Mission Architect Arc Club

A Vague Notion.

I'm not going to lie, the amount of warnings this arc was tagged with scared me. But, as an author and a member of this here club, I soldier on!

Okay, good introduction on Mission One. We're introduced to the people we're supposed to help and we go through a bit of banter about aliens. The only thing here that confuses me is that the contact refers to the Rikti as not "real aliens." Uh, does that means he knows anything about the Rikti's true origins? Or the common knowledge that the Rikti are from another dimension? I'll suspect it's that latter for now and dive in to rescue this little girl! I liked the pop-up as I entered the mission too, very descriptive.

The exit pop-up for Mission One has one typo. I think resuced is supposed to be rescued

Second mission starts and I have about four objectives to blow up! I liked how they all began with an 'R' too. The first one goes down and I am ambushed by a group of customs. Unfortunately, my curiosity about a good looking group remains floating around as they have no bios. I suppose this can work too though, bios can sometimes give too much about a mystery group away before the author wants that to happen. Did I also spot a Harry Potter reference with one of the altars?

Another mission done! But our work is not yet done!

Mission Three and I am starting to like the humour the contact is pulling out. Though I can't smile too much because the cold weather has forced my lips to shred themselves at the first sign of being stretched. So in this mission I have to rescue three hostages. Simple enough, though it seems they are all vaguely familiar...

As I near the exit with the third escort, I come across a bizzare sight. A new group of enemies! Kewl! Let's just send all my henchies in to destroy that boss and... oh, I died. Let's try that again!

So, it takes Bodyguard mode and a number of my debuffs to even myself out with this boss. And it only gets hard as the fight goes on because she calls in some cronies and her "sister" to help her out. Both eerily reminded me of Silver Mantis. And both had an extreme amount of evil mes attacks. Still, I was victorious! To my surprise, the mission finished there, even though I still had to lead the third abductee out of the mission.

Fourth mission and it's time to get some information on these new characters! From Longbow! Oh dear... Longbow...

When I enter their base, I'm pleasantly surprised that they're on my side. Even Ms. Liberty is there to greet me. However, she warns me that I should only take what I need and go, as there is some info here that could prove dangerous in the wrong hands. So it's only luck I am running this arc with a brain-in-a-robot-suit Mastermind bent on world domination!

I search around the non-hostile Longbow base, coming across Captain Dietrich and Zenflower and a large amount of bantering Longbow with some rather amusing lines. The glowies, in the form of cabinets, always give me the same response though. The first one I look through says that I've "come up empty handed." when really I got a clue. I understand that this is a bit of a bug in the MA though. Also, all cabinets are named 'Looking for the File.'

Oh, wait, it appears there's one more cabinet holding the file on the person I'm investigating! Along with the computer for the girl I first rescued! Awesome, now I'm set and it seems an interesting plot twist has occured at this point. Also, in the Return Success dialogue, there's a typo, 'Initiatve'

Onto the last mission. Now I found the hostage in this one easy enough, but I hate Oranbegan maps as they always stick some glowies in a small and easily missable space. But anyway, I found them all and then found the Psionic Amplifier and noticed that its description is the same as that of the Rikti Portal Amplifier. I'm sure this isn't intentional though. So, anyway, the final boss appears, we do battle, and she gloriously falls before my might!

Here's what I liked about this arc: The custom characters that were well designed, the plot twist, Nigel Kaine's sense of humour. These were all strong points in the arc that I loved and adored to the very end.

The things I didn't like were: The custom characters had no description, even towards the end of the arc, not even the final boss had one. And the Oranbegan map. Not alot, but it took me a good fifteen minutes to find and place all the Psychic Dampeners, and my curiosity about each and every custom minion still remains unquenched.

Still, a good arc that I can tell effort has been put into. Four stars from me!

A Vague Notion

Run by Doctor Gemini Inv/SS Tank

This mission was tagged with everything that usually makes me skip to the next one. So I have to say it turned out to be a much more pleasant experience than I expected going in.

