Alignment: Neutral
"A new evil has arisen, to cover the world in darkness. Can you stop them before it's too late? ((Last mission contains an AV))."
Mission 1: Level 1-54, Unique Map, contains Boss, Collection, Ambush
Mission 2: Level 1-54, Unique Map, contains Boss, Collection, Ambush
Mission 3: Level 1-54, Unique Map, contains Boss, Collection, Ambush
Mission 4: Level 1-54, Unique Map, contains Boss, Collection, Ambush
Mission 5: Level 1-54, Unique Map, contains Boss, Ambush
Enemy groups: Custom Group.
Warning! Storyarc may contain: Archvillains, Extreme Archvillains, Extreme Bosses, Extreme Lieutenants, Extreme Minions.
Eva Destruction AR/Fire/Munitions Blaster
Darkfire Avenger DM/SD/Body Scrapper
Arc ID#161629 Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black
Arc ID#431270 Until the End of the World
Quote:
i dont use this to turn away from arcs right away because it is not descriptive enough to determine if the offending creature is an ally or an enemy, or even a non combat escort that the person used from another arc|
Originally Posted by Bubbawheat
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of course if it does have that much extreme stuff it might be questionable and/or a challenge arc meant to be tough
Quote:
I meant that as an arc that has all of those warnings combined. If it has one or two, it could be ok. And besides, this thread is meant to be all in good fun. Not enough fun in this forum.
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Originally Posted by Necrotech_Master
i dont use this to turn away from arcs right away because it is not descriptive enough to determine if the offending creature is an ally or an enemy, or even a non combat escort that the person used from another arc
of course if it does have that much extreme stuff it might be questionable and/or a challenge arc meant to be tough |
Arc description: Team up with Forbush-Man to investigate a series of mysterious crimes around the city!
Author's name: @Forbush-Man
34 heroes,
20 villains, Victory, Justice, Infinity, Virtue, Triumph, Exalted -- some more active than others
Quote:
A well-done challenge arc will pick and choose the enemies' powers to make them challenging, but not overly annoying or tedious. Simply giving them all the powers is poor design.
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Originally Posted by Necrotech_Master
of course if it does have that much extreme stuff it might be questionable and/or a challenge arc meant to be tough
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Eva Destruction AR/Fire/Munitions Blaster
Darkfire Avenger DM/SD/Body Scrapper
Arc ID#161629 Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black
Arc ID#431270 Until the End of the World
Quote:
true, well then for what i think a "bad arc" is:|
Originally Posted by Bubbawheat
I meant that as an arc that has all of those warnings combined. If it has one or two, it could be ok. And besides, this thread is meant to be all in good fun. Not enough fun in this forum.
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- escort/hostage obectives of any kind
- empty story maps with few to no baddies (these maps are horribly boring and you cant tell they are in the arc till you are started)
- very long arcs all with very large map choices
Here's my list of things that will make me pass over or quit early from an arc:
* Arc name or description either explicitly states or strongly implies that it is a farm or test arc.
* Arc name is spelled incorrectly.
* Extreme AVs.
* Mission 1 briefing, the intro to the arc that should establish the background for the story, is only 2 lines long.
* Default names for mission objectives, e.g., "Fred" in navbar instead of "Rescue Fred" or "Defeat Fred".
* Mission 1 map is huge with only one objective to accomplish on it.
* Mission 1 map is huge and defeat all.
* Mission 1 is full of custom mobs that have clashing costumes, no sense of theme, and/or annoying powersets.
* After completing mission 1, the debriefing is only 1 line long.
* After completing mission 1, the debriefing has the contact insult me for failure, even though I accomplished the mission objectives.
* After completing mission 1, it turns out the premise of mission 2 has nothing to do with mission 1.
* After completing mission 1, it just wasn't that fun.
Things that scare me, but could be overcome with good writing:
* Level range is 1-54 for every mission.
* The arc is described as "Part 1 of 3".
* Both "Recommended for Teams" and "Challenging" on the same arc.
* "Origin Story" keyword.
* "A new enemy group is in town!"
* "Collect the 4 pieces of the artifact!"
@PW - Police Woman (50 AR/dev blaster on Liberty)
TALOS - PW war journal - alternate contact tree using MA story arcs
=VICE= "Give me Liberty, or give me debt!"
Quote:
I'll never play anything with "Task Force" in the title. |
Originally Posted by PoliceWoman
* Both "Recommended for Teams" and "Challenging" on the same arc.
