Mission Architect Arc Club

Welcome to the Mission Architect Arc Club. This is a club for players and authors alike to play arcs from within our community and increase the quality of arcs through feedback, and increase the number of plays on newer or just lesser known arcs.

To be a member of the club, then you should be willing to play at least 2 arcs a month and give feedback. There will be a new arc every week, but you don't have to play every arc listed. Also, it doesn't have to be a full fledged review, just put at least one thing you liked most about the arc, and one thing you liked least about the arc, be specific, and try to be constructive. Also, please rate at least 4 stars, or not at all, unless the authors would prefer a 5 star rate, or none at all.

If you are an author, then post the arc you would most like to see played and have feedback given. Each week, I will pick a new arc for the club as a whole to play through and give feedback, both in-game and in this thread. The arc will be chosen from a member of the club, and preference will be given to those who have reached higher levels of membership through giving feedback.

The goal of this club is to build a stronger community of MA authors and players, to allow new authors and new arcs to get rates and feedback to improve the overall quality of the MA arcs. The more you participate, the better chance you will have of your arc getting picked to be next.

Currently the membership levels are:

Bronze Level Members: This is the first level of membership which you gain for leaving feedback on your first arc. This gives you one chance at the random number drawing for the arc of the week.

Silver Level Members: This is the second level of membership which you gain for your third week of participation, typically playing the arc of the week. This gives you one extra chance at the random number drawing for the arc of the week, as well as a free silver ticket recipe roll sent to you through in-game gleemail. If you have any suggestions on other incentives, or other requirements, I would be open to hearing them.

Gold Level Members: This will be the third level of membership which you gain for your tenth week of participation. If you have an eligible arc, it will automatically be the next arc of the week.

Gold Level Members:

@Tubbius
Arc ID: 351727
Arc Title: Hammer and Sickle of Paragon City
Length: 5 Missions
Level Range: 30-54
Description: Two former Soviet agents turned heroes, American Hammer and New York Sickle, have gone missing on what should have been a routine clearing of a 5th Column base. Find out what happened to them, and help your heroic contacts stop a plot by the 5th Column to unleash chemical warfare on the Council.

Silver Level Members:

Bubbawheat: A Clone of Your Own? #453091,...
Coulomb2 / @Lethal Guardian: The Blue Devils #468738....
Dalghryn: The Casualties of War #241496....
Doctor Gemini: Welcome to M.A.G.I. #271637....
Eva Destruction / @Archdemon: Until the End of the World #431270...
FredrikSvanberg: Murders in the RWZ Morgue #452144.....
Hero Prime: A Vague Notion #451725....
The Hound/ @Royal: Spawning Chaos #469020....
Necrotech_Master: Another Nemesis Plot? #366083...
Paladin....

Bronze Level Members:

Lazarus (347029)...
MrCaptainMan.
Bad_Dog.
LaserJesus..
Wrong Number (457506)...
Hercules.
Suspicious Glenn (475777)...
Burning Brawler (475246).

Arc of the week:

Week #13
Arc ID: 477906
Arc Title: One Night Bridge
Factions: Council, Crey, Cult of Stars, Awakened Division
Morality: Vigilante
Length: 5 Missions
Level Range: 30-54
Description: The Peacebringer Tracer Brightstar is looking for Vigilantes to help her bring a rogue Warshade to justice. [SFMA][SLMA]

Week #11 and 12
01-11-11 thru 01-24-11
Hammer and Sickle of Paragon City #351727 by @Tubbius
Level 30+, 5 missions

Week #10
01-04-11 thru 01-10-11
Until the End of the World # 431270 by @Archdemon (aka Eva Destruction)
Level 40+, 4 missions

Week #9
12-28-10 thru 01-03-11
Casualties of War #241496 by @Dalghyrn
Level 40+, 5 missions

Week #8
12-21-10 thru 12-27-10
A Very Special Episode #457506 by @Wrong Number
Level Range: 30-54, 4 missions

