Mission Architect Arc Club

Since I did make time to play through "Another Nemesis Plot," and my wife swears she'll watch the baby and hold off on the honey-dos long enough for me to play two arcs a month uninterupted, count me in, Bubbawheat.

As much as I'd like to see more runs on "Casualties of War" #241496, I think I'll go ahead and submit "Consequences of War," since it's the first of the pair. If a member's already played "Consequences..." fairly recently, feel free to run "Casualties..." instead.

Arc ID#227331
The Consequences of War
Keywords: Challenging, Canon-Related, Drama
Levels: 38 - 54
Difficulty: Moderate to hard, depending on your character's difficulty settings
Description: On May 23, 2002, the Rikti invaded. Fortunately for Earth, they hadn't taken the heroes into account. Months later, after tens of thousands of deaths, the heroes ground the Rikti to a bloody stalemate. But the Rikti had a plan...terrible plan.

Now, on to my comments.

"Another Nemesis Plot" has a lot of potential. I really like the idea of negotiating a truce between Recluse and Statesman and then teaming with them in order to stop yet another threat from the person that's arguably the third most dangerous villain next to Recluse and Emperor Cole.

You can tell the author put thought and heart into his work. If he'll take all the advice given thus far to heart, it has the makings of a top notch arc. The biggest quibble I have has been noted before. I'd suggest finding a grammar pro to go over the text. While the errors don't necessarily beat you over the head, they definitely keep the arc from being what it could be.

Otherwise, I'm not certain why the second mission is a defeat all. I'm not adverse to them (In fact, I use one), but they should really be explained well. Also, have you considered customizing the Council and Malta robots by recoloring them to match Nemesis' color-scheme some? Just an idea.

As much as my first thoughts were to comment negatively about the last map, especially with the later spawns that require ercovering it (and the fact it doesn't map), the beachhead is a perfect place for this finale to take place. Personally, I didn't find it all that troublesome when balanced with what I knew the author was trying to establish story-wise.

I am curious as to why Statesman's captors were asleep when I spotted him in the first mission. I could have also sworn I saw something about the Rikti in the description, but saw nothing about them in the arc. I am senile, though, and may have missed something.

In any case, thanks for the arc. Flesh it out a little and get that grammar pro, and it has a lot of potential.

I understand perfectly why Bad Dog makes the suggestions he makes. As the arc is written, both Statesman and Recluse seem to be overkill for the problem that's being addressed. That said, and with every bit of respect to Bad Dog, I'd suggest an alternative solution to replacing them with lower-level characters.

To me, the most interesting aspect of the arc (and what has the potential of making it unique rather than just 'another Nemesis plot' arc) is the fact that you've been presented with a situation that requires both Statesman and Recluse--CoX's two big dogs-- to help solve a crisis. Removing them and replacing them with anyone else removes what was the most intriguing aspect of the arc for me.

That said, Bad Dog is right in that, as it stands, the reasons for their being there just don't rise to the level one would expect. So, up the ante. Rework the text, dialogue and objectives in the three missions where they are involved so that any hero/villain of lesser calber stands a far greater risk of failure.

Just my thoughts. You'll find that the challenge with doing an arc is that you often get really good suggestions from different people that simply conflict. You have to pick a direction and go with it. If you try to incorporate every good idea, you'll drive yourself wacky.

thx for the continued feedback, im doing my best to go through and try to weed out as much errors as i can

ive corrected the uses of "Nemesis", ive tweaked a few of the mishs and tried to solidify the story a bit more

i suck bad at grammar stuff, so ill prolly need more help on that, ive read through all the texts dozens of times, but as mentioned im terrible at grammar and it all looked right to me

Dalghryn- i really like your suggestion to recolor the robots, i honestly never thought of doing that before because when i created the arc it was before we could recolor dev made NPCs

and to others, as mentioned in the thread i apologize if the arc was a little bit...messy with a few things, but i havent hardly gotten any feedback till now, and i greatly appreciate all the feedback

edit: i tried to make changes to edit the robot colors and such to make it "fit" a little better, but i cannot recolor the robots (heck the only thing i can recolor is statesman lol), so this change wont be able to happen unless they change it in the future

edit2: also if anyone would be so kind as to help me iron out the story (grammer/spelling wise, ect) it would be much appreciated

i would like to thank everyone again on all the feedback, i have done my best to go through and clean up the text and a few of the mishs

when i go through and do reviews for the next arc that bubba posts, ill do my best to try to spot any errors, but im not good at the writing stuff, but i will have a lot to say about the mishs

in the last mish i did create a custom group mixing it with some of the default automatons, i prolly should explain them a bit better in the dialogues

i had considered using the HVAS, however the few problems i have with it is that it is an EB which could significantly increase the difficulty in a few areas namely the 3rd mish, and 2, i dont remember if i have done any testing with it to make sure it actually gave xp

i think i figured that the mish with recluse was a bit too easy because i had 2 allies to help, however i was tinkering in AE last night and i figured that an option to slightly increase the difficulty of the mish was to remove the 2nd ally which i felt actually make the story fit a little better

(if anyone didnt guess that mm ally is based on my main toon, has same powersets and costume lol)

Well hate to be a bummer but I think I'll be dropping out of this club.

