Shameless Self Promotion

Alright, I think it's about time to get my AE arcs out into the public...

Big Magic Blowout! #369774
Follow a creepy Vigilante known as SpittingouttheDemons as he gathers ingredients to summon a powerful Demon Lord and take him down before he takes over Paragon City! Light comedy, can be challenging.

Who Really Cares About This? Z! #509577
This is a relatively new arc that I've made. Join a rag tag band of heroes on their mission to defeat their own powerful rival who happens to be working with Lord Recluse and Nemesis... or is he? Mostly comedy, and definitely a challenge in teams, but not so much solo.

That Meddling King! (teams recommended) #21450
This was actually the first arc I made and was only 1 mission before I decided to expand it. Wolfen Frost and Wolfen Blaze are rivals, one the leader of the Wolfen Tribe, and one the leader of the Wolfen Exiles, respectively. The arc basically has you helping them go back and forth against eachother. Also contains a small, secret backstory pertaining to the Wolfen Tribe. This is definitely my most challenging one, and have been told accordingly, but I did that on purpose.

As always, feedback is appreciated.

Can I get any feedback at all? I'd like to make these the best they can be.

Hi there! As no one's taken you up on your request for plays, I chose to go with "Who Really Cares About This? Z!", ha ha. Please bear in mind everything said here should be taken with two grains of salt as they are just my feelings about what I saw inside, ok? And so off to the races with my level 40 MA/SR scrapper!

MISSION 1
You highlighted the name Ultimus in purple in the intro text; some people feel that makes it hard to read, so you might consider changing it. Same might be said for the non-dialogue text; you could also put quotes around what he's saying.

The contact's bio says I recognize him from a comic series... is this a ref? If so, it ninja'ed me... please bear this in mind if I miss something elsewhere. Later I lost him in battle - no dialogue about that?

At first I thought having to smash ten weapon racks was going to be too much, but it went by fast enough... still, maybe consider dropping that number a tad, no one wants to feel like they're on a slog through the first mish.

I know some people dislike running with NPCs, but I don't mind it, especially since Jeremy died right about the time I found Kitten Mitten herself.

Overall: felt a tab bit sparse on the story-side of things. I wanted to hear a few more lines spoken, see a pop-up when I exited or something. Not bad by any means but not nothing stood out either, just a 'go break stuff' set-up.

MISSION 2
Luke again reads like like a ref I'm not familiar with... That's ok though because he died in the mish too. Sorry I keep breaking your guys like that...

I like these living armor guys though - they look neat and are a heck of a lot easier to take down in crowd than Arachnos was in Mish 1. :P Not that I'm looking for a farm or anything here though.

This again went by easily enough. The general didn't give me too much trouble thanks to Insp's and a healthy amount of time spent on his butt ala knockdown.

Overall: again, nothing really wrong, but not a lot that was really 'right' either. I again felt a little more story and spoken lines would have helped.

MISSION 3
Um... after reading this intro, I'm not sure I can convince my scrapper to set foot inside! Defeat four AVs?! Nice touch addressing those qualms in the still-busy text though. Well, here goes nothing!

Pop-up upon entry reads:
Three major superpowers and a general that you're sure is powerful enough themselves. This should be interesting.
This really needs help. I think you were shooting for something like this?:
Three major super-villains and a general that you're sure is just as powerful as well. This should be interesting.

Already lost an NPC, didn't get his name, he was the AR/Devices guy. This is a kinda big group of heroes for none of them to know who Lord Recluse is... which I guess is something of the joke here. This group of heroes by the way, did I miss their group name? Also, most of them look like normal people in street clothes, not the usual spandex-wearing types one would expect. Again, maybe I miss a ref...

We took down Nemesis, then found Recluse and we all died happily ever after. So I hosp'ed, filled up on Insps, faced him alone and realized he could 'half-shot' me, a scrapper with my SR build nearly filled out and two purples under my belt. I swallow two greens, get back to my whack whack, get 'half-shotted' again...

And my scrapper had had enough and bailed, there was just no way I was going to manage to take down Lord Recluse after the super-friends died (and probably before as well, I'm guessing).

Overall: Well rats. I hate quitting something I've started, but I'm not going to beat my head against a wall either. Perhaps all my fault as the scrapper's only 40th, not 45th-50th as the arc requires, but Lord Recluse did only con orange to me...

TO SUM UP
This feels like the bare bones of a story, "meet heroes, go fight some guys with them as they seem to keep getting captured without any explanation as to why, which leads up to a big boss fight. Make that four big boss fights." Granted, ultimately any AE arc boils down to that, more or less - your job as the author is to use the text to build it up from that. There's little here to tie to me to the story or jokes, so stepping off the carousel wasn't as hard a choice as it might have been. This story needs reasons to involve me, to make me laugh, to surprise me.

Mechanics-wise, I don't think too many people will want to take on Lord Recluse alone, no matter what (my scrapper is usually no push-over either, although I'm not a OCD min-max maven either... just somewhat on this toon). Most arcs end up getting played solo so this may not be helping you get plays; I bet people see the AVs listed and go looking elsewhere (as did I, until I saw the descriptions for your other arcs, which made them sound harder). Note this isn't saying 'you did it wrong' - you set out to make this arc about fighting AVs, which is hard and so it is hard, job well done there. Just letting you know it's probably too hard for most solo toons unless we go with an uber-broot with a multimillion-inf build or something. I think. Not being an avid min-maxer, I could be over estimating that; all I know is I was getting stomped flat. Again, maybe my fault for bringing a 40th level gun to a 45th-and-up level knife fight. Castigate me for that if you will, disregard my words.

So anyways - what now? Time to realize that you've only got a 'start' here and that now the real hard work begins - making the same old kind of missions 'sing' in their own voice, telling their own story.

I hope this was helpful.

Ok, updates have been made to Who Really Cares About This? Z!:

I changed the first mission map into a sewer map, to add wonkiness. Also changed dialogue for Kitten Mitten.

Luke's story was retconned a little, and so were his powers.

The third mission was made easier. I removed the AR/Dev blaster and replaced him with a more competent ally. Tera Star (the Rad/Kin) was removed due to how unfair he was. I also removed Lord Recluse, and added ironic clues to the mission to lampshade this.

If you get to the fourth mission, it's a breather round, so have fun.

Dialogue overall was also improved.

Just improved the overall story for Big Magic Blowout!. Also made use of the Doppleganger option. Also added a little treat in the revamped Souvenir for the arc.