as well. Their single target damage was wonderful. A lot of two-three shotting teammates. Blind is not fun. Mission 2 had lots of emptiness with no enemies. In the direction of the Eye of Leviathan. Big not fun. Pixies and Fairies having guns and summoning bots was strange. Two missions were a little short in total but acceptable length. Prefer longer but that's fine. Needs more fun encounters/unique situations. A little change in difficulty of enemies. The cave map with empty spaces was very not fun |
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A good mix of high/low level toons on team. One melee toon. Had more than 1 toon with Fallout/Venge. I rate this team slightly above my normal team's average. I died before I even zoned. Not good. Possibly due to team stupidity. Force Multiplier Enemies = potentially too hard. I think Sonic Dispersion probably should go. Stacked Resistance makes fights take too long. I like the difficulty of the fights but Multipack rooms became very tough but do-able. Quite fun except for massive +Resistance. The enemies don't die as quickly as I like when multiple Suppressor bosses are next to each other. Ambushers were fun. Other than Sonic Disperion, great power balance. Some people just splatted but otherwise weren't too hard. Huge amount of ambushers from many sides wiped us in mission 2. Lots of dispersion bubbles. Maybe it was Patrols... multiple. They came from 2+ directions at first intersection. Another almost team wipe on a patrol + pack we hit head on. We survive. Very awesome. We liked the final room in mission 2. The big room had a few patrols. We were forced to fight multpacks. Became an epic fight. Fun though drawn out. Someone commented how lots of Rad blast nuked defense and melted people. I think our only melee toon left because the Rad blasts melted him. That's funny. I like how he melted and consider the Rad Blasts obliterating him a big positive. So don't change those Rad Blasting bosses and other -defense stuff cause he thinks they are bad... I thought they were awesome and its my money we're talking about. Mission 3 we had no melee toons. Things went about the same Mission 4 Going about the same. The Omicron are good. The bosses with Tier 9s could be annoying but we had no problem with it. Someone says the AV TPs - I did not notice the AV teleporting. If the AV teleports that would be annoying and not fun. I get mezzed on the AV ambush. We wipe. I think the team woulda been fine if I had a BF. Not sure on how I feel about the Mez. There wasn't much of it but there was just enough to make some spots really troublesome. Probably just need to know to use Break Frees. Overall very good difficulty of enemies. Good length. Sonic Dispersion was not fun. Needs some spice, some more action of some kind. Some more unique encounters. Something special. |
Try Arc 385400: Imperial Task Force 2 aka Romulus Rematch
So.... you basically want to grief other players by ensuring they'll die so you can use Fallout, random pugs as well judging from your description, and you're willing to pay others to aid you with this griefing. Classy.
No. I don't join random pugs. I don't send blind invites. I don't send invites to random players. I specifically and explicitly tell prospective members of my team that I will be trying to defeat them, I want them to play aggressively, and I want to use Fallout. I only recruit from global channels. I have a widely known reputation on these channels and nearly all players know exactly what they are walking into. Most that do not have have that understanding end up having a very good time and are pleasantly surprised that we can get defeated so many times, have a lot of fun, and defeat a lot of enemies. Those that don't enjoy my playstyle are told there are no hard feelings, I understand different players prefer different things, and are told they are free to leave. This early leaving occurs very rarely.
One of my posts in this threads explains that my teams regularly defeat lots of enemies and regularly get defeated many times. These times and statistics should indicate to you that there is at least a minimum amount of "method" to my madness. Players frequently line up to be "griefed" by me.
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Thank you for your understanding on this matter. I am glad that you were able to conclude that I am not griefing random people.
| For some general guidelines it takes a team of me and 7 people of any archetype/any level, no pansies, on average 60-80 minutes to do a +2 Imperious TF only skipping stuff on mission 3. Other than mission 3 we enter the door and start shooting stuff from the front until we get to the end and it tells us we can leave. On missions 1 and 2 I don't leave until whatever ambushers are at us are defeated. Lady Greys take roughly 60-80 minutes as well doing the "open door, shoot everything in our way" method at +2 difficulty. We often use intelligence and strategy for the Hamidon mission but are otherwise mindlessly charging into every encounter. |
Yes, because clearly I should have known to read post #33 of this thread for details that were not in your original message 
Submitted for your consideration:
A Warrior's Journey - The Flower Knight Task Force
Arc ID: 260284
Keywords: Challenging, Ideal for Teams, Drama
Level range: 45-54.
