Mission Architect Arc Club

I have decided that in order not to clutter up this thread anymore between reviews I won't be replying to this thread anymore until this week is finished and the next arc is chosen.

The final mission has changed a bunch since you reviewed it.

I am so in on this. This solves the problems I had with trying to run a review thread handily while still allowing me to critique!

I'd like to throw my hat into the ring. Here's my first AE arc. Admittedly, it deals with a story that's tied to my wife's characters (both hero and villain side), but I tried to make it accessible to the average player. There are a couple EB/AVs in it, so beware!

Arc Name: A Vague Notion
Arc ID: 451725
Faction: Hero
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Hero Prime
Level Range: 46-50
Difficulty Level: Rough. Multiple EB/AV spawns. Multiple EB/AV class helpers, too.
Synopsis: Saving a little girl is only the beginning. Trailing behind are exploding worlds, flaming whips, psionic storms, and DOOM!

Estimated Time to Play: 90 minutes to two hours, depending on whether you read everything. There are 5 missions, 4 of the maps are Large. One of the large maps, however, is a collection mission.

Also, here's my first review...

Another Nemesis Plot?

I just finished playing "Another Nemesis Plot?" by @Necrotech Master, and I liked it, overall. There were a few minor issues with it, which I'll detail here, but overall, it fun enough for a run-through. The general idea of a hero teaming with a villain to take down an even worse threat is a pretty standard trope in television, movies, and books, but given the former friendship of Stephen Richter and Marcus Cole, it works here. The whole thing plays out technically well. I point out a few grammatical errors below, as well as a few places where I figure the story could have used some improvement.

The first mission had a technical difficulty, in that Statesman found himself stuck in a floor on the Arachnos-style map. He couldn't move ahead and help me finish the mission, but that was okay; he didn't need to. Playing a DB/WP makes most normal mobs pretty simple. Speaking of an Arcahnos map, it seems a little high tech for Nemesis. I know it's an old Arachnos base, but they just seemed... a little out of place. Not a complaint, though, just an observation.

The second mission was the first place I spotted a grammatical error. Any time you use the word "Nemesis" in conjunction with the group or the individual, it should be capitalized. It wasn't in the intro text, and I found a few other places scattered throughout the arc where he was likewise lowercase. Also, I know there's not a whole lot you can do about it, but with Nemesis copying 5th Column bots, would he put their logo on their chests? *grins*

Third mission included one of my favorite maps in the game - the Giant Robot Factory from the Hess task force. Loved it! I wouldn't have minded seeing some more enemy text, though.

The fourth mission had a couple grammatical errors. In the intro text, it says, "This is not good, although you shut down that factory, Nemesis continues to advance his new robots. Our sources indicate that their first target will be Grandville in the Rogue Isles." You should probably put a period after "This is not good" and make the rest a separate sentence. Likewise with the intro popup: "The base is on high alert, you can hear the troops as they march the halls prepared for anything." Put a semicolon after "high alert" to show that they're two separate phrases connected by the same thread of thought. The introduction of the author's own character at EB/AV level - but as a minor character - was nice. He wasn't set up as a spotlighted GMPC, even if he was pretty powerful. Sadly, that power translated to his minions, which seemed to dominate the fights.

There was one more grammar issue in the last mission: "because he knows that if Nemesis succeeded he would". You should change the tense there to "because he knew" or "if Nemesis succeeds he will". Also, the Arachnos Flyer was a little disappointing, since it wasn't flying, but that's not the author's fault. Also, I was surprised that Nemesis was able to keep pumping out bots and automatons after his factory was shut down (Mission 3), but I could only assume he had a reasonable reserve or multiple factories.

Overall, the arc was fun, following a tried but true trope to an inevitable result. I would have liked to see custom bots made from the costume creator rather than the 5th Column and Malta bots, but that's a minor complaint. Also, there seemed to be a disconnect between some of the missions. Why was Statesman captured? Why is Nemesis copying bots from other factions when they've been able to copy heroes - including powers - with their own automatons? It was likable, but left me wondering. And I might try it again with a group, to take down that Aracnhos non-Flyer.

Breaking the Barrier (and Putting It Back Together)

Okay, let me start off by saying that I haven't run Arc #3326 ("The Portal Bandits") yet. The author did a good job bridging the gap, however, with informative and consistant clues that give the player the lowdown. Overall, this is one of the more well written story arcs I've played. That said, the mechanics behind the story need a second look. There are a lot of collect/destroy items (though some in the fourth mission aren't required), and some of the time the player can become overwhelmed by NPC love. Also, there were a few errors with grammar, but after reading through my own first review, I've decided not to focus on that aspect. Grammar nazi and all that.