General Cons: No information on the custom group. Additionally, I personally dislike EBs as anything but the major threat of the arc. This one was far too full of them for my tastes. Even a little girl was an EB, not to mention a number of named EBs in the Longbow base. Too many EBs just, too me, make a hero feel like some guy who threw a dishtowel around his neck and went out to play superhero. That's my personal bugaboo so I set it aside when rating the arc.

General Pros: Loved the craziness of the contact. He gave me lots of good chuckles. I liked most of the missions, and what you were trying to do with them.

Except for mission 4 and 5, I only have thematic nitpicks with certain things.

Mission 1: Liked it being mostly empty and just a quick introduction to the plot. It gave the next mission more of a feel of the threat ramping up.

Mission 3: Two issues, which are just thematic nit-picking, not anything of consequence. Firstly, I feel like I missed something because I didn't understand why that map was used. Of course, though I read all the texts I might have failed to retain something, but there seemed to be no reason in story why they were tunneling into an office building from the sewer.

The 2nd issue for me was the rescuees themselves. Spawning one after another like that ended up with me missing the 2nd one (not hard to do on that map) and exploring the rest of the map, so the 3rd one ended up being where I had already looked. I realize though, there may not be a way around that for what you're trying to accomplish. It might work better to have someone mention that the other 2 are being brought in and will be here any minute now, or some such thing.

Mission 4: Didn't see the point, really, though I did enjoy the Longbow banter. Also, as you had the glowies only accessible in succession, the map makes it easy to find the special file cabinet and the computer before you can even access them so you end up running back and forth around the base.

I'd suggest spawning all the glowies at once, and having all of them trigger an ambush. That would make it feel more like you have something to do. With a map that size, a glowie hunt quickly loses interest. Edit: A smaller map would work much better without needing to add anything to it. Although I'd still suggest spawning all the glowies at once.

Mission 5: Oh no...it's a CoT city...and the first thing is another EB flunky. He almost killed me but, I used up half my inspiration tray and prevailed. He was the toughest boss in the entire arc having Confuse and Fear effects. He would have been good as the main enemy, but felt like too much for the doorman.

I think this mission would have been much better with far fewer dampeners to place. Although it's hard for me to judge because I hate most of these type of CoT maps. Too me, the mission felt like more of a chore than fun. Especially given that I missed a glowie and had to backtrack to find it.

Not sure why Vagues has lost some of her powers and is now a Boss instead of an EB. I was happy for the change but some text as to why (maybe the psychic dampeners lowered her power level?) would be a good addition. Sadly, we got separated in that room with the tall pyramids on both sides and a river in the middle, and she got killed by a Mindblade before I realized she was in trouble. I avenged her though!

Overall: While not my cup of tea because of the EBs, the arc was very good. Good story both in the overall plot and in what we learn about the various individuals. I gave it 4 stars.

Thanks to everyone who played through A Vague Notion. This was my first MA storyarc, and the input will go a long way toward helping me when I start working on future arcs.

Ok, I managed to pull myself away from the new shinies to give this one a play before Bubba puts this week's arc up.

Run by Darkfire Avenger, DM/SD Scrapper on +1/x6.

Okaaaay...a big wall of orange warnings, including my most hated word in the MA search interface: "Extreme." I was going to play this with my most badass character anyway, but now I'm wary.

On the plus side, I didn't die. I came close a few times, but I managed to not die. However, like I said, it was my most badass character. I would definitely NOT want to play this on a squishy. You should probably tag it "challenging" or tone down the customs a bit. I'd suggest the latter.

I did take notes as I was playing through, so I'll just copy/paste them here, and give my overall thoughts at the end.

M1: Send-off: who is Tommy Westphall?
Vagary's bio: "rambunctuous" should be "rambuctious."
The map isn't really suitable for Croatoa.
return dialogue: "manastream" should be "mana stream."