Description: Samurai and ninja battle for honor in a faraway realm. But someone has introduced firearms to the land, tilting the balance towards the evil Lord Kumo and the Spider Clan. Will you journey there to restore the balance?
Notes: This is an existing story arc that I reworked to try and conform to your submission requirements. It is something of a remix of the ITF, STF and feudal Japan. I hope you will find that the characters demonstrate "warrior spirit". Feedback 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!"
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Heh, there's Dev Choice's that a lot of people would zero.|
Originally Posted by Smurphy
There are some dev choice arcs I'd zero.
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But anyways, it's interesting to see how things are shaping up as far as structure of the submitted arcs. The main thing to watch seems to be mob choices. Map selection is also crucial but some authors may have difficulty due to limited spawn control.
And I got a chuckle about the melee ragequiting over defense debuffs.
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I'm hoping he gives a good break down on both of those when he runs my submission, if he doesn't like them, as I'm not sure if they'll fit his needs - they will of course be open for revision.
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Originally Posted by Zamuel
The main thing to watch seems to be mob choices. Map selection is also crucial but some authors may have difficulty due to limited spawn control.
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How can I join some of Smurphy's teams?
Why doesn't he like huge masses of gang war? I mean, it would be pointless if the whole arc did it, but what about 1 level?
A game is not supposed to be some kind of... place where people enjoy themselves!
A question for the original poster: I noticed you flagged one arc you tested with
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Does this mean you are totally against -Perception powers, or just if overused?|
Originally Posted by Smurphy
Blind is not fun.
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For example, I have some (repainted) Arachnos night widows in my story arc, and Smoke Grenade is one of their built-in powers, so they do blind. But I also noticed you said that Arachnos was "about right" for enemy difficulty.
Is it your preference to not encounter any Night Widows, or are they acceptable if present in small numbers, mixed in with other mobs (like they are in Arachnos)?
@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!"
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I most often form my teams on Virtue and these teams are semi "open to the public". On Virtue your best bet is to join the channels VU2010 and "Virtue LFG Alpha". I also can do Justice, Freedom and Victory. I'm looking to expand to other servers. Freedom is often formed privately via Supergroup and global friend list, Justice is formed less often via SG and the global channel JFA2010 and Victory I rarely play on but it can happen.|
Originally Posted by ChaosExMachina
How can I join some of Smurphy's teams?
Why doesn't he like huge masses of gang war? I mean, it would be pointless if the whole arc did it, but what about 1 level? |
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Originally Posted by PoliceWoman
Does this mean you are totally against -Perception powers, or just if overused?
