Someone willing to run my new arc?
By
Demonic_Gerbil,
Posted on: 2011-11-01 20:42 in Mission Architect
Quote:
I'll start it right now...|
Originally Posted by Scheol
I just finished a new arc and wanted to see if someone would be willing to run it and let me know what they think. It's a dark horror arc. Don't want to give away much of the storyline. It's designed to be a challenge so consider that when setting your dif settings. Some custom enemy bosses won't spawn below x3, so you might not see everything with small mob counts. It's 5 missions, level 1 -54, custom enemy groups, and AVs if you so choose to fight them instead of as EBs. The arc is called "Behind The Veiled Mask", Arc # is 526759. I really appreciate it. Any feedback on anything to adjust or change would be awesome.
|
best regards,
Virtue Server-
MA: (All SFMA, all technically long/very long, but all play quickly)
#200411 "Exploding Planet" (I apologize in advance for the final mission, but in all likelihood, the planet will explode.)
#144416 "Shadow of Grime Alley"
#161003 "You Don't Know Beanstalk, Jack"
Just finished up your arc. I sent you some comments ingame via the Architect comment form, I'll elaborate here.
SPOILERS for those who want to run the arc... read no more...
SPOILERS>.......................
There's a few typos, for example, the contact is not mearly a guide, he should be merely a guide.
The custom chars look great, I mean really great, but I was sad to see there were no descriptions.
In mission 1, I defeated Drop Dead before the ancient text told me to, and after I found the ancient text, I had to destroy all those cars and trucks, to draw out Drop Dead, who I had already dropped. You might want to redesign how you want that to flow.
Mission 2 made me nervous as a defeat all, but that map is small. Crass though, had a clue with no text.
Also, there was some clue that said "must tell that to Sayamta" (I am probably misremembering the name, it's something like that) but that character was never in the arc.
Mission 3: kicked ***, especially with the "submission" character.
Mission 4: was very very busy with so many objectives. I didn't mind, it just scared me since there was a timer. I'd recommend the contact stress the timed nature of the mission.
Mission 5 seemed light on supporting text. I'd suggest some clues.
Great arc though.
Virtue Server-
MA: (All SFMA, all technically long/very long, but all play quickly)
#200411 "Exploding Planet" (I apologize in advance for the final mission, but in all likelihood, the planet will explode.)
#144416 "Shadow of Grime Alley"
#161003 "You Don't Know Beanstalk, Jack"
Quote:
Spoilerificness ahead, so stop reading here unless you want spoilers.|
Originally Posted by Scheol
I just finished a new arc and wanted to see if someone would be willing to run it and let me know what they think. It's a dark horror arc. Don't want to give away much of the storyline. It's designed to be a challenge so consider that when setting your dif settings. Some custom enemy bosses won't spawn below x3, so you might not see everything with small mob counts. It's 5 missions, level 1 -54, custom enemy groups, and AVs if you so choose to fight them instead of as EBs. The arc is called "Behind The Veiled Mask", Arc # is 526759. I really appreciate it. Any feedback on anything to adjust or change would be awesome.
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Mission 1:
...you *really* like to use those "........."s don't you? Also instead of capitalization, why not use different colors to indicate stress or emphasis on a word? I suggest red text as it stands out.
Also check your spelling. Merely is spelled merely, not "mearly"
"[NPC] Car: calling OnStar........"
Okay so I lol'd.
Later...:
"So, they spoke of a place called Adharma, and something about a captive. We will need to ask Satyam about this."
Who's Satyam? The contact is Jhana... In fact did he ever tell me his name? I missed it if so
Mission Rescue the Captive:
Why did I have to walk back to the mission entrance after murdering everything? I'd already walked the hostage back out.
Mission The Lab:
Okay so this is kind of pointlessly long. And if I'm trying to investigate the lab, why am I breaking everything in it? And why did the mission complete when I killed Titan but hadn't found 2 of the bodies? If they're important enough to put in the objective list but not important enough to be required for completion they should say something like "Find bodies (optional)" so people know not to stress to much about it.