M2: Custom group needs bios.
The map doesn't need to be this large.
A Lieutenant and a boss with hurricane means you can't hit the broad side of a barn. I'd suggest removing it from the Lieutenants, since you can get multiples of those in a spawn on a team or on a higher difficulty. Custom critters' toggles can't be shut down, and every critter in a spawn can run it all the time, unlike with standard groups where only one critter in a spawn can run the toggle at a time, they turn them off after 30 seconds, and they can be detoggled by mezzes and end drain. So be careful with toggles.
Ambushes at every altar get repetitive. You have multiples, so it's an excellent opportunity to add some variety to the guard dialogue. One or two ambushes is plenty.

M3: send off: "grommits" should be "grommets."
I don't see why the rescues need to be chained, since I already know there are three people I need to rescue, and I missed the second one and had to do a lot of backtracking. Also the lead-out could be made more interesting with a patrol or "boss" spawn or two on the way. Oh, and I failed since the person I was leading decided to fight the EB on her way out and got instantly pulverized. Again, combat escorts don't work out very well on teams or high difficulties.

M4: nav objectives: 3 more file cabinets to search? I haven't searched any yet. Would look better as "3 file cabinets to search, collect the Psychic Dampener". Don't add periods to nav objectives, they look silly with the automatically added comma.
Chaining an objective off a multiple collection doesn't work, since the clue always drops off the first one you click. I click one and automatically know I need to check a computer and a "special" file cabinet. There should probably only be one file cabinet initially.
Psychic Dampener clue: mentions I fought someone named Pain, but I never ran into her.
Mission complete clue: "Possible" should be "possibly."
I liked the friendly Longbow just casually wandering around and chattering.

M5: An Oranbegan fortress? I suppose that would be a good place to hide, nobody wants to go to Oranbega...except all the guys who already "live" there. How did she get the CoT out?
The Evangelist seemed pretty gratuitous, and was VERY VERY ANNOYING to fight. You can't kill what you can't hit. Also annoying: the giant map with 6 blinkies and random portals. I'd suggest using a smaller map with no portals, and fewer blinkies.

What I liked: The contact. He was likeable. It seems though, that all his conspiracy theorist rambling could have been connected to the events of the arc somehow...you have a mind-controlling villain who is well-placed in society, it would probably serve as proof of some crackpot theory or other.

The costume work and concept of the psi group. They do need bios though.

What I didn't like: The whole evil cabal group really. Aside from stacking Hurricanes and no bios, their connection to the Evil Mastermind's Evil Plot is never really established. They seemed unnecessary. You've already involved the CoT, why not just use them? Or a different group? Or a mishmash of different groups, since the mind-controlled Longbow already demonstrate the villain's ability to mind-control people. Also, I never really got why the CoT were involved.

Some of the maps are too large for what is going on. The cave map is essentially four objectives, the second mission is a long lead-out, and the last one is just tedious. Either choose smaller maps or fill the larger ones up a bit with optional objectives. The Longbow base works ok because of all the wandering Longbow filling it up. The other ones are just regular spawns standing around waiting to be beaten up.

It doesn't help that one of these maps is full of psi guys (I'm glad I'm not Invul) and another is full of guys with Hurricane. Is it necessary for the story to make them hard? If not, they only serve to distract from the story. Again, part of it is that I have to go through so many of them.

The story itself is solid, although the possibility of Vagary reordering reality is never mentioned after the first mission. It would all tie in nicely, considering the contact's paranoia and the villain's potential power level. What it needs is an editing pass to tie it all together a bit better, and a few changes to make for smoother gameplay.

No rating assigned, since I didn't feel it was 5-star worthy and I'm boycotting the craptacular ratings system except for 5-star arcs.

Sounds like many people might have been scared off by the challenging looking warning tags for the enemies, and others might have just been busy with i19. For me, it was a little of both. We're coming into week #6, and still getting some new members. Welcome Doctor Gemini. If you have an arc you want in the pool, be sure to post it here. Also congratulations to The Hound on your third playthrough which upgrades you to Silver Level Membership. PM or global /tell me the level range of a silver ticket recipe roll, otherwise I will send you a level 50 next week through gleemail.