For example, I have some (repainted) Arachnos night widows in my story arc, and Smoke Grenade is one of their built-in powers, so they do blind. But I also noticed you said that Arachnos was "about right" for enemy difficulty. Is it your preference to not encounter any Night Widows, or are they acceptable if present in small numbers, mixed in with other mobs (like they are in Arachnos)? |
Score for now 0 #15819 - Mantisman Task Force
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4 Level 50s and some people scattered at different levels below me. The team is different than usual. We are low in AoE damage as a team but super high in single target damage. Someone brought their purpled Rad/Sonic that I believe was built to solo AVs and not Fallout/Mutate. Mission 1: Don't like the Siphon Speed. Don't like Tar Patch. In the arachnoid caves the mobs in every spawn are very spread out which isn't very fun. The enemies didn't have a "warrior spirit". We didn't take much damage, people had to run off to die, the packs were spread out. They had annoying powers. We weren't having fun. We stopped in mission 1. I have no idea what the other missions are like but the first mission was not fun and didn't fit the playstyle I wanted. I read there are epic AV fights etc. but I won't get through mission 1 to get to them. |
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Same team as before. Super high single target damage, low aoe damage. Rikti. Mission 1 nothing special. Might as well have been a newspaper/radio. We liked how the packs were close to other packs and how each pack was rather tight. Mission 2. Like the Crocs. Crocogators bag of hitpoints with Dull Pain. Our team was stacked with single target damage and the Lts. and Minions would die real fast, but the bosses died like elite bosses. We liked how the croc enemy group splatted teammates. Enemies packs are tight, which is good. But packs are spread out from other packs and that leads to downtime. Not good. Sometimes we had to wander around a bit to find where to fight next. No ambush, no av, no patrols, no eb. Felt like another radio/newspaper mission. Mission 3. Roman ambush came to the door and killed me. I entered the mission first. I didn't move. It was one of those office entrances where you have to sorta walk around in a U to get from the door to the start, so there's no line of sight etc. to the first pack. Apparently there are some ambushers/patrols in mission 3 but they attacked at the door. Very not fun. The team needed reforming and we weren't all that excited about keeping going. Didn't test the rest of it. Someone mentioned how the writing is very strange. I mentioned how I wasn't going to read it. He copy/pasted some of the lines. The writing is very strange. |
1) 80 Psychophage #283197
2) 60 The Ghastly Secret of Dreams #38686
3) 50 Breathless Nights #38769 - (Changed. 1 mission I liked. Needs more length and changes.)
4) Score 0 Mantisman Task Force #15819
Eligible for March 1 billion but not tested:
Clubbing Nightmare #4234
7662: The Nemesis Task Force #364346
A Warrior's Journey - The Flower Knight Task Force #260284
Imperial Task Force 2 aka Romulus Rematch #385400
Thanks for playing "Psychophage" and the brief review. I've posted some extended comments in the arc's thread so as not to derail this one. I'll just say that I'll be yanking Sonic Dispersion off the Suppressors tonight. I have to replay everything anyway to vett them against today's patch.
Current Blog Post: "Why I am an Atheist..."
"And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained/As we did in the days when Victoria reigned!" -- T. S. Eliot, "Gus, the Theatre Cat"
2) 60 The Ghastly Secret of Dreams #38686
Well a 60 isn't the world's best, but it's not a zero, so I'll take it! 
Rikti. Mission 1 nothing special. Might as well have been a newspaper/radio. We liked how the packs were close to other packs and how each pack was rather tight.
I was thinking that mission was a bit thin, sure. It did have a boss placed in it and I can easily add more and some ambushes.
Mission 2. Like the Crocs. Crocogators bag of hitpoints with Dull Pain. Our team was stacked with single target damage and the Lts. and Minions would die real fast, but the bosses died like elite bosses.
Would you like to see the minions and Lts. beefed up, or do you think they're ok where they sit?
Enemies packs are tight, which is good. But packs are spread out from other packs and that leads to downtime. Not good. Sometimes we had to wander around a bit to find where to fight next.
That's how the sewers maps are usually laid out and I can see the problem. I can find another map to take care of that, perhaps some caves.
No ambush, no av, no patrols, no eb. Felt like another radio/newspaper mission.
Again, I can take care of that. I was sort of plotting from the view that stories start off and build, but I can see you'd rather they all be turned up to eleven - and I can accommodate you. It's funny, I wrote someplace in my notes "be sure every mission has at least one ambush", but for some reason I didn't, no idea why. I can see that the last two missions will probably need some beefing up to reach your expectations, I think, and I'll work on that. The last one did have an AV you missed though.
Mission 3. Roman ambush came to the door and killed me. I entered the mission first. I didn't move. It was one of those office entrances where you have to sorta walk around in a U to get from the door to the start, so there's no line of sight etc. to the first pack. Apparently there are some ambushers/patrols in mission 3 but they attacked at the door. Very not fun.
All my fault for not adding in text indicating a hot door and I feel kind of stupid that I hadn't gotten around to that yet - big apologies. The hot door trick was intentional on my part, "what's better for offing a teammate or two than a hot door?", right? Not so fun if you're that one guy who goes in first, no. Still, you might consider how useful that could be now that you know it's there (from my testing, you have about 10 to 15 seconds between their spawning and when they arrive at the door). But say the word and I'll take it out.