The first mission launches with a jarring start, and I like it. Obviously Iron Samurai is asking for help with something else, but who knows what? The current situation - the invasion of the denizens of the Shadow Shard - takes sudden and immediate precedence, and rightly so! Running into Ruluruu is always fun. The big eyeballs of DOOM! dont' get used often enough. This mission is sullied only by the overwhelming power of the Iron Samurai. About halfway through the mission, after he basically kill-steals everything up to that point, I ditched him, running away as quickly as I could to break the connection between player and NPC. The Nagan at the end of the mission were a pleasant surprise, but as I hadn't yet read my clues, I had no idea who they were. They looked almost magic, but they were using tech. Aha! Alien race!

The second mission was amusing, if only for the silly statement about Rikti and their foot fetishes. There was this robot, and I never could figure out why he was there, at least not until I read the clues. Even then it seemed a little hazy. The weird thing about it was it just followed me around - no defending, no attacking. Nothing. I suppose that's a step in the right direction, away from the Iron Samurai of the first mission, but it was a bit extreme. It didn't want to be led to a door, or to a specific point. It just wanted to be a big, metal puppy dog. Only, you know, without an attack command. The mission ended well, and I thought the use of the rubble/dirt at the end was clever.

The third mission sends the player to the Rogue Isles, ostensibly to save a crew of Nagan who were infiltrating an Arachnos base. This was another case of being overwhelmed by help. There were five NPCs to save, and they started to get a little overbearing. As a player, I play this game to "be the hero", not just to be another face in a mission, which is how this sort of felt.

The fourth mission was a hoot. Some of the items were just plain silly, and that made it fun. I don't have a whole lot more, good or bad, to say about this one.

The fifth mission was in one of the maps I'm utilizing for an upcoming arc - the tech lab map with the holes blasted through the walls. I love it! However, it included some of the problems of previous missions - Iron Samurai and the Five Lizardgirls were back, and they were just too much. Just like in the first mission, I eventually ditched the whole crew and finished it all, including the EB of Dr. Aeon, by myself.

All in all, it was well-written, even if some of the mechanical stuff left me scratching my head. If you want to solo this on a support character, the extra NPCs are nice, but when playing a scrapper it just seemed like overkill. I'm intrigued by the story, however, and will probably dive back in to check out the prequel and the sequel to this one.

Breaking the Barrier (And Putting it Back Together)
Arc 347029

The funny thing is that according to the lil' check mark, I've run this one before!

Overall, a great arc for a level 50 plant/empath/ice to run through with his pet fly trap.

Mission 1: Well-written intro, especially if you haven't run the prior arc (which I can't remember having done, off hand). The author makes great use of informative, constant clue information to keep the gamers filled in.

Rularuu are always great fun. Having played more than enough DOOM back in the day, I get a smile out of seeing those wonderful Cacodemon knock-offs floating around on here. They're not too hard; in fact, for this level setting, they're remarkably easy for Tubby to take on.

Good use of objective chaining (a tricky feat!) and good use of speech between characters.

Mission 2: Minor typo in the send off text: "coordinate with with other heroes"

Love the Guard Bot. The comparison to a big, metal puppy, above, is certainly apt. To be honest, I kept waiting for him to ambush me. I'm glad he didn't!

One minor thing: was there a clue on the Pumicite's rescue? I didn't see one, if there was?

Mission 3: Good variety of helper characters. It's always nice to feel like a one-toon army. However, the helpers did briefly get lost; I had to run back for two of them once.

Mission 4: LOVE the rescues of random people and the random items! More folks need to do this sort of thing!

Mission 5: I rebooted the system as the last objective, and it finished the mission with a single scientist rescue remaining? Am I missing something?

A great romp of an arc that's not too tough and a lot of fun to blitz. Well done!

Breaking the Barrier (And Putting It Back Together)

Title: I don't like it. Too clunky. I'd skip the part in parenthesis.

Overall: very nice formatting. Very readable. A bit heavy on the clues, some of them could use some color to make them easier to read.

Mission 1: So far so good, maybe a little too many objectives.