This week, I'll be showing you exactly how I do the roll, just in case anyone was wondering. Also, if you have an arc that's not listed, be sure to post it so it can be in the roll for next week.

1, 2 Coulomb2 - The Blue Devils
3, 4 Dalghryn - Casualties of War
5, 6 The Hound - Spawning Chaos
7, 8 Tubbius - Hammer and Sickle
9 Wrong Number - Special Episode
10 Eva Destruction - End of The World

And the random roll is: 2 So this week's arc is:

"The Blue Devils" (ID#468738)

It's a brand new arc, with only two plays so far. It's five missions long, and is intended as a "starter" arc (all missions are levels 1-5).

I've had two goals in writing it:

One, I've tried to write it with the idea that it can serve as the very first arc the newly created character of a more experienced player can play (much like "Learning the Ropes" it's intended as alternate low-level content, but this time it features a custom group so even the foes won't be the standard low-level foes.)

Two, it's an attempt to create a balanced, but very low level custom group, using the custom XP system. In other words, the mobs basically have the bare minimum powers I could give them and be worth 100% XP (or close to it) at level 5. Obviously because they're custom mobs, they are harder than dev mobs at that level would be.

Also, I was thinking what is a good range for allowing a 2nd go around at the club? My thought was either 6 or 8 weeks *and* Silver level or higher membership. At 6 weeks, then Necrotech Master would be eligible to get back into the pool next week. Anyone else have opinions on this? Also, I thought the 2nd shot would get 1 less chance at the roll than others.

As for the latest arc, "The Blue Devils", here we go!

Overall, unlike most low level content, this actually requires some time and thought to survive. The author makes excellent use of optional objectives to allow you to customize your gaming experience as a straight hero or as a vigilante; it would be nice if MA authors were able to offer different ending/intro texts based on the completion of optional objectives or not.

A good arc to run through, but be prepared to use some inspirations as you play! It's considerably tougher than what a level 5 toon can easily handle; I was running a level 35 Peacebringer who was dropped down to 5 for the arc, and I had to burn through quite a few inspirations. It wasn't anything undoable, though, and I didn't get killed at any point.

5 stars!

The Blue Devils

Run by Electrigal Arc Electrical Melee/Willpower Scrapper

Amazingly, I did not have a level 2 sitting around, so I took in a level 4 instead. Overall, I liked the story and the custom group was very well done. My only death was my own fault for trying to push the envelope and not eat a green until I had a sliver of health left against one of the Bosses. I ran it at +0/x1 with bosses turned on after the 2nd mission (since I did not realize I had them turned off during the first 2).

I also very much liked the Vigilante options included in the story.

While I wasn't really looking closely for proofreading errors, I did notice two. On Sarah Davies introduction to mission 4 she calls the one bad guy "Stephen" with an "e" the first time she names him, and "Stephan" with an "a" the next two times. She also uses "Stephen" on the mission complete text.

Surprisingly, I've nothing to say other than a very good and enjoyable arc, 5 stars.

You can count me in, been looking for something like this. My arc is listed below. I would ask that either rate it as 5 stars (if deserving of course) or don't supply a rating at all and I'll just work from the comments provided to improve it.

Story Arc ID: 360243
Arc Title: Tales of the Terran Space Marines - Eternity’s Edge
Factions: Soldiers of Rularuu, Terran Space Marines, Elisyur
Author’s Global Chat Handle: @DeathSentry
Morality: Heroic
Length: Very Long (3 missions)
Level Range: 41-54
Description:
The year 2075, the pinnacle of Mankind's Golden Age, unbound by gravitational forces of its home world, this simian descendant has forged ahead to the stars with all of the blustery arrogance and manifest destiny it can muster. But. . . is He prepared for what he will find? Is all as it appears to be?