The team needed reforming and we weren't all that excited about keeping going.
Sorry about that...
Didn't test the rest of it.
Very sorry about that, I was hoping for some feedback on the customs in the final two missions! You met a few of them in the back of the Croc mission, those flamey-headed guys standing around the generator, but I doubt that would have been enough to really base a solid idea on.
Someone mentioned how the writing is very strange. I mentioned how I wasn't going to read it. He copy/pasted some of the lines. The writing is very strange.
Yes, it is. Is that going to be a problem?
Title of mission: Test Mission for Pacing of Smurphys Challenge
Arc ID: 388594
Author Global: @smilin bob
I teamed with you on Virtue yesterday and got an idea for the type of pacing you are looking for.
Give this single mission a run and see if this is the type you want. It is rough. No story to it yet.
An AV in the front with 2 hard ambushes.
Defeating AV and ambushes unlock mainframe (glowie) located in back/middle of map.
Mainframe unlocks EB with 3 hard ambushes.
Defeating EB and ambushes unlock exit terminal in front of map and trigger patrols and a fight.
Enemies are robots from in game factions.
Lots of def and regen.
AV is custom Elec Melee/ Shield
EB is custom War Mace/ Inv
Loads of EBs/Boss in Ambushes
Title of Mission: Rescue Numina from the Circle of Hands
Arc ID: 388422
Author Global: @Silverado
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I'm taking the rest of the responses to tells so as not to clog this thread. If anyone actually cares I can send them the tell as well. Also, I'm taking further discussion on Venture's arc to that arc's thread. |
Originally Posted by Clave_Dark_5
2) 60 The Ghastly Secret of Dreams #38686
All my fault for not adding in text indicating a hot door and I feel kind of stupid that I hadn't gotten around to that yet - big apologies. The hot door trick was intentional on my part, "what's better for offing a teammate or two than a hot door?", right? Not so fun if you're that one guy who goes in first, no. Still, you might consider how useful that could be now that you know it's there (from my testing, you have about 10 to 15 seconds between their spawning and when they arrive at the door). But say the word and I'll take it out. |
I cannot fathom how someone could make a hot door be fun. Dying before you load is not fun. You don't even see the enemies. You don't move. You enter and you die. Everyone enters and they die. You don't even get to see the enemies nor your power tray. I think on Venture's map one of my teammates shot a badguys and brought him to the door. That's a teammate's fault.
Score 30 - Clubbing Nightmare #4234
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No bosses spawned. There were 7 of us. Mission set to +2/x8. There was Force Fielders but accuracy didn't become an issue. Force Field bubblers are fine. The AV had Dark Regen. We left after the 2nd heal. One map. Small map. Not fun enemies. |
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6 man team. Some lowbies. Another rad who doesnt have fallout One av in first pack. Another AV in 2nd pack who comes. Hell yea, Longbow. Bosses Spawn. We run into Valkyrie. She isn't fun after rez. The AVs were 51. Since there were lots that was good. Made them quick. But much more than bosses. We had to spread out to find the tiny blinkies. Missed the ambush. I crashed in mission 2 at the start. Had to reboot and verify. The rest of the team is still there. I can't re-enter the mission. Others will give me a report on it. Defeat All is not fun. Shadow Spider runs a lot. We decided to restart. Restart and mission 1 again: 8 man team. Two rads, one of who doesn't have Fallout. Good mix of high/low level toons. Two meleer. Two heroes enemies at the start. Different map. Awesome. Ambush spawns on top of us. Awesome. Valk was next to the Room of Death (Longbow base, big square, one ramp leads up to a raised square in middle, two ramps off that square to a platform even higher up that's also a square, pretty much certainty of aggroing 5 packs). We ignored her on Rez. I slapped my Toggles on Valk and she followed us in. Played with 5+ spawns next to each other. So awesome. After we were done with them Valk's Tier 9 was down and we finished her for good. Mission 2: Arachnos have lots of Mez. Got annoying. Lots of AVs are good. Needs some more action/spice though. They are just standard AV fights, which are better than standard fights. But need something more. Defeat all not great. Mission 3 similar. The outdoor map was just fine. We knew where to go at all