And after the long slog through all those objectives, an EB or two, and lots of enemies I... have to walk back out? Why do I have to walk back out? That's stupid.
Mission 5:
Nova on a EB. Really? You just hate people playing Squishies don't you? In fact the boss-rank enemies all seemed to be rockin' mez protect toggles, because the Emp/Ice I duo'd this with never seemed to be able to hold them with her multiple Holds being spammed.
"[NPC] Unknown: I will no let you succeed!"
I almost hope that one's not a typo and intentional.
You have defeated Unknown
You gain 8,316 influence.
Silvertech gains 69 prestige.
One or more architect tickets were not rewarded because you have reached your inventory cap.
You have defeated Unknown!
[NPC] Unknown: ...and so........ it ends.
You have defeated Unknown
[NPC] Unknown: ...and so........ it ends.
Woo, a rezzing EB. Only not "woo" because rezes give no XP on the second kill. Take his rez off.
Conclusion:
"Congratulations, traveller. With Unknown defeated, it is unsure if we will ever know the true nature of their twisted experimentation. All we know is that for now, it is over."
That is so weak, I can't even describe it in any term other than "Homeopathic Kool-Aid."
In general:
There was something interesting buried inside of this! I'm not sure what it was though. I'm rescuing someone, I think, but I don't know who, from some randomly assembled assortments of bad guys in odd costumes with no theme that I could tell, because they're conducting unknown experiments on someone for some reason.
Anything interesting that gets said in a mission should get echo'd in the chatting with the contact. Don't be so vague! It's okay to come out and be blatant that I'm going to X to stop Y because Z will happen otherwise. I know how it goes, in the process of revising one of my arcs, I'm constantly telling myself to stop having the contact obfuscate things and just go BLARG and come out with what's going on.
I duo'd this, as mentioned up there, at +2/x4, and while the enemies never really challenged my spines/dark, it was a bit frustrating for the Emp/Ice I was teamed with. Her Ice holds didn't hold anything she wanted to hold, she got nailed by a EB slamming his Nuke, and otherwise didn't really seem to have much to do other than throwing a Fortitude my way every couple of minutes.
Enemies:
I went into this with an overpowered character and didn't really struggle as much as you probably intended. Enemies in general had way too many powers, enemies had too many defenses up, and giving a rez to your final boss is a bit... anti-climatic. Especially now that enemies post-rez give no XP.
How I feel about things:
I got through with the lab map and when I saw the "Walk back to the exit" bit I turned around to my teammate and said "I was going to be nice and give him a 5-star, but that makes me want to 1-star this straight to the bottom of the list." In the end I didn't give it a rating at all to be nice, but the length of the last two missions was more than a tiny bit annoying. Putting a kill all on the Baphomet/ARCH-A map is just rude. It's a long, boring slog to get to the end of it. Putting a million required EBs/AVs (whatever they were) all along the Ruladak map is also rude. That's a cool map, don't get me wrong, but we missed Unseen somehow and had to go back and search for him after taking out Unknown. At least he was marked on the map then.
Now for some bullet points.
- The writing needs more exposition when talking to the contact. More words. Better words too if you can get some. I went through all of this and didn't understand why I should care, at all, about what was going on. There wasn't a single hook that I saw for me to grab on, aside from smashing cars in the first mission, which is always fun.
- Enemies need their power selections looked at. Tighten that down a few notches. Chop off some Mez-protect toggles (and mezzes) to make it more squishy-friendly, or squishies won't be able to comfortably solo it.
- Some other people are likely to bust your chops over your custom enemies not having descriptions. Look at putting them in! It probably would have helped with my general "I don't know what's going on" to know why I was punching someone named something like "I dare you."
- Randomly: Running into a Confuse was a nice touch. I used to like old Posi's TF solely because of Cortex and his Confuse that he would throw.
- Simplify your objectives: Outside of the bash stuff to cause mayhem in the first mission, lots of objectives seemed a little out of place on the rest of the maps. Figure out what's essential for completion, and make everything else optional.