Been doing lots of thinking about AE lately. Really it is a lost cause for real authors until the Devs start taking it seriously again. The only people who care anymore about quality stories are we writers. Which is 'maybe' 30 people in the entire CoX community.

We could be the next Hemmingway and nobody would really care. People just aren't interested. Polishing our arcs really is just for our own amusement.

My writing also seems to be way different than anybody else around here. That's nothing new really to me. Being different and myself isn't going to change.

While I enjoy feedback on things such as- hey it might be better if you did this or that. You got a typo here yadda yadda yadda. I'm not going to change my writing style. That's what I feel like much of the feedback I get from other authors is trying to do. Change my style.

So I guess I'm just going to do my own thing and cater to the public and not the authors. My slots run short anyway.

Good luck with everything you guys do. Like many of you I have hopes AE will get overhauled and improved. Think most of us already have realized that isn't going to happen.

I'll throw my arc into the ring. I'm currently playing last week's arc so I'll be adding some comments to that later on. Here's the arc I'm entering:

The Murders In The RWZ Morgue: (#452144) There has been a murder in the Vanguard base and Longbow needs your help to catch the killer.

And here are my notes on last week's arc.

Contact: Midnighter? Why? If you want a "neutral" party, the Vanguard would have made more sense. At least they have a reason to oppose Nemesis, since he started the Rikti war. Midnighters have nothing to do with Nemesis. Also, having a generic Midnighter magician as a contact doesn't really help me feel anything for the contact or his story. Make the contact unique, with a name and a personality. I think that would help with the writing too, since it's rather bland right now.

Mission 1: Statesman? How about using Citadel instead? He's a robot so would want to make sure that Nemesis isn't copying robots. He might be next! If possible I would change this map to something else since you use an Arachnos base map in mission 4 too. I didn't get the impression that this was supposed to be an actual Arachnos base, but maybe I misread something.

Mission 2: Here's a perfect place to introduce some of the new automatons. Maybe the Stone version was used to excavate the laboratory, and some of them are still around.

Mission 3: Cool map. Despite shutting down his factory Nemesis is still churning out robots? What was the purpose of this mission then? Might be better to say that Nemesis has already churned out enough robots to invade Grandville, instead of making the entire mission feel pointless by saying that he's still producing robots.

Mission 4: Lord Recluse? How about Black Scorpion instead? He's in charge of the Arachnos robots division, so he would want to make sure that Nemesis isn't copying them. By the way, why wasn't Nemesis copying some of Arachnos' robots?

Mission 5: The introduction to this mission seems to go into unnecessary detail. Instead of rambling on about what happened to Statesman and Lord Recluse, just tell us that they are on the scene - we'll see for ourselves what has happened to them. In fact you don't even have to tell us that they are going to be there; since we already recruited them we expect them to be there.

The side notes talking about what Nemesis will spawn as and that there will be a Rikti heavy present really disrupts my sense of disbelief. Then I was disappointed when I didn't find the Heavy. A warning for potential EB/AVs is ok, but try to rewrite it as something the contact would actually say. Oh and if anything in the mission deserved a warning it was the Arachnos Flier. I thought it was an ally when I first saw it (since that would have made sense) so I didn't even worry about it, and then it killed me.

The new Nemesis automatons should really be introduced earlier, as some people have said in this thread, or at least mentioned in some of the clues. Maybe each mission before this could introduce one of the new kinds of automatons as a unique spawn, and then they all show up together at the end. Or if you don't feel like showing them too soon, put some boxes of "spare part" in the missions that hint at new kinds of automatons being produced.

Lord Recluse says "Let us bring down this traitor" as if Nemesis was working for him and has somehow betrayed him. This doesn't make sense.

Statesman was trapped in a different kind of energy field this time around. It should probably be the same field in both missions, if possible.

hmm, i like your suggestion for making the custom automatons appear in the 2nd mish. i would have to slightly tweak the story for it, but i could try to work it

the reason i used midnighter instead of vanguard was because vanguard pretty much does everything with rikti, only through the vanguard contact arcs is it revealed that nemesis was the cause (actually it isnt even revealed until dark watchers arc)

the midnighters on the other hand are magic and could have forseen that nemesis was trying to do something and they are there to try to save the world type of thing

thx for the feedback, ill take a look at a few of the mishs in the arc a little later tonight

Thank you all for your help this week with Necrotech's arc. It sounds like he is taking the feedback to heart and hopefully the arc has been made better, and has gotten at least a few plays and rates out of it.