times. Easy to see where team goes and easy to find enemy packs. Lots of Heroes good but nothing super exciting. We fall to 5 people on mission 4. Rise to 8 as it ends. Another lots of AVs lots of arachnos. Fun, but could be more exciting. Defeat all wasn't an issue since it was straight through. Mission 5. Full team. Team was clearly above average. Going along its normal. Ok that room is huge and awesome. Recluse and States splat really fast. HUGE ambushers. Awwwwweeeesssooommee! We start dying. Clearly we're in trouble. I try to Team TP us to less trouble a good still fighrting regroup spot. There's more guys there! There were so many guys on my screen it didn't draw them. We wiped. We regroup and clear it. That was the first arc I ran that I actually felt we were doing a high level Task Force. They killed us and we killed them. That's what I'm looking for. Some of the other arcs in this contest have had rooms where I felt we were doing epic and fun battles (The one room in Venture's that had 3 patrols walking around it in a big open square in an office final room) but this arc had lots of them. It still needs some more surprises, ambushers or different types of action though to really put it over the top. However, still clearly the best so far and we didn't mind restarting it because we were having a whole boat load of fun. I can live with Arachnos and Longbow but to really get to perfection I don't want to fight all the Psy and Mezzing arachnos that often and probably at all. I think we can deal with the various AVs and their quirks. None were super tough. Was simple enough to bring Valk along after she rezzes and the running AVs didn't scatter like the wind. The mission with the 5 tiny blinkies can sometimes be problematic. Perhaps make the bombs optional and each have an ambush. Perhaps make the bombs bigger to be easier to see. I'm not sure. But we often had to run around to find the last one. There were lots and they were very small. We're too busy blowing the **** out of the enemies and each other to notice them. |
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We're down to 5 of us. Two of us have Fallout. Mission 1 Shugenjas fly away really fast. Custom enemies were very easy. Even with 5 they were no real threat. Had to suicide. Outdoor little line of sight. We decided to find last person. Weren't having fun. Enemies don't really debuff or have aoes or have any tricks. They eventually killed some of us when we weren't paying attention. Still not quite up to where I'd prefer. We hit the AV on mission 2 and actually wiped. I think it was cause we weren't paying attention more than anything. Ambush on AV after we regoup. That's good. Mission 3. Short, like that it has an AV. But uneventful. One person semi-suicided halfway through the AV fight for fallout. The 5 of us had no problem on +2/x8. I left before the ambush sadly. Heard it was just regular spawn. Mission 4 I load in. It's gigantic outdoor map with 2 clues to find and confiscate and destroy some other things. I despise this map. We decide to call it a night. Saw there were different enemies. That might have been good. The missions need more action and the custom enemy group is simply not up to the difficulty I'm looking for. They didn't seem to have any AoE damage, nor any debuffs. They had no mez, which was good, but they had nothing that was really threatening. It was like fighting Family. The enemies seemed just to have swords. Romans have various we don't get mezzed tricks, their javelins deal huge damage, they stack +defense when around each other, and they can quickly pile of defense debuffs. We didn't do mission 4 and 5 though. Perhaps things change. This felt like most of the Heroside Task Forces. I don't particularly like any Heroside TFs besides Statesman. There aren't many epic battles in those TFs. |
The Nemesis TF used the Atlas Park map from the final showdown against the Freedom Phalanx in the Recluse SF. He spawned several Heroes randomly around the map. The map doesn't have any line of sight blockers except City Hall itself and it is easy enough to understand "just go around the City Hall in one direction. Everyone on the team was easily able to see everyone else and see the bad guys. We had no problems identifying the next target and identifying who other people were staring down. Since the map had about 5 or 10 Heroes to kill it was easy enough to find and destroy them. They were pretty much in every other pack or so. I **think** that map is Unique Maps --> Atlas Park --> Atlas Park 01 (same as Unique -> Outdoor --> Atlas Park 01). That map allows 22 ambushers/bosses.