Week #6
12-7-10 thru 12-13-10
5 stars 3 -> 9 plays
The Blue Devils #468738 by @Flame Kitten (Coulomb 2)
Level Range: 1-5, 5 missions

Week #5
11-30-10 thru 12-6-10
5 stars -> 4 stars, 1 -> 4 plays
A Vague Notion #451725 by @Hero Prime
Level Range: 46-50, 5 missions, challenge

Week #4
11-23-10 thru 11-29-10
4 stars 15 -> 29 plays
The Murders in the RWZ Morgue #452144 by @FredrikSvanberg
Level Range: 35+, 1 mission

Week #3
11-16-10 thru 11-22-10
4 stars 15 -> 21 plays
A Clone of Your Own? # 453091 by @Bubbawheat
Level 30+, 3 missions

Week #2
11-09-10 thru 11-15-10
4 stars 29 -> 31 plays
Breaking The Barrier (And Putting It Back Together) #347029 by @Lazarus
Level 40+, 5 missions

Week #1
11-02-10 thru 11-08-10
4 stars 10 -> 15 plays
Another Nemesis Plot? #366083 @Necrotech Master
Level 45+, 5 missions

QQ: do you have to participate in the club to post an arc? because im not much of a story oriented person, but i do have a story arc that i would like to post for this

I would like this to be something where everyone participates. If you want your arc played and given feedback, then you should be expected to do the same for others. You don't have to pore over the story, just play it how you would play it and give feedback based on your own personality. If the arc isn't your style, just find something you liked about it, and the thing you liked the least about it, give it as feedback and refrain from rating it.

hmm, i guess that would make sense

if its just playing through normally and such, i wouldnt mind all that much, i need a few things to do in game anyway, so ill join this

since im joining, i might as well also post my story arc:

arc ID: 366083
arc name: Another Nemesis Plot?
arc lvl range: 45+
arc difficulty: medium (has a few AV/EBs in it but i supplied 1-2 allies in the mishs to give aid)
arc length: 5 mishs, very long

ill be sure to subscribe to this thread for suggestions, and im already a member of the MA arc finder channel in game (ill also take suggestions via PMs, i usually prefer higher lvl arcs usually in the 45+ range)

I'll join and throw one of my own into the hat.

Arc ID: 347029
Arc Title: Breaking The Barrier (And Putting It Back Together)
Factions:Soldiers of Rularuu, Arachnos, Nagans
Morality: Heroic
Length: 5 Missions
Level Range: 40-54
Description: A group of aliens may have bit off more than they can chew when an experiment with stolen portal technology threatens the stability of the Universe itself, allowing the soldiers of Rularuu free access to our dimension. (Follows arc #3326, "The Portal Bandits")

I'll put up this one since it's one that I feel never gets enough love for some reason.

Two arcs a month may be pushing it. I just had major hand surgery, so even typing this is challenging. And, I have a twenty month old baby. At 51 years old, that's a challenge as well. I'd love to add mine to the list, but I think I'll wait to see who else joins. If the majority are the MA board regulars, I wouldn't want to make people that have already played it once (or more) to have to run it again.

Great idea, in any case, Bubbawheat - as usual.

You can count me in too. But someone needs to tell me what ARCS I'm suppose to play, lol. Guess Bubba will email everyone the 2 for the month?

As for my Arcs I just finished the one I'd like to submit but I'm not ready to publish it just yet. So I'll let you know when I'm ready. It's done but I am earning influence right now to hold a contest when I publish it.

Running 2 Arcs a month np for me. As long as I can solo it

Two arcs a month. I reckon I'm in, as it's nothing super elaborate.

My donation to the arc pile?

Arc ID: 351727
Arc Title: Hammer and Sickle of Paragon City
Factions: 5th Column and Council
Morality: Heroic
Length: 5 Missions
Level Range: 30-54
Description: Two former Soviet agents turned heroes, American Hammer and New York Sickle, have gone missing on what should have been a routine clearing of a 5th Column base. Find out what happened to them, and help your heroic contacts stop a plot by the 5th Column to unleash chemical warfare on the Council.
Warning: Contains an Elite Boss in mission 5.

