10 Arc limit needs to be dropped

I ran into this when trying to get the initial Incarnate mission arc from Mender Ramiel. After I petitioned this because he would not give me the mission, the reply I got was NOT one I was expecting.

I was told, "The reason that Mender Ramiel isn't providing his story arc is because your character currently has too many open story arcs. Any given character is allowed a maximum of 10 open story arcs, and you're currently at that limit. This being the case, there's no room for you to accept the new content from Mender Ramiel."

This is a problem as my stalker started on the red side. I ran many, if not most of the mission arcs, for most of the contacts. I got all the SF badges, mission badges, defeat badges and explore badges over there. But I guess the part where I went wrong is the fact that I DID actually do the missions for most of the contacts. I didn't realize that I would be penalized for leaving some arcs unfinished. I have since moved over to the blue side. All of the contacts that have open arcs are on the RED side. This would involve changing my alignment back to villain just to finish these arcs. In other words it would take me several DAYS to go fix this. Note that on top of all of this that almost all of these contacts are INACTIVE contacts.

I noted in my reply with the petition that it is almost as if they are punishing the players that actually do the mission arcs for the contacts if they don't finish them. Playing the content seems to be a negative.

It seems that those characters that leveled 1-50 in certain AE missions that involved monkeys have a better deal than the way my character is being treated for NOT doing that. These PL'ed characters can just fly through the levels, go get the missions badges via Oro and just jump right into the Incarnate stuff.

Not my character though - because I actually played the content, but maybe didn't finish the arcs, it is going to take me several days to change alignment just to correct this. The sheer stupidity of this boggles my mind.

I suggest that any arcs held by inactive contacts and/or contacts on the opposite alignment's side should dismissed. If the character in question should want to go back and actually play through that arc, they should be able to go through them via Oro. Penalizing characters for not completing an arc is a terrible decision. This needs to be fixed.

I have to say I'm not exactly sympathetic here. The intended gameplay is to, you know, actually finish the story arcs you start; the book next to the contact is a reminder there is a story arc waiting or in progress. The fact you failed to do so before switching sides is not the developer's problem, nor should they address it as a special case.

AFAIK, the maximum number of Missions you can hold is 7, and the number of Story Arcs you can have active is 5.

From ParagonWiki:

Prior to Issue 17, characters could have a maximum of two active main arcs (blue book). With the increased active mission list from three to seven in Issue 17, the maximum number of main arcs that can be active was raised to five[1]. Contacts will not give missions that start a main arc if you are at the limit. They do not prevent minor arcs (green book) from beginning, however.

I think the GM told you the wrong number.

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Biggest Troll on the forums? I'll give you a hint:

Why would you leave arcs half finished, no matter if you were switching or not? Pretty sure everyone knows there's an open arc limit, and if you don't, how is that the Developers fault?

Wow. This is a big problem and could affect quite a few people. I'm not sure what the solution is. Reset the arcs when you switch sides? Automatically close open arcs as if you'd never started them?

The devs need to solve this one.

I am guessing that the developers did not intend the Badges the OP is focused on to be the actual reward for participating in a story arc: the Badges are just shiny gold star stickers to make you feel good. Most of them don't actually do anything more than provide yet another alternate title for the character.

The *actual* reward is what drops when you call the contact the final time: sizable XP and Inf rewards, potential recipie and/or enhancement drop, and Reward Merits. Yes, *I* know you outleveled Marshal Brass or Jim Tremblor months ago, but that just means you can blow through their last couple missions in five minutes if you ignore everythign that isn't objective related.

Personally, I've always found the extra ancient contacts in my list to be a nuisance when I'm looking to call someone more recent. Inspires me to clear them out, or at least see if they have someone new for me to talk to in their stead.

In looking at the contacts that have open arcs, I noticed that at least 4 of them are contacts that I never started the arc for. I never talked to these contacts at all. All I did was accept them as a contact from someone else. So this REALLY doesn't seem right.

It's one thing if I talk to the contact and accept the arc that they offer. I opened the arc and I need to finish it to clear it. I can see the points that everybody has been making about that in this thread.

Its an entirely different thing when "Contact A" introduces me to "Contact B" and because of that introduction, "Contact B" immediately starts an arc with me without me talking to them nor accepting to do the arc. It is THIS that needs to be fixed with this...

Correction: I talked to these contacts as part of a requirement for a different contacts arc as a "speak with" mission. They became my contact later. I never talked to them AFTER they became my contact, but somehow I already had an arc from them.

Example: Serpent Drummer (RWZ), Crash Cage (Sharkshead), Seer Marino (Mercy Island), Shadow Spider (Grandville)

Agent G is the same way. At least in his case if you go back and talk to him after you outlevel him he blows you off ("too high a profile") and eventually moves to the Inactive list without the book.

Another problem is that just being offered the first mission of an arc will cause a book to be set even if you don't actually take the mission (or at least that used to be the case).

It also doesn't help that the book graphic change rendered it impossible for me to tell the difference between the supposed main and minor story arcs.

People getting bit by these have my sympathy. People who just abandon arcs in the middle... not so much. But now we have an important safety tip (which I remember being talked about when GR went live) - do as much as you can to clear your arcs before making the final switch to a different alignment.