Sorry to see you go, Jinkobi. It's always nice to see new faces here in this section of the forum. Like you said, it feels like there's only about 30 of us or less so getting someone new is always good. I agree with your sentiment, but I am one of those that hopes we will get something new down the line besides more contests and more maps/enemies, but I'm just doing my part on the player's side at least.

And onto this week's arc. Chosen from the Bronze level members using random.org, this week's arc is:

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 also rewrote the first post of this thread to hopefully make things clearer and added the membership levels. If anyone has any ideas for better requirements or advantages to these levels, discuss them here.

The story so far...

I ran the first mission of "Breaking the Barrier;" one mission's about all my hand can take right now, so I'll offer feedback as I go.

Thus far, it's pretty much exactly what I expected out of Lazarus--well-written and well crafted. Unfortunately, I haven't run the first arc, so I'm having to go at it from a less informed perspective. The plus side to this is that I can play it to decide how well it stands alone. The minus side is that I know from my own arcs that I'll probably have a better picture of what's happening--and probably get into the arc more--if I had played the other arc first.

He handles the transition from arc to arc the same way I did, with some basic language establishing your relationship ("It's good to see you again...") and good use of the first clue to give you background on what you "did" before. Since those are the same tools I used, I could hardly complain.

That said, about the only nit I have to pick thus far is I think there should have been some notice that this was a continuation in the arc description (I'm going by recall here, so if there WAS notice, feel free to slap me). That way I would have either played the first arc, or at least been ready to accept my character's position in the grand scheme of things before I ran this one. Again, a very small nit, and one easy to get over. I really wish I had the time and stamina to play out the first arc before I finish this one.

Otherwise, I like the Nagans very much. Very nice concept. Well executed visually and technically and, like the rest of the text thus far, well written. I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next.

I think Fred summed up my thoughts on "Another Nemesis Plot?" very nicely, and much better than I had myself.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Necrotech_Master the midnighters on the other hand are magic and could have forseen that nemesis was trying to do something and they are there to try to save the world type of thing

Like I said earlier, the Midnighters don't really deal with the future and prognostication at all as far as the game lore shows. The only bit of time traveling they have done so far is to prevent Requiem from messing up the past. The future is the domain of the Menders and Oroboros.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dalghryn That said, about the only nit I have to pick thus far is I think there should have been some notice that this was a continuation in the arc description (I'm going by recall here, so if there WAS notice, feel free to slap me).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bubbawheat 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 highlighted the relevant bit.

I was refering to the actual description in the MA...which also says it's a sequel to arc #3326, now that I scroll down a little further. So, in short, no nits to pick yet. Did I mentioned I'm on pain meds?

I pushed my hand through two more missions. Invisibility isn't much of a plus when you have rescuies you want to hang on to.

Nice use of text color for warning (though how necessary it was, I'm not sure--more on that shortly), animations, optionals and conversation. It makes the mission seem more dynamic and realistic to have different things to see and hear. Story's flowing well, with great use of clues.

First semi criticism here... I understand it really wasn't Dr. Aeon. That's pretty much par for the course with him and good use of continuity. I'm not certain it still wouldn't be appropriate to notch him up a bit. Running a level 50 martial artist, I could have toasted him on even level without the help of my five lady friends. With them, not only was the red text warning not necessary, but "friends" would have given me time to nap.

With the Nagans, and/or with friends, an EB would be doable, and challenging. If the player chooses to scale up, that's his/her call, but would do so with fair knowledge of the potential consequences thanks to the warning.

Understanding I may be jumping the gun since I have two more missions to go, but I'd run Dr. Aeon(?) as an EB.

Taking another break.

in mish 2 technically there was that 1 assault bot which the baddies were attacking, so i was guessing it was a combat ally but it was not set to follow

for that run i was using a dark/stone brute, but i could run it with any of the other villain ATs, i have like 19 toons at lvl 50 i could run the arc with, im sure with a corr it might be slightly more difficult at parts

i do love allies, but i dislike the allies if they steal my inf/xp/prestige from stuff they hurt. if it was a dev made mish in which the allies didnt hurt rewards, then it would have been awesome

if i was running on higher diff im sure the allies would have died almost instantly, but because i have no idea what to expect from an AE i always run on the default diff with a toon i know is survivable

i think this was the 2nd time ive run your arc, the first time i ran it was quite a while ago but i think i was using a em/sr the last time

(disclaimer: i am in no way an "average player" as ive duo'd the LRSF several times for fun lol, so my view of difficulty will be much different from the average player)