Levelling in AE

Okay, time for an experiment. Levelling 1-50 in AE...

... Doing ONLY story arcs. Notes to follow.

And yes, there's an IC reason. There is no actual person with these powers; there's an infant in a very very expensive care facility after some idiot went into AE 8 months pregnant. An infant that has spent its entire life hooked up to AE experiencing learning programs and the like at about 20x normal speed. So those "super powers" are really just understanding AE well enough to manipulate the "reality" within the sim.

Definitely want to see where this goes.

Arc the first: Grim and the Green (#61156), by @Quinch. Has backstory, has dialogue, has Skulls to beat up in a warehouse. Has plot point you miss by not reading. :P

I'm glad I went ill/rad. I had to solo an elite boss at level 4.

Overal impression: Okay, remember what it was like to be low level and find out about interactions between skulls and trolls, back when you were more worried about OMG THAT GUY IS GREEN than worrying that you'd kill the lieutenants first and your team doesn't have enough AoE to burn down that warhulk? Yeah, this was that, only the writing was a bit deeper. Fun experience. Good use of dialogue when you approach NPCs, good use of allies to round out a weak player character.

(I didn't "call for backup (optional)" on the last mission. No point in playing ill/rad if you aren't soloing elite bosses at 4.)

Leveled to 5 on the elite boss, who was... get this, worth a lot more XP than minions. Like ten times as much. He also took at least 10x as long to kill. He didn't get to hit back, though. Just as well.

Arc the second: "It's Possible", by @Carnada (arc #44393). Claims to be very short. Is not kidding. No kills, no XP, click one glowie. Does get a note for the very cool looking mission contact, but I'm not sure why this was tagged SFMA. Gave it three stars because at least it was right about being fast.

Up next (arc #3): Arc #58363, "Nuclear in 90 - The Fusionette Task Force". It's... what it says on the tin. It's a task force. With Fusionette as the contact. Good plot, good writing. Fusionette... well, it was true to her character. Arguably this should have warned me off. Made level 6.

... And that's the end of tonight's runs, I gotta sleep. Will be doing more. And my plan, at least for now, is to solo the whole thing. I will probably be sort of aggressive about getting at least common IOs slotted because life with low accuracy is sucking, and you may rest assured that a Kismet +accuracy proc will be involved as soon as I can get one.

BTW, just because it seems to fit the theme, no gleemail finding for Entertained. She'll just have to use reward rolls.

Very cool name to go with the concept!

I've done the exact same thing when MA started out. Stuck at level 38 though. Hardest task was to find arcs that fit the levelrange I was playing in.

I really wished stuff like rested exp worked in AE. It would make the process of leveling in AE easier. I was going to use a character to level via AE until that info clicked in my head.

Arc #4: Just Say "No" to Dihydrogen Monoxide! (#176460)

I loved the intro text, and the first map is perfect. (Down side: There are targetable destructibles which I can't attack until I clear the guards, which was not totally obvious.)

Loving the writing. I've heard nearly all of this before, but the presentation really works for me. It feels just right for a superhero comic. Second mission, one hiccup, found the glowie before I found all the funny patrols.

Second mission got me to level 7. I'm taking a bit of a break to run and get some enhancing done here, because even the relatively weak bonuses of a level 10 IO are a pretty big upgrade. Since I'm still hoping to reduce alchemical silver prices, I'm funding this by rolling 30x on common arcane salvage, 26-40.

Up next (#5): Idol Hands (#141376). Picked it for the "so read up on clues". I'm currently searching 4-star arcs because I know a lot of GREAT arcs get some idiot downrating them as poor farms. Now level 7, with a handful of generic level 10 IOs slotted, and bids out on a couple of low-ish level Kismet accuracy procs. (I love that proc way too much, the difference it makes before you have 30%+ accuracy in everything is phenomenal.)

BTW: Anyone who wants to post specific recommendations? Feel free! I will happily look at stuff when it's in my level range. Currently 7.

Illusion control isn't a super fast set at this level (no PA, no terror, no phantasm, no ancillary powers), so I'm not clearing things overly fast -- my one advantage is that I'm getting a lot more XP/minute than I would without Deceive. No AoE damage coming before PA, though.

Try my "City of Ho Ho Ho," arc 18775, if you would like to smoke some Outcasts and Trolls while saving a guy who thinks he's Santa Claus.

That one's already on my list from the chatter in the MA Arc channel last night.

Okay! Done with Idol Hands. Really nice; I liked the concept, it developed reasonably well, interesting use of competing factions in a couple of places. Level 8.

Next up (My 6th): Into The Darkness (#296599). Decent story, hampered a bit by typos. Some of the typos are funny, but I don't think it's intentional. Custom opponents, interesting use of maps. Nothing super amazing, but it wasn't a bad experience.

And... Next up: Infringement (#169819). Looks amusing. I have realized that I'm never gonna level in architect mode if I keep stealthing missions, so it's back to killing stuff for me.

That was pretty fun. Only had four ratings, but I enjoyed it. Cute story.

On to the 8th arc: Thugs and Love (#339282). Liking it so far, made it to level 9 on the first giant map full of hellions. Soooo ready to be on level 20+ IOs.

Thugs and Love made me giggle. ALMOST made 10 -- less than a bubble left. Fun arc, recommended if you don't take the canon characters too seriously.

Up next: Twas a Dark and Stormy Night, or was it? (#2126). Very short, not a whole lot of writing, but what there is struck me as pretty solid, and the custom enemies really worked for me. Well done. Level 10 now, gonna go train and stuff.

10th arc: City of Ho Ho Ho (#18775). I am confident of my ability to help the laughing fat guy, right after I get some dinner.

... And, yup, completed that. Ambushes are harder on me than most ofther content -- lowbie illusion means I rely a fair bit on being able to pick a fight rather than being dropped into one.

Still, was fun. Cool story, came with souvenir!

The only arc I have in your current range is #474611, "Cole In Your Stocking", one of my two Christmas arcs. The other Christmas arc, #356477 "The Christmas We Get" is technically a 40+ arc but can probably be handled by a character of any level as long as you're not cranking difficulty up.

Right! Arc the 11th, "Origin of a Canadian SuperVillain" (#80724). Looked amusing. Will give me something to do while the ncsoft launcher challenges our notion of what it means to "have already downloaded" a file.

Actually I just discovered "The Christmas We Get" is unplayable due to the filter, despite not showing any errors in edit mode. I neither know nor care what the problem is; I'm this close to just deleting my arcs and forgetting the system even exists.

Ugh! That was a great story, too.

I give up, I can't win that one. Canadian Supervillain ends with a fight against an elite boss with multiple mezzes. Even with AM up and one of the useful secondary mutations, I couldn't burn him down fast enough, and if even one Deceive missed, I was pretty much dead. After dying about four times I quit the mission.

Interesting custom characters, but some of the combinations end up being too powerful, and the elite boss was way too tough at my level. Maybe at 12, when I have bigger bonuses from enhancements, and maybe some +damage.

Calling it a night for now. Will be back to this project over the weekend.

I'm going to shamelessly put my arc forward, which is languishing in 4-star gloom after the filter made it unplayable for a while and I stupidly waited for them to fix the filter, rather than rewrite the arc. Aaaaanyway. It's in my sig. Hope you enjoy it if you get to it. :-)