Alright, now that we're up to 5 members, I used random.org to pick an arc for this week, and the result is:

arc ID: 366083
arc name: Another Nemesis Plot?
arc lvl range: 45+
arc difficulty: medium (has a few AV/EBs in it but i supplied 1-2 allies in the mishs to give aid)
arc length: 5 mishs, very long

Now our goal as a club is to play this arc, rate it, and give feedback to Necrotech Master. It doesn't have to be detailed, but at least mention what you liked the best about the arc, and one thing that you think needs to be improved the most. At the end of the week, I'd like to hear from Necrotech Master how many plays, and whether or not he got any useful feedback. Also, you don't have to play an arc every week, but try to at least play 2 arcs a month.

Also, if this grows as I hope it does, I will be offering different levels of membership, based on how much you participate in the club. I'd be happy to hear what might be good incentives. Let me know what you think, and I'm always open for suggestions to improve the club.

I'm in like Flynn for this! I'm also a bit less free with time than i sued to be, but I can do two arcs a month, no problem.

I'll get on with that arc in the next few days or so.

Eco.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

Right on. Will play it tonight or tomorrow

Count me in!

I'll add one to the pile as soon as I have one I want added to the pile.

I feel a bit bad that my review of this arc will be the first, because it is not a good review. I'm posting my notes exactly as I wrote them while playing.

A bit needlessly picky, Laz, I thought. Not every arc has to be a Booker prize winner, does it? I'm on mission 5, and I've enjoyed it overall. I'll be posting my brief thoughts in a little while, but this MA Club is supposed to be encouraging.

Eco.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

Well I just got done with the first Arc. I have left feedback but there's only so much that can be written in a comment. So I'll leave the rest of my feedback in this thread. That's more like a book club anyway right- throwing out and discussing our opinions.

**SPOILERS BELOW**

Anyway overall I liked the story. Good story and use of mechanics. Seeing those working auto turrets in the map was awesome. Wasn't aware those turrets existed.

Your biggest problem right now is the last mission. I rescued Recluse then Statesman spawned right next to us. Rescued statesman then they both proceeded to attack the GM Arachnos Ship. They eventually died and I had to ditch the mission.

Mission 1 popup. I have never smelled steam before =) How about changing steam to fuel? Or maybe feel the steam?

Mission 3 has way too many bosses. Not only that but they are a couple of the hardest stock bosses around. When I get a Malta tip mission I usually ditch them, lol. Masterminds and Malta aren't good friends.

Anyway I'd cut the bosses down from 6 to 3. Not only are they tough but you end up getting aggro on several bosses. I had to run several times to regroup.

Mission 4 was good.

Mission 5 like I mentioned is bugged.

Down to some of the text-

M1 intro-
Another Nemesis Plot? Part 1 Greetings! We have dire need of assistance, in fact, the entire world does. Our magicians have seen a very terrible vision of the future, one ruled by Nemesis. The tasks you will be undergoing is to prevent that future from happening. Nemesis is plotting again, but this time is a little different. He has copied the designs of Rikti, Council and Malta robots and you must stop him. You must stop him but you will need help...

I'd make the We have to specify The Midnighters. The Midnighters have dire need etc...

Needs to be run through a grammar checker. Looking further you really need to run the whole thing through a grammar checker. Didn't see any spelling errors just lots of punctuation errors. No need for me to post every mission intro. The writing on them was fine. Just wanted to mention that M1 intro. It just kind of bugged me not being specific.

There's not a whole lot more I can say really. I liked the story. The bug just made it where I couldn't finish it and Mission 3 was very rough.

Hiya. Just finished Necrotech's arc.

here are some comments'thoughts i typed whilst playing, and a brief summary at the end.

In mission 1, I found the 'and third computer' objective first, which was a little jarring. Maybe you could alter your objectives so that the nav reads ' 3 computer terminals' to access (or something similar), with 'access the last terminal' as the final obkective in that trio. I believe that this is how to do this:

Set each objective's plural title field as 'terminals to access' and each of their singular objective fields to 'Access the last terminal'. That way, whichever order the terminals are accesseed, the numbers will be correct. The MA will put the right number in front of 'terminals to access' for you.