Mission 2: Intro says Crey's Folly, popup says The Hollows. Cool "trick" with the debris and the machines in the last room. I wonder why the Nagans are hanging out in a Rikti base though. And what a Rikti base is doing in The Hollows. Or Crey's Folly.

Mission 3: Ugh, Dr. Aeon. I'm on a controller. I hope this goes well. Ok, he spawned as a lieutenant so that was easy. Mission was fun, I might replay on higher difficulty just to take full advantage of the allies.

Mission 4: Feels sort of unnecessary right away from the introduction - the story about Suziku and her mishaps feels like it's over, so this mission seems tacked on. Let's see how it actually turns out. Ok, it was pointless filler - it didn't actually add anything to the story, and it just seemed to be there to "fill time".

Mission 5: Fighting Dr. Aeon over and over is fun but why are his clones so... how do I put this? Suicidal? They don't seem to care that they get defeated.

Annoying! "Talk to Suziku", it says, but I didn't see her anywhere and I got all the way to the end of the map where I found the computer I'm guessing I'm supposed to bring her to. Now I have to go all the way back to the beginning and look for her. Fortunately there was new stuff to fight on the way back through the map for the third time.

Nagans: I don't really like this custom group. To me it's too much of a mish-mash and not enough of a theme. Lizard-people, ok. Somewhat similar uniforms, ok. But their powers are all over the place, and their uniforms aren't uniformal enough. Everyone is a different color. At least they are well balanced - there are so many different kinds of them that it's unlikely that you will meet a combination that stacks anything dangerously. At least solo on standard difficulty. Maybe they will begin to stack up radiation and other nasty stuff on a large team. I'm of course very picky when it comes to custom mobs, but to me the nagans don't add to the story as much as they distract me from it.

Overall the quality of the arc is top notch, however, and I appreciate the work that went into the design of the nagans, even if I for various reasons don't like the finished result. That's a pet peeve of mine though so probably not something that would be a problem for anyone else. My opinion is that if there's a canon group which can possibly do what the story requires, a custom group is always unnecessary. In this case the arc was more or less intended to show off the nagans though, so of course they can't be replaced.

thx for the feedback Hero Prime

i think i could clarify a few things, the first being the robots, i know the 5th column logos and such seem out of place, but theres nothing i can do about them, i think a little earlier in the arc i posted something about possibly changing the robots colors, but the AE wont let me edit the colors of the robots

the angle of the story i was going for was a more neutral perspective, as in a hero or a villain could take up the quest

ill look over it again and try to fill in the gaps on whats going on in the first couple mishs

Finished the last two missions of Breaking the Barrier and rated it five stars. Regardless of the four star minumum rule, I would have done so anyway. Unlike some people, I don't require that an arc meet my exact criteria for perfection to get a five. While I had some problems with a few things, it was as well written as some of the dev-created work, with better chain mechanics. That should rate a five in my book.

That said, given the problems I've had with similar issues with my two arcs, I understand the difficulty in finding a balance when trying to establish difficulty. Even among our small group of members in this thread there is an obvious difference in opinion on this. As a person that favors story over mechanics, I can live with "kill steals" and such if the story warrants it. Others may not be able to live with it.

Now that I am done, however, I will still stick by my earlier assumption that it could stand to be more challenging, both for the sake of mechanics as well as for the sake of the story. The Aeon clones could all stand to be bosses, and with the amount of help available, it just seems like the player character was almost extraneous in places.

Had I upped the ante myself, I'm sure I could have made the challenge on my own, but I tend to think that, when you're setting up an arc for upper level characters, using upper level villains like Aeon, the challenge should be there from the beginning.

But that's my opinion, and I respect that Lazarus' opinion may differ.

Also, @Lazarus: Does Dr. Aeon always teleport away like that when he is defeated? Is there any way to enable that with other NPCs?

Breaking the Barrier

I decided to have a crack at this one with my very-rarely played level 41 Radiation/Kinetics defender, at 0/x1/No bosses just to see how it runs using a squishy and a player with little (coherent) experience playing a defender. Especially solo.

Likes: Basically, pretty much the same as when I ran it with Pro Payne. Briefings, Mission Design, etc. all fall into the 'good to excellent' category. The Nagans remain a great example of a very well designed custom group with lots of variety. They're balanced - at least as balanced as any level 40+ custom group *can* be. And they've got personality.