The Blue Devils

Let's be clear, right here and now.

I LOVED this arc! Right from start to finish I couldn't tear my eyes away from the computer screen! I couldn't find any grammar mistakes, anything wrong with the enemies, and just enjoyed the arc as a whole. I especially liked the Vigilante options and how dark they were. In fact, that's probably one of the best things about how this arc starts off: how dark it can be. You weren't in the kiddie world anymore, people really were being murdered and it rippled throughout the story.

I have nothing bad to say about this. Maybe that the level range could have increased slightly as the missions went on? I dunno, I knew I'd need Inspirations at one point and they got me through some of the harder bits.

All in all, a fantastic arc that is a must for any lowbie to run through! Five stars from me!

Played on default difficulty - bosses off I believe - with a level 5 demon/thermal Mastermind, no deaths. Really enjoyed this arc all the way through. Twitter notes below.

#CoHMA Playing The Blue Devils # 468738 by @ Flame Kitten aka Coulomb 2 from this week's Arc Club arc.
#CoHMA Contact is Susan Davies from ELITE, appropriate since this is a level 1-5 arc.
#CoHMA M1 "Initiation": Susan informs me of a minor gang along the lines of the Hellions and the Skulls trying to edge out some territory.
#CoHMA M1: The gang's called The Blue Devils, and they're hitting a jewelry store. Simple enough.
#CoHMA M1: Popup refers to the criminals as "gangers" who the heck uses the word "gangers" in a sentence? Is that local slang anywhere?
#CoHMA M1: The "blue" in The Blue Devils refers to their hair. And fought an initiate pre-dyejob who has a map to one of their hangouts.
#CoHMA M1: Looks like the shop owner was killed for some "street cred" by one of the initiates.
#CoHMA M1: I noticed the Choppers also didn't have blue hair, I wonder if that's significant, an oversight, or just for no reason.

#CoHMA M2 "Crime Stinks": Off to the water treatment plant they're using as a base of operations.
#CoHMA M2: This also has a morality subplot using my storytelling pet peeve: the mediport blocker. So I can injure and/or kill them.
#CoHMA M2: By the way, excellent map choices so far. Interesting, yet not widely used in the MA.
#CoHMA M2: Also nice to have unmarked, unnamed minion boss details for some added dialog and animations.
#CoHMA M2: Didn't go Vigilante for this mission, took out the bosses - they're planning a raid on Crey weapons... right now, I think.

#CoHMA M3 "New Toys": They managed to get the weapons, and I'm to check the receiving dock for more info.
#CoHMA M3: Though minor logic confusion - if they're strong enough to take the Crey weapons already, why do they even need them?
#CoHMA M3: Rescued a scientist who warned me that they've got a demon summoner with them. What luck, I can do that too.
#CoHMA M3: There's also several Blue Devils using the tech they nabbed. Awful lot of unique costumes in this arc. Which is a good thing.
#CoHMA M3: Interesting, I see an Assault bot ahead.

#CoHMA M4 "Takedown!": I get the backstory of Hibold and Azul, the leaders of the Blue Devils.
#CoHMA M4: And I take down Hibold. I remember that I am actually playing a villain and do the vigilante objectives which are interesting.

#CoHMA M5 "Give the Devil His Due": And I'm off to the graveyard to take out Azul, which my contact went Vigilante for me to get the info.
#CoHMA M5: I've gone inside a mausoleum (awesome map I had never previously seen) to take down the leader...
#CoHMA ... and his pocket demon. And from the sounds of it, I can do the (Vigilante) objectives to keep that demon for myself afterwards.
#CoHMA M5: Defeated Santanica and the demon he summoned. My pocket demon was better, though smaller, than his.
#CoHMA M5: Unfortunately, this arc feels like it suffers from objective overload, partly due to half of them presented as choices/optional.
#CoHMA M5: I really like how this works. I have the option to hide the demon's source of power, or destroy it on the altar.