That's from memory, if I''m wrong i'm sure sb can put me straight

Mission 1 was a nice simple clue-collection and hostage rescue, on a linear map. I'm a big fan of nemesis, so the mobs were fine. I'm a little perplexed at the use of an Arachnos map (although it is very briefly 'explained', but no real beefs.


I particularly liked the contacts rather haughty “Do you like wasting time with the fate of the entire world on the line?” dialogue for revisiting him before the mission is done lol.


Mission 2 is a Defeat All, it seems, which might suggest a bit of a grind for some, but it's a very small map so not too onerous. However, it might be a good idea to suggest a reason why a total takedown is required this time, since you didn't need one in the previous map.

The mission itself is quite a compact 2-boss fight (with a clue for more info on nemesis' plot), which took my lvl 50 en/en blaster only a few minutes to complete. Thumbs up for giving a quick mission – I sometimes dread the 'very long' tag if it's 5 massive sprawling multi-level clue-fests

Mission 3 is going to be on the Giant robot map! Yay! Everybody loves Giant Robots (Right, Clave? )

Hm, this giant mek man map is from the Striga TF, and the popup turrets in it are active. This adds a bit of extra challenge to the mission, certainly lol.

...In fact, its quite a bit harder than I'd like, I'm afraid.

OK, so I guess this is going to be the Least Favourite Part Of The Arc for me: The turrets.

After hosping and loading up on lucks etc, I went back in and it was a lot easier, but those turrets are a real pain. And loathe though I am to moan about one of my very favourite maps in the whntire game, I think that upon reflection, this map isn't right for this mission. It's very hard to solo your way up the gantries, with the turrets, the nemesis, and then the various bosses, which in my case spawned together on one occasion. I died three times on this map.

Mission 4 – Lord Recluse? Yikes! Lol I'm glad you've given me two EB allies for this


...ROLF Necrotech Master's giant exposed brain is great!

The 'Master of Evil' clue is hilarious, I love it.


Mission 5 is where you've tried to turn the Epic up to 11, it seems, and I don't really think you need to. There's lots of stuff to beat up in successive waves of uber, and I spent most of the mission herding Stateseman and LR around to various objective Ebs and then watching them duke it out. I personally have no problem with this, in fqact I thought it quite neat to see the two arch-enemies teaming up against a commone enemy, but the map has no map and flying aorund the place looking for new spawna got a bit tedious.

Overall, though, it's a passable enough arc, and with a bit of tidying up it could be much better IMO. TBH, for me, wether or not the specific plot details make perfect sense is irrelevant. This is a Nemesis plot, we're talking about, and what does nemesis do? He twiddles his moustache and makes robot replicas of things for us to beat up.

What I liked the most: The overall plot, which in itself is actually nice and simple: Nemesis is planning to use improved robot mekmen and Malta titans to invade first the RI then paragon, and the player, States and LR have to team up to stop him. Nothing wrong with that, that's classic comicbook fare. I also liked the first two missions. If the level of simplicity and challenge had risen only a little from these two, i'd have liked the rest a lot more. I also love the Giant Mekman map, and the turrets in it aren't youre fault. Maybe the devs could implement two versions, one without the popup turrets.

What I liked the least: Mission 3 was a bit of a trawl because of the turrets and/or the spawn placement of the bosses, and Mission 5 was too much in an uncontrolled map. Is the Arachnos Flyer a feature of that map, btw, or did you put it there? If the latter, definitely get rid of it.

Suggestion: trim the mission 5 objectives a bit, and maybe think about a different map for mission 3, or just have the one boss fight in it.

4 stars. Hope this helped. I'll PM you with some minor spelling suggestions too.

Eco.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

This whole review brings up some things I've pondered on for a while.