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Eva Destruction AR/Fire/Munitions Blaster
Darkfire Avenger DM/SD/Body Scrapper
Arc ID#161629 Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black
Arc ID#431270 Until the End of the World
Quote:
So when I post my War Witch Task Force, I'm automatically doomed? |
Originally Posted by Eva Destruction
I'll never play anything with "Task Force" in the title.
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Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite
Dark_Respite's Farewell Video: "One Last Day"
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)
Quote:
That was more directed at PoliceWoman, who has an arc with "Task Force" in the title. I did see quite a few though, in the early days, that weren't designed to be soloable at all. One that I didn't actually play included the RSF Ms Liberty, who not only doesn't scale down to an EB but has a buff that can only be removed by a temp power granted in the SF...no idea why she's included in AE. I'm sure we would have seen many more such "Task Forces" with the introduction of giant monsters if the novelty of AE hadn't worn off by then.
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Originally Posted by Dark_Respite
So when I post my War Witch Task Force, I'm automatically doomed?
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Eva Destruction AR/Fire/Munitions Blaster
Darkfire Avenger DM/SD/Body Scrapper
Arc ID#161629 Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black
Arc ID#431270 Until the End of the World
Quote:
Hehe, not only does A Warrior's Journey - The Flower Knight Task Force have "Task Force" in the title, it also is labeled Challenging and Ideal for Teams, which are scary keywords by my definition. It was thought to be on the easy side for Smurphy's TF challenge, though. |
Originally Posted by Eva Destruction
That was more directed at PoliceWoman, who has an arc with "Task Force" in the title.
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@PW - Police Woman (50 AR/dev blaster on Liberty)
TALOS - PW war journal - alternate contact tree using MA story arcs
=VICE= "Give me Liberty, or give me debt!"
When I played it, I nearly got killed by caltrops. I'm pretty sure those things don't respect aggro limits. Wanna kill a Super Reflexes Scrapper? Send a bunch of ninja ambushes at them! (Then again this was an early version which still had the real Recluse in it, so those might not be there anymore.)
Eva Destruction AR/Fire/Munitions Blaster
Darkfire Avenger DM/SD/Body Scrapper
Arc ID#161629 Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black
Arc ID#431270 Until the End of the World
Quote:
Yeah, the arc really needs ninja, so I needed to keep those. I did think the amount of caltrops was over the top, though, so I mixed some custom (non caltrop using) ninja into the group for both variety and to lessen the amount of caltrop stacking.
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Originally Posted by Eva Destruction
When I played it, I nearly got killed by caltrops. I'm pretty sure those things don't respect aggro limits. Wanna kill a Super Reflexes Scrapper? Send a bunch of ninja ambushes at them! (Then again this was an early version which still had the real Recluse in it, so those might not be there anymore.)
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@PW - Police Woman (50 AR/dev blaster on Liberty)
TALOS - PW war journal - alternate contact tree using MA story arcs
=VICE= "Give me Liberty, or give me debt!"
Quote:
I find this one intriguing though not actually surprising. An origin story can be fun but it takes a fair bit of talent to pull it off.
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Originally Posted by PoliceWoman
* "Origin Story" keyword.
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Quote:
Not your fault the devs cut corners back then, and one minion, one lieutenant and one boss was considered a perfectly acceptable enemy group.|
Originally Posted by PoliceWoman
Yeah, the arc really needs ninja, so I needed to keep those. I did think the amount of caltrops was over the top, though, so I mixed some custom (non caltrop using) ninja into the group for both variety and to lessen the amount of caltrop stacking.
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Actually now that I think about it, I think that was the custom Recluse after all. You asked for help testing him or something, and I discovered the ninja ambushes were more dangerous than he was.
Anyway, back on-topic....anything that looks interesting, but is flagged "Work in Progress," has no tags, and a low arc ID number. It's possibly broken to the point of being unplayable. An uneven level range is also a major warning flag in this case.
Heck, anything flagged "Work in Progress," period, if you find it through a random search.
Eva Destruction AR/Fire/Munitions Blaster
Darkfire Avenger DM/SD/Body Scrapper
Arc ID#161629 Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black
Arc ID#431270 Until the End of the World
Author's Note: Having leveled my only character from 1-50 in the AE building, I decided to write an arc myself. Hope you like it.