For a change of pace this week, I'd like to have everyone that can form a PuG, run your favorite AE arc, and share your results here. List which arc you ran, how easy/hard it was to recruit, and how the teammates liked it in the end.

And try to make it as much of a true PuG as possible, avoid just bringing your friends and SG-mates, unless they typically avoid AE content. Go out and show people it's not just for farming!

Will do if I can. I feel like crap, I play on Justice, and I have lots of work 'til Wednesday.

The Blue Devils (ID#468738)

Pros: This is a great example of a well crafted arc with attention to every detail. I especially liked how the chained objectives made each mission feel like two or three missions without necessarily making the mission take much longer to play through.

Cons: The only problem I noticed was that sometimes a missed objective made things a little confusing until it was found. I also think the arc could benefit from a more interesting title.

So I grabbed a few random players out of Atlas Park and got one of them to host "City of Ho Ho Ho, or A Claus in Paragon," arc 18775--my first ever arc. It's 3 missions long, with a mix of Outcasts and Trolls. It introduces the players to Tubbius Claus, who, as your contact, claims to be Santa Claus himself, working a day job as a mid-level pencil pusher in Paragon City when he's not crimefighting. Santa, thus, might just be a little off his rocker, perhaps.

Either way, it seems that Mr. Claus has been getting tangled up with a former Army officer turned Outcast by name of Manuel Pistola--who has taken Tubbius captive with the help of Graatak, a Troll boss he has under his thumb!

We had a rough start, admittedly. We simply didn't have the damage needed to survive, with me running a Defender (which is probably my worst archetype overall hero-side), another player running a Peacebringer, and. . . someone running something else. I quickly changed out to Marcus Burns, my dual pistols/psionic blaster, restarted the arc, and we went to town.

We picked up a few other players along the way through the three missions, including one of my SG members. One player declined to vote, I couldn't vote, and the results were 15, 20, 25, and 20 tickets gained--so a solid 4 stars.

From a more objective point of view, this is one arc I definitely have sentimental memories of, with it being my first arc, where I established Tubbius Claus as an AE character with a heart. Admittedly, it could be a bit stronger--the third mission too strongly echoes the first, and the frame story setup I have going in the arc doesn't quite mesh like I want it to. It's one of those I should probably go back and some quality edits on if I get time over Christmas break before I resume teaching in January!

Overall, I enjoyed it after we really got moving, and I think the others did, too, for the most part.

I've been indisposed for the past week, so it isn't until now that I've had a chance to thank everyone who played Blue Devils and gave feedback! I very much appreciate both the positive response to the arc, and the constructive criticisms that will help me improve it once I get time for the next editing pass.

Thank you all very much!

Yeah, I'm out for this week too and I'm against getting a random group to just have them run my arc.

WN

I'm not at all trying to be disrespectful, but I think there may be a conflict in what the original premise of this thread was and the most recent "assignment." I look forward to the opportunity to play and offer feedback on other people's arcs when time permits.

"When time permits" is the key phrase. I'm lucky to have enough time just to hop on and run a mission. It took me a couple of nights, minimum, to run the arcs I've run. Putting togather a group, any group, and running an entire arc is simply not in the cards. If I had time to put together a group, it would only be a group of SG mates, since I never get to play with them. Pugs are out of the question for a variety of reasons for me.

I don't know if I speak for anyone else in any part, but that's my take.

Please, PLEASE don't take offense, Bubbawheat. I appreciate your efforts tremendously! I just wanted to explain.

I don't like forming teams, if I did I would be playing my arcs (and others) all day long with all kinds of PUGs. I probably won't be participating in this week's assignment but maybe if I find myself on a reasonable team I will lead them towards the AE building.

I'm likely going to have to give this one a pass as well. This is about the most stressful time of year for me so right now I generally avoid teams so I can relax and play at my own pace.

Don't worry, Monday will be back on track. Just wanted to shake things up a bit. Will try something different in another 7-8 weeks or so.

You shook this one up like Santa's belly, man.