I believe The Flower Knight first used Unique Maps --> Croatoa --> Croatoa 06 for mission one. The trees block line of sight. We didn't know where to go from one pack to the next. Also, there were few objectives and a large number of enemy groups. We had to fight lots of guys in normal, boring, unspecial encounters. Mission 4 used either Outdoor Maps --> Graveyard 01 or 02. Both of these maps are very big. They have 36 and 54 allowed ambushers/boss packs. That's a lot of enemy groups being spawned. If there are few objectives and they are spread out randomly we could be flying around or fighting all day. Perhaps someone could make such large open fights very fun but after fighting weak enemy groups and seeing things like 2 rescues and 2 blinkies on the nav I did not want to find out.
I think the Nemesis TF's outdoor map could have used more action of some kind. But the multiple Heroes who were clearly labelled on the Nav and the easy sight and maneuvering in the mission let that one work and be fun. Really big maps and small standard objectives won't cut it.
Updating the scoreboard. Scores likely to change somewhat as I get a better idea of how to compare Arcs:
90 7662: The Nemesis Task Force #364346
80 Psychophage #283197
70 A Warrior's Journey - The Flower Knight Task Force #260284
60 The Ghastly Secret of Dreams #38686
50 Breathless Nights #38769
30 Clubbing Nightmare #4234
Score 0 Mantisman Task Force #15819
Eligible for March 1 billion but not tested:
Imperial Task Force 2 aka Romulus Rematch #385400
Test Mission for Pacing of Smurphys Challenge #388594
Rescue Numina from the Circle of Hands #388422
Pentarchy of Punishment #388164
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Thanks for giving Flower Knight TF a try! And thanks for the feedback, you have a very interesting perspective on how you measure story arcs. I will give some thought to what I can do to make missions 1 and 4 less tedious, and the enemy group more challenging.|
Originally Posted by Smurphy
Score 70 - The Flower Knight Task Force #260284
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Thanks again.
@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!"
Hi Smurphy,
I've read the rules you've listed and I think my two published task forces fit them.
I started working on AE creation the first day it was released. I've written these two full TF's (15 missions; 3 arcs each) that've been published for some time. They're geared heavily towards SFMA (story-arc based) complete with custom character power sets for the EB's/AV's, character bios, end mission clues, mission intros, chronological time stamps, architect souvenirs, etc. They're about as detailed as they can get and have been meticulously edited for grammar and spelling. They're also tough and are geared towards 6-8 person teams with AV's turned on. They're meant to be as difficult as some of the more challenging TF's in the game and really give a team a good workout but are not so hard that they're impossible. No insta-kill farming stuff or mez-happy, stun-happy mob groups that quickly incapacitate your teammates. They include a mixture of the classical CoH/CoV mob groups (Circle of Thorns, Carnies, Freakshow, Longbow, Arachnos, etc.) as well as dutiful re-creations of some of our favourites like old-school LSSL bank missions, mayhems/safeguards, etc. I tried to make them run the gamut of mission types and styles so as to not create redundancy and leave the player bored. Both task forces are coherent, full of CoH/CoV lore, that start fairly easy, ramping themselves in difficulty, slowly but surely building up to climactic endings.
Each of the TF's, inclusive of all 15 missions from their respective 5-mission arcs (3 arcs in each TF), take about 4-6 hours to complete with the difficulty settings cranked up. During my testing, when I was running them with mid-sized and full-sized groups over and over, I timed them. Just about every person I grabbed to help test them expressed their enjoyment of them. The only few who'd complained about them were ones that were looking for quick and easy XP that's typical of farming arcs.
Both of these TF's take place shortly before and during City of Villains being released. I cannot remember the Issue this was but it was in late 2005. The settings are mixed City of Heroes and City of Villains' zones. I've included probably about 25-30 custom EB's and AV's (as well as a few custom mob types) that are regular players of Justice Server complete with their custom bios and personalities that reflect how they are in real life. Some of those players were made into allies that assist in a mission while others were made into mission-completing enemies. These TF's intersect with one another in their story lines since they deal with the same characters. While the hero side I consider "canonical", one can also play the villain side and change the course of the history of that particular story in favour of the bad guys. For instance, the 5th mission in both TF's revolves around the day that City of Villains was released, enabling villains to be created (aka "released") from the Zig. During the Hero side TF, one plays a hero attempting to prevent the Arachnos break while defeating signature villains. But, with the Villain TF, the player in the story line is actually causing the prison break with Arachnos as allies. From there, the stories diverge. When playing the hero side TF, one feels like a true hero. When on the villain side TF, one feels truly like a villain.