- Mark optional objectives as just that in the Nav Bar text.
- Better Nav Bar text. Don't let it just say "Unknown." Have it say "Defeat Unknown" so the player knows they've got to beat someone's face in, or break a car, or whatever, instead of wondering "I wonder if Car means I click on a car?" or, well, you can see how an objective labeled "Unknown" might be a smidge confusing.
- Don't make me walk to the mission exit if there's not a bunch of ambushes after me. Don't make me walk a rescue out if there's not a bunch of ambushes after me. (In general: Don't make me have to go back and search for an objective - unless you're deliberately doing that for some cool reason, like taking an empty map and populating it with a bunch of spawns that I have to fight back through or something. I like always feeling like I'm going "forward!" into more trouble, not going backward away from the bags of Inf.)
- An ellipsis consists of three periods, four if it ends a sentence. Please conserve the world's period supply and stop using more than that.
- Spelling and capitalization! It's a little thing, and also one that's so easy to miss. Proofing your own work for spelling and grammar errors is hard, I always try to get a second set of eyes to help with it. But when there's no spelling errors, it helps to keep the player engaged with what's going on.
Okay, I think that's everything I had for notes. I don't want you to think I'm ripping into you or anything; I'm just trying to be honest and give you the feedback that I think would help someone like me (whoever that is, out there) enjoy your arc, and maybe make it a generally awesome arc that all the AE players out there would like to play.
Good luck with any future changes you make, and if you do make some, be sure to post about them here so people can have a heads up and know to give your arc another whirl.
Ambush City, Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Ambush - Arc #1043
Strife of the Grave - Arc #3409
Shift - Arc #529411
Quote:
That's quite a comprehensive review D_G. I'd be honored if you'd look at two of my arcs, #200411, Exploding Planet, and #144416, Shadow of Grime Alley. You have excellent insights.|
Originally Posted by Demonic_Gerbil
Okay, I think that's everything I had for notes. I don't want you to think I'm ripping into you or anything; I'm just trying to be honest and give you the feedback that I think would help someone like me (whoever that is, out there) enjoy your arc, and maybe make it a generally awesome arc that all the AE players out there would like to play. Good luck with any future changes you make, and if you do make some, be sure to post about them here so people can have a heads up and know to give your arc another whirl. |
Best regards,
Virtue Server-
MA: (All SFMA, all technically long/very long, but all play quickly)
#200411 "Exploding Planet" (I apologize in advance for the final mission, but in all likelihood, the planet will explode.)
#144416 "Shadow of Grime Alley"
#161003 "You Don't Know Beanstalk, Jack"
Quote:
If I have the time I'll run them, but I'm at a pretty busy spot this week. Do you have threads posted for them on the forum somewhere?
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Originally Posted by Fantastic_Foe
That's quite a comprehensive review D_G. I'd be honored if you'd look at two of my arcs, #200411, Exploding Planet, and #144416, Shadow of Grime Alley. You have excellent insights.
Best regards, |
Ambush City, Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Ambush - Arc #1043
Strife of the Grave - Arc #3409
Shift - Arc #529411
Quote:
D_G, I don't have threads, Exploding Planet's has been mentioned in ArrowRose's excellent arc thread, but I've never specifically set up a thread for them.|
Originally Posted by Demonic_Gerbil
If I have the time I'll run them, but I'm at a pretty busy spot this week. Do you have threads posted for them on the forum somewhere?
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I'll correct that now. Thank you for suggesting that.
No worries on hitting them this week, or anytime in the near future, I'd rather you approach them at your leisure, for fun.
Regardless, I appreciate your feedback.
Best regards,
Virtue Server-
MA: (All SFMA, all technically long/very long, but all play quickly)
#200411 "Exploding Planet" (I apologize in advance for the final mission, but in all likelihood, the planet will explode.)
#144416 "Shadow of Grime Alley"
#161003 "You Don't Know Beanstalk, Jack"
Thank you Fantastic_Foe and Demonic Gerbil for running and reviewing my arc. I appreciate the feedback.