Liked the pacing and flow of missions 3-5. With one exception, the allies were actually helpful. Sure they steal XP, but as a defender it's fun to have a team to buff up - and the allies (again, with that one exception) were not so powerful as to keep me from getting decent amounts of XP.

Dislikes: The only place where the arc felt too hard was mission 2. And it was the Nagan ambushes that did it. Especially the one off of Suziku. The thing about a squishy is that when you're facing a foe that summons in a bunch of robots, you're mashing buttons to fire off buffs, heals, restore endurance, and dealing damage. I'm aware that there's text, but if I stop to read it, I die. Then, I'm attacked from behind by a HUGE group of Nagans. Well, not *huge* - but four minions and a lieutenant. And that's pretty big if your life depends on keeping two things stunned/held while you duke it out with #3. (Again, let me remind you, I'm not even remotely skilled with playing defenders - just trying to give you a worst case scenario and hope *something* is of use). That must have been one of those text bubbles I wasn't reading while I was trying to stay alive.

Everything else actually seemed a tad on the easy side. And keep in mind this is coming from someone who doesn't really know how to play the character he's playing...

Iron Samurai was over the top, though. In mission one, I ditched him cause I was too fast for him, and totally forgot I had speed boost (again, not good with this character). By mission five, I'd wised up (and I wanted to see what would happen if I actually kept all of my available allies buffed and healed). I don't even know why me and my lizard chicks were there. He slaughtered everything in sight by the time I pulled a speed boost and siphon power off of something (occasionally, I'd just run in there and spam Irradiate and Neutron Bomb just to get some XP once Samurai finished with them). The sheer speed with which he ripped through the real Dr. Aeon was ... um ... fast.

(And yes, I'm aware of the mechanics - we're talking a downgraded elite boss under the effects of speed boost, siphon power, and fulcrum shift. He's going to be a hard hitter. I get that. I'm just saying, I'm squishy, and not good at being this particular type of squishy - and it was a breeze. If IS was a boss that downgrades to a lt., though, I imagine I'd still be able to keep him alive - as would most defenders, even the ones who aren't very good at it, like me - but he wouldn't do such a thorough job of dominating the fight...)

Oh, and I re-affirmed the arc's 5 star rating. It's a great arc, and I see no reason to change how I rated it earlier. But it won't affect the plays or current rating. At least Laz gets tickets...

I'll edit in my twitter notes later, but just wanted to toss in one thing I thought could be changed, though it's mostly a matter of personal taste. The busy text. Most people don't read it, all teammates can't read it, but I find it's a great place to put little nuggets of extra flavor. Nothing critical to the story of course. In this arc, Lazarus chooses to just have a single sentence about Iron Samurai being gone or busy. And mainly, the only reason I chose this to nitpick on is there isn't much else to pick on.

Also, on mission 3, you might want to pick one of the destructibles in the back to have an optional objective in the map along the lines of "Bust up anything Dr. Aeon shouldn't have"

Play through notes - not much suggestions, mostly just summary - so SPOLIERS below.

#CoHMA Running Breaking the Barrier (And Putting it Back Together) # 347029 by @ Lazarus from the MA Arc Club
#CoHMA Contact is Iron Samurai who might have been a high ranking Praetorian and now works for Vanguard and Portal Corps.
#CoHMA M1 "It Begins With a Crack": I always like when arcs use comics style notations when connecting arcs together.
#CoHMA M1: Police Scanner cuts our talk short, and clue fills me in on the Nagans - aliens who tried to steal Portal technology.
#CoHMA M1: The nearby alien attack turned out to be Rularuu and not Nagans. Still, time to clear the place out!
#CoHMA M1: One thing I remember about this arc is Iron Samurai spawns on the first office overpass. Skipped him first time, almost did again
#CoHMA M1: Something is working with or using Storm Elementals to open a rift into the Shadow Shard.
#CoHMA M1: The hostages speak of what probably are the Nagans, come along with Rularuu for the ride.
#CoHMA M1: Seems like the Nagans beamed in by accident and brought the Rularuu with them. I guessed backwards.

#CoHMA M2 "Nagans Shouldn't Play with Portals": Iron Samurai goes off to fight stray Rularuu while I go and investigate another Nagan portal
#CoHMA M2: Fought Suziku, the head tech of the Nagans, and found that a part of their portal device is missing... I think.
#CoHMA M2: Captured Suziku and now she's willing to work with us to restore the problems with portals.