Mainly the lore. The lore is all fine and dandy. But being confined by it sucks. We're all doing this for fun and if people don't adhere 100% to the lore then who cares. I know I don't. To me it smothers creativity.

While going too far outside the lore will leave most people scratching their head. If you have to head to Wiki to find out if Recluse would or wouldn't yell "I'm Lord of the Spiders" or whatever then you're looking too deep. When it comes to player made arcs at least.

We only have so many maps, so many models, and a bug ridden editor. If I want to use a spaceship it's Arachnos or pretend a Tech map is a ships interior. Those are really your only choices.

Do we really need to explain away every single detail? Even explaining away all the lore problems isn't much of a solution when you only have 1000 letters to write!

And as for the Arc 'Another Nemesis Plot' I do believe it was mentioned or implied to be a 'What If' scenario like Recluse's Victory.

Anyway. No need to come down like a sack of hammers... This isn't a contest. While feedback is good and can lead to improvement. Not like it doesn't hurt when people attack your work.

thx for the feedback on it, i know its not perfect but thats partly due to me having the arc up for almost 6 months now and getting little to no feeback on it

i will be tweaking the arc as needed to try to clean up spelling/grammatical errors and ill be trying to tweak the last mish so its not as tough as it is (this is the mish ive wanted most of my feedback on but as i mentioned ive basically has 0 feedback on it since i redid this arc about 6-8 months ago)

edit: if you wish to leave more detailed feedback, i have a feedback thread here

I'm all for discussions and honest feedback - as well as discussions that can spin off from the current arc. Though I would like to keep this a place for friendly discussion and helpful suggestions and avoid feedback that could be viewed as sarcastic and condescending. I would like to thank those who have already played the arc, I plan on trying it sometime this weekend.

All levels of authors are welcome in this group, from beginners to veteran authors. If an arc doesn't seem like it fits your playstyle, that's why I only ask you play at least 2 arcs a month.

As far as Ramification's comment on how much lore plays a factor in MA arcs. I've run into it myself before. A lot of people couldn't get over the fact that I had Council enemies in an Arachnos map - I liked the map, but didn't like fighting Arachnos. I also really like it when someone fits lore details that I recognize into their arc. It all comes down to a case-by-case basis, some things are ingrained into the game that seeing something different, yet still somehow relating to lore, is jarring to a lot of players. When you're dealing with custom characters and known maps to simulate new settings, just about anything goes, but when you use CoX characters and villains, you have to either get them right, or explain why they're not right. It just goes with the territory.

My personal tastes are much more based on immediate fun than getting pedantic about lore or whatever. Mission 2 of Another Nemesis Plot? is a great example. Laz viewed the map cjoice as a negative since it didn't make sense to him that a robot factory should be there. This didn't even cross my mind; rather, I thought stuff like 'Ooh, what's this? I like this, it's nice and self-contained. And look, rubble! Yay! I like rubble!' and so for me, the mission was a success.

Reflecting back, I still don't really care that it's not massively apt for a robot factory. But if otherts do, there's an incredibly easy way to hand-wave that away:

Suggestion: Add a patrol to that mission, with dialogue explaining how the robot prototypes malfunctioned and went on a rampage and wrecked the place, burying the passage to the factory floor proper under rubble.



Eco.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

I think that adding one arc per week to the 'playlist' and having each member of the Club adhere to the 2 per month rule is a good metric for us. It's important that people don't see their posting an arc as being 'in the queue', though, necessarily. I remember from my 'review' thread how queues could build up and maybe folk wil get despondent at waiting.

I also think that it might be a good idea to perhaps stipulate (and not just request) that members posting comments on arcs provide a suggestion on how to improve any 'least liked' bits encountered. This might encourage a more positive environment.

I think Necrotech's arc is a great arc to start this project off with, btw. I think it has the potential to be a great, fun, romp through classic elements of CoH lore (and, incidentally, classic tropes of comicbook-dom - arch enemies allying to fight a common threat). Necrotech's asked for suggestions as well as opinions, and I think that there's a wealth of 'expertise' here to delve into.

Eco

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."