I made some updates as per the feedback you provided:
-Changed mearly to merely
-Changed the Satyam message to Jhana
-Took the self rez out of Unknown's powers
-Updated the Nav text to include 'Defeat xxx" and added text to the optional objectives indicating such
-Put a note in the contact's message to you before the 4th mission indicating that it's a timed mish
-Updated the clues for the second mish
-Added some descriptions to the enemies
-Took the 'need to find mission exit' out of the fourth mish. I wanted it to be that you had to head back to the entrance to get out while the timer was still active, but since it doesn't look like you can do that, I took it out.
-Updated the mission description text from the contact for the fourth mish
I still need to update the text for the fifth mish and the arc conclusion text, it is light. Also need to add in more clues for the fifth mish.
As for the enemy mez protection and mez powers, I'll run it on a squishy at x1 and see how it goes. The enemies scale not only in size as the spawn count increases, but also in diversity to mimic team building AI from the enemies perspective. In the second enemy group, there are 3 minions, 2 LTs, and 2 bosses. At x1 on my scrapper, I would see 1 minion all the time, 1 most of the time, 1 rarely, 1 LT all the time, 1 sometimes, and 1 boss sometimes, and the other never. It appears that the order the enemies have in your enemy group in your 'edit group' window on the right determines the order in which they spawn in terms of preference in regards to team/spawn size (I played with the order and powers for quite some time to try and balance it out and verify this observation). I set the easiest enemies at the top (first priority) and the harder ones last, that way you're only going to see the harder enemies if you're set for x4 or higher. I wanted the enemies to spawn in numbers and diversity, to add some sort of AI to them to diversify their teams the same way we do when team building. On a team we might have agro control, ranged, support, melee, etc. The enemies in the group at full spawn have the same diversification. The mez protection/mez enemies are on the bottom of the list and the only time I got the mind control boss to spawn was at x3 on a small occasion and x4 with any regularity. If this is an issue at x1 or even x2 on a support toon, I'll make some adjustments.
Demonic Gerbil: Which enemy in the fifth mish were you referring to about the nuke? There are five EBs/AVs on that mish and the powers are: claws/mental manipulation, dual blades/plant control, illusion/dark armor, fire blast/dark armor, and electric melee/willpower. The only one that would have a nuke (fire blast) doesn't have it in his powers, at least not that I gave him.
Thanks again for running it and for the feedback. I'll post an update when i get the rest of the text in and when i get a chance to run through it on a support toon. 
Behind The Veiled Mask
Arc# 526759
Quote:
It was the fire blast nuke IIRC. Not a big deal for my scrapper, but it totally nailed the defender I was teamed with, and wasn't expecting it at all
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Originally Posted by Scheol
Demonic Gerbil: Which enemy in the fifth mish were you referring to about the nuke? There are five EBs/AVs on that mish and the powers are: claws/mental manipulation, dual blades/plant control, illusion/dark armor, fire blast/dark armor, and electric melee/willpower. The only one that would have a nuke (fire blast) doesn't have it in his powers, at least not that I gave him.
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Ambush City, Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Ambush - Arc #1043
Strife of the Grave - Arc #3409
Shift - Arc #529411
Quote:
I'll go in and take that out if it's in there. I appologize, it wasn't supposed to be.
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Originally Posted by Demonic_Gerbil
It was the fire blast nuke IIRC. Not a big deal for my scrapper, but it totally nailed the defender I was teamed with, and wasn't expecting it at all
|
Behind The Veiled Mask
Arc# 526759
I just finished a new arc and wanted to see if someone would be willing to run it and let me know what they think. It's a dark horror arc. Don't want to give away much of the storyline. It's designed to be a challenge so consider that when setting your dif settings. Some custom enemy bosses won't spawn below x3, so you might not see everything with small mob counts. It's 5 missions, level 1 -54, custom enemy groups, and AVs if you so choose to fight them instead of as EBs. The arc is called "Behind The Veiled Mask", Arc # is 526759. I really appreciate it. Any feedback on anything to adjust or change would be awesome.
Behind The Veiled Mask
Arc# 526759