The TF's are "The Many Faces of Hydro's Heroes" and "The Many Faces of Hydro's Villains" which are centered mainly around the creation of all of the 'Hydro' characters I've made on Justice Server.
The arc #'s:
The Many Faces of Hydro's Heroes TF
41066, Episode I: A Dire Threat
72829, Episode II: Tumultuous Times
210970 Episode III: Alpha and Omega
The Many Faces of Hydro's Villains TF
219429, Episode I: The Next Big Thing
224793, Episode II: Minister Of Pain
228570, Episode III: Made in Paragon
If this interests you, I'd be happy to get your input and grading on them to see if they fit this play style you're looking for with respect to the contest you're holding. It sounds like yours is a lot like mine - challenging, evenkill, balanced but difficult tending towards enemies being slightly stronger, that sort of a thing.
Thanks,
Hydro
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I suspect this is true for many submitted arcs: The way you have the arc setup now is probably what most players in the game want. I know and understand that I am a fringe player and my preferences are not the standard. Making the changes that would please me would probably make the arc "not good" for many players who like to do that arc team or solo.|
Originally Posted by PoliceWoman
Thanks for giving Flower Knight TF a try! And thanks for the feedback, you have a very interesting perspective on how you measure story arcs. I will give some thought to what I can do to make missions 1 and 4 less tedious, and the enemy group more challenging.
Thanks again. |
I don't know what you and others AE situations are like and how many arcs you have posted. You may want to consider posting two versions of the TF.
I appreciate you taking the time to play through my arc #15819 The Mantisman Task Force. Obviously we have very different ideas on fun, and I didn't fit what you were looking for. Regardless, you've given me some ideas to consider and I haven't changed the arc in over a year since it won another competition so perhaps it is time to look into some refining.
Still I am wondering if things did not spawn right for you. Given the fact that half of your team was under level 50, and if you did spawn this at +2/x8 I am really finding it hard to believe that you had to run off solo to die in this one. Were there no bosses in the mobs? Did you have a kin with you? If so the tar patch and siphon speed shouldn't have been that big of a hinderance. I find with the level of buffs well built teams run with that a heavy amount of debuffing is a solid way to create some challenge to the mobs.Anyhow not trying to be argumentative but trying to understand how an arc that I have seen decimate fully IO'd/purpled, carefully selected teams the likes of a MoSTF run did not give you trouble but rather "annoy" you. I'm looking to improve it on my target audience, not necessarily for this competition.
Finally of course you are the final judge, it's your competition but reading some of your other reviews I don't understand the score of 0 in comparison. You've found similar things you did not like in others... I must have really rubbed you the wrong way. I am wondering if you had given it the entire arc to make a judgement if you would have scored differently.
I'd be happy to discuss it more in tells or PM's just wanted to post some sort of response so that others are not completely turned off to trying my arc. Again, thanks very much for playing my arc I really do appreciate the feedback and will be looking into some adjustments.
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I cut the post down hoping that more people will read this response of mine. They were all valid concerns and thoughts. I think my response should give lots of authors a better idea of exactly what I'm looking for and exactly how I play. Perhaps I should fraps a run.|
Originally Posted by Acoustics
I appreciate you taking the time to play through my arc #15819 The Mantisman Task Force. Obviously we have very different ideas on fun, and I didn't fit what you were looking for. Regardless, you've given me some ideas to consider and I haven't changed the arc in over a year since it won another competition so perhaps it is time to look into some refining. ...