I have a question: what's wrong with 1-54? Two of my arcs are 1-54 because I wanted people to be able to play them at their native level. Is it because you feel the difficulty varies too much based on what level you play them at?
Note that those two arcs (one of which really is just a single mission) were written during the I14 beta, so I don't expect anyone here to be impressed by them today. (They did well early on!)
Please try my custom mission arcs!
Legacy of a Rogue (ID 459586, Entry for Dr. Aeon's Third Challenge)
Death for Dollars! (ID 1050)
Dr. Duplicate's Dastardly Dare (ID 1218)
Win the Past, Own the Future (ID 1429)
Quote:
For me, I would say that 95% of the level 1-54 missions I've tried are populated with custom mobs that might be OK to face at level 50, but are much too tough to handle for a level 1. So the mission isn't really level 1-54 despite what it says on the label.|
Originally Posted by Liquid
I have a question: what's wrong with 1-54? ... Is it because you feel the difficulty varies too much based on what level you play them at?
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I think it's possible to write a mission intended for levels 1-54 and have it be correctly balanced -- for example, if you use standard enemy groups like Council that are level 1-54 but will give you different mobs depending on what your actual level is, or if you playtest a lot at different levels and adjust your custom mobs accordingly. But the majority of level 1-54 missions are not like this.
So I don't consider "level 1-54" to be a dealbreaker, but it can be a warning sign.
@PW - Police Woman (50 AR/dev blaster on Liberty)
TALOS - PW war journal - alternate contact tree using MA story arcs
=VICE= "Give me Liberty, or give me debt!"
Quote:
And regardless of what level it's balanced for, it will always show up on a "My level" search, making that particular flag much less useful than it should be. After scrolling past literally hundreds of these at lower levels, usually with Extreme Something and Archvillain warnings, I won't play them even at 50 because sometimes I am petty and spiteful toward things that have inconvenienced me.|
Originally Posted by PoliceWoman
For me, I would say that 95% of the level 1-54 missions I've tried are populated with custom mobs that might be OK to face at level 50, but are much too tough to handle for a level 1. So the mission isn't really level 1-54 despite what it says on the label.
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Really, if somebody is interested in a mission out of their level range, they probably have an alt at a more appropriate level. I know, I know, that assumes people will make the effort to pick up a pen and write down the arc ID. But limiting the level range sure makes searching for missions easier and helps mitigate the perception that AE is full of custom critters shoved in there deliberately to insta-gank your level 10 Blaster.
Eva Destruction AR/Fire/Munitions Blaster
Darkfire Avenger DM/SD/Body Scrapper
Arc ID#161629 Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black
Arc ID#431270 Until the End of the World
Ah, okay, thanks.
The next time I can muster up the motivation, I'll change those arcs to be a narrow level range (honestly, they're probably good for 10-30, as they're probably too hard for 1-9 and for some people, too easy for the top end, but I'll pick a 5 or 10 level span).
Please try my custom mission arcs!
Legacy of a Rogue (ID 459586, Entry for Dr. Aeon's Third Challenge)
Death for Dollars! (ID 1050)
Dr. Duplicate's Dastardly Dare (ID 1218)
Win the Past, Own the Future (ID 1429)
Quote:
We had a discussion about this some time back. I had my missions set at 1-54 back then too and even had players with toons at 7th level struggling through fairly tough ones - not because I forced them, mind you. |
Originally Posted by Liquid
I have a question: what's wrong with 1-54? Two of my arcs are 1-54 because I wanted people to be able to play them at their native level. Is it because you feel the difficulty varies too much based on what level you play them at?
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After some thought about the comments posted as to why 1-54 was bad, I ended up setting my usual missions (meaning "non-lowbie targeted") to 23rd to 51st, as Stamina is usually going to be taken and three-slotted by 23rd, and lack of Stamina is often what held back lowbies (also, I'm assuming the player is an adult and knows not to take a defender into a mission with an AV at +2/x8 or something else ridiculous).
Now that Stamina is inherent, I might have to rethink this...
description: sfdafsafd
Mission 2: Large map, Contains Defeat all
Mission 3: Large map, Contains Defeat all
Mission 4: Large map, Contains Defeat all
Mission 5: Large map, Contains Defeat all
description: this arc is just a test
Mission 2: level range 45-54
Mission 3: level range 1-54
Mission 4: level range 25-33
Mission 5: level range 40-50