#CoHMA Continuing Breaking the Barrier (And Putting it Back Together) # 347029 by @ Lazarus
#CoHMA M3 "Grand Theft Suziku": The Nagans were playing with portals to try and free their friends trapped by Dr. Aeon.
#CoHMA M3: And in exchange for her help, Suziku wants me to rescue them... and get the data they were stealing in the first place.
#CoHMA M3: Lots of random destructibles, nice to get a chance to bust up Aeon's lab.
#CoHMA M3: Saved a bunch of Nagans and we teamed up on weak-fake Aeon.

#CoHMA M4 "Containment": Using Aeon's research, they know how to close the portals. But for now, they need me to keep back the Rularuu.
#CoHMA M4: Not only have the portals sucked Rularuu to Earth, they sucked Earth people and stuff back to the Shadow Shard.
#CoHMA M4: Including random things like a Superadyne lab complete with confused looking Skulls member.
#CoHMA M4: These missions are as packed full of objectives as possible it seems. Though most are optional and don't feel like work.

#CoHMA M5 "Would the Real Dr. Aeon Please Stand Up": The plans are ready, but suddenly Arachnos headed by Dr. Aeon attacks!
#CoHMA M5: There's an awful lot of little Aeon's running around here. But I've got a lot of Nagans giving backup.
#CoHMA M5: Ran through all the chained objectives, all appeared nice and easy in the final room. Though I passed Iron Samurai once again.
#CoHMA M5: I think I did pretty well without his briefing, I wonder if it should be required?
#CoHMA M5: I suppose that's a story point that probably should be there.
#CoHMA M5: I take it back, I read his clue, and it's totally optional.
#CoHMA M5: Portals closed for good, Nagans on our side, even Suziku, though they're keeping a close eye on her.

I'm no author, but I'm continually impressed by the great work that you all put out. If this can help give some much deserved praise where it's due then you can count me in. I'll have some arcs played through and basic feedback provided a bit later this weekend.

Welcome aboard, Paladin.

Yay! A new member in the club.

I'm using Paladin, my Broadsword/Regeneration scrapper for these. Mission difficulty is set to normal level, normal spawn sizes with bosses in order to enjoy the story. If I want a challenge I can just head to Recluse's Victory.

Arcs will always be rated 5 stars if I played through it completely, otherwise I'll leave it unrated.

The Portal Bandits

I ran through this prior arc before Breaking the Barrier to set the foundation for the story, and enjoyed it a lot. The first two missions -did- seem to drag on, but that may be because of the large maps and because the enemy spawns repeatedly called for backup - as soon as I thought I'd cleared a spawn, bam, four more took its place. It seemed a bit generic - folks in stealth armor fighting in the Vanguard base. That's really just a personal nitpick and not a flaw, though.

But the arc was just warming up in the first two missions, and come the third (Vikki Vandale Variety Show) I was having a blast. The basis for the rest of the story was set and the author could have a bit more fun with things, which livened up the remaining missions. I can't explain why, but the bits of lighthearted fun made the later missions of storming the Nagan's base and breaking up the Rikti/Nagan war seem epic and important.

The use of clues to set up a secret door was brilliant, and I found myself smiling and audibly remarking about how clever it was to my brother. I also want to thank you for giving one of the allies a self heal - as a hero player, I don't like the idea of teammates getting KOed, and the dumb-as bricks AI need all the help they can get. Confront only does so much to keep them alive, and making sure they survive to the end of the story's an important part of the immersion for me.

I enjoyed the ending, although I didn't much care for the human guilt-trip in Obscura's final rant. She seemed too reasonable to blow off what she said, which conflicts with the four-color, bright setting I like to see CoH as. Again though, that's just a personal nitpick and not a flaw in the story.

Lastly, I noticed a few comma splices in the dialogue. It didn't interfere with the story, but the grammatically inclined might find it distracting. No where even close to being a dealbreaker though.

Very fun, and it really picked up steam as it went along. Nice job, Lazarus!

I'm playing through Breaking the Barrier now. I'll let you know how that turns out.

Bubbawheat, would you please replace Consequences of War with Casualties of War (241496)? It just got knocked off of the five star list. Two runs with no tickets. Which translates to two runs rated two stars or less. No comments, of course.

Either I was griefed and could use some five star love, or I need input as to why the arc suddenly became a one or two star arc after having been a five star with so many people.

Sorry for the rant, but I'm a little peeved.