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The most important things to my definition of fun are pace and epic encounters. Someone the other day said he liked my "3 second rule" in City of heroes. I believe that's a rule where when someone says ready you count to 3, if people aren't attacking already then you attack. Please correct me if I got that wrong. I don't follow the 3 second rule. I don't ask ready nor say ready. I simply attack. I enter the door and I attack the bad guys. There is no pause, there is no hesitation, and there is no check for teammates. Everyone on my team is told that we are going to play aggressively and everyone quickly follows the pace... or sometimes get ahead of me. We maintain this lightning pace throughout the mission non-stop. We want this pace. This pace is crucial.
The pace we like to play may have mitigated a lot of the dangers the enemies in the first original version of the Mantisman Task Force provided. Often enemies are in a tight groups and my whole team piles into the center. We aggro the entire pack instantly. The enemy aoe debuffs and attacks hit a good portion of us since everything is close together. The first mission of the Mantisman had the enemies spread out in each spawn with some around columns or other features of the terrain. We didn't aggro all the big groups instantly. Also, because we don't have a "Tank" or a focus of the enemy damage we all would hit and engage different groups of the enemies. Instead of all the enemy fire being concentrated in the center or all on the first person in the spawn the damage was spread out. All of our teammates took a portion of it.
Sadly I cannot remember if the enemy groups contain bosses. I do remember that the enemies we fought focused on debuff and control powers and didn't focus on heavy hitting attacks. Though debuffs and controls make fights difficult but they aren't conducive to super-fast paced playing when we want to kill or be killed instantly. Excuse me... kill AND be killed instantly - not "or". Our experience was that we would fight a group in small segments, take it down, then when we tried to head to the next pack we were stuck in a Tar Patch, or Siphon Speeded. We couldn't get to the next pack quickly. Our pace was slowed.
My team will always be random and we may or may not have Kinetics or other anti-slow. The powers that slow our speed are "annoyances". They don't really hinder us because we're already in position when they are cast. We're next to the bad guys when they fired their tar patches and siphon speeds. We aren't going anywhere else. It's us or them -- someone is going down. When the enemies took the time to cast such powers... we shot them. The majority of the enemies we fought seemed to focus on firing debuffs or controls first instead of damage attacks. Everyone on my team is very quick with the attack buttons. The enemies simply died and were not concentrated enough to overcome our defenses.
On the epic fight side it sounds like there is some potential in the TF for such encounters. However, we couldn't get to those encounters. The score is probably an unfair representation of how the TF fits the theme. I am well aware that my preferences are not standard and no author, scored high or low in this competition, should consider their score in this competition as an accurate representation of their arc being "good or bad". This commission is simply for something that fits my fringe, chaotic, crazy playstyle. The spread out enemies who focused on control powers, Tar Patch, and Siphon Speed and not big attacks simply didn't let us play at our normal super high hectic pace and "kill and be killed."
Just wanted to say, awesome thread. And hopefully no one minds, but I plan to take an all-Tanker team through some of these arcs (starting with The Nemesis Task Force).
Winteriel Ice/Fire/Soul Tanker | @TBoxer Global | City of Heroes R.I.P. (2004-2012)
Hi Acoustics, I'm checking out your Mantisman Task Force. I have to say the custom mob costumes look terrific. Nice work.
Cyborg Misunderstandings Lead to Bombs
Arc# 389407
4 missions
Sometimes it seems too easy. Sometimes it seems too hard.
Is the final encounter in Mission 3 too much? Vanguard are mean at +2 / x8.
I have another version that actually has the story fleshed out and the customs have descriptions. It sits at 128%, so it should be good when we get the the files size bump.
Have you done the LRSF? The last map on my arc is the Warburg Malta base which has a door in the warehouse, so its an outdoor and indoor map.
Why Blasters? Empathy Sucks.
So, you want to be Mental?
What the hell? Let's buff defenders.
Tactics are for those who do not have a big enough hammer. Wisdom is knowing how big your hammer is.
I believe you did not do so, so let me explain...
I play on the EU server (different serverlist). Smurfy plays primarily on US server (Freedom if i was right). However Smurfy knows how to transfer money via the WW/BM... thus EVERYONE can participate by creating arcs for Smurfy. Every server on either US or EU can create arcs and Smurfy can give the rewards to ANYONE.
So yes by making an Arc that Smurfy likes... you will have no problem in getting the cash.
Lady Arete on Unionhandbook
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